mountains and sand valleys, on the surface of which were scattered the debris of dead trees, scattered logs white with age, and boughs half buried beneath the sand.  Grand Haven itself is but a poor place, not having succeeded in catching much of the commerce which comes across the lake from Wisconsin, and which takes itself on Eastward by the railway.  Altogether, it is a dreary place, such as might break a man’s heart should he find that inexorable fate required him there to pitch his tent.

On my return I went down into the bar-room of the steamer, put my feet upon the counter, lit my cigar, and struck into the debate then proceeding on the subject of the war.  I was getting West, and General Fremont was the hero of the hour.  “He’s a frontier man, and that’s what we want.  I guess he’ll about go through.  Yes, sir.”  “As for relieving General Fre-mont,” (with the accent always strongly on the “mont,”) “I guess you may as well talk of relieving the whole West.  They won’t meddle with Fre-mont.  They are beginning to know in Washington what stuff he’s made of.”  “Why, sir, there are 50,000 men in these States who will follow Fre-mont, who would not stir a foot after any other man.”  From which, and the like of it in many other places, I began to understand how difficult was the task which the statesmen in Washington had in hand.

I received no pecuniary advantage whatever from that law as to the steamboat meals which my new friend had revealed to me.  For my one supper of course I paid, looking forward to any amount of subsequent gratuitous provisions.  But in the course of the night the ship sailed, and we found ourselves at Milwaukee in time for breakfast on the following morning.

Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, containing 45,000 inhabitants.  How many of my readers can boast that they know anything of Milwaukee, or even have heard of it?  To me its name was unknown until I saw it on huge railway placards stuck up in the smoking-rooms and lounging halls of all American hotels.  It is the big town of Wisconsin, whereas Madison is the capital.  It stands immediately on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is very pleasant.  Why it should be so, and why Detroit should be the contrary, I can hardly tell; only I think that the same verdict would be given by any English tourist.  It must be always borne in mind that 10,000 or 40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and especially in any new Western town, is a number which means much more than would be implied by any similar number as to an old town in Europe.  Such a population in America consumes double the amount of beef which it would in England, wears double the amount of clothes, and demands double as much of the comforts of life.  If a census could be taken of the watches, it would be found, I take it, that the American population possessed among them nearly double as many as would the English; and I fear also that it would be found that many more of the Americans