The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-13
THE KLONDIKE GOLD.
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY AT oBERLIN
COLLEGE ON ITS SOURCE.

the Dfsintegrated Mother Loden-This
Country Must Hold on to Her Treaty
Rights In the KIondike Region.
The discovery of gold in large guam
titles on the Yukon river is by no means
unexpected. Eleven years ago the last
word I heard as left Juneau was the
pledge of a returning tourist to meet
his friend the next summer and prospect
in the Yukon region.
The great mass of gold bearing quartz
at the TreadweIl mine, near Juneau,
was what might be expected, and at the
same time what might be the limitation
of the supply. For more than ten years
that mine has furnished more than ST.
900, 600 of gold annually, but it is not
like ordinary quartz mines. 1t is rather
a great, isolated mass of quartz with
gold disseminated all through it. While
its worth is great, its length is limited.
Little is known about the geology of
the Yukon river, where the Klondlke
mines have been found. Being placer
mines, the gold may have been trans
ported many miles. The means of trans
portation are both glaciers and rivers.
The Klondike region is on the north
side of the st. Elias Alps. Alaska was
ice. The glaciers flowed both north and
south from these SUBMITS. Dawson and
Professor Russell both report well de-
fined terminal moraines across the up
per Yukon valley. The source of the
KIondike gold, therefore, is from the
south.
Placer mines originate in the disin-
tegration of gold bearing quartz veins
or mass like that at Juneau. Under
subaerial agencies these become dis
solved. Then the glaciers transport the
material as far as they go, when the
floods of water carry it on still farther.
Gold, being heavier than the other ma
terials associated with it, lodges in the
crevasses or in the rough places at the
bottom of the streams So to speak, ma
ture has stamped and ''panned" the
gravel first and prepared the way for
man to finish the work. The amount of
gold found in the placer mines is evil
dence not so much, perhaps, of a very
rich vein as of the disintegration of a
very large vein.
The "mother lode" has been looked
for in vain in California, and perhaps
will be SO in Alaska. But it exists
somewhere up the streams on which
the placer mines are found The dis
covery of gold in glacial deposits far
away from its native place is familiar
to American biologists
/ have encountered placer mines in
glacial deposits near Aurora in south
eastern Indiana, in Adams county in
southern Ohio and near Titusville in
western Pennsylvania. where, I see,
there is a new excitement. But in all
these cases the gold had been brought
nv cyIaoial
from Canada or the region about Lake
Superior These gold mines were near
the edge of the glacial region, where
there had been much asserting action
of both ice and water.
1t is evident, however. that in Alaska
the transportation of the gold has not
gone SO far The difficulties of this
transportation into the Klondike region
and the shortness of the season will
continue to be great drawbacks to work
ing the mines. The pass north OF Chill
kat is 1000 feet above sea level and
but a few miles back from the ocean.
There is no possibility of a road over
it. But from Taku inlet, near Juneau,
reader access can be had. This route
was followed by Sohwatka and Mr..
HAYES of the United States geological
survey few years ago and has been
partially surveyed with reference to a
railroad line and reported to be avail
able The only other way is by river
which is open to navigation only
short time each year and is great way
around.
The general climatic conditions on
the north side of the mountains are
much better than those on the south
side. On the south side the snowfall is
| -e-1.i
is drier Schwatka and Hayes went in
the summer down the Yukon valley
about to the Klondike region, and from
there struck off west, passing to the
north of Mount st. Elias and down the
Copper river. They had dry weather all
the time, in which camping was pleas
ant, while Russell the same season was
driven back by inclement weather from
ascending st. Elias on the south side.
It is therefore not impossible that ex-
plorations southwest of the present gold
fields may be carried on with compare
tive ease. But at present that whole
region is bare of means of subsistence.
There is imminent danger that many
will get in there before winter with in
sufficient means and starve. Eyentu-
ally the reindeer which Sheldon Jack
son is introducing will be available
both for transportation and food. being
much superior to dogs in that they can
procure their own food. But for the
present every necessity must either be
packed over the Chilkat pass or brought
around by way Of the Yukon.
AS to the ultimate yield of the mines
or the prospect of finding more, we have
nothing but conjecture to go upon. The
biologists who have visited the region
were not the ones who discovered the
gold. What the prospectors have found
points to more The unexplored region
to- l,cS