H. Revell Company
    LONDON AND EDINBURGH


    Copyright, 1907, by
    FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY


    New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
    Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
    Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.
    London: 21 Paternoster Square
    Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street




DEDICATION

   TO A RAPIDLY DISAPPEARING CLASS, THE PIONEER PROSPECTORS, WHOSE
   BRAVERY, INTELLIGENCE AND INDUSTRY BLAZED THE TRAILS IN THE
   WESTERN WILDERNESS FOR ADVANCING CIVILIZATION, AND MADE POSSIBLE
   THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST, THIS VOLUME IS VERY
   RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED




_PREFACE_

    Oh that my words were now written!
    Oh that they were inscribed in a book!--JOBdeclivity
    With irresistible descent,
    Depositing on every hand
    A layer of sediment and sand;
    With swift and spoliating flow,
    Uprooting many a noble tree,
    To strew the desert wastes below
    With scattered drift-wood and debris;
    Such is the dreadful avalanche,
    Which rends the forest, root and branch.

    From dangers in such varied form,
    And the discomforts of the storm,
    Small wonder 'twas the mountaineer
    Left not his fireside's ruddy cheer;
    But from behind the bolted door
    Discerned the tempest's strident roar,
  