“About two hours.”
Norman then asked him about Lake Superior, and he told him of the wonderful beauty of the pictured rocks, of the castles and temples jutting out of their bold front, of their arched caverns; that those majestic rocks, three hundred feet high, extend ten miles, and the Indians passed them with awful reverence, thinking that they were the dwelling-place of the great Manitou.
The captain spoke of the sudden storms so violent in this “Big Sea Water” in the autumn, and showed Norman a very beautiful gold watch that had been presented to him by the citizens of Superior City, in honor of his courage, skill, and fidelity when his vessel was exposed to a severe storm, and he brought her safely through the snow, and ice, and tempest. On the case was engraved a picture of the “Lady Elgin,” and on the heavy gold chain, secured by an anchor to his buttonhole, were his initials, in massive gold letters.
The captain showed Norman the straits that led up into Lake Superior, and he regretted his mother had given up the excursion around the lake. She concluded that as they had been gone two months from home, it would not be well to set out on an excursion that would detain them ten or twelve days longer, and expose them, moreover, to traveling on the Sabbath. The home prospect looked so bright, however, that they did not regret very much the loss of the sight of the prairies and rocks, and all the desolate glories of this great lake.
“Norman,” said his mother, “just think of the courage it must have required when, more than two hundred years ago, two French missionaries sailed over these lonely lakes. They were seventeen days in a light bark canoe. They sailed past the pretty islands we shall soon see in Georgian Bay, and over the clear waters upon which we are now sailing, up the river St. Mary, which the captain showed you, which leads to Lake Superior, and there, at the Sault St. Marie, they told the Indians about Jesus:
“‘A birch canoe with, paddles,
Rising, sinking on the water,
Dripping, flashing in the sunshine,
And within it came a people
From the distant land of Wabrun,