The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-10-28
BILLIONS IN THE YUKON
A Mining Engineer Gives His
sons for the Belief That Is in III

SlCGtONS IN HE 1OkOfHI
A Mining Engineer Gives His q
SONS for the Belief That Is in II
The interior department has rec
a copy of an article from the ,
Russell l.. Dunn, an eminent MI
engineer of the Pacific coast, de
with the theory of the auriferolt
posts of the Yukon basin. The
of Mr. Dunn are regarded with
respect by those in the departmesyh
are familiar with the subject, andie.
will probably be referred to the gIog
zeal survey for confirmation. pm
Dunn says that the placers id tlNu
kon basin are similar to those oAus
tralia, Idaho and Montana, excd for
the perpetually frozen conditiokhe
ground. He holds that glaciers b e
bad little to do with the formation
placers or the liberation of gold fra
its matrix In California the eyiderr
of the placers themselves is conclus1e
as to their almost exclusive forrnat5n
by frost and steam erosion. Sibeta
and Alaska present precisely the sa1e
relative glacial phenomena, the plaers
being all formed before the periodOf
glacial action. As the resultoflo ngeb
servation, Mr.. Dunn says that If aeu-
rate records of placers Wen kent it
would be shown that they inreasqdas
they went upstream to a point nearibe
head, where II maximum wa.,aacrd
Going above y it would h,s dat
-.s-ss--s~-r-ls@sssusis4A,6is = = = .
tain point they suddenly dis *
altogether. There is nothing pAtne-
nal in the yield of goldin the Kbndie
region. There is no ,eason to do,t
that in Alaska there Ire lodes as III
es those in Californiaand Idaho, Nh
tana, Nevada, and elsewhere. From &c
of these lodes, corroled by frost ad
washed by a stream there might
made placers which would yield ina
few years what wou1 take ten tins
as long to mine by tn hand Of man.
This craft of natue," he says, mt
more than a thousanmillions into ne
California placers, an there is, in nv
opinion, reason in the nticipation hat
in the Yukon placers aother thousnd
millions will be fOunC all things on
sidered, as easily and cen quicker than
was the thousand milbns of the Gil
fornia placers."
Mr.. Dunn believes VIII MANY Others
that the richness of tbse deposits has
been only scratched, al that there is
good ground for belieng that there
are others as rich or e'n richer. The
conditions are unlike tose of CaIifor-
MIA in the early days, that in those
days all a man needed VS. stont heart
and heavy pick, within the Yukon
every miner must be nall canitalis+
in order to be able to me at all. Yet
he concludes that a main Search of =
fortune stands a largerlanep Of find
ing 1t in the frozen regns Of Alasl,o
than in the mines of Sttb Afyioo or
aus 'Iaila' IL lsotlecessary
now to depend on blinduck FIR dis
coVeries, for technical kneledge of the
occurrence and distribute, n Liza :.
reasonably exact and consbl nsive
IL IS now possible to explorgtbduttb the
expenditure of the enorm,,, ,,o,,at
of waste work formerly anlgtidob1a
incident of the be-; ,srt |
first found form guide tSsiAe,es,
and some idea can be formedfr' the !
placers regarding the probable lues :
Of the lodes and the risk and GER ;
talnty OF quartz mining brolgho a
One reason why miners haye al ,
ready located more p}acers Il III in :
many instances they are covereditb !
silt to depth of eight to 20 let {
brought down by the stream at if
had passed that period when, drujnp :
torrent, it had torn from the qaartbe
specks of gold. In these cases theAre
no indications of the richer depits
to be found lower down, and tie her .
must do more than prospect fhtur-
face. The prospectOr must reneber
that the surface of the countrv. 3lev I
and mountain is covered withFa en-
strong growth of moss; that Ethilt
and auriferus sands of the yalle5e-
meath the moss are perpetually fren
to the bedrock; that from these Us.
zeal conditions the methods Of ps- !
pecting for placers and lodes eInpled
elsewhere are impossible of appleton
here. There is no special industribr
economic reason why the exploitan
of the Yukon gold fields should noe ,
highly profitable to both labor ID
capital, with less risk of failures OH.
dividual enterprises, part of the hisay !;
OF gold mining elsewhere.-M Y. )
POPULAR HERO OF ROMANO
He Can Do Almost Anything Wei
But Keeps II to Himself.