The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-09-04
IN ALASKA.
How the Land Looks to an Old Scout
and Miner.


An old pioneer Californian writes to
q friend and former mining partner in
this city, from Granville, Burrard In
let. B. c. 1t may be said, by way of
preface, that the writer has had most
extraordinary and varied experience.
About the year 1874, he resided in
one OF the then border states of the
west and was student of medicine,
and in very poor health-suffern ng
from consumption the doctors sad.
and it was agreed that nothing would
save him but trip across the Rocky
Mountains. He Joined party OF trap
pers and came through to Oregon in
that year. Afterwards he drifted down
into Mexico, and was hunting Al aches
on Mexican so when the war COM
menced in 1916, and was brought
close to deaths door with severe at
tack of fever. During his sickness he
was lken care of by an old Mexican
woman. who managed to keep him
hiuden from the civil and mil tary au
thoritics till he became convaiescent.
when he eluded the officials and made
his way to the American lines. convey
ing some. important information to Gen.
Tavlor. He then entered the spy service
and was kept busy TIL the close OF the
wal. often running terrible risks.
In 1913 he came through to Cal:for-
mia with Col. Graham's command. and
encountered the usual Weiss tudes of q
miners life in the pioneer days, in the
counties of Calaveras, Tuolumne and
Mariposa. He went north in the first
Frazer river excitement-then to
('o1ihnn ipc fn Ea1 fnrnJa hn
10 ned an expedition and went to Sou: h
America, crossing two ranges OF the
AIDES, for the purpose of prospect hg
the headwaters of the Amazon. The
enterprise panned out rich IN ha,r-
breadth escapes from huge serpents,
ev d sposed wild beasts, venomous
insect and mountain torrents but add
ed nothing to the wealth of the party.
He afterwa rds tried Arizona, failed.
and then turned his attention to the
frozen north, dining the Russian tele-
graph expedition as head explorer, and
subsequently engaged in several pros
pecting excursions under difficult and
dangerous circumstances.
FOR several years his whereabouts
has net been known to his California
friends till the reception of the letter
above ment oned. After a brief ac-
count OF a log ging camp, where he had
been putting IN his time for eighteen
months, he gives chapter of his pros
peciing and mining experience in Brit
ish Columb and Alaska. He went to
the St'ckeen or Cassiar mines in 1874,
when he met with an acc dent-get-
ting his right ann d:slocated, in corse-
quence of VIII ch he came to Californ,a "a
for repairs -afterward returning to
Cas5iar. After two or three seasons
of unsuccessful mining, he took up a
farm near the head of navigation on
the St;ckeen. The land proved pro-
ductiye, and he had good crops of po-
tatoes, cabbages, turnips, oats and
barley. Hay was his principal crop.
About the time he was fairly under
way in his agricultural venture, the
mines failed and the packers had to
take the trains out of the oountry-ut-
terly running the hay market, and as
'turnips and potatoes would not sell
for money his three years labor as Il
-tller of the SOL went for nothing, ex-
,cept to add to the sum of what he
knew about farming.
He then went to the Alaska mines at
Harrisburg, between Sitka and Chill
cot. There were some very fair placer
m nes in this ne! geborhood, along the
side Of mountain on the mainland
and also on Douglass Island. but their
extent was very limited. and they We're
all taken uo before he reached the
place. He writes that the climate in
that region is ..horrible le-everlast.ng
rain and snow" 1t is the worst
place in all Alaska. The mines are up
Gastenaut Inlet. The great glac ers
near the coast condense the clouds as
they come up the inlet, so there is rain
or snow nearly all the time.
On Douglass Island there are some
good paying quartz mines, and a big
mill IS now being built there.
In the Basin mines, on the mainland,
there is a great deal of galena united
with the gold in quartz, and some
very beautiful specimens have been
found.
The Indians are employed in the
mines and they are good workers.
They are accustomed to the rains and
m nd no more about being wet than
beavers and muskrats.
I'm their houses" says the writer,
r'there is a very strong odor-some-
thing Ike that of wet dog-rather un-
pleasant till one gets used TO it,
The Indians all along the Alaska
coast get plenty to eat; their bill of
fare including herring, salmon, hall
but, Goldfish, seals and whales. Fine
black tailed deer are very plentiful
along the coast-some of them being
marvels Ct fatness. In the woods
there is great abundance and varie-
ty of berries. The bears get so fat
they ''can hardly get about" Noun
tain sheep, marmots, minks, martin.
ermine, weasels, offers, foxes, and all
other fur-bearing animals are plenti-
full OF the feathered tribe there are
geese, ducks, looms and divers and
other water birds, several varieties of
grouse, eagles, hawks, and jay birds.
In summing up his experience in
that territory, he concludes that Alas
ka is rough looking country, but is
better than it looks. There is an
abundance of mineral wealth, but it is
hard country to prospect. The gla-
GERS, the fallen trees, the moss, but,
worse than all, the cold rains, are
enough to discourage the stoutest