The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-29
THE PICTURED ROCKS OF SUPERIOR.
SCENERY OF THE GREAT LAKE.

THE PICTURED ROCKS OF SUPERIOR.
SCENERY or THE GREAT LAKE.
Among the many resorts about Lake Supe-
rior, none are more attractive to the tourist
than the Pictured Rocks, situated upon the
south shore, some sixty miles eastward from
Marquette.
From the lake, writes a tourist to the
Toledo Blade, and at a distance, the so-called
Pictured Rocks appear as a huge sea wall
rising abruptly from the lakes margin, ex-
tending many miles, and varying in height
from fifty to three hundred feet. Approach
ing nearer, we find all manner of unique
formations and fantastic rocky structures,
reared by Nature hand.
There are the chimneys - tall, slender
columns of rock rising among the trees,
and SO very like factory chimneys that one
expects 10 see dense columns of smoke issu-
ing therefrom.
Then comes the sail rock, composed of
gigantic slabs of sandstone, rising seventy
five feet above the water. This is few rods
into the lake, entirely detached from the
main cliff, so that when viewed from the
east, at a distance. one takes it to be a
schooner with sails set. The illusion is COM
plete without the aid of imagination.
The so-called miners castle bears strong
likeness to some ancient structure of knightly
days. Lofty towers, solid walls, doorways,
embrasures, all lend 80 much the appearance
of an old Norman castle that we quite ma
turally gaze about in quest of a grim, mail
clad knight who, after the most orthodox
story-book pattern, shall be equally ready to
welcome us with hearty good cheer, or run
his lance through our carcass.
But our Aladdin lamp failed to bring forth
even the ghost of genius loci. SO we sail on
past mile after mile of this vast sea wall,
where new beauties meet the eye at every
turn, where hurryipg streams dash over the
cliff into the lake below, forming beautiful
cascades, where fantastic walls of rock,
carved, sculptured, and stained in many
colors by natures workmen-frost and storm
all serve to keep lis more than interested
until we reach the chapel, which is one of
the main features of the Pictured Rocks.
1t is quite appropriately named. A bold
promontory jutting forward from the main
cliff, single mass of sandstone about one
hundred and seventy by sixty feet, supported
from the east side and rear by the cliff and by
huge columnar masses in front and on the
west sit6. Such is the chapel.
Viewed from the city side, it conveys the
idea of some vast and ancient temple in a
state of ruin and decay. Dark evergreens
are mingled with column and pillar with
picturesque effect. Indeed, all along the
cliff from east to west, trees, mostly ever
greens, crown the summit, giving q beautiful
border to this rocky wall. One may enter the
chapel from the rear, but the lake being calm,
we may climb the rocks in front, reaching
the entrance at height of thirty or forty
feet above the water.
with hands. So very like church is this
huge vaulted apartment, with its pulpit and
altar, all complete, that as we enter we
almost expect dapper little usher to offer
his services No wonder the Indians locate
Manitou in the chapel and in their crude
way people it with ghostly forms 1t only
requires Grecian birth, or a location in the
Holy Land, with flimsy tissue of monkish
stories thrown about it, to render the place
classical.
The heavy sea beating against the base of
the cliff, singing its majestic, never-ceasing
anthem, fills the chapel with solemn music.
1t is natures organ rivalling the grandest
tones heard within some vast cathedral. The
storm king with his winds and waves is the
orator of this temple. The strong contrast
carries us back in memory to one of the old
mission buildings in California. A wild,
weird sensation thrilled us throughout the
night as we camped by the long-deserted mis-.
sion, San Luis Rey, far down the Pacific
coast. The whitewashed walls of the mission
staring at us like some giant ghost, the
mournful cries of the whipporwill, the grand
Pacific signing and sobbing upon the beach
below as if grieving over the sides of the
! land which 1t washed, all spoke more elo-
quently than did the bigoted priestly fathers
who once ruled that land. So we cared not
that
"The Mission is more upon its walls
The golden lizards slip, or breathless pause.
! Stlll as the sunshine brokenly that falls
| Through cranned roof and spider webs OF gauZe
No more the bell in solemn warning calls
A holier silence thrills and overawes;
And the sharp light and shadow OF to-day
| OutllVe the mission OF San Luis Rey."
The grand portal is huge segment of rock
! protruding into the lake from the main ses
wall with bold, lofty front, and a passage
way leading out upon either side so that one
may row beneath the vast arch.
Imagine yourself in a room 400 feet long
by $50 wide, and $50 to 200 feet in height
from the water to the arched roof.
All too hastily must we tell you that to row
within this grand amphitheatre where the
waves play and dash about, where the evel
varying shades of light picture the walls with
grotesque forms, the deep emerald of the
waters, the never ceasing music of the waves
the strange, unearthly reverberations o.
ones own voice. altogether afford pleasure
which one must experience in order to fully
appreciate the beauties of the place.
Green Island lies to seaward, within cas-!
view of the Pictured Rocks. Camping upoI
bold cliff, we have before us the Pictured
Rocks, tinged with royal colors from tn,
setting sun, and pictured to us as the far-off
shadowy shores Of dreamland, where colder
hopes Ere to be realized