CHAPTER XXVI 



THE SOUTHERN SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



In America the terms city, town, &c., have no very 

 definite meaning. In the early part of my career in the 

 States I knew many cities that had not a hundred inhabi- 

 tants ; when I left it one or two of these places could 

 count its people by tens of thousands. It seems that the 

 founder of a new settlement, often anticipating great 

 prosperity for his venture, gives it, prospectively, the 

 name of a city. If the place fails to attract many 

 residents, it yet still retains the title originally bestowed 

 upon it. There are seldom other designations in the 

 States than towns and cities for collections of buildings. 

 What we should call a village or a hamlet is a " town- 

 ship" in America. Places rarely have the name of 

 village ; and I do not remember to have ever heard of 

 hamlets or boroughs in any part of the United States. 



Marquette, though the chief place in all this region of 

 North Michigan, was really a small township, but seemed 

 to do a considerable trade, its situation on the shore of 

 Superior being much to its advantage. A large propor- 

 tion, if not the whole, of the trade was coastwise ; and 

 fish-catching and curing was one of the chief employments 

 of the inhabitants — that is, of course, apart from its 

 mining operations ; for Marquette owes its existence 

 entirely to its proximity to enormous mineral wealth. 



It was here, or near here, that the murder of Father 

 Marquette took place in the early years of the eighteenth 

 century. Some local antiquarians showed me the exact 

 spot, as they supposed, where the cruel deed was com- 



