I

lounge at a plank. There are a great many different ways of whittling; some, like my friend the colonel, cut slashingly away from them, others cut carefully up towards them; a few cut slices across, cucumber fashion. I know a man who devotes himself principally to notches; but this is very rare, if not altogether exceptional. The timber, by the way, which the colonel was so recklessly destroying with his clasp-knife, was destined for Fond du Lac, and belonged to him. His skinned eye had enabled him to perceive the advisability of sending a supply of planks to a town in the earliest stage of its formation, and where no mills had yet been erected. Meantime, having congratulated him upon the prospect of a good spec, my friend and I strolled into the town, whither the greater part of the passengers had already repaired, and were now to be found congregated round the bar of the hotel, a most capacious structure, not quite completed, but it looked worthy of a great nation, as it towered above the log shanties which surrounded it. It was certainly more comfortable, and upon a grander scale, than the Adelphi at Liverpool. Ontonagon contains about a thousand inhabitants; it is a rapidly increasing place, situated upon a river navigable for a short distance into the interior. A good plank-road leads to the mines. We contented ourselves with exploring the place. It was a perfect specimen of a backwood town in an embryo state. Stumps still stood in the principal streets, and the old forest still seemed to dispute the soil with the settlers. There had been no time to cut down trees or underwood which did not positively impede communication. Occasionally a living tree formed the upright at the corner of a house, while its companions had been felled and piled upon one another for the walls. Sometimes a house was built upon half-a-dozen stumps five or six feet above the ground. The object of the builder seemed not to be permanency, but shelter at any price; and to obtain it, he availed himself of every natural assistance. Then, almost before he had a roof over his head, he entered upon a miscellaneous business. There are Yankee notions of every descrip

if he found anything to whittle. never saw the art of whittling carried to a higher pitch of perfection than by him at Ontonagon, the next port at which we touched. We were to embark lumber here for Fond du Lac, and I was sitting talking to my whittling friend, when we made fast to the pier opposite a stack of timber. He proposed going ashore, with a view of " liquoring up" at the bar of the Ho-tel; but no sooner had we crossed the landing-plank than he drew from his pocket an enormous clasp-knife, with the aspect of which I was already familiar, and making straight for the lumber, sat himself astride upon a projecting beam, and, with the greatest gravity and earnestness, sliced off a large splinter, from which he immediately commenced paring long thin shavings. He at once became so absorbed in his occupation as to relinquish his intention of "taking a drink ;" and I was afraid that he had got such an interesting whittle that it would stop further conversation. However, by way of experiment, I remarked, "This Minnesota Mining Company is a losing concern, I fancy?"

"No, siree! and any gentleman that told you so lied, and he knew it. Why, I'm in it, and I guess I'm used to sleep with one eye skinned. It ain't above fifteen mile from here; you'd better stop over this boat and satisfy yourself. We've a capital of a million and a half of dollars; original shares twenty-two dollars; they're at one hundred and eighty now. There was 800 tons of copper exported last year; there will be 1200 exported next. We bought three square miles of land down here from Government at two dollars and a half the acre, and sell it in lots 200 feet by 25 at two hundred dollars a-lot now, and cheap at that; and if you've a mind to buy a couple of lots and prospect a bit, say half-adozen shares, there's nobody knows better than myself how to help a stranger," &c. &c.; and so on, without drawing breath or making a stop until he had reduced the splinter to the size of a toothpick, when his statistics, his breath, and his wood having all come to an end together, he urned sharp round and made another

Such

in preparing the way for its benign influence.

We received a large addition to our forces at Ontonagon; and, considering how long we have been on board, and the number of passengers there were, I am hardly to be excused for not having before this given the reader some account of our mode of life on board the "Sam." I am afraid it was a dissipated, careless sort of existence-one to which the words of the old French song might very fairly be applied, "Le vin, le jeu, les belles, voilà nos seuls plaisirs." As for the first, it was in the captain's cabin. He was the most hospitable and jovial of inland navigators; and as a mark of particular favour, we occupied the state room (as it is called) adjoining his. They both opened on a sort of balcony, and here at all hours was collected a noisy group, taking what they called "nips," smoking mahogany-tinted meerschaums or fragrant havannahs, with a standard rule that each member of the party should furnish a story, a song, or a bottle of wine. The merit of these stories consisted not so much in their point as in the racy manner in which they were told, and the peculiar idioms with which they abounded. Fashionable men from the east described trotting matches, and how they had won bets by means of 2.40* mares, and a little of what we should call sharp practice. The captain excited the company with narratives of races between high-pressure steamboats and ultimate 66 bustings-up." Far-west men told of artful speculations, or wild adventure; while miscellaneous contributors recounted "cute" pro,"ceedings of various sorts, as escapes from creditors, clever impositions, practical jokes, &c.-each receiving a mead of praise proportionate to the utter absence of principle which his story displayed. The songs were generally of a sentimental character, containing insipid allusions to Columbia; and I was surprised at the want of humour which all these poetical effusions manifested.

tion in the front window, and a bowl
ing alley at the back. He carries on
his profession as a lawyer in his bed-
room, sells cutlery and dry goods
across his counter, and occupies his
leisure moments with medicine. There
is a bar connected with the alley, where
he dispenses slings, juleps, and cob-
blers, behind which there are stores
of all sorts, pork, flour, tobacco, &c.
Upon the other side of the street he
is erecting a solid mansion with the
proceeds of his present lucrative busi-
ness, and, having landed only two
months ago from the "Sam Ward"
without a "darned cent" in his pocket,
is already deeply involved in mining
transactions, and expects to make
and lose five fortunes in the course of
as many years, when his present loca-
tion will have become too crowded,
and he'll "clar out," to go through a
similar experience elsewhere.
is the mode of life of many of these
pioneers of civilisation, the secret of
whose success consists in buying pro-
perty upon the outskirts of the in-
habited world, when it is to be had
for a mere trifle, preparing themselves
betimes for the inevitable influx of
emigrants, to whom they sell the ne-
cessaries of life at enormous profits,
and whose wants are supplied at al-
most fabulous prices, until they be
come so numerous that the multiplicity
of speculators reduces the cost of living
to its proper amount, and drives the
original settlers farther west. Thus
they learn to live on the exigencies
of others. When Government is glad
to sell land cheap, they buy it; when
new-comers are glad to buy it dear,
they sell it. They are a race remorse-
less in their bargains, generous in
their hospitality, always "doing,'
never to be done," who consider
that their foresight in choosing loca-
tions, and the hardships they undergo
in appropriating them, entitle them to
impose upon a less enterprising class
their own terms, to which the latter are
compelled to submit; and if, in the
course of such traffic, their moral per-
ceptions, perhaps never very keen, be-
come somewhat blunted, civilisation
at least owes these hardy explorers
no inconsiderable debt of gratitude
for the important services they render

As for le jeu, it was pretty well sustained all through the day; and incomprehensible games, with unre

* Mares capable of performing a mile in two minutes and forty seconds.

1855.]

Notes on Canada and the North-west States of America.

The village of La Pointe was the first place we touched at in the State of Wisconsin. It is prettily situated upon one of the Apostles' Islands, a wooded group, which are an attractive feature in the scenery. It is one of the oldest trading stations on Lake Superior, and the first missions were established here by the Jesuits more than two hundred years ago. But we found more to interest us in La Pointe than the mere associations connected with it. Upon landing, we were surrounded by a crowd of Indians in all the pomp of savage finery-a very different race from our companions upon the Severn. They were Chippeways, who had assembled here to receive the payments which are annually made to them by the United States Government, and were about to set off upon a warlike expedition against the Sioux. therefore a most favourable opportunity for seeing them, and it was evident, from the interest we excited, that some of their number were not in the habit of coming in contact with whites. They were a motley picturesque throng; the blue blankets and red leggings of the squaws contrasted well, while their small delicate feet were encased in embroidered mocassins. The men had red paint on their faces and feathers in their hair, while their tomahawks and scalpingknives transported us in imagination to more stirring scenes, and half tempted us to give up our plan of proceeding, and follow these warriors on their war-path.

It was

There were some splendid men among them-tall, wellmade fellows, with a quiet cat-like walk, and imperturbable countenan

ces.

We asked some of them to show us their weapons, which they did with great nonchalance, puffing kinnickkinnick in our faces out of thick pipes made of red clay, or sometimes formed in the head of a tomahawk, of which the handle served as a pipestem. They could not speak English, but showed some interest in us; and some of the chiefs came on board to look at the dancing, and manifested their contempt for it in grunts, or what Cooper would have called "expressive Ughs," which, considering the nature of the performance, was perhaps not altogether to be wondered

713

at. They certainly formed a singular
addition to a scene which in itself
was extremely novel.

It was blowing half a gale of wind,
when I was aroused early on the fol-
lowing morning by an unusual scuf-
fling on deck, and found that we had
arrived at Fond du Lac, and were
crossing the bar of the river St Louis,
which enters Lake Superior at its
most western extremity. The scene
was wild and exciting; the violence
and direction of the wind, and the
intricacy of the navigation, rendered
the work one of considerable danger
and difficulty, and the captain had at
first determined to remain outside
until the gale moderated. However,
time is valuable to the Yankee, and as
the "Sam" was bound upon a voyage
round the Lake, and expected back
at the Sault on an early day, our
skipper determined to risk it; and I
was not sorry to arrive at the end of
our voyage under more exciting cir-
cumstances than had attended it
hitherto. The scenery, too, was bolder.
On the right was a deep bay, backed
A narrow
by a high wooded range.
sandy promontory, some miles long,
separated the St Louis from Lake
Superior. Near its point were pitched
a number of Indian wigwams, with
upturned canoes arranged before them.
Upon the left the land was low, and
covered with a dense forest. Oppo-
site to us, and upon the further shore
of a broad lagune formed by the St
Louis, stood the city of Superior,
perfectly invisible, however, from
the point at which we crossed the
bar. We just touched the ground
once, then swung round in the deep-
er waters of the St Louis, and an-
chored in front of the Indian village,
as it was too shallow to admit of
a nearer approach to the opposite
shore.

Our arrival caused the greatest exBlanketed citement everywhere. figures emerged out of the smoky wigwams and stood motionless on the shore, with their arms folded like Roman senators, betraying as much animation as Indians ordinarily do. Innumerable curs testified their astonishment by shrill yelps. Two or three crazy-looking boats put off (as we were informed) from the city; but we had not yet been able to discover

SPANISH INTOLERANCE AND INSOLVENCY.