and they would still fail to reveal the surpassing loveliness of this Bitter Root range.

We look to the east of the valley and find the silvery peaks and pine-clad slopes of the Rockies, bearing in their bosoms myriads of undeveloped mines, their summits strikingly beautiful, ever changing and ever new. And between these great ranges lies the valley teeming with prosperity and gladness, with its hundreds of happy, comfortable homesteads, its flocks and herds, and its

Stevensville was made the county seat, and held the same for six years, and its subsequent removal to Hamilton has not materially affected the growth and prosperity of the town. Situated twenty miles north of Hamilton, on the east side of the river, about one mile from the railway, in the heart of a rich and flourishing fruit and agricultural country, it will continue to stand foremost as a shipping and trading point for farm produce. An historic interest still attaches to the dilapidated walls of Fort Owen and to St. Mary's Mission, adjoining the town, which still stands in a good state of preservation, a memento of the self-sacrificing life

work and the burial place of Father Ravalli. The town has a good graded school building, four churches, a large hotel, three general merchan dise stores, two drug stores, two hardware and one grocery store, a meat market and three blacksmith shops. It also has a free reading room, two lawyers, two physicians and a newspaper. Substantial new residences are being erected each year, and INDIANS AT ST. MARY'S MISSION, RAVALLI CO. Stevensville will soon become one of the most desirable residence towns of Western Montana.

GEN. CARRINGTON TREATING WITH THE FLATHEAD

Corvallis, another pretty country town, is also situated in the heart of a very rich farming and fruit growing country. It has two first-class general merchandise stores, a fine graded school building, three churches and a number of very fine residences.

Victor, a flourishing little village on the west side of the river, came into existence with the advent of the Bitter Root branch of the Northern Pacific railway in 1888, and is the trading point of a large section, and also the shipping point of the Curlew and Pleasant View mining districts.

Twenty miles south of Hamilton, at the upper end of the valley, is situated the little town of Darby, with immense forests of pine, upon which little impression has yet been made. The town is now the trading center of the farmers of Ross Hole, and the miners of the rich Hughes Creek placer country. With the extension of the railway up the valley, Darby will become a populous and flourishing town.

Grantsdale, the present terminus of the railway in the valley, and Florence, the supply point of the White Cloud mining district, are each good, growing trading towns, with much valuable farming and fruit land in their immediate vicinity.

Hamilton, the metropolis and county seat of Ravalli county, is a beautiful growing town of two thousand inhabitants, situated on the railroad on the east bank of the Bitter Root river, near the center of Ravalli county. The town was laid out in 1890, and afterwards incorporated, and is famed for its beautiful, healthful surroundings, excellent city government, its extensive system of water works, hotels, electric lights, schools and churches; but first of all as the center of the Anaconda Copper Mining company in Western Montana, and for the home and magnificent stock farm of Marcus Daly. The city has enjoyed a steady, substantial growth since its organization, until it has distanced all competitors in the valley, and will continue to be the metropolis and business center of the manufacturing and farming interests of the county. The general growth and prosperity of the town has been primarily due to the efforts of the Anaconda Copper Mining company, which commenced industrial operations in the valley in 1890 under the name of the Bitter Root Development company, with the object of making available for commerce the magnificent timber resources of the valley. For this purpose extensive works have been constructed. A substantial dam has been placed across the swift current of the river, and the lumbering plant of the company comprises a magnificent sawmill, having a capacity of two hundred thousand feet of lumber per day, with all the latest improvements for caring for refuse, and the handling and cutting of logs and lumber, and employing men at good wages the greater part of the year. In connection with the sawmill, there is also a lathmill, a planing mill and a sash and door factory, from which is turned out both plain and the most artistically carved ornamental work. The logs for the mill come from the vast forests lining the river and the tributaries of its upper course, and to prepare them for the mill an army of men are employed in the logging camps during the winter. The mill pond covers an area of about two hundred acres, and has a capacity of thirty million feet of logs, and a ready market at an advancing price is found in the state for all the lumber cut.

Besides the lumber industry, the Anaconda Copper Mining company carries on an extensive mercantile business. It has here one of the largest and most complete department stores in the northwest, carries in stock a very large stock of hardware, groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes, clothing and

furniture. These great interests of the company are all managed by the most skillful and experienced specialists in their special departments, and conducted on principles of strictest business integrity. Still room has been found for extensive competition in the mercantile business. Besides the company stores, there are also two general merchandise stores, a grocery store, a book store,

five fruit and confectionery stores, two clothing stores and three meat markets, all doing. an excellent business.

Hamilton has three hotels, incluking "The Ravalli," which is pronounced to be one of the most elegantly equipped hostelries in the northwest. The town is also supplied with a most excellent system of water works, which conducts pure, cool mountain water from Skalkaho creek to the city. Water mains for a city of ten thousand inhabitants have already been laid, and the electric

light system is as perfect as that of any city in the state. The town has a fine banking establishment, a modern, up-to-date flouring mill costing twenty thousand dollars, six churches well supported and well attended, two fine public school buildings, with a well equipped high school under the most competent management, three newspapers, six physicians, six lawyers and two dentists. The mills and

stock farm give Hamilton a pay-roll of many thousand dollars, monthly, and the town is destined to become distinctly a city of homes. Its beautiful surroundings and extensive improvements have already made it famous, and its further growth and prosperity are assured.

conditions

It is true that in the western part of the United States physical similar to those of ancient Egypt and Assyria prevail. The clouds, with gentle showers, are no longer depended upon to fructify the fields. They do not hover over valley and plains, but gather about the giant mountains, hurl their storms against the rocks, and feed the rivers. But truly conquered rivers are better servants than the wild clouds, and through the agency of irrigation, the lands, watered by streams and domed by clear skies, prove the best agricultural lands of the continent. These are the conditions of agriculture in the