The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-24

washed out with cold water by means
Of a hydraulic giant. Other mines were
visited on Snow gulch and Dexter
creek, illustrating the different meth
DDS of handling the gravel. some by
hydraulic lifts and others by simply
rock in the sluice boxes. F
One Of the most interesting PROPOSE
tons, as the miners say, was the
Snow Flake mine, where shaft had
been sunk to a depth Of 1870 feet to
a bed of pay gravel. This is supposed
to be a deposit similar to that found
on bed rock in the gulches and along
the streams, but, by a change In the
face of nature, to have been covered
with earth to this depth. The gravel
is taken out of this underground de-
post and sluiced out just as If scooped
from the surface of the ground as in
most other mining operations. The
work of taking out the ore can be
carried on all winter, but the sluicing
must wait, Of course, for summer
weather. F-.gs t..-
An interesting fact developed here
was the depth of the frost line. AS has
been heretofore stated, perpetual ice
is found practically all over Alaska
at a depth of two or three feet. That
is to say, the surface thaws only about
that much during the summer. The
close covering of grass and moss pro-
tects the surface of the ground so
thoroly from the rays of the sun that
the frost is not disturbed at greater
depth. The question naturally arose,
how far does the frost line go? I
asked this question number of times
on the trip thru Alaska, but no one
seemed to have found the limit. Here,
however, I learned that; the ground
was frozen solidly for a depth Of nine
ty-fVe feet, and a drill working in
another shaft nearby afforded partial
confirmation of this statement, as it
was still chipping the ice at an ap-
parent depth of sixty feet.
\ N excellent lunch was served to
n the entire. party of twenty-five
or thirty at the messhouse of
the Wild Goose company and we were
then invited to witness a cleanup on
No. s above, on Anvil creek, which
means the eighth claim above the
original discovery claim. This claim
belongs to Mr.. Linderberg's COM
pany but was being worked on a lay,
which is the miners term for a per-
centage lease, by the Wild Goose COM
pany. The sluice box shown in the
accompanying illustration had been
running two days and when the rifles
had been taken up and the gold in the
bottom literally shoveled up, it was
found that there were :" nearly two
miners pansfull, the value Of which
was nearly $4,000. : And beautiful
stuff it was, too. The Nome gold is
brighter and prettier than that which
is found in the Klondike and assays
So or SO more to the ounce-about SIS
to SIT in the one case and SIG to So in
the other. The greater part Of it is In
fine particles about the size of the
grains Of rock salt, or smaller, but a
great many nuggets worth from 81
to 81 were found in this cleanup. I
saw one piece that day said to be
worth $500 and have learned that after
we left there a nugget was taken
from one Of these Anvil creek bench
claims which weighed out $3,285.90.
IND 7 get the fever? No, not ex-
~ actly, but when you see the yell
low metal gathered up by the
painful and see. it picked up in chunks
as big as hens eggs,59 you no longer
wonder at the fascination which holds
the prospector~ to his life of solitude
and privation from year to year. Hope
never fails; he hasn't "struck it rich
vet; but he may Tomorrow. saw, on
an island off the south coast of Alaska
a typical prospeetor5esl-aaI prospector. is
miner who hasn't struck it. yet. This
old man was bent with age and Grip
lpled by rheumatism He $50 came
aboard our ship to get some medicine
| from the ships Sdoctof. 8, The doctor
ministered to~al1im the best he could
but told him plainly that he had seri.
Gus infirnity and that if he didn't STOP
work, stop camping on the ground and
take good care of himself he would