110 THE FAiLS. 



There is tlie waterfall^ but no enclosing mountain — ^no dasMng 

 along over rocky bed before the final leap, and but a very tame 

 gorge below. The face of the country is generally monoto- 

 nous, — ^hundreds of miles of bare prairie, breaking down at its 

 edges into natural troughs for the water. The traveller over 

 the prairie comes upon the great river suddenly ; and sees, per- 

 haps a hundred feet below him, the vast stream flowing along 

 the hollow trough which it has worn for itself in the course of 

 ages. 



A few miles farther brought us to St. Anthony, where the 

 Mississippi makes a leap over the rocks of some twenty or 

 thirty feet. The river was low ; and as we were then nearly 

 the whole length of Europe from its mouth, we did not expect 

 too much. Moreover, both sides of it belong to Jonathan, and 

 he is a deal too sharp to throw away so good a mill power. 

 On each side, then, the main body of the water is caught, and 

 turned to the servile purpose of sawing lumber. The surplus 

 water is left to run off in the centre, where it forms a little 

 green imitation of the Great Horse Shoe Fall of Niagara. We 

 literally "hunted" this waterfall, for we were a good hour 

 jumping across the floating logs, and along the various dam 

 faces, before we reached the best point of view. The young 

 American lumbermen employed here are fine stalwart men, ex- 

 tremely expert in the use of the axe, by which they earn sev- 

 eral dollars a-day at piecework. 



"We returned by the other side of the river, which is crossed 

 hj a suspension bridge above the Falls. This brought us to 

 the new city of St. Anthony and its vast hotel, now seemingly 

 empty, then past a college which has recently been built for 

 higher class education. 



The eighteenth part of all the public lands in Minnesota 

 is set apart for the support of schools ; 46,000 acres more are 

 appropriated for a State university ; 6400 acres for the erection 



