ed as among the most striking and beautiful features of the scenery of the Northwest, and are well worthy of the attention of the artist, of the lover of the grand and beautiful, and of the observer of geological phenomena."* The first display of architectural mimicry witnessed in coasting eastward is a salient mass of sandstone known as the "Miner's Castle," presenting the turreted elevation and arched and massive doorway of some ancient feudal seat. The height of the doorway is about seventy feet, while the tops of the turrets are one hundred and forty feet above the lake (Fig. 32). About five miles farther eastward the cliffs attain an elevation of about one hundred and seventy-three feet, presenting a series of sinuosities or scollops hewn out by the action of the waves. One of the grandest and most regular of these was named "The Amphitheatre" by Foster and Whitney. Still farther eastward this scolloped contour graduates into extravagant carvings, which have wrought the mural wall into wierd Titanic mimicry of architectural forms. Vast tablets from the upper courses of the wall, sapped by the agency of eroding waves, have tumbled down and strewn the beach in places with fragments which lead the traveler to believe he is clambering among the ruins of gigantic temples shattered by an earthquake shudder. A group of these fallen fragments presents a striking similitude to the jib and mainsail of a sloop full spread, * Report on the Geology of the Lake Superior Land District, part ii., p. 124 (1857). These authors have given the fullest and most exact account of the Pictured Rocks that has yet been published. Schoolcraft, at an early period, undertook to describe this range of cliffs and illustrate the scenery, but with very poor success. Harper's Magazine, vol. xxxiv., p. 681 (May, 1867), contains a lively and interesting paper on the "Pictured Rocks," embodying several good illustrations. Some of the following views are from photographs by Watson, taken on an excursion by a party from the University of Michigan in 1868, under the leadership of Dr. A. E. Foote. |