MINERAL WEALTH. 3 



over all that surrounds him, Montana will remain, 

 comparatively speaking, deserted. 



If we had to search for other reasons that might 

 be urged against the probability of these rugged 

 highlands soon becoming the resting-place of a portion 

 of those seeking new homes, we might add that it is 

 out of the line usually chosen by the exodus of people 

 that annually, with increased numbers, rolls across 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Thus it is not even 

 honoured by an occasional straggler, who, 4 dropping 

 from the immense human tide, either from faintness 

 of heart or by incapacity for further progression, pro- 

 duced by bodily infirmity, is satisfied to remain 

 where circumstances have placed him. 



Still, there is an attraction in this wild territory 

 that may falsify my prediction regarding the time 

 that will be required to elapse before the patient 

 steer will toil in front of the plough breaking up its 

 virgin soil ; or the voices of children playing round 

 the homestead wake the echoes with their merry 

 laugh ; or the sierras and crags repeat the mono- 

 tonous sound of the stroke of the destructive 

 axe. The attraction is mineral wealth iron, silver, 

 and gold are among its productions ; and should 

 these be here found in greater abundance than 

 in more accessible places, the craving for the pos- 

 session of wealth will soon induce speculators to 

 overflood the country with a host of miners, as a 

 rule the most dissipated, cruel, and reckless people 

 upon the face of the earth. That such may not 



