The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 22, 1897, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXII'NSB. 52. PRICE FIVE CENTS. YELLOW METAL STILL COMES POURING IN The Umatilla Brings Another Delegation of Lucky Miners. THE RUSH FOR THE NEW! FIELDS INCREASING. r Quality of the Metal Said to Be Somewhat Inferior to From the That Extracted Mines of California. More gold—the stream of yellow metal pouring down from the mysterious And still the wonder and of miners who lered carrying Ith. es with every ce of the A a Com- ¥ is besieged by men who passage by the Excelsior, r sailing on Wednesoay next. The books closed at 9 o’clock yesterday morning, there being more than enough people waiting at the ticket winaow when it was opened to take up all the remain- ing berths. There were more than 300 people who applied during the day, after the last berth was taken, who came with their $150 passage money in their pockets. The number of applicants has increased from day to day, indicating the strength- ening of the roots of the malady. With the first spread of the news of the big strike there followed a scramble for infor- mation and another scramble for means and n gathering together of funds. has taken time, many to wait over for the next steamer or to take the trip overland. That great numbers will take this latter hazardous passage there is no doubt. Itissaid the gold brought down from | the new diggings is not of the quality of the Calitornia article and does not there. fore weigh in for so much at the Mint. e g o STOCKINGS OF GOLD. More Precious Metal From the Kiondyke Per the Steamer Umatilla. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company's Umeatilla and the opposition boat Cleve- land arrived from Puget Sound within | half an hour of each other yesterday. The latter vessel had sixiy-seven passengers | and 10 ons of coal for John Rosenfeld’s Sons, but there were no miners among the passengers and no golddust in Purser ‘Whitbeck’s safe. Next trip it may be dif- ferent, as it is said along the front that the Cleveland will make her usual trip to Seattle and from there will carry miners to 8t. Michaels. When the Umatilla docked at Broadway wharf yesterday there were at least 1000 Thix | and the time has left| y people there to meet her. Everybody ex- pect-d the Alaska miners, but all were disappointed. as only two of the men who | bad made fortunes on the K!ondyke River | came down on her. The others took the trains and have scattered to all quarters of the comj If the Umatilla aid not bri many miners nevertheless broucht gold and concentrates valued at $167,188. Of this sum $137,923 came from the Kiondyke River district and the re- maincer from the mines at Sumdum. The gold from the new EI Dorado came in 27 packages and some of them were very sirange. The dust was all done up in what looked likelong stockings. Tnese were made out of tanned reindeer hide ahd were stitched and restitched in order to prevent the escape of the precious metal., The nueggets were done up in boxes and then packed into valises. These | latter were bound about with ropes so tightly that box and valise formed one compact mass. It took Wells- Fargo's agent an hour to receive the gold anda when the receipt for the same was handed over to Purser Campbell he heaved a sigh of relief. One of the miners who came down on the Umatilla was J. G. Kelly. Heis only about 22 years old and had barely reached his majority when he started for the Alaskan goldfields, “1 hud a berd time of it at first,”’ said he, “‘and was glad at times to doanything |in order to get bread without -butter. | When the Klondyke craze came I went | there and did well. Going back? You bet I am. Next spring is early enough for me, and this time I won’t have the hard [ time Mr. Kelly brought back $24.000 with him to show for his year's work in Alaska. When he wrote from Seattie to his brother in this City he made a mistake 1n his ficures and his relatives thought he was | brinzing down $240 000 in bullion. Later he wired that he was coming by the Cleveland, and when that vessel docked | at the Mission-street wharf the brother and a guard were there to welcome the wanderer. He was nowhere to be found, she 14 and then a hurried visit was made to the | Umatilla. Tuere the youthful miner was found and a few minutes later he was in a hack on his way home, while his gold was being conveyed to Wells-Fargo's Bank. | The water front is rife with propositions hips to undergo that I had the last i | | | | | [ifihfintt I AT The Steamers Umatilla and Cleveland Arrived From Puget Sound Within a Few Minutes of Each Other Yesterday. Thousands of People Were Down to Sce Them Dock in Anticipation of Meeting a Batch of Kiondyke Miners. They Were Disap- pointed, However, but Did See Nearly $180000 in Gold Dust Removed From the Steamer’s Strong Box to the Wells- Fargo Wagon in Waiting, On Fer Next Trip the Cleveland Wili Probably Take a Party cf Miners to St. Michaels, While the Umatiilla Will Carry Those Who Are Eager to Reach the New El Corado as Far as Juneau. to reach the new El Dorado. The accom- modation on the Excelsior is exhausted, and the Portland will not carry a third of the people who want to reach Dawson City from Seattle, In consequence small s'eamers with lizht draft are in demand. Yesterday A. M. Speck, the real estate man, made u tour of the water front in company with Chief Whartinger Root in search of a 100-ton steamer. He failed to find what he wanted, and will visit Oak- land Creek in a continuation of his search this morning. He and a party of friends have formed a clo<e corporation, and they intend to reach Dawson City before the | winter sets in. Another party is also in search of a small steamer. They are each to put up $1000 and expect to take up enough pro- visions to last them a year. Ali who charter or buy steamers, however, must remember that anything drawing more than 4 feet 8 inches of water will havea mighty poor chance of reaching Circle City, let alone Dawson. While almost the entire length of the river from its mouth to the new E! Dorado is from 20 to 40 feet deep, still there are innumerable sand bars on which there is very litue water. As these are not buoyed, a stran- ger is liable to run his vessel on one of them, and there she might stick until the river rises in the spring aiter the snow and ice melt. Still the chances are that at least half a dozen expeditions bound for Dawson City direct wiil leave this port vefore the end of the month. - MINERS STARVING. Note of Warning From the New Gold Flelds. That the stories of golden hue told by the returning miners from the Klondyke are but one-half the truth is now becom- ing known. The dark side, the side which must be painted in somber colors | —tne tales of privations, suffering and death are beginning to come to the sur- face, and from tbe unfortunates, the men | who risked their money and lives in a vain search for golden store, the public has yet to bear. That thereare such men and that they ontnumber the lucky ones by odds of a hundred to one, there seems to be no doubt. A man who suddenly ac- quires urexpected wealth is apt to hold lightly the means by which good fortune came to him and while the marvelous wonders reported of the new mining dis- trict are undoubtedly true in the mai:, the exultation from the possession of larze wealth has made the men forget to tell the world that in the frozen fielas of Alaska they leit many brothers to whom Dame Fortune bas not been kind and who are lingeringin that inhospitable clime only because they have not the money witi which to pay their passage back to civili- zation. That these men, couid their story be beard, would speak in a aifferent strain from their comrades who came down on the Portland cannot be doubted. Yester- day one of the min+rs who brought down thousands of doliars’ worth of gold dust consented to tell something of the dan- gers which beset the adventuresome per- sons who go to the lund of the midnig it sun in search ot the yellow metal. Said he: z “You would find iteasier to believe the most wonderiul yarns Ieould teli you & the wealth of the country than aome of the hardships I have known many men to undergo. A man cun suffer a great deal and almo-t iorget it if he eventually becomes rich, but for every man who has returned with a sack of dust there are now 100 poor devils stranded and starving in that barren country. *“When I say starving I mean it liter- ally. It seems incredible that a man would see another—his neighbor at that— slowly dying by inches for want of food | and deliberately refuse him a pouna of Stories of Hardship That Sound a | bacon or a pint of beans. Yet that thing is happening every day, and God only knows how many frozen corpses will make food for the wolves on the Klon- dvyke this winter.. When I left there was not enough food in the country to supply those already there, and as the boats can- not take in muach more before the river freezes how are the hundreds now on their way there to exist. 1t is notthat the men are selfish or avaricious, but few of the old miners have more than enough 10 keep them throuzh the winter, and it is only a question of preserving their own lives or those of others. I will tell you of the case of one young man whom I met there. He started for Alaska in the View of the Eonanza Creek Valley From Discovery Claim to the Mouth of El Dorado Creek. (From Photographs and Descriptions.) The point of view is east of Bonanza Creek, and looks toward the Yukon. T hrough the middle foreground is seen Bonanza Creek as far down as the Di-covery claim, eight miles above the Klondyke, located by George McCormick, who thers made the | “strike” which has turned the eyes of the world toward the Klondyke. On the left El Dorado Creek comesdow the Bonanza. creeks are seen. Yetevery one giving its miners’ cab ns or tents and the winch and Further to the rizkt Adams, n from its treasure-bearing hills and swells Whipple and othér smaller and less famous evidence. of -the presence of gold by the dump which mark the claims, Bonanza Creek is taken up with claims from the Discovery on up for eighteen miles, and all the creeks coming into it are_likewise covered for some distance up, though none so fully as EiI Dorado. Tue mouth of this fabulously rich stream ‘is fifteen miles above the Klondyke. Its length is some six or seven miles, and every foot of 1ts narrow valley has been located far up toward the head, and every claim yielding a f. rtune to its workers, No. 30 p: labor as No. 5 paid Clarence Berry, and No. 36 panning ou: equally as well as No. 1, which gave Francis Bowker a fortune from a hole 43546 and 9 ieet deep. The width of the valley or flat of El Dorado Creek, from *‘rim rock” to “rim rock,” or where th- hills begin to rise, varies frem 100 to 400 feet. from Bonanza up, claim 1, at the mouth being some 400 feet wide. ing Charles Myers as hberally for his The claims on this creek are numbered As arulethe claims have a frontage on both sides of the creek oi 500 ieet. but «uch an allowance is made for very wide or very narrow claims as to make them ail of approximately the same area. The depth to *bed rock,” after leaving the vicinity of the mouth, quite uniform for some distance up toe guich. 2 Rt spring of 1896 with about §600 in cash. “From Juneau he went over the ‘divide’ and reached Forty Mile early in the sea- son. There he bought an interest in a claim which promised well and set to work., He was the most enthusiastic youngster I ever saw. He was already making plans for investin - the fortune he expected to acquire. Whether he was ‘skinned’ or not I don’t know, but his claim didn’t pan out well. He didn’t get enough out of it to pay his expen-es and his capital soon gave out. Then he sent home for money. It didn’t come, and finally disheartened and sick he decided to start for Juneau in company with two other mirers. In one of the numer- oas rapids on the long journey down the river their boat was upset and the boy was drowned. That is the way his golden dream turned out. *It is a frequent thing for prospectors to lose everything they have in the treach- erous waters of the Yukon. And I want to tell you another thing. Undoubtedly these men have brought down as much gold us they sav they have. I don’tques- tion their word in ihat respect, but I do believa that & great deal of it belongs to ‘otlier parties. The men who have stuck to their claims huve sent their dust out by their friends, and a great deal that has reached here, as well as that now on the way, belongs to men who are yet in Alaska. “Thers are times when the Indians bring plenty of game into camp, and then there are long periods when there is none to be had. In the summer plenty of salmon may be caught, and if salted down comes in very handy in the cold season. They do catch a fish through the ice w hich the Indians call the ‘losch,’ and wiich bears some resemblance to a cat- fish, but 1ts skin is more like that of a rattlesnake than anything else, and a man wouldn’t eat one unless he was starving. At one time last winter flour went up to $70 a hundred, and you could not geta potato or vegetable of any kind. “One fellow I knew thought he would make a great stake by taking in a lot of onions, but the s'eamboat people in load- ing them put them down near the boiler, and when they were unloaded they were all spoiled and had to be dumped into the river. The men who have come out say they are going back again, but I don’t be- lieve a tenth of them really will. Tuey have had enouch oi it, and are glad to get home alive. As for myself, I brought out considerable money. My partner is stiil up there, but in the spring he will clean up and get out of the country, and I don’t think either of us will ever go back. There’s lots of gold there, but I'd just as soon take a trip to Hades in search of it, and I guess a man would stand just as good a chance of tinding it there as in the Yukon.” A letter from Juneau reached here yes- terday which goes to confirm the reports of the rush to the gold fields. The writer says Juneau bics fair to be depopulated, and that neariy every one who can get away is making preparations for crossing the ‘“divide,”’ and that a good many women are going. He also speaks of the terrible condition of some of the miners, and says it is reported that there are 200 men . at Forty-mile without a dollar ana unable to get out. He also reports fresh discoveries in the Sum Dum district, which place is easy of access from Juneau. In this city the excitemont isstill increas- ing. and more wonderful stories are ex- pected when a party which is due here on Friday arrives. DAL THE YUKON GOLD. 1t Is Not as Valuable as That Pro- duced In This State, Assistant Weigher W. A. Underhill of the Selby Smelting Company states that the gold from the Yukon is not of so much value as that produced in Cali- fornia. In speaking of this matter he said: *We have found the miners from the Ytkon a very nice class of people to deal with, and they bave not been de- ceived in the value of the gold they have brought back with them. It is a fact that the Yukon gold is not as valuable as that procuced in this State. We have found t .at there are from 50 to 100 points more base metal in the northern product. These base meta!s are iron, lead and a few others and there is a large quantity of silver also. We look vrincipally for the goid and silver. gives the Yukon gold its fine rich color. “Qi course these other metals decrease the value a little. The nuggets from the Yukon are worth $17 and $18 per ounce, and the finer, the gold dust, is worth from $16 to $17 per ounce. With the California gold the value 1s about one dollar an | ounce ‘more. - That“is, nuggets run irom It is the iron that- $18 to $19,and the gold dust never less than $17 per ounce. “Our a sayers have found seyeral other metals than tkose I have mentioned, but no attention is paid to them as these otber base metals do not cut much ofa figure in the genera! value.” e MAIL FACILITIES. Manner in Which the Malis Carried to and From the Mines. There are two muail routes from San Francisco to the mines, and in fact to the whole of the inhabited part of Alaska. The one by water is from San Franci-co to Oonalaska; thence to St. Michaels, and thence up the Yukon River to the various trading posts and other settlements along the river to Fort Selkirk, passing on the way to Fort Yukon, Circle City, Forty- mile, Klondyke, Dawson, Sixty-mile, the Stewart and Beaver rivers and the Pelly River. The mail is carried over this route by the A aska Commercial Company, the next vatch of mail matter leaving here next Wednesday on the sieamer Ex- celsior. The trip from San Francisco to St. Michaels occupies about fifteen or sixteen days, and fro.n St. Michaels to Klondyke about twenty-one days, making the time for the whole trip about thirty-seven days. The last batch of mail by this route will leave San Francisco on Sentember 5. Overiand by way'of Juneau and Dyea there is a monthly mail every month in the year, but no mail matter but letters is taken. If the weather is bad there may be a detay in some months in the winter season of a few day , but as a general rule the mails bave been carried on this route very regularly. The steamer Portland, whieh left Seattle on July 20, and which will leave the same port on August 30, also carries mail by way of St. Michaels. Tue last mail leav ng San Francisco be- tween now and next spring by water will 2o on the Excesior on geplember 5, as after that trip the Yukon will be frozen. The return mail is brought to St. Mi- chuels by the river steamers in the sum- mer, while on the overland route, by way ot Juneau, the mail iscollected on the re- turn trip of the regular monthly service. ZeciCrobis it OVER $73,000,000. A Computation of the New EI Dorado’s Possible Output—Do Figures Lie? There have been a number of peop'e calculating as to the richness of the Ei Dorado Creek bottom, and the conclusions arrived at, according to the figures, are enough to take away one’s breath. Inthe first place this creek 1s said to be over six miles long and the pay dirt extends up to the head of the valley or ravine. The flatland varies from 100 to 400 feet in wi th. Taking the length at about three miles and the width at about 300 feet there isan area of 3,168,000 square feet, which would allow at least 1584 prospect holes, 43 by 46. It was from an excavation of this size that Mr. Bowker ook out $46,000. If the entire 1584 prospecis yield in the same proportion 1o that of Mr. Bowker's, 1he total for the El Dorado placers m~v be estimated at the enormous sum of $73,000,- 000. And yet this ravine is by no means among the larger of those in the Yukon region. Are gt T ONE OAKLANDER. And Only One Wants to Go to the Northern El Dorado to Dig for Gold. OAKLAND OFFICE SAN FrANCISCO CALL, 908 Broadway, Juiy 21 Osakland is one of the few places that cannot be said to be «fflicted with the gold fever. Hardly anybody can be found who has a serious intention of going to the Klondyke. The reason for this apathy is un- doubtedly the severe lesson learned during the last two years by those who went to Alaska with something and came back with nothing. There have been three out- bursts of gold fever in this city during the past few years and as a resuit there are scores of men in town who are examples of unlucky miners and their influence is felt in spite of the many glorious stories of returned lucky diggers from the frigid E! Dorado. Among those who are sorry they went are Dr. Dunn, Dr. Walker, Messrs. Wise, M ffi.t, Dutton and many others, and even the recent tales of gold have not thawed the frost thev caused to fall on Ala-kan mining ventures. Deputy Sheriff Duiton is the only man, so far, who seems to bave taken the mat- ter seriously. It was his son who went to the Yukon two years ago, and came back wiser than he went. “I believe I will go,” said the Deputy Sheriff to-day. *‘There is no doubt that Cuntinued on Second Page. NOTED MEN AMONG THE ARGONAUTS Ex-Governor McGraw of Washington Off to the Yukon. GOES TO RETRILVE HIS FORTUNES. With Him Will Travel Others Equally Prominent in the Northwest. GZNERAL EXO0DU3 FROM CITIES ON THE SOUND. Additlonal Steamships to Be Pu Upon the Alaska Run With- out Delay. EEATTLE, Wasn., July 21.—One sur- prising thing about the Klondyke discov- eries is that not one single “hard-luck” story has yet been given out either by the people who have already come out of the country or in the numerous letters which have been received here bv the relalives or friends of the 400 or 500 Seattle men who are now in the Kiondyke country. Letters from boys to their mothers, from married men to their wives and from sin- gle men to their closest chums agree in the statements as to the marvelous wealth which hasbeen found. There isone pecu- liarity which appears in each of a dozen or more of letters which have been seen by THE CALL correspondent. With some slight changes in diction the first sentence in each of thewe letters is substantially : “I am : fraid you will not believe what F am going to tell you.” ‘Whatever incredulity there was at first as to the magnitude of the discovery—and there were a few doubting Thomases—has comyletely passed away, and the excite- ment, instead of dying down, is on the in- crease. From all parts of this State peo- ple are flocking 1nto Seattle 1o take pas- sage for the Kiondyke. Trading com- panies are being organized to carry in goods, and several new transportation companies will take the field. Every steamer which can safely make the trip to Dyea is being pui into commission. The steamer Portland, which leaves to- morrow for St. Michaels, takes 125 passen-~ gers, the full limit aliowed by law, and is loaded almost to the danger limit with provisions. Among her passengers will be ex-Governor John H. McGraw. Gov- ernor McGraw was for many years presi- dent of the First Natioral Bank of this city and was Governor of the Siate for four years ending last January. Had the Republicans succeeded in capturing the Legislature at tue election last November Governor McGraw would have been elected United States Senator to succeed Watson C. Squires. As it is, he goes into the Klondyke to retrieve the jortune which he has lost curing the last few years of cepression. He goes on the strength of private advices which he has received from several warm friends who are in the new gold region. General M. E, Carr, formerly brigadier- general of the Siate miliiis, and whose law practice is one of the largest in the State, is also a passenger on the Portland. General Oarr knows very weil what he has to meet, for be descended the Yukon from its source to its mouth twenty years 2go as one of a party of Government ex- plorers, Captain A. J. Balliet, at one time one of Yale's greatest oarsmen and football- players, is among the gold-seekers, he also leaving a handsome law practice. The 400 wiil lose some of their choicest ornaments, and the tennis clubs of the city will also be sadly crippled as an im- mediate rush of the craze. The steamship Queen sails on Friday for Juneau and Dyea. She willcarry about 250 men. The Mexico sails on Sunday. Al- most all the accommodations on board the Mexico bave been taken. Accommo- dations for horses have been oversoid, so that there will be some persons sadly dis- appointed. The Topeka saiis on July 28, and the Al-Ki on August 2. Of the steam- ers named all except the Poriland are for Dyea Inlet, and they constitute the regu- lar vessels which have been plying to that port. The Sound steamer City of Seattle, which has accommodations for 250 first- class passengers, is to be fitted up at once and will be in commission within tvo weeks. In addition to this the steamer Islander will leave from Victoria on the 28th with passengers from that place and some from the Sound who have failed to secure passage on thereguiar line steamers from this point. Large number of horses ate being taken nerth. During the past year a great deal of work has been done on the various passes leading over the Yukon irom Dyea, and horses have taken tke place of In- dians as pack-animals. The White Pass route is commended by outcoming Yukoners as especlally easy for pack- animals, although the trail crosses creeks which are so deep that it is not possible to drive sheep over that route. i The river will, if the winter is an ordi- nary one, Keep open until about the mide dle of September, after which time it is not likelv the boats will be able 10 make the trip down to Dawson Citv. From that time on what provisions are carried down the river will be taken by thedog teams or on land sleds, and dog teams are scarce. As far as travel over the passesis con- cerned, it is better in winter tban in sum- mer. Up to the present time the m:jority of the men who have gone into the Yukon have made 1t a point to go up in the early spring while the snow is on the ground. They are thus enabled to_haul their outfit over the passes on sleds, with an oc- casional doubling of the trail where itis very steep. ln two or three trips across