Evening star., 1897-07-29
A GOLD MINING ERA,
Extent and Successes Beyond the
Power of Anyone to Estfmafe

Extent and Successes Beyond the
Power of Anyone to Estimate.
New York Corr. of the Philadelphia Press
1t is said by those who are familiar with
the development of gold mining to be not
a mere coincidence that within two or three
years there have been opened up vast
treasures of gold, or that within the same
month there should have come the exciting
news from Alaska and the fascinating
story from the upahds Of Peru.
These announcements are the result of
systematic, painstaking and exhaustive
prospecting which has been going on every
where in the world where the earth has
been suspected of containing deposits of
gold. so that it was not strange. but en-
tirely reasonable. that almost Simultaneous
ly there should come these announcements
of the finding Of rich mines.
The announcement simply illustrates the
fact that great energy and capital have
been and are being expended in the attempt
to discover gold-producing districts and in
the working of them after their discovery.
In some places, as in South Africa, and
the new fields of Australia. the discoveries
were accidental. But ii is said that they
were in no sense accidental in Alaska, since
the ablest mining authorities of this coun-
try have long been convinced that sooner
or later very rich deposits would be found
there, and for that reason prospectors have
endured hardships worse than those of
Siberia in the expectation that their suffer-
ings would be sooner or later Splendidly
rewarded.
The depreciation in the price of silver and
the application of the cyanide process and
other economical methods of mining great
ly stimulated these undertakings, and part
ly explained the vast activity which has
this year resulted in making the efforts
perhaps as memorable any in the his
tory of precious metal mining.
In Wall street 1t is the common opinion
now that We are just entering upon a gold
mining era, the extent and successes OF
which are beyond the power of any one
to estimate, bat which will be surely so
great as to characterize the time as one
peculiarly remarkable for the enormous de-
velopment of gold.
1t is believed, too, that the excitement
will not be confined to any one region; all
the indications point not only to vast pros
pecttng and opening up Of new mining ter
ritory in Alaska. but also in British Colum-
bia, and .hen southerly until tho gold fields
of the Pacific slope are reached, not stop
ping with the boundaries of the United
States but continuing through Mexico. and
before very long being extensively carried
on in the Peruvian fields.
The president of the Mexican Central
railway, Mr.. Robinson, who was recently
in this city. spoke with some surprise OF
the fact that in the United States so many
persons are ignorant of the extent to which
geld mining has recently been developed in
the Republic of Mexico.
At the close. of the present fiscal year
there had been mined during the year
nttle ever S9,oUO,eto of gold, ana PRESIDENT
Robinson said that, with the extension OF
the railways to those regions where rich
deposits of gold are known to exist, the
mining Of gold will be vastly increased in
that republic, a conservative estimate being
that within a few years the Mexican out
put will be found to be from $25,OOO,OO0 to
$30,O000oC year.
What the Peruvian output may be de-
perds very largely upon the facilities for
reaching the gold district there. The Andes
have been surmounted, but the railway ends
only little ways beyond the top of the
path. Until 1t is extended to the gold fields
dependence must her entirely upon trans
portation of the ore by mules, although
the expert said thatsit, might be possible to
find Eavigable stream by which traffic to
the Amazon could be maintained.
1t Is hardly necessary.sto say that these
reports add to the nhea1thful and encour-
aging feeling in commarcial and financial
circles which have so remarkably charac-
terized the month of July, and. while there
Is no confidence that is accidental in these
exciting reports of vast discoveries Of gold
fields upon the western shores of the Ameri-
can continent, yet there is of course, some
thing OF cofncidence,in In the fact that these
reports come at the very moment when
the United states seems to be lifting itself
out OF the morass Of stagnadon and de-
preston which has characterized the past
four or five years IN s.