WESTERN SUPREMACY. S9 



$1,170,000,000 of that metal. The annual product is now 

 from eighteen to twenty-five millions. From 1863 to 

 1880, Idaho produced $90,000,000 of gold and silver, and 

 Montana from 1861 to 1879, not less than $162,000,000. 

 In twenty years, Nevada produced $448,545,000 of the 

 precious metals. The production of Colorado, during 

 the twenty-four years preceding 1883, was $167,000,000. 

 Her out-put for 1882 was $27,000,000. In wealth-pro- 

 ducing power a single rich mine represents a great 

 area of arable land. For instance, the Comstock Lode, 

 in 1877, produced $37,062,252. Those t.welve insignificant 

 looking holes in the side of the mountain yielded more 

 wealth that year than 3,890,000 acres planted to corn the 

 same year. That is, those few square rods on the sur- 

 face in Nevada were as large as all the corn fields of 

 New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota, collectively. Rocky Moun- 

 tain wealth, penetrating thousands of feet into the earth, 

 compensates for large areas of barren surface. The agri- 

 cultural resources of a country do not now as formerly 

 determine its possible population. To-day, easy trans- 

 portation makes regions populous and wealthy, which 

 once were uninhabitable. Even if a blade of grass could 

 not be made to grow in all the Rocky Mountain states, 

 that region could sustain 100,000,000 souls, provided it 

 has sufficient mineral wealth to exchange for the prod- 

 uce of the Mississippi valley. Quartz mines have been 

 known in the Rockies for years, Avhich could not be 

 worked without heavy machinery. The inner chambers 

 of God's great granite safes, where the silver and gold 

 have been stored for ages to enrich this generation, are 

 fastened with time locks, set for the advent of the rail- 

 way. The projection of railway systems into the 

 mountains will rapidly develop these mines. For the 

 year ending May 31, 1880, the United States produced 

 55 tons 724 pounds (avoirdupois) of gold, and 1,090 tons 

 398 pounds of silver. " These huge figures may be 

 better grasped, perhaps, by considering that the gold 

 represents five ordinary car loads, while a train of 109 



