Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-06
CAPE NOME CONDITIONS
REPORTS OF DISEASE AND DEATH
PRONOUNCED UNTRUTHFUL.
Smallpox Scare All Over-No Typhoid
Epidemfc-ReDorts of
PFospectors.

An official Of the Treasury Department
has received from his brother at Cape
Nome, Alaska, an important letter regard
ing conditions there.
THE reports of disease and death that
have been taken back to the states says
the writer. ARE untruthful. The smallpox
scare is all over. There were twenty cases
in all. and all Of them came on the Oregon.
As yet there has been no typhoid, but the
season has been dry, which probably &C
counts for its absence. There have been
twelve violent deaths here since June 10.
Four men have been drowned, three have
suicided and five have been shot.
Prospectors Returning.
"Prospectors who have been out over the
country are just beginning to bring in
quartz. Every sample carries a little gold.
| and some have been worth $50 q ton, which
is a good proposition. I have been out to
the far-famed Anvil creek The season has
been SO dry, there having been no rain since
the 18th Of June. and then it showed. that
the creeks cannot be worked to advantage.
Each sluice box requires a five or six-inch
stream Of water Of considerable force. One
large company on Anvil creek say they are
losing 500, 600 week owing to the scarcity
Of water. AS it is this company Is doing
well. and Is said to have shipped a ton Of
the yellow metal on the Garonne, and some
$4,000 worth has been sold to a local bank
in Nome. Sluicing, with fair results, is
on the beach. The beach is a sort of bursted
bubble. but is yet good sluice proposition.
The day passed last summer when a single
man could rock out SIS a day. I have a
friend who took out $51 In ten hours but
he had three shovelers who had to be paid.
Decides the expense of a gasoline engine to
pump water from the sea. This was on the
ground that was worked with rockers last
year.
THE story that the beach is gold to Cape
Prince Of Wales is undoubted false and
may be attributed to transportation COM
panies. The latter are now bringing in peo-
pie first-class for s25. while two months ago
1t was S125. The question of transportation
home for thousands of poor fellows in the
fall Is indeed serious one.
Novel Dredging Machine.
Il wish you could see some of the Internal
machines which are expected to extract
gold from the sands Of the sea. There is
one especially, Col. Mulberry Sellers out
fit about three miles up the beach It is a
combination dredge and sluice, built on
three great barrels. on which 1t will either
roll along the shore, or. I suppose, float at
sea, although the barrels look little small
for the latter purpose. 1t is worked by a
cable from the shore. A series OF buckets
revolve on a belt, and these dip UP the sand
and dump 1t into suice on top Of the
thing. An engine is rugged up to pump wa
ter and to wind the concern back to shore.
AS yet its operators have found nothing.
The dredge proposition is a dream.
ION the whole. 1 believe Nome is coming
as soon as 1t rains. The gold will be mostly
from the creeks. and the tundra prospect is
well for winter diggings. In the winter the
shafts and excavations will not have to be
timbered. the ground is frozen. Thawing
machinery will have to be used.
The fuel question for winter is serious,
for not every one can pay $50 ton for
coal"