It is worked by tributors, and the ore milled has paid about $250 a

ton.

Since December 1 of last year Mr. J. M. Adams, mining engineer, has been in charge of the Webfoot, Ida Elmore, and Owyhee Mills. He has made a good many improvements in the Owyhee Mill. He has, for instance, decreased the speed of the pans to 55 and increased the speed of the battery to 90 drops a minute, and now he can work 45 tons of Golden Chariot ore a day without any trouble. Two years ago the mill could not average 30 tons a day on the same ore, and now 45 tons are worked with less fuel than was previously used in working 30 tons. The settlers and pans have also been considerably altered, and there is a great improvement in the work done, and in the saving of quicksilver. There is now a railroad into all the slum-yards, and, when running on slums, $450 a month is saved thereby.

The following statements, furnished by J. M. Adams, esq., give the production of gold and silver of Owyhee County during the year from July 1, 1870, to July 1, 1871. It will be observed that the aggregate exceeds largely that of the previous year. Most of the figures are taken by my correspondent directly from the books of the different companies, and when he has been obliged to estimate amounts he has taken pains to be rather below than above the facts:

Statement No. 1 of the bullion production of the mines in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory, for the year July 1, 1870, to July 1, 1871.

Statement No. 2 of the bullion production of the mills in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory, for the year July 1, 1870, to July 1, 1871.

Bullion production of the mills in Owyhee County, Idaho Territory, &c.—Continued.

Report of the Golden Chariot mine for the year ending February 1, 1871.

The receipts and disbursements for the year ending February 1, were

as follows:

At the commencement of the last fiscal year, the company owed about $25,000, which, as will be observed, has been paid; in addition to which, $115,000 has been returned to stockholders. Dividends were resumed last September, when $20,000 was paid, followed in October by $25,000, and in November by $30,000. There was no dividend in December, but in January $40,000 was paid, equal to a monthly average of $31,000 since the resumption of dividends. There were 8,404 tons of ore crushed during the year, yielding $71.23 per ton. The total expense of reducing the ore to bullion, including labor, supplies used and on hand, freight on supplies, hoisting, hauling, and milling, was $40.51 per ton.

The company have no liabilities. Their assets, on the 1st of February, were as follows:

The company paid a dividend of $70,000 on the 10th of March. On February account $128,729 had been received.

Report of the Golden Chariot for the year ending February 1, 1872.

The secretary's report for the year shows the following items:

The disbursements for miscellaneous purposes embraced assaying, exchange, freight on supplies, machinery, interest, and San Francisco office and other expenses. The total assets aggregate $74,903, against $19,084 liabilities.

The following is a statement of the gold-dust and bullion (coin value) shipped by Wells, Fargo & Co. from Silver City during the year ending December 31, 1871:

This amount exceeds the treasure shipments for 1870 considerably. During the fall accounts reached me of the discovery of valuable mines at South Mountain, about twenty-five miles south of Silver City. Ac cording to the reports of the Idaho papers, the mountain on which the mines are located is quite as steep, though not so rocky and probably not so high, as War Eagle. On the northern slope of the mountain a magnificent stream of water, fed by numerous never-failing springs, wends its way through a deep and well-timbered gulch to the foot-hills and plain below. The principal mines hitherto discovered are contained in a zone of half a mile in width from north to south, and about three miles in length from east to west, near the summit of the northern slope of the mountain. The lodes run east and west, and dip to the south. They are from 18 inches to over 100 feet in width, and are embedded in a species of limestone. The ore is argentiferous galena, and also contains pyrites of iron and a small quantity of gold. A large number of assays have been made, ranging from $20 to $40, and even higher, in silver per ton. On the west side of the gulch above mentioned is what is known as Mineral Hill, on which are located the following-named mines: Cottonwood, Yreka, Yellow Jacket, Independent, Old Mortality, Narragansett, and Connecticut, most of them well defined and showing a rich quality of ore. North of Mineral Hill about a quarter of a mile are the Saint Croix and Saint Lawrence mines, and a mile and a half farther down the gulch is the Wide West. The Golconda, Galena, and Original run across the gulch near its head. The latter is 120 feet in width, and has been traced and located for nearly three miles. The Golconda is narrower than the Original, but is decidedly the finest looking mine that we saw in the district. A tunnel has been commenced on the ledge, opening up solid mass of ore from 2 to 3 feet in thickness. Around the run of the mountain, and on the slope east of the gulch, are the Summit, Warn, Arvica, Mona, Scandia, Imperial, and other mines, which prospect well and yield satisfactory assays. Extensions have already been taken up in all directions, and new discoveries are being made every day. Most of the locators are from Silver City and vicinity. It is one of the most favorable localities for mining purposes in this part of the country. But little labor will be required to get out immense quantities of ore. The gulches furnish splendid locations for furnaces and mills, with plenty of wood and water for all practical purposes.

A town has been laid out at the intersection of the two gulches at the base of Mineral Hill, and christened Bullion City. About fifty people were there in October, and more were going in every day. Wagons can be taken within 300 yards of the camp by going by the way of Camp Three Forks.

The Boisé Basin.-No important changes have taken place in the pla cer-mining interest of this section during the year. The supply of water held out until the end of September in the most important localities; but about this time the placer-mining season came to an end. The general results are reported to be quite as good as during the previous year. Detailed accounts, however, have not reached me at the time of this writing.

A few quartz mines have been worked during the year on Granite Creek, but the principal work in prospecting for and opening new quartz mines was done after the placer mines had shut down. Quite an excitement as to quartz claims was reported in the vicinity of Granite Creek during the last quarter of the year, and many new claims have been located and partly opened by shafts. A new quartz mill was started

about that time by Mr. T. S. Hart, which crushed ore from the Sawyer ledge. Enough ore was reported on hand to run the mill for the next ten months. The Gold Hill mine and its 25-stamp mill have been in operation as during the previous year, most of the time, and, I am informed, with satisfactory results.

The United States assay office at Boisé City, which was to have been put in operation in July of last year, is unfortunately not yet organized; but there seems to be no doubt that the impediments heretofore in the way are now removed, and that the office will shortly be in working order.

Warren's Camp and Northern Idaho.-My correspondent, Mr. Richard Hurley, who has for several years past furnished information on the above portions of Idaho Territory, writes to me in November that there has not been any change of note in the working and the production of Northern Idaho.

An article lately published in the Idaho Statesman gives a short history of the mines of these districts, and points out the causes why quartz mining has not assumed greater proportions. Its moderate tone and the entire absence of that flight of fancy, which unfortunately characterizes so often communications from western mining districts, entitle it to confidence.

Early in 1861 the attention of the masses was first attracted to the Oro Fino district; in the summer of said year the Elk City district became an attraction. In August of the same year the first discoveries were made in the Florence basin; and early in 1562 the Warren's district was first made known; since which time the Miller's Camp, Palouse, Gnat Creek, Moose Creek, Newsome Creek, Clearwater Station, the bars of Salmon and Snake Rivers have had their attractions, all of which camps have been worked to a greater or less extent ever since their first development. The summer of 1862 witnessed the presence of the largest immigration to the Florence district, and the remarkable yield of that district in 1862 and 1863 is generally well known to the whole country.

In 1863 the discovery of rich mines in the Boisé Basin caused much of the larger portion of the miners then in the northern districts to drift south of the Salmon range, so as to be among the first to select the best locations in the new district, and the early disclosed richness of the new district and its continued prosperity held them fast, till, with few exceptions, the last tie which bound them to the northern districts had been severed. New developments and new enterprises, combined with the continued success of the first discovered camp of Boisé, have bereft the northern camps of the requisite mining population and mining capital and skill essential to the full development of the mining resources of the north. Especially has this been the case in reference to quartz mining.

But nevertheless there has been an annual product of these northern placer mines, from the period of their first discovery up to the present time, by the labor which has remained, that we think will equal, for each day's labor, that of any other district in the Territory.

As an evidence of this, in none of the camps has the price of day labor of white men in these mines fallen below the sum of $5, and yet in the majority of cases the employer has made a profit upon said labor.

Within the past two years Chinese labor has been introduced into several of these camps, and in that of Oro Fino district has proved highly satisfactory to the owners of claims.

Respecting quartz, it seemed to possess no attractions in these northern districts until the summer of 1865.

During that summer and fall several ledges were discovered in the Florence district, and many claims were located, and some of them prospected during the following winter, but with unsatisfactory results. In the summer and fall of 1866 about one hundred distinct ledges were discovered in the Warren's camp and immediate vicinity, the surface prospects of many of which were highly satisfactory.

But few miners then in the district were conversant with quartz, and the imagination of many was greatly excited as to their richness. But nothing more than surface prospecting of these ledges was done till the fall of 1867. During that fall, and the early part of winter, several arrastras and two 5-stamp mills were constructed, and during the winter and spring of 1867 about 1,500 of ore were extracted from seven ledges and reduced for free gold, the average yield per ton ranging a little more than $37. But all