Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-07-27
ALAsKA's GOLD.

The San Francisco Chronicle de-
votes an editorial column TO the Kion-
dyke gold deposits. Speaking OF the
the agencies ut work in A aska, laying
bare The auriierous leads, 1t says IN
part:
Tho frost-bound auriferous placers of
the klondyke district are the latest and
best evidences 40 far obtained OF the big
share that ice has had III the formation
of gold leads on the Pacific coast. These
frozen placers are in close proximity to
great living glaciers that arc today
growing out valleys, grinding down the
gold-bearing quarlz-riDbed states and
deposiiing the heavier substances con-
tanned in then-the previous metal and
its base assOciates-in the burrows
carved out by their respective toos. #
would not DO at all surprising II in this
inhospitable region the last link in the
chain OF evidence as to the glacial ORR
GIN OF auriferous placer leads should
De found in the form of u living glacier
at WORK creating one in the moraine at
iIs toe. Moraines are, of course, ne. hing
more or less than the wrockage OF the
irresistible force exerted by the moving
mass OF ice from its source in the ever
lasting SHOWS of tho higher elevations
in Its slow but never-ceaslng DRIFT TO
lower attitudes or to the sea.
In tho klondyke district this natural
phenomenon of valley carving, noun
IAN reduction and gold-l lead making
has been almost caught, 1t might be
said, IN the very act, The recession of
the ice sheet from the Yukon valley and
its tributaries is of so recent dale that
the Frost which it put IN the ground has
actually not had time yet 10 leave IL,
No matter how ancient may ho the
origin OF other placer deposits on Inc
Pacific coast, the Yukon plscers are,
geologically considered, the product OF
yesterday, and, MS result of the big
rush Just started tor the north, some of
tho host of prospecIors that will surely
take TO the field TO search for other dc.
poslts outside those already pre-empted
arc just As likely as NOT 10 discover the
birth of a new auriierOus lead at the
base OF some glacier now grinding down
the gold-bearing states IN the Yukon
mineral belt.
Similar agencies, the paper thinks,
have in ages past been at work In
California, but there their work was
followed by that OF belching volcanoes
whose lava spread over the region once
occupied by glaciers. Tue Chronicle
says:
The beds OF the so.cslled dead rivers
OF California were carved out by glaciers
during the ice age, aud the aurferous
deposit is tho wreckage which was not
carried out OF the ranges TO form the floor
of The great central basin of the safe.
Then Mount Shasta, the Lassen Bultes,
ana other volcanoes now extinct on the
northern border. came into activity and
belched forth Hood of molten lava over
the land, burying the ancient glacier mo-
rainos ana their golden treasures. After
ward there came some other agent either
ice or II God, or both, and carved out the
present canyons oil the Sierra, cutting
deeper than tho dead river beds into the
earth's crust and carrying of some of
their concentrated wealth TO enrich the
new deposits created by the later erosion.
In the frozen north, according to this
theory, the miner simply follows up
the footsteps OF the Teceding gltcier
and gathers the treasures It has ground
out OF the mountains, before other
forces OF nature have had time to
scatter the gold and ming'e 1t with
the soil OF the valleys. In time, un.
doubleday, the source or sources where
the valuable nuggets csme from will
be discovered. But perhaps not be-
fore the placer mines have oil given
ult