NIPIGON RIVER, FLOWING INTO LAKE SUPERIOR.—Nipigon River and Lake are famous fishing and hunting resorts in the British possessions north of Lake Superior. They are also celebrated for their fine scenery, which attracts many tourists to that region during the summer months. There are numerous rapids in the river, where salmon and trout of a superior quality abound in such quantities as to fully satisfy all lovers of the piscatorial sport who visit this region.
SAND ISLAND ARCH, LAKE SUPERIOR.
“It is beyond the power of the pencil,” says a recent traveler, “to represent the effect of the reflected light in the roof as seen from the rear. Especially when the sun is toward the west the bright light is reflected from the waves into the cavern, and undulates like a sea of light overhead; a picture in living colors, so tender, so quiet—luminous, pearly grays, bright flashes, cool, high lights, all warmed by the yellow sandstone, dripping with water, on which the effect is thrown.”
“At the mouth of Miner’s River the coast makes an abrupt turn to the eastward, and just at the point where the rocks break off and the sand beach begins, is seen one of the grandest works of nature in her rock-built architecture, which is known as ‘Miners’ Castle,’ from its singular resemblance to the turreted entrance and arched portal of some old castle. The height of the advancing mass, in which the form of the gothic gateway may be recognized, is about seventy feet, while that of the main wall forming the background is about one hundred and forty. The appearance of the opening at the base changes rapidly with each change in the position of the spectator, and on taking a position a little to the right of that occupied by the sketcher, the central opening appears more distinctly, flanked on either side by two lateral passages, making the resemblance to an artificial work still more striking. The chapel, if not the grandest, is among the most grotesque of nature’s architecture here displayed. Unlike the excavations before described, which occur at the water’s edge, this has been made in the rock at a height of thirty or forty feet above the lake. The interior consists of a vaulted apartment, which has not inaptly received the name it bears. An arched roof of sandstone, from ten to twenty feet in thickness, rests on four gigantic columns of rock, so as to leave a vaulted apartment of irregular shape, about forty feet in diameter, and about the same in height. The columns consist of finely stratified rock, and have been worn into curious shapes. At the base of one of them an arched cavity, or niche, has been cut, to which access is had by a flight of steps, formed by the projecting strata. The disposition of the whole is such as to resemble, very much, the pulpit of a church; since there is, overhead, an arched canopy, and in front an opening out towards the vaulted interior or the chapel, with a flat tubular mass in front, rising to a convenient height for a desk, while on the right is an isolated block, which not inaptly represents an altar; so that, if the whole had been adapted expressly for a place of worship, and fashioned by the hands of men, it could hardly have been arranged more appropriately. It is scarcely possible to describe the singular and unique effect of this extraordinary structure; it is truly a temple of nature—‘an house not made with hands.’”
THE CHAPEL, PICTURED ROCKS, LAKE SUPERIOR.—This curiously carved rock, painted in many colors by the chemicals of Nature’s laboratory, forms a bold and picturesque point on the north shore of Lake Superior. It consists of a vaulted apartment in the rock, thirty or forty feet above the level of the lake. An arched roof of sandstone rests on four natural columns, forming an apartment about forty feet in diameter and the same in height. Within are a pulpit and altar, perfect as if fashioned by the hand of man. It is one of the most curious formations in this celebrated scenic region, and has been often pictured and described.