Ch. 1: Gold, Silver, Platinum in 1892

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	PRECIOUS METAL INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES.	85

	extend into it from adjoining regions. Of the geology of the State even less is known than with regard to that of Oregon. The western belt contains valuable coal beds, which have received considerable development during the decade owing to the demands made upon them by railroads and steamers, but no output of precious metals has been reported for this portion of the State. The Cascade range proper, which is largely made up of recent lava flows, has also yielded no ore bodies, but in its outlying eastern spurs rich gold ore bodies are said to have been found in eruptive rocks, which are probably of more ancient date than the lavas. The gold product of the State, though showing a creditable increase during the decade, is still very small and largely derived from small placer mines, the working of which is rendered easy by the abundant water supply afforded by the many considerable rivers and streams throughout the State. Deep mining was apparently only taken up toward the close of the decade and up to the present time its principal development has been in the northern and eastern portion of the State, in deposits that yield mixed ores carrying values in silver and gold, or silver alone. The eastern slopes of the Cascade range have yielded gold alone, and the northern slopes of the Blue mountains of Oregon both gold and silver. The entire silver product of the State has been inconsiderable, being not more than half that of gold, and has already fallen off very sensibly with the drop in the price of silver. It is from the development of gold vein-mining that a permanent increase in the mining iudustiy of the State is to be looked for, and what little is known renders it fairly probable that such mining may prove profitable in the future.



	WYOMING. *The precious metal production of Wyoming has thus far been too insignificant to be taken into account. The eastern and middle portions of the State, which were the first to be settled, are great plains of flatlying Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks, where metal-bearing deposits would not be looked for and which are preeminently adapted for pasturing cattle. The principal industry of the State has, therefore, been pastoral and the mining element in its population extremely limited; it is to this fact rather than to want of natural resources in minerals that the relative backwardness of its mining development is due. The coals

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