Every now and again the report comes of a great forest fire in the Northwest, and occasionally the world is horrified by reports of a terrible calamity of this character, involving great loss of life and property.  Owing to this fact there is a tendency to look on the northwestern tier of States as one huge forest, ever offering a temptation to that terrible destructive agency—­fire.  People who profess to have made tours through the country, add to the complication by enlarging on this one characteristic, and omitting all reference to the other features, in which the great Northwest towers head and shoulders above competitors, and teaches the entire world a lesson in productiveness, fertility, and, we may add, industry.

The World’s Fair served to very largely disabuse the public mind concerning what is destined to become one of the wealthiest sections of the United States.  The elegant State buildings that were erected on the shores of Lake Michigan, and the gorgeous displays of fruits, grain, ore, and different products, must have convinced the average visitor that there was a great deal more in the far West and Northwest than he had dreamt of.  Many were induced in consequence of the information they received, to blend their fortunes with the young States, and although the financial condition of the country has not been calculated to expedite the fulfillment of their Aladdin-like hopes, most of them have done well enough to be able to congratulate themselves on the change in the location and occupation.

We can only speak of some of the most remarkable features of this great section, greater, indeed, than several Old World nations combined.  Helena is the capital of one of these new States, to which is given the euphonic name of Montana.  The name is very appropriate, as it signifies “belonging to the mountains.”  The Indians had a very similar name for the territory now included in the State, and Judge Eddy called it the “Bonanza State” because of its mining sensations, a name which has clung to it with much fidelity ever since.  The arms of the State are significant and almost allegorical.  The present is linked with the past by means of a retreating buffalo, significant of the extermination of this interesting and valuable species.  The great mining resources of Montana are shown by a miner’s pick and shovel, and in the rearground the sun is setting behind eminences of the Rocky Mountains.  Montana was first discovered by Canadians, some two hundred years ago.  The first permanent settlement was early in the present century, and, until within the last fifty years, all goods and utensils used in it were dragged up the Missouri River from St. Louis, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles.  When the war broke out, the Territory was occupied almost entirely by Indians, with a few daring fur traders and a number of missionaries, who, in exercise of their duty, had no fear at all.  The discovery of gold which took place almost simultaneously