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that moment possessed with the horrid belief that he was haunted by the devil, because he had killed the spotted fawn, the favorite deer of Chocoma. No persuasion could alter this belief. He was in an agony of distress and terror. The warning of the old chief was ever ringing in his ears, and the death-throes of the spotted fawn continually present to his frenzied imagination. He was harmless toward others; and no one of his friends supposed that he meditated any violence toward himself. He had indeed been often heard to say that he could not escape the snares of the devil on earth; but his incoherent ravings were regarded as the necessary results of the intemperate habits he had so long indulged.

On a chill morning in October, just twenty-six years from the date of his adventure with the swarthy son of Chocoma under the oak, the lifeless body of Tom Davenport was found suspended from a limb of that identical old tree. He had made his exit from 'the world, the flesh, and the devil,' in the manner already related.

J. B. M.

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SKETCHES OF A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR.

BY H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT.

THE sand dunes and coast diluvions generally, of Lake Superior, form a most interesting field of study. And not less so are its sandstones, vertical and level; its granwackes, some of which are unequalled for magnificent display of scenery, its trap-rocks and wellfilled amygdaloids. And finally, its sienites and sienitic granites; its quartz rock, hornblende rock, and serpentine; large portions of which confer upon its shores an Alpine character, which is wholly wanting in the other series of the upper lakes. Limestone, so abundant in other parts of the western world, seems to have been studiously excluded from its formations by the hand of Nature; and were it not for the crystallized calc-spar in the amygdaloids, it might be safely asserted that there was no carbonic acid in the region.

Geology has yet much to do, in shaking off local theories, and wiredrawn systems, notwithstanding the great advances it has made in our day. While the study of organic remains has completely overturned the old systems, and set up the new, giving it to a large extent the character of an exact science, the exactitude, it must be observed, has been rather in the observation and description of facts, than in the final deductions which have been drawn from them. There is not evidence enough to produce complete satisfaction with any existing theory, as a whole system. While the modern history of the science has abounded with rich stores of exact and shining facts, the theory of their application, if closely scrutinized, will be found to have rather grown worse, than better. Nor is it probable that any theory which runs counter to the Mosaic order of the introduction of the organic and inorganic classes, will be found capable of standing the test of truth and future observation. It is not enough that organic fibre and structure, in all their forms, should be proved by their impressions, or 'remains' in existing rocks, to have been created in their declared order, but the whole fabric of natural philosophy must contribute its concurrent proofs. It cannot be admitted that light was created out of its order, any more than that earth or vegetable fibre were. There can, therefore, be no true philosophy, which furnishes a class of deductions contrary in any thing to the maxims of revelation. It is this fact which forms the difficulty in admitting Buckland's amended theory; for while he sets out to prove, and does most triumphantly attain the object, that wisdom, and power, and benevolence, are shown in animal organization, yet all his splendid array of facts is used to sustain his main postulate, that the earth, and its great element light, and all the monstrous forms of animal life, were created ages before the Mosaical , or beginning. Neither do we regard the theory of Professor Silliman sound, that the i, or day, of which the prophet speaks, was a cen

*As at Presque Isle River, west of the Ontonagon.

tury, or any other extended period of time; and not, as the plain sense is, the measure of one revolution of the globe on its axis, or twenty-four hours. For although the term is variously employed in subsequent passages of the scripture history, yet the context denotes clearly the occasion of its general application, while the same rule shows that it is always specifically employed to denote the time of a modern astronomical day. Beside, Moses and his people had, at the time he wrote, used the word yom for day, during centuries, and there is no probability that he did, or intended to, introduce in his account of the creation, this word in any other save the common acceptation.

Geology has always overlooked the fact, that the creation of the world was a miracle, extraordinary powers having been communicated to all the elements to compass the divine will. There is no necessity, therefore, for the chemical or philosophical objection, that the water of crystallization could not be got rid of in so limited a period, and strata become duly consolidated, and often repeated in the manner we find them. These are the objections of a finite mind, which, having observed the laws of cause and effect in the ordinary operations of created matter, deny to it any other powers during the primary act of its creation. So far from the brevity of the period's constituting a ground of objection on this head, it would rather appear to call for admiration, that Omnipotent Power should have elected to extend the order of the physical organization of the globe throughout the multiplied mystical number of one hundred and forty-four hours.

With respect to the monstrous forms of organic life, both of the sea and of the dry land, which form so brilliant a portion of modern descriptive geology, it is believed that the first sixteen centuries after the creation was the true epoch of their existence, destruction, and embedment. During this period, the human race were comparatively low in the numerical scale of population, and limited in position. The waste parts of the earth, both land and sea, would afford a suitable theatre for these animals, of extraordinary strength and power, to range, and to devour each other. And when the deluge came, it extinguished the whole of these gigantic classes of fishes and quadrupeds, and swept their remains into the tertiary and diluvial beds, where they are now found.

The power and effect of the deluge cannot be measured by any thing we know, or have experienced, of tempests and floods. Added to all the natural energies of elementary and concrete matter, it was a divine expression of vengeance, and like its prototype, the creation, a miracle. Nothing less could bring into play the mighty powers which caused the earth, 'standing out of the water, and in the water,' to perish.*

Of the power and universality of this revolution, perhaps no part of the world affords stronger proofs than North America. It left its huge deposites of newer brecciated sand-stone on the highest peaks of the Catskills. It buried the bones of the mastadon and other species, in the valleys of the Hudson, the Unjigah, and the Mississippi,

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in the tertiary plains of New-Jersey, and in the blue clays of Kentucky and Virginia. It filled with diluvial strata the pre-existing limestone caverns of Missouri and Arkansas. It impressed upon the great chain of American lakes their peculiar configuration, and consummated their wide-spread connection, and their grand out-burst at Niagara. And its receding waters carried over the land, in a general direction toward the south-west, deflected a little by lateral valleys, the great erratic block-group, extending from Baffin's Bay and the Frozen Ocean to the Mexican Gulf.

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In the course of our homeward journey, we have had frequent occasion to be out on the lake by night, and travelled in one instance till one o'clock, which gave us an opportunity of viewing the northern starry hemisphere. Never did we more fully realize the truth and graphic beauty of the nineteenth psalm, nor gaze with more profound admiration on the glorious firmament on high.' We had occasion to remark that few clear evenings are without the phenomena of shooting stars, although the ordinary number is probably less than a casual notice would indicate. Having in my readingbasket the number of Silliman's Journal which mentions the probable periodical recurrence of a meteoric shower, as it is termed, on the night of the ninth and tenth of August, I determined to notice the heavens that night. But the atmosphere became dark and overcast before we encamped, and rain set in soon after, which precluded all observation above the nether clouds.

On the 18th of August, at midnight, the aurora borealis exhibited a magnificent and singular display. A segment of a circle, of unvaried blackness, based itself on the northern horizon, above which luminous blunt points of light shot up perpendicularly, and not in a divergent manner. The same phenomenon was repeated while we were at St. Mary's, on the night of the 21st of the same month.

Having in our crew several intelligent Odjibwas, the occasion of these night journeys was taken to question them on several points involving their astronomical knowledge and opinions. Their year consists of twelve moons. The moon is called night-sun. The phenomenon at which we had looked, they call dancing ghosts, and the milky way, the path of the dead. It is evident they believe the earth to be a globe and not a plain, a fact I had before noticed in their hieroglyphic drawings. They distinguish the fixed planets, and have names for a great number of the stars, and groups of stars. It is remarkable that Ursa Major is called the bear, and Venus the morning star. The north star bears the same name. The group of the plough is called Fisher-stars. Many of the names evince the popular belief in transformations, and the topic is replete with amuseA far greater familiarity with the subject is evinced than is generally supposed to exist, but not greater than might be anticipated, when it is recollected that so great a portion of their time is passed under the open heavens.

ment.

NUMBER XI.

Parisian Island.

ON quitting Whitefish Point, the wind served for crossing the lake to this seldom-visited, green, woody, romantic island, and we reached a little cove at its southern extremity, in perfect safety. It is based on the red sandstone formation, is quite level, and chiefly covered with fir. Being here in view of the two prominent capes which form the outlet of the lake, the occasion is taken to advert to a few traits in its natural history, or geography, which have not before been noticed.

Copious incrustations of crude salts of alum were observed on the precipitous face of the Pictured Rocks, a short distance west of the great cavern at Le Portail. These incrustations are so elevated, that it seemed impossible for some time to obtain specimens. The men standing in the boat at the base of the rock could not reach them with an oar. I requested one of them to fire into the effloresced mass with ball, and afterward with shot, which detached and brought down a sufficient quantity.

It was thought this line of rocky coast would afford an eligible point for determining the periodical rise of water in the lake within late years. The result of the examination, both here and at other points, must, however, necessarily be imprecise, until an accurate rock-gauge is appealed to. I could not satisfy myself, from the most careful examination, that the rise of water, from 1832 to the present time, has exceeded from ten to fourteen inches. Indeed, it was decidedly less than had been anticipated. As this is far below the observed rise in Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, it may be inquired, whether the cause of the periodical ebb has been less constant or efficacious in its operation here, than it has in the other lakes? This may well be doubted. It is believed the annual decrease of solar heat, and the contemporaneous annual fall of water, have been as operative here as elsewhere. And it is probable the increased area of the lake alone is the chief cause of the striking difference. The rise of Ontario, for instance, is stated to have been a fraction over six feet. If it be estimated that Superior is six times its area, and the causes equal in their operation, but twelve inches should be noticed here, which is in fact the precise observation. No estimate has however been made of the comparative area, for which we have in fact no accurate data.

Fuller opportunities of examining the geological structure of the sand dunes were had than on previous occasions. They are decidedly diluvial, and consist of alternate strata of clay, loam, and pebbles, with a comparatively few large boulders, and a top stratum of sand. This structure explains the cause of their stability, precision of outline, and the remarkable parallelism of their summit lines. The sand is acted on by the winds, and being thus cast over the brow of the diluvial cliffs, forms a loose envelope, and gives them their peculiarly arid aspect. Among the strata showing themselves at the eastern termination of these sandy eminences, are extensive beds of peat, both fibrous and compact.

The volcanic substance called trachyte in Europe, I have never seen, but from its description, it is abundant in rolled masses along

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