British territory, and the co-operation of the two governments would be mutually beneficial, since the gold belt lies partly in American and partly in British possessions. At the present time Mr. Spurr thinks that the best route lies from Junea by way of the Chilkat Pass overland to the Yukon at the junction with the Pelly. This trail is the Dalton trail which has already been described, and it is said to open up a good grazing country and no great obstacles to overcome. The Chilkat Pass is considerably lower than the Chilkoot, over which the Geological Survey party of 1896 passed. If a wagon road, or even a good horse trail, could be built as indicated, the cost of provisions and other supplies would be greatly reduced, many gravels now useless could be profitably worked, and employment would be afforded for many men. the greater development of placer diggings would come the development of mines in the bed rock. With Besides the coal which has been alluded to there is abundant timber throughout the whole of the interior of Alaska, along the valleys of the Yukon. For four or five months in the summer the climate is hardly to be distinguished from that of the northern United States-Min nesota or Montana, for example, and although the winters are very severe, the snowfall is not heavy. Work could be carried on underground. throughout the whole of the year quite as well as in the higher mountains of Colorado. The area hastily examined during the past season is but a portion of the great interior of Alaska. That gold occurs over a large extent of country has been determined, but the richness of the various veins and lodes remains to be ascertained by actual mining operations. Gold is known to occur in the great unexplored regions south of the Yukon, because of its presence in the wash of the streams, and it is quite probable that the Yukon gold belt extends to the north and west; but this can be determined only bv further exploration. CHAPTER VI. PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. There are four stages in the development of newly-discovered gold fields, such as those which have been brought to light in the Yukon Basin. First come the men with crude outfits and few resources, who, with pan and pick, gather the gold that lies near the surface, washing out the grosser earths and leaving the precious metal by itself. This is placer mining in its simple form. After the gold lying on the surface and most readily at hand has been exhausted a little more complicated process is called into play. This is conducted by groups or associations of miners who use "long Toms" and cradles. Hydraulic mining is the third stage. In hydraulics water is brought from a long distance and applied to the pay dirt at great pressure in order to separate the gold from the dross. Last of all comes quartz mining, or tearing the gold by main force out of its beds in the rock beneath and separating it by means of stamps and pestles. In the Yukon region the process has not yet passed the first stage, and so rich are the finds there and so difficult the importation of machinery and supplies that it may be years before the last stages will become available, although the never-satiated thirst for gold, combined with modern enterprise and ingenuity, is likely to make even the frozen rocks of Alaska amenable to modern appliances. The history of placer mining is full of romance. It is as old as the world itself, if any reliance can be placed upon the traditions that have come down to us from prehistoric times. Gold dust and nuggets came in exchange to the Greeks from the barbarians of the north centuries before the birth of Christ, and it has been surmised that the precious metal was taken out of the mines in Siberia and in the Ural Mountains, which still yield so generously. The first placer mining of which there is any record was carried on by digging the sand or gravel, mixing it thoroughly with water, and then pouring it over floating platforms covered with skins, in which the gold settled, while the lighter sand flowed off with the water. To this practice we doubtless owe the mythological story of the journey of Jason with his Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece, it has been surmised, was simply the skin of the sheep which was used to catch these golden products of the placer miners. And it is significant that the voyage of the Argonauts was up the Black Sea or the Euxine into the very region of the Ural Mountain gold fields which have already been mentioned. |