habitants, whose neat
white cottages and pleasant streets, bordering a romantic river and
bridge, made a picture not unlike the scenery of Warwickshire, England.

We reached here--fifty miles still north of St. Paul--to pass the first
night of our ride in a comfortable dwelling.

Many a fine farm, just cleared and broken, attracted us here, and hence
along the prairie road into St. Paul, where we arrived at the close of
the following day, which proved to be, as we kept no calendar, Thursday,
the 9th of August.

Our drive this last day led past numerous linked lakes, with their
borders of the tall Minnesota rice grass in flower, the home of the
canvas back, pelican, and swan. Passing through the village of Little
Canada, we rode on to Minnehaha Prairie along its gentle, verdant slope,
and lapse of shining waters of Twelve Lakes, graced with the names of
Como, Garda, etc., and adorned with many a pretty boat and sail. A few
miles further brought us to the upper terrace of beautiful St. Paul.

As pioneers of this wilderness route, we met with marked attention from
all, and passed some agreeable days at St. Paul, Fort Snelling,
Minneapolis, St. Anthony, and their numerous points of interest. Our
homeward route was by the Mississippi River to Prairie du Chien, where
old Fort Crawford, then a mere tenement, commands the confluence of the
Wisconsin River with the Father of Waters. This sail of three hundred
miles consumed forty-eight hours.

The river banks recede and advance in lake-like expanses along its
winding course, and their richly wooded heights, crowned with red
sandstone, resemble the ruined Rhine castles. The sail through Lake
Pepin, and between the States of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, was
varied by frequent and thriving towns and villages.

From Prairie du Chien--a picture of straggling despair--by the Milwaukie
and Prairie du Chien Railroad, and the Northwestern Railroad, two
hundred and twenty-two miles, we reached Chicago, and passed through a
crowd of beautiful towns, in a State scarce a generation since reclaimed
from the Indians. Familiar railroads transported us from Chicago to
Detroit, Niagara, Albany, and New York.

Our whole distance of travel in three weeks was thirty-four hundred and
forty-one miles. It was brief, but spiced with adventure, and over a
field of vast interest, present and future.

Our beautiful country, made one and indivisible by the great and good
Author of its existence,