MISCELLANEOUS. 285 



and 579 miles from Louisville, where we alighted from the 

 train. We had made the run in thirty hours, which, after 

 deducing the three hours' lay-over in Cincinnati, makes a 

 creditable showing for the roads as to speed. 



We loaded our tent, provisions, guns, fishing tackle and 

 other baggage into a wagon which we had engaged for the 

 purpose, and started for Twin Lakes, in Montmorency 

 county, forty miles east. By noon we had made half the 

 distance, and stopped to lunch near a small frame house, 

 which our driver informed us was the last human habitation 

 we would see on the route. His statement proved correct. 

 The remainder of the ro ' e lay through a most wild and deso- 

 late region of country, covered with a rich growth of giant Nor- 

 way pine, interspersed occasionally with vast and almost 

 impenetrable swamps of hemlock, tamarack and white cedar. 

 We passed over one tract of perhaps a thousand acres, where 

 years ago fire had, during a dry season, passed through and 

 killed all the timber. Subsequently other fires had followed 

 and burned up every vestige of dead timber, reducing the 

 country to the condition of a natural prairie. This is now 

 grown up with scattering dwarf-pines, or as the settlers call 

 them, " jack-pines." These openings or plains furnish fine 

 grazing lands for deer, and at the proper season are the 

 favorite hunting-grounds for the Indians and white hunters, 

 as the game can be seen much farther than in the woods. 



About nine o'clock at night we reached Twin Lakes, upon 

 the bank of one of which we pitched our camp, built a rous- 

 ing fire, made a pot of strong coffee, of which we drank lib- 

 erally, and lay down to enjoy the rest we so much needed 

 after our long journey. On the following day, some of our 

 party amused themselves by taking a few fine bass and pick- 

 erel from the lakes, others by shooting a few ducks, and the 

 balance by strolling through the woods, enjoying the fresh, 



