XVI 



CONCLUSION 



MATERIALISTS are inclined to doubt the sanity 

 of men who head their ships toward the ends of 

 the earth in search of new lands and new truths. Only 

 ice and snow are visualized; and this is so remote that 

 it is deemed of but little value in its contribution toward 

 the wealth of the world. 



"What are you going to do with the land when you 

 find it.f^ Can you raise wheat on it?" were the practical 

 questions put to me by a Wall Street banker. 



To him the obliteration of a vast unknown space by 

 the substitution of well-defined coast-lines of a great con- 

 tinent was a useless expenditure of time and money, unless 

 that land could be inhabited and its resources utilized. 

 Knowledge of the fact that land exists there, supplanting 

 ignorance and conjecture; its physical characteristics, 

 which are but another chapter in the history of our globe; 

 its birds, many of which pass our doors in spring and 

 fall; its animals, existing where life seems impossible; its 

 bright-colored flowers blossoming at the very edge of 

 eternal snows; its climate, exerting such a vast influence 

 up>on southern countries — all these considerations are 

 tossed aside as irrelevant; they cannot be made to return 

 dividends — that is, in the Wall Street sense. 



