Evening star., 1898-07-23

rainy season il is a rushing torrent and the
Indians cannot work in it. 1t is so deep
that with their crude methods of panning
with wooden bowls they have not been able
to get to the bed rock of the center of the
river, although they still wash along the
edgeS or the stream every year with profit.
They stand in the water UP to their waists
and scrape the gravel together with their
feet until they have made a little pile.
They then dive down and gather a painful
often getting % or 80 cents out of a pam
full of gravel Just the other day a mug
get of the shape of a pear, weighing two
and one-half ounces was taken out There
was Spaniard who worked the bed of
the river to a slight extent years ago He
had bucket brigade of Indians who,
equipped with rude cowskin buckets and
standing on notched poles that served as
ladders, passed the gravel and water from
one to the other until they reached the
top. 1t took two years of such work to get
to bed rock, and it is said that the man
took out during four years $40 900 in gold
Another story, which is questioned. is that
ne TOOK out 300 pounds of gold in a single
year. and another is that he panned ont
4o5 pounds in five hours. The pit where
this Spaniard worked was about seven
miles above the claims owned by the Dem
yer men, 1t was, it is said, only twenty
feet square. Gold is also found upon the
YAM river, which Is not far from the Tim
ami and In southern Bolivia.
Some Peruvian Gold Regions.
Inc Peruvian gold field that is now at
rScfing the most attention is the Cara
Dt-ya dlstric-. This is rot great distance
nom Cuzco, and can be reached by five
Gays travel on mules and on foot from the
branch or the Arequipa Puno railroad
"hlch Is extended toward that city. You
leave the railroad fo. the Carabaya or =
mule AID go two days down mill, then two
Gays w hill and during the last day Won
go down again for a distance of ahnnt
l2,ooo feet. This last journey is made on
fcct. and 1t takes about eight hours. You
tEen md yourself in a region that is COW
cred with trees and one where the vnpata
ton IS alnn0st tropical A river rms
through IT, and in this the Indians have
Deeh washing gold for centuries These In
olanS are the descendants, it is supposed
OF the 1ncas. They are semf-ciyiIized and
can be gotten to work for you for 20 cents
q day. Up until recently all of the gold
from this part of Peru was from nlacer
"aShihgs The chief work today is in the
quartz mines of SantO Domingo Out of this
mine 10000 ounces of gold were taken IN
eighteen months, and it was later on sold TO
an American syndicate for $2S5, 600 Wheth-
er the mine is only pocket or not is not
yet known. The ore, l. am told runs very
pockety, though some of the quartz has
lun as high as S130, 900 to the ton The ore
mat Is now being worked turns out about
H'Vo 10 the ton. This is being put through
a ten-stamp mill. This mine was bought
LOT the syndicate by California man nam
ed Hardison, who came to South America
10 investigate the rubber business and cot
into mining. He managed the property for a
while but not successfully. He bought a
lot of expensive machinery without consid-
erinS how he could get it to the mine. 1t
was IN too heavy pieces to be carried there
ana some of 1T is now lying along the road
Ihe syndicate has now a new management
with Mr.. V. X. Speare. well-knoWn min
ing man of Colorado, as its Peruvian head.
understand that the prospects of the mine
are good, although yet no large amounts
OF gold have been taken out.
The Best Gold of the World.
Just above Lake TitSaca. near the Bo-
hvian boundary at Poto, Peru, there are
gold mines which are doing we'll. My in
formation concerning this region is from
Mr. Charles ". Bellows, an American pros
pector who is now in the employ of the
Santo Domingo mine. Mr.. Bellows has re-
Gently prospected in this part of Peru
Said he:
There are at Poto placer diggings 167 700
feet up In the Andes, which are now turn
ing out $4,000 worth OF gold every three
months. The gold Is 937 fine. some of the
purest gold of the world. They are work.