24 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE CCEUR D'ALENE MOUNTAINS. 



mines have as yet been developed to ore-producing capacities. The 

 total extent of country covered by the mineral-bearing zones here is 

 not one-fifth of the space inclosed within the boundaries of the Coeur 

 d'Aleue triangle. That just as great and profitable mines will be dis- 

 covered in the other four-fifths can scarcely be doubted. The same 

 forces which have acted and the same conditions which exist in the 

 proved mineralized regions appear to have been in operation and to be 

 present in numerous localities elsewhere. In examining the areas 

 where no ore producing mines have been developed to date we find that 

 there is no considerable portion of the country which has been pros- 

 pected that does not show a greater or less number of recorded mineral- 

 bearing lodes. The basaltic regions of the St. Mary, St. Joseph, and 

 Lake C<eur d'Aleue are exceptions to this. 



In the upper St. Mary basin we have the placers and gold-bearing 

 veins scattered about Gold Center. In the central portion, on the 

 slopes of the Elk range, a number of mineral locations have been made. 

 In the upper St. Joseph are placers and numerous lode claims. 



In the southwestern portion of the Xorth Fork basin is a nearly con- 

 tinuous line of lode claims extending along the valley of the Little 

 North Fork from its junction with the North Fork to its head near 

 Lake Lend Oreille. A great many mineral-bearing quartz veins are 

 known to exist in the northern portion of the North Fork basin, but 

 they are not much prospected, nor are they located under the United 

 States mining laws as yet. 



The development work on the majority of mineral-bearing lodes which 

 lie beyond tha limits of the two principal mining regions is confined to 

 the annual assessment work of 8100 on each claim of 1,500 feet or less 

 as required by the mining laws of the United States.' This means hi 

 most instances that a long time must elapse before even the best claims 

 can reasonably be expected to become ore producers. Extensive develop- 

 ments of the mining industries in the Our d'Alenes will come in time 

 but will be matters of slow growth. The miners have many difficulties 

 to contend with, chief of which are low-grade ores, the considerable 

 depth at which the big ore bodies generally lie, the broken character 

 of the country, which in many places renders access by a simple trail to 

 a mining claim troublesome and costly, to say nothing of shipping facili- 

 ties by rail or wagon roads, and, lastly, the extreme difficulty of inducing 

 capital to invest in mines on areas where the character of the mineral 

 deposits has not been proved to be profitable beyond a reasonable 

 doubt. 



As an extended account of the composition and value of the Cceur 

 d'Aleue ores would not be germane to the principal topics of this 

 report, only a short general statement is here appended. 



There are three main classes of 0<eur d'Alene ores— the lead-silver 

 the pyritiferous and free gold, and the dry or cupriferous silver ores. 

 The lead-silver ores are the most common, occur in the largest bodies, 

 and are at the present time the most profitable. Their assay values of 



