Ed before the sun, till
the glassy water and the languid woods basked breathless in the sultry glare. On the 17th of June, they saw on their right the broad meadows, bounded in the distance
by rugged hills, where
now stand the town and fort of Prairie du Chien. Before them, a wide and rapid current
coursed athwart their way,
by the foot of lofty heights wrapped thick in forests. They had found what they sought, and "with a joy,"

writes Marquette, "which I cannot express," they steered forth their canoes on the eddies of the Mississippi. Turning southward, they paddled down the stream, through a solitude unrelieved by the faintest trace of man. A large fish, apparently one of the huge cat-fish of the Mississippi, blundered against Marquette's canoe with a force which seems to have startled him; and once, as they drew in their net, they caught a "spade-fish," whose
eccentric appearance greatly astonished them. At length, the buffalo began
to appe ar, grazing in herds on the great prairies which then bordered the river; and Marquette describes the fierce and stupid look of the old bulls,
as they stared at the intruders through the tangled mane which nearly blinded them. * * * * * =_John Gilmary Shea,[44] 1824-. _= From "The

History
of Catholic Missions among the Indians." =_147._= DIFFICULTIES OF THE ENT