The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-10

as ruby sand. 1t is very heavy. and is
full of minute rubies and garnets All
you have to do is to shovel the sand
into rocker, and with every shovelful
you get gold. The production Will run
from 90 cents to 81 25 pan, and the men
make all the way from $l5 to 5000 a day.
In depth the sand is from four to five
feet, and then you strike rock bottom
There are from 1,500 to 1000 men now
working this beach, or was this summer,
and from Cape Nome to Sinrock, dis
tance of forty miles, there is not an inch
of beach that is not staked out The ex-
tent Of this gold-bearing beach is as yet
unknown. It has been prospected as far
north as Cape York, 120 miles from Nome,
and 'colors' found all the way. No pros
pecting has been done south of Nome, so
we don't know what there Is in that field
1t Is a marvel and puzzle to old miners,
who find all their previous theories upset
by this great beach deposit. 1t is a fact
that there is not O. shovelful of sand in
the forty miles of beach now staked out
that does not pI oduce gold when put in
| the rocker.
But the beach is only a small part of
| the Cape Nome gold field. Extending
back from the beach four miles to a
| range of hills that rise to q height Of 100
| or 500 feet is a comparatively level coun-
| try, which Is called tundra. 1t Is COW
W
| q boggy formation This moss, by the
way, is largely eaten by the reindeer the
government has taken into the country,
| and they thrive upon it. Remove this
| moss and two or three feet Of SOIL and
| you get exactly the same results that you
| do on the beach. The whole country, In
other words, is one rich gold field I'm
| doubtedly the gold on the beach and In
| the tundra has been washed there from
| the hills in the rear, OF maybe carried
down by glacial action ages ago. The
trouble with the tundra gold fields, how
ever is the lack of water, which prac-
ticelly bars the poor man. from working
them. Water will have to be forced there
| to wash out the gold, or expensive fumes
or bitches constructed to tap some OF
the streams in the hills and conduct the
water to the spot. AS the country Is en-
tirely etimberless the expense of the first
plan would be enormous, as all the 1um-
| her would have to be brought up from
Seattle, and as for the ditch project, the
scarcity of labor in!a country where every
man has chance to be his own BOSS ana
accumulate a possible fortune can be
| imagined. But capital is bound to take
| hold of that section of the country ana
overcome these difficulties, and when II
does no man would dare to hazard
| guess now as to what the yearly produc-
| tion will amount to.
FORTUNES FOR PROSPECTORS
This range OF hills 1 speak of is cut
UP in many places by streams, and 1t
was along the gulches formed by theSe
| streams that the Anderson party located
| all its claims. The mining laws allow
| prospectors to locate one claim Of twenty
| acres on any creek or on any OF It's tr1p-
| utaries. That is, if there We're twenty
| creeks, man might locate claim on
J each creek, and after stalking 1T out and
| paying the recorders fee Of $3.50 for cacn
| claim, it would be his. The Anderson
| party located claims on Anvil creek, GA
| cier creek, Snow gulch Rock creek Lind
| blom creek, Twin mountain, Dry creek,
| Dexter creek and Cooper gulch, besides
/ many others. Beginning operations in
| June with a force Of 100 men, they
| have taken out in the four months in
| which they worked at least $750,0OO In
| gold, and have barely scratched their
| claims. In that country in the summer
| there is no such thing night-there is
not an hoIr in the twenty-four when you
| cannot see to read a paper. The Ander-
| son people worked their men IN three
| shifts of eight hours each, so that op-
| erations were continuous, Sunday being
| the same as any other day. Their clean
| ups were from $1,000 to $4,000 each. The
l gold is mostly in. small particles, but a
few nuggets have been found, one that
| saw being worth $427.
| "Of the thousands Of people who went
| into the district last June about half