New York 
 
 State College of Agriculture 
 
 At Cornell University 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Library 
 
y 
 
 TH Congress, ) SENATE. ( Ex. Doc. 
 
 Is* Session, ) ( Ko. 51 
 
 r Ex. ] 
 \ Ko. 
 
 LETTER 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 
 
 TRAXSMITTLNO, 
 
 III answer to a Senate resolution of April 18, 187G, a copy of the report of 
 Prof. Walter P. Jenney upon the agriculture, climate, and resources of 
 tlie'Blaclc Hills. 
 
 April 24, l-^Tfi. — Referred to the Committee ou Printing 
 April 25, 1876. — Ordered to be printed. 
 
 Depaetment of the Interior, 
 
 Washington, April 21, 1876. 
 Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the following 
 riesolution, passed by the Senate April IS, 1876 : 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be requested to furnish a copy of the re- 
 p ort, dated April 15, 1876, of Prof. Walter P. Jenney upon the a;^riculture, climate, and 
 J ther resources of the Black Hills, which he surveyed under orders of the Commissioner 
 9 f Indian Affairs. 
 
 In answer to said resolution, I transmit herewith copy of report, 
 
 iated the 20th instant, from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
 ogether with chapters V, VI, and VII of the final report of the explora- 
 t ion of the Black Hills country, made by Professor Jenney, which con- 
 tains the information called for by the said resolution. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 Z. CHANDLER, 
 
 Secretary. 
 The President of the Senate. 
 
 Department of the Interior, 
 
 Office of Indian Affairs, 
 
 Washington, April 20, 1876. 
 
 Sir : In compliance with Senate resolution of the 18th instant, which 
 
 [ had the honor to receive by Department reference of the 19th instant, 
 
 md herewith return, I forward a report of Walter P. Jenney, E. M., of 
 
 late the 15th instant, upon the mineral wealth, climate, rain-fall, and 
 
 I latural resources of the Black Hills. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. Q. SMITH, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 The Hon. Secretary of the Interior. 
 
2 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Washington, April 15, 1876, 
 Sir: In view of the existing popular interest in this subject, I haj^e 
 the honor to submit herewith a report upon the mineral wealth, climace, 
 rain-fall, and natural resources of the Black Hills, the same being chajp- 
 ters V, VI, and YII of my forthcoming final report of the survey e:^e- 
 cuted under instructions of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of March 
 27, 1875, 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 WALTER P. JENNBY, E. M., 
 Geologist Exploration of the Black Eills. 
 Hon. J. Q. Smith, 
 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
 
REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Mineral Wealth, Climate, and Rain-Fall, 
 
 AKD 
 
 NATURAL RESOURCES, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA. 
 
 BY 
 
 "WALTER P. JENKEY, E. M., 
 
 BEING 
 
 CHAPTEES Y, YI, AND VH OF THE' FOETHCOMTNG PrfTAI. KEPOET OF THE 
 EXPLOEATION OF THE BLACK HILLS, MADE UNDEE THE DIEECTIOIf 
 OF THE COMjnSSIONEE OF INDLAJ^T AJFAiRS IN 1875. ' 
 
b EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 In the northera section of the Black Hills nu merous.dome aud angu- 
 lar shaped peaks are formed by the injection of ti;achyte through the 
 slates and the superincumbent strata of as late an age as the Creta- 
 ceous, locally metamorphosing the sedimentary formations, until the 
 altered rock cannot be distinguished by the eye. from the genuine 
 trachyte. These trachytes contain gold disseminated through the mass 
 of the rock, and by decomposition and erosion have furnished a large 
 proportion of the gold contained in the gravel-deposits of the streams 
 draining that area. 
 
 The next succeeding geological formation, the Potsdam sandstone, 
 250 feet in thickness, lies uncomformably on the upturned 
 edges of the Archaean strata. The lower layer of the Potsdam is a 
 coarse conglomerate of water- worn and rounded bowlders derived from 
 the older schists and slates on which it rests. In it we find large 
 bowlders of quartz, ferruginous, banded, or slaty in character, exactly 
 as it occurs in the adjacent ledges traversing the slates, intermixed 
 with pebbles and bowlders from all the harder rocks in the vicinity. 
 This conglomerate tells in unmistakable terms that the Archaean rocks 
 were deposited, upturned, and folded, the quartz-ledges, with the gold and 
 ■minerals which they contain, formed, and the whole formation subjected 
 to an immense denudation before the first strata of thePotsdam were laid 
 down on the bottom of the Silurian sea. The auriferous quartz-ledges in 
 the schists and slates do not extend beyond the eroded surface of the 
 metamorphic rocks or enter strata of the Potsdam or any succeeding 
 geological formation, and the filling of the gold-bearing quartz-veins 
 most probably occurred during the folding of the inclosing rocks at the 
 close of the Archtean period. The Potsdam conglomerate, composed of 
 the material resulting from the denudation of the quartz-ledges in the 
 Archaean rocks, probably contains gold, and, by decomposition, yields 
 it to the placer-gravels. But, with this exception, the sedimentary rocks 
 in the Black Hills, from the Potsdam to the Cretaceous, are devoid of 
 metallic wealth. The remaining portion of the Potsdam formation, 
 resting on the conglomerate, is made up of lamellar sandstones and 
 sandstone-shales, containing ripple-marks, impressions of sea- weeds, and 
 layers honeycombed by the borings of marine worms — evidence of depo- 
 sition in a shallow and advancing sea. On reaching the top of the 
 Potsdam, the Carboniferous formation is encountered; a dark-brown cal- 
 careous sandstone, about 25 feet in thickness, containing fossils of that 
 age, rests exactly conformably on the upper layers of the Potsdam 
 without the slightest indication that nearly all the Silurian and the 
 whole of the Devonian periods have intervened between the deposition 
 of these two beds of sandstone. 
 
 On this sandstone is built up the massive white limestone of the Car- 
 boniferous, forming cliffs 300 to 400 feet in height, overlaid by a cal- 
 careous sandstone, variegated in color, of nearly equal thickness, also 
 deposited during the Carboniferous period, when the whole area em- 
 braced in the Black Hills was buried deep beneath the waters of the 
 ocean, and the Carboniferous strata extended in an unbroken sheet over 
 the present area of the gold-field, which by elevation and denudation 
 has been subsequently uncovered to view. We know this because the 
 cliffs of limestone completely inclose the area of Archaean rocks, show- 
 ing no thinning out at the edges except from erosion, and tower far 
 above the surface covered by the schists and slates. 
 
 Crook's Tower, one of the highest points in the hills, having an alti- 
 tude pf 7,323 feet above the sea, is formed of this limestone, and, though 
 having lost several hundred feet of Carboniferous sandstone bydenuda- 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 7 
 
 tion, is only about 80 feet lower than tbe summit of the granite of the 
 Harney's Peak range. 
 
 The Carboniferous formation is the most extensive in the Black Hills, 
 covering nearly fifteen hundred square miles, almost one-half the tim- 
 bered surface, and, though equivalent in age to the coal-measures of 
 Pennsylvania and the Mississippi Valley, the occurrence of a deep sea 
 over the whole of this area during the continuance of the period pre- 
 cludes the formation of any true coal-beds in this region. 
 
 Tertiary or Cretaceous lignites of inferior quality were discovered, 
 however, along the Cheyenne Eiver, to the southwest of the Black Hills. 
 
 The "Red Beds" form tbe next succeeding belt to the Carboniferous, 
 so called from the vermilion-color of the sandy clays, a constant feature 
 in this formation in the western country from Texas to the British Pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 Barren of all evidences of life, from position they are supposed to be 
 of Triassic age, being included between well-marked Carboniferous and 
 Jurassic. In the Black Hills they consist in an ascending order of 
 100 feet of coarse red sandstone, 40 feet of impure pinkish limestone, and 
 300 feet of red sandy clays, interstratifled with white massive gypsum. 
 From their soft and clayey character, and the presence of the strata of 
 gypsum, the Eed Beds yield readily to erosion and atmospheric agen- 
 cies, and their outcrop is marked by a broad red valley entirely en- 
 circling the Black Hills at the edge of the plains, forming a prominent 
 feature in the topography of this region which the eye easily traces by 
 the brilliant color of the soil for miles along the foot-hills. 
 
 Beyond the Eed Beds are 200 to 500 feet of white and colored clays and 
 soft sandstones of Jurassic age, interesting scientifically from the abund- 
 ance of fossil-shells found in them, but not at all prominent in the forma- 
 tion of this region, except in the Bear Lodge range, in the northwestern 
 part of the hills, where the Jurassic covers an extensive area. 
 
 Eesting on the Jurassic are the Dakota sandstone and the lead-colored 
 clays and clay-shales forming the different members of the Cretaceous, 
 spreading over an enormous area of the plains surrounding the Hills. 
 
 The Cretaceous closes the geological formation represented in the 
 Black Hills by sedimentary strata of marine origin. No well-marked 
 Tertiary occurs within its limits, but fresh- water deposits of that age are 
 found on the Cheyenne, some fifteen miles southeast of the hills. 
 
 From the Potsdam to the top of the Cretaceous the formations are 
 perfectly conformable to each other in their deposition, showing that no 
 disturbance of the strata occurred during that time, and that the rocks 
 of the different ages were nearly -horizontal until the*elevation of the 
 Black Hills took place, and the trachyte forming the peaks in the north- 
 ern part of the range was ejected through the slates and overlying 
 strata. 
 
 In the valley of the Cheyenne, between the top of Cretaceous Ko. 5 
 and the base of the White Eiver Tertiary, a conglomerate occurs, about 
 6 feet in thickness, containing pebbles from all the harder rocks now 
 found in the Black Hills, indicating that the geological formations 
 existed during the Tertiary period nearly as we find them at the present 
 time in the Hills. 
 
 The conformability of the strata and the absence of Tertiary forma- 
 tions in the Black Hills would not be alone enough to fix definitely the 
 date of the elevation of the range as occurring after the close of the 
 Cretaceous and before the deposition of the Tertiary, were it not cor- 
 roborated by observations on the unconformability of the Tertiary and 
 
8 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HiLLS. 
 
 older fornutions at the head of Old Woman's Fork, and by the results 
 of the work of other explorers in the Eocky Mountain system. 
 
 From the elevation, the horizontal formations assumed the shape of an 
 immense flat-topped anticlinal arch spanning nearly sixty miles, which, 
 cut down and planed off by subsequent erosion to its center, exposes 
 the edges of the different strata as annular rings surrounding the meta- 
 morphic interior, thus giving to the Black Hills at the present day the 
 appearance of an island formation with a central granitic nucleus 
 encircled by the successive geological formations, built on like shore- 
 deposits one beyond another from the Archaean to the Tertiary. This 
 great erosion which has taken place since the elevation of the Hills has 
 produced the material forming the placer-gravels and liberated the gold 
 which they contain from the inclosing rooks and ledges. In part it is 
 probably due to the agency of ice and water during the Drift or Glacial 
 period, but apparently the erosion is mostly the result of the action of 
 the present streams and system of drainage. 
 
 The exact date at which the intrusion of the granite forming the Har- 
 ney's Peak range took place is as yet undetermined. The coarsely 
 crystalline character of the granite indicates a very slow and gradual 
 crystallization, requiring a length of time which only the untold ages of 
 the Archfean could furnish. It must have occurred either before the 
 Potsdam or at the time of the elevation of the hills at the close of the 
 Cretaceous, as the conformability of the strata would have been dis- 
 turbed had the intrusion taken pKace during the intermediate time. 
 
 No bowlders or pebbles of this granite were found in the Potsdam 
 conglomerate, though we searched for it in many places. The whole 
 surface of the country is covered by granite bowlders resulting from the 
 more recent erosion of the Hills, and the conglomerate between the Cre- 
 taceous and Tertiary on the Cheyenne is largely made up of material 
 derived from the granitic rocks. 
 
 Possibly the absence of granite in the Potsdam conglomerate may be 
 caused by its njore readily yielding to the decomposing effect of atmos- 
 pheric agencies during the Archaean and Silurian periods. 
 
 By reference to the colored geological map of the Black Hills accom- 
 panying this report, tbe area and position of the different formations 
 can be readily seen. The rocks of each age, where exposed to view, are 
 represented by an appropriate tint covering a corresponding area on 
 the map. 
 
 The miners, for convenience in making laws to govern the recording 
 and locating of claims, have divided the gold-field into different dis- 
 tricts, which division I shall follow as closely as possible in considering 
 the value and character of the gold-deposits in the Black Hills. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE FEENCn CREEK DISTRICT. 
 
 In the French Creek district is embraced all the area of granitic and 
 schistose rocks surrounding Harney's Peak and forming the southern 
 portion of the Hills, bounded by Spring Creek on the north, and includ- 
 ing the placer-gravels in the valleys of Wiwi Creek, Custer's Gulch or 
 French Creek, Amphibious, Minnekata, and Bed Canon Creeks, streams 
 draining this region and emptying into the South Pork of the Cheyenne. 
 
 Before discussing the value and extent of the gold-deposits, it is nec- 
 essary to describe briefly the topography and geological formation of 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. y 
 
 this district, which presents, ia the immense development of granitic 
 rocks, a feature peculiar solely to this section of the Black Hills. 
 
 The Harney's Peak range, and the country included between it and 
 the foot-hills oq the easteru slope, is an exceedingly rugged and mount- 
 ainous region, heavily wooded with pine and cut into innumerable deep 
 ravines by a net-work of small streams flowing in a general south- 
 easterly direction, but sinking before they reach the plains. These small 
 creeks are full of beaver-dams, and the bottoms of the gorges are over- 
 grown with a perfect jungle of oak, elm, birch, elder, and grapevines, 
 making it almost impossible to descend the valley of the stream, and 
 compelling the explorer in this wilderness to travel across the steep and 
 broken rocky ridges, where, except he be .fortunate enough to climb 
 some of the few commanding peaks, he cannot see but a short distance 
 in any direction, owing to the densely-wooded and broken character of 
 the region. It is useless to look for any main divide which can be fol- 
 lowed in traversing this mountainous section; the whole area is broken 
 into innumerable granite peaks and ridges without any apparent system 
 whatever, except that the drainage is in a general southeasterly direc- 
 tion toward the open plains. The effects of erosion are everywhere 
 strongly marked, and the peculiar topography of the region is due to 
 the resistance of the hard granite and the yielding of the micaceous 
 schists to the action of time and water. 
 
 The prominence of the granite, which in huge, serrated ridgesrises on 
 every side, is due more to erosion than to _any elevation caused by its 
 intrusion ; yet the granite, though so unyielding, shows by the rounded 
 and pinnacled forms assumed by the peaks, that time has affected it as 
 well, but in a less degree. 
 
 To the northeast of Harney's Peak is an area of slates, which properly 
 belongs to the Spring Creek district, but with that exception this sec- 
 tion is almost universally granitic, the schists, wherever they occur, be- 
 ing concealed by the debris resulting from the denudation of the granite 
 ridges that tower far above the surfece of the softer rocks. 
 
 Harney's Peak, having an altitude of 7,403 feet above the sea, is the 
 culminating point of this great intrusion of granite, and forms the most 
 conspicuous landmark in the Black Hills, visible from the plains to the 
 south and east for a distance of more than fifty miles from the foot- 
 hills. 
 
 The Park region, at the west and southwest of Harney's Peak, is a 
 most agreeable contrast to tBe inaccessible wilderness to the east. 
 Broad glades of level grass-land extend between the parallel ridges of gran- 
 ite and groves of pine cover the rocky hills wherever there is sufScient 
 soil to support their growth. Isolated peaks of granite, rounded by 
 erosion and weathering into dome-shaped and castellated forms, rise 
 from the open and level surface, which everywhere is carpeted with the 
 finest grass, giving a beautifully picturesque and park-like scenery to 
 the region. 
 
 The smooth surface of the parks and the peculiarities in the topog- 
 raphy are due to the parallel ridges of granite resisting the denuda- 
 tion, which has excavated the broad swales in the intervening softer 
 schists, and indicates that the orginial surface of the formation was far 
 above the present level. 
 
 The granite is conform able to the stratification of the inclosing schistose 
 
 rocks, having been intruded between the layers, the only direction in 
 
 which the micaceous rocks are readily fractured. This conformability 
 
 , is not perfect, as it would be were the granite the result of metamor- 
 
 phic action on a layer of the schists, but the granite ridges often occur 
 
10 ' KESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 traversing the park as a broken range of lenticular peaks on the same 
 line of fracture, resembling, on an enormously-magnified scale, a well- 
 known form of segregated quartz-veins. Narrow dikes of granite 
 traverse the schists, often not more than two or three feet in width and 
 of regular thickness, continuing uniformly for several hundred yards 
 parallel to the stratification, and being harder t-han the schists, have 
 been left by erosion standing like walls several feet above the surface 
 of the ground. Where the surface of contact of the granite and the 
 schists is exposed, the sides of the dike are seen to be smooth surfaces, 
 often beautifully marked with slickensides exceeding in the polished 
 and striated markings any specimens of the walls of mineral veins 
 which have ever come under my notice. 
 
 The sides of the lenticular masses of granite forming the low ridges 
 show slickensides and vertical striated surfaces, but not nearly in so 
 marked a degree as the narrow dikes. 
 
 The granite is very coarsely crystalline, largely comiiosed of white or 
 flesh-colored feldspar, intermixed with quattz and mica, (muscovite,) 
 with black tourmaline in large hexagonal crystals as an associated 
 mineral. Quartz occurs disseminated through the mass of the feldspar 
 in small grains and in nodules between the crystals. Segregated veins 
 and irregular masses of quartz occur in the granite ridges, generally 
 white, vitreous, or translucent, frequently of a beautiful deep rose-color, 
 but everywhere apparently free from any traces of valuable minerals, or 
 any considerable quantity of gold. 
 
 The schistose rocks are in great variety, mica-schist being the pre- 
 vailing form, often garnetiferous, and merging into talcose, chlorite, 
 and quartz schists. 
 
 The minerals found in the schists are few in number. Small garnet- 
 crystals are very abundant ; a few specimens of hornblende, epidote, and 
 staurotide were seen, but they occur but rarely in these rocks. Veins 
 and ledges of ferruginous quartz are found traversing the schists be- 
 tween the granite ridges or dikes to which they are parallel. These 
 ledges are not true fissure-veins, that is, they do not intersect the strata 
 at an angle to the stratification, neither are they segregated veins, but 
 occur filling continuous and regular fissures between the lamellsB of the 
 schists formed in the folding of the rocks, and are in fact interlaminated 
 fissure-veins. 
 
 The quartz is often mixed with a large proportion of brown and yel- 
 low oxides of iron, resulting probably from the decomposition of pyrites, 
 and the gold now found in the gravel-deposits along the streams has 
 been derived from the disintegration and denudation of these ledges in 
 the schists. 
 
 But little prospecting could be done in the numerous quartz-veins of 
 this district, for want of time and proper tools. The miners reported 
 gold in small quantities from several veins which they discovered and 
 opened. 
 
 ^ear the stockade on French Creek a mass of schist was noticed 
 about 150 feet in length, upturned on edge and completely inclosed by 
 a broad rim of granite. This fragment of schist was traversed by a 
 ledge of quartz and limonite several feet in width, conformable to 'the 
 stratification, and cut off at each end by the subsequent intrusion of the 
 granite. From the uniformity in the composition and appearance 
 of the granite from all parts of the Harney's Peak range, the dike charac- 
 ter of the ridges, the presence of slickensides, and the observed instances 
 of inclosed fragments of schists, I can but regard the granite of this 
 region as injected. There are occurrences of small, narrow veins of 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS.) * 11 
 
 feldspar leading from the granite into the schist, probably deposited by 
 chemical solutions accompanying the intrusion, which would seem to 
 indicate that the fluidity of the injected granite was due more to the 
 presence of water than to the intensity of the heat. 
 
 French Creek rises in the level park country southwest of Harney's 
 Peak, among granite, gneiss, and schistose rocks, and flows in a generiil 
 easterly and southeasterly course about fifteen miles, until, entering a 
 deep canon in the limestone formation, it sinks among the bowlders in 
 the bed of the channel and disappears before reaching the foot-hills, 
 continuing as a dry arroyo, with water-holes at intervals, to the Chey- 
 enne. Near its head it is a sluggish stream with long stretches of slack- 
 water ; in midsummer, notwithstanding frequent showers of rain, drying 
 up to a chain of water-holes. A few miles below the stockade it is 
 swelled by springs and side branches to a creek 10 to 15 feet in width 
 and about 8 to 12 inches deep, flowing with a moderately-rapid current 
 until it is lost in the canon. 
 
 Gold was discovered in gravel-bars on French Creek early in August, 
 1874, by Eoss and McKay, miners accompanying the expedition under 
 command of General G. A. Custer, but from want of time they were un- 
 able to ascertain definitely whether the gold existed in paying quantities, 
 although obtaining by a few days' work quite encouraging prospects. 
 
 About three weeks later this field was visited by the Kev. S. D. Hin- 
 man, with an escort from the agencies on White Eiver, iti search of a 
 suitable location for a reservation, but not finding any evidences of 
 gold, on their return they threw some discredit on the reports of the 
 existence of the precious metal in the Black Hills. 
 
 A party of twenty -five miners from Sioux City reached French Creek 
 December 23, 1874, and built a stockade and cabins near the location of 
 General Custer's camp. They passed the winter prospecting very in- 
 dustriously for gold in the vicinity, opening several quartz-ledges in the 
 schistose rocks of the park, and sinking pits on the flats and gravel-bars 
 along the stream. 
 
 Before cold weather was over and the frost out of the ground so that 
 the diggings could be opened on a scale large enough to practically test 
 the richness and extent of the gravel-deposits, these miners were re- ■ 
 moved by the military to Fort Laramie. 
 
 When (June 16) I reached French Creek, about fifteen miners were 
 found camped four miles above the stockade, where they had been 
 at work for several weeks, and had staked off claims, built small dams, 
 and were digging ditches preparatory to commencing sluicing on the 
 bars along the banks of the stream. These miners were very enthusi- 
 astic in regard to the mineral wealth of the gulch ; they were reporting 
 from 5 to 27 cents to the pan from the pay-gravel, and made the most 
 extravagant statements as to the yield which would be obtained as 
 soon as they commenced working with sluices. But they were working 
 under unfavorable circumstances; the water-supply was very small, 
 not exceeding 60 miners' inches, with every indication that it would 
 soon fail entirely, and the grade of the valley was so small that it was 
 difficult to get a good head of water for sluicing. On testing, by wash- 
 ing, the pay-gravel from the dilferent prospectmg holes already opened, 
 with a pan, and weighing the gold obtained, it was found that the usual 
 yield along the stream was from four to eight colors to the pan, (about 
 one-tenth to one-fifth of a cent,) and, in favorable and somewhat limited 
 localities, from half a cent to as high as one and a half cents were ob- 
 tained from the gravel from off bed-rock. The gravel-bars were rich 
 enough in gold to pay, if extensively worked under more favorable cir- 
 
12 * EESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 cumstances, but too poor to yield a remunerative return for the labor 
 employed, except in a few limited deposits of gravel near the extreme 
 head of the stream. 
 
 The next day the following dispatch, embodying all the information 
 in regard to the gold-field that had been obtained to date, was sent by 
 courier to Fort Laramie and telegraphed to Washington : 
 
 Camp on Fbench Creek, Near Harney's Peak, _ 
 
 June 17, 18/ o. 
 
 To Hon. E. P. Smith, 
 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. : 
 
 I have discovered gold in small quantities on the north hend of Castle Creek, in ter- 
 races or bars of quartz gravel. 
 
 Arrived here yesterday. About fifteen miners have located claims on the creek above 
 here, and have commenced working. Gold is found from Castle Creek southwardly to 
 French Creek at this point ; the deposits are almost wholly in Dakota. The region 
 has not been fully explored, but the yield of gold thus far has been quite small, and 
 the reports of the richness of the gravel-bars are greatly exaggerated. 
 
 On French Creek the deposits of gravel are very unfavorably situated. The water- 
 supply is small and failing, and the grade too little to admit of the tailings being car- 
 ried off by the stream. 
 
 The prospect at present is not such as to warrant extended operations in mining. 
 
 WALTER P. JENNEY, E. M., 
 Geologist Exploration of the Black Sills. 
 
 The fact of the existence of gold caused considerable excitement 
 among the soldiers and teamsters of the escort, and quite a number 
 were busily engaged in prospecting along the creek, sinking holes to 
 the bed-rock wherever there was the slightest indication of a deposit of 
 gravel, or cleaning out old prospecting-shafts dug by the miners the 
 preceding winter, and panning the pay-gravel which had been reported 
 to be so rich in gold. But the results of their labor were so discourag- 
 ing — generally only a few small " colors " would be, obtained from a pan 
 of gravel, and rarely more than three-quarters of a cent to the pan in 
 the richest layer of pay-dirt from off bed-rock — that after a few days 
 they abandoned the search for the precious metal and did not resume it 
 for more than two weeks, until the discovery of a very encouraging 
 prospect on a bar near the stockade caused a renewal of the excitement 
 for a time, an account of which will be given farther on. 
 
 In examining the gravel-deposits along the valley of French Creek, 
 advantage was taken of the numerous prospecting shafts already sunk 
 by the miners, and in the few places remaining untried which gave any 
 indication on the surface of the existence of valuable underlying gravel- 
 beds, shafts were sunk to bed-rock by the miners assisting me in the 
 work. The first tests were made by washing several pans of the pay- 
 gravel in the usual manner, and if the result obtained was at all en- 
 couraging, the deposit was more extensively tested by washing a meas- 
 ured quantity of the pay-dirt in a rocker and weighing the gold ob- 
 tained. Finding that the best prospects in the gulch were from gravel 
 from a prospecting shaft on a dry branch of French Greek, about live 
 miles above the stockade, the following test was made to determine as 
 accurately as possible the richness of the deposit : 
 
 The shaft was first cleaned out and a sufficient quantity of the pay- 
 gravel drifted out from off bed-rock, carefully averaged, measured, and 
 washed with the greatest care in a rocker, every precaution being taken 
 to prevent any appreciable loss of tine gold carried over the riffles by 
 the muddy water. The result was as follows : 9 buckets gravel = 3.12 
 cubic feet, gave 0.370 gram, of gold in small flat scales and grains : 
 
EESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. ' 13 
 
 0.370 gram. = 5.7 grains troy = $0.23, or about one and one-fourth 
 cents to the pan. 
 
 This would indicate a yield of $1.87 per cubic yard of the pay-grarel 
 which formed a layer on bed-rock about a foot in thickness. 
 
 In the above calculation an average bucket of gravel is taken at 600 
 cubic inches, or 75 buckets equal one cubic yard. A pan is about half 
 a bucket, giving 150 pans of dirt to a cubic yard. I have estima;ted the 
 value of the gold to be $19.50 per ounce in gold coin. 
 
 The gravel from a shaft some distance below on the stteam, tested in 
 a similar manner, gave the following result: 10 buckets dirt ^3.42 
 cubic feet, yielded 0.020 gram, gold ; 0.020 gram. = 0.3 grains troy = 
 0.012 cent, or 9 cents per cubic yard, equal to one-twentieth of a 
 cent to the pan. This latter gravel was very poor in gold, but that 
 washed in the preceding test was correspondingly richer than the aver- 
 age of the gravel opened at that time along the creek. Near the stock- 
 ade the result of the prospecting showed that the richest gravel was 
 from a hole sunk to bed-rock on the bank of the creek, four pans of the 
 pay-dirt giving \ grain troy = 3 cents gold, or f of a cent to the pan. 
 Washing 12 buckets of this gravel in a rocker, yielded 4J grains troy 
 of gold = 17 cents, or $1.12 per cubic yard ; nearly the same result as 
 was obtained with the pan. 
 
 Most of the prospecting holes had been sunk early in spring, when 
 the ground was full of water and the locations selected with regard to 
 the rim-rock, so that the bed-rock might be reached before the depth of 
 the shaft became so great that it would be flooded with surface-water. 
 In order to test the deeper channels in the flats near the stockade, a 
 place was selected where the configuration of the surface of the ground 
 indicated an old channel filled with gravel to the present surface of the 
 bar. 
 
 A shaft 5 feet by 7 feet was sunk to bed-rock, which was reached at 
 a depth of 15 feet, passing through gravel filled with large water-worn 
 bowlders 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Four men were constantly employed 
 for three days in sinking this shaft ; the bowlders had to be broken with 
 sledges and hoisted out with a windlass, and the water was so trouble- 
 some as to require constant bailing to keep the shaft dry. The bed- 
 rock was found to be granite. On cleaning up the whole surface the 
 size of the bottom of the shaft and panning the gravel, not a color of 
 gold was obtained, a result which was unlocked for by the miners, the 
 gravel passed through having been quite promising in appearance. 
 
 Having forwarded to Washington a written report embodying the re- 
 sults of the prospecting and exploration made up to date, (June 25,) I 
 left French Creek, and, accompanied by my miners, made an excursion 
 north, for the purpose of examining the valleys of Spring aiid Eapid 
 Oreeks, and on my return, July 8, 1 found that some new discoveries had 
 been made, and considerable work done by the miners in my absence. 
 
 A party of miners about five miles above the stockade had put in a 
 small sluice, and reported'that they obtained by one day's work 27 penny- 
 weights of gold, or nearly $27; three men being employed in shoveling 
 the gravel into the sluice. Unfortunately, the work on this bar was 
 stopped by the stampede to the new discoveries in Spring and Castle 
 Creeks, before it could be thoroughly tested and the richness of the 
 deposit proved to be constant and regular. 
 
 John W. Allen, of Cheyenne, an experienced miner, and one of the best 
 prospectors I ever knew, in a letter to the Chicago Inter-Ocean, gives 
 the results of this sluicing, in which he assisted the owners of the bar. 
 
14 EESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Cheyenne, Wyoming Tereitory, 
 
 Augmt 30, 1875. 
 To the Editor of the Inter-Ocean : 
 
 * * if .# * * * 
 
 I waited last spring for the country to be thrown open by this Indian treaty now 
 pending, and becoming impatient I concluded to do as hundreds of others did, to start 
 into the hills, and on the 12th of July landed in Custer's Paris, and being an experienced 
 miner, I had doubts in regard to French Creek paying, because of there being no fall 
 to the creeii and scarcely any water. But I found one set of sluice-boxes about to be 
 set up, and I went to wor]£ and helped to fix them, and then worlied one day and weighed 
 the dust, and found that the ground paid $9 per day to the hand, of fine dust, although 
 
 am sure this creek will not average that all the way through the gulch. 
 
 JOHjST W. ALLEN. 
 
 John Eoberson, an old California miner of the "days of forty-nine," 
 had discovered very good prospects on an elevated bar near the stock- 
 ade, and, building a dam, conveyed the water from the creek in a small 
 ditch to the face of the drift. In the mean time the soldiers had become 
 quite excited over the discovery, and were hard at work with pans and 
 rockers, washing the pay-dirt from off bed-rock. For several days they 
 were quite successful. From 16 to 26 colors were obtained to the pan. 
 One soldier found a piece of gold valued at 20 cents ; another a small 
 nugget weighing about a pennyweight, worth 97 cents, and 24 buckets 
 of gravel gave, on washing, an average of 12 cents gold. On drifting in 
 on the bar the pay-streak rose, and was found among the bowlders nearly 
 18 inches above the bed-rock. The section of this gravel- deposit was 
 as follows : 
 
 Soil 1 foot. 
 
 Gravel and bowlders 4 feet. 
 
 Clayey compact gravel containing the gold 6 inches. 
 
 Decomposed bed-rock and bowlders 1 foot. 
 
 Micaceous schist forming bed-rock. 
 
 The sluices were soon in place, and this bar most thoroughly tested, 
 under the direction of Mr. Eoberson. The result of the first day's work 
 of eight hours, four men being employed most of the time, was 2 dwt, 
 
 8 gr. Troy of coarse gold, valued at $2.30. 
 
 The second day, not only the gravel was put through the sluce, but the 
 whole surface of the bed-rock exposed by both days' work was most 
 carefully cleaned up and washed. The return, however, was but 1 dwt. 
 
 9 gr. Troy of gold, equal to $1.10. 
 
 The work of both days may be summed up : 
 
 4 men 1 day, result , $2 30 
 
 6 men I day, result 1 10 
 
 10 men 1 day, result 3 40 
 
 or a yield of 34 cents per day per man. 
 
 This result was a disappointment to every one, and seemed to indicate 
 that the richness of the gravel at first obtained w.as due to a concentra- 
 tion of the gold on rim-rock, and that the cleaning of the bed-rock 
 probably yielded only a very small proportion of the gold, the greater 
 quantity being derived from the compact gravel. 
 
 The gold obtained was in coarse, flat scales, or small, spongy grains, 
 and was quite deceptive in its appearance, nearly all the miners guess- 
 ing the weight of the dust very much too high. 
 
 Gold was found in small quantities in gravel deposits along the 
 numerous creeks flowing east from Harney's Peak, but the region is so 
 inaccessible, and so many difficulties are encountered in attempting to 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 15 
 
 prospect it, that but little could be done by myself and assistants in that 
 area, while the rush to the discoveries on Spring and Castle Creeks car- 
 ried all the miners in the hills far to the north, and left this region but 
 partly prospected. 
 
 Some prospecting was done on Amphibious, Minnekata, and Eed Caiion 
 Creeks, small streams draining the southern portion of Custer's Park. 
 On Amphibious, near its headwaters, a few colors of gold were obtained 
 from small gravel-deposits, but the water-supply was so small, the 
 stream being dry at the time, that prospecting was very difiicult. 
 About five miles below the head of this creek, a number of dry ravines 
 enter it from the east, cutting deep into the schists and slates. In these 
 ravines flo"i>it- quartz was found, showing, on breaking, visible particles 
 of gold, but the quartz was not traced to the ledge from which it had 
 been originally derived. 
 
 Minnekata or "Hot Water" Creek, so named by the Indians from 
 the warmth of the water, which has a temperature of 74° P., although 
 rising in large warm springs in the Carboniferous limestone, has a deep 
 deposit of quartz- gravel on its east bank, about two miles below its source. 
 This gravel is derived from the wash from the Hills, and is composed of 
 bowlders of rocks and quartz cemented by sand and lime to a loosely coher- 
 ing conglomerate, forming a bluff on the bank of the stream. Similar 
 deposits are to be seen at intervals among the foot-hills at the edge of 
 the plains all along the eastern slope from this stream as far north as 
 Box Elder. 
 
 On Eed Canon Creek several tests were made of the gravel-deposits, but 
 nothing of value found. This stream is on the extreme western edge of 
 the gold-fields, and rises partly in the limestone, contains but little water 
 and drains but a limited area of the schistose rocks. 
 
 The gravel-deposits elevated above the present level of French Creek 
 showed often a local concentration of gold on the outer edge of the 
 bed-rock from the repeated washing away of the gravel by floods or 
 heavy rains, leaving the gold contained in it behind. Though giving 
 a very encouraging prospect at first; on driving an open cut a few 
 yards into the bar where the gravel was undisturbed, the richness of 
 the pay-dirt rapidly decreased until it equaled the true average of the 
 whole deposit, thus showing that the result at first obtained was only 
 a " rim-rock prospect." 
 
 The richest layer in the pay-gravel was rarely on bed-rock, but 
 usually from 10 to 20 inches above it, forming the upper surface of the 
 stratum of compact clayey gravel mixed with fragments of decomposed 
 bed-rock which had caught and retained the greater portion of the gold. 
 
 The gravel-bars along French Creek, for several miles above and 
 below the stockade, were examined wherever there was the slightest 
 indication or probability of gold existing in paying quantities with 
 results similar to those already given, and, as might be expected from 
 the level character of the valley, the gravel-deposits were richest around 
 its head branches, and proved regularly poorer in gold as the distance 
 below its source increased. 
 
 Excepting Castle Creek no stream in the Hills was prospected the past 
 season to anything like the extent that the gravel-deposits on French 
 Creek were subjected to. The whole bottom of the valley for nearly 
 six miles was full of prospecting pits. Each new party of miners on 
 arriving in the Hills first visited Custer Gulch, as it was called, and 
 expended their surplus energy and enthusiasm in sinking a number of 
 prospecting holes before proceeding elsewhere in search of gold. But 
 the results obtained by these miners were very poor, except in a few 
 
18 EESODECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 dred and fifty square miles, elevated about 6,000 feet above the sea, 
 characterized by low, rounded hills, and ridges, wooded with pine of 
 medium size, interspersed with numerous small parks and grassy val- 
 leys, well watered by the springs and brooks forming the sources of this 
 stream. The prevailing rocks of this region are mica-schists, often 
 garnetiferous and merging in all gradations into talcose and quartz 
 schist, and strata with thin slate-like lamellae, containing but traces of 
 mica. 
 
 Quartz occurs, distributed abundantly in the schists as thin segregated 
 veins, parallel to the bedding, or in irregular bunches, not continuous in 
 the strata. It is found crystalline, white, red, or rose tinted, and, with 
 the exception, probably, of gold, appears to be free from any other 
 minerals. 
 
 The abundance of quartz forms a serious annoyance in prospecting 
 for ledges, the whole country being covered with float-quartz of every 
 variety, rendering it difficult to trace fragments found to contain gold 
 to the veins from which they were derived. The first tests for gold on 
 Spring Creek were made on a small branch flowing west from Harney's 
 Peak and emptying into the main stream about three miles above New- 
 ton's Fork. The gravel, resulting from the wash of the granite of the 
 Harney's Peak range, failed to give a trace of gold on panning, but on 
 descending the branch and testing the gravel, as soon as we had entered 
 the mica and quartz schists, small colors of gold were obtained. 
 
 The different strata were encountered in the following order, in pro- 
 ceeding down this branch : 
 
 1. Coarsely crystalline, white feldspar granite of the Harney's Peak 
 range. 
 
 2. Metamorphic schist, (gneiss.) 
 
 3. Mica-schist, with segregated quartz-veins containing traces of 
 amorphous graphite. 
 
 4. Quartz-schist, having a slaty structure alternating with strata of 
 mica-schist ; the whole formation dipping 45° west. 
 
 In descending Spring Creek, the first gravel-bars are seen about five 
 miles above Newton's Fork, elevated from 20 to 40 feet above the pres- 
 ent level of the stream on flat points and benches of mica or quartz 
 schist. 
 
 On making an open cut into these bars on bed-rock, the gravel is found 
 to be almost exclusively composed of quartz, and to yield, on panning, 
 small quantities of gold, from one color to half a Cent to the pan. Bet- 
 ter results were obtained from drifts run in on toed-rpck in the flats near 
 the edge of the stream. The gravel is full of mica and small garnet- 
 crystals, resulting from the disintegration of the schists, and the gold 
 is associated with black sand and bright scales of iron-ore. 
 
 To test the deeper channels in the flat, a shaft 5 by 8 feet was sunk 
 with considerable difficulty to bed-rock, which was reached at a depth 
 of 13J feet, passing through the following deposits : 
 
 Black peaty soil 4 feet. 
 
 Brown colored, loose, light gravel 2 feet. 
 
 Compact white quartz- gravel, containing about half a cent to 
 
 the pan of coarse scale-gold 2 feet. 
 
 Loose quicksands with bowlders, yielding only flue colors of 
 
 gold 4 feet. 
 
 Decomposed bed-rock, with colors of coarse scale-gold IJ feet. 
 
 Bed-rock ; lamellar, talcose schist. 
 
 The quicksand was so loose that water flowed in such quantities into 
 the shaft as to keep one, man employed constantly bailing to enable the 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 19 
 
 others to work. The gravel was paniied regularly for every 6 inches 
 depth of the shaft, and the pay-dirt and gravel from off the bed-rock 
 tested by washing a number of pans and comparing the results. Scales 
 of mica largely composed the lighter gravels and white quartz, and 
 slightly water-worn garnet-crystals were found in the more clayey lay- 
 ers. The pay-streak was not on bed-rock, but nearly 6 feet above it in 
 the first compact layer of gravel. 
 
 Finding a number of prospecting pits in the vicinity, which had been 
 sunk by a party of miners from French Creek, I had the pay-dirt from 
 these holes tested, and obtained results similar to the above. Encoun- 
 tering the miners, they informed me that they had experienced great 
 difficulty in reaching bed-rock on account of water, and that nothing 
 had been found by them up to that time better than the deposits in 
 Custer's Gulch. Spring Creek at this point was 8 feet wide and 6 inches 
 deep, with a moderate current, probably at this time (June 25) affording 
 250 to 300 miner's inches of water. The placer gravels of this portion 
 of the Spring Creek district may be classed as elevated bars and gulch 
 deposits. The elevated bars are banks of quartz-gravel occupying flat 
 points and rocky benches at the bends of the creek, from 10 to 40 feet 
 above the present channel, and formed by the stream, when, ages ago, it 
 flowed at that level through the valley. 
 
 The gulch-deposits cover the bottom-flats of the valleys along every 
 branch where there is flowing water, and are much more extensive in 
 area than the higher bars, and include gravel-deposits resting on bed- 
 rock near the present water-level, old channels of the stream, filled 
 with gravel and soil, winding through the flats, and the more recent 
 placers occupying the present bed of the creek. 
 
 The result of prospecting on this branch of Spring Creek seemed to 
 show a general diffusion of gold in nearly paying quantities through 
 quite extensive gravel-deposits, which, in many respects, resemble the 
 bars in Custer's Gulch. The water-supply was, however, considerably 
 greater, and the grade or descent of the valley sufficient to enable the 
 deposits to be worked with much less expenditure of time or labor, so 
 that, were the deposits of equal richness, they would be more valuable 
 here than on French Creek. These head-branches were, however, only 
 partially prospected up to the time I left the district, (August 1,) and 
 Newton's Fork was -comparatively untouched, the whole attention of 
 myself and miners being given to practically testing the value of the 
 richer deposits situated some miles below. While I am writing, hun- 
 dreds of miners are hard at work, prospecting this region, and the valu- 
 able deposits, wherever they exist, will soon be found and made to give 
 up the gold they contain and have held uselessly locked up for ages. 
 At this period in the exploration I was camped with a small party of my 
 miners, about a mile below the junction of Spring Creek and Newton's 
 Fork, for several days. We had been prospecting the head-branches 
 of the stream with results which were not as encouraging as tlie ap- 
 pearance and character of the gravel-deposits would indicate should be 
 obtained. 
 
 The mountainous region to the north and east, embracing the valleys 
 of Spring and Eapid Creeks, was unknown and unexplored. The ex- 
 pedition led by General Custer the preceding summer had passed around 
 this rugged area to the west and north, following the valley of the Box 
 Elder, on leaving the Hills, and the miners who were on French Creek 
 had not, as yet, attempted to penetrate it in search of gold. 
 
 I had noticed to the east thechange in the geological formation of the 
 country and regarding the belt of clay slates and quartzites as more favor- 
 able to the production of valuable placer-deposits of gold than the 
 
20 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 metamorpbic micascliists with "their superabundance of crystalline 
 quartz, I decided to descend the stream far enough to insure tne con_ 
 centration in the placers of any gold resulting from the denudation oi 
 the ledges in the slate-formation, and there prospect and test tne rica- 
 ness of the gravel-deposits and prove the value of the district. 
 
 Locating in the Valley of Spring Greek, about eight miles below JNew- 
 ton's Fork, near where the immense quartz-formation known as tne 
 Mammoth ledge crosses the gulch, a few hours' prospecting resuitea 
 in the discovery of gold in paying quantities in the placer-deposits ot tHis 
 stream. June 29, 1875, Thomas H.Mallory, one of the best prospect- 
 ors associated with me the past season, noticed a line of large bowlders 
 extending across the stream, forming a dam or " riffle," and, suspecting 
 that rocks of that size and weight must rest on bed-rock, wadea into 
 the creek, and turning over a bowlder, dug from beneath it a blue 
 gravelly clay, a shovelful of which gave on washing six flat scales ot 
 gold, about a tenth of an inch iu diameter, or five cents to the pan. 
 Putting all my force of miners at work in this place, several ot tne 
 bowlders were rolled to one side, affording a passage for the stream and 
 decreasing the depth of water above the riffle. On examination the pay- 
 gravel was found to be a deposit about 35 feet in width, crossing the 
 creek and extending into the banks on either side, resulting from the 
 decomposition of a stratum of soft clay-slate in the bed-rock, which had 
 caught and retained the gold swept over it by the stream. The deposit 
 consisted of — . . 
 
 1. Loose gravel of slate and quartz with small bowlders, containing 
 traces of gold, thickness about 6 inches. 
 
 2. " Pay-streak," a compact gravel full of small red garnet-crystals, 
 rich in coarse gold, from 3 to 6 inches in depth. 
 
 3. Plastic blue clay mixed with rotten slate bedrock yielding gold in 
 paving quantities, but not as rich as the garnet-gravel ; thickness 1 to 2 
 
 feet. , , 
 
 4. Lamellar clay-slate, soft and decomposed, forming bedrock. 
 
 The "Mammoth" quartz ledge crossed the bed of the creek just 
 below this rich deposit, and, subsequently it was found that the line of 
 bowlders forming the riffle had lodged in the soft slate above the upper 
 side of the ledge, as shown in the accompanying' sketch. 
 
 Longitudinal section of the bed of Spring Creek at the point of original discovery. 
 
 A. Water of stream. 
 
 B. Riffle of large bowlders. 
 
 C. Loose graye'l and bowlders, poor iu gold. 
 
 J). Pay-streak heavy red garnet-gravel, auriferous. 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 21 
 
 A number of pans of the pay-gravel were washed with a result of from 
 one to two grains troy of coarse gold, or 4 to 8 cents to the pan. The 
 average of the whole thickness of clay and gravel was nearly 4 cents 
 to the pan, while the pay-streak would give returns considerably higher 
 if washed separately. A pit was sunk in the bank of the creek, and 
 the pay-streak found equally rich. At a depth of effect from the sur- 
 face several inches of garnet-gravel overlaid a yelloV clay a foot in 
 thickness, resting on rotten slate and quartz bed-rock. The average 
 result on panning the clay and gravel of this pit was about 4 cents to 
 the pan. Subsequently I saw the soldiers of the escort obtain from 10 
 to 15 cents to the pan from the pay-streak in this pit. After prospect- 
 ing for several days in the vicinity it became evident that my small force 
 of miners unassisted could not in a season properly examine the gravel- 
 deposits along this section of Spring Creek, and after exploring Eapid 
 Creek I returned to this locality, July 14, with Captain Burt's and Cap- 
 tain Munson's companies of the Ninth Infantry. The fact that gold 
 had been struck in paying quantities caused the first stampede in the 
 hills, and nearly two hundred miners followed me from French Creek, 
 staked out claims, established a mining district, and rendered me sub- 
 sequently great assistance in prospecting the region. 
 
 After a few days' work comparing my results with those obtained by 
 the miners, who had staked claims for several miles along the creek 
 above and below my camp, the following dispatch was, through the 
 kindness of Col. E. I. Dodge, commanding the escort, sent by special 
 courier to Fore Laramie and telegraphed to Washingtou : 
 
 Camp on Spring Ckeek, Black Hills of Dakota, 
 
 July 17, 1875. 
 
 To Hon. E. P. Smith, 
 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C: 
 
 I have discovered gold in paying quantities in gravel-bars on both Spring and Eapid 
 Creeks, from twenty to thirty miles northeast of Harney's Peak. ^ 
 
 The deposits are the richest yet found in the hills, and are very favorably situated. 
 There is a good head of water in the streams, amply sufficient jbr working purposes. 
 
 The gold is derived from quartz-ledges of enormous dimensions in a belt of clay- 
 slate and quartzite twenty miles in width, crossing the Hills in a northwesterly di- 
 rection at this point. The clay from the bed of the stream near camp yields from 4 to 
 8 cents to the pan, and several pieces of about the valne of a dollar have been found 
 by the soldiers. I am engaged in prospecting the value and extent of the region. 
 
 7* ^ Tf * ^f 
 
 WALTEE P. JENNEY, E. M., 
 
 Geologist Exploration Black Hills. 
 
 In order to test the richness of the gold-deposits in the bed of the 
 creek, it was necessary to turn the water out of its present channel. 
 With the assistance of the soldiers a dam was built across the stream 
 above the point of discovery and the water of the creek conveyed by a 
 ditch 1,000 feet in length across a bend and returned to the channel be- 
 low the place we wished to test, leaving comparatively free from water 
 about 400 yards of the former bed of the stream. Before reporting 
 definitely on the richness of the new discovery I wished to test on a prac- 
 tical scale the gravel from the different bars, and for this purpose con- 
 structed from rough boards, whip-sawed from the native pine, a small 
 box sluice, 10 to 12 inches in width, formed of two boxes 14 feet in 
 length. This work had consumed more than a week. In the mean time 
 the soldiers who were not employed in assisting me had been hard at 
 work in the bed of the creek above the riffle, washing the clay-gravel 
 in pans and rockers, with quite remunerative results. Several ragged 
 and irregular pieces of gold with oxide of iron adhering in the cavities had 
 
22 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 been found, weighing from | dwt. to IJ dwt. and worth from 75 cents 
 to a dollar and a half. From 5 to 15 cents to the pan was usually ob- 
 tained from the pay-streak, and the soldiers sometimes washed out 
 nearly a dollar's worth of gold in three or four hours' work with a pan. 
 Prom twenty buckets of dirt taken from the bed of the stream and, 
 washed in a rocker, 2 dwt. of gold or nearly $2 was cleaned up, while 
 the pay-gravel in places yielded as high as 75 cents from five buckets of 
 the top gravel — equal to $11.25 per cubic yard. 
 
 Working as they did, often waist-deep in the water of the creek, un- 
 der many disadvantages from want of skill and tools, letting their tail- 
 ings fall back into the holes from which they dug the pay-dirt, and, 
 from the pasty and clayey character of the gravel, obtaining but a por- 
 tion of the gold which it contained, the above results are quite re- 
 markable. For, despite all drawbacks, from an area about twice the size 
 of the floor of a wall-tent, (8 by 18 feet,) not less than one and a half 
 ounces of gold were obtained. 
 
 The water leaking through the dam, and that derived from a number 
 of small springs in the bed of the creek, produced a stream of about 
 thirty miner's inches flowing through the channel, from which the creek 
 had been turned, causing great annoyance and diflQculty in working, 
 which could only be entirely obviated by constructing a bed-rock drain 
 several hundred feet in length, an undertaking that would consume too 
 much time. 
 
 To exclude the water from the strip of pay-gravel crossing the creek 
 at the original discovery while testing it, a wing-dam was built around 
 the deposit, and the pit kept moderately dry by continuous bailing. 
 The sluice was placed in position, the first box into which the gravel 
 was shoveled being left open, and a longitudinal riffle placed in the sec- 
 ond to catch the gold. A sufiScient head of water was brought in a 
 small conduit from the main ditch, and the gravel, clay, and decomposed 
 bed-rock, covering a space 8 feet by 9 feet, dug out to a depth of 
 18 inches, and put through the sluice. The result, on clean- 
 ing up after four hours' work, was one-third of an ounce troy 
 of coarse scale-gold, worth $6.48. This was obtained from four cubic 
 yards of gravel, from which the soldiers had previously taken the cream 
 of the deposit, and quite a large portion of the material sluiced was tailings 
 that had been once worked. The next day the sluicing was continued 
 at the same place, a fresh portion of the creek-bed being inclosed by a 
 wing-dam. The result of six hours' work was one-half ounce troy of gold, 
 equal to $9.72. The result of the work of both days may be summed up 
 as follows : 
 
 4 hours' work produced i ounce troy gold = $6.43 
 6 hours' work produced -j ounce troy gold = 9.72 
 
 10 hours' work produced f ounce troy gold = 16.20 
 Five men were employed in these tests, one of whom was constantly 
 at work bailing the water leaking through the wing-dam into the pit, 
 while the others picked up bed-rock, shoveled the gravel into the boxe's, 
 and tended sluice. They worked, however, under so many disadvan- 
 tages, that, with a sluice of proper size and a bed-rock drain , two men could 
 have easily done the same work in the same time, with probably a some- 
 what increased yield of gold. But even charging this return of $16.20 
 with the labor of five men for ten hours, the result was $3.24 per day 
 per man, and with economical and skillful working on a larger scale the 
 clean-up should equal at least one-half ounce or $10 to the hand. The 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 23 
 
 soldiers had been panning previously from this spot for two weeks and 
 worked out the richest of the gravel, and on weighing the gold in their 
 possession I found that they had obtained about $32 from the area I 
 had sluiced in both days' work, which measured 216 square feet and had 
 been excavated 18 to 20 inches in depth. Or 12 cubic yards of gravel 
 put through the sluice had yielded $16.20 in addition to that obtained by 
 the soldiers, giving $48.20 as the total yield, or about $4 per cubic yard. 
 The water leaking into the pit gave a great deal of trouble, preventing 
 the bed-rock from being properly cleaned up, and the blue plastic clay 
 on being shoveled into the sluice, even after puddling, rolled into balls 
 and washed through the boxes unchanged, carrying with it any gold 
 which it contained. On testing the tailings which concentrated under 
 the tail of the sluice, I found that considerable gold had in this way 
 been swept through and lost, the sluice being too short to properly work 
 so clayey a gravel. The soldiers rockered the heaviest of these tailings 
 and the lumps of clay, obtaining about J dwt. of scale-gold from tliem. 
 Large quantities of red garnet-crystals were caught in the riffles, together 
 with cubical crystals of iron-pyrites and round water-worn pieces of 
 hematite iron-ore; No quicksilver was employed, as I wished to pro- 
 cure a sample of the gold in its natural state for assay. 
 
 The richest layer in the deposit was the lower part of the red garnet- 
 gravel where it rested on the upper surface of the blue plastic clay. 
 Pieces taken from this contact showed, on breaking, scales and particles 
 of gold contained in it. The bed-rock, as far as we dug into it, about a 
 foot below its surface, contained coarse gold in small quantities, prob- 
 ably caught in crevices in the rock before it decomposed. The soldiers, 
 under the direction of John Eoberson, for two days sluiced th.e gravel 
 from the bed of the creek below the riffle, but found the bed-rock either 
 a hard massive quartzite, worn by water smooth and level, or a ferru- 
 ginous quartz with masses of crystalline iron-pyrites — the outcrop in 
 the creek of the Mammoth ledge. The gravel was loose and poor in 
 gold, and the character of the bed-rock prevented it from ever retaining 
 any gold swept over its surface by the stream. Only about 25 cents 
 and $1 were obtained by these tests. Afterward they put in a wing- 
 dam just above the area I had sluiced out, and found a few square feet 
 of the clay-gravel, but above that the bed-rock pitched up-stream and 
 changed to_a hard quartzite with loose, poor gravel. The result of about 
 six hours' work was $2.70 gold, mostly obtained from the small quantity 
 of clay-gravel adjoining my pit. No one attempted to follow this de- 
 posit far into the flats on the banks of the stream, though it gave 
 equally good results at either end, and may have been continuous for 
 some distance across the bottom. In review of this deposit, it may be 
 described as a strip of plastic clay crossing the bed of the creek, and 
 resulting from the decomposition of a strata of soft clay-slate, located on 
 the rise of the bed-rock, while, both above and below, was a hard mass- 
 ive quartzite, smooth and water-worn, but protecting the slate from be- 
 ing rapidly cut away by the current of the stream. The sample of gold 
 obtained by this test was submitted to Mr. Eicketts, assayer at the 
 School of Mines, New York, for the determination of its fineness and 
 value per ounce. The results of two assays, each made in duplicate, 
 are annexed, showing that the gold from this district is very pure, be- 
 ing 946-f^ fine, or 22| carats, and, just as it is washed from the placers, is 
 worth $19.44 to $19.63 per ounce. 
 
24 RESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Certificate of assay. 
 
 School of Mines, 
 New York, January 6, 1876. 
 Sir: The sample of plaoer-gold from Spring Creek, Black Hills of Dakota, submit- 
 ted to me for examination, contains, by assay of raw dust without previous melting — 
 
 Gold 937.8 fine. 
 
 Silver 45.9 fine 
 
 Base metal 1^-30 
 
 Total 1000.00 
 
 The excess of base metal is due to the presence of oxide of iron, adhering to the 
 particles of gold. 
 
 The value in gold-coin of one ounce troy of dust is — 
 
 Gold $19,384 
 
 Silver 0.057 
 
 Total 19.44 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 P. De p. EICKETTS, -E. M. 
 Walter P. JEXJ^EY, E. M. 
 
 Certificate of assay. 
 
 School op Minks, 
 New York, January 6, 1876. 
 Sik: The sample of placer-gold from Spring Creek, Black Hills, submitted to me for 
 examination, contaiiis, by assay of the melted bar made by sampling about one ounce 
 of the raw dust and melting, to free it from oxide of iron — 
 
 Gold 946.4 fine 
 
 Silver 50. 4 fine. 
 
 Base metal 3. 2 
 
 Total 1000.00 fine. 
 
 The value in gold-coin of one ounce troy of melted dust is — 
 
 Gold $19. ,^62 
 
 Silver 0.062 
 
 Total 19.624 
 
 Note. — The value of pure gold per ounce troy is $20 67 ; the value of pure silver per 
 ounce troy is $1.24. ■ 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 P. De p. EICKETTS, E. M. 
 Walter P. Jenney, E. M., 
 
 Geologist BlacJc Hills Expedition. 
 
 About 100 feet above the original discovery an attempt was made to 
 test the creek-bed by building a wing-dam to keep out the water and 
 sinking a prospecting hole inside of it. But after a day of hard work 
 we were obliged to abandon the working at a depth of 4 feet, springs of 
 water bursting through the gravel and flooding the pit. Prom three to 
 four colors of gold were obtained from the loose gravel. 
 
 In a' broad gravel-flat a quarter of a mile below this point a prospect- 
 ing hole -was sunk to bed-rock, which was reached at a depth of 6 feet, 
 and found to be hard quartzite covered with loose gravel resting on a 
 surface worn as smooth as a floor by the water. Several pans of dirt 
 were washed from this pit, but not a color of gold was found. Another 
 pit located in an old channel had to be abandoned at the depth of 5 feet, 
 quicksand being struck, so fluid that it flowed into the working and 
 caused the walls of the pit to cave in. 
 
EESOUECES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 25 
 
 Two prospecting holes in the flat where the Mammoth ledge crossed 
 the gulch struck a cement of quartz pebbles and ©xide of iron so hard 
 as to be penetrated with great difficulty. The same cement several feet 
 in thickness could be seen capping the ledge on the hill near the creek, 
 but on panning it failed to give a trace of gold. Near my camp a small 
 sluggish branch entered the creek from the south, and abont half a mile 
 above its mouth a prospecting hole was sunk in the flat. After passing 
 through about 6 feet of soil, gravel, and bowlders, a black, peaty muck 
 ■was encountered and penetrated a depth of 7 feet, when the water, 
 bursting in, flooded the hole, and a pole 5 feet long was easily thrust 
 down through the muck in the bottom of the shaft, but failed to reach 
 any compact layer of gravel. 
 
 A similar experience was the result of a hole put down by "Califor- 
 nia Joe" on his claim below camp. After passing through 6 feet of 
 large bowlders and compact gravel, a deposit of blackmuck was struck, 
 and finally an old beaver-dam, composed of sticks and mud, was 
 passed through, resting on another layer of muck, at which point the 
 work was stopped by the water. The valley below the Mammoth ledge 
 was contracted in width, and appeared to have been gradually filled up 
 since it had been excavated. Bed-rock was reached in only two places, 
 although a number of shafts were sunk by the miners, and in these cases 
 the rock was hard and the gravel poor in gold. 
 
 The hills bordering the stream were composed of thick strata of mas- 
 sive quartzite upturned on edge, and the narrowing of the valley was 
 doubtless due to the hardness of this belt of rocks resisting denuda- 
 tion and the forces which excavated it. Above the original discovery, 
 for nearly five miles, the valley was broad and open, with rolling and 
 broken hills of siliceous and clay slates, with occasional belts of quartz- 
 ite. Here the gravel-deposits were very broad and extensive ; flats, in 
 places a quarter of a mile wide, extended along the banks of the creek, 
 while elevated bars were to be found at the bends of the stream and 
 sides of the valley, which promised to be very valuable. One of the 
 most noted of these older deposits of the stream, discovered the past 
 season, was the celebrated "Stand-off Bar," concerning the ownership 
 of which there promised, at one time, to be a serious difficulty that 
 was only avoided by the determination of its discoverers to " stand- 
 off" all intruders. John W. Allen, the present recorder of the district, 
 in a letter to the Chicago Inter-Ocean, thus describes this deposit, which 
 proved to be so rich that the owners caved in the drift on leaving the 
 Hills, to prevent any stragglers from working the bar during their en- 
 forced absence. 
 
 Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, 
 
 August 30, 1875. 
 To ihe Editor of the Inter-Ocean : 
 
 After prospecting a short time in the park we moved to Spring Creek or Jenney's 
 ^uloh, and on the morning of the 20th of July we commenced prospecting Stand-off 
 ?ar. .We did not work more than half an hour until we panned out 25 cents to the 
 paff", ^und coarse gold and ran across the bar about 35 feet. From the last pan of 
 dirt takfei out of the face of the drift we got one pennyweight and three grains, or 
 what we term a good dollar to the pan. This is about one mile Op ■ Jenney's Gulch, 
 above Professor Jenney's discovery. We panned several pans that weighed from 25 
 cents to 50 cents, and from 78 cents to 93 cents to the pan ; it ranged all the way from 
 10 cents to |1. * * * We prospected also on Castle Creek, and nave proven beyond 
 a doubt there are good placer-mines there as well as on Spring Creek. We also found 
 good six-dollar per day diggings on Rapid Creek, and had not the military order ar- 
 rested our work we would soon have had plenty of the yellow, metal out of the ground 
 to have shown the world that the Hills are very rich. While we were preparing sluice- 
 boxes, whip-sawing lumber, &o., preparatory to working our ground, we got the 
 " grand military shake," and had to leave our claims and the Hills. * » * 
 
 JOHN W. ALLEN. 
 
26 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Having returned to the Hills after the withdrawal of the military 
 forces, Mr. Allen writes me under date January 2, 1876 : 
 
 Oar bar (Stand-off) pays $1 in gold per hour per man employed; ba^e on hand 
 26 ounces of bankable gold-dust taken out inside of three weeks. 
 
 Mr. James Allen, of Cheyenne, who visited Spring Creek at that time, 
 writes : 
 
 I prospected ten pans of dirt from Stand-off Bar and got for my trouble $5.35. I 
 am perfectly delighted with the country. If anything, it is better and more extensive 
 than has been represented. A company, known as the " Montana company," had only 
 been in the guloh three weeks when I got there ; during that time they had built two 
 houses, cut a ditch near a quarter of a mile in length, whip-sawed their lumber for 
 sluices and set them running, aud had taken out near $1,000 in nice, coarse, bankable 
 dust. 
 
 The claims worked by this company are situated below Stand-off Bar, 
 and I understand that the pay-dirt was obtained by a drift run in 50 
 feet on the rim-rock of an elevated bar, as high as $110 being obtained 
 in one day's work by three men. The companies could not run their 
 sluices more than six hours during the warmer part of the day, owing 
 to cold and frost, yet obtained from six to seven dollars per day per 
 man as the result of this limited work. 
 
 Owing to the numbers of small springs in the flats, it is doubtful 
 if they will be worked until covered bed-rock drains can be constructed 
 to remove the surplus water and admit of dry working. The more 
 elevated and easily- worked bars will first be attacked and made to give 
 up the gold which they contain. Near the point of original discovery 
 the soldiers found, opposite their camp on the hill-side, a small deposit 
 of gravel, 2 to 3 feet deep, which proved to be quite rich, yielding from 
 12 to 1 9 cents to the pan by actual weight. 
 
 Just above where the Mammoth ledge outcropped on the south side 
 of the valley, was a hill of cement-gravel which gave colors on rim-rock, 
 and on sinking a shaft in the center of the hill we passed through a 
 hard cement of quartz pebbles, gravel, and bowlders, but after a week's 
 work failed to get bed-rock at a depth of 22 feet owing to the extreme 
 hardness of the conglomerate which was cemented by oxide of iron, 
 probably deposited by ferruginous springs, the iron of which was derived 
 from the decomposition of pyrites in the ledge. The gravel from this shaft 
 failed to show gold on panning, perhaps owing to the particles of gold 
 being inclosed in the hard lumps of the cement. It promised to be a good 
 deposit to hydraulic, as that process would break up the cement and set 
 the gold free. Two or three miles below this point there were some 
 quite extensive gravel-deposits, where a small branch entered the creek 
 from the north, that were reported to prospect well by the miners wno 
 located claims on these bars. But lower down, the stream flowed 
 through a deep, rocky gorge cut in the slates, with gravel- deposits at 
 intervals aloing its course wherever the gorge was not contracted into 
 a narrow canon. This portion of the stream, extending from the origi- 
 nal discovery to the point where the creek sinks in an impassable canon 
 in the limestone near the foot-hills, a distance of ten or twelve miles, 
 can scarcely be said to have been prospected at all the past summer. 
 In places, the water flowed over the bare slates, and there are no gravel- 
 deposits; but at the bends and forks of the stream bars of considerable 
 size were seen. 
 
 Below where the creek sinks in its bed are bars composed of quartz 
 and slate gravel intermixed with a large proportion of limestone and 
 sandstone bowlders. These deposits undoubtedly contain gold, but I 
 was unable to prospect them, there being not a drop of water in the 
 
EESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 27 
 
 viciuity at the time of my visit, (July 3 ;) but in the spring this stream 
 probably flows out into the plains, and these dry arroyos and placers 
 can then be worked. 
 
 The available water-supply furnished by Spring Creek for working 
 purposes varies with the season of the year, being probably greatest in 
 April, May, June, and July, the rainy months, and least in October, 
 November, and December when there is little precipitation of moisture. 
 
 In turning Spring Creek from its channel, a ditch 2^ feet wide and 2 
 feet deep, with a grade of 2 inches in 30 feet, was entirely filled, besides 
 about 30 miner's inches which leaked through the dam ; and the availa- 
 ble quantity of water at that time, (July 25,) I estimated at not less 
 than 350 miner's inches. During the summer-months Spring Creek 
 will afford from 300 to 800 miner's inches of water for mining purposes, 
 the quantity varying with the season and the yearly rain-fall. I had 
 no instruments to accurately measure the grade of the valley of this 
 stream, but by an aneroid barometer I find that the descent of the main 
 stream from Newton's Fork to where the creek enters the limestone is 
 about 1,400 feet in a distance of nineteen miles, or an average grade of 
 74 feet to the mile. The descent, however, is less than this for the more 
 open and broad portions of the valley, probably 50 or 60 feet to the 
 mile, and greater in the narrow, rocky caiions. The gold of this district 
 occurs in the placers in coarse, flat scales, thick and heavy, intermixed 
 with very little fine dust, and often shows brown oxide of iron adhering 
 in the cavities of the larger pieces. 
 
 The assays made by Mr. Eicketts, of the School of Mines, show that 
 this gold is 22f carats, or 946 fine, equal to the average of the best 
 Australian placer-gold, and exceeding that from California. It is 
 found associated with small water-worn red-garnet crystals, nodules of 
 hematite iron-ore, magnetic-iron sand, and crystals of iron pyrites, but 
 no other minerals were detected. 
 
 The average proportion of gold ia the native gold of California, as derived from 
 assays of several hundred millions of dollars' worth, is eight hundred and eighty 
 thonsaodths, while the range is mostly between 870 and 890. (Prof. J. C. Booth, of 
 United States mint, in a letter to the author, of May, 1867.) The range of the metal 
 of Australia is mostly between 909 and 960, with an average of 925. (Dana System 
 Mineralogy, fifth edition, 1868.) 
 
 The gold appears to b'e derived from the decomposition of the slates 
 and quartzites, as well as from the denudation of the quartz-ledges 
 traversing these rocks. The source of supply of the gold is immense. 
 The side valleys and gulches are often excavated for miles along the out- 
 crops of the gold-bearing slates, and the quartzites, with their inclosed 
 veins, have acted as feeders to the placers of the main valley. Over a 
 very extensive area these rocks have been enormously eroded and the 
 resulting material swept away. The gold it originally contained has 
 been partly caught and retained in the gulches ; the rest, intermixed 
 with gravel and bowlders from the metamorphic rocks, and also from 
 the limestone and recent formations in the foot-hills, being carried far 
 out on the plains and scattered broadcast over their surface, so that 
 very little can be ever recovered. From the results of the prospecting 
 done in this district up to August 1, 1875, when I left the gulch, it would 
 be inferred that the character of the bed-rock strongly influenced the 
 deposition of the gold. Where the bed-rock was a hard, massive quartz- 
 ite, the water had worn it smooth, and no gold was to be found on its 
 surface, while the gravel above it was loose and poor in the precious 
 metal ; but where the bed-rock was soft, easily-decomposing slates, it 
 had caught and retained the gold swept over its surface by the stream, 
 
28 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 .and the gravel above, compact from the clay produced by its decay, was 
 also rich in gold. lu the flats and creek-bed, when a stratum of soft 
 slates is found crossing the gulch below, a high and hard bar with valu- 
 able deposits should be sought for. 
 
 In discussing the area drained by the headwaters of this stream, the 
 characteristics of the schistose rocks covering that section have been 
 already given. The main valley of the creek is excavated wholly m the 
 rocks of the second division of the Archaean, the slate and quartzite 
 formation extending as a belt fifteen miles in width from the granite on 
 the eastern slope of the Harney's Peak range to the northern part of 
 the hills near Crow Peak. On Spring Creek the general strike of the 
 strata is northwest and southeast, with a dip from northeast 60° to 
 vertical, while locally the rocks are seen dipping west at high angles. 
 The rocks of this formation are altered sediments, consistiug of hard, 
 massive gray or brown quartzites; lamellar quartz-slates, and soft clay- 
 slates. By metamorphic action of waters holding silica in solution, or 
 by the preponderance of clay or sand in the original sediments, these 
 rocks imperceptibly merge into each other, and the strata of quartzite 
 often cannot be distinguished from jasper or pure quartz veins, except 
 by position and structure. There is a most remarkable uniformity in 
 the hardness and composition of these rocks, not only for long distances 
 along the outcrops of the same strata, but throughout the whole extent 
 of the geological formation of this belt, rocks from widely different local- 
 ities most closely resembling each other. The metamorphic action 
 seems to have been the product of the mechanical force producing the 
 folding and upturning of the strata in Archtean time. The quartz- 
 veins are notigneotis injections, but chemical precipitations from waters 
 holding silica in solution, partly, at least, derived from the wall-rocks of 
 the veins, and undoubtedly formed during the folding of the strata, at 
 which time the gold must also have been deposited. The lower layers 
 of the Potsdam prove this, as they contain in places bowlders from both 
 the veins and the wall-rock, identical in hardness and appearance with 
 the rocks in the immediate vicinity. This chemical deposition of silica 
 would seem to be similar to the silicification of wood, the solution re- 
 placing the original rock, atom by atom, and samples of quartz were 
 seen where the original rock blended so imperceptibly with the white 
 quartz that it is difficult to explain the formation of the quartz in any 
 other way. Quartz occurs in the slates either as interlaminated fissure- 
 veins, coinciding with the stratification and often quite extensively 
 developed, or as short and thin veins following, for a few yards, the 
 jointing planes of the slates. It is in the quartzites, however, that the 
 greatest development of quartz is to be found in this district. Strata of 
 sedimentary rock have, by the action of water containing silica and iron 
 in solution, been transformed into hard quartzite intermixed with ferru- 
 ginous quartz in all proportions throughout the entire thickness and 
 extent of the bed, until it resembles, on its outcrop, an immense ledge 
 of quartz and vein matter, traversing the slates for long distances across 
 the hills. On examination, however, these peculiar formations are 
 found to be altered sediments. There is no fluccan or casing to the 
 ledges, and in the most favorable positions for the existence of slickeu- 
 sides they are seen to be wanting. 
 
 One of the most remarkable was known as the Mammoth ledge, which 
 crossed the valley of Spring Creek near the original discovery of gold. 
 The stream had cut its channel through the formation, leaving a bluff 
 from 20 to 30 feet high on the north side of the valley, exposing a fine 
 section of the ledge, j^ear the base of the blufi'the'quartz was inter- 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 29 
 
 mixed with a large proportion of yellow and brown oxides of iron, which 
 had evidently resulted from the decomposition of iron pyrites. Where 
 the ledge outcropped in the bed of the creek, the quartz was found to be 
 full of masses of crystallized pyrites, the water having protected it from 
 /oxidation. The ledge was bounded on the west by siliceous clay-slates, 
 containing minute garnet crystals, and having a general northwest and 
 southeast strike, and a dip, indistinctly marked, about northeast 60°. 
 The section commencing at the west was as follows : 
 
 1. Quartzite and ferruginous quartz, interlamiuated and mixed with 
 iron-ore ; width 90 feet. 
 
 2. Gray, hard, barren quartzite ; 50 feet. 
 
 3. Ferruginous quartz, mixed with quartzite, clay-slate, and iron-ore ; 
 (limonite;) 200 feet. 
 
 4. Hard, gray quartzite, forming the eastern boundary of the forma- 
 tion. 
 
 This ledge was a study for a mineralogist. It contained undoubted 
 segregated veins of milky quartz, changing in a short distance into cellu- 
 lar, rotten quartz, mixed with limonite iron-ore. Some of these masses 
 of vein-matter were 10 to 15 feet wide, and continuous for short dis- 
 tances; at other places the quartzite became ferruginous, and merged 
 into brown jasper, or, becoming more pure in its composition, changed 
 to white quartz, as though the silica had replaced, atom by atom, the 
 particles of the original sediment during the metamorphosis of the 
 strata. This view seemed most reasonable in viewing' the peculiarities 
 of the banded quartz and black quartzite ; each rock, while perfectly 
 distinct, seemed to be the result of the diflerence in the capacity of the 
 layers of the original sediment to allow the siiicated solutions to pass 
 through it. 
 
 There were no evidences of the comb structure so often seen in mineral- 
 veins, but everything pointed to segregation as the cause of the forma- 
 tion. This ledge was remarkably persistent and continuous across the 
 country. It was traced for four miles from Spring Greek in a southeast 
 direction, and was reported by the miaers to extend north to Rapid 
 Greek, a distance of eight miles, still preserving its great width undi- 
 minished. A small gulch emptying into Spring Creek from the south 
 was excavated its whole length in the outcrop of this immense quartz- 
 formation. The gravel-deposits near its head were entirely made up of 
 the disintegrated fragments of the ledge. On the south bank of the 
 creek the quartzite was yellow and brown in color, and resembled impure 
 jasper. On breaking, it showed sometimes visible particles of gold, but 
 samples of the rock submitted to Mr. Eicketts, assayer at the School of 
 Mines, proved to contain but traces of the precious metal. The same 
 result was obtained from iron pyrites from the bed of the creek. The 
 oxides of iron from portions of this ledge were bright-yellow in 
 color, resembling plumbic ochre, but on testing with a blow-pipe, they 
 were found to contain neither lead nor silver, but were merely a variety 
 of limonite. The most promising ferruginous quartz from this ledge 
 was roughly tested at the time of its discovery, by crushing several 
 pounds in an iron mortar and panning carefully, but only a color of 
 gold was obtained, and it is doubtful if these immense quartz-formations 
 are of any value except as having furnished gold to the placer-gravels. 
 
 In the 'bluff formed by this ledge, on the bank of the stream, were 
 several small caves penetrating the rock for 10 or 15 feet, like drifts in 
 a mine, which proved to have been formed by the' decomposition and 
 washing away of soft clay-slate inclosed in the quartz. There were not 
 less than three of these quartz-formations crossing the valley of Spring 
 
30 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Creek. One two miles below the Mammoth was characterized by a 
 great development of " ribbon-quartz,'' thin bands of white quartz, atid 
 black quartzite or slate alternating in the ledge, giving it a banded or 
 ribbon appearance. In places the rock became a pure white quartz^ 
 and, by its superior hardness resisting denudation, formed the crests oi[ 
 the rocky hills and ridges, and could be traced for a long distance' 
 across the country. 
 
 The only minerals besides gold found in the Spring Creek district 
 were iron pyrites and the oxides resulting from its decomposition. A 
 miner (Mr. Blake) brought me samples of a rpck which he supposed to 
 be black sulphuret of silver. He had found it while wandering about 
 in the Hills, having been lost for some time in this vicinity. On test- 
 ing with a blow-pipe, it proved to be only clay-slate, and did not con- 
 tain a trace of metal. It was soft, jet-black in color, with a luster 
 resembling very closely the mineral for which he had mistaken it. 
 
 Up to the time I left the gulch (August 1, 1875^ no valuable quartz- 
 ledges had been discovered, the attention of every one having been given 
 to prospecting the placers. The gravel-deposits of the Spring Creek 
 district, especially for several miles above and below the point of dis- 
 covery, are extensive in area and very favorably situated for working. 
 The water-supply is ample, and the fall of the stream suflQciently great 
 to enable water to be carried above the tops of the elevated bars with- 
 out difficulty, and- with little expense, while there is room and grade 
 enough in the flats, in places, admitting of bed-rock flumes being finally 
 put in, and the whole thickness of the gravel-flats, as well as the tail- 
 ings from the elevated bars, being economically worked. Timber of 
 suitable size and quantity for the construction of sluices, flumes, and 
 trestles, is to be found growing abundantly in the immediate vicinity, 
 as well as for various house-building purposes and fuel. The gold is 
 coarse, heavy, and easily saved in sluices, and contains but little silver 
 or impurities to decrease its value. Thus it may be concisely stated : that 
 the gold-placers of this district, worked by the systems and processesi 
 which the experience of twenty-five years has led the miners of the 
 Pacific slope to adopt, will pay a handsome return for the labor required 
 to open the deposits and extract the gold. j 
 
 WHISIvEY CHEEK. 
 
 A small area of the Spring Creek district remains to be described, 
 comprising the extreme southern end of the belt of clay-slates and 
 quartzites included between Spring Creek and the granite ridges and 
 spurs extending east from Harney's Peak. The surface of this region 
 is rugged and broken, though not as mountainous as the granitic area 
 to the south, about the headwaters of Wiwi Creek. The valleys and 
 glades are covered with groves of burr-oak of medium size, the crests of 
 the hills with pine, while the bottoms of the ravines and gulches are 
 thickly overgrown with alder, birch, hazel, and hornbeam. The greater 
 portion of this area of slates is drained by the numerous branches of 
 Whiskey Creek, a small stream with from 30 to 50 miner's inches of 
 water (July 20) flowing east from the Harney's Peak range, about six to 
 eight miles south of Spring Creek, and sinking before it reaches the 
 plains. .Near the head of this stream, at the junction of the granite 
 with the'slate formation, a huge mass of slates, standing on edge, 30 feet 
 in height, was observed projecting from a crag of feldspar granite. The 
 fragment of slates was only partly inclosed in the granite, so that the 
 north side of the lenticular peak was composed of slates, while the south 
 
RESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 31 
 
 was -wholly granite. It was probably a "horse" in the granite dike. 
 In the southeastern part of this area, near the foot-hills, is quite an 
 expanse of Potsdam sandstone and Carboniferous limestone, but near 
 where the water sinks in Whiskey Creek the limestone belt encircling 
 the hills is not more than a mile in width. With the exception of the 
 presence of granite peaks among the slates, the general character of the 
 rocks is similar to that of the Spring Creek Valley, and fine crystals of 
 stoMrotide, mostly twins in lamellar schist, resembling the specimens of 
 that mineral from Lancaster, Mass., were found near the granite ridges. 
 In the lower part of the valley of Whiskey Creek, small gravel-benches 
 occur along its banks, but gold was not discovered in paying quanti- 
 ties, except below where the water sinks in the bed of the stream among 
 the limestone Eed-Bed formations of the foot-hills. 
 
 From the fact that the area drained by this stream is almost identical, 
 in the character of the rocks, with that of the Spring Creek district, 
 although less extensive, I consider that there are good reasons' to ex- 
 pect that, at least in some localities, gold may be found in paying quan- 
 tities in the gravel-deposits of Whiskey Creek and its tributaries. 
 
 The gold- deposits discovered in the dry ravines and arroyos among 
 the Red Beds, where the dry bed of this stream winds through the 
 low hills at the edge of the plains, will be described in the section on 
 The Deposits of Auriferous Gravel in the Foot-Hills. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 CASTLE AND RAPID CREEKS. 
 
 Rapid Creek is formed by two main branches. Castle Creek and the ' 
 North Fork, each heading in the limestone divide near Crook's Tower, 
 one of the most elevated portions of the Black Hills. It is the only stream 
 on the eastern slope of the Hills flowing a continuous stream of water dur- 
 ing all seasons to the Cheyenne. The other creeks sink among the foot- 
 MUs, and during the greater portions of the year are marked by dry 
 channels traversing the plains. Though second in size to Spearfish or 
 Redwater in volume of water. Rapid Creek is the largest stream rising 
 in the Black Hills. From its extreme source in the springs issuing from 
 the limestone at the head of Castle Creek to the point where it empties 
 into the South Fork of the Cheyenne, its length, omitting the minor bends, 
 is not less than one hundred miles. Throughout its course it is charac- 
 terized by a rapid current, the descent of the valley being about 3,200 
 feet from the source of Castle Creek to the edge of the platas at the foot- 
 hills, and nearly 800 feet in traversing the open plains a distance of 
 forty-flve miles to the Cheyenne. The area drained by Rapid Creek and 
 its tributaries has been divided by the miners into the Castle Creek and 
 the Rapid Creek mining-districts, the North Fork not having been lo- 
 cated as a district the past season, although gold was discovered in con- 
 siderable quantities on that branch. 
 
 THE CASTLE CREEK DISTRICT. 
 
 Castle Creek near its source in the limestone is a small stream fed by 
 numerous little springs issuing from the sides of the valley, and every 
 few hundred feet the creek is dammed by the beaver, producing marshy 
 ponds and boggy tracts of bottom-land. At the head of the creek 
 groves of tall, slender spruce cover the hill-sides, separated by narrow, 
 open glades of grass-land extending between the low hills, producing 
 
32 • RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 most pleasing views ; but farther down the stream the spruce is replaced 
 by pine, and the valley is bordered by cliffs of Carboniferous limestone, 
 whose castellated appearance suggested the name of the stream. 
 
 The limestone is almost horizontal in its bedding, and the stream grad- 
 ually cutting deeper through the strata as it descends finally exposes 
 the Potsdam sandstone at its base, resting unconformably on the up- 
 turned edges of schistose rocks. Here the lower layers of the Potsdam 
 are seen to be a coarse yellow or brown conglomerate, closelj^ filled with 
 pebbles of white quartz, in places nearly uniform in size, from one to 
 two inches in diameter, worn smooth and round by the action of water. 
 The schistose rocks are exposed in great variety, dipping first west as 
 we descend the stream, and then east at high angles. The strike is in 
 a general north and south, to northwest and southeast, direction. 
 
 The rocks of this section evidently belong to the first division of the 
 Archaean, and can be traced south across the park country to the French 
 Creek district, where they are interlaminated with dikes of felspar gran- 
 ite ; but no granite is found in this vicinity. The schists are often very 
 micaceous, although a gray talcose quartz schist having a slate-like 
 structure appears to be the prevailing rock, occurring in broad belts in- 
 terstratifled with mica schist. These rocks, though distinct in bedding, 
 insensibly merge into each other in character, mica schist, from a pre- 
 ponderance of mica, becoming a soft, easily-decomposing rock, often 
 highly garnetiferous, while with a greater proportion of quartz it passes 
 into a fine-grained mica schist, or ultimately to a quartzite with only 
 tr^es of mica. 
 
 Chlorite schist and talcose schist are extensively developed on some 
 of the branches of this stream, and strata frequently are found com- 
 pletely filled with small red-garnet crystalsoften not more than one-thirty- 
 second of an inch in diameter. Quartz occurs as segregated veins, 
 usually not continuous for any great distance, locally expanding into 
 bunches and irregular masses of quartz following the stratification of 
 the schists, but not crossing the bedding. These irregular deposits of 
 quartz were very abundantly distributed through the rocks; often strings 
 of lenticular masses of quartz followed a line of lamination in the schists, 
 or thin veins could be traced for short distances coinciding with the 
 stratification. They were not, however, true continuous fissure-veins, 
 but irregular segregations formed during the folding and metamorphism 
 of the strata. The quartz is usually milk-white and crystalline, some- 
 times vitreous, transparent, and stained and coated at its jointing planes 
 and surfaces with oxide of iron, but apparently free from iron pyrites 
 and metallic! minerals. These quartz-ledges must, however, contain at 
 least traces of gold, and furnish it to the placer-gravels. Small bright- 
 green crystals of ripidolite in flat scales are inclosed in the mass of the 
 quartz, and green chlorite full of red-garnet crystals incases the veins 
 when traversing the talcose and chloritic schists. Proceeding down 
 the valley the rocks gradually change in character, becoming less mica- 
 ceous, with a greater development of talcose and quartz schists, in places 
 approaching a clay-slate. 
 
 Castle Creek, having made a most remarkable bend of eight miles to 
 the north, the greater portion of the distance through a narrow and 
 deep canon, resumes its former southeast course in a valley excavated 
 among the quartzites and clay-slates of the second divisipn of the 
 Archaean. An attempt was made to explore this canon by myself and 
 miners; but owing to the prevalence of fallen timber and tangled thick- 
 ets of small trees and bushes filling the bottom of the gorge, we were 
 unable to traverse it with horses beyond a point about seven miles 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 33 
 
 below wbere Custer's trail leaves the creek. The exact line separating 
 the two formations, the schists and the slates, was not seen, but the 
 dip was observed changing from west to east, the quartz-veins becom- 
 ing less abundant in the rocks and free from mica or chlorite and more 
 continuous ;and regular in formation. Thin quartz-veins followed the 
 jointing planes of the slates as well as the stratification of the formation. 
 The quartz was locally ferruginous and cellular from the decomposition 
 of pyrites, and had more of a mineral-bearing appearance. It is evident, 
 from the change in character of the rocks, that the line of contact of the 
 mica schists and clay-slates must pass in a general northwesterly direc- 
 tion from Spring Creek, near its union with Newton's Fork, across the 
 hills and the canon of Castle Creek until it is concealed beneath the 
 limestone ridge between Crook's Tower and Custer's Peak. Castle Creek 
 enters the caiion in its north bend among the mica schists, forming a con- 
 tinuation north of the rocks of the French Creek district, and emerges 
 among clay-slates and quartzites identical with the rocks of the lower val- 
 ley of Spring Creek, and easily traced across the hills to that district. 
 Near the head of a small branch of Castle Creek, entering it from the 
 south just below the canon, the clay-slates were observed forming the 
 upper portion of a cliff resting unconformably on the schists at its base. 
 Both formations were, however, upturned on edge at different angles, and 
 it is possible that this apparent unconformability of the two divisions of 
 the Archsean may have been the result of a "fault" formed during the 
 folding of the schists and slates. The point where this unconformability 
 was observed, was almost exactly on the supposed line of contact be- 
 tween the two formations. At short distances to the east and west, 
 the peculiar characteristics of the rocks of the different divisions were 
 unmistakablj' exposed in the cliffs and outcrops of the strata. From 
 the difference in lithological character in the rocks of the two formations, 
 the resemblance between specimens of the schists and slates from the 
 Black Hills and samples from well-known Laurentian and Huronian 
 of Canada and Lake Superior, as well as the observed superposition of 
 the slates &.nd quartzites on the talcose and mica schists, we have been 
 led to regard the clay-slate formation as of more recent geological agp 
 than the mica schists so extensively developed on the head branches 
 of Castle, Spring, and French Creeks. This subject will be found treated 
 more fully in the section on the metamorphic rocks by Mr. Henry Newton. 
 On examining specimens of the Archtean rocks in the possession of 
 Prof. T. S. Hunt, I find that schists from the French Creek district 
 resemble closely the " Mont Alban," or White Mountain series of Pro- 
 fessor Huut, which he regards as older than the Huronian. 
 
 I was informed by Mr. A. H. McKay, one of the miners who accom- 
 panied the expedition of General Custer, that Eoss and himself failed 
 to find gold in prospecting on Castle Creek ; but on a small branch' in 
 the north part of Elk Horn Prairie they obtained the first " color " of 
 gold from the Black Hills July 28, 1874, and during the six days the 
 expedition remained camped on French Creek they improved the time 
 and got gold enough to prove its occurrence in the placer-gravels of that 
 stream. 
 
 Gold was discovered on Castle Creek, above the canon, June 12, 1875, 
 by the miners assisting me in the work of prospecting. It was found 
 in small gravel-deposits along the creek and in the gulches leading 
 into the stream from the south. About two to three miles below the 
 point where Custer's trail leaves the valley, a bar, covering an area of 
 two acres, gave, on prospecting, nearly a cent to the pan of fine gold. 
 This deposit of gravel was 4 to 5 feet in thickness, composed of quartz 
 S. Ex. 51 3 
 
34 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 and slate pebbles, resting on bedrock of mica schists, elevated about & 
 feet above the water of the creek, and so favorably situated for working 
 that the gravel could be sluiced with very little expense or trouble. 
 Several pits were sunk in the flats, near the channel of the stream, but 
 failed to reach bed-rock, owing to springs of water which could not be 
 kept down by bailing. Small gravel-benches were found on the sides 
 of the caiion below this bar, which gave four' to six colors of gold to 
 the pan, but were of too limited area to be valuable. 
 
 Above the caDon on the main creek and its branches are small ele- 
 vated bars, and quite extensive flats of gravel, which were scarcely 
 prospected at all by the miners who staked claims on this creek on the 
 larger placers below the bend. The gold from this portion of the stream 
 is in small, flat grains, resembling that of French Creek, and probably 
 similarly derived from the quartz-veins in the schists. 
 
 In July, while I w^s engaged with my assistants in testing the value 
 of the placers on Spring Creek, a party of mioers discovered gold in 
 paying quantities on Castle Creek, below the north bend, and quite a 
 stampede took place to the new diggings. When, three weeks after- 
 ward, I visited the new discovery, I found nearly one hundred and fifty 
 miners camped along the valley, prospecting the claims they had taken. 
 Most of those men were old. Montana miners, and, working together in 
 companies, had done a surprising amount of work for so short a time. 
 S^early every claim had been prospected enough to prove its value, and 
 preparations were being made to enable them to work with sluices on 
 a large scale. In one place a bed-rock drain had been dug nearly a 
 quarter of a mile in length, from 3 to 9 feet deep, to drain a gravel-flat 
 where the pay-dirt gave, by several tests which we made, from five to 
 fifteen cents to the pan of coarse, rusty gold. The gravel was at least 
 80 per cent, water-worn clay-slate in fragments of small size, intermixed 
 with quartz bowlders and pebbles from the ledges. The pay-dirt not 
 only was found as a compact clayey gravel on bed-rock, but also in 
 several pits and drifts occurred in one or more thin layers of clayey 
 gravel, 2 or 3 feet above it. The bed-rock was soft, shelly 'clay-slate, 
 easily dug several feet in depth with pick and shovel,, and holding gold 
 in its crevices as far below the- surface as decomposition had penetrated 
 the substance of the rock. 
 
 Very few large bowlders were seen in the gravel-deposits, the pay-dirt, 
 as well as the whole thickness of the bars, being mostly a slate-wash, 
 easily treated in sluices with a low grade and slow current of water, 
 owing to the lightness of the material operated upon. The gravel-de- 
 posits are flats along the course of the stream, filling the bottom of the 
 valley, and elevated bars on slate benches, 10 to 30 feet above the creek, 
 often quite extensive at the bends of the stream. Several pits had been 
 sunk to bed-rock in the flats, reaching it at a depth of 12 to 15 feet, and 
 in every case striking on bed-rock pay dirt yielding from 3 to 10 cents 
 to the pan. The elevated bars showed in places 10 to 12 feet of gravel, 
 and the drifts run in on rim-rock exposed the bed-rock pitching in toward 
 the center of the bar. A number of these high bars were tested by my 
 assistants, with a return from the pay-streak of from 3 to 15 cents to 
 the pan. The gold was coarse, flattened scales and rounded grains, 
 stained a rusty-brown color by a thin coating of oxide of iron, derived 
 from the presence of iron pyrites in the slates. 
 
 This portion of Castle Creek, extending from the bend to its 'junc- 
 tion with the North Fork of Eapid, a distance of about eight miles, is 
 in a very mountainous and broken region. The valley is deep, and in 
 places quite narrow, and surrounded by high, steep hills of clay-slates, 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 35 
 
 occasionally intersected by a stratum of ferruginous quartzite mixed with 
 ■white quartz, similar to the Mammoth ledge on Spring Creek. It is not 
 necessary to dwell particularly on the wealth of this district, as there is 
 no doubt that the gravel-deposits on this part of Castle Creek will prove 
 remunerative when opened. Tbey are very favorably situated for work- 
 ing. The water-supply is quite large, with a grade of at least 75 feet t;o 
 the mile. The gravel is easily mined and sluiced, and tbe gold, coarse 
 and readily saved, even without the use of quicksilver. Castle Creek at 
 this point is a flue rapid stream of water, averaging, in June and July, 
 10 to 12 feet in width, with a depth of 12 inches, probably yielding^SOO 
 to 500 miner's inches of water. 
 
 RAPID CREEK. 
 
 The North Fork of Eapid, heading in several small branches just west 
 of Custer's Peak, where the limestone of the divide bounds the area of 
 slates, is slightly larger than Castle Creek, and near its union with that 
 stream it winds through a deep and narrow canon in the slates. Gold was 
 discovered, in paying quantities, on this branch by the miners, but the 
 claims were not prospected enough to determine the value of the placers 
 up to the time I left the Hills. For four miles below the forks, Eapid 
 Creek winds and twists through a deep and contracted canon, cutting 
 across a belt of very rugged and broken peaks, an extension of the ridge 
 from Harney's Peak northwest to this point. Vertical cliffs of slates 
 rise several hundred feet on either side of the stream, surmounted by 
 high rocky hills, covered with pine, the greater portion of which has 
 been killed by fire, leaving the bare and decaying trunks standing. The 
 bottom of the gorge is choked with a dense mass of tall spruce trees, 
 tangled with bushes and fallen timber, making it necessary at the time 
 we first explored the canon to wade our horses along the channel of the 
 stream. Afterward the miners cut a trail down the caiion, making the 
 journey on horseback along its rocky bed less difiScult. There are a few 
 high bars along the sides of the canon, covered with dead and fallen 
 spruce trees; but the main gravel-deposits are found in the bottom of 
 the gorge itself. 
 
 ^ Below the canon, the valley of Eapid becomes more open, and large 
 and extensive gravel-flats and high bars are seen on either bank of the 
 stream. In places the valley contracts among steep and rocky hills to 
 a narrow gorge, but does not become a caiion until fifteen miles below 
 the fork, where the stream enters a limestone formation, whence, for a 
 distance of four miles, it is almost impassable for horsemen. Only near 
 the forks has the timber been destroyed by fire, and elsewhere through 
 the valley of this stream the hillsides are covered with pine of good 
 quality, while near the foot-hills small groves of oak and elm grow along 
 the banks of the creek. In the more open portions of the valley broad 
 grass-flats skirt its banks or cover the high gravel-bars situated at the 
 numerous bends of the stream. Among the rocky hills these flats are 
 wanting, and the forest extends nearly to the water's edge. 
 
 Eapid Qreek flows in a parallel course to Spring at a distance of four 
 to eight miles to the north, and cutting through the same belt of clay- 
 slates and quartzites, the description of the rocks of the Spring Creek 
 district will apply, with some slight modifications, to the rocks of this 
 valley. 
 
 The immense belts of quartz and quartzite so marked on Spring 
 Creek are not so prevalent on Eapid, but the soft gray and black clay- 
 slates, with small ferruginous-quartz seams, are here extensively de- 
 
36 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 veloped. The clay-slates have a tendency to split, under the action of 
 frost and the atmosphere, into long, slender prisms parallel to the bed- 
 ding of the rock. In some of the cliffs, benches of these slates have 
 weathered out, and the fragments falling down lie in regular piles like 
 cord-wood along the face of the rocks. These prisms are about 4 feet 
 long, with an irregular rhombic section 3 or 4 inches across. They 
 readily split into smaller prismatic fragments an inch Wide and a foot 
 or more in length. The slates contain minute crystals of iron pyrites, 
 and the surfaces of the prisms are stained with oxide of iron resulting 
 from its decomposition. Other strata of slates are lamellar in structure, 
 and split into thin plates like roofing-slate. Both forms make excellent 
 bed-rock to catch and retain gold. 
 
 A mile above a small branch entering Eapid Creek from the north, a 
 low hill is composed of trachyte intruded between the slates. This was 
 the only occurrence of igneous rock seen in this geological formation 
 south of Custer's Peak, with the exception of the granite of the Har- 
 ney's Peak range. On this branch float-quartz was found, which, on 
 breaking, showed small particles of gold, but it could not be traced to 
 the vein from which it had been derived. 
 
 Samples of quartz brought in by the miners from the hills between 
 Eapid and Box Elder gave, on crushing, two or three ounces in a mor- 
 tar, and panning, from four to six fine colors of gold. Gold was dis- 
 covered in paying quantities in a number of places along this portion 
 of the valley, but the miners who staked claims in this district did not 
 open the placers, and prospected the bars only enough to prove the 
 presence of gold. These deposits of gravel, including both the high 
 bars and narrow flats in the canon, are known to be valuable, resembling 
 those of the Spring Creek district so closely as to render it unnecessary 
 to again minutely describe them. Geologically, Eapid, Castle, and 
 Spring Creeks belong to one district as they are characterized by the 
 same prevailing rocks and quartz-veins, and the gravel-deposits, being 
 formed by rapid streams, with considerable volumes of water and heavy 
 grades, naturally resemble each other. 
 
 Eeports from Eapid Creek, December 31, 1875, state that " the canon 
 is located from head to mouth, and 10 cents to the pan is considered a 
 low average prospect in the pay-streak." The water-supply is ample 
 for working purposes, at least double that of Spring Creek. The current 
 is so rapid that it is difficult to estimate the volume of the stream with- 
 out making accurate measurement, It varies somewhat with the sea- 
 son, probably between 1,000 and 2,000 miner's inches ; being greatest 
 in May, and least in the fall and early winter months. 
 
 The descent of the valley, omitting minor bends, is from 70 to 80 feet 
 to the mile, measured in straight lines. In places the grade is fully 90 
 feet, a most advantageous circumstance in working the placers. 
 
 Eapid Creek emerges from the canon in the limestone, at the edge of 
 the plains, and flows through the most beautiful valley in the Hills. 
 Long flats, covered with a rank growth of bottom-grass, line its banks, 
 which are dotted by groves of oak and elm. The side gorges amd ravines^ 
 cutting through the Eed Beds and the variegated sandstone of the top^ 
 of the Carboniferous, expose cliffs several hundred feet in height, pic- 
 tured with sandstone of all shades of color from yellow through pink 
 to the darkest red. A trail known to the Indians as the " Eace Course,'' 
 following the Eed Valley, and completely encircling the Hills at tbe 
 edge of the plains, crosses Eapid Creek a mile below the canon. At 
 this point several large springs of cold water free from even traces of 
 gypsum emerge from the Triassic limestone, and pour each from 50 to 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 37 
 
 100 miner's inches of water into the creek. Three miles farther down, 
 a small branch enters liapid Oreek from the north, formed by a number 
 of fine springs of water issuing from the foot-hills about two miles north 
 of the stream, and affording about 39 miner's inches of water, (August 
 1, 1875,) which will prove useful in working the gravel-bars in that 
 vicinity. 
 
 Rapid Creek, above the springs, is a fine stream of water from 20 to 
 25 feet wide, and 10 to 15 inches deep, with a very swift current. 
 Probably the volume of the water is not less than 2,000 miner's inches 
 in July, and below the springs 2,500 inches is not too great an estimate 
 for the available water. For at least iive miles along the valley below 
 the mouth of the ^aiion, the stream is bordered by the largest gravel 
 bars and flats discovered in the Hills, reaching out to the low ridges of 
 Jurassic foot-hills, among the level plains, and capping broad benches 
 of limestone and Eed Beds at the sides of the valley. The amount of 
 gravel brought down by Rapid Creek and piled up in these deep and 
 extensive deposits is very large; not only low hills below the caiiou are 
 covered by high bars at several different elevations, but the broad flats 
 along the stream are made ' up of a deep deposit of gravel, composed 
 mostly of limestone and sandstone, intermixed with some slate and 
 quartz. Several attempts were made by my assistants to sink prospect 
 holes on these flats along the banks of the creek, but the pits had to 
 be abandoned at depths of from 9 to 12 feet before reaching bed-rock, 
 on account of striking springs of water. The loose gravel from these 
 holes gave one or two colors of gold to the pan, but it was probably 
 quite a distance to bed-rock where we stopped working, as the gravel 
 was open and full of small bowlders. To work these flats, if they are 
 found to contain gold in paying quantities, will require the outlay of 
 considerable labor or capital to drain the bed-rock, but the grade of the 
 valley will admit of long covered bed-rock drains being put in for this 
 purpose. 
 
 At the mouth of the caiion the stream flows along the face of the 
 limestone cliffs, and the largest high bars are on benches on the north 
 side of the valley, from 20 to 30 feet above the present level of the creek. 
 Open cuts were driven into these bars on bed-rock, finding nearly 20 
 feet of gravel, and about a foot of pay-dirt on soft limestone bed-rock, 
 giving an average bf three colors of gold, or about half a cent to the 
 pan. Similar results were obtained in prospecting several smaller 
 gravel-points at the bends of the canon for a mile above these bars, and 
 taking into account the ease with which these gravel-deposits can be 
 ground-sluiced off, with the great volume of water available for the 
 purpose so near at hand, I think that it is possible to work them with a 
 good profit. Where the Indian trail ascends the hill on the south side 
 of the valley are three large elevated bars. The lowest, at an elevation 
 of about 40 feet above the creek, covers about four acres, and appears 
 to be 30 feet in thickness. A drift run in on bed-rock showed a foot of 
 compact cement-gravel full of nodules of hematite iron-ore resting on 
 the soft sandstone of the Red Beds, which gave, on testing, an average 
 of three colors, or about one-third of a cent to the pan. 
 
 The bed-rock pitched into the center of the bar, which was composed 
 of bowlders and gravel, at least 50 per cent, being limestone and sand- 
 stone, the rest slate, quartzite, and quartz in all the varieties found in 
 the area drained by this stream. Above this bar were two others, at 
 elevations of 100 and 300 feet above the creek, which have been de- 
 scribed in the chapter on "The deposits in the foot-hills." A similar 
 deposit covers the foot-hills on the opposite side of the ravine, just east 
 
38 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 of the lower bar ; but, with this exception, all the elevated bars are on 
 the north side of the valley, which extends into the plains ^J^]\f ^na a 
 half wide, bounded on the south by a bare range of Eed Bed hills, un 
 the north, a continuous bar, 30 feet high above the flats, extends irom 
 the Indian trail down to the small branch heading in the cluster or 
 springs about three miles below. This bar extended along the valley 
 for three-quarters of a mile, and occupied a triangular area ot about 
 two hundred acres, bounded by the small branch entering trom the 
 north. On the top it was as level as a floor, and on testing the gravel at 
 its edge we obtained, in a number of places, three to five colors ot 
 quite coarse gold, or at least half a cent to a cent to the pan, although 
 at the edges of the deposit the gravel was not over 20 inches thick, 
 resting on soft red sandstone of the Eed Beds. For want of time my 
 assistants were unable to thoroughly prospect this extensive bar, but it 
 was the opinion of John W. Allen, who made the discovery, that it 
 would pay well when worked by bringing a good head of water on top 
 and ground-sluicing the gravel and soft bed-rock. Several bars of this 
 character intervened between it and the Hills, which gave equally good 
 results on prospecting. In places the bed-rock was soft, white, decom- 
 posed gypsum. Below the branch before mentioned there were no 
 more elevated gravel-bars seen, but along the banks of the creek 
 gravel-flats extended as far at least as the outermost ridge of foot-hills. 
 I consider that the Eapid Creek district, including Castle Creek, is 
 destined to be one of the most productive in the Black Hills. For forty 
 miles along its course, its banks are bordered by deep and extensive 
 placers, forming the largest gravel-deposits on any s^^ream in the hills. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 BOX ELDER AND ELK CREEKS. 
 
 Proceeding north from Eapid Creek, a quite extensive area is passed 
 over which, while geologically a continuation of the clay-slate andquartz- 
 ite belt, presents in its more level surface a strong contrast to the rocky 
 and broken region to the south. This section is drained by two small 
 streams, Box Elder and Elk Creeks, whose largest branches head almost 
 at the very base of Ouster's Peak. 
 
 A view from the top of Custer shows a comparatively flat country with 
 low, rolling hills; in places groups of small broken peaks are noticed; 
 but the topography is very different from that of the region about the 
 forks of Eapid and Spring Creeks, where sharp serrated peaks rise, one 
 beyond another, as far as the eye can reach, only exceeded in height 
 and magnitude by Harney itself. It is a desolate looking country. Most 
 of the timber has been destroyed by fire and large areas are covered 
 with dead pines. To the east, at a distance of ten or twelve miles, the 
 limestone is seen crossing the hills in an irregular line in a northwest- 
 erly direction, and many of the slate ridges and peaks are near the out- 
 crop of the limestone capped by it and the Potsdam sandstone, the rem- 
 nants of the great sheet of Palaeozoic rocks which once covered this area 
 and has since been removed by erosion. 
 
 From the base of Custer's Peak the course of each creek can be traced 
 until it canons in the limestone, generally flowing through small open 
 valleys or broad grassy swales, which in places, however, are contracted 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 39 
 
 into a rocky gorge in cutting across the occasional strata of hard quartz- 
 ites. 
 
 The belt of Carboniferous liraestone encircling the area of metamor- 
 phic rocks is only about four miles in width at the foot-hills near Spring 
 and Eapid Creeks, but to the north it becomes broader and extends a 
 greater distance back from the plains into the hills, its western edge 
 following along the north side, of the valley of Box Elder as an irregu- 
 larly broken cliff or wall. Soon after entering the limestone both Box 
 Elder and Elk Creeks sink in their beds and disappear from five to eight 
 miles from the plains. The water must escape through subterranean 
 channels, as, a short distance below where it sinks among the bowlders, 
 the bare limestone bed-rock is exposed perfectly dry for some distance 
 across the whole width of the bottom of the cailon. 
 
 Contrasted with the Spring or Bapid Creek districts, the area of 
 slates is comparatively flat, and the grade or descent of the stream much 
 less, becoming greater in the limestone canon, where for long distances 
 the Box Elder flows in a swift current over bare bed-rock. Boy Elder is 
 not a single or main powerful stream like most of the other creeks in the 
 Hills, but an aggregate of numerous small branches formed by insignifi- 
 cant brooks which do not unite until the stream enters the limestone. 
 Many of these head branches are mere threads of water, or contain 
 water only in occasional deep holes, and are dry during a greater portion 
 ■of the year, the largest fork being but 6 to 10 feet wide and very shallow. 
 Small ponds and broad marshy flats overgrown with a swamp of willows 
 and low bushes are often encountered on the forks of this stream. They 
 are produced by the beaver in damming back the water in the level 
 valleys, and from the same cause large and deep»beds of black peaty 
 muck have been formed by the gradual deposition of vegetable matter 
 in these still pools. 
 
 Elk Creek is a stream not quite as large as Box Elder, but resembling 
 it in other respects. For three miles of its course it flows through a 
 narrow and crooked caiion in the slates, then emerges into an open and 
 flat valley, with broad grass-flats skirting its banks, through which it 
 winds for about three miles, and, entering the great limestone formation, 
 sinks in the bed of the caiion and disappears. Where the dry ravine of 
 this stream opens upon the red valley at the edge of the plains, several 
 fine springs of excellent cold water burst out from under the Triassic 
 limestone, and form a considerable stream, flowing, however, but a short 
 distance before it sinks and disappears. On Lower Box Elder and on 
 the divides along the valley of Elk Creek there is considerable pine tim- 
 ber which has escaped the extensive forest-fires. The trees are, how- 
 ever, rarely above medium si^e, growing very thickly together in dense 
 ^oves. The rocks of this section are clay-slates and quartzites, similar 
 to those of the Spring Creek district. 
 
 The occurrence of a broad belt of specular slates containing a large 
 percentage of hematite iron-ore, which extends along Box Elder just 
 above the point where Custer's trail crosses it the second time, is pecu- 
 liar to this district. Over quite an extensive tract iron is present in 
 the rocks in quantities sufiBLcient to strongly affect the compass. Thick 
 strata of siliceous slates on being followed are gradually found to be- 
 come more and more ferruginous, until the rock is finally black and bril- 
 liant from the excess of particles of specular iron. Frequently the 
 hematite occurs perfectly pure, interstratifled in thin layers with white 
 quartz, forming a peculiar rock, the brilliant black of the bands of iron- 
 ore contrasting strongly with the white stripes of quartz, resembling 
 somewhat the jaspery specular ore of Lake Superior, except that the in- 
 
40 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 terstratifled quartz is white and not red. These iron-bearing strata 
 were upturned on edge, and often 600 to 800 feet broad, with an un- 
 known extent in the direction of the striiie. The hematite was so com- 
 pletely intermixed with the quartz as to seriously injure the commercial 
 value of the ore. The thickest layers of pure specular iron which were 
 seen did not exceed three inches in width ; and, except the presence or 
 large quantities of silica, the ore seems to be very pure and free from 
 iron pyrites and phosphates. 
 
 Near Ouster's Peak an immense ledge of massive milk-white quartz 
 extends north and south across the hills, conformable to the slates. 
 Eesisting denudation, it caps the ridges for a long distance like a wall, 
 and large fragments detached from it cover the surface of the hill. 
 Samples of the quartz from this ledge were assayed by Mr. Rioketts, of 
 the School ofMines, but not a trace of gold was found in it. Where 
 the slates are extensively developed the quartz-veins are generally thin 
 and inconspicuous ; an occasional large ledge is, however, seen of the 
 above character, but among the belts of qnartzites broad strata, trans- 
 formed into impure quartz, are found, similar to the " Mammoth ledge," 
 on Spring Creek. One of these altered strata contained large masses of 
 limonite iron-ore intermixed with quartz, colored and stained by copper, 
 and resembling closely some specimens of Colorado gold-ores. It was 
 a portion of a quartzite belt dipping 60° to the south, and could be 
 traced east and west for a mile across the low hills until the outcrop 
 ■was concealed beneath the Potsdam sandstone. Several parallel strata 
 of quartz and quartzite were found within a few hundred yards. That 
 forming the " lode" was from 20 to 40 feet wide, a mixture of massive 
 milk-white quartz and limonite iron-ore, with considerable " gossan" 
 ore, resulting from the decomposition of copper and iron pyrites. 
 Samples were carefully taken from the best appearing ore in the out- 
 crop of this ledge and submitted to Mr. P. De P. Eicketts for 
 assay, who reports that the quartz contains small quantities of gold, 
 but, unless richer than the samples- assayed, the deposit is of little 
 value. Where the outcrop of this ledge was covered by the Potsdam 
 sandstone the conglomerate forming the lowest layer of that formation 
 was full of large rounded bowlders partly derived from it. Some of 
 these bowlders were 3 to 4 feet in diameter, and contained all the varieties 
 of rock found in the vicinity, including clay-slate, quartzite, ferruginous 
 and ribbon-quartz, and gossan-ore, exactly as they occurred in the adja- 
 cent ledges, proving that very little change had taken place in the slates 
 and the inclosed quartz-veins since the commencement of the Potsdam 
 period. Previous to the deposition of this conglomerate, the slate and 
 quartzite rocks were subjected to a very great erosion, which must have 
 removed a great thickness of the strata, but since the elevation of the 
 Black Hills the Archaean rocks in this district have been but little de- 
 nuded, the remnants of the Potsdam sandstone capping hills and ridges 
 'from 50 to 150 feet above the present surface ; and although the forma- 
 tions which covered this area at the close of the Cretaceous period have 
 been swept away over extensive tracts, the erosion has extended but a 
 short distance into the slates. In the Spring and Eapid Creek districts, 
 however, the slates and quartzites have been very greatly denuded and 
 furnished a large amount of material to form the placer-gravels. 
 
 On Box Elder the gravel-deposits seem to be largely composed of 
 pebbles and bowlders from the disintegration of the Potsdam conglom- 
 erate, and only a small portion is derived from the more recent erosion 
 of the slates. Partly from this cause and the fiat character of the 
 region, there are few elevated gravel-bars on this stream of any prac- 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK IIILLS. 41 
 
 -tical value. The slate-benches and low hills at the bends and forks of 
 the creek are covered in places with a thin layer of gravel, which, 
 wherever tested, gave never more than a color of gold. 
 
 There are a few low bars on the larger branches of Box Elder which 
 may be found to contain gold la workable quantities, but the only gravel- 
 deposits of any size are in the flats along the stream and its numerous 
 branches. Several days were spent ifx prospecting on this stream by a 
 party of twelve miners who were assisting me at the time, but we failed 
 to find gold in paying quantities in any of the flats or bars which were 
 tested. Prospecting in the cailon in the limestone, the bed-rock was 
 found bare in many places, but not a color of gold was obtained either 
 from the small gravel-deposits or by "crevicing" in the bed-rock, though 
 tests were made in every favorable-looking place for several miles 
 down the caiion. Below where the water sinks a high bar was found at 
 the forks of two cafions nearly 100 feet above the present channel, but 
 no gold could be found in it on panning. 
 
 The miners who prospected on Box Elder the past summer before they 
 were removed from the Hills did not find gold in quantities enough to 
 encourage them to stake out claims or form a district. 
 
 Elk Creek was explored by the topographical party, but was left un- 
 touched by the miners, very few being aware that such a stream 
 existed. Gravel-flats and low bars are reported on this creek between 
 the canon in the slates and the canon in the limestone, which promised 
 well as far as could be judged from external appearances. In reviewing 
 this district, which it is but justice to state has been only very little pros- 
 pected, I may record a small water-supply which fails in many places in 
 the smaller branches after August, a grade hardly greater than that on 
 French Creek, and gravel-deposits which are comparatively of moderate 
 extent and not found to be rich in gold as far as they have been tested. 
 
 SECTIOX VI. 
 
 SPBARFISH AND BEAR BUTTE CREEKS. 
 
 Thesestreams,emptjung into the Eed water and the Belle Pourche, drain 
 the extreme northern section of the main range of the Black Hills ; ris- 
 ing near the limestone divide between Crook's Tower and Custer's Peak^ 
 a spur of the great western mesa, thej^ cut through a narrow belt of slate, 
 quartzite and igneous rocks before entering the limestone formation en- 
 circling the Hills. This belt of slates, contracted between the two walls 
 of Carboniferous limestone, is an extension of the quartzite and clay- 
 slate formation covering so broad an expanse of territory on Spring and 
 Eapid Creeks. 
 
 Prom the headwaters of Elk Creek it extends in a direction a little 
 north of west for twenty miles until terminated by the limestone ridge 
 between Spearflsh and Floral Valley. Covering about one hundred and 
 fifty square miles, this area of metamorphic rocks has up to the present 
 time been only partly explored and prospected, owing to the exceedingly 
 rugged and impenetrable character of the region. It may aptly be 
 called a " pathless wilderness ;" even game-trails are rarely seen, and 
 the surface of the country is so cut up by numerous narrow and abrupt 
 canons as to be impassable for wagons, and extremely difficult and fa- 
 tiguing to traverse, even with pack-mules. The bottoms of the canons 
 and gorges are choked with a tangled jungle of willow and grape-vines, 
 and often beaver-dams extend from clitf to cliff, producing boggy mud- 
 flats whose depths we tried t« explore, but found no bottom in the fluid 
 
42 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 black ooze. Only in places can the walls of the canons and ravines be 
 scaled, while the ridges and divides, steep, and broken into innumera- 
 ble sharp, serrated peaks, are covered by timber, frequently blown down 
 by the wind and subsequently overgrown with thickets of aspen. The 
 slow progress made through this wilderness soon wears out both horse 
 and rider, and the former, instead of being an assistance, has to be led 
 and pulled along most of the way. To find yourself at a "jumping-ott 
 place," the end of some sharp ridge between two streams, to descend 
 hundreds of feet into the bottom of the caiion, to slowly climb the op- 
 posite side, at last reaching the top of the divide exhausted and out of 
 breath, only to find that you are on the crest of another similar ridge 
 ending in a few hundred yards ; to continue this wearisome march for 
 hours and only travel four or five miles in a straight line ; such was one 
 day the experience of the party on Bear Butte Creek. 
 
 The more mountainous character of the country and the greater preva- 
 lence of limestone in the area drained by Spearfish Creek, make the 
 caiions on that stream the deepest and longest found in any part of the 
 Hills. One of the parties exploring Spearfish entered the main caiion 
 near its source to the north of Crook's Tower, and being unable 
 to extricate themselves and horses, were obliged to force their way 
 through its whole length to where it opens out into Eedwater Val- 
 ley., some thirty miles from its head. Most of the distance they waded 
 their horses down the bed of the stream, which, in a swift current flowed 
 over smooth limestone rock. In places the vertical cliffs of the canon 
 rose from the water's edge, and nowhere did they find a place where the 
 cliffs could be scaled without abandoning the horses. The party re- 
 ported that the rocks seen were mostly limestone. A narrow belt of 
 slates for some distance forms the base of the cliffs, the tops being Pots- 
 dam sandstone, or the limestone of the Carboniferous. This is also true 
 for those branches of Spearfish rising near Terry's Peak, where the Pots- 
 dam covers quite an extensive area, while the narrow caiions are cut 
 through it into the slates. 
 
 ]S[ear Black Butte, at the mouth of Spearfish Caiion, the limestone 
 forms the west wall of the main gorge, while the eastern branches drain 
 a very mountainous tract consisting mainly of igneous rocks. Spearfish 
 emerges from the caiion with a swift current, equalling, it noL exceeding, 
 Kapid Creek in volume of water, and emptying into the Eedwater, forms, 
 by the union, a fine river, a branch of the Belle Fourche, known to the In- 
 dians as Deepwater. 
 
 Just above the mouth of the caiion several small streams enter Spear- 
 fish from the southwest, heading in the ridge between Spearfish and 
 Floral Yalley. On these branches a party of miners discovered rich 
 placer-deposits the past summer which have since been more fully pros- 
 pected and developed. Wishing information in regard to the location 
 of the new discovery, I wrote to Mr. T. H. Mallory, one of the original 
 discoverers of the district, and received the following reply : 
 
 Hill City, January 5, 1876. 
 
 Dear Sir : Iron Creek runs into Spearfish above Crow Peak. Bear Creek runs into 
 Spearfish lower down and near the buttes. Sand Creek runs into Redwater. These 
 streams all head nearly together, and they, with their smaller tributaries, make a 
 large mining district. They are richer, too, than anything on this side of the hills. 
 One pan of dirt on the discovery of Bear Creek contained $27. I have a report that 
 another small stream running into Spearfish from the southeast is still better than 
 anything yet found. How much truth there is in it Bottsford and I will know in a few 
 days. I send you a little gold from Sand Creek ; it has been retorted and does not 
 look bright. 
 
 THOS. H. MALLORY. 
 
 W. P. Jenney. 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. . 43 
 
 The rocks of this new district are reported to be granite (tracliyte?) 
 near the heads of the creeks, and lower down the gulches the bedrock 
 is limestone, but equally good gold-deposits are found upon it. 
 
 The sample of gold sent is" quite different from that from Spring 
 Creek, the particles being much smaller, more ragged, and irregular in 
 shape and but little water-worn. So large a proportion of the gold is 
 fine dust that it is not easily saved without the use of quicksilver in 
 the sluices. 
 
 Concerning the Bear Creek discovery, I have received the following 
 communication from Mr. George W. Corey, of Cheyenne : 
 
 Cheyenne, Wyo., Decenibei- 20, 1875. 
 Dear Sir: I have some fiuo specimens of Black Hills gold that I will send you. 
 They were takeu out of Bear Giiloh by Frank George de Oliver, who would not sell 
 them, but let me take them to send to yon. He took out with a rocker in eight and a 
 half days $165. One lump which I have weighs one and a half ounces. * * * « 
 
 GEO. W. COKEY. 
 Walter P. Jen\-ey. 
 
 Bear Butte Creek drains the northeastern portion of the Black Hills, 
 taking its name from a solitary igneous peak near which its flows, some 
 eight miles from the main range among the open plains. This stream 
 is formed by two main branches uniting in the Bed Valley at the foot- 
 hills ; one, the East Fork, rises to the north of Custer's Peak ; the other, 
 known as Whitewood, heads near Terry's Peak. None of the branches 
 have flowing water within five miles of the edge of the plain, as they 
 sink even before reaching the limestone formation. The East Pork was 
 only explored by the topographical party; and, for want of ttme and 
 suitable transportation, my assistants were unable to properly prospect 
 and explore the branches of this stream. 
 
 Whitewood, heading on the east side of Terry's Peak, unites with 
 Deadwood, a branch rising on the northwest side, forming a swiftly- 
 running stream flowing nearly three hundred miner's inches of water, 
 but sinking a short distance below the forks, and thence continuing as 
 a dry canon through the limestone to the plains. 
 
 Whitewood and its branches flow through narrow and deep gorges 
 <^xcavated in the slates and igneous rocks, with the Potsdam sandstone 
 <;apping in many places the tops of the narrow ridges between its numer- 
 ous branches. The base of the Potsdam is here the usual conglomerate 
 of round water-worn quartz-pebbles and small bowlders. The intrusion 
 of the igneous rocks has penetrated the Potsdam as well as the slates 
 and quartzites, and has often metamorphosed the sandstone so that it 
 is unrecognizable, except that traces of its stratification are retained, 
 and the strata are observed resting at a low angle unconformably on 
 the upturned edges of the slates. 
 
 The most common form of this altered Potsdam is a brownish gran- 
 ular rock, full of feldspar crystals irregularly distributed through its 
 mass. Locally, this metamorphosed sandstone is seen as a hard gran- 
 ular rock, breaking with a sharp conchoidal fracture, without any traces 
 of crystalline minerals, and specimens in their colored and burnt appear- 
 ance resemble fragments of pottery-ware The slates and quartzites are 
 similar to the rocks of the Spring Creek district, and broad strata of 
 quartzite, intermixed with limonite and white quartz, resemble closely 
 the Mammoth ledge on that stream, except that here small ramifying 
 veins of white quartz not more than half an inch wide intersect the 
 dark-gray quartzite like a network — another evidence that these altered 
 strata are the result of the action of solutions depositing silica permeat- 
 
44 EESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Ing the formation. The strike of the slate and quartzite belt is observed 
 to be east and west, at a point a few miles north of Terry's Peak, ihis^ 
 formation over great areas is concealed by the intrusion of large masses, 
 of igneous rocks forming the more prominent peaks in the district, as 
 Terry, Custer, Crow, Black Butte, &c. 
 
 The intrusions of trachyte in the slates usually form dome-shaped 
 peaks, having penetrated or forced to one side the superincumbent 
 strata of Potsdam and Carboniferous. Though in this region trachyte 
 forms in places quite extensive ridges connecting the peaks and cover- 
 ing large areas, no narrow dikes were anywhere observed traversing 
 the slates, and this occurrence of eruptive rocks in dikes so common 
 elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains, seems to be wanting i;i the Black 
 Hills. 
 
 The time of this eruption of igneous rocks appears to have been coe"- 
 val with the elevation of the Black Hills at the close of the Cretaceou.s^ 
 period; the intrusion of feldspathic porphyry forming Crow Peak has 
 upturned all the different formations from the Potsdam 'to the Jurassicj 
 the Cretaceous having been removed by erosion is not seen in the vicin- 
 ity. These igneous rocks are very varied in appearance and character,, 
 but may be generally classed either as trachyte or feldspar-porphyry, 
 though merging in all gradations into each other, so that an exact class- 
 ification is extremely difiQcult. Greenstone occurs both as an olive- 
 green rock without any traces of crystallized minerals and breaking 
 with a fracture like jasper, and also with small feldspar-crystals scat- 
 tered through its mass forming a greenstone porphyry. The rock com- 
 posing JCerry's Peak seems to be wholly composed of white feldspar, an 
 aggregation of small crystals of that mineral resembling a fine-grained 
 granite without quartz or mica. Ouster's Peak is formed by the intru- 
 sion of a peculiar massive gray rock with an exceedingly close and uni- 
 form texture resembling a compact gray limestone in appearance more 
 than an igneous rock. Black Butte, a high peak on the east" side of 
 Spearflsh caiion, near its mouth, is made up of a genuine trachyte. 
 
 Near Camp Terry, a few miles north of Custer's Peak, the prevailing 
 rocks are garnetiferous mica-schists, resembling the rocks of the French 
 Creek district. This occurrence of an area of schists in. the clay-slate 
 formation is not easily explained. Possibly the irregular line "of con- 
 tact between the two divisions of the Archrean may here extend a 
 greater distance to the east. Among these mica-schists on the head 
 branches of the East Fork of Bear Butte Creek the soldiers found gold 
 in the gravel-deposits of the side gulches of the stream, and a piece 
 weighing about half a pennyweight was obtained from one of their pros- 
 pectin gj pits near Camp Terry. Gravel-deposits of considerable extent 
 are reported in the valleys of the branches of the East Pork, but have 
 not as yet been prospected by the miners. The area drained by this 
 fork is more open and less rugged than the territory to the west, resem- 
 bling the Elk Creek distiict,which it adjoins. Gold has been discovered 
 by the miners on Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks and' the numerous 
 gulches running into them in the vicinity of Terry's Peak. The placers 
 are quite extensive and in most places the bedrock is reported to be 
 near the surface, and the gold is doubtless derived from the disintegra- 
 tion and erosion of the igneous rocks as well as from slates and quartz- 
 ites. 
 
 Having detected gold in similar trachytes in the Bear Lodge range, 
 I consider its occurrence in rocks of igneous origin in this district as 
 extremely probable. The following letter from Mr. T. H. Mallory, for- 
 merly one of my assistants in prospecting the gold-field, gives the result 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 45 
 
 ■of his explorations on the branches of Bear Butte Creek, since the 
 return of the expedition : 
 
 Hill City, Dak., January 31, 1876. 
 
 Dear Sir : Botsford and I Lave jast returned from a trip to the north. We made 
 locations on Whitewood, a large stream that rises around the northeast side of Terry's 
 Peak and runs down to the Belle Fourohe. Starting from the point where the creek 
 runs into the low lands not of the cation, forming bars, up It to the West Fork, or Dead- 
 wood, as it is called, there is no better paying mines for a poor man in the Hills. The 
 ground prospects in the creek and on the bars, all the way down to bed-rock, an aver- 
 age of about two cents to the pan, in fine gold. It is said to be the same on Dead- 
 wood. The length or extent of locations on these creeks begins at the mouth of 
 Whitewood, and then runnijag thence up Dead wood, makes a distance of twenty-five 
 miles, all good mining-gronnd. 
 
 A small gulch running into Deadwood, called Black Tail, is said to be good. These 
 mines will certainly pay from $10 to an ounce a day to the man when worked in the 
 .spring. They are easily opened, for the bed-rock is not deep like it is on Spring, 
 •Castle, and Bapid Creeks. 
 
 „ T. H. MALLOEY. 
 
 W. P. Jekney. ( 
 
 SECTIOIf VH. 
 
 THE BEAR LODGE COTJNTEY. 
 
 Forming the exti^me northwestern part of the Black Hills, and sep- 
 arated from the mlfn range by the broad, open valley of the Ked water, 
 the Bear Lodge country has a geological system and topography which, 
 while a miniature counterpart of that characterizing the main range of 
 the Black Hills, is a distinct uplift, produced by the intrusion of the ig- 
 neous rocks forming Warren's Peaks. Covering an area of nearly one thou- 
 sand square miles, mostly included between the Eed water and the Belle 
 Fourche, this region takes its name from a singularly-shaped trachyte 
 butte " Mato Tipi," or " The Bear's Lodge." Surmounting a hill near 
 the north bank of the latter stream, this butte forms the most conspic- 
 uous landmark in the region, resembling the base of a ruined and 
 crumbling column, with its shaft nearly 500 fefet in height, and the top 
 1,127 feet above the water in the Belle Fourche. 
 
 Warren's Peaks, a cluster of high rolling hills, grass-covered, and 
 nearly destitute of timber, are the most elevated points in the Bear 
 Lodge range, almost equaling Harney's Peak in height, their toi)S be- 
 ing from 6,700 to 6,800 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 Occupying an area about four miles in diameter, these peaks are 
 composed of coarsely-crystallized feldspar trachyte, apparently destitute 
 of quartz, but sometimes containing hornblende and mica, and often hav- 
 ing in the arrangement of the crystals of feldspar, in a granular matrix, 
 a structure like porphyry. This rock, which is seen of different shades 
 of gray, yellow, and reddish brown, seems to be quite readily decom- 
 posed by atmospheric agencies, and crumbling away, has given rounded 
 surfaces and outlines to the hills and ridges. Standing on any of the 
 higher of WaTren's Peaks the view shows at once the distinct character 
 of the uplift, and the peculiarities produced by it in the topography of 
 the region. 
 
 The central peaks are surrounded by others of less elevation, between 
 which ravines radiate in every direction, like the spokes of a wheel 
 from the hub, and give rise to small streams, flowing outwardly from 
 the center, draining the area. Those to the southeast and south, empty 
 into the Red water; the rest flow into the Belle Fourche or its branches. 
 
 To the north an extensive tract is observed wooded with pine of me- 
 dium size. Scattered groves occur elsewhere on the ridges and in the 
 
46 ' RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 ravines, but large areas are comparatively destitute of timber, and 
 broad grass-covered divides are seen to the west and northwest betweeu 
 the streams emptying into the Belle Fourche. 
 
 To the east, across the broad valley of the Eed water, excavated in the 
 gypsum and sandy clays of the Red' Beds, Crow Peak is seen, an angu- 
 lar blue-black butte, forming the most northern peak in the main range 
 of the Black Hills. Between it and Inyan-kara stretches the great lime- 
 stone formation so extensively developed on Floral Valley and the head 
 branches of the Kedwater. 
 
 To the west, (magnetic,) some twenty miles away, Bear Lodge Butte 
 and the Little Missouri Buttes appear in line. From this distance the 
 former resembles in appearance tbe huge stump of a tree, its surface 
 curiously striated vertically from top to base, and, being perched on 
 the crest of a high, flat-topped ridge, it becomes a very prominent land- 
 mark, which, once seen, is so singular and unique that it can never be 
 forgotten. Although the Bear Lodge country is an elevated region, 
 and the different streams have a considerable fall before reaching the 
 Belle Fourche, yet the topography is quite peculiar in the prevalence of 
 long, flat-topped ridges or mesas between the narrow and deep valleys 
 and caiions of the creeks. This is due to the resistance to erosion 
 offered by hard and continuous strata of sandstone of the Jurassic and 
 Cretaceous formations which are here almost horizontal in their bedding, 
 with a gentle slope away from Warren's Peaks. ' 
 
 In a series of annular belts the different geological formations outcrop 
 around the central nucleus of Warren's Peaks. lu passing down any of 
 the numerous radiating ravines of the streams for three or four miles, all 
 the several members of the section are successfully encountered in the 
 order of their deposition, from the Potsdam to the Dakota sandstone of 
 the Cretaceous. Upturned at an angle of about 20° by the intrusion of 
 the trachyte, the Potsdam sandstone rests against the slox>es of the outer 
 circle of hills. Its lower layers are so metamorphosed by the heat and 
 chemical solutions accompanying the upheaval, that they merge imper- 
 ceptibly into the igneous'rock, until strata which are probably altered 
 sandstone cannot be distinguished from coarsely-crystalline trachyte^ 
 Near the base of the Potsdam formation, between straia of unmistakable 
 sandstone, a mass of feldspar trachyte was observed, which had in 
 the eruption escaped between the layers and slightly altered the adja- 
 cent surfaces of the inclosing rock. But more frequently the metamor- 
 phism seems to have been the result of the action of heated solutions 
 forced between the layers of the sandstone, altering the surface of the 
 fracture and transforming the sedimentary rock into a feldspar por- 
 phyry. 
 
 Layers of the soft brown sandstone extending horizontally for some 
 distance had been altered in this manner, the rock being shot full of 
 gray feldspar crystals, from one-fourth to one-half an inch long, irregu- 
 larly distributed through it. 
 
 On the west slope of Warren's Peaks a layer of blue slate occurred, 
 inclosed in the trachyte, but conformable in its bedding to well-marked 
 Potsdam about 50 feet above it, and was probably formed by the action 
 of heat on a layer of clay-slate in the base of the Potsdam.' Here this 
 formation is full of fine specimens of the large fucoids so characteristie 
 of the Potsdam sandstone in the Black Hills, and great masses of the 
 upper layers of the rocks are perforated by the borings of marine worms. 
 These fossils are found unaltered within a few feet of the trachyte, and 
 would seem to show that the heat accompanying the upheaval of tbe 
 range and the intrusion of the igneous rocks was not very intense. At 
 
KESOUKCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 47 
 
 the south of the peaks the whole thickness of the Potsdam sandstone 
 has been so metamorphosed that it cannot be recognized, except by the 
 evidences of an indistinct stratified structure, and its position under the 
 Carboniferous limestone. The altered sandstone on that side is a 
 quartzite more or less porphyritic, with feldspar crystals merging in all 
 gradations into a crystalline rock resembling trachyte. Even here the 
 metamorphism seems to be more from the action of heated chemical 
 solutions permeating the rock than from the direct action of heat, pro- 
 ducing a semi-fusion of the Potsdam strata. The Carboniferous lime- 
 stone succeeds the Potsdam, apparently conformable to it, and forms an 
 encircling range of low, white hills around Warren's Peaks, at a distance 
 of two or three miles. The whole thickness of this formation is at least 
 600 feet, including the overlying massive sandstones.^ 
 
 The limestone shows but little evidence of metamorphic action, though 
 in places the trachyte has broken through this formation and appears 
 at the surface, altering slightly the upper sandstone. Beyond the belt 
 of Carboniferous, which is nearly two miles wide, the Triassic limestone 
 and the Eed Beds occupy a narrow ring succeeded by an expanse of sand- 
 stone and clays of Jurassic age, extending for miles across the country. 
 The lops of the ridges are formed by a ferruginous massive sandstone, 
 probably the Dakota sandstone, and where it has been removed by 
 erosion the harder ^yers of the Jurassic cap the hills and the mesa 
 divides between the stream. 
 
 In the interior area of Warren's Peaks no Archaean strata were found, 
 and the slates, quartzites, and schists so largely developed in the main 
 range of the Black Hills were here entirely, wanting. The rocks of this 
 district seem to be singularly free from quartz in any form. About five 
 miles southeast of Warren's Peaks, near the head of a branch of the Eed- 
 water, a fault in the strata exposes a fine section of the Potsdam sand- 
 stone, with its lower layers full of slate and quartzite pebbles, but un- 
 fortunately the base of the formation was covered by a talus, and the 
 rock on which it rested could not be seen. On the north side of the 
 area of igneous rocks a trachyte composed of feldspar and black mica 
 was observed, and near by several large loose bowlders of white quartz 
 were embedded in the surface of the ground, but th'e ledge from which 
 they were derived was not found. Black hornblende also appeared as a 
 constituent mineral, associated with feldspar, in the rocks of this district. 
 
 Half a mile northeast of the central peaks a gold-bearing ledge was 
 discovered and traced in a northwest and southeast direction for several 
 hundred yards. On examination it was found to be irregular in shape, 
 without any well-defined walls or boundaries, and merging on all sides 
 into the adjacent trachyte rocks. The rocks composing this peculiar 
 formation were exceedingly varied in character and appearance, and a 
 score of different specimens were collected in a radius of as many yards. 
 The prevailing rock was a very coarsely-crystalline, feldspar porphyry, 
 with a fine porcelain -like m'atrix, breaking with a sharp conchoidal 
 fracture. . The feldspar crystals were often very perfect, and from an 
 inch to two inches long. Flat and thin crystals were common, often 
 joined together, with the shorter axis of one reversed, as " twins." The 
 specimens varied in color from light yellow or yellow-brown to gray, and 
 large masses of rock in the middle of the "ledge" were made up of feld- 
 spar intermixed with irregular masses of limonite iron-ore and black 
 oxide of manganese. Bowlders of iron and manganese which would 
 weigh several hundred pounds were scattered over the surface of the 
 ground. The mineral was solid, compact, and exceedingly heavy, but 
 the two oxides were distinct in the mass, though often closely inter- 
 
48 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 mixed.. Manganese and limonite occurred, filling the spaces between 
 the large feldspar crystals and impregnating the rocks irregularly 
 throughout, until it resembled a " breccia." Evidences of an octohedral 
 or cubical crystallization in the limonite indicated that it was derived 
 •from the decomposition of iron pyrites, and traces of the latter mineral 
 were found on breaking the rock. 
 
 No gold could be detected in this formation by the eye; but, suspecting 
 its presence, the different specimens collected were carefully sampled and 
 submitted to Mr. P. de P. Eicketts for assay. The result showed the 
 presence of a decided trace of gold, probably contained in the iron and 
 manganese oxides. ' 
 
 Prospecting in the dry ravine, a short distance below this ledge, the 
 gravel from off bed-rock was found to be largely composed of material 
 derived from the disintegration of the ledge. Twelve fine colors of 
 gold, or about half a cent to the pan, was obtained as an average of 
 several tests, and each time nearly a pint of gravel and pebbles of 
 manganese and limonite was left in the pan after washing out the 
 lighter clay and feldspar. It would seem probable thait the whole of 
 the gold contained in the gravel in this ravine had been derived from 
 the decomposition and denudation of the above ledge. 
 
 The occurrence of gold in trachyte without any quartz being associated 
 with it has been previously reported from several mining- districts in the 
 West, but this is the first instance that has come under my personal 
 observation. 
 
 Descending the ravine about half a mile, traces of previous explorers 
 were found. Several prospecting-holes had been sunk near the stream, ' 
 and considerable work done in the vicinity, probably by a small party 
 of miners early in the preceding spring, as small aspen trees which they 
 had cut down in clearing the ground for working showed half-grown 
 leaves dead and shriveled, but still clinging to the twigs. A number 
 of these old prospecting-pits were baled out, the gravel obtained from 
 off bed-rock, and tested by panning. But in no case did we find gold 
 in paying quantities, half a cent to the pan being the highest result of 
 the trials. It is probable that the miners who dug these holes obtained 
 discouraging prospects, or they would not have abandoned the district 
 without making it known. 
 
 Exploring a number of small streams rising near Warren's Peaks, 
 flowing to the north and east, gold was found in gravel-deposits in 
 the flats along the banks of the creeks, in several places, but nowhere 
 in paying quantities, though from want of time we were unable to thor- 
 oughly test all the different ravines in this district. The cluster of hills 
 of igneous rocks which have yielded the gold are but four to five miles 
 across. The gravel-deposits formed by the creeks extend, however, for 
 some distance down the valleys, beyond the outcrop of the Potsdam, 
 and are found resting on limestone bed-rock, so that the district is 
 really elliptical in area and six to eight miles in diameter, covering an 
 area of from forty to fifty square miles. The streams being small and 
 the wash not very great, there were no high gravel-deposits, though one 
 or two bars covering about an acre were observed occupying flats ele- 
 vated three or four feet above the creek. The gravel was 2 to 5 feet deep, 
 composed wholly of feldspar and the soft plastic clay resulting from its 
 decomposition, intermixed with considerable iron and'manganese pebbles 
 derived from the ledges. The valleys of the creeks are not deep, but are 
 narrow, contracted, and overgrown with thickets of willow, so that only 
 at intervals are gravel flats of any considerable size found along their 
 course. The moM extensive of these bars were found near the outcrop 
 
EESOUKCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 49 
 
 of the limestone, the bed-rock being soft calcareous sandstone of theOar- 
 boniferous age. These deposits were situated so that they could be 
 readily worked, but only yielded, on testing, from one-eighth to one-half 
 a cent to the pan in very fine dust gold. 
 
 The gold is derived from the igneous rocks forming Warren's Peaks, 
 most of it apparently from the manganese and limonite ledge on the 
 northeast slope, as the largest quantities were found in the ravines 
 heading near that point. The intrusion of the trachyte forming the 
 peaks having disturbed the Cretaceous sandstone and the underlying 
 beds, it is probable that the Bear Lodge range was coeval with that of 
 the main range of the Black Hills at the close of the Cretaceons period, 
 and that the gold in the trachyte was simultaneously deposited. In re- 
 viewing this small district, which is very interesting scientifically, even 
 if the deposits of gold should not be found of workable richness, it may 
 be stated that the bars are of limited area, and usually shallow deposits 
 of feldspar gravel. The gold is fine, and up to the present time has not 
 been found in remunerative quantities. The water-supply is small, but 
 probably sufficient for working purposes during the spring months. The 
 district is remarkable in the occurrence of gold without any quartz 
 whatever being associated with it, and in the fact that the gold is de- 
 rived from feldspar trachyte-porphyry of so recent a geological age. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 THE DEPOSITS OF ATJEIFEROITS GRAVEL A2I0N& THE FOOT-HILLS. 
 
 A belt of gravel-deposits, resting usually on the Eed Beds near the 
 edge of the plains, extends from Red Canon Creek, in the extreme south- 
 ern end of the Black Hills, all along the southeastern foothills, across 
 the valleys of Minnekata, Amphibious, French, Wiwi, Whiskey, Spring 
 and Rapid Creeks to Box Elder, where the deposits thin out and disap- 
 pear. On examination, these gravel-beds seem to be river deposits, 
 though in places they cap hills 300 feet above the present bed of the 
 nearest stream. Where the divides between the creeks are quite wide, 
 at the edge of the plains, the gravel is seen to be thickest and most ex- 
 tensively deposited near the valleys of the streams, and to thin out 
 toward the crests of the divides. The gravel appears to have been depos- 
 ited by the water at the point where the power of the stream became in- 
 sufficient to transport farther in large quantities bowlders of this siae and 
 weight, and the beds resemble somewhat shore or estuary deposits, such 
 as are formed nearthe mouth of a stream emptyingintoalakeor sea. These 
 gravel-banks have been formed since the elevation of the Black Hills, 
 and the great Tertiary sea which gave rise to the extensive beds of that 
 age in the valleys of White River and the South Cheyenne may have 
 reached to the foot-hills of this range. A gravel " wash "■ from the Black 
 Hills is found all over the surface of the plains to the north, east, and 
 south of the range. Near the Cheyenne this gravel forms a conglom- 
 erate 6 feet in thickness between the top of Uretaceous No. 5 and the 
 base of the White River Tertiary, and also occurs as scattered gravel 
 and bowlders on the tops of the Tertiary hills, showing that it has been 
 deposited since the close of the Cretaceous period, both before and after 
 the Later Tertiary. These gravel-beds are made up of a mixture of 
 bowlders and pebbles from all the harder rocks found in the different 
 geological formations on the eastern slope of the Black Hills, including 
 granite, trachyte, schist, slate, quartzite, and quartz in all its varieties, 
 mixed with a variable proportion of sandstone and limestone from the 
 diMntegration of the Potsdam, Carboniferous, and Red Beds. 
 S. Ex. 51 4 
 
50 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 The preponderance of any particular rocks in the gravel seems to be 
 the result of the position of the deposits and the circumstances influenc- 
 ing the erosion which produced it. The more elevated beds contain a 
 less proportion of limestone and sandstone bowlders, mingled with those 
 irom the Archaean rocks, than the deposits at lower levels, formed after 
 deep gorges had been cut bythe streams through the recent formations. 
 A layer of gravel a few inches in thickness covered the lower foot-hills 
 near Box Elder, but the deposits were thin and spread out over a consider- 
 able area. It was impossible to prospect them for gold, as there was not 
 a drop of water in the bed of the stream for several miles up the cailon. 
 This peculiar formation of high gravel-capped hills does not become 
 extensively developed north at the valley of Rapid Oreek, although a 
 thin wash of limestone and sandstone bowlders, mingled with a little 
 quartz and slate, covers the foot-hills as far to the north and west as the 
 forks ot Speartish and Redwater. 
 
 Where Rapid Creek bursts through the foot-hills and flows out on the 
 pl.iins are very extensive gravel-beds of this character, evidently depos- 
 ited by the stream at different periods as they cover the tops of hills at 
 three distinct elevations, respectively at about 50 feet, 100 feet, and 300 to 
 350 feet above the present bed of the creek. The lowest of these deposits 
 occupies benches and flat-topped hills formed of the soft red standstone 
 of the Red Beds. The gravel was mostly composed of limestone and 
 sandstone bowlders, mingled with quartz, slate, and ferruginous quartz- 
 ite. The next, also resting on the Red Beds, was of similar character ; 
 not more than 50 per cent, of the gravel was derived from the metamor- 
 })hic rocks. Both of these deposits were on the side-hills of the valley, 
 in places forming banks or terraces 20 to 30 feet in height, and should 
 properly be classed as high bars. The giavel from off bed-rock, ob- 
 tained by drifting into the face of these bars a distance of 4 or 5 feet, 
 gave one to two colors of gold to the pan. The highest gravel-deposits 
 were in places 30 to 40 feet in thickness, capping the tops of the hills of 
 Carboniferous and Triassic limestone, often at a considerable distance 
 from the present valley of the stream ; the lower layers contained water- 
 worn bowlders, 1 to 2 feet in diameter, of quartz, slate, quartzite, gran- 
 ite, and trachyte, both feldspathic and hornblendic, but scarcely a trace 
 of limestone or sandstone rocks are found in these more elevated depos- 
 its. Wherever tested, the gravel from off bed-rock gave small quanti- 
 ties of gold on panning. 
 
 On Spring Creek, below the limestone carton, prospecting was out of 
 the question for want of water, though it is probable that in the early 
 spring months this stream flows out into the plains. 
 
 In the dry side I'avines of Whiskey Creek, among the Red Beds, gold 
 was discovered by a party of miners entering the Hills. Prospecting up 
 a dry gulch, they obtained 25 colors of gold from the dirt shaken from 
 the roots of a small bush growing in a narrow crevice in the bare sand- 
 stone bed-rock at the bottom of the ravine. This locality, known as the 
 " rosebush diggings," derived its gold from the gradual washing down in- 
 to the ravines of the gravel-deposits capping the hills, by the action of 
 occasional heavy rains, when for a short time a stream of water would 
 flow through the gulch and sluice the gravel accumulated in it, the gold 
 being caught in the crevices of the bed-rock, while the dirt was swept 
 away. Prospecting in one of these side gulches, about half a mile from 
 the main stream, the dirt from the crevices in the bed-rock was 
 found to yield from 5 to 15 cents to the pan. The gold was in fine par- 
 ticles, associated with small red garnet crystals, derived from the schists 
 in the neighborhood of Harney's Peak. This ravine was excavated 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 51 
 
 about 200 feet iu depth, through the Eed Beds. Its bottom was formed 
 of a pavement of the upper layers of the Carboniferous sandstone, while 
 the hills on both sides were covered with a deposit of slate and quartz 
 gravel which had furnished the gold. 
 
 A mite below, the small side gulcbes in the fted Beds afforded in 
 places 5 to 10 cents to the pan of gold, but the supply of water at this 
 time (July 20) was so small that the miners decided to give up prospect- 
 ing in the vicinity and abandon the diggings until the spring rains 
 should till the water-holes and make it possible to work the pay-dirt in 
 rockers, if any deposits rich enough for that purpose should be discov- 
 ered. 
 
 About five miles south of Whiskey Creek, at the edge of the plains, a 
 conglomerate 30 feet in thickness caps hills 100 to 150 feet in height, 
 of the soft sandstone of the Eed Beds. The conglomerate is composed of 
 granite, quartz and slate bowlders, cemented by sand and lime into a 
 loosely-cohering " cement," the lower layers of which contain quartz 
 bowlders, 1 to 2 feet in diameter. The small gulches in the vicinity are 
 full of the quartz gravel, resulting from the decomposition of the con- 
 glomerate, and undoubtedly contain gold, but unfortunately there was 
 not a drop of water anywhere to be found in the neighborhood, and I 
 was obliged to relinquish the attempt to prospect them. Similar gravel 
 deposits encircle the foot-hills crossing the valleys of French, Amphib- 
 ious, and Minnekata Creeks, and in this connection it would seem not 
 inappropriate to give a tradition relating to the gold-deposits in this 
 portion of the Hills. 
 
 Toussaint Kensler, a half breed Indian, .who had worked in the gold 
 mines of Alder Giilch, Montana, was confined in prison under sentence 
 of death for murder. Escaping, he was not heard from for a long time; 
 when he appeared at the agencies, having in his possession several 
 goose-quills filled with gold-dust, and a fossil skull which he had found 
 in the Bad Lands on his way from the diggings he reported he had dis- 
 covered. Being re-arrested, he was taken back to prison, and hung for 
 the crime for which he was originally sentenced ; but before the execu- 
 tion he drew a map of the locality where he claimed to have discovered 
 gold, and the routes traveled in going to and from the agencies, with 
 the distances and names of the principal streams marked unmistaka- 
 bly in the sketch. He stated that he followed down Hat Creek to the 
 South Fork of the Cheyenne, crossed that stream, and on the second 
 creek of any size entering the Cheyenne from the north below the mouth 
 of the Hat Creek, he discovered gold about ten miles from the Cheyenne, 
 among low hills, but outside the main range of the Black Hills. He do- 
 scribed the locality as among hills capped with high and thick gravel 
 bars of large size. Here he found rich gravel, and in a short time ob- 
 tained his sample of gold by washing the pay-dirt in a small tin dish. 
 A tracing of the map drawn by Kensler is before me while I am writ- 
 ing. On comparing it with the map drawn by Dr. M'Gillycuddy, 
 topographer of the expedition, I find that it agrees very closely with 
 the latter, in regard to distances, directions, and .the bends of the 
 Cheyenne, and that the stream on which Kensler discovered gold 
 was either Amphibious Creek or French Creek, probably the former. 
 Quite extensive gravel-deposits are known to occur in the vicinity, and 
 it is probable that Kensler was the first discoverer of gold in the Black 
 Hills, obtaining his pay-dirt from the small ravines and gulches 
 among these gravel- beds, where the gold had been concentrated by heavy 
 rains. Should these elevated gravel-deposits on further exploration be 
 found to contain throughout their thickness sufBcient gold to warrant 
 
52 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 working by the hydraulic process, water can be conveyed from the 
 streams in the Hills to them in many places under a considerable head, 
 as they are elevated only about 3,800 feet above the sea. while the 
 streams 15 miles into the interior are flowing through valleys at an ele- 
 vation of 6,000 feet. On Eapid Creek, a large volume of water, at 
 least 2,000 miner's inches, under a head of .75 feet to the mile, can be 
 made available for working these high bars above the valley, at a mod- 
 erate expenditure of capital and labor required to construct the flumes. 
 Only two streams, Eapid and Minnekata, having gravel-deposits of 
 this character in their valleys, form a continuous stream of water to the 
 Cheyenne ; the rest all sink in their beds aoiong the foot-hills, several 
 miles from the plains. Among some of these dry ravines, cutting 
 through the gravel-deposits, miners in the future may make good wages 
 washing the earth from the bottoms of the gulches in rockers, during 
 the early spring months, when there is sufficient supply of water in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Yery few minerals were found during the exploration, and until the 
 quartz-ledges have been more thoroughly prospected and opened it is 
 premature to divscuss the occurrence or non-occurrence of any of the 
 valuable minerals or ores in the Black Hills. 
 
 A number of samples of quartz were taken from ledges in different 
 parts of the gold-field, and submitted to Mr. P. De P. Eicketts for assay, 
 but were found to contain only traces of gold. The following is Mr. 
 Eicketts's report in detail : 
 
 School or Mines, Columbia College, 
 
 Nmi) York, January 24, 1876. 
 
 Certificate of assay. 
 
 Sir : The samples of ores from the Black Hills, marked as below, submitted to me 
 for examinatioD, contain no silver, but gold as follows: 
 
 Gold. 
 
 No. 1. Jasper, from Jasper Hill, Box Elder None. 
 
 No. 2. Porphyry ledge, Warren's Peaks Trace. 
 
 No. 3. Empress lode, Box Elder Heavy trace. 
 
 No. 4. Great Qnartz ledge, Box Elder None. 
 
 No. 5. Lee Anna lode, Spring Creek Trace. 
 
 No. 6. Sullivan's lode, Castle Creek Heavy trace. 
 
 No. 7. Lode on Rapid Creek Trace. 
 
 No. 8. Iron-pyrites from Spring Creek Trace. 
 
 No. 9. Lode on Rapid Creek^quartz Heavy trace. 
 
 No. 10. Lode on Eapid Creek— -qnartz Heavy trace. 
 
 No. 11. Empress lode, BoxElder — quartz.... None. 
 
 No. 12. Lode on Rapid Creek Trace. 
 
 The amount of gold found in each case was too small to weigh, although the charges 
 of ore were large. 
 
 Verv respectfully, 
 
 P. DE P. RICKETTS, E. M. 
 Walter P. Jenny, E. M., 
 
 Geologist Black Hills Expedition. 
 
 Hematite iron-ore exists in extensive deposits in the slates on Box 
 Elder, but is so intermixed with quartz as to greatly deteriorate its 
 value. 
 
 *' Blue block" iron-ore (siderite) weathering to limonite was found of 
 good quality in the black clay shales of the Cretaceous on Beaver Creek. 
 
RESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 53 
 
 The deposit covered quite a large area, and consisted of three horizon- 
 hv « wV^f ^f T®^^ u V'*'''^®^^ ^"^^««' ^"'^ 5 inches thick, separated 
 „f fv.i f *" ''^''y ^}^^^- ^^'^ "'^ ^'o^ely resembles the block ores 
 f„ t^r. I'r?''"'"®^, ^* Kentucky and Pennsylvania, which are worked 
 in the small charcoal iron-furnaces scattered through the. timbered dis- 
 
 Gypsum is found in beds from 5 to 12 feet in thickness interstratified 
 with the red clays of the Bed Beds. Usually, there are three or four of 
 these layers ot massive white or gray gypsum in the formation, but in 
 places they seem to be wanting and to be replaced by sandy clays 
 
 These Red Beds entirely surround the Black Hills, but are so exposed 
 by uplift on the southern and eastern sides as to conceal partially the 
 gypsum beneath the debris of the clays. 
 
 In Eedwater Valley, in the northwestern portion of the Hills, and 
 in the vicinity of Inyan-Kara and Sun Dance Hills, the gypsum beds 
 are very prominent, and the mineral occurs in extensive strata, so ex- 
 posed as to be easily mined should there ever be a demand for it. 
 
 The Carboniferous limestone which covers a large area of the Black 
 Hills is very pure, and when burnt will make an excellent white lime 
 suitable for building pur[>oses. Building-stone is everywhere abundant 
 in the Hills, and of good quality, including granite, slate, quartzite, 
 sandstone of all shades of color and degrees of hardness, limestone 
 both white and gray, and many varieties of trachyte and altered sedi- 
 mentary rocks. 
 
 Some of the soft variegated sandstone of the Bed Beds is very orna- 
 mental, embracing every shade of color from yellow, through orange and 
 pink, to the darkest red. 
 
 Springs, issuing from the black clay shales of the Cretaceous on 
 Beaver Creek, were found to be strongly acid, and astringent to the 
 taste, turning blue litmus red, and probably containing alum and free 
 sulphuric acid. Similar springs were reported to be found near Buffalo 
 Gate, on the southeastern side of the Hills. A yellow efliorescence re- 
 sembling llowers of sulphur in appearance is often seen on the surface 
 of these clay shales. On testing, it was found to be a basic sesquisul- 
 phate of iron, probably identical with a yellow salt of similar composi- 
 tion used in medicine. 
 
 In reviewing the gold-deposits in the Black Hills, there are some 
 peculiarities in the occurrence which require to be specially noticed. 
 
 The gold contained in the trachytes of the northern part of the Hills 
 and the Bear Lodge range has been deposited in these rocks at the 
 time of the intrusion, which was probably coeval with the elevation of 
 the range, at the close of the Cretaceous period. But the gold-ledges in, 
 the schists and slates are of Archaean age, and formed during the fold- 
 ing of the metamorphic rocks. 
 
 There seems to have been no volcanic disturbance in the Black Hills 
 since the elevation, and the occurrence of basalt capping gravel-depos- 
 its, so common a feature in the California and Australian gold-fields, is 
 here entirely wanting. No fossil plants or the bones of extinct animals 
 have as yet been found in the placers, whereby their age might be de- 
 termined, but from their position they have been deposited not later 
 than the Tertiary, and since the elevation of the Black Hills. 
 
 Very few minerals have been found associated with the gold, except 
 garnets and magnetic-iron sand. The occurrence of zircon, topaz, or 
 platinum, so common in the gold-washings in other parts of the world, 
 has not been observed in the Black Hills. 
 
54 EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 With the exception of a few of the gravel-deposits in the foot-hills, 
 ■which may be of shore formation, no deep leads or old channels filled with 
 gravel were found, which could not be referred to the present streams 
 and system of drainage, assuming only a greater rain-fall than at 
 present, as numerous gravel-beds occur in dry sags and gulches, where 
 water rarely, if ever, forms now a running stream. 
 
 There are evidences of four distinct erosions having taken place in 
 the geological history of the Black Hills. The first at the close of the 
 Arch^an, the second during the early Tertiary, the third in the Drift or 
 Glacial period, and the fourth, the result of the action of the present 
 streams and di-ainage in recent times. 
 
 After the elevation and folding of the schists and slates, the forma- 
 tion of the auriferous quartz veins, and probably the intrusion of the 
 granite of the Harney's Peak range, a most enormous denudation of 
 the metaraorphic rocks occurred, and the greater portion of the result- 
 ing material was swept away and lost. Only water-worn bowlders 
 of quartz and the harder rocks remain, forming the conglomerate at the 
 base of the Potsdam. 
 
 Most, if not all, of the area of metamorpbic rocks was at one time 
 covered by this conglomerate, and it is prol>able that the advancing 
 Silurian ocean, at least in part, produced this erosion of the slates and 
 schists. The conglomerate is often found to contain huge bowlders of 
 quartz and quartzite derived from the. ledges in the slates in the imme- 
 diate vicinity, but nowhere were we able to find any pebbles of granite 
 in the Potsdam, though fragments of soft clay, slatef quartzite, and 
 quartz from its lower layers, and scales of mica are easily seen with a 
 magnifyiug-glass in the compact layers of this sandstone. Granite 
 occurs abundantly in the Tertiary and more recent conglomerate, and 
 I can only account for this absence of granite in the conglomerate of 
 the Potsdam by supposing that the feldspar yielded more readily to 
 decomposition by the atmospheric agencies of the iSilurian period than 
 it has from the same forces since the elevation of the Black Hills. 
 
 The Potsdam commences with the coarse conglomerate, a deposit 
 formed by a shallow and advancing sea, which seems to have gradu- 
 ally deepened, as the sediments forming the sandstone regularly become 
 finer in grain as we ascend. 
 
 Since the Cretaceous, the Black Hills have been above the ocean- 
 level, probably attaining their present altitude by a slight additional 
 elevation at the close of the Tertiary, strata of that age, on the Chey- 
 enne, having a dip of 3° to 5° from the direction of this range. From 
 the Archteau to the Cretaceous, these sedimentary rocks are an evi- 
 dence of denudation ; of a wearing down of some continent, furnishing 
 the enormous mass of material which now composes the extensive 
 strata of slate, sandstone, limestone, and clay shales. 
 
 The second great erosion succeeded immediately the elevation of the 
 Black Hills, and occurred during the early part of the Tertiary period. 
 The resulting material forms the conglomerate between the top of No. 
 5 Cretaceous and the base of the Miocene or White River Tertiary. 
 Only on the Cheyenne, between the mouths of Rapid and Spring 
 Creeks, where this conglomerate, about six feet in thickness, caps hills 
 of Cretaceous shales 500 feet in height, can the result of this erosion be 
 identified. There the conglomerate is made up of small bowlders, 
 round and water-worn, of granite, trachyte, slate, quartaite, and 
 .quartz, in all the varieties in which it is now found in the Black Hills, 
 together with chert nodules from the Carbouiferons lime&tonej and 
 fragments of hard quartzite from the Cretaceous. 
 
. RESOURCES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 55 
 
 The third erosion occurred during the Glacial or Drift period, when 
 thin beds of gravel, with occasional large bowlders, were strewn over 
 the surface of the plains for a distance of fifty miles from the foot-hills, 
 and rest equally on the surface of the different members of the Creta- 
 ceous and cap hills of the White Eiver Tertiary. Some of these travelled 
 bowlders are 2 feet in diameter, and are most abundant on the Chey- 
 enne to the southeast of the Black Hills. They have evidently been 
 transported by the agency of floating ice. Any current of water suffi- 
 ciently powerful to carry bowlders of this size and weight would entirely 
 remove and sweep away the soft clay shales on which they rest. There 
 was no evidence found that during the Quaternary period any extensive 
 glaciers occurred in the Black Hills. Even the tops of the highest 
 peaks showed no glacial scratches where the hardness of the rocks 
 would insure their preservation. A few large bowlders of granite, 8 to 
 10 feet in diameter, were observed perched on the tops of rocky benches 
 at the bends of the small streams flowing southeast from Harney's Peak. 
 They resemble those referred to glacial action in the Eastern States, 
 but were possibly only the result of a peculiar weathering of the granite. 
 
 While there is little evidence of the presence of extensive glaciers in 
 the Black Hills, the occurrence of large quantities of ice and snow in 
 this elevated region during the Glacial period, with the necessary ac- 
 companiment of increased rain-fall and river action, have probably been 
 the agents which have caused this immense denudation of the sedi- 
 mentary strata. And it seems almost necessary to assume the occur- 
 rence of an extensive lake surrounding the Hills during the Quaternary 
 period, when the bowlders resulting from the erosion were transported 
 by the agency of the floating ice to the places where they are now found. 
 
 The whole area of the gold-field in the Black Hills was, at the time of 
 the upheaval of the range, covered by the Potsdam and subsequent for- 
 mations. It is probable that the Potsdam conglomerate, formed by the 
 primary erosion of the metamorphic rocks and their inclosed auriferous 
 quartz ledges, contains considerable quantities of gold, and, by the dis- 
 integration and denudation of this conglomerate since the elevation of 
 the Hills, the gold which it contained has been set free and concentrated 
 anew in the placer gravels. This may in part account for the richness 
 of some of the older and more elevated gravel deposits along the val- 
 leys of the present streams. 
 
 The fourth erosion in the Black Hills has taken place in compara- 
 tively recent times— since the Glacial period— and is still in progress, 
 modifying the effects of the previous denudation, and often removing 
 and redepositing the gravel-beds resulting from them. 
 
 This last erosion is solely the work of time, frost, rain-fall, and river 
 action, as they occur at the present time, all working extremely slowly, 
 but gradually wearing down the rocks, deepening the valleys and 
 canons of the streams ; and by working over the older auriferous grav- 
 els, increasing the richness of the bars and fiats along the present beds 
 of the streams. But the amount of gold swept into the valleys by the 
 present forces and rain-fall must be inappreciable, compared with that 
 resulting from the enormous tearing down of metamorphic rocks and 
 quartz ledges by the previous erosions. The placer miners have a say- 
 ing that "Gold does not go down stream at the present day," else we 
 would look for it in beaver dams and other similar places. Though it 
 is true that fine gold will sluice through a canon over bare bed-rock, 
 and be deposited in the bars below the mouth, it being only a question 
 of time how long a particle of gold is making the journey, no matter 
 Low many times it may be caught on bed-rock, only to be liberated by 
 
56 EESOUKCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 the wearing away of the rock or by freshets. Some of the richest 
 placers found in the hills the past season were thus situated below the 
 mouths of the canons of the streams, where the valleys widened out, 
 allowing permanent gravel deposits to form, retaining the gold. 
 
 In conclusion, in reviewing the gold placers of the Black Hills, it 
 should be noted that at best the gold-field has been but partly pros- 
 pected, and that it is extremely difficult to predict, even approximately, 
 the value of any particular gulch or district until the gravel deposits 
 have been completely opened and nearly worked out. 
 
 The causes and circumstances which have influenced the concentra- 
 tion of the gold in the placer-gravels are but little understood, and 
 erosion has often removed entirely the ledges which were the source of 
 supply of the gold now found in the gulches. 
 
 The deposits of auriferous gravel in the Black Hills may generally 
 be said to be favorably situated for working, and that the gold can be 
 very cheaply extracted, with the expenditure of but comparatively little 
 time or capital in opening the deposits. 
 
 Oomi)ared with some of the world-renowned districts in California 
 and Australia, the placers at present discovered are not remarkably 
 rich, yet there are claims already opened and worked which are yield- 
 ing a very good return for the labor employed. 
 
 At Cheyenne, the railroad is not more than two hundred and fifty 
 miles from the gold-fields; the roads over which machinery and supplies 
 are transported are excellent, the grades usually easy and the drives 
 not long between water. 
 
 The climate of the Black Hills is wonderfully healthy and invigora- 
 ting ; wood, water, and grass are everywhere abundant and of the best 
 quality. 
 
 There is gold enough to thoroughly settle and develop the country, 
 and, after the placers are exhausted, stock-raising will be the great 
 business of the inhabitants, who have a world of wealth in the splendid 
 grazing of this region. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CLiMA-TE A.j>m :ra.in-wa.jl,tl,. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 It is extremely difficult, in fact almost impossible, to determinedeflnitely 
 the climate of the Black Hills from observations extending over a portion 
 of a single year, especially as we were conynaally changing our location 
 and altitude during the progress of the exploration, never being in- any 
 place more than a few weeks; but I have tried to give the facts as I ob- 
 served them with all the possible collateral evidence based on the growth 
 of plants, and trees, and the experience of previous explorers in this 
 region. Naturally many obvious contradictions will be noticed, which 
 I have in some cases tried to reconcile. In most instances I have 
 given simply all the information that was collected concerning the cli- 
 mate and rain-fall of the Hills, that others, who have had greater and 
 more extended experience than myself in the western country, might di- 
 gest my data and judge for themselves, should they not feel inclined to 
 concur with my deductions. 
 
 During the growing season, heavy dews were of regular occurrence at 
 night, especially in the low bottom-lands along the streams, where the 
 grass in the morning would be as wet as if it had rained hard for an 
 hour. By experience we found it best to locate our camps on some slight 
 elevation above the flats of the valley, to obviate the annoyance of hav- 
 ing tents and camp-equipage saturated with dew on breaking camp early 
 in the morning. 
 
 It is doubtful if there is a heavy snow-fall in the Black Hills. The 
 miners who remained in the Hills during the winter of 1874-'75 report 
 that there was never more than six inches of snow on the ground until 
 April, when a heavy fall occurred at the time they were removed by Oapt. 
 John Mix. 
 
 In a few localities in the interior of the Hills I saw small trees which 
 had been bent down by snow-drifts, but the streams showed no traces of 
 freshets caiUsed by snow melting in the spring. There was no drift-wood 
 along their banks, and the bridges built by General Ouster the previous 
 summer were still in place, which a rise of a few inches would have swept 
 away. The snow must be sometimes deep enough to hide trails and land- 
 marks, as the main Indian trails leading through the Hills were marked 
 by stones placed in the forks of the trees or by one or more sets of blazes, 
 the oldest almost overgrown by the bark. 
 
 No hail-storms occurred in the Hills the past summer which caused 
 any injury to vegetation. Often during thunder-storms it would hail 
 for a few minutes, owing to some sudden change of temperature in the 
 storm. The central portion gf the Hills is elevated from 2,000 to 3,000 
 feet above the foot-hills, or an altitude of 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the 
 sea, and necessarily the weather is sensibly cooler. The thermometer 
 seldom stands above 85° Fahrenheit in the shade. In this elevated re- 
 gion thin ice formed occasionally at night in open dishes of water left 
 exposed to the sky even in midsummer, and after September 1 thin ice 
 formed nearly every night in still pools. This low temperature occurred 
 just before daylight and was of short duration. It was owing to the 
 
58 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 great radiation and evaporation due to the rarity of the air, and the 
 clearness of the sky causing no corresponding reflection of heat back to 
 the earth. It seemed to have no bad effect on vegetation, which flour- 
 ishes bright and green until about September 8, when the first frosts 
 began to change the color of the leaves of the plants. 
 
 The growing season in this elevated region is necessarily but a few- 
 months. June 10 the aspen trees at the head of Floral Valley, at an alti- 
 tude of 6,600 feet, were just bursting into leaf, the grass was green but 
 quite short, and by September 8 the plants in this same valley were col- 
 ored by the frost, and vegetation, except the evergreens and grass, had 
 ceased to grow. ■ 
 
 From the equable temperature and pure air, the climate was found to 
 be remarkably healthy. Scarcely any one was sick in the whole com- 
 mand during the time we remained in the Hills. 
 
 The temperature of many springs of water issuing from the Carbon- 
 iferous limestone and the granite and metamorphic rocks in the central 
 and elevated portion of the Hills was found to average 42° Fahrenheit, 
 even in midsummer. The springs bursting out among the foot-hills at 
 the edge of the plains were not tested with a thermometer, but appar- 
 ently the water was not as cold by several degrees. 
 
 Gol. Richard I. Dodge, commanding the escort of the expedition, a 
 close observer of nature, publishes the following article on the climate 
 of the Black Hills, which is so excellent that I take pleasure in quoting 
 it entire : 
 
 The climate is sufficiently varied to suit the tastes of almost any person or class. 
 We have no knowledge of the winter climate, except from the reports of the miners 
 who built the stockade and passed several months of last winter on French Creek. 
 These unite in commendation. The winter was cold, but clear ; the temperature 
 remarkably equable. There were no storms of any disagreeable magnitude, and the 
 first serions snow-storm occurred just before they were brought out, in March. 
 
 It is hardly fair to judge, even of spring and summer climate, by the experiences of 
 a single year, more especially since we were almost continually moving, changing not 
 only our position but our altitude. If, however, the experiences gained under such 
 circumstances are to be regarded even as approximate tests, I can pronounce the cli- 
 mate of the Black Hills well-nigh perfect. Scarcely a day was too hot ; scarcely a 
 night so damp or cold that we could not sit out and enjoy ourselves around the camp- 
 fire. 
 
 There is no such thing as a hot night. Though extremely susceptible to hea,t, I 
 slept not a single night in the Hills under less than the equivalent of two blankets, 
 and many times, even in midsummer, I required more. 
 
 I have already mentioned that on the 10th day of June we encountered, in the ele- 
 vated gorge named by Custer "Floral Valley," a sharp snow-storm, alternating With 
 sleet and rain. This valley is more than 6,000 feet above tide-water. On French 
 Creek, at an elevation of 5,800 feet, we had a severe, killing frost on the night of the 
 10th of August. There is abundant evidence that the season, in these very high alti- 
 tudes, is too short for an agricultural country. 
 
 For five weeks, from 14th June to July 20, Camp Harney, on French Creek, was the 
 center of operations of our exploring and surveying parties. We had, therefore, a 
 much better knowledge of its climate thaa of any other portion of the Hills, It is 
 5,620 feet above tide-water. The climate is superb. Though it sometimes felt hot by 
 day and damp and cold by night, the thermometer was never above 78° nor below 54°. 
 A series of observations (not so regular as might be wished) gave a mean temperature 
 of 62° and a daily variation of 14°. A few similar observations at Camp Crook, on 
 Rapid Creek, in the latter part of July, resulted in a mean temperature of 64°, with a 
 daily variation of 20°. On the 24th of July, on Rapid Creek, a severe hail-storm sent 
 the mercury from 84° to 62°, 32°, in half an hour. Camp Crook is at least a thousand 
 feet lower in altitude than Camp Harney.* 
 
 The past winter of 1875-76 has been unusually mild all through 
 the Iforthern and Western States, and reports from the miners in the 
 
 * The Black Hills, by Richard Irving Dodge, Lieutenant-Colonel United States 
 Army. New York ; James Miller, publisher, 647 Broadway, 1876. 
 
RESOUECES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 59 
 
 Black Hills speak in glowing terms of the delightful weather they have 
 experienced ; very little snow having fallen before February, the grass 
 being green at the roots, and the stock, when not overworked, keeping 
 fat and m good condition. The winter of 1874-'75 was correspondingly 
 extremely severe ; yet the Sioux City party of miners who built the stock- 
 ade and cabins on French Creek, in December and January, report that 
 the cold was not intense, and that their cattle kept fat on the grass in 
 the vicinity, where the altitude is 5,600 feet above the sea. 
 
 The Black Hills, with their copious rain-fall, rise like a high wooded 
 island from an ocean of grass-covered and treeless plains, watered by 
 occasional and scanty rains. The rain-fall on the plains, far from yield- 
 ing a constant and uniform supply oi moisture, unfortunately is very 
 uncertain and irregular, both in quantity and occurrence, and sometimes 
 falls so far below the average that the grass almost perishes from the 
 dvought. 
 
 This arid character of the plains is not peculiar to the region imme- 
 diately about the Black Hills, but is equally true in a general way for 
 this whole belt of elevated plains, nearly five hundred miles in width, 
 extending along the eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains from Mexico 
 to the British Possessions. And the reason for the treeless character 
 of this immense tract of country is to be sought in its location with 
 respect to the adjacent ranges of the Eocky Mountains, and to the 
 oceans on both sides of the continent. 
 
 From the north the winds, coming from the colder regions in the 
 British Possessions, bring with them scarcely any moisture; while from 
 the south, the direction of the prevailing winds and the character of the 
 country is such that any supplies of rain from that direction are cut off. 
 The winds which sweep over the Pacific Ocean are chilled by contact 
 with the elevated ridges and snow-clad peaks of the Eocky Mountains, and 
 precipitate the moisture which they contain as rain or snow. Passing on, 
 these winds descend on the heated surface of the level plains, where, in 
 summer, the temperature is often as high as 100° Fahrenheit in the shade. 
 Becoming heated and rarified, they sweep eastward to the Missouri, 
 having their capacity for holding moisture greatly increased, and no 
 ordinary change of temperature will cause these winds to part with the 
 little moisture which they possess. Thus it will be seen that, practi- 
 cally, these plains have to depend for their rain-fall on the supply of 
 moisture derived from easterly winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean 
 and the Gulf of Mexico. These winds, in passing over the AUeghanies 
 and the Mississippi Valley, have been subjected to innumerable changes 
 of temperature, and robbed of the greater portion of the moisture they 
 originally contained, to the serious detriment of this immense belt of 
 country. As would be expected from the above, it was noticed the past 
 season in the Black Hills that the rain-storms of long duration were 
 preceded by, or occurred during, the prevalence of easterly winds, 
 which were chilled by contact with the colder and more elevated por- 
 tion of the Hills, precipitating the moisture which they carried. 
 
 While encamped on Eapid Creek, near the edge of the plains on the 
 eastern slope of the Hills, I had an excellent opportunity to observe the 
 formation and condensation of rain-clouds during the succession of 
 rainy days in July. The wind was blowing gently from the east and 
 southeast. Out on the level plains it scarcely rained at all, though 
 dense banks of clouds hung over them, and detached masses of mist 
 and fog were sweeping low over the more elevated foot-hills. The clouds 
 would form over the plains and, drifting on to the Hills, conceal from 
 view the highest peaks and ridges, chill, settle down to the level of the 
 
60 RESOUfiCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 valleys, and immediately rain until the excess of moisture was precipi- 
 tated ; then rise and drift away, when a short interval would occur 
 before the clouds would again sweep in and produce a shower. 
 
 On examining the accompanying maps of the Black Hills, it will be 
 seen that nearly all the streams rise in the central or western portion 
 and flow east, the slope of the country being in that direction. I think 
 that this eastern slope of the Hills has a greater rain-fall than the western, 
 judging from the growth of plants and trees, a fact which would coin- 
 cide with the theory that the rain.producing winds came from the east 
 and precipitated their moisture on that slope. 
 
 But the showers of rain and the thunder-storms which we so frequently 
 experienced seemed to be independent of the easterly winds as a source 
 of their moisture, and to be local in their origin and occurrence. Generally 
 of short duration, they came usually from the west and passed rapidly 
 by, raining hard for ten to twenty minutes, and leaving the grass and 
 trees dripping with moisture and refreshed by their passage. 
 
 The winds which blow on the Hills from any direction pass over the 
 plains for a great distance, and, gathering some moisture, part 'with it 
 on being chilled by contact with the cold and elevated peaks in the 
 interior. Thus the Black Hills may be said to have a local and limited 
 rain-fall not directly dependent on the easterly winds, which, neverthe- 
 less, furnish the greater supply of moisture. 
 
 The rain-fall experienced in the Hills during the progress of the sur- 
 vey, was very remarkable for the frequency and regularity of the show- 
 ers and their short duration. It was varied by the occurrence of occa- 
 sional long steady r&ins and damp, drizzly, or foggy days. From June 
 1 to August 1 it rained more or less, at least twenty days in the month. 
 Usually. the sky would be overcast by clouds about 3 or 4 o'clock in the 
 afternoon. A smart shower, lasting from a quarter to half an hour, 
 would rapidly pass by from the west and the sun would shine again and 
 quickly dry up the ground. On one occasion I experienced, near Har- 
 ney's Peak, four distinct showers accompanied by thunder and lightning 
 in a single day, which was otherwise warm and pleasant, the sun shin- 
 ing brightly except when it was raining. It was not unusual to have a 
 shower during the day followed by another after midnight. After 
 August 1 the showers were not so numerous and the rain-fall was appre- 
 ciably less, although several rainy days occurred in both August and 
 September. 
 
 lieferring to my note-book, I find the following record of the rain-fall 
 observed while prospecting on Rapid and Spring Creeks : 
 
 June 26, rained steadily all the afternoon. 
 
 June 27, a shower in the afternoon. 
 
 June 28 and 29, no rain where we were camped. 
 
 June 30, rained steadily all day, preventing any work being done. 
 
 July 1, two showers during the day. 
 
 July 2, 3, did not rain. 
 
 July 4, rained hard all day. 
 
 July 5, rained hard for half an hour in the afternoon. 
 
 July 6, showers all around on the Hills, but did not rain where we 
 were. 
 
 July 7, 8, no rain 
 
 July 9, 1(1, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, one or more showers each day, usually 
 after 2 p. m. 
 
 From the above it will be seen that it rained fifteen days out of 
 twenty-two. Eeferring to the published reports of the expedition to 
 the Black Hills under command of Gen. G. A. Ouster, in 1874, I find 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS, 61 
 
 that Colonel Ludlow mentions this fact of the frequent occurrence of 
 showers m the afternoon, under date of July 27, while encamped on the 
 head Castle Creek, a branch of Eapid. 
 
 This portion of the Black Hills never suffers from drought. No arid places are seen 
 except on the summits of the limestone ledges. Springs are numerous, and very cold 
 and pure. The soil is everywhere moist, and vegetation marvelously luxuriant and 
 
 with astronomical observations. (Report oi»a reconnaissance' of the Black Hills of 
 Dakota, made in the summer of 1874, hy William Ludlow, captain of engineers, &o., 
 page 13.) & ) » 
 
 Gen. G. A. Custer and Major Forsyth also mention, in their reports 
 of the expedition, the refreshing showers of rain which were fre- 
 quently encountered, and also the thick fogs, prolonged rains, and 
 severe thunder-storms experienced while in the Hills. That this 
 remarkable rain-fall, which was observed throughout the Black Hills 
 during the progress of the exploration, was not the exhibition of a 
 peculiarly wet season, I can only judge frpm the evidence given above 
 by previous explorers during the preceding year, and by such obser- 
 vations as I was enabled to make on the growth of plants and trees. In 
 many places I noticed plants whose habits of growth I was well acquainted 
 with, which require a considerable and regular supply of moisture for 
 their maintenance, growing on dry, rocky hill-sides exposed to parching 
 winds and the heat of the sun, and flourishing and producing flowers 
 and seed in perfection. Qn the tops of the mountains, near Harney's 
 and Custer's Peaks, far above the level of any springs of water, I found 
 patches of wild raspberries growing so thickly that the ground was 
 covered with them. The bearing-canes, which are of a previous year's 
 growth, were of full size and loaded with fruit, showing that the previ- 
 ous season had been equally favorable to their development. All along 
 the eastern slope of the Hills burr-oak and elm trees, which require an 
 abundance of moisture to sustain their growth, attain at least a medium 
 size, and are found not only along the banks of the running streams, 
 but growing in small grooves on the hill-sides and in the swales and 
 valleys. On examining the pine timber in different parts of the Hills 1 
 found that the annual rings of growth were uniform in width. The 
 coarseness of the grain of the timber, its softness, and the regular ap- 
 pearance of the full-grown trees, all indicate, independent of the species 
 . of tree, a uniform yearly growth, and consequently a regular rain-fall. 
 From these evidences I think I may safely draw the conclusion that 
 the season of 1875 in the Black Hills, which I witnessed, was not an un- 
 usually wet one, although the rain-fall may have been somewhat above 
 the average. The average amount of rain for the plains surrounding 
 the Black Hills does not, probably, exceed 15 inches for the whole year. 
 To the north, in the valley of the Upper Missouri, it is about 12 inches. 
 
 From the nature of the work the past season, it was impracticable to 
 definitely determine the amount of rain-fall ; but the presence of trees in- 
 dicates conclusively that it must be at least 25 inches, and not fall much 
 below that amount for more than a single successive season, or many of 
 the trees would perish . from want of moisture. The following tables, 
 giving the rain-fall in inches for the nearest localities to the Black Hills 
 where observations have been made, are from the Smithsonian tables 
 and the records of the Signal-Service of the United States Army : 
 
62 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Mean amount of precipitation of moisture, as rain and melted snow, for each month in the 
 
 year. 
 
 Name of station. 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Mar. 
 
 Apr, 
 
 May. 
 
 .luoe. 
 
 Jaly- 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 Fort Eandall, Dak 
 
 Fort Pierre, Dak 
 
 0.49 
 0.50 
 0.52 
 0.61 
 
 0.42 
 1.18 
 0.66 
 0.46 
 
 0.99 
 0.46 
 1.03 
 
 0.84 
 
 1.10 
 1.63 
 1.82 
 1.06 
 
 2.67 
 2.19 
 1.82 
 3.74 
 
 2.30 
 0.48 
 2.18 
 1.90 
 
 1.76 
 1.18 
 3.01 
 1.63 
 
 2.56 
 1.66 
 2.30 
 1.37 
 
 2.43 
 
 1.29 
 1.07 
 1.17 
 
 1.09 
 1.08 
 1.30 
 0.97 
 
 0.41 
 1.39 
 0.99 
 0.84 
 
 0.30 
 0.47 
 
 Fort Abercrombie, Dais . . 
 Fort Laramie, Wyo 
 
 0.64 
 0.57 
 
 Mean amount of precipitation of moisture, as rain and melted snow, for the season and the 
 
 whole year. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 
 Tear. 
 
 Extent of 
 series. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name of station. 
 
 Tears. 
 
 No. 
 
 Beginning. 
 
 End. 
 
 
 4.76 
 4.28 
 4.67 
 5.64 
 3.11 
 
 6.64 
 3.33 
 7.49 
 4.90 
 5.56 
 6.49 
 
 3.90 
 3.76 
 3.36 
 2.98 
 1.98 
 
 1.21 
 2.1.') 
 
 1.82 
 1.64 
 0.37 
 
 16.51 
 13.51 
 17 34 
 15.16 
 10.02 
 11.75 
 
 8 
 1 
 6 
 
 12 
 4 
 8 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 4 
 
 
 1857 
 1855 
 1860 
 1849 
 1871 
 1867 
 
 1867 
 
 Fort Pierre Dak 
 
 1857 
 
 
 1867 
 
 
 1864 
 
 
 1875 
 
 FortBuford Dak 
 
 1874 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 It will be noticed, from a comparison of the above tables, that the 
 rain-fall for the whole Upper Missouri region follows the same general 
 law, being greatest in the spring and summer months, from May to Sep- 
 tember, and last in autumn and winter, coinciding with the observations 
 made in the Black Hills the past season. The season of 1875 was re- 
 markably wet generally throughout the United States. At Cheyenne 
 and North Platte on the Union Pacific, 220 miles south of the Black 
 Hills, the rain- fall was not above the average, but at Yankton and Bis- 
 marck, Dakota, situated nearly an equal distance north and east, it was 
 unusually great, as is shown in the following table, compiled from 
 the records of the Signal- Service United States Army: 
 
 Name of station. 
 
 D 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 P< 
 •A 
 
 
 a 
 
 1-5 
 
 >> 
 s 
 
 < 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 s 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 % 
 B 
 
 1 
 
 
 Cheyenne, "Wyo 
 
 0.42 
 1.07 
 1.05 
 0.24 
 
 0.06 
 1.51 
 1.32 
 0.26 
 
 0.23 
 1.79 
 2.06 
 0.40 
 
 0.50 
 5.26 
 4.22 
 6.21 
 
 1.20 
 2.04 
 3.40 
 1.69 
 
 0.29 
 9.21 
 5.02 
 1.62 
 
 4.47 
 5.53 
 1.53 
 2.12 
 
 2,12 
 4.95 
 2.89 
 0.66 
 
 1.34 
 5.33 
 1.85 
 1.40 
 
 0.60 
 0.14 
 2.37 
 0. U 
 
 0.84 
 0.12 
 1.33 
 0.52 
 
 12.07 
 36.95 
 27.04 
 15.26 
 
 
 North Platte, Nebr 
 
 Severe thunder-storms prevail in the Black Hills during the summer 
 months. The clouds, instead of floating high in the air, sweep low over 
 the elevated ridges, and the lightqing is consequently peculiarly liable 
 to strike the ground rather than to pass from one portion of the cloud 
 to another and harmlessly expend its force. This causes some damage 
 to the timber of the region. Often, in riding through the Hills, trees 
 showing unmistakable marks of lightning would be seen, generally with 
 the top shattered and a strip of bark about an inch wide torn out in a 
 straight or spiral line from the top of the tree to the ground. Some- 
 times, however, only the splintered stump of what had once been a large 
 tree remained, while the ground all around was strewed with fragments 
 of the trunk, branches, and limbs. 
 
' RESOUECES OP THE BLACK HILLS. 63 
 
 It would seem that the pines growing in certain portions of the Hills 
 were peculiarly liable, for some unknown reason, to be struck by light- 
 ning. On a hill, near the headwaters of Spring Creek, I counted twelve 
 trees, growing on about two acres of ground, that were marked by light- 
 ning, and in a small park near by, among about one hundfed trees, four- 
 teen had been struck in previous years, some of them more than once. 
 The most severe thunder-storms came from the west and traveled in an 
 ea-sterly or southeasterly course, the storm commencing with gusts of 
 wind from the west, shifting to the north and northeast in the height of 
 the tempest, and finally, as the storm passed by, blowing from the east 
 or southeast. 
 
 A most terrific thunderstorm was encountered by myself and a small 
 party of miners while camped on Box Elder, August 7. The day had 
 been pleasant but somewhat warmer than usual. About 3 o'clock in 
 the afternoon a dense black cloud, extending like a wall across the val- 
 ley, and rapidly advancing from the west, warned us of the approach- 
 ing storm. Hardly had we completed our preparations to protect our- 
 selves and provisions from the rain, when, preceded by violent gusts 
 of wind that nearly prostrated every tent, the storm burst upon us. The 
 rain, impelled by the violence of the wind, descended almost horizon- 
 tally, and beat in torrents against the sides of the tents for about five 
 minutes. Then, suddenly the wind shifted to the north, and came in 
 sudden squalls of cold, piercing wind, chilling us through in a moment, 
 and changing the rain instantly to hail, which was piled in winrows 
 against every projection on the ground. Quickly veering back again to 
 the west, the rain came, mixed with hail, driving before the blast. And 
 then the storm raged with all its fury ; flash after flash of chain-light- 
 ning followed in quick succession, extending vertically from the low, 
 overhanging cloud to the ground, and striking at nearly every discharge 
 among the trees on the surrounding hills. The Uhunder was incessant, 
 and the crashing, increased by the reverberations from the surrounding 
 rocky cliff's, was so continuous that it could not be referred to any par- 
 ticular flash. The wind shifted nearly all around the compass in the 
 direction of the motion of the hands of a watch. The storm passed by 
 in half an hour, the last rain coming from the southea.st. The sun shone 
 brightly once more, while to the east, down the valley, the cloud could 
 be seenhiding everything from view, but illuminated every moment by 
 flashes of lightning extending to the ground. On examining several 
 dishes which had been left out in the rain, I found that in about twenty 
 to thirty minutes an inch of water had fallen. One of the miners came 
 into camp shortly afterward and reported that he had been caught out 
 on the top of a neighboring hill during the storm, and that two trees 
 near him were struck by lightning and thrown to the ground in 
 fragments. The Indians are said to desert the Hills in the summer on 
 account of the lightning, and I can easily understand that a band of 
 superstitit)U8 Indians, after experiencing such a storm, especially if any 
 of their number were injured by the lightning, would forever forsake 
 the locality. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ]SrA.T"D"E.A.L RESOTTRCKS Oin THE BLJ5>.CK HILTjS. 
 
 SEOTIOlJf I. • 
 
 WATER. 
 
 To a settler in a new country no question is of greater importance 
 than the purity and abundance of the supply of water; and in this re- 
 spect the Black Hills are unequaled by any region in the "Great West." 
 
 A glance at the map shows,' by the innumerable branches of the creeks 
 and the intricate nature of the topography, that it is an extremely well- 
 watered country. Springs are found in almost every ravine. Nearly 
 all the small head-branches of the creeks are running brooks of pure 
 water ; and streams of considerable size, and but a few miles apart, 
 drain this region, affording a constant and regular supply of water for 
 both stock-raising and mining purposes. 
 
 The creeks which drain the gold-field rise in numerous small springs, 
 issuing from the granite and metamorphic rocks, and the water is con- 
 sequently remarkably pure and free from mineral or organic matter. 
 Those branches which head in the great Carboniferous limestone, 
 yield water suitable for most domestic purposes, the only drawback 
 being a slight •' hardness " due the presence of carbonate of lime, which 
 does not in the least affeetthe health of those using it. 
 
 Only among the foot-hills, where the gypsum of the Red Beds or the 
 " alkali " derived from the Jurassic and Cretaceous shales has contami- 
 nated the streams draining these formations, is the water found to be 
 unfit for cooking purposes, and possessing purgative properties. Else- 
 where throughout the whole area of the Black Hills included within 
 the timber-line at the. edge of the surrounding plains the water both of 
 the springs and running streams is clear, cold, delicious to the taste, 
 and extremely healthy. Early in June the temperature of the springs 
 at the head of the Floral Valley was found to be 39° P., the elevation 
 being 6,600 feet above the sea. In midsummer the water of a number 
 of springs in the interior of the Hills was tested with an accurate ther- 
 mometer, and found to vary between 43° and 44° F. After August 1, 
 the past summer, the volume of all the streams in the Black Hills was 
 somewhat diminished by the partial cessation of the heavy rains, but 
 none of the creeks stopped running, except that portion of French 
 Creek above the Stockade, where the springs supplying the water are 
 small and the grade very slight. From the character of the geological 
 formations outcropping in the foot-hills and along the edge of the 
 plains, all the streams rising in the Black Hills sink in their beds and 
 disappear before passing through the belt of Carboniferous limestone, 
 with the exception of Rapid Creels, which flows into the Cheyenne, and 
 Spearflsh and Redwater, which empty into the Belle Fourche. Large 
 springs of good cold water burst out from under the Triassic Limestone 
 in the Red Beds at intervals along the inner rim of the broad Red Val- 
 ley encircling the Black FTills. These springs will be very valuable 
 to the future stock-raisers in this region, affording watering-places for 
 the stock grazing in"the open plains or among the foot-hills. 
 
 Spearfish and Redwater pour united a large volume of excellent 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK JIILLS. 65 
 
 ^ater iuto the Belle Fourche, but the shales of the Cretaceous forma- 
 tiou through which the river flows soon contaminate the water with 
 alkali, giving it a slightly unpleasant taste, and causing it the past 
 autumn to seriously affect the health of the escort. Probably at other 
 seasons the water of the Belle Fourche deserves its name and reputation, 
 but at the time we were camped on its banks (September 20) the stream 
 was comparatively low and the water contained its maximum of impuri- 
 ties. The South Fork of the Cheyenne is like most of the rivers in the 
 plains, shallow, with a moderate current flowing through a broad, level 
 bottom, yet subject to sudden rises in spring and early summer. In 
 places it cannot be forded on account of quicksands, even when the 
 river is so low that the water is but a few inches deep. 
 
 The water of the Cheyenne is full of suspended mud, and contains 
 traces of alkali derived from clays along its banks. 
 
 SOIL. 
 
 There is no better way to judge of the fertility of the soil of a new 
 and unsettled region, where the rain-fall is abundant, than to examine 
 the growth and character of the vegetation which it supports. 
 
 The Black Hills are an oasis of verdure among the open and level 
 plains. A luxuriant growth of grass spreads over the whole region ; 
 even on the rocky hillsides grass is found growing in the crevices in the 
 rocks wherever there is a particle of soil for its support. A heavy 
 forest covers the greater portion of this area, the trees growing thickly 
 together and attaining full size, not only on the rich bottom-lands of 
 the valleys but on the tops of the level limestone " mesas ;" and the steep 
 rocky ridges are clothed with pine of good size to their very crests. The 
 «oil on the main divides and ridges is not so deep as it is in the parks 
 and valleys which have received the wash from the neighboring hill- 
 sides, and these elevated tracts, being most valuable for grazing pur- 
 poses, will not be used for cultivation. 
 
 Even a casual examination shows that the soil of the valleys, the 
 broad swales of tbe parks, and the bottom-lands along the creeks is ex- 
 ceedingly rich and deep, being a dark-colored loam, resulting from the 
 decomposition of the granite, limestone, and schistose rocks occupying 
 the central area ot the Hills. Often in sinking prospecting-pits along 
 the valleys in search of gold, the soil would be found to be a black peaty 
 loam from 2 to 3 feet in thickness, and frequently in the bottom-lands 
 the soil was 4 feet in depth, resting on a gravelly subsoil. 
 
 In the parks and along the elevated limestone divide, near Crook's 
 Tower, are numerous swales of rich grass-land between the low hills 
 and ridges. The soil is deep and fertile, supporting a rank growth of 
 herbaceous plants, but owing to the elevation above the sea and the short 
 growing season of not more than three months, the value of these tracts 
 for cultivation has yet to be proved by experiment. In the valleys of 
 Spring and Eapid Creeks are extensive bottom-lands, which would be 
 excellent for farming purposes, did not the underlying gravel contain 
 gold in quantities sufftcient to cause it to be mined out in the next few 
 years to the ruin or serious detriment of the land. 
 
 The whole valley of Eapid Creek, a mile and a half wide, from the 
 foot-hills to the Cheyenne, a distance of 45 miles, is susceptible of 
 irrigation from the stream, which carries at least 3,000 miner's inches 
 of water in midsummer. The soil of this valley is deep and fertile, 
 •except near the Cheyenne, among the clay shales of the Cretaceous, 
 ■where the presence of alkali makes the grass thin and poor. 
 S. Ex. 51 5 
 
66 EESOUECES 0:f THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 There are extensive tracts of good farming-lands on the Eedwater and 
 Spearflsh, near where they unite to form the Deep Water, a branch of the 
 Belle Pourche. Colonel Dodge, the commander of the escort, regarded 
 this locality as admirably suited for a military post. 
 
 The soil of the upper valley of the Belle Fourche, from Bear Lodge 
 Butte to the point where it suddenly bends to the southeast, is reported 
 by the topographical party to be excellent, and that broad flats of 
 grass-land skirt its banks for miles. The valley of this stream, below 
 where it is joined by the Deep Water, is injured by the prevalence of 
 black Cretaceous clays and the usual accompaniment of alkali. 
 
 The South Fork of the Cheyenne has a broad, level bottom, but gen- 
 erally so little elevated above the water in the stream as to be liable to 
 inundate from floods. In places, however, some very good land is to be 
 found in extensive flats along that stream. Were the Black Hills as 
 densely populated as the State of New Hampshire or Vermont, which 
 they resemble in the character of the vegetation and climate, a very 
 considerable proportion of the area would be subjected to cultivation. But 
 the amount of arable land, or rather land that will in the next quar- 
 ter of a century be cultivated in this region, is small, compared with 
 the whole area of fully six thousand square miles embraced in the Black 
 Hills. There is good land etiough in the bottoms of the streams, suita- 
 ble for cultivation, to amply support the population, which will remain 
 in the hills after the present excitement shall have subsided, and stock- 
 raising become an established occupation. 
 
 Including the bottom-lands of the Cheyenne and the Belle Fourche, 
 and the arable land along the valleys of the streams issuing from the 
 Black Hills, I estimate that not less than one-twentieth of the whole 
 area is susceptible of cultivation, the remainder being covered by forest 
 or forming stock-ranges of the finest description. 
 
 WILD PRUITS. 
 
 The fruits found growing wild in the Black Hills are an evidence of 
 the adaptability of the country for raising the more valuable cultivated 
 varieties, and hence I propose to consider the wild fruits which were 
 found in this region much more in detail than they would otherwise 
 deserve. The most useful is the red raspberry, which was found in large 
 patches in the vicinity of Terry's Peak, at an elevation of 6,500 feet above 
 the sea. The plant is rather dwarf iu size, the bearing canes being 
 about 2 feet high, and August 15 were loaded with delicious fruit, re- 
 sembling very closely the cultivated variety " Knevit's Giant" in size, 
 flavor, and productiveness. 
 
 A variety of black gooseberry was abundant on the western side of 
 the hills, near Inyan-kara ; the fruit was of a pleasant acid flavor and of 
 good size, only differing frjm the ordinary western wild gooseberry in 
 being blue-black in color, instead of dark red. 
 
 Several species of currants, including the black, red, and fetid va- 
 rieties, were occasionally seen, but are valueless. 
 
 The wild western strawberry grows throughout the Hills. It is a very 
 shy bearer, and the fruit is deficient in flavor. 
 
 The bunch-berry, or cornel. [Cornus canadensis,) was found in the ex- 
 treme northern part of the Hills. I have never seen it elsewhere, except 
 in Maine and Nova Scotia. 
 
 Service-berries {Amelanchier canadensis) were quite plenty on Spring 
 and Kapid Creeks in July. The common wild red plum grows in 
 
EESOUECES OF THE BLACK HI! LS. 67 
 
 patches among the foot-hills, along the bottoms of the ravines. The 
 fruit was ripe about September 20. 
 
 The only variety of grape- noticed was a kind of frost-grane found 
 along the banks of the streams, near the edge of the pSs ^ ' 
 
 Quite extensive patches of the two varieties of hazel-nuts were ob- 
 
 Slh iron woo? '^' > *T ^^^' "^ *^? ^'"^' ^''"^'^'^'^^ with aldeT, wht 
 birch, iron-wood, white elm, burr-oak, sumac, the poison ivy (Rhus toxi- 
 
 Tnd diSiution"^''^'"^" ''"'P'^' ""•' "^°^ '"'''' P^^"'' of 'ifde range 
 Wild flax and wild hops attain a rank and luxuriant growth on the 
 -bottom-lands along the streams, aud the soil and climate seem to be 
 remarkably well suited to the growth of these plants. 
 
 The flora of the Black Hills bears quite a resemblance to that of South- 
 era Maine and New Hampshire in the same latitude, and it is probable 
 that many of the agricultural productions, fruits, aud vegetables which 
 can be grown in perfection there will also succeed in favorable portions 
 ot this region. The luxuriance with which the heavily-seeded grasses 
 known commonly as " wild rye," "cheat," and'"wildWs" grow on 
 the rich bottoms along the eastern slope, would indicate that an equally 
 rank growth of the cultivated cereals and grasses is to be expected. 
 Except at a low elevation among the foot-hills near the edge of the 
 plains, the nights will probably be found too cool for the successful growth 
 of Indian corn, which is a tropical plaut, but oats, rye, barley, and 
 wheat should yield well, and potatoes of the best quality may be pro- 
 duced in the fertile valleys. 
 
 GRAZING. 
 
 The grazing in the Black Hills is most excellent. Nine-tenths of the 
 whole area is covered by a thick growth of the finest wild grasses. It 
 constitutes the great future wealth of this region, and its value can 
 hardly be overestimated. 
 
 Every one who visited the Hills the past season was enthusiastic over 
 the luxuriance of the grass, which in the brightest green spreads over the 
 surface of the parks, hill-sides, and valleys, adding greatly to the beauty 
 of the scenery. 
 
 Cavalry oMcers, herders, scouts, and miners all were united in praise 
 of the grazing. "California Joe" said of the valley of Spring Creek: 
 " There's gold from the grass roots down, but there's more gold from the 
 grass roots Mp." Aud no matter how rich the gold-placers in the Black 
 Hills may prove to be, the great business in this region in the future 
 will be stock-raising aud dairy-farming. 
 
 Owing to the heavy dews at night during the growing season, to the 
 frequent thunder-showers, and the occurrence of occasional long and 
 heavy rains, the grass grows all over the Black Hills wherever it can 
 obtain a particle of soil for its support and a few hours' sunshine dur- 
 ing the day. 
 
 Even in the clefts of the rocks, the sides of the steep ridges, and in 
 the bottoms of the deep canous, grass is found growing, depending on 
 the scanty soil for its sustenance, and the little sanliglit that pierces 
 through the dense branches of the trees or penetrates for a shqrt time 
 ^he depths of the gorge. 
 
 Unlike the grass on the plains, which springs up in May and by July 
 has turned yellow aud cured to a natural hay, the grass in the Black 
 Hills, stimulated by the abundance of moisture, continues growing all 
 
68 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 through the suininer, remaining always fresh and green nntil its growth 
 is checked by the frosts of autumn. 
 
 When the expedition reached the Hills, about June 1, spring was well 
 advanced. The trees on the foot-hills were in full leaf, and the grass 
 had evidently been growing for several weeks. On the top of the 
 Beaver Creek plateau, at au elev-ation of 6,000 feet above the sea, the 
 grass (June 5) was six inches high, and covered the whole surface of the 
 level mesa, growing thickly under the shade of the pine forest, even to 
 the very roots of the trees, giving the region the appearance of a smooth, 
 well-kept lawn, with tall pines rising from the green carpet of grass. 
 
 The grasses in the Black Hills are almost endless in variety, every 
 condition being so extremely favorable to their growth. In the interior 
 of the country the shorter grasses prevail. But among the foot-hills on 
 the rich bottom-lands of Rapid Creek the taller grasses known as "wild 
 rye," "crow's foot," "cheat," and- wild oats attain a luxuriant growth. 
 The "grama," or "burfalo grass," covers the valleys at the edge of the 
 plains to the exclusion of the other varieties. It is considered the most 
 nutritious wild grass in the western country, curing to hay on the 
 ground. But, when growing in an alkaline soil, it seems to rapidly lose 
 its nutritive qualities after the seed ripens. Along the banks of the 
 streams, where the soil is marshy, large patches of the scouring rush 
 are found growing. It forms an excellent food for stock, for which they 
 will desert the finest grasses, and feed upon it until they are full and 
 can eat no more. 
 
 I had previously been engaged in explorations in Western Texas and 
 New Mexico, but I was surprised at the quality of the grazing we found 
 in the Black Hills, which resembled the grass growing in the oak-open- 
 ings in Central Texas, except that it was finer and freer from weeds and 
 the coarser and less nutritious grasses. The escort of the expedition 
 remained camped on French Creek for six weeks, and grazing for nearly 
 one thousand horses and mules and three hundred head of cattle was 
 found during that time within a mile and a half of camp, the grass 
 commencing to grow again as soon as it was eaten off by the stock. 
 J'or the requirements of the population that the Black Hills will sup- 
 port in the next twenty years, enough hay can be procured from the 
 wild grasses ; and should the demand in the future increase, an ample 
 supply can be raised by sowing timothy or other cultivated varieties on 
 the bottom-lands of the valleys. The best localities for hay are in the 
 southeastern part of theHills, onAmphibious, French, Spring, and Rapid 
 Creeks, and in the valley of Rapid, between the foot-hills and the Chey- 
 enne, where the taller grasses are abundant on the moist bottoms of 
 the streams and side valleys. 
 
 On the plains in the valleys of the Cheyenne and the West Fork of 
 Beaver Creek there are localities where sage-brush and "prickly pears" 
 cover the alkaline soil, and grass is only to be found in patches. But 
 generally throughout the area of the Black Hills the grass uniformly 
 covers the land, wherever there is soil for its support and the shade is 
 not too dense for its growth. Except among the Red Beds in the foot- 
 hills, sage-brush is never seen and cactus but rarely met with. 
 
 Over thickly-wooded areas, and in the mountainous and rocky region 
 about parney's Peak, the grass is found only in patches in the few 
 localities favorable for its existence. A similar region, comparatively 
 destitute of grass, occurs in the northern part of the hills between 
 Terry's and Crow Peaks, where the whole surface ot the country is cut 
 into innumerable canons, and a species of ground-ivy, called " kinnikin- 
 nick," a plant probably of the dog-wood family, replaces the grass. 
 
 I estimate the total area of country destitute of grass, or where it 
 
RESOURCES OF THE BLACK UlLLS 69 
 
 only occurs in isolated patches, to be not more than six hundred square 
 miles, or one-tenth the whole area of the Black Hills, the remaining 
 five thousand five hundred square miles constituting some of the best 
 ranges for cattle, horses, and shecB to be found in the whole western 
 country. 
 
 • Cattle frequently perish on the plains in large numbers during the 
 severe winters, not so much from the low temperature or intensity of 
 the cold as from the piercing winds, accompanied by sleet or snow, that 
 sweep with resistless fury over the level and unbroken surface of the 
 ground, chilling the animals more than any ordinary degree of cold 
 could possibly affect them in a more sheltered locality. In the Black 
 Hills the wind may blow a gale over the mountain-tops and exposed 
 ridges, but in the valleys the air will be comparatively at rest, the 
 timber covering the hill-sides and ridges materially contributing 
 toward making the valleys warm and sheltered. This will be of great 
 advantage to the stock which may be wintered in the Hills, shelter being 
 found everywhere from sudden or severe storms. The grass exposed on 
 the hill-sides by the snow blowing away or melting, as well as the green 
 twigs of the bushes and trees, will afford subsistence for thecattle during 
 any heavy fall of snow. _ . 
 
 The miners who have passed the winters of 1874-'75 and 1875-'76 m 
 the Black Hills, report that the grass remained green at the roots, and 
 afforded good grazing, keeping the stock in good condition, if it were 
 not overworked. Little snow was experienced until^ the early spring 
 months, when the first heavy falls of snow occurred. 
 
 From the secluded and sheltered character of the valleys, the abun- 
 dance of water, and the fine quality of the grazing, the Black Hills are 
 well adapted for dairy-farming, the establishment of cheese and butter 
 factories, aad the raising and breeding of fine breeds of cattle and 
 
 The Black Hils are remarkably free from noxious insects, and grass- 
 hoppers and locusts are rarely met with in, numbers sufficient to cause 
 any appreciable damage to the grazing or vegetation. Only in one lo- 
 cality were they at all numerous. On Beaver Creek in the southwest- 
 ern portion of the Hills, near the plains, early m June grasshoppers 
 were lust hatching, and in a few weeks had grown large enough to strip 
 the leaves from the bushes. Gnats and mosquitoes were sometimes 
 found in the Hills, but never in numbers to cause any annoyance. 
 Large flies were quite troublesome during a few weeks in July and 
 August, but the first cool nights caused them to disappear. 
 
 TIMBER. 
 
 The Black Hills are a well-wooded country. The plenteous rains and 
 showers in summer keep the vegetation growing unchecked by drought. 
 The denitv ofTe forests clothing the hill-sides have, from their som- 
 W JfiP when viewed from a distance, given the name to this region, 
 fhe 'SckHUV by which it is knowi also in the Indian dialects. 
 
 °'whrteSm'Y"to«s Americana,) associated with the burr-oak, occurs 
 alo^gthe'valieys of tht streams liear theeastern and southeastern foot- 
 
 hills. 
 
70 RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 
 
 Aspeu, white birch, ash, mulberry, box-elder, {negundo,) iron-wood, 
 {horn-beam,) aud juniper grow sparingly in different parts of the Hills, 
 but are of little comparative value. 
 
 The pine forests cover so extensive an area and will yield so large a 
 proportion of the timber that all the other trees combined may be neg- 
 lected in comparison, though they will be found valuable in the future 
 development of the country. The " Norway pine " is a tall, straight.tree, 
 free from limbs for one-half its height from the ground. The wood is 
 white, soft, with a straight, somewhat coarse grain, free from knots, and 
 splitting readily into " shakes," shingles, or other similar forms. The 
 sap is more resinous than that of the white pine, and in this respect 
 this variety approaches more nearly the pitch-pine of North Carolina, 
 a tree which it somewhat resembles in its style of growth. 
 
 The transverse strength of the wood is not so great as that of white 
 pine, but by proper care in using it in construction this deficiency can 
 be compensated for and practically obviated. 
 
 On the bottomlands in the lower valley of French Greek, specimens 
 of this pine were seen that were fully 100 feet in height, and would 
 measure 35 to 40 inches through at the ground. Trees of these large 
 dimensions are, however, rare in the Hills. Timber of from 12 to 24 
 inches diameter is common, while extensive tracts are covered by a , 
 dense forest of small slender pines from 50 to 60 feet high, and rarely less 
 than 8 or more than 12 inches through at the ground. 
 
 The pine forests in the Black Hills, where the trees are of mature 
 growth and uninjured by wind or fire, will furnish good straight saw 
 logs from 30 to 50 feet in length and very uniform in thickness, with a 
 gradual taper, averaging in diameter from 12 to 20 inches. 
 
 The tall slender pines will be very useful to the settlers in this region, 
 being well adapted for fencing and house-building purposes. The resin- 
 ous character of the wood makes it a most excellent fuel, burning with 
 along smoky flame, giving out an intense heat, almost equaling in this 
 respect the pitch-pine of the Southern States. 
 
 On the tops of the ridges and hills, where the trees are exposed to the 
 violence of the storms, the timber is wind-shaken aud injured in quality; 
 but on the more sheltered hill-sides, the broad level mesas, and in the 
 numerous valleys and parks, the trees are free from this evil, and are 
 remarkably straight and regular in growth. Pines were sometimes en- 
 countered blown down by the wind, across the narrow ravines, the 
 trunk of the tree, even when 1 to 2 feet in diameter, being broken short 
 off by the violence of the fall on the rocks. This rarely happens with 
 the spruce under similar circumstances, owing to the greater transverse 
 strength of the wood. 
 
 The Black Hills have been subjected in the past to extensive forest- 
 fires, which have destroyed the timber over considerable areas. Around 
 Custer's Peak and along the limestone divide, in the central portion of 
 the Hills, on the headwaters of the Box Elder and Kapid Creeks, scarcely 
 a living tree is to be seen for miles. The timber, deadened by the fire 
 and the trees left standing, their decaying trunks stripped of bark by 
 weather or prostrated by the wind, cover the ground, crossing each 
 other at all angles, forming an impassable abattis. 
 
 Some portions of the parks and valleys, now destitute of trees, show 
 by the presence of charred and decaying stumps that they were once cov- 
 ered by forest, but generally the pine springs up again as soon as it is 
 burnt off, though sometimes it is succeeded for a time by thickets of 
 small aspens. 
 
 Along the eastern and northeastern slopes of the Black Hills, at a 
 distance ot not more than ten miles from the edge of the plains, the 
 
4S 
 
 80 
 
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 44 
 
 30 
 
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 104 
 
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 30 
 
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 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 U. S. GEOLOGICAL ANj GEOGRAPHICAL SUKVEY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 BLACK HILLS. 
 
 "W:PJENNEY;E.M. Geologist in cliar-ge. 
 H. NEWTON, 1! :M.A»t Oedo^it . 
 
 H.P.TUTrLi;,A.troiiom«-. 
 
 'V. T.ifGimrctinDY; Topographo-. 
 
 PRELIMINARY MAP 
 
 1875. 
 
 Scstle 3 miles .= li-ncli 
 
 I 
 
 ,t.NN£ 
 
 30 
 
 .44* 
 
 30 
 
 OFFrCE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 
 
 Commissioner 
 
 h,.;;p"'^'^ 
 
 30" 
 
 
 I03° 
 
 30' 
 
 I PETEhS. PHOTO-UTHOaRAPHER, WASHIHOTON, C 
 
RESOUECES OF THE BLACK HILLS. 7 1 
 
 4 
 
 pine is partly replaced by burr-oak and white elm of moderate size. 
 These trees are found in groves in the valleys and swales between the 
 hills, and associated with white birch in the ravines of the streams. 
 Neither the oak uor elm attains a large size, the trees averaging 30 to- 
 40 feet in height and 10 to 15 inches through. 
 
 The wood of the white elm is well known ; that of the burr-oak re- 
 sembles white oak, is strong and tough, and will prove valuable for 
 many purposes. 
 
 In the elevated portion of the interior of the Hills, especially along 
 the valleys in the limestone formation, extending from Ouster's Peak 
 to Floral Valley, and on the headwaters of Eapid, Castle, Elk, Bear, 
 Butte, and Spearflsh Creeks, two varieties of spruce, resembling the 
 black and white spruce of the Northern States, are quite abundant. The 
 trees are tall, growing thickly together, and will furnish logs quite uni- 
 form in diameter throughout their whole length. In the cailons where 
 the soil is rich, the white spruce attains a height of 100 feet, and is oc- 
 casionally 2 feet in diameter at the ground. Usually, however, thes& 
 trees are from 8 to 15 inches through, and will prove very valuable in 
 constructing trestles and small bridges on account of the strength of 
 the timber. The wood is white, fine-grained, and remarkably tough and 
 elastic. The small slender spruce-trees are much sought after by the 
 Indians, who visit the Hills in the spring for the purpose of procuring 
 them for lodge-poles. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate accurately the area covered by valuable tim- 
 ber in the Black Hills. Taking into consideration that the foot-hills 
 are but sparsely wooded ; that there are extensive parks and valleys in 
 the interior destitute of trees, or where there are only scattered groves 
 of pine ; that over an aggregate area of several hundred square miles 
 the timber has been destroyed by fire, I estimate that one-half the sur- 
 face included within the timber-line is covered by forest of more or less- 
 mature growth. 
 
 By careful measurements of the map, the area within the timber-line, 
 or outer boundary of the forest at the edge of the plains, is three thou- 
 sand eight hundred square miles. One-half of this, or one thousand 
 nine hundred square miles, is covered by woods, including the large for- 
 ests of young trees, as well as the sections of valuable timber. 
 
 Portions of this area are difficult of access, or the timber is wind-shaken 
 and injured in quality, and the forests of small pine are relatively more 
 extensive than the tracts of timber of a mature growth. Hence I esti- 
 mate that one-fifth the above area of the Black Hills, or nearly eight 
 hundred square miles, equal to 500,000 acres, is covered by timber of 
 merchantable quality, suitable for cutting and sawing into lumber. 
 
 Col. E. I. Dodge, commanding the escort, by an entirely independent 
 series of observations, estimates the merchantable timber at only about 
 fbur hundred square miles, and comparing it with the pine forests of 
 North Carolina, he says : 
 
 I estimate that there are in the two sections something over four thousand square 
 miles of country more or less covered with pine. Of this, including the Red Valley, 
 the parks, the bare bottoms and valleys of creeks, I estimate that tour-tenths are en- 
 tirely without timber. Another four-tenths is composed of young forests, excellent for 
 railroad-ties, small buildings, fencing, &c., but not yei for the saw-miU. One-tench 
 is wind-shaken or injured by lightning or fire, and one nth is good lumber. In other 
 words, I think that this four thousand square mi! will furnish not more than 
 one-tenth of the merchantable lumber that would b . obtained froni an equal area of 
 the virgin pine forests of Michigan or North Carolina. There is an abundance of lum- 
 ber for all purposes of the country itself, but, except Jes, it will not furnish any very 
 
 large quantity for exportation.* 
 
 • * The Black Hills, by Richard Irving Dodge, lieutenant-colonel United States Army.. 
 James Miller & Co., New York, 1876. P. 10a. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 QE 375.J54 
 The mineral wealth, climalean^^^ 
 
^M^^wM