Page 95 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

REPORT ON TIIE PICTURE QALLERY. 9 1
day before, and it became pretty certain there would be another
storm. Groping our way, and occasionally jolting over the
fallen trees, we, at the end of an hour and a half, got to the
shore of the Third Lake, having somehow or other missed the
Second Lake, where Madison City was supposed to be. We
now changed our course again, and kacping to the north-west,
and meandering, and wondering, and shouting for my companion,
who had got out of the wagon to follow a stliall trail he thought
he had discovered, I at length gave up the attempt to proceed
any further, and, selecting a dry tree as a proper place to
bivouac near, had already stopped tlie wagon, when, hearing my
companion's voice shouting for me in a tone that augured some-
thing new to be in the wind, I pushcd on in that direction and
at length found him standing at the door of a hastily-patched-up
log hut, consisting of one room about twelve feet square.
This was Madison City! and, humble as it was, it concen-
trated within itself a11 the urban importance of the seven cities
we had come so far to admire, and to which, according to our
engraved plans, Ninevah of old, Thebes with its hundred gates,
and Persepolis, were but baby-houses. Not another dwelling
was there in the whole country, and this wretched contrivance
had only been put up within the last four,weeks. Having
secured our horses, we entered the grand and principal entrance
to the city, against the top of which my head got a severe
blow, it not being more than five feet high from the ground.
The room was lumbered up with barrels, boxes and all manner
of things. Amongst other things was a bustling little woman,
about as high as the door, with an astounding high cap on,
yclept Mrs. PECK. NO male PECI: was on the ground, but from
very prominent symptoms that went before her, another half-
bushel seemed to be expected.
"My first inquiry was, whether she had any fresh fish in the
house. The answer was "No!" Illflexible and unwelcome
word. No fresh fish! no large, delicious catfish, of twenty
pounds weight, to be fried with pork and placed before the vo-
racious traveler in quantities sufficient to calm those apprehen-