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diff --git a/44072.txt b/44072.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3f9c3d3..0000000 --- a/44072.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6709 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seat of Empire, by Charles Carleton Coffin - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Seat of Empire - -Author: Charles Carleton Coffin - -Release Date: October 30, 2013 [EBook #44072] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAT OF EMPIRE *** - - - - -Produced by D Alexander, Linda Hamilton, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from scanned images of public domain -material from the Google Print project.) - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: WHITE BEAR LAKE.] - - - - - THE - SEAT OF EMPIRE. - - BY - - CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, - "CARLETON." - - "I now believe that the ultimate last seat of government on this - great continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius - not very far from the spot on which I stand, at the head of - navigation on the Mississippi River." - - W. H. SEWARD, _Speech at St. Paul, 1860_. - - [Illustration] - - BOSTON: - FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. - 1870. - - - - - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by - CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, - in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of - Massachusetts. - - UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., - CAMBRIDGE. - - - - - TO - - JOHN GREGORY SMITH, - - _GOVERNOR OF VERMONT DURING THE REBELLION_, - - WHOM I FIRST SAW TENDERLY CARING FOR THE SICK AND - WOUNDED IN THE HOSPITALS OF FREDERICKSBURG, AND - THROUGH WHOSE ENERGY AND PERSEVERANCE - ONE OF THE GREATEST ENTERPRISES OF - THE PRESENT CENTURY HAS BEEN - SUCCESSFULLY INAUGURATED, - - ~This Volume~ - - IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -CHAPTER I. - -FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. - - PAGE - Cutting loose from Care.--Map of the Northwest.--Leaving - Chicago.--Fourth of July.--At La Crosse.--Dance on a - Steamboat.--Up the Mississippi.--The Boundaries of - Minnesota.--Winona.--St. Paul.--Minneapolis.--The Father - of Waters in Harness 1 - - -CHAPTER II. - -ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. - - St. Cloud.--Our Party.--First Night in Camp.--A Midnight - Thunder-Storm.--Sunday in Camp.--Up the Sauk Valley.-- - White Bear Lake.--Catching a Turtle.--Lightning Lake.-- - Second Sabbath in Camp.--The River Systems of the Northwest - --Elevations across the Continent.--The Future 25 - - -CHAPTER III. - -THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. - - Down the Valley of the Red River.--Breckenridge.--Fort - Abercrombie.--Climate.--Winters at Winnipeg.--Burlington. - --The Emigrant.--Father Genin.--Mackenzie.--Harman.--Sir - John Richardson.--Captain Palliser.--Father De Smet.-- - Winters on the Saskatchawan.--Snow-Fall 51 - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. - - Winnipeggers.--Ride over the Prairie.--Dakota City.-- - Georgetown.--Hudson Bay Company Teams.--Parting with - our Friends.--The 43d Parallel.--Dakota.--Wyoming.-- - Montana.--Idaho.--Oregon.--Washington.--British Columbia. - --Distances.--Fisheries of the Pacific.--Mr. Seward's - Speech 77 - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE FRONTIER. - - Bottineau.--The Leaf Hills.--A Ride over the Plain.--The - Park Region.--Settlers.--How they kept the Fourth of - July.--Chippewa Indians.--Rush Lake.--A Serenade on the - Prairie.--German Pioneers.--Otter-Tail Lake 109 - - -CHAPTER VI. - -ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. - - Noon Lunch.--Toasting Pork.--A Montana Dutchman.--Emigrant - Trains.--Camping at Night--Wheat of Minnesota.--The State - in 1849.--A Word to Young Men.--Boys once more.--Our Last - Camp-Fire 123 - - -CHAPTER VII. - -IN THE FOREST. - - Down-Easters.--The Eden of Lumbermen.--Country East of - the Mississippi.--The Climate of the Forest Region.--White - Bear Lake.--Travellers from Duluth.--A Maine Farmer in - Minnesota.--Chengwatona.--Pitching of the Mud-Wagon.-- - Grindstone.--Kettle River.--Superior 137 - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -DULUTH. - - Duluth.--Minnesota Point.--The Projected Breakwater.-- - Comparison with the Suez Canal.--The Town.--Period of - Navigation.--The Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad. - --Transportation.--Elevators.--St. Louis River.--Minnesota - Slate Quarry.--An Indian Chief and his Followers.-- - Railroad Lands.--Manufacturing Industry.--Terms of the - Railroad Company 164 - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE MINING REGION. - - The Apostle Islands.--Bayfield.--The Harbor.--Breakfast - with Captain Vaughn.--Ashland.--Big Trout.--Ontonagon.-- - Approach to Marquette.--The Harbor.--The Town.--Discovery - of Iron Ore.--Mining Companies.--Varieties of Ore.--The - Miners.--The Coming Years 169 - - -CHAPTER X. - -A FAMILIAR TALK. - - A Talk about the Northwest.--Mr. Blotter.--He wants a - Farm.--Government Lands.--Homestead Law of Minnesota.-- - Exemption Laws.--The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.-- - Liberal Terms of Payment.--Stock-Raising.--Robbing - Mother Earth.--Native Grasses.--Fruit.--Small Grains.-- - Productions of the State, 1869.--Schools.--When to - Emigrate.--Prospective Development.--The Tide of - Emigration 186 - - -CHAPTER XI. - -NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. - - How Communities grow.--Humboldt.--What I saw in 1846.-- - The Pacific Coast.--River-Systems.--Lewis and Clark.-- - Jeff Davis.--Charter of the Company.--The Projectors.-- - The Line.--From Lake Superior to the Mississippi.--To - the Rocky Mountains.--Deer Lodge Pass.--The Western - Slope.--Mr. Roberts's Report.--Snow Blockades.-- - Elevations.--Power of Locomotives.--Bureau of - Emigration.--Portable Houses.--Help to Emigrants.-- - The Future 207 - - - - -THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. - - -Last summer I cut loose from all care, and enjoyed a few weeks of -freedom and recreation with a party of gentlemen on the frontier -between Lake Superior and the Missouri River. I was charmed by the -beauty of the country, amazed at its resources, and favorably impressed -by its probable future. Its attractions were set forth in a series of -letters contributed to the Boston Journal. - -People from every Eastern State, as well as from New York and the -British Provinces, have called upon me since my return, for the purpose -of "having a talk about the Northwest," while others have applied -by letter for additional or specific information, and others still -have requested a republication of the letters. In response to these -calls this small volume has been prepared, setting forth the physical -features of the vast reach of country lying between the Lakes and the -Pacific, not only in the United States, but in British America as well. - -The most trustworthy accounts of persons who have lived there, as well -as of engineers who have been sent out by the United States, British, -and Canadian governments, have been collated, that those seeking a home -in Minnesota or Dakota may know what sort of a country lies beyond, and -what will be its probable future. - -The map accompanying the volume has been prepared for the most part by -the Bureau of the United States Topographical Engineers. It gives me -pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Major-General Humphreys, in -charge of the Bureau, and to Colonel Woodruffe, in charge of the map -department, for permission to use the same. - -Through their courtesy I am enabled to place before the public the -most complete map ever published of the country between the 36th -and 55th parallel, extending across the continent, and showing not -only the entire railway system of the Eastern and Middle States, but -also the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific, now under -construction. The figures followed by the letter T have reference to -the elevation of the locality above tide-water, thus enabling the -reader to obtain at a glance a comprehensive idea of the topographical -as well as the geographical features of the country. - -"All aboard for the Northwest!" - -So shouted the stalwart porter of the Sherman House, Chicago, on the -morning of the 5th of July, 1869. - -Giving heed to the call, we descended the steps of the hotel and -entered an omnibus waiting at the door, that quickly whirled us to the -depot of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. - -There were about a dozen gentlemen in the party, all bound for the -Northwest, to explore a portion of the vast reach of country lying -between Lake Superior and the great northern bend of the Missouri River. - -It was a pleasant, sunny, joyful morning. The anniversary of the -nation's independence having fallen on the Sabbath, the celebration -was observed on Monday, and the streets resounded with the explosion -of fire-crackers. Americans, Germans, Norwegians, Irish, people of -all nationalities, were celebrating the birthday of their adopted -country. Not only in Chicago, but throughout the cosmopolitan State of -Wisconsin, as we sped over its fertile prairies and through its towns -and villages during the day, there was a repetition of the scene. - -Settlers from New England and the Middle States were having -Sabbath-School, temperance, or civic celebrations; Irish societies were -marching in procession, bearing green banners emblazoned with the -shamrock, thistle, and harp of Erin; Germans were drinking lager beer, -singing songs, and smoking their meerschaums. All work was laid aside, -and all hands--farmers with their wives and daughters, young men with -their sweethearts, children in crowds--were observing in their various -ways the return of the holiday. - -Our route was by way of La Crosse, which we reached late in the -evening. We were to go up the Mississippi on a steamer that lay moored -to the bank. Its cabin was aglow with lights. Entering it, we found a -party of ladies and gentlemen formed for a quadrille. They were the -officers of the boat and their friends from the town. A negro with a -bass-viol, and two Germans with violins, were tuning their instruments -and rosining their bows. - -We were met upon the threshold by a rosy-cheeked damsel, who gleefully -exclaimed,-- - -"O, yeau have arrived at the right moment! We are having a right good -time, and we only want one more gentleman to make it go real good. -Yeau'll dance neaw, won't ye? I want a partner. O, ye will neaw. I know -ye will, and ye'll call off the changes tew, won't ye? Neaw dew." - -Not having a "light fantastic toe" on either foot, we were forced to -say no to this lively La Crosse maiden; besides, we were tired and -covered with dust, and in sad plight for the ball-room. A member of -Congress was next appealed to, then a grave and dignified Doctor of -Divinity. - -A more ungallant party than ours never stood on a Western steamboat. -Governor, judge, parson, members of Congress, all shook their heads and -resisted the enthusiastic lady. In vain she urged them, and the poor -girl, with downcast countenance, turned from the obdurate Yankees, and -sailed in gloriously with a youth who fortunately entered the cabin at -the moment. - -It was a rare sight to see, for they danced with a will. They made the -steamer shake from stem to stern. The glass lamps tinkled in their -brass settings, and the doors of staterooms rattled on their hinges, -especially when the largest gentleman of the party came to a shuffle. - -He is the Daniel Lambert of the Mississippi,--immense and gigantic, and -having great development round the equator. - -Quadrille, cotillon, and waltz, and genuine western break-downs -followed one after the other. There was plenty to eat and drink in -the pantry. The first thing we heard in the evening was the tuning of -the instruments; the last thing, as we dropped off to sleep, was the -scraping of the violins and the shuffling of feet. - -We are awake in the morning in season to take a look at the place -before the boat casts off from its mooring for a trip to Winona. - -A company of Norwegian emigrants that came with us on the train from -Chicago are cooking their breakfast in and around the station. They -sailed from Christiania for Quebec, and have been six weeks on the way. -All ages are represented. It is a party made up of families. There are -many light-haired maidens among them with deep blue eyes and blonde -complexions; and robust young men with honest faces, who have bidden -farewell forever to their old homes upon the fiords of Norway, and who -henceforth are to be citizens of the United States. - -They will find immediate employment on the railroads of Minnesota, in -the construction of new lines. They are not hired by the day, but small -sections are let out to individuals, who receive a specified sum for -every square yard of earth thrown up. - -There is no discussion of the eight-hour question among them. They work -sixteen hours of their own accord, instead of haggling over eight. -They have no time to engage in rows, nor do they find occasion. They -have had a bare existence in their old home; life there was ever a -struggle, the mere keeping together of soul and body, but here Hope -leads them on. They are poor now, but a few years hence they will -be well off in the world. They will have farms, nice houses, money -in banks, government bonds, and railway stocks. They will obtain -land at government price, will raise wheat, wool, or stock, and will -soon find their land quadrupled in value. They will make excellent -citizens. Their hearts are on the right side,--not physiologically, but -morally, politically, and religiously speaking. They are ardent lovers -of liberty; they cannot be trammelled by any shackles, political or -ecclesiastical. They are frugal, industrious, and honest. Already there -are several daily papers published in the Scandinavian language. - -The steamer is ploughing the Mississippi against the current northward. -Wisconsin is on our right, Minnesota on our left; and while we are -moving on toward the region of country which we are to visit, we may -while away the time by thinking over the general characteristics of the -State of Minnesota, in which our explorations are to commence. - -The southern boundary strikes the river twenty-two miles below La -Crosse. If I were to go down there and turn my steps due west, I might -walk two hundred and sixty-four miles along the Iowa line before -reaching the southwestern corner of the State. The western side is the -longest, and if I were to start from the southwestern corner and travel -due north, I should have a journey of three hundred and sixty miles to -accomplish before reaching the northern boundary,--the line between -the United States and British America. - -Starting from Pembina, at the northwest corner of the State, on the -Red River of the North, and travelling due east eighty miles, I should -reach the Lake of the Woods; sailing across it sixty miles, then -entering the river leading to Rainy Lake, I might pass through the -wonderful water-way of lakes and rivers reaching to Lake Superior,--a -distance of about four hundred miles. - -The eastern boundary formed by the Mississippi, St. Croix, and Lake -Superior is more irregular. Its general outline, as we look at it -upon the map, is that of a crescent, cutting into Minnesota, the -horns turned eastward. The area within the boundaries thus described -is estimated at 84,000 square miles, or 54,760,000 acres. It is a -territory larger than Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, -Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined. - -Here, upon the Mississippi, I gaze upon bluffs of gray limestone -wrought into fantastic shape by the winds and storms of centuries and -by the slow wearing of the river; but were I to climb them, and gain -the general level of the country, I should behold rolling prairies -dotted with lakes and ponds of pure water, and groves of oak and -hickory. All of Minnesota east of the Mississippi is a timbered region. -Here and there are openings; but, speaking in general terms, the -entire country east of the river is a forest, which through the coming -years will resound with the axe of the lumberman. - -When we go up the Mississippi eighty miles above St. Paul to St. -Cloud, we shall find the Sauk River coming in from the west; and there -the Mississippi is no longer the boundary of the timbered lands, but -the forest reaches across the stream westward to Otter-Tail River, a -distance of more than one hundred miles. The Sauk River is its southern -boundary. - -All the region north of the Sauk, at the head-waters of the Mississippi -and north of Lake Superior, is well supplied with timber. A belt of -woods forty miles wide, starting from the Crow-Wing River, extends -south nearly to the Iowa boundary. It is broken here and there by -prairie openings and fertile meadows. The tract is known throughout the -Northwest as the region of the "Big Woods." - -There are fringes of timber along the streams, so that the settler, -wherever he may wish to make a home, will generally find material for -building purposes within easy reach. In this respect Minnesota is one -of the most favored States of the Union. - -The formations of the bluffs now and then remind us of old castles -upon the Rhine. They are, upon an average, three hundred and fifty -feet above the summer level of the river. We are far from the Gulf of -Mexico, yet the river at St. Paul is only six hundred and seventy-six -feet above tide-water. - -Northward of Minneapolis the bluffs disappear, and the surface of the -river is but a few feet below the general level of the country, which -is about one thousand feet above the sea. - -It is one of the remarkable topographical features of the continent, -that from St. Paul to the Peace River, which empties into the -Athabasca, the elevation is about the same, though the distance is more -than one thousand miles. Throughout this great extent of territory, -especially in Minnesota, are innumerable lakes and ponds of pure fresh -water, some of them having no visible outlet or inlet, with pebbly -shores and beaches of white sand, bordered by groves and parks of oak, -ash, and maple, lending an indescribable charm to the beauty of the -landscape. - -While we are making these observations the steamer is nearing Winona, a -pleasant town, delightfully situated on a low prairie, elevated but a -few feet above the river. The bluffs at this point recede, giving ample -room for a town site with a ravine behind it. - -Nature has done a great deal for the place,--scooping out the ravine -as if the sole purpose had been to make the construction of a railroad -an easy matter. The Winona and St. Peter's Railway strikes out from -the town over the prairie, winds through the ravine, and by easy grades -gains the rolling country beyond. The road is nearly completed to the -Minnesota River, one hundred and forty miles. It will eventually be -extended to the western boundary of the State, and onward into Dakota. -It is now owned by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, and -runs through the centre of the second tier of counties in the State. -The Southern Minnesota Railroad starts from La Crosse, and runs west -through the first tier of counties. It is already constructed half-way -across the State, and will be pushed on, as civilization advances, to -the Missouri. That is the objective point of all the lines of railway -leading west from the Mississippi, and they will soon be there. - -This city of Winona fifteen years ago had about one hundred -inhabitants. It was a place where steamers stopped to take wood and -discharge a few packages of freight, but to-day it has a population -of nine thousand. Looking out upon it from the promenade deck of the -steamer, we see new buildings going up, and can hear the hammers and -saws of the carpenters. It already contains thirteen churches and a -Normal School with three hundred scholars, who are preparing to teach -the children of the State, though the probabilities are that most of -them will soon teach their own offspring instead of their neighbors'; -for in the West young men are plenty, maidens scarce. Out here-- - - "There is no goose so gray but soon or late - Will find some honest gander for her mate." - -Not so in the East, for the young men there are pushing west, and women -are in the majority. It is a certainty that some of them will know more -of single blessedness than of married life. If they would only come out -here, the certainty would be the other way. - -Not stopping at Winona, but hastening on board the train, we fly over -the prairie, up the ravine, and out through one of the most fertile -sections of the great grain-field of the Northwest. - -The superintendent of the road, Mr. Stewart, accompanies our party, -and we receive pleasure and profit by having a gentleman with us who -is so thoroughly informed as he to point out the objects of interest -along the way. By a winding road, now running under a high bluff where -the limestone ledges overhang the track, now gliding over a high -trestle-bridge from the northern to the southern side of the deep -ravine, we gain at length the general table-land, and behold, reaching -as far as the eye can see, fields of wheat. Fences are visible here and -there, showing the division of farms; but there is scarcely a break in -the sea of grain, in flower now, rippling and waving in the passing -breeze. Farm-houses dot the landscape, and white cottages are embowered -in surrounding groves, and here and there we detect a small patch of -corn or an acre of potatoes,--small islands these in the great ocean of -wheat reaching westward, northward, and southward. - -We are astonished when the train nears St. Charles, a town of two -thousand inhabitants, looking marvellously like a New England village, -to see a school-house just completed at a cost of $15,000! and still -wider open we our eyes at Rochester, with a population of six thousand, -where we behold a school-building that has cost $60,000! Upon inquiry -we ascertain that the bulk of the population of these towns is from New -England. - -A ride of about ninety miles brings us to Owatona, a town of about -three thousand inhabitants. - -We are in Steele County. The little rivulets here meandering through -the prairie and flowing southward reach the Mississippi only after -crossing the State of Iowa, while those running northward join the -Mississippi through the Minnesota River. - -Here, as at Rochester, we behold charming landscapes, immense fields of -grain, groves of trees, snug cottages and farm-houses, and a thrifty -town. Owatona has a school-house that cost the citizens $20,000; yet -nine years ago the population of the entire county was only 2,862! The -census of 1870 will probably make it 15,000. So civilization advances, -not only here, but all through the Northwest, especially where there -are railroad facilities. - -From Owatona we turn north and pass through Rice County, containing -eighteen townships. It is one of the best-timbered counties west of the -Mississippi; there are large tracts of oak, maple, butternut, walnut, -poplar, elm, and boxwood. We glide through belts of timber where -choppers are felling the trees for railroad ties, past fields where the -industrious husbandman has turned the natural grasses of the prairie -into blooming clover. - -At Faribault a company of Norwegians, recently arrived from their homes -beyond the sea, and not having reached their journey's end, are cooking -their supper near the station. To-morrow they will be pushing on -westward to the grounds already purchased by the agent who has brought -them out. - -In 1850 this entire county had only one hundred inhabitants; the -census of next year will probably show a population of twenty-five -thousand,--one half Americans, one sixth Germans, one ninth Irish, -besides Norwegians, Swedes, and Canadians. Faribault has about four -thousand inhabitants, who have laid excellent foundations for future -growth. They have an Episcopal College, a High School for ladies, a -Theological Seminary, a Deaf and Dumb Asylum, two Congregational -churches, also one Baptist, one Methodist, and one Episcopal. They have -excellent water-power on the Cannon River. Five flouring-mills have -already been erected. - -Fourteen miles beyond this place we find Northfield with three thousand -inhabitants, three fourths of them New-Englanders. Five churches and a -college, two flouring-mills capable of turning out one hundred thousand -barrels per annum, excellent schools, a go-ahead population, are the -characteristics of this thoroughly wide-awake town. - -A mile or two beyond Northfield we enter Dakota County,--one of the -most fertile in the State. It was one of the first settled, and in -1860 contained 9,058 inhabitants. Its present population is estimated -at 20,000,--one third of them Irish, one third Americans, one quarter -Germans, and the remainder of all nationalities. The largest town -is Hastings, on the Mississippi, containing about four thousand -inhabitants. The Hastings and Dakota Railroad, extending west, crosses -the Milwaukie and St. Paul at Farmington, a pleasant little town -located on a green and fertile prairie. Thirty miles of this Hastings -and Dakota road are in operation, and it is pushing on westward, like -all the others, to reach the territory of Dakota and the Missouri River. - -On over the prairies we fly, reaching the oldest town in the State, -Mendota, which was a trading-post of the American Fur Company as long -ago as 1828. It was livelier then than now, for in those years Indians -by the thousand made it their rendezvous, coming in their bark canoes -down the Minnesota from the borders of Dakota, down the St. Croix, -which joins the Mississippi opposite Hastings, down the Mississippi -from all the region above the Falls of St. Anthony; but now it is a -seedy place. The houses have a forlorn look, and the three hundred -Irish and Germans that make up the bulk of the population are not of -the class that lay the foundations of empires, or make the wilderness -bud and blossom with roses; they take life easy, and let to-day wait on -to-morrow. - -Fort Snelling, admirably located, looms grandly above the high steep -bluff of the northern bank of the Minnesota River. It was one of the -strongest posts on the frontier, but it is as useless now as a last -year's swallow's-nest. The frontier is three hundred miles farther on. - -Upon the early maps of Minnesota I find a magnificent city occupying -the surrounding ground. It was surveyed and plotted, but St. Paul and -Minneapolis got ahead, and the city of Snelling has no place in history. - -We approach St. Paul from the south. Stepping from the cars we find -ourselves on the lowlands of the Mississippi, with a high bluff south -of us, and another on the north bank, both rising perpendicularly from -the river. We ride over a long wooden bridge, one end of which rests -on the low land by the railroad station, and the other on the high -northern bluff, so that the structure is inclined at an angle of about -twenty degrees, like the driveway to a New England barn where the floor -is nearly up to the high beams. We are in a city which in 1849, twenty -years ago, had a population of eight hundred and forty, but which now -has an estimated population of twenty-five thousand. Here that powerful -tribe of Northern Indians, the Dakotas, had their capital,--a cave -in the sandstone bluffs, which was the council-chamber of the tribe. -Upon the bluff now stands the capital of the State, and the sanguine -citizens believe that the city is to be the commercial metropolis of -the Northwest. A few months ago I was on the other side of the globe, -where civilization is at a stand-still; where communities exist, but -scarcely change; where decay is quite as probable as growth; where -advancement is the exception, and not the rule. To ride through the -streets of St. Paul; to behold its spacious warehouses, its elegant -edifices, stores piled with the goods of all lands, the products of all -climes,--furs from Hudson Bay, oranges from Messina, teas from China, -coffee from Brazil, silks from Paris, and all the products of industry -from our own land; to behold the streets alive with people, crowded -with farmers' wagons laden with wheat and flour; to read the signs, -"Young Men's Christian Association," "St. Paul Library Association"; to -see elegant school-edifices and churches, beautiful private residences -surrounded by lawns and adorned with works of art,--to see this in -contrast with what we have so lately witnessed, and to think that -this is the development of American civilization, going on now as -never before, and destined to continue till all this wide region is -to be thus dotted over with centres of influence and power, sends an -indescribable thrill through our veins. It is not merely that we are -Americans, but because in this land Christian civilization is attaining -the highest development of all time. The people of St. Paul may justly -take pride in what they have already accomplished, and they also have -reason to look forward with confidence to the future. - -The county is quite small, containing only four and a half townships. -The soil is poor, a sandy loam, of not much account for farming -purposes, but being at the head of steamboat navigation a good start -was obtained; and now that railroads are superseding steamboats, St. -Paul reaches out her iron arms in every direction,--up the Mississippi -to St. Cloud, westward through Minneapolis to the Red River of the -North, southwest to touch the Missouri at Sioux City, due south over -the line by which we reached the city, down the river towards Chicago, -and northeast to Lake Superior. As a spider extends its threads, so -St. Paul, or perhaps, more properly speaking, St. Paul and Minneapolis -together, are throwing out their lines of communication, making -themselves the centre of the great Northwest systems of railways. -The interests of St. Paul are mercantile, those of Minneapolis -manufacturing. They are nearly five hundred miles distant from -Chicago,--far enough to be an independent commercial, manufacturing, -and distributing centre. That such is to be their destiny cannot be -doubted. - -The outfit of our party had been prepared at Minneapolis; and a large -number of gentlemen from that city made their appearance at St. Paul, -to convey us to the town in their own private carriages. - -It is a charming ride that we have along the eastern bank of the -Mississippi, which pours its mighty flood,--mighty even here, though -so far away from the sea,--rolling and thundering far below us in the -chasm which it has worn in the solid rock. - -On our right hand are fields of waving grain, and white cottages half -hidden in groves of oak and maple. We see New England thrift and -enterprise, for the six States east of the Hudson have been sending -their wide-awake sons and daughters to this section for the last -twenty years. The gentleman with whom we are riding came here from -the woods of Maine, a lumberman from the Penobscot, and has been the -architect of his own fortune. He knows all about the Upper Mississippi, -its tributaries, and the chain of lakes lying northwest of Lake -Superior. He is Mayor of Minneapolis, a substantial citizen, his hand -ready for every good work,--for the building of schools and churches, -for charity and benevolence; but on the Upper Mississippi he wears a -red shirt, eats pork and beans, and sleeps on pine boughs. He directs -the labor of hundreds of wood-choppers and raftsmen. - -How different this from what we see in other lands! I find my pen -runs on contrasts. How can one help it after seeing that gorgeous -and lumbering old carriage in which the Lord Mayor of London rides -from Guildhall to Westminster? The Lord Mayor himself appears in a -scarlet cloak not half so becoming as a red shirt. He wears a massive -gold chain, and a hat which would be most in place on the stage of a -theatre, and which would make him a guy in any American town. Not so -do the Lord Mayors of the Northwest appear in public. They understand -practical life. It is one of the characteristics of our democratic -government that it makes people practical in all things. - -In 1865 the town of Minneapolis contained only 4,607 inhabitants, but -the population by the census of the present year is 13,080. - -The fall in the river at this point is sixty-four feet, furnishing -120,000 horse-power,--more than sufficient to drive every mill-wheel -and factory in New England, and, according to Wheelock's Report, -greater than the whole motive-power--steam and water--employed in -textile manufactures in England in 1850. Thirteen flouring-mills, -fourteen saw-mills, two woollen-mills, and two paper-mills, are already -erected. Six million dollars have been invested in manufacturing at -this point. The only difficulty to be encountered is the preservation -of the falls in their present position. Beneath the slate rock over -which the torrent pours is a strata of soft sandstone, which rapidly -wears away. Measures have been taken, however, to preserve the cataract -in its present condition, by constructing an apron to carry the water -some distance beyond the verge of the fall and thus prevent the -breaking away of the rock. - -No one can behold the natural advantages at Minneapolis without coming -to the conclusion that it is to be one of the great manufacturing -cities of the world if the fall can be kept in its present position. -Cotton can be loaded upon steamers at Memphis, and discharged at St. -Paul. The climate here is exceedingly favorable for the manufacturing -of cotton goods. The lumber-mills by and by will give place to other -manufactures, and Minneapolis will rank with Lowell or Fall River. - -Our ride brings us to St. Anthony on the east bank of the river, where -we behold the Mississippi roaring and tumbling over the slate-stone -ledges, and hear the buzzing and humming of the machinery in the -saw-mills. - -St. Anthony was one of the earliest-settled towns in the State. Its -projectors were Southern men. Streets were laid out, stores erected, -a great hotel built, and extravagant prices asked for land, but -the owners of Minneapolis offered lots at cheaper rates, and found -purchasers. The war came on, and the proprietors of St. Anthony being -largely from the South, the place ceased to grow, while its rival on -the western shore moved steadily onward in a prosperous career. But -St. Anthony is again advancing, for many gentlemen doing business -in Minneapolis reside there. The interests of the two places are -identical, and will advance together. - -How can one describe what is indescribable? I can only speak of this -city as situated on a beautiful plain, with the Mississippi thundering -over a cataract with a power sufficient to build up half a dozen -Lowells; with a country behind it where every acre of land as far as -the eye can see, and a hundred or a thousand times farther, is capable -of cultivation and of supporting a population as dense as that of -Belgium or China. Wide streets, costly school-houses, church spires, -a community in which the New England element largely predominates,--a -city where every other door does not open to a lager-beer saloon, as -in some Western towns; where the sound of the saw and the hammer, and -the click of the mason's trowel and sledge, are heard from morning -till night; where the streets are filled with wagons from the country, -bringing in grain and carrying back lumber, with the farmer, his wife -and buxom daughter, and tow-headed, bright-faced little boys perched on -top--such are the characteristics of Minneapolis. - -There was a time when Pegasus was put in harness, and the ancients, -according to fable, tried to put Hercules to work. If those days of -classic story have gone by, better ones have come, for the people of -Minneapolis have got the Father of Waters in harness. He is cutting -out one hundred million feet of lumber per annum here. I can hear him -spinning his saws. He is turning a score of mill-stones, and setting -a million or two of spindles in motion, and pretty soon some of the -citizens intend to set him to weaving bags and cloth by the hundred -thousand yards! Only a tithe of his strength is yet laid out. These -men, reared in the East, and developed in the West, will make the -old Father work for them henceforth. He will not be allowed to idle -away his time by leaping and laughing year in and year out over yonder -cataract. He must work for the good of the human race. They will use -him for the building of a great mart of industry,--for the erection of -houses and homes, the abodes of comfort and happiness and of joyful and -peaceful life. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. - - -St. Cloud was the rendezvous of the party, where a grand ovation -awaited us,--a band of music at the station, a dinner at the hotel, a -ride to Sauk Rapids, two miles above the town. - -St. Cloud is eighty miles above St. Paul, situated on the west bank of -the river, and is reached by the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The -goods of the Hudson Bay Company pass through the town. Three hundred -tons per annum are shipped from Liverpool to Montreal, from Montreal -to Milwaukie, from Milwaukie by rail to this point, and from hence -are transported by oxen to the Red River, taken down that stream on a -small steamer to Lake Winnipeg, then sent in boats and canoes up the -Assinniboin, the Saskatchawan, and to all the numerous trading-posts -between Winnipeg and the Arctic Ocean. - -We are getting towards the frontier. We come upon frontiersmen in -leggings, slouch hat, and fur coat,--carrying their rifles. Indians -are riding their ponies. Wigwams are seen in the groves. Carts are -here from Pembina and Fort Garry after supplies. And yet, in the -suburbs of the town we see a large Normal School building just -completed. A magnificent bridge costing $40,000 spans the Mississippi. -At Sauk Rapids the river rolls over a granite ledge, and a chartered -water-power company is erecting a dam, constructing a canal, and laying -the foundations for the second great manufacturing city upon the -Mississippi. - -This section has been a favorite locality for German emigrants. Nearly -one half of the inhabitants of Stearns County, of which St. Cloud is -the county-seat, are Germans. Here we bid good by to the locomotive and -take the saddle instead, with light carriages for occasional change. - -We leave hotels behind, and are to enjoy the pleasures of camp-life. - -Our party as made up consists of the following persons:-- - - GOV. J. GREGORY SMITH, St. Albans, Vt. - W. C. SMITH, M. C. " " - W. H. LORD, D. D., Montpelier, Vt. - F. E. WOODBRIDGE, Vergennes, Vt. - S. W. THAYER, M. D., Burlington, Vt. - Hon. R. D. RICE, Augusta, Me. - P. COBURN, " " - E. F. JOHNSON, Middletown, Conn. - C. C. COFFIN, Boston. - P. W. HOLMES, New York City. - A. B. BAYLESS, Jr., New York City. - W. R. MARSHALL, St. Paul, Gov. of Minnesota. - E. M. WILSON, M. C., Minneapolis. - G. A. BRACKETT, " - -The list is headed by Ex-Governor Smith, President of the Northern -Pacific Railroad and of the Vermont Central. It fell to his lot to be -Chief Magistrate of the Green Mountain State during the rebellion, and -among all the loyal governors there was no one that excelled him in -energy and executive force. He was here, there, and everywhere,--one -day in Vermont, the next in Washington, the third in the rear of the -army looking after the wounded. I remember seeing him at Fredericksburg -during those terrible weeks that followed the struggles at the -Wilderness and Spottsylvania,--directing his assistants, laboring with -his own hands,--hunting up the sick and wounded, giving up his own -cot, sleeping on the bare floor, or not sleeping at all,--cheering -the despondent, writing sympathetic letters to fathers and mothers -whose sons were in the hospital, or who had given their lives to their -country. He has taken hold of this great enterprise--the construction -of a railroad across the continent from the Lakes to the Pacific -Ocean--with like zeal and energy, and has organized this expedition to -explore the country between Lake Superior and the Missouri River. - -Judge Rice is from Maine. He is President of the Portland and Kennebec -Railroad, and a director of the Northern Pacific. Before engaging in -the management of railroads he held, for sixteen years, the honorable -and responsible position of Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of -Maine. Well versed in law, and holding the scales of justice evenly, -his decisions have been regarded as wise and just. - -Mr. Johnson is the Chief Engineer of the road, one of the ablest in his -profession in the country. As long ago as 1853, before the government -surveys were made, he published a pamphlet upon this future highway -to the Pacific, in which he discussed with great ability the physical -geography of the country, not only from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, -but the entire region between the Mississippi and the Pacific. The -explorations that have since been made correspond almost exactly with -his statements. - -The President of the company has showed forethought for the health, -comfort, and pleasure of the party, by taking along two of the most -genial men in New England,--Dr. Thayer, of Burlington, to cure us of -all the ills that flesh is heir to, whose broad smiling face is itself -a most excellent medicine, whose stories are quite as good as his pills -and powders for keeping our digestion all right; and Rev. Dr. Lord, -from Montpelier, for many years pastor of one of the largest churches -in the State. - -With a doctor to keep our bodies right, with a minister to point out -the narrow way that leads to a brighter world, and both of them as -warm-hearted and genial as sunshine, we surely ought to be in good -health. - -Mr. Holmes, of New York, is an old campaigner. He had experienced the -rough and tumble of life on the Upper Missouri, with his rifle for a -companion, the earth his bed, the broad expanse of sky his tent. - -Governor Marshall, Chief Magistrate of Minnesota, Mr. Wilson, member -of Congress from the same State, and Mr. Brackett, of Minneapolis, -were in Sibley's expedition against the Indians, and are accustomed to -all the pleasures and hardships of a campaign. They are to explore the -region lying between the Red River of the North and the Great Bend of -the Missouri. Mr. Bayless, of New York, accompanies the party to enjoy -the freedom and excitement of frontier life. Nor are we without other -company. Some of the clergymen of Minnesota, like their brethren in -other parts of the country, turn their backs on civilization during the -summer months, and spend a few weeks with Nature for a teacher. It is -related that the Rev. Dr. Bethune made it a point to visit Moosehead -Lake in Maine every season, to meditate in solitude and eat onions! He -not only loved them, but had great faith in their strengthening powers. -His ministry was a perpetual Lent so far as onions were concerned, and -it was only when he broke away from society and was lost to the world -in the forest that he could partake freely of his favorite vegetable. - -Travelling the same road, and keeping us company, are Rev. Mr. and -Mrs. Fuller, of Rochester, and Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Williams, and Mr. and -Miss Wheaton, of Northfield, Minn. They have a prairie wagon with a -covered top, drawn by two horses, in which is packed a tent, with pots, -kettles, pans, dishes, flour, pork, beans, canned fruit, hams, butter, -bed and bedding. They have saddle-horses for excursions, and carry -rifles, shot-guns, and fishing-tackle. Pulpit, people and parsonage, -hoop-skirts, stove-pipe hats, work and care, are left behind. The women -can handle the fishing-rod or rifle. It may seem to ladies unaccustomed -to country life as a great letting down of dignity on the part of these -women of the West to enter upon such an expedition, but they are in -search of health. They are not aiming to be Amazons. A few weeks upon -the prairies, and they will return well browned, but healthful and -rugged, and as attractive and charming as the fair Maud who raked hay -and dreamed of what might have been. - -Our first night is spent at "Camp Thunder," and why it is so named will -presently be apparent. It is nearly night when we leave St. Cloud for a -four-mile ride to our quarters. - -We can see in the rays of the setting sun, as we ride over the -prairie, our village of white tents pitched by the roadside, and -our wagons parked near by. It is an exhilarating scene, bringing -to remembrance the many tented fields during the war, and those -soul-stirring days when the armies of the Republic marched under their -great leader to victory. - -The sun goes down through a blood-colored haze, throwing its departing -beams upon a bank of leaden clouds that lie along the horizon. Old -salts say that such sunsets in the tropics are followed by storms. - -Through the evening, while sitting in the doors of our tents and -talking of camp-life and its pleasant experiences, we can see faint -flashes of lightning along the horizon. The leaden clouds grow darker, -and rise slowly up the sky. Through the deepening haze we catch faint -glimpses of celestial architecture,--castles, towers, massive walls, and - - "Looming bastions fringed with fire." - -Far away rolls the heavy thunder,--so far that it seems the diapason -of a distant organ. We lose sight of the gorgeous palaces, temples, -and cathedrals of the upper air, or we see them only when the bright -flashes of lightning illume the sky. - -It is past midnight,--we have been asleep, and are wakened by the -sudden bursting of the storm. The canvas roof and walls of our house -flap suddenly in the wind. The cords are drawn taut against the -tent-pins. The roof rises, settles, surges up and down, to and fro, -the walls belly in and then out against the swaying frame. The rain -comes in great drops, in small drops, in drifting spray, rattling upon -the canvas like a hundred thousand muskets,--just as they rattled and -rolled on that awful day at the Wilderness when the two greatest armies -ever gathered on this continent met in deadly conflict. - -All the while the tent is as bright with lightning as with the sun at -noonday. By the side of my cot is a book which I have been reading; -taking it in my hand, I read the finest print, noted the hour, minute, -and position of the second-hand upon my watch. - -Looking out through the opening of the fly, I behold the distant -woodland, the fences, the bearded grain laid prostrate by the blast, -the rain-drops falling aslant through the air, the farm-house a -half-mile distant,--all revealed by the red glare of the lightning. All -the landscape is revealed. For an instant I am in darkness, then all -appears again beneath the lurid light. - -The storm grows wilder. The gale becomes a tempest, and increases to a -tornado. The thunder crashes around, above, so near that the crackling -follows in an instant the blinding flash. It rattles, rolls, roars, and -explodes like bursting bombs. - -The tent is reeling. Knowing what will be the result, I hurry on my -clothing, and have just time to seize an india-rubber coat before the -pins are pulled from the ground. I spring to the pole, determined to -hold on to the last. - -[Illustration: IN THE STORM.] - -Though the lightning is so fearful, and the moment well calculated -to arouse solemn thoughts, we cannot restrain our laughter when two -occupants of an adjoining tent rush into mine in the condition of men -who have had a sousing in a pond. The wind pulled their tent up by the -roots, and slapped the wet canvas down upon them in a twinkling. They -crawled out like muskrats from their holes,--their night-shirts fit -for mops, their clothing ready for washing, their boots full of water, -their hats limp and damp and ready for moulding into corrugated tiles. - -It is a ludicrous scene. I am the central figure inside the -tent,--holding to the pole with all my might, bareheaded, barefooted, -my body at an angle of forty-five degrees, my feet sinking into the -black mire,--the dripping canvas swinging and swaying, now lifted by -the wind and now flapping in my face, and drenching anew two members of -Congress, who sit upon my broken-down bed, shivering while wringing out -their shirts! - -When the fury of the storm is over, I rush out to drive down the -pins, and find that my tent is the only one in the encampment that is -not wholly prostrated. The members of the party are standing like -_shirted_ ghosts in the storm. The rotund form of our M. D. is wrapped -in the oil-cloth table-cover. For the moment he is a hydropath, and -complacently surveys the wreck of tents. The rain falls on his bare -head, the water streams from his gray locks, and runs like a river down -his broad back; but he does not bow before the blast, he breasts it -bravely. I do not hear him, but I can see by his features that he is -silently singing the Sunday-school song,-- - - "I'll stand the storm, - It won't be long." - -Tents, beds, bedding, clothing, all are soppy and moppy, and the ground -a quagmire. We go ankle deep into the mud. We might navigate the -prairies in a boat. - -Our purveyor, Mr. Brackett, an old campaigner, knows just what to do -to make us comfortable. He has a dry tent in one of the wagons, which, -when the rain has ceased, is quickly set up. His cook soon has his -coffee-pot bubbling, and with hot coffee and a roaring fire we are none -the worse for the drenching. - -The storm has spent its fury, and is passing away, but the heavens -are all aglow. Broad flashes sweep across the sky, flame up to the -zenith, or quiver along the horizon. Bolt after bolt falls earthward, -or flies from the north, south, east, and west,--from all points -of the compass,--branching into beautiful forms, spreading out into -threads and fibres of light, each tipped with golden balls or beads of -brightest hue, seen a moment, then gone forever. - -Flash and flame, bolt and bar, bead, ball, and line, follow each other -in quick succession, or all appear at once in indescribable beauty and -fearful grandeur. We can only gaze in wonder and admiration, though -all but blinded by the vivid flashes, and though each bolt may be a -messenger of death,--though in the twinkling of an eye the spirit may -be stricken from its present tabernacle and sent upon its returnless -flight. The display, so magnificent and grand, has its only counterpart -in the picture which imagination paints of Sinai or the final judgment. - -In an adjoining county the storm was attended by a whirlwind. Houses -were demolished and several persons killed. It was terrifying to -be in it, to hear the deafening thunder; but it was a sight worth -seeing,--that glorious lighting up of the arch of heaven. - -It required half a day of bright sunshine to put things in trim after -the tornado, and then on Saturday afternoon the party pushed on to Cold -Spring and encamped on the bank of Sauk River for the Sabbath. - -[Illustration: CAMP JAY COOKE.] - -The camp was named "Jay Cooke," in honor of the energetic banker who -is the financial agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. Sweet, -calm, and peaceful the hours. Religious services were held, conducted -by Rev. Dr. Lord, who had a flour-barrel and a candle-box before him -for a pulpit; a congregation of teamsters, with people from the little -village near by, and the gentlemen composing our party, some of us -seated on boxes, but most of us sitting upon the ground. Nor were we -without a choir. Everybody sung Old Hundred; and though some of us -could only sound one note, and that straight along from beginning to -end, like the drone of a bagpipe, it went gloriously. Old Hundred never -was sung with better spirit, though there was room for improvement -of the understanding, especially in the base. The teamsters, after -service, hunted turtle-eggs on the bank of the river, and one of them -brought in a hatful, which were cooked for supper. - -Our course from Cold Spring was up the Sauk Valley to Sauk Centre, a -lively town with an excellent water-power. The town is about six years -old, but its population already numbers fifteen hundred. The country -around it is one of the most beautiful and fertile imaginable. The -Sauk River is the southern boundary of the timbered lands west of -the Mississippi. As we look southward, over the magnificent expanse, -we see farm-houses and grain-fields, but on the north bank are dense -forests. The prairie lands are already taken up by settlers, while -there are many thousand acres of the wooded portion of Stearns County -yet in the possession of the government. The emigrant can raise a crop -of wheat the second year after beginning a farm upon the prairies, -while if he goes into the woods there is the slow process of clearing -and digging out of stumps, and a great deal of hard labor before he has -any returns. Those prairie lands that lie in the immediate vicinity -of timber are most valuable. The valley of the Sauk, besides being -exceedingly fertile, has timber near at hand, and has had a rapid -development. It is an inviting section for the capitalist, trader, -mechanic, or farmer, and its growth promises to be as rapid in the -future as it has been since 1865. - -A two days' ride over a magnificent prairie brings us to White Bear -Lake. If we had travelled due west from St. Cloud, along the township -lines, sixty miles, we should have found ourselves at its southern -shore instead of its northern. Our camp for the night was pitched on -the hills overlooking this sheet of water. The Vale of Tempe could not -have been fairer, and Arcadia had no lovelier scene, than that which we -gazed upon from the green slope around our tents, blooming with wild -roses, lilies, petunias, and phlox. - -The lake stretches southward a distance of twelve miles, indented -here and there by a wooded promontory, with sandy beaches sweeping -in magnificent curves, with a patch of woodland on the eastern -shore, and a green fringe of stately oaks and elms around its entire -circumference. As far as the vision extends we behold limitless fields, -whose verdure changes in varying hues with every passing cloud, -and wanting only a background of highlands to make it as lovely as -Windermere, the most enchanting of all the lakes of Old England. - -At our feet was the little town of Glenwood. We looked down upon -a hotel with the stars and stripes waving above it; upon a neat -school-house with children playing around its doors; upon a cluster of -twenty or thirty white houses surrounded by gardens and flower-beds. -Three years ago this was a solitude. - -There is a sail-boat upon the lake, which some gentlemen of our party -chartered for a fishing-excursion. Thinking perhaps we should get more -fish by dividing our force, I took a skiff, and obtained a stalwart -Norwegian to row it. Almost as soon as my hook touched the water I -felt a tug at the other end of the line, and in came a pickerel,--a -three-pounder! The Norwegian rowed slowly along the head of the lake, -and one big fellow after another was pulled into the boat. There was -scarcely a breath of wind, and the sails were idly flapping against the -masts of the larger boat, where my friends were whiling away the time -as best they could, tantalized by seeing that I was having all the -fun. They could only crack their rifles at a loon, or at the flocks of -ducks swimming along the shore. - -But there was rare sport at hand. I discovered an enormous turtle lying -upon the surface of the water as if asleep. "Approach gently," I said -to the Norwegian. He dipped his oars softly, and sent the skiff stern -foremost towards the turtle, who was puffing and blowing like a wheezy -old gentleman sound asleep. - -One more push of the oar and he will be mine. Too late! We have lost -him. Down he goes. I can see him four feet beneath us, clawing off. No, -he is coming up. He rises to the surface. I grasp his tail with both -hands, and jerk with all my might. The boat dips, but a backward spring -saves it from going over, and his majesty of White Bear Lake, the -oldest inhabitant of its silver waters, weighing forty-six pounds,--so -venerable that he wears a garden-bed of grass and weeds upon his -back--is floundering in the half-filled skiff. - -The boatman springs to his feet, stands on the seat with uplifted oar, -undecided whether to jump overboard or to fight the monster who is -making at his legs with open jaws. - -By an adroit movement of an oar I whirl him upon his back, and hold him -down while the Norwegian paddles slowly to the beach. - -The captive rides in a meal-bag the remainder of the day, hissing now -and then, and striving to regain his liberty. - -Ah! isn't that a delicious supper which we sit down to out upon the -prairies on the shores of Lightning Lake,--beyond the borders of -civilization! It is not mock turtle, but the genuine article, such as -aldermen eat. True, we have tin cups and plates, and other primitive -table furniture, but hunger sharpens the appetite, and food is as -toothsome as if served on gold-bordered china. Besides turtle-soup we -have fresh fish and boiled duck. Who is there that would not like to -find such fare inside the borders of civilization? - -Beyond Pope we entered Grant County, containing 268,000 acres of land, -nearly all open to settlement, and through which the main line of the -St. Paul and Pacific Railroad will be constructed the present year. The -population of the entire county probably does not exceed five hundred, -who are mostly Swedes and Norwegians. It is on the ridge, or, rather, -the gentle undulating prairie, between the waters of the Red River of -the North and the Chippewa River, an affluent of the Minnesota. We -passed between two small lakes; the waters of one find their way to the -Gulf of Mexico, the other to the Arctic Sea. - -Our second Sabbath camp was upon the bank of the Red River of the -North,--a beautiful stream, winding its peaceful way through a country -as fertile as the Delta of the Nile. - -For two days we had journeyed over rolling prairie, seeing no -inhabitant; but on Saturday afternoon we reached the great thoroughfare -leading from the Mississippi to the Red River,--travelled by the -Fort Abercrombie stage, and by the Pembina and Fort Garry carts, by -government trains and the ox-teams that transport the supplies of the -Hudson Bay Company. - -Sitting there upon the bank of the Red River amid the tall, rank -grasses, and watching the flowing stream, my thoughts went with its -tide towards the Northern Sea. It has its rise a hundred miles or more -north of us, near Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, flows -southward to this point turns westward here, is joined below by a -stream issuing from Lake Traverse, its most southern source, and then -flows due north to Lake Winnipeg, a distance altogether of about five -hundred miles. - -It is the great southern artery of a water-system that lies almost -wholly beyond the jurisdiction of the United States. - -The Assinniboine joins it just before reaching Lake Winnipeg, and up -that stream we may steam due west two hundred and thirty miles to -Fort Ellis. From Winnipeg we may pass eastward to the intricate Rainy -Lake system towards Superior, or westward into Lakes Manitoba and -Winnipegosis, which together contain as much water as Lake Erie. - -Sailing along the western shore of Lake Winnipeg two hundred miles, we -reach the mouth of the Saskatchawan, large enough to be classed as one -of the great rivers of the continent. - -Professor Hind, of Toronto, who conducted a government exploring-party -through the country northwest of Lake Superior, says: "The -Saskatchawan, which gathers the waters from a country greater in -extent than the vast region drained by the St. Lawrence and all its -tributaries, from Lake Superior to the Gulf, is navigable for more than -a thousand miles of its course, with the single exception of a few -rapids near its confluence with Lake Winnipeg." - -Professor Hind travelled from Fort Garry northwest over the prairies -towards the Rocky Mountains, and gives the following description of his -first view of the stream. He says:-- - -"The first view, six hundred miles from the lake, filled me with -astonishment and admiration,--nearly half a mile broad, flowing with a -swift current, and still I was three hundred and fifty miles from the -mountains." - -The small steamer now plying on the Red River might, during the season -of high water, make its way from Fort Abercrombie down this river, -then through Lake Winnipeg, and up the Saskatchawan westward to the -base of the Rocky Mountains,--a distance altogether of sixteen hundred -miles. - -We are in the latitude of the continental water-system. If we travel -along the parallel eastward, one hundred miles will bring us to -the Mississippi at Crow Wing, another hundred will take us to Lake -Superior, where we may embark on a propeller of five hundred tons and -make our way down through the lakes and the St. Lawrence to Liverpool, -or any other foreign port; or travelling west three hundred miles will -bring us to the Missouri, where we may take one of the steamers plying -on that stream and go up to Fort Benton under the shadow of the Rocky -Mountains. - -Two hundred and fifty miles farther by land, through the mining region -of Montana, will bring us to the navigable waters of the Columbia, down -which we may glide to the Pacific. - -Nowhere in the Eastern hemisphere is there such a succession of lakes -and navigable rivers, and no other country exhibits such an area of -arable land so intersected by fresh-water streams. - -It would be an easy matter by canals to connect the Red River, the -Saskatchawan, and Lake Winnipeg with the Mississippi. We can take a -canoe from this point and paddle up to Otter-Tail Lake, and there, by -carrying it a mile or so over a sand-ridge, launch it on Leaf River, an -affluent of the Crow-Wing, and so reach the Father of Waters. We may -do even better than that. Instead of paddling up stream we may float -down with the current a few miles to the outlet of Lake Traverse, row -across the lake, and from that into Big Stone Lake, which is the source -of the Minnesota River, and by this route reach the Mississippi below -Minneapolis. Boats carrying two tons have frequently passed from one -river to the other during the season of high water. It would not be -difficult to construct a canal by which steamers might pass from the -Mississippi to the base of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. -Railroads are superseding canals, and it is not likely that any such -improvement of the water-way will be attempted during the present -generation. - -But a glance at the river and lake systems enables us to obtain a view -of the physical features of the country. We see that the northwestern -portion of the continent is an extended plain. The Red River here by -our encampment is about nine hundred and sixty feet above the sea. If -we were to float down to Lake Winnipeg, we should find that sheet of -water three hundred feet lower. - -Our camp is pitched to-day about ten miles west of the 96th meridian. -If we were to travel south from this point 350 miles, we should reach -Omaha, which is 946 feet above the sea, so that if we were sitting -on the bank of the Missouri at that point, we should be just about -as high above tide-water as we are while lolling here in the tall -rank grass. By going from Omaha to San Francisco over the Pacific -Railroad, we see the elevations of the country; then by striking -westward from this point to the head-waters of the Missouri, and then -down the Columbia, we shall see at once the physical features of the -two sections. The engineers of the Pacific Railroad, after gaining the -top of the bluff behind Omaha, have a long and apparently level sweep -before them. Yet there is a gradually ascending grade. Four hundred -and eighty-five miles west of Omaha we come to the 104th meridian, -at an elevation of 4,861 feet. If we go west from this point to that -meridian, we shall strike it at the mouth of the Yellowstone, 1,970 -feet above tide-water. Near the 105th meridian is the highest point -on the Union Pacific, at Sherman, which is 8,235 feet above the sea. -Three hundred miles beyond Sherman, at Green River, is the lowest point -between Omaha and the descent into Salt Lake Valley, 6,112 feet above -the ocean level. At that point we are about twenty-six miles west of -the 110th meridian. Now going northward to the valley of the Missouri -once more, we find that Fort Benton is about the same number of miles -west of the same meridian, but the fort is only 2,747 feet above the -sea. - -Just beyond Fort Benton we come to the Rocky Mountains,--the only -range to be crossed between Lake Superior and the Columbia. We enter -the Deer Lodge Pass near the 112th meridian, where our barometer will -show us that we are about five thousand feet above the sea. We find -that the miners at work on the western slope have cut a canal through -the pass, and have turned the waters of the Missouri into the Columbia. -The pass is so level that the traveller can hardly tell when he has -reached the dividing line. - -Going south now along the meridian, we shall find that between Green -River and Salt Lake lies the Wasatch Range, which the Union Pacific -crosses at an elevation of 7,463 feet at Aspen Station, 940 miles -west of Omaha. From that point the line descends to Salt Lake, which -is 4,220 feet above the sea. Westward of this, on the 115th meridian, -1,240 miles from Omaha, we reach the top of Humboldt Mountains, 6,169 -feet above tide-water, while the elevation is only 1,500 feet on the -same meridian in the valley of the Columbia. - -At Humboldt Lake, 1,493 miles west of Omaha, the rails are at the -lowest level of the mountain region, 4,047 feet above the sea. This is -a little west of the 119th meridian, about the same longitude as Walla -Walla on the great plain of the Columbia, which is less than 400 feet -above the sea. - -Westward of Humboldt Lake the Central Line rises to the summit of -the Sierra Nevadas, crossing them 7,042 feet above the sea, then -descending at the rate of 116 feet to the mile into the valley of the -Sacramento. - -Now going back to the plains, to the town of Sidney, which is 410 miles -west of Omaha, we find the altitude there the same as at Humboldt Lake. -This level does not show itself again till we are well down on the -western slope of the Sierra Nevada Range. The entire country between -Omaha and Sacramento, with the exception of about 510 miles, is above -the level of 4,000 feet, while on the line westward from the point -where I am indulging in this topographical revery there are not thirty -miles reaching that altitude. - -With this glance at the configuration of the continent I might make an -isometric map in the sand with my fingers, heaping it up to represent -the Black Hills at Sherman, a lower ridge to indicate the Wasatch -Range, a depression to show the Salt Lake Valley, and then another high -ridge to represent the Sierra Nevadas. I might trace the channel of the -Missouri and the Columbia, and show that most of this territory is a -great plain sloping northward,--that it is lower at Winnipeg than it is -here, as low here as it is at Omaha. - -[Illustration: CONFIGURATION OF THE COUNTRY. - -The upper line represents the elevations between Omaha and Sacramento, -and the lower line between the Red River and Portland, Oregon.] - -Taking this glance at the physical features of the northern and central -portions of the continent, I can see that nature has adapted all -this vast area drained by the Missouri and Yellowstone and their -tributaries, by the Mississippi, by the Red River, the Assinniboine, -the Saskatchawan, and the Columbia, to be the abode, in the future, of -uncounted millions of the human race. - -It is a solitude now, but the vanguard of the approaching multitude is -near at hand. The farmer who lives up the stream and tends the ferry -where we crossed yesterday has one neighbor within twelve miles; but -a twelvemonth hence these acres will have many farm-houses. To-day we -have listened to a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Lord, who preached beneath a -canvas roof. We were called together by the blowing of a tin trumpet, -but a year hence the sweet and solemn tones of church-bells will in all -probability echo over these verdant meadows. - -The locomotive--that great civilizer of this century--will be here -before the flowers bloom in the spring of 1871. It will bring towns, -villages, churches, school-houses, printing-presses, and millions of -free people. I sit as in a dream. I can hear, in imagination, the -voices of the advancing multitude,--of light-hearted maidens and sober -matrons, of bright-eyed boys and strong-armed men. The wild roses are -blooming here to-day, the sod is as yet unturned, and the lilies of the -field hold up their cups to catch the falling dew; but another year -will bring the beginning of the change. Civilization, which has crossed -the Mississippi, will soon flow down this stream, and sweep on to the -valley of the Upper Missouri. - -Think of it, young men of the East, you who are measuring off tape for -young ladies through the long and wearisome hours, barely earning your -living! Throw down the yardstick and come out here if you would be -men. Let the fresh breeze fan your brow, take hold of the plough, bend -down for a few years to hard work with determination to win nobility, -and success will attend your efforts. Is this too enthusiastic? Will -those who read it say, "He has lost his head and gone daft out there -on the prairies"? Not quite. I am an observer here, as I have been in -other lands. I have ridden many times over the great States of the -Northwest; have seen the riches of Santa Clara and Napa west of the -Sierra Nevadas; have looked out over the meadows of the Yangtse and the -Nile, and can say, with honest conviction, that I have seen nowhere so -inviting a field as that of Minnesota, none with greater undeveloped -wealth, or with such prospect of quick development. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. - - -Monday morning saw us on our way northward,--down the valley of the Red -River. - -It was exhilarating to gallop over the level prairies, inhaling the -fresh air, our horses brushing the dew from the grass, and to see -flocks of plump prairie chickens rise in the air and whirr away,--to -mark where they settled, and then to start them again and bring them -down, one by one, with a double-barrelled shot-gun. Did we not think of -the stews and roasts we would have at night? - -For a dozen years or more every school-boy has seen upon his map the -town of Breckenbridge, located on the Red River of the North. It is off -from the travelled road. The town, as one of our teamsters informed us, -"has gone up." It originally consisted of two houses and a saw-mill, -but the Sioux Indians swooped down upon it in 1862, and burned the -whole place. A few logs, the charred remains of timbers, and tall -fire-weeds alone mark the spot. - -Riding on, we reached Fort Abercrombie at noon. It is situated in -Dakota, on the west bank of the Red River, which we crossed by -a rope ferry. It is a resting-place for the thousands of teams -passing between St. Cloud and Fort Garry, and other places in the -far Northwest. The place is of no particular account except as a -distributing point for government supplies for forts farther on, and -the advancement of civilization will soon enable the War Department to -break up the establishment. - -The river is fringed with timber. We ride beneath stately oaks growing -upon the bottom-lands, and notice upon the trees the high-water marks -of former years. The stream is very winding, and when the spring rains -come on the rise is as great, though not usually so rapid, as in the -Merrimac and Connecticut, and other rivers of the East. - -The valley of the Red River is not such as we are accustomed to see in -the East, bounded by hills or mountains, but a level plain. - -When the sky is clear and the air serene, we can catch far away in -the east the faint outline of the Leaf Hills, composing the low ridge -between the Red River and the Mississippi, but westward there is -nothing to bound the sight. The dead level reaches on and on to the -rolling prairies of the Upper Missouri. - -The eye rests only upon the magnificent carpet, bright with wild roses -and petunias, lilies and harebells, which Nature has unrolled upon the -floor of this gorgeous palace. - -I had been slow to believe all that had been told in regard to the -genial climate of the Northwest, but through the courtesy of the -commandant of the Fort, General Hunt, was permitted to see the -meteorological records kept at the post. - -The summer of 1868 was excessively warm in the Western, Middle, and -Atlantic States. Here, on one day in July, the mercury rose to ninety -degrees, Fahrenheit, but the mean temperature for the month was -seventy-nine. In August the highest temperature was eighty-eight, the -lowest fifty, the mean sixty-nine. In September the highest temperature -was seventy-four, the mean forty-seven. A slight frost occurred on -the night of the 16th, and a hard one on the last day of the month. -In October a few flakes of snow fell on the 27th. In November there -were a few inches of snow. Toward the close of December, on one day, -the mercury reached twenty-seven below zero. On the 30th of January -it dropped to thirty below. During this month there were four days -on which snow fell, and in February there were ten snowy days. The -greatest depth of snow during the winter was about eighteen inches, -furnishing uninterrupted sleighing from December to March. - -On the 23d of March wild geese and ducks appeared, winging their way to -Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. The spring opened early in April. - -There are no farms as yet in the valley,--the few settlers cultivating -only small patches of land. - -I have thought of this section of country as being almost up to the -arctic circle, and can only disabuse my mind by comparing it with -other localities in the same latitude. St. Paul is in the latitude of -Bordeaux, in the grape-growing district of Southern France. Here at -Fort Abercrombie we are at least one hundred and fifty miles farther -south than the world's gayest capital, Paris. - -It is not likely that Northern Minnesota will ever become a -wine-producing country, though wild grapes are found along the streams, -and the people of St. Paul and Minneapolis will show us thrifty vines -in their gardens, laden with heavy clusters. - -Minnesota is a wheat-growing region, climate and soil are alike -favorable to its production. - -On the east bank of the Red River we see a field owned by Mr. McAuley, -who keeps a store and sells boots, pipes, tobacco, powder, shot, and -all kinds of supplies needed by hunters and frontiersmen. He sowed his -wheat this year (1869) on the 5th of May, and it is now, on the 19th of -July, heading out. "I had forty-five bushels to the acre last year," he -says, "and the present crop will be equally good." - -[Illustration: RED RIVER VALLEY.] - -This Red River Valley throughout its length and breadth is very -fertile. Here are twenty thousand square miles of land,--an area as -large as Vermont and New Hampshire combined,--unsurpassed for richness. - -The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the St. Paul and -Pacific, both of which are to reach this valley within a few months, -will make these lands virtually as near market as the farms of Central -or Western Illinois. From the Red River to Duluth the distance is 210 -miles in a direct line. It is 187 miles from Chicago to Springfield, -Illinois; so that when the Northern Pacific Railroad is constructed to -this point, Mr. McAuley will be just as near Boston or New York as the -farmers who live in the vicinity of the capital of Illinois; for grain -can be taken from Duluth to Buffalo, Oswego, or Ogdensburg as cheaply -as from Chicago. The richness of the lands, the supply of timber on the -Red River and all its branches, with the opening of the two lines of -railway, will give a rapid settlement to this paradise of the Northwest. - -Professor Hind, of Toronto, who was sent out by the Canadian government -to explore the British Possessions northwest of Lake Superior, in his -report says: "Of the valley of the Red River I find it impossible to -speak in any other terms than those which may express astonishment and -admiration. I entirely concur in the brief but expressive description -given me by an English settler on the Assinniboine, that the valley -of the Red River, including a large portion belonging to its great -affluents, is a paradise of fertility." - -In Mr. McAuley's garden we see corn in the spindle. The broad leaves -wear as rich a green as if fertilized with the best Peruvian guano; -and no wonder, for the soil is a deep black loam, and as mellow as an -ash-heap. His peas were sown the 2d of June, and they are already large -enough for the table! He will have an abundant supply of cucumbers by -the first of August. They were not started under glass, but the dry -seeds were dropped in the hills the same day he planted his peas,--the -2d of June. - -Vegetation advances with great rapidity. Mr. McAuley says that -vegetables and grains come to maturity ten or fifteen days earlier here -than at Manchester, New Hampshire, where he once resided. - -General Pope was formerly stationed at Fort Abercrombie; and in his -report upon the resources of the country and its climatology, says that -the wheat, upon an average, is five pounds per bushel heavier than that -grown in Illinois or the Middle States. - -We saw yesterday a gentleman and lady who live at Fort Garry, and who -call themselves "Winnipeggers." They were born in Scotland, and had -been home to Old Scotia to see their friends. - -"How do you like Winnipeg?" I asked. - -"There is no finer country in the world," he replied. - -"Do you not have cold winters?" - -"Not remarkably so. We have a few cold days, but the air is usually -clear and still on such days, and we do not mind the cold. If we only -had a railroad, it would be the finest place in the world to live in." - -We wonder at his enthusiasm over a country which we have thought of as -being almost, if not quite, out of the world, while he doubtless looks -with pity upon us who are content to remain in such a cooped-up place -as the East. - -Most of us, unless we have become nomads, think that there are no -garden patches so attractive as our own, and we wonder how other people -can be willing to live so far off. - -This Winnipeg gentleman says that the winters are no more severe at -Fort Garry than at St. Paul, and that the spring opens quite as early. - -The temperature for the year at Fort Garry is much like that of -Montreal, as will be seen by the following comparison:-- - - Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. - deg. deg. deg. deg. - Montreal, 43 70 49 17 - Fort Garry, 36 68 48 7 - -This shows the mean temperatures for the three months of each season. -Though the mercury is ten degrees lower at Fort Garry in the winter -than at Montreal, there is less wind, fewer raw days, much less snow, -and, taken all in all, the climate is more agreeable. - -Bidding good by to the courteous commander of the fort, who supplies -that portion of our party going to the Missouri with an escort, we -gallop on through this "Paradise," starting flocks of plovers from the -waving grass, and bringing down, now and then, a prairie chicken. - -Far away, on the verge of the horizon, we can see our wagons,--mere -specks. - -What a place for building a railway! Not a hillock nor a hollow, not -a curve or loss of gradient; timber enough on the river for ties. And -when built, what a place to let on steam! The engineer may draw his -throttle-valve and give the piston full head. Here will be the place to -see what iron, steel, and steam can do. - -We pitch our tents for the night in the suburbs of Burlington, not far -from the hotel and post-office. The hotel, which just now is the only -building in town, is built of logs. It is not very spacious inside, but -it has all the universe outside! - -Once a week the mail-carrier passes from Fort Abercrombie to Pembina, -and as there are a half-dozen pioneers and half-breeds within -a radius of thirty miles of Burlington, a post-office has been -established here, which is kept in a shed adjoining the hotel. - -The postmaster gives us a cordial greeting. It is a pleasure to hear -this bluff but wide-awake German say, "O, I have been acquainted with -you for a long while. I followed you through the war and around the -world." - -From first to last, in letters from the battle-field, from the various -countries of the world, and in these notes of travel, it has ever -been my aim to write for the comprehension of the people; and such -spontaneous and uncalled-for commendation of my efforts out here upon -the prairies was more grateful than many a well-meant paragraph from -the public press. - -While pitching our tents, a flock of pigeons flew past, and down in the -woods along the bank of the river we could hear their cooing. Those -who had shot-guns went to the hunt; while some of us tried the river -for fish, but returned luckless. The supper was good enough, however, -without trout or pickerel. Who can ask for anything better than prairie -chicken, plover, duck, pork, and pigeons? - -Then, when hunger is appeased, we sit around the camp-fire and think of -the future of this paradise. Near by is another camp-fire. - -I see by its glimmering light a stalwart man with shaggy beard and a -slouched hat. The emigrant's wife sits on the other side of the fire, -and by its light I see that she wears a faded linsey-woolsey dress, -that her hair is uncombed, and that she has not given much attention -to her toilet. Two frowzy-headed children, a boy and a girl, are -romping in the grass. The worldly effects of this family are in that -canvas-covered ox-wagon, with a chicken-coop at the hinder part, and a -tin kettle dangling beneath the axle. This emigrant has come from Iowa. -He is moving into this valley "to take up a claim." That is, he is -going to select a piece of choice land under the Homestead Act, build a -cabin, and "make a break in the per-ra-ry," he says. - -He will be followed by others. The tide is setting in rapidly, and by -the time the railway company are ready to carry freight there will be -population enough here to support the road. - -We have an early start in the morning. Our route is along a highway, -upon which there is more travel than upon many of the old turnpikes of -New England for Winnipeg, and the Hudson Bay posts receive all their -supplies over this road. - -At our noonday halt we fall in with Father Genin, a French Catholic -priest, who lives on the bank of the river in a log-hut. He comes -out to see us, wearing a long black bombazine priestly gown, and -low-crowned hat. He is in the prime of life, was educated at Paris, -came to Quebec, and is assigned to the Northwest. He has sailed over -Lake Winnipeg, and paddled his canoe on the Saskatchawan and Athabasca. - -"My parish," he says, "reaches from St. Paul to the Rocky Mountains." -He speaks in glowing terms of the country up "in the Northwest,"--as if -we, who are now sixteen hundred miles from Boston, had not reached the -Northwest! - -Our talk with Father Genin, and his enthusiastic description of the -Saskatchawan Valley, has set us to thinking of this region, to which -the United States once held claim, and which might now have been a part -of our domain if it had not been for the pusillanimity of President -Polk. - -Mackenzie was the first European who gave to the world an account -of the country lying between us and the Arctic Sea. He was in this -valley in 1789, and was charmed with it. He made his way down to -Lake Winnipeg, thence up the Saskatchawan to Athabasca Lake. At the -carrying-place between the Saskatchawan and Athabasca rivers, at -Portage la Loche, he discovered springs of petroleum, which are thus -described:-- - -"Twenty-five miles from the fork are some bituminous springs, into -which a pole may be inserted without the least resistance. The bitumen -is in a fluid state, and when mixed with resin is used to gum the -canoes. In its heated state it emits a smell like sea-coal. The -banks of Slave River, which are elevated, discover veins of the same -bituminous quality."[1] - - [Footnote 1: General History of the Fur-Trade, p. 87.] - -His winter quarters were near Lake Athabasca, at Fort Chippewayan, more -than thirteen hundred miles northwest from Chicago. He thus writes in -regard to the country:-- - -"In the fall of 1787, when I first arrived at Athabasca, Mr. Pond was -settled on the bank of the Elk River, where he remained three years, -and had as fine a kitchen-garden as I ever saw in Canada" (p. 127). - -Of the climate in winter he says that the beginning was cold, and about -one foot of snow fell. The last week in December and the first week in -January were marked by warm southwest breezes, which dissolved all the -snow. Wild geese appeared on the 13th of March; and on the 5th of April -the snow had entirely disappeared. On the 20th he wrote:-- - -"The trees are budding, and many plants are in blossom" (p. 150). - -Mackenzie left the "Old Establishment," as one of the posts of the -Hudson Bay Company was called, on the Peace River, in the month of May, -for the Rocky Mountains. He followed the stream through the gap of the -mountains, passed to the head-waters of Fraser River, and descended -that stream to the Pacific. He thus describes the country along the -Peace River:-- - -"This magnificent theatre of nature has all the decorations which the -trees and animals can afford it. Groves of poplars in every shape -vary the scene, and their intervales are relieved with vast herds of -elk and buffaloes,--the former choosing the steeps and uplands, the -latter preferring the plains. The whole country displayed an exuberant -verdure; the trees that bear blossoms were advancing fast to that -delightful appearance, and the velvet rind of their branches reflecting -the oblique rays of a rising or setting sun added a splendid gayety to -the scene which no expressions of mine are qualified to describe" (p. -154). - -This was in latitude 55 deg. 17', about fourteen hundred miles from St. -Paul. - -The next traveller who enlightened the world upon this region was Mr. -Harman, a native of Vergennes, Vermont, who became connected with the -Northwest Fur Company, and passed seventeen years in British America. -He reached Lake Winnipeg in 1800, and his first winter was passed west -of the lake. Under date of January 5th we have this record in his -journal:-- - -"Beautiful weather. Saw in different herds at least a thousand -buffaloes grazing" (p. 68). - -"_February 17th._--We have now about a foot and a half of snow on the -ground. This morning one of our people killed a buffalo on the prairie -opposite the fort" (p. 73). - -"_March 14th._--The greater part of the snow is dissolved."[2] - - [Footnote 2: On the 16th of March, 1870, while these notes - were under review, the streets of Boston were deep with snow, - and twenty-four trains were blockaded on the Boston and Albany - Railroad between Springfield and Albany.] - -On the 6th of April Mr. Harman writes: "I have taken a ride on -horseback to a place where our people are making sugar. My path led me -over a small prairie, and through a wood, where I saw a great variety -of birds that were straining their tuneful throats as if to welcome the -return of another spring; small animals were running about, or skipping -from tree to tree, and at the same time were to be seen, swans, -bustards, ducks, etc. swimming about in the rivers and ponds. All these -things together rendered my ramble beautiful beyond description" (p. -75). - -During the month of April there were two snow-storms, but the snow -disappeared nearly as fast as it fell. - -One winter was passed by Mr. Harman in the country beyond Lake -Athabasca, on the Athabasca River, where he says the snow during the -winter "was at no time more than two feet and a half deep" (p. 174). - -On May 6th he writes: "We have planted our potatoes and sowed most of -our garden-seeds" (p. 178). - -"_June 2d._--The seeds which we sowed in the garden have sprung up and -grown remarkably well. The present prospect is that strawberries, red -raspberries, shad-berries, cherries, etc. will be abundant this season." - -"_July 21st._--We have cut down our barley, and I think it is the -finest that I ever saw in any country. The soil on the points of land -along this river is excellent" (p. 181). - -"_October 3d._--We have taken our potatoes out of the ground, and -find that nine bushels which we planted on the 10th of May last have -produced a little more than one hundred and fifty bushels. The other -vegetables in our garden have yielded an increase much in the same -proportion, which is sufficient proof that the soil of the points of -land along this river is good. Indeed, I am of opinion that wheat, rye, -barley, oats, peas, etc. would grow well in the plains around us" (p. -186). - -He passed several winters at the head-waters of Peace River, in the -Rocky Mountains. In his journal we have these records:-- - -"_May 7th._--The weather is very fine, and vegetation is far advanced -for the season. Swans and ducks are numerous in the lakes and rivers." - -"_May 22d._--Planted potatoes and sowed garden-seeds." - -"_October 3rd._--We have taken our vegetables out of the ground. We -have forty-one bushels of potatoes, the produce of one bushel planted -last spring. Our turnips, barley, etc. have produced well" (p. 257). - -In 1814 he writes under date of September 3d: "A few days since we -cut down our barley. The five quarts which I sowed on the 1st of May -have yielded as many bushels. One acre of ground, producing in the -same proportion, would yield eighty-four bushels. This is sufficient -proof that the soil in many places in this quarter is favorable to -agriculture" (p. 267). - -Sir John Richardson, who explored the arctic regions by this route, -says: "Wheat is raised with profit at Fort Liard, lat. 60 deg. 5' N., -lon. 122 deg. 31' W., and four or five hundred feet above the sea. This -locality, however, being in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, is -subject to summer frosts, and the grain does not ripen every year, -though in favorable seasons it gives a good return." - -In 1857, Captain Palliser, of the Royal Engineers, was sent out by the -English government to explore the region between Lake Superior and -the Pacific, looking towards the construction of a railroad across -the continent, through the British Possessions. His report to the -government is published in the Blue-Book. - -Speaking of the country along the Assinniboine, he says: "The -Assinniboine has a course of nearly three hundred miles; lies wholly -within a fertile and partially wooded country. The lower part of the -valley for seventy miles, before it joins the Red River, affords land -of surpassing richness and fertility" (p. 9). - -Of the South Saskatchawan, he says that "it flows through a -thick-wooded country" (p. 10). - -The natural features of the north branch of that river are set forth in -glowing language:-- - -"The richness of the natural pasture in many places on the North -Saskatchawan and its tributary, Battle River, can hardly be -exaggerated. Its value does not consist in its long rank grasses or in -its great quantity, but from its fine quality, comprising nutritious -species of grasses, along with natural vetches in great variety, which -remain throughout the winter juicy and fit for the nourishment of stock. - -"Almost anywhere along the Saskatchawan a sufficiency of good soil is -everywhere to be found, fit for all purposes, both for pasture and -tillage, extending towards the thick-wooded hills, and also to be found -in the region of the lakes, between Forts Pitt and Edmonton. In almost -every direction around Edmonton the land is fine, excepting only the -hilly country at the higher level, such as the Beacon Hills; even there -there is nothing like sterility, only the surface is too much broken -to be occupied while more level country can be obtained" (p. 10). - -Going up the Saskatchawan he discovered beds of coal, which are thus -described:-- - -"In the upper part of the Saskatchawan country, coal of fine quality -occurs abundantly, and may hereafter be very useful. It is quite fit to -be employed in the smelting of iron from the ore of that metal, which -occurs in large quantities in the same strata" (p. 11). - -Two hundred miles north of this coal deposit, Mackenzie discovered the -springs of petroleum and coal strata along the banks of the streams. -Harman saw the same. - -Palliser wintered on the Saskatchawan, and speaks thus of the climate:-- - -"The climate in winter is more rigorous than that of Red River, and -partial thaws occur long before the actual opening of spring. The -winter is much the same in duration, but the amount of snow that falls -rapidly decreases as we approach the mountains. The river generally -freezes about the 12th of November, and breaks up from the 17th to -the 20th of April. During the winter season of five months the means -of travelling and transport are greatly facilitated by the snow, the -ordinary depth of which is sufficient for the use of sleighs, without -at the same time being great enough to impede horses. - -"The whole of this region of country would be valuable, not only for -agriculture, but also for mixed purposes of settlement. The whole -region is well wooded and watered, and enjoys a climate far preferable -to that of either Sweden or Norway. I have not only seen excellent -wheat, but Indian corn (which will not succeed in England or Ireland), -ripening on Mr. Pratt's farm at the Qui Appelle Lakes in 1857" (p. 11). - -Father De Smet, a Catholic missionary, in 1845 crossed the Rocky -Mountains from British Columbia, eastward to the head-waters of the -south branch of the Saskatchawan, and passed along the eastern base of -the mountains to Edmonton. He characterizes the country as "an ocean of -prairies." - -"The entire region," he says, "in the vicinity of the eastern chain of -the Rocky Mountains, serving as their base for thirty or sixty miles, -is extremely fertile, abounding in forests, plains, prairies, lakes, -streams, and mineral springs. The rivers and streams are innumerable, -and on every side offer situations favorable for the construction of -mills. The northern and southern branches of the Saskatchawan water the -district I have traversed for a distance of about three hundred miles. -Forests of pines, cypress, cedars, poplar and aspen trees, as well as -others of different kinds, occupy a large portion of it. The country -would be capable of supporting a large population, and the soil is -favorable for the production of wheat, barley, potatoes, and beans, -which grow here as well as in the more southern countries." - -It is a region abundantly supplied with coal of the lignite formation. -Father Genin has a specimen of lignite taken from the banks of Maple -River, about seven miles from our camp. It is a small branch of the Red -River flowing from the west. If we were to travel northwest a little -more than one hundred miles, we should come to the Little Souris or -Mouse River, a branch of the Assinniboine, where we should find seams -of the same kind of coal. Continuing on to the Saskatchawan, we shall -find it appearing all along the river from Fort Edmonton to the Rocky -Mountains, a distance of between three and four hundred miles. - -Dr. Hector, geologist to the exploring expedition under Captain -Palliser, thus describes the coal on Red Deer River, a branch of the -South Saskatchawan:-- - -"The lignite forms beds of great thickness, one group of seams -measuring twenty-five feet in thickness, of which twelve feet consist -of pure compact lignite. At one point the seam was on fire, and the -Indians say that for as long as they can remember the fire at this -place has not been extinguished, summer or winter" (p. 233). - -Father De Smet passed down the river in 1845, and it was then on fire. -If we were to travel northward from the Red Deer to the Peace River, -we should find the same formation; and if we were to glide down the -Mackenzie towards the Arctic Sea, we should, according to the intrepid -voyager whose name it bears, find seams of coal along its banks. - -Mr. Bourgeau, botanist to the Palliser Exploring Expedition, in a -letter addressed to Sir William Hooker, has the following remarks upon -the capabilities of the Northwest for supporting a dense population:-- - -"It remains for me to call the attention of the English government -to the advantages there would be in establishing agricultural -districts in the vast plains of Rupert's Land, and particularly in -the Saskatchawan, in the neighborhood of Fort Carlton. This district -is much better adapted to the culture of staple crops than one would -have been inclined to believe from this high latitude. In effect, the -few attempts at the culture of cereals already made in the vicinity of -the Hudson Bay Company's posts demonstrate by their success how easy -it would be to obtain products sufficiently large to remunerate the -efforts of the agriculturist. Then, in order to put the land under -cultivation, it would be necessary only to till the better portions -of the soil. The prairies offer natural pasturage as favorable for -the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially -created. The construction of houses for habitation and for pioneer -development would involve but little expense, because in many parts -of the country, independent of wood, one would find fitting stones -for building purposes, and it is easy to find clay for bricks.... The -vetches found here are as fitting for nourishment of cattle as the -clover of European pasturage. The abundance of buffaloes, and the -facility with which herds of horses and oxen increase, demonstrate that -it would be enough to shelter animals in winter, and to feed them in -the shelters with hay.... In the gardens of the Hudson Bay Company's -posts, beans, peas, and French beans have been successfully cultivated; -also cabbages, turnips, carrots, rhubarb, and currants" (p. 250). - -The winters of the Northwest are wholly unlike those of the Eastern and -Middle States. The meteorologist of Palliser's Expedition says: "Along -the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains there is a narrow strip of -country in which there is never more than a few inches of snow on the -ground. About forty miles to the eastward, however, the fall begins to -be much greater, but during the winter rarely exceeds two feet. On the -prairies the snow evaporates rapidly, and, except in hollows where it -is drifted, never accumulates; but in the woods it is protected, and in -spring is often from three to four feet deep" (p. 268). - -Captain Palliser and party travelled from post to post during the -winter without difficulty. In February, 1859, he travelled from -Edmonton to Lake St. Ann's. On two nights the mercury was frozen in the -bulb,--as it is not unfrequently at Franconia, New Hampshire. Exclusive -of those two cold nights, the mean of the temperature was seventeen. He -says: "This was a trip made during the coldest weather experienced in -the country. If proper precautions are taken, there is nothing merely -in extreme cold to stop travelling in the wooded country, but the -danger of freezing from exposure upon the open plains is so great that -they cannot be ventured on with safety during any part of the winter" -(p. 268). - -The Wesleyan Missionary Society of England has a mission at Edmonton, -under the care of Rev. Thomas Woolsey. The following extracts from -his journal will show the progress of the winter and spring season in -1855:-- - - "Nov. 1. A little snow has fallen for the first time. - " 12. Swamps frozen over. - " 13. A little more snow. - " 17. Crossed river on the ice. - Dec. 2. The past week has been remarkably mild. - " 9. More snow. - 1856. Jan. 8 to 11. More like spring than winter. - Jan. 13. Fine open weather. - " 17. Somewhat colder. - Feb. 14. Weather open. - " 16. Snow rapidly disappearing. - Mar. 11. More snow. - " 17. Firing pasture-grounds to-day. - " 18. Thunder-storm. - " 21. Ducks and geese returning. - " 30. More snow, but it is rapidly disappearing. - " 31. Snow quite gone. - April 7. Ploughing commenced. - " 28. First wheat sown." - -The succeeding winter was more severe, and three feet of snow fell -during the season, but the spring opened quite as early as in 1856. The -comparative mildness of the winter climate of all this vast area of -the West and Northwest, at the head-waters of the Missouri, and in the -British dominions, as far north as latitude 70 deg., is in a great measure -due to the warm winds of the Pacific. - -In the autumn of 1868 I crossed the Pacific, from Japan to San -Francisco, in the Pacific mail-steamer Colorado. Soon after leaving the -Bay of Yokohama we entered the Kuro-Siwo, or the Black Ocean River of -the Asiatic coast. This ocean current bears a remarkable resemblance to -the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic. Along the eastern shore of Japan the -water, like that along Virginia and the Carolinas, is very cold, but we -suddenly pass into the heated river, which, starting from the vicinity -of the Philippine Islands, laves the eastern shore of Formosa, and -rushes past the Bay of Yeddo at the rate of eighty miles per day. This -heated river strikes across the Northern Pacific to British Columbia -and Puget Sound, giving a genial climate nearly up to the Arctic -Circle. No icebergs are ever encountered in the North Pacific. The -influence of the Kuro-Siwo upon the Northwest is very much like that -which the Gulf Stream has upon England and Norway. It gives to Oregon, -Washington, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island winters so mild that -the people cannot lay in a supply of ice for the summer. Roses bloom -in the gardens throughout the year. So the water heated beneath the -tropics, off the eastern coast of Siam and north of Borneo, flows along -the shore of Japan up to the Aleutian Isles, imparting its heat to the -air, which, under the universal law, ascends when heated, and sweeps -over the Rocky Mountains, and tempers the climate east of them almost -to Hudson Bay. - -So wonderfully arranged is this mighty machinery of nature, that -millions of the human race in coming years will rear their habitations -and enjoy the blessings of civilization in regions that otherwise would -be pathless solitudes. - -In the meteorological register kept at Carlton House, in lat. 52 deg. 51', -on the eastern limit of the Saskatchawan Plain, eleven hundred feet -above the sea, we find this entry: "At this place westerly winds bring -mild weather, and the easterly ones are attended by fog and snow." - -By the following tabular statement we see at a glance the snow-fall at -various places in the United States. We give average depths for the -winter as set down in Blodget's climatology. - - Oxford County, Maine 90 inches. - Dover, New Hampshire 68 " - Montreal, Canada 66 " - Burlington, Vermont 85 " - Worcester, Massachusetts 55 " - Cincinnati, Ohio 19 " - Burlington, Iowa 15 " - Beloit, Wisconsin 25 " - Fort Abercrombie, Dakota 12 " - -From this testimony I am impelled to believe that the immense area -west of Lake Superior and south of the 60th parallel is as capable of -being settled as those portions of Russia, Sweden, and Norway south of -that degree, now swarming with people. That parallel passes through -St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Christiania, and the Shetland Isles on the -eastern hemisphere, Fort Liard and Central Alaska on the western. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. - - -Hundreds of Winnipeggers were upon the road, either going to or -returning from St. Cloud, from whence all groceries and other -supplies are obtained. The teams consist of a single horse or ox, not -unfrequently a cow, harnessed to a two-wheeled cart. The outfit is -a curiosity. The wheels are six or seven feet in diameter, and very -dishing. A small rack is affixed to the wooden axle. The concern is -composed wholly of wood, with a few raw-hide thongs. It is primitive -in design and construction, and though so rude, though there is not an -ounce of iron about the cart, it serves the purpose of these voyagers -admirably. Our teams have been stuck in the mud, at the crossings of -creeks, half a dozen times a day; but those high-wheeled carts are -borne up by the grass roots where ours go down to the hub. - -There is a family to each cart,--father, mother, and a troop of -frowzy-headed, brown-faced children, who, though shoeless and hatless -and half naked, are as happy as the larks singing in the meadows, -or the plover skimming the air on quivering wings. They travel in -companies,--fifteen or twenty carts in a caravan. When night comes on, -the animals are turned out to graze; the families cook each their own -scanty supply of food, smoke their pipes by the glimmering camp-fire, -tell their stories of adventure among the buffaloes, roll themselves -in a blanket, creep beneath their carts,--all the family in a pile if -the night is cool,--sleep soundly, and are astir before daylight, and -on the move by sunrise. The journey down and back is between eight and -nine hundred miles; and as the average distance travelled is only about -twenty miles a day, it takes from forty to fifty days to make the round -trip. No wonder the people of that settlement are anxious to have a -railroad reach the Red River. - -Leaving the Pembina road and striking westward to the river, we descend -the bank to the bottom-land, which is usually about twenty-five feet -below the general surface of the valley. We cross the river by a rope -ferry kept by a half-breed, and strike out upon the Dakota plain. The -trail that we are upon bears northwest, and is the main road to Fort -Totten, near Lake Miniwakan, or the "Devil's Lake," and the forts on -the Upper Missouri. Here, as upon the Minnesota side, the wild-flowers -are blooming in luxuriance. Our horses remorselessly trample the roses, -the convolvulus, and the lilies beneath their feet. - -The prairie chickens are whirring in every direction, and one of our -bluff and burly teamsters, who is at home upon the prairies, who in the -First Minnesota Regiment faced the Rebels in all the battles of the -Peninsula, who was in the thickest of the fight at Gettysburg, who has -hunted Indians over the Upper Missouri region, who is as keen-sighted -as a hawk, takes the grouse right and left as they rise. His slouched -hat bobs up and down everywhere. He seems to know just where the game -is; now he is at your right hand, now upon the run a half-mile away -upon the prairies. He stops, raises his gun,--there is a puff of smoke, -another, and he has two more chickens in his bag. We are sure of having -good suppers as long as he is about. - -We reach Dakota City,--another thriving town of one log-house,--peopled -by Monsieur Marchaud, a French Canadian, his Chippewa wife and twelve -children. - -While our tents are being pitched, we cross the river by another -ferry to Georgetown,--a place consisting of two dwellings and a large -storehouse owned by the Hudson Bay Company. This is the present -steamboat landing, though sometimes the one steamer now on the river -goes up to Fort Abercrombie. The river is narrow and winding south of -this point, and not well adapted to navigation. - -We find an obliging young Scotchman with a thin-faced wife in -possession of the property belonging to the Company. He takes care of -the premises through the year on a salary of two hundred dollars, and -has his tea, sugar, and groceries furnished him. He can cultivate as -much land as he pleases, though he does not own a foot of it,--neither -does the Company own an acre. It belongs to the people of the United -States, and any brave young man with a large-hearted wife may become -possessor of these beautiful acres if he will, with the moral certainty -of finding them quadrupled in value in five years. - -This great highway of the North lies along the eastern bank of the -river. We have travelled over it all the way from Fort Abercrombie, -passing and meeting teams. Here we see a train of thirty wagons drawn -by oxen, loaded with goods consisting of boxes of tea, sugar, salt, -pork, bacon, and bales of cloth, which are shipped by steamer from this -landing. The teas come from England to Montreal, are there shipped to -Milwaukie, and transported by rail to St. Cloud. Each chest is closely -packed in canvas and taken through in bond. The transportation of the -Hudson Bay Company between this place and St. Cloud amounts to about -seven hundred tons per annum. - -In addition, the Red River transportation carried on by the Indians and -half-breeds is very large. About twenty-five hundred carts pass down -and up this highway during the year, each one carrying upon an average -nine hundred pounds. - -Besides all this there is the United States government transportation -to Fort Abercrombie and the forts beyond, amounting last year to -eighteen hundred tons. The rates paid by the War Department government -for transportation are $1.36-3/8 per hundred pounds for every hundred -miles. All of this traffic will be transferred at once to the Northern -Pacific Railroad upon its completion to the Red River. - -The estimated value of the Red River trade is ten millions of dollars -per annum, and it is increasing every year. - -The keen-eyed hunters of our party have been on the lookout for a stray -buffalo or a deer, but the buffaloes are a hundred miles away. We hear -that they have come north of the Missouri in great numbers, and those -who are to go West anticipate rare sport. For want of a buffalo-steak -we put up with beef. It is juicy and tender, from one of Mr. Marchaud's -heifers, which has been purchased for the party. - -It is a supper fit for sovereigns,--and every one is a sovereign out -here, on the unsurveyed lands, of which we, in common with the rest of -the people, are proprietors. We are lords of the manor, and we have sat -down to a feast. Our eggs are newly laid by the hens of Dakota City, -our milk is fresh from the cows whose bells are tinkling in the bushes -along the bank of the river, and the cakes upon our table are of the -finest flour in the world. Hunger furnishes the best relish, and when -the cloth is removed we sit around the camp-fire during the evening, -passing away the hours with wit, repartee, and jest, mingled with sober -argument and high intellectual thought. - -Our tents are pitched upon the river's bank. Far away to the south we -trace the dim outline of the timber on the streams flowing in from the -west. Turning our eyes in that direction, we see only the level sea of -verdure,--the green grass waving in the evening breeze. At this place -our company will divide,--Governor Marshall, Mr. Holmes, and several -other gentlemen, going on to the Missouri, while the rest of us will -travel eastward to Lake Superior. - -It would be a pleasure to go with them,--to ride over the rolling -prairies, to fall in with buffaloes and try my pony in a race with -a big bull. It would be thrilling,--only if the hunted should right -about face, and toss the hunter on his horns, the thrill would be of a -different sort! - -We sit by our camp-fires at night with our faces and hands smeared -with an abominable mixture prepared by our M. D., ostensibly to keep -the mosquitoes from presenting their bills, but which we surmise is a -little game of his to daub us with a diabolical mixture of glycerine, -soap, and tar! Our tents are as odorous as the shop of a keeper of -naval stores. There is an all-pervading smell of oakum and turpentine. -Clouds of mosquitoes come, take a whiff, and retire in disgust. We can -hear them having a big swear at the Doctor for compounding such an -ointment! - -I think of the country which those who are going west will see, and of -the region beyond,--the valley of the Yellowstone, the Missouri, the -slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and the hills of Montana,--territory to -be included in the future Empire of the Northwest. I have written the -word, but it bears no political meaning in these notes. It has the same -signification as when applied to the State of New York. The Empire of -the Northwest will be the territory lying north of the central ridge -of the continent. Milwaukie may be taken as a starting-point for a -survey of this imperial domain. That city is near the 43d parallel; -following it westward, we see that it passes over the mountain-range on -whose northern slopes the southern affluents of the Yellowstone take -their rise. All the fertile valleys of the Columbia and its tributaries -lie north of this parallel; all the streams of the Upper Missouri -country, and the magnificent water-system of Puget Sound, and the -intricate bays and inlets of British Columbia, reaching on to Alaska, -having their only counterpart in the fiords of Norway, are north of -that degree of latitude. I have already taken a view of the region -now comprised in the British dominions east of the Rocky Mountains; -but equally interesting will be a review of the territories of the -Republic,--Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, also British -Columbia and Vancouver. - -Dakota contains a little more than a hundred and fifty thousand square -miles,--nearly enough territory to make four States as large as Ohio. - -"The climate and soil of Dakota," says the Commissioner of Public -Lands, General Wilson, in his Report for 1869, "are exceedingly -favorable to the growth of wheat, corn, and other cereals, while all -the fruits raised in the Northern States are here produced in the -greatest perfection.... The wheat crop varied from twenty to forty -bushels to the acre. Oats have produced from fifty to seventy bushels -to the acre, and are of excellent quality" (p. 144). - -Settlements are rapidly extending up the Missouri, and another year -will behold this northern section teeming with emigrants. The northern -section of the territory is bare of wood, but the southern portion is -well supplied with timber in the Black Hills. - -Two thousand square miles of the region of the Black Hills, says -Professor Hayden, geologist to the United States Exploring Expedition -under General Reynolds, is covered with excellent pine timber. That -is an area half as large as the State of Connecticut, ample for the -southern section; while the settlers of the northern portion will be -within easy distance by rail of the timbered lands of Minnesota. - -The northern half of Wyoming is north of the line we have drawn from -Milwaukie to the Pacific, and of this Territory the Land Commissioner -says: "A large portion of Wyoming produces a luxuriant growth of short -nutritious grass, upon which cattle will feed and fatten during summer -and winter without other provender. Those lands, even in their present -condition, are superior for grazing. The climate is mild and healthy, -the air and water pure, and springs abundant" (p. 159). - -Beyond the 104th meridian lies Montana, a little larger than Dakota, -with area enough for four States of the size of Ohio. - -At St. Paul I was fortunate enough to fall in with Major-General -Hancock, who had just returned from Montana, and who was enthusiastic -in its praise. - -"I consider it," he said, "to be one of the first grazing countries -in the world. Its valleys are exceedingly fertile. It is capable of -sustaining a dense population." - -Wheat grows as luxuriantly in the valleys at the base of the Rocky -Mountains as in Minnesota. The Territory appears to be richer in -minerals than any other section of the country, the gold product -surpassing that of any other State or Territory. More than one hundred -million dollars have been taken from the mines of Montana since the -discovery of gold in this territory in 1862. Coal appears upon the -Yellowstone in veins ten, fifteen, and twenty feet in thickness. It is -found on the Big Horn and on the Missouri. - -"From the mouth of the Big Horn," says Professor Hayden, "to the union -of the Yellowstone with the Missouri, nearly all the way, lignite -(coal) beds occupy the whole country.... The beds are well developed, -and at least twenty or thirty seams are shown, varying in purity and -thickness from a few inches to seven feet" (Report, p. 59). - -The mountains are covered with wood, and there will be no lack of fuel -in Montana. The timber lands of this Territory are estimated by the -Land Commissioner to cover nearly twelve millions of acres,--an area as -large as New Hampshire and Vermont combined. The agricultural land, or -land that may be ploughed, is estimated at twenty-three million acres, -nearly as much as is contained in the State of Ohio. The grazing lands -are put down at sixty-nine millions,--or a region as large as New York, -Pennsylvania, and New Jersey together! - -Isn't it cold? Are not the winters intolerable? Are not the summers -short in Montana? Many times the questions have been asked. - -The temperature of the climate in winter will be seen from the -following thermometrical record kept at Virginia City:-- - - 1866. Dec. Mean for the month, 31 deg. above zero. - 1867. Jan. " " " 23 deg..73 " " - " Feb. " " " 26 deg. " " - -The summer climate is exceedingly agreeable, and admirably adapted to -fruit culture. - -In July last Mr. Milnor Roberts, Mr. Thomas Canfield, and other -gentlemen of the Pacific exploring party, were in Montana. Mr. Roberts -makes our mouths water by his description of the fruits of that -Territory. - -"Missoula," he says, "is a thriving young town near the western base of -the Rocky Mountains, containing a grist-mill, saw-mill, two excellent -stores, and from twenty-five to thirty dwellings, a number of them well -built. I visited McWhirk's garden of five acres, where I found ripe -tomatoes, watermelons, muskmelons, remarkably fine potatoes, beans, -peas, and squashes; also young apple-trees and other fruit-trees, and -a very fine collection of flowers; and all this had been brought about -from the virgin soil in two years, and would this year (1869) yield the -owner over two thousand dollars in gold, the only currency known in -Montana" (Report, p. 23). - -This fruit and flower garden is about one hundred miles from the top of -the divide between the Atlantic and the Pacific. - -Deer Lodge City, fifteen miles from the dividing ridge, is situated in -the Deer Lodge Valley, and its attractions are thus set forth by Mr. -Roberts:-- - -"The Deer Lodge Valley is very wide, in places ten to fifteen miles -from the hills on one side to the hills on the other, nearly level, and -everywhere clothed with rich grass, upon which we observed numerous -herds of tame cattle and horses feeding. The Deer Lodge Creek flows -through it, and adds immensely to its value as an agricultural region. -Some farms are cultivated; but farming is yet in its infancy, and there -are thousands of acres of arable land here and elsewhere in Montana -awaiting settlement" (p. 25). - -West of Montana is Idaho, containing eighty-six thousand square -miles,--large enough for two States of the size of Ohio. Nearly all of -this Territory lies north of the 43d parallel. It is watered by the -Columbia and its tributaries,--mountain streams fed by melting snows. - -"The mountains of Idaho," says the Land Commissioner, in his exhaustive -Report for 1869, "often attain great altitude, having peaks rising -above the line of perpetual snow, their lower slopes being furrowed -with numerous streams and alternately clothed with magnificent forests -and rich grasses. The plains are elevated table-lands covered with -indigenous grasses, constituting pasturage unsurpassed in any section -of our country. Numerous large flocks of sheep and herds of domestic -cattle now range these pastures, requiring but little other sustenance -throughout the entire year, and no protection from the weather other -than that afforded by the lower valleys or the canons, in which many -of the streams take their way through the upland country. The valleys -are beautiful, fertile depressions of the surface, protected from -the searching winds of summer and searching blasts of winter, each -intersected by some considerable stream, adjoining which on either -bank, and extending to the commencement of the rise of table-land -or mountain, are broad stretches of prairies or meadows producing -the richest grasses, and with the aid of irrigation, crops of grain, -fruit, and vegetables superior to those of any of the Eastern States, -and rivalling the vegetation of the Mississippi Valley. The pastures -of these valleys are generally uncovered with snow in the most severe -winters, and afford excellent food for cattle and sheep, the herbage -drying upon the stalk during the later summer and autumn months into a -superior quality of hay. As no artificial shelter from the weather is -here required for sheep or cattle, stock-raising is attended with but -little outlay and is very profitable, promising soon to become one of -the greatest sources of wealth in this rapidly developing but still -underrated Territory. It was considered totally valueless except for -mining purposes, and uninviting to the agriculturist, until emigration -disclosed its hidden resources. - -"It is the favorite custom of herdsmen in Idaho to reserve their -lower meadows for winter pastures, allowing the stock to range the -higher plains during spring, summer, and autumn; the greater extent -of the table-lands, and the superior adaptability of the valleys for -agriculture presenting reasons for the adoption of this method as one -of economical importance. - -"The climate of Idaho varies considerably with the degrees of latitude -through which its limits extend, but not so much as would naturally -be supposed from its great longitudinal extension; the isothermal -lines of the Territory, running from east to west, have a well-defined -northward variation, caused by the influence of air currents from the -Pacific Ocean. Throughout the spring, summer, and autumn months, in the -northern as well as the southern sections, the weather is generally -delightful and salubrious; in the winter months the range of the -thermometer depends greatly upon the altitude of the surface,--the -higher mountains being visited by extreme cold and by heavy falls of -snow; the lower mountain-ranges and the plains having winters generally -less severe than those of northern Iowa and Wisconsin or central -Minnesota, while greater dryness of the atmosphere renders a lower -fall of the thermometer less perceptible; and the valleys being rarely -visited by cold weather, high winds, or considerable falls of snow. -Considered in its yearly average, the climate is exactly adapted to -sheep-growing and the production of wool, the herding of cattle, and -manufacture of dairy products, the raising of very superior breeds of -horses, as well as the culture of all Northern varieties of fruits, -such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, grapes, and all of the -ordinary cereals and vegetables" (p. 164). - -This is all different from what we have conceived the Rocky Mountains -to be. - -When the government reports of the explorations of 1853 were issued, -Jeff Davis was Secretary of War, and he deliberately falsified the -report of Governor Stevens's explorations from Lake Superior to the -valley of the Columbia. Governor Stevens reported that the route passed -through a region highly susceptible of agriculture; but the Secretary -of War, even then plotting treason, in his summary of the advantages -of the various routes, asserted that Governor Stevens had overstated -the facts, and that there were not more than 1,000 square miles, or -640,000 acres, of agricultural lands. The Land Commissioner in his -Report estimates the amount of agricultural lands at 16,925,000 -acres. The amount of improved lands in Ohio in 1860 was 12,665,000 -acres, or more than 4,000,000 less than the available agricultural -lands in Idaho. These are lands that need no irrigation. Of such -lands there are 14,000,000 acres, which, in the language of the -Commissioner, are "redeemable by irrigation into excellent pasture -and agricultural lands." The grazing-lands are estimated at 5,000,000 -acres, the timbered lands at 7,500,000 acres, besides 8,000,000 acres -of mineral lands. Although the population of Idaho probably does not -exceed 50,000, half of whom are engaged in mining, the value of the -agricultural products for 1868 amounted to $12,000,000, while the -mineral product was $10,000,000. - -Passing on to Oregon we find a State containing 95,000 square miles, -two and a half times larger than Ohio. - -"Oregon," says General Wilson, in his Report upon the public lands, -"is peculiarly a crop-raising and fruit-growing State, though by no -means deficient in valuable mineral resources. Possessing a climate of -unrivalled salubrity, abounding in vast tracts of rich arable lands, -heavily timbered throughout its mountain ranges, watered by innumerable -springs and streams, and subject to none of the drawbacks arising from -the chilling winds and seasons of aridity which prevail farther south, -it is justly considered the most favored region on the Pacific slope as -a home for an agricultural and manufacturing population" (p. 197). - -Of "western Oregon," he says, "the portion of the State first settled -embraces about 31,000 square miles, or 20,000,000 acres, being nearly -one third of the area of the whole State, and contains the great -preponderance of population and wealth. Nearly the whole of this large -extent of country is valuable for agriculture and grazing; all of the -productions common to temperate regions may be cultivated here with -success. When the land is properly cultivated, the farmer rarely fails -to meet with an adequate reward for his labors. The fruits produced -here, such as apples, pears, plums, quinces, and grapes, are of -superior quality and flavor. Large quantities of apples are annually -shipped to the San Francisco market, where they usually command a -higher price than those of California, owing to their finer flavor. - -"The valleys of the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rouge Rivers, are -embraced within this portion of the State, and there is no region of -country on the continent presenting a finer field for agriculture and -stock-raising, because of the mildness of the climate and the depth -and richness of the soil. Farmers make no provision for housing their -cattle during winter, and none is required; although in about the same -latitude as Maine on the Atlantic, the winter temperature corresponds -with that of Savannah, Georgia" (p. 194). - -North of Oregon lies the Territory of Washington, containing 70,000 -square miles, lacking only 9,000 to make it twice as large as Ohio. - -Our camp, where I am taking this westward look, is pitched very near -the 47th parallel, may be five or six miles north of it. If I were to -travel due west along the parallel a little more than twelve hundred -miles, I should reach Olympia, the capital of the Territory, situated -on Puget Sound,--the name given to that vast ramification of waters -known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Hood's Canal, and -Puget Sound, with a shore line of 1,500 miles. - -"There is no State in the Union," says the Land Commissioner, "and -perhaps no country in the world of the same extent, that offers so many -harbors and such excellent facilities for commerce" (p. 198). - -The timbered lands of Washington are approximately estimated at -20,000,000 acres, and the prairie lands cover an area equally great. -The forests embrace the red and yellow pine of gigantic growth, often -attaining the height of three hundred feet, and from nine to twelve -feet in diameter. It is said that a million feet have been cut from a -single acre! Says the Commissioner, "The soil in the river-bottoms -is thinly timbered with maple, ash, and willow. These lands yield -heavy crops of wheat, barley, and oats, while vegetables attain -enormous size. The highlands are generally rolling, and well adapted -to cultivation.... The average yield of potatoes to the acre is six -hundred bushels, wheat forty, peas sixty, timothy-hay five tons, and -oats seventy bushels" (p. 199). - -Mr. Roberts, who explored this region last year, says that the great -plain of the Columbia is "a high rolling prairie, covered everywhere -abundantly with bunch-grass to the summits of the highest hills; -treeless, excepting along the streams. This is an immense grazing -area of the most superior character, interspersed with the valleys -of perennial streams, along which are lands that, when settled by -industrious farmers, will be of the most productive character, as we -have seen in the case of a number of improvements already made; while -the climate is not only salubrious, but remarkably attractive" (Report, -p. 19). - -He gives this estimate of the area suited to agriculture and grazing:-- - -"In Washington Territory alone, on its eastern side, there are at least -20,000 square miles, or 12,800,000 acres of the finest grazing-lands, -on which thousands of cattle and sheep will be raised as cheaply as in -any other quarter of the globe, and this grass is so nutritious that -the cattle raised upon it cannot be surpassed in their weight and -quality. Snow rarely falls to sufficient depth to interfere seriously -with their grazing all through the winter. Such may be taken as a -general view upon this important point, respecting a Territory nearly -half as large as the State of Pennsylvania" (p. 19). - -Along the shores of Puget Sound, and on the island of Vancouver, are -extensive deposits of bituminous coal, conveniently situated for the -future steam-marine of the Pacific. Large quantities are now shipped to -San Francisco for the use of the Pacific mail-steamers. - -Not only in Washington, but up the coast of British Columbia, the -coal-deposits crop out in numerous places. - -An explorer on Simpson River, which next to the Fraser is the largest -in British Columbia, thus writes to Governor Douglas: "I saw seams of -coal to-day fifteen feet thick, better than any mined at Vancouver" -(Parliamentary Blue-Book). - -Coal in Montana, in Idaho, in Washington, on Vancouver, in British -Columbia; coal on the Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Columbia, -the Fraser; coal on Simpson River, coal in Alaska! Measureless -forests all over the Pacific slope! Timber enough for all the -world, masts and spars sufficient for the mercantile marine of -every nation! Great rivers, thousands of waterfalls, unequalled -facilities for manufacturing! An agricultural region unsurpassed for -fertility! Exhaustless mineral wealth! Fisheries equalling those of -Newfoundland,--salmon in every stream, cod and herring abounding along -the coast! Nothing wanting for a varied industry. - -Unfold the map of North America and look at its western coast. From -Panama northward there is no harbor that can ever be available to the -commerce of the Pacific till we reach the Bay of San Francisco. From -thence northward to the Columbia the waves of the sea break against -rugged mountains. The Columbia pours its waters through the Coast -Range, but a bar at its mouth has practically closed it to commerce. -Not till we reach Puget Sound do we find a good harbor. North of that -magnificent gateway are numberless bays and inlets. Like the coast -of Maine, there is a harbor every five or ten miles, where ships may -ride in safety, sheltered from storms, and open at all seasons of the -year. There never will be any icebound ships on the coast of British -Columbia, for the warm breath of the tropics is felt there throughout -the year. - -While the map is unfolded, look at Puget Sound, and think of its -connection with Japan and China. Latitude and longitude are to be taken -into account when we make long journeys. Liverpool is between the 53d -and 54th parallels, or about two hundred and sixty miles farther north -than Puget Sound, where a degree of longitude is only thirty-five miles -in length. Puget Sound is on the 49th parallel, where the degrees are -thirty-eight and a half miles in length. San Francisco is near the 37th -parallel, where the degrees are nearly forty-nine miles in length. -Liverpool is three degrees west of Greenwich, from which longitude is -reckoned. The 122d meridian passes through Puget Sound and also through -the Bay of San Francisco. It follows from all this that the distance -from Liverpool in straight lines to these two magnificent gateways of -the Pacific, in geographical miles, is as follows:-- - - Liverpool to San Francisco 4,879 miles. - " " Puget Sound 4,487 " - ----- - Difference, 392 " - -Looking across the Pacific we see that Yokohama is on the 35th -parallel, where a degree of longitude is forty-nine miles in length. -Reckoning the distance across the Pacific between Yokohama and the -western gateways of the continent, we have this comparison:-- - - San Francisco to Yokohama 4,856 miles. - Puget Sound " " 4,294 " - ----- - Difference, 562 " - -Adding these differences together, we see that longitude alone makes -a total of nine hundred and fifty-four miles in favor of Puget Sound -between Liverpool and Yokohama. When the Northern Pacific Railroad is -completed, Chicago will be fully six hundred miles nearer Asia by Puget -Sound than by San Francisco. - -Vessels sailing from Japan to San Francisco follow the Kuro-Siwo, the -heated river, which of itself bears them towards Puget Sound at the -rate of eighty miles a day. They follow it into northern latitudes till -within three or four hundred miles of the coast of British Columbia, -then shape their course southward past Puget Sound to the Golden Gate. - -In navigation, then, Asia is nearly, if not quite, one thousand miles -nearer the ports of Puget Sound than San Francisco. The time will come -when not only Puget Sound, but every bay and inlet of the northwest -coast, will be whitened with sails of vessels bringing the products -of the Orient, not only for those who dwell upon the Pacific slope, -but for the mighty multitude of the Empire of the Northwest, of the -Mississippi Valley, and the Atlantic States. - -From those land-locked harbors steamships shall depart for other -climes, freighted with the products of this region, spun and woven, -hammered and smelted, sawed and planed, by the millions of industrious -workers who are to improve the unparalleled capabilities of this vast -domain. - -There is not on the face of the globe a country so richly endowed as -this of the Northwest. Here we find every element necessary for the -development of a varied industry,--agricultural, mining, manufacturing, -mercantile, and commercial,--all this with a climate like that of -southern France, or central and northern Europe. - -"The climate," says Mr. Roberts, "of this favored region is very -remarkable, and will always remain an attractive feature; which must, -therefore, aid greatly in the speedy settlement of this portion of the -Pacific coast. Even in the coldest winters there is practically no -obstruction to navigation from ice; vessels can enter and depart at -all times; and the winters are so mild that summer flowers which in -the latitude of Philadelphia, on the Atlantic coast, we are obliged to -place in the hot-house, are left out in the open garden without being -injured. The cause of this mildness is usually, and I think correctly, -ascribed to the warm-water equatorial current, which, impinging against -the Pacific coast, north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, passes along -nearly parallel with the shore, diffusing its genial warmth over the -land far into the interior. Of the fact there is no doubt, whatever may -be the cause" (Report, p. 14). - -The climate of eastern Washington, amid the mountains, corresponds with -that of Pennsylvania; but upon the sea-coast and along the waters of -Puget Sound roses blossom in the open air throughout the year, and the -residents gather green peas and strawberries in March and April. - -In a former view we looked at the territory belonging to Great -Britain lying east of the Rocky Mountains, we saw its capabilities -for settlement; but far different in its physical features is British -Columbia from the Saskatchawan country. It is a land of mountains, -plains, valleys, and forests, threaded by rivers, and indented by -bays and inlets. The main branch of the Columbia rises in the British -Possessions, between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. There -is a great amphitheatre between those two ranges, having an area of -forty-five thousand square miles. We hardly comprehend, even with a map -spread out before us, that there is an area larger than Ohio in the -basin drained by the northern branch of the Columbia. But such is the -fact, and it is represented as being a fertile and attractive section, -possessed of a mild and equable climate. The stock-raisers of southern -Idaho drive their cattle by the ten thousand into British Columbia to -find winter pasturage. - -The general characteristics of that area have been fully set forth -in a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society of London by -Lieutenant Palmer of the Royal Engineers. He says:-- - -"The scenery of the whole midland belt, especially of that portion of -it lying to the east of the 124th meridian, is exceedingly beautiful -and picturesque. The highest uplands are all more or less thickly -timbered, but the valleys present a delightful panorama of woodland -and prairie, flanked by miles of rolling hills, swelling gently from -the margin of streams, and picturesquely dotted with yellow pines. The -forests are almost entirely free from underwood, and with the exception -of a few worthless tracts, the whole face of the country--hill and -dale, woodland and plain--is covered with an abundant growth of grass, -possessing nutritious qualities of the highest order. Hence its value -to the colony as a grazing district is of the highest importance. -Cattle and horses are found to thrive wonderfully on the 'bunch' grass, -and to keep in excellent condition at all seasons. The whole area is -more or less available for grazing purposes. Thus the natural pastures -of the middle belt may be estimated at hundreds, or even thousands, of -square miles. - -"Notwithstanding the elevation, the seasons exhibit no remarkable -extremes of temperature; the winters, though sharp enough for all the -rivers and lakes to freeze, are calm and clear, so that the cold, even -when most severe, is not keenly felt. Snow seldom exceeds eighteen -inches in depth, and in many valleys of moderate elevation cattle often -range at large during the winter months, without requiring shelter or -any food but the natural grasses.... Judging from present experience, -there can be no doubt that in point of salubrity the climate of British -Columbia excels that of Great Britain, and is indeed one of the finest -in the world." - -In regard to the agricultural capabilities of this mountain region, the -same author remarks:-- - -"Here in sheltered and well-irrigated valleys, at altitudes of as much -as 2,500 feet above the sea, a few farming experiments have been made, -and the results have thus far been beyond measure encouraging. At farms -in the San Jose and Beaver valleys, situated nearly 2,200 feet above -the sea, and again at Fort Alexander, at an altitude of 1,450 feet, -wheat has been found to produce nearly forty bushels to the acre, and -other grain and vegetable crops in proportion.... It may be asserted -that two thirds at least of this eastern division of the central belt -may, when occasion arrives, be turned to good account either for -purposes of grazing or tillage." - -Probably there are no streams, bays, or inlets in the world that so -abound with fish as the salt and fresh waters of the northwest Pacific. -The cod and herring fisheries are equal to those of Newfoundland, -while every stream descending from the mountains literally swarms with -salmon. - -In regard to the fisheries of British Columbia, Lieutenant Palmer -says:-- - -"The whole of the inlets, bays, rivers, and lakes of British Columbia -abound with delicious fish. The quantity of salmon that ascend the -Fraser and other rivers on the coast seems incredible. They first enter -Fraser and other rivers in March, and are followed in rapid succession -by other varieties, which continue to arrive until the approach of -winter; but the great runs occur in July, August, and September. During -these months so abundant is the supply that it may be asserted without -exaggeration, that some of the smaller streams can hardly be forded -without stepping upon them." (Journal of the Geographical Society.) - -Ah! wouldn't it be glorious sport to pull out the twenty-five-pounders -from the foaming waters of the Columbia,--to land them, one after -another, on the grassy bank, and see the changing light upon their -shining scales! and then sitting down to dinner to have one of the -biggest on a platter, delicately baked or boiled, with prairie chicken, -plover, pigeon, and wild duck! We will have it by and by, when Governor -Smith and Judge Rice, who are out here seeing about the railroad, get -the cars running to the Pacific; they will supply all creation east -of the Rocky Mountains with salmon! There are not many of us who can -afford to dine off salmon when it is a dollar a pound, and the larger -part of the crowd can never have a taste even; but these railroad -gentlemen will bring about a new order of things. When they get the -locomotive on the completed track, and make the run from the Columbia -to Chicago in about sixty hours, as they will be able to do, all hands -of us who work for our daily bread will be able to have fresh salmon at -cheap rates. - -What a country! I have drawn a hypothetical line from Milwaukie to -the Pacific,--not that the region south of it--Missouri, Kansas, -Nebraska, or California--does not abound in natural resources, with -fruitful soil and vast capabilities, but because the configuration of -the continent--the water-systems, the mountain-ranges, the elevations -and depressions, the soil and climate--is in many respects different -north of the 43d parallel from what it is south of it. We need not -look upon the territory now held by Great Britain with a covetous eye. -The 49th parallel is an imaginary line running across the prairies, an -arbitrary political boundary which Nature will not take into account -in her disposition of affairs in the future. Sooner or later the line -will fade away. Railway trains--the constant passing and repassing of a -multitude of people speaking the same language, having ideas in common, -and related by blood--will rub it out, and there will be one country, -one people, one government. What an empire then! The region west of -Lake Michigan and north of the latitude of Milwaukie--the 43d parallel -extended to the Pacific--will give to the nation, to say nothing of -Alaska Territory, forty States as large as Ohio, or two hundred States -of the size of Massachusetts! - -I have been accustomed to look upon this part of the world as being -so far north, so cold, so snowy, so distant,--and all the other -imaginary so's,--that it never could be available for settlement; but -the facts show that it is as capable of settlement as New York or New -England,--that the country along the Athabasca has a climate no more -severe than that of northern New Hampshire or Maine, while the summers -are more favorable to the growing of grains than those of the northern -Atlantic coast. - -It is not, therefore, hypothetical geography. Following the 43d -parallel eastward, we find it passing along the northern shore of the -Mediterranean, through central Italy, and through the heart of the -Turkish Empire. Nearly all of Europe lies north of it,--the whole of -France, half of Italy, the whole of the Austrian Empire, and all of -Russia's vast dominions. - -The entire wheat-field of Europe is above that parallel. The valleys -of the Alps lying between the 46th and 50th parallels swarm with an -industrious people; why may not those of the Rocky Mountains at the -head-waters of the Missouri and Columbia in like manner be hives of -industry in the future? - -If a Christiania, a Stockholm, and a St. Petersburg, with golden-domed -churches, gorgeous palaces, and abodes of comfort, can be built up -in lat. 60 in the Old World, why may we not expect to see their -counterpart in the New, when we take into account the fact that a -heated current from the tropics gives the same mildness of climate to -the northwestern section of this continent that the Gulf Stream gives -to northern Europe? - -With this outlook towards future possibilities, we see Minnesota the -central State of the Continental Republic of the future. - -With the map of the continent before me, I stick a pin into -Minneapolis, and stretch a string to Halifax, then, sweeping southward, -find that it cuts through southern Florida, and central Mexico. It -reaches almost to San Diego, the extreme southwestern boundary of the -United States,--reaches to Donner Pass on the summit of the Sierra -Nevadas, within a hundred miles of Sacramento. Stretching it due west, -it reaches to Salem, Oregon. Carrying it northwest, I find that it -reaches to the Rocky Mountain House on Peace River,--to that region -whose beauty charmed Mackenzie and Father De Smet. The Peace River -flows through the Rocky Mountains, and at its head-waters we find the -lowest pass of the continent. The time may come when we of the East -will whirl through it upon the express-train bound for Sitka! It is two -hundred miles from the Rocky Mountain House to that port of southern -Alaska. - -The city of Mexico is nearer Minneapolis by nearly a hundred miles -than Sitka. Trinity Bay on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, Puerto -Principe on the island of Cuba, the Bay of Honduras in Central America, -and Sitka, are equidistant from Minneapolis and St. Paul. - -When Mr. Seward, in 1860, addressed the people of St. Paul from the -steps of the Capitol, it was the seer, and not the politician, who -said:-- - -"_I now believe that the ultimate last seat of government on this -great continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius not -far from the spot on which I stand, at the head of navigation on the -Mississippi River!_" - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE FRONTIER. - - -Bottineau is our guide. Take a look at him as he sits by the camp-fire -cleaning his rifle. He is tall and well formed, with features which -show both his French and Indian parentage. He has dark whiskers, a -broad, flat nose, a wrinkled forehead, and is in the full prime of -life. His name is known throughout the Northwest,--among Americans, -Canadians, and Indians. The Chippewa is his mother-tongue, though he -can speak several Indian dialects, and is fluent in French and English. -He was born not far from Fort Garry, and has traversed the vast region -of the Northwest in every direction. He was Governor Stevens's guide -when he made the first explorations for the Northern Pacific Railroad, -and has guided a great many government trains to the forts on the -Missouri since then. He was with General Sully in his campaign against -the Indians. He has the instinct of locality. Like the honey-bee, -which flies straight from the flower to its hive, over fields, through -forests, across ravines or intervening hills, so Pierre Bottineau knows -just where to go when out upon the boundless prairie with no landmark -to guide him. He is never lost, even in the darkest night or foggiest -day. - -There is no man living, probably, who has more enemies than he, for the -whole Sioux nation of Indians are his sworn foes. They would take his -scalp instantly if they could only get a chance. He has been in many -fights with them,--has killed six of them, has had narrow escapes, and -to hear him tell of his adventures makes your hair stand on end. He -is going to conduct a portion of our party through the Sioux country. -The Indians are friendly now, and the party will not be troubled; but -if a Sioux buffalo-hunter comes across this guide there will be quick -shooting on both sides, and ten to one the Indian will go down,--for -Bottineau is keen-sighted, has a steady hand, and is quick to act. - -The westward-bound members of our party, guided by Bottineau, will be -accompanied by an escort consisting of nineteen soldiers commanded by -Lieutenant Kelton. Four Indian scouts, mounted on ponies, are engaged -to scour the country in advance, and give timely notice of the presence -of Sioux, who are always on the alert to steal horses or plunder a -train. - -Bidding our friends good by, we watch their train winding over the -prairie till we can only see the white canvas of the wagons on the -edge of the horizon; then, turning eastward, we cross the river into -Minnesota, and strike out upon the pathless plain. We see no landmarks -ahead, and, like navigators upon the ocean, pursue our way over this -sea of verdure by the compass. - -After a few hours' ride, we catch, through the glimmering haze, the -faint outlines of islands rising above the unruffled waters of a -distant lake. We approach its shores, but only to see islands and lake -alike vanish into thin air. It was the mirage lifting above the horizon -the far-off groves of Buffalo Creek, a branch of the Red River. - -Far away to the east are the Leaf Hills, which are only the elevations -of the rolling prairie that forms the divide between the waters flowing -into the Gulf of Mexico and into Hudson Bay. - -Wishing to see the hills, to ascertain what obstacles there are to the -construction of a railroad, two of us break away from the main party -and strike out over the plains, promising to be in camp at nightfall. -How exhilarating to gallop over the pathless expanse, amid a sea of -flowers, plunging now and then through grass so high that horse and -rider are almost lost to sight! The meadow-lark greets us with his -cheerful song; the plover hovers around us; sand-hill cranes, flying -always in pairs, rise from the ground and wing their way beyond the -reach of harm. The gophers chatter like children amid the flowers, as -we ride over their subterranean towns. - -They are in peaceful possession of the solitude. Five years ago -buffaloes were roaming here. We see their bones bleaching in the sun. -Here the Sioux and Chippewas hunted them down. Here the old bulls -fought out their battles, and the countless herds cropped the succulent -grasses and drank the clear running water of the stream which bears -their name. They are gone forever. The ox and cow of the farm are -coming to take their place. Sheep and horses will soon fatten on the -rich pasturage of these hills. We of the East would hardly call them -hills, much less mountains, the slopes are so gentle and the altitudes -so low. The highest grade of a railroad would not exceed thirty feet to -the mile in crossing them. - -Here we find granite and limestone bowlders, and in some places beds of -gravel, brought, so the geologists inform us, from the far North and -deposited here when the primeval ocean currents set southward over this -then submerged region. They are in the right place for the railroad. -The stone will be needed for abutments to bridges, and the gravel will -be wanted for ballast,--provided the road is located in this vicinity. - -On our second day's march we come to what might with propriety be -called the park region of Minnesota. It lies amid the high lands of the -divide. It is more beautiful even than the country around White Bear -Lake and in the vicinity of Glenwood. Throughout the day we behold -such rural scenery as can only be found amid the most lovely spots in -England. - -Think of rounded hills, with green slopes,--of parks and countless -lakes,--skirted by forests, fringed with rushes, perfumed by -tiger-lilies--the waves rippling on gravelled beaches; wild geese, -ducks, loons, pelicans, and innumerable water-fowl building their nests -amid the reeds and rushes,--think of lawns blooming with flowers, elk -and deer browsing in the verdant meadows. This is their haunt. We see -their tracks along the sandy shores, but they keep beyond the range of -our rifles. - -So wonderfully has nature adorned this section, that it seems as if we -were riding through a country that has been long under cultivation, and -that behind yonder hillock we shall find an old castle, a mansion, or, -at least, a farm-house, as we find them in Great Britain. - -I do not forget that I am seeing Minnesota at its best season, that it -is midsummer, that the winters are as long as in New England; but I can -say without reservation, that nowhere in the wide world--not even in -old England, the most finished of all lands; not in _la belle France_, -or sunny Italy, or in the valley of the Ganges or the Yangtse, or on -the slopes of the Sierra Nevadas--have I beheld anything approaching -this in natural beauty. - -How it would look in winter I cannot say, but the members of our -party are unanimous in their praises of this portion of Minnesota. The -nearest pioneer is forty miles distant; but land so inviting will soon -be taken up by settlers. - -It was a pleasure, after three days' travel over the trackless wild, -to come suddenly and unexpectedly upon a hay-field. There were the -swaths newly mown. There was no farm-house in sight, no fenced area or -upturned furrow, but the hay-makers had been there. We were approaching -civilization once more. Ascending a hill, we came in sight of a -settler, a pioneer who is always on the move; who, when a neighbor -comes within six or eight miles of him, abandons his home and moves on -to some spot where he can have more elbow-room,--to a region not so -thickly peopled. - -He informed us that we should find the old trail we were searching -for about a mile ahead. He had long matted hair, beard hanging upon -his breast, a wrinkled countenance, wore a slouched felt hat, an -old checked-cotton shirt, and pantaloons so patched and darned, so -variegated in color, that it would require much study to determine what -was original texture and what patch and darn. He came from Ohio in -his youth, and has always been a skirmisher on the advancing line of -civilization,--a few miles ahead of the main body. He was thinking now -of going into the "bush," as he phrased it. - -Settlers farther down the trail informed us that he was a little -flighty and queer; that he could not be induced to stay long in one -place, but was always on the move for a more quiet neighborhood! - -The road that we reached at this point was formerly traversed by the -French and Indian traders between Pembina and the Mississippi, but has -not been used much of late years. Striking that, we should have no -difficulty in reaching the settlements of the Otter-Tail, forty miles -south. - -Emigration travels fast. As fires blown by winds sweep through the -dried grass of the prairies, so civilization spreads along the frontier. - -We reached the settlement on Saturday night, and pitched our tents -for the Sabbath. It was a rare treat to these people to come into -our camp and hear a sermon from Rev. Dr. Lord. The oldest member of -the colony is a woman, now in her eightieth year, with eye undimmed -and a countenance remarkably free from the marks of age, who walks -with a firm step after fourscore years of labor. Sixty years ago she -moved from Lebanon, New Hampshire, a young wife, leaving the valley -of the Connecticut for a home in the State of New York, then moving -with the great army of emigrants to Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa -in succession, and now beginning again in Minnesota. Last year her -hair, which had been as white as the purest snow, began to take on its -original color, and is now quite dark! There are but few instances on -record of such a renewal of youth. - -The party have come from central Iowa to make this their future home, -preferring the climate of this region, where the changes of temperature -are not so sudden and variable. The women and children of the four -families lived here alone for six weeks, while the men were away after -their stock. Their nearest neighbors are twelve miles distant. On the -4th of July all hands--men, women, and children--travelled forty-five -miles to celebrate the day. - -"We felt," said one of the women, "that we couldn't get through the -year without going somewhere or seeing somebody. It is kinder lonely so -far away from folks, and so we went down country to a picnic." - -Store, church, and school are all forty miles away, and till recently -the nearest saw-mill was sixty miles distant. Now they can get their -wheat ground by going forty miles. - -The settlement is already blooming with half a dozen children. Other -emigrants are coming, and these people are looking forward to next year -with hope and confidence, for then they will have a school of their own. - -In our march south from Detroit Lake we meet a large number of Chippewa -Indians going to the Reservation recently assigned them by the -government in one of the fairest sections of Minnesota. Among them we -see several women with blue eyes and light hair and fair complexions, -who have French blood in their veins, and possibly some of them may -have had American fathers. Nearly all of the Indians wear pantaloons -and jackets; but here and there we see a brave who is true to his -ancestry, who is proud of his lineage and race, and is in all respects -a savage, in moccasons, blanket, skunk-skin head-dress, and painted -eagle's feathers. - -They are friendly, inoffensive, and indolent, and took no part in the -late war. They have been in close contact with the whites for a long -time, but they do not advance in civilization. All efforts for their -elevation are like rain-drops falling on a cabbage-leaf, that roll off -and leave it dry. There is little absorption on the part of the Indians -except of whiskey, and in that respect their powers are great,--equal -to those of the driest toper in Boston or anywhere else devoting all -his energies to getting round the Prohibitory Law. - -Our halting-place for Monday night is on the bank of the Otter-Tail, -near Rush Lake. The tents are pitched, the camp-fire kindled, supper -eaten, and we are sitting before a pile of blazing logs. The dew is -falling, and the fire is comfortable and social. We look into the -glowing coals and think of old times, and of friends far away. We -dream of home. Then the jest and the story go round. The song would -follow if we had the singers. But music is not wanting. We hear -martial strains,--of cornets, trombones, ophicleides, and horns, and -the beating of a drum. Torches gleam upon the horizon, and by their -flickering light we see a band advancing over the prairie. It is a -march of welcome to the Northern Pacific Exploring Party. - -Not an hour ago these musicians heard of our arrival, and here they -are, twelve of them, in our camp, doing their best to express their -joy. They are Germans,--all young men. Three years ago several families -came here from Ohio. They reported the soil so fertile, the situation -so attractive, the prospects so flattering, that others came; and now -they have a dozen families, and more are coming to this land of promise. - -Take a good long look at these men as they stand before our camp-fire, -with their bright new instruments in their hands. They received them -only three weeks ago from Cincinnati. - -"We can't play much yet," says the leader, Mr. Bertenheimer, "but we do -the best we can. We have sent to Toledo for a teacher who will spend -the winter with us. You will pardon our poor playing, but we felt so -good when we heard you were here looking out a route for a railroad, -that we felt like doing something to show our good-will. You see we -are just getting started, and have to work hard, but we wanted some -recreation, and we concluded to get up a band. We thought it would be -better than to be hanging round a grocery. We haven't any grocery yet, -and if we keep sober, and give our attention to other things, perhaps -we sha'n't have one,--which, I reckon, will be all the better for us." - -Plain and simple the words, but there is more in them than in many a -windy speech made on the rostrum or in legislative halls. Just getting -started! Yet here upon the frontier Art has planted herself. The -flowers of civilization are blooming on the border. - -As we listen to the parting strains, and watch the receding forms, and -look into the coals of our camp-fire after their departure, we feel -that there must be a bright future for a commonwealth that can grow -such fruit on the borders of the uncultivated wilderness. - -Now just ride out and see what has been done by these emigrants. -Here is a field containing thirty acres of as fine wheat as grows in -Minnesota. It is just taking on the golden hue, and will be ready for -the reaper next week. Beside it are twenty acres of oats, several acres -of corn, an acre or two of potatoes. This is one farm only. On yonder -slope there stands a two-storied house, of hewn logs and shingled -roof. See what adornment the wife or daughter has given to the front -yard,--verbenas, petunias, and nasturtiums, and round the door a living -wreath of morning-glories. - -Cows chew their cud in the stable-yard, while - - "Drowsy tinklings lull the distant field" - -where the sheep are herded. - -We shall find the scene repeated on the adjoining farm. Sheltered -beneath the grand old forest-trees stands the little log church with -a cross upon its roof, and here we see coming down the road the -venerable father and teacher of the community, in long black gown and -broad-brimmed hat, with a crucifix at his girdle. It is a Catholic -community, and they brought their priest with them. - -In the morning we ride over smiling prairies, through groves of oak and -maple, and behold in the distance a large territory covered with the -lithe foliage of the tamarack. Here and there are groves of pine rising -like islands above the wide level of the forest. - -At times our horses walk on pebbly beaches and splash their hoofs in -the limpid waters of the lakes. We pick up agates, carnelians, and -bits of bright red porphyry, washed and worn by the waves. Wild swans -rear their young in the reeds and marshes bordering the streams. They -gracefully glide over the still waters. They are beyond the reach of -our rifles, and we would not harm them if we could. There is a good -deal of the savage left in a man who, under the plea of sport, can -wound or kill a harmless bird or beast that cannot be made to serve his -wants. It gives me pleasure to say that our party are not bloodthirsty. -Ducks, plover, snipe, wild geese, and sand-hill cranes are served at -our table, but they are never shot in wanton sport. - -The stream which we have crossed several times is the Otter-Tail -and flows southward into Otter-Tail Lake; issuing from that it runs -southwest, then west, then northward, taking the name of the Red River, -and pours its waters into Lake Winnipeg. From that great northern -reservoir the waters of this western region of Minnesota reach Hudson -Bay through Nelson River. - -Looking eastward we see gleaming in the morning sunlight the Leaf -Lakes, the head-waters of the Crow-Wing, one of the largest western -tributaries of the Upper Mississippi. - -The neck of land between these lakes and the Otter-Tail is only one -mile wide. Here, from time out of mind among the Indians, the transit -has been made between the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and -into Hudson Bay. When the Jesuit missionaries came here, they found it -the great Indian carrying-place. - -Mackenzie, Lord Selkirk, and all the early adventurers, came by this -route on their way to British America. For a long time it has been a -trading-post. The French Jesuit fathers were here a century ago and are -here to-day,--not spiritual fathers alone, but according to the flesh -as well! The settlement is composed wholly of French Canadians, their -Indian wives and copper-colored children. There are ten or a dozen -houses, but they are very dilapidated. A little old man with twinkling -gray eyes, wearing a battered white hat, comes out to welcome us, -while crowds of swarthy children and Indian women gaze at us from the -doorways. Another little old man, in a black gown and broad-brimmed -hat, with a long chain and crucifix dangling from his girdle, salutes -us with true French politeness. He is the priest, and is as seedy as -the village itself. - -Around the place are several birch-bark Indian huts, and a few lodges -of tanned buffalo-hides. Filth, squalor, and degradation are the -characteristics of the lodge, and the civilization of the log-houses is -but little removed from that of the wigwams. - -The French Canadian takes about as readily to the Indian maiden as to -one of his own race. He is kinder than the Indian brave, and when he -wants a wife he will find the fairest of the maidens ready to listen to -his words of love. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. - - -Our halting-place at noon furnishes a pleasing subject for a comic -artist. Behold us beneath the shade of old oaks, our horses cropping -the rank grass, a fire kindled against the trunk of a tree that has -braved the storms of centuries, each toasting a slice of salt pork. - -[Illustration: TOASTING PORK.] - -Governor, members of Congress, minister, judge, doctor, teamster, -correspondent,--all hands are at it. Salt pork! Does any one turn up -his nose at it? Do you think it hard fare? Just come out here and -try it, after a twenty-five-mile gallop on horseback, in this clear, -bracing atmosphere, with twenty more miles to make before getting into -camp. We slept in a tent last night; had breakfast at 5 A. M.; are -camping by night and tramping by day; are bronzed by the sun; and are -roughing it! The exercise of the day gives sweet sleep at night. We had -a good appetite at breakfast, and now, at noon, are as hungry as bears. -Salt pork is not of much account in a down-town eating-house, but out -here it is epicurean fare. - -Just see the Ex-Governor of the Green Mountain State standing before -the fire with a long stick in his hand, having three prongs like -Neptune's trident. He is doing his pork to a beautiful brown. Now he -lays it between two slices of bread, and eats it as if it were a most -delicious morsel,--as it is. - -A dozen toasting-forks are held up to the glowing coals. A dozen slices -of pork are sizzling. We are not all of us quite so scientific in our -toasting as the Ex-Governor in his. - -Although I have had camp-life before, and have fried flapjacks on an -old iron shovel, I am subject to mishaps. There goes my pork into the -ashes; never mind! I shall need less pepper. I job my trident into the -slice,--flaming now, and turning to crisp,--hold it a moment before the -coals, and slap it on my bread in season to save a little of the drip. - -Do I hear some one exclaim, How can he eat it? Ah! you who never have -had experience on the prairies don't know the pleasures of such a lunch. - -Now, because we are all as jolly as we can be, because I have praised -salt pork, I wouldn't have everybody rushing out here to try it, -as they have rushed to the Adirondacks, fired to a high pitch of -enthusiasm by the spirited descriptions of the pleasures of the -wilderness by the pastor of the Boston Park Street Church. What is -sweet to me may be sour to somebody else. I should not like this manner -of life all the time, nor salt pork for a steady diet. - -Wooded prairies, oak openings, hills and vales, watered by lakes and -ponds,--such is the character of the region lying south of Otter-Tail. -Over all this section the water is as pure as that gurgling from the -hillsides of New Hampshire. - -Minnesota is one of the best-watered States of the Union. The thousands -of lakes and ponds dotting its surface are fed by never-failing -springs. This one feature adds immeasurably to its value as an -agricultural State. In Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska the farmer is -compelled to pump water for his stock, and in those States we see -windmills erected for that purpose; but here the ponds are so numerous -and the springs so abundant that far less pumping will be required than -in the other prairie States of the Union. - -We fall in with a Dutchman, where we camp for the night, who has taken -up a hundred and sixty acres under the Pre-emption Act. He has put up a -log-hut, turned a few acres of the sod, and is getting ready to live. -His thrifty wife has a flock of hens, which supply us with fresh eggs. -This pioneer has recently come from Montana. He had a beautiful farm in -the Deer Lodge Pass of the Rocky Mountains, within seven miles of the -summit. - -"I raised as good wheat there as I can here," he says,--"thirty bushels -to the acre." - -"Why did you leave it?" - -"I couldn't sell anything. There is no market there. The farmers raise -so much that they can hardly give their grain away." - -"Did you sell your farm?" - -"No, I left it. It is there for anybody to take." - -"Is it cold there?" - -"No colder than it is here. We have a few cold days in winter, but not -much snow. Cattle live in the fields through the winter, feeding on -bunch-grass, which grows tall and is very sweet." - -Here was information worth having,--the experience of a farmer. The -Deer Lodge Pass is at the head-waters of the Missouri, in the main -divide of the Rocky Mountains, and one of the surveyed lines of the -Northern Pacific Railroad passes through it. We have thought of it as -a place where a railroad train would be frozen up and buried beneath -descending avalanches; but here is a man who has lived within seven -miles of the top of the mountains, who raised the best of wheat, the -mealiest of potatoes, whose cattle lived in the pastures through -the winter, but who left his farm for the sole reason that he could -not sell anything. Montana has no market except among the mining -population, and the miners are scattered over a vast region. A few -farmers in the vicinity of a mining-camp supply the wants of the place. -Farming will not be remunerative till a railroad is completed up the -valley of the Yellowstone or Missouri. What stronger argument -can there be, what demonstration more forcible, for the immediate -construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad? It will pass through the -heart of the Territory which is yielding more gold and silver than any -other Territory or State. - -This farmer says that Montana is destined to be a great stock-growing -State. Cattle thrive on the bunch-grass. The hills are covered with it, -and millions of acres that cannot be readily cultivated will furnish -pasturage for flocks and herds. This testimony accords with statements -made by those who have visited the Territory, as well as by others who -have resided there. - -We have met to-day a long train of wagons filled with emigrants, who -have come from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and some from Ohio. - -Look at the wagons, each drawn by four oxen,--driven either by the -owner or one of his barefoot boys. Boxes, barrels, chairs, tables, -pots, and pans constitute the furniture. The grandmother, white-haired, -old, and wrinkled, and the wife with an infant in her arms, with three -or four romping children around her, all sitting on a feather-bed -beneath the white canvas covering. A tin kettle is suspended beneath -the axle, in which a tow-headed urchin, covered with dust, is swinging, -clapping his hands, and playing with a yellow dog trotting behind the -team. A hoop-skirt, a chicken-coop, a pig in a box, are the most -conspicuous objects that meet the eye as we look at the hinder part of -the wagon. A barefooted boy, as bright-eyed as Whittier's ideal,--now -done in chromo-lithograph, and adorning many a home,--marches behind, -with his rosy-cheeked sister, driving a cow and a calf. - -To-night they will be fifteen miles nearer their destination than -they were in the morning. Some of the teams have been two months on -the road, and a few more days will bring them to the spot which the -emigrant has already selected for his future home. They halt by the -roadside at night. The oxen crop the rich grasses; the cow supplies -the little ones with milk; the children gather an armful of sticks, -the mother makes a cake, and bakes it before the camp-fire in a tin -baker such as was found in every New England home forty years ago; -the emigrant smokes his pipe, rolls himself in a blanket, and snores -upon the ground beneath the wagon, while his family sleep equally well -beneath the canvas roof above him. Another cake in the morning, with a -slice of fried pork, a drink of coffee, and they are ready for the new -day. - -Not only along this road, but everywhere, we may behold just such -scenes. A great army of occupation is moving into the State. The -advance is all along the line. Towns and villages are springing up as -if by magic in every county. Every day adds thousands of acres to -those already under cultivation. The fields of this year are wider than -they were a year ago, and twelve months hence will be much larger than -they are to-day. - -In all new countries, no matter how fertile they may be, breadstuffs -must be imported at the outset. It was so when California was first -settled; but to-day California is sending her wheat all over the world. -The first settlers of Minnesota were lumbermen, and up to 1857 there -was not wheat enough produced in the State to supply their wants. The -steamers ascending the Mississippi to St. Paul were loaded with flour, -and the world at large somehow came to think of Minnesota as being so -cold that wheat enough to supply the few lumbermen employed in the -forests and on the rivers could never be raised there. - -See how this region, which we all thought of as lying too near the -north pole to be worth anything, has developed its resources! In 1854 -the number of acres under cultivation in the State was only fifteen -thousand, or about two thirds of a single township. - -Fifteen years have passed by, and the tilled area is estimated at about -two million acres! In 1857 she imported grain; but her yield of wheat -the present year is estimated _at more than twenty million bushels_! - -I would not make the farmers of New England discontented. I would not -advise all to put up their farms at auction, or any well-to-do farmer -of Massachusetts or Vermont to leave his old home and rush out here -without first coming to survey the country; but if I were a young man -selling corsets and hoop-skirts to simpering young ladies in a city -store, I would give such a jump over the counter that my feet would -touch ground in the centre of a great prairie! - -I would have a homestead out here. True, there would be hard fare at -first. The cabin would be of logs. There would be short commons for -a year or two. But with my salt pork I would have pickerel, prairie -chickens, moose, and deer. I should have calloused hands and the -back-ache at times; but my sleep would be sweet. I should have no -theatre to visit nightly, no star actors to see, and should miss the -tramp of the great multitude of the city,--the ever-hurrying throng. -The first year might be lonely; possibly, I should have the blues -now and then; but, possessing my soul with patience a twelvemonth, I -should have neighbors. The railroad would come. The little log-hut -would give place to a mansion. Roses would bloom in the garden, and -morning-glories open their blue bells by the doorway. The vast expanse -would wave with golden grain. Thrift and plenty, and civilization with -all its comforts and luxuries, would be mine. - -Are the colors of the picture too bright? Remember that in 1849 -Minnesota had less than five thousand inhabitants, and that to-day she -has nearly five hundred thousand. - -I am writing to young men who have the whole scope of life before them. -You are a clerk in a store, with a salary of five hundred dollars, -perhaps seven hundred. By stinting here and there you can just bring -the year round. It is a long, long look ahead, and your brightest -day-dream of the future is not very bright. - -Now take a look in this direction. You can get a hundred and sixty -acres of land for two hundred dollars. If you obtain it near a -railroad, it will cost three hundred and twenty dollars. It will cost -three dollars an acre to plough the ground and prepare it for the first -crop, besides the fencing. But the first crop, ordinarily, will more -than pay the entire outlay for ground, fencing, and ploughing. Five -years hence the land will be worth fifteen or twenty-five dollars per -acre. This is no fancy sketch. It is simply a statement as to what has -been the experience of thousands of people in Minnesota. - -Think of it, young men, you who are rubbing along from year to year -with no great hopes for the future. Can you hold a plough? Can you -drive a span of horses? Can you accept for a while the solitude of -nature, and have a few hard knocks for a year or two? Can you lay -aside paper collars and kid gloves, and wear a blue blouse and blister -your hands with work? Can you possess your soul in patience, and hold -on your way with a firm purpose? If you can, there is a beautiful home -for you out here. Prosperity, freedom, independence, manhood in its -highest sense, peace of mind, and all the comforts and luxuries of -life, are awaiting you. - -There is no medicine for a wearied mind or jaded body equal to life -on the prairies. When our party left the East, every member of it was -worn down by hard work. Some of us were dyspeptic, some nervous, while -others had tired brains. It is the misfortune of Americans to be ever -working as if they were in the iron-mills, or as if the Philistines had -them in the prison-house! - -We have been a few weeks upon the frontier,--been beyond the reach of -the daily newspaper, beyond care and trouble. The world has got on -without us, and now we are on our way back, changed beings. We are as -good as new,--tough, rugged, hale, hearty, and ready for a frolic here, -or another battle with life when we reach home. - -Behold us at our halting-place for the night; a clear stream near -by winding through pleasant meadows, bordered by oaks and maples. -The horses are unharnessed, and are rolling in the tall grass after -their long day's work. The teamsters are pitching the tents, the -cook is busy with his pots and kettles. Already we inhale the aroma -steaming from the nose of the coffee-pot. The pork and fish and plover -over the fire, like a missionary or colporteur or Sunday-school -teacher, are doing good! What odor more refreshing than that exhaled -from a coffee-pot steaming over a camp-fire, after twelve hours in -the saddle,--the fresh breeze fanning your cheeks, and every sense -intensified by beholding the far-reaching fields blooming with flowers -or waving with ripening grain? - -The shadows of night are falling, and though the sun has shone through -a cloudless sky the evening air is chilly. We will warm it by kindling -a grand bivouac-fire, where, after supper, we will sit in solemn -council, or crack jokes, or tell stories, as the whim of the hour shall -lead us. - -There was a time when the gray-beards of our party were youngsters -and played "horse" with a wooden bit between the teeth, the reins -handled by a white-haired schoolmate. How we trotted, cantered, reared, -pranced, backed, and then rushed furiously on, making the little old -hand-cart rattle over the stones! It was long ago, but we have not -forgotten it, and to-night we will be boys once more. - -Yonder by the roadside lies a fallen oak, a monarch of the forest, -broken down by the wind,--by the same tempest that levelled our tents. -It shall blaze to-night. We will sit in its cheerful light. It would -be ignoble to hack it to pieces and bring it into camp an armful at a -time; we will drag it bodily, lop off the limbs and pile them high upon -the trunk, touch a match to the withered leaves, and warm the chilly -air. - -"All hands to the harness!" It is a royal team. How could it be -otherwise with the Ex-Governor of the Green Mountain State for leader, -matched with our Judge, who, for sixteen years, honored the judiciary -of Maine, with three members of Congress past and present, a doctor of -divinity and another of medicine,--all in harness? We have a strong -cart-rope of the best Manilla hemp, which has served us many a turn in -pulling our wagons through the sloughs, and which is brought once more -into service. A few strokes of the axe provide us with levers which -serve for yokes. We pair off, two and two, and take our places in the -team. - -"Are you all ready? Now for it!" It is the voice of our leader. - -"Gee up! Whoa! Whoa! Hip! Hurrah! Now she goes!" - -We shout and sing, and feel an ecstatic thrill running all over us, -from the tips of our fingers down into our boots! - -What a deal of power there is in a yell! The teamster screams to his -horses; the plough-boy makes himself hoarse by shouting to his oxen; -the fireman feels that he is doing good service when he goes tearing -down the street yelling with all his might. He never would put out the -fire if he couldn't yell. A hurrah elected General Harrison President -of the United States, and it has won many a political battle-field. A -hurrah starts the old oak from its bed. See the Executive as he sets -his compact shoulders to the work, making the lever bend before him. -Notice the tall form of the Judge bowing in the traces! If the rope -does not break, the log is bound to come. - -The two are good at pulling. They have shown their power by dragging -one of the greatest enterprises of modern times over obstacles that -would have discouraged men of weaker nerve. The public never will know -of the hard work performed by them in starting the Northern Pacific -Railroad,--how they have raised it from obscurity, from obloquy, -notwithstanding opposition and prejudice. The time will come when -the public will look upon the enterprise in its true light. When the -road is opened from Lake Superior westward, when the traveller finds -on every hand a country of surpassing richness, a climate in the -Northwest as mild as that of Pennsylvania, when he sees the numberless -attractions and exhaustless resources of the land, then, and not till -then, will the labors of Governor Smith and his associates in carrying -on this work be appreciated. - -To-night they enter with all the zest of youth into the project of -building a camp-fire, and tug at the rope with the enthusiasm of -boyhood. - -It is a strong team. Our doctor of divinity, whether in the pulpit -or on the prairie, pulls with "a forty parson power," to use Byron's -simile. And our M. D., whether he has hold of a gnarled oak or the -stump of a molar in the mouth of a pretty young lady, is certain to -master it. - -[Illustration: A STRONG TEAM.] - -A member of Congress "made believe pull," as we used to say in our -boyhood, but complacently smoked his pipe the while; the correspondent -tipped a wink at the smoker, seized hold of a lever, shouted and yelled -as if laying out all his strength, and pulled--about two pounds! But -_we_ dragged it in amid the hurrahs of the teamsters, wiped the sweat -from our brows, and then through the evening sat round the blazing -log, and made the air ring with our merry laughter. So we rubbed out -the growing wrinkles, smoothed the lines of care, and turned back the -shadow creeping up the dial. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -IN THE FOREST. - - -In preceding chapters the characteristics of the country west of the -Mississippi have been set forth; but many a man seeking a new home -would be lonely upon the prairies. The lumberman of Maine, who was born -in the forest, who in childhood listened to the sweet but mournful -music of the ever-sighing pines, would be home-sick away from the grand -old woods. The trees are his friends. The open country would be a -solitude, but in the depths of the forest he would ever find congenial -company. There the oaks, the elms, and maples reach out their arms -lovingly above him, sheltering him alike from winter's blasts and -summer's heats. Even though he may have no poetry in his soul, the -woods will have a charm for him, for there he finds a harvest already -grown and waiting to be gathered, as truly as if it were so many acres -of ripened wheat. - -It is not difficult to pick out the "Down-Easters" in Minnesota. When I -hear a man talk about "stumpage" and "thousands of feet," I know that -he is from the Moosehead region, or has been in a lumber camp on the -Chesuncook. He has eaten pork and beans, and slept on hemlock boughs -on the banks of the Madawaska. When he cocks his head on one side and -squints up a pine-tree, I know that he has Blodget's Table in his -brain, and can tell the exact amount of clear and merchantable lumber -which the tree will yield. His paradise is in the forest, and there -alone. - -The region east of the Mississippi and around its head-waters is the -Eden of lumbermen. - -The traveller who starts from St. Paul and travels westward will find a -prairie country; but if he travels eastward, or toward the northeast, -he will find himself in the woods, where tall pines and spruces and -oaks and maples rear their gigantic trunks. It is not all forest, for -here and there we see "openings" where the sunlight falls on pleasant -meadows; but speaking in general terms, the entire country east of the -Mississippi, in Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, and in that portion -of Michigan lying between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, is the place -for the lumberman. - -The soil is sandy, and the geologist will see satisfactory traces of -the drift period, when a great flood of waters set southward, bringing -granite bowlders, pebbles, and stones from the country lying between -Hudson Bay and Lake Superior. - -The forest growth affects the climate. There is more snow and rain -east of the Mississippi than west of it. The temperature in winter on -Lake Superior is milder than at St. Paul, but there is more moisture -in the air. The climate at Duluth or Superior City during the winter -does not vary much from that of Chicago. Notwithstanding the difference -of latitude, the isothermal line of mean temperature for the year -runs from the lower end of Lake Michigan to the western end of Lake -Superior. Probably more snow falls in Minnesota than around Chicago, -for in all forest regions in northern latitudes there is usually a -heavier rain and snow fall than in open countries. The time will -probably come when the rain-fall of eastern Minnesota and northern -Michigan will be less than it is now. When the lumbermen have swept -away the forests, the sun will dry up the moisture, there will be -less rain east of the Mississippi, while the probabilities are that -it will be increased westward over all the prairie region. Orchards, -groves, corn-fields, wheat-fields, clover-lands,--all will appear with -the advance of civilization. They will receive more moisture from -the surrounding air than the prairie grasses do at the present time. -Everybody knows that the hand of man is powerful enough to change -climate,--to increase the rain-fall here, to diminish it there; to -lower the temperature, or to raise it. - -The Ohio River is dwindling in size because the forests of Ohio and -Pennsylvania are disappearing. Palestine, Syria, and Greece, although -they have supported dense populations, are barren to-day because -the trees have been cut down. If this were an essay on the power of -man over nature, instead of the writing out of a few notes on the -Northwest, I might go on and give abundant data; but I allude to it -incidentally in connection with the climate, which fifty years hence -will not in all probability be the same that it is to-day. - -Having in preceding pages taken a survey of the magnificent farming -region beyond the Mississippi, it remains for us to take a look at the -country between the Mississippi and Lake Superior. - -Leaving our camp equipage and the horses that had borne us over the -prairies, bidding good by to our many friends in Minneapolis and St. -Paul, we started from the last-named city for a trip of a hundred and -fifty miles through the woods. The first fifty miles was accomplished -by rail, through a country partially settled. Upon the train were -several ladies and gentlemen on their way to White Bear Lake, not the -White Bear of the West, but a lovely sheet of water ten miles north of -St. Paul. It is but a few years since Wabashaw and his dusky ancestors -trolled their lines by day and speared pickerel and pike by torchlight -at night upon its placid bosom, but now it is the favorite resort of -picnic-parties from St. Paul. Here and there along the shores are -low grass-grown monuments, raised by the Chippewas when they were a -powerful nation among the Red Men. - - "But now the wheat is green and high - On clods that hid the warrior's breast, - And scattered in the furrows lie - The weapons of his rest." - -The lake is six miles long and dotted with islands. It was a general -gathering-place of the Indians, as it is now of the people of the -surrounding country. Its curving shores and pebbly beaches, bordered by -a magnificent forest, present a charming and peaceful picture. - -We are accompanied on our trip by the President of the Lake Superior -and Mississippi Railroad, and other gentlemen connected with the -railroads of the Northwest. At Wyoming we leave our friends, bid good -by to the locomotive, and say how do you do to a bright new mud-wagon! -It is set on thorough-braces, with a canvas top. There are seats for -nine inside and one with the driver outside. Carpet-bags and valises -are stowed under the seats. We have no extra luggage, but are in light -staging order. - -We are bound for Superior and Duluth. - -"You will have a sweet time getting there," is the remark of a -mud-bespattered man sitting on a pile of lumber by the roadside. He has -just come through on foot with a dozen men, who have thrown down the -shovel to take up the sickle, or rather to follow the reaper during -harvest. - -What he means by our having a sweet time we do not quite comprehend. - -"You will find the road baddish in spots," says another. - -A German, with bushy beard and uncombed hair, barefooted, and carrying -his boots in his hands, exclaims, "It ish von tam tirty travel all the -time!" - -We understand him. With a crack of the whip we roll away, our horses on -the trot, passing cleared fields, where cattle are up to their knees in -clover, past wheat-fields ready for the reaper, reaching at noon our -halting-place for dinner. - -Whenever you find a farm-house anywhere out West where there are -delicious apple-pies, or anything especially nice in the pastry line, -on the table, you may be pretty sure that the hostess came from Maine; -at least, such has been my experience. I remember calling at a house in -central Missouri during the war, and, instead of having the standard -dish of the Southwest "hog and hominy," obtaining a luxurious dinner, -finishing off with apple-pie, the pastry moulded by fair hands that -were trained to housework on the banks of the Penobscot. Last year -I found a lady from Maine among the Sierra Nevadas; I was confident -that she was from the Pine-Tree State the moment I saw her pies; for -somehow the daughters of Down East have the knack of making pastry -that would delight an epicure. And now in Minnesota we sit down to a -substantial dinner topped off, rounded, and made complete by a piece of -Maine apple-pie. - -The daughters of New Hampshire and of Vermont may possibly make just -as good cooks, but it has so happened that we have fallen in with -housewives from Maine when our appetite was sharpened for something -good. - -Our dinner is at the house of a farmer who came to Minnesota from -the Kennebec. He knew how to swing an axe, and the oaks and maples -have fallen before his sturdy strokes; the plough and harrow and -stump-puller have been at work, and now we look out upon wheat-fields -and acres of waving corn, inhale the fragrance of white clover, and -hear the humming of the bees. We see at a glance the capabilities of -the forest region of Minnesota. We understand it just as well as if -we were to read all the works extant on soil, climatology, natural -productions, etc. Here, as well as westward of the Mississippi, wheat, -corn, potatoes, clover, and timothy can be successfully and profitably -cultivated. - -"I raised thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre last year, and I -guess I shall have that this year," said the owner of the farm. - -This well-to-do farmer and his wife came here without capital, or -rather with capital arms and strong hearts, to rear a home, and here it -is: a neat farm-house of two stories; a carpet on the floor, a sofa, -a rocking-chair, pictures on the walls; a large barn; granary well -filled,--a comfortable home with a bright future before them. - -When the timber has disappeared from eastern Minnesota, the land -will produce luxuriantly. The country will not be settled quite as -rapidly here as west of the Mississippi; but it is not to be forever a -wilderness. The time will come when along every stream there will be -heard the buzzing of saws, the whirring of mill-stones, and the click -and clatter of machinery. This vast area of timber will invite every -kind of manufacturing, and the same elements which have contributed -so largely to build up the Eastern States--the manufacturing and -industrial--will here aid in building up one of the strongest -communities of our future republic. - -Clearings here and there, cabins by the roadside, bark wigwams which -have sheltered wandering Ojibwas, and a reach of magnificent forest, -are the features of the country through which we ride this glorious -afternoon, with the sunlight glimmering among the trees, till suddenly -we come upon Chengwatona. - -It is a small village on Snake River, with a hotel, half a dozen -houses, and a saw-mill where pine logs are going up an incline from the -pond at one end, and coming out in the shape of bright new lumber at -the other. - -The dam at Chengwatona has flooded an immense area, and looking toward -the descending sun we behold a forest in decay. The trees are leafless, -and the dead trunks rising from the water, robbed of all their beauty, -present an indescribable scene of desolation when contrasted with the -luxuriance of the living forest through which we have passed. - -With a fresh team we move on, finding mud "spots" now and then. We -remember the remarks of the fellows at the railroad. We dive into -holes, the forward wheels going down _kerchug_, sending bucketsful -of muddy water upward to the roof of the wagon and forward upon the -horses; jounce over corduroy which sets our teeth to chattering; -then come upon a series of hollows through which we ride as in a -jolly-boat on the waves of the sea. The wagon is ballasted by two -members of Congress on the back seat, and by our rotund physician and -the Vice-President of the Northern Pacific on the middle seat. The -President is outside with the driver, on the lookout for breakers, -while the rest of us, like passengers on shipboard, stowed beneath the -hatches, must take whatever comes. The members of Congress bob up and -down like electric pith-balls between the negative and positive poles -of a galvanic battery,--only that the positive is the prevailing force! -When the forward wheels go down to the hub, they go up; and then, as -they descend, the seat, by some unaccountable process, comes up, meets -them half-way,--and with such a bump! - -Then we who are shaking our sides with laughter on the front seat, -congratulating ourselves, like the Pharisees, that we are not as they -are, suddenly find ourselves sprawling on the floor. When we regain -our places, the M. D. and Vice-President come forward with a rush -and embrace us fraternally. We get our legs so mixed up with our -neighbors' that we can hardly tell whether our feet belong to ourselves -or to somebody else! The light weights of the party are knocked about -like shuttlecocks, while the solid ones roll like those ridiculous, -round-bottomed, grinning images that we see in the toy-shops! I find -myself going up and down after the manner of Sancho Panza when tossed -in a blanket. - -Our dinners are well settled when we reach Grindstone,--our -stopping-place for the night. The town is located on Grindstone Creek, -and consists of a log-house and stable, surrounded by burnt timber. - -Half a dozen men who have footed it from Duluth are nursing their sore -feet in one of the three rooms on the ground-floor. The furniture of -the apartment consists of a cast-iron stove in the centre and three -rough benches against the walls, which are papered with pictorial -newspapers. - -The occupants are discussing the future prospects of Duluth. - -"It is a right smart chance of a place," says a tall, thin-faced, -long-nosed man stretched in one corner. We know by the utterance of -that one sentence that he is from southern Illinois. - -"They have got their _i_-deas pretty well up though, on real estate, -for a town that is only a yearlin'," says another, who, by his accent -of the _i_, has shown that he too is a Western man. - -An Amazon in stature, with a round red face, hurries up a supper of -pork and fried eggs; and then we who are going northward, and they -who are travelling southward,--sixteen of us, all told,--creep up the -narrow stairway to the unfinished garret, and go to bed, with our noses -close to the rafters and long shingles, through the crevices of which -we look out and behold the stars marching in grand procession across -the midnight sky. - -It is glorious to lie there and feel the _tire_ and weariness go out -of us; to look into the "eternities of space," as Carlyle says of -the vault of heaven. But our profound thoughts upon the measureless -empyrean are brought down to sublunary things by four of the sleepers -who engage in a snoring contest. The race is so close, neck and neck, -or rather nose and nose, that it is impossible to decide whether the -deep sonorous--not to say _snorous_?--bass of the big fellow by the -window, or the sharp, piercing, energetic snorts of the thin-faced, -lantern-jawed, long-nosed man from southern Illinois, is entitled to -the trumpet or horn, or whatever may be appropriate to signalize such -championship. Either of them would have been a power in the grand -chorus of the Coliseum Jubilee, and both together would be equal to the -big organ! - -We are off early in the morning, feeling a little sore in spots. The -first thump extorts a sudden oh! from a member of Congress, but we -are philosophic, and accommodate ourselves to circumstances, tell -stories between the bumpings, and make the grand old forest ring with -our laughter. It is glorious to get away from the town, and out into -the woods, where you can shout and sing and let yourself out without -regard to what folks will say! The fountain of perennial youth is in -the forest,--never in the city. Its healing, beautifying, and restoring -waters do not run through aqueducts; they are never pumped up; but you -must lie down upon the mossy bank beneath old trees and drink from the -crystal stream to obtain them. - -We quench our thirst from gurgling brooks, pick berries by the -roadside, walk ahead of the lumbering stage, and enjoy the solitude of -the interminable forest. - -Eighteen miles of travel brings us to Kettle River Crossing, where we -sit down to a dinner of blackberries and milk, bread and butter, and -blackberry-pie, in a clean little cottage, with pictures on the walls, -books on a shelf, a snow-white cloth on the table, and a trim little -woman waiting upon us. - -"May I ask where you are from?" - -"Manchester, New Hampshire." - -It was Lord Morpeth or the Duke of Argyle, I have forgotten which, who -said that New England looked as if it had just been taken out of a -bandbox; so with this one-storied log-house and everything around it. -We had sour-krout at Grindstone, but have blackberries here; and that -is just the difference between Dutchland and New England, whether you -seek for them on the Atlantic slope or in the heart of the continent. - -Space is wanting to tell of all the incidents of a three days' forest -ride,--how we trolled for pickerel on a little lake, seated in a -birch-bark canoe, and hauled them in hand over hand,--bouncing fellows -that furnished us a delicious breakfast; how we laughed and told -stories, never minding the bumping and thumping of the wagon, and came -out strong, like Mark Tapley, every one of us; how we gazed upon the -towering pines and sturdy oaks, and beheld the gloom settling over -nature when the great eclipse occurred; and how, just as night was -coming on, we entered Superior, and saw a horned owl sitting on the -ridge-pole of a deserted house in the outskirts of the town, surveying -the desolate scene in the twilight,--looking out upon the cemetery, the -tenantless houses, and the blinking lights in the windows. - -Superior has been, and still is, a city of the Future, rather than of -the Present. It was laid out before the war on a magnificent scale by a -party of Southerners, among whom was John C. Breckenridge, who is still -a large owner in corner lots. - -It has a fine situation at the southwestern corner of the lake, on a -broad, level plateau, with a densely timbered country behind it. The -St. Louis River, which rises in northern Minnesota, and which comes -tumbling over a series of cascades formed by the high land between Lake -Superior and the Mississippi, spreads itself out into a shallow bay in -front of the town, and reaches the lake over a sand-bar. - -Government has been erecting breakwaters to control the current of the -river, with the expectation of deepening the channel, which has about -nine feet of water; but thus far the improvements have not accomplished -the desired end. The bar is a great impediment to navigation, and its -existence has had a blighting effect on the once fair prospects of -Superior City. Dredges are employed to deepen the channel, but those -thus far used are small, and not much has been accomplished. The -citizens of Superior are confident that with a liberal appropriation -from government the channel can be deepened, and that, when once -cleared out, it can be kept clear at a small expense. - -Superior has suffered severely from the reaction which followed -the flush times in 1857. A large amount of money was expended in -improvements,--grading streets, opening roads, building piers, and -erecting houses. Then the war came on, and all industry was paralyzed. -The Southern proprietors were in rebellion. The growth of the place, -which had been considerable, came to a sudden stand-still. - -The situation of the town, while it is fortunate in some respects, -is unfortunate in others. It is in Wisconsin, while the point which -reaches across the head of the lake is in Minnesota. The last-named -State wanted a port on the lake in its own dominion, and so Duluth has -sprung into existence as the rival of its older neighbor. - -The St. Paul and Superior Railroad, having its terminus at Duluth, lies -wholly within the State of Minnesota, and comes just near enough to -Superior to tantalize and vex the good people of that place. - -But the citizens of that town have good pluck. I do not know what motto -they have adopted for their great corporate seal, but _Nil Desperandum_ -would best set forth their hopefulness and determination. They are -confident that Superior is yet to be the queen city of the lake, and -are determined to have railway communication with the Mississippi by -building a branch line to the St. Paul and Superior Road. - -Our party is kindly and hospitably entertained by the people of the -place, and to those who think of the town as being so far northwest -that it is beyond civilization, I have only to say that there are few -drawing-rooms in the East where more agreeable company can be found -than that which we find in one of the parlors of Superior; few places -where the sonatas of Beethoven and Mendelssohn can be more exquisitely -rendered upon the pianoforte, by a lady who bakes her own bread and -cares for her family without the aid of a servant. - -It is the glory of our civilization that it adapts itself to all the -circumstances of life. I have no doubt that if Minnie, or Winnie, or -Georgiana, or almost any of the pale, attenuated young ladies who are -now frittering away their time in studying the last style of _paniers_, -or thrumming the piano, or reading the last vapid novel, were to have -their lot cast in the West,--on the frontiers of civilization,--where -they would be _compelled_ to do something for themselves or those -around them, that they would manfully and _womanfully_ accept the -situation, be far happier than they now are, and worth more to -themselves and to the world. - -I dare say that nine out of every ten young men selling dry-goods in -retail stores in Boston and elsewhere have high hopes for the future. -They are going to do something by and by. When they get on a little -farther they will show us what they can accomplish. But the chances are -that they will never get that little farther on. The tide is against -them. One thing we are liable to forget; we measure ourselves by what -we are going to do, whereas the world estimates us by what we have -already done. How any young man of spirit can settle himself down to -earning a bare existence, when all this vast region of the Northwest, -with its boundless undeveloped resources before him, is inviting him -on, is one of the unexplained mysteries of life. They will be Nobodies -where they are; they can be Somebodies in building up a new society. -The young man who has measured off ribbon several years, as thousands -have who are doing no better to-day than they did five years ago, in -all probability will be no farther along, except in years, five years -hence than he is now. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -DULUTH. - - -Embarking at a pier, and steering northwest, we pass up the bay, with -the long, narrow, natural breakwater, Minnesota Point, on our right -hand, and the level plateau of the main-land, with a heavy forest -growth, on our left. Before us, on the sloping hillside of the northern -shore, lies the rapidly rising town of Duluth, unheard of twelve months -ago, but now, to use a Western term, "a right smart chance of a place." - -One hundred and ninety years ago Duluth, a French explorer, was -coasting along these shores, and sailing up this bay over which we are -gliding. He was the first European to reach the head of the lake. He -crossed the country to the Upper Mississippi, descended it to St. Paul, -where he met Father Hennipen, who had been held in captivity by the -Indians. - -It is suitable that so intrepid an explorer should be held in -remembrance, and the founders of the new town have done wisely in -naming it for him, instead of calling it Washington or Jackson, -or adding another "ville" to the thousands now so perplexing to -post-office clerks. - -The new city of the Northwest is sheltered from northerly winds by -the high lands behind it. The St. Louis River, a stream as large as -the Merrimac, after its turbulent course down the rocky rapids, with -a descent altogether of five hundred feet, flows peacefully past the -town into the Bay of Superior. The river and lake together have thrown -up the long and narrow strip of land called Minnesota Point, reaching -nearly across the head of the lake, and behind which lies the bay. It -is as if the Titans had thrown up a wide railway embankment, or had -tried their hand at filling up the lake. The bay is shallow, but the -men who projected the city of Duluth are in no wise daunted by that -fact. They have planned to make a harbor by building a mole out into -the lake fifteen hundred or two thousand feet. It is to extend from -the northern shore far enough to give good anchorage and protection to -vessels and steamers. - -The work to be done is in many respects similar to what has been -accomplished at both ends of the Suez Canal. When M. Lesseps set about -the construction of that magnificent enterprise, he found no harbor on -the Mediterranean side, but only a low sandy shore, against which the -waves, driven by the prevailing western winds, were always breaking. - -The shore was a narrow strip of sand, behind which lay a shallow lagoon -called Lake Menzaleh. There was no granite or solid material of any -description at hand for the construction of a breakwater. Undaunted -by the difficulties, he commenced the manufacture of blocks of stone -on the beach, mixing hydraulic lime brought from France with the sand -of the shore, and moistening it with salt water. He erected powerful -hydraulic presses and worked them by steam. After the blocks, which -weighed twenty tons each, had dried three months, they were taken out -on barges and tumbled into the ocean in the line of the moles, one of -which was 8,178 feet, nearly a mile and a half, in length; the other -5,000 feet, enclosing an area of about five hundred acres. More than -100,000 blocks of manufactured stone were required to complete these -two walls. They were not laid in cement, for it has been found that a -rubble wall is better than finished masonry to resist the action of the -waves. Having completed the walls, dredges were set to work, and the -area has been deepened enough to enable the largest vessels navigating -the Mediterranean to find safe anchorage. - -These breakwaters were required for the outer harbor, but an inner -basin was needed. To obtain it, M. Lesseps cut a channel through the -low ridge of sand to Lake Menzaleh, where the water upon an average was -four feet deep. A large area has been dredged in the lake, and docks -constructed, and now the commerce of the world between the Orient and -the Occident passes through the basin of Port Said. - -The Suez Canal, the construction of a large harbor on the sand-beach of -the Mediterranean, and another of equal capacity on the Red Sea, is one -of the wonders of modern times,--a triumph of engineering skill and of -the indomitable will of one energetic man. - -The people of Duluth will not be under the necessity of manufacturing -the material for the breakwater, for along the northern shore there -is an abundant supply of granite which can be easily quarried. It is -proposed to make an inner harbor by digging a canal across Minnesota -Point and excavating the shallows. - -The difficulties to be overcome at Duluth bear slight comparison with -those already surmounted on the Mediterranean. The commercial men of -Chicago contemplate the fencing in of a few hundred acres of Lake -Michigan; and there is no reason to doubt that a like thing can be done -at the western end of Lake Superior. - -Two years ago Duluth was a forest; but in this month of May, 1870, -it has two thousand inhabitants, with the prospect of doubling its -population within a twelvemonth. The woodman's axe is ringing on the -hills, and the trees are falling beneath his sturdy strokes. From -morning till night we hear the joiner's plane and the click of the -mason's trowel. You may find excellent accommodation in a large hotel, -erected at a cost of forty thousand dollars. We may purchase the -products of all climes in the stores,--sugar from the West Indies, -coffee from Java, tea from China, or silks from the looms of France. - -The printing-press is here issuing the Duluth Minnesotian, a sprightly -sheet that looks sharply after the interests of this growing town. - -Musical as the ripples upon the pebbly shore of the lake are the voices -of the children reciting their lessons in yonder school-house. I am -borne back to boyhood days,--to the old school-house, with its hard -benches, where I studied, played, caught flies, was cheated swapping -jack-knives, and got a licking besides! Glorious days they were for all -that! - -Presbyterian and Episcopal churches are already organized, also an -Historical Society. During the last winter a course of lectures was -sustained. - -The stumps are yet to be seen in the streets, but such is the beginning -of a town which may yet become one of the great commercial cities of -the interior. - -A meteorological record kept at Superior since 1855 shows that the -average period of navigation has been two hundred and sixteen days, -which is fully as long as the season at Chicago. - - Year. Opening. Close. No. of Days. - 1855 April 15 December 6 235 - 1856 " 16 November 22 220 - 1857 May 27 " 20 177 - 1858 March 20 " 22 247 - 1859 May 25 " 9 164 - 1860 April 7 December 4 238 - 1861 June 12 " 12 184 - 1862 April 28 " 16 233 - 1863 May 10 " 7 212 - 1864 April 23 " 1 222 - 1865 " 22 " 5 227 - 1866 May 5 " 10 220 - 1867 April 19 " 1 225 - -Steaming up the river several miles to the foot of the first rapids, -and landing on the northern shore, climbing up a wet and slippery bank -of red clay we are on the line of the railroad, upon which several -hundred men are employed. - -Grades of fifty feet to the mile are necessary from the lake up to the -falls of the St. Louis, but the tonnage of the road will be largely -eastward, down the grade, instead of westward. - -The road will be about a hundred and forty miles in length, connecting -the lake with the network of railroads centring at St. Paul. It is -liberally endowed, having in all 1,630,000 acres of land heavily -timbered with pine, butternut, white oak, sugar-maple, ash, and other -woods. - -There is no doubt that this line of road will do an immense amount of -business. Such is the estimation in which it is held by the moneyed -men of Philadelphia, that Mr. Jay Cooke obtained the entire amount of -money necessary to construct it in four days! The bonds, I believe, -were not put upon the market in the usual manner, by advertising, but -were taken at once by men who wanted them for investment. - -A single glance at the map must be sufficient to convince any -intelligent observer of the value of such a franchise. The wheat of -Minnesota, to reach Chicago now, must be taken by steamers to La Crosse -or Prairie du Chien, and thence transported by rail across Wisconsin, -but when this road is put in operation, the products of Minnesota, -gathered at St. Paul or Minneapolis, will seek this new outlet. - -Think of the scene of activity there will be along the line, not only -of this road, but of the Northern Pacific, when the two are completed -to the lake, of an almost continuous train of cars, of elevators -pouring grain from cars to ships and steamers. Think of the fleet that -will soon whiten this great inland sea, bearing the products of the -immense wheat-field eastward to the Atlantic cities, and bringing back -the industries of the Eastern States! - -It is only when I sit down to think of the future, to measure it by -the advancement already made, that I can comprehend anything of the -coming greatness of the Northwest,--20,000,000 bushels of wheat this -year; 500,000 inhabitants in the State, yet scarcely a hundredth part -of the area under cultivation. What will be the product ten years -hence, when the population will reach 1,500,000? What will it be twenty -years hence? How shall we obtain any conception of the business to be -done on these railways when Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Oregon, -and all the vast region of the Assinniboine and the Saskatchawan, pour -their products to the nearest water-carriage eastward? We are already -beyond our depth, and are utterly unable to comprehend the probable -development. - -The men who are building this railroad from St. Paul to Duluth have not -failed to recognize this one fact, that by water Duluth is as near as -Chicago to the Atlantic cities. Wheat and flour can be transported as -cheaply from Duluth to Buffalo or Ogdensburg as from the southern end -of Lake Michigan, while the distance from St. Paul to Lake Superior is -only one hundred and forty miles against four hundred and eighty to -Chicago. We may conclude that the wheat of Minnesota can be carried -fifteen or twenty cents a bushel cheaper by Duluth than by Lake -Michigan,--a saving to the Eastern consumer of almost a dollar on each -barrel of flour. Twenty cents on a bushel saved will add at least four -dollars to the yearly product of an acre of land. - -The difference in freight on articles manufactured in the East and -shipped to Minnesota will be still more marked, for grain in bulk is -taken at low rates, while manufactured goods pay first-class. The -completion of this railway will be a great blessing to the people of -New England and of all the East, as well as to those of the Northwest. -Anything that abridges distance and cheapens carriage is so much -absolute gain. I do not think that there is any public enterprise in -the country that promises to produce more important results than the -opening of this railway. - -An elevator company has been organized by several gentlemen in Boston -and Philadelphia, and the necessary buildings are now going up. The -wheat will be taken directly from the cars into the elevator, and -discharged into the fleet of propellers running to Cleveland, Buffalo, -and Ogdensburg, already arranged for this Lake Superior trade. - -The region around the western end of the Lake has resources for the -development of a varied industry. The wooded section extends from -Central Wisconsin westward to the Leaf Hills beyond the Mississippi, -and northward to Lake Winnipeg. This is to be the lumbering -region of the Northwest, for the manufacture of all agricultural -implements,--reapers, mowers, harvesters, ploughs, drills, seed-sowers, -wagons, carriages, carts, and furniture,--besides furnishing lumber -for fencing, for railroad and building purposes. - -Upon the St. Louis River there is exhaustless water-power,--a descent -of five hundred feet, with a stream always pouring an abundant flood. -Its source is among the lakes of northern Minnesota, which, being -filled to overflowing by the rains of spring and early summer, become -great reservoirs. With such a supply of water there is no locality more -favorably situated for the manufacture of every variety of domestic -articles. Undoubtedly the water-power will be largely employed for -flouring-mills. The climate is admirably adapted to the grinding -of grain. The falls being so near the lake, there will be cheap -transportation eastward to Buffalo, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York, -and Boston, while westward are the prairies, easily reached by the -railroads. - -The geological formation on the north side of Lake Superior is granite, -but as we follow up the St. Louis River we come upon a ridge of -slate. It forms the backbone of the divide between the lake and the -Mississippi River. - -A quarry has been opened from which slates of a quality not inferior -to those of Vermont are obtained, and so far as we know it is the only -quarry in the Northwest. It is almost invaluable, for Nebraska, Kansas, -Iowa, western Minnesota, and Dakota have very little wood. Shingles -are costly, but here is abundant material to cover the roofs of the -millions of houses that are yet to rise upon the prairies. - -This slate formation is thus referred to by Thomas Clark, State -Geologist, in his Report to the Governor of Minnesota, dated December, -1864 (pp. 29, 30):-- - -"These slates are found in all degrees of character, from the common -indurated argillaceous fissile to the highly metamorphosed and even -trappous type. The working of these slates demands the attention of -builders; their real value is economically of more importance to the -prairie and sparsely timbered valley of the Mississippi than any other -deposit in the State's possession on the lake. The annual draught of -hundreds of millions of lumber upon the pine forests of the St. Croix -and Upper Mississippi and tributaries will exhaust those regions before -the close of this century. The trustees of our young Commonwealth are -emphatically admonished to encourage and foster the working of these -slates, and to bring them into use at the earliest time possible. A -hundred square feet of dressed slates at the quarries of Vermont, New -York, and Canada are worth from one and a half to two dollars; the -weight ranges from four to six hundred pounds, or about four squares -to the ton. A ton of this roofing may be transported from the St. -Louis quarry to the Mississippi, by railway, at three dollars, and -thence by river to the landings as far down as St. Louis or Cairo; but -the article may be at all points in this State accessible by boats or -railway, at an average cost of fifteen dollars per ton, or, at most, -four dollars per square,--little, if any, more than pine shingles; the -former as good for a century as the latter is for a decade. The supply -of these cliffs is literally inexhaustible; if one fourth of this slate -area in the St. Louis Valley proves available,--and doubtless one half -will,--it will yield one thousand millions of tons. - -"The demand for this slate at ten roofs to the square mile, and for -forty thousand square miles, would be one million of tons, or one -thousandth part of the material. The annual demand for slates in the -Mississippi Valley may be reasonably estimated at one hundred thousand -tons, an exportable product of two hundred thousand dollars, besides -the element of a permanent income to the railways and water-craft of -the State of a half-million of dollars annually." - -To-day the country along the St. Louis is a wilderness. Climb the -hills, and look upon the scene, and think of the coming years. - - "Thou shalt look - Upon the green and rolling forest tops, - And down into the secrets of the glens - And streams, that with their bordering thickets strive - To hide their windings. Thou shalt gaze at once, - Here on white villages, and tilth and herds, - And swarming roads, and there on solitudes - That only hear the torrent, and the wind, - And eagle's shriek." - -Here, through the bygone centuries, the Indians have set their nets and -hooks without ever dreaming of laying their hands upon the wealth that -Nature has ever in store for those who will labor for it. - -A few of the original lords of the forests are here, and they are the -only idlers of this region. They lounge in the streets, squat in groups -under the lee of buildings, and pick animated _somethings_ from their -hair! - -Their chief appears in an old army coat with three stars on each -shoulder, indicating that he ranks as a lieutenant-general among his -people. He walks with dignity, although his old black stove-pipe hat -is badly squashed. The warriors follow him, wrapped in blankets, with -eagle feathers stuck into their long black hair, and are as dignified -as the chief. Labor! not they. Pale-faces and squaws may work, they -never. Squaw-power is their highest conception of a labor-saving -machine. They have fished in the leaping torrent, but never thought of -its being a giant that might be put to work for their benefit. - -It is evident that a great manufacturing industry must spring up in -this region. At Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and here on the St. Louis, -we find the three principal water-powers of the Northwest. The town -of Thompson, named in honor of one of the proprietors, Mr. Edgar A. -Thompson of Philadelphia, has been laid out at the falls, and being -situated on the line of the railroad, and so convenient to the lake, -will probably have a rapid growth. The St. Paul and Mississippi -Railroad, which winds up the northern bank of the river, crosses the -stream at that point, and strikes southward through the forests to St. -Paul. - -The road, in addition to its grant of land, has received from the city -of St. Paul $200,000 in city bonds, and this county of St. Louis at the -head of the lake has given $150,000 in county bonds. - -The lands of this company are generally heavily timbered,--with pine, -maple, ash, oak, and other woods. - -The white pines of this region are almost as magnificent as those -that formerly were the glory of Maine and New Hampshire. Norway pines -abound. Besides transporting the lumber from its own extensive tracts -and the lands of the government adjoining, it will be the thoroughfare -for an immense territory drained by the Snake, Kettle, St. Louis, and -St. Croix Rivers. - -The lands that bear such magnificent forest-trees are excellent for -agriculture. Nowhere in the East have I ever seen ranker timothy and -clover than we saw on our journey from St. Paul. - -The company offers favorable terms to all settlers. Men from Maine -and New Hampshire are already locating along the line, and setting up -saw-mills. They were lumbermen in the East, and they prefer to follow -the same business in the West, rather than to speed the plough for a -living. I doubt not that the chances for making money are quite as good -in the timbered region as on the prairies, for the lumber will pay -for the land several times over, which, when put into grain or grass, -yields enormously. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE MINING REGION. - - -The sun was throwing his morning beams upon the tree-tops of the -Apostle Islands, as our little steamer, chartered for the occasion at -Superior, rounded the promontory of the main-land, turned its prow -southward, and glided into the harbor of Bayfield, on the southern -shore of the lake. - -We had made the passage from Superior City during the night, and were -on deck at daybreak to see the beauties of the islands, of which so -much has been written by explorers and tourists. The scenery is not -bold, but beautiful. Perhaps there is no place on the lake where more -charming vistas open to the eye, or where there is such a succession of -entrancing views. - -The islands, eighteen in number, lie north of the promontory. They -would appear as high hills, with rounded summits, crowned with a dense -forest growth, if the waters were drained off; for all around, between -the islands and the mainland, are deep soundings. There is no harbor on -the Atlantic coast, none in the world, more accessible than Bayfield, -or more securely land-locked. It may be approached during the wildest -storm, no matter which way the wind is blowing. When the northeasters -raise a sea as terrible as that which sometimes breaks upon Nahant, the -captains of steamers and schooners on Lake Superior run for the Apostle -Islands. - -Bayfield is about sixty miles from Superior City, and is the first -harbor where vessels can find shelter east of the head of the lake. The -Apostle Islands seem to have been dumped into the lake for the benefit -of the mighty tide of commerce which in the coming years is to float -upon this inland sea. - -"It is," said our captain, "the only first-class harbor on the lake. It -can be approached in all weathers; the shores are bold, the water deep, -the anchorage excellent, and the ice leaves it almost two weeks earlier -in spring than the other harbors at the head of the lake." - -The town of Bayfield is named for an officer of the Royal Engineers, -who was employed years ago in surveying the lake. His work was -well done, and till recently his charts have been relied on by the -sailing-masters; but the surveys of the United States Engineers, now -approaching completion, are more minute and accurate. - -The few houses that make up the town are beautifully located, on the -western side of the bay. Madeline Island, the largest of the group, -lies immediately in front, and shelters the harbor and town from the -northeast storms. - -The scream of the steamer's whistle rings sharply on the morning -air,--while main-land and island, harbor and forest, repeat its echoes. -It wakes up all the braves, squaws, and pappooses in the wigwams and -log-houses of the Chippewa reservation, and all the inhabitants of -Bayfield. The sun is just making his appearance when we run alongside -the pier. It is an early hour for a dozen strangers, with sharp-set -appetites, to make a morning call,--more than that, to drop in thus -unceremoniously upon a private citizen for breakfast. - -There being no hotel in the place, we are put to this strait. Possibly -old Nokomis, who is cooking breakfast in a little iron pot with a big -piece knocked out of its rim, who squats on the ground and picks out -the most savory morsels with her fingers, would share her meal with -us, but she does not invite us to breakfast, nor do we care to make -ourselves at home in the wigwam. - -But there is rare hospitality awaiting us. A gentleman who lives in a -large white house in the centre of the town, Captain Vaughn, though not -through with his morning nap when we steam up the harbor, is wide awake -in an instant. - -I wonder if there is another housewife in the United States who would -provide such an ample repast as that which, in an incredibly short -space of time, appeared on the table, prepared by Mrs. Vaughn,--such a -tender steak, mealy potatoes, nice biscuit, delicious coffee, berries -and sweet milk; a table-cloth as white as the driven snow; and the -hostess the picture of health, presiding at the table with charming -ease and grace, not at all disturbed by such an avalanche of company at -such an hour! - -Where the breakfast came from, or who cooked it so quickly, is an -unexplained mystery; and then there was a basketful of lunch put up by -somebody for us to devour while coasting about the bay, and the hostess -the while found time to talk with us, to sit down to the parlor organ -and charm us with music. So much for a Bayfield lady, born in Ohio, of -stanch Yankee stock. - -Embarking on Captain Vaughn's little steam-yacht, we go dancing along -the shores, now running near the bluffs to examine the sandstone -formation like that of the Hudson, or looking up to the tall pines -waving their dark green plumes, or beholding the lumbermen felling -the old monarchs and dragging them with stout teams to the Bayfield -saw-mills. A run of about fifteen miles brings us to the city of -Ashland, situated at the head of the bay. It makes quite an imposing -appearance when you are several miles distant, and upon landing you -find that you have been _imposed_ upon. Somebody came here years ago, -laid out a town, surveyed the lots, cut out magnificent avenues through -the forest, found men who believed that Ashland was to be a great -city, who bought lots and built houses; but the crowd did not come; the -few who came soon turned their backs upon the place, leaving all their -improvements. One German family remains. Two pigs were in possession of -a parlor in one deserted house, and a cow quietly chewing her cud in -another. - -A mile east of Ashland is Bay City, another place planned by -speculators, but which probably might be purchased at a discount. - -The country around Bayfield is in a primitive condition now, but the -time is rapidly approaching for a change. By and by this will be a -great resort for tourists and seekers after health. Nature has made it -for a _sanitarium_. No mineral springs have been discovered warranted -to cure all diseases, but nowhere in this Northwest has nature -compounded purer air, distilled sweeter water, or painted lovelier -landscapes. The time will come when the people of Chicago, Milwaukie, -and other Western cities, seeking rest and recreation during the summer -months, will flee to this harbor of repose. The fish are as numerous -here, and as eager to bite the hook, as anywhere else on the lake, -while the streams of the main-land abound with trout. By and by this -old red sandstone will be transformed into elegant mansions overlooking -the blue waters, and it would not be strange if commerce reared a great -mart around this harbor. The charter of the Northern Pacific Railroad -extends to this point, and as the road would pass through heavily -timbered lands, the company will find it for their interest to open the -line, as it will also form a connecting link between the West and the -iron region of Lake Superior. - -But whether a city rises here, whether a railroad is constructed or -not, let me say to any one who wants to pull out big trout that this is -the place. - -An Indian who has been trying his luck shows a string of five-pounders, -caught in one of the small streams entering the bay. There is no sport -like trout-fishing. Think of stealing on tiptoe along the winding -stream, dropping your hook into the gurgling waters, and feeling a -moment later something tugging, turning, pulling, twisting, running, -now to the right, now to the left, up stream, down stream, making the -thin cord spin, till your heart leaps into your throat through fear -of its breaking,--fear giving place to hope, hope to triumph, when at -length you land a seven-pounder on the green and mossy bank! You find -such trout in the streams that empty into the lake opposite the Apostle -Islands,--trout mottled with crimson and gold! - -Bidding good by to our generous host and hostess we take an -eastward-bound steamer in the evening for a trip down the lake, -stopping for an hour or two at Ontonagon, then steaming on, rounding -Keweenaw Point during the night, and reaching Marquette in the morning. - -Fishing-boats are dancing on the waves, yachts scudding along the -shore, tourists rambling over the rocks at our right hand, throwing -their lines, pulling up big trout, steamers and schooners are lying in -the harbor, and thrift, activity, and enterprise is everywhere visible. - -We see an immense structure, resembling a railway bridge, built out -into the harbor. It is several hundred feet in length, and twenty or -more in height. A train of cars comes thundering down a grade, and out -upon the bridge, while men running from car to car knock out here and -there a bolt or lift a catch, and we hear a rumbling and thundering, -and feel the wharf tremble beneath our feet. It is not an earthquake; -they are only unloading iron ore from the cars into bins. - -A man by means of machinery raises a trap-door, and the black mass, -starting with a rush, thunders once more as it plunges into the hold of -a schooner. It requires but a few minutes to take in a cargo. And then, -shaking out her sails, the schooner shapes her course eastward along -the "Pictured Rocks" for the St. Mary's Canal, bound for Cleveland, -Erie, or Chicago with her freight of crude ore to be smelted and rolled -where coal is near at hand. - -The town is well laid out. Although the business portion was destroyed -by fire not many months ago, it has been rebuilt. There are elegant -residences, churches, school-houses, and stores. Men walk the streets -as if they had a little more business on hand than they could well -attend to. - -The men who used to frequent this region to trade with the Indians -knew as early as 1830 that iron existed in the hills. But it was not -till 1845, just a quarter of a century ago, that any attempt was made -to test the ore. Dr. Jackson, of Boston, who visited Lake Superior in -1844, pronounced it of excellent quality. He informed Mr. Lyman Pray, -of Charlestown, Mass., of its existence, and that the Indians reported -a "mountain" of it not far from Marquette. Mr. Pray at once started -on an exploring expedition, reached Lake Superior, obtained an Indian -guide, penetrated the forest, and found the hills filled with ore. - -About the same time a gentleman named Everett obtained half a ton of -it, which the Indians and half-breeds carried on their backs to the -Carp River, and transported it to the lake in canoes. - -It was smelted, but was so different from that of Pennsylvania that -the iron-masters shook their heads. Some declared that it was of no -particular value, others that it could not be worked. - -The Pittsburg iron-men pronounced it worthless. But Mr. Everett -persevered, sent a small quantity to the Coldwater forge, where it -was smelted and rolled into a bar, from which he made a knife-blade, -and was convinced that the metal was superior in quality to any other -deposit in the country. - -The Jackson Company was at once formed for mining in the iron and -copper region. The copper fever was at its height, and the company was -organized with a view of working both metals if thought advisable. A -forge was erected on the Carp River in 1847, making four blooms a day, -each about four feet long and eight inches thick. - -Another was built, in 1854, by a company from Worcester, Mass., but so -small was the production that in 1856 the shipment only reached five -thousand tons. The superior qualities of the metal began to be known. -Other companies were formed and improvements made; railroads and docks -were constructed, and the production has had a steady increase, till it -has reached a high figure. - -There are fourteen companies engaged in mining,--two have just -commenced, while the others are well developed. The production of -the twelve principal mines for the year 1868 will be seen from the -following figures:-- - - Tons. - Jackson, 131,707 - Cleveland, 102,213 - Marquette, 7,977 - Lake Superior, 105,745 - New York, 45,665 - Lake Angeline, 27,651 - Edwards, 17,360 - Iron Mountain, 3,836 - Washington, 35,757 - New England, 8,257 - Champion, 6,255 - Barnum, 14,380 - _______ - Total, 506,803 - -The increase over the previous year is between forty and fifty thousand -tons. The yield for 1869 was about 650,000 tons. The entire production -of all the mines up to the close of 1868 is 2,300,000 tons. - -Iron mining in this region is in its infancy; and yet the value of the -metal produced last year amounts to _eighteen million dollars_. - -The cause for this rapid development is found in the fact that the -Lake Superior ore makes the best iron in the world. Persistent efforts -were made to cry it down, but those who were engaged in its production -invited rigid tests. - -Its tenacity, in comparison with other qualities, will be seen by the -following tabular statement:-- - - Swedish, 59 - English Cable bolt, 59 - Russian, 76 - Lake Superior, 89-1/2 - -When this fact was made known, railroad companies began to use Lake -Superior iron for the construction of locomotives, car-wheels, and -axles. Boiler builders wanted it. Those who tried it were eager to -obtain more, and the result is seen in the rapidly increasing demand. - -The average cost of mining and delivering the ore in cars at the mines -is estimated at about $2 per ton. It is shipped to Cleveland at a cost -of $4.35, making $6.35 when laid on the dock in that city, where it is -readily sold for $8, leaving a profit of about $1.65 per ton for the -shipper. Perhaps, including insurance and incidentals, the profit may -be reduced to about $1.25 per ton. It will be seen that this is a very -remunerative operation. - -About one hundred furnaces in Ohio and Pennsylvania use Lake Superior -ore almost exclusively, while others mix it with the ores of those -regions. - -A large amount is smelted at Lake Superior, where charcoal is used. -The forests in the vicinity of the mines are rapidly disappearing. -The wide-spreading sugar-maple, the hardy yellow birch, the feathery -hackmatack and evergreen hemlock are alike tumbled into the coal-pit -to supply fuel for the demands of commerce. - -The charcoal consumed per ton in smelting costs about eleven cents -per bushel. For reducing a ton of the best ore about a hundred and -ten bushels are required; for a ton of the poorest about a hundred -and forty bushels, giving an average of $13 per ton. The cost of -mining is, as has already been stated, about $2 per ton. To this must -be added furnace-labor, interest on capital employed, insurance, -freight, commission, making the total cost about $35 a ton. As the iron -commands the highest price in the market, it will be seen that the iron -companies of Lake Superior are having an enormous income. - -Some men who purchased land at government price are on the high road -to fortune. One man entered eighty acres of land, which now nets him -_twenty-four thousand dollars per annum_! - -A railroad runs due west from Marquette, gaining by steep gradients the -general level of the ridge between Superior and Michigan. It is called -the Marquette and Ontonagon Railroad, and will soon form an important -link in the great iron highway across the continent. It is about twenty -miles from Marquette to the principal mines, which are also reached by -rail from Escanaba, on Green Bay, a distance of about seventy miles. - -The ore is generally found in hills ranging from one to five hundred -feet above the level of the surrounding country. The elevations can -hardly be called mountains; they are knolls rather. They are iron warts -on Dame Nature's face. They are partially covered with earth,--the -slow-forming deposits of the alluvial period. - -There are five varieties of ore. The most valuable is what is called -the specular hematite, which chemically is known as a pure _anhydrous -sesquioxide_. This ore yields about sixty-five per cent of pure iron. -It is sometimes found in conjunction with red quartz, and is then known -as mixed ore. - -The next in importance is a soft hematite, resembling the ores of -Pennsylvania and Connecticut. It is quite porous, is more easily -reduced than any other variety, and yields about fifty per cent of pure -iron. - -The magnetic ores are found farther west than those already described. -The Michigan, Washington, Champion, and Edwards mines are all magnetic. -Sometimes the magnetic and specular lie side by side, and it is a -puzzle to geologists and chemists alike to account for the difference -between them. As yet we are not able to understand by what subtle -alchemy the change has been produced. - -Another variety is called the silicious hematite, which is more -difficult of reduction than the others. It varies in richness, and -there is an unlimited supply. - -The fifth variety is a silicious hematite found with manganese, which, -when mixed with other ores, produces an excellent quality of iron. Very -little of this ore has been mined as yet, and its relative value is not -ascertained. - -The best iron cannot be manufactured from one variety, but by mixing -ores strength and ductility both are obtained. England sends to Russia -and Sweden for magnetic ores to mix with those produced in Lancashire, -for the manufacture of steel. The fires of Sheffield would soon go -out if the manufactures in that town were dependent on English ore -alone. The iron-masters there could not make steel good enough for a -blacksmith's use, to say nothing of that needed for cutlery, if they -were cut off from foreign magnetic ores. - -Here, at Lake Superior, those necessary for the production of the best -of steel lie side by side. A mixture of the hematite and magnetic gives -a metal superior, in every respect, to any that England can produce. - -This one fact settles the question of the future of this region. It is -to become one of the great iron-marts of the world. It is to give, by -and by, the supremacy to America in the production of steel. - -It is already settled, by trial, that every grade of iron now in use in -arts and manufactures can be produced here at Lake Superior by mixing -the various ores. - -The miners are a hardy set of men, rough, uncouth, but enterprising. -They live in small cottages, make excellent wages, drink whiskey, and -rear large families. How happens it that in all new communities there -is such an abundance of children? They throng every doorway, and by -every house we see them tumbling in the dirt. Nearly every woman has a -child in her arms. - -We cannot expect to see the refinements and luxuries of old communities -in a country where the stumps have not yet been cleared from the -streets, and where the spruces and hemlocks are still waving above the -cottages of the settlers, but here are the elements of society. These -hard-handed men are developing this region, earning a livelihood for -themselves and enriching those who employ them. Towns are springing -into existence. We find Ishpeming rising out of a swamp. Imagine a -spruce forest standing in a bog where the trees are so thick that there -is hardly room enough for the lumbermen to swing their axes, the swamp -being a stagnant pool of dark-colored water covered with green slime! - -An enterprising town-builder purchased this bog for a song, and has -laid out a city. Here it is,--dwelling-houses and stores standing on -posts driven into the mud, or resting on the stumps. He has filled up -the streets with the _debris_ from the mines. Frogs croak beneath the -dwellings, or sun themselves on the sills. The town is not thus growing -from the swamp because there is no solid land, but because the upland -has exhaustless beds of iron ore beneath, too valuable to be devoted to -building purposes. - -I have seen few localities so full of promise for the future, not this -one little spot in the vicinity of Marquette, but the entire metallic -region between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. - -Look at the locality! It is half-way across the continent. Lake -Michigan laves the southern, Superior the northern shore, while the -St. Lawrence furnishes water-carriage to the Atlantic. A hundred -and fifty miles of rail from Bayfield will give connection with the -navigable waters of the Mississippi. Through this peninsula will yet -lie the shortest route between the Atlantic and Pacific. Westward are -the wheat-fields of the continent, to be peopled by an industrious and -thriving community. There is no point more central than this for easy -transportation. - -Here, just where the future millions can be easiest served, exhaustless -deposits of the best ore in the world have been placed by a Divine hand -for the use and welfare of the mighty race now beginning to put forth -its energies on this western hemisphere. - -Towns, cities, and villages are to arise amid these hills; the forests -and the hills themselves are to disappear. The product, now worth -seventeen millions of dollars per annum, erelong will be valued at a -hundred millions. - -I think of the coming years when this place will be musical with the -hum of machinery; when the stillness of the summer day and the crisp -air of winter will be broken by the songs of men at work amid flaming -forges, or at the ringing anvil. From Marquette, and Bayfield, and -Ontonagon, and Escanaba, from every harbor on these inland seas, -steamers and schooners, brigs and ships, will depart freighted with -ore; hither they will come, bringing the products of the farm and -workshop. Heavily loaded trains will thunder over railroads, carrying -to every quarter of our vast domain the metals manufactured from the -mines of Lake Superior. - -We have but to think of the capabilities of this region, its extent -and area, the increase of population, the development of resources, -the construction of railways, the growth of cities and towns; we have -only to grasp the probabilities of the future, to discern the dawning -commercial greatness of this section of our country. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -A FAMILIAR TALK. - - -"I have called to have a little talk about the West, and think that I -should like a farm in Minnesota or in the Red River country," said a -gentleman not long since, who introduced himself as Mr. Blotter, and -who said he was "clerking it." - -"I want to go out West and raise stock," said another gentleman who -stopped me on the street. - -"Where would you advise a fellow to go who hasn't much money, but who -isn't afraid to work?" said a stout young man from Maine. - -"I am a machinist, and want to try my luck out West," said another -young man hailing from a manufacturing town in Massachusetts. - -"I am manufacturing chairs, and want to know if there is a place out -West where I can build up a good business," said another. - -Many other gentlemen, either in person or by letter, have asked for -specific information. - -It is not to be expected that I can point out the exact locality suited -to each individual, or with which they would be suited, but for the -benefit of all concerned I give the substance of an evening's talk with -Mr. Blotter. - -"I want a farm, I am tired of the city," said he. - -Well, sir, you can be accommodated. The United States government has -several million acres of land,--at least 30,000,000 in Minnesota, to -say nothing of Dakota and the region beyond,--and you can help yourself -to a farm out of any unoccupied territory. The Homestead Law of 1862 -gives a hundred and sixty acres, free of cost, to actual settlers, -whether foreign or native, male or female, over twenty-one years old, -or to minors having served fourteen days in the army. Foreigners -must declare their intention to become citizens. Under the present -Pre-emption Law settlers often live on their claims many years before -they are called on to pay the $1.25 per acre,--the land in the mean -time having risen to $10 or $12 per acre. A recent decision gives -single women the right to pre-empt. Five years' residence on the land -is required by the Homestead Law, and it is not liable to any debts -contracted before the issuing of the patent. - -The State of Minnesota has a liberal law relative to the exemption of -real estate from execution. A homestead of eighty acres, or one lot -and house, is exempt; also, five hundred dollars' worth of furniture, -besides tools, bed and bedding, sewing-machine, three cows, ten hogs, -twenty sheep, a span of horses, or one horse and one yoke of oxen, -twelve months' provisions for family and stock, one wagon, two -ploughs, tools of a mechanic, library of a professional man, five -hundred dollars' worth of stock if a trader, and various other articles. - -You will find several railroad companies ready to sell you eighty, -or a hundred and sixty, or six hundred and forty acres in a body, at -reasonable rates, giving you accommodating terms. - -"Would you take a homestead from government, or would you buy lands -along the line of a railroad?" - -That is for you to say. If you take a homestead it will necessarily be -beyond the ten-mile limit of the land granted to the road, where the -advance in value will not keep pace with lands nearer the line. You -will find government lands near some of the railroads, which you can -purchase for $2.50 per acre, cash down. The railroad companies will -charge you from $2 to $10, according to location, but will give you -time for payment. - -"What are their terms?" - -The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, the main line of which is to be -completed to the Red River this year, and which owns the branch line -running from St. Paul up the east bank of the Mississippi to St. Cloud, -have a million acres of prairie, meadow, and timber lands which they -will sell in tracts of forty acres or more, and make the terms easy. -Suppose you were to buy eighty acres at $8 per acre, that would give -you a snug farm for $640. If you can pay cash down, they will make -it $7 per acre,--$80 saved at the outset; but if you have only a few -dollars in your pocket they will let you pay a year's interest at seven -per cent to begin with, and the principal and interest in ten annual -payments. The figures would then run in this way:-- - - Eighty acres at $8 per acre, $640 - - Interest. Principal. Total. - 1st year, $44.80 - 2d " 40.32 $64.00 $104.32 - 3d " 35.84 64.00 99.84 - 4th " 31.36 64.00 95.36 - 5th " 26.88 64.00 90.88 - 6th " 22.40 64.00 86.40 - 7th " 17.92 64.00 81.92 - 8th " 13.44 64.00 77.44 - 9th " 8.96 64.00 72.96 - 10th " 4.48 64.00 68.48 - 11th " 64.00 64.00 - -"The second year will be the hardest," said Mr. Blotter, "for I shall -have to fence my farm, build a cabin, and purchase stock and tools. Is -there fencing material near?" - -That depends upon where you locate. If you are near the line of the -railway, you can have it brought by cars. If you locate near the "Big -Woods" on the main line west of Minneapolis, you will have timber near -at hand. Numerous saw-mills are being erected, some driven by water -and others by steam. The timbered lands of the company are already -held at high rates,--from $7 to $10 per acre. The country beyond the -"Big Woods" is all prairie, with no timber except a few trees along -the streams. It is filling up so rapidly with settlers that wood-lands -are in great demand, for when cleared they are just as valuable as the -prairie for farming purposes. - -Many settlers who took up homesteads before the railroad was surveyed -now find themselves in good circumstances, especially if they are near -a station. In many places near towns, land which a year ago could have -been had for $2.50 per acre is worth $20 to-day. - -"Is the land in the Mississippi Valley above St. Paul any better than -that of the prairies?" - -Perhaps you have a mistaken idea in regard to the Mississippi Valley. -There are no bottom-lands on the Upper Mississippi. The prairie borders -upon the river. You will find the land on the east side better adapted -to grazing than for raising wheat. The company do not hold their lands -along the branch at so high a figure as on the main line. Some of my -Minnesota friends say that stock-growing on the light lands east of the -Mississippi is quite as profitable as raising wheat. Cattle, sheep, and -horses transport themselves to market, but you must draw your grain. - -If you are going into stock-raising, you can afford to be at a greater -distance from a railroad station than the man who raises wheat. It -would undoubtedly be for the interest of the company to sell you their -outlying lands along the branch line at a low figure, for it would -enhance the value of those nearer the road. You will find St. Cloud -and Anoka thriving places, which, with St. Paul and Minneapolis, will -give a good home demand for beef and mutton, to say nothing of the -facilities for reaching Eastern markets by the railroads and lakes. - -"Do the people of Minnesota use fertilizers?" - -No; they allow the manure to accumulate around their stables, or else -dump it into the river to get rid of it! - -They sow wheat on the same field year after year, and return nothing to -the ground. They even burn the straw, and there can be but one result -coming from such a process,--exhaustion of the soil,--poor, worn-out -farms by and by. - -The farmers of the West are cruel towards Mother Earth. She freely -bestows her riches, and then, not satisfied with her gifts, they -plunder her. Men everywhere are shouting for an eight-hour law; they -must have rest, time for recreation and improvement of body and mind; -but they give the soil no time for recuperation. Men expect to be -paid for their labors, but they make no payment to the kind mother -who feeds them; they make her work and live on nothing. Farming, as -now carried on in the West and Northwest, is downright robbery and -plunder, and nothing else. If the present exhaustive system is kept -up, the time will come when the wheat-fields of Minnesota, instead of -producing twenty-five bushels to the acre upon an average throughout -the State, will not yield ten, which is the product in Ohio; and yet, -with a systematic rotation of crops and application of fertilizers, the -present marvellous richness of the soil can be maintained forever. - -"Do the tame grasses flourish?" - -Splendidly; I never saw finer fields of timothy than along the line of -the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, west of Minneapolis. White clover -seems to spring up of its own accord. I remember that I saw it growing -luxuriantly along a pathway in the Red River Valley, and by the side -of the military road leading through the woods to Lake Superior. Hay -is very abundant, and exceedingly cheap in Minnesota. I doubt if there -is a State in the Union that has a greater breadth of first-class -grass-lands. Hon. Thomas Clarke, Assistant State Geologist, estimates -the area of meadow-lands between the St. Croix and the Mississippi, and -south of Sandy Lake, at a million acres. He says: "Some of these are -very extensive, and bear a luxuriant growth of grass, often five or six -feet in height. It is coarse, but sweet, and is said to make excellent -hay." - -I passed through some of those meadows, and can speak from personal -observation. I saw many acres that would yield two tons to the acre. -The grasses are native, flat-leaved, foul-meadow and blue-joint, just -such as I used to swing a scythe through years ago in a meadow in New -Hampshire which furnished a fair quality of hay. The time will come -when those lands will be valuable, although they are not held very high -at present. A few years ago the Kankakee swamps in Illinois and Indiana -were valueless, but now they yield many thousand tons of hay, and are -rising in the market. - -"How about fruit? I don't want to go where I cannot raise fruit." - -Those native to the soil are strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, -gooseberries, huckleberries, cherries, and plums. I picked all of these -upon the prairies and along the streams while there. The wild plum -is very abundant, and in the fall of the year you will see thousands -of bushels in the markets at St. Paul and Minneapolis. They make an -excellent sauce or preserve. - -Minnesota may be called the Cranberry State. Many farmers make more -money from their cranberry-meadows than from their wheat-fields. The -marshes in the northern section of the State are covered with vines, -and the lands along the St. Croix yield abundantly. - -Mr. Clarke, the geologist, says: "There are 256,000 acres of -cranberry-marsh in the triangle between the St. Croix and Mississippi, -and bounded north by the St. Louis and Prairie Rivers! The high price -paid for this delicious fruit makes its cultivation very profitable in -Minnesota, as well as in New Jersey and on Cape Cod." - -"Can apples be raised? I am fond of them, and should consider it a -drawback if I could not have an apple-orchard," said the persistent Mr. -Blotter. - -I understand that till within a year or two the prospect for apples was -not very encouraging. The first orchards were from Illinois nurseries, -and it was not till native stocks were started that success attended -the fruit-growers' efforts; but now they have orchards as thrifty -and bountiful as any in the country. At the last State Fair held at -Rochester, one fruit-grower had fifty bushels on exhibition, and two -hundred more at home. It was estimated that the yield in Winona County -last year was thirty thousand bushels.[3] - - [Footnote 3: These and many other facts relating to Minnesota are - obtained from "Minnesota as it is in 1870," by J. W. McClung, of St. - Paul,--an exceedingly valuable work, crammed with information.] - -The St. Paul Press, noticing the display of fruits at the Ramsay and -Hennipen County Fair, says: "These two fairs have set at rest the -long-mooted question, whether Minnesota is an apple-growing State. -Over two hundred varieties of the apple, exclusive of the crab species, -were exhibited at Minneapolis, and a large number at St. Paul, of the -finest development and flavor, and this fact will give an immense -impetus to fruit-growing in our State." - -The following varieties were exhibited at the last meeting of the -Fruit-Growers' Association, of Winona County: The Duchess of Oldenburg, -Utter's Large, Early Red, Sweet June, Perry Russet, Fall Stripe, -Keswick Codlin, Red Astracan, Plum Cider, Phoenix, Wagner, Ben Davis, -German Bough, Carolina Red June, Bailey Sweet, St. Lawrence, Sops of -Wine, Seek-no-further, Famuse, Price Sweet, Pomme Grise, Tompkins -County King, Northern Spy, Golden Russet, Sweet Pear, Yellow Ingestrie, -Yellow Bellflower, Lady Finger, Raule's Jannet, Kirkbridge White, -Janiton, Dumelow, Winter Wine Sap, Chronicle, Fall Wine Sap, Rosseau, -Colvert, Benoni, Red Romanite. - -Many of the above are raised in New England, so that those people who -may cut loose from the East need not be apprehensive that they are -bidding good by forever to the favorite fruits that have been a comfort -as well as a luxury in their former homes. - -"I take it that grapes do not grow there; it must be too far north," -said my visitor. - -On the contrary, they are indigenous. You find wild grapes along the -streams, and in the gardens around St. Paul and Minneapolis you will -see many of the cultivated varieties bearing magnificent clusters on -the luxuriant vines. - -"How about corn, rye, oats, and other grains; can they be raised with -profit?" - -The following figures, taken from the official report made to the last -legislature of the products for 1869, will show the capabilities of the -soil:-- - - Average per Acre. - Wheat, 18,500,000 bushels, 18-1/2 - Corn, 6,125,000 " 35 - Oats, 11,816,400 " 43 - Potatoes, 2,745,000 " 90 - Barley, 625,000 " 30.6 - Rye, 58,000 " 18 - Buckwheat, 28,000 " 16 - Hay, 430,000 tons, 2.08 - Wool, 390,000 pounds. - Butter, 5,600,000 " - Cheese, 145,000 " - Sorghum, 80,000 gallons syrup. - Maple Sugar, 300,000 pounds. - Flax, 170,000 " - -From this it would seem that the State is destined to be one of the -most productive in the Union. - -"Have they good schools out there?" - -Just as good as in New England. Two sections of land are set aside for -the common-school fund. The entire amount of school lands in the State -will be three million acres. - -These are sold at the rate of five dollars per acre, and the money -invested in State or government bonds. Governor Marshall, in his last -message, estimated the sum ultimately to be derived from the lands at -sixteen million dollars. A school tax of two mills on the dollar is -levied, which, with the interest from the fund, gives a liberal amount -for education. - -"At what season of the year ought a man to go West?" - -That depends very much upon what you intend to do. If you are going to -farming, and intend to settle upon the prairies, you must be there in -season to break up your ground in July. If the sod is turned when the -grass is full of juices, it decays quickly, and your ground will be in -good condition for next year's ploughing. If you go into the timbered -lands along the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, or along that -of the Northern Pacific, you can go any time; but men having families -will do well to go in advance and select their future home, and make -some preparations before cutting loose from the old one. - -"Which is the best way to go?" - -You will find either of the great trunk railroads leading westward -comfortable routes, and their rates of fare do not greatly vary. - -"Do you think that the State will have a rapid development?" - -If the past is any criterion for the future, its growth will be -unparalleled. Twenty years only have passed since it was organized as a -Territory. The population in 1850 was 5,330; in 1860 it was 172,022; in -1865, by the State census, 250,099. The census of 1870 will give more -than half a million. The tide of emigration is stronger at the present -time than it ever has been before, and the construction of the various -railroads, the liberal policy of the State, its munificent school-fund, -the richness of the lands, the abundance of pure, fresh water, the -delightful climate, the situation of the State in connection with -the transcontinental line of railway, altogether will give Minnesota -rapid advancement. Of the Northwest as of a pumpkin-vine during the -hot days and warm nights of midsummer, we may say that we can almost -see it grow! Look at the increase of wealth as represented by real and -personal estates:-- - - 1850 $806,437 - 1855 10,424,157 - 1860 36,753,408 - 1865 45,127,318 - 1868 75,795,366 - -From the report of the Assistant Secretary of State made to the -Legislature in January, 1870, we have the following facts:-- - - Total tilled acres, 1,690,000 - Value of real estate, $120,000,000 - " " personal property, 65,000,000 - " " live stock, 15,561,887 - " " agricultural productions, 25,000,000 - " " annual manufactures, 11,000,000 - Amount of school-fund, 2,371,199 - -Not only is Minnesota to have a rapid development, but Dakota as -well. Civilization is advancing up the Missouri. Emigrants are moving -on through Yankton and taking possession of the rich lands of that -section, and the present year will see the more northern tide pouring -into the Red River Valley, which Professor Hind called the Paradise of -the Northwest. - -"How much will it cost me to reach Minnesota, and get started on a -farm?" - -The fare from Boston to St. Paul will be from $35 to $40. If you go -into the timbered regions, you will have lumber enough near at hand to -build your house, and it will take a great many sturdy strokes to get -rid of the oaks and pines. If you go upon the prairies, you will have -to obtain lumber from a distance. The prices at Minneapolis are all the -way from $12 to $45 per thousand, according to quality. Shingles cost -from $3.50 to $4.50. - -Most of the farmers begin with a very small house, containing two -or three rooms. They do not start with much furniture. We who are -accustomed to hot and cold water, bath-room, and all the modern -conveniences of houses in the city, might think it rather hard at -first to use a tin wash-basin on a bench out-doors, and ladies might -find it rather awkward to go up to their chamber on a ladder; but we -can accommodate ourselves to almost anything, especially when we are -working towards independence. Settlers start with small houses, for a -good deal of lumber is required for fencing. A fence around forty acres -requires 1,700 rails, 550 posts, and a keg of large nails. The farmers -do not dig holes, but sharpen the lower ends of the posts and drive -them down with a beetle. Two men by this process will fence in forty -acres in a very short time. Such fences are for temporary use, but will -stand for several years,--till the settler has made headway enough to -replace them with others more substantial. You will want horses and -oxen. A span of good farm horses will cost $250; a yoke of good oxen, -$125. Cows are worth from $20 to $50. - -Carpenters, masons, and mechanics command high prices,--from $2 to -$4.50 per day. Farm laborers can be hired for $20 to $25 per month. - -"What section of the Northwest is advancing most rapidly?" - -The southern half of Minnesota. As yet there are no settlements in the -northern counties. Draw a line from Duluth to Fort Abercrombie, and -you will have almost the entire population south of that line. A few -families are living in Otter-Tail County, north of that line, and there -are a few more in the Red River Valley. - -Two years hence there will probably be many thousand inhabitants in -the northern counties; the fertility of the Red River lands and the -construction of two railroads cannot fail of attracting settlers in -that direction. There is far more first quality of agricultural land -now held by government in the northwestern counties than in any other -section of the State. The land-office for that region is at Alexandria -in Douglas County. The vacant land subject to pre-emption as per share -in the eleven counties composing the district amounts to 10,359,000 -acres, nearly the same area as Massachusetts and New Hampshire -together. Take a glance at the counties. - -_Douglas._--Four years ago it did not contain a single inhabitant, -but now it has a population of about 5,000! The county has an area of -twenty townships, 460,000 acres, and about 250,000 are still held by -government. - -_Grant._--It lies west of Douglas. We passed through it on our way to -the Red River. The main line of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad will -run through the southwestern township this year. There are 295,000 -acres still vacant. - -_Otter-Tail._--We travelled through this county on our return from -Dakota, and were serenaded by the Germans in our camp on the bank of -Rush Lake. It contains 1,288,000 acres, of which 850,000 are held by -government. This county is abundantly supplied with timber,--pine as -well as oak, and other of the hard woods. There are numerous lakes and -ponds, and several fine mill-sites. The soil is excellent. The lakes -abound with whitefish. In 1868 the population was 800. Now it may be -set down at 2,000. - -_Wilkin._--This county is on the Red River. It was once called Andy -Johnson, but now bears the name of Wilkin. There you may take your -choice of 650,000 acres of fertile lands. You can find timber on the -streams, or you may float it down from Otter-Tail. The St. Paul and -Pacific Railroad will be constructed through the county during the year -1870. - -_Clay._--North of Wilkin on the Red River is Clay County, containing -650,000 acres of government land, all open to settlement. The Northern -Pacific Railroad will probably strike the Red River somewhere in this -county. The distance from Duluth will be two hundred and twenty-five -miles, and the settler there will be as near market as the people of -central Illinois or eastern Iowa. - -_Polk._--The next county north contains 2,480,000 acres, unsurpassed -for fertility, well watered by the Red, the Wild Rice, Marsh, -Sand Hill, and Red Lake Rivers. The county is half as large as -Massachusetts, and is as capable of sustaining a dense population as -the kingdom of Belgium or the valley of the Ganges. The southern half -will be accommodated by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Salt springs -abound on the Wild Rice River, and the State has reserved 23,000 acres -of the saline territory. - -_Pembina._--The northwestern county of the State contains 2,263,000 -acres, all held by government. - -_Becker._--This county lies north of Otter-Tail We passed through -it on our way from the Red River to the head-waters of the Buffalo. -(Description, p. 113.) It is a region surpassingly beautiful. The -Northern Pacific Railroad will pass through it, and there you may find -435,000 acres of rolling prairie and timbered hills. Probably there are -not fifty settlers in the county. A large portion of these northwestern -counties are unsurveyed, but that will not debar you from pre-empting a -homestead. - -"How about the southwestern section of the State?" asked my visitor. - -I cannot speak from personal observation beyond Blue Earth County, -where the Minnesota River crooks its elbow and turns northeast; but -from what I have learned I have reason to believe that the lands there -are just as fertile as those already settled nearer the Mississippi, -and they will be made available by the railroad now under construction -from St. Paul to Sioux City. - -"Can a man with five hundred dollars make a beginning out there with a -reasonable prospect of success?" - -Yes, provided he has good pluck, and is willing to work hard and to -wait. If he can command one thousand dollars, he can do a great deal -better than he can with half that sum. - -If you were to go out sixty miles beyond St Paul to Darsel, on the -St. Paul and Pacific Railroad you would see a farm worked by seven -sisters. The oldest girl is about twenty-five, the youngest fifteen. -They lived in Ohio, but their father and mother were invalids, and for -their benefit came to Minnesota in April, 1867, and secured a hundred -and sixty acres of land under the Homestead Law. The neighbors turned -out and helped them build a log-house, and the girls went to work on -the farm. Last year (1869) they had forty acres under cultivation, -and sold 900 bushels of potatoes, 500 bushels of corn, 200 of wheat, -250 of turnips, 200 of beets, besides 1,100 cabbage-heads, and about -two hundred dollars' worth of other garden products. They hired men -to split rails for fencing, and also to plough the land; but all the -other work has been done by the girls, who are hale and hearty, and -find time to read the weekly papers and magazines. The mother of these -girls made the following remark to a gentleman who visited the farm: -"The girls are not fond of the hard work they have had to do to get the -farm started, but they are not ashamed of it. We were too poor to keep -together, and live in a town. We could not make a living there, but -here we have become comfortable and independent. We tried to give the -girls a good education, and they all read and write, and find a little -spare time to read books and papers." - -These plucky girls have set a good example to young men who want to get -on in the world. - -Perhaps I am too enthusiastic over the future prospects of the region -between Lake Superior and the Pacific, but having travelled through -Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and Nevada, I have had an opportunity to -contrast the capabilities of the two sections. Kansas has magnificent -prairies, and so has Nebraska, but there are no sparkling ponds, no -wood-fringed lakes, no gurgling brooks abounding with trout. The great -want of those States is water. The soil is exceedingly fertile, even -in Utah and Nevada, though white with powdered alkali, but they are -valueless for want of moisture. In marked contrast to all this is the -great domain of the Northwest. For a few years the tide of emigration -will flow, as it is flowing now, into the central States; but when the -lands there along the rivers and streams are all taken up, the great -river of human life, setting towards the Pacific, will be turned up -the Missouri, the Assinniboine, and the Saskatchawan. The climate, the -resources of the country, the capabilities for a varied industry, and -the configuration of the continent, alike indicate it. - - * * * * * - -I am not sure that Mr. Blotter accepted all this, but he has gone to -Minnesota with his wife, turning his back on a dry-goods counting-house -to obtain a home on the prairies. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. - - -The statesman, the political economist, or any man who wishes -to cast the horoscope of the future of this country, must take -into consideration the great lakes, and their connection with the -Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Columbia Rivers, and those portions -of the continent drained by these water-ways. - -Communities do not grow by chance, but by the operation of physical -laws. Position, climate, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, arable -lands, coal, wood, iron, silver, and gold are predestinating forces -in a nation's history, decreeing occupation, character, power, and -influence. - -Lakes and navigable streams are natural highways for trade and traffic; -valleys are natural avenues; mountains are toll-gates set up by nature. -He who passes over them must pay down in sweat and labor. - -Humboldt discussed the question a third of a century ago. "The natural -highways of nations," said he, "will usually be along the great -watercourses." - -It impressed me deeply, as long ago as 1846, when the present enormous -railway system of the continent had hardly begun to be developed. -Spreading out a map of the Western Hemisphere, I then saw that from -Cape Horn to Behring's Strait there was only one river-system that -could be made available to commerce on the Pacific coast. In South -America there is not a stream as large as the Merrimac flowing into the -Pacific. The waves of the ocean break everywhere against the rocky wall -of the Andes. - -In North America the Colorado rises on the pinnacle of the continent, -but it flows through a country upheaved by volcanic fires during the -primeval years. Its chasms and canons are the most stupendous on the -globe. The course of the stream is southwest to the Gulf of California, -out of the line of direction for commerce. - -The only other great stream of the Pacific coast is the Columbia, whose -head-waters are in a line with those of the Missouri, the Mississippi, -the Red River of the North, and Lake Superior. - -This one feature of the physical geography of the continent was -sufficient to show me that the most feasible route for a great -continental highway between the Atlantic and the Pacific must be from -Lake Superior to the valley of the Columbia. - -In childhood I had read the travels of Lewis and Clark over and over -again, till I could almost repeat the entire volume, and, remembering -their glowing accounts of the country,--the fertility of the valley -of the Yellowstone, the easy passage from the Jefferson fork of the -Missouri to the Columbia, and the mildness of the winters on the -Western slope, the conviction was deepened that the best route for -a railway from the lakes to the Pacific would be through one of the -passes of the Rocky Mountains at the head-waters of the Missouri. - -Doubtless, many others observant of the physical geography of the -continent had arrived at the same natural conclusion. Seven years -later the government surveys were made along several of the parallels, -that from Lake Superior to the Columbia being under the direction of -Governor I. I. Stevens. Jeff Davis was then Secretary of War, and his -report set forth the northern route as being virtually impracticable. -It was, according to his representation, incapable of sustaining -population. A careful study of Governor Stevens's Report, and a -comparison with the reports along the more southern lines, showed that -the Secretary of War had deliberately falsified the statements of -Governor Stevens and his assistants. While the surveys were being made, -Mr. Edwin F. Johnson, of Middletown, Conn., the present chief engineer -of the Pacific Railroad, published a pamphlet which set forth in a -clear and forcible manner the natural advantages of the route by the -Missouri. - -In 1856 the British government sent out an exploring expedition -under Captain Palliser, whose report upon the attractions of British -America, the richness of the soil, the ease with which a road could be -constructed to the Pacific through British territory, created great -interest in Parliament. - -"The accomplishment of such a scheme," said Mr. Roebuck, "would unite -England with Vancouver Island and with China, and they would be enabled -widely to extend the civilization of England, and he would boldly -assert that the civilization of England was greater than that of -America." - -"Already," said the Colonial Secretary, Lord Lytton, better known to -American readers as Bulwer, "in the large territory which extends west -of the Rocky Mountains, from the American frontier and up to the skirts -of the Russian dominions, we are laying the foundations of what may -become hereafter a magnificent abode of the human race." - -There was a tone about these speeches that stirred my blood, and I -prepared a pamphlet for circulation entitled "The Great Commercial -Prize," which was published in 1858. It was a plea for the immediate -construction of a railway up the valley of the Missouri, and down the -Columbia to Puget Sound, over the natural highway, giving facts and -figures in regard to its feasibility; but I was laughed at for my -pains, and set down as a visionary by the press. - -It is gratifying to have our good dreams come to pass. That which -was a dream of mine in 1846 is in process of fulfilment in 1870. The -discovery of gold in California and the building up of a great city -demanded the construction of a railroad to San Francisco, which was -chartered in 1862, and which has been constructed with unparalleled -rapidity, and is of incalculable service to the nation. - -The charter of the Northern Pacific was granted, in 1864, and approved -by President Lincoln on the 2d of July of that year. Government granted -no subsidy of bonds, but gave ten alternate sections per mile on each -side of the road in the States and twenty on each side of the line in -the Territories through which it might pass. - -Though the franchise was accompanied by this liberal land-grant, it -has been found impossible to undertake a work of such magnitude till -the present time. Nearly every individual named as corporators in -the charter, with the exception of Governor J. G. Smith, its present -President, Judge R. D. Rice, the Vice-President, and a few others, -abandoned it under the many difficulties and discouragements that beset -the enterprise. The few gentlemen who held on studied the geography -of the country, and their faith in the future of the Northwest was -strengthened. A year ago they were fortunate enough to find other men -as enthusiastic as themselves over the resources and capabilities -of the region between Lake Superior and the Pacific,--Messrs. Jay -Cooke & Co., the well-known bankers of Philadelphia, whose names -are indissolubly connected with the history of the country as its -successful financial agents at a time when the needs of the nation -were greatest; Messrs. Edgar Thompson and Thomas A. Scott, of the -Pennsylvania Central Railroad; Mr. G. W. Cass, of the Pittsburg and -Fort Wayne; Mr. B. P. Cheney, of Wells, Fargo, & Co.; Mr. William B. -Ogden, of the Chicago and Northwestern Road; Mr. Stinson, of Chicago; -and other gentlemen, most of whom are practical railroad men of large -experience and far-reaching views. - -Mr. Cooke became the financial agent of the company, and from that hour -the advancement of the enterprise may be dated. It required but a few -days to raise a subscription of $5,600,000 among the capitalists of the -country to insure the building of the road from Lake Superior to the -Red River, to which place it is now under construction. The year 1871 -will probably see it constructed to the Missouri River, thus opening -easy communication with Montana. The gentlemen who have taken hold of -the work contemplate its completion to the Pacific in three years. - -The line laid down upon the accompanying map only indicates the general -direction of the road. It is the intention of the company to find -the best route across the continent,--direct in course, with easy -grades,--and this can only be ascertained by a thorough exploration of -the valley of the Yellowstone, the passes at the head-waters of the -Missouri, the valley of the Columbia, and the shores and harbors of -Puget Sound. - -The engineers are setting their stakes from Lake Superior to the -Red River, and laborers with spade and shovel are following them. -Imagination bounds onward over the prairies, across the mountains, down -the valley of the Columbia, and beholds the last rail laid, the last -spike driven, and a new highway completed across the continent. - -I think of myself as being upon the locomotive, for a run from the -lakes to the western ocean. - -Our starting-point on the lake is 600 feet above the sea. We gain the -height of land between the lake and the Mississippi by a gentle ascent. -Thirty-one miles out from Duluth we find the waters trickling westward -to the Mississippi. There we are 558 feet above Lake Superior. It is -almost a dead level, as the engineers say, from that point to the -Mississippi, which is 552 feet above the lake at Crow Wing, or 1,152 -feet above tide-water. The distance between the lake and Crow Wing is -about a hundred miles, and the country is so level that it would be -an easy matter to dig a canal and turn the Mississippi above Crow Wing -eastward into the waters that reach the sea through the St. Lawrence. - -The Leaf Hills are 267 feet higher than the Mississippi, and the ascent -is only seven feet to the mile,--so slight that the engineers on the -locomotive reckon it as level grade. These hills form the divide -between the Mississippi and the Red River. Straight on, over the level -valley of the Red River, westward to the summit of the rolling prairies -between the Red River and the Missouri, the locomotive speeds its way. -Gradually we rise till we are 2,400 feet above tide-water,--the same -elevation that is reached on the Union Pacific 250 miles west of Omaha. - -A descent of 400 feet carries us to the Missouri. We wind up its -fertile valley to the richer bottom-lands of the Yellowstone, over a -route so level that at the mouth of the Big Horn we are only 2,500 -feet above tide-water. The Yellowstone flows with a swifter current -above the Big Horn. We are approaching the mountains, and must pass the -ridge of land that separates the Yellowstone from the upper waters of -the Missouri. It lies 950 miles west of Lake Superior, and the summit -is 4,500 feet above the sea. Through the entire distance, thus far, -there have been no grades greater than those of the Illinois Central -and other prairie railroads of the West. Crossing the Missouri we are -at the back-bone of the continent, depressed here like the vertebra of -a hollow-backed horse. We may glide through the Deer Lodge Pass by a -grade of fifty feet, at an altitude of only 5,000 feet above tide-water. - -Mr. Milnor Roberts, civil engineer, approached it from the west, and -this is his description of the Pass:-- - -"Considered as a railroad route, this valley is remarkably favorable, -the rise from Deer Lodge City to the pass or divide between the waters -of the Pacific and Atlantic being quite gentle, and even on the last -few miles, the summit, about 5,000 feet above the sea, may be attained -without employing a gradient exceeding fifty feet to the mile, with -a moderate cut. The whole forty miles from Deer Lodge City to the -summit of the Rocky Mountains by this route can be built as cheaply -as roads are built through prairie countries generally. A little more -work will be required in passing to the east side from this side, -down Divide Creek to Wisdom or Big Hole River; but the line will be -highly favorable on an average all the way to the Jefferson Fork of -the Missouri River. This favorable pass comes into connection more -particularly with the Yellowstone Valley route to the main Missouri -Valley. A remarkable circumstance connected with this pass will -convey a very clear view of its peculiarly favorable character. -Private parties engaged in gold mining, in the gold-fields which exist -abundantly on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, have dug a ditch -across this summit which is only eighteen feet deep at the apex of -the divide, through which they carry the waters of 'Divide Creek,' a -tributary of the Missouri, across to the Pacific side, where it is used -in gold-washing, and the waste water passes into the Pacific Ocean. -This has been justly termed highway robbery." - -There are half a dozen passes nearly as low,--Mullan's, Blackfoot, -Lewis and Clark's, Cadotte's, and the Marias. - -Going through the Deer Lodge Pass, we find that the stream changes its -name very often before reaching the Pacific. The little brook on the -summit of the divide, turbid with the washings of the gold-mines, is -called the Deer Lodge Creek. Twenty-five miles farther on it is joined -by a small stream that trickles from the summit of Mullan's Pass, near -Helena, and the two form the Hell Gate, just as the Pemigewasset and -Winnipesaukee form the Merrimac in New Hampshire, receiving its name -from the many Indian fights that have taken place in its valley, where -the Blackfeet and Nez Perces have had many a battle. The stream bears -the name of Hell Gate for about eighty miles before being joined by the -Blackfoot, which flows from the mountains in the vicinity of Cadotte's -and Lewis and Clark's Passes. - -A little below the junction it empties into the Bitter Root, which, -after a winding course of a hundred miles, is joined by the Flathead, -that comes down from Flathead Lake and the country around Marias Pass. -The united streams below the junction take the name of Clark's River, -which has a circuitous course northward, running for a little distance -into British America, then back again through a wide plain till joined -by the Snake, and the two become the Columbia, pouring a mighty flood -westward to the ocean. The line of the road does not follow the river -to the boundary between the United States and the British Possessions, -but strikes across the plain of the Columbia. - -The characteristics of Clark's River and the surrounding country are -thus described by Mr. Roberts:-- - -"Clark's River has a flow in low water at least six times greater -than the low-water flow of the Ohio River between Pittsburg and -Wheeling; and while its fall is slight, considered with reference to -railroad grades, it is so considerable as to afford a great number of -water-powers, whose future value must be very great,--an average of -eleven feet per mile. - -"Around Lake Pend d'Oreille, and for some miles westward, and all -along Clark's River above the lake as far as we traversed it, there is -a magnificent region of pine, cypress, hemlock, tamarack, and cedar -timber, many of the trees of prodigious size. I measured one which -was thirty-four feet in circumference, and a number that were over -twenty-seven feet, and saw hundreds, as we passed along, that were from -twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference, and from two hundred to -two hundred and fifty feet high. A number of valleys containing large -bodies of this character of timber enter Clark's River from both sides, -and the soil of these valleys is very rich. Clark's River Valley itself -is for much of the distance confined by very high hills approaching -near to the stream in many places; but there are sufficient sites for -cities and farms adjacent to water-powers of the first class, and not -many years can elapse after the opening of a railroad through this -valley till it will exhibit a combination of industries and population -analogous to those which now mark the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, the -Susquehanna, and the Pomroy region of the Ohio River. Passing along its -quiet scenes of to-day, we can see in the near future the vast change -which the enterprise of man will bring. That which was once the work of -half a century is now the product of three or four years. Indeed, in a -single year after the route of this Northern Pacific Railroad shall -have been determined, and the work fairly begun, all this region, now -so calm and undisturbed, will be teeming with life instilled into it by -hardy pioneers from the Atlantic and from the Pacific. - -"Passing along the Flathead River for a short distance, we entered the -valley of the Jocko River. The same general remarks concerning Clark's -River Valley are applicable to the Flathead and Bitter Root Valleys. -The climate, the valleys, the timber, the soil, the water-powers, all -are here, awaiting only the presence of the industrious white man -to render to mankind the benefits implanted in them by a beneficent -Creator." - -The entire distance from Lake Superior by the Yellowstone Valley to -the tide-waters of the Pacific below the cascades of the Columbia will -be about eighteen hundred miles. It is nearly the same distance to -Seattle, on Puget Sound, by the Snoqualmie Pass of the Cascade Range. - -The Union Pacific line has had no serious obstruction from snow -since its completion. It has suffered no more than other roads of -the country, and its trains have arrived as regularly at Omaha -and Sacramento as the trains of the New York Central at Buffalo -or Albany. That the Northern Pacific road will be quite as free -from snow-blockades will be manifest by a perusal of the following -paragraphs from the report of Mr. Roberts:-- - -"There is evidence enough to show that the line of road on the -general route herein described will, in ordinary winters, be much -less encumbered with snow where it crosses the mountains than are -the passes at more southerly points, which are much more elevated -above the sea. The difference of five or six degrees of latitude is -more than compensated by the reduced elevation above the sea-level, -and the climatic effect of the warm ocean-currents from the equator, -already referred to, ameliorating the seasons from the Pacific to the -Rocky Mountains. An examination of the profile of the Union Pacific -and Central Pacific lines between Omaha, on the Missouri River, and -Sacramento, California, a distance of 1,775 miles, shows that there are -four main summits,--Sherman Summit, on the Black Hills, about 550 miles -from Omaha, 8,235 feet above the sea; one on the Rocky Mountains, at -Aspen Summit, about 935 miles from Omaha, 7,463 feet; one at Humboldt -Mountain, about 1,245 miles from Omaha, 6,076 feet; and another on the -Sierra Nevada, only 105 miles from the western terminus at Sacramento, -7,062 feet; whilst from a point west of Cheyenne, 520 miles from Omaha, -to Wasatch, 970 miles from Omaha, a continuous length of 450 miles, -every portion of the graded road is more than 6,000 feet above the -sea, being about 1,000 feet on this long distance higher than the -highest summit grade on the Northern Pacific Railroad route; whilst for -the corresponding distance on the Northern Pacific line the average -elevation is under 3,000 feet, or _three thousand feet_ lower than the -Sherman Summit on the Pacific line. - -"On the Union Pacific road the profile also shows that for 900 -continuous miles, from Sidney westward, the road has an average height -of over 5,000 feet, and the lowest spot on that distance is more than -4,000 feet above the sea, whereas on the Northern route only about -sixty miles at most are as high as 4,000 feet, and the corresponding -distance of 900 miles, extending from the mouth of the Yellowstone to -the valley of Clark's River, is, on an average, about 3,000 feet lower -than the Union Pacific line. Allowing that 1,000 feet of elevation -causes a decrease of temperature of three degrees, this would be a -difference of nine degrees. There is, therefore, a substantial reason -for the circumstance, now well authenticated, that the snows on the -Northern route are much less troublesome than they are on the Union -Pacific and Central Pacific routes" (Report, p. 43). - -That the Northern Pacific can be economically worked is demonstrated by -a comparison of its grades with those of the line already constructed. -The comparison is thus presented by Mr. Roberts:-- - -"The grades on the route across through the State of Minnesota and -Territory of Dakota to the Missouri River will not be materially -dissimilar to those on the other finished railroads south of it, -passing from Chicago to Sioux City, Council Bluffs, etc.; namely, -undulating within the general limit of about forty feet per mile, -although it may be deemed advisable, at a few points for short -distances, to run to a maximum of one foot per hundred or fifty-three -feet per mile. There is sufficient knowledge of this portion of the -route to warrant this assumption. And beyond the Missouri, along the -valley of the Yellowstone, to near the Bozeman Pass, there is no known -reason for assuming any higher limits. In passing Bozeman Summit of the -Belt Range, and in going up the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, it -may be found advisable to adopt a somewhat higher gradient for a few -miles in overcoming those summits. This, however, can only be finally -determined after careful surveys. - -"The highest ground encountered between Lake Superior and the Missouri -River, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, is only 2,300 feet above the -sea; the low summit of the Rocky Mountains is but little over 5,000 -feet, and the Bozeman Pass, through the Belt Range, is assumed to -be about 500 feet lower. The height of the country upon which the -line is traced, and upon which my estimate of cost is based, may be -approximately stated thus, beginning at Lake Superior, going westward:-- - - Miles. Average height - above the sea. - To Dakota Valley, 300 1,200 feet. - Yellowstone River, 300 2,200 " - Along Yellowstone, 400 2,500 " - Flathead Valley, 300 3,500 " - Lewis or Snake River, 200 3,000 " - Puget Sound, 500 400 " - ----- - 2,000 - -"Compare this with the profiles of the finished line of the Union and -Central Pacific roads. Properly, the comparison should be made from -Chicago, the eastern water terminus of Lake Michigan, of the Omaha -line. There are, on that route, approximately, as follows:-- - - Miles. Average height - above the sea. - From Chicago to Omaha, 500 1,000 feet. - Near Cheyenne, 500 3,300 " - Cooper's, 100 7,300 " - Promontory Point, 485 6,200 " - Humboldt, 406 4,750 " - Reno, 130 4,000 " - Auburn, 118 4,400 " - Sacramento, 36 300 " - San Francisco, 100 50 " - ----- - Chicago to San Francisco 2,375 - -"On the Northern Pacific line there need be but two principal summits, -whilst on the other there are four, the lowest of which is about a -thousand feet higher than the highest on the northern route. If, -therefore, the roads were the same length between the Pacific waters -and the great lakes and navigable rivers east of the Rocky Mountains, -the advantage would be largely in favor of the Northern route; but this -actual distance is three hundred and seventy-five miles less, and the -equated distance for ascents and descents in its favor will be very -considerable" (Report, p. 45). - -From the explorations and surveys already made by the engineers, it is -believed that there need be no gradient exceeding sixty feet per mile -between Lake Superior and the Pacific Ocean. If such be the fact, it -will enable the company to transport freight much more cheaply than the -central line can carry it, where the grades are one hundred and sixteen -feet to the mile, over the Sierra Nevada Range. To those who never have -had time to examine the subject, the following tabular statement in -regard to the power of a thirty-ton engine on different grades will be -interesting. An engine weighing thirty tons will draw loaded cars on -different grades as follows:-- - - On a level 94 cars - 10 feet per mile ascending 56 " - 20 " " " " 40 " - 30 " " " " 30-1/2 " - 40 " " " " 25 " - 50 " " " " 20-1/2 " - 60 " " " " 17 " - 70 " " " " 15 " - 80 " " " " 13 " - 90 " " " " 11-1/2 " - 100 " " " " 10 " - 110 " " " " 8-1/2 " - 120 " " " " 6 " - -A full car-load is reckoned at seven tons. It has been found in the -operation of railroads that an engine which will move one hundred and -seventeen tons on a grade sixty feet per mile will move only about -fifty tons on a grade of one hundred and sixteen feet. A second glance -at the diagram (p. 48) shows us that the sum of ascents and descents on -the line already constructed must be vastly greater than that now under -construction; and inasmuch as it is impossible to carry a load up or -down hill without costing something, it follows that this road can be -operated more economically than a line crossing four mountain-ranges, -and the ultimate result will be a cheapening of transportation across -the continent, and a great development of the Asiatic trade. - -Throughout the entire distance between Lake Superior and the Pacific -Ocean along the line, the husbandman may turn the sod with his plough, -the herdsman fatten his flocks, the lumberman reap the harvest of the -forests, or the miner gather golden ore. - -A Bureau of Emigration is to be established by the company, which will -be of invaluable service to the emigrant. - -Many persons in the Eastern and Middle States are desirous of moving to -the Northwest, but it is hard to cut loose from old associations, to -leave home and friends and strike out alone upon the prairie; they want -company. The human race is gregarious. There are not many who care to -be hermits, and most of us prefer society to solitude. - -This feature of human nature is to be kept in view, and it will be -the aim of the Bureau of Emigration to offer every facility to those -seeking new homes to take their friends with them. - -Upon the completion of every twenty-five miles of road, the company -will be put in possession of forty sections of land per mile. The -government will hold the even-numbered sections, and the company those -bearing the odd numbers. - -The land will be surveyed, plotted, and the distinctive features of -each section described. Emigration offices are to be established in our -own country as well as abroad, where maps, plans, and specifications -will be found. - -One great drawback to the settlement of the prairie lands of Illinois -and Iowa has been the want of timber for the construction of houses. -Persons with limited means, having only their own hands, found it hard -to get started on a treeless prairie. Their first work is to obtain -a house. The Bureau propose to help the man who is anxious to help -himself on in the world, by putting up a portable house for him on -the land that he may select. The houses will be small, but they will -serve till the settler can get his farm fenced in, his ground ploughed, -and two or three crops of wheat to market. The abundance of timber in -Minnesota will enable the company to carry out this new feature of -emigration. - -It will be an easy matter for a family from Lowell, another from -Methuen, a third from Andover, a fourth from Reading, a fifth from -Haverhill, to select their land in a body and start a Massachusetts -colony in the Seat of Empire. - -Far better this method than for each family to go out by itself. Going -as a colony they will carry the moral atmosphere of their old homes -with them. They will have a school in operation the week after their -arrival. And on Sabbath morning, swelling upward on the summer air, -sweeter than the lay of lark amid the flowers, will ascend the songs -of the Sunday school established in their new home. Looking forward -with ardent hope to prosperous years, they will still look beyond the -earthly to the heavenly, and sing,-- - - "My heavenly home is bright and fair, - Nor pain nor death shall enter there." - -This is no fancy sketch; it is but a description of what has been -done over and over again in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and all -the Western States. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company want their -lands settled by an industrious, thrifty, energetic people, who prize -everything that goes to make up the highest grade of civilization, and -they are ready to render such help as no colonies have yet had. - -The land will be sold to actual settlers at low rates, and on liberal -terms of payment. The portable houses will be sold at cost, transported -on the cars, and set up for the colonists if they desire it. - -The Bureau will be put in operation as soon as it can be systematically -organized, and I doubt not that thousands will avail themselves of its -advantages to establish their future homes near a railroad which will -give the shortest line across the continent, marked by low gradients, -running through the lowest passes of the Rocky Mountains, through -a country capable of cultivation all the way from the lakes to the -Pacific. - -Am I dreaming? - -Across this belt of land between Lake Superior and the Pacific lies the -world's great future highway. The physical features of this portion of -the continent are favorable for the development of every element of a -high civilization. - -Take one more look at the map, and observe the situation of the -St. Lawrence and the lakes, furnishing water-carriage for freight -half-way from ocean to ocean,--the prairies extending to the base of -the Rocky Mountains,--the one summit to be crossed,--the bays, inlets, -and harbors of the Pacific shore laved by ocean currents and warmed -by winds wafted from the equator to the Arctic Sea. Observe also the -shortest lines of latitude. - -The geographical position is in the main axial line of the world's -grand commercial movement. San Francisco and Puget Sound are the two -western gateways of the continent. Rapid as has been the advancement of -civilization around the Golden Gate, magnificent as its future may be, -yet equally grand and majestic will be the northern portal of the great -Republic. Not only will it be on the shortest possible route between -England and Asia, but it will be in the direct line between England and -the Asiatic dominions of Russia. - -While we are building our railroads westward from the Atlantic to the -Pacific, the Emperor of Russia is extending his from the Ural Mountains -eastward, down the valley of the Amoor, to open communication with -China and Japan. The shortest route of travel round the world a few -years hence will lie through the northern section of this continent and -through Siberia. The Himalaya Range of mountains and the deserts of -Central Asia will be impassible barriers to railroads between India -and China, or Central Europe and the East; but the valley of the Amoor -is fertile, and there is no fairer section of the Czar's dominions than -Siberia. From Puget Sound straight across the Pacific will be found, a -few years hence, the shortest route around the world. - -Farm-houses dot the landscape, roses climb by cottage-doors, bees fill -the air with their humming, bringing home to their hives the sweets -gathered from far-off prairie-flowers; the prattle of children's voices -floats upon the air, the verdant waste becomes an Eden, villages, -towns, and cities spring into existence. A great metropolis rises upon -the Pacific shore, where the winter air is laden with the perfume of -ever-blooming flowers. - -The ships of all nations lie at anchor in the land-locked bays, or -shake out their sails for a voyage to the Orient. Steamships come and -go, laden with the teas of China and Japan, the coffee of Java, the -spices of Sumatra. I hear the humming of saws, the pounding of hammers, -the flying of shuttles, the click and clatter of machinery. By every -mill-stream springs up a town. The slopes are golden with ripening -grain. The forest, the field, the mine, the river, alike yield their -abundance to the ever-growing multitude. - -Such is the outlook towards the future. Will the intellectual and -moral development keep pace with the physical growth? If those are -wanting, the advancement will be towards Sodom. The future man of -the Northwest will have American, Norse, Celtic, and Saxon blood in -his veins. His countenance, in the pure, dry, electric air, will be -as fresh as the morning. His muscles will be iron, his nerves steel. -Vigor will characterize his every action,--for climate gives quality to -the blood, strength to the muscles, power to the brain. Indolence is -characteristic of people living in the tropics, and energy of those in -temperate zones. - -The citizen of the Northwest will be a freeman. No shackles will bind -him, nor will he wear a lock upon his lips. To the emigrant from the -Old World the crossing of the ocean is an act of emancipation; it is -like the Marseillaise,--it fires him with new hopes and aspirations. - - "Here the free spirit of mankind at length - Throws its last fetters off, and who shall place - A limit to the giant's unchained strength, - Or curb his swiftness in the forward race? - For like the comet's way through infinite space, - Stretches the long untravelled path of light - Into the depth of ages; we may trace, - Distant, the brightening glory of its flight, - Till the receding rays are lost to human sight." - -I do not look with desponding eyes into the future. The nations -everywhere,--in Europe and Asia,--the new and the old, are moving -onward and upward as never before, and America leads them. Railroads, -steamships, school-houses, printing-presses, free platforms and -pulpits, an open Bible, are the propelling forces of the nineteenth -century. It remains only for the Christian men and women of this -country to give the Bible, the Sunday and the common school to the -coming millions, to insure a greatness and grandeur to America far -surpassing anything in human history. - -It will not be for America alone; for, under the energizing powers of -this age the entire human race is moving on towards a destiny unseen -except to the eye of faith, but unmistakably grand and glorious. - -I have been an observer of the civilization of Europe, and have seen -the kindlings of new life, at the hands of England and the United -States, in India and China; and through the drifting haze of the future -I behold nations rising from the darkness of ancient barbarism into -the light of modern civilization, and the radiant cross once reared on -Calvary throwing its peaceful beams afar,--over ocean, valley, lake, -river, and mountain, illuming all the earth. - -Situated where the great stream of human life will pour its mightiest -flood from ocean to ocean, beneficently endowed with nature's riches, -and illumed by such a light, there will be no portion of all earth's -wide domain surpassing in glory and grandeur this future Seat of Empire. - - -Cambridge: Printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company. - - - - - GREAT CENTRAL ROUTE - via Niagara Falls. - - MICHIGAN CENTRAL & GREAT WESTERN - RAILROADS. - - From Boston and New York to Chicago, connecting - there with all the great Railways, - North, South, and West. - - =Four Trains Daily.= - - Pullman's Palace, Hotel, Drawing-Room, and - Sleeping Cars on Express Trains. - - - FREIGHT TRAINS. - - Freight taken through by the "=BLUE LINE=" - without breaking bulk, and in as short - time as by any other line. - - - PASSENGER AGENTS. - - P. K. RANDALL, Boston. - CHARLES E. NOBLE, New York. - HENRY C. WENTWORTH, Chicago. - - * * * * * - - THE FIRST DIVISION OF THE - St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. - - - LAND DEPARTMENT. - - THE COMPANY NOW OFFERS FOR SALE - =1,000,000 Acres of Land=, - - Located along their two Railroad Lines, viz.: From St. Paul, via St. - Anthony, Anoka, St. Cloud, and Sauk Rapids, to Watab; and from St. - Anthony, via Minneapolis, Wayzata, Crow River, - Waverly, and Forest City, to the Western - Boundary of the State. - - =THESE LANDS COMPRISE TIMBER, MEADOW, - AND PRAIRIE LANDS,= - - And are all within easy distance of the Railroad, in the midst of - considerable Settlements, convenient to Churches and Schools. - - -Inducement to Settlers. - -The attention of persons whose limited means forbid the purchase of -a homestead in the older States, is particularly invited to these -lands. The farms are sold in tracts of 40 or 80 acres and upwards, at -prices ranging from $5.00 to $10.00 per acre. Cash sales are always One -Dollar per acre less than Credit sales. In the latter case 10 years are -granted if required. - -EXAMPLE.--80 acres at $8.00 per acre, on long credit,--$640.00. A part -payment on the principal is always desired; but in case the means -of the settler are very limited, the Company allows him to pay only -One Year's Interest down, dividing the principal in ten equal annual -payments, with seven per cent interest each year on the unpaid balance: - - Int. Prin. - 1st payment $44.80 - 2d " 40.32 $64 - 3d " 35.84 64 - 4th " 31.36 64 - 5th " 26.28 64 - 6th " 22.40 64 - 7th " 17.92 64 - 8th " 13.44 64 - 9th " 8.96 64 - 10th " 4.48 64 - 11th " 64 - -The purchaser has the privilege to pay up any time within the 10 years, -thereby saving the payment of interest. - -The same land may be purchased for $560.00 cash. Any other information -will be furnished on application in person, or by letter, in English, -French or German, addressed to - - =LAND COMMISSIONER, - First Division St. Paul & Pacific R. R. Co., - SAINT PAUL. MINN.= - - * * * * * - - LAKE SHORE AND MICHIGAN - Southern Railway. - - THE GREAT SOUTH SHORE LINE BETWEEN - =BUFFALO AND CHICAGO.= - -All trains on the New York Central Hudson River Railroad, and all -trains on the Erie Railway, form sure and reliable connections at -Buffalo with the - -GREAT LAKE SHORE LINE - -All the great railways in the Northwest and Southwest connect at -Chicago, Toledo, or Cleveland with this Line. - -Palace, Drawing-Room, Sleeping Coaches daily between New York and -Chicago, through WITHOUT CHANGE. - - -FAST FREIGHT LINES. - -The following lines transport freight between Boston, New York, and -principal points in New England to Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, and -principal points in the Southwest and Northwest, _without break of bulk -or transfer_. - - RED LINE, WHITE LINE, - SOUTH SHORE LINE, EMPIRE LINE, - COMMERCIAL LINE FROM BALTIMORE. - -Passengers or shippers of freight will find it to their interest to -call on the Agents of these Lines. - - F. E. MORSE, - _Gen'l Western Pass'r Ag't_, - Chicago, Ill. - - CHS. F. HATCH, - _Gen'l Superintendent_, - Cleveland, O. - - J. A. BURCH, - _Gen'l Eastern Pass'r Ag't_, - Buffalo, N. Y. - - * * * * * - - VERMONT CENTRAL - R. R. Line. - -The =GREAT Northern line= and =most direct= route from =BOSTON= and -=ALL POINTS= in =New England= to the =CANADAS, DETROIT, CHICAGO=, - -AND - -=All points West, Northwest, & Southwest=. - - -NEW SLEEPING-CARS, - -the most elegant from =Boston=, and =SPLENDID DRAWING-ROOM CARS= run on -every express train, connecting on the =Grand Trunk Railway= with - -=Pullman's Palace, Hotel, and Sleeping Cars=; - -this being the =only line= affording such comfort and luxury to the -passenger between the East and West. - - - TIME FREIGHT - VIA - National Despatch Line. - -=Freight= taken for =Chicago=, =St. Louis=, and =all points West -without breaking bulk or transfer=, in as =short time= as any other -line. - ---> For full information relating to time contracts, Tickets, &c., &c., -please address or call at - - =No. 65 Washington Street (Sears Building), Boston. - LANSING MILLIS, General Agent.= - - -(=Montreal Office, No. 30 Great St. James St.=) - -(=New York Office, No. 9 Astor House.=) - - * * * * * - -Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad. - -The line of this road is from St. Paul, the head of navigation on the -Mississippi River, to the head of Lake Superior, a distance of 140 -miles. It connects at St. Paul with each of the long lines of railroad -traversing the vast and fertile regions of Minnesota in all directions, -and converging at St. Paul. - -It connects the commerce and business of the Mississippi and Minnesota -Rivers, the California Central Railroad, and the Northern Pacific -Railroad, with Lake Superior and the commercial system of the great -lakes, and makes the outlet or commercial track to the lakes, over -which must pass the commerce of a region of country second to none on -the American continent in capacity for production. - -The land grant made by the government of the United States and by the -State of Minnesota, in aid of the construction of this road, is the -largest in quantity and most valuable in kind ever made in aid of any -railway in either of the American States. - -This grant amounts to seventeen square miles or sections [10,880 -acres] of land for each mile of the road, and in the aggregate to =One -Million, Six Hundred and Thirty-two Thousand Acres of Land=. - -These lands are for the most part well timbered with pine, butternut, -white oak, sugar maple, and other valuable timber, and are perhaps -better adapted to the raising of stock, winter wheat, corn, oats, and -most kinds of agricultural - -These lands are well watered with running streams and innumerable -lakes, and within the limits of the land belonging to the Company there -is an abundance of water-power for manufacturing purposes. - -A glance at the map, and an intelligent comprehension of the course of -trade, and way to the markets of the Eastern cities and to Europe, for -the products of this section of the Northwest, will at once satisfy -any one who examines the question that the lands of this Company, -by reason of the low freights at which their products reach market, -have a value--independent of that which arises from their superior -quality--which can hardly be over-estimated. - -Twenty cents saved in sending a bushel of wheat to market adds four -dollars to the yearly product of an acre of wheat land, and what -is true of this will apply to all other articles of farm produce -transported to market, and demonstrates that the value of lands depends -largely on the price at which their products can be carried to market. - - =THE LANDS OF THIS COMPANY ARE - NOW OFFERED TO= - ~Immigrants and Settlers~ - =at the most favorable rates, as to time and terms of payment=. - - =W. L. BANNING, - President and Land Commissioner, Saint Paul, Minnesota.= - - - - -"CARLETON'S" WORKS. - - -[Illustration: OUR NAGPORE COACH.] - - OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD; - OR, - =WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO SEE=. - -By CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN. Containing several full-page Maps, showing -steamship lines and routes of travel, and profusely illustrated with -more than 100 engravings, reproduced from photographs and original -sketches. Crown octavo. Morocco Cloth, $3.00; Half Calf, $5.50; Library -Edition, $3.50. - - "In Mr. Charles C. Coffin we have a traveller after the latest - and best transatlantic pattern. He has thrown himself thoroughly - into the spirit of his age and race; yet, while loyal to the - backbone, and indorsing to the full his country's claims to - present grandeur and future pre-eminence, he has a corner in his - soul for the merits of other lands, and is open to the lessons - of Old-World wisdom. Rapid as was his flight, and superficial as - was his purview of the multitudinous objects that daily crowded - his path, his powers of observation are, we are bound to say, - keen and vigorous, and his judgments upon men and things both - shrewd and impartial. Be it the aspects of nature, the historical - monuments, the national traits, or the social idiosyncrasies that - come before him, we find him invariably alive to what is most - beautiful or august or original or piquant, as the case may be. - He is at all times happy in hitting off the salient features, or - picking out the weak spots, in local life and manners.... The - history of British rule in India, and the tokens of material and - social advancement everywhere beside his path, are themes after - the American's own heart. We have never seen a more graphic or - telling sketch of Anglo-Indian life and characteristics within - anything like the compass of Mr. Coffin's flying experiences.... - Mr. Coffin's studies of life in China are eminently piquant and - original. Nothing is too old or too new to escape his notice.... - The wood-cuts interspersed among his pages deserve a word of - commendation. They are drawn with vigor and truth, often showing - touches of quaint and quiet humor. Altogether, if there is nothing - new under the sun, Our New Way Round the World shows there may - be much novelty and freshness in the mode of telling even a - thrice-told tale."--_Saturday Review (London)._ - - "The author of this interesting and valuable tour of the globe - starts from New York, visits every city of note in Europe, sails - from Marseilles to Alexandria, thence to Cairo, and Suez Canal, - India, China, and Japan, returning by the way of California. - Through this wide field for observation and research, his keen - habits of characterization, and his vivid powers of description - make him an exceedingly agreeable travelling companion. Mr. Coffin - has the very happy faculty of giving to a really thrice-told - tale of travel a freshness that carries the reader to the end of - the volume with unabated interest. His tour in the interior of - the British possessions in India is full of interest,--and his - elaborate pictures of China at the present time are valuable, - showing the actual character of the people; the tenacity of their - prejudices, which appear to resist all innovation from 'outside - barbarians,' is most graphically depicted, and is worthy the - attention of our politicians and speculative philanthropists. The - book on the whole is a valuable addition to our native literature, - written as it is from a distinctive American stand-point view - of foreign nations. Numerous spirited designs, illustrative - of habits and manners, adorn the work, together with maps in - abundance."--_N. Y. Express._ - - "A model record of travel, over fields comparatively unknown. - It combines, in a remarkable degree, skill and judgment in the - selection of facts and points, with clearness, accuracy, and - proportion in their statement: a natural ease and grace of - expression, with a genial spirit, and a broad, true sympathy - with everything human. A very large amount of instructive and - attractive matter is compressed in its pages. The illustrations, - too, are numerous, and all in admirable keeping with the - narrative. In these, and in the clear, fair, readable type, the - publishers have well done their part. - - "We confess to a deeper, and consciously healthier interest in the - perusal than in the reading of any similar volume. Very heartily, - therefore, do we commend the book to the winter-evening family - circle, sure that it will instruct and charm alike both young and - old."--_N. Y. Christian World._ - - "The book has many excellent illustrations, and is written with - all the loveliness and instructiveness for which 'Carleton' became - famous during the war, as a war correspondent of the Boston - Journal. The book is gossipy and entertaining in a high degree, - and will interest young and old."--_New York Evening Post._ - -*** _For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, to any address, -by the Publishers_, - - =FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., - 124 Tremont Street, Boston.= - - -[Illustration] - -FOUR YEARS OF FIGHTING. - -A volume of Personal Observation with the Army and Navy, from the first -Battle of Bull Run to the Fall of Richmond. 1 vol. 8vo. With Steel -Portrait of the Author, and numerous Illustrations. Cloth, $3.50; -Sheep, $4.50. - - -=From Senator Yates, of Illinois.= - - ...From the accuracy with which you relate those incidents which - fell under my personal observation, I am persuaded that the whole - volume forms a very valuable addition to the historic literature - of the heroic age of the Republic. - - I am, sir, your obliged friend, - =RICH'D YATES= - -*** _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price -by the Publishers_, - -=FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston.= - - -[Illustration] - -MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. - -A Book for Boys. By "CARLETON." 1 vol. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50. - - "It is written by one of the best of the war correspondents, - 'Carleton,' of the _Boston Journal_, whose opportunities for - observing all the celebrated battles of the war were unsurpassed. - The book is really a history of the first year of the war, and - describes the principal battles of that period,--Bull Run, Fort - Henry, Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, Columbus, New Madrid, - Island No. 10, and Memphis, in part of which the writer was, and - all of which he saw."--_Buffalo Express._ - -*** _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price -by the Publishers_, - -=FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston.= - - -[Illustration] - -FOLLOWING THE FLAG. - -From August, 1861, to November, 1862, with the Army of the Potomac. By -"CARLETON." 1 vol. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50. - - "'Carleton' is by all odds the best writer for boys on the war. - His 'Days and Nights on the Battle-Field' made him famous among - the young folks. To read his books is equal in interest to a - bivouac or a battle, and is free from the hard couch and harder - bread of the one, and the jeopardizing bullets of the other. To - be entertained and informed, we would rather peruse 'Following - the Flag' than study a dozen octavo volumes written by a - world-renowned historian."--_Indianapolis Journal._ - -*** _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price -by the Publishers_. - -=FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston.= - - -WINNING HIS WAY. - -BY "CARLETON." - -1 vol. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.25. - - CLEMENT, CLINTON CO., ILLINOIS. - - MR. CARLETON. - - _Dear Sir,_--Is "Winning His Way" a true story? - - Is the story published in book form? - - Where does Paul live? - - I am very much interested in the story, but my father thinks it is - all fiction as he calls it. - - If you will answer this you will oblige a boy ten years old, who has - read it four times, and who means to read it again when I go over to - Aunt Leach's. - - Paul's ardent admirer, - - JOHN W. SCOTT. - April 16, 1870. - - - BOSTON, May 7, 1870. - - JOHN W. SCOTT. - - _My Dear Young Friend,_--I am very much gratified to hear that - you are so much interested in "Winning His Way," which has been - published in book form by Messrs. Fields, Osgood, & Co. - - You ask if it is a true story. I will tell you about it: I knew a - brave boy who went into the army and fought just as Paul fought, - who was left on the field for dead, and who was taken to a rebel - prison, and I had him in mind all the time I was writing the story. - - That is all true about painting the pigs, and shutting the - school-house door, and tying the hay in front of the old horse's - nose. - - So you can tell your father that the things did not happen just in - the order they are given in the book, but that I tried to make the - story true to life. - - Your friend, - - CARLETON. - - - "A story of a poor Western boy who, with true American grit in - his composition, worked his way into a position of honorable - independence, and who was among the first to rally round the flag - when the day of his country's peril came. There is a sound, manly - tone about the book, a freedom from nam-by-pambyism, worthy of all - commendation."--_Sunday School Times._ - -"One of the best of stories for boys."--_Hartford Courant._ - -*** _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price -by the Publishers_, - -=FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston.= - - - - -Transcriber's Note - -Footnotes have been moved to the end of the paragraphs to which they -refer. Illustrations have been moved near the relevant section of the -text. - -"=" is used in the text to indicate bolded text, and "~" is used to -indicate a fancy font. - -On Page 255, "-->" is used to denote a hand with the finger pointing -right. - -In the advertisements at the end of the book, "***" is used to denote -an inverted asterism. I have separated the ads by asterisks. - -Inconsistencies have been retained in spelling, hyphenation, -punctuation, and grammar, except where indicated in the list below: - - - Page number added to Table of Contents on Page v - - Dash added after "Mud-Wagon." on Page vi - - Dash added after "Railroad." on Page vii - - Period moved from before to after bracket on Page 96 - - "timber" changed to "Timber" on Page 96 - - "spot" changed to "sport" on Page 121 - - "offer" changed to "offers" on Page 168 - - Quotation mark added before "The" on Page 222 - - Quotation mark added before "Compare" on Page 223 - - "agricul tural" changed to "agricultural" on Page 237 - - Single quote added after "Carleton" on Page 242 - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Seat of Empire, by Charles Carleton Coffin - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAT OF EMPIRE *** - -***** This file should be named 44072.txt or 44072.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/0/7/44072/ - -Produced by D Alexander, Linda Hamilton, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from scanned images of public domain -material from the Google Print project.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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