The herald., 1897-08-13
ON THE YUKON
Continued from Page Five.)

Continued from Page Five.)
August TO- taking as a partner an ex-
ceptionally congenial young fellow
Jack Dodson, a customs officer from
Circle. Within 10 days we were offered
$4,000 cash for the claim, which we will
probably accept, a clean gain of $4,000. |
am putting in a good hard 80 or 40 days
work now drifting with a crew of :
men. on which | will probably make $500
to $4,000. One does not think of turning
ones hand over unless you make a "cool
thousand" There has just been a big
strike made on the Stewart river, which
may turn out better than this district.
The steamer took up big crowd yes
terday. Owing to strikes outside the
crowd coming in this spring is excep-
tionally small, hence a much better
chance. | strongly advise you to come.
| II possible. You can leave Juneau late
and still have time to reach Dawson be-
tore the river freezes. 1t did not block
last year at Dawson until November T.
on which make calculation to get to
Dawson by October 10 ard you are
pretty safe, as the river remains open
much longer further up than it does
mere. Chances are 10 to / if you get
there in the latter part of August or
the first of September you will find par
ties coming in. If not the storekeepers
can give you reliable advice. The
fare out by boat has been raised to $3.50.
so l think quite a number will pole out
in the latter part of the summer. You
are almost sure to get boat at the head
Of Lake Bennett about September /
from people who are polling to Juneau
You need to take very little to come in
the fall. You will have to get every
thing packed by Indians from Dyea to
the lakes and will have to pay % cents a
pound or so. There is a saw mill at the
head of Lake Bennett, and you can find
out al Juneau if you can buy a boat there
(about $500 or not. 1t is not at all un-
likely that you could make a dcker with
some of the mail carriers to come with
them The stores here have raised
either 25 per cent or 30 per cent on every
thing, but we can stand it. have prac-
tically decided to stay here until the fall
of SO; so if you go out with me you Will
have two years here.
say old man, don't get any of that rot
into your classical Uranium about this
being the land of the "midnisht sun and
the midday gloom" The sun part of it
is all right but the gloom business is
a big slice of latitude too far south of
The IN. T. for that. On December u
daylight came shortly after $50 and dark
in the afternoon about $3.50. l did not
lay off single day last winter on ac-
count of cold. The greater part of the
work in the new country is by winter
drifting. This is done by means of
burning" The dirt is windlassed to
the surface and sluiced in the spring.
The winter is just as busy season with
the miner as the summer; in fact, right
here, more SO, OF course in the summer
The people are coming in and the boats
are running, but things in winter trot
light along and no one pays any attention
to its being cold
The greater part of the ''pay" lies on
or in the bedrock, so that | am afraid
that dry washers would not work, as the
bedrock is covered with a very heavy
sediment. The wet washers could be
used to great advantage on side hill
claims. However, as a general thing,
there is no scarcity of water
| have been all over the hills here look
ing Tor Lodges. There is quartz! quartz,
quartz! but no lodges we'll defined.
Mostly auartzite, etc. The hills are
covered with float even to the SUBMITS.
But if a man should strike a ledge he
would be millionaire, though it
would have to be rich to pay in here.
! expect to have another little deal on
this summer for about three weeks (af-
ter [ get through drifting) from which I
may clean up $4,000 TO $4,000. You might
be able to come in here this year by way
of st, Micbaels If you decide to come
stop a Alaska Com. Co., Sansome street.
Frisco, and see if you could make con-
nections. Fare liable to be pretty high.
Wages have been SIS day all winter.
Dawson is red hot number" lust now
and this fall will be terror" One man
who was going out with $4,000 after SELL
ing claim, laid it on faro table at an
inopportune moment and knew it no
more" Another contributed $1,000. There
will be dance houses with respectable (?)
imported ballet dancers, running faro
roulette games and all the usual accom-
pdniments of booming mining camp.
Yours, LEWIS w. FOX