LETTEE X. 



St. Paul's. Route to Red River. Minnesota. Daily Newspapers. Market 

 Place. Red Indians selling wild Ducks. American Militia. Fort SnellLng. 

 Minnehaha. Falls of St. Anthony. Lands and Funds set apart for Public 

 Objects. The Credit System. Down the River to Dubuque. Burlington. 

 Iowa. Natural Obstacle to Progress of Population "Westwards. "Wages. 

 Nauvoo. St. Louis in Missouri. Slave State. Iron Mountain. Relative 

 Cost of Production of British and American Iron. 



ST. PAUL'S, the capital of Minnesota, the last State admitted to 

 the Union, stands very beautifully on a sloping limestone ridge 

 of the Mississippi, upwards of 2000 miles from its mouth at 

 New Orleans. It may be regarded as the head of uninterrupted 

 navigation, for the Falls of St. Anthony, only nine miles fur- 

 ther up, close the passage. Above the Falls, however, steam- 

 ers ply 150 miles still further northwest. From this highest 

 point it is proposed to make a land connection with the Ked 

 Kiver, which flows north, and is navigable for 300 miles before 

 it enters the British territory at Pembina. 



The new State of Minnesota has an area considerably 

 greater than the British Isles. The southern part is chiefly 

 prairie, very level for great distances west, as was shown to me 

 in a section of the railway now being constructed. The soil is 

 considerably more sandy than that of Illinois ; the winters are 

 intensely cold, but the summers, though comparatively short, 

 generally mature the various corn crops which are cultivated. 

 This State has its northern boundary along the British terri- 

 tory, at present possessed by the Hudson's Bay Company. The 



