The Nome daily nugget., 1911-03-03
ANOTHER INVENTION TO
 EXTRACT BEACH RICHES

In all time no region offered more alluring possibilities to the placer min CT than the famous beaches of Nome There were no hardships of travel to be endured to reach them, and no diff faculties in mining to be overcome in taking the gold from the gravels in which they were deposited. From the waters edge far back into the tundra, Up the creeks and along lines of an- cient beaches mining has been carried.
 Nome is no longer a poor mans camp for rocker and sluice ground has long since been worked out Big dredges and huge hydraulic works are now the means employed. for while there are untold millions left the work able area of heavy concentration has been exhausted of its stores. The large deposits of low grade gravels require handling on scale possible only by the installation of and use of modern. expensive placer mining machinery
 The Two Fields.
 The dredge and hydraulic operations have been reduced to such certainties that capital has few, if any, risks to rncounte in this field. There is an aliuring speculative field. however, of vast possibilities. and this lies in the certainty that under the water, below the present beach line and in the rcu- golds of the black sands left behind be- cause of the early miners iaphiity to separate the finely divided precious metals from the heavy magnetic. which is the base of these black sands there are many, very many milli ,ns left for the lucky discoverer of pro. cesses which will successfully solve these problems.
 Many have ventured in this field, and tEe beach at Nome is strewn for miles with wreckage, mute evidence of the lailucrs one and all Of the two black sand machines are more in evidence. For mining below the water line dredges were proved failures long ago. The shallow water. the depth of the sand over the blue clay which holds the heavy concentration and the sud denness with which some storms arise make that mode of mining uncertain of results and submit the machinery to the certainty of destruction whenever winds blow from the sea So there are wrecks of dredges as well as wrecks of abandoned gold saving ap- pliances rusting in tangled heaps for miles along the gold bearing beaches of Bering sea.
 The Gold Bearing Sands.
 Early miners followed the fabulously rich pay to the water line. and while the gold was just as plentiful there as farther back, no mining of any impor- tance has ever been possible beyond his line The sea continues shallow and the tides are very small. Below the water there are three separate and distinct strata before reaching the con centration. which lies in the clay: an average of one foot quieksand. one foot and half gravel and then one foot and half beach sand. making in all four feet overlying the clay concern tration. Ninety and ninety-fiy per cent of the values are in this clay concentration.
 1t has long since been recognized that some application of the coffer- dam principle is necessary to success in this field and with this fin view many inventions employing this prin- ciple have been tried, so far it must be admitted, without success.
 Caissons. with compressed air for forcing out the water. and steel domes have been sunk and largely their fail ures were due to the fact that their castings were heavy and were sunk down through the sand and gravel on to the clay bottom. and the action of the water on the wash sand was such AS to form a dam around them from which 1t was impossible to extricate themselves; the suction also tending to hold them fast and all the power they could put on their barge would only tend to sink the barge and still not