88 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, w/id Letters. 



Nicollet, it is admitted, was west of Lake Michigan before La 

 Salle was born. What brought him thus early into the heart of 

 the continent? 



My answer is that he came for sport ; yes, just for the fun of 

 the thing — or the romance and exhilaration of adventure. 



Where is the community in which it is not proverbial to this 

 day that worlds of fun lie in camping? What amount of civili- 

 zation can kill off love for a feast of tabernacles, or relish for 

 camp-meetings? What boy reads Robinson Crusoe without a 

 passion to run away? Hunting, fishing, boating, discovering new 

 lakes and streams, new varieties of woodland and opening, attack- 

 ing or eluding antagonists — whether men or beasts — fire, frost, 

 flood, famine ; " foemen worthy of their steel," for what man 

 that is young, strong and brave, must not these excitements have 

 charms? When will the English give up their Alpine club ? In 

 France no mm was more of a sportsman than the King, Louis 

 XIY, and in his era especially, French country gentlemen spent 

 most of their time hunting and fishing. Accordingly for the French 

 those pursuits had dignified associations. The first French party 

 that ever wintered on the shore of Lake Erie thus wrote home, 

 more than two centuries ago : " We were in a terrestrial paradise. 

 Fish and beaver abounded. We saw more than a hundred roe- 

 bucks in a single band, and half as many fawns. Bear's meat 

 was more savory than any pork in France. We dried or buc- 

 caned the meat of the nine largest. The grapes were as large and 

 sweet as any at home. We even made wine. No lack of prunes, 

 chestnuts and lotus fruit all the autumn. None of us were home- 

 sick for Montreal." Far west was the happy hunting ground of 

 Indian fable. There too the French found it in fact. 



The late Judge Baird of Grreen Bay used to describe as the hap- 

 piest three weeks of his life, the time when, taking his family and 

 friends, with a crew of Indian oarsmen, he voyaged in a bark 

 canoe from our great lake to our great river, along the track of 

 Joliet and Marquette. Every day the ladies gathered flowers as 

 fair as Proserpine plucked in the field of Bnna, while the men 

 were never without success as fishers and hunters. They camped, 

 ■usually early in the afternoon, wherever inclination was attracted 

 by natural beauty or romantic appearance. After feasting on 



