Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

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AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS.
CHAPTER VIII.
RUNNING THE FALLS—WILD SCENES AND MEN.
'EXT day the travellers reached one of those
-h ’ magnificent lakes of which there are so many
in the wild woods of North America, and which
are so like to the great ocean itself, that it is
scarcely possible to believe them to be bodies of
fresh water until they are tasted.
The largest of these inland seas is the famous
Lake Superior, which is so enormous in size that
ships can sail on its broad bosom for several days
out of sight of land. It is upwards of three hundred
miles long, and about one hundred and fifty broad.
A good idea of its size may be formed from the
fact, that it is large enough to contain the whole
of Scotland, and deep enough to cover her highest
hills !
The lake on which the canoe was now launched,
although not so large as Superior, was, neverthe¬
less, a respectable body of water, on which the sun
was shining as if on a shield of bright silver.
There were numbers of small islets scattered over