twenty or
thirty miles from Chicago, we saw a very extensive tract of prairie on
fire, which quite illuminated the sky, and, as the night was very dark,
showed distinctly the distant trees and houses, clearly defining their
outline against the horizon. On the other side of us, there was a
smaller fire, but so close as to allow us to see the flames travelling
along the surface of the ground. These fires are very common; we saw no
less than five that night in the course of our journey.

We have been busily employed to-day in going over Chicago. The streets
are wide and fine, but partake too abundantly of prairie mud to make
walking agreeable: some of the shops are very large; a bookseller's
shop, to which papa and I made our way, professes to be the largest in
the world, and it is certainly one of the best supplied I ever saw with
all kinds of children's books. From the bookseller's we went to papa's
bankers, Messrs. Swift and Co.; Mr. Swift took us to the top of the
Court-house, a wonderful achievement for me, but well worth the trouble,
as the view of the town was very surprising. We went afterwards to call
on William's friend, Mr. Wilkins, the consul, where we met Lord
Radstock. Mr. Wilkins kindly took us to see Mr. Sturge's great granary;
there are several of these in the town, but this, and a neighbouring
one, capable of holding between them four or five million bushels of
corn, are the two largest. The grain is brought into the warehouse,
without leaving the railway, the rails running into the building. It is
then carried to the top of the warehouse "in bulk," by means of hollow
cylinders arranged on an endless chain. The warehouse is built by the
side of the river, so that the vessels which are to carry the corn to
England or elsewhere, come close under the walls, and the grain is
discharged into the vessels by means of large wooden pipes or troughs,
through which it is shot at once into the hold. Mr. Wilkins has seen
80,000 bushels discharged in this manner, in one day.

We afterwards drove about six miles into the country, through oceans of
mud, to see one of the great slaughter and packing-houses. I did not
venture out of the carriage, but the proprietor took Mr. Wilkins, Lord
Radstock, and papa through every part of the building. In a yard below
were a prodigious number of immense oxen, and the first process was to
see one of these brought into the inside of the building by means of a
windlass; which drew it a