The herald., 1897-09-02
SOME HARD FACTS ABOUT PLACER MINING
A BELIEF LAND BECOME A
AND POWERFUL COUNTRY
RushHsy Declares
Day o
Necessarily
LONDON, Aug. 2o.-rhe Klondyke

LONDON, Aug. 20.-The Klondyke
fever has broken out in England and
all through Europe. One hears OF the
gold fields everywhere, and hundreds of
voices are heard to declare an intention
of trying to win from fortune when the
coming spring arrives.
Not even the diamond fields of Africa
or the anterior gold discoveries created
the excitement throughout Britain and
Europe that the Klondyke fields have
aroused. In the first place, it is definitely
settled now that the Klondyke region is
all British soil. That in itself stirs the
average Englishman to vigor, for he
feels that if he makes the journey there
he is still under the protection of his own
flag and subject to laws which his nat
ural prejudice causes him to believe are
entirely just Say it softly, but it is
true also, that the Britisher feels he
will not be at the mercy of what he
terms the yankee prospector,' and that
under the laws of the Dominion govern
ment he will have distinct advantage.
The general impression here is that
the Klondyke region is bound to be de-
veloped. 1t is held, and very logically,
too, it seems, that where such wealth
of mineral deposit is clearly apparent,
civilization will force thick settlement.
Conservative men here believe that
within the next quarter of century a
great city will spring UP in the Klondyke
region, to which numerous smaller cities
will pay tribute, and that here will be
found what comes nearer being the
tabled Ell Dorado than anything else
upon which the eye of man has yet
rested. This may almost be said to be
the national opinion, and such being the
case it requires no logician to determine
how intense the national feeling on the
subject must be.
I notice the general sentiment as ex-
pressed in the London newspapers,
which fairly TEEN with Klondyke tales
and advices. The London newspaper Is
not as quick to reflect public opinion as
the newspaper of the United States, but
when any one subject attracts the at
tention of all the newspapers in sufficient
degree to warrant plenty of space be-
ing given to it. then it may safely be
reckoned that the public is as one man
interested therein. The discussion is in
telligent and conservative. For instance,
here is what one newspaper says:
There seems little reason to doubt
that in the newly discovered gold fields
we are face to face with one of those un-
expected happenings, which. al least
thrice already within the present CEN
tury, have sufficed to change the char
acter and direct the development of a
continent. III few years time, in all
human probability, the country that is
now ice and snow, will be transformed
by the magic influence Of gold.
but it is almost certain that it will
be at the cost of an army corps or so of
human lives. Twas ever thus. Suffer- S
discovery of gold in California in the
autumn of 1S47 was followed by the mad
rush of '49, when in one single week 100,-
900 people set out from the eastern states
to cross the great planes, of whom not
more than third ever returned to their
homes.
-Four years later, when gold was first
found in Australia, a similar scene was
re-enacted, and again in South Africa.
at comparatively recent date. In each
case the discovery of the precious metal
has resulted primarily in a deplorable
loss of life, and in each case, too, it has
given birth to great cities-San Fran
cisco. Melbourne, Johannesburg, to-wit.
There Is no reason to doubt-nay 1t
is an almost absolute certainty-that the
history of the past in California, in Aus
tralia, and in South Africa will be the
history of the future in British Columbia.
Only, probably. there will be far greater
loss of life. Nature is very stern in
these icy solitudes and altogether pitt
less. 1t may we'll be that the year 1897
the year of the opening up of the Klon-
dyke mines, will be year rendered for
ever hdeous to all English speaking g
posterity by the memory of an unpar-
alleled tragedy.
ALREADY the authorities are viewing 6
with i'll concealed dismay the influx OF
tens Of thousands Of men, mad with the
lust for gold, and reckless, because ig-
norant of the terrible vengeance nature
Invariably exacts from those rash
enough to venture unasked and unpre-
pared into the regions she has seen fiji
to dedicate to the reign of the frost king
And the worst Of it is that nothing car
apparently be done to save them from
themselves. The gold fever has lai6
hold, upon these armies of immigrants
and they rush blindly to evils they know
not Of. Death is a bogy that loses its
power Of fright when gold is to be wor.
"And what sort of a country is this
into which men are pouring at the pres
ent moment at the rate of hundreds pei
day? 1t is a bleak, terribly inhospita bis
land, inhabited until lately by few
semi-barbaric people, many of whom
have long known the royal metal, yet
have despised it, except, perhaps, as q
means Of personal adornment Vegeta-
tion straggles out to bluff upon bluff OF
stunted pines, with patches of whit
moss. which weary the eye with unend.
ing morotony
Rocks and crags, which have to be
surmounted by the intrepid traveller. in.
crease in size, making the shortest land
journey precarious and difficult. There
Is no break to the monotony of the seen e
80 one nights camping place differs
scarcely at all from the last. The climate
is arctic. For short period the sun has
considerable power, but for the greater
part OF the year the land is plunged
in the horrors of that winter which NAV
not be described-frozen UP by a cold
which cannot be imagined, save by thos4
who have undergone it,
While it is true that the average BRIT.
on has very dim idea of the geoeraphi.
cal features Of the United States. the
Klondyke excitement has made 1t clear