The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-08-30

UP 500 TO $500 to the pan. Placers that
paid 500 to $50 per day are considered not
worth working since the big strike. AS a
result Dawson is being filled up with idle
men, who were formerly good producers !;
TO this number is added the new men who
are pouring into the country, also expect
ing to find nuggets in every creek. There
were 1000 men in Dawson when left, and
there is every indication of there being
5000 this winter, with a great scarcity of
provisions.
"Circle City and Forty Mile, both good
settlements are entirely deserted. There
were only two men at Forty Mile when l
came down. All the claims in those dis
tricts, formerly considered excellent, that
is to say, they were good for home stake
in four or five years, have been abandoned
as too slow. a home stake Is an elastic
word, meaning a sum sufficient to enable
q man to go home and live upon his COM
petence or to 20 into other business. 1t
means $4,000 or $4,000, or $4,000, accord
ing to the man. For instance, l know q
man who came here from Kansas farm,
because he lost hope of ever being able to
pay the mortgage. He accumulated
enough in a couple OF years 20 pay the
mortgage and was satisfied and went
home to his farm. A man is now
ashamed TO go out of the country with
sums with which they would formerly be
well satisfied. Most anywhere man can
pan out from $40 to $50 day. On the
islands of the Yukon it elf, placers pan
ming $50 a day regularly in fine gold were
deserted Immediately when the Ell Do
radios big yield was reported. 1t is all
fine gold on The big streams and the
miners want coarse gold. They give up
claims which they own on other streams
to take lay on the Ell Dorado. Many
lucky miners assist their friends By giving
them LAYS out of which their friends have
often made fortunes, thus working on
shares"
l have secured from Dominion Sur
veyor and Police Commissioner Ogilvie
the following signed statement:
The first ATTEMPT at mining in the Yukon
Valley was made early in the seventies on the
heGdwaters of the Leslie River. commonly
known in the district as Hootalinqua. Moth
ing, however, was done at this time beyond
establishing the fact that fine gold was to be
found there. About ten years later mimi g
but at that time all the gold found was
fine gold on the bars OF the streams. The
gathering OF this gold required more care than
in the case OF coarse gold, and besides requires
the use OF mercury in its collection.
A few words describing the modus operandi
will be interesting 10 the uninitiated. As gold
is nineteen times heavier than water, the at
traction of the sands and gravel of the streams
reduces to so fine scale that 1t is easily car
ried away by swift current 1t is well
known fact that mercury and gold form an
amalgam. Assume now, an oblong box a 10
by II inches wide, or inches deep and II
feet long. In the bottom are placed what are
called rifles That is IL series of parallel stri ps
running !engthwise of the box, a half inch
or more apart. Now place three OF these boxes
end to end. so that one discharges into the
other in such position that there is a fall OF
about three inches 10 the foot Direct stream
OF water into these which flows the entire
length of the three boxes. The water must
have such force as TO roll down the incline OF
the sluice- boxes stones weighing six or eight
pounds often more. In fact, anything that is
not too large 10 get into the box. Now, con-
venient to the head OF the seI-boxes is pile of
earth, or gravel BE- airing gold, technically
known as the dump. The gravel and sand is
swept along over the Ripe of the course OF
the water. The heavy metalllferous constitu-
ents OF the gravel sink betR een the riffle-bars
and rem ain there.
When the spaces between the bars become
clogged and there is danger OF the gold or
other metalliierous parts running out in TO the
tailings, the flow of water is stopped. the
riffle-bars taken out and all found in the
sluice-boxes carefully collected and cleaned
up This is technically known as cleanup