V.

STORM, AND FOG, AND ROCKS.

1.

"Omnia tum pariter vento nimbisque videbis
Fervere."

EVER wilder, ever louder

Roar'd the gale and boom'd the surges;
Ever heavier roll'd the frail barque,

Plunging on athwart the billow,

Scudding blindly by the swart Slate Isles,

a

While a foul fog's grisly meshes
Ever folded her more closely,—
As grey winding-sheet enshrouding
Mortals destined to destruction
By thy wrath, dread Missibeezi,35

Lord of restless Keetchi Gahmi!

By thy flowing-tressèd children,35

* A bold precipitous group, lying some 10 miles off the north shore (see a. n. 32).

Mortals, who durst seek the lifeless,
Awe-fenced, man-shunn'd desolation
Of your home in dreary northland,37
Of your northland haunts, rock-sentried,37
Terror of Ojibwa paddle,

Terror e'en of White Man's fire-ship.

2.

"Certa nec incertis affulgent sidera nautis."

Storm-toss'd, wave-lash'd, fog-enshrouded,

Rush'd we tow'rd the deadly ambush,

Tow'rd the grim rocks of the northland.

Fail'd us e'en the trusty compass, —

Fail'd us in the hour of danger:

Whether ("guess'd" the 'wilder'd pilot)
Drawn aside by iròn cable,

Lurking traitor in the doom'd barque,-
Or charm-fetter'd by huge treasure b
Hidden in some ponderous mountain

In more than one part of the S. W. shore of Lake Superior the compass is affected by iron in the green-stone (Bay.)—the predominant 'rock' of the N. shore.

V.

Hanging haply, potent, o'er us.

"Yet," said he, “it cannot so be;

For our

barque must now be moving,

In mid channel, through the vast trough
'Twixt Isle Royale 40 and the north shore."

In the mist our straining eye-sight

Had descried the Sun-God's pale face Ghastly-glimmering through his curtain,b

See VIII. 2.

Through the doorway of his wigwam,54

While he struggled through the welkin,
While he raised him in the welkin.