The record-union., 1897-07-29
HEAVY TRAFFIC TO
ALASKAN PORTS,
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has already found application to the
rich placers recently discovered on the
headwaters of the Yukon The gla-
cial action which has given topogra ply
to the Cl0ndyke region is more recent
by from one to two hundred thousand
years than the glaciers which carved
the canyons on the western flank of
the Sierra Nevada Mountains The
deposits from auriferous quartz are,
therefore, not overlaid, and if the
present indications are determinate of
anything they are conclusive of the
existence of the richest placerS ever
discovered. And it is not reasona BILE
not even probable-that these placers
are confined to the canyons of any sin
gle tributary Of the Yukon. Placer
mining has been successfully pursued in
California along a region embracing
at least a thousand miles of extent.
There is no instance of a confined and
limited area in which gold is found.
Wherever it has ben discovered the dis
covery has extended over broad areas
of analagou formation
1T is one of the fallacies of the hu-
man mind to assume that the sources
of gold are exhausted. There is a feel
ing that all the gold in the world has
been found; that the ardent search for
it has covered the surface of the earth :;
that there is no unexplored region in
which gold may yet be discovered All
the gold taken out of the earth by the
human family from the beginning to
the present time would not make a
block Of metal equal in size to an ordi-
nary two-story frame dwelling 1T is
utterly preposterous to suppose that
this small block Of metal is all there
is in the world. Substances in the
earth have an introactive relation. It
is Inconceivable that so small a guam
tity Of any given substance could form
any part or have any place in the con-
StructiOn of a world.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains ex-
tend practically to the mouth of the
Yukon. The general geological forma-
ton is the same. The age of the up
heayal is practically the same, and it
is becoming more and more apparent
that the Sierra Madre of Mexico. the
Sierra Nevadas of California, the Cas-
cades of Oregon, the coast ranges of
mountains from the isthmus to Ber-
ing Straits are referabIe to the same
geological causes and had their up
heaVal in the same period of the
worlds history. They were. therefore.
subject to the same changes, the same
glacial action, and with the mineral
development Of the Yukon we have
completed the discovery of gold at
short intervals throughout the length
of the entire range from the isthmus
to Behring Sea. There are vast undis-
covered placers in California overlaid
with subsequent deposits from erosion.
There are fabulous deposits of gold,
aur1ferous quartz yet to be made
known. The stories, therefore, of gold
discoveries on the headwaters of the
Yukon find confirmation in natural
probabilities as we'll as in the ship
ments of vast treasure which are being
received from that region"
Commenting on the future of the
country, he said:
The industries of a country are dis
covered only by inhabiting it. Coal
and iron will no doubt be found in the
Yukon basin. If they are they can be
worked more advantageously than in a
hot climate; the labor will be less Sc
we're.
The resources of a new country are
always discredited. In the early his
tory of this country the people who
had lived on the Atlantic seaboard de-
clared that the prairies would not
MAINTAIN large population. The alb
sence of coal and the general bleakness
or the country were believed to be in
superable barriers to it's settlement. 1t
was believed that the country would
be subject to destructive winds: it was
thought it would not be possible to
manufacture, as no coal was known to
exist in the great States of the West
like Illinois and Iowa, and similar
Things We're said Of California,
1T is very likely that large areas of
gold-bearing quartz viii eventually be
brought to light and with the present
development in quartz mining appar-
atus Alaska viii have a much better
start than California had. as Quartz
mining originated in this State. and
the early quartz miners had everything
to contend with"