most perilous and trying; but we did not realize that, and our miner guides unsensitive from experience, did not think of it; so he started us into a long shaft, running straight up and down for several hundred feet, dark and damp as night, with no breaks or bending places, and set us going, one after another, up a perpendicular ladder fastened to its side. We only took in a sense of the thing after we had got started; each must carry his lighted candle, hold on, and creep ahead; a single misstep by any one, the fainting of our invalid, or of any of us, all weary and unstrung, would not only have plunged that one headlong down the long, fatal flight, to become a very Mantilinean cold body at the bottom, but would have swept every body below him on the ladder, like a row of bricks, to the same destination and destruction. There was, it may well be believed, a stern summoning of all remaining strength and nerves, a close, firm grip on the rounds of the ladder, a silent, grave procession, much and rapid thought, and a very long breath, and a very fervent, if voiceless prayer, when we got to the daylight and the top." The average yield of the Comstock Lode ore is fifty dollars per ton. The cost of reducing the ore was, in 1865, about twenty-five dollars per ton, though the Gould & Curry Company had brought it down to eighteen dollars. It was thought probable that this cost might be reduced, and that ores yielding only ten or fifteen dollars a ton might be worked with a profit. This would enable the companies to avail themselves of the poorer ores, which they laid by without working while prices of milling were high. The Next in importance to the Virginia are the Austin or Reese River Mines in Central Nevada. The veins of silver ore, which are generally comparatively small in size, but rich in production, lie thickly scattered on the hill-sides and over the mountains in and around Austin. main belt has been successfully traced for five miles in length and one in width. Some fifty veins were being successfully worked in 1865, and it was expected that as many more would soon be opened. There is much water found in these veins, and their drainage is very laborious. Great labor is also required in the reduction of the ores, and in separating the gold and silver from the sulphurets of other metals, with which they are found combined. There are in Austin and its immediate vicinity five or six quartz-mills, working about seventy-five stamps. But in that county, Lander, there are, or were in 1865, some twenty mills, with 163 stamps, and a thousand men employed in the mines. The ore from these mines yields from one hundred to four hundred dollars per ton. But the cost of its reduction is much greater than that of the Virginia ores, being from seventy-five to one hundred dollars a ton. Ores which yield only a hundred dollars a ton can not be profitably worked, and are left until the cost of milling shall become less. One mine near Austin produces ore that yields one hundred and eighty dollars per ton, and another one hundred and fifty, and the cost of getting out and working the latter is said to be but fifty dollars per ton, leaving a clear margin for one hundred dollars net profit. As in other parts of the State, so in central Nevada, there are constant discoveries of rich ores being made; new mines are opened, new mills erected, and mining villages in new localities spring into existence. It is evident that the mineral wealth of Nevada has as yet only begun to be developed. Though the bullion, as perfected at the Nevada mills, has the appearance of pure silver, yet about one-third of it is really gold. The separation of the two metals is made after the bullion. reaches the market in England, or at the United States mints. The average monthly production of the four principal mining centers of Nevada, for the first nine months of the year 1865, was estimated as follows: Washoe (Virginia) and Gold Hill districts.... Aurora (Esmeralda district)... .$1,236,275 75,000 19,000 1,282 CITIES AND TOWNS.-As the capitals of the principal mining centers in the State, Virginia City and Austin are, of course, the largest towns in Nevada, and the centers of its principal trade, business, and population. The former is in Storey County, and in the Washoe mining district, and the latter in Lander County, and in the Reese River mining district. Virginia, the present State capital, is a thrifty, enterprising, well-built town, containing over twenty thousand inhabitants. The adjoining town or extension, called Gold Hill, has an additional population of about six thousand. Virginia is described by tourists as having a very picturesque site, lying above the canon or ravine, and spread along the mountain side at the height of about six thousand feet, while above rises a peak fifteen hundred feet higher. The surrounding hills, valleys, and plains afford a varied and romantic scenery. Virginia has three daily papers, and Gold Hill one. Austin is the easternmost and newest large mining town in the central or Reese River mining district. It is 180 miles east of Virginia. It is situated on the hill-sides of a close canon, running up from the Reese River Valley. Its population is four thousand to five thousand, and, notwithstanding its huddled and grotesque appearance on the hillsides, in enterprise, wealth, taste, and luxury, it outstrips many an eastern city of much larger pretensions. The other principal towns in Nevada are Carson City, the late State capital; Silver City, in Lynn County; Washoe City and Ophir, in Washoe County; Star City, Hunnville, and Humboldt, in Humboldt County; Dayton, in Lynn County; Genoa, in Douglas County, and Aurora, in Esmeralda County. Aurora, situated in the rich mining district of Esmeralda, has a population of four thousand to five thousand. It is 120 miles south of Virginia. Carson City, the former State capital, is in Ormsby County, and is situated in a valley at the base of the eastern slope of the Sierras. It contains about three thousand inhabitants. THE WASHOE VALLEY.-There are several valleys in Washoe County, which seem to be the nucleus of a system or chain of lakes that once extended through the greater portion of the county. These valleys bear the following names, commencing on the south side of the county: Washoe, Pleasant, Steamboat, Truckee, and Minnemucca. Of these valleys, Washoe is probably the most beautiful and productive, as it is the most noted. It has an eliptical shape, and is eight miles long by four wide. It was evidently once a lake as well as the other valleys in the same vicinity. The whole area of the Washoe Valley can be seen from one central stand-point, exhibiting to view five thousand inclosed acres, dotted here and there with dwellings, from the most superb and beautiful that would be a credit to any city upon the Pacific coast, to the little white cottages peeping out cosily from a grove of majestic pines; the scenery on all sides beautiful and adorned by surrounding fields of golden grain, gardens, and shrubbery, all lying close by the side of the towering Sierras, whose dark forests, mingling with the clouds of heaven, convert almost one-half of the day into the softness of twilight; nestling in the southern center is beheld a placid and beautiful lake covering several square miles, whose limpid waters reflect, as in a mirror, the surrounding scenery. The whole go to make up a landscape that, for beauty, loveliness, and sublimity, is seldom excelled. As the other valleys present the same general outlines as the Washoe, it is unnecessary to describe them in detail. RIVERS.-The great intra-mountain basin, formed by the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the west, and of which Nevada occupies a large portion, is comparatively waterless, and hence has sometimes been called the "Great Desert Basin." But it is by no means a desert in the common acceptation of the term. Ranges of mountains pervade it from north to south, averaging at least one to every fifty miles, with intervening valleys, in which water and verdure are found. Rains are rare, springs seldom found, and the streams formed by the snows melting on the mountains are soon absorbed by the thirsty earth. Such streams usually lessen in size after they reach the plains below, and end in small lakes or sink quietly into the ground. Nevada has quite a number of small lakes and streams; but its agricultural lands generally need irrigation to make them very productive. Its principal rivers are the Humboldt, the Carson, and the Reese Rivers. The Humboldt River, rising in the western slope of the Humboldt Mountains, which run nearly north and south, is the largest in the State, and after running west and south some four or five hundred miles, ends its course in a lagoon or small lake, twenty miles long and eight or ten broad in its widest part, in latitude 40° 10' and longitude 118° 40', and known as Humboldt Lake. Carson River rises in the Sierra Nevada, and has a similar terminus in Carson Lake, within sight of the peaks that gave it birth. Reese River, that has given name to the productive silver-mining district in Central Nevada, is a small sluggish stream ending also in a small lake or lagoon. It is remarkable that from the great intra-mountain basin in which Nevada is located. there is no outlet to the ocean. NEBRASKA. NEBRASKA, which was organized as a Territory in 1854, has been reduced in its area from time to time, till it is now included between the 40th and 43d parallels of north latitude, and the 25th and 27th degrees of longitude west from Washington. It is bounded on the north by the Territory of Dakota, on the east by the States of Iowa and Missouri, on the south by the State of Kansas, and on the west by Colorado and Dakota. The following are its present boundary lines: From the intersection of the 43d parallel of latitude with the 27th degree of longitude, the northern boundary line runs due east on said 43d parallel of latitude till it strikes the Keha Paha, or Turtle Hill River; thence down that river to its junction with the Niobrara, Running Water, or Rapid River; thence down the Niobrara till it joins the Missouri River; thence down the Missouri to its junction with the Big Sioux River; thence southwardly the boundary line of Nebraska follows the Missouri River to the 40th parallel of latitude; thence it runs west on that parallel till it strikes the 25th degree of longitude west from Washington; thence it follows that meridian north to the 41st parallel of latitude; then, turning west, it runs on that parallel to the 27th degree of longitude west from Washington, and then north on that meridian to its intersection with the 43d parallel of north latitude. COUNTIES.-There were twenty-six counties in Nebraska in 1866. We annex a list of the counties, the population of each as given in the census of 1860, and the votes polled in each for and against the proposed State Constitution at an election held June 2d, 1866: FACE OF THE COUNTRY.-The greater part of Nebraska seems to consist of a high prairie land. A chain of highlands called the Black Hills runs from near the Platte River, in a north-east direction, to the Missouri River, in Dakota, which they approach in about 102° west longitude, dividing the waters running into the Yellowstone from those flowing into the Missouri, below its great south-eastern bend. A recent authority, writing on the spot, thus speaks of Nebraska: "The soil, for a space varying from fifty to one hundred miles west of the Missouri River, is nearly identical with that of Missouri and Iowa. The highlands are open prairie grounds, covered with grasses; the river bottom, a deep, rich loam, shaded by dense forest trees. From this district to about the mouth of the Running Water River, is one boundless expanse of rolling prairie, so largely intermingled with sand as to be unfit for agriculture, but carpeted with succulent grasses. A third district, extending in a belt many miles east and west of the Mandan village in Dakota, on the most northerly bend of the Missouri, and southward across the southern boundary of Nebraska, is a formation of marl and earthy limestone, which can not be otherwise than very productive." Coal has been found in the north-western counties of Missouri, and it is probable may be found in the south-east portion of Nebraska. The limestone formation of Missouri and Iowa extends over the first district of Nebraska, described in the passage just quoted. Beyond that district the formation is chiefly sandstone. Coal has been seen cropping out in various places along the Nebraska River, in the south-west part of Nebraska. The first district is the only really good agricultural region at present. It is a rich loam, finely timbered and watered. The second is strictly pastoral. The third has soil, but is destitute of timber, and very sparsely supplied with springs. RIVERS. Nebraska is bounded on the east by the Missouri, one of the most important rivers on the globe, which takes its rise in the western part of Montana, among the declivities of the Rocky Mountains; runs north-east for about 1,000 miles, to 48° 20′ north latitude, rereceiving a large number of affluents from the north, and the Yellowstone, nearly 1,000 miles long, with a multitude of sub-tributaries from the south; then, turning to the south-east, pursues its course for 1,800 miles further, having its flood of waters swelled by the influx of a con |