The resources of that part of the territory bordering on the lake, however, are sufficient to induce an extensive, if not a rapid, settlement of the country.  The copper mines afford occupation for thousands of people now.  I have known a young man to clear $40 a month in getting out the ore.  But the labor is hard.  Somewhere near Fond-du-Lac is destined to be a great commercial city.  Whether it will be at Superior, which has now got the start of all other places, or whether it will be at some point within this territory, is more than can be known at present.  But a great town there is to be, sooner or later; and for this reason, that the distance from Buffalo to Fond-du-Lac by navigation is about the same as from Buffalo to Chicago, affording, therefore, as good facilities for water transportation of merchandise between Fond-du-Lac and the East, as between Chicago and the East.  Moreover, the development of this new agricultural world will tend to that result.  A railroad will then run from that point directly west, crossing the upper Mississippi as also the Red River of the North at the head of its navigation, which is at the mouth of the Sioux Wood River.

During the last summer, congress established two new land districts in the upper part of the territory, called the north-eastern and the north-western.  The former includes the country lying on Lake Superior, and its land office has been located at Buchanan, a new place just started on the shore of the lake.  The land office for the north-western district has been located at Ojibeway, a town site situated sixty miles above here, on the Mississippi, near the mouth of Muddy River.  This district includes the head waters of the Mississippi, and extends west as far as the Red River of the North.  The surveyors have been engaged in either district only a few weeks.  I don’t expect there will be any land offered for sale in either district till spring.  While on the subject of land offices, let me observe that the appointments in them are among the most lucrative under the patronage of the general government.  There is a register and receiver for each office.  They have, each, $500 per annum and fees; the whole not to exceed $3000.  Aside from the official fees, they get much more for private services.  They have more or less evidence to reduce to writing in nearly every preemption case, for which the general land office permits them to receive private compensation.  It is rather necessary that the local land officers should be lawyers, as they have frequent occasion to decide on litigated land claims.

Many explorations have been made of the region around the head waters of the Mississippi, the reports of which have conveyed to the world attractive information of the country, but information which only approximated to accuracy.  In 1806, Lieut.  Pike explored the river as far as Turtle Lake, and returned, thinking, good easy man, full surely he had discovered the real source of the river, and yet the source of the river