NEW YORK, THURSDAY. MAY 24, 1877- 



For Fore&t and Stream <i"d Rod and Gun, 

 FRIENDSHIP. 



PEDICATED TO HIS FRIEND JtOBBRT GRAHAM, KSQ., BY GEO. BOUDWTN. 



WHEN, at Hie fall of Adam's race, 

 Our BOd withdrew His light divine, 

 One ray he spared this hapless sphere, 



one Heavenly beam vouchsafed to shine 

 That, in the deluge of onr woe, 



A Bow of Promise might appear, 

 He left dear Friendship here on earth, 

 Our stating hearts to warm and cheer 



Around the world the Eternal spark 



Its destined course, lite lightning, ran, 

 Kindling a flame in every heart. 



Binding more close each man to man ; 

 The glow that owned a living tire, 



All creatures hailed its sweet caress— 

 The Joy that gilded happier hours, 



Their Hope and Solace ta distress. 



Celestial light by Angels shared— 



A warm, a pnre, unselfish lore, 



That calms the angry lion's wrath. 



And leaves him harmless as the dove ; 

 The bond of Peace :— the golden link— 

 The brother's right— the stranger's claim; 



- i_r welcome be the hand 

 That clasps onr own, ta Friendship's name, 

 Tl,uadelj:hi„. } Aprafi. ISTT. 



Jp//*e gnperior in I860. 



(Continued from our last issut.) 



Marquette, Lake Stjpbbior, Feb. 29, 1861. 



ON seeing my effusion of the 22d of Dec. in print, I am sud- 

 denly recalled to the urgent duty of savingmyself from 

 premature death. I sea that ever since writing that letter I 

 have left rnyself standing in the cold some five miles from 

 town. On reading I became sensible of my long exposure, 

 and shall take myself home as quickly as possible. * * * * 

 Having overtaken my "Got/tie " steed, which some one had 

 Stopped and tied by the roadside, I drove home and thawed 

 out. Thanks to the preservative powers of frost, I have not 

 yet suffered from decomposition. As I thaw, however, I am 

 of course covered with moisture like a beard, and as the 

 liquid oozes out it drips from the point of the pen, making 

 the black marks you see as I travel along. This zigzag, scrib- 

 bling trail is the track of my thought as I come back to real 

 life once more. Did you ever think of so slight a thing as 

 thought making an impress on matter as it flits aloDg ; that 

 it eau be traced, like a deer, by its footprints ? Is not the 

 writing of man the track of his tbeught and the mould of his 

 mind? How can we doubt the ability of a person who, with 

 a little better perception than we enjoy looks back to our 

 earlier lives and calls up those footprints of mind from all the 

 parts of matter which have received and retained them? How 

 can we doubt his ability to tell our lives and actions as if they 

 were before him in pictures? Not to see and know in such a 

 case would be a greater wonder than to see. 



The duty on iron having been increased by a late net of 

 Congress, or rather the ad valorem duty has been superseded 

 by a specific one which is so large that but little English iron 

 will be imported. As far as this locality is concerned the 

 change is very desirable. They, the residents, will reap the 

 benefits lost by the agricultural and con ist. This 



consideration and conviction that, "Whatever is, is light" 

 will compose my nerves. Here they are peculiarly interested 

 in the development of home manufactures, and invest their 

 all in the enterprise. They do it with a will, too, for in the 

 two articles of home production which we furnish to them- 

 selves and others, we consider Marquette unrivalled; They 

 challenge any other place on the continent to compete with 

 them in the amount and toughness of the iron, and the news 

 which are here produced. In the latter article the manufac- 

 turers followed their predecessors in the iron business ; they, 

 the latter, sought to make the toughest iron as being the most 

 desirable : but the succeeding manufacturers have failed some- 

 what in combining those two qualitiesin the new(s) material. 

 They find that, though toughness in iron is an index of dura- 

 hilily, in news, the principle only applies where there is a 



large margin. They endeavor, however, to make up in 

 quantity what is lacking in quality. 



Now we turn to some of the news which, like the Con- 

 naughtman's brogue, has " never been made but brought in 

 the open market." 



While I was frozen up one night the mercury fell to thirty 

 degrees below zero, and the following night dropped three 

 degrees lower. At the mines, where the temperature is usually 

 eight or ten degrees lower than here, we suppose the mercury 

 to have frozen ; but unfortunately no one there observed the 

 thermometer. 



We had about five feet of snow on a level ; then we had a 

 fall of two feet more. Nest came two days' thaw, which re- 

 duced the depth a little, and then another snow storm, which 

 gave as an additional twenty-six inches. Every one who can 

 purchase, wears snow shoes ; even merchants wear them on 

 the streets in going to and from their business, as the wind 

 fills up the track so quickly that the paths are seldom less than 

 ankle deep. Where they 3hovel the snow off the walk, and 

 tramp it down, the piles of snow are in some cases as high as 

 the eaves of the houses, so that from the windows the streets 

 are completely shut out. On the roads the snow is so deep 

 that when teams meet it is frequently necessary to unhitch 

 and separate the horses of one team, unload the sleigh and lift 

 it out to one side, then shovel away a place to lead the horses 

 into, off the road, and thus allow the other to pass by. Almost 

 every team carries one or two shovels for this purpose. To 

 turn out and give part of the road is dangerous, for the horses 

 flounder and fall in the snow, almost invariably so injuring or 

 straining themselves, that it is necessary in a day or two to shoot 

 them. It is too costly here to keep a horse that is ill, hay 

 now being eighty dollars a ton, and scarce at that, as it is 

 all brought from the Lower Peninsula. At Portage, hay 

 is said to be even higher than here, commanding one 

 hundred dollars per ton. No less than nine valuable horses 

 have heen lost in this vicinity up to date. In addition to this 

 catalogue of accidents, three persons have been frozen to 

 death, while five more were so badly frost-bitten that death 

 supervened in a few days thereafter. Such a mortality in a 

 population of three thousand speaks of cold. The bay has 

 thrice been frozen over, aud twice divested of its covering by 

 the wind. During the stay of the ieo each time, and as I now 

 write, the bay is dotted with merry parties of citizens, young 

 and old, of both sexes, who are delighted with the opportunity 

 to use their skates, oft times to Ihe detriment of their already 

 bruised craniums, resulting- from (be action of a much neglet ted 

 law laid down by NewtOn; and 1 might add, Willi the addition 

 of numerous stellular systems presumably unknown to that 

 philosopher. The attraction of glaring ice for the human 

 occiput has been much enhanced by the invention of skates. 

 I have been making observations, and intended issuing a 

 volume on this interesting exercise ; but I have given it up, 

 that is as far as the public is concerned. Since that desire 

 took possession of my mind I have been down to a louely spot 

 near the docks, and investigated not only the subject, but all 

 its literature. I found many volumes had already been issued, 

 but the subject will bear many more, to none of which could 

 1 1 . Whenever a man's noddle— in accordance with 

 the law before observed— is gently caressed by the congealed 

 slipperosity with which he is trying to come to an understand- 

 ing, he forthwith gathers his wits— if any remain— and his 

 limbs, and proceeds to issue a new volume, "Imp. 4to." I 

 might transcribe, but that in writing and printing such 

 things it is customary to use so many dashes between the first 

 and last letters of words, lam constrained merely to say it 

 was all d— ash. Truth requires that I should add that there 

 was frequently a good deal more than "dash" in the expres- 

 sion. I am also pleased in being able to subjoin this evidence 

 of the candor of the people. Whenever they spoke thus they 

 seemed to be most unmistakably in earnest. "In emphatic 

 language they spoke their feelings." There is an ice-boat on 

 the bay also, and last week we enjoyed some pleasant and ex- 

 citing sailing. 



Money matters are much tighter here than when I last 

 wrote. As it is impossible to obtain exchange, debtors have 

 been obliged to send currency to meet their obligations, hence 

 money has become scarce. This scarcity will increase till the 

 opening of navigation, when an improvement is anticipated, 

 even if civil war should overtake us. All drafts being refused, 

 able as well as speculative operaters are unable to give more 



than promises to pay. This state of things has realized the 

 idea of certain politicians — the draft of Lazarus being as good 

 as that of Dives. Viewing the case in this light has led a great 

 many to turn it to account, and, accordingly, the banker lias 

 been supplanted by the saloon-keeper. The latter is now 

 dally and hourly drawing draughts which should be at a 

 premium, as they are drawn at siglit&nd cashed on presentation, 

 irrespective of indorsers. What a ghsrious approximation to 

 the millennium. We surely live in '' those latter days!" Who- 

 ever before could write that drafts were cashed at sight ! One 

 great reason of this cash advancement is owing to a principle 

 inaugurated by the members of the bar and brokers of exclum-rje, 

 viz.: that in all measurements, solid, liquid, concentrated, 

 etc., they would adopt as a universal unit the dollar. Now 

 all things come to this for a test of merit, as worshipers to 

 the shrine of Mahoniet or Confucius. Notwithstanding all 

 these advantages, the citizens of Marquette are now anxiously 

 looking for spring with a feeling akin to that of our juvenile 

 dread of a school examination — we wished it past, but did not 

 want it to come. If it must come, however, we want it to 

 come more quickly than of late, and not be forever "coming 

 to come," like Punch's mother. 



I have visited each of the churches, and am pleased with 

 the apparent earnestness of the people who attend. Most of 

 them seem to go for the sake of individual benefit, and not for 

 example, as I have heard many people assert as their reason 

 for such attendance. Such examples are of questionable 

 utility, for, though there are instances of attendance at church 

 they are likewise examples of deception. Were I a el 

 man, I would invite such standing examples of sanctimonious 

 hypocrisy to stay away. The church which needs such ques- 

 tionable assistance must be poorly off indeed. 



Within the last month a reduction has been made in the 

 force employed in the railway shops and foundry, amounting 

 to one hah'. The greatest want here next summer will be 

 facilities for shipping ore, there being yet such a quantity of 

 grain in Chicago and the West that all the vessels of the lakes 

 will be employed, and consequently ore will have to pay a 

 higher freight, and even then will not all be slu'pped. The three 

 mines employ at present upwards of two hundred miners, be- 

 sides a number of teamsters, laborers, etc. The smelting in- 

 terest is on the increase. Two new furnaces are expected to 

 open in the spring, also two new saw mills. There are already 

 four mills in the settlement. 



I do not think the people here have felt the hard times as 

 much as those of the Lower reninstila, and if the political 

 difficulties are solved by the time of the opening of navi- 

 gation they may escape the panic uninjured. Even shoidd the 

 troubles continue, the people of the Upper Peninsula will not 

 feel the effects so severely as their brethren of Southern 

 Michigan, as the increased duty on iron must give them an 



During the winter many fishing excursions to the 'small 

 lakes in the mountains, and those between here and Bay de 

 Noguel, have been made by parties of gentlemen who, for 

 pleasure aud health, club together and go out for a week, ten 

 days, or more, at a time. They go to the lakes on snow shoes, 

 accompanied by dog trains, and camp out ; sometimes in the 

 snow sometimes, in deserted camps. I have already partici- 

 pated in one such excursion, and the, to me, new experience of 

 snow-shoeing I found to be but a few degrees apart from the 

 miseries of an introduction into the art of skating. If, with 

 my present experience, I were forced to do one of three 

 things, viz.: to learn to skate, flounder through the mysteries 

 of snow-shoeing, or break a vicious colt to the saddle, my 

 candid opinion is, that I would wrestle with the latter as the 

 least of the three pleasurable (?) evils. This Indian way of 

 rusticating, however, is found to be very healthful and in- 

 vigorating. The fish caught are speckled trout, which are 

 captured through holes in the ice. Did you ever hear of a pole 

 being used in such cases ? Well, it is done here to consider- 

 able extent, and I assure you demands no little skill to manip- 

 ulate successfully. Although the trout were abundant, I am 

 told they are not as abundaut as in former years ; but the 

 reason is unknown . 



The general health has not been as good this winter as ia 

 former years, owing to the prevalence o! diptheria. which 

 made its first appearance in the Upper Lake Region last 

 autumn. During the whole winter this fell disease has con- 

 tinued to occur sporadically, as also has erysipelas, and fee. 



