The Indianapolis journal., 1898-11-06

growth of trees ferns and moss so thick
that it is almost impossible TO get through
1t. Upon the sides of the sleeper noun
tains the trees, instead of going straight
up, crawl upon the earth, so that tree
with trunk as thick as your wrist is not
more than three feet high. but spreads over
a large tract of ground. This is probably
due to the mountain snow, which presses
the trees down to the ground and still
keeps them warm enough not to impede
their growth.
VAST FORESTS.
And what kinds of trees do they have
down here at the tail-end of creation? The
most common is the beech. There are vast
forests of antarctic beeches in Chilean
''Tierra DEL" the trees of which are eighty
feet tall and six feet thick. They make ex-
cellent lumber, and 1 am told some are now
being cut down and shipped to Buenos
Ayres. One of the beech tree species is of
our evergreen variety, and another is the
common beech, much like those of our CEN
tral States. There are also trees of the
magnolia species. There are twenty-five
different varieties of shrubs and bushes in
TERRA del Fuego, and wild gooseberries and
wild raspberries. Wild Strawberries of great
size and delicious flavor are found in their
season, and there are also wild grapes and
wild celery. Ferns are to be seen almost
everywhere. and one man says that the tree
fern is Indigenous to certain parts of the
country. The sheep farmers raise cab
bages, potatoes, turnips and peas in the
gardens connected with their stations and
they tell me that in the spring and summer
the ground is spotted with wild flowers.
TERRA del Fuego has been called the
Klondike of South America. So far, how
ever, there is no justification of the term.
There is plenty of gold, but up to now no
large quantities have been discovered and
that found is difficult to mine. The gold is
all placer gold. Some of it is in the shape
of nuggets as large as marrowfat peas,
but the greater part of it is in leaflets or
scales. The most of the mines are in the
southern part of TERRA del Fuego proper
and the islands adjacent. The gold is found
on the shore, the clay containing it running
down under the water and being exposed
only at low tide. The gold is covered with
shingle and sand, which must be removed
before bed rock is reached. At the Slogget
bay diggings, for instance, there is six feet
of sand and gravel above the bed rock.
This has to be shoveled off and when the
tide comes in the gold-bearing clay is again
covered. Almost similar conditions exist at
the washings on the Island of Navarino
and elsewhere. From what I can learn
here there are only few places where
gold has been found in any quantity, and
these are nothing in comparison with the
great gold deposits of our Western States.
There are two or three companies who
work sluice boxes with machinery pumping
the water from the sea and gathering the
gold dust with machinery on copper plates.
The most of the mining, however, is spas
modic and uncertain. The territory is ex-
tremely difficult to reach and the prospect
ing is coupled with such hardships and ex-
penses in the way of getting supplies that
1 would advise the American miner to stay
at home. FRANK G. CARPENTER.