262 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
“3rd. That although, for nearly the whole of this distance, | 
irrigation is resorted to, yet, by more thorough cultivation, it 
is likely that, at many points, this will not be required. | 
Besides, irrigation is not necessarily a drawback, since it — 
enables the farmer, to a great extent, to be independent of ‘ 
the seasons, serves to enrich his grounds by the constant sedi- 
ment with which the water is charged, and, with a properly ; 
organised plan, is not costly; while the crops are made to : 
yield much more bountifully, as a general thing, than in the 4 
Mississippi valley. The quality of the wheat grown in these — 
elevated valleys and dry atmosphere is most highly prized, | 
especially for transportation. E 
“Lastly. That the hills and mountains over this extended 
range contain an amount of mineral wealth of all kinds, the 
useful as well as the precious, which may be considered 
practically inexhaustible. Furthermore, that these sub- 
terranean treasures are not confined to a few localities far 
apart, but have a remarkable diffusion along the route. 
Indeed, from the Arkansas River to the western spurs of the | 
coast range, near San Francisco, a distance of 1,500 mules, | 
the mountains, which are never out of sight, may almost be 
said to possess continuous deposits of one kind or another of 
valuable minerals, which, beginning with the coal and iron of 
Colorado, end only with the quicksilver of New Almaden. 
When it is remembered how little and how carelessly this 
vast territory, the home of savage Indians, has been explored 
by white men, and that, even in the small and old-settled 
district of Cornwall, where mining was carried on before the 
Christian era, and where the earth has been burrowed for ages 
at a great depth, new discoveries are still made of tin and 
copper lodes, we may well wonder at the amount of hidden 
ea ao: which the few disclosures already made would 
