ngs.

Here are the grades I descended a couple of years ago while prospecting
over this ground. What slopes these are to put a horse down. They are
like those described at St. Helena, upon which you might break your
heart going up or your neck coming down, with the additional risk of
being arrested as a trespasser. On this place where we once ranged for
coal-rights, the real-estate agents have sub-divided the surface into
desirable building lots, that sell from three to five hundred dollars
the lot.

One day, this lake shore will be a hive of industry, for deep in her
loins Mother Earth had hutched her riches of coal and fire-clay, and,
mayhap, more minerals that are precious. Once, in drilling here, our
men came upon black sand with a showing of gold, but it petered out,
after a couple of inches. It was with great difficulty they were
persuaded to go on with the drilling instead of going to town to file
on claims.

Already there are several towns along this lakefront--that is to say,
towns consisting of three or four tents or houses. In the earlier days
of the North each settlement was commenced with a fort, now it is begun
with a railway station. The next building to be erected is the station
agent's house, which is quickly followed by a restaurant, and a general
store with a post-office. This is the axis from which the homesteaders
radiate into the surrounding country, and, presto! before you know it,
there is a bank, an implement shop, a church, a hotel, and the other
conveniences of modern civilization including mortgages.

Already you may see trails like long black welts across the
land--trails that appear to fare forth without any preconceived plan
and to hold a lure in their far reaches for happy-go-idlers like you
and me. There is no telling what we might find on them a goodish way
off. The only straight trails made in this North land are made by the
engineers, and as you look down the lines you may readily see that they
lead into the sky. I like greatly the unthanked, unknown engineers who
beat out these paths for the people who are to come after. No trumpets
herald their coming, or announce the leagues they have herded behind,
but I tell you these fellows are a commonwealth of kings, and we may as
well stop here for a moment and stand at salute.

And after the engineers came the builders with their sinews of steel to
bind the trail. It is this steel strength that makes the land to bud
and b