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Page 36
A week is a short time to devote to seeing all that this queen city has
that is interesting, and that included every day we spent there. Neither
in a sketch like the present shall we have space to give more than we
have done--a general idea of the city. One day about noon we steamed out
of the harbor, on a magnificent lake-steamer, bound for Duluth. We were
to have a run of over seven hundred miles with but a single
stopping-place the whole distance. It would be three days before we
should step on land again.
"Farewell, a long farewell, to the city of the Indian sachem," said
Hugh, as the grand emporium and railway-centre grew dim in the distance.
"By the way," continued he, "are you aware that the correct etymology of
the name Chicago is not generally known?"
Vincent and I confessed that we did not even know the supposed etymology
of the name.
"No matter about that," went on the Historian. "The name is undoubtedly
Indian, corrupted from Chercaqua, the name of a long line of chiefs,
meaning strong, also applied to a wild onion. Long before the white men
knew the region the site of Chicago was a favorite rendezvous of several
Indian tribes. The first geographical notice of the place occurs in a
map dated Quebec, Canada, 1683, as 'Fort Chicagon.' Marquette camped on
the site during the winter of 1674-5. A fort was built there by the
French and afterward abandoned. So you see that Chicago has a history
that is long anterior to the existence of the present city. Have a
cigar, Montague?"
Clouds of fragrant tobacco-smoke soon obscured the view of the Queen
City of the Northwest, busy with life above the graves of the Indian
sagamores whose memories she has forgotten.
On the third day we steamed past Mackinaw, and soon made the ship-canal
which was constructed for the passage of large ships, a channel a dozen
miles long and half a mile wide. And now, hurrah! We are on the waters
of Lake Superior, the "Gitche Gumee, the shining Big Sea-Water," of
Longfellow's musical verse. The lake is a great sea. Its greatest length
is three hundred and sixty miles, its greatest breadth one hundred and
forty miles; the whole length of its coast is fifteen hundred miles. It
has an area of thirty-two thousand square miles, and a mean depth of one
thousand feet. These dimensions show it to be by far the largest body of
fresh water on the globe.
Nothing can be conceived more charming than a cruise on this lake in
summer. The memories of the lake are striking and romantic in the
extreme. There is a background of history and romance which renders
Superior a classic water. It was a favorite fishing-ground for several
tribes of Indians, and its aboriginal name Ojibwakechegun, was derived
from one of these, the Ojibways, who lived on the southern shore when
the lake first became known to white men. The waters of the lake vary in
color from a dazzling green to a sea-blue, and are stocked with all
kinds of excellent fish. Numerous islands are scattered about the lake,
some low and green, others rocky and rising precipitately to great
heights directly up from the deep water. The coast of the lake is for
the most part rocky. Nowhere upon the inland waters of North America is
the scenery so bold and grand as around Lake Superior. Famous among
travelers are those precipitous walls of red sandstone on the south
coast, described in all the earlier accounts of the lake as the
"Pictured Rocks." They stand opposite the greatest width of the lake and
exposed to the greatest force of the heavy storms from the north. The
effect of the waves upon them is not only seen in their irregular shape,
but the sand derived from their disintegration is swept down the coast
below and raised by the winds into long lines of sandy cliffs. At the
place called the Grand Sable these are from one hundred to three hundred
feet high, and the region around consists of hills of drifting sand.
Half-way across the lake Keweenaw Point stretches out into the water.
Here the steamer halted for wood. We landed on the shore in a beautiful
grove. "What a place for a dinner!" cried one of the party.
"Glorious! glorious!" chimed in a dozen voices.
"How long has the boat to wait?" asked Hugh.
"One hour," was the answer of the weather-beaten son of Neptune.
"That gives us plenty of time," was the general verdict. So without more
ado lunch-baskets were brought ashore. The steamer's steward was
prevailed upon, by a silver dollar thrust slyly into his hand, to help
us, and presently the whole party was feasting by the lakeside. And what
a royal dining-room was that grove, its outer pillars rising from the
very lake itself, its smooth brown floor of pine-needles, arabesqued
with a flitting tracery of sun shadows and fluttering leaves, and giving
through the true Gothic arches of its myriad windows glorious views of
the lake that lay like an enchanted sea before us! And whoever dined
more regally, more divinely, even, though upon nectar and ambrosia, than
our merry-makers as they sat at their well-spread board, with such
glowing, heaven-tinted pictures before their eyes, such balmy airs
floating about their happy heads, and such music as the sunshiny waves
made in their glad, listening ears? It was like a picture out of
Hiawatha. At least it seemed to strike our young lady so, who in a voice
of peculiar sweetness and power recited the opening of the twenty-second
book of that poem:--
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