26 
THROUGH WONDERLAND . 
notwithstanding that upward of $200,000,000 worth has been extracted from 
its soil. 
Among the many famous mines on the eastern slope of the mountains 
are the Drum Lumon, shipping $80,000 worth of bullion per month, of 
which fully one-half may be set down as profit; the Gloster, shipping $50,000 
worth per month; the Whitlach Union, long the most celebrated gold mine in 
the Territory; those of Red Mountain, said to be the most important unde¬ 
veloped mineral field in the United States; the Clark’s Fork, bordering on the 
National Park, and now yielding, and with no railroad facilities, 855 tons of ore 
per day; those of the Helena Mining and Reduction Company at Wickes, 
reached by a branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad from Prickly Pear Junc¬ 
tion, and known to have shipped as much as $125,000 worth of ore in a 
single month ; and the Lexington, which has produced silver ore averaging in 
assay value from $15,000 to $20,000 per ton. Visitors to the New Orleans 
Exposition of 1884-85 will remember the magnificent exhibits from the last- 
mentioned mine, as also those from the Cable and Drum Lumon mines, the 
latter including one solid chunk of high-grade ore weighing 1,715 pounds. 
The most valuable gold nugget ever found in Montana is said to have been 
worth about $3,200. There is a nugget in the vault of the First National Bank 
at Helena, weighing 47.7 ounces, and valued at $945.80. But the most interest¬ 
ing sight in the city is, undoubtedly, the process of assaying at the United 
States Assay Office, where may also be seen those marvelously adjusted and 
delicately graduated scales, by which the weight of even an eye-lash can be 
exactly determined. 
The next stage of the traveler’s journey westward from Helena lies across 
THE MAIN RANGE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
It is by way of the Mullan Pass—so named from the fact of Lieut. John 
Mullan, U. S. A., having built a wagon road through it in 1867, to connect 
Fort Benton, Mont., with Fort Walla Walla, W. T.,—that the railroad is carried 
over the continental divide. The highest elevation of the pass itself is 5,855 
feet; but, by the construction of a tunnel 3,850 feet in length, the line was 
made to reach the western slope without attaining a higher elevation than 
5,547 feet. 
It is not until Butler is reached, thirteen miles from Helena, that either the 
scenery or the construction of the road calls for special notice. But at that 
point the scenery becomes exceedingly picturesque, the rocks towering above 
the pines and spruce like the ruins of some ancient stronghold. From now on, 
too, the tourist will find constant employment in observing how the gigantic 
barriers, which seem to forbid all further progress, are, one after another, over¬ 
come. 
Amid scenery increasing in wildness and grandeur, the train pursues its tor¬ 
tuous course ; through Iron Ridge Tunnel, near which the track forms an 
