12 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
1885-86, the shipments from November 1st to December 15th alone exceeding 
13,000 pounds. 
Almost equal to the exciting pleasures of the chase is that of shooting the 
Brule river rapids in a canoe. Accompanied by an experienced guide, the 
visitor performs this feat without danger ; let him attempt it alone, and he is 
sure of a ducking. For the angler and sportsman, the Brule possesses an addi¬ 
tional attraction in the fact, that, while most excellent accommodations are to be 
had at the railroad crossing, including boats, fishing tackle and guides, there is 
no settlement of any kind within a considerable distance. 
The line from Duluth to Brainerd follows, for many miles, the winding valley 
of the St. Louis river, through scenery for the most part stern and wild, yet not 
without &n occasional suggestion of the gentler beauty of the far-off You- 
ghiogheny. Between Fond du Lac and Thompson the river has a descent of 
500 feet in a distance of twelve miles, tearing its way with terrific force through 
a tortuous, rock-bound channel. The best point for observing the fine effect 
of these impetuous rapids and cascades, known locally as the Dalles of the 
St. Louis, is near the twentieth mile post westward from Duluth. 
Pursuing its way in the direction of Brainerd, the train traverses a country 
comparatively little known. Its scanty population is engaged almost entirely 
in logging, lumber manufacturing, and hunting, the immense forest covering 
the face of the country abounding with deer, bear, wolves, foxes and other 
game. 
Emerging from the deep recesses of the forest, and passing swiftly through 
the lake region already referred to, we find ourselves in a level prairie country, 
and can dimly descry, in the far distance, the thin, dark line which another hour’s 
ride will show to be the narrow fringe of timber that marks the course of 
the famous Red River of the North, that true Arimaspes, with whose golden 
sands thousands and tens of thousands have been made-rich. 
This, then, is the renowned Red River valley, the story of whose amazing 
fertility has attracted, from older States and still older countries, one hundred 
and fifty thousand people. The greatest influx has taken place since 1880, the 
increase in population between the census of that year and that in the spring of 
1885 being 38,719 on the Minnesota side of the river, and 54,918 on the Dakota 
side. 
Although there are vast tracts of land still uncultivated, the general appear¬ 
ance of the valley is that of a well-settled agricultural country. But this will 
occasion no surprise to those who remember that its annual wheat crop has 
now reached 25,000,000 bushels, and its crop of other cereals 15,000,000 bushels. 
Not a little surprise, however, is occasioned by the discovery that the 
“valley” of which the traveler has heard so much is not a valley at all, but a 
great plain, whose slope toward the river is so slight as to be wholly imper¬ 
ceptible. 
Where the railroad crosses the river, have sprung up the cities of Moorhead 
and Fargo, the former in Minnesota, the latter in Dakota. With such advan- 
