MILITIA. ST. ANTHONY. 109 



three or four artillery men in the corps. The United States 

 have an enrolled and organised militia of upwards of two mil- 

 lions and a half, from which a very formidable army might 

 readily be selected. The people are fond of soldiering. In 

 every considerable town, some volunteer cavalry or infantry 

 corps will be found parading about, but I never saw a soldier 

 of the regular army all the time I was in the Union. These 

 are all posted in the interior of the continent on the Indian 

 frontier. 



In pursuing our course to the Falls of St. Anthony, we skirt 

 along between the prairie country and the bank of the Missis- 

 sippi. We cross the river by a ferry below Fort Snelling, one 

 of the old frontier posts now abandoned. It stands on the 

 point of the promontory, which juts out into the junction of the 

 Minnesota Eiver with the Mississippi, at an elevation of 150 

 feet, and must have been capable of easy defence against any 

 sort of Indian warfare. Two miles farther we came to a little 

 gushing stream, where is laid the most beautiful scene of Long- 

 fellow's Indian poem, " Hiawatha," 



" Where the falls of Minnehaha 

 Flash and gleam in shining reaches, 

 Leap and laugh among the woodlands." 



We dived into the little glen, admired the waterfall, drank 

 of its fresh waters, and finally cut walking-sticks in remem- 

 brance of it. It is certainly pretty ; but, as an American has 

 described it, unusually " neat." The water pours over a rock 

 through a groove which exactly fits it, and it runs away below 

 with all the regularity of a mill stream. Nevertheless, for the 

 lovely Minnehaha's sake, we did our best to admire it. There 

 is a great distinction between American and European scenery 

 in this, that in America there are few accessories to the scene. 



