| OCR Text |
Show 596 WESTERN WILDS. table, from the Mining Commissioner of the United States, shows it better at a glance than would many pages of comment: ANNUAL PRODUCT OF LEAD, SILVER, AND GOLD. 1870 $ 52,150,000 1871 55,784,000 1872 60,351,824 1873 ' 70,139,860 1874 71,965,610 1875 76,703,433 1876 87,219,859 1877 95,811,582. 1878 78,276,167 1879 , 72,688,888 1880 77,232,512 Total $ 798,323,735 Adding the growth of 1881, and omitting the lead, we find that the United States now produces annually at least $ 78,000,000 in silver and gold. Thus, in ' the language of Commissioner Raymond, " The western states and territories bear witness of our great inheritance of natural wealth. Every period of geological change has been laid under contribution to endow with rich legacies some portion of our land. Our territory epitomizes the processes of all time, and their use-ful results to man. Divided, yet in a stronger sense united, by mountain chains and mighty rivers, our diversified mineral resources may figuratively represent and literally help to secure and maintain our characteristic national life a vast community of communities, incapable alike of dissolution and of centralization ; one, by mutual needs and affections, as the ' continent is one; many, by multiform industries and forms of life, as the members of the continent are many." |
