186 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



were trapped on Canadian shores. The fish continue now as mul- 

 titudinous as ever, while the fur is no more found. Five and a 

 half millions have we recently paid for the right to fish in Cana- 

 dian waters. 



Crops springing out of the bosom of the earth are exhaustless 

 like a living spring. Beasts wandering over its surface, or living 

 in its dens, pass away, like desert streams in summer, and what 

 is worse, are never renewed as those streams are. 



Beaver Dam as the name of a city in Wisconsin may always 

 endure, but the cunning handiwork of the beaver, chief favorite 

 among fur-bearers, is to day scarcely discoverable in all the 

 State. The beaver's gone beyond redemption, gone with a gallop- 

 ing consumption. Not all the quacks with all their gumption, will 

 ever mend him. 



The chief Yankee staple was fish ; that of the French was fur. 

 The contrast between the races was palpable. Accordingly the 

 natives named the Yankees ICinshon, which signifies "fish," and 

 the French Onontio, that is, "Big Mountain." The latter name 

 may have been suggested by Gallic pomposity. But after labors 

 manifold the mountain brought forth a mouse, and the fish 

 swallowed him. 



The victims iured on by falsehood or false fancies in pursuit of 

 a short cut to the farthest East, were no less heart breakingly dis- 

 appointed than the men of fun, fur and faith. 



Their chase in the West of an ever-fleeing East, reminds me of 

 De Soto chasing the phantom of a rejuvenating fountain. Both 

 long roved in a fool's paradise, but at length wasted sinewy vigor, 

 like thirst-parched pilgrims, running after the mirage when the 

 sultry mist frowns o'er the desert with a show of waters mocking 

 men's distress. 



But after all both 'achieved great discoveries, like alchemists,, 

 not of what they sought, but of whatever was to be found. De 

 Soto discovered the lower iVTississippi, and French visionaries the 

 ■upper, its head- waters, the Yellow Stone and the Rocky Moun- 

 tain backbone of the continent. They were the first who ever 

 burst into our inmost shrines. 

 But their aims were low. At its best their ideal was not to 



