90 eos INJURY. BY SMELTER WASTES. 
of Deer Lodge Valley and Warm Springs Creek Valley, and is near 
the Hell Gate and Helena National Forests and certain other public 
lands. To the north, south, east, and west of this valley are quite 
high ridges of mountains which are cleft here and there by the val- 
leys-of small creeks, of which Warm Springs Valley is one of the 
largest. Down the center of Deer Lodge Valley runs the river of 
_that name, into which is carried part of the tailings and slag from the 
plant and the wash from the dumps and slime heaps. As before 
mentioned, this river is used for irrigation purposes, although a 
large number of the farmers say- that it 1s injurious and prefer to 
cet their water from small creeks coming down from the mountains on 
either side, only using the river water when it is absolutely necessary. 
It is only near the tops of ridges and beyond them and along the val- 
leys of the various small streams that the land is forested to any 
extent. Besides this, forest fires have swept over certain of the 
mountains in the past, so that all dead timber can not be ascribed to 
sulphur dioxid from the smelter. However, enough trees remain 
within a radius of 10 to 15 miles from the smelter, which have not 
been injured in any way by the forest fires, crowding, Insect pests, 
etc., to enable one to observe the damage caused by sulphur dioxid. 
The three principal kinds of trees in the neighborhood of the smelter 
are the lodgepole pine, juniper, and red fir. The difference in 
their resistance to sulphur dioxid fumes is very marked and can 
easily be observed. 
Immediately surrounding the smelter practically all trees are either 
dead or severely injured. A very few trees still stand, to which those 
who do not believe in the injurious effects of smelter fumes point with 
pride as examples of the fact that sulphur dioxid does not injure 
vegetation. Since, however, hundreds of the same kinds of trees 
are killed outright at ten times the distance from the smelter, the 
force of the argument is entirely lost and the few seemingly uninjured 
trees near by only appear to a disinterested person as curious ex-_ 
amples of individual resistance. 
NORTH OF THE SMELTER. 
Going north from the smelter a trip was first made from Anaconda 
in a direction slightly east of north, until the road running along the 
east side of Deer Lodge River was reached. This road was followed 
to the vicinity of Race Track. Here the river was again crossed and 
the road running on the west side of the Deer Lodge River was fol- 
lowed as far as Deer Lodge. On the return the same route was fol- 
lowed, except that the trip along the east side of the river was con- 
tinued farther south to a point beyond J. R. Perdee’s ranch. Various 
samples of cattle-food materials, soils, and Deer Lodge water were 
collected and observations on the general appearance of the vegetation 
~ were made. It was noted that the bushes and trees along the streams 
