"Chicago to the Sea." Eastern Excursionist / A complete guide to the principal eastern summer resorts, including: Niagara Falls, the White Mountains, Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, Montreal and Quebec, the New England sea beaches, etc., and how and when to enjoy them.

by William C. Gage

THREE SISTER ISLANDS.

These are connected with Goat Island and with one another by three handsome bridges, affording a magnificent view of the Rapids, the best, in fact, to be had from any point of observation. The scene presented from the outer island, as you gaze up the river, upon the vast expanse of foaming, turbulent water, seemingly threatening to overwhelm you and the ground on which you stand, and yet dividing as it passes you, or abating its fury as it reaches the shore at your feet, is one to fill the soul with admiration and awe, as, perhaps, no other view can do. The outlook from the bridges also awakens peculiar emotions. Standing only a few feet above the rapidly coursing torrent as it passes beneath you, the thought comes to the mind that here at least, “there is but a step betwixt time and eternity.” The fascination increases as the gaze is prolonged, and the mind which cannot be impressed with the sublimity of the scene, must be, like the soul devoid of music, “fit for treason, stratagem, and spoils.”

At the head of Goat Island, a little farther up the river, the view is quite expansive, commanding both banks of the stream, and the islands in the channel. Beginning at the right, the site of Fort Schlosser is seen about a mile away, marked by a small white building and a very large chimney. The name is associated with border history, the fort having been built by the French, afterward ceded to the English, and occupied as a military station by Captain Schlosser, from whom its later name was derived, the French having given it the title of Little Fort.