298 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



him in selecting and getting out the stone. They wanted 

 him also to work in their gypsum quarries, and hunt 

 up coal deposits. They would not publish any picture- 

 books, but they would let him write letters to the news- 

 papers; and thus he could ease his mind and relieve the 

 editors, and all the expense of printing would be paid by 

 the subscribers to the newspapers. As long as the peo- 

 ple's burdens cannot be charged on the councilmen, in 

 the political account, they are of no political value or 

 importance. He was a good-natured man; but that was 

 not the reason why he complied with their conditions. 

 He actually hoped the Makoketans might, within a couple 

 of years, be led to discern their own interest their 

 intellectual and educational interest in having the his- 

 tory of past events in their province clearly portrayed 

 to the intelligence of all. He hoped that he might be 

 permitted at least to pursue a scientific method for de- 

 termining the complete succession of their strata, and the 

 economical products which they contain. But the Mako- 

 ketans were too shrewd for him. They were ready for 

 the economical products, but what did they want of " suc- 

 cession " ? So the man with a hammer walked toward 

 sunrise, and never stopped till he had gone as far as 

 possible without leaving the shores of Maui. 



The province of Mok-chehunk devised a much more 

 ingenious and paying expedient. That province had long 

 been infested with hammer-men, great and small. The 

 people of the province had long been celebrated for the it- 

 business sagacity. In the olden time they permitted a 

 man with a big hammer to go about and explore the 

 situation of their gum-beds. They induced him to com- 

 municate the " practical " results of his observations, flat- 



