STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 193 



between which and the main range lies the rich and 

 productive country embraced in Deer Lodge and Mis- 

 soula Counties ; the Belt and Judith Mountains, sepa- 

 rating the sparsely-settled Muscleshell County on the 

 northeast and Choteau County on the northwest from 

 the rich mining regions of Meagher County on the 

 south, extending to the Missouri River, which is also 

 the northeastern boundary of Lewis and Clark County ; 

 the Bear's Paw and Little Rocky Mountains, still to 

 the north ; the Big Horn Mountains, extending into 

 Dakota, in the southeast, north and east of which lies 

 the unorganized county of Big Horn or Vaughan, em- 

 bracing the Yellowstone region, with Gallatin County 

 to the northwest, and Madison and Beaverhead lying 

 west and southwest ; and the western spurs of the Wind 

 River Mountains on the extreme eastern border. 



Coal of a good quality has been found in Montana, 

 and as rapidly as the country settles up and it becomes 

 necessary to develop this source of wealth it will, no 

 doubt, be found in great abundance, and perhaps of a 

 superior quality. Near Bozeman a fine vein- of bitu- 

 minous coal has been developed. Just above Benton a 

 promising vein has been opened ; above Bannock, and 

 also near Virginia City and on the Dearborn, veins of 

 from four to five feet have been discovered. 



The inhabitants of Montana are a generous, open- 

 hearted people, full of life and activity, and noted for 

 that boundless hospitality which is peculiar to the 

 frontier. They change their places of abode readily, 

 build up a town rapidly and with little or no ceremony, 

 and abandon it as readily with no symptoms of regret. 

 I n 17 



