agree, and as the country bears more of the latter it will less of the former. With an able and honest administration of their affairs in Colorado, no serious trouble need be apprehended in the future. Next to the Indian come the grizzly, cinnamon and black bear; and after them the cougar or mountain lion, the big white, or buffalo wolf, the shaggy brown, the black, the gray or prairie wolf, and the coyote, wachunka-monet, or medicine-wolf of the Indians; the buffalo, noticed before; the elk, black and white-tailed deer; the antelope and mountain sheep; lynx, wild-cat, badger; four varieties of the hare; the silver gray, the cross, the red, and the' swift foxes; mink, pine marten, and beaver, and the prairie dog. The latter resemble the fox-squirrel, their flesh is tender and palatable, and their oil very superior in quality. They live together in subterranean villages, seem to have a communal system of government and things, whether founded on Divine right or the consent of the governed, has not been discovered. They locate their towns with out regard to the vicinity of water, sometimes in places where none is to be seen and subject neither to rain nor dew. It is gravely doubted by some writers whether they make the same use of that fluid as other animals-the drunkard excepted. The large prairie wolf used to be a characteristic feature of the Plains, but like its fellows, the buffalo and Indian, is fast passing away.

Of game birds there are the wild turkey, mountain grouse, sage hen, prairie chicken, ducks, geese, swans, ptarmigan, &c. The sage hen is only found

GAME, BIRDS, TIMBER.

431 west of the Range which is true also of its favorite food, the sage bush. The ptarmigan exists only in the frosty breath of the Range, being white when the snows mostly fly and turning partially brown when they melt and run off.

Of timber the principal varieties are pine, hemlock, spruce, cedar, fir, cotton-wood, box-elder, quaking-aspen. There is a little scrubby oak, and willow and alder-bushes on every brook. Nearly one half the Territory is more or less timbered, the trees generally thin on the ground and small.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Recapitulation-Mills and Mining Machinery-Production of Gold-State Organization-General Statistics-NewspapersRailways on the Plains-Population, Society.

THE steady progress in material and social development of all the gold-producing States and Territories is sufficient evidence that on the whole, mining for the precious metals pays. This, too, in spite of the heavy drawbacks incident to starting anew-to creating and establishing the industries of civilization in the isolated wildernesses. In the body of this volume there are notices of the mines and works of 165 companies, firms, and individuals, now operating in Colorado. Most if not all of them have valuable mine property, which must prove, in the general advance of the country, a valuable investment. The present condition of this property is superior to what it ever was before. In the old mines shafts have been straightened, enlarged, and timbered, pumps put in, steam machinery and mills erected. Shafts and galleries have been excavated, by means of which ores can be produced to the

QUARTZ MILLS AND MACHINERY.

433

best advantage. Costly experimenting with the refractory pyrites has been carried on, and much of value learned. In opening the newer lodes, the experience of the past is brought in play; work is planned and executed as it should be from the start. This preparatory work is still in progress, and the production of gold is not a fair indication of what is doing.

There are ninety-five stamp-mills in the Territory, containing 1,700 stamps, varying in weight from 500 to 900 lbs. each. Nearly all these are in good repair and might be started within a month if desirable. There are forty-one mills designed for the Keith, Dodge, Mason, Bertola, Crosby & Thompson, and processes other than stamps, of equal average capacity with the stamp-mills, and many of them fine, substantial structures. There are twelve large mills in an unfinished state. There are twelve mine-pumps, varying in size from four to nine inches, in operation, and six more under way. There are forty steam hoisting rigs on mines, besides the great number in which the same engines drive a mill and do the hoisting, and besides innumerable horse-whims and hand-windlasses. There are miles upon miles of shafts, levels, adits, tunnels, winzes, inclines, etc., excavated and in shape to be used. Forty mills are now running, realizing from twenty to thirty thousand dollars' worth of gold per week.

With regard to the production of bullion, chiefly gold, by the Territory up to June 30, 1866, official Mint returns furnish the following:

60,152 00

Deposited at the Mint of the United States, Phila

delphia,

Deposited at the Branch Mint, San Francisco,

$5,641,886 91

New Orleans,

Dalonegha, Ga.,

Denver, Col.,

Assay Office, New York,

Deposited at the Mint and Branches of the United
States and the Assay Office of New York, in

1859,

In 1860,

"1861,

" 1862,

" 1863,

"1864,

"1865,

1866,

Total,

$12,401,374 20

“A careful examination of the gold mines in the United States,” says Gen. E. M. Barnum, of Idaho, "and of statistics showing its final destination, gives decided evidence that, by as near an approximation as practicable, the amount of deposits at the mint and branches of the United States, embraces only one-third of the total product of the mines." In support of this proposition, Gen. Barnum states that for the twelve fiscal years ending June 30, 1866, the average annual deposits at the San Francisco Branch Mint amounted to $17,000,000; and that three times that sum very closely approximates the total annual yield of California during that period, according to the best authority. Bullion was first taxed under the Act of June 30, 1864, the impost being one-half of one per cent. ad valorem.