The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1903-03-27
ALASKA.
l.. r. RanOus Gives an Inter
esttng Account Of his Four
Years Travels and EXpcr-
fences in the Gold
Fields Of Alaska
Continued from Last Week.

is quite plentiful such as moose,
caribou, bear and mountain sheep.
The Indians build fences of
spruce poles across the valleys or
passes and leave openings by which
they conceal themselves, lay and
shoot the moose or caribou as they
pass through. I have seen these
fences a mile long. Sometimes they
will build a sort of correll or trap
open at one end and perhaps a mile
wide at the opening and narrowing up
to the distance of a good rifle shot from
one side to the other, here they conceal
themselves and shoot the game as it
comes in. Small game is quite plenti-
full, such as ptarmigan, grouse, spruce
hens, ducks and geese and small red
squirrels. Fish abound in all these
streams: salmon, grailing, trout,
pickerel, and many other kinds.
This is a rough and mountainous
country with many rivers and lakes,
quite we'll timbered, principally
spruce with some birch, cottonwood,
willow and alder. A number of
varieties of berries grow here. Gran
berries, huckleberries, strawberries,
red and black %currants, and many
other varities of berries which | have
no name for. Flowers grow in album
dance and many varieties of them.
The weather in summer is fine, but
for the mosquitoes which are quite
bad for about five or six weeks, n
would enjoy it. Daylight is contin-
uous for about two months and in
some localities from the tops of
mountains you a see the sun at
II O'Clock at midnight. The winters
are long but not very severe. There
is quite a heavy snowfall-four or
five feet deep-cold at times but very
little wind. The shortest day has
about six hours daylight. | think
this quite a healthy climate, about the
only sickness being scurvy, due |
suppose to the lack of fresh vegetables.
The water is good and all soft. In
regard to the agricultural prospects
of this country, the soil looks good
in some localities in the valleys and
might produce certain kinds of crops,
such as barley, oats, winter wheat
and vegetables. There are some
good meadow lands here. The country
for the most part is covered with a
heavy growth of moss, and when
burned off grass will grow abundantly.
foreground is frozen to a very great
depth and never thaws out where
covered with moss, only about one
foot below the moss.
In regard to the mineral prospects
of the Copper river country, l
don't think much of it as a placer
mining country, but it may be all
right for quartz mining. | believe
there has been some good copper
property located there. The copper
belt seems to extend from the heads
of the Copper. White and Tanana
rivers across to and down the
Chittena river, thence across the
Copper river, extending to a point
in Prince William sound near Valdez.
The only placer diggings | know Of
in the Copper river country is on
Slate and Miller creeks, tributaries
to the Chistitena river. This was
discovered in 1899 and l believe they
have very good diggings there. |
am acquainted with parties who have
interests on these creeks and | believe
there have been other placer diggings
discovered there recently.
AS I have said before, | reached
Lake Mansfield May 9, 1899. BY
this time the snow was getting very
thin, so we decided to remain here
and rest up awhile and do some fish
ing and hunting. W. got plenty OF
game and fish, shot M bear and
made a prospecting trip about 40
miles north in the Ketchumstock Hills.
On our return we decided to continue
our journey to Forty Mile Creek and
Dawson. We built a cache house
and cached our belongings, all except
what we could pack at W trips, and
started for the Moskito fork of the
Forty Mile river, which is 30 miles
from Lake Mansfield. We reached
there June 18th, built a boat and
started down the river July 4th.
Stopped at a number of creeks on
! the way where mining was going on,
Chicken creek, Franklin gulch. Jack
Wade, Uhler Moos, and Cannon
creeks: there are some good diggings
on some of these creeks. Wade
creek | think is the best. The two
men who had been travelling with
me from the Copper river country
decided to stay and try their luck on
the Forty Mile. l reached the Forty
Mile post on the Yukon river July
Goth, and the following day took a
steamer for Dawson, so miles up the
river, reaching there July 9th. Daw-
son was quite a lively place, located
on the Yukon river in Canadian
territory at the mouth of the Klondike
river, about twenty miles from the
boundry line. Gold dust was used
there as a medium of exchange: wages
we're about one dollar per hour. They
have some very rich diggings here on
the tributaries of the Klondike river.
| saw one nugget taken from a claim
on the Eldorado creek worth $11OO.
The ground is frozen continuously,
except in creek beds. Steam thawers
are used for thawing the ground. the
bench ground or deep diggings are
worked in winter. The pay dirt is
taken out and cleaned up in the
spring; this is done by running the
pay dirt through sluice boxes with a
current of water running through them.
l remained in Dawson until Scptem-
Der 9Th, where l had secured a position
as engineer on a Yukon river steamer
and shipped for St. Michals, reaching
that point September 10Th; we had to
lay up nights on account of sand
bars. The Yukon is a fine river for
steambo ating, it is about 1000 miles
long and is navigable for large