Charlevoix county herald., 1910-10-08

3.-Hydraulic Mining In the Yukon.
culiar difficulties. The ground being
frozen solid, it had 20 be thawed out
by huge fires before the dirt could be
eXcavated, and this was the work that
could be done during the long and Sc
we're winter. The actual extraction
of the gold by washing was only posi-
BILE during the three summer months.
When the gold fields of California
were discovered and the stories of
their unlimited wealth heralded
throughout the world, there was a wild
and woolly rush to the shores of the
Pacific. In those days it was almost
an impossibility to get the worst of
venture to its coast Starvation was
almost out of the question, save in the
northern and mountainous districts,
and comfortable bed could always
be found on the hillside of the land
of eternal summer There were no
huge ice and snow fields practically
destitute Of bird and beast On the
contrary, there were streams full of
fish, anxious to be caught, and for
ests inhabited by flocks of birds that
have since acquired regulations for
high prices in city eating houses.
Again, the argonauts of California and
Nevada were almost exclusively hard
headed painstaking and sober-minded
men. who were willing to brave hard
ships and privations providing they ul-
timately obtained independence.
Frozen Up in Winter.
The Yukon river is absolutely closed
to travel save during the summer
months. In the winter the frost king
asserts his dominion and locks up all
approaches with impenetrable ice, and
the summer is of the briefest. 1t en-
dures only for ten or twelve weeks.
from about the middle of June to the
early part of September. Then an I'M
ending panorama of extraordinary
picturesqueness is unfolded to the
voyager. The banks are fringed with
flowers, carpeted with the all-per-
vading moss or tundra. Birds count
less in numbers and of infinite va
riety Of plumage sing out welcome
where you will in midsummer, a bed
of roses, a clump of poppies and a
bunch of blue bells will adorn your
camping. But high above this para
disc OF almost tropical exuberance
giant GLACIERS sleep In the summit OF
the mountain wall which rises up
from bed of roses. BY September
| 10 oh hnI 30
roses has disappeared before the icy
breath of the winter king, which sends
the thermometer down to 80 degrees
below freezing point The birds fly
| to the southland, the white man to
his cabin, the Indian to his hut and
the bear to his sleeping chamber In
the mountains. Every stream be.
comes a sheet of ice, mountain and
valley alike are covered with snow.
The kIondike Today
From 1900 the production gradually
diminished as the crude methods of
the individual miner became Intellectual
with the exhaustion of the richest
areas on the Bonanza and Eldorado
creeks. which between them have
yielded over S50,000000. In 1907 the
output had dropped to $3,O0O.O 900, and
for the following year it was even
smaller. but this did not mean that
the gold field was worked out. The
fact was that placer mining had given
way to hydraulic and dredging "prop-
] ositions" in the hands of wealthy com.
panies, and the vast areas acquired by
them were unproductive pending
equipment for operations on a large
scale with modern appliances. Work
is now in full swing, and every scrap
of earth in the auriferous creeks~-
right down to bed rock-is now being
put through the dredging machines
and washed for gold. the dredger
blowing its way steadily from one end
of the valley to the other, while the
hydraulic machinery deals with the
soil on the hill sides. Science. indeed.
has swept away the romantic side of
gold-mining In the Yukon, but through
its agency the territory Is entering on
a fresh period of prosperity, which
may yet rival the heydey OF its glori.
Gus past.