The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-02-01

James A. Campbell writes TO the Ores.
cent City (Del Norte county Ne,cs the fol-
lowing from Troublesome Point, Yukon
river, Alaska:
When wrote you before We had opened
our claim in now way and had ust
tapped the pay dirt which WAS good, and
water was plentiful Heretofore We have
had no dry weather after July, but IL has
beat all records this year. for we have had
little OF almost no rain and il is very cold,
so we have not done q tap OF work since
July 8. IL froze the night OF the 4th
Of July as thick as a window pane In
large pools Of wafer and on the ilth OF
August il troze ice in a tub three-quarters
of an inch thick. In the mountains II is
co der. and the water stops very suddenly.
At present We have just enough wafer to
sluice the top of the ground TO our pay
dirt; the ground that we are now siuicing
off would pay from s. to Sl2 per day II
the water was plentiful.
Our claim is an old channel about $50
feet from the river and about twenty-five
TO thirty feet from the top. II il thirty
feet from what has been the middle Of the
river to the edge, is eight feet deep at one
edge, three feet deep at the other and fifty
feet wide. Thisdirt pays from SIS to SIS
per dav shovelng in eluice-boxes. Ill
luck attended VS.. however; the water
gave out suddenly and materially reduced
our profits. If our ground had held out
we could have cleared easi yfrom 81 900 to
q, 900 a share; but as It is we have cleared
$50 share. We will certainly get out
few hundred more before il freezes.
am going over to a new district tomor-
row just TO see it. They have struck IA
dozen gulches in that country, one big
one. There are fity.three locations OF
500-foot claims. From what | hear the
prospects are good. In short time three
men have taken out 500 ounces OF gold,
and a great many claim to have good pros
poets. A vel posted man told me that
owing 10 the high location OF these claims
they could not he worked more than two
and half months in the year. / tell you
10 makes a man grow gray very quick 10 sit
and Look at good paw which is frozen aud
possibly will bs for ali eternity. / have
seen from $1,000 to $1,000 90 more than
once in this country. Last spring | put
hole through a glacier. tapped tn. bottom
and struck what would be good Vuch if
the glacier ever meIts; but until il DO g it
is good for nothing. OF course. / was
broke and in debt in the spring. But
after ALL | must say like this life better
every dav.
There is large company here with no
opposition that cinches Us for all it can.
A new company is expected. There Is no
reason why We should pay such eytrava-
CANT prices. The Berng sea is safe for
three months in the year. Look at the
tubs that 90 sealing and whaling every
year. and very few are lost And there
never was as good river foT transporta-
ton as the Yukon. 1t is wide AMI deep
unless II be at the mouth, which is re-
ported to be shallow; but il is generally
believed that there is a deep channel en-
.tering il, the location OF which is kept a
secret BY the company to keep out ocean
vessels. for shou q they enter the BAY
they could easily go to Fort Yukon.
The river is cleared by the heavy run of
ice. which even grinds out bars in the
middle of the river. Think of such heavy
ice, breaking from the head, moving down
and crushing the standing ice, hut little or
none at a ] thawed, in one mighty sweep
1t ia grand sight In three days after it
passes the river is clear
We paw SIS per 100 pounds for flour.
S25 per 100 Tor cornmeal, buckwheat and
oatmeal. 40 cents per pound for bacon, -
cents per pound for butter, 80 to 81 CENTS
per pound for dried fruits and everything
in proportion.
1 am eighty miles up Forty-Mile creek.
1t costs 10 cents per pound to get freight
here in the summer. All OF the hauling
is done by dogs. there being usually lrom
four to six in team. 1t is not uncom-
mon to see ten or fifteen teams in a string
Good dogs sell from Sl5 to SD apiece.
Each one can haul from $50 to 200 pounds
day, travelling about twenty miles. L
sod my dogs last spring, as | had no food,
am going to hire my ireighting this
winter.
I had a big team. Old Woolly. a
Russian terrier, was my wheel dog.