The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-05-20

in the work, he described it as gen.
orally repulsive to immigration and
impossible for settlements. He
thought it would be impossible for
our population to extend west of the
Mississippi, and alluded to the prair-
les of that section as incapable OF
cultivation, which must be left to
the wandering and uncivilized abort
gines. In 1890 Major Stephen H.
Long, by order of the government,
led an expedition to explore the Mis-
souri, and its principal branches, and
in his official reports declared that
most of the country bore a manifest
resemblance to the deserts af Siberia.
The mountain region beyond, he said,
was destined by reason of the barren
ness of its soil, its inhospitable eli
mate and other physical disadvant-
ages to be the abode of perpetual
desolation. Even Washington Ir-
wing, as late as 1886, said in his AS
toria' that this region, resembling
the Unreasonable steppes of Asia,
was not iraptly termed The Great
American Desert This was the
general opinion of well informed peo-
pie, not only in this country, but in
Europe, and it was reflected in the
school books and biographies pub
Gshed at that time. The term Great
American Desert was used in Brook S
Gazetteer, published in 1882, and in
Olney's geography, published as late
as 1910, and was applied to all the
country west of Missouri.
cit is curious to note how this
Great American Desert proved to
be mere mirage. Pigment of the
imagination, that was destined in a
few short years to be transformed
into vision far surprising any con-
jured up by the genii in the Arabian
Nights tales. Nine years after
Washington Irving published his AS
toria' Iowa was admitted as State
of the Union. Think of anyone ever
having alluded to this matchless agri-
cultural commonwealth as "a desert
Other States carved out of The
Great American Desert were Kan
sas, Nebraska, the two Dakotas, Col
orado, Utah, Wyoming and Mime
sofa. If Major Long, Irving and the
). geography writer's of the thirties
we're now alive they could travel over
The Great American Desert in Pull
Imam palace cars. Instead of buff
faloes and nomadic tribes, they would
see countless herds of fat cattle graz
ing in fertile fields, and millions OF
bushels OF grain ripening under gen.
ial suns. They would find the land
they spoke of as worthless worth
many millions of dollars and support
ing the most thrifty farmers the
world has ever seen. In short they
would find it the granary of the
world, and unsurpassed as produc-
er of all kinds of live stock. The
mountains which they described as
desolate and useless for the purposes
of man they would find the seats Of
the richest mines on earth, mines
that have yielded treasures of gold
and silver far transcending those Of
the Incas and>surpassing in value the
products of Ophir and Ind. They
would find The Great American Des-
ert' inhabited by millions of the most
prosperous and energetic people that
now inhabit the world, and mass OF
timber, minerals and live stock that
constitute the basis of wealth in the
richest nation on earth. It is diff
ficult to realize in how short a space
of time all this wonderful transform
alton took place. Iowa was admit
ted into the Union in 1916, Wisconsin
in 1S48, Minnesota in 1858, and Ne
braska in 1867. In other words, but
a decade or so after the publication
OF the biographies which classed
them as part of The Great Ameri-
can Desert How little do the wise
men of one generation know what is
going to happen in the next, and how
swiftly the progress of events in a
new country discounts the prophecies
OF even the best informed observers
OF the age that has passed "
Utilizing the Camera.
4 Tess-Mr. Saphead gave you .
camera for your birthday, didn't he /;
!, Jess-Yes, and we took it with us
on our stroll through the country
| yesterday. Oh, what do you think