40 With Feet to the Earth 



but the stuff costs so much to extract that 

 when the laborers are paid and the expense 

 is set aside of separating it from the gravel, 

 the owner is lucky if he has enough left to 

 buy a cigar. Work has, therefore, been 

 fitful, and if anybody wants a gold-mine 

 he can probably get one cheap. No 

 doubt he can get more out of it than some 

 investors have made in Western mines. 

 Were the sands along Black River as care- 

 fully searched as they would be if it ran 

 out of the Rockies or Sierras, the precious 

 metal might be found in paying quantities. 

 The stream passes Ludlow, high and cool, 

 environed with mountains, and does some 

 turning of mill-wheels. It was a good 

 deal of a river once, and before the barriers 

 broke down to open its present channel it 

 was ponded just below here. 



Tramp the shaded road that follows it to 

 Proctorsville, and in that lovely intervale 

 you stand in the bed of an ancient lake. 

 Geologist or not, you will look to see where, 

 ages ago, the lake drained off. This out- 

 let, known as the Gulf, is notably like the 

 notches of the White Mountains and cloves 



