River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-09-19
UNDISCOVERED GOLD.
There Are Great Stores of 1t in the West
and Northwest


and Northwest
The fact that the partially explored
district of the Yukon tract. in Alaska,
yielded about two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in gold during the
last mining season is generally taken
to imply that the Alaska district will
be one of the most important American
gold producers in the near future, if
the means of access to aud communion
tion with that territory can be easily
maintained. AS yet the gold has not
been mined in what may be called
scientific manner, as the simple ma
chinery of the miners last year was
crude and i'll adapted TO the work
The climatic conditions are such as to
deter all but few resolute and expe-
rienced miners from much successful
work in the Yukon river district, al
though the returns of the successful
men have been very profitable.
In some claims the yield has been as
high as one dollar or one dollar and
fifty cents to the pan, and it is evil
dent that If water could be obtained
in satisfactory supply the gold fields
of Alaska might eventually show as
large an output as some of the most
amous camps of California This is
all the more noticeable for the reason
that only so small a proportion of the
gold belt of northwest Alaska has been
fairly prospected. For all that can be
asserted confidently TO the contrary.
the amount of gold already produced
in North America, large as il is. may
be insignificant compared to the out
put which will be made in the next
few decades
According to some reliable reports,
the gold belt of Alaska extends over
district of from seventy-five TO one
hundred miles, beginning at some
point in the Arctic circle and extend
ing down. IT is already known that
indications warrant the superstition
that the belt is at least nine hundred
miles long in Alaska and Canada, and
it would not be strange if it should be
proved that the gold belt extends prae-
tically along the whole of North Ar err
lea from the Arctic circle to southern
Mexico. 1t is true that in some parts
of Mexico gold has not yet been dis
covered; but it is also true that, on a
general plan, the gold belt may be said
to extend from Canada along the line
OF the Rocky mountains far into Mex
leo. and some of the richest mines Of
Mexico are probably still TO be discov-
cred, at least so far as the present gen
GRAFTON is concerned.
There is reason to believe that not
all the rich gold mines which were
known to the Aztecs IN the time of
Cortez, are known to-day, unless both
the statements OF the Spaniards them
selves and the legends of the Indian
tribes of Mexico are at fault. This be-
ing so, il is surely no great strain up
on the imagination to infer that the
territory along the Rocky mountains is
generally rich in precious metals-al-
though the geological formation in
certain localities is such that the gold
or silver-bearing strait are not near
the surface, but are at present and
may be always inaccessible to man
kind Yet, il a plat of the sections
which are rich in gold and silver
should be made, it would be readily
apparent that in general these districts
follow the line of the Rocky noun
tains.
hC AOhS VI &hdhAtOud
and British Columbia have not been
thoroughly prospected as yet, so that
it is impossible to speak with perfect
positiveness on this point, but it is at
least certain that, so far as any very
large tracts of the Rocky mountain sec
ton of North America have been exam
ined closely by skilled prospectors, tie
existence of rich mineral fields has been
brought TO light. Even as far north as
the Arctic circle il is now evident that
the gold fields extend; and, surely, it
is no unreasonable superstition that be-
tween the Alaskan fields and those of
the United States, new gold-bearing
territory will be discovered as civiliZa-
ton extends further and furthur into
the northwest.
The developments in Alaska. taken
in connection with those in South At
RIGA, make it reasonably certain that
there is to be no gold famine in the
near future. Some eminent scientists
of Europe have predicted that within
one hundred years tn, gold supply of
the world will be exhausted; but the
developments of the last two years
tend greatly to weaken the force of
such prediction. Viewing the situa-
ton dispassionately, it seems fair to
conclude that the gold production of
the coming century will not only be
far greater than that of the century
which is now closing, but that il will
also fail to exhaust the worlds stores
of gold as far as they shall have been
located by that time.-Roston Adver-