of the river through the branches of the trees.  The river is here very clear and swift, with a hard bottom; and if it were unadorned with its cheerful foliage-covered banks, the view of it would still add a charm to a residence.  There is a mild tranquillity, blended with the romance of the scene, admirably calculated to raise in the mind emotions the most agreeable and serene.  For nature is a great instructor and purifier.  As Talfourd says in that charming little volume of Vacation Rambles, “to commune with nature and grow familiar with all her aspects, surely softens the manners as much, at the least, as the study of the liberal arts.”

St. Cloud is favorably located on the west bank of the river, seventy-five miles above St. Paul.  It is just enough elevated to have good drainage facilities, should it become densely populous.  For many years it was the seat of a trading post among the Winnebagoes.  But the date of its start as a town is not more than six months ago; since when it has been advancing with unsurpassed thrift, on a scale of affluence and durability.  Its main street is surely a street in other respects than in the name; for it has on either side several neatly built three-story blocks of stores, around which the gathering of teams and of people denotes such an activity of business as to dispel any idea that the place is got up under false pretences.  The St. Cloud advertisements in the St. Paul daily papers contain the cards of about forty different firms or individuals, which is a sort of index to the business of the place.  A printing press is already in the town, and a paper will in a few days be issued.  There are now two hotels; one of which (the Stearns House), it is said, cost $9000.  A flourishing saw-mill was destroyed by fire, and in a few weeks another one was built in its place.  An Episcopal church is being erected.  The steamer “H.  M. Rice” runs between here and St. Anthony.  It is sometimes said that this is the head of the Upper Mississippi navigation, but such is not the case.  The Sauk Rapids which terminate here are an obstruction to continuous navigation between St. Anthony and Crow Wing, but after you get to the latter place (where the river is twenty feet deep) there is good navigation for two hundred miles.  There are several roads laid out to intersect at St. Cloud, for the construction of which, I believe, the government has made some appropriation.  Town lots are sold on reasonable terms to those who intend to make improvements on them, which is the true policy for any town, but the general market price ranges from $100 to $1000 a lot.  The town is not in the hands of capitalists, though moneyed men are interested in it.  General Lowry is a large proprietor.  He lives at Arcadia, just above the town limits, and has a farm consisting of three hundred acres of the most splendid land, which is well stocked with cattle and durably fenced.  A better barn, or a neater farmyard than he has, cannot be found between Boston and Worcester.  And while speaking of barns I would observe that the old New England custom of having good barns is better observed in Minnesota than anywhere else in the West.  General Lowry has been engaged in mercantile business.  He was formerly a member of the territorial council, and is a very useful and valuable citizen of the territory.