7i6 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



after season as in Iowa, but the climate is 

 more favorable for winter grazing, and there 

 are many valuable species of native forage 

 plants. In the semiarid regions of north- 

 eastern Colorado, the areas that were at one 

 time cultivated have been allowed to revert 

 to grasses, and the region has become famous 

 as a stock country and is seemingly prosper- 

 ous. In the country north of this, though 

 the rainfall is limited, there are thousands of 

 acres of fine meadow and grazing lands cov- 

 ered with a dense growth of grama grass. 

 A large number of native grasses occur along 

 irrigating ditches and streams, and many of 

 them are highly nutritious. In the moun- 

 tain regions, the foothills and higher moun- 

 tain slopes produce a large number of valu- 

 able grasses, increasing in variety and rich- 

 ness with the ascent. Cattle are raised for 

 beef, and dairying is carried on at the lower 

 altitudes. 



Our Native Gems. — From Mr. G. F. Kunz's 

 report on the production of precious stones 

 in the United States during 1896 we learn 

 that true rubies have been found in the Cor- 

 vee Valley, Macon County, N. C, in a manner 

 of occurrence new to science, along with 

 some very beautiful almandine garnets, co- 

 rundum, gold, and other minerals of value. 

 The best ruby crystal so far obtained weighs 

 about six and a half carats. The sapphires 

 in Montana have already been mentioned in 

 The Monthly. Many fine crystals of berj'l of 

 gem value were found in Topsham, Maine, 

 one twelve inches long and two inches in di- 

 ameter. Other beryls were found at Hamp- 

 den, Md., and Bakersville, N. C. A topaz 

 was found in Idaho, about one hundred miles 

 north of Boise, and other topazes at Thomas 

 Mountain and Simpson Springs, Utah. Tour- 

 malines continue to be found at Paris, Maine, 

 Haddam, Conn., and Waynesville, N. C. Oli- 

 vine chrysolite and peridot are i-eported from 

 Webster, N. C. ; several varieties of garnet 

 in Tulare County, Cal. ; quartz crystals with 

 fluid inclusions in Herkimer County, N. Y. ; 

 thousands of pounds of crystals of quartz in 

 three counties of Arkansas, and other quartz 

 near Cheyenne Pass, Wyoming, Whitehaven, 

 Pa., at Autauga, Ala., and in Tulare County, 

 Cal. ; and quartz of different varieties at 

 localities in North Carolina, Idaho, the Black 

 Hills, New Mexico, and Washington; ruti- 



lated amethyst crystals in the Black Hills, and 

 Goochland County and Livingston, Va. ; 

 chrysoprase at Visalia, Cal. ; agate in Wyo- 

 ming and at Soldier's Delight, Md. ; opal at 

 Bare Hills, Md., and Clover Creek, Idaho ; 

 wardite, a new "semi-precious" stone, in 

 Utah ; Smithsonite, a golden-yellow carbo- 

 nate of zinc, locally known as "yellow fat," 

 in beautiful mammilar masses in the Morning 

 Star Mine, Yellville, Ark. Besides these are 

 the fossilized woods, which have become gen- 

 erally known. Mr. Kunz's report for 1895 

 mentions also moss agate at two localities in 

 Wyoming and two in California ; labradorite 

 at Toronto, Ont., and Mont Shavano, Cal. ; 

 rhoderosite in Colorado and Utah ; realgar 

 at the Golden Gate Mine, Utah; and the 

 largest black tourmaline known, monazite, 

 and xenotine on Manhattan Island. 



The GroM'th and Decay of Nations. — The 



following paragraphs are taken from an arti- 

 cle in a recent Contemporary Review, by 

 Thomas Hodgkin, D. C. L. : " It is a question 

 which has been often discussed, and to 

 which men's minds have often turned of 

 late, whether states and nations have, like 

 individual men, their necessary periods of 

 infancy, childhood, adolescence, and old age, 

 to be followed, in the one case as in the 

 other, by death, which is the end of all. 

 The analogy between the state and the man 

 at once suggests itself ; but analogy is not 

 in itself proof: on the contrary, it is some- 

 times one of our most misleading guides. 

 That many great and strong empires have 

 faded and vanished away is obvious. 



"'Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are 



they ? ' 



" But are we therefore forced to conclude 

 that all states must die ? Is it incumbent 

 on the wise statesman to look forward to his 

 country's death and to make provision for 

 that event, as it is incumbent on each one 

 of us individually to ' consider our latter 

 end,' and so to order our affairs that those 

 who come after us shall not have occasion 

 to curse either our improvidence or our 

 over caution ? I suggest the question with- 

 out presuming fully to answer it. Only I 

 may hint that it does seem as if, for some 

 reason or other, there were a gi-eater tenacity 

 of life among the nations of modern Europe 

 than thei'e was in most of the nations of 



