Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-07-06
"cRIzzLY" GOLD MINING.
Primitive Methods Employed in Sas
katchewan.

ON the long billy drive from Strath-
coma. on the south shore of the North
Saskatchewan, to Edmonton. on the
north shore, tourists may see an ola,
cuiiously constructed, ramshackie,
sarged and abandoned steamboat.
which somewhat resembles a stern
wheel passenger craft and is yet
rugged with an apparatus evidently in
tended for dredging. Inquiry discov-
ers that it is dsused gold dredger,
which represents some ten or twelve
thousand dollars invested, mostly by
Englishmen. in enabling an English
engineer to develop his ideas of what
gold dredger should be. Perhaps If 1t
had been furnished with wheels. pull
leys, chains. stanchions and other me-
chanical parts of good steel it might
have worked to this day. But the
paris were made in England. possibly
by some one used to contracting for the
War Office. They wore out at all
critical functions with wOndrous ra-
pidity. and the dredger practically went
to bits. almost after the manner OF DR..
Holiness one-hoss shay Yet 1t pro-
duced, in the open season of one year,
gold that sold at the mint for $500
from $4,000 cubic yards of gravel
dredgcd from the bars of the North
Saskatchewan. That means a. cents
of gold a cubic yard. The tailingS are
said to have contained enough more to
be worth reworking.
Now, extensive gold dredging opera
tons are carried on along the Feather
River of California in gravel or sand
cubic yard Boston men and money
are engaged on Feather River. 1t
would seem that they might we'll turn
their attention to the Saskatchewan.
Excellent machinery is made in Port
land. Ore. for gold dredging. The
man who makes it says the old dredSe"
ashore at Edmonton was badly
planned, as well as badly made. |
have not met the Portland man. His
name. is |. Il. Hammond. NJ, e. His
confidence in the Saskatchewan prop
| osition is such that he has offered. in
| writing. to take a $4,000 interest in a
company for exploiting Saskatchewan
gold provided his firm shall construct
the machinery. In 1903. according TO
n report of the California State Mining
Bureau. Feather River yielded SLAB
| 119 to about forty dredging machines,
mostly of the Portland variety.
At present the North Saskatchewan,
at many points along the medndering
| reach for two hundred miles below
! Edmonton. is being exploited by min
ers using Il very crude apparatus local
| ly called the grizzly" which term is
more properly applied to one part of
| \, tan, IF ahn ri I \ c
| The miner digs gravel on a river bar
| or on that part of the shore formerly
| covered with water. He shovels it
| into a whcelbarrOw. He wheels this ur
an inclined plank plane, supported by
| trestlcs and ending close to the water
| edge There he dumps the load into
| a wooden box, uncovered, about is
| inches wide and 6 feet long. This box
| incines slightly toward the river. Its
| outer or river edge discharges freely
when water is baled into it. by means
of a pail secured to a long handle for
| convenience of dipping without bend
| ing the miners back. The baled water
| falls back into the higher or shore end
of the long box, and SO sweeps the
barrow load of gravel out pretty speed
| lily with it.
| Water and gravel fall together down
| the grizzly proper. This Is really
| a screen or sitter made i'm the shape of
an upturned letter ". Its sides consist
| of wooden or iron rods or rungs, which
step down ladderwise. The gravel
falls on the apex. and as the larger
| stones will not go through the screen
they fall down the ladder or rods, to
each side AT the same time the sand
| and smaller particles of stone fall
| through the screen, which Is fioored by
boards, this floor being about IA by 20
inches in area. The floor Of the
grizzly" tips inward or shoreward.
and discharges the water and sand into
another box which tips outward. This
latter box is about five feet long and
eighteen inches wide. 1t Is fitted with
| one or more. often two. and OCCASION
ally three layaeS OF wooden blanket,
over which th4ater and sand fow to