will drive sheep over in the summer. It has been done, and is to be done again. But it is useless for me to go on telling all the occupations that would pay high profits. The future of the Northwest country is not so long as that of a country that can look forward to other industries than mining and the business that depends on mining, but it is longer than the life-time of any of us. The surface has been pricked in a few places, but I do not know that the best has been found, and I am quite sure no one has any idea of the tremendous extent of the placer diggings, to say nothing of the quartz that is sure to follow. Then, all the other metals, silver and copper and iron, have been turned up, while coal is plentiful. I believe thoroughly in the country. All I have doubt about is the character of some of the men who are rushing in to get rich by just picking up the gold.
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A PLACER, SHOWING SLUICE, OR FLUME, AND SIDE BATHS.
This is a very good picture of a claim, and the process of mining- from the " benches " or on the sides, as distinguished from "bar" diggings in the bed of the creek. The straight line above and parallel to the flume is the old bed of the stream. It is from this line of terraces and below it that the pay dirt is taken, usually in the winter. Then, when the spring comes and the ice breaks up, the water is brought down for use in the sluices. The gold-bearing gravel is shoveled into the sluices, carried slowly over the "pans," or platforms, and turned out on the side tables, where it is deposited, while the water and the lighter stones and dirt are carried down into the stream again, where they meet the coarser stuff that is pounded out at the end of the flume.
