finding a crowded coach on the morrow. Unless I shall chance to pass that way again, I shall never cease to regret that we did not remain and visit that world-wonder. A little further on, at the last crossing of the South Fork of the Columbia, we found quite a large river abruptly bursting from out a mountain side. It ran, cold and clear, a short distance, and added its waters to those of the Snake.

"The Boise end of this road has sometimes been visited by 'road agents, as highwaymen are called in the mines. They infest all the roads leading from Boise. The day before we left Boise City, the stage coach was robbed by them. Among the passengers was a miner with $8,000 in gold, the savings of two years' labor in the mines. He had been in town several days, inquiring whether it was safest to go to the States by way of Walla Walla or Salt Lake. Probably his inquiries led to the robbery of that particular coach by some villains of the town. They usually go in parties of about a half dozen, disguised and armed with double-barreled shot-guns, and springing suddenly from an ambush, rarely fail to succeed in stopping the coach and robbing the passengers. If resistance is not made, they do not usually add murder to their crime. When their depredations become frequent, the community generally rise and hunt them like wolves, shooting and hanging them wherever found. Order then succeeds as long as the fright continues. These depredations become every year less frequent, and the danger is not now considered great.

"These vast sage plains: is it not possible that some time in the ages to come, so soon, perhaps, as they will be required for settlement, timber may cover them, rains and rivers follow, and population swarm? "At Bear River we paid for our breakfast in green-backs, being the first place at which we found them circulating as currency. Here the stage line merges with Holladay's line from the mining regions of Montana, and continues 80 miles to Salt Lake. A short distance brought us into prosperous Mormon settlements, through which we continued to pass until night rolled us into this chief city of the "Latter-Day Saints."

The following passages, relating to mining in Idaho, are from Mr. Bowles' book, "Across the Continent," written in 1865:

"The Boise Basin district is rich in gold-washings, and is, perhaps, the richest region in this respect yet worked anywhere in the West. It has also rich quartz veins, and there are already eight mills in operation there, with eighty-four stamps. South Boise is less rich in placer diggings, but has an even larger development of the quarts interest. The bullion (gold) here holds a large proportion of silver, and is not worth over fourteen dollars an ounce. The Owyhee district borders on Oregon, and its mining wealth runs over into that State. The ore here is like that in Nevada, having more silver than gold in it. There are six mills now in this district, one of them with thirty stamps. The veins in Boise Basin and South Boise are small, like those of Reese River, in Nevada, opening sometimes as low as four inches, but enlarging generally to four or five feet. The Mammoth vein is from three to twelve feet wide; the ore is generally free and simple,

and is worked without roasting. The yield is from forty dollars a ton up; one vein runs from forty to eighty dollars; and others have yielded from two hundred dollars to three hundred dollars a ton. It is not probable that the full value of the ore is obtained by the present means of working, and the tailings are saved.

"The country is very barren, having the same general characteristics as eastern Oregon and Nevada. There are some good valleys, and timber is plenty enough for the present, save in the Owyhee district. The price of labor is six dollars a day, and goods and provisions are in proportion. The population is made up mostly of the floating mining elements of California, Oregon, and Nevada; the men, who are always moving on for the newest mines, prosperous to-day, poor to-morrow. The winters in Idaho are severe, and the work in the placer diggings is then suspended. The miners float back to the older towns, to the Dalles and Portland, in Oregon, and San Francisco, in the fall, and spend their summer savings, and start out in the spring for the old diggings, if no newer and more fabulous ones have since been discovered.

"It is probable that the sure progress of the Territory will await the profitable workings of the ores yielding from ten dollars to twenty-five dollars a ton, as is already admitted to be true of California, and of Virginia City, Nevada, and will probably soon be proven in Reese River and in Colorado. And this can hardly be done until quicker and cheaper communication is provided. Only the rare veins, only the choice ore, in any of these States can be worked to much profit, so long as all machinery, all food, all goods, used in the business and for the people, have to pay a frightful tariff of from ten to thirty cents a pound, and labor is from four to eight dollars a day. California has the advantage over her rivals in these respects now; and I repeat that it seems to me mining is likely to be as profitable in this State for the next five years, taking all things into consideration, as in any of the new regions. The others must wait for the railroad to give real and permanent and steady development and prosperity to greater apparent capacities."

COUNTIES.-Idaho is divided into the eight following counties. figures annexed show the total vote cast in each at the election for delegate to Congress in 1866:

Ada, 713; Alturas, 320; Boise, 3,285; Idaho, 400; Nez Perce, 385; Oneida, 169; Owyhee, 1,226; Shoshone, 66. The total vote cast in the Territory for Congress was 6,564. E. D. Holbrook, of Idaho City, was the successful candidate at this election. The Territorial Governor of Idaho is D. W. Ballard.

TOWNS AND SETTLEMENTS.-Boise City, the capital, and Idaho City have been already described. The portions of Idaho first settled and explored were embraced within that part of the old Territory of Washington, comprising the counties of Shoshone, Nez Perce, and Idaho. Shoshone County, or rather what is left of it, lies north of the South Fork of the Clear Water River, and embraces the original Nez Perce mining region of Oro Fino and Perce City, the latter place being the

county town, and five hundred and thirty miles from Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory. Nez Perce County comprised a belt of land lying north of Clear Water River, and extending from Snake River eastward to the Bitter-root Mountains, which form the eastern boundary of Idaho. A settlement called Elk City, in this county, was the center of the gold mining district. The county seat was Lewiston, at the head of navigation on the Snake River. Nearly all the travel to the Salmon River mines passed through Nez Perce County. Kansas Prairie, another settled tract, included a fertile agricultural expanse within the limits of this county. Idaho County embraced a large breadth of land lying north of the dividing ridge between the Clear Water and Salmon Rivers. The greater portion of the tract abounds in auriferous wealth. The county town was Florence, quite a flourishing settlement, containing from three to five thousand inhabitants. Before the Territory of Idaho was organized, Florence was the largest town in Washington Territory.

Beside those already mentioned, the following are among the principal towns and settlements in Idaho: Centerville, Placerville, and Rocky Bar, in the central portion; Ruby City and Silver City, in the south-west, and Fort Hall, in the south-east part. Fort Hall is situated on the left or south bank of the Lewis or Snake River, in latitude 43°, and longitude 112° 29'. It formerly belonged to the Hudson Bay Company, and was an important station on the route to Oregon.

RIVERS. The principal river in Idaho is the Lewis or Snake River. It is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, rising on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, near latitude 43° north, and longitude 109° west. Passing through the mountains into Idaho, it flows south-west and then north-west to about latitude 43° 45′ north, and longitude 116° 45' west, where it is again diverted to the north, forming, in part, the boundary between Idaho and Oregon, and between Idaho and Washington. In latitude 43° 30′ and longitude 117°, it bends sharply to the west, and making soon afterward, in Washington Territory, a sweep north-west and south-west, joins the Columbia in latitude 46° 6′ and longitude 118° 40', after a course of 900 miles. It has numerous affluents, most of which are small. The principal are the Punshly, Middle, Owyhee, Big Wood, Fayette, Powder, the South Boise, the Boise, North Branch or Salmon, and the Kooskooskia or Clear Water. The Spokane River, in the northern part of Idaho, runs into Washington Territory and empties into Clark's Fork of the Columbia. Green River, which, by its union with the Grand, forms the Colorado, takes its rise among the mountains in the southern part of Idaho, and flows southwardly into Utah.

GREAT MINERAL RESOURCES OF IDAHO.-It is computed, from reliable information, that the entire yield in gold from the mines east of the Cascade Range, during the season of 1861, was nearly five million dollars, and that the yield of '62 and '63 approximated to twenty millions. In his annual message to the Territorial Legislature, Governor Caleb Lyon stated that in 1865 over seventeen million dollars' worth of gold and silver had been produced in Idaho, and that the yield was

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 exhaust."

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 degree of longitude west from Washington with the 45th degree of north latitude; 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 $3,000, farming tools, teams, seed, etc., to farmers, and are equally liberal to other occupations.