SUGAR-LOAF, MACINAC ISLAND.—Macinac Island is a delightful and picturesque summer resort, located in the Strait of Macinac, which connects Lakes Michigan and Huron. It is only about three miles long by two wide, and is rough and rocky. The natural scenery is charming. The geologist finds mysteries in the calcareous rocks dripping at unexpected angles; the antiquarian feasts his eyes on the Druidical circles of the ancient stones; the invalid sits on the cliff’s edge in the vivid sunshine, and breathes in the buoyant air with delight. The haunted birches abound, and on the crags grow the wild larches beckoning with their long fingers, the most human tree of all. There are many natural curiosities on the island, the most noted being Sugar-Loaf, so beautifully photographed on this page. It is conical in shape, and rises to a height of 134 feet.
CHIMNEY AND BEE ROCKS, CAMP DOUGLAS, WISCONSIN.
Near the west center of Juneau county, fifteen miles east of the Wisconsin River, is a cross-roads railroad town called Camp Douglas, which is in the midst of a region remarkable for natural curiosities, rivaling those found in the Bad Lands in Wyoming. It is a country of sandstone that exhibits the astonishing results of centuries of water and wind erosions upon what was manifestly once a vast bed of argillaceous clay, that in the process of time was converted into soft stone as the lake dried up. The receding waters gradually wore deep ravines in the sandstone, thus giving birth to rivulets which aided a more rapid change in the bed until it became traversed by numerous streams that in time completely drained the lake. Then the winds began their work of eroding, helped by the sand which they carried, and the result became finally, as we behold it in the Bad Lands, and in Monument Park, Colorado, a large number of towers, domes, pinnacles and other architectural forms. To the more strikingly curious shapes names have been given, as the “Old Guard,” “Giant’s Castle,” “Castle Rock,” “Chimney Rock,” “Signal Rock,” “Beleaguered Castle,” etc., as shown by the illustrations.
From Kilbourn City we went to Milwaukee, and thence by the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad to St. Ignace, where we took boat for Mackinac Island, a very noted resort in the Straits of Mackinaw. This island is celebrated for its splendid scenery, some of which we photographed, after which we proceeded to Sault Ste. Marie, the seat of government of Chippewa county, Michigan, and noted for having one of the largest and finest ship canals in the world, through which, surprising as the statement appears, a larger daily tonnage passes than the Suez Canal accommodates. One of the sights that are apt to claim the particular attention of visitors now are the new grain-carrying vessels called Whale-backs, which have within the last three years become a feature of our lake commerce.
FALLS OF MINER’S RIVER IN WINTER.