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Page 37
"By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness.
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him, through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing in the sunshine.
Bright above him shone the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,
Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every treetop had its shadow
Motionless beneath the water."
"Thank you, Miss," said Hugh, gallantly. "We only need a wigwam with
smoke curling from it under these trees, and a 'birch canoe with
paddles, rising, sinking on the water, dripping, flashing in the
sunshine,' to complete the picture. It's a pity the Indians ever left
this shore."
"So the settlers of Minnesota thought in '62," observed Vincent,
ironically.
"The Indians would have been all right if the white man had stayed
away," replied the Historian, hotly.
"In that case we should not be here now, and, consequently"--
What promised to be quite a warm discussion was killed in the embryo by
the captain's clear cry, "All aboard!"
Once more we were steaming westward toward the land of the Dacotahs.
That night we all sat up till after midnight to see the last of our
lake, for in the morning Duluth would be in sight. It was a night never
to be forgotten. The idle words and deeds of my companions have faded
from my mind, but never will the memory of the bright lake rippling
under that moonlit sky.
A city picturesquely situated on the side of a hill which overlooks the
lake and rises gradually toward the northwest, reaching the height of
six hundred feet a mile from the shore, with a river on one side. That
is Duluth. The city takes its name from Juan du Luth, a French officer,
who visited the region in 1679. In 1860 there were only seventy white
inhabitants in the place, and in 1869 the number had not much increased.
The selection of the village as the eastern terminus of the Northern
Pacific Railroad gave it an impetus, and now Duluth is a city of fifteen
thousand inhabitants, and rapidly growing. The harbor is a good one, and
is open about two hundred days in the year. Six regular lines of
steamers run to Chicago, Cleveland, Canadian ports, and ports on the
south shore of Lake Superior. The commerce of Duluth, situated as it is
in the vicinity of the mineral districts on both shores of the lake,
surrounded by a well-timbered country, and offering the most convenient
outlet for the products of the wheat region further west, is of growing
importance. In half a century Duluth will be outranked in wealth and
population by no more than a dozen cities in America.
Our stay at Duluth was protracted many days. One finds himself at home
in this new Western city, and there are a thousand ways in which to
amuse yourself. If you are disposed for a walk, there are any number of
delightful woodpaths leading to famous bits of beach where you may sit
and dream the livelong day without fear of interruption or notice. If
you would try camping-out, there are guides and canoes right at your
hand, and the choice of scores of beautiful and delightful spots within
easy reach of your hotel or along the shore of the lake and its numerous
beautiful islands, or as far away into the forest as you care to
penetrate. Lastly, if piscatorially inclined, here is a boathouse with
every kind of boat from the steam-yacht down to the birch canoe, and
there is the lake, full of "lakers," sturgeon, whitefish, and speckled
trout, some of the latter weighing from thirty to forty pounds
apiece,--a condition of things alike satisfactory and tempting to every
owner of a rod and line.
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