Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-10

Lecture by G. G. Coffin.
The last lecture in the Lyceum course at Me-
chancs hall last evening was listened to by
fair audience. The lecturer was Carleton
(NIr. C. G. Coffin, and his subject "The Great
Northwest" Abiding to the first instruction
Of New England upon steam locomotion, by an
itinerant Snowman with a miniature engine
thirty years ago, and comparing that with our
$4,000 miles of railway to-day, the lecturer de-
Clared that the locomotive was the great az
grandizing force of the age. By its power the
"out-wcSt" of our fathers had become the popu-
lous states of the interior, and China, hitherto
thought of only as at the end of a six months
voyage to the east, is now our near neighbor
of the west.
Wonderful as were these changes, the pre-
diction was boldly ventured that the remaining
thirty years of this century would show more
advancement than those that had passed away.
1t had been his privilege to travel over por-
ton Of the great northwest, to study its re-
sources, and its relations to the rest of
our country and to the world. He would speak
tonight especially of the bearing of some Of
these facts upon New England. He invited his
hearers to Join him on an 2imaginary holiday
rip across the continent by way of the St. Law
renee and the great lakes, With rapid glance
at the great industry of the lake shipping, the
beautiful scenery and astonishing mineral
wealth Of the Lake Superior region, we reach
Duluth, at the western extremity of the lake;
a magical city, the growth of only two years
with $500 inhabitants, and two lines of railway
giving it connection with the south and west
with water power greater than that Of Law
renee, Lowell and Manchester combined, and,
most wonderful of all, q quarry of excellent
roofing slate, already supplying covering for the
houses of the settlers on the treeless prairies be-
yond. Immense forests stretch away to the
north, west and south. Westward we pass over
grand plateau-So level that the waters
of the Mississippi might be DETECTED by dam
into Lake Superior. region not attractive to
the farmer, but paradise for Maine lumber
men. Across this plateau the track of the
Moth Pacific railroad is already completed,
bridge across the Missssippi-nearly so-and by
midsummer next the road will be completed to
the Red River of the North, 23S miles from Lake
Superior.
Westward from the Mississippi we enter re-
gion between that and the Red river, for which
the lecturer could hardly find sufficient terms of
praise. A region of parks and natural lawns, of
groves of timber and frequent lakes of excellent
water. These attractions are already drawing
thither thousands OF immigrants from every
part Of the country. Here is a country nearly as
large as all New England, and as fertile as the
richest acre Of Illinois, where but for crossing
streams, one might turn an unbroken furrow as
far as from Boston to Philadelphia. Down the
Red river to Lake Winnipeg and thence up the
Saskatchewan to the foot of the Rocky noun
tains is a highway for streams 1900 miles long,
into the heart of the richest wheat lands of the
continent.
Mr.. Coffin here INDUCED a little in mathemat-
les, showing the enormous production which
this region must develop, and demonstrating that
after the construction of the railroad it will be
as accessible to the east as is Central Hi nois Or
eastern Iowa, from the fact that the Red river
is but 230 miles from Duluth by rail, and Du-
luth is as near all the eastern lake ports as
Chicago.
Down the valley of the Red river railroad
will be built the coming summer 10 Pembina.
All communication with this region is through
United States territory, and the people already
have agents in Washington urging Gen. Grant
10 inaugurate measures for transfer of their
allegiance to the stars and stripes. The COM
pletion of the railroad will vastly hasten this
change. The road to Pembina was but a reach
ing out toward the Assineboime and SasKatchc-
wan, where were other hundreds of millions of
acres equally attractive. From the Red river
westward the road crosses the rich pasture
lands of Dakota, where the settler will
find his fuel beneath his feet in the great central
coal field of the continent, which stretches away
northward TO the Arctic circle. From the Mis-
souri, we pass by the wide and fertile valley of the
Yellowstone, into Montana, pronounced by Gen.
Hancock to be the finest stock-growing section
Of the continent, and thence, by low divide, to
the gold fields of the Upper Missouri already
possessing population of 80 900 and every appli-
ance OF civilization but the railroad. We cross
the Rocky mountains by the Deer Lodge pass;
not narrow defile, but wide prairie, with a
grade so gentle that the waters of the Missouri
have been carried by canal through to the Pacific
SLOPE IUT TIC USE Vi lllc lut tlcNdtlOu
is only 5000 feet, and has been attained by no
grade exceeding fifty feet to the mile, and with
out tunnel ora snowshed. Through intermin-
able forests of pine, fir and cedar the road de-
scends to the shores of Puget Sound. Here are
pines taller by an hundred feet than Bunker Hill
monument, and compared to which the forests
of Maine are brushwood.
The world is sunnlipd with Ynasts and snarc
from here to-day. Two hundred million feet of
lumber, carried by 1856 vessels, left Puget Sound
last year for England, France, and Spain, not
only, but India, China, and Australia.
The harbors were described as among the
most perfect on the globe, securely land-locked,
and capaciouS enough for the fleets of the world,
with splendid anchorage, and beds of coal crop
ping out on their very banks. A rapid sketch
was given of Washington territory and Oregon,
and the country around the head-waters of the
northern branch of the Missouri, where cattle
arc pastured throughout the winter. This as
tonishing statement, together with the still more
astonishing one that roses and violets were
blooming to-day in the gardens at Puget Sound,
was explained at length, as due to the effect Of
the great japanese ocean current, which, by its
warmth, tempers the whole northwest coast and
inland as far as Lake Winnepeg, performing pre-
cisely the same office for that section as does the
well known gulf stream for England and Scot
land. No iceberg has ever been seen in the north
Pacific, and the climate Of Puget Sound Is es-
sentlally the same as that of South Carolina,
which, combined with the great fall rain, pro-
duces the enormous vegetation previously de-
scribed Another great cause of this mdness
of climate is the low elevation of the whole re-
gion east from the Pacific to Lake Winnipeg,
which lake is only 600 feet above the level of
thessea.
Referring to large map, Mr.. Coffin showed