Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/327

Rh The grotto is reached by an abrupt and deep descent, resembling a gigantic pit; within this one finds oneself surrounded by lofty walls of sandstone, one of which expands itself into a gigantic portal, and all beyond is dark. The whole circle of the inclosing walls is perforated with innumerable small round holes, in which small birds have their nests.

To reach the grotto we passed through extensive meadows lying along the Mississippi. The grass stood tall and yellow. The air was as warm as a summer's day. It was the Indian summer. The meadows looked most pleasant, most fertile and inviting. We met a milkmaid also coming with her milkpails; she was handsome, but had artificial curls, and did not look like a regular milkmaid, not as a true milkmaid in a pastoral ought to look.

But this Minnesota is a glorious country, and just the country for Northern emigrants; just the country for a new Scandinavia. It is four times as large as England; its soil is of the richest description, with extensive wooded tracts; great numbers of rivers and lakes abounding in fish, and a healthy, invigorating climate. The winters are cold and clear; the summers not so hot as in those states lying lower on the Mississippi. The frosts seldom commence before the middle of September.

Lake Itaski, the cradle of the Mississippi, lies one thousand five hundred and seventy-five feet above the Mexican gulf; and the highland district which surrounds Itaska in a half-circle on the north, that gigantic terrace, Hauteur des terres, where the springs of those mighty rivers, the Mississippi, St. Louis, St. Lawrence, the Red River, and many others have their source, lies still two hundred feet higher. The whole of Minnesota is hilly. Minnesota is bounded on the east by Lake Superior (the Mediterranean sea of America), and is brought by this into connection with the Eastern States, with St. Lawrence, and the Hudson, and the Atlantic Ocean. It has