arrested by its lofty and impressive form, as it stands alone frowning
on the dark, deep waters of the lake below.

Chief Wapashaw, whose village once occupied the site of the present city
of Winona, had a daughter, _Weenonah_, the beauty and pride of all his
tribe. This fair maiden had been thwarted in her affections by powerful
and cruel hands, and rather than submit to unite her young life with
one, other than he whom she so fondly loved, resolved to sacrifice
herself. A fishing party, of which she was a member, proceeded to this
lake, and while resting on the eastern shore she fled away, and to the
top of this high eminence, where, discovering herself to the company
below, she recited the story of her broken heart and undying love for
him whose name she had been even forbade to speak, and, closing by
chanting a wild death-song, flung herself down the sides of this
terrible precipice, and was dashed in pieces. Her father and friends,
guessing her intent, on being hailed by her from the top of this rock,
dispatched, as the story goes, their fleetest of foot to her rescue, but
unavailingly. No Indian passes by this place of tragedy without uttering
mournful wails in memory of their beautiful and loved Weenonah.

Along the base of these cliffs are numerous caverns, once the abode of
wild beasts, and, even as late as Carver's visit, in 1766, numbers of
bears were found wintering in them, and in the minor caves numberless
rattlesnakes were seen by him. In his explorations in this immediate
neighborhood he discovered, on the edge of the prairie, the outlines of
an old fortification, which was distinctly traceable, and extended for
nearly a mile, in its sweep enveloping an area ample for five thousand
men. Its form was semi-circular, with the flanks resting on the river.
The whole appearance was as if it had been built full a century before
his visit, and while the ditch was indistinguishable, its angles were,