A CELEBRATED geographer of the first century wrote, "Germany is indeed
habitable, but is uninhabited on account of the cold." I am not so
certain, but some people have a similar idea of the upper portion of
Minnesota. If there are any, however, thus distrustful of its climate,
they probably live out of the territory. I have no means of knowing
what the climate is here in winter, except from hearsay and general
principles. It seems to be an approved theory, that the farther we
approach the west in a northern latitude the milder becomes the
winter. The stage-drivers tell me that the snow does not fall to such
a depth as in the northern part of New England; that the weather is
tolerably uniform; and that the roads are at all times kept open and
much travelled. After all, it is a great way before we come to the
home of the Esquimaux, and the desert of ice where Sir John Franklin
perished.
I will here subjoin the following extract from a letter addressed to
Gov. Stephens by the Hon. Henry M. Rice, the able delegate from
Minnesota. It is dated 3d June, 1854:
"Navigation of the Mississippi River closes from the 10th to the 25th
of November, and opens from the 1st to the 10th of April. That of the
Red River of the North closes from the 1st to 16th November, and opens
from 10th to 25th April. I have often travelled in the winter from St.
Paul to Crow Wing, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, with a
single horse and sled, without a track, and have never found the snow
deep enough to impede my progress.
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