eenths.
The mine is valued at several millions. The ground has been
sluiced off for half a mile for the free gold it contained, exposing
twelve acres of copper running from thirty to eighty per cent.,
of a value of between five and six millions.
There are several other mines as rich in the Seven Devils country. The Peacock group contains the South Peacock, with one hundred yards square of copper, of unknown depth; the Bodie, Standard, Little Peacock (assaying fifty-seven per cent, copper, thirty dollars gold and silver), Copper Key, Confidence, and Side Issue. Then there is the Lockwood group of three mines. Four tons of this ore make one ton of copper matte, with thirty-two dollars per ton of matte in gold. It carries its own flux, as it has sufficient iron in and near it to make it the best smelting ore in the country.
The Kiver Queen, near Snake Kiver, is promising to merge into silver and gold, assaying fifty-six per cent, copper, ten dollars and eighty cents silver, and five dollars in gold. It carries its own flux also. The Decora has an extensive deposit of low-grade ore and a fine mill-site. There are ten or a dozen other mines and one hundred and twenty-five locations in this region. Some capitalists of Montana have expended one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars in development. The possibilities of Seven Devils mineral belt arc beyond computation.
The nearness of this wealth to the eastern counties of Oregon is of great significance to this part of Oregon. The difficulty hitherto has been the inaccessibility of these mines, which were reached by two hundred miles of exceedingly rough and dangerous travel. But capital, which smooths all our ways, will find a means of making travel to these mines as easy as to any others, and the scenery of the route is magnificent.
As I have endeavored to classify the other productions of the State somewhat by counties, it may not be without interest to present the following table of mineral productions by counties, which I borrow chiefly from statistics published by the State Board of Agriculture.
Baker .—Gold in quartz and placers, silver in lodes, copper (native), coal(?),
building-stones, nickel ore, limestone and marble, cinnabar.
Benton. —Coal, building-stones, gold in beach sands, iron pyrites
