prayers of the prospector, offered for the
wealth he so earnestly craves; but, like prayers of any kind not in
harmony with nature, they are unanswered. But, after all, effort,
however misapplied, is better than stagnation. Better toil blindly,
beating every stone in turn for grains of gold, whether they contain any
or not, than lie down in apathetic decay.

The fever period is fortunately passing away. The prospector is no
longer the raving, wandering ghoul of ten years ago, rushing in random
lawlessness among the hills, hungry and footsore; but cool and skillful,
well supplied with every necessary, and clad in his right mind.
Capitalists, too, and the public in general, have become wiser, and do
not take fire so readily from mining sparks; while at the same time a
vast amount of real work is being done, and the ratio between growth and
decay is constantly becoming better.

XVII. Puget Sound

Washington Territory, recently admitted [22] into the Union as a State,
lies between latitude 46 degrees and 49 degrees and longitude 117
degrees and 125 degrees, forming the northwest shoulder of the United
States. The majestic range of the Cascade Mountains naturally
divides the State into two distinct parts, called Eastern and Western
Washington, differing greatly from each other in almost every way, the
western section being less than half as large as the eastern, and, with
its copious rains and deep fertile soil, being clothed with forests of
evergreens, while the eastern section is dry and mostly treeless, though
fertile in many parts, and producing immense quantities of wheat and
hay. Few States are more fertile and productive in one way or another
than Washington, or more strikingly varied in natural features or
resources.

Within her borders every kind of soil and climate may be found--the
densest woods and dryest plains, the smoothest levels and roughest
mountains. She is rich in square miles (some seventy thousand of them),
in coal, timber, and iron, and in sheltered inland waters that render
these resources advantageously accessible. She also is already rich in
busy workers, who work hard, though not always wisely, hacking, burning,
blasting their way deeper into the wilderness, beneath the sky, and
beneath the ground. The wedges of development are being driven hard, and
none of the obstacles or defenses of nature can long withstand the onset
of this immeasurable industry.

Puget Sound, so justly famous