Old and New Mackinaw [pp. 146-151]

OLD AND zNE W MACKINAWV W.
lakes, has created an adamantine pavement that it is difficult for the most persistent grass spears to invade.
The anchorage is fine, and it is seldom
a hard matter to make the port, as, spite
of something of an ocean swell, there is
not that heavy surf and rampant waves
whichl one might look for in so exposed
an island. Boats ride close to the low
shlore, even under the very shadow of
sugar loaf arch, and fort rockl, at neither
of which can we now tarry. Yet we must
say, en jiassant, that whoever desires a
realization of Charles Wesley's oft-sung
stanzas:
"Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,"
it can be found by sitting on the granite
hill-side, with arch rock as a gateway into
infinity, or what seems at least the grand
poetic idea of Dr. Kane, the Unknown
Sea, materialized. We gaze through the
arch to the boundless waters outside, and,
for the moment, deem it nothing earthly,
but a strange something located between
earth and heaven, "like a piece of the
antediluvian world," according to Leigh
Hunt,
'- Looking out of the coldness of ages."
The fishing grounds are so excellent
and abundant that Mackinac trout and
white fish are of national repute, while
Mackinac potatoes are also quite as renowned, and neither of the trio ever to
be resisted by well-trained palates.
The inhabitants, most of whom belong
to a half-caste race, are like their progenitors, care free; their light-hearted French
blood always culling amusement enough
even for the short days, long nights, and
icy months of what seems, from its stronghold on the straits, to be an ever-enduring Winter - an icebound coast that is
tight-locked by the I Sth of November,
and not set free until the Summer days
of May.
Apart from all these dull statistics,
there remains a lovely picture so clearly
photographed into our very souls, that we
look at it with delightful reverence, and
there it is forever.
OLD MICHILIMACKINAC.
As you stand on the steaimer's deck
lying in harblor, or on the rocky plateau
of the island (so called Mackinac, meaning Tirtle, from a fancied resemblance
in its conformation to that reptile), and
extend your glance across the strait, one
cani easily discern with the naked eye, at
the distance of eight miles or thlereabouts, a losv headland that juts out into
the bay, and which ancient settlers of
the little sea-girt hamlet will tell you is
the site of old Fort Mackinac. It was
built by order of the Governor-General
of Canada, in the year 1735, and garrisoned with a small body of Englishl soldiers. Its area includes about an acre of
ground, which, being inclosed with pickets of cedar wood, was placed so near
the water's edge that, according to an
old chronicle, when the wind set in the
west, the waves broke against the stockade.
In compiling this sketch, there floats
back to the writer's mind a morning three
years gone by, which, while it can not
be recalled as one of storm and tempest,
was certainly a gala time for wind and
wave, that handled the party to which
she belonged most pitilessly, vexing the
inner man by a solemnly rolling sea,
even after the sailing craft lay alongside
the stanch old pier at Mackinac. Sitting on deck with no prospect of rest for
ship or sea-gull, my eye chanced to wander off toward the distant peninsula, that
I am striving to bring out in as strong
relief as may be for the benefit of my
readers.
There it lay, placid and low, yet bearing an outside so fresh and green that
one might have fancied the spot a warm,
rich meadow asleep on the blue waters,
that only seemed to plash and bubble
over the graveled beach, or hurried past
as if loth to pause on a spot so lonely
and so sad. The dark bushles cltustered
far away backward firom the shore, and
the few tall trees scattered around denoted what might simply turn out to be
a pleasant rural life, and we peer about
almost in expectation of quiet home
1876.]
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