The National tribune., 1897-07-29

dust, which was taken to the United States
Mint and bought by Geographic order from
the Treasury Department
Immediately the outgoing steamers from
both Puget Sound and San Francisco were
crowded with applications for passage for
the Northern Eldorado. The people of the
| Coast, and especially those Of California
are particularly susceptible to fascination
by stories Of mining prospects. 1t was no
wonder, therefore, that the Coast at once
went wild. People living in the rest of the
country, however not educated up to the
IDEA Of digging money out of the ground
are less easily aroused, but in this case the
Juror seems to have spread throughout the
East, and before the reports from Seattle
and San Francisco were "a hours old New
Workers and Chicagoans were discussing
syhdicates, organizing companies, chartering
steamers and preparing for a wholesale
rush for our Arctic province. It looks as
though the gold excitement which worked
London to a fever heat three years ago on dc-
count Of the discoveries on THE Raid in South
Africa would be repeated, and we may an
ticipate an era of wild speculation in gold
mining stocks.
According to the story which comes from
returning miners, the bofanza BELT on Klon-
dyke Creek was struck last August by a
man named George Mccormick, a poor miner,
who has been living with Alaska Indians,
and goes by the nickname of Siwash
George"
It may be stated, in parenthesis, that in
stead of calling Indians bucks and
"squaws, as the plansmen do, the Indians
of the Northwest coast are called "Siwash u
and "KIutchmen."
The first claim was staked out on Bonanza
| Creek, small stream emptyng into the
Klondyke, on Aug. II, 1896, and since that
| time 800 claims have been located up to
the date Of the departure of the steamer
down the Yukon River June 49, Where a
year ago was nothing, there is now city,
named Dawson, having over 1000 inhabt-
ants, with all the attractions and character
| istics OF an old-fashioned mining town
| This population has been drawn from other
points on the Yukon, principally from
Foriy-Mile and Circle City. The existence
of the rich placer was unknown outside OF
Alaska, last Spring and therefore the rush
from the world at large had not begun when
the returning miners left.
According to reports, the region yielded
in the c'ean-up this past Spring something
| like s3,G00,000, and, according to the best in
formation obtainable from various sources
the area where other rich finds are likely
to occur is vast in extent, and many pre-
dict that next Spring, with the crowd that
sgoing in, not less than S50,00o,O0O in gold,
dust may be expected Very little prospect.
ing was done this Summer, because all the
men there were either engaged on their own
claims, or were working at SIS a day for
those who had struck it rich. 1t is said
that there was work in May and June in
the Klondyke region in washing gravel foi
5000 men, if they had been on the ground.
The placer belt discovered by Mccormick
stretches from So to 100 mites east Of the
1 Alaska boundary, and is in the Northwest
Territory belonging to the Canada.
The returning Argonauts say that they
have nine months of Winter; that last
Winter the thermometer fell to SO degrees