The handwritten text that follows comes from the 1840 journal of Douglass Houghton, describing Isle Royale.  Try to read the handwriting on your own before consulting my transcription of the text.  I have transcribed the manuscript page so that the lines of the manuscript and the lines of the transcription have the same length.  After you’ve read the manuscript once, read it a second time with particular attention to the following problematic elements of the handwriting:

• formation of "e" at end of "Isle","Royale", and "the" (1st line)
• openings in "a" in "Royale" and "lake"  (ll. 1 &2)
• similarity of "n" in "upon" and "northerly" to "u" in "upon"
• size of "s: in "situated"
• shape of final "s" in "is"
• crossbars on "t"s at top in "the", "northerly," and "central"
• long sweep of crossbar in "situated" crosses first "t", misses second
• habit of syllabification ("nor-therly", "pos-session")
• raised (superscript) letters of "th" in 48th and 89th
• baffling letter formation in "plateau" (3rd line from bottom)
• baffling letter formation in last word in paragraph 1

Transcription of Houghton’s Journal Page Above
Line by Line
              Isle Royale is situated upon the nor-
therly side of lake Superior & its central portion
falls very nearly in the parallal of the 48th
degree of Lat. & the 89th of Longitude.  It has
a length of about 45 miles & an average breadth
of from 6 to 7 miles stretching in its length in
the same general direction of the north coast
of the lake from S. W. to N. E.   Its south westerly
extremity approaches most nearly to the main-
land being about 15 miles distant.  Between
this island & the main land, it will be recollected
the boundary between our own & the British pos-
sessions passes.
          Isle Royale in the distance appears as an
irregularly Elevated island composed of a chain
of hills having the same general direction as
the island itself & a more close inspection
shows it to be almost wholly composed
of rocky hills covered with a dwarf & for
the most part sparse growth of timber, & with
low marshy grounds & small lakes filling
up the spaces between these hills.  The
hills upon the N.westerly side rise quite
abruptly from the water & their more Elevated
portions are probably elevated from 3 to 400 feet
on the southest Easterly side the ascent is
less sudden there usually being an intervening
comparatively level plateau of from 1/4 to 1/2 mile
in width.  Although there are many bare
knobs of rock & in fact it may be said