"From the mouth of the Big Horn," says Professor Hayden, "to the union of the Yellowstone with the Missouri, nearly all the way, lignite (coal) beds occupy the whole country.... The beds are well developed, and at least twenty or thirty seams are shown, varying in purity and thickness from a few inches to seven feet" (Report, p. 59).
The mountains are covered with wood, and there will be no lack of fuel in Montana. The timber lands of this Territory are estimated by the Land Commissioner to cover nearly twelve millions of acres,—an area as large as New Hampshire and Vermont combined. The agricultural land, or land that may be ploughed, is estimated at twenty-three million acres, nearly as much as is contained in the State of Ohio. The grazing lands are put down at sixty-nine millions,—or a region as large as New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey together!
Isn't it cold? Are not the winters intolerable? Are not the summers short in Montana? Many times the questions have been asked.
The temperature of the climate in winter will be seen from the following thermometrical record kept at Virginia City:—
| 1866. | Dec. | Mean for the month, | 31° | above | zero. |
| 1867. | Jan. | " " " | 23°.73 | " | " |
| " | Feb. | " " " | 26° | " | " |
The summer climate is exceedingly agreeable, and admirably adapted to fruit culture.
In July last Mr. Milnor Roberts, Mr. Thomas Canfield, and other gentlemen of the Pacific exploring party, were in Montana. Mr. Roberts makes our mouths water by his description of the fruits of that Territory.
"Missoula," he says, "is a thriving young town near the western base of the Rocky Mountains, containing a grist-mill, saw-mill, two excellent stores, and from twenty-five to thirty dwellings, a number of them well built. I visited McWhirk's garden of five acres, where I found ripe tomatoes, watermelons, muskmelons, remarkably fine potatoes, beans, peas, and squashes; also young apple-trees and other fruit-trees, and a very fine collection of flowers; and all this had been brought about from the virgin soil in two years, and would this year (1869) yield the owner over two thousand dollars in gold, the only currency known in Montana" (Report, p. 23).
This fruit and flower garden is about one hundred miles from the top of the divide between the Atlantic and the Pacific.