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 a 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 of 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, he 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.

"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.

There has been an eight-stamp water-mill running upon the ore of one of them for a year, and from the proceeds of it they had purchased and were erecting a ten-stamp steam-mill, expecting to have it running by the beginning of winter. They were without capital, except as they dug it out of the mine, and were, therefore, compelled to work slowly. The country about the Flat is liberally supplied with water and timber, which makes working the mines easier and cheaper.

"South Boise, distant about sixty miles, is a more recent discovery, and is thought to be richer in quartz than the Basin. The discoveries there are mostly silver.

"The Owyhee mines are situated in the mountains of that name, about sixty miles south of Boise City, to reach which you are compelled to pass over the worst alkali road in Idaho. There is a line of stages running there from Boise City. We found two little towns, Ruby and Silver Cities, extending more than a mile along the narrow gulch, in which are limited placer mines. The Owyhee mines are almost wholly silver-producing, and there can be little doubt that the district is, as a whole, rich in its metal. There are some valuable ledges there, and many worthless ones; some honest and some bogus, wild-cat companies. The only mine which has been fully proven rich is the 'Oro Fino,' and, perhaps, the Morning Star,' owned by Moore and Fogus. Upon the first ledge they have excavated a tunnel 600 feet long, and sunk a connecting shaft, also upon the ledge, over 100 feet. All the way they find it rich and wide, and improving in both respects as they go in and down. On the Morning Star' they have sunk a shaft about 100 feet, and thus far find the ledge yielding well.

"There are doubtless many other valuable ledges there, but none have been so fully tested. Some New York companies are putting up large mills, and twenty or thirty are on the way. Some ledges, little prospected, may prove rich; others, doubtless, will be found worthless. Some interests, valuable and valueless, are claimed by those who have failed to comply with the mining laws of the Territory, and consequently have no title. Many were talking about going East to sell their mines, and, if they can raise the passage money, a goodly number will be in the Eastern cities before long, with Idaho mines and mining stock for sale. Some of this species of property will be genuine; much of it will possess no known or probable value. Purchasers should be well assured of the standing and repute of parties with whom they deal, and upon whose representations they rely. If not, they had better personally inspect, or employ some reliable agent to do so, before they purchase mining property.

"The Owyhee district is sparsely supplied with wood, and water is not abundant. There will be fuel enough for some years, but if the district proves as rich as it is expected to, it must become exhausted at no very distant period. Probably before that time coal will be discovered.

"Illustrative of mining life are the experiences and conditions of some acquaintances I found in Idaho-one, an excellent gentleman, a lawyer of learning and ability, who once held an important appoint

ment connected with the United States Courts of one of the Pacific States. He is a graduate of Harvard, son of a wealthy Bostonian, who desired him to travel. In pursuance of such request, accompanied with unlimited letters of credit, he spent last winter and fall at the Sandwich Islands. Now he was in the Boise Mines, in miner's garb, with pick and shovel, hard at work upon a not over-remunerative claim.

"Another acquaintance had, in years agone, fallen heir to a saw-mill in California, by the death of a brother. The mill soon involved him beyond his ability to pay, and was sold, leaving him in debt. He remained in that unpleasant condition until the spring of 1863, when, with a small steam saw-mill that he could have almost packed upon a wagon, he went to Idaho City. I met him last month, just on the eve of leaving for the Atlantic States, with $55,000 in gold.

"A third I had known in early times on the Pacific coast as a man of wealth. In dissipation he had squandered the most of it. Going early to Boise he soon made another raise, and was worth $40,000 or $50,000 in gold. Now he was 'flat broke.' Cards, whisky, and women were the rocks upon which he was wrecked. The son of a New England deacon, and graduate of a New England orthodox Sabbathschool, was keeping a stylish drinking saloon, and living with a commercial miss, with whom, owing to the scarcity of clergymen or other persons qualified to perform the service, he had never been married. When I meet his relatives they always inquire after his welfare, and, anxiously, if 'he continues to love the Lord and grow in grace.'

แ

"A leading clergyman of a popular denomination built a church in Idaho City, and occasionally preached in it on Sundays; and being engaged in merchandising, it was said his clerks kept his store open the while. At the time we were there, preaching had been suspended, and the church rented to the United States for a court-room; and the only time we visited it, Chief-Justice McBride was trying a murderer therein. Captain Fisk relates finding in Idaho a Mr. Murphy, who endeavored to sell him a mine he owned for $12,500. Captain Fisk declined to buy, and, a few months after, Murphy sold the property to New York capitalists for $175,000. A few weeks before I was at Owyhee, an acquaintance, in company with another, discovered a silver lead. He sold his half for $1,100. While we were there, one-fifth of the same half was sold for $30,000, gold. A friend who, burnt out by fire and washed out by flood, became bankrupt in the Willamette Valley, went to Boise in 1862 or '63. Now he is joint owner in four stores and stocks of goods, a fast freight and passenger stage line near 400 miles long, a large hotel, and much other property. A good many others, who went there in indigent circumstances, I also found had held their own remarkably.

"The stage line from Boise City to Salt Lake, 370 miles-fare $100, gold-is owned by Ben. Holladay. It traverses a barren country, covered with interminable sage, and inhabited only by coyotes and wolves. We pass within two miles of the celebrated, and not long ago discovered, Falls of Snake River, greater than those of Niagara, but could not visit them without remaining over a day, and running the risk of