The daily Minnesota pioneer., 1854-09-26

birch, poplar, spruce, tamaraac, cedar, balm
of gilcad, mountain ash, and q few pine CROWN
ing the SUBMITS of the distant hills. Doubt
less along this shore, as in Wisconsin,, the pine
grows from eight to twelve miles from the
lake, but the fact that every stream has high
waterfall near the lake, will make the getting
out of lumber rather costly for years to come.
Speaking of waterfalls-wc saw new ones
every day, and some of extreme beauty. 1
think Mr.. OWEN gives view in his valuable
work, of the falls of Pigeon River; but seve-
raj of the more southern streams have falls
quite as beautiful. Generally, the first inti-
nation of the proximity of stream was the
sound of the fall which the practiced ear of the
vowge,ys easily distinguished from the noise
of the swell breaking on the beach. Then,
the water changed from its clear transparency
to dark brown hue, and soon the white foam
would appear through the trees, were, with
from one to three immense leaps, the stream
rushed to the margin of the lake. In many
of the lesser falls, the water came out boldly
over the bare cliffs, and flashing moment in
the sun, was buried in the bosom Of the lake.
But grow dffuse. Sometimes putting in
to shore when the waves became too high for
our frail craft, or thunder storm was at
hand, snugly cnconsed under our inda-rubbcr
blankets, we waited patiently until it should
clear up. Or if there was no rain, we wander
ed along the shore, gathering the rare flowers,
and wondering at the varied appearance of
the rocks. The effects of volcanic action for
the whole distance was most strongly marked,
and in many cases the course of the lava dis
tinctly shown. Thus at the termination of
dyke would appear She outline Of the molten
wave just as it had first cooled thousands of
wears before. Sometimes the bed at one point
would be double its thickness in cshey places,
Just as the surface over which it had passed,
and now rested, was more or less elevated
Any deduction drawn from hasty view must,
of course, be liable to error, yet cannot
avoid the conclusion that the Minnesota shore
of Lake Superior, although not then, perhaps,
margining an inland sea, was prior to the vol
canic action of which 1 have spoken, nearly
the same in outline as it is now. Many argu
ments present themselves to my mind in favor
of this view, but they would be to lengthy for
this letter.
About one hundred miles from the St. Louis
river, we reached Grand Marais, beautiful
circular-formed little harbor, almost entirely
surrounded by land, with deep water inside,
and from fifteen to twenty feet at the entrance
Forty miles from that point is the harbor of
Grand Portage, where trader named WHITE,
and his partner, are established. They carry
on an extensive fishery at Isle Royalc and LIE
Grand Maras, and have built some seven or
eight substantial log houses for themselves, and
the Indians in their employment
BY the way, must not omit mentioning
that we had great sport trolling for salmon
trout in that same Grand Marais Our tackle
was slight, only fit for bass fishing, and was
soon completely broken up; yet we secured,
in about an hour and a half seven fine trout,
averaging five pounds weight each. The fish
cry in the streams we did not find so good,
though all we tried had trout in them.
One night at the mouth of small stream,
near the shore of the lake, we found beaver
dam, and on examining up stream, found the
lodge of the colony. The chips these artisans
cut out of tree in telling it, were really surpr-
sing, and prove the old adage-"A good car
penter is known by his chips" 1t is a subject
of congratulation that the depreciation in the
price of these pelts, has caused these animals
to be less sought after than formerly, when the
race was threatened with extinction.
AS for Pigeon river, we found that the nav
igable part of it extends only one mile and
half from the mouth of the bay. The shores
of the bay are precipitous and rocky. Grand
Portage will doubtless be the place of import
ance on the Northwestern shore of Lake Su-
pericr, but time will show. I learned from
Mr.. WHITES partner, that the land back from
the lake was of good quality, and timbercd
with beech, maple, and pine, and doubtless
will soon be peopled by the hardy sons of
Maine and Vermont, who always seek eli
mate similar to that Of the place of their ma
tivity. On our way, we saw party of five
who had left Superior six weeks previously on
an exploring expedition, and who were then
on their return from twenty miles beyond
Pigeon River, with some beautiful copper spec
linens. In fact, at every place we landedalong
the shore, the rocks showed traces Of recent
fracture, and of the diligence of the explorer.
On the seventeenth day after we started, we
again entered the harbor of Superior Bay, hav-
ing in that time coasted about three hundred