Lode, Russell District, Herkimer, Georgetown, in several lodes on Snake River.

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and

Brittle Silver Ore-Sulphuret of Silver and Antimony-Kingston Lode, Russell District.

Ruby Silver-Snake River silver lodes.

Horn Silver-Chloride of Silver—Argentine and Snake River Districts.

Embolite-Chloro-Bromide of Silver-Peru District, Snake River.

Sulphate of Soda-South Park, ten miles northwest of the Salt Works.

Talc-This very common mineral occurs to a greater or less extent in nearly all our mines, and may be detected by its foliated structure, gray or greenish-white color, and greasy feel. Beautiful cabinet specimens of indurated talc, of a fine dark green color, very hard, and having crystals of sulphuret of iron disseminated through them, may be obtained at the Ogden Lode, at Montgomery.

Tourmaline-In feldspathic veins, near the Guy House, Guy Hill, black and green.

Zinc-Blende-Sulphuret of Zinc-Occurs more or less in nearly all our gold-bearing veins. It is the miner's black jack. Beautiful cabinet specimens are obtained from the Running Lode, Black Hawk, Gunnell, Eureka, Prize and others, near Central City. Also associated with chalcedony, and resembling the moss agate, in the Calhoun.

Smithsonite-Carbonate of Zinc-Occurs in many of our mines. Beautiful cabinet specimens, dotted over with pentagonal dodecahedrons of iron pyrites, occur in the Running Lode, at Black Hawk.

CHAPTER XVII.

Agriculture-The Valley-Climate, Soil, Irrigation-Crops and Production per Acre-"The Great American Desert" Abolished-Native Fruits, Culture-Pastoral Quality, Buffalo, Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Dairy Products-Game, Animals, Birds, Timber.

Of the Plains in general it may be said that they are characterized by great horizontal expansion and aridity of climate. We shall not linger longer on their eastern and central portions than to note that railways are fast superseding the Tartaric caravans of the past in their trade and travel, and the fact that they may one day be thickly peopled under the revivifying influence of water procured from artesian wells. A considerable change in their distinguishing features is apparent as the Mountains are approached. Where that great barrier rises abruptly from their bosom as a continent from the waste of ocean, it sends out headlands and exhibits reefs and islands which diversify the surface contour, and produce a marked change in the climate, soil, and vegetation. This section has an elevation of 5,000 to 7,000 feet, but is sheltered from the farsweeping winds of the Plains outside. It catches a share of the mists and rains that moisten the

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mountain slope, and receives into its thirsty expanse the more copious tribute of melted snow from the Range. It occupies a break in the progress of commercial transportation such as favors the growth of large cities,

This is what we have termed "The Valley." It embraces three-sevenths of the Territory, in round numbers thirty million acres, of which about onesixth can be irrigated, that is to say, cropped. The rest is available as pasturage. Its climate is not very dissimilar to that of the same latitude in the Eastern States, except that it is much dryer. The mean temperature of Denver and St. Louis is about the same, but at Denver it is higher at noon and lower in the morning and evening than at St. Louis, the average difference of the extremes for the month of January, 1863, being 25.1° at the former, and only 8.7° at the latter. The barometrical and thermometrical changes of the two places nearly correspond, only they occur from one to two days sooner at Denver than at St. Louis, just as they do at St. Louis one to two days sooner than on the Atlantic coast. The scanty meteorological statistics of Denver indicate, also, that the fluctuations of the mean atmospheric pressure and mean temperature are less at the base of the Mountains than at St. Louis, giving a calmer atmospheric ocean, fewer and less severe storms, which conclusion is sustained by experience. The average annual fall of rain and snow, counting ten inches of snow as one of rain, in the Valley, is twenty inches. Tender plants in the high mountains are not injured by a degree of cold which

freezes still water half an inch thick. The air is so clear and pure that the range of vision is almost infinite. There are points in Colorado where a well-defined mountain horizon, more than one hundred miles distant, may be seen by the naked eye. There are all but three hundred and sixty-five days of sunshine in the year. Clouds are the exception, storms rare, and fogs never known. Such an atmosphere must be especially tonic. People live and work 10,000 feet above the sea. The rainy season of the Mountains-May, June, and Julyfavors the Valley with an occasional shower, but outside of that, rain seldom falls. Frost may be expected to the end of Spring and by the 15th of September, giving a season as long as that of New England and New York.

In the warmer months, under the noon-day sun, the air of the Valley often becomes oppressively hot, but toward evening it rises and gives place to cooler currents from the Range. Here is the place for those toilers of the brain whose nervous systems are shattered and who are dying for want of sleep. Even a remorseful conscience fails to banish sleep in this climate, a fact which is commended to the notice of moral and religious teachers. About the middle of October, snows begin to fall, and to the first of January a snow that will last two days may be expected every two weeks. In January the fall of snow is more plentiful, it lies on longer and is accompanied by severer cold, while February is usually pleasant and is improved by the farmers plowing for Spring crops. Thence to

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the rainy season, the snows are heavier than in January but more transient than in November and December, and melting quickly, or rather being absorbed by the porous soil, and as quickly renewed, they start or prepare the ground for the new crop. A snow storm is always succeeded by a cold night, and that invariably by a bright warm day. The mercury has been known to mark 32° below zero at one o'clock in the morning, and 68° above within twelve hours. It will sink to 10° below, five or six times in a Winter. Absence of moisture prevents these cold spells from nipping the flesh. Men team it all over this region the year round, always camping out, and seldom suffering inconvenience. This would be impossible if the indications of the thermometer are to be taken as they are in the East.

The soil of the Valley rests on calcareous rock, but the wash from the granite mountains above negatives the special inference that might be drawn from that. On the borders of the numerous streams it is sand, ashes, and decomposed vegetable matter. On the plateaus between it is sand and gravel, stiffened by a more or less friable clay. Properly supplied with moisture, lowland or upland, it exhibits a strength rarely equaled by any other soil.

It has been observed by historians that rainless countries-those in which man can control seedtime and harvest-are most conducive to the rapid increase of the race. Such are Egypt, Mexico, and Peru, the three singular and solitary birthplaces of civilization. Artificial watering by means of main