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VI.

MOUNTAINS AND ISLANDS.

1.

"Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila cœlo

Sæpe Notus,-"

SPED we on by coast and island,

Stemming e'en the stout, stern West-Wind,

E'en the might of Mudjeykeewis,

Him who drove but now before him

All the host of grisly Vapours,

That had muster'd from the South-East,

From the realm of Shahwondahzy,

Dreamy, slumbrous Shahwondahzy,—

From the realm of wily Wahbun.

2.

"Quo non arbiter Hadriæ

Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta."

Thus by Spar Isle a 32, and the brown crags,

Where the violet-tinctured crystal b

Gleams within her rocky casket,

Thus by Agate Cove 32 we voyaged.

Seldom in the warmth of summer
"Guess'd" our pilot-had so mighty
Gale career'd o'er Keetchi Gahmi,
O'er the Red Man's grand Great Water.

3.

"Terribiles visu formæ -"

Dimlier ever tow'r'd behind us

Haught Ignace's cloud-throned grandeur:

a Also called Fluor Isle.

b The amethyst (see a. n. 32).

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Grim the shape it wore and aspect—

Hand with clench'd palm, broad and shadowy,

From the mere, in sign of anger,

Rais'd to scare us and repel us.

While we near'd, lo! spread a mountain,-
Thunder-Cape 42 its name of terror.

C. (p. 78) writes:-"A dim, majestic outline in the far distance, seeming only to divide one part of the sky from the other, our voyageurs declared to be Thunder Cape, seventy or eighty miles off." Though in that region distant heights are sometimes remarkably clear, I think this must have been an exaggeration. We were, I should say, no more than forty miles off, or so.

One was reminded of the report of Elijah's servant, on his return from a seventh ascent to the top of the Carmel headland:-" "Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (1 Kings, xviii. 44). I have seen this "stormbetokening cloudlet" on the Laurentian lakes.

4.

"Ille Creator

Atque Opifex Rerum"

Nigh us, lo! a group of green heights,

So grotesquely ranged by Nature,

That the visionary 74 savage,

Paddling over broad Big Water,

Sees there Ninnibohzhoo 39, the mighty,
Resting from creative labours. 39

Here the wide world's mightful maker,
Here - his work stupendous ended-
Laid him down,-here lieth ever.

Yon round knoll his head; yon broad slopes

Show his noble breast distended;

Yon fair, goodlier-swelling twin-hills d

Are his giant-knees rear'd upward,

While he taketh deep still slumber,

Slumber to be broken never.

The voyageurs call these Les mammelons, and Bay. has them, in his chart, as The Paps.

5.

"Insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis."

Tow'rd the realm of Shahwondahzy,

Tow'rd the region of the South-Wind,
Stretch'd a sun-lit azure island,

Worthy of her title royal. 40

Rich her treasure, rock-embedded; 40
Rare her stranded pebble's 41 beauty,
Sheen with gayer, lovelier lustre,
'Neath the shy, soft, gentle kisses
Of blithe, fondling, fair-curl'd wavelet,
'Neath the impassion'd, wild embraces
Of swift-springing, clutching billow.

6.

Acroceraunia."

Round the long, low, tongue-like foreland, e

By the long, jagg'd inlet sped we,

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