Mesa free press., 1898-10-14
PACIFIC COAST NEWS
Important Information Gathered
Around the Coast.
ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.
A Summary Of Late Events That Are
Boiled Down to Suit our Busy
Readers.

destroyed at Santa Cruz is under way.
Enough orders for smokeless powder
are on file to keep the mills running
night and day for two years.
A Port Townsend, (Wash) dispeatch
says the bark Hayden Brown, fifteen
days from st. Michaels, arrived bring
ing seventy passengers. All confirm
previous reports of no gold being found
on Kotzebue Sound.
At Seattle it Is estimated that the to-
tai hop crop Of Washington this sea-
son will be between $4,000 and 10000
bales. A considerable portion of the
crop has already been contracted for
on a basis of 10 and IL cents pound.
Three Cinnamon, a negro and
white man swindled a Stockton Chi
nese lottery company out of $1464.
They discovered where the drawing
was to take place, cut hole in the
partition, and when the numbers were
announced marked the ticket accord
ingly.
Hart North, United States Immigra-
ton Commissioner at San Francisco,
has left for the east to consult with
his superiors at Washington regarding
Japanese immigration The immigra-
ton Of Japanese has increased alarm
ingly within the past few years, and
the department. is said to contemplate
measures of restriction.
What may prove a ,clew to the mys-
terry of the murder of Capt. Brooks at
Sausalito, was the finding of a memo
randum, book and letters in the coat
taken out of the bay. This book and
letter contain the name of Frank
Wheeler, a young gardener, who re-
sided at No. S51 Folsom street, San
Francisco, and other places in that vi
cinity.
The steamer Humboldt is making
di]igent search for a section of the
great Columbia river lumber aft which
is floating somewher off the coast. The
tug Monarch was forced to bandon the
lumber raft she was towing, while off
the Farallones. The men on the raft
were saved. Lumber strews tho Pacific
for miles around, and is a great men,
ace to navigation.
An authentic report regarding the
pelagic sealing fleet has just been re-
ceived in San Francisco. Among tho
pcachers that have made the largest
catches were the following: Enterprise,
skins; Mimic, 400; San Diego 673; The
resa, 800 and Otto 1872 These skins,
being excluded from the United States,
are shipped to England, where they
are disposed of at reduced rates.
Charles E. Watson, who arrived at
San Francisco from Carson City on
the Northern Light, states that on Au
gust II four Rhode Island men and
J. G.. Sturke of Grub Gulch, MADEIRA
county, CAL, were drowned while try
ing to cross Hotham inlet, and that
three other men were drowned in Ku-
buck River. Watson believes there is
but little gold in the Kotzebue country.
A general military hospital will be
erected on Angel Island very shortly.
Authority to proceed with the work
was received from Washington, D. c.,
by telegraph. The hospital will have
400 beds and be constructed according
to the most modern ideas. Every fa-
cility afforded by modern science and
skill will be employed to render the
hospital the best of it's character. The
hospital will be for the use of the en-
tire Pacifis Jurisdiction of the army,
including the Hawaiian and Philippine
islands.
Gov. Budd has appointed First Lieu
tenant Herbert Choynski captain of
Battery B, California Artillery, vice
Capt. Hay, resigned; Second Lieuten-
ant Frank Sprague has been. advanced
to the first lieutenanacy. Otto Huber is
to succeed Capt. Richter, who was killed
at Manila, as captain of Company I,
First California Volunteers. The
Governor is in receipt of the resigna-
tions of First Lieut.. Thomas F. Barry
of Battery A, and of Second Lieut.. Nc
Kenzie of Battery D, California Heavy
Artillery.
A valuable discovery of bitumen is
reported in the southern party of Hum
boldt county. 1t is in MatOle Valley,
twelve miles from the coast, and the
quantity is said to be practically un-
limited. Petroleum has been apparent
in that locality for years, and w. A.
Thatcher, an eastern oil man, has just
concluded an inspection of the lands
in the vicinity of Mattole and CARRIER
Vile, where there are unmistakable
signs of petroleum. There is good
prospect that these oil properties will
be developed soon, and a railroad to
the coast to facilitate shipment is spo-
ken of.
Charles E. Watson, a mining man
of Carson City, who has arrived at San
Francisco, on the bark Northern Light,
from Kotzebue Sound, tells of how sew
en- gold seekers lost their lives. He
says: ''On the night of August II, Fred
Howard, Irving Howard, Joseph Gra-
ham, Samuel Wilmuth of Providence,
R. l., and J. G. Sturke of Grab Gulch,
MADEIRA county, CAL, who went north
on the bark Mermaid, were drowned
while trying to get across Hotham In
let with their provisions. A storm
arose and capsized their small boat.
When morning came the other pros
pectors missed the Rhode Island party,
as they were called, and the searching
portxy tbot woo sent 0,lt found tha hoot