u 
It would, however, be strange indeed, if the complex process of social evolution, even in its 
present stage, were not marked by some of the indications of a retrograde movement. The age 
in which we live has undoubtedly its peculiar follies and foibles, which are but thrown into relief 
by the qualities that more generally distinguish it. 
But many are running to and fro, and knowledge is being increased. Nature is revealing 
herself to the traveler in new forms and aspects, and disclosing to his wondering gaze mysterious 
pages of her great book hitherto hidden from him. 
And while extensive tracts of country, presenting physical features to which the entire known 
world furnishes no parallel, have been brought by railroad enterprise within reach alike of the 
curious sight-seer and the inquiring student, a vast region, of almost unexampled wealth- 
producing capabilities, has, by the same agency, been thrown open to that advancing tide of 
civilization which is rapidly overspreading the world. 
Hence the traveler journeying to Wonderland—to that enchanted realm where the most 
extravagant creations of the fancy appear trivial and commonplace beside the more extraordinary 
works of Nature—sees also, in process of solution, some of the hitherto most perplexing problems 
of economics ; observes, as he can not do with like facility anywhere else in the world, the well- 
ordered plan upon which the bounty of Nature is distributed ; and witnesses the unlocking of vast 
storehouses of good, to supply the increasing needs of the human race. 
It may be doubted whether the world affords another tour at once so delightful and so in¬ 
structive as that which, beginning at the head of the Mississippi valley, and crossing the great 
wheat fields of Dakota and Eastern Washington, the stock ranges of Montana, and the gold and 
silver ribbed mountains of Montana and Idaho, embraces also the wonders of the Yellowstone 
National Park, and the incomparable scenery of the Columbia river, to crown all with the 
stupendous sights of that Great Land whose unique natural features have earned for it the well- 
deserved title of “Wonderland.” No longer one of peril and hardship, but, on the contrary, 
one of absolute luxury, this tour has, within the last two years, attracted thousands of pilgrims 
from all parts of the civilized world. To them, as well as to all other lovers of the sublime and 
beautiful, and to the students of the mysteries of Nature in all lands, who may have the good 
fortune to visit the far Northwest in 1886, the following pages are respectfully inscribed. 
LULTI discurrent, et augebitur stultitia . ” Thus did one of the profoundest of 
modern thinkers parody the prediction of the Hebrew prophet who foretold the 
time when, with increased facilities for travel and intercommunication, there should 
come a great enlargement of the bounds of knowledge, and a corresponding amel¬ 
ioration of the condition of humanity. 
( 3 ) 
