WATER POWER 199 



taken from Government Lands, and royalty products 

 valued at $6,006,455 were S W for the benefit of the 

 several States, the reclamation fund, the United 

 States Treasury, and other beneficiaries designated 

 by law." 



The oil shales of the United States, of which 

 those in our Federal Lands are but a slender part, 

 constitute a future resource beyond present computa- 

 tion. Their practical use may not be so far away as 

 generally is believed. When the cost of crude oil 

 overlaps that of oil from shale, said a recent au- 

 thority, a competition will begin which will extend 

 the use of crude oil into many years. This will hap- 

 pen, it was predicted, at the production cost of about 

 25 cents. Endowed many times more richly than any 

 other land with material for all oil substitutes of im- 

 portance, America will probably carry her present 

 advantage into the centuries. 



Who will predict what the future will bring 

 forth ? Oil in great quantities has recently been dis- 

 covered at levels far below oil fields long exhausted. 

 With new methods of search and new light from 

 science, new bonanzas of gold, silver, and copper 

 may again enrich the country. 



