Litchfield enquirer., 1858-07-29
LETTERS FROM REV. DIR. CLARK

LETTERS FROM REV. DIR. CLARK. l No. l.
 l MARQUETTE, LAKE SUPERIOR. July 20, 1858.
 De0r Couram When promised to write you every week, did l stipulate when to be- gin E? Ever since I reached the Lakes I have been studying the new aspects of this new and strange region. The lakes, the lands, the peo- pie, the business, present and prospective. m- vite inquiry and have, for the assiduous ob- server, facts and philosophy to underlie them. But have as yet only commenced collecting facts. And often as l have attempted to set them up upon principles, the principles have have tottered down, leaving my premature phil osophy grievously dsordered and damaged- Something doubtless is to come of this vast mineral country before the world ends. At present its chief productions are in the shape of humbugs. But will reserve all my deliv- erance on that subject till my thoughts have had time to ripen. Mere surface sights and l facts which one gathers by the waysde are the shades rather than the lights of wisdom.
 1 Marquette is settlement at tue head of beautiful bay of that name, and has perhaps thousand inhabitants. One man told me there were three thousand here, but he saw double It is 160 miles from the Sault St. Marie, and is the port for the iron mines which are fifteen miles inland. One can hardly persuade him self that the thermometer is at 95 with you The air here is cool dry and very invigorating We are obliged to sleep under blankets at at night and linen coats and pants, so becom- ing and so cool with you, lie packed in trunks here, discarded luxury. Many people com plain of Hartford dust. believe l have some times in my folly murmurcd with the grumbng multitude. But after wading ancle deep in the vilcst kind of sand here, and coming in DOW dered from head to foot and signing for bath 1 pine for the sight of one single cloud of Hart ford dust. The walks here are planks aud the roads and canals filled with uneasy ashes.- There is one carriage understand in the place and but one An imaginative observer might easily fancy that the people are waiting till some Yankee arrives and invents for them gondoler that can be seulled through the san dy streets. A lady f'om Pittsburg has, I un- derstand, invented new style of dress for this particular place. It consists generally of long boots aud short skirts, and the shortness of the latter article is invers"ly as the length of tie former. Tue only defect in her device is the i absence of SHOW shoes under the boots Street sweeping dresses and wide circling crnolines appear upon this Sahara. Indeed, 1 saw 6 day or so since, far in the interior in the woods gliding between the tall hemocks and gracing the unconscious wilderness, crnoIine in full flower.
 Our amuSements here are uniform but somc- what varied. Next to walking in the sand is the labor of masticatirg beef Being an inval- i'd l limit myself to one walk and one slice of beef per day. The exercise obtained from these two diurna tasks must ensure ultimate vigor, if labor leads to that result. I might add that the beds are in stern contrast with the streets. Those are as hard as these are soft. We sail and ramble and fish and hope for health, while we long for home. Fishing here is altogether another thing from what it is to the High School boys who go to Simsbury or to East Windsor to coax the small trout in- to their spacious bags took a trout day be- fore yesterday that would weigh six pounds and another yesterday that was larger still It is luxury to take your supper off one of these splendid fellows which an hour before foolshly thought to sup himself on your hard and shining swivel. >The brook trout descend to the edge of the lake and fed along the shore Some of these become very large. H. c. F., Hart ford man, who is with us, went out day before yesterday and caught one of these which would weigh two pounds. We have three decided luxuries here--the air, the potatoes and the fish. Berries, when they ripen, as they prom ise to do, will add to the list. Below here rasp- berries are very abundant. A man who tries to make religion profitable for this world as as we'll as the next, employs and instrutcs hun dreds of Indians. They gather berries in their season and make them into jam and send them to the market. Last year he made and sold eleven tons of this single luxury. What a sight for Mir. Hawley's Sunday School or a children's picnic would eleven tons of rasp- berry jam be
 Tomorrow leave for Ontonagon and the copper mines. In my next will give you some account of mining, &c., in these regions My friends will ask after my health Ou that subject have very little to report. But l hope to be able to send good news bye and bye. Yours, VIC.
 THE WORKS OF DR. TAYLOR.