dred ounces of silver per ton, besides some gold. Other specimens not so rich contain cubic galena, copper, iron pyrites, and zinc blende,—a good smelting ore.
The mines near Wilhoit Springs, on a branch of the Molalla, at an altitude of about twelve hundred feet above sea-level, are found in rocks of a more recent geological era than elsewhere. It is here that a deposit is found, of great extent, which is not rock at all, but a soft, light, silver-bearing earth, in some places sixty feet in depth, with a hardness about that of gypsum. In color it is a gray, varying to red or brown, ‘with a specific gravity of 1.5. The silver contained varies from one to ten ounces per ton, with a small admixture of lead. No practical tests have been made of the value of this remarkable earth.
The most promising mining districts of those bordering the Wallamet Valley are situated on the North and South Forks of the Santiam, and are reached from the Southern Pacific by wagon from Turner, in Marion County. The formations are porphyritic and granitic, similar to the belt along the range, north and south. Some slate, silicious and approaching sandstone, is found. Quartz is abundant, and float carrying gold is frequently found in the water-courses. Greenhorn district was discovered by Dr. E. 0. Smith, of Portland, in 1864. Several locations were made, of which the White Bull became famous for giving to the world the most beautiful specimens of arborescent gold ever seen. The quartz was of the nature called “ rotten,”—that is, crumbling and stained; and in it occurred what were called “eagles’ nests,” which, in fact, they resembled, being cavities as large as the crown of a man’s hat filled with sticks or straws of gold, which, on examination, proved to be skeins of the finest wire-gold, as evenly twisted into threads as if it had passed through a thread-mill. These skeins were attached to the irregular angles of the quartz on the walls of the cavity, and, crossing in every direction, held some bits of quartz in the tangles thej^ made. The effect of the whole was surprising and magnificent. These elegant specimens, worth twice the gold they contained, were simply ground up like common ore. There was another class of quartz in this mine which was hard, white, and stuck full of bits of gold from the size of a pin-head to a bird-shot.
