342 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



immediate borders of Lake Superior there is a sufficient 

 groAvth of trees to make the scenery thoroughly pictur- 

 esque. 



The hour has come in which I must lay down my 

 pen. I do so with regret, as this is probably the last of 

 my books on America. Though I could say something 

 on Mexico and other parts of the north not referred to 

 here, or in my first volume, my remaining notes could 

 scarcely be extended to form yet another work. From 

 what I have recorded in my three volumes, the reader 

 will learn that I have been a very great wanderer. This, 

 my last book, contains my first experiences in point of 

 time ; and, after the travels here recorded, I went south 

 to Tennessee, and commenced my business as a peddler, 

 or " boss of a prairie schooner," and perhaps it will be of 

 some interest if I give a few particulars of the business of 

 peddling in the States in a final chapter. 



But let me write a caution. The palmy days 

 of peddling are over for ever. As the country is 

 opened up, tJie character of the trade completely 

 changes, and the facility for obtaining goods of all 

 kinds is such that there is now no chance of making 

 three or four hundred per cent, on a " cargo of notions," 

 while the gentlemen with the wooden nutmegs have long 

 since ceased to be in it. 



