Quotation from: The Valley of the Moon

Written by: Jack London

"You see how population depends upon water," the ax-barkeeper
went on. "Well, we've got the water, immense subterranean
supplies, and in not many years this valley will be populated as
thick as Belgium."

Fascinated by the five-inch stream, sluiced out of the earth and
back to the earth by the droning motor, he forgot his discourse
and stood and gazed, rapt and unheeding, while his visitors drove
on.