The Republican journal., 1897-08-19
Our Washington Letter.
Especial Correspondence of The Journal. ]

still further stimulated by report COM
ing from London to the effect that the
Peninsula of Kamchatka, directly across
from Alaska. on the Asiatic side, is likely
TO prove as rich in the precious metal as
| our own fields. These statements create a
good deal of interest here, especially
among those who are following closely the
enormous gold developments of the world
which have recently occurred. An exami-
nation of the map of North America will
show at glance that the great gold field
of Alaska which is now being developed is
a part of the same general line of noun
tans which supplied the enormous gold
production of California, indeed, of the
same general line which produced the gold
of Peru, of Central America, of the United
States, and now of Alaska. Take your
range. and you will find that it seems to
cross the North American continent to
Asia at the Behrine Straits, and that the
extension of the general range across into
Asia covers the very country into which
the Russian government is now pressing
| gold Developments and the general search
for gold. The dispatch referred to above
states that Russian expedition has dis
covered twelve gold regions in the vicinity
of the sea OF Okhotsk, and it believes that
| the western peninsula OF the Peninsula of
Kamchatka will develop gold fields which
will, as the dispatch puts it, when opened,
''be second California.
''Whether the prediction of the Rus
SLAMS that they are to devlop gold fields in
kamchatka which will rival the early
history Of our California gold fields is to
be realized OF not said MI. Marcus
Baker, of the Geological Survey, talking
of this subject, certainly there can be no
doubt that the gold of the world has enor-
mously increased and is now increasing
wonderfully. There are two distinct gold
fields to-day which are producing gold in
very great quantities-South Africa and
North America. The Alaska fields are, of
course, part OF the same general line of
mountains which developed such wonder
full gold deposits in our own territory less
than half century ago, and whether the
mountains of Kamchatka and Siberia are a
part of the same general system or not, it
would not be surprising if these reports of
large gold deposits there should also be
confirmed. The fact is there is a greater
incentive to the production of gold to-day
then ever before. There are two or three
reasons for this: first, that silver is so
cheap that there is less incentive for it's
production and the people who had former
ly given their attention to the mining of
second, the gold mining and gold pro-
duction becomes easier every year as new
methods develop and new discoveries are
mace. Take the great gold fields of CAL
ifornia, which were supposed to be worked
out years ago; the cyanide process now
gives promise of making them again pro-
ductive, and it is quite probable that it
will be profitable to work over all the re-
jected material which was thrown away
by the men who covered that great gold
field, and produce from it by this cyanide
process great quantities of gold. This is
not unlikely to be the case further south.
in Mexico, Central America, and Peru,
where such quantities of gold were mined
many years ago. Add to this the gold de-
| &c
North America, and prospective Siberia,
and it is not surprising that the gold pro-
auctions of the world are more than keep
ing pace with the growth of business. AS
everybody knows, the gold productions of
the world have steadily increased during
the past few years those of last year
having been greater than any in the known
history of the world, while all indications
now point to still greater increased pro-
duction for 1897
Mr. Bakers remark that the gold pro-
such rapid strides suggests some inquiry
upon this subject That inquiry shows
that the gold of the world to- day is nearly
or quite three times as much as so years
ago. Mulhall, who has been widely quoted
in the papers of the United States in the
past few weeks, indicates in his latest
dictionary of statistics that the amount of
gold in the world, coined and uncoined
fifty years ago amounted to less than two
and half billion dollars Taking his
figures for 1890 and adding the production
since that time it would appear that the
gold of the world to-day, coined and I'M
coined, is over seven billions of dollars,
being nearly or quite three times as much
as it was fifty years ago. Had there been
no increase in the population meantime
there would be thus three times as much
gold for each person now as there was
half century ago. But the population
of the world has increased about fifty per
cent. in that time, so that the amount of
gold for each individual is therefore about
twice what it was at that time. This,
however, relates to the gold in bulk, and
not gold money. A further study of Null
hall and other statisticians shows that the