The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-05

Wili be Asked 70 Grant n Working
 Charter-Mew Fields Near Cape Nom,r
 From time to time since last October
 stories have reached Seattle, says cor
 respondent of the St. Louis Globe Dem-
 ocrat, concerning fabulously rich placer
 gold mines on the coast of Siberia,
 across the Behring Straits from Cape
 Nome The first information came in
 the form of an opinion from old miners
 and prospectors, who said that they be- 1 lieved the gold belt, which had been
 traced from Golovin Bay to Cape Nome,
 about seventy-five miles, and later from
 Nome to Port Clarence, eighty miles,
 extended across the water to the domain | of the Czar of Russia. No effort was
 made at specifying the location of gold.
 The supposition has been, however, that | 1t lay in the district nearest to the most westerly portion of Alaska. Cape | Prince of Wales is the most westerly
 point of Alaska and can be reached by
 following the coast line something like
 fifty miles from Port Clarence.
 From here it is only sixty or seventy
 miles due west to Cape Nuniano at the
 entrance of St. Lawrence Bay, on the coast of Siberia. This point is fifty | miles south of East Cape, the most east | erly point of Siberia. It is a compara-
 lively easy matter to cross from the do- main of Uncle Sam to that of the Czar, | but to actually explore the country is
 very serious matter The world knows
 something of the prisons of this deso- | late country, and the peremptory man. ner in which transgressions of the im- perial decree are punished.
 Recent reports indicate beyond ques- l ton of doubt that daring Americans 1 have actually discovered wonderfully rich gold deposits In Siberia, and made their way back to Cape Nome without being molested. They speak of their 1 finds as being located east of Nome, but are careful not to go into details, as they hope to secure from the Czar an imperial charter, fashioned something after that which Great Britain gave to the British South African company. William Frye and Charles Swanson are the discoverers Their story indi- cates that the Siberian mines will equal If not surpass those of Cape Nome in richness, and certainly extend over a
 much larger territory While one al- ways thinks of beach diggings when Nome is mentioned this phase of min ing does not crop out in the report of Frye and Swanson. They say the gold they found in Siberia lies somewhat
 back from the coast, and chiefly along
 the beds of dry Greeks They are expe-
 rienced miners, and have been through
 many golden settlements, including
 those of the Klondike and Cape Nome,
 but never saw anything as rich as in
 Siberia. With their shoes they turned up nuggets as large as kernels of corn, and in many instances much larger. They say that all they had to do was to stoop down and pick up the gold from the surface The earth on the surface and as far down as they went--only q short distance-was literally filled with pure alluviaI gold nuggets
 In these discoveries they have part ner named Henry CoMiey, who is cor respondent of the London Daily Chroni- cle. He went to the Klondike some time ago and until recently has been connected with the Klondike Nugget, one of the well known newspapers of the northwest territory. Mir. Cowley arrived in Seattle this week on his way to St. Petersburg to see if the Czar will grant his company a charter to work the mines, He has interested local cap- itaists in this venture, which he con- siders one of the largest and at the same time most promising ever evolved from the many golden opportunities af- forded by the extraordinary develop ment of the land of gold, ice and snow.
 'Rumors and opinions" said MT. Cow ley ''of the probable or actual richness of Siberia as a mining country have at last, been confirmed by the definite lo- cation of actual discoveries of the pre- oious metal, gold, somewhat to the inte- rlor of Eastern Siberia"
 Il Is known that he has in his posses sion maps and other necessary informa- tion for the location of the gold fields, l but he refuses to enter into detailed l explanation, "It would be unwise," continued MT Cowley, flor me to tell all | l know, because it might seriously in | terfere with my plans. I presume you know something of the history of stam- 1 pedes in mining countries It takes | very little to start them and there is no ! telling where they will end The laws | and regulations which govern in Siberia | differ materially from those of the Uni | ted States and Canada in many re- | spects. To know that there is great | treasure in the crown lands of Russia, | and to have the right to go there and get it are two distinct propositions. might cause endless trouble. It is with the idea of avoiding that I am now on my way to Russia with the intention of making known the new discoveries and seeking q concession.
 "1 was at Dawson when Frye and swanson arrived after a long and weary tramp over the ice hills and snow-cov-