The evening times., 1899-01-18
TREASURE BEYOND
KL0NDIKB YIELDS
Frazier River Regions Teem-
ing With Tons of Gold.
To Obtain 1t Operations Must Be on
a Large Scale.
Hydraulic Machinery Necessary to
Extract the Wealth of Quartz III
Miles of Mountains. ,-,-5

In 1897 the FRAZIER river III DIltlsH w.
lumbia and the streams emptying into it
were found by party of prospectors to
be gold bearing. In years time the
country was thickly settled by god seek
ers from all parts of the world. The ex-
citement at the time was as great as that
exhibited over all great discoveries which
have been made in Alaska, Africa, Aus
tralia and in various parts of our own
country. Towns and communities sprang
up almost in the twinkle of an eye and
men and women eagerly sought their for
tunes in the new fields. The mines from
the time of their discovery until 1875 pro-
duced prodigiously. 1t is not accurately
known what the amount of gold was that
was taken out Al any rate, it reached
hundreds OF millions, and men who went
there poor came away princes of the
money world.
The Frazier River, which together with
its tributaries, produced the fabulous for
tunes, rises on the east slopes of the Cas-
cade range of mountains and flows in a
sCuthwesterly direction emptying into the
Pacific at Vancouver. The most notable
gold producing tributaries of this Won
derful stream are Williams and Lightning
taken since their discovery Since 1875
until within the past few years work IN
the greater part of this section has been
abandoned The reason for this was that
on account of the primitive mining meth
ods then in use gold could not be taken
out IN paying quantities and many vau-
able claims, which We're practically mac
cessable because OF the lack of more mod
ern dredging machinery, were abandoned
In some instances capital was lacking 10
properly develop the mines
The most OF these mines were located
in what is known as the Caribou district
Within the past three years the attention
OF capitalists has been directed 10 unde-
Veloped claims of this section and as a
result the country is again assuming the
appearance of hustle and activity which il
presented during the sixties. 1t is the
opinion of many mining experts who have
resided in the region for years that only
a small portion of the gold has been eX-
tracted from the soil and that there still
remains in the creek bottoms, which hith-
erto have been inaccessible, untold treas
ures which, when fully uncovered, will
give up more than the Klondike will ever
produce. Moreover the gold producing re-
gion has never been entirely explored or
prospected, and as the means of communi-
cation are developed new fields will be
opened up which are likely TO prove ex-
ceedingly rich. The present outlook is d
brilliant one. The quartz from which
these particles of gold come has never
been discovered, and in this department
of gold mining there are some great open
ings which are bound 10 be developed
within the next five years. Ii is true that
mines which are paving big profits, but
these represent very small proportion
of the available sources which are lying
wide open. In many of the streams the
gold-bearing gravel extends down 100 feet
10 bed rock. but with the primitive meth
DDS OF taking out and washing the gravel
il was impossible for the men owning but
one claim 10 secure more than the gold
which was in the dirt near the surface.
Without machinery the miners could not
dig down more than quarter Of the dis
tance to a bed rock Another element con-
spired against deep digging The mining
laws of British Columbia until recent
years allowed an individual to hold only
one claim hundred feet square. This de-
barred the miners from digging down any
great distance, as they were afraid that
the walls of their excavations would fall
in on them. The laws, however have been
amended so that almost any amount of
ground can be secured by any one indi-
vidual.
small party of miners can go to this part
of the province which has been worked
over and strike it rich are past. Opera
tions in order to pay we'll must he carried
on on large scale. The opportunities
seem TO be open more especially to the
company which is backed by a large
amount of capital This appears TO have
been generally recognized of late years.
Hydraulic mining machinery Is now neces-
W. IT.
along the streams need 10 be pumped out
and this requires heavy and expensive ma
ohinery. Nearly every stream in British
Columbia yields gold in paying quantities
The country which has been explored
and prospected is full of miners. who take
out from So to $50 day by washing the
gold in rockers and pans such as were
used by the miners of California in the
early days of the excitement there Even
with such crude methods their labor pays
them, but ii is impossible to make a for
tune in this way as the cost of living at
any distance from the railroads is very
great Should men with capital enough
to purchase and set up modern dredging
machinery go into the country and wash
the gravel found in the beds of the streams
the riches of the country would be quick
ly revealed
Travellers who have merely passed
through the region say that it is a COM
mon sight to see men with boxes and bags
filled with gold quartz which they have
picked up from the surface q few miles
back from the railroad. This ore generally
assays from So and upward to the ton
Tourists claim that there are hundreds of
miles of mountains which bear this quartz
copiously. Probably the most of the gold
ore is found between Kicking Horse and
Banfi Springs on the Canadian Pacific Rail-
road 1t is not known how far back to-
wards the north these gold-bearing
mountains extend In many places north
of the railroad there are places so inaccess