The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 20, 1897, Page 2

2 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1897. of the several branches of Stewart River, on which some prospecting has been dome this summer and good indications found, but tne want of provisions prevented development. Since my last the prospects on Bonanza Creek and tributaries are increasing in richness and extent, until now it is certain that millions will be taken out of the djstrict in the next few years. Onsome of the claims prospected the pay dirt is of great extent and very rich. One man told me yesterday that he washed ot a single pan of dirt on one of the claims on Bonanza Creek and found $14 25 init. Of course, that may be an exceptionally rich pan, but $5 to $7 per pan is the average on’| thatclaim, 1t is reported—with five feet pay dirt and the width yet undetermiued, but it is known to be thirty feet. Even at that figure the result, at nine to ten pans to the cubic foot and 500 feet long, is §4,000,000 at $5 per pan. A fourth of this woula be enormous. Enough prospecting has been done to show that there are at least fifteen miles of this extraordinary richness, and the indications are thatitwill have three or four times that extent; ifnotail equal to the above, at least very rich. There are several cases of hardship now for the want of 8 proper court. Miners' meetings have lost their power, though one was held in Forty-Mile & day ago to setils the disputed ownership of & placer claim, a thing perfectly within the power of the agent here, and why it was held I cannot yet say. !f some sort of court to satisiy the necessities of the people in business here is not at once established seri- ous inconvenience will result. The officer ap- pointed will require to be hale, vigorous per. son, for it is probable that he will have to make journeys of considerable length across unoccupted country in the discharge of his duty. 1 bave in previous reports intimated that some Sort of legal machinery is abso- lutely necessary for the trial of cas:s of con- ion of debts and generaily the ju- s of the country. rtz lode showing free gold in p ying quantities has been located on onc of the creeks, but I cannot yet send particulars. 1 ent from the mature of the gold the crecks that many more of tnem, will be found. I have just he ble source that the quartz men- ch, as it tested over $100 (o the The lode appears to run irom three to uess and is about nineteen miles from the Yukon River. I wi.l likely be called on to survey it and will be abie to re- port fully. ¢ John Dalton informed me he has found good prospects on a small creek nearly midway be- tween the coast range Selkirk on his route. His man showed me some coarse gold, about a dollar's worth, he found on the head of a branch of the Alsek River, near the head of Chilkat Inlet, which is, of ccurse, ins de the summit of the coast range and, of course, in our territory, From this you will gather t we'have a very iarge area, all more or less gold bearing, and will all yet be worked. Good quartz has been found in places just across the line on Davis Creek (see my msp oi the 141st sent you), but of what extent is un- known, as it isio thebed of the creek and covered with gravel. Good quariz is aiso re ported on the hills around Bonauza Cre: butof this T will be able to speak more fully after my propesed . Itis prety certain from information 1 have got from prospeators that all or nearly all of the northeriy branch of White River is on eur side of tae line, and copper 1s found on it, but more abundantly on the southerly branch, of which a great deal of 1t isin‘our territory also,so 1t is probable we have thst metal also. 1 have seen here several lumps of native cop- per brought by the natives irom White River, but just from what part is uncertain. Ihave sean a specimen of silver ore said to have d upina creek flowing inte Ben- Lake, about fourteen miles down it on ospects continue more and more g and extraordinary; it is beyond that three pansof diff:rent claimson rado turned out $204, $212 ana $216, it must be borne in mind that there were turee such pans, though there are many inning from $10 1o $50. 1 thiok this is zh to show that we may iook forward dence toa fairly bright future for this part of our territory. AR A CONFIDENTIAL TALE. An Old Callfornla Miner Writes an Interesting Story to a Local Millionalre. A widely known mining operator and | millionaire of Califernia has recently re- ceived & lengthy confidential letter from a Californian of long practical experienca in the mines here who has been on the Yukon for a year or so,and who writes from Circle City. The writer gives much practical information,of the sort that has been lackingin current accounts. Though at the time of writing, last February, he had not been to the Klondyke himself, he fully confirms from amid the excitement then going on there, the stories of wealth thatare just now blazing on the world. { Tt will be noticed that the writer gives | valuabledescriptive information about the Birch Creek and other diggings about Circle Ci y in the front part of his letter. These di gs, which are in' American territory, 200 miles down the Yukon from the Klondyke, have been wholly aban- doned amid the latest craze, but they are rich placer fields which will soon be worked again by those who find no room in Kiondyke, and ahove which are some of the rich quartz veins which are certain to be developed in time. Everything but Klondyke is being overlooked for the hour, but with the iupouring of prospect- ors the old field will be taken up again and new ones prospected for just asin eariy California days there was a rapid spreading out from the region of first dis- covery. The slightly prospected gold region of the Yukon, now known, is about 400 miles long. The letter, from which the names are omitted, is as follows: CIRCLE CITY, ALASKA, Feb. 3, 1897.—1If you want to make a fortune and cannot come up here yourself, pick out some honest, prac- tical miner and stake bim to come here and give you an interest in What he gets—a gravel miner—and if he knows how to drift so much the better. You can advise all your mining friends to do the same. Don’t be afraid there is not room. There is room for you all. This is the richest mining country the world ever saw. California, in its best days cauld not begin to compare with it. At pres- ent the gravel mines are occupying all the attention, but there will be quariz mines found before long that will aston- ish the world. Most of the men here are not miners at all. Over one-half are greenhorns who never faw & mine; the rest are men who have rooted sround the gulches of Moutana and Idaho working Wwith a rocker and a long “Tom.” There are no Celifornia miners here at all. They don’t accomplish anything. Iknow one claim where they shoveled gravel eight feet gravel that will average 5 to 8 cents to the pan that nobody will locate. Lumber is worth $150 per thousand. All has to be whipsawed. Itispgo unusual thing for & claim to pay $50 & day to the man and shovel the dirt eight feet high. Some pay $80 t0 $100. So much for the claiyes in this dis- but they are not conside! 'd to be very 00! Phes have just found new dlggings about 250 miles further up the river on the British de, about fifty miles from Forty-mile and | Fort Cudaby, that will astonish the world. The place is called Klondyke district, and the town to be built there will be called Dawson. Now, I dislike to tell you the reports from there, as you will think I am crazy, but I will write you some of the “milder” ones. I have never been there, but I am going in about two weeks. Abont & month ago I bought a claim up there (500 feet) oa El Dorado Creek without seeing it for $1250—claim 12. Yesterday, a miuner came down irom there and he tells me they are working claims Nos.14,16,9 and 5 (mine is in the middle), end he says they seem to be all about the same thing. On No.9 they had sunk four shaits to bedrock, which 1s about 25 feet deep. The shefts are across the gulch and 20 feet apart, showing the pay streak to be over 80 feet wide. It is frozen to the bedrock and keeps frozen all the year round,so itwiil have to be drifted. He went down inall the shafts. The top 18 feet will run from 50c to $2 to the pan—this they don’t work. They are drifiing out the bottom 7 feet; 4 feetof this will go from $2 to $5 1o the pan. Then comes 1); feet that only goes from 50 cents to $2. 1 there is & streak of what looks like Llack sand, and he says it is 115 feet thick and 80 feet wide and will average $50 to the pan. He took one panful of the bedrock and panned «it out aud got $123. It is no unusual thing to get§150 to the pan. Now, who can estimate the value of a claim like that? The creek is about five miles long and empties into Bonanza, which is twenty miles long. This creek is notso rich, but he heard & man who had & shaft to bedrock offer to bet anybody $2000 he could take 200 pans out ot his shaft from top to bottom, no two pans out of the same place, and get $2000 ont ot the 200 pans. Everybody is leaving this camp and going up there. All the claims on these two creeks are located, but there are many more creeks in the vicinity unprospected. A man will sink a shaft and if he oaly gets an average of 25 or 30 cents to the pan he wont locate it, as one man can only locate one claim in one dis- trict. He wants a batter claim. The gold can be seen all through the gravel from the size of a grain of wheat down. They don’t use quicksiiver here. They have about eight sluice boxes on & nine-inch grade with pole rifiles, then everyihing goes into the dump. There ate many “green- horns” here who dow’t know the value of a claim that could be bought out cheap. That is the way I got mine. A man who never saw a mine happened along there when other men were driving stakes; so he drove some ana came oa here aud leit it (after having it recorded). In British territory & man has to work three months in a year, but any man of whatever naiionality can locate a claim. There is no grub up there, and flour is worth £120 & barrel; but when the river opens in Juse we have 6000 sacks in our warehouse and 400 tons of grub to take up, and it is going 1o be the town of this sectiion. The mines are filteen miles from the river. Don’t advise any man to land here broke, as everything is high. It is 50 degrees below zero here to-dav, but you would not think it. | There is no wizd and no dampness in the atmosphere, and 50 below is not as disagree- able s zero anywhere I bave ever been. We have eighteen inches of snow on the ground. The climate is not near as disagreeable as I supposed it was. The mosquitos in summer worst part of it. Yours truly, P.S.—Since I wrote the last sentence an idea bas struck me. Iknow a place this side of the line where 2 man shoveled into sluices up six or seven fees and did not get to bed- rock, and he says he made $17 & day. The | place is now abandoned and I think I could | take up & 20-acre tract and get some friend to take up twenty more (according to the govern- ment law) and deed it 1o us, thus getting forty acresata cost of perhaps $40, and it would hold for a year. Iam going to ana come home next S-pldmb:; and if you, wish to find 8 good man to comeap here and work it I will jocate it and see you when I come down. All it would cost to open it would be a flume be- gan far enough down to strike bedrock at the foot of the forty scres and the cut, unti it be- gan to pay. Thereis lots of water, but not much grade. It you want to tackle it and manage it I will locate the ground. Or Imay see somathing better. THE LOCAL FEVER. Hundreds Yearn for Grubstakes and Irresolute Inquirers Swarm. ‘A grubstake!—for God’s sake !” That measures a big part of the Yukon mining fever in S8an Francisco and here- abouts. The City is talking, talking the Kiondyke and the depots of information are besieged, while thousands devour every line in the papers about that won- derful icy land. Hunareds want to go. A good many of these can raise the money to go and will go. Their sadness may come later. Butthereis an army of others— who couldn’t reise $500 for a trip to heaven—and they are getting their sad- ness now. There is a big rustling for grubstakes in San Kraneisco. Scores of men who are grubbing hopelessly along here are going to acquaintances with money with the $500 proposition and generally getting left. There are hundreds more who yearn high and worked twenty mon sud cleaned up 600 ounces in & 1wo weeks' run, and the ground they worked out this year is not room enough to build & cabin on. The mines in this section are sixty miles from here, There is a “‘backtone” that runs for & hundred miles through the country, and every guich that neads into it has goid in it. Nobody has run a tunnel into the ~vackbone” yet. Without doubt, 1t is a large Jedge. The country is much broken up, and the bedrock and ledges do not crop out on the surface. There is water in most every guleh, but asa general thing not much grade. Five hundred feet and the width of the gulch is a ciaim. The district laws require the ground to be represented by having & man working on it during the month of July of each year. The Exact Size of Nugget Valued at $231. and hunger for a way to get to the Yukon, but they are taking it out in dreaming and talking. *It’s a poor man’s country,”” they Lear, and they want to cut loose and jump in and take their chances at striking a fortune. If wants were steamer tickets and wishes were bacon and beans the northbound host would be a mighty one. But Yukon grubstakes cost $500 or so apiece and they are mighty scarce. Those that are negotiated are generally sup- seasouns are short for sluieing, only about 100 days. The sun shines day and night during the summer, the rest of the time the grouna is frozen, when the dirt is drifted out of the deep claims and washed in the summer. Driiting is done in the winter. Wages are $15 a day and “grub” high. I1f a man canuot shovel dirt eight or ten'feet high into & string ofsluices on top of the bank and make $15a day he goes off and leaves the claim. There are many gulches with plenty of water where & dump could be obtained by running the slnices 1000 feet and s bedrock Bume be put in wiih eight 1o fifteen feet of pressed, but a few may now and then be quietly heard of where a man of means is willing to gamble a few hundred on a man he has confidence in and on a half inter- est in all the rustler finds, One double-action grubstake was ne- gotiated yesterday. A certain rich man agreed to start a busted acquaintance on the Excelsior with his year's outfit, but the fellow had a wife here to be looked out for and she was an anchor to his ambi- tion. The rich angel raised the stake by agreeing to give the wife $30 a month {orl < 1 GarOR I A s l\—i 5 m T San Francisco. Hundreds are seriously studying out the problem and hundreds will doubtless go this summer and next spring. The largest bunch of the lucky Yukon- ers who arrived the other day on the Ex- celsior aro yet at the Commercial Hotel, and there was a flocking there from morn- inz until late at night. Every one of these newly rich.that came iu was soon the center of an anxious little crowd. These poor fellows came down here with slathers of gold dust to get peace and pleasure after their toil and hardship and have you, sir? and I've got a few questions I would like to ask,” announced the lady and the old miner graciously reported his servitude. “On, yes, my sons and cousins and aunts and all my family want to go, and I don’t know about it yet. Now what counld a young man do up there—besides mining, that is—to make money? What callings are open to him ?” “Well, madam, you see there isn’t much business up there yet but saloons, and your son hadn’t ought to go up there unless he can work and stand hardship,” Map of the Klondyke River Gold Fields, Showing Bonanza, El Dorado and Other Creeks Where the Richest Strikes Have Been Made, and the Relation of thz District to Other Known Points and the National Boundary Line. The Klondyke River flows from the east into the Yukon just above old Fort Reliance, which is forty miles above Fort Cudahy at the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek. The whole Klondyke district lies in British territory, as the 141st meridian, the bouhdary fixed by treaty between Great Britain and Russia in 1825 and confirmed by the treaty of purchase between the Urited States and Russia in 1872, lies something over ten miles to the west of the Yukon at the mouth of Klondyke. Just where Klondyke River takes its rise can only be approximated at the present time from the rough sketches and reports gathered from the Indiane, according to whom it is from 150 to 200 miles long, which would place the headwaters well over to the range of the Rocky Mountains lying just west of the west fork of Pael River, an affluent of the Mackenzie River and in which range Beaver and Stewaxt rivers, tributaries of the Yukon south of the Klondyke, take their rise. From an inspection of the region as shown on the map of Canada and compsrison with those two rivers, it is more than likely that the Klondyke is even longer than the Indians makse it. The country is wholly virgin. White men have not been up the Klondyke further than forty miles. Even this part of the stream has many rapids, but by good management passage dan be made in a canoe, The river has quite a rumber of affluents of varying lengths, though those from the north are quiteishort and small, as the mountains lie close to the river, making the watershed very narrow and steep. On the south side it is different. The divide lies near the Indian River on the south, and the streams flowing down into the Klondyke are quite lengthy, comparatively speaking—Bonanza Creek, the first branch, coming in two miles above the mouth, being from thirty to thirty-five miles in length, while its principal branch, the now-famous El Dorado, coming in fifteen miles up from the Klondyke, is something over fiftean milgs long. Bear Creek 1s shorter, bsing between ten and fifteen miles in length. tranches—Gold Bottom and Hunker—the lengtbs of whic Main Fork, though their direction and length can be appr easily followed by the eye from the main stream. Further up comes Main Fork, which hastwo ire not yet exactly known.. L'ttle is known of the streams above ated fairly well from the trend of the-mountains, waich can bé It is on these streams south of the Klondyke that all the gold so far has been found, and how far east yet the auriferous deposits run can only be surmised, though the Indians tell of places further up even richer than El Dorado and Bonanza, one of which they call in their tongue “Too-Much-Gola” Creek. G On the south side of the divide liss Dominion Creek, which flows into Indian River where the strike was made this spring, which was carrying the miners by the hundreds away from the Klonayke as the last steamer was leaving Dawson. That side of the slope is but little known yet, but from the find at Dominiou Creek it is more than probable that the whole range of mountains between the Klondyke ana Indian rivers contains the much-sought-for metal, her support here. The rich man, the brave husband who goes forth and the wife who will hove in the City all expect that there will be a few marvelous claims to divide a vear or two hence. There isan enormous amount of brain power, divine reason and brave resolu- tion being expended in the momentous problem. *‘to go, or not to go.” Hundreds are giving it serious consideration. There are those who con get the necessary money together easily or by a little sacri- fice. Bome are looking for the right sort of a partner and some are Jooking for lit- tle parties to join. They flocked to the office of the Alaska Commercial Company all day, and there was never less than a dozen there, asking questions and dis. cussing the whole thing among them- selves. The company's last steamer will leave on the 28th inst., to St. Michaels and 1o its river beats on the Yukon, but though hundreds of in- quirers have been to the office, not half the berths had been engaged yesterday. It s a new thing and everybody is looking into the thing before deciding to go and what way to go. The Mexico will refuse passengers before leaving. Other inquirers flocked to the agency of the Alaska Commercial Company’s rival, the Northwestern Transportation and Trading Company, which runs its steam- ers.from BSeattle to St. Michaels, at the mouth of the Yukon, connecting with its own river boats. This company expects to be able to send one more steamer up from the sound in time to get upthe river. These two companies have a complete monopoly of Yukon River transportation and there is no other way of taking the Yukon River route. This is the easiest and most comfortable route to the gola fields. It is about 3000 miles from San Francisco to the mouth of the Yukon and about 2000 miles up the river to Dawson. The fare, with meals, etc., is $150, and the trip clear through takes about six weeks. The great majority go by the overland route from Juneau and Chiikoot Pass, in- volving more effort and hardship, but less time and often less expense. Thereisa hard trip of less than twenty-five miles over the pass to Lake Linderman, where boats are built to float down the wild and picturesque lakes and streams right to the digeings, & trip of about 800 miles from the coast. To take this route people get to Juneau on any of the {requent steam- ers, make up their little parties and out- fits and start. Juneau is mainly reached by the steam- ers of the Pacific Coast Steamship Com- pany from here or the Sound. The Walla Walla sails this morning from here with but few Yukoners. Its accommodations are fully taken by Christian Enaeavorers, who will take the Queen at Seattle for the Alaska excursion. The Walla Walla will also connect with the Mexico, which will take most of the miners then bound for Juneau. The Yukon rush has caused the Pacific Coast company toarrange an extra steamer trip, which will be the George W. Elder, to leave Portland for Juneau soon, stopping at Seattle, There will be other steamers running from the sound to Juneau, and many who will go from this City will go to BSeattle and take steamer passage there. There cin be no estimate worth any- thing of the number that will go from and can carry 200 | luck and now so socon are their lives clouded again. They are besieged until they bardly have a chance to read the papers or slip out for a cocktail, and they wearily answer the same questions over and oVer in disgust or despair or flee by a side door. It's the “fool” questions that mainly make them tired. The men that come to question are little and big, old and young, roughly dressed and with gold rings and plug bats. Most of these tenderfeet wind up witn, “Well, now, would you advise me to go?"” and then the Yukoner’s heart hardens to the world. As if his adyice would be worth anything, anyway, when the conditions, the odds, the luck of it all and a man’s own character make up so much of the problem—and especially the luek. “No, 1 wouldn’t. I'd advise you to stay home with your mother,” said one of them yesterdsy to a young greeny, who had been asking disgusting questions. “Hello!” “Heilo!” replied Landlord Holland yes- terday morning. “Bay, I wish you'd tell one of those said the old man. “Now, then, how do you get there ?"’ she went on. And the geographical and trans- portation mysteries of Alaska soon loomed up as a vague mist to the lady’s perception. “Well, I want to know if this is true, Ien’t there a lot of newspaper talk about it? We've read every line in the papers, but I wanted to see somebody I could trust, and you look like an honest man.’’ “Well, madam, I must say that I haven't seen a thing that's exaggerated,” testified Angus. ‘‘You made your fortune, did you?"” “Well, I made enough to quit work the rest of my days after toiling for a life- time,” the old man replied simply. “‘Well, now, are there any nice women up there and families?'’ *“Quite a number of them—just as good ‘women as you will find in the world.” “‘Bacause, you see, I might go myself,”’ she added, plumping in a revelation. “Don’t know yet, but I might. Would you advise me to go? Now, I'm a doctor and a good one, and if there was any chance I might go myself. Now, would 2 Oy i g e e P S S R Steamer Portus B. Ware in the Ice at Circle City. Yukon gentlemen to come up to Dr. —'s office; I want to talk with him about the Yukon,” was the modest message, The doctor was told that he’d better call on the Yukon gentiemen himself. Sl St LADIES INTERESTED. The Doctress That Plans a Sani- tarfum and the Woman Who May Send a Husband. Landlord Holland bowed gracelully to two cheeriul, middle-aged, well-dressed ludies in the Commercial Hotel office yes- terday afternoon. Grayish hairsand gold spectacles helped adorn the leader of the twain who ordered anything in the line of a Yukon miner, It was good, honest old Angus Galbraith, who, slightly flustered, knocked the ashes out of his pipe and came to face the situa- tion. “You bave been up to this gold placer | you advise me to go?'’ “Well now, if you were 25 or 30, if you werea younger woman, I mightadvise you toaf you were well prepared,’”” said the old gentleman with pngallant sincerity. “Now how do you think I'd do with a sanitarium up there,’” she went on. ¢ Couldn’t I find services to perform for the miners? Now I'm not a straight-laced Christian, but I believe in the divinity of Christ and the divinity of man, and I'm how is the food really up there? Of course I would expect to rough it, and I have roughed it. I've been in nospitais in Earope, and I took care of a miner once. But of course I woulan’t like 1o live on pork and beans all the time.”” Another lady came to the Commercial seeking Yukon wisdom yesterday. She was canvassing the problem of whether or not to send her husband up to the Kion- dyke digzings, and when she left it ap- peared to be an even gamble that the hus- band would be started. e HENRY BRATNOBER GOES. This Blg Expert and Onerator Is Now on His Way In From Junzau. The Yukon will not much longer be without exploration by mining experts and mining operators. Up to date it has been a *‘poor man’s diggings,” as the sur- face placers always are in the sluicebox stage while the cream is being skimmed. Money and large operations make for- tunes when simple labor quits, but chiefly will it look for and develop the great quariz deposits somewhere above the placer claims. Oae of the great mining experts and op- erators of the mining world is now on his ‘way in from Juneaun. - He is Henry Brat-'| nober, who is widely known as one of the chief experts of ihe great exploration company of London, a rich man himself and an associate in mining uperations of Hamilton Smith and Thomas Mein. Both he and Mein recently went to the Alaskan coast to look after large investments and development operations in Silver Bow Basin, and now Bratnober has started on a trip to the Yukon. . He does not goto locate placer claims, of course. He will make a reconnoisance of the region, look- ing to the opportunities for capital, big deals and so on, and especially without doubt the possibilities of quartz mining in this unknown region. When he comes back he may not teil all he learns, but he will give expert opinions and accounts that will command interest and confidence throughout the world, With him have gone Nate Kuller and Tom Sunny, who have made names and fortunes in coast mining, especially in connection with the Bird’s Nest mine, adjoining the Alaska Treadwell on Doug- lass Island. Thomas Mein will be back from Juneau 1 a few days probably. Under date ot Julv 9 Mr. Mein writes to his son here, R. M. Mein, from Douglass Island: . “Everybody here is wild with the Yukon fever. Ii is simply marvelous—the re- ports from the Kiondyke. I haveseen two men from there lately, and they both tell me that vou cannot exaggerate the riches of that country. Twelve men left the Treadwell this week, and every one that can get a grubstake to start is leaving,” Joln Treadwell, the millionaire ex- owner of the Alaska-Treadwell mine, is much interested, but cannot go. His sone, Edward and Charles, quite young men, will leave on Sunday for Juneau and the Yukon with a party of three others. One of them is William Castle of Sutter Creek, Amador County, a practical working miner, who eight years ago wramped by the Klondyke and made a comparative failure of his experence. Nothing can stop him from leaving a good job and going back now. —_— Gold From the Yukon. HELENA, Moxt, Jnly 19.—Twelve thousand ounces of Yukon River gold valued at about $240,000 bave been de- posited at the assay office here. It will be sent to the Philadelphia Mint for coinage. = Ay RS TAKE PLENi1Y OF GRUB. == That Is the Sound Advice of Dou- gald MacArthur to Those Who Go to Klondyke. The miners who have recently arrived from the fabulously rich Klondyke dis- trict of the Yukon River are nearly “‘pestered’ to death by anxious inguirers. They have been cornered so unintermit- ently at al! times of the day and night in the lobby of the hotel which is now mak- ing pretensions of being the Klondyke hesdquarters that they seek refuge in their rooms and the solace of a quiet pipe from the meddening crowd of excited would-be miners and business men and provision speculators. “These people bother me to death; they do not give me a moment’s peace,” said Dougald MacArthur as he led the way into his room. He opened a canvas pack, such as men carry on their backs in the mountains, and took out three nuggets of lhight-colored gold. The nuggets were not wholly gold. One of them was a mixture of beautiful pure white and colored quartz. There was about half an ounce, or $10 worth of gold in each nueget. “That’s the kind of stuff we find up on the Klondyke,” said he, quietly. “There is lots more of itthere. Flour gold can be found in the creeks—the flaky, sifty sort of blow-away stuff that is found in many of the creek and river beds of the North- west States. But we are not prospecting for that kind of gold. Everybody is look- ing for flaxseed gold and nuggets, and that is the kind that everybody finds up in the Klondyke. The other kind is not worth prospectiag for,”” he said, with a dry smile. “Quartz? Why, it’s all quartz. ‘the country is nothing but guartz for miles and miles—quariz and slate. That’s where these rich placer diggings originate. It's the richest ground that was ever struck on the Pacific Coast, or in the world. Leastwise I never heard of none that was richer, and I've been interested in mining for a good many years in different places. The country is very rugged. I never saw a rongher country. But when you get there it pays. People in Sitka and Juneau were leaving their busines:, locking up their stores, and making for the Klon- dyke as fast as they could get away when we came out.” “‘Will not the ground all - be claimed be- fore the rush from the States can get there?’ “Will all the ground be taken up before they get there?’’ he repeated. ‘Yes, it will ve taken up—by snow; covered with snow pefore they get there, but by nothing else. There is enough ground right around the Klondyke for 10,000 claims. The Klon- dyke is only one of many gold-bearing creeks that flow into the Lewis River, which flows into the Yukon, and Bonanza Creek, where the claims that have air:ady been struck are located, is a little stream emptying into the Klondyke River. Of course, all those creeks have not been prospected. The bovs have had all they could attend to with their claims on the interested in reforms and all sorts of things that the miners would like.” “*You could fina plenty to do among the miners,” was the testimony. “Of course I would expect pay for it. ‘We want to.make some money and be in- dependent in the world and do good at the same time. What else was that [ wanted to ask, Mary? Oh, yes! Now, Bonauza. If they hold out as fhey have been mined and have produced all last winter, they will never need to look up another creek. They’ve got all the mining and all the vold they can attend to right Wwhrre they are. “The grub and the scurvy are the greatest drawbacks to the develop- ment of the country. They live on truck up there that you would throw The fac-simile signature of is on every wrapper _of CASTORIA. to the dogs here, and some people wouldn’t even give it to dogs. It's more suitabig Yor hogs; yes, that's a fact. Did I bavilp™ the scurvy? Yes; I am suffering from vet. It them fellers up there yet had frult they'd eat the tin cans, too. I'm not20ing to tell you all that we ate, but most of the time we were supposed to have side meat and beaths, when we did not. But a man can stand anything when he sees and feels the gold coming out of the ground by the handsful and going into his own pockets, *I will say right here that the people of the Pacific Coast will be astonished at the amount of gold that will come out of the. Kiondyke region in the next year. The boys are taking it out as fast as they can work; besides, there is a lot of it that has been stored up in the camp and Juneau for months. No; Ican't give figures. I, am not much shakes on figures. Well, I'll say millions, which means more than two, and I reckon you could add several more lrmlliom to that and not be outside the imit, “Tam afraid that all this newspaper talk will send a rush of people in there totaily unprepared to be of any good to themselves or to the boys that’s already on the ground. I wish you would be sure tosay this. Iam afraid it will set back the work. You see the boys haven't got enotgh grub for themselves. What can 8 lot of tenderfeet do in that country without any grub, where it’s the worst kind of hardship and hard work for old miners that’s acclimated to get atong? The result would be that everybody’s work would be impeded or stop.in the - streggle for food —to get it into the country. If these tenderfeet go in that way, charmed by the stories of gold, some of them will starve to death as certain as snow 1alls in Alaska. The miners are a kind-hearted people, but they must look out for No. 1, especially when they have not enough food for themseives. A man ought to have at least $500 to start with, He ought to have a year’'s supplies of proe visions and some money besides. The Alsska Commercial Company is boss of the country up there. It controls the transportation and the price of grub, You’ve got to take what the company brings you to eat and pay the price they ask for it. “You may think it curious thatif gold is so plentiful why grub is so scarce and dear. The reason is that it is a long tough job to get supplies in there, and the expense is so great. The bo; busy mining; they’ve gzot to take what grub comes their way, and they are not going to give up all their gold for a sack of flour either. The fellers who have pro- visions té sell are going to demand as much gold as’they can get, and there you are. That is the actual condition of things there to-day. Grub is mighty- scarce and mignty high-priced. Time will regulate things so that there wiil be plenty to eat some day up there. But there will be a lot of suffering if men crowd in there without being well heeled with grub. ‘There is enough gold up there for all comers, but provisions are more precious than goid. These nuggets that Ishowed you are not the largest that have been taken out in the Klondyke. I've seen them as large as a hen’s egg, and many’s the day I would have given an egg of solid zold just for something fit ta eat, to say nothing of beefsteak and coffee. *“The location of ,the Kiondyke dis/ trict,” continued Mr. MacArthur, “‘hag been wrongly reported in a good many newspapers. Itis not in Alaska. Itisin the British Northwest Territory a good long way, I know, and everybody else who has been to Dawson City knows this ta a fact, for the boundary line up in that res gion is well defined. Fort Selkirk is the farthest point in the Yukoa, add.ths Klondyke district is about 400 miles below the fort. No, I do not know whethe? there is gold up in the country around the fort or not. Ihave heard thereis, and } believe there is. The long and short of i is, there is gold all over that country. N young, healthy fellow, with a mfliclenh‘ grub-stake, can miss it by going ther He’ll make more than it he stayea a: home—that is, if he has got sand enough Continued on Third Page. FOUR V'S. You may never have paid much attens tion to the fact, but it is true that some of the strongest words in the whola English larguage commence with the leiter V. Therec are vim, vigor, viotory, virile, virtue and a score of others. A man does well to look out for V. ViM The man who is full of vim is a grand specimen of the greatest work of the Cre« ator. He is keen of eye, bright of miund, tull of life and bealth—happy and brisk ail the day long. Have you got dny vim to-day? VICE The fact is early vice destroys much of our vim and makes us weaklings instead of men. Instead of nsing sensibly what strength we have, we start in by abuse of all our great faculties. That is vice. . VIGOR Vigor, however, may be restored if we g0 lgbom. it sensibly. ‘“Hudyan,” the grand specific of the Hudson Medical In- stitute, has never yet failed to restore this reat blessing. It is strong and yet harm VIRTUE The great virtue in “Hudyan” is that it makes out of weak men who are accus- tomed to dread death and who shake as . though they were half palsied, fine strong specimens of grand manhood. Write and ask. “Hudyan ” has made thousands of friends for the big Hudson Med~ jcal Institute. It never fails to cure. It cannot fail. Give it a- chance to help you! “30-Day Blood Cure” will cure you as surely as the sun shines if you have any form of blood taint. Watch for copper-colored spots, falling hair, lumps in the throat. That means blood taint. Get the help you need before it is too serious a case. Get it now! Circulars and testimonials are abso- lutely free, and so is the advice of the most famous doctors in America. HUDSON MEDICAL ISTITOTE, Stockton, Ellis and Market Sts. 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