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,