The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-02


however, is by way of Bennett and
Tagish, for it is possible to line a boat
through Atlin river, strong, swift
river which connects Atlin lake with
the TalIu arm of Tagish lake. Thus the
ArgonautS who reach this spread Oh
water with a good boat Will be in COM
mand of at least 500 miles of lake shore
with wide areas of good prospecting
ground on which to land
A trail leads up Spruce creek as well
as the full length of Pine creek to lake
Surprise and on these two trails men
are racking to and fro with tents,
stoves. sacks of flour, picks and shoveis,
boots and boxes on their backs, walk
ing swiftly and in trains like some new
variety of pack animal.
The camp on the lake was swaTming
with men in hot discussion ON the even
ing that pitched my tent among them.
The majority believed the camp to be
failure and their loud cursinSs re-
sounded among the trees Boats were
setting off on the return trip nlled with
sour and sullen voyagers. We who
were incoming were greeted with JeerS,
What in hell do you think you are
doing here. come to hunt or fish, In
the face of such universal detection
late Corners made very little statement
of their purposes in reply. The town
site men were nervous. The camp was
decreasing in population and the gen
eral feeling was one of foreboding.
At night in the camps men sat grum-
bling and swearing about their camp
fires. Almost every party was IN dlVl-
sion. There was always some enthu-
siastic individual who had made
find or who had seen some one else
who had This man was set upon, ridi
cu!ed, abused or upheld according to
the temperamental difference OF his
hearers The noise of the discussion
reached other groups and out OF the
dark hulking figures doomed to listen
or throw q hot missile of profanity.
Phrases multiplied, mingling ineXtric-
ably, bench claims, 80 cents to the pan
"a good creek claim-his sluice is about
ready-cleaned up last night-Oh. [
don't believe it; I wouldn't give 500
for the whole damn moose-pasture-
Well, it's good enough for melt is
rotten, the whole d mn cheese-You
have got to stand in with the authori-
ties or you can't get think" and so
on and on endlessly and without Sc
QuenCe.
Gradually the camp thinned out. The
faint-hearted ones who had not the
courage or the skill to go dig and sweat
for gold sailed away. Others went out
upon their claims to build cabins and
lay sluice boxes. Others still busted
themselves with packing their goods
up the trail or secured the country for
new indications.
Slowly the voices of the men who
meant business began to predominant.
They were cheerful and confident, NOV
ing about quietly they began to buy
more tools and provisions. To their
friends they showed gold-not much,
but enough to demonstrate that there
was a real basis for their hope. There
after each day the news grew more
encouraging. Each noon at Discovery
and each night at the lake men came
in swarms to exchange reports of finds
on this or that creek, and at last came
the surprising richness of the bench
high above the creek.
BENCH AND QUARTZ FINDS.
An old man was digging on a ridge
just above Discovery. The passer-by
had his jests, Hello, uncle, what are
you doing up there, diggin' your
graye?'
The old man remained studiously
quiet and continued to sack the dry
dirt and pack it down to the creek.
where he washed it out in a pan. The
jester began to stare. Strange to say
gold came out of this loan. The old
man panned dollars from his ridge.
Everybody began to rubber neck.
The old man was embarrassed to find
a pathway to his place of washing
Then the rush for bench claims began.
The possibilities of the camp widened.
Instead of being 'creell proposition,
it became big hydraulic proposition
Nuggets appeared from some mysteri-
Gus source and passed from hand to
hand. The faces of claimholders
broadened. The voice of the doubter
was whelmed in the rush of confident
boasting.
And then on the last day of August
came the news of the discovery of the
quartz beds. for which the experienced
miners had been searching from the
moment of landing. OF these discover
les little can be said as yet. There
was quiet passing of the word among
friends on this last night in August and
on the following morning both camps
were nearly deserted. 1t was said that
fine pieces of quartz containing Jumps
and seams of gold had been found and
as the miners.
The returning boat carried men
whose certainty of tone indicated their
conviction that the country was rich
and that they were "in it," Some of
them felt their need of getting drunk
over the glorious prospect. Others were
fastening home with samples of gold
not prepared to develop their claims
this year; they were satisfied merely
with a test of their ground. Others had
men at work taking out paying qGanti-
ties of gold and would therefore re-
main until the closing in of winter.
The character of those coming in had
also changed. They came on private
tips bringing rockers, pieces of
grizzly" and plenty Of provisions.
BEAUTIES OF ATLIN.
The weather was very beautiful, like
middle September in northern Iowa.
The wildly blue sky was filed with
soaring masses of 1eecy clouds and
over the hills and athwart the noun
tains long clouds of smoke streamed
like graceful drapery. The climate was
utterly different from that of the coast.
AS we sailed down Tagish water and
up Bennett and came into that re-
blast which ceaselessly
sweeps over the White Pass and Chill
koot Summit as il from some sunless
and dreary inferno, we shivered with
cold.
No words can eXaggerate the beauty
of Atlin lake and its shores. The water,
so clear one seems on wing rather than
afloat; the CLEAN of enormous glaciers,
the gold and purple of the high slopes
covered with grass and shrubs, the cop
per-stained cliffs jutting forth into the
water the sweeping lines of forest fires
climbing the mountain sides at night,
the wondrous pathway of the setting
sun, the MINDLESS sheen of the lake at
morning-these fern a picture that
once seen can never be forgotten.
TERRORS OF THE TRAIL.
To return from this country to the
Chilkoot Pass is like entering upon a
landScaDe in hell delineated hV Dnra