The Newtown bee., 1906-09-07


 Fred B. King, Fairfield county rep
 resentative of Douglas, Lacey $ Co. who recently returned from a trip tt Cobalt, the new Canadian silver re
 gions which are probably the riches,
 in the world, has written very enter
 taining description of his trip there
 and what he saw at the mines.
 For the past 20 years Northern On
 tario has offered unusual attractions
 to the amateur huntSman and fisher
 man and to the tourist in search OI
 road companies whose lines penetrate
 the vast forests stretching away un
 brokenly to the Hudson Bay, have
 long been fully alive to the attractions
 of this almost unknown region and
 each year are pushing their line far
 ther to the north and west, ever keep
 ing before the travelling public
 through a systematic bureau or pub
 licity, the delights in store for those
 who spend their vacations in the
 "NOrth Country"
 The Grand Trunk Railway System
 has for number of years been operat.
 ing line as far as North Bay, 200
 miles due north of Toronto, and sever.
 al very popular resorts, the best known
 of which is probably Muskoka Lake,
 have been placed within the reach of
 the travelling public.> Lumbering op- erations which have been pushed still
 further to the north, resulted in the
 building of line known as the Ire miSkaming & Northern Ontario Rail-
 way" beginning at North Bay pro- ceeding northerly toward James Bay, a portion of the great Hudson Bay. This vast area is to all intents and purposes still terra incognita or "un- known land," but the projectors of the railway had no fear of the ulti- mate success of this route, knowing that the region abounded in hundreds of beautiful lakes we'll stocked with pike, pickerel and bass. with unbrok- en forests where the amateur hunts man could lind all of the: bear, moose and deer that he might care to shoot, to say nothing of the feathered game on every hand.
 That the building of this railway was to reveal mineral deposits of such enormous extent and value as to over shadow the most famous mining camps of the United States, was a thing not even dreamed of, hence it was, that three years ago, when the grading op-
 
 a point about 100 miles beyond North Bay, and the men engaged in blasting away the rocky ledgeS which stood in the way of a level roadway uncovered these enormously rich silver deposits, they were 10th to believe that any thing unusual had been discovered. A Canadian French blacksmith, nam- ed La Rose, employed by the contrac- tors to keep the picks and drills prop erly sharpened, took a piece of the ore and put it into his forge fire, and while unable to determine it's exact charac- ter or it's value, was convinced that the discovery was of more than usual and taking several sam- ples of the ore with him went to To- ronto for "information. The values secured by the assayers were beyond anything they had ever obtained, and after satisfying himself that there was no mistake in the figures, La Rose quietly returned to the scene of the discovery and located some of the best edges and veins then known, and oth- ITS of the construction outfit also made locations which have since prov. I'd tremendously valuable.
 AS cobalt was also present in large quantities, in fact the only deposit of my consequence on this continent, jhe locality was named in it's honor, md to-day, less than three years since ts original discovery, it has acquired greater fame throughout the world han either Cripple Creek or Goldtield n our own country. Mining experts, professors of geology and mineralogy, instructors in mining schools and in he departments of mines and mining which are now portion of every 'reat college and university, have racted to this wonderful camp" and III have without exception pronounc- d it the richest and most unusul mineral deposit on this continent.
 In approaching Cobalt from the outh, the expert prospector and min- ng man is struck by the entire ab- ence of those surface characteristics which he has learned through experi- 1 nee to expect in mineral bearing re- 'ioDs. The country is comparatively | evel, no mountain elevations.a s.appear- ng in any direction, and almost at no 'oint is the underlying country rock | xposed to view where the prospector an get any idea of it's character. On i very hand, either forest or lake, these alter being very numerous and vary ng in size and extent from half mile | n width by mile in length to 10 l niles in width and 30 to 40 in length, l hough the great ma jority are perhaps 'nder three miles in their greatest di- neDsions. The entire exposed earth | urface is covered with a dense forest 1 'roWth of pine and other evergreen rees, intersperSed with white birch, vhitewood, and other trees of this lass An almost impenetrable thick t of undergrowth opposes progress in very direction until the pioneer has feared the way, and even after the 1 urface has been denuded it is no easy natter to penetrate the alluvial soil i nd examine the underlying rock be- ause of the great accumulation of de- ayed vegetable matter and the close y interlaced roots which hold the soil D place. In no other locality is the beset with such difficulties n his search for Natures metallic Teasures. and if in this region she has Ter gifts, she has likewise been most areful in sacreting these from mans ager search. As one prOSpector re. marked in my hearing: "PrOspecting 5 no snap in this country" There re many instances in which the pros- cctor has erected his sleeping quar- CTS Immediately over some of the ichest silver veins ever discovered, while engaged in developing nearby eins of inferior size and value The ystem generally used, and in fact the nly one practicable, is to begin at the oundary line and run series of paral- ol trenches, perhaps 30 or 40 feet part, across the property, and by re- loving the drift, expose narrow strips the bed for examination, but this } manifestly 'going it blind" as hese trenches may, and often have, s revealed by further exploration, assed for hundreds of feet, on either ide of some of the best veins yet dis losed. For this reason intersecting renches are made at right angles