The Monmouth inquirer., 1898-03-10
THE YUKON RIVER
Forty Miles is the Richest in Gold
Production.

Forty Miles is the Richest in Gold
Production.
Kirk Munroe's book, "Snow-shoes
and Sledges," published by Harper &
Bros, two years ago, contain descrlp-
ton of the gold regions Of the Yukon.
'To begin with, he says, in the
chapter entitled "A Yukon Mining
Camp" although it is at the junction
of Forty Mile Creek and the Yuyon riv-
er, it is not in Alaska, but about twenty
miles east of the boundary in North
west Territory, which is one of the sub
divisions of Canada The most recent
name of this camp is Mitchell but ali
Yukon miners know it as Camp Forty
mile. At the time of Phil Ryder's visit
it contained nearly two hundred log
cabins, two stores. including the one
that he established in the name of his
friend Gerald Hamer, two saloons, both
of which were closed for the season,
and a small cigar factory. Although
the winter population was only about
three hundred, in summer time it is
much larger, as many of the miners
come out (of the diggins) in the falland
return before the 18th of June, at
which date, according to Yukon mining
law, every man owning a claim must
be on the ground, or it may be
jumped.
''Forty Mile is what is known as a
placer camp, which means that its gold
is found in minute particles or dust in
soft earth, from which it can be washed
in sluices or rockers. Into one of these
a stream of water is turned that sweeps
away all the dirt and gravel, allowing
the heavier gold to sink to the bottom,
where it is caught and held by cross
bars or rifles
although gold has been discovered
at many points along the Yukon and
it's branches, the deposit at Forty Mile
is the richest yet worked, and has paid
as high as three hundred dollars to
man for single days labor. Twelve
thousand dollars worth of gold was
cleared by one miner in three
months season, and five-hundred-
dollar nugget has been found; but most
of the miners are content If they can
make ounce wages or sixteen dollars
per day, while the average for the camp
is not over eight dollars per day during
the short season of the Artic region.
s'Sluices can only be worked during
three or four months of summer time;
then comes the terrible eight months
of winter when the mercury thinks
nothing of dropping to sixty or seven
ty degrees below zero, and the whole
world seems made of ice. Strange as
it may appear, the summer weather of
this region is very hot, eighty-five de-
grees in the shade and one hundred
and twelve degrees in the sun being
frequently reached by the mercury.
During the summer months, too, the
entire Yukon Valley is as terribly in
tested with mosquitoes as in any man
grove swamp of the tropics.
''In spite of the summer heat the
ground never thaws to depth of more
than five or six feet, below which it is
solidly frozen beyond any point yet
reached by digging. Under the dense
covering of mess, six to eighteen in
ches thick, by which the greater part
of Alaska is overspread, it does not
thaw more than few inches. Con-
sequently the most important item of d
Yukon miners winter work is the
stripping of the moss from his claim in
order that next summers sun may
have a chance to thaw it to working
depth.