Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20

all over the chunks Of ore He says it lies
in five-foot ledge between walls of por-
phyry al slate, and that the outcroppfngs
can be traced distance of 300 feet The
ledge CROPS out on the side of a mountain
half "a mile above the sea 1t is on Salmon
creek. about thirty miles northeast of Fort
Wrangel.
is that hard place to reach, senator?''
NO, think not" replied Senator Wilson.
"Bort Wrangel is on the main Alaskan
route OF the steamers plying between Seat
tie and Juneau. 1t could be easily reached
by those vessels or by small schooners.
According to Mr.. Smith you could almost
drive to the gold region in wagon, or, at
least,,a wagon road could be made to it.
He says that Salmon river has good placer
ground all the way up to the gold ledge
he has discovered, but that he could find
10 gold above this point. He made the
discovery about the list of September. 1t
had already begun to snow there, so he
staked his claims and came back to wait
| until spring to work them"
You were speaking of the Munook coun-
| try, senator Where is this?"
"All that / know about it is from letters
| v hich have read. There are a number OF
Washington people mining there and
among others Governor McGraw. 1t is some
distance down the Yukon river. below Fort
Yukon. The steamer Bertha, which arrived
at Seattle the last of October, brought
some gold from Munook. All sorts of claims
are made about the region, one miner say
irg that it will be second to Dawson in
richness There are now, l believe 1,500
people at Rampant City, in that region, and
this city promises to be the largest winter
camp outside of Dawson City"
Recent Reports From Dawson.
"Have you heard anything new as to
gold discoveries in the klondike?"
81 understand that a number of big finds
have been recently made. There was one
about the middle of September on a side
hill in what is known as Skookum Gulch
Thissgold was discovered in district that
had been prospected again and again.
Hundreds of miners have walked over it
and passed 1t by. Now the whole country
about has been staked off, and men are
picking up Jumps of gold worth from s. to
so. A single nugget worth SAT was found
and two men picked up $500 worth of
coarse gold in a day. The gold was almost
On the surface of the ground, but there was
something like foot of moss above 1t, and
former prospectorS had failed to discover
It, This Is a sample Of what may happen
in any gold region at any time. Some of
the best mines of the world have lain for
years right under the eyes of the prospec-
tors and escaped notice. This was the case
with the Cripple creek mines of Colorado.
They are, you know, under the shadow of
Pixies Peak, Thousands of miners walked
over them looking for gold. Then Stratton
discovered the Independence and the whole
country was found to ebe honey-eombed
with the precious metal. 1t now turns out
Sat- Lake M Sr s9am s9s ~ %n tne
late Senator Hearst Marcus Daily and the
best miners of the Gsfihtfy and thought to
be. worth nothing. They are now turning
out millions. You can't tell anything about
gold. and in many cases the tenderfoot is
quite as successful as the old prospector"
But senator, there must be an enormous
a1as Of failures e. among the men who so to
Yes, there are" said Senator Wilson.
I have been told that only about one
claim out OF sixteen has SO far produced
300 and upward. This Is the condition
about Dawson City. so athey say, and it
must pc worse In other parts of the coun-
try. Still all concede that there are enor-
nous amounts of goid In the Klondike."
Starvati0nsi In Alaska.
What can Congress do to get food to
Alaska this winterr'
II don't know" replied Senator Wilson.
Il suppose the question will come up just as
soon as Congress meets through a letter
from the Secretary OF War. According to
my reports the people at Dawson City are
IN q bad way. They have not enough pro-
visions to last them for more than two
thirds OF the winter and new arrivals are
coming In at the rate 81 one hundred a day
over the trail Those who come have Ia
until they get to Dawson, and there are
s,O0O people there now. The trouble has
been IN the low waters Of the Yukon. The
summer is very short and altogether
less than LOCO tons of provisions were
brought IN. Toward the last of the
season the Yukon was so low that the ships
could not get over the bars, and there are