The Water Power of Vermont. 643 



THE WATER POWER OF VEKMONT. 



BY HENRY CLARK, OF RUTLAND. 



On the map of the western continent, the State of Ver- 

 mont is but a speck. Her climate is severe and inliospitable. 

 Her soil is so rugged and in some portions so difficult of 

 cultivation, that its meagre products are more a tribute to 

 the skill and industry of her husbandmen than to any native 

 generosity of mother earth. Her geographical inland 

 position allows no opportunity for a commercial center. 

 Though her quarries of marble, slate, granite, soapstone, 

 are unsurpassed, her mineral resources dwindle into insigni- 

 ficance when compared with those of the Middle States, the 

 West and the far West. 



Wanting in these elements that form a foundation for the 

 prosperity of a State or nation, nature, as if seemingly 

 mindful of her neglect, has placed at her disposal one of the 

 mightiest of visible motors, a gift too precious to be care- 

 lessly squandered, because unappreciated and unknown. To 

 the hundreds and thousands of summer visitors who annually 

 seek her hills and valleys to recuperate their health, and 

 pass the heated term in idleness and pleasure, it scarcely 

 occurs that from these hills and valleys flow hundreds of 

 streams, furnishing in their course, here and there, that 



