The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-11-20
THE YUKON MINES
said TO Hold Billions Of Dollars In
Gold


with the theory of the auriferous de-
posits of the Yukon basin. The views
of Mr.. Dunn are regarded with great
respect by those in the department who
are familiar with the subject, and they
will probably be referred to the geolog-
ical survey for confirmation. Mr..
Dunn says that the placers in the Yu-
kon basin are similar to those OF Aus
tralia, Idaho and Montana, except for
the perpetually frozen condition of the
ground. He holds that glaciers have
had little to do with the formation Of
placers or the liberation of gold from
its matrix. In California the evidence
of the placers themselves is conclusive
as to their almost exclusive formation
by frost and steam erosion. Siberia
and Alaska present precisely the same
relative glacial phenomena, the placers
being all formed before the period Of
glacial action. AS the result of long OBJ
servation, Mr.. Dunn says that il accu-
rate records of placers were kept it
would be shown that they increased as
they went upstream to a point near the
head, where the maximum was reached.
Going above this it would be foundt that
the placers diminished until at a GER
tain point they suddenly disappeared
altogether. There is nothing phenome-
nal in the yield of gold in the Klonddke
region. There is no reason to doubt
that in Alaska there are lodes as rich
as those in California and Idaho, Mon
tana, Nevada. and elsewhere. From one
of these lodes, corroded by frost and
washed by a stream, there might be
made placers which would yield in
few years what would take ten times
as long to mine by the hand OF man.
''This craft of nature" he says, put
more than thousand millions into the
California placers, and there is, in my
opinion, reason in the. e.an ticipation that
in the Yukon placers another thousand
millions will be found, all things con-
sidered, as easily and even quicker than
was the thousand millions of the Cali
fornia placers."
Mr.. Dunn believes with many others
that the richness Of those deposits has
been only scratched, and that there is
good ground for believing that there
are others as rich or even richer. The
conditions are unlike those of Califor-
MIA in the early days, in that in those
days all man needed was stout heart
and heavy pick, while in the Yukon
every miner must be small capitalist
in order to be able to mine at all. Yet
he concludes that man in search Of a
fortune stands a larger chance, of find
ing it in the frozen regions of Alaska
western Australia. It is not necessary
now to depend on blind luck for dis
coveries, for technical knowledge of the
occurrence and distribution of gold is
reasonably exact and comprehensive.
1t is now possible to explore without the
expenditure of the enormous amount
of waste work formerly an unavoidable
incident of the business. The placers.
first found form guides to the lodes,
and some idea can be formed from the
placers regarding the probable values
of the lodes and the risk and uncer-
tainty Of quartz mining brought to a
minimum.
ready located more placers is that in
many instances they are covered with
silt to depth of eight to 20 feet,
brought down by the stream after it
had passed that period when, rushing
torrent, it had torn from the quartz the
specks of gold. In these cases there are
no indications of the richer deposits
to be found lower down, and the miner
must do more than prospect the sur
face. The prospector must remember
that the surface Of The country, valley
and mountain is covered with deep,
strong growth OF moss; that the silt
and auriferus sands Of the valley be-
meath the moss are perpetually frozen
to the bedrock; that from these phys
ical conditions the methods OF pros
pecting for placers and lodes employed
elsewhere are impossible OF application
here. There is no special industrial or
economic reason why the exploitation
of the Yukon gold fields should not be
highly profitable to both labor and
capital, with less risk of failures of in
dividual enterprises. part Of the history
Of gold mining elsewhere.-N. Y. Sun.
Catchlng q Walrus.
For dinner polar bear likes moth
ing better than good fat young wal
rus. But q walrus is not the easiest
thing to catch. especially if its mother
or father happens to be lingering
around in the neighborhood. An old
valrus II more than twice the size OF .