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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1889)
WEST SHORE. 871 The Idaho Bedrock Flume Company was incorporated at Boise City the fore part of thiii month. The incorporation is for fifty years, and the capital is $2,000,000. The company has a saw mill already in operation a short distance below Idaho City, and is arranging contracts for the construction of the flume and for a large quantity of timber. The site of the flume will be sixteen feet wide, five feet high and about a mile in length. Seven miles in length along More and Elk creeks and 000 feet wide is the amount of ground purchased and secured by deeds, which is enough to keep the flume constantly busy for the next fifty years or more. A large amount of the flume will be made between now and March, so as to take advantage of the laige volume of water during the spring freshet. A run will be made then which will pay largely on the capital Invest ed, although the cream of the creeeks will not be reached until the following season. After the first year the clean-ups will lie enormous. It has been calculated by the miners who worked the creeks that $150,000,000 is within reach of the flume. This I estimate is based on the production of gold from 1SII2 to the f pro'ent time. In one year, from 18(13 to 18(14, the express com I panles shipped 133,000.000 from the basin. The primitive methods used in those days were so crude that not more than half the gold was obtained from the gravel washed, notwith standing the vast amount of ground that remained untouched. With living high, lumber $100 per thousand, wages $7 00 to $8.00 for laborers and $10.00 for mechanics only the best was worked, and thousands of acres of ground now covered with I tailings are rich. The only way to reach it and produce the vast wealth Is by the bedrock flume. Hydraulic chiefs of the latest pattern will be pu chai -d In Han Franci'co. Thli enter prise, says the Idaho City World, is the greatest of the kind on the Pacific coast, and is hailed with Joy by the ople of South ern Idaho. The extensive beds of coal In Missoula county, Montana, are attracting considerable attention among speculators, rail road companies and business men throughout the east. As a mineral bearing region the belt north and weBt of us cannot I excelled In Montana or elsewhere. The largest debits of coal that have yet been discovered are only forty mlbs from Demersvillo. One vein that has only a small amount of work done on it shows a twenty-eight-foot face of the liest quality of coal ever discovered in Montana. The coal found here is said to le the true lignite, which in every resist equals the cele brated coal at Kock Springs, Wyoming. There is no doubt that the Flathead country can show more petroleum, more I good saw timber, and far bettor agricultural land than any sec- tion in Montana or Washington. The coal lounu in mis vicin ity asways 15.00 water, 34.10 volatile matter, 43.(10 fixed car bon and 7.00 per cent. ash. This coal has been found to coke splendidly and is pronounced by coal expert! to lie of surlor quality. DtmerivilU Inler-Lalu. It was not many years ago that life Insurance was licked upon by the public aa a genteel swindle. That was when the business wu not under very strict legal surveillance and Irre sponsible concerns flourished unquestioned, hiring the last few years a great change in public sentiment on this subject has been wrought, through the elevation In the financial tuns of the companies under the restrictions of wholesome laws. This gave encouragement to legitimate business and now the lile lisks taken annually make an enormous aggregate. One of tin most popular and entirely reliable Institutions writing life Insurance in Portland ia the Pacific Mutual Life Insur ance Company, which la a home concern and so well grounded financially as to he beyond question. It It doing a flourishing business and Is an institution worthy the patronage of the whole northwest. The San Francisco .Vi'ih'm; Rtritw gives the following rule for testing the richness of gold quarts without having It as sayed: First, weigh the quarts dry. Then weigh In water, the quarts suspended by a thread. Next divide the dry weight by the difference ht 'tween wet and dry (adding decimals It neces sary). Subtract from this result the weight of quarts (ususlly IIUO or 2(11 for free gold, but 205 to '.'TO If filled with sulphurels), Multiply this result by the weight of gold, vis: 128. Then multiply this result by the result of subtraction of wet from dry. The result will lie, after pointing on all decimals that have been added, the exact weight In gold. The llarrls-Moyd tunnel In Kutte, Montana, Is showing some very rich coper. It Is estimated that 800,000 tons of ore worth $23,200,000 are In sight, basing these figures on tin present value of copxr and silver. The price of the Harris Moyd four years sgo ws $17,000. That was More any devel opment work had Itoen done. Now it Is valued at $'.',000,000. A depth of 400 feet has been reached In the development work. The property belong to the Huston A Montana coniny. Near Thompson Falls, in Missoula county, Montana, then Is an extensive deposit of fire clay of the very best quality. The Anaconda smeller has used some sixty car loads ol the clay and ordered thirty more. It Is said to make bricks equal to the European product. All smellers must use fire clay and it is a matter of economy to find it In a country where so much smelting is done. Tliedepoil lies Uitween two mountains and covers an area of between filly and sixty acres. Thi Kinilrrynrtrn Is Ihe name of a monthly magaalna pub lished In Chicago In the Interests of the disciples of Fnebel. In these times when every trade and profession has Its repre sentative journal It Is gratifying to see the cause of Infant education so ably presented as Is done In Tht Kimltrgitrttn. It is illustrated and costs $'.'.00 a year. Samples of ore from the newly discovered tin mines In the Cs ade mountains above Own river, Washington, assay eight per cent tin. Thousand! of tons of good ore are reiwrtml In sight. The discoverers thought a coal mea'ure had been struck and It was only on close examination that it waa found to lie the richest tin ore in the world. Ibanon, a village ol Mnn foiinty, Oregon, baa relisml a lo nus of $.ViO for the erection of a pr mill at that point, lbanon is on the south fork of the Santlam river and Is con nected with AHaiiy by a branch of the Southern Pacific, and direct with Portland by the narrow gauge railway. The yield of gold from the CerlUxi district of HrllUta Col umbia this year Is between I2V1.0OO and $ 0,000. Nearly all of this Is fnun the placers, though the quarts lodei are begin ning to lie developed. One nugget weighing fourteen ounce and valued at $2.V) was found. The largest tannery In Itrlilsh Columbia Is under construc tion at Nanalmo, on Vancouver Island, and will U In oiwrellon early In the year. It will U supplied with Ihe most Improved mscblnery ind every facility for turning wit the very best of leather.