El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-08-05

a
The wonders OF the ancient
H. world were seven in number and
they were all within a short distance
OF the eastern end Of the Mediterran-
can sea. They were the pillar Of Pha-
ros on which the light burned nea~
Alexandria. the pyramids at Cairo. the
colossus on the Island Of Rhodes, the
statute of Jupiter at Olympia. Greece;
the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. not
far from where Smyrna now stands;
the mausoleum at Haljcarnassus. on
The same coast not lar away, and the
gardens OF Semirsmis. at Babylon. in
A1esopotamia. the land for which the
Turks and the warning nations OF En-
rope are now fighting.
The wonders OF the modern world
are seventy times seven, and they are
TO be found on almost very part OF the
globe from the diamond pipes below
the equator in southern Africa to the
gold workings in the perpetual ice Of
the Klondike, under the shadow Of the
north pole. l have already written
something of how the icy strata are
thawed by steam points and how the
sprinklinE of gold scattered through
them is saved by the dredgeS- I have
shown you how a great river valley
is being lifted up and turned over to
4 depth equal TO the height of three
or four story house and how from the
ICY wastes which the individual gold
miners had thrown away as worthless
is now pouring stream of gold into
the rivers of commerce This IS the
work in nutshell The story of the
work in its detail is even more won
derful- I shall mention few Of them
in this letter
Ditch Takes Four Years TO Build.
First, let US look at the great ditch
gouge6 out of the ice frozen strata by
the Yukon Gold company When the
Guggenheims bought what were sup
posed to be the exhausted creeks Of
the Klondike from which the miners
had already taken out millions. they
found they had 10 have water to work
them and that with a fall so great
that IL would tear the earth 10 pieces
when il came through the pipes Ihere
was none available excepting IN the
Tombstone mountains. % odd miles
away. The work of getting it meant
the carrying Of this river over preclp-
itous peaks. across frozen morasses
through vast ravines. down stupen-
dous valleys and then lifting II again
over mountains and delivering II by
great inverted siphon over the hlon-
dixie river to the once famous gold dig
ZinES- That is one OF the things inc
Cuggenheims did It took them four
them millions Of dollars The ditch Is
now in operation It consists Of about
20 miles OF flume. j. i miles OF steel
and srave piDes and y miles of ditch It
varies every few miles in its method
Of construction. according TO the n7-
1ure of the ground which il crosses.
but AT the end the water IS delivered
a 135 cubic feet per second under ?
working pressure OF from 400 to 500
feet It comes with such force that Il
can be thrown against the icy hills At
\ pressure Of over 400 pounds to the
square inch. washing down the sands
containing the sprinkInE OF gold dust
and adding thereby great treasure 20
the wealth Of the world.
Panama Work Easy in Comparison
The making Of such ditch in >
country like Panama would be easy
cOruared with the work here where
Jack Frost is king Much of the ditch
had to be thawed out and cut from
the perpetual ice. New methods OF road
building had to he devised for the
swamps- and men and machinery had
to he assembled far in the interior of
country which until lately was
thought inaccessible to all but the most
daring arctic explorers The supplies
from the United States had 10 come 2 {
thousand miles over the ocean. and
then be carried 500 miles more over the /
mountains and down the Yukon 10 !
Dawson At Panama they could have /
been handled by ships almost within 1
sight Of the works. Here the machin-
erv had TO be taken in pieces and
dragged by horses and dogs through
almost Inaccessible wilds-
KIondykc RecOveries S2OO.Oo0.OOo-
People who have never done work !
i'm Alaska or along the Upper Yukon
cannot appreciate the difficulties under
which these men are successfully lab
orine in getting from 80 to so cents
worth OF gold out Of each two horse 4
wagon load OF ice frozen earth That
IL is done at all is a wonder but il IS
a greater wonder th7t IL has been done
at profit which runs high into the
millions Altogether, in the neighbor
hood Of $500. 600. 900 worth or gold has
come out Of the valley of the Klon-
dixie and the beds OF the creeks that
flow into it and % this almost half
has been won by this sort Of mining. !
The work is the carrying on OF
great manufa curing establishment
several thousand miles from the market
and the same distance away from sup
plies Il is in a country that is frozen /
tight more than half the year. AMI !
where in the summer Il takes weeks J
OF months TO get duplicate parts Of the
machines from outside The work Is
such that the continuous running of
the machines means profit and the
breaking down of a dredge means
loss Of thousands of dollars II il can
not at once be repaired Duplicates Of /
must therefore be on hand