Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-01-26

fields must not expect to find claims
near the present centers of population.
They will be compelled to prospect dis
tant streams and gulches, and if sue
cessful, they may locate several hun
dred miles from the nearest store. To
be compelled to make journey after
supplies might cause the loss of the en-
tire seasons prospecting, even assuming
that the things needed could be pur-
chased at all. Every prospecting party
should be fully equipeped to subsist
itself for year. Otherwise it can not
carry on its work under the conditions
necessary for success. This is made
clear when one understands the method
of mining and the difficulties OF travel
in the winter season, in a mountainous
region without trails, the ground COW
cred with snow and the thermometer
almost continuously below zero.
The ground is frozen from surface to
bedrock, a distance varying in mining
claims from 90 to 40 feet. Even in
summer it thaws out less than a foot
from the surface. The best pay dirt or
gravelis just above the bed rock, and
to sinf shaft down to this requires
great deal of fuel, and it takes many
weeks of hard work in the open season
to gather fuel enough to last through
the winter for heating and working
purposes. Water for washing ont the
dirt and extracting the gold can be had
only il the summer and early fall. In
some districts water flows only a few
weeks each year. All the dirt taken
ont of the shaft is piled up near it till
the ftllowing summer, and until then
the miner can not tell what will be the
resultof his years labor.
This is the ordinary programme of
the Yukon miner. He reaches the gold
fields in June or July. He spends the
next few weeks in prospecting and
finally locates claim. There is then
but a short time left in which to gather
fire wood and prepare for work. Dur
ing the winter he sinks his shaft and
piles up the dirt to be run through
sluice boxes the next summer. When
he can get water he begins washing,
and by the time he has completed it
more than year has passed from the
time he first arrived in the gold fields,
and itmay then be too late for him to
get out OF the country that season. If
he went in supplied for 1S months and
has kept his supplies he is all right. If
not, he may be in the position of those
Klondike miners this winter, who have
not supplies to carry them through till
spring and can not buy them at any
price.
So much for the necessity of an
ample equipment. Now few words
about the nature of it. Some things
are absolute necessities, and one of
these is quicksilver for saving the gold.
Take five pounds. To be without it
would be like soldier without ammu-
milton. 1t should be in a metal flask
of some kind, something that will not
break, and care should be taken not to
spill it. A pick and long-handled
shovel are necessary tools, also a gold
pan. You will want kit of tools for
making boat. as we'll as for building
a cabin, fumes, etc. 1t should consist
of whipsaw, handsaw, jack plane,
draw-knife, axe, claw hatchet ham,
mer, square, chisel, files, milestone,
chalk line and wire anG galvanized
nails, also oakum, pitch, oars, row.
locks, calking iron, boat cotton, twine,
sail needles, wooden block and manila
cotton rope.
The necessary camping outfit con-
sists of tent, Yukon stove, nest of
three camp kettles, fry pan, bake pan,
water bucket, plates, cup and saucer,
coffee pot, knives, forks, spoons, two
large spoons and butcher knife. The
best materials for utensils are alumni
mum, graniteware and steel in the or
der named. No tin, china or glass is
desirable. There is no economy in not
getting the best and full equipment.
Food must he good and properly cooked
ii one would retain health and be in
condition to work. Insufficient or
poorly cooked food, with little variety,
is the chief cause of scuryy. Too much
care cannot be exercised in this par
ticular.
As for food, an adequate supply for
Is months weighs about ton. The
chief items are 600 pounds OF -four, 300
pounds of bacon, 100 pounds each of
beans and sugar 70 pounds: each of
rolled oats or other musli material and
corn meal, so pounds Of rice, six dozen
cans of condensed milk, IS pounds of
butter in sealed cans, 100 pounds of
evaporated vegetables, 100 pounds of
evaporated fruit, 80 pounds of prunes
and raisins, 80 pounds of dried fish, 40
pounds of coffee, with baking powder,
soda, salt, pepper, ginger, mustard,
yeast cakes, tea, soap, matches, lime
juice (very importantly, dried beef, ex-
tract of beef, soups in tins, sausage, to-
bacco, etc., as desired bearing in mind
always that variety of food promotes
health. There has more or less been
said in the papers about various con-
centrated foods, but with the exception
of evaporated vegetables and fruit,
condensed preserves, condensed milk
and beef extract there is nothing yet
been brought forward which has been