[Illustration: WHITE BEAR LAKE.] THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. BY CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, "CARLETON." "I now believe that the ultimate last seat of government on this great continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius not very far from the spot on which I stand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River." W. H. SEWARD, _Speech at St. Paul, 1860_. [Illustration] BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 1870. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE. TO JOHN GREGORY SMITH, _GOVERNOR OF VERMONT DURING THE REBELLION_, WHOM I FIRST SAW TENDERLY CARING FOR THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN THE HOSPITALS OF FREDERICKSBURG, AND THROUGH WHOSE ENERGY AND PERSEVERANCE ONE OF THE GREATEST ENTERPRISES OF THE PRESENT CENTURY HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY INAUGURATED, ~This Volume~ IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. FROM CHICAGO TO MINNEAPOLIS. PAGE Cutting loose from Care.--Map of the Northwest.--Leaving Chicago.--Fourth of July.--At La Crosse.--Dance on a Steamboat.--Up the Mississippi.--The Boundaries of Minnesota.--Winona.--St. Paul.--Minneapolis.--The Father of Waters in Harness 1 CHAPTER II. ST. CLOUD AND BEYOND. St. Cloud.--Our Party.--First Night in Camp.--A Midnight Thunder-Storm.--Sunday in Camp.--Up the Sauk Valley.-- White Bear Lake.--Catching a Turtle.--Lightning Lake.-- Second Sabbath in Camp.--The River Systems of the Northwest --Elevations across the Continent.--The Future 25 CHAPTER III. THE RED RIVER COUNTRY. Down the Valley of the Red River.--Breckenridge.--Fort Abercrombie.--Climate.--Winters at Winnipeg.--Burlington. --The Emigrant.--Father Genin.--Mackenzie.--Harman.--Sir John Richardson.--Captain Palliser.--Father De Smet.-- Winters on the Saskatchawan.--Snow-Fall 51 CHAPTER IV. THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHWEST. Winnipeggers.--Ride over the Prairie.--Dakota City.-- Georgetown.--Hudson Bay Company Teams.--Parting with our Friends.--The 43d Parallel.--Dakota.--Wyoming.-- Montana.--Idaho.--Oregon.--Washington.--British Columbia. --Distances.--Fisheries of the Pacific.--Mr. Seward's Speech 77 CHAPTER V. THE FRONTIER.