The Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior and the scenery adjacent to them are celebrated in art and romance. The former derive their name from the great diversity of colors which they display. They have been worn into strange shapes by frost and storm, and stained by the thousand dyes of nature in every possible variety of arrangement, far beyond the power of words to describe; and this profusion of color and shape is repeated mile after mile, until the tourist is lost in wondering admiration.
THE OLD GUARD, NEAR DEVIL’S LAKE, WIS.
Entering the gulch, we look up—far up—and catch glimpses of sunlight and see huge pines prostrate and lying from one ledge to another, admonishing us to look well to our going. After many, many windings, we come into “Phantom Chamber,” and in the side of a rocky ledge, scooped out, as if by hand, find a natural basin, and take a drink of the cool spring water gurgling out of the great rock into this hidden Pool of Siloam. In this rocky apartment we ascend a pair of stairs, from under which the stream that meanders through the entire gulch leaps in majestic fall, its roar almost deafening, and spray dashing over us. For thousands of years this little stream—at first, probably, a switch of rainfall on the earth’s surface—has been engaged in wearing this chasm in the sandstone, until now the gorge is seventy-five feet deep, nearly a mile long, and in some places so narrow that a large person can only pass through with difficulty, especially at Fat Man’s (or Woman’s) Misery-point. In several places vast chambers have been formed, at the door-way of one of which a beautiful fall of water leaps down into a deep-cut basin.
SPLIT ROCK, DEVIL’S LAKE, WISCONSIN.
There are several deep crevasses in the river leading to places of extraordinary beauty and wonder, and which on account of the narrow passage cannot be reached by the little steamboat. Row-boats are therefore provided, by the aid of which we visited a number of these side-attractions. “Skylight Cave” is one of these which, though having a small mouth, widens inside and receives light through a little crevice at the top. It is a cosy little retreat that well repays a visit.
FALLS OF ST. LOUIS RIVER.