ajarttell UniocrBtti} SIthratg 
 
 Jtljara. SJjib Sotk 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WrLLlAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 F 595.G78 
 
'^/ 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023250636 
 

 32 ^ 
 
 5= 
 
EMINENT AMERICAN EXPLORERS AND ARTISTS. 
 
 -Gen. Custer. 2.-Ge„. Fre,„„„t .3._Lieut. Wheeler. 4.-Prof. F. V. Hayden. 5.-Albert Bierstadt 
 
 6.— Maj. J. W. Powell. 7.— Thomas Moran. 
 
The G-eeat West: 
 
 Mis Mtmciions anb M^aomcts. 
 
 CONTAINING A POPULAE DESCEIPTION OF THE MARVELLOUS SCENERY, PHYSICAL 
 GEOGRAPHY, FOSSILS, AND GLACIERS OF THIS WONDERFUL REGION; 
 
 RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK, 
 "THE WONDERLAND OF AMERICA," 
 
 BY 
 
 Peof. F. V. HAYDEN, LL.D., 
 
 FORMERLY UNITED STATES GEOLOGIST. 
 ALSO, 
 
 VAIITABP INFORMATION TO TEATELLEKS AND SETTLERS CONCERNDfO 
 
 CLIMATE, HEALTH, MINING, HUSBANDKY, EDUCATION, 
 
 THE INDIANS, MORMONISM, THE CHINESE; 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 f^omcsteatr, ^te^emption, Eantr,- anb iiEinitts ILatos. 
 
 BY 
 
 A CORPS OF ABLE CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED WITH ENG'RAVINGS AND MAPS. 
 
 SOLD ONLY BT SUBSCRIPTION. 
 
 ELOOMINGTON, ILL. : 
 CHARLES R. BRODIX. 
 
 1880. 
 

 ;('fi 
 
 Copyright, 
 
 C. R. BRODIX. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Westcott & Thomsou, Shekman & Co. 
 
 Stereotyjim and Electrolypera, PUlada, FnnUrs, Philada. 
 
CONTENTS 
 Relating to China and the Chinese 
 
 Chinese Quarter in San Francisco attractive to 
 visitors; Chinatown described 
 
 No Chinese in Leadville^ Colorado 
 
 Chinese Labor emiloyed 
 
 Employed as domestic Servants 
 
 Chinese Question . . . . 
 
 Occupation . .... 
 
 Mentioned . .... 
 
 Yale (Charles G-. ) The Chinese Question . 
 
 Importance of Question of Chinese Immigration 
 to California 
 
 Claims of Opponents to Iramigration 
 
 Characteristics 
 
 Attitude of California toward the Question 
 
 Chief Ohjection to the Chinese 
 
 Meade(Edwin R.) A Labor Question . . . . 
 
 The Chinese as a Laborer 
 
 Wages in China 
 
 Wages in California 
 
 92 
 147 
 221 
 234 
 359 
 379 
 382 
 387 
 
 389 
 
Cost of Living 
 
 Disadvantage to White Lator 
 
 Decision Ijy the Circuit Cojirt 391 
 
 Extract from an Address by Rev. Joseph Cook . . 392 
 
 Comparison of the Wage is in the East and West 
 
 A Plea for the Chinese 
 Williams (S.W.) Our Relations with China 393 
 
 The Burlingame Treaty 
 ■ Immigration encouraged by Pacific Railroad 
 
 Our Demands in China 
 
 Treatment of Chinese in California 
 
 Indemnity paid by Chinese 
 
 Assaults in California on peaceable Chinese 
 
 Immigration from Kwangtung Province 
 
 Chinese not given the same advantages as other 
 immigrants 
 The Burlingame Treaty 398 
 
NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
 The rapidity with which the far Western portion of our country has 
 been explored and mapped, and the extraordinary changes made by bring- 
 ing the vast Plains — ^but lately the roving-grounds of wild Indians and 
 herds of buffaloes — ^into cultivation, furnishing flourishing and happy 
 homes for hundreds of thousands of the restless population of the East 
 or of Europe, are facts that have excited the astonishment of the world. 
 
 Immigration has been, and is now, advancing with a ceaseless current, 
 impelled by various motives. Some of the individuals composing this 
 great army are actuated by a thirst for gold, excited by the marvellous 
 stories of the wealth hidden in the rocks and ravines of the mountains ; 
 others, moved by reports of the cheapness and fertility of the land and 
 the salubrity of the climate, and undazzled by the stories of gold and 
 silver deposited centuries ago to be excavated by this generation, decide 
 on the wiser course of cultivating the earth. To these two great motives 
 are added many that bring the merchant, the speculator, the schoolmas- 
 ter, and others that follow in the train of immigration. 
 
 To no one is the country more indebted for opening up this formerly 
 unknown land to the settler than to Professor F. V. Haydbn, who for 
 nearly thirty years has been engaged in the great work of scientific ex- 
 ploration. Professor Asa Gray, Professor of Natural History in Har- 
 vard University, and America's most eminent botanist, says : " It has 
 come in my way to know a good deal about Dr. Hayden's Territorial 
 surveys for several years past, especially as to their scientific results ; and 
 of late my attention has been still more called to them. I wish here not 
 only to express, emphatically, my own opinion of their great value and 
 of the importance of continuing them, but also to testify to the deep im- 
 
o NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
 pression they are making upon the scientific world. In Europe the 
 learned societies, the scientific journals, as also the working naturalists in 
 correspondence, speak with one accord in terms oiF admiration, not un- 
 mixed with envy, of what our government has done and is doing in this 
 regard; and' I observe that Dr. Hayden's survey and the resulting publi- 
 cations are put forward as the type and exemplar." 
 
 From a letter of Baron von Eichtofen, President of the Berlin Geo- 
 graphical Society, we extract the following : " Your eminent exploring 
 work, the energy with which you have conducted it, and your faculty of 
 managing the working-power of a large staff so as to arrive at its full 
 efficiency and to put every man in his proper place, have earned for you 
 the admiration and praise of the scientific world in general and many 
 eminent men in particular." 
 
 These two extracts from numerous notices of the kind, and the fact 
 that Dr. Hayden has been made an honorary member of very many of 
 the principal scientific societies of Europe and other foreign countries, 
 prove how eminently qualified he is for the great task of his life. 
 
 The matters pertaining to the historical, agricultural, mining, and other 
 departments of the various countries described have been also confided to 
 writers of eminent ability, who have, by reason of long residence and 
 careful study, made themselves well qualified for the task. 
 
 We would here also express our grateful acknowledgments to the New 
 York Independent, New York Tribune, and the governors and other offi- 
 cials of the various States and Territories, for documents containing the 
 latest information and placed in our hands for publication. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fkontispiece, Yosemite Falls and Valley (Steel engraving). 
 Eminent Explorers and Artists. 
 
 Winter Forest-Scenes in the Sierra Nevadas 75 
 
 Map oe Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Indian Territory. . 81 
 
 DoNNER Lake, from the Snoav-Sheds 89 
 
 Cedar Creek CaSon, Colorado 99 
 
 Mountain of the Holy Cross, Colorado 105 
 
 Interior of Shaft-Hottse, Lbadville 113 
 
 Williams CaSton, Colorado Springs 121 
 
 Bestored Tower and Cliff-Houses 129 
 
 View in Chestnut Street, Lbadville 145 
 
 View in Harrison Avenue, Leadville 153 
 
 A Glimpse of Denver, Colorado 161 
 
 Lake Tahoe, Nevada 177 
 
 Giant's Butte, Green Biver, Wyoming . : . 201 
 
 Map of Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota 241 
 
 Shoshone Falls, Idaho 289 
 
 Echo CaSon, Utah 313 
 
 Salt Lake City and Wahsatch Mountains, Utah 321 
 
 Map of California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and 
 
 Washington S53 
 
 Scenes in the Yosemite Valley — Bridal-Veil* Fall and Mirror 
 
 Lake 369 
 
 The Big Trees of California 377 
 
 San Francisco, from Goat Island 385 
 
 An Attack on a Village of Cave-Dwellers 449 
 
 Vernal Fall, Yosemite 465 
 
 Eastport (Stickeen Village), Alaska 473 
 
 Greek Church, Sitka, Alaska 477 
 
 United States Bonded Warehouse, Fort Wrangell, Alaska . . .481 
 
 r 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PAET FIRST. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 THE GBEAT WEST 17 
 
 Comparative Size of the East and the West — Government Expeditions — The 
 Two Mountain Systems — General Divisions — Mountain - Kanges — Geological 
 Structure — ^The Sources of the Yellowstone and Missouri — Immense Fossil 
 Trunks — Petrified Forests — Yellowstone National Park — Boiling Springs — Yel- 
 lowstone Lake — Geysers — Mud-volcanoes — Legislation respecting Yellowstone 
 Park — Principal Elvers of the North-west — Missouri, Yellowstone, Tongue, 
 Powder, Teton, White, and Niobrara Elvers — The Tertiary Lake-Basins of the 
 West — The Fossil Structures — Fossil Remains of the Ehinoceros, Camel, Horse, 
 Mastodon, Elephant, etc. — The Pre-historic Geography — Supposed Condition of 
 the Country in Pre-historic Times — North America in the Tertiary Age — Ancient 
 Life in the Far West — Immense Eeptiles — Searching for Fossils— Saurlans — 
 Snake Elver — High Mountain-Peaks — The Plateau Eegion of the Colorado 
 Elver — Deep Canons — Euins in the South-western Territories — Estufas — Cliff 
 Houses — The Great Basin — Wahsatch Mountains — Great Salt Lake — The North- 
 ern System of Mountains — Cascade Eange— The Sierra Nevada — Glaciers — 
 Glacial Action in the Eocky Mountains — Timber Belts — ^The Yosemite Valley — 
 Waterfalls — Features of the Two Mountain Systems — Mineral Deposits of the 
 West — Fossils in the Lake-Basins — Extinct Plants— Eainfall — Average Eleva^ 
 tion of the Land — Stock-Eaising. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 THE TEIP OVEELAND . 
 
 The Start ii-om Omaha — Platte Valley — The Plains — Cheyenne — Echo and Weber 
 Canons — High Cliff— The Union Pacific — The Central Pacific — To the Sierras 
 — Donner Lake— Oakland — San Francisco — Hotels — Chinatown — Woodward's 
 Garden — Climate — The Geysers — Yosemite Valley — Big Trees— Southern Cali- 
 fornia and Arizona — The Trip to Oregon — Puget Sound — Alaska — Fort Wrangell. 
 
 COLOEADO 
 
 General History — Expeditions — Discovery of Grold and Silver — Union Pacific 
 Eailroad — Entered the Union July 4, 1876— Climate and Health— Eainfall, 
 Scenery — Canons — Points of Interest — Platte Cafion— Colorado Springs — Garden 
 of the Gods — Parks and Elvers of Colorado — Eesources — Flora — Wild Animals 
 — Ancient Euins — Agriculture — Cattle, Sheep, Dairying — Towns and Villages — 
 Leadville and Adjacent Camps — Denver — Society and Churches— Educational, 
 
 9 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PEOSPECTING 164 
 
 Hunting for Mineral — Seeking the "Blossom" — Carbonate Mineral — "Grub 
 Stakes " — Locating a Mine^ — Bonding a Mine — Wages — Definitions of Mining 
 Terms. 
 
 NEBRASKA AND ITS BESOURCES 172 
 
 Introductory — Geography — Geology — Climatic Conditions — Natural Productions — 
 The Native Trees— The History of Nebraska— The Great Pood-Belt of the Con- 
 tinent — Nebraska the Best part of the Belt — The Cattle-Farm — Experience of 
 Flock-Masters — Successful Fruit-Culture — Pisciculture — The Honey-Bee and the 
 Prairie Flowers — Three Districts in Nebraska — North-eastern Nebraska — -South- 
 eastern Nebraska — The Centre of the BaUroads — School System — Growth — State 
 Institutions — Opportunities for Acquiring Land — XJ. P. E. E. Lands — Burlington 
 and Missouri River R. R. Lands. 
 
 Heaith or Nebraska 189 
 
 NEW MEXICO 190 
 
 Agriculture — The Rio Grande Valley — The Pecos River Valley — Cattle- and 
 Sheep-Grazing — Minerals. 
 
 Eesotjbces op New Mexico 193 
 
 Sheep-Raising — Cattle-Raising— Fruit-Raising — Vineyards and Wine-Making — 
 Market-Gardens— WooUen-Mills — Tanneries — Brickmakers — Banking — Mining 
 — The Professions. 
 
 WYOMING 200 
 
 Scenery — Population — Stock-business — Mining. 
 
 EbPOBT op the StrBVEYOB-GENERAL 202 
 
 General Description — Climate — Topography — Coal — Gold — Soda — Forests — Agri- 
 culture — Cities, Towns, and Villages — Game — Manufacturing Eesources. 
 
 MONTANA 210 
 
 General Description— Climate — A Healthy Region — Natural Scenery — Yellow- 
 stone Park — Big Potatoes — Stock-Eaising — Vast Pastures — Details of the Busi- 
 ness — Dairying — Poultry— Prices of Products — Getting Homes — Mining — Busi- 
 ness, Wages, Expenses — About the Towns — Eailroads — Montana Points — What 
 the Governor says. 
 
 Mineral Eesources 221 
 
 Rich Placers — Gold Quartz-Mines — Silver Camps — Dishonest Management — " Ore 
 in Posse." 
 
 Stock-Eaising in Montana 224 
 
 The Best Grazing Country in the World— Marvellous Eeports of Profits— Grass 
 Abundant— Not Necessary to Feed Cattle in Winter — Cattle Branded and 
 Turned Out— Non-resident Speculators interested in Herds— Dividing the Prof- 
 its-Sheep— Examples of Good Investments— Number of Cattle and Sheep in 
 the Territory — Diseases. 
 
 Bints to Men Without Capital 231 
 
 Cost of Travel— Establishing a Eanche— Wages of SkUled Mechanics— Skilled 
 Miners — Domestic Help — The Professions. 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DiSTAiTCBS, Time, Fabe, Baagage Allowed, etc 236 
 
 Fares from Omaha, Extra Baggage and Household Goods — Distances and Fares in 
 the Territory — Population^ Distances, etc. — Average Wages. 
 
 DAKOTA 240 
 
 General Description — Immigration — Dalrymple's Great Farm — Northern Dakota 
 —Eastern Dakota— The Black Hills— Gulch-Mining— The Gold Yield— Oppor- 
 tunities for Intending Settlers — Chances for the Professions — Eailroad Facilities 
 — Correct Table of Distances, 
 
 MINNESOTA 251 
 
 General Description — Climate — Soil and Productions — Wheat, Corn, Oats, and 
 other Grains — Stock-Raising — Manufacturing — Great Water-Power— Minnesota 
 Flour — Trade to Foreign Ports — Population. 
 
 THE KANSAS EMIGRANTS 257 
 
 KANSAS 258 
 
 General Description — History. 
 
 The Geology of Kansas 260 
 
 Elevation — Drainage — Soil — Uplifting of the Ground — Building Material. 
 
 Wheat — Horticulture — Stock-Eaising — Sheep-Husbandry — Live-Stock — Loca- 
 tion of the Best Farming Lands — Grasses — Prices of Improved and Unimproved 
 Farms — Wild Lands — Abandoned Farms — Population. 
 
 TEXAS ■ 275 
 
 Area— History — Physical Features — Climate — Minerals — Agricultural Products — 
 Animals — Miscellaneous. 
 
 IDAHO 279 
 
 Mountains and Table-Land — Climate — Agriculture — Mining — Gold HUl — Eocky 
 Bar — Scarcity of Mills to Work the Ore — The Placer-Grounds at Idaho City — 
 Population^Transportation — Stock-Growing — Resources — Irrigation — Idaho in 
 1879 — Boundaries — Area suitable for Culture. 
 
 ARIZONA 296 
 
 Only lately Opened to Travel — Elevation of the Ground — Dryness— Climate — 
 Mineral Wealth — Mineral Park and Bradshaw District — Peculiar Method of 
 Mining — Silver "Farms" — -Territorial Prison — Qualifications of Voters — Area 
 of Lands suitable for Cultivation — Population. 
 
 NEVADA , 302 
 
 History — Physical Features — Agricultural Lands — Minerals — Agriculture — Ani- 
 mals — Climate — Education. 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE SUTRO TUNNEL 305 
 
 "A Tough Job "—Blasting through Solid Eock— A Chapter on Mules— Obstacles 
 to Progress— Bad Air— Accidents- Eiddled with Rocks— Cares— Fast in the Mud 
 — Hospital— Miners' Union — Starting a Grave7ard — Advantages of the Sutro 
 Tunnel. 
 
 UTAH 312 
 
 Acquisition by Treaty — Area — Drainage — Topography and General Features — 
 Great Salt Lake Basin— Cache, San Pete, and Sevier Valleys— Great Salt Lake 
 Valley — The Mountains — Agriculture — Stock-Raiping — Minerals — Railroads — 
 Climate — Health— Salt Lake City. 
 
 MORMONISM 322 
 
 Origin and Early History — Exodus from Nauvoo — Profanity of Brigham Young — • 
 Temples — Present Condition and Attitude of Mormonism — Condition of Educa- 
 tion — Polygamy. 
 
 Disloyal Mormootsm 330 
 
 The American Bluebeard — Anti-Polygamy Laws — Plural Wives — Weakness of the 
 Laws — Mormons Refuse to Answer Questions — Confessions of Apostate Mormons 
 — The Endowment-House — Penalties and Signs — Blood Atonement — President 
 Hayes' Plan — The Remedy. 
 
 OREGON 340 
 
 Extreme North-western State — Ex:tent — Historical — Geographical— Western Ore- 
 gon — Exempt from Violent Atmospheric Disturbances — Soil, Resources, and 
 Productions — Fisheries — Towns — Routes and Scenery — Approaches. 
 
 WASHINGTON TERRITORY 347 
 
 Western Washington — Fir Timber— Resources — Puget Sound — Climate — Eastern 
 Washington — Grapes and Peaches — Wheat — Area — Towns — Snake River — Co- 
 lumbia Basin — Lands — Northern Pacific Railroad — Short Winters — The " Chi- 
 nook," or Warm Wind — Health. 
 
 CALIFORNIA I 354 
 
 History — Vague Impressions of the State — Sir Francis Drake — The Spaniards — 
 The Franciscan Friars — The Digger Indians — The Mexican Dominion — The 
 Discovery of Gold — Influx of Population — Irrigation — The Seasons — Drainage 
 — Area of Rivers — Irrigating-Cauals — Artesian Wells— Tule-Lands — Salt Marsh- 
 Lands — Reclamation Schemes — Embankments — Chinese Labor — Large Crops — 
 River Navigation. 
 
 Cereal Crops of CALrpoENiA 374 
 
 Improvement of the Seed — Preparation of the Soil — Gang Ploughs — Harvest — Head- 
 ing-Machines — Burning Straw — Barley and Oats — Horticultural Products — Fresh 
 Fruit every Month in the Year — Truck-Gardens — Fruits of both Temperate and 
 Semi-Tropical Regions — Oranges — Dried Fruits — Nuts — Coffee-Culture. 
 
 G0LD-M1NIN& 382 
 
 First Attempts — Picks, Pans, and Shovels — Washing the Dirt — The Rocker — 
 Quicksilver — Long Toms — Mining - Sluices — River-bed Mining — Blue -gravel 
 Leads— Hydraulic Mining— Vein Mining— Quartz-Mills— Quicksilver-Mines. 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Chinese Question . ^ 387 
 
 Pro and Con. — Habits of the Chinese — How they Work-:-Eestricting Immigration. 
 
 A Labor Question 389 
 
 The Chinaman a Mere Machine — Wages in China and California — Coolies — Labor 
 Disturbances. 
 
 Decision by the Circuit Court 391 
 
 Extract from an Address by Eev. Jos. Cook 392 
 
 Our Eelations with China 393 
 
 How the Chinese were Induced to Come to the United States — Transported by 
 British Ships — Discriminating Laws — Eesponsibilty of the Government — Op- 
 pression of the Chinese — Where the Fault Lies. 
 
 BuRi/iNGAME Treaty 398 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 EDUCATION WEST OP THE MISSISSIPPI 401 
 
 Exhibits of American Education — Foreign Critics — Magnitude of the School Sys- 
 tem — General View of Educational Condition — Early Action — Examination by 
 States — Texas, Louisiana, and Kansas : A Chance Picture — Schools of New Or- 
 leans I Arkansas : Elementary Schools — Collegiate Institutions — Benefits of the 
 Peabody Fund; Missouri: Education in the Counties—City Systems — Schools 
 of St. Louis — State University ; Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota : Instruction of 
 Teachers — Increase of Schools — Statistical Summary — Illustrative Examples — 
 Provisions for Higher Education — Normal Departments — ^The State Universities 
 — Private Schools — Religious Educational Institutions ; Nebraska : Present Con- 
 dition — State University ; Colorado : Salaries of Teachers ; Nevada : Present 
 Condition — Teachers' Institutes — State University; Dakota, Montana, Idaho, 
 Wyoming, and Washington Territories ; New Mexico and Arizona ; Utah : Op- 
 position of the Hierarchy ; Indian Territory : Schools — Teachers — Income and 
 Expenditure — Schools of the Five Nations ; Oregon : Practical Education — Park 
 School, Portland — The Universities ; California : Number of Schools — Expendi- 
 tures — ^New School Law — Supervision — Normal School — The University — Pri- 
 vate Schools — Schools of San Francisco. — Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb 
 and for the Blind. 
 
 NOETH AMEEICAN INDIANS 431 
 
 Eeligion of the Indians — Origin of the Indian Eace — The Beginning of the Great 
 Conflict between the Eaces — The Number of Indians Now and Then — Intro- 
 duction of European Laws — Love of Native Land — Establishing a Permanent 
 Home for the Indians — Cost of Indian Wars— Eemoval of Indians — Uncivilized 
 Indians — Is the Indian Eace Dying Out? — The Indian has the Essential Ele- 
 ments of Manhood. 
 
 THE CLIFF-DWELLEES 445 
 
 Discoveries in Southern Colorado — Eomantie Night-Camp — Hayden Survey— 
 Euined Villages — Immense Stone Buildings — Battle Eock — Hovenweep Castle 
 — Pueblo Indians — Fire- Worshippers — Pitiorial Word- Writing and Hiero- 
 glyphics — Inscriptions on the Walls — Wonderful Caves— Picturesque Euins — 
 Caso del Eco — Pueblo Penasco Blanca — Estufas — Eemains of a Once-Powerful 
 Nation. 
 
14 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 THE YOSEMITE 457 
 
 The Big Tree Groves — Their Location — Approaches to the Valley — Inspiration 
 Point — Merced Eiver — Bridal- Veil Fall — Yosemite PaU — In the Valley — 
 Digger Indians — Hotels — Drives and Eides — A Sweeping View. 
 
 ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS 472 
 
 The Sail from Victoria— Mount Baker — Great Island Eegion — Glaciers — Fish — 
 Eaking in Canoe-loads of Fish — Furs — Climate — St. Paul — Fort Wrangell — 
 Mission-Work — Native Eaces — Alaska Canoes — Ornaments — Marriage — Polyg- 
 amy — Slaves — Burials — Food — Widow-Biu^ing — Murder of the Old and 
 Feeble — Women denied Burial — Shamans — Cannibals. 
 
 ALASKA 486 
 
 The Greatest of the Territories — Early History — General Description — Settle- 
 ments — Fort Wrangell ^ — Sitka — Cook's Inlet — Vegetables raised on Frozen 
 Earth — One Hundred-pound Salmon — St. Paul — Afognak — The Ice Company — 
 Sea-Otter Grounds — Aleutian Islands — The Pribylof {or Fur-Seal) Mauds — The 
 Alaska Commercial Company — Habits of the Fur-Seal. 
 
 LAWS IN EELATION TO EXEMPTION, MAEEIED WOMEN, AND IN- 
 TEEEST 501 
 
 California, 501 ; Washington Territory, 503 ; Montana, 505 ; Kansas, 506 ; Wyom- 
 ing, 508; Idaho, 509; New Mexico, 511; Oregon, 513; Nevada, 515; Nebraska, 
 517 ; Colorado, 518 ; Dakota, 520. 
 
 Government Lands, and How to Get Them 523 
 
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Homesteads — Homesteads to Citizens — Pre-emption — The 
 Timber-Culture Act. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS INFOEMATION FOE TEAVELLERS ....:... 524 
 
 Hints for the Trip Overland— Eoutes—Eates of Fare to California— Union Pacific 
 Eailroad — Information for Emigrants— Special Eates for Excursions — Trans- 
 Continental Time-Tables — Differences in Time. 
 
THE FAR WEST. 
 
 BY HENEY WADSWOETH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Fae in the West there lies a desert land, where the mountains 
 Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous summits. 
 Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the gorge, like a gateway, 
 Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant's wagon. 
 Westward the Oregon flows, and the Walleway and Oyhee 
 Eastward, with devious course, among the Wind River Mountains ; 
 Through the Sweetwater Valley precipitate leaps the Nebraska ; 
 And to the south, from the Fontaine-qui-bout and the Spanish sierras. 
 Fretted with sands and rocks, and swept by the wind of the desert, 
 Numberless torrents, with ceaseless sound, descend to the ocean, 
 Like the great chords of a harp in loud and solemn vibrations. 
 Spreading between these streams are wondrous, beautiful prairies. 
 Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine, 
 Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple amorphas. 
 Over them wander the buffalo herds and the elk and the roebuck ; 
 Over them wander the wolves and herds of riderless horses ; 
 Fires that blast and blight, and winds that are weary with travel ; 
 Over them wander the scattered tribes of Ishmael's children. 
 Staining the desert with blood ; and above their terrible war-trail 
 Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vulture. 
 Like the implacable soul of a chieftain slaughtered in battle, 
 By invisible stairs ascending and scaling the heavens. 
 Here and there rise smokes from the camps of these savage marauders ; 
 Here and there rise groves from the margins of swift-running rivers. 
 And the grim, taciturn bear, the anchorite monk of the desert. 
 Climbs down their dark ravines to dig for roots by the brookside ; 
 While over all is the sky, the clear and crystalline heaven. 
 Like the protecting hand of God inverted above them. 
 
 IS 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 BY PEOF. F. V. HAYDEN, U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
 
 "VTEYER in the history of our country has the term " the Great West " 
 -1- ' possessed so much significance as at the present time. Forty years 
 ago, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were called the far Western States, while 
 but little was known of the vast regions beyond ; now farms, villages, 
 and cities, with the sites of future cities, are dotted over the plains and 
 mountain-slopes as they stretch westward toward the setting sun. 
 
 At the very threshold of our undertaking it is proper that we should 
 make some inquiry into the extent and capacities of this great country, 
 and into the physical causes that have produced its present configuration. 
 If we examine any good geographical map of our country, we shall see 
 at a glance that at least two-thirds of the United States of America, an 
 area of more than two millions of square miles, lie west of the Missis- 
 sippi River. In the portion lying east of that river, and containing less 
 than half that area, now dwell between thirty and forty millions of peo- 
 ple. The Atlantic coast, with its crowded population, its refined civiliza- 
 tion, its great cities, its seats of learning and industrial operations, forms 
 only a fringe on the eastern border of this vast continent. 
 
 It was not until within the present century that the country possessed 
 any very definite knowledge of the geography of the mountain-regions 
 of the Far West. Upon the old maps the mountain-ranges were shown 
 by a single line of hatchings, with a few minor ranges branching ofF, the 
 whole trending nearly north and south, or rather west of north and east 
 of south. , 
 
 The first important government expedition that was sent out to explore 
 the great unknown mountain-regions of the extreme West was that of 
 Lewis and Clarke, which in 1804-6 passed up the Missouri Eiver to its 
 2 IT 
 
18 THE great' WEST. 
 
 source, crossed the main Divide of the Rocky Mountains, and followed 
 the Columbia River to its entrance into the Pacific Ocean. Although 
 this expedition was a great and successful achievement in a geographical 
 point of view, taking into consideration the time and the means at its 
 command, yet much of the information it obtained was very vague, and 
 limited to a narrow belt across the northern portion of the country. Lewis 
 and Clarke, however, fixed pretty well the positions of the Missouri and 
 Columbia Rivers. The two volumes which contain the result of these 
 explorations, although possessing the intrinsic evidence of having been 
 written with the utmost candor and truthfulness, read like a romance. 
 The party was small and comparatively unprotected, the country utterly 
 unknown, and occupied only with tribes of Indians, many of whom were 
 inclined to be hostile. Every item of information which they secured 
 was new and strange, and of the highest interest. 
 
 The next explorer was Major Z. M. Pike, who in 1805-7 crossed the 
 country farther south, and discovered the head-waters of the Arkansas 
 River and the lofty peak which now bears his name. He crossed the 
 Divide into the Great Basin. In 1819-20, Stephen H. Long was sent 
 out by the government with a well-equipped party, comprising not only 
 topographers, but also geologists and naturalists, among whom was the 
 celebrated Thomas Say. After Long came Bonneville, Ross Cox, School- 
 craft, Nicollet, Fremont, and others, all of whom added more or less to 
 the store of knowledge of this great area. From 1844 to 1860 more 
 than twenty expeditions were sent out by the government with the object 
 of determining the best route for a railroad to the Pacific. In 1853, 
 Congress passed a bill making appropriations for the determination of 
 the most practicable route for a railroad from the Valley of the Missis- 
 sippi to the Pacific coast. No expense was spared in equipping expedi- 
 tions, which traversed the country from east to west at various points 
 from latitude 49° to the southern boundary of the United States. The 
 information thus obtained was embraced in a large series of maps and 
 reports, which were published by the general government. Although so 
 very much had been done toward the development of the resources of 
 the great West, yet prior to 1868 no imj)ortant portion had been exam- 
 ined with such care and detail as to render the maps anything more than 
 approximately correct. The information thus obtained could only be 
 placed on a map projected on a small scale, where an error of five or ten 
 miles would be overlooked. "Within the past ten or twelve years several 
 exi>editions have been organized, under King, Wheeler, Powell, liayden, 
 and others, with the object of working out certain areas with considerable 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 19 
 
 detail, including topography, geology, and natural history; and more 
 definite knowledge of the remote West has been obtained within that 
 period than in all the previous years. Indeed, the period from 1868 to 
 1878, inclusive, will ever be regarded in the history of our country as the 
 true era of scientific exploration in the West. 
 
 THE TWO MOUNTAIN-SYSTEMS. 
 
 According to Professor J, D. Whitney, two great ranges of mountains 
 form the skeleton of the North American continent — viz. the Appala- 
 chian and the Cordilleras. The Cordilleras ranges border on the Pacific 
 coast, extending southward to Patagonia, being so depressed at the Isth- 
 mus of Darien as to seem almost interrupted or broken for a time. The 
 term " Cordilleras " has been adopted by Professor Whitney for the series 
 of mountain-ranges bordering the Pacific, extending from Mexico north- 
 ward into British America. The term " Rocky Mountains " is limited 
 so as to embrace only those numerous ranges that lie east of the Great 
 Basin, and really form the watershed of the continent. The name 
 " Rocky Mountains " has been applied indefinitely to an extended series 
 of mountain-ranges west of the Mississippi, of a great variety of form 
 and structure. The term " Stony Mountains " was originally used, ap- 
 parently with no intention of applying it to any one range or group of 
 ranges. This term probably suggested itself to the earliest travellers on 
 account of the vast masses of debris or loose, broken masses of rock 
 which cover all the ranges from base to summit. This is made more 
 conspicuous by the general absence of timber. From the eastern slope 
 westward we pass over range after range to the Pacific coast for a 
 thousand miles or more, interspersed here and there with a valley or 
 park. The greatest width of the mountain-system lies between parallels 
 38° and 42°. Here the mass of the mountains is a thousand miles 
 or more in breadth, though the entire country west of the Mississippi, 
 embracing an area of over two millions of square miles, has been in- 
 fluenced by the mountain-ranges, and may therefore be called the " moun- 
 tain-region." The great group of the Cordilleras extends southward 
 through Mexico and Central America to the Isthmus of Darien, and 
 northward into British America and Alaska to the Arctic Ocean. The 
 great chain of the Andes of South America is an extension southward 
 of the same group, and in a general view they all belong to one great 
 system. The principal ranges on the Pacific coast are the Sierra Nevada 
 and the Coast Ranges, while to the eastward, in the interior basin, are 
 numerous smaller ranges. The Wahsatch range forms the eastern wall 
 
20 T3E GREAT WEST. 
 
 of what may be called the main Cordilleras group or Pacific Coast 
 Mountains. The great group of mountains which forms the backbone 
 or watershed of the continent may be denominated the Kocky Mountain 
 group as a sub-generic term. We shall note hereafter the influence which 
 these mountain-ranges have exerted upon the destiny and resources of this 
 great country. 
 
 GENEEAL DrVTSIONS. 
 
 Having given in the preceding pages a brief outline of the surface 
 character of the great country west of the Mississippi, we shall find it 
 an interesting subject of study to inquire into the plan of the growth 
 and development of this vast region. 
 
 The great area west of the Mississippi seems to have been at one time 
 an enormous plateau, out of which were evolved the different ranges of 
 mountains, as if they had been thrust up by some volcanic force. Let 
 the traveller pass southward from Cheyenne to Denver, along the imme- 
 diate base of the eastern range ; he will find that the mountains of which 
 the snow-covered summits of Pike's and Long's Peaks form a part rise 
 rather abruptly out of what appears to the eye an almost level prairie- 
 region, and will see the inclined ridges of the various sedimentary forma- 
 tions elevated to view, as if the huge granite nucleus had been thrust up, 
 leaving upon its sides the sandstones and limestones of the more modern 
 beds. These magnificent scenes at once fill the thoughtful mind with 
 wonder and delight, and the first inquiry is as to the manner in which 
 these stupendous changes have been brought about. 
 
 In general terms, we may divide the country west of the Mississippi 
 into mountain and prairie, or " plains." This latter term may be regard- 
 ed as the more comprehensive one, including in the mind of the "Western 
 people the numerous parks and basins among the mountains. The prai- 
 rie country refers more especially to the vast grassy, treeless plains of the 
 eastern slope. To understand more clearly the original plateau character 
 of this region, we have only to examine the numerous barometrical 
 profiles which have already been constructed across the continent for 
 railroad and other purposes. The explorations made in past years under 
 the direction of the War Department, and those more recently for the 
 different lines of rail-routes, afford ample means for its study to the trav- 
 eller. If we proceed westward from any point along the Missouri or 
 Mississippi River, we will find that the ascent is gradual, at first not 
 more than one foot per mile, but steadily increasing until we reach the 
 base of the mountains, when the ascent is fifty to one hundred feet per 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 21 
 
 mile. The profile of the Pacific Eailroad shows that Omaha, on the 
 Missouri River, is 1060 feet above sea-level, while at Columbus, 91 miles 
 by rail westward, the elevation is 1470 feet, showing an ascent of about 
 four and a half feet per mile. At Cheyenne, 516 miles west of Omaha, 
 the elevation is 6076 feet, showing an ascending grade from Omaha of 
 nearly ten feet per mile. This entire distance is over an apparently level 
 plaiu, most of the way by the valley of the Platte River. From Chey- 
 enne to the highest point along the line of the railroad, at Sherman, 8271 
 feet, the distance is 33 miles, when suddenly the grade increases to over 
 sixty-six feet per mile. From thence across the continent are numerous 
 ranges of mountains, with valleys of greater or less area intervening, with 
 a general elevation varying from 4000 to 6000 feet ; whence the descent 
 to the Pacific is somewhat rapid and abrupt. The profile of the Kansas 
 Pacific Railroad from Kansas City, on the Missouri River, to Denver, 
 Colorado, shows similar results. At Kansas City the elevation is 764 
 feet, at Denver, 639 miles westward, 5197, making an average ascent of 
 nearly seven feet per mile across an apparently level, treeless plain. A 
 few miles west of Denver the great Colorado or Front Range seems to 
 rise abruptly out of the plains, its summits reaching the line of perpetual 
 snow. Similar results will be found by examining the profile of the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad route anywhere between the meridians of 45° 
 and 48° to the Pacific coast. Indeed, there appears to have been a grad- 
 ual expansion of the earth's crust until it yielded, revealing the vast mass 
 of mountain-ranges which extend across the continent. The details of 
 the causes of these phenomena, and the varied conditions under which 
 they have occurred, are too extended for such an article as this. 
 
 The great mass of the mountain-ranges lie west of the 105th' merid- 
 ian ; the united groups trend about 20° west of north. Along the east- 
 ern slope the smaller or minor ridges have a trend more to the north- 
 west, so that they constantly die out in the plains, giving to the eastern 
 side an echelon appearance. As the small ridges run out, they terminate 
 frequently in a perfect example of an anticlinal, as may be seen near 
 Cache-la-Poudre River. From the notches in the outline of the ranges 
 the Platte, Arkansas, and many other rivers open into the plains. About 
 the sources of the Missouri River the main chain is nine degrees of lon- 
 gitude farther west than in Colorado. In this broad space, and to the 
 eastward, are numerous outliers, as the Black Hills, Big Horn, Bear's 
 Paw, Judith group, etc., all more or less distinctly connected with the 
 main chain. The Black Hills are connected with the Laramie range near 
 the Red Buttes by an anticlinal valley, while the Big Horn is related in 
 
22 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the same way, showing that all these apparently isolated ranges are due 
 to one uniform cause and were elevated at about the same time. 
 
 MOXJNTAIN-EANGES ON THE EASTERN SLOPE. 
 
 It may not be' out of place here to describe briefly some of the moun- 
 tain-ranges on the eastern slope, which have already attracted much at- 
 tention, and will receive far more from the public at no distant day. The 
 Black Hills of Dakota, which of late years have received such a large share 
 of public attention on account of the discoveries of valuable gold-mines 
 within their limits, are located mostly in Dakota Territory, between the 
 43d and 45th degrees of latitude and 103d and 105th degrees of longitude, 
 and occupy an area about one hundred miles in length and sixty in breadth. 
 According to General Warren, the shape of the mass is elliptical, and the 
 major axis trends about ninety degrees west of north. The base of these 
 hills is from 2500 to 3000, and the highest point is about 7000 or 8000 
 feet, above sea-level. The whole range is embraced, as it were, within the 
 forlfs of the Cheyenne Eiver, called the North and South Branches, which, 
 united, constitute the most important stream flowing into the Missouri 
 River from the south side. The North Branch passes along the north- 
 ern side of the range, receiving very many of its tributaries and most 
 of its waters from it, but takes its rise far to the west of the range, near 
 the source of Powder River, in the " divide " between the waters of the 
 YelloAvstone and those of the Missouri. The South Branch also rises 
 in t]je same divide, flowing along the southern base of the range, and 
 also receives numerous tributaries which have their sources in it. These 
 two main branches unite about thirty miles east of the Black Hills, form- 
 ing the Big Cheyenne, which flows into the Missouri about sixty miles 
 above old Fort Pierre. The Moreau, Grand, Cannon Ball, and other 
 rivers flowing into the Missouri north of the Cheyenne and south of the 
 Yellowstone rise in a high Tertiary divide north of the Black Hills, and 
 are for the greater part of the season quite shallow, and sometimes nearly 
 dry ; but the Little Missouri derives a portion of its waters from the 
 Black Hills through a number of small branches which flow from the 
 north-western slope. 
 
 We thus see that the Black Hills do not give rise directly to any im- 
 portant stream, if we except the Little Missouri, a few brasches of which 
 flow from springs near the base of the hills, affording but a comparatively 
 small supply of water from that source. 
 
 Besides the mineral resources of the Black Hills, which of late years 
 have turned out to be so valuable, the timber as well as the agricultural 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 23 
 
 and pastoral capacities are important All around the base are fertile 
 lands, and among the Hills are large open areas which afford most excel- 
 lent feeding-grounds for stock. As we have previously remarked, these 
 Hills occupy an area about one hondred miles in length and sixtv in 
 breadth, or 6000 square miles. Xearly one-third of this area, or about 
 2000 square miles, is covered to a greater or less extent with pine timber. 
 Since the settlement of this country demands these resources, the facilities 
 for transportation of this timber over the treeless portions of the plains 
 will be provided, and the importance of these forests cannot be over-esti- 
 mated. The dark appearance which the dense forests of pine timber give 
 to the Black Hills at a distance has given origin to their name. 
 
 The geolc^cal structure of the Black Hills may be briefly mentioned 
 in this connection. The nucleus or the central portion is composed of 
 red feldspathic granite, with a series of metamorphic slates and schists 
 superimposed, and thence, upon each side of its axi^ of elevation, the va- 
 rious fossiliferous formations of this r^on foUow in their order to the 
 summits of the Cretaceous, the whole inclining against the granitoid rocks 
 at a greater or less angle. There seems to be no marked unconformability 
 in the fcKsiUferous rocks, fiom the Potsdam inclusive to the top of the 
 Cretaceous. From these facts we draw the inference that prior to the 
 elevation of the Black Hills — ^which must have occurred after the deposi- 
 tion of the Cretaceous rocks — all these groups of strata presented an un- 
 broken continuity over the area occupied by these mountains. If this 
 conclusion is a correct one, it will have an important bearing on the 
 physical history of many of the minor ranges of mountains on the 
 eastern slope. It will also enable the geologist to form an approximate 
 estimate of the amount of erosion that has taken place since these minor 
 mountain-groups b^an to rise above the general level of the plains. 
 
 Proceeding in a south-west direction from the Black Hills, we find 
 there are ample proofs of the connection of these hilL? with the Laramie 
 Mountains through a low anticlinal, which can be followed for many miles. 
 It is sometimes concealed by the recent Tertiary beds, bat it reappears at 
 different points. By the Laramie ^Mountains we designate that group of 
 ranges which extends &om the Red Buttes southward to the ArkauFsas 
 River. This group, when examined in detail, is found to be composed 
 of a large number of smaller ranges — all, as far as I have oteerved, of 
 the true granitic tvpe. The trend of the whole group is very nearly north 
 and south — ^northward as &r as Fort Laramie, where it makes an abrupt 
 flexure around to the west and north-west, and gradually ceases or dies 
 out at the Red Butf^s. From this point westward and northward there 
 
24 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 is a space from twenty to forty miles in width destitute of mountain- 
 elevations, though the strata exhibit evidences of dislocations or crust 
 movements. 
 
 The Laramie range is also composed geologically of a granitoid nucleus, 
 with the fossiliferous formations— Silurian, Carboniferous, Jura-Trias, Cre- 
 taceous, and in many places the Lignitic Tertiary— inclining from each side 
 of a central axis at various angles. It is from these mountains that the 
 numerous branches of the Platte Eiver have their sources, extending a 
 distance of nearly four hundred miles. From the observations which I 
 have made in this range, it seems to me the conclusion is plain that all 
 the above-named rocks, in a nearly or quite .horizontal position, were 
 some time during the Tertiary period continuous over the whole area 
 occupied by them at the present time. 
 
 The most important outlier of the Eocky Mountains on the eastern 
 slope is the Big Horn range, which, though somewhat irregular in the 
 shape of its mass, has a general trend nearly north-west and south-east. 
 It occupies an area about one hundred miles in length and fifty in 
 breadth. Near latitude 43J° and longitude 102° the line of fracture 
 seems to have partially died out toward the south and south-east, and to 
 have made a gradual flexure around to the west, the whole range 
 soon losing its granitoid character in the volcanic groups near the 
 Wind River group. 
 
 At the southern end of the Big Horn range we can trace a single low 
 anticlinal across the prairie, connecting these mountains with the Laramie 
 range at the Red Buttes on the North Platte River. They also form a 
 connection with the Wind River Mountains. The central portion of 
 these mountains is also composed of granitic rocks, with the same series 
 of sedimentary beds turned from either flank, inclining at various angles 
 from the axis of elevation, as is seen around the Black Hills and the 
 Laramie. Some of the more lofty peaks are from eight to twelve thou- 
 sand feet high, and are covered with perpetual snow. We may say again, 
 in this connection, that the evidence seems conclusive that up to the time 
 of the accumulation of a large portion of the Lignite beds at least, all 
 these formations, from the Silurian to the true Lignite strata, inclusive, 
 were in a horizontal position, extending continuously over the whole area 
 occupied by the mountains, but as they were slowly elevated the central 
 portions were removed by the erosive action of water. 
 
 Like the Black Hills, the Big Horn range does not give rise to any 
 important sub-hydrographical basins. The largest stream in this region, 
 and one which gives name to the mountains, rises in the Wind River 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 25 
 
 range, passes through the Big Horn Mountains, and unites with the 
 Yellowstone about seventy miles to the northward. Before reaching the 
 mountains it takes the name of "Wind Eiver, and assumes the name of 
 Big Horn after emerging from them. This range constitutes quite an 
 important feeder of the Yellowstone. Powder Eiver, which rises in this 
 range by numerous branches, drains a large area, mostly lignitic Tertiary, 
 and pours a considerable volume of water into the Yellowstone near 
 longitude 105J° and latitude 46|°. Tongue River is the next most im- 
 portant stream, which, though not draining so great an area, empties into 
 the Yellowstone a much larger volume of water. 
 
 Near the junction of the Popo Agie with "Wind River we come in full 
 view of the "Wind River Mountains, which form the dividing crest of 
 the continent, the streams on the one side flowing into the Atlantic and 
 those on the other into the Pacific. This range is also composed to a large 
 extent of red and gray feldspathic granite, with the fossiliferous rocks in- 
 clining from the eastern side. The great Teton range is formed mostly 
 of granitic rocks, though intersected with iykes of trachyte. Basalts are 
 found on the plains to a greater or less extent, in Pierre's Hole, Jack- 
 son's Hole — broad oval parks or basins among the mountains. On Snake 
 River the ancient volcanic rocks seem to have been poured out over the 
 country, and to have cooled in layers, thus giving to great thicknesses the 
 appearance of stratification. 
 
 THE SOUECES OF THE YELLOWSTONE AND MISSOURI. 
 
 The mountains about the sources of the Missouri and Yellowstone 
 Rivers are largely of eruptive origin. Enormous gorges have been worn 
 through two to three thousand feet in thickness of volcanic breccia, ex- 
 posing nearly vertical walls on either side. Probably nowhere on the 
 continent can be found more striking proofs of volcanic action, and it 
 appears to have occurred at a modern date, in a geological sense. Here 
 and there, however, are mica and clay-slates, also feldspathic granites, 
 rising from beneath the eruptive layers and inclining at various angles. 
 One of the most -extraordinary features in the region about the sources 
 of the Yellowstone are a series of what appear to be stratified rocks, 
 composed of volcanic products, which were thrown out of the earth's 
 interior during the remarkable period of volcanic activity, the remains 
 of which are now seen in the numerous geysers and hot springs that 
 have given such celebrity to the country. These volcanic products seem 
 to have been thrown out into water, and afterward redistributed in the 
 form of strata of breccias, conglomerates, tuffs, and sandstones. Alon^; the 
 
26 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 East Fork of the Yellowstone Eiver, and in the Gallatin range, about the 
 sources of Canon and Boulder Creeks, these beds reach a thickness of 
 from three to five thousand feet. Among the breccias are found remark- 
 able specimens of silicified wood. Trunks of trees several feet in diameter, 
 and in one instance twelve feet in length and ten feet across, occur in an 
 upright position. Prostrate trunks of trees fifty to sixty feet in length 
 and five to six feet in diameter are not uncommon. Mr. W. H. Holmes, 
 who was a member of the United States Geological Survey of the Terri- 
 tories in charge of Dr. Hayden, made an examination of these curious 
 trees in the Yellowstone Park. From an article in the Bulletin of the 
 survey, February, 1879, I make the following extracts, which must be 
 read with deep interest : 
 
 " The standing trunks are generally rather short, the degradation of the 
 compact enclosing strata being so slow that the brittle trunks break down 
 almost as fast as they are exposed. In many cases the roots are exposed, 
 and may be seen penetrating the now solid rock with all the original 
 ramifications. One upright frunk, of gigantic proportions, rises from 
 the enclosing strata to the height of twelve feet. By careful measure- 
 ment it w.as found to be ten feet in diameter, and as there is nothing to 
 indicate to what part of the tree the exposed section belongs, the roots 
 may be far below the surface, and we are free to imagine that there is 
 buried here a worthy predecessor of the giant Sequoias of California. 
 Although the trunk is hollow and partly broken down on one side, the 
 woody structure is perfectly preserved, the grain is straight, and the 
 circles of growth distinctly marked. The bark, which still remains on 
 the firmer parts, is four inches thick, and retains perfectly the original 
 deeply-lined outer surface. Specimens of the wood and bark were col- 
 lected, but no microscopic examinations have been made. It is clear, how- 
 ever, that the tree was not a conifer. The strata which enclose this trunk 
 are chiefly fine-grained greenish sandstones, indurated clays, and moder- 
 ately coarse conglomerates. They have been built around it as it stood 
 in comparatively shallow but doubtless quiet waters. As would naturally 
 be expected, these strata contain many vegetable remains : branches, root- 
 lets, fruits, and leaves are extensively enclosed. One stratum of sand- 
 stone that occupies a horizon nearly on a level with the present top of 
 the giant tree contains a great variety of the most perfectly preserved 
 leaves. Such specimens as we were able to bring away with us have 
 been submitted to Professor Leo Lesquereux for identification. They 
 are found by him to belong to the Lower Pliocene or Upper Miocene 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 27 
 
 and correspond in a number of their species with the Chalk Bluffs 
 specimens of Professor Whitney 
 
 " As far above the leaf-bearing horizon as I was able to ascend the 
 silicified trunks were very numerous and well preserved, and by the aid 
 of a field-glass others could be detected in all parts of the cliff to the 
 highest stratum. 
 
 "At another point, nearly a mile. farther east, I climbed the rugged 
 walls of the mountain for the purpose of examining a number of large 
 trees that were visible from below. Trunks and fragments of trunks 
 were found in great numbers and in all conceivable positions. In most 
 cases the woody structure is well preserved ; the trunks have a tendency 
 to break in sections, and on the exposed ends the lines of growth, from 
 centre to circumference, can be counted with ease. In many cases the 
 wood is quite completely opalized or agatized, and such cavities as ex- 
 isted in the decayed trunks are filled with beautiful crystals of quartz 
 and calcite. Our party was so fortunate as to procure some very hand- 
 some specimens of amethyst and ferruginous quartz. It is a matter 
 worthy of observation that nearly all of the beautiful crystals that occur 
 so plentifully in this region have been formed in the hollows of silicified 
 trees. The same fact has been noticed in regard to similar crystals ia 
 many parts of the West, and notably in the case of the smoky quartz of 
 the Pike's Peak region in Colorado. 
 
 " The silicifying agents have been so unusually active in the strata of 
 the volcanic Tertiary that not only are all organic remains thoroughly 
 silicified, but all cavities in the loosely-bedded rocks and all fracture- 
 lines in the strata are filled with chalcedony or other forms of quartz. 
 
 " On reaching the heavily-bedded conglomeratas of the upper third of 
 the cliff, I found the trees still more perfectly preserved. Many of the 
 trunks are twenty and thirty feet in height. Their roots are in most 
 cases imbedded in the layei's of finer-grained materials in which they 
 grew, while the battered and branchless trunks are encased in the coarse 
 conglomerates and breccias. These latter rocks are composed chiefly of 
 basaltic fragments, many of which are of great size ; there is, however, 
 always enough tufaceous and other fine-grained material to fill in the 
 interstices and act as a cement. These beds are massive and irregular, 
 and seem to have accumulated too fast to be thoroughly redistributed 
 by the waters. Only the stronger trees of the forest seem to have with- 
 stood the fierce storms of rocks that must have prevailed at the period of 
 their entombment, as the smaller trunks and branches are prostrate or 
 totally destroyed. In most cases where upright trunks penetrate the 
 
28 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 entire thickness of an enclosing bed, the tops may be seen to terminate 
 with the upper surface of that bed, as if causes had acted at the begin- 
 ning of the deposition of the succeeding stratum to plane down the 
 irregularities of the old surface. In due course of time this succeeding 
 stratum produced its growth of forest, which followed its many prede- 
 cessors into the subterranean depths, and in its turn was buried by the 
 rapidly-accumulating conglomerates. This remarkable alternation of 
 events seems, in a general way, to have been kept up from the beginning 
 to the end of the period. 
 
 " The very precipitous character of the cliffs prevented me from reach- 
 ing the upper part of the wall at this point, but I succeeded in making 
 my way to the summit of the mountain at two other points, and found 
 that everywhere the section was practically the same. 
 
 " On the opposite side of the valley the same conditions were observed : 
 the fossil trees occur at the highest point reached — three thousand feet 
 above the river. The ranges that form the rim of this valley on the 
 north and east reach an elevation of eleven thousand five hundred feet, 
 and as the conglomerates may be seen reaching and forming the loftiest 
 summits without perceptible break or change of character, it is probable 
 that they will be found to enclose the remains of forests throughout. 
 
 " On some of the higher summits to the east of Yellowstone Lake 
 similar stratified conglomerates contain silicified wood in a very frag- 
 mentary state. These conglomerates are composed mainly of basaltic 
 and trachytic materials, but contain large quantities of fragments of sand- 
 stones and quartzites, which leads to the conclusion that portions of the 
 earlier Tertiary strata have been broken up and ejected with the igneous 
 products. It is quite probable that these strata were among the later 
 products of the volcanic Tertiary age proper. They are generally found 
 abutting against masses of unstratified igneous materials that probably 
 mark the sites of islands which were doubtless volcanic centres. I find 
 that as we recede from these centres of eruption the strata diminish very 
 perceptibly in thickness and coarseness of materials, and have at the 
 same time a very perceptible dip toward the surrounding valleys. One 
 is at times led to suspect that portions at least of these beds are of sub- 
 aerial formation, as is the case with extensive strata about the cones of 
 modern volcanoes, but there are a multitude of facts that go to prove that 
 the greater part of the formations of this age were rearranged or sedi- 
 mented in water." 
 
 The plains along the lower Yellowstone are in many localities so 
 thickly covered with silicified trees that they have received the name of 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 29 
 
 " petrified forests." The strong resemblance of these stony trees to the 
 dry fallen trunks of modern timber is most remarkable. The woody 
 fibre and the layers of growth are as perfect and natural as in our living 
 trees. Yet they all belong to a past age, the Tertiary, and the species or 
 varieties are extinct, yet undoubtedly are the true ancestors of our living 
 vegetation. (We may refer to this subject again in connection with 
 remarks on the ancient vegetation of the West.) 
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PAEK. 
 
 In this connection we may describe briefly some of the wonders of the 
 Yellowstone National Park and its surroundings. Within the last decade 
 the remarkable scenery of the Rocky Mountain region has become more 
 and more familiar to the travelling public, and as the facilities for reaching 
 every portion of our great West are increasing every year, those portions 
 which have hitherto been considered accessible only to the adventurous 
 explorer or pioneer will soon be easily reached by the general public. 
 Already a railroad from Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, to the Yellow- 
 stone Park has been commenced, and 125 miles of it are to be completed 
 during the year 1880. The far-famed Yosemite Valley, the Snowy 
 Sierras, the deep gorges of the Colorado of the West, the great area of 
 lofty mountain-peaks in Central Colorado — not surpassed by the world- 
 renowned scenery of the Alpine districts of Europe — are now reached 
 with comparatively little diificulty by the travelling public. Indeed, 
 it may now be said that the era of exploration is past for the United 
 States and Territories, for there are now no tracts of any size that have 
 not been examined with more or less care, and the novelty taken from 
 them. 
 
 Located in the north-western corner of Wyoming Territory, about the 
 head-waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, is a tract of coun- 
 try more remarkable for the wonderful phenomena of Nature than any 
 other region of the globe. It may very properly be called the " North- 
 ern Wonderland," in contradistinction to a similar region in New Zea- 
 land which is now known as the " Southern Wonderland." It is a sin- 
 gular fact that this marvellous region has been known to the world with 
 any certainty only for a period of about ten years. Vague rumors of 
 burning plains, boiling springs, volcanoes ejecting water and mud, great 
 lakes, and other wonders, had indeed reached the civilized world from 
 time to time, but as the most astounding stories of petrified forests, of 
 animals turned to stone, and of streams flowing so rapidly that their 
 waters became heated were intermingled with these rumoi's, the latter 
 
30 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 were disregarded altogether, and were looked upon as the wild vagaries 
 of wandering mountaineers.- 
 
 Captains Lewis and Clarke, in their exploration of the head-waters of 
 the Missoviri in 1805, seem to have heard nothing of the marvels at the 
 sources of the Madison and Yellowstone Rivers. The Yellowstone Lake 
 was placed by them on the map as a large body of water, but they had 
 no personal knowledge yet, their information having been, in all prob- 
 ability, derived from the Indians. The first trustworthy accounts that 
 made any impression on the public were given by a small party under 
 General Washburne, the surveyor-general of Montana, and escorted by a 
 small body of United States soldiers under Lieutenant G. C. Doane, in 
 1870. This party spent about a month in these interesting localities. 
 Hon. N. P. Longford the same year gave a popular account of these 
 phenomena in Soribner's Monthly, which excited great interest. Many 
 other expeditions, official and unofficial, too numerous to mention in this 
 connection, have since visited this region. During the seasons of 1871 
 and 1872 the writer conducted a thoroughly-organized corps in this dis- 
 trict, and made a systematic survey of it. The official report of the expe- 
 dition of 1871, published by the government, created so great an interest 
 among the people that, through the effi)rts of the writer, in February, 
 1872, Congress was induced to pass an act withdrawing from settlement, 
 occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States an area about the 
 sources of the Yellowstone Eiver embracing about thirty-five hundred 
 square miles, dedicating and setting it apart as a public park or pleasure- 
 ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. 
 
 Up to the time of these explorations the great Divide or watershed of 
 the continent was probably the least-known region in America, although 
 it exceeds all other regions in geographical as well as geological interest. 
 So much information of a strictly scientific character was obtained at that 
 time, so many new streams and lakes were surveyed and properly located, 
 that our knowledge of this wonderful land may be said to have been 
 placed upon a reliable basis. 
 
 From a purely geographical point of view, the Yellowstone National 
 Park may be said to embrace some of the most remarkable and instruc- 
 tive features in North America. It forms the very apex or divide of 
 the continent. Within a radius of twenty-five miles may be found the 
 sources of three of the largest rivers in America. The general elevation 
 is from six to eight thousand feet above sea-level, while the mountains, 
 the eternal snows of which form the sources of the great rivers just men- 
 tioned, rise to the height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. Flowing 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 31 
 
 northward are the numerous branches of the Missouri, Yellowstone, and 
 Wind Rivers, all of which eventually unite in one great stream, the Mis- 
 souri ; to the south are the branches of Green Eiver, which latter unites 
 with the Colorado and finally empties into the Gulf of California ; while 
 south and west flow the branches of Snake River, which, joining the 
 Columbia, pour their vast volume of water into the Pacific. 
 
 The Yellowstone Lake, which is one of the most beautiful bodies of 
 water on the continent, is always of a deep emerald-green color, and is set 
 like a gem amid the surrounding volcanic mountain-peaks. On the south 
 side of the lake, not more than half a mile distant from it, and not over 
 three hundred feet above the level of its surface, is the Divide between 
 the drainage of the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. It would require but 
 little labor to turn the waters of the lake into Snake River. Here is 
 located the celebrated Two-Ocean Pass, where at certain seasons of the 
 year the waters of the same channel separate, a portion flowing in either 
 direction. From the summits of the snow-capped peaks surrounding the 
 lake the view is grand beyond description. From the top of Red Moun- 
 tain, on the south side, the scope of vision embraces a circle having a 
 radius of one hundred and fifty miles, within which four hundred and 
 seventy mountain-peaks worthy of a name can be distinctly seen. The area 
 swept by the eye from this point cannot be much less than from thirty to 
 fifty thousand square miles, embracing portions of Wyoming, Montana, 
 Idaho, and Utah, and exhibiting every variety of the grandest and most 
 beautiful scenery. Ten large lakes and several smaller ones are taken in 
 by this view, and the entire Yellowstone Park is spread out under the 
 eye. The purity of the atmosjjhere in these high latitudes is well known, 
 so tliat these statements will not seem exaggerated. On the east side of 
 the Yellowstone River, between the first and second canons, we find one 
 of the most symmetrical and remarkable ranges of mountains to be seen 
 in the West. This range was called the Yellowstone, and has been pro- 
 nounced by Alpine travellers to be equal in beauty and artistic form to 
 any in Central Eiu-ope. Sharp, jagged peaks and pyramidal masses stand 
 out boldly against the sky, their snow-crowned heads glittering in the 
 sunlight. The central portion of this range is composed of granite rocks, 
 through the fissures of which the igneous matter has risen to the surface, 
 covering the sides and summits and giving to the entire mass a peculiarly 
 sombre hue. At > the west base of this range is one of the remarkable 
 lake-basins for which the West has now become famous. This basin has 
 a length of thirty miles and an average width of five miles. It is sup- 
 posed that during the Pliocene Tertiary period there was a series of these 
 
32 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 peculiar lake-;basins all along the upper portions of the great rivers of the 
 West, in the sediments of which were entombed the remains of many 
 extinct animals, such as the mastodon, elephant, rhinoceros, camel, horse, 
 etc., which thousands of years ago roamed over this broad region unmo- 
 lested by man. 
 
 To the geologist the Yellowstone Park offers an endless field for obser- 
 vation and speculation. As we have previously remarked, this entire area 
 was, in comparatively modern geological times, the scene of the most won- 
 derful volcanic activity known in any portion of our country. From 
 innumerable craters or vast fissures in the earth's crust were ejected in 
 Pliocene or Post-Pliocene times vast quantities of fragments of rocks, 
 ashes, tuffs, etc. into the surrounding waters, where they were rearranged 
 in horizontal beds from three to five thousand feet in thickness. It was 
 from these beds that the strange, marvellous forms which meet the eye at 
 every point have been carved out by the erosive action of water. The 
 Grand Canon of the Yellowstone River, the towers of Tower Falls, and 
 the deep gorges of the branches of the East Fork are marked illustrations 
 of this strange scenery. These walls are surmounted by a great variety 
 of architectural forms, among which it does not require a vivid imagi- 
 nation to trace huge castles and fortress-walls. The prevailing hue is a 
 sombre black, although in many localities almost every shade of color is 
 represented. Perhaps the most prominent feature of the park, in which 
 it differs from the Yosemite Valley and other remarkable localities, is the 
 variety of its scenery. The traveller passes from one Tinique scene to an- 
 other, so that his vision never wearies and is never satisfied. 
 
 THE HOT SPRINGS OF YELLOWSTONE NATIOSTAL PAEK. 
 
 Among the remarkable natural phenomena of the Yellowstone National 
 Park, none have attracted more attention from travellers and scientists 
 than the thermal springs, which occur in great numbers. Almost every 
 known variety of hot springs is found here, which are the result of vol- 
 canic action. The Geysers of Iceland, which have excited the wonder of 
 scientific men for several centuries, the still more remarkable and nume- 
 rous hot springs of New Zealand, the mud springs and mud geysers of 
 Java, the sulphur and steam vents which occur in almost all volcanic 
 regions, exist here in vast numbers. Indeed, they surpass in number 
 and magnitude all the world besides. These hot springs, which are 
 slowly dying out, represent the last of a series of remarkable phys- 
 ical events. 
 
 The hot springs of the park may be separated into tsvo classes, based 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 33 
 
 on the character of their deposits — namely, those in the deposits of 
 which lime predominates, and those in which silica is most abundant. 
 The remarkable group on Gardiner's River illustrates the first class, while 
 the Upper and Lower .Geyser Basins of the Firehole River are the most 
 striking examples of the second class. The character of the deposit de- 
 pends upon the nature of the underlying rocks through which the heated 
 waters reach the surface. Beneath the calcareous deposit of the hot 
 springs of Gardiner's River there are from fifteen hundred to two thou- 
 sand feet of limestone strata. The heated waters on their way upward 
 dissolve the lime, and the latter reaches the surface in solution, and is 
 left by evaporation in the beautiful and imique forms which so much ex- 
 cite the admiration of the observer. The siliceous springs come to the 
 surface through volcanic and other rocks in which silica is the principal 
 constituent, and the silica is deposited about the orifice in the same way 
 as the lime, but at a far less rapid rate. Here it is again the process of 
 evaporation which forms the beautiful decorations about the springs. It 
 is, however, to the wonderful variety, exquisitely delicate colors, and the 
 almost unnatural transparency of the waters that these springs owe much 
 of their attractiveness. The orifices through which the hot waters issue 
 are beautifully enamelled with a porcelain-like lining, and around the 
 edges a layer of sulphur is precipitated. Along the sides and bottoms 
 of the numerous little channels of the streams that flow from these springs 
 there is a striking display of the most vivid colors, consisting of various 
 shades of red, from scarlet to a bright rose-tint, and yellow, from bright 
 sulphur through all conceivable shades to light cream-color. There are 
 also various shades of green, arising from fhe peculiar vegetable forms 
 with which many of the springs are filled. Great quantities of a fibrous, 
 silky substance, which occurs in the little streams that flow from the boil- 
 ing springs, and vibrates with the smallest movement of the water, add 
 still more to the beauty of the scene. 
 
 The remarkable transparency and deep, vivid blue color of the waters, 
 as seen in many of the springs, are marvels which attract the eye of the 
 traveller. The sky, with the smallest cloud that flits across its face, is 
 reflected in the clear depth of these waters, and the ultramarine colors 
 displayed by them, more vivid even than the deep blue of the sea, are 
 greatly heightened by the constant gentle vibration. One can look down 
 into the clear depths and see with perfect distinctness the minutest orna- 
 ment on the inner sides of the basin. 
 
 These springs represent every stage of development, from the most ac- 
 tive geysers of the first class in power and size to the entire extinction of 
 
 3 
 
.34 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 all activity. In the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins of the Firehole 
 River there are about iifty springs that might be regarded as geysers of 
 the first class, throwing upward a column of water from a few feet to 
 over\wo hundred feet in height. Then there is' every grade downward 
 to simple boiling, or even quiet, hot springs. All about are seen great 
 numbers of dead springs which may once have been geysers of the first 
 class. Among the hundreds of groups of springs that are distributed 
 over the park the proofs of former intensity are everywhere to be found, 
 showing that the springs still left are only remnants as compared with 
 the number and power of those that must have existed at the cessation of 
 the true volcanic forces. 
 
 Next to the geysers are the mud volcanoes, mud springs, fumaroles, or 
 salses, as they are usually termed. They also vary in grade from a sim- 
 ple bowl of turbid water to a vast crater of seething mud fifty to one 
 hundred feet in diameter. Many of these mud springs are of great 
 beauty, the siliceous fine clay presenting every shade of yellow and pink, 
 derived from the ferric oxides, and a fineness of composition that would 
 equal the purest meerschaum. 
 
 There are also deep boiling caldrons from which are emitted clouds of 
 sulphurous vapors and steam that settle down upon the surrounding veg- 
 etation, encrusting it with fine mud. Dr. Hochstetter, speaking of the 
 same phenomena in the great Southern Wonderland of New Zealand, de- 
 scribes them as follows : 
 
 " The entrance to the ravine is overgrown with a thicket, and is rather 
 difficult of access; it also requires considerable caution, as suspicious 
 places have to be passed where the visitor is in danger of being swal- 
 lowed up in the heated mud. Inside, the ravine has the appearance of a 
 volcanic crater. The bare walls, utterly destitute of vegetation, are ter- 
 ribly fissured and torn, and odd-looking serratures, threatening every mo- 
 ment to break loose, loom up like dismal spectres of red, white, and blue 
 fumarole clay, evidently the last remains of decomposed rocks. The bot- 
 tom of the ravine is simmering. There lies a deep basin of boiling wa- 
 ter ; next to this is a terrible hole emitting hissing jets of steam ; and 
 farther on are mud-cones, from two to five feet high, vomiting hot mud 
 from their craters with dull rumblings, and imitating on a small scale the 
 play of large fire volcanoes." * 
 
 I will not dwell on the probable origin of these thermal springs, as 
 they have been studied by some of the ablest men of science in Europe, 
 as Bunsen, Bischofi", Tyndall, and others, and their conclusions have been 
 * Hochstetter's New Zealand, p. 414. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 35 
 
 accepted. It is supposed that they are all remnants of volcanic action, 
 and, like volcanoes, derive their heat from some deep-seated portion of 
 the earth's crust. Geysers may be regarded as volcanoes, except that the 
 former throw out heated waters, while the latter eject melted materials, etc. 
 
 LEGISLATION RESPECTING YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. . 
 
 As has been previously stated, during the session of 1871-72 both 
 Houses of Congress passed a bill to set apart an area about the sources of 
 the Yellowstone River embracing these wonderful curiosities as a public 
 park for the benefit and instruction of the people. At the request of 
 the committee to whom the bill wasVeferred, the writer prepared the fol- 
 lowing report, and on the strength of the information contained therein 
 the bill became a law: 
 
 " The Committee on the Public Lands, having under consideration bill 
 H. R. 764, would report as follows : 
 
 "The bill now before Congress has for its object the withdrawal from 
 settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States a tract 
 of land fifty-five miles wide by sixty-five long about the sources of the 
 Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, and dedicates and sets it apart as a 
 great national park or pleasure-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of 
 the people. The entire area comprised within the limits of the reserva- 
 tion contemplated in this bill is not susceptible of cultivation with any 
 degree of certainty, and the winters would be too severe for stock-raising. 
 Whenever the altitude of the mountain-districts exceeds six thousand 
 feet above tide-water, their settlement becomes problematical, unless there 
 are valuable mines to attract the people. The entire area within the 
 limits of the proposed reservation is over six thousand feet in altitude, 
 and the Yellowstone Lake, which occupies an area fifteen by twenty-two 
 miles, or three hundred and thirty square miles, is 7788 feet. The ranges 
 of mountains that hem the valleys in on every side rise to the height 
 of ten to twelve thousand feet, and are covered with snow all the year. 
 These mountains are all of volcanic origin, and it is not probable that 
 toy mines or minerals of value will ever be found there. During the 
 months of June, July, and August the climate is pure and most invigor- 
 ating, with scarcely any rain or storms of any kind, but the thermometer 
 frequently sinks as low as 26°. There is frost every month in the year. 
 This whole region was in comparatively modern geological times the 
 scene of the most wonderful volcanic activity of any portion of our 
 country. The hot springs and geysers represent the last stages — the 
 vents or escape-pipes — of these remarkable volcanic manifestations of 
 
36 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the internal forces. All these springs are adorned with decorations more 
 beautiful than human art ever conceived, and which have required thou- 
 sands of years for the cunning hand of Nature to form. Persons are 
 now waiting for the spring to open to enter in and take possession of 
 these remarkable curiosities, to make merchandise of these beautiful 
 specimens, to fence in these rare wonders so as to charge visitors a fee, as 
 is now done at Niagara Falls, for the sight of that which ought to be as 
 free as the air or water. 
 
 " In a few years this region will be a place of resort for all classes of 
 people from all portions of the world. The Geysers of Iceland, which 
 have been objects of interest for the scientific men and travellers of the 
 entire world, sink into insignificance in comparison with the hot springs 
 of the Yellowstone and Firehole Basins. As a place of resort for in- 
 valids it will not be excelled by any portion of the world. If this bill 
 fails to become a law this session, the vandals who are now waiting to 
 enter into this wonderland will in a single season despoil beyond recovery 
 these remarkable curiosities, which have required all the cunning skill of 
 Nature thousands of years to prepare. 
 
 " We have already shown that no portion of this tract can ever be 
 made available for agricultural or mining purposes. Even if the altitude 
 and the climate would permit the country to be made available, not over 
 fifty square miles of the entire area could ever be settled. The valleys are 
 all narrow, hemmed in by high volcanic mountains like gigantic walls. 
 
 " The withdrawal of this tract, therefore, from sale or settlement takes 
 nothing from the value of the public domain, and is no pecuniary loss to 
 the government, but -will be regarded by the entire civilized world as a 
 step of progress and an honor to Congress and the nation. 
 
 "Department of the Inteeioe, 1 
 Washington, D. C, January 29, 1872. j 
 
 " SiE : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your commu- 
 nication of the 27th inst., relative to the bill now pending in the House 
 of Representatives dedicating that tract of country known as the Yellow- 
 stone Valley as a national park. 
 
 " I hand you herewith the report of Dr. F. V. Hayden, United States 
 Greologist, relative to said proposed reservation, and have only to add 
 that I fully concur in his recommendations, and trust that the bill referred 
 to may speedily become a law. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 " C. Delano, Seardary. 
 
 " Hon. M. H. DuNNELL, House of Eepresentatives. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 37 
 
 " The committee therefore recommend the passage of the bill without 
 amendment." 
 
 The text of the bill is as follows : 
 
 "An act to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the head-waters 
 of the Yellowstone River as a Public Park. Be it enacted by the Senate 
 and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Con- 
 gress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and 
 Wyoming lying near the head-waters of the Yellowstone River, and 
 described as follows — to wit : commencing at the junction of Gardiner's 
 River with the Yellowstone River, and running east to the meridian 
 passing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of Yellow- 
 stone Lake ; thence south along said meridian to the parallel of latitude 
 passing two miles south of the most southern point of Yellowstone Lake ; 
 thence west along said parallel to the meridian passing fifteen miles west 
 of the most western point of Madison Lake ; thence north along said 
 meridian to the latitude of the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardi- 
 ner's Rivers ; thence east to the place of beginning, — is hereby reserved 
 and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the 
 United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring- 
 ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people ; and all persons who 
 shall locate or settle upon or occupy the same or any part thereof, except 
 as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and removed 
 therefrom. 
 
 " Sec. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control 
 of the Secijf tary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as prac- 
 ticable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem 
 necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such 
 regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoliation 
 of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within 
 said park, and their retention in their natural condition. The Secretary 
 may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes, for terms not 
 exceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground, at such places in said 
 park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of 
 visitors ; all of the proceeds of said leases and all other revenues that 
 may be derived from any source connected with said park to be expended 
 under his direction in the management of the same and the construction 
 of roads and bridle-paths therein. He shall provide against the wanton 
 destruction of the fish and game found within said park, and against 
 their capture or destruction for the purpose of merchandise or profit. 
 He shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the pas- 
 
38 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 sage of this act to be removed therefrom, and generally shall be author- 
 ized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully car- 
 ry out the objects and purposes of this act." Approved March 1, 1872. 
 
 PEINCIPAL EIVEKS OP THE NOETH-WEST. 
 
 In this connection it is thought best to present a brief account of the 
 principal rivers that drain the vast area of the North-west. 
 
 The Missouri River and its tributaries form one of the largest as well 
 as most important hydrographical basins in America. They drain an 
 area of nearly or quite one million square miles. Rising in the loftiest 
 portion of the Rocky Mountains, the Missouri flows northward in three 
 principal branches — Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson Forks — to their 
 junction, and then proceeds onward until it emerges from the Gate of the 
 Mountains, nearly two hundred miles ; it then bends to the eastward, flow- 
 ing in this direction to the entrance of White Earth River, a distance of 
 nearly five hundred miles ; it then gradually bends southward to its junc- 
 tion with the Mississippi, a distance of fifteen hundred to two thousand 
 miles. The branches which form the sources of the Missouri rise in and 
 near the Yellowstone National Park, flowing for the most part through 
 metamorphic and volcanic rocks, until the main river emerges from the 
 mountains into the plains, where it passes over Jura-Trias beds. The 
 Falls of the Missouri, which extend for a distance of twenty or thirty 
 miles, cut their way through a great thickness of these Jura-Trias rocks. 
 Below the falls the channel passes through the soft yielding clays and 
 sands of the Cretaceous beds for two hundred and fifiy miles, with the 
 exception of the Judith Tertiary Basin, which is about forty miles in 
 length. The Cretaceous beds then reappear, extending nearly to the 
 mouth of Milk River, where the Lignitic beds commence. These are 
 also composed of sands, marls, and clays, with intercalated beds of brown 
 coal of greater or less economic value. The river flows through these 
 Lignitic beds to the mouth of Heart River, below Fort Union, a distance 
 of nearly two hundred and fifty miles, where the Cretaceous rocks rise 
 to the surface again. These latter formations extend to within a short 
 distance of Council Bluffs, more than five hundred miles. (I have esti- 
 mated the distance in a straight line as nearly as possible.) Just above 
 Council Bluffs the Coal-measure limestones commence, and the valley of 
 the Missouri gradually becomes more restricted, though it is still of mod- 
 erate width below the mouth of the Kansas. 
 
 The Yellowstone River is by far the largest branch of the Missouri, 
 and for four hundred miles, from its mouth up, it seems to be as large as 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 39 
 
 the Missouri itself from Fort Eeno to Fort Union. It is navigable for 
 steamers during the spring and early summer for three or four hundred 
 miles above its junction with the Missouri. This river takes its rise in 
 the main Divide of the Rocky Mountains, properly in the beautiful and 
 now well-known Yellowstone Lake. Its channel is worn through rocks 
 very similar to those of the Missouri and its branches, the lower four hun- 
 dred miles of its course being through the Lignitic beds for the most part. 
 The character of its valley is very similar to that of the Missouri. It is 
 now settled up by farmers almost continuously from the lower caflon to 
 its junction with the Missouri. 
 
 Tongue and Powder Rivers, which are quite long branches, have their 
 origin in the Big Horn Mountains, their channels cutting through the 
 rocks that surround the Big Horn range. Tongue River is nearly one 
 hundred and fifty miles in length, and flows for the most part through 
 soft, yielding rocks of the Lignitic group. Powder River is from two 
 hundred and fifty to three hundred miles in length, and also flows nearly 
 all its course through the same Lignitic beds. 
 
 Below the mouth of the Yellowstone River we observe on the right 
 side of the Missouri River several large branches, as Little Missouri, Big 
 Knife, Heart, Cannon Ball, Grand, Moreau, and Big Cheyenne. These 
 streams are confined mostly to the plains, and often cease to be running 
 streams in the dry season, except about their sources. 
 
 The Teton River takes its origin in the north-western rim of the White 
 River Tertiary Lake-Basin, and runs nearly east, for the most part through 
 formations of Upper Cretaceous age. It drains an area about one hun- 
 dred miles in length and thirty to fifty in breadth. 
 
 The next most prominent stream is "White River, which flows directly 
 through the Bad Lands, and gives the name to one of the most remark- 
 able Tertiary deposits in the world. (This interesting lake-basin will be 
 referred to again farther on.) The river takes its rise in the plains near 
 latitude 42J° and longitude 104°, flows for a time in a north-east direc- 
 tion, then bends so as to enter the Missouri a little south of east near 
 latitude 43° 41' and longitude 99|°. Nearly its entire course lies through 
 the White River Tertiary beds, and for the greater part of the year its 
 waters are so full of sediment as to be unfit for use. When the water 
 stands for a time a thick scum accumulates on the surface, which has much 
 the color and consistency of cream. The water itself looks very much like 
 turbid lime-water, and is very astringent to the taste. The valley is gen- 
 erally open, tolerably well wooded, abounding in fine grass, and has always 
 been a favorite resort for the Indians. The road between Fort Reno on 
 
40 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the Missouri River and Fort Laramie passes up the valley for a consider- 
 able distance through some of the most picturesque scenery in the West. 
 The river has numerous branches, but the only one of importance is called 
 the South Fork, and is nearly as large and as long as the main stream. 
 It drains an area about two hundred and fifty miles in length and forty 
 to sixty in breadth. 
 
 The Niobrara is the next most important stream, and is about four hun- 
 dred and fifty miles in length. This also flows for the most part through 
 the sands and clays of the Great Lake-Basin, of which the well-known 
 " Bad Lands " form a conspicuous part. It is a beautiful stream of rather 
 swift running water, generally ten to fifteen feet in width, but widening 
 as it descends. There is much fertile land in this valley, possessing many 
 attractions for the settler. It has always been a favorite camping-place 
 for the various bands of Indians that roam over this region. 
 
 The great sub-hydrographical basin, and perhaps in many respects the 
 most important one in the Missouri Valley, is that of the Platte, which 
 empties into the Missouri River near latitude 41° 3' 24". Its valley 
 forms a natural grade for a railroad to the foot of the mountains, and 
 already one has been constructed from Omaha City across the continent. 
 The Platte River takes its rise in the Laramie range, and flows for the 
 greater part of its course through the more recent beds of the Tertiary de- 
 posits. The area drained by this river must be at least six hundred miles 
 from west to east, and eighty to one hundred and fifty from north to south. 
 Although this stream is one thousand yards or more in width, the water 
 is so shallow and the channel so .shifting that it can never be rendered 
 navigable, even for small boats. In early days the fur-traders were never 
 able to rely on it for the transportation of their peltries, furs, and skins. 
 
 On the left or north side of the Missouri River there are comparatively 
 few branches ; the principal of them are Milk, White Earith, James, Ver- 
 milion, and Big Sioux. The three last named rise in the far north and 
 flow through a much more rocky region and over a stonier bed, and their 
 waters, as they pour into the Missouri, contain less sediment than any of 
 the others. Indeed, most of the rivers previously described flow through 
 a generally barren country, with a thirsty atmosphere and a still more 
 thirsty soil, and on their way to the Missouri Valley they lose nearly 
 or quite all their waters. Many of these long rivers, as Grand, Cannon 
 Ball, and Cheyenne, in the autumn frequently have so little water as to 
 cease to be running streams, while perhaps one hundred miles above their 
 mouths, if in the vicinity of some mountain, there is a full supply of 
 water. The Musselshell River is a fine example : toward its source it is 
 
THE GitEAT WEST. 41 
 
 a fine running stream ; in the dry season it is lost almost entirely before 
 
 reaching the Missouri. Much more might be said in this connection, but 
 
 .enough has been given to enable the reader to comprehend to some extent 
 
 the geographical area drained by the Missouri Eiver and its tributaries. 
 
 THE TERTIAEY LAKE-BASINS OF THE WEST. 
 
 We have frequently spoken in reference to the wonderful Tertiary lake- 
 basins of the West. These were first made known on the eastern slope 
 of the Rocky Mountains, and among the most wonderful is that of 
 the Mauvaises Terres, or " Bad Lands," of Dakota. These lake-basins 
 are found all over the West, from the Missouri River to the Pacific 
 coast, and belong in age to various divisions of the Tertiary epoch. 
 There is no water in them at this time, and their existence is only 
 known to the student of geology. 
 
 During the Tertiary period the Bad Lands Basin occupied an area of 
 at least one hundred thousand, and very possibly one hundred and fifty 
 thousand, square miles. It will thus be seen that our greatest northern 
 lakes, of which we so proudly boast, are but ponds in comparison with 
 some that once existed in this mountain-region. The close observer will 
 notice at once that he is passing into a district, the rock-formations of 
 which are quite different from any that he has seen before. He finds 
 also that he is passing beyond the region of great fertility, luxuriant 
 vegetation, fine farms, and fields of grain to a comparatively arid, 
 sterile region; still, the broad bottoms of the Platte are covered with 
 a fair growth of grass, but the chances for the successful cultivation 
 of crops of any of the cereals are very small. The soil becomes too 
 thin, sandy, and arid for the growth of anything more than a scanty 
 vegetation. 
 
 We might linger here for a moment and inquire into some of the 
 causes that have produced this scantiness of vegetation and almost entire 
 absence of trees over so large an area. There is quite a remarkable belt 
 or zone of country along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, ex- 
 tending from the Arctic Sea far south to Mexico, upon which but a 
 small amount of moisture ever falls. This has often been denominated 
 the Great American Desert. In years past this belt was supposed to com- 
 prise the greater portion of the area i lying between the Missouri River 
 and the foot of the mountains, but every year, as we know more and 
 more of the country, this belt becomes narrower and narrower, and as a 
 continuous area it has already ceased to exist, even in imagination. There 
 are, however, large portions of the country that are comparatively worth- 
 
42 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 less and arid, which may be called barren or sterile. It is now pretty 
 well understood that the cause of the absence of timber in this great 
 region is want of moisture. A very clear explanation of this subject, 
 and one which seems in accordance with the facts, is given by Professor 
 Dana in Silliman's Journal (vol. xl., page 393). If we were to examine 
 a rain-chart, we should find that where the forests are most luxuriant, as 
 along the Atlantic coast in the southern portion of the Mississippi Valley, 
 the greatest amount of rain falls annually — say fifty to sixty-five inches ; 
 and as soon as we approach any of the interior basins of the Western 
 continent, or any portion of this dry belt, we observe that the amount of 
 moisture diminishes to thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten, and in some cases to as 
 low as five inches, annually. Again, along the Missouri River, where 
 the vegetation is quite extensive and the forest trees abundant, we have 
 twenty to thirty inches of rain, but as soon as we pass to the westward 
 three hundred miles we have but ten or fifteen inches. On the Pacific 
 coast of Oregon and Washington, whose gigantic forests are celebrated 
 all over the world, we find that from fifty-five to sixty-five inches of rain 
 fall annually. We might multiply these illustrations, but the evidence 
 seems to be conclusive. 
 
 There is another point that may be worthy of note here, and that is 
 the prevailing impression among all the inhabitants of the West of a 
 gradual change of climate by settlement and the cultivation of the soil. 
 It is a fact that over a width of one hundred miles or more along the 
 Missouri River the little groves of timber are extending their area, that 
 springs of water are continually issuing from the ground where none 
 were ever known before, and that the distribution of rain throughout 
 the year is more equable. Such being the case, time may work import- 
 ant changes, and settlements may at some period cause a large portion 
 of that belt which has hitherto been regarded as given up to sterility to 
 become of value for the abode of man. 
 
 The valleys of the Loup Fork and the Niobrara Rivers, although 
 largely uninhabitable, are full of interest to the geologist. Located 
 along these rivers is one of those grand cemeteries of extinct animals 
 which have excited the wonder of intelligent men all over the world. 
 Farther to the north-west, on White Earth River, is another of these 
 far-famed bone-deposits. These two interesting localities bear such a 
 relation to each other in the order of time and the relationship of the 
 animals preserved in them that they should be described in the same 
 connection. I will therefore take the reader at once to the valley of 
 White Earth River, near the south-western base of the Black Hills, and 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 43 
 
 there we shall behold one of the wildest regions on this continent. It 
 has always gone by the name of " Bad Lands ;" by the Canadian French 
 known as Mauvaises Terres; in the Dakota tongue, Ma-ko6-si-tcha. 
 These words signify a very difficult country to travel through, not only 
 from the ruggedness of the surface, but also from the absence of any 
 good water and the small supply of wood and game. In the summer 
 the sun pours its rays on the bare white walls, which are reflected on the 
 weary traveller with double intensity, not only oppressing him with the 
 heat, but so dazzling his eyes that he is not unfrequently affected with 
 temporary blindness. I have spent many days exploring this region 
 when the thermometer was 112° in the shade and there was no water 
 suitable for drinking purposes within fifteen miles. But it is only to 
 the geologist that this place can have any permanent attractions. He 
 can wind his way through the wonderful caflons among some of the 
 grandest ruins in the world. Indeed, it resembles a gigantic city fallen 
 to decay. Domes, towers, minarets, and spires may be seen on every 
 side, which assume a great variety of shapes when viewed in the distance. 
 Not unfrequently, the rising or the setting sun will light up these grand 
 old ruins with a wild, strange beauty, reminding one of a city illumi- 
 nated in the night when seen from some high point. The harder layers 
 project from the sides of the valley or cation with such regularity that 
 they appear like seats, one above the other, of some vast amphitheatre. 
 
 THE FOSSIL TEBASUEES OF THE LAKE-BASINS. 
 
 It is at the foot of these apparent architectural ruins that the curious, 
 fossil treasures are found. In the oldest beds we find the teeth and 
 jaws of a hyopotamus, a river-horse much like the hippopotamus, who 
 must have sported in his pride in the marshes that bordered this lake. 
 So, too, the titanotherium, a gigantic pachyderm, was associated with a 
 species of hornless rhinoceros. These huge rhinoceroid animals appear 
 at first to have monopolized this entire region, and the plastic, sticky 
 clay of the lowest bed of this basin, in which the remains were found, 
 seems to have formed a suitable bottom to the; lake in which these thick- 
 skinned monsters could wallow at pleasure. As we pass higher up in 
 the sediments, we find the remains of a great variety of land animals 
 mingled with those that were aquatic in their nature. In a bed of flesh- 
 colored marl which is visible for a great distance, like a broad band in 
 the sides of these washed hills, thousands of turtles- were imbedded, and 
 are preserved to the present time with surprising perfection, the hard 
 portions of them being as complete as when they were swimming about 
 
44 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ill these Tertiary waters hundreds of thousands of years ago. They 
 vary in size from an inch or two across the back to three or four feet. 
 But one species has ever been discovered in this basin, and so far as we 
 know these reptiles made up in numbers what they lacked in variety. 
 Associated with the remains of the turtles are those of a number of 
 ruminants, all belonging to extinct genera, and possessing peculiar cha- 
 racters which ally them to the deer and. the hog. Indeed, Dr. Leidy 
 calls them ruminating hogs. Like the domestic species, they were pro- 
 vided with cutting teeth and canines, but the grinding teeth are con- 
 structed after the same pattern as those of all living ruminants. The 
 feet of these animals were also provided with four toes as in the hog, 
 and none of them possessed horns or antlers. They appear to have 
 existed in immense numbers, and to have lived in great herds like the 
 bisons of the West. Remains of more than seven hundred individuals 
 of one species have been already studied and described by Dr. Leidy. 
 Their enemies were numerous — ^wolves, hyaenodons, and sabre-tooth tigers. 
 
 If we pass for a moment southward into the valleys of the Niobrara 
 and Loup Fork, we shall find a fauna closely allied, yet entirely distinct 
 from the one on White River, and plainly intermediate between that of 
 the latter and of the present period ; one appears to have lived during 
 the Middle or Miocene Tertiary period, and the other at a later time, in 
 what is called the Pliocene. In the later fauna were the remains of a 
 number of species of extinct camels, one of which was of the size of the 
 Arabian camel, a second about two-thirds as large ; also a smaller one. 
 The only animals akin to the camels at the present time in the Western 
 hemisphere are the llama and its allies in South America. Not less in- 
 teresting are the remains of a great variety of forms of the horse family, 
 one of which was about as large as the ordinary domestic animal, and 
 the smallest not more than two or two and a half feet in height, with 
 every intermediate grade in size. There was still another animal allied 
 to the horse, about the size of a Newfoundland dog, which was provided 
 with three hoofs to each foot, though the lateral hoofs were rudimental. 
 Although no horses were known to exist on this continent prior to its 
 discovery by Europeans, yet Dr. Leidy has shown that before the age of 
 man this was emphatically the country of horses. Dr. Leidy has re- 
 ported twenty-seven species of the horse family which are known to have 
 lived on this continent prior to the advent of man — about three times 
 as many as are now found living throughout the world. 
 
 Among the carnivores were several foxes and wolves, one of which was 
 larger than any now living ; three species of hyanodon — animals whose 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 45 
 
 teeth indicate that they were of remarkably rapacious habits ; also five 
 animals of the cat tribe were found, one about the size of a small panther 
 and another as large as the largest wolf. Several of the skulls of the 
 tiger-like animals exhibited the marks of terrible conflicts with the con- 
 temporary hysenodons. 
 
 Among the rodents were a porcupine, small beaver, rabbit, mouse, etc. 
 
 The pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals, were quite numerous and 
 of great interest, from the fact that none of them are living on this 
 continent at the present time, and yet here we find the remains of sev- 
 eral animals allied to the domestic hog — one about the size of this animal, 
 another as large as the African hippopotamus, and a third not much 
 larger than the domestic cat. 
 
 Five species of the rhinoceros roamed through these marshes, ranging 
 from a small, hornless species, about the size of our black bear, to the 
 largest, which was about the size of the existing unicorn of India. No 
 animals of the kind now inhabit the "Western hemisphere. 
 
 Among the thick-skinned animals were the remains of a mastodon 
 and a large elephant, distinct from any others heretofore discovered in 
 any part of the world. Dr. Leidy says that "it is remarkable that 
 among the remains of mammals and turtles there are none of crocodiles. 
 Where were these creatures when the shores of the ancient Dakotan 
 and Nebraskan waters teemed with such an abundant provision of sa- 
 vory ruminating hogs?" During the Tertiary period Nebraska and 
 Dakota were the homes of a race of animals more closely allied to those 
 inhabiting Asia and Africa now, and from their character we may sup- 
 pose that during that period the climate was considerably warmer than 
 it is at present. The inference is also drawn that our world, which is 
 usually called the New, is in reality the Old World, older than the East- 
 ern hemisphere. 
 
 THE PEE-HISTOEIC GEOGEAPHY OF THE LAKE-BASINS. 
 
 Ever since the commencement of creation constant changes of form 
 have been going on in our earth. Oceans and mountains have disap- 
 peared, and others have taken their place. Entire groups of animal and 
 vegetable life have passed away, and new forms have come into exist- 
 ence through a series of years which no finite mind can number. To 
 enable the mind to realize the physical condition of our planet during all 
 these past ages is the highest end to be attained by the study of geological 
 facts. It has been well said by an eloquent historian that he who calls 
 the past back again into being enjoys a bliss like that of creating. 
 
46 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 We may attempt to form some idea of the physical geography of this 
 region at the time when these animals wandered over the country, and 
 to speculate as to the manner in which their remains have been so beau- 
 tifully preserved for our examination. We may suppose that here was 
 a large fresh-water lake during the Middle Tertiary period ; that it began 
 near the south-eastern side of the Black Hills, not large at first, nor deep, 
 but as a marsh or mud-wallow for the gigantic pachyderms that lived 
 at the time — that as time passed on it became deeper and expanded its 
 limits until it covered the vast area which its sediments indicate. We 
 cannot attempt to point out in detail all the changes through which we 
 may suppose, from the facts given us, this lake has passed during the 
 thousands of years that elapsed from its beginning to its extinction — time 
 long enough for two distinct faunse to have commenced their existence 
 and passed away in succession, not a single species passing from one 
 into the other. Even that small fraction of geological time seems in- 
 finite to a finite mind. We believe that the great range of mountains 
 that now lies to the west of this basin was not as lofty as now — ^that 
 doubtless the treeless plains were covered with forests or grassy meadows 
 upon which the vast herds of gregarious ruminants cropped their food. 
 Into this great lake on every side poured many little streams from broad 
 valleys, fine ranging-ground for the numerous varieties of creatures 
 that existed at that time. Large numbers of fierce carnivorous beasts 
 mingled with the multitudes of gregarious ruminants, constantly devour- 
 ing them as food. As many of the bones, either through death by vio- 
 lence or natural causes, were left in the valleys, they would be swept 
 down by the first high waters into the lake and enveloped in the sedi- 
 ments at the bottom. As the gregarious ruminants came down to the 
 little streams or by the shores of the lake to quench their thirst, they 
 would be pounced upon by the flesh-loving hysenodon, drepanodon, or 
 dinictis. It was probably near this place also that these animals would 
 meet in fierce conflicts, the evidences of which remain to the present 
 time in the cavities which the skulls reveal ; one of these, of a huge 
 cat, shows on either side the holes through the bony covering which 
 had partially healed before the animal perished, and the cavities seem 
 to correspond in form and position with the teeth of the largest hy- 
 asnodon. 
 
 The remains of those animals which, from their very nature, could not 
 have existed in great numbers, are not abundant in the fossil state, 
 while those of the ruminants occur in the greatest abundance and are 
 widely diffused in the sediments, not only geographically, but vertically. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 47 
 
 The chances for the preservation of the remains of a species seem to 
 depend upon the number of individuals that existed. The remains of 
 ruminants already obtained comprise at least nine-tenths of the entire 
 collection, while of one species portions of at least seven hundred indi- 
 viduals have been discovered. We might take examples from the ani- 
 mals that exist in this region at the present time that would illustrate 
 the point. The wolves watch the deer, antelope, and other feebler ani- 
 mals as they go down to the little streams for water, and all over the 
 wide bottoms their skeletons are distributed in a more or less perfect 
 condition. Whenever a bison becomes too feeble by disease or age to 
 offer a successful resistance, the wolves soon despatch him and his bones 
 are left bleaching on the ground. In most cases these animals when 
 pursued betake themselves to the water, where they are not unfrequent- 
 ly drowned or despatched on a sand-bar or island; Annually, thousands 
 of buffaloes, in attempting to cross the Missouri River and some of its 
 large tributaries on the ice as it is breaking up in the spring, are 
 drowned. For many days their bodies are seen floating down the river 
 by Fort Union or Fort Clark, and, lodging on some of the islands or 
 sand-bars, fill the air with the stench of their decay. In the spring of 
 1857 thousands of their bodies floated down the Kansas River past Fort 
 Riley, and were carried into the Missouri River. These animals are 
 often mired in the marshes or the muddy shores of lakes or streams in 
 great numbers. We know what vast numbers of the naastodon have 
 been preserved in the Big Bone Licks of Kentucky, and of the Irish elk 
 in the bogs of Ireland. We might instance hundreds of examples to 
 show how easily these animals, roaming and feeding along the numerous 
 streams flowing into some great lake, could be transported in part or 
 entire into the lake, and sinking to the bottom would be enveloped in 
 the muddy sediments. 
 
 There is another interesting feature in regard to these remarkable 
 fossils, and that is the beauty and perfection of their preservation ; the 
 bones are so clean and white and the teeth so perfect that, when ex- 
 posed upon the surface, they present the appearance of having bleached 
 only for a season. They could not havp been transported from a great 
 distance, neither could the waters have been swift and turbulent, for 
 the bones seldom show any signs of having been water-worn, and the 
 nice sharp points and angles are as perfect as in life. I have dwelt thus 
 long on the details of this great lake-basin not only on account of the 
 universal interest that invests it, and the wonderful treasures of the past 
 which it has revealed to the world, but because its history is applicable 
 
48 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 in the main to the numbers of the other fresh-water lake-basins of the 
 geological past which are distributed throughout the Eocky Mountain 
 region. 
 
 Before leaving thig subject there is another interesting topic of in- 
 quiry — why such a beautiful series of vertebrate remains should be so 
 perfectly preserved in this lake-deposit, and yet the remains of other 
 forms of animal and vegetable life be almost entirely absent. The sedi- 
 ments seem to be peculiarly adapted to the preservation of a full series 
 of documents bearing upon the history of those times. And yet in the 
 older beds, where the mammalian remains are most abundant, only one 
 small species of snail, a land-shell, is found preserved. Where is the 
 evidence of the swarms of fishes that must have filled the streams and 
 lakes of that time ? Of the vegetable life, if any existed, only now and 
 then a fragment of silicified wood is found, and that, too, in the latest 
 deposits. I am prepared to believe that the broad plains were, even at 
 the time of the existence of these animals, as treeless as at present, yet I 
 am quite unprepared to explain the almost entire absence of vegetable 
 remains. We know that fresh-water shells, much like those existing in 
 the little clear streams of the present time, as well as some remains of 
 fishes, are found in some limestones on the summits of hills near Pinos 
 Spring on the northern rim of the lake. 
 
 Another interesting question occurs to me in this connection : How was 
 it that a complete fauna, comprising more than forty species of animals, 
 was introduced upon the earth, lived through its legitimate period, entirely 
 perished or was swept out of existence, and an entirely new fauna, com- 
 prising about the same number and variety, was again introduced in the 
 same region ? It too lived out its period of existence, which must have 
 been hundreds of thousands of years, and yet every one of this group of 
 animals disappeared from the globe, leaving nothing behind to tell the 
 tale but fragments of their bony skeletons accidentally enveloped in the 
 sediment at the bottom of an estuary or lake. 
 
 It will be seen at a glance that this is a fruitful topic for speculation, 
 and I leave it with the reader. Some of the species of animals found in 
 the latest deposits seem to have lived very nearly up to our present period. 
 The horns of a deer and the bones of a sand-hill crane have such a modern 
 aspect that the thought arises. Where was man when these animals were 
 roaming over this region ? Eecent investigations show quite conclusively 
 that man was an inhabitant of Europe contemporaneously with many of 
 the extinct animals of the Quaternary period, but it is doubtful whether 
 we have ever found any evidence that he lived at a very remote period 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 49 
 
 on this continent. Indeed, so far as we know at present, the West is 
 singularly silent as to the existence of man in what are now understood 
 as pre-historic times. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA IN THE TERTIARY AGE. 
 
 . The following picture of North America during the Tertiary age is 
 drawn by Professor Newberry in Hayden's Annual Report for 1870 : 
 
 " Then a warm and genial climate prevailed from the Gulf to the Arctic 
 Sea ; the Canadian highlands were higher, but the Eocky Mountains lower 
 and less broad. Most of the continent exhibited an undulating surface — 
 rounded hills and broad valleys covered with forests grander than any of 
 the present day, or wide expanses of rich savannah, over which roamed 
 countless herds of animals, many of gigantic size, of which our present 
 meagre fauna retains but a few dwarfed representatives. Noble rivers 
 flowed through plains and valleys, and sea-like lakes, broader and more 
 numerous than those the continent now bears, diversified the scenery. 
 Through unnumbered ages the seasons ran their ceaseless course, the sun 
 rose and set, moons waxed and waned over this fair land, but no human 
 eye was there to mark its beauty nor human intellect to control and use 
 its exuberant fertility. Flowers opened their many-colored petals on 
 meadow and hillside, and filled the air with their perfumes, but only for 
 the delectation of the wandering bee. Fruits ripened in the sun, but 
 there was no hand there to pluck nor any speaking tongue to taste. Birds 
 sang in the trees, but for no ears but their own. The surface of lake or 
 river was whitened by no sail, nor furrowed by any prow but the breast 
 of the water-fowl ; and the far-reaching shores echoed no sound but the 
 dash of the waves and the lowing of the herds that slaked their thirst in 
 the crystal waters. 
 
 " Life and beauty were everywhere, and man, the great destroyer, had 
 not yet come ; but not all was peace and harmony in this Arcadia. The 
 forces of Nature are always at war, and redundant life compels abundant 
 death. The innumerable species of animals and plants had each its he- 
 reditary enemy, and the struggle of life was so sharp and bitter that in 
 the lapse of ages many genera and species were blotted out for ever. 
 
 " The herds of herbivores — which included all the genera now liviag 
 on the earth's surface, with many strange forms long since extinct — ^formed 
 the prey of carnivores commensurate to these in power and numbers. The 
 coo of the dove and the whistle of the quail were answered by the scream 
 of the eagle, and the lowing of herds and the bleating of flocks come to 
 the ear of the imagination mingled with the roar of the lion, the howl of 
 
50 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the wolf, and the despairing cry of the victim. Yielding to the slow- 
 acting but irresistible forces of Nature, each in succession of these various 
 animal forms has disappeared, till all have passed away or been changed 
 to their modem representatives, while the country they inhabited, by the 
 upheaval of its mountains, the deepening of its valleys, the filling and 
 draining of its great lakes, has become what it is." 
 
 ANCIENT LIFE IN THE PAK WEST DURING THE CEBTACEOUS EPOCH. 
 
 In the following sketch the ancient life in the far West during the 
 Cretaceous period has been most eloquently described by the eminent 
 palaeontologist, Prof. E. D. Cope, in the Anmial Report of the Geological 
 Survey of the Territories for 1871 : 
 
 " That vast level tract of our territory lying between Missouri and the 
 Rocky Mountains represents a condition of the earth's surface which has 
 preceded, in most instances, the mountainous or hilly type so prevalent 
 elsewhere, and may be called, in so far, incompletely developed. It does 
 not present the variety of conditions, either of surface for the support of 
 a very varied life or of opportunities for access to its interior treasures, so 
 beneficial to a high civilization. It is, in fact, the old bed of seas and 
 lakes, which has been so gradually elevated as to have sufiered little dis- 
 turbance. Consistently with its level surface, its soils have not been 
 carried away by rain and flood, but rather cover it with a deep and 
 widespread mantle. This is the great source of its wealth in Nature's 
 creations of vegetable and animal life, and from it will be drawn the 
 wealth of its future inhabitants. On this account its products have a 
 character of uniformity ; but viewed from the standpoint of the political 
 philosopher, so long as peace and steam bind the natural sections of our 
 country together, so long will the plains be one important element in a 
 varied economy of continental extent. But they are not entirely unin- 
 terrupted. The natural drainage has worn channels, and the streams flow 
 below the general level. • The ancient sea- and lake-deposits have neither 
 been pressed into very hard rock beneath piles of later sediment, nor have 
 they been roasted and crystallized by internal heat. Although limestone 
 rock, tJiey easily yield to the action of water, and so the side-drainage into 
 the creeks and rivers has removed their high banks from many rods to 
 many miles from their original positions. In many cases these banks or 
 bluffs have retained their original steepness, and have increased in eleva- 
 tion as the breaking down of the rock encroached on higher land. In 
 other cases the rain-channels have cut in without removing the interven- 
 ing rocks at once, and formed deep gorges or canons, which sometimes 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 51 
 
 extend to great distances. They frequently communicate in every direc- 
 tion, forming curious labyrinths, and when the intervening masses are 
 cut away at various levels or left standing like monuments, we have the 
 characteristic peculiarities of ' bad lands,' or mauvaises terres. 
 
 " In portions of Kansas tracts of this kind are scattered over the coun- 
 try along the margins of the river and creek valleys and ravines. The 
 upper stratum of the rock is a yellow chalk, the lower bluish, and the 
 brilliancy of the color increases the picturesque effect. From elevated 
 points the plains appear to be dotted with ruined villages and towns, 
 whose avenues are lined with painted walls of fortifications, churches, 
 and towers, while side-alleys pass beneath natural bridges or expand into 
 small pockets and caverns, smoothed by the action of the wind carrying 
 hard mineral particles. But this is the least interesting of the peculiar- 
 ities presented by these rocks. On the level surfaces, denuded of soil, lie 
 huge oyster-like shells, some opened and others with both valves together, 
 like remnants of a half-finished meal of some titanic race which had been 
 frightened from the board never to return. These shells are not thick- 
 ened like most of those of past periods, but contained an animal which 
 would have served as a meal for a large party of men. One of them 
 measured twenty-six inches across. 
 
 " If the explorer searches the bottoms of the rain-washes and ravines, 
 he will doubtless come upon the fragment of a tooth or jaw, and will 
 generally find a line of such pieces leading to an elevated position on 
 the bank or bluff, where lies the skeleton of some monster of the ancient 
 sea. He may find the vertebral column running far into the limestone 
 that locks him in his last prison ; or a paddle extended on the slope, as 
 though entreating aid ; or a pair of jaws lined with horrid teeth, which 
 grin despair on enemies they are helpless to resist; or he may find a 
 conic mound on whose apex glisten in the sun the bleached bones of one 
 whose last office has been to preserve from destruction the friendly soil 
 on which he reposed. Sometimes a pile of huge remains will be discov- 
 ered, which the dissolution of the rock has deposited on the lower 
 level, the force of rain and wash having been insufiicient to carry themi 
 away. 
 
 " But the reader inquires, What is the nature of these creatures thus left 
 stranded a thousand miles from either ocean ? How came they in the 
 limestones of Kansas, and were they denizens of land or sea ? It may 
 be replied that our knowledge of this chapter of ancient* history is only 
 about five years old, and has been brought to light by geological explora- 
 tions set on foot by Dr. Turner, Professor Mudge, Professor Marsh, 
 
52 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 W. E. Webb, and the writer. Careful examinations of the remains dis- 
 covered show that they are nearly all to be referred to the reptiles and 
 fishes. We find that they lived in the period called Cretaceous, at the 
 time when the chalk of England and the green-sand marl of New Jer- 
 sey were being deposited, and when many other huge reptiles and fishes 
 peopled both sea and land in those quarters of the globe. The twenty- 
 four species of reptiles found in Kansas up to the present time varied 
 from ten to eighty feet in length, and represented six orders, the same 
 that occur in the other regions mentioned. Two only of the number 
 were terrestrial in their habits, and two were flyers ; the remainder were 
 inhabitants of the salt ocean. When they swam over what are now the 
 plains, the coast-line extended from Arkansas to near Fort Eiley on the 
 Kansas Kiver, and, passing a little eastward, traversed Minnesota to the 
 British possessions, near the head of Lake Superior. The extent of sea 
 to the westward was vast, and geology has not yet laid down its bound- 
 ary ; it was probably a shore now submerged beneath the waters of the 
 North Pacific Ocean. 
 
 " Far out on this expanse might have been seen in those ancient days 
 a huge, snake-like form which rose above the surface and stood erect, 
 with tapering throat and arrow-shaped head, or swayed about, describing 
 a circle of twenty feet radius above the water. Then it would dive into 
 the depths, and naught would be visible but the foam caused by the dis- 
 appearing mass of life. Should several have appeared together, we can 
 easily imagine tall, twining forms rising to the height of the masts of a 
 fishing-fleet, or like snakes twisting and knotting themselves together. 
 This extraordinary neck — for such it was — rose from a body of elephan- 
 tine proportions, and a tail of the serpent-pattern balanced it behind. 
 The limbs were probably two pairs of paddles like those of Plesiosawims, 
 from which this diver chiefly differed in the arrangement of the bones of 
 the breast. In the best-known species twenty-two feet represent the neck 
 in a total length of fifty feet. 
 
 " This is the Elasmosaurm platyurus (Cope), a carnivorous sea-reptile, 
 no doubt adapted for deeper waters than many of the others. Like the 
 snake-bird of Florida, it probably often swam many feet below the sur- 
 face, raising the head to the distant air for a breath, then withdrawing it 
 and exploring the depths forty feet below, without altering the position 
 of its body. From the localities in which the bones have been found in 
 Kansas, it must have wandered far from land, and that many kinds of 
 fishes formed its food is shown by the teeth and scales found in the posi- 
 tion of its stomach. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 53 
 
 "A second species of somewhat similar character and habits differed 
 'very much in some points of structure. The neck was drawn out to a 
 wonderful degree of attenuation, while the tail was relatively very stout 
 — more so, indeed, than in the Elasmosaurus — as though to balance the 
 anterior regions while occupied in various actions ; e. g., while capturing 
 its food. This was a powerful swimmer, its paddles measuring four feet 
 in length, with an expanse therefore of about eleven feet. It is known 
 as Polycotylus latipinnis (Cope). 
 
 " The two species just described formed a small representation in our 
 great interior sea of an order which swarmed, at the same time or near 
 it, over the gulfs and bays of old Europe. There they abounded twenty 
 to one. Perhaps one reason for this was the almost entire absence of the 
 real rulers of the waters of ancient America — viz. the Pythonomorphs. 
 These sea-serpents — for such they were — embrace more than half the 
 species found in the limestone rocks in Kansas, and abound in those of 
 New Jersey and Alabama. Only four have been seen as yet in Europe. 
 
 " Researches into their structure have shown that they were of won- 
 derful elongation of form, especially of tail ; that their heads were large, 
 flat, and conic, with ' eyes directed partly upward ; that they were fur- 
 nished with two pairs of paddles like the flippers of a whale, but with 
 short or no portion representing the arm. With these flippers and the 
 ell-like strokes of their flattened tail they swam, some with less, others 
 with greater speed. They were furnished, like snakes, with four rows of 
 formidable teeth on the roof of the mouth. Though these were not 
 designed for mastication, and, without paws for grasping, could have 
 been little used for cutting, as weapons for seizing their prey they were 
 very formidable. And here we have to consider a peculiarity of these 
 creatures in which they are unique among animals. Swallowing their 
 prey entire like snakes, they were without that wonderful expansibility 
 of throat due in the latter to an arrangement of levers supporting the 
 lower jaw. Instead of this, each half of that jaw was articulated or 
 jointed at a point nearly midway between the ear and the chin. This 
 was of the ball-and-socket type, and enabled the jaw to make an angle 
 outward, and so widen by much the space enclosed between it and its 
 fellow. The arrangement may be easily imitated by directing the arms 
 forward, with the elbows turned outward and the hands placed near 
 together. The ends of these bones were in' the Pythonomorpha as inde- 
 pendent as in the serpents, being only bound by flexible ligaments. By 
 turning the elbows outward and bending them, the space between the 
 arms becomes diamond-shaped, and represents exactly the expansion 
 
54 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 seen in these reptiles to permit the passage of a large fish or other body. 
 The arms, too, will represent the size of jaws attained by some of the 
 smaller species. The outward movement of the basal half of the jaw 
 necessarily twists in the same "direction the column-like bone to which 
 it is suspended. The peculiar shape of the joint by which the last bone 
 is attached to the skull depends on the degree of twist to be permitted, 
 and therefore to the degree of expansion of which the jaws were capable. 
 As this differs much in the different species, they are readily distinguish- 
 ed by the column or 'quadrate' bone when found. There are some 
 curious consequences of this structure, and they are here explained as 
 an instance of the mode of reconstruction of extinct animals from slight 
 materials. The habit of swallowing large bodies between the branches 
 of the under jaw necessitates the prolongation forward of the mouth of 
 the gullet ; hence the throat in the Pythmiomorpha must have been loose 
 and almost as baggy as a pelican's. Next, the same habit must have 
 compelled the forward position of the glottis or opening of the wind- 
 pipe, which is always in front of the gullet. Hence these creatures must 
 have uttered no other sound than a hiss, as do animals of the present 
 day which have a similar structure ; as, for instance, the snakes. Third- 
 ly, the tongue must have been long and forked, and for this reason : its 
 position was still anterior to the glottis, so that there was no 'space for it 
 except it were enclosed in a sheath beneath the windpipe when at rest, 
 or thrown out beyond the jaws when in motion. Such is the arrange- 
 ment in the nearest living forms, and it is always in these cases cylindric 
 and forked. 
 
 " The giants of the Pytlionomorpha of Kansas have been called Liodon 
 proriger (Cope) and Liodon dyspelor (Cope). The first must have been 
 abundant, and its length could not have been far from fifty feet ; certainly 
 not less. Its physiognomy was rendered peculiar by a long projecting 
 muzzle, reminding one of that of the blunt-nosed sturgeon of our coast ; 
 but the resemblance was destroyed by the correspondingly massive end 
 of the branches of the lower jaw. Though clumsy in appearance, such 
 an arrangement must have been effective as a ram, and dangerous to 
 its enemies in case of collision. The writer once found the wreck of 
 an individual of this species strewn around a sunny knoll beside a bluff, 
 and his conic snout pointing to the heavens formed a fitting monument, 
 as at once his favorite weapon and the mark distinguishing all his race. 
 
 " Very different was the Liodon dyspelor, a still larger animal than the 
 last, with a formidable armature. It was, indeed, the longest of known 
 reptiles, and probably equal to the great finner-whales of modern oceans. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 55 
 
 The circumstances attending the discovery of one of these will always 
 be a pleasant recollection to the writer. A part of the face, with teeth, 
 was observed projecting from the side of a bluff by a companion in ex- 
 ploration, Lieutenant James H. Whitten, United States army, and we at 
 once proceeded to follow up the indication with knives and picks. Soon 
 the lower jaws were uncovered, with their glistening teeth, and then the 
 vertebrae and ribs. Our delight was at its height when the bones of the 
 pelvis and part of the hind limb were laid bare, for they had never been 
 seen before in the species and scarcely in the order. While lying on the 
 bottom of the Cretaceous sea the carcass had been dragged hither and 
 thither by the sharks and other rapacious animals, and the parts of the 
 skeleton were displaced and gathered into a small area. The massive tail 
 stretched away into the bluff, and after much laborious excavation we left 
 a portion of it to more persevering explorers. 
 
 "The species of Clidastes did not reach such a size as some of the 
 Idodons, and were of elegant and flexible build. To prevent their habits 
 of coiling from dislocating the vertebral column, these had an additional 
 pair of articulations at each end, while their muscular strength is attested 
 by the elegant striae and other sculptures which appear on all their bones. 
 Five species of this genus occur in the Kansas strata, the largest {Cli- 
 dastes cineriarwm, Cope) reaching forty feet in length. The discovery of 
 a related species {Hohodus coryphaeus, Cope) was made by the writer 
 under circumstances of difficulty peculiar to the plains. After examining 
 the bluffs for half a day without result, a few bone fragments were found 
 in a wash above their base. Others led the way to a ledge forty or fifty 
 feet from both summit and foot, where, stretched along in the yellow 
 chalk, lay the projecting portions of the whole monster. A considerable 
 number of vertebrae were found preserved by the protective embrace of 
 the roots of a small bush, and when they were secured the-pick and knife 
 were brought into requisition to remove the remainder. About this time 
 one of the gales so common in that region sprang up, and, striking the 
 bluff fairly, reflected itself upward. So soon as the pick pulverized the 
 rock, the limestone dust was carried into eyes, nose, and every available 
 opening in the clothing. I was speedily blinded, and my aid disappeared 
 in the cafion, and was seen no more while the work lasted. Only the 
 enthusiasm of the student could have endured the discomfort, but to him 
 it appeared a most unnecessary 'conversion of force' that a geologist 
 should be driven from the field by his own dust. A handkerchief tied 
 over the face, and pierced by minute holes opposite the eyes, kept me from 
 total blindness, though dirt in abundance penetrated the mask. But a 
 
56 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 fine relic of creative genius was extricated from its ancient bed, and one 
 that leads its genus in size and explains its structure. 
 
 " On another occasion, riding along a spur of yellow-chalk bluff, some 
 vertebrae lying at its foot met my eye. An examination showed that 
 the series entered the rock, and, on passing round to the opposite side, 
 the jaws and muzzle were seen projecting from it, as though laid bare 
 for the convenience of the geologist. The spur was small and of soft 
 material, and we speedily removed it in blocks to the level of the rep- 
 tile, and took out the remains as they lay across the base from side to 
 side. 
 
 " A genus related to the last is Edestosaurus. A species of thirty feet 
 in length, and of elegant proportions, has been called U. tortor (Cope). 
 Its slenderness of body was remarkable, and the large head was long 
 and lance-shaped. Its flippers tapered elegantly, and the whole ani- 
 mal was more of serpent than any other of its tribe. Its lithe move- 
 ments brought m,any a fish to its knife-shaped teeth, which are more 
 efficient and numerous than in any of its relatives. It was found coiled 
 up beneath a ledge of rock, with its skull lying undisturbed in the centre. 
 A species distinguished for its small size and elegance is Clidastes pumilus 
 (Marsh). This little fellow was only twelve feet in length, and was prob- 
 ably unable to avoid occasionally furnishing a meal for some of the rapa- 
 cious fishes which abounded in the same ocean. 
 
 " The flying saurians are pretty well known from the descriptions of 
 European authors. Our Mesozoic periods had been thought to have lacked 
 these singular forms until Professor Marsh and the writer discovered re- 
 mains of species in the Kansas chalk. Though these are not numerous, 
 their size was formidable. One of them, Ornithoohirus harpyia (Cope) 
 spread eighteen feet between the tips of its wings, while the 0. umbrosus 
 (Cope) covered nearly twenty-five feet with his expanse. These strange 
 creatures flapped their leathery wings over the waves, and, often plunging, 
 seized many an unsuspecting fish, or, soaring at a safe distance, viewed 
 the sports and combats of the more powerful saurians of the sea. At 
 nightfall we may imagine them trooping to the shore and suspending 
 themselves to the cliffs by the claw-bearing fingers of their wing-limbs. 
 
 " Tortoises were the boatmen of the Cretaceous waters of the Eastern 
 coast, but none had been known from the deposits of Kansas until very 
 recently. But two species are on record ; one, large and strange enough 
 to excite the attention of naturalists, is the Protostega gigas (Cope). It is 
 well known that the house or boat of the tortoise or turtle is formed by 
 the expansion of the usual bones of the skeleton till they meet and unite, 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 57 
 
 and thus become continuous. Thus the lower shell is formed of united 
 ribs of the breast and of the breast-bone, with bone deposited in the skin. 
 In the same way the roof is formed by the union of the ribs with bone 
 deposited in the skin. In the very young tortoise the ribs are separate, as 
 in other animals ; as they grow older they begin to expand at the upper 
 side of the upper end, and with increased age the expansion extends 
 throughout the length. The ribs first come in contact where the process 
 commences, and in the land-tortoise they are united to the end. In the 
 sea-turtle the union ceases a little above the ends. The fragments of the 
 Protostega were seen by one of my party projecting from the ledge of a low 
 bluff. Their thinness and the distance to whicji they were traced excited 
 my curiosity, and I straightway attacked the bank with the pick. After 
 several square feet of rock had been removed, we cleared up one floor, and 
 found ourselves well repaid. Many long, slender pieces of two inches in 
 width lay lipon the ledge. They were evidently ribs with the usual heads, 
 but behind each head was a plate like the flattened bowl of a huge spoon, 
 placed crosswise. Beneath these stretched two broad plates, two feet in 
 width and no thicker than binder's board. The edges were fingered, and 
 the surface hard and smooth. All this was quite new among full-grown 
 animals, and we at once determined that more ground must be explored 
 for further light. After picking away the bank and carving the soft rock, 
 new masses of strange bones were disclosed. Some bones of a large paddle 
 were recognized, and a leg-bone. The shoulder-blade of a huge tortoise 
 came next, and further examination showed that we had stumbled on the 
 burial-place of the largest species of sea-turtle yet known. The single 
 bones of the paddle were eight inches long, giving the spread of the ex- 
 panded flippers as considerably over fifteen feet. But the ribs were those 
 of an ordinary turtle just born, and the great plates represented the bony 
 deposit in the skin, which, commencing independently in modern turtles, 
 unite with each other below at an early day. But it was incredible that 
 the largest of known turtles should be but just hatched, and for this and 
 other reasons it has been concluded that this 'ancieat mariner' is one of 
 those forms not uncommon in old days, whose incompleteness in some 
 respects points to the truth of the belief that animals have assumed their 
 modern perfections by a process of growth from more simple beginnings. 
 
 " The Cretaceous ocean of the West was no less remarkable for its fishes 
 than for its reptiles. Sharks do not seem to have been so common as in 
 the old Atlantic, but it swarmed with large predaceous forms related to 
 the salmon and saury. 
 
 " Vertebrae and other fragments of these species project from the worn 
 
58 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 limestone in many places, I will call attention to perhaps the most for- 
 midable as well as the most abundant of these. It is the one whose bones 
 most frequently crowned knobs of shale which had been left standing amid 
 surrounding destruction. The density and hardness of the bones shed the 
 rain off on either side, so that the radiating gutters and ravines finally 
 isolated the rock-mass from that surrounding. The head was as long as, or 
 longer than, that of a fully-grown grizzly bear, and the jaws were deeper 
 in proportion to their length. The muzzle was shorter and deeper than 
 that of a bull-dog. The teeth were all sharp cylindric fangs, smooth and 
 glistening, and of irregular size. At certain distances in each jaw they 
 projected three inches above the gum, and were sunk one inch into the 
 jaw-margin, being thus as long as the fangs of a tiger, but more slender. 
 Two such fangs crossed each other on each side of the middle of the front. 
 This fish is known as Porthetcs molossus (Cope). Besides the smaller 
 fishes, the reptiles no doubt supplied the demands of his appetite. 
 
 " The ocean in which flourished this abundant and vigorous life was at 
 last completely enclosed on" the west by elevations of sea-bottom, so that 
 it only communicated with the Atlantic and Pacific at the Gulf of Mex- 
 ico and the Arctic Sea. The continued elevation of both eastern and 
 western shores contracted its area, and when ridges of the sea-bottom 
 reached the surface, forming long, low bars, parts of the water-area were 
 enclosed and connection with salt water prevented. Thus were the living 
 beings imprisoned and subjected to many new risks tc life. The stronger 
 could more readily capture the weaker, while the fishes would gradually 
 perish through the constant freshening of the water. With the death of 
 any considerable class the balance of food-supply would be lost, and many 
 larger species would disappear from the scene. The most omnivorous and 
 enduring would longest resist the approach of starvation, but would finally 
 yield to inexorable fate ; the last one caught by the shifting bottom among 
 shallow pools, from which his exhausted energies could not extricate him." 
 
 SNAKE EIVEE. 
 
 The Snake or Lewis Fork of the Columbia heads in the Yellowstone 
 National Park, opposite the heads of the Madison and Yellowstone Rivers. 
 Its sources are in beautiful lakes embosomed in heavily-wooded hills. 
 Flowing southward, it soon enters a mountainous country, from which it 
 receives several large tributaries — Barlow's Fork, Buffalo Fork, Gros 
 Ventre Creek, and Hoback Eiver. It washes the east base of the Teton 
 Range, which rears its rugged Gothic spires seven thousand feet above its 
 valley. Turning to the west, the river cuts across the mountains which 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 59 
 
 seek to check its course in a terrific gorge wellnigh impassable. On the 
 west side of these mountains it enters upon a great field of basalt, a great 
 volcanic plain covered with drifting sand and seamed with crevasses like 
 those of a glacier. This is known as the Snake River Plain. It crosses 
 this plain by a southerly course, then gradually sweeping around to the 
 westward, it hugs the southern border of this basalt field as far as longi- 
 tude 117°, when it turns northward, then for a short distance westward 
 again to its junction with Clark's Fork, making the mighty Columbia. 
 
 In its course across and around the basalt plain it is rapid and tumult- 
 uous, boiling and seething along, its bed broken by boulders and ledges. 
 In several places there are noteworthy falls. The upper of these is the 
 American Fall, at a point a few miles below the mouth of the Portneuf, 
 where the " Mad " River — as it was called in early days — ^leaps over a 
 wall of basalt. Farther down is the Shoshone Fall, by far the greatest 
 and finest on the river. This fall was visited in October, 1868, by Mr. 
 Clarence King, and I quote his fine description of it : 
 
 " The wall of the gorge opposite us, like the cliff at our feet, sank in 
 perpendicular bluffs nearly to the level of the river. A horizon as level 
 as the sea ; a circling wall, whose sharp edges were here and there battle- 
 mented in huge fortress-like masses ; a broad river, smooth and unruffled, 
 flowing quietly into the middle of the scene, and then plunging into a 
 labyrinth of rocks, tumbling over a precipice two hundred feet high, and 
 flowing westward in a still deep current to disappear behind a black 
 
 promontory Dead barrenness is the whole sentiment of the 
 
 scene 
 
 "In plan the fall recurves up-stream in a deep horseshoe, resembling 
 the outline of Niagara. The total breadth is about seven hundred feet, 
 and the greatest height of a single fall about one hundred and ninety. 
 .... The whole mass of the fall is one ever-varying sheet of spray. 
 In the early spring, when swollen by the rapidly-melted snows, the river 
 
 pours over with something of the volume of Niagara There are 
 
 no rocks at the base of the fall. The sheet of foam plunges almost ver- 
 tically into a dark, beryl-green lake-like expanse of the river. Immense 
 volilmes of foam roll up from the cataract-base, and, whirling about in 
 
 the eddying winds, rise often one thousand feet into the air The 
 
 incessant roar, reinforced by a thousand echoes, fills the cafion." 
 
 HIGH MOTJNTAICf-PEAKS. 
 
 Southward from the Wind River chain the mountainous character of 
 the Divide or continental watershed is interrupted for a short distance by 
 
60 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 comparatively level plateaus, while to the east are the Laramie Plains, 
 bounded by a comparatively low range, of which Laramie Peak is about ten 
 thousand feet high, and, on account of its isolation and the insignificance 
 of the mountains in the vicinity, is one of the great landmarks of the 
 West. Still farther south, are the remarkable mountain-regions and the 
 parks of Colorado. The Colorado or Front Range rises up before the 
 traveller on the plains like a gigantic wall, with Long's Peak at the north 
 and Pike's Peak at the south as high bastions. West of this range are 
 three great depressions, North, Middle, and South Parks. In the Front 
 Range are several peaks over fourteen thousand two hundred feet high 
 (according to the latest surveys) — Long's, 14,271 feet; Evans's, 14,330 
 feet ; and Gray's and Torrey's, -twin-peaks, with an interval of less than 
 a mile, 14,341 and 14,336 feet. In this range are the oldest known 
 silver- and gold-mines in Colorado. On the west side of the parks is the 
 Park range, in which are several peaks of over thirteen thousand feet, 
 and a few, as Mount Lincoln, of over fourteen thousand feet. From 
 Mount Lincoln one can look down into the valley of the upper Arkansas 
 River and across to the Sawatch range, one of the most remarkable in 
 the West. At its north end is the Holy Cross group, in latitude 39° 30' 
 and longitude 106° 33', composed of gneiss and coarse massive granite. 
 For eighty miles to the southward this range literally bristles with peaks, 
 many of which rise over fourteen thousand feet. Harvard, Yale, and 
 Princeton are respectively 14,384, 14,150, 14,199 feet, and many others 
 are over thirteen thousand feet. The rocky mass is mostly granite, inter- 
 sected with igneous dikes. The general trend of this range is about 20° 
 west of north, and it forms one of the most gigantic anticlinals in the 
 entire Rocky Mountain region. Vast ranges of massive granitic rock, 
 capped with limestone and sandstone, incline from either side, with broad 
 valleys intervening. The proofs of ancient glacial action on both sides 
 of the range are wonderful. In the valley of Roches Moutonnfies Creek, 
 which flows into Eagle River from its north-east base, are very remark- 
 able rounded masses of granite. Such have long been called in Swiss 
 geology sheep-backs, or roches moutonnies. Here they are shown on a 
 grand scale. In the valley of the Arkansas or the Gunnison are 
 marvellous examples of lateral and terminal moraines, and there are 
 numerous lakes whose basins have been scooped out by some extended 
 glacial action. The Twin Lakes are beautiful sheets of water on the 
 east side of the Sawatch range, from two to three miles in diameter and 
 about eighty feet deep. These are two glacial lakes. The proofs of 
 glacial action are common throughout the Rocky Mountain region, but 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 61 
 
 they are nowhere shown to a more marked extent east of the Sierra Ne- 
 vadas than in the Sawatch range. From the west side of this range flow 
 the Gunnison River and the southern branches of the Grand, which, after 
 cutting deep caflons or gorges, unite near the western boundary of Colo- 
 rado ; and, cutting a still deeper cafion, the stream flows into the great 
 Colorado of the "West. West of the Sawatch or great " Mother " (Madre) 
 range is another remarkable group in the drainage that leads to the great 
 Colorado, called the Elk range. It is about fifty miles in length, with a 
 trend about north-west and south-east, and differs from any of the others 
 mentioned both in form and structure. In this range are seven peaks of 
 the first order, rising to an elevation of nearly fourteen thousand feet, 
 and many others ranging from twelve to thirteen thousand feet. The 
 geological structure is very peculiar. It appears that the vast thickness 
 of sedimentary strata once rested upon a floor of igneous granite in a 
 pasty or semi-pasty condition, and that these high peaks were thrust up 
 through the overlying beds, in many instances completely overturning 
 them for miles in extent. There are faults two thousand feet in extent, 
 and dikes without number where the igneous material seems to have been 
 squeezed through flssures into thousands of feet of overlying strata, 
 vertically as well as horizontally. Deep gorges and amphitheatres meet 
 the eye on every side. Snow-mass Peak, 13,961 feet high, is so called 
 from the immense mass of perpetual snow on its side. At its immediate 
 base, on all sides, are beautiful lakes, the surface is remarkably rugged, 
 and as far as the eye can reach on every side are high peaks, with deep 
 gorges in one continuous succession, while the sedimentary rocks are 
 thrown into chaos. On the north-west end of the range is a remarkable 
 peak which forms an excellent landmark, known among miners and pros- 
 pectors for years as Sopris Peak, 12,972 feet high. From this point the 
 land slopes off into the remarkable plateau country bordering on the 
 Colorado River, literally gashed, as it were, by the little streams which 
 have cut innumerable canons through it. There is probably no country 
 in the world that presents more obstructions to the traveller. 
 
 At first glance, the Park range appears to be connected with the Sangre 
 de Cristo range, which bounds the east side of the San Luis Valley ; but 
 the former is separated from the latter by the Arkansas Valley, and really 
 lies parallel with it. It begins in latitude 38° 26' and longitude 106°, 
 trends south 30° east, and shows on its summit a continuous series of 
 sharp peaks. Parallel to it on the east, and. bordering the plains, is the 
 Wet Mountain range. The interval is known as the Wet Mountain 
 Valley and Huerfano Park, one of the most beautiful and fertile districts 
 
62 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 « 
 in Colorado. These mountains extend far down into New Mexico. South- 
 ward, the Sierra Blanca and the Spanish Peaks are lofty landmarks. Fort 
 Garland, an old military post in the San Luis Valley, though nearly sur- 
 rounded with high ranges is not a park, but a valley thirty to fifty miles 
 wide, through which the Rio Grande flows after emerging from the San 
 Juan Mountains, cutting a gorge through its basaltic floor one thousand 
 to fifteen hundred feet in depth for sixty to eighty miles. 
 I Immediately west of the upper portion of the San Luis Valley, in 
 South-western Colorado, is a most interesting as well as lofty group of 
 mountains, forming what is now called the San Juan district. These 
 mountains give origin to a great number of streams. On the north are 
 many branches of the Gunnison, on the east the Rio Grande, and on the 
 south and west the various branches of the San Juan, which flow south- 
 west and west, and unite with the Colorado. Within an area of about 
 four thousand square miles is the most important and rugged group of 
 peaks in Colorado, and probably in this portion of the mountain-region 
 of the West. More than one hundred points are above thirteen thousand 
 feet high, and about ten peaks are over fourteen thousand feet. Large 
 areas here are composed entirely of quartzites, and others wholly of igneous 
 rocks. Toward the south, in Southern Colorado and in New Mexico and 
 Arizona, the volcanic action seems to have been very great, and the area 
 covered with igneous rocks increases; sometimes they occupy several 
 thousand square miles to the exclusion of all others. What are called the 
 broad table-lands or mesas of New Mexico are simply floors of basalt. 
 Colorado may be regarded as the culminating area of lofty points in the 
 eastern division of the Rocky Mountain region, as California is in the 
 Sierra Nevada ranges. Within the limits of Colorado are fifty or more 
 points exceeding fourteen thousand feet in height, and more than two hun- 
 dred and fifty of over thirteen thousand feet, while the number reaching 
 thirteen thousand feet is unknown. The average elevation of Colorado 
 State is greater than that of any other State or Territory in the Union, 
 being six thousand six hundred feet, while California, with its magnificent 
 group of peaks in the Sierra Nevada, averages only two thousand eight 
 hundred feet. 
 
 THE PLATEAU REGION OF THE COLORADO RIVER. — GENERAL VIEW. ' 
 
 The country drained by the Colorado River is a peculiar region. 
 It is a country of plateaus and cafions, the plateaus mainly arid and 
 sterile, where the new streams flow in deep gorges far below the 
 surface. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 63 
 
 The longest and most northern branch of the Colorado is Green Eiver, 
 ■which heads in the Wind River Mountains, against the sources of the 
 Big Horn and the Snake Rivers. This stream, in its long course toward 
 the south, receives the waters of the Uintah from the west and the Yam- 
 pah and White Rivers from the east. Near latitude 38° 15' and longitude 
 110° it is joined by the Grand River, a stream of nearly equal size, which 
 heaxis in Middle Park, Colorado, drawing its first supplies of water from 
 the snow-fields of Long's Peak. The stream below the junction of these 
 two forks is known as the Colorado. 
 
 Below their junction the principal branches of the Colorado from 
 the east are the San Juan, the Colorado Chiquito or Flax River, 
 William's Fork, and the Gila; on the west, the Dirty Devil, Paria, 
 and Virgen. 
 
 This region is limited on the east, north, and north-west by high 
 mountain-ranges. Its surface is nearly flat, but by no means unbroken. 
 There is little rolling or undulating country. Changes of level take 
 place by very gentle uniform slopes or by abrupt precipitous steps. A 
 large part of the surface consists of bare rocks, with no soil or vegeta- 
 tion. A part is covered with a thin sandy soil, which supports a growth 
 of sage and cacti, or even a few pifion pines and cedars. The only veg- 
 etation is that eminently characteristic of an arid country. 
 
 This aridity has modified orographic forms to an astonishing degree. 
 Where, under different climatic conditions, there would be produced a 
 region similar in most respects to the prairies of the Mississippi Valley, 
 we find a country flat indeed or inclined at low angles, but one whose 
 watercourses are far beneath the general level, deep down in cailons, 
 hundreds, thousands of feet beneath the surface. Great cliffs, thousands 
 of feet in height and extending like huge walls for hundreds of miles, 
 change the level of the country at a single step. Isolated buttes and 
 mesas of great height are scattered over the plateaus, indicating the 
 former height of the plain of which they formed parts. 
 
 " The landscape everywhere away from the river is of rock — cliffs of 
 rock, tables of rock, plateaus of rock, terraxjes of rock, crags of rock — 
 ten thousand strangely-carved forms. Rocks everywhere, and no vegeta- 
 tion ; no soil ; no land When speaking of these rocks, we must 
 
 not conceive of piles of boulders or heaps of fragments, but a whole 
 land of naked rock, with giant forms carved on it — cathedral-shaped 
 buttes, towering hundreds or thousands of feet ; cliffs that cannot be 
 scaled ; and caflon-walls that shrink the river into insignificance, with 
 vast hollow domes and tall pinnacles, and shafts set on the verge over- 
 
64 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 head, and all highly colored — buff, gray, red, brown, and chocolate; 
 never lichened, never moss-covered, but bare, and often polished." 
 
 The above description by Major J. W. Powell, who has explored the 
 canons of the Colorado, gives a graphic pen-picture of the lower and 
 more arid plateaus of this region. 
 
 Nearly every watercourse, whether perennial or not, is a cafloii — a nar- 
 row valley with precipitous walls, often of enormous height. In many 
 cases these caflons are so numerous that they cut the plateau into shreds 
 — a mere skeleton of a country. Of such a section Lieutenant Ives, who 
 explored the course of the Lower Colorado, writes : " The extent and 
 magnitude of the system of canons in that direction is astounding. The 
 plateau is cut into shreds by these gigantic chasms, and resembles a vast 
 ruin. Belts of country miles in width have been swept away, leaving 
 only isolated mountains standing in the gap ; fissures so profound that 
 the eye cannot penetrate their depths are separated by walls whose thick- 
 ness one can almost span, and slender spires that seem tottering on their 
 base shoot up a thousand feet from vaults below." 
 
 But few of these caflons contain water throughout the year. Most of 
 them are dry at all times excepting for a few days in the early spring or 
 for a few minutes or hours at most after a heavy shower. It is a charac- 
 teristic of Western North America, as of all arid countries, that the 
 streams, away from their sources in the mountains, lose water, rather 
 than gain it, in traversing the lower country. The dry atmosphere and 
 the thirsty soil absorb it, and in very many cases large streams entirely 
 disappear in this way. This is the case to a great extent in the plateau 
 country, and still more so in the Great Basin, where these are the only 
 outlets to the drainage. 
 
 A few words will suffice to sketch the manner in which the climate has 
 acted in producing these strange and unique orographic effects. The great 
 degree of aridity of the atmosphere and the slight rainfall, coupled with 
 its sudden explosive character, render plant-life very limited in amount. 
 The soil, having little or no protection against the sudden floods, is 
 washed away as fast, or nearly as fast, as it is formed ; or, in other 
 words, transportation nearly or quite keeps pace with disintegration. 
 The rains, coming as they always do in floods, run immediately off the 
 bare rock or over and through the thin sandy soil, sweeping it with them, 
 and, collecting in the little runs with incredible rapidity, rush down them 
 in great body and with great velocity, sweeping everything before them. 
 The waters are turbid and thick with sediment, coarse and sharp-edged 
 from the rapid cutting of the rocks. It is this detritus which Dame 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 65 
 
 Nature uses as her chisel in carving cafions, cliffs, buttes, and the other 
 quaint and curious forms which one meets in this strange land. A clear 
 stream, whatever may be its velocity, has little erosive power ; but put 
 these tools in its possession, give it the quantity of coarse sand and gravel 
 which the Colorado and its tributaries always hold in suspension, and its 
 cutting power is enormous. The difference in climatic conditions between 
 the district under discussion and the plains is one of degree only, but it is 
 sufficient to produce very marked differences in orographic forms. Wher- 
 ever the climatic conditions are such that soil can be formed and be cov- 
 ered with vegetation, there cafions cannot be produced, other than as gaps 
 for the passage of streams through mountain-ranges ; and, in proportion 
 as the climate becomes more arid, so will the country approach in its 
 physical features a caflon-land. 
 
 While every stream in this region flows in a cafion — and there are 
 thousands of cafions which contain no water whatever — the most remark- 
 able succession of these clefts is that on the main stream of the -region, 
 the Colorado, and its main branch, the Green. The lower cafions of the 
 river were explored in 1857 by Lieutenant Ives as far as the head of the 
 Black Cafion. In 1869, Majqr J. W. Powell explored the main portion 
 of the river in boats. He started from Green Eiver City, in South- 
 western Wyoming, and safely threaded the devious path of the cafions 
 as far as the mouth of the Grand Wash, a distance of one thousand 
 miles. Throughout this distance there are but few miles where the river 
 is not deep in the bowels of the earth. 
 
 The*following vivid description of the Grand Cafion cannot fail to be 
 read with interest : 
 
 " The walls now are more than a mile in height, a vertical distance 
 
 difficult to appreciate A thousand feet of this is up through 
 
 granite crags, then steep slopes and perpendicular cliffs rise, one above 
 another, to the summit. The gorge is black and narrow below, red and 
 gray and flaring above, with crags and angular projections on the walls, 
 which, cut in many places by side-cafions, seem to be a vast wilderness 
 of rocks. Down in these grand, gloomy depths we glide, ever listening, 
 for the mad waters keep up their roar; ever watching, ever peering 
 ahead, for the narrow cafion is winding and the river is closed in, so that 
 we can see but a few hundred yards, and what there may be below we 
 know not ; but we listen for falls and watch for rocks, or stop now and 
 then in the bay of a recess to admire the gigantic scenery. And ever as 
 we go there is some new pinnacle or tower, some crag or peak, some dis- 
 tant view of the upper plateau, some strange-shaped rock, or some deep, 
 
 5 
 
66 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 narrow side-cafion. Then we come to another broken fall, which appears 
 more difficult than the one we ran this morning. 
 
 " Clouds are playing in the cafion to-day. Sometimes they roll down 
 in great masses, filling the gorge with gloom ; sometimes they hang above 
 from wall to wall, and cover the canon with a roof of impending storm ; 
 and we can peer long distances up and down this cafion-corridor, with its 
 cloud-roof overhead, its walls of black granite, and its river bright with 
 the sheen of broken waters. Then a gust of wind sweeps down a side- 
 gulch, and, making a rift in the clouds, reveals the blue heavens, and a 
 stream of sunlight pours in. Then the clouds drift away into distance, 
 and hang around crags and peaks and pinnacles and towers and walls, 
 and cover them with a mantle that lifts from time to time and sets them 
 all in sharp relief. Then baby-clouds creep out of side-caflons, glide 
 around points, and creep back again into more distant gorges. Then 
 clouds set in strata across the cafion, with intervening vista-views to cliffs 
 and rocks beyond. The clouds are children of the heavens, and when 
 they play among the rocks they lift them to the region above 
 
 " The varying depths of this cafion, due to the varying altitudes of 
 the plateaus through which it runs, can only be seen from above. As we 
 wind about in the gloomy depths below, the difference between four 
 thousand and six thousand feet is not discerned, but the characteristics 
 of the cafion — the scenic features — change abruptly with the change in 
 the altitude of the walls as the falls are passed. In running the channel 
 which divides the twin plateaus we pass round the first great southern 
 bend. In the very depths of the cafion we have black granite,*with a 
 narrow cleft through which a great river plunges. This granite portion 
 of the walls is carved with deep gulches and embossed with pinnacles 
 and towers. Above are broken, ragged, nonconformable rocks, in many 
 places sloping back at a low angle. Clambering over these, we reach 
 rocks lying in horizontal beds. Some are soft, many very hard; the 
 softer strata are washed on, the harder remain as shelves. Everywhere 
 there are side-gulches and caflons, so that these gulches are set about ten 
 thousand dark, gloomy alcoves. One might imagine that this was intended 
 for the library of the gods ; and it was. The shelves are not for books, 
 but form the stony leaves of one great book. He who would read the 
 language of the universe may dig out letters here and there, and with 
 them spell the words, and read, in a slow and imperfect way, but still so 
 as to understand a little, the story of creation." * 
 
 * Exploration of the Colorado River of the West: Washington, 1875; pp. 83, 85, 193, 194. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 67 
 
 EtriNS IN THE SOUTH-WESTEEN TEEEITOEIES. 
 
 In the Territories bordering upon the Coloraxlo drainage-system are 
 found ruins and other remains of a people evidently more or less distinct 
 from the Mound-builders, and probably much more closely related to the 
 Aztecs of Mexico. All oyer Arizona, the western half of New Mexico, 
 the south-western portion of Colorado, the southern part of Utah and Ne- 
 vada, with the south-eastern portion of California, are found the ruins of 
 structures raised by this people. -They resemble in many important par- 
 ticulars the towns and houses of the Moquis and Pueblo Indians of the 
 present day, which are described elsewhere in this volume, and who are 
 probably the last remnants of a once great race which covered this region 
 at one time with a dense population. 
 
 These ruins, in their locations and characters, serve to sketch in rough 
 outline the history of this people — ^their peaceful, quiet, pastoral, and agri- 
 cultural lives, then the rude onslaught upon them by the barbarous tribes 
 from the North, who drove them from their indefensible agricultural 
 towns, first, to take shelter upon the summits of high mesas, and then, 
 as they became weaker and less able to cope with their formidable enemies, 
 to the clefts and crannies of the rocks, to the most inaccessible places which 
 Nature had provided. So we can easily distinguish two entirely different 
 classes of structures — first, the agricultural settlements ; and second, those 
 used as fortresses or retreats in time of war. 
 
 Those of the first class were built in the fertile river-bottoms, close to 
 water and arable land. The houses were mainly communal, several stories 
 high, similar to the pueblos of the present day. They were made of stone, 
 laid in more or less regular courses in mortar, or of adobe (sun-dried) 
 brick. In their ground-plan these communal houses are rectangular, cir- 
 cular, or elliptical, or, more rarely, of irregular form. They are usually 
 built around or nearly around a rectangular or circular court, into which 
 the houses open, while on the outside the structure presents a blank wall, 
 broken only by small apertures which served as windows. 
 
 In every town has been found one or more estufas, or sweat-houses, as 
 they are called, for the sake of a name. The building or room is rectan- 
 gular or circular, and much more commonly the latter. In some cases, 
 however, it is an underground aipartment. However built, it is always 
 with very great care, and oftentimes with a view to architectural effect. 
 It is usually the most pretentious building in the settlement. A very 
 common form is that of a tower, usually with a double wall, the annular 
 space between the two walls being subdivided into rooms. One of these 
 
68 THE GflEAT WEST. 
 
 having a triple wall has been found. It is probable that this building 
 was used as a place of woi'ship or was in some way connected with their 
 religion. It may also have been used as the council-house where the 
 grave affairs of state were discussed. 
 
 At a locality in South-western Colorado known as Aztec Spring is 
 situated one of the largest of these towns. The ma.ss of ruins — for the 
 town is in a very ruinous state — covers an area of about four hundred and 
 eighty thousand square feet, and is about three to four feet in depth, 
 making one million five hundred thousand cubic feet of masonry. The 
 stone used is from a cliff fully a mile away. At Ojo Caliente, New, Mex- 
 ico, are the ruins of another large town. It is placed upon a high terrace 
 near Caliente Creek. It was built chiefly of adobe, and consisted of rows 
 of rooms built around central courts. On the Rios San Juan, Chaco, and 
 De Chelly are found a number of other towns more or less similar. 
 
 The second class of structures — those built mainly for purposes of de- 
 fence — are in general in a much better state of preservation, owing in part 
 to their more sheltered position, but mainly, undoubtedly, to the fact that 
 they are of a somewhat more recent date, as indicating a later chapter in 
 the history of this people. Some of them, and perhaps the more elabo- 
 rate structures, are built upon the summits of almost inaccessible mesas, 
 as are the Moquis' towns of the present day. Here are found round tow- 
 ers of considerable height, serving not only as fortresses but as watch- 
 towers. But the cave-dwellings, as they are called, are by far the more 
 numerous and interesting. This country, as was stated in the geographical 
 description, is very arid. There are but few streams, and most of these 
 traverse the country deep down below the surface in canons, with rocky, 
 precipitous walls. Different strata in these canon-walls have been eroded 
 in different degrees, so that one finds horizontal caves in the walls where 
 one of the horizontal beds has weathered back a few feet farther than the 
 harder beds above and below it. In many cases where these caves have 
 occurred part-way up a cliff these people — sore beset by their enemies — 
 have built places of refuge, secure from attack from above by reason of 
 the overhanging cliff, and nearly so from below, as the occupants had to 
 depend upon ladders or steps cut in the nearly perpendicular face of rock. 
 Travelling down the cafion of the Rio Mancos in South-western Colorado, 
 one sees everywhere on the walls which encompass him on either hand 
 these structures, like swallows' nests, in the clefts and crannies of the rocks. 
 In some cases there are quite large groups of houses, well built of stone, 
 even two stories in height. In others a simple wall has been thrown up 
 across the front of a crevice. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 69 
 
 Other traces of this ancient people are not wanting. Great areas — 
 hundreds of square miles, indeed — are so thickly strewn with fragments 
 of pottery that one may ride for days and at every step his horse's 
 hoofs will strike them. Few whole vessels have been found in the 
 ruins. They have been thoroughly explored by the Indians, who have 
 taken almost everything of value to them. The pottery resembles very 
 closely, in material and in the designs painted upon it, that of the Moquis 
 and Pueblo people of the present, but in quality it is vastly superior to 
 the latter. Again, in many localities arrow-heads of chalcedony and 
 obsidian have been found in abundance, indicating the scenes of many 
 a bloody conflict. 
 
 As to the age of these ruins little is known. It is certain that they 
 date back several centuries, undoubtedly before the first Spanish conquest, 
 and a few facts point to a very great antiquity. That ' they may have 
 been a colony of the Aztecs, founded by them in their southward 
 migration to the table-lands of Mexico, is not improbable. But few 
 facts are known on which to base a theory. 
 
 THE GEEAT BASIN. 
 
 Between the "Wahsatch range and the Sierra Nevada lies a great area 
 which has no outlet to either ocean — an area containing many great 
 ranges of mountains, with broad valleys at their bases ; but the moun- 
 tains send down to the plains few permanent streams, and nearly all 
 of these are absorbed by the thirsty soil immediately, or flow into salt 
 lakes to feed the increasing thirst of the dry atmosphere. 
 
 On the east this region is tolerably well defined by the Wahsatch and 
 other ranges — on the west by the Sierra Nevada. On the north and 
 south, however, its limits are not sharply defined, the divides being in 
 most cases mere swells in otherwise flat valleys. 
 
 The scenery in the vicinity of the Wahsatch Mountains has long been 
 celebrated for its grandeur and beauty. Mount Nebo, one of its promi- 
 nent peaks and a noted landmark, is 11,992 feet high. The trend of this 
 range is nearly north and south, while projecting like a spur toward the 
 east is the Uintah range, with a trend nearly east and west, and with a 
 number of peaks over thirteen thousand feet high. This is one of the 
 most beautiful and symmetrical ranges in the West. The nucleus is com- 
 posed of quartzites, which are so elevated that the central mass seems to 
 have been lifted up horizontally or nearly so. The entire range is a re- 
 markable example of a huge anticlinal, and on either side of the axis are 
 the numerous pyramidal peaks, rising far above the timber-line and 
 
70 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 covered with perpetual snow. Three distinct belts may be noted in this 
 range — one above the timber-line, revealing only the bare, bleak rocks ; 
 below, a dense belt of pine timber ; and near the base and sloping oif 
 into the plains, another comparatively barren belt. The Wahsatch range 
 has a gray granite nucleus, with a great thickness of sedimentary beds 
 lying on the sides and often rising to the very summits. In the Great 
 Basin between the Wahsatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada are many 
 smaller mountain-ranges, lying nearly parallel with each other, some of 
 which seem to rise abruptly out of the surrounding plateau. This great 
 depression was undoubtedly at no remote period, geologically speaking, 
 a lake of several hundred miles in extent, out of whose waters the sum- 
 mits of the mountains projected like islands. In the Shoshone Basin, 
 forming the eastern portion of Oregon and west part of Idaho, are a 
 great number of similar ranges, all lying parallel with each other, ap- 
 pearing like the waves of the sea after a storm. The Salmon River 
 Mountains, Blue Mountains, and many others are composed of a series 
 of remarkably regular ridges, trending mainly north and south. Between 
 the mountain-ranges in the Great Basin are valleys of greater or less 
 breadth, floored with a modern Pliocene formation, which in turn is 
 covered with detritus, so that their bases are concealed. The mountains 
 and plain show proof of immense erosion, so that the mountain-ranges 
 themselves are only remnants of their former magnitude. They are 
 composed largely of sedimentary rocks, mostly metamorphosed; also 
 of granitic and volcanic rocks. The valleys are really arid deserts to a 
 great extent, with very little water the greater portion of the year. 
 A few springs here and there supply the thirsty traveller. Immedi- 
 ately around Great Salt Lake are numerous valleys watered by the 
 streams that flow from the mountains, and in such cases the soil is 
 remarkably productive. 
 
 In this basin are some quite large rivers, as the Humboldt, Sevier, Jor- 
 dan, Bear, etc. Jordan and Bear Rivers are large streams, but pour their 
 waters into Great Salt Lake, which has no outlet. Humboldt River takes 
 its rise in the Humboldt range, flows south-westward, and is lost in Hum- 
 boldt Lake, or " Sink," as it was called by the early pioneers. Sevier is a 
 very sinuous stream, waters a narrow valley, and disappears in Sevier 
 Lake. 
 
 The following general description of the features of the Great Basin is 
 found in the Report of the U. S. Geological Survey for 1870, made by 
 Dr. Hayden : 
 
 " Let us for a moment take a bird's-eye view of the great inland basin 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 71 
 
 of which Salt Lake Valley forms only a part. "We shall find that what 
 is termed the Great Basin of the West comprises the vast area enclosed 
 by the Wahsatch Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the 
 west, the crest or water-divide of the Columbia on the north, and that of 
 the Colorado on the south. We shall also observe that this great region 
 has no visible outlet ; that it is composed of a multitude of smaller basins 
 or valleys, each of which has its little lakes, springs, and watercourses, 
 their surplus water either evaporating or sinking beneath the surface. If 
 we examine the elevations in this region, we observe a wonderful uni- 
 formity in the surface of the valleys, and find that none of them are 
 
 much above the level of the waters of Great Salt Lake I infer 
 
 that a fresh-water lake once occupied all this immense basin ; that the 
 smaller ranges of mountains were scattered over it as isolated islands, 
 their summits projecting above the surface ; that the waters have grad- 
 ually and slowly passed away by evaporation, and the terraces are left to 
 reveal certain oscillations of level and the steps of progress toward the 
 present order of things ; and that the briny waters have concentrated in 
 those lake-basins which have no outlet." 
 
 GEEAT SALT LAKE. 
 
 The principal lake in the Great Basin is Great Salt Lake, which 
 receives its principal waters from the Wahsatch Mountains. It might 
 be called a vast inland sea, as it occupies an area of 2360 square miles. 
 It is quite shallow, frequently not more than from ten to twenty feet, and 
 its greatest depth not far from sixty feet. Having no outlet, the evap- 
 oration is very great. The amount fluctuates, somewhat depending upon 
 the character of the seasons. However, the surface has gradually risen 
 since 1849 about eleven feet, and the area covered by the lake is said to 
 be forty per cent, greater, indicating an important increase in the moisture 
 of the climate in later years. 
 
 Great Salt Lake is but the ruin of a much grander lake which in ages 
 past covered a large part of the area of the Great Basin. The shore- 
 line of this great lake — ^for which the name of Bonneville has been pro- 
 posed — is yet distinctly marked high up on the slopes of the Wahsatch ' 
 and other ranges in this part of the basin, 970 feet above its present sur- 
 face. At that time it had an outlet, draining northward into the Snake 
 or Lewis Fork of the Columbia. During the process of desiccation of 
 the country, caused by the rise of the Sierra Nevada, the lake receded, 
 but its recession was checked for greater or less intervals, which are 
 
72 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 indicated by minor beach-lines which form a succession of steps upon the 
 mountain-side. 
 
 The waters of this lake are said to be the strongest brine known. 
 The human body floats almost entirely on the surface. At the time of 
 Captain Stansbury's survey in 1850 the water contained 22.4 per cent, of 
 solid matter ; at present the percentage of solid matter is much less. In 
 1869 it was reduced to 14.8. An analysis of the solid matter by the 
 survey of the 40th parallel (vide Bept. Sur. 4.0th Par., vol. ii. p. 433) 
 gave in 150 parts — 
 
 Magnesia 6.301 
 
 Lime 0.357 
 
 Soda 66.978 
 
 Potassa 2.901 
 
 Sulphuric acid 8.215 
 
 Chlorine 83 946 
 
 168.698 
 Less oxygen of soda and magnesia 18 .758 
 
 149.940 
 
 or, in other words — 
 
 Chloride of sodium 79.11 
 
 Chloride of magnesium 9.95 
 
 Sulphate of soda 6.22 
 
 Sulphate of potassa 3.58 
 
 Sulphate of lime 0.57 
 
 Excess of chlorine 0.57 
 
 100.00 
 
 The elevation of the lake above sea-level is 4218 feet. 
 
 THE NOETHEEN SYSTEM OF MOUNTAINS. 
 
 A grand system of mountains stretches from the Arctic Ocean on the 
 north to Mexico on the south, fronting the Pacific Ocean. Portions of 
 this system are known as the Cascade, the Sierra Nevada, Coast Range, 
 etc. These mountains, as they extend into Mexico, have long been known 
 as the Cordilleras of Mexico, and the main ranges of South America bear 
 the name of Cordilleras or Andes. As Professor Whitney insists, prior- 
 ity would demand that the appellation of " Cordilleras " be continued to 
 this great group of mountains in their extension northward on the Pacific 
 coast to British America. I therefore regard it as just that the term 
 " Cordilleras " shall be used as the main generic term, while the more 
 indefinite term, " Rocky Mountains," should fall under it as sub-generic. 
 The term " Rocky Mountains " has been so long applied to the eastern 
 division that this section, including as it does the water-divide of the 
 continent, should not have its weight or importance diminished in our 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 73 
 
 geographical nomenclature. This becomes the more important if, as I 
 believe, all the great groups of mountains west of longitude 105° will be 
 found, when carefully studied, to be a unity in a general geographical 
 and geological point of view. 
 
 North of latitude 49° but little is known of these western ranges, but 
 it is known that they extend without any permanent interruption to the 
 Arctic Ocean, with here and there a lofty peak, which from ignorance of 
 its precise character has been assigned a greatly exaggerated elevation. 
 In regard to the height of these peaks there is a great disagreement 
 among observers. Mount Hood was ascended in 1864 by Messrs. Wood 
 and Atkinson, and pronounced 17,430 feet above sea-level. In 1867 
 Lieut.-Col. Williamson, with excellent and reliable instruments, found 
 its height to be only 11,225. Professor Whitney's trigonometrical mea.s- 
 urement of the same peak showed, by a rough calculation, about 11,700 
 feet. The latter measurements are undoubtedly very nearly correct. The 
 same discrepancies exist in regard to the elevation of the other mountain- 
 peaks, but careful instrumental measurements have reduced them to a 
 raoderate figure. Mount Baker and Mount Hood, both of which are 
 enormous volcanic cones, may be regarded as respectively about 11,100 
 and 11,225 feet. The elevation of Mount Ranier, or Lachoma, may be 
 regarded as pretty definitely settled by the observations of Professor 
 Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey at 14,444 feet — four feet higher 
 than Mount Shasta, and therefore the most elevated point in the Cascade 
 range. 
 
 The Cascade Range is a continuation northward of the Sierra Nevada 
 or Snowy Range, and is separated only by the chasm of the Klamath 
 River. Through the entire length of Oregon and Washington Territo- 
 ries the Cascade Range runs north and south, parallel to, and about one 
 hundred miles from, the Pacific shore. Near the 49th parallel it is bent 
 north-westerly, conforming with the trend of the coast, and in British 
 Columbia is called the Marine Range. The average elevation is five to 
 six thousand feet. It obtained its name from the Cascades of the Co- 
 lumbia, which are formed by the passage of that river through it. The 
 country along the immediate coast is but a narrow belt, much broken, 
 while the shore is indented with great numbers of bays or inlets, of which 
 the estuary of the Columbia, Shoalwater Bay, and Gray's Harbor are 
 noted. Promontories and rocky islets are visible everywhere as surviv- 
 ing monuments of the terrific erosion which has swept away entire moun- 
 tain-ranges, leaving at this time only the single group of the Cascade 
 range. A few of the peaks are said to be at times active volcanoes. 
 
74 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Mount St. Helen's is reported, upon good authority, as having in Febru- 
 ary, 1842, discharged lava, sending streams of it down its sides. Mount 
 Baker is said to be still smoking, and others show some signs of volcanic 
 activity. 
 
 South of Cape Mendocino, in latitude 40° 30', to Point Conception, 
 near latitude 34° 30', the Coast Range of California is composed of a 
 succession of parallel ranges, with intervening valleys of great beauty 
 and fertility. Between the Coast Range and the Cascades is a longitu- 
 dinal depression which forms the valley of the Willamette, extending 
 northward to the Gulf of Georgia. Similar valleys occur in California, 
 as the San Joaquin and Sacramento. In this northern region the forests 
 are very dense, and the undergrowth so thick that it is difficult to pene- 
 trate it. Trees occur of majestic size, of which the yellow fir {Abies 
 Douglasii) predominates over all others. The cedar {Thuya giganted) is 
 also very abundant. The lumber interests of this country are immense. 
 
 Between the Cascades and the eastern group of mountains lies the basin 
 of the Columbia, which is an arid plain covered with artemisia or wild 
 sage and bunch-grass. The surface is cut through by deep canons, 
 through which the large rivers flow between huge walls of basalt. Al- 
 though there are great varieties of climate in this division, it is extremely 
 mild on the immediate coast. At Puget Sound snow seldom falls, and 
 remains but a short time. Rains are very abundant, reaching sixty 
 inches during the year. 
 
 According to Professor J. D. Whitney, the Coast Range is coincident 
 with the Sierra Nevada, both north and south. Near Lejon Pass, in 
 latitude 35°, the ridges are topographically indistinguishable from each 
 other, and it is only by carefully studying the position of the strata that 
 it can be determined where one system begins and the other ends. The 
 Coast Ranges are composed of newer formations than the Sierra, and 
 have been subjected to greater disturbances up to a recent period ; and 
 they contain no rocks older than the Cretaceous. 
 
 In point of elevation the parts of this system vary widely. From 
 three to four thousand feet above the sea in main height in North-western 
 Oregon, it rises southward until in the southern part of this State, and in 
 California nearly as far as the Bay of San Francisco, it has a mean height 
 of not less than six thousand feet. The Bay of San Francisco lies just 
 in the trend of this system, a great gap. South of it the ranges have 
 much less height, reaching only two to three thousand feet above the sea. 
 One of the most prominent peaks is Monte Diablo, rising right up from 
 the bay to a height of three thousand eight hundred and sixty feet, and 
 
WINTER FOREST SCENE IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS. 
 
 BY TH0M;i.3 MORAN. 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 75 
 
 commanding a most beautiful view of one of the finest harbors' in the 
 world lying spread out at the feet ; while to the west, away across the 
 yellow plain of the Sacramento Valley, stands the splendid panorama of 
 the snowy crest of the Sierra Nevada. 
 
 THE SIEEEA NEVADA. 
 
 The Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Range, forms the western border of the 
 great continental plateaus, corresponding with the Rocky group on the 
 east. While the base of the eastern mass is everywhere four to five thou- 
 sand feet above the sea-level, and the descent to the sea imperceptible to 
 the eye, the Sierra slopes rapidly, so that the sea-level is reached within 
 one hundred miles. So far as now known, the highest peak of the 
 United States is in the Sierra group — viz. Mount Whitney, 14,887 
 feet. The peak which is believed to be the next in height is in 
 Southern Colorado — Blanca Peak of Sierra Blanca, 14,464 feet. The 
 scenery of the Sierra group is of surpassing grandeur and beauty. There 
 is not such a vast number of high peaks as in the Colorado group, but it 
 may fairly claim the highest ; and inasmuch as the surrounding country 
 has a much lower altitude, there is a massiveness about this magnificent 
 range that even the Sawatch of Colorado cannot boast. The Sierra chain 
 is about four hundred and fifty miles in length, and averages about eighty 
 miles in width, supposing its northern terminus to be at Lassen's Butte, 
 latitude 40° 30'. The central mass or core is chiefly granite, with meta- 
 morphic slates on either side, capped with basaltic and other kinds of 
 lava and heavy beds of ashes and breccia. All these rocks are visible 
 from the Central Pacific Railroad between Truckee and Sacramento. The 
 evidences of very modern volcanic action are visible everywhere. Even 
 now there are numerous hot springs and geysers, as well as an occasional 
 earthquake shock. The height of some of the dominating peaks is as 
 follows: Mount Shasta, 14,442 feet; Mount Tyndall, 14,386; Mount 
 Kaweah, 14,000 ; Mount Brewer, 13,886 ; Red Slate Peak, 13,400 ; 
 Mount Dana, 13,277. On the mountains snow falls to the depth of 
 forty or fifty feet, and much of it remains all the year. Enormous 
 glaciers exist here even at the present time, and the evidences of ancient 
 glacial action are wonderful. The worn and rounded granites of the 
 Sierra Nevada were well adapted to preserve the records of the old 
 glaciers, and they everywhere testify to the intensity of their former 
 power. These old glaciers have been continued down to the present 
 time, in a modified condition. All the glaciers occur on the .north side 
 of the mountains, and are very numerous — now estimated, according to 
 
76 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Mr. John Muir, at sixty-five. The number known in the Alps is eleven 
 hundred, of which about one hundred may be considered as primary. 
 Some of these great masses of snow and ice, which are not considered 
 true glaciers by good authority, are nearly as large as the Alpine — as the 
 Lyell, North Kettle, and others not named. Although the existence of 
 glacial phenomena on the Pacific slope has been known for many years, 
 the subject has received comparatively little attention, but enough is 
 known to invest them with the highest interest. Moraines and morainal 
 lakes occur in the Sierras in great number. Lake Tenaya, at the head 
 of the Merced River, or a branch of the same name, is a conspicuous ex- 
 ample. Traces , of the existence of an immense flow of ice are shown 
 here in the valley occupied by the lake, according to Whitney, and the 
 ridges on either side of the trail are so worn by glacial action that the 
 rocks are slippery, rendering travel dangerous. In our country the 
 Glacial period proper has passed away, and the masses of snow and ice 
 that now remain behind are only remnants. 
 
 GLACIAL ACTION IN THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 All through the Rocky Mountain group, on both sides of the great 
 Divide, are remarkable examples of glacial action — moraines and morainal 
 lakes. In Central Colorado, in the Sawatch and Elk Mountains, are large 
 ai-eas of glaciated granites, which are usually called sheep-backs or roehes 
 moutonnSes. The first true glaciers on the Atlantic slope or in the Rocky 
 Mountain group were observed in the summer of 1878 by the writer in 
 the "Wind River Mountains, in Wyoming Territory. On the south-east 
 side of Fremont's Peak are two fine long glaciers, occupying an area of 
 about two square miles, which are now named the Upper and Lower Fre- 
 mont Glaciers. The neve is distinctly shown, and the crevasses produced 
 by the slow movements are all large and well marked. Indeed, all the 
 characters of a first-class Swiss glacier are found here. Several smaller 
 ones are found in this range. Even these are comparatively only the very 
 insignificant remnants of the immense glaciers of the true Glacial epoch. 
 On the west side of the Wind River range the morainal ridges are of im- 
 mense size, and glacial lakes of all sizes are scattered about in great niun- 
 bers. There must have been here at one time a mass of snow and ice 
 moving down into the plains sixty-five miles long and twelve to fifteen 
 broad. 
 
 TIMBEE-BBLTS. 
 
 Four pretty well-marked belts of forest vegetation were observed 
 by Whitney in the Sierra Nevada. The lowest is the foo1>hills, with 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 77 
 
 oaks, buckeyes, and small Digger pines ; the second belt lies between four 
 and five thousand feet, and consists of pitch-pine (Piniis ponderosa), bastard 
 cedar, and Douglas spruce ; the third zone, between seven and nine thou- 
 sand feet, is that of firs, as Picea grandis and amabilis, tamarack-pine, etc. ; 
 and on the highest belt, above nine thousand feet, where vegetation begins 
 to dwindle, a dwarf pine [Ptnus cristata) is seen up to the level of per- 
 petual snow. 
 
 There are great numbers of beautiful lakes in the Sierras, fed by the 
 melting of the snows, among which are Lake Tahoe and Donner's Lake. 
 
 THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. 
 
 The Yosemite Valley, so remarkable for its rugged scenery, and which 
 has been set apart by legislative action as a pleasure-ground, is in the 
 Sierra. Through this valley flows the Merced Eiver, and at its source is 
 a fine group of mountain-peaks, thirteen thousand feet high, called the 
 Merced group. 
 
 We cannot do better, in order to give a general idea of this remarkable 
 natural feature, than to quote the description of this valley written by 
 Professor J. D. Whitney in the Guidebook of the Yosemite, p. 84, et seq. : 
 
 " The Yosemite Valley is nearly in the centre of the State (California) 
 north and south, and just midway between the east and west bases of the 
 
 Sierra, here a little over seventy miles wide The valley is a nearly 
 
 level area, about six miles in length and from half a mile to a mile in 
 width, and sunken almost a mile in perpendicular depth below the general 
 level of the adjacent region. It may be roughly likened to a gigantic 
 trough hollowed in the mountains, nearly at right angles to their regular 
 trend This trough .... is quite irregular, having, several re- 
 entering angles and square recesses, let back, as it were, into its sides ; 
 still, a general north-east by easterly direction, is maintained in the de- 
 pression until we arrive near its upper end, where it turns sharply, at right 
 angles almost, and soon divides into three branches, through either of 
 which we may, going up a series of gigantic steps as it were, ascend to the 
 general level of the Sierra. Down each of these branches, or cafions, de- 
 scend streams, forks of the Merced, coming down the steps in a series of 
 stupendous waterfalls. At its lower fend the valley contracts into a narrow 
 gorge or canon, with steeply-inclined walls, and not having the U-shape 
 of the Yosemite, but the usual V-form of Californian valleys. 
 
 "The principal features of the Yosemite, -and those by which it is dis-. 
 tinguished from all other known valleys, are — first, the near approach to 
 verticality of its walls ; second, their great height, not only absolutely, but 
 
78 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 as compared with the width of the valley itself; and, finally, the very 
 small amount of talus or ddbris at the base of these gigantic cliffs. These 
 are the great characteristics of the Yosemite throughout its whole length, 
 but besides these there are many other striking peculiarities, and features 
 both of sublimity and beauty, which can hardly be surpassed, if equalled, 
 by those of any mountain-valley in the world. The domes or the water- 
 falls of the Yosemite, or any single one of them even, would be sufficient 
 in any European country to attract travellers from far and wide in all 
 directions. Waterfalls in the vicinity of the Yosemite, surpassing in 
 beauty many of those best known and most visited in Europe, are actually 
 left entirely unnoticed by travellers because there are so many other ob- 
 jects of interest." 
 
 The objects of interest in this valley, which render it without a rival in 
 scenic effects in the known world, are^— firgt, the great cliffs and crags 
 which border it, rising three to four thousand feet in vertical height above 
 its level ; second, the wonderful bas-reliefs of columns, spires, and arches 
 upon its granite walls ; and, third, the grand and beautiful waterfalls by 
 which the many tributaries to the Merced enter the valley, leaping over 
 its walls from great heights. These deserve a more particular mention. 
 Chief among them is the Yosemite Fall. This has a total height of 
 twenty-six hundred feet, the upper fifteen hundred of which are in 
 a clear leap from the top of the cliff. Then follows a succession of cascades 
 of six or seven hundred feet, below which the stream makes a second fall 
 to the bottom of the valley. The Bridal Veil Fall, though carrying much 
 less water, is very beautiful. In its leap of six hundred and thirty feet 
 the column of water is swayed hither and thither by the wind, and nearly 
 dissolved into spray, which makes its fanciful name by no means inap- 
 propriate. Other notable falls are the Vernal, four hundred feet, and the 
 Nevada, six hundred feet, in height. 
 
 PEATTJEES OF THE TWO MOTJNTAIK-SYSTEMS. 
 
 So far as structure and topography are concerned, the great mountain- 
 systems extending along the western borders of the Western hemisphere 
 from the Arctic Ocean to Patagonia may be regarded as a unit and due 
 to one great cause. So far as we know at the present time, the general 
 geological features are very similar, so that the application of a single 
 comprehensive name to both groups as one grand system may not be 
 deemed inappropriate. It may be said, then, that as North America has 
 its lofty North Cordilleras group opposite the deep North Pacific Ocean, 
 and its small Appalachian group opposite the shallower North Atlantic, 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 79 
 
 so South America has its still higher Andes or Southern Cordilleras group 
 opposite the deeper South Pacific, and the smaller Brazilian ranges oppo- 
 site the South Atlantic. This generalization, as stated by Dana, is founded 
 on a deep-seated structural cause. The elevation of a portion of the earth's 
 crust requires in close proximity a corresponding depression. 
 
 The great mountain-system of the Western United States may be 
 primarily divided into two principal portions — the Sierra Nevada and 
 Coast ranges, fronting the Pacific Ocean, and the Rocky chain, which 
 forms the great water-divide of the continent. Each of these chains or 
 groups is made up of a great number of smaller ranges, in the aggregate 
 apparently possessing a considerable degree of regularity, but when 
 studied in detail showing less system. Sometimes, as in the Great Basin, 
 the main ranges seem to lie parallel for the most part, but usually the 
 minor ranges branch oif in some special direction. More commonly, the 
 trend is about north-east and south-west, but in some instances it is due 
 north and south or east and west. The Wahsatch range in Utah trends 
 nearly north and south, while the Uintah range, which seems to branch 
 off from it, trends nearly east and west. The area west of the Missis- 
 sippi may be divided into mountain and prairie or plain country. The 
 belt of plains on the east slope averages about five hundred miles in 
 width, and gradually rises to the base o'f the mountains. The mountain 
 portion has its greatest breadth between the 36th and 41st parallels, 
 where it varies from eight hundred to one thousand miles. In this belt 
 are the greatest number of lofty peaks, including the highest portion of 
 the Sierra Nevada. 
 
 Among the numerous ranges of the mountain-system of the West are 
 many valleys and plateaus, varying from a few acres to hundreds, or even 
 thousands, of square miles. Sometimes they are formed by erosion or by 
 depression ; many of them are ancient lake-basins. In all the great 
 mountain-districts of the West are thousands of these openings, into 
 which settlements have«already penetrated. In the San Juan Mountains 
 is Baker's Park, with an extensive settlement of miners, and in the sur- 
 rounding mountains are some of the richest silver-mines in America. The 
 North, Middle, and South Parks in Colorado are areas of depression, 
 underlaid with sedimentary strata and walled in on every side by lofty 
 mountain-ranges ; they are really old lake-basins. The North Park has 
 a comparatively level surface and an average elevation of eight thousand 
 feet. South of this, and only separated by a rather low mountain-range, 
 is the Middle Park, which is much larger and far more rugged ; indeed, 
 there is very little of what should be called plain country, but a succes- 
 
80 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 sion of high ridges, many of which are of volcanic origin. The average 
 elevation is about seven thousand five hundred feet. Still farther south, 
 but separated by a much wider belt of mountainous district, is the South 
 Park, which is mostly a plain with an average elevation of nine thousand 
 feet. In these parks there is frost every month in the year. San Luis 
 Valley, in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico, has an average 
 elevation of seven to eight thousand feet. The Llano Estacado of Texas 
 and New Mexico averages 3200 to 4700 feet above the sea-level ; the 
 Colorado Plain in Arizona, 5500 feet ; Salt Lake Valley, Utah, 4200 to 
 4600 feet ; Laramie Plains, "Wyoming Territory, 7000 feet ; Snake River 
 Plain, in Idaho, 4000 to 4500 feet; Sevier Lake-Basin, Utah, 4700 feet; 
 Humboldt River Basin (Lassen's Meadows), Nevada, 4700 feet ; Carson 
 River Basin, 3800 feet ; Walker's River Basin, 4100 feet ; and Mojave 
 River Basin, California, 1100 feet. 
 
 Comparing the mountain-plateaus or basins of the Western mountain- 
 region with some of those in the Andean region of South America, the 
 difference of elevation is very great. The Antisana plateau of South 
 America is 13,451 feet; the basin of Santa Fd de Bogota, 8413 feet; and 
 the basin near Lake Titicaca, 12,853 feet. Perhaps as great an extent 
 of plateau is comprised in the belt between the 38th and 44th parallels of 
 latitude as in any other portion of the Cordilleran area. Through this 
 belt the Pacific Railroad passes. From Omaha to Cheyenne the track 
 lies nearly all the way on the most modern Tertiary formations. From 
 Cheyenne westward the road crosses the Laramie range, the highest point, 
 Sherman, being 8271 feet. After passing over about fifteen miles of 
 granitic rocks it descends into the Laramie Plains. Thence to the Wah- 
 satch Mountains in Utah no more granitic rocks are met with, only Cre- 
 taceous or Tertiary. In crossing the water-divide at Creston, 7030 feet 
 high, the stranger would not suspect that he was passing from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific slope. The railroad runs through the Wahsatch range at 
 right angles to its trend in the channel of the Weber River, with only 
 four miles of granitic rocks ; so that from Omaha to Ogden, a distance 
 of over one thousand miles, only about eighteen miles of metamorphic 
 rocks are crossed. Hence the Central Pacific crosses the Salt Lake Basin, 
 enters the Humboldt Valley, and really meets with no mountains until it 
 reaches the Sierra Nevada, where a most formidable obstacle presents 
 itself in a massive granite range, which, however, is crossed at an eleva- 
 tion of only 7042 feet. 
 
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THE GREAT WEST. 81 
 
 MINERAL DEPOSITS IN THE WEST. 
 
 According to Messrs. Blake and King, there are seven longitudinal 
 zones or belts of mineral deposits in the West, following the prevailing 
 direction of the mountain-ranges. Mr. King says : " The Pacific coast 
 ranges upon the west carry quicksilver, tin, and chromic iron. The next 
 belt is that of the Sierra Nevada and Oregon Cascades, which upon their 
 west slope bear two zones, a foot-hill chain of copper-mines, and a middle 
 line of gold-deposits. These gold-veins and the resultant placer-mines 
 extend far into Alaska, characterized by the occurrence of gold in quartz, 
 by a small amount of that metal which is entangled in iron sulphurets, 
 and by occupying splits in the upturned metamorphic strata of the 
 Jurassic age. Lying to the east of the zone, along the east base of the 
 Sierras, and stretching southward into Mexico, is a chain of silver-mines, 
 containing comparatively little base metal, and frequently included in 
 volcanic rocks. Through Middle Mexico, Arizona, Middle Nevada, and 
 Central Idaho is another line of silver-mines, mineralized with compli- 
 cated association of the base metals, and more often occurring in older 
 rocks. Through New Mexico, Utah, and Western Montana lies another 
 zone of argentiferous galena-lodes. To th^ east, again, the New Mexico, 
 Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana gold belt is an extremely well defined 
 and continuous chain of deposits." 
 
 The yield of gold and silver for the year from July 1, 1877, to July 
 1, 1878, in the several States and Territories, is given by the Director of 
 the United States Mint as follows : 
 
 Gold. Silver. Total. 
 
 California . $15,260,676 $2,373,389 $17,634,068 
 
 Nevada 19,546,513 28,130,350 47,676,863 
 
 Montana 2,260,511 1,669,635 3,930,146 
 
 Idaho 1,150,000 2,200,000 1,350,000 
 
 Utah 382,000 5,208,000 5,600,000 
 
 Arizona 500,000 8,000,000 3,500,000 
 
 New Mexico 175,000 500,000 675,000 
 
 Oregon 1,000,000 100,000 1,100,000 
 
 Washington 300,000 25,000 325,000 
 
 Dakota 3,000,000 none. 3,000,000 
 
 Colorado 3.366,404 5,394,940 8,761,344 
 
 $46,941,104 $48,601,314 $93,552,421 
 
 The development of the gold- and silver-mines in Colorado and the 
 Black Hills of Dakota has been wonderful in extent, the details of 
 which are too extended for this article. 
 
 It has usually been understood that there is no coal in the true Coal- 
 measures west of the 100th meridian, but of late years a few thin seams 
 of no practical importance have been reported as occurring in the south 
 
82 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and south-west. In Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and New 
 Mexico vast areas are underlaid by thick beds of coal belonging to the 
 Cretaceous and Tertiary groups. In Southern Colorado, New Mexico, 
 and in the interior of Utah thick and important beds of coal are found 
 in the Cretaceous group, while along the east slope of the Rocky chain 
 in Colorado, as at Raton Hills, Caflon City, Colorado Springs, Golden 
 City, and northward, are numerous coal-beds belonging to the Post-Cre- 
 taceous group, which are now wrought to a large extent. In the north- 
 west the coal-area covers not far from one hundred thousand square miles. 
 Along the Union Pacific Railroad are coal-fields of the same age, with- 
 out which the railroad would be of no practical value. Not less than 
 twenty thousand tons a month are mined at Evanston, Rock Springs, and 
 Carbon in Wyoming Territory for the use of this road alone. From 
 Coalville, Utah, no remarkable beds of coal are found along the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the Pacific Railroad to San Francisco. 
 
 The scarcity of tree vegetation over the greater portion of our West- 
 ern country renders this coal of vital importance to the present and 
 future industries of the great West. To show the extent to which this 
 brown coal is already employed in the industries in some of the Western 
 States and Territories, we may cite the following reliable statistics : In 
 the year 1877 there were mined or used in California 600,000 tons; 
 Oregon, 200,000 ; Washington Territory, 150,000; Colorado, 300,000; 
 Wyoming, 100,000 ; Utah, 45,000. I do not know the exact amount 
 for 1879-80, but do not doubt that it has more than doubled that of 
 1877. From the Mining and Scientific Press for February, 1880, 1 take 
 the following statistics of the coal-trade at Seattle, Washington Territory, 
 alone. The greater portion of this coal is transported to the port of San 
 Francisco. In 1871, 4918 tons; 1872, 14,830; 1872, 13,572; 1874, 
 9027; 1875, 70,157; 1876, 112,734; 1877, 104,556; 1878, 128,582; 
 1879, 132,264 tons; total, 590,639 tons. Although the trade in this 
 lignitie or brown coal has sprung up within a few years, brought about 
 largely by the extension of the system of railroads throughout the West, 
 it is becoming extremely important year by year, and the absence of tim- 
 ber over so large a proportion of the Western country renders its exist- 
 ence a vital element of its settlement as well as its prosperity. 
 
 FOSSILS IN THE LAKE-BASINS. 
 
 The true brown-coal formations of the West form, as it were, the 
 foundation, as well as a part, of the remarkable old estuaries or lake- 
 basins that are found in every State and Territory west of the Missis- 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 83 
 
 sippl. The thickest beds occur in a series of strata that seem to form a 
 transition series from purely marine beds to purely fresh-water strata. 
 We have already, in a preceding portion of this article, described the 
 wonderful lake-basins in the vicinity of the Black Hills of Dakota, from 
 the sediment at the bottom of which have been obtained the remains of 
 a great variety of extinct animals, including camels, rhinoceroses, elephants, 
 mammoths, turtles, birds, etc. In the Sweetwater Vallej^, near the Three 
 Forks of the Missouri, in Oregon, California, Texas, New Mexico, and 
 in Colorado, are similar lake-basins, filled with the remains of these ex- 
 tinct animals. On the Laramie Plains, about Fort Bridger and far south 
 on Green River, are lake-basins of older date, referred to the Lower 
 Miocene or Upper Eocene, in the deposits of which have been discovered 
 the abundant remains of hundreds of extinct forms of vertebrate ani- 
 mals entirely distinct from those just mentioned, as of more recent age. 
 The energetic explorations of Professor Cope within the past few years 
 in all these remarkable localities have resulted in making known to the 
 public hundreds of species of the most wonderful animal forms, a his- 
 tory of which he is now preparing for publication by the United States 
 government. Great quantities of fossil insects, fishes, and plants are 
 found in these older lake-beds. In the South Park of Colorado and in 
 the Green River group of Wyoming over a thousand species of fossil 
 insects have been found, representing almost all the families of that class 
 of life. These fossil insects are now in the hands of Mr. S. H. Scudder 
 of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the best American authority on this sub- 
 ject, and the final results of his studies will appear in a large quarto vol- 
 ume — vol. xiii. of the final Reports of the U. S. Geological Survey of the 
 Territories. A couple of paragraphs which appeared in the American 
 Naturalist in February, 1868, from the pen of Mr. Scudder, describing a 
 small collection of these fossil insects from Green River, may be quoted 
 here with interest : 
 
 " The masses of rock were crowded with remains of insects and leaves 
 of deciduous trees. Between sixty and seventy species of insects were 
 brought home, representing nearly all the different orders ; about two- 
 1;hirds of the species were flies — some of them the perfect insect, others 
 the maggot-like larva, but in no instance did the imago and larva of the 
 same insect occur. The greater part of the beetles were quite small. 
 There were three or four kinds of Homeoptera (allied to the treehoppers), 
 ants of two different genera, and a poorly-preserved moth. Perhaps a 
 minute Thrips, belonging to a group which has never been found fossil 
 in any part of the world, is of the greatest interest. 
 
84 THE' GREAT WEST. 
 
 "At the present day these tiny and almost microscopic insects live 
 among the petals of flowers, and one species is supposed by some entomolo- 
 gists to be injurious to the wheat ; others believe that they congregate in 
 tlie wheat as well as in the flowers in the hope of finding food in the 
 still smaller and more helpless insects which are found there. It is as- 
 tonishing that an insect so delicate and insignificant in size can be so per- 
 fectly preserved' in these stones ; in the best specimens the body is crushed 
 and displaced, yet the wings remain uninjured, and every hair of their 
 broad but microscopic fringe can be counted." 
 
 Over five hundred species of extinct forms of plants have been found, 
 mostly in connection with the coal, indicating that at a comparatively 
 modern period, geologically speaking, this great region, occupied with 
 mountains and barren plains, was covered with forests as luxuriant as 
 those of the Gulf States. These plants belong mostly to the early Ter- 
 tiary period. Not unfrequently strata several feet in thickness occur, 
 composed almost entirely of leaves of the fig, sycamore, willow, poplar, 
 walnut, oak, etc., so well preserved that they seem to have fallen from 
 their branches only yesterday. Even the delicate veins and serrated edges 
 are as perfect as if pressed in an herbarium. Groves of palms waved 
 their broad leaves over the ground, some of which had a spread of twelve 
 feet. At the present time the true fan-palms are found only within the 
 tropics. Many of the native ornamental trees and shrubs are the lineal 
 descendants of the Tertiary species, and so nearly resemble the ancient 
 forms that it is difficult to distinguish them. Professor Lesquereux says 
 that among the genera found to be indigenous to our continent are the 
 Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis) and the mulberry (Morus). Both the 
 fossil species are in intimate affinity with the living ones. " They are 
 seen everywhere and known and liked by everybody. The one is the 
 friend of the farmer by its shade — of his children, delighted by the 
 pleasantness of its fruits ; the other adorns our dwellings when allowed 
 to grow in our gardens, and when left to its own work it covers with 
 green foliage the dead trees and the barren rocks, tempering desolation 
 and ruin by hiding them under elegant fringes and garlands painted by 
 the richest colors. It is worth something to know that the origin of the 
 Yirginia creeper and of the red mulberry is traceable to the Tertiary 
 formations of North America." The gigantic Sequoias of California 
 have their ancestors in several species. 
 
 The present scarcity of timber or forests in the Western or central 
 portions of the continent at the present time is well known, and the 
 question arises as to the climatic conditions which should have produced 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 85 
 
 60 marked a change from the luxuriant and sub-tropical vegetation of 
 the modern Tertiary epoch in this region to present scarcity or almost 
 entire absence over large areas. We now know that the principal winds 
 come from the west and north-west, and as they pass over the summits 
 of the different ranges of mountains from the Pacific coast eastward, 
 laden with moisture, discharge a portion of it from summit to summit, 
 until on the eastern slope the air is almost dry. The absence of timber 
 is due to the absence of moisture, and the inference from the fact of the 
 dense forests existing in the present mountainous districts of the West 
 during the early Tertiary period is that these high summits did not then 
 exist. 
 
 For the purpose of showing the average annual rainfall in inches in the 
 different drainage-areas of the West we will state these briefly here. They 
 are all well marked out. The Missouri River and its great branches, the 
 Yellowstone and Platte, have their sources in the main Rocky range, and, 
 gathering their waters from myriads of branches, flow at first east across 
 the dry plains, and gradually turn south-east and join the Mississippi ; 
 the average rainfall in the Upper Missouri drainage is eighteen inches. 
 The second drainage is that of the Arkansas, farther south, which rises 
 in the Sawatch and Park ranges of Colorado, flows south to latitude 38° 
 30' and longitude 106°, then bends east and flows across the plains to 
 unite with the Mississippi ; the average rainfall is twenty-eight inches. 
 The third system of drainage is still farther south, that of the Rio 
 Grande, which rises in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado, 
 flows south through New Mexico and between Texas and Mexico, and 
 empties into the Gulf of Mexico ; average rainfall, sixteen inches. West 
 of the last is the drainage of the Colorado of the West, which, rising far 
 north (in its branches, the Green and Grand Rivers), near the Yellowstone 
 National Park, flows south and south-west across Wyoming, Utah, and 
 Arizona, and empties into the Gulf of California ; the average annual 
 rainfall in this vast area is only fifteen inches. North and west of the 
 Colorado drainage is the great interior basin, between the Wahsatch 
 Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, with no known outlet, the great rivers 
 sinking ; here the average annual rainfall is only twelve inches. To the 
 north is the great drainage of the Columbia, the branches of which rise 
 in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, far to the east in Idaho ; the 
 average annual rainfall is only eighteen inches. There are several smaller 
 areas of drainage on the Pacific coast. The limited rainfall in all these 
 drainage-areas mentioned shows that successful agriculture is only possible 
 with the aid of irrigation. East of the Sierra Nevada the rains are not 
 
86 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 frequent, the snows are very light, and the amount not great, so that the 
 supply of water from the melting of the snows is not extensive. The 
 difference between high and low water-mark in the streams is very 
 great. For a short time in May and June the streams are high and 
 large, but they soon dwindle greatly, and even disappear altogether. So 
 little snow falls on the eastern ranges that the streams which flow into 
 the plains from the east slope will not supply water to irrigate all the 
 fertile land that is available for agricultural purposes, and the deficiency 
 must yet be supplied by the use of artesian wells. 
 
 The timber-line, or highest limit of tree vegetation, does not vary much 
 in the main mountain-masses of the West. In Colorado and Utah it is 
 from 11,000 to 12,000 feet; in Northern Wyoming and Montana, from 
 8000 to 11,000 feet; on Mount Shasta, California, 8000 feet; while as 
 far south as San Francisco Mountain, Arizona, between latitude 35° and 
 36°, it is 11,547 feet. According to observations made up to this time, 
 the timber-line is lower to the far North. Between latitude 45° and 46°, 
 in Montana, it varies from 8800 to 9600 feet, while from latitude 40° 
 to 35° it is quite uniformly from 11,000 to 12,000 feet. These state- 
 ments may be regarded as approximately accurate, though more obser- 
 vations ought to be made. 
 
 The mean elevation along several parallels of latitude has been ascer- 
 tained approximately. For instance, along the 32d parallel, between 
 longitude 95° and 96°, the mean elevation is 500 feet ; the highest mean 
 between 108° and 110° in the Sierra Madre plateau is 5000 feet; 35th 
 parallel, first mean, 650 feet, highest mean, between longitude 107° and 
 109°, at Zuni Mountains, 7000 feet ; 39th parallel-, first mean, 1000 feet, 
 highest mean, between longitude 105° and 107°, in the Colorado, Sawatch, 
 and Elk ranges, 11,000 feet; 41st parallel, first mean, 1000 feet, highest 
 mean, between longitude 105° and 107°, Laramie range and South Park, 
 8000 ; 45th parallel, first mean, 1000 feet, highest mean, between longi- 
 tude 108° and 110°, Big Horn Mountains and Yellowstone range, 7000 
 feet ; 48th parallel, first mean, 1500 feet, highest mean, between longitude 
 113° and 114°, the main mountain chain, 4000 feet. The mean eleva- 
 tion of Arizona is 4200 feet ; of California, 2800 ; of Colorado, 6600; of 
 Idaho, 3800 ; of Montana, 3950 ; of Nevada, 4900 ; of New Mexico, 
 5400; of Oregon, 2700; of Washington Territory, 1800; of Wyoming, 
 6450. 
 
 STOCK-EAISING. 
 
 I have not spoken of what may form one off the most important indus- 
 tries in the West, and one which is now assuming most formidable pro- 
 
THE GREAT WEST. 87 
 
 portions ; and that is stock-raising. The great Plains form one great cattle- 
 range. From Texas to Montana we find them dotted over with the huts 
 of the ranchmen and covered with herds of cattle. They follow closely 
 the retreating steps of the buffalo. So in the great valleys of Montana, 
 the great valleys of California, and those of Oregon — indeed, wherever 
 grass grows and hostile Indians are not too plentiful, there we find herds 
 of cattle. Some of the cattle-men are very wealthy, numbering their 
 cattle by the hundreds of thousands. Next to the gold- and silver-mines, 
 no industry adds more to the wealth of the country than this. The de- 
 mand for the foreign market has been very great, and over two million 
 pounds of meat per month have been transported to Europe. 
 
 We have touched upon but a few of the topics of interest in regard to 
 our great West, either scientific or practical, but we trust we have said 
 enough to convey at least a glimpse of its almost unlimited future. 
 
THE TRIP OVERLAND. 
 
 BY CHARLES RAYMOND. 
 
 STAETING out from Omaha, a prosperous city of twenty-one thou- 
 sand inhabitants, situated upon the west bank of the Missouri, we 
 set " sail " for the Far West. 
 
 Nothing can be more delightful than a journey in a Pullman car on 
 the Pacific Railroad. The rate of speed in the East, of forty miles an 
 hour, renders travel tiresome, btit on the Pacific road the uniform rate of 
 twenty miles an hour, with the smoothness of the track, makes the journey 
 a pleasure. 
 
 The Platte Valley opens before our view. We follow the old trail, 
 and enter the bottom-lands as rich as Egypt. Here Lewis and Clarke 
 started out on their long journey overland in 1804. Millions of butter- 
 flies, those winged flowers, met their gaze, and they christened the spot 
 Papilion. The name remains, but the men have gone. The Platte 
 River is over three-quarters of a mile wide, with an average depth of 
 six inches, in which the old emigrants, as one told the writer, dared not 
 halt or tarry in the crossing, for fear of sinking so deep in the treacherous 
 sand as not to be extricated. The rapid settlement of this valley by a 
 thrifty and industrious class of people makes the wilderness to blossom 
 as a rose, and the thrifty towns springing up all along the line of the 
 Central Pacific Railroad give token of prosperity. 
 
 Oftentimes at night can be seen the prairie-fires so dreaded by the emi- 
 grant, yet so grand when seen from the car-window as they sweep over 
 the plains. 
 
 THE PLAINS, 
 
 which extend through Nebraska, are familiar to all persons who made 
 the journey or read of the travels of emigrants in early days. We pass 
 the old emigrant road, "a trail drawn across the continent, like the 
 tremulous writing of a death-warrant when Mercy holds the pen," and 
 
DONNER LAKE, FROM THE SNOW-SHEDS. 
 
THE TRIP OVERLAND. 89 
 
 we can but compare the present mode of travelling with former days. 
 The contrast is marked. Nearly all the stations passed on the road 
 have the same characteristics. They are of rapid growth, and have a 
 population varying from several thousand to a score or less. Between 
 them may occasionally be seen the prairie-dog villages and herds of 
 antelope. Bufialoes have disappeared. The traveller rejoices when the 
 first sight of the Rocky Mountains appears. Some people imagine that 
 the mountains are almost perpendicular, and are surprised to find them- 
 selves at an altitude of 6041 feet when they redch Cheyenne, having as- 
 cended imperceptibly to that height, as the altitude above sea-level at 
 Omaha was only 966 feet. 
 
 Cheyenne is known as the "Magic City of the Plain," from its rapid 
 growth. In July, 1867, there was one house here ; six months later there 
 were three thousand houses. The mountains form a massive background. 
 At present the city is prosperous, with a population of seven thousand. 
 
 From Cheyenne the tourist can make the dMour of Colorado, and no 
 ' finer scenery can be found, 'while the wonderful development of the 
 minerals and other material resources of the State /offers strong induce- 
 ments to the emigrants. 
 
 Leaving Cheyenne, we pass through many snow-sheds, and soon reach 
 Sherman, the highest point on the road, at an altitude of 8242 feet, and at a 
 distance of 549 miles from Omaha. The ascent has been so gradual that 
 the height can hardly be realized. From here the scenery is amazingly 
 strange. Odd and fantastic shapes crowd the landscape on both sides of 
 the track. The scenery is now very much changed. We pass Laramie 
 City, a thriving place of three thousand inhabitants, 572 miles from 
 Omaha. From here the traveller will gain new ideas of the sublimity 
 of Nature in the scenery of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The train West-bound leaves here in the evening. The Green River 
 country, through which we pass the following day, is marked by a most 
 peculiar formation. The rocks are so worn by the elements as to re- 
 semble the ruins of some deserted temples or castles. Many beautiful 
 impressions of fish and insects are found preserved in the sandstone. 
 
 ECHO AND WEBER CAffONS 
 
 are perhaps the most far-famed of all the scenery on the Union Pacific, 
 and crowded into a distance of sixty miles, hardly three hours' ride, we 
 catch a glimpse of the wonderful in Nature that has not been revealed 
 elsewhere. B. F. TaylOr, in his admirable work, Between the Gates, thus 
 describes it: 
 
90 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 " The train seems hopelessly bewildered. It makes for a mountain- 
 wall eight hundred feet high, just doubles it by a hand-breadth, sweeps 
 around a curve, plunges into a gorge that is so narrow you think it must 
 strangle itself if it swallows the train ; red rocks everywhere huge as 
 great thunder-clouds touched by the sun, and big enough for the kernel 
 of such a baby planet as Mars ; monuments graven by the winds ; ter- 
 races along whose mighty steps the sun goes up to bed, the glow of his 
 crimson sandal on the topmost stair ; and it is twilight in the valley and 
 midnight in the gorge. It is a fearful nightmare of stone giants, weird 
 witches in gray groups, whispering together in the hollow winds, of the 
 mountains — ^witches' baths for high revels; Egyptian tombs; fortresses 
 that can never be stormed. Yonder, a thousand years ago, they were 
 launching a ship six hundred feet high in the air, but it holds fast to the 
 'ways' still. Its stately red bow carries a cedar at the fore for a flag. It 
 is a craft without an admiral. Some day an earthquake out of business 
 will turn shipwright, put a shoulder to the hull, and Leviathan will be 
 seen no more." But you are soon in the valley 9f the Weber River, and 
 the cultivated fields, in contrast with the rugged scenery, appear as fair as 
 the Garden of the Lord. 
 
 Ogden, which is the junction of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific, 
 is also the point where the transfer is made to visit Salt Lake City, made 
 notorious as the home of the Mormons. A few days spent here can be 
 most interestingly employed. The various attractions of the city, as 
 Temple, Tabernacle, co-operative store, can all be seen in a day or two, 
 and the journey resumed westward. 
 
 The magnitude of undertaking the building of a railroad through this 
 country is more and more impressed upon the mind, and it may be well 
 to consider briefly the construction of the Union Pacific and Central 
 Pacific Railroads. 
 
 THE UNION PAcaric 
 
 was chartered in 1862, yet the grading was not done until 1864, and the 
 first rail was laid in 1865. At that time there was no railroad communi- 
 cation from the East, and a gap of one hundred and forty miles existed 
 between Omaha and Des Moines. For five hundred miles westward from 
 the Missouri River the country was completely destitute of timber, and 
 ties were transported from six diflerent States and Territories, at a cost 
 often of two dollars and a half per tie — thus can be seen the difficulties 
 encountered at the outset — ^yet so vigorously was the work prosecuted that 
 in three years six months and ten days the road was completed. 
 
TI^E TRIP OVERLAND. 
 
 9] 
 
 THE CENTEAL PACIFIC. 
 
 But while the plains of Nebraska were filled with the army of work- 
 men, the Sierra Nevadas were teeming with laborers on the Central Pacific. 
 
 Though the Central Pacific was begun in 1860, several years sooner 
 than the Union, yet the difficulties encountered were so much greater that 
 the construction was not consummated so quickly as in the case of that road. 
 The rails, cars, locomotives, all had to be transported around th§-Horn, 
 and at one time there were thirty vessels en route from New York with 
 supplies for the Central Pacific. The most serious difficulty was the 
 Sierra Nevadas, but by tunnelling and blasting the way was forced through. 
 More powder was expended in the effijrt than was needed to fight half 
 the battles of the Revolution. 
 
 In April of 1869 ten miles of the road were built in one day. This 
 is probably the greatest feat of railroad-building on record. What is 
 more remarkable about it is, that eight men handled all the iron on this 
 ten miles. These eight giants walked ten miles that day, and lifted 
 and handled one thousand tons of rail each. On May 10, 1869, the two 
 roads clasped hands at Promontory Point, and a railroad from Omaha to 
 San Francisco, a distance of 2221 miles, was built in less than five years. 
 Columbus, sent out by Ferdinand and Isabella to discover the Indies, 
 was halted by a continent ; that continent is now spanned by a railroad. 
 May not imagination picture the form of Columbus standing upon the 
 summit of the Rocky Mountains, with a scroll in his hand, pointing to 
 the setting sun, saying, "There is India; there is the Past"? 
 
 TO THE SIEEEAS. 
 
 The trip through the desert in Central Nevada is very monotonous. 
 Sahara itself could not surpass the landscape in woe-begone infertility. 
 This is the dreariest day of the overland trip, and should it be in sum- 
 mer the traveller will find the dust very disagreeable. But the Sierra 
 Nevadas, when reached, are appreciated more fully, however, for the ride 
 of the past day. When evening comes the outlook is desolate and barren, 
 but when the curtain of night is lifted we are in the very heart of the 
 Sierras, upon which the snow falls to a depth of thirty feet, and often 
 the traveller finds himself in winter when the lowlands are hot in 
 August. 
 
 At Reno the change of cars is made to visit Virginia City, the famous 
 mining camp of the Pacific coast. Near here is Lake Tahoe, one of the 
 finest sheets of water on the continent, and far-famed as a pleasure resort. 
 
92 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 4 
 
 Near Truckee the road passes Donner Lake, where a party of emi- 
 grants in 1846 were overtaken by a severe snowstorm, and were com- 
 pelled to spend the. winter. Many perished, and dark tales are told of 
 cannibalism. No one can think of this tragedy without a shudder. In 
 crossing the Sierras the most famous scenery is at Cape Horn, where you 
 peer down a caflon half a mile below. The scenery through this region 
 is grand beyond description, while a peculiar blue haze adds a charm to 
 the landscape. 
 
 We soon enter the warm lowlands, and reach the capital of the State, 
 Sacramento. The population is about twenty-five thousand. The State 
 Capitol building, a magnificent structure, is the most attractive object to 
 visitors. To San Francisco, the Athens of the Occident, the distance is 
 but one hundred and thirty-eight miles. The overland train first reaches 
 Oakland, a most beautiful city of forty thousand inhabitants, and bearing 
 the same relation to San Francisco that Brooklyn does to New York. 
 
 Leaving the cars, you enter a splendid ferry-boat and cross the Bay of 
 San Francisco, one of the finest natural harbors in the world. 
 
 SAN FEANCISCO, 
 
 a city with a growth of only twenty-seven years, contains over three 
 hundred thousand inhabitants and covers a territory of forty-two square 
 miles. It is a city of boarding-houses; not less than fifty thousand 
 people eat at restaurants, and thirty thousand more at the ninety hotels 
 and eight hundred lodging-houses. 
 
 The city is celebrated for its hotels. The Palace ranks first, while the 
 Baldwin, Grand, Lick, Occidental, Russ, are among the most prominent. 
 
 The commerce of the city is very extensive, while ships from all 
 quarters of the globe can be seen in its harbor. The Chinese quarter 
 contains many attractions for the visitor, and will well repay a visit. 
 
 A guide can be procured from police head-quarters, and a tour of 
 " Chinatown " made in perfect safety. The most interesting objects to 
 be seen are stores, shops, restaurants, and temples (or joss-houses), and 
 opium-dens. The stores are open late at night, and on Sundays as well, 
 and are found in one quarter crowded together. The temples or joss- 
 houses, where they worship their gods or graven images, are open to the 
 public, but the visitor will find the light that constantly burns within to 
 be dim, though not religious. The various gods or images are placed in 
 alcoves, while before them are offerings of food by their worshippers. 
 Some of these temples are very gaudily and expensively ornamented. 
 The theatres are a curiosity. They have no curtain, and when the play 
 
THE TRIP OVERLAND. 93 
 
 ends the victims in the play are dragged from the platform, or even if 
 the hero is killed in the play, he may get up and leisurely walk away. 
 The orchestra sits upon the stage and discourses music during the entire 
 performance, but " horrible " is the word that best describes it. The ac- 
 robatic performances are really creditable, though a short stay generally 
 satisfies the visitor. The opium-dens can be visited, and this debasing 
 vice be seen as practised by the " heathen Chinee." 
 
 Woodward's Garden, a combination of museum, menagerie, theatre, 
 aquarium, and botanic garden, has become a favorite pleasure resort. 
 The traveller should drive to the Cliff House, where the seals may be 
 seen disporting upon the rocks and a splendid view of the Pacific Ocean 
 can be obtained. 
 
 There are two systems of streets, Market street being the dividing- 
 line. The wholesale business of the city is done along the water-front 
 and north of Market street; retail business of all kinds is found in 
 Kearney, Montgomery, Third, and Fourth streets. One noticeable fea- 
 ture is the number of bay-windows in the houses. So numerous are they 
 that San Francisco has been aptly called the " Bay-Window City." The 
 palatial residences of the railroad magnates and "bonanza" kings on 
 Knob Hill are an ornament to the city. 
 
 The climate of San Francisco is very peculiar. The coldest month is 
 July, when furs and overcoats are in demand. The seasons are not 
 divided as in the East, but into wet and dry. The winter is usually 
 rainy, beginning about October and lasting until May, and it is dry 
 during summer. 
 
 The mornings in San Francisco are usually warm and bright, but the 
 sea-breeze from the ocean, which springs up about 3 P. M., makes the 
 afternoons and evenings chilly. However, on the opposite side of the 
 bay, at Oakland, and in many suburban nooks where the sea-breeze does 
 not reach, the climate is uniform and delightful. 
 
 There are very many interesting excursions from San Francisco which 
 can easily be made. The trip to the Geysers will occupy but a few days. 
 Leaving San Francisco in the morning early, you will reach the Geysers 
 late in the evening of the same day. The distance is about one hundred 
 miles north, and will include a ride by steamboat, cars, and stage. The 
 best time to see the Geysers is in the early morning, before the sun has 
 drunk up the vapors. The ground literally boils and bubbles under 
 foot. The steam issues from many holes in the earth, but they are not 
 spouting springs, so that a person should not go with Icelandic pictures 
 in his or her mind, expecting to see anything like them ; but a cafion 
 
94 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 filled with vapor and steam boiling and bubbling, surrounded by the 
 wild scenery of the mountains, makes the scene strange and weird. The 
 trip can be made vid St. Helena and return by Calestoga, near where the 
 Petrified Forest can also be seen. The cost of the trip is about sixteen 
 dollars for fare, and time three days. 
 
 Another pleasant excursion from San Francisco is the trip to San Jos6 
 (pronounced San Ho-zay), fifty miles south — one of the loveliest inland 
 cities in California, with a population of twenty thousand. From here 
 the distance is short to Monterey, the old capital of the State. 
 
 But the trip to Yosemite Valley and Big Trees surpasses any other, 
 and is called " the excursion " in California, and you have not seen the 
 wonder of the Pacific coast till you have made this trip. The distance 
 is about two hundred and forty miles, and the train leaves at 4 P. M. 
 There are four different routes, any one of which is very good. The one 
 to Mederia may be mentioned as an example. The train arriving in the 
 evening, the traveller can enjoy a good night's rest, and then have an 
 early start by stage for the valley. This occupies two days, arriving in 
 the afternoon of the second day. The Big Trees can be seen en route or 
 else on the return trip. They are so large that at first one does not ap- 
 preciate their magnitude, and when their great age is contemplated it 
 gives one a queer feeling to look at a tree that may have been waving its 
 green branches high in the air before Julius Caesar landed on the shores 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 Yosemite Valley, th^e " Mecca of the Beautiful," will awaken new 
 visions of beauty that cannot be seen elsewhere ; but as the famous resort 
 has been so admirably described elsewhere in this work, a description will 
 not be attempted here. The cost of the trip for fare is sixty dollars, and 
 the time from San Francisco is a week to ten days. 
 
 SOUTHERN CALIFOENIA AITD ARIZONA 
 
 have been lately opened to public travel by the building of the Southern 
 Pacific Railroad, which now extends from San Francisco to Central 
 Arizona, and is being rapidly pushed forward, and will soon make a 
 Southern Transcontinental route. The scenery along this highway is 
 varied, as the road passes through a desert; and, what is remarkable, in 
 the Tihachapi Pass, where it crosses a range of mountains, it forms a loop 
 and recrosses itself, one portion of the track being far above the other. 
 This is probably one of the most difficult feats of engineering in the 
 world. 
 
 Los Angeles, the metropolis of Southern California, contains about 
 
THE TRIP OVERLAND. 95 
 
 sixteen thousand inhabitants, and is situated four hundred and seventy 
 miles south from San Francisco. Here oranges grow in perfection, and 
 all the semi-tropical fruits flourish in abundance. This city will furnish 
 a pleasant sojourn for the traveller. 
 
 Arizona, which has so long been barred to the travelling public by the 
 difficulty of access to it, is now being penetrated by several lines of rail- 
 roads, and this unknown part of our country will be more fully explored 
 and settled in the next few years, as the recent valuable mineral develop- 
 ments are attracting great attention. This State can be reached by rail 
 from Los Angeles, and offers many points of interest to the traveller. 
 
 THE TRIP TO OREGON 
 
 can be taken by the Oregon Steamship Ojmpany's steamers, which ply 
 regularly between San Francisco and Portland, sailing every five days. 
 The trip occupies two to three days, as the distance is over seven hundred 
 miles, but not two days on the ocean, as the Columbia River furnishes 
 over one hundred miles of the voyage before reaching Portland. This 
 is the route most patronized, and does the bulk of the business, but 
 should the traveller prefer it the trip can be made md Sacramento by 
 railroad to Eedding, and then two hundred and seventy-five miles of 
 stage, which goes through some of the finest of scenery, passing Mount 
 Shasta, the famous mountain of Xorthem CaHfomia, to Roseburg, and 
 thence two hundred miles by rail to Portland, the metropolis of the North- 
 west. This city of twenty thousand inhabitants does more busiaess for 
 its size than any in the United States. 
 
 The scenery of Oregon and of Washington Territory is among the 
 finest in the world. The river-steamers on the Columbia are fitted up 
 very handsomely, and a sail up the river will be foimd exceedingly en- 
 joyable. The Cascades contain some wild and grand scenery. Here a 
 transfer for a short distance must be made by rail, and then another 
 steamer taken. Should the excursion extend to Wallula (or Walla Walla), 
 the scenery will be found magnificent, and if it should be in harvest, 
 when the immense shipments of wheat are made, the traveller will be 
 amazed at the resovirces of this inland empire. 
 
 The tide of emigration is tending strongly to Eastern Washington 
 and Oregon, where the vast extent of lands adapted to wheat>raLsing is 
 rapidly being occupied. This imdoubtedly is one -of the finest wheat- 
 producing sections of the entire country, and railroads are being rapidly 
 constructed toward this portion of the land, when in a few years several 
 outlets will be given to the immense supply of surplus products. 
 
96 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 From Portland a trip can be made to Puget Sound, one of the finest 
 sheets of water on 'the continent, and which has been well named the 
 " Mediterranean of America." Seattle, which is the largest town on the 
 Sound, does an extensive coal-shipping business. From here the trip 
 can easily be extended to Victoria in British Columbia, which is a beau- 
 tiful place of five thousand people. In this section the scenery is very 
 striking and grand. -The opinion is prevalent that a trip to Alaska is 
 very disagreeable and unpleasant, whereas, on the contraiy, it is one of 
 the most delightful of summer ocean-voyages. The regular steamer 
 " California " starts from Portland the first of each month, and touches at 
 Victoria, B. C, on the way to Sitka. This part of the voyage is in open 
 sea, but the tourist can cross the Sound and meet the steamer at Victoria, 
 when the continuation of the voyage is as delightful as river-sailing. 
 The inland passage, as it is called, lies between the islands and mainland 
 nearly the entire distance, and mountain-peaks rising to great heights on 
 either side often very near to the vessel, while waterfalls and cascades add 
 new beauty to the scene, present a panorama of the beautiful in Nature 
 for nearly a thousand miles, unequalled perhaps in the world save in the 
 open sea of Japan. 
 
 The town of Fort Wrangell, at the mouth of the Stickeen River, is the 
 trading-post for this region and the supply-station for the Stickeen mines. 
 While ihe ocean-steamer is landing and discharging cargo, if the traveller 
 could arrange with one of the river-steamers to ascend the Stickeen River 
 and see the immense glacier, one of the largest in the world, he will be 
 amazed and delighted with the scenery of the trip. The voyage to Sitka, 
 where many curious specimens of Indian carvings can be obtained, will 
 occupy a few days longer, and the entire round trip from Portland but 
 two to three weeks. ' 
 
 It is impossible to fully describe the beauty of this voyage. The water 
 is so smooth, the land constantly in sight, the traveller can hardly believe 
 he is on the ocean. Suffice it to say that for a summer trip of a few 
 weeks the voyage to Alaska cannot be surpassed, and all on board the 
 California in August, 1879, will agree with the writer in this assertion. 
 
TO THE WEST! TO THE WEST! 
 
 BY CHAELES MACKAY. 
 
 To the "West ! to the West ! to the land of the free, 
 Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea ; 
 Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil, 
 And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil ; 
 Where children are blessings, and he who hath most 
 Hath aid for his fortune and riches to boast ; 
 Where the young may exult, and the aged may rest, — 
 Away, far away, to the land of the West ! 
 
 To the West ! to the West ! where the rivers that flow 
 Run thousands of miles, spreading out as they go ; 
 Where the green waving forests that echo our call 
 Are wide as old England, and free to us all ; 
 Where the praiifies, like seas where the billows have rolled, 
 Are broad as the kingdoms and empires of old ; 
 And the lakes are like oceans in storm or in rest, — 
 Away, far away, to the land of the West ! 
 
 To the West ! to the West ! There is wealth to be won ; 
 
 The forest to clear is the work to be done ; 
 
 We'll try it, we'll do it, and never despair 
 
 While there is light in the sunshine and breath in the air. 
 
 The bold independence that labor shall buy 
 
 Shall strengthen our hands and forbid us to sigh. 
 
 Away, far away ! Let us hope for the best. 
 
 And build up new homes in the land of the West ! 
 
 7 97 
 
COLORADO. 
 
 BY W. B. VICKEES. 
 
 GENEKAL HISTORY. 
 
 EARLY in 1541 an expedition, well armed and equipped, under com- 
 mand of Vasquez Coronado, a Spanish military chief, was fitted out 
 by the viceroy of New Spain to explore the country lying to the north- 
 ward, comprising what is now known as New Mexico, Arizona, and Col- 
 orado. Previous to this, however, between the years 1530 and '40, two or 
 three partial and unsatisfactory attempts had been made to explore the 
 country by Friar Niza and others, who had returned to Mexico with 
 highly-colored accounts, secured from Indians, of untold wealth existing 
 in a section termed the " Seven Cities of Cibola." Stimulated by these 
 reports, the viceroy of New Spain was induced to organize the expedition 
 under Coronado, and early in January, 1541, the band of explorers, con- 
 sisting of about four hundred men, many of them cavaliers of distinc- 
 tion and of the best blood of Spain, left Compostella, a point on the 
 coast of Mexico nearly due west from the capital, and commenced their 
 journey. For a long time they kept near the shores of the Pacific 
 Ocean, then made their way back into the country. On the Gila River, 
 Coronado found thickly-populated settlements, but no evidence of great 
 wealth. Continuing his march in a north-easterly direction, in fifteen 
 days he reached Cibola, but, instead of the fabulous wealth that had been 
 reported, he found a town of about two hundred inhabitants, having 
 but little knowledge of any gold and silver treasure. These people were 
 probably the ancestors of the present tribe of Zuni Indians. Continuing 
 in a general north-easterly direction, he crossed the Rio Grande del Norte, 
 and entered the San Luis Valley, making his way out over the Sangre 
 de Christo Pass to the plains of Southern Colorado ; thence southward 
 98 
 
CLEAR CREEK CaSON, COLORADO. 
 
COLORADO. 99 
 
 to Mexico, returning with a record of disappointment that resulted in an 
 abandonment of all effort in that direction. 
 
 Up to the year 1600 the territory comprised within the present limits 
 of Colorado was supposed to belong to Spain, but in that year France 
 claimed possession. During the seventeenth century at least three expe- 
 ditions were sent into these vast and unknown regions. In 1769 the 
 province was ceded to Spain by France, but in 1800 the French regained 
 control, keeping it until 1803, when by treaty and purchase the United 
 States became the owner of the province, and took prompt measures to 
 establish its authority and government in due form over the country. 
 
 In 1806, Major Pike, by authority of the War Department, with a 
 party of twenty-three men traversed the entire extent of Colorado, 
 north and south, without finding a single settlement of civilized beings ; 
 only the wild savages roamed over the land. In 1819, Colonel Uong's 
 expedition entered the country, following up the South Platte River to 
 where it escapes from the canon. A careful examination was made of 
 some of the mountains and of the plains from the South Platte to the 
 Arkansas. In 1832, Captain Bonneville made a very thorough explora- 
 tion of the Rocky Mountains in the interest of the American Fur Com- 
 pany, and is said to have been the first who proved that the head-waters 
 of the great rivers flowing east and west had their origin nearly together 
 in the great Sierra Madres. In 1843, Colonel Fremont commanded the 
 next expedition sent out by the United States government. He camped 
 some time in the St. Yrain Valley, and afterward journeyed north, 
 reaching Fort Laramie. He found the Indians already troublesome to 
 parties who were passing through the country on their way to California. 
 
 There is no evidence to show that there were any white settlers in Col- 
 orado previous to 1843, save trappers, traders, and employes of the Amer- 
 ican Fur Company. There was no knowledge of the treasures hidden 
 in the soil or in the rocks at that time. The vast country was given over 
 to the savage Pawnees, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Utes. 
 
 From the time of Fremont's last expedition in 1844 up to 1858 the 
 "country was under no regular form of government. The only recognized 
 authorities were the Fur Company and the United States military, and 
 these were confined to the limits of the posts and forts. 
 
 In 1852 came the discovery of gold by one Parks, a Cherokee cattle- 
 trader, who, en route to the shores of the Golden Coast with a party of 
 followers, discovered the precious metal on the banks of Ralston Creek. 
 Tidings of this discovery after a long time reached Georgia, and in 1858 
 Russell's expedition was organized, reaching Cherry Creek in June, 1858. 
 
100 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 In the fall Russell returned to Georgia, taking with him his precious sam- 
 ples and giving glowing descriptions of the country. The Pike's Peak 
 excitement then began to spread, and palefaces, with immense trains of 
 supplies, commenced traversing the great Plains, and disputed possession 
 of the country with the Indians, who refused to recognize the right of 
 the white men to occupy their vast domains. But the onward march of 
 the Caucasian could not be stayed, and by the time the winter of 1858- 
 59 set in settlements had been made at Auraria and other points, and at 
 least four hundred persons were in the Territory. 
 
 In the spring of 1859, Green Russell's journal was printed by Major 
 D. C. Oaks, with descriptions of the best routes to the new Land of Prom- 
 ise. This book, full of glowing descriptions of the Land of Gold, was 
 extensively circulated throughout the Eastern States, and caused thou- 
 sands to leave their homes and turn their faces westward to the land of 
 untold treasures. 
 
 The discovery of the first gold-bearing lode was made in Gilpin coun- 
 ty, May 6, 1859, by John H. Gregory, and ere long the gulches were full 
 of prospectors and all the mountains in the vicinity covered by eager 
 seekers after the shining ore. By the spring of 1860 at least twenty 
 thousand persons were scattered over the country, and the development 
 of the greatest mining district in the world had begun. 
 
 Silver ore was discovered as early as 1861, but not until 1864 was it 
 actually demonstrated beyond question that there existed in this new re- 
 gion of mineral wealth the richest belts of silver-mines in the known 
 world; and an impetus was then given to mining enterprises that rivalled 
 that of California in its early days. 
 
 The necessity of local laws and the taking of steps to connect the 
 district with some legislative body was soon apparent. A county was 
 therefore defined and named Arapahoe, with Auraria as the county-seat; 
 a representative sent to the Legislature of Kansas, as well as a Delegate 
 to Congress to secure recognition and the establishment of a Territorial 
 form of government. An organization imder the name of Jefferson Ter- 
 ritory was perfected and a provisional government formed. This body 
 passed the act consolidating Auraria and Highland under the corporate 
 name of Denver. Ditch and wagon-road companies soon followed, and 
 healthy legislation prepared the way for the inauguration of a Territorial 
 form of government. February 26, 1861, Congress passed an act, and 
 Colorado took her place under the fostering care of the general govern- 
 ment. In May of the same year the Territory had a population of 
 25,329, of whom 4484 were females. In September a Delegate to Con- 
 
COLORADO. 101 
 
 gress was elected and took his seat. Nine counties had been organized, 
 and a Legislature chosen by the votes of the people, ^ 
 
 During the period of the war of the Rebellion the country did not de- 
 velop as rapidly as might have been expected, although speculation was 
 rife and very many mining companies were organized in the East, stocked 
 at enormous figures, and placed on the market. The great majority of these 
 came to grief, and by the year 1866 the mining-camps of Colorado wore 
 a very discouraging appearance. 
 
 In 1864 and '65 the Plains Indians inaugurated war upon the white 
 settlers, and during these years numberless disasters occurred. But little 
 communication could be had with the States. Stages had to fight their 
 way through. Wagon-trains were attacked and destroyed, and machinery 
 of immense value was abandoned in the endeavor to reach the camps. 
 But the gradual advances of the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Rail- 
 ways had their due effect, and the Indian fell back as the whistle of the 
 locomotive was heard over the desolate prairies, and Civilization's finger 
 pointed the savage to the parks and valleys on the western slope, where, 
 by treaty, they were secured, for a time, the hunting-grounds they de- 
 sired. 
 
 In 1867 the Union Pacific Railroad reached Cheyenne, and Denver 
 was thus brought within 104 miles of direct communication with the 
 East, In 1868 the Denver Pacific, to connect at Cheyenne with the for- 
 mer road, was begun, and finished in 1870 ; in which year also the Kan- 
 sa.s Pacific reached Denver and the Colorado Central was constructed to 
 Golden. From this date the prosperity of the country and the perma- 
 nence of the towns already established were assured. Little attempt had 
 as yet been made to establish any industry save mining ; but the settle- 
 ment of the Union Colony at Greeley in the spring of 1870 was the in- 
 auguration of a development of the agricultural resources of the country 
 and an earnest of its stabiliiy. The success of this colonial experiment 
 having been demonstrated, others followed in its wake — one in Wet Moun- 
 tain Valley, one on the South Platte River, one in the valley of the St. 
 Vrain, and one at the junction of the Monument and Fontaine-qui- 
 Bouille. Towns were founded, farming settlements established, and indus- 
 tries of every kind prospered. In 1871 the Denver and Rio Grande 
 Railway began to feel its way southward, reaching Colorado Springs in 
 the fall of that year, and in a short time afterward it was extended to 
 Pueblo. 
 
 About this time (1870) probably forty thousand people were in the 
 Territory, but the means of communication being now rapid and assured, 
 
102 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 it was believed that a steady growth in population would follow ; which 
 was found to be true. The mines were producing largely of the precious 
 metals, the farmers rejoiced in the possession of bountiful harvests, and 
 the cattle upon the Plains prospered and increased rapidly, to the delight 
 of those who had invested in stock. 
 
 In 1874-75 a second effort was made to establish a State government, 
 and proved successful. On July 4, 1876, Colorado entered the Union as 
 the Centennial State. 
 
 In 1876 the Atchison and Topeka Railroad reached Pueblo, giving the 
 State a third outlet to the East. The following year the Carbonate Camp 
 at Leadville began to attract attention from all parts of the State, and the 
 Denver and South Park road, begun in 1874, and built to Morrison in 
 that year, began to reach up Platte Caaon, while the Colorado Central 
 had been extended to Georgetown, and a broad-gauge line built north to 
 Longmont, tapping the great agricultural area of the State. The Denver 
 and Rio Grande pushed its way over the Sangre de Christo range, and 
 rested at Fort Garland, preparatory to reaching the shores of the Rio 
 Grande del Norte at Alamosa. Meanwhile, during these years important 
 geological and geographical surveys were being conducted by the United 
 States government under the superintendence of Professor Hayden, and 
 their reports, when published, became important factors in the develop- 
 ment of the internal resources of the country, attracting the attention of 
 the people of the entire Union. These reports have been of value, and 
 have very materially aided in advancing the general prosperity of the 
 country. 
 
 The opening of the year 1880 shows Colorado to be making rapid 
 strides toward the front rank as a mineral-producing region, while her • 
 agricultural resources are also being permanently developed. Her climate 
 is the admiration of invalids, her scenery the delight of tourists. She has 
 yielded out of her bountiful bosom ten billion dollars of gold and silver 
 since 1859. Her real estate and personal property foot up over seventy- 
 five million dollars. She has thirty-one counties, having a population of 
 nearly two hundred and fifty thousand. The counties in which farming ■ 
 and stock-raising predominate are "Weld, Larimer, Boulder, Jefferson, 
 Arapahoe, Douglas, El Paso, Fremont, and Las Animas. Those devoted 
 almost wholly to cattle and sheep are Elbert, Bent, Pueblo, and Huerfano. 
 The principal mining counties are Park, Lake, Gilpin, Clear Creek, 
 Summit, Custer, Hinsdale, San Juan, and Ouray. 
 
 The growth of the cities and large towns has been proportionate with 
 the general advance of the State, and everywhere new towns have been 
 
COLORADO. 103 
 
 created by the extension of the railway system and the discovery of 
 new mines. 
 
 CJLIMATB AlTD HEALTH. 
 
 ' The climate of Colorado, to which so many are looking as a possible 
 home, is an important topic and one to be carefully considered. A few 
 statistics, therefore, gathered from the reports issued by the Signal Service 
 station at Denver, will give information of value in reference to the at- 
 mospheric condition of the country during the period of one year. 
 
 The entire amount of precipitation (rain and melted snow) was 10.86 
 inches. This accmnulated from rains and snows, which fell on sixty-one 
 days. But two storms during the year exhibited unusual severity. The 
 first took place May 11th, the second July 22d. There were 190 clear 
 days, 139 fair or partly clear days, and but 35 reported cloudy. The 
 temperature, while it exhibited some sudden changes, was not of unusual 
 range. The highest reading, 98° above zero, occurred on July 13th ; the 
 lowest, 17° below, was on December 24th. During the' year the ther- 
 mometer read 96° or above but seven times. It read below zero on six 
 days in January, one in February, and six in December — thirteen in all. 
 The mean temperature for the year was 50° ; the mean for July, the 
 warmest month, 74°. The last frost of spring appeared April 27th, 
 while the first frost of autumn was observed October 9th. The former 
 was not as late as usual, nor the latter as early as. in other years. Each 
 month furnished south as the prevailing direction of the wind. 
 
 Colorado is included in the boundaries of the temperate zone. The 
 Plains portion is within the isothermal lines that take in New York, 
 Columbus, and Council Blufis. The foot-hills are included in the lines 
 that embrace Boston, Albany, Detroit, St. Paul's, and Omaha. The main 
 range and the western half of the State show the same lines that include 
 Halifax, Burlington, Montreal, the upper Lake Superior region, and ihe 
 head-waters of the Red River of the North. But the extremes of heat 
 and cold are not so great as at these, points. The absence of any very 
 great quantity of moisture has a wonderful effect upon the air, and Colo- 
 rado is famous for its clear skies and invigorating atmosphere. The 
 cloudy days are so few as to be considered a rarity. The average tem- 
 perature of the Plains is from 50° to 55° ; of the foot-hills, from 45° to 
 50° ; of the mountains, 40° to 45°. As has been admirably summed up, 
 " The results of the climatological conditions of Colorado are an extremely 
 healthful and invigorating atmosphere, peculiarly beautiful and enjoyable, 
 well adapted to all pursuits and all out-door avocations." It might be 
 
104 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 added that as a health resort Colorado is without an equal for the cure 
 of tubercular and pulmonary affections, asthma, and dyspepsia. 
 
 Consumptives who reach the country before the disease has too greatly 
 developed are almost certain to recover; those in whom the disease 
 has advanced will find it possible to live for many years in compara-' 
 tive comfort and vigor. But it is unwise for those who have suffered for 
 years, and in whom the insidious enemy has become deeply rooted, to seek 
 Colorado expecting a cure. Confirmed cases are as hopeless as in the 
 East ; in fact, the end is likely to come sooner, on account of the very 
 rarity of the air and the necessity of increased respiration. These, in 
 the early stages, are conducive to recovery; in the later, to a speedy 
 ending of the life of the patient. 
 
 Asthma, however, in its most aggravated form, and no matter how long 
 seated, is relieved in every instance by a residence in Colorado. The 
 right altitude to suit the patient's case having been found, relief is at 
 once felt, and a perfect immunity from this distressing complaint may be 
 relied upon as long as one remains in the country. Hence it follows 
 that those who seek Colorado for relief from asthma must expect to make 
 their home for life in the State. A temporary residence will not suifice, 
 since the disease, apparently, is not eradicated. A return to the old home 
 would carry with it a return to the old troubles in a very short time. 
 The change of residence must be considered permanent, therefore, and 
 those who are afflicted and would be relieved must accept this fact as 
 one not to be questioned, and prepare their plans accordingly. 
 
 Dyspepsia is one of those distressing complaints connected with the 
 condition of the human system which will lead the sufferer therefrom to 
 adopt any course from which relief may be obtained. The most pleasant 
 sugar-coated remedy we know of is to live in Colorado, thus recovering 
 the lost powers of assimilation, and in its bright days, inducing out-of- 
 door exercise, and its cool nights, wherein refreshing slumber is assured, 
 find a sovereign panacea for one of the most grievous ills that flesh is heir 
 to. Once more may food be relished and enjoyed, and hearty meals be 
 made on substantial bread, blood-invigorating beef, tempting mountain- 
 trout, and juicy wild meats, without the fear of an after-punishment. 
 
 Many other diseases that afflict humanity are partially eradicated or 
 relieved by a change of residence to the altitudes of the Kocky Moim- 
 tains, but it would be impossible to enumerate them all. There is an 
 exception, however, it would be proper to name — catarrh. It is ex- 
 tremely doubtful if the peculiar dryness of the atmosphere is favorable 
 to the cure of this disease. In fact, it is asserted by high authorities that 
 
iiorsTArs OF the holy cross, Colorado. 
 
COLORADO. 105 
 
 the dryness tends to aggravate many cases by forming concretions on the 
 inflamed mucous surfaces, and so irritating them. The rainfall is so 
 meagre, the fine dust so common, that these are causes naturally tending 
 to further the advance, rather than retard the progress, of catarrh. There 
 is no country yet discovered in this world that has in it the elements of 
 cure for every ill that human flesh is unfortunately subject to. When 
 such a country is discovered on this habitable globe, paradise will lose 
 some of its prospective charms, and the song of " I would not live 
 alway" be paraphrased to suit this desirable location. 
 
 8CENEEY — CAffONS OF COLOEADO — POINTS OF INTEREST. 
 
 On the upper Cache-la^Poudre may be found some very wild and ro- 
 mantic spots. It is a point as yet but little known to tourists, though 
 sportsmen have found that it furnishes excellent trout-fishing, with an 
 occasional bear- or deer-hunt thrown in by way of giving variety to it. 
 The solitude of the mighty pine forests that crowd to the very water's 
 edge at occasional points has a calm delight in it that must be experienced 
 to fully realize its delightful charm. Here and there beautiful parks and 
 lovely meadows break the monotony of the forest, and offer a landscape 
 that would tempt an artist to linger long enough to catch its beauties and 
 pinion them upon his canvas. Secluded glens abound, suitable for cozy 
 camping-grounds, and the murmur of the limpid waters of the Cache-la- 
 Poudre, as they rush with precipitate haste to seek the bosom of the 
 South Platte River, falls most musically upon the ear. A week can be 
 pleasantly spent in this vicinity by those who like the silence of the 
 woofls for their souls and the succulent sweetness of trout for their sus- 
 tenance. 
 
 Estes Park is now rapidly growing into popular favor as a, summer 
 pleasure resort, and is likely to be still better known in the future. It 
 is easily reached by a few hours' ride from Longmont, on the Colorado 
 branch of the Union Pacific Railway. Lying at the base of Long's 
 Peak, the third highest mountain in the State, Estes Park is a lovely 
 emerald area hemmed in by mountains and full of meadows and groves, 
 with here and there a sparkling trout^brook. To " camp out " in Estes 
 Park is the height of enjoyment for hundreds of the country-people 
 within fifty miles of the park, and indeed city-folks and Eastern pleasure- 
 seekers are beginning to discover that out-of-door enjoyment can here be 
 realized to its fullest extent at a point where " the scene is replete with 
 grassy slopes, crystalline streams that course down from the melting 
 snow-banks, broad zones of pine forests, towering heights of mountains, 
 
106 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and shadv nooks." Such a spot as this is one for the tourist to linger in 
 during the summer months, -when numberle^ wild flowers burden the air 
 with theit perfume. 
 
 Boulder and its vicinity are prolific in health resorts and ftoints of 
 interest to visitors in search of the elixir of life and of pleasure. At 
 Springdale, near bv, it possesses a spring whcee waters are a sparkling 
 seltzer that is verv efficacious for cases of scrofula and for diseases of the 
 blood, while their location, in the immediate vicinity of a large number 
 of valuable silver-mines, lends them an additional attraction. But 
 Boulder Canon is the admiration of all, for it has been very aptly de- 
 scribed as Colorado's Yosemite, Many of the well-known places in tlie 
 East, such as the Delaware Water-Gap, the point where the Potomac 
 passes through the Blue Eidge, or even Xiagara Falls, wane in grandeur 
 before the scenery to be encountered at every step in this magnificent 
 theatre of Nature's faultless construction. The walls stand up, at points, 
 two thousand feet high, while below leap and sparkle the crystal waters 
 of the stream as they hvury over the big boulders from whence the river 
 takes its name, to leap into the arms of the St, Vrain, awaiting them on 
 the plains below. The infinite variety of the scenery hereabout is a con- 
 stant surprise : the foliage has a beauty whose refireshing charm never 
 tires ; while at tiie falls proper, where the water drops fifty feet from the 
 rocky edge into a deep basin, above which the rocks tower in solemn 
 grandeur, one can only, with hushed bfeath, look, linger, and admire. 
 This caflon has not been " written up '' as much as some others in the 
 State, but it is to be said in its behalf that there are few more striking in 
 the points of grandeur presented. 
 
 Clear Creek Canon is one of the most sublime of Xature's handiworks, 
 and, in addition to its natural attractions, teaches a lesson by which the 
 ingenuity, the persistence, and the power of man are shown by utUiring 
 even the most rugged paths and almost inaccessible points for his own 
 purposes. The ride by rail up Clear Creek Canon must be made by all 
 who visit the State, or they miss one of its greatest attractions. To the 
 sublime scenery of the hills is added the skill of the engineer, and we 
 behold Xature and art in such happy combination as we follow the serpen- 
 tine track of the narrow-gauge railwav up the steep declivities of the 
 caflon, over beds cut out of sohd granite walls, over numberless bridsji-s 
 across the same sinuous stream, that the ride to Central Citv is one long 
 period of bewildering suspense, for we do not know what we may see 
 next, and of overwhelming wonder as siuprise follows sui-prise last as 
 the shadow hides the sunshine, while we glide in and out under over^ 
 
COLORADO. 107 
 
 hangmg arches or between the m^ed defiles. At Unuis the waters of 
 the stream touch the ver\' rails oar car i? on ; again they are to be seen 
 dashing over the Jiones manv feet bdow. The nomb^ of Iwidgts i* 
 about twentv-five on this short line erf railway, and the diang^ now on 
 tMs side, now on the other, as we ^ide along over a highway of short 
 tangents and ntunberles; carves, are enough to bewilder those who are 
 onaiccastomed to the moantain-scenray. The climbing is at the rate of one 
 himdred and seventy-five feet to the nule, and the foliage of the pines 
 against the sombre gray and brown of the rocks presents a constant 
 series of ever-fihifting views whose beaur\- is as rare as it is indescribable. 
 We would like to give more space to the wondeifnl canons for whidi 
 Colorado Is so remarkable, but cannot. We can only say that if you 
 want to S€e Xature in all her roj^ed grandeur and rude sublimity, aaso- 
 dated with skill in art, in a combination of the beantifdl and the usei'al, 
 yon can see her in Clear Creek Canon, and need not eros? the seas to htmt 
 for her among the monntains of Switzerland. 
 
 Pl^te Cafion is another wonda* ; and mention of its name reminds us 
 of the s^ing of some one, that " the Lord didn't make Platte Cafion ; 
 it was a fieak of Xatnre ;'* and we are almost inclined to agree with him, 
 for the mountain-scoiery here opoied up to the tourist world by the en- 
 trance into and parage through Platte Canon by the Denver and .S:>uth 
 Park BaUway is singularly imiqne. Here is presemed mountain-scenery 
 that has been, on account of its ccmpaiative inacc^sibility, hitherto im- 
 known. In these wilds and festne^es are hidden scenic beauties and 
 natural wonders that fer exceed ai^thing yet desmbed by tourists and 
 engineers. Twenty miles firom Denver the visitor reaches the entrance 
 to the canon, and fiom thence to the top of the pas there is a gradual 
 ascent of fiom one hundred and thirty-seven to one hundred and fifiy- 
 d^t feet to the mile. The curves on this road are not quite as sharp, 
 nor the hills quite as high, as in Clear Creek Canon, but the angry torrent 
 is here, dashing offcen over solid beds of rock without sand, gravel, or 
 boulder. Here and there are little stretches in the stream where the 
 water glides along as smoothly and as unruffled as one's thoughts glide in 
 a dream where love and happiness constitute the principal charm in the 
 sltmiberoas blis. As one has described it, " walls of granite, rising per- 
 pendicularly to a height of five himdred feet in s<:'me places, to fifteen 
 hundred in others, capped with columns, pyramids, domes, and grotesque 
 figures resembling nothing, rise up on either side of the river, overhang- 
 ing it and the puny track at their base in many places. Anon the spark- 
 ling waters of a cataract come dashing down the mountain-side fiom a 
 
108 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 thousand feet overhead to join the sheeny tide that murmurs its sad re- 
 frain at the bottom of a gorge ; then a lateral cafion is passed, glorious in 
 its wealth of verdure or grim in its poverty of life ; here a grand old 
 hill, exquisitely rounded and covered with a beautiful growth of pine or 
 spruce ; near it a weatherbeaten mound, so thickly strewn with fallen 
 timber as to suggest a mammoth game of jackstraw, with the Devil and 
 his imps for players ; opposite it, mayhap, a perpendicular wall of gran- 
 ite of varied hue — ^greenish-yellow, yellowish-pink, gray and black mot- 
 tle — the ever-changing lichens lending additional beauty to its wrinkled 
 front ; then a mass of gnarled and twisted granite, gnarled into twists 
 and twisted out of all semblance of shape. Thus for ten miles or more 
 the caflon presents a panorama of Nature in her wildest, most weird, and 
 grotesque moods." 
 
 About Colorado Springs, within a radius of twelve miles, there clusters 
 a greater number of natural scenic beauties than anywhere else in the 
 State. These points have been written up by journalists and tourists 
 .and bookmakers to so great an extent that their names are familiar to 
 all, and Manitou, Cheyenne Canon, Ute Pass, Garden of the Gods, Glen 
 Eyrie, Queen's Caflon, Monument Park, and Pike's Peak are as house- 
 hold words everywhere. Manitou has become the fashionable watering- 
 place of the Western continent. It has an elevation of 6321 feet in six 
 miles from Colorado Springs, and has six famous mineral springs, whose 
 medicinal qualities have been highly recommended. Manitou in summer 
 is a rural paradise ; the waters of the Fontaine-qui-Bouille ripple music- 
 ally through the romantic valley ; along the banks of the stream cotton- 
 woods, pines, cedars, and willows abound, giving abimdant shade, aside 
 from that cast by the hills about it. In this secluded retreat charming 
 cottages abound, and many of the wealthy and well-known citizens of 
 the United States here seek during the summer months that recreation 
 and repose so much needed by brain-workers. 
 
 Ute Pass is a narrow roadway built almost out of perpendicular walls 
 of rock and full of tiny waterfalls, where the Fontaine-qui-Bouille drops 
 down from its source in the hills beyond ; but its solitude has been for 
 ever destroyed by the track of the long wagon-trains and the uncouth 
 voices of rough mule-drivers en route to the Carbonate Camp. It is still, 
 however, visited in the cool of the evening by the habituds of Manitou. 
 
 The Garden of the Gods, as it is called, lies about two miles west of 
 Manitou, and is easily reached ; it is a singularly picturesque spot, replete 
 with interest. Two high ridges of white and red sandstone rocks rise 
 perpendicularly in air about three hundred feet high, forming a sort of 
 
COLORADO. 109 
 
 amphitheatre, the entrance to which is an opening in rocks but a few rods 
 apart. There is a weird grandeur about this spot suggesting natural forces 
 that must, in ages long past, have mingled and combated with fiery en- 
 ergy to leave behind them such monuments of fantastic shapes. 
 
 Cheyenne Caflon is some seven miles south of the city of Colorado 
 Springs, and a carriage-drive there gives one an opportunity to explore 
 the quiet beauty and enjoy a few hours of unmixed pleasure. The path 
 up the canon is intricate, and can only be made on foot, but it will amply ' 
 repay those who find their way to the foot of the seven falls to watch the 
 ribbons of liquid silver unfurl and droop downward to the basin waiting 
 to gather and hide them in its bosom for a moment, and then send them 
 coursing down over the stones to the outlet beyond. 
 
 Glen Eyrie, the summer residence of Gen. William J. Palmer, Presi- 
 dent of the Denver and Eio Grande Railway, is a lovely dell, full of 
 points of interest and beauty, especially Queen's Cafion, with its charm- 
 ing waterfalls, Hebe's Bowl, tiny rivulet, and rugged scenery. 
 
 Monument Park takes its name from the • many remarkable forms 
 carved out of sandstone in days agone by. Scores of columns can be 
 found standing, alone, in groups, and in combined masses, each one sur- 
 mounted with a cap of some harder material, probably sand cemented 
 with oxide of iron, and so more capable of resisting erosion. Air, rain, 
 snow, water, have left behind them a record full of curious interest to 
 the tourist, of study to the geologist, in these monuments, and the visitor 
 can fake unqualified delight in tracing beast, bird, man, woman, cathedrals, 
 groups of statuary, and the multifold forms of art and Nature in these 
 grotesque formations. 
 
 Caflon City is the warder of a combination of cafions whose natural 
 beauty borders on the sublime. These caflons and gorges are full of 
 pleasure to all who take delight in beholding the wonderful beauties of 
 Nature in all her ruggedness of repose. We can touch but briefly upon 
 a few of these. Grape Creek Caflon is named from the vines that hang 
 so abundantly upon its crags, and the defile is singularly beautiful ; its 
 sides present rocks with all the colors of the rainbow, lifted up to various 
 heights, and of all shapes, some of them extremely grptesque. Temple 
 Cafion, entered from Grape Caflon, has thus been described : " Nature 
 has carved a wondrous structure which is an exact counterpart of what 
 we mortals know as a theatre. Before a broad floor there stands an im- 
 mense stage, with a flat and flies and wings and dressing-room ; while the 
 broad plateau in front makes an excellent orchestra, and one may readily 
 find room for the fancy that the ledges towering hundreds of feet above 
 
110 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 may, in some distant age, have been used as galleries for- low-grade gods 
 who wished to see the play." Oak Creek Caflon, fifteen miles distant, is 
 another point replete with interest ; and when the tourist reaches Curios- 
 ity Hill he finds it aptly named, inasmuch as it is covered with all sorts 
 of odd and unique specimens of minerals of more or less value. By the 
 use of the pick or by blasting crystals of remarlcable beauty are found 
 imbedded in agate of various colors. Oil Creek Caflon takes its name 
 from the evidences along its banks of the presence of petroleum. Its 
 rocks are full of strange formations that suggest many familiar forms to 
 the beholder. It has been described as a great natural arfc-gallery, full of 
 fortifications, of pictures, and of sculptured figures. 
 
 There are other points of interest in this vicinity that we might name 
 had we space, such as Marble Cave, Talbot Hill, and the celebrated coal- 
 mines, where one can ride for miles through the drifts on a small wooden 
 car, deep down in the bowels of the earth and away from the bright, 
 warm sunshine and^he sweet influences of the outer world. The dark- 
 ness suggests that gnomes might well abound in such a locality, and 
 sjjring out at any moment to demand toll of the helpless victim caught 
 in the darkness and the gloom of their underground hiding-place. 
 
 The Grand Canon of the Arkansas and the Royal Gorge are now open 
 to the railway-travel of the country, and one can stand upon the brink 
 of vast precipices and gaze down two thousand feet — so far that it is 
 almost impossible to see the foamy current of the Arkansas River as it 
 rushes in tumultuous torrents over its " cribbed, cabined, and confined " 
 narrow bed. In this deep defile the sunshine seldom penetrates, and the 
 blue sky is as much a novelty as a pencil of sunshine would be suddenly 
 streaming through a keyhole into a cell to its solitary occupant. The old 
 way of seeing the caflon was from above, but its sublime grandeur is 
 heightened by observations within its defiles. One can look up without 
 dizziness, biit to look down is often dangerous ; one glance is sufficient to 
 many who are not counted timorous. To look down a perpendicular 
 wall two thousand feet is no trifling performance. Looking up, one sees 
 " overhanging crags, black and blasted at their summits, reaching up into 
 profoundly dizzy heights, while monstrous rocks threaten to topple down 
 and carry to destruction any foolhardy climber who would venture upon 
 them." More of awe than admiration is excited by a visit to this caflon 
 and gorge. The tremendous forces of Nature, as displayed in this bit of 
 her handiwork, are calculated to impress solemnity upon the mind of 
 the beholder ; for, added to the sublimity, there is a certain underlying 
 sense of danger in the situation that makes one ever cautious of speech 
 
COLORADO. Ill 
 
 in a defile where sound can dislodge a fragment of rock and send it hurt- 
 ling down to the ground on which stands the awestruck visitor. 
 
 La Veta Pass is another point of exceeding great interest. One must 
 have seen the mountain-regions in the early days in Colorado, when " bull- 
 teams " and " prairie-schooners " were the only conveyances within the 
 reach of the traveller, to fully appreciate the ease, convenience, and swift- 
 ness of travel in these railway eras. One of the finest rides in the world 
 — rivalling, and perhaps excelling, the famous scenery in the gorge of 
 the Wahsatch range lying south of Salt Lake — is found in the enchanting 
 trip from La Veta, a cozy little village lying at the feet of the Spanish 
 Pealcs, over the celebrated Sangre de Christo range to the summit, from 
 whence the road runs down to the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte. 
 It is one of bewildering beauty, and has called forth the encomiums of 
 talented writers and of people of all grades and professions. One is lost 
 in wonder at the skill displayed as seemingly inaccessible heights are 
 scaled and the gallant little engine puffs and pulls its train around Mule- 
 shoe Bend, where it takes a run of two miles to gain a distance of one 
 quarter and four hundred feet in elevation. From La Veta to Garland 
 the ride may be denominated one magnificent panorama of natural beauiy, 
 changing as the conformations of the kaleidoscope change. Here are to 
 be met towering and storm-splintered crags, whose vast masses of prim- 
 itive porphyry tell a silent but suggestive story of the days when the 
 fiery element forced them upward into the atmosphere. In the distance, 
 like a dream of glory. Sierra Blanca lifts its eternal snow-covered sum- 
 mit to the empyrean, 14,464 feet above the level of the sea, the superb 
 culmination of that mighty accumulation of mountain-ranges known as 
 the Sangre de Christo. The pass at its summit is 9339 feet, and the 
 Denver and Rio Grande Railway was the first in the United States to 
 attain such an elevation. In a distance of a little over fourteen miles an 
 elevation of 2250 feet is reached. In order to make the comparison 
 clearer, we will mention that the elevation at the summit is one mile 
 higher than at Pueblo, while Blanca Peak towers still a mile higher. 
 
 Buena Vista is the latest candidate for the favor of the tourist, and 
 during the coming season of travel will claim, and readily obtain, its 
 share of attention. It is located on both sides of Cottonwood Creek, 
 near where it empties into the Arkansas, and at the entrance to a pleasant 
 valley opening out on a plateau some five miles wide. A park containing 
 a large lake has been set apart for public use, and sailboats are kept for 
 the accommodation of visitors. Good hunting and fishing are in the im- 
 mediate vicinity, while five miles from the town are the celebrated Cotton- 
 
112 TEE GREAT WEST. 
 
 wood Hot Springs, becoming favorably known for their efficacy in curing 
 rheumatism and neuralgia in their most aggravating forms. In the im- 
 mediate vicinity are some of the noblest mountain-peaks of the mighty 
 range, lifting their summits up to the clouds. There is but little doubt 
 that Buena Yista, with its splendid site, beautiful scenery, close prox- 
 imity to first-class hunting- and fishing-grounds, located at the junction 
 of two railroads, which here intersect each other, will in the near future 
 make this the tourist-town of the Arkansas Valley. 
 
 Ten-Mile Cafion lies midway between the passes on the grand conti- 
 nental Divide, covering a distance of perhaps twenty miles. The railroad 
 projected from Georgetown to Leadville will pass through it. To the 
 tourist the views hereabout will be at once entrancing and bewildering, 
 for here Nature has grouped her wonders into a scene of lavish and pic- 
 turesque confusion. The canon is destined in the near future to be one 
 of the most popular resorts in the mountains. The landscape is singularly 
 broken and strikingly picturesque. A writer in describing this cafion, of 
 which comparatively little is known, says : " What a storm is to the ele- 
 ments the canon is to the surrounding scene. It stands alone and apart 
 from all the rest — a rugged defile dropped in the midst of the rugged 
 mountains. Led into it by the ripple and flash of foam-crested waters, 
 one pauses in the midst of miniature cascades to watch through the spray- 
 laden air the grand ascent of the rocky barriers which shut it in. Thou- 
 sands of feet in air they rise precipitously, not swart and black as other 
 ramparts do, but variegated as the colors in a picture ; on a ground of 
 glittering white are veins of crimson, blue, and gold ; the rocks mirror 
 on their surface all the colors of the rainbow. Artists would call it a 
 mountain-gorge shut in by walls of variegated marble. It looks like 
 layers of distinct and curious formations. But in one rock, a vast mass 
 of veined granite, it catches and reflects every shade of light. Mirrored 
 on its surface, the suji waves back in glittering landscapes of quivering 
 shade. The spray, cast by the dash and splutter of the waters as they 
 foam and lunge over rocky and abrupt declivities, rises like a veil of 
 mist. The sun, glancing from the overhanging crests, mirrors the scene 
 and catches the various shades and lights as in a prism of wonderful and 
 indescribable beauty. Crowning them like a cross, midway the gorge, 
 rise two columns named Loveland Peaks, twin sentinels of the rugged 
 scene. On the summit of a mountain ten thousand feet in air, they 
 shoot up the rugged surface like momentous spires in the midst of deso- 
 late surroundings. Hundreds of feet above the tallest peaks, they stand 
 desolate and grand as Egyptian pyramids — tall columns which catch and 
 
COLORADO. 113 
 
 reflect every slanting ray of light. Some day the tourist will make this 
 Coloraxlo scene his Mecca, as the Moslem turns to the shrine of his faith, 
 watching in the day's decline the wonderful spectacle of sunshine and 
 shadow, and the weird, rugged sublimity of mountain-gorge, materializing 
 a dream of beauty which far outstrips the achievements of the painter's 
 pencil." These scenic beauties will be open to the tourist world when 
 tlie High Line road reaches out from Georgetown over the range, and 
 opens up the profuse and elaborate scenery to the traveller, mingling the 
 thrilling with the beautiful in the grand panorama of our mountain- 
 attractions. 
 
 PAKKS AND EIVEES OF COLOEADO. 
 
 A peculiar feature of the State is its mountain-girt parks. These are 
 great basins, with surface and soil more or less similar to that of the 
 Plains, but surrounded by lofty mountains whose elevation reaches from 
 seven to ten thousand feet above them. These parks are generally well 
 watered, abundantly timbered, and abounding in springs containing 
 mineral waters. 
 
 There are four great parks, separated from each other by narrow but 
 lofty mountain-ranges. The entire chain can be easily traversed, and as 
 they abound in fish and game, and present some of the most varied, 
 romantic, and beautiful scenery imaginable, it will be seen that they are 
 points of great interest to tourists and hunters. 
 
 North Park is near the northern boundary of the State. "Within it the 
 North Platte River takes its rise. It is a circular basin some thirty miles 
 in diameter, and is the most timbered and lofty of the parks. It has not, 
 as yet, attracted much attention ; still, its points of interest are not easily 
 excelled elsewhere, and there is a possibility of vast mineral resources 
 lying hidden within the hills that surround it. There are, as yet, but 
 few settlements within its boundaries. It is easily reached from Fort 
 Collins, on the Colorado branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. 
 
 Middle Park adjoins it, and is very much larger. It has a diameter of 
 about fifty miles. It is drained on the west by Grand River, whose exit 
 is by a caflon of sublime depth and awful grand[eur. Spurs of lofty 
 mountains shoot far out toward its centre. Hot Sulphur Springs in the 
 middle of the park is quite a summer resort. Some considerable settle- 
 ments have been established within the park, and it is reached by a line 
 of stages from Georgetown. 
 
 South Park, by the advent of the Denver and South Park Railway, 
 that traverses its entire length, is now beginning to be well known. In 
 
 8 
 
114 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 it the South Platte takes its rise. It is about forty miles wide and seventy 
 miles long. Its central basin is one vast meadow, capable of sustaining 
 millions of cattle. Its rim and its spurs abound in gold- and silver- 
 mines. 
 
 San Luis Park lies in the extreme southern part of the State, and is 
 the lowest in altitude, while it is the longest in extent, of the four great 
 parks. It is drained by the Rio Grande del Norte, which flows in a 
 southerly direction through it, and thence in a south-easterly course seeks 
 the Gulf of Mexico. This park has always been the favorite place of 
 settlement for the Mexican population of the State, but the advent of the 
 Denver and Rio Grande Railway into it, and the consequent entrance of 
 a thrifty white population, are rapidly driving this shiftless class into 
 New Mexico, and replacing them with the elements that go to strengthen 
 and exalt society and the State. The farming resources of San Luis 
 Valley are vast and of untold value. In the years to come it will be 
 a beehive of agricultural industry. 
 
 There are hundreds of other parks, varying in size from ten to a thou- 
 sand acres, scattered all over the State. Estes Park, perhaps, might be 
 mentioned as one of the largest of this coterie of cozy nooks hidden in 
 the hills. Through it visitors pass to make the ascent of Long's Peak. 
 In its mountain-streams are abundance of trout, while all kinds of game 
 can also be found in it. It is a favorite resort for tourists, and is reached 
 by rail to Longmont, and thence by an easy coach-ride of five hours. 
 
 The principal rivers of the Plains region of Colorado are the South 
 Platte and the Arkansas. These have their sources in the mountains, 
 and as they reach the Plains are fed by many small streams. The first 
 drains the South Park and the range from Denver north to the boundary 
 of the State. Its source is near Mount Lincoln, and its principal branches 
 within the park are High, Little, Platte, Trout, and Tarryall Creeks. Its 
 general course is in a north-easterly direction, and after it leaves the caflon 
 its principal affluents are Bear, Turkey, Clear, Ralston, St. Vrain's, Coal, 
 Boulder, Left-Hand, Big and Little Thompson, and the Cache-la-Poudre. 
 The valley of the South Platte, from its exit from the caDon to where it 
 leaves the State, is two hundred and fourteen miles long, with an average 
 width of two miles, containing about four hundred square miles of bottom- 
 land. The main stream, with its branches, is supposed to carry water 
 enough to irrigate about fifteen thousand square miles of arable land, on 
 the supposition that three cubic feet per second will irrigate one square 
 mile. 
 
 The Arkansas River rises near Tennessee Pass, flows through small 
 
COLORADO. 115 
 
 valleys and cafions — ^the main one being the celebrated eafion of the 
 Arkansas — in a general southerly direction until it reaches La Junta, 
 where it turns east and leaves the State. A number of short streams 
 contribute to its volume of water in the mountains. The most important 
 of these are Grape, Texas, Chalk, Cottonwood, Elbert, Oil, Currant, 
 Badger, Trout, and the South and East Arkansas. On the Plains it 
 receives the Purgatoire, Apishpa, Huerfano, Cucharas, St. Charles, Green- 
 born, Hardscrabble, Fontairie-qui-Bouille, and Monument. The area of 
 arable land and of its branches has been estimated to be nearly two thou- 
 sand square miles ; these valley-lands are not cultivated so extensively as 
 are those on the South Platte and its branches, but attention is being 
 drawn to them as equally desirable for agricultural and horticultural 
 purposes. 
 
 The Rio Grande del Norte heads in the heart of the San Juan Moun- 
 tains. From the great snowfields and the abundant rainfall of these high 
 mountains the stream grows rapidly, and when it enters the valley of San 
 Luis Park it is one of the largest streams in the State. Here several 
 good-sized tributaries add to its volume. The principal ones are the 
 Alamosa, La Jara, Conejos, Rio San Antonio, Trinchera, Culebra, and 
 Costilla. The agricultural capabilities of this stream and its branches 
 are measured solely by the supply of water. The soil being of a more 
 sandy nature, a larger amount of water is required than in the northern 
 part of the State, and five cubic feet per second has been allowed in this 
 estimate. About eight hundred square miles of land are capable of being 
 supplied with water enough for cultivation. The San Luis Valley is 
 now mainly given over to grazing, but it is beyond question that it will 
 yet be the garden-spot of the State. 
 
 The San Juan River drains the southern slopes of the San Juan Moun- 
 tains, and the land capable of being utilized is distributed in narrow belts 
 in. and near the mountains. Its main branches are the Piedra, Los Pinos, 
 Las Animas, La Plata, and Mancos. These have more or less of culti- 
 vated land, supporting a population mainly composed of Mexicans. 
 
 The Grand River heads among the snowfields of the western slope of 
 the front range in Middle Park. It covers a drainage-area of over 
 tweniy-two thousand square miles. Its principal tributaries in the park 
 are North Fork, Willow, Troublesome, Muddy, Frazer, Williams, and 
 the Blue. All of these are in valleys of more or less width, but contain- 
 ing little arable land, principally lying on the Frazer and the Blue. A 
 succession of short caflons follow until the Gunnison is reached. 
 
 The Gunnison River heads in the Sawatch range, and has for its tribu- 
 
116 • THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 taries Tomichi, "White Earth, Lake Fork, CeboUa, Uncompahgre, Dolores, 
 and San Miguel Creeks. All of these branches have more or less irri- 
 gable areas, while the Gunnison proper, in what is known as the Uncom- 
 pahgre Valley, has an abundance of land and water. 
 
 The White River has its rise in high plateaus which reach the timber- 
 line. Its course is westward, and it flows in a narrow valley limited by 
 cafion-walls. Its arable belt of land is extremely small, except at the 
 point where the White River Agency is located, where it branches out 
 into a belt five miles wide and about the same in length. It has not 
 land enough to use up the flow of water. 
 
 The Yampah River heads in Egeria Park, flowing north for about 
 thirty miles, then turning to the west. Its main branches are the Little 
 Snake, Elkhead, and Sage. It is stated that there is an arable area of 
 about three hundred and fifty square miles in this valley and its tribu- 
 taries, with an abundance of water for all that can be cultivated. 
 
 EESOUECES. 
 
 Arapahoe county includes a strip of country about thirty miles wide 
 and one hundred and seventy-five miles long, with its eastern limit at the 
 Kansas State line, and is entirely upon the Plains. It possesses no min- 
 eral deposits save coal, and but little timber. Its agricultural industries, 
 however, are of great importance, and are likely to become still more so 
 by the completion of a canal of immense size and length called the Platte 
 Canal. The soil is well adapted to the growth of all the cereals and veg- 
 etables, while in the vicinity of Denver considerable attention has been 
 paid to fruit-raising. Denver is the principal city, and as a mercantile, 
 manufacturing, and railway centre contributes greatly to the wealth of 
 the country. Of Denver we treat more fully under a separate head. 
 
 Littleton, Petersburg, Brighton, Box Elder, and Deer Trail are small 
 villages in Arapahoe county, and the centres of agricultural and stock 
 interests. The amount of land returned last year as in cultivation in the 
 county was 131,424 acres, at a valuation, including improvements, of 
 $2,583,265, but the taxable wealth of the whole county is set down at 
 $31,000,000. 
 
 Bent county comprises a district sixty-eight miles wide and one hun- 
 dred and eight long, and is one of the great grazing-districfs of the State. 
 It is but sparsely settled, and at present cattle- and sheep-raising are its 
 principal resources. But the Arkansas River runs through the southern 
 half of its limits, and the land is well adapted to cultivation. The 
 Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F^ Railway runs through it, and at La 
 
COLORADO. 117 
 
 Junta a branch goes down to Trinidad. West Las Animas is the coun- 
 ty-seat and principal town. The Las Animas River empties into the 
 Arkansas at this point, and the lands in this valley are occupied by quite 
 a thrifty class of farmers. The taxable wealth of the county amoimts to 
 $5,000,000. 
 
 BouLDBB county is part plains and part mountains, the latter predom- 
 inating. It is one of the best developed and richest counties, aside from 
 Arapahoe, in the State. Its fertile valleys are filled with industrious 
 husbandmen, while its hills and mountains are stocked with precious 
 metals. Gold, silver, iron, coal, — ^these are the principal resources. Here, 
 in this county, the first discovery of gold was made (in 1858), and its 
 belt of mines extends the entire length of the county, while its silver- 
 mines include the world-renowned Caribou and others of well-known 
 value. Long's Peak lies within its borders, while the valleys of St. 
 Vrain, Boulder, Left-Hand, and Ralston enrich its eastern limits with 
 extensive tracts of arable land, all well dotted over with the comfortable 
 homes of well-to-do farmers. The coal-beds of Boulder county are no 
 unimportant item of its resources. They underlie the whole eastern 
 strip, and are worked at several points, yielding the finest coal found in 
 the northern part of the State. Fire and potters' clays also exist. An 
 abundance of timber is in the mountains. Excellent water-power, beau- 
 tiful scenery, a healthy climate, vast mineral deposits, unrivalled agricul- 
 tural facilities, — ^these place Boulder county in the front rank of the coun- 
 ties of Colorado, ensuring it a career of future prosperity. At present, 
 its mines, like those of the San Juan, are not attracting the attention they 
 deserve ; but when the carbonate fever is over the lodes in this district 
 will be a permanent source of wealth to their fortunate owners. 
 
 The area of the county is about nine hundred square miles. The prin- 
 cipal towns are Boulder, Longmont, Valmont, Louisville, Sunshine, 
 Jamestown, Gold Hill, Salina, Ni Wot, and Pella. Farming-lands were 
 returned last year by the assessor at a valuation of a million and a half 
 of dollars on 127,485 acres, while the entire valuation of the county 
 foots up to nearly $7,000,000. 
 
 Clear Creek county three years ago was the principal silver-produ- 
 cing county in the State. The Leadville district leads in the race now, but 
 the silver-mines of this county are still being worked to a considerable 
 extent, and constitute the principal resources of the district. It is a small- 
 sized county, 15 by 35 miles, full of good water-power and excellent 
 mill-sites, with some little agricultural land ; but mining, milling, man- 
 ufacturing, and grazing are the main reliance of its inhabitants. Clear 
 
118 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Creek is the principal stream, but this has numerous branches, flowing 
 through ranges of mountains traversed by belts of silver- and gold-lodes 
 and covered with timber. Clear Creek Caflon is referred to elsewhere. 
 The principal towns are Georgetown, Idaho Springs, Empire, and Silver 
 Plume. The narrow-gauge system of railway reaches Idaho Springs and 
 Georgetown, and is likely to be extended beyond the latter point, over 
 what is known as the High-Line route, to Leadville. The real estate 
 and personal property of the county foots up to nearly $4,000,000. 
 
 Chaffee county is one of the latest formed counties in the State, having 
 the Saguache range for its western boundary and the Park range for its 
 eastern. Leadville lies directly north, in the adjoining county of Lake. 
 The Arkansas, River runs through it north and. south. Gulch-, placer-, 
 and lode-mining are carried on to some extent. Some noble mountains, 
 such as Mounts Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Shavano, are within its 
 boundaries. The town of Buena Yista, founded last year, is attaining 
 considerable prominence as a business-centre, while its nearness to some 
 famous hot springs on the Cottonwood, about ten miles away, will tend 
 to make it a resort for invalids. Cleora and Granite are promising towns 
 in this county. 
 
 Conejos county is one of the somewhat isolated districts of the State. 
 Railway communication ends at Alamosa on its eastern border, but the 
 bed of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway is graded to Conejos, the 
 county-seat, and the cars will reach it before the year is ended. The re- 
 sources of the county are almost wholly undeveloped. Alamosa is its 
 principal town, and an extensive trading business is carried on with the 
 mountain-regions on the west. It is also the present shipping-point for 
 the trade with New Mexico. The celebrated Pagosa Springs are in the 
 western part. It has a large number of villages of plazas, wherein Mexi- 
 cans cluster. Nearly one-half of the county is forbidden ground for the 
 white man, being in the Ute Reservation. There is a large area of well- 
 watered and arable land, but thrifty and enterprising people are needed 
 to develop the at present hidden resources. The taxable property last 
 year amounted to only $750,000. 
 
 Costilla county is in the San Luis Valley, and has the Rio Grande 
 del Norte for its western boundary, while the railway runs through it 
 from east to west. It boasts of the highest mountain in the range, Mount 
 Blanca. It has within it several small streams, principally the Costilla, 
 Culebra, Trinchera, and Sangre de Christo, in whose valleys more or less 
 rude agricultural pursuits are followed by the residents, who are mainly 
 Mexicans, and whose principal industry is the raising of a few sheep, 
 
COLORADO. 119 
 
 horses, goats, asses, and cattle. Fort Garland, an important military post, 
 is in this county. There are large areas of arable land susceptible of cul- 
 tivation for cereals by irrigation-canals from the Rio Grande River, but 
 they must await the coming of a thriftier set of people than the Mexi- 
 cans, who now are in the majority. The taxable wealth of the county is 
 returned at a little over a million of dollars. 
 
 CuSTEE county has within its borders Silver Cliff, whose importance a.s 
 a mineral district is beginning to be recognized by the outside world. The 
 Sangre de Christo range is its western boundary, while in the south-east 
 rise the Wet Mountains, giving a name to the valley between, whose pas- 
 toral and farming resources are very large, though as yet but scantily 
 developed. Silver Cliff, Rosita, Ula, and Colfax are the principal towns; 
 The mines in the vicinity of the two first named have been demonstrated 
 to be of extraordinary richness, and their development will make the dis- 
 trict a point to which prospectors and capitalists will be directed. 
 
 Douglas county lies south of Arapahoe, and is traversed by the Den- 
 ver and Rio Grande Railway. In connection with Elbert county, on the 
 east, it takes in what is known as the " Divide " country, a belt of high 
 land separating the valley of the South Platte from that of the Arkansas. 
 It is a timbered region, with some stock-raising and agricultural resources. 
 Farming is carried on here without irrigation, the altitude conducing to 
 frequent rainfalls during the growing season. It is becoming noted as a 
 dairying district, springs and sheltered places abounding on either slope 
 of the Divide. Several small streams course through it, but they furnish 
 no reliable water for irrigating purposes. The principal towns are on the 
 line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. Castle Rock is known for 
 its extensive stone-quarries, and furnishes this material in abundance for 
 the Denver market. The iron ore of Douglas county, when developed, 
 will be one of its principal resources. At present stock-raising and 
 agriculture predominate. 
 
 Elbert county is a cattle county, lying east of Douglas and taking in 
 part of the Divide. The Kansas Pacific Railway runs through it in a 
 south-easterly direction, and the main settlements are along the line of/ 
 the road. Cattle and sheep are the principal industries, though some 
 attention is paid to dairying and farming in the western part. The tax- 
 able wealth of the county is $300,000. A considerable portion of the 
 lands are unsurveyed, and are the roaming-grounds of the antelope and 
 buffalo. 
 
 El Paso county is the leading sheep-raising district in the State^ 
 returning nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand in 1879. It has 
 
120 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Pike's Peak, Manitou, Monument Park, the Petrified Forest, Cheyenne 
 Caflon, and the Garden of the Gods as points of interest for tourists. 
 The Fontaine-qui-Bouille, a tributary of the Arkansas, is the main 
 Btream within its borders, and in its valley lie some choice tracts of 
 farming-land. But therie is a general lack of water for irrigation, and 
 this county cannot look forward to any great agricultural development 
 unless artesian wells are demonstrated to be feasible. The western part 
 of the county is mountainous, but there have been, as yet, no discoveries 
 of minerals of any great value. Its wealth is in its plains, where a 
 million sheep could find sustenance, and in its beautiful city of Colorado 
 Springs and the numberless attractions in that vicinity, that draw yearly 
 a steady stream of visitors. The taxable wealth is between five and six 
 millions of dollars. The Denver and Eio Grande Railway runs through 
 it from north to south, and there are several stations — Monument being 
 the principal one — of more or less importance on the line of the road. 
 
 Fremont county. — The Arkansas River passes through the entire 
 length of this county. It is one of the most promising in the State, 
 comprising as it does within its boundaries coal, gypsum, iron, marble, 
 alum, petroleum, and some of the finest fruit-lands in the State. The 
 coal of Caflon City is a bituminous coal of superior quality, and cannot 
 be mined in sufficient quantities to meet the demand. The Grand Canon 
 of the Arkansas is reached from Caflon City, and is one of the wonders 
 of the Western World. Soda springs abound within its borders. One 
 of the main highways to Leadville runs through it. Considerable atten- 
 tion has been paid to fruit-culture in the valley of the Arkansas east of 
 Caflon City, and it boasts the largest apple-orchard in the State, yielding 
 over two thousand bushels last year. Grapes grow ia abundance, while 
 the foot-hills are full of wild fruit. Fremont county boasts a real and 
 personal property of two and a half millions, which is destined to rapidly 
 increase. 
 
 Gilpin county is the smallest political subdivision of the State, but 
 one of the most important, and embraces within its limits the richest 
 gold-mining region in the Rocky Mountains, and perhaps in the world. 
 Broken by mountain-ranges and their intervening gulches and chasms, 
 it is rich in the precious metal. Its mountains are covered with forests 
 of pine, and its rugged ravines hide rippling waterfalls and grass-covered 
 bottoms. 
 
 Central City, Black Hawk, Nevada, and Rollinsville are the principal 
 towns, the two first being surrounded and traversed by belts of gold- 
 mines, while in the immediate vicinity are gulch- and placer-diggings 
 
WILLIAMS CASON, COLORADO SPRINGS. 
 
 BY THOMAS MORAS. 
 
COLORADO. 121 
 
 that have yielded millions of dollars' worth, and will yet yield millions 
 of dollars' worth more. The mercantile and commercial interests of the 
 county are important, and are skilfully managed by a class of merchants 
 and business-men possessing unusual enterprise and ability. The alti- 
 tude of Central City is eight thousand three hundred feet, while the 
 average of the county reaches nine thousand. The climate of the district 
 is mild and healthy. Railway communication is had by the narrow- 
 gauge system, and the ride from Black Hawk to Central, where several 
 miles are traversed to gain one in distance, is one. of the grandest in the 
 world. 
 
 Grand county lies in the northern part of the State, between Larimer 
 and Routt. It comprises within its borders North and Middle Parks 
 and the Rabbit Ear range of mountains, in which some silver-veins have 
 bean discovered. The famous Hot Sulphur Springs are in the last-named 
 park. The North Fork of the Grande, the North Platte, and the Cache- 
 la-Poudre Rivers have their rise in the centre of the county. It is a 
 region of vast possibilities, and may yet become renowned for its mineral 
 deposits. Middle Park and the Hot Sulphur Springs are reached by 
 coach from Georgetown — North Park from Fort Collins, on the Cheyenne 
 branch of the Colorado Central Railroad. 
 
 Gunnison county. — "To Gunnison?" is to be the rallying-cry of 
 thousands this season, who hope to find fabulotis wealth within its hidden 
 defiles and bosky dells. It has within its boundaries noble rivers of 
 which but little is known, while countless smaller streams traverse the 
 valleys of this comparatively terra incognita of Colorado. To reach it a 
 lofty range of mountains, whose passes are always full of snow, must be 
 crossed. The Elk Mountains are on the eastern boundary, while stretch- 
 ing far to the west are mighty ranges whose resources will not be defi- 
 nitely known until the Indians are driven out of the country and white 
 men allowed to enter and explore them. In a number of districts bor- 
 dering on the reservation mineral veins of value have been found, but 
 tiieir richness and importance have not been thoroughly demonstrated. 
 
 Hinsdale county is part and parcel of the San Juan country, and is a 
 region laboring under the general disadvantages made up of difficult 
 mountain-ranges, remoteness from railway communication, and want of 
 confidence of capitalists to invest in mines at such a distant point. But 
 the county is undeniably rich in mineral wealth, and Lake City, its cap- 
 ital, is the centre of an important silver-producing district. Smelting- 
 works have been put in, and are in successful operation. The taxable 
 wealth of the county is set down at $1,000,000. 
 
122 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Htjeefano county lies in the southern part of the State, and takes its 
 name from the river that runs through it, and which, with the Cucharas 
 and Apache, gives valleys in which about forty thousand acres of choice 
 agricultural land await a better development than the present population 
 — ^which is mainly of Mexican descent — is likely to give it. At present 
 cattle- and sheep-raising is followed. Corn can be grown in 'great abun- 
 dance, and the soil seems to be admirably adapted to its cultivation. Am- 
 ber cane would be a good crop, and will probably be one of the important 
 industries of the county in the near future. The Spanish Peaks are on 
 its southern line, and on these some silver-mines are being worked to 
 good advantage ; but it cannot be said that much attention is being paid 
 to the metals that may exist in the mountainous portion of the county. 
 Considerable coal is mined at Walsenburg, one of its principal towns. 
 La Veta, Cucharas, and Santa Clara are the other most important towns. 
 On the western border rises the great Sangre de Christo range, with Veta 
 Pass and Muleshoe Bend to attract tourists over the line of the Denver 
 and Eio Grande Railway, which enters the county from the north and 
 runs through it in a southerly direction to El Moro, while the main line 
 turns at Cucharas for La Veta Valley, climbing the celebrated pass and 
 running down into the San Luis Valley. The present valuation of the 
 real and personal property of Huerfano county is $2,000,000. 
 
 Jefferson county is part plains-land and part foot-hills, running 
 north and south, with the valley of the South Platte traversing its eastern 
 boundary. Its agriculture is its main feature, though fire-clay, gypsum, 
 potter's clay, building-stone, and coal abound. There is but little un- 
 occupied land in this county. It possesses an abundance of cheap fuel in 
 its mines of coal ; inexhaustible supplies of excellent building material 
 in its stone ; superior water-powers ; large tracts of timber afford good 
 lumber in unlimited quantities. The Colorado Central gives ample trans- 
 portation for the products of the county to Denver and the markets of 
 the State, and places it in direct communication with all the commercial 
 centres of the country. 
 
 Golden is the principal city and the county-seat, the home of manu- 
 factures, mines, mercantile enterprises, educational and religious institu- 
 tions. Morrison, famous for its quarries of stone, is reached by the 
 Denver and South Park road, and is a cozy little nook hidden in the 
 hills. There is still ample room for thousands of industrious farmers, 
 artisans, and miners within the limits of Jefferson county. 
 
 Lake county has Leadville for its principal attraction. The county, 
 originally one of the largest in the State, is now one of the smallest in 
 
COLORADO. 123 
 
 extent, and illustrates the axiom that whatever is most precious is small 
 in size. It is full of gulches that were once the centre of attraction for 
 thousands of miners who were drawn to it in the early days of Colorado's 
 history, then abandoned, but are now the Mecca toward which a steady 
 tide of human beings are flowing in search of carbonates. Mining is the 
 only industry of the county, but as the output of the present year is likely 
 to amount to $25,000,000, it will readily be seen that these mines are a 
 suiiicient attraction in themselves, and Lake county needs no other. The 
 name of Leadville is a synonym for imtold riches that lie hidden in the 
 vast mineral areas of the district. Mounts Massive and Elbert lift their 
 stately summits to the clouds within its borders, while those gems of 
 liquid beauty, the Twin Lakes, will be a point of interest for tourists for 
 all time to come. Now that railroad communication has reached the 
 Carbonate Camp, no visitor to the State can afibrd to leave it without a 
 look at Leadville, to which we devote a special heading elsewhere. 
 
 La Plata county lies west of Conejos, in the extreme south-west 
 corner of the State. It borders New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, and 
 is rich in coal, silver-veins, and gold-placers, and contains many fine 
 fertile valleys. Within this county are the celebrated ruins now so well 
 known through the reports of Hayden's surveys, and to which reference 
 is made in these pages. The coal-lands of this county are estimated at 
 over six hundred square miles, and will be a source of immense wealth 
 when railroads shall reach this far-ofi^ corner of Colorado and reveal its 
 wonders, its mineral wealth, and its agricultural resources to the world. 
 
 Larimer county is one of the three principal agricultural counties, 
 lying in the northern part of the State, and borders on Wyoming. Its 
 western part is extremely mountainous, while beyond it lies North Park, 
 to which it is the natural highway. The Cache-la-Poudre, one of the 
 most reliable streams on the eastern slope, runs through it in a south- 
 easterly direction. An abundance of timber and magnificent water-power 
 in the foot-hills and mountains give it an assured present and a magnificent 
 future career of prosperity. But it is as an agricultural district that the 
 county is best known at present, and its farming resources are limited 
 only by the amount of water that can be made available. The first large 
 irrigating canal in the State — ^that constructed by the Union Colony at 
 Greeley — heads in this county, as also does the extensive canal of the 
 Weld and Larimer Canal Company. But most of the arable areas cov- 
 ered by these canals lie in the adjoining county of Weld. Still, enough 
 is covered by these and numerous other canals to make agriculture one 
 of the main resources of the county. Last year the returns showed sixty 
 
124 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 thousand acres of improved lands, with a valuation of $300,000, while 
 the entire taxable wealth of the county is about $3,000,000. The Col- 
 orado Central branch of the Union Pacific Railway gives direct com- 
 munication with Denver and the mountain-towns, while Cheyenne and 
 the east and west are reached on the north. Fort Collins, Loveland, 
 Livermore, and Wheatland are the principal towns. 
 
 Las Animas county lies along the southern boundary of Colorado. Its 
 principal stream is that from which the county is named, and the valley of 
 " The Spirits " forms one of the most magnificent tracts of farming-land 
 in the State. The Denver and Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka, 
 and Santa F6 Railways traverse it, while Trinidad and El Moro are its 
 principal towns. At these points a vast and expanding industry has 
 been established : hundreds of coke-ovens are burning night and day. 
 The coal in this vicinity makes excellent cok§, for which, of course, the 
 mines furnish a ready market. There is no mining done in this county, 
 but the extensive table-lands furnish unequalled grazing-grounds fbr 
 sheep, of which the county has over one hundred thousand. The coal- 
 mines are a source of constant revenue, and the valley is capable of sus- 
 taining a large farming community whenever a thrifty class enters and 
 occupies the fertile soil. 
 
 OiXKAY county lies west of San Juan, and is part of the San Juan 
 mineral belt of country, full of mountains, ravines, and gorges in which 
 precious rnetals abound, but with which communication, especially in the 
 winter season, is difficult. This remoteness from civilization has tended 
 to retard its progress, but there is a possibility of a railroad reaching this 
 distant point at an early day, and then a rapid advancement may be looked 
 for. Ouray is the main tqwn in the district. The Dolores plateau, lying 
 west of the belt of mountains traversing the eastern borders of the county, 
 is believed to be capable of agricultural development, but this is not likely 
 to occur at an early day in the history of Colorado. 
 
 Park county. — This is the famous South Park country. It lies in a 
 kind of basin, having mighty mountain-ranges for its rim on three sides, 
 while its eastern border is a series of spurs broken by small streams that 
 feed the South Platte River. It is the most centrally-located county in 
 the State, full of mineral springs, salt springs, carbonate deposits, and coal. 
 Within its borders Mount Lincoln rears its lofty head. From its eastern 
 slope the South Platte River starts on its journey to the Plains, while on 
 its western edge its waters seek the Pacific through the channels of the 
 Blue and the Grand Rivers. The Denver and South Park Railway 
 courses through it, and all along its line towns are springing up, to be- 
 
COLORADO. 125 
 
 come of more or less importance in future years. Stock-raising is a 
 prominent feature in the industries of tilis county, the vast area of the 
 park being capable of sustaining countless herds of cattle. Fairplay and 
 Alma are its principal towns. 
 
 Pueblo county is a valley-county, lying on each side of the Arkansas 
 River. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway runs through it north and 
 south, and a branch at Pueblo runs west to Caflon City. The Atchison, 
 Topeka, and Santa F^ road enters it from the east, so that Pueblo, the 
 principal town in the county, is an important railroad-point. It is one 
 of the finest agricultural districts in the State, but stock-raising at present 
 predominates. Nearly a hundred thousand cattle and sheep are herded 
 on the plains, while the Arkansas Valley contains two hundred thousand 
 acres of arable land. The Fontaine-qui-Bouille, St. Charles, Chico, and 
 Greenhorn are the principal tributaries to the main river running through 
 it, in whose valleys more or less farming is carried on. It could be made 
 a great fruit-raising section if attention was paid to this industry. The 
 terminus of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fg Railway being at Pueblo 
 for the present, makes it quite a commercial centre, and the city is in a 
 thriving condition. The taxable wealth of the county, in live-stock, real 
 estate, personal property, and railway-tracks, amounts to nearly seven 
 million dollars. There are some extensive cattle- and sheep-ranches here, 
 where Mexican labor is wholly employed, yet but a tithe of its twelve 
 hundred square miles of fertile land is in cultivation. 
 
 Rio Geande lies between Conejos and Saguache, and is partly moun- 
 tainous, with large breadths of plains-land. The Rio Grande del Norte 
 runs along its western border, and San Luis Park lies partly within it. 
 There are several small tributaries feeding the main stream, whose valleys 
 are lined with cultivated farms ; but for the most part the vast area of 
 arable land is unoccupied,, waiting the coming of those who are to till the. 
 productive soil and feed the myriads who will throng the mining districts 
 to the west and north. 
 
 Routt county, in the extreme north-west corner of the State, is covered 
 with mountain-ranges and spurs, and with river-valleys in which grazing 
 and agricultural pursuits to some extent could be successfully carried on. 
 Egeria Park is in its south-east corner ; Yampah River courses through it 
 from east to west ; and the Elkhead range of mountains are the prin- 
 cipal ones within its borders. On the head-waters of the Snake and Elk 
 Rivers there are some extensive placer-lands from which considerable gold 
 has been taken, and where flumes and ditches have been constructed. 
 Steamboat Springs are in the eastern part. The county at present is 
 
126 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 attracting but little attention, but when communication can be had with 
 it easier than at present it will be found capable of supporting a vast 
 population. 
 
 Saguache county occupies the northern extremity of San Luis Valley, 
 and has considerable settlements within it, but is capable of sustaining 
 many more. It has a fertile and finely-watered region, scarcely equalled 
 anywhere, whose numerous valleys are great natural meadows covered 
 with vegetation, and whose table-lands afibrd abundant pasture for sheep 
 and cattle. Perhaps one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land are 
 improved. The taxable wealth of the county is $1,000,000. In addition 
 to its pastoral resources, it contains some of the finest scenery in the State, 
 being hemmed in on the east, north, and west by the Sangre de Christo, 
 Saguache, and Cochetopa Hills. It is a district with great natural attrac- 
 tions and boundless resources, and has an era of prosperity before it whose 
 dawn already casts its light upon the horizon. 
 
 San Juan county is a small but exceedingly rich section of country in 
 the south-western part of the State, and is full of mining districts in which 
 thousands of lodes are located, and many of them worked. The dis- 
 coveries and developments that are constantly in progress, despite the 
 amount of interest excited by Leadville, vindicate the conviction that the 
 great natural resources of the San Juan country are not likely to be 
 forgotten. Indeed, these silver-ribbed rocks can hardly be overlooked. 
 Silverton is the principal town, and one that is steadily growing. A good 
 wagon-road connects it with Ouray, Lake City, and the outside world. 
 The gulches in this district contain many very productive mines, but the 
 wealth that has thus far been brought to light is but trifling to what will 
 yet be realized when capital concentrates at this point. San Juan county 
 has no agricultural resources. 
 
 Summit county is one of the extreme north-west counties, lying west 
 of the summit of the Main Range. It is a region as yet undeveloped on 
 its eastern borders, where it is rich in silver-lodes and gold-placers. In 
 the western part of the county coal is said to exist in immense deposits. 
 Some eight millions in gold, silver, and lead have been taken out of this 
 district since Colorado was first settled. New and important mining dis- 
 tricts now being developed are attracting some attention. Ten-Mile dis- 
 trict has some rich galena-veins that have been lately opened. Eagle 
 River, the Blue, Snake, Swan, and their tributaries, are all likely to be- 
 come famous points, as they are the last discovered in the extensive min- 
 eral regions lying west of the range. The Mountain of the Holy Cross, 
 the subject of J. Harrison Mills's celebrated painting, is in this county, 
 
COLORADO. 127 
 
 while Mount Lincoln is on its south-east boundary and Mount Powell on 
 the north. The blood-stained White River Agency lies within it. 
 
 Weld county is one of the largest in the State, and lies in the north- 
 east corner. The South Platte River runs through its entire length, 
 while the Denver Pacific Railway passes down its western edge. It is 
 wholly a cattle-raising and agricultural county. Within it Hes Greeley, 
 the first farming-town established in the State, and the success of which led. 
 to the establishment of so many others. It is believed that coal underlies 
 a good part of the western portion, but this is only conjecture, save in the 
 extreme south-west corner, at Erie, where mines are worked. The valley 
 of the South Platte is one capable of raising, by systematic and economic 
 irrigation, food enough to supply the wants of the people of the entire State. 
 Out on the Plains, beyond Greeley, some attention is paid tb sheep-raising, 
 and there are large herds of cattle kept between the river and the Territory 
 of Wyoming on the north. When the railway system of the country reaches 
 and occupies the South Platte Valley, it will open up a splendid country 
 and develop the resources of this county to a very large extent. The 
 principal towns are Greeley, Evans, Platteville, and Erie. The taxable 
 property reaches $7,000,000. The construction of the Weld and Larimer 
 County Canal throws open thousands of acres to cultivation, and when 
 these are utilized Weld will stand in the front rank as a county whose 
 agricultural resources are unbounded save by the volume of water in its 
 streams. 
 
 THE ELOEA. OF COLOEADO. 
 
 The flora of the State is full of interest to the casual observer, the lover 
 of flowers, and the botanist. For many months in the year the plains, 
 ■ the foot-hills, the very sides of the mountains, are covered with the com- 
 mon wild flowers that luxuriate in the bright sunshine and dry air. Here 
 is not found such wealth of foliage as abounds in moister climates ; the 
 blossoms predominate to a remarkable degree. The botanist, wandering 
 through the Sangre de Christo range, tramples down whole fields of white 
 and blue larkspur and delicate mertensia. The summits are crowned with 
 phlox and forge<>me-nots. The fields of Wet Mountain Valley are full 
 of clover, iris, and lilies. Wild roses bloom along the banks of every 
 stream, great or small. . Ipomea covers the mesa.s, abronias whiten innu- 
 merable acres of land, while the large, conspicuous flowers of the Mira- 
 bilis multiflora are seen opening their petals late in the afternoon and show- 
 ing fresh, bright faces to the passer-by. .The syringa grows wherever it 
 can find a foothold, the cafions are alive with fallugia, while wherever little 
 
128 " THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 streams of water dash over the rocks in the foot-hills and lose themselves 
 in mist the golden columbine and aquilegia grow to perfection. The 
 scarlet and the blue pentstemon, the brilliant gillia, spireas, and hosts 
 of less showy but equally interesting plants occupy every available 
 spot. 
 
 Especially in Southern Colorado is the flora of the Plains and foot-hills 
 remarkable for abundance, variety, and brilliance. The low elevation 
 of the Arkansas Valley and its tributaries has induced many of the most 
 noticeable and beautiful specimens, whose home is in New Mexico, to find 
 a rasting-place here and to grow abundantly. The parks are dotted with 
 the tree-cactus and the frankenia, while at least thirteen species of cactus 
 abound, from the familiar prickly-pear with long flat joints and sharp 
 thorns and handsome yellow flowers, up to the tree-cactus with its large 
 purple flowers and sharp thorns, growing twelve feet in height in favor- 
 able localities. Here and there solitary cones of Cereus fenaleri can oc- 
 casionally be found, bearing two or three large purple-flaming blossoms, 
 while up on the mountain-sides flourish in great abundance hemispherical 
 masses of Cereus phwnious, scarlet with a hundred blossoms and bristling 
 with a thousand spines. 
 
 A world of floral beauty, it may therefore be said, is open to all be- 
 holders in this State, so rich in resources in its valleys, plains, hills, and 
 clifis. It may be called the "Wonderland of America, and its flora will 
 be an irresistible attraction during the summer and fall months for all 
 who have an eye to the beauties of Nature unchanged by human art. 
 
 WILD ANIMALS. 
 
 Middle Park may be taken as a fair type of the fauna of the moun- 
 tain-regions of Colorado. As it contains lakes and streams, plains and 
 hills, it may be looked upon as a miniature State, and in describing the 
 animals of this section we describe those of all Colorado. 
 
 The following have been seen or killed in the park or on the moun- 
 tains that surround it: 
 
 Of the bear family ( DroBMs) : The common black {americanus); brown 
 or cinnamon {arctus); grizzly (ferox). 
 
 Of the wolf family (Lupus) : The common (cants) ; prairie (latros) ; 
 wolverine (Gulo Iugus). 
 
 Of the fox family ( Vulpus) : The common red (vulgaris) ; black (alo- 
 pex); silver (argenteus). 
 
 Of the deer family: The common (Cervus virginianus) ; the antelope 
 
RESTORED TOWER AND CLIFF-HOUSES. 
 
COLORADO. 129 
 
 (Antilocapra cervicapra) ; the elk or moose {Aled amerioanua) • the moun- 
 tain-sheep {Ovis montana, resembling the Caprovis nmsimon of Europe). 
 
 In addition to these may be named : 
 
 The cougar or panther, generally called the Rocky Mountain lion. 
 This fierce animal is found all through the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The lynx (Felia canadensis), very common in the parks. It is called 
 the wild-cat, and sometimes, erroneously, the catamount. 
 
 The pole-cat {Putorius vulgaris of the naturalists, and seems to be a 
 cosmopolite). 
 
 The mink [Putorius vison), valued for its skin, being covered with 
 fine fur. 
 
 The beaver [Ckistor americanvs). This is perhaps the .same as the Eu- 
 ropean Castor fiber. Its fur is well known. 
 
 The otter {Lutra canadensis or Lutra mollis, so called on account of 
 the softness of its fur). It is an aquatic animal, and found only in lakes 
 and streams. 
 
 The muskrat (Fiber zibethieus), a genuine native American, and found 
 in no other part of the world. 
 
 The woodchuck (Arctomys monax), sometimes called the ground-hog, 
 and found all over the country. 
 
 ANdBNT KTTINS. 
 
 South-western Colorado is one vast network of ruins, indicating an 
 age in the far past when its valleys and mountains were filled with an 
 enterprising people. It is asserted that there is scarcely a square mile in 
 six thousand examined by the Hayden Expedition that does not furnish 
 evidence of previous occupation by a race totally distinct from the no- 
 madic savages who hold it now, and which must have been in many ways 
 superior to the latter. These ruins are in a great measure the remnants 
 of stone structures, some of them of large dimensions, and have been 
 classed under general heads : Lowland or agricultural settlements ; cave- 
 dwellings ; cliff-houses or fortresses. The first of these are on the river- 
 bottoms, close to water; the second are excavations in the bluffs; the 
 third are built high up in steep, almost inaccessible, cliffs. Rock-inscrip- 
 tions are numerous, both engraved and painted on the clifis. Remains 
 of pottery and flint-chips are abundant. The number of these ruins pre- 
 cludes the possibility of mentioning them save in a general way. 
 
 The section of country in which they are principally found is that 
 drained by the San Juan River, reaching from the Sierra Abajo on the 
 north to Choco Cafion on the south, and covering an area of some twenty 
 s 
 
130 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 thousand square miles. Evidences of a once thickly-inhabited country 
 abound throughout its entire length. At some time in the distant past a 
 pre-historic race of people existed in the fastnesses of the south-western 
 portion of Colorado, whose life and history are only hinted at in the vast 
 accumulations of remains that are left behind them. Of the habits of 
 these people we know but little. The general absence of human remains, 
 and the fact that few if any burial-places have been uncovered, would 
 seem to indicate that other methods than those used in our day to hide the 
 remains of the dead were practised. Indeed, the heaps of ashes mingled 
 with charred wood lead us to believe that cremation was not an unknown 
 art with them. As to the era in which this extinct race existed, there is 
 no positive data. . The towns are now as they were hundreds of years 
 ago, for these ruins were seen and described by Spanish explorers, who 
 accounted them Aztec ruins. It may be that time and more extended 
 research may open up the story of the people who once flourished — as did 
 the Egyptians of old in all their grandeur upon the banks of the Nile — 
 among the cliffs of Colorado, but who have been swept away from their 
 rock-hewn castles on the cliff-sides and their valley-towns, leaving noth- 
 ing behind to tell the story of the ages in which they flourished. It 
 would seem as though these ruins would indicate races of ancient culture 
 flourishing here thousands of years ago, and that America may yet be 
 established to be the Old instead of the New World. 
 
 In this vast area of land — still far away from civilization, but into 
 which the feet of the tourist will in a few short years wander, while the 
 hearts of the beholders will be hushed with awe and their eyes grow 
 round with wonder — ^will be found new fields of study and research that 
 will be more puzzling than the secrets of the Nile have ever been. The 
 Dolores, San Juan, Mancos, La Plata, De los Pinos, De los Animas, De 
 Chelley, — ^these will be Meccas for the geologists, archaeologists, ethnolo- 
 gists, who will find, in unfolding the secrets of the cliffs, full occupation 
 for their skill. Then, perhaps, the hieroglyphics upon the walls will tell 
 a story at which a civilized world will wonder. 
 
 As to the causes that destroyed such an immense nation as evidently 
 once inhabited this country, we can only conjecture. It is among the 
 possibilities that they were once similar to the people who inhabited the 
 valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri, and who were driven westward 
 by the ancestors of the present race of savages still lingering in our midst, 
 and that they were eventually destroyed in their mountain-fastnesses by 
 these and the Spaniards of earlier days. The present Pueblo Indians are 
 supposed to be a remnant of the ancient race of Cliff-dwellers. 
 
COLORADO. 131 
 
 AGEICULTUEB. 
 
 Agriculture in Colorado is an entirely different pursuit from that prac- 
 tised in the East, and the farmer who comes to the State and enters upon 
 the cultivation of the soil in the style l^e has been accustomed to, will 
 find that failure is more likely to crown his endeavors than success. He 
 has much to unlearn. It is best to abandon old notions and begin anew. 
 Dependent upon irrigation for the growth of his crops, he must study the 
 methods and meet the requirements of the climate. With a fixed pur- 
 pose, in his mind to overcome all the obstacles that will daily present 
 themselves to him, it will not be long before the new order of things 
 will become familiar, and, once understanding the methods, he may rely 
 upon Nature for the rest. Bountiful harvests will crown his efforts, and 
 excellent prices will cheer his heart and fill his pocket. Irrigation is 
 dreaded because it is not understood. Yet it is almost as old as civiliza- 
 tion, and Oriental countries have depended upon it for uncounted ages. 
 The records of ancient history are full of it, and to-day in India, Chi- 
 na, and elsewhere in Asia long and expensive irrigating-canals are the 
 reliance of millions to whom a failure of water would be starvation and 
 death. 
 
 In the early history of Colorado small ditches by individuals were 
 constructed, covering only the meadow- or bottom-lands. But the selec- 
 tion of Union Colony (in 1870) of Colorado for the settlement of a new 
 town caused the construction of the first large canal to cover the plains 
 proper, or uplands, running several miles back from the stream. This 
 successful enterprise was followed by others of like corporate nature, and 
 now a large amount of English capital is being spent in the construction 
 of canals covering from thirty thousand to seventy-five thousand acres 
 of land. An immense impetus has been given to the agricultural devel- 
 opment of the country by these companies, and the rapid increase of 
 population keeps up a demand that the farmers are not able to supply, 
 neither will they be for a number of years. Hence good prices will be 
 the rule, while bad seasons are the exception, in the experience of farmers. 
 
 The agriculture of the State is confined to the valleys, of which we 
 mention the principal : The Cache-la-Poudre, a valley thirty-five miles 
 long, with an abundant supply of water ; the Big and Little Thompson, 
 the St. Vrain, Left-Hand, and Boulder, in Boulder county ; Ealston, 
 Clear Creek, and South Platte. These are the principal agricultural 
 valleys in Northern Colorado, and here two-thirds of the grain and veg- 
 etables of the State are raised. Something like three-quarters of a mil- 
 
132 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 lion bushels of wheat, and about the same quantity of oats, barley, rye, 
 corn, and potatoes, are raised. 
 
 South of Denver the main producing valleys are the Fontaine-qui- 
 Bouille, Arkansas, Las Animas, and Rio Grande. In these not so much 
 progress has been made in turning their countless acres into cultivated 
 fields and gardens ; but attention of late has been attracted to this part 
 of the State, and the next few years will see a rapid progress in the 
 development of Southern Colorado, not only in agriculture, but in 
 horticulture. 
 
 The price of land and water combined averages twenty dollars per 
 acre in the north, but there are thousands upon thousands of acres to be 
 had at nominal prices in the south ; and to these the coming farmers 
 must go to lay the firm foundations of future prosperity for themselves, 
 their posterity, and the State. 
 
 The cost of raising general crops under a system of irrigation is sup- 
 posed, by those not familiar with it, to be very expensive. But this is 
 not really so, as the experience of Colorado farmers goes to prove. Wheat 
 can be raised at 40 cents per bushel, or $8 per acre ; taking the low 
 average of yield to be but twenty bushels per acre, at $1 per bushel, it 
 leaves a profit of $12 to the acre. Oats can be raised at an expense of 
 $10 per acre, leaving the profit $12.60. Corn can be raised for $6.75, 
 leaving a margin of profit of $14.75. Potatoes can be grown at a cost 
 of $20, and in average seasons give $60 profit to the acre. Amber cane 
 can be raised at an expense about equal to corn, but yielding a return of 
 $20 per acre. It will easily be seen that in these figures, based upon 
 actual itemized accounts kept during the season of 1879, there is a good 
 margin of profit ; and while there may be seasons when scant snowfalls 
 in the winter on the mountains give short supply of water in the sum- 
 mer, or untimely frost or grasshopper visitation may occasionally curtail 
 the harvest, yet these are less frequent than the violent storms, the severe 
 drouths, and the destructive insects that visit the fields of Eastern and 
 Southern farmers. There is nothing to discourage the cultivators of the 
 soil in the peculiar conditions that are required to make the harvest in 
 Colorado a sure and profitable one. There is abundant room for thou- 
 sands of them, still open at figures within reach of the poorest ; for even 
 if one comes almost penniless, he can still find land ofiered him for the 
 occupancy thereof by government ; and though it may not be a wise 
 policy for individuals to go too far from settled communities, still small 
 colonies can combine their capital, co-operate in building canals, and so 
 create settlements that will eventually grow into thriving towns. Not 
 
COLORADO. 133 
 
 one-tenth part of the land susceptible of cultivation has been placed 
 under canals, and of this not one-third is occupied. Every variety of 
 grain and all kinds of vegetables can be grown profitably, and the yield 
 is enormous compared with that of the older States. The soil seems 
 inexhaustible in the constituents of cereal crops. Wheat has been raised 
 running eighty bushels to the acre, while the average can be set down at 
 twenty-five. Barley is a sure crop, with a ready market for the grain on 
 Siicconnt of its superior malting qualities. The yield is from twenty-five 
 to forty bushels to the acre. Oats are easily grown, and yield about the 
 same as barley, while the supply has never yet been equal to the demand, 
 and Kansas and Nebraska are largely drawn upon for the deficiency. 
 Corn is beginning to be considered a staple crop, though at first it was 
 supposed the general altitude of the country, and the consequent coolness 
 of the nights, formed a hinderance to success. But late years have 
 proved that there can be as good corn raised here as in any of the North- 
 ern States. Especially is this so in Southern Colorado. Amber cane 
 has been found to be peculiarly adapted to the soil, and a cane is grown 
 rich in the qualities that produce good syrup and sugar. Rye is but 
 little raised, but more attention is being paid to it each year. Potatoes, 
 especially in the foot-hills and on the Divide, yield immense crops. Many 
 of the uplands, especially on the north side of the Cache-la-Poudre, are 
 also suited to the successful cultivation of this tuber. As for vegetables, 
 all kinds, down to the tenderest, are grown with remarkable success. 
 
 While agriculture is an established success, it is being conclusively 
 shown that horticulture will yet become a prominent pursuit in the State. 
 Strawberries are one of the most certain and profitable of crops. One 
 acre can be cultivated and the crop marketed at a cost of $150, while the 
 profit from 1800 quarts at 25 cents per quart — ^which was the wholesale 
 rate during the summer of 1879 in the Denver market — leaves a profit of 
 $300 per acre. Blackberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries range 
 from 20 to 50 cents per quart at wholesale, while the expense of cultiva- 
 tion is perhaps one-third less than for strawberries. Grapes grow in great 
 abundance, and tons of them are annually put upon the market and find 
 ready sale. Peaches, pears, and cherries are grown in various localities in 
 sheltered locations, and it would seem as though — in Southern Colorado, 
 at least — ^these fruits would yet be successfully cultivated to a limited ex- 
 tent. Apples of the more hardy varieties are now raised in both sections 
 of the State. One orchard yielded two thousand bushels last season ; it 
 is located in the Arkansas Valley, near the town of Caflon City. Of 
 course there have been many failures in the past, and will be in the future, 
 
134 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 in these pursuits, until time and experience determine the varieties suited 
 to the peculiar climate. But such discouragements have been met with 
 elsewhere, and in States that are now recognized as great fruit-growing 
 States. Colorado horticulturists have no cause to be discouraged. 
 
 The general outlook for agriculture and horticulture, therefore, may be 
 said to be good, though they cannot be expected to keep pace with the 
 mining progress ; but this fact is in the farmer's favor, not against him. 
 The building of extensive irrigating-canals, the economical use of water, 
 the introduction of all the improved kinds of machinery, the intelligent 
 system of cultivation, the sure cash-market that exists, and the inexhaus- 
 tible richness of the soil, — these are safe warrants for the assertion that 
 " Colorado agriculture is sure to be remunerative, as well as ennobling, to 
 all who pursue it, and who bring to it that intelligence, industry, economy, 
 and perseverance which is demanded for success in other avocations of life." 
 
 CATTLE — SHEEP DAIEYING. 
 
 The rapid increase and general prosperity of the stock interest of the 
 State confirm its character of peculiar attractiveness and adaptability for 
 the successful pursuit of this and kindred industries. The mildness of 
 its climate and the nutritious character of its native grasses not only tend 
 to the highest development and perfection of breeds, but enable the stock- 
 owner to meet the expense of long transportation and compete in the 
 markets of Chicago and New York with cattle-growing regions more 
 accessible to market, but less favored in conditions of climate and vast 
 extent of native and inexpensive pasturage. With the advantages which 
 these two conditions of climate and food so abundantly offer, stock-raising 
 is destined to continue to be a leading — in fact, the second great — industry 
 of Colorado, and a prominent element in its wealth. 
 
 The grazing-grounds of the State extend from its eastern borders to the 
 line where farming begins — say, a strip twenty miles wide from the base 
 of the foot-hills. From, the Arkansas to the Platte, and along the streams 
 which are tributary to these rivers, on the head-waters of the Republican, 
 and in fact wherever upon the Plains water can be found in sufficient 
 quantities for stock, there is probably an area of forty thousand square 
 miles where cattle, sheep, and horses can range, feeding upon nutritious 
 grasses, and costing their owners a nominal sum only for herding or the 
 expense of the annual " round-up." The yearly losses are very small 
 from storms, exposures, and other causes, and do not exceed five per 
 cent. 
 
 It is supposed, especially by those engaged in the business, that there 
 
COLORADO. 135 
 
 are enough cattle and sheep in Colorado for the land that is open to sus- 
 tain them. But this is an erroneous impression, calculated to injure the 
 growth of this important element of wealth. There are still immense 
 areas of pasturage, especially in the southern and south-western portions 
 of the country, where cattle can be kept and where sheep can be made a 
 source of immense revenue. These lands for a long time to come are not 
 likely to be made available for agriculture, and consequently can be used 
 for grazing purposes. 
 
 The very great profit there is in cattle and sheep lies in the important 
 item of free feeding, and is likely to continue to be the source from which 
 their owners will draw princely revenues for many years to come. A 
 movement was lately inaugurated by the Stock-Growers' Association of 
 Southern Colorado to memorialize Congress on the subject of offering for 
 sale these so-called arid lands at a graduated price per acre, by which 
 extensive tracts which are only suitable for grazing purposes might be 
 purchased at a low valuation, believing that such a course would add to 
 the taxable wealth of the State, while it would be of material service in 
 building up the permanent stock interest. But it is a question if the pas- 
 sage of such a law would not result in the establishment of a few immense 
 ranches, to the exclusion of the large proportion of small cattle-growers 
 now holding the ground by the right of occupancy. 
 
 The grasses on the Plains are mainly of three kinds : the gamma-grass, 
 growing about ten inches high, in a single round stock, with two oblong 
 heads at the top of it ; then comes the buffalo-grass, growing about four 
 inches high, which is curly in its character and lies close to the ground ; 
 then there is what is called bunch-grass, which keeps green at the roots 
 nearly all winter. On these cattle and sheep subsist the year roimd, and 
 grow fat. 
 
 The five leading counties of the State wherein cattle predominate are 
 Weld and Arapahoe in Northern, and Bent, Elbert, and Pueblo in 
 Southern Colorado. The number returned last jeat was 502,293. 
 
 The counties returning the largest number of sheep are Weld, Larimer, 
 and Arapahoe in the north, and El Paso, Huerfano, Las Animas, Conejos, 
 Bent, and Pueblo in the south. The number returned last year was 
 779,991. 
 
 But few horses, comparatively, are raised in the State, 61,506 being 
 reported altogether; the five counties having the largest number are 
 Weld, Arapahoe, El Paso, Larimer, and Boulder. 
 
 The assessment returns of live-stock for some counties are believed to 
 be far too low to give any correct idea of the extent of this industry. It 
 
136 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 is believed by competent judges that there are nearly nine hundred thou- 
 sand hdad of cattle and two million sheep in the State, and that the total 
 value of the live-stock upon the range will foot up $15,000,000. 
 
 The shipment of cattle out of the State has reached over one hundred 
 thousand head yearly, and at an average price of twenty-five dollars per 
 head it will be seen that Colorado realizes no inconsiderable income from 
 this source, it footing up two million five hundred thousand dollars, while 
 the amount realized from the sale of tallow and hides and the dairy prod- 
 ucts adds one million more to these figures. The quality of cattle is 
 constantly improving, there having been introduced within the last few 
 years a large number of short-horns, Herefords, Jerseys, and Devons. 
 
 A State Board of Cattle Inspection Commissioners is provided for by 
 statute. There are two State Stock Associations, holding annual sessions. 
 In the spring occurs the " round-up," when all the cattle spread over the 
 various grazing-ytracts of country are driven together in one vast herd, 
 and, with their increase, separated and driven to their respective ranges 
 by their various owners. These "round-ups" cover sixteen districts, 
 and are governed by well-established rules and regulations. 
 
 The growth of the sheep interest has been uniform and rapid. Ten 
 years ago there were not twenty thousand in the State ; now there are two 
 million, and the industry is increasing eaxjh year both in quantity and (by 
 the introduction of thoroughbred Merinos) quality. The wool-clip of 
 last year was over 5,500,000 pounds, valued at $1,400,000. 
 
 Sheep-raising is very profitable. The estimates of outlay and profit 
 on sheep-farming for three years can be easily given from the actual ex- 
 perience of those engaged in the business : 
 
 Outlay. — One thousand sheep, twenty rams, wagon-team, harness, ranche, 
 house, corral, herders' wages, and provisions : , 
 
 First year, $4660; second year, $1225; third year, $2050; total, 
 $7935. 
 
 Profits. — From the wool : 
 
 First year, $1790; second year, $2710; third year, $3940; total, 
 $8640. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the proceeds from the sale of wool more 
 than cover the first cost of the sheep and the herding outfit and expenses, 
 leaving a balance in favor of the raiser of $705. At the end of the 
 three years he has therefore his entire flock in hand, numbering 4200, 
 free of cost. The value of these may be set down at $2.50 per head, or 
 $10,000, while his ranche, corral, and team, worth about $1000, are still 
 to be taken into consideration. This shows a profit of over two hundred 
 
COLORADO. 137 
 
 per cent, upon his original investment, and the next two or three years 
 the ratio of percentage will increase. 
 
 One man can attend to from one thousand to two thousand sheep with 
 ease, except at lambing-time, when the services of two men are required 
 for one month. Those who intend to enter this business, however, are 
 advised to go cautiously at first. Learn the ways of the country and the 
 methods of caring for sheep requisite for success by engaging with those 
 who have had experience for at least one season. The knowledge thus 
 gained will be of incalculable value. A careful selection of land for a 
 range is necessary ; some sheep-men have two ranges — one for summer, 
 on the plains, and one for winter, within the shelter of the foot-hills. 
 Good sheep in the start pay better than a poor grade. A close attention 
 to business will enable even those who are novices at it to build up a 
 respecta;ble fortune in a very few years by sheep-raising. 
 
 In this connection a few words about dairying may not be out of place. 
 For this industry Colorado presents many excellent advantages. The 
 native grass is rich and nutritious ; the water is pure, abundant, and cold ; 
 the soil produces in greatest profusion all kinds of roots adapted for 
 winter-feed for new milch cows. All these are items which the dairy- 
 farmer will readily recognize as important factors in an industry for the 
 products of which there is a constant home-market, where butter brings 
 a good price. The demand for this article has always been greater than the 
 supply, the price ranging from twenty-fi.ve to forty-five cents. 
 
 We give in this connection a demonstration of what dairymen can do 
 in Colorado, and of the profit there is in the business, from figures kept 
 by one engaged in it : 
 
 Twenty cows from January 1st to December 1st yielded 2640 pounds 
 of butter, or an average of 132 pounds to the cow, which, selling at 30 
 cents — a low average price — gave a total of $792, or an average of 
 $39.60 per cow for the season. In addition, the .calVes brought $5 each, 
 making the total from each cow $45.60. The expenses figured up as 
 follows : help, $300 ; salt, $20 ; hay, $80 ; bran and feed, $20 ; total, 
 $420 — leaving a balance of $372 profit at the end of the season, or 
 $18.60 per cow. 
 
 There are excellent locations for dairying on the Divide south of Denver 
 and within the first range of mountains, from ten to twenty miles from 
 the Plains. These localities are small valleys or parks, varying in size 
 from twenty to two hundred acres, surrounded by mountains, full of 
 beautiful streams of water. Pine, cottonwood, and willows furnish timber 
 and shade, while in the valleys considerable hay can be cut and stored for 
 
138 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 winter use. Here the grass is rich and sweet, even far up the mountain- 
 slopes, and usually so little snow falls that pasturage can be had almost 
 every day in the year. Some of these parks are immediately connected 
 with others, making a series of valleys where a few families form a 
 pleasant neighborhood and live in rural quiet and prosperity 
 
 TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 
 
 The cities of Denver and Leadville being described under separate 
 headings, we now group together brief descriptive sketches of some of the 
 other principal towns and villages of the State, following the lines of 
 railway : 
 
 Golden is the county-seat of Jefferson county and the point of junc- 
 tion of the broad- and narrow-gauge divisions of the Colorado Central 
 Railroad ; population, about 3000. This is a manufacturing and coal- 
 mining centre, and is one of the oldest and most prosperous of the cities of 
 Colorado. It was founded in 1859 by gulch-miners, and was at one time 
 the rival of Denver and the capital of the State. It lies on Clear Creek, 
 where a rapid stream, with a fall of sixty feet to the mile, gives the town 
 an immense water-power. Extensive smelting-works have been erected 
 in the valley adjoining the town, and the advantages for manufacturing 
 industries at this point are numerous. Golden is iifteen miles west of 
 Denver, and has an elevation of 5882 feet. The State School of Miues 
 is located here. Two weekly journals, the Transcript and Globe, are pub- 
 lished. Its location is somewhat remarkable for its surroundings, being 
 hemmed in on all sides by mountains, except, at the opening made/ by 
 the debouching of Clear Creek from the foot-hills on its way to the Plains. 
 
 Idaho Springs is a point of interest as a popular summer resort, 
 where the hot springs annually attract a large number of invalids, while 
 the beauty of the canon draws thither tourists from all directions. The 
 springs vary in temperature from 60° to 110°. The Iris, an excellent 
 local journal, is published weekly. 
 
 Georgetown is the principal town and the county-seat of Clear Creek 
 county, lying at the very base of the IV&in Range. It was founded in 
 1860, is surrounded by lofty mountains ribbed with silver-veins, and has 
 a population of 2500. It boasts of waterworks, a fire department, five 
 churches, two newspapers — the Miner and the Courier — ^two banks, and 
 business-houses equal to any town of its size in the State. There are 
 reduction-works, concentrating-mills, sampling and ore-buying establish- 
 ments, all in active operation. Mining is carried on very extensively in 
 the immediate neighborhood. Near by lies the celebrated Green Lake, a 
 
COLORADO. 139 
 
 ■very attractive spot for tourists and sportsmen, while Gray's and Irving's 
 Peaks tower above it. The elevation of the town is 8452 feet. 
 
 Black Hawk was first, settled as a mining-camp in 1859, and the 
 present town is built irregularly along the gulches and against the moun- 
 tain-sides. Its appearance, therefore, as viewed from one of the adjoin- 
 ing hills, is very peculiar. The principal industries of the place are 
 gold-mining and milling and reducing ores. Some of the oldest and best- 
 developed gold- and silver-mines of the State are in the immediate 
 vicinity, making Black Hawk a busy, prosperous town of about 1000 
 inhabitants. It has one weekly journal, the Post. Altitude, 7955 feet. 
 
 Central City is the business-centre of the gold-mining districts of 
 Gilpin county, its principal city and the county-seat. ' The streets are 
 narrow, steep, and rugged, the result of the peculiar conformation of the 
 ground ; they run on each side of the gulches and on the slopes of the 
 surrounding mountains. It is a terminus of the narrow-gauge system of 
 the Colorado branch .of the Union Pacific Railroad, Georgetown being the 
 other, has a population of 2000, and supports an excellent daily paper, 
 the Register- Call. Distance from Denver, 40 miles. 
 
 Louisville. — From Golden the broad-gauge track extends northward, 
 passing the town of Louisville, built within the last two years. In its 
 neighborhood is the Welch mine, yielding the best coal found in Northern 
 Colorado, and giving employment to a large number of people. Popula- 
 tion, 500. 
 
 BotTLDER is the principal town and the county-seat of Boulder county, 
 and is located in a beautiful valley close to the foot-hills. In earlier 
 years it was the head-quarters of an extensive mining district, and is still 
 prominent in this respect. Its site and surroundings, its manufacturing 
 "advantages, the mineral and agricultural wealth of the county, will yet 
 place Boulder in the front rank of thriving cities. Its coal-mines are no 
 unimportant factor in its elements of prosperity. Boulder Cafion (de- 
 scribed elsewhere) is unexcelled in the State for the weird grandeur of its 
 scenery. The State University is located here. There are two banks, six 
 churches, three newspapers, and an excellent graded school employing 
 eight teachers. Population, about 2000. Elevation, 5536 feet. 
 
 LoNGMONT. — Continuing along the line of the railway, fourteen miles 
 north of Boulder we come to the town of Longmont, located in the very 
 centre of the agricultural portion of Northern Colorado. It is not a large 
 town, but it is an exceedingly prosperous one, being surrounded on all 
 sides for a distance of from seven to twelve miles with cultivated farms. 
 It was settled by a colony in 1872, and relies entirely for its business 
 
140 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 upon its agricultural surroundings. Lying on tJie north bank of the St. 
 Vrain, it has a beautiful location, with Long's Peak, from which it was 
 named, looming in the distance. The road to Estes Peak, now attract- 
 ing attention as a summer resort, is from this point. When a system of 
 waterworks, now projected, is established, Longmont will become one of 
 the most pleasant country towns in the State. 
 
 LovELAND lies seventeen miles north, on the bank of the Big Thomp- 
 son. This town is of recent growth, but bids fair to be the centre of a 
 thriving and industrious farming community. 
 
 FoET Collins is the county-seat of Larimer county, and, located as 
 it is near the foot-hills, obtains, in addition to the trade of the extensive 
 farming settlements lying all around it, the entire trade of the mountain- 
 districts directly west of it. The road to North Park leads from this 
 point. The State Agricultural College is located on 240 acres of land 
 just south of the town. A splendid brick schoolhouse marks the intel- 
 ligence of the community. Within the last year or two the town has 
 grown rapidly, and bids fair to become the largest in that section. 
 
 Greeley is a town known all over the Union as the one founded by 
 Horace Greeley, in connection with N. C. Meeker, in 1870, at which 
 time several hundred families left the Eastern States to establish in the 
 West a temperance settlement. At first, many things conspired to dis- 
 courage the colonists, and perhaps four-fifths of the original ones left the 
 place and country in disgust. But now, ten years after its settlement, a 
 thriving town of 2000 inhabitants attests the wisdom of its founders. 
 The streets are of generous breadth, lined with shade trees. The inhab- 
 itants are, as a class, very intelligent. A magnificent school-building was 
 erected six years ago. A canal about forty miles long furnishes water for 
 sixty thousand acres of land enclosed in a common fence. Farming in 
 this neighborhood is the occupation of three-fourths of the people, and 
 the wheat-crop raised each year is about one-fifth of what is raised in the 
 State. Two banks, two newspapers, and churches of all denominations 
 are here and thriving, indicating that the society is of the best in the 
 State. The science of farming is better understood and practised here 
 than anywhere else in Colorado. Greeley is on the line of the Denver 
 Pacific Railway, fifty miles south of Cheyenne. 
 
 Evans lies south of Greeley, four miles away. It is on the north 
 side of the South Platte River, and boasts an enterprising and thrifty 
 community. Considerable farming is done on the lands lying south of 
 the stream, but there is room for more, as water is abundant. A colony 
 settled here in 1872, and though not as successful as some others, still the 
 
COLORADO. 141 
 
 result is gratifying, as there is a pleasant little settlement of perhaps 500 
 people, with a newspaper, schools, churches, flouring-mill, and stores of 
 all kinds. 
 
 Erie is a coal-mining town in the centre of the coal-producing districts, 
 and is reached by the Boulder Yalley Eailroad, branching off at Brighton, 
 a station on the Denver Pacific. There are five extensive coal-banks in 
 the neighborhood, giving employment to a large number of men. Some 
 farming is done in the vicinity. Population, about 500. 
 
 Platteville was originally founded by the Platte River Colony in 
 1873, but has not developed much. It is pleasantly located, however, 
 and surrounded by excellent agricultural land. It has a population of 
 200. It is a station on the Denver Pacific, about 35 miles from Denver. 
 
 Littleton is the first principal station on the Denver and Rio Grande 
 Railway, and is 10 miles south of Denver. Pleasantly located on the 
 east bank of the Platte River, it will eventually become a prosperous 
 suburb of the capital, as both the Denver and Rio Grande and the Den- 
 ver and South Park Railways pass by it. 
 
 Castle Rock is the county-seat of Douglas county, and is beginning 
 to be famous for its excellent building-stone, which is extensively used in 
 Denver and elsewhere. It has not a very large population ; settlements 
 in the vicinity are scattered, but still it supports a newspaper, school, 
 churches, and a number of stores. 
 
 Monument lies about 20 miles north of Colorado Springs, just over 
 the crest of the Divide, and is the centre of a rapidly-growing district. 
 It draws the trade of a section of country stretching east over twenty 
 miles, where farming can be carried on without irrigation. There is also 
 a good dairying district in the neighborhood, for, though streams are few 
 and scanty, yet an abundance of springs that never run dry give it an 
 advantage in this respect over other portions of the State. 
 
 CoLOEADO Springs is the Saratoga of the "West. Founded in 1871 
 under the auspices of the railway company, it soon came into prominence 
 as a favorite resort for invalids, while its close proximity to Monument 
 Park, the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Manitou, Pike's Peak, Chey- 
 enne £!anon, and other attractive points soon made it a place toward which 
 tourists from all parts of the East tended. The streets and avenues are 
 broad, and lined with trees of uniform size planted by the town company 
 in the early days of its organization ; these have now grown to a large size, 
 and make the city look like a forest during the summer season. Outside 
 of Denver, it has the handsomest residences of any town in the State, 
 and is attracting to it the wealthy and influential classes to such a degree 
 
142 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 that it bids fair to become, socially and intellectually, the most desirable 
 residence-city in Colorado. Waterworlts and gasworks give quite a 
 metropolitan tone to it. Business is good, and constantly increasing 
 in volume. The population is set . down at 6000, but it is difficult to 
 establish it definitely, as it ha.s, and always will have, a shifting popu- 
 lation, drawn to it by the natural advantages of the town for invalids 
 and pleasure-seekers. An irrigating-canal supplies extensive tracts of 
 land with water for gardening purposes, but no large breadths of farm- 
 ing-lands can ever be cultivated in the immediate vicinity, as the waters 
 of the Fontaine-qui-Bouille are not of sufficient volume to warrant the 
 construction of any large canal. An excellent daily journal, the Gazette, 
 is published here, and one weekly. Colorado College, a Congrega- 
 tional institution, is located here, and has been liberally endowed. A 
 stone schoolhouse was early erected, but three buildings are now required 
 for the educational needs of the residents. The State Deaf and Dumb 
 Institution is located just east of the town, on rising ground commanding 
 a beautiful view of the mountains. Colorado Springs can be considered 
 the third city in size in the State, but in proportion to its population 
 it does not fall behind Denver in social position. 
 
 Pueblo, the principal town and the county-seat of Pueblo county, is 
 located in the valley of the Arkansas, near the confluence of that stream 
 with the Fontaine-qui-Bouille. It is surrounded with good grazing-lands 
 and many hundred square miles of fertile agricultural land, but the un- 
 certainty of the current and the shifting sands that constantly wash into 
 it make large canals somewhat expensive to keep in good working order. 
 Originally, Pueblo was quite a distributing-point for the South and West, 
 and a rendezvoas for the various stage-lines running in these directions ; 
 but the advent of the railroads changed these, and it is now something of 
 a railway-town, it being the terminus of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 
 F6 and a highway for the Denver and Rio Grande, which latter also has 
 a branch road running from it to Caflon City, 35 miles west. An excel- 
 lent daily newspaper is published here, also a weekly ; the town is well 
 supplied with schools, churches, public buildings, and is the seat of the 
 Insane Asylum of the State. 
 
 CaSon City is the county-seat of Fremont county, and boasts a popu- 
 lation of 1200, with banks, newspaper, churches, and schools. The State 
 Penitentiary is located here, built of granite quarried from the adjoining 
 hills. The town is located just where the Arkansas leaves the foot-hills, 
 boasts of mineral springs, both hot and cold, and undeniably possesses 
 some superior natural advantages. There are some singularly beautiful 
 
COLORADO. 143 
 
 cafions near by, while the Royal Gorge is but a few miles distant, and is 
 soon to be traversed by the iron horse as it steams en route to the great 
 carbonate city of Leadville. (These cafions are mentioned elsewhere.) 
 Near Caflon City considerable attention has been paid to fruit-culture, 
 and the results have been gratifying in the extreme. Between Caflon 
 City and Pueblo, a distance of 35 miles, some farming- is carried on. The 
 city has advantages that cannot fail to ensure it a prosperous growth, 
 
 Trinidad. — This town is situated near the base of a spur of the 
 Rocky Mountains, a few miles from Raton Peak ; it lies on the Las 
 Animas River, a stream whose valley, about 150 miles in length, em- 
 braces some of the most fertile lands in Colorado. Inexhaustible beds 
 of coal are in the immediate vicinity, and hundreds of ovens are engaged 
 in making coke, the demand for which is greater than can be supplied. 
 Copper and iron ores have been discovered in the neighborhood, while 
 the plains east of the town are covered with cattle. In fact, Las Animas 
 county, of which it is the seat, is fast coming to the front as the leading 
 stock-county of the State. The town has had the New Mexican trade to 
 a large extent of late years. Perhaps one-quarter of the people are 
 Mexicans in a population of 2000. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 
 F6 road reaches the town from the east, and the Denver and Rio Grande 
 from the north. Its growth within the last few years has been very 
 rapid and healthy, and Trinidad, though almost on the southern line 
 of the boundary of the State, being only 14 miles from the New Mexican 
 line, has a promising future before it. The Raton Pass, aptly denom- 
 inated the gateway to New Mexico, is but 15 miles from the town. It 
 supports two daily newspapers, schools, churches, and other adjuncts of 
 civilized society. 
 
 BuENA Vista was founded only last year, but its peculiar location has 
 already brought it into prominence, and it seems likely to be a thriving 
 town. It rests in the delta formed by Cottonwood Creek at its junction 
 with the Arkansas River, and the site i^ pronounced to be one of the 
 finest in the State. Its nearness to Leadville, being only about 35 miles 
 from that city, makes it a place where the business-men of that populous 
 but unhealthy city could easily reside, now that railroad communication 
 is to be established between the two places. Near by are the famous Cot- 
 tonwood Springs, becoming known as a resort for invalids troubled with 
 rheumatism. There is said to be a large body of land suitable for agri- 
 cultural purposes in the neighborhood, but the town is more likely to 
 become celebrated as a great watering-place, and may yet rival Colorado 
 Springs in attractions. 
 
144 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Alamosa. — This town has been for two or three years the south-west- 
 ern terminus of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, and has grown 
 into some importance as the point from which to reach Del Norte, Silver- 
 ton, Ouray, and the San Juan country. It has a population of about 
 800. Some large forwarding-houses are established here, and an exten- 
 sive trade is carried on with the settlements west and south of it. It is 
 beautifully laid out on the west bank of the Rio Grande del Norte, and 
 is in the centre of San Luis Park. The town is entirely surrounded 
 with majestic mountain-ranges, and presents a very attractive appearance. 
 Overlooking the site rises Sierra Blanca, its snow-crowned crest stretch- 
 ing skyward to an altitude of 14,472 feet. Its snowy mantle is peren- 
 nial, and its lofty crest, like the pyramids of the Egyptian dynasties, is 
 gilded at each sunrise with the first flushing touches of the coming morn. 
 There are many points contiguous to Alamosa that will yet tempt the 
 artist to reproduce them. The extension of the railroad south to Conejos 
 may take away most of the southern trade from the town, but it will 
 still be the main distributing-point for the mining districts to the west 
 of it. The Independent is a sprightly local paper, published weekly. 
 
 Saguache is the county-seat of Saguache county, and lies in the 
 north-west corner of San Luis Park. It is the business-centre of a 
 large and constantly-increasing agricultural and live-stock region, and 
 was first settled in 1874. It has a population of 500, and while its growth 
 has not been as noticeable as that of towns in mining districts, still it has 
 been steady and the business transacted is of a substantial nature. Lead- 
 ville has proven a very profitable market for all those engaged in pur- 
 suits connected with the soil, and the impetus thus given to the industries 
 of Saguache is not now likely to retrograde. One weekly journal, the 
 Chronicle, is published, while the town has the usual supply of chiurches 
 and schools. 
 
 SiLVEETON is the county-seat of San Juan county, and is a growing 
 and prosperous town. Lofty mountains overhang the lovely little park 
 in which the town is located, and in these lie hidden numberless silver- 
 veins of varying richness. The great depth of the snow in winter makes 
 tlie approaches to this town almost impassable for several months in the 
 year, hence it labors under great disadvantages. The elevation, too, is 
 somewhat high, being 9400 feet. In summer coaches connect it with 
 Lake City and the outside world. 
 
 Silver Cliff, — This town is hardly two years old, but has sprung to 
 a sudden prominence in the mining history of the State that promises to 
 be enduring. It is located on the eastern slope of Wet Mountain Val- 
 
COLORADO. 145 
 
 ley. Two daily papers are already published here, and the fame of the 
 mines is likely to make the town one of the most important among the 
 many that are rising into prominence in the mineral-bearing sections of 
 the State. It is 30 miles from Cafion City, mth. which point it makes 
 daily connection by coach. Mills of various kinds have been erected, 
 and the undoubted richness of the mines in the vicinity- will ensure a 
 steady development of business. 
 
 Lake City is the county-seat of Hinsdale, and the principal town in 
 it.' It is one of the most promising towns in the San Juan country, At 
 present it does not control the trade it had in 1876 and 1877, before the 
 discovery of carbonates, at which time it was the distributing-point for 
 the Sierra country, as San Juan was called ; but it can look forward en- 
 couragingly to the future, when attention will be again drawn to the in- 
 exhaustible fissure-;y^eins that rib the mountains and indicate the untold 
 wealth that lies in them. It is surrounded by 'these, and has a situation 
 bordering on the wildly picturesque. 
 
 Del Noete. — This town lies along the banks of the Rio Grande 
 River, and is the county-seat of Rio Grande county and the entrance- 
 way to the mines of San Juan, The gold-mining excitement of 1874 
 created it, and it has now a population of about 1200, sustains a bank, a 
 weekly journal, churches, schools, many large stores and warehoiises. It 
 is 34 miles from railway communication, its nearest point being Alamosa. 
 While not at present presenting any prominence among the towns of the 
 State, it may be said to enjoy a present fair share of prosperity, with an 
 assured future before it when the San Juan mines are worked. 
 
 LBADVILLE AND THE ADJACENT CAMPS. 
 
 ■ Three years ago Leadville had no existence. It is now a city of giant 
 proportions, and challenges the world to produce its superior in all that 
 embodies the features of present wealth and future greatness. It lies 
 under the deep shadows of the continental Divide, a very Golconda of 
 riches within the hills that encircle it, clothed with the majesty of a 
 metropolis, and inhabited by a people active in all the industries con- 
 nected with professional and commercial life. 
 
 To a newcomer, this city, the creation of three years, preseiits . a fresh 
 and startling aspect when compared with the old-established cities whose 
 position is the result of decades of growth. Fifty thousand people where 
 but a short time ago there were not fifty is an indication of the strength 
 of that thirst for gold that first sent Coronado in search of the Seven 
 Cities of Cibola in the country to the south of the Carbonate Camp,, and 
 
 10 
 
146 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 that has in our day gathered together the people of all nations and coun- 
 tries, all professions and trades, of all ages and conditions. The reported 
 richness of the camp took them in by hundreds daily last year in all 
 manner of conveyances and by Nature's own method of transportation. 
 Many sought for wealth in a day, and, finding it not, left for other fields. 
 But those who remained in more or less measure of success have had 
 their persistence crowned with the reward of well-doing. Hardly a 
 week passes, even now, without heralding the discovery of new mines 
 of fabulous value, while the possibilities of the future are almost suf- 
 ficient to turn the brain of the most clear and cool-headed of mankind. 
 One hundred and seventy-five producing mines, and thousands more 
 possessing good prospects, are a base of calculation for the growth of 
 Leadville that no other place in history has ever presented. 
 
 The man who put up the first shop in the town,^on Chestnut street, 
 refused to give one hundred dollars for it when the owner of the lot on 
 which the shop stood demanded that amount. Within ninety days he 
 saw the same lot sold for three thousand dollars. Hundreds, like 
 him, have hesitated, and lost small fortunes by their hesitation. High 
 as are the figures asked now for business and residence lots in choice 
 locations, these prices are more likely to advance than recede. But the 
 era of wild speculation has passed away, and real-estate transactions are 
 on a solid basis. Fortunes are y6t to be made, but capital will be re- 
 quired in larger amounts than heretofore. 
 
 The climate of Leadville cannot be said to be one conducive to the 
 restoration or preservation of health. It is in a region of altitude where 
 vegetation is limited, the air of an extreme rarity and full of the delete- 
 rious vapors from a score or more of smelting and other works located 
 in the very heart of the city. The prevailing diseases are pneumonia, 
 pleurisy, diphtheria, cardiac affections, erysipelas, and bronchitis. Acute 
 rheumatism also prevails, while lead-poisoning is frequent among those 
 employed in the smelting-works. The sanitary condition of the city is 
 yet imperfect, and prejudicial to health. There is no system of sewerage, 
 and the emanations from the smelting-works fill the atmosphere with 
 sulphurous fumes and carbonic-acid gases. A great deal of sickness, 
 however, is the result of exposure and imprudence or ignorance on the 
 part of newcomers. The sudden entrance into a higher altitude always 
 affects those who are not acclimated. Care must be taken to guard the 
 body against the sudden changes of the weather. Heavy woollen under- 
 garm'ents are an absolute necessity in summer as well as winter, as the 
 setting of the sun is always followed by a marked change in the ther- 
 
COLORADO. 147 
 
 mometer. All exposures and imprudences are to be avoided, and what 
 might at a lower altitude be a simple cold, not needing any care or atten- 
 tion, in Leadville will speedily develop into a serious case unless prompt- 
 ly attended to. It does not get well of itself, as elsewhere. A proper 
 sanitary provision will ultimately remedy some of the evils here men- 
 tioned : a careful attention to hygienic laws on the part of those who 
 reside there will tend to decrease the number of cases of sickness, and 
 the time may come when Leadville will enjoy what it certainly does not 
 do now — a good reputation as a healthy city. 
 
 The altitude is ten thousand two hundred feet above the level of the 
 sea, and. the city is located on a broad plateau of land sloping toward the 
 Arkansas Valley, and is surrounded by towering mountain-ranges. Its 
 supply of water is brought frOm a distance by means of ditches and pipes, 
 while an immense reservoir has been built near by to hold a reserve. 
 The water is pure, wholesome, ample, and never-failing. The winters 
 are severe and long, while even in summer the nights are cold. Hotel 
 accommodations range from one to four dollars per day. Board in pri- 
 vate houses is ten dollars per week. Rents are high, close to business- 
 streets averaging twenty dollars per month for a single room, running 
 down to five dollars on streets a few blocks away. There are some build- 
 ings yielding in two months' rent what it cost to build them. Lumber 
 is mostly used for building purposes. Native costs $30 ]per thousand feet ; 
 Chicago A stock, $125 ; Chicago .siding, $50 ; shingles, $7 ;- doors and 
 sash, from $2,50 to $5. Brick is scarce, bringing $20 per 1000. 
 
 The most successful prospectors are those who know comparatively 
 little about minerals. Pluck, perseverance, and a pick are the three 
 requisites to success, supplemented by pork and provender. The time 
 has gone by when men with small capital can enter into business success- 
 fully in Leadville. There are no Chinese ; they were once introduced 
 into the gulch, but immediately notified to leave, and since then have 
 not ventured to intrude. The articles needed by a prospector depend upon 
 his bringing-up and the length of his purse. As one has said, " If he is 
 well fixed " he may buy a burro for $25, and on the back of the diminu- 
 tive beast pack his tent, pick, shovel, sack of flour, side of bacon, blankets, 
 frying-pan, coffee-pot, sugar, coffee, and baking-powder, and start off on 
 his venture, comparatively " well fixed." A Sharp's rifle is a handy thing 
 to have — ^not because there is anything or anybody to fear, but elk, ante- 
 lope, and Utes are to be met with, and are excellent — when dead. Men 
 looking for soft positions as clerks and bookkeepers are not wanted. 
 Wages of carpenters, bricklayers, miners, and laborers range from five 
 
148 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 to two dollars per day. The working or building season is from May to 
 October. The town is full of professional men, but here, as elsewhere, 
 " there is always room at the top." Insurance rates rule high on account 
 of the buildings being mostly of wood. 
 
 The cost of living may be estimated from the following figures ; of 
 course there is a constant fluctuation, according to the season and the abun- 
 dance of stocks in the market, but a good idea can be had from the prices 
 given : Flour, $6.75 per 100 pounds ; potatoes, 6 cents a pound ; sugar, 
 15 ; lard, 15 ; coffee, 30 ; hams, 15 ; bacon, 15 ; tea, 50 cents to $1 ; salt, 
 5 cents ; syrup, $1.50 per gallon ; vinegar, 75 cents ; coal oil, $1 ; candles, 
 25 cents a pound ; corn meal, 5 cents ; Graham flour, 6 ; raisins, 20 ; cod- 
 fish, 12 ; mackerel, 10 ; dried fruits, from 10 to 45 ; beans, 8 ; barley, 12 ; 
 hominy, 10 ; crackers, 12 ; butter, 40 to 50 ; cheese, 25 ; soap, 8 ; eggs, 
 45 cents a dozen ; poultry, 25 cents a pound ; oat meal, .8 ; mincemeat, 
 20; dried beef, 20; white fish and mackerel, $2 per kitt; buckwheat 
 flour, 10 cents a pound ; New Orleans molasses, $1.25 a gallon ; canned 
 goods, from 25 to 75 cents a can; beef, 15 cents a pound; mutton, 15; 
 pork, 20 ; wild meats in their season, 20 ; prairie-chickens and grouse, 60 
 to 75 cents a pair; quail, 50 cents a pair; trout, 60 cents a pound; lake 
 and sea fish, 35 to 60. 
 
 A trade-report of over twenty million dollars in a city but three years 
 old, with a certainty that even this enormous amount does not include the 
 whole of the business, presents a statement challenging comparison with 
 any Eastern city of three times its size. We group together the different 
 branches of trade as proof positive of the marvellous enterprise displayed 
 by its business-men and of the activity exhibited in a city built ten thou- 
 sand feet above sea-level. If no other evidence was at hand of the num- 
 ber of people in and about Leadville, the fact that their necessities de- 
 manded such a wave of business would be amply sufficient : Assaying, 
 $45,000 ; auction, $260,000 ; barber-shops, $40,000 ; bakers and confec- 
 tioners, $310,000; books and stationery, $75,000; bath-houses, $35,000; 
 blacksmiths, $900,000; boots and shoes, $165,000; clothing, $650,000 ; 
 cigars and tobacco, $100,000; dry goods, $1,100,000; drugs, $235,000; 
 fruits, $25,000; furniture, $175,000; glass and queensware, $25,000; 
 groceries and provisions, $3,500,000; hats and furs, $45,000; harness 
 and saddles, $30,000 ; hardware, $750,000 ; hay, flour, feed, and grain, 
 $850,000; hotels, $450,000; jewelry, $210,000; lumber, $750,000; 
 livery and sales stables, $500,000 ; millinery and dressmaking, $75,000 ; 
 meat and vegetables, $600,000; manufactures, $400,000; tailors, $30,000; 
 commissions on mining and real estate, $600,000; news d6p6ts, $35,000; 
 
COLORADO. 149 
 
 oysters, fish, game, and eggs, $40,000 ; plumbing, $75,000 ; painting and 
 papering, $55,000; restaurants, $550,000; sewing-machines, $10,000; 
 loans, $4,500,000 ; surveying, $85,000 ; shingle-mills, $200,000 ; storage 
 and commissions, $125,000; theatres, $500,000; wood, $60,000 ; liquors, 
 $885,000. Grand total, $20,120,000. These figures tell their own story. 
 The " boom of business," as it is called, is no way lessening ; on the con- 
 trary, it is constantly increasing, and the business of the present year will 
 without doubt figure up $30,000,000. 
 
 The first public school organized in Leadville was in July, 1877. In 
 the fall of that year a Board of Education was formed and school-terms 
 were established. There is now a high school, two intermediate and four 
 primary schools, and the last census of the district showed 1230 scholars. 
 Nine teachers are employed, whose salaries range from $60 to $125 per 
 month. The school property of the district cost about $10,000. It may 
 be said that the educational interests of the city are in a fair way to be 
 properly taken care of, and that the rising generation will receive all the 
 advantages that a liberal-minded policy can give them. Already school 
 privileges are of a pronounced and healthy character, while there is no 
 doubt that the future will provide all that is necessary to render the 
 system more complete. 
 
 Six religious denominations have church buildings — ^the Presbyterians," 
 Methodists, Christians, Roman Catholics, Congregationalists, and Episco- 
 palians. The pastors of these churches are doing a good and effective work 
 in society, and are upheld by a large moral sentiment outside of their 
 respective organizations. 
 
 The Leadville bar compares favorably with that of any city of its size, 
 and has in its ranks men who are distinguished for legal lore and elo- 
 quence. Of course these representative men have come from every State 
 in the Union ; some have grown gray through long years of study and 
 experience in other fields, and now bring to their new arena of labor the 
 ripe fruits of years of toil. The field, like that in all mining camps, is 
 a lucrative one, on account of unsettled titles and conflicts of claims and 
 interests. Hence, while some mines make their legal owners rich, other 
 mines make the legal advisers of the owners feel that bonanzas are not 
 entirely confined to the glittering soil, but are also hidden in the " glitter- 
 ing generalities " of the law. 
 
 Leadville was incorporated as a city in March, 1879, and is run at an ex- 
 pense of nearly five thousand dollars per month. It has a mayor, aldermen, 
 clerk, solicitor, physician, engineer, surveyor, street commissioner, fire- 
 warden, marshal, and twenty policemen. The salaries of these city officials 
 
150 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 range from $250 per month down to $75. A revenue of nearly $200,000 
 is derived from licenses and fines, while the expenses are largely under that 
 amount ; hence the financial affairs of the corporation may be said to be in a 
 healthy condition. But it is a sad and suggestive comment upon the morals 
 of Leadville that the arrests from which fines are received average two 
 hundred per month, and the great majority of these are traced directly 
 to intemperance. An excellent fire department is in effective service. 
 Time and money were early given toward the organization and support 
 of a fire-service. There are one hook-and-ladder and two hose companies, 
 fully equipped and uniformed. There are fifty-nine hydrants or fire- 
 plugs through the streets, having a head or pressure of water sufficient 
 for all practical piu-poses, while the Gamewell system of fire-alarm tele- 
 graph is in active working order. So it will be seen that full provision 
 has been made against the spread of fire. 
 
 The mineral fields of Leadville cover many gulches and mountains, 
 and seem to defy all laws of mining deposits. The class is termed car- 
 bonates, which is defined by Webster as a salt formed by the union of 
 carbolic acid with a base. In working, the first thing found is the drift, 
 debris, boulders, and gravel that floods and fires have rounded into hills 
 and valleys. These go down a few feet, when a light-colored chalk 
 rock is met with ; this is porphyry, and overlies the iron, which is the 
 cap-rock of the ore, and is called the " contact." When iron is reached 
 and carbonates found beneath it, a mine has value, not before ; for some- 
 times no mineral is found beneath the iron. The bed-rock is usually 
 blue limestone of an undulating character, and the ore follows the uncer- 
 tain course of the wall, and is rich in the depressions and more barren 
 in the elevations. There are two theories extant as to the placement of 
 the carbonates in the position in which they are found. One is, that they 
 were washed into their resting-place ; the other, that internal commotion 
 forced the bed-rock and the cap-rock apart, using the carbonates as a lever, 
 where they cooled and remained. The weight of opinion is on the side, 
 of the last supposition. 
 
 Sixteen extensive establishments smelt the gold and silver output. These 
 have all been built since September, 1878. The entire value of bullion 
 produced by them for the year 1879 reached a grand total of $9,250,000, 
 the four principal smelters producing more than one-half of the above 
 amount. There are two sampling-works where ores are crushed, assayed, 
 and mill-runs made ; these do quite an extensive business in buying and 
 shipping ores to foreign smelting companies and base bullion for ship- 
 ment to the refineries, the value of the ore they ship out figuring over 
 
COLORADO. 151 
 
 one and a quarter million of dollars. Taking the amount of bullion-prod- 
 uct from the smelting-works, value of ore shipped out by sampling-works, 
 the amount sent by private parties to foreign smelters, and the gold-yield 
 from placer-mines, a grand total of nearly thirteen millions of dollars for 
 one year presents figures for the world to wonder at. 
 
 The amount of mining transfers during the last year gives a good in- 
 dication of the wave of prosperity now flowing over the camp. In this 
 estimate is omitted all transfers where the amount was less than five him- 
 dred dollars, but includes the sales of placer-mines as well. All sums 
 named in considerations which are known to be purely nominal have 
 not been taken into account. This grand total of mining transfers for 
 the year foots up to $35,350,940. 
 
 One of the most important mining tributaries to Leadville is that 
 comprised in the district known as the " Eagle River country," about 
 twenty-five miles north-west, where all the elements of a prosperous min- 
 ing district seem to be concentrated. Outside of the Carbonate Camp 
 proper there is no section of the mineral regions of Colorado, as far as 
 known, so full of genuine promise as this ; and its favorable showing, 
 and the rapidity with which energetic prospectors are developing a re- 
 gion running for fifteen miles up and down the Eagle River, entitle it 
 to rank among the best in the State. Before the year is over it may be 
 that Eagle City will be no mean rival to Leadville. 
 
 " The Gunnison country," as it is called, is reached from Leadville over 
 the Red Mountain Trail through Lake Creek Canon, one of the most 
 beautiful of all Colorado's caflons. This silver land beyond the Snowy 
 Range is likely to be the Mecca of thousands of prospectors during the 
 present season, as fabulous stories of its richness in the precious metals 
 have been circulated, and will have their due effect upon the minds of 
 those who seek Colorado for a fortune. In addition, the Elk Mountain 
 region, on the edge of the Ute Reservation, has given substantial indica- 
 tions of silver in true fissure-veins varying in length from one to two 
 feet. The town of Gothic has already been founded at this point, and 
 the country explored for miles around it. The only drawback to the im- 
 mediate development of this country is the Ute question. If this is sat- 
 isfactorily settled, the vast resources of this entirely undeveloped region 
 will be opened up, and we may expect that the Elk Mountains and the 
 reservation will become one of the most populous mining camps, and 
 possibly the richest, in the State. 
 
 Ruby Camp is in the Gunnison country, and was organized in June, 
 1879. It comprises the section embraced by Coal, Ohio, and Anthracite 
 
152 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Creeks and the North Fork of the Gunnison River, and may be said to 
 be a tributary to Leadville. Although young, the camp has an apparent- 
 ly bright future before it. The mines thus far discovered are all true 
 fissures, and where shafts have been sunk a high-grade mineral has been 
 reached, composed of brittle ruby, chloride, and black sulphurets of sil- 
 ver. Sometimes native and wire silver have been found. About fifty 
 mines have been more or less developed, but it is probable that the camp 
 during the present season will present a lively appearance, as saw-mills, 
 smelters, and roasters are to be taken into the district this spring. The 
 Denver and South Park Railway is pointing in this direction. It is said 
 that in addition to its mineral prospects there is a large deposit of bitu- 
 minous coal about ten miles distant, which excels even the Trinidad coal 
 for coking purposes. The main town in this district is named Silver 
 Gate, and is beautifully located. 
 
 Ten Mile is an important mining district about fifteen miles from 
 Leadville, on the western slope of the range, and is in a valley of the 
 same name lying about eleven hundred feet above the sea-level and from 
 three-fourths to one and a half miles wide. There are three towns, 
 named Kokomo, Carbonateville, and Ten-Mile City, in close proximity 
 to each other. The district has three smelters, and it is said shows more 
 mineral than Leadville did two years ago ; but capitalists have not 
 invested here as yet to any great extent, though there are scores of mines 
 giving abundant promise. The valley is said to be far more healthy 
 than Leadville, while it also possesses some of the most magnificent 
 scenery in the country in Ten-Mile Caflon, of which notice is made 
 elsewhere. 
 
 DENVEE. 
 
 In June, 1858, the first party of prospectors (from Georgia, led by 
 Green Russell) reached Cherry Creek. In September of the same year a 
 town was established on the present site of Denver, and called St. Charles. 
 In October a rival town, called Auraria, was located on the west side of 
 the creek. In November the Denver City Town Company was organ- 
 ized and the site of St. Charles occupied. Considerable rivalry existed 
 between the two towns until the year 1861, when Auraria began to lose 
 ground. 
 
 Early in 1859 a hotel, blacksmith-shop, bakery, and carpenter-shop 
 were erected, and in April the Rocky Mountain News was issued by Wil- 
 liam N. Byers & Co. In the same month a convention was held to form 
 a government for a State that was to be called Jefferson. In May a post- 
 
COLORADO. 153 
 
 'office was established. In June, Horace Greeley arrived by coach, en 
 route to California, and addressed the citizens of the town before visiting 
 the mines. In December the first mayor was elected, under a city char- 
 ter granted by the provisional Legislature. In October, O. J. Goldrick 
 opened the first school. By New Year's Day, 1860, Denver had two 
 hundred houses, while Auraria had almost twice that number, the com- 
 bined city census giving a population of over one thousand people, rep- 
 resenting all classes, creeds, and nationalities. 
 
 In April, 1860, the towns of Auraria and Denver were consolidated. 
 On the Fourth of July the patriotic pioneers celebrated the day in a 
 grove close by. The close of the year found about four thousand people 
 in the town, with three day schools, five churches, and three newspapers. 
 During the winter of 1860-61 a stampede was made by hundreds of the 
 inhabitants of Denver and the adjoining mining camps to the San Juan 
 Mountains, whose reported discoveries were shortly pronounced a hum- 
 bug. In April news of the rebellion reached Denver, and by August 
 recruiting was going on for the first regiment of volunteers. For the 
 next few years the rebellion, the big fire of 1863, and the Indian war of 
 1864 blockaded the route to the States, paralyzed the industries of the town, 
 and threatened danger in every direction. Dull times prevailed until 
 1866, when a reaction set in. In that year over three hundred new 
 buildings were erected, and the census showed a bond fide population of 
 four thousand, with perhaps half as many as transients. In 1867 a 
 Board of Trade was organized, and through its efforts the first attempt 
 at building a railroad to connect the embryo City of the Plains with 
 Cheyenne, and so obtain railway communication with the East and West, 
 was made, and by 1870 the project had been successfully carried out. 
 The Denver Pacific Railway reached the "bity, and it was no longer an 
 isolated point apart from civilization, but part and parcel of the great 
 overland highway from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. 
 
 Such is the brief epitome of the first eleven years of the history of 
 Denver, but it might be well to give some statistics in connection with 
 its commercial prosperity at that time, in order that its present position 
 may be the better placed in contrast. The place was well and solidly 
 built up, many of its banks, churches, public buildings, and principal 
 business-blocks comparing favorably with those of much older and larger 
 cities in the East. It contained at that time about fifteen hundred build- 
 ings, with a population of nine thousand. The sales of general mer- 
 chandise footed up $8,500,000 for the year, while coal, lumber, land sales 
 to new settlers, live-stock and beef, flour and the value of new buildings. 
 
154 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 increased the total to nearly twelve millions. The banks carried an aver- 
 age of $1,500,000 in deposits, and the shipment of bullion was nearly 
 $6,000,000. Four lines of railway were built or building, centring in 
 Denver — the Kansas Pacific, Denver Pacific, Colorado Central, and 
 Boulder Valley. The Denver and Rio Grande, leading southward, was 
 being graded, and the narrow-gauge system from Golden to the moun- 
 tains projected. One woollen-mill, two flouring-mills, an iron-foundry, 
 two planing-mills, a terra-cotta factory, a carriage-factory, several wagon- 
 factories, a turning-shop, and other industrial enterprises marked the prog- 
 ress the town was making in the department of manufactures. A branch 
 of the United States Mint was in operation, while a theatre gladdened the 
 pleasure-loving public with its nightly attractions. The business of the 
 town was on a solid basis, and the outlook exceedingly favorable. 
 
 From 1870 to the present time the growth of Denver has been steady, 
 while to-day the city enjoys the flood-tide of prosperity consequent upon 
 the rapid settling, up of the country. During the year 1879 the arrivals 
 averaged two thousand per week, filling the hotels to their utmost capacity 
 and taxing the ingenuity of landlords, while private houses for boarding 
 were filled to repletion. 
 
 To-day there is no more beautiful and attractive city than is Denver. 
 She has proven her title to the name of the " Queen City of the Plains," 
 and as a thriving trade-centre, great thoroughfare, and pleasure resort she 
 has become known all over the Union. For a hundred and fifty miles 
 the eye can take in the outlying foot-hills and the Snowy Range, forming 
 a landscape of whose never-ending beauty the eye cannot grow weary. 
 The streets are broad, solid, and cleanly, lined with massive business- 
 blocks, elegant residences, and cozy cottages, while shade trees and 
 lawns abound. ' 
 
 A review of the trade of Denver for the year 1879 will give some idea 
 of the advance during the last ten years. Twenty-six millions of dollars' 
 worth of business was done in the leading branches, while those not 
 enumerated will swell the figures up to thirty millions. The banking 
 business is a safe index to the growth and prosperity of a community. 
 Four national and One private bank, with a combined capital of $600,000, 
 show total deposits amounting to $5,875,665, and loans and discounts to 
 $2,721,125. The amount of exchange drawn was $36,500,000. The 
 building of the reduction-works at Argo within the last two years has 
 materially aided the growth of the city. Removed from Black Hawk 
 early in 1879, active operations have been carried on and a large amount 
 of bullion produced, amounting in gold, silver, and copper to $3,000,000. 
 
COLORADO. 155 
 
 Eeal-estate transfers have been unusually active of late, and an advance 
 in prices of nearly fifty per cent, has gladdened the hearts and filled the 
 purses of fortunate owners. The records of the Recorder's office show 
 transfers amounting to about two thousand in number, with a considera- 
 tion of nearly three million dollars. This is an excellent showing for one 
 year, but the present season will probably double it, both in the number 
 of transfers and amount of values, thereby proving the existence of a 
 healthy financial condition, the confidence of capitalists in the assured 
 growth of the city, and establishing beyond question the fact that it is 
 to be the largest and most important commercial centre between the 
 Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The number of buildings erected during the last year is without pre- 
 cedent in the history of the city. Yet the demand for them has far ex- 
 ceeded the supply, rapid as it has been, and there seems to be no likelihood 
 of any cessation of building operations during the present or the next few 
 years. Denver seems to possess peculiar attractions for those who are 
 making fortunes in the mining districts, and is yet to become famous as 
 the residence of a score or more of " bonanza kings," M'ho are putting 
 their surplus moneys into splendid business-blocks and superb private 
 residences. Probably five hundred new buildings were erected last year, 
 costing $2,250,000. Among the most prominent of these may be men- 
 tioned the Grand Hotel, costing $250,000 ; the Tabor Block, $180,000 
 Glenarm Hotel, $40,000 ; Twenty-fourth street public school, $24,000 
 Wentworth House, $30,000 ; Senator Hill's private residence, $20,000 
 Washington Terrace, $18,000. Scores of elegant residences, costing from 
 $3000 to $10,000, have been put up, while the number of tenement- 
 houses, containing from four to six rooms, has not been half equal to the 
 demand. It may be that for several years to come this remarkable 
 growth can be looked for, as there seems to be no diminution in the 
 arrival of strangers and no abatement in the influx of capital. 
 
 The street-railway system, of late years fully equal to the requirements 
 of business, is now hardly adequate. The number of ears put on has 
 been doubled during the year. There are only eight miles of road in 
 operation, but the widening of the area of residences, and their exten- 
 sion into the suburbs east and west and south, will necessitate new 
 branches to accommodate the needs of the residents of these points for 
 rapid transportation from their places of business to their homes. 
 
 During the year two telephone systems have been in operation, with 
 nearly a thousand connections. These lines reach out to the neighboring 
 towns of Golden, Central, Black Hawk, and other points. A consolida- 
 
156 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 tion of the two companies was made early in the present year, and they 
 are now practically under one management, doing a very efficient service 
 and coming more and more into popular favor. 
 
 The branch mint at Denver purchased over six hundred thousand dol- 
 lars' worth of the precious metal. It is believed that additional facilities 
 will shortly be provided for manipulating the minerals of the country. 
 
 The posf>-office business has doubled during the last year. There is 
 now a carrier service in operation. The money-order department issued 
 orders amounting to $325,000, and received from other offices $1,112,000. 
 It paid out on domestic and foreign orders $435,000, and remitted nearly 
 $1,000,000 to other points. In the registry department 12,000 letters 
 and packages were sent, and 16,500 received. The total expense of con- 
 ducting the office was about $21,000, while the receipts from the sale of 
 stamps and envelopes, box-rents, unpaid letters, and waste paper was 
 $82,000. 
 
 The city is supplied with water for fire, domestic, and manufacturing 
 purposes by the Denver Water Company, with works constructed on the 
 Holly system. Three million gallons were furnished in 1878, double 
 the quantity of last year, and the limits of the works thereby reached. But 
 new works, costing a quarter of a million of dollars, have been constructed, 
 a large reservoir or lake established a short distance from the corporate 
 limits, and in future the people are ensured an abundant supply of pure 
 water, the capacity of the new works being from six to eight million 
 gallons every twenty-four hours, supposed to be equal to the needs of a 
 city of seventy-five thousand inhabitants. Thirty miles of mains have 
 been laid, and more are being extended in directions where they are 
 needed. 
 
 The city government is composed of a mayor, clerk, treasurer, engineer, 
 chief of police, attorney, police justice, street commissioners, chief of fire 
 department, and twelve aldermen, two from each ward. The fire depart- 
 ment includes four fire and hose and two hook-and-ladder companies. 
 There are the county hospital and St. Vincent's and St. Joseph's Homes, in 
 charge of the Sisters of Charity. Three express companies have general 
 offices — the Kansas Pacific, Adams, and Leadville. The Western Union 
 Telegraph has its general Western office here. 
 
 Of newspapers and periodicals we enumerate the following : Daily. — 
 Rochy Mountain News, Tribune, JRepublioan, Post, Hotel Reporter, and 
 Times ; each of these issues a weekly edition. Weeldy. — Farmer, Hei'ald, 
 Journal, Mining Review, Financial Era, and Gazette- Advocate. Month- 
 ly. — The Antelope and The Colonist. 
 
COLORADO. 157 
 
 The churches of Denver are well sustained, and some of the edifices 
 are an adornment to the city. The pastors, as a rule, are faithful in the 
 performance of their duty ; some of them are quite talented and draw 
 " full houses " — if the term may be allowed — every Sabbath day. Two 
 services are generally held — one in the morning and one in the evening — 
 with Sabbath-school in the afternoon. Wednesday evening of each week 
 is devoted by all the denominations to a meeting for prayer. During the 
 annual week of prayer union services are generally held. Between the 
 pastors of the various churches a good feeling of harmony prevails. Each 
 in his own immediate circle finds his head, heart, and hands fully employed ; 
 hence sectarian squabbles are hardly known. The influence of the pas- 
 tors of the churches is felt on every hand in every kind of public enter- 
 prise having reform for its base. Especially in temperance-work have 
 they been active. They, aided by the Good Templars, inaugurated the 
 Blue Ribbon movement in the State three years ago, which has been so 
 effectual in the reformation of hundreds who are now sober and indus- 
 trious citizens. 
 
 The first preaching and praying ever done in the State of Colorado 
 was done in Denver as early in its history as December, 1859, when the 
 voice of one George Washington Fisher was heard preaching in the wil- 
 derness, and from that day onward religious privileges have not been 
 lacking for those who are so inclined ; and the proof that a large pro- 
 portion of the community is a church-going class is found in the twenty- 
 six churches and religious organizations that now exist in Denver. The 
 Baptists have three — Zion, First Baptist, and Antioch. The first and the 
 last of these are colored. The second is presided over by Rev. F. M. 
 Ellis, an eloquent divine. The Catholic element sustains St. Mary's 
 Cathedral, Church of the Sacred Heart, and St. Elizabeth's church. Two 
 are Congregational — ^the First and the Second. The Episcopalians have 
 four — St. John's, Trinity Memorial, Emmanuel, and All Saints'. There 
 are two Jewish — ^the Emmanuel and the Ohawi Emune. The Methodists 
 are numerically the strongest denomination in Denver. They sustain 
 seven churches, as follows: African Methodist Episcopal, California 
 Street Methodist, German Episcopal, Lawrence Street, M. E. Church 
 South, St. James, and Evans Mission Chapel. The Rev. Earl Cranston 
 is the bright and shining light of this branch of Zion. The Presbyterians 
 have three churches — the Central, St. Paul's, and Seventeenth Street. 
 Rev. H. C. Westwood, a distinguished divine lately from Philadelphia, 
 presides over the first, which has the most pretentious church-edifice in 
 the city. There are one Second Christian, one Reformed, one Unitarian 
 
158 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 church, and a railroad mission-school ; in this last named all the churches 
 are interested, and unite in sustaining it. 
 
 It will be seen that thus far the religious facilities have been ample for 
 the needs of the people ; but the rapid influx of population has filled all 
 the churches to overflowing, and either larger edifices must shortly be 
 built or new societies organized around which can crystallize the new- 
 comers who are making homes for themselves in the beautiful and attrac- 
 tive " City of the Plains." 
 
 Of secret and benevolent societies the following are in successful opera- 
 tion, earnestly working in their respective fields of labor : 
 
 Masonic. — Grand Lodge A. F. and A. M., with an annual session in 
 September; Grand Royal Arch Chapter; Grand Commandery K. T. ; 
 Denver, No. 5, A. F. and A. M. ; Union, No. 7, A. F. and A. M. ; Den- 
 ver Chapter, No. 2, E. A. M. ; Colorado Commandery, No. 1, K. T. ; 
 Pentalpha, No. 5, F. and A. A. ; Delta Lodge of Perfection, No. 1 ; 
 Mackay Chapter of Rose Croix, No. 1. 
 
 Knights of Pythias. — Colorado Lodge, No. 1 ; Damon, No. 2 ; the 
 Endowment Rank, K. of P. 
 
 Odd Fellows. — Grand Lodge, with annual session in October ; Union, 
 No. 1; Denver, No. 4; Germania, No. 14; Denver Encampment, No. 2; 
 Humboldt, No. 6 ; Arapahoe, No. 10 ; Colorado Degree Lodge, No. 1 ; 
 Samaritan Lodge, No. 5. 
 
 Champions of the Red Cross. — Pioneer Encampment, No. 1. 
 
 Good Templars. — Denver, No. 12; Harmony, No. 4; Happy Home, 
 No. 21. 
 
 Benevolent Societies. — Denver Lodge, No. 171, I. O. B. B. ; Denver 
 Lodge, No. 2, A. O. U. W. ; Standard Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W. ; Colo- 
 rado Lodge, Knights of Honor ; Gruetli Verein (Swiss) ; Skandia Bene- 
 ficial Socieiy ; Firemen's Relief Association ; St. Vincent de Paul Society; 
 Denver Irish Progressive Society; Ancient Order of Hibernians; St. 
 Joseph's Total Abstinence Society. 
 
 The school system of Denver is well established, thoroughly classified, 
 and under excellent superintendence. Eleven schools, including the high 
 school, are open, but cannot meet the demands upon them ; in several of 
 them sessions of half a day only are allowed to certain classes. But this 
 condition of things is not likely to last long. 
 
 A noticeable feature, establishing the recognition Denver has received 
 in the East and in England, is the introduction of companies controlling 
 large amounts of capital, which is used in developing the industries of tlie 
 country at large. Two years ago the advent of the Colorado Land and 
 
COLORADO. 159 
 
 Investment Company of London (limited) marked a new era in the finan- 
 cial history of Denver. Making the city its head-quarters, money was 
 loaned, especially throughout the farming section, at a rate fifty per cent, 
 lower than had prevailed at banking institutions and with private indi- 
 viduals. A drop of from twenty-four and eighteen per cent, to twelve 
 per cent, per annum made a vast difference to a large class of people on 
 whom grasshopper visitations had fallen heavily. The relief came at an 
 opportune season for these in the establishment of this new company. 
 
 The success attending this company has led to the establishment of 
 others, based on foreign capital, for the construction of canals, the sale of 
 lands under them, the erection of hotels, and other enterprises involving 
 the outlay of vast sums of money. The Weld and Larimer Irrigating 
 Canal in the northern part of the State is one of these, under the manage- 
 ment of the same parties interested in the loan company. This canal is 
 nearly finished, and will prove of incalculable benefit. 
 
 But a greater enterprise still, in the same line, has been inaugurated by 
 which Denver will be directly benefited, though the whole State will ulti- 
 mately feel its wholesome influence. This is the Platte Canal, by which 
 hundreds of thousands of acres in the immediate vicinity of Denver will 
 be thrown open to cultivation. The arable lauds of the country will be 
 increased twenty per cent, by this canal, and be capable of meeting the 
 tome demand for the products of the soil. A system of reservoirs in 
 connection with the, canals is contemplated, by which water running to 
 waste in seasons when no irrigation is going on will be stowed away, 
 to be drawn upon in emergencies. The effect of such an agricultural 
 development near Denver will give an impetus to its growth that as yet 
 cannot be realized to its fullest extent. The canal is now in course of 
 construction, and before the year 1881 closes will be completed. Denver 
 will derive immediate benefit while its construction is going on, but when 
 the lands are settled it will increase its business, its real-estate values, and 
 its importance in no small degree. 
 
 SOCIETY AND CHUECHES. 
 
 Everywhere in Colorado — the mining camps being no exception — good 
 society may be said to exist. Moral and religious teachings are observed 
 with the same strictness as in any of the established cities of the Eastern 
 States. Indeed, why should they not? The inhabitants of the State 
 have come from every part of the Union, bringing their culture, their 
 intelligence, their thrift, with them. While there is much that may be 
 denominated rude and uncouth on the general surface of society, there is 
 
160 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 an undercurrent that is strong and deep and ceaseless, for ever flowing 
 in channels that conserve society, elevate its tone, and lift it upon a plane 
 of civilization worthy the respect and recognition of the most reiined and 
 cultured minds in the Union. 
 
 It can no longer be said of society in Colorado that it is rude and 
 rough ; during the last ten years a great progress has been made in toning 
 down frontier traits, rounding the sharp angles of character, and mould- 
 ing the peculiarities of the adventurous classes who were first tempted 
 hither by a thirst for gold ; and now the rapid building of cities and 
 towns, the establishment upon a permanent basis of schools of learning 
 and religion, the accumulation of material wealth, and the constant acces- 
 sion made to the population by the wealthy, the cultured, the renowned 
 of other States, places Colorado on an equality with her older sisters in 
 respect to all the privileges that are peculiar to older and more densely 
 populated sections of the country. 
 
 It is not to be imagined, therefore, that Colorado is inhabited by a half- 
 civilized race of beings. All over the State are to be found communities 
 of orderly and ambitious citizens, around whom are clustered all the re- 
 fining influences of the family circle. In the cities and larger towns 
 entertainments, concerts, lectures, festivals, balls, and other amusements 
 are quite as frequent and as creditably managed as in other places of like 
 population. The public-school system will compare favorably with that 
 of any other State, and in addition to this there are, educational institu- 
 tions of an advanced character, now firmly established, at which thorough 
 and complete academical and collegiate courses can be pursued if desired. 
 Throughout the State all the religious denominations are well represented. 
 There is not a town, and indeed hardly a village, in the State that has not 
 its place of worship, and the sound of the church-going bell is as familiar 
 to the ear as it was in years gone by in valleys lying far away down the 
 slopes of the Prairies, among distant villages by the sides of the great 
 lakes or the still greater sea. There is no lack of religious privileges for 
 those who desire and take them into account as they canvass the possibil- 
 ities of a future home in the Great West. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL. 
 
 The public-school system is based upon that adopted by Illinois. The 
 people of Colorado have always been interested in the educational inter- 
 ests of the State, and there have been erected a number of large and ex- 
 pensive school-buildings that would do no discredit to towns three times 
 as large in more settled communities. 
 
A (iLLMl'SI'; (IF llKNVKIt, COLdRADO. 
 
COLORADO. 161 
 
 The schools are maintained by a direct tax, averaging three mills to the 
 dollar, on all the taxable property of the State, and by the proceeds of 
 the lease or sale of school-lands, while the residents of each school dis'' 
 trict have a right to levy taxes for special purposes within their own 
 jurisdiction. The fund arising from the leasing or sale of school-lands 
 thus far has not been large, but the rapid increase of population will ia 
 time make the revenue derived from this source quite a respectable sum, 
 and aid ia keeping at low figures the general tax, which by law has for 
 its minimum two mills on the dollar. 
 
 The school law makes it the duty of county superintendents to examine 
 all persons who present themselves at the quarterly examination, and to 
 grant certificates to such as are deemed worthy ; and it is further pro- 
 vided that no person shall be paid out of the public fund for teaching 
 unless such person holds a certificate of competency signed by the said 
 superintendent. A series of uniform questions has been prepared by 
 the State superintendent by order of the State Board of Education, and 
 three grades of certificates are issued, as follows : 
 
 Fiest-Gbade Certificate. — First Group. — Average, 90 per cent.; 
 no branch below 75 per cent. Second Group. — Average, 75 per cent. ; 
 no branch below 60 per cent. 
 
 Second-Gra.db Ceetificate. — First Group. — Average, 75 per cent. ; 
 no branch below 60 per cent. Second Group. — Average, 60 per cent. ; 
 no branch below 40 per cent. 
 
 Thikd-Gkade Cektificate. — First Group. — Average, 60 per cent. ; 
 no branch below 50 per cent. Second Gi-oup. — Average, 50 per cent. ; 
 no branch below 40 per cent. 
 
 The topics are divided into two groups, to -wit : First Group — Arith- 
 metic, United States history and Constitution, reading, orthography, gram- 
 mar, theory and practice, and geography. Second Group — Physiology 
 and laws of health, school law, botany, and other natural sciences. 
 
 The State law also provides that State diplomas of perpetual validity 
 may be issued by the State Board of Education to applicants who have 
 taught two years or more in this State with eminent success, and who 
 pass a satisfactory examination or who have received a diploma else- 
 where. 
 
 By the last biennial report of the State superintendent we find that the 
 number of persons in 1878 between the ages of six and twenty-one was 
 26,473, with an average percentage of enrollment of 63 ; number of 
 school districts in the State, 372 ; number of schoolhouses, 249 ; value 
 of schoolhouses and property, $474,771 ; number of male teachers, 226 ; 
 11 
 
162 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 number of female teachers, 341 ; average wages of male teachers, $49.90 
 per raonth — of female teachers, |46.95 ; average cost per month for each 
 pupil, $2.72. The table of wages shows a decrease of ten per cent, from 
 the preceding year, but it will be observed that the wages of male and 
 female teachers are nearer an equality than in many other States. When 
 the wages of female teachers in Massachusetts average one-half less than 
 male teachers, it is gratifying to note that more are employed than males, 
 showing that the sex is recognized as better instructors for the young. 
 
 As yet public-school libraries are few in number ; there are not over 
 four thousand volumes in the various libraries. 
 
 There is a State university located at Boulder, with a preparatory and 
 a normal department, the average age of the pupils, of whom one hun- 
 dred are in attendance, being eighteen years. In the preparatory departs 
 ment Greek, Latin, German, French, geometry, algebra, physics, and 
 chemistry are the branches taught ; in the normal department, geog- 
 raphy, arithmetic, English grammar. United States history, reading with 
 phonetic analysis, and spelling. The university is supported at an ex- 
 pense of about $15,000 per annum. 
 
 There is a college at Colorado Springs, where there are four courses of 
 instruction — ^for the degree of bachelor of arts, preparatory school, nor- 
 mal school, mining and metallurgy. This college was founded in 1874, 
 and is open to students of all denominations at a cost for tuition of $25 
 per year, so that the institution is practically free to all. There are four 
 terms in each year. 
 
 The State Agricultural College is located at Fort Collins. The lead- 
 ing object of this institution is to impart a thorough and practical know- 
 ledge of all those branches and sciences that pertain to agriculture and 
 the mechanic arts. Lectures on practical agriculture, weekly exercises in 
 English composition and declamation, contemporaneous history, lessons 
 in free-hand, industrial, and perspective drawing, are continued through- 
 out the entire course. The course embraces three terms of four years. 
 The calendar is made to conform to the necessities of an agricultural col- 
 lege. Its vacation is in winter, but this interval between the autumn and 
 spring terms is employed by the faculty in visiting and lecturing on 
 topics connected with their departments in various portions of the State. 
 Last winter a series of farmers' institutes was held with great success. 
 Tuition is free to all within the State. 
 
 There are a number of private institutions of learning at different 
 points through the State, so that it is to be said of Colorado that the 
 needs of the rising generation are recognized and liberally provided for, 
 
COLORADO. 
 
 163 
 
 considering the scattered nature of its settlements and the constant changes 
 going on within its borders. The progress in this direction made during 
 the last few years is extremely gratifying to the most ardent educational 
 enthusiasts. It is the boast of Denver that her public schools are equal 
 to the best in the country. 
 
PROSPECTING. 
 
 PROSPECTING is simply hunting for mineral — ^in this case one of 
 the precious metals — ^where the mineral lies in fissure-veins deeply- 
 imbedded in granite, gneissoid, or rock of like density. The work not only 
 requires muscle, courage, and patience, but a considerable knowledge of 
 geology and mineralogy. The prosjiector must have some idea of the 
 external indication of the presence of veins which may be hundreds of 
 feet below and thousands of feet distant from the point where the " blos- 
 som" is found. 
 
 First, the prospector seeks the " blossom " which indicates the presence 
 of the mineral, and then he next tries to find out where it comes from. 
 He examines carefully the topography of the country, turns over loose 
 stones, peers into and along beds of streams, and is perhaps at last re- 
 warded by finding the " blossom "-rock. He carefully turns it over. If 
 its edges are sharp and defined and the fracture evidently of recent date, 
 he is satisfied the vein is near at hand. If, on the contrary, the corners 
 are rounded and the fracture of remote date, he is satisfied it must have 
 travelled a considerable distance. In either case, he must hunt patiently, 
 and often for a long time, before he strikes the prize. 
 
 But prospecting at Leadville is quite another affair. The carbonate 
 mineral, instead of being found in vertical lines, held in the strong em- 
 brace of the solid rock, which must be drilled and blasted and tunnelled 
 before the mineral is reached, occupies a more nearly horizontal position, 
 varying with the dip of the surface. Up to the present time there are no 
 certain superficial evidences of the existence of the mineral. From the 
 day the first carbonate-mine was struck down to the present time the pro- 
 spector has worked in the dark until his spade struck the ore. Proximity 
 to a known body of ore is perhaps the only " guide." If a person gets a 
 claim near a mine in which mineral is known to exist, he has reasonable 
 as.surance of a valuable claim. And it being a determined fact that car- 
 bonate ore exists in large and paying quantities not only at Leadville, but 
 
 164 
 
PROSPECTING. 165 
 
 in varions directions for fifty miles around, the prospector who starts in 
 to-day has every advantage over those whose luck alone brought to light 
 the first carbonate ore in the Leadville district. 
 
 Pay ore is found at Leadville on Fryer, Carbonate, and Iron Hills, in 
 all the gulches above the timber-line, across the valley of the Arkansas, 
 at Oro, Malta, near the grass-roots and hundreds of feet below the surface. 
 The same conditions obtain at Ten Mile, Eagle Eiver, on Elk Mountains, 
 at Twin Lakes, beyond the Saguache, in the Gunnison country, at Chalk 
 Mountain, Tin Cup — shafts being sunk and new paying mines being con- 
 stantly found. If these facts mean anything, they mean that inasmuch 
 as the prospector who goes in now has the benefit of all who have gone 
 in before, and a knowledge of the great extent of the carbonate deposit 
 to guide him to the best location, he stands a better chance of speedy and 
 sure success than he would have stood a year ago. The pioneers have 
 " blazed " the way, and it is an easy matter for any man with provisions 
 for a few months, a level head, and vigorous muscle to follow a path 
 already marked out. In prospecting three men should go together. They 
 need each a pick, costing $1.60, a shovel, $1.50; they are then fully 
 equipped, so far as tools are concerned, for commencing a shaft, which 
 should be about four feet by six. After going down a few feet they need 
 a bucket, costing $5, windlass and rope, at say $25, drills and hammers, 
 fuse and blasting-powder, at $10 — making a total cost for outfit of $49. 
 If working some distance from town a burro will be needed, and can be 
 obtained at from fifteen to thirty dollars. Provisions for a party of three 
 would not cost above thirty dollars a month, and a temporary shanty can 
 be built in a short time, at no cost save labor. Thus a prospecting-tour 
 of two months can be made at a total expenditure of less than one hun- 
 dred dollars. Many of the most valuable mines were discovered on a less 
 expenditure than this, and what has been done will be repeated hundreds 
 of times before the summer is over. There remains after getting the out- 
 fit nothing to do but " dig." 
 
 A grub-stake is a prospecting outfit furnished by men of wealth — i. e. 
 those who can command a hundred dollars or so — ^to impecunious miners. 
 For instance, A and B desire to prospect, and, not having the means to 
 procure the necessary outfit, or perhaps having sunk shafts until their means 
 are exhausted, C comes along and gives them a " grub-stake " for an in- 
 terest in whatever they may find. In other words, he " mines by proxy." 
 
166 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 A grub-stake of less than fifty dollars got Governor Tabor one-half of the 
 Little Pittsburg and made him a millionaire, and grub-stakes, properly 
 placed and followed up, are to-day as good investments as any man ought 
 to wish. 
 
 LOCATING A MINE. 
 
 The process of coming into possession of a mine is this : A man stakes 
 out his claim — ^three hundred by fifteen hundred feet. To do this he sets 
 up a stake three inches in diameter, square at the top, and if his name be 
 John Smith writes in pencil upon the four sides, " John Smith's Lode, 
 Corner No. 1." He steps off the distance and sets up such a stake on 
 each corner, marking each stake in succession, as " Corner No. 2," and so 
 on. Then he begins to sink his shaft. Two men work the windlass and 
 one digs, and the three take turns in digging. Sometimes a fourth man 
 cuts the timber to be used in "timbering" the shaft; that is, walling it 
 up to prevent its caving in. Good saplings adapted for the purpose grow 
 on the mountain-side, and it takes all the trees on fifteen acres to timber 
 the average shaft. Thus it happens that the original owners of a claim 
 often number four men, and almost always number three. The shaft is 
 usually four feet wide and six feet long. Three men working at such a 
 shaft can go down through the first fifty feet at the rate of from three to 
 five feet per day, timbering as they go, and through the next fifty feet, 
 two and a half to three and a half feet per day ; that will probably bring 
 them to rock, through which they must blast, and they cannot go faster 
 than two feet per day, and even that is good work. On a contract the 
 first fifty feet will cost $3.50 per foot, the next fifty, $5.50 per foot, and 
 after that it will cost from $8 to $15 per foot to go down, according to 
 the hardness and depth of the rock. The contract-price for sinking a 
 shaft averages $4.50 to $6 per foot, including curbing. 
 
 Thus the diggers go down through the wash and the porphyry — and 
 the rock and the iron if they find the last two — ^until they come to the 
 " contact." The depth which they have to go varies, as I have said. Li 
 the Adelaide Mines mineral is in some places but four feet imder the sur- 
 face ; in the Morning Star it is two hundred and fifty feet. On an aver- 
 age it is one hundred feet down. Even the most experienced miner can- 
 not tell, by looking at what is before him, whether the stuff has mineral 
 in it or not. So he has it assayed. This costs from $1.50 to $5, and 
 takes from two hours to a day. If he finds he has mineral, he goes for 
 a United States surveyor and has his claim surveyed and recorded, and 
 he writes on his four stakes the date when the survey was made. He 
 
PROSPECTING. 167 
 
 now owns the claim. It is his without having to pay the government 
 anything, as the latter gives the claim to the man who finds the mineral. 
 It is a disputed point whether iron is " mineral " in the sense contem- 
 plated by the law, but the custom here is to have surveys made on finds 
 of iron. 
 
 In staldng out his claim the owner is not compelled to run his survey 
 over the claim that he first staked out. He can shift his lines in any di- 
 rection that he chooses, determining that by the pitch and direction of 
 his own vein or deposit. It will often happen that he will thus take in 
 the shaft which is being sunk by another man near him — ^will " survey 
 him in," as it is called — and that other man has no recourse. 
 
 Suppose several men have claims staked out near his, and have shafts 
 started. As soon as the first man strikes mineral the others feel that 
 their chances for striking it are good, and they all go to work with might 
 and main to be the next to strike it, for that man is the lucky one, since 
 he has the next choice of land. Additional " shifts " of men are put on, 
 the work goes forward night and day, a horse is used to turn the wind- 
 lass if it can be so arranged, and the race is as if for dear life. When 
 the next man finds mineral he makes a break for a surveyor ; and if two 
 strike it at the same time they race like mad for one, for the claim first 
 surveyed is the one that holds the land. 
 
 It often happens that the mineral found has such a direction that a 
 survey has to be made over a claim already surveyed. In that case the 
 ne^f survey can hold the land within its claim and outside the other claim, 
 but that part lying within the first claim remains to the owners of the first 
 claim. However, if the second claim is a rich one, the overlapping por- 
 tions have enough mineral in them to satisfy any man ; but in any case 
 the new claimant yields with good grace. Surveys are always made one 
 hundred and fifty feet each way to the side-lines from the discovery-shaft; 
 they cannot be made two hundred feet one way and one hundred feet the 
 other, nor be divided up unevenly ; therefore it happens often that a man 
 cannot get a " full claim " — ^that is, one three hundred feet wide — ^but has 
 to be content with what he can get, 
 
 "bonding a mine" 
 
 is a process needing explanation. After a set of men have found mineral 
 it frequently happens that they bond it to some one to sell — ^that is, they 
 execute an instrument setting forth that, in consideration of the bonder 
 putting up so much of a forfeit, he shall have a certain number of days 
 — thirty, sixty, or ninety — ^within which he may sell the mine at what- 
 
168 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ever he can get for it, with the understanding that if the sale is made the 
 owners of the mine are to receive a stipulated price. For example, the 
 Little Giant had a half interest bonded for $110,000. The bonder was 
 at liberty to sell that half interest for as much more as he could get for 
 it within the time agreed upon. If he failed to sell it within that time 
 he lost his forfeit — ^forfeits range from one to five thousand dollars — and 
 the control of the mine reverted to the owners. 
 
 "WAGES. 
 
 The wages paid to good miners here have steadily kept at $3 a day ; 
 foremen, $100 to $125 a month. Surface common labor is paid from 
 $2.25 to $2.50 a day. The roads from all mines, except those located on 
 Iowa Gulch, are of continuous down-grade. At hauling ore teamsters 
 load fully four thousand pounds per trip, and their contracts are so made 
 as to give them from nine to ten dollars daily gross earnings. From 
 Little Pittsburg to Harrison or Grant's smelter they receive from $1.75 
 to $2 per ton ; from the Adelaide Consolidated Mine of Malta, $2.25 per 
 ton. These prices make it cost about one dollar per ton to get the ore 
 " on the dump " — ^that is, on the pile at the mouth of the mine — and one 
 dollar per ton more to deliver it to the smelter. Very little blasting is 
 required in the mines, most of the mineral being capable of extraction 
 with a pick and shovel. 
 
 DEFINITIONS OP MINING TEEMS. 
 
 The newcomer into a mining camp will hear and read of many things 
 totally unknown to any other kind of business, and he will find a know- 
 ledge of the various mining terms of no little benefit as well as pleasure. 
 He would not want a " stope " for his dinner, nor to regard " country 
 rock " as necessarily remote from a populous city, nor would he desire in 
 a mining camp to always regard a " horse " as a good " feeder." " Stamps " 
 he will not find so easily .transported as our national currency, nor a 
 " whim " possessing any "human eccentricity. 
 
 By carefully looking over this compendium of mining terms the reader 
 will be able to read and talk more intelligently, and therefore more satis- 
 factorily : 
 
 Adit. — A level, a horizontal drift or passage from the surface into a mine. 
 Alluvium. — A deposit of loose gravel between the superficial covering of 
 
 vegetable mould and the subjacent rock. 
 Apex. — The top or highest point of mineral. 
 Argentiferous. — Containing silver. 
 
PROSPECTING. 169 
 
 Assay. — To test ores by chemical or blowpipe examination. 
 
 Auriferous. — Containing gold. 
 
 Bed. — ^A horizontal seam or deposit of mineral. 
 
 Blende. — ^An ore of zinc consisting of zinc and sulphur. 
 
 Boiianza. — Fair weather ; a mine is said to en bonanza when it is yield- 
 ing a profit. 
 
 Breast. — The face of a tunnel or drift. 
 
 Cap. — A vein is in the " cap " when it is much contracted. 
 
 Carbonates. — Soft carbonates : salts containing carbonic acid, with a base 
 of lead. Hard carbonates : the same with iron for a base. 
 
 Cheek. — The side or wall of a vein. 
 
 Chimneys. — The richer spots in lodes as distinguished from poorer ones. 
 
 Claim. — The space of ground located and worked under the laws. 
 
 Chlorides. — A compound of chlorine and silver. 
 
 Contact. — A touching, meeting, or junction of two substances, as rocks. 
 
 Contact-vein. — A vein along the contact-plane of, or between, two dis- 
 similar rock-masses. 
 
 Country. — The ground traversed by a vein. 
 
 Country rooh. — The rock-masses on each side of a vein. 
 
 Crevice. — A narrow opening, resulting from a split or crack ; a fissure. 
 
 Cribbing. — The timber or plank lining of a shaft ; the confining of the 
 wall-rock. 
 
 Cropping out. — The rising of layers of rock to the surface. 
 
 Cross-cut. — ^A level driven across the course of a vein. 
 
 Cut. — ^To intersect a vein ; open cut, a level without a covering driven 
 across the course of a vein. 
 
 Dike. — A wall-like mass of mineral matter filling fissures. 
 
 Diluvium. — A deposit of superficial sand, loam, pebbles, gravel, etc. 
 
 Dip. — The slope, pitch, or angle which a vein makes with the plane of 
 the horizon. 
 
 Drift. — ^A horizontal passage underground. 
 
 Dump. — A place for deposit of tailings or waste rock. 
 
 Face. — The end of a drift or tunnel. 
 
 Fault. — ^A displacement of strata or veins, so that they are not continuous. 
 
 Feeder. — A small vein joining a larger one. 
 
 Fissure-^ein. — ^A fissure or crack in the earth's crust filled with mineral 
 matter. 
 
 Float. — ^Loose rock or isolated masses of ore, or ore detached from the 
 original formation. 
 
 FootrwaU. — The layer of rock immediately under the vein. 
 
170 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Gangue. — The substance enclosing and accompanying the ore in a vein. 
 Gash-vein. — A vein wide above and narrow below. 
 
 Hanging-wall. — The layer of rock or wall over a lode. 
 
 Heading. — The vein above the drift. 
 
 Horse. — A mass of rock-matter occurring in or between the branches of 
 a' vein. 
 
 Incline drift. — An inclined passage underground. 
 
 In place. — ^A vein or lode enclosed on both sides by fixed and immovable 
 rock. 
 
 Lagging. — The timber over and upon the sides of a drift. 
 
 Level. — A horizontal passage or drift into a mine from a shaft. 
 
 Lode. — Aggregations of mineral matter containing ores in fissures. 
 
 Matrix. — The rock or earthy matter containing a mineral or metallic ore. 
 
 Mill-run. — A test of a quantity of ore after reduction. 
 
 Outcrop. — That portion of a vein appearing at the surface. 
 
 Patch. — A small placer-claim. 
 
 Placer. — A gravelly place where gold is found — includes all forms of 
 mineral deposits excepting veins in place. (Sec. 2329 Pev. Stat. 
 U. S.) 
 
 Pocket. — A rich spot in a vein or deposit. 
 
 Prospecting. — Searching for new deposits ; also preliminary explorations 
 to test the value of lodes or placers. 
 
 Piffle-blocks. — Wooden blocks set on end in a sluice, with interstices for 
 catching gold. 
 
 Selvage. — Thin band of earthy matter between the vein and walls. 
 
 Shaft. — ^A well-like excavation in the earth. 
 
 Shift. — The time for a miner's work, in one day or night. 
 
 Sluices. — Boxes joined together, set with riffle-blocks, through which is 
 washed auriferous earth. 
 
 Smelting. — ^Reducing the ores in furnaces to metals. 
 
 Stamps. — Machines for crushing ores. 
 
 Slope. — One of a series of steps into which the upper surface of an ex- 
 cavation is cut ; to excavate in the form of steps above a drift. 
 
 Sloping. — ^The act of stoping or breaking down the surface of an excava- 
 tion with a pick. 
 
 Strike. — The extension of a lode in a horizontal direction. 
 
 Stulls. — A framework covered with timber or planks to support rubbish 
 in working a stope. 
 
 Sump. — That part of the shaft below the platform used for receiving 
 water. 
 
PROSPECTING. 171 
 
 Tailings. — The refuse matter discharged from the end of a sluice. 
 Tunnel. — ^A level driven at right angles to the vein, which ite object is to 
 
 reach. 
 Vein. — ^Aggregations of mineral matter in fissures of rocks. 
 Walls. — ^The sides next to the lode. 
 Whim. — A machine for raising ores and refuse. 
 Winze. — A shaft sunk from one level to another. 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 
 
 rNTEODUOrOEY. 
 
 IiN" folk-lore there is this story : There was a man tired of the patient 
 cultivation of his little farm, and who desired to be rich without 
 labor. Lacking wealth, life had become " stale, flat, and improfitable." 
 Three times he dreamed there was treasure hid under the earth in his old 
 orchard, which for years had been barren of fruit. Three is the regular 
 tion number that makes a dream true ; and so, iu an ecstasy of excitement, 
 he revealed the secret to his wife, and began to dig. Rotrnd one tree he 
 dug a mound of earth, and round another, until there was not a gnarled 
 trunk about whose roots he had not let in the vitalizing air. But there 
 was no treasure. Of course he grew angry over his wasted labor, and he 
 had a sorry time when his neighbors hung on his fence and laughed at 
 his folly. Spring-time, however, came, and the trees blossomed. Autumn 
 followed, and they were loaded with fruit. Years went on, the old orchard 
 yielding a rich revenue ; and so the man found there was golden treasure 
 hid in the earth after all, and he grumbled no more because his farm was 
 not a literal gold-mine, but worked it with vim, and his land made him 
 as wealthy as a man has need to be. Our fathers, who composed this 
 parable, knew what they were talking about quite as well as the old 
 Greeks when they made the myth about exhausted Hercules renewing 
 his strength at the touch of the Earth-mother. Gold is good, but it 
 usually costs the miner as much to win it as it is worth. The produc- 
 tions of the soil are better in the long run, for it is on these that all life 
 must base. In her agricultural productions Nebraska is rich, and will be 
 richer. She boasts soil that is nowhere excelled, a climate favorable to 
 production, and pure water in abundance. 
 172 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 17a 
 
 GEOGKAPHY OF NEBEASKA. 
 
 The area of the State comprises 75,995 square miles, or 46,636,800 
 acres — roughly speaking, as large as all the New England States, or all 
 Pennsylvania and half of New York. Its length is 412 miles and its 
 width about 200. It is between the parallels of 40° and 43° north, thus 
 placing the whole State in the latitude of Pennsylvania, Southern New 
 York, Northern California, and Southern Oregon; and between 18° and 
 27° west from Washington or 95° and 104° west of Greenwich. The 
 State is called prairie. So it is, in the sense of the word which means 
 meadow, but not in that secondary sense which implies a land of uniform 
 flatness. In real truth, Nebraska is a part of the lowest eastern grass- 
 clothed slope of the Rocky Mountains. The eye alone will make no 
 observer aware of this fact. Nevertheless, from the eastern to the west- 
 ern boundary of Nebraska there is a gradual and uninterrupted rise of 
 the land of about seven feet to the mile in Eastern Nebraska, and from 
 that to ten feet in Western ; and thus it comes that while the land on the 
 eastern boundary is 910 feet above sea-level, on the western boundary it 
 is about 5000. The surface-form of the State is, of course, made by the 
 rivers. The eastern front of the country shows bold, wooded bluffs to 
 the Missouri, their outlines being cut and scarped into fantastic and 
 picturesque forms by the washing water. West of the Missouri bluJBfe, 
 except on the table-lands, there is no flat, but a land of many changing 
 forms — ^now broad bottoms bounded by low hills, now picturesque bluffi, 
 and, especially in the grazing-region, ravines sometimes as rugged as the 
 gulches in the gold-fields. Now and again a river flows fall to the bank, 
 from which the bottom — ^from a mile to four or more miles wide — spreads 
 out on either hand ; but generally the streams run in deep beds, the high, 
 steep banks and the narrow first bench being thickly clothed with timber. 
 The general ascending lay of the land is broken west to east by three 
 main drainage-channels. On the northern boundary of the State are the 
 Niobrara and the Missouri Rivers, of which latter the Niobrara is an 
 affluent. The Platte, a winding, shallow, spreading stream, dotted with 
 numerous islands and rurming over a bed of white sand, flows through 
 the whole length of the State from west to east at a distance of one hun- 
 dred to one hundred and twenty miles south of the Niobrara; and from 
 fifty to eighty miles south of the Platte the Republican River has its 
 channel. These rivers head in or near the mountains. Their flow is 
 west to east, and their drainage-area on the south is limited to a belt of 
 ten to fifteen miles, and the tributary streams from that side are few. 
 
174 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 North of each stream, however, its affluents are numerous, and the general 
 flow of their waters is south-east. This is the topography of Nebraska 
 in barest outline, and with the map before him the reader can fill in the 
 details. He can imagine the great plain ascending to higher altitudes as 
 the mountains are approached ; the rivers, west to east, making three 
 great valleys, and two elevated divides separating the valleys; and, 
 finally, the smaller streams exhibiting the land as broken into an 
 almost infinite number of gently-undulating hills and valleys, with 
 great table-lands on the summits, the trend of which is south-east. 
 
 GEOLOGY OF NEBRASKA. 
 
 In the south-eastern part of the State, Upper Carboniferous and Per- 
 mian deposits come to the surface, the boundary-line running south-west 
 , from Washington county to about the centre of the southern line of 
 Thayer county. Over one-third of the State west of this line Cretaceous 
 deposits make the surface, and west again the Tertiary. The surface 
 geology of Nebraska represents great periods in the history of the for- 
 mation of the crust of the globe — glacial epochs and ages of time when 
 seas and lakes covered the land, now the centre of the United States. It 
 is for a scientific treatise to describe in detail the accumulated changes of 
 these eras — the grinding of the mills of the gods which produced life 
 and swept away life, ultimately resulting in the fertile Nebraska which is 
 to-day. It is a marvellous story whose record is everywhere written in 
 Nebraska, but in this article there is not space for its telling. The final 
 formative processes are, however, interesting to the farmer, inasmuch as 
 they describe the land he has to till. Toward the close of the last Gla- 
 cial Period the continent slowly uprose, and a portion of this region 
 became dry land. Yet great fresh-water lakes remained, one in Nebras- 
 ka and Iowa being estimated as five hundred miles long and from fifty 
 to two hundred miles wide. There was the Missouri River, then and 
 now the muddiest river in the world. For a thousand miles its course 
 was, and is, through deposits readily friable and easily worn and borne 
 away by the water, especially as at this time, at the sources of the Mis- 
 souri and Yellowstone, the water-action was aided by the erosive action of 
 moving ice-masses. When the river entered the great lake its current 
 ceased, and the suspended sediment dropped to the bottom. The land 
 was now being gradually upheaved. As it rose the waters of the loess 
 lake were drained off by the Missouri, and its bed became a vast marsh. 
 The present broad bottoms of the country were at that time river-beds, 
 and with their waters still came down the muddy debris from the moxm- 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 175 
 
 tains, which was largely deposited at the bottoms of the great streams. 
 The land was still rising, and as it rose the rivers drained oif the surplus 
 waters. The river-beds were cut deeper into the yielding soil, and the 
 time ultimately came when Nebraska was fixed in the condition which 
 exists at this day — the loess being largely the soil of the uplands, and 
 the alluvial that of the river-valleys. The two deposits are similar in 
 chemical elements, and they form the richest soil in the world, and most 
 valuable for agricultural purposes, ranging in thickness from five to one 
 hundred and fifty, and even two hundred, feet. Careful analyses of the 
 soil show that in the loess over eighty per cent, of the formation is finely- 
 comminuted silica — so fine that its true character can only be detected 
 under a microscope. About ten per cent, of its substance is made up of 
 carbonates and phosphates of lime. There are some small amounts of 
 alkaline matter, iron, and alumina, the result being a soil that can never 
 be exhatisted until every hill and valley which composes it is entirely 
 worn away. Its finely-comminuted silica gives it natural drainage in the 
 highest degree. When torrents of rain come the water soon percolates 
 the soil, which, in its lowest depths, retains it like a huge sponge. "When 
 droughty periods intervene the moisture rises from below by capillary 
 attraction, supplying nearly all the needs of vegetation in the dryest sea- 
 sons. The richer surface-soil overlies the subsoil, and it is from eighteen 
 inches to three and four, and even six, feet thick. It is organically the 
 same as the subsoil, but enriched with organic matter, the growth and 
 decay of innumerable centuries — a garden soil easily cultivated and mak- 
 ing the arable farm as a garden. 
 
 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN NEBEASKA. 
 
 In the first place, there is water in abundance underground, on the sur- 
 face, and coming from the clouds. At a depth of twenty to sixty feet, 
 and at some places sixty to one hundred, there is a thick layer of clear 
 sand, which in most cases rests upon a bed of rock or clay ; and so abun- 
 dant is the water in this sand that in many places subterranean streams 
 are formed, which are struck in sinking shafts. Everywhere abundant 
 water, above the average in purity, is obtained at the depths named, the 
 cost of a common tube-well being about seventy-five cents per foot. On 
 the surface rivers, creeks, prairie-ponds, and springs abound. No map 
 yet published does justice to the numberless small streams that exist in 
 the State, even the plats of the public surveys failing to indicate them 
 all ; and, indeed, there are large areas in which running water is now 
 found on every section, where there was none when those surveys were 
 
176 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 made. The rainfall is ample. The best data accessible are the tables 
 kept by Dr. A. L. Child of Plattsmouth, from which the following is 
 compiled : 
 
 Year. Season. 
 
 f Winter . 
 
 1866 §P™S 
 
 Summer . 
 iFaU .-. 
 
 (Winter . 
 FaU . . 
 
 1875 
 
 Winter . 
 Spring . 
 Summer , 
 Fall . . 
 
 f Winter . 
 
 1878 |P^°^ 
 
 Summer . 
 [FaU . . 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 19.99° 1 
 47.03° 
 72.78° 
 49.75° J 
 
 22.14°! 
 46.17° 
 70.00° 
 42.64° 
 
 15.06' 
 45.55' 
 71.67' I 
 47.31° J 
 
 °1 
 o r 
 
 33.01°! 
 
 62.71° 
 72.86° 
 15.98°! 
 
 Yearly Snow. 
 
 Yearly Rain and Melted 
 Snow. 
 
 11.45 
 inches. 
 
 22.00 
 inches. 
 
 29.26 
 inches. 
 
 31.70 in. 
 
 32.10 in. 
 
 50.22 in. 
 
 43.47 in. 
 
 The average rainfall for these five years is 32.29, as compared with 34.13, 
 the average of eleven years in Illinois. From the middle of the State, 
 west, the rainfall is somewhat less than the table indicates, but in the 
 eastern half the average is 32, two-thirds of which is during the agricul- 
 tural months, or quite as much rain at the precise time when it is needed 
 as falls during the same months in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and 
 New York. A peculiarity of the rainfall is that it is mostly at nights, so 
 that the heaviest showers, quickly draining into the land, scarcely inter- 
 fere with work on the farm. The temperature is of the temperate zone, 
 healthful and bracing to man and beast, and in which corn, small grains, 
 apples, and peaches come to rich perfection. 
 
 NATUEAL PEODUCTIONS. 
 
 The prairie, clothed only by natural processes, presents its own testi- 
 mony to the riches of the State. Its whole expanse is covered with 
 grasses, there being not fewer than one hundred and fifty species, and the 
 most abundant making the best pasture, showing green at the end of 
 April and affording feed until November. The blue-joint grows every- 
 where except on low bottoms. Under ordinary conditions its growth is 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 177 
 
 two and a half to four feet, and on cultivated grounds it is found from 
 seven to ten feet high. Wild oats grow on the uplands, mixed with blue- 
 joint. This grass is relished by cattle, and is abundant. The buffalo- 
 grass, low in habit, is now found in the western half of the State. It 
 disappears before cultivation, but it is Nature's provision of food for 
 grain-eating animals during winter on the prairie, Inasmuch as it retains 
 its nutriment all the year round. Among other feed-grasses are several 
 varieties of bunch-grass, and in the low lands a native blue-grass and the 
 spangle-top, which latter makes excellent hay. 
 
 THE NATIVE TEEEg. 
 
 The Nebraska prairie is not bare of trees ; in fact, the native trees fur- 
 nish a large list. The river-bluffs are clothed with them, and the banks 
 of the streams. There are two kinds of buckeye, two of maple, two of 
 locust, four of ash, three of hickory, eleven of oak, twelve of willow 
 (eight species being shrubs), three of poplar, one sycamore, black walnut, 
 yellow pine, white cedar, and red cedar. The shrubs include common ju- 
 niper, pawpaw, prickly-ash, five sumacs, red-root, spindle tree, six species 
 of plum, six of currants and gooseberries, five dogwoods, butter-bush, buf- 
 falo-berry, red and white mulberry, hazelnut, and beaked hazelnut. Cedars 
 are found on the islands of the Platte, and along the Loups and the Nio- 
 brara there is a goodly quantity of pine. But the point is heite : this list 
 of trees is proof that trees flourish on the prairie, and that as much tim- 
 ber as is needed, for all uses can be raised on the farm. 
 
 The prairie, in iis natural condition, presents the aspect the preceding 
 pages sketch — an untilled garden-land, furnishing plenty for its wild den- 
 izens, for man and beast. Looking at it in this year (1879), it is a mar- 
 vel how Fremont and others could have come to regard it as a desert. 
 Nevertheless, they did so regard it; and the nation up to the year 1850 
 little knew of the rich domain it possessed in the trans-Missouri region 
 — a region which is to be the great grain- and stock-producing area of 
 the continent, 
 
 THE HISTOEY OF NEBEASKA. 
 
 The white man knew Nebraska more than twenty-five years ago. Ad- 
 venturous French trappers explored its wastes and fraternized with the 
 Indians, and the conditions remained the same when Astor's American 
 Fur Company collected the furs of the region. This company established 
 trading-posts, the first of all being at Belle Vue (between Omaha and the 
 
 12 
 
178 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Platte River), which was under the charge of Colonel Sarpy, a member 
 of a French family well known on the frontier, and himself noted for 
 his enterprise, sagacity, and courage. It matters little to speak of these 
 times, except that when men see a great river it is natural to desire to 
 know its birthplace in the mountains, and it was in these beginnings that 
 Nebraska had its origin. Across its prairies was the way to the west 
 coast and to Utah. Many an "Argonaut " — as the " Forty-niners " are 
 called — ^never saw the sea until he reached the Golden Gate by way of the 
 prairie, and the Mormon roads are still traceable across the Plains. It 
 was the establishment of frontier forts that was the next stage in Nebras- 
 ka's progress. The people there had to be fed and clothed, and the freight- 
 ing system came into being. To meet the needs of this overland trade, 
 there had to be ranches on the way where supplies could be obtained ; 
 and hence at convenient places they were established. By one means or 
 other the land was known to the outside world about 1850, and there was 
 a crowd waiting on the Iowa and Missouri side of the Missouri to "jump" 
 the river as soon as the Territorial act authorizing settlement was passed 
 and proclaimed in 1854. But from Cedar county in the north to Rich- 
 ardson county in the south there was no belief anywhere that any land 
 except the Missouri bottoms was worth occupying j and a decade went 
 by and there were but few farms opened ten miles west of the river, the 
 balance of the State being really the hunting-grounds of the Indians. In 
 1864, however, the Union Pacific Railroad was commenced from Omaha, 
 and in 1869 the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad from Platts- 
 mouth ; and since then these railroads have been the largest factors in 
 promoting Nebraska's prosperity. In 1867 the State was admitted to 
 the Union, and at that time Lincoln, on the prairie, was located as the 
 capital, and is now, besides being the seat of government , the second 
 city in the State, with a population of ten thousand, while Omaha's pop- 
 ulation numbers twenty-five thousand. 
 
 This is a brief statement of the dates which go to make up the 
 items in the short history of Nebraska. To fill up the outline sketched 
 would require a book. In brief, the State has become a white man's 
 country. The Indians have yielded possession, the Pawnees quitting their 
 reservation, which has become Nance county, and the Otoe Reservation 
 also is being settled up everywhere. In the agricultural part of the State 
 the traveller meets with splendid farms, and, in the grazing-region west, 
 enormous herds of cattle. The reasons for the prosperity of the State' 
 will be of interest to those who are contemplating moving West, and the 
 principal of these may be briefly stated. 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 
 
 179 
 
 THE GREAT FOOD-BELT OF THE CONTINENT. 
 
 Men cannot make bread of sand, and so they do not settle in deserts. 
 The United States cover twenty-three degrees of latitude — away to the 
 frozen North and down to the semi-tropic South. But, with all this 
 choice, from the beginning of Western settlement the great current of 
 movement has been within a central belt five or six degrees in width, 
 and " nearly corresponding with the la,titudinal length of the State of 
 Illinois, which lies between 36° 56' and 42° 30'." The proof of this is 
 furnished by the census of 1870, which shows — 
 
 
 Fopulation. 
 
 True 
 Valuation. 
 
 Wheat, in 
 Bushels. 
 
 Corn, in 
 Bushels. 
 
 Immigrants 
 
 born out of 
 
 U.S. 
 
 11 States and 3 Terrs, in 
 
 latitude of Illinois 
 
 10 States, larger half in lat- 
 
 14,019,314 
 13,211,389 
 11,327,668 
 
 $12,729,954,998 
 
 13,105,750,967 
 
 4,140,075,345 
 
 117,870,054 
 
 104,378,646 
 
 55,496,926 
 
 334,137,865 
 240,623,912 
 186,182,772 
 
 2,144,000 
 
 2,524,538 
 
 898,008 
 
 Country wholly out of lat- 
 
 
 The foregoing table demonstrates a truth most important to be remem- 
 bered by those who are contemplating a change of base. This is the belt 
 in the United States in which industry obtains the most certain and high- 
 est rewards. It is temperate in climate, and a man can here work up to 
 his best. The land is fruitful, and bears in greatest abundance those 
 products which are necessaries of life, and which have value accordingly. 
 " South of Illinois," writes Dr. Butler, " it is too hot for wheat ; north 
 of it is too cold for corn. Accordingly, in the latitude of Illinois — that 
 is, within three degrees north and south of the parallel of 40° — Amer- 
 ican agriculture can be more diversified than anywhere else. Farmers 
 there are not dependent upon any single staple, but raise crops so various 
 that a season which is pernicious to one is profitable to some other. Theirs 
 is the threefold cord which is not quickly broken. 
 
 NEBEASKA THE BEST PART OF THE BELT. 
 
 The marvel of Nebraska is, that the progress of Illinois is here ex- 
 celled. Consider the following figures : At the beginning of 1856 the 
 population of Nebraska was 10,716, and at the close of 1875, 259,912, 
 which was a twenty-five-fold increase in twenty years. In 1810, Illinois 
 had a population of 12,282, and in 1830, 167,445, a thirteen-fold in- 
 crease. These figures exhibit the two States in the first period of growth. 
 Starting with about the same population, Nebraska doubles upon won- 
 derful Illinois in the course of twenty years. The reason is, that in 
 
180 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Nebraska the farmer has Nature fully on his side — a fa^ further mani- 
 fested when the productions of the State are considered. Corn, the king 
 of grains, is bountiful in production, and it is not unusual for seventy- 
 pounds of ear to shell sixty to sixty-three pounds, or four to seven pounds 
 over the standard, the general average of production, with fair cultivation, 
 being fifty to sixty bushels per acre. Numerous varieties of wheat are 
 grown, the yield being fifteen to twenty-five bushels per ax;re ; of barley 
 a fair yield is thirty to forty bushels ; of rye, twenty-five to thirty bushels ; 
 and of oats, forty to fifty bushels. Flax returns about twelve bushels 
 per acre, and tame grasses — alfalfa, or California clover, ordinary red and 
 white clover, Hungarian grass, timothy, millet, blue-grass, and orchard- 
 grass — take well to the soil and climate and cut heavy crops of hay. The 
 country which is good for corn, good for small grains, good for grass and 
 hay, and has a favorable climate, must be the location for stock-raising. 
 It is live-stock the civilized world most wants, and in live-stock the 
 farmer finds wealth. If a settler opens a farm in the agricultural part 
 of the State, mixed farming is the best, and he should therefore combine 
 grain- and stock-growing. If a man goes forth to the great pastoral region, 
 then of course the industry he will follow will be that of herdsman or 
 flock-master ; but be he where he will in Nebraska, cattle, horses, sheep, and 
 hogs are what he needs to have about him. There is in Nebraska a wide 
 field for profitable horse-raising, and except the few colts which farmers 
 raise the field is unoccupied, and large numbers of horses are annually 
 imported into the State, which could all be raised here at much less cost 
 than ■ in the States whence they are imported and sold in Nebraska at 
 from eighty to one hundred and twenty dollars each. The farmer who 
 wants to engage in horse-breeding should come to Nebraska. He will 
 find the broken prairie — ^land which, because it is not the best land laid 
 out for the plough, sells at from three to four dollars per acre — ^the best 
 adapted for the purpose. In these lands draws frequently come in from 
 all sides toward a bottom, and wind-shelters are afforded from whatever 
 direction the wind may blow, and water also is ever abundant. In a 
 location of this character a man may establish himself, put up necessary 
 shelters for his stock at a cheap rate, breed horses or mules, and find a 
 ready market in the State and outside of it, for the freight is an exceed- 
 ingly small percentage on the value of a good horse, and the best horses 
 can be raised in Nebraska at a much less cost than in Kentucky. For 
 feed, horses have the native prairie grasses, which are most excellent for 
 both pasturage and hay, and corn, oats, rye, and barley are grown in 
 great abundance and of most excellent quality. 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 181 
 
 THE CATTLE-FARM. 
 
 Cattle should be upon every farm — as many as the land will carry or 
 the owner's means afford. Away from the great ranges it is best to have 
 fairly good stock, which it should be the farmer's aim constantly to im- 
 prove. It will be long years before there are too many beef-cattle in the 
 world, and the market for them is as wide as civilization. Let the reader 
 consider the price of beef in the Eastern markets and in England, and 
 contrast that with the price at which cattle can be raised on the Nebraska 
 prairie. In three years, with good stock, the Nebraska farmer can have 
 a steer to weigh fifteen hundred pounds, and he is amply paid selling at 
 three and a half cents per pound. Under conditions like these there is 
 the possibility of an immense trade with the East and with England, 
 though at present Chicago can absorb all of Nebraska's surplus. Im- 
 provements in cattle-cars and in shipping arrangements, however, will 
 extend Nebraska's sales to the most distant markets, landing stock in 
 good condition in London and Liverpool at most for four cents per pound. 
 As an example of possibilities in prepared meats, an English farmer in 
 Seward county two years ago sent a small parcel of hams and bacon, 
 cured in the English fashion, to the Manchester (England) market. The 
 freight on his small shipment amounted to three cents per pound, and his 
 returns were twenty-five cents per pound, and he was informed that any 
 quantity would be received at that price. The dairy produce of Ne- 
 braska may be indefinitely increased. Already a considerable quantity 
 of Nebraska cheese is shipped out of the State east and west, at one 
 cheese-factory in Lancaster county the product averaging four hundred 
 pounds of cheese per head of cattle, and selling at ten cents per pound. 
 In butter-making, dairymen among the hills, where the milk can be kept 
 in a spring-house, are supposed to have had an advantage not obtainable 
 on the prairie. Now, however, " Cooley's Creamer " puts the prairie- 
 dairyman on the same plane as those who live in mountain-regions. The 
 windmill pump, which costs from one hundred and twenty to one hun- 
 dred and sixty dollars, keeps up a constant Jlow of coolest water from the 
 recesses of the earth. The cooler is a large box, zinc-lined, with (between 
 the zinc and the outer wood) a filling of charcoal. Placed beside the 
 pump, the stream from the pump fills the box, and the overflow is carried 
 off through a waste pipe, so that it can be used for watering stock. This 
 " spring-house " for the prairie is a simple apparatus, and not costly. But 
 further : all who are acquainted with cattle know that under favorable 
 conditions — ^and more favorable cannot be found than those of Nebraska 
 
182 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 — their increase is marvellous, calculation showing that thirty cows, that 
 would cost, say, twelve hundred dollars, in ten years will develop into a 
 herd worth thirty thousand dollars, allowing ten per cent, for losses and 
 the butter and cheese for the cost of maintenance. This is cattle-famiing, 
 of course, in the agricultural region. In the great pastures west the busi- 
 ness is simpler. There, as yet, dairy products count for nothing, and it 
 is the increase in the herds — cheaply fed and cheaply cared for — which 
 yields the profit. With the cattle raised in this western half of the State 
 there are good opportunities of profitable trade. Small herds can be 
 selected, brought into the eastern parts, pastured on the way, and wintered 
 on cheap corn and hay ; and then they are in splendid condition for the 
 meat-market in the spring. In the farming-region hogs go with cattle ; 
 and Nebraska farmers, with their Chester whites, Polands, and Berk- 
 shires, have as good stock as can be found in any State. Thousands of 
 men find cattle-raising profitable in Nebraska, and thousands of others 
 may engage in the business with equal success. In the west especially 
 the business is an immense one, but statistics are not readily accessible, 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF PLOCK-MASTEES. 
 
 Those who devote themselves to sheep speak highly of the results ob- 
 tained. The sheep in its origin is native to the mountains. It likes the 
 dry, pure air of the uplands and avoids marshes. The lay of the land 
 in Nebraska is therefore peculiarly adapted to sheep. On the breesy 
 uplands, richly clothed with grasses, and in the pure, dry air, they are 
 healthy and vigorous; the experience of Nebraska flock-masters, says 
 the Hon. J. D. Jenkins of Fairmont in Fillmore county, who has had 
 large experience, being that, with good management, sheep return a profit 
 of fifty per cent, upon the investment. The pioneer flock-master of 
 Eastern Nebraska is the Hon. Moses Stocking of Saunders county ; and 
 one yearly return he made exhibited on a flock of sixteen hundred and 
 fifty-two merinos — -which breed he prefers, though long-wool breeds are 
 now coming to have partisans — a profit of $3495. In Jefferson county, 
 Messrs. C. and P. Jansen — leaders in the Mennonite settlement there — 
 commenced sheep-farming in 1875, purchasing in Iowa and Wisconsin a 
 flock of fifteen hundred fair merino sheep, and in New York twenty to 
 thirty thoroughbred merino rams. Since that time they have introduced 
 new blood into the herd by importing additional thoroughbred rams, and 
 have otherwise improved the flock by selling off all inferior animals and 
 keeping only the best, so that now they have a flock of 2300 high-class 
 merinos. As an indication of the manner in which sheep improve in 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 183 
 
 Nebraska, they furnish the following figures as the yield of wool per head 
 of the sheep during the several years : In 1876 the clip averaged 7f 
 pounds per head; in 1877, 8| pounds; in 1878, 9 pounds; and 1879 the 
 enormous figure was reached of 11 pounds and a fraction per head, from 
 which they realized $5060. All through the State from south to north, 
 and away west to the Republican Yalley and the forks of the Loup, ex- 
 amples of successful sheep-farming are found, and information regarding 
 them may be obtained by inquirers. It is not too much to say that the 
 fifty million pounds of foreign wool now imported into the United States 
 could all be raised on these prairies. 
 
 SUCCESSrUL FETHT-CULTUEE. 
 
 When the first settlers crossed the Missouri they would not believe that 
 fruit would grow in Nebraska, and some years elapsed before even ex- 
 periments were made. They gathered prolific crops of wild plums, grapes, 
 and gooseberries, but they were slow to learn the lesson of Nature, that 
 where the plum-thicket was prolific of fruit the apple-orchard would also 
 grow. There were among the settlers, however, men of culture, intelli- 
 gence, and enterprise, who knew how to reason and how to act. These 
 were the pioneer orchardists of the river-counties. They planted, and 
 their planting failed ; but they persevered, and the result is a brilliant 
 success. Orchards and vineyards crown the slopes of the hills, and Ne- 
 braska apples and Nebraska peaches vie with the best produced elsewhere. 
 The success is undoubted, and the reason for the success is the co-adapta- 
 bility of soil and climate — the peculiar deposits (before described), says 
 Professor Aughey, making the State "a paradise for fruit-culture, espe- 
 cially for the apple, plum, grape, and all the small fruits of the temperate 
 zones." 
 
 PISCICrtTIjTUEE. 
 
 One acre of water stocked with suitable fish is more profitable than the 
 best ten acres of land on which the sun shines. The native fish of Ne- 
 braska are not of high quality, and there are room and verge enough in the 
 home market for extensive piscicultural operations. There are clear rivers 
 and creeks — in some parts small lakes, and everywhere ponds — ^in which 
 certain species of useful fresh-water fish can be made for ever abundant. 
 To show how fish will increase even when left only to their natural 
 fecundity, instance a consignment of perch, bass, and pickerel which a 
 few years ago were being sent over the Union Pacific Railroad to Califor- 
 nia. By an accident the cal- was overturned into the Elkhorn River. 
 
184 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 The fry got into the stream,' and there they have multiplied amazingly 
 (notwithstanding illegal netting), and spread into tributary streams and 
 ponds. At a late meeting of the Legislature a fish commission was ap- 
 pointed to assist individuals in fish-culture and to protect their interests. 
 Already many persons have established hatcheries. 
 
 THE HONEY-BEE AND THE PRAIRIE FLOWERS, 
 
 A gentleman who has travelled extensively in the Old World and the 
 New World tasted honey in Nebraska, the product of the prairie flowers, 
 and he said, " This is as the honey .of Hybla, the celebrated honey of the 
 Mediterranean countries, with the same aromatic flavor." The honey of 
 the prairie flowers is peculiarly rich, and bees work on the prairie and in 
 the timber-belts on the streams to great profit. To attend to bees — except 
 when the apiary is on a large scale, as it is now and again in Eastern Ne- 
 braska north and south of the Platte — is an avocation for the women of 
 the household — one in which they take delight, and one which not only 
 puts money in the purse, but adds to the luxuries of the home. The bees 
 begin to work on the wild flowers among the timber at the opening of 
 spring, but the true honey season of Nebraska is July, August, and Sep- 
 tember, when the flowers of the prairie — milkwefed, heart's-ease, golden-rod, 
 sunflower, and many others — ^are in their fullest bloom, though by planting 
 rape and other early-blooming honey-flowers May and June are brought 
 into the honey period. In the river-counties of Nebraska large numbers 
 of bees are kept, and in the neighborhood of Omaha alone there are two 
 thousand swarms. 
 
 THREE DISTRICTS IN NEBRASKA. 
 
 The foregoing narrative describes Nebraska in general terms, and if 
 the reader will study the following figures he will see the progress and 
 prospects of the State further exemplified, but in a difierent way. A 
 natural division of the State is into three great sections — North-eastern 
 Nebraska, South-eastern Nebraska, and the grazing-region west. Speak- 
 ing broadly of these several areas, it may be said that the western grazing 
 country is somewhat less than half of the area of the State, North-eastern 
 Nebraska being a little larger than South-eastern, though the present 
 western limit of lands in cultivatibn is not so far west in the north as in 
 the south. In the south the agricultural area extends almost to the 
 western boundary of the State ; and, indeed, in what is now the graz- 
 ing-region the processes which have made the eastern half arable are 
 in rapid progress. 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 185 
 
 NORTH-EASTERN NEBRASKA. 
 
 Here there are twenty-eight counties, which in 1860 had a population 
 of 10,500 ; in 1870, 51,088 ; and in 1879, 108,264. And wealth has 
 increased with the increasing population. Twenty-five years ago settle- 
 ment began on the Missouri bottoms. On the whole wide prairie there 
 was nothing which civilized man counts as wealth; and yet now the 
 property is assessed at — and assessed values are but as one in three of 
 real values — $30,441,370, Omaha, with its population of twenty-five 
 thousand, contributing several millions. In 1870 the land in cultiva- 
 tion in the whole State was 647,031 acres, but in 1880 in this quarter 
 of the State the figures are 1,168,846 acres. The live-stock now owned 
 by the people numbers 48,963 horses, 4200 mules, 141,281 cattle, 46,769 
 sheep, and 134,988 swine ; and the wheat and corn product for the year 
 1879 (estimating for certain counties which have not made returns on the 
 basis of the 1878 returns) is 5,804,749 bushels of wheat and 16,297,598 
 bushels of corn. Of cultivated timber there are 26,744 acres ; apple 
 trees, 306,143; pears, 5582; peach trees, 39,584; plum trees, 48,564; 
 cherry trees, 31,734 ; grapevines, 49,444 ; and 1104 miles of live hedge. 
 
 SOUTH-EASTERN NEBRASKA, 
 
 with twenty-seven counties, has a still more favorable record. The popu- 
 lation of this section in 1860 was 16,539 ; in 1870, 71,731 ; and in 1879, 
 201,976 ; and in 1880 the assessed valuation of the property in this 
 section is $40,483,979. The land in cultivation is 1,994,458 acres ; the 
 horses number 100,574 ; the mules, 10,367 ; the cattle, 199,146 ; sheep, 
 70,285 ; swine, 523,683 ; while the wheat product (estimating as befwe 
 for certain counties that have not made returns) is 8,722,105 bushels, and 
 corn 20,698,982 bushels. The acreage in cultivated timber is 62,769, and 
 of fruit there are 967,457 apple trees, 30,445 pear trees, 1,209,957 peach 
 trees, 96,738 plum trees, and 185,485 cherry trees, 158,367 grapevines, 
 and 5497 miles of live hedge. 
 
 From the grazing-region west the statistics are not sufficiently complete 
 to warrant their setting forth, though here reside the balance of the pop- 
 ulation (the census of the State for 1879 gives the total population as 
 386,410, against 122,993 in 1870, or an increase during the nine years of 
 201 per cent., which is something unprecedented in the history of agri- 
 cultural settlement, and most convincing ' testimony to the excellence of 
 the land), the chief industry being the raising of beef-cattle in immense 
 herds, though in the valleys there is considerable farming, and as settle- 
 
186 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ment proceeds and pioneers push westward the whole State will be de- 
 voted to farming. 
 
 The figures which are given must show those who want homes in the 
 "West that they cannot settle in a better State than Nebraska. There is 
 enougli and to spare for all the people, and an accumulation of wealth 
 marvellous in so young a State. Those who have money to invest largely 
 in stock may go to the grazing plains; those whose means are more 
 moderate should take a farm ; while those who propose to engage ia trade 
 and manufactures will find openings in one or other of the towns. Ne- 
 braska is, and will always be, to a great extent, an agricultural country, 
 deriving its wealth from the soil. But there is. money invested in manu- 
 factures of various kinds, and there is room for more, especially in the 
 manufactures which are connected with agriculture, as wagon- and car- 
 riage-making, agricultural implements, starch, pork-packing, and dairy 
 products. A large field is indeed open, which only needs capital and in- 
 telligence and skill to develop. 
 
 THE CENTEE OF THE EAILEOADS OF THE COTTNTEY. 
 
 The railroad system of Nebraska permeates the State and strikes out 
 over the continent, east, west, north, and south, to the seaboard. Wher- 
 ever there is a market for the surplus products of the State, there are 
 railroads to that market. No State at Nebraska's stage of growth has 
 ever before had such railroad, facilities for the development of State com- 
 merce and foreign trade, through the Pacific roads west and through the 
 gate-cities of Omaha, Plattsmouth, and Nebraska City east and south- 
 east. Nor is this all. A new. era of railroad-building seems to have 
 come to the State, and more railroads will still be built, until there shall 
 not be a corner of it which shall not be penetrated by the iron way, the 
 modern highway of nations, and bring all the people, as will be seen 
 is largely the case at present, into direct communication with Lincoln, 
 the State capital. 
 
 SCHOOL SYSTEM OP THE STATE. 
 
 Nebraska provides liberally for the education of the young. In the 
 first place, there is the common-school system, which penetrates every- 
 where. There is a normal school for the training of teachers at Peru, in 
 Nemaha county ; and at the head of the State system is the University at 
 Lincoln, where the higher education, after the payment of matriculation- 
 fees, is free to students. The educational endowments, as shown by the 
 statistics presented to the Legislature in January, 1879, comprise common- 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 
 
 187 
 
 school land, 2,443,148 acres; agricultural-college land, 89,452 acres; 
 university land, 45,119 acres; normal-school land, 12,800 acres; and the 
 school fund in money, $2,120,182 ; the revenue applied to common school 
 purposes for the year 1878 amounting to $629,068. The common schools 
 grow with the State, as the following table will show : , 
 
 GROWTH OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 Tears. 
 
 Av. No. 
 days of 
 School. 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 Value of 
 School Property. 
 
 1870 
 1872 
 1874 
 1876 
 1878 
 
 46 
 79 
 88 
 90 
 92 
 
 797 
 1410 
 2215 
 2513 
 2690 
 
 32,789 
 
 51,123 
 
 72,991 
 
 ^ 86,191 
 
 104,030 
 
 536 
 1512 
 2735 
 3366 
 3730 
 
 $178,604 
 817,163 
 1,553,926 
 1,585,736 
 1,806,466 
 
 Besides the public provision, the Episcopalians have a college for girls, 
 Brownell Hall at Omaha ; and for boys. Bishop Talbot College at Ne- 
 braska City. The Catholics have a noble college at Omaha; the Con- 
 gregationalists, one at Crete, in Saline county ; and the M. E. Church is 
 about to erect a college at York in York county. The State institution for 
 the deaf and dumb is at Omaha, and for the blind at Nebraska City. The 
 sum of the account is, that every child in Nebraska has within reach a 
 sound education which shall fit him or her to perform the duties of life. 
 
 STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The capital is at Lincoln, and work is just now being commenced upon 
 an addition to the present State-house, the Legislature at its latest session 
 having voted $60,000 for the purpose. The University, a fine Italian 
 building, is also in Lincoln, and the State Insane Asylum is about two 
 miles away, located in a charming country ; the penitentiary, which is a 
 castellated structure, is about one and a half miles from Lincoln; the 
 Blind Asylum is at Nebraska City, and a Deaf and Dumb Institute at 
 Omaha; and a reform school is to be erected at Kearney. 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES FOB ACQUIltiNG LAND. 
 
 There are millions of acres of government land yet open to pre-emption, 
 homestead, and timber-culture entries in Nebraska, but those who want 
 these will have to go considerably west. All over the State the public- 
 school lands are offered for sale and lease. The quantities are named in 
 
188 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 a preceding paragraph, and information with regard to them may be ob- 
 tained by writing to F. M. Davis, State Commissioner of Public Lands 
 and Buildings, at Lincoln, Nebraska. The minimum price at which these 
 lands are sold is seven dollars per acre, on twenty years' time, at six per 
 cent, interest, and leases are on appraised values. During the years 1877 
 and 1878 the lands sold were 26,819 acres, and leased 100,918, and the 
 sales and leases during this year are doubling upon these figures. 
 
 VTSIO'S PACirC EAILEOAD LANDS. 
 
 For detailed information about these lands written or personal appli- 
 cation should be made to the Land Commissioner U. P. E. E,., Omaha, 
 Nebraska. This company owns three million acres of fertile lands in 
 Central and Western Nebraska, which are sold for cash, or on a credit 
 of ten years at six per cent, interest, with gradual payments of principal 
 and interest. The prices range from two to ten dollars per acre, on ten 
 years' credit, "according to quality, location, timber, and nearness to 
 market;" and a deduction of ten per cent, from credit prices is made 
 to cash purchasers. 
 
 BUELINGTON AND MISSOTTEI EIVEE EAILEOAD LANDS. 
 
 For detailed information about these lands address or apply to the Land 
 Commissioner B. and M. R. R., Lincoln, Nebraska. This company has 
 remaining of its la!bd grant of more than two million acres about one 
 million acres south of the Platte River, in the rich south-eastern section 
 and in the north-eastern section north of the Platte. The north-eastern 
 lands, of which there are about six hundred and fifty thousand acres, 
 range from one to six dollars per acre, on ten years' time, with discount 
 from these prices on six years' and two years' credit, and for cash. The 
 balance of the B. and M. lands in South-eastern Nebraska are sold at 
 from three to ten dollars on ten years' credit, with discounts off for 
 cash or shorter time of credit. The reader will perceive that there are 
 still opportunities to acquire homes and farms in Nebraska in United 
 States government land. State land, and railroad land, free or on exceed- 
 ingly low terms; but the progress made by the State, as its history 
 demonstrates, is proof enough that only a short time will elapse before 
 the era of cheap lands is closed for ever. 
 
NEBRASKA AND ITS RESOURCES. 189 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM AN ARTICLE BY GEO. TILDEN, M. D., OF OMAHA. 
 
 IN a new State the subject of malarial diseases is one of vital import- 
 ance. Prominent among the causes and conditions of this class 
 of affections may be mentioned a fertile soil, luxuriant vegetation, and 
 poor drainage. Our soil is extremely rich and our vegetation most 
 abundant, but the other condition, poor drainage, is not present 
 
 The atmosphere is very pure and dry, and prevents the pernicious mias- 
 matic effects which usually result from decaying animal and vegetable 
 matter. Nebraska has less malarial disease than any Western or South- 
 western State. Indeed, cases of this class are very rare, and when they 
 do occur are mild in character and yield very readily to simple treat- 
 ment. 
 
 In regard to epidemics, I think I may very safely assert that there 
 never has been in this State an epidemic of any kind ; even scarlet fever 
 and measles have never appeared here epidemically. 
 
 The vital statistics of the United States for the year 1870 set forth a 
 fact of the highest importance to us relative to consumption. These statis- 
 tics, together with our own, show with mathematical certainty that this is 
 the most, favorable State in the Union for the prevention, control, and 
 treatment of this great scourge. Here, in proportion to the population. 
 Consumption shows her smallest bills of mortality. But this authoritative 
 statement will not surprise in the least those who have resided here for 
 the last ten or fifteen years and given any attention to the subject. They 
 have stoutly contended that this is the most favorable spot for those pre- 
 disposed to this malady ; and time and observation and the faithful record 
 of facts have more than confirmed their most sanguine expectations and 
 assertions. .... 
 
 It matters not how warm and oppressive the day may be, the night is 
 cool and delightful. Sleep, the great restorer of the mental and physical 
 energies, is never disturbed by an oppressively warm atmosphere. In 
 fine, the atmosphere of Nebraska is very pure, clear, dry, elastic, and 
 bracing, and prpmotes in a high degree mental and physical axjtivity and 
 development. Take the seasons as they come and go, and average them, 
 and no State can make such goodly promises as this for health, develop- 
 ment, and longevity. 
 
NEW MEXICO. 
 
 BY GEN. LEW WALLACE, GOVERNOR. 
 
 THERE are three interests in New Mexico worthy consideration — the 
 mineral, the grazing or pastoral, and the agricultural — and they may 
 be said to constitute the resources of the Territory, as manufacturing is 
 confined almost exclusively to jewelry, of which very exquisite work in 
 filigree is produced in Santa F6, mostly from gold and silver native to 
 the Territory. 
 
 AGEICULTUEE. 
 
 Agriculture in New Mexico is yet in its primitive condition. The 
 wooden plough of the Mexican fathers holds preference with the majority 
 of farmers. Development is barely suiBcient to serve anticipation. Corn, 
 wheat, oats, barley, and the table vegetables generally are raised with a 
 view to the home market, which is quite limited. Corn is produced best 
 in the valleys along the banks of streams. I have seen wheat- and oat- 
 fields six and seven thousand feet above the sea-level as rich as any in 
 Illinois and Minnesota. It is not possible to state even approximately 
 the area of such productions. All irrigable lands, wherever they may 
 be in the Territory, belong to the productive or farming class. The depth 
 of the soil is something wonderful. With rains as in the Mississippi 
 Valley, the results of intelligent labor would astonish" the world ; as it 
 is, no one thinks of land for cultivation except it be irrigable. In this 
 sense water is king. 
 
 THE EIO GEANDE VALLEY. 
 
 The river Rio Grande gives name to the lowlands along its shores, 
 which, running north and south nearly four himdred miles, have an 
 average width of five miles. The soil is light, warm, sandy, and sur- 
 passingly rich. Putting the soil, river, and climate together, the Rio 
 
 190 
 
NEW MEXICO. 191 
 
 Grande Valley is more nearly a duplication of the region of the Nile 
 than any other of which I have knowledge. 
 
 Not more than one-tenth of the soil is actually occupied. A consid- 
 erable portion of it is unfortunately covered by grants claimed or con- 
 firmed. , Fruits are favorite articles of production. Peaches, pears, apri- 
 cots, apples, grapes succeed admirably, though in most instances, and 
 notably with exception of the grape, the varieties are the poorest. In- 
 deed, the word " variety " can scarcely be applied to them. The grape 
 is free from disease, and affords wines which are in growing demand 
 abroad. With skilled labor and capital to enable manufacturers to carry 
 their wine a sufficient time, no portion of the country, not excepting 
 California, will surpass this valley in this line of production. 
 
 In all instances, and whatever the crop, the dependence of the farmer 
 is upon the river, which, when irrigation is thoroughly systematized,' will 
 be found furnishing an ample supply of water. Iron piping will then 
 take the place of the open acequias and the area of planting be vastly 
 increased. 
 
 The wonder is that more attention has not been given this part of the 
 country by people East seeking investments in landed property. One 
 gentleman I have heard of near Mesilla, in Dofia Ana county, who clears 
 annually quite ten thousand dollars from the fruit-products of twenty 
 acres. Paying vineyards are also to be found at Bernalillo and Albu- 
 querque. 
 
 THE PECOS EIVEE VALLEY. 
 
 This valley, deriving its name from the river Pecos, is not so thickly 
 settled as its rival of the Rio Grande. The lands there are almost en- 
 tirely occupied for grazing purposes. A good supply of water is obtain- 
 able from the Pecos River and its tributaries, and every inch to which it 
 can be carried will respond richly to the plough. Its advantage is in the 
 absence of land grants, and, like the Rio Grande, it is blessed with a 
 climate most healthful and delightful. 
 
 THE MESILLA VALLEY. 
 
 The beautiful region bearing this name should have a special mention 
 by itself, but, to economize space, I have thought best to treat it as a part 
 of the Rio Grande Valley. Agriculturally considered, it is the same. 
 
 CATTLE- AND SHEEP-GKAZING. 
 
 Off the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers there are vast tracts of table- 
 lands, called mesas, which are to be distinguished from the mountains 
 
192 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and valleys. They are too high for irrigation, yet they yield grasses of 
 the richest kind for subsistence of cattle and sheep — grasses that cure 
 themselves in the standing stalk. 
 
 The varieiy of these mesa-tops permitting, as on the mountain-sides, 
 the growth only of grass and cedar and pifion trees — the latter invaluable 
 for shelter of animals, particularly in winter — will for ever limit their 
 use to grazing. The ranges they offer cannot be excelled for that purpose ; 
 adding them to the ranges on the mountain-sides, the vastness of accom- 
 modations for feeding cattle, sheep, and horses can be appreciated. The 
 inexpensiveness of the mode is well understood. 
 
 The old dispute as to which is the more profitable, cattle-raising or 
 sheep-raising, is yet unsettled, each having very intelligent and practical 
 adherents. 
 
 That New Mexico has not her proper place in the meat- and wool- 
 markets of the United States may be set down to causes now very soon 
 to disappear. They are — first, difficulties with Indians ; second, the in- 
 ferior quality of the stock, no attention whatever having been given by 
 owners to importation of blooded animals ; third, other localities, claim- 
 ing original shipments, have been largely credited with the products due 
 this Territory. 
 
 I regret not having statistics to enable me to give the quantity of wool 
 produced or the number of cattle and sheep in ownership. The results 
 in either case would be astonishing to those who know little or nothing 
 about New Mexico, who are in the habit of regarding it as chiefly de- 
 sirable on account of its climate. The increase of both sheep and cattle 
 is constant, and the improvement of breeds is becoming more and more 
 noticeable. 
 
 THE MUSTEEALS OF NEW MEXICO. 
 
 Notwithstanding the adverse judgment of Lieutenant Wheeler in his 
 very able report for 1876, I am of opinion that New Mexico will come 
 quite up with her neighbors in the yield of precious metals. A variety 
 of causes have heretofore contributed to prevent her thorough explora- 
 tion for such wealth. Both Mexicans and Indians are indifferent to dis- 
 coveries in this line ; in fact, the latter yet make it a capital offence to 
 show a prospector anything of the kind. A Pueblo might be induced 
 to part with his eye-teeth ; no inducement could prevail upon him to 
 take a white man to a mine ; and in the hands of these people the golden 
 keys have been held in tight grip ever since the expulsion of the Span- 
 iards. Hence the ignorance prevalent with respect to the mineral riches 
 
NEW MEXICO. • 193 
 
 of the Territory, and the heretofore utter failure of attempts at their de- 
 velopment. It is absurd to say that an arbitrary geographical line marks 
 a silver or gold limit. With productive mining districts on the south, 
 west, and north, and with geological formations identically the same, the 
 best of the scientists will be hard put to to give a- reason why New Mex- 
 ico is barren, and Chihuahua, Arizona, and Colorado are rich beyond 
 computation, in gold, silver, copper,' and galena. And now every day is 
 settling the question. The genuine prospector is here, and come to stay. 
 He is in the mountains everywhere. Bugbear stories do not stop him, 
 neither do land grants, rattlesnakes, bears, or painted Indians. He has 
 discovered and adopted the burro as a friend, comrade, and servant. The 
 consequence is new "finds" every day in out-of-the-way places. All 
 mining history is divisible into two parts — the era of prospecting and 
 the era of production. In New Mexico we have just entered upon the 
 former ; five years will bring us to the latter. What can be had cheap 
 to-day will then cost a fortune. Men seeking mining investments are 
 welcome to the hint. There are more traces and signs of ancient mining 
 in New Mexico than in either Colorado or Arizona. 
 
 Already enough is known to warrant the assertion that the Territory 
 is well stored with gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, zinc, mica, gypsum, 
 coal, marble, precious stones, and stone of every variety for building. 
 
 EESOUECES OF NEW MEXICO. 
 
 BY L. BEADFOED PKINCE, CHIEF-JUSTICE OP THE TEEEITOEY. 
 
 IN writing a general letter to old friends on Long Island on this subject 
 last spring, I said that there was no opening at all for men without 
 some means — ^that mechanics, clerks, and laboring-men could find no ade- 
 quate field of labor. This was based on the fact that the wants of the 
 native population are generally few and easily satisfied, that as a rule they 
 are far from rich, that they have little desire for new houses, and that 
 whatever building was progressing was in adobe, with which our mechan- 
 ics were unacquainted ; and, as to clerks and laborers, that there were 
 more men than places already. This was entirely true then, but the cir- 
 13 « 
 
194 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 cumstances are since somewhat changed by the advance of the railroad. 
 The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F^ line has now not only reached Las 
 Vegas, but is pressing with all the speed that enterprise and full resources 
 can impart to the Rio Grande, which it is expected to reach by Christmas. 
 It brings with it a new and active population and a great change in con- 
 ditions. Las Vegas is to-day one of the busiest towns in the country — 
 full of active, bustling, restless AWrican life. A hundred and fifty 
 houses have been built in six weeks, and there is a constant struggle now 
 to procure mechanics for rapid future improvements. The haste to build 
 may be exemplified by the fact that I counted twenty-four carpenters on 
 the roof of one half-finished hotel, all busily engaged at the same time 
 in shingling. 
 
 These circumstances of course present a field for mechanics, and I 
 believe that the advance of the railroad will cause this field to increase 
 rather than diminish for the next two or three years. Carpenters, masons, 
 painters, and plasterers can all find employment in considerable number ; 
 but especially carpenters, as houses must be built, but painting and plaster- 
 ing are matters of not such immediate necessity. A few cabinetmakers, 
 who can make and repair the furniture suitable to a new population, can 
 also find profitable employment. These, I think, constitute all the classes 
 of men without any capital who would do well to come to New Mexico 
 at present. There is no lack of common laborers or of young men fitted 
 ' to be store-clerks. 
 
 And now for the branches of business in which those with some money 
 can profitably engage. 
 
 SHBEP-EAISING. 
 
 I mention this first, because it is the most important industry of the 
 Territory. It extends from the extreme east on the head-waters of the 
 Canadian River to the San Juan coimtry in the far north-west. The 
 sheep of New Mexico are to be counted by the million, and yet there is 
 plenty of room for new enterprises both as to number and quality. To 
 commence the business properly requires a capital of five thousand dol- 
 lars, which will buy two thousand sheep and provide for all necessary 
 ' expenses until a regular income is derived from the flock. No business 
 can be safer, surer, or more healthful ; but, like all others, it requires 
 work and attention, and if any one thinks that sheep-raising is to be 
 conducted profitably by living in town and having flocks roaming the 
 prairies under irresponsible herdsmen, without personal attention, he had 
 better remain at the East. 
 
NEW MEXICO. 195 
 
 CATTLE-EAISIISrG. 
 
 An immense field for this branch of industry is still open in New 
 Mexico, and it can be surely successful under the same conditions as with 
 sheep-raising. The profits are greater, but it requires a larger capital at 
 the commencement and a longer period before there are returns of income. 
 
 PEUIT-EAIBING. 
 
 The whole valley of the Eio Grande from Santa F6 to Socorro is ad- 
 mirably adapted to fruit-culture, and so are other portions of the Territory. 
 Plums and apricots flourish considerably to the north of Santa F6, and 
 grapes — of which I will speak separately — ^to the extreme south of the 
 Territory. It is only within a few years that fine varieties of fruit have 
 been introduced from the Eastern States, but the perfection in which they 
 can be raised here, and the size which they attain, are extraordinary. The 
 flavor of fruits here appears to be much higher than in California. Until 
 now it has been useless to extend the culture largely, as there was no ade- 
 quate market for the products ; but now that there will soon be direct 
 communication by rail with Kansas and Colorado, the valley of the Rio 
 Grande will become the great orchard of the West. Any good fruit- 
 culturist coming now to New Mexico and establishing orchards in that 
 fertile valley, will find an immense market open by the time his trees 
 are in bearing, and cannot fail to reap a profitable reward. 
 
 VINEYAEDS AND WINE-MAKING. 
 
 For years the grapes and vines of El Paso have been celebrated, but 
 this gives but a small idea of the extent of this vineyard-region or of the 
 future importance of this branch of industry. The Eio Grande Valley 
 from Bernalillo down to the Mexican line is naturally a grape-growing 
 region, and vineyards are already in full bearing at all the important 
 points, and at some have existed for more than two hundred years. The 
 finest varieties of both native and foreign grapes succeed admirably, so 
 that raising the fruit for immediate shipment will be a most excellent 
 business within two years, when the railroad shall have made transporta- 
 tion swift and easy. It is none too soon now to arrange the vineyards 
 for this approaching trade, as the demand will be enormous before vines 
 planted this fall or next spring come to bearing. The grape now ordina- 
 rily grown, and of which vineyards of full size can be purchased if de- 
 sired, produces an excellent wine largely used at present in the Territory, 
 and which will no doubt find a market abroad as soon as the railroad is 
 
196 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 completed. Unless all reports are false, this is the finest vineyard coun- 
 try in America, the climate allowing the growth of many varieties too 
 tender for the North, while the flavor is higher than in Californian 
 grapes. The present native wine is said to carry more than an ordinary 
 amount of spirits, and to produce an excellent brandy at small cost. It 
 is stated by those whose judgment in such matters is reliable that a com- 
 petent distiller can do a large and profitable business by buying the native 
 wine and distilling brandy therefrom. 
 
 MAEKET-GAEDENS. 
 
 While a great proportion of the land in the Territory is adapted to 
 grazing, yet there are beautiful valleys of extraordinary fertility where 
 enormous crops can be raised on small areas. Such are the valleys of 
 Mora and Taos, part of the Pecos Valley, ete. These present just the 
 field adapted to German market-gardeners, for whose products the new 
 hotels and advancing tide of population will make a ready market. 
 
 And here I will mention one specific want which a few enterprising 
 persons can soon remedy with profit to themselves and benefit to the com- 
 munity. I refer to chickens and eggs. These are very scarce, no one 
 apparently making it a business to raise them ; and any one engaging in 
 the business can find a ready sale for a quantity practically unlimited. 
 
 WOOLLEN-MILLS. 
 
 Turning from farm-products to manufactures, the most profitable in- 
 vestment in the latter connection would be a woollen-mill. Wool is the 
 great product of New Mexico. It is here in inexhaustible quantities, 
 and at present is all transported East at a very heavy expense to be man- 
 ufactured. Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico itself, present 
 a vast market for woollen products, which are now brought from the East- 
 ern factories ; so the wool raised here pays a double freight before it ar- 
 rives at the West again, to be used in the form of blankets, carpets, and 
 clothing. It is obvious that mills on the ground would save all this ex- 
 pense, and that their business could not fail to be profitable. It may be 
 added that in the few manufacturing experiments tried here it has been 
 demonstrated that the native boys make excellent factory-hands. 
 
 TANNERIES. 
 
 In this land of hides, sheep-skins, and fancy skins there are no tanner- 
 ies. Everything is sent away for that purpose. The extra freight on the 
 useless weight thus transported is itself a large item. Of fancy skins 
 
NEW MEXICO. 197 
 
 there is a great variety, including bears, mountain-lions, beavers, red and 
 gray foxes, wolves, minks, etc., all of which when tanned are readily 
 sold and command good prices ; but at present they have to be sent long 
 distances for tanning. I know of two lots very recently sent to New 
 York for that purpose, thus entailing the expense of five thousand miles 
 of transportation to and fro. A tannery established here, where the 
 hides and skins could be brought directly to the door, could not fail to 
 be largely profitable, even though the tanning material had to be brought 
 from other places. 
 
 BEICKMAKEHS. 
 
 In various parts of the Territory there is good brick-clay, and from 
 this time forward large quantities of bricks will be wanted. A practical 
 brickmaker cannot fail to be successful. 
 
 BANKING. 
 
 By far the finest opportunity for an investment of capital, by those 
 who do not wish hard work, is a bank in Las Vegas. A national bank 
 is greatly wanted there, and would be very profitable. The business of 
 the town is already very large, and as an immense section of country is 
 now and must continue io be tributary to Las Vegas, it will undoubtedly 
 increase. The immediate deposits would be considerable, and the oppor- 
 tunities for safe loans are abundant. The lowest bank-rate in the Terri- 
 tory is one and a half per cent, a month ; and a careful inquiry as to the 
 success of other banks here and the business condition of Las Vegas 
 leads me to say confidently that no such opportunity for a safe and prof- 
 itable investment of capital exists to-day in the whole country as in the 
 establishment of a national bank at that city. 
 
 MINING. 
 
 I have reserved this for the last, as it is probably the most interesting 
 topic of this letter. Almost every section of New Mexico abounds in 
 " mineral," and the amount of gold, silver, copper, coal, and mica within 
 its limits may be called incalculable. I will not enumerate all the local- 
 ities, but venture the assertion that in less than five years New Mexico 
 will be the great field of American mining enterprise. All that is wanted 
 now is development. The gold-mines of Colfax county are practically 
 useless until the conclusion of the pending foreclosure of the mortgage 
 on the Maxwell land grant sets free the belt of rich mining-lands within 
 its limits. The same is true of gold, copper, and mica on the Mora grant, 
 
198 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 now in process of partition. These two great grants, together containing 
 about two million six hundred thousand acres, have been standing right 
 in the gateway of immigration into the Territory as a kind of barrier, 
 but the next few months will no doubt see the title of each settled, and 
 this vast extent of land, embracing mineral, farming, and grazing dis- 
 tricts, thrown open to American energy and enterprise. All through the 
 Territory excellent prospects exist, but all need development. The pla- 
 cers contain millions of dollars in gold-dust, but in general cannot be 
 worked for want of water, which can only be obtained at considerable 
 expense. By meeting that expense an immense return could be ensured. 
 
 The Cerillos silver-mines are in a most encouraging condition, but need 
 capital for development. They are situated on the very hillsides from 
 which the Spaniards extracted unknown millions centuries ago, until the 
 enslaved Indians arose and drove them from the land, and endeavored to 
 destroy every trace of their sufferings by filling up the mines in which 
 they had labored. 
 
 At the Cerillos are dozens of claims showing excellent veins of " min- 
 eral," but very few of the prospectors have the money with which to sink 
 shafts to the distance necessary for profitable results. Around Silver City 
 and Shakespeare there is much mining enterprise, but everywhere there 
 is a necessity for more capital for development. Reports come daily of 
 rich new discoveries, which can no doubt generally be taken with some 
 grains of allowance ; but this much is true, that but a moderate portion 
 of the Territory has been prospected at all, and that the indications are 
 that a short time will develop fields of mining industry which will give 
 profitable employment for thousands of men and millions of capital. 
 
 Coal is found in large quantities and of excellent quality in several 
 sections of the Territory. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fg Railroad 
 Company recently bought a considerable section of coal-land belonging 
 to the government, but there is still room for plenty of private enter- 
 prise in this direction. 
 
 THE PROFESSIONS. 
 
 Many professional men, lawyers and physicians, inquire as to the 
 chances for successful practice here. To these I can only say that there 
 is always plenty of professional business for those who are competent and 
 skilful, who obtain the confidence of the community, and who really 
 mean in good faith to labor zealously in their professions. The bar of 
 New Mexico is second in ability to that of few of the States. No one 
 should come with the idea that he is going to find an inferior degree of 
 
NEW MEXICO. 199 
 
 talent here, but yet there is room for a few more lawyers of the right 
 kind. The same may be said as to physicians ; with the addition, that 
 the increasing population of course requires more medical attendance, and 
 that there are country towns of considerable size which at present have 
 no qualified physician. 
 
 Thus I have sketched as briefly as I could some of the business oppor- 
 tunities and something of the industrial situation in New Mexico* I 
 shall add here that the climate, which is altogether the finest in the 
 country, will allow thousands of those who are invalids at the East to 
 ^ engage in active business here. Especially to those ha-ving weak lungs it 
 presents great advantages. Here they can raise vineyards and orchards 
 if they do not care to risk the roughness of life on a ranche. The 
 medicinal and hot springs at Las Vegas, now under control of the rail- 
 road company, which is making rapid improvements, will be a resort 
 giving the advantages of Eastern watering-place life to the families of 
 such residents as desire it before next summer. And — what ls perhaps 
 of the greatest importance to those proposing to locate here, and presents 
 a marked contrast to attempted settlement in the Southern States — they 
 will find the native population polite, generous, and hospitable almost to 
 a fault, with no dislike or distrust of newcomers of the proper class, but 
 inclined to welcome good citizens from wheresoever they come. Con- 
 sidering the circumstances of the case, and the character of some of the 
 first Americans who came to the Territory, it is really surprising that so 
 much goodwill should be felt by the so-called " Mexican " population 
 toward the newcomer ; but it certainly does exist, and those who choose 
 to make New Mexico their home, and who are entitled to respect and con- 
 fidence, will find a welcome anywhere in the Territory, and need have no 
 fear of being branded as " carpet-baggers " or ostracized from society. 
 
WYOMING. 
 
 BY HON. JOHN "W. HOYT, GOVEKNOE. 
 
 SSENEEY. 
 
 WYOMING scenery is a subject for poet and painter. One sees much 
 of the poorest of it in travelling over the great Pacific Railroad, 
 and some that is sure to enkindle his enthusiasm. It is much to live in 
 the presence of beautiful and magnificent surroundings, for Nature at her 
 best exerts a most refining and elevating influence. -SIsthetic and moral 
 culture is the priceless product of her teaching. 
 
 Many a Wyoming herdsman grazes his cattle and many a shepherd 
 watches his flock in the midst of scenery that would challenge the genius 
 of a Turner or Salvator. He is the better for it, and the children who 
 play about his cabin-door and gambol on the bank of the beautiful stream 
 flowing past will be the better citizens for these silent lessons. I cannot 
 here attempt even to locate these glories of the landscape ; one finds them 
 on every mountain-side and in nearly every valley. When better known 
 they wili make of Wyoming, including that "wonderland" the great 
 National Park, a region of resort for pleasure-seekers from every part 
 of the world. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 A very large proportion of the population consists of former residents 
 of the New England and Middle States. Of the foreign population (not 
 large) the majority are German. In the coal-mines at Evanston and Rock 
 Springs, and the Atlantic City coal-mines, are considerable numbers of 
 Chinese. There are also some persons of this nationality at several of 
 the larger towns along the railway, the whole number in the Territory 
 aggregating four or five hundred. 
 
 The great majority of the population occupy the sixty-nine towns, 
 villages, and stations along the Union Pacific Railroad. The remainder 
 are found at South Pass, Atlantic, Miners' Delight, Lander — all in the 
 
 200 
 
GIANT'S BUTTE, GREEN RIVEE. 
 
WYOMING. 201 
 
 region of the Wind River Mountains; at Centennial, Douglas Creek, 
 Snowy Range, and other mining points in and about the Medicine Bow 
 and Seminole Mountains; at the several military posts, in the settle- 
 ments on the Bear River and its tributaries in South-western Wy- 
 oming, and on numerous isolated ranches throughout the southern and 
 middle portions of the Territory. 
 
 The two great branches of industry are the pastoral and mining. The 
 bulk of capital employed is invested in live-stock, though much of the 
 population and a good deal of the mercantile business are in some way 
 connected with the mining industry, manufacturing, and the business of 
 transportation. The Pacific Railroad Company alone has on its pay-rolls 
 and connected with its extensive operations — machine-shops, rolling-mills, 
 stations, and mines included — quite a percentage of the laboring popula- 
 tion. These of course occupy the towns and villages along the line. 
 
 Of the capitalists engaged in the stock-business and mining, very nearly 
 the whole numbelb also live in the towns, even though their mines or 
 ranches should be two or more hundred miles in the interior. The herd- 
 ers, and they who, as foremen, have immediate oversight of the herds and 
 flocks or mines, live on the' ranches or in the camps of necessity, but the 
 proprietors, with few exceptions, reside upon the railway, and with their 
 teams go and come as interest demands. In the towns they are the men 
 who, with the merchants, prominent men of the trades, and professional 
 men, mould society and govern in public affairs. Hence it is well for the 
 Territory that they are almost universally men of character, intelligence, 
 and foresight ; men who, having the beginnings of fortunes at the East, 
 have come out here to enlarge them more rapidly than was possible there; 
 men of former means and position, who during the financial storms of 
 these recent years suffered partial wreck and sought a field wherein to 
 recuperate their failing fortunes ; young men, members of first families, 
 who feeling the pinch of close quarters in New York, Philadelphia, and 
 Boston, and desiring to breathe the freer air of the great West, have 
 taken a sum modest or large as convenient, and are here for the threefold 
 advantage of increase in wealth, invigoration of health, and the indescri- 
 bable charms of a frontier-life under sunny skies and in the midst of sub- 
 lime surroundings ; ambitious graduates of Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, 
 and other colleges, who were willing to postpone entrance upon their life- 
 pursuits until they had first felt the inspiring touch of Nature and laid a 
 foundation for future independence ; men also of special culture in litera- 
 ture or science, who, for the time at least, have left the unremunerative 
 life of research, that they may divide a few years of time between the 
 
202 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 pleasures of private study and the building of a little fortune. All these 
 are here, and for the greater part are realizing their most sanguine expec- 
 tations. 
 
 The other classes are common to all communities, though an unusually 
 large proportion of those who compose them are characterized by a special 
 energy, tact, and enterprise. 
 
 As a matter of simple justice to a people who are still suffering, in the 
 judgment of a remote public, for the sins of unworthy forerunners, whom 
 they long since succeeded, — for this reason and none other I deem it pro- 
 per to represent the present population of Wyoming as being especially 
 characterized not only by courage, keenness, enterprise, and energy, but 
 also by a most commendable love of good order and by a liberality of 
 sentiment rarely found in any community. 
 
 EEPOET OF THE SUEVEYOE-GENEEAL, 
 
 EDWAED C. DAVID. 
 
 GENEEAL DESCEIPTION. 
 
 THE area of Wyoming is 97,883 square miles, of which 9,000,000 acres 
 are surveyed into sections and 42,638 acres are improved. The real and 
 personal property amoimts to $20,000,000, the population is 30,000, and 
 the towns and villages number 69. There are extensive forests, coal- 
 fields, gold-bearing lands, and mines of silver, copper, iron, graphite and 
 sulphur ; also extensive deposits of soda and inexhaustible springs of pe- 
 troleum. Minerals, timber, and stock constitute the principal resources. 
 A large supply of cattle, horses, sheep, and wool is sold in this Territory 
 or shipped to the East annually. The pure air, dry climate, mild win- 
 ters, and nutritious grasses render the advantages in stock-raising unri- 
 valled, and it is becoming a great soiu'ce of wealth to the settlers. The 
 cattle feed and fatten upon the short but nutritious bunch- and gramma- 
 grasses of the Plains in winter and summer, without shelter, as has been 
 proven during many past winters. The favorite wintering-ground of 
 the herders and shepherds is along the east slope of the Laramie Moun- 
 tains, at an altitude of about four thousand five hundred feet above sea- 
 level, and their herds are generally healthy and fat even in winter. The 
 annual loss in cattle, from all causes, is only two per cent., and the cost 
 per head for keeping a herd of ten thousand is not more than one dollar. 
 A profit of one hundred per cent, has been realized in investments in 
 
WYOMING. 203 
 
 cattle, and the profits are never less than twenty per cent. Butter and 
 cheese are beginning to be extensively made for the home supply. The 
 number of cattle in Wyoming is 300,000, and yet the wide pastures in 
 Northern Wyoming are unoccupied, though as large as Pennsylvania, 
 and a choice portion of the Territory. Here the valleys are productive 
 and beautiful, and the meadows are of surprising richness and almost 
 endless succession. Thousands of square miles in the valleys of Powder 
 Eiver and its branches are found to be susceptible of producing all the 
 cereals with irrigation, and in many places without irrigation in favorable 
 seasons. For more than one hundred miles there is a succession of crys- 
 tal trout-streams, fringed with timber. The late occupation of this re- 
 gion by the Indians has prevented it from being sooner settled. The 
 number of sheep in Wyoming is 200,000, and they are often wintered 
 by grazing. The number of horses is 20,000. The North Platte basin 
 contains 8,000,000 acres of pasturage, with lasting streams and good shel- 
 ter in the bluffs and canons ; and this area would feed 8,000,000 sheep, 
 yielding 4,000,000 pounds of wool, worth $6,000,000. The Laramie 
 Plains, nearly one hundred miles wide, and once the favorite resort of the 
 buffalo, are now occupied by herders and shepherds in all seasons, and 
 here they are near the great forests of pine and the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road, and- settlers can obtain iron ore, white marble, building-stone, lime- 
 stone, and fire-clay. The shipment of cattle increases largely every year, 
 and many will be required for the Pacific slope and for the home demand. 
 The quality of cattle has been greatly improved by importing thorough- 
 bred Durham stock. 
 
 The valleys and sloping plains in Northern Wyoming are only of 
 three or four thousand feet altitude, and will prove more desirable to 
 the farmer and stock-raiser than the higher plains along the rail- 
 road. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate of Wyoming is very salubrious, and the impression among 
 the inhabitants of lower altitudes that it is hyperborean and chilled by 
 deep snowdrifts for half the year is erroneous. The mean temperature 
 at Fort Laramie for twenty years has been 50°, the annual rainfall eighteen 
 inches, and the snow, which is light and soon disappears, was of the same 
 annual depth. From observations by army officers at Fort Laramie and 
 Cheyenne, from 1855 through a period of seventeen years, it is proven 
 that these localities have a mean annual temperature corresponding to 
 that of Middle Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, and that the annual 
 and monthly ranges of the thermometer are more moderate than in those 
 
204 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 States. The rainfall seems to range from five to nineteen inches per an- 
 num. The force of the wind is diminished greatly by the mountain-ele- 
 vations. From 1850 to 1855 the average temperature was 49°, the same 
 as at Cheyenne since 1871. Army surgeons and physicians here pro- 
 nounce Wyoming one of- the most healthful portions of the world. The 
 air is light and pure, with sufficient oxygen to exhilarate the nervous sys- 
 tem. The thermometrical changes, though sometimes sudden, are of 
 short duration. Fort Eussell in 1869 gave 55°.78J mean temperature, 
 with cool and bracing evenings and mornings during the summer. The 
 isothermal line of 50° annual mean temperature, from Burlington, Iowa, 
 passes through Fort Laramie and thence to Puget Sound, bearing stead- 
 ily north of west from the Mississippi. Strong and frequent winds in 
 fall and winter are an objectionable feature in the climate, but they are 
 not so prevalent in the mountain-valleys, and never increase to a hurri- 
 cane, as in lower countries. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY. 
 
 The general elevation of the plains and valleys of Southern Wyoming 
 is from five to seven thousand feet above the sea, and the mountains are 
 from one to four thousand feet higher. The altitude of Pine Bluffs is 
 5026 feet ; Cheyenne, 6041 feet ; Sherman, the highest point on the rail- 
 road, 8241 feet ; Laramie City, 7123 ; Medicine Bow, 6550 ; Carbon, 
 6760; Fort Steele, 6840; Creston, 7030; Green River, 6140; and 
 Wahsatch, five miles west of the Wyoming boundary, 6879 feet. The 
 Union Pacific Railroad, on which the above-mentioned towns are im- 
 portant stations, is the chief resource for transportation over the 488 
 miles of its length located in Wyoming, and has an average grade of 
 only four feet per mile. The Laramie, North Platte, and Green 
 Rivers flow through a region supposed to have once been the bed of 
 fresh-water lakes, and now producing but a sparse growth of vegetation, 
 mainly artemisia or sage-brush. Bear River, rising in the Uintah Moun- 
 tains, runs north in a monoelinal valley ; and these rivers, with their 
 tributaries, drain the south half of Wyoming. The north half, sloping 
 north and east, is drained principally by Wind River, the Big and Little 
 Horn, Tongue, Powder, and Cheyenne Rivers — all, except the latter, 
 being confluents of the Yellowstone. 
 
 The Wind River Mountains in the north-west constitute the watershed 
 of the Yellowstone on the north-east, and of Green and Snake Rivers on 
 the south-west, and culminate in the Three Tetons and Fremont's Peak, 
 the latter 13,750 feet high. The Big Horn Mountains are in the central 
 
WYOMING. 205 
 
 portion of Northern Wyoming, and their highest peaks rise above the 
 snow-line. The Carboniferous limestone resembles the older strata, in 
 which are found the silver and galeniferous ores of Utah. The Triassic 
 sandstone contains salt and gypsum. The coal-fields of Wyoming are 
 in the lower Tertiary beds, and hematite iron ore two to fifteen inches 
 thick is found in the same strata. 
 
 COAL. 
 
 The mineral resources of the Territory are vast and varied, and of 
 these coal is the most important. Evanston produces 125,000 tons 
 annually, Eock Springs 144,000, and Carbon 75,000. Coal is found in 
 the Medicine Bow Mountains, Laramie Peak, Separation, the Big Horn 
 Mountains, Eock Creek, Fort Fetterman, Black Buttes, Hallville, Point 
 of Eocks, and at many other points noted by the United States deputy 
 surveyors. Most of the mines extensively worked are on the railroad. 
 The Wyoming coal has but little sulphur, and for domestic use is pre- 
 ferred to the bituminous. It resembles lignite, is brittle, but nearly as 
 compact as anthracite, and is used in Nevada for smelting the silver and 
 lead ores. The Evanston coal has the largest per cent, of carbon, and 
 the stratum is twenty-seven feet thick. On the Missouri Eiver the 
 Wyoming coal is preferred to that of Iowa. There are 267,319 acres 
 of coal-lands already surveyed into sections, and in 1877, 275,000 tons 
 were the product of the mines. 
 
 Magnetic iron ore, in mountain-masses, yielding seventy-two per cent., 
 is found forty miles west of north from Cheyenne, on the east side of 
 Laramie Mountain, to which an easy railroad grade can be obtained. 
 Eed oxide of iron, used in manufacturing metallic paint and the reduc- 
 tion of silver ores, is found, accompanied with strong indications of cop- 
 per, three miles north of Eawlings, and here considerable capital has 
 been used in paint-works. 
 
 GOLD. 
 
 The gold-mines on Douglas Creek in the Medicine Bow Mountains, 
 though yielding only $15 per ton of quartz, are profitably and easily 
 worked, and have valuable improvements. 
 
 Gold is also found on Eock Creek and in the Big Horn, Wind Eiver, 
 and Seminoe Mountains. The area reported in recent surveys is 31,161 
 acres of lands containing gold. In the Sweetwater gold-mines the quartz 
 yields $50 per ton, and a choice specimen from the Seminoe Mines 
 yielded $106 per ton. 
 
206 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 BODA.. 
 
 The soda^lakes in the valley of the Sweetwater are about one hundred 
 in number, with areas of twenty to one hundred acres, and contain 
 deposits of sulphate of soda ten to fifteen feet thick, almost chemically 
 pure, having nineteen per cent, of soda and twenty-four per cent, of 
 sulphuric acid, making forty-three per cent, of sulphate of soda. The 
 largest lake has fifty million cubic feet of soda, and one boring of forty 
 feet did not reach the bottom of the deposit. The water containing the 
 salts rises from the bottom and fills any excavation made, thus rendering 
 the supply inexhaustible. The seven million dollars paid by the United 
 States yearly for a foreign article can be earned by these mines, five of 
 which have been surveyed for the claimants. 
 
 The hot springs in the valley of the North Platte, at the foot of the 
 Medicine Bow Mountains, have been improved as a resort for invalids, 
 and those near Camp Brown are valuable for their medicinal properties. 
 
 There is an oil-spring on the Popo Agie, near the Shoshone lands, of 
 heavy, non-inflammable lubricating oil, which has been surveyed for the 
 claimant, and this oil is preferred by the railroad company. Crude 
 petroleum is also found on Bear, Green, and Wind Rivers. 
 
 Three copper-mines surveyed yield ores largely mixed with lead and 
 silver. 
 
 FOKESTS. 
 
 The forests of Wyoming will furnish to the settlers the means of cheap 
 improvement, and they cover an area of ten million acres. Saw-mills at 
 various points are converting the logs into lumber, the annual product 
 of which is 5,000,000, shingles 3,000,000, and laths 1,000,000, besides 
 500,000 railroad ties and 2,000,000 bushels of charcoal. 
 
 The Snowy Range is covered with vast forests of pine, cedar, fir, 
 spruce, and hemlock, equal to that of Michigan ; and much of this tim- 
 ber is near the railroad. The Medicine Bow, Uintah, Wind River, Big 
 Horn, Wahsatch, and Aspen Mountains are as heavily timbered, and the 
 streams when full in the spring can all be used for rafting saw-logs, 
 wood, ties, posts, and poles to the railroad. The Big and Little Laramie, 
 Rock, Medicine Bow, North Platte, Bear, and Green Rivers and their 
 tributaries can all be utilized for rafting timber to the railroad and for 
 sawing it into lumber, adding prosperity and wealth to the railroad-sta- 
 tions on these streams, and supplying the wants of settlers, of future rail- 
 roads, and of telegraph-lines. There are also pine-lands in the Laramie 
 Mountains and in the north-east and north-west corners of the Territory; 
 
WYOMING. 207 
 
 350,000 railroad cross-ties, 200,000 cords of wood, 1,000,000 feet of saw- 
 logs, and 40,000 fence-poles were cut in one township, and yet this 
 amount of depredation only consumed one-seventh of the dense growth 
 of timber in that township. 
 
 Larger bodies of thrifty timber are annually killed by the firing of 
 dry windfalls by ' mischievous Indians, careless hunters, and lightning 
 than in any other way, and the fires this fall have wasted millions in 
 value. 
 
 AGEICULTTTEE. 
 
 Where the valleys can be irrigated, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, 
 cabbage, turnips, beets, onions, etc. can be raised. The loamy soil is 
 very productive, and oats, barley, and potatoes grow finely and ripen at 
 Laramie City, at an altitude of seven thousand two hundred feet, the 
 potatoes yielding four hundred bushels per acre. Potatoes, beets, onions, 
 asparagus, beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, cab- 
 bage, cauliflower, melons, cucumbers, and squashes are raised at Fort 
 Fetterman. 
 
 Several thousand acres on the Laramie River are irrigated by a canal 
 twelve feet wide 'and twelve miles long. The valleys of the Lodge Pole, 
 Horse Creek, Chugwater, and Laramie River can all be irrigated and 
 made to grow thirty bushels of wheat per acre, and where streams are 
 wanting water can be raised from wells by windmills, as in California, 
 the water being abundant fifteen to thirty feet below the surface, as in 
 the wells at Cheyenne, generally half full of water. A well two hun- 
 dred feet deep filled to within ten feet of the surface. 
 
 CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES. 
 
 Cheyenne, at the junction of the Denver and Union Pacific Railroads, 
 and near the junction of the Colorado Central, is the capital of Wyoming 
 and the county-seat of Laramie county, and has a population of five 
 thousand and an area of one thousand five hundred acres. It has six 
 churches, a large brick high-school building, two large brick hotels, 
 several extensive wholesale establishments, factories for making wagons 
 and carriages and for the manufacture of jewelry, and there are many fine 
 brick residences. It is supplied with water for irrigation by ditches and 
 reservoirs, and by a steam-pump for security against fire. Its trade with 
 freighters, miners, and stock-raisers, and with Camp Carlin and Fort 
 Russell, near it, is extensive, and it is a division station on the railroad. 
 Its average temperature in 1878-79 was — summer 65°.37, rainfall, 1.88 
 
208 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 inches ; autumn, 40°.38, rainfall, 0.33 inch ; winter, 25°.27, rainfall, 0.24 
 inch; spring, 46°..63, rainfall, 1.13 inches. 
 
 Laramie City has 2000 inhabitants, four churches, a very fine school- 
 building, a public library, a hospital costing $12,000, and the machine- 
 shops, rolling-mill, and large hotel of the railroad. It is irrigated with 
 water from the mountains. 
 
 The town of Wyoming has a sawmill for the manufacture of lumber 
 from timber rafted down the Little Laramie. 
 
 Carbon is a mining town of 800 inhabitants, and ships a large amount 
 of coal. 
 
 Green River and Eawlings — ^both county-seats — Eock Springs, Hillard, 
 Bitter Creek, Bryan, and Carter are in a coal and iron region, and are 
 important railroad-stations. 
 
 Evanston has 2000 inhabitants, a public library, water-supply, and saw- 
 mill ; also extensive coal-mines and a thriving lumber-trade. 
 
 Hamilton, South Pass, and Atlantic Ciiy are near the Sweetwater gold- 
 mines, and have a total of 2000 inhabitants. 
 
 The seven forts in the Territory have been sufficient to keep the 
 Indians from depredating to any great extent, though the Utes in 
 North Park, near the south boundary, heve lately been hostile. The 
 Shoshones have had a part of their reservation surveyed into sections. 
 
 The Chinese are peaceable and industrious, but are slow to assimilate 
 with Americdn customs. 
 
 GAME. 
 
 Buffalo are becoming scarce, but the hunters still find an abundance of 
 elk, antelope, and beaver, besides mountain-sheep, rabbits, squirrels, par- 
 tridges, grouse, quail, sage-hens, ducks, and geese ; also otter, mink, marten, 
 ermine, and musk-rat. Of the predatory animals we have the fox, coyote, 
 wild-cat, lynx, panther, mountain-lion, and bear. Speckled trout abound 
 in most of the streams of Northern Wyoming. 
 
 MANTjrACrtrEING EESOTTECES. 
 
 With abundant water-power in the large streams, with an inexhaust- 
 ible supply of coal, and with railroad transportation through the entire 
 length of the Territory, railroad iron, wrought iron, and heavy cast-iron 
 utensils and machinery can be made in Wyoming. Lumber, leather, and 
 glass can be manufactured, the white marble wrought, and the soda and 
 sulphur refined. 
 
WYOMING. 209 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 The admirable graded-school system adopted here is similar to that of 
 Michigan. The Territorial library now contains five thousand volumes. 
 
 The removal of the Sioux from Northern Wyoming has given fresh 
 impulse to settlement in that fertile region. 
 
MONTANA. 
 
 BY EGBERT STEAHOEN. 
 
 MONTANA, next to the youngest, and one of the largest Territories 
 of the Union, lies between the 45th and 49th degrees of north lati- 
 tude and the 104th and 116th meridians of west longitude. It is bounded 
 on the north by the British possessions, on the south by Idaho and Wy- 
 oming, on the east by Dakota, and on the west by Idaho. 
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 
 
 This magnificent empire of the New North-west contains an area of 
 150,000 square miles, or nearly 100,000,000 acres. Of this, 16,000,000 
 acres are fertile farm-lands, a more extensive area than is covered by an 
 entire average Eastern State. It contains 38,000,000 acres of unexcelled 
 grazing-lands, a pasture-field alone larger than the great prairie State of 
 Illinois. Its surface, underlaid with stratum after stratum of coal — 
 largely embraced in the grazing and agricultural area already mentioned 
 — amounts to 60,000 square miles, and would not only cover the giant 
 State of Pennsylvania, but would extend over the boundaries of the 
 commonwealths which encompass that greatest of all our Eastern coal- 
 mining regions. And then the Montana forests, 14,000,000 acres in 
 extent, cover more territory than those of the noted lumbering State of 
 Michigan, whose product in this line reaches a valuation of $40,000,000 
 per annum. Of the mineral wealth the world knows more, for it 
 is a region whose quartz-veins and sluice-boxes have poured out over 
 $150,000,000 in treasure in the first seventeen years of its ^settlement. 
 In questioning Montana's position and climate, readers should remember 
 that the whole of England, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, and some 
 of the most beautiful and fertile portions of sunny France, lie north of 
 the extreme northern boundary of Montana. 
 
 210 
 
MONTANA. 211 
 
 THE CLIMATE 
 
 is unexceptionable. It would be a broad sweep to claim that it is the best 
 in the United States, but many citizens claim as much for it, and indeed, 
 according to their liking, they are not idle in their belief. There are cold 
 snaps — ^that is, old Fahrenheit registers the cold at ten to twenty degrees 
 below zero. Yet there is something here, as in all Rocky Mountain re- 
 gions, that tempers the cold to poor humanity — ^the rarity and the dryness 
 of the atmosphere, it is said — and one suifers vastly less during the winter 
 season than he would in the Middle States; besides, these extremes in 
 temperature are infrequent, and last winter, being unusually severe, reg- 
 istered scarcely a day at fifteen degrees below, with very few days at all 
 below. Summer is never sultry or hot, while the U. S. Signal Office at 
 Fort Benton revealed one hundred more clear days during the last year 
 than were observed at Chicago. With very little severity and infrequent 
 extremes, the weather still has variety enough to prevent complaints of 
 it on that score. Naturally, all concede this 
 
 and such it indisputably is. Notwithstanding theoretical arguments 
 against the Rocky Mountain region as a resort for lung diseases, we can 
 positively aver that all lung affections wherein there is no undue loss 
 of capacity are universally benefited in Montana. Asthma or hay fever 
 there is none, though some persons may confound advanced emphyzema 
 with such. For latent or threatened consumption there is unimpeachable 
 evidence in its favor. The rector of St. Peter's church, Helena, gives in 
 his record of interments the cause of death, and in twenty-six cases, his 
 whole service in the Territory, there was but one death by consumption. 
 Malaria cannot exist here, even though men bring it implanted in every 
 bone. 
 
 The Missouri River is thoroughly open near Helena a month earlier 
 each spring than at Omaha, with almost unfailing regularity, and signal- 
 service and private observations demonstrate the fact that the mean annual 
 temperature of Helena is the same as that at Santa F^, New Mexico, the 
 latter being some eight hundred and fifty miles south of Montana's 
 capital. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to state that the extreme of heat is never known 
 in all this great mountain-land. The nights, always cool, are proverbial 
 for their absence of disagreeable dews and damps. In the higher moun- 
 tain-ranges the winters are of course more rigorous, the snowfall far ex- 
 
212 TEE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ceeding that in the valleys and the weather sometimes growing intensely 
 cold. 
 
 As a resort for invalids and for those constitutionally deformed we can 
 commend Montana just as heartily. Innumerable springs — ^mineral 
 springs, hot springs, sulphur springs — are scattered about, and so situated 
 that patients can have their choice. That there is virtue in these springs 
 for certain ills, such as are visited upon mankind by the sins of their 
 fathers — ^for constitutional diseases generally — ^is beyond dispute. 
 
 NATITRAL SCENEEY. 
 
 The tourist, the pleasure-seeker, the scientist, all will find as happy a 
 friend in Montana as the combination dare hope for in the wide world. 
 In the heart of Montana, four thousand miles from the sea, the Missouri 
 River presents such distinctive features of wildness, grandeur, and beauty 
 as are hardly dreamed of by those witnessing its murky and treacherous 
 meanderings through the prairie States. Here clear as crystal, alive with 
 trout, embowered in beautiful pine-forests, the average citizen of Omaha 
 would never believe it the miserable eyesore he left down there, tearing 
 away Iowa and Nebraska counties so unmercifully. Entering Montana 
 from the south, vid the Union Pacific and Utah and Northern Railroads, 
 the tourist hardly crosses the line ere objects of interest to the purely 
 aesthetic taste plead for attention right and left. Then he may wander 
 all over this marvellously beautiful domain — from the Bad Land region 
 of the lower Missouri and Yellowstone at the extreme east to the grandly- 
 rugged and often iridescent summits of the Bitter Root range at the 
 western boundary — and at the close confess in his bewilderment that 
 Nature charmed so irresistibly at different steps it would be difficult to 
 determine which spot to favor in a second ramble. 
 
 YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
 
 The Yellowstone, its great falls and grand cafions, its enchanting scenery 
 and wild rapids, is renowned the world over. The National Park en- 
 chanted land, its lakes and mounts and geysers, "with its variety of 
 phenomena so vastly excelling anything of the kind elsewhere that com- 
 parisons are almost ridiculous," is only bordering Montana, but is the 
 Montanians' summer-resort, watering-place, picnic-ground. To the 
 sporting man we have only to announce everything in his field, from 
 the mountain-lion down to the jack-rabbit, from the wild-goose to the 
 sage-hen, from the mammoth salmon to the brook-trout. The rifle, the 
 fowling-piece, and the fly can be utilized on the same excursion. 
 
MONTANA. 213 
 
 AGEICULTCTRE. 
 
 Abounding in noble rivers and possessing the best valley-system to be 
 found in the entire Rocky Mountain plateau, Montana also offers many 
 inducements to the agriculturist. Aside from the Missouri, Yellowstone, 
 and Upper Columbia — each navigable and possessing thrice the volume 
 of the Ohio at Pittsburg — there are within her boundaries a dozen rivers 
 presenting features of size and beauty hardly excelled by the. finest in 
 New York and Pennsylvania. Among these are the Madison, Gallatin, 
 Jefferson, Bitter Root, Beaver Head, Hell Gate, Musselshell, and Flat- 
 head, their valleys ranging in length from one hundred to two hundred 
 miles, and in width from two to twenty miles. Add to these the nearly 
 numberless lateral streams which beautify almost every ravine and valley, 
 and one finds here unlimited water-power and inexhaustible supplies of 
 water for irrigation. 
 
 Montana Territory was once known to the world as a rich placer- 
 mining country, but, far away from centres of trade and highways of 
 travel, its great resources lying beyond its gold were unobserved. Those 
 early days saw flour sell at one hundred dollars per sack, while the present 
 demonstrates that it was then, and is now, the best wheat district in the 
 Union. There are well-authenticated cases of enormous yields ; among 
 which are these : One field of twenty acres yielded eighty-two bushels 
 per acre ; one lot of a number of acres gave one hxmdred bushels per 
 acre ; and one single acre in one instance produced one hundred and twelve 
 bushels. Oats and barley yield almost proportionately with wheat, while 
 vegetables are grown quite beyond anything observed in a long experience 
 in the East. 
 
 BIG POTATOES. 
 
 General Brisbin, commandant at Fort Ellis, gives statistics of twenty- 
 seven acres of vegetables cultivated by soldiers, which at the prevailing 
 prices in Montana amounted to over seven thousand dollars. This last 
 season, he says, the yield has been one-third greater. At the Helena Fair 
 were exhibited potatoes that weighed four pounds each, rutabagas that 
 weighed seventeen pounds each, and turnips one of which weighed forty- 
 two pounds. 
 
 Farms that yield crops as above are worth from five to twenty-five 
 dollars per acre, depending upon the means to market and upon the im- 
 provements ; but good land may still be had much cheaper, and near 
 enough to market, through the various land acts. Under the Desert 
 
214 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Land Act a settler is allowed six hundred and forty acres anywhere in 
 Montana by paying one-fourth of a dollar per acre on possession, by dig- 
 ging an irrigating-ditch through it within three years, and by paying one 
 dollar per acre by the end of that period. Besides, he is allowed the 
 tract subject to exemption laws in existence elsewhere. Considering the 
 vast extent of territory, no one need entertain a fear that the choicest acres 
 are already located, or that they will be too soon for him. who has a long 
 way to come. 
 
 Besides all the hardy cereals and vegetables, which are produced in 
 great abundance in the inhabited valleys, we find some farms in the 
 Bitter Root and other sunny basins where apples, plums, grapes, cherries, 
 pears, nearly all small fruits, melons, tomatoes, and even tobacco and pe- 
 cans, are among productions which indicate a not very forbidding clime. 
 IiTigation is considered necessary in most localities, although some large 
 crops were raised this year without it. This is an expense of about fifty 
 eents per annum per acre. 
 
 STOCK-EAISING. 
 
 As a stock-raising section Montana is rapidly becoming known to the 
 outside world. Its beef-cattle are the best sent to the Eastern markets 
 from the grazing-regions, and bring the best prices. It is acknowledged 
 the best grazing-land in the world. Cattle live and increase without a 
 shelter other than the broad canopy of the heavens, or food provided ex- 
 cept as it grows and is left for them spread over the great hills and plains 
 they make their homes. Sheep and horses roam through the severest 
 winter, exposed to the climate, compelled to live entirely by grazing. 
 Nothing is expended for them save the services of a herder, who keeps a 
 general survey of the range. Matured steers sell readily at the ranch at 
 an average of twenty-five dollars per head. Marketing them consists of" 
 driving, during the summer, south through Wyoming to the Union Pa- 
 cific ; thence to Chicago by rail. Sheep are worth from two and a half 
 to three dollars per head. The estimates on sheep-raising are that the 
 expense is equal to the wool-product, leaving the increase of flock as 
 profit! Wool is standard at twenty cents per pound. There are no 
 fatal diseases in the Territory to which sheep are subject ; the only af- 
 fliction among them is scab, a curable affection. Can we demonstrate 
 anything plainer to the reader than that a few thousand dollars invested 
 by him who will endure an outdoor life, and a lone one, in stock-raising 
 here, must inevitably make him independent in a few short years? Last 
 winter was the severest within the past fifteen years, and yet the loss of 
 
MONTANA. 215 
 
 stock was little, if any, above the average loss — from two to three per 
 cent. 
 
 VAST PASTXTEES, DETAILS OF THE BUSINESS, ETC. 
 
 There are 38,000,000 acres of grazing-lands, and of these not 10,000,000 
 have yet been occupied. Heifers produce at two years of age, and the 
 winters are so mild that not one calf in ninety dies. It is unnecessary 
 to put up any hay for stock in winter. It can run out every month 
 in the year. The increase of sheep is one hundred lambs to every hun- 
 dred ewes, and ninety per cent, of the lambs live. The produce of wool 
 is immense, and four to eight pounds of fleece are cut. About 350,000 
 head of cattle are now owned in Montana, 250,000 head of sheep, 40,000 
 head of horses, 3000 head of mules, and 10,000 head of hogs. Poultry 
 is very scarce, and turkeys sell for three dollars apiece, chickens from fifty 
 cents to one dollar each. During 1879 over 50,000 head of cattle were 
 driven out of the Territory for beef, and 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 pounds 
 of wool shipped. Sheep yield from thirty to forty per cent, profit, and 
 horses from twenty to thirty per cent. The loss in sheep is one to one 
 and a half per cent., and horses two per cent, per annum. Yearling 
 steers in Montana bring seven to ten dollars ; two-year olds, twelve to 
 twenty dollars ; three-year olds, twenty to twenty-five dollars, and four- 
 year olds, twenty-five to thirty-five dollars. Cows are worth ten to forty 
 dollars, according to their quality. Common sheep are worth two to three 
 dollars, and graded four to five dollars. 
 
 DAIRYING, POULTRY, ETC. 
 
 Climate, pasturage, water, and an unequalled market for dairy products 
 combine to render dairying one of the most lucrative pursuits. Cows 
 cost not a dollar for their keeping from one year's end to another, and 
 the product of butter and cheese is by some figured a clear gain, as the 
 increase in stock pays all expenses. The dairymen are numerous in Mon- 
 tana who commenced five or six years ago with rented cows, and no cap- 
 ital but willing hands. To our personal knowledge, a large portion of 
 them are possessed of good ranches, and worth fiom five to ten thousand 
 dollars each, all made by good, honest labor in the corral and milk-house. 
 Over one million pounds of butter and cheese were produced in the Ter- 
 ritory in 1878, and the average prices obtained were forty cents per pound 
 for butter and seventeen cents per pound for cheese. The demands for 
 products of the dairy were never harder to meet than during the past 
 winter, and. those who embark in this industry now can duplicate the ex- 
 
216 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 perience of the pioneers with almost absolute certainty. It is almost im- 
 possible to secure eggs or poultry at any price, while no climate could be 
 better for the production of the feathered tribe than this. 
 
 The average farmer here soon works into the ownership of a nice herd 
 of stock, gets independent of ordinary farm-drudgery, as he calls it, and 
 leaves hundreds of openings for the diversified industry of the Missis- 
 sippi or Missouri Valley. It is these small items of the dairy, the hen- 
 nery, and the truck-patch which hold out the highest inducements to in- 
 dustry, and are yet the most available for poor home-seekers. Many 
 dairymen are going out of the business, simply because their rapidly-in- 
 creasing herds will support them handsomely without work, 
 
 PEICES OP PEODTJCTS. 
 
 The following are the prices paid last winter to ranchmen in Montana 
 cities for the offerings of the farm and dairy : Wheat, 2 cents per pound; 
 oats, 2J cents ; hay, $10 to $12 per ton ; potatoes, 1^ cents per pound ; 
 onions, 5 cents ; squashes, 4 cents ; cabbages, 6 cents ; butter, 45 cents ; 
 eggs, 75 to 90 cents per dozen ; turkeys, $3 to $5 each ; chickens, $6 to 
 $7 per dozen. 
 
 GETTING HOMES, 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the above prices were obtained for 
 productions of lands which have cost practically nothing but their im- 
 provements; homestead laws apply here as elsewhere. In few of the 
 valleys are one-fourth of the desirable lands taken ; in fact, only 400,000 
 acres of the vast agricultural area outlined- above are accounted for on 
 the tax-lists. Montana is clearly an empire of itself that offers homes 
 and support for millions of the landless toilers of the crowded East. 
 
 Nearly all Montana pioneers first built good, comfortable log houses 
 at almost no expense but their own labor. This also applies to fencing 
 and other improvements. Forests being adjacent to nearly all the valleys, 
 the situation remains unchanged to-day, and the man with muscle, and 
 will to exert it, can build for himself a home — better than his forefathers 
 enjoyed in New England — at less expense than in any Eastern or prairie 
 State we know of. Improved farms are very cheap in all the valleys, 
 when their wonderful productiveness and unequalled market are taken 
 in consideration. They can be purchased well fenced, with fair buildings 
 and the necessary ditches and water-rights, for from fifteen to twenty-five 
 dollars per acre. 
 
MONTANA. 217 
 
 MINING. 
 
 Mining gold and silver is now, as it ever has been, the chief industry 
 of Montana, though it differs vastly in all particulars from the days 
 when Virginia City and Alder Gulch were notorious. Placer-mining, 
 with the quarrelling, killing, and hanging attending the excitement of 
 rich pans, big pockets, and marvellous finds, has almost entirely given 
 way to quartz-mining, with its attending life, sober, lawful industry, with 
 only the confusion and uproar of the stamp-mill and smelting-furnaces. 
 Mining has indeed been revolutionized, and while the yield of gold has 
 much lessened, it has resolved itself into a legitimate, steady business, 
 through which the Territory is vastly the gainer. With it all there is, 
 within the last year, a reaction in favor of an increased yield, which 
 promises much. In 1877 the amount of gold and silver produced was 
 $3,500,000, compared to $6,700,000 for 1878, and about $8,000,000 this 
 year. Some of the best quartz-mines of the Territory reach the following 
 amounts : The Lexington, near Butte City, last year produced $240,000 ; 
 the Alice Mine, same place, yielded during the summer $45,000 per 
 month ; the Phillipsburg Mine yielded $300,000 last year ; the Penobscot, 
 twenty miles from Helena, yielded $600,000 during the year ;* the Whit- 
 lach Union has had a total yield of $3,500,000. 
 
 The total yield of the precious metals in Montana during the past six- 
 teen years has been $163,000,000 — more than that of Colorado, Utah, 
 and Idaho combined. About $147,000,000 'of this is gold, placing Mon- 
 tana only second to California in the production of that metal. The 
 fifty-thousand-dollar gold brick of the Penobscot Mine, near Helena, a 
 product of thirty days during the past season, startled readers all over 
 the Union. 
 
 Ores containing from twenty to sixty per cent, copper, unlimited in 
 quantity, are found in several districts. There have been on exhibition 
 at Helena ores from forty-eight different iron-mines or deposits, running 
 in value from twenty-five to eighty per cent, iron, and representing every 
 conceivable variety of ore. An iron-mountain in Deer Lodge county, 
 larger than the famous deposit of Missouri, averages thirty per cent of 
 that metal. Coal-beds lie within three miles, and an iron-furnace will be 
 built this season. Professor Hayden and others estimate that from fifty 
 to sixty-five thousand square miles of Montana's area are underlaid with 
 coal. Several measures are yielding an excellent quality of fuel. Lead 
 ores, averaging seventy-five per cent, of lead and a proportion of silver, 
 are also frequent. 
 
218 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 BUSINESS, WAGES, EXPENSES. 
 
 The Territory affords fine opportunities for business-men of either large 
 or moderate means who will be content with profits ranging from fifteen 
 to twenty-five per cent, on capital invested. Money is rarely Joaned on 
 any kind of collateral at less than two per cent, per month interest, and 
 from that to three and four per cent. Stock-men claim that they can 
 well afford to borrow money at two per cent, per month, and bankers are 
 of the opinion that the borrower in such cases makes as much as the 
 lender. There has been only one business failure of any magnitude in 
 Montana for years. Business is done generally on a cash basis, and 
 Montana merchants rank among the highest in the country, according to 
 commercial agencies. 
 
 Montana has never, like some other Western sections, been flooded with 
 labor. The cause is very apparent — from its distance from the railway, 
 and the consequent expense and trouble incurred in getting there. The 
 industrious machinist, carpenter, cook, or bricklayer gets higher wages 
 there than the confidential bookkeeper of a representative Eastern busi- 
 ness-house, and the farm-hand, laborer, or even, herder, who scorns to 
 work morS than ten hours a day, commands more pay than the skilled 
 workman in New York. Mechanics of all kinds command from $4.50 
 to $7.50 per day. Unskilled labor receives never less than $3 a day. 
 Prices of all necessaries (save meats and flour, which are often cheaper 
 than in the East) are about twenty-five per cent, higher than in the Mid- 
 dle States. Board and lodging at first-class hotels cost from $12 to $16 
 per week ; at quite comfortable places of less pretension, from $7 to $10. 
 
 Although 12,000,000 acres of Montana's area are covered with heavy 
 pine forests, the high price of labor makes building material rather ex- 
 pensive. Bough lumber sells at from $20 to $30 per 1000 feet; dressed 
 finished lumber, matched flooring, etc., at fPom $40 to $50. Good two- 
 horse teams can be bought in any of the agricultural districts at from 
 $150 to $225; oxen, from $80 to $100 a yoke. Farming implements, 
 wagons, etc. will average twentyrfive per cent, higher than at points east 
 of the Missouri. 
 
 ABOUT THE TOWNS. 
 
 Helena, the capital of Montana, is located in the central part of the 
 Territory, and has a population of 5000 inhabitants. It has many fine 
 public and private buildings, and employs a cash capital of $5,000,000. 
 Virginia is in the southern part of the Territory, and has a population of 
 
MONTANA. 219 
 
 1500. It is near the famous Alder Gulch, which still produces annually 
 $500,000 in gold. Butte is a beautiful town, and already second to 
 Htlena. It has a population of 3000 souls. Bozeman is at the head of 
 the famous Gallatin Valley, and is surrounded by the richest farming- 
 region in the West. It has a population of 1000, and is rapidly increas- 
 ing. Deer Lodge, Missoula, Bannack, Benton, Radersburg, Vestal, and 
 Phillipsburg are also fine and growing towns. The Yellowstone Valley 
 is in Montana, and has two towns — Miles City and Sherman. The popu- 
 lation of the Territory is about 40,000 ; assessed valuation, $14,000,000. 
 Yellowstone Valley is capable of sustaining twenty-five thousand farmers, 
 and the settlements have just been founded. We have ridden up and 
 down the valley several times, and its upper portion has few superiors in 
 the United States. 
 
 Montana has indeed a wonderful future before it, and we know of no 
 place where the farmer, manufacturer, or professional man can enter with 
 a greater assurance of prosperity. Telegraph-lines have already been 
 established to many parts of the Territory, and there are four daily and 
 ten weekly papers, giving all the news. The isolation of the Territory 
 has heretofore prevented ma'ny persons from seeking it, but now that this 
 rich and unknown land is connected with the outside world by railroads, 
 it will soon be filled up and become a prosperous commonwealth. 
 
 EAILEOADS. 
 
 Montana has always been far off — in miles, in time, in facilities for 
 getting there — and it is not hard to comprehend that, rich as it is in re- 
 sources, it is almost an outside world. At present, home-seekers can reach 
 its boundary by rail. There is only one route available from all points 
 and the year round — ^by the Union Pacific Railroad to Ogden, Utah, and 
 north over the Utah and Northern Railway, 275 miles, to Beaver Cafion, 
 its present terminus ; thence to various points by daily stage. One can 
 thus go to within a thirty-six-hour stage-ride of most Montana towns, 
 and the Utah and Northern will imdoubtedly be extended farther north- 
 ward in the spring. The time from Omaha to Helena at present is less 
 than five days, and the fare very reasonable, considering the distance. 
 
 MONTANA POINTS 
 
 are reached by Gilmer, Salisbury & Co.'s daily stages in from twenty- 
 three to forty hours from Beaver Caflon. The rates of fare now in force 
 from Omaha to the most important places in Montana are given below, 
 
220 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 with the distances and stage-time from Beaver Cafion, present terminus 
 of the Utah and Northern Railway : 
 
 First Second ■p„-„..„t Distance, Stage-time, 
 Class. Class, ■^'"'g'o.ni. ^^^^^_ ^^^^^_ 
 
 Lovell's $100 $75 $45 118 23 
 
 Virginia City 100 75 45 193 28 
 
 Butte 100 75 45 208 82 
 
 Deer Lodge 100 75 45 235 38 
 
 Helena 100 75 45 245 40 
 
 Holders of second-class and emigrant tickets, vid Gilmer, Salisbury & 
 Co.'s line, will be carried from the railway terminus to destination in 
 covered mail-wagons — one hundred pounds of baggage free by rail ; forty 
 pounds free by stage, on first-class ; fifty pounds free by wagon, on second- 
 class and emigrant; extra baggage on stage- and wagon-lines, fifteen cents 
 per pound. Stages and wagons run daily. 
 
 The travel to Montana is increasing wonderfully, and the through rail- 
 route vid Omaha, Ogden, and the Utah Northern Railway, carries it, as 
 it deserves to. In addition to the already splendid equipment of the 
 stage-line between the Utah and Northern terminus and Montana cities, 
 coaches that will carry thirty passengers have been ordered by Gilmer & 
 Salisbury to run between those points, and will be put on the route this 
 winter. 
 
 B. F. POTTS, GOVEENOE OF MONTANA, SAYS: 
 
 " The farmer, the miner, the -merchant, the tradesman, and in short all 
 classes of our people, are prosperous and contented. Capital yields satis- 
 factory returns, and labor is liberally rewarded. 
 
 " The Utah Northern Railroad, a branch of the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road, has been built into the Territory during the present year. The 
 completion of this road will enable the landless citizens of the Eastern 
 States to reach Montana, where homes can be obtained more advantageously 
 than in almost any section of the country." 
 
MONTANA. 221 
 
 MINEKAL EESOUKCES. 
 
 BY Z. L. WHITE. 
 
 THE chief resources of Montana's mineral wealth have heretofore been 
 her rich placers, which are estimated to have yielded about one 
 hundred and forty million dollars' worth of gold-dust. The placer-ground 
 in most of the gulches was originally worked over with pick and shovel 
 at a time when wages were high and no one could afford to wash the 
 gravel with very great care. Now much of this old ground has fallen 
 into the hands of men who are able to spend large sums in new water- 
 ditches and bed-rock flumes, enabling them by means of Chinese labor to 
 work over by the hydraulic process and ground-sluicing not only the old 
 tailings, but also the " lean " ground that was left before. Besides this, 
 some of the old gulches have never been worked out, and new ones are 
 discovered almost every year. During the past summer there has been a 
 stampede to the Judith Basin, where there are unquestionably good 
 placers. The eastern portion of the Territory, which has only recently 
 been opened, has never been thoroughly prospected, and new diggings 
 will undoubtedly be discovered in many parts of it. I am therefore of 
 opinion that although the product of the placers of Montana will not in 
 the future be as great as it was in the first few seasons after the discovery 
 of gold here, it will continue to be several millions a year for a long time 
 to come. 
 
 The gold quartz-mines of this Territory which have been developed 
 are not very numerous, and have been operated with varying degrees of 
 success. The Whitlach Union Min^e, near Helena, after yielding three 
 or four millions, has suspended. There is a divisioii of opinion as to the 
 cause of its present condition, some holding that it is due to bad mining 
 and the failure to open new ground while the old was being stripped, and 
 others declaring that the vein has been worked out. The Atlantic Cable, 
 in Deer Lodge county, has been, and perhaps still is, a very promising 
 mine, but has been involved in litigation for ten years, which has not 
 only sucked the life-blood out of it, but prevented the investment of 
 capital in its proper development. The mines in the Silver Creek dis- 
 trict (the Lexington, Belmont, Hickey, and others) are excellent proper- 
 ties, now producing about fifty thousand dollars a month, with a prob- 
 ability of an increase. The Lexington, the largest and best known in 
 
222 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the district, will probably begin to pay dividends at the opening of the 
 new year, but whether it will be able to pay high rates of interest on the 
 enormous price at which the mine was bought and the cost of the expen- 
 sive improvements that have been necessary, remains to be proved. I have 
 no doubt that its monthly product will be a large and increasing one. I 
 think there are some excellent openings for the investment of capital in 
 gold quartz-mines in Montana, but in order to ensure success it ought to 
 be associated with the best and most experienced mining skill. New leads 
 are constantly being discovered, and some of them will undoubtedly be 
 developed into good mines. 
 
 The two successful silver camps in this Territory to-day are Butte 
 and Glendale. The former, I believe, will offer unrivalled inducements 
 to capital and enterprise, and I look to see it become one of the " boom- 
 ing " camps of the West. At Phillipsburg and Wickes preparations are 
 being made for the mining and milling of large quantities of ore, and 
 the former of these camps is now sending some silver bars to market. 
 There are hundreds of silver-mines in Montana that are only waiting for 
 the advent of capital and cheap transportation to be converted into first- 
 class properties. 
 
 It is unnecessary to warn Eastern people against wild-cat schemes. No 
 man or company can afford to expend capital in the purchase and develop- 
 ment of a mine and in the erection of reduction- works until the property 
 has been examined and reported favorably upon by a competent, disinter- 
 ested expert. A disregard of this fundamental rule has been the cause 
 of more than one disastrous failure in Montana. A wild-cat scheme 
 cannot be foisted upon capitalists if proper precautions are taken ; if 
 they are neglected, mining operations become lotteries in which one 
 may draw a prize, but is very much more likely to get a blank. 
 
 The reduction of silver ores is a process requiring a knowledge of 
 chemistry and metallurgy, and practical experience in the application 
 of scientific principles to the treatment of different kinds of rock. The 
 failure of the Montana Company at Jefferson a year ago was confessedly 
 due to a neglect to observe this axiomatic rule. Other silver-mining 
 enterprises in this Territory have failed for the same reason. The losses 
 incurred in these cases will probably serve as a warning to those who 
 inaugurate new enterprises in the future. 
 
 Mining as a legitimate business has been brought into discredit in 
 Montana, as in other Territories, by the dishonest management of some 
 officers and superintendents. Mining is no longer a legitimate enterprise, 
 but an outrageous swindle, when it is managed for the purpose of raising 
 
MONTANA. 223 
 
 or depressing the value of the stock in the interest of a clique of specu- 
 lators ; and yet too many concerns are operated in this way. If it is 
 desired to bull the stock, it is very easy for a superintendent to strip his 
 mine of the ore that has been made accessible by previous developments 
 work, thus greatly increasing the product for a few months without 
 increasing the working expenses. In the same way a cotton-manufac- 
 turer in New England might divide among his stockholders all the 
 money he received for his fabrics, without retaining any with which 
 to purchase fresh material or to keep his machinery in order. A time 
 would soon come when he would either have to make an asse,ssment 
 upon his stockholders, borrow money, or stop, but in the mean time, if 
 his method was kept secret, the price of his stock might be enormously 
 advanced. 
 
 On the other hand, a superintendent may keep his entire force at work 
 for months in sinking new shafts and driving new levels without pro- 
 ducing ore, until a number of dividends have been passed and the stock 
 is greatly depreciated, although the mine may be growing better and 
 better all the time. It is as though the manager of the cotton-mill 
 should go on month after month spending his entire receipts for new 
 material, secretly piling it up in his storehouse, and reporting no profits. 
 I could name good mines in Montana that have been ruined by this sort 
 of management. For a few months they have paid large dividends, and 
 the stockholders have supposed they owned a bonanza. But all at once 
 production has stopped, there has been no ore in sight, and the mine 
 must close unless money to pay current expenses is obtained either by 
 an assessment or by a loan. Honest people will do well to give a wide 
 berth to any company whose stock is suspected of being the football of 
 speculators. The richest bonanza in the country cannot make such an 
 enterprise a safe one to invest in. 
 
 The revival of popular interest in gold- and silver-mining has 
 caused the owners of undeveloped properties, and even investors in the 
 East, to have an exaggerated estimate of the value of mines and pros- 
 pect-holes. It is an axiom among conservative miners that no mine is 
 worth more than the actual value of the ore in sight. Even then th6 
 purchaser takes the risk of finding enough new ore to pay for the expense 
 of taking it out and the interest on his money invested. This is a pretty 
 safe rule to be governed by in making purchases. Thoroughly-developed 
 mines on strong, well-defined veins are undoubtedly in many instances 
 worth much more than the value of the ore in sight, but in a new mine 
 the man who buys ore in posse gambles on an uncertainty. - 
 
224 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 I do not wish, by anything I have said, to dLsparage the mines of 
 Montana or throw discredit upon their management. I believe the 
 mineral resources of this Territory to be wonderful in their extent and 
 richness, and that the failures in mining enterprises have generally been 
 due to lack of capital, and experience and the isolation heretofore of 
 Montana from the remainder of the country, rather than to dishonesty. 
 At the same time, I have written what I believe every man in the East 
 who thinks of investing in mines ought to know, and what he is not 
 likely to learn except by spending a season among mines and miners, 
 as I have done. 
 
 STOCK-RAISING IN MONTANA. 
 
 MONTANA is the best grazing-country in the world. I know that 
 this is a bold assertion to make, but after seeing something during 
 the past summer of the best cattle-ranges of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, 
 Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah, which States and Territories furnish so 
 large a proportion of the beef consumed in this country, and talking with 
 stock-men, army officers, and others whose acquaintance with the West is 
 far more extensive than my own, and whose experience gives to their 
 opinion great weight, I am certain that it is not an exaggeration. There 
 may be portions of South America where cattle, sheep, and horses can be 
 raised at less expense than in Montana, but there certainly is no part of 
 the United States where the same grade of animals, ready for market, cost 
 the ranchmen less money, while the price which they command is many 
 times greater than in any of the Spanish-American republics, and but 
 very little below that obtained in the less remote States and Territories 
 this side of the Missouri River. ^ 
 
 No one can spend a week in any part of Montana without hearing 
 some of the most marvellous reports about the profits that have been 
 realized during the last few years in the business of stock-raising in this 
 Territory. These stories, many of which have reached the East recently 
 in enthusiastic newspaper letters and pamphlets published in the interest 
 of Western railroad companies, are true, so far as I have been able to 
 verify them ; but while, as a rule, they relate only to the exceptionally 
 successful ventures — -just as the wonderful yield of a bonanza-mine in a 
 
MONTANA. 225 
 
 camp is heralded from one end of the country to the other, while the 
 hundred prospect-holes which have been failures are never heard of — the 
 unvarnished truth about the average profits of the business will seem al- 
 most incredible to Eastern people. It is only now and then that a herd 
 of cattle, sheep, or horses yields a net income of from forty to sixty, or 
 even one hundred, per cent, per annum ; but I doubt if there is a single 
 instance in which, taking a series of years together, the profits on stock- 
 raising have not been from twenty to thirty per cent, on the original in- 
 vestment; and that, too, in cases where the animals have suffered severely 
 from unusual cold and snow in the winter or from disease. 
 
 In the first place, the grass is better and more abundant than in any 
 other of the Western States and Territories. In previous pages I have 
 mentioned the fact that the bunch-grass grows not only all over the val- 
 leys and the benches, but on the foot-hills, and even on many of the 
 mountains themselves. The supply of it is inexhaustible. Even in the 
 older settled portions of the Territory, where improved farms are frequent, 
 often adjoining each other in the valleys, the cattle, sheep, and horses do 
 not begin to eat down the grass, and although the ranges for several miles 
 on each side of the valleys may be nominally taken up, they are still ca- 
 pable of sustaining many times as many animals as now graze upon them. 
 No one who intends to raise stock on a large scale or to make that his 
 chief business would think of driving his animals to these particular 
 hills near the settlements, but the farmers whose flocks and herds are 
 now feeding upon them, and who want their cattle near at home, may 
 increase the size of their herds almost indefinitely before there will be 
 any scarcity of feed. 
 
 But it is not in those portions of the Territory that have been longest 
 settled that stock-raising is most profitable. The valley of the Yellow- 
 stone River from near the National Park to its mouth is six hundred and 
 fifty miles long, and on an average from ten to twelve miles wide. All 
 of this land can be easily irrigated and placed under cultivation. Hun- 
 dreds of families have settled there this year. On either side for almost 
 the entire length of this valley are benches, foot-hills, and prairies cov- 
 ered with bunch-grass and amply watered by small streams. Nor is this 
 all. There flow into the Yellowstone from the south the Powder River, 
 the Tongue River, Big Horn River, Clarke's Fork, and almost innumer- 
 able smaller streams, the valley of each of which is from thirty to one 
 hundred miles in length, and nearly every one afibrds as good pasturage 
 as is to be found in the world. Nearly the whole of this country has 
 been inaccessible until within the last eighteen months or two years, and 
 
 15 
 
226 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the tide of immigration has only just begun to flow in. A few herds of 
 cattle have been driven into the valleys of all the streams I have named, 
 but it is safe to say that there is not one steer there to-day where there 
 is feed for a thousand. 
 
 Even the extensive ranges that are more accessible are far from being 
 occupied. Thousands of cattle have been driven this summer to the Sun 
 River country and to the sparsely-settled sections north and north-east 
 of Helena, and even there the ranges are so large that in riding over 
 them one would have difficulty, except for the trails, to select the lands 
 upon which the cattle have been feeding from those which have not been 
 touched. I should not dare to make an estimate of the number of ani- 
 mals that Montana can sustain, but I am perfectly safe in saying that 
 hundreds can graze in her valleys and on her hills where now there is 
 one, and that it will be many years before it will be possible for the stock 
 to begin to be crowded. 
 
 I said that the grass in this Territory is better than it is elsewhere. It 
 is bunch-grass, that grows from one to two or three feet high. In most 
 places the bunches stand close together, and cure early in the summer. 
 In August and after, until the next spring, the grass has a color some- 
 what similar to that of ripe wheat, although the yellow is not quite as 
 bright, and the country looks like one vast field of grain nearly ready 
 for the harvest. This grass is wonderfully sweet and nutritious. Cattle 
 fatten upon it quicker and keep in better condition than those which feed 
 on the blue-grass of Kentucky and South-western Virginia or the buifalo- 
 grass of Nebraska and Colorado. The beef is remarkably sweet, tender, 
 and juicy, as I can testify from having eaten of it every day for more 
 than a month. The proprietor of the two most popular hotels in Salt 
 Lake City also told me that Montana beef, of which he had occasionally 
 obtained some, was far superior to any other he could get, and equal in 
 quality to the best stall-fed beef in the East. The chief fault I have 
 heard found with it both here and in Salt Lake has been that in summer 
 it is too fat. In winter even cattle that are on sheltered ranges keep in 
 excellent condition. 
 
 Very few of the stock-men of Montana make any provisions for feed- 
 ing their cattle in the winter, and there is no herding in the summer, as 
 in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. Old cattle-owners say that a herd 
 that is fed occasionally when a heavy storm comes will not winter as well 
 as one that is not fed. The cattle which receive hay once are likely to 
 remain in the immediate vicinity of the ranch, even after the feed there 
 has become short, and if driven away will return. As it is impossible 
 
MONTANA. 227 
 
 to feed them all the time, they grow lean, while if they stay out on the 
 range, where the grazing is better, they will keep in good condition. 
 The grass is stiff, and on the hillsides is rarely entirely covered with 
 snow. The loss from exposure is said to be not more than one or two 
 per cent. Whether there is force in this reasoning or not, it is certain 
 that some of the most careful and most successful stock-men are begin- 
 ning to put up hay as a precaution against severe cold and deep snows. 
 They say that the cost of the hay, which is cut with- machines in the 
 natural meadows along the river-bottoms, is only from fifty cents to one 
 dollar a ton, and that in the long run, by being prepared to feed their 
 cattle a little in the winter if it is necessary, they save more than enough 
 animals that would otherwise perish to pay for their trouble and expense. 
 
 The customary way of managing a herd of cattle in Montana is simply 
 to brand them and turn them out upon the range. Some stock-owners 
 give no more attention to their cattle until the next spring, when they 
 round them up, brand the calves, select those they intend to sell, and 
 turn the remainder out again. Under this careless management they are 
 sure to lose some steers, which stray away or are stolen. The more care- 
 ful managers employ oile man for every fifteen hundred or two thousand 
 head of cattle, whose duty it is to ride about the outskirts of the range, 
 follow any trails leading away and drive the cattle back, and to go among 
 neighboring herds, if there are any, looking for stray animals and driving 
 them home. At the spring round-up a few extra men have to be em- 
 ployed for .several weeks. 
 
 In starting a new herd, cows, bulls, and yearlings are bought. The 
 older cattle of ordinary grade (they are all American — no long-horned 
 Texahs) cost from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a head, the calves under 
 one year old running with the herd not being counted. Yearlings may 
 be obtained for from five to seven dollars each. The average cost of 
 raising a steer, not counting interest on capital invested, is from sixty 
 cents to one dollar a year, so that a four-year-old steer raised from a calf 
 and ready for market costs about four dollars. He is worth, on the 
 ranch, about twenty dollars, and if driven to Fort Benton or to the rail- 
 road in Wyoming, at least twenty-five dollars. A herd consisting of 
 yearlings, cows, and bulls will have no steers ready for the market in less 
 than two or three years. Taking into account the loss of interest on 
 capital invested before returns are received, all expenses, and ordinary 
 losses, the average profit of raising cattle in Montana during the last few 
 years has been at least thirty per cent, per annum. Some well-informed 
 cattle-men estimate it at forty to forty-five per cent. 
 
228 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 A large and increasing percentage of the cattle and sheep of Montana 
 are owned bv persons who do not manage them themselves, and some of 
 ■whom do not reside in this Territory. Xearly all the leading merchants 
 and bankers of Helena own interests in herds of stock, and lawyers, 
 doctors, and Federal officers are following their example, and investing 
 either their own money or that of their friends in the East in cattle, sheep, 
 or hors«. A man who desires to invest in stock, and who has not the 
 time or inclination to attend to the business himself, takes as an associate 
 some man of experience and int^rity, but destitute of capital (of whom 
 there are many in Montana), and gives him entire charge of the herd. 
 This man selects the range, cuts the hay that is necessary, moves the 
 animals when necessary, attends to the roimding-np, and drives those that 
 are sold to the place of delivery, paying all expenses and being entirely 
 responsible for the management of the business. For this he receives 
 one-half of the increase of the herd, the man who furnishes the capital 
 taking the other half. The returns which capitalists obtain on their money 
 invested in this plan in a herd of cattle are never less than fifteen per cent, 
 in a flock of sheep twenty- per cent, and upward, and in a band of horses 
 much greater than in either. • 
 
 A new plan for dividing the profits in this business between capitalists 
 and managers has lately been suggested, and will probably be tried next 
 year. The manager is to take the heid purchased with the money fur- 
 nished by his partners — ^the latter retaining the title to the animals — find 
 a suitable range, and pay all the expenses of the enterprise, until from 
 the profits he has paid back to the investor a sum of money equal to that 
 which he at first put in. Then the manager is to become the owner of 
 one-third of the business and to receive thereafter one-third of the profits, 
 the expenses being paid out of the receipts. It is proposed by responsible 
 men in ^lontana to organize stock companies in tlie East for the purpose 
 of conducting the cattle- and sheep-raising business on this plan, and, 
 with ordinary precautions in the selection of a proper man to mana2:e 
 such an enterprise I can imagine no undertaking in which the security 
 can be better or the certainty of large profits greater. 
 
 The management of sheep is of com-se different from that of cattle, A 
 flock of sheep containing one thousand and upward, in good condition and 
 free from disease, may be bought here this season for thi-ee to three dollars 
 and a quarter a head. They must be herded summer and winter in sep- 
 arate flocks of not more than two or three thousand each, corralled every 
 night, and guarded against the depredations of dogs and wild animals. 
 Some hay must be provided with which to feed them when there are deep 
 
MONTANA. 229 
 
 snows, and sheds ought to be erected to protect them from the most severe 
 storms. Cattle and sheep cannot live together on the same range. The 
 latter not only eat down the grass so closely that nothing is left for the 
 cattle, but they also leave an odor which is very offensive to steers. 
 Although the cost of managing sheep is greater than that of handling 
 cattle, the returns are quicker and larger. While a herd of young cattle 
 begins to yield an income only at the expiration of three years, sheep 
 yield a crop of wool the first summer after they are driven upon a range, 
 and the increase of the flock is much greater than that of cattle, being 
 from seventy-five to one hundred per cent, a year. The wool is of good 
 quality, free from burrs, not washed, and brings a good price on the 
 ranch, the competition between buyers sent out here from Eastern cities 
 to obtain it being very great. Many thousand sheep have been driven 
 into this Territory this year from California, Oregon, and Washington 
 Territory, and every flock that has arrived has been gobbled up by men 
 eager to increase their flocks or to start new ones. 
 
 It is not my purpose to mislead any reader by reciting the cases in 
 which unusual profits have been realized in the business of stock-raising, 
 but it may be interesting to know what has occasionally been done in 
 cases where all the conditions have been favorable, just as we like to hear 
 of the rich refairns which bonanza-mines sometimes give. The following 
 is an example : Judge Davenport of this Territory four years ago last 
 July purchased one thousand ewes, which cost him in the nisighborhood 
 of three thousand dollars. These he put in charge of a young man, who 
 was to take them on a range, care for them, pay all the expenses of the 
 flock, and to receive as his share one-half the wool produced and one- 
 half the increase of the flock. At the end of four years a settlement was 
 to be made, and Judge Davenport was then to receive back one thousand 
 of the best ewes which the flock contained. The settlement was made 
 last July. In the mean time, Judge Davenport had received for his share 
 of the proceeds of the wool |6500, and for his share of the increase 
 $8000. The profits of his investment of $3000 for four years were, 
 therefore, $14,500, or $3626 (or 121f per cent.) a year! During the 
 same year other men made only fifty or sixty per cent, on their sheep, 
 and some, who from inexperience or bad fortune met with heavy losses, 
 perhaps not more than twenty-five per cent. ; but I have never heard of 
 a single instance in which there has been an absolute loss in a period of, 
 say, three or four years. One man, driving a large flock of sheep from 
 the South a year or two ago, was caught by the winter in an unfavorable 
 place and lost one-half or two-thirds of his flock, but at the end of three 
 
230 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 years, when he came to balance his books, he found that the remnant of 
 his flock had done so well that his profits had been about twenty-five per 
 cent, a year on his original investment. 
 
 The number of cattle now in the Territory is estimated at 500,000, 
 and the number of sheep 250,000. The wool-clip this year was about 
 900,000 or 1,000,000 pounds, which sold, on an average, for twenty cents 
 a pound. I have seen no estimate of the number of horses in Mon- 
 tana, but I think there are only a few very large bands. Horses will 
 endure the cold weather and get at the grass if ft is covered by snow 
 much better than cattle, but they are so much more valuable that most 
 owners prefer to have their bands fenced in or herded pretty carefully. 
 The best horse-farms are in valleys ten or twelve miles long, on the sides 
 of which the foot-hills extend up to high mountains. By building a 
 fence across each end of such a valley the horses are prevented from stray- 
 ing from the range. The profits upon the rearing of horses and mules 
 are very great, and there is a ready market for all that are offered. 
 
 What I have written in this paper will undoubtedly prompt some one 
 to ask, " Can any one from the East, with a capital of a few thousand 
 dollars, go to Montana and engage successfully in the business of stock- 
 raising ?" No, unless he supplements his capital with experience, either 
 of his own or of some one with whom he associates himself. A man 
 reared in an Eastern city or town to professional, mercantile, or manufac- 
 turing pursuits would be as helpless with a herd of several thousand 
 head of stock on his hands as a Western ranchman would be in a cotton- 
 mill. But with an experienced partner even a city man would soon 
 learn the business. 
 
 The first thing to be done in entering the stock business is to select a 
 good range, and to do this requires a pretty thorough knowledge of the 
 country and of what constitutes a desirable location. Foot-hills from 
 which the snow will be likely to blow off, exposing the bunch-grass, good 
 water, cafions in which the animals may seek shelter from storms, and 
 natural meadows if hay is to be cut, are all considered essential. The 
 greater the distance from other ranges, the less trouble there will be from 
 the mixture of the animals of other herds and the less the expense of 
 rounding-up. Of course the ranges are all government land, to which 
 no title can be obtained, but the right of the first occupant to the land he 
 uses is universally recognized. 
 
 Cattle and sheep are subject to diseases which the herder must know 
 how to treat. Young cattle, yearlings, and two-year-old steers have suf- 
 fered severely in some parts of Montana this year from the " black leg," 
 
MONTANA. 231 
 
 a coDgestive disease, which has destroyed from one to two or three per 
 cent, of the flocks on some ranges, and greatly alarmed the owners. The 
 cause of this distemper is not known, but it has proved fatal in every 
 case. The disease known as scab has been brought into Montana by 
 sheep from California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, and it has 
 been spread among many of the flocks that before were healthy. This 
 disease can be cured by proper treatment, but the losses from it have been 
 considerable. 
 
 In conclusion, I can only repeat what I have already said — ^that Mon- 
 tana is the best grazing-country in the United States ; that stock-raising 
 here, when intelligently conducted, is a safer business and more profitable 
 than any other I know of; and that more people are going into the busi- 
 ness and investing more capital in it than are turning their attention to 
 any other of the industries of the Territory. 
 
 HINTS TO MEN WITHOUT CAPITAL. 
 
 THERE are room enough and work enough in Montana for all the 
 people who may desire to make it their home for years to come, 
 and who are willing at the same time to forego for a season a few of the 
 luxuries which make life in the older States so attractive, and to adapt 
 themselves meanwhile to the conditions which they will find existing 
 here. I have written very briefly about the grazing and agricultural 
 resources of the Territory. They are simply wonderful, and in their 
 development offer to thousands of people from the East the opportunities 
 for gaining a competency, if not a fortune. The remoteness of Montana, 
 not only from the Eastern States, but from the lines of railroad which 
 connect the other far Western States and Territories with them, has thus 
 far been a barrier against a large immigration into its beautiful valleys. 
 Men will go to the ends of the earth in search of the precious metals ; 
 they will deny themselves all the comforts of life, defy savages and wild 
 beasts, and face dangers before which almost any other class of people 
 would turn back. But the farmer who intends to make his home on the 
 land which he reclaims and cultivates (the prospector or miner is only a 
 bird of passage, who always calls his home " a camp " even after it has 
 become a solid, permanent town) must have a cei-tain degree of security 
 for himself and family and a market for his surplus products. 
 
232 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 The farmers of Montana have, as a rule, been hardy fellows, fond of 
 adventure, who have established themselves near the military posts and 
 successful mining camps or along the great lines of travel, and very many 
 of them have lived as the miners and prospectors do, without families or 
 the comforts and refinements which the presence of women only can give. 
 All this is now changing. People are hearing about the wonderful nat- 
 ural resources of the Territory, and are seeking new homes here, intending 
 to make Montana their permanent residence. Any one who has capital 
 needs no suggestion in regard to settlement in these valleys of the Rocky 
 Mountains. He has the means of learning where the best lands are, and 
 how to obtain them, and he can make a personal inspection of the coun- 
 try, and, if he desii:es, purchase an improved farm. With a poor man it 
 is different, and it is for the benefit of this class that I d&sire to give a few 
 hints. 
 
 The cost of reaching Helena from any of the Atlantic States is a little 
 more than one hundred dollars. To make the journey for this sum one 
 must travel in emigrant-trains to the terminus of the railroad, and thence 
 to Helena by the " fast freight " line ; that is, in ordinary farm-wagons 
 with spring seats and canvas covers. The journey from New York will 
 occupy between two and three weeks. In addition to the fare, the trav- 
 eller has, of course, to supply his own provisions, and unless he sleeps 
 out of doors in his blankets his bed will cost him fifty cents a night on 
 the wagon-journey. The expense of reaching Montana by first-class 
 trains and in the stage-coaches will of course be considerably greater. 
 
 A man who comes to this Territory early in the spring will have no 
 trouble in securing employment on a ranche at the rate of from thirty to 
 forty dollars a month and board. One season's work on a Montana farm 
 gives a stranger an opportunity to become acquainted with the methods 
 of cultivation prevalent here, and to look about for a place on which to 
 settle. I have seen several men who have come here from the East, leav- 
 ing their families at their old homes ; they found immediate employment, 
 have taken up during the first season a quarter section of land, and put 
 up a house for the shelter of their wives and children on their arrival. 
 I met on the stage-road one day a family consisting of a mother, a daugh- 
 ter about fourteen years of age, and three smaller children, who were 
 making the journey alone from one of the counties of Central New York 
 to the Jefferson Valley in this Territory. The lady told me that her 
 husl)and and son had come to Montana last year, and had found employ- 
 ment on neighboring ranches. In the spring they sent for the eldest 
 daughter, who had, since her arrival, been engaged in teaching school, 
 
MONTANA. 233 
 
 and last month the remainder of the family when I met them were on 
 their way to their new home. 
 
 When a man has become sufficiently established on his new ranche to 
 have raised one crop of wheat or oats and to have got a few head of stock, 
 he need have no fear for the future. Patient industry brings swift and 
 great rewards. In going to PhillipsbuTg a week or two ago I rode twen- 
 ty-five miles with a Scotchman who has a farm in Deer Lodge county, 
 near New Chicago. He told me that he had taken up one hundred and 
 sixty acres of land about four years ago. At the time he had no capital, 
 but was master of a good trade — that of a carpenter — and had two sons 
 old enough to assist in the farm-work. The old gentleman had worked 
 several months each year at his trade, earning five dollars a day, " And," 
 he said, " I hardly know how it came about, but we have to-day a finely- 
 improved farm, a good house, about fifty head of cattle, and seven good 
 horses, five of them good Americans three years old. I have spent very 
 ■ little money for stock, and all that we have is the result of only four 
 yeare' work. We sell enough butter, chickens, and eggs to pay our gro- 
 cery-bills, and are now saving some money, besides what goes to improve 
 our place. I have been twenty years in the Western States, and I have 
 never seen a place where a poor man can get a start as easily as here." 
 
 A stranger who desires to work into the stock-raising business will 
 find in Montana opportunities to do so, even though he may not have 
 capital to invest in sheep or cattle. One who has been accustomed to the 
 care of stock in other sections of the coimtry will, of course, get better 
 wages on the ranges than one who is totally unacquaiuted with the bus- 
 iness ; but so many new herds of cattle and sheep will be driven out 
 upon new ranges next spring that any one who is willing to work and 
 anxious to learn will have no difficulty in obtaining employment. In 
 Colorado and Nebraska a man working by the month with a " cord out- 
 fit," as a herd is called there, has the privilege of having a few cattle of 
 his own on his employer's range, and the same arrangement could un- 
 doubtedly be made here. The profits of stock-raising have been so great 
 iu Montana that almost all business-men here, as well as many who have 
 never seen the Territory, are anxious to invest some money in it, while 
 many of them do not desire to manage the flocks or herds themselves. 
 There are, therefore, mimerous opportunities for responsible men, known 
 to be experienced in the care of sheep and cattle and honest in their deal- 
 ings, to become partners in the stock-raising business with the investment 
 of little or no capital. If one man furnishes all the money and another 
 takes the entire care and management of a stock of sheep or cattle, it is 
 
234 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 customary to divide the annual increase and the wool that is cut from the 
 sheep equally between the two. Some of the most successful stock-men 
 in Montana have got their start by taking flocks and herds to manage on 
 such terms as I have described. 
 
 Of course, farming and stock-raising in Montana are subject to the 
 same vicissitudes which sometimes cause failure elsewhere. A farm that 
 is properly irrigated will never suffer from drouth, but the grasshoppers 
 may sometimes injure or destroy the crops, and other noxious insects may 
 appear, as they do in the older States. So, also, disease may appear 
 among animals, or some of them may perish during an unusually severe 
 winter ; but these are risks which have to be taken everywhere, and are 
 no greater here than in any other new country. 
 
 Skilled mechanics are in great demand in Montana. Carpenters earn 
 five dollars a day, and many more could have found employment in He- 
 lena and about the principal mining camps during the past summer if they 
 had been here. I have known of several instances in which important 
 building operations were delayed because carpenters could not be obtained. 
 In Helena and Butte bricklayers and stonemasons have no trouble in find- 
 ing employment, but in most of the other towns the buildings are all of 
 wood. Good blacksmiths find plenty of work, not only in the towns, but 
 at the mines, every one of which is obliged to employ several when in 
 operation. Almost all of the machinery in Montana is built in the East, 
 so that there is as yet little work here for moulders and machinists. A 
 few engineers are needed at every large mine, and one or two machinists 
 are employed to make small repairs on pumps, hoisting-machinery, and 
 mill-work. Skilled miners earn from three to four dollars a day, the latter 
 price being paid only to those who work in wet or dangerous places; and 
 common, unskilled laborers are paid from two and a half to three dollars a 
 day. Nobody is idle who is willing to work, and tramps and beggars 
 are unknown. 
 
 Perhaps there is no want that is as keenly felt in Montana as that of. 
 good domestic help. A few years ago good house-servants, cooks, were 
 paid sixty dollars per mdnth, and even now a white girl who knows how 
 to do housework receives from twenty-five to forty dollars a month — the 
 former of these rates being paid only to servants of a very inferior kind. 
 Both in Helena and Butte it is generally impossible to obtain white ser- 
 vants at any price, and the greater part of the housework in families is 
 perform.ed by Chinamen, who receive, on an average, about thirty dollars 
 a month. The early settlers of Montana were exclusively men who were 
 hunting for gold, and never expected to remain in the Territory after the 
 
MONTANA. 235 
 
 mines first discovered failed to pay. "When the population began to be- 
 come permanent the few who had families sent for them, but the majority 
 were unmarried men who had no families. For the last fifteen years, too, 
 Montana has been so remote that comparatively few women have come 
 here expecting to go out to service in families, and those who have come 
 have almost invariably been married within a few months after their 
 arrival. 
 
 Some of the experiences of young women who have been brought to 
 Montana in the capacity of servants have been very amusing. A lady 
 who brought a maid from Chicago two or three years ago' told me that 
 the young woman had five offers of marriage while travelling a week on 
 a stage-coach between Corinne and Helena, part of them from passengers 
 and part from stage-drivers. I have no doubt that several hundred good 
 servants could now find employment in Helena, Butte, and other towns 
 at the wages I have named, and that the majority of them would find good 
 husbands within a year if they wished to marry. 
 
 The professions seem generally to be well filled in Montana, and clerk- 
 ships in stores or offices are not very plenty. I have heard less about 
 mining litigation in Montana than in any other place where mining opera- 
 tions are going on, and the lawyers, while in most cases making a living, 
 are probably able to attend to all the business that offers. A few good 
 physicians might make an opening for themselves here, and as the popu- 
 lation increases their practice would of course become greater. Montana 
 has many good schools, and tl^y are generally in the hands of competent 
 teachers, who are engaged in the States. There are frequent changes 
 among the lady-teachers, because a large proportion of the whole corps in 
 the Territory is married every year. 
 
 The merchants of Montana are, almost without exception, men of con- 
 siderable capital. Until this ye^r no one else could do business here, be- 
 cause the freight-lines were all closed in the winter, and it was necessary 
 to carry a stock of goods large enough to last about nine months. Now 
 that the Utah and Northern Railroad will be opened across the mountains 
 next month, goods can be imported every month in the year, but as 
 freights will always be higher during the season when the Missouri River 
 is closed, merchants will continue to purchase goods during the spring 
 and summer in sufficient quantities to last until the next summer, and 
 will be able to undersell those who purchase in smaller quantities and pay 
 higher rates for transportation. 
 
 The tide of immigration into this Territory has already received a new 
 impetus, and next year a large increase of population is expected. 
 
236 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 DISTANCES, TIME, FAKE, BAGGAGE ALLOWED, 
 EXTEA BAGGAGE, AND HOUSEHOLD GOODS. 
 
 FAKES FEOM OMAHA. 
 
 THE fares to Lovell's, Yirginia City, Butte, Deer Lodge, Helena, and 
 other central points in Montana are as follows : First class, $100 ; 
 second class, $75 ; emigrant, $45. On the cars children five years old 
 and under twelve, half fare in any of these classes ; under five years old, 
 free ; on stages children under twelve and over three years old, half fare ; 
 under three, free. Passengers holding first-class tickets will be carried 
 from the Utah and Northern Railway terminus by Gilmer, Salisbury & 
 Co.'s stage-line with 40 pounds of baggage free. Holders of second-class 
 and emigrant tickets will be "transported from the Utah and North- 
 ern terminus by Gilmer, Salisbury & Co.'s line of covered wagons — car- 
 rying the United States mail — and will be allowed 50 pounds of bag- 
 gage free. 
 
 EXTEA BAGGAGE AND HOUSEHOLD GOODS. 
 
 Extra baggage by stage or mail-wagon from the terminus of the Utah 
 and Northern Railway to points named above will be charged fifteen 
 cents per pound, but it may be forwarded ]^ freight-wagons at a cost of 
 from two to three cents, its transportation in this way, how'^er, requiring 
 considerably more time. Freights on household goods {well boxed) from 
 Omaha to Utah and Northern Railway terminus, $4.05 per hundred 
 pounds, or double that rate if carried in trunks. Freight rates from the 
 railway terminus to Montana points above named are from $1.50 to $2.50 
 per hundred pounds. 
 
 Stages run day and night, making connections with Utah and Northern 
 Railway trains daily. Mail-wagons also run daily. First-class eating- 
 stations along the stage-road furnish meals or lunch at reasonable rates. 
 Telegraphic stations are established at frequent intervals along the stage- 
 road. All streams are well bridged, and the entire equipment of the 
 stage-line is the finest in the West. The Utah and Northern Railway, 
 completed to Beaver Canon, Idaho, 274 miles north of Ogden, in Sep- 
 tember, 1879, is being rapidly extended northward into Montana. Unless 
 winter opens unusually early, it will no doubt reach Red Rock, Montana, 
 30 miles north of Beaver Cafion, in December, 1879, reducing stage- 
 
MONTANA. 
 
 237 
 
 travel to the more distant points named below to thirty-six hours. Fol- 
 lowing are the distances and the stage-time from Beaver Caflon to the prin- 
 cipal points, as well as rates of fare from Omaha in force November 1, 
 1879: 
 
 
 First Class. 
 
 Second Class. 
 
 Emierant. 
 
 Distance. 
 
 Stage-time. 
 
 Lovell's, Montana, 
 
 $100 
 
 $75 
 
 $45 
 
 118 miles. 
 
 23 hours. 
 
 Virginia City, " 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 45 
 
 193 " 
 
 28 '• 
 
 Butte, 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 45 
 
 208 " 
 
 32 " 
 
 Deer Lodge, " 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 45 
 
 235 " 
 
 38 " 
 
 Helena, 
 
 100 
 
 75 
 
 45 
 
 245 " 
 
 40 " 
 
 DISTANCES AND FAEES IN THE TEEEITOEY. 
 
 The following are carefully-compiled tables of distances from Helena, 
 Deer Lodge, and other points to all stations in Montana, with stage-fares 
 in effect in June, 1879. Stages on nearly all routes run daily, making an 
 average of over one hundred miles in twenty-four hours : 
 
 RODTB TO Utah and Northern Railway— (jamer <fe SaZisbury Stages. 
 
 From Helena to^ Miles. Fare. 
 
 Clancy 18 $1 50 
 
 Jefferson 22 2 00 
 
 Whitehall 60 8 00 
 
 Silver Star 85 12 00 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. 
 
 Salisbury 90 
 
 Virginia City 120 
 
 Lovell's 135 
 
 Bailroad Terminus 294 
 
 Deer Lodge, Butte, and Mibsotjla Route — Gilmer <fc Salisbury Stages. 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. Fare. 
 
 Sweetlands 25 $2 00 
 
 Blackfoot 29 3 00 
 
 Deer Lodge 45 6 00 
 
 Butte, vid Deer Lodge .... 80 8 00 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. 
 
 Pioneer 61 
 
 New Chicago 77 
 
 Phillipsburg 102 
 
 Missoula 150 
 
 Deer Lodge and Lovell's Route — Gilmer & SaUshury Stages. 
 From Deer Lodge to — 
 
 From Deer Lodge to— Miles. Fare. 
 
 Warm Springs 18 $1 50 
 
 SUver Bow 35 2 00 
 
 Butte 40 3 00 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Camp Creek 75 
 
 Lovell's 115 
 
 Eagle Rock 284 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. 
 
 Eadersburg 48 
 
 Gallatin City 65 
 
 Hamilton 78 
 
 BozEMAN Route— ff. F. Galen Stages. 
 
 Fare. 
 
 15 00 
 
 7 50 
 
 9 00 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. 
 
 Central Park 86 
 
 Bozeman 101 
 
 Virginia City 120 
 
 Bozeman and Tongue River Route — Salisbury & Plait Stages. 
 
 From Bozeman to— Miles. Fare. 
 
 Benson's Landing 30 $3 50 
 
 Stillwater 102 12 00 
 
 Huntley 163 19 50 
 
 From Bozeman to — Miles. 
 
 Etchetah 239 
 
 Eock Springs 283 
 
 Ft. Keogh and Miles City. . . 337 
 
 Diamond City and White Sulphur Speings- 
 
 From Helena to— Miles. Fare. 
 
 Canon Ferry 18 $2 50 
 
 Diamond City 36 5 00 
 
 •Maries & Patterson Stages. 
 
 From Helena to — Miles. 
 
 Camp Baker 60 
 
 White Sulphur Springs .... 78 
 
 Bitter Root Valley Route— 7. A. Pobinsm Stage-Line. 
 
 Missoula to — Miles. Fare. 
 
 Stevensville 28 $3 00 
 
 Corvallis 43 4 50 
 
 Missoula to — Miles. 
 Skalkaho 51 
 
 Fare. 
 
 $13 00 
 
 16 00 
 
 20 00 
 
 Fare. 
 $8 00 
 1100 
 12 00 
 17 00 
 
 Fare. 
 $10 00 
 
 Fare. 
 
 $10 00 
 12 00 
 12 00 
 
 Fare. 
 
 $28 50 
 
 35 00 
 
 42 00 
 
 Fare. 
 $7 50 
 10 00 
 
 Fare. 
 $6 00 
 
238 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ViEGDiiA City and 'Borxni.TS—H. F. Galen Staget. 
 
 Virginia to— Miles. Fare. 
 
 Sterling 30 $4 00 
 
 Central Park 60 8 00 
 
 Virginia to — 
 Bozeman . . 
 
 Miles. Fare. 
 . 75 ?12 00 
 
 POPtTLATION, ALTITUDE, DISTANCES, AlfD PAEES FEOM HELENA, OF 
 MOST PROMINENT POINTS. 
 
 Name of Place. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Fare. 
 
 Altitude. 
 
 Population. 
 
 HELENA TO — . . . , 
 
 Butte , 
 
 Bozeman , 
 
 Blackfoot 
 
 Benton 
 
 Clancy 
 
 Camp Baker 
 
 Corvallis 
 
 Deer Lodge 
 
 Diamond City 
 
 Miles City 
 
 Fort Shaw , 
 
 Glendale 
 
 Gallatin City - . . . . 
 
 Jefferson 
 
 Missoula 
 
 New Chicago 
 
 Phillipsburg 
 
 Pioneer , 
 
 Kadersburg , 
 
 Salisbury 
 
 Sun Eiver 
 
 Stevensville 
 
 Virginia City 
 
 Vestal 
 
 White Sulphur Springs . 
 
 80 
 
 101 
 29 
 
 144 
 18 
 60 
 
 193 
 45 
 35 
 
 438 
 84 
 
 125 
 65 
 22 
 
 150 
 77 
 
 102 
 61 
 48 
 90 
 85 
 
 178 
 
 120 
 24 
 78 
 
 $8 00 
 
 12 00 
 
 3 00 
 
 15 00 
 
 1 50 
 7 50 
 
 21 50 
 
 6 00 
 5 00 
 
 54 00 
 9 00 
 
 16 00 
 
 7 50 
 
 2 00 
 
 17 00 
 
 11 00 
 
 12 00 
 
 8 00 
 5 00 
 
 13 00 
 10 00 
 20 00 
 16 00 
 
 3 00 
 40 00 
 
 4266 
 5800 
 4900 
 
 2780 
 
 4538 
 
 4546 
 
 2600 
 4900 
 5200 
 4838 
 4776 
 3200 
 
 4500 
 4900 
 4850 
 
 5713 
 
 4957 
 
 5000 
 
 4000 
 
 1000 
 
 200 
 
 700 
 
 250 
 
 250 
 
 1000 
 
 200 
 
 800 
 
 500 
 100 
 200 
 700 
 200 
 600 
 200 
 200 
 100 
 100 
 200 
 1000 
 300 
 200 
 
 AVERAGE WAGES IN THE EAST AND IN MONTANA. 
 Employment. In the East. 
 
 Bakers, per month and board $25 00 
 
 Blacksmiths, per day 2 50 
 
 Bookkeepers, per month 70 00 
 
 Bricldayers, per day 3 50 
 
 Butchers, per month and board 24 00 
 
 Brickmakers, " " 20 00 
 
 Carpenters, per day 2 50 
 
 First cook, per month and board 60 00 
 
 Second cook, " " 30 00 
 
 Cooks in families, " " 11 00 
 
 Chambermaids, " " 10 00 
 
 Clerks, per month 50 00 
 
 Dressmakers, per month 25 00 
 
 Dairymen, per month and board 25 00 
 
 Engineers in mills, per day 2 00 
 
 Farm-hands, per month and board 15 00 
 
 Harness-makers, per day 2 00 
 
 Hostlers, per month and board 15 00 
 
 Laundresses, " " 12 00 
 
 In Montana. 
 
 165 00 
 
 4 50 
 
 125 00 
 
 6 50 
 
 50 00 
 
 50 00 
 
 4 50 
 
 no 00 
 
 55 00 
 
 35 00 
 
 30 00 
 
 90 00 
 
 70 00 
 
 45 00 
 
 3 50 
 
 42 50 
 
 4 50 
 
 45 00 
 
 35 00 
 
MONTANA. 239 
 
 Employment. In the East. In Montana, 
 
 Laborers, per month arid board $15 00 $35 00 
 
 Lumbermen, " " 28 00^ 55 00 
 
 Machinists, per day 2 7^ 4 50 
 
 Miners, " 2 25 3 50 
 
 Millers, per month and board 25 00 65 00 
 
 MUlwrights, per day 2 50 4 50 
 
 Painters, per day 2 25 4 00 
 
 Printers, per week 15 00 25 00 
 
 Plasterers, per day 2 50 5 50 
 
 School-teachers, per month 30 00 80 00 
 
 Servants, per month and board 11 00 35 00 
 
 Shepherds, " " ■ 40 00 
 
 Stone-masons, per day 3 00 6 00 
 
 Teamsters, per month and board 18 00 45 00 
 
 Waiters, " " 16 00 , 55 00 
 
DAKOTA. 
 
 DAKOTA, lying between latitude 42° 30' and 49° north, and longi- 
 tude 96° 20' and 104° west, is bounded north by British America, 
 east by Minnesota and Iowa, south by Nebraska, and west by Montana and 
 Wyoming. The average extent north and south is nearly 450 miles, east 
 and west, 350 miles. The area is 150,932 square miles. Dakota orig- 
 inally formed a part of Minnesota Territory, which was organized in 
 1849, being a portion of the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. 
 In 1854 the Territory of Nebraska was formed, comprising a portion of 
 what is now Dakota. The Territory of Dakota was organized by act of 
 Congress approved March 2, 1861, and included the present Territories 
 of Montana and Wyoming. In 1863 the Territory of Idaho was 
 erected, comprising all that portion of Dakota west of longitude 27° 
 from Washington. In 1864 the northern part of Eastern Idaho was 
 organized as the Territory of Montana ; at the same time the southern 
 part, comprising 91,665 square miles, was transferred to Dakota, thus 
 making the total area of the Territory at that date 240,597 square miles. 
 By act of July 25, 1868, 89,665 square miles were taken from Dakota 
 to form the Territory of Wyoming, being all of the above-mentioned 
 91,665 square miles excepting a triangular tract of 2000 square miles 
 (between Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, bounded north by latitude 
 44° 34' north, east by longitude 34° west from Washington, south and 
 west by the Eocky Mountains) which has since formed a part of Dakota, 
 though widely separated from it. The first permanent settlements of 
 whites were made in 1859, in what are now the counties of Clay, Union, 
 and Yankton. The first Legislature convened March 17, 1862. Immi- 
 gration was very limited until 1866. 
 
 Governor William A. Howard writes in his report for 1879 as follows : 
 " Immigration this year has been large, far greater than in any former 
 year, and this large increase extends to all parts of the settled portion of 
 the Territory — ^perhaps about the same percentage of increase in each of 
 
 240 
 
DAKOTA. 241 
 
 the three divisions. South-eastern Dakota has had a very large increase 
 of population. I am told by persons in whom I have confidence that as 
 many as three hundred teams, immigrant wagons, have passed into the 
 south-eastern part of the Territory daily through the summer. Quite as 
 large a percentage has come into Northern Dakota. The same may be 
 said of the increase in the Black Hills. In the absence of census returns 
 it is impossible to state with accuracy our present population. The swell- 
 ing tide of immigration spread over so vast a territory, much of it in 
 unorganized counties, makes satisfactory estimates difficult if not impos- 
 sible. Well-informed persons have estimated our population at 160,000, 
 others at 170,000, and some as high as 180,000. At the present time I 
 think it is at least 150,000, probably more than that. The immigration 
 to the Black Hills has been large and of a very satisfactory character. 
 They claim to have — and I think with good reason — from 25,000 to 
 30,000 inhabitants. 
 
 " Railroad facilities are -being largely increased in Dakota. We have 
 of completed railroad in the Territory about four hundred miles ; this 
 will be increased before January next to over five hundred miles. Sev- 
 eral strong corporations are pushing their trunk-lines into this Territory 
 at various places, as well to carry the products of our rich soil as ulti- 
 mately to reach the Black Hills. 
 
 " It is but a short time since vast herds of buffalo roamed undisturbed 
 over these prairies ; now farms stocked with cattle and sheep everywhere 
 abound. It is not long since we were taught in our Eastern homes and 
 in our schools and learned from our geographies the story of the Bad 
 Lands, the ' Great American Desert,' and were left to believe that Da- 
 kota for barrenness was only equalled by the Desert of Sahara, and that 
 its chilling blasts were equal to the cold of Greenland ; but since it has 
 been demonstrated that Dakota has a soil exceedingly rich, has more 
 arable and less waste land in proportion to its size than any State or Ter- 
 ritory in the whole Union, and since millions of bushels of grain are 
 already waiting transportation to the markets of the world, capital, pro- 
 verbially timid, is stretching out its arms, and with hooks of steel is draw- 
 ing to itself the carrying-trade of an empire." 
 
 Most of the Territory west and south of the Missouri River is unor- 
 ganized. The oldest counties lie on the east part, along the Minnesota 
 borders, and in the south-eastern, along the Missouri River. Yankton, 
 the capital, is situated in the south-east corner of the Territory, on the 
 Missouri. The greater portion of the white population is in the south- 
 east part of the Territory, along the Missouri River ; it is chiefly engaged 
 
 16 
 
242 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 in agriculture. The Territory of Dakota forms to a great extent the 
 watershed of the two great basins of North America, the Missouri and 
 Mississippi Rivers and the tributaries of Hudson Bay. The general 
 surface of the country east and north of the Missouri is an undulating 
 prairie, free from marsh, swamp, or slough, but traversed by many streams 
 and dotted with innumerable lakes. A plateau, called the CQteau des 
 Prairies (or Prairie Heights), with an average elevation of fourteen hun- 
 dred and fifty feet above the sea, and a breadth of fifteen ©r twenty miles, 
 extends for two hundred miles from the south along the east border, 
 while a similar table-land of less height, the Plateau du C6teau du Mis- 
 souri, occupies the middle and northern portion. The basin of the Red 
 River in the north-east is covered with open grassy plains. In the south- 
 west, near latitude 44°, and between longitude 103° and 105°, extending 
 into Wyoming, are the Black Hills. They occupy in both Territories an 
 area about one hundred miles long and sixty miles wide, or six thousand 
 square miles. The base of these hills is twenty-five hundred or three 
 thousand feet above the sea, and the highest peaks six thousand seven 
 hundred feet. The Missouri River, which is navigable throughout its 
 entire course in Dakota, traverses the Territory from the north-west to 
 the south-east corner. Its largest tributary is the Yellowstone, which 
 flows north-east through Montana, and joins the Missouri on the border 
 of the two Territories, in latitude 48°. 
 
 NOETHEEN DAKOTA, 
 
 as that portion north of the 46th parallel is commonly called, embraces 
 about half of the present Territory, extending from Minnesota on the 
 east to Montana on the west, and being about two hundred and fifty miles 
 wide from north to south. This section has a rich soil, healthy climate, 
 and is justly famous for its agricultural products. The Northern Pacific 
 Railroad traverses this section, and thriving towns are rapidly springiag 
 up all along the line. Here are situated, in the Red River Valley, those 
 immense farms of twenty thousand acres, all under cultivation for wheat. 
 The most celebrated farm is Dalrymple's, which is managed as system- 
 atically as a railroad. The wheat-crop for 1879 from this one farm was 
 400,000 to 500,000 bushels. These rich lands may be called " bonanzas," 
 for they will produce year after year, yielding an immense income. A 
 traveller, describing this wonderful farm during harvesting, writes as 
 follows : 
 
 " Just think of a sea of wheat containing twenty square miles — 
 thirteen thousand acres — rich, ripe, golden, the winds rippling over it ! 
 
DAKOTA. 243 
 
 As far as the eye can see there is the same golden russet hue. Far away 
 on the horizon you behold an army sweeping along in grand procession. 
 Eiding on to meet it, you see a major-general on horseback, the superin<- 
 tendent, two brigadiers on horseback, repairers. No swords flash in the 
 sunlight, but their weapons are monkey-wrenches and hammers. No 
 brass band, no drumbeat or shrill note of the fife ; but the army moves 
 on — a solid phalanx of twenty-four self-binding reapers — to the music 
 of its own machinery. At one sweep, in a twinkling, a swath of one 
 hundred and ninety-two feet has been cut and bound, the reapers tossing 
 the bundles almost disdainfully into the air, each binder doing the work 
 of six men. In all there are one hundred and fifteen self-binding reap- 
 ers at work. During the harvest about four hundred men are employed, 
 and during threshing six hundred, their wages being two dollars a day 
 with board. 
 
 " The acres owned by Mr. Dalrymple are not one whit better than the 
 average through the entire length and breadth of this valley, which is 
 four hundred miles long and seventy wide, and which is fast filling 
 with hardy settlers. Not only the lands of the valley, but the entire 
 section between the Red River and the Missouri — a territory containing 
 eighty thousand square miles in Northern Dakota alone, saying nothing 
 of Montana and Manitoba — is adapted to the cultivation of wheat, oats, 
 and barley." 
 
 The Northern Pacific Railroad, extending from Duluth, runs through 
 the northern part of Minnesota, and is completed to Bismarck in Dakota. 
 It is now in process of construction on what is known as the Missouri 
 division, which will be 213 miles in length. The greater portion of the 
 section through which it will run is fertile lands, though it passes through 
 some mauvaises terres, or bad lands. Ultimately, the Northern Pacific 
 will be completed through to the Pacific Ocean, and five years may see 
 " the consummation devoutly to be wished." 
 
 EASTERN DAKOTA. 
 
 The prevailing soil in Eastern Dakota is a dark, calcareous sandy loam, 
 with an intermixture of clay. This loam is mostly from four to six 
 feet in depth, and has been found from fifteen to twenty feet. It is re- 
 markably fertile. The corn-producing belt, which runs through Ohio, 
 Indiana, and Illinois, extends north-west through Iowa, up the valley of 
 the Missouri through Dakota. The bottom-lands bordering on this great 
 river and its tributaries possess a singularly rich and uniform soil and 
 furnish extensive and luxuriant meadows. All kinds of grain, fruit, and 
 
244 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 vegetables usually grown in the Middle States yield abundantly in Da- 
 kota. Indian corn has yielded 70 bushels an acre; wheat, 30 to 50; 
 oats, 40 to 75 ; potatoes, 270 to 500 ; and barley, buckwheat, and other 
 cereals, largely. Wild apples, plums, cherries, grapes, and hops grow 
 abundantly along the streams in the Missouri Valley. It is believed 
 that tobacco and sweet potatoes can be successfully raised on the warm 
 bottom-lands of the south. Dakota possesses remarkable advantages for 
 stock-raising. The plains are covered with nutritious grasses, which 
 afford abundant pasturage throughout the year. The climate is spe- 
 cially favorable to sheep, and wool-growing promises to be an import- 
 ant industry. 
 
 THE BLACK HILLS 
 
 were in the heart of the Siou± country until February, 1877, and were so 
 jealously guarded by the Indians that white people who visited them did 
 so at the peril of their lives, though the Sioux did not live in the Hills, 
 as they had a superstition that the Great Spirit never intended these 
 mountains for the habitation of man. The terrific thunderstorms which 
 are frequent here perhaps had something to do with this belief. The 
 Sioux have known of the existence of gold in the Black Hills for many 
 years. A third of a century ago, it is said, they showed to Father de 
 Smet, the Roman Catholic missionary, who spent his life among them, 
 and in whom they had implicit confidence, large nuggets which they had 
 picked up in the gulches. He warned them not to show these nuggets to 
 the white men, as it would arouse their cupidity and cause the Indians to 
 be driven out of the country. Nevertheless, rumors of the mineral wealth 
 of the Hills did get abroad, and evidence has been found that a few ad- 
 venturers came here in search of gold many years ago, and actually began 
 to work the placers. They were probably all massacred by the Indians. 
 Several government expeditions were made into the Black Hills be- 
 fore that of General Custer in the summer of 1874, and the report of each 
 showed the presence of gold and other minerals. The first of these was 
 that of Captain Bonneville in 1834. General Harney came in here in 
 1855, and the highest peak in the Hills was named in his honor. Other 
 expeditions led by Warren visited the Hills in 1866-57, by Dr. Hayden 
 in 1858-59, and by General Sully in 1864. General Custer's expedition 
 in 1874 is still remembered by most newspaper readers. The practical 
 miners who accompanied him reported excellent, " prospects ;" that is, 
 that in washing out the gravel of the streams in pans they obtained gold 
 in sufficient quantities to make it pay for working. The reports of these 
 miners were received with incredulity in the East, and during the winter 
 
DAKOTA. 246 
 
 of 1874^75 the question was widely discussed whether there was gold in 
 the Black Hills or not. 
 
 So great was the public interest in the discoveries reported by those who 
 accompanied General Custer that in the summer of 1875 the Interior De- 
 partment sent out an exploring expedition in charge of Professor Jenny, 
 a young geologist. He came into the Hills with a train and escort, went 
 pretty well over them, and made a map of the country. He discovered 
 gold in many places, and more than confirmed Custer's reports of the pre- 
 vious year. Professor Jenny did not visit Deadwood and Whitewood 
 Gulches, the timber being so thick that he could not get to them with his 
 train. But the adventurous placer-miners of the West did iiot wait for a 
 scientific report upon the country, but, braving the hostility of the In-- 
 dians and other dangers, they began to settle along the streams in the 
 Hills in the summer of 1875, and to wash out the gold-dust. The gov- 
 ernment forbade all persons t» enter this country, and the President, I 
 believe, issued a proclamation warning people against invading the ter- 
 ritory that had been set apart for the Indians. But it is impossible to 
 keep an old placer-miner out of gulches where there are " pay streaks ;" 
 he will go through fire and water to reach new diggings. Hundreds of 
 men came in here in spite of the proclamation, and in spite of the orders 
 to military commanders to arrest people found on the road or in the Hills. 
 The soldiers even came to the Black Hills, and, going up and down the 
 gulches, gathered up the miners, confiscated their provisions, and took 
 them to Fort Laramie or to the military posts on the Upper Missouri. 
 But the adventurers came in here faster than the soldiers could take them 
 out, and most of those arrested, even, as soon as they were released — ^as 
 they all were when a military station was reached — came directly back if 
 they had money enough to procure prcwisions. The government, having 
 told the people through its exploring expeditions that there was gold in 
 the Black Hills, could not keep them out without sending its whole army 
 to guard the avenues of approach, and the policy of forcible removal was 
 abandoned about the middle of November. 
 
 Gulch-mining practically commenced in 1876, and quartz-mining one 
 year later, and these three years have developed the fact that the Black 
 Hills contain the largest area of moderately rich placers and the most 
 prodigious deposits of gold ores yet discovered in the world. Gold-mines 
 one hundred and fifty feet wide and traced for five miles are found only 
 in the Black Hills. About seven thousand mines have been located, and 
 it is estimated that the full development of those which are already proven 
 rich will give employment to fifty thousand miners. 
 
246 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 THE GOLD YIELD 
 
 has been as follows: in 1876, $1,500,000; 1877, $2,500,000; 1878, 
 $4,000,000; and conservative estimates for 1879 plaee it at over 
 $6,000,000. The shipments of gold-dust and bullion now average 
 $250,000 per week. As in all other mining-regions, the Black Hills 
 bonanzas have all been found by poor men, and leading sales made by 
 these have been — Father de Smet, $400,000; Segregated Homestake, 
 $100,000; Stand-by, $125,000; Gopher and Golden Terra Extension, 
 $200,000; Old Abe, $250,000; Homestake No. 1, $70,000; Golden 
 Terra, $80,000. Quartz-mills rivalling the best of Nevada and CaK- 
 fornia have been built by the score, until now some fifty, with a total 
 of about twelve hundred stamps, are in operation. Over $2,500,000 
 has been invested in mines and mills. The Aurora has yielded $130,000, 
 the Homestake and De Smet each probably six times that amount, and 
 $100,000,000 worth of " pay ores " are now in sight in the " bonanza 
 belt," of which these mines are a part. The gold ores yield from five to 
 thirty dollars per ton — although small streaks of almost pure gold are 
 sometimes found — and are mined and milled at an expense of from two 
 to four dollars per ton. Black Hills silver ores average much richer 
 than the gold, and it is but a. trifle more expensive to reduce them. 
 
 The best^developed gold quartz- and gulch-mines, and all the great 
 mills, are in the immediate vicinity of Deadwood. 
 
 As a business-centre Deadwood is the metropolis of the Black Hills. 
 It has a population of about five thousand ; and the mining-towns in 
 this vicinity, with the people who are prospecting in the gulches, cutting 
 timber in the mountains, or farming in the fertile valleys within twenty- 
 five miles of town, make the number who are more or less dependent 
 upon it or contribute to its trade !ibout twice as great. Every kind of 
 legitimate business in Deadwood seems to be flourishing. Capital in- 
 vested here brings much larger returns than in the East, and there are 
 many promising openings besides those ofiered by the mines. Some idea 
 of the magnitude of the business of the Black Hills may be gathered 
 from the fact that during last year (from June 1, 1878, to June 1, 1879) 
 there were brought in in wagons between twenty and twenty-two million 
 pounds of freight. This, of course, included machinery for gold-mills, 
 which is very heavy. 
 
 OPPOETUNITIES FOE INTENDING SETTLERS. 
 
 (1.) Are there opportunities ia the Black Hills for the investment of 
 capital in safe and profitable mines ? 
 
DAKOTA. 247 
 
 I think there are. The bonanzas of the Hills, thus far discovered, are 
 in the hands of two California firms, which have brought to the develop- 
 ment of the mines ample capital, long experience, and the best skill. Be- 
 ginning not quite two yfears ago, every month's work which they have 
 .done has caused their property to increase in value, and to-day every one 
 of the mines on the great belt shows a larger body of ore than at any 
 previous time. 
 
 Any one who comes to the Black Hills expecting that he will have to 
 deal with men who are not his equal in shrewdness and business-capacity 
 will find himself woefully mistalien. There is no sharper, more wide- 
 awake class of men anywhere than the prospectors and miners. They 
 may be roughly clad and live far out in the wilderness in the rudest log 
 cabins, and spend their days in shaft or tunnel patiently cutting through 
 the rock by candlelight, but any one who expects to get ahead of them 
 in a bargain must be up before sunrise. It is a good rule for the stran- 
 ger in a mining camp not to judge men by their outward appearance. 
 If he does he may mistake the millionaire owner of a bonanza for one of 
 his mechanics. 
 
 (2.) What openings are there for prospectors and miners ? 
 
 Prospecting is a trade or profession which can only be learned by actual 
 practice or experience. I certainly should not think it wise for any one 
 in the East to come here expecting to discover a new mine, unless he 
 joins himself to some man who has been engaged in the business before. 
 Those who are anxious to try their fortune in this way will find ample 
 territory in the Black Hills which has not been fully explored. To be 
 successful, however, the prospector should have one or two thousand dol- 
 lars capital, and if he discovers a mine that promises well he will need a 
 good deal more money to develop it sufficiently either to make it produc- 
 tive or marketable at much more than a nominal price. Good mines are 
 scarce, and scores of prospectors fail to make their fortunes where one is 
 successful. 
 
 The days of placer-mining in the Black Hills are over. A few of the 
 gulches are still being worked, both here and in the southern portion of 
 the Hills, but the returns are comparatively small. It is possible that 
 companies will be formed to bring water from a distance to some of the 
 dry placers in the southern section of the Hills, and that the rich dig- 
 gings there may be made productive. 
 
 Miners — ^that is, men who work in the mines with hammer and drill 
 —seem to have no difficulty in getting employment. Skilled miners are 
 paid $3.50 a day, and common laborers $2.50. Engineers, amalgamators, 
 
248 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and other skilled mechanics, earn from $4 to $6 a day. I see no idle 
 men anywhere, and as the mines are developed and the amount of ore 
 taken out is increased, of course there will be an increased demand for 
 labor. 
 
 In this same connection I may say that there is great activity in build- 
 ing in Deadwood, which is likely to continue, and I think that carpen- 
 ters, bricklayers, plasterers, masons, etc. would have no trouble in findiag 
 work here. Bricks cannot be obtained as fast as they are needed. Wood- 
 choppers are employed by the hundred to supply the mills with fuel. The 
 remoteness of the Black Hills and the great expense of reaching them 
 will probably prevent the labor-market from being over-supplied for 
 some time to come. 
 
 CHANCES IN THE PEOFESSIONS. 
 
 (3.) Are the professions full ? 
 
 Deadwood seems to be full of lawyers, and while a few men or firms 
 have the cream of the business, here, as elsewhere, all seem to be making 
 a living. Mining gives rise to almost endless litigation. The man who 
 discovers a mine discovers a lawsuit, and he who buys a mine generally 
 finds himself the defendant against half a dozen adverse claims, which 
 he must buy out or fight in the courts. Mining-litigation is generally 
 very profitable to the lawyers ; and in spite of the large colony of attor- 
 neys already here, I have no doubt that there is still room for others who 
 are masters of their profession, clever, and industrious. 
 
 The number of physicians and surgeons does not seem to be large, but 
 I presume those now here are able to attend to their practice. The cli- 
 mate is remarkably healthy. 
 
 Clergymen will find the Black Hills as yet little more than a mission- 
 ary-field. Very few religious societies have yet been organized, and 
 those are far from healthy. Deadwood still maintains much of the cha- 
 racter of a mining camp in the general non-observance of the Sabbath 
 and in the indifference of a large proportion of the people to religious 
 services. 
 
 There are several mining and civil engineers and assayists here, all of 
 whom seem to have plenty of employment. I have no doubt that there 
 will be room for a few more. The best position for a mining engineer is 
 that of superintendent of a good mine, but such places are, of course, not 
 plentiful. 
 
DAKOTA. 
 
 249 
 
 COERECT TABLES OF DISTANCES. 
 
 The following are distances from Deadwood to all important points iu 
 the Black Hills. These are by the shortest wagon-roads; trails or bridle- 
 paths reach all points in about one-third less distance. All camps are 
 reached by either the Cheyenne and Sidney lines or their branches : 
 
 Beadwood to^ Miles. 
 
 Beaver 20 
 
 Bear Gulch 40 
 
 Belle Fourehe Eiver 30 
 
 Central City 2J 
 
 Centennial 5 
 
 Castleton 30 
 
 Custer 56 
 
 Caves and Falls of Wtitewood .... 5 
 
 Crook City . . . .- 10 
 
 Crow Peak 22 
 
 Cold Springs 32 
 
 False Bottom 7 
 
 Forest City 43 
 
 Galena (Silver District) 12 
 
 Germania District 25 
 
 Harney 61 
 
 Hay ward 64 
 
 Hill City 54 
 
 Inyan Kara 60 
 
 Jenny's Stockade 56 
 
 Lead City 4 
 
 Montana City 2 
 
 Mountain City 30 
 
 Deadwood to — Miles. 
 
 Oil City 67 
 
 Potato Gulck 42 
 
 Pactola 60 
 
 Eochford 66 
 
 Eockerville 59 
 
 Sand Creek 45 
 
 Spearfish City 12 
 
 Spearfish Falls and Canon 14 
 
 Sheridan 42 
 
 Sitting BuR 40 
 
 DEADVCOOD TO OUTSIDE POINTS. 
 
 Bear Lodge Mountains 85 
 
 Big Horn Mountains 235 
 
 Fort Eobinson 160 
 
 Cheyenne 266 
 
 Fort Laramie 185 
 
 Fort McKinney 225 
 
 Miles City 250 
 
 Sidney 265 
 
 Eedwater Coal-Mines 30 
 
 Omaha 674 
 
 DISTANCES FROM BAPID CITY. 
 
 Bapid City to — Miles. 
 
 Crook City 35 
 
 Deadwood 42 
 
 Central City 44 
 
 Lead City 46 
 
 Galena City 30 
 
 Spearfish 47 
 
 Forest City 56 
 
 Pactola 13 
 
 Castleton 24 
 
 Sheridan 16 
 
 Hill City 22 
 
 Tigerville 26 
 
 Eockerville 12 
 
 Hayward 18 
 
 Harney City . . . • • 20 
 
 Custer City 40 
 
 Rapid City to — Miles. 
 
 Eochford 24 
 
 Florence 26 
 
 Myers City 26 
 
 Ochre City 23 
 
 Golden Centre 25 
 
 Elkhorn City 27 
 
 Mountain City 41 
 
 Sitting Bull 26 
 
 Sturgis City 30 
 
 Fort Meade 28 
 
 Fort Eobinson 108 
 
 Fort Laramie 143 
 
 Fort Pierre 160 
 
 Sidney 225 
 
 Cheyenne 260 
 
 Bismarck 275 
 
 BLACK HILLS ALTITUDES. 
 ELEVATIOIT ABOVE THE SEA OF PROMINENT CITIES, MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS, ETC. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Inyan Kara Peak 6,500 
 
 Bare Butte 4,800 
 
 Floral Valley 6,196 
 
 Crook's Monument 7,600 
 
 Feet 
 
 Terry's Peak 7,200 
 
 Custer's Peak 6,750 
 
 Devil's Tower 5,100 
 
 Eapid City 3,175 
 
250 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Crook City 3,725 
 
 Eochford (estimated) 4,500 
 
 Harney's Peak 7,440 
 
 Belle Fourche 3,734 
 
 Castle Creek Valley 6,136 
 
 Dodge Peak 7,300 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Warren's Peak 6,900 
 
 Crow Peaks 6,200 
 
 Deadwood 4,425 
 
 Eockerville 4,125 
 
 Pactola (estimated) 4,000 
 
 Custer City " 4,200 
 
 POPULATION or THE CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Population, 
 
 Deadwood 6,000 
 
 Golden Gate 700 
 
 Lead City 2,500 
 
 Eockerville 600 
 
 Eochford 600 
 
 Sturgis City 300 
 
 Sheridan 200 
 
 Tigerville 200 
 
 Pactola, Hayward and other settlements . 
 
 Population. 
 
 Central City 2,000 
 
 GayviUe 800 
 
 Eapid City 500 
 
 Crook City 500 
 
 Custer City 400 
 
 SpearfishCity 250 
 
 Hill City 200 
 
 Galena 250 
 
 2,500 
 
 Total 18,000 
 
MINNESOTA. 
 
 THE Indian name for Minnesota is " sky-colored water," in allusion to 
 the river which gives its name to the State. Its length north and 
 south is 375 miles, and its average breadth 250. It embraces in area 
 83,531 square miles, or 54,760,000 acres. To form an idea of the size, 
 compare it with other States and countries. It is larger than the New 
 England States and Maryland combined, and nearly as large as Ohio and 
 Pennsylvania together. The acreage of arable land already surveyed, 
 exclusive of the mineral and pine regions, is as large as the entire area 
 of Illinois; one of the counties of the State, St. Louis, contains 4,000,000 
 acres. 
 
 The surface of Minnesota is, generally speaking, undulating in its ap- 
 pearance, and is a succession of plains and prairies, drained by an admi- 
 rable water-system, with here and there heavily-timbered bottoms and belts 
 of virgin forest. The distinguishing feature of the State is the wonderful 
 chain of lakes and rivers which renders it in water-power without a rival 
 in the Union. The mighty Mississippi here takes its rise, and drains a 
 basin of eight hundred miles of country. The Red Eiver of the North 
 connects Minnesota with the immense and fertile regions of Manitoba, 
 and the St. Croix, on her eastern border, provides that portion of the 
 State with water-outlet for its products. It is hardly possible to describe 
 the many beautiful lakes that dot the surface of the State and afford such 
 an attraction to the tourist, invalid, and sportsman. Their fame has gone 
 abroad. They abound in fish, while they present many charming scenes 
 of natural heaxtby. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 Though the general impression is of extreme cold and a rigorous win- 
 ter, yet it is found that the temperature of this State is somewhat siniilar 
 to that of New York. The isothermal line, which here trends to the 
 
 281 
 
252 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 north, has a marked influence on the climate of this State as well as of 
 the adjoining Territories to the west. 
 
 The pure, dry atmosphere here offers a panacea to many ills con- 
 tracted in more humid climates, and if the system is not too much ex- 
 hausted by disease the vitality is restored. Indeed, one reason that the 
 inhabitants can endure even the most extreme cold is the sense of elas- 
 ticity and buoyancy imparted to the system by the dry and pure atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 SOIL AND PEODUCTIONS. 
 
 The soil is a dark loam, intermixed with sandy drift, and rests upon a 
 stratum of clay. There is a remarkable uniformity throughout the State, 
 inasmuch as it is nearly all an alluvial deposit, varying from one to five 
 feet in depth. The exceptional district is on the north shore of Lake 
 Superior, where the land is broken and unfit for cultivation. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 "Wheat is the staple product of Minnesota, not because it is the only 
 grain-crop that will mature, nor even for the reason that it is surer and 
 its yield more bountiful, but simply because it always sells readily for 
 cash. Whether the crop is scant or full, the farmer is safe in calculating 
 his wheat as so much ready money as soon as he can get it to the market, 
 and it usually brings a remunerative price. This is why the agricultu- 
 rists of Minnesota have applied themselves mainly to the cultivation of 
 wheat, and thus won for the State the deserved and almost world-wide 
 reputation of producing wheat of a better quality than that grown in any 
 other part of the United States, if not of the world. It is exceedingly 
 rich in nutritive elements, and the flour made from it always commands 
 the highest prices. 
 
 The average yield of wheat in this State ranges from about sixteen to 
 twenty bushels per acre, and when, in connection with this statement, it 
 is remembered that the area upon which it is grown includes one million 
 eight hundred and fifty thousand acres, scattered over sixty-eight counties, 
 extending about two hundred and sixty miles east and west and two hun- 
 dred and eighty north and south, the magnitude of the yield can be more 
 fully appreciated. It is rarely, if ever, that a season passes without more 
 or less injury to crops resulting from local droughts, storms, or other 
 causes in a region so extensive, and it must always be the case that amongst 
 sixty-odd thousand farmers there are a good many who are negligent in 
 tilling their lands and taking care of their produce. When a district of 
 
MINNESOTA. 253 
 
 such immense extent shows an average yield of even twelve bushels per 
 acre, the circumstance merits especial mention. 
 
 CORN, OATS, AND OTHBE GEAINS. 
 
 Corn has been grown in the State since its earliest settlement, and it 
 matures well and yields abundantly almost every season. In 1867 the 
 area devoted to the cultivation was 162,722 acres, and in 1877 it had in- 
 creased to 388,708 acres. For eight years, embracing the period from 
 1867 to 1874 inclusive, the average yield was thirty-two and a half 
 bushels per acre. The oats grown in Minnesota are generally heavy 
 and contain an unusual proportion of nutritive constituents. They are 
 held in high esteem for the manufacture of oatmeal. In 1877 the 
 quantity produced was 13,819,630 bushels, averaging thirty-nine and a 
 quarter bushels to the acre. Rye yields an average of sixteen bushels. 
 The barley of this State is renowned in the market for its weight, freedom 
 from rust, and mature development. The general average was twenty-six 
 bushels per acre for a number of years. Buckwheat averaged thirteen 
 and one-eighth bushels. Timothy, clover, flax, and hemp grow, here, 
 while the wild grasses of the State are famous for the nourishment they 
 contain. The three varieties are buffalo, herd, and blue-joint. They 
 make excellent food for cattle, sheep, and horses. 
 
 Fruits and berries grow well ; honey is in abundance throughout the 
 State. Garden vegetables and melons are produced in great variety. 
 Tobacco is grown in fifty-nine counties, and in 1877 there were 38,839 
 pounds raised. This ought to be accepted as sufficient evidence of the 
 length of the season, for it is well known that the plant matures slowly. 
 Amber corn is also grown, and has been made a success. 
 
 STOCK-RAISING. 
 
 The richness and abundance of the native grasses and the wide ranges 
 of free pasturage in Minnesota naturally attracted the attention of cattle- 
 growers at an early day, and experiments in every instance proved re- 
 markably successful. It was found that the pasturage frequently con- 
 tinued fair until about the middle of November, and in the spring the 
 grass grew rapidly, so that the feeding-season was but little, if any, longer 
 than in Illinois or Missouri, and there was no more necessity for grain- 
 feeding than in districts farther south. This success has led many persons 
 to engage in raising cattle, and the business has already become important, 
 involving in the aggregate a large investment of capital. 
 
 The same causes which make Minnesota an excellent country for rais- 
 
254 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ing neat cattle also adapt it for growing sheep and wool. The feed is 
 abundant in quantity, superior in quality, and procured cheaply. Sheep 
 require to be cared for in winter, and sheds with high roofs and good 
 ventilation are necessary for the best condition of the flocks. They are 
 not liable to foot-rot, catarrhal affections, and various other ailments, as 
 in moister climates ; their wool is neavier and grows thicker and of finer 
 fibre, because of the greater warmth required in this natural covering in 
 the regularly cold winters of this latitude. 
 
 MANurAcnmiNG. 
 
 No State in the Union is richer than Minnesota in capabilities for 
 manufacturing. At Minneapolis the St. Anthony Falls of the Missis- 
 sippi River afford a wates-power of magnificent available capacity. It 
 is already utilized by nineteen flouring-mills, with an aggregate of two 
 hundred and twenty run of stone and capacity for the manufacture of 
 about one million six hundred and fifty thousand barrels of flour per 
 year ; by twenty saw- and shingle-mills, with eighteen gang, twenty-five 
 double circular, and a number of smaller saws ; and by manufactories of 
 cotton and wool, farm-machinery, etc. The St. Croix River, above Still- 
 water in Washington county, and especially in the vicinity of Taylor's 
 Falls in Chisago county, affords a series of superb water-powers, in the 
 aggregate equalling, if not surpassing, that of St. Anthony Falls. These 
 are partially improved now in running flouring- and saw-mills and other 
 machinery, and with the rapidly-increasing railroad facilities which are 
 being afforded that section of the State, and the constant large additions 
 made to its population annually, they will no doubt be much more exten- 
 sively employed in the early future. At Fergus Falls, on Red River, is 
 another extraordinary power, computed to be equal to over twenty thou- 
 sand horse-power, all of which can be easily and cheaply made available. 
 It is not yet improved to any considerable extent, but will be during the 
 current season. A good deal of flour is already manufactured there for 
 home consumption and to supply the Manitoba market. At Granite Falls, 
 on the upper Minnesota River, in Yellow Medicine county, is still another 
 of over twelve thousand horse-power capacity, improved partially, there 
 being two flouring-mills in operation there. Another power of extraor- 
 dinary capacity, and easily and entirely made available, is found on the 
 St. Louis River, near Thomson, in Carlton county. This is about to be 
 improved somewhat extensively for sawing lumber, as it is adjacent to an 
 extensive pine-region. 
 
 Three of the above — viz. that at Minneapolis, that on the St. Croix, 
 
MINNESOTA. 255 
 
 and that on the St. Louis River justly deserve to be called gigantic 
 powers, while the others already mentioned, and one at Sauk Rapids in 
 Stearns county, another on the Cottonwood in Brown county, and per- 
 haps a dozen more in as many diiferent localities, are very extensive and 
 valuable powers. Most of these are wholly unimproved, and probably 
 the full capacity of none is yet made available. Houston county has a fine 
 power of very considerable capacity on Root River, and there are several 
 others on that stream in that and Fillmore counties. On the Zumbro 
 River there are four or five extensive powers, and on the Cannon some 
 eight or ten. Indeed, there are several hundred streams scattered all 
 over the State which afford four or five times the water-power needed for 
 the districts adjacent to them. On looking over the Statistical Report for 
 1878, it is found that sixty-three coimties reported four hundred and fifty- 
 two flour mills. These probably manufacture about five million five hun- 
 dred thousand barrels per year. All but about five hundred thousand 
 barrels of this, which is the product of steam-mills, is the result of the 
 water-power of the State now improved ; and besides this there is an im- 
 mense manufacture of lumber accomplished by the same agency, and a 
 good many other factories derive -their motion from this source; yet 
 hardly one-twentieth of the capacity of the water-power of the State has 
 been made available. Every county in the State, it is believed, has more 
 or less available water-power within its borders. 
 
 This wide]y-dii3fused and immense mechanical force gives ample oppor- 
 tunity for Minnesota to send all the products of her fields, flocks, forests, 
 and mines to market in their prepared condition, thereby avoiding ex- 
 pense of transportation on the refuse portions, saving for her own use 
 those parts which are not profitably marketable, and giving employment 
 to thousands of her citizens in the mechanical departments of industry, 
 thus securing to the State the greatest possible share of the profits accru- 
 ing from her products. 
 
 MINNESOTA FLOUE. 
 
 In the foregoing article on the manufacturing capabilities of the State 
 incidental mention is made of the already extensive milling interests. 
 No data are obtainable at the moment from which to derive an approxi- 
 mate idea of the amount invested in this single business, but it is neces- 
 sarily very large, for a number of our Minnesota mills are the finest in 
 the world. Those at Minneapolis are especially noticeable, and are visited 
 by persons who come here from the Eastern States as objects particularly 
 worthy of curiosity. At Stillwater, St. Paul, Red "Wing, Cannon Falls, 
 
256 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Northfield, and Lanesboro', and on the Zumbro River and at Sauk Centre, 
 Mankato, Fergus Falls, and several other points, are others less extensive, 
 but still of considerable dimensions and expensive construction, and in 
 most instances supplied with all the recently-improved machinery and 
 apparatus for the manufacture of the best description of ilour. The 
 flour manufactured of Minnesota wheat and by mills in this State has 
 for years ranked highest in the Eastern and foreign markets, and com- 
 manded the best prices, and for the past two or three years has been in 
 especial demand for shipment to Europe. About a year ago orders began 
 to be received by the millers here directly from foreign dealers, for the 
 double purpose of making sure of obtaining the flour desired and saving 
 the additional expense of commissions and forwarding charges at Eastern 
 ports. This trade has grown rapidly, Minneapolis alone having shipped 
 last year 109,183 barrels direct to foreign ports, and several other mills 
 considerable quantities ; and it continues to increase, thus augmenting the 
 ability of the millers to pay higher prices for the wheat, and in that way 
 contributing to benefit the agriculturists of the State. From the satis- 
 faction which has so far been given to both shippers and receivers, there 
 is no doubt that this direct trade will continue to grow until it covers 
 the entire quantity of Minnesota flour sent to Europe. 
 
 The estimated population of the State is 800,000, but the rapidly- 
 increasing immigration will largely swell that number in the next few 
 years. The building of the Northern Pacific Railroad opened to easy 
 access a vast fertile territory, which is yielding under cultivation prodig- 
 ious quantities of wheat. The many railroads now in course of construc- 
 tion, penetrating new fields, with those but recently built, offer to the 
 immigrant many strong inducements in the choice of valuable lands. 
 The government also offers great inducements in public lands. From 
 the present outlook it is not unsafe to assert that Minnesota will be one 
 of the great manufacturing as well as agricultural States. The cities of 
 St. Paul and Minneapolis have grown wonderfully within the past few 
 years, while the future is most flattering for a still larger increase, and 
 they can be taken as an index of the growth of the State at large. 
 
THE KANSAS EMIGRANTS. 
 
 WE cross. the prairies, as of old 
 The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 
 To make the West, as they the East, 
 The homestead of the free. 
 
 "We go to rear a wall of men 
 
 On Freedom's southern line. 
 And plant beside the cotton tree 
 
 The rugged Northern pine. 
 
 We're flowing from our native hills 
 
 As our free rivers flow ; 
 The blessing of our mother-land 
 
 Is on us as we go. 
 
 We go to plant our common schools 
 
 On distant prairie swells. 
 And give the Sabbath of the wild 
 
 The music of her bells. 
 
 Upbearing, like the ark of old. 
 
 The Bible in our van. 
 We go to test the truth of God 
 
 Against the fraud of man. 
 
 No pause nor rest save where the streams 
 
 That feed the Kansas run — 
 Save where our Pilgrim gonfalon 
 
 Shall flout the setting sun. 
 
 We'll tread the prairie as of old 
 
 Our fathers sailed the sea. 
 And .make the West, as they the East, 
 The homestead of the free. 
 17 257 
 
KANSAS. 
 
 &EOGrRAPHICALLY speaking, Kansas is the central State of our 
 American Union, lying between the meridian of 94° 38' and 102° 
 of west longitude, and between the parallels of 37° and 40° north lati- 
 tude. It is bounded on the north by Nebraska, the 40th parallel forming 
 the line of division ; east by Missouri ; south by the Indian Territory ; 
 west by Colorado. Its area is stated by the General Land-Office as 
 81,318 square miles, or 52,043,520 acres. Its length from east to west 
 ranges from 391 to 410 miles ; its breadth from north to south is 200 
 miles. The State has no mountains, but, though there are extensive 
 prairies, it is far from being monotonous. There are everywhere low 
 hills or gentle undulations. The surface of Eastern Kansas is chiefly 
 undulating, and presents a succession of rich prairies, grass-covered hills, 
 and fertile valleys, with an abundance of timber on the streams. The 
 western half is not so diversified in its scenery, but has a rolling and varied 
 surface. No Western State has so conspicuous a history as Kansas, and 
 this sketch would be incomplete without at least a mention of a few 
 facts connected with its eventful career. 
 
 HISTORY OF KANSAS. 
 
 That portion of Kansas lying east of the 100th meridian formed part 
 of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and was included at different times 
 in Louisiana and Missouri Territory. By the Missouri Compromise Act 
 of 1820 in all this region lying north of latitude 36° 30', excepting only 
 such part thereof as was included within the limits of the State of Mis- 
 souri, slavery was prohibited. As a result of the Mexican war, the terri- 
 tory of the United States was extended from the 100th meridian west- 
 ward to the Pacific as far south as 32° 30' north latitude. In 1853 
 settlers had already entered the territory in such numbers that Congress 
 was called upon to protect them from the Indians. , With the increase 
 of immigration it soon became evident that the fertile lands of Eastern 
 
 258 
 
KANSAS. 259 
 
 Kansas were to be objects of contention among the friends and oppo- 
 nents of slavery ; the latter contending that by the Missouri Compromise 
 this region was to be exempt from slavery, while the former claimed it on 
 the ground of partial repeal of that Compromise in 1850 and the attend- 
 ing circumstances arising from the accession of new territory in 1848. Both 
 sides were terribly in earnest. In Massachusetts and Connecticut an emi- 
 grants' aid society was chartered, with ample funds, in 1854, to assist emi- 
 grants to remove to Kansas and to furnish them with weapons of defence 
 against those who might attack them. In 1854, Congress passed the Kan- 
 sas and Nebraska Bill, organizing these two Territories, and expressly de- 
 claring that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was inoperative and void 
 in regard to them. As thus organized, the two Territories extended to 
 the Rocky Mountains, taking in considerable portion of Colorado, 
 The emigrants foirwarded by the emigrants' aid companies entered this 
 Territory in very considerable numbers in the spring and summer of 
 1854. They were generally resolute men, able and willing to contend 
 for their new homes ; but the pro-slavery men of Missouri and Arkansas 
 were as determined to secure the prize for themselves ; and a series of 
 raids and conflicts ensued, lasting for four years or more, in which many 
 settlers as well as invaders were killed. Lawrence was twice besieged. 
 and burned ; Pottawattamie, Ossawattamie, and Leavenworth were partially 
 destroyed ; the polls invaded and broken up ; legislatures disturbed, their 
 members and officers arrested and imprisoned ; and the Territory kept in 
 a constant state of turmoil. Governor after governor was appointed by 
 the Presidents. President Pierce appointed Governor Reeder, and Presi- 
 dent Buchanan appointed Governors Shannon, Geary, Walker, Denver, 
 Medary, and Stanton ; but each in turn became convinced of the justice 
 of the cause of the settlers, and so incurred the displeasure of the " Border 
 Ruffians," as the invading party was called, and for various causes they 
 resigned or were removed. 
 
 Four successive constitutions for the Territory were voted upon between 
 December, 1855, and October, 1869. The first, known as the "Topeka 
 Constitution," prohibited slavery, and was adopted in December, 1855, 
 with very little opposition, but its authority was never recognized by pro- 
 slavery men, very few of whom, however, were legal voters. The second, 
 called the "Lecorapton Constitution," was drawn up by a convention 
 never authorized by the people and composed almost entirely of Atchison's 
 followers, the Free State men refusing to vote, and only two thousand 
 out of more than ten thousand votes being cast for it. The convention 
 met at Lecompton in the autumn of 1857, and the constitution prepared 
 
260 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 by it had four sections relating to slavery — ^prohibiting emancipation, con- 
 ferring upon slaveholders all the immunities of the worst slave codes, and 
 declaring these inviolable, and preventing any change in thus constitution 
 before 1864. The only alternative left to the people was to vote for this 
 constitution (which was otherwise objectionable) with or without the 
 slavery sections. The Free State men generally refused to vote, and the 
 constitution was declared to be adopted by about five thousand six hun- 
 dred majority, the greater part known to be fraudulent. On January 4, 
 1858, the people had an opportunity of voting against it at the Territorial 
 election, and there was a majority of 10,226 votes against it. On August 
 3, 1868, Congress ordered another vote on this constitution, and it was 
 rejected by over ten thousand majority. 
 
 Another constitution had been made by a constitutional convention in 
 April, 1858, and had been adopted by a small vote. As it was not quite 
 satisfactory, a fourth convention met at Wyandotte, July 5, 1859, and 
 adopted the present constitution of the State. This was ratified by the 
 people October 4, 1859, by about four thousand majority. 
 
 Kansas was admitted into the Union as a State on January 29, 1861, 
 and its subsequent history has been one of great prosperity. During the 
 Jate civil war no State sent so large a proportion of its male population 
 as Kansas. Its growth since the war has been without a parallel for its 
 rapidity. Its population in 1860 was 109,000 ; it is now, according to 
 the returns of 1878, 849,978. 
 
 THE GEOLOGY OF KANSAS. 
 
 BY PKOF. B. F. MUDGE. 
 
 THE average altitude of Kansas above the level of the sea is 2375 feet, 
 according to the " List of Elevations " by Henry Gannett, one of 
 Professor Hayden's reporters connected with the geological survey. The 
 highest level is in Cheyenne county — about four thousand feet. 
 
 By an inspection of the State map it will be noticed that the rivers 
 drain the country in a southerly and easterly direction. The valleys of 
 the Arkansas, Smoky Hill, and Solomon Kivers, in the western half of 
 the State, flow at quite different altitudes and rates of descent. The upper 
 
KANSAS. 261 
 
 part of the valley of the Smoky Hill is from three to five hundred feet 
 above the corresponding portions of the Arkansas Valley, and the upper 
 valley of the Solomon is from one to two hundred feet higher than the 
 Smoky. These rivers drain the country in a south-easterly and southerly 
 direction, and their descent is gradual, without a waterfall in the State 
 seven feet in height. The average descent of the Arkansas is a little over 
 six feet to the mile, while the Smoky is seven and the Solomon nearly 
 ten feet to the mile. On the upper portions of the latter two rivers the 
 descent is much greater than on the last hundred miles. This is seen in 
 the Smoky, which enters Kansas iive hundred feet above the Arkansas, 
 but when it unites with the Saline River it has come down to the level 
 of the Arkansas in the same longitude. 
 
 The surface for the most part is a gently-rolling prairie, with few steep 
 hills and bluffs, and the ravines are not often precipitous or deep. In 
 the unsettled portion of the State, where there are no roads, the traveller 
 has no difficulty in crossing the country in any direction ; even where the 
 rivers have rapids a mill-dam can rarely give a fall of more than ten 
 feet. 
 
 The soil of both valley and high prairie is the same — the fine black, 
 rich loam so common in the Western States. The predominating lime-' 
 stones by disintegration aid in its fertility, but the extreme fineness of all 
 the ingredients acts most effectually in producing its richness. On the 
 high prairie it is from one to two feet deep ; in the bottoms it is some- 
 times twenty feet. A few exceptions to this general rule of fertility exist 
 in the most western and south-western counties, but they constitute only 
 a small proportion of the whole. The State is so well drained that there 
 are very few valleys with stagnant ponds, and there is not a peat-swamp 
 of fifty acres within its boundaries. 
 
 A very common opinion prevails that the lands lying near the Colorado 
 line contain numerous alkali springs, and that the surface is sometimes 
 covered by white alkaline deposits. This is a mistake. During fifteen 
 years' aquaintance with this part of the State I have seen but two springs 
 appearing to contain that substance, and never found ten acres where the 
 vegetation had been injured by it. 
 
 From all the facts collected in various parts of the State relating to the 
 geological formations found here, we conclude without hesitation that there 
 is nowhere to be seen any violent disturbance of the strata, or even any 
 slight metamorphic action in any of our deposits. The uplifting of this 
 State and the adjoining country from the level of the ocean must have 
 been slow, uniform, and in a perpendicular position. This may have 
 
262 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 been as slow as that now going on in Florida, or a rise of five feet in a 
 century. From our knowledge of the geology of the West, this un- 
 doubtedly took place after the rise of the Rocky Mountains, and prob- 
 ably did not come to a close until the Drift period, as the channels cut 
 by the rivers are large and often through earlier processes, and may date 
 still farther back in geological history. 
 
 The most abundant and best building material in the State is limestone. 
 One of the most valuable natural products is gypsum (or sulphate of lime), 
 which is found in many places in Kansas. The supply of salt in the 
 State is so abundant that if developed it would meet the demand of the 
 whole Valley of the Mississippi, even if the population were tenfold greater 
 than at present. Lead and zinc have been discovered in the south-east^ 
 ern portion of the State. There has been some mining, and the towns 
 of Galena and Empire City, embracing a population of three thousand 
 inhabitants, are the result of the development of the mines. The geo- 
 logical formation of Kansas is entirely different from that producing 
 gold and silver, except when combined with lead. All reports, therefore, 
 of the discovery of the precious metals must be false. Some " mines " 
 reported may be "salted." Coal has been found in large quantities. 
 The thickest and best seam of coal in Kansas is the Cherokee bed, found 
 in Cherokee, Crawford, and Labette counties ; it cokes well and is a good 
 gas coal. It is used for smelting, and preferred to the celebrated " black 
 coal" of Illinois. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 THE relative increase and importance of winter and spring wheat can 
 be realized in the statement that in 1872 the acreage for winter 
 wheat was .247,605 acres, and the product was 2,172,595 bushels; for 
 spring wheat the same year the acreage was 64,159; product, 889,346 
 bushels. In 1877 the acreage was 859,125, and product 10,800,295 
 bushels for winter wheat, and acreage 206,868, and product 3,516,410 
 bushels for spring wheat. In 1878 the acreage for winter wheat was 
 1,297,555, product 26,518,955 bushels ; for spring wheat, acreage 433,257, 
 and product 5,796,403 bushels. An analysis of the foregoing figures 
 furnishes many interesting results which indicate clearly to the farmer 
 the relative adaptability of the State for winter and spring wheat. The 
 
KANSAS. 263 
 
 percentage of increase in acreage of winter wheat from 1872 to 1878 was 
 523.06 ; of spring wheat, 675.28. The increase in a single year from 
 1877 to 1878 in the aggregate acreage of the two crops was six hundred 
 and sixty-six thousand eight hundred and nineteen acres, and is without 
 parallel in the history of wheat production in the United States. Kan- 
 sas ranked twenty-fourth among the States in 1866, nineteenth in 
 1870, eleventh in 1875, and eighth in 1870, in wheat production. 
 
 In rye, the total acreage in 1878 was 1 28,000, and the product 2,470,000 
 bushels. The main corn-belt of the State — that is, the sixteen counties 
 having upward of fifty thousand acres in corn — lies almost entirely upon 
 the eastern borders of the State, the bulk in the south-eastern counties, 
 and thence extending throughout the eastern border counties to Doniphan 
 and Brown in the extreme north-west. The acreage in corn for 1878 
 was 2,406,000, and the product in bushels was 81,563,400 ; total value, 
 $15,497,046. The barley crop for 1878 yielded 56,255 bushels. The 
 increase of oats acreage was very large in 1878 — 444,191 ; while in 1877 
 it was but 310,226 — a gain in one year of thirty per cent. 
 
 HORTICULTURE. 
 
 The State produces abundantly of all the fruits that are found in a cor- 
 responding latitude in the East, as apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, 
 and the smaller fruits and different varieties of berries. 
 
 The State encourages timber-culture. The planting of orchards has 
 been found to be most successful iipon the uplands in prefereiice to the 
 lowlands. 
 
 STOCK-RAISING. 
 
 This has grown to be an immense business, yet the rapid settlement and 
 the occupation of the lands have confined the grazing-regions to the far 
 western portion of the State. The greatest part of this business is in 
 Texas cattle, in raising or in droving from Texas and shipping directly 
 East, though the State has a quarantine law for protection of native cattle, 
 and this trade is therefore under some restriction. To give a more general 
 idea of the management and magnitude of the business, we quote from a 
 writer on the subject, who refers to 1877 in his comparisons, and also to 
 the south-western section of the State, in the Arkansas Valley : 
 
 " The total ' drive ' from -Texas in the spring and summer — May 15 to 
 July 15— was 280,000. Of these 100,000 went North to the Union 
 Pacific country, some 60,000 were held in South-western Kansas, and the 
 remainder shipped East. In 1873, in the country south of Great Bend 
 
264 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and Dodge City — Great Bend being then the cattle-shipping point — to 
 the State line there were not to exceed ten thousand cattle upon the range. 
 In 1874 there were about 25,000, in 1875, about 35,000, in 1876, 45,000, 
 and last year (1877), as hitherto stated, 60,000. In addition to the thou- 
 sands wintered in South-west Kansas last winter, there were some 30,000 
 in the northern part of the Pan-Handle of Texas and tributary to the 
 Santa FS road. 
 
 " Of the ' drive,' the early cattle are usually in the best shape, because 
 these come from Northern Texas and have a shorter drive. They are 
 also a better class of beeves than coast-cattle, which are coarser and longer 
 homed. The profit in the business of purchasing either class of cattle 
 with judgment is owing to the little expense from the country being so 
 peculiarly adapted to stock — such nutritious grasses, plenitude of spring 
 water that never freezes, and no outlay for shelter or feed. The change 
 of climate adds immensely to the condition and value of the cattle, for 
 here they take on fat readily, having no troublesome flies or extremes of 
 heat to annoy and debilitate them. Texas two-year-olds can be grazed 
 and fattened here for one year, and sold at three years old for from eighty 
 to one hundred per cent, profit. The ruling rates at Dodge City prove 
 this beyond all question ; as, for instance, Texas two -year-olds sold last 
 summer for fourteen dollars, and the same beeves wintered and grazed in 
 Kansas until the present year, when they are of course three-year-olds, 
 sell for twenty-four dollars. And now the question naturally arises as 
 to the expense of the year's keeping. There are almost any number of 
 parties with herds of their own upon the range, and it being practically 
 unlimited, the expense of adding to the extent of the herd is simply one 
 of increased help ; and as herders' wages per month average about twenty- 
 five dollars, the item is not of very great proportions. It is a common 
 practice for other owners, non-residents or those not caring to devote their 
 time individually to their cattle, to place their herds with those of parties 
 attending personally to the stock upon the range, and the ruling rates gov- 
 erning such proceedings are two dollars each for yearlings and two dollars 
 and a half each for cattle two or more years old. Each owner's stock is 
 branded with his own recorded brand, hence there can be no trouble as 
 to proprietorship ; and as the owner of the main herd recognizes it as his 
 best interest to take the best possible care of his own stock and the com- 
 bined herd grazing in common, there can be no discrimination, and all in 
 the herd necessarily receive equal attention. Generally, three or four 
 owners giving their time to the care of the cattle lay claim by right of 
 occupation to some particular range with running streams of water per- 
 
KANSAS. 265 
 
 meating it, and driving their stock upon it locate their camps or cabins at 
 equidistant points. Twice a day, every morning and afternoon, the entire 
 limits of this range are visited, some one riding in both directions from 
 each habitation, and, meeting at half-way points, retrace their respective 
 routes to starting-places, this being called in herdsmen's parlance ' riding 
 the range.' Thus the range is patrolled every day in the year, and the 
 cattle not only prevented from roaming beyond the particular range upon 
 which they are placed to graze, but all outside intrusion guarded against. 
 The- percentage of loss by death during the year will not exceed two per 
 cent., and one can figure for himself what his profits would be upon an 
 investment in Texas two-year-olds at fourteen dollars per head, paying 
 two dollars and a half per head for their keeping, allowing two per cent, 
 for loss, and selling them at three years old for twenty-four dollars per 
 head. 
 
 SHEEP-HUSBANDET. 
 
 Time may develop the fact that for sheep-growing Kansas may be 
 divided into two or three belts by lines drawn north and south, thus form- 
 ing the eastern, middle, and western belts — the first, or eastern one, more 
 especially adapted to the larger mutton-sheep, the middle to the medium 
 or mixed breeds grown for wool and mutton both, and the western belt 
 to the larger flocks of fine-wool sheep, made up of the merino and its 
 crosses on the common sheep. The smaller farms, with less free range, 
 and the nearer markets for mutton, point to the possibility of the larger 
 breeds being more profitable in the eastern portion of the State. Just 
 what influence the increased altitude of the western portion of the State 
 will have upon the health of flocks cannot, with the limited experience 
 of a few years, be yet determined. It is safe, however, to say that the 
 general truth developed by the experience of Kansas breeders is, that the 
 high, well-drained prairies of the State have been found, for obvious 
 reasons, the healthiest. It will be seen that the breeders from the ex- 
 treme western counties report their flocks more than ordinarily free from 
 disease. The marked improvement in the weight of both the fleece and 
 the carcass in Kansas in flocks which have been removed from other 
 States is a point worthy of special notice. The almost unlimited range 
 to be found in the western portion of the State presents advantages for 
 extensive flocks, and opens a field for the investment of surplus capital 
 which will not long be neglected. 
 
266 THJE GREAT WEST. 
 
 LIVE-STOCK. 
 
 [FEOM THE EEPOET OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.] 
 
 THE advance Kansas has made of late years among the other States 
 of the Union in aggregate value of live-stock is a very interesting 
 study, the reports of the Department of Agriculture (from 1866, and 
 including 1876) showing in this wise : In 1866, Kansas was the twenty- 
 ninth State in the Union, ranking only Florida, Nebraska, Delaware, and 
 Rhode Island. In 1867 she was also the twenty-ninth, with Louisiana 
 added to the other four below in rank; in 1868, the thirty-first, Louisi- 
 ana stepping to the twenty-ninth, and California coming in the first time 
 and assigned the twelfth place. In 1869, Oregon was added to the list, and 
 Kansas went to the twenty-fifth place, Maryland falling from twenty- 
 fourth to twenty-sixth, Minnesota from twenty-sixth to twenty-eighth, 
 "West Virginia from twenty-seventh to twenty-ninth. South Carolina 
 from twenty-eighth to thirtieth, and New Hampshire taking Kansas's old 
 place, the thirty-first. In 1870, Kansas made another long jump, this 
 time reaching the nineteenth place, and forcing Massachusetts, who held 
 it, to go to the twenty-first. Connecticut fell from twenty-third to 
 twenty-ninth, Arkansas from twenty-first to twenty-second, and Maine 
 from twenty-second to twenty-seventh. In 1871, Arkansas took the 
 nineteenth place, and Kansas went down a peg to the twentieth, but there 
 were still behind her several of the oldest States in the Union. In 1872, 
 Kansas left Arkansas undisturbed in possession of the nineteenth place, 
 but quietly jumped over her to the eighteenth place, forcing New Jersey 
 out of it and to the twentieth place. In 1873, Kansas ousted Alabama 
 from the sixteenth place, and put behind her, for the first time, Missis- 
 sippi and Alabama. In 1874, though the grasshoppers did play such 
 havoc with things generally, Kansas lost but four pegs, settling in the 
 twentieth position. New Jersey taking the sixteenth, Mississippi the sev- 
 enteenth, Minnesota the eighteenth, and Alabama the nineteenth, while 
 behind Kansas were Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and a host of old 
 States. In 1875, Kansas bounded over Minnesota, Mississippi, New 
 Jersey, and Alabama, and regained the sixteenth place, hugging Virginia 
 and Georgia very close for their positions just above her. In 1876 (the 
 latest report issued by the department) Kansas went to the seventeenth 
 place, Minnesota again creeping by her. Once more Kansas pushed the 
 two States just ahead of her, Virginia and Georgia, exceedingly close 
 
KANSAS. 
 
 267 
 
 for their places, the sixteenth and fifteenth respectively. During all these 
 years but one (1873) New York was first. Illinois was fourth until 1869, 
 when she went to third place. In 1870 she went to second place, and 
 has remained there ever since, with the exception of 1873, when she took 
 first place from New York. 
 
 The following tables contain an enumeration of live-stock for the year 
 1877-78, and the increase and decrease during tjie year : 
 
 LrVE-STOCK. 
 
 
 HOESES. 
 
 7 
 
 Mules and Asses. 
 
 MiLOH Cows. 
 
 .a 
 1 . 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 is 
 
 6 
 
 '3 
 !> 
 
 Total in 1875 . . 
 Total in 1878 . . 
 
 207,376 
 274,450 
 
 $9,875,245.12 
 16,467,000.00 
 
 24,964 
 40,564 
 
 $1,622,660.00 
 3,042,300.00 
 
 225,028 
 286,241 
 
 $5,747,215.12 
 7,442,266.00 
 
 Increase . . . 
 
 67,074 
 
 $6,591,754.88 
 
 15,600 
 
 $1,419,640.00 
 
 61,213 
 
 $1,695,050.88 
 
 Per cent, of in- 1 
 crease in 5 yrs. J 
 
 32.34 
 
 
 54.47 
 
 
 57.20 
 
 
 
 Otheh Cattle. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Swine. 
 
 to 
 
 .1= 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 a 
 fe5 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 "d 
 
 Total in 1875 . . 
 Total in 1878 . . 
 
 478,295 
 586,002 
 
 $9,039,775.50 
 12,423,242.40 
 
 106,224 
 243,760 
 
 $247,501.92 
 731,280.00 
 
 292,658 
 1,195,044 
 
 $2,077,871.80 
 6,094,724.40 
 
 Increase . . . 
 
 107,707 
 
 $3,383,466.90 
 
 137,536 
 
 $483,778.08 
 
 902,386 
 
 $4,016,852.60 
 
 Per cent, of in- \ 
 crease in 5 yrs. / 
 
 22.52 
 
 
 129.48 
 
 
 308.34 
 
 
 In the eleven years from 1866 to 1876 the following changes occurred 
 in the positions of the States: New York, first in 1866, and also first 
 in 1876 ; Ohio, from second to third ; Pennsylvania, third to fourth ; 
 Illinois, fourth to second ; Indiana, fifth to sixth ; Iowa, sixth to fifth ; 
 Michigan, seventh to ninth ; Wisconsin, eighth to eleventh ; Kentucky, 
 ninth to twelfth ; Missouri, tenth to eighth ; Tennessee, eleventh to thir- 
 teenth; Texas, twelfth to seventh; Virginia, thirteenth to sixteenth; 
 Georgia, fourteenth to fifteenth ; New Jersey, fifteenth to twenty-second ; 
 Alabama, sixteenth to twenty-first; Vermont, seventeenth to twenty- 
 seventh ; Mississippi, eighteenth and eighteenth ; North Carolina, nine- 
 
268 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 teenth and nineteenth; Maine, twentieth to twenty-fourth; Maryland, 
 twenty-first to twenty-sixth ; Massachusetts, twenty-second to twentieth ; 
 Connecticut, twenty-third to thirty-first; Minnesota, twenty-fourth to 
 fourteenth; Arkansas, twenty-fifth to twenty-third; New Hampshire, 
 twenty-sixth to thirty-second ; South Carolina, twenty-seventh to twenty- 
 ninth; Louisiana, twenty-eighth to thirtieth; Kansas, twenty-ninth to 
 seventeenth ; Florida, thirtieth to thirty-fourth ; Nebraska, thirty-first to 
 twenty-eighth; Delaware, thirty-second to thirty-fifth, Rhode Island, 
 thirty-third to thirty-sixth. Thus it will be noted that the advance made 
 by Kansas in the period named was beyond all question the most striking 
 among all the States of the Union, ascending on an average to one place 
 higher each year. Minnesota is the only State approaching her, but while 
 she was doubling her aggregate of valuation Kansas trebled hers, and at 
 the end had within four million dollars the valuation of Minnesota. 
 New York, though leading in 1876 as in 1866, had $36,000,000 less 
 valuation. Ohio losing $17,000,000 and Pennsylvania $8,000,000, Kan- 
 sas had $30,000,000 in 1876 to $10,000,000 in 1868. 
 
 LOCATION OP BEST FARMING LANDS. 
 
 This question cannot be satisfactorily answered unless the exact wants 
 of the interrogator are made known in each case. Only a very general 
 answer can be given. There is probably no State in the Union where 
 there is so small an acreage of waste land as in Kansas. The bottom- 
 lands of our beautiful valleys are what are commonly known as " second 
 bottoms," which very seldom contain ponds of stagnant water, and which 
 are, in this respect, unlike most of the bottom-lands in most of the Western 
 States. Skirting and distinctively bounding the valleys are picturesque 
 bluffs, varying in form and size, sometimes gently undulating, and then 
 bold and abrupt, and in most cases clad with verdure. Stretching out on 
 either hand from the skirtings of the valleys are the gently-undulating 
 prairies, or uplands, until other valleys are reached. Bottom-lands are 
 preferable for hemp and tobacco, and are equally good for other crops, un- 
 less it be for fruit. It is thought by many fruit-growers that the growth 
 in the bottoms is too rank and soft, and that the fruit is not as fair nor as 
 highly flavored ; others think this is compensated largely by the protec- 
 tion given from the high wincjs of the prairies. Sometimes wheat and 
 other small grains grow so very rank in the valleys as to lodge badly, and 
 wheat is a little more inclined to rust than on the high prairies. The 
 whole State, including the yet unorganized counties, embracing what has 
 been familiarly known as the " Plains of Kansas," is well adapted to stock- 
 
KANSAS. 269 
 
 growing; this designation, which carries with it the idea of a country 
 " without elevations or depressions," is as erroneous as that formerly ap- 
 plied, within our memory, to all Kansas — ^the " Great American Desert." 
 While many watercourses have their source east of this region, a reference 
 to the Kansas map will disclose the fact that the following rivers have 
 their sources west of the State : the Cimarron River in the extreme south- 
 west; the Arkansas some sixty-five miles north of the former; the Smoky 
 Hill in the central portion ; and the Republican in the north-west. It 
 will also show that, as these rivers flow eastwardly, the feeders are nu- 
 merous and important, webbing the unorganized counties with a network 
 of watercourses which will enable sheep-husbandry and grazing of horses, 
 cattle, and mules to be carried on to an unlimited extent. To rely upon 
 this portion of the State, however, at the present time, for diversified farm 
 industries would be disastrous — only a " potter's field " for all capital in- 
 vested. The advantages for sheep-raising are equally as good until you 
 reach the sixth principal meridian, and east of here through Kansas, in 
 the ordinary method of keeping a limited number ; but west of this line 
 the range is unlimited, and the deep abrupt walls or bluffs in many locali- 
 ties, where small streams and ravines zigzag to the larger ones, guarantee 
 ample protection from the severity of the winds of winter, and at the same 
 time furnish, in the bottom of the miniature valleys and often on the sides 
 of the bluffs, a good growth of wild grass which furnishes nutritious food. 
 There are winters where stock, especially sheep, will go through with very 
 little care or food beyond what has been named. The failures which have 
 hitherto occurred in these industries in the extreme West are owing to 
 the fact that an impression has gone abroad that because stock will occa- 
 sionally stand this kind of treatment, it may be tried with impunity at 
 any time. TJiis is an egregious mistake; stock any and everywhere in 
 Kansas need more or less care, protection, food, and water — more than 
 they can obtain if allowed to roam at large. It is believed, however, 
 that the mortality which often occurs is owing to thirst ; streams become 
 frozen, and the poor creatures become mad with thirst, and start out in 
 all kinds of weather in quest of water, thereby exposing themselves to 
 the inclemency of the weather when their systems are in the worst pos- 
 sible condition to repel cold, and when they would otherwise be huddled 
 together behind Nature's wind-breaks and feeding upon native grasses, 
 without " going out in the cold " for them. 
 
 There are two conditions precedent to a successful outcome in raising 
 farm animals on a large scale. These are the adaptability of the climate 
 and soil for the production of corn and the amount of grasses fit for pas- 
 
270 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 tare and hay. The figures in the progress of the corn-culture eloquently 
 establish the claims of that cereal to the title of king of farm-products 
 in Kansas. The extreme western organized counties are not as good for 
 corn as those in the eastern part of the State, and it is questionable 
 whether it can be grown with profit at all except in the river- and creek- 
 bottoms. It can be brought by rail from eastern counties at less cost 
 than it can be raised in the western, or stock can be taken farther east to 
 winter. Corn last fall and though the winter has sold on the line of 
 the railroad at from twenty-two to twenty-five cents. But stock can be 
 driven a distance from railroad communication, where corn is cheaper. 
 As to grasses, the unlimited pastures of Kansas produce a superabun- 
 dance of the most nutritious wild or native varieties — the common prairie 
 grasses in the east, and the buffalo and blue-stem in the west, taking the 
 lead. As the buifaloes recede from the fast-encroaching settlements, the 
 blue-stem, a variety which often grows from eight to ten feet high, reaches 
 westward, and in turn will undoubtedly be followed by the smaller and 
 more desirable prairie-grass, which obtains throughout all Eastern and 
 Middle Kansas — ^that is, in the organized counties. Then, as the settle- 
 ments become older and farms become fenced, timothy, clover, and blue- 
 grass pastures and meadows have been established with ease, all taking 
 kindly to the soil and promising the best of results. In the west — in 
 fact, throughout Kansas — alfalfa promises to be eminently successful. 
 Especially in the west, where rainfall is variable to some extent, and less 
 than in the east, its determined, fibrous roots descend to a great depth, 
 and it flourishes beyond all expectation. Millet and Hungarian also do 
 well throughout the State. Spring wheat gives the best results in the 
 north-west, but is being fast superseded by its stronger rival. 
 
 While we have not been sufficiently definite to answer any one partic- 
 ular question, we have endeavored to furnish a fair statement of the rela- 
 tive capabilities and possibilities of the different parts of the State, with- 
 out narrowing down to county or district lines. In this connection we 
 would be recreant to every sense of duty if we did not spt forth a little 
 more in detail the advantages and disadvantages of the eastern and west- 
 ern portions of the State, 
 
 PRICES OF IMPROVED AND UNIMPROVED FARMS. 
 
 The enthusiastic immigrant, when he leaves his more Eastern home, 
 seeks cheap lands in the extreme West. He takes no more notice of the 
 beautiful farms of Eastern Kansas and the improvements on every hand 
 #ian if they did not exist. And yet these are among the most fertile 
 
KANSAS. 271 
 
 and productive in the West. They have the advantage of having a most 
 admirable network of railroads, which furnish convenient markets for 
 their products; elegant school-houses and church edifices, dotting hills 
 and valleys; modern bridges spanning the numerous streams; court- 
 houses and other public buildings erected ; fields under a high state of 
 cultivation ; orchards and vineyards in full bearing with all kinds of fruit 
 grown in this latitude — apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cher- 
 ries, plums, grapes, together with the whole army of small fruits. To 
 accomplish such results has required the pluck and energy of an enter- 
 prising people for the last twenty or more years. The transformation of 
 the homestead region from a boundless prairie waste, beautiful but wild, 
 into a land teeming with the foregoing evidences of wealth, prosperity, 
 and civilization will require another twenty or more years. The western 
 portion of the State is bewitchingly inviting to all of small means, whose 
 only hope for a farm and home of their own is government land. It is 
 equally so to those of larger means, who wish to prosecute farm industries 
 on a large scale with the least possible outlay : especially is this true of 
 stock-raising. But there is another class throughout the Eastern States, 
 who possess from one to fifteen thousand dollars each, and whose little 
 capital, owing to shrinkage in values, general business prostration, and 
 want of confidence, is either idle or earning a very low rate of interest. 
 These men are among the best, and are signalling the West for infor- 
 mation to enable them to make safe investments in land and to establish 
 new homes and business relations. In the East, with land from one to 
 two hundred dollars per acre, their Outlook is gloomy. 
 
 In Eastern Kansas we find an anomalous state of things — wild lands at 
 about the same prices for which they can be had from private parties in 
 the West, while improved farms can be purchased for less than the cost 
 of the improvements ; and this in a region unexcelled in fertility, with 
 no parallel in the history of material development and substantial pros- 
 perity. It is no discredit to the country producing these apparent con- 
 tradictions, but greatly in her favor. In the early settlement of the State, 
 when immigration was exceedingly large, and when, as now, immigrants 
 had to purchase largely the first year, the soil yielded so abundantly, and 
 the market at each farmer's door for every bushel of grain, every pound 
 of butter, every dozen of eggs, and everything else which he could pro- 
 duce, was so good, with prices so extraordinarily high, he considered 
 it would be only a question of a few years when he would have all the 
 surroundings that affluenpe could bring. Following quickly upon this 
 glittering picture of future wealth, while land-speculation beset and upset 
 
272 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 even the old stagers who had passed through in the East the severe ordeal 
 of 1836 to 1840, church-spires sprang up like magic, built with money 
 largely sent by the various denominations in the older States ; school dis- 
 tricts vied with each other in the erection of elegant school-edifices ; court- 
 houses, bridges, and other public improvements were carried on ; railroads 
 were being pushed ahead with unexampled and unexpected celerity. The 
 money for all these improvements was spent in the State, of which the 
 farmers received a goodly share. This additional source of prosperity 
 begat a new spirit of land-speculation, from which it was impossible for 
 any class possessed of the ordinary frailties of human nature to escape. 
 Farmers, being the most prosperous, outdid all others in the mania for 
 land, which they purchased at fabulous prices, making small down-pay- 
 ments, giving notes for the balance secured by mortgage on all their real 
 possessions. 
 
 While these seemingly inexhaustible sources of monetary supply con- 
 tinued, with real estate constantly appreciating, an Utopian future was 
 presented to the mental vision. But in a day, as it were, all these cher- 
 ished hopes were dissipated. Values depreciated ; the various improve- 
 ments herein named stopped ; bonds which had been issued for railroads, 
 expensive school-houses, bridges, court-houses, etc. called for a tax-levy 
 for annual interest, and for a sinking fund for their final redemption ; 
 and interest had to be paid or defaulted on mortgages covering real estate 
 largely undeveloped. Shrinkages occurred in everything except mort- 
 gages ; these soon became malignant, cancerous growths, which not only 
 consumed the profits of the farmers, but the farms themselves. Hence 
 it is that a train of circumstances has conspired to bring financial dis- 
 aster upon one class of farmers, while the prosperity of those who are out 
 of debt, and the rapid advancement of the country in material greatness, 
 clearly vindicate the statement that it is no fault of Kansas, of her soil or 
 climate, that this state of things, nearly always incidental to the rapid 
 settlement and development of a new country, exists. These overladen 
 farmers, with pleasant surroundings, the accumulated labor of years, 
 must give up their homes, save all they can, and commence anew in the 
 West, where government lands can be had without price. It is to these 
 farms, which can be had at great bargains, that the attention of the new- 
 comer is called who has the means to gratify his inclination and taste. 
 
KANSAS. 
 
 273 
 
 POPULATION OF KANSAS. 
 
 rriHE following tables show the population of Kansas, by counties and 
 -L principal cities, as returned by the assessors, through the county clerks, 
 to the State Board of Agriculture, March 1, 1879 : 
 
 POPITLATION BY COUNTIES. 
 
 
 Enamera- 
 
 Enamera. 
 
 
 
 
 Enomera- 
 
 Ennmera. 
 
 
 
 
 tloD uf in- 
 
 habitanM, 
 
 1878. 
 
 tion of in. 
 
 habitaou, 
 
 1879. 
 
 lacr. 
 
 Deer. 
 
 Couimss. 
 
 tioD of iD- 
 
 habitants, 
 
 1878. 
 
 tioD or in. 
 
 babitaots, 
 
 1879. 
 
 iDcr. 
 
 Deer. 
 
 Allen 
 
 8,964 
 
 10,116 
 
 1,152 
 
 
 Marion . . . 
 
 8,306 
 
 10,154 
 
 1,848 
 
 
 Anderson . . . 
 
 6,000 
 
 6,616 
 
 616 
 
 
 Marshall . . 
 
 12,270 
 
 17,129 
 
 4,859 
 
 
 * Atchison . . 
 
 20,600 
 
 21,700 
 
 1,100 
 
 
 McPherson . 
 
 11,291 
 
 13,196 
 
 1,905 
 
 
 Barbour . . . . 
 
 1,388 
 
 2,016 
 
 628 
 
 
 Miami . . . 
 
 14,4:« 
 
 15,161 
 
 728 
 
 
 Barton . . . 
 
 8,231 
 
 12,333 
 
 4,082 
 
 
 Mitchell . . 
 
 8,673 
 
 14,034 
 
 3,361 
 
 
 Bourbon . . . 
 
 17,741 
 
 18,310 
 
 569 
 
 
 Montgomery . 
 
 16,468 
 
 15,979 
 
 
 489 
 
 Brown . . . . 
 
 10,446 
 
 10,790 
 
 344 
 
 
 Morris . . . 
 
 6,656 
 
 7,197 
 
 l,'54'l 
 
 
 Kutler . . . 
 
 14,175 
 
 17,006 
 
 2,831 
 
 
 Nemaha . . . 
 
 8,876 
 
 10,267 
 
 1,.391 
 
 
 Chautauqua . . 
 
 9,246 
 
 10,537 
 
 1,291 
 
 
 Neosho 
 
 11,055 
 
 13,694 
 
 2.339 
 
 
 Chase 
 
 3,798 
 
 4,743 
 
 945 
 
 
 Norton . , 
 
 1,865 
 
 4,797 
 
 2,942 
 
 
 Cherokee . . . 
 
 17,770 
 
 18,635 
 
 765 
 
 
 Osage .... 
 
 12,618 
 
 15,369 
 
 2,761 
 
 
 Clay . . . . 
 
 8,759 
 
 10,658 
 
 1,899 
 
 
 Osborne , . . 
 
 6,125 
 
 9,445 
 
 3,320 
 
 
 Cloud . . . 
 
 10,183 
 
 12,6.16 
 
 2,473 
 
 
 Ottawa . . . 
 
 6,664 
 
 8,757 
 
 2,093 
 
 
 Coffey 
 
 8,599 
 
 10,077 
 
 1,478 
 
 
 Pawnee . . . 
 
 6,114 
 
 7,023 
 
 909 
 
 
 Cowley . . . . 
 
 15,390 
 
 18,157 
 
 2,767 
 
 
 Philips . . . 
 
 5,436 
 
 7,956 
 
 2,.520 
 
 
 Crawford . . . 
 
 12,759 
 
 14,622 
 
 1,863 
 
 
 Pottawatt'mie 
 
 11,196 
 
 13,791 
 
 2,695 
 
 
 Davis 
 
 6,382 
 
 6,087 
 
 705 
 
 
 tPratt (o) . . 
 
 
 2,084 
 
 2,084 
 
 
 Dickinson . . . 
 
 10,850 
 
 13,003 
 
 2,166 
 
 
 Ueno . . . 
 
 11,528 
 
 12,042 
 
 614 
 
 
 Doniphan . . . 
 
 15,122 
 
 15,459 
 
 337 
 
 
 Republic . . 
 
 10,132 
 
 12,193 
 
 2,061 
 
 
 Douglas . . . , 
 
 18,931 
 
 20,630 
 
 1,599 
 
 
 Rice . . . 
 
 6,149 
 
 7,601 
 
 1,332 
 
 
 Edwards , 
 
 1,700 
 
 2,801 
 
 1,101 
 
 
 t Riley . . . 
 
 7,419 
 
 7,419 
 
 
 
 Elk 
 
 8,218 
 
 8,787 
 
 569 
 
 
 Rooks . . . 
 
 2,100 
 
 5,104 
 
 3,004 
 
 
 Ellis 
 
 2,437 
 
 5,240 
 
 2,803 
 
 
 Rush .... 
 
 2,794 
 
 6,282 
 
 2,488 
 
 
 Ellsworth . . . 
 
 5,057 
 
 6,741 
 
 1,684 
 
 
 Russell . . . 
 
 3,239 
 
 6,521 
 
 3,282 
 
 
 Ford . . 
 
 2,160 
 
 2,832 
 
 672 
 
 
 Saline .... 
 
 9,330 
 
 12,424 
 
 2,894 
 
 
 Franklin . . . 
 
 12,381 
 
 14,073 
 
 1,692 
 
 
 Sedgwick 
 
 15,220 
 
 17,613 
 
 2,393 
 
 
 Greenwood . . 
 
 7,658 
 
 8,202 
 
 554 
 
 
 Shawnee 
 
 19,114 
 
 22,632 
 
 3,318 
 
 
 fllarper . 
 
 
 2,1,58 
 
 2,l,i8 
 
 
 Smith .... 
 
 8,313 
 
 11,498 
 
 3,183 
 
 
 Harvey . . . . 
 
 8,107 
 
 10,440 
 
 2,333 
 
 
 t Stafford (6). 
 
 
 2,364 
 
 2,364 
 
 
 tHodgeman . . 
 
 
 1,738 
 
 1,738 
 
 
 Sumner . . 
 
 12,078 
 
 15,090 
 
 3,012 
 
 
 Jackson . . . . 
 
 7,930 
 
 8,732 
 
 802 
 
 
 t Trego . . . 
 
 
 2,310 
 
 2,310 
 
 
 Jefferson . . 
 
 12,471 
 
 13,872 
 
 1,401 
 
 
 Wabaunsee . 
 
 5,386 
 
 6,245 
 
 859 
 
 
 Jewell . . . . 
 
 11,388 
 
 14,161 
 
 2,773 
 
 
 Washington . 
 
 10,319 
 
 11,900 
 
 1,681 
 
 
 Johnson . 
 
 18,139 
 
 16,012 
 
 
 2,127 
 
 Wilson . . 
 
 11,760 
 
 11,901 
 
 141 
 
 
 Kingman . . . 
 
 
 2,399 
 
 2,599 
 
 
 Woodson . . 
 
 5,514 
 
 6,038 
 
 544 
 
 
 Labette . . . . 
 
 17,196 
 
 18,171 
 
 975 
 
 
 Wyandotte . 
 
 13,161 
 
 13,046 
 
 1,886 
 
 
 Leavenworth . 
 
 28,544 
 
 30,283 
 
 1,739 
 
 
 ♦Unorganized 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lincoln .... 
 Linn 
 
 4,611 ■ 
 13,228 
 
 7,448 
 
 2,837 
 
 
 counties . . 
 
 8,500 
 
 13,000 
 
 6,600 
 
 
 14,686 
 
 1,358 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lyon 
 
 13,634 
 
 15,073 
 
 1,439 
 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 708,497 
 
 849,978 
 
 144,097 2,616| 
 
 Actual increase during the year ending March 1, 1879, 141,431. 
 
 * Estimated by assessors. 
 
 t Harper organized August 5, 1878 ; Hodgemirn organized March 29, 1879 ; Stafford organized June 30, 
 1879 ; Pratt organized July 25, 1879 ; Trego organized June 21, 1879 — which accounts for no official returns 
 for 1878. 
 
 t Returns for 1878; no enumeration for 1879. 
 
 (a) In 1878, Pratt county, then unorganized, was attached to Eeno as a township thereof, and to which 
 the enumeration was made. Population, March 1, 1878, 2180. 
 
 (6) At the time of the reinstatement of Stafford county by decision of the Supreme Court, June, 1879, 
 Barton county extended to the south line of township 23. By said decision twelve townships were taken 
 from the south part of Barton and added to Stafford. As the enumeration of inhabitants for Bartou was 
 taken March 1, 1879, the returus for said twelve townshi|3a appear in the Barton county returns, and 
 show a population of 23S7, or 197 to each of the Congressional townships. June, 1879, at time of said 
 decision, the population of Stafford county was 4731. Deducting the population returned to Barton 
 county (twelve townsliips), 2367, from that of Stafford county (4731), we have left 2364 for the remainder 
 of the territory of Stafford county. 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Population of the Pbincipai, Cities, in the Obdeb op Eank, coMMENciNa 
 
 WITH THE Highest. 
 
 Leavenworth, Leavenworth county . 16,643 
 
 Topeka, Shawnee county 11,204 
 
 Atchison, Atchison county 11,000 
 
 Lawrence, Douglas county 8,478 
 
 Wichita, Sedgwick county 5,235 
 
 Fort Scott, Bourbon county .... 5,010 
 
 Wyandotte, Wyandotte county . . . 4,612 
 
 Emporia, Lyon county 4,061 
 
 Ottawa, Franklin county 3,507 
 
 Salina, Saline county 3,383 
 
 Parsons, Labette county 3,130 
 
 Independence, Montgomery county . 2,829 
 
 Newton, Harvey county 2,539 
 
 Junction City, Davis county .... 2,345 
 
 Olathe, Johnson county 2,260 
 
 Beloit, Mitchell county 2,194 
 
 Winfield, Cowley county 2,103 
 
 Osage City, Osage county 2,003 
 
 Paola, Miami county ....••• 1,973 
 
 ^Burlington, CoflFey county 1,740 
 
 Hutchinson, Eeno county 1,709 
 
 Clay Centre, Clay county 1,600 
 
 Manhattan, Riley county 1,593 
 
 Empire City, Cherokee county . . . 1,591 
 
 Mound City, Linn county 1,497 
 
 Humboldt, Allen county . . 
 Concordia, Cloud county . . 
 Great Bend, Barton county . 
 Marysville, Marshall county . 
 Garnett, Anderson county . . 
 Osage Mission, Neosho county 
 Girard, Crawford county . . 
 Hiawatha, Brown county . . 
 Wamego, Pottawattamie county 
 Baxter Springs, Cherokee county 
 Minneapolis, Ottawa county 
 Holton, Jackson county . 
 Seneca, Nemaha county . 
 Earned, Pawnee county . 
 lola, Allen county . . . 
 Eureka, Greenwood county 
 Oswego, Labette county . 
 Chetopa, Labette county 
 Fredonia, Wilson county 
 Sabetha, Nemaha county 
 Neosho Falls, Woodson county 
 Washington, Washington county 
 Brookville, Saline county . . . 
 Cottonwood Falls, Chase county 
 Louisville, Pottawattamie county 
 
 1,456 
 
 1,441 
 
 1,430 
 
 1,420 
 
 1,252 
 
 1,216 
 
 1,184 
 
 1,078 
 
 1,071 
 
 1,069 
 
 1,045 
 
 1,044 
 
 1,036 
 
 1,031 
 
 966 
 
 880 
 
 759 
 
 745 
 
 720 
 
 706 
 
 669 
 
 656 
 
 485 
 
 472 
 
 363 
 
 With few exceptions, throughout the State the same person performs 
 the duty of assessor for his township and the city or town therein. We 
 have given in the above list the population of the cities and towns of the 
 State, so far as assessors made separate enumeration of township and city 
 population. Where the population of township and city is aggregated, 
 an estimate only of either could be given, and injustice might be done. 
 
TEXAS. 
 
 AEEA. 
 
 THIS State is bounded on the south-west by Mexico, from which it 
 is separated by the Rio Grande, and on the east by Arkansas and 
 Louisiana. It has an area of 237,504 square miles. The reader should 
 remember that this vast region is equal in extent to all New England, 
 together with New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and half of Indiana. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 In 1687, La Salle, the well-known French explorer, erected a fort on 
 Matagorda Bay. In 1715 the country was settled by Spaniards, and sev- 
 eral new missions were established, but the Camanche and Apache Indians, 
 among the most warlike in America, and still troublesome to the border 
 settlements, hindered the progress of the country. In 1 803, Texas, claimed 
 by both Spain and the United States, became a disputed territory. From 
 1806 to 1816 settlements were formed, and several attempts made to wrest 
 the country from Spain. In one of these, in 1813, two thousand five hun- 
 dred Americans and Mexicans were killed, among them seven hundred 
 inhabitants of San Antonio. Mina, a Spanish refugee, gained some suc- 
 cess, but was defeated and shot. 
 
 In 1819 the river Sabine was established as the boundary. In 1820, 
 Moses Austin, an American, got a large grant of land in Texas from the 
 Mexican government, and began a settlement which rapidly increased, but 
 many of the settlers were of so lawless a character that in 1830 the gov- 
 ernment forbade any more Americans coming into Texas. In 1833 a 
 convention of settlers, now twenty thousand in number, made an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to form an independent Mexican state, and in 1835 a pro- 
 visional government was formed, Sam Houston chosen commander-in- 
 chief, and the Mexicans driven out of Texas. Santa Anna, president of 
 Mexico, invading the country with an army of seven thousand iive hundred, 
 
 275 
 
276 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 after some successes was entirely routed at San Jacinto, April 21, and 
 Texas became an independent republic, acknowledged in 1837 by the 
 United States, and in 1840 by England, France, and Belgium. In De- 
 cember, 1845, Texas, at her own request, was annexed to the United 
 States, but was invaded by Mexico, which had never acknowledged its 
 independence, and thus originated the war with the United States. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATUKES. 
 
 The country near the Gulf is level, with a gradual ascent toward the 
 north. The coast-region is formed of alluvial beds of sand or gravel. 
 The whole of Eastern Texas, embracing a territory larger than Ohio, 
 consists of pine-barrens, called " cross timbers," interspersed with prairies 
 which give it a park-like and delightful aspect. The little arable land 
 of Eastern Texas is confined to the valleys of the streams. Out of the 
 valleys the soil is sandy, and would not pay to clear and cultivate. This 
 region, it would seem, is not destined to become thickly peopled. It now 
 supports a scanty population of lumbermen, and some poor farmers who 
 cultivate little patches along the creek-bottoms. 
 
 The larger streams are bordered by narrow tracts of good soil, where 
 there are some large cotton-plantations. This part of the State is not a 
 new country, and except on the opening of the lumber industry by the 
 building of a railroad it has had no growth in recent years. Something 
 might be done with fruit-culture ; a few peach-orchards at Palestine have 
 proved remarkably profitable, their product bringing an extremely high 
 price in the St. Louis market; but the population lacks enterprise to 
 develop any new branch of industry. The middle region of Texas, or 
 that portion lying west of the above-described pine-barrens, stretching 
 from the Red River southward almost to the Gulf, and having an aver- 
 age width of about two hundred miles, consists of beautiful rolling prai- 
 ries, which are unexcelled in fertility and productiveness. This region 
 may be roughly compared in area to the State of Illinois. 
 
 Farther west is a broad belt of hilly or rolling country, consisting of 
 prairies and post-oak or black-jack openings, that is too dry for agricul- 
 ture, but is well adapted to grazing. This is the great cattle-region of 
 Texas. It stretches from the Red River to the Rio Grande and the Gulf. 
 Some portions of this region may eventually be cultivated if the rainfall, 
 which is now insufficient, should increase by climatic changes, which are 
 said to be going on along the eastern border of the whole arid region 
 from Montana down to Mexico. 
 
 Still farther west is an immense arid region, comprising about three- 
 
TEXAS. 277 
 
 fifths of the whole surface of the State. This region is in the nature of 
 a high table-land, and the salt and " Staked Plains " (so called from the 
 great abundance of yucca-stems, resembling stakes), elevated from three 
 to /our thousand feet above the sea, Avithout trees or grass, destitute of 
 vegetation, may be allied to a vast desert. There are a few small moun- 
 tains in the west, spurs of the Rocky Mountains. The river-bottoms are 
 well timbered. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate of Texas is variable, from semi-tropical to moderately 
 temperate. Snow and ice are seldom seen in the central portion, and 
 rarely if ever in the extreme south. In the northern part one or two 
 snowfalls during the winter, of from one to three inches in depth, are 
 usually expected ; occasionally a much heavier fall of snow is had, and 
 ice from one to two inches in thickness is sometimes made. The mer- 
 cury rarely falls more than three or four degrees below the freezing- 
 jjoint, and seldom continues that low more than two or three days at a 
 time. Stock graze all winter ; field-work can be done at all seasons of 
 the year ; and February is regarded as the time for planting corn and 
 other cereals. The extreme heat of the summer is 90° to 95°, rarely rising 
 to 100°, while in some of the Northern States in the latitude of St. Louis 
 it not unfrequently rises to 104°, and even higher. The summer heat is 
 so tempered by cool and refreshing breezes from the sea-coast and the 
 light winds which blow almost continually from the south and west as 
 to render it far less oppressive than in the Northern States. The nights 
 are delightfully cool and pleasant. Sunstroke, so frequent at the North 
 and East, is almost unknown here. 
 
 inWEEALS. 
 
 In this State are found "fine marbles and some deposits of lead and 
 copper. 
 
 AGRICULTUEAL PRODUCTS. 
 
 The soil is of great fertility, the coast producing the finest cotton and 
 sugar, and the interior wheat, corn, and fruits of all kinds, with immense 
 pasturage, making it one of the finest cattle-raising countries in the world. 
 
 Central Texas is }irobably the best cotton country in the South, and is 
 now producing one-sixth of the whole cotton crop of the United States. 
 It is not nearly as good a corn country as Illinois and Kentucky, and for 
 the production of wheat no part of it can compare with Minnesota, Iowa, 
 and Kansas. Root-crops, as a rule, do not succeed ; the product, though 
 
278 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 large and apparently well developed, is coarse and watery. Some fruits 
 do tolerably well, particularly the peach and pear, but little attention is 
 given to raising them. Apples are brought from the North. Central 
 Texas is declared to be a paradise, with excellent soil, and a climate which 
 brings visitors for profit, pleasure, and health from all parts of the world. 
 Stock-raising, for which Texas is especially adapted, yields to the diligent 
 herdsman a bounteous remuneration for his services. The vegetation is 
 in the greatest variety, from the oak, cedar, and pine to the palmetto, 
 mezquite, and nopal, which latter feeds the cochineal insect; also figs, 
 oranges, grapes, vanilla, and flowers in wonderful profusion. 
 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 The prairies abound in buffalo and immense herds of wild horses, and 
 the forests with deer. There are also the puma, jaguar, black bear, and 
 the wolf. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The State deaf and dumb, orphan, blind, and lunatic asylums have 
 each an endowment of 100,000 acres of State lands. There is a State 
 school fund of $2,500,000, and each county has 17,712 acres of land for 
 educational purposes. The tide of immigration into the State is immense, 
 and there is every prospect that during the present year it will be veiy 
 large. The taxable property of the State in 1850 was $51,000,000 ; in 
 1860, $294,000,000; in 1870, $174,000,000; in 1875, $275,000,000; 
 while it is believed that in 1879 the figures reached will be nearly 
 $325,000,000. 
 
 Though the country is generally level, it is not destitute of wild and 
 grand scenery. In some parts of the State are found gigantic animal 
 fossils and silicified trees, which are objects of wonder and admiration to 
 the scientist and antiquarian. 
 
 Austin, the capital, is a thriving town. The metropolis and most im- 
 portant seaport in the State is Galveston. Other towns of importance are 
 Houston, Marshall, Indianola, and Corpus Christi. 
 
IDAHO. 
 
 BY WILLIAM P. CHANDLER, SUEVEYOR-GENEEAL. 
 
 THERE is a succession of mountains extending over a large part of 
 the northern half of this Territory, the soil of which is generally- 
 sandy and rocky. The mountain-sides are covered with pine, fir, and 
 cedar timber. In the southern part the Goose Creek and Owyhee ranges 
 extend to the southern and western boundaries, with similar soil and a 
 growth of juniper timber. 
 
 The soil of the lower hills is composed largely of decomposed granite 
 and sandstone, and in its natural state produces a luxuriant growth of 
 bunch-grass, affording abundant grazing for stock. 
 
 The soil of the table-lands is much the same, except considerable tracts 
 in which fine rich loam is intermixed, and when irrigated produces large 
 crops of grain. Sage-brush grows on all the table-lands interspersed 
 with grass. In the valleys of the streams and along the bases of many 
 of the mountain-ranges the soil is a dark, sandy loam, finely pulverized, 
 and mellow and well adapted to the growth of cereals and vegetables. 
 
 There is a large volcanic plateau near the centre of the southern half 
 of the Territory, inaccessible and unexplored, destitute of soil or vege- 
 tation. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 This Territory, extending from the 42d degree of north latitude to the 
 49th, and its surface broken up into undulating plains, high rolling hills, 
 and rugged mountain-ranges, has a varied climate. The valleys are mild 
 and equable, sufficiently warm in summer to mature the crops of the 
 farmer, and rarely visited by severe storms or deep snows in winter. In 
 the high and mountainous regions the winters are long, deep snows cover 
 the ground, but owing to the purity and dryness of the atmosphere they 
 are endured without great discomfort. The dry, cool air of the moun- 
 tains, the pure streams of cold water, the game for the hunter and trout 
 
 279 
 
280 THS GREAT WEST. 
 
 for the angler, render life in the mountain-region in summer a perpetual 
 attraction to the tourist and invalid. 
 
 The temperature of Boise City, the capital, in latitude 43° 37' north 
 and longitude 116° 12' west, 2880 feet above sea-level, is mild, the lowest 
 point during the winter of 1878-79 being 5° above zero in January, 
 and the highest, 103°, August 9. 
 
 The rainfall was as follows : 
 
 Seasons, Inches. 
 
 Autumn, 1878 1.10 
 
 Winter, 1878-79 5.87 
 
 Spring, 1879 4.38 
 
 Summer, 1879 1.46 
 
 Total 12.31 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 In considering the agricultural resources and productions of Idaho 
 reference must be made to its altitude and surface. 
 
 Its elevation is from two thousand feet above sea-level, in the lower 
 Snake River Valley, to nine thousand feet on the top of its mountain- 
 peaks, a large part lying above the altitude of four thousand feet. 
 
 The higher portions are broken up into a succession of mountain-ranges, 
 in many places very steep and rugged. Below these are high, rolling 
 hills, upon which nutritious grasses are found, affording vast pasture- 
 lands for stock. Still lower are the table- or " sage-brush " lands, rich in 
 soil, and when properly irrigated and cultivated producing large crops of 
 cereals and vegetables, and favorable to the growth of fruits common to 
 this latitude. The valleys of the streams are fertile, and in the northern 
 portion of the Territory (where the rainfalls are sufficient in spring and 
 early summer) excellent crops of cereals are raised without artificial irri- 
 gation. In the central and southern parts irrigation is essential to sure 
 and good crops, although there are occasional small tracts lying near the 
 level of the streams on which grain-crops may do well without. 
 
 The mountain-valleys and plateaus, lying not to exceed five thousand 
 feet above sea-level, produce large crops of oats and the hardier vegetables, 
 and yield hay abundantly when sufficiently watered. 
 
 The agricultural lands are found along the valleys, and include the 
 table-lands lying lower than the sources of the streams flowing through 
 them, from which water can be brought for irrigation. 
 
 The aggregate amount of such land is large, but is distributed in com- 
 paratively small tracts throughout the whole Territory wherever there 
 are streams of running water, but mostly in the northern and southern 
 
IDAHO. 281 
 
 portions. In the northern, along the valleys of the Spokane, Palouse, 
 and Clearwater Rivers and their tributaries, successful and quite exten- 
 sive farming is carried on, the surplus products finding a ready market 
 down the Snake and Columbia Rivers, which are navigable to Lewiston, 
 the county-seat of Nez Perc6 county. 
 
 Salmon River, south of the Clearwatei-, is a large and rapid stream. 
 Its source is in the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and along 
 the Saw-Tooth Range near the centre of the Territory, and it courses 
 through its entire breadth from ea.st to west, and unites with the Snake 
 near latitude 46° north. This stream rises in and runs through the most 
 rugged and mountainous part of the Territory, with but little agricultu- 
 ral land along its narrow valley. Bonanza City, in latitude 44° 35' 
 north, longitude 114° 30' west, altitude sixty-four hundred feet, is sit- 
 uated on its head-waters, and is surrounded by high and rugged moun- 
 tains whose peaks tower into the regions of perpetual snow. 
 
 A large area of the interior of the Territory is covered by mountains, 
 which extend across it from the Rocky Mountain range on the eastern 
 boundary to the Snake River on the western. Weiser and Payette 
 Rivers rise in the westerly spurs of this mountain-range, and flow west- 
 erly into Snake River near latitude 44° north, the valleys of which con- 
 tain many acres of very fertile land, upon which there are good farms ; 
 and many more will be taken up and cultivated when the settler can 
 feel assured that he will not be exposed to the annual raids of maraud- 
 ing Indians. 
 
 Boise River takes its rise in the south-easterly spurs of the same 
 mountain-range, flows north-westwardly, and joins the Snake in latitude 
 43° 40' north, longitude 117° west. The valley of this stream, for a 
 distance of sixty miles from its confluence with Snake River to where it 
 debouches from the mountains, contains a large area of the most produc- 
 tive land, the valley being at some points several miles in width, with 
 many farms in a high state of cultivation. The stream falls in its 
 course through the valley at the rate of about ten feet per mile. The 
 banks are low, and water is easily diverted from its channel to irrigating- 
 ditches. 
 
 Snake River takes its rise in the mountainous regions of Wyoming, 
 and. its various branches, flowing westwardly into the Territory, unite in 
 one grand stream twenty-five miles north of Taylor's Bridge, about fifty 
 miles from the east boundary of Idaho. Thence its course for a distance 
 of one hundred and sixty miles is to the south-west ; thence north-west- 
 wardly about the same distance to the western boundary of the Territory ; 
 
282 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 thence north along the western boundary about three hundred and fifty 
 miles to Lewiston, where it passes into Washington Territory. At the 
 point of junction of the several streams forming the Snake there is a 
 large tract of rich bottom-land, mostly above high water, and to which 
 many settlers have removed this season, feeling confident they will suc- 
 ceed in their efforts to cultivate successfully this valley, although the alti- 
 tude is nearly five thousand feet above sea-level. 
 
 The stream from this point for a distance of one hundred and fifty 
 miles runs through a broad valley of rich land. In many places the 
 banks are low and favorable to the construction of irrigating-ditches. 
 Below this point for seventy-five miles the river courses through a deep 
 rocky canon, in which is situated the Shoshone Falls, equal to the Falls 
 of Niagara in height and volume of water and far exceeding them in 
 natural scenery. After leaving the caflon the river flows with a gentle 
 current through an open rolling country about two hundred miles, when 
 the mountains on both sides close in, and its course is confined to a 
 narrow rocky channel or caflon until it leaves the Territory near 
 Lewiston. 
 
 The valley of Snake River contains most of the table-lands in the Ter- 
 ritory, and the water of the stream is ample for irrigating millions of 
 acres of as productive land as can be found in any country. 
 
 Running into the Snake from the south are several small streams, the 
 valleys of which contain considerable tracts of agricultural lands. Com- 
 mencing with the Bruneau, thence following up the stream, are Goose 
 and Marsh Creeks, Raft River, Fall, Rock, and Bannock Creeks, Port^ 
 neuf, Ross's Fork, and Blackfoot Rivers. There are settlements in the 
 valleys of all these streams, but the more considerable are along Goose 
 and Marsh Creeks, Raft River and its tributaries, and Blackfoot. 
 
 In the south-eastern portion of the Territory, along the Malade and 
 Bear Rivers and their branches, are large settlements of prosperous 
 farmers. 
 
 I have only called attention to the most important agricultural sections 
 of the Territory, leaving out the many small valleys containing small 
 areas of very productive land and more or less occupied by the farmer 
 and herder. 
 
 Any estimate of the number of acres of the various classes of lands 
 in this Territory, so broken in its surface and varied in its climate and 
 altitude, can be only approximate. Of its total area of 55,228,160 acres, 
 I believe 12,000,000 acres to be agricultural, either in its natural state 
 or as it may be reclaimed by irrigation with the Available water now 
 
IDAHO. 283 
 
 flowing in the streams ; 25,000,000 acres pasture-lands ; 10,000,000 acres 
 timber-land; and the remainder, 8,228,160 acres, may be considered 
 worthless, consisting of inaccessible mountain-peaks and lava-beds. 
 
 The development of the agricultural interests of the Territory has 
 been slow, owing to its inland and isolated position, lying outside of 
 all railroad lines until the building of the Utah and Northern Railroad 
 through the eastern part during, last year, with no navigable waters 
 except at Lewiston, at the head of steamboat navigation on Snake River, 
 just as it leaves the Territory. Transportation by teams is so expensive 
 that but little profitable farming can be done beyond a supply of the 
 home market, which is found at the mining camps principally, where 
 remunerative prices are obtained. 
 
 The yield of cereals is large ; twenty-five to forty bushels of wheat 
 and barley, and fifty to eighty bushels of oats, per acre, is a fair average 
 yield. Where the ground is properly irrigated and cultivated failure of 
 crops has never been known. All the vegetables grown in this latitude 
 are produced in abundant quantities for the wants of the people. Loss 
 of crops at harvest-time, catised by rains, is unknown. 
 
 I have been unable to find any statistics showing the number of acres 
 in cultivation, number of cattle, horses, etc. ; but through the kindness 
 of Joseph Perault, Esq., Territorial Auditor, have been furnished with 
 the total assessed value of property for taxation, as follows : 
 
 1877 $4,319,958.75 
 
 1878 4,520,800.50 
 
 The present year has been a prosperous one for the farmer, large crops 
 of all kinds having been raised. 
 
 MINING. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Idaho is its largest resource. Extensive and 
 rich lodes of gold-, silver-, and copper-bearing ores are known to exist in 
 various parts of the Territory. The production of the precious metals 
 is the most important and leading branch of industry. The field for en- 
 terprise in this direction is almost without limit, but the development of 
 its mines has been retarded by the high price of labor and the great cost 
 of transporting supplies and machinery to the centre of the mountainous 
 regions in which the mines are mostly situated. 
 
 The building of the Utah and Northern Railroad through its eastern 
 border, and the expectation of the early construction of a line from near 
 Blackfoot to the Columbia River, running through the centre of the Ter- 
 
284 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ritory, has stimulated prospecting, and many rich lodes of gold- and silver- 
 bearing ores have been discovered within the year. 
 
 Placer-mining is carried on successfully in many places, but the yearly 
 exhaustion of surface-diggings reduces the annual production from that 
 source. 
 
 Gold too fine to be separated from the earth by the old process of wash- 
 ing is found in Snake River Valley through its whole distance in the 
 Territory, and heretofore it has baffled the skill of the miner to save it. 
 During the present season several parties have been working claims 
 along the river with silver electro-plated machines with satisfactory re- 
 sults. Should this system of mining prove successful, it will open up a 
 large field of operations. The area of land containing this fine or "float" 
 gold may be counted by thousands of acres. 
 
 I have no means of ascertaining the annual production of the various 
 mines in this Territory, but from the printed statement of Wells, Fargo 
 & Co. find the total shipments of gold-dust, bullion, and ore for the year 
 1878 to be $1,868,122. 
 
 To obtain information regarding the condition of mining interests, I 
 addressed letters of inquiry to several United States deputy mineral sur- 
 veyors, requesting statements of the development and production of the 
 mines in their localities. I also requested A. Walters, Esq., United States 
 Assayer at Boise City, to furnish a brief outline of the mineral resources 
 of the Tetritory. His official relation with miners gives hhn facilities to 
 obtain the most reliable information, which is contained in his able and 
 intelligent statement, and which I have the pleasure to introduce : 
 
 " UxiTED States Assay Office, "I 
 " Boise City, Idaho, October 3, 1879. J 
 
 " Sir : Agreeably to request, I have the honor to herewith give you a 
 brief outline of the mineral resources of Idaho Territory and the past and 
 prospective production of her mines. 
 
 " Until five or six years ago by far the largest portion of the precious 
 metals produced in the Territory was derived from the placer-mines, and 
 it is safe to credit to that source of supply at least three-fourths of the 
 sixty-five millions produced up to 1873. Since then most of the rich 
 alluvial deposits have been exhausted, and, with few exceptions, placer- 
 mining is entirely in the hands of Chinese, who, on account of their more 
 than frugal habits and mode of living, manage to realize (to them) large 
 profits from claims which would not yield the lowest wages to a white 
 laborer. While during the most productive seasons these placers yielded 
 
IDAHO. 285 
 
 as high as five and six millions per annum, less than one million has been 
 taken out annually for the last few years, principally derived from the 
 placers of Boise Basin. There being a large amount of poor — or so-called 
 Chinese — diggings, this production -will probably continue "for quite a 
 number of years, but as the whole country has been prettj' thoroughly 
 prospected for placers, it is hardly probable that any more rich diggings 
 will be found that are extensive enough to cut a figure in the bullion pro- 
 duction of the Territory. 
 
 " The gradual exhaustion of the placers naturally led miners to look 
 for the source whence these gravel-deposits came, and numerous gold- and 
 silver-bearing veins were thereby discovered, especially during the last 
 three years. 
 
 " The first lodes discovered were those of Owyhee county, the Atlanta 
 and others in Alturas, and the Gold Hill in Boise county ; but, though 
 great excitement was created for a while by the enormously rich and ex- 
 tensive silver-lodes found in the former, reckless mismanagement and 
 'the working of the mines in the interest of stock manipulations, coupled 
 with the high price of machinery and rate of wages, soon resulted in 
 the same disastrous consequences experienced to a greater or less extent 
 by all the Pacific coast mining States and Territories in their earlier 
 history. 
 
 " The revival of quartz-mining dates from the successful operations of 
 the Gold HiU Mining Company, which, through good and economical 
 management, succeeded in realizing large profits from ore which, I believe, 
 on an average yields less than ten dollars per ton. Since that time many 
 of the old Alturas and Owyhee mines have come to the front again, new 
 ones have been steadily discovered, and for several years the lode-mining 
 interest has decidedly overbalanced that of placer-miuing. 
 
 " The largest amount of bullion has undoubtedly been produced by the 
 Owyhee mines, and the fact that they have been comparatively idle since 
 1876 is almost exclusively due to the almost simultaneous absconding 
 of the secretaries of the Mahogany, Ida Elmore, and Poorman companies 
 with all their available funds, and the suspension of the Bank of Califor- 
 nia, aggravated by the fact that nearly all the incorporated companies 
 worked their mines for the sole purpose of bulling and bearing stocks in 
 San Francisco. The latter is also the cause of the sudden collapse of one 
 of the best base-metal camps of the coast. South Mountain. In that dis- 
 trict are found numerous veins of argentiferous galena, the finest carbon- 
 ates, unusually rich in silver, good iron ore for fluxing — in short, every- 
 thing necessary to make the camps flourishing and prosperous — but, 
 
286 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 nevertheless, bad management succeeded in ruining the camp, and nothing 
 has been done until this summer. 
 
 " The mines of Alturas county have not produced as much this year as 
 before, a large number of her miners having left to prospect in Lemhi 
 county, where remarkably rich and extensive veins have been discovered 
 during the last few years. 
 
 " The lodes of Rocky Bar district are exceptionally rich, but narrow, 
 varying generally from three to six feet in width, and the miners are 
 laboring under great disadvantage in not having a good quartz-mill which 
 will work their ores cheaply and to the best advantage. The Atlanta 
 mines have been doing well, and the discoveries in Queen's River and 
 Lake districts, and those on Wood River, will undoubtedly materially 
 increase the production of the county next year. 
 
 " Great excitement has been and still is prevailing about the discovery 
 of remarkably rich lodes in the Yankee Fork district, Lemhi county. 
 The veins in that camp are of an unusual width and richness, but so far 
 the production has been small, as the absence of a wagon-road made it 
 impossible to bring in heavy milling machinery, and outside of the richest 
 ores, shipped principally to Salt Lake City for reduction, the working of 
 ore has been carried on only in the two arrastras of Mr. Norton, owner 
 of the Charles Dickens lode. A few weeks ago a wagon-road was com- 
 pleted, and next year at least one good mill will be erected ; and as there 
 is an enormous amount of ore in sight, Lemhi county mines will probably 
 furnish the largest amount of precious metals during the next few years. 
 
 " In Boise county, the Elmira Company, working the Wolverine, Crown 
 Point, and Banner lodes in Banner district, has been steadily at work, 
 taking out a large amount of silver, and, with some needed improvements 
 in their reduction-works, they will be large producers next year. The 
 Gold Hill Mining Company of Quartzburg has also, as usual, been work- 
 ing their mill to its utmost capacity, and some of the late discoveries on 
 CaBon Creek, near Placerville, have produced some very rich ore. In 
 the southern part of the county, eight to twelve miles from Boise City, 
 quite a number of gold-bearing quartz-lodes have been discovered during 
 the last year. So far, operations have been in most cases confined to pros- 
 pecting and dead work, and as the ore is not very rich it requires the 
 erection of a good riiill, like that of the Gold Hill Company, to ensure 
 profitable working ipf the same. 
 
 " Northern Idaho, especially Idaho county, possesses a large number of 
 gold- and silver-bearing veins, but there are no mills to work the ore, and 
 not even a wagon-road to bring in machinery, and consequently they all 
 
IDAHO. 287 
 
 lie idle ; the owners, being poor men, are unable to work and develop 
 lodes without a market for their ore. 
 
 " In Ada county several veins carrying exceedingly rich copper have 
 been found, and some work done on them this year. There are also good 
 silver- and galena-lodes in Mineral district, but little work has been done 
 so far on account of the isolated situation of the camp. 
 
 " It is impossible to furnish approximately correct data of the bullion 
 production of all these mines, many of the owners refusing to give any 
 information, but I think it perfectly safe to place it at not less than a mil- 
 lion dollars. This looks little, but lode-mining in this Territory is still 
 in its infancy, and surrounded by difficulties and drawbacks experienced 
 in no other State or Territory, except perhaps Arizona. We have no 
 railroad communication so far, many mining districts being even without 
 a wagon-road, and consequently wages are high. Mining and milling 
 machinery costs here two and three times as much as in more favored 
 localities, and its absence in many districts makes the working of the 
 mines beyond mere annual representation an impossibility for the poor 
 owners ; but as it seems now to be a finally settled fact that the Utah 
 Northern Railroad will traverse the Territory in close proximity to the 
 principal mining districts, there is no doubt in ray mind that the mines 
 of Idaho in the course of a few years after the completion of this railroad 
 will give her one of the leading positions among the bullion-producing 
 States and Territories of the Union. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
 
 "A. Walters, United States Assayer. 
 
 "Hon. Wm. p. Chandler, Surveyor-General of Idaho." 
 
 The following items respecting the development of the mines in the 
 Yankee Fork mining district have been kindly furnished at my solicita- 
 tion by Walter S. Shannon, Esq., United States deputy mineral surveyor 
 and mining engineer, which I beg leave to present : 
 
 The mines of Yankee Fork are principally gold-bearing quartz. The 
 working of these did not commence until early last spring. Morrison's 
 placer has been worked for some years with great success ; nuggets have 
 frequently been found as large as hens' eggs. Over thirty-five thousand 
 dollars have been expended during the last four years in constructing 
 ditches, dams, etc. At present it is paying |1.25 per pan. This placer- 
 mine is situated at the mouth of Jordan Creek, which empties into Yankee 
 Fork River. 
 
 The Custer mine is situated on the side of Mount Custer, nineteen 
 
288 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 hundred feet above Yankee Fork River and three miles north-east of 
 Bonanza City. The ledge is between three and four hundred feet wide, 
 and runs from top to bottom of the mountain, the ore assaying from $450 
 to $650 per ton. The owners, Messrs. Heggin, Tevis, Hurst, and Pfieffer 
 (Pfieffer superintendent), are working the mine, running a tunnel, so that 
 the miners will be protected from snow in winter. A forty-stamp mill 
 is in process of construction in San Francisco, which will be placed in 
 position early the following spring. 
 
 The Unknown mine, owned by the same parties, including Mr. Greorge 
 Grayson, is situated on the east side of the Custer mine, and is a con- 
 tinuation of the Custer ledge, but containing rock which assays from $900 
 to $1000 per ton. 
 
 There are other mines situated on Mount Custer, but of a lower grade. 
 
 Mount Estis mines, which are seven miles north-west of Bonanza City, 
 are of a different formation from the Custer rock, being less flinty. 
 
 The Montana mine is the principal one, owned by Captain Varney, 
 who has a tunnel fifty feet from the surface. This rock assays from $6000 
 to $7000 per ton, all free gold. The ledge between hanging-wall and 
 foot- wall is eight feet. The captain has been shipping rock to the quartz- 
 mill at Atlanta during the past summer. 
 
 Estis mine, owned by Estis Bros., is situated near the Montana mine, 
 and is estimated at the same value. The ledge is seven feet wide. Their 
 rock at present is worked by an arrastra. 
 
 Charles Dickens mine is situated on the forks of Jordan Creek and 
 Yankee Fork River, on the east side of the hill, four hundred feet above 
 the river. The tunnel follows the ledge sixty feet. The rock assays 
 between $300 and $400 per ton. They have an arrastra, which is worked 
 night and day. This mine is owned by William Norton, Esq. The 
 rock from these mines, excepting the Montana and Estis, is roasting ore. 
 
 As soon as stamp-mills are erected the owners of mines will commence 
 work in earnest. At present the number of miners employed does not 
 exceed three hundred, who command five dollars per day. The seasons 
 are very short for mining purposes, and the want of a wagon-road has 
 retarded the development of the mines. 
 
 The Wood River district is situated south-easterly from Bonanza City, 
 about sixty-five miles. The hills around the head of Wood River are a 
 spur of Saw-Tooth range. The principal mines are situated at the head 
 of Wood River, better known as " Ketchem's Camp." The character is 
 chloride, and consists principally of silver and galena. All the rock 
 from this district carries seventy-three per cent, of galena, and no mine 
 
IDAHO. 289 
 
 assays less than $165 per ton of silver. Gold is very seldom found. 
 The principal mines are the White Oloud, Pilgrim, Shamrock, Quimby, 
 and Occident, which all assay more than $200 per ton, and as high as 
 $900. Messrs. Ketchem & Shannon intend to put up a smelter early 
 next spring. The altitude of this district is eight thousand four hundred 
 feet above sea-level. A wagon-road is to be built next spring to 
 the emigrant wagon-road, which is twenty miles south of Ketchem's 
 Camp. 
 
 Major Robert ]VJ. McDowell, United States deputy mineral surveyor 
 and mining engineer of Banner district, in response to my request, fur- 
 nishes the following statement relating to the mining interests in that 
 and adjoining districts : 
 
 The placer-grounds at Idaho Ciiy, and in the cafions leading thereto, 
 for a radius of fifteen miles, as a matter of history have been among the 
 richest in the world. These are flanked by rich deposits of gold-rock in 
 the Quartzburg district, where shafts have been sunk on the trend of the 
 lode, one to the depth of seven hundred feet from the surface and two 
 hundred and fifty feet below water-level, which is a greater depth than 
 has been attained by any similar work north of Snake River. A number 
 of valuable gold-mines, mostly operated by adits and tunnels (with quartz- 
 mills), are located in the above last-named district and Summit Flats, and 
 all are yielding profitably. The character of this quartz-carrying sul- 
 phuret is free, and milling and reduction " kind " and inexpensive, cost- 
 ing only from $5 to $6 per ton and yielding from $8 to $100 per ton. 
 The deposits of pay ore, though located mainly in chimneys (ledge-mat- 
 ter), are nevertheless easily traced, in most instances being confined be- 
 tween walls of granite and gangue. Sometimes their courses are inter- 
 cepted by porphyry-dikes. Of the mines in successful operation are 
 Gold Hill, Sub Rosa, Ebenezer, and Balshaza. 
 
 During the present year a rich gold-lode has been discovered on Moore's 
 Creek Summit, eighteen miles eastwardly from Idaho City. A clean-up 
 of fifteen tons gave a result of $110 per ton. 
 
 Some eighty miles from Idaho City the great Saw-Tooth range, run- 
 ning in a north-east and south-west course, towering far above lesser ele- 
 vations called mountains, and having an approximate altitude of nine 
 thousand feet above sea-level, with its imbedded strata of silver and 
 gold quartz, invites labor and capital. Indians have prevented advances 
 in that direction this season, but next year rich discoveries are anticipated. 
 
 Banner district, Boise county, twenty-eight miles from Idaho City, 
 north-east, in latitude 44° 30', is essentially a silver-mining region, and 
 
 19 
 
290 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 rapidly developing as such. In 1875 a twenty-stamp dry-crushing quartz- 
 mill, roasting-furnace, shop, assay-office, etc. were erected, but owing to 
 a deficiency in the skill of properly chloridizing the ore, and from other 
 causes, no successful progress was made until within the past year, when 
 it was purchased by the Elmira Silver Mining Company, capitalists from 
 Elmira, New York. The production has been 3900 pounds of silver bul- 
 lion, assaying 920 fine, from the 1st day of July last to the 1st day of 
 October. About fifty men are employed in all departments, and the 
 average yield of ore mined is from $75 to $85 per ton, by milling pro- 
 cess. The absence of bases in these ores is notable, as shown by the 
 following analysis: 
 
 Silica (quartz) 92.4 
 
 Sulphur 1.0 
 
 Iron 6.0 
 
 Arsenic 0.6 
 
 Zinc traces 0.0 
 
 100. 
 
 Banner district yields chlorides (black sulphurets rarely), antimonial, 
 arsenic, ruby, and native silver. The general direction of all the ledges 
 thus far prospected or developed is north-east and south-west. Identifica- 
 tion is not easy, as the ledges do not often outcrop upon the surface ; yet 
 the silver-belt has been traced some ten miles, and has a width of less 
 than a half mile. 
 
 Some fifty claims are located, and while by assays some specimens have 
 shown as high as $6000 and upward, from $50 to $100 is probably near 
 the figure to be relied upon in actual milling process on chlorination up 
 among the nineties. 
 
 The veins do not seem to be continuous, but in pockets or chimneys, 
 and are encased within granite and gangue of a white or light-yellow 
 tinge, and are almost invariably accompanied with manganese, which as- 
 sumes the thickness of half an inch to two inches, and is always indica- 
 tive of a well-defined paying ledge. The ledges in this locality have not 
 been sunk upon to sufficient depth to ascertain trend and dip as a gen- 
 eral rule. Veins located on parallel ridges having the same course dip 
 toward each other, and it is contended by miners and experts that each 
 vein will preserve its identity to an inexhaustible depth. Many theories 
 are advanced, but only actual sinking can demonstrate their nature. 
 
 The Elmira Silver Mining Company have possessory titles to upward 
 of twenty lodes, but are prosecuting work upon only three of the number 
 — viz. Crown Point, AVolverine, and Banner. The first-named two have 
 been entered by three shafts and two tunnels, and a well-defined vein 
 
IDAHO. 291 
 
 averaging two feet in thiclmess (milling $85 per ton) developed from the 
 surface-croppings down to a depth of two hundred feet. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 The isolated and inland situation of Idaho and the want of easy com- 
 munication to its borders have prevented any rapid increase in population. 
 
 Since the Territorial organization only the census of 1870 has been 
 taken. The number shown by that enumeration was 20,588. Since that 
 time there has been a steady and healthy growth, and the number may 
 now reasonably be estimated at 27,000. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Lying outside of all the great routes of travel and commerce, the only 
 means of communication hitherto has been by tedious and toilsome jour- 
 neys over unimproved roads, except the outlet by Snake and Columbia 
 Rivers — navigable for light-draught steamboats — to one point in North- 
 ern Idaho for a few months in each year. 
 
 During the past and present year the Utah and Northern Railroad has 
 been constructed from Franklin, at the southern boundary of the Terri- 
 tory, through its eastern border, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles 
 to Camas Station, its present terminus. This road will be extended to 
 Montana at an early day. Surveys have been made during the present 
 season for a line to the Columbia River vid Boise City, to connect with 
 this road at or near Blackfoot Station. 
 
 Freights are high and commercial intercourse restricted. Rates from 
 Kelton — on the Central Pacific Railroad, the nearest railroad point — are 
 from three to five dollars per hundredweight to Boise City, and much 
 inore to most of the mining camps. 
 
 The mountain-formation extending across the Territory near latitude 
 44° north divides it into two parts as regards communication. There are 
 no roads in the Territory connecting its northern and southern portions, 
 and it seems to be an undertaking too expensive for the local authorities 
 to build a wagon-road through this region, although the physical obstacles 
 are not great. 
 
 STOCK-GROWING. 
 
 This interest is large and constantly increasing. The facilities afforded 
 by pasture-ranges, covered with a luxuriant growth of bunch and other 
 grasses indigenous to this soil and climate, limited only by accessibility 
 to watering-places, early attracted the attention of the herdsman. Cattle 
 and horses in numerous and extensive herds subsist the whole year 
 
292 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 through on these natural grasses, supplemented in winter by white sage, 
 sweet and nutritious after being touched by the frosts of autumn. 
 
 The herds are usually driven to the hills and mountain-slopes during 
 summer, reserving the feed along the foot-hills and valleys, where but 
 little snow falls and the temperature is moderate, for winter. Most stock- 
 growers find their winter range near natural meadow-lands, where hay 
 enough is secured to feed through the exceptional seasons when deep 
 snows cover the ground. These winters are liable to occur once in from 
 four to six years. 
 
 The beef produced is of an excellent quality, and stall-feeding never 
 resorted to. 
 
 There being no statistics of stock made in the Territory, I will not 
 attempt to state the number owned and herded within its bounds. It is 
 estimated that twenty thousand cattle have been sold for the Eastern mar- 
 kets this season from the western part of the Territory, and probably an 
 equal or greater number from the northern and eastern portions. 
 
 Wool-growing has not yet received much attention, although the soil 
 and climate are well adapted to that interest. There are several flocks of 
 sheep owned in the Territory, but the number is not large. 
 
 Horses enough are raised to supply the increasing wants of the people. 
 
 The profits to the careful and judicious stock-grower are large, and 
 stated by one in the business to be not less than thirty-three and a third 
 per cent, per annum on the capital invested. 
 
 EESOUECES. 
 
 The geographical position of Idaho is such that the various branches 
 of industry depend more largely upon each other than in most States. 
 Lying outside and beyond the main thoroughfares of commerce and 
 travel, the siu-face broken into many high mountain-ranges, traversed by 
 numerous rapid streams flowing in deep valleys, thus making the con- 
 struction of roads costly and difficult, communication has been slow and 
 tedious, and each settlement almost a community by itself and depending 
 upon itself. 
 
 The discovery of gold along the valleys of the streams first brought 
 the miner, whose wants were supplied by pack-trains, bringing the 
 barest necessaries of life at fabulous prices to the mining camps situated 
 in its mountain-fastnesses. Following, came the agriculturist, seeking 
 out the nearest arable valley to raise such vegetables as were indispen- 
 sable to the miner; and gradually, as the mining interest increased and 
 spread over the various parts of the Territory where the precious metals 
 
IDAHO. 293 
 
 were found, so gradually grew the agricultural interest to supply the local 
 demand only, followed by the mercantile to supply both, thus making all 
 to hinge upon the mining interest. As it was at the early settlement of 
 the Territory, so it is in a great measure now. 
 
 Manufacturing, which might reasonably have been expected to follow, 
 has not ; one of the reasons for which may be the high price of labor, 
 mechanics commanding from four to eight dollars per day. Another may 
 be found in the fact that there is no centre of trade or commerce for any 
 considerable portion of the Territory, each community or settlement sup- 
 plying itself from the nearest business-point, either within or without 
 the Territory as most convenient. 
 
 Flour-mills sufficient to manufacture flour for local demands are estab- 
 lished at various points, and also saw-mills to cut the lumber required for 
 home use by the settler. 
 
 Near Boise City three considerable irrigating-ditches have been con- 
 structed, for which water is taken from Boise River and distributed over 
 nearly sixty thousand acres of most productive land, which without irri- 
 gation was barren and worthless. Many other ditches have been con- 
 structed and large quantities of land reclaimed, but mostly by each 
 farmer for his own use. No systematic and organized effiirt has yet 
 been made for the construction of large and expensive ditches to reclaim 
 the thousands of acres lying along the valleys of the streams, that need 
 only the fertilizing touch of water to make that which is now an arid 
 desert laugh with bounteous harvests. 
 
 The subject of irrigation and the reclamation of the irrigable lands in 
 this Territory is one of vast importance to its future growth and pros- 
 perity, and seems worthy the early attention of the government. There 
 are yet small tracts of vacant land lying along the smaller streams that 
 are available for the settler of small means, and the present laws for 
 their disposal appear applicable; but there are large plateaus of irri- 
 gable land lying in Snake River Ytilley that will require a larger capital 
 to reclaim than private parties under the present land laws will care to 
 invest. Either large tracts should be sold to parties who would construct 
 and maintain ditches, and depend upon the sale of the lands for their 
 remuneration, or some general system should be adopted by the govern- 
 ment, and the construction carried on by it as the needs of the country 
 require. The land classed as grazing- or pasture-land is worthless for 
 any other purpose, and unsurveyed, and if ever disposed of must be in 
 extensive tracts. 
 
 Much of the timber used for fuel is found along the borders of the 
 
294 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 streams, and consists principally of cottonwood, poplar, and willow, 
 is taken from land owned by the parties using it, and is very limited in 
 quantity. The fir and pine timber, valuable for building and commerce, 
 grows on the mountain-land, and much of it is found on steep, craggy 
 hillsides and in inaccessible mountain-valleys, and is so difficult of access 
 and so distant from the farm-lands that no more is cut than the actual 
 necessities of the settlers require. During the summer fires rage over 
 extensive tracts, destroying immense quantities. 
 
 The material advance of Idaho is not rapid, but steady and continuous. 
 The advantages from the building of the Utah and Northern Railroad on 
 its eastern border are already seen in the settlement of large tracts of land 
 along its route and a great increase in mining activity in that part of the 
 Territory. The principal exports from the Territory are gold and silver 
 from its mines and cattle from its hills. Products of the farm, even if 
 in excess of the wants of the people, could not pay cost of transporta- 
 tion to other markets and compete with them in price. The hostility of 
 the Indians in this and the past two years has done much to retard im- 
 migration and prevent the settlement of remote and isolated valleys. 
 Notwithstanding all the drawbacks heretofore encountered, the prosperity 
 of the people appears to be satisfactory. Better buildings are being 
 erected both in town and country, and general thrift and contentment 
 seem to prevail. 
 
 IDAHO. 
 
 BY M. BEAYMAN, GOVEENOE. 
 
 THIS year (1879) has been one of general thrift and prosperity. Ag- 
 riculture has been remunerative. Mining has developed with remark- 
 able success in various parts. Many thousands have been added to our pop- 
 ulation. Schools are encouraged. General health has prevailed. In the 
 administration of justice and the management of public affiiirs great 
 advances have been made, and the interests of the government and Terri- 
 tory cared for with improving economy and fidelity. With the advent 
 of railroaxJs, and the improvement of highways now in progress and in 
 prospect, a large immigration may be looked for, and the facilities for bring- 
 ing in machinery and supplies will cheapen transportation and give life 
 
IDAHO. 295 
 
 to enterprise. The mild climate of Idaho, its rich resources, its health- 
 fulness, its soil capable of such rich returns, will in time, under favorable 
 legislation, make it the home of a vigorous and enlightened people. 
 
 BOUNDAEIES. 
 
 The Territory of Idaho, from its southern base upon Nevada and Utah, 
 in latitude 42° north, to the British possessions at 49°, covers a length 
 of about four hundred and ten miles. In width it is two hundred and 
 fifty-seven miles at its southern and sixty miles at its northern limit. It 
 is separated from the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington 
 on the west by a direct meridian line, broken by the course of Snake 
 River, which forms its western boundary for about one hundred and 
 fifty miles. On the east its wide base lies against the Territory of Wy- 
 oming, while the Bitter Root, an almost impassable range of mountains 
 forming a natural boundary, separates it from the Territory of Montana. 
 This peculiarity of conformation accounts for the inconvenient shape of 
 the Territory. 
 
 Since the organization of Idaho, under provision of the act of March 
 3, 1863, its area has been reduced to form other Territories, until it now 
 comprises 86,294 square miles, equal to 65,228,160 acres. An approxi- 
 mate estimate of the quality of these lands will aiford — suitable for culti- 
 vation in their natural state, 15,000,000 acres; capable of reclamation 
 by irrigation, 12,000,000 acres ; grazing-lands, 5,000,000 acres ; timber- 
 lands, 10,000,000 acres; mining tracts, 8,000,000 acres; the 4,228,160 
 acres of desert toe destitute of timber and minerals and beyond the reach 
 of irrigation. Large portions of the mining tracts bear timber also. 
 
ARIZONA. 
 
 BY GENERAL JOHN 0. FREMONT, GOVEENOE. 
 
 ARIZONA has remained shut up and barred out from progress by its 
 inaccessibility. There were neither railroads to it nor in it, nor any 
 roads other than those afforded by the natural surface of the ground, and 
 these are rendered more than ordinarily difficult by the hot, dry, and sandy 
 or stony ground over which lie the approaches to the Territory. In the 
 Territorial laws these are spoken of as desert roads. 
 
 Lately it has been made possible to reach Arizona on rail from the 
 East by travelling along the 42d parallel of latitude down to San Fran- 
 cisco, in longitude 122°, and thence south-eastwardly backward 720 miles 
 to Yuma, east of longitude 115° and south of latitude 33°. This isola- 
 tion has kept it shut out from immigration and precluded the develop- 
 ment which its great resources would otherwise have commanded. The 
 language habitually applied to it is very descriptive of its remoteness. 
 Californians and Arizonians alike speak of going outside when travelling 
 to Arizona, and inside when returning to the surrounding territory. 
 
 Broken ranges of mountains, swelling occasionally into lofty peaks and 
 pine-covered masses, and alternating evenly with elevated valleys or 
 mountain-basins of greater or less size, represent in general terms the 
 face of the country in Arizona. Its water-ways are the Colorado and 
 Gila Rivers with their tributaries, of which none enter either stream in 
 the lower part of its course. The valley of the Colorado, between its 
 river-hills or bordering mountains, is dry, stony, and barren, the moun- 
 tains naked rock. Crossing these in journeying from Ehrenberg east- 
 ward, a traveller in spring would find this country covered with bloom, 
 the shrubs and trees being represented mainly by acacias and cacti, and 
 the ground covered with low-flowering plants among grasses growing 
 thinly. Except for some shrub-like trees and gigantic cactus [Sagua7-a), 
 ocotiUo, and yucca trees, the ridges herealong are still of naked, glisten- 
 
 296 
 
ARIZONA. 297 
 
 ing, and black or barren rock, showing no signs of water. The acacias, 
 Palo verde, and other trees crowd down into the dry stream-beds, reaching 
 after the water below the sands, but the oootillo and the tree-cactus delight 
 in the stony and dry mountain-sides. In the rainy season these stream- 
 beds are short-lived torrents. This is the country traversed by the desert 
 roads. But this character of desert, applied to the valleys, comes only 
 from the heated air and absence of water, and not absence of vegeta- 
 tion. A running stream would make anywhere here a garden. 
 
 After some seventy miles, as the crow flies, over such country, what 
 may be called fertile mountains are reached ; that is to say, mountains more 
 or less covered with shrubs and grass, and having springs and running 
 streams, and affording good cattle-rangea. Continuing eastward, the 
 country in this respect steadily improves, until, after travelling over 
 about a hundred miles of air-distance from Ehrenberg, scattering ju- 
 nipers of very sturdy growth appear several feet in diameter, with here 
 and there small oaks and locust trees; and presently the road enters 
 among pines, which thenceforward generally cover the more upland 
 parts of the country to the eastward. 
 
 The elevation here is probably 5000 feet in the valleys, the surround- 
 ing mountains rising several thousand feet higher. On the higher ranges, 
 such as the San Francisco and MogoUon, these open woodlands become 
 extensive forests, where the pines reach sometimes a solid growth of six 
 feet in diameter. From Prescott the San Francisco Mountains show 
 grandly in the horizon of hills, some sixty-five miles away to the north- 
 east, and 12,700 feet above the sea. These and the Mogollon Mountains 
 are the principal water-sheds of Arizona, rising from elevated plateaus of 
 6000 or 7000 feet into peaks between 9000 and 13,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 In contradistinction to the Eastern States, where the streams maintain 
 themselves in gathering strength from mountain to sea, dryness is one of 
 the striking features of this whole elevated region. Streams and springs 
 are few and far apart. The larger streams gather no affluents, but waste 
 iiiemselves in absorption and evaporation, and the smaller ones usually 
 sink and disappear under the first valley which they enter, where the 
 soil is generally light and loose enough to absorb them. But the water 
 can there always be found — in the lower country at variable depths of 
 fifty to two hundred and fifty feet, and usually only a few feet below the 
 surface in many of the upland valleys. This may give the necessary 
 provision of water for the farms in the valleys, while the mountains fur- 
 nish it sufficiently for stock. There are two seasons of falling weather — 
 the heavy summer rains, when the washes and stream-beds become tem- 
 
298 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 poraiy torrents, and the winter season of rains and snow. Now, at the 
 end of October, the falling weather of the winter has not yet commenced 
 except in the high mountains. The days are warm, the sky is unin- 
 terruptedly cloudless, but ice makes at night, and a light snow has 
 just fallen on the San Francisco Mountain. The grass there is be- 
 ginning to dry up, and the northern face of the mountain is probably 
 covered with snow. 
 
 The Little Colorado and Salt River regions are reported to be the 
 granaries of the Territory. Their valleys are becoming garden-spots, 
 and the bordering mountains great stock-ranges, where the cattle are 
 sometimes too fat to be driven. Like California, the country is favor- 
 able to animal life. In the Salt River Valley there are probably 100,000 
 acres under cultivation ; in the Gila Valley, between the Pima villages 
 and the mouth of the canon, about 50,000 ; in the Santa Cruz Valley, 
 about 25,000 ; and 25,000 more in all the southern district. In the Salt 
 River Valley the amount under cultivation is being rapidly augmented 
 to the full extent of the water-supply. On the San Pedro River the 
 land is sparsely occupied, and mostly for grazing ; and farther to the east- 
 ward the countiiy is better adapted to grazing than agriculture. Many 
 years ago I found on the San Pedro and in the neighboring country many 
 wild cattle which had belonged to ranches now deserted, where the people 
 had been killed or driven off by Indians. So far as my present know- 
 ledge goes, the grazing and farming lands comprehend an area about 
 equal to that of the State of New York. 
 
 The climate of Arizona depends of course upon latitude and elevation. 
 Heat is the dominant feature, and this in the lower country is of an inten- 
 sity seemingly not due to the latitude alone. In the dry, naked valley of 
 the Colorado River the summer heat is intense, and the season of summer 
 encroaches largely upon spring and autumn. Over the eastern part of 
 Southern Arizona it is the same. North of the Gila River, and fifty 
 miles east of the Colorado, the heat is already tempered by the elevation, 
 and farther into the interior the increased elevation and wood-covered 
 mountains make a pleasant and healthy climate. South of the Gila the 
 open, low, dry, and hot region extends farther to the eastward, but the 
 eastern half offers a fine country, increasing in good character to the 
 south up to and beyond the boundary-line. Generally speaking, the 
 climate is noticeably healthy. The heat of the sun does not produce the 
 fatal effects of extreme heat in the moist climates of the Atlantic coast, 
 and though the countiy itself may be said to have regular chill and fever, 
 varying usually in temperature more than 30° between three o'clock in 
 
ARIZONA. 299 
 
 the afternoon and three o'clock in the morning, this disease is almost un- 
 known to its people. No instance of it has been known on the Colo- 
 rado River, and though there is something of intermittent fever at Tucson, 
 it is thought due rather to the alternate wetting and drying of the ground 
 by irrigation than to any climatic influence. 
 
 But the chief industry of Arizona — that upon which the others will 
 mainly depend, and that upon which, in fact, the Territory depends for 
 value — consists in the development of its mineral wealth. It is pre-emi- 
 nently a mineral region, capable of sustaining a great mining populktion. 
 Without enumerating others, silver, gold, and copper seem to be the ores 
 most generally diifused throughout the Territory, and among these silver 
 is the charaderistiG. Silver, in combination with gold, copper, lead, and 
 other metals, extends in numerous veins of greater or less size and value 
 from the Colorado River on the west to the eastern boundary-line of the 
 Territory. These have been partly resolved into districts, where, up to 
 this time, mines or lodes of greater value have been discovered grouped 
 together in belts or basins. 
 
 The Mineral Park district has a belt of this kind which is reported to 
 be nearly a hundred miles long, carrying between porphyry walls a mile 
 and a half breadth of productive ore-matter, which is interspersed with 
 veins, principally chlorides of silver. These are said to be very rich, 
 reaching several hundred dollars the ton. The whole mass is said to 
 carry silver. 
 
 The Bradshaw district is said to be full of large, permanent veins, upon 
 som,e of which mines have been opened that are producing ores of extra- 
 ordinary value. I mention these as having come more particularly to my 
 knowledge since my arrival, but similar reports are coming in from other 
 parts of the Territory, and more especially from the south-eastern ex- 
 tremity, where veins have been opened which give promise of greater 
 richness in gold and silver than any hitherto discovered. In the imme- 
 diate neighborhood of Prescott are rich mines. Want of transportation, 
 and consequent want of population and money, together with the sense of 
 insecurity still existing, have prevented a full knowledge of these lodes as 
 well as a development of those already known. 
 
 Left to themselves in the mean time, many settlers, instead of becoming 
 farmers in grain, have become small formers in gold and silver, locating 
 veins or placer-grounds which they work themselves. 
 
 These gold or silver farms, as they may be called, yield a small but 
 sure product, for which any town is the market. In Arizona are fouiid 
 the only instances within my knowledge where three or four men work- 
 
300 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ing together, without money or outside aid, have managed to develop 
 veins into regular silver-mines, which have already yielded several hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, with a promise of still greater success. But these 
 are the solitary examples of opening large mines without money. The 
 " silver farms," as I have designated them, are smaller enterprises. By 
 a moderate use of money in directing and aiding this kind of labor the 
 general government might come in aid of this industry, and open out a 
 prospect for employment to the large class who of late years have been 
 suffering from want of it, and the utmost exertion of whose skill and in- 
 telligence has not been able to command a support. Aided by the gov- 
 ernment in a way which might be indicated, any man might here find 
 room for his labor, needing only his own resolute, stout work to pick for- 
 tune from the earth. 
 
 Gold in veins and placers is variously found throughout the Territory. 
 Like Missouri and Utah, Arizona has her Iron Mountain, and copper 
 ores of rich character, carrying with them silver and gold, are found in 
 great force. A large percentage of copper is found in the upper work- 
 ings of silver ores. Many years ago, and before our occupation of the 
 country, I found in Southern Arizona the trail of wagons engaged in 
 transporting copper ore from the Upper Gila to the city of Chihuahua, 
 the silver and gold found in the copper being sufficient to defray the cost 
 cff the long and hazardous journey. Notwithstanding the desultory work- 
 ing of the mines, the actual weekly shipment of bullion, by way of Yuma, 
 to California, is about one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 There is a Territorial prison supported by the Territory, and located 
 by law at Yuma. It is managed by a board of Territorial penitentiary 
 directors, who audit claims and make such rules and regulations as they 
 think proper for the discipline and management of the penitentiary. 
 
 The Legislative Assembly of Arizona meets biennially at the capital on 
 the first Monday in January. Eepresentation is apportioned according 
 to population, and the members of the Assembly are elected by counties 
 at the general election held throughout the Territory every two years on 
 the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. 
 
 Every male citizen of the United States, and every male citizen of 
 Mexico who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States 
 under the treaiy of peace exchanged and ratified at QuerStaro in 1848 
 and the Gadsden treaty of 1854, and every male person who shall have 
 declared on oath before a competent court of record his intention to be- 
 come a citizen of the United States, and shall have taken an oath to 
 support the Constitution and government of the United States, of the 
 
ARIZONA. 301 
 
 age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the Territory 
 one year next preceding the election, and of the county or precinct in 
 which he claims his vote ten days, and whose name is enrolled on the 
 great register of such county, shall be entitled to vote at all elections 
 which are now or may be hereafter authorized by law. 
 
 AKIZONA. 
 
 BY JOHN "WASSON, 8UKVEY0R-GENEEAL. 
 
 ACCORDING to departmental estimate made some years ago, Ari- 
 zona contains just about 73,000,000 acres of land, 5,000,000 of 
 which are surveyed. The general character of the topography, soil, pro- 
 portion of arable land, productions, pasturage, minerals, timber, water, 
 etc. is the same as that of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and 
 Idaho. The Territory was created by act of Congress approved in Feb- 
 ruary, 1863. For ten years its progress was slow, because of the con- 
 stant hostilities of the Indians, its isolation, and lack of speedy and 
 cheap transportation. The United States census of 1870 showed a pop- 
 ulation of 9658, exclusive of Indians, but owing to the danger of Indian 
 attacks and the refusal of the military authorities to furnish the marshal 
 with available assistance, he made no effort to enumerate some settle- 
 ments. Under authority of Territorial law a census was taken in 1876, 
 showing about 30,000, exclusive of Indians ; but the enumeration was 
 made by and under special direction of the several counties, and as legis- 
 lative representation was based thereon, and the location of the capital 
 depended on the action of the legislature thus formed, the said census 
 was made to show a much larger population than existed. Conserva- 
 tive estimates place the present population, exclusive of Indians, at from 
 30,000 to 33,000, with a steady and rapid increase. The population of 
 nearly all the towns is visibly increasing, and new towns and mining 
 camps have sprung up during this year. 
 
 There are three marked divisions of surface-land in Arizona — ^viz. val- 
 ley, mountain and mesa, or table — ^their areas rating in the order named. 
 
NEVADA. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 "VTEYADA is a part of the territory ceded to the United States by 
 -Li Mexico in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 22, 1848. 
 It was at first a part of California Territory, and was subsequently at- 
 tached to Utah. It was constituted a Territory in March, 1861, with 
 somewhat smaller boundaries than at present. Its admission as a State 
 was discussed in 1863, and a convention called to form a constitution ; 
 but the cxjnstitution was rejected, on the ground that the population was 
 insufficient for the maintenance of a State government. In 1864 an 
 enabling act was passed, under which a constitutional convention was 
 called, met July 4, 1864, and agreed upon a constitution, under which 
 the State is still governed. The constitution was ratified, and Nevada 
 admitted into the Union as a State October 31, 1864. Additions were 
 made to its territory by Congressional enactment in 1866. Its immense 
 mineral wealth foreshadows for it a brilliant future. This State has an 
 area of about 81,539 square miles, or 52,194,960 acres. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
 
 The greater portion of Nevada is included in what is known as the 
 Great American Basin, which has for its surroundings the Sierra Nevada 
 on the west and the Wahsatch Mountains on the east. It is bounded 
 north and south by cross-ranges, and has no outlet for its waters. This 
 vast region is a table-land about four thousand feet above the sea, and 
 the mountains in this vicinity rise from one to eight thousand feet above 
 the level of the sea. About twelve thousand square miles in the south- 
 east of the State are outside of this basin, and belong to the Colorado 
 River Basin, whose lofty table-lands and deep caflons have been else- 
 where described. The Sierra Nevada Mountains constitute the western 
 boundary of the State, their eastern slopes only being included within it. 
 Most of the mountain-ranges are parallel to each other, and have a gen- 
 
 302 
 
NEVADA. 303 
 
 eral course from north to south. In the south-west is an isolated range, 
 the White Mountains. The eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and the 
 Humboldt, East Humboldt, and Toyable ranges have a considerable num- 
 ber of streams, which, however, disappear very suddenly from the sur- 
 face, and reappear as lakes or pools farther on. The valleys watered by 
 these streams are in part fertile, but their lowest portions are occupied by 
 muddy pools, impassable in winter from the depth of the mud. 
 
 The agricultural lands of Nevada are estimated at 17,608,960 acres ; 
 reclaimable swamp-lands, 74,880 acres ; mountain-range land, only avail- 
 able for grazing, and that during only a part of the year, 21,520,280 
 acres ; and barren, sandy, and worthless lands, 2,151,680 acres. It is 
 doubtful if there are, or have been within the last hundred years or more, 
 any active volcanoes in Nevada, though some of the peaks have shown 
 symptoms threatening eruption ; but no one can traverse its mountains 
 and valleys without finding abundant evidence of the great extent of vol- 
 canic action in the past. 
 
 The surface of the valleys and plains is almost entirely Tertiary, 
 Quaternary, or Alluvial in some of the lower portions of the valleys, but 
 everywhere the numerous mountain-ranges have"a uniform constitution, 
 the Azoic and metamorphic rocks being upheaved, granite or gneiss and 
 trachyte, rhyolite, and basalt above, and every ridge is crowned with 
 Silurian rocks, limestone, sandstone, etc., all crystallized by the intense 
 heat through which they have passed. On many of the bleak and bare 
 mountain-sides, utterly devoid of vegetation, the lava is still visible, 
 though of course changed by the lapse of time. This Great Basin must 
 have been in ancient geologic times the bed of a vast sea until the sub- 
 sequent upheaval, which may have been aided by some subterranean 
 drainage of the waters. The region outside this Great Basin, belonging 
 to the Colorado Basin, is Eozoic and Silurian in about equal areas. 
 There are marked evidences of volcanic action. 
 
 MINEEALS. 
 
 Gold, except in combination with silver, is not abundant, but some of 
 the argentiferous ores contain a large amount of gold in combination, 
 and this seems to increase with the depth of the mines. The Comstock 
 Lode and Consolidation companies, since the great progress made in Sutro 
 Tunnel, are yielding increased amounts of gold, much free gold being 
 found in the ore-veins. In the Humboldt and Walker River regions 
 gold quartz-veins of considerable promise have been discovered. Silver 
 is, however, the staple mineral product of Nevada, and the yield of this 
 
304 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 metal is increasing with great rapidity. The silver-lodes are found in 
 almost every part of the State, some yielding from $65 to $100 to the 
 ton, others ranging from $450 to $2500 or more to the ton. The number 
 of mines in this State is very large, and new mines are constantly being 
 opened. In the autumn of 1874 the number of mines was 243 in twelve 
 counties, and the product of gold and silver for that year was $35,402,263, 
 of which $22,000,000 came from Comstock Lode. The Sutro Tunnel is 
 three miles and a half in length, and passes through all the ramifications 
 of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City and Gold Hill, draining the mines 
 at a depth of nearly three thousand feet. 
 
 The other minerals of Nevada are lead, copper, and iron in various 
 forms. There are numerous mineral springs and some geysera in the 
 State. 
 
 AGEICULTUEE. 
 
 While Nevada will never be largely agricultural, it possesses a suffi- 
 ciency of arable lands to supply, with the aid of irrigation, possibly the 
 needs of such a population as it is destined to have, and its mountain- 
 slopes and some of its valleys will prove to be among the best grazing- 
 lands of the Pacific region. Its timber-lands proper, those on which 
 grew the lofty pines of the Sierras, are of very moderate extent, not ex- 
 ceeding 400,000 acres, and much of this is being cut off to supply the 
 demands of the mining districts. The flora of the State, except on the 
 Sierras, differs materially from that of California. Of the sixty-five 
 natural families of plants catalogued in the State, many are repre- 
 sented by a large number of genera and species. 
 
 AinMALS. 
 
 The animals are those of the Pacific slope — ^the grizzly bear, the Mex- 
 ican bear, cougar, wild-cat, lynx. Rocky Mountain sheep, antelope, deer 
 (two or three species) ; and most of the smaller game, including the sage- 
 hare, sage-grouse, are the most characteristic mammals. The larger lakes 
 are stocked with trout, salmon-trout, etc., but in the shallow lakes these 
 do not succeed well. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate of Nevada is characterized by great extremes. In winter 
 snow falls upon the summit of the mountains, though there is not much 
 in the valleys. The air ls dry, the winds strong, and, though the sun- 
 shine is bright and pleasant at midday, the nights are often intensely cold. 
 In January the mercury falls to from 10° to 16° below zero in the valleys, 
 and much lower in the mountains ; but this severe cold lasts but a few 
 
NEVADA. 305 
 
 days, though it may be repeated. About the last of February the ap- 
 proach of spring is announced, though there may be piercing winds and 
 sharp frosts, chilling rain and snow, in March, and even April. Thunder- 
 storms of great severity occur in April and May, and into June. When 
 these have passed away the dry season prevails until October throughout 
 the western, central, and northern parts of the State. The air becomes 
 heated, and whirlwinds and spiral columns of dust are raised to great 
 heights. The temperature rises to 100° or 106°, but usually only for a 
 few days. It falls every night to between 70° and 80°, and does not 
 average in August more than 90° at midday. In the eastern part of the 
 State there are frequent thunderstorms in summer and till September 15, 
 and the heat is longer continued and more oppressive. There is less intense 
 cold, with very little snow or frost in winter, in South-eastern Nevada, 
 and the culture of cotton and the sugar-cane has been attempted there. 
 The climate is remarkably healthy and invigorating. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 Education is carefully looked after, public schools generally being ac- 
 cessible to all. The State University, located at Elko, affords oppor- 
 tunities for higher education. Among the State eleemosynary institutions 
 may be named the Orphans' Home at Carson, which, though yet in its 
 infancy, constitutes the germ of a commendable institution. 
 
 Carson City, the capital, had in 1870 a population of 3042. Virginia 
 City, the largest city in the State, had in 1879 an estimated population 
 of 26,000. The principal towns are Grold Hill and Hamilton, each 
 having from four to five thousand inhabitants. 
 
 THE SUTKO TUNNEL. 
 
 BY ADOLPH SUTEO. 
 
 IN the construction of this tunnel we had a severe struggle to get along. 
 On the one hand we had people opposing us, and on the other hand 
 we encountered the difficulty of raising money sufficient to carry on the 
 work ; and that was about the " toughest job " of all. But stiU we suc- 
 ceeded. There were some gentlemen who took broad views of the mat- 
 
 20 
 
306 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ter, and, partly through their influence and aid, the money was forthcom- 
 ing, and after that we got along reasonably well. 
 
 In one way and another, we encountered many difficulties in doing the 
 work. We had to work our way inch by inch through solid rock. In 
 these tunnelling operations we had first to drill a dozen or twenty holes, 
 charge* them with giant-powder, explode the blast, then wait for the 
 smoke of the powder to disappear before we could commence loading the 
 debris on the cars for removal. Under the circumstances one cannot get 
 ahead very fast ; but, altogether, we made quite as rapid progress as has 
 ever been made in any similar undertaking. In fact, our progress was 
 more rapid than was the construction of the Hoosac, the Mont Cenis, the 
 St. Gothard, or any other tunnel. 
 
 A CHAPTER ON MULES. 
 
 Up to the present time, all the transportation has been done by means 
 of mules. We found it more convenient to use mules than to use steam, 
 because under ground steam is fatal to life. We are now preparing to 
 use compressed-air motors, built on the same plan as those in use on* Sec- 
 ond Avenue in New York. We have now two motors building in Eng- 
 land. We have been using mules for years, and have found out that 
 they are tolerably good animals ; but there is a prejudice against mules, 
 though they are very intelligent. I think that I could write a chapter on 
 their traits, as I have had a very extensive experience with them. It has 
 been said that they have a strong propensity for kicking, but I have never 
 seen them kick when in the tunnel. They become very tame under 
 ground ; in fact, they become the miners' pets. The men become quite 
 attached to them, and as the shift-mules pass along by the men at lunch 
 they will often receive from one a piece of pie, from another a cup of 
 coffee, etc. When a signal is given to fire a blast the mules understand 
 the signal, and will try to get out of the way of it, just as the men do. 
 Of course, under ground it is very dark, and the mules become so ac- 
 customed to the darkness that when they go out into the sunlight 
 they cannot see very well, and when they go back from the sunlight into 
 the mine they cannot see at all. So we are in the habit of covering one 
 eye with a piece of cloth whenever they go out, and keep the covering 
 over the eye until they go into the tunnel again ; we then remove the 
 cloth ; so they have one good eye to see with. We had to adopt this plan 
 for preserving their sight, because the mule is so stubborn that he will 
 not pull unless he can see his way ahead. We have found out another 
 thing about mules. We tried horses at first, but we found that whenever 
 
NEVADA. 307 
 
 anything touched the ears of a horse he would throw up his head and 
 break his skull against the overhanging rock ; but if you touch a mule's 
 ears he drops his head. For that reason we could not use horses ; we 
 employed mules, and they have answered very well. 
 
 OBSTACLES TO PEOGEESS. 
 
 In carrying on a work of this kind we meet all sorts of difficulties. 
 Now and then we would get indications of water. The men would put in 
 a blast, and the water would pour out in a perfect torrent, and the men 
 would have, at times, to quit temporarily to escape it, and wait until the 
 water had subsided sufficiently, so that they could go to drilling again. 
 Every now and then we would come to a clay that would swell and cave, 
 so as to reduce our progress of one hundred and fifty feet (and afterward 
 with improved machinery of three hundred feet) per month to less than 
 fifty feet per month. Sometimes we could not keep the roof up. As 
 soon as we would get started a little way in our work of excavation the 
 rock would yield, and hundreds of feet would come pressing down on the 
 timbers with such force that it was almost impossible to resist it. The 
 worst ground that we came to was the swelling ground. This is some- 
 times clay, and sometimes it is rock. The moment you dig into it, it 
 swells out, and no matter what size of timbers you use, it will snap them 
 off as if they were but matches. Nothing will resist it. You must let 
 it swell. In one place the swelling was so great that the track swelled 
 up a foot or two seven different times, and each time we had to cut it 
 down. The timbers used are a post and a cap. The pressure on this 
 cap would be so great that the post would be pressed through the cap in 
 twenty-four hours, just as though the cap were a piece of cheese. The 
 only way to keep the timbers from breaking in such ground was to em- 
 ploy men to ease up the ground behind the timbers. That is to say, they 
 would take away the rock or clay from behind the posts from time to 
 time, until, after a year or so, the ground settles down to its natural state 
 and does not swell any longer. We have very little trouble of that sort 
 now ; but I suppose that we shall encounter it every now and then as we 
 go on with the lateral tunnels. 
 
 BAD AIR. 
 
 The greatest obstacle encountered by us was the heat and the poor air. 
 Our last opening to the surface was at Shaft No. 2, about nine thousand 
 feet from the tunnel-entrance. From there we had to go to the Comstock 
 Lode, a distance of eleven thousand feet, without any natural air connec- 
 
308 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 tion. After we got in to a distance of seventeen thousand feet from the 
 mouth of the tunnel the heat became so intense and the air so bad that it 
 was almost impossible to keep the air suificiently cool and pure to sustain 
 life. There was not oxygen enough in the air to make our candles burn. 
 Although we blew in air by means of blowers and air-compressors, still 
 at times there was not sufficient air to enable the men to work. In the 
 place where the men were at work we could generally manage to keep 
 the air sufficiently pure, but at some distance back from the face of the 
 tunnel the air was so bad that one could hardly exist. In fact, in going 
 through these portions of the tunnel the men would often give out ; and 
 as for the mules, we could not get them there at all. A mule would 
 make straight for the air-pipe, and you could not get him away. "We 
 had one mule that would not go away from the air-pipe at all. They 
 beat him, but it was of no use. He had to be carried out, and that mule 
 escaped; he never went into the tunnel again. A shift-mule would 
 always want to go to where the stream of air was rushing in, and he 
 would monopolize it all to himself. He would never leave it ; but would 
 stand there, and as he bobbed his head up and down past the pipe you 
 would hear the air whistling by him. 
 
 ACCIDENTS. 
 
 "We had some sad accidents happen. The air-pipes are made of gal- 
 vanized iron, and the leakage is prevented by wrapping the joints with 
 canvas, which is covered with tar or with white-lead. I recollect that 
 one day after a blast had been fired one Garnett, the man whose duty it 
 was to keep these joints wrapped, went forward (he was nearly fainting) 
 to the end of the air-pipe near the face of the tunnel, but before he got 
 there he fell down in a swoon. When the blaster went forward to ex- 
 amine the blast which had just been made, he found that two of the 
 holes had not gone off, and so he re-connected • them and fired the blast 
 while this poor man was lying on the ground. It did not kill him, although 
 he was riddled with rocks. He had about a hundred large and small pieces 
 of rock in him, one being in the back of his head. I thought that he 
 could not live for ten minutes, but he is alive now and as well as ever. 
 The most curious part of it is, that for a long time previous this man had 
 been in ill-health, and that application of rocks cured him. He has told 
 me often since, "That confounded thing cured me." It was rather a 
 severe cure, but it was efieetual. 
 
 As we approached Shaft No. 2, nine thousand feet from the tunnel-en- 
 trance, which had been abandoned some time previous because it had 
 
JfEVADA. 309 
 
 filled by a great influx of water to the depth of about nine hundred feet, 
 we bored a diamond drill-hole into it, and the pressure of that column of 
 water, nine hundred feet high, was so great that it threw out the drill-rod 
 and cast it a distance of several hundred feet, although the rod weighed 
 several hundred pounds. 
 
 CAEES. 
 
 Not long ago some timbers broke down, and the report came to me that 
 a man had been killed. We found, however, that he was not injured,, 
 but that he had been caved on and could not get out. I started in with 
 the doctor to see how he was getting on. We found that all the work 
 had stopped, and that the man, who had been working in the ditch which 
 we were then constructing in the floor of the tunnel for the purpose of 
 carrying off the hot water, had been caved on and become surrounded by 
 a lot of loose, fine gravel up to his chest, and that the water running in 
 around this gravel had packed it so tightly that the man could not move. 
 We had to get him out in some way, and so three or four men (which 
 were as many as could get into the confined space) got down alongside of 
 him and tried to dig him out ; but as fast as they would dig the gravel 
 would cave in again. When I reached the place the man had been fast 
 for three or four hours. The miners had built dams above in the tunnel 
 to stop the water from flowing down, for if the water had been permitted 
 to come down it would soon have risen to his mouth, and would have 
 drowned him. He was so fast that he could only move the upper part of 
 his body a little. I urged the men to work away with all their might at 
 the dam to keep the water back ; but after a while they reported that it 
 was of no use — that the water was rising above the dam. We did not 
 want to see the man killed, and used every effort to rescue him. I told 
 the men to pass a rope under his legs and try to pull him out. - We 
 thought we had better pull him out, even if it should injure him some- 
 what, rather than let him drown ; but as soon as we began to pull he 
 commenced to cry out, so that we had to give that plan up. Then the 
 men dug again for a while, until ,the foreman came and said that if W3 
 did not get him out within ten minutes the water would be down in such 
 volume as to drown him. Then the men worked again with the rope for 
 dear life. At last they got one leg out ; then they gave another jerk, and 
 brought the man out. 
 
 HOSPITAL. 
 
 As I have remarked, we employ a surgeon. There were many accidents, 
 althousrh we had less than there were in other works. In the Hoosac 
 
 o 
 
 Tunnel one hundred and eighty-five men were killed in the construction 
 
310 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 of the work. In our tunnel but twelve men were killed, and I do not 
 think that of the twelve more than three or four were killed by anything 
 actually happening in the tunnel itself. I told our men several years ago 
 that every man employed by the company must pay three dollars per 
 month toward a hospital fund — ^that the company could not afford to give 
 the men all the attention that they ought to receive in case of accidents. 
 The men remonstrated a good deal against this ; they did not wish to 
 spend their money in that way ; each one thought that no accidents would 
 happen to himself; but I made this payment compulsory, and after a 
 while the men became reconciled to it. We employed a physician and 
 opened a drug-store. If a man was injured he received every attention. 
 He had the care of nurses, physicians, and medicine. But these miners 
 are all members of an association, the Miners' Union, which does not per- 
 mit any man to work a shift of eight hours under four dollars per day. 
 All the mine-managers have agreed to yield to their wishes, and I 
 think a man working in these hot places well earns his four dollars. 
 But sometimes the Union will interfere with us where it should not. 
 They sent a deputation to me not long ago to say that we were not pay- 
 ing our men four dollars per day. I said that we were. They said that 
 we deducted three dollars per month for the hospital, and that therefore 
 the men only received one hundred and twenty-seven dollars per month, 
 which was not four dollars per day. I replied that that was for the 
 benefit of the men themselves ; that it was a work of benevolence ; that 
 I had inaugurated it solely for the benefit of the men. They insisted that 
 the men should not be compelled to pay anything to that fund ; and as 
 we had to complete a certain amount of work at a given time, and could 
 not afford to get into any trouble with the men, we had to yield in this 
 matter. 
 
 STARTING A GEAVEYAED. 
 
 One labors under all sorts of difficulties in dealing with the men. It 
 seems ridiculous, but the most difficult thing we had to do was to start a 
 graveyard. It took some three years to start it. Whenever a man got 
 killed or died the men would get up a big funeral, and go off to Virginia 
 City or some other place to bury the man. All work had to be stopped 
 for one or two shifts. They would each lose their four dollars for wages, 
 would pay three or four hundred dollars more for teams, and some would 
 drink so freely as to be unfit for work the following day. I was deter- 
 mined to put a stop to that. So said I to the men, " Why can we not 
 have a graveyard of our own, and bury our men here ?" I had a grave 
 dug for the next man that died. The dead man's friends came and said 
 
NEVADA. 311 
 
 that they would not have the man buried there. I asked them why. 
 They said that it would be too lonely for the poor fellow. This seems 
 ridiculous, but it is a fact. I did not wish to have any trouble over the 
 matter, and so I let them bury the man where they chose. Every time a 
 man died we had just the same trouble again. At last two miners got 
 killed who had not paid their fees to the Miners' Union, and had been 
 discarded. They had no friends there to object, and so we buried them 
 there, and thus were able at last to start our own graveyard. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF THE SUTEO TUITNEL. 
 
 The first great advantage of the Sutro Tunnel is that it creates a new 
 base of operations. We open a new surface for mining operations — a 
 surface which is in fact a better surface than the original one. We are 
 down seventeen hundred feet from the surface, and can introduce water 
 through the shafts, and thus get a fall of seventeen hundred feet; or we 
 can take the water which exists at some point between the surface and the 
 tunnel and let it flow down to run the machinery, which is placed at the 
 tunnel-level. We thus could get an abundant water-power. A very 
 small stream of water with a pressure of seventeen hundred feet will give 
 an immense power. The time will come in the working of these mines 
 when they will economize all of the water. In fact, the water which is 
 brought in pipes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be most profit- 
 ably used for that purpose, and the time will come when it will be so used 
 extensively. You can readily perceive that a new surface at that point 
 adds just so much to the working possibility of the Comstock Lode. 
 
 The lode extends down indefinitely, and the ore-bodies recur in differ- 
 ent places ; we cannot tell exactly how or where, because their distribu- 
 tion seems not to be governed by any known law. This tunnel adds to 
 the working possibility of that lode certainly sixteen hundred and forty 
 feet, which is the level at the point where the Savage Shaft is intercepted 
 by our tunnel, and that shaft is away down the hill. This is, of course, 
 an incalculable advantage, for those sixteen hundred and forty feet are 
 surely added to the working possibility of the Comstock Lode, and ought 
 to be worth to it a great many millions of dollars, perhaps hundreds 
 of millions. The Comstock Lode has already yielded something like 
 four hundred million dollars, and there is in it an enormous quantity of 
 low-grade ore which has not been taken out. 
 
UTAH. 
 
 WHEN Utah was first settled by the Mormons in 1847, it was a ter- 
 ritory belonging to Mexico, but by the treaty of Guadalupe Hi- 
 dalgo in March, 1840, was ceded to the United States, with New Mexico 
 and the whole of Upper California. The government did not promptly 
 assume sway over this newly-acquired territory, and the Mormons estab- 
 lished a government for themselves under the name of the State of Des- 
 eret. Congress, refusing to recognize this government of the Mormons, 
 organized the Territory of Utah on September 9, 1850. Brigham Young 
 was appointed governor. 
 
 AEEA. 
 
 Utah Territory is situated north of Arizona, east of Nevada, south of 
 Idaho, and west of Colorado, and is between the 37th and 42d parallels 
 of north latitude and the 109th and 114th meridians west from Green- 
 wich. It has a maximum length of 325 miles by a breadth of 300 ; area, 
 84,476 square miles ; population, estimated at 130,000. It is intersected 
 from north to south by the Wahsatch Mountains, dividing it nearly 
 equally between the Great Basin and the basin of the Bio Colorado. 
 The altitude of the surface on both sides of this mountain-range is about 
 the same — the valleys four to six thousand feet above sea-level; the 
 mountains, six to thirteen thousand. West of the Wahsatch the drainage 
 is into lakes and sinks which have no outlet, the largest of which is Great 
 Salt Lake, with an elevation of 4260 feet, a shore-line of 350 miles, and 
 an area of three to four thousand square miles. It receives the Bear and 
 Weber and many smaller streams, and also the discharge from Utah Lake 
 through the river Jordan. The latter is sweet water, about ten by thirty 
 miles in extent, the receptacle of American, Provo, and Spanish Rivers. 
 There are numerous valleys, the lowest of them higher than the average 
 summit of the AUeghanies. 
 
 312 
 
ECHO CaSoN, UTAH. 
 
VTAH. 313 
 
 TOPOGEAPHY AND GENERAL FEATUEBS. 
 
 The settled part of Utah lies along the western base of the Wahsatch 
 Mountains, which run through the heart of the Territory from north to 
 south, reaching their greatest altitude near Salt Lake City (where they 
 abut on the Uintah range coming from the east, forming the cross-bar 
 of a T), and almost losing themselves in the sandstone plateau of the Rio 
 Colorado in the south. Abreast of Salt Lake City the Wahsatch range 
 is ten to twelve thousand feet in altitude. Here, within a small area, 
 rise the Bear and Weber Rivers, which empty into Salt Lake; the 
 Provo, which empties into Utah Lake ; and some of the main affluents 
 of the Green River, which, with the Grand, become the Rio Colorado 
 lower down. It is in the vicinity of the heads of these rivers that the 
 Emma, the Flagstaff, the Vallejo, the Ontario, McHenry, and various 
 other well-known mines are situated. Nearly one-half of the Territory 
 lies south of the Uintah range and east of the Wahsatch range proper, 
 and is drained by the Green and Colorado Rivers and their tributaries. 
 Its general altitude along these streams is between four and five thousand 
 feet ; it is much broken by mountains, and is but partially explored, and 
 not settled at all. It contains many thousand square miles of fine graz- 
 ing country above the Grand Caflon, with more or less arable land, and 
 no one yet knows what mineral treasures. It is believed that the Atchi- 
 son, Topeka, and Santa FS Railroad, after being drawn to the head of 
 the river Arkansas by the mineral attractions of Leadville, will find an 
 easy way through this region, entering the Great Basin vid some of the 
 feasible railroad-passes of the Wahsatch. A wide strip of the western 
 part of the Territory is lake, sink, mountain, or desert. The inhabited 
 part is chiefly a narrow belt, watered by the streams of the western slope 
 of the Wahsatch range, which lose themselves in inland lakes or basins. 
 The largest and best known of these is the Great Salt Lake Basin. 
 
 GREAT SALT LAKE BASIN. 
 
 Including the valley of Bear River up to the Gates on the north, and 
 the Utah Basin on the south, whose waters are discharged into Great Salt 
 Lake through Jordan River, this basin is 200 miles in length by 40 or 
 60 in width. The principal streams which are lost in Great Salt Lake 
 are the Malade and Bear — the latter 300 miles long — on the north ; Box 
 Elder and Willow Creeks, Ogden and Weber Rivers, on the east ; and 
 City, Mill, and Cottonwood Creeks and the river Jordan on the south. 
 Into Utah Lake flow the American, Provo, and Spanish Forks — ^though 
 
314 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 these are not forks, but independent mountain-streams — and Salt Creek. 
 All of them but the Malade have in the Wahsatch range their sources, 
 which collect the snows in winter that give them life and being. Where 
 they emerge from their caflons settlements have been made on them, and 
 their waters appropriated, so far as it can be cheaply done, for the pur- 
 poses of irrigation, and in some cases of furnishing power for mills. Of 
 these settlements, the largest is Salt Lake City, located about centrally, 
 as regards the length of the entire basin, at the base of the Wahsatch 
 range, ten or twelve miles from the south-east shore of Salt Lake, and 
 • containing a population of about twenty-five thousand. The city is sup- 
 plied with water by City Creek. It is laid out with broad streets and 
 sidewalks, and is built up more or less for two miles square, shade and 
 fruit trees largely hiding the buildings in the summer season. It has 
 ample hotel accommodations, gas, water, and street-cars ; is peaceful and 
 orderly; is connected with the outside world and adjacent points of 
 interest or business by rail. Enjoying the most healthy and agreeable 
 climate of perhaps any large town in the United States ; with street-cars 
 running to the famous Warm Springs, and the bathing-shores of Salt 
 Lake but a half hour's ride distant on the rail ; with peaks of the Wah- 
 satch, the Oquirrh, and other ranges ruiHing the clouds at every point of 
 the horizon ; with picturesque mountain-canons threaded by trout-streams 
 accessible by rail, — it is one of the most attractive places of summer 
 resort for tourists seeking health or pleasure in all the world. The 
 eastern edge of Salt Lake Basin is dotted with settlements, and is highly 
 cultivated wherever water can be got on the ground. These are North 
 String, Bear River City, Corinne, Brigham City, Willard, North Ogden, 
 Ogden, Kaysville, Farmington, Centreville, Bountiful, Salt Lake City, 
 the Cottonwoods, Sandy, West Jordan, Deweyville, Lehi, American Fork, 
 Pleasant Grove, Provo, Springville, Spanish Fork, Salem, Payson, San- 
 taquin, Mona, Nephi, and Levan. Ogden, at the intersection of the east 
 and west and north and south railroads, is the town next in importance 
 to Salt Lake City, the capital. It is in the forks of Ogden and Weber 
 Rivers, is within a short drive of fine fishing and mountain-scenery, and 
 is rapidly improving. Great Salt Lake Basin at large has an altitude of 
 about forty-five hundred feet above the sea, and is the paradise of the 
 farmer, the horticulturist, and the grower of fruit. Cut off from it by a 
 low range, now surmounted by the Utah and Northern Railway, toward 
 the north-east is Cache Valley, 
 
UTAH. 315 
 
 CACHE, SAN PETE, AND SEVIER VALLEYS. 
 
 Cache Valley is oval in shape, perhaps ten by fifty miles in extent, 
 watered by Logan and Blacksmith Forks of Bear Kiver, and by the 
 latter itself, and sustaining a settlement wherever a stream breaks out of 
 the enclosing mountains. Logan is the principal town of Cache Valley, 
 and thence one drives eastward through Logan Canon forty or fifty miles 
 to Bear Lake Valley, Bear Eiver here flowing toward the north. Farther 
 on it bends to the west and southward, and, flowing down through Cache 
 Valley, finds its way to Salt Lake. Cache and Bear Lake Valleys have, 
 a score of towns and fifteen thousand inhabitants. 
 
 To the south-east of Salt Lake Basin, and to be connected with it by 
 rail through Salt Creek or Nephi Canon this season, lies San Pete Valley, 
 called the granary of Utah, surrounded by mountains except on the south, 
 where the San Pete River breaks through into the Sevier, and sustain- 
 ing eight thriving towns, all still in their infancy, though founded several 
 years ago. San Pete and Cache Valleys are fine grain-growing sections, 
 but, having colder winters, are not so well adapted to fruit-raising as the 
 Salt Lake Basin. 
 
 Next southward is the Sevier River, which has its source in Fish 
 (Indian, Panguitch) Lake, near the southern boundary of the Territory, 
 and runs, like Bear River, a long way north before it finds a way out of 
 the mountains, and turning to the south-west is finally lost in Sevier Lake. 
 Most of the streams in the south-west lose themselves in small lakes or 
 sinks ; that is, such as rise to the northward of the divide between the 
 Great Basin and the Rio Colorado country. The Sevier River Valley is 
 occupied, like all the other Utah valleys (and there are many in the re- 
 cesses of the Wahsatch, and some outlying and disconnected with that 
 range, although of minor importance, which have not been particularly 
 noticed) where a strisam breaks out of the adjoining mountains, by a settle- 
 ment ; but, like the other streams, the full capacity of the Sevier River 
 for irrigation has not yet been called into requisition. 
 
 GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. 
 
 The western third of the Territory from end to end is an alternation 
 of mountain, desert, sink, and lake, with few oases of arable or grazing 
 lands. Great Salt Lake covers an area of three to four thousand square 
 miles, and the desert west of it a still larger area. The Sevier, Preuss, 
 and Little Salt Lakes, all together, are small in comparison. Formerly, 
 a mighty river flowed northward from the vicinity of Sevier Lake to the 
 
^316 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 "westward of Great Salt Lake, the dry bed of which, nearly a mile in 
 width, must be crossed in going west from Salt Lake City to Deep Creek, 
 Since it dried up hills and spurs of mountains have been upheaved in its 
 course, but the old channel continues on its way up hill and down, and 
 over them all. Divided off from Great Salt Lake by a sort of causeway 
 eight hundred feet high is Rush Valley, containing a lake covering twenty 
 to thirty square miles, where twenty years ago there was hay-land and a 
 military reservation. This, as well as the accompanying filling up of the 
 Great Salt Lake, shows a decided aqueous increase in Salt Lake Basin 
 within that time. Rush Valley has mining and agricultural settlements, 
 but much more pastoral than arable land ; and so has Skull Valley to the 
 westward. But from these south to the rim of the basin there are only 
 occasional habitable spots, and they are due to springs. 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 The mountains are the source of the wealth of Utah, present and pros- 
 pective, which consists in water and metals. They gather the snows in 
 winter which feed the streams in summer. In the northern part of the 
 Territory the Wahsatch range attains in general a high altitude, with a 
 mass in proportion. There is a large accumulation of snow in winter, 
 and the streams are correspondingly large and numerous. In the southern 
 part of the Territory the main range is lower and less massive ; the 
 average temperature is higher, of course; there is less snow, smaller and 
 fewer streams, and more desert in proportion. This part of the Territory 
 is not rich in agricultural resources. The isolated ranges in the Great 
 Basin seldom give rise to streams of much magnitude, and the interven- 
 ing valleys partake more of the desert character. But all the mountains, 
 so far as known, are full of minerals, and there is generally water enough 
 for the purposes of mining and reducing them. 
 
 AGEICCLTUEE. 
 
 Down to June 30, 1878, there were surveyed of public land in Utah 
 8,178,819 acires of arable, timbered, coal, and mineral land. It is im- 
 possible to tell from any accessible data what proportion of it is arable 
 land — ^probably not more than one-fourth, or 2,000,000 acres. 
 
 Irrigation is much used, and is almost an indispensable element in 
 farming. The scarcity of water compels settlement along the streams 
 and by the borders of lakes ; but that Utah is productive in the various 
 cereal crops can be realized from the fact that the yield of wheat in one 
 year (1875) was 1,418,783 bushels, while the total value in that year of the 
 
UTAH. 317 
 
 various crops was $7,500,000. Improved lands are held at from twenty- 
 five to one hundred dollars an acre, according to location. There are, 
 however, large bodies of government and railroad lands which can be 
 obtained at low rates. But it is more advantageous to colonies than to in- 
 dividuals to purchase these latter, as irrigation can thereby be obtained by 
 the construction of canals at very low cost. 
 
 Fruits thrive abundantly in Utah, as apples, pears, peaches, plums, 
 apricots, cherries, and grapes. 
 
 STOCK-RAISING. 
 
 This is one of the great resources of Utah. The grazing-lands are 
 almost unlimited, including the second tables of the river-courses, the 
 slopes of the foot-hills and lesser ranges not too far from water, the shores 
 of sinks and lakes, and the coves and valleys of the mountains. In the 
 elevated portions of the Territory stock requires shelter, but in the Salt 
 Lake Basin and farther south it generally thrives without much if any 
 protection through the winter. It is estimated by stock-growers and 
 drivers that the Territory turns out yearly forty thousand head of stock 
 from one to four years old, averaging in value $15 a head — ^a total of 
 $600,000. 
 
 The wool-clip for 1878 was 1,600,000 pounds. The Mormon popula- 
 tion is chiefly engaged in agriculture, and the wonderful development of 
 the mineral resources is mainly due to the Gentile population, who are 
 really dependent upon the mines for their support. 
 
 MINERALS. 
 
 Mines were known to exist in Utah, and some attempts were made to 
 open and work them, during the five years next preceding the completion 
 of the Pacific Railroad, but the conditions were not favorable, and little 
 was accomplished. On the consummation of that enterprise, however, 
 attention was recalled to them, and within eighteen months thereafter the 
 streets of Salt Lake City were thronged with wagons and teams bringing 
 ore from almost every point of the compass and from twenty to two hun- 
 dred miles distant. Rude mining camps, gradually growing into towns, 
 mills, sampling-works, and smelters, began to appear as if by magic. 
 
 From the end of 1870 to the end of 1878, as appears from the books 
 of the Utah Central Railroad Company, there were shipped from Salt 
 Lake City 76,912 tons of ore, 109,276 tons of argentiferous lead-bullion, 
 and 8197 tons of lead — ^worth, in the aggregate, quite $40,000,000. 
 For the last three years the value of Utah's mineral output has been 
 
318 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 $18,558,805.48. Most of the ores so far worked have been argentiferous 
 galena, but the present depression in the price of lead decreases the 
 profits realized from that kind of ores. Lead represents only $5,379,446 
 of the product of the last three years, against $13,137,033 of the precious 
 metals, and of last year but $811,068, against $5,224,580, or less than six- 
 teen per cent. And, further, as the profit on lead has decreased, mines 
 producing gold and silver ores proper have been discovered or have risen 
 into prominence. Such are the Ontario, which has paid forty-two con- 
 secutive dividends of $50,000 each ; the mines of Silver Reef, which, 
 first discovered two years ago, are now producing fine bullion at the rate 
 of $100,000 per month ; and the gold-mines in Bingham Caflon, the ores 
 of which, though of comparatively low grade, are very ch-eaply mined 
 and milled, and occur, so far as work has shown, in veins or deposits of 
 extraordinary size and strength. 
 
 There is not a county in the Territory where mines have not been 
 located and mining districts in greater or lesser number organized. 
 Froiseth's new map of Utah shows eighty of these new mining districts, 
 covering more than one million acres, crowding each other most in Salt 
 Lake, Utah, Juab, and Beaver counties. Box Elder, Tooele, Millard, 
 Piute, and Iron counties have a plentiful sprinkling of them. Wherever 
 there are mountains the prospector has been, and left his footprints in the 
 shape of mining districts. Very many of them are abandoned, it is true, 
 but this is more often on account of ina<X5essibility, want of capital, and 
 other unfavorable circumstances than because of the lack of merit or 
 promise of the mining locations. After the time necessary to extend in- 
 terior communication, and to acquire full knowledge of the nature of the 
 ores and the best methods of reducing them, Ave may expect these dis- 
 tricts to be revisited and labor resumed, and with permanently profitable 
 results. The mining history of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific 
 Slope records nothing more striking than the sudden resurrection of ap- 
 parently lifeless mining camps. Leadville, Bodie, Salmon River, and 
 Pioche are examples. The records of the land-office in Salt Lake City 
 show 487 applications for patents to mines in Utah, and the issue of 362 
 patents. 
 
 The most important mineral belt of the Territory, so far as known, 
 first makes its appearance on a sort of break-down in the Wahsatch range, 
 drained off north and south, and ultimately west, by the Weber and 
 Provo Rivers, in the vicinity of the Twin Peaks, which are twelve thou- 
 sand feet above tide-water, and mark the culmination of the magnificent 
 range overlooking Salt Lake City. Thence it extends over the crest of 
 
UTAH. 319 
 
 the "Wahsatch westward, covering the sources of the Cottonwood and 
 American Fork, crosses Jordan Valley, about twenty miles south of Salt 
 Lake City, and reappears in the Oquirrh, an isolated range separating 
 Jordan and Rush Valleys. It includes the mines of Park City, the 
 Cottonwood, American Fork, Brigham Caflon, Ophir, and Dry Caflon. . 
 Utah is not only rich in the precious metals, but liberally supplied with 
 coal, iron, and other minerals. The supply of coal is absolutely inex- 
 haustible, yet has been somewhat inaccessible. Railroads are now being 
 built that will remove this difficulty, and will aid greatly in the develop- 
 ment of the manufactories and smelting-works by supplying fuel at low 
 prices. Marble and other building-stones are scattered over Utah in every 
 variety and in inexhaustible supply. Professor Newberry says that no 
 equal area of the country surpasses Utah in the richness and variety of 
 its mineral. deposits. 
 
 EAILROADS. 
 
 There were at the end of 1878, including the Union Pacific and Cen- 
 tral Pacific tracks in Utah, about 340 miles of standard gauge, 190 of 
 narrow gauge, 15 miles of tramway, and eight or ten miles of street- 
 railway, with 961 miles of telegraph-lines. The branches are penetrating 
 all parts, and soon nearly every portion of the Territory will be accessible 
 by rail. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate of a mountainous country like Utah will vary considerably 
 with its varying altitudes and exposures. The inhabited parts of the 
 Territory range in general between four thousand three hundred and six 
 thousand three hundred feet above the sea. Seventy per cent, of the 
 population is settled in valleys not exceeding four thousand five hundred 
 feet in elevation, and sixty per cent, in the basin of Great Salt Lake. In 
 these lower valleys the climate is mild and agreeable. Its perpetual charm 
 cannot be conveyed by meteorological statistics. The atmosphere is dry, 
 elastic, transparent, and bracing; and the temperature, while ranging high 
 in summer, and not altogether exempt from the fickleness characteristic 
 of the climate of North America in general, compares favorably in re- 
 spect of equability with that of the United States at large, and especially 
 with that of Colorado and the Territories north and south of Utah. Ita 
 range upward is less than that of St. Louis, Philadelphia, and New York, 
 to say nothing of that of Arizona ; while in the other direction there is 
 no comparison, either with the Eastern States intersected by the same 
 isothermal or with Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. 
 
320 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 The climate is favorable to consumption and bronchial troubles. The 
 best treatment known for consumption is a year of steady daily horseback 
 riding in a mountainous country, with plain diet. Eheumatic fevers are 
 common throughout the country ; there is a mountain-fever, which yields 
 readily to treatment, however. 
 
 GREAT SALT LAKE. 
 
 The first mention of this lake was by the Baron la Houtan in 1689, 
 who gathered from the Western Indians some vague notions of its exist- 
 ence. Until Colonel Fremont visited it in 1842 on his way to Oregon, 
 it is probable that its dead waters had never been invaded or the solemn 
 stillness of its islands broken. 
 
 It covers an area of three to four thousand square miles, and its surface 
 is higher than the average Alleghany Mountains. The depth ranges 
 from twenty to sixty feet. It has become a famous bathing resort. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 Those who have seen Salt Lake City, particularly in spring, declare it 
 to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The Wahsatch group 
 of the Rocky Mountains lies to the north, east, and south, and the Uintah 
 range to the south-west. About seven miles west of the city is the Great 
 Salt Lake. 
 
 The city is situated at the northern extremity of the valley. There is 
 a gentle slope toward the south and west. The extent of the valley from 
 north to south is perhaps thirty miles, and its width is about fifteen miles. 
 To the east rise the mountains, some of them to the height of twelve thou- 
 sand feet, and on their northern slopes snow may be seen throughout the 
 year. South of the valley lies Utah Lake. Northward from this lake 
 flows the Jordan, a beautiful stream of fresh water, which empties into 
 the Great Salt Lake not far from the city. Salt Lake City is at present 
 supplied with water chiefly from City Creek Cafion, toward the north and 
 east. Plans are now being carried out by which a more abundant supply 
 may be obtained from the Jordan. The city is laid out in squares. 
 Seven blocks, with the crossings, make a mile. The streets, with their 
 sidewalks, are 132 feet wide, 16 feet being allowed for a sidewalk. On 
 each side of the streets, for their whole length, are irrigating-ditches. 
 Through these the cool water from the mountain-snows is always flowing 
 in great abundance. By these the gardens are watered, and the trees 
 
UTAH. 321 
 
 planted everywhere by the sides of the streets have an abundant growth. 
 The trees mostly used for shade are cottonwood, box-elder, and locust. 
 The ever-shifting scenes upon the mountains near, caused by sunshine 
 and clouds, together with the dry and tonic air, make Salt Lake a beau- 
 tiful and desirable location for a home. 
 
 POINTS OF INTEEEST. 
 
 One of the most interesting points in the vicinity of the city is Fort 
 Douglas, a well-built full-regiment post, located on a plateau about three 
 miles east of, and five hundred feet above, the city. The post and grounds 
 are laid out with taste, a small stream of mountain-water making the cul- 
 ture of trees, shrubbery, grass, and flowers possible. The elevation gives 
 almost a bird's-eye view of the city and valley. In ithe distance lies the 
 Dead Sea of America, a blue band drawn along the base of island-moun- 
 tains, the vistas between which are closed by more distant ranges. In the 
 north the Promontory divides the waters, ending far out in the lake. 
 Across Jordan Valley the Oquirrh rises to a lofty height from the lake- 
 shore, white with snow a great part of the year, and often veiled by 
 clouds. On the south a low cross-range completes the enclosure of Jor^ 
 dan Valley, which lies an unrolled map at one's feet. An even finer view, 
 and one much sought, is afforded from Ensign Peak, north of the city, 
 one might say at the head of Main street, although its ascent must be 
 afoot. 
 
 Among the attractive objects in the city are the Tabernacle, a unique 
 structure, with its immense organ ; the foundation and rising white walls 
 of the Temple ; the Salt Lake Museum, a valuable collection of Utah 
 minerals and curiosities from many lands ; and the Warm Springs, nicely 
 improved and with commodious buildings and conveniences for all sorts 
 of bathing. There are some good public buildings and many noble pri- 
 vate residences and beautiful grounds. A drive round the city and to 
 Fort Douglas is interesting and enjoyable. It might well extend to Emi- 
 gration Cafion, near the fort, or to Parley's CaQon, farther south. The 
 country on the Cottonwoods^ adjoining the city southward, is highly im- 
 proved for several miles out. The system of city streets, making blocks 
 of ten acres, is extended over this rural suburb, where they become country 
 lanes, and afford the most delightful drives through cultivated fields, 
 orchards, and improvised groves of trees. Occasionally there is a small 
 artificial or natural sheet of water, which has been improved and beautified 
 with especial reference to the wants of pleasure-seekers. 
 
 21 
 
MORMONISM. 
 
 OEIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 DURING the years in which Mormonism was gaining a foothold re- 
 ligious experience throughout the country was marked by peculiar 
 physical manifestations. Upon the visitation of the Spirit, as was sup- 
 posed, many were seized with convulsions. Some would shriek and yell ; 
 some would fall in fits ; the " Jerkers " were remarkable for convulsive 
 twitchings of the limbs. New England was included within the range 
 of these manifestations. The phenomena of Spiritualism may have been 
 connected with religion. At any rate, a large number of New England 
 people, religiously reared, united their fortunes with the phenomenal 
 Christianity of Mormonism. In the year 1827, when scarcely twenty-two 
 yeaxs of age, Joseph Smith obtained the golden plates upon which was writ- 
 ten the Book of Mormon. In 1830 three thousand copies were printed. 
 This book abounds in expressions peculiar to Scripture. Large fragments 
 are transferred bodily into it. The expressions " I say unto you," " and 
 it came to pass," " behold," " verily," are repeated ad nauseam. Lured 
 by these, multitudes of men and women, believers in the Bible, accepted 
 also the Book of Mormon. Large numbers, too, of Campbellites from 
 Pennsylvania and Ohio joined the Mormons. Among the New England 
 names we recognize are Young, Smith, Eldredge, Wells, Snow. Apostle 
 Wells numbers among his direct ancestry one of the early governors of 
 Connecticut. The Mormons declared that their religion was a return to 
 the primitive Christian faith. Gifts of tongues abounded ; gifts of heal- 
 ing were there. Joseph was a great healer, even to the performing of 
 miracles. He had a large frame, and frequently in his addresses was 
 able to produce great enthusiasm among his hearers. 
 
 Kirtland, Ohio, was the first gathering-place of the Sainte. Afterward 
 jnany gathered in Jackson county, Missouri. Later still, Nauvoo was 
 
 322 
 
MORMOmsm 323 
 
 founded. Here Joseph gathered around him the choicest and most in- 
 telligent spirits. Here the Mormons built a splendid temple — not one 
 stone of which now remains to mark the site — and put the finishing 
 touches upon it after it had become a well-understood fact that they must 
 shortly abandon it for ever. A military organization was formed, called 
 the Nauvoo Legion, and the Mormons were fast aspiring to become a 
 political power, Joseph had already been nominated for the Presidency 
 of the United States, The Mormons were united and obedient ; they 
 formed a compact society. At this period there existed an organized 
 band of marauders and horse-thieves whose line of operations extended 
 from Canada to Iowa. When a man had once crossed the river into 
 Iowa, he was safe, for he was in a wilderness. So bold had these men 
 become, and so complete were their plans, that the people of Illinois had 
 become desperate, and were bent on their extermination. Some of these 
 marauders, for protection, joined the Mormons at Nauvoo, and were safe. 
 Their real character was doubtless unknown to the Mormons, but their 
 villainies were attributed to the Latter-Day Saints. This fact, added to 
 their political unity, gave the Mormons a very bad reputation, and a band 
 of men desperate enough to determine to drive out the Mormons or ex- 
 terminate them was readily formed. A mob gathered. Joseph and his 
 brother were murdered in prison at Carthage. The people determined to 
 find refuge in the wilderness. Brigham Young was the great executive 
 of the hegira, Florence, on the west side of the Missouri, six miles 
 north of where Omaha now stands, was the rallying-point of the pil- 
 grims. They arrived too late to press on that season. In the Mormon 
 burying-ground there are the bodies of seven hundred of the fugitives, 
 two hundred of them children. In the midst of this trying period they 
 were sustained by great faith and a heroic courage, and the cold nights 
 were frequently enlivened by the sounds of music and dancing. Large 
 numbers dropped out of the ranks on the way to obtain employment 
 among the farmers and to support their families during the winter. Some 
 went as far as Missouri. Many of these never returned. Early in the 
 spring the caravan took up its march for the "West. 
 
 On the 21st of July, 1847, the Mormon pilgrims from Nauvoo saw 
 for the first time the Great Salt Lake and the beautiful valley to the east 
 of it. On the 24th their president arrived. " This," says a Church 
 writer, " is the day whose events are of the most importance to mankind 
 of any that ever transpired, the creation of Adam and the birth of Jesus 
 Christ alone excepted." The recurrence of this date has ever since been 
 celebrated as more important than any national holiday. The Fourth of 
 
524 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 July is a quiet day in Utah. If one wants to be remmded of that brave 
 day of old, he must go to some mining camp where Gentiles outnumber 
 the Mormons. In 1848 about four thousand entered Salt Lake Valley, 
 and suffered much from want of food the following winter. Soon pros- 
 perity came, and for several yeans continued, until Brigham Young began 
 to assume a more and mMwre arrogant manner. From this time date the 
 bad stories told of him. The multitude of murdars attributed to him 
 began at about this time. In 1856 the Federal judge was compelled to 
 close his court. Next year President Buchanan sent three thousand men 
 to protect the government oificials^ Young was filled with ftny ; great 
 numbers of apostates were murdered. Im this year the Mountain Mea- 
 dows massacre took place. Six hundred murders have been traced to this 
 period, and most of them aire believed to have been perpetrated by Mor- 
 mon officials- or at their instance, and in obedience to unequivocal hints 
 from Brigham Young or in harmony with his incrnlcations, I quote 
 from a Mormon publication {The Journal of Discourses) a dream of 
 Brigham Yoang's : he is warring against apostates, and says he dreamed 
 of an encounter with two ruffiams : " With thatt I took my large bowie- 
 knife, that I used to wear as a bosom-pin at Nauvoo, and cut one of their 
 throats from ear to ear, saying, ' Go to hell aeross-lbts f The other one 
 said, ' You dare not serve me so.' I instantly sprang at him, seized him 
 
 by the hair of the head, and, bringing him down, ctrt his throat 
 
 At this I awoke. I say, rather than that apostates should fiorarish here 
 I will unsheath my bowie-knife and conquer or die. Now, yoM nasty 
 apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line and ri^teousness 
 to the plummet. [ Voices generally, ' Go it ! go it ! '] If you say it is- right, 
 raise your hands. \^All hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist 
 us in this and every good work." 
 
 This arrogance of Brigham Young and his followers did not hesitate 
 to defy the United States government, and the courts were closed. In 
 1858 the United States troops marched into the city of Salt Lake, which 
 had been abandoned on their approach. 
 
 An indication of the rapid growth of popnlatico is seen in the fact 
 that twenty thousand people left Salt Lake City at this time to find 
 , refuge somewhere at the south : many of the people thou^t their des- 
 tination would be Mexico. 
 
 The storm blew over. The leaders accepted Buchanan's "pardon." 
 One condition of their acceptance was that the army should not be sta- 
 tioned within forty miles of the city. The permanent encampment was 
 Camp Floyd, about forty miles south of the city. 
 
MORMONISM. S25 
 
 The early years tjf Mormonism in Utah were hard years. Some years 
 produced abundant harvests ; others were almost years of famine. The 
 present population of the Territory is about 130,000, mostly poor and 
 mostly ignorant. Many are devoted to the Church, but there are great 
 numbers »f apostates. If the seventeen millions spent by the govern- 
 ment in tiie Mormon war oouid now be devoted to educational purposes 
 in the Territory, the Mormonism of the coming generation would be 
 wonderfully different in character from that of the present. 
 
 TEMPLES. 
 
 These arc all built of cut stone at an enormows cost. Brigham Young 
 computed the cost of the one now building in Salt Lake City at nine 
 millions of dollars. Two years ago tlie Seventies made a vigorous effort 
 to obtain money for its completi«n. Tfa^ raised one hundred and sixty 
 thousand dollars. This raised tlie wall four feet. Everytiaiag built or 
 planned by Young bears the characteristic mark of massiveness and solid- 
 ity. The foundations of the temple are said to be sixteen ^eet below the 
 surface of the ground and nine feet thick. The dimensions are — ^two hun- 
 dred feet long, one 'hundred wide, one hundred high. The tower will be 
 ■one hundred feet additional. There are two winding stairways at the east 
 end of <3ie building, each stone of which is carefully cut and cost nearly 
 one hundred dollars. The granite is very hard, and the cost of preparing 
 it is thus greatly increased. It is obtained from Little Cottonwood Canon, 
 in which the famous Emma Mine is situated. It is transported now by 
 rail ; the distawee is about thirty miles. Before tiie railroad was built 
 the stone was brought by teams. Several Aousand dollars were ex- 
 pended in building a canal for this purpose, but it was finally brought to 
 a stop by the discovery that water would not run up hilL The temple 
 has reached the height: of fifty feet from the ground. During the last 
 four years it has been raised eight or ten feet a year. 
 
 There is a magnificent temple already completed at St. George. One 
 is in process of erection at Manti. One will be completed at Logan next 
 year, and its cost will be four hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 These temples are not for public worship ; they are solely for the cele- 
 bration of tlie rites of the Church. No public assembly will ever meet in 
 them. Baptisms will be performed there for the living and dead ; en- 
 dowments will be bestowed there ; marriages, earthly and celestial, will 
 be performed within these walls ; within their darkness will be kept what- 
 ever records may exist of polygamous marriages. These are the uses to 
 which all these temples will be dedicated. Out of deep poverty the people 
 
.326 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 have built them, and who can wonder that they are poor ? Millions are 
 spent to encourage and deepen superstition. Scarcely any effort is made 
 or money expended to build up a gcstem of common schools. 
 
 Mormonism of itself is incapable of rising higher. Those who are 
 faithful to its authoritative teachings deride human learning and believe 
 in keeping the people down. The cure for Mormonism must come from 
 without. The establishment and wise management of good schools in 
 Utah offer more hope for the Territory than all other means. The wise 
 teacher wins his pupils. When the pupils are won the fathers and mo- 
 thers are with him. This is also the cheapest method of solving the Mor- 
 mon problem. Closely following in the track of these schools, distinctively 
 Christian effort should be made. Another part of the work must be done 
 by the courts. A deaf Congress should be made to hear the voice of the 
 country. It should be made to pass laws against polygamy which can be 
 executed in Utah. When these instrumentalities are in operation a good 
 foundation will have been formed for an enlightened public sentiment to 
 reach the ignorant classes through the press. 
 
 PRESENT CONDITION AND ATTITUDE OP MOEMONISM. 
 
 Mormonism to-day is a difierent thing from that of Brigham Young's 
 time. Shortly before his death he founded the order of Enoch. This 
 was a stock company which proposed to monopolize all the trade of Utah. 
 Branches of the great Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution were 
 established in all parts of the Territory. The small shopkeepers were 
 " counselled " to put their stock or its proceeds into this mammoth corpo- 
 ration, of which Yoimg was the leader. One man. Bishop Wiley of the 
 Third Ward, ventured to oppose him ; he would allow none of his people 
 to enter in. Brigham Young was indignant. Wiley was deposed ; an- 
 other was ordained in his place. But the people still stood by their for- 
 mer bishop. He continued his ministrations, his successor was ignored, 
 and at Young's death Wiley was in formal possession of his ofBce as be- 
 fore. This shows that even while the prophet weis alive dissensions were 
 breeding. The people felt the need of breathing freer. The priesthood 
 hks always laid claim to greater tolerance than the "sectarians" of the 
 world, but the Saints found that for them there was but one path to walk 
 in. There is at this present moment more reality to their boasted freedom 
 than ever before. The generation of adults of course is fixed ; it cannot 
 be made over again. The young people are coming up in their own way. 
 Lieutenant Gunnison so far back as 1852 wrote : " Of all the children 
 that have come under our observation, we must in candor say that those 
 
M0RM0NI8M. 327 
 
 of the Mormons are the most lawless and profane." Careful men, who 
 have been intimately acquainted with the leaders of the Latter-Day Saints 
 and the history of the Mormon Church, declare that morals among them 
 are in a much lower state than in early times. The announcement of the 
 doctrine of polygamy was a great stumbling-block to the earlier Mor- 
 mons, and thousands of them apostatized. Hundreds of f9,milies in 
 Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, among the best families in 
 the States,. belonged to that revolt against Mormonisni. It has been esti- 
 mated that of all who have been connected with the Mormon Church at 
 least seventy per cent, have apostatized. These figures are probably ex- 
 aggerated, but the defection has been very great. 
 
 The best of the Mormons apostatized at the time referred to, of the 
 converts in England as well as this country. When the Saints reached 
 Salt Lake there was greater obedience and unity. John Hyde, an apos- 
 tate, says that " in 1854, Brigham Young commanded the people to con- 
 secrate by legal transfer all right and title to all personal property. A 
 law passed through the Legislature making such transfers strictly valid ; 
 quit^claim deeds were drawn up, and from their land to their wearing 
 apparel the majority of the people transferred everything to Brigham 
 Young as trustee, in trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
 Saints, and some in the exuberance of enthusiasm threw in their wives 
 and families." 
 
 Gradually that wildness of fanaticism died out through contact with 
 Gentiles and other causes. Even the tithing is in many cases neglected. 
 When paid it is largely in " truck " of various kinds. 
 
 But grossness of manners and language has been gradually disappear- 
 ing. Brigham Young was both profane and obscene. Heber Kimball 
 was vulgar and low beyond the language of the slums, even in his public 
 addresses. Mormon women have often risen and left the Tabernacle, dis- 
 gusted and outraged by his obscenity. Men who have been intimately 
 acquainted with the system from its early days assert confidently that the 
 morals of the people, particularly the rising generation, are far below the 
 standard of the early Church. Polygamy has much to answer for in pro- 
 ducing this result. Lack of education and home-training explains much 
 of this condition. Brigham Young said that not a dollar of his money 
 should go to educate another man's child. He was true to his word. The 
 money of the people has gone, not to put up and equip schools, but to 
 build temples. There is no system of free schools in the Territory. Yet 
 the settlements are favorably situated for them. Water is scarce in Utah ; 
 people flock where they can get it. The result is, that the settlements are 
 
328 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 compact, and children can be educated with far less expense than though 
 the settlements were sparse. There are a few free schools under Mormon 
 management, but these depend wholly upon the enterprise of single com- 
 munities. There are three such schools in the Territory, one of them in 
 Salt Lake. The tuition in all the rest ranges from three to six dollars 
 and fifty cents per quarter. This is in addition to the Territorial tax for 
 school purposes. Scholars of the grade of the Fifth Reader pay six dol- 
 lars. The people are poor and cannot afford the money. Multitudes of 
 Mormons therefore gladly avail themselves of whatever 'opportunities 
 Gentile schools afford. About thirteen years ago St. Mark's School was 
 established in Salt Lake. Some thousands of children have already come 
 under its beneficent influence, and their Mormonism is thus either modi- 
 fied or entirely lost. The Methodists had a few years ago a flourishing 
 school of more than two hundred pupils ; through various causes only 
 a small fragment of that number remains. The Presbyterians have a good 
 school of about one hundred and fifty pupils. All of these schools have 
 primary departments, and all are full. Salt Lake Academy, more recently 
 founded, is more specially devoted to the training of pupils in higher 
 studies and for the preparation of teachers for home-work; it has no 
 primary department. The number of students is 120. The New West 
 Education Commission has established two free schools in Utah, and 
 Presbyterian missions with schools connected are doing a great work in 
 eight or ten stations outside of Salt Lake. The Mormons have a " uni- 
 versity " of a grade considerably below the average New England high 
 school. Three competent instructors are employed. The mental dis- 
 cipline of their students suffers from a pernicious system of electives 
 and other causes. 
 
 The condition of the ward schools in Salt Lake City is deplorable. 
 Not more than fifty per cent, of the children of school age attend school, 
 and those that do, suffer from inadequate instruction. The schools already 
 established by Grentile influences and money are, by their very presence 
 here, exerting a powerful influence in improving the Mormon schools of 
 every grade. One thing that hinders their influence is the fact that no 
 Gentile or non-Mormon is admitted as teacher in any Mormon school. 
 
 There is another agency at work in destroying priestcraft in Utah. 
 I refer to the mutual-improvement associations of the younger Mormons. 
 These are at present in a very crude state, and under the management of 
 the elders are groping in the dark. But the spirit of free inquiry is there, 
 and it will bear fruit. 
 
 The plague-spot of Mormonism is polygamy. From what I have 
 
MORMONISM. 329 
 
 written above a stranger might think this evil is destined soon to fall. 
 It is not so. jAll the prominent men of the Church are polygamists. 
 Personally, many of them are agreeable men, and men of ability too. 
 Great numbers of the children are born in polygamous relations. Will 
 these deny their mothers ? Those who think so do not know human na- 
 ture. Polygamy is the strongest bond that keeps the Mormon Church 
 together to-day. Let a man's mother be a plural wife ; let his best friends 
 be compromised by that system ; let these bonds be strengthened by in- 
 numerable cross-links of relationship. This is the way it is with polyg- 
 amy in the Mormon Church. The Mormons are estranged from respect- 
 able Gentile society. They must hang together, as Franklin said of the 
 signers of the Declaration, or they will hang separately. They know it, 
 and they will hang together. The government must be determined, wise, 
 and steady to deal properly with this plague. The slowness of Congress, 
 its selfish dallying, drive the thoughtful element of the Gentiles in Utah 
 to rage and despair. It would probably cost less to abolish this evil by 
 education than to move Congress to act in the premises. Many men 
 familiar with affairs in Utah look to see the present weak trifling carried 
 on till it finally ends in bloodshed. 
 
 The Mormon Legislature, just adjourned, numbers among its thirty- 
 nine members thirty-five polygamists. These men make the laws of the 
 Territory. George Q,. Cannon goes to Washington and manipulates 
 the whole country for them. The Willits bill is approved by the district 
 attorney of Utah, by the judges, and the best lawyers in the Territory. 
 It is referred to committee ; Proctor Knott puts a quietus to it, and holds 
 himself up to all patriots for the infamy a traitor deserves. The presi- 
 dent of the Mormon Church, John Taylor, is defiant in regard to polyg- 
 amy; Cannon is its great apostle. 
 
 Two thousand five hundred Mormon immigrants reach Utah annually. 
 They are the poorest and most ignorant of Europe. It is from these that 
 the polygamic ranks are largely recruited ; and enough more are coming. 
 Last year it is believed more such marriages took place than in many 
 years. 
 
330 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 DISLOYAL MOEMONISM. 
 
 BY EEV. JOSEPH COOK. 
 
 [DELIVEKED IN THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTOK.] 
 
 THE PRELUDE. 
 
 BLUEBEARD asks for a seat in the Senate. He stands with one 
 hand locking the door of his chamber of horrors, and with the 
 other he knocks for admission to the supreme legislative assembly of the 
 foremost Christian republic of all time. He has stood in this attitude 
 for twenty-three years, and is becoming importunate. 
 
 How large is the territory over which the Mormon Bluebeard exer- 
 cises sway? Here is a superb iron relief map of the United States, 
 kindly loaned to me from among their wonders of illustrative apparatus 
 by the New England School-Furnishing Company. Its sections are 
 divisible, and I take up Utah in one hand and Vermont in the other, 
 and place the latter on the former. It is literally true, as you notice, 
 that Vermont can be hidden away in one of the valleys of Utah, and be 
 no larger than a babe in a bed of full size. Utah has 84,576 square 
 miles of territory ; Vermont only 9612. I take up Massachusetts, and 
 find that I can hide her away in one corner of this, polygamous couch. 
 \_Laughter.'] You say that I am too suggestive in my metaphors, and 
 yet this is your Territory, directly under the control of Congress, and its 
 legal condition depends upon national legislation as much as softened 
 wax depends for its form upon the fingers which manipulate it. This 
 Territory under your laws sends to Congress a polygamous delegate, who 
 sits down at the side of your representatives on equal terms. 
 
 We are poorly perceptive in the East of the capacities of the region 
 called the Basin States. Take up Idaho, or Arizona, or Nevada — ^region? 
 into which Mormonism is extending its political power — and observe how 
 small Massachusetts is, placed anywhere on these gigantic stretches of the 
 mining districts and the pastures between the Rocky Mountains knd the 
 Sierra Nevada [illustrating]. Here is Professor Brewer's map of the 
 forests of the Union [referring to Walker's Statistical Atlas of the United 
 States, open on the platform], and I beg you to notice that a thickly- 
 wooded region occupies great portions of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. 
 Colorado has a large extent of forests — not as dense as those of Oregon 
 and Wisconsin and Maine, but still, as this map shows, about equal in 
 
MORMOmSM. 331 
 
 density to the woods that cover Ohio an^ Indiana. Utah, as you notice, 
 has more forest than Nebraska. I beg you to study Professor Hayden's 
 fascinating map of Colorado, a piece of the finest geographical work ever 
 done in America or anywhere in the world [referring to the new govern- 
 ment map of Colorado, open on the platform]. You will find in it at a 
 glance proof that Colorado and Utah are not deserts. We think of the 
 Basin States as if they were a dry land, where no man is, and in which 
 no multitude of human beings can ever find a prosperous home. This 
 spotted tract of yellow [referring to the map of Colorado] represents a 
 stretch of sage-brush. "When irrigated that land is tropically fertile. 
 This other shade of yellow represents good pasture-land. Here grows 
 the strangely nutritious buffalo-grass, which amazed me by its sweetness 
 when I plucked tufts of it near Cheyenne. On the rivers, where the 
 color deepens, you have good agricultural land. But notice the large 
 stretch of forests along the skirts of the mountains. The different colors 
 . of green show the pines, the cedars, and the quaking aspens. If you 
 look at the other indications on this map, you will find whole tiers of 
 counties underlaid with coal, and these mountain-ranges thickly sifted in 
 all their rifts with iron and silver and gold. The same is true of Nevada 
 and Utah. The silver-mines of Utah have yielded forty million dollars' 
 worth of ore in the last ten years. A Salt Lake daily newspaper pub- 
 lishes five columns of mining news. The American Bluebeard rules 
 over the American Potosi. 
 
 Put your ear, then, on the Wahsatch Hills ; listen to the subterranean 
 conspiracies in politics at Washington ; fasten your attention on the throb- 
 bing of the heart of Christian America ; and summarize, if you can, this 
 whole Mormon case in a series of propositions, one flowing from the 
 other : 
 
 1. The present anti-polygamy laws of the United States do not make 
 polygamy an offence in all cases, but only polygamy which is not yet 
 three years old. The statute of limitations bars prosecutions for polyg- 
 amy after three years from the date of the ceremony of the polygamous 
 marriage. 
 
 2. Weak and toothless as this law is, it remained a dead letter on the 
 national statute-books until the decision of the Supreme Court in the 
 Eeynolds case proved it to be constitutional. 
 
 3. Under the present law the leaders of the Mormon hierarchy who 
 took plural wives more than three years ago cannot be prosecuted. The 
 Mormon delegate in Congress, unless he has taken a fifth wife within 
 three years, cannot be reached by this enactment. In practice, polyga- 
 
332 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 mous marriages take place in Utah every month, are kept secret, and the 
 violators of the law expect at the end of the three years of concealment 
 to confess the marriages and laugh at the law. Judge Van Zile of Salt 
 Lake City, whose opinion is everywhere respected among the Gentile 
 population of Utah, lately said: "Renioving the limitation clause 
 and making polygamy a continuous offence is my pet measure. As it 
 is now, an old man marries a young girl secretly, lets her live with 
 her parents three years, and then claims her and snaps his fingers at 
 the officials." 
 
 4. The present national laws against polygamy have another weakness, 
 in the fact that they require evidence of the ceremony of a plural mar- 
 riage as proof of polygamy. The ceremony usually takes place in the 
 secrecy of a Mormon endowment- house, and trustworthy evidence as to 
 what is done there cannot be obtained from a Mormon before a Gentile 
 jury. 
 
 Not long ago a Mormon official was imprisoned three days for refusing 
 to reply to questions put to him on cross-examination before a Gentile 
 jury about a ceremony performed in a plural marriage in an endowment- 
 house. When the time of punishment was over a vast procession of Mor- 
 mons met him at the prison-doors, to welcome, as they said, Daniel from 
 the lions' den. That collection of the followers of the false American 
 prophet trampled the American flag under their feet within three days of 
 the time when I saw the streets of Salt Lake City, and the tremor which 
 their disloyal proceedings had caused was felt not only there, but from 
 side to side of the Union wherever the news was understood. 
 
 5. It has been proved by the confessions of apostate Mormons and by 
 the experience of Federal courts in Utah that the oaths taken in the Mor- 
 mon endowment-houses are considered by the Mormons to be of paramount 
 authority over any oaths taken before a Gentile court under State or na- 
 tional law. 
 
 6. It has been proved by long experience that the Mormon endowment- 
 house is a nursery of disloyalty. 
 
 The new Endowment-House in process of erection on the Temple area 
 in Salt Lake City is surpassed by not more than two or three buildings 
 on this continent in cost and magnificence. It has narrow windows and 
 walls of granite nine feet thick. It looks like the Bastile or Cologne 
 cathedral without its towers. It may in fifty years become serviceable as 
 a State-house for a loyal legislature, but whoever sees it will not be likely 
 to conclude that Mormonism is to vanish in an hour. 
 
 7. The oaths of the Mormon endowment-house cannot be violated with- 
 
MORMOmSM. 333 
 
 out penalties which extend from the confiscation of goods to the severance 
 of the windpipe. [Sensation.'] 
 
 Brigham Young was often profane in the pulpit, and sometimes made 
 there a gesture intended to symbolize the cutting of the throats of apos- 
 tates. " They are wicked men," he would say, " and they ought to be cut 
 off;" and with these words he would draw his hand across his neck, with 
 the extended thumb rubbing against the throat \aensation\, and the secret 
 police well understood his meaning. You may say I am here trespassing 
 on the region of the imagination, but I hold in my hand an important 
 document, just issued at Salt Lake City, entitled "The Mormon Endowment- 
 House : A Graphic Exposure of the Treasonable Institution where Polyga- 
 mous Marriages are Solemnized. By an Eye-witness." Judge Boreman, 
 who sent it to me, writes on it, in his own hand: "All apostate Mormons 
 say that this statement is true, and I learn through private sources that 
 the Mormons admit its correctness." According to this document, four 
 grips are given in the course of the ceremonies in the endowment-house. 
 As I read here, " The penalty for revealing the first grip is that you will 
 have your throat cut from ear to ear and your tongue torn from your 
 mouth. The sign of the penalty is drawing the hand, with the thumb 
 pointing toward the throat, sharply across the neck." What did Brigham 
 Young mean by this gesture, repeated again and again in public a week 
 or two before certain secret murders? The penalty for revealing the 
 second grip is " to be sawn asunder and your members cast into the sea. 
 The sign of this penalty is drawing the hand sharply across the middle 
 of the body." 
 
 When the chief power of the Mormon Church is summarized in one 
 man like Brigham Young, and he says that the followers of Joseph, the 
 son of Joseph Smith, who do not believe in polygamy, should be cut off, 
 and makes these definite gestures before an audience who have all gone 
 through a Mormon endowment-house, is that anything you can laugh 
 at, my surprising friends ? This is your Territory, This is what haa 
 happened under your sweet and holy laws. The graves of those who 
 have been buried in Utah after secret murders are so numerous that, with 
 the Federal judges of Salt Lake City, I believe that if the winding-sheets 
 of these victims could be put together into one banner the shadow of the 
 black flag would cover half Utah, Twenty years after the Mountain 
 Meadows massacre, John D. Lee, one of the principal tools of the Mor- 
 mon priesthood in that ghastly slaughter, expiated his crimes by his execu- 
 tion on the spot of their occurrence • but men more guilty than he yet go 
 in Utah unwhipped of justice. 
 
334 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 8. Were it not for the presence of Federal troops in Utah to-day these 
 penalties, including the death of apostates by what is called " blood atone- 
 ment " (that is, the shedding of the blood of an apostate to save his soul), 
 ■would be executed by the priesthood, as they were executed in the bloody 
 years of the supremacy of Brigham Young. 
 
 " Blood atonement " Brigham Young preached from the pulpit again 
 and again, and not in rash, extemporaneous language. The utterances of 
 Brigham Young concerning " blood atonement " were fully reported by 
 stenographers, and then revised and pruned by his own secretary and 
 published in the official Mormon newspaper in Utah; and not only 
 there, but in T%e Journal of Discourses, a Mormon publication issued at 
 Liverpool. Judge Cradlebaugh on the floor of Congress read passages 
 out of these speeches, and they are cited at large in the best books on 
 Mormonism. (See Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 299.) This 
 measurelessly monstrous doctrine was not only preached, but again and 
 again, in the days when Mormonism was isolated from the Federal 
 power, "blood atonement" was practised by those who thought that 
 the shedding of the blood of an apostate was the only way to save 
 his soul. 
 
 9. It is therefore evident, from the experience of the Federal courts 
 in Utah, that the laws against polygamy need amendment in three 
 respects : 
 
 (1.) Polygamy should be made a continuous offence, existing as long as 
 the parties live together as man and wife. 
 
 (2.) The slatute of limitations should not begin to run until the parties 
 cease to live together. 
 
 (3.) Living together as man and wife, and recognizing each other as 
 such, should be sufficient to warrant conviction. No ceremony should be 
 required to be proved. 
 
 10. But Mormonism, as based on the endowment-house oaths, has two 
 tap-roots — ^polygamy and priestly despotism ; the latter supported by the 
 tithing system, the police system of spies, and the power of bfe and 
 death. 
 
 11. Under a State constitution prohibiting polygamy the second of these 
 chief roots would still exist, even if there were passed an amendment to the 
 national Constitution prohibiting polygamy. 
 
 12. Admitted to the Union, under State and national constitutional 
 provisions prohibiting polygamy, Utah, manacled by this priestly des- 
 potism, with its tithing system and the power of life and death, would 
 have a Mormon governor and State officers, and Mormon State judges. 
 
MORMONISM. 335 
 
 Every murder and like felony in the State would be tried before these 
 judges and before Mormon juries. 
 
 13. It is the opinion of the Federal judges now in Utah that this set 
 of circumstances might not only prevent all future trials of Mormon 
 murderers, but inaugurate a reign of terror. 
 
 14. Gentile mining, smelting, railroad, and agricultural operations 
 under a Mormon governor and legislature would be taxed so as to be- 
 come unprofitable. Gentile schools and churches would be so discrimi- 
 nated against by the State law that they would cease to exist. 
 
 15. This aspect of the Mormon question has great significance for 
 those who are giving money to establish Gentile schools and churches 
 in Utah. At present there is no security and no certainty that these 
 institutions will be allowed to exist in Utah as a State under the 
 theocratic power of the endowment-houses and the Mormon priest- 
 hood. 
 
 16. An amendment to the national Constitution prohibiting polygamy, 
 although useful and desirable, would therefore not be sufficient to settle 
 the Mormon question. If Utah were admitted as a State with the theo- 
 cratic power of her priesthood unbroken, Mormonism would yet live on 
 that second tap-root^ Such a constitutional amendment prohibiting polyg- 
 amy might tempt political parties in need of the electoral votes of Utah 
 to admit her to the Union, with her disloyal endowment-house oaths in 
 full power over the people, and, by being used as an excuse for an ena- 
 bling act and blinding the public to the actual perils of the case, work 
 positive mischief. 
 
 17. Efiective legislation against Mormonism must cut both its tap- 
 roots ; and tlierefore the legislation needed should strike both at polyg- 
 amy and at the disloyal hierarchy supported by the tithing systeni and 
 the disloyal oaths of the endowment-houses. 
 
 18. President Hayes proposes to Congress the disfranchisement of 
 Mormons for violating the national laws against polygamy, and also dis- 
 franchisement for aiding and abetting those who violate these laws. In 
 detail (see New York Tribune, December 26, 1879), the President recom- 
 mends the establishment by 'Congress of a board of registration, consists 
 ing of the governor of the Territory and the judges of the district courts, 
 or persons who should be appointed by them. The duty of this board 
 would be to pass upon the qualifications of every person who desired to 
 vote in any election or to exercise any of the rights or privileges of citi- 
 zens. Something like the following examination would take place, as 
 President Hayes thinks : 
 
336 TEE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Ai'e you a Mormon ? Yes. 
 
 Axe you a practical polygamist ? No. 
 
 Do you support or countenance any one who is a practical polygamist ? 
 No. 
 
 Are you a member of the Mormon Church ? Yes. 
 
 Do you pay tithes for its support ? Yes. 
 
 Who are the officers of the Mormon Church ? John Taylor, George 
 Q. Cannon, and others. 
 
 Are they polygamists ? I do not know. \Lmi,ghter.'] 
 
 On such a showing as this the President thinks the registration board 
 would have to refuse the applicant. President Hayes hopes that by 
 applying such a test as this Gentiles only would be able to be registered. 
 According to this plan, no one not registered would be allowed to vote or 
 hold any office under the United States, the Territory, or local govern- 
 ment, or to sit on juries. Under these arrangements juries could be 
 trusted and the Territory would be taken out of the hands of the Mor- 
 mons. One of the first results which the President expects would flow 
 from a political revolution in Utah such as he would bring about would 
 be the election of a Gentile legislature, which would act in harmony with 
 the governor of the Territory. Little by little, under a pressure like 
 this, the President thinks that not only polygamy, but the payment of 
 tithes, would soon become very unpopular among the Mormons in Utah. 
 (See New York Tribune, December 26, 1879.) Prominent Gentile resi- 
 dents of Salt Lake City have assured him that neither the institution of 
 plural marriages nor the theocratic power of the Church could survive 
 five years under this proposed legislation, which may God bless and 
 speed ! [Applause.'\ 
 
 19. There are two parties among the Mormons — one a radical party, 
 representing the hierarchy, and the other a conservative party, made up 
 of men of business and property, who would have hiuch to lose by a col- 
 lision with the Federal power. 
 
 20. President Hayes's plan strikes at the tithing system, as well as at 
 polygamy. It is calculated to divide the Mormon Church, by bringing 
 the radical and conservative parties into open antagonism against each 
 other, and is therefore admirably adapted to break up the power of the 
 disloyal hierarchy. 
 
 21. This plan has the vehement approval of Federal judges in Utah ; 
 and without its execution their opinion is that the Gentile population 
 there under a State government would have no adequate protection in 
 respect to life, property, and education. The Mormon population of 
 
MORMONISM. 337 
 
 Utah is now estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand by the Mor- 
 mons themselves, and the Gentile at only ten or twelve thousand. 
 
 22. It is not likely that a Congress which allows a seat to a leprous 
 polygamist will legislate on the Mormon question as the case requires ; 
 and therefore the duty of the press and pulpit and independent platform 
 is to arouse public sentiment and bring it up to the height of demanding 
 the practical measures recommended by the Federal judges in Utah and 
 by the national Executive. [^Applause.] 
 
 Over the gate of Brigham Young's grounds in Salt Lake City there is 
 a rude representation of an eagle striking its talons into a beehive. This 
 is an excellent symbol of Mormonism — rapacity preying on industry ! 
 [_Applaiise.^ I have much sympathy with the beehive — none at all with 
 the eagle. {Laughter.] I pity the Mormon people ; and because I fore- 
 see for the Basin region a great future I wish the talons of the voracious 
 hierarchy to be taken swiftly out of the honey gathered in Utah by the 
 energy of these peasants brought over from Europe. But the symbol 
 above the gate is not complete. You must wind around that humming 
 straw hive some emblem of the Mormon secret, deadly police. Let a 
 viper with poisonous fangs coil around the hive and take his directions 
 from the eagle above him, and your symbol is more perfect than it was. 
 And yet it is not complete. You must add the bird of the night (the 
 owl), which often lives, it is said, in the, same hole with the rattlesnake. 
 This winged creature will represent the subtlest misleading element in 
 Mormonism — priestly fanaticism ; the solemn pretence of possessing in- 
 dividual access to God's secrets ; personal inspiration, the idea that God 
 speaks through the prophet, the revelator, and seer at the head of the 
 Mormon hierarchy. There is one other bird that must be added, and the 
 symbol will be complete — the strutting barnyard fowl, emblem of polyg- 
 amy. [Laughter and applause^ Mormonism is the poultry philosophy. 
 [Applause.'] The Latter-Day swindle arranges human beings as if they 
 were poultry. It gives woman not a home, but a harem and a coop. 
 
 The Bible in favor of polygamy ! Orson Pratt, when he had a debate 
 on that topic, admitted that he depended on modern revelations for the 
 ultimate defence of plural marriages. The Jews to-day are not a polyg- 
 amous people, and they have no sacred guide but the Old Testament. It 
 is perfectly well understood that the regulations concerning polygamy in 
 the Old Testament were intended to girdle the tree and make it fall ; and 
 it has fallen with the very people who take those Scriptures as their only 
 authority. The unscriptural, the loathsome, and the lawless thing in 
 Mormonism is polygamy. The highest of the ecclesiastics in the Mor- 
 
 22 
 
338 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 mon hierarchy, when they are forced to entire frankness, say that they 
 know polygamy is to be defended because of modern rather than by 
 ancient revelation. " Thou shalt not take one wife to another to vex 
 her." This is the true sense of a law in Leviticus (chap, xviii. verse 18). 
 " God shall make of these twain," and not of more than twain, " one 
 flesh." Divorce, adapted to the hardness of men's hearts, was indeed 
 permitted, but it was not so from the beginning. The nature of things, 
 tlie mysterious divine law which brings the two portions of the human 
 race into the world in substantially equal numbers, is the proclamation of 
 the divine origin of monogamy. When the Mormon ecclesiastics have 
 opportunity to reach out their loathsome hands into the sweet homes of 
 Scandinavia, Belgium, and France and the peasant population of Eng- 
 land, and pluck thence the brightest flowers, they may find that polygamy 
 is not assailed as a monopoly. But what if there could be no such sup- 
 plies from sources outside of their own circles ? What if the course of 
 immigration did not alter the natural distribution of populations, and 
 polygamists were to depend on the law of coequal heredity ? If they 
 were to be called on to supply their own circles, it would be found that 
 of all the accursed monopolies on the earth polygamy is the worst, for it 
 takes away from thousands the opportunity of founding homes, in order 
 that the few may riot in debauchery under the thinnest of religious dis- 
 guises. 
 
 If there is anything that ought to call down on the American people 
 the thunderbolts of God's justice, it is laughter, indifference, cool political 
 calculations as to the chances of parties when electoral votes are for sale in 
 Utah. It is bargaining with this strutting, polygamous fowl ; bargain- 
 ing with this eagle who is striking his talons into the beehive ; bargain- 
 ing with this viper which coils around the feet of the birds who are his 
 mates ; bargaining with the whole loathsome group and bringing them 
 into the Union to keep company in a happy family with the Puritan 
 dove ! God avert such a result ! [Applause^ 
 
 You think that by holding the blazing lantern of Christian schools 
 before the eyes of these birds you can frighten them away ; but are you 
 sure you are to have the opportunity to hold the lantern there after Utah 
 comes into the Union ? I have defended the cause of Colorado College ; I 
 wish to-day to lift up my voice, feeble as it is, in support of all enter- 
 prises for Christian schools in Utah ; but there are great and indispen- 
 sable preliminaries to the success of these institutions. Once admit Utah 
 to the Union, even with polygamy prohibited by the State and the national 
 Constitution, and let a Mormon hierarchy, with a tithing system and the 
 
MORMONISM. 339 
 
 power of life and death, manage affairs under State rights, and these 
 schools for which you are paying money will be starved to death 
 and taxed out of existence. These are the opinions of Federal judges in 
 Salt Lake City. These views accord with letters from Utah hardly dry 
 from the hands that spread the ink upon the paper, and which I might 
 read here. These are the secret solemn convictions of those who have 
 studied the great problem on the spot. It is for us here on the Atlantic 
 seaboard to join hands with the oppressed populations of the Basin States, 
 and so arouse the patriotic and Christian sentiment of the whole land that 
 any political party which bargains with that group of birds and with that 
 viper shall be crushed under the heel of public execration. \_Applause.^ 
 
OREGON. 
 
 OREGrON is the extreme north-western State of the Union, being 
 situated between the forty-second and forty-sixth degrees of north 
 latitude. It is bounded on the east by Idaho, on the west by the Pacific 
 Ocean, on the north by the Columbia River, and on the south by Califor- 
 nia and Nevada. It extends, on an average, for three hundred and fifty 
 miles east and west, and for two hundred and seventy-five miles north 
 and south, and contains 95,274 square miles, with an area of about sixty 
 million acres. 
 
 HISTOEICAL. 
 
 In 1792, Captain Gray of Boston, commanding the ship Columbia, 
 discovered and ascended the river now named after his ship. The dis- 
 covery formed the basis for the subsequent claim of the United States to, 
 and acquisition of, the territory now embraced in Oregon. In 1804-5 
 the Lewis and Clarke expedition first made known to the world the great 
 resources of this portion of the Pacific coast. In 1811, John Jacob 
 Astor established a trading-post at the mouth of the river, and it was 
 named Astoria, in his honor. It is now a town, and noted for its ex- 
 tensive salmon-canneries. From 1816 to 1846 the American and British 
 governments held Oregon by "joint occupancy " under a formal treaty. 
 In 1846, Oregon was formally ceded to the United States by treaty with 
 Great Britain, and in 1848 the Territory was organized, and the year 
 following General Joseph Lane was appointed Territorial governor. 
 
 Emigration to Oregon was very much encouraged by the "donation 
 laws" passed by Congress, giving to married couples six hundred and 
 forty acres and to single men three hundred and twenty acres — ^that is, to 
 all who had emigrated, or would emigrate by December 1 , 1 850. The gold- 
 fever in California attracted many to the Pacific coast, and Oregon re- 
 ceived some immigrants. In 1859, Oregon was admitted into the Union 
 
 340 
 
OREGON. 341 
 
 as a sovereign State, with a population, at the time, of 52,465 souls. The 
 present population is estimated at two hundred thousand. 
 
 GEOGEAPHICAL. 
 
 The Cascade Mountains, a continuation of the motintain-ranges of Cali- 
 fornia, stretch across the State north and south at a distance of about a 
 hundred and ten miles from the Pacific. Numerous barren, snow-capped 
 peaks of volcanic origin rise from them to great height, of which the 
 most elevated are Mount Hood, 11,225 feet; Mounts Jefferson, Thielsen, 
 Scott, Pitt, and the Three Sisters. The Cascade range divides Oregon 
 into two distinct sections, known as Eastern and Western. Of these, the 
 former contains by far the most territory, but the latter is more thickly 
 settled, containing nine-tenths of the population of the State. 
 
 WESTERN OEEGON. 
 
 The climate of this section of the State is peculiarly mild and equable. 
 The temperature is moderated by the trade-winds of the Pacific, as well 
 as by the proximity of the great Japan Current or Pacific Gulf Stream. 
 The differences of temperature marking the seasons in other parts of the 
 world being unknown, it may be said indeed that there are but two sea- 
 sons in Oregon — namely, a wet and a dry one. The wet or rainy season 
 usually begins about the middle of November, and lasts until early in 
 May, with many intermissions of fine weather for days, and even for 
 weeks. From early in May till the end of June the weather is usually 
 warm and clear, with occasional showers, which refresh Nature and dress 
 it in charming verdure. The dry season proper begins about July and 
 lasts until October. 
 
 Oregon is almost exempt from the violent atmospheric disturbances so 
 common in the Eastern States. Thunderstorms are of very rare occur- 
 rence, and hailstorms, hurricanes, whirlwinds, earthquakes, and other de- 
 structive phenomena are almost unknown. The climate is very condu- 
 cive to health ; the exemption from sharp winds and violent changes of 
 temperature thus secured renders the inhabitants less liable to throat and 
 lung troubles, rheumatism, and inflammatory diseases generally than in 
 other parts of the Union. According to the official returns of 1870, the 
 death-rate in Oregon is lower than in any other State or Territory in the 
 Union excepting Idaho, being only sixty-nine per cent, of the popula- 
 tion, while in California it is 1.16; Massachusetts, 1.77; Illinois, 1.33; 
 Missouri, 1.63. 
 
342 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 SOIL, EESOUECES, AND PEODTJCTIONS, 
 
 Willamette Valley, the acknowledged garden of the Pacific coast, is 
 one hundred and fifty miles long and thirty to sixty miles wide. In this 
 valley are situated many thriving towns and the mass of the population. 
 Columbia River Valley, Rogue River Valley, and Umpqua Valley, with 
 those of their tributaries, are the principal valleys of the western section. 
 The soil in the river-bottoms is a black loam or marl, with subsoil. In 
 the hill-lands is a red-brown or black loam, not so deep as in the valleys, 
 but sustaining luxuriant grasses. The leading grain staple of Oregon is 
 wheat, which is noted for its superior quality and large yield, and it com- 
 mands a high price in the grain-markets of the world. The berry is very 
 fair and full, often weighing from sixty-five to sixty-nine pounds to the 
 bushel. Oats take the second rank in importance. The standard weight 
 for oats is twenty-six pounds to the bushel, but the country is so well 
 adapted to their growth that the weight of forty-five, even of fifty, pounds 
 to the bushel is often reached. Barley is also successfully raised. Corn 
 is grown in many localities with success, but is not made a specialty, 
 the average summer being too cool for its successful culture. With good 
 cultivation the wheat-lands will yield from twenty-six to forty-five bush- 
 els of wheat per acre, forty to seventy bushels of barley, and sixty-eight 
 to eighty bushels of oats. Cabbages, turnips, squashes, beets, carrots, par- 
 sneps, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions grow in profusion. Potatoes yield 
 from two to five hundred bushels to the acre. The crops of cereals are re- 
 markably free from any drawbacks. No failure of the wheat-crop has 
 occurred since the settlement of the country — that is, during a continuous 
 period of thirty-three years. 
 
 Oregon excels in fruit-culture. Apples, pears, plums, prunes, cherries, 
 with all the small fruits, thrive abundantly. Fruit-raising in Western 
 Oregon has already grown to a large business and promises excellent re- 
 turns. 
 
 Timothy or herd-grass grows well in every part of the State, and is the 
 staple product for hay. It cuts three tons to the acre, even in the foot- 
 hills and mountains. Red and white clover, with proper cultivation, will 
 grow luxuriantly ; alfalfa, blue-grass, red-top grass, and orchard-grass do 
 finely everywhere. 
 
 The mild winter climate, and the fact that the native grasses remain 
 green during most of the year, make Oregon an excellent country for 
 raising every kind of stock. Oregon wool is of recognized quality, owing 
 to the cool summers, warm winters, and continued green feed for sheep. 
 
OREGON. 343 
 
 MINERALS. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Oregon is very great, but as yet imperfectly 
 developed, mainly owing to want of capital. Gold was first discovered 
 in 1851 in the counties of Jackson and Josephine, in the extreme south 
 of the State, and mining industry promises to take a new start here, 
 placer- as well as quartz-mines having been discovered which are very 
 promising. Baker and Grant counties, in Eastern Oregon, have also 
 yielded many millions of the precious metal. In Baker county, especial- 
 ly in the vicinity of Baker City, gold-mining is carried on very actively 
 at this time with good results. On the ocean-beach near Coos Bay 
 placer-mines are worked to a considerable extent. Rich gold quartz- 
 lodes have been discovered and partially worked in the southern part of 
 the Cascade Mountains, but their distance from railroads and the want 
 of machinery for working them have until now prevented their develop- 
 ment on a scale commensurate with their richness. The yearly gold pro- 
 duct of Oregon represents now a value of over $1,500,000. 
 
 Lead and copper have been found in large quantities in Jaclison, 
 Josephine, and Douglas counties. Iron ore exists in large deposits 
 throughout the State. Coal abounds no less than iron. The most im- 
 portant are the Coos Bay mines. A fleet of steamers is busy carrying 
 coal from these mines to San Francisco, where it is highly esteemed. 
 
 FISHERIES. 
 
 The lakes, rivers, streams, and creeks in .Oregon beyond the reach of 
 tde-water teem with trout of superior quality. The salmon-fisheries of 
 tie Columbia River are of great commercial importance. The fishing- 
 SQson begins in April, and is over by the end of July. The fish are 
 tacen in tide-water by nets and traps in immense quantities as they ascend 
 th( river fresh from the ocean. The Columbia salmon is very fat, of 
 peculiarly fine flavor, and is much prized in the markets of the world. 
 
 TOWNS. 
 
 Atoria, the county-seat of Clatsop county, is situated twelve miles from 
 the nouth of Columbia River. It has a fine water-front and good land- 
 ing ficilities. At present it numbers between three and four thousand 
 inhalitants. The principal business is the canning of salmon. 
 
 Tb city of Portland, built on both banks of the Willamette River, 
 about one hundred and ten miles from the Pacific Ocean, is not only the 
 chief city of the State, but the commercial metropolis of the North-west. 
 It hs a most beautiful location and charming surroundings. Ocean 
 
344 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 vessels of heaviest draught ascend the Willamette River and take in 
 cargoes here. The Oregon Steamship Company's iron ships run regu- 
 larly between Portland and San Francisco. Other lines continue the 
 trade with Puget Sound, British Columbia, and Alaska. The foreign 
 flags 0^ the shipping at the wharves give some idea of the direct com- 
 merce with European and Asiatic ports, while a fleet of steamboats run- 
 ning up and down the Columbia River, besides many railroads now cen- 
 tring here, is required to attend to the interior trade. Portland, with a 
 population of twenty thousand, is perhaps the most flourishing city of its 
 size in the Union. Its business extends far inland and a vast territory is 
 tributary to it. It has a commodious custom-house and post-office, a 
 score of schools, numerous churches, including a cathedral, and a public 
 library that would do credit to a much larger city in any. of the older 
 States. The Morning Oregonian, a lively and influential journal, is the 
 leading paper of this section, and has a very extensive circulation. 
 
 Within the famous valley of the Willamette are situated nearly all 
 the towns in the State. A railroad already two hundred miles in length 
 extends from north to south. 
 
 Oregon City, the county-seat of Clackamas county, on the Falls of the 
 Willamette, twelve miles south of Portland, is an important manufactur- 
 ing point. , 
 
 Salem, the capital of the State and the county-seat of Marion county, / 
 fifty-two miles south of Portland, on the east bank of the Willamette, is f 
 a pleasing city of five thousand inhabitants. / 
 
 Albany, Harrisburg, Corvallis Junction, and Eugene City, on the/ 
 Willamette, are important towns. 
 
 EOTJTES AND SCENERY. 
 
 " Whether it be business or pleasure that calls him hither, the traveltr 
 cannot fail to be pleased with this section of the great North-west," si^s 
 a writer. " In its scenery, as well as in its natural resources, and in ine 
 character of the people, it will greatly surpass his expectations. Orefon 
 may be entered from the line of the Central Pacific Railroad by sage 
 through Northern California to Roseburg, the southern terminus oflthe 
 Oregon and California Railroad, which runs thence along the Umpquaand 
 Willamette Yalleys down to Portland. But the trip from San Framsco 
 to Portland is now made in two days on board a splendid ocean-stes ner. 
 From the Golden Gate to the mouth of the Columbia the sail aloni the 
 coast — with its wave-washed rocks crowned here and there with fi-ests 
 
OREGON. 345 
 
 and its indentations shining with golden sands — unfolds five hundred and 
 fifty miles of imposing panorama. The Columbia River, twice as long 
 as the Rhine, five times as long as the Hudson, is far more magnificent 
 than either. The upper Columbia, from Vancouver to the Dalles, is es- 
 pecially rich in splendid scenery. The lower Columbia, from the Cas- 
 cades to the sea, has no superior on the continent as a commercial inland 
 water-way. Indeed, in some respects the Columbia River is the grand- 
 est river in the world. Borne up or down on its mighty flood, where its 
 walls rise thousands of feet above the tide, and cascades of surpassing 
 beauty — such as the Falls of Multnomah — descend from dizzy heights, 
 one gets new impressions of the sublimity of Nature." 
 
 The Columbia River possesses many attractions in its wonderful sce- 
 nery. It is the " great water-way of the Pacific Slope." It drains over 
 four hundred thousand superficial square miles in its course. Rising in 
 the Rocky Mountains, in British America just north of the United States 
 line, it takes a due southerly course, traversing the eastern half of Wash- 
 ington Territory until it reaches Oregon. It then turns directly west- 
 ward, forming the boundary-line between Washington Territory on the 
 north and Oregon on the south. The Snake, a large and navigable 
 stream, rises far to the south, in Idaho, and joins the Columbia near the 
 point where it first touches Oregon. The Columbia, in its grand march 
 to the sea, bursts through a mountain-range and forms those wonderful 
 series of waterfalls, the Cascades. These, however, are most formidable 
 obstructions to the navigation of the river, but the government is 
 expending a considerable sum in building a canal. The Oregon Steam 
 Navigation Company has built a railroad around them, and freight and 
 passengers must be transferred. The ride over this road is exceedingly 
 interesting. The scenery is wild and magnificent, and you here catch a 
 glimpse of the old fort or block-house where Phil Sheridan was stationed 
 in early days during the Indian troubles. A trip up this grand river is 
 a charming voyage to all lovers of beautiful scenery. 
 
 EASTERN OREGON. 
 
 In this part of Oregon there is much less rainfall in the winter, and 
 consequently a greater degree of cold and more dryness in the summer, 
 which renders this section even more exempt from throat and lung troubles 
 and rheumatism than in the region west of the Cascade Mountains. 
 
 The tide of emigration is toward Eastern Oregon, and the wonderfully 
 productive valleys will soon be populated with an enterprising and thrifty 
 people. The emigration is largely from New England and the Western 
 
346 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 States, carrying with it tJie advanced social and educational character of 
 these localities. With lines of railroad pressing east from Portland, west 
 from the Mississippi, and north through Utah and Idaho, the fertile 
 lands of Eastern Oregon will speedily have enlarged transportation 
 facilities with assured low tariffs. 
 
 Stock-raising is more extensively carried on in this section than in any 
 other portion of the State. 
 
WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
 
 BY GOVEBNOE E. P. FEEEY. 
 
 THE Territory of "Washington is divided by the Cascade range of 
 mountains into two nearly equal divisions, which are popularly 
 known as Eastern and Western Washington, differing widely in climatej 
 soil, and, to some extent, in productions. 
 
 WESTEEN WASHINGTOS'. 
 
 A very large portion of Western AVashington is covered with dense for- 
 ests of fir trees of immense height and girth. The average height of these 
 trees is more than two hundred feet, ia many cases exceeding three hun- 
 dred, with diameters up to twelve feet. 
 
 Tested by an experience of more than twenty years, fir timber has been 
 found to be a material almost unsurpassed for ship-building. Ships of 
 more than a thousand tons have been built in this Territory exclusively 
 of fir timber and luinher, which rank as A No. 1 with underwriters at 
 San Francisco and Liverpool. 
 
 Spars from Puget Sound have for many years been shipped in large 
 quantities direct to England, France, and elsewhere on the continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 It has been estimated that the cost of building ships here is thirty-five 
 per cent, less than the cost at Bath, Maine, or at any other Atlanticf ship- 
 yard. In the near future ship-building on Puget Sound will constitute 
 one of the most important branches of productive industry in the Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 EESOTJECES. 
 
 The principal resources of Western Washington are coal and lumber. 
 Coal has been found in nearly every county. In fact, the entire Puget 
 Sound Basin, extending over an area of more than twenty thousand 
 
 347 
 
348 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 square miles, is supposed to be a vast coal-field. Mines are now in 
 operation in the counties of Whatcom, King, Pierce, and Thurston. The 
 daily production is about six hundred tons, the larger portion of which 
 is exported to San Francisco. 
 
 The lumber interest at present takes precedence above all others. There 
 are twelve large saw-mills upon Puget Sound, each having the capacity 
 to manufacture daily from fifty to two hundred thousand feet of lumber. 
 The present annual production is about two hundred and fifty million 
 feet. More than two hundred million feet are exported to San Francisco, 
 South America, the Sandwich Islands, and to other points. 
 
 There are also exported from Puget Sound barley, oats, potatoes, wool, 
 hops, hoop-poles, hides, canned and barrelled salmon, oysters, and many 
 other articles. The aggregate annual value of exportations from West- 
 ern Washington is estimated at over five million dollars. 
 
 Four-fifths of Western Washington has a gravelly soil unfit for culti- 
 vation. This is especially the case where the fir tree grows exclusively. 
 The other fifth is made up of rich alluvial land in the valleys of the rivers 
 and smaller streams, of prairies, and reclaimed tide-marsh land. On these 
 lands all the cereals except corn, and all the fruits and vegetables grown 
 in the Northern States, are raised, of a quality and in quantity and size 
 only known on the Pacific coast. 
 
 While Western Washington as a whole cannot be classed as agricul- 
 tural, yet it has an area of more than five thousand square miles of ex- 
 cellent farming land, which will be ultimately brought under cultivation 
 and be capable of maintaining a large population. 
 
 PUGET SOUND. 
 
 The great feature of Western Washington is Puget Sound. It extends 
 ' from the British line on the north and from the Straits of Juan de Fuca 
 on the west to Olympia in the interior, and has a coast-line of fifteen 
 hundred and ninety-four miles. It can be navigated with safety at all 
 seasons of the year by the largest ocean-steamers or the smallest sailboat. 
 Severe storms on its waters are unknown, and there is not a bar, shoal, 
 rock, or other obstruction to navigation from the Pacific Ocean to Olym- 
 pia, a distance of more than two hundred miles. It is made up of a con- 
 tinuous succession of bays, inlets, and harbors, and is so dotted with 
 islands that it is impossible to get more than two or three miles from land 
 at any point on its waters. It is, in short, one vast, noble harbor, destined 
 to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and on its 
 completion, being on the line of the shortest route between the Atlantic 
 
WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 349 
 
 States and Japan and China, it will be the entrepot of a large portion of 
 the conunerce of the Occident and the Orient. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 Strictly speaking, there are only two seasons in "Western Washington — 
 winter and summer. The winter or wet season commences about the first 
 of October and ends about the first of April. During this period there 
 will be many weeks of pleasant weather. The average annual rainfall 
 in the Puget Sound Basin is about fifty inches. It will appear almost 
 incredible that in this northern latitude, between 46° and 49°, ice and 
 snow are seldom seen. The average temperature during the winter 
 months is 39°, and during the summer 63°, a mean diiference of only 
 24°, The maximum temperature for a few days in summer will be 
 about 90°, but the nights are always cool and refreshing. The summer 
 months are exceedingly pleasant, and the climate during this period com- 
 pares favorably with that of Southern Italy. One singular and as yet 
 unexplained climatic feature is, that thunder and lightning are of veiy 
 rare occurrence. 
 
 EASTEElSr WASHINGTON. 
 
 The vast rolling prairies of Eastern Washington make it one of the 
 best grazing and wheat-growing regions on the continent. There is little 
 timber, except on the margins of the rivers and smaller streams. It has 
 an area of wheat-land capable of producing, with ordinary culture, more 
 than one hundred million bushels annually. A failure of crops never 
 occurs. 
 
 The present season the yield is regarded as not an average, and it will 
 be twenty-five bushels per acre. Forty to sixty bushels is not unusual. 
 The wheatr-product of this region the past season will be about one mil- 
 lion five hundred thousand bushels. One million bushels will be trans- 
 ported down the Columbia River to Portland, and from thence to Europe, 
 and, as heretofore, will probably be claimed as a product of the State of 
 Oregon. All the fruits except tropical, and all vegetables,' of superior 
 quality, are grown in great abundance. 
 
 The climate and soil are particularly adapted to the production of 
 peaches and grapes, large quantities of which are raised of unsurpassed 
 excellence and flavor. A very nutritious indigenous grass, commonly 
 known as bunch-grass [Festuca pratensis), grows spontaneously over many 
 thousand square miles, aifording excellent range for stock. It is self- 
 curative, and retains its nutritious qualities when allowed to remain on 
 the ground uncut. The raising of stock is extensively prosecuted. A 
 
350 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 market is found on Puget Sound and in British Columbia, and large num- 
 bers are annually driven to the Union Pacific Railroad, and thence trans- 
 ported to Chicago. 
 
 It can safely be asserted that Eastern Washington will, in a few years, 
 rival California in the production of all the cereals, both as regards aggre- 
 gate quantity raised and quality, and will far surpass that or any other 
 State in the average yield per acre. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The average temperature in Eastern Washington is as follows : Spring, 
 52°; summer, 73°; autumn, 53°; winter, 34°. The average annual 
 rainfall is about twenty inches. 
 
 AEEA. 
 
 Washington Territory embraces an area of seventy thousand square 
 miles, being about three hundred and fifty miles long east and west and 
 two hundred miles wide. It extends from the Pacific Ocean to Idaho, 
 and from British Columbia to Oregon. Its surface is diversified by 
 mountain, valley, and plain, more than two-thirds of it being sufficiently 
 level for settlement and cultivation, and much of the remainder valuable 
 for timber, grass, and mineral deposits. It is estimated that there are 
 35,000,000 acres of timber-, prairie-, and bottom-lands open to settlement. 
 Of these, 20,000,000 are covered with timber, and 5,000,000 are rich allu- 
 vial bottom. The population is now estimated at 57,784. 
 
 TOWNS. 
 
 The principal towns of Western Washington are the following: Olym- 
 pia, the capital, situated at the head or southern extremity of the Sound; 
 Tocoma, on Puget Sound, is the western terminus of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad ; Seattle, on Elliott Bay, twenty-five miles north of Tocoma, is 
 now the largest town in the Territory. The Territorial University is 
 located here, and under the present management of Professor Anderson 
 is in a very prosperous condition. The situation of the town is very fine 
 and the scenery beautiful. The Northern Pacific Railroad may be built 
 to this point, which will add materially to its prosperity. Mr. Dexter 
 Horton, the leading banker of this city, describes the harbor and ship- 
 ping facilities of Seattle as unsurpassed on Puget Sound. 
 
 Port Townsend, Steilacoom, Kalama, Vancouver, are the other towns 
 of any size in Western Washington. In the eastern part of the Territory 
 Walla Walla is the leading city, and has a most brilliant future, situated 
 
WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 351 
 
 as it is in a section of rich grain-producing country. It is destined to 
 be an important business-centre. 
 
 The tide of emigration has been setting so strongly to Eastern Wash- 
 ington, and the interest felt in regard to its resources is so great, we 
 append the following from the Walla Union in answer to this question 
 from a correspondent : " Give me a general description of the country. 
 Tell me how it is for soil, timber, water, and stone. How is it for health 
 and climate ?" 
 
 "We answer: Eastern Washington may be generally described as a 
 rolling prairie country. The timber is found principally on the Cascade, 
 Cour d'Alene, and Blue Mountains, with scattered groves of cottonwood, 
 birch, alder, and willow along the streams ; and, as a consequence, mate- 
 rial is dear. Lumber sells for from twelve dollars per thousand feet at 
 the mills to fifty dollars per thousand feet at the yards, depending on the 
 distance that it ha^ to be hauled. Rails are worth about two dollars and 
 fifty cents per hundred where cut. The soil is more or less alkaline, with 
 a basaltic foundation, which experience has proven to be the best wheat- 
 producing compound. 
 
 " The Snake River flows through the country from the Idaho line to 
 its junction with the mighty Columbia, which divides what is known as 
 the Columbia Basin into eastern and western parts. The eastern part, 
 which averages one hundred and twenty miles in width by two hundred 
 in length, is generally well watered, being traversed by numerous small 
 streams having their sources in the Blue and Cour d'Alene Mountains 
 and emptying into the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The bottom-lands on 
 these streams are generally narrow patches, which yield large crops of 
 hay or grain. The hill-lands between the streams are covered with bunch- 
 grass, a very nutritious species, on which cattle keep fat the year round. 
 Experience has demonstrated that where the bunch-grass grows thickest, 
 there the best and largest crops of wheat can be raised. Fully one half 
 of the eastern part of the basin is ' plough-land.' As a rule the Columbia 
 and Snake Rivers flow through deep rocky caflons. Only at few and 
 irregular intervals along them are there to be found bottom-lands of 
 sufficient area to make farms. 
 
 "The western part of the Columbia Basin, which is about seventy 
 miles broad and two hundred long, is not so well watered as the eastern 
 portion. A few streams rise in the Cascade Mountains and empty into 
 the Yakima River, which in turn empties into the Columbia. The cha- 
 racter of the soil is very similar to that of the eastern portion. The major 
 and best part of the western portion of the Columbia Basin is occupied 
 
352 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 aa Indian reservations. Timber is more plentiful in the western than in 
 the eastern portion of the basin. 
 
 " The man who starts for this country expecting to pick up anywhere 
 a farm embracing both timber and prairie lands will be sadly disap- 
 pointed, while the man wanting a prairie farm yielding an average yearly 
 product of twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre, with other grain (save 
 corn) in like proportion, will, by a very little effort, find what he wants. 
 In this connection it is well to state that the average yield of wheat in 
 that part of the Columbia Basin known as the Walla Walla country was, 
 during the past harvest, thirty-three bushels per acre. 
 
 " Only a very small fraction of the lands in the Columbia Basin has 
 been taken up by actual settlers. Over half of it is included in the 
 limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. This 
 company has now several hundred men at work, building its road from 
 the mouth of Snake River to Lake Pen d'Oreille, through the heart of 
 the eastern portion of the Columbia Basin, while the Oregon Railway 
 and Navigation Company is now operating a road in the Walla Walla 
 Valley, and making the survey for several other lines. 
 
 " The Northern Pacific Railroad Company sells its land, the odd sec- 
 tions, for two dollars and fifty cents per acre cash, or four dollars per 
 acre on four years' time, with interest at seven per cent, per annum on 
 deferred payments. The government lands are subject to homestead, 
 pre-emption, and timber-culture entry, such as are inside limits being 
 rated at two dollars and fifty cents per acre. 
 
 " The climate of the country east of the Cascades is mild and equable. 
 The summers are never intensely hot, the mercury seldom indicating one 
 hundred degrees in the shade during the day, while the nights are gen- 
 erally cool enough to make a light blanket on the bed a necessity. The 
 days and nights are never sultry and oppressive, as they are in 'the 
 States.' The winters are, as a rule, short. During a residence of fifteen 
 years in Walla Walla Valley we have experienced but one ' hard winter.' 
 That was the winter of 1874^75. That winter commenced in January 
 and lasted until the latter part of February. During November and 
 December of that year the farmers ploughed the ground and sowed 
 grain, and they resumed ploughing and sowing as soon as the snow dis- 
 appeared in February. The work of ploughing is generally done dur- 
 ing every month of the year. As a rule, the mercury during the winters 
 here seldom indicates as great a degree of cold as zero, and hardly ever 
 below it. During our residence several of the winters have been so mild 
 that no ice was put up for summer use. Thousands of cattle, horses, and 
 
WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 353 
 
 sheep are yearly wintered in the Columbia Basin without being fed a 
 pound of hay or grain. 
 
 '* The great ' saving clause ' of this region is what is called the ' Chi- 
 nook/ a warm wind that blows over the country at irregular intervals dur- 
 ing the year, melting the snow and ice in winter and purifying the air in 
 summer. The Chinook is claimed to be a part of the trade-winds, which, 
 blowing up the Pacific coast, diverge up the Columbia through the Cas- 
 cade Pass. Whencesoever it conieth, it is a most welcome and beneficent 
 visitor. 
 
 "The average rainfall during the past seven years has been 15.50 
 inches. The rain falls mostly between October and May, only a few 
 showers occurring during the summer. Harvest commences when the 
 grain is ready to cut, and is carried on until it is all gathered, without 
 regard to the weather. 
 
 " All the fruits usually raised in the temperate zone, including peaches, 
 pears, apples, grapes, and other small fruits, grow luxuriantly on the 
 bunch-grass lands. Orchards are raised with rapidity, peach trees fre- 
 quently bearing in three years from the seed. Fruit this year ' goes a- 
 begging for a price ' in Walla "Walla Valley. Some years the fruit-crop, 
 particularly peaches, proves a failure. A failure of the grain-crop has 
 never been recorded in the twenty years this valley has been settled. 
 
 " In point of health the Columbia Basin will compare favorably with 
 any other part of the world. The prevailing diseases are colds during 
 the fall, winter, and spring, and the green fruit, watermelon, and kindred 
 coniplaints during the summer. Many of our medical men engage in 
 farming to make money to -live on. 
 
 "Wheat is to-day worth sixty cents per bushel; beef-cattle, from 
 fifteen to twenty dollars per head ; horses, depending on breed, from five 
 to five thousand dollars each ; sheep, from two dollars and fifty cents to 
 fifty dollars per head ; hogs are scarce and dear this year ; everything in 
 the line of produce is cheap. 
 
 " The Columbia Basin, which, besides Eastern Washington, includes a 
 large part of Eastern Oregon, is the best 'poor man's country' in the 
 world. No man, if a worker, need go unemployed. Wages range from 
 twenty dollars a month and board upward, depending on the kind of 
 work and the quality of the worker." 
 
 23 
 
CALIFORl^IA. 
 
 BY CHARLES G. YALE. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 THERE are yet many persons whose impressions concerning California 
 are as vague as they were years ago, when gold was first discovered 
 within its borders and the whole world was astonished at the seemingly 
 boundless wealth so suddenly uncovered in a region hitherto considered 
 as worthless for the uses of all but those who were willing to live in a 
 state of semi-civilizatiou. To such people the associations of the " early 
 days " are still connected with the name of the State. They think of 
 California as a place where rough men in miner's garb live an out-door 
 life of excitement and turmoil, without any of those refinements of civ- 
 ilization which custom has made necessities; where the. revolver and 
 bowie-knife are freely used to settle the most trivial differences of opinion ; 
 where a large part of the people live in cabins in mining camps, and divide 
 their time between digging in muddy gulches for gold and drinking and 
 gambling in saloons for amusement ; where both necessities and luxuries 
 are sold at exorbitant rates ; and where the people indulge in a language 
 interspersed with a miners' slang so choice and unique that long residence 
 is necessary to acquire it. These are the people who acquired their know- 
 ledge of California from the magazine and newspaper stories recounting 
 the adventures of the early pioneer miners — stories which sound as 
 strangely to the average Californian of to-day as they do to the man who 
 has never ti'od the Pacific Slope. 
 
 Others, again, associate the State with an idea of magnitude. They 
 think it a place of big tree-s, big gold-mines, big nuggets, pumpkins, 
 pears, grapes, potatoes ; large ranches, large grain crops, large fortunes ; 
 high mountains, rates of interest, and wages. 
 
 To others, still, California is a region made singular by the many mar- 
 vellous facts in her history, by the rapid and wonderful development of 
 
 351 
 
CALIFORNIA. 355 
 
 her resources ; by her sudden jump from dependence for supplies on older 
 neighbors to a position where she is looked upon as a source to draw from, 
 exporting wool, hides, lumber, gold, grain, wine, etc. etc. in great quan- 
 tities ; by her rapid increase from a barren Territory to a rich and pow- 
 erful State, whose products exert an influence in the money-markets of 
 the world — a State with every variety of climate, from Arctic snows on 
 mountain-heights to tropical verdure in the valley-lands, where not only 
 grow tlie products common to the temperate zone, but many which until 
 California agriculture was developed were not known within the borders 
 of the United States. 
 
 To convey a correct impression of a region so large as California, where 
 there is such a variety of climate, resources, soil, scenery, and society, in 
 general terms, is not an easy task. Details of interest to one would be 
 tiresome to another. Even among the many thousands who have passed 
 through the Golden Gate on their entrance to this promised land, and 
 scattered over its length and breadth or settled themselves in the city on 
 the shores of the Pacific, few are thoroughly familiar with the whole 
 State or its resources. Let us pause on the threshold of this magnificent 
 portal and contemplate for a moment the earlier history of a State which 
 surprised the world by the marvellous rapidity with which it sprang 
 from' almost nameless obscurity into the zenith of a fame which reached 
 the four corners of the earth ; from sterile unproductiveness to un- 
 equalled fertility of resources; from barren poverty to unexampled 
 wealth. 
 
 It was the famous Sir Francis Drake who, in trying to return to Eng- 
 land through a supposed passage by an open sea north of the American 
 continent, first blundered on to the California coast. He did not dis- 
 cover it, but found it in his way. He had sailed from the west coast of 
 South America and Mexico, where he had been on one of his legalized 
 plundei'ing expeditions, and went north until it got too cold. He then 
 turned south, and finally brought up for a time on what is known as Sir 
 Francis Drake's Bay, a semicircular bight behind Point Reyes, about 
 thirteen miles from the Bay of San Francisco. Although he reported 
 having found both gold and silver there, his story is an unlikely one, 
 since neither is found to any extent on the coast, and he made no mention 
 of having gone inland. At a few points on the ocean-beach of the coast 
 gold-bearing sands are found, but silver is not found in placers, and there 
 is not much of it in California anywhere. Drake's visit was in 1579, 
 over three hundred years ago. Some sixteen years after Drake's voyage 
 the Spaniards explored the coast, and also anchored in Drake's Bay ; and 
 
356 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Sebastian Vizcaino, after landing south at San Diego and Monterey, came 
 also to the same bay, but, though so near, did not find that of San Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 Nothing came of these voyages for two hundred years, and until 1769 
 California was left to the Indians and wild animals. In that year a small 
 party of white men came in the brig San Antonio to make permanent 
 settlement, and landed at San Diego, a town on the coast at the southern 
 end of the State. This was the beginning of the Spanish dominion. 
 The settlement was under control of the , Franciscan friars, who came 
 with the purpose of converting the Indians. It was a band from this 
 party, under the leadership of Juan Crespi, that came far enough north 
 a few years later and found San Francisco Bay. Junipero Serra, the 
 head of the Franciscan order in California, founded a mission at San 
 Francisco, as he did at all those points which were well adapted for such 
 a purpose. 
 
 The first of the missions was established at San Diego in 1769, and 
 the last at Sonoma, north of San Francisco, in 1823. They were mainly 
 placed on the coast or in pleasant valleys near it. The Fathers exercised 
 excellent judgment in the location of their missions, and speedily made 
 a change in the habits of the people in their vicinity. 
 
 The Digger Indians, who were the aborigines of the country, were by 
 no means adapted to be brought to a high civilization even by the ener- 
 getic and enthusiastic endeavors of the Franciscans, who aimed at little 
 above making converts. Their stone arrowheads, mortars, spears, and 
 knives are still found in numerous shell-mounds near the coast, where they 
 formerly had their rancherias. These Indians, peaceful in nature and 
 slothful in habit, soon clustered around the missions. The friars taught 
 them a rude sort of husbandry, converted them, and modified their savage 
 customs. They were taught to build adobe houses, made of bricks fash- 
 ioned from the peculiar tenacious soil and burned in the sun, tend flocks 
 and herds, cultivate grain, and — what they probably did not want to 
 know — that it was necessary to labor to be of use in the world. 
 
 When Mexico declared her independence from Spain in 1822 the 
 Mexican dominion began. This was an era of idleness, laziness, and 
 freedom from the cares of life. The Mexicans obtained large ^grants of 
 land by asking for them, and lived on the income derived from the hides 
 and tallow of their cattle. The better class had pleasant homes, and the 
 poorer clustered around them. The missions formed nuclei for the few 
 towns. With plenty of horses to ride ; plenty of came con chile (beef and 
 red peppers), frigoles (beans), and tortillas (cakes made from corn-flour) ; 
 
CALIFORNIA. . 357 
 
 abundance of leisure; few excitements beyond an occasional bull- or 
 cock-fight ; no taxes to pay ; no doctors or lawyers, unwelcome telegrams 
 or letters, — these Californians led an easy, happy life. No wonder they 
 looked with disfavor on the arrival of the gringos, who came in swarms, 
 invaded their territory, brought the evils of civilization in the shape of 
 a, restless! multitude eager to disturb existing conditions — a race destined, 
 as they saw, to supplant the owners of the soil. 
 
 The Americans began to come in noticeable numbers in 1846, and it 
 was then, with the view of extending the American domain on the Pacific, 
 that the steps were taken which finally brought California into the pos- 
 session of the United States. 
 
 It was the discovery of gold which awoke California from her lethar- 
 gic sleep of centuries, which destroyed the last hope of the Mexicans of 
 maintaining their habits and customs in the face of the change of owner- 
 ship, and which filled the newly-acquired territory with an eager treasure- 
 seeking multitude who were the pioneers and founders of the State. 
 
 The history of this era has been told in song and story. The recital is 
 stale. The incidents which transpired during the first few years of what 
 are known as the " pioneer days " of California have furnished material 
 for the historian, the poet, the novelist, the preacher, and all who put 
 pen to paper. It was an area of boundless prosperity far beyond what 
 was ever dreamed of by those who participated in its events. The ro- 
 mance of the period has been dealt with by abler pens ; it is only with 
 the material results we have to do. 
 
 As soon as the gold discovery became known as a certainty on the 
 Atlantic side of the continent, an unorganized army, with its ranks scat- 
 tered on sea and land, came to take possession of the modern Ophir and 
 despoil it of its treasures. In 1849 over forty thousand people made a 
 weary march across the continent, and as many more braved the dangers 
 of the deep, to reach the coveted goal. A voyage of six months' duration, 
 or a tramp of even longer time, deterred them not. The perils of Cape 
 Horn, the fevers of the Isthmus, and the scalping-knife of the Indian 
 were ignored. The bright anticipations of a sure reward for toil, the 
 dream of boundless wealth, the enthusiasm of conviction of success, 
 lessened the hardships of these adventurous bands and buoyed them 
 with a hope which surmounted all obstacles. 
 
 These were the pioneers who laid the foundation of ^ the California of 
 to-day. To those of them still living — and there are many — the altered 
 condition of affairs is not as satisfactory as one might suppose. They 
 have been unable to adapt themselves to the changes necessarily brought 
 
358 THU GREAT WEST. 
 
 about by the decadence of the gold-mines, the increase of population, the 
 levelling of business affairs with those of more settled communities, the 
 competition in trade, and the more sober and monotonous course of life 
 consequent upon the new order of things. Money is no longer so plenty 
 or so freely lavished as of old. Opportunities for making fortunes with- 
 out labor are not frequent. Work is not paid for so well as it used to 
 be. Individual effort must be exerted for a living, and people are more 
 plenty than places in the cities. 
 
 In fact, California, from being an isolated, independent State, has come 
 to be one as dependent to a certain extent on its neighbors as the older 
 States are. The transcontinental railroads have brought it down to the 
 business level of older settled communities. San Francisco can no longer 
 dictate terms to the whole coast. The merchants must sell as cheap as 
 in other markets, or the purchasers go elsewhere. Formerly they had no 
 choice. 
 
 The bane of California has been a centripetal tendency to gravitate to 
 the city. A great city has been built at the expense of smaller ones and 
 of the country. There are few prosperous towns and villages in Cali- 
 fornia. San Francisco has controlled the trade so long and so deter- 
 minedly that her smaller rivals have been driven to the wall. All this 
 is now, however, undergoing a change ; but the metropolis of the State 
 feels this change sorely, and is restive under it. It will be better for 
 her in the end when a settled population fills the valleys and hills, builds 
 up small towns and villages, cultivates the soil, develops the material re- 
 sources, and abandons thoughts of city life entirely. Then will San 
 Francisco — and California — be prosperous again, and it will be a pros- 
 perity more enduring than that which has tended to create a metropolis 
 to the detriment of the surrounding region. 
 
 Values have been too high in California for many years to encourage 
 the class of population she needs. Farming lands have been held at 
 prices far beyond their real value when the expenses of cultivation, 
 freight, and interest are compared with the resultant yields. This has 
 been due to the high rates of interest for money — now modified, how- 
 ever. When all these things reach their proper level, as they are now 
 doing, prosperity will reign again. 
 
 Another thing which has been ignored in California has been home 
 manufactures. Veiy little money comparatively has been put into manu- 
 facturing enterprises. Aside from a rolling-mill, half a dozen foundries, 
 a woollen-mill or two, a few furniture-factories, etc., in San Francisco 
 the home industries of this character are not many ; in the interior of 
 
CALIFORNIA. 359 
 
 the State they are very scarce. A few paper-mills, powder-mills, tan- 
 neries, etc. are here and there found, but no large manufacturing estab- 
 lishments attract the attention of the stranger. Even where the raw 
 material is produced in abundance it is shipped away, and the manu- 
 factured product purchased back, the profit of the manufacture going to 
 other States. The rich men, speaking generally, have been lenders of 
 money, and have not paid that attention to the establishment of produc- 
 tive home industries which would have added to the material interests of 
 the State. To tell the truth, they have met with little encouragement 
 where they did, as the people, with an inexcusable perversity, seem 
 to consider it the correct thing to prefer the imported to the homemade 
 article, whatever it may be, and the local manufactures languish. 
 
 The excuse given for the non-establishment of these much-needed 
 home industries is that labor is too high. No doubt it has been, as has 
 everything else in California. It must now come down with rents, in- 
 terest, and values ; and it is a reluctance to do this, combined with that 
 desire to live in the cities before mentioned, which, in connection with 
 the Chinese question, has brought about the labor agitation in San Fran- 
 cisco which has attracted so much attention from its communistic 
 tendencies. 
 
 IRRIGATION. 
 
 The peculiarity of the climate of the State is in its wet and dry seasons, 
 the summers being entirely rainless. Moreover, there is no dependence 
 to be placed on the amount of rain in the winter months, more especially 
 in the southern part of the State, where " dry years " are more frequent 
 than pleasant. The rains fall from November to April more or less, but 
 from May to November there are none. With sixty inches of rain on 
 the mountains to the north, there may be only six inches in the southern 
 part of the State. The rainless summers offer every facility for gathering 
 the crops, since everything may be left out of cover if desired. No snow 
 falls along the coast or in the great central valleys. In these valleys, 
 although very hot at noon in summer, the mornings and nights are 
 usually cool. The air is so dry, however, that with the thermometer 
 frequently at 100° to 115° no cases of sunstroke occur. The heavy fogs 
 brought in by the strong summer afternoon breezes from the Pacific Ocean 
 are features of the coast climate, but not pleasant ones. The climate in 
 different parts of the State varies so very greatly that choice of any may 
 be taken at pleasure. 
 
 Without attempting to enumerate those features of California agricul- 
 ture in detail which would interest the farmer only, some of its conditions 
 
360 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 may be considered by the general reader worthy of note. Among these 
 is the subject of irrigation, attention to which has been forced upon the 
 farmers of certain parts of the State where the rainfall is small and un- 
 certain ; and its importance is such that the State, and even the Federal, 
 government has been called upon to report on the feasibility of general 
 systems for the benefit of all. 
 
 The introduction of irrigation into California as an aid to extensive 
 agricultural operations is of very recent origin. The Jesuit Fathers, who 
 established their missions in the southern portions of the State more than 
 a century ago, made the first beginnings in this direction, but their opera- 
 tions were limited in extent, and confined chiefly to the watering of vine- 
 yards, gardens, and orchards in the immediate neighborhood of the mis- 
 sions. Although the art has been continually in practice in the counties 
 of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Santa Barbara to more 
 or less extent ever since, but little progress was made until the occupation 
 of the country by Americans, while farther north irrigation dates back 
 scarcely twenty years, and it is only within the past decade that capital 
 has become largely engaged in the construction of any important works 
 for that purpose. It may be safely said that the area of irrigated lands 
 in the State has doubled in ten years, and at this time a more gen- 
 eral appreciation of its value and importance is entertained than ever 
 before. 
 
 Irrigation being, then, such a novelty, it is not to be wondered at that, 
 however great its necessity, its progress has been slow. Farmers who had 
 been accustomed to the methods of agriculture pursued in the Eastern 
 and Southern States, where irrigation is scarcely known, naturally enter- 
 tained a prejudice against a system of which they were totally ignorant, 
 and avoided those sections of the State where the rainfall was not generally 
 sufficient to produce crops without the artificial application of water. It 
 has not only caused the achievement of much decided success in the use 
 of water, but has led to the partial removal of the prejudice which still 
 exists in the minds of many residing in those more favored localities 
 where cereal crops at least seldom fail for lack of rain. 
 
 Those who have acted as pioneers in the introduction of irrigation have 
 labored under many discouragements, and have acquired their experience 
 dearly. They have had to learn the best methods of preparing their land 
 for the reception of water, the proper seasons for its application, and the 
 quantity required to produce crops. Many mistakes were made, the most 
 common one being that of using excessive quantities of water, resulting 
 in injury both to land and crops— a fault which, it may be said, is still a 
 
CALIFORNIA. 361 
 
 most difficult one to correct. Inattention to drainage too has in many 
 instances resulted in engendering sickness, which, being attributed to irri- 
 gation alone, has not increased the popularity of the new auxiliary to 
 agriculture. 
 
 One prominent defect in the system which has grown up in California 
 is the lack of any sort of governmental supervision of the diyision and 
 distribution of the water of the streams among the irrigators. A law was 
 enacted in 1873 permitting any one to appropriate water on filing a claim 
 in the records of the county wherein the appropriation was to be made ; 
 but the terms, in which the volume of such claims were to be expressed 
 were exceedingly indefinite, and prior claims existing before the passage 
 of this law were wholly undefined. This state of things has naturally 
 led to much confusion, wrangling, and litigation over the possession of 
 the waters of a stream in seasons of scarcity, and the State Legislature 
 was appealed to for the readjustment of the whole matter of water-rights 
 on a permanent basis, and to exercise its power in effecting an equitable 
 distribution of the precious element. Many have thought it expedient 
 for the State government to follow the example of the government of 
 India — take possession of the waters of her streams and construct a com- 
 prehensive system of canals for the irrigation of all the arid lands within 
 her borders. But prior to taking any such radical measures the Legislar- 
 ture of 1877-78 merely resolved to order a scientific investigation of the 
 whole subject. The office of State Engineer was created ; his duties were 
 to examine and report upon not only the problems of irrigation, but those 
 of the drainage of the valleys, improvement of river-navigation, and the 
 disposal of the detritus resulting from hydraulic mining, — all of which 
 are questions of serious import to the welfare of the State. 
 
 The first report of the State Engineer, giving the results of the first 
 two years' investigation, has just been published, and it contains a large 
 amount of valuable information which has long been needed. 
 
 There are certain regions in California where, by reason of a deficiency 
 in rainfall, irrigation is absolutely necessary to the production of any kind 
 of crops. In other sections, where the winter precipitation is copious, 
 artificial watering is only resorted to for the production of summer crops, 
 meadows, gardens, and orchards during the season when all parts of the 
 State are alike parched and devoid of moisture. In the one case, there- 
 fore, irrigation is a matter of the most vital importance; in the other, it 
 is one of convenience, and is practised as supplementary to the other types 
 of agriculture nourished by natural moisture. 
 
 Although irrigation is practised to greater or less extent throughout 
 
362 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 California, from Siskiyou on the extreme north to San Diego on the 
 southern border, and in many nooks and corners from the sea-coast to the 
 eastern limits of the State, the locality where it has received the most 
 attention, and where it is destined to become most extensively developed 
 in the future, is in the great interior basin of the State. 
 
 This great valley, having an extreme length of four hundred and fifty 
 miles and an average width of nearly forty miles, forms a marked geo- 
 graphical feature of the Pacific coast. It lies hemmed in between two 
 ranges of mountains — ^the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada — which 
 join together at its northern and its southern limits. It consists of 
 gently-sloping, nearly level plains, drained by two rivers — the Sacra- 
 mento and the San Joaquin — which unite and seek a common outlet 
 through San Francisco Bay to the sea. 
 
 The total area is over ten million acres, a large proportion of which is 
 arable land. The area of the mountains and foot-hills drained by its 
 streams is nearly twenty-six million acres. The rainfall over this sec- 
 tion of the State diminishes from north to south, until in the extreme 
 southern portion of Kern county it rarely exceeds six inches per annum, 
 and is sometimes less than two. From a point fifty to seventy-five miles 
 south of Stockton to the southern extremity of the valley it may be said 
 that three years out of five cereal crops cannot be produced without irri- 
 gation, and of course summer crops are out of the question in all seasons 
 unless artificially watered. 
 
 It is in this section of the State, therefore, comprising the counties of 
 Kern, Tulare, Fresno, and Merced, that irrigation-works have been most 
 generally constructed and the practice of the art become most general as 
 auxiliary to extensive agricultural operations. In some of the more 
 southern counties outside of the boundaries of the above-described valley 
 irrigation is also practised in isolated localities, and there are large tracts 
 which will never be of much value until systems of irrigation are devised 
 for them. 
 
 The major portion of the lands to be irrigated in the San Joaquin 
 Yalley lie upon the eastern side of the median trough which intersects 
 it longitudinally and forms its line of drainage, while its water-supply, 
 upon which irrigation must depend, comes almost wholly from the Sierra 
 Nevada Mountains on the east in a series of perennial and intermittent 
 streams, which descend to the plains in parallel lines, and after crossing 
 the valley turn northward and find an outlet in the San Joaquin River. 
 The more important of these streams, named in their order from north 
 to south, are the following : 
 
CALIFORNIA. 363 
 
 Nome of Eiver. Mountain drainage- 
 
 area, square miles. 
 
 Kern 2382 
 
 Tule 446 
 
 Kaweah G08 
 
 King's 1885 
 
 San Joaquin 1630 
 
 Fresno 260 
 
 Chowcliilla 303 
 
 Merced ] 075 
 
 Tuolumne 1513 
 
 Stanislaus 971 
 
 The discharge of these streams is extremely variable, but as most of 
 them are snow-fed, rising in the ice-iields of the high sierra, they carry 
 the greatest volumes during the months of March, April, May, June, 
 and July, when the water is most needed for irrigation. Their flow is 
 not proportional to the area which they drain, but is dependent more 
 upon their geographical position, those farthest north having the great- 
 est discharge per square mile of mountain-watershed, for the reason 
 before stated, that the precipitation increases from south to north over all 
 sections of the State. In extreme floods the larger streams maintain a 
 discharge of thirty to forty thousand cubic feet per second for several 
 weeks, while in low water in October the greatest of them do not exceed 
 two hundred and seventy-five cubic feet per second in volume. The area 
 of irrigable land adjacent to these streams is estimated by the State 
 Engineer at two million four hundred and forty-five thousand acres, 
 while a large percentage of the total area of the valley is not well 
 adapted to irrigation and cannot be considered in any sense irrigable. 
 
 That the field for further development of irrigation in this vast territory 
 is a great one can best be seen by comparing the area under irrigation with 
 that yet unwatered. The entire irrigated area of the east side of the 
 San Joaquin Yalley aggregates but one hundred and forty-five thousand 
 acres — scarcely one per cent, of the area susceptible of irrigation — dis- 
 tributed as follows : Kern River, 30,800 acres ; Tule Eiver, 4000 ; Ka- 
 weah River, 22,000 ; King's River, 61,200 ; Fresno, 3000 ; San Joaquin, 
 14,400; Merced, 1600 acres. On the west side of the valley about forty 
 thousand acres, all told, are irrigated from the San Joaquin River. The 
 irrigation-canals and ditches derived from these streams may be enume- 
 rated as follows : Kern River, 32 ; aggregate length, 275 miles ; total 
 cost of main works, $849,000. Tule River, 12 canals, all small. Ka- 
 weah River, 14. King's River, 15 ; total length, 230 miles ; total cost, 
 about 1500,000. Fresno River, 1. San Joaquin River, 2 canals and 2 
 natural sloughs used as artificial channels ; total length, 110 miles ; total 
 
364 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 cost, $1,350,000. These constitute the principal works, although a num- 
 ber of others are in a state of partial completion. 
 
 The works thus far constructed are generally of an excellent order, if 
 the circumstances upon which they were undertaken are considered, but 
 the European engineer, accustomed to the more elaborate and costly 
 canals of. France, Spain, and Italy, would doubtless be struck with the 
 entire absence of stone masonry in all the structures connected with them. 
 The timber head-gates, dams, regulating-sluices, outlet-gates, etc. have a 
 temporary appearance which characterizes all works of irrigation in Cali- 
 fornia, where economy in first cost must be rigidly studied. ■ Some of the 
 canals are models of engineering- work in "many respects, as, for example, 
 the Calloway Canal, which is derived from the Kern River and extends 
 northward upon the plains a distance of thirty miles, having a maximum 
 capacity of five to six hundred cubic feet per second. Its cost was less 
 than two thousand seven hundred dollars per mile. It is expected to 
 irrigate one hundred thousand acres, and is one of the largest canals in 
 the State, there being but one other larger of those in use for irrigation 
 — ^the San Joaquin and King's River Canal, deriving water from the 
 San Joaquin River on the west side of the valley. This canal has a 
 capacity of seven hundred and twenty cubic feet per second, and a length 
 of sixty-seven miles, cost nearly twenty thousand dollars per mile, and 
 has proved an unfortunate investment to its stockholders. 
 
 A great deal of the land in the southern part of the State, though rich 
 enough as far as soil is concerned, is practically valueless unless it can be 
 irrigated. The lands in districts where irrigation systems are in vogue 
 command comparatively high prices, and those where systems can be 
 applied are also held at much higher prices than those where it is out of 
 the question. There are a number of " irrigated colonies " in the southern 
 counties, and in every one of them is a prosperous community. The irri- 
 gated land does not only produce in every instance large crops, but several 
 in a season if desired. Speaking generally, those sections where irrigation 
 is practised are divided up into smaller ranches, and the work is more 
 carefully conducted, than on the large unirrigated farms. 
 
 In favorable seasons most abundant crops can be raised on any of this 
 land without irrigation, but this cannot be counted on as a certainty with- 
 out the artificial introduction of water. 
 
 The lack of rain in the southern part of California and the uncertainty 
 of crops have injured that portion of the State. The stories about the 
 oranges, lemons, olives, vines, figs, etc., etc., and semi-tropical climate, 
 have been very much exaggerated. There are certain portions of the 
 
CALIFORNIA. 365 
 
 southern country which are most fruitful and in which all these things 
 will thrive, but it is not by any means the case with all of it. The in- 
 tending immigrant will do well to see the ground personally and examine 
 the surroundings before bargaining to purchase. ' The tide of immigration 
 to California no longer flows steadily to the southward : too many have 
 gone there and failed. The lands which are subject to irrigation are held 
 too high, and a great deal of the rest would be expensive as a gift. The 
 habit of the people of those sections of country in lauding them to the 
 skies, exaggerating their fruitfulness and value, has reacted, and within a 
 year or two the- southern country has had few accessions to its population. 
 . There are many tracts under .a high state of cultivation, and irrigated, 
 where the people are prosperous and thriving. The leading towns in 
 Southern California and the most prosperous communities are those where 
 systems of irrigation have been introduced. In fact, in most of those 
 parts of the State irrigation is a necessity to ensiire annual crops. Some 
 of the "colonies" — like that of Riverside, for instance — have by irriga- 
 tion outstripped in a few years' existence, in population and material 
 prosperity, places which have been growing for years. 
 
 A full consideration of the subject of irrigation in its various bearings 
 would be superfluous here, even were the writer competent to undertake 
 it ; and this much only has been said because it is a branch of agricultural 
 pursuits little considered in other parts of the United States and peculiar 
 to California. 
 
 In some places, where there are no streams to furnish water for irriga- 
 tion, artesian wells have been bored, and where they overflow the water 
 is thus readily obtainable. When the water only rises to near the surface 
 windmills are used to raise it. -There are three or four hundred of these 
 wellg in Los Angeles county, several hundred in Santa Clara county, and 
 many in Fresno, Monterey, San Bernardino, Tulare, and Kern counties. 
 The utility of these bored wells is now universally recognized, and they 
 are every year becoming more numerous. 
 
 In peculiar contrast to the dry laiids needing water to be rendered 
 available for purposes of agriculture are the tule-lands of California, 
 from which the water must be removed before they can be utilized. - This 
 branch of agriculture, too, is to a certain extent peculiar to California, 
 and some little deta,il concerning it will be found of interest. 
 
 TULE-LANDS. , / ' 
 
 In the year 1871 a company of Kentucky farmers raised a crop of 
 wheat on one of the tule-islands in the San Joaquin River in Call- 
 
366 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 fornia. The crop was taken from one thousand acres, and the value 
 of it was over fifty thousand dollars. The price paid for the land, with 
 a levee built around it, was twenty dollars per acre. The grain was 
 planted without plough or harrow. The seed was sown upon the ashes 
 of the burnt sod and vegetation, and tramped in by sheep driven in a 
 band over the land. The wonderful success of this crop and the easy 
 and novel method of cultivation at once brought these lands into noto- 
 riety, not only in California, but also in the Eastern States, particularly 
 in Kentucky, and large schemes of reclamation were projected and begun, 
 the issue of which forms a chapter of California history still unfinished. 
 
 The tule-lands are swamp- or marsh-lands, and derive their name from 
 a tall round rush that abounds on them called tule (pronounced too-ly) by 
 the Indians. The tule is a fresh-water plant, and the term belongs 
 properly only to the fresh-water swamp-lands, but is also sometimes ap- 
 plied to the salt marsh-lands by those not familiar with the subject. 
 
 There are two classes of swamp-lands upon which the tule grows — ^viz. 
 fresh-water swamp- and fresh-water tide-lands. These, with the salt 
 marsh-lands, comprise the three varieties of land designated by the laws 
 of the State as "swamp and overflowed lands." All lands of this cha- 
 racter were granted to the several States by act of Congress of 1850, 
 known as the " Arkansas Act." The title is therefore vested in the State, 
 and each State may dispose of the land under its own laws. The State 
 of California has heretofore issued a patent in fee for all lands of this 
 class upon payment of one dollar per acre in full, or upon full reclama- 
 tion of the land, or upon expenditure of two dollars per acre in reclaim- 
 ing any district. 
 
 Reclamation districts are set apart by the boards of supervisors of the 
 county in which the land lies, upon the petition of the owners of more 
 than one-half of any tract of swamp and overflowed land capable of this 
 mode of reclamation. When the ground has been reclaimed or the two 
 dollars expended in reclamation, all moneys paid to the State in purchase 
 of the land are refunded to the land-owner, the policy of the State being 
 to give the land to any person reclaiming it. The law of 1868 permitted 
 the purchase of this character of land in any quantity, and in consequence 
 all of it, excepting in isolated and unknown tracts, was taken up by specu- 
 lators, and since then the minimum price for swamp-lands unreclaimed 
 has been five dollars per acre. The late act of the Legislature, fixing 
 six hundred and forty acres of land as the largest amount which a pur- 
 chaser could buy of the State, came too late to reserve these lands for 
 small holdings. 
 
CALIFORNIA. 367 
 
 The unlimited-purchase act was undoubtedly dictated by true wisdom, 
 as only large capital and concentrated management can effectually handle 
 the lands. There are in California, according to the last report of the 
 Surveyor-General, 1,825,00.0 acres of swamp and overflowed land, in- 
 cluding the salt marsh-lands. All is susceptible of reclamation, and 
 every acre is suitable to some crop or product capable of sustaining life. 
 The fresh-water swamp-lands comprise the largest proportion of these. 
 They lie on the margins of the rivers and lakes above the influence of 
 the tides, and are subject to sudden inundation by floods caused by winter 
 rains. They receive the first and heaviest deposit of sediment borne 
 down by the floods, and the soil is composed of various amounts and 
 strata of clay, sand, and loam, and is exceedingly rich. The almost ex- 
 clusive growth is the tule, which when young and tender furnishes excel- 
 lent grazing for live-stock, and the lands are constantly resorted to for 
 pasture by the owners of the contiguous upland in the fall, when the dry 
 weather has destroyed the vegetation of the higher lands and evaporated 
 the water that had till then lain on the marsh. 
 
 The great bodies of this class of tule-land are found on the borders of 
 Tulare Lake and the adjacent lakes in Kern and Tulare counties, and 
 along th^ Sacramento River and its branches in Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, 
 and Yolo counties. A considerable quantity lies also along the San 
 Joaquin River and its tributaries, and the tule-land in the mountain- 
 counties adds somewhat to the gross acreage. 
 
 This class gradually merges below Sacramento City on the north and 
 Stockton on the east into the fresh-water tide-lands. There are about 
 four hundred thousand acres of these lands lying in the delta of the San 
 Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, where the fresh water of the rivers is 
 checked in its flow and rises and falls with the oscillations of the salt 
 water from the Bay of San Francisco and ocean below, acting as a tidal 
 dam. The soil is largely peat, derived from the luxurious growth of 
 tules, lilies, grass, and ferns, which spring up, flourish, fall, and decay, 
 and make a bed for the future plants of the same kind. There are large 
 tracts of this vegetable mould thirty, and even forty, feet deep, inter- 
 layered with occasional strata of sedimentary deposit. The tides rise and 
 fall from four to six feet, and high tide usually covers the surface, thus 
 rendering the land ordinarily useless even for pasturage, for which the 
 clover (a red species) and other plants abounding on it are well adapted. 
 In very dry years the tidal overflow has been so much as to permit graz- 
 ing, and these lands have proved a refuge to cattle of the dried-up plains 
 on more than one occasion. 
 
368 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 As the two classes of land described merge into one another, so like- 
 wise, from the nature of the case, the fresh-water tide-lands gradually 
 become more and more salty until the salt marsh-lands are reached. The 
 marsh-lands of Suisun Bay are mostly brackish, but true salt marsh- 
 lands are confined to San Pablo and San Francisco Bays. The latter 
 aggregate . about one hundred thousand acres, and the brackish lands of 
 Suisun . Bay . amount to about sixty-five thousand acres more. Peat ap- 
 pears largely as a constituent of the salt marsh-lands also, but in smaller 
 proportions, as the natural growth from which it is derived is scanty com- 
 pared w^th . the rankness of .the tule vegetation. The principal grasses 
 are a salt-grass, a hoUow, short-jointed plant, and a wire-grass, so called 
 from its wire-like, stalk. Both are short, not growing over two feet high, 
 and are of small value for pasturage. Cattle appear to like them as a 
 change from the dry feeding of neighboring uplands or for their salt, 
 and in case of necessity, live-stock may subsist upon them for a while if 
 they have not. become too old and tough. 
 
 The sedimentary deposits in salt-marshes are much larger than in the 
 tule-lands, so that they are more solid and have a higher elevation — gen- 
 erally about one foot above high tide. 
 
 The reclamation of swamp-lands was at first thought to be an easy 
 matter, and it was only after repeated failure and heavy loss that the 
 difBculties began to be appreciated. Formerly, any farmer considered 
 himself capable of reclaiming any district of swamp-land ; now the sub- 
 ject receives the deepest consideration of boards of engineers and, the 
 Legislature of the State. The operations of the hydraulic miner ; every 
 cubic yard of tailings emptied into the remotest stream that joins the 
 waters flowing to the bay ; every, furrow turned on either watershed of 
 the two great valleys of the State ; every tree planted or cut down ; each 
 season's snow or rainfall, and the more immediate questions of depth and 
 width and carrying capacity of the stream to be leveed against ; the cha- 
 racter of the foundations and embankment and the cost of construction, — 
 all these and more are factors in the problem. 
 
 But as the extent of the undertaking is developed the increasing value 
 and importance of these lands renders them capable of supporting the 
 investigation and removal of each and every obstacle as it presents it- 
 self. 
 
 The salt marsh-lands, having the best material for levees and subject only 
 to overflow of the tides, can be reclaimed with the least difficulty and 
 expense. But, as the soil is saline and cannot be immediately cultivated, 
 fewer attempts at reclamation have been made than on the tule-lands. 
 
SCENES IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. 
 1.— Bridal Veil Fall. 2.— Mirror Lake. 
 
CALIFORNIA. 369 
 
 Of the latter the greatest amount of work and capital has been expended 
 on the fresh-water tide-lands ; but large sums have also been spent upon 
 the fresh-water swamp-lands, especially on those magnificent tracts of the 
 finest alluvial soil in the world extending along both sides of the Sacra- 
 mento River northward from Sacramento City. 
 
 These rich, loamy lands, spreading in broad acres of level, unbroken 
 surface, affording before reclamation much pasture for sheep and cattle in 
 the latter months of summer as the water disappears, and, when culti- 
 vated, yielding readily to the plough, and from the start producing large 
 crops of grain, are attractive enough to encourage the outlay of their full 
 value to rescue them from the domain of the floods. Lands of this class 
 can be generally reclaimed in bodies of thousands, and even of hundreds ' 
 of thousands, of acres ; and, though the floods be severe and embank- 
 ments large, yet the cost per acre for reclamation is reduced by the vast 
 size of the district included. 
 
 It was originally supposed that of all the swamp-lands the fresh-water 
 tide-lands could be the most cheaply and easily reclaimed. The tides 
 barely rose above the level of the land, and a small embankment would 
 apparently keep them out. A flood might come occasionally and spread 
 over all, but it would quickly drain off, so that the damage might not be 
 great and the benefit might not be inconsiderable. Proceeding on such 
 views, the owners of an island of ten thousand acres actually undertook to 
 reclaim it with a single furrow of a twenty-four-inch plough drawn by 
 oxen. For some time a levee of twelve feet base and four feet high was 
 deemed most ample by those holding the most advanced ideas. Peat, 
 abounding so largely in the soil, proved to be unreliable in the levee and 
 treacherous in the foundation. It dried and floated from the levee, and 
 split in subterranean cracks beneath it ; and the swamp-land engineer dis- 
 covered that he must provide an embankment that would not only keep 
 out the water above the surface, but would also have weight sufficient to 
 compact thirty feet of slushy subsoil. 
 
 Fortunately for the temporary advantage of the reclamation schemes, the 
 banks of all the streams had a stratum of a foot or more of sedimentary 
 loam, which, laid upon the peat, gave solidity to the levee. The scarcity 
 of earthy matter above the water in many parts of the tule-land is calling 
 into use more and more each year dredging-machines of various kinds. 
 The dipper dredge, the clam-shell, and the sand-pump are all at the pres- 
 ent writing at work there. Excellent material in abundance is found in 
 all the watercourses, and the dredges can raise it economically. But no 
 satisfactory method has yet been introduced of transferring the earth at a 
 
 24 
 
370 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 reasonable cost to the levees across soft mud-flats and over irregular dis- 
 tances from the dredge-pits. 
 
 The main reliance for levee-building on all the swamp-lands has been 
 upon the Chinaman. His tools are the shovel and wheelbarrow on the 
 loamy soils of the upper tule-lands, and on the tide-lands he employs, in 
 addition to these, an iron spade or knife, called a "tule-knife," and a fork, 
 with which to cut and handle the peaty sods. The Chinamen live in 
 tents and work in gangs of ten to twenty-five men each. Every man has 
 his part, from cook to boss, and accounts are duly kept by them of all 
 receipts and expenditures. 
 
 The Chinese labor averages about ten cents per cubic yard, commonly 
 measured in the excavation, in all classes of swamp-land, but varies ac- 
 cording to the nature of the work and distance of moving the earth. 
 Scraper-work is slightly, and dredge-work considerably, higher in price, 
 but the respective results obtained are proportionately superior in effect- 
 iveness. 
 
 The cost of reclamation per acre varies as much as the number of dis- 
 tricts. The uniformity of the conditions on the sall^marsb precludes much 
 difference there. Ten dollars per acre may be set as a maximum figure, 
 while the best reclaimed tract — one of thirteen hundred acres — cost less 
 than five dollars per acre under very able and experienced management. 
 
 A wide range occurs upon the tule-lands. A large island of about 
 sixty thousand acres, which was well leveed at the outset with a large 
 embankment that withstood the high waters of February, 1878, when 
 almost every other district was inundated, cost ten dollars per acre for its 
 reclamation. There are tracts which, having suffered from disastrous 
 overflows, show an expenditure on their embankments of several multi- 
 ples of ten dollars per acre. 
 
 An absolute reclamation has not yet been reached on any of the tule- 
 lands. There is grave doubt whether any levee as now built is proof 
 against such a flood as occurred in 1862 ; and as long as the tailings of 
 the hydraulic mines continue to fill up the channels of the rivers, the 
 flood-mark will yearly rise higher until each stream will burst its banks 
 and change its course entirely. The interests involved are, however, too 
 vast to allow such a catastrophe, and at this present moment the best en- 
 gineering talent in the State, under direction of the Legislature, is engaged 
 in maturing plans of reclamation and drainage. 
 
 Swamp-lands duly reclaimed have been always held in high estimation 
 by agricultural people. To a State like California, subject to recurring 
 ■seasons of drought, and with a limited rainy season at all times, the re- 
 
CALIFORNIA. 371 
 
 sources of her swamp-lands, as in this case so eligibly located as well as 
 productive, are susceptible of a development not possible under the ordi- 
 nary climates of the temperate zone. " 
 
 Thus far, the cultivation of these lands in California has suifered through 
 inexperience of the farmer and imperfection of reclamation, and, in con- 
 sequence, the results are fragmentary. The fresh-water tide-lands have 
 undoubtedly a great advantage over the other classes in the fact that 
 daily and cheap irrigation can be had. By this means two, and even 
 three, crops may be raised, and hay cut three or four times each season. 
 The same tide by its flow and ebb permits the land to be flooded and 
 thoroughly drained, fulfilling without cost the two most important con- 
 ditions of the growth of plants. For that reason the range — and espe- 
 cially the certainty — of crops will continue to be far greater upon the 
 fresh-water swamp-lands until irrigating-ditches supplement the levees 
 of those richer lands. The latter, when the water is embanked from 
 them, are reduced to the circumstances of the adjoining plains, excelKng 
 them, indeed, in fertility of soil, but liable to the same contingencies of 
 rainfall. But the fertility of either is beyond any question. 
 
 The productiveness of the salt marsh-lands has been almost as satis- 
 factorily demonstrated. The sedimentary deposits are the same as on 
 the tule-lands, and the organic mould is similar ; hence, to get a like fei- 
 tility it is necessary only to eradicate the salty substances. This is done 
 the more quickly in proportion to the quantity of fresh water put upon 
 the soil, either by the rainfall, by flooding from the frequent creeks that 
 empty into the bay, or from artesian wells in which flowing water has 
 been obtained at a depth of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 and thirty feet. The land may be ploughed after the first rains following 
 reclamation, and a crop of barley or wheat for grain or hay raised the 
 second season. Thereafter, as the soil sweetens, the whole catalogue of 
 farm produce is open to the profitable selection of the farmer. 
 
 There are connected with all classes of swamp-lands, as might be ex- 
 pected, difficulties in cultivation peculiar to each. The salt marshes have 
 permeating them many sloughs or small deep creeks, whose smaller 
 branches extend in every direction, and the soil in drying after tlie water 
 is shut ofi^ shrinks and cracks to a depth often of several feet. The first 
 cost of breaking the land is considerably increased in filling the small 
 sloughs and fissures for the plough. 
 
 The soil of the fresh-water tide-lands, being peaty and light, is also 
 boggy ; and until it is well compacted by a season or two of cultivation 
 without overflow, that they may not mire the horses have their hind feet 
 
372 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 shod with tule-shoes, wliich are the common horseshoes having an en- 
 circling ring attached to broaden the tread. 
 
 The sod on all these lands is v?ry tenacious and hard to pulverize. In 
 many instances it is little less tender than a mat of hair, and there is a 
 kind called " buckskin." Happily, the worst kinds can be subdued by 
 fire. When it was discovered that the turf would burn on th^e tule tide- 
 lands, large areas were burned over, and in the ashes were raised those 
 large crops planted with sheep, already mentioned, that brought these 
 lands into such prominent notice. Fires set on the ground could not be 
 controlled, but burned to such a depth — not uncommonly two, three, or 
 four feet — that the land was permanently injured, so that now many who 
 still resort to burning first plough the turf and set fire to the furrows 
 only. But the plough and harrow are generally preferred for reducing 
 the sod, because, though slower in the process, they do the least injury 
 and accomplish the best ultimate result. 
 
 After two or three years' thorough cultivation the soil of either marsh- 
 or tule-land becomes as light, friable, and easily worked as any garden 
 mould, and yields both pleasure and large returns to the farmer. 
 
 The list of the products that hajve already been raised upon the tule- 
 lands is a large one. Mr. L. C. McAffee of San Francisco, a gentleman 
 of large experience in these lands, enumerates wheat, barley, oats, Indian 
 corn, buckwheat, broom corn, timothy, alfalfa, and other clovers and 
 grasses, potatoes, onions, squashes, beans, sugar-beets, flax, grapes, peaches, 
 apricots, pears, apples, figs, melons, all the small fruits, especially black- 
 berries and strawberries; in fact, hardly any product of the American 
 farm is absent. The borders of most of the streams are covered with a 
 heavy growth of alder, willow, and sycamore, and oaks are found on 
 higher banks. After reclamation willows and alders spring up spontan- 
 eously everywhere, and become a nuisance unless kept under. The poplar, 
 locust, eucalyptus, and other trees suitable for firewood, fencing, and other 
 useful purposes have been successfully introduced. 
 
 Of the several representative crops to which the most attention has 
 been given, wheat has returned twenty-nine and thirty bushels per acre 
 as the average of large fields in different localities, and measurements of 
 specially good but limited areas have shown seventy-seven and one-third, 
 fifty-eight and one-half, and forty-five bushels per acre. Wheat has been 
 peculiarly liable to rust on the spongy tule-lands where out of reach of 
 the summer trade-winds, though it is still a question among tule-farmers 
 whether proper cultivation and early sowing will not obviate the trouble. 
 Barley has always been a safe and extensive crop. The range of authentic 
 
CALIFORNIA. 373 
 
 averages runs from twenty-five to forty-five bushels per acre, but excep- 
 tional yields of one hundred and five bushels per acre are reported. 
 Timothy has produced four and a half tons per acre, and alfalfa six to 
 eight tons. Potatoes have yielded so largely that for two or three sea- 
 sons past the farmer, on account of the excessive supply, has been brought 
 into debt by his crop. Five hundred bushels per acre from one crop 
 have been gathered, and two hundred bushels from the early and late 
 crops is considered an unfailing average. 
 
 Other crops have made similar returns, and it has been quite universally 
 the case that when the tule-farmers have generally raised Vegetables or 
 any article of local consumption the market is certainly overstocked. 
 When it is remembered that the tule tide-lands not only produce, in com- 
 mon with all the swamp-lands, the large crops mentioned, but may also 
 produce two of them, as grain and alfalfa, or grain and beans or potatoes, 
 or other variations, the same season, and with no deterioration of soil that 
 may not be remedied by judicious flooding when the streams are laden 
 with fertile sediment, the great value of these lands will be apparent, and 
 the persistence of the owners in works of reclamation in the face of re- 
 peated disaster will be understood. 
 
 A large production does not alone determine the value of the land. 
 Accessibility to a market is quite as essential ; and this the tide-lands, 
 both salt and fresh, all lying within one hundred miles of San Francisco, 
 possess in an eminent degree. They are interlaced with rivers and 
 sloughs, so that there need not be a farm without water-frontage. The 
 streams are deep and navigable for vessels of any size required for the 
 business. Both sail and steam are employed, and neither the winds of 
 heaven nor the open rivers of the State can be monopolized ; they are 
 ■ free to all, and freights and passage will always be cheap for the residents 
 of tide-lands. One dollar per ton for freight, and the same, for passage, 
 to San Francisco, are the charges below Stockton and Sacramento. Above 
 these points, as the depth of water in the rivers decreases, the charges are 
 higher. The Sacramento River is navigable to Chico Landing, three 
 hundred miles north from San Francisco, giving water-transportation for 
 the entire year throughout the whole length of the swamp-lands, and 
 competing with the two railroads for the traffic of the Sacramento Valley. 
 In the San Joaquin Valley steamers can reach Miller's Landing, three 
 hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco, for a few weeks only during 
 high water in the spring, or for two or three months at most in very wet 
 seasons, so that the swamp-lands on the upper San Joaquin, south of 
 Stockton, must depend mainly on railroads for transportation. The 
 
374 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 maximum freight on either river in no case exceeds four dollars per ton 
 from the places named to Sacramento. The Southern Pacific Railroad 
 charges six dollars per ton for grain from the neighborhood of Tulare 
 and Kern Lakes, which have no navigable outlet. The price of wheat 
 in San Francisco is usually the same as the price at London, less ocean- 
 freight, which varies from ten to twenty dollars per ton. 
 
 Neither the tule- nor salt marsh-lands are yet considered desirable for 
 residence. The danger of overflow, the presence of mosquitos, and the 
 possibility of fever and ague — which is largely counteracted by the trade- 
 winds on and near the bays — do not encourage the building of homes. 
 But such things are always incident to a new country, and, as the people 
 add to their wealth, they pay stricter attention to the laws of health and 
 increase in every way their comfort and the beauty of their surroundings. 
 
 The climate of the swamp-lands shares the changes of the coimtry 
 about them. The temperature ranges slightly lower on account of the 
 large water-surface exposed to evaporation, by which cooler breezes are 
 created in summer and heavier frosts in winter. The thermometer in 
 the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys fluctuates more widely 
 and stands at a higher mean than at the Golden Gate. It rarely falls 
 below the freezing-point, but in the valleys it frequently rises above 100° 
 Fahrenheit. The delightful annual mean temperature of the valleys is 
 about 63° Fahrenheit, and at San Francisco the still cooler 56° 
 Fahrenheit. 
 
 CEKEAL AND OTHEE CROPS OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 BY E. W. HILGARD. 
 
 /^F all the field-crops grown in California, wheat is the most important 
 ^ at this time. It was the first culture on a large scale introduced on 
 the subsidence of the gold fever, and the returns received proved to be so 
 much greater and more certain than those from the placer-mines that it 
 extended rapidly, and has ever since remained the largest and most gen- 
 erally appreciated product of California agriculture. The amount pro- 
 duced in 1878 (an average year) was 22,000,000 centals — of which 
 8,069,825 were exported as grain — and about 500,000 barrels of flour. 
 In the markets of the world the wheats of the Pacific coast are noted for 
 
CALIFORNIA. 375 
 
 their high quality — the plympness and- light color of the "berry" and 
 the high percentage of first-clasa flour it furnishes in milling. At home 
 the extraordinarily high product per acre of forty to sixty bushels, and 
 even more — under very imperfect tillage — for a number of consecutive 
 years, forms a strong incentive to this culture. Nor is the California 
 wheat-grower obliged to be very careful in his choice of seed. Prob- 
 ably every known variety of wheat has in the course of time been 
 brought and tried here, but all in a short time seem to assume very 
 nearly the same peculiar California type, upon which, in fact, it would 
 seem hard to improve materially. It is almost ludicrous, at times, to 
 compare the Eastern seed with its California offspring which has under- 
 gone the " swelling process " of one season's growth in her generous soil 
 and climate. It is but fair to say that substantially the same peculiar- 
 ities are observable in the wheats of Oregon, grown in the valley of tlie 
 Willamette and on the plains of the upper Columbia. Since the grow- 
 ing season in the greater part of California extends, with little interrup- 
 tion from cold, from the beginning of November to June, the distinction 
 between winter and spring grain is also in a great measure lost. The 
 farmer ploughs and sows as early as practicable, watching his chances 
 between rains — in November and December if he can, in March if he 
 must, or at any convenient time between — increasing the amount of seed 
 sown per acre in proportion as there remains less time for the grain to 
 tiller. Should the ears fail to fill, he can still make hay. 
 
 Much discussion has been had concerning the merits of early as com- 
 pared with late sowing. The objections against the former practice are 
 that copious early rains may start the growth too rapidly, the chances 
 being that in that case but little more water will fall until Christmas. 
 It is true the weather-wise may sometimes gain materially by delay in 
 sowing, but the general result of experience seems to be that it is better 
 in the long run to take the risk of having to sow twice, rather than that 
 of being kept from sowing at all until too late by persistent rains. It 
 has therefore become a very common practice to " dry-sow " grain in sum- 
 mer-fallowed land in September and October. The seed lies quiescent 
 in the parched and dusty ground until called forth by the rains, and in 
 clean fields and ordinary seasons such grain generally yields the highest 
 returns. The preparation of the ground for the crop on the large wheat- 
 farms is usually made by means of gang-ploughs with from two to six 
 shares, drawn by from three to five horses or mules, three animals very 
 commonly walking abreast. At the critical season it is not uncommon 
 to see half a dozen such implements and teams at work in a single field, 
 
376 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 closely followed by a wagon carrying seed-grain and the centrifugal 
 sower, which showers the grain upon the fresh-turned furrows in strips 
 thirty or more feet wide. Before the day ends the great (usually flexible) 
 harrows have also performed their work, and thirty or forty acres of what 
 was a stubble-field in the morning have been converted into a well-seeded 
 grain-field. Of late, appliances for seeding and covering have been at- 
 tached to the gang-ploughs themselves, so that the whole task is per- 
 formed in one operation — rcertainly the perfection of labor-saving ma- 
 chinery. Seed-drills are as yet in but limited use, although nowhere, 
 probably, would drilling be more desirable in order to admit of subse- 
 quent culture, for want of which crops often totally fail on the heavier 
 soils. During the rainy season the covering is often done by rolling 
 alone, and on harrowed ground the roller is frequently used later in the 
 season, in order to compact the surface so as to mitigate the drying effects 
 of "northers." 
 
 In the grain-harvest (which begins in the second week of June) the 
 "wholesale" mode of procedure is equally prevalent. The scythe is 
 used only to cut the way, and that on small farms ; then follows the 
 reaper, hired if not owned by the farmer himself. But the binding and 
 shocking process that is to succeed is far too slow for the large grain- 
 grower, who has his hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of acres to reap 
 within the short time allowed by the exceedingly rapid maturing, which 
 threatens him with serious loss by shedding, the air being at that season 
 very dry even at night. His implement is the giant header, pushed into 
 the golden fields by from four to eight horses. Its vibrating cutters clip 
 off the heads, with only a few inches of straw attached, on a swath six- 
 teen, and even twenty-eight, feet wide, while a revolving apron carries 
 the laden ears to a wagon driven alongside, and having a curious wide- 
 slanting bed for their reception. Several of these wagons drive back and 
 forth between the swaths and the steam-thresher, where within half an 
 hour the grain that was waving in the morning breeze may be sacked 
 ready for shipment to Liverpool. Even this energetic mode of proce- 
 dure, however, has appeared too slow to some of the progressive men in 
 business, and we have seen a wondrous and fearful combination of header, 
 thresher, and sacking-wagon moving in procession side by side through 
 the doomed grain. If this stupendous combination and last refinement 
 shall prove practically successful, we shall doubtless next see the flour- 
 ing-mill itself form a part of this agricultural pageant. Where farming 
 is not done on quite so energetic a plan the reaped and bound grain, 
 being at that season perfectly safe from rain, is left either in shocks or 
 
1 -Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove. 2.-Three Graces, Calaveras Group 3.-Scenes in Mariposa Grove 
 4.-Trunk of Big Tree, Mariposa Grove. 6.-Natural Arch, Big Tree, Mariposa Grove. 6.-Calaveras Group, Big Trees. 
 
CALIFORNIA. 377 
 
 stacks until the threshing-party comes around, mostly with a portable 
 engine, often fed with straw alone, to drive the huge " separator," whose 
 combined din and puffing will sometimes startle late sleepers as it sud- 
 denly starts up in the morning from the most unexpected places. Two 
 wagons, usually aided by some " bucks " (a kind of sledge-rake, which 
 also serves to remove the straw from the mouth of the thresher), feed the 
 devouring monster. In an incredibly short time the shocks or stacks are 
 cleared away, and in their stead appear square piles of turgid grain-sacks 
 and broad low hillocks of straw. Both products often remain thus for 
 six or eight weeks, the grain getting so thoroughly dry in the interval 
 that there is frequently an overweight of five or more per cent, when, 
 after its long passage in the damp sea-air, the cargo reaches Liverpool. 
 The moral question thus arising as to who is entitled to the benefit of 
 this increase I will not pretend to determine, but the producers say that 
 they rarely hear of any differences in their favor. 
 
 The manner of disposing of the straw is one of the weakest points of 
 California agriculture. Near to cities or cheap transportation much of it 
 is baled like hay and finds a ready market, but in remote districts it is 
 got rid of by applying the torch ; and these " straw-fires " habitually red- 
 den the autumn skies as do the prairie-fires in the Western States, cover- 
 ing the whole country with a smoke-haze as a faint reminiscence of the 
 Indian summer, which is not otherwise well defined on the Pacific coast. 
 This holocaust of valuable materials, which might be made the means of 
 some slight return of plant-food to the soil, is a standing reproach to 
 those who practise it ; yet they have some excuse ' in the fact that the 
 peculiarities of the climate do not make it as easy to convert it into ma- 
 nure as is the case in countries having summer rains. For in winter the 
 temperature is, after all, too low to favor rapid decay, while during the 
 summer months the intense drought soon puts an end to fermentation. 
 It therefore takes two seasons to render the straw fit for ploughing in ; 
 and in the mean time, as left by the thresher, it occupies considerable 
 ground. As yet, the conviction that straw-burning is penny-wisdom and 
 pound-foolishness has not gained sufficient foothold to induce the majority 
 of wheat-growers to take the pains of putting the straw into stacks with 
 concave tops to collect and retain the water. But those who have done 
 so report that, the resulting improvement of the soil pays well for the 
 trouble. The practice of burning will^of course, disappear so soon as 
 the system of large-scale planting gives way, as it soon must, to that of 
 mixed farming on a smaller scale. 
 
 Of the other cereals, barley and oats are the only ones that can as yet 
 
378 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 lay claim to general importance; and the methods of culture are ipuch the 
 same. Like the wheats, so the barleys of California are of exceptionally 
 fine quality, that of the " Chevalier " variety being so eagerly sought for 
 by Eastern brewers that but little of it finds its way into California- 
 brewed beer. The common (six- and four-rowed) barleys are, however, 
 themselves of such high quality that the absence of the highest-grade 
 grain is certainly not perceptible in the quality of the beer, into which, 
 unlike most of its Eastern brethren of St. Louis and Chicago, nothing but 
 barley and hops finds its way. The various kinds of oats are produced 
 for home consumption only, the difficulty being very commonly that the 
 straw becomes so strong as to interfere seriously with its use for forage. 
 Rye is grown to some extent in the mountain-counties, and yields a 
 splendid grain, called for chiefliy by the taste of the German population 
 for rye bread. Some Polish wheat {Trilieum polonicom) is grown under 
 the name of " white rye." Maize is thus far grown but to a small ex- 
 tent compared with wheat, barley, and oats — ^not, however, because of any 
 difficulty in producing corn, which as to quality, size, and yield per acre 
 can compete with any in the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 HOETICTJLTTTBAL PEODrCTS. 
 
 Xothing probably strikes the newcomer in California more forcibly, 
 and nothing certainly more agreeably, than the advantages oifered by a 
 climate where plants can ordinarily be kept growing from ten to twelve 
 months in the year, provided water is supplied. The immigrant desiring 
 to make a home for himself is delighted to find that the rapid growth of 
 shrubbery and flowers — and among them many that he has so far seen 
 only nurtured in greenhouses — ^^vill enable him to create arottnd him in 
 the course of three seasons, on a bare lot, a home atmosphere that else- 
 where it would have required ten or more years to establish. The house- 
 wife, however industriously disposed, is not ill pleased to find herself 
 relieved from the annual pressure of the " preserving season " by the cir- 
 cumstance that fresh fruits are in the market at reasonable rates during 
 all but a few weeks in the year, so that a few gallons of jellies is all that 
 is really called for in the way of " putting up." It is not less pleasing 
 to her, as well as to the rest of the family, that a good supply of fresh 
 vegetables is at her command at all seasons, and that the Christmas din- 
 ner, if the turkey does cost thirt)' cents a pound, may be graced with crisp 
 lettuce, radishes, and green peas just as readdy as it may be celebrated by 
 an open-air picnic on the green grass under blooming bushes of the scarlet 
 gooseberry. Of course there are seasons of preference for each vegetablej 
 
CALIFORNIA. 379 
 
 and among the great variety naturally introduced by the various nation- 
 alities there are few that cannot be found in the San Francisco market at 
 almost any time in the year — if not from local culture, then from some 
 point between Lo? Angeles and the mouth of the Colimibia. The truck- 
 gardens are largely in the hands of the Italians and Portuguese, who have 
 brought witli them from their homes habits of thrift ; and their manure- 
 piles, ■n'indmilLs for irrigation, and laborioas care of their unreasing round 
 of crops on a small area render their establishments easy of recognition. 
 Their products are distributed partly by thenLselves, partly by the ubiqui- 
 tous Chinese huckster, trotting with his t\vo huge baskets under a weight 
 that few Caucasians would carry for any length of time. Xot a few 
 Chinese also are engaged in the truck-farming business. The vegetables 
 are in general of excellent quality, and it may Ije truly said that in no 
 city of the United States is the general quality of fare so good, so well 
 adapted to every variety of taste, and (last but not least) so cheap, as in 
 the City of the Golden Gate, and nowhere is the decoration of even th^ 
 htunblest homes vrith flowers and shrubbery more universal and at the 
 same time so generoasly aided by Xature. 
 
 In no department of industry, probably, is the reputation of Cahfomia 
 better established than in regard to fruit-culture. Its pears seem to liave 
 been the pioneers in gaining the award of special excellence ; grapes and 
 cherries have rapidly taken a place alongside ; and, last, oranges and lemons 
 have come to dispute the palm with Sicily and the Antilles. The most 
 striking peculiarity' of California fruit>-culture is its astonishing versatility, 
 not to say cosmopolitanism ; for the variety of fruits capable of successful 
 culture within the limits under consideration in this article probably ex- 
 ceeds, even at this time, that found elsewhere in any country of similar 
 extent, and is constantly on the increase by the introduction of new kinds 
 from all quarters of the globe. Doubtless, in time each district wiU settle 
 down to the more or less exclusive production of certain kinds found to 
 be most profitable under its particular circumstances, so far as the large- 
 scale cultures are concerned ; but whosoever raises fruit mainly for home 
 consumption will hardly resist the temptation offered by the possibility 
 of growing side by side the fruits of the tropics and those of the north 
 temperate zone — the currant and the orange, the cherry and the fig, the 
 strawberry and the pineapple, the banana and plantain as well as the 
 apple and medlar. It might be supjjosed that the quality of these products 
 must of necessity suffer grievously under the stress of their mutual con- 
 cessions of habit ; and this, of course, is true as regards the highest quali- 
 ties of the extremes under the judgment of the expert, but unperceived 
 
380 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 to a surprising degree by the taste of the public in the general market. 
 The oranges grown in some of the sheltered valleys of the Coast Range 
 and on the red soils of the foot-hills, as far north as Butte county, often 
 successfully dispute the precedence with the product of Los Angeles and 
 San Bernardino. 
 
 The exportation of dried fruits of all kinds is doubtless destined to be- 
 come one of the most important branches of agricultural industry in the 
 State, both on account of quality and of the natural facilities for the dry- 
 ing process offered by the dry summer air. It is found to be absolutely 
 necessary to exclude in the drying operations all access of insects, which 
 otherwise lay their eggs in the fruit and spoil it within a year. This is 
 now very generally and effectually accomplished by the use of the best dry- 
 ing-apparatus, not uncommonly in co-operative factories erected by com- 
 panies or granges. The quality of the prunes, plums, apricots, pears, etc. 
 cured by some of these establishments is not behind the best of the kind 
 imported from France and Italy, but as yet the neatness and convenience 
 of the packages are not so generally what is necessary to render them 
 equally attractive to the purchaser. 
 
 While the orange, lemon, lime, and other sub-tropical fruits are more 
 or less in cultivation up to the northern third of the State, they form the 
 specialty of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and adjoining counties, where 
 also the pineapple, banana, guava, and other more strictly tropical fruits 
 are mainly under trial. In a measure, what has been said above of the 
 more northern fruits applies here also. While much fruit of the highest 
 quality is produced, much also is still in the experimental stage, and some 
 very poor lots are occasionally thrown upon the market. The subject has 
 lately, however, been earnestly taken in hand by the young but propor- 
 tionally energetic Horticultural Society of South California, in which a 
 number of the most intelligent men have combined to determine in the 
 shortest possible time, by systematic experiments, discussion, and scientific 
 investigation, in connection with the agricultural department of the uni- 
 versity, the practically important questions relating to this culture. While 
 the orange and lemon product is marketed without difficulty and at good 
 prices, the millions of excellent limes borne by the hedges customary in 
 the southern part of the State are still mostly allowed to decay where they 
 fall. The manufacture of citric acid can hardly fail before long to put an 
 end to this waste of precious material. The pomegranate, which is to 
 some extent similarly used, generally finds a ready sale for its fruit. The 
 olive, so generally found around the old missions as a relic of the past, 
 has not so far found its place in general culture, and on the shelves of the 
 
CALIFORNIA. 381 
 
 grocers in the cities we still find the same mixtures of cotton-seed, peanut, 
 and other oils, with a modicum of the genuine product of the olive, that 
 form the standing complaint of salad-eaters throughout the United States. 
 The subject of olive-culture has of late attracted considerable attention, 
 and small quantities of excellent oil have been made in various parts of 
 the State, proving beyond cavil that its production can be made an im- 
 portant industry. The culture of the fig in California is coextensive with 
 that of the vine, and the fresh and dried fruit of the highest quality is 
 foimd in the market. 
 
 As to nuts, the European walnut, the Italian chestnut, and the almond 
 are those whose culture on a large scale has been successfully carried out. 
 The filbert may also be mentioned. Of these, the almond has been made 
 the subject of the largest experiments, and, as might be expected, there 
 have been numerous disappointments in consequence of the selection of 
 unsuitable localities, subject to light frosts at the time of bloom. The 
 best results have been obtained in situations moderately elevated above 
 the valleys — " thermal belts " where the cold air cannot accumulate. The 
 quality of the product leaves nothing to be desired where proper care is 
 had in the selection of varieties. 
 
 The Japanese persimmon promises here, as in the Southern United 
 States, to prove an important acquisition. The jujube, the carob, the 
 pistachio-nut, and many others are under trial. 
 
 Of small fruits, the strawberry is in the market during the twelve 
 months of the year. Raspberries and blackberries are largely grown, 
 both for market and canning. The currant is of especial excellence and 
 size, and is extensively grown between the rows in orchards. Goose- 
 berries have not been altogether successful in general culture. 
 
 A good deal has been said and written aboiit coffee-culture. It was 
 currently reported that a kind of coffee grew wild in the foot-hills, and 
 that of course the real coffee must succeed. The " wild coffee," however, 
 is simply the California buckthorn {Frangula Californicu), and of course 
 no more suitable for a beverage than turnip-seed. True, coffee trees are 
 now growing at numerous points in the State, but it is not probable that 
 the culture will prove a success outside of South California. 
 
382 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 GOLD-MINING. 
 
 WHATEVER may have been said of the evils that have been in- 
 flicted upon humanity by the thirst for gold, this fact stands out 
 prominently — that just in proportion to the abundance of the precious 
 metals, in the same ratio have the arts and sciences flourished, trade and 
 commerce increased, the area of civilization been extended, and the com- 
 fort, intelligence, and freedom of the masses augmented. " But for the 
 discovery of gold in California," says McClellan, " more than likely San 
 Francisco would be to-day an obscure outpost upon our western coast, 
 Oregon would still be a Territory, Alaska still under the imperial rule of 
 the czar, and the great valleys of California untilled." He might have 
 added, "There would have been no railroad across the continent, and 
 towns and villages would not have bordered the iron track." Where 
 but a few years since the wild buffalo wandered undisturbed, where the 
 war-whoop of the merciless savage struck terror to the hearts of the 
 weary emigrants toiling across the continent to plant the flag and rear the 
 altars of freedom still farther toward the setting sun, is now heard the 
 cheerful whistle of the locomotive as it rushes on over mountain and 
 plain with the speed of the whirlwind. Happy cottagers, secure in their 
 homes, lift up their voices and greet the welcome messenger of civiliza- 
 tion as it speeds on in the track of " the star of empire " with its load 
 of living freight. 
 
 The discovery of gold in California gave an impetus to commerce that 
 resulted in giving to the world a new style of naval architecture — the 
 American clipper ship. But for this discovery there would now have 
 been no lines of steamers to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China 
 — marine palaces that they are, that rob the ocean of half its terrors. 
 Every country bordering upon, and every island bounded by, the vast 
 Pacific Ocean, has been benefited, and its pace in the race of civilization 
 accelerated, by the discovery of gold in California. 
 
 It is true gold had been found in California prior to 1848 ; even so far 
 back as 1510 — seventy years before Sir Francis Drake made his descent 
 upon this coast and reported the existence of gold in California — the fiict 
 had been noted in a small volume published that year in Spain. The 
 fii-st discovery of " pay dirt " was made near Los Angeles in the year 
 1838, and these placers were profitably worked for a number of years. 
 In 1846, Thomas O. Larkin, United States Consul for California, in his 
 
CALIFORNIA. 383 
 
 report to the Secretary of Stat€> said : " There is no doubt but that gold, 
 silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur, and coal-mines exist in this ter- 
 ritory." Sixty-six days after the date of this paper Commodore Sloat 
 hoisted the American flag over the fort at Monterey and took possession 
 of the country in the name of the United States. Had he arrived but 
 a few hours later, the flag of England would have been hoisted in place 
 of the St^rs and Stripes, for the British admiral had sailed from Ma- 
 zatlan about the same time and on the same errand, but was beaten iii 
 the race. 
 
 Though the precious metals were known to exist previously in Cali- 
 fornia, the grand epoch of the age dates from the discovery of Marshall 
 on the banks of the American River, and this happened just ten days 
 before the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. It is difficult to 
 avoid the impression that this discovery was delayed by the Ruler of 
 events until the times were ripe for its benefits to become widespread 
 among the nations of the earth. 
 
 The iirst attempts at mining were made with implements of the rudest 
 character ; nor were any others needed at that time, for in many cases 
 from fifty to one hundred dollars were taken out in one day. Picks, pans, 
 ^n4 shovels were first used. The pans were about the size of milk-pans, 
 with a ledge soldered around the outside to assist in handling them. They 
 were first filled with the auriferous dirt and sunk in the water, which 
 flowed in over the sides ; when completely saturated, the dirt was stirred 
 and the settling of the gold facilitated by a circular motion. The top 
 dirt was then poured off. This was repeated until nothing but gold and 
 black sand was left, both of which were bagged together in a small buck- 
 skin sack, and the black sand afterward taken out with a magnet. Some 
 experience (but the art is easily acquired) is necessary to prevent some of 
 the gold from escaping toward the close of the operation. The rocker 
 was brought to California from Chili. It very much resembles the old- 
 fashioned baby-cradle with rockers. The dirt is thrown in upon a screen 
 in one end, while the water passing over sets the gold free, which falls to 
 the bottom, while the dirt floats oli", and the stones are thrown out by 
 hand. The long-tom is a box or short sluice through which a stream of 
 water is kept running. Into this box the dirt is thrown, which, carried 
 down by the stream, falls upon a screen that will only permit small par- 
 ticles to pass through. When the gold is fine, quicksilver is sometimes 
 used in the bottom of the screen. While the pans and roclvcrs were 
 mostly used on the bars convenient to the streams, the long-toms were an 
 invention best adapted to the gulches, where water could only be had in 
 
384 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the rainy season. But as the difficulties of securing the gold increased the 
 genius of the inventive Yankee was equal to the occasion. For river- 
 bed mining sluices were invented. These are made of boards sawed for 
 the purpose, the bottom board being wider at one end, enabling the small 
 end to be shipped in forming a lap-joint; transverse cleats, called riffles, 
 are nailed along the bottom, or other means involving the same principle 
 are adopted to save the gold. , These riffles are generally charged with 
 quicksilver, and on occasions are not " cleaned up " for weeks. These 
 sluices are sometimes two or three hundred, and in hydraulic mining 
 even a thousand, feet long. 
 
 ' The beds of the rivers or creeks are mined by turning the stream in 
 the dry season, when the water is low. For river-bed mining a favor- 
 able location, where the tailings can be got rid of, is selected, and a dam 
 thrown across the stream, while a canal to carry away the water is built 
 along one bank of the river. The seepage-water is taken out by means 
 of a pump, generally worked by a stream of water taken from the dam. 
 When the space below the dam is comparatively dry, the miners wade in, 
 encased in gum-boots impervious to water, and with shovels strip off the 
 top dirt, the gold being found in the clay on the bed-rock, in the crevices, 
 and around the bases of the boulders. These are raised from their bed? 
 where too large to be removed by bars and levers, and the dirt worked out 
 from under them and thrown into the sluices that run the entire length 
 of the claim. The large rocks are sometimes broken up by sledges or 
 blasted, and stacked upon one side clear of the work. 
 
 As the miners continued their explorations up the streams toward the 
 Sierras, it was soon discovered that the banks of the rivers grew less 
 auriferous beyond a certain point. This led to the discovery of the " blue- 
 gravel " leads, or the beds of the " dead rivers," as they have been called. 
 In some places this gravel is found cemented, and has to be crushed with 
 stamps, like gold-quartz. These gravel deposits were sometimes buried 
 to the depths of thousands of feet beneath the lava of volcanic eruptions. 
 Under these the miners were compelled to tunnel. What has been said 
 in regard to tunnelling veins does not apply to these horizontal deposits 
 of auriferous gravel, that could not be reached in any other manner. The 
 propensity for tunnelling, so common in California under all circumstances, 
 was doubtless acquired by these early examples. 
 
 High up in the recesses of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are to be 
 
 found immense deposits of auriferous dirt several hundred feet in depth. 
 
 Where these beds are extensive and water plenty and convenient, these 
 
 . claims pay to work even though the gold present does not exceed one cent 
 

CALIFORNIA. 385 
 
 to the square foot of dirt, though most of them pay much more than that. 
 It is necessary to have a good head of water — ^not less than fifty feet above 
 the bed-rock. This water is led into a small resei"voir, into which it is 
 continuously pouring. From this a hose extends tO the bottom of the 
 claim. At the end of this hose is a nozzle, tapering from eight inches 
 at the butt to two inches at the orifice. From this the water rushes with 
 such force that it will kill a man as quick as if struck by a bar of steel. 
 When this stream of water is projected against the bank, the dirt or clay 
 is loosened and carried by the current into the sluices, where it is pulver- 
 ized and the gold set free by pounding against the riffles in its down- 
 ward, course. Hydraulic mining may be considered the perfection of 
 placer-mining, and Americans may pride themselves with being the 
 inventors. 
 
 When the dirt in these claims is very compact, it is sometimes blasted 
 out. Lqng tunnels are run with cross-cuts at the end, in which are stored 
 from one to two hundred kegs of powder, the tunnel filled up and the 
 blast set off. The effect is like a young earthquake in the neighborhood, 
 and thousands of tons of earth and gravel — the debris of ages — is torn 
 from its long resting-place and carried by the torrents to the plains below, 
 where, as in Bear Valley, it has submerged farms. 
 
 So much has been said of vein-mining that little more remains to be 
 told. Attention was given to gold quartz-veins in this State as early as 
 1850. The Mexicans had located some of the richest lodes, and worked 
 the ores in ayrastras, after the manner of Mexico. Some even had found 
 rock rich enough to pay handsomely by crushing the choicest specimens 
 in mortars. The first quartz-mill was erected in 1851 at Grass Valley, 
 where this industry has ever since been successfully prosecuted. Some 
 of the mines in this locality have paid large fortunes to their owners. 
 But few of them have ever been put upon the stock board, and under the 
 direction and management of experienced Cornish miners they have been 
 economically developed by shafts following the direction of the vein, 
 which is proved by experience to be the most economical method of work- 
 ing a mine wherever this plan is found practicable. There are many gold 
 quartz-veins in the State that cannot be made to pay to work on account 
 of the rebellious character of the ores, caused by their combination with 
 base metals and sulphur. It is to be hoped that we are on the eve of a 
 revolution in metallurgical processes that will enable all these mines to 
 be worked at a profit. 
 
 ' One of the most remarkable deposits of gold in California is to be 
 found on the Pacific coast, extending from Trinidad, a small port near 
 25 
 
386 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Humboldt Bay, to Crescent City. Along this shore is a high Muff of 
 gravel-drift, which most likely owes its existence to the Grlacial Period. 
 That it was once elevated far above the level of the sea there is abundant 
 evidence ; it is now, however, being constantly washed away by the action 
 of the waves. One of its peculiarities is the great abundance of black 
 sand which may be gathered anywhere along the beach at low water, and 
 with it minute particles of glittering gold. There was a great rush to 
 Gold Bluff in the early days, but the excitement soon died out, and many a 
 flat-broke adventurer returned to curse his folly and the unlucky fate that 
 made him the victim of designing speculators, who had lured him away 
 from a paying claim, which he had abandoned for some one else to jump, in 
 the delusive hope of striking it richer gbmewhere else. This is the rock 
 upon which thousands of " Forty-niners " have been wrecked. There 
 are, however, yet a number of good paying claims along this beach. It 
 has been conjectured that the richest sands are to be found at some dis- 
 tance from the shore, and a vessel was iitted out with a diving-apparatus 
 for the purpose of securing these golden sands, but the enterprise proved 
 a failure. 
 
 The quicksilver-mines of California are next to the gold-mines in im- 
 portance. Cinnabar has been found in the Coast Range from Trinity 
 county to Santa Barbara. The famous New Almaden mine, in Santa 
 Clara county, was discovered some years before the gold-placers. Besides 
 supplying the demands of California, a surplus was exported to Mexico 
 and China for years before any other quicksilver-mine was worked in this 
 State. Rapidly as the demand for quicksilver has increased since the dis- 
 covery of silver and gold in Nevada, Idaho, and Montana, California has 
 proved equal to the emergency, and has supplied the increasing demand, 
 with an abundance left for foreign importation, so continuous and rapid 
 have been the developments of our cinnabar-ledges. At this time the 
 most prolific quicksilver district is within a circle around Mount St. 
 Helena whose radius does not exceed thirty miles. In this district are 
 situated the Redington and Manhattan mines at Knoxville, several in 
 Pope Yalley, the Great Eastern and Great Western in Lake county, and 
 a number of others in Pine Flat and the vicinity of the Geysers. Besides 
 these are a number of others that have not been referred to, and others 
 that have not been developed, or even prospected, for want of capital. A 
 number are also lying idle, owing to a cloud over the titles awaiting 
 settlement. These are the effects of bad legislation. Many of our min- 
 ing laws seem to have been framed with an eye to the division of miniflg 
 profits among the legal profession. These mercurial ores are mostly found 
 
CALIFORNIA. 387 
 
 in a matrix of silica, in some places resembling chalcedony, in others 
 flint, but generally known among the miners as serpentine. It occurs in 
 vast ledges, in some places two or three hundred feet wide, as at the Man- 
 hattan mine, and very frequently is traced for thirty or forty miles, as is 
 the case with the Redington and Great Western lodes. These veins, be- 
 ing in the rural districts, have, many of them, been discovered and are 
 now owned and worked by farmers or others who know nothing about 
 mining, and, as a natural consequence, the work is wretchedly done, 
 while in other cases money is being wasted upon barren rocks where 
 there is not the remotest prospect of finding cinnabar. 
 
 THE CHINESE QUESTION. 
 
 BY CHARLES G. YALE. 
 
 THE Chinese question is one which has been for many years vigor- 
 ously discussed in California, but never so much as within the past 
 year. There are so many arguments pro and con. that a mere enumera- 
 tion of the principal points would occupy more space than we have at 
 disposal. The question of Chinese immigration is of more importance 
 to California than to any other State, since it is through her portals that 
 the " hordes of China " are pouring, which some people think are destined 
 to overrun the country, as they are now doing the islands of the South 
 Pacific. 
 
 Briefly, however, it may be stated that the opponents of Chinese immi- 
 gration claim that the presence of theSe Asiatics in California is destruc- 
 tive to the permanent welfare of the State. They do not come to settle 
 or take upon themselves the duties of citizenship. They all expect to 
 returii to China, and even contract to have their bones returned there if 
 they die here. They live on a pittance, and work for wages upon which 
 a white man would starve. They purchase from each other whenever 
 possible, and do as little business with the " Melican man " as may be. 
 They bring no families with them, and nearly all their women in the 
 State are common prostitutes. Their dwelling-places in San Francisco 
 City reek with filth, and " their ways are not our ways." They crowd out 
 of employment not only men and women, but boys and girls. Thousands 
 
388 TEE GREAT WEST. 
 
 of Chinese are employed at the expense of nearly an equal number of 
 white people, who are thus kept out of work. They love their own 
 country and their forms of religion so well that they have no desire 
 for citizenship and no thoughts of Christianity. These and many other 
 arguments are brought against them, but the principal one is that with 
 the pecuniary bearing, of course : they work cheaper than white men "and 
 take their places. 
 
 On the other hand, there are those that argue that if a white man, with 
 the advantages of education, civilization, knowledge of mechanical appli- 
 ances, intelligence, and energy, in his own land cannot compete in the race 
 for life with these ignorant foreign pagans, he had better go to the wall. 
 It is a deplorable fact that such is the case without a doubt. The Chinese 
 are industrious, frugal, energetic, ambitious, temperate, content with any- 
 thing, require few amusements, are apt to learn, painstaking, steady, obe- 
 dient — in fact, are model workmen when trained. Of this there is no 
 doubt, and no one gainsays it. It is for these very reasons, however, 
 when their domestic habits are considered, that white men are unable to 
 compete with them. Their habits of life are totally at variance with ours. 
 They crowd their dwellings like rats, and any hovel is good enough for 
 them. As laborers they are by no means as good as white men : they are 
 not as strong and do less work in a day. They " soldier " even more 
 than the common laborers when they can and are working by the day. 
 On piece-work they work like Trojans, seeming never to tire. In gangs 
 they require a watchful " herder " to keep them at it, and one unused to 
 their ways would lose patience at their efforts. 
 
 The feeling is strong throughout California that the immigration of 
 Chinese should be I'estricted. The people of the State have been con- 
 demned wholesale for their opinions on the question, but strangers to the 
 subject should at least consider that the Californians are possessed of or- 
 dinary intelligence, and their experience should outweigh the theories of 
 those who are unfamiliar with the matter. At a recent general election, 
 where a vote was taken " for " and " against " Chinese immigration, only 
 two hundred-odd votes were polled in favor of the Chinese out of the 
 many thousands polled in the State. 
 
 There is really not that difference of opinion on the subject there 
 would seem among the inhabitants of California. The differences are 
 not on the question of restricting the immigration or the policy of the 
 matter ; it is only a question of means. The respectable portion of the 
 community consider their presence an evil, but they at the same time 
 wish to see them protected now that they are here, and do not wish to 
 
CALIFORNIA. 389 
 
 see any unlawful measures adopted concerning them. They desire the 
 general government to take the matter in hand and restrict any further 
 immigration. Extremists wish to forcibly expel those now in the coun- 
 try ; the more moderate want to let those here alone, but prevent more 
 coming. They argue that those in California made the present railroad 
 system of the State not only a possibility, but a fixed fact; that their 
 presence has admitted of the establishment and continuance of many 
 industries which would not otherwise exist ; that they are necessary to 
 gather our crops of small fruits, grapes, etc,, etc, — for without them 
 labor in such channels would be scarce — ^to work our quicksilver and 
 similar mines, to cultivate the swamp-lands, to build irrigating-ditches, to 
 reclaim tule-lands, and do other drudgery and unhealthy work which 
 white men would refuse. 
 
 Probably if they confined themselves to such occupations there would 
 be no complaint. But they fill the factories where shoes, hats, shirts, 
 clothes, cigars, matches, rope, jute, wooden-ware, brooms, blankets, can- 
 ned goods, etc. are made, and crowd out white labor. The manufacturers 
 say, however, that without them these and many other industries could 
 not compete with Eastern markets, and they would be compelled to close 
 permanently. The Californians have been brought face to face with 
 these questions and many more complicated ones from day to day for 
 years, and it is small wonder that the general desire for some decision by 
 the government is anxiously looked for by all classes. 
 
 A LABOK QUESTION. 
 
 BY HON. EDWIN K. MEADE. 
 
 THE Chinaman comes here as a laborer. He personifies the character 
 in its absolutely menial aspect — what the operation of fifty centuries 
 of paganism, poverty, and oppression have made him — a mere animal 
 machine, performing the duties in his accepted sphere punctually and 
 patiently, but utterly incapable of any improvement ; and in this aspect 
 of the question the most serious phase of the problem is presented. 
 
 The qualities of coolie labor mentioned, and the fact that it can be se- 
 cuted in any desired amount and discharged without controversy, render 
 
390 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 it especially attractive to capitalists and contractors. African slave labor 
 presented to some extent the same features, but in a marked degree coolie 
 labor is cheaper, and therefore competitive with white labor. 
 
 In China wages ^.re from six to twenty cents per day, or from three to 
 five dollars per month, when work can be procured, which is not always 
 the case. In California wages of all kinds have been somewhat fluctua- 
 ting, but, as compared with white labor, coolie labor has averaged for the 
 past few years about as follows 
 
 Domestics 10 per cent, less, 
 
 Hostlers and gardeners 30 to 50 per cent. I 
 
 Farm hands 20 to 30 per cent. 1( 
 
 Common laborers 50 to 60 per cent, less, 
 
 Artisans 50 per cent, li 
 
 Laundrymen, etc 50 per cent, li 
 
 Coolies seem adapted to all kinds of manual work except that requiring 
 unusual strength, such as foundrymen, etc., and their service bears a favor- 
 able comparison with white labor. It has maintained its relative cheap- 
 ness, however, by reason of a public sentiment opposed to it, and in some 
 degree through the ignorance of the coolies themselves of its comparative 
 value. 
 
 If wages are to be regulated by habits of living, our rates paid coolies 
 are as much above their wants as they are below those of white laborers, 
 and thus, while offering an inducement for immigration which is irresist- 
 ible, they may yet be very much reduced and still supply the coolie's wants, 
 which are of the simplest kind. He has evidently reached the minimum 
 at which existence may be maintained, and he desires little more. His 
 food is usually a little rice — sometimes, as in India, mixed with curry, in 
 this country occasionally with a piece of pork or fish — the whole not cost- 
 ing over from twenty-five cents to fifty cents per week ; besides, it is not 
 exaggerated that he will feed upon the meanest kind of food, including 
 vermin. His dress, now so well known, consists of thue cheapest quality, 
 without under-garments or any of the accessories which we consider quite 
 indispensable to a complete raiment. His rent is barely nominal. He 
 occupies a small room in common with twenty to fifty others, platforms 
 being raised so as to economize space to the fullest extent. Coolie lodg- 
 ings literally resemble a box filled with herrings. A separate room for 
 cooking or other purposes, as with whites, is quite unltnown. He has no 
 other expenses, unless he indulges in the national vice of gambling or that 
 product of British beneficence, opium-smoking. He has, therefore, little 
 waste, and luxuries which with us have become recognized necessities he 
 entirely ignores, includiug his native tea. 
 
CALIFORNIA. 391 
 
 It is impossible that the white laborer can exist in presence of these 
 conditions. Not only substantial food, comfortable clothing, and decent 
 household accommodations are necessary to him, but his family must be 
 supported in a respectable manner and schooling and religious training be 
 provided for his children. These latter have become essential, and are 
 the glory of our race and nation. The white laborer could not succeed 
 if he would attempt competition with the coolie, and will always be 
 driven from his presence, as cheap currency displaces the better; for 
 while it is true that wages are relatively highest on the Pacific coast, the 
 coolie reduces wages and competes everywhere. White labor will not 
 submit to the degradation of a rivalry with such a competitor, but will 
 either assert its power through the government or be driven from the 
 presence of the coolie altogether. The rule of demand regulating supply 
 may be true of coolie labor alone, but with its numbers, habits, and re- 
 stricted expenses the rule will not apply to white labor at the same time. 
 
 Recent disturbances in regard to labor show the importance of this 
 aspect of the question, and irresistibly awaken the conviction that cheap 
 labor is not desirable in this country ; and whatever folly there may be 
 in the idea of establishing a minimum of wages by the government, it 
 may properly withdraw encouragement from cheap labor, even at the ex- 
 pense of dividends on diluted capital as represented in watered stock. We 
 require liberal wages to meet high tariffs, high taxes, and heavy charges for 
 transportation. Coolie labor means to white labor starvation, almshouses, 
 prisons filled, and, lastly, capital wasting itself. Liberal wages and white 
 labor mean prosperity for all classes and progress in the ways of Chris- 
 tian civilization. All fancied advantages which have followed the intro- 
 duction of coolies in this country disappear before the prospects to which 
 their future in this country would invite us. 
 
 DECISION BY THE CIECUIT COUKT. 
 
 IN the test case (March, 1880) to try the validity of the State law of 
 California prohibiting the employment of Chinese by corporations. 
 Judges Sawyer and Hoffman of the Circuit Court in San Francisco 
 declared the law unconstitutional. In summing up the case the court 
 deKvered the following opinion: 
 
392 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 " That the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese to this country is 
 a great and growing evil, that it presses with great severity on the labor- 
 ing and operative classes, and that if allowed to continue in numbers in 
 any considerable proportion to that of the teeming population of the 
 Chinese empire it will be a menace to our peace and even our civilization, 
 is an opinion entertained by most thoughtful persons in this State. 
 
 " The demand, therefore, that the treaty shall be rescinded or modified 
 is reasonable and legitimate. But while that treaty exists the Chinese 
 have the same rights of immigration and residence as are possessed by 
 any other foreigners. These rights it is the duty of the courts to main- 
 tain and of the government to enforce. The declaration that the Chinese 
 must go, peaceably or forcibly, is an insolent contempt of national obli- 
 gations and defiance of national authority. Before it can be carried into 
 effect by force the authority of the United States must first be not only 
 tried, but resisted and overcome. 
 
 " The attempt to effect this object by violence will be crushed by the 
 power of the government. The attempt to attain the same object indi- 
 rectly will be met with equal promptness by the courts, no matter whether 
 it assumes the guise of an exercise of the political power, or the power 
 to regulate corporations, or any other power reserved by the State, and 
 no matter whether it take the power of a constitutional provision, legis- 
 lative enactment, or municipal ordinance." 
 
 EXTEACT FEOM AN ADDRESS BY REV. 
 JOSEPH COOK. 
 
 rpHE Chinese question is really whether the monopoly of low-paid 
 J- labor shall be given to the Irish and other foreign elements, or shall 
 be divided with the Chinamen ? If the Chinamen now in San Francisco 
 were expelled, wages would go up again— not to the height at which they 
 stood in the gold period, but far higher than they are now. At present 
 they are conspicuously higher than they are in the East. There was a 
 day in California when the average workingman was paid ten dollars for 
 ten hours of labor, and eggs cost twenty-five cents apiece. The time has 
 now come when the Chinaman receives about what we pay white laborers 
 in the East. 
 
CALIFORNIA. 393 
 
 John Chinaman has not displaced anybody: he has filled up gaps. 
 White men, let us suppose, abandon a mine when it will not pay three 
 dollars a day to each laborer. The Chinaman is content with two dollars 
 a day, and he works the mine. Has he displaced the miner who abandons 
 the mine ? He has taken his place, but he has only filled up a vacancy. 
 
 If a man wishes to start a woollen-factory, and must pay three dollars 
 a day for labor, he sees he cannot do it in San Francisco and compete 
 with Lowell and Lawrence. In comes John Chinaman, who can be hired 
 for a price at which it will pay to manufacture woollen goods on the 
 Pacific Slope. The Irishman, with the pickaxe and the hod, does part 
 of the work of putting up the factory, and there is work made in various 
 ways for all the higher grades of labor by the coming in of laborers at 
 ■prices that permit profit. The Pacific Slope needs diversification of 
 labor, and the Chinaman has helped to supply this need. Wages will come 
 to a level on the Pacific Slope, and manufacturing will start up in Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 The fact that ninety thousand Chinamen find constant employment on 
 the Pacific coast at a respectable rate of remuneration is proof that they 
 are needed there. A man who employs Chinamen is to be counted as in 
 favor of Chinese immigration. If one hundred and forty thousand votes 
 should be cast against Chinese immigration in California, it would yet be 
 true that the majority are really in favor of it, because more than seventy 
 thousand people in California employ Chinamen. The newspapers of 
 San Francisco do not properly represent the feelings of the best classes 
 of society there on the Chinese question. 
 
 OUR RELATIONS WITH CHINA. 
 
 BY S. W. "WILLIAMS, LL.D. 
 
 IN considering the political relations between China and the United 
 States it is well to refer to the fifth article in the treaty negotiated at 
 Washington, known as the Burlingame Treaty, as it is continually re- 
 ferred to in this country as bearing on the immigration of the Chinese, 
 It is supposed by many that that article stimulated emigration to America, 
 as its modification or abrogation will stop it. Though Mr. Burlingame 
 
394 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 was invested with full powers, it was not expected that he would negoti- 
 ate any new treaties, and his associate envoys were very reluctant to affix 
 their names to this one without express instructions from Peking. It is, 
 as a whole, rather an amplification of the stipulations and spirit of the 
 treaty of 1858, and does not grant any really new privileges. 
 
 It is not likely that the Burlingame Treaty has ever had any percepti- 
 ble effect on the immigration of the Chinese to this country. Few, very 
 few, of the people know that such an article as the one mentioned exists. 
 They do know that none of their countrymen go as contract-laborers to 
 the United States, and that when a man leaves Hong-Kong under the 
 American flag for the Kau-Kam-Shan, or old Gold Hills, there is a cer- 
 tainty of his friends hearing from him, and of his return home (if living) 
 when he pleases. This treaty was made about twenty years after the im- 
 migration to California had set in, and myriads had gone out and re- 
 turned home in the mean time. When Mr. Burlingame returned from 
 San Francisco to Peking in 1866, he reported to the Chinese that a mil- 
 lion of laborers could find employment on the Pacific coast. The Pacific 
 Railroad had not then been completed, and the prospect to the capitalists 
 engaged in that and other public and private works of getting labor from 
 China at a cheaper rate than could elsewhere be obtained was very tempt- 
 ing. The Chinese were likely to be well treated when they could be 
 hired at half the price of Irish and German laborers. 
 
 It should be stated, too, that, strictly speaking, none come to this 
 country direct from China : from the very first thay have all sailed away 
 to San Francisco from British territory ; the ships have come under British 
 rules and restrictions in relation to provisioning and numbers ; and Brit- 
 ish officers at Hong-Kong have given clearances to ships with Chinese 
 going to San Francisco, just as British officers have given them to ships 
 with Irish going from Queenstown. The Burlingame Treaty would not 
 anyhow have prevented Chinese going to Hong-Kong, and the emperor 
 of China cannot stop his subjects going abroad. The old and common 
 ideas respecting the danger to a man who did so have been exaggerated, 
 for no one was punished who returned home ; on the contrary, in olden 
 times he was regarded with curious interest if he had gone at first from 
 places far in the interior. Probably not five per cent, ever did return ; 
 and far the greater part of those who have gone to Siam, India, and the 
 Archipelago, and elsewhere, went of their own accord, and on the same 
 conditions that they have gone to California and Australia — ^viz. by mort- 
 gaging their labor to pay for their passage. 
 
 The above is one side of the Chinese question. That of treaties, of 
 
CALIFORNIA. 395 
 
 capital and labor, and of treatment of our citizens in China, where we 
 have compelled their rulers to let us live under our own laws within their 
 borders, is the other. This right of ex-territorial jurisdiction is a sore 
 spot in the minds of those rulers, and they usually oppose any demands 
 for further privileges on the part of American representatives, and even 
 of all foreign nations, by comparing the legal position of the two peoples 
 in each other's territories. 
 
 Comparing the civilization of one class with that of the other in this 
 singular condition of things, what do we see? The first has been nur- 
 tured under the highest standards of moral principles, and claims to be 
 guided by elevated sentiments and an intelligent public opinion ; and 
 yet all this has failed to secure the commonest rights of humanity to the 
 second, which is weak, ignorant, poor, and unprotected. When the 
 Chinese first arrived in California after the gold was discovered, they 
 were not allowed to testify in the courts, and the consequences were such 
 as were well known in the slave States, where the evidence of negroes 
 was ruled out. Murders, robberies, oppressions, and assaults upon them 
 became so common, and usually so unpunishable for want of evidence, 
 that the legislators of California, for their own protection, were induced 
 to pass an act allowing the Chinese to testify. Discriminating laws were 
 passed against them, and their labor was taxed without securing to them 
 the protection and privileges they paid for. The fact that the treaties 
 were made with the government of the United States seems to have had 
 no weight with the rulers of the States where the Chinese suffered these 
 things. They fell between two steals. They had neither opportunity to 
 know their treaty-rights, money to go into the proper courts, advocates 
 to plead for them, nor the least consular protection or cognizance from 
 their own home government in Peking. The high officers there were 
 urged to appoint suitable men to go to San Francisco as Chinese consuls, 
 but while they acknowledged its importance, they could not, rather than 
 would not, see their way clear to do so. 
 
 To say that the great majority of Chinese now in our borders are fairly 
 treated and have been paid their wages, and that the cases of outrage and 
 unredressed wrongs form the vast exception, is simply to evade the re- 
 sponsibility which rests on a government to secure protection to every 
 individual within its jurisdiction. The government of the United States 
 ■ properly requires and expects that every American citizen visiting or re- 
 siding in China shall be treated justly by the Chinese government, and 
 its consuls dwelling at the ports would soon be recalled if they failed to 
 do their utmost to redress wrongs suffered in life, limb, or property by 
 
396 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the poorest citizen. The imperial government has already paid out 
 about eight hundred thousand dollars to indemnify the losses of our 
 citizens within its territory. Some of these losses were incurred by the 
 direct act of British forces setting fire to the houses of Americans, and 
 almost in no case were they caused by direct attacks on them as such. 
 Mission-chapels have been destroyed or pillaged by mobs at Tientsin, 
 Shanghai, Fuhchau, and Canton, and indemnity made in every case. 
 
 How mortifying is the record of robberies, murders, arsons, and as- 
 saults committed on peaceable Chinese living on the Pacific coast, not one 
 of whom had any power to plead his case, and most of whom probably 
 suffered in silence ! Do we excuse ourselves from fulfilling treaty-obli- 
 gations — the most solemn obligations a nation can impose on itself, and 
 whose infraction ought always to involve loss of character and moral 
 power — because the Chinese government is a pagan government, and 
 weak, too, as well ? Can this nation look quietly on while Chinese are 
 murdered and their houses burned over their heads in California, and 
 no one is executed for such murders or mulcted for such arsons, and then 
 excuse itself for such a breach of faith because these acts were committed 
 in that State and no Chinese consul is there to plead officially for redress ? 
 It is not implied by this that no murderer has ever been executed for tak- 
 ing their lives or robber punished for his crimes. But every one knows 
 that such criminals do escape punishment, and that the Chinese in that 
 State feel their insecurity and weakness. Woe be to them if they should 
 attempt to redress their own wrongs ! 
 
 This point is quite a different question from the speculative ones — 
 Whether the immigration of the Chinese should be allowed ? whether 
 their labor will not destroy our own ? whether we can absorb and assim- 
 ilate such a mass of ignorant, immoral, and degraded heathens'? The 
 point brought up in these remarks refers to the treaty-obligations the 
 American people have voluntarily ta,ken upon themselves in reference 
 to the Chinese. We may say that we are suffering these evils from that 
 people, and are determined to prevent any more of them coming. If the 
 balance of evils suffered by the parties to these treaties were struck, the 
 Chinese would be foiuid to have had by far the worst of them. It is 
 better far to show that the treaties have brought more good results in 
 their train to both than evil, and that it is for our own highest welfare 
 to treat those whom we have done so much to induce to come here with 
 at least as much justice as we demand of them. Some fear that this 
 country will be swamped altogether by this flood of aliens, but the one 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand, or so, of Chinese now in this land, 
 
CALIFORNIA. 397 
 
 with few exceptions, all came from a small portion — two prefectures — of 
 Kwangtung province. There is no probability of other parts of the em- 
 pire joining in this emigration, for several reasons, one of which is the 
 great difference in their dialects. The labor question, also, is quite irrel- 
 evant to the one before us. The laws of supply and demand, wages and 
 work, food and machinery, are among the most vital and difficult of solu- 
 tion among mankind, and will doubtless often come into collision until 
 their complicated interests are better understood. But to allow one igno- 
 rant laborer to maltreat another with impunity because the former is 
 stronger, has a vote, and will not try to understand why he suffers just 
 as myriads of other laborers do who are not troubled with the " heathen 
 Chinee," is to sap and weaken all law and order. If they are an inferior 
 race, as we roundly assert, there is no fear of their ever interfering with 
 our supremacy here in any department, and policy alone would counsel 
 us to treat them fairly ; and, on the other hand, if they can rise in our 
 own land, under the same democratic institutions and Christian training, 
 to be our equals, we cannot, as a nation living next to them just across 
 the Pacific, well afford to treat them as enemies. 
 
 The Chinese were treated reasonably well in California as long as our 
 citizens could make money out of their cheap labor and when the hopes 
 of getting a large portion of the China and East India trade were en- 
 couraging. They had not carefully studied the thrifty and economical 
 habits of the laborers whom they invited in to compete with native 
 workmen, nor how soon the real power of those habits, which have 
 given the Chinese their superiority in Asia, would be seen here. No 
 measures were taken by the rulers of California or San Francisco to com- 
 pel the immigrants to live with some regard to their own health and the 
 public comfort, but when they became " nuisances " to others from their 
 overcrowding, then the whole blame was put upon them, whereas the 
 chief fault lay with the municipality for not teaching them how to live 
 properly. Further, a wise policy would have led the city and State 
 authorities to educate suitable men in the Chinese language, who could 
 have acted as their interpreters and translators, and thus maintained an 
 intelligent intercourse with these people. Nothing of the kind has ever 
 been done, though measures are taken in several other States to aid Ger- 
 mans, Norwegians, etc. in understanding our laws in their own tongue, so 
 that no mistakes may be made. 
 
398 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 THE BUELINGAME TEEATY. 
 
 Additional Articles to the Treaty between the United States of America and 
 the Ta-Tsing Empire of the 18th of Jwae, 1858. 
 
 WHEREAS, since the conclusion of the treaty between the United 
 States of America and the Ta-Tsing empire (China) of the 18th 
 of June, 1858, circumstances have arisen showing the necessity of addi- 
 tional articles thereto, the President of the United States and the august 
 sovereign of the Ta-Tsing empire have named for their plenipotentiaries, 
 to wit — the President of the United States of America, William H. Sew- 
 ard, Secretary of State ; and His Majesty the emperor of China, Anson 
 Burlingame, accredited as his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipo- 
 tentiary, and Chih-Kang and Sun Chia-Ku, of the second Chinese rank, 
 associated high envoys and ministers of His said Majesty; and the said 
 plenipotentiaries, after having exchanged their full powers, found to be 
 in due and proper form, have agreed upon the following articles : 
 
 Article I. His Majesty the emperor of China being of the opinion 
 that, in making concessions to the citizens or subjects of foreign powers 
 of the privilege of residing on certain tracts of land or resorting to cer- 
 tain waters of that empire for purposes of trade, he has by no means 
 relinquished his right of eminent domain or dominion over the said land 
 and waters, hereby agrees that no such concession or grant shall be con- 
 strued to give to any power or party which may be at war with or hostile 
 to the United States the right to attack the citizens of the United States 
 or their property within the said lands or waters ; and the United States, 
 for themselves, hereby agree to abstain from offensively attacking the 
 citizens or subjects of any power or party or their property with which 
 they may be at war on any such tract of land or waters of the said em- 
 pire ; but nothing in this article shall be construed to prevent the United 
 States from resisting an attack by any hostile power or party upon their 
 citizens or their property. It is further agreed that if any right or 
 interest in any tract of land in China has been or shall hereafter be 
 granted by the government of China to the United States or their citi- 
 zens for purposes of trade or commerce, that grant shall in no event be 
 construed to divest the Chinese authorities of their right of jurisdiction 
 over persons and property within said tract of land, except so far as that 
 right may have been expressly relinquished by treaty. 
 
 Aet. II. The United States of America and His Majesty the emperor 
 
CALIFORNIA. 399 
 
 of China, believing that the safety and prosperity of commerce will 
 thereby best be promoted, agree that any privilege or imnlunity in 
 respect to trade or navigation within the Chinese dominions which may 
 not have been stipulated for by treaty shall be subject to the discretion 
 of the Chinese government, and may be regulated by it accordingly, but 
 not in a manner or spirit incompatible with the treaty-stipulations of the 
 pa,rties. 
 
 Aet. III. The emperor of China shall have the right to appoint con- 
 suls at ports of the United States, who shall enjoy the same privileges 
 and immunities as those which are enjoyed by public law and treaty in 
 the United States by the consuls of Great Britain and Russia, or either 
 of them. 
 
 Art. IV. The twenty-ninth article of the treaty of the 18th of June, 
 1858, having stipulated for the exemption of Christian citizens of the 
 United States and Chinese converts from persecution in China on account 
 of their faith, it is further agreed that citizens of the United States in China 
 of every religious persuasion, and Chinese subjects in the United States, 
 shall enjoy entire liberty of conscience, and shall be exempt from all disabil- 
 ity or persecution on account of their religious faith or worship in either 
 country. Cemeteries for sepulture of the dead of whatever nativity or 
 nationality shall be held in respect and free from disturbance or profanation. 
 
 Art. "V. The United States of America and the emperor of China 
 cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change 
 his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free 
 migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from 
 the one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as 
 permanent residents. The high contracting parties, therefore, join in 
 reprobating any other than an entirely voluntary emigration for these 
 purposes. They consequently agree to pass laws making it a penal 
 offence for a citizen of the United States or Chinese subjects to take 
 Chinese subjects either to the United States or to any other foreign coun- 
 try, or for a Chinese subject or citizen of the United States to take citi- 
 zens of the United States to China or to any other foreign country, with- 
 out their free and voluntary consent respectively. 
 
 Art. VI. Citizens of the United States visiting or residing in China 
 shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, or exemptions in respect to 
 travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of 
 the most favored nation, and, reciprocally, Chinese subjects visiting or re- 
 siding in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, and 
 exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by 
 
400 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. But nothing here- 
 in contained shall be held to confer naturalization upon citizens of the 
 United States in China nor upon the subjects of China in the United States. 
 
 Aet. YII. Citizens of the United States shall enjoy all the privileges 
 of the public educational institutions under the control of the government 
 of China, and, reciprocally, Chinese subjects shall enjoy all the privileges 
 of the public educational institutions under the control of the govern- 
 ment of the United States, which are enjoyed in the respective countries 
 by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. The citizens of 
 the United States may freely establish and maintain schools within the 
 empire of China at those places where foreigners are by treaty permitted 
 to reside, and, reciprocally, Chinese subjects may enjoy the same priv- 
 ileges and immunities in the United States. 
 
 Aet. VIII. The United States, always disclaiming and discouraging 
 all practices of unnecessary dictation and intervention by one nation in 
 the affairs or domestic administration of another, do hereby freely disclaim 
 and disavow any intention or right to intervene in the domestic adminis- 
 tration of China in regard to the construction of railroads, telegraphs, or 
 other material internal improvements. On the other hand, His Majesty 
 tl\e emperor of China reserves to himself the right to decide the time and 
 manner and circumstances of introducing such improvements within his 
 dominions. With this mutual understanding it is agreed by the contract- 
 ing parties that if at any time hereafter His Imperial Majesty shall de- 
 termine to construct or cause to be constructed works of the character 
 mentioned within the empire, and shall make application to the United 
 States or any other Western power for facilities to carry out that policy, 
 the United States will, in that case, designate and authorize suitable en- 
 gineers to be employed by the Chinese government, and will recommend 
 to other nations an equal compliance with such application, the Chinese 
 government in that case protecting such engineers in their persons and 
 property and paying them a reasonable compensation for their service. 
 
 In faith whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed this treaty 
 and thereto affixed the seals of their arms. 
 
 Done at Washington the twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight. 
 
 [seal.] William H. Sewaed. 
 
 Anson Buelingame, 
 [seal.] Chih-Kang, 
 
 Sun Chia-Ku. 
 
CONDITION OF EDUCATION IN THE STATES AND 
 TERRITORIES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 PREPARED BY THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 GENERAL EFFECTS OF THE EXHIBITS OP AMEEICAN EDUCATION. 
 
 IN the successive international expositions from 1851 to 1878 no con- 
 tributions from the United States made a stronger impression than 
 her school-exhibits. They were the occasion of innumerable inquiries, 
 of many foreign reports, and of imposing delegations of European offi- 
 cials commissioned to exkmine in person that system of which the epit- 
 omized representations were so suggestive. 
 
 FOEEIGN CRITICS. 
 
 While criticisms have not been wanting in the reports of these impar- 
 tial examiners, their commendations have been profuse and emphatic. 
 Certainly, they do not find our schools more efficient or our standards 
 higher than those of France and Germany, but they are profoundly im- 
 pressed with the fact that almost every section of this vast territory, in- 
 habited by a heterogeneous people, is so thoroughly imbued with the 
 school spirit. However far westward the traveller pursues his way, the 
 school-house is in advance of him, emphasizing by its recurrence the 
 toast given at a dinner of school officers : " The ubiquitous American 
 school-house." 
 
 " What," said a Western host to his English guest en route for Pike's 
 Peak — " What do you expect to see at the top of Pike's Peak ?" — " A 
 sidiool-house," was. the ready response. 
 
 MAGNITUDE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 Foreigners who are hopelessly entangled in our federal divisions, who 
 are not quite certain whether we are Caucasians or Indians, who fancy that 
 
 26 401 
 
402 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the Sand Lots are in Wall street, whose imaginations perpetually incline 
 to restrict our territory to a strip along the Atlantic, — seem to under- 
 stand perfectly well that our free schools extend across a continent which 
 stretches twenty-five hundred miles from shore to shore. It is difficult 
 for the citizens of our own Eastern States to realize how large a propor- 
 tion of our territory is west of the Mississippi, and equally difficult for 
 them to comprehend that its common-school advantages are not in gen- 
 eral inferior to those of the older sections. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF EDITCATIONAL CONDITION. 
 
 Every State west of the Mississippi has a school clause in its constitu- 
 tion, an organized school system, a permanent school fund, and a State 
 superintendent. State educational associations or similar societies exist 
 in all, and six educational journals are published within their limits, 
 serving to difiuse educational intelligence, to promote emulation, and to 
 promulgate new ideas. Thus the common school is guaranteed by statute 
 and by popular sentiment. 
 
 EARLY ACTION. 
 
 It is matter of history that education had taken an extensive lien on 
 the Western wilds before the emigrant had located his claim. In 1785, 
 Congress established "an ordinance for disposing of the lands in the 
 Western Territory," which contained the following provision : " There 
 shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township for the maintenance 
 of public schools within the said township." The ordinance for the gov- 
 ernment of the territory of the United States north-west of the river 
 Ohio, adopted July 13, 1787, confirmed the provision of 1785. 
 
 In 1848, on the organization of the Territory of Oregon, the quantity 
 of land reserved for the benefit of common schools was doubled ; and to 
 each new Territory organized and State admitted since, except West Vir- 
 ginia, the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of every township — one- 
 eighteenth of the entire area — have been granted for common schools ; 
 and in 1862 the law granting lands to each State to endow " colleges of 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts " was enacted. The lands granted to 
 the several States under this last act aggregated 9,600,000 acres. These 
 grants have been augmented by special acts and by State appropriatio^is, 
 securing to the States under consideration permanent school funds esti- 
 mated, from the latest returns, as follows : 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 403 
 
 States. 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 California 
 
 Iowa • . 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada . 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Amount of arail- 
 able school fund. 
 
 111,200 
 2,011,800 
 3,486,799 
 2,288,390 
 82,921 
 3,859,964 
 2,909,457 
 2,120,182 
 
 274,500 
 
 Amount of perma- 
 nent school fund, 
 including portion 
 notnow available. 
 
 $191,097 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 7,278,503 
 
 18,734,848 
 
 509,000 
 
 In the Territories also the necessary provisions exist from which 
 school systems can be developed according to the intelligence and enterprise 
 of the subsequent population. Each Territory has a superintendent of 
 education, appointed by the President, as in Arizona, or by the Territo- 
 rial governor, as in Idaho, or elected, as in Utah, by the people ; and 
 each has the nucleus of a permanent school fund arising from land 
 grants. 
 
 EXAMINATION BY STATES. 
 
 To understand the developments from these auspicious beginnings, it 
 is necessary to examine the State systems severally and in detail. 
 
 Peculiar difficulties have been encountered in the endeavor to establish 
 free schools where slavery existed before the war. Ignorance of the 
 methods and principles of public education, false conceptions of its polit- 
 ical and social as well as of its intellectual bearings, impoverished treas- 
 uries, and raxje-prejudices have combined to resist its inception and prog- 
 ress, as illustrated in the records of Texas, Louisiana, Arkaiisas, and, to 
 some extent, of Missouri. How largely school interests are here compli- 
 cated with the question of races is suggested in the. following figures : 
 
 States. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 COLORED. 
 
 School 
 popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Enrol- 
 ment. 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 population 
 
 enrolled. 
 
 School 
 popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Enrol- 
 ment. 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 population 
 
 enrolled. 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 Louisiana . 
 Missouri . . 
 Texas . . . 
 
 159,388 
 
 88,567 
 
 650,368 
 
 149,719 
 
 24,850 
 
 43,197 
 
 428,975 
 
 105,485 
 
 16 
 49 
 66 
 70 
 
 57,087 
 
 108,548 
 
 37,880 
 
 44,634 
 
 8,897 
 33,632 
 19,208 
 41,461 
 
 16 
 31 
 51 
 93 
 
404 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 In Texas co-education of the races is at present prohibited by law, and 
 in the other States it is rarely attempted, separate schools being in general 
 preferred by both white and colored. 
 
 This peculiar source of irritation having been disposed of according to 
 local feeling, the other obstacles appear less formidable ; and if in these 
 States free schools can hardly be said as yet to have the endorsement of 
 public favor, their friends are earnest and judicious, a good foundation 
 has been laid, and enough already achieved to justify hopeful predictions. 
 
 TEXAS. 
 
 Upon a close inspection Texas appears to deserve the palm for illiteracy. 
 From eight to fourteen years is accounted the legal school age, which, 
 with school years contracted to sessions of three months (the average du- 
 ration for 1878-79), gives the somewhat startling minimum of eighteen 
 months' schooling as a grand total per individual. 
 
 In place of the district system which prevails in most States, the com- 
 munity system, or voluntary association of neighboring families without 
 regard to district lines, has been adopted — oftentimes the only practicable 
 system in sparsely-settled communities. 
 
 There is a noticeable preponderance of male over female teachers in the 
 State, the entire number of the former, white and colored, being estimated 
 at 3457, at an average salary of forty-two dollars per month, against 873 
 female, at an average salary of twenty-seven dollars per month. 
 
 Teachers cannot make legal contracts to teach without a certificate of 
 examination ; in many instances the salary is fixed upon the basis of actual 
 daily attendance, which appears lihe an insidious endeavor to combine the 
 duties of teacher and truant-officer. 
 
 Houston, with a population of 27,000, enumerates only 2214 as of legal 
 school age, of which number only 1864 are enrolled in public schools, 
 with an average attendance of 1420 ; nor do the surplus children appear 
 to be gathered in private or church schools, only 425 being reported as 
 enjoying this distinction. 
 
 The entire school population of the State is estimated at 194,353, for 
 whose accommodation there are about four thousand school-houses. 
 
 While the foregoing details are not decidedly flattering, when we turn 
 to the action of the General Assembly we realize that there is an active 
 and aggressive school spirit in the State. Early in 1879 the Assembly 
 passed a law making very liberal provision for the schools ; which act the 
 governor vetoed. According to his own explanation, he was not un- 
 friendly to the schools, but could devise no- better means for their im- 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 405 
 
 provement than cutting off their revenues till normal schook should have 
 trained a better class of teachers. This novel construction of the law of 
 supply and demand served to elicit vehement public discussion, and al- 
 though the party of the governor prevailed to the extent of reducing the 
 school appropriation from one-fourth to one-sixth of the general revenue, 
 the school cause received a decided impetus. 
 
 The most important result of this agitation was the establishment of 
 two normal schools — one at Huntsville, for white, and the other at Prai- 
 rie View, for colored pupils. A donation of six thousand dollars was 
 made from the Peabody Fund in aid of this important measure. 
 
 It would be unfair to leave Texas without a word for the little town 
 of Brenham. This German settlement of four thousand souls presents 
 the proud record of a complete course of public instruction through three 
 distinct grades — viz. primary, grammar, and high schools, representing 
 nine scholastic years — a model as bright and significant as the Lone Star 
 of the Texan banner. 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 In Louisiana the importance of a well-ordered system of public edu- 
 cation maintained by law is fully recognized. Intelligent efforts are 
 made to secure sufficient appropriations for its support, and to bring it 
 under efficient and responsible supervision, and equal facilities are pro- 
 vided for white and colored children. 
 
 The number of children in Louisiana of the school age (viz. six to 
 twenty-one years) is reported at 274,406 ; the enrolment in public schools 
 83,047, or a little over one-third of the whole school population. In 
 New Orleans there are 14,834 white children and 5460 colored in the 
 public schools, but in the country parishes the number of white and of 
 colored children is nearly equal, there being 28,363 of the former and 
 28,172 of the latter. The importance of this item is realized when we 
 consider that of the 100,000 voters of the State, 82,000 are colored, and 
 that of this number 60,000 are unable to read. Fortunately, the colored 
 people eagerly avail themselves of the free-school advantages. 
 
 The clause in the law permitting the use of the French language in 
 schools where necessary is in the interests of the French population of 
 the southern parishes, who cling with fond tenacity to their mother- 
 tongue. 
 
 A CHANCE PICTUEB. 
 
 The traveller in Southern Louisiana, floating along the sluggish rivers 
 and bayous, skimming past cypress-swamps or idKng beneath the spread- 
 
406 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ing Cottonwood, lost in reveries of the careless life of the city above or 
 of the " land of streams " around, meets, perchance, a strange being 
 sculling his oyster-lugger or banana-skiff or flitting across the wastes to 
 his hut in the clearing, " remote, unfriendly, melancholy, slow." The 
 stamp of distinct nationality in his countenance, his dejected, listless air, 
 equally at variance with the energy of the Northerner and the buoyancy 
 of the Louisianian, excite curiosity. 
 
 Pushing along the streams and crossing the labyrinth of brush and 
 creeks and slips of land and water-basins, to a ridge of alluvion on the 
 river-margin, the traveller beholds an Acajen settlement, a cluster of 
 adobe cabins thatched with palmetto-leaves and interspersed with orange- 
 groves and clumps of bananas, which indicate the industries of the simple 
 tenants. 
 
 Neither the name nor the settler suggests the Acadians of Grand Pr6, 
 yet, indeed, here is the last remnant of those exiles, the sad close of a life 
 begun in idyllic ease upon our northern coast ; in the quiet depths of 
 these swamps the Norman outcasts have found the oblivion they sought. 
 Even here modern progress has thrust in its entering wedge — ^the free 
 school. The school-building is often an impromptu log hut or a mere 
 adobe cabin, the famed "maison d'Acadien." 
 
 The work of the schools is necessarily the work of translation, doubly 
 difficult, since the language of the pupils has no written expression. It 
 is not English, it is not French, it is not even a dialect, but a mere patois. 
 To render English books intelligible to the children, to wean them from 
 the corrupted speech they love, and to substitute in its place the English 
 tongue, symbol to them of oppression, is the delicate task of the teacher. 
 It is a' little singular that the hardest book for the English child is the 
 easiest for the Acajen, as the increased number of words of Latin or 
 French origin found in the higher books affords suggestive points en- 
 tirely wanting in the Saxon page. You cannot help wondering, as you 
 see these students poring over the lessons, if something of English energy 
 and endurance will penetrate their minds through the English speech, 
 and a new life spring from these forces, beautiful as Acadia, vigorous 
 as the English stock which is thus grafted into their languishing 
 spirit. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 In the city of New Orleans public schools have made greater progress 
 than in the rural parishes. The primary grades are much overcrowded, 
 owing to the lack of sufficient school-houses and teachers — an evil which 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 407 
 
 the school authorities are remedying as rapidly as they can. The city has 
 a just pride in her three public academies — one for white boys, another for 
 white girls, and a third for colored girls and boys. The Peabody Normal 
 Seminary at New Orleans, free to white students, offers a course of pro- 
 fessional training to graduates of the city academies or high schools and 
 other institutions. 
 
 NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 There is also a normal school for colored students sustained by the 
 Peabody Fund, while departments in the universities of Leland, Straight, 
 and New Orleans give instruction to colored pupils desiring to prepare 
 themselves for teaching. 
 
 STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The Louisiana Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Institution 
 for the Blind — ^both at Baton Rogue — evince the care of the State for 
 these unfortunates. 
 
 PEIVATE SCHOOLS. 
 
 Many private and denominational schools are supported throughout the 
 State, and are especially flourishing in New Orleans. The entire number 
 of teachers employed in the free schools of the State is reported as 2168 
 male and 3498 female, the former at an average salary of $33.68 per 
 month, the latter of $27.10. 
 
 ARKANSAS. 
 
 What Arkansas needs in the matter of public education is emphatically 
 more light. All the newspapers in the State are committed to the free- 
 school system, and there is a marked awakening of public interest in the 
 subject ; but the schools themselves are in a chaotic condition. The edu- 
 cational scheme has outstripped the practical development, because the 
 people have not understood how to work out their problem, nor have 
 the appropriations been adequate to the requirements. 
 
 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 In 1878 less than one-fifth of the whole school population was enrolled 
 in public schools, and very few private schools existed. In the autumn 
 of 1879, Dr. Sears, general agent for the trustees of the Peabody Fund, 
 acting in concert with the State superintendent, engaged a gentleman of 
 
408 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 distinguislied abilities to canvass the entire State in the threefold capacity 
 of lecturer, conductor of teachers' institutes, and visitor of schools. The 
 results of the effort are already apparent in a fuller realization of the im- 
 portance of public education, greater fidelity on the part of school officers, 
 fuller and prompter returns from district and county officers, and in- 
 creased efforts on the part of teachers to organize in teachers' institutes 
 and associations. 
 
 > The annual income of the State school fund, with one dollar per capita 
 assessed on each male inhabitant over twenty-one, and a tax restricted to 
 two mills on the dollar for the State, and to five mills on the dollar for 
 school districts, affords the revenue for the public schools. In 1878 this 
 amounted to $170,335, of which sum $148,393 was expended. The 
 number of teachers reported for the same year was 875, at an average 
 salary of fifty dollars per month for men and forty dollars for women. 
 
 COLLEGIATE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The Arkansas Industrial University, at Fayetteville, is a State institution 
 for white students, endowed with the national land grant. It combines 
 classical, agricultural, mechanical, and normal departments. Since the 
 importance of special training for teachers is recognized, efforts are being 
 made to increase the efficiency of the normal training in this institution, 
 and also in the branch normal college at Pine Bluff for colored students. 
 There are four other collegiate institutions in the State — ^viz. Arkansas 
 College, Batesville ; Cane Hill College, Boonsborough ; Judson Univer- 
 sity, Judsonia ; and St. John's College, Little Rock — all admitting women 
 to their privileges. 
 
 BENEFITS OP THE PEABODY FUND. 
 
 The disbursements from the Peabody Fund have been of incalculable 
 benefit in the development of free schools in the South. From 1868 to 
 1878, inclusive, Texas received $26,300 ; Louisiana, $63,428 ; and Ar- 
 kansas; $66,200 from this source. 
 
 It would be absurd to apply to these States standards derived from the 
 old, populous, wealthy, and thoroughly-organized communities of the 
 East. Imperfect and irregular methods of report make it impossible for 
 their educational statistics to be regarded as anything more than approx- 
 imate estimates ; it is from the consideration of general conditions, rather 
 than from the study of details, that we can determine what has been ac- 
 complished and read the promise of the future. 
 
 The project to push forward the Texas Pacific Railroad, for which 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 409 
 
 purpose a New York syndicate representing a vast amount of capital 
 has signed a contract, will undoubtedly give a great impulse to educa- 
 tion and all other enlightening influences in our South-west territory. 
 
 MISSOUEI. 
 
 Missouri presents a somewhat anomalous educational record. Her 
 school traditions date from her settlement; her governors from 1826 to 
 the present time have with great unanimity and earnestness urged upon 
 the attention of legislatures the truth that the highest welfare and pros- 
 perity of all commonwealths depends upon the education of the masses ; 
 a majority of the people are in favor of a high order of public schools, 
 but some of the most prominent citizens, especially in the southern por- 
 tion of the State, have been opposed to free education, and their influence 
 has retarded its progress. So far as the rural districts are concerned, 
 Missouri is scarcely in advance of the States immediately to the south, 
 while the school system of her metropolis has engaged the attention of 
 all educators in the United States and Europe. Indeed, St. Louis, the 
 third manufacturing city in the Union and the greatest railroad-centre 
 in the world, may justly claim as a third distinction the peculiar excel- 
 lence of her schools. 
 
 EDUCATION IN THE COUNTIES. 
 
 The defective school law has been the chief disadvantage in the country 
 districts. The county commissioners and county clerks must supply the 
 statements upon which the Legislature makes up the estimates of appro- 
 priations, but county school-accounts are not kept separate from other 
 entries, and no one knows or is responsible for the disposition of funds 
 drawn out on warrants ; hence the returns from the districts are a con- 
 fused mixture of guesses, contradictions, and miscalculations, from which 
 it is impossible to deduce any just estimate. A single incident will illus- 
 trate the prevailing irregularities. The president of a certain school 
 district, in seeking an official statement of the amount of money in hand 
 to the credit of his district, insisted that there were thirty dollars more 
 than appeared on the oificial record. A heated controversy ensued. The 
 clerk maintained that the record was correct, when the director excitedly 
 exclaimed, " I know better, for i I've got it in my pocket," and forthwith 
 produced the amount, which he had drawn on a warrant against the " in- 
 cidental fund " six months before, of course without any legal authority. 
 The State has also suffered from the lack of well-trained teachers. As a 
 consequence of the improvidence in these respects, there exist only about 
 
410 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 three hundred well-organized schools against 9700 at loose ends; but 
 fortunately both evils are at present well understood, and judicious efforts 
 are in progress for their correction. Normal institutes have been con- 
 ducted with great regularity throughout the State since 1876. Five nor- 
 mal schools are in operation, besides normal departments in colleges, and 
 the results are apparent in the general improvement of instruction in the 
 elementary grades. One of the most important normal departments is 
 that of Lincoln Institute, at Jefferson City, which fits colored students 
 for teachers. 
 
 There is no distinct recognition of high schools in the State law, but 
 they exist in some places through the discretionary action of school boards, 
 and the Legislature at its last session appropriated $114,000, over and 
 above what is expended for high schools in towns and cities, for the sup- 
 port of higher education in the State. 
 
 CITY SYSTEMS. 
 
 An examination of the school reports of the large cities shows that 
 they are stimulated by the example of St. Louis. Kansas City has been 
 particularly active ; in 1867, when the board of education was established, 
 there was not a public sahool building in the city ; now there are nine. 
 The course of study is well defined, and embraces seven years, having its 
 culmination in the central school, which gives a mathematical course 
 through geometry and trigonometry, and a classical course similar in ex- 
 tent to that of academies. The enrolment for the last year in the public 
 schools of Kansas City was 4612, with an average daily attendance of 
 2669. The number of teachers employed was 59, and their salaries 
 amounted to $3405 per month. The rate of school tax on the assessed 
 valuation of $140,000 was four mills. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
 The educational history of St. Louis dates from 1817, and is adorned 
 with the names of many able men, from Senator T. H. Benton, who was 
 a member of the first board, to the present superintendent, W. T. Harris, 
 LL.D. To the latter gentleman must be attributed the present superior- 
 ity of the St. Louis schools, as well as the influence the city exerts in all 
 the current educational movements and discussions. His task has been 
 one of unusual difficulty, because the school population increases much 
 faster than the income from taxable property. 
 
 In 1838 there were 200 pupils in the free schools, which number had 
 increased to 55,996 in 1879, for whose accommodation there were 107 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 411 
 
 schools, with a corps of 1056 teachers. The schools ascend by regular 
 gradations to the high and normal schools, which fitly complete the series. 
 Thirty-four evening schools supply excellent opportunities to young peo- 
 ple who work during the day. The experiment of teaching German in 
 the day schools has evidently met the approval of a large proportion of 
 the parents, nearly one half of the pupils enrolled having taken the 
 study. The Public School Library has outgrown its original limits, and 
 is now open to the general reader. The value of public-school property 
 is $2,821,596 ; the salaries of teachers range from $650 in the lowest 
 grade to $2600 for principals of high and normal schools. 
 
 PRIVATE SCHOOLS OF MISSOUEI. 
 
 Of the number of pupils enrolled' in private schools in Missouri it 
 would be impossible to give an estimate ; many such schools, colleges, 
 academies, and seminaries are well supported in all parts of the State. 
 Nearly all the higher institutions of this class are chartered, and a very 
 cordial feeling exists between them and the public schools. One of the 
 most important of the recent foundations is Drury College at Springfield, 
 occupying a commanding site among the hills of the Ozarks. It is un- 
 der Congregational auspices, but allows no effort for the promotion of 
 sectarianism. It includes preparatory and collegiate departments, and is 
 anticipating a growing want by its arrangements for musical and art 
 culture ; it is radically co-educational, and its influence penetrates Ar- 
 kansas, Southern Kansas, and the Indian Territory. 
 
 Washington University, at St. Louis, founded in 1853, has recently 
 received an endowment fund of $27,000, to be used for the support of a 
 system of popular lectures. This university includes a polytechnic school ; 
 women are admitted to its privileges. 
 
 STATE insrrvEESiTY. 
 The Missouri State University was founded on the admission of the 
 State by a grant of 40,080 acres of land. The gift of $117,600 by the 
 citizens of Boone county secured its location at Columbia. The univer- 
 sity campus, upon which the most prominent buildings are grouped, is a 
 level tract containing twenty-two acres, laid out with graded walks and 
 planted with many varieties of plants and grasses, which greatly enhance 
 its natural beauty. The most important structure is the main building. 
 This truly imposing piece of architecture is cruciform in shape, of mas- 
 sive style, three and a half stories high, and faced by a colonnade vesti- 
 bule consisting of six Ionic columns twenty feet in height. The whole 
 
412 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 is surmounted by a magnificent dome, which towers upward to the height 
 of one hundred feet; from the summit the eye roams over a wide expanse 
 of beautiful landscape. This building is occupied by the law, medical, 
 and literary societies. The other buildings are — the observatory, which 
 contains a fine telescope and other apparatus ; the English and art school, 
 president's dwelling, and Science Hall, all of which are of pleasing de- 
 sign and well adapted to their uses. 
 
 The buildings and grounds of the Agricultural College are situated 
 about a mile and a half from the campus. The School of Mines and 
 Metallurgy, which is a department of the university, is situated at RoUa, 
 Phelps county. 
 
 The university embraces two groups of schools — ^viz. the academic and 
 the professional. 
 
 KANSAS, IOWA, MINNESOTA. 
 
 Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota may be grouped in a single class with 
 reference to education. Their people are a unit on the school question ; 
 they believe in the free system of graded schools, forming an unbroken 
 chain from the primary class to the university ; in efficient supervision ; 
 in special training for teachers ; and in equal school facilities for both 
 sexes. They have brought their precedents from the East, but they have 
 not been content to remain mere imitators ; there is a spirit in the con- 
 duct of the schools, in the public discussion of educational questions, and 
 in the ready assimilation of new principles which corresponds to the 
 character of the people and stamps the schools as " Western." 
 
 INSTRUCTION OF TEACHEES. 
 
 The teachers' institutes held annually in all the districts are conducted 
 with great zeal and intelligence ; the people gather to them in company 
 with the teachers and officers, and social cheer sets all hearts aglow with 
 enthusiasm for a common interest and with conscious mutual sympathy. 
 One of the most frequent topics of discussion is the hygienic relation of 
 intellectual pursuits ; it is evident that mens sana in corpore sano is a 
 fundamental article in the Western school creed. 
 
 INCREASE OF SCHOOLS. . 
 
 Great as is the increase of school population from immigration, school 
 accommodations appear to increase proportionately. The primitive log 
 school-houses are rapidly being replaced by more pretentious and endur- 
 ing structures; thus, in Kansas 3475 frame buildings, 157 of brick, and 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 413 
 
 642 of stone, and in Iowa 9596 frame, 650 brick, and 244 of stone, 
 attest the progress of architectural reform, leaving only 322 log houses 
 as monuments of the historic past. 
 
 The present status of education in these prairie States is perhaps best 
 expressed in the following statistical summary of the latest estimates. 
 
 STATISTICAL SITMMAEY. 
 
 The legal school age is the same in the three States — viz. five to twen- 
 ty-one years. The estimated school population of Kansas is 266,575; 
 of Iowa, 575,474; of Minnesota, 271,428. The enrolment in the public 
 schools of Kansas is 177,806; of Iowa, 428,362; of Minnesota, 167,826. 
 The average daily attendance in Kansas is 106,932 ; in Iowa, 266,913. 
 In Kansas there are 5136 public schools, with 6369 teachers ; in Iowa, 
 10,566 schools, with 13,023 teachers ; in Minnesota, 3280 schools, with 
 4872 teachers. The average salaries vary but little ; in Kansas, these 
 are for men, $33.68 per month, for women, $27.10 ; in Iowa, for men, 
 $33.98, for women, $27.84 ; in Minnesota, for men, $34.65, for women, 
 $27.75. The available permanent fund in Kansas is $2,288,391, and the 
 estimated eventual amount $10,000,000. In Iowa the available fund is 
 $3,468,799 ; in Minnesota, $3,859,964. 
 
 ILLUSTEATrVE EXAMPLES. 
 
 The educational activity thus graphically tabulated is by no means 
 confined to the larger towns ; the record of almost any town or county, 
 taken at random, epitomizes the entire history as faithfully as a single 
 horizon of Prairie-land pictures the characteristics of the illimitable ex- 
 panse. Thus, Monticello in Iowa possessed in 1873 an old wooden 
 building in which 238 pupils could be gathered for a promiscuous shoot- 
 ing of young ideas ; in 1877 this was replaced by a fine building costing 
 $20,000, wherein 480 pupils assembled for the orderly and progressive 
 exercises of a graded school. County reports sparkle with such items as 
 this from McLeod, Minnesota : " Clerks have learned to make the two 
 sides of their financial statements balance ; returns from teachers become 
 more explicit and reliable; several new and comfortable school-houses 
 have been built, old ones reseated with patent desks, and furnished with 
 maps, with the ' Unabridged Dictionary,' even with apparatus ; and the 
 school term has been lengthened in the several districts." There are, of 
 course, shadows on the picture ; there are districts in which the extreme 
 brevity of the school session makes it impossible to secure any other than 
 a mere itinerant teacher ; there are log school-houses through which " the 
 
414 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 winds of heaven " blow " too roughly ;" there are dead, mechanical teach- 
 ing, waste of school money, and examiners who decide that a candidate 
 will du, and order up a " 'stif kit." Such, however, are exceptions, not 
 types. 
 
 PEOVISIONS FOE HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 It is noticeable also that while elementary schools have been the first 
 care of these States, there is no disposition to limit public education to 
 the three E's. At the last session of the Legislature of Minnesota a law 
 was passed making provision for higher education substantially as follows: 
 Certain public graded schools shall receive four hundred dollars annually 
 upon condition of providing instruction in all branches prescribed as 
 prerequisites for admission to the collegiate department of the Univer- 
 sity of Minnesota. 
 
 In Iowa legal provision is made for the establishment of free county 
 high schools in counties having a population of two thousand inhabitants, 
 if a majority vote of the electors can be secured. Such schools are to be 
 sustained by county taxes not to exceed in one year five mills on the dollar 
 of taxable property, including expenses of building, or two mills when 
 only teachers' wages and contingent expenses are to be provided for. Up 
 to the close of 1878, however, the high school in Guthrie county remained 
 the only one. 
 
 In Kansas there are about sixty high schools or higher departments of 
 graded schools, of which five are approved by the University of Kansas 
 as having courses, English, scientific, or classical, which would entitle 
 them to send students to its classes. 
 
 NORMAL DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Normal schools and normal departments evince the determination of 
 the people to have teachers specially prepared for their responsible work. 
 Private colleges find it expedient to establish such departments. At Cedar 
 Falls, Iowa, there is an efiicient State normal school. Kansas established 
 a State normal at Emporia four years after its admission as a State. 
 
 The three normals of Minnesota — at "Winona, Mankato, and St. Cloud 
 — came into existence under the law of 1858 providing for the opening 
 of such schools in any community that should donate the sum of five 
 thousand dollars for the purpose within certain specified terms. The 
 State has made annual appropriations to these, varying from five to ten 
 thousand dollars for each. Located almost two hundred miles apart, each 
 of these schools has a territory tributary to itself as large as the New 
 England States. 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 415 
 
 THE STATE TTNIVBESITIES. 
 
 Public education is crowned by the State universities. They give force 
 and breadth and purpose to intellectual life ; they dignify labor by disclos- 
 ing its relations to scientific principles ; and by the instruction and practice 
 they afford in agriculture and domestic industries they preclude within 
 the range of their influence those perplexing conditions which have en- 
 sued where abstract subjects have been the sole concern of the schools. 
 Preparatory industrial schools will grow side by side with the feeders of 
 the mathematical and classical departments. Having their origin in the 
 land act of 1862, the universities have in each instance received liberal 
 appropriations from their States. The value of the productive funds of the 
 Iowa University is about half a million, and of each of the others about 
 $250,000. These universities include preparatory, normal, and collegiate 
 courses and a law department. 
 
 The Kansaa University occupies a fine building erected by the city of 
 .Lawrence. It is built of native limestone, and contains fifty-four rooms, 
 including a spacious audience-room ninety-four feet by fifty-six. The 
 departments of chemistry, physics, natural history, mechanics, engineer- 
 ing, and drawing have each a suite of rooms, consisting of a lecture-room, 
 a laboratory-room for beginners, a laboratory-room for advanced students, 
 and a room for apparatus and consulting library. In the natural history 
 rooms there are more than fifty thousand specimens of beasts, birds, in- 
 sects, and plants, largely representing the animal and vegetable life of 
 the Mississippi Valley, and the cabinets of geology and mineralogy are 
 richly furnished. Since the opening of the university 1702 students 
 have been enrolled, representing both sexes in nearly equal proportions. 
 
 Domestic economy and industry is made a special feature of the agri- 
 cultural department of Iowa University. The college can make the 
 proud assertion that " every girl in the junior class has learned how to 
 make good bread, weighing and measuring her ingredients, mixing, 
 kneading, and baking, and regulating her fire. Each has also beenj 
 taught to make yeast and bake biscuit, puddings, pies, and cakes of vari- 
 ous kinds ; how to cook a roast, broil a steak, and make a fragrant cup 
 of coffee; how to stuff and roast a turkey, make oyster soup, prepare 
 stock for other soups, steam and mash potatoes so that they will melt 
 in the mouth ; and, in short, to get up a first-class meal, combining both 
 substantial and fancy dishes in good style. Theory and manual skill 
 have gone hand in hand. Vast stores of learning have been accumu- 
 lated in the arts of canning, preserving, and pickling fruits, and they 
 
416 TEE GREAT WEST. 
 
 have taken practical lessons in all the details of household management, 
 such as house-furnishing, care of beds and bedding, washing and ironing, 
 care of the sick, care of children, etc." Her lady graduates promise to 
 meet the ideal of the poet — 
 
 " Creatures not too bright or good" 
 
 for the preparation of 
 
 "Human nature's daily food." 
 
 The Minnesota University, situated at Minneapolis, celebrated the Cen- 
 tennial year by the occupation of its new buildings. The library, which 
 is the largest in the State, is at length properly accommodated. The 
 agricultural department is conducted with great vigor and success, the ex- 
 perimental farm and the plant-house furnishing abundant opportunity for 
 the practical application of those arts which make "joyous harvests." 
 While the classical student turns the soft phrases of the Georgics, the ag- 
 ricultural student follows their injunctions; he "cuts down reddening 
 Ceres in the noontide heat, and in the noontide heat threshes out the 
 parched grain.;" " he softens the wild fruits by cultivation, and learns 
 the culture proper to each kind." Since 1873 the university has conferred 
 degrees on 57 graduates. 
 
 PEIVATB SCHOOLS. 
 
 Private schools have contributed largely to the intellectual progress of 
 these communities. In 1878 the total number of children in such schools 
 in Minnesota was not less than ten thousand. The proportion appears to 
 be nearly the same in Iowa, but is less in Kansas. 
 
 EELIGIOTJS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The various religious denominations have been very active in the work. 
 Besides many secondary institutions, they support sixteen colleges in Iowa, 
 seven in Kansas, and four in Minnesota. Space does not admit a detailed 
 account of many of these excellent enterprises, but, as they are similar in 
 general purpose, scope, and methods, the character of all is better under- 
 stood by the particular description of a few. 
 
 Griswold College, Davenport, Iowa, under Episcopal auspices, has a 
 beautiful situation upon an elevated bluff. It has a iine building and 
 extensive grounds, and is furnished with a library of six thousand vol- 
 umes, with superior philosophical and chemical apparatus and with ex- 
 tensive cabinets. It has been in operation twenty years, and has had 
 
^ EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 417 
 
 23 graduates in arts, 4 in science, and 22 in theology. The total of ne- 
 cessary expenses in the art or science departments is $181.50, and in the 
 theological $125.18 per annum. The bishop of Iowa is ex-oificio pres- 
 ident of the board of trustees. 
 
 Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, is a Methodist Episcopal col- 
 lege for both sexes. The courses of instruction are extensive, and it en- 
 joys a fine patronage. It numbers several ladies in its faculty. 
 
 St. John's Seminary, at St. Joseph, Stearns county, Minnesota, was 
 founded in 1857 by members of the Benedictine Order. It has a ro- 
 mantic situation on the shores of a limpid lake ; the buildings are massive 
 structures of brick and granite. The commercial college is an admirable 
 feature of the institution. 
 
 Minnesota Aca^iemy, Owatonna, is a centennial offering of the Baptist 
 denomination to the cause of Christian education. Its endowment fund 
 is $150,000. Though so young an institution, it numbers nearly two hun- 
 dred students of both sexes. 
 
 The United Brethren have a flourishing work at "Western College, 
 "Western Iowa, and another at Lecompton, Kansas. 
 
 In addition to the professional training offered by the State University, 
 Kansas has departments of theology in two institutions. Iowa has the- 
 ology in seven, law in two, medicine in two ; Minnesota has three theo- 
 logical schools. Commercial and business schools are reported, indicating 
 the growing demand for trained clerks and skilful accountants, as in Dav- 
 enport and Dubuque, Topeka, St. Paul, and Minneapolis. 
 
 The columns of the press are freely open for reports of schools and their 
 interests, which are thus kept in closest relation with all the vital concerns 
 of daily life. 
 
 NEBEASKA. 
 
 The school history of Nebraska is much older than the State. Pre- 
 viovis to her admission in 1867 there had been an earnest effort to organize 
 a system of public schools, and a report of the educational status had been 
 published. One hundred and eight public schools had been established, 
 about three thousand pupils enrolled, and an attendance of forty-one per 
 cent, secured ; the value of the Territorial legacy of school-houses to the 
 State was $9,188.22. Private schools did more to give standards and im- 
 part an elevated tone to education than the early public schools. 
 
 During the winter of 1866 the citizens of Peru, a small town on the 
 Missouri River, sixteen miles below Nebraska City, commenced the en- 
 terprise which eventually gave them the State Normal School. They 
 
 27 
 
418 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 raised by subscription about eight thousand dollars, and erected a school 
 building eighty feet long by forty feet wide, and three stories high. In 
 the fall of 1867 this building, with sixty acres of land, was deeded to the 
 State, to be used as a State normal school. In the summer of 1866 the 
 people of Brownville, and also those of Nebraska City, commenced the 
 erection each of a large high-school building. The building at Brown- 
 ville cost the city about sixteen thousand dollars, that at Nebraska City 
 about thirty thousand dollars. These were the first school buildings of 
 any considerable size or value in the State. The school buildings gene- 
 rally throughout the Territory were miserable hovels, and their furniture 
 was of the plainest kind. In the fall of 1866 a company of those inter- 
 ested in the cause of education met at the high-school building in Ne- 
 braska City to discuss the important features of a law to be presented to 
 the next Legislature. After considering many points, it was agreed to 
 call a State educational convention, to meet at Omaha about the time the 
 Legislature convened. This convention met pursuant to call January 7, 
 1867, and after several days spent in discussion adopted resolutions ask- 
 ing the restoration of the school commissioner and county superintend- 
 ents, the establishment of a State normal school and a State university, 
 and recommending a number of wise provisions that have since been 
 adopted. 
 
 At the session of the first State Legislature, held in June, 1867, the 
 State Normal School was established, and a grant of 12,800 acres of saline 
 lands was made for its future support. The school was commenced Oc- 
 tober 24 of the same year. 
 
 PRESENT CONDlTIOSr. 
 
 The subsequent record shows steady and uninterrupted progress. In 
 1869, Omaha commenced the erection of her high-school building, which 
 has since been completed, and is one of the most magnificent in the country. 
 Other cities were stimulated by her example, and soon school-house build- 
 ing became a mania throughout the State. Nebraska can boast of as many 
 fine buildings for her population as any State in the Union. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, she has incurred a heavy debt in consequence. Her 
 progress has not been limited to the erection of school-houses ; with an 
 estimated school population of 86,191, she has 59,966 enrolled in public 
 schools ; 1468 men engaged in teaching and 1893 women, the former at 
 average salaries of |37.14 per month, and the latter, ^32.84. Her avaU- 
 .able school fund is $1,318,044, and prospective permanent fund about 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 419 
 
 $15,000,000. There are high schools at Ashland, Beatrice, Brownville, 
 Lincoln, Omaha, and Pawnee, and the State Normal School at Peru. 
 
 STATE UNIVEESrrY. 
 
 The State University was opened in 1871, and is rapidly developing 
 according to the best models. Industrial education has distinct recogni- 
 tion in all the educational plans of the State. It would be difficult to 
 find a clearer, more explicit, or more pungent discussion of the claims, the 
 purposes, and the methods of this important departure in education than 
 the address by Prof. S. E.. Thompson, delivered at Representative Hall, 
 Lincoln, Nebraska, January 22, 1879, which was reported in full in the 
 Daily State Journal of the following morning. Its emphatic declaration 
 of the necessity of industrial education may be interpreted as an expres- 
 sion of the future policy of the State. 
 
 THE TEKSITOKY BEYOND THE jnSSOTTRI. 
 
 In that immense territory stretching from the Missouri to the Sierra 
 Nevadas, where Nature reigns supreme, art and industry and education 
 have done little more as yet than to gain a foothold. The scenery and 
 hunting-grounds attract an endless stream of tourists and adventurers ; 
 the grassy plains, " the veins for silver," and the " places of gold " deter- 
 mine ihe final abodes of the permanent settlers. Wherever a community 
 is formed and family life excites the nobler aspirations of the soul, there 
 the school springs spontaneously into existence.. Denominational and 
 private enterprise has given the most positive direction and character to 
 the intellectual beginnings, but voluntary school taxes and public schools, 
 imperfect and feeble though they may be, show the determination of the 
 people to maintain education as a public trust. 
 
 COLORADO. 
 
 Colorado claims the proud distinction of having entered the sisterhood 
 of States with a better developed and more liberally supported school 
 system than was possessed by any other State at the time of admission 
 into the Union. She has a present school population of about twenty 
 thousand, more than half of whom are enrolled in the public schools, 
 and the average daily attendance is about thirty-three and one-third per 
 cent, of the entire nimiber. The funds from the national land grant 
 contribute as yet very little to the support of the schools. The average 
 school tax sustained by the State is, including general and special taxes, 
 five mills on the dollar. 
 
420 THE GREAT WEST.. 
 
 The selxools are in their formative pra-iod, and their condition and re^ 
 salts cannot be set forth in any general expression or estimates, excepting 
 those of Denver. In this city the schools are classed as primary, gram- 
 mar, and high, and all pupils above the ^ird primary grade are allowed 
 to study German in addition to the usual English braaaches. The aiCHUial 
 expenditures for the Denver schools are about $60,000. 
 
 STATE TTBUVEESITY, 
 
 The University of Colorado made a promising beginning in 1877, 
 The State Agricultaral College, at Fort Collins, and the State School of 
 Mines, at Golden, are doing excellent work in prq)ariiig students for in- 
 telligent efforts in developing the resources of the State, School libraries 
 form an important feature of the growing system, 
 
 SAIiAEIES OF TEACHEES. 
 
 Both this State and KevBida occupy a very advanced position with 
 leference to the education of women and the justice of paying teachers 
 according to the quality and responsibility of theiir positicais,. rather than 
 according to sex. The average monthly salaries paid to male teachers in 
 Colorado is |50 ; to females, $47, About ax huaidred teachers are em- 
 ployed m the public school*. 
 
 BEVADA, 
 
 Thele is not a town in the State of Nevada in which there is a lack of 
 
 « 
 
 general interest in the public schools, and more money can be raised and 
 more interest excited in this than in any other public matter. It has 
 been difficult to systematize the work, because the popralafcion is so located 
 that some districts have a fair school populatioai, while othess have but 
 four or five children ; hence, so long as the public money was distributed 
 among the counties pro rata, it was impossible to secure equal educational 
 advantages to all the children. The amended school law directed that 
 twenty-five per cent, of all the appropriations from the State and 
 county school fund dhould be appc«i;ioiMd equally to each district for 
 every teacher assigned to it, upon the basis of one humdred census chil- 
 dren or fraction thereof, and all school moneys rranaining on hand after 
 apportioning twenty-fiive per cent, should be divided among the several 
 districts in proportion to the number of children from ax to eighteen 
 years old. In the opinion of the State superintendent the cause of educa- 
 tion has been materially advanced h^ this adjustment. The compulsory 
 diause embodied in the school law has proved practically a dead letter. 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 421 
 
 The latest financial returns from the various funds — 'viz. State and gen- 
 eral school fund and State university fund — give as tJie total balances, 
 $143,178.34 
 
 PEESBNT CONDITIOK. 
 
 The specific information given in the last report of the State superin- 
 tendent affi)rds the best conception of the position attained. The number 
 of children between four and twenty-one years of age is 11,850 ; the 
 number enrolled in public schools is 7612, of whom 296 are below the 
 legal age, six tp ei^teen years ; the enrolment in private schools is 1061, 
 leaving 1976 between six and eighteen not -attending any school. The 
 average daily attendance in the public schools is 4666 ; average duration 
 of the schools is seven months and thirteen days. The schools are class- 
 ified as 97 primary, 11 intermediate, 54 ungraded, 18 grammar, and 5 
 high. The number of male teachers is 45, at an average salary of $106 ; 
 of female teachers, 124, at an average salary of $84 per month. Of the 
 sixteen new school-houses erected during the past two years, the most 
 expensive are at Crold Hill and Elko- 
 
 TBACHEES' INSTITUTES. 
 
 The first session of the State Teachers' Institute of Nevada was held 
 a:t the Capitol, in Carson City, April 22, 1878. The interest in it is 
 shown by the fact that although the expenses exceeded the $100 allowed, 
 the balance was easily made up by the commissioners of Storey and 
 Ormsby counties and Tby citizens. 
 
 STATE trUTVEESITY. 
 
 The university provided for by law, and established in its preparatory 
 department, still a^waits the fuller development which in a State with 
 a vast territory and a sparse, unsettled population must come by slow 
 degrees. 
 
 DAKOTA, MONTANA, IDAHO, WYOMING, AND WASHINGTON TBERITOEIES. 
 
 In the Territories ranging along the northern line of the country, edu- 
 cation shows beginnings similar to those from which have grown the 
 results particularized in the States farther east. Yankton, Dakota, has a 
 good graded system in operation ; in Idaho private schools are at present 
 the main dependence. Montana makes very liberal appropriations for 
 school purposes, and has some excellent school-houses built — ^notably, one 
 \t Bozeman and one at Butte, costing in the aggregate $25,000. Deer 
 
422 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Lodge county leads the State, the citizens having subscribed f 18,000, 
 effected an organization, chosen trustees, selected a site, and commenced 
 the building for a collegiate institute. The Legislature of Washington 
 .Territory has appropriated $1500 annually for two years for a univer- 
 sity, and created forty-five free scholarships in the same. There is a Eo- 
 man Catholic college at Vancouver. Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, 
 have each a costly and commodious school building, and the schools that 
 exist are reported to be in excellent condition. A compulsory law is in 
 force, and a wise provision has been made for creating school libraries by 
 authorizing the qualified electors of a district to vote a sum not exceed- 
 ing one hundred dollars annually for the purchase of books. 
 
 NEW MEXICO AND AEIZOSTA. 
 
 The Territories on the southern line, New Mexico and Arizona, repre- 
 sent the opposite extreme. Colorado College is favorably situated for the 
 work of education in this section. It occupies a commanding position in 
 that great block of territory comprising Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, 
 and Arizona, exceeding by fifty thousand square miles the extent of the 
 thirteen original States. On the south is a mixed population of ten thou- 
 sand Americans, twenty thousand Indians, and one hundred thousand 
 Mexicans. The dearth of educational facilities in this immense region 
 is scarcely credible. Large and populous villages are wholly destitute of 
 schools, communities with a population of a thousand souls have perhaps 
 two months' schooling in the year, and even at that many teachers em- 
 ployed can scarcely read and write. Adverse influences are insidiously 
 working to secure control of educational interests. To the west is polyg- 
 amy, antagonizing all that is best in American liberty and all that is" 
 purest in society. This college has pushed into the field by ratablishing 
 schools auxiliary to the college at Santa F6 and Salt Lake City. The 
 work of the college proper is wisely adapted to the wants and the special 
 resources of its section. It comprehends at present three general courses 
 of study — ^viz. English and normal course, preparatory classical course, 
 and the college course proper. As it has been made a station of the 
 United States Signal Service, students from the higher classes are formed 
 into a corps for the study of meteorology and for practice in the use of 
 instruments according to the regulations of the Signal Service. The* 
 price of tuition has been placed at twenty-five dollars a year, with the 
 design of making the college practically free t« all. 
 
 The ignorance of the Mexicans reflects little credit upon the Catholic 
 system of education which has developed in New Mexico and Arizona 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 423 
 
 Tirithont "let or hinderance." These two Territories, together with Col- 
 orado, belong to the Church province of Santa Fg. The Las Vegas 
 College is the centre of the Jesuitical influence, and Santa F6 a great 
 stronghold of the Church. In the " Sodality of the Young Ladies of 
 the Cathedral " the daughters of the rich traders and planters are taught 
 Spanish and Ave Marias and the Church legends and St. Cecilia's art 
 and fancy-work, while their brothers learn the humanities and kindred 
 lore of the Middle Ages in the " Sodality of the Boys." The mission- 
 stations, scattered here and there in sunny valleys, add picturesque effect 
 to the landscape, but, it is to be feared, difiiise an enervating influence on 
 the social forces. In these quaint, isolated retreats some zealous priests 
 have doubtless lived and wrought, whose memories are as fragrant as the 
 flowers that grow in luxuriant profusion in the gardens which they tended 
 with more success than they did those immortal powers which they pro- 
 fessed to cultivate. The life, the pursuits, the education represented in 
 each and all of these establishments are at variance with the age and 
 the country, and must fade into oblivion before the advancing power of 
 earnest, practical modern education. 
 
 UTAH. 
 
 The Utah school department has been, until very recently, one of the 
 Mormon close-corporation affairs which an unbeliever might not scruti- 
 nize too dosely. But the Gentile population having at last reached a large 
 minority. Gentile pluck and enterprise have established a claim upon the 
 school fund, and are resolute to divert at least a fair proportion of the 
 public moneys to the interests of civilization and decency. About ten 
 years ago the prominent Christian sects began their mission-work in 
 Utah, and though all schools independent of " the Church " have to en- 
 dure the anathemas and slurs and violent opposition of the hierarchy, 
 there are twenty-five schools maintaining under denominational auspices 
 the cause of Christian education. Six are Methodist, five Episcopal, 
 twelve Presbyterian, and two Catholic. They enrol about two thousand 
 pupils and own seventy thousand dollars' worth of school property. 
 Besides the 327 district schools reported, there are Deseret University, 
 the Brigham Young Academy, the academy at Provo, one at St. George, 
 and about twenty-five other private schools in good and regular standing 
 with the " Mormon Church." No effort will be spared to rescue the 
 public schools from the degrading influence of Mormonism, and to ad- 
 vance them to an equality with the schools of the East. The note of 
 warning sounded to the priesthood through the papers, the business 
 
424 TSE GREAT WEST. 
 
 unions, the churches, and the schools of the Gentiles is, " We axe here, 
 and we have come to stay," 
 
 INDIAN TEEEITOEY. 
 
 The provisions for education in Indian Territory make the one bright 
 page in the dark record of our Indian policy. The school facilities in 
 that Territory and other Indian reservations are presented in the follow- 
 ing extracts from the reports of the Indian Bureau : 
 
 " SCHOOLS. 
 
 School buildings on Indian reservations 366 
 
 Boarding-schools on Indian reservations 60 
 
 Day schools 270 
 
 696 
 
 " TEACHEES. 
 
 Men teaching among the Indians 200 
 
 Women teaching 237 
 
 437 
 "income and expendituee. 
 
 Received from government, $209,337 ; tribal funds, $81,989 ; 
 
 other sources, $46,053 $337,379 
 
 Expended for salaries, $194,413 ; other expenses, $142,966. . 337,379 
 
 "schools of the five nations. 
 
 "As far as can be ascertained from the records of the Indian Office, the 
 schools of the nations inhabiting the Indian Territory are substantially 
 as reported in 1876 — namely, among the Cherokees, 75 common schools, 
 held for ten months in the year, with two commodious schools of higher 
 grade, a manual-labor school, and an orphan asylum ; among the Creeks, 
 28 public day-schools, 2 manual-labor schools, and 5 mission boarding- 
 schools, besides provision for educating eighteen young men in the schools 
 of the States ; among the Choctaws, 54 day schools, 1 boarding-school 
 with about 50 pupils, and several private schools sustained by tuition fees; 
 among the Chickasaws, 13 district common schools and 4 high schools ; 
 among the Seminoles, 5 ordinary schools and 1 academy or boarding- 
 school, under the supervision of the Presbyterian Board of Home Mis- 
 sions. 
 
 "Among the Cherokees, and probably among the others, no person can 
 be employed to teach a public school without passing a satisfactory exam- 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 425 
 
 ination before an examining board, and producing a certificate of qualifi- 
 cation based upon the result of such an examination." 
 
 These extracts are given thus fully to redeem, so far as they may, our 
 national reputation from that blemish which has been incurred by our 
 many and flagrant oppressions of this unhappy people. 
 
 OEEGOlSr. 
 
 When we consider that California has developed on the Pacific coast a 
 school system not inferior to that which is the pride of the Atlantic States, 
 we are not surprised to find in the neighboring State of Oregon abun- 
 dant educational promise. The condition of elementary instruction is 
 affected by the obstacles incident to a new country, but progress is there 
 assured by the school law and by public enthusiasm. 
 
 PRACn^ICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Normal and industrial education are at present subjects earnestly dis- 
 cussed in popular assemblies and in the daily papers. In a recent address 
 of the Oregon State Teachers' Association to the people of Oregon the 
 importance of establishing three normal schools in the State was urged, 
 and it was determined that meanwhile there should be held annually 
 county teachers' institutes for the encouragement and instruction of 
 teachers. 
 
 CITY SCHOOLS. 
 
 Portland and Salem can show many excellent graded schools. 
 
 PARK SCHOOL, PORTLAND. 
 
 The Park school-house recently erected in the former city is a model 
 of beauty and convenience. The building is one hundred and forty feet 
 long and ninety feet wide, and two stories high above the basement. 
 There are twelve rooms, six in each story. In the north and south 
 divisions of the building, in both stories, are suites of two rooms con- 
 nected by sliding doors, each room twenty-eight by thirty-six feet, and 
 sixteen feet high. In the centre are two rooms on each floor of the same 
 size as the former. Two halls, sixteen feet wide, run through the edifice 
 east and west, and are connected at the centre by a cross-hall sixteen feet 
 wide, the whole forming a letter H. Four broad stairways with easy 
 ascents lead to the second story. On one facade extend two massive 
 porches, from each of which a broad stairway leads to the baseinent. 
 
426 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Cloak- and wash-rooms and an office and library complete the accommo- 
 dations. The entire finish of the building is of finest Oregon ash ; the 
 sta,irways are of ash ; the rails and posts of walnut ; the deadened floors 
 are of fir, and the doors are of red cedar. The ventilation of the building 
 will be perfect by reason of the arrangement of the windows and the 
 introduction, of ventilating-shafts. The cost will be about twenty-four 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 THE UNrVEESITIES. 
 
 Oregon University held its second commencement June 19, 1879, 
 graduating a class of three lady and three gentleman students. It is on 
 the plan of the State universities already described ; its total receipts from 
 all sources for the year 1879 were $9772.50, and total expenditures 
 $8317.03. The university was located at Eugene City in consideration 
 of that city's furnishing suitable grounds and building. The cost of the 
 latter when completed will be upward of seventy-five thousand dollars. 
 The State Agricultural College at Corvallis is doing a fine work in scien- 
 tific and industrial branches. 
 
 Willamette University, Salem, has a medical department, which is the 
 only professional school in the State. 
 
 CALIFOENTA. 
 
 The ordinary student of geography learns to regard California, by 
 virtue of her climate, her scenery, her exuberant vegetation, and the ex- 
 haustless treasures of her mines, as one of the wonders of the modern 
 world. The stories of her business enterprise and facilities, and of her 
 " bonanza princes," are as dazzling as the splendors of an Arabian tale, 
 but, happily, the development of moral and intellectual conditions among 
 her people has not been paralyzed or eclipsed by this unwonted material 
 prosperity. We are not left to conjectural estimates for knowledge of 
 her school interests, since the candor and accuracy of the State and city 
 reports on this subject are quite as marked as any feature of her educa- 
 tional history. 
 
 Since 1855 the number of her public schools has increased from 227 
 to 2743 ; of her census children, from 26,077 to 216,404 ; of the number 
 in attendance upon public schools, from 13,000 to 144,806; and the 
 amount paid by the State to teachers, from $181,906 to $2,285,733. 
 
 For a better understanding of her present position it would be necessary 
 to consider certain comparisons between this and other States, keeping in 
 mind that California is four years younger than any of the other States 
 referred to, excepting in connection with the first item. 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 437 
 
 A majority of the States afford from fifteen to seventeen years' tuition 
 in the public schools ; the lowest limit is in Massachusetts and Rhode 
 Island — viz. ten years. California furnishes twelve years'. In the 
 average duration of school days to the year she ranks as the seventh 
 State; in proportion of money expended per capita to daily average 
 attendance, as the fom-th. In no other State are teachers so well paid as 
 here, and so justly according to service, the average salary per month for 
 male teachers being $84.93 ; for female teachers, f 68.01. 
 
 EXPENDITTJEES. 
 
 Since 1852, the year of the first State school tax, the people of Cali- 
 fornia have devoted to the cause of public education, in money — 
 
 For public schools, about $33,743,819.84 
 
 " State Normal school, about 566,600.00 
 
 " State University, " 4,150,000.00 
 
 The sources from whence the expenditures are met are the interest on the 
 permanent fund and taxation. The former affords but a very small pro- 
 portion of the entire amount, as will be seen from the following state- 
 ments : The total cost of the schools for the year ending June 30, 1877, 
 was $2,749,729, of which sum about $2,400,000 was raised by taxation 
 — viz. $1,260,000 by State tax, and the remainder by county, city, and 
 district taxes. The proportions are about the same for 1878 and 1879. 
 The tax levied in 1878 for the general fund for the current fiscal year, 
 out of which are defrayed all the expenses of the executive, legislative, 
 and judicial branches of the government, was $1,320,000, or $1,080,000 
 less than the tax cited above. The people evince no disposition to curtail 
 the school appropriation, but they are determined to have it managed on 
 the strict business principle of adequate returns for the investment. 
 
 NEW SCHOOL LAW. 
 
 The educational clause of the new constitution, ratified by the people 
 May 7, 1879, makes some changes which have been the subject of in- 
 tense discussion. The most radical of these is that which relegates to 
 local boards the determination of the qualification of teachers and the 
 selection of textbooks — a virtual abandonment of the " State system " — 
 and the section regulatiug the status of high schools. The latter is so 
 pertinent to that " high-school question " over which newspapers, maga- 
 zines, and conventions have been waxing warm and furious that we quote 
 it in full : " The public-school system shall include primary and grammar 
 schools, and such high schools, evening schools, normal schools, and 
 
428 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 technical schools as may be established by the Legislature or by municipal 
 or district authority; but the entire revenue derived from the State 
 school fund and the State school tax shall be applied exclusively to the 
 support of primary and grammar schools." Thus in one comprehensive 
 act California has settled for a time her policy with reference to the most 
 distracting of the debatable issues in public education. 
 
 SUPERVISION. 
 
 It is very largely to an efficient system of supervision and the character 
 of the men who have held the trust that California owes the progress of 
 her schools, particularly in the rural districts. The State and county 
 superintendents have been united in their support of the normal schools 
 and in untiring efforts to render the teachers' institutes held in the several 
 counties popular and efficient. 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 The State Normal School was established in 1861 at San Francisco, and 
 moved in 1872 to San Jos6, where a magnificent building had been erected 
 for its accommodation at a cost of $250,000. It has an excellent library 
 and a rapidly-increasing natural-history collection. Five hundred and 
 fifty teachers have graduated at this school, of whom a large proportion 
 are now teaching in the State. The number of pupils for 1879-80 is 
 548. The faculty consists of nineteen professors and instructors. The 
 annual appropriation for its support is about $33,000. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 In 1853, Henry Durant, a graduate and ex-tutor of Yale College, 
 opened a " college school " in Oakland, which grew into the College of 
 California. After the acceptance by the State Legislature of the national 
 grant of 1862, the property of the college was offered to the State for 
 the proposed institution, and the college merged into the University of 
 California. 
 
 The university has reached the ideal standard of its projectors, having 
 full departments of law and medicine, courses in colleges of agriculture, 
 mechanics, and engineering, and affiliated colleges of dentistry and phar- 
 macy. The foundation of an art college has been laid in the gift of an 
 art collection, with $25,000 in money, to which the State has added an 
 equal sum. Additional donations are the property of the Toland Medical 
 College, given by Dr. Toland ; the endowment of the law college by 
 Judge Hastings, and of the dental college by Dr. Cogswell. 
 
EDUCATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 429 
 
 The members of the several faculties are men of ability, and include 
 the names of several gentlemen who have brought European reputations 
 as teachers and scientists to this new field. 
 
 r PHIVATE SCHOOLS. 
 
 The percentage of children attending private schools has naturally de- 
 creased with the progress of the public schools, but they have steadily 
 improved in character, and many of them reflect an honor upon the State 
 of which she is justly proud. The enrolment in private schools for 1879 
 was 15,432. In the last report of the California School Board twenty- 
 five of these are specially, mentioned, of which the most noted are Santa 
 Clara College, under the exclusive control of the Jesuit Fathers ; the 
 Pacific Methodist College, at Santa Rosa, co-educational, as are all under 
 that denomination, and conducted upon the broadest and most liberal 
 basis of general usefulness ; and Mills Seminary, at Brooklyn, Alameda 
 county, which ranks with the best modern colleges for the higher educa- 
 tion of women. The Kindergarten School at Berkeley, established by 
 Miss Emma Marwedel, is a favorite institution, and from it have origin- 
 ated other flourishing schools of the kind, as well as a widespread interest 
 in the character and purposes of the training. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF SAN FEANCI8C0. 
 
 According to the latest estimates, San Francisco is the sixth city of the 
 United States in estimated school population, in the number of teachers 
 employed in the public schools, and in enrolment and average attendance 
 in the same, the enrolment for 1879 being 38,129, and the average daily 
 attendance 27,075. There are in the city 60 public schools — ^viz. 2 high, 
 15 grammar, 38 primary, and 6 evening — employing 696 teachers, at 
 salaries ranging from $600 to $4000 per year, the average monthly 
 salary paid to male teachers in the schools being $155; to female 
 teachers, $82. 
 
 There are school libraries in connection with 42 of the schools, contain- 
 ing 12,717 volumes, valued at $9302.59. The total expenditure for the 
 schools for the year ending June 30, 1879, was $876,489.14, or sixteen 
 . per cent, of the total expenses of the city. 
 
 The year 1879 was one of great interest in the history of San Francisco 
 schools, the cost of their maintenance having been made one of the 
 issues in the political contest, and the investigation of the examination 
 frauds has been for many months the chief public sensation. The re- 
 sult of the expose was an entire change in the system of examining 
 
430 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 teachers throughout the State — a change embodied in the educational 
 article of the new constitution. 
 
 There is a normal class in connection with the Girls' High School, but 
 as yet no city normal school. The substitute teachers form an important 
 class in the corps of instructors. The Board of Education employs 
 twenty-four such to take charge of the classes of absent teachers. 
 They report every morning at the central office, and if detailed for 
 duty are paid by the day from |2 to $6 ; if detained at the office to 
 await orders, they receive $1.50 per day. 
 
 Four grammar and three primary schools are classed as cosmopolitan, 
 because instruction is given in them in German and French besides the 
 usual English course ; there are also " foreign classes " in certain of the 
 schools in which non-English-speaking children are taught the English 
 language. Seven music and four drawing teachers complete the special 
 provisions comprehended in the system. The evening schools ajSFord by 
 the ordinary courses and the special classes in drawing and bookkeeping 
 superior opportunities to young artisans and clerks. A Chinese school, 
 organized in 1859, was discontinued in 1871, from the failure of the 
 Chinese to appreciate the boon. 
 
 This brief outline of public education in the Pacific metropolis is suf- 
 ficient to show the magnitude and efficiency of the system, and the intel- 
 ligent effort made to adapt it to every class and condition of society, and 
 the liberal appropriations for its support. 
 
 INSTITUTIONS FOE THE DEAF AND DUMB AND FOE THE BLIND. 
 
 In our review of the condition of education west of the Mississippi 
 mention has scarcely been made of one of the most remarkable features 
 of the great work. Eleven of the twelve States enumerated maintain 
 public institutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind ; nor are 
 these regarded as charities, but as an essential part of the grand scheme 
 for securing to every child of the republic that education which is 
 the best preparatioin for citizenship and the best guarantee of national 
 prosperity. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 BY A. B. MEACHAM, EDITOE OF "THE COUNCIL FIRE." 
 
 WHEN America was first discovered, Columbus and others who fol- 
 lowed him supposed they had touched on the eastern coast of 
 India, and hence the aboriginal inhabitants whom they found were called 
 Indians. After the error was discovered the name given to the natives 
 was retained. 
 
 The first permanent European settlement within the present limits of 
 the United States was made in Virginia. At that time the leading traits 
 and characteristics of the Indians were much the same as those manifested 
 among the uncivilized Indians of our own times. Of all races who were 
 barbarians, of whom we have any knowledge, they have in their nomadic 
 state changed least. 
 
 EELIGIOU OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 The wild Indians believe in a Great Spirit ; the tribes live in a state 
 of polytheism ; they have a mythology of their own, which, when ap- 
 plied to matter and spirit, is remarkable for its variety. To this theory 
 or creed they refer at all times and under all circumstances. They hear 
 the Great Spirit in the wind ; they see Him in the clouds. At one time 
 they fear and at another adore Him ; and thus they make gods of the 
 elements. The mysterious power of this Great Spirit is ever present, 
 and in a double form. There is a benign and a malign type of this 
 Spirit, and a continued strife for mastery between these antagonistic 
 powers as to which shall have the control over the mind. Nature is full 
 of minor spirits that attend both the benign and malign type. " When 
 the eye fails to recognize them in material forms they are revealed in 
 dreams. Necromancy and witchcraft are two of their ordinary powers. 
 They can in a twinkling transform men and animals. False hopes and 
 fears, which the Indian believes to be true, spring up on every side. His 
 
 431 
 
432 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 notions of the spirit-world exceed all belief, and the mind of the untu- 
 tored Indian is thus made the victim of wild mystery, unending suspicion, 
 and paralyzing fear. Nothing could make him more truly a wild man. 
 
 " It is a religion of woods and wilds, and involves the ever-varying 
 and confused belief in spirits and demons, gods of the water and gods 
 of the rocks, and in every imaginable creation of the air, the ocean, the 
 earth, and the sky — of every possible power, indeed, which can produce 
 secret harm or generate escape from it. Not to suffer with the (wild) 
 Indian is to enjoy. Not to be in misery from these unnumbered hosts is 
 to be blest." * 
 
 OEIGIN OF THE INDIAN EACE. 
 
 The most ancient history is silent as to the origin of the aboriginal 
 race of North America. It is clearly of a very old stock. Many theo- 
 ries have been suggested by writers on this subject ; almost every one has 
 had something to offer concerning the origin of the primitive inhabitants 
 of this country. But none have produced anything definite. There has 
 been much speculation, not only as to the particular branch of the human 
 family from which the American Indians were extracted, but as to the 
 means by which they were transplanted from the Old to the New World. 
 The Indians themselves could give no satisfactory information as to the 
 origin of the- race, or from whence and at what time it was transplanted 
 to America. Some said their ancestors came from the North, others said 
 they came from the West, others from the East, while some said they 
 came from under the earth, and others from the regions of the air. We 
 should not deduce from the ignorance of the Indians on this vital ques- 
 tion their lack of intelligence in affairs generally, any further than what 
 might be naturally expected as a result of their peculiar situation and 
 surroundings. 
 
 In a general way, the primitive Indians spoke of a great deluge that 
 occurred at some ancient epoch, and which covered the earth and drowned 
 mankind except a limited number. They also spoke emphatically of a 
 future state, and in a confused way of rewards and punishments in that 
 state, and which were frequently allegorically represented. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE GKEAT CONFLICT BETWEEN THE RACES. 
 
 There is one fact in which there is agreement in all the early annals ; 
 and that is, that the first explorers and colonists who came to the " New 
 World " were met by the native inhabitants in the most friendly manner, 
 and such rude hospitalities as they possessed were freely extended to the 
 
 * Schoolcraft. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ■ 433 
 
 strangers. The adventurers, whether Spanish, French, Dutch, or Eng- 
 lish, did not reciprocate the confidence and goodwill of the natives. They 
 were from the very beginning exacting, overbearing, and distrustful. 
 Indeed, they frequently acted like demi-savages toward such Indians as 
 were in their power ; and very soon the voyagers on their return trips 
 began to carry off the natives, who were forcibly seized for that purpose, 
 and many of whom they sold as slaves. Such conduct was calculated to, 
 and did, destroy the confidence and goodwill of the Indians, and in time 
 these friendly feelings gave place to distrust, hatred, and revenge. For 
 wrongs and injuries done them the Indians retaliated. Their modes of 
 warfare were barbarous. In these, however, they did not excel the Eu- 
 ropeans, who in the conflicts that followed were even more barbarous 
 than the native savages. These conflicts have continued from generation 
 to generation even until the present period. 
 
 THE NUMBER OF INDIANS THEN AND NOW. 
 
 Some writers have held that at the time of the discovery by Columbus 
 the native inhabitants in North America were very numerous. There is 
 no trustworthy information on which to base this opinion. The savages 
 were wild men, living chiefly by hunting and fishing. Some tribes, in 
 addition to the support thus obtained, did raise in limited quantities 
 maize, beans, and pumpkins, and in certain localities gathered wild rice 
 and roots. The tribes were generally predatory, and may be said to have 
 had no settled homes. Those in the vicinity of the buffalo-herds fol- 
 lowed them, and were essentially meat-eaters. Instead of being numer- 
 ous, the Indian population was sparse and dispersed over a vast country. 
 Their arms M^ere the bow and arrow, the war-club and spear. Such as 
 cultivated vegetables in limited quantities had the rudest kind of imple- 
 ments of husbandry as well as habitations. Their shifting villages each 
 had its chiefs, and not unfrequently a number of villages in the same 
 region had a sort of confederacy, with superior chiefs exercising author- 
 ity over' all. In their intercourse the inhabitants of the village or vil- 
 lages were on the most friendly terms. They rarely had any disputes. 
 Their principal subjects of conversation were such as grew out of their 
 tribal affairs and hunting and fishing. As a rule, when one spoke none 
 interrupted him. Visitors were cheerfully received, and when a stranger 
 took refuge among them it was an unalterable rule, a duty, to extend 
 hospitality to him. To refuse succor or relief was a grave offence. No 
 profane language was used. The wardrobe of the primitive Indian was 
 scanty and made of the skins of animals. 
 
 23 
 
434 ■ THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 In brief, such were the natives and their condition on and adjacent to 
 the Atlantic seaboard at the time the first Europeans became their 
 neighbors. As the Indians observed the ways and manners of the 
 colonists, they were free to admit that the latter had some advantages 
 over them in that they were possessed of the arts, but thought it strange 
 that the white man should submit himself to laborious employments ; and 
 they were unwilling to exchange their modes of living for such as were 
 introduced among them by the colonists. Indeed, they claimed that it 
 was not in accordance with the design of the Great Spirit that they should 
 do so. And they held stoutly that in their moral conduct they were 
 superior to the refinements which the Europeans brought with them. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF EUROPEAN LAWS. 
 
 In the attempt to found colonies in North America as well as other 
 newly-discovered countries it was held by the Christian states of Europe 
 that the newly-discovered country belonged to the sovereign whose sub- 
 jects made the discovery, and that while exceptions might be made in 
 favor of the native inhabitants who were Christians, such as were not 
 Christians were regarded as proper subjects not only for conquest, but 
 for plunder. In the contest for dominion in North America the Eu- 
 ropean nations held that the Indian was a proper subject for plunder, 
 and that it was right to seize his lands and dispossess him of his birth- 
 right. These nations introduced their own maxims, which recognized 
 fraud and force as perfectly legitimate in the acquisition of territory. 
 
 The example set by the European states after founding their colonies 
 in North America in dealing with the Indians was pursued by the colonies 
 after they became independent, and the United States followed the same 
 line of policy. In discussing the question in 1826 the Secretary of War 
 said officially — 
 
 " From the first discovery of America to the present time one master- 
 passion, common to all mankind, that of acquiring land, has driven, in 
 ceaseless succession, the white man on the Indian. The latter, reluctantly 
 yielding to a force he could not resist, has retired from the ocean to the 
 mountains, and from the mountains to more inhospitable recesses, wasting 
 away by suffering and wars, foreign and intestine, till a wretched frag- 
 ment only survives of the numerous hordes once inhabiting this country, 
 whose portion it is to brood in grief over their past misfortunes or to look 
 in despair upon the approaching catastrophe of their impending doom. 
 .... In the contest for dominion the milder qualities of justice and 
 clemency were disregarded. But that contest has long since ceased in 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 435 
 
 the United States, where on the one side are seen a great people, familiar 
 with arts and arms, whose energies are increased by union and directed 
 by an efficient government ; on the other a few ignorant and divided tribes 
 of barbarians. It is necessary for the former only to express its will to 
 receive or enforce immediate submission from the latter. The suggestions 
 of policy should no longer stifle the claims of justice and humanity. It 
 is now, therefore, that a most solemn question addresses itself to the 
 American people — one whose answer is full of responsibility. Shall we 
 go quietly on in a course which, judging from the past, threatens their 
 extinction, while their past sufferings and future prospects so pathetically 
 appeal to our compassion ? The responsibility to which I refer is what 
 a nation owes to itself, to its future character in all time to come. For 
 next to the means of self-defence and the blessings of free government 
 stands in point of importance the character of a nation. Its distinguish- 
 ing characteristics should be justice and moderation — ^to spare the weak 
 
 its brightest ornament; It is the province of History to transmit 
 
 in its pages the transactions of nations. Posterity look to this depository 
 with the most intense interest. The fair fame of their ancestors, a most 
 precious heritage, is to them equally a source of pride and a motive of 
 continued good action. But she performs her province with impartiality. 
 The authority she exercises in the absence of others is a check on bad 
 rule. The tyrant and the oppressor see in the character of their proto- 
 types the sentence posterity is. preparing for them. Which side of the 
 picture shall we elect ? For the decision is left to ourselves. Shall the 
 record transmit the present race to future generations as standing by in- 
 sensible to the progress of desolation which threatens the remnant of this 
 people ? or shall these unfriendly characters give place to a generous effort 
 which shall have been made to save them from destruction ? While de- 
 liberating on this solemn question I would appeal to that high Provi- 
 dence, whose delight is justice and mercy, and take counsel from the 
 oracles of His will, revealed to man in His terrible denunciation 
 against the oppressor. 
 
 " In reviewing the past, justice requires that the humane attempts of 
 the Federal government, coeval with its origin, should receive an hon- 
 orable notice. That they have essentially failed the sad experience of 
 every day but too strongly testifies. If the original plan, conceived in 
 the spirit of benevolence, had not been fated to encounter that as yet un- 
 abated desire to bereave them of their lands, it would perhaps have real- 
 ized much of the hopes of its friends. So long, however, as that desire 
 continues to direct our councils every effort must fail. A cursory review 
 
436 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 is all that is necessary to show the incongruity of the measures we have 
 pursued, and the cause of their failure. Missionaries are sent among 
 them to enlighten their minds by imbuing them with religious impres- 
 sions. Schools have been established, by the aid of private as well as 
 public donations, for the instruction of their youths. They have been 
 persuaded to abandon the chase — ^to locate themselves and become culti- 
 vators of the soil. Implements of husbandry and domestic animals have 
 been presented to them. And all these things have been done, accom- 
 jjanied with professions of disinterested solicitude for their happiness. 
 Yielding to these temptations, some of them have reclaimed the forest, 
 planted their orchards, and erected houses, not only for their abode, but 
 for the administration of justice and for religious worship. And when 
 they have done so you send your agent to tell them they must surrender 
 their country to the white man, and recommit themselves to some new 
 desert, and substitute as the means of their subsistence the precarious 
 chase for the certainty of cultivation. 
 
 LOVE OP NATIVE LAND. 
 
 " No man is devoid of this natural affection, whether he roams the 
 wilderness or is found in the highest state of civilization. This attach- 
 ment increases with the comforts of our country, and is strongast when 
 these comforts are the fruits of our own exertions. Can it be matter of 
 surprise that the Indians hear with unmixed indignation of what seems 
 to them our ruthless purpose of expelling them from their country, thus 
 endeared ? They see that our professions are insincere — that our prom- 
 ises have been broken — that the happiness of the Indian is a cheap sacri- 
 iice to the acquisition of more lands ; and when attempted to be soothed 
 by the assurance that the country to which we propose to send them is 
 desirable, they emphatically ask us, ' What new pledges can you give us 
 that we shall not again be exiled when it is your wish to possess these 
 lands ?' Ir is easier to state than to answer this question. A regard for 
 consistency, apart from any other consideration, requires a change of 
 measures. Either let the Indian retain and enjoy his home, or, if he is 
 to be driven from it, abstain from cherishing illusions we mean to disap- 
 point, and thereby make him to feel more sensibly the extent of his loss." 
 
 By the compact between the United States and the State of Georgia, 
 entered into in 1802, the former covenanted that as soon as it could be 
 done peaceably and on reasonable terms the title of the Cherokee In- 
 dians to land within the limits of the latter should be extinguished. 
 During the administration of President Monroe the State of Georgia 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 437 
 
 became clamorous and demanded that the Indians should be removed 
 from within her territorial limits in fulfilment of the covenants of the 
 compact of 1802. Other States, both in the South and the West, were 
 impatient to' have the native population within their limits removed. 
 Hence, Mr. Monroe in a message to Congress submitted a proposition for 
 the removal of all the Indian tribes from the lands then occupied by 
 them within the several States and organized Territories east of the Mis- 
 sissippi, to the country west of that river. He said in the message that 
 " experience had demonstrated that in their present state it is impossible 
 to incorporate them in such masses, in any form whatever, into our sys- 
 tem. It has," said he, "been demonstrated with equal certainty that 
 without a timely anticipation of, and provision against, the dangers to 
 which they are exposed, under causes which it will be difficult if not im- 
 possible to control, their degradation and extermination will be inevitable. 
 The great object to be accomplished is the removal of those tribes to the 
 territory designated on conditions which shall be satisfactory to them- 
 selves and honorable to the United States. This can be done by convey- 
 ing to each tribe a good title to an adequate portion of land to which it 
 may consent to remove, and providing for it there a system of internal 
 government which shall protect its property from invasion, and by reg- 
 ular progress of improvement and civilization prevent that degeneracy 
 which has generally marked the transition from one to the other state." 
 It was when discussing this scheme for the removal of the Indian 
 tribes then dwelling on the east side of the Mississippi River to the west 
 side pf the same, that the Secretary of War in 1826 used the language 
 quoted herein, and preceding that quoted from the message of President 
 Monroe. The Secretary in his report, which was exhaustive, suggested 
 many difficulties, and feared that should the removal be made it would 
 not be effisctive, since he thought " the same propensity which had con- 
 ducted the white population to the remote regions they (the Indians) 
 now occupy will continue to propel the tide till it is arrested only by the 
 jdistant shores of the Pacific." Notwithstanding his doubts, such was the 
 pressure for the removal of the Indians to the west of the Mississippi 
 that the Secretary of War submitted a plan and prepared a bill for the 
 consideration of Congress, providing for this measure. The main fea- 
 tures of this bill were — that the country west of the Mississippi to which 
 the tribes should be removed was to be set apart for the exclusive abode 
 of the Indians j that they be removed as individuals or families in con- 
 tradistinction to tribes ; and, if circumstances should eventually justify 
 it, the tribal relation should be dissolved, and the Indians amalga- 
 
438 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 mated in one common mass, with a distribution of property among the 
 individuals. 
 
 ESTABLISHING A PEEMANENT HOME FOR THE INDIANS. 
 
 In May, 1830, Congress passed a law authorizing the President to eaus4 
 the territory west of the Mississippi to which the original title had been 
 extinguished, and which was not included within the limits of any State 
 or organized Territory, to be divided into a suitable number of districts 
 for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as might choose to 
 exchange the lands on which they then resided and to remove West. 
 The law authorized the President to solemnly assure the Indian tribes 
 with whom the exchange was made that the United States would /o?' ever 
 secure and guarantee to them and their heirs or successors the country so ex- 
 changed with them. In pursuance of this law, the Creeks, Cherokees, 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Kick- 
 apoos, Pottawattamies, Chippewas of Roche de Boeuf, Sacs and Foxes, 
 Wees, Piankashaws, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and other tribes, were removed. 
 These tribes were each and all guaranteed, and the faith of the nation 
 solemnly pledged to them, that the homes to which they were severally 
 removed should be to them and their posterity their permanent homes for 
 ever; and many of them had in the most solemn form the pledge of the 
 government that the land granted to them west of the Mississippi should 
 never be embraced within the limits of any organized Territory or State. 
 Except the tracts granted to the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 and Seminoles, the tribes that were transplanted were located within the 
 present limits of the State of Kansas. Since the organization of that 
 State all these emigrated tribes, except a few hundred Pottawattamies 
 and Kickapoos and some sixty Chippewa and Munsee Indians, have been 
 " bereaved of their lands " and removed from their " permanent homes," 
 and now dwell in the Indian Territory. In relation to the other tribes 
 it may be observed that, notwithstanding the guarantees in the treaties 
 with the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, etc., etc., by which they were 
 located in this Indian Territory, and by which it was solemnly agreed on 
 the part of the United States that at no future time should their lands 
 be embraced within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or 
 Territory, nor should any State or Territory ever have a right to pass 
 laws for their government, there is now (April, 1880) a bill pending in 
 the Congress of the United States for the organization of the Territory 
 of Oklahoma, and embracing within its defined boundaries the lands of 
 these Indians. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 439 
 
 The native Indians west of the Missouri River, residing on the Plains 
 and in the mountain Territories, were essentially wild horsemen, and with 
 them the government had but very slight treaty relations until years 
 after the tribes east of the Mississippi had been transplanted to their 
 permanent homes under the provisions of the law of 1830. Since the 
 acquisition of California, and the annexation of Texas and New Mexico, 
 and the rapid immigration to and settlement in the acquired territory by 
 our own population, demands from time to time have been made upon 
 the native Indians for portions of their lands for the use and occupation 
 of the white population, and through the process of treaty arrangements 
 the Indian title has been extinguished to vast bodies of them, within 
 which several new States and a number of Territories have been created 
 and organized. To meet these demands the Indians have been removed 
 from seat to seat, and the process still goes on. Such removals, and so 
 often repeated, have had a most injurious effect on the Indians; and 
 until they cease, and absolute permanent homes are provided for each 
 tribe, it is not seen how this population can with any degree of success 
 become successful cultivators of the soil or proficient in any civilized 
 pursuits. 
 
 COST OF INDIAN WARS. 
 
 Without going back to the conflicts and wars between the races during 
 the colonial times, it may be stated that the wars of this character that 
 have occurred since the Declaration of Independence, now more than a 
 century, have cost the government from three to four hundred millions 
 of money. These wars have been produced chiefly by the incessant pres- 
 sure of the white race, and its constant trespass upon the Indian. Even 
 the treaties solemnly made with the tribes by the government have been, 
 with scarcely an exception, broken. The whole record of our Indian 
 wars is one that cannot be examined with any degree of satisfaction or 
 with one single emotion of pleasure, since it is a sickening detail of out- 
 rage, robbery, and murder. In these conflicts human life has been fear- 
 fully sacrificed. The most friendly and innocent Indians have not been 
 spared, and often in their savage wrath they have slain innocent and un- 
 offending white people. 
 
 EEMOVAL OF INDIANS. 
 
 In the year 1825, when the question of the removal of the Indian 
 tribes to the west of the Mississippi was being discussed, the War De- 
 partment estimated their number at 129,266. They were distributed as 
 
440 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 follows : In Maiue, 950 ; Massachusetts, 750 ; Rhode Island, 420 ; Con- 
 necticut, 400; New York, 5143; Virginia, 47; South Carolina, 450; 
 Ohio, 2350; Michigan, 28,316; Indiana and Illinois, 11,579; Georgia, 
 ■Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, 53,625 ; Florida, 5000 ; Louisiana, 
 1313; Missouri and Arkansas, 18,917. 
 
 "The Secretary of War thought there was no necessity to provide for 
 the removal of the Indians in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
 necticut, Virginia, and South Carolina ; and he expressed the opinion 
 that those in New York, the Ottawas of Ohio, as well as the Indians in 
 Indiana and Illinois and in the Peninsula of Michigan, might all be re- 
 moved to the country west of Lake Michigan and north of Illinois. 
 He also thought that the Indians in Florida might remain there ; and 
 thus he reduced the number to be provided for and to be removed to the 
 country west of the State of Missouri and the Territory of Arkansas to 
 about seventy-nine thousand. In the event of their removal he said that 
 there should be the strongest and most solemn assurance that the country 
 given them should be theirs as a permanent home for themselves and their 
 posterity, without being disturbed by the encroachments of our citizens. 
 
 After the passage of the act of May 28, 1830, the process of removal 
 began, and was continued from year to year until the year 1843, when 
 the principal part of the Seminoles were removed. These were the last, 
 and they and some other small tribes who did remove were not contem- 
 plated in the report of the Secretary made in 1825 to be removed. The 
 tribes removed were the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Semi- 
 noles, Shawnees, Wyandots, Senecas, Delawares, Winnebagoes, Pottawat- 
 tamies, Kickapoos, Quapaws, Miamis, Chipjjewas of Roche de Bceuf, 
 Sacs and Foxes, Wees, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and Piankashaws — all of 
 whom, by the census or estimate of 1825, aggregated a population of 
 72,920. The descendants of these Indian tribes, so far as they can be 
 traced, had, in the fall of 1878, according to the report of the Indian 
 Office, a population of 66,861. Of these, 1764 Pottawattamie, Sac and 
 Fox, and Iowa Indians reside in Nebraska ; 737 Kickapoo, Pottawat- 
 tamie, and Chippewa and Munsees reside in Kansas ; 2200 Eastern Chero- 
 kees reside in North Carolina, Greorgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee ; 
 1180 Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes reside in Wisconsin; and about 
 1000 Miamis and Seminoles reside in Indiana, Texas, and Florida. The 
 residue (59,987) reside in the Indian Territory south of Kansas and west 
 of Arkansas. 
 
 It is known that from time to time portions of the Delaware, Shawnee, 
 Seminole, Creek, and other Indians in considerable numbers separated 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 441 
 
 from their respective tribes and went to Mexico. Could the number of 
 these be ascertained, together with the number of individuals and families 
 who have severed the tribal relation and become dwellers among the 
 neighboring white population, it is believed an aggregate could be pro- 
 duced which, when added to the census of 1878 of the emigrated tribes, 
 given in the report of the Indian Bureau (66,861), would produce as 
 large, if not larger, population than the census or estimate of the same 
 tribes made by the Secretary of War in 1825. 
 
 According to the report of the Indian Office for the year 1878, the 
 Indian population within the limits of the United States which has 
 treaty relations with the government, and exclusive of the Indians in 
 Alaska, is stated at 260,864. This population is distributed as follows : 
 In Arizona, 20,908 ; California, 9127 ; Colorado, 3739 ; Dakota, 25,616 ; 
 Idaho, 4911 ; Indian Territory, 75,479 ; Iowa, 341 ; Kansas, 737 ; Mich- 
 igan, 9800; Minnesota, 5138; Montana, 19,764; Nebraska, 4064; Ne- 
 vada, 6977 ; New Mexico, 22,419 ; New York, 5093 ; North Carolina, 
 South Carolina,^ Georgia, and Tennessee (Eastern Cherokees), 2200 ; Ore- 
 gon, 6726; Utah, 820; Washington, 12,969; Wisconsin, 8725; Wy- 
 oming, 2188 ; Indian Texas and Florida, 1000. A few of these In- 
 dians are not under the care of any agent, and there are in addition some 
 in several of the New England and other States that have no treaty rela- 
 tions with the United States. The Indians in Alaska are supposed to 
 number about 10,000. 
 
 According to the report of the Indian Office for the year 1878, the 
 number of Indians who then wore citizen's dress was 127,450. Of these, 
 61,467 were males and 65,983 females. The number of houses occupied 
 by Indians was 23,060. Of schools there were among the Indians 60 
 boarding- and 306 day-schools. The number of scholars attending these 
 schools was 12,222. Of these, 6631 were males and 5591 were females. 
 The number of children of school age was estimated at 49,200. The 
 number of Indians that could read and write was placed at 41,300. 
 There was expended for education during the year $353,125. Of this 
 amount there was appropriated by the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 Creeks, and Seminoles the sum of $137,775. The number of church- 
 buildings distributed among the Indian tribes was 219, and the number 
 of missionaries among them was 226. The five last-named tribes, who 
 are called the " civilized tribes " and reside in the Indian Territory, cul- 
 tivated during the year 245,000 acres of land, the product from which 
 was 494,400 bushels of wlieat, 2,642,000 bushels of corn, 210,000 bush- 
 els of oats and barley, 320,000 bushels of vegetables, and 116,500 tons 
 
442 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 of hay. These tribes then owned 40,000 horses, 4700 mules, 236,000 
 head of cattle, 173,000 head of hogs, and 25,000 sheep. 
 
 Other Indian tribes than the five referred to cultivated during the 
 same year 128,018 acres of land, the product from which was 266,100 
 bushels of wheat, 971,303 bushels of corn, 127,697 bushels of oats and 
 barley, 315,585 bushels of vegetables, 36,943 tons of hay, 193 tons of 
 melons, and 697 tons of pumpkins. There were among and by these 
 Indians 22,319 acres of new land broken during the year, and 128,056 
 rods of fencing made. There were during the year 2351 allotments of 
 land made to full-blood Indians. These then owned 176,766 head of 
 horses, 4479 head of mules, 52,867 head of cattle, 27,671 hogs, and 
 510,074 sheep. 
 
 Among other products of Indian labor during the year were 8,100,630 
 feet of lumber sawed, 132,886 cords of wood cut, 200,600 shingles made, 
 387,000 pounds of maple-sugar made, 164,000 pounds of wild rice gath- 
 ered, 17,000 woollen blankets and shawls made, 2530 willow baskets 
 made, 3800 cords of hemlock bark peeled, 211,000 pounds of wool 
 clipped for sale, and 3600 barrels of fish sold. 
 
 T7NCIVILIZED INDIANS. 
 
 The Indians of the Plains, as well as those in the mountains, and a 
 large share of those in the Pacific States and in "Washington Territory, 
 are still essentially nomads. Such number probably 85,000 to 90,000, 
 who produce scarcely anything by cultivation. They have their herds 
 of horses and cattle, and some of them flocks of sheep, but they do not 
 till the soil. Some of them are so located that, if they desired to engage 
 in agriculture, they could not do so. At the rate that the white settle- 
 ments are pressing upon them, the time is not distant when they will be 
 compelled, from the contraction of their hunting-grounds and the scarcity 
 of game, to change their mode of life and settle down to cultivation and 
 stock-raising. With all the drawbacks which beset and confront the In- 
 dians in every step they take on the road to civilization, the statistics 
 given, with the product from the labor of those engaged in agricultural 
 and pastoral life, should be sufficient to remove all doubts of the capa- 
 bility of the race to become self-supporting, and that in a very few 
 years this result may be reached if these wards of the government have 
 that protection and care to which they are justly entitled. 
 
 IS THE INDIAN RACE DYING OUT? 
 
 There is a general opinion prevailing that the Indian race is vanishing. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 443 
 
 This opinion has been encouraged in the official literature of the country 
 for many years. "We read in it from year to year of the " remnants- of 
 tribes that were once renowned and powerful, but who have become weak 
 and without spirit or energy." And a cursory reading of the history of 
 our border wars and the number of Indians slain would lead to the con- 
 clusion that the race was wellnigh extinct. It is true that from a multi- 
 pKcity of causes many of the tribes known in our early history have ceased 
 to exist as such, but others that were enabled to pass through the trying 
 period, and who have not been further afflicted with wars or removals, 
 are slowly but surely increasing in numbers. In 1825 the. population of 
 the Cherokees was given at 15,000. About 1835 they were — except 
 probably 2000, called the " Eastern Cherokees," who remained behind — 
 removed to the country in the Indian Territory where they now reside. 
 In the removal nearly one-fourth of their number perished. Between 
 1826 and the period of their removal they suifered loss from wars, and 
 during the late civil war Cherokee troops were engaged in the conflict, 
 and numbers were killed ; and yet by the census of the Cherokees taken 
 in 1878 they show a population (including 2200 Eastern Cherokees) of 
 21,072. The Chickasaws, who were removed at a later period to the In- 
 dian Territory, number 2000 more in 1878 than they did in 1825. The 
 Delawares, now located in the Indian Territory, show a slight increase in 
 1878 over their number in 1854, when they resided in the forks of the 
 Kansas and Missouri Rivers. Several other tribes show a like result. 
 
 Considerable attention has in the last few years been given to vital sta- 
 tistics among a number of the Indian tribes, and from the facts given it is . 
 apparent that in tribes where a register of births and deaths was kept 
 there is a slight excess of the former over the latter. This ratio of in- 
 crease is sufficient to justify the conclusion that the Indian race is not 
 vanishing from natural causes. It is an admitted fact that in the wild 
 tribes in the transition state from the life of the nomad to that of the cul- 
 tivator of the soil there is for a period a decline in numbers. In due 
 time, however, this decline ceases, and a gradual increase follows. The 
 opinion so generally held that, as a necessary result from contact with 
 civilization, the Indian race will disappear, must be modified, and the fact 
 accepted that the aboriginal population is to form a part of the great 
 American race. 
 
 There are elements in Indian character of vast importance and essential 
 to the composition of what we proudly claim is to be " the master-race 
 of the world." The Indian is always reverential to the Deity. No tribe 
 has been found that has not a belief in immortality. The Indian is pecu- 
 
444 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 liarly a spiritually-miuded man. He is straightforward in religion, in 
 politics, in law, in love, in business. He is of all men the most faithful 
 to his engagements. He is of all men the most free and independent. 
 He is the most fearless in council and war. He is the best educated man 
 in self-command and in his respect for the rights of others. Hospitable, 
 generous, confiding, and truthful, he challenges comparison in manhood 
 with those of any race. If he is not all that we have said of him to-day, 
 as he was in his original condition, it is not his fault. The elements 
 of manhood were there when we found him. We may have given him 
 the vices of civilization, and by example taught him to be treacherous 
 and unfaithful in some instances, but no race of crude barbarians has 
 possessed so many desirable characteristics as the North American Indians. 
 With all these to commend him, it appears strange indeed that the early 
 colonists should have failed to recognize in the Indian the most essential 
 elements of manhood. Wherever we find Indian blood mingling with 
 good white blood we find convincing evidence' of the sad mistake our 
 fathers made when they made causeless war upon the Indian. Had they 
 met him upon terms of equality and treated him as a man and a brother, 
 and in Christian spirit taught him by example that they had brought 
 with them a new and better way, a better system of law, a better religious 
 faith and practice, a better domestic and political economy, and demon- 
 strated to him that they were honest when they proclaimed "Peace on 
 earth and goodwill to men," no bloody Indian wars would have scourged 
 the land. 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 
 
 BY EMMA C. HAEDACRE. 
 
 Oint ancestors named this the New World. They grouped their cab- 
 ins upon its shores, believing themselves to be the iirst who had 
 planted colonies within its primeval forests. After several hundred years' 
 possession we discover that successive and unnumbered civilizations had, 
 possibly, flourished and decayed upon this continent before Columbus 
 crossed the sea. Archaeologists have examined fortifications in the prai- 
 ries, have unearthed cities in the valleys, found sacrificial altars on the 
 bluffe, and burial-mounds by the water-courses, showing that the so-called 
 New World is the mausoleum of a pre-historic race — the cemetery of lost 
 tribes whose crumbling habitations are their only headstones. 
 
 Of late, blown over the Plains, come stories of strange, newly-discov- 
 ered dties of the far South-west — picturesque piles of masonry of an age 
 unknown to tradition. These ruins mark an era among antiquarians. 
 The mysterious Mound-builders fade into comparative insignificance be- 
 fore the grander and more ancient Cliff-dwellers, whose castles lift their 
 towers amid the sands of Arizona and crown the terraced slopes of the 
 Eio Mancos and the Hovenweep. 
 
 A ruin, accidentally discovered by A. T>. Wilson of the Hayden Survey 
 several years ago, while he was pursuing his labors as chief of the Topo- 
 graphical Corps in Southern Colorado, is described to me by Mr. Wilson 
 as a stone building about the size of the Patent Office. It stood upon 
 the bank of the Animas, in the San Juan country, and contained perhaps 
 five hundred rooms. The roof and portions of the wall had fallen, but 
 the part standing indicated a height of four stories. A number of the 
 rooms were fairly preserved, had small loophole windows, but no outer 
 doors. The building had doubtless been entered originally by means of 
 ladders resting on niches and drawn in after the occupants. The floors 
 were of cedar, each log as large around as a man's head, the spaxies filled 
 
 Hi 
 
446 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 neatly by smaller poles and twigs, covered by a carpet of cedar-bark. 
 The ends of the timber were bruised and frayed, as if severed by a dull 
 instrument ; in the vicinity were stone hatchets, and saws made of sand- 
 stone slivers about two feet long, worn to a smooth edge. A few hundred 
 yards from the mammoth building was a second large house in ruins, and 
 between the two strongholds rows of small dwellings, built of cobble- 
 stones laid in adobe, and arranged along streets after the style of the 
 village of to-day. The smaller houses were in a more advanced state of 
 ruin, on account of the round stones being more readily disintegrated by 
 the elements than the heavy masonry. The streets and houses of this 
 deserted town are overgrown by juniper and pifion — the latter a dwarf, 
 widespreading pine, which bears beneath the scales of its cones delicious 
 and nutritious nuts. From the size of the dead as well as the living 
 trees, and from their position on the heaps of crumbling stone, Mr. Wil- 
 son concludes that a great period of time has elapsed since the buildings 
 fell. How many hundred years they stood after desertion before yielding 
 to the inroads of time*cannot be certainly known. 
 
 The presence of sound wood in the houses does not militate against their 
 antiquity. In the dry, pure air of Southern Colorado wood fairly protected 
 will last for centuries. In Asia cedar-wood has been kept a thousand 
 years, and in Egypt cedar is known to have been in perfect preservation 
 two thousand years after it left the forest. The cedars throughout the 
 territories of the South-west do not rot, even in the groves. They die, 
 and stand erect, solid and sapless. The winds and whirling sands carve 
 the dead trees into forms of fantastic beauty, drill holes through the 
 trunks, and play at hide-and-go-seek in the perforated limbs, until, after 
 ages of resistance, they literally blow away in atoms of fine, clean dust. 
 
 On the Rio San Juan, about twenty-five miles distant from the City of 
 the Animas, Mr. Wilson discovered the following evening a similar pile, 
 looming solemnly in the twilight near their camping-place. The scene 
 as described was weird in the extreme. As the moon arose the shadows' 
 of the phantom buildings were thrown darkly across the silvery plain. 
 The camp-fires, the tiny tents, the negro cook, the men in buckskin hunt- 
 ing-garb, and the picketed mules, made a strange picture of the summer's 
 night, with background of moonlit desert and crumbling ruins, on whose 
 ramparts towered dead, gaunt cedars, lifting their bleached skeletons like 
 sheeted ghosts within the silent watch-towers of the murky past. 
 
 In the summer of 1874 a division of the Hayden Survey, spepially 
 detailed for the work under the direction of W. H. Jackson, started to 
 find and investigate thoroughly the ancient cities of the South-west. 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 447 
 
 They have brought back the first authentic and official information ever 
 received upon the subject. They report the ruins found by Mr. Wilson 
 to be on the northern edge of an immense settlement which once extended 
 its dense population far down into New Mexico. The area covered is 
 several thousand square miles, and embraces the adjoining comers of 
 Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, the most southerly ruins 
 showing much the finer specimens of architecture. The region is remote 
 from civilization, and the nearest railroad point between two and three 
 hundred miles distant. From Fort Grarland the way leads across a track- 
 less desert, dotted by sage-brush and stunted grease-wood, and enlivened 
 by rattlesnakes, horned toads, and tarantulas. In patches the alkali rests 
 on the sand in fleecy flakes like new-fallen snow, and over all the sun 
 beats down in tropical fury. The streams formed on the western slope 
 of the Rocky Mountains have cut long cafioned valleys through nearly 
 horizontal beds in the southern part of the desert, and have gashed the 
 underlying rock to a depth sometimes of many thousand feet. The river- 
 beds are for the most part dry, except when in spring the snows come 
 from the mountains in a brief, cool flood, which, disappearing, leaves only 
 pasty, brackish dregs in the pockets of the rocks. Very rarely there are 
 found living springs trickling down the cafion-side, marked by the mosses 
 and leaflets that even in deserts find out and dwell beside the tiniest rill. 
 
 Bounded by the Rio Mancos, the La Plata, and the Rio San Juan is a 
 triangle embracing an area of six hundred square miles which does not 
 contain a drop of water. Around the edges of this triangle is a wide- 
 spread network of ravines crusted with ruins. The San Juan and the 
 La Plata have quite a width of bottom-land between their sides, but the 
 Rio Mancos runs like a brooklet along its narrow path, shut in by sheer 
 walls thousands of feet in height. On the terraces of the more open 
 caflons are multitudes of picturesque ruins ; in the bottom-lands, the re- 
 mains of towns ; in the wilder canons, houses perched on the face of the 
 dizzy chasm. In an encampment one thousand feet above the valley of 
 the Rio Mancos are single houses, groups of two and three, and villages, 
 according to the width of the shelf they occupy. They ai;e so high that 
 the naked eye can distinguish them merely as specks. There is no pos- 
 sible access to them from above, on account of the rocks that project over- 
 head — no present way of reaching them from below, although doubling 
 paths and footholes in the rocks show. where the way has been of old 
 trodden by human feet. 
 
 The cliffs are in some parts limestone, but more frequently sandstone, 
 with alternating strata of shales or clay. The softer layers weather out, 
 
448 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 leaving caves, whose solid stone ledges serve as floors and roofs of the 
 cliff-dwellings. A few houses are two stories — one showed four stories — 
 but generally they are not higher than a man's head ; division-walls are 
 built, beginning at the back of the opening and working outward to the 
 front of the cave, which is so neatly walled by masonry of the prevailing 
 stone that the artificial work is scarcely noticeable by a casual observer. 
 Upon the summits of the loftier battlements are placed at irregular in- 
 tervals round stone towers, supposed to have been signal-towers. The 
 illustration gives a better idea than words can give of "the ancient 
 watch-tower of the cliffs." The curve of the aboriginal masonry is 
 perfect ; the side of the tower has fallen, and the summit is jagged by 
 the gnawing tooth of Time ; but it stands boldly on the heights, and waits 
 through the centuries the coming of the dead braves to light again itS" 
 signal-fires. At present the roving Navajos, excepting scattering Utes, 
 are the only wanderers through the barren land. 
 
 In the McElmo Cafion stands a ruin known as " Battle Rock." A 
 huge boulder has fallen, and rests on the wall of a straight fortification, 
 and both boulder and wall are exquisitely wreathed about by wild vines. 
 On the terrace beneath Battle Rock stand the remains of a round build- 
 ing, plainly showing the ends of beams where the floor of the second story 
 has been ; on a bench yet lower ruined towers lean heavily against the 
 sandstone bank ; while on the very top of the embattled cliff are other 
 walls surrounded by fringes of juniper, and from the pinnacle of the 
 loftiest of the group a slender stem supports a tuft of pine outlined like 
 a black flag against the sky. The country around this spot is strewn 
 with flint arrow-heads lodged in the crevices and buried in the ground. 
 All the arrows lie with their points toward the ruins. In none of the 
 settlements have there been signs discovered of partially-completed points, 
 or anything to indicate that the Cliff-dwellers were a warlike people or 
 that they fought with bows. The arrows are supposed to have been left 
 by an invading horde which swept, in some remote time, over the whole 
 country and waged fierce warfare upon the rich cities of the South-land. 
 
 The Battle Rock of the McElmo is not more beautiful than the neish- 
 boring " Hovenweep Castle," or, literally, " The Castle of the Deserted 
 Valley." On the surrounding headlands of the Hovenweep, as well as 
 on the distant plateaus of the Dolores and other streams, are sombre 
 "cities of the dead" lifting their monumental tablets from the bare 
 desert-sands. According to our authorities, no bones have been found in 
 these cemeteries, no signs of graves, but charred wood and ash-heaps are 
 mingled with the sand. In all probability this ancient people were fire- 
 
AN ATTACK ON A VILLAGE OF CAVE-DWELLERS. 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 449 
 
 worshippers who cremated their dead, and fancied that the souls of their 
 race fled as the sparks upward, and found their heaven in the bosom of 
 the blazing sun. The stones are mere memorials showing the spot where 
 the dead were burned. The fact that the sun was their deity is substan- 
 tiated by the estufas in their dwellings and in their cities. The buildings 
 where their sacred rites were performed are of circular shape, depressed 
 in the centre of the floor, show marks of altar-fires, are often triple- 
 walled, with partitions extending from the centre through the walls, like the 
 sun's rays, dividing the space into small apartments where their treasures 
 were stored. The present Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona 
 are believed to be the remnant of the descendants of the conquered Cliff- 
 men. The mud houses of the Pueblos are modelled rudely after the 
 stone dwellings of the bottom-lands, and some signs of retrograde civil- 
 ization link them to a better time. The seven Moqui cities of Arizona 
 have estufas and the tribes are fire-worshippers. The Moqui towns are 
 now in precisely the state of preservation that they were described by the 
 invading Spaniards to be nearly four hundred years ago. Assuming the 
 Moquis to be lineal descendants of the Cliff-dwellers, how vast a time the 
 old cafion castles must have been deserted when even the Moquis have 
 no knowledge of the grand homes of their ancestors ! Regarding the 
 age of the Pueblos, they were said by Coronado, at the time of the 
 Conquest, to look very old. Casteflado records that the inhabitants 
 told liim that the Pueblos were older than the memory of seven 
 generations. 
 
 The ruins now made known to the public, at the time of the Spanish 
 invasion were spoken of as fabulous, and in 1681, in the journal of Don 
 Antonio de Otermin, mention is made of vague rumors to the effect that 
 eighty leagues distant there were Casas Grandas which had long before 
 served as fortresses. Albert Gallatin said : " There are said to be in these 
 parts ruins of ancient buildings known as Casas Grandas, ascribed to the 
 Azteques." 
 
 That the Pueblo Moquis are fire-worshippers, as were the cliff-dwellers, 
 is made evident by an account in Daviss's Conquest of New Mexico. • 
 " Many curious tales are told of the superstitions of the Pueblos. It is 
 said that Montezuma kindled sacred fires in the estufas, and commanded 
 that they be kept burning until his return. He was expected to appear 
 with the rising sun, and every morning the inhabitants ascended to the 
 house-tops and strained their eyes looking to the east for the appearance 
 of their deliverer and king. The task of watching the sacred fires was 
 assigned to the warriors, who served by turns a period of two days andl 
 29 
 
450 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 two nights without eating or drinking, and sopie say that they remained 
 upon duty until death or exhaustion relieved them." 
 
 Espejo says : " In the Pueblos they represented, by means of pictures, 
 the sun, moon, and stars as objects of worship. When they saw the 
 Spaniards' horses they were on the point of worshipping them as superior 
 beings ; they subsisted them in their most beautiful homes and entreated 
 them to accept the best they had." 
 
 Daviss says : " The houses are mud and stone, entered by means of 
 outside ladders. I was shown their god Montezuma. It was made of 
 tanned skin stretched on a circular frame nine inches in diameter ; one 
 half was painted green, and the other red ; on the green part were holes 
 representing eyes — on the red part, pieces of leather for ears and mouth. 
 The people knelt around it and offered prayer. One of them told me 
 this senseless thing was God and the brother of God." 
 
 One of the Hayden party who visited these Pueblos in 1875 says that 
 at sunrise the inhabitants stand on the house-tops and stretch out their 
 arms toward the east, waiting silently for the sun to rise above the horizon. 
 When it appears they burst into a great shout and disappear within their 
 homes. It cannot fail to be an interesting study to trace out the line of 
 kinship between the Indians of the old Pueblos and the earher residents 
 of the stone buildings in the caiions. The investigations now inaugurated 
 ■must before long lead to clearer ideas concerning the lost tribes. 
 
 To return to the cliffe. Portions of the cafion- walls were painted with 
 pictorial word-writing and curious hieroglyphics. In one case inscriptions 
 were seen back of a boulder through the crevice, between it and the wall. 
 The boulder had fallen from above so many years ago that parts of it 
 were imbedded in roots and trunks of trees, yet the writing back of it 
 was as fresh as though painted yesterday. The pottery found in all the 
 ruins is similar in form and texture ; it is thin, of hard finish, and painted 
 in colors that have lost none of their original brightness. 
 
 In a shallow cave of the Rio de Chelley, a few hundred feet above the 
 river-bed, fifty exquisitely tinted arrow-heads and seven large jars were 
 unearthed. The cave contains a house three stories high, having seventy- 
 six rooms on the ground floor. The ruins are five hundred and fifty feet 
 long. Within the work-room were large grindstones and various imple- 
 ments of the Stone Age. The walls are plastered in white cement of 
 stucco-like finish. That it was spread on the walls by human hands is 
 evident from the marks of the pores of the skin to be found on the sur- 
 face. Occasionally, the whole print of the hand has been left ; one wo- 
 man's slender fingers are thus preserved for the people of the nineteenth 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 451 
 
 century ; they seem to be extended, as though pleading to be rescued from 
 the horror of annihilation. Low down on the walls are the chubby palms 
 of little children, with every crease and dimple preserved. 
 
 A very picturesque ruin of the Rio de Chelley has been ingeniously 
 modelled in miniature, together with the face of the bluff in which it rests. 
 The worn steps up the rock, the cave, and crumbling masonry are more 
 perfectly reproduced by the sculptor's chisel than is possible by pen and 
 pencil. Duplicates of the design have been made in plaster, painted in 
 the warm buff tints of the shaly sandstone. These are framed, and will 
 be sold at their first cost by Professor Hayden to colleges or private in- 
 dividuals, and will be invaluable in explaining the cliff-ruins to students 
 interested in all that pertains to the former inhabitants of North America, 
 The models are about three feet by two in size. 
 
 Among the countless ruins of the Rio San Juan there is a circular cave 
 two hundred feet high, opening like a deep round tunnel in the caflon- 
 wall. Across the centre of the cave a shelf of hard rock forms the 
 foundati^.n of a stately pile, which extends into the twilight of the 
 cavern, midway up the height. It can be seen for the distance of a 
 mile down the bend of the canon. In the interior an open space prob- 
 ably served as a workshop. Holes in the rock formerly supported the 
 posts of their looms, while grooves in the floor mark where the workmen 
 made their stone saws and sharpened their clumsy stone axes. The front 
 part of the lower floor is in one long apartment or promenade ; the upper 
 rooms have small windows, communicating doors between the apartments, 
 and outer apertures leading into the back part of the cave. The mild 
 climate excused the necessity of any house-covering other than the dome- 
 like ceiling of the vaulted cavern. In a central room of the main build- 
 ing a depression, bearing traces of aboriginal fires, marks what was once 
 the kitchen-range of the manor : on smooth hot stones their cakes of acorn 
 paste were baked ; the stones yet lie beside the ash-heap. In the pit they 
 roasted their sheep ; the bones remain in a refuse-heap outside. Whether 
 plain corn on the cob or succotash was most relished by these spectres we 
 shall never know, although an impression of a cob in the plaster on the 
 wall proves that corn was raised in the time of the Cliff-dwellers. Several 
 of the apartments have marks of fires built against the back walls, where 
 the smoke escaped overhead through the open roof. The house is bare, 
 except much broken pottery, artistically painted ; things of value have 
 long since been carried away by the roving bands of Indians. The man- 
 sion presents an unusually imposing appearance. None of the neighbors 
 boasted so big a cave or so grand an entrance-hall. The family which 
 
452 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 in the old time dwelt therein must have been of the aristociracy of the 
 land. 
 
 From the promenade upon the house-top they could look down the 
 steep descent to their waving fields of corn and groves of cotton-wood, 
 their sheep-corrals and piflon-orchards, and upward to the grand roof of 
 the cavern which Mother Nature had scooped with her giant hand for 
 their sheltered homestead. To this cave-house Mr. Jaxjkson gave the 
 name "Casa del Eco," because of the resonant reverberations which 
 caused the faintest whisper of the visitors to be repeated as though 
 by hosts of phantom lips within the shades of the gray old ruin. 
 
 In the time when Casa del Eco resounded with merry life, social dis- 
 tinctions, I suppose, existed as now. In pre-historic times, no more than 
 in our times, could every one afford a palace. Poverty hid her wan face 
 behind picturesque simplicity, and young people tried love in a cottage 
 and dwelt in dove-cotes beside their prouder kinsfolk. A tiny home, 
 neat and trim as a Yankee kitchen, is perched on the heights of the West 
 Montezuma, near its junction with the East Fork. The house ie: built in 
 an oval hole which has been weathered out of a solid block of sandstone 
 that rests on the brink of a curiously-stratified chasm. The dwelling, six 
 by ten feet, is as securely tucked away from the sun and rain as a small 
 boy under an umbrella. The space between the side of the house and 
 the enclosing rock forms a nice little shady piazza. Who knows but 
 from this eyrie some dusky bride watched for her lover when the 
 evening shades settled dark in the caflon lane? 
 
 Farther down the Montezuma are settlements at the base of the blufis 
 containing houses one hundred feet square, with foundation-walls extend- 
 ing six feet below the surface of the grpund. In one was found a stone 
 axe ground to an acute angle and shaped ready to tie on to a handle ; 
 small rope made of twisted rushes, a small unbroken bowl, and ears of 
 charred corn were taken out of the ruins. A row of small houses, hang- 
 ing over the brink of a narrow ledge high in air, threatens a barrack-like 
 row three hundred feet below. The lower terrace has been dug out to a 
 depth of six feet. The space is occupied by a row of tenement-lilie 
 houses four hundred feet in length. The corner room affords access 
 to the row; communicating doors lead through the interior. 
 
 Mr. Jackson, in his late report, says : " The caflon sometimes expands 
 into valleys from four to eight hundred feet wide, then contracts to a pas- 
 sage of twenty feet. In the wider places the rocks jut out in tongue-like 
 projections, occasionally connected with the main land by a narrow comb 
 of rock, and sometimes cut away entirely by the erosive powers that chis- 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 453 
 
 elled the cafions. Within a distance of eighteen miles fifteen of the 
 promontories bear ruins upon their isolate^d heights. In one the skeleton 
 of a man was found, wrapped in shreds of a white and black Navajo 
 blanket. The form was that of an Indian, who without doubt had wan- 
 dered in there, and died alone in the cave-shelter." 
 
 Of the multitudes who swarmed through the caflons and the plains 
 when the wonderful stone-cutting and tree-hewing were going on, when 
 the towns were being built, and the country homes perched on the high 
 places, there have been no bodily remains found which could be identi- 
 fied as those of the Cliff-dwellers. A single skull, petrified, with the 
 brain-pan filled by solidified sand, was discovered in a ravine eighteen 
 feet beneath the surface ; above it were the ruins of two ancient houses, 
 one built over the foundations of the other: a few feet of drift separated 
 them, indicating that considerable time had intervened between the pe- 
 riods of their erection. 
 
 The most remarkable ruins yet discovered are those standing in New 
 Mexico some little distance from the ones already mentioned. They put 
 to shame the primitive log hut of our forefathers, the frame shanty of the 
 prairie town, the dug-out of the mining-regions, the adobe shelter of the 
 Pacific slope. In size and grandeur of conception they equal any of the 
 present buildings of the United States, if we except the Capitol at Wash- 
 ington, and may without discredit be compared to the Pantheon and the 
 Colosseum of the Old World. Thirty years ago, while on a raid against 
 the Navajos, Lieutenant Simpson, of the staff of Colonel Washington, 
 military governor of New Mexico, found some of the ruins of Chaco 
 Caflon, the most southern of the ancient cities of the South-west. Mr. 
 Jackson was fortunate in finding at Jemez an Indian who had accompa- 
 nied Lieutenant Simpson in his visit. Hosta is past eighty, of thin and 
 stooping frame, but he assured the Hayden party that he was as young 
 as he ever had been, and could pilot them through the nearest cut to 
 Chaco Caflon. He enlivened the journey by garrulous reminiscences of 
 his former trip, and described Colonel Washington and his men as he re- 
 membered them. After, crossing the New Mexico line, the explorers re- 
 port that singular optical illusions were frequent. The cheating mirage 
 hovered before them, holding up green oases and shadowy walls, vine- 
 draped and tree-embowered ; the sand-hills, sage-brush, and scant grass 
 were magnified into mountains, forests, and fields of maize. 
 
 The ruins are visible seven miles away as one looks down from the 
 continental Divide, from which the cafions begin their way in furrow- 
 like gulches. Near by are low mesas and buttes, and the Jemely Moun- 
 
454 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 tains, the San Mateo, and the Cerro Cabezon are in clear view. The 
 ruins of the canon are eleven in number, strung along at distances of 
 from a quarter of a mile to two miles from each other. In the rocks of 
 Pueblo Pintado, Mr. Jackson discovered elaborate stone steps, where the 
 rock had been carved into ladder-like rounds which the hands could 
 grasp. 
 
 The Pueblo Penasco Blanea on the opposite side of the cafion is in 
 form of an ellipse. The western half of the ellipse is occupied by a 
 massive structure five rooms deep, and the other half by a single contin- 
 uous row of small houses, serving as a wall to enclose the court. The 
 interior of the court is 346 by 269 feet ; by adding the depth of the sur- 
 rounding buildings, an exterior is obtained of 499 feet by 363 feet, whose 
 circuit is 1200 feet. The great depth of the d&hris indicates an original 
 height of five stories. There are seven estufas on the west side. 
 
 The Pueblo del Arroya has wings about 135 feet in length, and the 
 western wall of the court is 268 feet. Facing the centre of the coiui} 
 are three circular estufas, one of thirty-seven feet in diameter and three 
 stories in height. Mr. Jackson made a remarkable discovery in this 
 pueblo. He says : " About two hundred yards up the arroya are ruins 
 whose upper surface is mound-like, showing very faint traces of mason- 
 ry. The stream has undermined one corner, exposing a wall at a dis- 
 tance of five or six feet below the level of the valley. No surface indi- 
 cations of the exposed wall are found. The arroya is here sixteen feet 
 deep, but there is an older channel cutting in near the large ruin only 
 half this depth. Below the remains of these walls, and extending out 
 into the main arroya to the depth of fourteen feet below the surface, is 
 an undulating stratum of broken pottery, flint chippings, and small bones 
 firmly imbedded in a coarse gravelly deposit." 
 
 The Pueblo Weji-gi is built of small tabular pieces of sandstone, ar- 
 ranged with a beautiful eifect of regularity and finish. It is a rectan- 
 gular structure, built around an open court. Its exterior dimensions are 
 224 by 120 feet; its height, three stories. 
 
 Near the Pueblo Una Vida the canon has a width of five hundred feet, 
 perfectly level. Within the court of this pueblo are the remains of the 
 largest estufa yet found in any of the ruins. It measures over sixty feet 
 on the inside from wall to wall ; its upper plane is on a level with the 
 floor of the court ; it was evidently subterranean. 
 
 Nearly all the logs which supported the flooring are yet in position in 
 the Pueblo Hungo Pavie. The height is four stories ; the lower walls 
 three feet thick ; the estufa extends to the second story, and has a projec- 
 
TBE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 455 
 
 tion or porch built upon one side ; the interior is twenty-three feet in 
 diameter, and has six pillars of masonry built into the wall at equal dis- 
 tances. 
 
 The Pueblo Chettro Kettle is 440 feet long and 250 feet wide, and pre- 
 sents remnants of four stories. The logs forming the second floor extend 
 through the walls a distance of six feet, and probably at one time sup- 
 ported a balcony on the shady side of the house. The sand has drifted 
 far above the first floor, and completely blocked the windows. A coyote's 
 hole exposed a wall beneath the surface that had been completely covered 
 by drift. The masonry of this pueblo is unusually handsome — ^built of 
 very small pieces of a rich bufl" sandstone, arranged so compactly as to 
 give the idea of a homogeneous surface. Mr. Jackson estimates that in 
 the wall running around three sides of the building, 935 feet in length 
 and 40 feet in height, there would be two million pieces of stone for the 
 outer surface of the outer wall alone. This surface, multiplied by the 
 opposite surface, and also by the interior and transverse lines of masonry, 
 would form a total of thirty million pieces embraced in three hundred and 
 fifteen thousand cubic feet of wall. The millions of pieces had to be 
 quarried and put into position ; timbers brought from a distance ; ladders 
 constructed and plaster prepared, employing a large number of skilled 
 workmen under good discipline a long time. When we consider not 
 alone the immensity of these ruins now on the surface, but reason con- 
 cerning the massive foundations of other older buildings under these, 
 exposed by the chance burrowing of wild beasts or the slicing down of 
 banks by washes and arroyas, the mind, bounded by our little span of 
 threescore years and ten, cannot fathom the obscurity of the deep-sunk 
 ages of the past filled by the works of so great an antiquity. 
 
 Not more than six hundred yards from the Pueblo Chettro Kettle is a 
 handsome ruin which bears the musical title Pueblo Bonita. It is built 
 within twenty yards of the bluff, on the level bottom-land, which extends 
 in a sandy plain for some distance, watered by a shallow brooklet. The 
 length of the Pueblo Bonita is 544 feet, its width 314 feet. It has been 
 restored by Mr. Jackson, of the Survey, to what he deems its original 
 form, and is presented in a sketch in the government report. A study 
 of the picture of the pueblo as it was before its changes came will be of 
 more interest than a description of it in its ruined condition. In our 
 second hundredth year of national existence we are confronted by tokens 
 of a once-powerful nation which held our land before us. It is natural 
 that we feel an interest in the unknown race, and search every crevice of 
 the past for mementoes of the lost. Dr. Hayden and his corps of assist- 
 
456 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ants have surveyed a rich field of antiquarian treasure. After their cen- 
 turies of silent musings upon the river-banks the old castles hear again 
 the sound of human voices. The new lips speak a strange language. 
 The pre-Columbian race, through whose dismantled homes the strangers 
 wander, have passed into the shades of impenetrable oblivion, leaving 
 only Conjecture to tell, with uncertain tongue, her story of the Cliff- 
 dwellers.* 
 
 * The writer is indebted to Professor F. V. Hayden for special courtesies, to A. D. Wil- 
 son for verbal description, to W. H. Jackson and W. H. Holmes for sketches and valu- 
 able information. The editor desires to add his opinion that the present paper does not 
 give Mr. Ernest IngersoU deserved credit for discoveries among these ruins. 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIG TREES. 
 
 BY EEV. GEORGE A. PELTZ, D. D. 
 
 CALIFORNIA is essentially a land of wonders. Its physical features, 
 its variety of climate, its diversified scenery, its mineral and veg- 
 etable products, its animal life, its cosmopolitan population, and its engi- 
 neering exploits, are all wonderful. Nowhere can the intelligent tourist 
 ,find more to amu^e and instruct than is found ready at hand everywhere 
 in the Golden State, but, by common consent, the Yosemite Valley and 
 the Big Trees are placed foremost among the wonders of this wonder- 
 producing section. 
 
 There is a geographical reason for placing these two objects together, 
 aside from the fact that in their respective spheres each of them is 
 supreme. Among valleys Yosemite is the queen ; among trees Califor- 
 nia's giants are the sovereigns. But Nature has placed these wonders in 
 the same general stretch of her domains. He who goes to Yosemite 
 must go near some of the Big Tree groves, and he who goes to a Big 
 Tree grove should keep on a little farther to the famous valley. 
 
 THEIE LOCATION. 
 
 All the groves of Big Trees lie along the western slope of the Sierra 
 Nevadas. They extend along a stretch of some two hundred miles, but 
 immense gaps are scattered between the several groups or groves. They are 
 never found at an elevation of less than four thousand feet above the sea, 
 and their highest altitudes are about a thousand feet more. Thus, these 
 groves flank the Sierras on their westward slopes, and look out over the 
 intervening mountains, rivers, plains, and cities to the great Pacific Ocean. 
 Back of this great-tree line, some twenty-five miles, separated, however, 
 by towering ridges, lies the peerless valley, its almost flat bottom at a 
 height above the sea about equal to the lower line of the big-tree belt — 
 
458 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 in round numbers four thousand feet. Be it remembered that the gen- 
 eral direction of the valley is north-east and south-west, and that all 
 access to it is from the north-eastern end, by which the Merced River 
 leaves it. On all other sides the valley is surrounded by precipices and 
 rocky piles which defy passage, and beyond these the peaks and highlands 
 of the Sierras, often buried in snow for the entire year, stretch away in 
 impassable grandeur. And now, with this valley as the objective point, 
 how shall one from the busy world outside find his way into it ? 
 
 APPEOACHES TO THE VALLEY. 
 
 Whatever be the tourist's location (except indeed it be Southern Cal- 
 ifornia, Arizona, or Mexico), he will approach his destination by means 
 of the Central Pacific Railroad, and even from the district just excepted 
 he will approach by one of its branches, the Visalia and Los Angeles 
 Railroad. The several routes into the valley, with their respective dis- 
 tances from San Francisco, are thus given by a California authority : 
 
 I. Big Oak Fxat and Calavebas Eottte. 
 1. Direct Route. 
 
 To Stockton and Milton (rail) 119 miles. 
 
 Milton to Yosemite (stage) 88 " 
 
 Total 207 miles. 
 
 S. Vid Calaveras Big Trees. 
 
 By rail, as above 119 mUes. 
 
 By stage 148 " 
 
 Total 267 mUes. 
 
 II. CoXJIiTEKVttliE EOUTE. 
 
 By rail to Merced 140 mUes. 
 
 By stage to Yosemite 88 " 
 
 Total 228 miles. 
 
 III. Maeiposa Eoute. 
 
 By rail to Merced 140 miles. 
 
 By stage to Yosemite 97 " 
 
 Total 237 miles. 
 
 IV. Madeea Eoute. 
 
 By rail to Madera 173 miles. 
 
 By stage to Yosemite 92 " 
 
 Total 265 mUes. 
 
 Greatest Elevation bepoee EEAcnrNG the Vailet. 
 
 Big Oak Flat Eoute (near Tamarack Flat) 7040 feet. 
 
 Coulterville (near Hazel Green) 5650 " 
 
 Mariposa Eoute (Chowchilla Mountains) 5750 " 
 
 Madera Eoute " " 4750 « 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIQ TREES. 459 
 
 Steepest Grades. 
 
 Big Oak Flat Eoute 20 feet in a hundred. 
 
 Coulterville 15 " " " 
 
 Mariposa 17.5" " " 
 
 Madera 10 " " " 
 
 Everything pertaining to travel in California varies widely as told by 
 differently interested parties, but the foregoing statement is substantially 
 correct. By either route the round-trip ticket from San Francisco is fifty 
 dollars, Avith a small addition if Calaveras Grove is visited. The better 
 way is to enter by one route and leave by another. This can be done by 
 pre-arrangement, by exchange in the valley, or by paying to enter merely, 
 and then to come out as may suit. In either case the cost is not mate- 
 rially different. 
 
 To classify the above table somewhat more perfectly, observe that by 
 Route I. passengers leave the Central Pacific Railroad at Stockton, which 
 is ninety-two miles east of San Francisco. There they take the Stock- 
 ton and Copperopolis Railroad for Milton, some forty miles, where they 
 take stage, either by Calaveras Big Trees or direct to the valley, as they 
 may elect. In both cases the valley-end of the route by Chinese Camp, 
 Priest's, Big Oak Flat, Tuolumne Grove of big trees, and Tamarack Flat 
 is one and the same. All passengers by this route see the few big trees 
 at Tuolumne, and the stage-road is cut direct through the body of " The 
 Dead Giant," a standing trunk some thirty feet in diameter and perhaps 
 a hundred feet high. Route I. in both its branches is known as the 
 " Northern Route." ■ 
 
 For either of the other routes passengers leave the Central Pacific at 
 Lathrop, eighty-two miles ' from San Francisco, where they take the 
 Visalia Division, which leads to Los Angeles, Arizona, and where not ? 
 Of course persons on the southern portion of this road will come north- 
 ward to the starting-points they desire to reach. Fifty-eight miles south 
 of Lathrop is Merced, from which point two lines of stages start for the 
 Yosemite, constituting Routes II. and III. as given above. By the 
 Coulterville route one passes through the Merced Grove of big trees, and 
 enters the valley finally by a road which follows the channel of the 
 Merced River. By the Mariposa route one passes near the Mariposa 
 Grove, and makes his stop for the night at " Clark's," otherwise " Big 
 Tree Station." 
 
 When upon the Visalia Branch road the tourist may run on to Madera, 
 ninety-one miles south of Lathrop, whence stages start by Route IV.,' 
 and, having passed near the Fresno and the Mariposa Groves of big 
 
460 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 trees, they, with those of Eoute III., spend the night at " Clark's." From 
 " Clark's " into the valley is a splendid ride over mountain-roads. In a 
 few hours the valley is reached, and the first view of it is had from In- 
 spiration Point. No such comprehensive survey of this magnificent scene 
 is had by the other routes. The northern lines from Big Oak Flat 
 descend into the valley on the opposite side of the river, which is so em- 
 bosomed in the mountains that no broad outlooks are secured ; and the 
 Coulterville lines enter at the level of the valley-bottom, and therefore 
 have no overlook. By one of these three entrances all passengers enter 
 the valley, and by them all easy access is had by first-class stages. 
 
 THE BIG TREES. 
 
 After this general survey of the approaches to the wonderful region 
 under consideration, a detailed survey of the Big Trees is in order. They 
 are not ordinary trees, grown big by force of favoring circumstances. 
 Such, indeed, are the favoring conditions of growth in many parts of 
 California that all vegetable life becomes gigantic. Vines, fruits, veg- 
 etables, flowers, and trees of all kinds surpass their less-favored kinsmen 
 of other climes. " Big Oak Flat," mentioned above, took its name from 
 an immense oak tree which the gold-diggers finally undermined, but 
 which still lies at the roadside, dead indeed, but colossal. At the dinner- 
 station at Fresno Flats stands an oak twenty-one feet in girth. Near 
 " Clark's " is a sugar-pine about which six tall men stood closely, and 
 around which their extended arms barely reached. Trees naturally run 
 to bigness in that climate, but the genuine Big Trees are of a big family. 
 
 Popular parlance on the Pacific Coast calls them " redwoods," but scien- 
 tific parlance designates them as Sequoias. Of the Sequoia family there 
 are two branches — first, the Sequoia sempervirens, which is used on the 
 Pacific Coast much as the white pine is with builders in the East. This 
 tree, however, never becomes gigantic, though, compared with ordinary 
 pines, it might be so called. The other member of this family is desig- 
 nated Sequoia gigardea, and of this race the giants come. 
 
 On the authority of Mr. John Muir, the eminent naturalist of the 
 Pacific Coast, the clusters of Big Trees may be thus designated : (1.) The 
 Calaveras Group, which is the most northerly of all. This is reached by 
 Route I., as described above. It contains about one hundred of the 
 giant trees. The grove is private property, and is kept in superb order. 
 A first-class hotel is located in the very heart of the forest, and opportu- 
 nities for gathering facts, specimens, etc. are abundant. (2.) The South 
 Calaveras Group. This lies about five miles south of the former, and is 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIG TREES. 461 
 
 reached by horse-trail. Here are over three hundred of the giants, in all 
 ages, stages, and conditions. (3.) ITie Tuolumne Group, which is some 
 forty miles from the last. It has but a few trees, and is on the Big Oak 
 Flat route. (4.) 27ie Meroed Oroup, which is six or eight miles from the 
 last. It is on the direct route vid Coulterville. (5.) The Mariposa Group, 
 which is fifteen miles from the last, and about a mile off the line of the 
 Merced and the Mariposa routes. This is a splendid grove, containing 
 over three hundred gigantic trees. It is the property of the State, hav- 
 ing been deeded, with all the Yosemite region, by the United States to 
 California. It is in charge of a board of guardians, and is to be held 
 for ever as a public park. (6.) The Fresno Group, which is some thirty 
 miles from the last, and is situated near the Madera route, being accessible 
 from the dinner-station of the stage-line. (7.) The Dinkey Group, which 
 lies some fifty miles beyond the last, (8.) The King's River Group, which 
 begins fifteen miles farther south, and is a great unbroken forest of 
 Sequoias, which stretches away for many miles, and forms what Pro- 
 fessor Muir calls "the grandest display of vegetable life which is 
 known upon the globe." 
 
 Examination of the localities occupied by these giants of vegetation 
 indicates that they pre-empted the soils first left bare on the disappearance 
 of the Glacial Period. How long ago this was is entirely conjectural, but 
 the most venerable of the trees now remaining are probably three thou- 
 sand years old, and the average age of those still living is supposed to be 
 fifteen hundred years. These trees are always found in wet places, the 
 immense rootage favoring marsh formation, and the immense amount of 
 nourishment required demanding it. Fossil Sequoias have been found in 
 the northern zone, especially in the neighborhood of Disco. These are 
 found in the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations, showing that this lordly 
 tree fiourished in those high latitudes before the great Glacial Period. The 
 climate must then have been much warmer than now, as nothing greater 
 than the dwarf birch now grows there. 
 
 A few simple illustrations of the size of these trees will enable any one 
 to estimate their immensiiy. In South Calaveras Grove is a tree, stand- 
 ing and alive, into a cavity in which the horseback-parties which visit it 
 drive. Fifteen or sixteen mounted men are easily packed into it, and the 
 guides affirm that twenty, and even twenty-one horses, with men on their 
 backs, have been stowed away there. In the Tuolumne Grove there is a 
 tree through which the stages are driven, as is mentioned above. When 
 the writer of this sketch passed that way he rode in a four-horse stage, 
 which carried eleven passengers, with the driver. The stage stopped in 
 
462 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 the way cut through the tree. On either side of the halted stage thtre 
 was room for the passengers to alight, which all did. Passing to the side 
 from which the stage had entered, and aligning across the opening, the 
 rear of the stage, including the baggage-boot, was entirely hidden from 
 view in the body of the tree. Passing to the front and aligning across 
 tliere, the wheel-horses were entirely covered. Any one who is so fortu- 
 nate as to see a stage such as is here described can form his own estimate 
 as to the size of the grand old trunk through the base of which this 
 wagon-way is cut. 
 
 In the Calaveras Grove there are several splendid illustrations of size. 
 The " Pioneer's Cabin " is a living tree with a split in its front. This is 
 so wide that six gentlemen, seated on easy-chairs across the opening, were 
 photographed there, and between every two chairs was room enough for 
 an additional chair. The opening is about seventeen feet in the clear, the 
 entire width of the tree being about thirty feet. The " Father of the 
 Forest " is a fallen and much-decayed giant in this same grove. About 
 eighty feet from the root the trimk broke in falling. At this point 
 mounted men enter the hollow trunk, through which they ride for about 
 one hundred feet. At the point where they emerge the writer of this 
 sketch entered afoot, and walked upward in the trunk for about twenty 
 feet. Here he found a short gladder against the side, up which he clam- 
 bered, and, though he weighs two hundred pounds, out he went at an old 
 knothole, not so much as soiling his coat or tipping his hat ; and, having 
 stood a moment on the rim of the hole, he leaped to the ground on the 
 outside, persuaded fully that to creep out at a knothole was, after all, no 
 very mean affair. 
 
 The crowning illustration of immensity is foimd in one, the only one, 
 of the great trees which man has ever felled. This grew in the Calaveras 
 Grove. It was determined to cut it down, for scientific uses in the main. 
 Five men worked upon it twenty-two days, not chopping or sawing, but 
 boring it with pump-augers. After the separation was complete the base 
 was so great and the centre of gravity was so well sustained that the 
 veteran refused to fall. Ropes, pulleys, and wedges were finally brought 
 to bear, and down the giant came. The tree was over three hundred feet 
 long, ninety-six feet in circumference at its base, and sound to the heart. 
 Sections were cut from the main trunk for museums and curiosity-hunters. 
 The upper, uncut portion was levelled off for a bowling-alley, but, not 
 having been covered, has gone greatly to decay. The section of the trunk 
 next the stump was set apart as an observatory, ascent to its summit 
 being made by a flight of steep steps. The top of the stump itself was 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIG TREES. 463 
 
 some six feet above the ground. This was smoothed off, levelled, and 
 its irregularities filled out to make a true circle, which was then covered 
 with a pavilion structure, and on the following Fourth of July four 
 full sets, of eight persons each, danced upon it, with plenty of room 
 for spectators around the edges and for the orchestra which furnished 
 the music. 
 
 Of the capacities of this one stump Bishop Kingsley presented two 
 other illustrations. He calculated that you might here find room for a 
 minister with his desk, a chorister with his organ, and a congregation of 
 one hundred persons. Or wtth the square feet upon the top of this stump 
 you might construct a parlor twelve feet by sixteen, a dining-room ten 
 feet by fifteen, a kitchen ten by twelve, two bedrooms each ten feet square, 
 a pantry four feet by eight, two clothes-presses each four feet wide by one 
 and a half feet deep, and even then have a little to spare. These narra- 
 tives may seem to be " very large stories," as a critical editor once said of 
 them, but let two things be remembered in connection with this seeming 
 exaggeration : (1) as this very editor confessed, " they are about very big 
 trees ;" and (2) they are but a few specimens from many as unusual, or even 
 more so. 
 
 YOSEMITE. 
 
 Having spent so much time among the Big Trees, we anxiously turn 
 toward the great valley. By which route shall the valley be entered ? 
 Unquestionably, by Inspiration Point, which means that we approach 
 from "Clark's," otherwise "Big Tree Station," which is the night-halt 
 of the Madera and the Merced stages. While at this place let the Mari- 
 posa Grove be visited. They will tell you there that you had better visit 
 the trees as you return, and for this various reasons will be assigned. The 
 only real reason is, however, that they desire to commit you ta return by 
 their way. This they do not state, but this is the fact. See the Mariposa 
 trees as you enter, therefore, then journey on untrammelled toward Inspi- 
 ration Point. 
 
 INSPIEATIOlSr POINT. 
 
 The Inspiration Point around which the stage-road bends, and at which 
 the stage makes a halt, is not the Inspiration Point of the earlier days. 
 That is some fifteen hundred feet higher up, on the very summit of the 
 bluff, and is reached only by horse-trail. But the point reached by the 
 stages is not to be despised. It is two thousand feet above the bottom 
 of the valley, and situated at its very foot, so as to command a complete 
 
464 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 view of all the immediate surroundings. The higher Point gives an 
 outlook over the pinnacles and summits of the Sierra Nevadas, which the 
 lower Point does not ; but for the valley proper and its peculiar charms 
 the lower view is by many deemed preferable. The point at which 
 Moran did the work on his great painting of the valley was by no means 
 the highest he could find, but it was unquestionably the best. So it is 
 with the lower Inspiration Point as a standpoint for the valley views. 
 
 As the stages draw near the valley the excitement for the first peep 
 runs high, and the non-communicativeness of the drivers is a serious 
 aggravation. You think you see it, but ar»told you do not. However, 
 you do see multitudes of magnificent views, some of them including 
 snatches of the valley scenery ; but at last, whirling out of a well-wooded 
 road and coming to a sudden halt on the very edge of a terrific precipice, 
 the driver shouts, " Inspiration Point !" and before you realize it you are 
 in the presence of magnificence ineffable. The first impression is that of 
 enchantment. There is such a blending of depths and heights, of hard 
 granite and soft foliage, of swaying waterfalls and eternal rocks, of snow- 
 capped peaks and summer-decked vales! There are domes and half- 
 domes, peaks and pinnacles, spires and columns and arches. The possi- 
 bilities of rock-sculpturing seem to have been exhausted — ^here and there 
 untouched masses to have been flung down in despair. There at the 
 green bottom of the valley creeps the Merced River, but, as you see it, it 
 is but a silver thread. Yonder is Yosemite Fall, like a line of whiteness 
 down the mountain-side. Above it floats a fleecy cloud which seems to 
 pour itself in snowy pureness down the cliff. And here is the Bridal 
 Veil Fall ! See it float and sway and trail as in its misty leap of a thou- 
 sand feet it is tossed by the passing breezes, like the veil of a human 
 bride amid the breezes of a spring day. And here is El Capitan, " the 
 Captain " indeed — ^bald, solid, stupendous, so unlike anything else about 
 him ; a veritable commander, with a magnificent but obsequious follow- 
 ing. "All hail. El Capitan!" rises instinctively to the lips as the hand 
 unbidden tips the hat in deserved salute. And over all these charms, and 
 many more, hangs the beautiful, soft, transparent atmosphere of Califor- 
 nia's spring-time. You think you see a wonderful fancy sketch, and no 
 real scene. You think you ,dream. You think you are under a spell of 
 enchantment. You are ready to soar. In thought, in feeling, in soul, 
 you do soar, until "All aboard!" is gruffly shouted by the driver, who 
 casts off the brake, cracks his whip, and the clatter of iron shoes and the 
 rattle of stage-wheels bring you back to the realities of life. Down, 
 down, down we rumble to the bottom of the valley. 
 
VERNAL FALLS, YOSEMITE. 
 BY THOMAS MORAN. 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIG TREES. 465 
 
 m THR VALLEY. 
 
 ]!fow that we are fairly in the valley, we may well look about and get 
 some of its details clearly before us. The valley-bottom is about six 
 miles long and from a half to three-quarters of a mile wide. The average 
 height of the enclosing cliffs is more than the average width of the valley- 
 bottom, so that the general resemblance is that of a trough deeper than 
 wide. At the foot of the valley by which we entered the Merced Eiver 
 flows out by a rocky channel cut through towering mountains. At the 
 head of the valley there are three branches or caflons, which formerly 
 were the beds of as many glaciers, as now they are of flowing streams. 
 The walls of the valley proper are also broken more or less, and slashed 
 with intersecting caflons. The accumulation of debris around the valley 
 is surprisingly small, though the position of many immense fragments 
 shows that since the valley assumed substantially its present form there 
 has been terrific earthquake agitation here. The entire length of the 
 valley-bottom is beautifully wooded, many lordly pines rearing their 
 heads as best they can among their overtowering surroundings. 
 
 The Merced Biver is a clear, cool, deep stream. It abounds in trout, 
 which are caught in large numbers by the Indians ^welling in the valley, 
 and are supplied generously at the hotel-tables. The act governing these 
 grounds forbids the leasing or sale of grounds to parties other than those 
 connected in some way with the maintenance of the public park which, 
 as mentioned above, this valley and the Mariposa Big Tree tract now 
 form. A few of the Digger Indians dwell permanently in the valley, 
 but they are a poor, low, shiftless party. A few white persons also 
 usually winter here, and the summer resident population is possibly about 
 two hundred. These are hotel-keepers and attendants, saddle-horse and 
 stage proprietors, drivers^ guides, storekeepers, barbers, photographers, etc. 
 
 HOTELS. 
 
 The three hotels of the valley are grouped about the vicinity of Yo- 
 semite Fall, at the upper end of the valley proper. From the first to 
 the last is about a mile by the wagon-road, and the Chapel, the President 
 Guardian's dwelling, the Hall of the Guardians (official overseers of the 
 park), photograph-galleries, curiosity and other stores, stables, cottages, 
 and other paraphernalia of the village, are all grouped about this inter- 
 vening mile. 
 
 This first hotel as you enter the valley is known by the name of the 
 proprietor, Liedig, who is a German. He furnishes good and well-served 
 
 30 
 
466 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 meals, but is a little crowded in bedrooms. His patrons uniformly speak 
 M^ell of him. Liedig and his family spend their winters in the valley, 
 and he says he wishes to be buried close up under the Sentinel Rock, 
 which is at the rear of his house. The second hotel is " Black's." Mr. 
 Black is a Scotchman who has spent many years in California, and who 
 owns considerable land in the vicinity of Yosemite. He gives his guests 
 good rooms, and good food too. Everything about the place is well kept 
 and in perfect order. From the front porch of his house a full view of 
 the Yosemite Fall is had, from the lip where it pours over to the point 
 where it disappears behind the intervening treetops.' " Barnard's " is the 
 last of the three hotels. It was formerly knoAvn as " Hutchings'," after 
 the author of the first guidebook to the valley, who formerly kept this 
 house. This, too, is a very satisfactory hotel, and possibly has a situation 
 a tritle more favorable for immediate outlooks. The post-office and tele- 
 graph-station of the valley are located here. Prices at these three hotels 
 are about the same, three and a half and four dollars per day being the 
 usual charges. The doubts of some as to their feeding capacity were dis- 
 pelled in June, 1879, when the Pacific Sunday-school Institute Excursion 
 party went into the valley some two hundred strong, but all were fed 
 well, though some did sleep on the floor. 
 
 DRIVES AND EIDES. 
 
 Opportunities for driving are not numerous here. You can make the 
 round trip of the valley and see the base of El Capitan and the foot of 
 the several falls. This trip none should omit. From a point near the 
 foot of Yosemite Fall the line of water, from where it breaks on the rocks 
 before you to where it curves over the rock-lip 2640 feet above you, is 
 clearly seen. The intervening cascades of the middle section are lost to 
 view indeed, but the lower and the upper falls seem to blend in one, and 
 you have the entire altitude in your view. From the Glacier Point Trail, 
 on the opposite side of the valley, both falls and the central cascades are 
 had in one view. The trip to the foot of Bridal Veil Fall should be 
 made in the afternoon about four o'clock, so as to catch the finest effects 
 of the sun. At this time you can approach to the very foot of the fall, 
 and as the spray floats here and there in the breezes and the fall sways to 
 and fro, rainbows of supreme magnificence will come and go, will glow 
 and fade, will approach and recede, will multiply and disappear, until 
 you fancy yourself in the very presence where rainbows are furnished for 
 a world. All the foliage too is dripping with the spray, and sparkling as 
 with myriads of gems. 
 
YOSEMITE AND THE BIG TREES. 467 
 
 In this ride about the valley-bottom one finds time also to appreciate 
 the uprightness and the downrightness of the surrounding cliffs. Their 
 stupendousness grows upon one as he sees the fragments they have drop- 
 ped — fragments large as the average church-edifice, and yet the face of 
 the original rock scarce shows a flaw where once these fragments evidently 
 rested. The fantastic forms of the roclis are appreciated also by one with 
 a little poetry in his soul. The Three Brothers reminds one of three 
 boys at play, leap-frog being the game, and instinctively one sighs to be 
 a boy again, save only that the leap the boys seem about to take is a 
 plunge of several thousand feet into the Merced River. Cathedral Rocks 
 answer well to their name. The Spires are as fine a pair of twin spires 
 as ever Nature carved ; Art might do the work with more exactness, but 
 certainly not with equal solidity. The Sentinel is indeed the overseer of 
 the valley. Half Dome and the Dome are names which suggest them- 
 selves as the eye rests upon them. The designations South and North 
 which they respectively bear are scarce needed. No one could question 
 as to which peak is Cloud's Rest, nor which is The Captain (El Capitan), 
 while the Royal Arches, Washington's Column, the Lost Arrow, and 
 Liberty Cap are so well named that no change could be asked. 
 
 The ride to Mirror Lake is a favorite trip. Parties go there to see the 
 sun rise. They need not, however, make a painfully early start. Lie 
 abed till daylight has come; rise and dress deliberately, and get your 
 breakfast; mount the hack at the door and ride up one of the head 
 caBons, known as the Tenaya, about two miles, passing under the 
 shadows of the Royal Arches, of Washington's Column, and of peaks 
 which rear their heads above you a full half mile. In half an hour 
 you reach the lake and stand upon the platform at the Lunch House, 
 All is still ; the little lake seems insignificant, but mark its mirror-like 
 smoothness. No French plate ever presented a better surface. Every 
 tree, nay every leaf, is perfectly reproduced upon its bosom. Every rock 
 with its moss-patches and its fissures is duplicated. The heavens are 
 mirrored below you, and an abyss deep as the heavens are high yawns 
 at your feet. You are face to face with the perpendicular side of the 
 Half Dome. Its peak is 4737 feet above you. You see its inverted 
 summit in the mirror below you. But see that brightening of its top. 
 It glows as if volcanic fires were about to burst from it. They do burst 
 forth. The top is encircled in a spreading glory. You are dazzled ; you 
 close your eyes for the moment. You look again, and the peak is all 
 right now, for the sun, though several hours high, has just risen beyond 
 it. You pay fifty cents toll, and go home. 
 
468 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Ascending the trails on horseback is no very serious exploit even for 
 the inexpert. They are steep, and in many places alarmingly rough, but 
 the horses which climb them are well-drilled beasts. Their movements, 
 if not interfered with, are automatic. Mount them, sit solidly, keep your 
 equilibrium and your patience, and you will by and by reach your desti- 
 nation on the mountain-tops. All the desirable points about the valley 
 may be thus approached. To reach some of them some hard hand-and- 
 foot climbing must be done, but to most of them you can go without dis- 
 mounting. Good footmen can reach any point with ease, saving horse- 
 hire, but paying tolls and consuming more time. One of our party who 
 wore an old-fashioned cork leg actually stumped his way to all the main 
 peaks. In a few more years all these trails will be free. They have 
 been built by private parties, who for compensation get toll for ten years. 
 Then the work all reverts to the State. 
 
 A SWEEPING VIEW. 
 
 And now, before " Farewell " is said to this charmed scene, a general 
 survey of its chief features may be appropriate. Entering the valley. El 
 Capitan looms up upon the left a square, bold, clean block of granite 
 3300 feet in height from the valley-bottom. Opposite, and less than 
 half a mile distant at the base, are Cathedral Rocks, 2660 feet high ; the 
 Spires rise 500 feet above this general altitude. Next beyond El Capitan 
 are the Three Brothers, which lift their highest point 3830 feet above the 
 valley. Nearly opposite these is The Sentinel, an obelisk-shaped rock 
 towering to a height of 3043 feet. Still farther on upon the left is North 
 Dome, 3568 feet above the valley. Nearly opposite this, Tenaya Canon 
 and Mirror Lake intervening, is Half Dome, 4737 feet high. Beyond, 
 forming the background in this canon, is Cloud's Rest, 6150 feet above 
 the valley. Other grand peaks tower heavenward around the valley, but 
 back from its rim, several of them being over 13,000 feet in height. 
 
 A final glance at the waterfalls and we leave the valley. Nearest to 
 you as you stand on Inspiration Point is Ribbon Fall, which is a 
 little rivulet trickling down the mountain-side and forming a pretty, cas- 
 cade, over 3000 feet in its entire altitude. A similar fall is near The 
 Sentinel, and yet another on the opposite side of the valley, near its head. 
 The water-supply of these falls is very small, however, and they dry out 
 very early in the season. For height, however, they surpass all other 
 waterfalls of the world. Bridal Veil, which lies just below Cathedral 
 Rocks, has a descent of about 900 feet, two-thirds of this distance being 
 in one clear leap, and the remainder being a steep cascade. For soft, 
 
YOSEMITE AND TEE BIG TREES. 469 
 
 gentle beauty this is the finest fall of the valley, and it is perennial. 
 Almost opposite this, and sheltered by the flank of El Capitan, is an- 
 other fall, almost the duplicate of Bridal Veil in appearance. It is in 
 the guidebooks called Virgin's Tears, but in the valley they call it 
 WidoVs Tears, the drivers there affirming that it is so called because 
 it flows for five or six weeks only. 
 
 Cascades and rapids of most superb character abound along the Merced. 
 Above the valley, and below, a lover of the beautiful may, tarry long, 
 and long to tarry longer, amid the water-views. Cascade Falls, a few 
 miles below the foot of the valley, is a point visited by many. Yosemite 
 Fall is the peerless queen of the valley; it is so approachable, it presents 
 so many different views, it is so lofty, so voiceful, so changeful, so grand. 
 Its admirers sit and gaze upon it for hours in worshipful silence. One 
 loves to lie and listen to it in the hours of night ; and in the services of 
 the Chapel in June, 1879, no moments were more impressive than when 
 all sat in silence and listened to the voice of God in the waterfall. 
 
 Passing out of the valley proper, and following up the Merced Eiver, 
 the lUilonette Fall is seen in the distance spouting forth a strong but 
 narrow current of water, which plunges some 600 feet into a little trib- 
 utary of the main stream. Following the trail of the river, however, 
 one is brought, after a hard climb, to "Snow's," a most comfortable hotel, 
 surrounded by towering cliffs and perched above the torrent of the Mer- 
 ced just under the spray of the Nevada Fall. Here the river makes a 
 plunge of 700 feet, and just below, at the Vernal Fall, it makes an un- 
 broken leap of 400 more. Here is the holy of holies, so far as water- 
 falls are concerned. Immensity, wildness, power, grandeur, are elements 
 which enter into the composition of one's experiences here. Your adjec- 
 tives are all flat. You look and wonder ; you look again and wonder 
 more. Such a spot as Snow's is not to be found elsewhere. 
 
 One need not take the circuit of the trail to reach this heart of the 
 Merced. If he be protected by waterproof clothing or care not for a 
 wetting in ice-water, he may push up the river's brink to the very foot 
 of Vernal Fall, and thence by a series of good, solid stairways he may 
 ascend to the top, thus doing in half a mile what by the trail is five 
 times as much. The writer took this shorter course, accompanied by a 
 California lady. Compelled by the fury of the spray to pause frequent- 
 ly, the grandeur of the place steadily impressed itself upon us. The 
 face of the fall, full four hundred feet in height and one hundred in 
 breadth, was a mass of shimmering whiteness. It reminded of the " great 
 white throne " of which the Revelation tells. The roar and dash of the 
 
470 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 many waters drowned out every human utterance. It reminded of the 
 " voice of the archangel and the trump of God," at the sounding of which 
 "every mouth shall be stopped." On either side the towering mountains 
 shut us in, as at the last each man must be shut in with God before the 
 throne. Eainbows of brightest hues and amplest breadth were playing 
 everywhere, and we are told "there was a rainbow round about the 
 throne." And not alone about the throne, but about us, who stood so 
 insignificant there, these emblems of hope abounded. Gems of rarest 
 lustre and richest color strewed the grass at our feet, dripped from the 
 foliage about us, and glistened on our garments. One could but fancy 
 himself at such a moment on the golden streets and amid the jewelled 
 walls of the New Jerusalem. And here was one from the Atlantic 
 shores and another from the Pacific! And is it not said, "They shall 
 come from the east and from the west" to that fair city? And we who 
 were there that day were mutually dependent upon each other for that 
 gladdening fact. Neither would have gone alone, but each went because 
 the other did. Let the lesson learned beneath this "Shower of Dia- 
 monds" — the Indian name for the Vernal Fall — ^be this: Let us all 
 help each other to a hopeful place before the throne of God. 
 
 " While Nature's pulse shall beat the dirge of time 
 Thy domes shall stand, thy glorious waters chime. 
 Farewell, Yosemite ! thy falls and sunlit towers 
 Will rise like visions on my future hours." 
 
ALASKA. 
 
 BY BRET HARTE. 
 
 Where the short-legg'd Eskimo 
 Waddle in the ice and snow, 
 And the playful polar bear 
 Nips the hunter unaware ; — 
 Segment of the Frigid Zone, 
 Where the temperature alone 
 Warms on St. Elias' cone ; — 
 Polar dock, where Nature slips 
 From the ways her icy ships ; — 
 Land of fox and deer and sable ; — 
 Shore-end of our Western cable, — 
 Let the news that flying goes 
 Thrill through all your Arctic floes, 
 And reverberate the boast 
 From the cliffs of Beechey's Coast, 
 Till the tidings, circling round 
 Every bay of Norton Sound, 
 Throw the vocal tide-wave baok 
 To the isles of Kadiak. 
 Let the stately polar bears 
 Waltz around the Pole in pairs. 
 And the walrus, in his glee. 
 Bare his tusk of ivory; 
 All ye polar skies, reveal your 
 Very rarest of parhelia ; 
 Trip it, all ye merry dancers. 
 In the airiest of Lancers ; 
 Slide, ye solemn glaciers, slide 
 One inch farther to the tide, 
 Nor in rash precipitation 
 Upset Tyndall's calculation. 
 Know you not what fate awaits you, 
 Or to whom the future mates you? 
 All ye icebergs, make salaam — 
 You belong to Uncle Sam. 
 
 471 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 
 
 BY REV. SHELDON JACKSON, D. D. 
 
 IT was sundown as the California steamed out of the harbor of Vic- 
 toria. Instead of putting out to sea through the Straits of San Juan 
 de Fuca, the steamer headed to the north-east through the Haro Strait, 
 winding in and out among a thousand islands, until we entered ' the 
 broader Georgia Straits, and for three hundred miles our course lay 
 between Vancouver's Island and the main land, then between smaller 
 islands and the main land, so that a trip of over a thousand miles is 
 taken in salt water without ever getting to sea, the entire voyage being 
 but little different from river-navigation. Entering Haro Strait, off to 
 the east is San Juan Island, so long the boundary in dispute between the 
 United States and Great Britain. 
 
 Far off to the east, Mount Baker stood in the twilight a great white 
 pyramid covered with snow, notwithstanding its internal fires are still 
 burning. Its crater is now filled up with ashes. During the night we 
 crossed the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, the imaginary line that 
 separates the United States from the Dominion of Canada. In the 
 morning we anchored at Nanaimo to take on coal for our long northern 
 journey. The mines at this point during 1876 raised one hundred and 
 forty thousand tons of coal. 
 
 Alaska is an English corruption of Al-ah-shah of the natives, mean- 
 ing " the great land." It is indeed a great land, covering over five hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand square miles. It is the great island-region of 
 the United States, rivalling in number and size the great archipelagoes 
 of the Southern Pacific. These islands cover a total area of thirty-one 
 thousand square miles. Stretching along the Aleutian Islands for one 
 thousand five hundred miles are sixiy-one volcanoes, ten of which are 
 active. The magnificent Shishalden — nearly nine thousand feet above 
 
 472 
 

 
 7/ ^ '''''m\\, \^Ss^^ ^ 
 
 .^^^^^^fs^i-^i^rS^ 
 
 A DEAD INDIAN CHIEF LYING IN STATE, ALASKA. 
 
 EASTPOET, STICKEEN VILLAGE, FORT WEANGELL, ALASKA. 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 473 
 
 the waves tihat break on either base — ^Akuten, Makiishin, and others, are 
 belching out fire and smoke. 
 
 GLACIEES. 
 
 This is the great glacier-region. From Bute Inlet to Unimak Pass 
 nearly all the deep gulches have glaciers, some of which are vastly greater 
 and grander than any glacier of the Alps. The American student need 
 no longer go abroad to study glacial action. In one of the gulches of 
 Mount Fairweather is a glacier that extends fifty miles to the sea, where 
 it breaks off, a perpendicular ice-wall three hundred feet high and eight 
 mil^ broad. Thirty-five miles above Wrangell, on the Stickeen River, 
 between two mountains three thousand feet high, is an immense glacier 
 forty miles long, and at the base four to five miles across, and variously 
 estimated at from five hundred to one thousand feet high or deep. Oppo- 
 site this glacier, just across the river, are large boiling springs. The 
 Indians regard this glacier as the personification of a mighty Ice God, 
 who has issued from his mountain-home invested with power before 
 which all Nature bows in submission. They describe him as crashing 
 his way through the cafion where its glistening pinnacles bordered upon 
 the domains of the River God, and that after a conflict the Ice God con- 
 quered, and spanned the river's breadth so completely that the River God 
 was forced to crawl underneath. The Indians then sent their medicine- 
 man to see how this could be avoided. The answer came that if a noble 
 chief and fair maiden would offer themselves a sacrifice by taking pas- 
 sage under the long, dark, winding ice-arch, his anger would be appeased 
 and the river be allowed to go on its way undisturbed. When the two 
 were found and adorned, their arms bound and seated in the canoe, the 
 fatal journey was made, and the ice has never again attempted to cross 
 the river. At one of these glaciers ships from California have anchored 
 and taken on a cargo of ice. It is also a great hot and mineral spring 
 region ; medicinal springs abound in sufficient number and variety to 
 treat the diseases of the whole race. Goreloi, one of these, is a vast 
 smoking caldron eighteen miles in circumference. 
 
 PISH. 
 
 All the early navigators and explorers, from Cook to the present time, 
 have spoken of the immense numbers of salmon, cod, herring, halibut, 
 mullet, ulicon, etc. There are no other such fisheries in the known world. 
 A missionary thus describes a fishing-scene on the Nasse Ri-^r: "I 
 went up to their fishing-grounds on the Nasse River, where some five 
 
474 THE GS.EAT WEST. 
 
 « 
 
 thousand Indians had assembled. It was what is called their ' small fish- 
 ing.' The salmon-catch is at another time. These small fish form a 
 valuable article of food, and also for oil. They come up for six weeks 
 only, and with great regularity. The Nasse, where I visited it, was about 
 a mile and a half wide, and the fish had come up in great quantities — so 
 great that with three nails upon a stick an Indian would rake in a canoe- 
 ful in a short time. Five thousand Indians were gathered together from 
 British Columbia and Alaska, decked out in their strange and fantastic 
 costumes. Their faces were painted red and black, feathers on their heads 
 and imitations of wild beasts on their dresses. Over the fish was an im- 
 mense cloud of sea-gulls, so many and so thick, as they hovered aoout 
 looking for fish, that the sight resembled a heavy fall of snow. Over the 
 gulls were eagles soaring about and watching their chance. After the 
 small fish, had come up larger fish from the ocean. There were the hali- 
 but, the cod, the porpoise, and the fin-back whale. Man-life, fish-life, 
 and bird-life — all under intense excitement. And all that animated life 
 was to the heathen people a life of spirits. They paid court and wor- 
 shipped the fish they were to assist in destroying, greeting them, ' You 
 fish ! you fish ! you are all chiefs, you are.' The Christian Indians had 
 their separate camps, where they had worship morning and evening, and 
 kept the Sabbath." 
 
 ruES. 
 
 The principal fur-bearing animals of Alaska are the fox, marten, mink, 
 beaver, otter, lynx, black bear, and wolverine. There are also the coarser 
 furs of the reindeer, mountain-sheep, goat, wolf, muskrat, and ermine. 
 The extent of the range and quality of the furs in that extensive North- 
 ern region is conducive to a very valuable fur-trade, in addition to which 
 are the seal-fur fisheries, that since 1871 have yielded to the government 
 an income of $1,891,030. Besides the fisheries and furs are the valuable 
 deposits of coal, copper, sulphur, petroleum, and amber, with gold and 
 silver. The gold and silver, so far, have been found only ia limited 
 quantities. 
 
 It is also the great lumber-region of the country. The forests of yel- 
 low cedar, white pine, hemlock, and balsam-fir will supply the world 
 when the valuable timber of Puget Sound is exhausted. It has the great 
 mountain-peak of the country (St. Elias), nineteen thousand five hundred 
 feet high, and the great river of the country (the Yukon), one of the 
 largest rivers of the world. 
 
 Alaska is naturally divided into three great divisions— the Yukon 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 475 
 
 division, comprised between the Alaska mountains and the Arctic Ocean ; 
 the Aleutian district, comprising the Alaska peninsula and the Aleutian 
 Islands ; and the Sitkan district, including all the main land and adjacent 
 islands south of. the peninsula. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 Each of these three great divisions has two climates — the coast climate 
 and the interior climate, the latter being much severer than the former. 
 The great Gulf Stream of the Pacific, known to geographers as the Japan 
 Current, strikes and divides on the western end of the Aleutian Islands. 
 A portion flows north into Behring's Sea, so that it is a remarkable fact 
 that ice does not flow from the Arctic Ocean southward through Behring's 
 Straits. The other portion sweeps southward and eastward, and makes 
 the whole North-west coast habitable, giving to Southern Alaska, on the 
 coast and the adjacent islands, a winter climate milder than that of New 
 York City. 
 
 The Yukon district, bordering on the Arctic Ocean, is remarkable for 
 one thing : from three to four feet below the surface there is a subsoil of 
 frozen earth from six to eight feet deep. This phenomenon is ascribed to 
 the want of drainage, together with a covering of moss that shields the 
 ground from the hot sun of the Arctic summer ; and yet, notwithstand- 
 ing this icy subsoil, during the summer months there is a luxuriant 
 growth of vegetation. The great distinguishing feature of this district is 
 the wonderful Yukon River, two thousand miles long, navigable for 
 steamers for one thousand five hundred miles. In some places on the 
 lower Yukon one bank is invisible from the other. A thousand miles 
 above its mouth it is, in places, twenty miles wide, including the inter- 
 vening islands. It is one of the great rivers of the world, and upon its 
 upper waters, within the Arctic Circle, is Fort Yukon, a post of the Hud- 
 son's Bay Company. At this far-distant post, which tidings from the out- 
 side world only reach once a year, is a Scotch missionary. The British 
 Church looks well after its own people. On its banks live thousands 
 who know neither its outlet nor its source, and yet, recognizing its great- 
 ness, proudly call themselves the " men of Yukon." 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
 The principal settlement is St. Paul, on Kadiak Island, but for po- 
 litical purposes Sitka was made the capital of the Russian colonies in 
 America, and as such has enjoyed a prominence that has made its name 
 as familiar as that of Alaska itself. It has the largest foreign population 
 
476 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 and the best houses in the Territory. But times are very dull there now, 
 and some of its citizens and trade are removing to Fort Wrangell. 
 
 Cape Prince of Wales and the island of Alton are the extreme western 
 points of land in the United States, in longitude 167° 59' 12" — as far 
 west from Portland or San Francisco as the extreme eastern point of 
 Maine is east. 
 
 FOET WEANGELL. 
 
 This village of one hundred houses is on the north-western coast of 
 Wrangell Island, at the mouth of the Stickeen River. Owing to the 
 extensive gold-mines at Cassair, on the Stickeen River, it has become the 
 chief business-centre of Alaska. The Cassair mines are employing this 
 season about two thousand men, which creates considerable trade. For 
 this trade Wrangell is at the end of ocean- and the commencement of river- 
 navigation. Five ocean-vessels run between Portland and Wrangell and 
 Victoria and Wrangell, and four small river-steamers run on the Stickeen 
 River between Wrangell and the mines. The coast of Wrangell and the 
 mouth of Stickeen River were first visited by the American ship Ata- 
 hualpa of Boston in 1802, three years before Lewis and Clarke descended 
 the Columbia. The permanent population is about one hundred whites 
 and Russians and five hundred Indians. Besides these there are a large 
 winter population of miners, and a floating Indian population of from 
 five hundred to seven hundred ■ more, there, sometimes being from two 
 thousand to three thousand Indians in the place. It is on the great high- 
 way of the Indians to and from the mines, also to their hunting and fish- 
 ing. This makes it a central point for the establishment of a mission to 
 the Indians, as parties from several large tribes are almost always in the 
 village. And to this point the providence of God led the Presbyterian 
 Church for the establishment of the first American Protestant mission in 
 Alaska. 
 
 MISSION-WOEK or THE TEEEITOEY. 
 
 On the 10th of August, 1878, Mrs. A. R. McFarland and myself landed 
 at Fort Wrangell, and commenced the Presbyterian mission in Alaska. 
 Arranging for the work, and placing Mrs. McFarland in charge of it, 
 with Clah (a Tsimpseau Indian Christian from Fort Simpson, B. C.) as 
 assistant, and Mrs. Sarah Dickinson, a Christian Tongas, as interpreter, I 
 returned to the East. 
 
 During the following fall and winter I published a lengthy series of 
 newspaper articles and made public addresses in New York, Philadelphia, 
 Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and other large cities, creating such in- 
 
GOVEENiMENT BUILDINGS, SITKA, ALASKA. 
 
 GREEK "'"■'""Ti oTrru-j AT.jaiTA 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 477 
 
 terest in Alaska that twelve thousand dollars were contributed toward the 
 establishment of missioil-schools in that section. I also addressed the 
 theological seminaries, and secured the appointment, by the Board of 
 Home Missions, of Eev. John G. Brady of New York City for Sitka, 
 Alaska ; Eev. S. Hall Young of Parkersburg, W. Va., Rev. G. W. Lyons. 
 I also secured a hearing before several committees of Congress in behalf 
 of a government and schools for that section. This was followed up in 
 the winters of 1879 and 1880. 
 
 The Methodists and Baptists have also arranged to enter the mission- 
 field in Alaska in 1880. 
 
 NATIVE EACES. 
 
 The native races in Alaska number about twenty-five thousand ; Rus- 
 sians, three hundred or four hundred ; Americans and others, five hun- 
 dred. The Indians can be divided into three great classes : the Innuit 
 of Yukon district, the Aleutian, and the Tuski of the Sitkan district ; 
 and these again are divided into tribes, settlements, and families. These 
 are largely in a condition of degraded superstition, and liable to all the 
 horrible cruelties of heathenism. The old, sick, and useless are put to 
 death with various cruel and disgusting rites. 
 
 The Indians are again subdivided into various families, each of which 
 has its family badge. The badges are the whale, the porpoise, the eagle, 
 the coon, the wolf, and the frog. These crests extend through different 
 tribes, and their members have a closer relation to one another than the 
 tribal connection. For instance, members of the same tribe may marry, 
 but not members of the same badge. Thus, a, Wolf may not marry into 
 the Wolf family, but may into that of the Whale. 
 
 IJpon all public occasions they are seated according to their rank. This 
 rank is distinguished by the height of the poles erected in front of their 
 houses. The greater the chief, ihe higher his pole. Some of these poles 
 are over one hundred feet high. Mr. Duncan the missionary relates Jbow 
 upon one occasion a head-chief of the Nasse River Indians put up a pole 
 higher than his rank would allow. The friends of the chief whose head 
 he would thus step over made fight with guns, and the over-ambitious 
 chief was shot in the arm, which led him to quickly shorten his stick. 
 
 Their houses are from twenty-five to forty feet square, without a win- 
 dow, the only openings being a small door for entrance and a hole in the 
 roof for the escape of the smoke. The door is three or four feet above 
 the ground-level, and opens on the inside upon a broad platform which 
 extends £lround the four sides. This platform contains their rolls of 
 
478 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 blankets, bedding, and other stores. Some of the houses have a second 
 platform inside the first and a few steps lower. Then a few more steps 
 down bring one to the inside square on the ground floor, which is also 
 planked, with the exception of about four feet square in the centre, where 
 the fire is built on the ground; some few have a small inside room, look- 
 ing as if it were a portion of the cabin of a wrecked vessel. The walls, 
 and frequently roofs, are made of cypress plank from two to five feet 
 wide and two to three inches thick. These planks are made by first split- 
 ting the trees into great planks, then smoothing down these planks with 
 a small adze. 
 
 In front of their leading houses and at their burial-places are some- 
 times immense posts covered with carvings. (Those who attended the 
 Centennial will remember such posts.) These are the genealogical records 
 of the family. The child usually takes the totem of the mother. For 
 instance, at the bottom of the post may be the carving of a whale, over 
 that a fox, a porpoise, and an eagle, signifying that the great-grandfather 
 of the present occupant of the house, on his mother's side, belonged to 
 the Whale family, the grandfather to the Fox family, the father to the 
 Porpoise, and he himself to the Eagle family. These standards are from 
 two to five feet in diameter, and often over sixty feet in height, and some- 
 times cost from one to two thousand dollars. Formerly the entrance to 
 the house was a hole through this standard, but latterly they are com- 
 mencing to have regular doors hung on hinges. Among the Stickeens 
 these badge-trees or totems are usually ofi^ to one side of the door. 
 
 ALASKA CANOES. 
 
 Alaska is celebrated for its canoes. Some of the largest of these ca- 
 noes are from sixty to seventy-five feet long and eight to ten feet wide, 
 and will carry one hundred people. One of these great canoes was on 
 exhibition at the Centennial. The operation of making one is thus de- 
 scribed: "Having selected a sound tree and cut it the desired length, the 
 outside is first shaped, then the tree is hollowed out till the shell is of 
 proper thickness ; this is done with a tool resembling a grubbing-hoe or 
 narrow adze with a short handle. It is then filled with water, which is 
 heated by throwing in hot stones. The canoe is then covered with a can- 
 vas to keep the steam in — ^this softens the timber — and the sides are dis- 
 tended by cross-sticks to the desired breadth at the centre and taperino- 
 toward the ends in lines of beautiful symmetry. It is finished off with , 
 a highly ornamental figure-head, and the bulwarks strengthened by a 
 fancy covering-board." 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 479 
 
 OENAMENTS. 
 
 Many natives paint their faces with lampblack and oil, which gives 
 them a very repulsive appearance. They have a great variety of house- 
 hold utensils, made from the horns of mountain-sheep and goats, from 
 ivory, and from wood. Polygamy is common among the rich. Upon 
 arriving at a marriageable age the lower lip of the girl is pierced and a 
 silver pin inserted, the flat head of the pin being in the mouth and the 
 pin projecting through the lip over the chin. Many of them, men as 
 well as women, wear a silver ring in the nose as well as the ears. After 
 marriage the silver pin is removed from the woman's lip, and a spool- 
 shaped plug, called labaret, about three-quarters of an inch long, is sub- 
 stituted in its place. As she grows older larger ones are inserted, so that 
 an old woman may have a plug two inches in diameter. 
 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 A man wanting a wife sends a message to that effect to the girl's rela- 
 tions. If he receives a favorable answer he sends them all the presents 
 he can procure. Upon the appointed day he goes to her father's house 
 and sits down on the doorstep with his back to the house. The relations 
 who have assembled there sing a marriage-song, at the close of which furs 
 and calico are laid across the floor, and the girl is escorted over them from 
 the corner where she has been sitting, and takes her seat by the side of 
 the man. Then dancing, singing, and eating are kept up by the guests 
 until they are tired. In these festivities the couple take no part. After 
 this they fast for two days, and then after a slight repast they fast for two 
 days more. Four weeks afterward they come together and are recognized 
 as husband and wife. 
 
 POLYGAMY. 
 
 Polygamy, with all its attendant evils, is common among the Kadiaks. 
 These wives are often sisters. Sometimes a man's own mother or daughter 
 is among his wives. If a man's wife bears him only daughters, he con- 
 tinues to take other wives until he ha^ sons. One of the Nasse chiefs is 
 said to have had forty wives. After marriage they are practically slaves 
 of their husbands. Their persons are at the disposal of visitors or trav- 
 ellers, guests of their husbands. They are sometimes, in Southern Alaska, 
 sent to the mines, while the husband lives in idleness at home on the 
 wages of their immorality. If ill-behaved, excessively lazy, or barren, 
 they are sent away. Sometimes they are traded off by the husband for 
 
480 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 something he may desire. In childbirth, when needing the most tender 
 care, they are driven out of the house as unclean, and kept for ten days 
 in an uncomfortable hut without attention. 
 
 When a young girl arrives at maturity she is considered imclean. 
 Everything she comes in contact with, and even the sky she looks 
 upon, is considered unclean. She is therefore thought to be unfit for 
 the sun to shine upon, and is confined for a year in a hut so small that 
 she cannot stand upright in it. Only the girl's mother is allowed to ap- 
 proach her, and she only to bring her food. Around Sitka this period 
 has been shortened to three months. At the close of this imprisonment 
 she is taken out, her old clothes burned, new ones provided, and a feast 
 given, during which a slit is cut in the under lip parallel with the mouth, 
 and a piece of wood or shell inserted to keep the aperture extended. 
 
 In some sections all the work but hunting and fighting falls upon the 
 women, even the boys transferring their loads and work to their sisters. 
 Said a great chief, " Women are made to labor. One of them can haul 
 as much as two men. They pitch our tents, make and mend our cloth- 
 ing," etc. 
 
 SLAVES. 
 
 And, as if their ordinary condition was not bad enough, the majority 
 of the slaves are women. The men captured in war are usually killed* 
 or reserved for torture, but the women are kept as beasts of burden, and 
 often treated with great inhumanity. The master's power over them is 
 unlimited. He can torture or put them to death at wiU. Sometimes, 
 upon the death of the master, one or more of them are put to death, that 
 he niay have some one to wait upon him in the next world. 
 
 BUBIALS. 
 
 Between the hoases and the higher land back of them are a number 
 of boxes about five feet by two in size, raised on four posts a few feet 
 from the ground ; also small frame houses, like an old-fashioned smoke- 
 house, four feet square. These are the graves of the chiefs and shamans 
 (sorcerers). One of them was surmounted by a wooden figure of a whale 
 ten feet long ; another had a figure of an immense frog ; others had the 
 genealogy of the dead painted upon them. 
 
 The bodies of the dead are disjointed and burned. The fimeral cere- 
 monies of the wealthy often last four days. Dead slaves are cast into 
 the sea. They believe in the transmigration of souls from one body to 
 another, but not to animals. And the wish is often expressed that in the 
 
*lk^ 
 
 '^'ifyj^-^^pss ^' SS^ _^ »-J 
 
 ^ss^3as> 
 
 INDIAN BUEIAL-GROUND AT FOET WEANGELL, ALASKA. 
 
 UNITED STATES BONDED WAREHOUSE, FORT WRANGELL, ALASKA. 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 481 
 
 next change they may be born into this or that powerful family. Those 
 .whose bodies are burned are supposed to be warm in the next world, and 
 the others cold. If slaves are sacrificed at a burial, it relieves their 
 owners from work in the next world. 
 
 ! FOOD. 
 
 Their food consists largely of berries and fish. Large quantities of 
 salmon are smoked and put away for future iise. They also prepare 
 large quantities of fish oil. Some years' ago a party of them, having 
 seen the cooks on ships mix up flour and bake it into bread, got pos- 
 session of a barrel of lime from a shipwrecked vessel. A portion of 
 this was mixed up as they had seen the cooks do, and baked and 
 boiled and boiled and baked, but to their great disgust nothing eat- 
 able came from it. 
 
 WIDOW-BUENING. 
 
 Among the Nehaunes and Talcolins, when a man dies his widow is 
 compelled to ascend the burning funeral-pile, throw herself upon the 
 body, and remain there until the hair is burned from her head and 
 she is almost suffocated. She is then allowed to stagger from the pile, 
 but must frequently thrust her hand through the flames and place it 
 upon his bosom, to show her continued devotion. Finally, the ashes 
 are gathered up and placed in a little sack, which the widow carries 
 on her person for two years. During this period of mourning she is 
 clothed in rags and treated as a slave. 
 
 MUEDEE OF THE OLD AND FEEBLE. 
 
 Among the Chuckees the old and feeble are sometimes destroyed. 
 This is done by placing a rope around the neck and dragging them over 
 the stones. If this does not kill, then the body is stoned or speared and 
 left to be eaten by the dogs. Occasionally the old ask to be killed. 
 Then they are taken, stupefied with drugs, and, in the midst of various 
 incantations, bled to death. 
 
 WOMEN DENIED BUEIAL. 
 
 Among the Tuski and many of the Orarian tribes the bodies of good 
 men are buried and the ashes carefully preserved. But in some sections, 
 where wood is scarce, the bodies of women are not considered worth the 
 wood that would be consumed in the burning, and they are either cast 
 
 31 
 
482 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 out to be consumed by the dogs, foxes, and crows, or cast into the sea as 
 food for the fishes. 
 
 A summary cure for crying babies is to take them to the seashore and 
 hold them in the water until they cease crying. As soon as they can 
 walk children are bathed in the sea daily, and they learn to swim about 
 as quickly as to walk. Festivals are given on erecting a new house, 
 naming of children, marriages, deaths, etc. These festivals consist of 
 dancing, singing, and feasting. Some of them are so expensive as to 
 impoverish a whole circle of relatives. 
 
 SHAMANS. 
 
 Sorcery seems universal among all uncivilized people, prevailing alike 
 in Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the sea. The words and 
 actions of the shaman are considered infallible. The office is often 
 hereditary, the son inheriting from the father the various paraphernalia 
 of drums, rattles, masks, charms, etc. The young man that would 
 become a shaman, according to Dall, secludes himself for a time in the 
 woods, living on roots. He then claims that a master-spirit has sent an 
 otter to him, which he kills. The skin of the otter becomes his badge 
 of office ; the tongue is placed in a bag prepared for the purpose and 
 carefully concealed as a charm, for was an uninitiated person to look 
 upon it he would immediately lose his senses. If solitude and low diet 
 do not bring power, the young shaman spends a night at the grave of an 
 old shaman, taking a tooth or finger from the corpse and holding it in 
 his mouth to more readily compel the attendance of the spirits. The 
 honor of the shaman depends upon the number of spirits he can control. 
 He has a separate mask, songs, and dances for each. His hair is never 
 to be cut. 
 
 From Dall we also receive the following specimen performance : " On 
 the day appointed for the exhibition of his power his relations, who act 
 the part of a chorus of singers, are obliged not only to fast, but also use 
 a feather as an emetic to free themselves entirely from food. The per^ 
 formance commences at sunset and lasts until sunrise. All .who wish to 
 participate assemble in the lodge of the shaman, where they join in a song, 
 to which time is beaten on a drum. Dressed in his paraphernalia, with 
 a mask over his face, the shaman rushes round and round the fire which 
 is burning in the centre of the lodge. He keeps his eyes directed toward 
 the opening in the roof, and keeps time to the drum with violent motions 
 of his limbs and body. These movements gradually become more con- 
 vulsive ; his eyes roll until the whites alone are visible. Suddenly he 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 483 
 
 stops, looks latently at the drum, and utters loud cries. The singing 
 ceases, and all ears are strained to catch the utterances, which are sup- 
 posed to be inspired. By changing the masks he places himself en rap- 
 port with the spirit to which each mask is dedicated. It is believed that 
 this spirit inspires for a moment all the utterances, which are supposed to 
 be sacred." 
 
 "When a shaman dies his body is left for a day in each of the four 
 corners of his room ; on the fifth day it is carried out, dressed in the 
 costume of his order, and deposited in one of the small burial-houses 
 spoken of previously. His body is not burned. 
 
 CANNIBALS. 
 
 The Indians are held in abject fear of the conjurers or medicine-men. 
 Some of the scenes to be constantly witnessed on that coast are thus de- 
 picted by Mr. Duncan of the Church Missionary Society, British Colum- 
 bia : " The other day we were called upon to witness a terrible scene. An 
 old chief in cold blood ordered a slave to be dragged to the beach, mur- 
 dered, and thrown into the water. His orders were quickly obeyed. The 
 victim was a poor woman. Two or three reasons are assigned for this 
 foul act. One is, that it is to take away the disgrace attached to his 
 daughter, who has been suffering for some time with a ball-wound in the 
 arm. Another report is that he does not expect his daughter to recover, 
 so he has killed this slave in order that she may prepare for the coming 
 of his daughter into the unseen world. I did not see the murder, but 
 immediately after saw crowds of people running out of the houses near 
 to where the corpse was thrown, and forming themselves into groups at a 
 good distance away, from fear of what was to follow. Presently two bands 
 of furious wretches appeared, each headed by a man in a state of nudity. 
 They gave vent to the most unearthly sounds, and the two naked men 
 made themselves look as unearthly as possible, proceeding in a creeping 
 kind of stoop and stepping like two proud horses, at the same time shoot- 
 ing forward each arm alternately, which they held out at full length for 
 a little time -in the most defiant manner. Besides this, the continual jerk- 
 ing of their heads back, causing their long black hair to twist about, added 
 much to their savage appearance. For some time they pretended to be 
 seeking for the body, and the instant they came where it lay they com- 
 menced screaming and rushing around it like so many angry wolves. 
 Finally they seized it, dragged it out of the water, and laid it on the 
 beach, where they commenced tearing it to pieces with their teeth. The 
 two bands of men immediately surrounded them, and so hid their horrid 
 
484 TBE GREAT WEST. 
 
 work. In a few minutes the crowd broke again, when each of the naked 
 cannibals appeared with half of the body in his hands. Separating a 
 few yards, they commenced, amid horrid yells, their still more horrid 
 feast of eating the raw dead body. The two bands of men belonged to 
 the class called 'medicine-men.' 
 
 "I may mention that each party has some characteristic peculiar to 
 itself, but in a more general sense their divisions are but three — ^viz. those 
 who eat human bodies, the dog-eaters, and those who have no custom of 
 the kind. Early in the morning the pupils would be out on the beach or 
 on the rocks in a state of nudity. Each had a place in front of his own 
 tribe, nor did intense cold interfere in the slightest degree. After the 
 poor creature had crept about, jerking his head and screaming for some 
 time, a party of men would rush out, and, after surrounding him, would 
 commence singing. The dog-eating party occasionally carried a dead dog 
 to their pupil, who forthwith commenced to tear it in the most doglike 
 manner. The party of attendants kept up a low growling noise or a 
 whoop, which was seconded by a screeching noise made from an instru- 
 ment which they believe to be the abode of a spirit. In a little time the 
 naked youth would start up again and proceed a few more yards in a 
 crouching posture, with his arms pushed out behind him and tossing his 
 flowing black hair. All the while he is earnestly watched by the group 
 about him, and when he pleases to sit down they again surround him and 
 commence singing. This kind of thing goes on, with several different 
 additions, for some time. Before the prodigy finally retires he takes a 
 run into every house belonging to his tribe, and is followed by his train. 
 "When this is done, in some cases he has a ramble on the tops of the same 
 houses, during which he is anxiously watched by his attendants, as if they 
 expect his flight. By and by he condescends to come down, and then 
 they follow him to his den, which is marked by a rope made of red bark 
 being hung over the doorway, so as to prevent any person from ignorantly 
 violating its precincts. None are allowed to enter that house but those 
 connected with the art ; all I know, therefore, of their further proceed- 
 ings is, that they keep up a furious hammering, singing, and screeching 
 for hours during the day. 
 
 "Of all these parties none are so much dreaded as the cannibals. One 
 morning I was called to witness a stir in the camp which had been caused 
 by this set. When I reached the gallery I saw hundreds of Tsimpseau 
 sitting in their canoes, which they had just pushed away from the beach. 
 I was told that the cannibal party was in search of a body to devour and 
 if they failed to find a dead one, it was probable that they would seize the 
 
ALASKA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 485 
 
 first living one that came in their way ; so that all the people living near 
 to the cannibal's house had taken to their canoes to escape being torn to 
 pieces. It is the custom among these Indians to burn their dead, but I 
 suppose for these occasions they take care to deposit a corpse somewhere 
 in order to satisfy these inhuman wretches. 
 
 " These, then, are some of the things and scenes which occur in the day 
 during the winter months, while the nights are taken up with amusements 
 — ^singing and dancing. Occasionally the medicine-parties invite people 
 to their several houses and exhibit tricks before them of various kinds. 
 Some of the actors appear as bears,, while others wear masks, the parts of 
 which are moved by strings. The great feature in their proceedings is to 
 pretend to murder, and then to restore to life, and so forth. The canni- 
 bal, on such occasions, is generally supplied with two, three, or four human 
 bodies, which he tears to pieces before his audience. Several persons, 
 either from bravado or as a charm, present their arms for him to bite. I 
 have seen several whom he has thus bitten, and I hear two have died from 
 the effects." 
 
 6 
 
ALASKA. 
 
 BY IVAN PETEOFF. 
 
 THE greatest of the Territories of the Great "West, in size, is Alaska, 
 with its stupendous area of five hundred thousand square miles and 
 a length of coast-line, including islands, that reaches far into the thou- 
 sands of miles. A bold semicircle embracing fifty degrees of longitude 
 affords a firm hold upon the North Pacific, while another sweeping curve 
 commands the Behring Sea, so that the only thing lacking to make Alaska 
 a territory of the highest strategical importance and the North Pacific an 
 American sea is the absorption of British Columbia in the United States 
 — an event that may be looked for with certainty in the future. 
 
 BAELY HISTOEY. 
 
 Though occupied by the Eussians for a century before falling into our 
 hands, Alaska is still in the first stages of development. Its population 
 is not as large now as it was when Behring and Chirikoff gave to the 
 world the knowledge of the north-western extremity of this continent in 
 1741. For half a century the islands and a few points on 'the main land 
 were ruthlessly stripped of their fur-bearing animals by Promyshlenihs, 
 the semi-savage hunters and trappers of Siberia, who navigated these 
 waters in the most wretched craft in search of valuable furs. They were 
 commercial freebooters — robbers under pretext of a legitimate business — 
 who respected no rights which the native inhabitants might have claimed. 
 Whole villages and tribes were compelled by force of arms to send out 
 all able-bodied hunters to labor for the invaders, who in the mean time 
 enjoyed their leisure in settlements containing only women and children. 
 Even the illiterate traders of those times perceived that such proceedings 
 would speedily put an end to all business in their new field of operations. 
 Influence was brought to bear upon the Russian government, and by the 
 
 486 
 
ALASKA. 487 
 
 end of the last century all that region now called Alaska, together with 
 a portion of the opposite coast of Asia and the Kurile Islands, was given 
 into the hands of one powerful corporation, the Russian American Com- 
 pany. 
 
 The chaos of crime and anarchy theretofore existing was gradually 
 changed into the strictest discipline and order, and wherever the fur-bear- 
 ing animals had not become entirely extinct their number was slowly 
 made to increase again by careful and systematic management. But while 
 one of the chief resources of the country was being thus carefully nursed 
 and made to support the people, no other item of natural wealth was 
 looked for, or even allowed to develop itself. The nature of the fur- 
 trade is not such as to stimulate immigration into the region where it is 
 carried on ; the deepest solitude is necessary to its prosperous prosecution ; 
 and consequently during the long reign of the Russian monopoly — 
 which was absolute, with almost sovereign rights — there was no increase 
 of population, no industrial development. 
 
 In this condition the Russian colonies in America remained until the 
 discovery of gold in California, when some attempts were made to furnish 
 not only Russian manufactured goods, but lumber and fish, for the new 
 market with its rapidly-increasing demand. The first ventures of this 
 kind met with success, but gradually bad management and competition 
 curtailed the profits, and the shipments were discontinued. Then, with 
 the assistance of another company, organized in San Francisco, experi- 
 ments on a large scale were made in working the coal-veins of Cook's 
 Inlet and Ounga Island and carrying ice to the rapidly-growing metropolis 
 of the Pacific. One of the governors of the colony, a mining engineer, 
 entered into a contract with the company to develop the copper-ledges on 
 Copper River and any other mines he might discover. But all these enter- 
 prises came to nothing, owing partly to the unsettled state of aifairs when 
 the third term of the company's charter expired in 1861. The corpora- 
 tion refused to renew the contract without some change of conditions, to 
 which the government could or would not agree, though unwilling to 
 assume control of the colony, that had until then been wholly supported 
 by the company without any expense to the imperial treasury. 
 
 "When at last a way out of the difficulty was pointed out by an offer 
 on the part of .the United States to purchase the territory, Russia was 
 only too glad to accede to the proposition, and after some diplomatic skir- 
 mishing and a spirited fight in our national legislature the territory was 
 purchased in 1867 foi- the sum of seven million two hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
488 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 GENEEAL DESCBIPTION. 
 
 To convey to the reader an adequate idea of what this our latest acqui- 
 sition really is, it is necessary to describe it in sections, the Territory as a 
 whole being too vast in dimensions, and too widely differing in the 
 nature and resources of its component parts, ta admit of being treated 
 collectively. 
 
 The only section of Alaska now open to the tourist by means of regular 
 mail-communication is the labyrinth of islands extending from the bound- 
 ary-line, under latitude 54° 40' N., along the coast in a north-westerly 
 direction as far as Sitka, or Baranof Island. To the visitor beholding 
 this region from the deck of a passing steamer it appears a mass of abrupt 
 peaks, gathered in chains or forming separate islets, densely wooded from 
 base to summit, varying in elevation from one thousand to five thousand 
 feet above the sea, and even attaining to a greater height on some of the 
 larger islands. For hundreds of miles not an acre of level ground is 
 visible. Fleecy banks of fog climb up the towering heights in lines of 
 battle, one after the other, only to descend on the other side, as if power- 
 less to resist the attraction of kindred moisture latent in the rank vegeta- 
 tion and moss-covered soil. Cascades white with foam descend the 
 sombre-hued declivities, appearing like living satin ribbons fluttering 
 down from the mountains' snowy caps into the deep-green water of 
 almost bottomless channels and reaches. Here and there a "slide" 
 has left an ugly scar across the face of a verdant island, but the mark 
 of the axe is nowhere to be seen. Timber sufficient in quantity to supply 
 generations of a dense population with fuel and lumber is apparently 
 wasted here, with no other effect than to make the interior impenetrable 
 to traveller, prospector, and hunter alike. 
 
 But, wild as this part of the Territory appears, it is by no means with- 
 out value. Food-fishes of various kinds, the staple provender of mil- 
 lions on the other side of the Pacific, abound here in great profusion, 
 ensuring a constant increase of supply corresponding with that of demand 
 for ages to come — a wealth that will become available long before the 
 product of Alaskan forests can pay for labor and transportation. Scien- 
 tific examination of well-known geologists has established the fact that 
 the rugged mountains on this part of the coast and the hundreds of rocky 
 islands scattered along its curves are outrunners of the same gigantic chain 
 that has poured into the lap of the world the countless millions of 
 Comstock bullion. 
 
ALASKA. 489 
 
 SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Wrangell, the first settlement worthy of the name that greets the 
 traveller entering Alaska from the south-east, bears the name of one of 
 the former governors of the Eussian possessions, who was also an admiral 
 of the imperial navy and'an Arctic explorer. The Russian Company had 
 established a trading-post here, named the Redoute St. Dionys, which, 
 together with a strip of the continental coast as far north as the Takoo 
 River, was leased for years to the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1867 the 
 Russian buildings were already in an advanced stage of decay, and the 
 military authorities of the United States erected a fort near by, which 
 was named Fort "Wrangell. A village of traders sprang up between the 
 native settlement and the fort, and became known under the same appel- 
 lation. For years Fort Wrangell has existed, and to a certain extent 
 prospered, upon the transit^trade between British Columbia and the 
 Cassiar mining district, which up to last year necessitated a transship- 
 ment of all goods at Wrangell from ocean- to river-craft. The United 
 States bonded warehouse did a lucrative business, and the merchants, 
 who were not above turning an additional penny in smuggling opera- 
 tions, were flourishing correspondingly. Last year, however, a severe 
 blow fell upon the little community. Business-men of Victoria, B. C, 
 built a side-wheel steamer of such light draught as to permit it to pro- 
 ceed up the Stickeen River and land English goods just beyond the 
 boundary-line, and with a defiant whistle the Western Slope paddled by 
 the astonished and much-dismayed traders of Wrangell before they had 
 fairly realized that the thing was possible. The Americans interested in 
 the Cassiar trade justly claim that the boundary was arbitrarily located 
 by Englkh surveyors for this very purpose, but several petitions on the 
 subject have heretofore received no attention from our State Department. 
 
 The village of Wrangell is decidedly " rough," in appearance as well 
 as with regard to the character of its inhabitants. Ten stores, with inter- 
 vening dwellings and saloons, describe an irregular curve along the beach, 
 flanked on either side by long rows of Indian houses. What should be 
 the street is only a swampy receptacle of filth and garbage, with hogs and 
 crows as the only scavengers. Winter cabins of miners and shanties of 
 semi-civilized natives and half-breeds dot the space intervening between 
 the stores and a steep wooded hill, the buildings being located with a 
 view to avoid all interference with stumps and boulders. The " fort," 
 with its substantial building erected by the government, has fallen into 
 private hands, and the only other structures of any pretension are the 
 
490 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 custom-house (a weatherbeaten one-story frame cottage), a Roman Catholic 
 clmrch, and a church and other buildings constructed last year by the 
 Presbyterian mission. Both organizations have gained adherents among 
 the resident and visiting Indians of the vicinity, but so far the Presby- 
 terians, under superintendence of Rev. H. S. Young, have met with the 
 greater success. All the rough lumber for the buildings was supplied by 
 a sawmill on Prince of "Wales Island, not very far from Wrangell. With 
 the exception of a few men engaged in curing and exporting herring and 
 codfish, the people of the town now depend almost entirely upon the fur- 
 trade with the Indians for their subsistence. 
 
 The present terminus of the only Alaska mail-route is Sitka, the for- 
 mer seat of government, and now the residence of the collector of cus- 
 toms. The quartz-ledges in the immediate vicinity of Sitka, now fast 
 being developed and making shipments of bullion, have caused a consid- 
 erable increase of population during the past year. A large number of 
 miners who had been disappointed in the Cassiar diggings have located 
 at Sitka, and prospecting is carried on extensively and in the most thor- 
 ough manner. One mill of ten stamps, worked by steam-power, is in 
 active operation on the Stewart Ledge, owned by Oregon capitalists, and 
 several other firms are about to purchase machinery for their respective 
 ledges. A salmon-canning establishment has been in operation for seve- 
 ral years with gratifying success under the auspices of Cutting & Co. of 
 San Francisco. 
 
 The town of Sitka is far superior to Wrangell in appearance and di- 
 mensions. Under the Russian rule buildings were erected in the most 
 substantial manner, and those in private hands are still in a good state 
 of preservation, but nearly all the government houses are sadly in need 
 of repairs. 
 
 The abundance of fish in the harbor of Sitka, especially the immense 
 swarms of fat herrings that throng the water in their season, attracts large 
 numbers of natives from other islands, and even from the continent. At 
 such times the Indian village adjoining the town doubles and trebles its 
 usual population of from eight hundred to a thousand, and as these vis- 
 itors bring with them a quantity of valuable furs to exchange for goods, 
 dried fish, and oil, the business-men of Sitka derive benefit from the fish 
 in their harbor in more ways than one. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain the exact population of the town, which has 
 of late been much increased by an influx of miners and prospectors, who 
 may or may not become permanent residents. The Creoles and Russians, 
 or the members of the Russian Church, number about three hundred, 
 
ALASKA. 491 
 
 while the representatives of other nationalities at present probably exceed 
 that number. 
 
 The Russian cathedral, of very modest external appearance, displays 
 in its interior and ecclesiastic paraphernalias something of the former 
 grandeur of the capital of Russia's possessions in America. A school for 
 both Creole and American children is maintained by the joint efforts of 
 citizens and the officer in command of the man-of-war stationed in the 
 harbor. 
 
 From Sitka northward and westward the coast describes a semicircle 
 about six hundred miles in diameter. The eastern half of this curve is 
 almost inaccessible and presents the most forbidding appearance. Gla- 
 ciers extend from the stupendous mountain-ridges to the sea, filling the 
 valleys and ravines, and on every hand the forest bears marks of the 
 storms that expend their fury on these shores after traversing the vast 
 Paciiic, and of the slow but irresistible encroachment of glacier ice. Up 
 to the mouth of Copper River this range of country is uninhabited, ex- 
 cept in the far interior, but in the northern part of the vast bight now 
 under contemplation, familiarly known as Prince William Sound, a more 
 deeply-indented coast^line and numerous islands have served to attract 
 and maintain a sparse population of seal and sea-otter hunters, scattered 
 in minute settlements over a large area, with Fort Constantine, on Nu- 
 chek Island, as their central and business place. Two rival trading-firms 
 maintain establishments here, and are visited at certain seasons by In- 
 dians from the head-waters of Copper River in canoes loaded down with 
 beaver and otter skins ; but all attempts to locate trading-posts on that 
 river, or to examine the deposits of copper known to exist there, have 
 so far been firmly resisted by the natives. To the credit of the latter it 
 must be acknowledged that they have contented themselves with robbing 
 the intruders of their possessions and sending them about their business, 
 without resorting to further acts of violence. 
 
 On the, western side of the Sound, or on, the east coast of the Kenai 
 Peninsula, the shore is indented by deep harbors and covered with a lux- 
 uriant growth of spruce forest. Here the Russians built as early as 1794 
 a three-masted ship, the first of that class ever constructed on the North- 
 west coast. The ship was named the Phoenix, and made many voyages 
 between the Russian possessions on both continents. 
 
 West of the Kenai Peninsula lies the spacious arm of the sea known 
 as Cook's Inlet, named after the famous navigator, who entered it in the 
 hope of having discovered the long-sought passage from the Pacific into 
 Hudson's Bay or the Atlantic. After some futile efforts to penetrate in 
 
492 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 an easterly direction, Cook considered that he had found only the mouth 
 of a large river, and the true nature of that sheet of water was not pro- 
 claimed to the world until Vancouver's visits in 1793 and '94, though 
 the Russians had been thoroughly acquainted with the facts for many 
 years prior to that period. 
 
 Cook's Inlet has been called by superficial observers the " Garden of 
 Alaska," simply because from the deck of a steamer they saw vast ver- 
 dant plains on its eastern shore. An examination of these " enchanting 
 prairies " proves them to be morass covered with grass, moss, and heather, 
 and a further investigation of the soil with the help of a spade will pro- 
 duce frozen earth and ice at a depth of eighteen or twenty inches even in 
 midsummer. Nevertheless, potatoes and other hardy vegetables are cul- 
 tivated at various points on the Inlet, but it is done onjy on the banks 
 of ravines or other slopes with a southern exposure, affording an oppor- 
 tunity to the sun to thaw and heat up the surface. The timber on the 
 east coast is stunted, but increases in size as one advances into the interior. 
 The west coast of the Inlet is mountainous and densely wooded. Several 
 volcanic peaks loom up to towering heights, proclaiming their vitality by 
 occasional puffs of smoke and rumbling noises. Sulphur deposits and 
 indications of silver-ore have been found in these mountains, and the 
 forests abound in game. 
 
 The inhabitants scattered in small villages around the whole Inlet do 
 not exceed six hundred in number, and are mostly Creoles and natives. A 
 little settlement of five Russian families, descendants of former employes 
 of the Russian Company, exists on the east coast at the mouth of a small 
 stream, and is named on our maps Fort St. George, though the real name 
 of the place is Niniltchik. 
 
 The salmon caught in all rivers and creeks emptying into the Inlet are 
 of excellent quality and truly magnificent size, specimens weighing from 
 eighty to one hundred pounds being by no means of rare occurrence. 
 The " run " of the salmon in this neighborhood continues from the end 
 of May to the end of July. 
 
 Two trading-firms have permanent stations at various points on Cook's 
 Inlet, and a third, located at Kadiak, scours the coast regularly with 
 small schooners — a state of affairs that momentarily benefits the natives, 
 who receive absurdly high prices for their furs, while it drives the tra- 
 ders to resort to trickery in order to make any profit at all ; and added to 
 these unsatisfactory results must be certain extirpation of fur-bearing 
 animals to supply the demand at fancy prices. 
 
 At English Bay, near the mouth of the Inlet, the Russians expended 
 
ALASKA. 493 
 
 much time and money in developing the coal-veins. A thorough test 
 proved the quantity to be all that could be desired, but the work was 
 much impeded by water, the vein dipping below the level of the sea, but 
 a few hundred yards distant. The principal reason for abandoning the 
 work was, however, the inferior quality of the coal and the impossibility 
 of finding a market for it. 
 
 South of Cook's Inlet, and only five hundred and fifty miles in a 
 direct line from Sitka, is the island of Kadiak (mistakenly named 
 Kodiak). This, with the adjoining Afognak and Wood Islands, forms 
 the most agreeable and pleasant section of the Territory as a place of 
 residence. The winters are less cold than at Cook's Inlet, and the sum- 
 mers less moist and overcast than at Sitka. The soil, also, is far superior 
 to that of either of the places mentioned, enabling hundreds of families 
 to cultivate potato-patches and vegetable gardens as a most acceptable 
 addition to the products of sea and forest. The comparatively dry sum- 
 .mef permits the conversion of the luxuriant grasses into hay for the sub- 
 sistence of beef-cattle during the winter, and in some sheltered valleys 
 the animals find their own feed all through the year. Salmon and cod- 
 fish throng the waters in incredible quantities. 
 
 The principal port and the residence of a deputy collector of customs 
 is at St. Paul, a village of five or six hundred inhabitants. The settle- 
 ment was founded at the end of the last century, and was the seat of 
 government of the Russian colonies until the subsequent establishment 
 of Sitka. Some of the old buildings, constructed of logs of gigantic 
 size, still remain, but a majority of the houses are new and quite neat, 
 and altogether the village would compare favorably with most Euro- 
 pean fishing-hamlets in outward appearance. 
 
 At Afognak, separated from the north end of Kadiak by a narrow 
 strait, there is quite a large settlement of Creoles, whose " acres " have 
 been transmitted from father to son for several generations. They sell 
 potatoes, turnips, hay, and butter, and many of them are expert boat- 
 builders, and are patronized by fishermen and traders in all that section 
 of country. On Spruce and Wood Islands the settlements are composed 
 chiefly of Aleuts, who rely more upon the sea for their subsistence, though 
 small gardens are attached to most of the houses. At the last-named 
 point a firm familiarly known as the " Ice Company " (its official name 
 is the American Russian Commercial Company) has a complete and ex- 
 tensive ice-packing establishment. Of two large ice-houses, capable of 
 holding thousands of tons, one is annually filled, but under an agreement 
 with San Francisco ice-producers (probably for a consideration) no ship- 
 
494 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ments have been made for over ten years. This company also has a large 
 store, some outlying stations, and sends out hunting-parties in quest of 
 sea-otters. A sawmill serves the double purpose of furnishing sawdust 
 for packing the ice and of providing the treeless portion of Western 
 Alaska with rough lumber. The only span of horses west of Sitka is 
 attached to this establishment. 
 
 Two other firms, the Alaska Commercial Company and the Western 
 Fur and Trading Company, have stores at St. Paul village and various 
 points on the island, and competition in that hne is made still more brisk 
 by occasional visits of whalers, private traders, and fishermen, who all 
 combine in forcing upon the lucky natives the highest possible prices for 
 their furs. Another source of income for the more industrious among the 
 inhabitants of Kadiak is the cutting of cordwood for the trading-stations 
 located westward and southward of the timber-line. 
 
 From Kadiak southward extends the range of " sea-otter grounds," the 
 region where that most valuable among the fur-bearing animals of Alaska 
 is chiefly found. The islands and main land of all this section, extending 
 to the western extremity of the Aleutian chain (and also of the United 
 States), are entirely devoid of trees ; the soil still produces grass, flowers, 
 and a varieiy of berries, but potatoes and vegetables do not succeed, as 
 they do farther to the north. At the Shumagin Islands, about three hun- 
 dred miles south of Kadiak, the fishing-craft of San Francisco reap their 
 rich harvest of codfish every year, and could easily increase their catch 
 tenfold could they but find a market for it. The fishermen have a per- 
 manent station here bearing the romantic name of Pirate Cove, where 
 they collect the catch of small boats, partially cure the fish, and then 
 ship them to San Francisco. 
 
 Some ten or twelve white men (American and English) have settled at 
 Delarof Harbor, Ounga Island, and married native women, and on the 
 strength of their intimate alliance with the aborigines they have been 
 granted the privilege of hunting sea-otters, reserved to the people of the 
 country by an existing most wise and just regulation of the Treasury De- 
 partment. As these men employ firearms and other devices apt to anni- 
 hilate or frighten away the precious animals, they are not looked upon 
 with favor by their neighbors. 
 
 A coal-mine has been prospected and worked " by fits and starts " for 
 many years at Humboldt Bay, island of Ounga, but has been finally 
 abandoned as unprofitable. 
 
 The most lucrative of all the sea-otter grounds is on and about the 
 island &f Sanuakh, near the southern end of the Alaskan Peninsula. The 
 
ALASKA. 495 
 
 island is very clifRcult of approach, uninhabited, and surrounded by out- 
 lying rocks, and probably for all these reasons it was selected as a breed- 
 ing-place by the sagacious sea-otter. Hunting-parties from all parts of 
 that section of the Territory are attracted to this spot, and a large settle- 
 ment has been established at a most desolate spot on the main land not 
 far distant. This village, Belkovsky, is composed of Creoles and Aleuts, 
 who may be called the wealthiest people in the Territory — that is, they 
 handle the most money — but they are also very dissipated, depraved in 
 their tastes and morals, and their riches lodge in their hands only in 
 transit to the strong-box of the traders. In addition to the agents of 
 trading-iirms permanently located at Belkovsky, a number of vessels clear 
 every season for whaling and fishing voyages from San Francisco, with 
 the sole object of cruising about these waters and " picking up " sea-otters 
 by trading or hunting with men shipped for that purpose. The tempta- 
 tion to pursue the sea-otter in every possible way is very great, in view 
 of the great commercial value of the skin ; but what is to become of the 
 natives of this region, which offers them absolutely no other source of 
 revenue, or even of subsistence, when this animal shall have been exter- 
 minated? That is a^ problem to be solved by some generation not very 
 far removed from our own. 
 
 The chain of the Aleutian Islands, extending westward from the south- 
 ern point of Alaska Peninsula for over eight hundred miles, contains but 
 three settlements of any importance — Oonalashka, Atkha, and Attoo, on 
 islands of the same names. The population of the whole archipelago is 
 thirteen hundred souls, all engaged in the same pursuit — fishing for their 
 immediate means of subsistence, and hunting sea-otters in order to obtain 
 the wherewith to purchase clothing and other necessaries. The islands 
 produce grass and berries, but the soil is rocky and the winters long, 
 while a cloudy sky is the rule and clear weather the exception. Terrific 
 gales sweep the islands from north and south, and the only fuel within 
 reach of the inhabitants is the heavy, sodden wood of drift-logs carried 
 from southern climes by ocean-currents and the coal and cordwood im- 
 ported by the traders. The latter article is sold as high as ten cents for 
 a single stick. This region has been spoken of as capable of supporting 
 vast herds of cattle and of shipping dairy produce, but the absence of 
 fuel and building-material, and the severe winters, Avill prevent immigra- 
 tion of dairymen for some time to come, and the natives will never toil 
 all summer to provide a few cows with hay as long as they can gain their 
 livelihood by a few weeks of sea-otter hunting and fishing, and live in 
 idleness the remainder of the year. 
 
496 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 At Oonalashka a deputy collector of customs is located, and during the 
 summer the harbor, with its si^bstantial wharf and warehouses and many- 
 good buildings, presents quite a lively appearance. Vessels are entering 
 and leaving almost daily from March till the first days of November, but 
 after that the village relapses into the discomforts of snow, solitude, and 
 wintry gales. 
 
 The coast of the main land northward from Oonalashka is generally 
 low and barren. All along the northern side of Alaska Peninsula there 
 is a series of sandbanks and shoals much frequented by walrus, but re- 
 lentless pursuit of these animals by whalers who fail to "strike oil" in 
 their legitimate game foreshadows a time when the walrus, like the sea- 
 cow, will be a being of the past, and ivory will rise to fabulous prices. 
 
 Two rivers, the Nushagak and the Kuskokvim, discharge their waters 
 into that vast bight of Behring's Sea called Bristol Bay. They abound in 
 fish, and their lower course, for some twenty or thirty miles from the 
 mouth, is thickly studded with Aleut villages, whose inhabitants live 
 chiefly by the sale of fish and oil, and trade with the Indians of the in- 
 terior. Trading-posts have been established at the mouth of each of 
 these rivers, and a flourishing mission of the Russian Church numbers 
 several thousand members. 
 
 The mountains between these rivers and the Yukon have never been 
 traversed by competent explorers, but indications of minerals — cinnabar 
 and graphite — are reported as existing there. i 
 
 From the Kuskokvirn northward to the mouth of the Yukon and St. 
 Michael, the ultima Thuk of permanent coast trading-posts, the seashore 
 is almost uninhabited, but the Indians from the upper Yukon move tem- 
 porarily to the vicinity of the coast during the fishing season. At St. 
 Michael, and on the main land immediately opposite, the agents of the 
 two principal firms engaged in the Alaska trade have located themselves, 
 doing considerable business by fitting out private traders, who visit the 
 interior and there purchase the furs obtained from the natives. Each 
 firm also sends a small steamer, of less than fifty tons, once a year to Fort 
 Yukon on the river of the same name, eleven hiindred miles above its 
 mouth, with supplies and goods for the traders. Small as these steamers 
 are, they can enter but one of the many outlets of this mighty river, ex- 
 ceeding the Mississij^pi in size and volume of water. All the other arms, 
 extending over seventy miles of the coast, are not navigable, owing to 
 shallow water and shifting sands. 
 
 Both Russian and Roman Catholic missionaries have labored amono- 
 the savage tribes inhabiting the vast basin drained by the Yukon, but 
 
ALASKA. 497 
 
 the result has not been very encouraging. The whole region, tliough 
 densely wooded as a rule, has an annual mean temperattire below the 
 freezing-point, and agriculture is of course out of the question. Game 
 is still abundant, but fur-bearing animals — the' beaver, fox, and marten — 
 are decreasing year by year ; and what will be the future of this vast sol- 
 itude must at present remain an unsolved problem. 
 
 A trade that once assumed quite formidable dimensions between these 
 Indians and the natives of the coast of Asia, across Behring's Strait, is 
 a;lso fast declining, owing to the facility with which the latter people ob- 
 tain the most coveted articles of trade from whalers visiting their coast, 
 Avithout undertaking a Iftng and dangerous journey to neighbors who were 
 ever ready to take by force what they could not obtain at their own 
 price. 
 
 From St. Michael northward, and along the Arctic to the boundary- 
 line, the Eskimo reigns supreme, and buys his own destruction (bottled 
 up) from the " honest whaler " at the highest price, without the least 
 danger of interference by customs or other authorities. 
 
 THE PEIBVXOF OE FUK-SEAL ISLANDS. 
 
 Having carried the reader along the whole coast of the Territory, we 
 cannot close our review without at least a cursory glance at two little 
 islands in the Behring Sea, diminutive in size and almost continually 
 hidden in fog, but exceeding just now in commercial importance all the 
 remainder of our northernmost domain. 
 
 These islands, discovered by the Russian navigator Pribylof, and 
 named after him, but now familiarly known as the Fur-seal Islands, 
 form an item in our national revenue that reconciles, or ought to recon- 
 cile, the most obstinate opponents of the Alaska purchase. Even now, 
 thirteen years after the acquisition of the Territory and ten years after 
 the lease of the islands in question by contract, the government has pock- 
 eted in cash, without any expense of collection worth mentioning, over 
 half of the sum paid to Eussia for all Alaska, and there is no reason why 
 this state of affairs should not continue until the people of the United 
 States have been fully reimbursed. 
 
 A locality of such importance to our treasury will bear a more detailed 
 description and review in its various aspects. 
 
 When Pribylof discovered the islands he found them uninhabited, but 
 literally covered by millions of seals. Sea-otters were also plenty at that 
 early day, but, as the more valuable of the two animals, they were 
 promptly exterminated to the last specimen by the greedy Russians, wh» 
 
 32 
 
498 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 knew little of the possible commercial value of the seal, A force of 
 laborers was left on the islands, and when a market was found in China 
 for the fur-seal the killing — or rather the slaughter — ^began in earnest. 
 In a few years millions were despatched, and half of the skins were 
 spoiled for want of proper care, and thrown into the sea. This course 
 was pursued even for some years after the Russian American Company 
 obtained supreme control of the country, and the valuable animal was all 
 but extinct when a far-seeing official of the company introduced a new 
 system of management, and for many years at a time the seals were not 
 disturbed at all, until a gradual increase became evident. But during 
 all the long years of Russian rule a very moderate use was made of what 
 subsequently proved to be a mine of wealth, and, in consequence, the 
 seal-rookeries, as they are called, were in a very flourishing condition 
 when Russia transferred her proprietary right to the United States. 
 
 In early times life on these islands was exceedingly dreary and beset 
 with hardships. Aleuts were taken there " by order " of the company, 
 but often against their will, and they always embraced the first opportunity 
 of returning to their homes. Their many complaints preferred on this 
 subject finally caused the establishment of a rule that parties of Aleuts 
 on these islands should be relieved at least every two years. This rule 
 was strictly observed, and up to the time of the transfer not one of the 
 sealers employed by the Russian Company had ever dreamed of claiming 
 any proprietary right in either islands or seals. With the withdrawal of 
 the old company, however, enterprising American traders flocked to the 
 islands, and in their rivalry and for purposes of their own they began to 
 " buy " sealskins of the former employSs, in place of paying them for their 
 labor. The business was new and competition exceedingly brisk, and 
 there was a fair prospect of seeing a repetition of the ruthless slaughter 
 indulged in at the first discovery of the islands, when at the right mo- 
 ment the government stepped in and claimed control, just in time to save 
 a very valuable industry from extinction. The condition of affairs on 
 the islands and their capabilities of producing seals were carefully in- 
 vestigated, and in due time a bill was passed by Congress declaring the 
 islands a Treasury reservation, and authorizing their lease to the highest 
 bidder under certain conditions. After much wrangling the lease was 
 finally awarded to the Alaska Commercial Company, incorporated in 
 San Francisco and composed chiefly of residents of the "Western me- 
 tropolis. The company was permitted to kill one hundred thousand seals 
 per annum on paymenfi of a tax of $2,38 for each skin and a rental of 
 155,000 for the islands and government buildings thereon. The sealing 
 
ALASKA. 499 
 
 was to be done under the supervision of special agents of the Treasury, 
 who had also full charge of the native laborers on the islands. The 
 company was also bound by the contract to erect and keep in repair com- 
 fortable quarters for the laborers ; to provide them, free of charge, with 
 the necessary fuel in the shape of wood or coal ; to furnish a certain 
 quantity of dried or, salted salmon annually, also free of charge; to 
 maintain a school for them under the supervision of tlie government 
 agent ; and to employ the able-bodied men and youths in killing seals 
 and curing the skins at a rate of not less than forty cents per seal. 
 
 Knowing that every movement of the holders of so valuable a monopoly 
 would be watched with suspicion, the company lost no time in carrying 
 out to the letter what the contract demanded, and in an incredibly short 
 time the native laborers found themselves transplanted from a position of 
 abject misery into what must to them have appeared as affluence. They 
 were removed from damp underground dwellings (at first much against 
 their will) into comfortable frame cottages with necessary outhouses, and 
 furnished with stoves. At the end of the first season they found them- 
 selves in possession of more cash on hand than they had been able to 
 gather during the excitement and high prices of the first rush to the 
 islands, because they had few;er opportunities for foolish expenditure or 
 dissipation. 
 
 During the first few years of the present contract the most persistent 
 efforts were made by unsuccessful bidders for the same to create dissatis- 
 faction among the sealers and incite them to complaints against the com- 
 pany. Many of the natives, who looked back with longing upon their 
 brief seasons of wild dissipation, were only too willing to enter into such 
 a movement, and the result was constant agitation, petitions with partially- 
 forged signatures, and finally a series of tedious and expensive Congres- 
 sional investigations that served only to acquit the company on all charges 
 preferred. 
 
 At present the 'condition of affairs on the two islands of St. Paul and 
 St. George is this : The people, consisting of about one hundred families, 
 perform the labor of killing the animals and skinning them, for which 
 they receive compensation at the rate of forty cents a seal, or forty thou- 
 sand dollars on the annual quota. The division of the labor and distri- 
 bution of the proceeds are left entirely in their own hands, and managed 
 by two chiefs of their own selection. In order to provide for all residing 
 on the islands, they have divided their whole number into three classes 
 of shareholders in the common revenue. Able-bodied men and skilled 
 sealers receive a first-class share ; youths and feeble men still at work, a 
 
600 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 second-class share, or about sevenfy-five per cent, of the former ; and 
 widows without children, orphans, and sick people, a third-class share, 
 or fifty per cent. Shares are also provided for the church, the school, 
 the priest's family, and extra compensation for the chiefs who manage 
 the affairs of the community. At public meetings held before the . final 
 division other special awards are sometimes made by common consent. 
 As the season of general labor is only about six weeks, the Aleuts on the 
 islands do not wait long for their returns. At the end of the month of 
 August each head of a family or firsl^class sealer receives between three 
 and four hundred dollars in cash, without being under any expense for 
 lodging, fuel, and nearly all his food. Under such circumstances the 
 prudent among them have, of course, saved money, and but few have 
 succeeded in getting rid of all by gambling. They have now large de- 
 posits in San Francisco banks and in the hands of the government agents 
 on the islands, and every year a number of the young men go off on 
 visits to their kin at Oonalashka and other islands, generally returning 
 with a wife selected from the less affluent families of sea-otter hunters. 
 The only complaint heard among them is of the total prohibition of in- 
 toxicating drink, now rigidly enforced on both islands. 
 
 The habits of the seal have been observed and studied to such per- 
 fection that everything that could possibly alarm them or interfere with 
 their comfort or customs is most carefully avoided. The officers and 
 employes have even been deprived of the luxury of fresh milk and beef, 
 because the presence of cattle seemed to alarm the timid animals. Dur- 
 ing the sojourn of the sleek-coated millions on the islands they are lords 
 of the soil who can indulge their every whim, while man is of only 
 secondary importance, and must give up any comfort that might interfere 
 with that of the much-prized visitors ; and as long as this prudent man- 
 agement is continued and rigidly enforced by the Treasury agents, the 
 government of this country will be sure to receive from this small fraction 
 of an immense territory an annual revenue but one-sixth of which is re- 
 quired for the maintenance of the whole. 
 
 The shareholders of the old Russian American Company, who so will- 
 ingly parted with their vast domain, must now look with regret upon the 
 living mine of wealth which bad management and shortsighted policy 
 caused them to relinquish — a " mine " which at the present time pays 
 better than any mineral vein in the great Territory of Alaska. 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 
 
 CALIFOEOTA. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 THE following property is exempt from execution for any debt except 
 it be for the purchase-price of such property or the debt be secured 
 by mortgage, lien, or pledge thereon — ^to wit : 1st, chairs, tables, desks, 
 and books to the value of two hundred dollars ; 2d, necessary household, 
 table, and kitchen furniture of the debtor, including one sewing-machine, 
 stoves, stovepipes, and stove-furniture, wearing apparel, beds, bedding, 
 bedsteads, hanging pictures, oil paintings, and drawings drawn or painted 
 by any member of the family, family portraits and their necessary frames, 
 provisions actually provided for individual or family use sufficient for 
 three months, and three cows and their sucking calves, four hogs with 
 their sucking pigs, and food for such cows and hogs for one month ; 3d, 
 the farming utensils, etc. of the judgment debtor, also two oxen or two 
 horses or two mules, and their harness, one cart or wagon, and food for 
 such animals for one month, not exceeding two hundred dollars in value, 
 seventy-five bee-hives, and one horse and vehicle belonging to any per- 
 son who is maimed or crippled, the same being necessary to his business ; 
 4th, tools or implements of a mechanic or artisan, notary's seal, office- 
 furniture and records, surgeon, physician, music-teacher, surveyor, or den- 
 tist's instruments, books, etc., and professional libraries and furniture of 
 attorneys and judges, and libraries of ministers, editors, and school- and 
 music-teachers, and all the indexes, abstracts, books, papers, maps, and 
 office-furniture of searchers of records necessary to be used in their profes- 
 sion ; 5th, a miner's cabin, not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, also 
 the sluices, pipes, and tools, etc. necessary for his business, not exceeding 
 five hundred dollars in value, and two horses, mules, or oxen and their har- 
 ness, and food for the same for one month, when necessary to be used for 
 any windlass, derrick, car, pump, or hoisting-gear, and the miner's derrick, 
 
 501 
 
602 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 worked by him, not exceeding one thousand dollars in value ; 6th, the 
 oxen, horses, or mules, and their harness, and food for one month, and 
 one cart, wagon, dray, truck, coup6, hack, or carriage for one or two 
 horses, by the use of which a cartman, drayman, truckman, huckster, 
 peddler, hackman, teamster, or other laborer habitually earns his liv- 
 ing, and one horse, harness, and vehicle used by a physician, surgeon, 
 constable, or jninister of the gospel in the legitimate practice of his pro- 
 fession or business, with food for such animal for one month ; 7th, poultry 
 worth no more than twenty-five dollars ; earnings within thirty days of 
 levy if the defendant swears that they are necessary to support his family 
 residing in the State and supported in whole or in part by his labor, but 
 only half of such earnings are exempt where the debt is for necessaries 
 of life ; 9th, the shares in homestead associations, not exceeding in value 
 one thousand dollars, if the debtor has not a homestead selected ; nautical 
 instruments and wearing apparel of any master, seaman, or officer of any 
 vessel ; 10th, life-insurance policies and all benefits accruing therefrom, 
 j)rovided the annual premium shall not exceed five hundred dollars; 
 11th, all fire-engines, etc. ; 12th, all firearms required by law to be kept 
 by any person, and one gun selected by the debtor; 13th, all court-houses, 
 jails, public offices, buildings, cemeteries, etc. The homestead, consisting 
 of a quantity of land and dwelling-house thereon, not exceeding five 
 thousand dollars in value, selected by the husband and wife, or either, 
 or other head of a family, is also exempt. The homestead of a single 
 person to the extent of one thousand dollars is also exempt. 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 Legal interest on a debt after it becomes due and on judgments is seven 
 per cent, per annum. Parties to contract may agree in writing upon a 
 different rate. The rate of interest was changed from ten to seven per 
 cent. February 15, 1878. 
 
 EIGHTS OF MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 No estate is allowed the husband as tenant by courtesy, nor is any 
 estate in dower allotted to the wife. 
 
 All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned by her before 
 marriage, and all that she may acquire afterward by gift, bequest, devise, 
 or descent, shall be her separate property, and may be sold, conveyed, or 
 assigned by her without the husband's consent. 
 
 All property acquired after marriage by either husband or wife, except 
 such as may be acquired by gift, bequest, devise, or descent, shall be com- 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 503 
 
 mon property. The husband has the entire management, with absolute 
 power of disposition, of the common property ; but upon the death of 
 the husband the wife is entitled to one-half of the common property 
 after payment of the debts and expenses of administration. In case of 
 divorce the common property shall be equally divided between the hus- 
 band and wife, except when the divorce is granted on the ground of 
 adultery or extreme cruelty, in which case the court apportions the prop- 
 erty in its discretion. The husband and wife may make contracts and 
 conveyances inter sese, subject only to the general rule as to contracts 
 between parties occupying confidential relations. 
 
 WASHINGTON TEEEITOEY. 
 EXEMPTION LAW. 
 
 All real and personal estate belonging to a married woman at the time 
 of her marriage, and all she subsequently becomes entitled to in her own 
 right, and all her personal earnings, and all rents and profits of such real 
 estate, shall not be liable for her husband's debts so long as she or any 
 minor heir of her body is living ; but her property is liable for debts 
 owing by her at the time of her marriage. To a householder, being the 
 head of a family, a homestead of the value of one thousand dollars, 
 while occupied by such family, is exempt. But to reserve such property 
 the word " homestead " must be entered in the margin of the record of 
 title in the office of the auditor of said county. 
 
 All wearing apparel, private libraries, family pictures, and keepsakes 
 are exempt. To each householder one bed and bedding, and one additional 
 bed and bedding for every two additional members of the family, and 
 other household goodsof the coin value of one hundred and fifty dollars ; 
 two cows with their calves, five swine, two stands of bees, twenty-five 
 domestic fowls, and provisions and fuel for six months, are exempt ; to 
 a farmer, one span of horses and harness, or two yoke of oxen, and one 
 wagon, with farming utensils not exceeding two hundred dollars coin 
 value ; to a mechanic, the tools used to carry on his trade for the support 
 of himself and family, also material of the value of five hundred dollars ; 
 to a physician, his library, horse and carriage, instruments, and medicines ; 
 to attorneys and clergymen, their libraries, not exceeding the coin value 
 of five hundred dollars, also office-furniture, stationery, and fuel ; all fire- 
 arms kept for use, and a canoe, skiff, or small boat not exceeding the coin 
 value of fifty dollars ; to a person engaged in lightering, one or more light- 
 
504 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ers or scows and a small boat, not exceeding the aggregate value of two 
 hundred and fifty dollars ; to a drayman, his team ; to persons in logging, 
 three yoke of work-oxen and implements of the value of three hundred 
 dollars. No property shall be exempt upon a judgment for its purchase- 
 price or for tax levied thereon. 
 
 MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 A married woman may sue and be sued without joining her husband 
 when the action concerns her separate property or her right or claim to 
 the homestead property, when she is living separate and apart from her 
 husband, or when the action is between herself and her husband. If a 
 husband and wife be sued together, she may defend her own right, and 
 his also if he neglects to do so. All property, both real and personal, 
 owned by the wife before marriage, and that acquired afterward by gift, 
 devise, or descent, is her separate property. Property thus acquired by 
 the husband constitutes his separate property. All property acquired 
 during marriage, except by gift, devise, or descent, constitutes their com- 
 m(m property. 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 The legal rate of interest is ten per cent, per annum ; any rate of in- 
 terest agreed upon in writing shall be valid. Judgments bear legal 
 interest from date except when rendered upon an express contract in 
 writing wherein a different rate is agreed upon, in which case the judg- 
 ment bears same rate. 
 
 MONTANA. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 All clothing of the debtor and family, and chairs, tables, desks, and 
 "books to the value of one hundred dollars, also all necessary household, 
 table, and kitchen furniture, which includes every article in use for the 
 comfort of the debtor or his family, and provisions and fuel actually pro- 
 vided for individual or family use sufficient for two months, are exempt ; 
 one sewing-machine, not exceeding the value of one hundred dollars, in 
 actual use by the debtor or his family; also one horse, two cows with their 
 calves, two swine, and fifty domestic fowl. In addition to the above there 
 is exempt to a farmer his farming utensils, not exceeding in value six 
 hundred dollars, two oxen or one horse or mule, and their harness, two 
 cows, one cart or wagon, and food for such stock for three months ; two 
 
LAWS IN DELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 505 
 
 hundred dollars' worth of seeds, grain, or vegetables actually provided for 
 the purpose of sowing or planting ; the proper tools, instruments, or books 
 of any mechanic, physician, dentist, lawyer, or clergyman; to a miner, his 
 dwelling, not exceeding in value five hundred dollars, and one horse, 
 mule, or two oxen, and their harness, with their food for three months, in 
 case such stock is used necessarily in connection with any species of hoist- 
 ing-gear upon the mine ; one horse, mule, or two oxen, with vehicle and 
 harness, by which the debtor habitually earns his living, and one horse, 
 with vehicle and harness, of a physician or clergyman, used in making 
 professional visits, with food for such stock for three months ; all arms, 
 uniforms, etc., required by law to be kept by any person ; all property 
 generally held by the town or county for the benefit of the county or the 
 public, except as against a vendor's lien or a mortgage ; the wages of the 
 debtor earned at any time within thirty days next preceding the levy, pro- 
 vided they are necessary for the use of his family residing in the Terri- 
 tory, supported wholly or in part by his labor. None but bond fide resi- 
 dents can claim the benefits of this law. A homestead not to exceed in 
 value twenty-five hundred dollars is exempt ; if agricultural land, it is 
 not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres ; if within the limits of a town- 
 plot, ciiy, or village, not to exceed one-fourth of an acre. The debtor 
 has his option of the two, and may select either, with all improvements 
 thereon which are included in the valuation. Such exemption does' not 
 afifect the lien of any mechanic or laborer or extend to any mortgage legally 
 obtained. 
 
 INTBEEST LAW. 
 
 Parties may stipulate for any rate of interest. When no contract is 
 made as to interest, the legal rate, ten per cent, per annum, governs after 
 the debt is due. There is no usury law. 
 
 EIGHTS OF MAEEIED WOMElf. 
 
 The property of a married woman, owned before marriage, and any 
 acquired after marriage by gift, grant, devise, descent, or otherwise, and 
 the use, increase, and profits thereof, are exempt from debts or liabilities 
 of the husband, except for necessaries for the benefit of herself and 
 children under eighteen years of age. But such property so claimed 
 must be set forth in a list to be recorded with the register of deeds in 
 the county where she resides. 
 
 By the act of February 4, 1874, a married woman may become a sok 
 trader by making, acknowledging, and recording with the county recorder 
 of deeds her intention so to do, and setting forth the nature of the busi- 
 
506 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 ness that she intends to transact. If the amount of her investment in 
 business exceeds ten thousand dollars, the declaration must contain a state- 
 ment under oath that the surplus above ten thousand dollars did not come 
 from any funds belonging to her husband. Such married woman is re- 
 sponsible for the maintenance of her children. The husband is not liable 
 for any debts contracted in the course of business done by his wife, except 
 by special consent in writing. 
 
 KANSAS. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 The constitution provides that a homestead to the extent of one hun- 
 dred and sixty acres of farming land, or of one acre within the limits of 
 an incorporated town or city occupied as a residence by the family of the 
 owner, together with all the improvements upon the same, shall be ex- 
 empted from forced sale under the process of law, and shall not be alien- 
 ated without a joint consent of husband and wife when the relation ex- 
 ists ; but no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes or for the 
 payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said premises or 
 for the erection of improvements thereon. But this does not apply where 
 a lien is given by consent of husband and wife. By statute each resi- 
 dent, being the head of a family, is entitled to have exempt from seizure 
 and sale upon any judicial process the family books and musical instru- 
 ments, a seat or pew in church and lot in burial-ground, all wearing 
 apparel, bedsteads, bedding, stove, and cooking-utensils used by the 
 family, one sewing-machine, all ijnplements of industry, five hundred 
 dollars' worth of other household furniture, two cows, ten hogs, one yoke 
 of oxfen, and one horse or mule (or in lieu of one yoke of oxen and one 
 horse or mule a span of horses or mules), twenty sheep and the wool from 
 the same, the necessary food for the stock above described for one year, 
 either provided or growing, one wagon, cart, or dray, two ploughs, one 
 drag, and other farming utensils, including harness and tackle and har- 
 ness for teams, not exceeding in value three hundred dollars, provisions 
 for the support and use of the family for one year, the necessary tools 
 and implements of any mechanic, miner, or other person, used and kept 
 for the purpose of carrying on his trade or business, and in addition 
 thereto stock in trade not exceeding four hundred dollars in value ; and 
 the library, implements, and office-furniture of any professional man. A 
 resident, not being the head of a family, has exempt his wearing apparel, 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 507 
 
 church-pew, burial-lot, necessary tools and implements used in his trade 
 or business, stock in trade not exceeding four hundred dollars, and, if a 
 professional man, his library, implements, and office-furniture. 
 
 INTEEEST LAWS. 
 
 Creditors shall be allowed to receive interest at the rate of seven per 
 cent, per annum, when no other rate of interest is agreed upon, for all 
 moneys after they become due ; for money lent or money due on settlement 
 of account, from the day of liquidating the same and ascertaining«the bal- 
 ance ; for money received for the use of another and retained without the 
 owner's knowledge of the receipt ; for money due and withheld by an 
 unreasonable and vexatious delay of payment or settlement of accounts ; 
 and for all other money due or to become due for the forbearance of pay- 
 ment whereof an express promise to pay interest has been made. The 
 parties to any bond, bill, promissory note, or other instrument of writing 
 for the payment or forbearance of money may stipulate therein for in- 
 terest receivable upon the amount of such bond, bill, note, or other instru- 
 ment of writing; provided, that no person shall recover in any court more 
 than twelve per cent, interest thereon per annum. All payments of money 
 or property made by way of usurious interest or of inducement to contract 
 for more than twelve per cent, per annum, whether made in advance or 
 not, shall be deemed and taken to be payments made on account of the 
 principal and twelve per cent, interest per annum, and the courts shall 
 render judgment for no greater sum than the balance found due after de- 
 ducting the payments of money or property made as aforesaid. 
 
 MARRIED. WOMEN. 
 
 The property, real and personal, which any woman in this State may 
 own at the time of her marriage, and the rents, issues, and profits or pro- 
 ceeds thereof, and any real, personal, or mixed property which shall come 
 to her by descent, devise, or bequest, or the gift of any person except her 
 husband, shall remain her sole and separate property, notwithstanding her 
 marriage, and not be subject to the disposal of her husband or liable for 
 his debts. 
 
 A married woman, while the marriage relation subsists, may bargain, 
 sell, and convey her real and personal properly, and enter into any con- 
 tract with reference to the same, in the same manner and to the same ex- 
 tent and with like effect as a married man may in relation to his real and 
 personal property. A woman may while married sue and be sued in the 
 same manner as if she were unmarried. 
 
508 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Any married woman may carry on any trade or business and perform 
 any labor or service on her sole and separate account ; and the earnings 
 of any married woman from her trade, business, labor, or services shall 
 be her sole and separate property, and may be used and invested by her 
 in her own name. 
 
 Any woman who shall have been married out of this State shall, if her 
 husband afterwai'd becomes a resident of this State, enjoy all the rights as 
 to property which she may have acquired by the laws of any other State, 
 Territorjf, or country, or which she may have acquired by virtue of any 
 marriage contract or settlement made out of this State. 
 
 WYOMING. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 Every householder, being the head of a family, is entitled to a home- 
 stead not exceeding in value fifteen hundred dollars, exempt from execu- 
 tion or attachment for any debt, contract, or civil obligation, while such 
 homestead is actually occupied as such by the owner thereof or his or her 
 family. The homestead may consist of a house and lot or lots in any 
 town or city, or a farm of not more than one hundred and sixty acres. 
 The owner of a homestead may mortgage the same, but such mortgage 
 shall not be binding against the wife of a married man who may be 
 occupying the premises with him unless she shall freely and voluntarily 
 acknowledge and sign the same, and the officer taking such acknowledg- 
 ment shall fully apprise her of her rights and of the effect of signing such 
 mortgage. Besides the homestead above mentioned, the wearing apparel 
 of every person is exempt from judicial or ministerial process ; also the 
 following property when owned by any person being the head of a fam- 
 ily and residing with the same — to wit : the family Bible, pictures, and 
 school-books, a lot in any cemetery or burial-ground, furniture, bedding, 
 provisions, and such other articles as the debtor may select, not exceeding 
 in value in all five hundred dollars, to be ascertained by the appraisement 
 of three disinterested householders ; provided that no personal property 
 of any person about to remove or abscond from the Territory shall be 
 exempt. The tools, team, and implements or stock in trade of a mechan- 
 ic, miner, or other person, and used and kept for the purpose of carry- 
 ing on his trade or business, are exempt to a value not exceeding three 
 hundred dollars; also the library, instruments, or implements of any 
 professional man, not exceeding in value three hundred dollars. The 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 509 
 
 person claiming exemption must in all cases be bond fide a resident of 
 the Territory. 
 
 INTEREST LAWS. 
 
 Any rate may be agreed upon in writing, but in the absence of express 
 contract all moneys, claims, or judgments draw interest at the rate of 
 twelve per cent, per annum ; unsettled accounts draw interest after thirty 
 days from the date of the last item. 
 
 MARRIED WOMEN. 
 
 The rights of a married woman in this Territory are very nearly the 
 same as those of an unmarried woman as respects her property, both real 
 and personal. She may make a will, sue and be sued, make contracts, 
 carry on a trade or business, retain her own earnings, and hold property 
 real or personal, with the rents and profits of the same, in her own name, 
 free from the control or interference of her husband, the same as though 
 she were sole and unmarried. And her property is exempt from execu- 
 tion or attachment for the debt of her husband. She has also all the 
 • rights of an elector, and may hold office and vote at all elections in the 
 same manner as other electors. She may not, however, be appointed 
 administratrix or hold that trust after marriage. 
 
 IDAHO. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 The following property is exempt from execution : 1st, chairs, tables, 
 desks, and books to the value of one hundred dollars, belonging to judg- 
 ment debtors ; 2d, necessary household, table, and kitchen furniture, in- 
 cluding stove, stovepipe, and stove-furniture of whatsoever kind, wearing 
 apparel, beds, bedding, and bedsteads, and provisions actually provided 
 for individual or family use sufficient for three months; 3d, the farm- 
 ing utensils or implements of husbandry of the judgment debtor ; also 
 two oxen or two horses or two mules, and their harness, two cows, one 
 cart or wagon, and also food for such oxen, horses, cows, or mules for 
 three months; also all seed-grain or vegetables actually provided, reserved, 
 or on hand for the purpose of planting or sowing at any time within the 
 ensuing six months, not exceeding in value the sum of two hundred dol- 
 lars ; the tools and implements of a mechanic necessary to carry on his 
 trade ; the instruments and chests of a surgeon, physician, surveyor, or 
 dentist, necessary to the exercise of his profession, with his professional 
 
510 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 library and the law library of an attorney and counsellor; also the wardrobe 
 and books of an actor; 4th, the tents and furniture, including a table, 
 camp-stool, bed, and bedding, of a miner; also his rocker, shovels, spades, 
 wheelbarrows, pumps, and other instruments used in mining, with pro- 
 visions necessary for his support for three months; 5th, two oxen, two 
 horses, or two mules, and their harness, and one cart or wagon, by the 
 use of which a cartman, teamster, or other laborer habitually earns his 
 living, and the food for such oxen, horses, or mules for three months ; 
 and a horse used by a physician in making his professional visits; 6th, 
 the fire-engines, with the carts, buckets, hose, and apparatus thereto apper- 
 taining, of any fire company or department organized under any law of 
 this Territory; 7th, all arms and accoutrements required by law to be 
 kept by any person. But no article mentioned in this section shall be 
 exempt from execution issued upon a judgment recovered for its price 
 or upon a mortgage thereon. All court-houses, jails, public offices, and 
 building-lots, ground and personal property, fixtures and furniture, books, 
 paper, and appurtenances, belonging and appertaining to the court-house, 
 jail, and public offices belonging to any county of this Territory, and all 
 cemeteries and public squares, parks, and places, public buildings, town- 
 halls, markets, buildings appertaining to the fire departments, and the lots 
 and ground thereto belonging and appertaining, OAvned or held by any 
 town or incorporated city, or dedicated by such town or city to health, 
 ornament, or public use, are exempt. A homestead duly selected by hus- 
 band and wife, or either, or by the head of a family, and duly acknow- 
 ledged and recorded, not exceeding in value five thousand dollars, is 
 exempt. 
 
 INTEREST LAWS. 
 
 Ten per cent, is the legal rate where there is no express contract fixing 
 a different rate. Parties may agree in writing for any rate not exceeding 
 one and one-half per cent, per month, but any judgment rendered upon 
 such contract bears only ten per cent, per annum. Penalty for greater 
 rate than above specified is three times the amount so paid, and the party 
 receiving a greater sum subjects himself to a penalty of three hundred 
 dollars or six months' imprisonment, or both. Interest does not com- 
 mence to run on open accounts until a balance is struck and agreed to, or 
 settlement is had. 
 
 MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 All property, both real and personal, of the wife before marriage, and 
 that acquired afterward by gift, bequest, devise, or descent, is her sepa- 
 rate property, and all the husband's his separate property. All other 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 511 
 
 property acquired after marriage is common property. The wife is re- 
 quired to make, sign, and have recorded a complete inventory of her 
 separate property in ' the office of the recorder of the county where the 
 property is situated. The husband has the management and control of 
 the wife's separate property during marriage, but cannot alienate nor cre- 
 ate a lien nor incumbrance on the same except by instruments signed and 
 acknowledged by both husband and wife. 
 
 The district courts may on application of the wife appoint trustees to 
 take charge of and manage her separate property if the husband mis- 
 manages or commits waste. 
 
 The husband has entire management and control of the common prop- 
 erty and his own separate 'property, and the rents and profits of all sepa- 
 rate property of both husband and wife are deemed common property, 
 unless it is expressly provided in the instrument of devise to the con- 
 trary. Upon dissolution *of the community by death, half of the com- 
 mon property goes to the survivor and half to the descendants if there 
 are any; if not, all to the survivor. Upon dissolution by decree of 
 court, the common property must be equally divided, unless the decree is 
 granted upon the ground of adultery or extreme cruelty, when the divis- 
 ion of the same is left within the discretion of the court granting the 
 decree. 
 
 The separate property of the husband is not liable for the debts of the 
 wife contracted before marriage, but the separate property of the wife is 
 liable for all such debts. She may by contract make herself liable so as 
 to charge her separate property. 
 
 NEW MEXICO. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 Real estate to the value of one thousand dollars shall be exempt from 
 execution in favor of heads of families, actually residing on the same, 
 provided the exemption be claimed. But if, in the opinion of the cred- 
 itors, the premises claimed as exempt are worth more than one thousand 
 dollars, it shall be lawful for the officer to advertise and sell the premises, 
 and out of the proceeds of such sale pay to the execution debtor one 
 thousand dollars, which shall be exempt from execution for one year 
 thereafter, and apply the balance to the payment of the execution ; pro- 
 vided that no sale can be made unless more than one thousand dollars be 
 bid for the premises. There are also exempt the clothing, beds, and bed- 
 
612 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 clothing necessary for the use of the family, and firewood suiBoient for 
 thirty days when actually provided and intended therefor; all Bibles, 
 hymn-books, Testaments, school-books used by the family, and family 
 and religious pictures ; provisions actually provided to the amount of 
 twenty-five dollars, and kitchen furniture to the amount of ten dollars, 
 both to be selected by the debtor ; also all tools and implements belong- 
 ing to the debtor that may be necessary to enable him to carry on his 
 trade or business, whether agricultural or mechanical, to be selected by 
 him, and not to exceed twenty dollars in value. Real estate, when sold, 
 must be first appraised by two freeholders of the vicinity, and must 
 bring two-thirds of the appraised value. 
 
 INTEEEST LAW. 
 
 The rate of interest is any amount that may be agreed upon by the 
 parties ; but where none is expressed, then th? law allows six per cent, 
 per annum. All open running accounts bear six per cent, from six 
 months after date of the last item. Judgments bear the same rate of 
 interest as the obligation or agreement sued on, when expressed in the 
 judgment ; otherwise, six per cent. Prior to January 31, 1872, twelve 
 per cent, was the highest rate of interest allowed by law. 
 
 MAEEIED "WOMEN. 
 
 Married women are the sole owners of the property they inherit or 
 bring into the marriage community, but can convey their real estate only 
 by joining in a deed with their husbands. The husband has the control 
 and management of the wife's property, and the proceeds become their 
 joint property. The wife has no dower whatever except her private 
 property, which is the first deduction from an estate, and has precedence 
 over all other creditors as an implied privileged mortgage. After paying 
 off all the debts, the remainder of the property is divided equally between 
 the husband's estate and his wife, this being called the " acquest property," 
 and under the laws belongs to the two, the relation of the husband and 
 wife to each other with reference to property being almost identical 
 with that of equal partners. After giviag to the wife one-half afore- 
 said, the remainder is divided by giving to the wife one-fourth thereof, 
 first deducting sufficient to pay off any legacies. The wife becomes heir 
 to all the acquest property if the husband dies without issue. A wife's 
 separate property is not liable for debts contracted by her as agent for her 
 husband for the support of herself and children, nor for the expenses of 
 the family in any case. 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 613 
 
 OKEGON. 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 The following property shall be exempt from execution if selected and 
 reserved by the judgment debtor or his agent at the time of the levy, or 
 as soon thereafter, before the sale thereof, as the same shall be known to 
 him, and not otherwise : Books, pictures, and musical instruments, owned 
 by any person, to the value of seventy-five dollars ; necessary wearing 
 apparel, owned by any person, to the value of one hundred dollars, and 
 if such person be a householder for each member of his family to the 
 value of fifty dollars; the tools, implements, apparatus, team, vehicle, 
 harness, or library necessary to enable any person to carry on the trade, 
 occupation, or profession by which such person habitually earns his living, 
 to the value of four hundred dollars ; also a sufficient quantity of food 
 to support such team, if any, for sixty days. The word " team " in this 
 subdivision sTiall not be construed to include more than one yoke of oxen 
 or pair of horses or mules, as the case may be. 
 
 The following property, if owned by a householder, in actual use or 
 kept for use by and for his family, or when being removed from one 
 habitation to another on a change of residence: Ten sheep, with one 
 year's fleece or the yarn or cloth manufactured therefrom ; two cows and 
 five swine ; household goods, furniture, and utensils to the value of three 
 hundred dollars ; also food sufficient to support such animals, if any, for 
 three months, and provisions actually provided for family use and neces- 
 sary for the support of such householder and family for six months ; the 
 seat or pew occupied by a householder or his family in a place of public 
 worship ; all property of the State or any county, incorporated city, town, 
 or village therein, or any other public or municipal corporation of like 
 character. No article of property, or if the same has been sold or ex- 
 changed, tten neiither the proceeds of such sale nor the article received in 
 exchange therefor, shall Tae exempt from execution issued on a judgment 
 recovered for its price. Every white male citizen of this State above the 
 age of sixteen years shall be entitled to have and keep for his own use 
 and defence the following firearms — to wit : either or any of the follow- 
 ing-named guns and one revolving pistol : a rifle, shot-gun, double- or 
 single-barrel, yager, or musket ; the same to be exempt from execution in 
 all cases under the laws of Oregon. 
 
 3S 
 
514 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 When no rate is agreed upon, ten per cent, is allowed) but parties may 
 lawfully agree upon twelve per cent. 
 
 Usury is punished by forfeiture of the original sum lent to the com- 
 mon-school fund, and costs of action or suit are adjudged against the per- 
 son seeking to enforce the usurious contract. 
 
 Judgments and decrees for money upon contracts bearing more than 
 ten per cent, interest, and not exceeding twelve per cent, per annum, bear 
 the same interest as that stipulated in the contract. Upon accounts in- 
 terest is only allowed from their maturity, and then only from the time 
 when the balance is ascertained. 
 
 MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 The property and pecuniary rights of every married woman at the 
 time of her marriage, or afterward acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance, 
 shall not be subject to the debts and conti'acts of her husband, and she 
 may manage, sell, convey, or devise the same by will to the same extent 
 and in the same manner that the husband can do with property belonging 
 to him. When property is owned by either the husband or wife, the other 
 has no interest therein which can be the, subject of contract between them, 
 or such interest as will make the same liable for the contracts or liabilities 
 of either the husband or wife who is not the owner of the property. 
 Should either the husband or wife obtain possession Or control of property 
 belonging to the other, either before or after marriage, the owner of the 
 property may maintain an action therefor, or for any right growing out 
 of the same, in the same manner and extent as if they were un- 
 married. 
 
 A married woman is alone responsible in damages for injuries com- 
 mitted by her, except in case where her husband would be responsible 
 with her if marriage did not exist. 
 
 A conveyance, transfer, or lien executed by either husband or wife, or 
 in favor of the other, shall be valid to the same extent as between other 
 persons. 
 
 He or she may constitute the other his or her attorney in fact to dispose 
 of his or her property, and may revoke the same in the same manner and 
 to the same extent as other persons. 
 
 A wife may receive the wages of her labor, and bring action therefor 
 in her own name, and she may prosecute and defend all actions at law or 
 in equity for the preservation and protection of her rights and property. 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 515 
 
 Neither the husband nor wife is liable for the debts or liabilities of the 
 other incurred before marriage. Either is not liable for the separate 
 debts of the other. Contracts may be made by a wife, and the same 
 enforced by or against her in the same manner as if she was unmarried. 
 
 The expense of the family and the education of the children are 
 chargeable upon the property of both husband and wife, or either of 
 them, and in relation thereto they may be sued jointly or separately. 
 
 A married woman may contract expressly in reference to her separate 
 estate, and such separate estate is liable to execution and sale for liabilities 
 so contracted. Any express contract of a married woman made a charge 
 upon her separate estate is binding, and she may be sued alone upon it ; 
 and a judgment rendered thereupon may be enforced against the separate 
 property charged. 
 ■ Women become of age at eighteen or at their marriage. 
 
 NEVADA. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAW. 
 
 The following property is exempt from execution except upon a judg- 
 ment for the purchase-money or upon a mortgage thereon : Chairs, tables, 
 desks, and books to the value of one hundred dollars ; household furni- 
 ture, etc. ; provisions and firewood for one month ; farming utensils of a 
 farmer, and seed provided for planting within the ensuing six months, 
 not exceeding in value two hundred dollars ; two horses, two oxen, or 
 two mules, and two cows, and food for one month for such animals ; one 
 cart or wagon, and tools of a mechanic necessary to his trade ; the instru- 
 ments and libraries necessary to a surgeon, physician, surveyor, or dentist ; 
 the professional library of an attorney and counsellor or minister of the 
 gospel ; the dwelling of a miner, not exceeding in value five hundred 
 dollars, and two horses, two oxen, or two mules, the harness and food 
 for one month for such animals when they are necessary in his mining 
 operations; two oxen, two horses, or two mules, and their harness, 
 and one cart or wagon, by the use of which a teamster or other 
 laborer habitually earns his living ; one horse, harness, and vehicle of 
 a physician or surgeon or minister of the gospel, and food for such 
 animal for one month ; one sewing-machine in actual use in the debtor's 
 family, not exceeding in value one hundred and fifty dollars ; all fire- 
 engines and property of fire companies ; all arms, etc. required by law to 
 be kept by any person ; all public property of State, counties, towns, etc. ; 
 
516 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 a homestead, to be selected by the husband and wife or other head of a 
 family, not exceeding in value five thousand dollars. 
 
 A homestead duly recorded cannot be alienated except by the consent 
 of both husband and wife (where that relation exists), which consent must 
 be in writing and duly acknowledged and recorded. The joint deed or 
 conveyance has the same effect. 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 Ten per cent, per annum is legal intei-est, but parties may contract in 
 writing for the payment of any other rate. After judgment on such a 
 contract only the original claim shall draw interest. 
 
 MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 All property of the wife owned by her before marriage, and that ac- 
 quired afterward by gift, bec[uest, devise, or descent, shall be her separate 
 property. All property acquired after marriage by either husband or 
 wife, except such as may be acquired by gift, devise, or descent, shall be 
 common property. 
 
 The husband has absolute control of the common property during the 
 existence of the marriage, and may dispose of it as his own separate estate. 
 The wife may, without consent of her husband, convey, charge, incum- 
 ber, or otherwise in any manner dispose of her separate property. 
 
 A woman becomes of age at eighteen". 
 
 The wife must support the husband out of her separate property when 
 he has no separate property and they have no community property, and 
 he from infirmity is not able or competent to support himself. 
 
 The husband can have no estate by cQurtesy, nor the wife any estate 
 by dower. Upon the death of the husband one-half of the common prop- 
 erty, after paying the debts, family allowance, and expenses of adminis- 
 tration, shall go to the surviving wife. In case of a divorce the common 
 property shall be equally divided between the parties, except when granted 
 upon the ground of adultery or extreme cruelty, in which case the court 
 may divide it as shall seem just. 
 
 After marriage the separate property of the wife shall continue liable 
 for her debts contracted before marriage. 
 
 A married woman may make contracts in her own name, buy goods, 
 give notes in settlement of purchases, binding her own separate property, 
 real and personal. 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 517 
 
 NEBRASKA. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAW. 
 
 There is exempt from judicial sale to every family, whether owned by 
 the husband or wife, a homestead, which, if within a town-plot, must not 
 exceed one-half an acre in extent, and if not within a town-plot must not 
 in the aggregate exceed one hundred and sixty acres; but if, when thus 
 limited in either case, its value is less than five hundred dollars, it may 
 be enlarged until its value reaches that amount; provided that a home- 
 stead shall in no event exceed in value the sum of two thousand dollars. 
 In case the debtor has no lands there are exempt from execution five hun- 
 dred dollars in personal property. The clothing of the family, family 
 supplies for six months, supplies for domestic animals for three months, 
 furniture, family Bible, and picture-books, cooking utensils, certain do- 
 mestic animals, tools, implements of trade, etc., are exempt ; also, sixty 
 days' wages to any laboring man, clerk, etc. ; provided that there is no 
 exemption from attachment or execution for wages due to any clerk, 
 laborer, or mechanic, or for money due and owing by any attorney-at-law 
 for money or other valuable consideration received by such attorney for 
 any person or persons. A conveyance or incumbrance by the owner is of 
 no validity unless the husband and wife, if the owner is married, concur 
 in and sign the same joint instrument. 
 
 The homestead may be sold for debts created by written contracts exe- 
 cuted by the persons having the power to convey, and expressly stipulating 
 that the homestead is liable therefor ; but it shall not in such case be sold 
 except to supply the deficiency remaining after exhausting the other prop- 
 erty pledged for the payment of the debt in the same written contract. 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 The legal rate of interest has been made seven per cent., but by agree- 
 ment may be as high as ten per cent. Judgments draw as high a rate 
 of interest as the contracts upon which they are founded. The acts and 
 dealings of an agent in loaning money shall bind the principal ; and in 
 all cases when there is illegal interest by the transaction of the agent, the 
 principal will be held thereby as if he had done the same in person. 
 Where the same person acts as agent for the borrower who obtains the 
 money for the lender, he shall be deemed to be the agent of the leaner 
 also. Any person charged with taking illegal interest may be required 
 to answer touching the same on oath in any civil proceeding. 
 
518 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 i Any officer or agent of a corporation or person, whether interested or 
 notj may be summoned as a witness in any action for usury against such 
 person or corporation, and required to disclose all the facts of the case ; 
 but the testimony of such witness or the answer of the party as required 
 shall not be used against such witness or party in any criminal prosecu- 
 tion for. perjury. 
 
 The penalty for usury is to prevent the recovery of any interest on the 
 principal or of any costs in the action. The principal can be recovered. 
 
 MAEEIED WOMElf. 
 
 The property, real or personal, owned by married women at the time 
 of the marriage, the rents, issues, profits, and proceeds thereof, and any 
 property which comes to her except only by gift of her husband, remains 
 her sole and separate property, not subject to the disposal of her husband 
 nor liable for his debts. She may convey her real estate and contract 
 with reference thereto in the same manner and with like effect as a mar- 
 ried man, and may sue and be sued as if unmarried ; may labor or carry 
 on business on her separate account, and her earnings are her sole prop- 
 erty. If married out of the State, she may here enjoy all rights as to 
 the property there acquired. The husband is not liable for debts con- 
 tracted by the wife before marriage. 
 
 Any will of a married woman conveying real property, or any revoca- 
 tion or alteration thereof, is not valid without the consent of the hus- 
 band in writing annexed thereto, attached, subscribed, witnessed, proven, 
 and recorded. A married woman is personally liable for her contracts 
 made in her own name, and her separate property can be made to satisfy 
 the same. ^ 
 
 The property of a married woman, without act of hers, is not liable for 
 her husband's debts. 
 
 Males become of age at twenty-one, females at eighteen, but in case a 
 female marries between the ages of sixteen and eighteen her minority 
 ends. 
 
 COLOEADO. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 Besides a homestead of the value of two thousand dollars, there are 
 exempt from execution and attachment various eirticles of personal prop- 
 erty when owned by any one who is the head of a family and resides 
 with the same, varying in quantity and value according to the size and 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 619 
 
 wants of such family, and of such kind as is usually exempted by statute 
 — ^viz. household furniture not exceeding one hundred dollars ; provisions 
 for debtor and his family for six months ; tools, implements, or stock in 
 trade not exceeding two hundred dollars ; library and implements of any 
 professional man not exceeding three hundred dollars ; working animals 
 to the value of two hundred dollars ; one cow and calf, ten sheep, and 
 necessary food therefor for six months ; farm-wagon, cart, or dray ; one 
 plough, one harrow, and other farm-implements, including harness and 
 tackle for team, not exceeding fifty dollars. 
 
 MARRIED WOMEN. 
 
 A married woman may transact business the same as if sole ; may dis- 
 pose of her personal and real estate, or make any contract in relation to 
 the same, without her husband's consent, and may sue and be sued as if 
 sole, and may convey her real estate without her husband joining in the 
 deed with her ; and her acknowledgment to such deed may be taken in 
 the same manner as her husband's. Execution may issue against her 
 property on judgment obtained against her. 
 
 Her separate property, acquired by her or left to her by will before or 
 after marriage, is not bound for her husband's debts. She can make con- 
 tracts in her own name, buy goods, give notes in settlement of purchases 
 — can do any business the same as if sole, and bind her own separate 
 property, real and personal. 
 
 In all actions against her, except concerning her own property, her 
 husband must be joined with her as co-defendant, 
 
 INTEREST LAW. 
 
 The legal rate of interest is ten per cent, per annum, and can be re- 
 covered by suit on money lent ; on money due on the settlement of ac- 
 count, from the day of liquidating accounts between the parties and 
 ascertaining the balance due ; also on money received to the use of another 
 and retained without the owner's knowledge, and on money withheld by 
 an unreasonable and vexatious delay ; also on judgments and county orders 
 after presenting and registering. State warrants after registering, eight 
 per cent, per annum. There are no usury laws. Any rate agreed upon 
 is legal. 
 
620 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 DAKOTA. 
 
 EXEMPTION LAWS. 
 
 The following property is absolutely exempt from attachment or mesne 
 process, and from levy and sale on execution, and from any other final 
 process issued from any court : All family pictures ; a pew or other sit- 
 ting in any house of worship ; a lot or lots in any burial-ground ; the 
 family Bible and all school-books used by the family, and all other books 
 used as a part of the family library, not exceeding in value one hundred 
 dollars ; all wearing apparel and clothing of the debtor and his family ; 
 the provisions for the debtor and his family necessary for one year's sup- 
 ply, either provided or growing, or both, and fuel necessary for one year ; 
 the homestead as created, defined, and limited by law. In addition to 
 the above-mentioned property, the .debtor may by himself or his agent 
 select from all other of his personal property not absolutely exempt goods, 
 chattels, merchandise, money, or other personal property not to exceed in 
 the aggregate fifteen hundred dollars in value, which is also exempt. In- 
 stead of the fifteen hundred dollars' exemption, the debtor may select and 
 choose the following property, which shall then be exempt, namely : all 
 miscellaneous books and musical instruments for the use of the family, 
 not exceeding five hundred dollars in value ; all household and kitchen 
 furniture, including beds, bedsteads, and bedding used by the debtor and 
 his family, not exceeding five hundred dollars in value ; and in case the 
 debtor shall own more than five hundred dollars' worth of such property, 
 he must select therefrom such articles to the value of five hundred dol- 
 lars, leaving the remainder subject to legal process ; three cows, ten swine, 
 one yoke of cattle, and two horses or mules or two yoke of cattle or two 
 span of horses or mules, one hundred sheep and their lambs under six 
 months old, and all wool of the same, and all cloth or yarn manufactured 
 therefrom; the necessary food for the animals hereinbefore mentioned 
 for one, year, either provided or growing, or both, as the debtor may 
 choose ; also one wagon, one sleigh, two ploughs, one harrow, and farm- 
 ing utensils, including tackle for teams, not exceeding three hundred 
 dollars in value ; the tools and implements of any mechanic, whether a 
 minor or of age, used and kept for the purpose of carrying on his trade or 
 business ; and in addition thereto stock in trade not exceeding two hun- 
 dred dollars in value ; the library and instruments of any professional 
 person, not exceeding six hundred dollars in value. 
 
 No property is exempt except that absolutely exempt from execution 
 
LAWS IN RELATION TO EXEMPTION, ETC. 521 
 
 for laborers' or mechanics' wages. Except those made absolute,, the ex- 
 emptions do not apply to a corporation for profit, to a non-resident, to a 
 debtor who is with his family removing from the Territory or who has 
 absconded, taking with him his family. 
 
 A partnership firm can claim but one exemption of fifteen hundred 
 dollars in value of the alternate property, where so applicable instead 
 thereof, out of the partnership property, and not a several exemption for 
 each partner. 
 
 The homestead of every family resident in this Territory, whether 
 owned by the husband or wife, so long as it remains a homestead, is 
 absolutely exempt except for taxes, mechanics' liens for work, labor, or 
 materials done or furnished exclusively for the improvement of the same, 
 and debts created for the purchase thereof. If within a town-plot, it 
 must not exceed one acre in extent, and if not in a town-plot, it must not 
 embrace in the aggregate more than one hundred and sixty acres, with 
 the house and buildings- appurtenant thereon, and is without limitation 
 in value. Such exemption continues after the debtor's death for the 
 benefit of the surviving husband or wife and children, and, if both hus- 
 band and wife be dead, till the youngest child comes of age. 
 
 RATE OP INTEREST. 
 
 The legal rate of interest is seven per cent. Parties may contract for 
 a higher rate, not to exceed twelve per cent. A person taking, receiving, 
 retaining, or contracting for any higher rate of interest than at the rate 
 of twelve per cent, shall forfeit all the interest so taken, received, re- 
 tained, or contracted for. Interest on open accounts commences from the 
 time of last item charged, either debit or credit. Interest is payable on 
 judgments recovered in the courts of this Territory at the rate of seven 
 per cent, per annum. 
 
 EIGHTS OF MAEEIED WOMEN. 
 
 A married woman may own in her own right real and personal prop- 
 erty acquired by descent, gift, or purchase, and manage, sell, convey, and 
 devise the same to the same extent and in the same manner as if she was 
 unmarried. Contracts may be made by a married woman, and liabilities 
 incurred, and the same enforced by or against her, to the same extent and 
 in the same manner as if unmarried. Neither husband nor wife has any 
 interest in the property of the other, but neither can be excluded from 
 the other's dwelling. Either husband or wife may enter into any engage- 
 ment or transaction with the other or with any other person respecting 
 
522 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 properly which either might enter into if unmarried, subject in transac- 
 tions between themselves to the general rules which control the actions 
 of persons occupying confidential relations with each other, as defined by 
 the law of trusts. 
 
 A husband and wife may hold real or personal property together, 
 jointly or in common. 
 
 Neither husband nor wife, as such, is answerable for the acts of the 
 other. 
 
 The earnings of the wife are not liable for debts of the husband, and 
 the earnings and accumulations of the wife and of her minor children 
 living with her or in her custody, while she is living separate from her 
 husband, are the separate property of the wife. 
 
 The separate property of the hiisband is not liable for the debts of the 
 wife contracted before the marriage. The separate property of the wife 
 is not liable for the debts of her husband, but is liable for her own debts 
 contracted before or after marriage. 
 
 A wife's separate property is not liable for debts contracted for the 
 support of herself, her children, or the fa,mily, as her husband's agent. 
 
 A married woman may buy and sell goods, give notes, or other obliga- 
 tions, and sue and be sued, the same as if unmarried. 
 
GOVEENMENT LANDS, AND HOW TO GET THEM. 
 
 Soldiers' and Sailoks' Homesteads. — By various amendments to the Homestead 
 Act in favor of the soldiers and sailors of the late war, it is provided as follows : 
 
 1. Every soldier and officer of the army, and ;every seaman, marine, and oiEcer of the 
 navy, who served not less than ninety days in the army or navy of the United States 
 " during the recent rebellion," and who was honorably discharged and who has since re- 
 mained loyal, is entitled to enter one hundred and sixty acres of land either outside or 
 ininde the limits of railroad grants. 2. The time of service in the army or navy, or the 
 whole term of enlistment if discharged on account of wounds or disability, shall be de- 
 ducted from the five years' residence heretofore required to perfect title ; provided, that 
 each homestead settler shall reside upon, improve, and cultivate his homestead for a period 
 of at least one year immediately after he shall commence his improvements. 3. The un- 
 married widow or the orphan children of a person who, if living, would be entitled to the 
 privileges of this act, may enter lands under its provisions ; and if the person died during 
 his term of enlistment the widoW or minor children shall have the benefit of the whole 
 term of such enlistment. 4. Any person entitled to the benefits of this act may file his claim 
 for a homestead at the local landroffice nearest such homestead through an agent [without being 
 preaejit in person), and shcdl have six months thereafter within which to make his entry and corny 
 menee his settlement and improvement upon the land. The agent must have a duly-executed 
 power of attorney from the person for whom he acts. 
 
 HoMESTEADS.^1. Under the Homestead Law the right is extended to every citizen, 
 and to those who hare declared their intention to become such, to enter one hundred and sixty 
 acres of land, either inside or outside the limits of railroad grants. 
 
 I 2. Actual settlement and cultivation for a continuous period of five years, together with 
 the payment to the United States Land Eeceiver of the fees allowed by law, are the basis 
 of a patent or complete title for the homestead. 
 
 3. The widow or heirs of the settler, in case of his death before the consummation of 
 the claim, may continue settlement or cultivation, and obtain title upon making requisite 
 proof. 
 
 4. Proof of settlement or cultivation must be made'at the expiration of the period of 
 five years, or within two years thereafter. 
 
 Adjoining farm homesteads may be entered by an applicant owning an original farm 
 contiguous thereto, when such adjoining farm with the original farm shall not exceed in 
 the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. 
 
 Actual residence on the separate tract need not be proved, but it must appear that the 
 settler has resided upon and cultivated the original tract for the period required by law, 
 making use of the entered tract as a part of the homestead. 
 
 No fees or commissions are required for this class of entries. 
 
 Pee-emption. — Under the Pre-emption Law, persons entitled to the privileges of the 
 Homestead Law may acquire the right to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of govern- 
 ment land, whether within railroad limits or not, by filing a declaration that he or she 
 has settled upon and claims the same. Within railroad limits the government price is 
 two dollars and fifty cents per acre ; outside of such limits, one dollar and twenty-five 
 cents ; the entire amount may be paid at the end of six months' residence, or within thirty- 
 three months. Pre-emptors are required to remain upon and improve the lands for six 
 months. Taking lands under the Pre-emption Law does not prevent entry under the 
 Homestead' Law afterward. The same person may enjoy all the privileges of both laws. 
 A homestead entry may be changed to a pre-emption claim or may be commuted after six 
 months' residence. 
 
 The Timbee-Culttjee Act. — Under the provisions of this act any citizen of the 
 United States, or those who have declared their intention to become such, can make an entry of 
 not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, either within or without the limits of a rail- 
 road grant, on condition that one-sixteenth of the land so taken shall be planted with trees, 
 cultivated, and protected for eight years, when final proof can be made and patent secured. 
 
 Under the operation of these laws any settler can secure from two hundred and forty to 
 three hundred and twenty acres of laud at a most trifling cost. 
 
 523 
 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION FOR TRAVELLERS. 
 
 [Credit is here accorded to WUliams's Paaijk Tourist for much valuable information.] 
 
 HINTS FOE THE TEIP OVERLAND. 
 
 Baggage.— AH baggage of reasonable weight can be checked from any Eastern city- 
 direct to Omaha, but is there rechecked. At Omaha all baggage is weighed, and on all 
 excess of over one hundred pounds passengers will pay fifteen cents per pound. This is 
 imperative. . -^ . 
 
 Railroad Tickets are easily procured for the whole trip across to San Francisco. It is 
 better to buy one through-ticket than to buy separately. By returning on a different route 
 from Omaha than the one you went, the tour will be much more interesting and give you 
 fresh scenery constantly. Buy your tickets only at known railroad-offices, and never of 
 agencies. In the West railroads have offices at the principal hotels. These are usually 
 perfectly reliable. 
 
 To Check Baggage, be at every d^p&t .one half hour or more before the departure of 
 
 trains. ,■-./• 
 
 Transfer-Coaches. — In all Western cities there is a line of transfer-coaches, which for 
 the uniform price of fifty cents will take you and your baggage direct to any hotel or 
 transfer you at once across the city to any d6p6t. They are trustworthy, cheap, and con- 
 venient. The agent will always pass through the train before arrival, selling transfer- 
 tickets and checks to hotels. At Salt Lake City horse-cais run from the d6p6t direct to 
 the hotels ; there is also an omnibus transfer. Price, fifty cents. 
 
 Without many exceptions, all railroad-officers, railroad-conductors, and Pullman car-con- 
 ductors are gentlemen in manners, courteous, and civil. No passenger ever gains a point 
 by loud orders or strong and forcible demands. You are treated respectfully by all, and 
 the same is expected in return. The days of boisterous times, rough railroad-men, and 
 bullies in the Far West are gone, and there is as much civility there as you wiU find near 
 home. 
 
 Eailroad-tickets must always be shown when baggage is checked. 
 
 EOTJTES. 
 
 Eoute No. 1 frmn New York. — Take the Pennsylvania Central Eailroad, which leaves 
 foot of Desbrosses street, by ferry, to Jersey City. To engage a good berth in your sleep- 
 ing-car, go to a proper railroad-office and secure your berth by telegraph. There are 
 local telegraphs connected with the principal Pullman office. Do this the previous night 
 or morning, as then the best berths can be secured. Pullman cars run on the Pennsylvania 
 Eailroad to Chicago and St. Louis, direct, without change. Three trains leave per day. 
 To see the richest scenery, take the morning train, and you wiU have a good view of nearly 
 the entire State of Pennsylvania by daylight, the valleys of the Susquehanna and Juniata, 
 and the famous Horseshoe Bend by moonlight. The Pennsylvania Eailroad is always on 
 time, the most reliable in its connections. 
 
 It may not be amiss to state that the emigrant-cars are well furnished in all particulars, 
 and equal, if not superior, to any other line, this being the most popular route. We here 
 subjoin a list of rates of fare to various points : 
 
 
 First Class. Time. 
 
 Special. Time. 
 
 Emigrant. 
 
 
 836.00, 62 hours. 
 
 67.15, 69 " 
 
 64.26, 80 " 
 
 87.26, 48 " 
 188.00, i}4 davs. 
 158 00 
 
 $34.00, 5 days. 
 50.16, 6 " 
 69.75, 
 
 J24.10 
 33.20 
 41.55 
 21.55 
 65.00 
 75.00 
 68.50 
 
 
 
 
 32.76, 6 days. 
 105.00, second class. 
 
 " " San Francisco 
 
 " *' Portland Or 
 
 " " Helena Mon 
 
 
 
 
 624 
 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 525 
 
 Route No. S from New York. — Leave m'd the Erie Railroad from foot of Chambers or 
 West Twenty-third street. The advantages of this route are numerous. This is the 
 famous Pullman line, which ran the iirst line of dining-cars between New York and 
 Chicago. The meals are very fine and service excellent. The sleeping-cars on the Erie 
 Eailroad belong to the Pullman Company, and are the finest in the world, of extra width 
 and extra comfort. The scenery_ along the Erie Railroad (by all means take the morning 
 train) is specially fine, and at points is remarkably lovely. The sleeping- and dining-cars 
 accompany the train to Chicago. The route passes md Salamanca, Atlantic and Great, 
 Western, and Chicago extension of Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad, direct, without change, 
 to Chicago. Passengers also can take other sleeping-cars of the train if they wish, which 
 will convey them direct to Bufialo and Niagara Falls, where there is direct connection 
 vid the Lake Shore Eailroad or Michigan Central to Chicago. 
 
 Route No. Sfrom New York is vid the New York Central and Hudson Eiver. 
 
 Route No. 4 is vid the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad. Tourists by this route to and 
 from California have many advantages. It is the shortest line from Chicago or Cincinnati 
 to the National Capital at Washington. Its scenery, on the mountain-division between 
 Harper's Ferry and Parkersburg, is grand and full of historic interest. Its dining-stations 
 are exceedingly well kept, and the comforts of its parlor- and sleeping-cars are equal to 
 the very best. Pullman cars run through to and from St. Louis and Chicago. 
 
 California travellers choosing this route East will include Washington, Baltimore, 
 Philadelphia, and New York in one ticket, with their numerous scenes and objects of 
 interest. 
 
 From Philadelphia tourists uniformly prefer the Pennsylvania Central, though many 
 often wish to visit Baltimore and Washington, and thence see the scenery along the Balti- 
 more and Ohio Eailroad, and go westward vid Cincinnati to St. Louis. 
 
 From Baltimore and Washington tourists have choice of either the Northern Central, 
 with Pennsylvania Central connections, or the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad. Pullman 
 cars run on both roads.. 
 
 From Boston. — Wagner sleeping-cars run direct over the Boston and Albany Eailroad 
 to Eochester, N. Y., and usually tlirough to Chicago. Though this is an exceedingly 
 convenient route, yet it gives no scenery of consequence. Tourists who desire the best 
 scenery will do well to come direct to New York, the ride by steamer being always pleas- 
 ant, and from New York make their start, the pleasantest time for departure always being 
 on the fast special express in the morning. 
 
 From Cincinnati tourists have choice of two routes : First, vid Ohio and Mississippi 
 Eailroad, direct to St. Louis, passing over the famous St. Louis Bridge, with omnibus 
 transfer to other railroads ; or, second, vid Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Western Eail- 
 road, which runs trains direct to Burlington, la., or to Chicago. This is one of the best 
 through-lines West, and enjoys unusual favor with the travelling public. The equip- 
 ments of the road are all first class, and passengers will find all the comforts of railroad 
 travel. Pullman sleeping-cars run on either route. 
 
 From Chicago three roads run across Iowa direct to Council Bluffs : 
 
 27(6 Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad crosses the Mississippi at Burlington, la., 
 and passes through Southern Iowa. The PuUman cars are very elegant and the road is 
 popular. This line is now running dining-cars attached to its express-trains on both the 
 Eastern and Western divisions. Meals served on them are splendid, beautifully cooked, 
 have great variety, and are a great comfort to the traveller. Price, only seventy-five 
 cents. 
 
 The Chicago and Northrwestem Railroad is the shortest- line, and crosses the Mississippi 
 at Clinton, la. The eating-stations on this route are all very fine ; in Iowa, especially, 
 they are the best on the Iowa railroads. The Pullman cars are also very superior. There 
 has recently been added a magnificent hotel-car to express-trains, which increases the 
 popularity of the line very greatly. 
 
 'Tlie Chicago and Rock Island Railroad crosses the Mississippi at Davenport. The view 
 from the railroad bridge is very beautiful, and the scenery of the railroad in the Des 
 Moines Valley and westward is charming. The sleeping-cars on this line are owned by 
 the railroad company, and are very good. The line has recently added some elegant and 
 expensive restaurant- and dining-cars, whose fine meals are exceedingly well served. 
 Price, only seventy-five cents. 
 
 Note. — Upon railroads west of Chicago no sleeping-cars run through except those con- 
 nected with the morning Pacific express-train. These run direct from Chicago to Council 
 Bluffi, where passengei's will change cars for the Union Pacific Eailroad. 
 
526 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 Skeping-Car Expenses. — The tariff to travellers is as follows with all companies: 
 
 One berth, New York to Chicago, one and a half days, by any route $5 00 
 
 One berth, New York to Cincinnati, one and a half days, by Pennsylvauia Bailroad 4 00 
 
 One berth, New York to Cincinnati, one and a half days, by other routes 6 00 
 
 One berth, New York to St. Louis, two days, by any route 6 00 
 
 One berth, Chicago or St. Louis to Omaha, by any route 3 00 
 
 One berth, Omaha to Ogden, by Pacific Railroad 8 00 
 
 One berth, Ogden to San Francisco, by Central Pacific Bailroad 6 00 
 
 EATE$ OF PARES TO CALIFOENIA. 
 
 To San Francisco or Sac- 
 ramento from — 
 
 Albany or Troy, N. Y 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 
 
 'Austin, Texas 
 
 Baltimore, Md 
 
 Bellefontaine, O 
 
 Bloomington, 111 
 
 Boston, Mass 
 
 " via N. Y. City 
 
 Buffalo or Niagara Falls, 
 
 N.Y 
 
 Burlington, Iowa 
 
 Cairo, 111 
 
 Cedar Bapids, Iowa 
 
 Charleston, S.C 
 
 Chattanooga, Tenn 
 
 Cheyenne, Wy. T 
 
 Chicago, 111 
 
 Cincinnati, O 
 
 Cleveland, O 
 
 Clinton, Iowa 
 
 Columbia, S.C 
 
 Columbus, O 
 
 Crestline, O 
 
 Dallas, Tex 
 
 " viA St. Louis 
 
 Danville, 111 
 
 " via St. Louis 
 
 Dayton, 
 
 Davenport, Iowa 
 
 Decatur, 111 , 
 
 " via St. Louis 
 
 Denison, Tex 
 
 Detroit, Mich 
 
 Dubuque, Iowa 
 
 Dunkirk, N.Y 
 
 Evansville, Ind 
 
 Fort Scott, Kan 
 
 Fort "Wayne, Ind 
 
 Galveston, Tex 
 
 " via St.Louis.... 
 
 Halifax(from Boston),N.S. 
 
 Harrisburg, Pa 
 
 Houston, Tex 
 
 " via St. Louis 
 
 Huntsville, Ala 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind 
 
 Kansas City, Mo 
 
 Keokuk, Iowa 
 
 Knoxville, Tenn 
 
 La Crosse, Wis 
 
 Lafayette, Ind 
 
 Little Bock, Ark 
 
 Logansport, Ind 
 
 Longview, Tex 
 
 -Via Omaha.- 
 
 Flrst 
 Glass. 
 
 $136 IS 
 140 65 
 
 144 70 
 135 50 
 
 124 00 
 
 114 05 
 142 85 
 
 142 85 
 
 130 00 
 
 109 25 
 
 122 00 
 
 108 60 
 151 25 
 185 90 
 100 00 
 116 00 
 
 123 36 
 126 00 
 111 00 
 146 90 
 
 125 40 
 
 124 40 
 13B 4-5 
 
 140 45 
 116 90 
 
 120 00 
 
 123 45 
 
 110 00 
 
 115 40 
 
 119 25 
 133 45 
 
 124 00 
 
 111 75 
 129 55 
 
 121 85 
 115 60 
 
 120 45 
 
 141 45 
 
 145 45 
 15 60 
 
 135 00 
 
 139 45 
 
 143 45 
 135 40 
 119 85 
 110 50 
 
 109 26 
 189 66 
 115 85 
 
 118 70 
 132 80 
 
 119 75 
 
 140 46 
 
 $103 60 
 
 110 00 
 
 111 85 
 
 99 00 
 
 88 00 
 96 00 
 
 93 75 
 
 873 10 
 63 00 
 
 66 00 
 66 00 
 
 65 50 
 63 60 
 
 72 20 
 
 70 95 
 59 75 
 
 To San Francisco or Sac- 
 ramento from — 
 
 Louisville, Ky... 
 
 Lynchburg, 
 Mansfield, 0. 
 
 Memphis, Tenn 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis 
 
 Mobile, Ala 
 
 Montreal, Can 
 
 " via Suspension 
 
 Bridge or BuQ'alo. 
 Montgomery, Ala.... 
 
 Nashville, Tenn 
 
 Newark, O 
 
 New Orleans, La 
 
 " via Galveston 
 
 New York, N.Y... . 
 Ogdensburg, N.Y, 
 
 Omaha, Neb 
 
 Parkersburg, Va.... 
 
 Peoria, 111 
 
 Peru, Ind 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa.... 
 
 Piqua, 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa 
 
 Portland, Me 
 
 Quebec, Can 
 
 Quincy, 111 
 
 Richmond, Va., via Cincin. 
 andC. &O.B.E. 
 
 " via Washington 
 
 " via Nashville 
 
 Richmond, Ind 
 
 Rouse'sff'oint, N.Y 
 
 Savannah, Ga 
 
 Selma, Ala 
 
 Springfield, via St. Louis, 
 
 111 
 
 Springfield, Mo 
 
 St.Jobn(from Boston),N.B. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo 
 
 St, Paul, Minn : 
 
 Terre Haute, Ind 
 
 Texarkana, Ark 
 
 Toledo, O 
 
 Tolono, via St. Louis, 111.... 
 Urbana (or Champaign), 
 
 Urbana, 
 
 Vicksburg, Miss 
 
 Washington, D. C 
 
 Watertown, N.Y 
 
 Wheeling, Va 
 
 White SulphurSprings,Va. 
 Winona, Minn, 
 Zanesville, 0... 
 
 . Via Omaha , 
 
 First Secoad Third 
 Glaus. Class. Class. 
 
 $123 40 
 143 00 
 
 124 70 
 129 00 
 118 10 
 
 137 50 
 
 139 70 
 
 140 50 
 
 141 50 
 
 128 40 
 
 125 90 
 
 139 00 
 153 45 
 
 138 00 
 136 00 
 100 00 
 
 129 55 
 112 60 
 120 40 
 
 136 00 
 123 35 
 
 130 00 
 
 139 86 
 
 140 50 
 111 10 
 
 135 00 
 
 141 25 
 145 60 
 
 122 20 
 
 141 00 
 162 80 
 
 142 00 
 
 117 25 
 
 128 20 
 10 00 
 
 116 00 
 115 26 
 
 118 75 
 
 140 00 
 
 123 00 
 
 119 60 
 
 115 70 
 
 124 10 
 
 137 50 
 185 50 
 135 15 
 
 129 30 
 133 10 
 
 116 10 
 
 126 70 
 
 $96 00 
 
 \ 
 
 97 00 
 
 105 00 
 
 106 25 
 75 00 
 
 104 00 
 
 98 50 
 108 00 
 105. 00 
 
 86 10 
 
 88 00 
 90 25 
 
 $66 00 
 
 64 50 
 
 65 00 
 65 00 
 46 00 
 
 65 00 
 65 00 
 55 50 
 
 66 60 
 60 25 
 
 Children under twelve years of age, half-fare. Children under five years of age free 
 Baggage will be allowed at the rate of one hundred pounds for each whole tijket and for all over 
 that amount there will be charged fifteen cents per pound between Omaha and San Francisco and 
 about six cents between New York and Omaha. rrancisco, ana 
 
 about six cents between New York and Omaha. 
 N. B. The above rates of fare are by the most direct routes to and from Pacific railroads. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATIOK 527 
 
 RATES OF FARE VIA XTNIOTST PACIFIC EAILEOAI). 
 
 FROM OMAHA TO— 
 
 Fremont, Nebraska 
 
 North Bend, Nebraska 
 
 Schuyler, " 
 
 Columbus, " 
 
 Grand Island, " ...... 
 
 Kearney June., " 
 
 Plum Creek, " 
 
 North Platte, " 
 
 Julesburg, '* 
 
 Sidney, " 
 
 Cheyenne, Wyoming 
 
 Laramie, '* 
 
 Evanston, " 
 
 Ogden.Utah 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 Corlnne, Utah 
 
 Virginia City, Montana, 
 
 viS. Stage from Fi'anklin. 
 Deer Lodge, Montana, v\k 
 
 Stage from Franklin 
 
 Helena, Montana, vik 
 
 Stage from Franklin, 
 
 Kelton, Utah 
 
 Boise City, Idaho,viS, Stage 
 
 from Kelton 
 
 Silver City, Idaho, via 
 
 Stage from Kelton 
 
 Baker City, Oregon, via 
 
 Stage from Kelton 
 
 La Grande, Oregon, via 
 
 Stage from Kelton 
 
 Walla Walla, Wash. T., via 
 
 Stage from Kelton 
 Umatilla, Oregon, via 
 
 Stage from Kelton 
 
 Dalles, Oregon, via Stage 
 
 from Kelton 
 
 Portland, Oregon, via 
 ' Stage from Kelton 
 
 FIrat 
 
 Second 
 
 Kmg't. 
 
 Cl^Bd. 
 
 Clus. 
 
 «2.35 
 
 
 
 3.10 
 
 
 
 3.80 
 
 
 
 4.60 
 
 
 
 7.70 
 
 
 
 9.80 
 
 
 
 11.50 
 
 
 
 14.55 
 
 
 
 18.85 
 
 
 
 22.15 
 
 
 
 31.00 
 
 S24.00 
 
 
 36.20 
 
 
 
 70.80 
 
 
 
 77.60 
 
 60.00 
 
 S40.0b 
 
 79.50 
 
 62,00 
 
 42.00 
 
 79.25 
 
 61.75 
 
 41.75 
 
 118.60 
 
 97.00 
 
 73.50 
 
 126.75 
 
 101.75 
 
 78.60 
 
 126.75 
 
 101.75 
 
 78.60 
 
 85.00 
 
 67.50 
 
 45.00 
 
 119.50 
 
 108.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 124.50 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 124.00 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 124.00 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 125.00 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 125.00 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 125.00 
 
 113.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 136.09 
 
 119.50 
 
 80.00 
 
 FROM OMAHA TO— 
 
 Portland, Oregon, via 
 
 Stage from Bedding- 
 Portland, Oregon, via 
 Stage from S. Francisco,. 
 
 Elko, Nevada 
 
 Palisade, '* 
 
 Battle Mountain, Nevada.. 
 
 Winnemucca, " 
 
 Reno, " 
 
 Virginia City, Nev., vift V. 
 & T. E. R. from Reno.... 
 
 Truckee, Nevada 
 
 Colfax, California 
 
 Marysvillc, California 
 
 Sacramento, " 
 
 Stockton, " 
 
 Lathrop, " 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal., via Rail 
 and Stage from Lathrop, 
 
 San Jos6, California 
 
 San Francisco, California, 
 
 Custer City, in the Iglack 
 Hills, via Stage from 
 Cheyenne 
 
 Sidney 
 
 Grand Island 
 
 FROM NEW YORK TO — 
 
 Omaha, Nebraska 
 
 Cheyenne, Wyoming 
 
 Beuver, Colorado 
 
 Lincoln, Nebraska 
 
 Ogden,Utah 
 
 Pueblo, Colorado... 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 Walla Walla, Washington. 
 Chicago to Omaha, Neb.... 
 St. Louis to Omaha, " ... 
 
 Plrst 
 Olans. 
 
 Second 
 Claie. 
 
 Hmg't. 
 
 8143.00 
 
 $118.00 
 
 $88.00 
 
 125.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 67.00 
 
 94.36 
 
 75.00 
 
 46.00 
 
 96.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 96.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 46.00 
 
 96.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 46.00 
 
 98.00 
 
 75.0J 
 
 45.00 
 
 101,50 
 
 78.50 
 
 48.50 
 
 99.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 99.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 75,00 
 
 45.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 46.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 120.00 
 
 95.00 
 
 65.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 76.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 36.00 
 
 25.00 
 
 40.00 
 
 32.00 
 
 26.00 
 
 25.00 
 
 20.00 
 
 16.00 
 
 38.00 
 
 
 
 69.00 
 
 
 
 73.00 
 
 
 
 40.75 
 
 
 
 115.50 
 
 
 
 73.00 
 
 
 
 117.50 
 
 
 
 163.00 
 
 
 
 16.00 
 
 
 
 16.00 
 
 
 
 INFOHMATION TO EMIGEANTS. 
 
 From Chicago, West, emigrants are carried on the regular flrst-class express-trains, and 
 make the same time as passengers who hold first-class tickets. The cars that are used by 
 emigrants are good, clean, well-lighted coaches, with upholstered seats and backs, and are 
 as good as the coaches furnished by many roads to first-class passengers. 
 
 Emigrant Trains West of Omaha. — The trains carrying emigrants on the Union and Cen- 
 tral Pacific roads west of Omaha are made up of comfortable coaches, nicely cushioned, 
 and far better in every way than the emigrant-cars of the Atlantic seaboard roads. The 
 passengers are not crowded in the cars, but plenty of room is given. Sleeping arrange- 
 ments have been provided on the Central Pacific, and are similar to regular sleeping- 
 coaches, hut not upholstered. The time of these trains is about twelve miles per hour, 
 which, making the time from Omaha to San Francisco by emigrant-trains about eight to 
 nine days, gives passengers by them ample time to see the country sts, they move through 
 it. Emigrants can get meals at the regular eating-stations along the line, or they can 
 carry cooked provisions with them, and buy cofiee or tea at the eating-houses and eat on 
 the train. 
 
 Emigrants' movables can go on the same train taken by erdigrants from Omaha, as 
 through freight^carg are attached to emigrant-trains. . 
 
 Neither second-clasalpassengers nor emigrants can have Pullman sleeping-car accom- 
 modations, and in this lie about all the restrictions that are placed on them. 
 
 Emigrant Tickets are limited as to time, being good between Chicago and Omaha for 
 eight days from and including day of sale. At Omaha you exchange this ticket for one 
 of the Union Pacific Eailroad issue, good for nine days from and including day of ex- 
 change. No " stop-over checks " are issued on second-class or emigrant tickets. 
 
528 
 
 THE GREAT WEST. 
 
 The difference in time between express- and emigrant-trains from Omaha to San Fran- 
 cisco is about five days. , 
 
 SPECIAL EATES Or FAEE FOE EXCUESION-PAETIES ON PACIFIC 
 
 EAILEOADS. 
 
 The Union and Central Pacific Eailroads will receive excursion-parties at the following 
 rates for first-class passage on the regular trains : 
 
 OMAHA TO SAN FRANCISCO AND KETUBN. 
 
 In parties of 10 each $180.00 
 
 " 15 " 175.00 
 
 " 20 " 170.00 
 
 " 25 " 165.00 
 
 " 30 " 160.00 
 
 " 35 " 155.00 
 
 40 " 160.00 
 
 " 45 " 145.00 
 
 " 50 " 140.00 
 
 " 55 " 135.00 
 
 " 60 to 75 each 130.00 
 
 These rates are available for such organizations as Free Masons, Odd Fellows, religions, 
 medical, scientific, and other associations ; for hunting- and fishing-parties, tourists, pleasure- 
 and heaith-seekers who may organize parties in the same neighborhood. 
 
 All arrangements for excursions to California must be made in advance with the general 
 ticket department at Omaha, and a fall list of names fiimished, with proposed date of de- 
 parture from this point. 
 
 In all cases excursion-tickets to points beyond Odgen and Salt Lake must be purchased 
 at Omaha, as only the issues of the Union Pacific Company will be recognized for excur- 
 sions over the Central Pacific. These tickets will not be transferable, and will be limited 
 to thirty, sixty, or ninety days, according to previous arrangement. The number of ex- 
 cursionists for each train is limited to seventy-five. 
 
 TEANS-CONTINENTAL TIME-TABLES AND TEAVELLEES' GUIDE. 
 THROUGH EXPBESS-TBAIN TIME WESTWARD. 
 
 LEAVE 
 
 Boston 
 
 5.00 p. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 New York 
 8.00 p. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 Philada. 
 11.55 p. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 Baltimore 
 10.00 p. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 Oincinnatl 
 7.00 p. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 Chicago 
 
 10.00 A. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 St. Louia 
 
 9.00 A. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 Omaha 
 
 11.40 A. M. 
 
 LEAVE 
 
 Ogden 
 
 6.15 p. M. 
 
 ARRIVE 
 Sacrani'to 
 10.*25 A. M. 
 
 ARRIVE 
 San Fr'sco 
 5.35 p. M. 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 MoQJlay, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Uonday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Satur'day. 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday. 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Mou(}ay, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed-sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Sunday, 
 
 Monday, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 Wed'sday, 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 Friday, 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Uilea to S. 
 
 Francisco, 
 
 »112 
 
 3344 
 
 3226 
 
 3110 
 
 2632 
 
 2403 
 
 2338 
 
 1915 
 
 883 
 
 140 
 
 
 DIFFEEENCES IN TIME. 
 
 Passengers travelling between New York and San Francisco, etc., having New York time, will 
 find upon arrival at the following places their time too fast by hours and minutes as indicated 
 in the following schedule: 
 
 Hours. Min. 
 
 Uin. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa 4 
 
 Harrisburg, Pa 12 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa 24 
 
 Crestline, 34 
 
 Fort Wayne, Ind 45 
 
 Logansport, Ind 50 
 
 Utica, N. Y 6 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y 7 
 
 Bochester, N. Y >5 
 
 Binghamton, N. Y 8 
 
 Elmira, N. Y 11 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y 19 
 
 Dunkirk, N. Y 22 
 
 Erie, Pa 24 
 
 Cleveland, 31 
 
 Norwalk, 35 
 
 Toledo, 38 
 
 Niagara Falls, N. Y 20 I 
 
 Detroit, Mich 36 
 
 Jackson, Mich 41 
 
 Kalamazoo, Mich 46 
 
 Chicago, 111 55 
 
 Mendota, 111 60 
 
 Galesburg, 111 1 5 
 
 Burlington, la 1 8 
 
 Ottumwa, la 1 14 
 
 Omaha, Neb 1 28 
 
 Fremont, Neb 1 30 
 
 Lincoln, Neb 1 31 
 
 Grand, Island 1 37 
 
 Kearney, Neb 1 40 
 
 North Platte, Neb 1 47 
 
 Sidney, Neb 1 56 
 
 Cheyenne, Wy 2 3 
 
 Denver, Col 2 4 
 
 Hours. Hin. 
 7 
 15 
 23 
 29 
 32 
 
 Laramie, Wy 2 
 
 Bawlins, Wy 2 
 
 Green River, Wy 2 
 
 Evanston, Utah 2 
 
 Salt Lake City 2 
 
 Ogden, Utah 2 aa 
 
 Corinne, Utah 2 33 
 
 Promontory, Utah 2 36 
 
 Kelton, Utah 2 38 
 
 Toano, Nev 2 42 
 
 Elko, Nev 2 45 
 
 Battle Mt., Nev 2 52 
 
 Humboldt, Nev 2 56 
 
 Wadsworth, Nev 3 1 
 
 Summit, Cal 3 6 
 
 Sacramento, Cal S 10 
 
 San Francisco 3 14