Increasing The following extract from his message, exhibits the mineral resources of the Territory:

"A bird's-eye view of the accumulating discoveries in our mineral resources, reveals the fact that we have no less than three thousand gold and silver-bearing quartz ledges, graded in their value as in their richness, and new discoveries and new locations are being made almost daily. The width of these lodes or leads varies from three to thirty feet, and they present from thirty to two hundred dollars per ton. Located usually where water-power and timber are in abundance, they offer the highest inducements to enterprising capitalists, whose investments can rarely fail of being of the most remunerative character. Among the other useful ores which have been discovered within the past year, cinnabar, copper, lead, and iron, in many forms, are of the first value; yet platina, antimony, nickel, bismuth, iridium, and rhodium, simple or compounded with other materials, are found in various localities.

"But this is not all; beds of the best coal, both anthracite and bituminous, with rock-salt, sulphur, and gypsum, (better known as the fertilizing plaster of commerce,) while the most precious of gems-the diamond-has been discovered in our gulches; all give you a feeling foretaste of the illimitable extent of Idaho's varied mineral wealth, when the hand of man shall have unbosomed her hidden treasures. The wide extent of our auriferous placers, only a moiety of which has been well prospected, checkered as they are by auriferous quartz lodes and leads, are rivaled only by argentiferous mountain ledges, striated, laminated, and foliated with silver in chlorides and sulphurets-arsenical, antimonial, and virgin. This presents a fabulous array of marvelous deposits, which will require the industry of ages to develop and ex

haust."

ΜΟΝΤΑΝΑ.

MONTANA is the newest of our organized Territories. The act of Congress for its organization was approved May 26, 1864. It lies along upon the Rocky Mountains, above Colorado and Utah, mostly on the western slopes, but still going out into the eastern valleys, whose waters feed the Missouri River, and find their way into the Atlantic Ocean. Idaho lies beyond Montana to the west, among the Blue Mountains and the upper waters of the Columbia River, or its Snake River branch. The following are the boundaries of Montana, as designated in the organic act:

"Commencing at a point formed by the intersection of the 27th de gree of longitude west from Washington with the 45th degree of north Jatitude; thence due west on said 45th degree to a point formed by its intersection with the 34th degree of longitude west from Washington; thence due south along the 34th degree of west longitude to its inter

section with the 44th degree and 30 minutes of north latitude; thence due west along said 44th degree and 30 minutes of north latitude to a point formed by its intersection with the crest of the Rocky Mountains: thence following the crest of the Rocky Mountains northward to its intersection with the Bitter-root Mountains; thence northward along the crest of said Bitter-root Mountains to its intersection with the 39th degree of longitude west from Washington; thence along said 39th degree of longitude northward to the boundary line of the British Possessions; thence eastward along said boundary to the 27th degree of longitude west from Washington; thence southward along said 27th degree of longitude to the place of beginning."

This makes Montana the northernmost Territory, next to the States east of the Missouri Valley. It is a good mining and agricultural region. It was settled by emigrants from the Northern and Western States. The total population was put down in 1865 at 35,822. Large accessions have been made since the census was taken. Mining and agriculture are the principal occupations of the people, with freighting and merchandise.

COUNTIES AND COUNTY TOWNS.-Montana has the following counties and county towns:

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.-The following were the Federal and Territorial officers in Montana in 1865:

Governor, Sidney Edgerton, residence at Bannock City; Secretary, John T. Coburn; Attorney-General, E. B. Neally, residence at Virginia City; United States Marshal, George M. Birney; Assistant United States Marshal, J. X. Beidler; Surveyor-General, M. Boyd; Auditor, John S. Lott; Treasurer, John J. Hull; Superintendent of Public Instruction, T. J. Dimsdale; Assessor, T. C. Everts; Collector of Internal Revenue, N. P. Langford.

The Judges of the Montana Supreme Court were: First District, H. L. Hosmer, Chief Justice, residence at Virginia City; Second District, L. P. Williston, Associate Justice, residence at Bannock City; Third District, Leroy E. Munson, residence at Helena.

The delegate to the Thirty-ninth Congress from Montana was Samuel McLean, residing at Bannock City.

The present Governor of Montana is Greene C. Smith.

NOTES ON THE LAWS OF MONTANA.-The Probate Court has jurisdiction in all civil cases where the amount in controversy is less than $2,500.

The exemption laws are liberal, exempting homesteads worth $3,900, farming tools, teams, seed, etc., to farmers, and are equally liberal to other occupations.

The limitation laws are similar to those of Ohio, except as to foreign indebtedness, which, if not contracted for property coming to Montana, or for passage thither, can not be collected after the lapse of three months from the time the liability accrued.

MONTANA MINES.-Montana is very promising, richer, it is said, than any other gold or silver States or Territories. The placer diggings are paying largely, and the quartz seems to be richer than a great many others, and a great many mills are going in.

Alder Gulch is the theater of the original and most extensive goldmining in Montana. Virginia City is the first and largest town here. About thirty millions of gold have been taken in the various diggings of the gulch, and the quartz mines at its head among the hills are now very popular and promising. The present population of the Alder Gulch region is about 14,000. About 140 miles north and east, more immediately among the Rocky Mountains, and on their eastern slopes, a rich gulch was recently discovered, called the "Last Chance," near which there sprung into existence in a few months the populous mining town of Helena City. The neighboring valleys and gulches were also found to be rich in gold and silver, both washings and quartz. Many millions of treasure have already been obtained from this section of the Territory. The country is described as picturesque and beautiful. It is watered by the head-streams of the Missouri River, the Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers, and their tributaries; and Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River, is but 175 miles east from Helena.

The gold discoveries next extended across the mountains to the headwaters of the Blackfoot, where some important deposits have been opened. East of the Missouri River, during the summer of 1865, discoveries were made at Confederate Gulch, where Diamond City, containing four to five thousand inhabitants, has since gathered. It is reported that the deposits there are of great richness. Gold lodes occur every-where in connection with gold diggings. One of the best gold-lode mining districts is on Madison River, in what is called the Hot Spring district.

The ores of Montana are reported by scientific men to be much richer than those of California, which yield an average of $20 per ton. The great majority of the lodes of Montana promise an average of four times that amount. There are few sulphurets of iron and copper carrying gold in Montana, such as prove so troublesome in Colorado. This is owing to the fact that the formation is so open and perforated by water that the sulphurets have been decomposed. For the same reason miners in Montona are not troubled with water, and are saved the heavy expenses of pumping.

The silver ores are in the form of argentiferous galena, which must be smelted, as Western lode ores are, and the silver separated from the lead by cupellation. The silver ores are much more trustworthy than those yielding gold; and experience has already shown that silvermining will be in Montana more profitable than gold-mining. The veins are more uniform in the yield and last better. The large and

continual supply of water is of immense benefit to mining operations in Montana, as well as the facility of movement, the country everywhere abounding in natural roads, which do not easily become broken up. The veins of copper ore have been traced for a great extent, and the ores are found to yield from 33 to 65 per cent. But little attention is as yet given to this metal, as gold and silver monopolize the time and care of the people.

EMIGRATION TO MONTANA.-Montana, like Idaho, presents great inducements to emigrants, and her population, estimated in 1865 at considerably over thirty thousand, is composed, in great measure, of the men who built up Colorado so rapidly, and who, upon the ex haustion of the surface deposits, left that Territory for the richer diggings just discovered in the north. When her placers become exhausted, of which there seems no immediate probability, Montana must undoubtedly exert a temporary diminution of her population; but in the development of her gold-bearing quartz veins, of which the number is almost incalculable, she will have the elements of a steady and permanent increase. The population at present centers around the mining towns of Virginia City, Helena, and Diamond City.

One of the most surprising geographical facts about Montana is, that it is reached by steamboats from St. Louis. Travelers and freight are transported by steamboat, and, without transhipment, from St. Louis to Fort Benton in the heart of Montana, and freights, in the proper season of navigation, can be got to Montana quicker than to Denver City. This cheap mode of communication will be of vast importance to the new Territory, and light-draught boats will insure speed and safety. The river voyage from St. Louis to Fort Benton is made in twenty-eight days, and freight is carried at ten cents per pound.

TOWNS AND SETTLEMENTS.-The principal towns and settlements in Montana are the following: Virginia City and Gallatin are situated in the original mining district in the south-west portion of the Territory. The former is the largest town in the Territory, and its present capital. Its population is estimated at ten thousand, though, like that of most other mining towns, it is probably variable. Helena, on the Missouri River, 175 miles from Fort Benton, is the center of a rich mining region, and has seven or eight thousand inhabitants. Silver City, in the same section, is a growing and prosperous town. Bannock City, the former capital of the Territory, is in the south-west corner, among the mountains, and on the head-waters of the Missouri.

Fort Benton, an important military post, is situated on the north side of the Missouri River, in latitude 47° 20′, and longitude 109° 45'. It is about ten miles below the Great Falls.

RIVERS. The Missouri River is formed in the south-west portion of Montana Territory by the confluence of the Wisdom and Jefferson. Its course is north and east, passing out of Montana near its northeast corner into the Territory of Dakota. The following branches of the Missouri are altogether or partially within the bounds of Montana: Madison, Gallatin, Medicine, Bear's or Maria's, with its principal branch the Leton, Milk River, and the Yellowstone, with its

principal branches, the Big Horn, the Rosebud, Tongue, and Powder Rivers.

Clark's Fork of the Columbia River is formed in the western portion of Montana by the commingling of the Blackfoot and Hell-gate streams and running a north-westerly direction, passes into the north-west par' of Idaho. The Flathead River, a branch of Clark's Fork, rises in the north-west part of Montana, and runs north through Flathead Lake.

Flatbone River, which rises in the British Possessions and runs into Montana, passes through its north-west corner back into British Columbia.

The Yellowstone River, taking its rise among the mountains in the western or south-western portion of Montana, drains with its numerous tributaries nearly the whole of the central and eastern portion of Montana, as well as of the south-western section of Dakota. It collects the waters of the small streams which flow between the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains. Its general course is east and north-west, crossing the boundary line between Montana and Dakota, and entering the Missouri a short distance east of that line. It is eight hundred yards wide at its mouth, or about equal in size to the Missouri at the point of junction.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

THIS is a tract of country set apart by the Government of the United States as a permanent home for the aboriginal tribes removed thither from east of the Mississippi River, as well as those indigenous to the territory. It is bounded on the north by Colorado and Kansas, south by Missouri and Texas, (from which it is partly separated by Red River,) east by Arkansas, and west by Texas and New Mexico. Indian Territory lies between 33° 30' and 37° north latitude, and between 94° 30' and 100° west longitude, being about 320 miles long and from 35 to 220 miles in width, including an area of perhaps 65,127 square miles. The recently formed State of Kansas and a portion of the south of Nebraska were constituted from territory originally included within the so-called Indian Territory.

FACE OF THE COUNTRY.-There is a general inclination of the country from the base of the Rocky Mountains on the western border of Indian Territory, toward the Mississippi River, with a slight inclination to the south-east. A vast, barren, and sandy tract, generally known as the Great American Desert, occupies the north-west portion of the Territory. The rest of the Territory spreads out, for the most part, into undulating plains of great extent, with the exception of the Ozark or Washita Mountains, which enter the east portion of the Indian Territory from Arkansas. This territory, however, has been too imperfectly explored to enable us to speak with great precision of its surface.