Tanana leader., 1910-02-17

the Firth river, up on the Arctic coast
of this continent, but it has been staked
ere this if it is worth it," writes Il. Fl.
Edgerton in Mining and Scientific
Press. ''Some eleven years ago Il man
came to me with Il tale CT gold on this
same Firth river. when only he and
one other knew Of it, and | have been
three times the iecipieEt of this before,
hand information. One quiet tip took
me into the far-away country. where
We found ancient diggingS and brass
muske, but no gold. Long tra:nps
and wasted years have taught me to
discriminate. >. In general. grant
that eve:y territory on the face of the
earth the size of d state has gold in it.
In turn each portion OF the earth of
hat size has had it's gold excitement, =
California, Idaho. Montana, Colorado,
aud others. Then eliminate all civil
lied parts of the earth that have pr,o-
ably been prospect ed, and see what is
left. This will sweep away ne,tr.y me
whole of the United States proper.
Europe ard some more. | was in Gt.,l
gi,,, North Carolina and Tennessee in
the Years 1887. 1899 and in JuiN OF li,t
year. Each time l was surprised - ,t.e
The shafts. hole, and tenialus Il silg
dams and hydraulic wnrhS hose :Spu a.
ern mouuiatnee4ss had III de in lie ear
ly days, 1889 to 1870
Next. eliminate all the recent .eli--
mcntary re1ioos, thai is. the q i; c3.il-
tries like The lo|sr aii middle N.Ssi>-
sippi valley. Tue next factor is Access
sioiIiiy and source OF supplies. l label
dis inaccessible regions hose where o.,e
is prohibited by government OF = apr
To be murdered ny the AL! :v>. ii'uis
will eliminate more %! he ear, II ) ,t,i'-
face, and one begins TO 70. DIVA 70
tulerably narrow confines. Ihel come,
the most important elimination of "a
Lool, up the history of the reln.inirg
territory Carefully, going BACK to the
days Of he ''arcielt>,' and You may
learn some thing, that will show how
important it is to do some di,c,idiflg.
For example, {. 2. Campbell. OF Chi
cago, told inc hat he had lately been
working placer deposits in Soul Amer
lea with poor success. Now. Mr.. Camp
bell is ii good mining man, bal he failed
to read history. The ground Was ove:-
grown with trees some three feet in
diameter, and had the appearance o
being virgin, hui after install ing eS
peusive machinery he dug up he re-
mains of cid Spanish sluicehoxes and
quit. He Says he can now identity the
remains OF the ancient Spanish placer
work by the peculiar shape of he sui
face. whether it is covered vii b IL later
growth of forest or not, ard he has
concluded that the Spanish dons, each
with a handful of armed re,ainerS and
a few hundred slaves. gave the whole
OF South America Il good prospecting
about the 18th century. So far as
placer deposits and easy lode mining
are concerned, [ should eliminate near
ly the whole OF South An erica.
Il have in my home in Ohio seven
teen large volumes in Old English
type, and very hard to read. They
contain a history OF gold mining in
Africa up 10 the year 1850. and the in
formation in those has led me to elimi-
nate two thirds Of Africa. Further to
illustrate the process, let Us consider
Asia: Siberia was to me the worst
disappointment. was there a numbt
of years ago, before the years of the
concessionares, when we were NOT
wanted and took chances. Ii | had in
ves,igaied the history of the region
before | went, [ would have saved my
self the ,ramping. l will cite one pas
sage: In Il book called 'rhe Element
of Metailurgy,' by j. Arthur Phillips,
edition of 1887, it is said that the re-
mains of numerous mines have been
traced by Gmelin, Lepechin and Pullas
On the soul bern and eastern border of
the Urul mountains. and in them were
found hammers and chisels of copper.
These excavations are inferred TO have
been made by a nomadc people, proba-
bly, by the Scythians; and from the
fact that no iron tools were found in
any of them we may conclude that
these operations were before the con-
quest of Siberia by the Tartars, who
effected the subjuga,ion of that part OF
Asia about the year $50 B. G. -. :.
Smelling was effected by small fur
naees made of red bricks. Gmelin
found nearly IL THOUSAND slch furnaces
in the eastern part OF Siberia. In the
neighborhood, Of these furnaces were
found large quantities of broken pot