Minnesota and Dacotah | Page 7

is a tremendous rush for the boats in
order to secure state-rooms. Agents of different boats approach the
traveller, informing him all about their line of boats, and depreciating

the opposition boats. For instance, an agent, or, if you please, a runner
of a boat called Lucy-- not Long-- made the assertion on the levee with
great zeal and perfect impunity that no other boat but the said Lucy
would leave for St. Paul within twenty-four hours; when it must have
been known to him that another boat on the mail line would start that
same evening, as was actually the fact. But the activity of the runners
was needless; for each boat had more passengers than it could well
accommodate. I myself went aboard the " Lady Franklin," one of the
mail boats, and was accommodated with a state-room. But what a scene
is witnessed for the first two hours after the passengers begin to come
aboard! The cabin is almost filled, and a dense crowd surrounds the
clerk's office, just as the ticket office of a theatre is crowded on a
benefit night. Of course not more than half can get state-rooms and the
rest must sleep on the cabin floor. Over two hundred cabin passengers
came up on the Lady Franklin. The beds which are made on the floor
are tolerably comfortable, as each boat is supplied with an extra
number of single mattresses. The Lady Franklin is an old boat, and this
is said to be its last season.1 Two years ago it was one of the excursion
fleet to St. Paul, and was then in its prime. But steamboats are short
lived. We had three tables set, and those who couldn't get a seat at the
first or second sat at the third. There was a choice you may believe, for
such was the havoc made with the provisions at the first table that the
second and third were not the most inviting. It was amusing to see
gentlemen seat themselves in range of the plates as soon as they were
laid, and an hour before the table was ready. But the officers were
polite-- as is generally the case on steamboats till you get down to the
second mate-- and in the course of a day or two, when the passengers
begin to be acquainted, the time wears away pleasantly. We were
nearly four days in making the trip. The line of boats of which the Lady
Franklin is one, carries the mail at fifty dollars a trip. During the
boating season I believe the fare varies from seven to ten dollars to St.
Paul.2 This season there have been two lines of boats running to
Minnesota. All of them have made money fast; and next season many
more boats will run. The "Northern Belle" is the best boat this season,
and usually makes the trip up in two days. The advertised time is thirty
hours.

[1 Three weeks after this trip the Lady Franklin was snagged, and
became a total toss.]
[2 The following is a table of distances from Galena to St. Paul:
Dubuque,
24
Dunleith,
1
25
Potosi Landing,
14
39
Waupaton,
10
49
Buena Vista,
5
54
Cassville,
4
58
Guttenberg,

10
68
Clayton,
12
80
Wyalusing,
5
85
McGregor's,
6
91
Prairie du Chien,
4
95
Red House,
5
100
Johnson's Landing,
2
102

Lafayette,
30
132
Columbus,
2
134
Lansing,
1
135
De Soto,
6
141
Victory,
10
151
Badaxe City,
10
161
Warner's Landing,
6

167
Brownsville,
10
177
La Crosse,
12
189
Dacotah,
12
201
Richmond,
6
207
Monteville,
5
212
Homer,
10
222
Winona,

7
229
Fountain City,
12
241
Mount Vernon,
14
255
Minneiska,
4
259
Alma,
15
274
Wabashaw,
10
284
Nelson's Landing,
3
287

Reed's Landing,
2
289
Foot of Lake Pepin,
2
291
North Pepin,
6
297
Johnstown,
2
299
Lake City,
5
304
Central Point,
2
306
Florence,
3

309
Maiden Rock,
3
312
Westerville,
3
315
Wacouta,
12
327
Red Wing,
6
333
Thing's Landing,
7
340
Diamond bluff,
8
348
Prescott,

13
361
Point Douglass,
1
362
Hastings,
3
365
Grey Cloud,
12
377
Pine Bend,
4
381
Red Rock,
8
389
Kaposia,
3
392

St. Paul,
5
397
]
The scenery on the upper Mississippi is reputed to be beautiful. So it is.
Yet all river scenery is generally monotonous. One gets tired of looking
at high rocky ridges quite as quickly as at more tame and tranquil
scenery. The bluffs on either side of the Mississippi, for most of the
way between Dunleith and St. Anthony's Falls, constitute some of the
most beautiful river scenery in the world. It is seldom that they rise
over two hundred feet from the water level, and their height is quite
uniform, so that from a distant point of view