The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-04-22

of what desoiation and silence in landscape
really are until they have been up the
northwestern coast of Alaska.
We'll. / pitched my little tent amid q ter
rife gale OF cold wind that pierced my very
borcs, and then I patiently toiled from the
sailing boat across the beach to tho tent
with arrnfuis Of provisions and my camp
outfit. The mercury was at about - above
zero that September day, and the wind blew
so hard that | had to pile frozen ciods o:
earth on the tent sides to keep it from blow
ing oyer. Then we began our search for
gold utacar mines. We separated and went
the frozen creeks that empty into the Snake
and Nome rivers four to seven miles BACK
from the SEA coast"
pri>ations of the ~Pr"spcrtor.
Eelding said lie could not adequately de-
scribe the painful and battling difficulties
the pioneers in that virgin gold field had to
combat while they sough. locations along
! the creek benches, where the richest grave!
might be washed for its golden particles. =.
"Imaeine," he said. The hardships of
one who pans for gold in the side Of u
creek Of half-froSen water. amid a bowling.
piercing gale, when III: mercury is below
freezing point. Fancy how much one en-
dures who tra;npS day after day through
snow. breaks away ice, to pan the frozen
gravel beneath for gold. and then goes 10
q tent home at night. to cook a meal of
stale bacon or salt pork over a smoky bon
fire. II is II wonder that we pioneers at
Cape Nome lived through all gu. privations
and hardships, Every one of US did more
tLlll4E iiliSs lTSt lev NN'N at 's!l't AStiltt
To coax our deaths by rheumatism, scurvy,
pneumonia and stomach disease than most
men do In the course of a long war.
ION October :. ISts. after | had PANIED
hundreds OF times for gold in several dozen
localities, | found beneath g thin crust Of
Ice on Anvil Greek gravel that yielded
about five p~ennyweiglits Of gold-worth
about Si.s5-to each pan. That was the
richest ] had found. l was half IL mile
from any other human being, and I had a
clear right to make my mining claim right
there. / was wildly excited. and forgetting
all about the pain and hard work, l made
several dozen trial paintings for gold in
that locality.
Rich strike on Anvil Creek.
1T Was wonderfully rirh everywhere. l
dug down three feet i'll the ice and tnawed
kindied ut the side of the creek. | got half
an ounce of g~uid-worth SIN two pans of
gravel. | located one claim there for my
self and another for James E. Porter Of
the Bertha-the man who had grubstakei
me for Cape Nome. Two days later I had
driven the boundary takes on my mining
claims. according to the United States min
ing laws. The temperature went down Ia
zero and snow to the depth of four feet
fell in one week.
we all abandoned gold-washing for the
winter, and settled down to exist five
months. or until warmer weather would re-
turn, that in the annual thaw we might
prosecute placer mining. oh, the dreari-
ness. melancholy and priyations of that first
ply existed more like animals than human
beings. For days none of us stirred out Of
our tents. We ate haif-ccokcd food for
weeks at a time ana we became 50
floors of our tent hahitations that we looked
like The Esquimos about us and were
tanned like hams.
I'VE kept track of the days by marking
them off a calendar. We exercised our every
faculty and iliSention to devise schemes to
keep our minds awake. For days the tenn