greatest copper-mining district in the world; the surrounding
hills are honey-combed with mines, and some mines are in the very heart of
the city itself. The best known of the copper mines is the Anaconda. The
annual output of copper from the Butte district almost equals that from all
the rest of the country together; the annual value of copper, gold and
silver aggregates more than $60,000,000. Although mining and its allied
industries of quartz crushing and smelting dominate all other industries in
the place, there are also foundries and machine shops, iron-works, tile
factories, breweries and extensive planing mills. Electricity, used in the
mines particularly, is brought to Butte from Canon Ferry, 75 m. to the N.;
from the plant, also on the Missouri river, of the Helena Power
Transmission Company, which has a great steel dam 85 ft. high and 630 ft.
long across the river, and a 6000-h.p. substation in Butte; and from the
plant of the Madison River Power Company, on Madison river 71/2 m. S.E. of
Norris, whence power is also transmitted to Bozeman and Belgrade, Gallatin
county, to Ruby, Madison county, and to the Greene-Campbell mine near
Whitehall, Jefferson county. In 1910 Butte had only one large smelter, and
the smoke nuisance was thus abated. The city is the seat of the Montana
School of Mines (1900), and has a state industrial school, a high school
and a public library (rebuilt in 1906 after a fire) with more than 32,000
volumes. The city hall, Federal building and Silver Bow county court house
are among the principal buildings. Butte was first settled as a placer
mining camp in 1864. It was platted in 1866; its population in 1870 was
only 241, and for many years its growth was slow. Prosperity came, however,
with the introduction of quartz mining in 1875, and in 1879 a city charter
was granted. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 Butte's increase in population
was 184.2%.

BUTTE (O. Fr. _butte_, a hillock or rising ground), a word used in the
western states of North America for a flat-topped hill surrounded by a
steep escarpment from which a slope descends to the plain. It is sometimes
used for "an elevation higher than a hill but not high enough for a
mountain." The butte capped by a horizontal platform of hard rock is
characteristic of the arid plateau region of the west of North America.

[Illustration: Plant of _Ranunculus bulbosus_, showing determinate
inflorescence.]

BUTTER (Lat. _butyrum_, Gr. [Greek: boutu