CHAPTER IV 



THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 



FORTUNATE beyond all other parts of the United States 

 in its climate and in the surpassing wealth of its forests, 

 its quarries and its mines, western America is yet more 

 favored in another element of its physical foundation. 

 This is the substantial aridity which prevails throughout 

 its vast proportions. 



The anomaly that its foremost blessing should consist 

 in the fact which gave it a wide-spread reputation for 

 worthlessness is interesting, but unimportant. Nature 

 frequently conceals her raw materials of greatness, alike 

 in men and in countries, until time and opportunity are 

 ripe. In the aridity of the West we shall find the true 

 key to its future institutions. Climate may produce a 

 healthy race, and mineral resources may enrich it, but 

 the natural conditions which determine the character of 

 social and industrial organization, and mould the habits 

 and customs of men, are the potent influences which 

 shape civilization. Hence we shall see that in any just 

 estimate of the relative worth of western resources the 

 fact of aridity must be rated as high above the value 

 of forests and mines as human progress is dearer than 

 money, and as the fate of the race is more momentous 

 than the prosperity of individuals. 



GO 



