omance--no Lake Superior water--no
scenery--nothing, finally, that could captivate a poetical glance.

"I am now writing these poor lines under a regular storm of
smoke-clouds, and chewing tobacco expectorations. I never experienced so
much the benefit of being brought up as a warlike soldier, to stand all
that. However, my courage is sinking down, and, therefore, I shoot ahead
to-morrow at day-break, as fast as possible, either by water or by land.
The coaches here are rather comfortable, but extremely slow.

"As I intend to make but a very short stay in St. Louis and Ohio, I'll
not be able to have the pleasure of writing to you again before reaching
New York or Havana; but, if you continue always to be, for me, as kind
as formerly, I hope you'll grant me the particular favor of writing to
me once in a while. This will be an impudent theft, on my part, of time
so usefully consecrated to scientific pursuits. Still I flatter myself
you'll pardon it, consequently founded on that (perhaps gratuitous)
supposition. I'll ask you to direct your letter to Charleston, South
Carolina (until called for), towards the middle of the next month, and,
if possible, answer me on the following queries: 1. What are the
inducements to imagine that any volcanic action exists in the Porcupine
Mountains, and mentioning, approximately, their distance from the
Ontonagon River; and their probable influence on the diffusion of the
copper ores and copper boulders on its shores? 2. What are the most
accurate or probable limits (by degrees) of the primitive region of
North America; and whether it forms any chain, or has any probable
communication with all its different branches, or the main ridges of the
Cordilleras or Andes? 3. Is there any remarkable evaporation, or any
other hygrometric phenomenon, or influence of currents that sustains the
level of Lakes Superior and Michigan, so diametrically opposite in their
geographical situation? 4. What constitutes, mainly, the predominating
geognostic features of Lake Superior, the Upper Mississippi, and the
Missouri? I shall be extremely happy to see these problems solved."

_17th_. This day terminated, at St. Mary's, the melancholy fate of poor
Leslie Duncan. Insanity is dreadful in all its phases. This man wrote to
me early in the spring for some favor, which I granted. He was a dealer
in merchandise, in a small way, at St. Mary's, where he was known as a
reputable, modest, and temperate man, who had b