The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-02

kon is unusually good; there are four
doctors in Circle City, but about all
they have to do is discuss the situation.
One of them is making preparations
to take in stock of drugs and open
store, which will be the first drug
store in the world north of the Attic
circle
This last seasons work has developed winter
mining in the interior into a science. Some
thing that never heard of in the Cali
fornia digging was done on nearly every
claim in the Interior and that is drifting
When gold was first discovered in the Yukon
valley the great drawback in operating sue
cessfully the rich placer mines was the fact
that the auriferous gravel was frozen into a
solid mass, which the rays of the summer
sun could not melt, ana with which the
methods usually employed in washing out
gold were completely unable to cope. There
seemed to be no end to the depth to which
the frost penetrated the earth's surface. In
a good many places in the Yukon no shaft
or prospect hole has yet been driven deep
enough to reach unfrozen gravel. There are
many places where the frost does not extend
to a great depth, but no one has ever been
able to account for these
Various ways were tried by the miners for
several years to expedite. the SLOW way OF
the sun in thawing out the pay gravel. In
the long summer days the sun would usually
take the frost out of about four inches OF
gravel in twenty-four hours. When a miner
struck a claim it was likely to take him one
season of constant work to get his pay gravel
uncovered. linen ne lay -1QiS WHOle lUu6
winter waiting for the time to come when the
sun would thaw out three or four inches a
day of pay. gravel SO that ne could begin
to pan. All sorts of efforts were made to
work the frozen dirt, but without avail.
Picks were found to be Of no use. The heavi-
est blow made but little more impression than
it would have done on solid block of granite.
Experiments were made with dynamite, but
| heavy shot resulted only in blowing out the
| pot hole'' and had no effect whatever in
loosening the surrounding gravel. Hydraulic
| pumps were equally futile, the streams from
| the giants serving only to bore hole in the
banks against which they were erected.
Up to two years ago the only scheme that
had been devised for working these shallow or
| summer diggings was to strip. OFF the heavy
coating of moss and allow the sun to get at
the gravel but the summers were so short
that claims that would not pay an ounce to
the shovel were not worth working. Ninety
| season. Two years ago, however, two men
| on the Birch creek diggings tried the scheme
| of keeping big fires going all the time on
| their pay gravel. They got their claim opened
| up ready for work in the summer and when
! the winter came instead or going into Circle
| City to spend their time leaflng around the
| dance houses they stuck by their claim.
| They found that a big fire burning all night
| would thaw out copule of inches of gravel.
| In the morning they would scrape away the
| remnants of the fire, lug their gravel into the
| cabin, and at night build another fire. They
| kept this UP al winter, and when the ice
| went out in the spring they had a big pile OF
| dirt ready to pan. They washed $4,000 OF
| dust out of that pile of dirt for their winter
| work.
That was the beginning Of winter work in the
| Yukon. This last season has seen it carried
| probably as far as it can go with the facilities
| now at hand. Men do not wait now to burn
| fires on claims that have been opened up.
| Prospecting has been done by burning hoes in
| the gravel With the pay streak fifteen to
] twenty-five feet beneath the sarfaee it is i'm
practicable and almost impossible, to remove
| the barren earth lying above it. A huge pile
! of logs Is fred the spot where 1t Is
| proposed to sink, and allowed to burn every
i night In the morning the thawed-out gravel
/ is removed. Sometimes the shaft sunk in this
manner Is carried down foot day. When
| the shaft gets pretty well down below the
surface more rapid advance is made. By
| keeping this operation up steadily the pay
| streak finally is reached, and then it is COM
> paratively easy manner to ascertain the prob
/ abe worth of the claim. If the gravel pans
an ounce or two day more fires are built at
| begun with the pay streak the same as in
! quartz lode.
The fires are always made at night The
! logs are heared up just before the days work
! is finished. If the amount Of fuel is gagged
| properly nothing remains in the morning hit
| have all escaped and the work Of shoveling
| the loosened gravel can begin without delay.
| A windlass is erected over the shaft and as
| fast as the bucket is filled the gravel is
| hauled up to the surface and dumped in a
! pile in a place convenient for washing as
has reached e. short distance underground the
| bitter cold makes no difference to the miner,
| and he works in comparative ease and COM
! fort. AS distance from the shaft. Is gained
a wooden track Is laid on the floor of the tun-
| mex and the car pushed BY hand Is employed