476 MIOTKG INDUSTET. 



be noticed with much detail in this volume. Before proceeding, however, 

 to speak particularly of the gold and silver mining industry of Grilpin and 

 Clear Creek counties, a minute description of which is the main object of 

 these pages, a very brief general notice of the Territory and its mineral re- 

 sources will be given, in order that the reader may better understand the 

 relation which those parts just referred to bear to the whole. 



General Features. — The Territory of Colorado is included between the 

 37th and 41st parallels of north latitude and the 102d and 109th degrees of lon- 

 gitude west from Grreenwich. It is, therefore, nearly rectangular in form, hav- 

 ing a length from east to west of about 376 miles, and a breadth from north to 

 south of about 276 miles, containing a superficial area of 104,000 square miles. 

 It is bounded on the north by the Territory of Wyoming and the State of Ne- 

 braska, on the east by Nebraska and Kansas, on the south by the Territory of 

 New Mexico, and on the west by that of Utah. It occupies the geographical 

 center of that part of the domain of the United States which lies west of the 

 Mississippi River ; and its eastern boundary is 330 miles west of the meri- 

 dian of Omaha, on the Missouri River. Denver, its capital city and princi- 

 pal town, situated 85 miles south of the northern boundary line of the Ter- 

 ritory, is near the latitude of 39° 44', and is about 25 miles south of the 

 latitude of Philadelphia. 



Its surface is advantageously and agreeably diversified by mountains 

 and plains. The central portion of the Territory is traversed in a nearly 

 north and south direction by the main range of the Rocky Mountains, 

 whose crest line, at an altitude varying between 10,000 and 14,000 feet 

 above the sea, divides the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Pacific. 

 Eastward from the foot-hills of this main range, the surface of the country 

 slopes off gently toward the Missouri River, forming a broad, rolling prairie, 

 the average elevation of which, within the limits of the Territory, is between 

 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea. This wide expanse of level or gently 

 undulating surface includes about two-fifths of the whole Territory, or 40,000 

 square miles, covering an area about as large as the State of Ohio. It em- 

 braces the valleys of the South Platte and the Arkansas Rivers. Some of 

 the more favored portions lying along the tributaries of these streams are 

 already under cultivation, producing excellent crops ; and it is believed that 



