r and bowie knife trimmings, looking rather out of
place with the scholarly spectacles that bridged his nose. He really
outdid the most fanciful cowboy of the far western ranches. Such an
outfit he imagined just the thing for a trip among the wild characters
on the Upper Mississippi. The other member of the party was a broad
nosed, Herculean negro whom Paul hired to pull the row boat he
had purchased for the Doctor's accommodation.

Boyton found that the scenery on the Upper Mississippi was more
beautiful than on any river he had yet traversed. There was not that
startling grandeur which characterized the shores of some of the rivers;
but it was beautiful--with high buttes and pleasant shores, while the
people throughout its entire length are exceedingly hospitable. If the
loveliness of this river were better known, it would be more generally
visited by tourists in search of rest or recreation. On the morning of
May nineteenth, 1881, the start was made, the usual crowd of people
lining the banks to see them off.

Several of the Doctor's enthusiastic friends presented him with a keg of
beer. It was placed in his skiff. Unfortunately, they forgot to give
him a faucet. All that day was very hot, and the entire party longed for
a drink from its cooling depths. Late that evening a steamer, towing a
raft, came slowly down the river. Paul told the negro to pull alongside
and have the raftsman open the keg. They had no faucet but they had an
auger, with which they willingly started to bore into its head. A moment
afterward a white fountain shot to the sky and all hands held their
hats to catch the descending shower.

They ran along without other adventure, until the second day out, when
Lake Pipin was reached, where they were met by a heavy head wind and an
enormous sea, that almost swamped the Doctor's boat; but they hauled up
at Lake City in safety, where they passed the night.

The first reception accorded the voyagers was at La Crosse, where they
were greeted with a blaze of fireworks and the roaring of cannon.

Below La Crosse as they were swinging along between the willow-laden
banks of the beautiful river, whose waters, unlike the thick yellow of
its lower half, where it partakes of the character of the Missouri, are
clear and pure, the Doctor developed a taste for hunting and
asked permission to use the shotgun that had been stowed away in the
boat. Boyton readily consented; but seeing