is composed of some wash and clay and slate mixed. Heavy boulders impede the working in the main gulch, but the bars on the north side of the gulch are easily worked and pay well. The bed rock is principally slate. About one hundred miners, mechanics, &c., live in the gulch. The gold obtained is coarse and above the average in fineness, the yield up to date being about $50,000.

Indiana Gulch, eight miles north of Thompson's, was discovered in the year 1869. It is worked for three miles, the pay streak being a heavy wash 8 feet deep and 20 feet wide. It is worked by a company of twenty miners known as the House & Pratt Company.

Elk Gulch. This gulch is five miles farther north, was discovered in 1865, empties into Camas creek, and is four miles long. Prospecting shafts were sunk to a depth of 40 feet and good prospects of coarse gold obtained, the pay streak being principally a fine wash resting on a bed rock of slate. The rapid accumulation of water in the shafts, necessitating the construction of long and expensive drain ditches, compelled the miners to abandon the diggings. They will eventually be worked with success, though not before the outlay of considerable capital.

Thomas Gulch, five miles north of Elk, was likewise discovered in 1865 and abandoned after a limited amount of work had been done.

Benton Gulch, five miles north of Thomas, the pay streak is from 4 to 10 feet deep, of mixed clay and broken slate. The gold is very irregu larly distributed and the gulch has not paid well.

Of the above, Indiana, Elk, Thomas and Benton Gulches all empty into Camas Creek.

Bearer Gulch, north of Benton, was discovered in 1865. It empties into Deep Creek. The pay streak is only from 2 to 6 feet deep and 15 feet wide. It is worked by about thirty men and has paid from $3 to $5 per diem to the hand.

It is a fact worthy of note that on both slopes of the Belt range, extensive gold placers have been found, having their fountain-head within a few yards of each other, a fact which seems to confirm the opinion of experienced miners that there are still large deposits of gold in the Belt range, and that a rich reward awaits the systematic and thorough prospector.

Good prospects of fine gold have been found on the Swimming Woman and Flat Willow, tributaries of the Lower Muscleshell, and also in the Judith Mountains; but the placers have never been worked on account of dangers threatening from the ferocity of the Indians.

Ditches.-There are only four ditches in this mining district, all conveying water to the miners of Thompson's Gulch. Two of them belong to Williams & Co., and bring the water from Camas Creek. One is three miles long, carries 800 inches of water, and costs $3,000; the other is two miles long, carries 600 inches, and costs $2,000. A third ditch belongs to a joint company of miners, who use the water in common. It is two and a half miles long, costs $1,500, and brings 140 inches from Birch Creek. Ditch No. 4 was built by Tubbs & McFadden, at a cost of $1,500; it is two and a half miles long, and carries 200 inches from Birch Creek.

Quartz lodes.-The principal lodes east of the Belt range are the copper mines on the headwaters of the Muscleshell; but owing to the difficulty and expense of transportation, they are not worked as much as the extent of the deposits and their richness justify. Danger from Indians is also an important obstacle.

The copper mines of the Muscleshell were discovered in the spring of

1866 by a party of miners, who had abandoned the placers in Elk Creek. In following the Flathead trail, which was afterwards ascertained to cross the principal lead, they observed indications of copper, and upon a close search found rich pieces of ore and some native copper scattered over the surface of the ground. They immediately took the proper steps to secure the valuable mines afterwards discovered near the trail. The discovery of the main lode instigated a more thorough search, and other mines quite as valuable as the first rewarded the prospectors for their labor, and there is no doubt that a more systematic and careful examination may yet reveal still more valuable mines than any found so far. These copper lodes are embraced in a district known as the Muscleshell mining district, which covers an area of about thirty square miles.

The Canada, Boomerang, Ohio, Indiana, St. John's, Granite, State, Oro Fino, and Copperopolis are in every probability situated on the same vein, whose general direction is east by south and west by north. This vein has an average width of 15 to 20 feet, and the gangue consist of heavy spar, quartz, and brown spar, with the different copper ores, viz: sulphurets, red oxide, malachite, azurite, &c. It seems to be a true and permanent vein, nearly perpendicular, and covering the slate formation, which forms the country rock at right angles. The vein matter is not uniform, the ore varying in richness from ten to twenty-five per cent. Occasionally there are zones of exceedingly rich peacock and red oxide ore, ranging from forty to seventy per cent. of copper. The ore of the Nowlan contains red oxide and assays forty per cent. of copper, and sixty per cent. in gold and silver per ton. The Crittenden, Mountain Queen, and Tuscarawas, east of Copper Creek, are also probably true veins. Eight miles to the southeast the Vivian, White Cloud, and De Soto form another cluster of veins.

There is an abundance of timber near the lodes, and the water from the Muscleshell furnishes sufficient power for working blast furnaces, if it should be found advisable to reduce the ores at the mines. At the present prices of labor and the heavy expense of transportation to and from the mines, they will not pay. All the supplies for the mines and their products would have to be hauled to and from Benton, via Helena and Diamond City.

A shipment of three tons of ore, selected from five different lodes, was sent to Baltimore in the fall of 1867. It was merely an experiment, but the results demonstrated the value of the ore when cheap transportation can be obtained.

The average yield was twenty-five per cent. copper. By the erection of proper concentrating machinery, large quantities of rich ore could be shipped to Swansea, Baltimore, or Boston. There must be some cheaper method of transportation, however, before this can be done to advantage. The construction of the road now contemplated by the government from the mouth of Muscleshell to Fort Ellis, would open a way to the Missouri River, whence returning steamers, without freight, could take the ores to St. Louis or New Orleans at a reasonable rate, and the ore could be shipped to such smelting works offering the best advantage.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

In the absence of the official returns for 1869, I append the table of taxation for 1868. Since that time, every item has materially increased.

Acres under cultivation...

Value of improvements

12,500 $11,386

It is very much to be regretted that so large a proportion of Meagher County is not in better communication with the other territorial settlements, and that up to the present it has only served alternately as the hunting-ground and battle-field of savages. Its natural advantages cannot be too highly prized. Possessed, as it is, of the finest grazing lands in the world, its beautiful valleys attest the fertility of the soil in abundant crops of rich nutritious grasses and wild oats; its countless streams of pure water furnish unlimited power for mills of all kinds; its mountains, covered with dense forests of pine and spruce, are seamed with lodes of gold, copper, and silver.

Game of all kinds abounds. Buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, moose, mon tain sheep, grizzly, black, and cinnamon bears, and in Deep and Judith Rivers the finest trout, are plentiful. Aside from these advantages, it is blessed with a salubrious climate, moderately warm summers, and mild winters. It is destined, at no distant day, to contain the happy homes of a large population.

CHAPTER XLV.

JEFFERSON COUNTY.

This county, next to Lewis and Clarke the smallest in the Territory, lies between Madison in the south, Gallatin in the east, Lewis and Clarke in the north, and along its western boundary it is divided from Deer Lodge by the main chain of the Rocky Mountains. The Missouri River separates it from the northern part of Gallatin, and into this river run all the waters of the county. The principal streams are the Prickly Pear and Crow Rivers, the North Boulder, White Tail Deer, Sandy, and Pipestone Creeks.

The first placers in the county were discovered in the valleys of the Prickly Pear and Boulder. The latter region caused quite an excitement in 1864, and much prospecting was carried on at that time. These "rushes" have been repeated almost every year since that time, but mostly without sufficient cause. In fact, the bars in the main stream contain the gold very unevenly distributed, and principally for this reason the operations on the stream have been but moderately profitable. An exception is the Old Bar about eight miles above the Boulder crossing, a locality which has furnished a steady and satisfactory yield. Between the Old Bar and the crossing the bars have been worked to some extent during the last season. It is intended to eventually turn Boulder Creek from its bed in the neighborhood of the upper bars, in order to work the bed along the lower part of this creek. This will open up several miles of undoubtedly very rich ground.

Two bed-rock flumes were constructed in 1868 on Basin Creek, one of the northern tributaries of the Boulder, and since that time these mines have paid quite well. The ground was originally discovered to be goldbearing in 1865, but owing to want of capital and other causes no extensive operations could be entered into, and the diggings attracted therefore little attention until the summer of 1868. In the same neighborhood

several small gulches have been prospected with encouraging results as to yield. In most of them, however, the insufficiency of water was severely felt during last season.

On the Jefferson, a short distance below the mouth of the Boulder, some very rich bars have been discovered. They were worked with water raised from the Jefferson by means of water-wheels and bucketpumps.

On the Pipestone, part of which runs through Madison County, placers were discovered in 1864. Some of the claims paid well from the beginning, but not until bed-rock flumes and hydraulics were introduced was the gulch made generally productive. During last fall an intense excitement sprung up, caused by the alleged discovery of new and exceedingly rich diggings on this creek. The gold was reported coarse and of fine quality, and so abundant that a yield of $20 per day to the hand was claimed by many. I have not had any later news of this locality, but it is probable that the first reports were rather highly colored and overreached the facts.

Near Beavertown, a few miles south of Jefferson, exist copper placers. The particles of copper being sharp and pointed and held together by portions of half-decomposed quartz, the vein these deposits originated from ought to be near the locality of the placers. I am not informed, however, whether prospecting for the lode has been successful.

The Indian Creek diggings were discovered in 1866. Although they attracted considerable attention very little gold was produced until last year, when ditches were constructed to drain the upper part of the gulch, where the bed rock lies very deep. On the west side of Indian Creek, and in the neighborhood of Springville, exist extensive dry gulches and bars. This district suffers very much from the great scarcity of water, and various small ditches have been constructed to supply this want. The most important one is the ditch carrying the water of White Horse Creek to the bars. It is seven miles long, and 300 feet only of this distance are flumes. It holds 200 inches of water, and was finished at a cost of $8,000 in 1867. There is not enough water furnished yet, still the mines have mostly been profitably worked since their discovery in 1867.

The placers in the neighborhood of Radersburg on Crow Creek consist of extensive flats and bars. The ground is so flat that enough fall can rarely be had to run off the gravel, and the gravel is not rich enough to pay for stripping and shoveling. In June, 1869, the population at these mines was about 150, five hydraulics were in operation, and the supply of water was satisfactory. Forty claims were worked and most of them at a fair profit. Later in the season the supply of water was insufficient. A ditch, seven miles in length, conducts the water from the upper part of Crow Creek to the diggings. It carries 400 inches of water, contains 200 feet of fluming, and was finished by the Radersburg Ditch Company in 1868 at a cost of over $12,000. It has changed hands during last season. The diggings on Wilson Creek, one of the tributaries of Crow Creek, are said to have paid well during last spring.

The principal veins in this county are situated in the vicinity of JefferSon City and Beavertown, and near Radersburg and Springville. The veins of the former locality were discovered at an early date in the history of this region. They are all silver-bearing galena lodes, and much work has been done and considerable money expended on some of them. The developments on the Gregory, made at great expense, were especially highly encouraging, and smelting works were erected to beneficiate the ores. Unfortunately, however, the American hearth was selected as the

apparatus supposed to be adapted to the treatment of these ores. The ores carry too much gangue to permit of successful smelting in this furnace, and the experiments proved, of course, unsuccessful. This dis couraged the owners so that they suspended operations after having spent much money in experimenting. The furnace was finally sold for taxes during last year. A second furnace was erected for the purpose of treating the ores from the Alta. The ores from this mine are similar to those of the Gregory, but as those delivered for smelting were better sorted and carried less gangue, smelting succeeded moderately well, though much silver is said to have been lost in the slag. At present none of these mines are in a very prosperous condition.

The lodes in the neighborhood of Radersburg and Springville are very little developed, but are said to be rich on the surface. In the former locality Messrs. Blacker & Keeting have erected an arrastra with two stamps attached near the Leviathan lode. Eleven tons from the Keeting lode, crushed and worked in the arrastra, yielded $1,300. Fourteen tons from the R. E. Lee, worked in Nave's arrastra, yielded $45 per ton.

CHAPTER XLVI.

MADISON COUNTY.

This county is situated in the extreme southern part of the Territory and adjoins the northeastern portion of Idaho on its southern, Beaver Head and the southeastern corner of Deer Lodge County on its western, Jefferson and Gallatin Counties on its northern, and Gallatin County and the Territory of Wyoming on its eastern boundary line. It is drained by the affluents of Beaver Head, Jefferson, and Madison Rivers.

Gold was discovered first on June 2, 1863, in Alder Gulch, and it is reported that up to the fall of 1866 $30,000,000 were taken out from this single locality. Besides this gulch the following have since been found to contain gold:

Ramshorn Gulch, north of Alder. Rich deposits of gravel have been found beneath what had been formerly considered the bed rock. The gulch has been very productive and will probably be so in future.

Bivin's Gulch has also been profitably worked and is still productive. Norwegian Gulch and Washington Bar, in the Hot Spring district, were discovered in March, 1864, and have been moderately remunerative. The yield for 1868, however, did not exceed $20,000.

Wigwam Gulch, a tributary to Alder, has been lately discovered. It is reported to have yielded rich returns during the last year.

As a general thing the placers of the county have done as well during the last year as they have before, wherever the great drought of the last season has not prevented gulch mining altogether.

So far as developed, the Everett, Green Campbell lode in Silver Star district, takes the lead in quartz mining in the county. Thirteen hundred feet of it have been developed and the lode is now sought to be tapped by two tunnels, one to strike it at a depth of 104, the other at 320 feet below the surface. These tunnels will drain both the original location and its extensions. None of the shafts sunk so far are deeper than 75 feet vertical, but they show a vein of gold quartz sufficiently promising to warrant the contemplated work on the tunnels above mentioned. The average yield of the ore crushed in the company's mill has been $20 per ton.