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MISCELLANEOUS.

The principal shipments of merchandise to this Territory are made by steamboats via the Missouri river, from St. Louis to Fort Benton, at a cost of about eight cents per pound. From this place transportation is had by means of ox, mule and horse trains, to the towns and mining camps, at from three to five cents per pound. Fifty boats landed at Fort Benton during the last season, with freight to the amount of from one hundred to three hundred tons each, and were it not for the rapids above the mouth of the Muscleshell many boats of larger capacity would engage in this service. Hence, a wagon road built by the government from Helena to the most feasible point below those rapids would be of immense benefit to the Territory. Quite an amount of freight is also brought from California and Oregon through Washington Territory, over the mountains on pack animals. Large trains of them are arriving now, but the mode of transportation is primitive and expensive, and a wagon road is much needed in that direction. The people here are looking with great solicitude for the action of Congress on this subject.

Our productions are such as to make us self-sustaining. Butter can be had at seventy-five cents, and potatoes and other vegetables at from two to five cents per pound; our is worth ten cents; grain, such as rye, oats, and barley, seven cents; beef and wild game fifteen to twenty-five cents per pound. In a word, all the necessaries of life are in the reach of any one, and in proportion to the prices paid for labor, cheaper than in the States, offering to the industrious laborer inducements furnished by no other portion of the Union.

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 cause whatever.

But not alone in a practical view does Montana offer superior inducements to the people of the over-crowded States. Here, side by side, they find the grandest of the Creator's handiwork and the magnificent enterprises of man. Above tower the lofty peaks of the Rocky mountains, covered with a luxurious growth of evergreens and capped with everlasting snow, while below is the sturdy miner with pick and shovel extracting the precious metal that is to sustain the national credit and honor, and the valleys covered with herds of cattle, stacks of grain, and all the evidences of increasing wealth.

With such advantages who can doubt the brilliant future of Montana Territory, and the important position she must one day take in the great sisterhood of States.

In conclusion I beg leave to present a letter from Professor G. C. Swallow, a gentleman of science and talent, who has given several months to investigations of the various resources of Montana:

"HELENA, MONTANA, October 4, 1867. "MY DEAR SIR: In compliance with your request I can only give you a very general statement of my impressions of Montana as a mineral and agricultural region, as previous engagements will occupy nearly all of the five days between this and the time when your report must be completed. I have spent the last four months in as complete and careful an examination of the mining and agricultural capacities of the Territory as the time would permit. The results already obtained in cultivating the soils of our valleys are such that there can be no reasonable doubt of the entire success of agricultural pursuits in the Territory. 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; fifty and sixty 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, rutabagas, 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 cañons; balsam, 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 cañons. A large portion of these lodes are true veins, cutting through granite, syenitic, porphyry, trap, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende slate, talcose slate, argellaceous slates, sandstone, and limestone. These veins vary in thickness from a few inches to fifty or sixty 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, calc-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 mini g 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.

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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 towards 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.'

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"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.

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A.-Statement showing the condition of the surveys contracted under the priations of twenty-five thousand dollars.

appro

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*Base line east 30 miles, and west 34 of
initial point.

102

2

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64

$15

$960

15

78

15

55

1,530

1, 170

Principal meridian south 7 townships, and
north 10 townships from the initial point.

Oct. 23, 1867... B. F. Marsh... † First standard parallel north, through

ranges 1, 2, and 3 east, and ranges 1, 2,
and 3 west; second standard parallel
north, through ranges 1, 2, and 3 east,
and ranges 1, 2, 3, and 4 west.
Exteriors of townships 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and
8 north, range 1 east; exteriors of town-
ships 9 and 10 north, ranges 1, 2, 3, and 4
west.
Subdivisions of townships 9 and 10 north,
ranges 2 and 3 west.

* Completed; plats, &c., transmitted to General Land Office.

SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

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S. MEREDITH, Surveyor General.

Helena, Montana, October 26, 1867.

B.-Statement of salary for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867.

For the salary of surveyor general from April 28 to June 30, 1867

$516 67

S. MEREDITH, Surveyor General,

Helena, Montana, October 26, 1867.

SURVEYOR GENERAL'S Office,

C.-Estimated surveying and office expenses for the fiscal year ending June

30, 1869.

SURVEYING SERVICE.

For the extension of the base, principal meridian, and standard parallels, 702 miles, at $15 per mile

For exterior township lines, at $12 per mile, and subdivisional lines, at $10 per

mile

$10,530

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For office rent, fuel, messenger, books, stationery, furniture, and other incidental expenses...

2,000

3,600

3,000

Total..

119,600

SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

S. MEREDITH, Surveyor General,

Helena, Montana, October 26, 1867.

Designa

tion.

No. 19.-Statement of confirmed Indian pueblo grants and private land claims in New Mexico.

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* Confirmed by 3d section act of 21st June, 1860, Statutes, vol. 12, p. 71, in connection with private claim No. 30.

74,743. 11

17,360.55
17,368.52
17, 471. 12

17, 292.64
13, 520, 38
17,514.63
24, 187.29
110,080, 31
13, 586, 33
Not surveyed.

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