The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1865-05-20
From, Last chance.
HELENA, Nav 10th. 1865.

| = L.
HELENA, May 10th, 1865.
EDITOR Posr:-It being a warm, pleasant
day, every one IN our gulch is at work, ex-
cept those who are waiting for the compile
tion of the drain ditch which is beinr mads
underground through the midst of our CITY.
Noticing in your last issue mention of some
'big runs" in Grizzly, Dry Gulch, etc.,
consider it due to our gulch that sample
OF the "runs" on some of its claims should
be recorded in your columns.
On number two above discovery, in Last
Chance District, 500 per hour is often
sluiced out for several hours in succession.
The greatest "run" on that claim was made
about two weeks ago, with one man shovel
Ing into the sluice box. After five hours
sluicing they had the pleasant little sclean
up" of $3.50. :, 49,
On the claim Immediately below the
above,. number one above discovery, the
"streak' is about eight feet below the sur
face, and rs it is twelve feet to the bed
rock, this leaves four feet of pay dirt.
From this claim was drifted out, in one
day, by two men, dirt from which was
sluiced 81, ,008 so. Messrs. Wood & Co..
the claim owners, think they must yet OBJ
tain several hundred dollars when thew
sluice that days tailings over again; for
they have washed fifty cents from pan of
those tailings. The pay streak on this
claim is about eighteen feet wide, and the
average yield when two men are drifting is
from S4O0 to $500 per day.. The above we
do not think are the very poorest in our
gulch, and though much of our ground will
not pay SO we'll, yet when the water-ditch
arrives and pours that needful fluid into our
gulch, we calculate the gold will come out
Mt good rate, and many buck-skin puff
out, which now looks as though an s!els.
pfrant had trod on it," 1t has been a mat
ter OF regret, and worse feeling than that,
on the part of some persons, that so much
ground in different gulches was held by SO
comparatively few people, and laid over
without sufficient prospecting to really de-
termine the quality of the ground, a gen.
erai meeting WAS held at this place last
Sabbath, and an attendance of all the mi
ners in this and the neighboring culcbes
was solicited by notices sent to the various
camps in our vicinity. A large crowd as
sembled about O'Clock P. NJ, in the main
street, near the center of the city. Mr..
Barbour was chosen President, and with A
strong "aye," the sentiment of the meet
ing was expressed in favor of not layinp
over any longer than one week from the
following day (Monday) the gulch claims in
all this vicinity which can be work ed at this
time of the year. The Upper District in
Mcclellan (IFoodland) has been laid over
till the 50th of the present month, for the
snow to thaw and allow of it's being workeI,
Holmes cannot be worked at present, ow-
ing to the scarcity of water. There NAV
be parts, or the whole, of other gulches in
which, as in the above, good ground is ex-
pected to be struck as soon as they can be
worked to advantage. But when nothing
but the amount of other claims held by an
individual, and his inability or his in desire
to work them, induces him to vote for the
laying over of claims, thereby preventing
the development of the mining interests in
tins part OF the country, the voice of the
"honest miner" is heard, saying, ssgive up
what you can't or won't work, and let some
one else have the chance" Undoubtedly
the votes at this meeting cannot be pleaded
as law outside of the district, except as an
expression of "those interested'' in the SUBJ
ject.
Among the newly discovered quartz lodes,
the Ell Dinero, located at the head of Dry
Gulch, has well defined creyice, about
hvefeet wide, and some very rich speci-
mems haEo been taken therefroYl. From
fourteen ounces Of pounded rock 81 so was
panned. Gulch claims are changing hands
somewhat; "a below discovery, in Last
Chance, was sold recently for $40O.
Flour is arriving in very small parcels.
On Inst Sunday, ten sacks retailed at the
rate OF ten pounds to man, for 81, 10 per
pound. Wo know of q man who paid 81
for seven pound loaf of bread. - i
4 From wagon on the street to-day, pota-
toes with the eyes cut out, are selling at
sixty cents per pound. A small quantity
of seed wheat has been eagerly purchased
at forty-fye cents per pound, to be cooked
as q substitute for rice.
The people, by the prices they are willing
to pay, afford ample proof that the mer-
chants who will bring train of eatables to
this market must make a good thing out of
1T. - Yours, truly,
= - CLEANER. Z