20 inches, widening in places to 3 feet. The ore was decomposed and partially indurated iron-oxide. The last run of the rock had yielded $40 per ton.

By information dated in December, I learn that the lode is worked to the depth of 50 feet, and that the main shaft is down 130 feet, showing a 2-foot vein of rich ore. The aggregate yield of the mine to that date is given at 600 tons, and the average yield at a little over $35 per ton, or $22,000 in all. The main shaft will be sunk to 160 feet, and levels run at that depth for regular extraction. The work done hitherto, though temporarily profitable, has been scarcely miner-like. Two shafts within a hundred feet, two levels in a depth of 50 feet, and the whole vein "gouged out," leaving an empty crevice, is the appearance of the mine in its first stage. The great promise of this property will certainly justify more systematic work. Indeed, operations would probably have been more regular from the beginning, but for the liti gation which rendered it desirable, on the one hand, to develop the independent character of the vein as soon as possible, and, on the other hand, to get as much money out of it as possible, while its title remained in doubt.

The average yield for the first 25 feet in depth is said to have been $21 from one shaft and $35 from the other. It has been worked in the Sample Mill, a steam custom-mill with twelve stamps, 500 pounds, dropping 8 to 12 inches, and at the time of my visit, when very soft rock was being worked, only 34 times per minute. On hard quartz it is said to run at 60 drops. This very soft material was from the Allen mine, (see below,) and the capacity at the rate given was 10 to 12 tons daily, or an efficiency of 2 tons per horse-power daily. The Left-hand lode is said to keep one arrastra also running. Messrs. Clancy and Davis, the owners of this mine, have three other partially developed lodes, the General Washburn, Don Juan, and Morning Star, of which the first promises to be very rich, according to the indications of 60 tons of ore extracted from a 70-foot shaft, which yielded $16 to $22 per ton.

The Don Juan is said to have a 2-foot crevice of dark ores yielding $20 to $36 per ton. The Morning Star has been opened to the depth of 40 feet, shows an 18-inch crevice, and prospects well. Other lodes worthy of mention are the Pennsylvania, discovered September, 1871, 2-foot crevice, dark ore, $15 to $20 per ton; the Northeast, discovered January, 1871, crevice 24 feet, ore yellow, much free gold, $30 per ton; the Rica, (Ferguson, Gonu and Smith,) one foot, decomposed yellow ore, prospecting well, traceable for 2,000 feet; and the Hidden Treasure, (A. Campbell,) 2-foot crevice, dark yellow ore, free gold, $20 per ton.

Messrs. Keating and Blacker, the owners of the Keating lode, possess also the Ohio and Leviathan. These are situated near the Keating Mill, about half mile up the gulch, above a little settlement called Keatingville, two or three miles from Radersburgh. The Ohio courses north 380 west, and dips 77° southwest. The average width is 4 feet, in the bottom of the shaft 5 feet, (but here it has passed into sulphurets, which are not at present worked.) The ore is decomposed and ferruginous in the upper levels, and carries calc-spar in fine crystals-a circumstance which I did not notice elsewhere. The walls are white decomposed argillaceous rock above, and probably greenstone below. The vein crops out boldly in a bluff by the side of the road opposite the mill. It has been opened with a drift from the road, 50 feet northwest, and beyond this on the top of the hill a shaft 35 feet deep, showing a handsome 8-foot lode. No stoping has been done at this point. On the

southeast side of the road a shaft is down 180 feet, (August, 1871,) and a drift has been run 150 feet southeast and 40 feet northwest, at the depth of 75 feet, from which the vein has been stoped out to the surface. The bottom of the whim-shaft is in sulphurets. So is the bottom of a shaft at the mouth of the tunnel-drift first alluded to. This latter shaft is 65 feet deep, but its mouth lies 30 feet lower than that of the whim-shaft. The Ohio ore has averaged, according to Mr. Keating, $25 per ton. There seems to be still a good deal of the decomposed ore accessible; but, sooner or later, this mine, and all others in the Radersburgh district, will have to face the sulphurets in depth. At present, these are universally avoided. There are no facilities for working them, and I could not even learn that they had ever been assayed or tested in any way for gold.

The Leopard lode has a 1-foot crevice of dark-brown ore, shown in a 20-foot shaft. It prospects well. The Twilight is 2 feet wide, yielding a light yellow ore. It has been developed to the depth of 60 feet, was very rich near the surface, but is not now worked.

The Iron-Clad lode, giving its name to a small settlement of a dozen houses, is situated in the foot-hills, about two miles west of Radersburgh.

Nave,

Hallbeck.

N. 100 W. magnetic.

Profile of Workings on the Ironclad Vein, Radersburg, Montana.

1 Scale, 100 ft. to the inch.

The course is south 100 east, and the dip, taken at the mouth of the whim-shaft, about 700 west; below, 67° north. The average width is 33 feet. The country-rock is magnesian, (talcose slate?) and the vein follows apparently its dip and course. The ore is bluish-gray quartz, containing disseminated sulphurets; in the upper levels, ferruginous decomposed quartz. The sulphuret zone in this vein begins about 40 feet from the bottom of the present workings. Very little of the gold in the sulphurets is saved in the mill; but the tailings have been saved for future treatment. At the time of my visit, a 6-stamp water-power mill at Hot Spring was at work on the Nave ore, and the Sample Mill has treated some of Hallbeck's ore. The larger part of the quartz extracted remains for the present on the dumps. The owners contemplate the erection of a new mill in the spring. The vein has been superficially traced for 3,000 feet. The discovery was made in 1866 by John Spears, but the greater part of the lode is held by other parties, of which the most prominent are: Charles G. Hallbeck, Discovery, 200 feet; Jacob Nave, No. 1 south, 1,000 feet; J. F. Allen, No. 1 north, 206 feet. The diagram shows Nave's and Hallbeck's workings. At each of the two shafts shown there is a horse-whim. Water is raised in barrels,

amounting, in August, on Nave's claim, to 20 barrels, at 33 gallons, or 660 gallons daily. The yield of the quartz is $20 to $25 per ton.

The depth of workings on the Iron-Clad, according to my latest advices, (December,) was: 130 feet in Nave's claim, No. 1 south; 180 feet, in Hallbeck's Discovery claim; 188 feet in Allen's claim, No. 1 north now owned by Terrill and Merritt; and in the Allen shaft itself, 204 feet.

The Mammoth, owned by Cleaveland and Naves, has a 4-foot crevice of dark-brown ore, yielding $14.80 per ton. Depth of working, 30 feet. The Robert E. Lee has a shaft 60 feet deep; is from four inches to one foot wide, and yields light-yellowish, soft ore, milling $40 to $90 per ton.

The Vanderbilt, owned by Kerwin and Baier, is developed to the depth of 50 feet, showing a 12 to 14-inch crevice, with brown quartz, carrying some visible free gold. Thirty-five tons milled $15 per ton.

N. 380 E. magnetic.

A

W

Profile of the Allen Mine, Radersburg, Montana.

Scale, 100 ft. to the inch.

The Allen lode, about half a mile east of the Iron-Clad, was discovered by Mr. J. F. Allen, who owns 800 feet of it. The diagram shows his workings up to August 5, 1871. All these were accomplished in two months, the vein being remarkably soft, and the walls, especially the hanging-wall, good. There are thin clay partings and no slides of rock. Only two blasts had been found necessary in the drifts. The course of the vein is north 28° east, and the dip 70° northwest for the first 30 feet, and 650 below. The width is, at northeast end of lower drift, 4 feet 8 inches; between air-shaft (A) and whim-shaft (W) above lower drift, 3 feet; at bottom of whim-shaft, 3 feet; average width, 3 feet. The whim-shaft is 270 feet northeast of the Discovery. The vein carries sulphurets, no doubt, in depth, but they are not yet reached, and the ore resembles that of the Iron-Clad above the sulphuret zone. The amount of quartz extracted up to August was 300 or 400 tons. The last run of 80 tons in the Sample Mill yielded $13.55 per ton. It is supposed that the softness of the material caused a loss of gold. This mine was in October under negotiation for sale to a New York company at $27,500, cash, for 800 feet. The owner proposed erecting a mill immediately, whether the sale should be effected or not. The width of the ledge, and the cheapness and ease of extracting the rock, render it a very promising mine.

The Congress lode (A. Campbell & Co.) has a 2-foot crevice of dark-brown ore, assaying $57 in silver and $45 in gold, per ton. Depth of workings, 33 feet. The John Spear lode, developed to the depth of 20 feet, shows a 3-foot crevice, carrying much galena, and assaying $90 in silver and $11 in gold, per ton. The Live Yankee, Moore Campbell, and a number of other promising outcrops, have been but slightly prospected.

South of Cedar Plains district, high up in the mountain-range separating Crow Creek from North Boulder, large quantities of galena "floatrock" have been found, and it is expected that rich silver-bearing lodes will be discovered in that neighborhood during this year. Indeed, some lodes of galena have already been found which assay $60 silver per ton.

The facilities for the reduction of ores have increased with a rapidity almost but not quite equal to the progress of extraction in this district. The following mills were in operation in December:

Keating and Blacker's, fifteen stamps, steam, cost $20,000; Davis Mill, twelve stamps, steam, cost $12,000; Allen's Mill, six_stamps, steam; How & Wood's arrastra, with two stamps; and Nave Brothers' Mill, five stamps and arrastra, water-power. The combined capacity of this machinery is sufficient to crush 56 tons of quartz every twentyfour hours. The product for the year 1871 was about $200,000, onehalf of which was from ores of the Ohio and Keating lodes, crushed in the Keating and Blacker Mill.

The placer mines of this district have yielded well during the past year, and some new and very remunerative discoveries have been made. Mr. Thompson discovered a lower channel on Keating Gulch which yielded $5,000 in one week, with only five workmen employed, and which is by no means yet exhausted. The same channel was afterward struck at a depth of 60 feet, about 1,000 feet below Thompson's claim; and it is not improbable that it may extend along Keating Gulch a distance of two or three miles, in which event this district will receive a new impulse to its prosperity. In Mountain Gulch a deep channel was recently discovered on Mr. Harvey's claim, which proved to be very rich, and from which 145 ounces of gold were taken during the few days which it was worked before cold weather put a stop to mining operations. This discovery will probably lead to the development of a very extensive gold deposit underlying the false bed-rock upon which the gulch has been hitherto worked. The yield of the placer mines during the past season has been not less than $50,000.

The ditches, three in number, which provide the water for the working of these placer mines, are owned by Mr. Quinn. Their combined length is about twenty miles, and the cost of their construction was about $30,000. Water will be supplied in future at such rates as will justify the working of very extensive deposits which have heretofore lain idle.

We have already seen that the yield of this district, which is only about three miles square, was, during the year 1871, $250,000. The indications are that these figures will be increased to $500,000 during the current year.

Indian Creek district.-About eight miles north of Cedar Plains district, and situated among the foot-hills of the Crow Creek Mountains, is Indian Creek mining district, supporting the towns of Saint Louis and Springville, located respectively in the upper and lower portions of the mines.

The placer mines of this section were discovered in 1866, since which time they have been worked to only a moderate extent on account of scarcity of water. Indian Creek is worked for a distance of about four miles, gives employment, while water lasts, to about one hundred men, and pays about $7 per day to the hand. The aggregate length of water-ditches is fifteen miles. The yield of gold for the year 1871 was in the neighborhood of $50,000. Some rich bars in this district have paid from $20 to $50 per day to the hand.

Among the quartz mines are the following:

The Diamond Ledge is 13 to 15 feet in width, and is sunk upon to the depth of 95 feet. It yields a decomposed reddish quartz, 40 tons of which, worked in an arrastra, paid $10.25 per ton. It has the appearance of being a "chimney;" is owned by Messrs. Lewis & Reece, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Blacksmith Ledge, 2 to 4 feet wide, reddish quartz, in a line with the Diamond Ledge, and perhaps a continuation of the latter; has a shaft 75 feet deep, and is actively worked by its owners, Messrs. Foster, Ross & Co. Jaw-Bone Ledge, 4 to 5 feet wide; well-defined crevice, producing hard, brown quartz, of a very regular character, showing some fine free gold. Fifty tons in an arrastra yielded $15 to $33 per ton. Combined length of shafts and levels, 250 feet. Has been worked to a depth of 60 feet. Its owners, Messrs. Kerwin, Paschley & Baier, contemplate the erection of a small mill at an early day. A number of other ledges in this district prospect well, but are undeveloped. Both this district and that of Cedar Plains are very advantageously situated on the main stage-road between Helena and Bozeman, and on the borders of one of the most productive agricultural sections of Montana. Their supplies of merchandise can be obtained from Helena in from one to two days, while the products of the farm are abundant in the immediate neighborhood.