The Hawaiian gazette., 1897-02-16
MINES IN ALASKA
Engineer Quinlan of the
Mauna Loa Talks.
Good Mines Located But Dissen-
sion Lost Them Opportunities.
Four Men Dead.

James Quinlan, assistant engineer on
the steamer Mauna Loa, is one of the
men who has searched for gold under
all the trials afforded by prospecting
trip to Alaska. He was snow-bound.
and suffered and starved on Kodiak ISL
and. Quinlan and his companions had
hard time of it. but the man who
has now made Honolulu his home port
can talk of the experience with very
little of a shudder. He and his especial
partner, Durham, another steamship
engineer, stood the pains and penal
ties of the enterprise better than any
of the others:
There were an even dozen in the
cooperative company, and they char
tered the schooner Golden Gate. fully
manned, and, as they thought, amply
provisioned They sailed from San
Francisco in April, 1895, and were 80
days making the objective point The
weather there at this period was al
most perfect. Prospecting and building
were inaugurated. All hands were will
ing and Industrious A model camp
was established, and from time to time
the prospectors returned to headquar-
tiers with most satisfactory specimens
Of gold ore. 1t was low-grade, but there
was plenty of it. Early in September
they found several cliffs, almost noun
tains of goldbearing banks. All were
highly elated. Besides the certainty of
enrichment they had in close view the
prospect of profitable settlement or
conclusion of the project There had
been nervousness over the tenacity of
some of the San Francisco men inter
ested.
About the middle OF September the
Golden Gate set sail for the Golden
Gate. She carried all of the crew and
four members of the syndicate The
eight remaining continued to prospect,
and test and build incidentally they
began to prepare for the expected Sc
we're weather. 1t was figured that the
schooner, if she had favorable winds,
would be able to return that fall. She
has not been back there yet.
\ ION the 18th of October" said Mr.
/ Quinlan, last evening, "it began to
snow. This continued daily, and often
with terrific winds-regular nor'east-
ers-until the 18th of May next.
1T was cold all the time, continued
the engineer, quietly. The fall of
snow was so heavy that We could never
do better in the way of walking than
to waddle up to our waists. A couple OF
the fellows from Canada tried to make
snow shoes. but somehow could never
contrive anything of that sort that
would stand. It was an odd thing that
4 Durham and myself. who had just come
from South Pacific runs on the Ala
media, stood the Arctic weather better
than any of the fellows who had beer
/ accustomed TO severe winters all theil
Lives. My friend and l made two trips
lin a ships boat we had kept to KarlocF
i settlement. They were short of pro
visions there, hut gave us all they coulC
possibly let go.
I'VE came down, finally, in the eat
ing to nothing but coffee and biscuits
regular hard tack On returning il
: the boat once from Karlock we Were
given our greatest ShOck- ohe over
turned right at our beach, and with GU
bruises and disappointment over TIL
/ loss of the stores, we were laid up I
2 fun month.
Not considering the.suffering at all
: | would not winter that way again TO
S., 900 in advance. We all came TO hat
2 the sight of each other. Sometime
the mere saIutation of Good morning
would be enough of pretext for
2 fight that would become general Morn
: ling after morning we would arise, speal
not a word. prepare for breakfast, ca
such as there was and go back to on
; hunks a silent. sullen crew. We ha'
playing cards, but after awhile a gam
! would mean a fight. We had few
: books, but the fellows who did rea'
T knew them by heart in couple o
! months. There was some hunting, bu
never a thing was caught. The onl,
game was a few birds, and they wer
livery shy. Many times l carried gun