Transparency of its waters-The mirage of Lake Superior -- Islands Isle Royal Lakes in Isle Royal-Perennial ice- Effect of the extreme cold on the growth of the trees - Rock Har- bor Streams emptying into Lake Superior - Appearance of the shore Iron-works of Carp River - Porcupine Mountains- Table of distances The La Grande Sables- Pictured Rocks · Onton- gion The different beds, etc.— Geologists' opinion of the iron region Location of good agricultural lands - Advantages of a railroad through the iron regions - The copper region of the Supe- Lake Superior reverenced by the Indians - mine, rich in silver- Largest mass of copper- Table of the pro- - - Boundary of Kansas - Best lands open for settlement - Valleys of the tributaries of the Arkansas River, and of the Smoky Hill Fork of the Kansas-Pasturage-The land between the desert hills and the Rocky Mountains-The Kansas River -Valley of the Grand Springs Council Grove - The Grand The Upper Arkansas Pawnee Rock - The mirage- Table of distances from Independence City to Pawnee Rock-The Santa Fé trade - Southern Kansas ores Settlements of Eastern Kansas Kansas laws for the recognition of land claims — In- dians of Kansas-"First right"- Table of distances from Fort STATES AND TERRITORIES OF THE GREAT WEST. CHAPTER I. Early emigration to the West- - Motives of the emigrants-Their independence and perils - The "western fever"-The substantial settler-Conveniences for traveling fifty years ago-The openhearted frontiersman -The solitudes of the forest-Modes of conveyance The old-fashioned Jersey-wagon-The season for emigration - The preparation - The good-by start — Progress — The wayside meal- Incidents by the way-The buried treasure. For more than half a century public attention has been directed toward the setting sun. At the beginning of that period, the West was regarded with mingled emotions of curiosity and dread. The contemplation of a magnificent, boundless wilderness, was well calculated to excite the most sluggish imagination. But to the daring and resolute pioneer, the mystery that hung over the endless woods was continually a temptation to explore the furthest regions concealed beneath their shade. There lay, undisturbed, the hunter's paradise, with every excitement necessary to savage life, from contact with wild beasts to warfare with human beings. Other motives, however, equally powerful, influenced men of widely different characters to resort to the western country. The criminal, flying from justice, made his escape into the woods. Those who disdained conformity to the usages of civil life, who abhorred the restraints of fashion, who aspired to entire independence of all control, sought, instinctively, beyond the borders of civilization, for the wild freedom of nature. Also, the victims of misfortune looked to the West, as a proper field for renewing the struggle of life. It opened before them like another creation-rugged, unorganized; but this was charming to them. The distribution of property would have to be begun over again, in their time. There could be no aristocracy of wealth or refinement in the woods. Abject poverty and heartless affluence could not meet together there for many years. The poor man, whose limited means were insufficient for the wants of a growing family, removed to the West; contented to endure its privations, and submit to its hardships; cheered by the certainty of securing a competence to his children. But a small capital might there be made speedily to accumulate into a fortune, without having to wait upon the slow processes of industry. The speculator, eager to become rich, willing to place everything at hazard, to whom the opportunities, in populous countries, for acquiring property, were unsatisfactory, or too few, hastened impatiently into the wilderness in search of water-power, and sites for future cities, delighting himself in the solitudes, with the prospect of public streets, whose lines were blazed trees. And, at the close of the Revolution, many of the heroes of that war, having become impoverished, sought in the western plantations a restoration of their fortunes; carrying with them into the woods the patient endurance and discipline acquired in the army, and manifesting a most courageous diligence in subduing alike the wilder ness and its savage inhabitants. Rocky New England, |