488 APPENDIX. 
Gold is found along the Columbia from latitude 47° to 49°, 
Unt there has been very little mining there, because of the dif- 
ticulty of getting at the bars. Miners have on several occa- 
sions undertaken to work in the placers of the Yakima and 
Wenatchee, but have been driven away by the Indians. The 
diggings along Clark’s River, called the Colville mines, have 
been regularly worked every year since 1855. The placers 
in the basins of the Salmon and Clearwater Rivers were dis- 
covered in 1861, and very little is known of them yet. The 
mines of these two streams may be considered as one district, 
extending from latitude 45° 30’ to 47°, and from longitude 
114° to 116°. The general character of the gold found in: 
the Clearwater placers or Nez Percés mines, as they are 
called, from the fact that they are within the limits of a 
reservation set apart for the Nez Percés Indians, is fine 
—that is, the metal is found in small particles; while the Sal- 
mon River gold is coarse. No auriferous quartz veins have 
been found in the basins of either river. The placers are 
found near the surface, and the gold is obtained by washing 
the dirt in sluices or long troughs, as in California. Some 
hill diggings have been found, but nearly all the mining as 
yet. is done in the beds, bars, and banks of small streams.— 
The western district of Washington has a climate exactly like 
that of England in temperature. The average temperature of 
the different months of the year is as follows: January, 38°; 
February, 40°; March, 42°; April, 48°; May, 55°; June, 60°; 
July, 64°; August, 63°; September, 57°; October, 52°; No- 
vember, 45°; December, 39°. The mean temperature for the 
year is 50°. The climate is very wet. Rain, sleet, and fog 
prevail during a large part of the year. The average amount 
of water falling annually is 53 inches, against 43 inches in 
New York, and 22 in San Francisco. East of the Cascade 
Mountains, the annual fall of rain, except near the Rocky 
Mountains, is not one fourth so much as about Puget Sound. 
The winters are very cold and the summers very hot.—'l'he 
largest, most abundant, and most valuable trees of Washing- 
