The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-08-26
RECENT GOLD FINDS
REPORTS FROM SIBERIA THAT
EQUAL CALIFORNIA IN '49. .

Marcus Baker, of the Geological Survey,
Talks of the Recent Gold Develop
ments Here and Abroad-New Meth
DDS Now Used in Mining.
EFF. PARSONS, Special Correspondent.
Washington, d. C.-The Russian
government is to send an expedition to
Kamchatka, the extreme eastern PEN
insula of Siberia, to look into the devel-
opment of extensive alleged gold fields.
This announcement creates cOnsldera-
BILE interest here, especially among those
who are following closely the enormous
gold developments of the world which
have recently occurred. An examina-
ton of the map of North America Will
show at glance that the great gold
field of Alaska which is now being de-
veloped is part of the same general
line of mountains which supplied the
enormous gold production of California.
indeed of the same general line which
produced the gold of Peru, of Central
America, of the United States and now
of Alaska Take your map of the world
and follow this mountain range and you
will find that it seems to cross from the
North American continent to Asia at
the Behrng straits, and that the extern
sion OF this general range across into
Asia covers the very country into which
the Russian government is pressing
gold developments and the general
search for gold. The dispatch referred
to above states that a Russian expedl-
ton has discovered IL gold regions in
the vicinity of the Sea Of Okhotsk, and
it believes that the western peninsula
of Kamchatka will develop gold fields
which will, as the dispatch puts IT.,
when opened, "be second California. y
whether the prediction of the Rus
slams that they are to develop gold
fields in Kamchatka which will rival
the early history of our California gold
fields is to be realized or not" said Mr..
Marcus Baker, of the geological survey,
talking on this matter, certainly there
can be no doubt that the gold of the
world has enormously increased, and Is
now increasing wonderfully. There
are two distinct gold fields today which
are producing gold in very great guam
tities-South Africa and North Ameri.
ca The Alaskan fields are of course
part of the same general line of noun
tain which developed such wonderful
gold deposits in our own territory less
than half century ago, and whether
the mountains of Kamchatka and ST.
IBERIA are part of the same general sys-
tenn or not, it would not be surprising
if these reports of large gold deposits
there should also be confirmed. The
fact is there is a greater incentive to
the production of gold today than ever
before. There are two or three rea-
sons for this: First, that silver is so
cheap that there is less incentive for its
production and the people who had for
merly given their attention to the min
ing of silver are now looking for new
gold fields; second the gold mining and
gold production becomes easier every
year as new methods develop and new
discoveries are made. Take the great
gold fields of California which were
supposed to be worked out years ago;
the cyanide process now gives promise
of making them again productive and
it is quite probable that it will be profit
able to work over all the rejected ma
terial which was thrown away by the
men who covered that great gold field
and to produce from it by this cyanide
process great quantities of gold. This
is not unlikely to be the case further
south in Mexico, Central America and
Peru, where such quantities of gold
were mined years ago. Add to this the
gold developments of South Africa,
Australia, North America and prospect
i've Siberia and it is not surprising that
the gold production of the world is
more than keeping pace with the
growth of business. AS everybody
knows the gold production of the world
has steadily increased during the past
few years, that of last year having
been greater than any in the known
history of the world, while all indica-
tions now point to a still greater in-
creased production for 1897"
Mr. Bakers remarks that the gold
production of the world has increased
with such rapidity, suggests some in
quiry upon this subject. That inquiry
shows that the gold Of the world today
is nearly or quite three times as much
as it was so years ago. Mulhall, who
has been widely quoted in the papers
of the United States in the past few
weeks indicates in his latest dictionary
of statistics that the amount of gold in
the world, coined and uncoined, sc
years ago amounted to less than two
and half billion dollars. Taking his
figures for 1890 and adding the produc.
ton since that time it would appear
that the gold of the world today, coined
and uncoined is over seven billion dol
lars, being nearly or quite three times
as much as it was so years ago. Had
there been no increase in the popula
ton meantime there would thus be
three times as much gold for each per
son now as there was half century
ago. But the population of the WORLD
has increased SO per cent in that time
SO that the amount of gold for each in
dividual is therefore about twice what
it was at that time. This, however
relates to the gold in bulk, and mo-
gold money. Fifty years ago only 8;
per cent of the gold in the world wa.
coined; now sc per cent is coined. 81
it appears that while the amount OF
gold in the world for each individual
has been doubled in SO years, the pro
portion of that gold which has beer
turned into coin has also been doubled
thus making the gold of the world foul
times as much per each individual as i
was so years ago.