Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-10
Government Biologists Report
on the District.
ORIGIN OF THE DEPOSITS
Gold Comes From the Country Rock
and is Not Washed Up by
the Sea.

~ NAS "oS NO~S
port from the two biologists, Schrade
n Broos, who We're sent to the Cap
Nome gold region last October, in re
spoons to the urgent wish of the senate
which is of more thar ordinary interest
The gold of this region thus far has al
been obtained from placer deposits, which
can be conveniently grouped, the investi
gators report, as gulch placers, bar plac
ers, beach placers, tundra placers ant
bench placers. During the past season
only those Of the gulch and beach have
been important gold producers. No ia.
c~ilities We're available for exploiting tn,
tundra deposits and the benches have not
as yet, been investigated. The coarse
gold, as far as present developments
show, is largely confined to the creek and
gulch diggIngs, ranging from the size OF
a PIN head to nuggets weighing several
ounces. Two have been found on Anvil
creek, weighing twenty to twenty-five
ounces and worth from $500 to $500. Much
OF this gulch gold is about the size of
NO. 3, while nuggets from one-half to
one ounce are not uncommon. Much Of
the fine gold is lost by the primitive
method of extraction now in use. The
gold is usually rounded and often smooth
~ polished. In color it is rather dull and
somewhat resembles furnished brass.
The nuggets are round and sub-angular,
but seldom fiat. Small vitreous quartz
masses are not u~nfrequently found at
tached to them.
The creek gold usually occurs on or
very near bedrock, under a thickness Of
five to eight feet Of gravel. In the dig
glngs the pay streak is of varying thick
ness, but the gravel usually carries some
gold from the surface down. A cross
section OF the gravel at any given point
would show the gold not evenly distri-
buted' but more or less gathered into
zones. This a streak usually trends
parallel with the creek valley, and simply
marks an earlier channel of the creek
when the gold was laid down in its bed.
1t IS not necessarily continuous, but often
occurs in detached pockets, which are
sometimes very rich. In the lower reaches
or the Snake river and Of other large
streams gold is reported to occur on the
bars also in workable quantity. It is
mere much finer than in the creeks and
gulches, but not as reduced as that In
the beach. 1t is ~variously mingled with
the gravel n sand constituting the
pars, and like them was deposited by the
rivers and streams which brought the ma
Ierial % from the creeks and gulches.
1t was on the bars of Snake river that
the Nome gold was first discovered.
Normally, in the beach deposits there
IS fine gold, gold sand, and some flake
gold. The particles range in size from
tnat OF a small pin head to dust or four
gold. With only the crude appliances for
separation at hand during the last sea-
Son, little of the flour gold has, as vet.
neen saved. Small nuggets, amounting
TO about $.50 in value, have been found.
put are relatively rare. The beach gold,
when separated, is bright in color, and is
usually of uniform grain. It occurs in
the peach placers, a strip of comparative
Nv nna pr1v vol and corI I'M - p
wide, extending parallel to the shore he
tween the frontal edge of the tundra and
the water line. In the Nome region gold
has been found in the beach from a point
ABOUT a mile east of the town westward
1or some ten or twelve miles. Beach de-
posts are also reported from other local.
tues along the southern margin of the
seward peninsula. The rich pay-streak
or the beach deposits usually lies on
what Is locally called bed rock" which
IS a tenacious clay. 1t seems to be a bed
which dips gently toward the sea. The
strata above the clay beds consists of well
strat.fied ruby sand, black sand. fine
gravels and sands, with occasional LAYERS
or shlngle. The gold lying on the bed
rock is not evenly distributed, but occurs
IN more or less concentrated patches. The
thickness of the pay-streak is a variant
OF the methods used in extracting the
gold. The pay-streaks vary in width from
- e" us, anu lQelr longer
axes seem to lie at right angles to the
shore line. This trend is probably
ascribed to the concentrating action Of
the waves and possibly of the tides when
the gold was deposited. There is a posi-
bllity that this deposit extends seward
but, as yet we have no evidence on this
point.
The bench placers Of the region have.
as far as we know, received little or no
attention from the prospectors. Some OF
the low benches near the creeks have been
shown to yield gold, but the higher
penches and terraces have been disre.
garded chiefly, it seems, because of the
dlincultles in obtaining water Whether
TINS gold is sufficiently concentrated to
prove or commercial value is a question
TOT the prospectors to settle. A good
number OF the bench claims have been
staked and 1T is to be hoped that the
assessment work Of this year will throw
more light on the subject. In A. new re.
gro like that of Nome, the prospector
naturally turns first to the deposits which
VIII Yield immediate profit. and therefore
VEN or quartz mining receives but little
attention. In the Arctic region, more
over. prospecting for mineral veins is
much lmpeded by the thick coating of
moss which covers most Of the surface Of
the country. We have, therefore. but
httle definite information in regard to
mineral veins of the region. We observed
both copper n iron pyrite.
AS far as it goes, the evidence points
to a derivation of the gold from the min
eraLzed veins n country rocks above
described. We. wish to emphasize this be-
cause OF the prevalent idea that the
spaAcer gold has been brought from great
distances by the action, of ice or through
some CONFUSION Of nature. This is a