The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-09-08
GOLD BY THE BUCKET.
WONDERS OF THE KLoNDIKE REGION
NOT HALF TOLD.

| NOT HALF TOLD.
Every Digging Fabulous Mine of Gold
Scores Of Men Weigh Their Gold by the
Bucketfull-Likened Unto Lottery.
The San Francisco Bulletin has re-
ceived a letter from Charles Haines,
dated Dawson City, July 26th. MIR.
Haines is we'll known newspaper
writer and his letter is the first writ
ten by trained newspaper man to
!! come out of the Klondike gold region.
He says:
"The rich diggings have been COM
paratively idle during the summer, al.
though the output from Eldorado and
Bonanza Creeks was famous and there
is plenty of gold in sight. There is
every prospect of an immense output
of gold from this district next spring.
The total output this season is, as near
as can judge, about $1,000, 900, but
very little ground has been worked,
and the dumps will, like some of the
tailings of old California placers, pan
out Thousands of dollars wnen worked
with improved machinery. The plac.
ers are the most puzzling and deceiv-
ing have ever seen. Imagine man
working On good color and finding
the ground worth only a few dollars
per day, and then turning to a waste
of mud and moss with no surface in.
dications and unearthing a bonanza.
That is the situation here and all over
Alaska. The man who comes here to
mine moss at the expense of health
and happiness, and it is with him a
question of making fortune with
equal chances with death. About me
are scores of men who can weigh their
gold by the bucketful and who value
their claims at millions.
"Four hundred valuable diggers are
stretched along creeks and every dig
ging is fabulous mine OF gold, yet
there are weary men who have gone
and returned to Dawson after search
ing the great country hereabouts and
never nugget do they show for their
toll and their long tramp over broken
ground and into country whose dis.
advantages are exceeded by no other
place on earth.
This Alaskan Northwest Territory
is an old prizs drawing proposition
that can iken to nothing that ad.
mits of better comparison than lot
terry. A number of spots are selected
on the creeks and rivers, and for one
year the miner labors. The year
closes, the water runs, and the sea-
sons output pays expenses. Not two
miles away from the unfortunate one
works q man who has taken from an
inviting bit of earth a sack full of
gold. The lucky one did not strike the
pocket because of his ability as mi.
ner; chance favored him and that was
all. In short, the miner guesses at it
and locates any and everywhere. In
nineteen cases out of twenty he misses
and has to wait another year for
new trail.
dawson is merely a collection of
log huIs, saloons and a mass of tents,
about SIX hundred in number. When
the long nights come and the glass
goes down to IS degrees below zero
there will be intense suffering here,
and shudder to think of the results.
Provisions are going to be very scarce,
and there is little reason to doubt that
the entire town will have to 60 on
short rations during the winter and
that scurvy will be rampant. The
gold that will 60 down the river for
San Francisco will amount to 2,0O0,-
900. There is lot of gold that will
remain in camp, for it is used as an
equivalent of money and is legal ten
der at $17 per ounce. Of the 5000 or
1000 inhabitants, only q couple OF
hundred at the most have made big
strikes.
"There is a plenty of work at from
SIS to $40 per day and many men
have paid So 80 or less for living and
saved the balance.
"Reports of other strikes are con-
stantly received here, and many are
authentic as far as Stewart and Poly
rivers are concerned but nothing Like
so rich as the Klondike has been re-
ported.
"Quite a number of people are pre-.
pairing to leave here for Juneau. In
case the steamers cannot get through
with provisions, the outlook for a good
grub supply is not encouraging.
In conclusion, the Alaska and
Northwest Territory gold fields will
be developed slowly. Ten thousand
men may come here, but they will be
lost in the vast country when they
spread out to prospsct. Not more
than 500 of them will strike a mine.
When they do strike pay gravel their
fortunes will be made. In years to
come, when at the sacrifice of human
life and energy the treasures OF this
great land are located, the wealth OF
the north will be something beyond