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diff --git a/41742-0.txt b/41742-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ad9398 --- /dev/null +++ b/41742-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5511 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41742 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + The page numbers of this Volume start with 275 (continuing the + numbering from Volume 1 of this work). + + On page 282 guerillas should possibly be guerrillas. + On page 293 vigilants should possibly be vigilantes. + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + _EDITION ARTISTIQUE_ + + The World's Famous + Places and Peoples + + AMERICA + + BY + JOEL COOK + + In Six Volumes + Volume II. + + MERRILL AND BAKER + New York London + + + + +THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS +LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS +COPY IS NO. 205 + +Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1900 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME II + + + PAGE + + MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE _Frontispiece_ + + THE SUSQUEHANNA WEST OF FALMOUTH 284 + + THE CONEMAUGH NEAR FLORENCE 312 + + ON THE ASHLEY, NEAR CHARLESTON, S. C. 352 + + ON THE OCKLAWAHA 382 + + LINCOLN MONUMENT, LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO 432 + + + + +CROSSING THE ALLEGHENIES. + + + + +IV. + +CROSSING THE ALLEGHENIES. + + The Old Pike -- The National Road -- Early Routes Across the + Mountains -- Old Lancaster Road -- Columbia Railroad -- The + Pennsylvania Route -- Haverford College -- Villa Nova -- Bryn + Mawr College -- Paoli -- General Wayne -- The Chester Valley -- + Pequea Valley -- The Conestogas -- Lancaster -- Franklin and + Marshall College -- James Buchanan -- Thaddeus Stevens -- + Conewago Hills -- Susquehanna River -- Columbia -- The + Underground Railroad -- Middletown -- Lochiel -- Simon Cameron + -- The Clan Cameron -- Harrisburg -- Charles Dickens and the + Camel's Back Bridge -- John Harris -- Lincoln's Midnight Ride + -- Cumberland Valley -- Carlisle -- Indian School -- Dickinson + College -- The Whisky Insurrection -- Tom the Tinker -- Lebanon + Valley -- Cornwall Ore Banks -- Otsego Lake -- Cooperstown -- + James Fenimore Cooper -- Richfield Springs -- Cherry Valley -- + Sharon Springs -- Howe's Cave -- Binghamton -- Northumberland + -- Williamsport -- Sunbury -- Fort Augusta -- The Dauphin Gap + -- Duncannon -- Duncan's Island -- Juniata River -- Tuscarora + Gap -- The Grasshopper War -- Mifflin -- Lewistown Narrows -- + Kishicoquillas Valley -- Logan -- Jack's Narrows -- Huntingdon + -- The Standing Stone -- Bedford -- Morrison's Cove -- The + Sinking Spring -- Brainerd, the Missionary -- Tyrone -- + Bellefonte -- Altoona -- Hollidaysburg -- The Portage Railroad + -- Blair's Gap -- The Horse Shoe -- Kittanning Point -- Thomas + Blair and Michael Maguire -- Loretto -- Prince Gallitzin -- + Ebensburg -- Cresson Springs -- The Conemaugh River -- South + Fork -- Johnstown -- The Great Flood -- Laurel Ridge -- + Packsaddle Narrows -- Chestnut Ridge -- Kiskiminetas River -- + Loyalhanna Creek -- Fort Ligonier -- Great Bear Cave -- + Hannastown -- General Arthur St. Clair -- Greensburg -- + Braddock's Defeat -- Pittsburg, the Iron City -- Monongahela + River -- Allegheny River -- Ohio River -- Fort Duquesne -- + Fort Pitt -- View from Mount Washington -- Pittsburg Buildings + -- Great Factories -- Andrew Carnegie -- George Westinghouse, + Jr. -- Allegheny Park and Monument -- Coal and Coke -- Davis + Island Dam -- Youghiogheny River -- Connellsville -- Natural + Gas -- Murrysville -- Petroleum -- Canonsburg -- Washington -- + Petroleum Development -- Kittanning -- Modoc Oil District -- + Fort Venango -- Oil City -- Pithole City -- Oil Creek -- + Titusville -- Corry -- Decadence of Oil-Fields. + + +THE OLD PIKE. + +The American aspiration has always been to go westward. In the early +history of the Republic the Government gave great attention to the +means of reaching the Western frontier, then cut off by what was +regarded as the almost insurmountable barrier of the Alleghenies. +General Washington was the first to project a chain of internal +improvements across the mountains, by the route of the Potomac to +Cumberland, then a Maryland frontier fort, and thence by roads to the +headwaters of the Ohio. The initial enactment was procured by him from +the Virginia Legislature in 1774, for improving the navigation of the +Potomac; but the Revolutionary War interfered, and he renewed the +movement afterwards in 1784, resulting in the charter of the +Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, of which Washington was the first +President. Little was done at that early period, however, in building +the canal, but the Government constructed the famous "National Road," +the first highway over the Allegheny Mountains, from Cumberland in +Maryland, mainly through Southwestern Pennsylvania, to Wheeling on +the Ohio. This noted highway was finished and used throughout in 1818, +and, until the railways crossed the mountains, it was the great route +of travel to the West. It was familiarly known as the "Old Pike," and +Thomas B. Searight has entertainingly recorded its pleasant memories, +for it has now become mainly a relic of the past: + + "We hear no more of the clanging hoof, + And the stage-coach, rattling by; + For the steam king rules the travelled world, + And the Old Pike's left to die." + +He tells of the long lines of Conestoga wagons, each drawn by six +heavy horses, their broad wheels, canvas-covered tops and huge cargoes +of goods; of the swaying, rushing mail passenger coach, the +fleet-footed pony express; the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, +the droves of horses and mules sent East from the "blue-grass" farms +of Kentucky; and occasionally of a long line of men and women, tied +two and two to a rope, driven by a slave-master from the South, to be +sold in the newer region of the Southwest. He describes how the famous +driver, Sam Sibley, brings up his grand coach at the hotel in +Uniontown with the great Henry Clay as chief passenger, and then after +dinner whirls away with a rush, but unfortunately, dashing over a pile +of stone in the road, the coach upsets. Out crawls the driver with a +broken nose, and a crowd hastens to rescue Mr. Clay from the upturned +coach. He is unhurt, and brushing the dust from his clothes says: +"This is mixing the Clay of Kentucky with the limestone of +Pennsylvania." Many are the tales of the famous road. One veteran +teamster relates his experience of a night at the tavern on the +mountain side--thirty six-horse teams were in the wagon-yard, one +hundred mules in an adjoining lot, a thousand hogs in another, as many +fat cattle from the West in a field, and the tavern crowded with +teamsters and drovers--the grunts of the hogs, the braying of the +mules, the bellowing of the cattle and the crunching and stamping of +the horses, "made music beyond a dream." In 1846 the message arrived +at Cumberland at two o'clock in the morning that war was declared +against Mexico, and a noted driver took the news over the mountains, +past a hundred taverns and a score of villages, one hundred and +thirty-one miles to Wheeling, in twelve hours. Over this famous road +the Indian chief Black Hawk was brought, but the harness broke, the +team ran away and the coach was smashed. Black Hawk crept out of the +wreck, stood up surprised, and, wiping a drop of blood from his brow, +earnestly muttered, "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" Barnum brought Jenny Lind over +this road from Wheeling, paying $17.25 fare apiece to Baltimore. +Lafayette came along it in 1825, the population all turning out to +cheer him. Andrew Jackson came over it four years later to be +inaugurated the first Western President, and subsequently also came +Presidents Harrison, Polk and Taylor. What was thought of the "Old +Pike" in its day of active service was well expressed at a reception +to John Quincy Adams. Returning from the West, he arrived at Uniontown +in May, 1837, and was warmly welcomed. Hon. Hugh Campbell, who made +the reception address, said to the ex-President: "We stand here, sir, +upon the Cumberland Road, which has broken down the great wall of the +Appalachian Mountains. This road, we trust, constitutes an +indissoluble chain of Union, connecting forever, as one, the East and +the West." + +In the early part of the nineteenth century, Lancaster in Pennsylvania +was the largest inland city of the United States. It is sixty-nine +miles from Philadelphia, and the "old Lancaster Road," the finest +highway of that period, was constructed to connect them. This began +the Pennsylvania route across the Alleghenies to the West, which +afterwards became the most travelled. In 1834 the Pennsylvania +Government opened its State work, the Columbia Railroad between the +Delaware and the Susquehanna. In 1836 there were four daily lines of +stages running in connection with this State railroad between +Philadelphia and Pittsburg, making the journey in sixty hours. +Gradually afterwards the Pennsylvania Railroad was extended across the +mountains, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed to +Wheeling, and they then took away the business from the "Old Pike" +and all the other wagon or canal routes to the Ohio River. + + +CHESTER AND LANCASTER VALLEYS. + +Let us go westward across the Alleghenies by the Pennsylvania route. +East of the mountains it traverses a rich agricultural region, +limestone valleys, intersected by running streams and enclosed between +parallel ridges of hills, stretching, like the mountain ranges, across +the country from northeast to southwest. It is a land of prolific +farms and dairies, and for miles beyond Philadelphia the line is +adjoined by attractive villages and many beautiful suburban villas. +Three noted institutions of learning are passed--Haverford College, +the great Quaker College, standing in an extensive wooded park; the +Roman Catholic Augustinian College at Villa Nova, with its +cross-surmounted dome and twin church spires; and the Bryn Mawr +College for women, one of the most famous in the United States. This +is a region first settled by Welsh Quakers, and the name Bryn Mawr is +Welsh for the "great hill." It is a wealthy and extensive settlement, +and its College has spacious buildings and over three hundred +students. At the Commencements they all join in singing their +impressive College hymn: + + "Thou Gracious Inspiration, our guiding star, + Mistress and Mother, all hail Bryn Mawr, + Goddess of wisdom, thy torch divine + Doth beacon thy votaries to thy shrine, + And we, thy daughters, would thy vestals be, + Thy torch to consecrate eternally." + +A few miles beyond is Paoli, preserving in its name the memory of the +Corsican patriot Paoli, and the birthplace of the Revolutionary +General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Here the British defeated the American +patriots in September, 1777. It stands on the verge of one of the +garden spots of Pennsylvania, the Chester Valley, a charming region of +broad and smiling acres, bounded on the northwest by the Welsh +Mountain and Mine Hill, and a veritable land of plenty. The Brandywine +and Valley Creeks water it, flowing out respectively to the Delaware +and the Schuylkill. Beyond the long ridge of Mine Hill is Lancaster +County, another land of rich farms, with many miles of grain and +tobacco fields. Mine Hill is the watershed between the Delaware and +the Susquehanna, the fertile Pequea Valley being at its western base. +This is a great wheat country, and from here was sent the first +American grain across the Atlantic to feed Europe, the Lancaster +County wheat, in the days before the railroads brought it from the +West, ruling prices for the American markets. It was hauled out in the +ponderous Conestoga wagons, named after the Indian tribe which +formerly ruled this region--their name signifying "the great magic +land." They were a quarrelsome people, fighting all the neighboring +tribes, and becoming deadly foes of the whites. Repeated wars +decimated them, until in 1763 their last remnant, being hunted almost +to death, took refuge in the ancient jail at Lancaster, and were +cruelly massacred by the guerillas called the "Paxton Boys." + +In the midst of the wheat lands and bordering the broad Conestoga +Creek, flowing down to the Susquehanna at Safe Harbor, is the city of +Lancaster, its red sandstone castellated jail being a conspicuous +object in the view. This city was originally called Hickory Town, but +in the eighteenth century its loyal people christened it Lancaster, +and named the chief streets, intersecting at the Central Market +Square, King and Queen Streets, with Duke Street parallel to the +latter. Prior to 1812 it was the capital of Pennsylvania. Lancaster is +an attractive and comfortable old city of thirty-five thousand +population, with many mills and factories and large tobacco houses. It +has a splendid Soldiers' Monument in the Central Square, with finely +sculptured guards, representing each branch of the service, watching +at the base of the magnificent shaft. Upon the outskirts are the +ornate buildings of Franklin and Marshall College, a foundation of the +German Reformed Church, and it also has a Theological Seminary. The +charm of Lancaster, however, is Woodward Hill Cemetery, on a bold +bluff, washed by the Conestoga Creek, which forms a graceful circle +around its base. Upon the surface and sides of the bluff the graves +are terraced. Here is the tomb of James Buchanan, the only President +sent from Pennsylvania, who died in 1868, at his home of Wheatland on +the outskirts of the town. Another noted citizen of Lancaster was +Thaddeus Stevens, who long represented it in Congress, and was the +Republican leader in the House of Representatives during the Civil +War, and afterwards until his death in 1868. He was the great champion +of the emancipation of the negro race, and refused to be buried in the +cemetery because negroes were excluded. Upon the grave which he +selected in Lancaster are these words: "I repose in this quiet and +secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but +finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race. I have +chosen it that I might be enabled to illustrate in death the principle +which I have advocated through a long life--equality of man before +his Creator." When Lancaster was the chief town of the Colonial +frontier in 1753, it was the place where Braddock's unfortunate +expedition against Fort Duquesne at Pittsburg was organized and +equipped, the work being mainly directed by Benjamin Franklin. Robert +Fulton was born in Lancaster County, and he grew up and was educated +at Lancaster, going afterwards to Philadelphia. + + + [Illustration: _The Susquehanna West of Falmouth_] + +THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. + +The line westward from Lancaster crosses one long ridge-like hill +after another stretching broadly over the country, and finally comes +to the outlying ridge of the Allegheny range, the South Mountain, +beyond which is the great Appalachian Valley. One railroad route +boldly crosses this mountain through the depressions in the Conewago +hills, where the picturesque Conewago Creek, the Indian "long reach," +flows down its beautiful gorge to the Susquehanna, and this railroad +finally comes out on that river at Middletown below Harrisburg; the +other route follows a more easy gradient westward ten miles to +Columbia, and this is used by the heavier freight trains. Coming +towards it over the hills, the wide Susquehanna lies low in its broad +valley, enclosed by the distant ridge of the Kittatinny bounding +Cumberland County beyond the river. As it is approached, the thought +is uppermost that this is one of the noblest, and yet among the +meanest rivers in the country. Rising in Otsego Lake in New York, it +flows over four hundred miles down to Chesapeake Bay, receives large +tributaries, its West Branch being two hundred miles long, rends all +the Allegheny Mountain chains, and takes a great part of the drainage +of that region in New York and Pennsylvania, passes through grand +valleys, noble gorges and most magnificent scenery, and yet it is so +thickly sown with islands, rocks and sand-bars, rapids and shallows, +as to defy all attempts to make it satisfactorily navigable excepting +by lumber rafts, logs and a few canal boats. Thus the Indians +significantly gave its name meaning the island-strewn, broad +and shallow river, and it is little more than a gigantic drain for +Central Pennsylvania. + +On its bank is Columbia, a town of busy iron and steel manufacture, as +the whole range of towns are for miles up to and beyond Harrisburg. At +Columbia first appeared, about 1804, that mysterious agency known as +the "Underground Railroad," whereby fugitive slaves were secretly +passed from one "station" to another from "Mason and Dixon's Line" to +Canada, mainly through the aid and active exertions of philanthropic +Quakers. All through Chester and Lancaster Counties and northward were +laid the routes of this peculiar line, whose ramifications became more +and more extensive as time passed, making the Fugitive Slave Law +almost a nullity during the decade before the Civil War. There were +hundreds of good people engaged in facilitating the unfortunate +travellers who fled for freedom, and many have been the escapades with +the slave-hunters, whose traffic long ago happily ended. At Middletown +the Swatara River flows in from the hills of Lebanon County, there +being all along the Susquehanna a prodigious development of the steel +industry as well as rich farms on the fertile bottom lands. Here is +the historic estate of Lochiel, which was the home of Simon Cameron, +who for many years ruled the political destinies of Pennsylvania. He +was born in 1799 at Maytown, near Marietta, on the Susquehanna, a few +miles above Columbia, in humble circumstances, and came as a poor +printer's boy to Harrisburg, rose to wealth and power, and when he was +full of years and honors placed the mantle of the United States +Senatorship upon his son. Their "Clan Cameron" which ruled +Pennsylvania for two generations has been regarded as the best managed +political "machine" in the Union, having in its ranks and among its +allies not only politicians, but bankers, railway managers, merchants, +manufacturers and capitalists, and men in every walk of life, +ramifying throughout the Keystone State. + +Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, stands upon the sloping +eastern bank of the river in the grandest scenery. Just above, the +Susquehanna breaks through the Kittatinny at the Dauphin Gap, giving a +superb display of the rending asunder of the towering mountain chain. +Opposite are the forest-clad hills of York and Cumberland bordering +the fertile Cumberland Valley spreading off to the southwest, while +behind the city this great Appalachian Valley continues between its +enclosing ridges as the Lebanon Valley northeast to the Schuylkill +River at Reading. Market Street is the chief Harrisburg highway, and +the Pennsylvania Railroad is the back border of the town. The State +Capitol, set on a hill, was burnt, and is being rebuilt. A pleasant +park encloses the site, and from the front a wide street leads down to +the river, making a pretty view, with a Soldiers' Monument in the +centre, which is an enlarged reproduction of Cleopatra's Needle. The +Front Street of the city, along the river bank, is the popular +promenade, and is adorned with the Executive Mansion and other fine +residences, which have a grand outlook across the broad expanse of +river and islands. Bridges cross over, among them the old "camel's +back," a mile long, and having its shelving stone ice-breakers jutting +up stream. This is the old wooden covered bridge that Charles Dickens +wrote about in his _American Notes_. On his first American visit he +came into Harrisburg from York County on a stage-coach through this +bridge, and he wrote: "We crossed the river by a wooden bridge, roofed +and covered on all sides, and nearly a mile in length. It was +profoundly dark, perplexed with great beams, crossing and re-crossing +it at every possible angle, and through the broad chinks and crevices +in the floor the river gleamed far down below, like a legion of eyes. +We had no lamps, and as the horses stumbled and floundered through +this place towards the distant speck of dying light, it seemed +interminable. I really could not persuade myself at first as we +rumbled heavily on, filling the bridge with hollow noises--and I held +down my head to save it from the rafters--but that I was in a painful +dream, and that this could not be reality." The old bridge is much the +same to-day as when Dickens crossed it. + +Harrisburg was named for John Harris, who established a ferry here, +and alongside the river bank is the little "Harris Park" which +contains his grave. The stump of the tree at the foot of which he was +buried is carefully preserved. A drunken band of Conestoga Indians +came this way in 1718, and, capturing the faithful ferryman, tied him +to the tree to be tortured and burnt, when the timely interposition of +some Indians from the opposite shore, who knew him and were friendly, +saved him. His son succeeded him and ran the ferry, and an enclosure +in the park preserves this spot of historic memory. + + +LINCOLN'S MIDNIGHT RIDE. + +It was from Harrisburg that Lincoln took the famous secret midnight +ride, "in long cloak and Scotch cap," which enabled him to escape +attack and possible assassination when going to be inaugurated +President in 1861. Lincoln arrived in Philadelphia on his way to +Washington February 21st, and had arranged to visit Harrisburg next +day, address the Pennsylvania Legislature, and then proceed to +Washington by way of Baltimore. In Philadelphia General Scott and +Senator Seward informed him that he could not pass through Baltimore +at the time announced without great peril, and detectives who had +carefully examined the situation declared his life in danger. Lincoln, +however, could not believe that anyone would try to assassinate him +and made light of the matter. On the morning of February 22d he +raised a flag on Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and then went by +railway to Harrisburg. There his friends again urged him to abandon +his plan and avoid Baltimore. He visited the Legislature, and +afterwards, at his hotel, met the Governor, several prominent people +being present, among them Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then Vice-President +of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Again the subject was discussed, and he +was urged to avoid the danger threatening next day, being reminded +that the railway passenger coaches were drawn through the Baltimore +streets by horses, thus increasing the chances of doing him harm. He +heard them patiently and answered, "What would the nation think of its +President stealing into the Capital like a thief in the night?" But +they only the more strenuously insisted, and finally he yielded, +consenting to do whatever they thought best. Colonel Scott undertook +the task, and during the early evening quietly arranged a special +train to take Lincoln to Philadelphia, where he would get aboard the +regular night express and be in Washington by daylight. Colonel Ward +H. Lamon, a personal friend, was selected to attend Lincoln. As the +party left the hotel a large crowd cheered them, and the Governor, +Andrew G. Curtin, the better to conceal the intention, called out in a +loud voice, "Drive us to the Executive Mansion." This was done, and +when they had got away from the crowd the carriage was taken by a +roundabout route to the station. Lincoln and Lamon were not noticed +by the few people there, and quietly entering the car, left for +Philadelphia. As soon as they had started Scott cut every telegraph +wire leading out of Harrisburg, so nothing could be transmitted +excepting under his control. Lincoln got to Philadelphia without +trouble, was put aboard the express at midnight, and then at dawn +Scott reunited his wires and called up Washington, a group of anxious +men around him. Soon the message came back, slowly ticked out from the +instrument, "Plums delivered nuts safely." Scott knew what it meant; +he jumped to his feet, threw up his hat and shouted, "Lincoln's in +Washington." The Baltimore plotters were thus foiled, as the new +President passed quietly through that city before daylight, and +several hours earlier than they had expected him. + + +THE CUMBERLAND AND LEBANON VALLEYS. + +Harrisburg stands in the centre of the great Appalachian Valley, where +it is bisected by the broad Susquehanna. To the southwest it stretches +away to the Potomac as the Cumberland Valley, and to the northeast it +spreads across to the Schuylkill as the fertile Lebanon Valley. The +high mountain wall of the Kittatinny bounds it on the northwest, with +all the rivers, as heretofore described, breaking out through various +"gaps." In the Colonial days, when Indian forays were frequent, the +Province of Pennsylvania defended the entrances to this fertile +valley by a chain of frontier forts located at these gaps, with +attendant block-houses, each post garrisoned by from twenty to eighty +Provincial soldiers, as its importance demanded. Benjamin Franklin, +who was then commissioned as a Colonel, was prominent in the advocacy +of these frontier defences, and he personally organized the settlers +and arranged the garrisons. Fort Hyndshaw began the chain on the +Delaware, there were other forts on the Lehigh and Schuylkill, and +Fort Henry located on the Swatara, now Lebanon, while just above +Harrisburg was Fort Hunter, commanding the passage of the Susquehanna +through the Dauphin Gap. + +Over in the Cumberland Valley, about nineteen miles from Harrisburg, +is Carlisle, a town of some nine thousand people, in a rich country, +and the chief settlement of that valley. Here is located in what were +formerly the army barracks, coming down from the time when this was a +frontier post, the Government Indian Training School, where about +eight hundred Indian boys and girls are instructed, being brought from +the far western tribes to be taught the arts and methods of +civilization. These Indian children are numerous in the streets and on +the railway trains, with their straight hair, round swarthy faces and +high cheek bones, and show the surprising influence of a civilizing +education in humanizing their features and modifying their nomadic +traits. They have quite a noted military organization and band at the +School. Dickinson College, a foundation of the Methodist Church, is at +Carlisle, having begun its work in 1783, when it was named after John +Dickinson, then the President of Pennsylvania, who took great interest +in it and made valuable gifts. Among its graduates were President +James Buchanan and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Carlisle was +President Washington's headquarters in 1794, during the "Whisky +Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania. After the United States +Government got fairly started, the Congress in 1791 imposed a tax of +seven cents per gallon on whisky. This made a great disturbance among +the frontier settlers of Pennsylvania, who were largely Scotch-Irish, +the population west of the Kittatinny to the Ohio River being then +estimated at seventy thousand. They had no market for their grain, but +they made it into whisky, which found ready sale. A horse could carry +two kegs of eight gallons each on the bridle paths across the +mountains, and it was worth a dollar a gallon in the east. Returning, +the horseback load was usually iron worth sixteen cents a pound, or +salt at five dollars a bushel. Every farmer had a still, and the +whisky thus became practically the money of the people on account of +its purchasing value. Opposition to the tax began in riots. A crowd of +"Whisky boys" from Bedford came into Carlisle and burnt the Chief +Justice in effigy, setting up a liberty pole with the words "Liberty +and No Excise on Whisky." President Washington called for troops to +enforce the law, and this angered them. One John Holcroft, a ready +writer, appeared, and wrote sharp articles against the law and the +army, over the signature of "Tom the Tinker." These were printed in +handbills, and the historian says "half the trees in Western +Pennsylvania were whitened with Tom the Tinker's notices." Officials +sent to collect the tax were roughly treated, farmers who paid it were +beaten by masked men, and one man who rented his house to a tax +collector was captured at midnight by a crowd of disguised vigilants, +who carried him into the woods, sheared his hair, tarred, feathered +and tied him to a tree. + +Soon there were gathered at Carlisle an army of thirteen thousand men +from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, under Governor +Henry Lee of Virginia. President Washington and Secretary of the +Treasury Alexander Hamilton came to Carlisle, and accompanied the +troops, in October, 1794, on their march across the mountains to +Bedford. The Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania led the troops +of their respective States, and in the army were many Revolutionary +veterans. As they advanced they found Tom the Tinker's notices on the +trees, of which the following is a specimen: + +"Brethren, you must not think to frighten us with fine arranged bits +of infantry, cavalry and artillery, composed of your watermelon armies +taken from the Jersey shores. They would cut a much better figure in +warring with crabs and oysters about the banks of the Delaware. It is +a common thing for Indians to fight your best armies in the proportion +of one to five; therefore we would not hesitate to attack this army at +the rate of one to ten." + +The soldiers riddled these notices with bullets and pressed on, +hunting for "Tom Tinker's men," as the insurgents came to be called. +But they never seemed able to find them. All the people seen told how +they were forced by threats, and when asked where the persons were who +threatened them, replied, "Oh, they have run off." The army finally +reached Pittsburg, the people submitted to the law and paid the tax, +the insurrection was suppressed, and the army returned and was +disbanded. The whisky excise was peacefully collected afterwards until +the tax was repealed. + +In the Lebanon Valley east of Harrisburg are important iron furnaces, +and here are the "Cornwall Ore Banks," which is one of the greatest +iron-ore deposits in the world--less rich than some others, possibly, +but having a practically exhaustless supply almost alongside these +furnaces. There are three hills of solid iron ore, one of them having +been worked long before the Revolution, the original furnace, still +existing, dating from 1742. This great Cornwall iron mine was bought +in 1737 for $675, including a large tract of land. A half-century +later $42,500 was paid for a one-sixth interest, and to-day a +one-forty-eighth interest is estimated worth upwards of $500,000. +These ores have some sulphur in them, and are therefore baked in ovens +to remove it. They yield about 50 per cent. of iron. A geologist some +time ago reported upon the ore banks that there were thirty millions +of tons of ore in sight above the water-level, being over three times +the amount taken out since the workings began in the eighteenth +century. The deposits extend to a depth of several hundred feet under +the surface, thus indefinitely multiplying the prospective yield. + + +THE SUSQUEHANNA HEADWATERS. + +Otsego Lake, the source of the Susquehanna River, is one of the +prettiest lakes in New York State, and is at an elevation of eleven +hundred feet above tide. It is nine miles long and about a mile wide, +the Susquehanna issuing from its southern end at Cooperstown, a hamlet +of two thousand people, beautifully situated amid the high rolling +hills surrounding the lake. The name of the lake comes from the +"Ote-sa-ga rock" at the outlet, a small, round-topped, beehive-shaped +boulder a few rods from the shore, just where the lake condenses into +the river. This was the Indian Council rock, to which they came to +hold meetings and make treaties, and it was well-known among the +Iroquois and the Lenni Lenapes. James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, +who has immortalized all this region, called the lake the +"Glimmerglass." His father, Judge William Cooper, founded the village +of Cooperstown in 1786, afterwards bringing his infant son from +Burlington, New Jersey, where he was born in 1789. Here the great +American novelist lived until his death in 1851, his grave, under a +plain horizontal slab, being in the little churchyard of Christ +Episcopal Church. There is a monument to him in Lakewood Cemetery, +about a mile distant, surmounted by a statue of his legendary hunter +"Leatherstocking," who has been described as "a man who had the +simplicity of a woodsman, the heroism of a savage, the faith of a +Christian, and the feeling of a poet." The old Cooper mansion, his +home, Otsego Hall, was burnt in 1854, and its site is marked by a rock +in the middle of the road, surrounded by a railing. "Hannah's Hill," +named after his daughter, and commanding a magnificent view, which he +always described with rapture, is on the western shore of the lake, +just out of town. The charm of Cooper's genius and the magic of his +description have given Otsego Lake a world-wide fame. In one place he +described it as "a broad sheet of water, so placid and limpid that it +resembled a bed of the pure mountain atmosphere compressed into a +setting of hills and woods. Nothing is wanted but ruined castles and +recollections, to raise it to the level of the scenery of the Rhine." +And thus has the poet sung of it: + + "O Haunted Lake, from out whose silver fountains + The mighty Susquehanna takes its rise; + O Haunted Lake, among the pine-clad mountains, + Forever smiling upward to the skies,-- + A master's hand hath painted all thy beauties; + A master's mind hath peopled all thy shore + With wraiths of mighty hunters and fair maidens, + Haunting thy forest-glades forevermore." + +All around Otsego Lake and its neighborhood are the scenes which +Cooper has interwoven into his novel, _The Deer-Slayer_. About seven +miles northwest are the well-known Richfield Springs (magnesia and +sulphur), near Candarago Lake. This Indian name, meaning "on the +lake," has recently been revived to supersede the old title of +Schuyler's Lake for this beautiful sheet of water, enbosomed in green +and sloping hills, which is the chief scenic charm of Richfield. To +the eastward from Otsego Lake is the romantic Cherry Valley, another +attractive summer resort, and the scene of a sad Indian massacre in +1778, the site of the old fort that was then captured being still +exhibited, with the graves of the murdered villagers, to whom a +monument has been erected. A few miles farther, in a narrow upland +wooded valley surrounded by high hills, are the Sharon Springs +(sulphur and chalybeate), which in earlier times were so popular with +our German citizens, who were attracted by the resemblance to the +Fatherland, that the place was called the "Baden-Baden of America." +The name of Sharon came from Sharon in Connecticut, and the spring +water is discharged with a crust of white and flocculent sulphur into +a stream not inappropriately called the Brimstone Brook. In this +valley, east of the springs, one of the last Revolutionary battles was +fought, Colonel Willett's American force in 1781 routing a detachment +of Tories and Indians with severe loss. There are grottoes in the +neighborhood abounding in stalactites and beautiful crystals of +sulphate of lime. Not far away is the noted Howe's Cave, an immense +cavern, said to extend for eleven miles underground, being an old +water-channel in the lower Helderberg limestone, and which has many +visitors, attracted by its fine display of stalactites and grand rock +chambers, with the usual subterranean lake and stream. All this region +was originally settled by Germans from the Palatinate. + +The Susquehanna, steadily gaining in volume, flows in wayward course +down rapids and around many bends to Binghamton, near the southern +border of New York, where it receives the Chenango River, and its +elevation has declined to eight hundred and sixty feet. This is a busy +manufacturing city and railway junction, having forty thousand +inhabitants. The first settlers came in 1787, and William Bingham of +Philadelphia owning the land at the confluence of the rivers, the town +was afterwards named for him. The Chenango Canal connects the +Susquehanna waters from here with the Erie Canal, about ninety miles +northward, at Utica, the Indian word Chenango meaning "the bull +thistle." Entering Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna now flows many miles +past mountain and village, around great bends and breaking through the +Allegheny ridges, passes along the Wyoming Valley, already described, +and finally going out through the Nanticoke Gap, reaches +Northumberland, where it receives its chief tributary, the West +Branch. This great stream comes for two hundred miles from the +westward through the Allegheny ranges, passing Lewisburg, the seat of +the Baptist University of Lewisburg, Milton, and the noted lumber town +of Williamsport, famous for its great log boom. This arrangement for +collecting logs cost a million dollars, and extends about four miles +up the river above the town, with its massive piers and braces, and +will hold three hundred millions of feet of lumber. The river front is +lined with basins and sawmills. In earlier years this boom has been so +filled with pine and hemlock logs in the spring that the river could +almost anywhere be crossed on a solid floor of timber. Unfortunately, +however, the vast forests on the slopes of the Alleghenies have been +so generally cut off that the trade has seriously declined. At +Northumberland lived Dr. Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen +gas, who died there in 1804, and is buried in the cemetery. + +The Susquehanna now becomes a broad river, and just below flows past +Sunbury, the railway outlet of the extensive Shamokin coal district. +This town was originally Fort Augusta, built in 1756 to guard the +Susquehanna frontier just below the junction of its two branches. In +the French and Indian War it had usually a garrison of a regiment, and +it was then regarded as the best defensive work in Pennsylvania. After +that war it gradually fell into decay, although during the Revolution +it was always a refuge for the Susquehanna frontier settlers fleeing +from Indian brutality and massacre. Many prominent officers of the +Revolutionary army received their military training at this fort. The +settlement was originally called Shamokin, from the Indian name of the +creek here falling into the Susquehanna--Schakamo-kink, meaning, like +Shackamaxon, "the place of eels." For fifty miles below Sunbury the +broad Susquehanna winds among the mountain ranges, traversing one +after another, until its channel is narrowed to pass through the great +Dauphin Gap in the Kittatinny, five miles above Harrisburg, where the +river bed has descended to an elevation of three hundred and twenty +feet above tide. + + +THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE JUNIATA. + +A long, low bridge carries the Pennsylvania Railroad across the river +in front of Dauphin Gap, and a short distance above, in a delta of +fertile islands, the Susquehanna receives its romantic tributary, the +Juniata, flowing for a hundred miles from the heart of the +Alleghenies, and breaking out of them through a notch cut down in the +long ridge of the Tuscarora Mountain. Here is the iron-making town of +Duncannon, settled by the sturdy Scotch-Irish, who were numerous along +the Juniata and in its neighboring valleys, and who suffered greatly +from Indian forays in the early days of the frontier. Upon Duncan's +Island, the chief one in the delta, at the mouth of the Juniata, was +the place of the council-fire of the Indian tribes of all this region. +Now, this island is mainly a pleasure-ground, having spacious and +shady groves, while the canal, crossing it from the Susquehanna to the +Juniata, goes directly through an extensive Indian mound and +burial-place. We will enter the fastnesses of the Alleghenies by the +winding gorge of the "beautiful blue Juniata," flowing through +magnificent scenery from the eastern face of the main Allegheny range +out to the great river. It breaks down ridge after ridge, stretching +broadly across the country, and presents superb landscapes and +impressive mountain views. The route is a series of bends and gorges, +the river crossing successive valleys between the ridges, now running +for miles northeast along the base of a towering mountain and then +turning east or southeast to break through it by a romantic pass. The +glens and mountains, with ever-changing views, give an almost endless +panorama. Softness of outline, massiveness and variety, are the +peculiarities of Juniata scenery. The stream is small, not carrying a +great amount of water in ordinary seasons, and it seems as much by +strategy as by power to have overcome the obstacles and made its +mountain passes. The rended mountains, steep tree-covered slopes and +frequent isolated sentinel-like hills rising from the glens, have all +been moulded into rounded forms by the action of the elements, leaving +few abrupt precipices or naked rocks to mar the regularity of the +natural beauties. The valleys and lower parts of the mountain sides +are generally cultivated, the fields sloping up to the mantle of +forest crowning the flanks and summits of the ridges. Every change of +sunshine or shadow, and the steady progress of the seasons, give new +tints to these glens and mountains. At times the ravines are deep and +the river tortuous, and again it meanders across the rich flat bottom +lands of a broad valley. In its winding course among these mountain +ranges, this renowned river passes through and displays almost the +whole geological formation of Pennsylvania. The primary rocks are to +the eastward of the Susquehanna, and the bituminous coal measures +begin on the western Allegheny slope, so that the river cuts into a +rock stratification over six miles in thickness, as one after another +formation comes to the surface. + +We go through the narrow Tuscarora Gap, and are journeying over the +lands of the Tuscaroras, one of the Iroquois Six Nations, who came up +from the South, and were given the name of Tuscarora, or the +"shirt-wearer," because long contact with the whites had led them to +adopt that garment. Beyond the Gap, the Tuscarora Valley is enclosed +on its northwest side by the Turkey Mountain, the next western ridge, +and it was a region of terrible Indian conflicts and massacres in the +pioneer days, when the first fort built there was burnt, and every +settler either killed or carried off into captivity. Here was fought +the "Grasshopper War" between the Tuscaroras and Delawares. They had +villages on opposite sides of the river, and one day the children +disputed about some grasshoppers. The quarrel involved first the +squaws and then the men, a bloody battle following. Mifflin, an +attractive town, is located here, and to the westward the Juniata +breaks through the next great ridge crossing its path, passing a +massive gorge formed by the Shade and Blue Mountains, flowing for +miles in the deep and narrow winding canyon between them, the +far-famed "Lewistown or Long Narrows," having the railway hanging upon +one bank and the canal upon the other. Broken, slaty shingle covers +most of the hill-slopes, and in the broad valley, above the lengthened +gorge, is Lewistown, nestling at the base of a huge mountain at the +outlet of the beautiful Kishicoquillas Valley, spreading up among the +high hills to the northward--its name meaning "the snakes are already +in their dens." The hero of this attractive region in the eighteenth +century, and then its most distinguished inhabitant, was Logan, the +chief of the Mingoes and Cayugas, whose speeches, preserved by Thomas +Jefferson, are a favorite in school declamation. He was of giant +mould, nearly seven feet high, and lived at Logan's Spring in the +valley. He was the friend of the white men, but when the frontier +became too well settled for him longer to find the deer on which he +subsisted, selling their skins to the traders, he went westward to the +Ohio River, locating near Wheeling. Here, without provocation, his +family were cruelly massacred, and this ended Logan's love for the +whites. He became a relentless foe, wreaking indiscriminate vengeance, +until killed in the Shawnee wars beyond the Ohio, having joined that +hostile tribe. The Lewistown Narrows are the finest mountain pass of +the Juniata, the peaks precipitously rising over a thousand feet above +the river, which forces a passage between them for more than eight +miles, the densely wooded cliffs so enclosing and overshadowing the +gorge as to give it an appearance of deepest gloom. + + +THE STANDING STONE AND SINKING SPRING. + +Westward beyond the valley rises the next ridge pierced by the Juniata +in its outflow, Jack's Mountain, and its gorge is known as "Jack's +Narrows." Here penetrated Captain Jack Armstrong in the early colonial +days, a hunter and Indian trader, whose cabin was burnt and wife and +children massacred, making him always afterwards an avenging Nemesis, +roving along the Juniata Valley and killing Indians indiscriminately. +Jack's Narrows is a pass even more contracted than that below +Lewistown, and a profusion of shingle and broken stone covers its +mountain sides, the deranged limestone strata in places standing +almost upright. Mount Union is in the valley east of this pass, and +beyond it is the chief town of the Juniata, Huntingdon, which has +about eight thousand people. This was the oldest settlement on the +river, ninety-seven miles west of Harrisburg, the ancient "Standing +Stone," where the Indians of the valley for centuries met to hold +their councils. The earliest white settlers came in 1754. The original +Standing Stone of Huntingdon, erected by the Indians, was a granite +column, about fourteen feet high and six inches square, covered with +strange characters, which were the sacred records of the Oneidas. Once +the Tuscaroras stole it, but the Oneidas followed, and, fighting for +their sacred treasure, recaptured it. When the whites came along, the +Oneidas, who had joined the French, went west, carrying the stone with +them. Afterwards, a second stone, much like the first, was set up, and +a fragment of it is now preserved at Huntingdon. Here was built a +large fort anterior to the Revolution, which was a refuge for the +frontier settlers. The "Standing Stone" is engraved as an appropriate +symbol on the city seal of Huntingdon, being surrounded by a +representation of mountains, and the name of "Oneida" (the granite) is +preserved in a township across the river. Selina, the Countess of +Huntingdon, who was a benefactor of the University of Pennsylvania, +had her titled name given the city. The then University Provost, Dr. +William Smith, became owner of the town site, and thus remembered her +generosity. About fifty miles southwest of Huntingdon, amid the +mountains, is Bedford, noted for its chalybeate and sulphur springs, +discovered in 1804, which have long been a favorite resort of +Pennsylvanians on account of their healing waters. The whole country +thereabout is filled with semi-bituminous coal measures, furnishing a +lucrative traffic. + +Diminishing in volume, our attractive Juniata flows through a rough +country above Huntingdon, after threading the pass in the lofty +Warrior Ridge. Extending off to the southwestward is Morrison's Cove, +a rich valley under the shadow of the long mountain ridge, which was +settled in 1755 by the Dunkards. These singular people, among whose +cardinal doctrines are peace and non-resistance, were attacked by the +Indians in 1777, who entered the valley and almost exterminated the +settlement. Most of them bowed submissively to the stroke of death, +gently saying "Gottes wille sei gethan" (God's will be done). One, +however, resisted, killed two Indians and escaped; but afterwards +returning, the Dunkard Church tried him for this breach of faith, and +he was excommunicated. In this region is the Sinking Spring, a strange +water course originally appearing in a limestone cave, where it comes +out of an arched opening, with sufficient water to turn a large mill; +but it soon disappears underground, the concealed current being heard +through fissures, bubbling far below. Then it returns to the surface, +flowing some distance, enters another cave, passing under Cave +Mountain, and finally reappears and falls into the Juniata, making, in +its peculiar waywardness, as remarkable a stream as can anywhere be +found. Here our famous Juniata River, dwindled to a little creek, +comes down the mountain side, and we penetrate farther by following up +the Little Juniata. It has brought us, through the great ridges, into +the heart of the Appalachian region, to the eastern base of the main +Allegheny Mountain, on the flanks of which are its sources. It has +displayed to us a noted valley, full of the story of early Colonial +contests, massacres and perils, the scenes of the fearless missionary +labors of Brainerd the Puritan and Loskiel the Moravian. Brainerd +recognized the pagan idolatry of the Indians, and did not hesitate to +take the Bible to their solemn religious festivals and expound its +divine principles, to spoil the incantations and frustrate the charms +of their medicine men. Once a Nanticoke pontiff got into a hot +argument with Brainerd, saying God had taught him religion and he +would never turn from it; that he would not believe in the Devil; and +he added that the souls of the dead passed to the South, where the +good lived in a fair city, while the evil hovered forever in outer +darkness. Many are the romances of the attractive Juniata: + + "Gay was the mountain song + Of bright Alfarata, + Where sweep the waters of + The blue Juniata: + 'Strong and true my arrows are, + In my painted quiver, + Swift goes my light canoe + Adown the rapid river.'" + + +CROSSING THE MOUNTAIN TOP. + +At the eastern base of the main Allegheny range a long mountain valley +stretches broadly from the far northeast to the southwest, and here is +Tyrone, a settlement of extensive iron works, and the outlet of the +greatest bituminous coal-fields of Central Pennsylvania, the +Clearfield district, the town of Clearfield being about forty miles to +the northwest. Northeast of Tyrone, this valley is called the Bald +Eagle Valley, a picturesque and fertile region; and to the southwest +it is the Tuckahoe Valley. At the base of the Bald Eagle Mountain, +thirty-three miles from Tyrone, is the town of Bellefonte, another +iron region, handling the products of the Bald Eagle and Nittany +Valleys, and receiving its name from the "Beautiful Fount" which +supplies the town with water. This is one of the most remarkable +springs in the Alleghenies, pouring out two hundred and eighty +thousand gallons of the purest water every minute. Following the +Tuckahoe Valley southward, at the base of the main Allegheny range we +come to the Pennsylvania Railroad town of Altoona, and eight miles +farther to Hollidaysburg. Each is a representative town--Hollidaysburg +of the past methods of crossing the mountain top, and Altoona of the +present. + +In 1836 Mr. David Stephenson, the famous British railway engineer, +made a journey across Pennsylvania by the methods then in vogue, and +wrote that he travelled from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, three hundred +and ninety-five miles by the route taken, in ninety-one hours, at a +cost of three pounds sterling, about four cents a mile, and that one +hundred and eighteen miles of the journey, which he calls +"extraordinary," were by railroads, and two hundred and seventy-seven +miles by canals. This was the line used for twenty years, a main route +of travel from the seaboard to the West, having been put into +operation in 1834. It followed the Columbia Railroad from Philadelphia +to Columbia on the Susquehanna, the canal up the Susquehanna and +Juniata Rivers to Hollidaysburg, a portage railroad by inclined planes +over the main Allegheny Mountain ridge to Johnstown, and the canal +again, down the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburg. There +were one hundred and seventy-two miles of canal from Columbia to +Hollidaysburg, which went through more than a hundred locks and +crossed thirty-three aqueducts, having risen about six hundred feet +above the level at Columbia when it reached the eastern face of the +mountain. The canal west of Johnstown was one hundred and five miles +long, descended sixty-four locks, and went through a tunnel of one +thousand feet. The Portage Railroad of thirty-six miles crossed the +mountain by Blair's Gap, above Hollidaysburg, at twenty-three hundred +and twenty-six feet elevation, through a tunnel nine hundred feet +long. There were ten inclined planes, five on each side. The steepest +side of the Allegheny Mountain being its eastern face, the railway +from Hollidaysburg to the summit, though only ten miles long, ascended +fourteen hundred feet, while twenty miles of railway on the western +side descended eleven hundred and seventy-two feet. The cars hauled up +the planes each carried three tons of freight, and three cars were +hauled at a single draft. There could be twenty-four cars carrying +seventy-two tons passed over in one hour, which was ample for the +traffic at that time, the average business being three hundred tons of +freight a day. This amount would be carried in less than ten of the +big cars of to-day. It took passengers eight hours to go over the +mountain, halting one hour on the summit for dinner. + +This route was superseded by the Pennsylvania Railroad crossing above +Altoona, opened in 1854, a road made for ordinary trains; and then +Hollidaysburg became a town of iron manufacture, losing the bustle and +business of the Portage, which was abandoned. The railroad company +acquired a large tract of land between the main Allegheny range and +the Brush Mountain to the southward, which has a deep notch, called +the "Kettle," cut down into it, opening a distant prospect of gray +mountain ridges behind. Here has been established the most completely +representative railway city in the world, having enormous railway +shops, a gigantic establishment, and a population of thirty-five +thousand, almost all in one way or another dependent on the +Pennsylvania Railroad. Altoona is at an elevation of about eleven +hundred feet above tide, and the railway climbs to the summit of the +mountain by a grade of ninety feet to the mile, winding around an +indented valley to get the necessary elevation. At its head this +valley divides into two smaller glens, with a towering crag rising +between them. Having ascended the northern side, the railway curves +around, crossing the smaller glens upon high embankments, doubling +upon itself, and mounting steadily higher by running up the opposite +side of the valley to the outer edge of the ridge. This sweeping curve +gives striking scenic effects, and is the noted Pennsylvania "Horse +Shoe," and the huge crag between the smaller glens, in which the head +of the Horse Shoe curve is partly hewn, is Kittanning Point. This +means the "great stream," two creeks issuing out of the glens uniting +below it; and here was the route, at sixteen hundred feet elevation, +of the ancient Indian trail across the mountain, the "Kittanning +Path," in their portage between the Juniata and Ohio waters. It shows +how closely the modern railroad builder has followed the route set for +him by the original road-makers among the red men. The Pennsylvania +Railroad carries four tracks over the mountain, piercing the summit by +two tunnels at about twenty-two hundred feet elevation, with two +tracks in each. The mountain rises much higher, and has coal mines, +coke ovens and miners' cabins on the very top. This is the watershed +dividing the Atlantic waters from those of the Mississippi, flowing to +the Gulf, and Gallitzin, a flourishing mining village, is the summit +station of the railway. + + + [Illustration: _The Conemaugh near Florence_] + +GOING DOWN THE CONEMAUGH. + +In the latter part of the eighteenth century there were but two white +men living in all this region. The first one there was Thomas Blair, +whose cabin was on the mountain at Blair's Gap, where the Portage +Railroad afterwards came over. The other was Michael Maguire, who came +along in 1790, and going through the Gap, concluded to settle among +the Indians about twelve miles away, at what was afterwards Loretto. +These rugged pioneers spent most of their time fighting and watching +the Indians and wild beasts, and gathered a few companions +around them. Here afterwards came Prince Demetrius Augustine +Gallitzin, who left the Russian army in 1792 and visited America, +designing to travel. He became a Catholic priest, and liking these +mountains, established a mission at Loretto in 1798, spending a +fortune in maintaining it, his missionary charge ultimately extending +over the whole mountain region. He attracted a population of about +three thousand, chiefly Germans and Irish, repeatedly refused the +episcopacy, and continued his labors until his death at Loretto in +1840. His remains lie in front of his church, surmounted by a +monument, while the centenary of this St. Michael's Church of Loretto +was marked in October, 1899, by erecting his bronze statue, the +Prelate-Prince Gallitzin being portrayed as he appeared in the +Allegheny wilderness, wearing cassock, surplice and a skull-cap in +lieu of the beretta, this being his usual head-gear at service. +Loretto, named after the city on the Adriatic, was the first nucleus +of population in this elevated district, and is about five miles north +of the railway. Loretto was the first settlement in this region, but +afterwards the coal and iron attracted the Welsh, who came in numbers, +and founded the town of Ebensburg, about eleven miles from the +railway. They gave their familiar name of Cambria to the county. Here +on the mountain side, at an elevation of over two thousand feet, are +the Cresson Springs, a noted health resort, with a half-dozen +medicinal springs, the chief being an astringent chalybeate and a +strong alum. + +The route west of the mountain is down the valley of the Conemaugh, in +a district underlaid with coal, and having at every village evidence +of this industry. The Conemaugh is "the other stream" of the Indians, +and winding down its tortuous valley, with coal and iron all about, +the railway comes to the settlement of Conemaugh, which spreads into +the larger town of Johnstown, the seat of the great Cambria Steel +Works. The Conemaugh Valley is a deep canyon, and Conemaugh village +was the western terminus of the mountain portage, where the canal +began. A little flat space about a mile beyond, at the junction of +Stony Creek, was in early times an Indian village, then known from its +sachem as "Kickenapawling's Old Town." When the white men ventured +over the mountain, there came among them a hardy German pioneer named +Joseph Jahns, who built a log cabin on the flat in 1791, and from him +the cluster of little houses that grew afterwards became known as +Jahnstown. Then came the Welsh miners and iron-workers, and they set +up charcoal furnaces, and soon changed the name to Johnstown. From +this humble beginning grew the largest iron and steel establishment in +Pennsylvania. Its ores, coal and limestone were originally all dug out +of the neighboring ridges, though now it uses Lake Superior ores. The +Conemaugh Valley is here enclosed by high hills, and in the centre of +the town the railroad is carried across the river on a solid stone +bridge with low arches. + +This region, on May 31, 1889, was the scene of one of the most +appalling disasters of modern times. A deluge of rain for the greater +part of two days had fallen upon the Alleghenies, and made great +freshets in both the Juniata and the Conemaugh. On the South Fork of +the Conemaugh, fifteen miles above Johnstown, is Conemaugh Lake, a +reservoir there formed by damming the stream, so that it covered a +surface of five hundred acres--the dam, a thousand feet long, being in +places one hundred feet high. This had been made as a fishing-ground +by a club of Pittsburg anglers. The excessive rains filled the lake, +and the weakened dam burst, its twenty millions of tons of waters +rushing down the already swollen Conemaugh in a mass a half-mile wide +stretching across the valley and forty to fifty feet high, carrying +everything before it. The lake level was about three hundred feet +higher than Johnstown, and every village, tree, house, and the whole +railway, with much of the soil and rocks, were carried before the +resistless flood to Johnstown, where the mass was stopped by and piled +up behind the stone railway bridge, and there caught fire, the +resistless flood, to get out, sweeping away nearly the whole town in +the valley bottom. This vast calamity destroyed from three to five +thousand lives, for no accurate estimate could be ever made, and ten +millions of property. It took the flood about seven minutes of actual +time to pass over the fifteen miles between the lake and Johnstown, +and there was left, after it had passed, a wide bed, like a great +Alpine glacial _moraine_, filled with ponderous masses of sand and +stones and wreckage of every description, the resistless torrent being +afterwards reduced to a little stream of running water. It required +many months to recover from this appalling destruction; but the people +went to work with a will and rebuilt the town, the steel works and the +railway, which for a dozen miles down the valley had been completely +obliterated. This terrible disaster excited universal sympathy, and a +relief fund amounting to nearly $3,000,000 was contributed from all +parts of the world. + + +LIGONIER AND HANNASTOWN. + +The whole mountain district west of Johnstown is filled with coal +mines, coke ovens and iron furnaces, this being the "Pittsburg Coal +District." The Conemaugh breaks through the next western ridge, the +Laurel Mountain, and the broadening river winds along its deep valley +between high wooded hills. It is a veritable "Black Country," and ten +miles beyond, the river passes the finest mountain gorge on the +western slope of the Alleghenies, the deep and winding canyon of the +Packsaddle Narrows, by which the Conemaugh breaks out of the Chestnut +Ridge, the western border of the Allegheny ranges. For two hundred +miles the railroad has gone through or over range after range, and +this grand pass, encompassed by mountains rising twelve hundred feet +above the bottom of the gorge, is the impressive exit at the final +portal. The main railroad then leaves the Conemaugh, and goes off +southwestward along the slope of Chestnut Ridge towards Greensburg and +Pittsburg. The river unites with the Loyalhanna Creek below, and then +flows as the Kiskiminetas down to the Allegheny. The name of +Loyalhanna means the "middle stream," while the tradition is that an +impatient Indian warrior, anxious to move forward, shouted in the +night to his comrades encamped on the other river--"Giesh-gumanito"-- +"let us make daylight"--and from this was derived its name of +Kiskiminetas. A branch railroad from here goes to Blairsville, named +in memory of the solitary pioneer of Blair's Gap, and another +northward leads to the town of Indiana. The great Chestnut Ridge which +the main railway runs along, gradually descending the slope, is the +last mountain the westbound traveller sees until he reaches the +Rockies. For seventy miles to the southwestward the Chestnut Ridge and +Laurel Mountain extend in parallels, their crest lines being almost +exactly ten miles apart, and enclosing the Ligonier Valley, out of +which flows northward the Loyalhanna Creek, breaking through the +Chestnut Ridge. Near this pass in 1757 was built Fort Ligonier, +another of the frontier outposts which resisted the incursions of the +French and Indians, who then held all the country to the westward. In +the Chestnut Ridge at Hillside is the "Great Bear Cave," an extensive +labyrinth of passages and spacious chambers stretching more than a +mile underground, which, like most such places, has its subterranean +river and its tale of woe. A young girl, stolen by gypsies, to escape +from them took refuge in this cave, and losing her way, perished, her +bones being found years afterwards. Explorers since have always +unwound balls of twine in this labyrinth, to be able to retrace their +steps. + +In a good farming district of the Westmoreland region is Greensburg, +another railway junction where branches go southward to the +Monongahela coalfields. Robert Hanna built a house near here in the +eighteenth century, around which gathered some thirty log cabins, and +the place in course of time became known as Hannastown, prominent in +the early history of Western Pennsylvania. Here was held the first +court convened west of the Alleghenies, and here were passed the +patriotic resolutions of May 16, 1775, upon receipt of the news of the +battle of Lexington at the opening of the Revolution, which sounded +the keynote for the Declaration of Independence the following year. +Here also first appeared during the Revolution General Arthur St. +Clair, an immigrant from Scotland, the grandson of the Earl of +Roslyn, who lived in an humble house on Chestnut Ridge. He served in +the French and Indian wars, and was the British commander at Fort +Ligonier. Horrible Indian massacres and terrible retributions by the +settlers were the chief features of the Revolutionary War in +Westmoreland. At its close, the whites sent an expedition in 1782 +against the Wyandottes, which was defeated. The savages soon wreaked +fearful vengeance, raiding the region in July of that year and burning +Hannastown, which was never rebuilt. Greensburg appeared soon +afterwards, however, and in 1875 it celebrated the centenary of the +Hannastown resolutions with patriotic spirit. In its Presbyterian +churchyard lie the remains of General St. Clair, who, after founding +and naming the city of Cincinnati, returned here, and died in 1818, at +the age of eighty-four, in his lonely cabin on Chestnut Ridge, in +unmerited poverty and obscurity. The stone over his grave has this +significant inscription: "The earthly remains of General Arthur St. +Clair are deposited beneath this humble monument, which is erected to +supply the place of a nobler one due from his country." Being in a +region of fine agriculture and prolific mines, Greensburg is a +prosperous and wealthy town. + + +BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. + +Natural gas is added to coal and coke in the region beyond Greensburg, +and the villages display flaring gas torches at night for street +lamps. The whole country, north, south and west, is a network of +railways and a maze of mines, having long rows of burning coke ovens +lighting the sky with their lurid glare. Here are mined the +Westmoreland gas coals. The valley of the Monongahela River, coming up +from West Virginia, approaches from the southward, a great highway for +coal boats out to the Ohio and the West, also receiving a large coal +tribute from its branch, the Youghiogheny, flowing by crooked course +through Fayette County. Alongside the Monongahela is the great Edgar +Thomson Steel Works, one of the chief establishments of the Carnegie +Steel Company, making railway rails. Here is the famous Colonial +battlefield of Western Pennsylvania, made immortal by General +Braddock's defeat in July, 1755. This region was then a thick forest, +through which an Indian trail coming over the Monongahela led to the +junction of the two rivers forming the Ohio, where the French had +established their stockade and trading post of Fort Duquesne. Braddock +came into this region from beyond the mountains, his object being the +capture of the fort. His defeat, a great event in our Colonial +history, was due to his ignorance of the methods of Indian fighting +and his refusal to listen to those who understood it; but he paid the +penalty with his life, being shot, as was believed at the time, by one +of his own men, after having had five horses shot under him. It was +in rallying the defeated remnant that Washington, the senior surviving +officer, won his first military laurels. Braddock crossed the river +and was caught in an ambuscade, eight hundred and fifty French and +Indians surprising and defeating his force of about twenty-five +hundred British regulars and Virginia Provincial troops, the loss +being nearly eight hundred. Washington led the remnant back to +Virginia, carrying Braddock about forty miles on the retreat, when he +died. He was buried at night in the centre of the road, Washington +reading the Episcopal burial service by torchlight, and the defeated +army marched over the grave to conceal its location from the enemy. A +handsome monument is erected on the battlefield at Braddock's. And +thus, through iron mills and coal mines, amid smoke and busy industry, +the Pennsylvania Railroad enters Pittsburg, the "Iron City." + + +THE GREAT IRON CITY. + +The Monongahela River coming from the southward, and the Allegheny +River flowing from the northward, drain the western defiles of the +Alleghenies, and at Pittsburg unite to form the Ohio River. Each comes +to the junction through a deeply-cut canyon, and at the confluence is +a triangular flat upon which the original town was built. Like most +American rivers, all these have names of Indian origin. Monongahela is +the "river of high banks, breaking off in places and falling down." +Ohio is a Seneca word, originally pronounced "O-hee-o," and meaning +the "beautiful river" or the "fair water," and Allegheny in the +language of the Delawares has much the same signification, meaning +"the fairest stream." All the Indians regarded the two as really the +same river, of which the Monongahela was a tributary. The first white +men exploring this region were the French, who came down from the +lakes and Canada, when they spread through the entire Mississippi +Valley. In 1753, however, Washington with a surveying party was sent +out by Virginia and carefully examined the site of Pittsburg, +advising, on his return, that a fort should be built there to check +the advance of the French, and the next year this was done. Scarcely +was it completed, however, when the French sent a summons to +surrender, addressed "From the Commander-in-chief of His Most +Christian Majesty's troops now on the Beautiful River to the Commander +of those of Great Britain." A French force soon appeared, and the fort +was abandoned. This began the French and Indian Colonial War that +continued seven years, the French then erecting their famous fort and +trading-post guarding the head of the Ohio, which they named after the +great French naval commander of the seventeenth century, Marquis +Abraham Duquesne. Then came Braddock's defeat in 1755, and for some +time the region was quiet. Moravian missionary influence, however, +had by 1758 detached many of the Indians from the French interest, and +after another British attack and repulse, General Forbes came with a +large force, and the French abandoned the fort and blew it up. +Immediately rebuilt by the English, a Virginia garrison occupied the +post, and it was named Fort Pitt. Then a larger fort was built at a +cost of $300,000 and garrisoned by artillery, which the enemy vainly +besieged in 1763. The next year a town site was laid out near the +fort, and in 1770 it had twenty log houses. After the long succession +of wars and massacres on that frontier had ceased, the village grew, +and business began developing--at first, boat- and vessel-building, +and then smelting and coal mining and the manufacture of glass. In +1812 the first rolling-mill started, and the war with England in that +year caused the opening of a cannon foundry, which became the Fort +Pitt Iron Works. The village of Fort Pitt had become Pittsburg, and +expanded vastly with the introduction of steam, and it became an +extensive steamboat builder for the Western waters. Railroad +connections gave it renewed impetus; natural gas used as a +manufacturing fuel was a wonderful stimulant; and it now conducts an +enormous trade with all parts of the country, and is the seat of the +greatest iron, steel and glass industries in America. + +Few views are more striking than that given from the high hills +overlooking Pittsburg. Rising steeply, almost from the water's edge, +on the southern bank of the Monongahela River, is Mount Washington, +three hundred and fifty feet high. Inclined-plane railways are +constructed up the face of this hill, and mounting to the top, there +is a superb view over the town. The Allegheny River comes from the +northeast and the Monongahela from the southeast, through deep and +winding gorges cut into the rolling tableland, and uniting form the +Ohio, flowing away to the northwest also through a deep gorge, +although its bordering ridges of hills are more widely separated. +Pittsburg stands upon the low flat surface of the peninsula, above the +junction of the rivers, which has some elongated ridgy hills, +stretching eastward through the centre. Its situation and appearance +have thus not inaptly been compared to a flatiron, the point being at +the head of the Ohio, and these ridgy hills making the handle. The +city has overflowed into extensive suburbs across both rivers, the +aggregate population being more than a half-million. Numerous bridges +span the rivers, the narrow shores between the steep hills bearing a +mixed maze of railways and factories. Countless chimney-smokes and +steam-jets come up in all directions, overhanging the town like a +pall; and so impressive is the obscuration, combined with the lurid +glare of furnaces and the weird white gleam of electric lights, that +the elevated view down into Pittsburg seems a veritable pandemonium. +So startling is it on a lowering day that it has been pointedly +described by one who thus for the first time looked upon the "Smoky +City," far down in its deep basin among the high hills, as appearing +like "Hell with the lid off." There are plenty of railways in the +scene, and scores of odd-looking, stumpy-prowed little steamboats +built high above the water, having huge stern-wheels to drive them, +with their noses thrust up on the sloping levee along the river bank, +whereon is piled the cargoes, chiefly of iron products. The swift +current turns all the sterns down stream, so that they lie diagonally +towards the shore. Fleets of flat, shallow coal barges are moored +along, waiting to be made up into tows for their journey down the +Ohio, as Pittsburg has an extensive river trade, covering over twenty +thousand miles of Western waters. Out of the weird and animated scene +there come all sorts of busy noises, forges and trip-hammers pounding, +steam hissing, railroad trains running, whistles screeching, +locomotives puffing, bells ringing, so that with the flame jets +rising, and the smokes of all colors blowing about, there is got a +good idea of the active industries of this very busy place. + + +PITTSBURG DEVELOPMENT. + +This wonderful industrial development all came within the nineteenth +century. There is still preserved as a relic of its origin the little +block-house citadel of the old Fort Pitt, down near the point of the +peninsula where the rivers join. This has recently been restored by +the Daughters of the American Revolution--a small square building with +a pyramidal roof. The surrounding stockade long ago disappeared. There +is in the Pittsburg City Hall an inscribed tablet from Fort Pitt +bearing the date 1764. The old building, which was the scene of +Pittsburg's earliest history, for it stands almost on the spot +occupied by Fort Duquesne, is among modern mills and storehouses, +about three hundred feet from the head of the Ohio. Pittsburg, after +an almost exclusive devotion to manufacturing and business, began some +years ago to cultivate artistic tastes in architecture, and has some +very fine buildings. There is an elaborate Post-office and an +interesting City Hall on Smithfield Street; but the finest building of +all, and one of the best in the country, is the magnificent Romanesque +Court-house, built at a cost of $2,500,000, and occupying a prominent +position on a hill adjoining Fifth Avenue. There is a massive jail of +similar architecture, and a "Bridge of Sighs" connects them, a +beautifully designed arched and stone-covered bridge, thrown for a +passageway across an intervening street. The main tower, giving a +grand view, rises three hundred and twenty feet over the architectural +pile, and, as in Venice, the convicted prisoner crosses the bridge +from his trial to his doom. There are attractive churches, banks and +business buildings, and eastward from the city, near Schenley Park, is +the attractive Carnegie Library and Museum in Italian Renaissance, +with a capacity for two hundred thousand volumes, a benefaction of Mr. +Andrew Carnegie, originally costing $1,100,000, to which he has +recently added $1,750,000 for its enlargement. The residential section +is mainly on the hills east of Pittsburg and across the Allegheny +River in Allegheny City, there being many attractive villas in +beautiful situations on the surrounding highlands. + +But the great Pittsburg attraction is the multitude of factories that +are its pride and create its prosperity. Some of these are among the +greatest in the world--the Edgar Thomson Works and Homestead Works of +the Carnegie Steel Company, the Duquesne Steel Works, the Keystone +Bridge Company, and others. The Edgar Thomas mills make over a million +tons of rails a year, and at Homestead fifteen hundred thousand tons +of steel will be annually produced, this being the place where +nickel-steel armor-plates for the navy are manufactured. They largely +use natural gas, and employ at times ten thousand men at the two great +establishments. The Duquesne Works, just above Homestead on the +Monongahela, have the four largest blast furnaces in the world, +producing twenty-two hundred tons of pig-iron daily. The Keystone +Bridge Works cover seven acres, and have made some of the greatest +steel bridges in existence. The Westinghouse Electrical Works +manufacture the greatest dynamos, including those of the Niagara +Power Company, and the Westinghouse Air-Brake Works is also another +extensive establishment. In the Pittsburg district, covering about two +hundred square miles, the daily product of mines and factories is +estimated at $6,000,000. + +The two men whose names are most closely connected with Pittsburg's +vast industrial development are Andrew Carnegie and George +Westinghouse. Carnegie was born at Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1837, and +his father, a potter, brought him to Pittsburg when eleven years old. +He began life as a telegraph messenger boy, attracted the attention of +Colonel Thomas A. Scott, and was by him brought into the service of +the Pennsylvania Railroad. Then he entered business, and became the +greatest developer of the iron and steel industries of Pittsburg and +its wealthiest resident. He some time ago sold out his interests to +the Carnegie Steel Company, in which he is largely interested. +Westinghouse, born in New York State in 1846, combined with business +tact the genius of the inventor. He invented and developed the railway +air-brake now in universal use, has established a complete electrical +lighting and power system, and was the chief adapter of natural gas to +manufacturing and domestic uses, being the inventor of many ingenious +contrivances for its introduction and economical employment. He had a +gas well almost at his door, for Pittsburg overlaid a great deposit. +The enormous coal measures underlying and surrounding the city have +been its most stable basis for industry and profit, as the Pittsburg +coal-field is one of enormous output. The deposits of Lake Superior +furnish the ores for its furnaces, and the railroad development is +such that each enormous establishment now has its special railroad to +fetch in the ores from Lake Erie, where they are brought by vessels. +Across in Allegheny City, where most of these ore-bringing roads go +out, about one hundred acres in the centre of the city are reserved +for the attractive Allegheny Park, one portion rising in a very steep +hill, almost at the edge of the Allegheny River. Upon its top, seen +from afar, stands a Soldiers' Monument, a graceful column, erected in +memory of four thousand men of Allegheny County who fell in the Civil +War. Soldier statues guard the base, and look out upon the smokes and +steam jets of the busy city below, and thousands climb up there to +enjoy the grand view. + + +COAL, COKE AND GAS. + +The four counties adjoining Pittsburg turn out over thirty millions of +tons of bituminous coal in a year. To carry this coal away, besides +railways, the city has about a million and a half of tonnage of river +craft of various kinds, a greater tonnage than all the Mississippi +River ports put together. Its coal boats go everywhere throughout the +Western water ways, and two thousand miles down the Ohio and +Mississippi to New Orleans. Its stumpy but powerful little tugs, with +their stern-wheels, will safely convey fleets of shallow flatboats, +sometimes over twenty thousand tons of coal being carried in a single +tow. These flatboats are collected in the rivers about Pittsburg, +waiting for the proper stage of water on the Ohio; and to regulate the +depth at the city the curious movable dam was constructed at Davis's +Island, four miles below Pittsburg, at a cost of $1,000,000, the dam +opening when necessary to let freshets through, and having a lock five +hundred feet long and one hundred and ten feet wide to pass the boats. +The Monongahela River above Pittsburg has for miles a series of coal +mines in the high bordering banks, the river being lined with coal +"tipples," which load the flatboats; and it is also provided with a +series of dams, which aid navigation and divide the channel into a +succession of "pools." The very crooked Youghiogheny flows in at +McKeesport, fifteen miles above Pittsburg, another river of coal +mines, whose name was given as a signification of its crookedness by +the matter-of-fact Indians, the word signifying "the stream flowing a +contrary, roundabout course." This river comes northward out of the +chief coke district of America, in the flanks of the long Chestnut +Ridge, the Connellsville coke region sometimes turning out ten +millions of tons annually from its ovens. Railways run in there on +both river banks to Connellsville, a town of six thousand people, in +the midst of the coke ovens, and about fifty-six miles south of +Pittsburg. + +Pittsburg is decreasing its use of natural gas for manufacturing, as +the diminishing supply and greater distance it has to be brought are +making it too costly for the iron and glass works, which are returning +again to coal and coke, but the city is still said to use forty-five +thousand millions of cubic feet in a year, mostly for domestic +purposes. Pittsburg stands in a great but partly exhausted natural-gas +district. The gas is stored under pressure beneath strata of rock, +being set free when these are pierced. This is a gaseous member of the +paraffin series, of which petroleum is a liquid member, and is mainly +marsh-gas, the "fire-damp" of the miner. It originates in the +decomposition of animal and vegetable life, and usually has but little +odor, whilst its illuminating power is low, but in fuel value eight +cubic feet equal one pound of coal. It was first used at Fredonia, New +York, in 1821, for lighting purposes, being procured from a well. The +natural-gas region is the part of Pennsylvania west of the +Alleghenies, extending into New York, Ohio and West Virginia; and gas +is also found in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Kansas. It is held +under enormous pressure within the pockets beneath the rocks, and when +first reached in drilling, the tension has been known to equal a +thousand pounds per square inch. It is not uncommon, when a well is +drilled, to have all the tools and casing-pipe blown out, while an +enormous thickness of masonry has to be constructed to hold down the +cap that covers the well. Its use began in Pittsburg in 1886, the +chief field of supply then being Murrysville, about twenty miles east +of the city, while there are also other fields southwest and east of +Pittsburg. The pipes underlie all the streets, and a main route of +supply is along the bed of the Allegheny River. There are said to be +about sixteen hundred miles of pipes laid down to lead the gas to +Pittsburg from the different fields. + + +PETROLEUM. + +The great petroleum fields lie in and near the Pittsburg region, in +the basin of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, and extend from New York +southwest to West Virginia, and also into Ohio. This region has had +enormous yields in different parts of the river basin, the wells, +however, ultimately dwindling as their supplies are drawn out. The +petroleum industry, which has been one of the greatest in +Pennsylvania, has been gradually all absorbed by the Standard Oil +Company, which is probably the most extensive industrial combination +in America, and certainly the most powerful. Yet we are told that +those financial magnates began their wonderful career with an +aggregate capital of only $24,000, largely borrowed money. There have +been forty millions of barrels of petroleum taken from this great +basin in a single year. The oil wells are bored in many places, south, +southwest, north and northeast of Pittsburg. The "Panhandle Railroad," +which crosses West Virginia to the Ohio, exhibits many of them. A +branch of this railroad goes to Canonsburg, and thence to the town of +Washington, on the old "National Road," thirty miles from Pittsburg. +At Canonsburg was founded in 1773 Jefferson College, in a log cabin, +which has now become the Jefferson Theological Seminary of the +Presbyterian Church. Washington is a town of about four thousand +people, rambling over a pleasant hilly region in Southwestern +Pennsylvania, having as its chief institution Washington and Jefferson +College, also a Presbyterian foundation, started in 1806 in what was +then a remote Scotch-Irish colony beyond the mountains. Near this town +in 1888 were struck the greatest petroleum wells the world ever knew. +One of them, the Jumbo well, in sixty days after the first strike had +poured out one hundred and forty thousand barrels of oil, flowing a +steady circular stream of almost white oil, about five inches in +diameter, at the rate of forty-two hundred gallons an hour. Another +well, afterwards bored not far away, in its freshness of infancy +poured out sixty-three hundred gallons an hour. Additional wells were +bored with almost the same results; but they all afterwards dwindled, +and finally ceasing a free flow, had to be pumped. This is the +universal experience of all the oil regions, the "gushers," soon after +the great strikes, giving out, as the store of petroleum in the +reservoirs beneath becomes exhausted. But all this shows how enormous +is the natural wealth of the Pittsburg district--oil, coal, coke and +gas, with iron, steel and glass, electricity and railways, +contributing to the wonderful prosperity. + +The greatest petroleum field, however, was up the Allegheny River, in +Northwestern Pennsylvania, and the first wells bored to obtain it were +sunk at Titusville, on Oil Creek, in 1859. The early settlers knew of +the appearance of oil about the headwaters of the Allegheny in New +York and Pennsylvania, and the name of Oil Creek was given a stream +for this reason in Allegheny County, New York, and also to the one in +Venango County, Pennsylvania. The Indians had long collected the oil +on the shores of Seneca Lake in New York, a course that the white +settlers followed, and it was for years sold as a medicine by the name +of Seneca or Genesee oil. When its commercial value for illuminating +purposes began to be recognized, Colonel E. L. Drake went to +Titusville to see if it could be obtained in sufficient quantities. He +bored the first well about a mile south of Titusville, and on August +26, 1859, the oil was struck at a depth of seventy-one feet. The drill +suddenly sunk into the cavity of the rock beneath, and the oil rose +within a few inches of the surface. A small pump was introduced which +brought out four hundred gallons daily, and then a large pump, +increasing the daily flow to a thousand gallons. Soon a steam-engine +was applied, and the flow continued uninterrupted for weeks. +Titusville had at the time three hundred people. Many wells were sunk +in the neighborhood with varying success, and the product of the Oil +Creek district became so large that the market could not absorb it, +and at the beginning of 1861, with two thousand wells in operation, +the price declined to twenty-five cents per barrel. The two great +wells were the Empire, originally yielding twenty-five hundred barrels +daily, and the Phillips, nearly four thousand barrels. In 1863 the +production had slackened, but the uses had expanded, and prices rose +proportionately. Vast fortunes were then rapidly made, and as soon +squandered. In the first twelve years of the development of this +district, which extended over about four hundred square miles, there +were taken from some four thousand wells forty-two millions of barrels +of oil, which were marketed for $163,000,000. At first it was carried +away by the railroads, of which several sent branches into the +district, but there have since been laid extensive lines of pipes +which convey it in various directions, and largely to New York and +Philadelphia for foreign export. When this district was at the height +of its yield it produced four hundred millions of gallons a year. + + +ASCENDING THE ALLEGHENY. + +From Pittsburg, through bold and pleasing scenery, we ascend the +Allegheny River, the broad channel flowing grandly around stately +bends enclosed between high hills. Thirty miles above Pittsburg the +Kiskiminetas comes in, and in a region of coal mines and furnaces is +found the town of Kittanning, which retains the name of the Indian +village standing there in Colonial days. This original Indian village +was attacked by Colonel Armstrong and three hundred troops at dawn on +August 8, 1757, and the Indians, who sided with the French, refusing +to surrender, they were pretty much all killed and their village +burnt. Armstrong's name is preserved in the county. Beyond is Brady's +Bend, a great curve of the river, and here are seen the derricks of +many deserted oil wells, as the farther journey above for miles also +discloses. This was the Modoc oil district. The Morrison well was +struck in 1872, yielding five hundred barrels daily, and immediately a +town was laid out, not inappropriately called Greece City, and it soon +had a large population. This was a prolific oil region at one time, +and back from the river were the well-known oleaginous towns of Modoc +City, Karns City and Petrolia. The Allegheny River gradually leads us +up to Venango County, which was the chief oil region. Franklin, the +capital of the county, has about five thousand inhabitants, and is +built at the mouth of French Creek, the site of the old French Fort +Venango, which Indian word meant "a guiding mark on a tree." It stood +on a commanding ridge, and was one of the chain of posts the French +built from the lakes across to the Ohio, to hold their possessions, +dating from 1753. The French had a large garrison there, but after +Canada was captured the English got possession, and in 1763 it was the +scene of a terrible massacre, the Indians taking it, murdering the +entire garrison, and slowly roasting the commandant to death. + +Five miles above, Oil Creek flows into the Allegheny, and here is Oil +City, the petroleum headquarters. It has had a varying history, being +once almost destroyed by flood and twice by fire, but maintains its +supremacy and is a complete oil town--the air filled with petroleum +odors, and the lower streets saturated with the fluid. On the +Allegheny, nine miles from Oil City, is Oleopolis, and a short +distance inland is Pithole City, which was one of the famous oil towns +whose rise and decline were so phenomenal. A few farmers here tried to +get a scanty subsistence from the rocky and almost barren soil, where, +on a hill, there was a fissure two to four feet wide, called the +"pithole," from which came out at intervals hot air and bad smells. +This was on the Holmden farm, which had been nominally valued at five +dollars an acre. Somebody thought he detected the smell of oil among +the odors coming up, and a well was bored. It struck oil in the winter +of 1864-65, and was the greatest strike made down to that time--the +United States Well yielding seven thousand barrels daily. Multitudes +flocked thither, and in six months Pithole City arose in the +wilderness with fifteen thousand inhabitants, two theatres, an opera +house, a daily newspaper, and seventy-two hotels of various degrees. +Numerous wells were sunk, and the oil sold at $5 to $8 per barrel, +being readily sent to the seaboard. The Holmden farm was soon sold for +$4,000,000. There were some amazing speculative trades made. The story +is told of a well striking oil and a speculative bystander at once +buying a three-fourths interest in it for $18,000, agreeing to pay the +money next day. Turning away from the seller, he met a man seeking +such an investment, and promptly resold his interest for $75,000, +receiving immediate payment. The yield of this region was so prolific +that railroads and pipe lines were soon constructed to carry the oil +away. Pithole had its great boom in the autumn of 1866, wells being +bored in every direction, and real estate fetching enormous prices. +One old fellow who had a few acres of arid land in the centre of the +excitement sold his farm and hovel for $800,000, paid him on the spot +in $1000 notes; and then he sorrowfully bemoaned, as he took a last +look at the hovel he had occupied all his life, "Now I haint got any +home." The rise of this wonderful town was rapid, and its downfall +came all too soon. The oil supply became exhausted, the speculators +left, the inhabitants dwindled in number, and by 1870 Pithole had +reverted almost to its original condition. The chief hotel, which had +cost $31,000 to build, was afterwards sold for $100, and the +population had declined in 1873 to nine families. + +The valley of Oil Creek is filled with derricks and oil tanks, having +a few pumping engines at work, but most of the derricks are over +abandoned wells. Eighteen miles up Oil Creek is Titusville, and when +the oil yield was at its height, about 1865, this valley had a +population of seventy-five thousand people. Titusville is pleasantly +built in the broadened intervale, surrounded by hills, the streets +being wide and straight, and the residences comfortable, each in its +garden enclosure. There are oil refineries, and iron works which make +engines, tubing and other supplies; and the town, which has eight +thousand people, is a headquarters for the Standard Oil Company. +Twenty-seven miles farther northward is Corry, a prominent railroad +centre, at the northern entrance to the Pennsylvania "Oil Dorado," as +the region has been popularly called. Its name of Corry was that of +the farmer who originally cultivated the soil when the place became a +railway station in 1861, and the location of oil refineries then began +its prosperity. There are now about six thousand inhabitants. It is +within a short distance of the New York State boundary, and marks the +northern limit of the Pennsylvania oil region. This whole district, +once the prominent petroleum field of Pennsylvania, has been eclipsed, +however, by other and more prolific oil basins. Fortunes were made +here, but most of the wealth passed away; and the history of the +Pennsylvania petroleum trade and its vicissitudes, with the absorption +of everything of value by the Standard Oil Company, has emphasized the +truth so pointedly told by Robert Burns, that "The best laid schemes +o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." Its wonderful tide of prosperity and +its subsequent ebb recall Shelley's lines "To Men of England": + + "The seed ye sow another reaps; + The wealth ye find another keeps; + The robes ye weave another wears; + The arms ye forge another bears." + + + + +VISITING THE SUNNY SOUTH. + + + + +V. + +VISITING THE SUNNY SOUTH. + + Sir Walter Raleigh -- Roanoke Island -- Virginia Dare -- + Potatoes -- Tobacco -- Carolina -- Cape Hatteras -- Cyclones -- + Wilmington -- Fort Fisher -- Blockade Running -- Charleston -- + Palmetto Trees -- John C. Calhoun -- Fort Moultrie -- Osceola's + Grave -- Fort Sumter -- Opening of the Civil War -- The Swamp + Angel -- St. Michael's Church -- Port Royal -- Savannah -- + General Oglethorpe -- Count Pulaski -- Fort Pulaski -- + Bonaventure Cemetery -- Okifenokee Swamp -- Jacksonville -- The + Alligator -- Oranges -- Land of Flowers -- Juan Ponce de Leon + -- Ferdinand de Soto -- The Huguenots -- Pedro Menendez -- + Dominique de Gourgues -- Florida Peculiarities -- Cumberland + Sound -- St. Mary's River -- Cumberland Island -- Jekyll Island + -- Amelia Island -- Fernandina -- Dungeness -- General Greene + -- Light Horse Harry -- St. Augustine -- Matanzas River -- + Anastasia Island -- Coquina -- Fort San Marco -- Fort Marion -- + Grand Hotels -- Dade's Massacre -- Coa-coo-chee, the Wildcat -- + Ormond -- Daytona -- New Smyrna -- The Southern Cassadega -- + Indian River -- Titusville -- Rockledge -- Fort Pierce -- + Jupiter Inlet -- Palm Beach -- Miami -- Biscayne Bay -- St. + John's River -- Mandarin -- Palatka -- Ocklawaha River -- Lake + Apopka -- Lake Eustis Region -- Ocala -- The Silver Spring -- + Navigating the Ocklawaha -- Lake George -- Volusia -- Lake + Monroe -- Enterprise -- Sanford -- Winter Park -- Orlando -- + Lake Tohopekaliga -- Kissimmee River -- Lake Okeechobee -- The + Everglades -- Lake Arpeika -- The Seminoles -- Suwanee River -- + Cedar Key -- Tallahassee -- Achille Murat -- Wakulla Spring -- + Appalachicola -- Pensacola -- Homosassa -- Tampa -- Charlotte + Harbor -- Punta Gorda -- Caloosahatchie River -- Fort Myers -- + Cape Romano -- Cape Sable -- Florida Keys -- Coral Building -- + The Gulf Stream -- Key West -- Fort Taylor -- Sand Key -- Dry + Tortugas -- Fort Jefferson -- Florida Attractions. + + +CAROLINA. + +Sir Walter Raleigh, of chivalrous memory, sent the first English +colony to America in the sixteenth century. He was a half-brother of +Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the English explorer, and had previously +accompanied Gilbert to Newfoundland. He sent out an expedition in +1584, which selected Roanoke Island, south of the Chesapeake, for a +settlement, and for this enterprise Queen Elizabeth knighted Raleigh, +gave him a grant of the whole country, and directed that the new land +be named in her honor, Virginia. In 1585-86 colonizing expeditions +were sent to Roanoke, but they did not prosper. The colonists +quarrelled with the Indians, and in the latter year the Governor +returned to England for provisions and reinforcements, leaving behind +with the colony his daughter, Mrs. Dare, and a granddaughter, nine +days old, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the new land. +Then came the Spanish Armada to conquer England, and the long war with +Spain. Nobody went to succor the little band of exiles on Roanoke +Island for three years, and when they did, the settlement was +obliterated, the hundred colonists and little Virginia Dare had +disappeared, and no tidings of them were ever obtained. Thus perished +Raleigh's colony; and, his means being exhausted, he was discouraged +and sent no more expeditions out to America. His enterprise failed in +making a permanent settlement, but it gave two priceless gifts to +Europe. The returning Governor took back to England the potato, which +Raleigh planted on his Irish estate and which has proved the salvation +of old Erin, and also the Virginia tobacco, which he taught the people +to smoke, and the fragrant weed became the solace of the world. + +No further attempts at colonization were made until the seventeenth +century, when new grants were issued, and the country was named +Carolina in honor of King Charles I. The Atlantic Coast south of the +Chesapeake Bay entrance is low and bordered by sand beaches, which for +most of the distance in front of North Carolina are far eastward of +the mainland, with broad sounds and river estuaries between. These +long and narrow beaches protrude in some cases a hundred miles into +the ocean and form dangerous shoals, the extensive Albemarle and +Pamlico Sounds being enclosed by them, the former stretching fifty +miles and the latter seventy-five miles into the land. Out in front of +Pamlico Sound projects the shoulder of Cape Hatteras into the +Atlantic, the outer point of a low, sandy island, with shoals +extending far beyond it, and marked by the great beacon of this +dangerous coast, a flashing light one hundred and ninety feet high. +Here is the principal storm factory of the southern coast, noted for +cyclonic disturbances and dreaded by the mariner. Upon the outer +Diamond Shoals the Government has long tried in vain to erect a +lighthouse. A lightship is kept there, but is frequently blown from +her moorings and drifts ashore. The Gulf Stream, coming with warm and +speedy current up from Florida, is here diverged out into the ocean by +the shoulder of Hatteras; and, similarly, the whirling West India +cyclones of enormous area come along with their resistless energy, +destroying everything in their paths. In the terrific hurricane of the +autumn of 1899 a wind velocity of one hundred and sixty miles an hour +was reached momentarily, and the anemometer at Hatteras was blown down +after having recorded a velocity of one hundred and twenty miles. The +actual force exerted by one of these great cyclones in its work of +devastation, which uproots trees, demolishes buildings and strews the +coast with wrecks, has been calculated as equalling one thousand +million horse-power. + + +WILMINGTON AND FORT FISHER. + +The interior of North Carolina adjoining the Sounds is largely swamp +land, and the broad belt of forest, chiefly pines, which parallels the +coast all along the Atlantic seaboard. Through this region the railway +extends southward from Virginia past Weldon to Wilmington, an +uninteresting route among the swamps and pine lands, showing sparse +settlement and poor agriculture, the wood paths exhibiting an +occasional ox-team or a stray horseman going home with his supplies +from the cross-roads store, a typical representative of the +"tar-heels of Carolina." The railway crosses the deep valley of +Roanoke River, and then over the Tar and Neuse Rivers, traversing the +extensive district that provides the world's greatest supply of naval +stores--the tar, pitch, turpentine, rosin and timber that are so +largely shipped out of the Cape Fear River from Wilmington. This is +the chief city of North Carolina, having about twenty thousand people, +and is located on the Cape Fear River twenty-six miles from its mouth. +The city spreads along the eastern shore upon the peninsula between it +and the ocean. The first settlement antedates the Revolution, when the +inhabitants, who were sturdy patriots, drove out the royal Governor +and made Fort Johnson, at the mouth of the river, an American +stronghold. Upon the secession of the Carolinas in 1860-61 this fort +was occupied by the Confederates and replaced by the larger work on +Federal Point, between the river and the sea, known as Fort Fisher. +Owing to the peculiar location and ease of entrance, the Cape Fear +River became famous in the Civil War as a haven for blockade-runners, +the effective defense made by Fort Fisher fully protecting this +traffic. As the Union blockade of the Southern harbors became more +completely effective with the progress of the war, this finally was +about the only port that could be entered, and an enormous traffic was +kept up between Wilmington and Nassau, on the British island of New +Providence, in the Bahamas, not far away, some three hundred fleet +foreign steamships safely running the blockade into Cape Fear River +during 1863 and 1864. The notoriety of this traffic, from which +enormous profits were made, became world-wide, and it was decided late +in 1864 that Fort Fisher had to be captured, in order to make the +Southern blockade entirely effective. A joint land and naval attack +was made by General Butler and Admiral Porter in December, 1864, but +they were obliged to retire without seriously damaging the fort. Then +General Butler ineffectively attempted to blow up the fort by +exploding a powder-boat near it. Finally a new expedition was landed +in January, 1865, under General Terry, and in coöperation with the +navy, which made a fierce bombardment, they captured the fort on the +15th, after severe loss, the works being partially destroyed the +following day by the accidental explosion of the powder magazine. This +capture ended the blockade-running at Wilmington, and had much to do +with precipitating the fall of Richmond in the following April. + + + [Illustration: _On the Ashley, near Charleston, S. C._] + +CHARLESTON AND FORT SUMTER. + +The railway from Wilmington to the South at first goes westward +through a region largely composed of swamps, and then entering South +Carolina turns southward past Florence to Charleston. The country is a +variation of pine barrens and morass, sparsely inhabited, but raising +much cotton, with many bales brought to the stations for shipment. +There is a much larger population of blacks than of whites. +Charleston, the metropolis of South Carolina, is an active seaport +with sixty-five thousand inhabitants, having a good export trade in +cotton, timber, naval stores, rice, fruits and phosphate rock, of +which there are extensive deposits on Ashley River nearby. It is a +low-lying city, built upon a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper +Rivers, just inland from the ocean, and having a good harbor. Its many +wooden houses are varied by more pretentious ones of brick and stone, +but there is an air of decadence produced by the traces still +remaining of the earthquake of 1886, which destroyed the greater part +of the buildings and killed many people. The dwelling architecture of +Charleston presents the tropical features of open verandas, spacious +porticos and broad windows looking out upon gardens in which the +palmetto tree grows, typical of South Carolina, the "Palmetto State." +At the point of the peninsula between the rivers is the Battery, a +park and popular promenade overlooking the harbor, with Fort Sumter +down on its little shoal-like island, seen as a small dark streak upon +the distant horizon. The first settlements in this part of South +Carolina were made on the west bank of Ashley River, but the town, +which had been named in honor of King Charles II., in 1680 was +transferred to its present site. Charleston was prominent in the +Revolution, its troops under Colonel Moultrie repelling a British +attack upon Sullivan's Island in 1776; but the city was captured by +Sir Henry Clinton in 1780 after an obstinate defense. Before the Civil +War it was the chief cotton-shipping port of America, though it is now +surpassed by the Gulf ports and by Savannah. The great memory in the +city of that time of its greatest prosperity is of the apostle of +"State Rights," the South Carolina statesman, John C. Calhoun, who +died in 1850. His statue stands in Citadel Square, and his grave is in +St. Philip's churchyard. + +The broad estuary of Charleston harbor is completely landlocked, and +has an entrance from the sea about a mile wide. On the southern side +is Fort Moultrie, which was enlarged from the battery that repulsed +the British attack in 1776, on Sullivan's Island, this now being a +favorite summer resort, and dotted with wooden cottages facing the +sea. Just behind the fort is the grave of Osceola, the famous chief of +the Seminoles, who long carried on war in the Florida everglades, but +was captured and brought a prisoner to Fort Moultrie, dying in 1838. +Fort Sumter, three miles below Charleston, stands upon a shoal of +about three acres, out in mid-channel, which is protected from the +water encroachment by stone rip-rapping. It was faced with brick +during the Civil War, but the work has since been modernized. At the +opening of the war, Major Anderson occupied this fort with the small +force of seventy-five men, which, after the secession of South +Carolina from the Union, December 20, 1860, had been transferred +thither from Fort Moultrie, the State troops immediately seizing +Moultrie and all the other forts around the harbor, and the Federal +public buildings in Charleston. They also constructed new batteries on +Morris Island, the nearest land to Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, +the Government at Washington sent the steamer "Star of the West" into +the harbor with provisions and a reinforcement of two hundred and +fifty troops. The first shot of the Civil War was on that day fired at +her from Morris Island, and the ship being struck by this and +subsequent shots, her commander abandoned the project and withdrew. +There was a good deal of negotiation and delay afterwards, the +Government, on April 8th, finally determining to provision Fort +Sumter, as Anderson's supplies would be exhausted on the 15th, and so +informing the Governor of South Carolina. On the 11th, General +Beauregard, commanding the State forces, demanded the surrender of the +fort, which was refused. Major Anderson was notified early next +morning that the fort would be fired upon in one hour, and cannonading +began at 4.20 A.M. on the 12th. A fleet of vessels appeared off the +harbor at noon with provisions, exchanged signals with the fort, but +made no attempt to land, and on the 13th terms of surrender were +arranged by which Major Anderson and his little command marched out on +the 14th with the honors of war, saluting the American flag with +fifty guns. This bombardment and evacuation set the North in a blaze +of patriotic excitement and began the Civil War. + +The naval forces of the United States attacked Fort Sumter in April, +1863, but were repulsed, the monitor "Keokuk" being so seriously +injured that she afterwards sunk. Subsequently, the Union troops +landed on Morris Island, erected batteries, and in August partly +destroyed the works at Sumter; and its bombardment, and also that of +Charleston, continued with but brief intermission till the war closed +in 1865. On Morris Island was set up the original "long-range gun," +General Gillmore's "Swamp Angel" now adorning a drinking-fountain at +Trenton, New Jersey; and its ability, until it unfortunately burst, to +shoot its bolts into Charleston, then regarded as an almost impossible +distance to carry a projectile, attracted the attention of gunnery +experts throughout the world. Its conspicuous mark was the white spire +of St. Michael's Church up in the beleaguered city. This famous old +church, dating from 1752, was struck six times during these attacks +and seriously damaged. It was also partly demolished by a cyclone in +1885, and nearly destroyed by the earthquake of 1886; but it has been +since restored, and its prominent steeple commands a good view. +Charleston, however, seems to have always been used to this sort of +thing. Its statue of William Pitt in front of the City Hall had +the right arm broken off by a British cannon-shot in 1780. But if the +city is thus somewhat in dilapidation, its grand development of +foliage and flowers gives a compensation. Everywhere in the suburbs +and in the streets and gardens are seen magnificent azaleas, +magnolias, camellias, and the famous live oak, which flourish in +luxuriance and add to the charms of this restful South Carolina +metropolis. + + +THE CITY OF SAVANNAH. + +The seacoast of South Carolina and Georgia is composed largely of +deeply indented bays, with many islands, tortuous bayous, and a +labyrinth of water ways bordered by dense vegetation. Southward from +Charleston harbor to the Savannah River many creeks provide a system +of inland navigation and form fertile islands. There are two capacious +Sounds, St. Helena and Port Royal, the latter being one of the finest +harbors in the world, and the rendezvous of the American North +Atlantic naval squadron when in these waters. This was the place of +first landing of the original South Carolina colonists before they +went to the Ashley River, and its chief town now is Beaufort, on St. +Helena Island. These coast islands raise the famous "sea-island +cotton," and the whole lowland region produces prolific crops of rice. +The adjacent land is generally swampy, and its chief industry, outside +of cultivating the fields, is the working of the extensive phosphate +deposits, which are manufactured into fertilizers. The railway, +largely constructed on piles, passes through much marsh and morass, +crosses swift-running dirty streams, and over the swamps and among the +pine timber, varied by the oak, bay tree and laurel, which the humid +atmosphere has hung with garlands of sombre gray moss and clusters of +ivy and other creeping plants. The festooned moss, overrunning and +often destroying the foliage of the trees, gives the scene a weird and +ghostly appearance. The railway route is bordered by an apparently +almost impenetrable jungle, the few settlements are widely separated, +and population is sparse, seeming to be chiefly negroes dressed in +ancient-looking clothing ornamented with patches. The few whites who +appear are bilious and yellowish, their complexions and garb being +alike of the butternut hue, while both races seem to talk the same +dialect. Thus moving farther southward, the Carolina "tar-heels" are +replaced by the "crackers" and "butternuts," looking as if they had +been rolled for a generation in the clayey soils drained by the +Edisto, Coosawhatchie and Savannah Rivers and their neighboring +streams, and who, farther inland, are the "clay-eaters" of Georgia. +Then crossing the Savannah River, the route is upon the level lowlands +down its Georgia bank, and into the city of Savannah, arriving amid a +vast collection of rosin and pitch barrels, cotton bales and timber. + +Savannah--derived from the Spanish word _sabana_, a "meadow or +plain"--is known popularly as the "Forest City," and is built upon a +bluff along the river shore, eighteen miles from the sea. It has fifty +thousand people and a large export trade in naval stores, rice, timber +and cotton, in the latter export being second only to New Orleans. It +received great impetus after the Civil War, owing to its excellent +railway connections with the interior, and is now the chief port of +the Southern Atlantic coast. The city extends upon a level sandy +plain, stretching back from the bluff shore along the river, has broad +streets crossing at right angles, with small parks at the +intersections, and many trees border the streets and fill the parks, +so that it is fairly embowered in foliage, thus presenting an +attractive and novel appearance. This adornment makes Savannah the +most beautiful city of the coast--the oak, palmetto and magnolia, with +the holly, orange, creeping ivy and clustering vines, setting the +buildings in a framework of delicious green. The business quarter is +along the bluff, where the ships moor alongside the storehouses, which +have their upper stories on a level with the busy Bay Street at its +top. Much of the present beauty of the city is due to the foresight of +its founder who laid out the plan--General Oglethorpe, who selected +this place in 1733 for the capital of his Province of Georgia, the +youngest of the original thirteen colonies. + +General James Edward Oglethorpe was a native of London and an officer +in the British army, who, being of philanthropic tendencies, obtained +a grant of the Province from King George for the purpose of providing +an asylum for the poor debtors of England and a home for the +Protestants of all nations. After founding the city and receiving a +colony of Protestants from Salzburg, he visited England and brought +out John and Charles Wesley in 1735, and got George Whitefield to come +and preach to the colonists in 1737. War breaking out with Spain, he +attacked Florida, carrying his invasion to the gates of St. Augustine, +but was repulsed. He returned to England in 1743, but though he lived +until 1785 as a retired general upon half-pay, he never revisited +America. The British captured Savannah in the Revolution, and repulsed +a combined French and American attempt to recapture it in 1779. In +this attack Count Pulaski fell, and the spot, now Monterey Square, +near the centre of the city, is marked by the Pulaski Monument, one of +the noblest shafts in America. Count Pulaski is the patron saint of +Savannah, and Fort Pulaski, named in his honor, guards the Savannah +River entrance from the sea. During the Civil War, however, this fort +was practically useless, as it was captured by the Unionists in 1862, +and Tybee Roads, the harbor at the entrance, was hermetically sealed +throughout the war by the blockading fleet. General Sherman's +triumphant march through Georgia ended in December, 1864, at +Savannah, and his headquarters are still pointed out, opposite Madison +Square. Savannah has a fine pleasure-ground in Forsyth Park, with its +wealth of trees and ornamental shrubbery, and the adjoining Parade +Ground containing the Confederate Soldiers' Monument. The favorite +route to the southern suburbs is the famous Thunderbolt Shell Road +leading to Thunderbolt River, and noted for its avenues of live oaks +draped with Spanish moss. Here is also the favorite burial-place, the +Bonaventure Cemetery, where the graves and tombstones are laid out +alongside passages embowered by live oaks, their wide-stretching, +gaunt and angular limbs being richly garlanded with the gray moss and +encircled by creeping ivy. The long vista views under these sombre +archways have an elfish look, peculiarly appropriate for a city of the +dead, and it would take little imagination to conjure up the spirits +of the departed and see them wandering beneath these canopies of +shrouds. + + +THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE. + +Southward from Savannah, the railway route to Florida renews the +monotonous landscape of woods and swamps. For ninety miles it goes in +an almost straight line southwest through the pine belt of Southern +Georgia, crossing the Ogeechee and Altamaha Rivers to Waycross, and +then, turning to the southeast, proceeds in another almost straight +line for about an equal distance towards the coast, and crosses St. +Mary's River into Florida. It traverses the edge of the noted +Okifenokee Swamp of Georgia, the Indian "weaving, shaking, water," a +moist and mushy region of mystery and legend, drained by the poetic +Suwanee, the Indian "Echo river," which has been made the theme of a +favorite melody. This stream flows through Florida into the Gulf of +Mexico, while on the eastern side the extensive swamp overflows into +the winding St. Mary's River leading to the Atlantic. To the +southward, the pine woods of Florida grow out of a sandy soil nearly +as level as a floor, in which almost every depression and fissure +seems filled with water, and the balsamic odors of these pines, +combined with the mildness of the winter climate, give an indication +of the attractions which make Florida so popular as a resort for the +Northern people. The route finally reaches the broad St. John's River +at the Florida metropolis, Jacksonville, a Yankee city in the South, +bearing the name of the famous President, General Andrew Jackson, and +having thirty thousand population, largely of Northern birth. This is +the centre of the railway system of Florida and of most of the +business of the State, having a large export trade in timber, naval +stores, phosphates, oranges and other Florida products. To the +visitor, probably the first most forcible impression is made by the +free growth of oranges along the streets and in the house gardens. The +city stands upon the northern and outer bank of a magnificent bend of +St. John's River, this noble stream, which flows northward from +Southern Florida, being a mile wide, and sweeping around to the +eastward at Jacksonville to reach the sea about twenty-five miles +beyond, its navigation having been improved by dredging and +constructing jetties to maintain a channel through the bar at the +mouth. The business section is near the shore, and the railways come +down to the wharves; while, as the curving river stretches away to the +southward, the bank is lined with rows of fine suburban villas, +occupied by the business men who have built their comfortable homes +amid the oranges, oleanders, magnolias and banana trees. The river has +low tree-clad shores, and far over on the opposite bank are more +villas and orange groves. + +Jacksonville is well supplied with hotels and lodging-houses, which +accommodate the crowds of winter visitors from the North, and it +spreads into various suburban villages reached by steamboats and hard +shell roads. It is the great _entrepôt_ for Florida, standing at the +northern verge, the salubrious and equable climate being the +attraction, for frost is rare, and the winters are usually clear and +dry and give a most magnificent atmosphere. Rows of splendid oaks line +the streets, and form fine archways of green, giving a delicious +shade. Besides the orange, the alligator is also a Jacksonville +attraction, live ones being kept as pets, little ones sent northward +in boxes for gifts, and dead ones of all sizes prepared for +ornaments. This reptile is the type and emblem of Florida; his skin +and teeth are worked into fantastic shapes, and his curious bones and +formation do duty in the make-up of many "Florida curiosities." In +fact, outside of the timber, which is most prolific, the best known +Florida crops are the alligator and the orange. Although frosts have +killed many in late years, yet the product of the orange trees is +still large, Southern Florida containing the most famous orange +groves, especially along the Indian River and on the lakes of the +upper St. John's River, where they are usually planted on the southern +borders of the lakes, so that the frost is killed by the winds +carrying it over the water, and thus the orange trees are protected. + + +THE LAND OF FLOWERS. + +In the early sixteenth century there flourished a valiant Spaniard of +noble birth, a grandee of Aragon, who had taken part in the conquest +of Grenada, Don Juan Ponce de Leon. He had accompanied Columbus on one +of his American voyages, and in 1510 was appointed Governor of Puerto +Rico. The bold Don Juan had become somewhat worn by a life of +dangerous buccaneering and romantic adventure, and being rather +advanced in years he was losing the attractiveness which had long +added charms to his gallantries. From the Indians of Puerto Rico he +heard of an island off to the northwestward, which they called Bimini, +and he listened with wonder and constantly increasing interest to the +tales they told of an extraordinary and miraculous spring which it +contained that would restore youth to the aged and health to the +decrepit--the "Fountain of Perpetual Youth." They described it as +being in a region of surpassing beauty, and said there were found +abundant gold and many slaves in this land of promise. The rugged old +warrior was fired with the prospect of restored youth, and soon +secured from the king a grant of Bimini. In March, 1513, he sailed +with a large expedition from Puerto Rico, discovered some of the +Bahama Islands, coasted along the mainland to latitude 30° 8' north, +and on Easter Sunday, April 8th, landed a short distance south of St. +John's River and took possession, calling the country Florida, from +"Pasqua Florida," the Spanish name for the day. He did not find the +magic spring, however, but he did discover a fairy scene, a land +filled with a profusion of fruits and flowers. Though he subsequently +diligently searched for it, he unfortunately never found the +miraculous fountain. He explored the Gulf Coast, and returned to the +quest again in 1521, when he got into quarrels with the Indians, was +mortally wounded in a combat, and went back to Cuba to die. + +Another Spanish grandee, fired with zeal for gold and conquest, +appeared upon the scene somewhat later in the sixteenth century. +Ferdinand de Soto, a native of Jerez, whose only heritage was his +sword and shield, had accompanied various expeditions to Darien and +Nicaragua, and in 1532 joined Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, where +he acquired great wealth, with which he returned to Spain. Soon after, +being anxious for more adventure, he was appointed Governor of Cuba +and Florida, and given a commission to explore and settle the Spanish +possessions in the latter country, then including the whole northern +coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In May, 1539, he sailed from Havana with +a large fleet and six hundred men, coasted around Florida and landed +at Tampa Bay on the Gulf side, where his explorations ashore began in +July. Fabulous stories had been told him of the wealth of the country +by those who had been there, and De Soto's plan was to go everywhere +in search of gold. He captured Indians for guides, and found a +Spaniard, Juan Ortiz, whom they had taken captive several years +before, but who was now living with them as a friend, knew their +language and became interpreter. Then De Soto, by his aid, began a +most difficult exploration, advancing through thick woods, north and +east, amid tangled undergrowth, over bogs and marshes, crossing rivers +and lakes, fighting the Indians who resented his cruelties, for he +made them his slaves and bearers of burdens, tortured and killed them +if they resisted. But he found no gold, though he pushed steadily +onward, and turning westward in the quest, his numbers growing +smaller and the survivors weaker under the weight of their privations. +He travelled a long distance, crossing Northern Florida and Georgia +into the Carolinas, and probably to Tennessee, descending the Alabama +River, and having a battle with the Indians near Mobile Bay in +October, 1540; then turning again northward, crossing the Mississippi +River, which he discovered in May, 1541, near the Chickasaw Bluffs, +exploring it nearly to the mouth of the Missouri, and then turning +southward he sailed down the river, and finally died of fever near the +mouth of Red River in May, 1542. During the three years' wanderings +nearly half his force had perished in battle, or of privation and +disease. The Indians were in awe of him and believed him immortal, and +a panic therefore seized his surviving followers, who feared +annihilation if the savages discovered that De Soto was dead. So they +quietly buried him at night, from a boat in midstream, sinking the +corpse in the great Father of Waters. Discouraged and almost hopeless, +his followers managed to build some small vessels, and the next year +arrived safely in Mexico. + +Neither of these expeditions succeeded in colonizing Florida, but they +left a feeling of hatred among the Indians, caused by the Spanish +cruelties, which always afterwards existed. In 1564 some French +Huguenots, led by René de Loudonnière, attempted making a settlement +at the mouth of St. John's River, and built Fort Caroline there. News +of this reached Spain, and in 1565 another colonization expedition was +sent out under Don Pedro Menendez d'Aviles, which set sail from Cadiz, +and on St. Augustine's Day, August 28th, landed not far from where +Ponce de Leon had made his first invasion, and founded a colony which +he named St. Augustine, in honor of his day of arrival. As soon as +Menendez was established on shore he attacked the Huguenots at St. +John's River, and hanged such of them as had escaped being killed in +the battle, declaring that he did this because they were Protestants. +Some of them who had been away from the fort at the time were +afterwards shipwrecked near St. Augustine, and these he also captured +and put to death. The French Fort Caroline was then garrisoned by the +Spaniards, its name changed to Fort San Mateo, and they also fortified +with redoubts both sides of the river entrance. The story of the +atrocities of Menendez was received with indignation in France, but +the King, controlled by intrigue, dared do nothing, such was his fear +of the power of Spain. + +Full vengeance was afterwards taken, however. Dominique de Gourgues, a +French gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, who hated the Spaniards with a +mortal hatred, took up the quarrel, sold his inheritance, borrowed +money, and equipped a small expedition of three vessels and one +hundred and eighty men. He concealed his real object, and sailing for +some time through the tropical seas, finally came to Cuba, when he +first made known his purpose to his followers. He landed at St. Mary's +River, opening communication with the Indians, and a joint attack upon +the Spaniards to the southward was arranged. In May, 1568, the fort +and redoubts at St. John's River were stormed and taken, a few +Spaniards being captured alive, all the rest having been slain in the +combat. Gourgues was shown nearby the trees whereon Menendez had +hanged the French prisoners when he first took the fort, having placed +over them the inscription "Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." He +hanged his Spanish prisoners on the same trees, and over them was also +nailed an inscription, burned with a hot iron on a tablet of pine, +"Not as Spaniards, but as Traitors, Robbers and Murderers." Gourgues' +mission of vengeance was fulfilled. His Indian allies demolished the +fort and the redoubts at the mouth of the river. He then sailed home +with his expedition, landing at Rochelle on the day of Pentecost, +where the Huguenots greeted him with all honor, and whilst he was +scorned at court and lived for some years in obscurity, Queen +Elizabeth showed him great favor; and as he was going overland to join +the army of Portugal to once more fight his enemies, the Spaniards, he +fell ill at Tours and died. The French made no more attempts at +settlement in Florida, and the Spaniards afterwards possessed it, +though frequently being at war with the English. Spain finally ceded +the "Land of Flowers" to the United States, which took final +possession in 1821. + + +SOME FLORIDA PECULIARITIES. + +Florida is a strange region, yet most attractive. The traveller +regards its surface as mainly a monotonous level of forest and swamp, +with fruit and floral embellishments, but it in fact rises by an +almost insensible ascent from the coast towards the interior, where +there is a central summit ridge all along the peninsula of about three +hundred feet elevation, covered with pine woods. Most of the surface, +however, is but a few feet above the sea-level, these "flatlands," as +they are called, being grass-grown savannahs, pine woods, swamps and +cabbage-palm thickets. The southern part of the peninsula is the +region of the everglades, which have been formed by successive dykes +of coral, built by the industrious little insect long ago. The upper +part of this region is occupied by the extensive but shallow waters of +Lake Okeechobee, which merges insensibly into the everglades south and +east, the Seminoles calling this grass-grown and spongy region, which +is still the abode of some remnants of the tribe, Pa-ha-yo-kee, +meaning "much grass in water." These everglades are penetrated in all +directions by tortuous water channels of slight depth; and at frequent +intervals in the whole district there are wooded islands possessing +fertile soils and covered with dense tropical vegetation. These +islands are said to have been surrounded by the sea in bygone ages, +and they then stood in the same relation to the mainland as do the +present Southern Florida reefs and keys. Wide tracts of cypress swamp +separate the everglades from the Gulf of Mexico, while in Southern +Florida they approach within a few miles of the Atlantic Coast, being +separated by an intervening dyke of coral, crossed by frequent streams +of rapid current, for the everglades are far from being stagnant +swamps. There are also many other extensive swamps in the State. + +The Florida seacoast is usually protected by sand beaches which are +quite hard, and are separated from the mainland by interior lagoons. +The mangrove and the coral, constantly growing, are ever encroaching, +however, on the sea-waters, and thus Florida seems to have been +constructed. The country is full of water courses, lakes and springs, +some of the latter being regarded as among the most remarkable in the +world, the famous Silver Spring near Ocala being estimated as +discharging three hundred millions of gallons daily. There are +countless springs along the coasts, and one of these bursts up in the +sea near St. Augustine, two miles off shore, with a torrent so +vigorous that the ocean waves break over the column of fresh water as +if it were a sunken reef. Scientific investigators are amazed at the +vast amounts of water everywhere visible and discharged from these +springs, and with only the narrow and low peninsula for a watershed, +the problem as to where the vast water supply comes from baffles +solution. Some of the Florida lakes are subject to remarkable +fluctuations of level, and one of them, Lake Jackson, ran suddenly dry +at the time of the Charleston earthquake in 1886, but after a few +weeks the water began returning, and it soon resumed its natural +proportions. + + +CUMBERLAND SOUND. + +The memory of the Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II., the +victor of the battle of Culloden, in Scotland, where he defeated the +Pretender in 1746, is preserved in America in the name of Cumberland +Sound, the finest harbor on the Southern Atlantic Coast. St. Mary's +River, coming out of Okifenokee swamp to make the northern boundary of +Florida, flows an erratic course, boxing the compass in every +direction until it finally heads eastward and debouches in Cumberland +Sound, among a group of islands forming a large landlocked harbor. +This river and sound, the boundary between Georgia and Florida, were, +prior to the Revolution, a disputed frontier between the English and +the Spaniards. To the northward of the entrance from the sea is +Cumberland Island in Georgia, then comes Jekyll Island, with its +magnificent club-house and elaborate cottages, and then St. Simon's +Bay, having as its chief port the busy lumber-shipping town of +Brunswick. To the southward of the Cumberland entrance is Amelia +Island in Florida. The sound behind Amelia and Cumberland Islands is a +magnificent roadstead, capable of floating at safe anchorage an +enormous fleet. Amelia Island is a long, narrow sand bank with much +foliage upon it, stretching about fourteen miles down the Florida +coast to Nassau Sound. On the sea front of this island is one of the +finest sand beaches on the Atlantic. Behind it is the arm of the sea +known as Amelia River, and the port of Fernandina, thirty-six miles +northeast of Jacksonville, having at the point of the island, guarding +the entrance to its harbor, old Fort Clinch, a superannuated +brick-work battery, formerly of great importance, but now of little +use, though it was somewhat strengthened to meet the exigencies of the +recent Spanish War. + +The French Huguenots first came along here and settled, as they did at +the St. John's River entrance, and they called the island Garde. They +found here a powerful Indian tribe, whose chief, the "Cacique of +Garde," their historian described as "handsome and noble," and his +queen as "beautiful and modest," and the same authority says they had +"five handsome daughters." The French were engaged in desultory +quarrels with the Spaniards south of them at St. Augustine, and the +young gallants of the colony, in the intervals of the warfare, +alternately courted and jilted the Indian maidens, the result being a +savage attack and massacre; and finally, between Indian and Spanish +enmity, the settlement disappeared. But the English, made of sterner +stuff, ultimately came along, settling Georgia, and giving British +names to the islands, the rivers and the Sound, which they still +retain. For a long time this was disputed territory between the +English and the Spaniards, the latter claiming everything northward to +Carolina. General Oglethorpe marched through here to attack St. +Augustine, and in 1763 the British held Amelia Island, extending the +little fort to almost its present proportions, and laying out a town +behind it, while to the southward the Countess of Egmont established +an indigo plantation, which flourished for a brief period. Spain +ultimately got the island, and it came into American possession with +Florida in 1821. A little town with sandy streets, a pretty park, much +foliage, delicious air bringing the balsam of the pines and the tonic +of the sea, and hotels accommodating the influx of winter visitors, +make up the Fernandina of to-day. Its beach on the ocean front, more +than a mile away, is one of the finest in existence, hard as a floor, +level and broad, stretching as far as eye can see, and having a grand +surf booming upon it. + +On Cumberland Island is the estate of Dungeness. General Nathaniel +Greene of Rhode Island, one of Washington's most trusted officers, was +the commander of the Revolutionary armies in the South in 1780-81 +which drove the British out of that section, gained the victory of +Cowpens in South Carolina, and compelled the withdrawal of Cornwallis +to Yorktown, which ended in his surrender. After the close of the war, +in gratitude for his great services, the people of Georgia presented +him with this estate of about ten thousand acres. He made it his home +for a time, but it afterwards passed away from his family, and being +neglected, the old coquina stone mansion was burnt. The house has +since been reconstructed, and a picturesque avenue of moss-hung live +oaks a mile long stretches over the island near it to the sea. In a +little cemetery on the estate are the graves of General Greene's widow +and daughter. Here is also the grave of "Light Horse Harry" of the +Revolution (the father of General Robert E. Lee), who died abroad in +1818. He had visited and loved Dungeness, and requested to be buried +there. Oaks and palmettos embower these modest graves, which are +carefully preserved. + + +ANCIENT ST. AUGUSTINE. + +St. Augustine, thirty-six miles southeast of Jacksonville, on the +seacoast, is the oldest city in the United States, founded by Menendez +in 1565, and existing to this day with the characteristics of a +Spanish town of the sixteenth century, which have been also reproduced +in the architecture of most of the newer buildings. A small inlet from +the ocean, about fifteen miles south of the mouth of St. John's +River, stretches its arms north and south, the latter arm, called +Matanzas River, seeking the sea again about eighteen miles below. It +thus forms Anastasia Island, sheltering the harbor like a breakwater, +and behind it the city is built, being protected by a sea-wall nearly +a mile long, built of coquina or shell-stone. Another arm of the sea, +called San Sebastian River, is a short distance inland, so that the +town site is really upon a peninsula. About five thousand people +reside permanently in St. Augustine, a few of Spanish descent, and +more of them the offspring of a colony of Minorcans who came in 1769, +but in winter the Northern visitors to the palatial hotels swell the +population to over ten thousand. The town is built on a level sandy +plain, and the older streets are narrow, being only a few feet wide +and without sidewalks. The projecting balconies of some of the ancient +houses almost touch those opposite. The old streets are paved with +coquina and the old houses are built of it, this curious +shell-limestone, quarried on Anastasia Island, hardening upon exposure +to the air. A few streets running north and south, crossed by others +at right angles, and a broader front street bordered by the sea-wall +which makes a fine promenade, compose the town. This sea-wall of +coquina is capped with granite, and was built after the American +occupation of the city. At its northern end is Fort Marion and at the +southern end St. Francis Barracks, the United States military post, +so named because it occupies the site of the old Convent of St. +Francis, having some of its coquina walls incorporated in the present +structure. The harbor in front, which in past centuries sheltered so +many Spanish fleets and those of Spanish enemies as well, is now +chiefly devoted to yachting. + +When Menendez and his Spaniards first landed they built a wooden fort +commanding the harbor entrance, surrounded by pine trees, which they +named San Juan de Pinos. This was afterwards replaced by Fort San +Marco, constructed of coquina, which was nearly a hundred years +building, and was finished in 1756. Upon the transfer of Florida to +the United States this became Fort Marion. It is a well-preserved +specimen of the military architecture of the eighteenth century, built +on Vauban's system, covering about four acres, with bastions at the +corners, each protected by a watch-tower, and is surrounded by a moat, +the walls being twenty-one feet high. The fort is in reasonably good +preservation, and is said to have been constructed mainly by the labor +of Indians. It took so long to build and cost so much under the +wasteful Spanish system that one sovereign wrote that it had almost +cost its weight in gold; yet it was regarded then as supremely +important to be finished, being the key to the Spanish possession of +Florida. Over the sally-port at the drawbridge are carved the Spanish +arms and an inscription recording the completion of the fort in 1756, +when Ferdinand VI. was King of Spain and Don Hereda Governor of +Florida. It mounted one hundred of the small guns of those days, and +the interior is a square parade ground, surrounded by large casemates. +Upon each side of the casemate opposite the sally-port is a niche for +holy water, and at the farther end the Chapel. Dungeons and +subterranean passages abound, of which ghostly tales are told. This +fort is the most interesting relic of the ancient city, a picturesque +place, with charms even in its dilapidation. + +There are other quaint structures in this curious old town. A gray +gateway about ten feet wide, flanked by tall square towers, marks the +northern entrance to the city, the ditch from the fort passing in +front of it. In one of the streets is the palace of the Spanish +Governors, since changed into a post-office. The official centre of +the city is a public square, the Plaza de la Constitucion, having a +monument commemorating the Spanish Liberal Constitution of 1812, and +also a Confederate Soldiers' Monument. This square fronts on the +sea-wall, and alongside it and stretching westward is the Alameda, +known as King Street, leading to the group of grand hotels recently +constructed in Spanish and Moorish style, which have made modern St. +Augustine so famous. These are the Ponce de Leon, the Alcazar and the +Cordova, with the Casino, adjoined by spacious and beautiful gardens. +These buildings reproduce all types of the Hispano-Moorish +architecture, with many suggestions from the Alhambra. The Ponce de +Leon, the largest, is three hundred and eighty by five hundred and +twenty feet, enclosing an open court, and its towers rise above the +red-tiled roofs to a height of one hundred and sixty-five feet, the +adornments in colors being very effective. To the southward of the +town, adjoining the barracks, is the military cemetery, where a +monument and three white pyramids tell the horrid story of the Dade +massacre during the Seminole War. Major Dade, a gallant officer, and +one hundred and seven men, were ambushed and massacred by eight +hundred Indians in December, 1835, and their remains afterwards +brought here and interred under the pyramids. Opposite the barracks is +what is claimed to be the oldest house in the United States, occupied +by Franciscan monks from 1565 to 1580, and afterwards a dwelling. It +has been restored, and contains a collection of historical relics. + +St. Augustine has had a chequered history. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth's +naval hero, Sir Francis Drake, sailing all over the world to fight +Spaniards, attacked and plundered the town and burnt the greater part +of it. Then for nearly a century the Indians, pirates, French, English +and neighboring Georgians and Carolinians made matters lively for the +harried inhabitants. In 1763 the British came into possession, but +they ceded it back to Spain twenty years later, the town then +containing about three hundred householders and nine hundred negroes. +It became American in 1821, and was an important military post during +the subsequent Seminole War, which continued several years. It was +early captured by the Union forces during the Civil War, and was a +valuable stronghold for them. This curious old town has many +traditions that tell of war and massacre and the horrible cruelties of +the Spanish Inquisition, the remains of cages in which prisoners were +starved to death being shown in the fort. Its best modern story, +however, is told of the escape of Coa-coo-chee, the Seminole chief, +whose adventurous spirit and savage nature gained him the name of the +"Wild Cat." The ending of the Seminole War was the signing of a treaty +by the older chiefs agreeing to remove west of the Mississippi. +Coa-coo-chee, with other younger chiefs, opposed this and renewed the +conflict. He was ultimately captured and taken to Fort Marion. +Feigning sickness, he was removed into a casemate giving him air, +there being an aperture two feet high by nine inches wide in the wall +about thirteen feet above the floor, and under it a platform five feet +high. Here, while still feigning illness, he became attenuated by +voluntary abstinence from food, and finally one night squeezed himself +through the aperture and dropped to the bottom of the moat, which was +dry. Eluding all the guards, he escaped and rejoined his people. The +flight caused a great sensation, and there was hot pursuit. After some +time he was recaptured, and being taken before General Worth, was used +to compel the remnant of the tribe to remove to the West. Worth told +him if his people were not at Tampa in twenty days he would be killed, +and he was ordered to notify them by Indian runners. He hesitated, but +afterwards yielded, and the runners were given twenty twigs, one to be +broken each day, so they might know when the last one was broken his +life would pay the penalty. In seventeen days the task was +accomplished. The tribe came to Tampa, and the captive was released, +accompanying his warriors to the far West. This ended most of the +Indian troubles in Florida, but some descendants of the Seminoles +still exist in the remote fastnesses of the everglades. + + +THE FLORIDA EAST COAST. + +All along the Atlantic shore of Florida south of St. Augustine are +popular winter resorts, their broad and attractive beaches, fine +climate and prolific tropical vegetation being among the charms that +bring visitors. Ormond is between the ocean front and the pleasant +Halifax River, its picturesque tributary, the Tomoka, being a favorite +resort for picnic parties. A few miles south on the Halifax River is +Daytona, known as the "Fountain City," and having its suburb, "the +City Beautiful," on the opposite bank. New Smyrna, settled by +Minorcan indigo planters in the eighteenth century, is on the northern +arm of Indian River. Here are found some of the ancient Indian shell +mounds that are frequent in Florida, and also the orange groves that +make this region famous. Inland about thirty miles are a group of +pretty lakes, and in the pines at Lake Helen is located the "Southern +Cassadaga," or Spiritualists' Assembly. For more than a hundred and +fifty miles the noted Indian River stretches down the coast of +Florida. It is a long and narrow lagoon, parallel with the ocean, and +is part of the series of lagoons found on the eastern coast almost +continuously for more than three hundred miles from St. Augustine +south to Biscayne Bay, and varying in width from about fifty yards to +six or more miles. They are shallow waters, rarely over twelve feet +deep, and are entered by very shallow inlets from the sea. The Indian +River shores, stretching down to Jupiter Inlet, are lined with +luxuriant vegetation, and the water is at times highly phosphorescent. +Upon the western shore are most of the celebrated Indian River orange +groves whose product is so highly prized. At Titusville, the head of +navigation, where there are about a thousand people, the river is +about, at its widest part, six miles. Twenty miles below, at +Rockledge, it narrows to about a mile in width, washing against the +perpendicular sides of a continuous enclosing ledge of coquina rock, +with pleasant overhanging trees. Here comes in, around an island, its +eastern arm, the Banana River, and to the many orange groves are added +plantations of the luscious pineapple. Various limpid streams flow out +from the everglade region at the westward, and Fort Pierce is the +trading station for that district, to which the remnant of the +Seminoles come to exchange alligator hides, bird plumage and snake +skins for various supplies, not forgetting "fire-water." Below this is +the wide estuary of St. Lucie River and the Jupiter River, with the +lighthouse on the ocean's edge at Jupiter Inlet, the mouth of Indian +River. + +Seventeen miles below this Inlet is Palm Beach, a noted resort, +situated upon the narrow strip of land between the long and narrow +lagoon of Lake Worth and the Atlantic Ocean. Here are the vast Hotel +Royal Poinciana and the Palm Beach Inn, with their cocoanut groves, +which also fringe for miles the pleasant shores of Lake Worth. +Prolific vegetation and every charm that can add to this American +Riviera bring a crowded winter population. The Poinciana is a tree +bearing gorgeous flowers, and the two magnificent hotels, surrounded +by an extensive tropical paradise, are connected by a wide avenue of +palms a half-mile long, one house facing the lake and the other the +ocean. There is not a horse in the settlement, and only one mule, +whose duty is to haul a light summer car between the houses. The +vehicles of Palm Beach are said to be confined to "bicycles, +wheel-chairs and jinrickshas." Off to the westward the distant horizon +is bounded by the mysterious region of the everglades. Far down the +coast the railway terminates at Miami, the southernmost railway +station in the United States, a little town on Miami River, where it +enters the broad expanse of Biscayne Bay, which is separated from the +Atlantic by the first of the long chain of Florida keys. Here are many +fruit and vegetable plantations, and the town, which is a railway +terminal and steamship port for lines to Nassau, Key West and Havana, +is growing. Nassau is but one hundred and seventy-five miles distant +in the Bahamas, off the Southern Florida coast, and has become a +favorite American winter tourist resort. + + +ASCENDING ST. JOHN'S RIVER. + +The St. John's is the great river of Florida, rising in the region of +lakes, swamps and savannahs in the lower peninsula, and flowing +northward four hundred miles to Jacksonville, then turning eastward to +the ocean. It comes through a low and level region, with mostly a +sluggish current; is bordered by dense foliage, and in its northern +portion is a series of lagoons varying in width from one to six miles. +The river is navigable fully two hundred miles above Jacksonville. The +earlier portion of the journey is monotonous, the shores being distant +and the landings made at long piers jutting out over the shallows +from the villages and plantations. At Mandarin is the orange grove +which was formerly the winter home of Harriet Beecher Stowe; Magnolia +amid the pines is a resort for consumptives; and nearby is Green Cove +Springs, having a large sulphur spring of medicinal virtue. In all +directions stretch the pine forests; and the river water, while clear +and sparkling in the sunlight, is colored a dark amber from the swamps +whence it comes. The original Indian name of this river was We-la-ka, +or a "chain of lakes," the literal meaning, in the figurative idea of +the savage, being "the water has its own way." It broadens into +various bays, and at one of these, about seventy-five miles south of +Jacksonville, is the chief town of the upper river, Palatka, having +about thirty-five hundred inhabitants and a much greater winter +population. It is largely a Yankee town, shipping oranges and early +vegetables to the North; and across the river, just above, is one of +the leading orange plantations of Florida--Colonel Hart's, a Vermonter +who came here dying of consumption, but lived to become, in his time, +the leading fruit-grower of the State. Above Palatka the river is +narrower, excepting where it may broaden into a lake; the foliage is +greener, the shores more swampy, the wild-fowl more frequent, and the +cypress tree more general. The young "cypress knees" can be seen +starting up along the swampy edge of the shore, looking like so many +champagne bottles set to cool in the water. The river also becomes +quite crooked, and here is an ancient Spanish and Indian settlement, +well named Welaka, opposite which flows in the weird Ocklawaha River, +the haunt of the alligator and renowned as the crookedest stream on +the continent. + + + [Illustration: _On the Ocklawaha_] + +GOING DOWN THE OCKLAWAHA. + +The Ocklawaha, the "dark, crooked water," comes from the south, by +tortuous windings, through various lakes and swamps, and then turns +east and southeast to flow into St. John's River, after a course of +over three hundred miles. It rises in Lake Apopka, down the Peninsula, +elevated about a hundred feet above the sea, the second largest of the +Florida Lakes, and covering one hundred and fifty square miles. This +lake has wooded highlands to the westward, dignified by the title of +Apopka Mountains, which rise probably one hundred and twenty feet +above its surface. To the northward is a group of lakes--Griffin, +Yale, Eustis, Dora, Harris and others--having clear amber waters and +low shores, which are all united by the Ocklawaha, the stream finally +flowing northward out of Lake Griffin. This is a region of extensive +settlement, mainly by Northern people. The mouth of the Ocklawaha is +sixty-five miles from Lake Eustis in a straight line, but the river +goes two hundred and thirty miles to get there. To the northward of +this lake district is the thriving town of Ocala, with five thousand +people, in a region of good agriculture and having large +phosphate beds, the settlement having been originally started as a +military post during the Seminole War. About five miles east of Ocala +is the famous Silver Spring, which is believed to have been the +"fountain of perpetual youth," for which Juan Ponce de Leon vainly +searched. It is the largest and most beautiful of the many Florida +springs, having wonderfully clear waters, and covers about three +acres. The waters can be plainly seen pouring upwards through fissures +in the rocky bottom, like an inverted Niagara, eighty feet beneath the +surface. It has an enormous outflow, and a swift brook runs from it, a +hundred feet wide, for some eight miles to the Ocklawaha. + +This strange stream is hardly a river in the ordinary sense, having +fixed banks and a well-defined channel, but is rather a tortuous but +navigable passage through a succession of lagoons and cypress swamps. +Above the Silver Spring outlet, only the smallest boats of light draft +can get through the crooked channel. This outlet is thirty miles in a +direct line from the mouth of the river at the St. John's, but the +Ocklawaha goes one hundred and nine miles thither. The swampy border +of the stream is rarely more than a mile broad, and beyond it are the +higher pine lands. Through this curious channel, amid the thick +cypress forests and dense jungle of undergrowth, the wayward and +crooked river meanders. The swampy bottom in which it has its course +is so low-lying as to be undrainable and cannot be improved, so that +it will probably always remain as now, a refuge for the sub-tropical +animals, birds, reptiles and insects of Florida, which abound in its +inmost recesses. Here flourishes the alligator, coming out to sun +himself at mid-day on the logs and warm grassy lagoons at the edge of +the stream, in just the kinds of places one would expect to find him. +Yet the alligator is said to be a coward, rarely attacking, unless his +retreat to water in which to hide himself is cut off. He thus becomes +more a curiosity than a foe. These reptiles are hatched from eggs +which the female deposits during the spring, in large numbers, in +muddy places, where she digs out a spacious cavity, fills it with +several hundred eggs, and covering them thickly with mud, leaves +nature to do the rest. After a long incubation the little fellows come +out and make a bee-line for the nearest water. The big alligators of +the neighborhood have many breakfasts on the newly-born little ones, +but some manage to grow up, after several years, to maturity, and +exhibit themselves along this remarkable river. + +It is almost impossible to conceive of the concentrated crookedness of +the Ocklawaha and the difficulties of passage. It is navigated by +stout and narrow flat-bottomed boats of light draft, constructed so as +to quickly turn sharp corners, bump the shores and run on logs without +injury. The river turns constantly at short intervals and doubles upon +itself in almost every mile, while the huge cypress trees often +compress the water way so that a wider boat could not get through. +There are many beautiful views in its course displaying the noble +ranks of cypress trees rising as the stream bends along its bordering +edge of swamps. Occasionally a comparatively straight river reach +opens like the aisle of a grand building with the moss-hung cypress +columns in long and sombre rows on either hand. At rare intervals fast +land comes down to the stream bank, where there is some cultivation +attempted for oranges and vegetables. Terrapin, turtles and water-fowl +abound. When the passenger boat, after bumping and swinging around the +corners, much like a ponderous teetotum, halts for a moment at a +landing in this swampy fastness, half-clad negroes usually appear, +offering for sale partly-grown baby alligators, which are the prolific +crop of the district. Various "Turkey bends," "Hell's half-acres," +"Log Jams," "Bone Yards" and "Double S Bends" are passed, and at one +place is the "Cypress Gate," where three large trees are in the way, +and by chopping off parts of their roots, a passage about twenty feet +wide had been secured to let the boats through. There are said to be +two thousand bends in one hundred miles of this stream, and many of +them are like corrugated circles, by which the narrow water way, in a +mile or two of its course, manages to twist back to within a few feet +of where it started. At night, to aid the navigation, the lurid glare +of huge pine-knot torches, fitfully blazing, gives the scene a weird +and unnatural aspect. The monotonous sameness of cypress trunks, +sombre moss and twisting stream for many hours finally becomes very +tiresome, but it is nevertheless a most remarkable journey of the +strangest character possible in this country to sail down the +Ocklawaha. + + +LOWER FLORIDA AND THE SEMINOLES. + +South of the mouth of the Ocklawaha the St. John's River broadens into +Lake George, the largest of its many lakes, a pretty sheet of water +six to nine miles wide and twelve miles long. Volusia, the site of an +ancient Spanish mission, is at the head of this lake, and the +discharge from the swift but narrow stream above has made sand bars, +so that jetties are constructed to deepen the channel. For a long +distance the upper river is narrow and tortuous, with numerous islands +and swamps, the dark coffee-colored water disclosing its origin; but +the Blue Spring in one place is unique, sending out an ample and rich +blue current to mix with the amber. Then Lake Monroe is reached, ten +miles long and five miles wide, the head of navigation, by the regular +lines of steamers, one hundred and seventy miles above Jacksonville. +Here are two flourishing towns, Enterprise on the northern shore and +Sanford on the southern, both popular winter resorts, and the latter +having two thousand people. The St. John's extends above Lake Monroe, +a crooked, narrow, shallow stream, two hundred and fourteen miles +farther southeastward to its source. The region through which it there +passes is mostly a prairie with herds of cattle and much game, and is +only sparsely settled. The upper river approaches the seacoast, being +in one place but three miles from the lagoons bordering the Atlantic. +To the southward of Lake Monroe are the winter resorts of Winter Park +and Orlando, the latter a town of three thousand population. There are +numerous lakes in this district, and then leaving the St. John's +valley and crossing the watershed southward through the pine forests, +the Okeechobee waters are reached, which flow down to that lake. This +region was the home of a part of the Seminole Indians, and +Tohopekaliga was their chief, whom they revered so highly that they +named their largest lake in his honor. The Kissimmee River flows +southward through this lake, and then traverses a succession of lakes +and swamps to Lake Okeechobee, about two hundred miles southward by +the water-line. Kissimmee City is on Lake Tohopekaliga, and extensive +drainage operations have been conducted here and to the southward, +reclaiming a large extent of valuable lands, and lowering the +water-level in all these lakes and attendant swamps. + +From Lake Tohopekaliga through the tortuous water route to Lake +Okeechobee, and thence by the Caloosahatchie westward to the Gulf of +Mexico, is a winding channel of four hundred and sixty miles, though +in a direct line the distance is but one hundred and fifty miles. +Okeechobee, the word meaning the "large water," covers about twelve +hundred and fifty square miles, and almost all about it are the +everglades or "grass water," the shores being generally a swampy +jungle. This district for many miles is a mass of waving sedge grass +eight to ten feet high above the water, and inaccessible excepting +through narrow, winding and generally hidden channels. In one locality +a few tall lone pines stand like sentinels upon Arpeika Island, +formerly the home of the bravest and most dreaded of the Seminoles, +and still occupied by some of their descendants. The name of the +Seminole means the "separatist" or "runaway" Indians, they having +centuries ago separated from the Creeks in Georgia and gone southward +into Florida. From the days of De Soto to the time of their +deportation in the nineteenth century the Spanish, British, French and +Americans made war with these Seminole Indians. Gradually they were +pressed southward through Florida. Their final refuge was the green +islands and hummocks of the everglades, and they then clung to their +last homes with the tenacity of despair. The greater part of this +region is an unexplored mystery; the deep silence that can be actually +felt, everywhere pervades; and once lost within the labyrinth, the +adventurer is doomed unless rescued. Only the Indians knew its +concealed and devious paths. On Arpeika Island the Cacique of the +Caribs is said to have ruled centuries ago, until forced south out of +Florida by the Seminoles. It was at times a refuge for the buccaneer +with his plunder and a shrine for the missionary martyr who planted +the Cross and was murdered beside it. This island was the last retreat +of the Seminoles in the desultory war from 1835 to 1843, when they +defied the Government, which, during eight years, spent $50,000,000 +upon expeditions sent against them. Then the attempt to remove all of +them was abandoned, and the remnant have since rested in peace, living +by hunting and a little trading with the coast settlements. The names +of the noted chiefs of this great race--Osceola, Tallahassee, +Tohopekaliga, Coa-coo-chee and others--are preserved in the lakes, +streams and towns of Florida. Most of the deported tribe were sent to +the Indian Territory. There may be three or four hundred of them still +in the everglades, peaceful, it is true, yet haughty and suspicious, +and sturdily rejecting all efforts to educate or civilize them. They +celebrate their great feast, the "Green Corn Dance," in late June; and +they have unwavering faith in the belief that the time will yet come +when all their prized everglade land will be theirs again, and the +glory of the past redeemed, if not in this world, then in the next +one, beyond the "Big Sleep." + + +WESTERN FLORIDA. + +Westward from Jacksonville, a railway runs through the pine forests +until it reaches the rushing Suwanee River, draining the Okifenokee +swamp out to the Gulf, just north of Cedar Key. This stream is best +known from the minstrel song, long so popular, of the _Old Folks at +Home_. Beyond it the land rises into the rolling country of Middle +Florida, the undulating surface sometimes reaching four hundred feet +elevation, and presenting fertile soil and pleasant scenery, with a +less tropical vegetation than the Peninsula of Florida. Here is +Tallahassee, the capital of the State, one hundred and sixty-five +miles from Jacksonville, a beautiful town of four thousand population, +almost embedded in flowering plants, shrubbery and evergreens, and +familiarly known from these beauties as the "Floral City," the gardens +being especially attractive in the season of roses. The Capitol and +Court-house and West Florida Seminary, set on a hill, are the chief +public buildings. In the suburbs, at Monticello, lived Prince Achille +Murat, a son of the King of Naples, who died in 1847, and his grave is +in the Episcopal Cemetery. There are several lakes near the town, one +of them the curious Lake Miccosukie, which contracts into a creek, +finally disappearing underground. The noted Wakulla Spring, an immense +limestone basin of great depth and volume of water, with wonderful +transparency, is fifteen miles southward. + +Some distance to the westward the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers join +to form the Appalachicola River, flowing down to the Gulf at +Appalachicola, a somewhat decadent port from loss of trade, its +exports being principally lumber and cotton. The shallowness of most +of these Gulf harbors, which readily silt up, destroys their +usefulness as ports for deep-draft shipping. The route farther +westward skirts the Gulf Coast, crosses Escambia Bay and reaches +Pensacola, on its spacious harbor, ten miles within the Gulf. This is +the chief Western Florida port, with fifteen thousand people, having a +Navy Yard and much trade in lumber, cotton, coal and grain, a large +elevator for the latter being erected in 1898. The Spaniards made this +a frontier post in 1696, and the remains of their forts, San Miguel +and San Bernardo, can be seen behind the town, while near the outer +edge of the harbor is the old-time Spanish defensive battery, Fort San +Carlos de Barrancos. The harbor entrance is now defended by Fort +Pickens and Fort McRae. Pensacola Bay was the scene of one of the +first spirited naval combats of the Civil War, when the Union forces +early in 1862 recaptured the Navy Yard and defenses. The name of +Pensacola was originally given by the Choctaws to the bearded +Europeans who first settled there, and signifies the "hair people." + + +THE FLORIDA GULF COAST. + +The coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico has various attractive +places, reached by a convenient railway system. Homosassa is a popular +resort about fifty miles southwestward from Ocala. A short distance in +the interior is the locality where the Seminoles surprised and +massacred Major Dade and his men in December, 1835, only three +soldiers escaping alive to tell the horrid tale. The operations +against these Indians were then mainly conducted from the military +post of Tampa, and thither were taken for deportation the portions of +the tribe that were afterwards captured, or who surrendered under the +treaty. When Ferdinand de Soto entered this magnificent harbor on his +voyage of discovery and gold hunting, he called it Espiritu Sancto +Bay. It is from six to fifteen miles wide, and stretches nearly forty +miles into the land, being dotted with islands, its waters swarming +with sea-fowl, turtles and fish, deer abounding in the interior and on +some of the islands, and there being abundant anchorage for the +largest vessels. This is the great Florida harbor and the chief winter +resort on the western coast. It was the main port of rendezvous and +embarkation for the American forces in the Spanish War of 1898. The +head of the harbor divides into Old Tampa and Hillsborough Bays, and +on the latter and at the mouth of Hillsborough River is the city, +numbering about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The great hotels +are surrounded by groves with orange and lemon trees abounding, and +everything is invoked that can add to the tourist attractions. The +special industry of the resident population is cigar-making. Port +Tampa is out upon the Peninsula between the two bays, several miles +below the city, and a long railway trestle leads from the shore for a +mile to deep water. Upon the outer end of this long wharf is Tampa +Inn, built on a mass of piles, much like some of the constructions in +Venice. The guests can almost catch fish out of the bedroom windows, +and while eating breakfast can watch the pelican go fishing in the +neighboring waters, for this queer-looking bird, with the duck and +gull, is everywhere seen in these attractive regions. An outer line of +keys defends Tampa harbor from the storms of the Gulf. There are many +popular resorts on the islands and shores of Tampa Bay, and regular +lines of steamers are run to the West India ports, Mobile and New +Orleans. All the surroundings are attractive, and a pleased visitor +writes of the place: "Conditions hereabouts exhilarate the men; a +perpetual sun and ocean breeze are balm to the invalid and an +inspiration to a robust health. The landscape affords uncommon +diversion, and the sea its royal sport with rod and gaff." + +Farther down the coast is Charlotte Harbor, also deeply indented and +sheltered from the sea by various outlying islands. It is eight to ten +miles long and extends twenty-five miles into the land, having +valuable oyster-beds and fisheries, and its port is Punta Gorda. Below +this is the projecting shore of Punta Rassa, where the outlet of Lake +Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchie River, flows to the sea, having the +military post of Fort Myers, another popular resort, a short distance +inland, upon its bank. The Gulf Coast now trends to the southeast, +with various bays, in one of which, with Cape Romano as the guarding +headland, is the archipelago of "the ten thousand islands," while +below is Cape Sable, the southwestern extremity of Florida. To the +southward, distant from the shore, are the long line of Florida Keys, +the name coming from the Spanish word _cayo_, an island. This +remarkable coral formation marks the northern limit of the Gulf +Stream, where it flows swiftly out to round the extremity of the +Peninsula and begin its northern course through the Atlantic Ocean. +Although well lighted and charted, the Straits of Florida along these +reefs are dangerous to navigate and need special pilots. Nowhere +rising more than eight to twelve feet above the sea, the Keys thus +low-lying are luxuriantly covered with tropical vegetation. From the +Dry Tortugas at the west, around to Sand's Key at the entrance to +Biscayne Bay, off the Atlantic Coast, about two hundred miles, is a +continuous reef of coral, upon the whole extent of which the little +builder is still industriously working. The reef is occasionally +broken by channels of varying depth, and within the outer line are +many habitable islands. The whole space inside this reef is slowly +filling up, just as all the Keys are also slowly growing through +accretions from floating substances becoming entangled in the myriad +roots of the mangroves. The present Florida Reef is a good example of +the way in which a large part of the Peninsula was formed. No less +than seven old coral reefs have been found to exist south of Lake +Okeechobee, and the present one at the very edge of the deep water of +the Gulf Stream is probably the last that can be formed, as the little +coral-builder cannot live at a greater depth than sixty feet. The Gulf +Stream current is so swift and deep along the outer reef that there is +no longer a foundation on which to build. + +The Gulf Stream is the best known of all the great ocean currents. The +northeast and southeast trade-winds, constantly blowing, drive a great +mass of water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea, and +westward through the passages between the Windward Islands, which is +contracted by the converging shores of the Yucatan Peninsula and the +Island of Cuba, so that it pours between them into the Gulf of Mexico, +raising its surface considerably above the level of the Atlantic. +These currents then move towards the Florida Peninsula, and pass +around the Florida Reef and out into the Atlantic. It is estimated by +the Coast Survey that the hourly flow of the Gulf Stream past the +reef is nearly ninety thousand million tons of water, the speed at the +surface of the axis of the stream being over three and one-half miles +an hour. To conceive what the immensity of this flow means, it is +stated that if a single hour's flow of water were evaporated, the salt +thus produced would require to carry it one hundred times the number +of ocean-going vessels now afloat. The Gulf Stream water is of high +temperature, great clearness and a deep blue color; and when it meets +the greener waters of the Atlantic to the northward, the line of +distinction is often very well defined. At the exit to the Atlantic +below Jupiter Inlet the stream is forty-eight miles wide to Little +Bahama Bank, and its depth over four hundred fathoms. + +There are numerous harbors of refuge among the Florida Keys, and that +at Key West is the best. This is a coral island seven miles long and +one to two miles broad, but nowhere elevated more than eleven feet +above the sea. Its name, by a free translation, comes from the +original Spanish name of _Cayo Hueso_, or the Bone Island, given +because the early mariners found human bones upon it. Here are twenty +thousand people, mostly Cubans and settlers from the Bahamas, the +chief industry being cigar-making, while catching fish and turtles and +gathering sponges also give much employment. There are no springs on +the island, and the inhabitants are dependent on rain or distillation +for water. The air is pure and the climate healthy, the trees and +shrubbery, with the residences embowered in perennial flowers, giving +the city a picturesque appearance. Key West has a good harbor, and as +it commands the gateway to and from the Gulf near the western +extremity of the Florida coral reef, it is strongly defended, the +prominent work being Fort Taylor, constructed on an artificial island +within the main harbor entrance. The little Sand Key, seven miles to +the southwest, is the southernmost point of the United States. Forty +miles to the westward is the group of ten small, low and barren +islands known as the Dry Tortugas, from the Spanish _tortuga_, a +tortoise. Upon the farthest one, Loggerhead Key, stands the great +guiding light for the Florida Reef, of which this is the western +extremity, the tower rising one hundred and fifty feet. Fort Jefferson +is on Garden Key, where there is a harbor, and in it were confined +various political prisoners during the Civil War, among them some who +were concerned in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. + +Here, with the encircling waters of the Gulf all around us, terminates +this visit to the Sunny South. As we have progressed, the gradual +blending of the temperate into the torrid zone, with the changing +vegetation, has reminded of Bayard Taylor's words: + + "There, in the wondering airs of the Tropics, + Shivers the Aspen, still dreaming of cold: + There stretches the Oak from the loftiest ledges, + His arms to the far-away lands of his brothers, + And the Pine tree looks down on his rival, the Palm." + +And as the journey down the Florida Peninsula has displayed some of +the most magnificent winter resorts of the American Riviera, with +their wealth of tropical foliage, fruits and flowers, and their +seductive and balmy climate, this too has reminded of Cardinal +Damiani's glimpse of the "Joys of Heaven": + + "Stormy winter, burning summer, rage within these regions never, + But perpetual bloom of roses and unfading spring forever; + Lilies gleam, the crocus glows, and dropping balms their scents + deliver." + +Along this famous peninsula the sea rolls with ceaseless beat upon +some of the most gorgeous beaches of the American coast. To the +glories of tropical vegetation and the charms of the climate, Florida +thus adds the magnificence of its unrivalled marine environment. +Everywhere upon these pleasant coasts-- + + "The bridegroom, Sea, + Is toying with his wedded bride,--the Shore. + He decorates her shining brow with shells, + And then retires to see how fine she looks, + Then, proud, runs up to kiss her." + + + + +TRAVERSING THE PRAIRIE LAND. + + + + +VI. + +TRAVERSING THE PRAIRIE LAND. + + The Northwest Territory -- Beaver River -- Fort McIntosh -- + Mahoning Valley -- Steubenville -- Youngstown -- Canton -- + Massillon -- Columbus -- Scioto River -- Wayne Defeats the + Miamis -- Sandusky River -- Findlay -- Natural Gas Fields -- + Fort Wayne -- Maumee River -- The Little Turtle -- Old + Tippecanoe -- Tecumseh -- Battle of Tippecanoe -- Harrison + Defeats the Prophet -- Tecumseh Slain in Canada -- Indianapolis + -- Wabash River -- Terre Haute -- Illinois River -- Springfield + -- Lincoln's Home and Tomb -- Peoria -- The Great West -- Lake + Erie -- Tribe of the Cat -- Conneaut -- The Western Reserve -- + Ashtabula -- Mentor -- Cleveland -- Cuyahoga River -- Moses + Cleaveland -- Euclid Avenue -- Oberlin -- Elyria -- The Fire + Lands -- Sandusky -- Put-in-Bay Island -- Perry's Victory -- + Maumee River -- Toledo -- South Bend -- Chicago -- The + Pottawatomies -- Fort Dearborn -- Chicago Fire -- Lake Michigan + -- Chicago River -- Drainage Canal -- Lockport -- Water Supply + -- Fine Buildings, Streets and Parks -- University of Chicago + -- Libraries -- Federal Steel Company -- Great Business + Establishments -- Union Stock Yards -- The Hog -- The Board of + Trade -- Speculative Activity -- George M. Pullman -- The + Sleeping Car -- The Pioneer -- Town of Pullman -- Agricultural + Wealth of the Prairies -- The Corn Crop -- Whittier's Corn + Song. + + +THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. + +Beyond the Allegheny ranges, which are gradually broken down into +their lower foothills, and then to an almost monotonous level, the +expansive prairie lands stretch towards the setting sun. From their +prolific agriculture has come much of the wealth and prosperity of +the United States. The rivers flowing out of the mountains seek the +Mississippi Valley, thus reaching the sea through the Great Father of +Waters. Among these rivers is the Ohio, and at its confluence with the +Beaver, near the western border of Pennsylvania, was, in the early +days, the Revolutionary outpost of Fort McIntosh, a defensive work +against the Indians. All about is a region of coal and gas, extending +across the boundary into the Mahoning district of Ohio, the Mahoning +River being an affluent of the Beaver. Numerous railroads serve its +many towns of furnaces and forges. To the southward is Steubenville on +the Ohio, and to the northward Youngstown on the Mahoning, both busy +manufacturing centres. Salem and Alliance are also prominent, and some +distance northwest is Canton, a city of thirty thousand people, in a +fertile grain district, the home of President William McKinley. +Massillon, upon the pleasant Tuscarawas River, in one of the most +productive Ohio coal-fields, preserves the memory of the noted French +missionary priest, Jean Baptiste Massillon, for all this region was +first traversed, and opened to civilization, by the French religious +explorers from Canada who went out to convert the Indians. + +In the centre of the State of Ohio is the capital, Columbus, built on +the banks of the Scioto River, a tributary of the Ohio flowing +southward and two hundred miles long. This river receives the +Olentangy or Whetstone River at Columbus, in a region of great +fertility, which is in fact the characteristic of the whole Scioto +Valley. The Ohio capital, which has a population of one hundred and +twenty thousand, large commerce and many important manufacturing +establishments, dates from 1812, and became the seat of the State +Government in 1816. The large expenditures of public money upon +numerous public institutions, all having fine buildings, the wide, +tree-shaded streets, and the many attractive residences, have made it +one of the finest cities in the United States. Broad Street, one +hundred and twenty feet wide, beautifully shaded with maples and elms, +extends for seven miles. The Capitol occupies a large park surrounded +with elms, and is an impressive Doric building of gray limestone, +three hundred and four feet long and one hundred and eighty-four feet +wide, the rotunda being one hundred and fifty-seven feet high. There +are fine parks on the north, south and east of the city, the latter +containing the spacious grounds of the Agricultural Society. Almost +all the Ohio State buildings, devoted to its benevolence, justice or +business, have been concentrated in Columbus, adding to its +attractions, and it is also the seat of the Ohio State University with +one thousand students. Railroads radiate in all directions, adding to +its commercial importance. + +In going westward, the region we are traversing beyond the +Pennsylvania boundary gradually changes from coal and iron to a rich +agricultural section. As we move away from the influence of the +Allegheny ranges, the hills become gentler, and the rolling surface is +more and more subdued, until it is smoothed out into an almost level +prairie, heavily timbered where not yet cleared for cultivation. This +was the Northwest Territory, first explored by the French, who were +led by the Sieur de la Salle in his original discoveries in the +seventeenth century. The French held it until the conquest of Canada, +when that Dominion and the whole country west to the Mississippi River +came under the British flag by the treaty of 1763. After the +Revolution, the various older Atlantic seaboard States claiming the +region, ceded sovereignty to the United States Government, and then +its history was chequered by Indian wars until General Wayne conducted +an expedition against the Miamis and defeated them in 1794, after +which the Northwest Territory was organized, and the State of Ohio +taken out of it and admitted to the Union in 1803, its first capital +being Chillicothe. It was removed to Zanesville for a couple of years, +but finally located at Columbus. + +Beyond the Scioto the watershed is crossed, by which the waters of the +Ohio are left behind and the valley of Sandusky River is reached, a +tributary of Lake Erie. Here is Bucyrus, in another prolific natural +gas region, the centre of which is Findlay. At this town, in 1887, the +inhabitants, who had then had just one year of natural gas +development, spent three days in exuberant festivity, to show their +appreciation of the wonderful discovery. They had thirty-one gas wells +pouring out ninety millions of cubic feet in a day, all piped into +town and feeding thirty thousand glaring natural gas torches of +enormous power, which blew their roaring flames as an accompaniment to +the oratory of John Sherman and Joseph B. Foraker, who were then +respectively Senator and Governor of Ohio. The soldiers and firemen +paraded, and a multitude of brass bands tried to drown the Niagara of +gas which was heard roaring five miles away, while the country at +night was illuminated for twenty miles around. But the wells have +since diminished their flow, although the gas still exists; while +another field with a prolific yield is in Fairfield County, a short +distance southeast of Columbus. Over the State boundary in Indiana is +yet another great gas-field covering five thousand square miles in a +dozen counties, with probably two thousand wells and a yield which has +reached three thousand millions of cubic feet in a day. This gas +supplies many cities and towns, including Chicago, and it is one of +the greatest gas-fields known. In the same region there are also large +petroleum deposits. + +Not far beyond the State boundary is Fort Wayne, the leading city of +Northern Indiana, having forty thousand population, an important +railway centre, and prominent also in manufactures. It stands in a +fertile agricultural district, and being located at the highest part +of the gentle elevation, beyond the Sandusky Valley, diverting the +waters east and west, it is appropriately called the "Summit City." +Here the Maumee River is formed by the confluence of the two streams +St. Joseph and St. Mary, and flows through the prairie towards the +northeast, to make the head of Lake Erie. The French, under La Salle, +in the eighteenth century established a fur-trading post here, and +erected Fort Miami, and in 1760 the British penetrated to this then +remote region and also built a fort. During the Revolution this +country was abandoned to the Indians, but when General Wayne defeated +the Miamis in 1794 he thought the place would make a good frontier +outpost to hold the savages in check, and he then constructed a strong +work, to which he gave the name of Fort Wayne. Around this post the +town afterwards grew, being greatly prospered by the Wabash and Erie +Canal, and by the various railways subsequently constructed in all +directions. All this prairie region was the hunting-ground of the +Miamis, whose domain extended westward to Lake Michigan, and southward +along the valley of the Miami River to the Ohio. They were a warlike +and powerful tribe, and their adherence to the English during the +Revolution provoked almost constant hostilities with the settlers who +afterwards came across the mountains to colonize the Northwest +Territory. Under the leadership of their renowned chief +Mishekonequah, or the "Little Turtle," they defeated repeated +expeditions sent against them, until finally beaten by Wayne. +Subsequently they dwindled in importance, and when removed farther +west, about 1848, they numbered barely two hundred and fifty persons. + + +OLD TIPPECANOE. + +Some distance westward is the Tippecanoe River, a stream flowing +southwest into the Wabash, and thence into the Ohio. The word +Tippecanoe is said to mean "the great clearing," and on this river was +fought the noted battle by "Old Tippecanoe," General William Henry +Harrison, against the combined forces of the Shawnees, Miamis and +several other tribes, which resulted in their complete defeat. They +were united under Elskwatawa, or the "Prophet," the brother of the +famous Tecumseh. These two chieftains were Shawnees, and they preached +a crusade by which they gathered all the northwestern tribes in a +concerted movement to resist the steady encroachments of the whites. +The brother, who was a "medicine man," in 1805 set up as an inspired +prophet, denouncing the use of liquors, and of all food, manners and +customs introduced by the hated "palefaces," and confidently predicted +they would ultimately be driven from the land. For years both chiefs +travelled over the country stirring up the Indians. General Harrison, +who was the Governor of the Northwest Territory, gathered his forces +together and advanced up the Wabash against the Prophet's town of +Tippecanoe, when the Indians, hoping to surprise him, suddenly +attacked his camp, but he being prepared, they were signally defeated, +thus giving Harrison his popular title of "Old Tippecanoe," which had +much to do with electing him President in 1840. Some time after this +defeat the War of 1812 broke out, when Tecumseh espoused the English +cause, went to Canada with his warriors, and was made a +brigadier-general. He was killed there in the battle of the Thames, in +Ontario Province, and it is said had a premonition of death, for, +laying aside his general's uniform, he put on a hunting-dress and +fought desperately until he was slain. Tecumseh was the most famous +Indian chief of his time, and the honor of killing him was claimed by +several who fought in the battle, so that the problem of "Who killed +Tecumseh?" was long discussed throughout the country. + +The State of Indiana was admitted into the Union in 1816, and in its +centre, built upon a broad plain, on the east branch of White River, +is its capital and largest city, Indianapolis, having two hundred +thousand population. This is a great railway centre, having lines +radiating in all directions, and it also has extensive manufactures +and a large trade in live stock. The city plan, with wide streets +crossing at right angles, and four diagonal avenues radiating from a +circular central square, makes it very attractive; and the residential +quarter, displaying tasteful houses, ornate grounds and shady streets, +is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the country. The State +Capitol, in a spacious park, is a Doric building with colonnade, +central tower and dome, and in an enclosure on its eastern front is +erected one of the finest Soldiers' and Sailors' Monuments existing, +rising two hundred and eighty-five feet, out-topping everything +around, having been designed and largely constructed in Europe. There +are also many prominent public buildings throughout the city. +Indianapolis, first settled in 1819, had but a small population until +the railways centred there, the Capitol being removed from Corydon in +1825. The Wabash River, to which reference has been made, receives +White River, and is one of the largest affluents of the Ohio, about +five hundred and fifty miles long, being navigable over half that +length. It rises in the State of Ohio, flows across Indiana, and, +turning southward, makes for a long distance the Illinois boundary. +Its chief city is Terre Haute, the "High Ground," about seventy miles +west of Indianapolis, another prominent railroad centre, having +forty-five thousand people, with extensive manufactures. It is +surrounded by valuable coal-fields, is built upon an elevated plateau, +and, like all these prairie cities, is noted for its many broad and +well-shaded streets. It was founded in 1816. + + +THE GREAT WEST. + +Progressing westward, the timbered prairie gradually changes to the +grass-covered prairie, spreading everywhere a great ocean of +fertility. Across the Wabash is the "Prairie State" of Illinois, its +name coming from its principal river, which the Indians named after +themselves. The word is a French adaptation of the Indian name +"Illini," meaning "the superior men," the earliest explorers and +settlers having been French, the first comers on the Illinois River +being Father Marquette and La Salle. At the beginning of the +eighteenth century their little settlements were flourishing, and the +most glowing accounts were sent home, describing the region, which +they called "New France," on account of its beauty, attractiveness and +prodigious fertility, as a new Paradise. There were many years of +Indian conflicts and hostility, but after peace was restored and a +stable government established, population flowed in, and Illinois was +admitted as a State to the Union in 1818. The capital was established +at Springfield in 1837, an attractive city of about thirty thousand +inhabitants, built on a prairie a few miles south of Sangamon River, a +tributary of the Illinois, and from its floral development and the +adornment of its gardens and shade trees, Springfield is popularly +known as the "Flower City." There is a magnificent State Capitol with +high surmounting dome, patterned somewhat after the Federal Capitol +at Washington. Springfield has coal-mines which add to its prosperity, +but its great fame is connected with Abraham Lincoln. He lived in +Springfield, and the house he occupied when elected President has been +acquired by the State and is on public exhibition. After his +assassination in 1865, his remains were brought from Washington to +Springfield, and interred in the picturesque Oak Ridge Cemetery, in +the northern suburbs, where a magnificent monument was erected to his +memory and dedicated in 1874. About sixty miles north of Springfield, +the Illinois River expands into Peoria Lake, and here came La Salle +down the river in 1680, and at the foot of the lake established a +trading-post and fort, one of the earliest in that region. When more +than a century had elapsed, a little town grew there which is now the +busy industrial city of Peoria, famous for its whiskey and glucose, +and turning out products that annually approximate a hundred millions, +furnishing vast traffic for numerous railroads. It is the chief city +of the "corn belt," and is served by all the prominent trunk railway +lines. + +Like the pioneers of a hundred years ago, we have left the Atlantic +seaboard, crossed the Allegheny Mountains and entered the expansive +"Northwest Territory," which in the first half of the nineteenth +century was the Mecca of the colonist and frontiersman. This was then +the region of the "Great West," though that has since moved far +beyond the Mississippi. Its agricultural wealth made the prosperity of +the country for many decades, and its prodigious development was +hardly realized until put to the test of the Civil War, when it poured +out the men and officers, and had the staying qualities so largely +contributing to the result of that great conflict. Gradually +overspread by a network of railways, the numerous "cross-roads" have +expanded everywhere into towns and cities, almost all patterned alike, +and all of them centres of rich farming districts. Coal, oil and gas +have come to minister to its manufacturing wants, and thus growing +into mature Commonwealths, this prolific region in the later decades +has been itself, in turn, contributing largely to the tide of +migration flowing to the present "Great Northwest," a thousand miles +or more beyond. It presents a rich agricultural picture, but little +scenic attractiveness. Everywhere an almost dead level, the numerous +railways cross and recross the surface in all directions at grade, and +are easily built, it being only necessary to dig a shallow ditch on +either side, throw the earth in the centre, and lay the ties and +rails. Nature has made the prairie as smooth as a lake, so that hardly +any grading is necessary, and the region of expansive green viewed out +of the car window has been aptly described as having "a face but no +features," when one looks afar over an ocean of waving verdure. + + +LAKE ERIE. + +This vast prairie extends northward to and beyond the Great Lakes, and +it is recorded that in the early history of the proposed legislation +for the "Northwest Territory," Congress gravely selected as the names +of the States which were to be created out of it such ponderous +conglomerates as "Metropotamia," "Assenispia," "Pelisipia" and +"Polypotamia," titles which happily were long ago permitted to pass +into oblivion. Northward, in Ohio, the region stretches to Lake Erie, +the most southern and the smallest of the group of Great Lakes above +Niagara. It is regarded as the least attractive lake, having neither +romances nor much scenery. Yet, from its favorable position, it +carries an enormous commerce. It is elliptical in form, about two +hundred and forty miles long and sixty miles broad, the surface being +five hundred and sixty-five feet above the ocean level. It is a very +shallow lake, the depth rarely exceeding one hundred and twenty feet, +excepting at the lower end, while the other lakes are much deeper, and +in describing this difference of level it is said that the surplus +waters poured from the vast _basins_ of Superior, Michigan and Huron, +flow across the _plate_ of Erie into the deep _bowl_ of Ontario. This +shallowness causes it to be easily disturbed, so that it is the most +dangerous of these fresh-water seas, and it has few harbors, and those +very poor, especially upon the southern shore. The bottom of the lake +is a light, clayey sediment, rapidly accumulated from the wearing away +of the shores, largely composed of clay strata. The loosely-aggregated +products of these disintegrated strata are frequently seen along its +coast, forming cliffs extending back into elevated plateaus, through +which the rivers cut deep channels. Their mouths are clogged by +sand-bars, and dredging and breakwaters have made the harbors on the +southern shore, around which have grown the chief towns--Dunkirk, +Erie, Ashtabula, Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo. The name of Lake Erie +comes from the Indian "tribe of the Cat," whom the French called the +"Chats," because their early explorers, penetrating to the shores of +the lake, found them abounding in wild cats, and thus they gave the +same name to the cats and the savages. In their own parlance, these +Indians were the "Eries," and in the seventeenth century they numbered +about two thousand warriors. In 1656 the Iroquois attacked and almost +annihilated them. + +The Lake Erie ports in the "Buckeye State" of Ohio, so called from the +buckeye tree, are chiefly harbors for shipping coal and receiving ores +from the upper lakes, their railroads leading to the great industrial +centres to the southward. Near the eastern boundary of Ohio is +Conneaut, on the bank of a wide and deep ravine, formed by a small +river, broadening into a bay at the shore of the lake, the name +meaning "many fish." Here landed in 1796 the first settlers from +Connecticut, who entered the "Western Reserve," as all this region was +then called. On July 4th of that year, celebrating the national +anniversary, "they pledged each other in tin cups of lake water, +accompanied by a salute of fowling-pieces," and the next day began +building the first house on the Reserve, constructed of logs, and long +known as "Stow Castle." Conneaut is consequently known as the +"Plymouth of the Western Reserve," as here began the settlements made +by the Puritan New England migration to Ohio. On deep ravines making +their harbors are Ashtabula, an enormous _entrepôt_ for ores, and a +few miles farther westward, Painesville, on Grand River, named for +Thomas Paine. Beyond is Mentor, the home of the martyred President +Garfield, whose large white house stands near the railway. All along +here, the southern shore of Lake Erie is a broad terrace at eighty to +one hundred feet elevation above the water, while farther inland is +another and considerably higher plateau. Each sharp declivity facing +northward seems at one time to have been the actual shore of the lake +when its surface before the waters receded was much higher than now. +The outer plateau having once been the overflowed lake bed, is level, +excepting where the crooked but attractive streams have deeply cut +their winding ravines down through it to reach Lake Erie. + + +THE CITY OF CLEVELAND. + +Thus we come to Cleveland, the second city in Ohio, having four +hundred thousand people, and extensive manufacturing industries. It is +the capital of the "Western Reserve" and the chief city of Northern +Ohio, its commanding position upon a high bluff, falling off +precipitously to the edge of the water, giving it the most attractive +situation on the shore of Lake Erie. Shade trees embower it, including +many elms planted by the early settlers, who learned to love them in +New England, and hence it delights in the popular title of the "Forest +City." Were not the streets so wide, the profusion of foliage might +make Cleveland seem like a town in the woods. The little Cuyahoga +River, its name meaning "the crooked stream," flows with wayward +course down a deeply washed and winding ravine, making a valley in the +centre of the city, known as "the Flats," and this, with the tributary +ravines of some smaller streams, is packed with factories and +foundries, oil refineries and lumber mills, their chimneys keeping the +business section constantly under a cloud of smoke. Railways run in +all directions over these flats and through the ravines, while, high +above, the city has built a stone viaduct nearly a half-mile long, +crossing the valley. Here are the great works of the Standard Oil +Company, controlling that trade, and several of the petroleum magnates +have their palaces in the city. + +Old Moses Cleaveland, a shrewd but unsatisfied Puritan of the town of +Windham, Connecticut, became the agent of the Connecticut Lead +Company, who brought out the first colony in 1796 that landed at +Conneaut. They explored the lake shore, and selecting as a good +location the mouth of Cuyahoga River, Moses wrote back to his former +home that they had found a spot "on the bank of Lake Erie which was +called by my name, and I believe the child is now born that may live +to see that place as large as old Windham." In little over a century +the town has grown far beyond his wildest dreams, although it did not +begin to expand until the era of canals and railways, and it was not +so long ago that the people in grateful memory erected a bronze statue +of the founder. One of the local antiquaries, delving into the +records, has found why various original settlers made their homes at +Cleveland. He learned that "one man, on his way farther West, was laid +up with the ague and had to stop; another ran out of money and could +get no farther; another had been to St. Louis and wanted to get back +home, but saw a chance to make money in ferrying people across the +river; another had $200 over, and started a bank; while yet another +thought he could make a living by manufacturing ox-yokes, and he +stayed." This earnest investigator continues: "A man with an +agricultural eye would look at the soil and kick his toe into it, and +then would shake his head and declare that it would not grow white +beans--but he knew not what this soil would bring forth; his hope and +trust was in beans, he wanted to know them more, and wanted potatoes, +corn, oats and cabbage, and he knew not the future of Euclid Avenue." + +On either side of the deep valley of "the Flats" stretch upon the +plateau the long avenues of Cleveland, with miles of pleasant +residences, surrounded by lawns and gardens, each house isolated in +green, and the whole appearing like a vast rural village more than a +city. This pleasant plan of construction had its origin in the New +England ideas of the people. Yet the city also has a numerous +population of Germans, and it is recorded that one of the early +landowners wrote, in explaining his project of settlement: "If I make +the contract for thirty thousand acres, I expect with all speed to +send you fifteen or twenty families of prancing Dutchmen." These +Teutons came and multiplied, for the original Puritan stock can hardly +be responsible for the vineyards of the neighborhood, the music and +dancing, and the public gardens along the pleasant lake shore, where +the crowds go, when work is over, to enjoy recreation and watch the +gorgeous summer sunsets across the bosom of the lake which are the +glory of Cleveland. Upon the plateau, the centre of the city, is the +Monumental Park, where stand the statue of Moses Cleaveland, the +founder, who died in 1806, and a fine Soldiers' Monument, with also a +statue of Commodore Perry. This Park is an attractive enclosure of +about ten acres, having fountains, gardens, monuments and a little +lake, and it is intersected at right angles by two broad streets, and +surrounded by important buildings. One of the streets is the chief +business highway, Superior Street, and the other leads down to the +edge of the bluff on the lake shore, where the steep slope is made +into a pleasure-ground, with more flower-beds and fountains and a +pleasant outlook over the water, although at its immediate base is a +labyrinth of railroads and an ample supply of smoke from the numerous +locomotives. A long breakwater protects the harbor entrance, and out +under the lake is bored the water-works tunnel. + +There extends far to the eastward, from a corner of the Monumental +Park, Cleveland's famous street--Euclid Avenue. The people regard it +as the handsomest highway in America, in the combined magnificence of +houses and grounds. It is a level avenue of about one hundred and +fifty feet width, with a central roadway and stone footwalks on either +hand, shaded by rows of grand overarching elms, and bordered on both +sides by well-kept lawns. This is the public highway, every part being +kept scrupulously neat, while a light railing marks the boundary +between the street and the private grounds. For a long distance this +noble avenue is bordered by stately residences, each surrounded by +ample gardens, the stretch of grass, flowers and foliage extending +back from one hundred to four hundred feet between the street and the +buildings. Embowered in trees, and with all the delights of garden and +lawn seen in every direction, this grand avenue makes a delightful +driveway and promenade. Upon it live the multi-millionaires of +Cleveland, the finest residences being upon the northern side, where +they have invested part of the profits of their railways, mills, +mines, oil wells and refineries in adorning their homes and +ornamenting their city. This splendid boulevard, in one way, is a +reproduction of the Parisian Avenue of the Champs Elysées and its +gardens, but with more attractions in the surroundings of its +bordering rows of palaces. Here live the men who vie with those of +Chicago in controlling the commerce of the lakes and the affairs of +the Northwest. Plenty of room and an abundance of income are necessary +to provide each man, in the heart of the city, with two to ten acres +of lawns and gardens around his house, but it is done here with +eminent success. About four miles out is the beautiful Wade Park, +opposite which are the handsome buildings of the Western Reserve +University, having, with its adjunct institutions, a thousand +students. Beyond this, the avenue ends at the attractive Lake View +Cemetery, where, on the highest part of the elevated plateau, with a +grand outlook over Lake Erie, is the grave of the assassinated +President Garfield. His imposing memorial rises to a height of one +hundred and sixty-five feet. + + +CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO. + +Thirty-five miles southwest of Cleveland, and some distance inland +from Lake Erie, is Oberlin, where, in a fertile and prosperous +district, is the leading educational foundation of Northern +Ohio--Oberlin College--named in memory of the noted French +philanthropist, and established in 1833 by the descendants of the +Puritan colonists, to carry out their idea of thorough equality in +education. It admits students without distinction of sex or color, and +has about thirteen hundred, almost equally divided between the sexes, +occupying a cluster of commodious buildings. To the westward is the +beautiful ravine of Black River, which gets out to the lake by falling +over a rocky ledge in two streams, and on the peninsula formed by its +forks is the town of Elyria. Maria Ely was the wife of the founder of +the settlement, who named it after her in this peculiar reversible +way. This romantic stream bounds the "Fire Lands" of the Western +Reserve, a tract of nearly eight hundred square miles abutting on the +lake shore, which Connecticut set apart for colonization by her +people, who had been sufferers from destructive fires in the towns of +New London, Fairfield and Norwalk on Long Island Sound. They secured +this wilderness in the early part of the nineteenth century, and their +chief town is Sandusky, with twenty-five thousand population. Here +lived most of the Eries, the Indian "tribe of the Cat," who fished in +Sandusky Bay, its upper waters being an archipelago of little green +islands abounding with water fowl. They were known to the adjoining +tribes as the "Neutral Nation," for they maintained two villages of +refuge on Sandusky River, between the warlike Indians of the east and +the west, and whoever entered their boundaries was safe from pursuit, +the sanctuary being rigidly observed. The early French missionaries +who found them in the seventeenth century speak of these anomalous +villages among the savages as having then been long in existence. + +The name of Sandusky is a corruption of a Wyandot word meaning +"cold-water pools," the French having originally rendered it as +Sandosquet. The shores are low, but there is a good harbor and much +trade, and here is located the Ohio State Fish Hatchery. The railroads +are laid among the savannahs and lagoons, and one of the suburban +stations has been not inaptly named Venice. There are extensive +vineyards on the flat and sunny shores of the bay, and this is one of +the most prolific grape districts in the State. Sandusky Bay is a +broad sheet of water, in places six miles wide, and about twenty miles +long. Sandusky has a large timber trade, being noted for the +manufacture of hard woods. Out beyond the bold peninsula, protruding +into the lake at the entrance to the bay, is a group of islands +spreading over the southwestern waters of Lake Erie, of which Kelly's +Island is the chief, an archipelago formed largely from the _detritus_ +washed out of the Detroit, Maumee and various other rivers flowing +into the head of the lake. Here the Erie Indians had a fortified +stronghold, whose outlines can still be traced. The most noted of the +group is Put-in-Bay Island, now a popular watering-place, which got +its name from Commodore Perry, who "put in" there with the captured +British fleet at the naval battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. It +was from this place, just after his victory, that he sent the historic +despatch, giving him fame, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." +The killed of both fleets were buried side by side near the beach on +the island, the place being marked by a mound. The lovely sheet of +water of Put-in-Bay glistens in front, having the towns of +villa-crowned Gibraltar Island upon its surface. Vineyards and roses +abound, these islands, like the adjacent shores, being noted for their +wines. + +The Maumee River, coming up from Fort Wayne, flows into the head of +Lake Erie, the largest stream on its southern coast. It comes from the +southwest through the region of the "Black Swamp," a vast district, +originally morass and forest, which has been drained to make a most +fertile country. This "miserable bog," as the original settlers +denounced it, when they were jolted over the rude corduroy roads that +sustained them upon the quaking morass, has since become the "prolific +garden" and "magnificent forest" described by the modern tourist. The +Maumee Valley was an almost continual battle-ground with the Indians +when "Mad Anthony Wayne" commanded on that frontier, he being called +by them the "Wind," because "he drives and tears everything before +him." For a quarter of a century border warfare raged along this +river, then known as the "Miami of the Lakes," and its chief +settlement, Toledo, passed its infancy in a baptism of blood and fire. +It was at the battle of Fallen Timbers, fought in 1794, almost on the +site of Toledo, that Wayne gave his laconic and noted "field orders." +General William Henry Harrison, then his aide, told Wayne just before +the battle he was afraid he would get into the fight and forget to +give "the necessary field orders." Wayne replied: "Perhaps I may, and +if I do, recollect that the standing order for the day is, charge the +rascals with the bayonets." Toledo is built on the flat surface on +both sides of the Maumee River and Bay, which make it a good harbor, +stretching six miles down to Lake Erie. There are a hundred thousand +population here, and this energetic reproduction of the ancient +Spanish city has named its chief newspaper the _Toledo Blade_. The +city has extensive railway connections and a large trade in lumber and +grain, coal and ores, and does much manufacturing, it being well +served with natural gas. A dozen grain elevators line the river +banks, and the factory smokes overhang the broad low-lying city like a +pall. To the westward, crossing the rich lands of the reclaimed swamp, +is the Indiana boundary, that State being here a broad and level +prairie, which also stretches northward into Michigan. The chief town +of Northern Indiana is South Bend, named from the sweeping southern +bend of St. Joseph River, on which it is built. This stream rises in +Michigan, and flows for two hundred and fifty miles over the prairie, +going down into Indiana and then back again to empty into Lake +Michigan. South Bend is noted for its carriage- and wagon-building +factories, and has several flourishing Roman Catholic institutions, +generally of French origin. To the westward spreads the level prairie, +with scant scenic attractions, though rich in agriculture, to the +shores of Lake Michigan, being gridironed with railways as Chicago is +approached. + + +THE GREAT CITY OF THE LAKES. + +The second city in the United States, with a population approximating +two millions, Chicago, the metropolis of the prairies, seems destined +for unlimited growth. It has absorbed all the outlying towns, and now +embraces nearly two hundred square miles. It has a water-front on Lake +Michigan of twenty-six miles, and its trade constantly grows. It +pushes ahead with boundless energy, attracting the shrewdest men of +the West to take part in its vast and profitable enterprises, and is +in such a complete manner the depot and storehouse for the products +and supplies of goods for the enormous prairie region around it, and +for the entire Northwest, and the country out to the Rocky Mountains +and Pacific Ocean, that other Western cities cannot displace or even +hope to rival it. Yet it is a youthful giant, of quick and marvellous +development, but few of its leading spirits having been born within +its limits, nearly all being attracted thither by its paramount +advantages. The prominent characteristics of Chicago are an +overhanging pall of smoke; streets crowded with quick-moving, busy +people; a vast aggregation of railways, vessels, elevators and traffic +of all kinds; a polyglot population drawn from almost all races; and +an earnest devotion to the almighty dollar. Its name came from the +river, and is of Indian origin, regarded as probably a corruption of +"Cheecagua," the title of a dynasty of chiefs who controlled the +country west and south of Lake Michigan. This also was a word applied +in the Indian dialect to the wild onion growing luxuriantly on the +banks of the river, and they gave a similar name to the thunder which +they believed the voice of the Great Spirit, and to the odorous animal +abounding in the neighborhood that the white man knew as the +"polecat." These were rather incongruous uses for the same word, but +the suggestion has been made that all can be harmonized if Chicago is +interpreted as meaning "strong," the Indians, being poorly supplied +with words, usually selecting the most prominent attribute in giving +names. All these things are in one way or another "strong," and it is +evident that prodigious strength exists in Chicago. + +As elsewhere throughout the Northwest, the French missionaries were +here the earliest explorers, Father Marquette coming in 1673, and +afterwards Hennepin, Joliet and La Salle, whose names are so +numerously reproduced in the Northwestern States. The French built at +the mouth of the river Fort Chicagou, for a trading-post, and held it +until the English conquered Canada. When the earlier American settlers +ventured to this frontier, the Indians on Lake Michigan were the +Pottawatomies, and were hostile. The Government in 1804 built Fort +Dearborn, near the mouth of the Chicago River, to control them. These +Indians joined in the crusade of the Prophet and Tecumseh, and when +the war with England began in 1812, attacked and captured the fort, +massacring the garrison. The post was subsequently re-established, and +the Indians were ultimately removed west of the Mississippi. Not long +afterwards it was said the first purchase of the site of Chicago took +place, wherein a large part of the land now occupied was sold for a +pair of boots. When the town plot was originally surveyed, twelve +families were there in addition to the garrison of Fort Dearborn, and +in 1831 it had one hundred people. In 1833 the town government was +organized, and it had five hundred and fifty inhabitants and one +hundred and seventy-five buildings. Five trustees then ruled Chicago, +and collected $49 for the first year's taxes. Collis P. Huntington, +the Pacific Railway manager, says that in 1835, being possessed of a +good constitution and a pair of mules, but little else, he was out +that way prospecting, and found at Chicago nothing but a swamp and a +few destitute farmers, all anxious to move. One of these farmers came +to him with the deed of his farm of two thousand acres, and offered to +trade it for his pair of mules. Huntington adds: "I was not very +favorably impressed with the settlement and declined his offer, and +finally continued my travel west, and that farm is to-day the business +centre of Chicago." + +In 1837 Chicago got its first city charter, and it then had about +forty-two hundred people. The rapid growth since has been +unparalleled, especially when, after 1850, its commercial enterprise +began attracting wide attention, the population then being about +thirty thousand. In 1855, to get above the swamp and improve the +drainage, the level of the entire city was raised seven feet, huge +buildings being elevated bodily while business was progressing, an +enterprise mainly accomplished by the ingenious devices which first +gave prominence to the late George M. Pullman. The population almost +quadrupled and its trade increased tenfold in the decade 1850-60, and +in 1870 the population was over three hundred thousand, and it had +become a leading American city. Yet Chicago has had terrible setbacks +in its wonderful career, the most awful being the fire in October, +1871, the greatest of modern times, which raged for three days, burned +over a surface of nearly four square miles and until practically +nothing remained in the district to devour, destroyed eighteen +thousand buildings, two hundred lives, and property valued at +$200,000,000, leaving a hundred thousand people homeless--a calamity +that excited the sympathies of the world, which gave relief +contributions aggregating $7,000,000. Yet while the embers were +smoking, this enterprising people set to work to rebuild their city +with a will and a progress which caused almost as much amazement as +the original catastrophe. The recovery was complete; the city which +had been of wood was rebuilt of brick and stone and iron and steel, +and its progress since has developed an energy not before equalled. It +has been beautified by grand parks and boulevards, and by the +construction of palatial residences and business blocks, and of +enormous office buildings, the tall "sky-scrapers" having been first +invented and built in Chicago. In 1893 the World's Columbian +Exhibition, to celebrate the discovery of America, was held at Chicago +on a vast scale and with remarkable success. The city has long been, +also, a favorite meeting-place for the great political Conventions +nominating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United +States, its large hotel capacity and immense halls giving advantages +for these enormous assemblages. + + +CHICAGO'S ADMIRABLE LOCATION. + +The position of Chicago at the southwestern extremity of Lake +Michigan, with prairies of the greatest fertility stretching hundreds +of miles south and west, makes the city the primary food-gatherer and +supply-distributor of the great Northwest, and this has been the chief +cause of its growth. In September, 1833, the Pottawatomies agreed to +sell their prairie homes to the United States and migrate to +reservations farther West, and seven thousand of them assembled in +grand council at Chicago, and sold the Government twenty millions of +acres of these prairies around Lake Michigan, in Indiana, Illinois and +Michigan, for $1,100,000. Thus was this fertile domain opened to +settlement. In the Indian dialect, Michigan means the "great water," +and it is the largest lake within the United States, being three +hundred and twenty miles long and seventy broad, and having an average +depth of one thousand feet, with the surface elevated five hundred and +seventy-eight feet above the ocean level. On the Chicago side this +extensive lake has but a narrow watershed, the Illinois River, +draining the region to the westward, being formed only sixty-five +miles southwest of the lake by the junction of the Kankakee and +Desplaines Rivers. This narrow and very low watershed, considered in +connection with the enormous capacity of the Illinois River valley, +which is at a much lower level and appears as if worn by a mighty +current in former times, is regarded by geologists as an evidence of +the probability that the Lake Michigan waters may in past ages have +found their way to that outlet and flowed through the Illinois and +Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf. The diminutive bayou of the Chicago +River, with its two short and tortuous branches, made Chicago the +leading lake port, and thus brought trade, so that early in the race +it far outstripped all its Western rivals. Every railroad of +prominence sought an outlet or a feeder at Chicago, and the title of a +"trunk line" was adopted for a line of rails between Chicago and the +seaboard. The surrounding prairie for miles is crossed in all +directions by railways, and a large part of the city and suburbs is +made up of huge stations, car-yards, elevators, storehouses and +cattle-pens, almost overwhelming visitors with the prodigious scale of +their elaborate perplexity. The maze of railways and streets on the +level surface, all crossing at grade, as it has spread over miles of +prairie and grown into such enormous proportions, presents a most +serious problem, with which the city and the railways are now dealing +on a comprehensive plan, by which it is hoped that before long the +grade-crossings will be eliminated. + +Another problem, found even more serious as the city grew, was the +drainage. In former years the sewage was discharged into the Chicago +River and Lake Michigan. The river became a most malodorous stream in +consequence, and as it had practically no descent, the current would +scarcely flow, and the lake, from which the city water-supply was +drawn, was more and more polluted. With the customary enterprise of +these wonderful people, however, they decided to make the only change +feasible, which was to take advantage of the descending watershed +towards Desplaines River and change their sewerage system so that it +would all discharge in that direction. The problem was solved by the +construction of the most expensive drainage works in the world, and a +complete change of the sewers, at a cost altogether approximating +$40,000,000. St. Louis and the towns along the Desplaines fought the +scheme, and there was protracted litigation, but the very existence of +Chicago depended on the result. The great drainage canal was completed +connecting the Chicago River South Branch with Desplaines River at +Lockport, twenty-eight miles southwest, where it discharges the +outflow from Lake Michigan, which then flows past Joliet, and +ultimately into Illinois River. This huge canal, opened in January, +1900, reverses the flow of the Chicago River, which now draws in about +three hundred thousand cubic feet of water per minute from Lake +Michigan and flushes the canal, which is also to be made available for +shipping. Thus the Chicago River flows towards its source with a free +current, and Lake Michigan has been purified. The canal has quite a +descent to Lockport, and the water-power is to be availed of in +generating electricity. The city water-supply is drawn from cribs out +in the lake through four systems of tunnels, aggregating twenty-two +miles, furnishing an ample service, and pumping-stations in various +locations elevate the water in towers to secure sufficient head for +the flow into the buildings. The chief of these towers, a solid stone +structure alongside the lake, rises one hundred and sixty feet, the +huge pumping-engines forcing a vast stream constantly over its top. + + + [Illustration: _Lincoln Monument, Lincoln Park, Chicago_] + +FEATURES OF CHICAGO. + +Chicago is the world's greatest grain, lumber and cattle market. It +attracts immigrants from everywhere, and all flourish in native +luxuriance, although occasionally they are compelled to bow to the +power of the law by the military arm when civil forces are exhausted. +Everything seems to go on without much hindrance, and thus this +wonderful city secures its rapid growth and completely cosmopolitan +character. While proud of their amazing progress, the people seem +generally so engrossed in pushing business enterprises and piling up +fortunes that they have little time to think of much else. Yet +somebody has had opportunity to plan the adornment of the city by a +magnificent series of parks and boulevards encircling it. The broad +expanse of prairie was low, level and treeless originally, but +abundant trees have since been planted, and art has made little lakes +and miniature hills, beautiful flower-gardens and abundant shrubbery, +thus producing pleasure-grounds of rare attractions. Michigan Avenue +and Drexel and Grand Boulevards, leading to the southern system of +parks and Lake Shore Drive on the north side of Chicago River, are the +finest residential streets. The huge Auditorium fronting on Michigan +Avenue was erected at a cost of $3,500,000, includes a hotel and +theatre, and is surmounted with a tower rising two hundred and seventy +feet, giving a fine view over the city and lake. Out in front is the +Lake Park, with railways beyond near the shore, and a fine bronze +equestrian statue of General John A. Logan, who died in 1886 and is +buried in the crypt beneath the monument. Michigan Avenue begins at +Chicago River alongside the site of old Fort Dearborn, now +obliterated, and it stretches far south, a tree-lined boulevard +adorned by magnificent residences. + +Chicago River, with its entrance protected by a wide-spreading +breakwater, is the harbor of the city, and, like its railways, carries +the trade. Tunnels conduct various streets under it, and a multitude +of bridges go over it, all of them opening to let vessels pass. They +are mostly swinging bridges, but some are ingenious constructions, +which roll, and lift and fold, and in various curious ways open the +channel for the shipping. Huge elevators line the river banks, with +vessels alongside, into which streams of grain are poured, while +multitudes of cars move in and out, under and around them, bringing +the supply from the farm to the storage-bins. In the business section, +as elsewhere, the streets are wide, thus accommodating the throngs who +fill them, and there are fine city and national buildings, a new +Post-office of large size and imposing architecture being in course of +construction. The Chicago Public Library, completed in 1897, is a +grand structure, costing $2,000,000, and having about three hundred +thousand volumes. The University of Chicago, in the southern suburbs, +is destined to become one of the leading institutions of learning in +America. It began instruction in 1892, and now has some twenty-four +hundred students, and endowments of $15,000,000, largely the gifts of +John D. Rockefeller. The University grounds cover twenty-four acres, +and when the plan is completed there will be over forty buildings. Its +libraries contain three hundred and fifty thousand volumes. The great +Yerkes Observatory, adjunct to this University, is at Lake Geneva, +Wisconsin, seventy miles distant, and has the largest refracting +telescope in the world, with forty-inch lens and a tube seventy feet +long. On the northern side of the city is the Newberry Library, with +$3,000,000 endowment and two hundred thousand volumes, including +admirable musical and medical collections, and the Crerar Library, +with $2,000,000 endowment, principally for scientific works, is being +established on the south side. Chicago's greatest industrial +establishment is the Federal Steel Company, having enormous +rolling-mills and foundries in various parts of the city, and also at +Joliet on Desplaines River. Its South Chicago Rolling Mills occupy +over three hundred acres. The manufacture of agricultural machinery is +represented by two enormous establishments, the McCormick Harvesting +Machine Company on the southwest side and the Deering Works in the +northwestern district. + + +CHICAGO BUSINESS ENERGY. + +As the elevators of Chicago represent its traffic in grain, and +contain usually a large proportion of what is known as the "visible +supply," so do the vast lumber-yards along Chicago River often store +up an enormous product of the output from the "Great North Woods," +covering much of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and spreading +across the Canadian border. The third great branch of traffic is +represented by the Union Stock Yards in the southwestern suburbs. +These yards in a year will handle eight millions of hogs, four +millions of cattle, four millions of sheep and a hundred thousand +horses, over two-thirds of the hogs and cattle being killed in the +yards and sent away in the form of meat, and the whole annual traffic +being valued at $250,000,000. The yards cover three hundred acres, and +with the packing-houses employ twenty-five thousand men, and they have +twenty miles of water-troughs and twenty-five miles of feeding-troughs, +and are served by two hundred and fifty miles of railway-tracks. The +hog is a potential factor in American economy, being regarded as the +most compact form in which the corn crop of the country can be +transported to market. The corn on the farm is fed to the hog, and the +animal is sent to Chicago as a package provided by nature for its +economical utilization. The Union Stock Yards make a complete town, +with its own banks, hotels, Board of Trade, Post-office, town-hall, +newspaper and special Fire Department. The extensive enclosure is +entered by a modest, gray sandstone turreted gateway, surmounted by a +carved bull's head, emblematic of its uses. The Horse Market is a +large pavilion, seating four thousand people. From this vast emporium, +with its enormous packing-houses, are sent away the meat supplies that +go all over the world, the product being carried out in long trains of +canned goods and refrigerator cars, the most ingenious methods of +"cold storage" being invented for and used in this widely extended +industry. + +The active traffic of the grain and provision trades of Chicago is +conducted in the building of the Board of Trade, a tall and imposing +structure at the head of La Salle Street, which makes a fitting close +to the view along that grand highway. It is one of the most elaborate +architectural ornaments of the city, and its surmounting tower rises +three hundred and twenty-two feet from the pavement. The fame of this +grand speculative arena is world-wide, and the animated and at times +most exciting business done within marks the nervous beating of the +pulse of this metropolis of food products. The interior is a +magnificent hall, lighted by high-reaching windows and surmounted by a +central skylight elevated nearly a hundred feet above the floor. +Impressive columns adorn the sides, and the elaborate frescoes above +are in keeping with its artistic decoration. Upon the spacious floor, +between nine and one o'clock, assemble the wheat and corn, and pork, +lard, cattle and railway kings in a typical scene of concentrated and +boiling energy feeding the furnace in which Chicago's high-pressure +business enterprise glows and roars. These speculative gladiators have +their respective "pits" or amphitheatres upon the floor, so that they +gather in huge groups, around which hundreds run and jostle, the scene +from the overlooking gallery, as the crowds sway and squirm, and with +their calls and shouting make a deafening uproar, being a veritable +Bedlam. Each "pit" deals in a specific article, while in another space +are detachments of telegraph operators working with nimble fingers to +send instant reports of the doings and prices to the anxious outer +world. High up on the side of the grand hall, in full view of all, are +hung large dials, whose moving hands keep momentary record of the +changes in prices made by the noisy and excited throngs in the "pits," +thus giving notice of the ruling figures for the next month's +"options" on wheat, corn and "short-ribs." There are tables for +samples, and large blackboards bearing the figures of market +quotations elsewhere. This Chicago Board of Trade has been the scene +of some of the wildest speculative excitements in the country, as its +shouting and almost frenzied groups of traders in the "pits" may make +or break a "corner," and here in fitful fever concentrates the +business energy of the great Metropolis of the Lakes. + + +PULLMAN AND THE SLEEPING-CAR. + +Another Chicago specialty of wide fame is the railway sleeping-car, +brought to its present high stage of development by one of the most +prominent Chicagoans, the late George M. Pullman. The earliest +American sleeping-car was devised by Theodore T. Woodruff, who +constructed a small working model in 1854 at Watertown, New York, and +subsequently building his car, first ran it on the New York Central +Railroad in October, 1856, charging fifty cents for a berth. George M. +Pullman was originally a cabinet-maker in New York State, and moved +when a young man to Chicago. His first fame in that city, as already +stated, came from the ingenious methods he devised, when the grade of +the town was elevated to secure better drainage, for raising the +buildings by putting hundreds of jackscrews under them, trade +continuing uninterrupted during the process. Pullman, subsequently to +that time, travelled occasionally between Chicago and Buffalo, and one +night got into Woodruff's car. He was stretched out upon the vibrating +couch for some two hours, but could not sleep, and his eyes being +widely open, and the sight wandering all about the car, he struck upon +a new idea. When he left the car he had determined to develop from his +brief experience a plan destined to expand into a complete home upon +wheels for the traveller, either awake or sleeping. In 1859 he turned +two ordinary railway coaches into sleeping-cars and placed them upon +night trains between Chicago and St. Louis, charging fifty cents per +berth, his first night's receipts being two dollars. He ran these +experimental coaches about five years before he felt able to carry out +his ideal plan, and he then occupied fully a year in constructing his +model sleeping-car, the "Pioneer," at Chicago, at a cost of $18,000. +But when completed the car was so heavy, wide and high that no railway +could undertake running it, as it necessitated cutting off station +platforms and elevating the tops of bridges before it could pass by. +Thus he had a white elephant on his hands for a time. In April, 1865, +President Lincoln's assassination shocked the country, and the +funeral, with its escort of mourning statesmen, was progressing from +Washington to Chicago, on the way to the grave at Springfield. The +nation watched its progress, and the railways transporting the +_cortége_ were doing their best. The manager of the road from Chicago +to Springfield used the "Pioneer" in the funeral train, taking several +days to prepare for it by sending out gangs of men to cut off the +station platforms and alter the bridges. Pullman's dream was realized; +his "coach of the future," with its escort of statesmen, carried the +dead President to his grave and became noted throughout the land. A +few weeks later, General Grant, fresh from the conquest of the +Rebellion, had a triumphal progress from the camp to his home in +Illinois. Five days were spent in clearing the railway between Detroit +and Galena, where he lived, and the "Pioneer" carried Grant over that +line. + +These successes made Pullman's fortune, and the business of his +company grew rapidly afterwards, it being now an enormous concern with +$70,000,000 capital, controlling practically all the sleeping-cars of +this country and many abroad. The main works are at the Chicago suburb +of Pullman, ten miles south of the centre of the city, where there are +about twelve thousand population, most of the people being connected +with the works, which are an extensive general car-building +establishment. Pullman was built as a model town, with every +improvement calculated to add to the comfort and health of the +working-people, being also provided with its own library, theatre, +and a tasteful arcade, in which are various shops. It was at Pullman +in 1894 that the great strike took place which ultimately involved a +large portion of the railways of the country, causing much rioting and +bloodshed, and finally requiring the intervention of the Federal +troops to maintain the peace. After a protracted period of turmoil, +the strike failed. + + +THE CORN CROP. + +Chicago is the _entrepôt_ for the great prairie region spreading from +the Alleghenies westward beyond the Mississippi. Here grows the grain +making the wealth of the land, and feeding the cattle, hogs and sheep +that are poured so liberally into the Union Stock Yards of the Lake +City. Upon the crops of this vast prairie land depends the prosperity +of the country. Wall Street in New York and the Chicago Board of Trade +are the market barometers of this prosperity, for the prairie farmer, +as he may be rich and able to spend money, or poor so that he cannot +even pay his debts, controls the financial outlook in America. The +traveller, as he glides upon this universal prairie land, east, south +and west of Chicago, viewing its limitless fertility seen far away in +every direction over the monotonous level, as if looking across an +ocean, cannot help recalling Wordsworth's pleasant lines: + + "The streams with softest sound are flowing, + The grass you almost hear it growing, + You hear it now, if e'er you can." + +Then, as the crops ripen and are garnered, and the wealth of the +prairie is turned into food for the world, there comes with the +advancing autumn the ripening of the greatest crop of America, and the +mainstay of the country, the Indian corn. It is wonderful to think +that the first corn crop of the United States planted by white men at +Jamestown, Virginia, on a field of forty acres in 1608, has grown to +an annual yield approximating twenty-three hundred million bushels. +This prolific crop is the banner product of the great prairie, and +Whittier in his "Corn Song" has recorded its glories: + + "Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard! + Heap high the golden corn! + No richer gift has autumn poured + From out the lavish horn! + + "Let other lands, exulting, glean + The apple from the pine, + The orange from its glossy green, + The cluster from the vine; + + "We better love the hardy gift + Our rugged vales bestow, + To cheer us when the storm shall drift + Our harvest fields with snow. + + "Through vales of grass and meads of flowers, + Our plows their furrows made, + While on the hills, the sun and showers + Of changeful April played. + + "We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain + Beneath the sun of May, + And frightened from our sprouting grain + The robber crows away. + + "All through the long bright days of June + Its leaves grew green and fair, + And waved in hot midsummer's noon + Its soft and yellow hair. + + "And now, with autumn's moonlit eves, + Its harvest time has come, + We pluck away the frosted leaves, + And bear the treasure home. + + "There, richer than the fabled gift + Apollo showered of old, + Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, + And knead its meal of gold. + + "Let vapid idlers loll in silk + Around their costly board; + Give us the bowl of samp and milk + By homespun beauty poured! + + "Where'er the wide old kitchen hearth + Sends up its smoky curls, + Who will not thank the kindly earth, + And bless our farmer girls! + + "Let earth withhold her goodly root, + Let mildew blight the rye, + Give to the worm the orchard's fruit, + The wheat-field to the fly; + + "But let the good old corn adorn + The hills our fathers trod; + Still let us for his golden corn + Send up our thanks to God!" + + + + +GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST. + + + + +VII. + +GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST. + + The Great Lakes -- Sieur de La Salle -- Lake St. Clair -- Lake + Huron -- Detroit -- Ann Arbor -- Mackinac Island -- Sault + Sainte Marie -- Lake Superior -- Lake Nepigon -- Thunder Bay -- + Port Arthur -- Kakabika Falls -- The Pictured Rocks -- + Marquette -- Keweenaw -- Iron and Copper -- Houghton -- Lake + Gogebic -- Superior City -- Duluth -- Messabi and Vermillion + Ranges -- Green Bay -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee -- Waukesha -- + Madison -- Rock Island -- Davenport -- Moline Rapids -- Dubuque + -- Iowa -- Black Hawk -- Minnesota -- La Crosse -- Lake Pepin + -- Falls of St. Anthony -- St. Paul -- Minneapolis -- Fort + Snelling -- Flour and Lumber -- Lake Minnetonka -- Minnehaha + Falls -- Hiawatha and Minnehaha -- Source of the Mississippi -- + Itasca Lake -- Minnesota River -- Red River of the North -- + Ancient Lake Agassiz -- Sioux Falls -- Fargo -- Great Wheat + Farms -- Manitoba -- Rat Portage -- Keewatin -- Winnipeg -- + Hudson Bay Company -- Dakota -- Bismarck -- The Bad Lands -- + Yellowstone River -- Montana -- Big Horn River -- Custer + Massacre -- Livingston -- Cinnabar Mountain -- Yellowstone + National Park -- Mammoth Hot Springs -- Norris Geyser Basin -- + Firehole River -- Lower, Middle and Upper Geyser Basins -- + Yellowstone Lake and Falls -- The Grand Canyon -- Two-Ocean + Pond -- Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way. + + +THE GREAT LAKES. + +René Robert Cavelier, the Sieur de La Salle, was the chief French +pilgrim and adventurer in the seventeenth century who explored the +Great Lakes and valley of the Mississippi, and secured for his country +the vast empire of Louisiana, stretching from Canada to the Gulf. His +explorations were made in 1669 and again in 1678, and like all the +discoverers of that early time he was hunting for the water way +thought to lead to the South Sea and provide a route to China. The +historian Parkman describes La Salle as one of the most remarkable +explorers whose names live in history; the hero of a fixed idea and +determined purpose; an untiring pilgrim pushing onward towards the +goal he was never to attain; the pioneer who guided America to the +possession of her richest heritage. Throughout the northwest his +memory is preserved in the names of rivers, towns, and otherwise, and +his maps and narratives gave the earliest geography of the Lakes and +the vast and prolific region obtained from France in the Louisiana +cession. + +The Great Lakes on the northern border of the United States are the +largest bodies of fresh water on the globe. They carry an enormous +commerce, nearly a hundred thousand men being employed by the fleet of +lake vessels, which approximates two millions tonnage. At the head of +Lake Erie the waters of Detroit River pour in, draining the upper +lakes, this stream, about twenty-five miles long, flowing from Lake +St. Clair and broadening from a half-mile to four miles width at its +mouth. Lake St. Clair is elevated five hundred and thirty feet, but is +small, being about twenty-five miles in diameter, and shallow, only +about twenty feet deep. The navigation of its shallows is intricate, +and is aided by a long canal through the shoals at the upper end, +where the St. Clair River discharges, a strait about forty miles long, +flowing south from Lake Huron. This great lake is at five hundred and +eighty feet elevation, and in places seventeen hundred feet deep, +covering twenty-four thousand square miles, and containing many +islands. At its northern end, Lakes Superior and Michigan join it by +various straits and water ways beyond Mackinac Island. Westward of +Lakes Ontario and Erie, and between them and Lake Huron, a long +peninsula of the Dominion of Canada projects southward into the United +States, terminating opposite Detroit. Similarly, to the westward of +Lake Huron, and between it and Lake Michigan, the State of Michigan +has its lower peninsula projecting upward to Canada. The Canadian +projection, which is part of Ontario Province, is unfortunately +located, being almost surrounded by these expansive lakes, having +bleak, cold winds sweeping across them and seriously impeding its +agriculture. The surface has little charm of scenery and the +population is sparse. The trunk railways, however, find this an almost +direct route from Western New York to Detroit and Chicago, and various +roads traverse it, coming out on the Detroit River and the +swift-flowing St. Clair River, which are crossed both by car-ferry and +tunnel. At the outlet of Lake Huron, St. Clair River is less than a +thousand feet wide between Point Edward and Fort Gratiot, and here +and at Ports Sarnia and Huron the low and level shores are lined with +docks, elevators and other accessories of commerce. This river brings +vast amounts of sand down out of Lake Huron with its swift current, +which are deposited on the St. Clair Flats beyond its mouth, keeping +that lake shallow, and requiring the long ship canal to maintain +navigation. Below Lake St. Clair, the wider Detroit River presents +many fine bits of scenery, while the city of Detroit spreads for +several miles along the northwestern bank, and has Windsor opposite, +on the Canadian shore. Pretty islands dot the broadening stream below +Detroit, and the varying width, with the bluffs on the Canadian side, +and the meadows, fields and forests of Michigan, give lovely views. + + +DETROIT AND MACKINAC. + +Detroit means "the strait," and the original Indian names for the +river mean "the place of the turned channel." The early visitors who +reached it by boat at night or in dark weather, and were inattentive +to the involved currents, always remarked, as the Indians did before +them, that owing to these extraordinary involutions of the waters, +when the sun appeared again it always seemed to rise in the wrong +place. The French under La Salle were the first Europeans who passed +through the river, and in 1701 the Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, who +received grants from Louis XIV., came and founded Fort Pontchartrain +there, naming it after the French Minister of Marine, around which a +settlement afterwards grew, to which the French sent colonists at +intervals. The British got possession in 1760, and it successfully +resisted the conspiracy and attacks of the Ojibway Indian chief +Pontiac for over a year, the garrison narrowly escaping massacre. The +United States, after the Revolution, sent out General St. Clair as +Governor, and his name was given the lake to the northward. Detroit +was a frontier post in the War of 1812, being alternately held by +British and Americans. In 1824 it had about fifteen hundred people and +became a city. It now has three hundred and fifty thousand population, +and its commercial importance may be estimated from the fact that the +whole enormous traffic of the Lakes passes in front of the city during +the seven months that navigation is open, the procession of craft +often reaching sixty thousand vessels in the season. Detroit also has +extensive and varied manufactures. It has a gradually rising surface +and broad and well-paved streets on a rectangular plan, with several +avenues radiating from a centre, like the spokes of a wheel. The +central square is the Campus Martius, an expansion, about a half-mile +from the river, of Woodward Avenue, the chief street. Here is an +elaborate City Hall, the principal public building, having in front a +magnificent Soldiers' Monument. The suburbs are attractive, and there +are various pleasant parks and rural cemeteries, the leading Park of +Belle Isle, covering seven hundred acres, being to the northeastward, +with a good view over Lake St. Clair. Fort Wayne, the elaborate +defensive work of Detroit, is on the river just below the city, and +has a small garrison of regular troops. It is yet incomplete, and is +designed to be the most extensive fortification on the northern +frontier, commanding the important passage between Lakes Huron and +Erie and the railway routes east and west. + +The peninsula of Michigan was originally covered with the finest +forests, so that lumbering has always been a leading industry of the +people. The greater portion of its pine woods, however, has been cut +off, so that that branch is declining; but its ample supply of hard +woods has made the State a great manufacturer of furniture, which is +shipped all over the country. Thirty-eight miles west of Detroit, on +the Huron River, is the city of Ann Arbor, with a population of +fifteen thousand. Here are the extensive buildings of the University +of Michigan, the leading educational establishment of the northwest, +attended by over three thousand students, of whom a large number are +young women. It is richly endowed, and has departments of law and +medicine, as well as of literature and science, a large library and an +observatory. The State makes a liberal annual contribution for its +support, raised by taxation, it being governed by eight regents +elected by the people. At the northern extremity of the Michigan +Peninsula is the Strait of Mackinac, through which Lake Michigan +discharges into Lake Huron. This water way is about four miles wide. +In the strait is Mackinac Island, about nine miles in circumference, +which was early held by the French on account of its strategic +importance, but, being taken by the English in 1760, was captured by +Pontiac when he organized the Indian revolt against the British in +1763, and all its inhabitants massacred. It is now a military post and +reservation of the United States. This rocky and wooded island +contains much picturesque scenery, and is a favorite summer resort, +its weird legends, fresh breezes, good fishing and clear waters being +the attraction. It was an early post of the northwestern fur-traders, +and here was founded one of the frontier trading-stations of the Astor +Fur Company in the early nineteenth century by John Jacob Astor of New +York, the building in the little village being still known as the +Astor House. + + +LAKE SUPERIOR. + +To the northward of Mackinac, Lake Superior discharges into Lake Huron +through the Sault Sainte Marie Strait, the "Leap of St. Mary." This +strait of St. Mary is a winding and most beautiful stream, sixty-two +miles long, being a succession of expansions into lakes and +contractions into rivers, dotted with pretty islands and having some +villages on the banks. The chief attraction is the Sault, or "Leap," +which is a rapid of about eighteen feet descent, the navigation being +maintained through capacious modern systems of locks and ship canals +provided by both the United States and Canada. To the westward is the +great Lake Superior, the largest fresh-water lake on the globe, three +hundred and sixty miles long and covering thirty-two thousand square +miles, with a coast-line of about fifteen hundred miles. It is +elevated about six hundred feet above the ocean level, and has a depth +averaging one thousand feet. Nearly two hundred rivers and creeks flow +into it, draining a region of a hundred thousand square miles. There +are a few islands in the eastern and western portions, but all the +centre of the lake is a vast unbroken sheet of water, and generally of +a low temperature, the deeper waters being only 39° in summer. The +early French missionaries, who were the first explorers, told their +interesting story of Lake Superior in Paris in 1636, and in their +published account speak of its coasts as resembling a bended bow, of +which the north shore makes the arc of the bow, the south shore the +chord, and the great Keweenaw Point, projecting far from the southern +shore, represents the arrow. Superior has generally a rock-bound +coast, displaying impressive beauties of scenery, particularly on the +northern shore, where the beetling crags and cliffs are projected +boldly into the lake along the water's edge. This northern coast is +also much indented by deep bays, bordered by precipitous cliffs, back +of which rise the dark and dreary Laurentian Mountains. There are also +rocky islands scattered near this portion of the coast, some +presenting vast castellated walls of basalt and others peaks of +granite, elevated a thousand to thirteen hundred feet above the lake. +Nowhere upon the inland waters of North America is there grander +scenery. + +The most considerable affluent of Lake Superior upon its northern +coast is the Nepigon River, coming grandly down cascades and rapids, +bringing the waters of Lake Nepigon, an elliptical lake among the +mountains to the northward covering about four thousand square miles, +bounded by high cliffs, and elevated over eight hundred feet. It is +studded with islands, has very deep waters, and receives various +streams from the remote northern wilderness. Upon the northwestern +shore of Lake Superior are gigantic cliffs, surrounding Thunder Bay, a +deep indentation divided from Black Bay by the great projecting +promontory of Thunder Cape, rising nearly fourteen hundred feet in +grand columns of basalt, the summit containing the crater of an +extinct volcano. Across from it is McKay Mountain, another basaltic +Gibraltar, rising twelve hundred feet from the almost level plain +bordering the bay. Pic Island is between them, guarding the entrance. +The pretty Kaministiquia River flows through rich prairie lands down +to Thunder Bay, and here is the chief Canadian town on the lake, Port +Arthur. Thirty miles up this river is the famous Kakabika Falls, where +the rocks are cleft so that the stream tumbles into a chasm one +hundred and thirty feet deep, and then boils along with rapid current +for nearly a half-mile through the fissure, the sides towering +perpendicularly, and in some places even overhanging their bases. Upon +this river was for many years the well-known Hudson Bay Company's +fur-trading station of Fort William, which now has grain elevators, +and is a suburb of the spreading settlement of Port Arthur. This was +the beginning of the great portage from Lake Superior over to the +Hudson Bay waters at Fort Garry, on the Red River in Manitoba, now +Winnipeg, the portage being the present route of the Canadian Pacific +Railway. + + +SAULT SAINTE MARIE TO DULUTH. + +The southern shore of Lake Superior is mostly composed of lowlands, +covered with sand, glacial deposits and clays, which came from the +lake during a former stage of much higher water, when it extended many +miles south of the present boundary. These lands, while not well +adapted to agriculture, contain rich deposits of copper, iron and +other metals and valuable red sandstones. Around the rapids and canals +at the outlet has gradually grown the town of Sault Sainte Marie, +familiarly known as the "Soo," having ten thousand people, and +developing important manufactures from the admirable water-power of +the rapids, which is also utilized for electrical purposes. An +international bridge brings a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway +over from Canada, on its way to Minneapolis and St. Paul, with +connections southward to Chicago, and there is also the military post +of Fort Brady. Stately processions of vessels constantly move through +the canals, being locked up or down when the navigation season is +open, and making this a very animated place, over fifteen thousand +ships passing in the seven months when the canals are free from ice. +The tonnage is the greatest using any system of canals in the world, +far exceeding Suez, and the recent improvements enable vessels of +twenty-one feet draft to go through the new locks. Both Governments +have expended millions upon these important public works, which are +chiefly employed for the transport of grain, flour, coal, iron-ores +and copper. The favorite sports at the "Soo" are catching white fish +and "shooting the rapids" in canoes guided by the Indians, who are +very skillful. + +About one hundred miles westward from the "Soo," on the southern lake +shore, there rise cliffs of the red and other sandstones formed by the +edges of nearly horizontal strata coming out at the border of the +lake. These are the noted Pictured Rocks, rising three hundred feet, +extending for a distance of about five miles, and worn by frost and +storm into fantastic and romantic forms, displaying vivid hues--red, +blue, yellow, green, brown and gray--as they have been stained by the +oozing waters carrying the pigments. At intervals, cascades fall over +the rocks. One cliff, called the Sail Rock, is like a sloop in full +sail, and there are various castles and chapels, and an elaborate +Grand Portal. In the country around is laid much of the scene of +_Hiawatha_, and at the little lake port of Munising, nearby, was the +site of the wigwam of the old woman, Nokomis, + + "On the shores of Gitchee Gumee, + Of the shining Big-Sea-Water." + +To the westward is the region of iron-ores, and here is Marquette, +named for the great Jesuit missionary Father Marquette, who was the +first founder of mission settlements in this region, and died in 1675 +near the mouth of Marquette River. This town of fifteen thousand +people is on Iron Bay, and is the chief port of the Marquette, +Menominee and Ishpeming mines. Farther to the westward the great +Keweenaw Peninsula projects, the name meaning in the Indian dialect +the "canoe portage." At its base, the Portage Lake almost separates it +from the mainland, and a short portage to the westward formerly +carried the canoes over the narrow isthmus. A canal now enables the +lake shipping to pass through without making the long detour around +the outer end of the peninsula. Upon this rocky peninsula are the +great copper-mines of Michigan, including the Quincy, Tamarack, +Osceola, Franklin, Atlantic, and the Calumet and Hecla. The latter is +the world's leading Copper Company, making over $4,000,000 estimated +annual profit, employing five thousand men, and having the deepest +shaft in existence, the Red Jacket, which has been sunk forty-nine +hundred feet. Houghton, on the southern shore of Portage Lake, is the +leading town of the copper district. To the southwestward and in the +western part of the Upper Michigan Peninsula is Lake Gogebic, elevated +thirteen hundred feet, in another prolific iron-ore district, the +Gogebic range, which produces Bessemer ores, and has its shipping port +across the Wisconsin boundary at Ashland, another busy town of fifteen +thousand people at the head of Chequamegon Bay. Out in front are the +Apostle Islands, a picturesque group, and to the westward the head of +Lake Superior gradually narrows in the Fond du Lac, or end of the +lake, where are situated its leading ports, Superior City in Wisconsin +and Duluth in Minnesota. + +Here in the seventeenth century came the early French, and in 1680 a +trading-post was established by Daniel du Lhut, afterwards becoming a +Hudson Bay Company Station. The mouth of St. Louis River and its bay +were naturally recognized as important points for trade, and when the +Northern Pacific Railway was projected Superior City got its start. +The first railroad scheme failed, the panic of 1857 came, and the +railway project was abandoned until after the Civil War; and then, +when it was renewed, the terminus was located over on the other side +of the river, the place being named Duluth, after the French trader. +While there has been great rivalry between them, and Duluth has +outstripped Superior, yet the latter has an extensive trade and thirty +thousand people. Duluth, the "Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas," as it +has been ambitiously called, was originally projected on Minnesota +Point, a scythe-shaped natural breakwater running out seven miles into +the lake, which protects the harbor, but the town was subsequently +built farther in. There were about seventy white people in the +neighborhood in 1860, and in 1869 its present site was a forest, while +the railroad, which had many set-backs, had only brought about three +thousand people there in 1885. The completion of other railway +connections in various directions, the discovery of iron deposits, and +the recognition of its advantageous position for traffic, subsequently +gave Duluth rapid growth, so that it now has eighty thousand people, +and is the greatest port on the lake. It is finely situated, the +harbor being spacious and lined with docks and warehouses, and it has +many substantial buildings. Back of the city a terrace rises some four +hundred feet, an old shore line of Lake Superior when the water was at +much higher level, and here is the Boulevard Drive, giving splendid +views over the town and lake. The vast extent of wheat lands to the +westward and the prolific iron-ore district to the northward give +Duluth an enormous trade. Its railways lead up to the Messabi and +Vermillion ranges, now the greatest producers of Lake Superior +iron-ores, the red hematite, most of the output being controlled by +John D. Rockefeller and his associates. These mines yield the richest +ores in the world, and have made some of the greatest fortunes in +Duluth. Yet they were not discovered until 1891, and then the lands +where they are generally went begging, because nobody would give the +government price for them, $1.25 per acre. One forty-acre tract, then +abandoned by the man who took it up because he did not think the pine +wood on it was enough to warrant paying $50 for it, is now the +Mountain Iron Mine, netting Mr. Rockefeller $375,000 annual profit, +and his railroad bringing the ores out gets more than that sum for +freights. + + +THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE. + +The early French traders and explorers who came to the upper lakes +naturally ascended their affluents, and in this way La Salle, Joliet, +Hennepin and others crossed the portages beyond Lake Michigan to the +tributaries of the Mississippi. They came to Green Bay on the west +side of Lake Michigan, ascended the Fox River and crossed over to the +Wisconsin River. Southward from the Upper Michigan Peninsula and +westward of the lower peninsula of that State spreads the broad +expanse of Lake Michigan, stretching from Mackinac and Green Bay down +to Chicago. Its western shore is the State of Wisconsin, extending +northward to Lake Superior. When the French explorers came along and +floated down its chief river, an affluent of the Mississippi, the +latter making the western boundary of the State, they found the Indian +name of the stream to be a word which, according to the pronunciation, +they spelled in their early narratives "Ouisconsing" and "Misconsin," +and it finally came out in the present form of Wisconsin, thus naming +the State. The original meaning was the "wild, rushing red water," +from the hue given by the pine and tamarack forests. La Salle coasted +in his canoe all along the western shore of Lake Michigan, from Green +Bay down to Chicago, and crossed over to the Mississippi. The traders +established various settlements on that shore which have grown into +active cities, and the principal one, eighty-five miles north of +Chicago, is Milwaukee, its name derived from the Indian Mannawahkie, +meaning the "good land." A broad harbor, indented several miles from +the lake, was the nucleus of the city, at the mouth of Milwaukee +River, which receives two tributaries within the town, and thus adds +to the facilities for dockage, while extensive breakwaters protect the +harbor entrance from lake storms. + +Milwaukee has three hundred and fifty thousand people, and is the +growth mainly of the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is +finely located, with undulating surface, the streets lined with trees, +and the splendid development of the residential section making it +almost like an extensive park, the foliage and garden spaces are so +extensive and attractive. Its population is largely German, and its +breweries are famous, exporting their product all over the country. It +has a grand Federal building, costing nearly $2,000,000, a Romanesque +structure in granite, an elaborate Court-house of brown sandstone, a +spacious City Hall, a magnificent Public Library and Museum, and many +attractive churches and other edifices. Juneau Park, on a bluff +overlooking the lake, commemorates the first settler, Solomon Juneau, +and contains his statue. Here, in compliment to the large Scandinavian +population of Wisconsin, is also a statue of Leif Ericsen, who is said +to have been in command of the first detachment of Norsemen who landed +in New England in the eleventh century. The Forest Home Cemetery at +the southwestern verge of the city is one of the most beautiful in the +country. Milwaukee is familiarly called the "Cream City" from the +light-colored brick made in the neighborhood, which so largely enter +into the construction of its buildings. It has extensive grain +elevators and flour mills and large manufacturing industries. To the +westward, in a park of four hundred acres, is the National Soldiers' +Home, with accommodation for twenty-four hundred. Its Sheridan Drive +along the lake shore southward is gradually extending, the intention +being to connect with the Sheridan Boulevard constructed northward +from Chicago. The lion of the city, however, is the great Pabst +Brewery, covering thirty-four acres and producing eight hundred +thousand barrels of beer a year. Twenty miles inland to the westward +is a favorite resort of the Milwaukeans, the noted Bethesda Spring of +Waukesha, whose waters they find it beneficial to take copiously, +large quantities being also exported throughout America and Europe for +their efficacy in diabetes and Bright's disease. + +The capital of Wisconsin is the city of Madison, seventy-five miles +west of Milwaukee, built on the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and +Monona, thus giving it an admirable position. It has about twenty +thousand people, and the lake attractions make it a popular summer +resort. The State Capitol is a handsome building in a spacious park, +one of the wings being occupied by the Wisconsin Historical Society, +with a library of two hundred thousand volumes, an art gallery and +museum. The great structure of Madison is the University of Wisconsin, +the buildings in a commanding position on University Hill overlooking +the charming Lake Mendota. There are seventeen hundred students, and +its Washburn Observatory, one of the best in America, has wide fame. + + +ASCENDING THE MISSISSIPPI. + +Westward from Lake Michigan all the railroads are laid across the +prairie land _en route_ to various cities on the Mississippi River, +several of them having St. Paul and Minneapolis for their objective +points, although some go by quite roundabout ways. The great "Father +of Waters" comes from Northern Minnesota, flows over the Falls of St. +Anthony at Minneapolis, and is a river of much scenic attractiveness +down to Dubuque and Rock Island, its width being usually about three +thousand feet, excepting at the bends, which are wider, the +picturesque bluffs enclosing the valley sometimes rising six hundred +feet high. The railways leading to it traverse the monotonous level of +prairie in Illinois and Wisconsin, excepting where a stream may make a +gorge, and the face of the country is everywhere almost the same. The +Moline Rapids in the Mississippi above Rock Island afford good +water-power, and here the Government, owning the island, has +established a large arsenal, which is the base for all the western +army supplies. The admirable location has made cities on either bank, +Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport in Iowa, both being commercial +and manufacturing centres, and the latter city having the larger +population. The Mississippi flows through a rather wide valley, with +pleasant shores, having villas dotted on their slopes. The Moline +Rapids, which are said to have a water-power rivalling the aggregate +of all the cataracts in New England, descend twenty-two feet in a +distance of fourteen miles. Above them, the river flows between +Illinois and Iowa, and various flourishing towns are passed, the +largest being Dubuque, with fifty thousand people, the chief +industrial city of Iowa, and a centre of the lead and zinc manufacture +of the Galena district. This was the first settlement made by white +men in Iowa, the city being named for Julien Dubuque, a French trader, +who came in 1788 with a small party to work the lead-mines. Iowa is +known as the "Hawkeye State," and its name is of Dakotan Indian +derivation, meaning "drowsy," which, however, is hardly the proper +basis for naming such a wide-awake Commonwealth. Opposite Dubuque is +the northern boundary of Illinois, and above, the Mississippi +separates Iowa from Wisconsin. + +The Mississippi bordering bluffs now rise much higher and become more +picturesque, Eagle Point, near Dubuque, being elevated three hundred +feet. Prairie du Chien, just above the mouth of Wisconsin River, was +one of the earliest French military posts. This region was the scene +of the "Black Hawk War," that chief of the Sacs battling to get back +certain lands which in 1832 had been ceded by the Sac and Fox Indians +to the United States. He was finally defeated back of the western +river shore, the boundary between Iowa and Minnesota being nearby. +Minnesota is the "North Star State," and its Indian name, taken from +the river, flowing into the Mississippi above St. Paul, means the +"cloudy water." The river scenery becomes more and more picturesque as +the Mississippi is ascended, the bluffs rising to higher elevations. +La Crosse is a great lumber manufacturing town, drawing its timber +from both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Above, where islands dot the +channel, is perhaps the most beautiful section of the river. +Trempealeau Island, five hundred feet high, commands a magnificent +view, and the Black River flows in through a splendid gorge. Winona is +a prominent grain-shipping town, and at Wabasha the river expands into +the beautiful Lake Pepin, thirty miles long and from three to five +miles wide, with attractive shores and many popular resorts. Over the +lake rise the bold round headland of Point No Point on one side and +the Maiden Rock on the other. St. Croix River flows in above on the +eastern bank, making an enlargement known as St. Croix Lake, and the +upper Mississippi is now wholly within Minnesota, having here at the +head of navigation the famous "Twin Cities" of St. Paul and +Minneapolis. + + +THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY + +Father Hennepin was the first white man who penetrated the wilds of +Minnesota, and in 1680 he discovered the great falls of the +Mississippi River, to which he gave the name of his patron saint, +Anthony of Padua. The river just below the falls naturally attracted +the attention of the French adventurers who came to trade with the +Sioux, Chippewas and Dakotas, and the first white man who tarried and +built a house here was a Canadian voyageur, who came in 1838. In 1841 +a French priest established the Roman Catholic mission of St. Paul on +the bank of the river, and thus the settlement was named. The +admirable water-power of the falls, which, with their two miles of +rapids, descend seventy-eight feet, afterwards attracted the attention +of millers, lumbermen and other manufacturers, and this made the +settlement of Minneapolis, ten miles westward and farther up the +river, which began in 1849, the name meaning the "city of the waters." +St. Paul grew with rapidity, being encouraged both by steamboat and +afterwards by railway traffic; but Minneapolis, though started later, +subsequently outstripped it. The two places, rivals yet friends, have +extended towards each other, so as to almost form one large city, and +they now have over four hundred thousand inhabitants. These "Twin +Cities" are running a rapid race in prosperity, each independently of +the other. St. Paul is rather more of a trading city, while +Minneapolis is an emporium of sawmills and the greatest flour-mills in +the world. Both are admirably located upon the bluffs rising above the +Mississippi. St. Paul is situated upon a series of ornamental +semicircular terraces that are very attractive, though in some +portions rather circumscribed. Minneapolis is built on a more +extensive plan upon an esplanade overlooking the falls, and extending +to an island in midstream, and also over upon the opposite northern +side of the river. The Falls of St. Anthony is the most powerful +waterfall in the United States wholly applied to manufacturing +purposes. The entire current of the Mississippi comes down the rapids +and over the falls, the latter having a descent of about fifty feet. +It is protected by a wall built by the Government across the river, to +prevent the wearing away of the sandstone formation, there having been +serious inroads made, while the surface is covered with an apron of +planks over which the water runs, with sluiceways alongside to shoot +logs down. However much Father Hennepin may have admired the beauties +of this great cataract, there is no longer anything picturesque about +the Falls of St. Anthony. Logs jam the upper river, where the booms +catch them for the sawmills, and subterranean channels conduct the +water in various directions to the mills, and discharge their foaming +streams below. There is no romance in the rumble of flour-rollers and +the buzz of saws, but they mean a great deal of profitable business. +The force exerted by the falls at low water is estimated at one +hundred and thirty-five thousand horse-power. + +St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota, and the State is building a +magnificent new Capitol, constructed of granite and marble, with a +lofty central dome, at a cost exceeding $2,000,000. There is a fine +City Hall and many imposing and substantial business edifices. Its +especial residence street, Summit Avenue, is upon a high ridge, +parallel with and some distance back from the Mississippi, the chief +dwelling, a large brownstone mansion, being the home of the leading +railroad prince of the Northwest, President James J. Hill of the Great +Northern Railroad. Here is also the new and spacious Roman Catholic +Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas. The old military post of Fort Snelling +is on the river above St. Paul, near the mouth of Minnesota River. In +Minneapolis, the great building is the City Hall, completed in 1896, +and having a tower rising three hundred and fifty feet, giving a +superb view. The Guaranty Loan Company's Building is one of the finest +office structures in America, with its roof arranged for a garden, +where concerts are given. Minneapolis has a widely extended +residential section, with hundreds of attractive mansions in +ornamental grounds. Near the river bank is the University of +Minnesota, having well-equipped buildings and attended by twenty-eight +hundred students. + +Minneapolis is the greatest flour manufacturing city in the world. Its +mills, of which there are some twenty-five, are located along the +river near the falls, and have a daily capacity of over sixty +thousand barrels, turning out about eighteen millions of barrels +annually, which are sent all over the globe. The whole country west +and northwest of Minneapolis, including the Red River Valley, the +Dakotas and Manitoba, is practically a fertile wheat field, growing +the finest grain that is produced in America, and this makes the +prosperity of the city. The Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company are +the leading millers. The great Pillsbury A mill, which turns out ten +thousand seven hundred barrels a day, is the world's champion +flour-mill. It is a marvel of the economical manufacture, the railway +cars coming in laden with wheat, being quickly emptied, and then +filled with loaded flour-barrels and sacks for shipment. Machinery +does practically everything from the shovelling of wheat out of the +car to the packing of the barrel or sack with the product. This huge +mill stands in relation to the flour trade as Niagara does to +waterfalls. The other great Minneapolis industry is the lumber trade. +Minnesota is well timbered, a belt of fine forests, chiefly pine, +stretching across it, known as the _Coteau des Bois_, or "Big Woods," +an elevated plateau with a rolling surface, having thousands of lakes +scattered through it, fed by springs, while their outlets go into +streams feeding the Mississippi, down which the logs are floated to +the booms above the falls. The extensive sawmills will cut over four +hundred and fifty millions of feet of lumber in a year. Thus the flour +and lumber have become the chief articles of export from Minneapolis. + +There are several pleasant lakes in the neighborhood, which are +popular resorts of the people of the "Twin Cities," the largest and +most famous being Minnetonka, the Indian name meaning the "Big Water." +It is a pretty lake, at nearly a thousand feet elevation, with low, +winding and tree-clad shores, having little islets dotted over its +surface, and myriads of indented bays and jutting peninsulas which +extend its shore line to over a hundred miles, though the extreme +length of the lake is barely seventeen miles. There are many +attractive places on the shores and islands, and large steamers ply on +its bosom. From this lake the discharge is through the Minnehaha +River, and its Minnehaha Falls, the "Laughing Water," poetically +praised by Longfellow in Hiawatha. The beautiful glen in which this +graceful cataract is found has been made a park. The falls are about +fifty feet high, and a critical observer has recorded that there is +"only wanting a little more water to be one of the most picturesque +cascades in the country." Below the Minnehaha Falls is another on a +smaller scale, which the people thereabout have nicknamed the +"Minnegiggle." Thus sings Longfellow of Minnehaha: + + "Homeward now went Hiawatha; + Only once his pace he slackened, + Only once he paused or halted, + Paused to purchase heads of arrows + Of the ancient Arrow-maker, + In the land of the Dacotahs, + Where the Falls of Minnehaha + Flash and gleam among the oak-trees, + Laugh and leap into the valley. + "There the ancient Arrow-maker + Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, + Arrow-heads of chalcedony, + Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, + Smoothed and sharpened at the edges, + Hard and polished, keen and costly. + "With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter, + Wayward as the Minnehaha, + With her moods of shade and sunshine, + Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate, + Feet as rapid as the river, + Tresses flowing like the water, + And as musical a laughter; + And he named her from the river, + From the water-fall he named her, + Minnehaha, Laughing Water. + "Was it then for heads of arrows, + Arrow-heads of chalcedony, + Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, + That my Hiawatha halted + In the land of the Dacotahs? + "Was it not to see the maiden, + See the face of Laughing Water, + Peeping from behind the curtain, + Hear the rustling of her garments, + From behind the waving curtain, + As one sees the Minnehaha + Gleaming, glancing through the branches, + As one hears the Laughing Water, + From behind its screen of branches? + "Who shall say what thoughts and visions + Fill the fiery brains of young men? + Who shall say what dreams of beauty + Filled the heart of Hiawatha? + All he told to old Nokomis, + When he reached the lodge at sunset, + Was the meeting with his father, + Was his fight with Mudjekeewis; + Not a word he said of arrows, + Not a word of Laughing Water." + + +THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + +It was in Minnesota, in 1862, that the terrible Indian uprising +occurred in which the Sioux, exasperated by the encroachments of the +whites, attacked the western frontier settlements in August, and in +less than two days massacred eight hundred people. The troops were +sent as soon as possible, attacked and defeated them in two battles, +and thirty-eight of the Indians were executed on one scaffold at +Mankato, on the Minnesota River southwest of Minneapolis, in December. +The State of Minnesota is said to contain fully ten thousand lakes of +all sizes, the largest being Red Lake in the northern wilderness, +having an area of three hundred and forty square miles. The surface of +the State rises into what is known as the Itascan plateau in the +northern central part at generally about seventeen hundred and fifty +feet elevation. From this plateau four rivers flow out in various +directions--the one on the Western Minnesota boundary, the Red River +of the North, draining the western slope towards Lake Winnipeg and +finally to Hudson Bay; the Rainy River, draining the northern slope +also through Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay; the St. Louis River, flowing +eastward to form the head of Lake Superior, and going thence to the +Atlantic; and the Mississippi River, flowing southward to seek the +Gulf of Mexico. Schoolcraft, the Indian ethnologist and explorer, +named this Itascan plateau, and the little lake in its heart, where +the Mississippi takes its rise, about two hundred miles +north-northwest of Minneapolis, though the roundabout course of the +river from its source to that city is a much longer distance, flowing +nearly a thousand miles. There was a good deal of discussion as to +whether this lake was really the head of the great river, as the lake +received several small streams, but Schoolcraft settled the dispute, +and named the lake Itasca, from a contraction of the Latin words +_veritas caput_, the "true head." Its elevation is about sixteen +hundred feet, being surrounded by pine-clad hills rising a hundred +feet higher. Out of Itasca Lake the "Father of Waters" flows with a +breadth of about twelve feet, and a depth ordinarily of less than two +feet. It goes at first northerly, and then makes a grand curve through +a long chain of lakes, describing a large semicircle to the eastward, +and finally southwest, before it becomes settled as to direction, and +takes its southeast course towards the Falls of St. Anthony, and +onward in its grand progress to the Gulf. + + +THE ANCIENT LAKE AGASSIZ. + +The Minnesota River, rising on the western boundary of the State, +flows nearly five hundred miles in a deeply carved valley through the +"Big Woods" to the Mississippi. Its source is in the Big Stone Lake, +which, with Lake Traverse to the northward, forms part of the Dakota +boundary. The Red River of the North, rising in Lake Traverse and +gathering together the streams on the western slope of the Itascan +plateau, flows northward between Minnesota and North Dakota, and into +Manitoba, two hundred and fifty miles to Lake Winnipeg. This river has +cut its channel in a nearly level plain, and it is curious that in +times of freshet its waters connect, through Lakes Traverse and the +Big Stone, with the Minnesota, so that steamboats of light draught can +then occasionally pass from the Mississippi waters north to Lake +Winnipeg. It was this rich and level plain of the valley of the Red +River that in the glacial epoch formed the bed of a vast lake which +scientists have named Lake Agassiz. Its area, as indicated by +well-marked shore-lines and deltas, was a hundred miles wide and over +four hundred miles long, stretching far into Manitoba, and the waters +were two to four hundred feet deep. It was held up on the north by the +retreating ice-sheet of the great glacier, the outlet being southward, +where a channel fifty feet deep, fifty miles long and over a mile +wide can now be distinctly traced leading its outflow into the +Minnesota River, whose valley its floods then greatly enlarged on the +way to the Mississippi. The plain of this lake bed is almost level, +descending towards the northward about a foot to the mile, and here +the ancient lake deposited the thick, rich, black soils which have +made the greatest wheat-growing region of North America. + +The first settlement of Dakota was on the Big Sioux River at Sioux +Falls, where flour-mills and other manufacturing establishments have +gathered around a fine water-power, and there are nearly fifty +thousand people in the two towns of Sioux Falls in South Dakota and +Sioux City in Iowa. The whole region to the northward and far over the +Canadian boundary is a land of wheat-fields, with grain elevators +dotting the flat prairie at the railway stations, for all the roads +have lines to tap the lucrative trade of this prolific region. The +Northern Pacific Railway crosses Red River at Fargo, which, with the +town of Moorhead, both being wheat and flour centres, has a population +of fifteen thousand. To the westward are the vast "Bonanza" wheat +farms of Dakota, of which the best known is the Dalrymple farm, +covering forty-five thousand acres. Steam-ploughs make continuous +furrows for many miles in the cultivation, and in the spring the +seeding is done. The whole country is covered with a vast expanse of +waving, yellow grain in the summer, and the harvest comes in August. +To the westward flows James River through a similar district, and the +country beyond rises into the higher plateau stretching to the +Missouri. This fertile wheat-growing region extends far northward over +the Canadian border forming the Province of Manitoba, the name coming +from Lake Manitoba, which in the Cree Indian dialect means the "home +of Manitou, the Great Spirit." Its enormous wheat product makes the +business of the flouring-mills of Minneapolis, Duluth and many other +cities, and furnishes a vast stream of grain to go through the Soo +Canal down the lakes and St. Lawrence, much being exported to Europe. + +The Canadian Pacific Railway, which provides the traffic outlet for +Manitoba, comes from the northern shore of Lake Superior at Port +Arthur northwestward up the valley of the Kaministiquia River, and its +tributary the Wabigoon, the Indian "Stream of the Lilies." This was +the ancient portage, and by this trail and Winnipeg River, the canoe +route of the Hudson Bay Company voyageurs, Lord Wolseley led the +British army in 1870 to Fort Garry (Winnipeg) that suppressed Louis +Riel's French-Indian half-breed rebellion, which had possession of the +post. The railway route is through an extensive forest, and leads near +the northern shore of the Lake of the Woods, crossing its outlet +stream at Rat Portage, so named from the numerous colonies of +muskrats, a town of sawmills standing at the rocky rim of the lake, +where its waters break through and down rapids of twenty feet fall to +seek Winnipeg River, the Ounipigon or "muddy water" of the Crees. +Here, and at Keewatin beyond, are grand water-powers, the latter +having mammoth mills that grind the Manitoba wheat and send the flour +to England. Then, emerging from the forests, the railway crosses the +rich black soils of the Red River Valley, and beyond that river enters +Winnipeg, the "Prairie City" and commercial metropolis of the Canadian +Northwest. For nearly eight hundred miles this alluvial region spreads +west and northwest of Winnipeg, with varying degrees of fertility, to +the Rocky Mountains. Here, at the junction of the Assiniboine River, +coming from the remote northwest, with Red River, has grown a Canadian +Chicago of fifty thousand people, developed almost as if by magic, +from the little settlement of two hundred and forty souls, whom +Wolseley found in 1870, around what was then regarded as the distant +Hudson Bay Company frontier post of Fort Garry. Its original name when +first established was Fort Gibraltar. The two rivers wander crookedly +over the flat land, and between them the city covers an extensive +surface. A half-dozen railways radiate in various directions, and +there are spacious car-yards and stations. Winnipeg has an energetic +population, largely Scotch and Americans, but with picturesque touches +given by the copper-colored Indians and French half-breeds, who wander +about in their native costumes, though most of these have gone away +from Red River Valley to the far Northwest. The city has good streets, +many fine buildings and attractive stores. The Manitoba Government +Buildings adjoin the Assiniboine River, and the military barracks of +Fort Osborne are alongside. Near the junction of the rivers is the +little stone gateway left standing, which is almost all that remains +of the original trading-post buildings of Fort Garry, representing the +venerable Hudson Bay Company, chartered by King Charles II. in 1670, +that controlled the whole vast empire of the Canadian Northwest. This +Company was a grant by the king originally to Prince Rupert and a few +associates of a monopoly of the fur trade over a vast territory in +North America, extending from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay and the +Pacific Ocean. In this way that portion of British America came to be +popularly known in England as "Prince Rupert's Land." The great +Company existed for nearly two hundred years, had one hundred and +fifty-two trading-posts, and employed three thousand traders, agents +and voyageurs, and many thousands of Indians. In the bartering with +the red men, the unit of account was the beaver skin, which was the +equivalent of two martens or twenty muskrats, while the pelt of a +silver fox was five times as valuable as a beaver. In 1869, when the +Dominion of Canada was formed, England bought the sovereignty of the +Company for $1,500,000 and transferred its territory to Canada. The +Company still retains its posts and stores, however, and conducts +throughout the Northwest a mercantile business. Far to the westward of +Winnipeg spread the fertile prairies of Manitoba and Assiniboia +Provinces, until they gradually blend into the rounded and +grass-covered foothills making the grazing ranges of Alberta that +finally rise into the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies. + + +DAKOTA AND MONTANA. + +Three railways are constructed westward from Red River to the Rockies +and Pacific Ocean,--the Northern Pacific and Great Northern in the +United States and the Canadian Pacific beyond the international +boundary. The former cross the plateau to the Upper Missouri River, +and there the Northern Pacific route reaches Bismarck, the capital of +North Dakota, having a fine Capitol set on a hill, the corner-stone of +which was laid in 1883, with the noted Sioux chief Sitting Bull +assisting. This region not so long ago knew only soldiers and Indians; +but there has since been a great influx of white settlers, enforcing +the idea of which Whittier has significantly written: + + "Behind the squaw's birch-bark canoe, + The steamer smokes and raves; + And city lots are staked for sale + Above old Indian graves." + +The frontier army post of Fort Lincoln on the bluff alongside the +river testifies to the time not yet remote when the Sioux and Crow +Indians of the Dakotas needed a good deal of military control. The +deer, buffalo and antelope then roamed these boundless prairies, but +they have all disappeared. Beyond the Missouri River is the region of +the Dakota "Bad Lands." The surface rises into sharp conical +elevations known as "buttes," and soon this curious district of +pyramidal hills known as Pyramid Park is entered, fire and water +having had a remarkable effect upon them. Their red sides are furrowed +by the rains, and smoke issues from some of the crevices. The lignite +and coal deposits underlying this country have produced subterranean +fires that burnt the clays above until they became brittle and red. +There are ashes and scoriæ in patches, and cinders looking much like +the outcast of an iron furnace. The buttes are at times isolated and +sometimes in rows, many being of large size. Their sides are often +terraced regularly, and frequently into fantastic shapes, occasionally +appearing as the sloping ramparts of a fort. There are frequent +pot-like holes among them, filled with reddish, brackish water, and +sometimes excavated in the ground with regularly square-cut edges. +When the railway route cuts into a butte, its interior is disclosed as +a pile of red-burnt clay fragments mixed with ashes and sand. Little +prairie dogs dodge in and out of their holes, but there is not much +else of life. The boundary is crossed into Montana, and the "Bad +Lands" gradually give place to a grazing section. Here stands up the +great Sentinel Butte, with its reddish-yellow sides, near the Montana +border, and the railway route then descends from the higher region to +the valley of the Yellowstone. + +The Yellowstone River, one of the headwaters of the Missouri, rises in +the National Park, and its fertile valley is among the leading +pasturages of Montana. Cattle and sheep abound, and the cowboys are +universal, galloping about on energetic little bronchos, with lariats +hanging from the saddle. The Big Horn River flows in, and an extensive +region to the southward is the Crow Indian reservation, about three +thousand living there. It was here, near Fort Custer, at a point +forty-five miles south of the railroad, that the terrible massacre +took place in June, 1876, by which General Custer and his command of +over two hundred and fifty men were annihilated by the Sioux. There is +now a national cemetery at the place. We gradually enter the mountain +ranges which are the outposts of the Rockies, and passing between the +Yellowstone range and the Belt Mountains, reach Livingston, a town of +several thousand people, and a great centre for hunting and fishing, +at the entrance to the Yellowstone National Park. From here a branch +railway turns southward, ascending the valley of the Yellowstone, +going through its first canyon, known as the "Gate of the Mountain," +an impressive rocky gorge, and ascending a steep grade, so that the +floor of the valley rises within the Park to an elevation of over six +thousand feet above the sea. A second canyon is passed, and on its +western side is a huge peak whose upheaved red rocks have named it the +Cinnabar Mountain. These red rocks are in strata streaked down its +sides with intervening granite and limestone. One of these, the +Devil's Slide, is conspicuous, its quartzite walls rising high above +the lower strata and making a veritable slide of great proportions +down the mountain. The railroad ends at Cinnabar, and stages cover the +remaining distance up the Yellowstone to its confluence with Gardiner +River at the Park entrance, and thence to the Mammoth Hot Springs +within the Park, the tourist headquarters. + + +THE AMERICAN WONDERLAND. + +The Yellowstone National Park has been set apart by Congress as a +public reservation and pleasure-ground, and covers a surface of about +fifty-five hundred square miles within the Rocky Mountains. Most of +the Park is in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, but there are also +small portions in Montana to the north and Idaho to the west. It is a +tract more remarkable for natural curiosities than an equal area in +any other part of the world, and within it are the sources of some of +the greatest rivers of North America. The Yellowstone, Gardiner and +Madison Rivers, which are the headwaters of the Missouri, flow out of +the northern and western sides, while on the southern side originates +the Snake River, one of the sources of the Columbia River of Oregon, +and also the Green River, a branch of the Colorado, flowing into the +Gulf of California. The central portion of the Park is a broad +volcanic plateau, elevated, on an average, eight thousand feet above +the sea, and surrounded by mountain ridges and peaks, rising to nearly +twelve thousand feet, and covered with snow. The air is pure and +bracing, little rain falls, and the whole district gives evidence of +remarkable volcanic activity at a comparatively late geological epoch. +It contains the most elevated lake in the world, Yellowstone Lake. The +Yellowstone River flows into this lake, and then northward through a +magnificent canyon out of the Park. Its most remarkable tributary +within the Park is Tower Creek, flowing through a narrow and gloomy +pass for two miles, called the Devil's Den, and just before reaching +the Yellowstone having a fall of one hundred and fifty-six feet, which +is surrounded by columns of breccia resembling towers. There is frost +in the Park every month in the year, owing to the peculiar atmospheric +conditions. The traces of recent volcanic activity are seen in the +geysers, craters and terrace constructions, boiling springs, deep +canyons, petrified trees, obsidian cliffs, sulphur deposits and +similar formations. These geysers and springs surpass in number and +magnitude those of the rest of the world. There are some five +thousand hot springs, depositing mainly lime and silica, and over a +hundred large geysers, many of them throwing water columns to heights +of from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet. The most elaborate colors +and ornamentation are formed by the deposits of the springs and +geysers, these curiosities being mainly in and near the valleys of the +Madison and Gardiner Rivers. An attempt has been made under Government +auspices to have in the Park a huge game preserve, and within its +recesses large numbers of wild animals are sheltered, including deer, +elk, bears, big-horn sheep, and the last herd of buffalo in the +country. Troops of cavalry and other Government forces patrol and +govern the Park. + + +THE MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. + +This extraordinary region was first made known in a way in 1807. A +hunter named Coulter visited it, and getting safely back to +civilization, he told such wonderful stories of the hot springs and +geysers that the unbelieving borderers, in derision, called it +"Coulter's Hell." Others visited it subsequently, but their remarkable +tales were generally regarded as romances. The first thorough +exploration was made by Prof. Hayden's scientific party for the +Government in 1871, and his report led Congress to reserve it as a +public Park. The visitor generally first enters the Park at the +Mammoth Hot Springs, which are near the northern verge of the broad +central plateau. Here are the wonderful terraces built up by the +earlier calcareous deposits of these Springs, covering an area of +several square miles, and in the present active operations about two +hundred acres, with a dozen or more terraces, and some seventy flowing +springs, the temperature of the water rising to 165°. The lower +terrace extends to the edge of the gorge of Gardiner River, with high +mountain peaks beyond. The hotel is built on one of the terraces, with +yawning caves and the craters of extinct geysers at several places in +front. The higher terraces rise in white, streaked with brown and +other tints, as the overflowing, trickling waters may have colored +them. The best idea that can be got of this place is by conjuring up +the popular impression of the infernal regions with an ample stock of +heat and brimstone. For a long distance, rising from the top of the +gorge of Gardiner River westward in successive terraces to a height of +a thousand feet above the stream, the entire surface is underlaid with +sulphur, subterranean fires, boiling water and steam, which make their +way out in many places. The earth has been cracked by the heat into +fissures, within which the waters can be heard boiling and running +down below, and everything on the surface which can be, is burnt up. +Almost every crevice exudes steam and hot water; sulphur hangs in +stalactites from the caves; and in some places the odors are nearly +overpowering. It is no wonder the Indians avoided this forbidding +region, and that the tales told by the early explorers were +disbelieved. Yet it is as attractive as it is startling. The hot +springs form shallow pools, where the waters run daintily over their +rim-like edges, trickling down upon terrace after terrace, forming the +most beautiful shapes of columns, towers and coral decorations from +the lime deposits, and painting them with delicious coloring in red, +brown, green, yellow, blue and pink. So long as the waters run, this +decoration continues, but when the flow ceases, the atmosphere turns +everything white, and the more delicate formations crumble. The whole +of this massive structure has been built up by ages of the steady +though minute deposits of the waters, the rate being estimated at +about one-sixteenth of an inch in four days. The rocks upon which +these calcareous deposits are made belong to the middle and lower +Cretaceous and Jurassic formations, with probably carboniferous +limestones beneath that put the deposits in the waters. A dozen +different terraces can be traced successively upward from the river +bank to the highest part of the formation. Two cones of extinct +geysers rise from the deposits, near the hotel,--the Liberty Cap, +forty-five feet high, and the Giant's Thumb, somewhat smaller,--both +having been built up by the deposits from orifices still seen in their +tops, whence the waters have ceased flowing. All these springs, as +deposits are made, shift their locality, so that the scene gradually +changes as the ages pass. + +In climbing about this remarkable formation, some of the most +beautiful bits of construction and coloring nature has ever produced +are disclosed. The Orange Geyser has its sides streaked with orange, +yellow and red from the little wavelets slowly trickling out of the +steaming spring at the top, which goes off at quick intervals like the +exhaust of a steam-engine. At the Stalactite Cave the flowing waters +add green to the other colors, and also scale the rocks in places like +the back of a fish, while below hang stalactites with water dropping +from them. The roof of the cave is full of beautiful formations. The +water is very hot when it starts from the top, but becomes quite cold +when it has finished its journey down. One of the finest formations is +Cleopatra's Bath, with Cupid's Cave beneath, the way to them being +through Antony's Gate, all built up of the deposits. Here rich +coloring is painted on the rocks, with hot water and steam amply +supplied to the bath, which has 154° temperature at the outer verge. +All the springs form flat basins with turned-up edges, over which the +waters flow, and trickling down the front of the terrace, paint it. +When the flow ceases, and the surface has been made snowy white by the +atmosphere, it becomes a spongy and beautiful coral, crumbling when +touched, and into which the foot sinks when walked upon. The +aggregation of the currents run in streams over terrace after +terrace, spread out to the width of hundreds of feet, painting them +all, and then seeking the Gardiner River, flowing through a deep gorge +in front of the formation. Everything subjected to the overflow of +these currents gets coated by the deposits, so that visitors have many +small articles coated to carry away as curiosities. + +Among the many beautiful formations made by these Hot Springs, the +most elaborate and ornamental are the Pulpit Terraces. These are a +succession of magnificent terraces, fifty feet high, with beautifully +colored columnar supports. There is a large pulpit, and in front, on a +lower level, the font, with the water running over its edges. The +pulpit, having been formed by a spring that has ceased action, is +white, while the font is streaked in red and brown. Finely carved +vases filled with water stand below, and alongside the pulpit there is +an inclined surface, whitened and spread in wrinkles like the drifted +snow, which requires very little imagination to picture as a +magnificent curtain. Beyond is a blackened border like a second +curtain, the coloring being made by a spring impregnated with arsenic. +In front of this gorgeous display the surface is hot and cracked into +fissures, with bubbling streams of steaming water running through it, +and great pools fuming into new basins with turned-up edges, over +which the hot water runs. Upon one of these pools seems to be a +deposit of transparent gelatine, looking like the albumen of an egg, +streaked into fantastic shapes by elongated bubbles. Everywhere are +surfaces, over which the water runs, that are covered with regular +formations like fish scales. It is impossible to adequately describe +this extraordinary place, combining the supposed peculiarities and +terrors of the infernal regions with the most beautiful forms and +colors in decoration. The great hill made by these Hot Springs was, +from its prevailing color, named the White Mountain by Hayden. The +springs extend all the way down to the river bank, and there are some +even in the river bed. It is a common experiment of the angler to hook +a small fish in the cold water of the river, and then, without +changing position, to swing him on the hook over into the basin of one +of these hot springs to cook him. The formation of the terraces is +wedge-shaped, and runs up into a gulch between the higher mountains, +which have pines scattered over them, and also grow some grass in +sheltered nooks. It is said that the volume of the springs is +gradually diminishing. + + +THE NORRIS GEYSER BASIN. + +The route southward into the Park crosses mountain ridges and over +stretches of lava and ashes and other volcanic formations, through +woods and past gorges, and reaches the Obsidian Creek, which flows +near the Obsidian Cliff. This remarkable structure is a mountain of +black glass of volcanic formation, rising six hundred feet, with the +road hewn along its edge. It looks as if a series of blasting +explosions had blown its face into pieces, smashing the glass into +great heaps of _débris_ that have fallen down in front. The formation +is columnar, rising from a morass adjoining Beaver Lake, which is a +mile long. The divide is thus crossed between the Gardiner and Gibbon +Rivers, the latter flowing into the Madison, and here, twenty-five +miles from the Mammoth Hot Springs, is the Norris Geyser Basin. In +approaching, seen over the low trees, the place looks much like the +manufacturing quarter of a city, steam jets rising out of many +orifices, and a hissing being heard as of sundry engine exhausts. The +basin covers about one hundred and fifty acres, and is depressed below +the general level. The whole surface is lime, silica, sulphur and +sand, fused together and baked hard by the great heat, cracked into +fissures, and, as it is walked over, giving out hollow sounds, showing +that beneath are subterranean caves and passages in which boil huge +cauldrons. There is a background formed by the bleak-looking mountains +of the Quadrate range, having snow upon their tops and sides. The +steam blows off with the noise of a hundred exhaust pipes, and little +geysers boil everywhere, occasionally spurting up like the bursting of +a boiler. In one place on the hillside the escaping steam from the +"Steamboat" keeps up a loud and steady roar; in another is the deeper +tone of the "Black Growler." As a general thing, the higher vents on +the hill give off steam only, while the lower ones are geysers. The +trees are coated with the deposits, the surface is hot, and all +underneath seems an immense mass of boiling water, impregnated with +sulphur, giving off powerful odors, while brimstone and lime-dust +encrust everything, and a large amount of valuable steam-power goes to +waste. + +This is the smallest of the basins, having few large geysers. Most of +them are little ones, spurting every few minutes, and with some view +to economy, whereby the water, after being blown out of the crater to +a brief height, runs back into the orifice again, ready to be ejected +by the next explosion. A mud geyser here throws up large quantities of +dirty white paint in several spouting jets, the eruption continuing +ten minutes, when nearly all the water runs back again, leaving the +crater entirely bare, and its rounded, water-worn rocks exposed. The +"Emerald Pool" is the wide crater of an old geyser, filled with hot +water of a beautiful green color, constantly boiling, but never +getting as far as an eruption. Probably the best geyser on exhibition +in this basin is the "Minute Man," which, at intervals of about one +minute, spouts for ten or twelve seconds, the column rising thirty +feet, and the rest of the time it blows off steam. The "Vixen" is a +coquette which is delightfully irregular, never going off when +watched, but when the back is turned suddenly sending out a column +sixty feet high. The great geyser here is the "Monarch," standing in a +hill from which it has blown out the entire side, and once a day +discharging an enormous amount of water over one hundred feet high, +and continuing nearly a half-hour. Its column comes from two huge +orifices, the surplus water running down quite a large brook. When +quiet, this geyser industriously boils like a big tea-kettle. There +are plenty of "paint pots" and sulphur springs, and the visitors coax +up lazy geysers by throwing stones into them,--a method usually making +the small ones go to work, as if angry at the treatment. + + +THE LOWER AND MIDDLE BASINS. + +Through the long deep canyon of the Gibbon River, and up over the +mountain top, giving a distant view of the Gibbon Falls, a cataract of +eighty feet far down in the valley, the road crosses another divide to +a stream in the worst portion of this Satanic domain, which has not +been inappropriately named the Firehole River. This unites with the +Gibbon to form the Madison River, one of the sources of the Missouri. +Miles ahead, the steam from the Firehole Geyser Basins can be seen +rising in clouds among the distant hills. Beyond, the view is closed +by the Teton Mountains, far to the southwest, rising fourteen thousand +feet, the Continental divide and backbone of North America, the +highest Rocky Mountain range, on the other side of which is the Snake +River, whose waters go off to the Pacific. The Firehole River is a +stream of ample current, with beautifully transparent blue water +bubbling over a bed of discolored stones and lava. Its waters are all +the outflow of geysers and hot springs, impregnated with everything +this forbidding region produces; pretty to look at, but bitter as the +waters of Marah. Along this river, geysers are liberally distributed +at intervals for ten miles, being, for convenience of description, +divided into the Lower, Middle and Upper Geyser Basins. The Lower +Basin, the first reached, has myriads of steam jets rising from a +surface of some three square miles of desolate geyserite deposits. +There are about seven hundred springs and geysers here, most of them +small. The Fountain Geyser throws a broad low stream of many +interlacing jets every two to three hours, lasting about fifteen +minutes. The "Thud" Geyser has a crater one hundred and fifty feet in +diameter, having a smaller rim inside, within which the geyser +operates, throwing a column of sixty feet with a heavy and regular +"thud" underground, though it has no fixed period, and is irregular in +action. This basin has a generous supply of mud geysers, known as the +"paint pots," which eject brilliantly colored muds with the +consistency and look of paint, the prevailing hues being red, white, +yellow and pink. + +About three miles to the southwest, farther up the Firehole River, is +the Middle Geyser Basin. It is a locality covering some fifty acres, +close to the river, and contains the greatest geyser in the world. The +name of Hell's Half Acre was given this place in the early +explorations, and still sticks. The surface is composed mainly of hot +ashes, with streams of boiling water running over it. The whole basin +is filled with hot springs, and surrounded by timbered hills, at the +foot of which is the Prismatic Lake, its beautiful green and blue +waters shading off into a deposit of bright red paint running down to +the river. The great Excelsior Geyser is a fountain of enormous power +but uncertain periods, which when at work throws out such immense +amounts of water as to double the flow of the river. Its crater is a +hundred yards wide, with water violently boiling in the centre all the +time and a steady outflow. The sides of the crater are beautifully +colored by the deposits, which are largely of sulphur. It is a geyser +of modern origin, having developed from a hot spring within the memory +of Park denizens. It throws a column over two hundred feet high, and +while quiet at times for years, occasionally bursts forth, though +having no fixed period. In close connection to the westward is the +seething cauldron which is the immediate Hell's Half Acre, that being +about its area--a beautiful but terrible lake, steam constantly rising +from the surface, which boils furiously and sends copious streams +over the edges. This is an uncanny spot, with treacherous footing +around, and about the hottest place in the Park. + + +THE UPPER FIREHOLE BASIN. + +For five miles along the desolate shores of Firehole River the course +is now taken in a region of mostly extinct geysers, yet with active +hot springs and steam jets, and having ashes and cinders covering wide +spaces. Ahead is the largest collection of geysers in the world, with +clouds of steam overhanging--the Upper Firehole Basin. Hot water runs +over the earth, and the "paint pots" color the surface in variegated +hues. Here are some forty of the greatest geysers in existence, in a +region covering two or three square miles, all of them located near +the river, and their outflow making its initial current. The basin is +at seventy-three hundred feet elevation above the sea. When the author +visited this extraordinary place the guide, halting at the verge, +said: "Now I have brought you to the front door of hell." He was asked +if there were any Indians about there, and solemnly replied: "No +Indian ever comes into this country unless he is blind; only the white +man is fool enough to come;" then after a moment's pause he continued, +"And I get paid for it, I do." The great stand-by of this Upper Basin, +and the geyser that is first visited, is "Old Faithful," near its +southern or upper end. This most reliable geyser, which always goes +off at the time appointed, is a flat-topped and gently rising cone +about two hundred feet in diameter, and elevated towards the centre +about twenty feet. The tube is an orifice of eight feet by two feet +wide in the centre of this cone, with water-worn and rounded rocks +enclosing it. Steam escapes all the time, and the hard, scaly and +laminated surface around it seems hollow as you walk across, while +beneath there are grumblings and dull explosions, giving warning of +the approaching outburst. Several mounds of extinct geysers are near, +with steam issuing from one of them, but all have long since gone out +of active business. Soon "Old Faithful" gives the premonitory symptoms +of an eruption. The steam jet increases, and also the internal +rumblings. Then a little spurt of hot water comes, hastily receding +with a growl, followed by more steam, and after an interval more +growling, finally developing into repeated little spurts of hot water, +occupying several minutes. Then the geyser suddenly explodes, throwing +quick jets higher and higher into the air, until the column rises in a +grand fountain to the height of about one hundred and fifty feet, the +stream inclined to the northward, and falling over in great splashes +upon that side of the cone, dense clouds of steam and spray being +carried by the wind, upon which the sun paints a rainbow. After some +four minutes the grand jet dies gradually down to a height of about +thirty feet, continuing at that elevation for a brief time, with +quickly repeated impulses. When six minutes have elapsed, with an +expiring leap the water mounts to a height of fifty feet, there is a +final outburst of steam, and all is over. A deluge of hot water rushes +down to the Firehole River; and thus "Old Faithful" keeps it up +regularly every hour. The eruption being ended, you can look down into +the abyss whence it came. Through the hot steam, rushing out with a +strong draught, there is a view far down into the rocky recesses of +the geyser. The water left by the eruption stands about in transparent +shallow pools, and is tinted a pale blue. "Old Faithful's" mound is +built up of layers of geyserite--hard, brittle, porous, full of +crevices, and having all about little basins with turned-up rims that +retain the water. This geyser is the favorite in the region, not only +because of its regular performance, but possibly because its odors are +somewhat less sulphurous than those emanating elsewhere. + +The geysers of the Upper Basin contribute practically the whole +current of the Firehole River, their outflow sending into the stream +ten million gallons daily. Across the river to the northward, close to +the bank, is the Beehive, its tube looking like a huge bird's nest, +enclosed by a pile of geyserite resembling a beehive, three feet high +and about four feet in diameter. Nearby is a vent from which steam, +escaping a few minutes before the eruption, gives notice of its +coming. The water column shoots up two hundred feet, with clouds of +steam, but it is quite uncertain, spouting once or twice in +twenty-four hours, and usually at night. Behind the Beehive are the +Lion, the Lioness, and their two Cubs, and to the eastward of the +latter the Giantess. The Lion group has only uncertain and small +action, while the Giantess is on the summit of a mound fifty feet +high, with a depressed crater, measuring eighteen by twenty-four feet, +and usually filled with dark-blue water. This is the slowest of all +the geysers in getting to work, acting only at fortnightly intervals, +but each eruption continues the greater part of the day, with usually +long-previous notice by violent boiling and internal rumblings. When +it comes, the explosion is terrific, the column mounting two hundred +and fifty feet, a perfect water-spout the full size of the crater, +with a half-dozen distinct jets forced through it. To the northwest of +the Lion and across the river is the Castle, so named from the +castellated construction of its crater. It stands upon an elevation, +the side towards the Firehole falling off in a series of rude steps. +The tube is elevated about ten feet within the castle and is four feet +in diameter. It is of uncertain eruption, sometimes playing daily and +sometimes every other day, throwing a column of one hundred and fifty +feet, falling in a sparkling shower, continuing about forty minutes, +and then tapering off in a series of insignificant spurts. The +Saw-Mill is not far away, rather insignificant, its tube being only +six inches in diameter, set in a saucer-like crater about twenty feet +across; but its water column, thrown forty feet high, gives the +peculiar sounds of a saw, caused by the action of puffs of steam +coming out alternately with the water jets. It generally acts in +unison with the Grand Geyser, a quarter of a mile northward, which +goes off about once a day. The Grand Geyser in action is most +powerful, causing the earth to tremble, while there are fearful +thumping noises beneath. The water in the crater suddenly recedes, and +then quickly spurts upward in a solid column for two hundred feet, +with steam rising in puffs above. The column seems to be composed of +numerous separate jets, falling back with a thundering sound into the +funnel. The outburst continues a few minutes, stops as suddenly as it +starts, and is repeated six or eight times, each growing less +powerful. Along the river bank nearby are the Wash Tubs, small basins +ten feet in diameter, each with an orifice in the bottom. If the +clothes are put in, the washing progresses finely until suddenly out +goes the water, and with it all the garments, sucked down the hole. +After awhile the basin fills again, and back come the clothes, though +sometimes they are very dilatory in returning. The Devil's Well, about +fifty feet away, is usually accused of complicity in this movement. It +is a broad and placid basin of hot water, with a beautiful blue +tinge, in which tourists sometimes boil their eggs and potatoes. It is +sentinelled by the Comet Geyser, exploding several times daily, but +through an orifice so large that it does not throw a very high column. + +The great geyser of this Upper Basin is the Giant. It has a broken +cone set upon an almost level surface, with the enclosing formation +fallen away on one side, the interior being lined with brilliant +colors like a tessellated pavement. It is somewhat uncertain in +movement, but usually goes off every fourth day. It gives ample +notice, certain "Little Devils" adjoining, and a vent in the side of +the crater, boiling some time before it sends up the enormous column +which plays ninety minutes. The outburst, when it starts, comes like a +tornado, and the stream from it runs into and more than doubles the +current of the river. The column is eight feet in diameter, rises two +hundred and fifty feet at first, and is afterwards maintained at two +hundred feet. There is a deafening noise, and the steam clouds seem to +cover half the valley. The column goes up perfectly straight, and +falls back around the cone with a deluge of hot water. The Catfish, a +small geyser, is nearby, and to the northward a short distance is the +Grotto. This is an odd formation, its crater perforated with orifices +around a low, elongated mound, which point in different directions; +and when it goes off at six-hour intervals, the eruption is by streams +at an angle, giving a curious sort of churning motion to the water +column, which rises forty feet, continuing twenty minutes. The +Riverside has a little crater on a terraced mound just at the river's +edge, and is a small, irregular but vigorous spouter, throwing a +stream sixty feet. The Fan has five spreading tubes, arranged so that +they make a huge fan-like eruption, one hundred feet high in the +centre, this display, given three or four times a day, continuing +about fifteen minutes. The Splendid plays a jet two hundred feet high +every three hours, continuing ten minutes, and may be spurred to +quicker action. The Pyramid and the Punch Bowl are geysers that have +ceased operations. The former is now only a steam-jet, and the latter, +on a flat mound, is an elegant blue pool, elevated several feet, and +having a serrated edge. The Morning Glory Spring, named from its +resemblance to the convolvulus, is a beautiful and most delicately +tinted pool. The investigators of these geysers have been able to get +the temperature at a depth of seventy feet within the tubes, and find +that under the pressure there exerted the boiling-point is 250°. Upon +this fact is based the theory of the operation of the geyser. The +boiling-point under pressure at the bottom of a long tube being much +higher than at the top, the expansive force of the steam there +suddenly generated drives out violently the water above it in the +tube, and hence the explosive spouting. + + +YELLOWSTONE FALLS AND CANYON. + +The National Park, besides the extraordinary geyser and hot-spring +formations exhibits the grand scenery of the Yellowstone Falls and +Canyon. The Yellowstone River has its source in Bridger Lake, to the +southeast of the Park, and flows northward in a broad valley between +generally snow-capped mountain ridges of volcanic origin, with some of +the peaks rising over eleven thousand feet. It is a sluggish stream, +with heavily timbered banks, much of the initial valley being marshy, +and it flows into the Yellowstone Lake, the largest sheet of water at +a high elevation in North America. This lake has bays indented in its +western and southern shores, giving the irregular outline somewhat the +appearance of a human hand, and there are five of them, called the +"Thumb" and the "Fingers." The thumb of this distorted hand is thicker +than its length, the forefinger is detached and shrivelled, the middle +finger has also been badly treated, and the much swollen little finger +is the biggest of all, thus making a very demoralized hand. The trail +eastward over from the Upper Firehole Geyser Basin comes out on the +West Thumb of the lake, mounting the Continental Divide on the way, +and crossing it twice as it makes a curious loop to the northward, the +second crossing being at eighty-five hundred feet elevation, whence +the trail descends to the West Thumb. Yellowstone Lake is at +seventy-seven hundred and forty feet elevation, and covers about one +hundred and fifty square miles, having a hundred miles of coast-line. +The scenery is tame, the shores being usually gentle slopes, with much +marsh and pine woods. Islands dot the blue waters, and waterfowl +frequent the marshes. The most elevated portion of the immediate +environment is Flat Mountain, on the southwestern side, rising five +hundred feet, but beyond the eastern shore are some of the highest +peaks of the Park, exceeding eleven thousand feet. Hot springs adjoin +the West Thumb, and there is an actual geyser crater in the lake +itself. Towards the northern end the shores gradually contract into +the narrow and shallow Yellowstone River, which flows towards the +northwest after first leaving the lake, having occasional hot springs, +geysers, paint pots and steam jets at work, with large adjacent +surfaces of geyserite and sulphur. The chief curiosity in operation is +the Giant's Cauldron, boiling furiously, and with a roar that can be +heard far away. The pretty Alum Creek is crossed, its waters, thus +tainted, giving the name. South of this the Yellowstone is generally +placid, winding for a dozen miles sluggishly through prairie and +timbered hills, but now it contracts and rushes for a mile down rapids +and over pretty cascades to the Upper Fall. + +Restricted to a width of but eighty feet, the river shoots far over +this fall, the current being thrown outward, indicating there must be +room to pass behind it. The fall is one hundred and twenty feet, and +suddenly turning a right angle at its foot, the stream of beautiful +green passes through a not very deep canyon. The appearance of the +surrounding cliffs is quite Alpine, though the rocks forming the +cascade constantly suffer from erosion. About a half-mile below is the +great Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Before reaching it, a little +stream comes into the river over the Crystal Fall, about eighty feet +high, rushing down a gorge forming a perfect grotto in the side of the +canyon, extending some distance under the overhanging rocks. The +surface of the plateau gradually ascends as the Lower Falls are +approached, while the river bed descends, and this makes a deep +canyon, brilliantly colored, generally a light yellow (thus naming the +river), but in many portions white, like marble, with patches of +orange, the whole being streaked and spotted with the dark-gray rocks, +whose sombre color in this region is produced by atmospheric action. +The river rushes to the brink of the Lower Fall, and where it goes +over, the current is not over a hundred feet wide, the descent of the +cataract being about three hundred feet, and the column of falling +waters dividing into separate white streaks, which are lost in clouds +of spray before reaching the bottom. Only a small amount of water +usually goes over, about twelve hundred cubic feet in a second. Before +the plunge the water forms a basin of dark-green color, and both blue +and green tints mingle with the prevailing white of the cascade. +Towards sunset, when viewed from below, there are admirable rainbow +effects. The river is quite narrow as it flows away along the bottom +of the canyon, which now becomes deep and large. The grand view of +this beautiful picture is from Point Lookout, a half-mile below the +falls. Unlike any other of the world's great waterfalls, this cascade, +while a part, ceases to be the chief feature of the scene. It is the +vivid coloring and remarkable formation of the sides of the canyon +that make the chief impression. These change as the sun gives light +and shadow, the morning differing from noon and noon from night. It is +impossible to reproduce or properly describe the beautiful hues in +this wonderful picture. The prevailing tint is a light yellow, almost +sulphur color, with veins of white marble and bright red streaked +through it. The colors blend admirably, while the cascade in the +background seems enclosed in a setting of chocolate-brown rocks, +contrasting picturesquely with the brighter foreground. Throughout the +grand scene, great rocky columns and pinnacles arise, their brilliant +hues maintained to the tops, and the scattered pines clinging to these +huge columnar formations give a green tinge to parts of the picture. +The _débris_, forming an inclined base about half-way down, is colored +as brilliantly as the rocks above, from which it has fallen. In the +view over the canyon from Point Lookout, the contracted white streak +of the cascade above the spray cloud is but a small part of the +background, while the river below is only a narrow green ribbon, edged +by these brilliant hues. Some distance farther down the canyon, +another outlook at Inspiration Point gives a striking view from an +elevation fifteen hundred feet above the river of the gorgeous +coloring of the upper canyon. + +This grand Canyon of the Yellowstone extends, as the river flows, a +distance of about twenty-four miles. It is a depression in a volcanic +plateau elevated about eight thousand feet above the sea, and +gradually declining towards the northern end of the canyon. Above the +Upper Fall the river level is almost at the top of the plateau, and +the falls and rapids depress the stream bed about thirteen hundred +feet. About midway along the canyon, on the western side, is Washburne +Mountain, the surface from it declining in both directions, so that +there the canyon is deepest, measuring twelve hundred feet. Across the +top, the width varies from four hundred to sixteen hundred yards, the +angle of slope down to the bottom being fully 45°, and often much +steeper, in some cases almost perpendicular where the top width is +narrowest. This Grand Canyon is the beautiful beginning, as it were, +of the largest river in the world,--the Missouri and the Mississippi. +Upon the trail in the southern part of the National Park which goes +over from the Firehole River to the West Thumb, and at quite an +elevation upon the Continental Divide, there is a quiet little sheet +of water, having two small streams flowing from its opposite sides. To +the eastward a babbling brook goes down into the West Thumb of the +Yellowstone Lake, while to the southwest another small creek flows +over the boulders towards Shoshone Lake. This scanty sheet of water, +properly named the Two-Ocean Pond, actually feeds both the Atlantic +and Pacific Oceans. The one stream gets its outlet through the +Mississippi and the other through the Columbia River of Oregon. + + +WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE. + +Here, in the Yellowstone National Park, with the waters flowing +towards both the rising and the setting sun, is the backbone of the +American Continent. Beyond it the country stretches through the +spacious Rocky Mountain ranges to the Pacific. What is herein +described gives an idea of the vast empire ceded to the United States +by France in the early nineteenth century, and this Great Northwest is +gradually becoming the masterful ruling section of the country. When +Bishop Berkeley, in the early eighteenth century, sitting by the +Atlantic Ocean waves at Newport, composed his famous lyric on the +"course of empire," he little thought how typical it was to become +more than a century after his death. He was musing then "On the +Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America." The Arts and the +Learning have had vigorous American growth, but his Muse predicted a +greater empire than any one could have then imagined. + + "The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime + Barren of every glorious theme, + In distant lands now waits a better time, + Producing subjects worthy fame. + + "In happy climes, where from the genial sun + And virgin earth such scenes ensue, + The force of Art by Nature seems outdone, + And fancied beauties by the true; + + "In happy climes, the seat of innocence, + Where Nature guides and Virtue rules, + Where men shall not impose for truth and sense + The pedantry of courts and schools; + + "There shall be sung another golden age, + The rise of empire and of arts, + The good and great inspiring epic rage, + The wisest heads and noblest hearts. + + "Not such as Europe breeds in her decay; + Such as she bred when fresh and young, + When heavenly flame did animate her clay, + By future poets shall be sung. + + "Westward the course of empire takes its way; + The four first acts already past, + A fifth shall close the drama with the day; + Time's noblest offspring is the last." + +END OF VOLUME I. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of America, Volume II (of 6), by Joel Cook + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41742 *** |