'78
THE WEST SHORE.
August, 1883,
fairly without a drop of rain if the grain it put in
early and in good condition,
Ciiknky Tkiiiunk O. A. Lance, one of our
old settler, and successful farmers, informs us that
hit entire crop, Ixith fall and spring sowing, will
yield forly bushels per acre. lion, I), F. Perci
val, ha a lar;c held of fall wheat on hia Kock
creek farm that will yield forty bushels to the acre.
Mr, Patterson, living near Spangle, says his crops
will be better, than last year, and is well satisfied
with the prospects ol hit yield. The cool nights
for the last week vvre very favorable to grain, and
the general impression now it that grain is filling
well. Kcports from the Dig Bend country are
that all kinds of crops be fair, and in some
localities good esecially vegetables. Mr. Illockfan
living near Brenti, reports three thousand head of
fine cabbages and other vegetables in proportion.
SidKANK CIIKUNICI.K Col. Jesse Parker, of
Seltese hike, presented for our inspection this
week a splendid illustration of what Spokane soil
is capable ol doing in defiance of the six weeks,
drouth. A Siecimen of llig Club wheat, sown on
the 1st of April, is about ready to harvest, and
shows a plump, perfect berry. A bunch of the
GjIJ Dust variety, sown the loth of May on bot
tom land, five feet in height and filling out finely,
is good enough for any season. Specimens of
Kussian oats and of timothy over five feet in
height, were satisfactory evidence that the country
is going to stand up for its reputation and have
something on which to leed the incoming immi
grants. Col. Parker says that a piece of the same
land six acres -produced 1, 800 bushels of pota
toes last year.
WKST OK TMK COLUMIIIA.
C-oi.uhndai.k Ga.kttk The grain crop will
not lie as large as was at firsi anticipated, but
most of it will be lictter than was thought a month
ago. The west winds, proved an offset to the ap
parent drouth. It is evident that much of our
sod has a capacity for resisting the effects of dry
weather. Some who will have poor crops through
bad farming, will profit by experience and do
lietter next time. In fact the tillers of the toil
generally are beginning to use more industry and
intelligence in their work.
MINING-
A rich vein of free-milling ore, twenty-two
inches in width, is lieing developed in the llour
Iwn mine, lliich creek district, Meagher county,
Montana. The lead proer it over nine feel in
width.
A vein of coal, six inches thick at the surface,
has Iwen discovered on John Day river, in Grant
county, Oregon. Sample chunks taken from the
cropping, burn well and make good, clear ashes.
It will lie thoroughly tested.
Coal lands some fifteen miles northeast of Van
couver, in Clarke county, W. T., have been
leased to a firm of capitalists, who will commence
work uoo an eighleen-inch vein at once. If it
prove, as valuable as it is believed to be, it will
I worked on an extensive scale.
W. W. rerkins recently discovered a rich quart,
ledge of free gold in the Our d'Alcne mountain.,
near the headwalcri of Paloust river, Idaho.
Me an excitement was created and many claim,
were naked off by men who rushed to the .pot
qua the fint receipt of the news.
The mines about Bonanza and Custer City,
Idaho, have been but little worked for a number
of years, though of undoubted richness. When
brought properly to the notice of capitalists they
will no doubt receive the attention they deserve,
and that district will again bustle with activity
even greater than in the days of old.
On Wisconsin creek, seven miles from the town
of Sheridan, Montana, the Western Mining Co.
is erecting a smelter with a daily capacity of
twenty tons. It will Drove of rreat benefit to the
surrounding districts, some of which have manv
large veins of low grade ore. A little town will
proDamy spring up around the smelter.
As an indication of the character of the mines
at Silver City, Idaho, awaitinp the advent of
capital, it is interesting to know that the Morning
star mill, with seven stamps, in 426 running days
ending March 9, 1866, milled 7,369 tons of ore
and produced $1,127,617.39. None of the mines
from which the ore was taken has yet a shaft 400
feet deep.
At the base of lilack butte, eighteen miles
south of Heppner, in the Blue mountains, is the
coal mine of the Matteson Coal Mining Co.
The company has expended $15,000 in prospect
ing this property, by sinking ten shafts and running
four tunnels, and developing several large veins of
true bituminous coal. A railroad to the mine from
Alkali or some other station on the Columbia
will probably be built if the mine Droves to bo
sufficiently extensive to justify it. The distance
is seventy miles.
Silver King mine, situated about four miles
southwest of Sawtooth, was sold recently to Mat
thew T. Scott, of Bloomington, Illinois, who is
the principal owner of the Davitt mini.. Th
amount paid was $125,000. The ore vein
averages over two feet in width, and the ore is
chiefly high grade. There are forty-two tons on
the dump now that are worth $40,000, and 280
ton. which will go $ 1 85 per ton. The ore is ruby
ana native silver.
Since the Crow Indians relinquished their claim
to the rich mineral belt in the eastern eml n
reservation, there has been a rush of miners into
the region known generally as Clarke's Fork.
Many valuable ledges have been discovered and
located on Claike'i Fork, Mill creek, Soda Butte
creek and the numerous small streams that flow
into the upper Yellowstone. Assays range from
$50 to $22,500 per ton. and the leiW
numerous and some of them twenty feet in width.
ine nearest railroad station is Gardiser, the
terminus of the National Park branch of the
Northern Pacific, from which the mines are
reached by a good road crossing a portion of the
National Park. A smelter is now h.i
( "V... JJUV I!)
at Cooke City. Wood and water are abundant
and with excellent facilities for procuring ina'
chmery. there Kerns little doubt about the growth
mining camp on Clarke'. Fork. .
The Montana district is situated in the Little
Belt mountains, on Belt river, thirty-two miles
from White Sulphur Springs, in Meagher county,
Montana, from which it is accessible by a good
wagon road. It i, seventy-five mile, from Fort
Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri,
and . road U being made to that place with a
view of receiving from there necessary machinery
supplies. The district it a new one but
partially prospected, the veins so far discovered
being twenty-six, all running parallel to each
other. The chief properties being developed by
shaft and tunnel are the Banner and Bald Eagle
Southern View and Kentuck, Minnehaha and
Montana Belle,' Wide Awake and Fitrpatricli
Yellow Jacket rind Helena, Queen of Montana
Deadwood and Frisco, Cora, Queen of the Hills,
Homestake, O'Brien and Sampson. Assays from
the various lodes average large, and the condi
Hons for cheap working are good. ' - ,
The great variety of processes still employed
for the extraction ot silver in different parts of
the world, and each one possessing advantages
over the other for the treatment of the ores of
different localities, is rendered necessary by the
great diversity existing in the associates of the
metals, and the very large amount of materials
that it is necessary to operate upon, owing to the
argentiferous minerals often occurring minutely
disseminated through large proportians of an
earthy gangue, more or less intimately mixed
ores or compounds of other metals, as galena,
copper ores, etc. The methods employed for the
separation of metalic silver from its ores, metal
lurgic: products, in which it exists in notable
quantity, may, however, be classed under three
heads. The different methods of amalgamation
employed, based upon the solubility of metallic
silver in mercury, and the subsequent ready expul
sion of the latter on (he application of heat to the
amalgam include : ,i. The Mexican methods of
amalgamation in heaps. ' 2. The European sys
tem of amalgamation in casks, known also as the
"barrel process." '3. The methods of amal
gamation in kettles and pans. There are variou.
wet methods for the extraction of silver from its
sulphides by first converting them into chlolride '
or sulphate, which is then dissolved out bv water.
solution of common salt, or other suitable solvent,
and the silver subsequently deposited by precipita
tion from the solution so obtained, these methods
including: 1. "Augustin's" method, by which
the ore, or cuprous regulus, is converted into
argentic chloride, which is then extracted by a
solution of sodic chloride, and the silver after
wards precipitated bv metallic Conner. : a. The
. , rr r-
method of "Ziervogel" for the conversion of
argentic sulphide into sulphate, which is sub
sequently dissolved out bv hot water, and the
silver precipitated as cement silver, as in the
Augustin process. 3. The method of "Von
Partera," by which the argentic sulphide is con
verted into chloride, which Is then dissolved out
by a Solution ol sodic hvnnuilnhite. from which
-vi 1
the silver is precipitated as argentic sulphide freed
tram other metals, the sulphide being then re;
duced bv the annlirntinn nf hen. Then there
' II - "
the methods in which the silver is concentrated in
a quantity of lead, from which it is subsequently
separated by the process of supellation. The
silver in argentiferous copper matte, or other
regulus, which wa. formerly separated by amal
gamation methods, and very rich silver ores are
also treated by these methods ; while, in fact, all
silver ores may be treated by fusion with galena
or other lead-yielding product, with the separa
tion T,-Vti nf - I . : f . If.rar than It
effected by the amalga mation process ; but owing
v uc ix-uiuiy 01 ruei in certain localities, wm
expense, this method cannot be applied, and the
w.uuuo vi iiiuigtuuauuil arc mcic w-wi."fc-
more convenient and economical. Scitntijic Pro'