Territory is annexed to the Judicial Districts of the States of Missouri and Arkansas, that the offending Indians may be brought to trial before the United States Circuit and District Courts when sitting in those districts. The Indians are allowed to live under their own laws, and to follow their own customs and modes of life. Each tribe has its lands assigned and secured to it by the United States. Several efforts have been made to organize the Territory. In the latter part of 1870, a general council of the tribes was held at Ockmulgee, at which a Constitution for the Territory, similar in its provisions and requirements to the Constitution of the United States, was adopted by an almost unanimous vote, subject to ratification by the people. This Constitution provides for a government and political system similar to our own, and confines its privileges to the Indian tribes of the Territory. In the new system the various Indian nations correspond with the States of our own Confederation. The The principal tribes now occupying the Territory are the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, and Osages. Some of these tribes the Cherokees being the most improved-have made great advances in civilization, and have their towns, farms, schools, and churches, whilst others are fast falling into vagrancy. United States Government holds in trust for these Indians the sum of $1,600,000, yielding an annual income of over $100,000. The tribes have ceded nearly 40,000,000 acres of their lands to the United States, and the organization of the Territory would open these to settlement. The chiefs oppose the movement. MONTANA. Area, Population in 1870, 143,766 Square Miles. THE Territory of Montana, with the exception of a small portion in the south west, lies between 45° and 49° N. latitude, and 104° and 116° W. longitude. Its extreme length, from east to west, is about 560 miles, and its extreme breadth, from north to south, about 320 miles. This is at the projection in the southeast portion. In other parts its average breadth is about 275 miles. It is bounded on the north by British America, on the east by Dakota Territory, on the south by Wyoming and Idaho Territories, and on the west by Idaho. "The surface is generally mountainous. The great Rocky Mountain range extends across the Territory. Commencing at the northern boundary this range extends for a distance of about 200 miles in a south-southeast direction, and then describes a great curve towards the west until it touches the border of Idaho. From this point it extends along the southwestern boundary of Montana for a distance of nearly 200 miles. The Bitter Root Mountains also form a part of the western boundary. Minor chains of mountains occur in different parts of the Territory. The long valley of the Yellow Stone River, in the eastern part of Montana, is reported to be fertile, and to be bordered on one or two sides by grand walls of mountain. The valleys of the extensive region, between the Yellowstone and the Missouri, are said to be liberally supplied with running water and forest trees, among which the pine and cedar are to be found. The pine, fir, and cedar also abound on the Rocky Mountains and Bitter Root Mountains. The country bordering on the Jefferson Fork, the Gallatin Fork, and the Madison Fork of the Missouri,' says Captain Mullan, '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, calc-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 |