The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-02-09
MINES IN ALASKA
Engineer Quinlan of the
Mauna Loa Talks.
Good Mines Located But Dissen-
sion Lost Them Opportunities.
Four Men Dead.

James Qulnlan, assistant engineer on
the steamer Mauna Loa, is one of the
men vino has searched for gold under
all the trials afforded by prospecting
trip 10 Alaska. He was snow-bound,
and suffered and starved on Kodiak ISL
and. Quinlan and his companions had
a hard time of it, but the man who
has now made Honolulu his home port
can talk of the experience with very
little of shudder He and his especial
partner, Durham, another steamship
engineer, stood the pains and penal
ties of the enterprise better than any
of the others:
There were an even dozen in the
cooperative company, and they char
tered the schooner Golden Gate. fully
manned, and, as they thought, amply
provisioned. They sailed from San
Francisco in April, 1895, and. were 80
days making the objective point. The
weather there at this period was al
most perfect. Prospecting and building
were inaugurated. All hands were will
ing and industrious. A model camp
was established, and from time to time
the prospectors returned to headquar-
ters with most satisfactory specimens
of gold ore. 1t was low-grade, but there
was plenty of it. Early in September
they found several cliffs, almost noun
tains of gold-bearing banks. All were
highly elated. Besides the certainty of
enrichment they had in close view the
prospect of profitable settlement or
conclusion of the project. There had
been nervousness over the tenacity of
some OF the San Francisco men inter-
ested.
About the middle OF September the
Golden Gate set sail for the Golden
Gate. She carried all of the crew and
four members of the syndicate. The
eight remaining continued to prospect,
and test and build. Incidentally they
began 10 prepare for the expected Sc
we're weather. 1t was figured that the
schooner, if she had favorable winds,
would be able to return that fall. She
has not been back there yet.
ION the 18th of October" said Mr..
Quinlan, last evening, cit began to
snow This continued daily, and often
with terrific winds-regular nor'east-
ers-until the 18th of May next.
cit was cold all the time continued
the engineer. quietly. "The fall of
snow was so heavy that we could never
do better in the way of walking than
to waddle up to our waists A couple of
the fellows from Canada tried to make
snow shoes, but somehow could never
contrive anything of that sort that
would stand. 1t was an odd thing that
Durham and myself, who had just come
| Dooifa ho
media. stood the Arctic weather better
than any of the fellows who had been
accustomed TO severe winters all their
lives My friend and l made two trips
in ships boat we had kept to Karlock
settlement. They were short of pro-
visions there, but gave us all they could
possibly let go.
1--WE came down, finally, in the eat
ing to nothing but coffee and biscuits,
regular hard tack On returning in
the boat once from Karlock we were
given our greatest shock. She over
turned right at our beach, and with our
bruises and disappointment over the
loss of the stores, we were laid up a
full month.
Not considering the suffering at all,
would not winter that way again for
s., 900 in advance. We all came to hate
the sight of each other. Sometimes
the mere salutation of Good morning
would be enough of a preteXt for a
fight that would become general. Morn
ing after morning we would arise, speak
not a word, prepare for breakfast, eat
such as there was and go back to our
hunks a silent. sullen crew. We had
playing cards. but after awhile a game |
would mean a fight. We had a few |
books. but the fellows who did read |
knew them by heart in a couple of
months. There was some hunting, but |
never a thing was caught. The only |
game was few birds, and they were
very shy. Many times L carried gun 4
and waded in the snow till | was we'll /
nigh exhausted.
I'm summer the shadows near the |
beach were alive with fish, but in win
ter the schools were miles at sea. The !
United States Government ought to
have inspectors up in that country.
Now. 1 don't want to tell you any fish
stories, but with TWO hauls OF 600
fathom net, l saw the cOmpany's men
up there take in $4,000 salmon. This
was at Karlock. A launch and steam
power were used. The fault, or Grim
inality. was that besides the 90 600 sal
mon there were lIOuSelINiS VI NOil anu
halibut and other fish These outsid-
ers were simply chucked on the beach.
The companies should be prosecuted |
for not putting the intruders back into
the sea.
ooh, yes; life in the camp. Well, it (
was the same soul-trying thing right
along. Three of our mess died during
the winter and one afterwards at San
Francisco. We had no medicines, and /
the food was no good for weak men.
l tell you, it was tough TO offer dy-
ing man coffee and bareback. One OF
the fellows failed four miles from camp
and it took Durham and myself six
hours to get him into the log house.
That was one of the toughest jobs we
had. The passing away Of these men
there in land of snow did not seem a
bit like the visitation of death in a
-.