ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 15 
“Or in lieu of this arrangement we may place them flat upon 
the ground, forming one continuous line like a long golden 
chain, with every link in close contact. But to do this we must 
pass over land and sea, mountain and valley, desert and plain, 
crossing the Equator, and returning around the southern hemi- 
sphere through the trackless ocean, retrace our way again across 
the Equator, then still on and on, until we again arrive at our 
starting point; and when we have thus passed a golden chain 
around the huge bulk of the earth we shall be but at the 
beginning of our task. We must drag this imaginary chain 
no less than 763 times round the globe. If we can further 
imagine all these rows of links laid closely side by side and every 
one in contact with its neighbour, we shall have formed a golden 
band around the globe just 52 feet 6 inches wide ; and this will 
represent our one billion of coims. Such a chain, if laid in a 
straight line, would reach a fraction over 18,328,445 miles, the 
weight of which, if estimated at } oz. each sovereign, would be 
6,975,447 tons, and would require for their transport no less than 
2,325 ships, each with a full cargo of 3,000 tons. Even then 
there would be a residue of 447 tons representing 64,081,920 
sovereigns. 
“For a measure of height let us take a much smaller unit a¢ 
our measuring rod. The thin sheets of paper on which these 
lines are printed, if laid flat and firmly pressed together in a 
well-bound book, would represent a measure of about 1-333rd 
of an inch in thickness. Let us see how high a dense pile formed 
by a billion of these thin paper leaves would reach. We must, 
in imagination, pile them vertically upward, by degrees reaching 
to the height of our tallest spires ; and passing these, the pile must 
grow higher, topping the Alps and Andes and the highest peaks 
of the Himalayas, and shooting up from thence through the fleecy 
clouds, pass beyond the confines of our attenuated atmosphere, 
and leap up into the blue ether with which the universe is filled, 
standing proudly up far beyond the reach of all terrestrial things ; 
still pile on your thousands and millions of thin leaves, for we 
are only beginning to rear the mighty mass. Add millions on 
