The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 29, 1897, Page 1

UST 29, " 1897—_THIRTY PAGE LESS TREASURE BROUGHT DOWN BY THE PORTLAND This Owing to a Failure to Connect With THAN WAS EXPECTED a Yukon Steamer Which Has Three Millions on Board. MINERS BRING STORIES OF VAST WEALTH ON One of the Returning Minets Says That the News of the. Rich| THE KLONDIKE. Mines Has Not Been Half Told, and That There Is More Gold in a Single Gulch Than Ever Came PORT ANGELES, WASH., Aug. 28.—The steamer Portland, laden with golden treasure from ths Klondike, arrived | Y ncle clock to-night. The o ts yellow cargo. This explains the tardiness of the Portland in reaching Puget Sound. New discoveries, as turned over there was gold found. n will probably bring thres tim:s as much. Out of California. Miners who cam> down on the vessel from St. Michael verified the stories of the vast riches of the cers of the Portland stated that the steamer brought down only a million in dust and nuggets, but the next vessel There was no disappointm:nt over this comparatively small manifest of | precious metal when it was explained that the largest of the treasur=-boats coming down the Yukon had not reached St. Michael when the Portland sailei. The Portland waited two days for this boat, but finally had to put to sea without Therz is apparently no limit to the gold field. ich as thus far reported, have been male in all directions from the Klondike. Wherever the earth was The Steamer Portland, Which Reached Puget Sound From St. Michael Last Night, Bringing a Million Dollars’ Worth of Gold From the Klondike, and Miners Who Tell Wonderful Stories Found Within the Arctic Circle. _of the Wealth to Be “I may go back again; I think I will nextyear, but never to go through what I | had to get my gold.” This was the view { of a man who had roughed it in mineral : . 2 | camps all his life, and spent four years in Some of the returning miners come from working gravel along the streams that were never | Alaska living as luck and his resourceful heard of betore, and they smile pityingly when the original Klondike riches até mentioned, intimating that their discoveries are | ingenuity permitted. far richer. Bear, under the command of Captain Hooper. by that time, we expect to carry a very valuable cargo. All within the Arctic circle, according to their stories, is a miner’s dream, which means that gold is to be had for | in Willing Kidston, in command of the steamer, reported a pleasant voyage, and explained the delay of three days ng this point by stating that a very severe hurricane at St. Michael d=layed th= discharge of his cargo. *‘On our next trip the Portland will bring down the treasure brought on the Weare. He said: We will be convoyed by the cutter I saw him in the north, and he told ms that he had received orders from | Washington to guard the Portland on her next trip from St. Michael to Seattle. As most of the miners will make their clean-up | ““While at St. Michael we heard of new discoveries on Monust Creek, in American territory, 8oo miles from the mouth of the Yukon. nter there.” Among the passengers brought down by th> Portland from St. Michael is Timothy Bell, who has with him $30,000 in | gold, the price of a claim which he bought for $115. n Oglir ‘e, Dominion Surveyor, says the 600 claims now staked out will yield $70,000,000. A party of miners, who were among thz passengers, struck out for the new fields and intended to pass the Ready money is GOLD IS THERE BUT NO FOOD.| Gaunt Famine Contronts the Horde of Searchers for Wealth. Returned Dawsonites Paint a Gloomy Picture of the Kion- dike Situation. SEATTLE, Wasm, Aug. 28 —Gaunt famine will stalk unstsyed in the Klon- dike this winter. Gold there will te in plenty, but pelf will have no power to wrest the ravages of hunger. Miners are now hurrying back to civili- zation ioaded down with riches which they believed would be powerless to save them from death or direst sufferings, were they to attempt to pass the coming months in the frozen north. It may be that the pictures drawn by those who returned on the steamer Pori- land to-day are too highly colored and that the distress they believed to be inevitable is feared because they do not know of the expeditions now on the way to Dawson City by way of St. Michael, sent out from San Francisco. They bave not freighted down with provisions and carry- | ing rafts and sm. 1. towboats, with waich it is hoyed to reacn the center of the gold | first of the year. fever | mext season, but others frankly admit heard of the steamers | mighty Yukon. They know only of the stories that had reacned St. Michael un tothe time they ieft there. They know that the tinv fleet of r ver b)ats has been Qec eased this sea- | son by the loss of one, and in all proba- | bility, two of its number. They also know that a mighty host of treasure-seekers is bearing down on them | from the head waters of the great | river. The vanguard of those who | went north by the D-ea route had | alrezdy reacned Dawson before they | left and the reports they carried of the thousands who were following them have struck terrer to those who have already experienced the rigors and sufferings of one or more winters in the Arctic circle. Ihe wildest stories of goid that have | already come down from that country are | well affirmed by the littie batch that reached Seattle to-day. But even gold will not purchese food in aland where | there is no food to be had. Some of the passengers on the Portland say they came down to visit friends or purchase supplies to carry on operations that they left splendid-paying claims to escape the hardships of the coming win- ter that stared them in the face. Not one of those on the steamer belit- tles the storias of the marveious riches of the Kiondike couatry that have already reachea here. Ten million dollars, and possibly §15,000,000, wiil be wresied from tne frozen soil between now and spring, tut with what sacrifice of human life no one can foretell. But they werealso a | unit in sending out a warning to every- body not to venture north until after the | HUNDREDS CANNOT REACH DAWSON. SEATTLE, WASH., Aug. 28.—The most important news.from St. Michael is that the Yukon River steamers left there two weeks ago for | their last trip up the Yukon. It was not certain that they would| reach Dawson this fall, in which event passengers who left the sound on the steamer Portland as early as July 25 would only reach Circle City pefore navigation closed. This makes it certain that hundreds of miners who have left the sound and California since August 1 for St. Michael will have to win- | ne. sir, I wouldn’t advise or encourage ter there. the river freezes over solid. At least, they can scarcely get started up the Yukon before before the ice king envelopes the | ALL THE NEWS NOT HALF TOLD Stories of Wonderful Richesi of the Frozen North. Dawson City Booming and Re-| ported to Be Growing Faster than San Francisco. PORT ANGELES, Wasn., Aug. 28.—A letter from a special correspondent 400 miles from Kiondike savs, quoting J. J. McKay, one of the miners: “The news of rich mines has not haif been told. There is more gold in a single guich of Klondike than ever came out of California.” Another’ man, Joseph Birch, says: *‘News has not been exagyeratea a bit. I do not know these men, but owners of this barge and others with us, too, say they are truthful and conservative men. say there are only about 1600 Ameri- | cans in the mines; that many steamers are now coming and going by way of the Jower Yukon to and from Dawson; that there are plenty of supplies there for those already in but not for any big rush late in the fall. The Canadian Govern- men: may insist that men without sup- plies shall cross the line before they are in danger of starvation. Some new mines Lave been found, but they are not so rich | as the earlier ones. “Dawson is building faster than San Francisco. It has many big buildings a'ready. Pricesin K ondike are: Flour, $6 a sock; fish, 20 to 30 cents a pound; bacon and ham, 40 cents. Clothes are cheap and all things are to be had more reasonable than over the trails by which we have come; beef, §1 per pound; coffee, §1 per pound. Oue passenger, as he stepped upon the dock, staggering under the weight of two heavy valises, said: “'I wouldn’t advise, anybody to go there. No, not for $10,000 would I have stayed in that country for another year. No. They | Comme Lo TREASURE SHIP LONG OVERDUE Possible Mishap to a Yukon Vessel Bearing Gold to St. Michael. Miners and Their Sacks of Dust May Have Gone to the Bot- tom of the River. SEATTLE, Wasm, Aue. 29.—Though the passenger list of the Portland is small and the treasuies she brings down fall far short of expectations it is not because «f the lack of gold in that region. The steamer from Dawson which was to connect with the Portiand and is known to have left the mining district with scores of passengers and hundreds oi thousands of dollars worth of bullion had not reached St. Michael when the Portland left, although she was fifteen days overdue. It is certain that some mishap had befallen her, but whether she has been engulfed in the mighty Yukon, those on board swept to death and these fortunes lost will not be known until the arrival of the next steamer from the north. Three hundred and thirty thousang dollars is the golden harvest reaped by thirteen returning miners on the steamer Portiand from the far-famed Klondike | district of the Upver Yukon country. Just what proportion of this suia they bring to Seattle is hard to correctly esti- mate, as the miners positively refase to give definite figures. From their expressions, however, it is safe to place the amount in the neighbor- hood of $200,000. The miners left Dawson City on July 13, coming down the Yukon on the steamer J. J. Healy, reaching St. Michael about August 1. There thev remained for over two weeks, until tbe Portland was ready to sail on August 16, the steamer reaching Seattle during theearly hoursof August 29. The names of these fortunate prospectors, some of whom have endured the bard- ships of two or three yeuars’ existence in the frozen north, with their residences and amounts of their clean-ups during the present season. are as follows: J. Rowan, San Francisco $50,000 Tim Bel', Cunnda ... 45,000 Joe Goidsmith, Seattle. 35,000 N. W. Powers, Denver 35,000 W. W. Caldwell, Nebraska.... 30,000 Win Oler, 1ultimore . 30,000 Z. K. Zilly, Seattle. . 25,000 ¥. W. Cobb, Boston and S:at- tle. 25,000 W. Zahn, Seattle 15,000 A. A. Buckley, Nevad 10,000 G. §. Lansing, Monta 15,000 B. Farman, Iowa.. 10,000 M. K. Gowler, Winnipeg....... 5,000 % otal. $330,000 Considerable of this money was rein- vested in claims, while & portion was loaned out on interest at from 2 to 4 per cent a month, secured by claims. One in- | North dividual reports having loaned $10 000 at 5 per cent. It was generally believed that the amount brought out on the Portland would be much larger, and it would have been had not some accident befallen the | river steamer P. B. Weare. It 1sestimated that from forty to fifty miners wonid leave on her from Dawson Ciiy, expecting to reach St. Michael early in August and board the Portland for the south. The sum in their possession is placed at from $2,000,000 to $3,000 000. It is possible they may be able toreturn on the Excelsior. The Portland will again go north about September 10 and return the middle of October. On that trip she will bring down severai hundred miners with their ciean-ups for the season, which will, in the aggregate, come near $300,000 to $500,- 000 in gold dust. This will not include the funds of the American Transportation and Trading Company, which will aggregate over half a million dollars. S. P. Weston, the returning newspaper correspondent,stated that CaptainHooper, commandant of the Bering Sea fleet, in- formed him that he had orders from the department at Washingson to bave the revenue cutter Bear wait for the Portlana and act as envoy on her last trip Gown. The news brougit by the Portland strengthens the universal opinion as to the richness of the Yukon and its tributaries. AllL are wunited in the belief that Mother Earth has a lap of plenty from which her venturesome and industrious children cau take golden nug- gets and pan out dust in value and quan- tity surpassing all previous finds or esti- mates. Efforts thus far have been directed to placer mining, but expert miners are of the opinion that the mother lode is not far trom the placers in the neighboring mouniains. Dominion Surveyor William Ogilvie re- ports having seen and examined quartz that assayed from $600 to $700 per ton. From the various reports received it is equally certain thatshortage of provisions will " exist this winter in the Yukon camntry. ()There has been a shortaze every previ- ous season, and with the population now so largely increased much privation and suffering must necessarily result this winter. Men who have prospered on the Klon- dike and have money enough to purchase all the necessaries of life are apprenensive as to the outcome of this mad rush to this gold fields, and many will leave their claims to come 10 a land of plenty. They sound a warning against any in- flux of prospectors this vear. The Port- land’s passengers say it is almost suicidal for the rush to continue, as there are al- ready about 5000 people arcund Dawson. I | vasion is at once made upon Dawson. The transportation company find their facilities 1nadequate to carry sufficient vrovisions trom St. Michael to Dawson, no more than to svpply the number of men going in by that route. They have also engendered much bitter feeling among the miners of Dawson by taking in great quantities of whisky. Men ask for nomrishment and instead an element of excitement is furnished them that can but add to their despera- tion. From 8t. Michael to Dawson a bost can make but three trips ever the nearly 2000 miles of water course during the navigation season. At best scarcely more than 4400 tonsof freight can be taken in this seasom, and hali of it will be provisions and the bal- ance clothing, furniture, hardware and other supplies. Upon arrival in the Yukon country in- At present there is a thousand idle men there waiting for soumething to turn up. During the past season considerable sickness has prevailed and several deaths noted. An epidemic of typhoid feveris now raging, nearly 300 men being afflicted. i PLENTY OF VERY RICH CLAIMS They are Expected to Yield Seventy Millions in Three Years. Many New Discoveries Made, but the Klondike Is Yet in the Lead. PORT ANGELES, Wasg.,, Aug. 28.— Captain Kidston reported a pleasant voy- age and explained the delay of three days in reaching Port Angeles by stating that a very serious storm at 8t. Michaels delayed the discharge of his cargo. He laughed when told of the reportsthat the Portlana was carrying over $2,000,000 in gold. As a matter of fact, he said, there was only about $825,000 in goiddust and nug- gets on board of his vessel. Up to the time he left St. Michael he had heard of no new goldfielas. Among the Portland’s passengers from St. Michael is Timothy Bell, who has with him $30,000 in gold, which he dug from a claim that cost-§125. Wiiliam Ogilvie, Dominion Surveyor, says the 6.0 claims now siaked out will yield at least $60,000,000. From a member of the Portland’s crew it was learned that Captain Kitston had expected the Weare, oue of the company’s boats, to come down the Yukon with about $1,000,000 worth of nuggets and gold: dust, but as she did not arrive in _time bhe decided WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE WEARE? SEATTLE, WASH., Aug. 28.—When the steamer Portland left St. Michael the Yukon River steamer P. B. Weare was fifteen days over- due from Dawson City. It is known that the Weare carried $3,500,000 worth of gold stacked on her decks. The Portland expected to receive this precious cargo at St. Michael and transport it south. ' Fears for the safety of the Weare are now entertained, as it is probable the little steamer may have met with some mishap on the Yukon. Some suggest that pirates may have waylaid the vessgl, but there is little likelihood of such an occurrence. There-are some forty or fifty returning miners aboard, to bring down the treasure next trip. The United States cutter Bear, it is said, will guard the Portland on ber next trip from St. Michuael to Seattle. As most miners will make tneir clean-up by that time it is expected that the Portland’s cargo will be a very valuable one. The returning miners say that the remarkably rich claims on El Dorado Creek will number 140. Mr. Ogilvie esti- mates that at the rate these 140 claims are producing, ard considering the ground yet to be worked, in the next three years will aggreeate about $70,000,000, To this must be added the favorable pos- sibilities of pockets and developmert of claims already found, but not opened so as to permit of greater production. There have been other rich strikes on Stuart River, Hunker, Henderson and Indian Creeks, but none of these are as rich as claims in El Dorado and Bonanza Creeks. Uatil the wonderful discoveries of Klon- dike were mado ground worth ten cents to the pan with two or three feet of pay dirt was considered very good for the Yu- kon, and miners made their money with rockers and sluices. - This year miners are passing entirely over the ground of this richness in their search for sand and gravel that will pay like that of the Kion- dike discoveries. U'p to date none of the claims was show- ing any signs of exhaustion and scarcely a dozen are more than well opened. Every ona has large areas of ground to be worked. One returned miner says it is impossi- NEW TO-DAY. 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