market, which
is likewise plentiful, as we shall see when we come to look into the
history and growth of the sister city on the river, above.

This stone already constitutes the chief material used in the erection
of all the better class of buildings in the city, and, indeed, Third
Street, the principal business thoroughfare, has even now little else
than this honest and solid-looking material to represent it.

The sandstone underlying the magnesian limestone, and which is so soft
as to be easily crushed, could be used we judge in the manufacture of
glassware at great profit to the manufacturer; but as yet, there is
nothing done that we know, and it is not strange when we reflect that it
is but a score of years since St. Paul was really occupied and settled.
All of this various strata of rock and sand belongs, geologically
speaking, to what is known as the lower silurian system, extending from
near the western shores of Lake Michigan, and sweeping over all the
lower half of Minnesota, westward and upward along the valley of the
great Red and Assinniboin Rivers to the north, marking one of the most
prolific grain growing belts on the continent, if not in the world.
While this limestone underlying the surface is valuable for the purposes
heretofore named, it performs a still greater service to mankind in
having contributed much of those qualities which have given in certain
departments of agriculture, highest prominence to the State.

St. Paul is both the political and commercial capital of Minnesota, and
must always remain such without doubt, though it does not occupy a
central geographical position, still it is the practical centre of the
commonwealth, made such by the enterprise of her people in extending the
system of railways in all directions, with this point as a pivotal
centre. There are already seven important roads[A] radiating from this
city, either completed or in rapid course of construction, giving at the
present time a total of about seven hundred miles of finished road, over
which daily or more trains run, and all within the boundaries of the
State. Other lines beginning and ending elsewhere, yet likewise in the
State, are not included, of course, in this consideration. These roads
penetrate already, or will when completed, the principal centres of
trade and agriculture lying in the Northwest.

Daily communication is already had by rail with the cities of Chicago,
Milwaukee, and Duluth, and in the near