Speaking of the climate, he says: "In midsummer it is beyond compare, the air is soft and bracing at the same time. A healthier region does not exist on the earth, an assertion corroborated by the fact, that the inhabitants usually live to an advanced age, notwithstanding the many hardships. The common diseases of mankind are here comparatively unknown, and I have never seen an individual whose breast did not swell with a new emotion of delight as he inhaled the air of this northern wilderness."
The largest island in Lake Superior is Isle Royale. It is forty miles in length and from six to ten miles in width. Its hills reach an altitude of four hundred feet. During the winter season it is entirely uninhabited, but in the summer it is frequently visited, particularly by copper speculators. Near the western extremity of the lake are the Apostles' Islands, which are detachments of a peninsula running out in the same direction with Keweenaw, which is known as La Point. The group consist of three islands, which rise like gems from the water. There is a dreamy summer about them which make them enticing as the Hesperides of the ancients.
The two most prominent peninsulas are Thunder Cape and Cariboo Point. Thunder Cape is about fourteen hundred feet high. It looms up against the sky in grandeur, and is a most romantic spot. Cariboo Point is less lofty and grand in its appearance, but is celebrated for its unknown hieroglyphics painted upon its summits by a race which has long since passed away. In the vicinity of the bluff are found the most beautiful agates in the world.
In the northeastern part of the lake is an island situated about twenty miles from the Canadian shore, which has a wonderful lake in its centre, about one mile in length. It is as beautiful as it is wonderful. It is imbosomed in the fastnesses of perpendicular cliffs, which rise to a height of seven hundred feet. It has but one outlet and is impassable even to a canoe. At the opening of this narrow chasm stands a column of solid rock which has a base of about one hundred feet in diameter. The column rises, gradually tapering until it reaches a height of eight hundred feet. A solitary pine surmounts the summit of this wonderful column. There it stands like the sentinel of this calm, deep lake, whose silence and solitude are rarely ever broken, and whose tranquil bosom has never been ruffled by the slightest breeze.
Rock Chapel.
The Castles.