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progress would ever invade those mountain regions ; or the 

 ingenuity of man ever discover uses for these rocks and 

 boulders, or coin wealth from the sterile and sandy soil of 

 this old wilderness ? Hitherto a country like this has been 

 regarded of no value, save for the timber which it grows ; 

 and when that is exhausted, as fit only to be abandoned to 

 sterility and desolation. But who can tell whether there 

 may not be iij these boulders, these rocks, this sandy and 

 unproductive soil, unknown wealth, held in reserve to reward 

 the researches of science in its utilitarian explorations. I 

 am not now speaking of gold, or silver, or any other dross, 

 which men have hitherto wasted their toil to accumulate ; 

 but of new discoveries, and new purposes to which these now 

 useless things may be applied ; discoveries which may send 

 the tide of emigration surging up from the valleys to moun- 

 tain regions like these. May it not be that science, while 

 delving among the wrecks of vanished ages, may stumble 

 upon some new principle, or combination of the elements of 

 which these old rocks are composed, that shall give them a 

 value beyond that of the richest lowlands, and make them 

 the centre of a derive and cultivated population ?" 



" Your question," answered Spalding, " is suggestive. 

 Did you ever think what gigantic strides the world has made 

 within the memory of men now living, and who are yet un- 

 willing to be counted as old ? Look back for only fifty years, 

 and note what a stupendous leap it has taken ! Where 

 then were the iron roads over which the locomotive goes 

 thundering on its mission of civilization ? where the tele- 



