Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1891 — THE LAKE REGION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE LAKE REGION.

A Spot Upon Which Nature Ha* Exhausted Her Fairest »e*l<n«. The lake country, Wisconsin, is among the mo 4 picturesque and interesting portion of our territory, a region with almost indefinite facilities for pleasure and yet one that which although deserving national repute has hardly received anything more than local celebrity. One of the prettiest spots in Waukesha County is Oconomowoc, whose surroundings strongly resemble the sunny, valleys and noble forests of Germany. At Portage the

Fox and Wisconsin Rivers approach each other within a mile without uniting, and then flow abruptly in opposite directions, the Fox entering the St. Lawrence and the Wisconsin mingling its waters with the Mississippi and the Gulf. The Wisconsin is intimately connected with the wars of Blackhawk and many are the legends still handed down about the famous Indian chief. A part of the Wisconsin known as the Dells is worthy description. The upper and lower Dells form together an irregular gorge some ten miles long* walled in with sandstone rock from 20 to 100 feet high, upon which nature’s re .ource of various designs has well nigh been exhausted. Everywhere is one panorama of beauty. In one place are curious formations of rock which from their resemblance to an ocean steamer are called the navy yard; in another is Stand Rock, a rough hewn pillar rising 100 feet from

the valley and crowned with a mossgrown tablet; again is an opening into a cave known as the Phantom Chamber that never has been explored, and a little beyond the Dells is Devil’s Lake, a body of water that has no visible inlet or outlet. The Indians regarded the lake with superstitious feeling and gazed with awe on the strange deep waters in the stern and desolate temple of some unknown deity. The wounded stag, dashing into its cooling waves, escaped pursuit; the very fish loamed in shoals unsought, and so strong was this superstitious dread that the dying warrior perished in agony rather than profane its waters with human lips. Whoever would wish to see nature in the grandest and most sublime of her effects should not fail to visit the lake country of Wisconsin. A Quaint Old Watch. “What sort of a watch is this ?” asked Duzeubnry, picking up a curious old timepiece from an Austin watchmaker’s show case. “That,” replied ths watchmaker, “is a real cuiiisity. It is a watch that belonged to Alexander the Great when he died on the barren island of St. Helena. ” “The sheol you say. Why, man alive, in the days of Alexander the Great they didn’t have any watches.” “That’s just what makes it such a rarity.” “And Alexander the Great did not die at St. Helena ” “He didn’t, eh ? Well, that makes it f'till greater curiosity.” And taking the rare relic from the hands of Duzenbury, he locked it in his burglar-proof safe.— Texas Siftings.

STAND ROCK IN THE DELLS

ENTRANCE TO PHANTOM CHAMBER.