s of Colorado, desperadoes banished from Idaho, bankrupt
speculators from Nevada, guerilla refugees from Missouri, with a very
little leaven of good and true men--were gathered in. Few of them speak
with pleasant memories of that winter. The mines were not extensive, and
they were difficult to work. Scanty supplies were brought in from Denver
and Salt Lake, and held at fabulous prices. An organized band of
ruffians, styled Road Agents, ruled the town. Street murders were daily
committed with impunity, and travellers upon the road were everywhere
plundered. Care was not even taken to conceal the bodies of the victims,
which were left as food for the wolves by the roadside.

Next year, the discovery of richer mines at Virginia left Bannack a
deserted village of hardly two hundred people. It is a dull town for the
visitor; but the inhabitants have all Micawber's enthusiastic trust in
the future, and live in expectation of the wealth which is to turn up in
the development of the quartz lodes. We visited the most famous of these
lodes,--the Dacotah,--almost every specimen from which is brilliant with
little shining stars of gold. And deep down in the shaft of this lode
has been found a spacious cave full of stones of a metallic lustre,
sending out all the tints of the rainbow, and many-colored translucent
crystallizations, varying from the large stalactites to the fragile
glass-work that crumbles at the touch.

Leaving Bannack, the road ascends a very lofty range of mountains, and
passes by much wild and picturesque scenery. Mountaineers call these
ranges, where they separate two streams, by the name of "divides." They
have a scanty but nutritious herbage, and are for many months in the
year covered with snow. On many of them a stunted growth of hybrid pines
and cedars flourishes in great abundance. These, with the quaking ash
and cottonwood along the streams, are the only woods of Montana. None of
the harder woods, such as oak or maple, are found. It is inconceivably
grand from the top of this range to look out upon the endless succession
of vast peaks rolling away on every side, like waves in the purple
distance. High above them all towers Bald Mountain,--the old Indian
landmark of this section,--like Saul among his brethren. I have crossed
this range in the gray of a February morning, with the thermometer at
thirty-five below zero, and I never felt such a sense of loneliness as
in gazing out from our sleigh--little atom o