TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 



PAPERS. 



NOTES ON THE OCCUERENCE OF GOLD IN MONTANA. 



BY J. R. MEAD, WICHITA. 



"Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they fine it." 



Such are the words of the wise and patient Job, in Holy Writ. I think the trans- 

 lators should have put a "d" to the word "fine," reading, "a place for gold where 

 they find it" — for gold is found in most unexpected places; and of this fact the 

 ancient philosopher seemed to be informed. 



Gold has long been considered the standard of values by civilized nations. It is 

 more unchangeable in value than any other substance known to man. It is the 

 only yellow native metal; does not oxidize or tarnish; cannot be eaten or touched 

 by simple acids, but alloys perfectly with other metals; and while as generally dis- 

 tributed through the crust of the earth as any other metal, so seldom is it concen- 

 trated in any locality, there is never an excess of production. Fortunately our own 

 country, so rich in natural resources, contains as rich deposits of the precious metal 

 as are found in any land upon the earth. These deposits or veins are scattered 

 through the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges, from the frozen wilderness of 

 northern Alaska, down through the United States, Mexico, Central America, and 

 South America, to Cape Horn — in fact, wherever the primitive rocks are thrust up 

 through the overlying strata, there gold may occasionally be found. 



The writer had the opportunity, the past summer, of visiting several of the 

 placer mines of Montana. I will here explain that a placer mine is a gravel-bed or 

 creek bottom, containing particles of free gold varying in size from the fineness of 

 flour to pieces several pounds in weight, which is saved by washing away the sand 

 and gravel with water. These placer mines were discovered about the close of the 

 late civil war, and produced in the next three or four years more than $100,000,000 

 of gold, at the time of our country's greatest need. No machinery was employed 

 other than manual labor, with sluice-boxes sawed by hand from native timber, and 

 pick, shovel, and pan. 



These exceedingly rich deposits were found in the tertiary and more recent 

 gravels, in the gulches and former water-courses, and glacial beds, which had their 

 sources near the summit of the main mountain range, or its outlying spurs. Many 

 of the richest gravel deposits were found on the benches and bars, 20, 40 or 100 feet 

 above the present streams, where the former river had impinged upon a hard point 

 of country rock, deflecting its course towards a more yielding material. The con- 

 sequence was a sweep or current which formed a "bar" whereon the gold effected 

 a lodgment; while the main channel of the stream was scoured by the rushing 

 waters until another obstruction, or an expansion of the stream, formed other 

 "benches" or bars during the period of the erosion of these gulches. (I will here 

 explain that miners call every ravine or creek bearing gold, a gulch.) A much larger 

 volume of water flowed than now, consequently the bars of that period are at the 

 present time high above the present water level. 



In some instances, where a narrow gulch was confined between narrow walls, the 

 rushing waters carried the broken fragments of gold-bearing quartz, along with 

 gravel and sand, many miles from its source, and far out into the broad valleys, 

 spreading this detritus over hundreds of acres. The loose gold, with a specific 



