Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-07-23

as a prospector. A number of men
were in the party and they will all
return to Montana this month. SPELL
man says there is absolutely no truth
In the fabulous stories that come from
Alaska, and that the gold fields
there are practically barren. He says
there is a great scarsity of food in
that section. The suffering there
and the enormous amount of money
necessary to be paid to secure the
barest necessities of life, he says,
should deter any thinking man from
giving the subject of trip to that
country a second thought.
A VOICE OF WARNING.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 23.-Captain
Hays, of the Alaska Commercial COM
pany's steamer Bertha, speaking of
the Clondyke rush, said
"The newspapers will be response
ble for the loss of many lives and
great deal of suffering and hardship,
if they do not strongly advise the
public that the Yukon river, now
that the mountain torrents have
ceased running is very low and conse-
queDtly much of the 5000 tons Of sup
plies now awaiting transportation
cannot possibly be conveyed to their
destination for some time"
Messrs. Sloss, of the Alaska Com
mercial Co., are equally frank. One
of the firm said
"What we must fear is that the eX-
citement will cause many people to
rush northward without properly con-
sidering how they are to live through
the winter, after they get there, We
haYe about 5000 tons Of PROVISIONS on
the Yukon, and are sending large ad-
dltional quantities as fast as possible,
but we are unable to say whether the
SUPPLY Will be equal to the demand,
nor when the supplies will reach their
destination with any certainty"
Low GRADE OF GOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 23.-Assistant
Weigher w. .Underh!ll, of the Selby
Smelling company, states that the
gold from theYukon is not Of so much
value as that produced in California.
In speaking of the matter, he said:
"We have found the miners from
the Yukon very nice class of people
to deal with, and they have not been
deceived in the value of the gold they
have brought back with them 1t is a
fact that the Yukon gold is not as
valuable as that produced in this
state. We have found that there are
from so to 100 points more base met
ais as iron, lead and a few others,and
there is large quantity of silver also.
We look principally for the gold and
silver. 1t is the iron that gives the
Yukon gold its rich color. OF course,
these other metals decrease the value.
"The nuggets from the Yukon are
worth S17 and SlS per ounce, and the
finer gold dust is worth from $16 10
$l7 per ounce. With the California
gold the value is about 81 an ounce
more. That is, nuggets run from
S1S to $40 and the gold dust never less
than S17 per ounce.
"Our assayers have found several
other metals than those 1 have men
toned, but no attention is paid to
them, as these other base metals do
not cut much of figure in the gen.
eral value"
LETTERS TO THEIR WIVES.
II. d. Wheeler, and his son-in-law,
K. M. CulberUson, who went to the
Clondyke last spring, have each writ
ten letters to their wives giving some
very important additional news of the
mines and the trip. Wheeler writes.
"The mines are something i'm
mense. suppose nothing like 1t was
ever discovered before. Men, that
were dead broke before, count their
gold by the $4,000 and 100000.
Everything is taken so far as heard
from. Wages were SIS day all win
ter, and the men worked all winter.
EVERYBODY has money and all business
is done with gold dust or nuggets.