er which the population increased with
great rapidity.

Wisconsin was the last State formed from the old Northwest Territory. A
few weak settlements were made by the French as early as 1668, but, as
in the case of Iowa, its real settlement began after the Black Hawk War.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE.

James Smithson of England, when he died in 1829, bequeathed his large
estate for the purpose of founding the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." In
1838, his estate, amounting to more than half a million dollars, was
secured by a government agent and deposited in the mint. John Quincy
Adams prepared a plan of organization, which was adopted.

The Smithsonian Institution, so named in honor of its founder, was
placed under the immediate control of a board of regents, composed of
the President, Vice-President, judges of the supreme court, and other
principal officers of the government. It was provided that the entire
sum, amounting with accrued interest to $625,000, should be loaned
forever to the United States government at six per cent.; that from the
proceeds, together with congressional appropriations and private gifts,
proper buildings should be erected for containing a museum of natural
history, a cabinet of minerals, a chemical laboratory, a gallery of art,
and a library. The plan of organization was carried out, and Professor
Joseph Henry of Princeton College, the real inventor of the
electro-magnetic telegraph, was chosen secretary.

[Illustration: THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.]

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

For many years hardy hunters and trappers had penetrated the vast
wilderness of the West and Northwest in their hunt for game and
peltries. Some of these were in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company,
whose grounds extended as far toward the Arctic Circle as the rugged men
and toughened Indians could penetrate on their snowshoes.

At points hundreds of miles apart in the gloomy solitudes were erected
trading posts to which the red men brought furs to exchange for
trinkets, blankets, firearms, and firewater, and whither the white
trappers made their way, after an absence of months in the dismal
solitudes. Further south, among the rugged mountains and beside the
almost unknown streams, other men set their traps for the beaver, fox,
and various fur-bearing animals. Passing the Rocky Mountains and Cascade
Range they pursued their perilous av