Show TheM the black lacis hills i tEx extract tract from fhe the illien repot fot 0 tr P eo logist 0 the slack slach hills jung jims 22 west Vet of the meridian aund arid south of the parallel of latitude the oldest rock exposed is the tha great i at carboniferous limestone a almost ma t horizontal in its bedding ed ty by sandstones and bf triassic sio and jurassic age agla which containing no valuable minerals completely seals forever the tho older strata from view east of the loth meridian jn in dakota is a great development of metamorphic slate quartzite and abd granite containing numerous veins and masse masses s of quartz and it is here that thab the mineral wealth of the hills 1 it tobe i sought for and found foulad it it elsta elsts exists this park country is characterized by ridges of grau grab grabine gra kra bite lle ile gneiss inelss and quartzite traversing it from from north to too south uth and alternating with beds of softer slates which alave been removed by denudation and produced broad level swales of graba grasa land between the pine and ridges of tha the harder achs numerous veins and jve Jie greated masses of white translucent quartz appear traversing the strata strahl 14 in the direction of the strike often the e quartz is of a beautiful rose ajor anid arid almost invariably shows thades thados of mineral matter in the gaoat e slate veins of 1 limonite I nig nid J nIte lion iron ore more or dr less intermixed etith alati and quartz are occasionally found but it if they con contain guldi guidi gald I 1 have been unable up to the present tin tir time a e to detect it with the means i aticy abl aul my disposal fi fifteen ml miners minors tiers have located claims on the peek b tiete liete re built bulit dams and small email sluices but hut they have no gold K i show abow a the result of their hir alit aili anil tile the reports they give jot of the richness of the tile Z gravel r 01 0 1 barb bars nyer are greatly exaggerated thes they re port from five to T 7 hents bents to the pan but I 1 selected oile olie luf f their hest best Prospect prospecting Irig shant shafts sand and washed out nine buckets of tho the average gravel equal to eighteen paha paus pans v a rocker and obtained 12 22 cents centa worth of gold or about abati th ax grains troy this would beat at 0 1 tid tiu df f U 1 cents to the pan or about per pee ai cubic bie ble yard but the avera average of the Whole flat will bo bd much less taku thi this s al IT though jn in some sonic 01 amee akee a a few pans us of earth can be lie scraped off the thel bed rock that th atwIll will yield baglier higher results the gold is in small smail s M till flattened fattened grains with very little lino fine dust accompanying lying it and sats appear appearance arice atice that it ha has s wean bean larripa far by the action of hyater water but has liar most probably been derived from quartz veins in the about aboul the tile headwaters head waters of the stream and my py prospecting seems to show A a general diffusion of small 9 tit lbs of gold over oven a largo aren area irea while the tile action of tile the has locally concentrated it in limited channels and bars there is no coal of or m carboniferous azre age but I 1 saw niong along the cheyenne beds of cretaceous which on further examination may prove pro e valuable there are also ulso beds of clay iron ore of good quality ty in the ju jurassic rassie slates blates aboul the western baso of the hills bills tw dror hadin Hh din has estimated that nearly ta miro wiro the tho whole area is covered bovere y jj i th hiu hil aa heavy growth of pine plue tio timber aud and I 1 should judge lils his to have been carefully made f it is isi the finus ping ponderosa kno i g generally ell eli braily brally as norway pino pine andye and yellow llovy pine the tho trees are straight 0 free from limbs for one half their height and find will furnish logs averaging T from twelve to twenty inches irn iri diame torand fifty or more fechin length I 1 have seen some trees abong the tho creek bottoms that were in height and two or three feet through at the ground the wood is soft straight strai glit but rather gather coarse grained easily split but hut has lias not so great a transverse tieng strength lieng th as asi our eastern n pine there is a little the eastern streams and in the elevated northern portions the tho pine is partly replaced by a tall october slender black spruce used by ahe indians for lodge poles the flora of the hills bills is intermediate in its character between that of the mississippi valley vailey and the rocky bocky mountains and plants peculiar each here hero to be growing side by side the soil MI rich richand and d deep and ta iu lix the along the small smail streams is and peaty often several feet depth producing a heavy of bottom grass suitable for buy hay along the tho hillsides hill sides through forests and evell on tho the tops where tha th rocks nie are bysell by soil soll a iod pod growth of t ass is everywhere to bo be found and nd th the shelter afforded by tile the woods and deep deceli valleys makes this country admirably admi raly adapted for stock raising purposes water wafer excellent quality is abundant fi nine fine lie fie spring springs arn arft to be found all through the hills and inee ince I 1 havo hayo been this reign reihn region we have havo frequent showers of rain |