Drummond's Island.

Point de Tour has but a solitary dwelling, from whose roof rises the
light tower. Its inmates are said to have preferred this solitude to the
crowded refinement of a New England city. Shortly after, and still
coasting the western side, we stopped at Church's Landing, where an
enterprising New Englander has built his log houses in the forest, amid
the Indians, and drives an active commerce in _raspberry jam_. His trade
has prospered, and he had just completed a new and handsome dwelling.
Fourteen miles farther brought us to Saut Sainte Marie, or the rapids of
the eastern outlet of Lake Superior.

Lake Huron is at an average height of five hundred and seventy-five feet
above the sea level, and one hundred feet in depth below Lake Superior,
with a length in direct line of two hundred and seventy-five miles, from
Port Huron to Saut Sainte Marie. Georgian Bay, to the east of the Great
Manitoulin Island, is its broad eastern expansion; while, on the west,
the Straits of Mackinaw open into the vast expanse of Lake Michigan,
extending a length of four hundred and forty-six miles to Chicago. The
borders of Lake Huron are sparsely peopled. The primitive forest bends
over the lake's clear waters, and surrounds the log cabin or infant
settlement with the wigwam and canoe of the Indian half breeds, who are
still fishing and hunting round the graves of their ancestors-once the
fiercest of all the warrior races that scarce forty years ago as
sovereigns roamed its wilds.

The majestic solitudes of these lakes first received the white man in
1679, when the discoverers La Salle and Hennepin, in the vessel of sixty
tons, which they had built with their Indians at Cayuga Creek, sailed up
Niagara River, Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, to Mackinaw, and thence
through Lake Michigan to the mouth of Green Bay. Entering Lake Erie on
the 7th of August, 1691, they arrived at Green Bay on the 2d of
September following, encountering many storms and cautiously seeking
their untried way. After gathering a rich cargo of furs, the vessel, in
charge of the pilot and five men, started to return, and was heard of no
more. She doubtless perished with her crew in a gale on Lake Huron. She
carried seven cannon, was well manned and armed, adorned with carved
griffin and eagle heads, and bore the banner and religion of France amid
all the border tribes.

Surely the voyage of Columbus, discovering Hispaniola, while sailing
before and ob