being followed by the usual migration of thousands to that locality, and the subsequent discovery of other placer diggings in the upper Columbia region, followed by the organization of the Territory of Idaho, which took away from Washington some of its most valuable mining-lands. The yield of the placer mines in the Colville and Okanogan districts was very considerable, but could not be accurately stated on account of the many routes by which gold was carried out of the country, and also because the express companies, who were the common carriers of treasure, had no means of knowing from what districts came the gold intrusted to their keeping. It is interesting merely as an indication of the value of the placers of Washington, Oregon, and the northwestern portion of Idaho in a half-dozen years, covering the period of profitable placer mining in the Northwest, to take such figures as Wells, Fargo & Co. were able to furnish, as follows: Shipped from Portland in 1864, $6,200,000; 1865, $5,800,000; 1866, $5,400,000; 1867, $4,000,000; 1868, $3,037,000; 1869, $2,559,000; 1870, $1,547,000. Add to these sums $419,657, shipped by Portland bankers in 1869, and we have $28,953,657 that can be accounted for. This partial statement does not include the first and best product of the Colville mines, or the output of the years 1862 and 1863, when the yields of the Oro Fino, Florence, and Salmon Fiver mines (then in Washington) were at the best.
Very little of the gold of Boise, Owjhee, or any part of Southern Idaho went to San Francisco via Portland; therefore the millions of which any account was taken were produced in East Oregon, Washington, and the Panhandle of Idaho, which Washington always claimed as belonging to her territory.
Quartz veins were discovered to some extent during the placer-mining excitement, but were disregarded. Ledges were known to exist in the Okanogan District, and discoveries were made on the eastern flank of the Cascades, on the Wenatchee Fiver. The development of quartz is, however, recent, for obvious reasons, capital and transportation being necessary to quartz-mining enterprises.
The counties in East Washington where gold- and silvermining are carried on are Kittitass, Okanogan, Douglas, and Stevens. The yield from the deep mines of Kittitass for the
