The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-04
PAYING CLAIMS ARE FOUND
BRIGHT FUTURE FOR MINERS IS
NOW PREDICTED.
Police Continue to Scour the Dalton
Trail for the Robbers Who
Held Up Frazer and
Tollner.
BY HAL HOFFMAN.
Special Correspondence of The Call.

JUNEAU. Alaska, Sept. 25.-Interest
concerning the new placer diggings on
Lake Atlin still keeps at a lively heat
both in Skaguay and Juneau. William
Nelson is a placer miner of much ex-
perience and a man in good standing
in Juneau. He has just returned from
Pine and other creeks. have been
told that what Mr.. Nelson says can
be relied on. He said to-day:
The diggings are not a bonanza so
far as 1 was able to see, but they are
good. The gold is spread over a wide
range, and there is a large area around
the head of the lake that has not been
prospected. Reports of new strikes in
that region came down before 1 left,
which was about a week ago. A good
deal of prospecting will be done in that
section next summer, l guess. This
deposit seems to extend a little east
Of north, in the direction of Dawson,
and ii looks TO me as though it might
be a continuation of the Klondike de
posits. 1t ranges in the same gen
eral direction. l shall be away off in
my expectations if a whole lot of good
prospects are not discovered next sum
mer. 1 have a claim or two which
1 am satisfied with, and will begin
working them next spring. There are
the dry beds of quite a number of old
streams, I do not know how many,
which can be worked with hydraulics
at considerable profit I think. Seve-
raj men packed dirt down from the
beds of the dry streams on their backs
TO the creek, sluiced it and made from
a half 10 an ounce per day. That is
what they told me. One of these, a
man named Atkinson from Skaguay,
got much better acquainted with He
told me then that he made from one
to two ounces per day. About the way
l size up the district at this time is
that IL is at least a poor mans dig
glngs-that is, wages, half an ounce Or /
better; but II would not surprise me !
10 see it go much better than that. No /
man can see into the ground. 1t won't /
average less than wages; it may pan /
out more It is all summer diggings. /
saw lots Of coarse gold that had been /
taken out, and several good sized mug
gets of mixed gold and quartz. saw
no quartz in the vicinity where I was
that looked very good"
Nelson says there viii be a winter
camp at Attn City and certainly a
good sized camp or two there next
summer. He has sent men in to win
ter and whipsaw lumber with which to
make sIuIce boxes next spring.
Winter is beginning to set in. Some
snow has already fallen on the passes
Fogs are descending, enveloping the
mountains, the water and the face of
the earth nowhere else so completely
as or the Alaskan coast Soon after
ships Will come in on their last trips
from the westward, and there will
be no further word from Cooks Inlet,
Orca, Valdez and Copper River till next
spring.
Miners on the Alsec River number
about one hundred. They intend to
winter there.
Professor Jeorgeson. sent out by the
Agricultural Department at Washing
ton to prospect the agricultural re
sources Of Alaska, is still over at Sitka
on the westward" He is nicknamed
the Government hayseed" UP here.
Two tracts Of land for experimental
purposes have been selected: one of 100
acres at Kodiak and the other eighty
acres at Kenai.
Police continue to scour the Dalton
tran Tor the robbers who held up A
Frazer and a. L. Tollner on the night
OF September Is, with revolvers, and
look TOOK from them $4,000 which they had !
dug up in the KlOndike and We're TAX
ing home to Seattle. No clew has been
found beyond tracks in the moss and
mud. Indian scouts have now been
sent out on the trail Of the highway
men
The report of the death of Ike Mar
tin, brother Of Dave Martin. of J11-
neau, and an old partner Of Jack DaI-
ton. has not yet been confirmed. He
has been missed With about $4,000 on
his person for several weeks, and as
he was an experienced man. even his
Oldest friends fear they have seen the ,
last of Ike. The only conclusion ar
rived at is that he may have been shot
for the money. Like Jack Dalton. he
was not man to be robbed without
q struggle Frazer and Tollner will
60 home as soon as they can. Every j
cent they had was taken from them !
The former had spent seven months
and prospecting around Daw-
son, ana Tollner thirteen months. The
money was mostly hard-earned wa Gee
from the mines