WINTER CAMP AND BURIAL HOUSE OF OJIBWAY INDIANS.—The Ojibways are a remnant of the great Indian tribes of the Northwest, who live chiefly by fishing and hunting. One of their peculiarities is the sacredness with which they regard their dead, and the care they take to preserve the bodies of friends and relatives from violation. They are content to house themselves, even through the severest winters, in the flimsiest structures, but their dead they carefully wrap in blankets and deposit in small oblong houses so perfectly built as to exclude rain, snow and cold, except such as may enter by a little square door in the end. These miniature mortuary houses are placed close to the abodes of the living, where they may receive loving care and attention. The origin of this really commendable custom is not known, but it is like a similar one in vogue among the Indians of Alaska, which has been described elsewhere in these pages.
OCONOMONOC FALLS, WISCONSIN.
At a place where the river broadens, and the left shore spreads into a long level covered with willows, while the right bank continues its precipitous career, there is a wide extension-table projecting from the wall which is called “Visor Ledge, of Stand Rock.” This jutting point is admirably designed for a jumping-off place, and it is a matter for surprise that it was not christened Lover’s Leap, like all other similar ledges and shelves that I have seen. Beyond this the river again narrows, and singular efflorescences of stone, like a garden of flowering curios, wrap our attention with questioning surprise. “The Hawk’s Bill” is certain to catch our notice, and equally sure to excite our wonder that it was not called the “Toothless Old Man,” for it does seem that he might make a nut-cracker of his nose and chin. “Black Hawk’s Leap” must be accepted as a poor substitute for the “Lover’s Jump,” but as the latter has no place on Wisconsin River the former name has been applied to a section of pictured wall that is excavated at the base, and in which the gurgle of water is accentuated by echo into ominous noises. This natural excavation is called Black Hawk’s Cave, and is said to have been the place of retreat of a vanquished party of Indians, who were murderously pursued by a large number of their enemies, but memory fails to recall the particulars. A little further beyond is another grotto of still more remarkable formation, called “Cave of the Dark Waters,” and rightly it is named, for the entrance is by a small portal into a commodious chamber whose first most noticeable characteristic is its darkness. The water is deep throughout, and continually suggests the advantages of the cave as a place in which to commit crime, or to kiss your girl while passing through a dark tunnel.
BELEAGUERED CASTLE, CAMP DOUGLAS, WISCONSIN.—The scenery about Camp Douglas is weird, sublime and curious. There are formations of odd and fantastic shapes, like the conjurings of a disordered brain, while others lift their rugged sides and castellated peaks into the air with all the grandeur and picturesqueness of “castles on the Rhine.” To this latter class belongs “Beleaguered Castle,” so boldly photographed on this page. Its resemblance to the ruins of some ancient fortification is so striking as to arouse the wonder and admiration of all beholders. The trees that have planted their roots in its sides and along the top of its mimic battlements serve to heighten the resemblance, so that one standing in its presence can hardly divest himself of the belief that he is really viewing the walls of some frowning relic of the warlike past.