, 1863-04-18
From the Grasshopper Mines.

this city, for the use of private letter
written to him from the Beaver Head, or
Grasshopper mines, by Capt. De Lacy, fer
merly of this place. The letter is desclip-
tive and interesting. We extract the fol-
lowing:
You will naturally want to know some
thing about the mines The mines which
have excited the people so much, usually
called the Beaver Head Mines, are not
at the Beaver Head at all, but are situated
on Grasshopper creek, branch of the JEFF
ferson Fork of the Missouri, and about so
miles south of the junction of the Deer
Lodge and Hellgate rivers The diggings
are chiefly hill diggings, and are situated
in canon five or six miles long. Above
and below this the creek opens out, and
the gold deposit seems to cease, as nothing
has been found by numerous prospecters.
Several quartz leads have been found on
both sides, which are said to be very rich
they run north and south across the creek.
and one has been traced for some distance
| have some specimens with me to bring
down. The rock which contains the gold
in these leads, the miners call rotten quartz,
but to me it has all the appearances of iron
ore. OF course it is impossible for any one
to judge of the richness of these leads by
simply seeing the ore-rock In many pie
ces you can see gold it is true, but not in
all. The chain of mountains in whi3n these
mines occur, is black compact limestone
very hard, and close grained, and the gravel
which is thro~n out of the diggings is the
same. Inis is curious, as it is seldom,
believe, that gold is found in large quanti-
ties in this kind of rock.
The diggings are chiefly on the south
side of the creek and the miners dig theii
pay dirt on the mountain side, at an eleva-
ton of from 90 to 100 feet. I he dirt they
let down on slides or other contrivances tC
the creek, where a partner washes it in &
rocker. Rockers are used almost exclu.
sively. AT the time | was in the digging;
there were only one or two sets of sluices
and those could not be worked on accoun
of being frozen up; and even the rocker:
could only be used about three hours il
the day. The weather was intensely cold
The creek was covered with ice foot thick
and slept in the open air, with the the1
mcmeter below zero. 1t is actually so colo
as a general thing, in these mines and il
the Deer Lodge that it cannot Snolo.
The gold is found on the bed rock an(
the miners report thai they can make from
$40 to SIS per Gag, even under the pres
ent difficulties. This think to be an ex
aggeration | conversed with many wht
told me that they were not doing very we'll
and besides they over estimate the value O
their gold, holding it at the mines at $lt
when at Hellgate you can only get 81
for it.
1t is supposed that the bed of the creel
is very rich, but as yet it has not been pros
pected; or, rather, they have not reached
the bed rock. | saw holes which had beel
sunk to the depth of 20 to 80 feet withou
: reaching the ledge. When | left, it wa
reported that some miners had struck
good thing somewhere near the Red Butte
which is further to the south, but no on
knew anything certain about it.
; 1t is said that the ravines and gulche
near the creek Fay very well but cannot b
worked on account of want of water.
saw carts employed in transporting dirt
distance of two miles to the creek, and
am told that it paid very well indeed.
There are three towns IN this delectabl
region; one at the head of the canon, calle
Yankee Town-s0 called for being inhab
ana adJoIrIng this is Bannock Town, an
about half mile below another, name NO
, recollected. Taese towns are built gene
rally of comfortable cabins. Included i
the population are many women and chill
dren, who give lively and home like al
, to the place and as consequence there i
less hard drinking and less ambling tha
is common in mining towns.
But few OF the miners are from Califor
MIA or Oregon. Most of them are from
Pixies Peak and the States, and have al
the narrow ideas and penuriousness com
mon to the people of the atlantic side. =
They think more of dime than we of tn
Pacific do of dollar.
! As these "Ya@kees' compose the major
ity, they have monopolized to them selve
nearly all the claims on the creek and mad
the laws to favor them in so doing. Ever
man can have five claims, and some wa
told held as high as l5 They took all th
building lots in the town, so that thos
who came after them had to buy. After
left, party went l understand, to Beave
Head to lay out town at the three fork
of the Missouri, and take up the who'll
country the'e for farming ranches Nom
but those holding claims can vote at any
meeting. These things will all be attend
ed to when miners from California and Or
egon get in. When left, nearly every on,
had quit work l tried to get claim bu
could not get one, except l took it two o
three miles from water.
1t is expected that the light draft boat
which have been built below, will be able
to ascend the river to Fort Benton in June
and will doubtless bring up large quantities
of freight Goods will then be very cheal
until fall 1t is expected that all the
Pixies Peakers, and number OF Califor
mans and others will come here in the
spring. So that for a time the country
will be flooded with people
l suppose the history of these mines viii
be the same as it ever has been of others
an immense crowd gathered. nine tenths O.
whom 60 away disappointed
On HER TRAVELS. We find in tn,
Jacksonville Sentinel, notice of madam
Jane Miles Davis, sometimes called tht
"Queen of the Forest" She is still solicit
ing subscriptions to her celebrated book
which will shortly appear. The CLOSING
scenes of this great North American 70
L. - l.