Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-31
GOLD HUNTING.
The Precious Metal Found in Grains
of Various Sizes and shapes.
philadelphia Press.)

philadelphia Press.)
When you get to Alaska, it is easy
enough to find gold, if you will only fol-
low the Instructions given in the govern
ment hand-boo If you don't happen to
come across any OF it off-hand, it Is just
because you are in hard luck. Hunt up a
river-almost any old stream will do-and
try pan or two of its gravel. It's at
least two to one you get a color" and
this is proof positive that you are on the
track. The rest is just like following
your nose, inasmuch as you have only TO
ascend the river to the source from which
the gold is derived, trying occasional pans
by the way, merely TO pay expenses. You
may have considerable distance to ira
vel, of course, inasmuch as the yellow
stuff in finely-divided state may be car
ried hundreds of miles by water.
At length, however, you begin to find
that the specks Of precious metal are
bigger, and more easily discovered with
out the aid of a magnifying glass This
means that you are getting near to the
goal of wealth; for it is the coarse stuff
that pays, and it cannot be far from the
place Of origin, because such grains are
too heavy 10 be carried far. But it is
when you have traced the elusive glitter
10 a gulch. or some such place, where
waters fetching down rOck-debris from
the mountains have deposited gold for
century after century, that you realize
that you are millionaire. Gold in pay
ing quantities is not found on the Klon-
dixie itself, but in the narrow side valleys
entering the Klondike Valley from the
south, such as Bonanza, Eldorado, and
bunker creeks.
Chicken Creek is another illustration
a r4hannFuAfnn - ca 10
cause its gold occurs in grains the size
| of chicken-feed. In the gulches of the
Little Mynook and Hunter creeks, on
the Lower Yukon, the metal takes the
| form of round, bean-shaped grains, and
nuggets associated with water-Worn peb
| bles. Explorations among the hills to
| the south of these gulches is expected 10
| disclose the source of both pebbles and
| nuggets-in other words, the gold-bear-
| ing lodes that furnish this particular
| debris. The streams, swollen TO tor
rents in winter, are reduced In summer
| TO such small size as TO permit the
| miner TO work their gravels for the
| riches they contain. But there is no fun
| i'm the performance. In the KlOndike
| district the Argonaut is obliged 10 dig
| through a barren gravel-bed, and finally
| through the layer Of clay, before he comes
| to the stratum of pay-dirt, one TO five
| feet thick, which rests upon the bedrock.
| In the larger streams, at points where
| the current is slack, owing TO bend in
| the river, or to other causes, there are
| accumulations Of gravel and sand called
| bars" These often contain a great deal
of gold 1t is suggested by the govern
ment experts that the bars along the
| Yukon river will probably afford rich
results when exploited with proper APP
! paratus, and this will doubtless be done
before very long. In all likelihood big
| fortunes will eventually be taken out of
! them. This anticipation applies particu-
| larly to the bars in the upper stretches
| of the river, especially near streams that
drain known gold-bearing areas. In old
times it was customary to attack de-
posits of this sort by turning the river
out Of its course-a method obviously i'm
practicable in the case of a stream COM
! parable in size TO the Mississippi How
ever IL has been found much easier to
work river bars for gold by means OF
floating dredges, and these will doubt
less be employed. The floating dredge
HOSTS the gravel aboard by an endless
chain of buckets. passes ii through sluice-
boxes, to separate the gold, and throws
the refuse overheard
Some Of the richest placer mines in the
Yukon region are the so-called fossil
| placers," which are deposits Of con-
| glomerate rock composed of pebbles and
sand cemented together. The gold is not
in the pebbles of this conglomerate, but
in the sand. The stuff, naturally, is
very difficult TO work by the ordinary
methods of placer mining. but in the
almost immediate future 1t Will be at
tackled by hydraulic apparatus and com
PEELED to yield up its yellow wealth by
disintegration. OF course. as yet the gold
deposits of the interior of Alaska have
been assailed only by the crudest me-
thods, the bringing of machinery into
the country being impracticable for lack
of transportation facilities. The situa-
ton in this regard will soon be entirely
changed. Half a dozen years from now
the available placers will have been
worked out practically. and the gold Will
be sought in its original lodes in the
mountains, blasted out with dynamite
and crushed in powerful stamp-mills.-
Rene Bache. Hartford Times.