The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-08-10
JUST OVER THE DIVIDE.

There is Where the Placer Miner
Hopes to Find Riches-His Outfit as a
Prospector and FIis Plant as a Mine
Operator-An Old Story That Will be
Repeated so Long as Man Loves
Riches-The Difficulties of Quartz
Mining,
The story of the hunt for gold is a
tragedy. 1t is an ancient yarn and not
yet told to the end, for while it COM
menced with the dawn of mans intel
ligence, it will only end with civiliza-
ton. 1t is a tragedy, for countless
lives have been destroyed in the open
ings of each chapter, but no tale of hor
rors has deferred its progress. 1t is
ever new. Its promises of life, wealth
and happiness, Just over the next d.
vide" are as alluring to-day as yester-
day or the day before. No sooner Is
one bubble explored, one reef robbed of
it's glittering particles, than another
bubble is blown, another reef is discov-
cred, the mad rush starts, and the sto-
ny is told again.
The worlds production of gold has
increased amazingly each year, and
vet from day to day it buys more or
what man needs to make him comfort
dDIe Ill lHlS Ndlt VI lCcii IL AoA' NAAS
United States produced only $939,OS5 In
gold This increased million or so
year until 1890, when over one hundred
million dollars in American gold was
turned into the marts of the world.
Then came the great decline in silver.
The silver miners abandoned their
claims and joined the army of the gold
hunters, and in 1896 the product of the
So TTy,;t
one hundred and twenty million dol
lars. Nearly all of this gold came from
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho,
Montana, California, Nevada, Utah,
Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico
and Arizona.
Going on down into Mexico it will be
found that the gold mines of that coun-
try are only a continuation of the great
mineral reef which ribs this continent
from the Behring Strait to the lsthmus
of Panama. In places where the army
of gold hunters has been concentrated
the most gold has been produced, but
as the pioneers have left the beaten
trails and prospected the gulches the
gold may have spread its confines until
no man shall say that where the inter-
nal fires of the earth have heaved the
great granite Lodges to the surface no
gold shall be found sprinkled through
the quartz veins which are coincident
or in the beds of streams which have
crumbled the quartz lodges into rolling
pebbles.
For many years past the advance
couriers of this army of gold hunters
have been pushing toward the North
Pole. The mines are always richer lin
the next gu1ch' to those restless spirits.
British Columbia first felt their inf1u-
ence and profted thereby. Gold mines
have been discovered there, and for
tunes are taken from the ground every
year. The true miner, the F'ortyniner,
or his descendant, wants no rocky
ledge which requires capital to work.
He wants free play, where he can
build his own primitive plant and put
his gains in an empty syrup can or a
buckskin sack at the close of each day.
To do this he must have placer dig
gings. So on they pushed to the fur
thest point of northern land over which
floats the American flag. Here the
great valley of the Yukon winds from
the sea around behind the tremendous
ranges of mountains which stand as
guardians over a land already we'll
protected by it's interminable winter
and everlasting SHOWS. Following its
winding" course for thousands of miles
these hardy pioneers found reward for
their labors, and when in 1894 Alaska
added a million dollars in gold to the
worlds supply, she obtained rank as a
mineral state, and the mining world
assumed an expectant attitude as to
what might come from beyond those
snow-cIad hills In 1895 more fortune
seekers entered the Yukon valley. The
story of their homecoming is the sto-
nv of the day, for the first ship has
brought more gold than came from
ALASKA in all the years preceding. An
other gold reserve has been discovered
which will stagger the strongest COM
bine to corner"
The history of the discovery of all the
great gold districts of the world is
alike. The climate, environment and
character of the people may cause
enough variation to give each discovery
a character, but as rule the process Is
the same. The great desire of all pro-
spectors is to discover a placer mine
This Is called the poor mans mine, for
with few dollars in equipment and
plenty of hard work he can secure the
gold that lies therein. The vast bulk
of all the gold in the world is carried in
veins of quartz which lie in various
kinds of Country rock" as the sur
rounding material is called This is
generally granite. AS the ground up.
heaved, the quartz veins were some
times exposed to a disintegrating influ-
ence of some kind, generally water
The quartz is ofttimes rotten" or soft
and readily yields. Crumblng away, il
was washed down the mountain
streams, carrying the small particles OF
gold with it. These, being heavy, set.
tied to the bottom, and if the bottom
was loose gravel or sand, they gradual
ly washed down to "bed rock" or some
dmpenetrable strata, which may be
rock, or possibly a tough clay. These
particles may finally come to rest many
miles from the ledge from which they
were broken, and the ledge may be en-
tirely destroyed or may partially re-
main to be discovered later on and be-
come mine.
The seekers after placer gold general