perature, and the composition of their waters, being considered great geological curiosities. They occur at all elevations and under nearly every peculiarity of condition-deep and shallow; cold, hot, and tepid; some in a state of ebullition and some quiescent; some impregnated with various mineral solutions, others perfectly pure; some isolated, others in groups; some cool and calm, others sending off clouds of steam, with a gurgling and hissing noise. These springs vary in diameter from one to thirty feet, and in depth from two feet to one hundred.

The hot and mineral springs are generally in the center of a tumulus or mound, formed of silicious or calcareous particles deposited by their own waters, sometimes covering several acres and rising to forty and fifty feet above the adjacent level. Sometimes the sides of the springs are formed of solid masses of lime or silica, rising several feet above the mounds; at other times, especially where the temperature of the water is high, no deposits occur in the immediate vicinity of the spring, the sides being then of ordinary turf, clay, or gravel. The water in most of these springs, although soft and agreeable to the taste when cold, contains many medicinal qualities both for drinking and bathing, having Deen used by the Indians, in view of these properties, for centuries, and being now resorted to with equal avidity by their more enlightened successors. The Steamboat Springs, in Washoe County, have thus far been of more frequent resort by the white people than any of the others, mere on account of their greater accessibility than their superior sanitary properties, which are supposed to be not equal to those of many others not so well known. A chemical analysis of these springs shows them to contain principally the chlorides of sodium and magnesium, with soda in different forms, lime, silica, and organic matter. Others of the mineral springs have been found upon analysis to contain iron and sulphur in different proportions, and often combined with other mineral solutions. The water surface of the State is estimated at 441 square miles, or 282,240 acres, which, being deducted from the total area, leaves a land surface of 71,455,360 acres, naturally divided into agricultural, mineral, grazing, reclaimable swamp, and timber lands,mountain ranges, and sandy desert, the proportions of each being given in the following estimate, based upon a careful comparison of the surveyed portions of the State, where the number of acres embraced by each division were scientifically ascertained with the whole surface, making due allowance for all known differences between the portions surveyed and those unsurveyed, viz:

Agricultural lands, 17,608,960 acres, embracing meadow lands bordering upon rivers, lakes, and mountain streams, also the richest portion of the sage-brush land contiguous to rivers. Mineral lands, 5,699,840 acres; this estimate being the minimum, based only upon such districts as were known to contain reliable mines; yet there is scarcely a mountain range within the State in which the precious metals cannot be found. Grazing land, 23,998,720 acres, embracing lands which might serve the purposes of agriculture with the aid of irrigation, the soil being very fertile, readily producing heavy crops of bunch grass of excellent quality. Reclaimable swamp lands, 74,880 acres, comprising the entire swamp lands of the State. Mountain range lands, not covered by timber and generally unavailable, except for stock ranges, 21,521,280 acres. Timber lands, 400,000 acres, embracing the lofty pine of the Sierras, contained within a narrow strip adjoining the California boundary, as well as the smaller growth of the interior .The number of acres of sandy region now unproductive, supposed irreclaimable, is 2,151,680.

The interest manifested in agriculture, horticulture, and stock-raising throughout Nevada has materially increased during the past year, serving,

in a great measure, to release the State from its former dependence upon California and Oregon, as well as adjacent Territories, for the vegetable produce, live stock, and dairy productions necessary for consumption as food by the mining population. The ascertained capacity of so large a portion of the lands for the production of fine crops of cereals, vegetables, and fruits is astonishing, in view of the late general impression that these lands were totally incapable of producing any vegetation of a higher grade than tule, buffalo grass, and wild sage. The soil in the vicinity of most of the streams is found to be a rich alluvion of great depth, formed of disintegrated rock, clay washings, and vegetable debris from the forest-covered mountains, and, on account of its light, friable condition, it is readily permeated by moisture from the intersecting water-courses, thus obviating the necessity of artificial irrigation. The tule and other swamps are found to be easily reclaimable by draining, and employing the surplus water in irrigation of higher adjacent lands; the rich black mold, formed of the decayed vegetable growth of centuries, united with washings of limestone, granite, and clay from the mountains, being relieved of superfluous water and allowed contact with the air, soon becoming sufficiently azotized to produce the heaviest crops of field or garden produce. The arid plains, upon which the only indigenous vegetation is bunch grass, sand grass, and wild sage, are found upon actual experiment to contain elements of great fertility, requiring nothing but irrigation to become first-class agricultural land. Among the most successful crops of the State are winter wheat and barley, which ripen sufficiently early to escape the drought of the summer months; oats, corn, potatoes, and garden fruits and vegetables. Thrifty orchards are now growing in several counties, promising for the immediate future abundant crops of apples, pears, peaches, and plums, and the grape-vine is said to thrive luxuriantly on the rich warm loam.

The pastures of Nevada are found to present very superior advantages for stock-raising and dairy farming, the indigenous grasses being unexcelled in attractiveness to gramnivorous animals and in nutritive qualities, whether green with the moisture of spring and early summer, or dry upon the stalk, as in autumn and winter. One variety, known as sand-grass, bears large quantities of little black seeds, which are oleaginous and very nutritious, rendering this species especially inviting to the herds during the winter season, and remarkable for its fattening qualities. A variety of the sage brush called the white sage becomes very sweet and palatable to live stock after it is touched with autumnal frosts, although previously bitter and repulsive. It will readily support animal life during the winter. It is found that in most of the valleys of the State neither shelter nor food, other than that to be found in the pastures, is necessary for the wintering and maintenance in good condition of either cattle, sheep, or swine.

Not only the precious metals, but also minerals possessing value from their use in the mechanic arts and in domestic economy, are found in Nevada, many of the latter existing in such abundance as cannot fail to render them of great value when better facilities for transportation to the localities of manufactures shall have been introduced. Among these may be mentioned vast beds of salt, ores of iron and copper, rich in these metals; beds of sulphur, from which this substance can often be obtained quite pure, although it is sometimes combined with calcareous deposits; seams of lignite and possibly true coal-yet, so far as explored, Nevada is not a strongly marked carboniferous region; cinnabar, gypsum, manganese, plumbago, kaoline, and other clays, useful in the manufacture of pottery and fire-brick; mineral pigments of many kinds; soda,

niter, alum, magnesia, platinum, zinc, tin, galena, antimony, nickel, cobalt, and arsenic, besides various rocks useful for building purposes, as limestone, sandstone, granite, marble, and slate. The salt beds constitute not only an important feature in the chorography of the State, but also a considerable item in the economical resources, furnishing a great requisite for the reduction of most of the gold and silver ores. They sometimes extend over hundreds of acres with strata each about a foot in thickness, separated by thin layers of clay, the beds being encompassed by belts of alkali lands. The importance of these salt beds can be appreciated from the fact that the companies owning and working them can furnish the article clean, dry, and white, being in fact almost pure chloride of sodium, for $40 per ton delivered at the mills, when formerly an inferior article brought from California would cost from $120 to $180 per ton at the mills. The deposits of salt in the State, however, are not confined to beds or plains, as they sometimes occur in elevated positions, the strata being many feet thick, imbedded in hills and mounds of such extent as almost to attain to the dignity of being called mountains of salt; one of these, situated in the southeastern portion of the State, is composed of cubical blocks of nearly pure chloride of sodium as transparent as window glass and often a foot square.

The silver mines of Nevada, thus far in the history of the settlement of the State, have been the great source of its wealth and the prime inducement for its settlement. At the time of the first discovery of these mines in 1859, eleven years after its acquisition by the United States under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and ten years after its first settlement by the whites, it contained less than one thousand inhabitants, these being principally Mormon farmers and herdsmen located on the fertile lands of Carson and Washoe Valleys. Two years later, or in 1861, the population had increased to 17,000. The first discovery of the extraordinary wealth of this section of our country in deposits of silver ore occurred on the Comstock lode, from which vein bullion has since been extracted amounting to more than a hundred millions of dollars; the greatest yield per annum has been $16,000,000, and the smallest yield since the mines have been fairly developed has been $8,000,000, the variation of the amount of bullion produced being caused by the occurrence of alternate metalliferous and unproductive bodies of ore imbedded in the matrix, the effect of these variations being to produce great fluctuations in the value of the shares of companies operating upon this lode, and in their financial condition; for example, one year nearly four million dollars were paid in dividends to the stockholders of one mine, and the next year the managers of the mine were compelled to collect a heavy assessment on its shares in order to meet its expenses. Last year about ten millions of bullion were realized from the Comstock lode, and the rate of production has been steadily increasing during the present year, while expenses have been diminished by increased facilities for transportation. The deepest point at present attained by any of the forty mines now in operation upon this vein is one thousand four hundred and ten feet below the outcroppings; but several of the mines have reached such depth that the cost of hoisting the ore as well as of pumping the water from the mines has been materially increased, and the profits of the enterprise greatly reduced. As a ready means of draining the mines, as well as of furnishing an easy outlet for the ore, it has been proposed to cut a tunnel through to the vein from the side of the mountain, at a depth of about two thousand feet below the outcroppings, the right of way having been granted by Congress to the pro

jector of this enterprise; but want of sufficient capital has thus far prevented its prosecution.

The Comstock lode is situated on the side of Mount Davidson, at Virginia City, Storey County, in a heavy belt, consisting principally of metamorphic rocks; but trachyte occurs in many places in the immediate vicinity of the vein. It has a general north and south course and an easterly dip, having been traced on the surface for more than twentyseven thousand feet, and actually explored for nineteen thousand feet; the latter distance comprising the locations of the principal mines. The western boundary or foot-wall of the vein consists of syenitic rock, divided from the silver ore by a seam of bluish-black crystalline rock, resembling aphanite and locally termed "black dike." The eastern boundary or hanging wall is not so well defined. For about sixteen thou sand feet along the most developed portion of the lode it consists of ferruginous feldspathic porphyry in various stages of decomposition up to that of plastic clay. Taken as a whole, the Comstock is the most valuable silver-bearing lode yet found in Nevada, equaling any deposit of the precious metals ever encountered in the history of mining enterprise, and even surpassing the famous mines of Mexico and Peru.

Other rich, silver-bearing lodes are being worked with success in Humboldt, Esmeralda, Lander, Nye, and Lincoln Counties, gold mines in Lander County, and copper mines in Douglas County; but the mining interest of the State, aside from that still drawn to the Comstock lode, now centers in the recent developments in the White Pine district, in the county of the same name, lately segregated from Lander County. This district comprises an area of about twelve miles square, covering a bold chain of hills whose general altitude varies from six to nine thousand feet, although several high ridges reach an elevation of eleven thousand feet, and whose sides are covered with a dense growth of white pine, from which these mountains were named, and subsequently the district and county. The White Pine mines are situated one hundred and twenty-five miles east of south from Elko station, on the Pacific railroad, and about the same distance south of east from Austin, there being regular communication with both of these places by excellent stage and freight lines. The principal settlements of this district are Hamilton, Treasure City, and Silver Springs, or Sherman; the former two having each a population of about three thousand, and the latter about one thousand, and each of these places having a daily newspaper. The discovery of the wealth of the silver mines of White Pine was made in May, 1868, the existence of silver ore at this point having been established some months previously. There are apparently several distinct lodes traversing the district, all possessing the same general characteristics, holding the metal in the form of a chloride, for the reduction of which the process of roasting with salt, required by the ores of the Comstock and several other of the principal lodes of the State, is quite unnecessary, and the present yield of ore is regarded as rich as any ever known in the world, the greater portion milling from eight thousand to twenty thousand dollars in bullion per ton, and none being sent to the mills which is found upon assay to contain less than three hundred and fifty dollars per ton. The yield of these mines will more than prevent any falling off in the amount of bullion produced in the State, by variations of the yield of the Comstock lode, and when fully developed must increase the annual State product to an amount far in excess of that realized during any former year. Several mills are now in operation in the district, and several others are in course of construc

tion, the capacity of some of these mills being eight hundred tons of ore per month.

The completion of the Central Pacific railroad through the State materially increases the facilities for transportation of its produce, which will probably soon be still further promoted by the completion of the Virginia and Truckee railroad, now in course of construction, running from Reno station to Virginia, Carson, and Washoe Cities, through some of the richest agricultural and mining regions of the State, and the construction of roads from Oroville, California, to Virginia City, and from Gravelly Ford Station to White Pine and Austin.

Under the appropriation by Congress for surveying public lands in Nevada during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, one hundred and four townships were surveyed under sixteen different contracts, embrac ing an aggregate of 1,552,547 acres. There were also surveyed during the year fifty-two mining claims, the expense of which was covered by special deposits under the act of May 30, 1862.

Under the act of March 3, 1869, appropriating forty thousand dollars for surveys in this State during the year 1870, the surveyor general was instructed, by letter of July 7, 1869, to let contracts to the extent of said appropriation, selecting for the sphere of operations of his deputies those localities where surveys were most urgently required on account of the proximity of mining or agricultural settlements, not omitting the expenditure of a reasonable share of the amount in public surveys along the route of the Central Pacific railroad, in order to facilitate the selection of lands conceded by Congress to aid in its construction.

There have been surveyed in this State 2,565,085 acres, leaving still to be surveyed 69,172,515 acres. The number of acres already disposed of to settlers and others, under the various laws of Congress governing such disposal, is 4,656,103.90, and there still remain for sale and entry under these laws 67,081,496.10 acres.

FOURTH DIVISION-MINERAL, AGRICULTURAL, FUR, AND TIMBER REGION OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE.

This division includes the States of California and Oregon, and the Territories of Washington and Alaska, with an area of 931,649 square miles, or 596,248,960 acres. For the purposes of description, it will be necessary to subdivide it into northern and southern sections; the former, embracing California, Oregon, and Washington, includes 354,249 square miles, or 226,721,360 acres; and the latter, Alaska, 577,390 square miles, or 369,529,600 acres.

The southern section occupies the Pacific coast for over a thousand miles, with a breadth varying from two to three hundred miles. It is characterized by great salubrity and variety of climate, unique fertility of soil, and enormous deposits of the precious metals. Its natural scenery combines features of the most varied and picturesque character. Its manufacturing facilities are rapidly developing, including its extensive deposits of the useful minerals in close connection with the elements of motive power presented by its extensive forests and coal veins. Its water power is large and conveniently located. It excels in both cereal and pastoral agriculture, producing immense quantities of wheat and wool, while its peculiar climatic conditions are eminently favorable to silk-raising. Its fruits and wines have already rivaled the famous products of Southern Europe. It is capable of supporting a population equal to that now found in the whole western hemisphere. Its present