Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-07-06

| the river edge. Instead OF passing
over the blankets. the particles Of gold
which the gravel had contained fall by
] their greater weight on the rough
| wooden surfaces and are held there.
| Every evening the blankets are washed
and wrung out in a tuD on whose bCt-
| tom mercury has been placed. The
globules of quicksilver absorb the gold
and form the valuable amalgam, whose
metals are afterward separated by q
process supposed to save all the gold
and most of the mercury. This latter
comes in 90-pound TASKS, and Is worth
| I'm the Western states, about 60 cents a
pound.
The "grizZly" process Is extremely
simple. Any man can make his own
apparatus. 1t may cost him from -
| to so. according to his skill. mercury
not included. Men are earning from
81. 80 to $3.50 day by this process
along the Saskatchewan. On rare
bars they make as much as $3.50.
There are hundreds of them at work all
the omen season. The life attracts the
hopeful, and those who scOrn labor for
q boss When a small farmer. or
laborer, along shore happens to be very
| industriously given, and yet out OF
| Job he goes 'grizzlying" until he can
find more profitable employment. the
shrcwd Galicans settled along shore
quickly learned this way Of getting
cash in remote places.
Now. steam dredged is essentially
a grizzly" apparatus on a great scare.
The machinery lifts gravel from the
river bed or the bar, dumps 1t ABOARD
the boat, washes it over successive
screens. and ultimately leaves the gold
adhering to blanket cloths. from which
IL is washed in receptacles containing
mercury, so that amaigam IS formed.
A steam grizzly and all other plant
contributing to the formation of first
class. modern. gold dredging apparatus
costs about $4,000 For about $4,000
machinery necessary to give the Sas-
katchewan a thorough test can be sup
piled.
In Edmonton the Man on the Street
saws that the old dredger failed be-
cause the Saskatchewan gold, though
abundant. is so light and flaky that II
flows off with the current OF water
nassjng over the blankets. But Mr..
Vi.
written reports, states that this is pre-
cisely wrong. They alleSe the. goid
particles to be rather in the nature OF
minute or sand-like Jumps. very heaVy
for their bulk, and of gold 50 pure that
il il worth $40 an ounce. That 1t ad-
heres we'll to blanket cloth is proved
by .he success of the grizzly miners.
They are said to leave more gold in
the taihngs than they get into the
amalgam.
At no depth to which the "grizzlies'
have been able to descend have they
| found the gold bearing gravel. or sand
or earth, to peter out. Inc
meteorological theory is that hlgn
water. which raises the Saskatchewan
from thirty to- fcrty feet. and which
sweeps great quantities Of shoreiand
away every spring. carries into the
river bed and bars the gold from some
| unrecognized stratum which bears 1t
| most profusely. At the same time
| mineraloGists allege that all the prairie
| earth carries some gold, and that
| minute quantities can be recovered by
washing thoroughly the dust on the
streets of Edmonton. This allegation
|
from. the fact that the streams bed
Yields less gold to "grizzlies'' the far
Their they ascend it, which fact dissi-
| pates the theory that the gold comes
from the Rocky Mountains. ....
| The Dominion government grants
leases of the river to dredges each
lease usually five miles along the
stream, and embracing both shores
with the bed and benches, many OF
which are hundreds of acres in extent.
1 The concessions either granted or ready
| to be conceded number at least 26I. as
| | know from having seen the owner OF
lease of that number. Hence 1t
would seem that more than thousand
miles of river are presumably gold
bearing. No restriction stands against
dredgels. except that they must not
| create new bars by their tailings.
George D. Keith. Toronto, owner of
s,mdry leases. and George d. Reid.
| Portland, Ore, a mining engineer,
passed down the river from Edmonton
for sixteen DAYS, starting October 4,
and sampling bars and shores as they
went. Mr.. Reid, a Connecticut
| Yankee originally, was of the party for
| the purpose OF testing MI. htllh .
properties generally. in the interest OF
| prospective Oregon purchasers. He
1 performed many washings and brought
back several natural cubic feet by way
of specimen gravel, all according to
rigid instructions. He was good
enough to let me read his memoranda
and notes. those privately taken to
| form the basis of his official report.
There could be no hocus-pocus. because
we met on train. neither knowing the
others occupation until smoking room
talk had far progressed. Then he PRO
duccd his memoranda instantly on re-
quest. They serve to confirm all the
statements made in preceding para
graphs of this communication. In
short, they indicate that the North
Saskatchewan is far better gold
dredging proposition than the Feather
River of California, except that here
| operations can be pursued for only
| seven months a year. Mr.. Reid was
F., careful to refrain from alleging en-
Enthusiastically that the Saskatchewan is
| the best stream in the world for gold
dredging hut smoke of his intention to