Lake St. Clair

“ The shores of Lake St. Clair are formed of a fertile alluvium, resting on drift. There are some heavy boulders of primitive rock resting on this, which denote a vast field of former drift action around the shores of these lakes.
The wind abated about eleven o'clock on the morning of the 26th, when the men commenced loading the canoes. It was twelve before we embarked. The mode of their embarkation is peculiar. The canoes, when laden, are hauled out in deep water; the men then catch up the sitters on their backs, and deposit them in their respective seats ”

“ No fire, no food—alone somewhere on Lac Clair in 40° to 50° below zero! It was an ugly prospect. Wrapping himself in a blanket, he got a dog at his feet and lay down. With daylight he was up, and putting the dogs into harness set out; but he knew not the landmarks, and he steered heedless of direction. He came at last to a spring of open water; it was highly charged with sulphur, and hence its resistance to the cold of winter. Though it was nauseous to the taste he drank deeply of it; no other spring of water existed in all the wide circle of the lake. ”

“ Clair river. These lakes all lie in a valley which interposes between the primitive and secondary formations. The northern shores are granite rocks, sterile, and scarcely inhabited; while the southern is rich alluvion, covering sandstone and limestone.
The bustle of arrival aroused me from these reflections, and we were soon seated in the parlor of the Lake Hotel, in the famous state of Illinois, and town of Chicago. The rapid growth of this place you have heard of: in 1833 it could only count three frame{121} dwellings and two hundred and fifty inhabitants ”

“ To enter the lake from river St Clair two channels have been provided, with retaining walls of cribwork, one for upward, the other for downward bound vessels. Much dredging has also been necessary at the outlet of the lake into river Detroit. A critical point in that river is at Limekiln crossing, a cut dredged through limestone rock above the Canadian town of Amherstburg. The normal depth here before improvement was 121/2-15 ft.; by a project of 1902 a channel 600 ft. wide and 21 ft. deep was planned; there are separate channels for up- and down-bound vessels. ”

“ Clair is five hundred and seventy feet. But its depth is only twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty feet above the sea-level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five hundred and sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four feet deep, making it four hundred and eighty-four feet above the sea-level. From Lake Erie to Lake Ontario there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. But the latter lake is six hundred feet deep, and its elevation two hundred and thirty-two feet. Hence the bottom of it is three hundred and sixty-eight feet below the sea-level. ”

“ NW. of Guadeloupe; a narrow mountainous island, 23 m. long; produces sugar, molasses, rum, &c.; capital is Basse-terre (7) .
St. Clair, a river of North America, flowing in a broad navigable stream from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, which in turn pours its surplus waters by means of the Detroit River into Lake Erie.
St. Cloud (5) , a town in the dep. of Seine-et-Oise, France; occupies an elevated site near the Seine, 10 m. W. of Paris; the fine château, built by Louis XIV.'s brother, the Duke of Orleans, was for long the favourite residence of the Emperor Napoleon, since destroyed ”

“ How thankful she was that she had had ample experience with motor boats back in Marchton! It stood her in good stead now. The motor responded promptly and she turned the nose of the boat out into the lake. She drew speed from the boat and wondered what the owner might say.
The canoe, still tangled with the dead tree branch, was even closer to the tumbling waters going over the waterfall. Gale was glad the motor boat was a large, sturdy affair. With its powerful motor working rhythmically it should be able to withstand the pull of those rushing waters. ”

“ The formations next in order consist of raised beaches and sea-beds along the coast, and of lake-beds in the Ghor and Jordan Valley; and these bring us, geologically, much nearer to our own time.
Not only do the physical features of a country depend upon its geological formation, but it cannot be questioned that the character and mode of life of the inhabitants are moulded or modified by the physical features. ”

“ This body sent an able memorial to Congress, and the result has been that larger appropriations have since been made. Still, however, much remains to be done, and it appears by the last Report of Colonel Graham, that his estimates for necessary work on lake harbors and roadsteads amount to nearly three millions of dollars, to which half a million should be added for the improvement of St. Clair flats, making an aggregate of three and a half millions of dollars, which is much needed at this time, for the safe navigation of the lakes. ”

“ Dr Merrill, speaking of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and other places now desolate by the Lake of Galilee, remarks that the contrast between the present and the former condition of this region is painful to one who knows its history. Nevertheless, he says, “this region is to me one of the most sacred and delightful on earth. No place that men have consecrated brings me so near to Christ as a day spent in walking and meditating on these lonely shores.”
“Christ also visited Perea, the country east of the Jordan. ”

“ Mnathl had come to him one day when he was sitting on the dock in Penhairn and told him they were going to Lake Tanais. He had got up and gone with her obediently; a byhror addict has little will of his own. ”

“ Civita Vecchia (11) , a fortified port on the W. coast of Italy, 40 m. NW. of Rome, with a good harbour, founded by Trajan; exports wheat, alum, cheese, &c.
Clackmannanshire (28) , the smallest county in Scotland, lies between the Ochils and the Forth; rich in minerals, especially coal.
Clair, St., a lake 30 m. long by 12 broad, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Huron.
Clairaut, Alexis Claude, a French mathematician and astronomer, born at Paris, of so precocious a genius, that he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences at the age of 18 ”

“ The Lake of Clairvaux is situated on the first rising plateau of the Jura mountains, not far from the town of Lons-le-Saulnier, and covers an area of about 200 acres. At its north-west extremity there is a tongue of land projecting into the lake called [Pg 105] La Motte-aux-Magnins, which is believed to have been an island in former times, but is now continuous with a tract of marshy ground which extends between the Motte and the town of Clairvaux. ”

“ Toward Fond du Lac, on the south, the horizon is the lake. South-southwestward, Black Wolf Point runs out, just over the verge, and the tops of the tall trees upon it peep up into view, like shadowy pile-work. Westward are the well-kept hospital grounds, fringed with stately elms overhanging the firm, gravelly beach, studded with ice-heaved bowlders, which extends northward to Neenah. The view to the north and northeast is delightfully hazy, being now dark with delicate fringes of forest which cap the occasional limestone promontories, and again losing itself in a watery sky-line. ”

“ The Three Sisters may be STANDING TREE TBUNES IN CLEAR LAKE plainly seen from Clear Lake; and a half mile away may be seen the McKenzie River plunging over a cliff sixty feet in height. Its location so near the summit of the Cascade Mountains together with other attractions destines Clear Lake to be a popular resort for those who enjoy a mountain journey involving all the hardship of a frontier outing. In later years, when better mountain roads are constructed, no
doubt Clear Lake will be one of the most popular health resorts in the Northwest. ”

“ There is a quiet horror about the Great Lakes which grows as one revisits them. Fresh water has no right or call to dip over the horizon, pulling down and pushing up the hulls of big steamers; no right to tread the slow, deep-sea dance-step between wrinkled cliffs; nor to roar in on weed and sand beaches between vast headlands that run out for leagues into haze and sea-fog. Lake Superior is all the same stuff as what towns pay taxes for, but it engulfs and wrecks and drives ashore, like a fully accredited ocean—a hideous thing to find in the heart of a continent. ”

“ Out of the clouds of spray at the foot of the fall the battered, roaring river gropes its way, makes another mile of cascades and rapids, rests a moment in Emerald Pool, then plunges over the grand cliff of the Vernal Fall, and goes thundering and chafing down a boulder-choked gorge of tremendous depth and wildness into the tranquil reaches of the old Yosemite lake basin.
The color-beauty about Shadow Lake during the Indian summer is much richer than one could hope to find in so young and so glacial a wilderness. Almost every leaf is tinted then, and the golden-rods are in bloom ”

“ A wilderness of bowlders compels the winding about of the trail, but we hear and see Five Lake Creek, roaring and dashing along, for it has a large flow of water and its course is steep and rocky. We pass through groups of willows, wild currants and alders, enter a sparsely wooded meadow and in a few moments see the first of the Five Lakes. There is but little difference in their levels, though their sizes vary considerably. The first one is the largest. Here is a log cabin and two or three boats. These are owned by the Deer Park Springs resort, and are for their fishing and hunting patrons. ”

“ Lawrence did heave that July evening, no mistake about it. A fresh west wind was blowing over the lake, and the spray was dashing up with sea-like violence as we steamed away from the wooden wharves of Kingston, heading down-stream for the Thousand Islands. Lake Ontario, when it chooses, can get up a very decent storm indeed; quite as fine a storm as any to be seen upon the German Ocean, with huge four-masters from Chicago stranding helplessly on the reefs and spits; and even the river can run seas-high in its broader reaches among the wide expansion known as the Lake of the Thousand Islands. ”

“ There is on the eastern bank of the Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild cherries, hawthorns and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by alder and cranberry bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the little eminence; this creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, through which the hunters sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut to the lower part of the lake near Crook’s Rapids. ”

“ The wind had subsided, and the great lake, which serves as a filtering basin for the turbid waters entering it from the Slave River, was here as clear as that of the great inland lakes of Eastern Canada—Huron, Erie or Ontario. Wherever a river contains muddy water, you may at once conclude that it has no large lake expansions above it. In nearly every stream pouring its waters into the great clear water lakes of the St. Lawrence basin the water is dark and more or less impure ”

“ Lake Point is only an hour or two from the city, and has hotel accommodations and a steamboat for excursions; and then, besides the bracing waters, the climates is delightful. The mountains rise into the cool sky furrowed with canyons almost yosemitic in grandeur, and filled with a glorious profusion of flowers and trees. Lovers of science, lovers of wildness, lovers of pure rest will find here more than they may hope for. ”

“ As it is the flow from these lakes forms Five Lakes Creek, which empties into the Rubicon and thence into the South Fork of the American.
Five Lakes afford excellent fishing and a log-cabin, three boats and fishing tackle are kept here throughout the season for the pleasure of guests. Those who disdain the ordinary accommodations of a hotel can here camp out, rough it, and make it their headquarters while climbing the adjoining peaks or exploring the ravines and canyons at the head of the American River. ”

“ It trends nearly due north and south, leaning a little north-west and south-east, and receives many large rivers, as the Red, the Saskatchewan, and the Winnipeg. The waters of these are again carried out of it by other rivers that run from the lake, and empty into the Hudson's Bay. There is a belief among the hunters and voyageurs that this lake has its tides like the ocean. Such, however, is not the case. There is at times a rise and overflow of its waters, but it is not periodical, and is supposed to be occasioned by strong winds forcing the waters towards a particular shore. ”

“ From hence there is some current though the water is wide spread, and its course about North by West three miles and an half to the Lac de la Pluie, which lies nearly East and West; from thence about fifteen miles is a narrow strait that divides the lake into two unequal parts, from whence to its discharge is a distance of twenty-four miles. There is a deep bay running North-West on the right, that is not included, and is remarkable for furnishing the natives with a kind of soft, red stone, of which they make their pipes; it also affords an excellent fishery both in the summer and winter ”

“ In spring, when the snow is melting, the lake-bowl is brimming full, and sends forth quite a large stream that slips glassily for 200 yards or so, until it comes to an almost vertical precipice 800 feet high, down which it plunges in a fine cataract; then it gathers its scattered waters and goes smoothly over folds of gently dipping granite to its confluence with the main cañon stream. During the greater portion of the year, however, not a single water sound will you hear either at head or foot of the lake, not oven the whispered lappings of ripple-waves along the shore ”