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THE 
 
 SEAT OF EMPIRE 
 
 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. Sewakd, Speech at St. Paul, 1860. 
 
 1.A.0GDEN. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 
 1870. 
 
 ^ 
 
riot 
 
 ,C(o5 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 CHARLES CAELETON COFFIN, 
 
 in the Clerk's Oflace of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 8y transfer 
 l>. C. PttWic LIfcrwy 
 J'JN 2 8 1940 
 
 University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
 Cambridge. 
 
■WITHDRAWN 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN GEEGORY 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, 
 
 ^fjis Volume 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 PUB! ir liBRAF.''. 
 
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 Min- 
 nesota. — Winona. — St. Paul. — Minneapolis. — The Father 
 of Waters in Harness 
 
 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 North- 
 west. — Elevations across the Continent. — The Future . . 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 
 
 Down the Valley of the Red River. — Breckeuridge. — Fort Ab- 
 ercrombie. — Climate. — Winters at Winnipeg. — Burlingtoa 
 
 — The Emigrant. — Father Genin. — Mackenzie. — Harman. — 
 Sir John Richardson. — Captain Palliser. — Father De Smeti^ 
 
 — Winters on the Saskatohawan. — Snow-Fall . . .51 
 
 1. A.U^-.L. . 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 Winnipeggers. — Ride over the Prairie. — Dakota City. — 
 Georgetown. — Hudson Bay Company Teams. — Parting Avltii 
 our Friends. — The 43d Parallel. — Dakota. — Wyoming. — / 
 Montana. — Idaho. — Oregon. — Washington. — British Co- 
 lumbia. — Distances. — Fisheries of the Pacific. — IMr. Sew- 
 ard's Speech . . . o 77 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 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 YI. 
 
 ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 
 
 Noon Lunch. — Toasting Pork. — A Montana Dutchman. — 
 Emigrant Trains. — Camping at Night. — Wheat of Min- 
 nesota. — The State in 1849. — A Word to Young Men. — 
 Boys once more. — Our Last Camp-Fire .... 123 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 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 Jlud-Wagon. 
 Grindstone. — Kettle River. — Superior 137 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DULUTH. 
 
 Duluth. — Minnesota Point. — The Projected Breakwater. — 
 Comparison with the Suez Canal. — The Town. — Period of 
 Navigation. — The Lalve Superior and Mississippi Railroad. 
 Transportation. — Elevators. — St. Louis River. — Minnesota 
 Slate Quarry. — An Indian Chief and his Followers. — Rail- 
 road Lands. — Manufacturing Industry. — Terms of the Rail- 
 road Company 154 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MINING REGION. 
 
 The Apostle Islands. — Bayfield. — The Harbor.— Breakfast 
 with Captain Vaughn. — Ashland. — Big Trout. — Onto- 
 nagon. — Approach to^ Marquette. — The Harbor. — The 
 Town. — Discovery of Iron Ore. — Mining Companies. — Va- 
 rieties 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 Emi- 
 grate. — Prospective Development. — The Tide of Emigra- 
 tion 186 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 How Communities grow. — Humboldt. — What I saw in 1846. 
 
 — The Pacific. Coast. — River-Svstems. — Lewis and Clark. 
 
viu CONTENTS. 
 
 — Jeff Davis. — Charter of the Company. — The Projectors. 
 
 — The Line. — From Lake Superior to the Mississippi. — 
 To the Rocky Mountains. — Deer Lodge Pass. — The West- 
 ern Slope. — Mr. Roberts's Report. — Snow Blockades.— Ele- 
 vations. — PoAver of Locomotives. — Bureau of Emigration. 
 
 — Portable Houses. — Help to Emigi-ants, — The Future . 207 
 
THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 
 
 LAST summer I cut loose from all care, and 
 enjoyed a few weeks of freedom and recrea- 
 tion with a party of gentlemen on the frontier 
 between Lake Superior and the Missouri Eiver. 
 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 Bos- 
 ton 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 " hav- 
 ing a talk about the Northwest," while others have 
 applied by letter for additional or specific infor- 
 mation, and others still have requested a repub- 
 lication 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 
 
 1 A 
 
2 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 gi^'es 
 me pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to 
 Major- General Humphreys, in charge of the Bu- 
 reau, 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 Piailroad and the JSTorthern 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. 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 3 
 
 " All aboard for the Northwest ! " 
 
 So shouted the stalwart porter of the Sherman 
 House, Chicago, on the mornmg 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 Chicao'O and Northwestern Eailroad. 
 
 o 
 
 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 Eiver. 
 
 It Avas 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 cosmo- 
 politan State of Wisconsin, as we sped over its 
 fertile prahies 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 
 
4 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 the shamrock, thistle, and harp of Erin; Ger- 
 mans were drinking lager beer, singing songs, and 
 smoking their meerschanms. 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 va- 
 rious w^ays 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. Enter- 
 ing 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 
 w^ith a bass-viol, and two Germans with violins, 
 Vv^ere tuning their instruments and rosining their 
 bows. 
 
 We were met upon the threshold by a rosy- 
 cheeked damsel, who gleefully exclaimed, — 
 
 " 0, 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 '11 
 dance neaw, won't ye ? I want a partner. 0, ye 
 will neaw. I know ye will, and ye 11 call off the 
 changes tew, won't ye ? N'eaw dew." 
 
 N'ot 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 cov- 
 ered with dust, and in sad plight for the ball-room. 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 5 
 
 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 counte- 
 nance, 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 gentle- 
 man of the party came to a shuffle. 
 
 He is the Daniel Lambert of the Mississippi, — 
 immense and gigantic, and having great develop- 
 ment round the equator. 
 
 Quadrille, cotillon, and waltz, and genuine west- 
 ern 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 vio- 
 lins and the shuftling 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. 
 
6 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 A company of Norwegian emigrants that came 
 with lis 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 sc[uare yard of earth 
 thrown up. 
 
 There is no discussion of the eight-hour ques- 
 tion 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 strug- 
 gle, 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 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 7 
 
 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, politi- 
 cally, 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 Scandi- 
 navian language. 
 
 The steamer is ploughing the Mississippi 
 acjainst 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 southw^estern corner 
 and travel due north, I should have a journey 
 of three hundred and sixty miles to accom- 
 plish before reaching the northern boundary, — 
 
8 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 the line between the United States and British 
 America. 
 
 Starting from Pembina, afc the northwest corner 
 of the State, on the Eed Eiver 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 Eainy 
 Lake, I might pass through the wonderful water- 
 way of lakes and rivers reaching to Lake Supe- 
 rior, — 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 boun- 
 daries thus described is estimated at 84,000 square 
 miles, or 54,760,000 acres. It is a territory larger 
 than Maine, ^ew Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
 setts, Ehode 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 chmb 
 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 open- 
 ings; but, speaking in general terms, the entire 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 9 
 
 country east of the river is a forest, whicii through 
 the coming years Avill resound with the axe of 
 the hmiberman. 
 
 AVlien we go up the Mississippi eighty miles 
 above St. Paul to St. Cloud, we shall find the Sauk 
 Eiver coming in from the west ; and there the Mis- 
 sissippi is no longer the boundary of the timbered 
 lands, but the forest reaches across the stream 
 westward to Otter-Tail Eiver, a distance of more 
 than one hundred miles. The Sauk Eiver is its 
 southern boundary. 
 
 All the region north of the Sauk, at the head- 
 waters of the Mississippi and north of Lake Supe- 
 rior, is well supplied with timber. A belt of woods 
 forty miles wide, starting from the Crow- Wing 
 Eiver, extends south nearly to the Iowa boundary. 
 It is broken here and there by prairie openings 
 and fertile meadows. The tract is known through- 
 out the IsTorthwest 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 Min- 
 nesota is one of the most favored States of the 
 Union. 
 
 The formations of the bluffs now and then re- 
 mind us of old castles upon the Ehine. They 
 are, upon an average, three hundred and fifty feet 
 1* 
 
10 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 tlie bluffs disappear, 
 and the surface of the river is but a few feet below 
 the general level of the country, which is about 
 qne thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 It is one of the remarkable topographical fea- 
 tures of the continent, that from St. Paul to the 
 Peace Eiver, which empties into the Athabasca, 
 the elevation is about the same, though the dis- 
 tance is more than one thousand miles. Through- 
 out this great extent of territory, especially in Min- 
 nesota, 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, de- 
 lightfully 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 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 11 
 
 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 com- 
 pleted to the Minnesota Eiver, 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 Eailway 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 inliabitants. It was a place where 
 steamers stopped to take wood and discharge a 
 few packages of freight, but to-day it has a popu- 
 lation 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 tlie carpenters. It already contains thir- 
 teen churches and a Normal School with three 
 hundred scholars, who are preparing to teach the 
 children of the State, though the probabilities are 
 
12 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 that most of them will soon teach their own off- 
 spring 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." 
 
 iN'ot 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 ob- 
 jects of interest along the way. By a winding road, 
 now running under a high bluff where the lime- 
 stone 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 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 13 
 
 grain, in flower now, rippling and waving in tlie 
 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 isl- 
 ands these in the OTeat ocean of wheat reachino- 
 westward, northward, and southward. 
 
 We are astonished when tlie train nears St. 
 Charles, a toAvn of two thousand inhabitants, look- 
 ing marvellously like a ^ew England village, to 
 see a school-house just completed at a cost of 
 $ 15,000 ! and still wider open we our eyes at 
 Kochester, 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 Owa- 
 tona, a town of about three thousand inhabitants. 
 
 We are in Steele County. The little ri\ailets 
 here meandering through the prairie and flowing 
 southward reach the Mississippi only after crossing 
 the State of Iowa, while those running northward 
 join the Mississij)pi through the Minnesota Eiver. 
 
 Here, as at Eochester, we behold charming land- 
 scapes, 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 
 
14 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 1870 will probably make it 15,000. So civiliza- 
 tion advances, not only here, but all through the 
 Northwest, especially where there are railroad fa- 
 cilities. 
 
 From Owatona we turn north and pass through 
 Eice County, containing eighteen townships. It is 
 one of the best-timbered counties west of the IMis- 
 sissippi .; there are large tracts of oak, maple, but- 
 ternut, 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 natu- 
 ral 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 al- 
 ready 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 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 15 
 
 and Dumb Asylum, two Congregational churches, 
 also one Baptist, one Methodist, and one E]3isco- 
 pal. They have excellent water-power on the 
 Cannon Eiver. Five flouring-mills have already 
 been erected. 
 
 Fourteen miles beyond this place we find North- 
 field 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 characteris- 
 tics of this thoroughly wide-awake town. 
 
 A mile or two beyond Northfield we enter Da- 
 kota 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 popula- 
 tion is estimated at 20,000, — one third of them 
 Irish, one third Americans, one quarter Germans, 
 and the remainder of all nationalities. The lar- 
 gest town is Hastings, on the Mississippi, contain- 
 ing about four thousand inhabitants. The Has- 
 tings and Dakota Eailroad, extending west, crosses 
 the Milwaukie and St. Paul at Farmin^^ton, 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 west- 
 ward, like all the others, to reach the territory of 
 Dakota and the Missouri Eiver. 
 
 On over the prairies we fly, reaching the oldest 
 
16 • THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 ren- 
 dezvous, 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 SnelHng, admirably located, looms grand- 
 ly above the high steep bluff of the northern 
 bank of the Minnesota Eiver. It was one of the 
 strongest posts on the frontier, but it is as useless 
 now as a last year's swaUow's-nest. The frontier 
 is three hundred miles farther on. 
 
 Upon the early maps of Minnesota I find a mag- 
 nificent 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 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 17 
 
 another on the north bank, both rismg perpendicii- 
 laiiy 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 drive- 
 way 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 l^orthern Indians, the 
 Dakotas, had their capital, — a cave in the sand- 
 stone 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 
 
18 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 people, crowded with farmers' wagons laden with 
 wheat and flour ; to read the signs, '' Young Men's 
 Christian Association," " St. Paul Library Associa- 
 tion " ; 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 civi- 
 lization 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 confi- 
 dence to tlie 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 ^lissis- 
 sippi to St. Cloud, westward through Minneapolis 
 to the Pted Ptiver of the ^orth, southwest to touch 
 the Missouri at Sioux City, due south over the line 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 19 
 
 by which we reached the city, down the river to- 
 wards Chicago, and northeast to Lake Superior. 
 As a spider extends its threads, so St. Paul, or per- 
 haps, more properly speaking, St. Paul and Minne- 
 apolis together, are throwing out their lines of 
 communication, making themselves the centre of 
 the great Northwest systems of railways. The in- 
 terests of St. Paul are mercantile, those of Minne- 
 apolis manufacturing. They are nearly five hun- 
 dred miles distant from Chicago, — far enough to 
 be an independent commercial, manufacturing, and 
 distributing centre. That such is to be their des- 
 tiny 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 
 miglity 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 riolit hand are fields of wavino- OTain, and 
 white cottages half hidden in groves of oak and 
 maple. We see Xew England thrift and enter- 
 prise, for the six States east of the Hudson liave 
 been sending their wide-awake sons and daughters 
 
20 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 to this section for the last twenty years. The gen- 
 tleman with whom we are riding came here from 
 the woods of Maine, a lumberman from the Penob- 
 scot, and has been the architect of his own for- 
 tune. He knows all about the Upper Mississippi, 
 its tributaries, and the chain of lakes lying north- 
 west of Lake Superior. He is Mayor of Minne- 
 apolis, 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 w^ood-choppers and rafts- 
 men. 
 
 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 w^ould 
 be most in place on the stage of a theatre, and 
 which would make him a guy in any American 
 town. ]N'ot so do the Lord Mayors of the iN'ortli- 
 west appear in public. They understand practical 
 life. It is one of the characteristics of our demo- 
 cratic government that it makes people practical 
 in all things. 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 21 
 
 In 1865 tlie 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 Eeport, 
 greater than the whole motive-power — steam and 
 water — employed in textile manufactures in Eng- 
 land in 1 8 5 0. Thirteen flouring-mills, fourteen saw- 
 mills, two woollen-mills, and two paper-mills, are 
 abeady erected. Six million dollars have been in- 
 vested 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 construct- 
 ing 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 cli- 
 mate here is exceedingly favorable for the manu- 
 
22 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 facturing of cotton goods. The lumber-mills by 
 and by will give place to other manufactures, and 
 Minneapolis will rank with Lowell or Fall Eiver. 
 
 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 ma- 
 chinery 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 INIinneapolis offered lots at 
 cheaper rates, and found purchasers. The w^ar 
 came on, and the proprietors of St. Anthony being 
 largely from the South, the place ceased to grow, 
 while its rival on the western sliore moved steadily 
 onward in a prosperous career. But St. Anthony 
 is again advancing, for many gentlemen doing 
 business in Minneapolis reside there. The inter- 
 ests of the two places are identical, and will ad- 
 vance 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 capa- 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. 23 
 
 ble of cultivation and of supporting a population as 
 dense as that of Belgium or China. Wide streets, 
 costly school-houses, church spires, a commu- 
 nity 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 waoons from the 
 country, bringing in grain and carrying back lum- 
 ber, with the farmer, his wife and buxom daughter, 
 and tow-headed, bright-faced little boys perched 
 on top — such are the characteristics of Minne- 
 apolis. 
 
 There was a time when Pegasus was put in har- 
 ness, 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 peo- 
 ple of Minneapolis have got the Father of Waters 
 in harness. He is cutting out one hnndred 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 in- 
 tend 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 
 
24 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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. 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 
 
 ST. CLOUD was the rendezvous of the party, 
 where a grand ovation awaited ns, — a band 
 of music at the station, a dinner at the hotel, a 
 ride to Sauk Eapids, 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 Eailroad. 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 Milwau- 
 kie, 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 AYinnipeg, 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 j)onies. Wigwams are seen in the groves. 
 Carts are here from Pembina and Fort Garry after 
 supplies. 
 
 2 
 
26 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 And yet, in the suburbs of the town we see a 
 large Normal School building just completed. A 
 magnificent bridge costing S 40,000 spans the Mis- 
 sissippi. At Sauk Eapids the river rolls over a 
 granite ledge, and a chartered water-power com- 
 pany is erecting a dam, constructing a canal, and 
 laying the foundations for the second great man- 
 ufacturing city upon the Mississippi. 
 
 This section has been a favorite locality for 
 German emigrants. Nearly one half of the inhab- 
 itants 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 : — 
 
 Grov. J. Gregory Smith, St. Albans, Yt. 
 W. C. Smith, M. C. 
 W. H. Lord, D. D., Montpelier, Yt. 
 F. E. WooDBRiDGE, YergeniiGs, Yt. 
 S. W. Thayer, M. D., Burlington, Yt. 
 Hon. R. D. Rice, Augusta, Me. 
 
 P. COBURN, 
 
 E. F. Johnson, Middletown, Conn, 
 
 C. C. Coffin, Boston. 
 
 P. \V. 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. 
 
 Q. A. Brackett, " 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOXD. 27 
 
 The list is headed by Ex-Governor Smith, Presi- 
 dent of the Northern Pacific Pailroad and of the 
 Vermont Central. It fell to his lot to be Chief 
 ]\Iagistrate of the Green Monntain 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 every- 
 where, — one day in Vermont, the next in Wash- 
 ington, 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 con- 
 struction 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 Su]5erior and 
 the ^lissouri Eiver. 
 
 Judge Eice is from Maine. He is President of 
 the Portland and Kennebec Eailroad, and a director 
 of the Northern Pacific. Before engaging in the 
 management of railroads he held, for sixteen years. 
 
28 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 sur- 
 veys were made, he published a pamphlet upon 
 this future highway to the Pacific, in which he 
 discussed with great ability the physical geogra- 
 phy 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 fore- 
 thought for the health, comfort, and pleasure of the 
 party, by taking along two of the most genial men 
 in l^ew 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 medi- 
 cine, whose stories are quite as good as his pills 
 and powders for keeping our digestion all right ; 
 and Eev. 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- 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 29 
 
 hearted and genial as sunshine, we surely ought to 
 be in good health. 
 
 ]\Ir. Holmes, of ISTew York, is an old campaigner. 
 He had experienced the rough and tumble of life 
 on the Upper Missouri, with his rifle for a com- 
 panion, the earth his bed, the broad expanse of sky 
 his tent. 
 
 Governor Marshall, Chief Magistrate of Minne- 
 sota, Mr. Wilson, member of Congress from the 
 same State, and Mr. Brackett, of Minneapolis, 
 w^ere 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 Eed Eiver 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 clergy- 
 men of Minnesota, like their brethren in other 
 parts of the country, turn their backs on civiliza- 
 tion during the summer months, and spend a few- 
 weeks with Nature for a teacher. It is related 
 that the Eev. Dr. Bethune made it a point to visit 
 Moosehead Lake in Maine every season, to medi- 
 tate in solitude and eat onions 1 He not only 
 loved them, but had ojreat faith in their strensjth- 
 ening 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 
 
30 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 the world in the forest that he could partake freely 
 of his favorite vegetable. 
 
 Travelling the same road, and keeping iis com- 
 pany, are Eev. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller, of Eochester, 
 and Eev. jMr. 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 par- 
 sonage, 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 unac- 
 customed 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 ruo-oed, 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 appar- 
 ent. 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 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 31 
 
 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 Kepublic 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 alon^j the horizon. Old 
 salts say that such sunsets in the tropics are fol- 
 lowed by storms. 
 
 Through the evening, while sitting in the doors 
 of our tents and talking of camp-life and its pleas- 
 ant experiences, we can see faint flashes of light- 
 ning 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 cathe- 
 drals of the upper air, or we see them only when 
 the bright flashes of lightning illume the sky. 
 
 It is past midnight, — Ave 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 
 
32 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 taut against the tent-pins. • The roof rises, set- 
 tles, 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 light- 
 ning as with the sun at noonday. By the side of 
 my cot is a book which I have been reading ; tak- 
 ing 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 beard- 
 ed 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 
 ac^ain beneath the lurid lio'ht. 
 
 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 rat- 
 tles, rolls, roars, and explodes like bursting bombs. 
 
 The tent is reeling. Knowing what will be the 
 
IN THE SrORM 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 33 
 
 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, de- 
 termined to hold on to the last. 
 
 Though the lightning is so fearful, and the mo- 
 ment well calculated to arouse solemn thoughts, 
 we cannot restrain our laughter Avhen two occu- 
 pants 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 ujd 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 ! 
 
 Wlien 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 
 2* c 
 
34 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 prostrated. The members of the party are stand- 
 ing like shirted ghosts in the storm. The rotund 
 form of our M. D. is \\Tapped 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 smging 
 the Sunday-school song, — 
 
 ** I '11 stand the storm, 
 It Avon't be loug." 
 
 Tents, beds, bedding, clothing, all are soppy 
 and moppy, and the ground a quagmire. AVe 
 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 ze- 
 nith, or quiver along the horizon. Bolt after bolt 
 falls earthward, or flies from the north, south, east. 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 35 
 
 and west, — from all points of tlie compass, — 
 branching into beautiful forms, spreading out into 
 threads and fibres of light, each tipped with golden 
 balls or beads of briglitest 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 fear- 
 ful 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 Avhich 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 heai^en. 
 
 It required half a day of bright sunshine to put 
 things in trim after the tornado, and then on Sat- 
 urday afternoon the party pushed on to Cold 
 Spring and encamped on the bank of Sauk Eiver 
 for the Sabbath. 
 
 The camp was named " Jay Cooke," in honor of 
 
36 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 the energetic banker wlio is the financial agent of 
 the Northern Pacific Eailroad Company. Sweet, 
 calm, and peaceful the hours. Eeligious services 
 were held, conducted by Eev. 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. 'Not were 
 we without a choir. Everybody sung Old Hun- 
 dred ; and though some of us could only sound 
 one note, and that straight along from beginning 
 to end, like the drone of a bagpij)e, it went glo- 
 riously. 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 excel- 
 lent 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 Eiver is the 
 southern boundary of the timbered lands west of the 
 Mississippi. As we look southward, over the mag- 
 nificent expanse, w^e see farm-houses and grain- 
 fields, but on the north bank are dense forests. 
 
^ 
 
 
 %'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 < 
 
 wM 
 
 >-» 
 
 fflii 
 
 CM 
 
 ' 
 
 S 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 37 
 
 The prairie lands are already taken up by settlers, 
 while there are many thousand acres of the wood- 
 ed portion of Stearns County yet in the posses- 
 sion 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 tim- 
 ber 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, me- 
 chanic, 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 trav- 
 elled 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 over- 
 looking tliis sheet of water. The Yale of Tern^^e 
 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 
 
38 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 promontory, with sandy beaches sweeping in mag- 
 nificent curves, with a patch of Woodland on tlie 
 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 sur- 
 rounded 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-ex- 
 cursion. Thinking perhaps we should get more 
 fish by dividing our force, I took a skiff", and ob- 
 tained a stalwart Norweoian 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 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. ISS 
 
 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 uj). 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 wa- 
 ters, 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 Nor- 
 wegian paddles slowly to the beach. 
 
40 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 The captive rides in a meal-bag the remainder 
 of the day, hissing now and then, and striving to 
 regain his liberty. 
 
 Ah ! is n't that a delicious supper which we sit 
 down to out upon the prairies on the shores of 
 Lightning Lake, — beyond the borders of civiliza- 
 tion ! It is not mock turtle, but the genuine arti- 
 cle, 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 tooth- 
 some as if served on gold-bordered china. Be- 
 sides 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, contain- 
 ing 268,000 acres of land, nearly all open to set- 
 tlement, and through which the main line of the 
 St. Paul and Pacific Eailroad 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 Eed Ptiver of the 
 North and the Chippewa Eiver, 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 Eed Eiver of the North, — a beautiful stream. 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 41 
 
 winding its peaceful way through a country as 
 fertile as the Delta of the Nile. 
 
 For two days we had journeyed over rolling prai- 
 rie, seeing no inhabitant ; but on Saturday after- 
 noon we reached the great thoroughfare leading 
 from the Mississippi to the Eed Eiver, — travelled 
 by the Fort Abercrombie stage, and by the Pem- 
 bina and Fort Garry carts, by government trains 
 and the ox-teams that transport the suppHes of the 
 Hudson Bay Company. 
 
 Sitting there upon the bank of the Eed Eiver 
 amid the tall, rank grasses, and watching the flow- 
 ing 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 Winni- 
 peg, a distance altogether of about five hundred 
 miles. 
 
 It is the great southern artery of a water-sys- 
 tem that lies almost wholly beyond the jurisdic- 
 tion 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 Eainy Lake system towards Supe- 
 
42 THE SEAT OF EMPIKE. 
 
 rior, or westward into Lakes Manitoloa and Winni- 
 pegosis, whicli together contain as much water as 
 Lake Erie. 
 
 Sailing along the western shore of Lake "Winni- 
 peg 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 Saskatch- 
 awan, 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 ex- 
 ception of a few rapids near its confluence with 
 Lake Winnipeg." 
 
 Professor Hind travelled from Fort Garry north- 
 west over the prairies towards the Kocky Moun- 
 tains, 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 Eed River 
 might, during the season of high water, make its 
 way from Fort Abercrombie down this river, then 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 43 
 
 throngli Lake Winnipeg, and up the Saskatchawan 
 westward to the base of the Eocky 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 propel- 
 ler of five hundred tons and make our way down 
 through the lakes and the St. Lawrence to Liver- 
 pool, 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 Eocky 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 Eed Elver, the Saskatchawan, and Lake Win- 
 nipeg 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 Eiver, an affluent of 
 
44 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Eiver, 
 and by this route reach the Mississippi below 
 Minneapolis. Boats carrying two tons have fre- 
 quently passed from one river to the other during 
 the season of high water. It would not be diffi- 
 cult to construct a canal by which steamers might 
 pass from the Mississippi to the base of the Eocky 
 Mountains in British Columbia. Eailroads are 
 superseding canals, and it is not likely that any 
 such improvement of the water-way will be at- 
 tempted during the present generation. 
 
 But a glance at the river and lake systems en- 
 ables us to obtain a idew of the physical features 
 of the country. We see that the northwestern 
 portion of the continent is an extended plain. 
 The Eed Eiver 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, 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 45 
 
 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 coun- 
 try ; 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 Eailroad, after gaining the top of the bluff 
 behind Omaha, have a long and apparently level 
 sweep before them. Yet there is a gradually as- 
 cending 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. ISTear the 105th meridian is the high- 
 est 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, ^ow going northward t» 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 
 
46 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 sloj)e 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 Eiver and Salt Lake lies 
 the Wasatch Kange, which the Union Pacific cross- 
 es 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 longi- 
 tude as Walla Walla on the great plain of the Co- 
 lumbia, which is less than 400 feet above the sea. 
 
 WestwaTd of Humboldt Lake the Central Line 
 rises to the summit of the Sierra Nevadas, crossing 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. 47 
 
 tliem 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 Ne- 
 vada Eange. 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 indul- 
 ging in this topographical revery there are not 
 thirty miles reaching that altitude. 
 
 With this glance at the configuration of the con- 
 tinent 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 Eange, a depression to show the Salt 
 Lake Yalley, and then another liigh ridge to repre- 
 sent the Sierra Nevadas. I might trace the chan- 
 nel 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. 
 
 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 
 
48 
 
 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Sacramento and Portland. 
 
 - Sierra Nevada, 7,042 feet. 
 
 Humboldt Lake, 4,047 feet. 
 
 ••- Humboldt Mountains, 6,169 feet. 
 
 Clark's Eiver, 3,700 feet. 
 Salt Lake, 4,220 feet. 
 Deer Lodge Pass, 5,000 feet. 
 
 Wasatch Range, 7, 463 feet. 
 Fort Benton, 2,747 feet. 
 Green River, 6,112 feet. 
 
 Sherman, 8,235 feet. 
 
 Omaha and Red River, 946 feet. 
 
ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. ^ 49 
 
 their tributaries, by the Mississippi, by the Eed 
 Eiver, 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 w^e crossed yesterday has one neighbor with- 
 in twelve miles ; but a twelvemonth hence these 
 acres will have many farm-houses. To-day we 
 have listened to a sermon by the Eev. 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 riieadows. 
 
 The locomotive — that great civilizer of this 
 century — will be here before the flowers bloom in 
 the spring of 1871. It will bring towns, Adllages, 
 churches, school-houses, printing-presses, and mil- 
 lions 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 Mis- 
 
 3 D 
 
50 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 sissippi, 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 w4io 
 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 " ? I^ot quite. I am an ob- 
 server here, as I have been in other lands. I have 
 ridden many times over the great States of the 
 ITorthwest ; have seen the riches of Santa Clai 
 and Napa west of the Sierra ISTevadas ; have looked) 
 out over the meadows of the Yanotse 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. 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 61 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 
 
 MONDAY morning saw us on our way north- 
 ward, — down the valley of the Eed Eiver. 
 
 It was exhilarating to gallop over the level 
 prairies, inhaling the fresh air, our horses brush- 
 ing 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 w^e 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 Eed Eiver of the North. It is off 
 from the traA^elled road. The town, as one of our 
 teamsters informed us, " has gone up." It origi- 
 nally 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. 
 
 Eiding on, we readied Fort Abercrombie at noon. 
 It is situated in Dakota, on the west bank of the 
 Eed Eiver, which we crossed by a rope ferry. It 
 
52 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 is a resting-place for tlie thousands of teams pass- 
 ing between St. Cloud and Fort Garry, and other 
 X^laces in the far ISTorthwest. 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 
 AYar 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 wind- 
 ing, and when the sjoring 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 Eed Eiver 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 outhne 
 of the Leaf Hills, composing the low ridge between 
 the Eed Eiver 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. 
 
THE KED EIVER COUNTRY. 53 
 
 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 me- 
 teorological 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 ap- 
 peared, winging their way to Lake Winnipeg and 
 Hudson Bay. The spring opened early in April. 
 
54 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 South- 
 ern 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 coimtry, 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 w^ith heavy clusters. 
 
 Minnesota is a wheat-gTOwing region, climate 
 and soil are alike favorable to its production. 
 
 On the east bank of the Eed Eiver we see a 
 field owned by Mr. ]\icAuley, who keeps a store 
 and sells boots, pijoes, tobacco, powder, shot, and 
 all kinds of supplies needed by hunters and fron- 
 tiersmen. 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." 
 
 This Eed Eiver Valley throughout its length 
 and breadth is very fertile. Here are twenty thou- 
 sand square miles of land, — an area as large as 
 
THE RED EIVER COUNTRY. 65 
 
 Vermont and ]!^ew Hampshire combined, — unsur- 
 passed for riclmess. 
 
 The construction of the Northern Pacific Eail- 
 road and the St. Paul and Pacific, both of which 
 are to reach this valley within a few months, w^ill 
 make these lands virtually as near market as the 
 farms of Central or Western Illinois. From the 
 Eed Kiver 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 Eaiboad 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 capi- 
 tal 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 sup- 
 ply of timber on the Eed Eiver and all its branch- 
 es, 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 re- 
 port says : " Of the valley of the Eed Eiver I find 
 it impossible to speak in any other terms than 
 those which may express astonishment and admi- 
 ration. I entirely concur in the brief but expres- 
 sive description given me by an English settler on 
 the Assinniboine, that the valley of the Eed Eiver, 
 
66 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 including a large portion belonging to its great af- 
 fluents, is a paradise of fertility." 
 
 In Mr. INIcAuley's garden we see corn in tlie 
 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 re- 
 sided. 
 
 General Pope was formerly stationed at Fort 
 Abercrombie ; and in Ms 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 " Win- 
 nipeggers." They were born in Scotland, and had 
 been home to Old Scotia to see their friends. 
 
 " How do you like Winnipeg ? " I asked. 
 
THE EED EIVER COUNTRY. 
 
 67 
 
 " There is no finer country in tlie 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 j)lace 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 attrac- 
 tive 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. 
 
 Montreal, 
 Port Garry, 
 
 43° 
 36 
 
 o 
 
 70 
 
 68 
 
 o 
 
 49 
 
 48 
 
 o 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 3* 
 
58 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 aoTceable. 
 
 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 w^agons, — mere specks. 
 
 Wliat a place for building a railway ! Not a 
 hillock nor a hollow, not a curve or loss of gra- 
 dient ; 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- 
 oSice. 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 out- 
 side ! 
 
 Once a week the mail-carrier passes from Fort 
 Abercrombie to Pembina, and as there are a half- 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 59 
 
 dozen pioneers and lialf-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 blaff but wide-awake 
 German say, " 0, 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 
 gTateful than many a w^ell-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-ojuns 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, w^e sit around 
 the camp-fire and think of the future of this para- 
 dise. Near by is another camp-fire. 
 
60 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 I see by its glimmering light a stalwart man 
 with shaggy beard and a slouched hat. The emi- 
 grant'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 w^orldly 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 se- 
 lect a piece of choice land under the Homestead 
 Act, build a cabin, and " make a l)reak 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 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 61 
 
 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 Sas- 
 katchawan and Athabasca. 
 
 "My parish," he says, "reaches from St. Paul to 
 the Eocky Mountains." He speaks in glowing 
 terms of the country up " in the ISTorthwest," — as 
 if we, who are now sixteen hundred miles from 
 Boston, had not reached the Northwest ! 
 
 Our talk with Father Genin, and his enthusias- 
 tic 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 coimtry lying between 
 lis 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 Sas- 
 katchawan 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 
 
62 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 used to gum the canoes. In its heated state it 
 emits a smell like sea-coal. The banks of Slave 
 Eiver, which are elevated, discover veins of the 
 same bituminous quahty." * 
 
 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 Eiver, 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 be- 
 ginning 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 ap- 
 peared 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 Eiver, in the month of May, 
 for the Eocky INIountains. He followed the stream 
 through the gap of the mountains, passed to the 
 
 * General History of the Fur-Trade, p. 87. 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 63 
 
 head-waters of Eraser Eiver, and descended that 
 stream to the Pacific. He thus describes the coun- 
 try along the Peace Eiver : — 
 
 " 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 reheved with vast 
 herds of elk and buffaloes, — the former choosing 
 the steeps and uplands, the latter preferring the 
 plains. The whole country displayed an exube- 
 rant verdure; the trees that bear blossoms were 
 advancing fast to that delightful appearance, and 
 the velvet rind of tlieir 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° 17', about fourteen hun- 
 dred miles from St. Paul. 
 
 The next traveller who enlightened the world 
 upon this region was Mr. Harman, a native of Yer- 
 gennes, Vermont, who became connected with the 
 Northwest Fur Company, and passed seventeen 
 years in British America. He reached Lake Win- 
 nipeg 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 
 
64 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 14:th. — The greater part of the snow is 
 dissolved." * 
 
 On the 6th of A]3ril Mr. Harman ^YTites : " 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 
 Eiver, where he says the snow during the winter 
 "was at no time more than two feet and a half 
 deep " (p. 174). 
 
 * On the 16tli 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 Raili'oad 
 between Springfield and Albany. 
 
THE BED RIVER COUNTRY. bo 
 
 On May 6tli he writes : " We have planted onr po- 
 tatoes and sowed most of onr garden-seeds " (p. 178). 
 
 " June 2cl. — The seeds which we sowed in the 
 garden have sprung up and grown remarkably 
 weU. 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 
 suf&cient 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 Eiver, in the Eocky Mountains. In his 
 journal Ave have these records : — 
 
 " 3fay 7th. — The weather is -very fine, and vege- 
 tation is far advanced for the season. Swans and 
 ducks are numerous in the lakes and rivers." 
 
 " May 22cl — Planted potatoes and sowed gar- 
 den-seeds." 
 
66 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 " October Zd. — 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 Eichardson, who explored the arctic 
 regions by this route, says : '' Wheat is raised 
 with profit at Fort Liard, lat. 60° 5' N., Ion. 122° 
 31' W., and four or five hundred feet above the sea. 
 This locahty, however, being in the vicinity of the 
 Eocky 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 Eoyal Engi- 
 neers, 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, througli the British 
 Possessions. His report to the government is 
 published in the Blue-Book. 
 
 Speaking of the country along the Assinniboine, 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 67 
 
 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 
 Eed Eiver, 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 trib- 
 utary, Battle Eiver, 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 nour- 
 ishment 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 direc- 
 tion 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 
 
68 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 to be occupied while more level country can be 
 obtained" (p. 10). 
 
 Going up tbe Saskatcliawan lie discovered beds 
 of coal, wliicb are thus described : — 
 
 " In the upper part of the Saskatcliawan country, 
 coal of fine quahty occurs abundantly, and may 
 hereafter be very useful. It is quite fit to be em- 
 ployed 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. Har- 
 man saw the same. 
 
 PaUiser wintered on the Saskatchawan, and 
 speaks thus of the climate: — 
 
 "The climate in winter is more rigorous than 
 that of Eed Eiver, and partial thaws occur long 
 before the actual oj)eniiig 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 12 til 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 RED RIVER COUNTRY. 69 
 
 " 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 (wliich will not succeed in England or Ire- 
 land), 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 Eocky Mountains from British Colum- 
 bia, 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 Eocky 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 Sas- 
 katchawan 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 favor- 
 
70 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 able 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 speci- 
 men of lignite taken from the banks of Maple 
 Eiver, about seven miles from our camp. It is a 
 small branch of the Eed Eiver 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 Eiver, a branch of the As- 
 sinniboine, where we should iind 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 Eocky Mountains, a distance 
 of between three and four hundred miles. 
 
 Dr. Hector, geologist to the exploring expedition 
 under Captain Palhser, thus describes the coal on 
 Eed Deer Eiver, a branch of the South Saskatcha- 
 wan : — 
 
 " The lignite forms beds of great thickness, one 
 group of seams measuring twenty-five feet in thick- 
 ness, 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 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 71 
 
 nortll^yard from the Eed Deer to the Peace Elver, 
 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. 
 
 i\Ir. Bourgeau, botanist to the Palliser Exploring 
 Expedition, in a letter addressed to Sir William 
 Hooker, has the following remarks upon the capa- 
 bilities 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 Eupert's Land, and particularly in the 
 Saskatchawan, in the neighborhood of Fort Carl- 
 ton. 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 ef- 
 fect, 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 agricultur- 
 ist. Then, in order to put the land under cultiva- 
 tion, it would be necessary only to till the better 
 portions of the soil. The prairies offer natural 
 pasturage as favorable for the maintenance of nu- 
 merous herds as if they had been artificially ere- 
 
72 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 ated. The construction of houses for habitation 
 and for pioneer development would involve but 
 little expense, because in many parts of the coun- 
 try, 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 culti- 
 vated; 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 Eocky 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 win- 
 ter 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 
 tliree to four feet deep" (p. 268). 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 73 
 
 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 Hampsliire. Exclusive of those 
 two cold nights, the mean of the temperature was 
 seventeen. He says : " This was a trip made dur- 
 ing 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 
 Eev. Thomas Woolsey. The following extracts 
 from his journal mil show the jirogress of the 
 winter and spring season in 1855 : — 
 
 " Nov. 1. A little snow has fallen for the first time. 
 
 " 1 2. 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. 
 
 4 
 
74 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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°, 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-SiAvo, or the Black 
 Ocean Eiver of the Asiatic coast. This ocean cur- 
 rent 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 sudcfenly pass 
 into the heated river, which, starting from the 
 vicinity of the Philippine Islands, laves the east- 
 
THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. 75 
 
 ern shore of Formosa, and rushes past the Bay of 
 Yeddo at the rate of eighty miles per day. This 
 heated river strikes across the ISTorthern 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 Isl- 
 and winters so mild that the people cannot lay in 
 a supply of ice for the summer. Eoses 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 Eocky 
 Mountains, and tempers the climate east of them 
 almost to Hudson Bay. 
 
 So wonderfully arranged is this mighty machin- 
 ery of nature, that millions of the human race in 
 coming years will rear their habitations and enjoy 
 the blessino's of civilization in regions that other- 
 wise would be pathless solitudes. 
 
 In the meteorological register kept at Carlton 
 House, in lat. 52° 51', on the eastern limit of the 
 Saskatchawan Plain, eleven hundred feet above the 
 sea, we find this entry : " At this place westerly 
 
76 
 
 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Eussia, Sweden, and 
 Norway south of that degree, now swarming with 
 people. That parallel passes through St. Peters- 
 burg, Stockholm, Christiania, and the Shetland 
 Isles on the eastern hemisj)here. Fort Liard and 
 Central Alaska on the western. 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 77 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 HUNDEEDS of Winnipeggers were upon the 
 road, either going to or retTirning from St. 
 Cloud, from whence all groceries and other sup- 
 plies 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 w^ooden 
 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 chil- 
 dren, 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 quiv- 
 They travel in companies, — fifteen 
 
78 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 or twenty carts in a caravan. When night comes 
 on, the animals are turned out to graze ; the fami- 
 lies 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. JSTo wonder the 
 people of that settlement are anxious to have a 
 railroad reach the Eed Eiver. 
 
 Leaving the Pembina road and striking west- 
 ward 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 roi)e 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 Mis- 
 souri. 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 direc- 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 79 
 
 tion, and one of onr bluff and burly teamsters, who 
 is at home upon the prairies, who in the First Min- 
 nesota Eegiment faced the Eebels 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 ba^r. 
 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 ujd to Fort 
 Abercrombie. The river is narrow and winding 
 south of this point, and not well adapted to navi- 
 gation. 
 
 We find an obliging young Scotchman with a 
 
80 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 thin-faced wife in possession of the property be- 
 longing to the Company. He takes care of the 
 premises through the year on a salary of two hun- 
 dred 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 lie will, with 
 the moral certainty of finding them quadrupled in 
 value in five years. 
 
 This great highway of the ISTorth 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 consist- 
 ing 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 Llilwaukie, 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 Com- 
 pany between this place and St. Cloud amounts to 
 about seven hundred tons per annum. 
 
 In addition, the Eed Eiver transportation car- 
 ried on by the Indians and half-breeds is very 
 large. About twenty-five hundred carts pass down 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 81 
 
 and up this highway during the year, each one 
 carrying upon an average nine hundred pounds. 
 
 Besides all this there is the United States gov- 
 ernment transportation to Port Abercrombie and 
 the forts beyond, amounting last year to eighteen 
 hundred tons. The rates paid by the War Depart- 
 ment government for transportation are $ 1.36 f per 
 hundred pounds for every hundred miles. All of 
 this traffic will be transferred at once to the North- 
 ern Pacific Eailroad upon its completion to the Eed 
 Eiver. 
 
 The estimated value of the Eed Eiver trade is 
 ten millions of dollars per annum, and it is in- 
 creasing 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 antici- 
 pate 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 pur- 
 chased 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 peo- 
 ple, 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 
 
 4* F 
 
82 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 is fresh from the cows whose bells are tinkling in 
 the bushes along the bank of the river, and the 
 cakes upon onr 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 east- 
 ward to Lake Superior. 
 
 It would be a pleasure to go with them, — to 
 ride over the rolling prairies, to fall in wdth 
 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 thriU. would be of a different sort ! 
 
 We sit by our camp-fires at night wath our faces 
 and hands smeared with an abominable mixture 
 prepared by our M. D., ostensibly to keep the mos- 
 quitoes from presenting their bills, but which we 
 surmise is a little game of his to daub us with a 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 83 
 
 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 JNIissouri, the slopes 
 of the Eocky ^Mountains, and the hills of Montana, 
 — territory to be included in the future Empire 
 of the Northwest. I have ^vritten 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 North- 
 west will be the territory lying north of the cen- 
 tral ridge of the continent. Milwaukie may be 
 taken as a starting-point for a survey of this im- 
 perial 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 counter- 
 
84 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 part in the fiords of JSTorway, are north of that 
 degree of latitude. I liave abeady taken a view 
 of the region now comprised in the British do- 
 minions east of the Eocky Mountains ; but equally 
 interesting will be a re^dew of the territories of the 
 Eepublic, — 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 PubHc Lands, General Wilson, in 
 his Eeport for 1869, "are exceedingly favorable to 
 the growth of wheat, corn, and other cereals, while 
 all the fruits raised in the N'orthern States are 
 
 here produced in the greatest perfection 
 
 The wheat crop varied from twenty to forty bush- 
 els to the acre. Oats have produced from fifty to 
 seventy bushels to the acre, and are of excellent 
 quahty" (p. 144). 
 
 Settlements are rapidly extending up the Mis- 
 souri, 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 HiUs. 
 
 Two thousand square miles of the region of the 
 Black Hills, says Professor Hayden, geologist to 
 the United States Exploring Expedition under 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 85 
 
 General Eeynolds, 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 Pa- 
 cific, and of this Territory the Land Commissioner 
 says : " A large portion of Wyoming produces a 
 luxuriant growth of short nutritious grass, upon 
 wliich 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 lit- 
 tle 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 re- 
 turned 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 Eocky Mountains as in Minnesota. 
 
S6 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 discov- 
 ery of gold in this territory in 1862. Coal appears 
 ujDon 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 Pro- 
 fessor 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 " (Eeport, 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 Oliio. The grazing lands 
 are put down at sixty-nine millions, — or a region 
 as large as New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jer- 
 sey together ! 
 
 Is n't it cold ? Are not tlie winters intolerable ? 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 87 
 
 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° above zero. 
 
 1867. Jan. " " " 23°.73 " " 
 " Feb. " " " 26° " " 
 
 The summer climate is exceedingly agreeable, 
 and admirably adapted to fruit culture. 
 
 In July last Mr. Milnor Eoberts, Mr. Thomas 
 Canfield, and other gentlemen of the Pacific ex- 
 ploring party, were -in Montana. Mr. Eoberts 
 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 Eocky Mountains, 
 containing a grist-mill, saw-mill, two excellent 
 stores, and from twenty-five to thirty dwellings, a 
 number of them Avell built. I visited McWliirk's 
 garden of five acres, where I found ripe tomatoes, 
 watermelons, muskmelons, remarkably fine pota- 
 toes, beans, peas, and squashes ; also young apple- 
 trees and other fruit-trees, and a very fine collec- 
 tion 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 Mon- 
 tana" (Eeport, p. 23). 
 
88 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Tliis fruit and flower garden is about one hun- 
 dred 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. Eoberts : — 
 
 " 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 await- 
 ing 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 wa- 
 tered by the Columbia and its tributaries, — moun- 
 tain streams fed by melting snows. 
 
 " The mountains of Idaho," says the Land Com- 
 missioner, in his exhaustive Eeport 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 EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 89 
 
 The plains are elevated table-lands covered with 
 indigenous grasses, constituting pasturage unsur- 
 passed 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 af- 
 forded 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, adjoinmg which on either bank, and ex- 
 tending 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 Missis- 
 sippi 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 su- 
 perior 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 
 
90 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 of the greatest sources of wealth in this rapidly 
 developing but stiU underrated Territory. It was 
 considered totally valueless except for mining pur- 
 poses, 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 dur- 
 ing spring, summer, and autumn ; the greater ex- 
 tent of the table-lands, and the superior adapta- 
 bihty 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 varia- 
 tion, caused by the influence of air currents from 
 the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the spring, sum- 
 mer, and autumn months, in the northern as well 
 as the southern sections, the Aveather is generally 
 delightful and salubrious ; in the winter months 
 the range of the thermometer depends greatly upon 
 the altitude of the surface, — the hif>lier 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 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 91 
 
 northern Iowa and Wisconsin or central ]\Iinne- 
 sota, while greater dryness of the atmosphere 
 renders a lower fall of the thermometer less per- 
 ceptible ; and the valleys being rarely visited by 
 cold weather, high winds, or considerable falls of 
 snow. Considered in its yearly average, the cli- 
 mate 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 con- 
 ceived the Eocky 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 Gov- 
 ernor 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 Secre- 
 tary 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 tliere were not more than 1,000 
 square miles, or 640,000 acres, of agricultural lands. 
 The Land Commissioner in his Eeport estimates the 
 
92 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 lan- 
 guage of the Commissioner, are "redeemable by- 
 irrigation into excellent pasture and agricultural 
 lands." The grazing - lands are estimated at 
 5,000,000 acres, the tunbered lands at 7,500,000 
 acres, besides 8,000,000 acres of mineral lands. Al- 
 though the population of Idaho probably does not 
 exceed 50,000, half of whom are engaged in min- 
 ing, the value of the agricultural products for 1868 
 amounted to $ 12,000,000, while the mineral pro- 
 duct 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 Eeport 
 upon the public lands, " is peculiarly a crop-raising 
 and fruit-growing State, though by no means de- 
 ficient 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 innu- 
 merable springs and streams, and subject to none 
 of the drawbacks arising from the chilling winds 
 and seasons of aridity which prevail farther south. 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 93 
 
 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 con- 
 tains 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 re- 
 gions may be cultivated here with success. When 
 the land is properly cultivated, the farmer rarely 
 fails to meet with an adequate reward for his la- 
 bors. The fruits produced here, such as apples, 
 pears, plums, quinces, and grapes, are of supe- 
 rior quality and flavor. Large quantities of ap- 
 ples 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 
 Eouge Elvers, 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 
 
94 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 about the same latitude as Maine on tlie Atlantic, 
 the winter temperature corresponds with that of 
 Savannah, Georgia" (p. 194). 
 
 ISTorth of Oregon lies the Territory of Washing- 
 ton, 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 x)arallel a little more than 
 twelve hundred miles, 1 should reach Olympia, the 
 capital of the Territory, situated on Puget Sound, 
 — the name given to that vast ramification of wa- 
 ters known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admi- 
 ralty 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 approxi- 
 mately estimated at 20,000,000 acres, and the prai- 
 rie lands cover an area equally great. Tlie forests 
 embrace the red and yellow pine of gigantic 
 growth, often attaining the height of three hun- 
 dred 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 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 95 
 
 in the river-bottoms is thinly timbered with 
 maple, ash, and willoAV. 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 hun- 
 dred bushels, wheat forty, peas sixty, timothy-hay 
 five tons, and oats seventy bushels " (p. 199). 
 
 Mr. Eoberts, who explored this region last year, 
 says that the great plain of the Columbia is " a 
 high rolling prairie, covered everywhere abundant- 
 ly with bunch-grass to the summits of the highest 
 liills ; treeless, excepting along the streams. This 
 is an immense grazing area of the most superior 
 character, interspersed with the valleys of peren- 
 nial 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 re- 
 markably attractive" (Eeport, p. 19). 
 
 He gives this estimate of the area suited to 
 agriculture and grazino-: — 
 
 " 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 
 
96 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 fu- 
 ture steam-marine of the Pacific. Large quanti- 
 ties 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 Eiver, which next to 
 the Eraser 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 " (Parhamentary Blue-Book.) 
 
 Coal in Montana, in Idaho, in Washington, on 
 Vancouver, in British Columbia ; coal on the^ 
 Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Columbia, the 
 Eraser; coal on Simpson Eiver, 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 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 97 
 
 facilities for manufacturing ! An agricultural re- 
 gion unsur23assed for fertility ! Exliaustless min- 
 eral wealth ! Fisheries equalling those of New- 
 foundland, — salmon in every stream, cod and 
 herring abounding along the coast ! !N'othing 
 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 com- 
 merce of the Pacific till we reach the Bay of San 
 Francisco. From thence northward to the Colum- 
 bia the waves of the sea break against rugged 
 mountains. The Columbia pours its waters through 
 the Coast Eange, but a bar at its mouth has prac- 
 tically 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 sea- 
 sons of the year. There never will be any ice- 
 bound ships on the coast of British Columbia, for 
 the warm breath of the tropics is felt there through- 
 out the year. 
 
 ^Vliile 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 ac- 
 count when we make long journeys. Liverpool is 
 between the 53d and 54th parallels, or about two 
 
98 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 lengtli. San Francisco is near 
 the 37th parallel, where the degrees are nearly 
 forty-nine miles in length. Liverpool is three de- 
 grees west of Greenwich, from which longitude is 
 reckoned. The 12 2d meridian passes through Pu- 
 get Sound and also through the Bay of San Fran- 
 cisco. It follows from all this that the distance 
 from Liverpool in straight lines to these two mag- 
 nificent 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 Yoko- 
 hama is on the 35th j)arallel, w^here a degree of 
 longitude is forty-nine miles in length. Eeckon- 
 ing the distance across the Pacific between Yoko- 
 hama and the western gateways of the continent, 
 we have this comparison : — 
 
 San Francisco to Yokohama . 4,856 miles. 
 Puget Sound " " . . 4,294 " 
 
 Difference, 5 02 " 
 Adding these differences together, we see that Ion- 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTH\YEST. 99 
 
 gitude alone makes a total of nine liiindred and 
 fifty-four miles in favor of Puget Sound between 
 Liverpool and Yokoliama. When tlie ISTortliern 
 Pacific Piailroad 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 foar hun- 
 dred 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 Val- 
 ley, 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, ham- 
 mered and smelted, sawed and planed, by the 
 millions of industrious workers who are to im- 
 
100 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 prove 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 develop- 
 ment of a varied industry, — agricultural, mining, 
 manufacturing, mercantile, and commercial, — all 
 this with a climate like that of southern Trance, 
 or central and northern EuroxDe. 
 
 " The climate," says Mr. Eoberts, " of this fa- 
 vored region is very remarkable, and will always 
 remain an attractive feature; which must, there- 
 fore, aid greatly in the speedy settlement of this 
 portion of the Pacific coast. Even in the cold- 
 est 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 Euca, 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" 
 (Pteport, p. 14). 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 101 
 
 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 through- 
 out the year, and the residents gather green peas 
 and strawberries in March and April. 
 
 In a former view we looked at the territory be- 
 longing to Great Britain lying east of the Eocky 
 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 Brit- 
 ish Possessions, between the Cascade Eange and 
 the Eocky Mountains. There is a great amphi- 
 theatre between those two ranges, having an area 
 of forty-five thousand square miles. We hardly 
 comprehend, even Avith a map spread out before 
 us, that there is an area larger than Ohio in the 
 basin drained by the northern branch of the Colum- 
 bia. 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 pas- 
 turage ! 
 
 The general characteristics of that area have been 
 fully set forth in a paper read before the Eoyal 
 
102 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Geograpliical Society of London by Lieutenant 
 Palmer of the Eoyal Engineers. He says : — 
 
 " The scenery of the Avhole midland belt, espe- 
 cially of that portion of it lying to the east of the 
 124th meridian, is exceedingly beautiful and pic- 
 turesque. The highest uplands are all more or less 
 thickly timbered, but the valleys present a delight- 
 ful 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 keej^ 
 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. 
 
 " JSTotwithstanding the elevation, the seasons ex- 
 hibit 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 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 103 
 
 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 hut the natural 
 
 grasses Judging from present experience, 
 
 there can he no douht that in point of saluhrity 
 the chmate of British Columhia excels that of 
 Great Britain, and is indeed one of the finest in 
 the world." 
 
 In regard to the agricultural capahilities of this 
 mountain region, the same author remarks : — 
 
 " Here in sheltered and well-irrigated valleys, at 
 altitudes of as much as 2,500 feet ahove the sea, a 
 few farming experiments have been made, and the 
 results have thus far been beyond measure encour- 
 aging. At farms in the San Jose and Beaver val- 
 leys, 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 JSTew- 
 
104 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 foundland, 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 mitil 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 ex- 
 aggeration, that some of the smaller streams can 
 hardly be forded without stepping upon them." 
 (Journal of the Geographical Society.) 
 
 All ! would n'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 Eice, 
 who are out here seeing about the railroad, get the 
 cars running to the Pacific ; they will supply all 
 creation east of the Kocky Mountains with salmon ! 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 105 
 
 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. 
 
 Wliat 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 resour- 
 ces, with fruitful soil and vast capabilities, but be- 
 cause the configuration of the continent — the 
 water-systems, the mountain-ranges, the eleva- 
 tions and depressions, the soil and climate — is 
 in many respects different north of the 43d par- 
 allel 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 polit- 
 ical boundary which N'ature will not take into 
 account in her disposition of affairs in the future. 
 Sooner or later the line will fade away. Eailway 
 trains — the constant passing and repassing of a 
 multitude of people speaking the same language, 
 having ideas in common, and related by blood — 
 
 5* 
 
106 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 ex- 
 tended 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 settle- 
 ment ; but the facts show that it is as capable of 
 settlement as New York or Ncav England, — that 
 the country along the Athabasca has a climate no 
 more severe than that of northern New Hamp- 
 shire or Maine, while the summers are more favor- 
 able to the growing of grains than those of the 
 northern Atlantic coast. 
 
 It is not, therefore, hypothetical geography. Fol- 
 lowing 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 Euroj)e lies 
 north of it, — the whole of France, half of Italy, 
 the whole of the Austrian Empire, and aU of 
 Eussia's vast dominions. 
 
 The entire wheat-field of Europe is above that 
 parallel. The valleys of the Alps lying between 
 
 I 
 
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. 107 
 
 the 46tli and 50tli parallels swarm with an in- 
 dustrious people ; why may not those of the Eocky 
 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. Peters- 
 burg, with golden-domed churches, gorgeous pal- 
 aces, and abodes of comfort, can be built up in 
 lat. 60 in the Old World, why may we not ex- 
 pect to see their counterpart in the New, when 
 we take into account the fact that a heated cur- 
 rent from the tropics gives the same mildness of 
 climate to the northwestern section of this conti- 
 nent that the Gulf Stream gives to northern Eu- 
 rope ? 
 
 "With this outlook towards future possibilities, 
 we see Minnesota the central State gf the Conti- 
 nental Eepublic 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 ex- 
 treme southwestern boundary of the United States, 
 — reaches to Donner Pass on the summit of the 
 Sierra Nevadas, within a hundred miles of Sac- 
 ramento. Stretching it due west, it reaches to 
 Salem, Oregon. Carrying it northwest, I find that 
 it reaches to the Kockv Mountain House on Peace 
 
108 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Eiver, — to that region whose beauty charmed 
 Mackenzie and Father De Smet. The Peace Eiver 
 flows through the Eocky Mountains, and at its 
 head-waters we find the lowest pass of the conti- 
 nent. 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 Eocky 
 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 Hon- 
 duras in Central America, and Sitka, are equidis- 
 tant 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 : — 
 
 " / now helieve that the ultimate last seat of gov- 
 ernment on this great continent will he found some- 
 where within a circle or radius not far from the 
 spot on which I stand, at the head of navigation 07i 
 the Mississippi Biver I " 
 
THE FRONTIER. 109 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FRONTIER. 
 
 BOTTINEAU is our guide. Take a look at 
 liim 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 parent- 
 age. 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 Gover- 
 nor Stevens's guide when he made the first explora- 
 tions 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 inter- 
 vening liills, so Pierre Bottineau knows just where 
 to go when out upon the boundless prairie with 
 
110 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 w^ould 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 por- 
 tion 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, mount- 
 ed 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 
 
THE FRONTIER. Ill 
 
 into Minnesota, and strike out upon the pathless 
 plain. We see no landmarks ahead, and, like navi- 
 gators Tipon 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 ris- 
 ing 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 Eed Eiver. 
 
 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 ob- 
 stacles tliere 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 througli 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. 
 
112 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 pas- 
 turage 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 high- 
 est 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 grav^, brought, so 
 the geologists inform us, from the far ]N"orth 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, — pro- 
 vided 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 coun- 
 try around White Bear Lake and in the vicinity 
 
 \ 
 
THE FRONTIER. 113 
 
 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 coun- 
 try 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 win- 
 ters 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 hclle 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 
 
114 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 in- 
 Adting will soon be taken up by settlers. 
 
 It was a pleasure, after three days' travel over 
 the trackless wild, to come suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly 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 panta- 
 loons 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. 
 
 I 
 
THE FRONTIER. 115 
 
 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 for- 
 merly traversed by the French and Indian traders 
 between Pembina and the Mississippi, but has not 
 been used much of late years. Strildng that, we 
 should have no difficulty in reaching the settle- 
 ments of the Otter-Tail, forty miles south. 
 
 Emigration travels fast. As fires blown by 
 winds sweep through the dried grass of the prai- 
 ries, 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 Eev. Dr. Lord. The oldest 
 member of the colony is a woman, now in her eigh- 
 tieth 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 tlie valley of the 
 Connecticut for a home in the State of New York, 
 then moving with the great army of emigrants to 
 Oliio, 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 
 
116 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 now quite dark ! There are but few instances on 
 record of sucli 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 chil- 
 dren 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 
 could n't get through the year without going some- 
 where 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. I^ow they can get their 
 wdieat 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 
 Eeservation recently assigned them by the govern- 
 
THE FRONTIER. 117 
 
 ment 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. 
 I^early all of the Indians wear pantaloons and 
 jackets ; but here and there we see a brave who 
 is true to liis ancestry, who is proud of his lineage 
 and race, and is in all respects a savage, in mocca- 
 sons, 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 ex- 
 cept of whiskey, and in that respect their powers 
 are gTeat, — 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 Eush Lake. The 
 tents are pitched, the camp-fire Idndled, supper 
 eaten, and we are sitting before a pile of blazing 
 logs. The dew is falling, and th^ fire is comfort- 
 able and social. We look into the glowing coals 
 and think of old times, and of friends far away. 
 
118 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 w^anting. We hear 
 martial strains, — of cornets, trombones, ophi- 
 cleides, 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 N'orthern 
 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 re- 
 ported the soil so fertile, the situation so attrac- 
 tive, 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- 
 
THE FKONTIEE. 119 
 
 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 have n'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 speecli 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-iire after their departure, we feel that there 
 must be a bright future for a commonwealth tliat 
 can grow such fruit on the borders of the uncul- 
 tivated 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 Minne- 
 sota. 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 loofs and shingled roof. See what adornment 
 
120 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 adjoin- 
 ing 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 commu- 
 nity, 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 
 tlie distance a large territory covered with the 
 lithe foliage of the tamarack. Here and there are 
 groves of pine rising like islands above tlie 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 porphyiy, washed and worn by the 
 waves. Wild swans rear their young in the reeds 
 and marshes bordering the streams. They grace- 
 fully glide over the still waters. They are beyond 
 tlie reach of our rifies, and we would not harm 
 
THE FRONTIER. 121 
 
 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 blood- 
 thirsty. Ducks, plover, snipe, wild geese, and 
 sand-hill cranes are served at our table, but they 
 are never shot in w^anton spot. 
 
 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 
 Eed Eiver, and pours its waters into Lake Winni- 
 peg. From that great northern reservoir the w^a- 
 ters of this western region of Minnesota reach 
 Hudson Bay through Nelson Eiver. 
 
 Looking eastward we see gleaming in the morn- 
 ing sunlight the Leaf Lakes, the head-waters of 
 the Crow- Wing, one of the largest western tribu- 
 taries 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 ad- 
 venturers, came by this route on their way to Brit- 
 
122 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 ish America. For a long time it has been a trad- 
 ing-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 Ca- 
 nadians, their Indian wives and copper-colored 
 children. Tliere are ten or a dozen houses, but they 
 are very dilapidated. A little old man with twink- 
 ling gray eyes, wearing a battered white hat, comes 
 out to welcome us, while crowds of swarthy chil- 
 dren and Indian women gaze at us from the door- 
 w^ays. 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 Ind- 
 ian huts, and a few lodges of tanned buffalo-hides. 
 Filth, squalor, and degradation are the charac- 
 teristics of the lodge, and the civilization of the 
 lo£^-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 Idnder than the Indian brave, and when he 
 wants a Avife he will find the fairest of the maidens 
 ready to listen to his words of love. 
 
EOUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 123 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 
 
 OUE lialting-place at noon furnishes a pleasing 
 subject for a comic artist. Behold, us be- 
 neath the shade of old oaks, our horses croj)ping 
 the rank grass, a fire kindled against the tmnk of 
 a tree that has braved the storms of centuries, each 
 toasting a slice of salt 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 break- 
 fast at 5 A. M. ; are camping by night and tramp- 
 ing 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 break- 
 fast, and now, at noon, are as liungry 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 
 
124 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 his hand, having three prongs like E"eptnne'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 glow- 
 ing coals. A dozen slices of pork are sizzling. 
 We are not all of us quite so scientific in our toast- 
 ing: 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. 
 
 ISTow, because we are all as jolly as we can be, 
 because I have praised salt pork, I would n'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. 
 
ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 125 
 
 Wooded prairies, oak openings, hills and vales, 
 watered by lakes and ponds, — sucli 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 E"ew 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 Lodcje Pass of the 
 Eocky Mountains, within seven miles of the sum- 
 mit. 
 
 ' " I raised as good wheat there as I can here," 
 he says, — " thirty bushels to the acre." 
 
 " Why did you leave it ? " 
 
126 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 " I could n't sell anytliing. There is no market 
 there. The farmers raise so much that they can 
 hardly give their grain away." 
 
 " Did you sell your farm ? " 
 
 " 1^0, 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 ex- 
 perience of a farmer. The Deer Lodge Pass is at 
 the head- waters of the Missouri, in the main di- 
 vide of the Eocky Mountains, and one of the sur- 
 veyed lines of the Northern Pacific Eailroad 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 any- 
 thing. 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 
 com2:)leted up the valley of the Yellowstone or 
 
ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 127 
 
 Missouri. What stronger argument can there be, 
 what demonstration more forcible, for the imme- 
 diate construction of the Northern Pacific Eail- 
 road ? It will pass through the heart of the Ter- 
 ritory 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 witli 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 Wis- 
 consin, 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 
 
128 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 chicken-coop, a pig in a box, are the most conspic- 
 uous 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, driv- 
 ing a cow and a calf. 
 
 To-night they will be fifteen miles nearer their 
 destination tlian they were in the morning. Some 
 of the teams have been two months on the road, 
 and a few more days will bring tliem 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 arm- 
 ful 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 everpvhere, 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. 
 
BOUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 129 
 
 Every day adds thousands of acres to tliose al- 
 ready 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 out- 
 set. 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 any- 
 thing, 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 mil- 
 lion bushels ! 
 
 I would not make the farmers of New England 
 
 6* I 
 
130 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 multi- 
 tude 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 neigh- 
 bors. The railroad would come. The little log- 
 hut would give place to a mansion. Eoses would 
 bloom in the garden, and morning-glories open 
 their blue bells by the doorway. The vast ex- 
 panse would wave with golden grain. Thrift and 
 plenty, and civilization with all its comforts and 
 luxuries, would be mine. 
 
EOUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 131 
 
 Are the colors of the picture too bright ? Ee- 
 member that in 1849 Minnesota had less than five 
 thousand inhabitants, and that to-day she has near- 
 ly 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 briglitest 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 hun- 
 dred dollars. If you obtain it near a railroad, it 
 will cost three hundred and twenty dollars. It 
 will cost three dollars an acre to plougli the ground 
 and prepare it for the first crop, besides the fen- 
 cing. But the first crop, ordinarily, will more than 
 pay the entire outlay for ground, fencing, and 
 ploughing, rive 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 rubbmg 
 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 
 
132 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 for a year or two ? Can you lay aside paper col- 
 lars and kid gloves, and wear a blue blouse and 
 blister your hands with w^ork ? 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, inde- 
 pendence, 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 Avork. Some of us were dys- 
 peptic, some nervous, while others had tired brains. 
 It is the misfortune of Americans to be ever work- 
 ing 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 
 
ROUND THE CAMP-FIKE. 133 
 
 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 mis- 
 sionary or colporteur or Sunday-school teacher, 
 are doing good 1 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 
 gTain? 
 
 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 wliite-haired schoolmate. How we trot- 
 ted, 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 mon- 
 arch of the forest, broken down by the wind, — 
 
134 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 with- 
 ered leaves, and warm the chiUy 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 
 X^air off, two and two, and take our places in the 
 team. 
 
 " Are you all ready ? Xow for it ! " It is the 
 voice of our leader. 
 
 " Gee up ! Whoa ! Whoa I 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 1 
 
 What a deal of power there is in a yell ! The 
 
EOUKD THE CAMP-riRE. 135 
 
 teamster screams to liis 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 could n't yell. A hurrah elected General Har- 
 rison 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, mak- 
 ing 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 enter- 
 prises of modern times over obstacles that would 
 have discouraged men of weaker nerve. The pub- 
 lic never will know of the hard work performed 
 by them in starting the Northern Pacific Eailroad, 
 — how they have raised it from obscurity, from 
 obloquy, notwithstanding ojDposition and prejudice. 
 The time will come when the public will look 
 upon the enterprise in its true light. AVlien 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 tliat of Pennsylvania, when he sees the 
 numberless attractions and exhaustless resources 
 of the land, then, and not till then, will the labors 
 
136 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 team- 
 sters, 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 
 
.'lit 
 
IN THE FOREST. 137 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 IN THE FOREST. 
 
 IN" preceding chapters the characteristics of the 
 country west of the Mississippi have been 
 3et forth ; but many a man seeking a new home 
 would be lonely u]3on the prairies. The lumber- 
 man 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 soli- 
 tude, 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 gTown 
 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 
 
138 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 merchant- 
 able lumber wliich the tree will yield. His para- 
 dise 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 wdio starts from St. Paul and trav- 
 els 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 pleas- 
 ant meadows ; but speaking in general terms, the 
 entire country east of the Mississippi, in Minne- 
 sota 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, wdien a 
 great flood of waters set southward, bringing gran- 
 ite 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 Mississi]3pi than 
 west of it. The temperature in winter on Lake 
 
IN THE FOREST. 139 
 
 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 Minne- 
 sota than around Chicago, for in all forest re- 
 gions in northern latitudes there is usually a 
 heavier rain and snow fall than in open coun- 
 tries. The time will probably come when the 
 rain-fall of eastern Minnesota and northern Mich- 
 igan will be less than it is now. AAlien the lum- 
 bermen 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. Every- 
 body 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 tem- 
 perature, or to raise it. 
 
 The Ohio Eiver is dwindling in size because the 
 forests of Ohio and Pennsylvania are disappearing. 
 
140 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Palestine, Syria, and Greece, although they have 
 supported dense populations, are barren to-day be- 
 cause the trees have been cut down. If this 
 were an essay on the power of man over nature, 
 instead of the ^\Titing out of a few notes on the 
 Northwest, I might go on and give abundant data ; 
 but I aUude 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 ]\Iississippi, 
 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 
 9,nd 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-j)arties from St. Paul. Here 
 and there along the shores are low grass-grown 
 
IX Tin: FORE.:.T. 141 
 
 monuments, raised by the Cliippewas when they 
 were a powerful nation among the Eed Men. 
 
 " But now the wheat is gi'eeii 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 isl- 
 ands. It was a general gathering-place of the 
 Indians, as it is now of the peo^^le of the sur- 
 rounding 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 Pres- 
 ident of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Eail- 
 road, and other gentlemen connected with the 
 railroads of the Northwest. At Wyoming we 
 leave our friends, bid good by to the locomotive, 
 and sav how do you do to a brio-ht 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. 
 
 AVe 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 throuo'h on foot with a dozen men, who 
 have thrown down the shovel to take up the 
 
142 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 sickle, or rather to foUow tlie reaper during har- 
 vest. 
 
 What he means by our having a sweet time we 
 do not quite comprehend. 
 
 " You wiU 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 tarn tirty travel all 
 the time ! " 
 
 We understand him. With a crack of the whip 
 we roll away, our liorses 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 any- 
 thing 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 expe- 
 rience. I remember calhng at a house in central 
 Missouri during the war, and, instead of having the 
 standard dish of the Southwest "hog and hom- 
 iny," 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 IsTevadas ; I was confi- 
 dent that she was from the Pine -Tree State the 
 
IN THE FOREST. 143 
 
 moment I saw her pies ; for somehow the daugh- 
 ters of Down East have the knack of making 
 pastry that wouki 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 Ver- 
 mont may possibly make just as good cooks, but 
 it has so happened that Ave have fallen in with 
 housewives from Elaine when our appetite was 
 sharpened for something good. 
 
 Our dinner is at the house of a farmer Avho 
 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 j)lough 
 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 ^linnesota. We understand it just as well as 
 if we were to read all the works extant on soil, 
 climatology, natural ]3roductions, 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. 
 
144 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 IVIississippi ; but it is not to be forever 
 a wilderness. The time will come when along 
 every stream there w^ill be heard the buzzing of 
 saws, the whirring of mill-stones, and the click 
 and clatter of machinery. This vast area of tim- 
 ber will invite every kind of manufacturing, and 
 the same elements which have contributed so 
 largely to build up the Eastern States — the man- 
 ufacturing and industrial — will here aid in build- 
 ing up one of the strongest communities of our 
 future republic. 
 
 Clearings here and there, cabins by the road- 
 side, bark wigwams which have sheltered wander- 
 ing Ojibwas, and a reacli of magnificent forest, are 
 the features of the country tlirough which we ride 
 this glorious afternoon, with the sunlight glimmer- 
 ing among the trees, till suddenly we come upon 
 Chengwatona. 
 
 It is a small village on Snake Elver, with a 
 
IN THE FOREST. 145 
 
 hotel, half a dozen houses, and a saw-mill where 
 pine logs are going np 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 im- 
 mense area, and lookinfy toward the descendinsj 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 re- 
 marks of the felloAVS at the railroad. We dive into 
 holes, the forward wheels going down herclmtg, send- 
 ing 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 Con- 
 gress on the back seat, and by our rotund physi- 
 cian and the Vice-President of the Northern Pa- 
 cific on the middle seat. The President is out- 
 side 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 
 do^^Tl like electric pith-balls between the negative 
 
 7 J 
 
146 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 and positive poles of a galvanic battery, — only 
 tliat the positive is the prevailing force ! When 
 the for^Yard 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 1 
 
 Then we who are shaking our sides with laugh- 
 ter on the front seat, congratulating ourselves, like 
 the Pharisees, that we are not as tliey are, suddenly 
 find ourselves sprawling on the floor. When we 
 regain our places, the M. D. and Vice-President 
 come forward w^ith a rush and embrace us frater- 
 nally. We get our legs so mixed up with our 
 neighbors' that w^e 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 con- 
 sists 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 
 
IN THE FOREST. 147 
 
 of the apartment consists of a cast-iron stove in 
 the centre and three rough benches against the 
 walls, which are papered with pictorial newspa- 
 pers. 
 
 The occupants are discussing the future pros- 
 pects 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 ^-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 " eterni- 
 ties of space," as Carlyle says of the vault of 
 heaven. But our profound thoughts upon the 
 measureless empyrean are brought down to sub- 
 lunary things by four of the sleepers who engage 
 
148 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 in a snoring contest. The race is so close, neck 
 and neck, or rather nose and nose, that it is im- 
 possible 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 sig- 
 nalize 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 philo- 
 sophic, and accommodate ourselves to circum- 
 stances, 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, beautify- 
 ing, 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 
 
IN THE FOREST. 149 
 
 berries by the roadside, walk ahead of the lum- 
 bering stage, and enjoy the solitude of the inter- 
 minable forest. 
 
 Eighteen miles of travel brings us to Kettle 
 Eiver Crossing, where we sit down to a dinner of 
 bla.ckberries and milk, bread and butter, and black- 
 berry-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, ISTew Hampsliire." 
 
 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 band- 
 box ; so with this one-storied log-house and every- 
 thing around it. We had sour-krout at Grind- 
 stone, but have blackberries here ; and that is just 
 the difference between Dutchland and N"ew Eng- 
 land, 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 
 
150 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Supe- 
 rior, 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 Fu- 
 ture, 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. Breck- 
 enridge, who is still a large owner in corner lots. 
 
 It has a fine situation at the southwestern cor- 
 ner of the lake, on a broad, level plateau, with a 
 densely timbered country behind it. The St. Louis 
 Eiver, wliich 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 shal- 
 low 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 expecta- 
 tion of deepeniug 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 exist- 
 
IN THE FOREST. 151 
 
 ence has liad 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 lib- 
 eral 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 pro- 
 prietors were in rebellion. The growth of the 
 place, which had been considerable, came to a sud- 
 den 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 exist- 
 ence as the rival of its older neiohbor. 
 
 o 
 
 The St. Paul and Superior Eailroad, having its 
 terminus at Duluth, lies wholly witliin the State 
 of Minnesota, and comes just near enough to Su- 
 perior to tantalize and vex tlie good people of that 
 place. 
 
152 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Desperanchcm 
 would best set forth their hopefulness and deter- 
 mination. They are confident that Superior is yet 
 to be the queen city of the lake, and are deter- 
 mined to have railway communication with the 
 Mississippi by building a branch line to the St. 
 Paul and Superior Eoad. 
 
 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 be- 
 yond civilization, I have only to say that there are 
 few drawing-rooms in the East where more agree- 
 able 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 piano- 
 forte, 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 study- 
 ing 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 
 
IN THE FOREST. 153 
 
 something for themselves or those around them, 
 that they would manfully and wolnanfidly 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. AVlien they 
 get on a little farther they will show us what they 
 can accomplish. But the chances are tliat 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 N"ortliwest, with 
 its boundless undeveloped resources before him, is 
 inviting him on, is one of the unexplained mys- 
 teries 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, ex- 
 cept in years, five years hence than he is now. 
 
 7* 
 
154 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 DULUTH. 
 
 EMBAEKING at a pier, and steering north- 
 west, 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 to^^ai of Duluth, un- 
 heard 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 Mis- 
 sissippi, descended it to St. Paul, where he met 
 Eather 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-ofi&ce clerks. 
 
BULUTH. 155 
 
 The new city of the Northwest is sheltered 
 from northerly winds by the high lands behind it. 
 The St. Louis Eiver, a stream as large as the Mer- 
 rimac, 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 rail- 
 way embankment, or had tried their hand at filling 
 up the lake. Tlie bay is shallow, but the men who 
 projected the city of Duluth are in no wise daunted 
 by that fact. Tliey have planned to make a harbor 
 by building a mole out into the lake fifteen hun- 
 dred or two thousand feet. It is to extend from 
 tlie northern sliore far enough to give good an- 
 chorage and protection to vessels and steamers. 
 
 Tlie 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 con- 
 struction 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 break- 
 ing. 
 
 The shore was a narrow strip of sand, behind 
 which. lay a shallow lagoon called Lake Menzaleh. 
 
156 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 There was no granite or solid material of any de- 
 scription at hand for the construction of a break- 
 water. Undaunted by the difficulties, he com- 
 menced 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 
 comjDlete 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 anchor- 
 age. 
 
 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. 
 
DULUTH. 157 
 
 and now the commerce of the world between the 
 Orient and the Occident passes thi'ough 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 Eed Sea, is 
 one of the wonders of modern times, — a triumph 
 of ensrineerincf skill and of the indomitable will 
 of one energetic man. 
 
 The people of Duluth will not be under the ne- 
 cessity of manufacturing the material for the break- 
 water, for along the northern shore there is an 
 abundant supply of granite Avhich 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 hun- 
 dred 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 inhab- 
 itants, with the prospect of doubling its population 
 within a twelvemonth. The woodman's axe is 
 ringing on the hills, and the trees are falling be- 
 neath his sturdy strokes. From morning till night 
 
158 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 we hear the joiner's plane and the click of the 
 mason's trowel. You may find excellent accom- 
 modation 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 pehhly 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 
 tlie 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. 
 

 
 DULUTH. 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 Year. 
 
 Opening. 
 
 
 Close. 
 
 
 No. of Days. 
 
 1855 
 
 April 
 
 15 
 
 December 
 
 6 
 
 235 
 
 1856 
 
 u 
 
 16 
 
 November 22 
 
 220 
 
 1857 
 
 May 
 
 27 
 
 
 li 
 
 20 
 
 177 
 
 1858 
 
 March 20 
 
 
 a 
 
 22 
 
 247 
 
 1859 
 
 May 
 
 25 
 
 
 u 
 
 9 
 
 164 
 
 1860 
 
 April 
 
 7 
 
 December 
 
 4 
 
 238 
 
 1861 
 
 June 
 
 12 
 
 
 li. 
 
 12 
 
 184 
 
 1862 
 
 April 
 
 28 
 
 
 u 
 
 16 
 
 233 
 
 1863 
 
 May 
 
 10 
 
 
 (( 
 
 7 
 
 212 
 
 1864 
 
 April 
 
 23 
 
 
 li. 
 
 1 
 
 222 
 
 1865 
 
 u 
 
 22 
 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 227 
 
 1866 
 
 May 
 
 5 
 
 
 a 
 
 10 
 
 220 
 
 1867 
 
 April 
 
 19 
 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 225 
 
 Steaming up the river several miles to tlie foot 
 of the first rapids, and landing on tlie 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 em^Dloyed. 
 
 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 net- 
 work 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 
 
160 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 adver- 
 tising, but were taken at once by men who wanted 
 them for iuA^estment. 
 
 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 trans- 
 ported by rail across Wisconsin, but when this 
 road is put in operation, the products of Minne- 
 sota, 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 
 
DULUTH. 161 
 
 greatness of the Northwest, -- 20,000,000 bush- 
 els of wheat this year; 500,000 inhabitants in the 
 State, yet scarcely a hundredth part of the area un- 
 der cultivation. A^^lat 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 Chi- 
 cago to the Atlantic cities. AA^ieat 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. 
 
162 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 The difference in freight on articles manufac- 
 tured in the East and shipped to ]\Iinnesota 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 car- 
 riage 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 
 wdieat will be taken directly from the cars into 
 the elevator, and discharged into the fleet of pro- 
 pellers running to Cleveland, Buffalo, and Og- 
 densburg, already arranged for this Lake Superior 
 trade. 
 
 The region around the western end of the Lake 
 has resources for the develo23ment of a varied in- 
 dustry. 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 North- 
 west, for the manufacture of all agricultural im- 
 plements, — reapers, mowers, harvesters, ploughs, 
 drills, seed-sowers, wagons, carriages, carts, and fur- 
 
DULUTH. 163 
 
 niture, — "besides furnishing lumber for fencing, for 
 railroad and building purposes. 
 
 Upon tlie St. Louis Eiver 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 Minne- 
 sota, which, being filled to overflowing by the rains 
 of spring and early summer, become great reser- 
 voirs. With such a supply of water there is no 
 locality more favorably situated^ for the manufac- 
 ture of every variety of domestic articles. Un- 
 doubtedly the water-power will be largely employed 
 for flouring-mills. The climate is admirably adapt- 
 ed 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 Eiver we come upon a ridge of slate. It 
 forms the backbone of the divide between the lake 
 and the Mississippi Eiver. 
 
 A quarry has been opened from which slates of 
 a quality not inferior to those of Vermont are ob- 
 tained, 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. 
 
164 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Eeport to the 
 Governor of Minnesota, dated December, 1864 
 (pp. 29, 30): — 
 
 " These slates are found in all degrees of charac- 
 ter, 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 economi- 
 cally of more importance to the prairie and sparsely 
 timbered vg^lley 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 re- 
 gions before the close of this century. The trustees 
 of our young Commonwealth are emphatically ad- 
 monished 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 
 
DULUTH. 165 
 
 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 in- 
 exhaustible ; 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 esti- 
 mated 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 wil- 
 derness. Climb the hills, and look upoii, 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 Avith their bordering thickets strive 
 To hide their Avindings. Thou shalt gaze at once. 
 
166 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 dream- 
 ing of laying their hands upon the v^^ealth 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 feath- 
 ers stuck into their long black hair, and are as 
 dignified as the cl^ief. 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, 
 l)ut 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 
 
DULUTH. 167 
 
 three principal water-powers of the Northwest. 
 The towTi of Thomj^son, named in honor of one 
 of the proprietors, Mr. Edgar A. Thompson of 
 Philadelphia, has been laid out at the falls, and be- 
 ing situated on the line of the railroad, and so 
 convenient to the lake, will probably have a rapid 
 growth. The St. Paul and Mississippi Ptailroad, 
 which winds up the northern bank of the river, 
 crosses the stream at that point, and strikes south- 
 ward throudi the forests to St. Paul. 
 
 o 
 
 The road, in addition to its grant of land, has re- 
 ceived 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 S 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 jNIaine and New Hampshire. Norway pines 
 abound. Besides transporting the lumber from its 
 own extensive tracts and the lands of the govern- 
 ment adjoining, it will be the thoroughfare for an 
 immense territory drained by the Snake, Kettle, 
 St. Louis, and St. Croix Eivers. 
 
 The lands that bear such masjnificent forest- 
 trees are excellent for agriculture. Nowhere in 
 the East have I ever seen ranker timothy and clo- 
 ver than we saw on our journey from St. Paul. 
 
168 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 The company offer favorable terms to all set- 
 tlers. Men from Maine and New Hampshire are 
 already locating along the line, and setting up 
 saw-mills. They w^ere 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. 
 
THE MINING REGION. 169 
 
 CHAPTEE 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 succes- 
 sion 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 for- 
 est 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 Atlan- 
 tic coast, none in the world, more accessible than 
 Bayfield, or more securely land-locked. It may 
 be approached during the wildest storm, no matter 
 
 8 
 
170 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 which way the wind is blowing. When the north- 
 easters raise a sea as terrible as that which some- 
 times breaks upon ^Nahant, the captains of steamers 
 and schooners on Lake Superior run for the Apos- 
 tle Islands. 
 
 Bayfield is about sixty miles from Superior City, 
 and is the first harbor Avhere 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 Eoyal 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 approacliing com- 
 pletion, are morg minute and accurate. 
 
 The few houses that make up the town are beau- 
 tifully located, on the western side of the bay. 
 Madeline Island, the largest of the group, lies im- 
 mediately in front, and shelters the harbor and 
 town from the northeast storms. 
 
THE MINING REGION. 171 
 
 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 wig- 
 wams 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. 
 
 Tliere being no hotel in the place, we are put to 
 this strait. Possibly old Nokomis, who is cook- 
 ing 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 IMrs. 
 Vaughn, — such a tender steak, mealy potatoes. 
 
172 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 avalaijche of company at 
 such an hour ! 
 
 ^Vhere 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 run- 
 ning near the bluffs to examine the sandstone for- 
 mation 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 Bay- 
 field 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 ap- 
 pearance 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 ave- 
 nues through the forest, found men who believed 
 
THE MINING EEGION. 173 
 
 that Asliland was to be a great city, who bonght 
 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 dis- 
 eases, 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 re- 
 pose. 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 w^ould not be strange if com- 
 merce reared a great mart around this harbor. 
 
174 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 The charter of the ISTorthern Pacific Eailroad ex- 
 tends 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 rail- 
 road 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, tu.rning, pulling, twisting, run- 
 ning, 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 1 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 host- 
 ess we take an eastward-bound steamer in the 
 evening for a trip down the lake, stopping for an 
 
THE MINING EEGION. 175 
 
 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 ate 
 lying in the harbor, and thrift, activity, and enter- 
 prise is everwhere visible. 
 
 We see an immense structure, resembling a rail- 
 way 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 run- 
 ning 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 Eocks " 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. 
 
176 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 The town is well laid out. Although the busi- 
 ness 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, 
 w^ho 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 Ev- 
 erett obtained half a ton of it, which the Indians 
 and half-breeds carried on their backs to the 
 Carp Eiver, 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 MINING REGION. 177 
 
 The Pittsburg iron-men pronounced it worth- 
 less. 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 cop- 
 per 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 Eiver in 1847, making four blooms a 
 day, each about four feet long and eight inclies 
 thick. 
 
 Another was built, in 1854, by a company from 
 Worcester, Mass., but so small was the produc- 
 tion 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 ; raih^oads 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 min- 
 ing, — two have just commenced, while the otliers 
 are well developed. TJie production of tlie twelve 
 principal mines for the year 1868 wiU be seen from 
 the following figures : — 
 
 8* I* 
 
178 
 
 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Jackson, 
 Cleveland, 
 Marquette, 
 Lake Superior, . 
 New York, 
 Lake Angeline, 
 Edwards, 
 Iron Mountain, 
 Washington, 
 New England, . 
 Champion, 
 Barnum, 
 
 Total, 
 
 Tons. 
 
 131,707 
 
 102,213 
 
 7,977 
 
 105,745 
 
 45,665 
 
 27,651 
 
 17,360 
 
 3,836 
 
 35,757 
 
 8,257 
 
 6,255 
 
 14,380 
 
 606,803 
 
 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 inilliorb dollars. 
 
 The cause for this rapid development is found 
 in the fact that the Lake Suj)erior 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 quali- 
 ties, will be seen by the following tabular state- 
 ment : — 
 
THE MINING REGION, 179 
 
 Swedish, 69 
 
 English Cable bolt. 59 
 
 Eussian. 76 
 
 Lake Superior, . ' 89^ 
 
 When this fact was made known, railroad com- 
 panies began to use Lake Sujjerior iron for the 
 construction of locomotives, car- wheels, and axles. 
 Boiler builders wanted it. Those who tried it 
 Avere 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 
 S2 per ton. It is shipped to Cleveland at a 
 cost of $ 4.35, making $ 6.35 wdien 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 inci- 
 dentals, the profit may be reduced to about $ 1.25 
 per ton. It will be seen that this is a very remu- 
 nerative operation. 
 
 About one hundred furnaces in Ohio and Penn- 
 sylvania use Lake Superior ore almost exclusively, 
 while others mix it with the ores of those re- 
 gions. 
 
 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 ai^d evergreen hemlock are 
 
180 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 cap- 
 ital employed, insurance, freight, commission, mak- 
 ing the total cost about S 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 
 tioenty-foiir thousand dollars per annum ! 
 
 A railroad runs due west from Marquette, gain- 
 ing 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 high- 
 way across the continent. It is about twenty 
 miles from Marquette to the principal mmes, 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 
 
THE MINING REGION. 181 
 
 one to five hundred feet above tlie 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 valua- 
 ble is what is called the specular hematite, which 
 chemically is knowai as a pure anhydrous sesqui- 
 oxide. This ore yields about sixty-five per cent 
 of pure iron. It is sometimes found in conjunc- 
 tion with red quartz, and is then known as mixed 
 ore. 
 
 The next in importance is a soft hematite, re- 
 sembling 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, Washing- 
 ton, Champion, and Edwards mines are all mag- 
 netic. Sometimes the magnetic and specular lie 
 side by side, and it is a puzzle to geologists and 
 chemists alike to account for the difference be- 
 tween them. As yet we are not able to under- 
 stand by what subtle alchemy the change has been 
 produced. 
 
 Another variety is called the silicious hematite, 
 which is more difficult of reduction than the 
 
182 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 others. It varies in richness, and there is an un- 
 limited supply. 
 
 The iifth variety is a silicious hematite found 
 with manc^anese, 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 Eussia and 
 Sweden for magnetic ores to mix with those pro- 
 duced 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 Eng- 
 land 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 
 
THE MINING REGION. 183 
 
 be produced here at Lake Superior by mixing the 
 various ores. 
 
 The miners are a hardy set of men, rough, -an- 
 couth, but enterprising. They live in small cot- 
 tages, 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. 
 I^early 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 stumj)s 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 exist- 
 ence. 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 1 
 
 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. 
 
184 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 He has filled up the streets with the ddhris 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 be- 
 tween Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. 
 
 Look at the locality ! It is half- way across the 
 continent. Lake Michigan laves the southern, 
 Superior the northern sliore, while the St. Law- 
 rence 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 cen- 
 tral 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. 
 
THE MINING EEGION. 185 
 
 TowTis, cities, and villages are to arise amid these 
 hills ; the forests and the hills themselves are to 
 disappear. The product, now worth seventeen mil- 
 lions of dollars per annum, erelong will be valued 
 at a hundred millions. 
 
 I tliink 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 tlie ringing anvil. 
 From Marquette, and Bayfield, and Ontonagon, 
 and Escanaba, from every harbor on these in- 
 land seas, steamers and schooners, brigs and ships, 
 will depart freighted with ore; hither they will 
 come, bringing the products of ^:he farm and work- 
 shop. 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 popula- 
 tion, the development of resources, the construc- 
 tion of railways, the growth of cities and towns ; 
 we have only to grasp the probabilities of the fu- 
 ture, to discern the dawning commercial greatness 
 of this section of our country. 
 
186 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 A FAMILIAR TALK. 
 
 " T HAVE called to have a little talk about the 
 
 i- West, and think that I should like a farm in 
 Minnesota or in the Eed Eiver 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 
 has n't much money, but who is n'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 eve- 
 ning's talk with Mr. Blotter. 
 
FAMILIAR TALK. 187 
 
 " I want a farm, I am tired of tlie 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. For- 
 eigners must declare their intention to become 
 citizens. Under the present Pre-emption Law 
 settlors 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. Live years' 
 residence on the land is required by the Home- 
 stead Law, and it is not liable to any debts con- 
 tracted 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, live 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 
 
188 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 reason- 
 able rates, giving you accommodating terms. 
 
 " Would you take a homestead from government, 
 or would you buy lands along the line of a rail- 
 road?" 
 
 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 neare:^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 S 2 to 8 10, according to 
 location, but will give you time for payment. 
 
 " What are their terms ? " 
 
 The St. Paul and Pacific Eailroad, the main line 
 of which is to be completed to the Eed Pdver 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. Sup- 
 pose you were to buy eighty acres at S 8 per acre, 
 that would give you a snug farm for $640. If 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 
 
 189 
 
 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: — 
 
 j^igiii/y av^i 
 
 CO au fip u uci < 
 
 X»^i.C, ^ 
 
 KJ-£\J. 
 
 
 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 
 
190 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 and others by steam. The timlDerecl 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 jnst 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 S2.50 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 Mississip23i 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-grow- 
 ing 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 af- 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 191 
 
 ford to be at a greater distance from a railroad sta- 
 tion than the man who raises wheat. It would un- 
 doubtedly 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 Ano- 
 ka thriving places, which, with St. Paul and Min- 
 neapolis, 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 
 
192 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 carried on in the West and Northwest, is down- 
 right robbery and plunder, and nothing else. If 
 the present exhaustive system is kept up, the time 
 will come when the wheat-fields of Minnesota, in- 
 stead 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 ajDplication 
 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 
 Eailroad, west of Minneapolis. White clover 
 seems to spring up of its own accord. I remem- 
 ber that I saw it growing luxuriantly along a path- 
 way in the Eed Eiver Valley, and by the side of 
 the military road leading through the woods to 
 Lake Superior. Hay is very abundant, and ex- 
 ceedingly cheap in Minnesota. I doubt if there 
 is a State in the Union that has a greater breadtli 
 of first-class grass-lands. Hon. Thomas Clarke, 
 Assistant State Geologist, estimates the area of 
 meadow-lands between the St. Croix and the Mis- 
 sissippi, and south of Sandy Lake, at a million 
 acres. He says : " Some of these are very exten- 
 sive, 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." 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 193 
 
 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 Hamp- 
 shire 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, rasp- 
 berries, 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 cran- 
 berry-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. 
 
194 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Mr. Clarke, the geologist, says : " There are 
 256,000 acres of cranberry-marsh in the triangle 
 between the St. Croix and Mississippi, and bound- 
 ed north by the St. Louis and Prairie Eivers ! The 
 high price paid for this delicious fruit makes its 
 cultivation very profitable in Minnesota, as well 
 as in ]^ew 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 suc- 
 cess 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 
 Eochester, one fruit-grower had fifty bushels on 
 exhibition, and two hundred more at home. It 
 was estimated that the yield in AVinona County 
 last year was thirty thousand bushels.* 
 
 The St. Paul Press, noticing the display of fruits 
 at the Piamsay and Hennipen County Fair, says : 
 " These two fairs have set at rest the long-mooted 
 
 * These and many other facts relating to Minnesota are ob- 
 tained from "Minnesota as it is in 1870," by J. W. McClung, 
 of St, Paul, — an exceedingly valuable work, crammed with in- 
 formation. 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 195 
 
 question, whether IMinnesota is an apple-gi'owing 
 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 followinfy varieties were exhibited at the 
 last meeting of the Fruit-Growers' Association, of 
 Winona County : The Duchess of Oldenburg, lit- 
 ter's Large, Early Eed, Sweet June, Perry Eus- 
 set. Pall Stripe, Keswick Codlin, Eed Astracan, 
 Plum Cider, Phoenix, Wagner, Ben Davis, German 
 Bough, Carolina Eed June, Bailey Sweet, St. 
 Lawrence, Sops of Wine, Seek-no-further, Famuse, 
 Price Sweet, Pomme Grise, TomjDkins County 
 King, Northern Spy, Golden Eusset, Sweet Pear, 
 Yellow Ingestrie, Yellow Bellflower, Lady Finger, 
 Eaule's Jannet, Kirkbridge White, Janiton, Dume- 
 low. Winter Wine Sap, Chronicle, FaE Wine Sap, 
 Eosseau, Colvert, Benoni, Eed Eomanite. 
 
 Many of the above are raised in E'ew England, 
 so that those people who may cut loose from the 
 East need not be apprehensive that they are bid- 
 ding 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. 
 
196 
 
 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 On the contrary, tliey are indigenous. You find 
 wild grapes along the streams, and in the gardens 
 aroimd St. Paul and Minneapolis you will see 
 many of the cultivated varieties bearing magnifi- 
 cent 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 re- 
 port made to the last legislature of the products 
 for 1869, will show the capabilities of the soil : — 
 
 
 
 Average per 
 
 Wheat, . 
 
 18,500,000 bushels, . 
 
 . m 
 
 Com, . 
 
 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. 
 
 
 :^aple Sugar, . 
 
 300,000 pounds. 
 
 
 Flax, . 
 
 . 170,000 " 
 
 
 From this it would seem that the State is des- 
 tined 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. 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 197 
 
 The entire amount of school lands in the State 
 will be three milHon acres. 
 
 These are sold at the rate of five dollars per 
 acre, and the money invested in State or govern- 
 ment bonds. Governor Marshall, in his last mes- 
 sage, 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 gTound will be in good 
 condition for next year's ploughing. If you go into 
 the timbered lands along the Lake Superior and 
 Mississippi Eailroad, or along that of the North- 
 ern 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. 
 
 '' AVliich is the best way to go ? " 
 
 You will find either of the great trunk rail- 
 roads leading westward comfortable routes, and 
 their rates of fare do not greatly vary. 
 
198 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 " 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 lib- 
 eral policy of the State, its munificent school- 
 fund, the richness of the lands, the abundance of 
 pure, fresh water, the delightful climate, the situ- 
 ation of the State in connection with the trans- 
 continental line of railway, altogether will give 
 Minnesota rapid advancement. Of the IsTorth- 
 west 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 es- 
 tates : — 
 
 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 : — 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 199 
 
 Total tilled acres, 1,690,000 
 
 Value of real estate, .... $ 120,000,000 
 
 '' " personal property, . . . 65,000,000 
 
 " " livestock, .... 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 develop- 
 ment, but Dakota as well. Civilization is advan- 
 cing np 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 ob- 
 tain lumber from a distance. The prices at Minne- 
 apolis are all the way from S 12 to $ 45 per thou- 
 sand, according to quality. Shingles cost from 
 $3.50 to S 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 ac- 
 
200 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 customed to hot and cold water, batli-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 np 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 Avith 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 S 20 to $ 50. 
 
 Carpenters, masons, and mechanics command 
 high prices, — from $ 2 to S 4.50 per day. Farm 
 laborers can be liired for $ 20 to S 25 per month. 
 
 " What section of the ISTorthwest 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 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 201 
 
 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 Eed Eiver Valley. 
 
 Two years hence there will probably be many 
 thousand inhabitants in the northern counties ; 
 the fertility of the Eed Eiver lands and the 
 construction of two raiboads cannot fail of at- 
 tracting 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 dis- 
 trict amounts to 10,359,000 acres, nearly the same 
 area as Massachusetts and N'ew Hampsliire to- 
 gether. 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 Eed Eiver. The main 
 line of the St. Paul and Pacific Eailroad will run 
 through the southwestern township this year. 
 There are 295,000 acres stiU vacant. 
 
 Otter- TaAl. — We travelled through this county 
 
202 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 on our return from Dakota, and were serenaded by 
 the Germans in our camp on the bank of Eiish 
 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. 
 N'ow it may be set down at 2,000. 
 
 Wilkin. — This county is on the Eed Eiver. 
 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 
 Eailroad will be constructed through the county 
 during the year 1870. 
 
 Clay. — North of Wilkin on the Eed Eiver is 
 Clay County, containing 650,000 acres of govern- 
 ment land, all open to settlement. The Northern 
 Pacific Eailroad will probably strike the Eed Eiver 
 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. 
 
 Folic. — The next county north contains 2,480,000 
 acres, unsurpassed for fertility, well watered by the 
 Eed, the Wild Eice, Marsh, Sand Hill, and Eed 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 203 
 
 Lake Eivers. The county is half as large as Mas- 
 sachusetts, 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 Eailroad. 
 Salt springs abound on the Wild Eice Eiver, and 
 the State has reserved 23,000 acres of the saline 
 territory. 
 
 Pcmhina. — 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 Eed 
 Eiver to the head-waters of the Buffalo. (Descrip- 
 tion, p. 113.) It is a region surpassingly beautiful. 
 The jNTorthern Pacific Eailroad will pass through 
 it, and there you may find 435,000 acres of roll- 
 ing prairie and timbered hills. Probably there 
 are not fifty settlers in the county. A large por- 
 tion of these northwestern counties are unsur- 
 veyed, but that will not debar you from pre-empt- 
 ing a homestead. 
 
 "How about the southwestern section of the 
 State ? " asked my visitor. 
 
 I cannot speak from personal observation be- 
 yond Blue Earth County, where the Minnesota 
 Eiver 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 
 
204 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 will be made available by the railroad now iinder 
 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 D.arsel, on the St. Paul and Pacific Eailroad 
 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 culti- 
 vation, and sold 900 bushels of potatoes, 500 bush- 
 els 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 maga- 
 zines. The mother of these girls made the follow- 
 
A FAMILIAR TALK. 205 
 
 ing 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 comfort- 
 able 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 N"evada, 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, \vill be 
 
206 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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, turn- 
 ing his back on a dry-goods counting-house to 
 obtain a home on the prairies. 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 THE statesman, tlie political economist, or any 
 man who wishes to cast the horoscope of 
 the future of this country, must take into con- 
 sideration the great lakes, and their connection 
 with the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Colum- 
 bia Eivers, 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 high- 
 ways for trade and traffic ; valleys are natural 
 avenues; mountains are toll-gates set up by na- 
 ture. 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 water- 
 courses." 
 
 It impressed me deeply, as long ago as 1846, 
 
208 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 IS'orth 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 
 Eed Eiver of the ISTorth, 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 high- 
 way between the Atlantic and the Pacific must 
 be from Lake Superior to the valley of the Co- 
 lumbia. 
 
 In cliildhood I had read the travels of Lewis and 
 Clark over and over aerain, till I could almost re- 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 209 
 
 peat the entire volume, and, remembering tlieir 
 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 w^ould be through one of the passes of the 
 Eocky Mountains at the head-waters of the Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 Doubtless, many others observant of the physi- 
 cal geography of the continent had arrived at the 
 same natural conclusion. Seven years later tlie 
 government surveys were made along several of 
 the • parallels, that from Lake Superior to the Co- 
 lumbia 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 popu- 
 lation. A careful study of Governor Stevens's 
 Eeport, and a comparison with the re]Oorts 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 E. John- 
 son, of Middletown, Conn., the present chief engi- 
 neer of the Eacific Eailroad, published a pamphlet 
 which set forth in a clear and forcible manner 
 
 N 
 
210 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 the natural advantages of the route by the Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 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 Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " The accomplishment of such a scheme," said 
 Mr. Eoebuck, "would unite England with Van- 
 couver Island and with China, and they would be 
 enabled widely to extend the civilization of Eng- 
 land, and he would boldly assert that the civiliza- 
 tion of England was greater than that of America." 
 
 " Already," said the Colonial Secretary, Lord 
 Lytton, better known to American readers as Bul- 
 wer, " in the large territory which extends west of 
 the Eocky Mountains, from the American frontier 
 and up to the skirts of the Eussian 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 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 211 
 
 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 ra- 
 pidity, 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 sec- 
 tions 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 pres- 
 ent time. Nearly every individual named as cor- 
 porators in the charter, with the exception of Gov- 
 ernor J. G. Smith, its present President, Judge 
 E. D. Rice, the Vice-President, and a few others, 
 abandoned it under the many difficulties and dis- 
 couragements that beset the enterprise. The few 
 gentlemen who held on studied the geography of 
 the country, and their faith in the future of the 
 
212 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 l^ortliwest was strengthened. A year ago tliey 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 bank- 
 ers 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 Pennsyl- 
 vania Central Eailroad ; 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 "^nd ISTorthwestern Eoad ; 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. Tt 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 Eed 
 Eiver, to which place it is now under construction. 
 The year 1871 will probably see it constructed to 
 the Missouri Eiver, thus opening easy communi- 
 cation with Montana. The gentlemen who have 
 taken hold of the work contemplate its completion 
 to the Pacific in three years. 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 213 
 
 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 Eed Elver, and laborers with spade 
 and shovel are following them. Imagination 
 bounds onward over the prairies, across the moun- 
 tains, down the valley of the Columbia, "and be- 
 holds 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. Thir- 
 ty-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 
 
214 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 
 Eed Eiver. Straight on, over the level valley of 
 the Eed Eiver, westward to the summit of the 
 rolling prairies between the Eed Eiver and the 
 Missouri, the locomotive speeds its way. Gradu- 
 ally 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 bot- 
 tom-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 YelloAvstone 
 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 Missomi. 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 great- 
 er than those of the Illinois Central and other 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 215 
 
 prairie railroads of the West, Crossing the Mis- 
 souri 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 Eoberts, civil engineer, approached 
 it from the west, and this is his description of 
 the Pass : — 
 
 " Considered as a railroad route, this valley is re- 
 markably 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 em- 
 ploying a gradient exceeding fifty feet to the mile, 
 wdth a moderate cut. The whole forty miles from 
 Deer Lodge City to the summit of the Piocky 
 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 Eiver ; but the line will be 
 highly favorable on an average all the way to the 
 Jefferson Pork of the Missouri Eiver. This favor- 
 able pass comes into connection more particularly 
 with the Yellowstone Yalley route to the main 
 Missouri Yalley. A remarkable circumstance con- 
 nected with this pass will convey a very clear view 
 
216 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE, 
 
 of its peculiarly favorable cliaracter. Private par- 
 ties engaged in gold mining, in the gold-fields which 
 exist abundantly on both sides of the Eocky 
 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 ^^'ater passes into the 
 Pacific Ocean. This has been justly termed high- 
 way 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 be- 
 fore 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 Winni- 
 pesaukee form the INIerrimac in Xew Hampshire, 
 receiving its name from the many Indian fights 
 that have taken place in its valley, where the 
 Blackfeet and Nez Perces have liad many a battle. 
 The stream bears the name of Hell Gate for about 
 eighty miles before being joined by the Blackfoot, 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 217 
 
 which flows from the mountains in the vicinity of 
 Caclotte's and Lewis and Clark's Passes. 
 
 A little below the junction it empties into the 
 Bitter Eoot, 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 Elver, 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 boun- 
 dary between the United States and the British 
 Possessions, but strikes across the plain of the 
 Columbia. 
 
 The characteristics of Clark's Eiver and the 
 surrounding country are thus described by Mr. 
 Eoberts : — 
 
 " Clark's Eiver has a flow in low water at least 
 six times greater than the low-water flow of the 
 Ohio Eiver 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 
 
 10 
 
218 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 westward, and all along Clark's Eiver above the 
 lake as far as we traversed it, there is a mag- 
 nificent region of pine, cypress, hemlock, tama- 
 rack, and cedar timber, many of the trees of prodi- 
 gious 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 Eiver from both sides, and 
 the soil of these valleys is very rich. Clark's 
 Eiver Valley itself is for much of the distance 
 confined by very high hills approaching near to 
 the stream in many places ; but there are suffi- 
 cient 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 in- 
 dustries and population analogous to those which 
 now mark the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, the Sus- 
 quehanna, and the Pomroy region of the Ohio 
 Eiver. 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 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 219 
 
 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. 
 
 "Passinsj alono' 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 im- 
 planted 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 ob- 
 struction 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 AllDany. That the N'orthern 
 Pacific road will be quite as free from snow-block- 
 ades will be manifest by a perusal of the following 
 paragraphs from the report of Mr. Roberts : — 
 
220 THE SEAT OF EMPIKE. 
 
 " There is evidence enoiigli to sliow 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 com- 
 pensated 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 
 Eocky Mountains. An examination of the jjrofile 
 of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines 
 betAveen Omaha, on the Missouri Eiver, and Sacra- 
 mento, 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 
 Eocky 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 ISTevada, only 
 105 miles from the western terminus at Sacra- 
 mento, 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 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 221 
 
 highest summit grade on the ISTorthern Pacific 
 Eailroad route ; whilst for the corresponding dis- 
 tance on the ISTorthern Pacific line the average 
 elevation is under 3,000 feet, or three thousand 
 feet lower than the Sherman Summit on the Pa- 
 cific 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 Eiver, 
 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. Rob- 
 erts : — 
 
222 THE SEAT OF EMPIEE. 
 
 "The grades on tlie route across through the 
 State of Minnesota and Territory of Dakota to 
 the Missouri Eiver 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 distan- 
 ces, 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 w^arrant 
 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 Eange, and in going up the eastern side 
 of the Eocky Mountains, it may be found advisable 
 to adopt a somewhat higher gradient for a few 
 miles in overcoming those summits. This, how- 
 ever, can only be finally determined after careful 
 surveys. 
 
 The highest ground encountered between Lake 
 Superior and the Missouri Eiver, at the mouth of 
 the Yellowstone, is only 2,300 feet above the sea ; 
 the low summit of the Eocky Mountains is but 
 little over 5,000 feet, and the Bozeman Pass, 
 through the Belt Eange, is assumed to be about 500 
 feet lower. The height of the country upon wdiich 
 the line is traced, and upon which my estimate of 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 223 
 
 cost is based, may be approximately stated thus, 
 beginning at Lake Superior, going westward : — 
 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Average neign 
 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. Prop- 
 erly, the comparison should be made from Chicago, 
 the eastern water terminus of Lake Michigan, of 
 the Omaha line. There are, on that route, approxi- 
 mately, as follows : — 
 
 
 Miles. 
 
 From Chicago to Omaha, 
 
 . 500 
 
 Near Cheyenne, 
 
 500 
 
 Cooper's, . 
 
 . 100 
 
 Promontory Point, . 
 
 485 
 
 Humboldt, 
 
 . 406 
 
 Reno, .... 
 
 130 
 
 Auburn, 
 
 . 118 
 
 Sacramento, . 
 
 36 
 
 San Francisco, . 
 
 . 100 
 
 Chicago to San Francisco 
 
 2,375 
 
 Average height 
 above the sea. 
 
 1,000 feet 
 
 3,300 
 
 
 7,300 
 
 
 6,200 
 
 
 4,750 
 
 
 4,000 
 
 
 4,400 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 " On the ISTorthern Pacific line there need be but 
 two principal summits, whilst on the other there 
 are four, the lowest of which is about a thousand 
 
224 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 feet higher than the highest on the northern route. 
 If, therefore, the roads were the same length be- 
 tween the Pacific waters and the great lakes and 
 navigable rivers east of the Eocky Mountains, the 
 advantage would be largely in favor of the North- 
 ern route : but this actual distance is three hundred 
 and seventy-five miles less, and the equated dis- 
 tance for ascents and descents in its favor will be 
 very considerable " (Eeport, 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 wiU 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 
 Eange. To those who never have had time to ex- 
 amine 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 dif- 
 ferent grades as follows : — 
 
 On a level 94 cars 
 
 10 feet per mile ascending . . 56 " 
 
 20 
 30 
 40 
 50 
 60 
 
 40 " 
 30^" 
 25 " 
 20i" 
 17 " 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 225 
 
 70 
 
 fee 
 
 b per 
 
 mile ascending 
 
 . 15 cars. 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 a a 
 
 13 '' 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 U (I 
 
 . iir^ 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 a u 
 
 10 " 
 
 110 
 
 
 
 iC i( 
 
 . 8^" 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 li 11 
 
 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 sev- 
 enteen tons on a grade sixty feet per mile will 
 move only about fifty tons on a grade of one hun- 
 dred 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 construc- 
 tion ; 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 cheapen- 
 ing 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 
 
 10* o 
 
226 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 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 Emi- 
 gTation 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 dis- 
 tinctive features of each section described. Emi- 
 gration 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 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 227 
 
 Bureau propose to help the man who is anxious to 
 help himself on in the world, by putting up a port- 
 able 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 mar- 
 ket. 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 Methnen, a third from Ando- 
 ver, a fourth from Heading, a fifth from Haverhill, 
 to select their land m a body and start a Massa- 
 chusetts 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 car- 
 ry the moral atmosphere of their old homes with 
 them. They will have a school in operation the 
 week after their arrival. And on Sabbath morn- 
 ing, 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 be- 
 yond 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 
 
228 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and all the Western 
 States. The Northern Pacific Eailroad Company 
 want their lands settled by an industrious, thrifty, 
 energetic peo]3le, 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 advan- 
 tages to establish their future homes near a rail- 
 road which will give the shortest line across the 
 continent, marked by low gradients, running 
 through the lowest passes of the Eocky Moun- 
 tains, 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 high- 
 way. 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, fur- 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 229 
 
 nishing water-carriage for freight half-way from 
 ocean to ocean, — the prairies extending to the 
 base of the Eocky 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 west- 
 ern gateways of the continent. Eapid 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 Eepublic. 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 Eussia. 
 
 "While we are building our railroads westward 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Emperor of 
 Eussia is extending his from the Ural Llountains 
 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 Eange of mountains and the deserts of 
 Central Asia will be impassible barriers to rail- 
 
230 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 roads between India and China, or Central Europe 
 and tlie East ; but the valley of the Amoor is fer- 
 tile, and there is no fairer section of the Czar's do- 
 minions 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 be- 
 comes 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 cof- 
 fee of Java, the sj^ices of Sumatra. I hear the 
 humming of saws, the pounding of hammers, the 
 flying of shuttles, the click and clatter of ma- 
 chinery. 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 dcA^elopment keep pace 
 with the physical growth ? If those are wanting, 
 
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 231 
 
 the advancement will be towards Sodom. The fu- 
 ture 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. In- 
 dolence is characteristic of people living in the 
 tropics, and energy of those in temperate zones. 
 
 The citizen of the ISTortliwest 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 eman- 
 cipation ; it is like the Marseillaise, — it fires him 
 with new hopes and aspirations. 
 
 "Here tlie 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 forw^ard race ? 
 
 For like the comet's way through infinite space, 
 Stretches the long untravelled path of light 
 
 Into the depth of ages ; we may ti-ace, 
 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. Eailroads, steamships, school-houses, print- 
 ing-presses, free platforms and pulpits, an open 
 
232 THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Bible, are tlie 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 mil- 
 lions, to insure a greatness and grandeur to Amer- 
 ica far surpassing anything in human history. 
 
 It win 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 dark- 
 ness 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 OENTRAL & GREAT WESTERN 
 
 RA-ILRO^DS. 
 
 Prom Boston and New York to Chicago, connect- 
 ing there with all the great Railways, 
 North, South, and West. 
 
 r^oTJLir Tr a/ins ID«;ily. 
 
 Pullman's Palace, Hotel, Drawing-Room, and 
 Sleeping Cars on Express Trains. 
 
 Freight taken through by the " BI.UE L.INE " 
 
 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 ^cres 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 West- 
 ern 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 fprbid 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 
 S5.00 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 S 8 00 per acre, on long credit, — S GiO.OO. A part 
 payment on the principal is always desired, but in case the means of the set- 
 tler 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. 
 
 
 Int. Prin. 
 
 Ist payment . 
 
 . . $44.80 
 
 7th payment . 
 
 . . $ 17.92 $ 64 
 
 2d " 
 
 . . 40.32 $64 
 
 8th " . . 
 
 . . 13.44 64 
 
 3d " 
 
 . . 35.84 64 
 
 9th " 
 
 . . 8.96 64 
 
 4th " . . 
 
 . . 31.36 64 
 
 lOth " . . 
 
 . . 4.48 64 
 
 5th " 
 
 . . 26.28 64 
 
 11th " 
 
 . . 64 
 
 6th " . . 
 
 . . 22.40 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. Paxil & Pacific R. R. Co., 
 SAINT PAUL, MINN. 
 
LAKE SHORE AND MICHIGAN 
 Southern Railway. 
 
 THE GREAT SOUTH SHORE LINE BETWEEN 
 
 BUFFAIiO AI¥D 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 prin- 
 cipal points in New England to Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, and principal 
 points in the Southwest and Northwest, without break of bulk or transfer. 
 
 RED I.INE, WHITE tlNE, 
 
 SOUTH SHORE MNE, EMPIRE I.INE, 
 
 COMMERCIAI. I.INE FROM BALTIMORE. 
 
 Passengers or shippers of freight will find it to their interest to call on the 
 Agents of these Lines. 
 
 F. E. MORSE, CHS. F. HATCH, 
 
 Gcn'Z Western Pass-r ^o-'f, OenH Superintendent, 
 
 Chicago, lU. J. A. BURCH, Cleveland, O. 
 
 Qen'l Eastern Pass''r Jlg^t, 
 Buflfalo, N. Y. 
 
VERMONT CENTRAL 
 
 FL. 'FL. I-iixxe. 
 
 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-CAES, 
 
 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. 
 
 TIlflE FREIGHT 
 
 VIA 
 
 ISTational Despatch. Line. 
 
 Freight taken for Chicago, St. Louis, and all points West 
 
 Avitliout 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 naTigation on the Mis- 
 sissippi River, to the head of Lake Superior, a distance of 140 uwles. It con- 
 nects 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 CaUfornia 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 com- 
 merce 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 Tliirty-t^vo Tlioiisand 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 agricul 
 tural products, than any equal quantity of land in the Northwest. 
 
 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 abun- 
 dance 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 dol- 
 lars 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 I.ANDS OF THIS COMPANY ARE 
 NOW OFFERED TO 
 
 Imraigraiits and Settlers 
 
 at the most favorable rates, as to time and terms of 
 payment. 
 
 W. L. BANNING, 
 
 President and land Commissioner, Saint Paul, Minnesota. 
 
iC 
 
 CARLETON'S" WORKS. 
 
 OUR NAGPORE COACH. 
 
 OUR mW WAY ROUXD THE WORLD ; 
 
 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 illus- 
 trated with more than 100 engravings, reproduced from photo- 
 graphs 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 ; jet, 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 pur- 
 view 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. 
 
OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 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 ofif 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 com- 
 pass 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 intersi>ersed among his pages deserve 
 
 a word of commendation. They are drawn with vigor and truth, often show- 
 ing 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." — Sat- 
 urday 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 Alex- 
 andria, thence to Cairo, and Suez Canal, India, China, and Japan, returning 
 by the way of California. Through this wide field for observation and re- 
 search, his keen habits of characterization, and his vivid powers of descrip- 
 tion 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." — JV. Y. 
 Express. 
 
 " A model record of travel, over fields comparatively unknown. It com- 
 bines, 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. I'he illustrations, too, are nu- 
 merous, 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. Yery heartily, therefore, do we 
 commend the book to the winter-evening family circle, sure that it will in- 
 struct and charm alike both young and old." — JV. 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." — JVeto 
 York Evenina- Post. 
 
 *** Fo?' sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, to any address, by 
 the Publishers, 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., 
 
 134 Tremont Street, Boston. 
 
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; Slieep, $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 die 
 Republic. I am, sir, your obliged friend, RICU'D YATES. 
 
 *^* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 by the Publishers, 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston. 
 
^ n/'^ 
 
 MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE 
 BATTLE-FIELD. 
 
 A Book for Boys. By " Carleton." 1 vol. 16mo. Illustrated. 
 
 $1.50. 
 «f'l? is ^tten by one of the best of the war correspondents, < Carleton ' 
 ot the Boston Journal, whose opportunities for observing all the celebrated 
 vL; !>/! ^^^ T""^ unsurpassed. The book is really a history of the first 
 year ot the war, and describes the principal battles of that period, — Bull 
 vi,i°T , :,?r^°^.^' ^'^^^ Douelson, Pittsburg Landing, Columbus, New Mad- 
 im, island No. 10, and Memphis, in part of which the writer was, and all of 
 which he sa.vr.'' — Buffalo Express. 
 
 *** For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 by the Publishers, )^ ^ > i j^ 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston. 
 
FOLLOWING THE FLAG. 
 
 From August, 1861, to November, 1862, with the Army of the Poto- 
 mac. By " Cakleton." 1vol. 16mo. Ilkistrated. $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 ' Fol- 
 lowing 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 fic- 
 tion 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 askjf 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 or- 
 der 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 com- 
 position, 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. 
 
 *** Fo7' sale hy all Booksellers. Se7it, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 by the Publishers, 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Boston.