A TRIBUTE TO SQUANTO 349 



us from the far Northwest will be harnessed and made, 

 by the medium of electricity, to furnish us with heat 

 and light. 



The superficial changes which man will make in the 

 cold and arid regions cannot fail to produce a profound 

 impression on the rainfall. Forests will rise to check 

 the fury of the northwest winds, and to change the 

 physical condition of the soil and subsoil. The tamed 

 elements of nature will be pressed into service, and in 

 the end, help along with the work which they at first 

 so strenuously opposed. We may not be able to bring 

 back those tropic breezes which lured the megatherium 

 and the pterodactyl to linger about the boreal regions in 

 those times : 



" When the sea rolled its fathomless billows 

 Across the broad plains of Nebraska, 

 When around the North Pole grew bananas and willows, 

 And mastodons fought with the fierce armadillos 

 For the pineapples grown in Alaska:" 



But as in the future we shall laugh at the lack of 

 moisture, so shall we mock the snow and the blizzard. 



It requires only a simple calculation by an electrical 

 engineer to show that if all the energy of the winter's 

 northwest winds were converted into heat by means of 

 windmills and dynamos, the North Dakota farmer in 

 January might be seen mopping his brow vigorously, 

 and fanning himself as he trimmed his orange trees. 



We have also practically inexhaustible sources of 

 heat close beneath the surface of the earth. The frost 

 never penetrates more than a few feet below the sur- 

 face. At a comparatively small depth a summer tem- 

 perature is reached. It is entirely probable that man 

 may draw upon the interior of the earth for supplies 



