etroit. The muddy and impassable state of the streets has
given rise to a very curious system of making morning or evening calls.
A small one-horse cart is backed against the door of a house; the ladies
dressed get into it, and seat themselves upon a buffalo skin at the
bottom of it; they are carried to the residence of the party upon whom
they wish to call; the cart is backed in again, and they are landed dry
and clean. An old inhabitant of Detroit complained to me that people
were now getting so proud, that many of them refused to visit in that
way any longer. But owing to the rise of the other towns on the lake,
the great increase of commerce, and Michigan having been admitted as a
State into the Union, with Detroit as its capital, a large Eastern
population has now poured into it, and Detroit will soon present an
appearance very different from its present, and become one of the most
flourishing cities of America. Within these last six years it has
increased its population from two to ten thousand. The climate here is
the very best in America, although the State itself is unhealthy. The
land near the town is fertile. A railroad from Detroit already extends
thirty miles through the State; and now that the work has commenced, it
will be carried on with the usual energy of the Americans.

Left Detroit in the Michigan steam-vessel for Mackinaw; passed through
the Lake St Clair, and entered Lake Huron; stopped at a solitary wharf
to take in wood, and met there with a specimen of American politeness or
(if you please) independence in the gentleman who cut down and sold it.
Without any assignable motive, he called out to me, "You are a damned
fool of an Englishman;" for which, I suppose, I ought to have been very
much obliged to him.

Miss Martineau has not been too lavish in her praises of Mackinaw. It
has the appearance of a fairy isle floating on the water, which is so
pure and transparent that you may see down to almost any depth; and the
air above is as pure as the water, so that you feel invigorated as you
breathe it. The first reminiscence brought to my mind after I had
landed, was the description by Walter Scott of the island and residence
of Magnus Troil and his daughters Minna and Brenda, in the novel of the
"Pirate."

The low buildings, long stores, and out-houses full of nets, barrels,
masts, sails, and cordage; the abundance of fish lying about; the
rafters of the houses laden with dried and smoked m