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distant future that awaits it and the fortunate people who are
to become the possessors and dwellers in this goodly land.
  The pine lands of Marathon and adjoining counties are im-
mense in extent, and furnish the best pine lumber that the coun-
try affords. Even the excellent and widely famed Saginaw pine
is in no wise superior, and, I think, does not average as good as
this in quality. Whole fleets of from 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 feet
of lumber from the Upper Wisconsin have been run to St. Louis
that have averaged as high as forty-eight per cent. of the upper
and best grades, and it is not at all uncommon for entire fleets
from this pinery to average thirty-five per cent. clear lumber.
The Upper Wisconsin pine leads the market 'on the Mississippi,
as there is no better found in the world. There are twenty-five
saw mills in Marathon county for the manufacture of pine lum-
ber, having an average sawing capacity of over 1,000,000 feet
daily. There is each year about 100,000,000 feet manufactured
in this county, that seeks its market at various points along the
Mississippi below the mouth of the Wisconsin. Besidesthe
amount manufactured here, a large proportion of the logs man-
ufactured below, at Stevens Point, Conaut's, Whitney's, Biron's,
Grand Rapids, and other points on the upper river, are cut in
Marathon county. The lumber product of the Upper Wisconsin
and its tributaries is about 200,000,000 feet per annum, of which
Marathon county furnishes the raw material for full three-fourths.
With railroad facilities added to the river transportation, this
amount would be doubled, and perhaps quadrupled, in a very
short time.
   The water power in this county is almost unlimited in extent.
 On the Wisconsin there are many rapids, or falls, as they are
 termed, among which the "Bulls" largely predominate. There
 are " Grandfather Bull," "Jenny Bull," " Big Bull,"
"Little
 Bull," and "Bull Junior!" Bears being plenty in the forests,
 we have here on the border, our compliment of " bulls and
 bears," as well as in Wall street, New York. These rapids fur-
 nish an immense power, and are as yet but little improved. There
 is on this entire chain of rapids an aggregate fall of nearly one
 hundreAI feet. The principal tributaries discharging their waters
 into the Wisconsin within the limits of Marathon county, are,