The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-30

| instead of Uncle sam, ana Is
ly familiar with the climatic conol1ion VI
that portion of British Columbia Whlon
contains the Klondike quote from
London newspaper, the statements given
being those made by correspondent
who signs himself "Subscriber
"The gold bearing alluvial ,deposlos lit
in the basin of the Yukon river. ~ Is
mighty stream, 5000 miles long ap ies'su
Eighteen hundred miles from lts houol
| it's turbid waters are swollen by tnoso VI
the Klondike. and it is precisely al ohe
| juncture of the two streams thao Che
richest finds have been made. On'il TO
Gently, the only jewellers in the als'ric'
were rowing bands of fat-head lnolahs'
few Esquimaux and half breeds, ana per-
haps twenty score of white prospec'ors
| and trappers.
"Today we hear Of hotels and panKs,
telegraphs and telephones, newspaper
offices and theatres. Only most, II not
all, of these editlces are like those otner
famous buildings in the Garden OF Eden
immortalized by Dickens IN MARTIN
Chuzzlewit; they exist but in the mag
ination of the land agent and the steam-
ship company's tout. The ground Is
frozen hard until the middle OF June.
The winter ice begins to form early In
September. In mid winter the sun dlsap-
pears altogether. These be stubborn
facts and ought to convince the most
skeptical that mining in the Klondlke Is
no child's play.
:" But, say the gold seekers, 1T is pla-
Ger mining, and think they have answer
ed the croakers. And SO they have-in a
way. For placer mining is OF all forms
Of gold hunting the most exciting, and,
provided luck be with the seeker, the
most remunerative. A man may go out
to work one morning, hit on rich
pocket, and wash out by dinner time
enough gold to keep him in comfort for
the remainder of his natural life.
''In the early days of the Californian
and Australian placer mining. men
have been known to earn $4,000 and
$4,000 in single week. In the summer
of 1S49, within half a dozen miles OF
where San Francisco now stands, two
men, named Ayres and Thomassen. I'M
earthed, in the space of three hours, thir-
teen nuggets of nearly pure gold, aggre-
eating 7So pounds, weight troy. At Bal
laret, in the summer of 1857, new
chum stumbled across nugget weigh
ing 146 pounds avoirdupois. 1t is stories
such as these that spur on the Klondike
gold seeker. 1t is all gamble, and the
gamblers in most instances stake their
lives.
"sBut why all the hurry?' asks the un-
initiated in surprise. Why not wait un
til the country has been opened up bit,
trails cut over the mountains, and the
initial roughnesses of camp life in the
wilderness toned DOWN. All, there's the
rub. Placer mining cannot, in the very
nature of things, last for long. PAY
gravel is very soon exhausted and bed
rock reached. Then commences the era
of scientific mining; of the capitalist; of
expensive crushing, and separating ma
chinery; of true 1issure veins; of high
and low grade ores; of shafts sunk, at in
credible cost, in money and labor, deep
down through the virgin rock.
"All of which tends, necessarily and
inevitably, to the extinction of the placer
miner. with his SLOUGH hat, red shirt,
jack boots, and his belt filled with gold
dust. Therefore this unprecedented rush
to the banks of the Yukon, to share in
the glories of boom that must necessar-
IN no oc hrin oc fn my hor hoo
brilliant
What sort of a prophet this correspon-
dent will prove of course no one knows,
but |, from my own experience in various
parts of the world in mining camps, am
inclined to think that he knows whereof
he writes. In any event his view of the
case is worth considering.
$50 far as provisions go, the govern
ment is making every effort to ship sup
plies up the coast from Victoria, which,
1t must be remembered, is one of the great
shipping parts of the Pacific Then there
are always numbers of enterprising in
dividuals, who suddenly appear upon the
scene of mining camp with load of
provisions, for which they naturally de-
mand and obtain a most exorbitant fig
ure. Moreover, the winter in northern
Canada comes on with awful suddenness,
and this year must inevitably catch hun
dreds from the warm south totally unpre.
pared. Gold will give nearly everything
to man when he is in civilization, but
it will avail him little in the great north
west when the sun goes out and the
aurora rises for the long Arctic night.
'It is never too early to offer advice
and a little here, the fruit of experience
in that land, may not be out Of place
Doubtless there are many in England
who, having read the highly colored re
ports of the resources of the northwest
will feel q strong desire to go out and try
their luck. They must perforce know
| that all gold mining is speculation, but
they may be reminded that gold mining
in Klondike settlement, or at any point bt
yond the sixtieth parallel, is speculation
added to daring. This, and the knowl
edge that the scum of all nations, made
mora desnerate than ever by the lust OF