e was deep loose sand, yet above it
was hard and solid, and bound together with little shrubs like the
French dunes. The view of the lake from the top was very pretty, and
boundless towards the north, we being at the southern extremity. I
picked up a few stones on the beach as a memorial of this splendid lake.
We were very much tempted, when at Chicago, to see more of it, and to go
to Milwaukee and Madison, but we were strongly advised by Mr. Wilkins
not to go further north at this season. The wreaths of snow which during
the night have fallen in patches along the road, and greeted our eyes
this morning, confirmed us in the wisdom of this advice, and we are now
bending our steps once more towards the south. We are still here in the
midst of prairie, but more wooded than in our journey of Tuesday. We
crossed to-day, at Lafayette, the Wabash, which we had crossed
previously at Vincennes, and here, as there, it is a very noble river.
This must end my journal for the present.

LETTER XII.

INDIANAPOLIS.--LOUISVILLE.--LOUISVILLE AND PORTLAND
CANAL.--PORTLAND.--THE PACIFIC STEAMER.--JOURNEY TO
LEXINGTON.--ASHLAND.--SLAVE PENS AT LEXINGTON.--RETURN TO
CINCINNATI.--PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL RAILWAY.--RETURN TO NEW YORK.

Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 13th, 1858.

My last letter was closed at Indianapolis, but despatched from
Louisville. On the morning after I wrote we had time, before starting
for Louisville, to take a walk through the principal streets of
Indianapolis. The Capitol or state-house is the only remarkable
building; and here, as in most other towns in America, we were struck by
the breadth of the streets. In the centre of Indianapolis there is a
large square, from which the four principal streets diverge, and from
the centre of this, down these streets, there are views of the distant
country which on all sides bounds the prospect. This has a fine effect,
but all these capital cities of states have an unfinished appearance:
great cities have been planned, but the plans have never been
adequately carried out. The fact is, they have all a political, and not
a commercial origin, and they want the stimulus of commercial enterprise
to render them flourishing towns, or to give them the finished
appearance of cities of much more recent date, such as Chicago and
others.

We left Indianapolis at about half-past ten, and reached Jeffersonville,
on the north side of the