Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1898-11-11
THE X MINES.
Said to Hold Billions Of Dollars n
Gold.
The Opinion of . Mining Engineer
Concerning the Minera Wealt
of the Northern Gold
Fields.

a copy of an article from the pen of
Russell L. Dunn, an eminent mining
engineer of the Pacific coast, dealing
with the theory of the auriferous de-
posts of the Yukon basin. The views
Of Mr.. Dunn are regarded with great
respect by those in the department who
are familiar with the subject, and they
will probably be referred to the geolog-
zeal survey for confirmation. MIR.
Dunn says that the placers in the fu-
ken basin are similar to those OF Aus
t~ralia, Idaho and Montana, except for
the perpetually frozen condition of the
ground. He holds that glaciers have
fad little to do with the formation of
1 placers or the liberation of gold from
its matrix. In California the evidence
of the placers themselves is conclusive
as to their almost exclusive formation
by frost and steam erosion. Siberia
and Alaska present precisely the same
relative glacial phenomena, the placers
being all formed before the period of
glacial action. AS the result of long OBJ
%servation, Mr.. Dunn says that if accu-
rate records of placers were kept it
would be shown that they increased as
MY Nthi hIoti ihi V a Dollt htai thC
head, where the maximum was reached.
Going above this it would be found that
the placers diminished until at a GER
tain point they suddenly disappeared
altogether. There is nothing phenome-
nal in the yield of gold in the Klondike
region. There is no reason to Dub
that in Alaska there are lodes as rich
rs those in California and Idaho, Mon
tana. Nevada, and elsewhere. From one
Of these lodes, corroded by frost and
washed by a stream, there might be
wade placers which would yield in a
.Cw years what would take ten times
IS. .Cng 10 mine by the hand of man.
This craft of nature" he says, put
more than a thousand millions into the
Halifornia placers, and there is, in my
inion, reason in the. anticipation that
IN the Yukon placers another thousand
millions will be found, all things on
,dered, as easily and even quicker han
Fas the thousand millions of the CALI
fornia placers."
Mr.. Dunn believes with many others
hat the richness of those deposits has
been only scratched, and hat there is
good ground for believing that there
are others as rich or ever richer. The
conditions are unlike those of Califor-
MIA in the early days, in that in those
days all a man needed was a stout heart
ard a heavy pick, while in the Yukon
every miner must be a small capitalist
N order to be able to mine at all. Yet
he concludes that a man in search Of a
fortune stands a larger chance of find
ing it in the frozen regions of Alaska
han in the mines of South Africa or
Western Australia. 1t is not necessary
low to depend on blind luck for dis.
7%overies, for technical knowledge of the
occurrence and distribution of gold is
~ensonably exact and comprehensive.
is nov possible to explore without the
Expenditure of the enormous amount
If wGste work formerly an unavoidable
Incident of the business. The placers.
rirst found form guides to the lodes,
and some idea can be formed from the
placers regarding the probable values
Ut the lodes and the risk and uncer.
tainty of quartz mining brought to a
minimum.
One reason why miners have not al
ready located more placers is that in
any instances they are covered with
II 10 n depth of eight to 20 feet.
ought down by the stream after ii
nd PASSED that period when, a rushing
trent, it had torn from the quartz the
-ecks of gold. In these cases there are
, indications of the richer denosits
be found lower down, and the miner
siRst do more than prospect the sur
face. The prospector must remember
That the surface of She country, valley
nj mountain is covered with a deep.
strong growth of moss; that the silt
and auriferus sands of the valley be-
neath the moss are perpetually frozen
20 the bedrock; that from these phys
ioal conditions the methods of pros
reeting for placers and lodes employed
elsewhere are impossible of application
here. There is no special industrial or
economic reason why the exploitation
of the Yukon gold fields should not b
highly profitable to both labor and
capital, with less risk of failures of in
dividual enterprises, part of the history
. of gold mining elsewhere.-N. Y. Sun.