78 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



Weston is to blame : there are two ways of ordering, and 

 from the method used here he had made a mistake in 

 taking for the distance between his flanges the width of 

 the track inside instead of outside the flanges, which 

 makes a difference of just one inch. It is too exaspera- 

 ting to be blocked by such a blunder, and just at the 

 last moment. All these things are never found out till 

 everything is ready, and I am afraid we shall now be 

 delayed in consequence. I go to Torch Lake early to- 

 morrow and shall look at thing again after a night's 

 sleep and see what can be done ; and shall then at once 

 go to Houghton and let you know what can be done 

 there. Locomotive, I am afraid, cannot possibly be al- 

 tered ; and then the only remedy and cheapest thing is 

 to relay one rail and change axles for all our cars. This 

 letter is worse written than usual, but I am in such a 

 rage that I cannot write better. 



The long cold winter of the Upper Peninsula now set 

 in with a suddenness and fierceness characteristic of that 

 region. On December 7, Agassiz writes : — 



" Have had no chance for writing : the bad weather 

 has taken up all my time and could do nothing except 

 attend to what little was going on. I was in hopes that 

 my hard work was over ; but I am just beginning to 

 perceive that if this kind of weather continues, it has 

 only commenced. In past eleven days hardly anything 

 has been done and the fearful weather has brought every- 

 thing to a standstill except what little could be done inside 

 the stamp mills. The railroad is blocked entirely by snow 

 and we cannot use locomotive till snow-plow is finished. 

 All attempts to raise trestle work are useless, and men 



