with the accommodations at Sault St Marie, and
spoken very disrespectfully of our host's beds and bed-furniture. I
have never read the work, but I am so well aware how frequently
travellers fill up their pages with fleas, and "such small gear," that I
presume the one in question was short of matter to furnish out his book;
yet it was neither just nor liberal on his part to expect at Sault St
Marie, where, perhaps, not five travellers arrive in the course of a
year, the same accommodations as at New York. The bedsteads certainly
were a little rickety, but every thing was very clean and comfortable.
The house was not an inn, nor, indeed, did it pretend to be one, but the
fare was good and well cooked, and you were waited upon by the host's
two pretty modest daughters--not only pretty, but well-informed girls;
and, considering that this village is the Ultima Thule of this portion
of America, I think that a traveller might have been very well content
with things as they were. In two instances, I found in the log-houses
of this village complete editions of Lord Byron's works.

Sault St Marie contains, perhaps, fifty houses, mostly built of logs,
and has a palisade put up to repel any attack of the Indians.

There are two companies of soldiers quartered here. The rapids from
which the village takes its name are just above it; they are not strong
or dangerous, and the canoes descend them twenty times a day. At the
foot of the rapids the men are constantly employed in taking the white
fish in scoop nets, as they attempt to force their way up into Lake
Superior. The majority of the inhabitants here are half-breeds. It is
remarkable that the females generally improve, and the males degenerate,
from the admixture of blood. Indian wives are here preferred to white,
and perhaps with reason--they make the best wives for poor men; they
labour hard, never complain, and a day of severe toil is amply
recompensed by a smile from their lord and master in the evening. They
are always faithful and devoted, and very sparing of their talk, all
which qualities are considered as recommendations in this part of the
world.

It is remarkable, that although the Americans treat the negro with
contumely, they have a respect for the red Indian: a well-educated
half-bred Indian is not debarred from entering into society; indeed,
they are generally received with great attention. The daughter of a
celebrated Indian chief brings heraldry into