EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

be replaced at least once in twelve months by the claimants on said leads, lodes, or ledges, if torn down or otherwise destroyed.

SEC. 6. Notice of the discovery or pre-emption upon any lead, lode, or ledge shall be filed for record in the county recorder's office, of the county in which the same may be situated, within fifteen days of the date of the discovery or pre-emption; and there shall at the same time be an oath taken before the recorder that the claimant or claimants are each and all of them bona fide residents of the Territory of Montana; and there shall be deposited in the recorder's office, either by the discoverer or some pre-emptor, a specimen of the . quartz, ore, or mineral extracted or taken from said lead, lode, or ledge, which said specimen shall be properly labelled by the recorder and preserved in his office.

SEC. 7. That any person or persons who shall take up or destroy, or cause the same to be done, any of the said stakes, or who shall in anywise purposely deface or obliterate any part or portion of the writing or inscription placed thereon, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment in the county jail not more than 90 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 8. That the amount of ground which may be taken up upon any lead, lode, or ledge, in addition to the discovery claim, shall be limited to 1,000 feet along said lead, lode, or ledge in each direction from the discovery claim thereon.

SEC. 9. All lead, lode, or ledge claims, taken up and recorded in pursuance with the provisions of this act, shall entitle the person recording to hold the same to the use of himself, his heirs and assigns; and conveyances of quartz claims shall hereafter require the same formalities and shall be subject to the same rules of construction as the transfer and conveyance of real estate.

SEC. 10. That if at any time previous to the passage of this act, claims have been taken up and recorded in the recorder's office of the proper county, upon any actual or proper lead, lode, or ledge of quartz, ore, or mineral, the owners or proper claimants of said respective claim shall hoid the same to the use of themselves, their heirs and assigns.

SEC. 11. That the act relating to the discovery of gold and silver quartz lodes and the manner of their location, passed by the Idaho legislature and approved February 4, 1864, and all other acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent with this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

SEC. 12. This act shall take effect from and after this date.

Again, by an act approved January 17, 1865, it was enacted that quartz mining claims and water rights "shall become part and parcel of the county records, and shall be evidence in any court or courts of competent jurisdiction;" thus placing the titles to quartz claims on the same footing and making their transfer subject to the same formalities as those to real property.

The next great discovery, viz., that of Alder creek, in the present county of Madison, was the motive to the foundation of Virginia City, and the minor towns of Summit, Highland, Nevada, Central, and Junction. This gulch was the richest and longest ever worked in Montana, and probably in the world, being nearly 20 miles in length, and uniformly productive throughout by far the greater portion. The creek flowing through it received its name from the thick growth of alders once lining its banks, of which at present no twig nor root remains. It takes its rise among the snows of the bald mountain south of the mining hamlet called Summit City, and discharges its waters into the Passamari, or Stinking Water river, one of the tributaries to the Jefferson.

The history of the discovery of the gulch was substantially as follows: In the spring of 1863 there started out from Bannock, on a prospecting tour northwards, a party composed of the following individuals: Wm. Fairweather, Thos. Cover, B. Hughes, H. Edgar, L. Simonds, G. Orr, Wm. Sweeney, and H. Rodgers. Having journeyed as far as the Deer Lodge valley they concluded to alter their course, and, leaving Orr behind, they made their way to the Yellowstone country. Here they fell into the hands of a large party of Crow Indians, who relieved them of nearly all their provisions, and at the same time exchanged horses with them. During the night all except Simonds managed to make good their escape; they travelled as rapidly as possible, without halting to prospect, and, worn out with fatigue, camped on the east side of the stream since known as Alder creek.

Wm. Fairweather crossed over the stream, and on examining the locality observed a point where the bed rock lay exposed above the surface. He returned to the camping ground, and in the company of Edgar went to prospect the bar. The first panful of earth yielded $1 75, and after superficially testing other points, in all of which they obtained encouraging prospects, four of the party proceeded formally to stake their claims. Fairweather, Edgar, Cover, and Hughes marked out four claims on what was afterwards known as the Fairweather bar. They likewise secured for themselves four claims on Cover's bar. Rodgers and Sweeney staked off two claims, one on each bar named after themselves, and one on the Cover bar. Being without provisions the party hurried back to Bannock City, from whence returning in company of their friends, the gulch was staked off on the 6th and 7th of June, 1863.

Within the space of less than two years Alder gulch contained five thriving towns besides Virginia, an incorporated city containing nearly 10,000 inhabitants.

This Virginia City, Montana, must not be confounded with Virginia City, Nevada, distant some 800 miles on an air line to the southwest.

At the head of the gulch, far back upon the mountains and nine miles south of the city, the gold found in the washings was ccarse, and many nuggets were picked up varying in value from $200 to $800. A short distance below the town of Summit the gold appeared in the form of flat rounded plates, known as scale gold, and the further one removed down stream the finer did the dust appear, until it consisted almost entirely of the finest particles, known as flour gold. During 1863, the year of discovery, but few of the richest claims were opened and explored. This was owing to the fact that the pay stratum lay deep, and hence arose the necessity for unity of action on the part of the owners of contiguous claims

in order to carry out a systematic plan of bed-rock drainage. The following year, however, saw the full development of this most remarkable gulch.

No better exemplification of the spirit of the miners and their peculiar customs can be offered than a study of the district rules and regulations for the government of placer claims. As proving a good example of their kind, and containing a reasonably clear and concise statement of the wishes and rights of the miners as expressed by themselves, we have the following regulations of Alder gulch. These laws were drafted by a select committee chosen at a meeting of the miners en musse; the motive to which is contained in the following preamble:

Whereas the laws now in force in Fairweather district, Madison county, Montana Territory, have proved insuflicient to protect the rights of the miners of said district;

And whereas the rights and interests of the miners of the district are of such a nature as not to admit of a resort to the tedious remedy of the ordinary process of law for every violation of those rights:

Now, therefore, we, the miners of said district, in public meeting assembled, in pursuance of legal notice, for the purpose of defending our rights and duties, and the protection of our several interests, do hereby resolve and declare that the rules and provisions following shall be the law of Fairweather district from the date of enactment, viz: September 16, 1864.

ARTICLE A.

SECTION 1. Hereafter the officers of the district shall consist of a president and secretary, who shall hold their offices for the term of six months, and until their successors are duly elected and enter upon the dis charge of the duties of their office.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the president to call a meeting of the miners of the district at any time on the written application of five claimholders of the district, of which he shall give three days' notice previous to the day of meeting, by three written or printed advertisements put at three of the most public places in the district, and he shall preside at each meeting.

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the secretary to attend all meetings called by the president, and keep a true record of the proceedings thereof, and file the same with the county recorder; and he shall preside at al meetings when the president is absent.

SEC. 4. After suit commenced in any case wherein the title to a claim is called in question, neither party shall be held liable to represent said claim during the pendency of litigation, but the same shall be deemed to be represented in favor of the real owner by operation of law.

SEC. 5. Every person shall be entitled to hold, by pre-emption, one creek, bar, or hill claim, and as many of either kind by purchase as he shall represent, according to the laws of the district.

SEC. 6. Any co-partnership or company of persons shall be entitled to hold the same number of claims by pre-emption and purchase as the number of persons comprising such co-partnership or company would be entitled to hold in their individual capacity.

SEC. 7. The lessee of a claim (if he shall have agreed to completely work out the same, and his lease be recorded) shall be entitled to hold one claim by pre-emption, and his work done on the leased claim repre empted by him.

SEC. 8. No person who, having pre-empted a claim by recording thereon, has forfeited the same, or whe has failed to receive a good title thereto, or who shall in good faith' sell and convey the same, shall be thereby debarred from holding another claim by pre-emption.

SEC. 9. Every claim shall be considered as pre-empted upon which the pre-emptor or purchaser shall be himself, his agent, or hired hands, perform three full days' work in cach week, and such representative of each and every claim that such pre-emptor or purchaser holds in the district, provided that each and all of said claims have been duly recorded; and if any person shall represent a claim by working thereon without having his bill of sale or other conveyance thereof duly recorded, then and in that case he shall not be entitled to hold any other claim in the district, either by pre-emption or purchase, but shall be confined and limited to the claim upon which he has so worked until it is recorded.

SEC. 10. Co-partners in any company or companies, working one claim in the district, shall be considered as representing thereby all the claims held by them in the district.

SEC. 11. Any claim to which a drain ditch is commenced or beginning, if the holder of the same shell compose one of the ditch company, or shall put and continue hands at work in the same, shall be considered as duly represented until the drain ditch is completed to such claim.

SEC. 12. The absence of any person from the district shall not impair or invalidate his rights therein, provided his interests are represented by his partners or agents, or men in his employ.

SEC. 13. The rights of a sick member shall be respected during his illness, and the certificate of a physi cian shall be sufficient evidence of such illness.

SEC. 14. Any miner who shall have expended $600 on his claim, or who, for want of money for opening the same, is unable to represent according to law, shall have the privilege of working on any other claim in the district in order to raise money to enable him fully to open his own claim, provided he shall put up notices on his own claim, stating where he is at work, and his rights shall be respected during the time be is so at work for others.

SEC. 15. It shall and may be lawful for any person or company to dig a drain ditch through the claim of claims of any person or company, for the purpose of drainage; and any person or company making such ditch shall have a lien upon any and all such claims thoroughly drained thereby for a just and equal propor tion of the cost thereof. But no lien shall be enforced until the holder of the claim affected thereby shall avail himself of the benefit of the ditch.

SEC. 16. The water in any creek or gulch shall belong exclusively to the miners of the creek or gulch. SEC. 17. Each gulch claim shall be entitled to one sluice-head of water of not less than twenty inches-to be measured subject to a pressure of six inches, and such additional quantity as may be necessary for mining purposes, if such additional quantity be not used to the injury of the rights of others.

SEC. 18. The interest of the holder or holders of any creek or gulch claim is hereby declared to be a chattel interest, consisting of the right to the possession of the land and the water thereupon inseparable and indi visible, except by the consent of the party or parties in interest, made in due form of law, and then only to such an extent as shall not impair or infringe the rights of others.

SEC. 19. No person or persons in company shall have the right, by pre-emption or otherwise, to claim and hold an exclusive right or privilege in or to any portion of the water in any creek or gulch in the district, except as herein provided; and any ditch, pipe, channel, flume, or other means of conveyance heretofore made, or which may hereafter be made, by which the water in any creek or gulch in the district shall be directed from its original channel and carried beyond any creek or gulch claim, without leaving in the creek or gulch the quantity of water belonging to each claim, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance, and may be abated immediately, in such way and manner as shall be in accordance with the laws of this Territory and the common law of the land.

SEC. 20. All dams, flumes, embankments, or other obstructions, which shall cause tailings to accumulate, or a division of the water, to the damage of the miners above or below the same, shall be deemed public nuisances, and may be abated in the manner hereinbefore provided for other cases; and all persons injured thereby shall be entitled to recover damages of the person or persons who have created, or may create, authorize, or permit, upon his or their claims, all or any of said nuisances.

SEC. 21. No miner shall so run his tailings, or shovel or pile up the same, as to damage any claim, either above or below him.

SEC. 22. Any miner of a creek or gulch claim who shall suffer injury by the escape of water from any side ditch, shall be entitled to recover damages therefor by the ordinary process of law.

SEC. 23. It shall not be lawful for any person to place or run tailings into a side ditch made for the protec tion of a pit or drain ditch.

SEC. 24. Every claim not duly represented, according to the laws of the district, until the day upon which the claims in this district may at any time hereafter be laid by, shall be forfeited; and it shall be lawful for another person to record and pre-empt such forfeited claim at any time after the day on which the claims in the district shall be laid by, and before the first day of May next following.

SEC. 25. Hereafter all claims shall be deemed to be laid by during the interval between the last day of October and the first day of May of each year.

SEC. 26. All rules, laws, and regulations heretofore in this district, not conflicting with the laws, rules, and regulations herein enacted, are hereby continued in force; and all laws, rules, and regulations heretofore in force, conflicting in the least, in whole or in part, with any of the laws, rules, and regulations herein adopted, or any portion thereof, are hereby repealed.

SEC. 27. These laws shall take effect and be in force from and after this 16th day of September, A. D. 1864. ARTICLE B.

SECTION 1. Bar mining claims shall consist of 100 feet up and down the gulch or creek, and running back the width of the bar.

SEC. 2. Creek claims shall be 100 feet in length, and including the bar or creek bottom and head of the

stream.

SEC. 3. All discovery claims shall be safely held, whether worked or not.

SEC. 4. The centre of the creek shall be the line.

Northwardly from Virginia City we find Bivin's gulch, which drains from east to west into the Passamari, a tributary to the Jefferson river. The gulch is about nine miles long, and paid well throughout nearly its entire length. A ditch was brought in from Ram's Horn creek, with a sufficient fall for the introduction of bed-rock flumes. Still further north, flowing in a like direction from the same range, we find Mill, Wisconsin, and Indian creeks, and the above-mentioned Ram's Horn creek, none of which appear to have been remarkable for placer deposits of any magnitude.

The discovery next in importance, subsequent to that of Alder gulch, was Last Chance gulch, near the site of the present city of Helena. This gulch was discovered in the summer of 1864, and the first claims were staked by a company of some 20 or 25 persons. This party, after locating claims for themselves near the point of discovery, moved further down the ravine, forming a new district, and there, likewise, staked off for themselves an equal number of pre-emptions. Subsequently a party of immigrants from Minnesota, arriving too late to proceed to Alder gulch, began prospecting in the adjacent tributary gulches, and discovered the diggings of Grizzly and Oro Fino. It was not, however, until the February of the following year that the truth in regard to its great richness became generally known. Those who had already pre-empted claims and had worked on them during the latter part of the summer satisfied prying interrogatories by replying, in the language of the miners, that "they were making grub," or, in other words, gaining nothing beyond a bare support.

The city of Helena lies on both sides of Last Chance gulch, and just above its point of junction with the valley of the Prickly Pear, an affluent to the Missouri, and on the low ridge separating Last Chance from Dry gulch, running parallel thereto. Oro Fino and Grizzly are tributary to the former, and Bowery and Tucker to the latter. In the distance north are to be seen the jagged peaks of the Bear's Teeth mountains. The hills of the immediate vicinity, however, present a series of gentle acclivities, with a considerable covering of wash.

We find near the town a very curious intermingling of limestone, sandstone, and quartzite, and on the hills back of the town a heavy body of granite, from whose quartz veins the valleys and adjacent gulches were, beyond a doubt, filled with their auriferous detritus. Helena forms the actual centre of a very extensive network of placer deposits, embracing upwards of 40 miles of greater or less richness.

The bulk of the auriferous treasure is now exhausted. Desultory mining is, it is true, still prosecuted in several of the neighboring ravines, as Last Chance, Nelson, &c. The first rude washings always leave behind them a greater or less percentage of gold, dependent upon the skill of the workers and upon the form of the dust, whether coarse or fine, the former being saved with the greater ease. The placers, once worked over, are said to be exhausted; that is, will no longer yield a profit except with cheaper labor or a more thorough and systematic method of mining. The diggings now fall into the hands of the Chinese, who patiently glean the fields abandoned by the whites; or, where the ground is favorable, it is bought up by capitalists for the purpose of a reworking by what is known as bed-rock flumes. The treasure overlooked in the first rude washings of Alder gulch and the famous Last Chance, &c., of Helena, yet await a reworking on this plan. That such has not already been done is with difficulty explainable, especially in regard to the last mentioned gulch, where 27 miles of main ditches, carrying 4,000 inches of water, miners' measurement, may be readily diverted to that end. Undertakings of this character in California and elsewhere often yield as much if not more than that obtained from the first washings.

It would be impossible to enumerate here all or even a large proportion of the gulches east of the mountains within 25 miles of the city of Helena. Portions of the same placer system extend across the Missouri river to the northeast, and others again bear away to the north as far as Silver City. All have been productive in a greater or less degree. Near their sources, as is usual, were found large masses of gold, called nuggets, and a diminishing size of grain the further we remove down stream.

The ravines in the immediate vicinity of the town were but poorly supplied with water, a want which has long since been removed by an elaborate system of flumes and ditches. A few of the more prominent gulches may be enumerated and described, as follows: Last Chance, the first discovered, is seven to eight miles long. In May of 1865 a drain ditch was run underneath the town to drain the bed rock of this gulch, to the more convenient extraction of the pay stratum, which averaged some 4 feet in depth by 18 feet in width. Grizzly was remarkable in having two pay strata, the one above the other, thus proving that the sources of gold supply were tapped at two different periods, and were separated from one another by a deposit of non-auriferous wash.

Nelson, first prospected December 25, 1864, and hence called Christmas gulch, is distant from Helena eight miles, and had a narrow pay streak of remarkably high-grade gold. The auriferous dirt was found at a depth of 35 to 40 feet, after passing through a barren wash gravel. The bed rock consisted of a whitish decomposed sandstone, having upon it no large amount of water. The gulch is some six miles long, and heads near the same summit from whence issues Grizzly, and runs at right angles to the last named. Nelson gulch produced in 1865 a large and curiously shaped nugget, resembling an oyster shell, and in value $2,075, Dry gulch, so called from the absence therein of a running stream, produced earth suffi ciently rich to pay for hauling to water, a distance of one-half to one and one-half miles. To the east, and between Helena and Montana cities, are two dry gulches, each about nine miles long, running very nearly parallel and heading in the same summit.

Across the Missouri river, some 20 miles southeast of Cañon Ferry, we find Diamond City and the famous Confederate gulch. From one of the bars of this ravine a small party of five or six men are said to have taken out in the summer of 1864 about 1,400 pounds of gold dust, in value nearly $300,000 coin. Confederate is situated nearly 35 miles east of Helena, and in that part of Gallatin county named in honor of the late General Meagher. It takes its rise in the Belt range of mountains, and pursues a southwest course for 15 miles. Diamond City, the nucleus of a very extensive series of hydraulic workings, is on Confed erate gulch, six miles from its source. The bed rock consists of slate.

As tributary gulches, we find Cement, Montana, Greenhorn, Boulder, Baker, &c. Imme diately above the town are the great bars called Montana and Last Chance. Four miles north of Confederate, and running parallel, we have White's gulch, and passing over the summit we arrive at Thomas's gulch.

Dismissing with this cursory description the placers to the east, we may briefly touch upon those west of the main range. The latter, amid the general impoverishment of the washings, have, during the past season, attracted more attention than any others. Prominent among these are the gulches in the vicinity of Blackfoot City, which is situated in Deer Lodge county, and distant from Helena 25 miles by the trail. Opposite to Helena, being on the other side of the range, and draining from off the western slopes towards the west and southwest, we find the Little Blackfoot, Cottonwood, and Silver Bow creeks, which form the easternmost affluents to the Hell Gate river. These streams, with their minor tributaries, give rise to numerous gulches, of which the more important may be enumerated and described as follows: Tiger gulch, the first struck in the vicinity, was discovered by Colonel Pember ton, Hugh Bealton, and party, late in the winter of 1864. Ophir, discovered in the spring following, lies to the north of and is tributary to the Little Blackfoot. We have, further, McClellan, near Blackfoot City; Washington, west of and some 12 miles distant from Ophir; Jefferson, parallel to and two miles distant from Washington; Madison, two and a half miles northwest of Jefferson; and Carpenter's bar, some two miles east of Blackfoot City, forming a portion of a long rolling prairie. Northwardly from the last-named gulch is found a series of veins bearing away towards Snow Shoe, Deadwood, and Uncle Ben's gulches, which head near the crests of the main range. On the very highest point of this vicinity there were found dry diggings sufficiently remunerative to warrant hauling the auriferous earth a long distance to water, down the mountain. Here a nugget was found in value somewhat over $3,000 in coin. The formation of this district consists, in the main, of granite, with occasional stretches of clay slate near the base of the mountains, and occasionally a species of indurated talcose slate.

There further appears quite an extensive body of placers on the south side of the Hell Gate river, and in the mountains enclosing the valley of the Deer Lodge. Of these we may enumerate Elk creek, some 14 miles long, with a pay stratum of about four feet; Bear gulch, seven to eight miles long, with a bed rock covered up to a depth of 40 feet; also Dave's, Deep, Rock, Douglas, &c.

The placers of Silver Bow and Butte City, seven miles above, are situated, likewise, on the western slope of the southeastern extremity of the Deer Lodge valley and about 90 miles distant from Virginia City. The Silver Bow diggings were discovered in July, 1864, by a prospector named Barber. For six months subsequent thereto they attracted but little atten

tion. The success of the Pennsylvania company, however, again brought them into notice so favorably that, as a result, claims were taken up and recorded a distance of 25 miles. The creek, especially in the lower portions, has the very insignificant fall of little more than four inches to the 100 feet, whereby the drainage is rendered difficult and a dump for the tailings almost unattainable. The gold dust from this locality has the unenviable notoriety of being of a lower grade of fineness than that from any other gulch in the Territory, coining from $12 to $14 per ounce, while the average of the other gulches runs from $16 50 up to $20 40 per ounce. The latter yield is producible only from choice and clean dust from high lands. This gulch and Silver Bow head in the same summit, and very nearly opposite to one another, the former being on the eastern and the latter on the western slope, and, curiously enough, the one produces the richest and the other the poorest gulch gold of Montana.

A few miles west of Silver Bow we find German gulch, tributary to Deer Lodge; it is some 15 miles long, and was discovered in 1864 by a party of Germans, who are believed to have been more than ordinarily successful.

The placer deposits of Montana have been worked with the same contrivances for saving gold as were used in California; the primitive rocker and the long-tom have given place to the improved strings of sluice boxes, and, where the ground permitted a sufficiency of fall, bed-rock flumes and hydraulics have lent their assistance to facilitate the extraction of the gold. Where the bed rock lay deep, and where the pay stratum was covered up to a considerable depth, the auriferous gravel was obtained by sinking shafts, drifting out and raising · it to the surface by bucket and windlass.

In a country so widely covered with drift, many very rich deposits have, beyond question, been overlooked, owing to the great body of barren matter overlying them. This supposition is rendered the more probable when we reflect upon the small number of deep placers or cement diggings yet brought to light.

Assuming as true the usually accepted theory of the formation of placer deposits, viz., the disintegration of some pre-existing series of quartz veins, either by flowing waters or by the beating against them of the waves of some inland sea, and we cannot fail to accept the belief that placers richer and more extensive than any heretofore discovered yet await, under great hills of gravel, some fortunate prospector.

GOLD PRODUCT OF MONTANA.-We must premise any estimates by the statement of the peculiar difficulties of arriving at any conclusion susceptible of a demonstration. In the first place local interests and territorial pride combine with a mistaken estimate of the value of placer deposits to enlarge the returns of bullion. The surface washings ought not to be regarded other than in the light of an advertisement for a district; ephemeral producers of wealth, they leave nothing behind them but desolation, and unless supplemented by other sources of revenue, give rise to a fictitious prosperity, to be followed by a period of depression and stagnation. The hiatus between profitable placers and remunerative quartz mines is now apparent here in Montana. Some little time is requisite to educate the community, by hard experience, to a realization of the radical difference between surface washings and deep vein mining. The placers yield up their treasures with a comparatively trifling outlay of time and capital. The quartz veins, on the contrary, forming the basis for permanent undertakings and returns of profits through a long series of years, cannot be made immediately productive, except through fortuitous concurrence of favorable circumstances. Patience, foresight, and the exercise of a true economy, seldom fail to prevent great losses, and in most cases return an enormous profit.

The proportion of bullion produced by the vein mines has not, as yet, amounted to any considerable percentage of the gross yield, and hence does not call for a separate estimate. The year 1868, however, will doubtless demand from this source a more detailed consideration. Another difficulty in the way of a precise statement of gold product is due to the fact that large quantities of dust can be, and doubtless have been removed northwardly into the British possessions of which no record is possible. Again, the distance of land transportation to Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri, is so trifling that merchants and miners act as their own transportation agents, and hence the precise amount carried away by them can never be ascertained. Montana's bullion account, at least until 1865, was largely credited to Washington, Idaho, or Colorado, and hence the tables as reported by the United States mints do not represent her true yield.

I am indebted to the United States revenue collector for the following figures, which form, in my judgment, a more reliable series of estimate for Montana than have ever been given to the public.

The product of 1862 may be set down at $600,000, and was due almost solely to the placers at Bannock. The great body of the miners were then very poor; no considerable stocks of goods were at hand to tempt purchasers, so that but a small proportion of the yield came into the possession of traders, whose shipments could be determined to a degree of reasonable exactness. In the absence of banks or any safe place of deposit the miners were accustomed to "cache" their earnings, and to await a favorable opportunity for exporting the gold from the country.

The product of the following year was largely increased by the discovery and partial opening of the mines of Alder gulch, and may safely be estimated to have reached a total of $8,000,000.