We counted not less than five handsome churches, all erected the past year, representing as many different denominations, and, in point of style and interior finish, quite up to the requirements of the most enlightened taste.  Two convenient and comfortable hotels give rest and refreshment.  Ample provision is being made for public schools; and the projectors of the town have, in their wisdom, set apart one entire square on which a ladies’ seminary is to be erected; in short, everything is being done in a most determined and energetic manner.  There is no place for idlers here.  Such a wide-awake community naturally weeds itself of them; and, consequently, the society is industrious and moral, if not always elegant and pretentious.

Duluth will in time possess a completely landlocked harbor, and indeed has it already, but not at present as accessible as it will soon be made to the commerce seeking her wharves.  The work of cutting a ship channel across the shoulder of the sand-bar before referred to is in progress, the distance being but a few hundred feet of loose earth, which, when completed, will open communication to an immense bay, where all the commerce of the lakes might ride at anchor in perfect safety, were some slight dredging done to increase the present depth of water.  This bay is now reached by a circuit of half-dozen miles around the end of this sand-bar, known as Minnesota Point.  The Bay of Duluth must eventually, we think, be the great harbor, though a breakwater is in course of construction, which, when completed and made permanent, will give ample shelter to all immediate necessities.  Costly wharves have been constructed on the lake side of the Point, and there vessels load and unload almost constantly.

Since it is the established policy of the government to improve the rivers and harbors of the country, surely the small needs of this place ought not to be overlooked.  While private enterprise can and does do much, yet it is a sound theory for the general government, which derives its revenues from the people, to aid them in removing or building such obstructions or guards as the merits of the case and the public interest-demand.

Already the trade and commerce of the town employs about a dozen steamships, and numerous sailing vessels are also kept in motion, transporting supplies for the great railway enterprise which has its eastern base at this point.

There are three lines of propellers plying between this port and Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, each employing three ships, while there is an additional line to and from Chicago.  They together average four arrivals weekly.  The trip from Buffalo is performed in little less than a week, that being the most distant of the respective places.  These steamers have accommodations for over half a hundred cabin passengers, as a rule, and both invalids and pleasure travellers will find this, in every respect, the most interesting and comfortable means of access