Chapter II: Part 2

I returned to Bell’s tavern with the determination of advising every travelling friend who visited Kentucky, by no means to leave that state without having seen the Mammoth cave; and I think that a sportsman, well provided with dogs, guns, &c., might well spend a week in a very satisfactory manner by taking up his quarters at Bell’s tavern. When we had forded the Green river, the coachman addressed a man on the opposite side, and asked him how his wife was, “Thank ’e, I guess, she’s smartly unwell this morning,” was the reply.

Louisville is about ninety miles from the cave. For the last twenty, the road runs along the banks of the Ohio, passing through the most magnificent forest of beech trees I had ever beheld. There is nothing remarkable in the appearance of Louisville. It is a large and regularly built town, containing 11,000 inhabitants. From this place the larger steam-boats start for New Orleans. Those that come from Pittsburgh are of smaller dimensions, on account of the shallowness of the water. The course of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Louisville is about 600 miles, and thence, to its confluence with the Mississippi, is nearly 300 more. The length of the Mississippi, from its junction with the Ohio, is 1200. The falls, or rapids of the Ohio, are immediately below Louisville, and part of them may be seen from the town.

I had been very desirous of seeing St. Louis and the Missouri; but the season was too far advanced, and that part of the country is exceedingly unhealthy during the summer heats. Steam-boats run thither constantly, in three days, from Louisville. There is also a land conveyance, which occupies nearly the same time on the journey, and passes through the great Prairies, in Indiana and Illinois. Wild turkeys are there very plentiful; quails and Prairie-hens are frequently to be seen from the road in great abundance; and I would strongly recommend any traveller who is fond of shooting, and who will put up with very indifferent accommodation, to proceed for about one hundred miles, or even less, by this road, into the Prairies, for the purpose of shooting. It must, however, be added, that he will probably kill much more than he can either eat or carry away.

That there is a great quantity of game in some parts of America is indisputable; but it is equally so, that it is fast decreasing in others. Unless some attention be paid to preserving, deer will become extremely scarce, except in the unsettled country; and the breed of wild turkeys will be extinct, as they are not found much to the west of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Go where you will, you are told there is plenty of game of some kind; but the sportsman who relies on this information at this season of the year, while the trees are yet thick with foliage, will be surely disappointed. I have occasionally stayed for a day at different places, where I had been induced to believe that I should find some sport; but I seldom found any game, although I always took with me some person well acquainted with the woods. The want of dogs must certainly be taken into consideration.

The inhabitants of Kentucky may be called the Gasçons of America. They have a humorous, good-natured, boasting, boisterous peculiarity of language and manner, by which they are known in all parts of the Union. To a stranger, they are courteous and hospitable; but amongst themselves, they quarrel and fight, like the Irish, for fun; or merely to see which is the best man, without any provocation; and they evince great partiality for their own state—which they familiarly denominate “Old Kentuck,”—perhaps more than the inhabitants of any other in the Union.

Kentucky was originally used by the Indians as a hunting-field, and for no other purpose. The neighbouring nations agreed never to build upon it.

From Louisville, I proceeded in a steam-boat to Cincinnati, in eighteen hours. About forty miles on this side of the town, we passed the mouth of the stream, so well known by the name of the “Big Bone Lick,” on account of the number of the bones of the mammoth and other animals that have been frequently dug up in its vicinity. There is a sulphur-spring, and a house for the accommodation of visitors. Our distinguished countryman, Mr. Bullock, whom I saw at Cincinnati, had been lately residing on the spot for three months, and had had twenty men constantly employed in digging. He had discovered, amongst other animals, the bones of a smaller and distinct species of migalonyx; an animal having partly the generic character of the armadillo, and partly that of the sloth, and nearly equalling the rhinoceros in size. But the most remarkable remains were those of a young colt, and a gigantic horse, that could not have been less than twenty-four hands high. Unfortunately, however, for the advancement of science, they were all destroyed by a fire, which took place about three weeks before my arrival. The fossil remains of about thirty animals, now supposed to be extinct, have been found at the Big Bone Lick; and Mr. Bullock conjectures that there are no more remaining. That the animals did not perish on the spot, but were carried and deposited by the mighty torrent, which it is evident once swept over the face of the country, is probable, from the circumstance of marine shells, plants, and fossil substances having been found, not only mixed with the bones, but adhering to them, and tightly wedged into the cavities of the skulls—“those holes where eyes did once inhabit,” were often stopped up by shells or pieces of coral, forcibly crammed into them.

From the Big Bone to the Blue Lick, a distance of about sixty miles, there is a buffalo-path. Those animals existed in great numbers in this part of the country, within the memory of many individuals now living. They passed from one favourite spring to the other in vast herds, always pursuing the same path, seldom turning to the right or left, and overturning very young trees, or any slight obstacle that might occur in their line of march. They have, however, long been killed off from the eastern side of the Ohio, and Mississippi; not being seen nearer than within fifty miles of St. Louis. They are found in innumerable herds in the widely extended plains of the Missouri, and towards the region of the rocky mountains. The Indians kill a great many of them, for the sake of their skins, which sell in Philadelphia at four dollars a piece, while that of a bear may be purchased for three. They are so numerous, that this traffic occasions no perceptible difference in the size of the herds. An Indian will drive an arrow so hard that the point will appear on the other side of the buffalo. At certain seasons of the year, their tramping and bellowing may be heard at a vast distance on the plains, by putting the ear to the ground; and in this way, if heard in the morning, incredible as it may appear, it will sometimes be evening before the hunters can come up with them. The bonassus, exhibited some years ago in London, was merely the common American buffalo; which is, strictly speaking, the bison, or animal with the hump, and not the buffalo. The bison is found of different sizes and under different names in Africa, in Asia, in the island of Madagascar, and on the Malabar coast; and exists, as we have seen, in immense numbers in North America; and it will associate with, and breed with tame cattle: but the real buffalo, which has no hump on the shoulder, is not found in the New Continent, but is common in India, and in Africa, near the Cape. I have also seen them in the Pontine marshes, where they are used for agricultural purposes. A marked difference between the buffalo and the bison, from the different varieties of which, it is supposed, that our domestic animals have descended, is to be observed in the fact of the tame cattle refusing to breed with the buffalo, and in the period of gestation in that animal being extended to a whole year.

The navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi, is often rendered dangerous by the trunks of trees, or snags, as they are called, which, in floating down the stream, get entangled and stick fast in the mud at the bottom; presenting a most formidable, and frequently unseen point near the surface of the water. Our steamer ran upon one of them, but was soon got off again by means of a long spar of wood that was dropped into the water, and then used as a lever, with the side of the boat for a fulcrum, by means of a rope wound about the capstan and fastened to the top of the spar. In the midst of the confusion, an American stepped up to me, and said, “Stranger, I guess we’re in a bad fix!” To be in a good or a bad fix is an expression very commonly made use of in cases of dilemma. Speaking of a man placed in the stocks, for instance, a common American would remark, that he was in a “bad fix,” without the least fear of committing a pun, even at Philadelphia, where the disease is very prevalent. The American error is detected in the formal and decided accentuation of particular syllables in several common words, and in the laughable misuse of many others; and not in any mispronunciation of the language, generally. The word Engine, for instance, is pronounced Engīne; favourite, favourīte; European, Eurōpĕan, &c. A patois, or provincial dialect, such as is heard in the more distant counties in England, is unknown amongst the natives of the United States; and the similarity of language to be heard in every part of the Union that I visited, could not but attract my attention as an Englishman. To travel by the mail, for two or three hundred miles, and to sit beside a coachman who spoke as good English as the one with whom I first started, had certainly, at least I thought so, the effect of shortening the distance.

The education of the poorer classes is very much attended to, excepting perhaps, in the more western states, where the inhabitants think they can get on just as well without it. In the Atlantic states, there is not one person in five hundred (I am speaking of native Americans), that cannot read and write. The mail would often stop opposite a solitary log-house, in the midst of the thickest forest, and throw down a newspaper, which was immediately picked up, and spelled over with the greatest avidity. Most of the back-woodsmen can talk with all reasonable correctness of the state of Europe generally, but the reform bills in England, and the Liverpool rail-road, were always amongst the most prominent subjects of eager inquiry. An Englishman cannot travel a mile in a stage coach in the United States, without being asked whether he has been on the Liverpool rail-road. In Europe, and in France particularly, it is, “Have you seen de tunnel under de Thames?” It is the usefulness in forwarding the prosperity of a country that suggests the American query: whilst with the Frenchman, the use is entirely out of the question; he thinks merely of the magnitude and the novelty of the undertaking, and never fails to remark, that the engineer was a native of France. A great proportion of the inhabitants of the eastern states are Dutch and German. They are very numerous in different parts of Pennsylvania, where they have the character of being good and industrious farmers; but in other respects, they are very ignorant and opinionated, refusing the education that is offered to them gratis for their children, who are, of course, far behind the young Americans in intelligence. I have often, when passing through the forest, stopped to ask a cottager’s child of what country he was. A very frequent answer was, “Please, sir, father’s an Irishman, and mother’s Dutch;” and “I was raised here!” The latter expression is very commonly used when the place of nativity is inquired after. I have been frequently addressed with, Where were you raised, stranger? I guess you’re from the old country? There are about half-a-dozen words in constant use, to which an English ear is unaccustomed, in the sense they are meant to convey, such as—“to fix, to locate, to guess, to expect, to calkilate, &c.” The verb “to fix,” has perhaps as many significations as any word in the Chinese language. If anything is to be done, made, mixed, mended, bespoken, hired, ordered, arranged, procured, finished, lent, or given, it would very probably be designated by the verb “to fix.” The tailor or bootmaker who is receiving your instructions, the barkeeper who is concocting for you a glass of mint-julep, promise alike to fix you, that is, to hit your taste exactly. A lady’s hair is sometimes said to be fixed, instead of dressed; and were I to give my coat or my boots to a servant to be brushed, and to tell him merely “to fix” them for me, he would perfectly understand what he had to do. There is a marked peculiarity in the word “clever.” In America, a man or woman may be very clever without possessing one grain of talent. The epithet is applied almost exclusively to a person of an amiable and obliging disposition. Mr. A. is a man of no talent! no! but then he is a very clever man! According to their meaning, Buonaparte was terribly stupid, and Lord North was a very clever fellow indeed.

To say nothing of their oaths, their expressions are sometimes highly amusing. I have heard a horse described as a “raal smasher at trotting,” and a highway robbery considered as a “pretty middling tough piece of business;” with a vast number more of the same kind. I beg it may be understood, that I mean these remarks to apply chiefly to the middle and lower classes of Americans: the language of every one is perfectly intelligible, and as I have before remarked, there is no patois: I think it should rather be called a “slang.” There is also much less of the nasal twang than I had been taught to expect in American parley. Still I was informed, that many Americans when they hear a man talk, will instantly mention with certainty the country in which he has been long resident, being able to detect some words, accents, or expressions peculiar to each state. The English language does not contain words enough for them. The word congressional is a fair coinage from “Congress,” like the word parliamentary from parliament. But a member of congress is said to be deputized; and a person in danger, to be jeopardized. I remember that about two years ago being in the Jardin des Plantes, I was nearly “cameleopardized” by the giraffe that kicked at me. In New York I observed that a gunmaker had put up over his door, “Flint and steel guns altered and percussionized.” Although the meaning of all this is perfectly understood, still it is American, not English; and although the English language be in use, yet the very un-English construction and distorted meaning of many sentences, render it so different from the language spoken in good society in England, that I do not think it can safely be dignified with the name of good English. But the English spoken in the first circles in all the larger cities of the Union, is usually very good: so that between the language of the English and the American gentleman, the difference is exceedingly slight; but still there is a difference here and there, by which I think any person of observation, who had been in the United States, could decide upon the country of the speaker, unless of course he had resided in England. I should however add, that I have in a few instances met with gentlemen whose language and pronunciation would have deceived any one.

At Baltimore whilst taking a sketch, I told a drunken ill-favoured old nigger, that I would take his picture. He accordingly placed himself in attitude, and I soon hit him off with the camera-lucida. He was very much pleased, and showed the picture to his coloured friends, the slaves, who were working near me. He soon returned with an old black as ugly as himself, and said, that this man wished to have his “title” taken too.

We arrived at Cincinnati, the emporium of commerce, and the largest city in Western America, containing 30,000 inhabitants, and thirty different places of worship. In appearance it differs from most of the larger towns in the United States, on account of the great improvement that has taken place in the colour of the houses, which, instead of being of the usual bright staring red, are frequently of a white grey, or a yellowish tint, and display a great deal of taste, and just ornament. The public buildings are not large, but very neat and classical; I admired the second Presbyterian church, which is a very pretty specimen of the Doric. The streets are handsome, and the shops have a very fashionable air. The principal trade of Cincinnati is in provisions. Immense quantities of corn and grain are sent down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans. Part of it is consumed by the sugar planters, who are supposed to grow no corn, and part is sent coastwise to Mobile, or exported to the Havannah and the West Indies generally. In the United States, the word “corn” is applied exclusively to the Indian corn or maize, other grain is specified by name as in England. The quantity of flour received in 1831 at New Orleans, amounted to 370,000 barrels, about 150,000 barrels more than had been received in any former year. A great quantity of flour had also been shipped to England, but it is very often soured by the warmth of the water in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1828, the quantity of sugar produced at New Orleans was 88,878 hogsheads of 1000 pounds each, and in 1827, the number of sugar plantations was seven hundred, in which an aggregate capital of 45,000,000 of dollars was invested.

Cincinnati has displayed more wisdom than her opposite neighbour in Kentucky. A speculative system of banking was carried on about the same time, and was attended with the same results as those I have before noticed when speaking of that state. Credit was not to be obtained, commerce was at an end, and grass was growing in the streets of Cincinnati. But the judicature, with equal justice and determination, immediately enforced by its decisions the resumption of cash payments. Many of the leading families in the place were, of course, ruined, and at present there are not above five or six persons in Cincinnati, who have been able to regain their former eminence as men of business. But it was a sacrifice of individuals for the good of the community, and fortune only deserted the speculators in order to attend upon the capitalists, who quickly made their appearance from the eastern states, and have raised the city to its present pitch of prosperity.

Cincinnati professes to have two excellent inns, both of which give promise of every comfort: the table was very good, but my rest was destroyed, not merely disturbed, by the worst of vermin. A clean bed, be it but of straw, is a _sine quâ non_ with an English traveller; and as I did not feel perfectly well after breathing the unhealthy fogs of the Ohio, I had consoled myself with the idea of a comfortable sleep for that night at least. But I was wofully disappointed, being nearly in a fever; and when I was permitted to close my eyes for a few minutes, I dreamed of the most unconnected subjects,—bullfrogs, and universal suffrage, for instance.

I started by the mail, in order to cross the country to Lake Erie. Before we were out of the town, the near leader became unmanageable, and the coach was overturned in the open street. I was on the box, and expected to be kicked to pieces, as I fell close to the horses; but providentially they all four galloped off with the two front wheels, and no one was hurt. It was scarcely day-light—no one was up—the coachman went after the horses, and it fell to my lot to deliver the coach of her nine inside passengers, who scrambled out one by one through the window, guessing and ‘calkilating’ the whole time.

By the evening, we had reached the Yellow Springs; a fashionable watering place, taking its name from the colour imparted to the rocks by the water, which is chalybeate. A large boarding house for the accommodation of visitors is the only building of consequence in the neighbourhood.

At Centreville, about twenty miles from the springs, is, or rather was, for it has been partly destroyed, a remarkably fine Indian fort; being a deep ditch lying between two raised banks, and inclosing a space of three quarters of a mile in circumference, on which the town is built. On the outside is a large mound, which had been lately opened, and was found to contain a number of human bones.

At a distance of nine miles from the springs, on the Sandusky road, stands Springfield, a small thriving town, which like most of those in this part of the country, is exceedingly neat and clean. In the neighbourhood is a considerable number of English settlers, chiefly farmers from Yorkshire. There is no doubt that any man who is able and willing to work for his livelihood, can always, in two or three years, make himself master of a farm, in the back woods, in this or any other part of the Union. The average value of uncleared land, is a hundred dollars for eighty acres. A single man can every where earn at least twelve dollars a month. Provisions are exceedingly cheap; a sheep or a deer, can be purchased for a dollar; wheat may be about two shillings the bushel, and an acre of Indian corn, which is only one shilling the bushel, will produce twice the quantity that is raised on an acre of wheat. It is unfortunate that the common class of British emigrants are too much disposed to believe that a land of liberty is identified with a land of promise, and that when they emigrate to America, no difficulties will ever present themselves. The consequence is, that exaggerated accounts of their first troubles, bearing no proportion to their real privations, are frequently sent home to their friends in England: but I am convinced from my own observation, and occasional colloquy with my emigrant countrymen, that it must be a man’s own fault, however poor he may be at first, if he be not, in a very few years, to use a common phrase, completely above the world; be his occupation what it may. The English and Scotch commonly travel a long way into the western country, where they become farmers and graziers; the Irish prefer remaining in, or near the principal towns, and what is very unusual in Irishmen, they find employment as road-makers, canal-diggers, or bricklayers. Witness the result of free, and protecting institutions.—Fifty years ago, the population westward of the Alleghany did not exceed 15,000; now it amounts to 5,000,000! The population of priest-ridden Mexico has not increased for centuries.

Columbus, the capital of the state of Ohio, contains nearly 4000 inhabitants. Its appearance is very promising, but there is nothing in it to detain the traveller.

At Mansfield I was obliged to remain a day and a half, in consequence of the late rains having rendered the streams impassable. Fortunately I placed myself in very good quarters, at the inn or tavern, where I met with the greatest civility and attention, and far more comfort and cleanliness than is often found at a country inn in the United States. I passed a whole morning unsuccessfully with my gun in the woods. “Well, stranger, are you going gunning this morning?” “Yes; and pray what game is there in the forest here?” I inquired. “Why, sir, there is robin, and some turkey, and considerable squirrel, about sundown.” The robin is a very common bird of the fieldfare genus, with a red breast, a little larger than our redwing. However, I met with no turkey, and contented myself with seeing my companion hit or “scare” (terrify) the squirrels with his rifle. Sassafras, sarsaparilla, and ginseng, are found in these forests. The latter root is so plentiful as to be an article of commerce; great quantities of it are sent to the coast, and exported to China, where, as is well known, it is very highly prized, being considered a panacea.

The last five miles into Sandusky, or Portland, lie over a small prairie; but it is not a good specimen, as the herbage is short, and copses of stunted trees are frequent. Prairies are either dry or wet. The wet prairies are, in fact, nothing but a marsh covered with long grass, and have been so from any indefinite period of time. Of the dry prairies some may have been originally wet, and some may have been cleared by the Indians, for the purpose of using them as hunting fields. But the former supposition, if the fact could be ascertained, would probably, in most cases, be found to be the true one.

The shores of the lake at Sandusky are exceedingly flat. I was fortunate in finding a steam-boat there, which was going to Detroit, Green bay, and the Saut de St. Marie, at the entrance of Lake Superior, and would afterwards return to Buffalo. The “Superior,” as she was called, was, I think, the most comfortable steamer I had yet entered; her upper deck, about one hundred and twenty feet in length, was of great width, and afforded a most excellent promenade. We had on board upwards of sixty passengers, many of whom were ladies; and there was plenty of room for us all, with the advantage of an excellent table, and a small band. The lake afforded us a supply of most delicious fresh water. Soon after leaving Sandusky we passed in sight of Put-in-Bay, in the Bass Islands, forming one of the finest natural harbours to be found any where. Commodore Perry lay at anchor there on the night previous to the 10th of September, 1813, on which day he gained his victory over our fleet in the vicinity. Night soon closed in upon us. We passed Malden, or Amherstburg, as it is more usually called. The British squadron lay at anchor there previously to its engagement with Commodore Perry. A boat pushed off in the darkness, and asked to be taken in tow. “Who are you?” very properly asked the captain. “We, British!” was the ludicrous answer of some French Canadians, and the steamer passed on. A company of the 79th was stationed at Malden. In the morning we found ourselves at Detroit: this place was a considerable French settlement so long ago as the year 1759, when it fell with the Canadas into the possession of the British, and is now increasing with a rapidity to which it is fairly entitled by its situation, on the outlet of the great lakes. The French unquestionably displayed their usual tact and foresight in their choice of the different points of communication in the extensive chain of forts which was originally continued from the Canadas to the Mississippi—the proof is, that all of them are of great importance at the present time. A similar but more enlarged instance of this, the highest grade of military strategy, is to be found in the vigorous and persevering policy of Great Britain, which has secured to her a chain of fortresses by which, as a gallant American General-officer expressed himself to me, “She has check-mated the world.” The master mind of General Bernard, the elève and aid-de-camp of Napoleon, and perhaps the first engineer now living, whom I had the honour of meeting at Washington, has displayed itself in the very extensive and accurate military surveys, which he has taken in almost every part of the United States. The fortifications which he has constructed, have rendered the estuaries of the United States altogether inaccessible to an invading fleet. General Bernard, as is well known, has lately quitted the service of the United States, and returned to France.

The wharfs and buildings at Detroit extend along the river side for about a mile, and exhibit much of the bustle of a commercial town. The streets are spacious and regular,—the largest is more than half a mile in length, and contains some excellent shops and a capital hotel. That part of the bank upon which the city is built, is slightly elevated above the rest of the country, and commands a view which, although generally flat, is far from being uninteresting. The farms are laid out in narrow slips of land, which run parallel to each other, and at right angles to the river, reaching to the edge of the forest, distant about two miles from the city. By this means the first settlers were enabled to build their habitations within a short distance of each other; they had a smaller space of road to keep in repair, and afforded each other a mutual support against the sudden attacks of the Indians. At Detroit, the American General Hull surrendered to General Brock during the last war, but the city was subsequently retaken, previously to the battle of the Thames.

We entered the lake of St. Clair,—about thirty miles in length, and twenty five in breadth; we passed a considerable distance from its banks, but they appeared to be very flat and uninteresting. On the right is the mouth of the river Thames; made remarkable by the victory obtained over the British by a superior force under the American General Harrison. The celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, fell in the engagement; and the importance of this victory to the Americans was felt by the dissolution of the hostile Indian confederacy consequent on the death of their leader.

On the left of the entrance to the river St. Clair, is a large wet prairie: on the right are several islands, forming to all appearance but one extensive morass, and abounding in wild fowl. As the channel became narrower, we perceived that the American banks were far more settled than those on the Canada side; but they soon alike presented nothing but a dense mass of forest trees, at a slight elevation above the water.

After moving on for about thirty miles, we arrived at Fort Gratiot at the head of the river; it contained a small garrison, just sufficiently strong to resist an attack from the Indians. The pay of an American private is eight dollars a month, with an allowance of one ration per diem; but his duties are far harder than those of the British soldier, which accounts for the frequency of desertion. A lieutenant in the army receives but sixty dollars a month, after deduction for subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters, and expenses for servants. The pay of a captain after the same deduction, amounts to about eighty dollars a month. The stipend of a naval captain amounts altogether to four thousand four hundred dollars a year; his cabin is furnished better, and the allowance for breakage is more liberal than that of an English officer of the same rank.

I here saw an Indian dance: the performers, an old man and his sons, advanced towards us, on a forest path, looking like wood demons, jumping and racing with each other, and uttering a small shrill cry at intervals; they were nearly naked, bedaubed all over with clay, and began the dance with light clubs in their hands: sometimes they writhed on the ground like snakes, at others they shook their clubs at each other, and used the wildest and most extravagant gestures. The old Indian beat time on a small skin stretched across a piece of hollow tree. When stooping to the ground and looking upwards, his features and figure reminded me of the celebrated statue of the “Remouleur” at Florence.

The whole of this part of America is inhabited by the Chippewas, by far the largest tribe of Indians on the shores of the great lakes. The waters of Lake Huron had been agitated by a furious north wind, and headed directly on the mouth of the river; the current was running with such velocity, that the steam boat did not effect her passage without a long and very severe struggle, and when at last fairly out on the lake, she made so little progress that she was obliged to put back. Some of the passengers amused themselves with fishing, and caught some black bass; as for myself, I proceeded with two Indians in a canoe to the morass opposite the fort, which abounded in wild fowl of all kinds; I contrived to shoot several ducks, notwithstanding the unseasonable cries raised by the Indians in token of their delight, on seeing a bird fall. Their quickness of sight and hearing answered nearly all the purposes of a water spaniel, when I could not immediately find a wounded bird. At length we made another attempt, and entered the vast expanse of Lake Huron. The coast on the right stretched away to the north nearly at right angles; and we gradually lost sight of it. Our course was along the western shore, where the banks were, or seemed to be, a little higher; but still very low, appearing nowhere to exceed thirty feet in height. The unbroken and interminable forest, with which they are covered, contains more game than any other part bordering on the lakes, being less frequented by hunters. The American elk (the wapiti of the Egyptian Hall), the moose, and common deer are found there, with plenty of bears, wolves, and other wild inhabitants of the forest; the moose has the power of remaining under water for a very long time, and, when in danger, has been known to plunge into a pool, and remain at the bottom for more minutes than I care to mention here.

We steered directly for the Saut de St. Marie, at the foot of Lake Superior, and distant two hundred and twenty miles. One mile of the coast on any of these lakes will give a very tolerable idea of the whole of them, with, of course, some exceptions. Yet although there was but little variety in this respect, the voyage was exceedingly interesting. The fineness of the weather, the cool breeze so refreshing after the sultry heat to which I had been exposed, the comparative absence of musquitos, and the ever present recollection that we were sailing on the great lakes of North America, where, comparatively speaking, so few had been before me, gave a tone to the excursion that compensated for more commanding scenery. As we passed Saganaw bay, we were very nearly out of sight of land. The Mannito, or Spirit islands were the next objects that presented themselves to our view: these are supposed by the Indians to be inhabited by spirits, the word _mannito_ in the Indian language, signifying spirit. We then passed Drummond Island, which during the last war contained a British fort and garrison, but has been since abandoned. Some ruins on the large island of St. Joseph were visible from the steam boat; they were the remains of a fort, which was suffered to fall to decay, previously to the fortifications being erected on Drummond’s Island. On the American bank, near the entrance of the river St. Marie, we observed a spot called the Sailor’s Encampment. The forest had been partially cleared away, and there was no vestige of humanity remaining. Some years ago, a sloop was wrecked there; the crew suffered incredible hardships, and many of them died from want, before the survivors contrived to make their escape. We entered a cluster of small islands at the mouth of the river, and I thought this the finest piece of lake scenery I had yet witnessed; as far as I could judge _en passant_, they appeared to be chiefly composed of gneiss, lying in large masses of rock, resembling those that are so common in some parts of Sweden. In comparing these with the islands of Killarney, and Loch-Lomond, I should remark, that the full rich foliage did not seem complete without the arbutus; and the dark tint of the fir trees, with which they were covered, was not relieved as in the Scottish lake, by the exquisitely delicate appearance of the weeping birch.

It was a remarkably fine evening: as the steamer passed rapidly on, her paddles seemed to take infinite pleasure in defacing the astonished surface of the water, and splashed away through the liquid crystal with as little ceremony as if they had been propelling a mere ferry boat. Every thing besides was hushed and tranquil: the very passengers, who had all assembled near the forward part of the deck, were intensely gazing upon the scene around them; and watched in almost breathless silence, as the vessel rounded each bend in the deep, but comparatively narrow river, that developed in quick succession some new and more beautiful object at every turn. Suddenly we heard the screams of a party of Indians, who had descried us from their wigwams on one of the islands, and were paddling after us in a canoe with all their might. One of them was a chief, who displayed the flag of the United States. In the course of the afternoon, we had been amusing ourselves by shooting with rifles at a bottle attached to a line about forty yards in length; this had been left hanging from the stern, and the endeavours of the Indians to catch hold of the string afforded us no little amusement. Their faces were deeply stained with the red extract from the blood root (Sanguinaria Canadensis); they were in the best possible humour, and their wild discordant laugh, and the still wilder expression of their features, as they encouraged each other to exertion with quickly repeated and guttural exclamations, enabled us to form some idea of their animated appearance, when excited to deeds of a more savage description. By dint of the greatest exertion, they contrived to seize the string; they held on for a moment by it; it snapped, and the canoe was instantly running astern at the rate of seven or eight knots. They again had recourse to their paddles, and used them with redoubled energy; we then slackened our pace for a minute or two, and threw them a rope, by which they soon pulled themselves under the stern. We conversed with them through the medium of an interpreter, and made them presents of bread and spirits. They seemed very thankful, threw us some pigeons which they had killed, and fired a _feu-de-joie_ with their fowling-pieces at parting.

The next morning we came in sight of the Saut, resembling the inclined plane of a large artificial dam. The scenery, though not grand, was decidedly curious and picturesque. On the right are the Canadian settlements, and the original establishments of the north-west company: the left bank is lined by a succession of small neat-looking country houses and white cottages. Near the Saut stands the fort, large enough to contain three companies; but then garrisoned, I believe, with but eighty men. Every thing about it was in excellent order: before our drawing up to the landing-place, we were boarded by several Indians with moccasins (leathern sandals), belts, tobacco pouches, and bark work, for sale.

The Saut de St. Marie most effectually prevents any vessel from ascending the river to Lake Superior, excepting such as are light enough to be towed up. As the steam-boat could not proceed farther, we embarked in canoes on a small canal, which has been cut from the fort to the river above the Saut, and paddled away for the entrance of the lake. Immediately after I had started, my canoe began to leak; she was instantly drawn on shore by the Indians close to a wigwam, and turned keel upwards. A light-coloured pitch, extracted from a species of pine, was boiled in about ten minutes. A piece of canvass was then besmeared with it, and laid over the leak on the outside. Another layer of pitch was followed by another piece of canvass, and then a third and last plaster of the pitch was spread over the whole. In a quarter of an hour she was again launched perfectly water tight. These canoes are of a light and most elegant construction. They are made of birch bark extended over a slight frame of cedar, and fastened or rather sewed to it, by the flexible roots of the young spruce tree. They are usually about fifteen feet in length, and can carry seven or eight persons without danger. Some of them, however, are much larger.

The land on each side of the river presented much the same appearance as that we had hitherto seen. Lake Superior may be fairly said to commence at the Point aux Pins, a flat sandy promontory, distant about six miles from the Saut. Beyond it, the surface of the water is suddenly enlarged to a width of three or four miles; and though the open expanse of the lake is not visible from the Point, yet the high and abrupt ridges of land that rise immediately at the entrance of the lake, and the clear expanse of cloudless sky that was extended beyond them, clearly informed us, that the mighty inland ocean was near at hand. Lake Superior is six hundred and seventy miles in length—of course a vast deal larger than the British Channel,—the water is as clear as crystal, and cool in the hottest weather. Being chiefly supplied by land springs, the quantity of water that falls over the Saut is much greater than that which is poured into the lake by its tributary rivers and streams, which are comparatively small and insignificant. The sailors in the steam-boat would occasionally peel a large potatoe, and throw it in advance of the boat, and by the time she arrived at the spot where it fell, the potatoe has sunk to the depth of thirty or forty feet, but from the clearness of the water, its shape and colour were perfectly distinct.

Of all the different places we touched at on our voyage, the Saut had the strongest claims on our time and attention. We were much mortified at being obliged to leave it the same afternoon. The captain determining to return, contrary, I believe, to the wish of every one on board. Only one or two canoes that had started earlier than the others, were able to proceed farther than the Point aux Pins.

In our way back to the steamer, every canoe shot down the Saut. This is an exceedingly dangerous experiment, except when they are guided by people who have been long accustomed to the management of them. The Saut, which is the only outlet to the waters of Lake Superior, may be about one-third of a mile in width, and about half-a-mile in length; the fall in that space being about twenty-four feet. The canoes, with the paddles fore and aft, soon began to feel the effect of the current, and were immediately after carried forward with great velocity. In many places the waters were without foam, and perfectly transparent, and the large loose rocks at the bottom were distinctly seen; many of them rise nearly to the surface, but were avoided by the remarkable dexterity of the steersman, where the slightest want of skill must inevitably have overturned the canoe. The descent occupied between three or four minutes. The rapids on the left bank were evidently more furious, and are very seldom descended.

The Saut de St. Marie was originally occupied by the French as a military and trading port. At the foot of the rapids there is, I was informed, some of the finest fly-fishing in the world: the trout are very fine, in enormous quantities, and rise very freely. But our inexorable captain cared for none of these things. White-fish (supposed by some to be of the salmo genus), are also exceedingly plentiful. Their flavour is remarkably fine and delicate.

The next morning we approached the island of Michilimackinac, signifying in the Indian language, the Great Turtle; and so called from its outline bearing a supposed resemblance to that animal when lying upon the water, though I cannot say that I could discover so flattering a likeness. When within a short distance it appeared to be diamond-shaped, with an angle projecting towards us, and the sides regularly scarped by the hand of nature. Apparently about the centre of the island rises what in America is called a “bluff;” a word which is provoking from its absurdity, and constant recurrence in American descriptions of scenery. What is a bluff?—I asked, and so would any other Englishman: “A bluff, sir! don’t you know what a bluff is? A bluff, sir, is a piece of rising ground, partly rock, not all of it, with one side steep, but yet not very steep, the other side sloping away, yet not too suddenly; the whole of it, except the steep side, covered with wood; in short, sir, a bluff is a bluff!” The word, I think, may do well enough to express a small rough rocky hill, but sometimes it happens that a bluff is highly picturesque, and then to talk of a most beautiful bluff, is something like talking of “Beauty and the Beast.” As a substantive, and, in the sense in which it is used in America, the word is exclusively their own, and it really would not be fair to call it English. Nevertheless, there is, and shall be, “a bluff” in the midst of the island of Michilimackinac, rising to the height of more than three hundred feet above the waters of the lake, which have been ascertained to be about six hundred feet above the level of the Atlantic. On the left side of the island is the town, and above it appeared the fort. In the bay were several trading sloops, smaller craft, and Indian canoes; and the sun shone brilliantly on the whole of this enlivening scene, which we saw to the best advantage. The town may contain about eight hundred inhabitants, exclusively of the garrison. The Indians are sometimes to be seen in great numbers, even to the amount of one thousand or one thousand five hundred, who live in wigwams close to the water’s edge. A wigwam, or Indian village, is a collection of small tents constructed of matting and birch bark. The day before, we had met twenty-two canoes in the open lake, each containing seven or eight Indians, who were going from Mackinac to our settlement at Pen-y-tang-y-shen, on Lake Huron, to receive their annual presents from the British government.

Mackinac is the rendezvous of the North-West American missionary establishment. It contained six missionaries; of whom four were Presbyterian, one a Catholic, and one of the Church of England, and a large establishment for the instruction of one hundred children, of whatever persuasion.

A very curious and regularly shaped natural Gothic arch, on the top of a rock at the north-eastern side, elevated about two hundred feet above the level of the lake; a huge isolated calcareous rock; and a small cave called Skull Cave, are the natural curiosities of the island.

The principal trade is the fur trade, which is carried on there to a great extent, chiefly through the medium of Canadian _voyageurs_. The fort, which is kept in admirable order, commands the whole town, but is itself commanded by another eminence in the woods behind it. During the late war a strong party of British and Indians pushed across from Drummond’s Island, with eleven pieces of cannon, and being favoured by the darkness of the night, contrived to gain this eminence, distant half-a-mile, without being perceived by the Americans in the fort, who had not received notice of the war having broken out. They beat the “reveillée” as usual in the morning, and were exceedingly astonished to hear it immediately answered by the British, who were above them. Resistance would have been useless, and the fort surrendered. The remains of the old British fortification are still to be seen upon the hill: it is called Fort Holmes, after Major Holmes, a gallant American officer, who was advancing to retake it, and met his fate at the head of the attacking column. Mackinac was given up to the Americans by the treaty of Ghent, in 1814. There was originally a French fort and settlement on the main land of the Michigan territory. The first British garrison who occupied it were murdered by the Indians, and the fort and settlement were afterwards removed by the British to the island.

I amused myself with shooting pigeons, which are to be found on the island in great numbers. I was quite surprised at the extraordinary facility and quickness of eye, with which my guide, half Indian and half Canadian, discovered them sitting in the thickest foliage; his sight seemed to me to be far keener than that of an English sportsman when looking for a hare. The woods with which the island is covered, are principally composed of hazel and maple; I could have fancied myself in a Kentish preserve, but that wild raspberries were in great abundance in the open spaces.

In the evening I went to see the Indians spear fish by torch light. A lighted roll of birch bark, emitting a most vivid flame, was held over the head of the boat, where the Indians were stationed with their spears. The water was excessively clear, and the fish were attracted by the light, and several of them were instantly pinned to the ground at the depth of four or five feet.

About ten miles north-east of Mackinac are the St. Martin’s islands; one of them abounds in gypsum. At about the same distance from Mackinac and on the main land, I was informed that there was a remarkably fine trout stream that would amply repay the fly-fisher for his trouble in going there. There is no fly fishing at Mackinac, but very fine fish are to be taken with a bait: they have pike, bass, white-fish, and what are called salmon-trout, in great perfection. As to these last, I very much question whether they are of the salmo genus at all; as they never rise at a fly. They certainly are not what are called salmon-trout by English sportsmen, nor are they the large butt-trout of the English lakes. I saw a boat-load containing a dozen that had been caught in one night weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds each; they more resembled in every respect the fish called the salmon in the Lake Wenner in Sweden, and which I have seen taken of an enormous size below the falls of Trollhätta. The meat at this season (August) was white, but well flavoured. I was informed that it becomes of a reddish colour in October or November.

Mackinac is an excellent market for Indian curiosities.

Our next destination was Green bay, on Lake Michigan. On our way we passed several fine-looking islands,—all thickly covered with forests, and apparently uninhabited. A fort and a flourishing settlement are to be seen at Green bay; but there is nothing attractive about either, and the country is very flat and uninteresting, except to a sportsman. There are plenty of wild fowl to be found at Duck creek, about three miles off, and I proceeded there in hopes of shooting some, but did not fall in with them until it was too late to have much sport. However, I chanced to meet an old Indian who had been more successful, and I carried back to the steam-boat two silver ducks, which answered every purpose, as no questions were asked. My guide had been enumerating to me the different wild animals to be found in that part of the forest, and I chanced to ask him, if foxes were plentiful; his answer was amusing, “Yes, sir; there is considerable fox.” In the very darkest part of the forest, about two and a half miles from the mouth of the creek, was the residence of an Indian doctress and fortune-teller. I landed there out of curiosity to have my fortune told; but her manner, her language, and the substance of what she said, differed in no respect from that of a common English gipsy woman. She shuffled a dirty pack of cards, and told me of the fair lady and the dark lady, the false friend and the true friend, the treasure to be found and the journey to be taken, with the same chapter of accidents and unavoidable dangers. I purchased some of her medical herbs: the principal plant was sarsaparilla. I observed wild rice growing in great abundance on the margin of the stream.