ocean, both in extent and value. Isle Royale is a favorite place of resort for fishermen, who take there great numbers of the siskowit-the fattest and finest variety of the laketrout family; also, lake-trout and whitefish. The siskowit has been known to attain to the weight of twenty-five pounds; and the lake trout, fifty pounds. The siskowit has only to become introduced into the eastern market, to take the place of all other fish, as a delicacy for the table of the epicure. The capability of the fisheries of the Superior country may be estimated by the quantities taker at one place, near Mackinaw, at which ten thousand barrels are packed annually. The preparations for packing are very simple. After being cleaned, the fish are laid, with the scales on, upon broad benches, and salted; then thrown into a box, or crate, with a grating at the bottom, to drain. Sometimes a common wagon-wheel is used, suspended by a rod passing through the hub; the water passes off from the fish, between the spokes. After draining, the packing commences. Fish are an important article of food at the mines, and will continue to become more valuable as the business of mining increases.

The Superior country is a healthy country; but the climate is too cold and forbidding, and the winters too long, to attract emigrants, who prefer to cultivate the soil. In July, the days are very warm; the nights, however, are cool. The changes in the temperature are very sudden and very great. It is no uncommon thing for the thermometer, to fall forty degrees in twenty-four hours. Frosts occur about the tenth of September, sufficient to kill all vegetation. The snows attain to the depth of six feet, and remain to the last of May. Winter sets in early in October. During the fall months there are frequent and terrible gales of wind, and storms of rain and snow.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.

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The Superior country will one day be erected into a territory by itself, or admitted as a state. It will be, for all time, not only a mine of wealth to the Union, but also a nursery of a tough, hardy, and energetic race of men. The full development of its vast resources would require a population that will make it the great northern hive of America.

CHAPTER XVIII.

KANSAS AND NEBRASKA.

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 River Timber-Coal - Springs Council Grove - The Grand Prairie 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 — Indians of Kansas-"First right" — Table of distances from Fort Riley to Missouri border- Military roads-Climate of Kansas- Nebraska.

KANSAS Territory lies spread out between the thirtyseventh and the fortieth parallels of north latitude, and from the border of Missouri clear over the Rocky Mountains. The northern boundary consists of a straight line, running due east and west. The southern boundary is directly west along the line of the Indian Territory, and of Texas to New Mexico; thence, ascending northward one degree, it again turns away westward. The eastern portion, therefore, is considerably wider than the western. The territory comprises an area of nearly one hundred and fifteen thousand square miles. It has been suggested, that "ultimately, the State of Kansas will probably be restricted, by cutting off the western portion to form a new state or states, so as to leave this about three hundred miles long, from east to west, and two hundred wide, from north to south." The eastern boundary, for more than one hundred miles, is formed by the Missouri River, between the mouth of the Kansas and the southern border of Nebraska.

BEST LANDS OPEN FOR SETTLEMENT.

305

The eastern and the western extremities of the territory comprise the best lands in Kansas; the middle regions being quite indifferent, and in some places absolutely barren. The finest portions now open for settlement are comprised in the strip which extends across the territory contiguous to the Missouri boundary, varying in width from seventy-five to one hundred and eighty miles. This tract of land has a limestone basis; and the soil, consisting of a dark vegetable mold far superior to the ordinary prairie soil, is exceedingly fertile, and of great depth. The soil, throughout the entire region, is represented as having an average depth of four feet, which, with its calcareous quality, and freedom from stone, makes it most desirable for agricultural purposes. The bottom-lands

along the borders of the rivers are equal to any in the world. The upland is composed of a continual succession of ridges and valleys, rising and falling with the regularity of ocean waves. The general direction of the ridges is north and south, except where their uniformity is broken by the courses of the streams. The rivers are belted with timber; but the forests are not so thick, nor the trees so large as those which originally grew in New York and Ohio. The woods have not a sufficient supply of timber for a dense population; but it is presumed to be sufficient for the purposes of settlement, until hedges can be raised, and the fires shut out from the plains, permitting a growth of trees to spring up where now every twig is consumed. The effect of narrowing the limits of the autumnal fires will, no doubt, be the same in Kansas that it has been in Missouri, converting prairie into thrifty timbered lands. The upland country, diversified with hills and valleys, is rendered picturesque by groves, scattered unevenly and irregularly over the surface, sometimes on the hillsides,

but oftener in the valleys, consisting, in the former case, of the stately cottonwoods, and in the latter, of elms. Clumps of oak are found in some places. The timber of the bottom-lands consists of oak, ash, elm, white and sugar-maple, and hickory. This eastern tract is known among the overland travelers to Oregon and California as the region of "tall grass." The blade is coarse and rough at the edges, like the grass of Illinois. It ordinarily attains to the hight of three feet, toward the close of summer; but where the land is moist it grows more luxuriantly, and is said to become "tall enough to hide from view horse and rider." In June, those rolling prairie lands are covered with gaudy flowers. The small streams are quite numerous, having their sources in springs; and though they may not entirely dry up, they are, nevertheless, "dry-weather streams," showing little more in September than pebbly beds, but swelled full, muddy and turbulent, in the spring. These streams have cut their channels down deep in the soil, forming ravines difficult to cross; but with their borders fringed with timber, and winding through the country in all directions, they add very much to the beauty of the landscape.

Immediately contiguous to the fertile plains of eastern Kansas is a narrow belt, averaging twenty miles in width, of an entirely different character, having a sandstone basis. The country is not so rolling. Spring-water is rarely found; but there are many large rivers, together with their head streams, which flow through this tract. As a general thing, the soil would be considered too light and sandy for profitable cultivation. The traveler will observe that the hickory timber has entirely disappeared, and the few trees which he will find "are mostly the blackjack, elm, cottonwood, ash, and willow." This region, however, is said to possess some attractions for the tourist.