The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-17
SOME FAMOUS
 BUSHES FOR GOLD Stampedes of Prospectors to
 Rich Mines
ALL OVER THE WORLD
There Are Yet Many Undeveloped Fields But Prospecting for oil Seems to Offer Greater Possibilities
 Than Gold

From Tit-Bits.
 Stewart went mad Walters dropped their traps, workmen their tools, drivers their reins, and stampeded.'
 Thus a daily paper. in it's description of the excitement created in Stewart, B. C., when the report came that seventeen miles distant at a place called Bitter creek, a great discovery of gold had been made. It is the old, old story of human avarice and greed. Reason disappears when the gold fever seizes on man.
 Two years ago three mining prospectors tried their luck in the Nevada hills, POO miles northeast of San Francisco, where they discovered a large deposit of gold. They told some acquaintances at the nearest town, whereupon 200 railroad la borers dropped their tools and began the mad rush for gold. The news spread like wildfire, and in a few weeks the camp of the three prespectors which had been named Rawhide, had a population of 10000 persons, and miners were arriving at the rate of 200 day. Lots were sold at anything from e10OO to e5OO0, while some mining magnates purchased one claim, which had been staked out by a made a phenomenal yield, for a160,oO0
 The story of the Klondike Is even more amazing The first find of gold of any importance was made in 1S97-not by gold prospectors, but by a fsherman-at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon riv- CTS Immediately the news of the rich deposits of gold which were to be found got abroad there was mad rush, not only from all parts of America, but also from Europe. Soon S0,000 persons were on their way to the diggings, many des- tined never to return; for some 800 miles of the toughest Alaska country had to be traversed and the route was literally paved with the bones of those who had joined in the mad rush without stopping to consider the difficulties the journey presented
 Hundreds deserted their wives, while clerks, merchants, doctors and lawyers sold all they possessed to pay their way to the Klondke. But where one unprac- tieal man succeeded in enrichng himself, scores of American professional miners came away worth hundreds of thousands In spite of the warnings issued, however. and the fact that it needed a capital of something like e30O to get from England to the Klondike, hundreds of people went from this country only to return wrecked in health and pocket.
 It is a curious fact that when MT. Harry de Windt, the well-known ex- plorer, returned from the Klondike in 1897, he said, during the course of an in tervlew published in the Strand Nigga zine, that the Stewart region was richer even than the Klondike. And after a dozen years there comes the recent TO- mantle corroboration. St
 The fact is not generally known, per- haps, that it was the discovery of gold in California in 1S47 which led to the dis covery in Australia. Within four years the annual output from the fields of Call fornia reached a12,0O0,O00. and 1t was a MT. Hargreaves, who went as miner to California; who first discovered gold in Australia. He was struck by the resem- blance of the rocks near his home in Australia to the gold-bearing rocks of California He systematically searched for signs of gold, and on February F. 1851, he found some of the precious metal for the first time.
 The excitement created by the discov- cry was intense. Towns grew up as if by magic. Even police left their employment to try their luck at the dlggings, while sailors deserted from their ships as soon as they arrived at a port near the fields. Men hocked in thousands to Ballarat and Bathurst, and 1t was at these places where the worlds biggest nuggets were found.
 Fifty miles north of Bathurst three quartz blocks containing 112 pounds of pure gold were discovered, and the fa- nous victoria nugget" a single mass of virgin gold weighing S40 ounces, was brought from Rendigo. But the largest nugget of all was that christened the "Welcome" This was found at Ballarat on June {, 1858, weighed 2516 ounces and was valued at over G9os2. Within ten years gold to the enormous value of fse 100000 had been brought to England from the two colonies of Victoria and New South Wales.
 There are still more chances, however, for prospectors, like Croesus, the first really rich man known to fame, who is said to have discovered little gold mine of his own, to find one for themselves; for. according to authorities, the world contains several unworked gold fields oIite as rich as any yet discovered. Parts of siberia are alleged to be richer in gold than the Klondike, while Sir Martin Con- way said some time ago that along the eastern slope of the Andes run many rivers rich in gold.
 Perhaps. however. in these days of oil hooms. it would be more profitable to search for oil rather than gold. For. after all, 1t must be borne in mind that if was oil. and not gold, which made the uyor,d,s richest man-John D. Rockefeller, -.,,+or of many millions,