Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-08-19
| that the extension of this general

and that the extension of this general
range across into Asia covers the very
country into which the Russian Gov
eminent is pressing gold developments
and the general search for gold. The
dispatch referred to above states that
n Russian expedition has discovered
twelve 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
a second California"
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..
NJ. 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 to-day which
are producing. gold in very great guam
tities-South Africa. and North Amer
lea. The Alaskan fields are, of course,
n part of the same general line of
mountains which developed such won
derful gold deposits in our own terri
tory less than half n century ago, and
whether the mountains of Kamchatka
and Siberia are part of the same gen
eral system or not, it would not be sur
prising IL these reports of large gold
deposits there should also be confirmed.
The fact Is, there is greater incentive
to the production Of gold to-day than
ever before. There are two or three
reasons for this: First, that silver Is so
cheap tlrat there is less incentive for its
production. and the people who had
formerly given their attention to the
mining of silver are now looking for
new gold fields: second, 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 pro-
ductive and 1t is quite probable that 1t
will be profitable to work over all the
rejected material which was thrown
away by the men who covered that
great gold field, and to produce from 1t
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 quaint
ties of gold were mined many years
ago. Add to this the gold develop
ments of South Africa, Australia,
North America and prospective Siberia,
and 1t Is not surprising that the gold
productions of the world are more than
keeping pace with the growth of bust
ness. AS everybody knows the gold
productions Of the world have steadily
increased during the past few years,
those of last year having been greater
than any in the history of the worli,
while all indications now point to n
still greater increased production for
1897"
Mr.. Bakers remarks that the gold
prouction of the world has increased
with such rapidity suggests some in
quiry upon this subject. That inquiry
shows that the gold Of the world to-day
is nearly, or quite, three times as much
as it was fifty years ago. Mulhall, who
has been widely quoted in the papers
OF the United States in the past few
weeks, indicates in his latest diction-
airy Of statistics that the amount of gold
In the world, coined and uncoined, if
ty years ago, amounted to less than
two and half billion Of dollars. TAX
ing his figures for 1890 and adding the
production since that time, 1t would
appear that the gold of the world to-
day, coined and uncoined, Is over seven
billions of dollars, being nearly, or
quite, three times as much as It was