devil a disagreeable one among em. Rowing on again, it is said
that the plash of the Sam Wards paddle-wheels may be heard.
But twas only the distant drum like roar of the cascade, or the
bellowing surf. Two hours may have elapsed since we set out. We
determine to return to the rocks, and be waited for. Again at
the Grand Portal. A fancy of two ghastly figures beckoning us. Presently, through the
fog
we descry the other boat. Captain Easterbrook and his crew.
Boy s! not a word about our being lost! quoth Swan, and all.
When we reached em, all the women looked anxious, and we were
greeted with dolorous queries. Are you lost too? says Miss Comp
son. A scene of most uproarous quizzing followed. We, assuming
the part of their rescuers, shouted all manner of comic revilement
at em. Montgomery standing up at the bows distinguished himself
greatly thus. It was uproarous, rib-tickling merriment, and my
sides ached again. All to the Grand Portal, and landed. But
the women were really frightened. Miss Compson told me how they had
been miles along the shore, had believed they d have to stop, camp-
ing out all night, with other horrors. Did we know where the steam-
boat was? As we d descried her, just before we entred, after
metting them, we could safely swear it. So we kept it up bravely.
And all merrily back to the vessel. I in ladies boat. Supper.
But the golden sun determined not to sink to rest in ill humor
now gan to scatter the fog nobly. The cloudy wreaths scatter and
vanish, and soon the whole line of the Picture Rocks is
bare to our ken. Far backwards to the East, Grand Sable,
with bare sand-hills, the Chapel , strangely perched up, and
quaintly hollowed into likeness of its name, by the wave-power; the
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six: page sixty-five |
| Description: | Describes seeing Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior, including getting lost in the mist in a rowboat. |
| Date: | 1853-08-14 |
| Subject: | Compston, Miss; Estabrook, Captain; Great Lakes (North America); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Montgomery; Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (Mich.); Sam. Ward (Ship); Swan; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Michigan] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn's writing and drawing work in New York, a visit to the Catskill Mountains, attending the wedding of his friend Charles Damoreau (Brown), a visit to the Crystal Palace in New York, his friend Lotty's difficult marriage to John Whytal, a sailing trip around Lake Superior, a visit to Mackinac Island in Michigan, a visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and a journey by horseback from Kentucky to Louisiana with friends. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Native Americans; Publishers and publishing; Slavery; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Michigan; Wisconsin; Ohio; Kentucky; Mississippi; Alabama; Louisiana |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
