member of the Hudson Bay Company, who had travelled a great deal over
this continent, said he found it best to carry his baggage in a small
hand-valise, or in a very large trunk so heavy that it required two men
to move it; anything between the two was invariably smashed.




CHAPTER III.

The Mississippi--The Rapids--Aerial Railway Bridges--Breakfast at
Braynor--Lynch Law--Card-sharpers--Crowding in the Cars--Woman's
Rights!--The Prairie--"A Sea of Fire"--Crookstown--Fisher's
Landing--Strange Quarters--"The Express-man's Bed"--Herding like
Sheep--On board the _Minnesota_.


After leaving Duluth at four o'clock on Tuesday morning by rail, the
country through which we passed was very beautiful. Lake succeeded lake,
then came wooded hills and tiny mountain streams, crossed by high
bridges. These bridges were without parapets, and so narrow that, looking
out of the window of the car, one saw a deep gorge sixty or seventy feet
below. One railway bridge across the Mississippi--a narrow enough stream
there, at least to eyes accustomed to the broad St. Lawrence--was more
than seventy feet high, and so unsafe that trains were allowed only to
creep slowly across it. The rapids on the St. Louis River, along the
banks of which the Northern Pacific runs, are magnificent. For some miles
the high banks occasionally almost shut out the view; then, as the train
winds round a sharp curve, a mountain torrent of foaming water bursts
upon the gaze. Rocks tower above it, with great trees bending from their