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RIVERS. The principal river in Arizona is the Colorado, which is formed in the northern part of Utah by the confluence of the Green and Grand Rivers, in about thirty-eight degrees of north latitude. It runs south-west one hundred and fifty miles through Arizona to the east line of California; then turning south, forms the boundary between Arizona and California, and leaving Arizona, enters the head of the Gulf of California in about latitude 32° 10′ and longitude 114° 20'. It is sometimes called Colorado of the West, to distinguish it from the Colorado of Texas.

Various and conflicting opinions have been given by tourists and travelers as to the fitness of the Colorado for purposes of navigation and trade. A gentleman writing recently from Salt Lake City, where he supposed he had obtained reliable information, says the Colorado is navigable for steamboats four hundred miles, or within six hundred miles of Salt Lake City; that there are steamers already on the Colorado, and some merchants of Salt Lake are importing goods over that route by way of experiment. He adds that if successful, as seems quite certain, then the heavy trade of Utah and its dependencies will come and go from New York by way of the Isthmus of Panama and around Cape Horn, and merchants of Salt Lake can get their goods as they want them, instead of having to buy them all at once.

The principal branches of the Colorado that have their course wholly or chiefly in Arizona are the Little Colorado, Bill Williams' Fork, and the Rio Gila.

The Rio Gila rises in New Mexico and runs west through the southern portion of Arizona. Its principal branches are the Verde, the Santa Cruz, the San Francisco, San Pedro, and San Domingo. The Santa Cruz traverses the southern portion of Arizona, running north and north-west, and disappears near Tucson. It is supposed to reach the Gila by a subterranean passage.

THE LANDS, CAPITAL, AND POPULATION.-While it has some barren and desolate country, no mineral region belonging to the United States, not excepting California, has, in proportion to its extent, more arable, pastoral, and timber lands than Arizona. The climate is described as singularly adapted to physical health, or to agricultural or mining pursuits. The valleys of the Gila and Santa Cruz, the San Pedro and other streams, are large, and equal in fertility to any agricultural district in the United States. The San Pedro Valley, over one hundred miles in length, is, perhaps, the best farming district south of the Gila River. The Sonoita Valley, which opens into the Vera Cruz, near Calabazos, is some fifty miles long.

Prescott, the Territorial capital, is in the heart of a mining district of remarkable productiveness. The first house was erected in June, 1863, and in 1865 the town had some hundreds of inhabitants, and the country for fifty miles about, including a dozen mining districts and farming valleys, was largely taken up by settlers. The valleys would, it was thought, produce good crops without irrigation, as the rains in that region are frequent and heavy.

Being primarily a quartz mining country, Arizona has not increased so rapidly as other Western Territories, to which the quick returns from surface mining have attracted a large but often fluctuating population. With the aid of machinery and capital, and ready communication with more settled regions, a steady increase in population may be expected. The number of inhabitants in 1865 was between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand, exclusive of Indians.

AGRICULTURE.-R. C. McCormick, Governor of Arizona, formerly Clerk of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, wrote thus to the Department in the latter part of 1866:

"The valleys of the Territory, more extensively cultivated this year than ever before, have produced an abundant harvest. The yield of corn, vegetables, and small grain is such as to prove that henceforth we need not look abroad for food; and I make no doubt that if assured that their crops will be bought and promptly paid for, and they are properly protected from Indian incursions, our ranchmen will, during the ensuing year, by the favor of Heaven, raise all the breadstuffs that may be required to subsist the military force in the Territory. Here in Central Arizona, even in the mountain districts, where comparatively little was expected in the way of agricultural success, the pursuit of the husbandman is likely to be one of the most profitable. The heavy rains of the present season indicate that irrigation will seldom be necessary, and the fertility of the soil is remarkable. It seems as though every thing planted attained the most luxuriant and complete growth in the shortest possible time. The grains, vegetables, and melons, taken promiscuously from any of the ranches, and raised without fertilization of any kind, or other than the simplest care, would command a premium if placed in competition with the products of the richest and most expensive farms and gardens of the Atlantic States."

IDAHO.

THE Territory of Idaho was organized by act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863. It originally embraced a vast region lying on both sides of the Rocky Mountains; but by the subsequent formation of Montana Territory, its dimensions were greatly reduced. Its present shape is very irregular, as it includes the scope of country between the 42d and 49th parallels of north latitude, and between the crests of the Rocky and Bitter-root Mountains and the eastern boundaries of Oregon and Washington Territory.

The following extracts of a letter, dated Salt Lake City, October 1, 1865, addressed to Samuel Bowles, of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and published in his recent book, "Across the Continent," give a very full and interesting description of Idaho, its mines. and mining operations:

"Idaho Territory has an area of 125,000 square miles, and is bounded on the north and east by British Columbia and Montana, south by Utah and Nevada, and west by Oregon and Washington. Idaho is an Indian word, signifying the 'gem of the mountains.' It was chosen by the early gold-hunters as an appropriate name for the embryo State in the mountains, then extending both sides of the Rocky range. But a comparatively small portion of its vast surface is susceptible of tillage, and mining must ever continue its principal interest. The population of the Territory is now probably about 25,000. It has been more, but as the richest placer diggings are exhausted, other and richer localities are sought. About half of this population has been contributed by Oregon; the remaining half must be about equally divided between California and Nevada, and the States east of the mountains. In the mountains a great depth of snow falls in the winter; but the climate is milder than in like latitudes and altitudes on the Atlantic side.

"Boise City, the capital of the Territory, is, for a mining region, a substantial, steady-going little town. It contains some ten or twelve hundred inhabitants, comprising a number of families, and affording tolerable society. It is the depot for all the mining region so far as discovered in southern Idaho. Here are large stocks of mining goods, and here, and through here, all the mining towns and camps obtain or receive their supplies. There are no mines immediately about the town, nor, indeed, nearer than twenty-five miles.

"Boise City is located upon the west bank of Boise River, a moderate stream, which marks a fertile but narrow valley, in which nearly all the grain and vegetables thus far raised in Southern Idaho are produced. This product, however, does comparatively little toward supplying the miners. The bulk comes from Oregon, with an occasional venture of salt and vegetables from Utah.

"Idaho City is some thirty-five miles north of Boise City, and you are taken there in the stages of Henry Greathouse, a brother of Ridgely Greathouse, who was convicted at San Francisco of attempting to fit out a pirate vessel, discharged under the amnesty proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, afterward rearrested, taken to New York, and confined in Fort Lafayette, from which he made his escape and fled to Europe, where he now is. His brother Henry is understood to hold Southern sympathies, but never talks of public affairs. He is a quiet, hard-working man, drives a coach himself, when necessary, and has accumulated à good deal of money. The town is situated in what is termed 'Boise Basin,' between Moore and Elk Creeks, branches of Boise River, and is the largest town in the Territory. It is in the midst of an important placer district, and contains from five to seven thousand inhabitants, on week days, and from ten to fifteen thousand on Sundays, for Sunday is a populous and profitable day with a mining town. On that day all the miners for miles around visit the town to purchase supplies, exchange greetings, gamble, guzzle, and indulge in dissipations of mining metropolitan life. Idaho City, seen on Sunday, is a very different town from the Idaho City of any other day. There is no store, shop, or business place of character closed on that day. It is altogether the busiest the week with shop-keepers, victualers, gamblers, and whisky dis

pensers.

"Idaho City is built in and over the mines, and one-third or onehalf of the buildings in the place have been already mined under; nearly all undoubtedly will be. In a mining country the miner is king, and his will is the law. If he finds 'pay-dirt' under a house, he locates and records his claim, and commences to undermine it, without saying "by your leave' to owner or occupant. Of course, as he digs, he props up the building, so that it may not fall upon his head; that secure, be troubles himself no further. When a claim is worked out, he leaves it without filling under or further propping up the house. If it falls, it concerns not him. The city or territorial authorities have enacted laws forbidding the undermining of buildings without making them permanently secure from fall. But the miners elect the officers and compose the juries that administer the law: it is unnecessary to add the miner wins the suit. Several have been commenced and prosecuted, but with no other result. The same is the case with regard to the streets; where the miner's claim leads across, up or down one, across, up or down he goes, wherever 'pay-dirt' points, and the public can repair or abandon the road, as they find most convenient or profitable.

"About two months prior to our visit, Idaho City had been almost entirely destroyed by fire, occasioning an estimated loss of $1,400,000. Already the town had been rebuilt with a better class of wood buildings than before, interspersed with a number of brick blocks. The recuperative energies of a flourishing mining town are extraordinary.

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"The Boise Basin,' as it is called, is a sink or depression in the mountains; higher mountains surrounding constitute the basin's ‘rim.' I do not know the extent of the basin, but should think it to be from thirty to forty miles in length, and perhaps a little less in width. Over

this are scattered placer mines, of various extent and richness, the most important of which are those in the vicinity of Idaho City. There are, however, other placers and other towns of consequence, not far distant in the surrounding country. One of the latter bears the euphonious name of 'Hog 'em,' said to have been derived from the swinish propensities of its early proprietor.

"These placer mines are of considerable extent, and more than fair productiveness. They are of three classes, the first and richest being the 'Creek Diggings,' comprising the bed of the creek and its banks; the next and less productive, though yielding from ten to fifteen dollars per day to each miner when supplied with water, includes the higher bank; the third consists of hill diggings beyond, still poorer, but paying for working when water can be had. The Creek Diggings, best and longest supplied with water, have been generally worked out, and, of course, with them has gone the cream of the mines. An unusual rise of Moore and Elk Creeks last spring brought down the 'tailings' from the mountains, and buried the claims below ten or twelve feet deep, and all summer the miner has been compelled to 'strip' this surface off before being able to work his claim. The bench and hill diggings, with here and there the exception of a gulch, down which the melting snows have poured torrents, remain generally undisturbed. They depend mainly upon the melting snows and spring rise for water. The consequence is, the mining season for any thing but creek diggings is short, not exceeding two or three months of each year.

"We were in the Basin in the month of September-the dull season. Probably at that time ten thousand persons were employed in placer mining. In the spring, the number has heretofore been larger, and will again be, if other excitements and discoveries do not further draw off the population. Already, it was said, two thousand persons had left for the Blackfeet Mine, and if the reports of rich discoveries there were confirmed, a stampede in the spring was predicted.

"I have no means of ascertaining accurately the product of the Idaho gold mines. The known amount deposited for coinage in the San Francisco mint for the year ending December, 1864, was reported at $3,500,000, and San Francisco estimates placed the total amount for that year at $6,000,000. That is probably not above the actual product. But mining there is, as every-where else, a precarious business, a life of excitement, and not seldom success. A few acquire sudden riches; the many make a living.

"In an around the Boise Basin are many gold-bearing quartz leads, some thought to be rich and extensive; but few, if any, yet fully proved to be so. Several mills are at work upon some of them, but none that we saw are so far developed as to satisfactorily demonstrate their richness. Among the apparently promising leads we visited were three lying near together in the Summit Flat District, distant some fifteen or eighteen miles from Idaho City. They are called the Mammoth,' 'King,' and 'Specimen' ledges, and are owned by Messrs. Jackson, Humason, and Bibb. They are gold mines only, and not extensively developed, yet reasonably promising so far as they have been worked.

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