SEPTEMBER 65 



nioviiig- stoaiiior. Y\)ii(l('r arc i)ietures(iue villages 

 nestled along noble bluft's, halfway between water 

 and sky ; yonder a gigantic raft of logs from for- 

 ests haunted by deer and moose is floating down 

 to serve the people of far-off commonwealths. On 

 one side of our curving, zigzagging path, lie sand- 

 bars dim in the distance, where a stately heron 

 now stands alone, unconcerned with national 

 jealousy or literary strife. Festoons of frail mist 

 linger along the western shores, or search like 

 conscious spirits for a pathway inland through 

 the ravines hollowed in the majestic headlands. 

 Surely you, who fashioned such weird, wonderful 

 cadences of musical prose from mere nothings of 

 memory, will admire and reverence what Nature 

 — or more than Nature — not the American, has 

 here wrought for the inspiration of all responsive 

 souls. 



It is said that lead was seen at Dubuque by Le 

 Seuer in 1700. Julien Dubuque came thither from 

 Prairie du Chien in 1788 — making the first white 

 settlement within the present area of Iowa. Black 

 Hawk writes of the year 1833, ''Passing down the 

 Mississippi, I discovered a large collection of peo- 

 ple in the mining country, on the west side of the 

 river, and on the ground that we had given to our 

 relation, Dubuque, a long time ago. I was sur- 

 prised at this, as I had understood from our Great 

 Father that the Mississippi was to be the dividing 



