Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-07-12
THIRTY MILLIONS In GOLD
Joaquin Miller'S Estimate Of the Output
Of the KlOndik0.
Ice Breaking Up in the Streams - First Boats
to Carry Lots Of Whisky 10
the Camps,

Below is the latest special letter
of Joaquin Miller, Poet of the
Sierras," to The San Francisco
Examiner from the Klondike re
gion:
Cabin, Klondike Mines, April
80, 1S9S.-The miners are all
busy now with the "clean-up."
There may be some disappoint
ments for the miner, but my esti-
mate of S30,OOO,0O0 will not be far
wrong. All along Bonanza creek
for nearly thirty miles up from
this cabin and all up the five
miles of Ell Dorado the strings of
brand new sluice boxes blaze in
the sun under the green fir
boughs and above the fast-melting
snow banks, showing vast in.
crease in the machinery over the
old boxes that were in use the
year before.
The struggle to get the last
strings of boxes up the Bonanza
before the ice broke was a brave
one. Mr.. Nash, who drives
large team of dogs, returned with
the last load on the 14th inst. He
started at midnight and got
through all right before the sun
was up. But on his return he
went through the ice--dogs, sled
and all, and was fished out by the
miners on the bank. The next
day there was a sort of panic up
the creek to get down, and hand
sleds, dog sleds and men with
packs passed the cabin in strings
all day.
The sun is really roasting even
now at midday, and the smells
that go up from Dawson are simp
ly deadly. Yet the people, their
work up the creeks being done,
are only waiting now for the
dumps to thaw out, so as to wash
up, send all their spare forces,
wife, children, everybody, down
to Dawson in heap. This is be-
cause the ice is breaking in the
trail, which is on the bed of Bo-
nanza. And there is no other trail
nor will there be until the snow
banks on the sleeps have gone.
The Klondike is breaking up,
but it will be weeks before the
ferry runs. A bridge is being
built at the old ferry house, three
miles above the mouth. The
bridge at the mouth gradually
nears completion. 1t is to con
meet Dawson and Klondike City.
The only shortage of any sort l
hear of is in the whisky. We have
plenty of almost everything else.
1t is expected that the first two
boats will bring little else besides
whisky and mail, as there is little
else this side of st. Michael save
whisky and mail for the boats at
Circle City to bring. We hear
that the well.intentioned relief ex-
pedition for the starving miners
of the Klondike is somewhere up
above the headwaters of the
Yukon.
The news from the Yukon ISL
ands is meager. The inspector of
mines has been called hither and
yonder to pass on new strikes, but
he will not report formally. The
best l hear of is two coarse pieces
of gold found on a large island in
the gravel of a hole twenty-seven
feet deep. The finder tells me
that the gold is round and heavy
and nearly the size of peas. This
is the only hole, except the frs
find, where water has not beer
encountered to such an extent as
to compel suspension Of work
This island is twelve miles from
town, is claimed and is being
prospected by company o
Norsemen, who have given it ont
of their old country names.
Colonel Bowie will return VI
to Sixty Mile creek in his dol
sled, taking a party with him, to
morrow morning, for big strik
is reported to him by the mel
whom he has working his eXten
sive interests there. His propert
is placer, about mile of it, all O
Ten. Mile creek, which is ten mile
up the Sixty-Mile from the Yu
\ kon.