This visit to the Midway Plaisance established the fact, that the
theories--admitted by the study of geography--could not be brought into
consideration. How should space and time be in existence when a few steps
sufficed to convey us from the land of perpetual snow to the zone of
exotic plants and tropical fruit!

"Who can all the tribes and nations name
That to Plaisance from every climate came?"

The Chinese and Turk, German and Cingalese, Esquimaux and Javanese,
Irishman and Polynesian, Bedouin and Laplander, Austrian and Soudanese,
Syrian, Nubian, and Japanese--all had a temporary home within the limits
of a tract of land covering eighty acres.

The sinking sun which crimsoned the structures of the Midway Plaisance,
exhorted us to abandon this place of international _rendez-vous_--and to
return on board the "Marguerite;" since she was to convey us back to the
Chicago Harbor.

Gliding along on the crystalline lake,

"We breathed the airs, not ruffling its face.
Until we came to a quiet place."

The latter we chose for our nightly abode; again casting anchor in the
so-called Basin near the Chicago Breakwater.

The approaching night fully deserved its title--the season of silence and
repose. The atmosphere was unusually mild. In the eastern portion of the
sky the light of _Luna_ grew brighter and brighter. Her large, white