THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
9 
Puget Sound ! While holding in honorable remembrance the names of Watt 
and Stephenson, surely posterity ought not altogether to forget those of the 
inventors of the sleeping car and dining car ; for the railway train of early 
days was hardly a greater advance upon the old stage-coach than is the com¬ 
pletely equipped train of to-day over its predecessor of even twenty-five 
years ago. 
The journey from St. Paul to Puget Sound may be said to fall into eight 
geographical divisions, with well-marked natural boundaries, and corresponding 
in the main to the divisions into which the line has been formed for oper¬ 
ating purposes. The first extends to the Red River of the North, a distance 
of 275 miles, lying wholly in the State of Minnesota. 
The great attractions of this State are its pine forests, covering nearly one- 
half of its entire area, and its numerous beautiful lakes. Of the latter, there 
are no fewer than 215 within twenty-five miles of St. Paul,-and they extend 
right through the central part of the State, on both sides of the railroad, to 
the prairie region bordering upon the Red River. Many of them are of 
exceeding beauty, especially in the district known as the 
LAKE PARK REGION, 
a richly diversified section of country, presenting the most charming scenery. 
Among the most famous, are Lake Minnewaska, on the Little Falls and 
Dakota division of the road, fifty-nine miles from its junction with the main 
line ; Clitherall and Battle Lakes, on the Fergus Falls and Black Hills branch ; 
and Detroit Lake, on the direct line to the West, 230 miles from St. Paul. All 
these have fine pebbly beaches, lined with beautiful borders of timber, and 
their accommodations for all classes of visitors—anglers, sportsmen and 
families—are exceptionally good. 
Like all the waters of Minnesota, they teem with fine, gamey fish of many 
varieties. The accomplished editor of the American Angler , writing in his 
well-known journal, after a visit to the Northwest in the summer of 1885, 
stated, that, during a life of nearly a quarter of a century as an angler, no experi¬ 
ence with a rod had equaled in variety and weight the two days’ fishing he had 
had on Detroit Lake. Nor was Mr. Harris’ success exceptional. A score of 
one hundred pounds per day on two rods, is, as he goes on to state, considered 
quite a modest record. 
For what is locally regarded as a good catch, we must turn to that of the 
three gentlemen who, on the afternoon of June 1st, 1885, brought in, as the 
result of less than three days’ work, 603 pike, 138 black bass, 178 rock bass, 28 
cat-fish and 25 pickerel; the entire catch weighing 2,321 pounds. This “fish 
story ” is well authenticated. Eastern anglers can have no conception how full 
of fine fish, of many varieties, these Minnesota lakes are. For black and rock 
bass, mascalonge, pickerel, wall-eyed pike, and an infinite variety of smaller 
fish, a recent writer in the American Angler pronounces Detroit Lake the finest 
