While On The Subject Of Lumber, Which May Possibly Interest Some People Who Wish To Redeem The Fortunes They Have Lately Lost In Maine Lumber, I Ought Not To Leave Unmentioned The Valuable Cargoes Of It Which Are Floated Down The Mississippi.

When coming up in the boat I was astonished to see such stupendous rafts.

Large logs are transported by being made into rafts. At a landing where the boat stopped, I on one occasion attempted to estimate the number of logs comprised in one of these marine novelties, and found it to be about eight hundred; the logs were large, and were worth from five to six dollars each. Here then was a raft of timber worth at least $4000. They are navigated by about a dozen men, with large paddles attached at either end of the raft, which serve to propel and steer. Often, in addition to the logs, the rafts are laden with valuable freights of sawed lumber. Screens are built as a protection against wind, and a caboose stands somewhere in the centre, or according to western parlance it might be called a cabin. Sometimes the raft will be running in a fine current; then only a couple of hands are on the watch and at the helm. The rest are seen either loitering about observing the country, or reclining, snugly wrapped up in their blankets. Some of these rafts must cover as much as two acres. Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane was not a much greater phenomenon.

LETTER IX.

SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

Description of the country around Lake Superior Minerals Locality of a commercial city New land districts Buchanan Ojibeway Explorations to the sources of the Mississippi Henry R. Schoolcraft M. Nicollet's report Resources of the country above Crow Wing.

CROW WING, October 7, 1856.

THERE is one very important section of this territory that I have not yet alluded to. I mean that part which borders on Lake Superior. This calls to mind that there is such a place as Superior City. But that is in Wisconsin, not in Minnesota. From that city (so called, yet city in earnest it is like to be) to the nearest point in this territory the distance by water is twelve miles. The St. Louis River is the dividing line for many miles between Minnesota and Wisconsin. The country round about this greatest of inland seas is not the most fertile. It is somewhat bleak, on the northern shore especially, but is nevertheless fat in minerals. On the banks of the St. Louis River the soil is described, by the earliest explorers as well as latest visiters, to be good. The river itself, though it contains a large volume of water, is not adapted to navigation, on account of its rapids.

Those who have sailed across Lake Superior to the neighborhood of Fond-du-Lac appear to have been charmed by the scenery of its magnificent islands and its rock-bound shores. Most people, I suppose, have heard of its beautiful cluster of islands called the Twelve Apostles. One peculiar phenomenon often mentioned is the boisterous condition of its waters at the shore, which occurs when the lake itself is perfectly calm. The water is said to foam and dash so furiously as to make it almost perilous to land in a small boat. This would seem to be produced by some movement of the waters similar to the flow of the tide; and perhaps the dashing after all is not much more tumultuous than is seen on a summer afternoon under the rocks of Nahant, or along the serene coast at Phillips Beach.

The resources of that part of the territory bordering on the lake, however, are sufficient to induce an extensive, if not a rapid, settlement of the country. The copper mines afford occupation for thousands of people now. I have known a young man to clear $40 a month in getting out the ore. But the labor is hard. Somewhere near Fond-du-Lac is destined to be a great commercial city. Whether it will be at Superior, which has now got the start of all other places, or whether it will be at some point within this territory, is more than can be known at present. But a great town there is to be, sooner or later; and for this reason, that the distance from Buffalo to Fond-du-Lac by navigation is about the same as from Buffalo to Chicago, affording, therefore, as good facilities for water transportation of merchandise between Fond-du-Lac and the East, as between Chicago and the East. Moreover, the development of this new agricultural world will tend to that result. A railroad will then run from that point directly west, crossing the upper Mississippi as also the Red River of the North at the head of its navigation, which is at the mouth of the Sioux Wood River.

During the last summer, congress established two new land districts in the upper part of the territory, called the north-eastern and the north-western. The former includes the country lying on Lake Superior, and its land office has been located at Buchanan, a new place just started on the shore of the lake. The land office for the north-western district has been located at Ojibeway, a town site situated sixty miles above here, on the Mississippi, near the mouth of Muddy River. This district includes the head waters of the Mississippi, and extends west as far as the Red River of the North. The surveyors have been engaged in either district only a few weeks. I don't expect there will be any land offered for sale in either district till spring. While on the subject of land offices, let me observe that the appointments in them are among the most lucrative under the patronage of the general government. There is a register and receiver for each office. They have, each, $500 per annum and fees; the whole not to exceed $3000.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 20 of 50
Words from 19367 to 20372 of 50597