'is among the most beautiful to be found west of the Mississippi. The country is a gently undulating prairie, dotted here and there with clumps of timber. All the streams are beautifully fringed with forest growth, the soil is rich, climate mild and invigorating, and all the elements for happy homes are here to be found.'"

The principal rivers are the Missouri, the Yellowstone, and Clark's Fork of the Columbia River. The Missouri rises near the southwestern corner of the Territory, and pursues a circuitous course throughout its whole extent to the eastern border, where it passes into Dakota. About 500 miles from the source of the river, and in the western part of the central portion of the Territory, are the Great Falls of the Missouri, which rank next to those of Niagara in grandeur. They are described in the earlier pages of this work.

The climate is healthful, and, with an atmosphere devoid of humidity, is admirably calculated for those afflicted with diseases of the lungs, or any manner of rheumatic affections. The purity of the water, and the entire absence of all malarious influences, also render it well adapted to the invalid suffering from any causes whatsoever.

Professor G. C. Swallow, in 1867, thus summed up the results of his investigations of the agricultural and mineral resources of Montana:

"It certainly is one of the finest stock countries on the Continent. All the more important domestic animals and fowls do remarkably well; horses, mules, and neat cattle are more hardy, and keep in better condition on the native grasses than they do in the States on hay and grain. As a general rule they winter well on the grass of the valleys and foot-hills without hay or grain. The valleys furnish a large area of natural meadows, whose products are equal to those of the cultivated meadows of the Middle States. Beef fattened on the native pastures is equal to the best produced in the country.

"The small grains, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, produce as large an average yield as in the most favored grain-producing States; 50 and 60 bushels to the acre are not uncommon yields for Montana. Of the native fruits we have strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, serviceberries, choke-cherries, haws, currants, and gooseberries, and there is every reason to believe that apples, pears, cherries, plums, quinces, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, and gooseberries can be cultivated in our broad valleys as successfully as in any of the mother States.

"All the more important root crops, such as potatoes, ruta-bagas,

beets, carrots, turnips, radishes, and onions, and all the more important garden vegetables, are cultivated with great success.

"Timber is abundant on the mountain slopes and in some of the valleys. Five varieties of pine, two of fir, one of spruce, two of cedar, grow on the mountains and in the mountain valleys and canons; balsams, poplars, aspens, alders, and willows on the streams. The pines, firs, spruce, and cedars furnish an abundance of good timber for building, mining, and farming purposes.

"The purest waters abound everywhere, in cool springs, mountain streams, meadow brooks, and clear, rapid rivers. Hot and mineral springs also occur. Beautiful lakes, and magnificent waterfalls and cascades are numerous in the mountains.

"Veins of gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron are found in great numbers in nearly all the mountainous portions of the Territory. So far as discovered, they usually come to the surface on the foot-hills and sides of the valleys and canons. A large portion of these lodes are true veins, cutting through granite, syenite, porphyry, trap, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende slate, talcose slate, argillaceous slates, sandstone, and limestone. These veins vary in thickness, from a few inches to 50 or 60 feet. The gangue or vein rock, called quartz by the miners here, is very variable in character. In the gold-bearing. veins it is usually a whitish quartz, more or less ferruginous—often nearly all iron. In some veins it resembles a stratified quartzite; in others it is syenitic; pyrites, hornblende, cale-spar, arsenic, antimony, copper and tellurium, are found in these veins. In the silver veins the iron, so abundant in the gold veins, is usually replaced by oxide of manganese. This mineral is sometimes so abundant as to constitute the larger portion of the gangue. The gangue in many of the copper mines is usually quartz, heavy spar, talc-spar, and brown spar, more or less commingled.

Many thousand lodes of gold, silver, and copper have already been discovered and recorded, and a large number of them somewhat developed. It is true, as well as in all other mining regions, that a large part of the lodes discovered cannot be worked with profit by the method usually adopted in new mining countries; but many of those which cannot now be profitably worked will become valuable when experience has shown the best methods, and when labor and materials can be had at ordinary prices. But there is a very large number of large and rich lodes, which will yield large profits even at the present prices of labor and material; and there is quite a number of lodes of

both gold and silver already discovered which will rank among the largest and richest in the annals of mining.

"This, like all new mining districts, presents serious obstacles and difficulties in the way of immediate success. These are obvious to all experienced men, and are expected in all such undertakings. But all this and other hindrances to the full success of our quartz-mining operations will soon be removed. They are evils which will naturally cure themselves. Better mills are now going into operation, better lodes are bought in larger quantities, good men are employed to manage, and owners of quartz property are offering better facilities for developing their lodes; capital is turned toward this source of wealth, and our best financiers are operating in Montana mining property.

"The placer mines, though very extensive, and in some instances vastly rich, have not yielded so much as in former years. But many new and rich discoveries have been made, and large sums of money spent in conducting water to favorite localities, and we have every reason to believe that the placers will yield as many millions as in former years to those hardy toilers who have labored so faithfully and successfully in securing this 'golden harvest.'

"In conclusion, it may be stated with safety that Montana has the agricultural capacity for sustaining any population which her mines,

salubrious climate, and glorious scenery may attract to her fair land. Her mines are more numerous and more diffused than any other equal area on the globe, and they will prove as rich and yield as large profits as the most productive in this or any other country."

The bison or buffalo, the grizzly bear, the Rocky Mountain sheep, and the antelope are found in the Territory.

The public school system promises to be a great advantage to the Territory. It is being gradually extended over the inhabited portions of the Territory.

The Government is similar to that of the other Territories. The laws exempt homesteads worth $3000, farming tools, and seeds to farmers, and are equally liberal to other occupations.

The Territory was organized out of the eastern portion of Idaho, in May, 1864.

VIRGINIA CITY, the capital of the Territory, is situated on Alder Creek, a tributary of Jefferson's Fork of the Missouri. It is tolerably well built for a frontier city, and contained a population of 867, in 1870. It contains a school, several churches, a newspaper office, and a theatre. Stages connect it with the principal towns of the Territory.

HELENA, the largest city of Montana, is situated in the midst of the rich placer mines of Southwestern Montana. It is 18 miles west of the Missouri River, and 120 miles north of Virginia City. It contains several banks, a number of stores, several schools and churches, and 2 newspaper offices. In 1870, the population was 3713.

Area,

NEW MEXICO.

Population in 1870,

121,201 Square Miles.
91,874

THE Territory of New Mexico lies between 31° 20' and 37° N. latitude, and between 103° and 109° W. longitude. It is bounded on the north by Colorado, on the east by Texas and the Indian Territory, on the south by Texas and the Republic of Mexico, and on the west by Arizona Territory. Its extreme length, from north to south, is about 400 miles, and its breadth, from east to west, about 350 miles. The greater part of the Territory consists of high table lands broken by several ranges of mountains. The Rocky Mountains pass through the central portion from north to south. The Sierra Madre range passes through the western portion, and the southern and eastern parts contain several minor ranges, which diverge from the main chain of the Rocky Mountains and pass off into Texas.

The principal river of New Mexico is the Rio Grande del Norte, which, rising in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, flows from north to south across the Territory, between the Rocky and Sierra Madre Mountains, draining an extensive valley. The Pecos River rises in the northern part of New Mexico and flows southward into Texas, draining the eastern portion of the Territory. The Gila rises on the western slope of the Sierra Madre, and flows westward into Arizona. The Puerco is the principal tributary of the Rio Grande. It rises on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre and flows southward into the Rio Grande, which it joins near the 34th parallel of north latitude. It is 200 miles long, and lies wholly within the Territory. The Canadian River, a tributary of the Arkansas, rises in the northeast part of the Territory, and flows southeast into Texas.