PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 839 



to remark, it is not written in the book of fate that a people so 

 youthful, and yet so strong as ours, so instinct witli vitality, pos- 

 sessed of such' noble enthusiasm, though sometimes misguided, 

 endowed with so rich and varied resources of field and flood and 

 mine, and fully capable from its own internal forces of fully 

 realizing the glories of its economical future, already foreshadow- 

 ing the horizon — a people that has twice extinguished its national 

 and war debts, and nobly loaned its governmentybi^r tJiousand mil- 

 lions of dollars to secure its domains intact, will stagger and 

 falter under the load of its repa^^ment, and finally repudiate the 

 liquidation of its bonds. 



Surely, the people who could find means and ways to create and 

 loan, can devise means to repay. The horizon may not now be 

 clear, financial mistakes may be made, some schemes ma}' fail ; but 

 as in the past, so also in the future, no man will ever hold in his 

 hand one single sheet oi repudiated government paper. 



Basin of the St. Lawrence. 

 This basin extends from the Atlantic westwards through thirty 

 degrees of longitude, or 1,300 miles. In width it varies 

 from fifty to three hundred miles. Its geographical area is 

 about 450,000 square miles; 100,000 lie within our own limits. 

 Fully three-fourths of the wdiole is in a state of wilderness, but 

 studded with most magnificent forests. Its elevation on the north 

 is about 1,000 feet ; on the northwest, 1,800 feet ; south and south- 

 W'est it ranges from 660 to 2,200 feet, and in the southeast of the 

 southern portion it rises into lofty peaks of 5,067 feet above tide. 

 By reason of its low southern rim, it has an easy transit into the 

 valleys of Mississippi, Ohio, Mohawk and Hudson rivers. It pre- 

 sents the appearance of a long narrow valley, trending in a south- 

 west direction to the head of Lake Michigan, then bending north- 

 west, is finally merged in the broad plateaus of the interior of the 

 continent. 



Its northwestern rim holds metaliferous veins of copper, iron, 

 silver, lead and gold. Within its bosom it has vast stares of coal,- 

 gypsum and salt. Its northern and southern mountains have sup- 

 plies^ of magnetic iron ore, sufficient for the Avorld. Its southeast- 

 ern rim has veins of gold, copper, lead and other metals in large 

 abundance. Of such minerals as most conduce to man's comfort 

 and welfare, none of our hydrographical basins are more richly 

 blessed than this. 



Throughout its eastern half, rich pasture lauds obtain ; and be- 



