The San Francisco call., 1898-08-19
HINTS OF GOLD IN KOTzEbUE Encouraging News From Treasure Hunters. THE LANE PARTY IN LUCK STRUCK PAY DIRT AT THE
 RIVERS MOUTH. Accidental Killing of an Indian Leads to the Murder of One
 of the Prospecting
 Expedition.
THE LANE PARTY IN LUCK
STRUCK PAY DIRT AT THE
 RIVERS MOUTH.

The bark Alaska that started for Kotzebue Sound with 130 gold hunters is all right, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding. Private letters re- ceived here yesterday state that she was at St. Lawrence Island on July 16, and that it would take at least six weeks to put her river steamer to- gether.
 The stories that the gold fields are a. fizzle are also contradicted. Frank l.. Noonan, who went to KotZebue on the barkentine Jane L, Falkenberg, writes as follows:
 Arrived June 26 and at once launched the boats. Lane CO. D. Lane, one Of the owners of the Utica mine and a passenger on the Falkenberg) says the black sand in the river is encouraging and Is a good indication of gold. man named Black the Kowak, was taken away by them in hurry yesterday, l suppose they have something good. The natives who speak English say there is lots of gold.
 July 19.-The barkentine Catherine Sudden and Leslie D., parks Northern Light and Mermaid and schooner Luisa D. and several others are here and all kinds of boats are running on the Sound. white man accidentally killed an Indian and it is now said that the Indians have killed white man to get even Lane s party are getting 20 cents to the pan on top of the ground at the mouth of the river
 July 24-An immense bush fire has been burning around here for weeks. We can See the smoke and flames for miles. The revenue cutter Bear called here on her way north and gave us some mail. Captain Wicks of the bark Mermaid has come aboard the Falkenberg. I believe they are short of grub on the Mermaid.
 In a letter from Francis Tagliabue, Deputy United States Surveyor. the f11lc taa ;e, quite encouraging. Several discover ies are reported on the Nootak and Kowak rivers"
 When the steamer Grace Dollar left Kotzebue Sound none of the river boats had started, but the Falkenberg's was to leave the next day. No prospecting could have been done, so it is hard to say where the news of the complete failure of the new fields came from.
 A big fleet of vessels got in port Tuesday night and yesterday morning. The British ship Waterloo made a smart passage of 56 days from New castle, N. s. w., while the Earl of Dalhousie was 76 days coming from the same place. The Waterloo was only 30 days getting to the latitude of Hawaii, and the captain expected to make a record breaking run. The brig Galilee was 36 days from Tahiti, the bark AL bert 25 days from Hilo and the Roder-
 
 Both vessels left together. AS the AL bert ranks as a clipper, 1t will be seen that the Roderick Dhu is not slow. The Ottillie Fjerd was B days from Kahu- Hui and the schooner Aloha 28, and the ship Marie Hackfeld 27 days from Hon olulu.
 The British ship Falls of HalIadale and the Italian bark Macdiarnied left Hull together on May P. They are now out eighty-eight days for this port and when last seen were making a very close race.
 Three schooners with gold hunters are still scheduled to arrive from the East. Of these the Mildred F., now out 161 days from Boston. is the only one likely to get here. The Actaea party, when last heard from, was stranded at Buenos Ayres and the Sto- well Sherman's crowd was in the same predicament at Montevideo. The Ac- taea Is TIA days out from New York and the Sherman 268 days from Boston.
 William A. H. Chenowetn and a party of five left this city last spring for the Klondike and yesterday a pri- vate letter was received stating that they had arrived at Dawson after an experience in which they nearly all lost their lives. The party left Juneau and at Big Salmon their scow was wrecked and the entire outfit was lost. J. Jor- dan lost a restaurant outfit worth about $6000 and the others felt they were lucky in escaping with their lives. While on the trail on the American side they discovered the body of a man who was identified as pr. Brooks, a dentist of this city, who left here last February for Dawson. It was believed that the man had broken through the ice of the river and that the remains had floated down the stream. They had apparently been in the water about ten days.