Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-05-07
MEN SAFE At 70 BELOW ZERO.
kIondiks "Mushsrs" Are Hardy and
Go Dressed for the Cold.

kIondiks "Mushsrs" Are Hardy and
Go Dressed for the Cold.
TT is hard for the people Of this
section Of the United States, after q
local cold spell Of three weeks, during
which the mercury ranged from q lit
tie above to many degrees below zero,
to believe the stories from the arctics
coming in lately about men stamped
ing in temperatures Of from go to 10
degrees below zero to the Yukon ter
ritory gold diggings on Sixty Aile
creek. east Of Dawson City" said
Frank Frantius Of Chicago. who was
in the rush to the Klondike in 1896
and 1897, the other day.
II am sure the gold hunters Of the
north are doing just what It is assert
ed they are doing. They have reach
ed degree Of resourcefulness and
hardness that Is little short Of mar
velous. Some Of them travel hun
dreds of miles In such frigid weather
as that country always has at this
time Of the year, through sections
where there is not a single human hab-
itation, reach their destinations with
out frosting 80 much as a little finger,
and set about the work Of going to
bedrock for gold with as little EVIL
dence Of suffering as IL walking along
Michigan avenue in May sunshine.
"They accomplish the seemingly
impossible by going prepared for the
excessive frigidity they know they are
going to encounter. Their coats are
fur inside and out, their underwear is
heavy and close knit, and their trou-
sers are of sheepskin, upon which
there is q growth Of wool from two 10
three inches in length. They carry
with them fur lined sleeping bags,
which they place as much out Of the
wind as possible at night and creep
into them, carefully drawing head and
hands inside Up there men do not
travel alone. Two, three or fiye 'mush'
over the tundra together, having a
sled and four to six Of the wolf dogs
common in the Yukon country. Up
on the sled they carry their provisions.
and, contrary to the general belief In
the United States, there is always
some sort Of wood for fuel to be found
willow, cottonwood, fir or pine.
1.-The slogan Of everybody Is nus
/ tle,' and they go about getting their
meals, water and fuel with such vim
that they seldom need aid either In
camp or on the march. When, In rare
instances, one Of party becomes Ill
or exhausted he is usually buckled in
a sleeping bag on the sled with the
supplies und carried along with the
expedition. It sometimes becomes
necessary to place hot iron at the
feet Of the ailing, and once In a great
while a party is forced to stop for a
time, build snow house and give spe-
cial care to the disabled. Those K1on-
dikers, however, are about the grittiest
men on. the North American conti-
nent, and where one falls by the way
side 1000 will go through to the I'm
ish and be ready to assail mother
earth with torch, pick and shovel an
hour after they reach the promised
land.
These gold hunters, as Mark Twain
said Of another band Of pioneers on
the occasion Of their scaling the
Rocky Mountains to reach California
before the civil war. are no simpering,
dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stall
wart, dauntless braves, brimful OF
push and energy, and royalty endow-
ed with every attribute that goes to
make up a peerless and magnificent
manhood-the very pick Of the worlds
glorious ones.
"A considerable number Of men who
are racing this winter for the headwa-
ters of the Yukon, Sixty-M creek
and their tributaries are pioneers Of
Alaska and Yukon territory, and they
realize as no 'tenderfoot' can how
much of a bonanza there may be at
the end Of their northland rainbow.
Some of them remember that in the
little creek just out of Dawson City In
1896 George Carmack, discoverer, and
his party of half breeds took out Of
placer claims $1,000 in eight days; that
once two men in two days gathered
$4,000 in nuggets varying In size from
a pinhead to a pea; that three Swedes
put gold to their credit at the rate or
SIT q minute all the winter Of 1897
and 1898; that William Ogilvie, Cana
dian government surveyor, found
$3.50 in gold in a single pan, and that
of the 800 claims staked on Bonanza
creek not one proved failure.
1T will not be known until May or
June next whether the men who are
now rushing to Sixty-Mile creek land
in rich pay dirt They will be oblig-
ed to pursue the Klondike method OF
alternately thawing the frozen ground
with big fires and throwing the loose
dirt on dumps ready for washing In
the spring. In the meantime provisions
up there, learn from former pal at
Skagway, have jumped to prices that
make those of Chicago, considered out
rageously high, seem decidedly small.
So-called butter is selling at 81 a
pound, eggs $3.50 a dozen, sugar 80
cents a pound, oranges and lemons rs
cents apiece, potatoes and onions 70
cents a pound, ham and bacon 81 q
pound, kerosene $1.25 q gallon, hay
$40 ton.
I'm the British possessions. in which
this new gold country Is located, the
rules are much stricter than In the
United States. For instance, creek
claim, one running along stream, is
by law, $50 feet long and may not be
more than 1000 feet wide. 1t is re-
quired that other placer claims shall
not be more than $50 feet square.
Moreover, the Canadian government
reserves every alternate ten claims.
To prevent useless occupation Of a
claim 1t Is stipulated that IL its occu-
pier fails to work his property for 72
consecutive hours his right to 1t Is
forfeited. There are dozens Of other