Douglas Island news., 1901-11-27

miners. In the meantime they will spend couple of months in Califor- mia.
 A special from White Horse to the skagway Alaskan, under date of the l4th inst, says rumors are again rife ln this city that powerful English com pany has representative here looking into the several copper propositions in this vicinity. For the past two weeks gentlemen who seem to have plenty Of money to spend have been picking up all odds and ends of information about mining. When pressed for information they have nothing to say. Before nav igation closed, two engineers from Da@- son, in the employ of one of the Eng fish companies who are interested ln ouartz properties in the interior, came here and paid several visits to the mines out from the city. It is not known whether they made favorable report. The experts now here are ex- perienced mining men, as can be readl- ly seen from their conversation. It has been reported that big deal was on, but no particulars have as yet been made public.
 TEX. Beaudet, of Tacoma, is exhib- iting in that city nine solid silver shoe nails which he claims he found on bed rock, at depth of no feet, on claim No. 35, Hunker, in the Klondike. These, he asserts, are conclusive evidence that prehistoric man once had habitation in the land of the Midnight Sun. These nails appear to have been made by ma chinery, the sides being covered by lit tie regular indentations as if the nails had been grasped in vice. On this same claim, he says, the owners found a piece of cast iron that seemed to have been used as hinge, and hole bored through it was very roughly done, and the metal indicated much service. These relics of a bygone and unknown race, living in a period that even spec ulation cannot place in relation to it's remoteness from the genesis of crea- ton, were found in close proximity to the bones of mastodon.
 
 A writer in British magazine, who has been looking over the situation in the far North. says that the foreign of flee of that government ought to obtain "quid pro quo" in Alaska, on the Ca nadian frontier, for the abrogation or revision of the canal treaty. The British have been trying this "quid pro quo" business in South Africa with a Iamentable lack of success, and it would be the acme of foolishness to try it on your Uncle Sam, who is much more numerous than Dom Paul, and has larger amount of spit to put on his hands.
 Rev. Hall S. Young, the general mis- sionary of Alaska for the Presbyterian denomination, who recently arrived in Skagway from trip down the Yukon and to the Westward, claims the dis tinction of having printed the first pa per ever published in Alaska. This was the "Glacier,"a a denominational sheet, issued at Wrangel g years ago, which afterwards was merged into what is now known as the "Northern Light" He also established the first Protestant church in Alaska, also at Wrangel P years ago.
 A 40-ton combination punch has been received at Skagway for the W. P. & Y.R. R. It will not be used by the conductors to punch frozen tickets, but in the machine shops.
 Three sacks of ore from quartz claim near Skagway have been sent to Seattle for mill test and if the returns come up to expectations great things in the way of development are promised.