But you had rather go West, among the mines? What mines can you find, more
interesting than the great copper-mines of Calumet and Hecla and
Quincy?--the only place in the United States, indeed, where you can see
the curious man-engine, with its arrangement of changing-platforms for
carrying the miners up and down.

Well, you meant to go "canoeing." Some very choice canoeing and shooting
of rapids you can have during the hours at the Sault Ste. Marie, popularly
known as the "Soo," and during the two days that the steamer waits at
Duluth before the return-trip Lake Superior will prove not an unattractive
spot to paddle about in.

Add to this the interest of the magnificent new locks at the "Soo," the
historical and romantic associations with Marquette and Mackinac (for you
will not forget that Miss Woolson's "Anne" lived on the Great Lakes), and
the creature comforts of big state-rooms, with large, comfortable beds,
and running water in the basins, on admirable steamers that set an
excellent hotel-table, and you will wonder, as we did, that so few
tourists seem to know about, or care for, one of the most enjoyable
excursions in the country,--I am quite sure I can say the most enjoyable
for the little money it costs.

We took it ourselves quite by accident,--willing to go out of our way a
little on the journey to Colorado in the heat of summer for the sake of a
little trip by water to compensate for the sea-shore cottage we were
leaving behind us for the season. We did not, indeed, begin the trip, as
the steamers do, at Buffalo; for, although time and tide wait for no man
at the East, at the West there are no tides, and time was willing to make
an appointment for us to overtake the steamer at Detroit. We were glad of
an excuse for lingering at the House Beautiful in Buffalo, where we would