ies of Duluth and Superior City, which was a few miles distant,
and as the Dulutherans outbid the Father Superiors, the terminus of the
road was fixed at Duluth.

It was arranged that the ladies should remain at Duluth while we, the
men, were to go through the woods to examine a situation a day's march
distant. We had Indians to carry our luggage. Every man took a blanket
and a cord, put his load into it, turned the ends over the cord, and then
drew it up like a bag. They carried very easily from 150 to 250 lbs.
weight for thirty miles a day over stock and stone, up and down steep
banks or amid rotten crumbling trees and moss. Though a good walker, I
could not keep up with them.

I had with me a very genial and agreeable man as walking companion. His
name was Stewart, and he was mayor, chief physician, and filled half-a-
dozen other leading capacities in St. Paul. Our fellow-travellers
vanished in the forest. Mayor Stewart and I with one Indian carrier
found ourselves at two o'clock very thirsty indeed. The view was
beautiful enough. A hundred yards below us by the steep precipice rushed
the St. Lawrence, but we could not get at it to drink.

Stewart threw himself on the grass in despair. "Yes," he cried, "we're
lost in the wilderness, and I'm going to die of thirst. Remember me to
my family." "I say," he suddenly cried, "ask that Injun the name of that
river."

I asked of the Indian, "_Wa go nin-iu_?" ("How do you call that?")
Thinking I wanted to know the name for a stream, he replied, "_Sebe_."
This is the same as _sipi_ in Missis-sippi.

"I knew it," groaned Stewart. "There is no such river as the _Sebe_ laid
down on the map. We're lost in an unknown region."

"It occurs to me," I said, "that this is a judgment on me. When I think
of the number of times in my life when I have walked past bar-rooms and
neglected to go in and take a drink, I must think that it is a
retribution."

"And I say," replied Stewart, "that if you ever do get back to
civilisation, you'll be the old --- toper that ever was."

When we came to the camp we found there by mere chance a large party of
surveyors. As there were thirty or forty of us, it was resolved, as so
many white men had never before been in that region, to constitute a
township and elect a member to the Legislature, or Congress, or
something--I forget what; but it appeared that it was legal, and it was
actually done--I voting with the rest as a settler.