Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-07

road down the widest and toughest parts
! OF the Rocky mountains. Seated in the
cap OF the engine near the grimy fireman,
| VINO was shoveling bushels OF coal into the
furnaces, and on the other side Of the boil
| er from the stern-faced engineer / rode for
miles and mileS-it seemed almost an eter-
nlty to me-through vast snow-walled
gCrges, under massive overhanging rocks
IN ana out of tunnels and snow Sheds now
hai.glng above raging river and now
| shooting about curves into other canons
| equally as grand. The cab Of the engine
was walled with glass. and could see as
| Wen as though l had been riding on the
non snoWpiow fastened TO its front in
place or a cowcatcher. The great iron
| horse throbbed like thing of life 1t puff
| ed out vast quantities of smoke in two
| spiral columns, and as We neared one Of the
| little mountain stations it cut the cold air
with a steam shrek which made me thir X
| that all the souls in hades were loose in the
| ROCKIES and the pent-up agony of the
damned was concentrated in the escaping
steam Of that engine. After riding a while
however, ones nervousness goes off. You
see the care of the engineer, the parties of
watchmen stationed at almost every mile
of track, the frequent snow sheds, where
| the danger is the greatest, and you can
then note the wonders of nature about you
| The scene changes at every turn OF the
great wheels of the locomotive. Now the
mountains on both sides OF the track rise
almost straight upward In a snowy wall for
hundreds upon hundreds-it seems to me for
thousands-of feet. shutting out the sun, and
their tops kissing the pure sky. Now you
shoot out into the open, and there is a long
| vista of ragged hills, which rise one above
| the other till they fade away into the glacier
| peaks Of the horizon. Here a great river
| Of blue ice runs for miles along the track,
and you know you are almost at the head
waters of the Columbia, which goes on its
course down through Washington and Ore
gon and empties into the Pacific. Further
back you saw the Ssska tchewan river fiow-
ing toward Winnipeg and Hudson bay, and
a few miles further you will find the rocky
blue Frazer blowing its way through great
gorges and over the golden sands which so
excited the gold hunters in the days Of
early California, and which, by the use of
modern dredging machinery, / am told bid
fair to excite them again. On through these
waters into scenery which almost takes
away your breath. You think of the Texas
cowboy who made his pile and awoke one
morning amid the finest of the mountains
of Switzerland. His life had been spent on
the plains, and the grandeur filled his SOUL
till he could contain himself no longer and
he threw up his hat and yelled not irreyer-
entity. but honestly, these words, "Hurrah
for Godr'
Placer Mining.
Speaking of Frazer river and its gold de-
posits, this was. you remember one of the
richest placer rivers of the world along late
in the ifties, and something like fifty mil
lion dollars worth OF gold has been
washed out Of the sands OF British Column
-
however. and much of it has been inacces-
sib!e to the placer miners. 1t is known,
however, to contain great quantities of gold,
and four different American companies are
now at work here trying to get this gold
out They have had dredge-like pumps
made, which are to suck up the gold-bear-
ing sand and throw il into sluice box,
which will extract the gold. The experiment
is new one, but 1t was tested only a day
sd
of the river, and some gold was the result.
talked last night with the president of one
of these companies-a Mr.. Goung-who
comes, / think, from Minnea polls. Said ne:
There is no doubt but there are millions
upon millions of dollars of gold in these
rivers, and l think there is no doubt but
that we are going to get out a large part Of
it. We lease certain strips Of the river
from the government at so much per mile
per year. We now have under lease fifty
seven miles, and we have men prospecting
and locating other tracts. Our machin IS
cost US from four to seven thousand dollars
apiece and i expect to see some of them
earning a thousand dollars a day. In a
month from now / can tell just what they
will do. Each machine ought to wash and
reduce one hundred cubic yards of gravel a
day, and We c. get out stuff from the very
center Of the river, where the most gold is
supposed to be. In the old days of placer
mining man did well to wash out three
cubic yards a day, and here he had to rely
upon the banks only"
An Expected Boom.
what will be the result if you succeed
as you expect"
1T will make this whole country boom.
don't think there is a doubt of our sue
cess, and 1 expect to see a great deal
Of placer mining done in this way in the
future. 1t is only applying to mining the
machir cry that has been used for years in
dredging. If we succeed it will bring MILL
| ions Of capital to Vancouver. and will make
tines good again."
How are the times here now"
"They are hard here and all over the
world. The only place know where they
are at all good is in South Africa and you
would be surprised to know what an emil
grafton is taking place to that country.
Within the past few months at least 100
have sailed from here alone, and others are
going. They expect to make fortunes in The
new gold mines there. As for me, / would
rather stay here"
Referring to the hard times, 1 met with
a curious evidence of them on my way
over the Canadian Pacific. At several OF
the stations l noted great piles of buffalo
bones which had been gathered upon the
plains and had been brought 10 the station
for sale. For some time there has been a
great demand for these bones from parts
of the United States. They are exported
and are bought at so much per car load.
the usual price being 800 per car of seven
tons. Since the panic, however, the Ameri-
cans have had no money to pay for them,
and the skeletons and odd bones lie bleach
ing in the snow waiting for the financial
skies to brighten.
Cinnamon and Opium.
There are about 1900 Cinnamon in this
town of 10000 people. Victoria, which is
about as large as Vancouver has a like
number, and IT is from here that many
Chinese are struggled into the United
States. There are numerous trails over the
border. and many are taken in by sea- We
have no good protection of our northern
boundaries. and 1 am told that quantities
of opium as well as numbers of Cinnamon
are taken In every month. The opium IS
prepared at Victoria, 1t is said, and SNUG
gled in. 1t takes only small package to
hold a pound, and each pound thus brought
in escapes a duty of SO. Ten pounds can
easily be hidden, and hundred or so
pounds can be carried in a canoe The hun
dred pounds would bring a profit OF 81 POO
so you see there is money in the business
doubt not that Uncle Sam loses hundreds
OF thousands OF dollars in this way every
year, and the only prevention would seem
to be for him to swallow up Canada or to
establish a more efficient line of customs
detectives along the frontier AS il is the
Canadians protect their border better than
we do. AT every station / saw their mount
ed police, and they have a very fine or
ganization to watch over their interests and