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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1886)
THE WEST SHORE. 330 MINING LIFE ON THE YUKON. IN the Alaskan of receut date appeared the following account by Mr. J. E. Chapman, of the experience of two years on the great Yukon river. It will 1m full of interest to those who ooutemplato a visit to the mines of that remote region. Hays M r. Chapman : " The party I started out with consisted of elovon per sons. We went by the Dyay pass, traveling by thn saino routo made famous by Schwntka. The first difficulty we had to encounter was a fiuanoial one, via: the ouor mous cost of packing food and necessary material to the gold diggings. The Indians for this service olmrgo as much as the first cost of the articles Tho region trav eled is wild and rugged and the divido presents magnifi cent sceuio efTocts in precipitous chasms and snow-clad peaks. The first stream we struck was the Salmon river, not more than two feet wide but gradually increasing in volume as it neared the great Yukon. At its junction with that rivor we made our first diggings. Here our little party broko up, tho majority going ahead to pros poet the Stewart river, another tributary of tho Yukon. More than sufficient gold to pay expenses was taken out of Salmon rivor in fact we never mado a prospect that did not show enough to pay expenses during tho timo we wero in tho oountry. At every sand bar down tho Salmon river wo got good prospects, and these had been worked the year before by other parties, I sp 'lit my first summer working on the Salmon bars; thenco I wont to the mouth of tho Stewart. Tho second summer I workod on tho Stewart rivor. Men working at the mouth of the Stewart averagod from sevou dollars to nine dol lars per day. Here great trouble was experienced in trying to Bave fiuo flour gold, as it is called. If somo means can be invented to save it, there are fortunes in it I experimented three months in trying to doviso means to Bave this flour gold, and succeeded, in a ineas uro. When we had to shut down for tho season, the diggings were paying fifty dollars or day to tho man. Notwithstanding the rigorously cold winters, and tho widespread reports that the season is too short to make enough to piy expenses, it lasts fully six mouths, and tho poorest diggings struck would do more than that, and as to tho climate, I would rather winter there than in south-eastern Alaska. The cold is intense, averaging forty degrees bolnw jsoro during the winter months, and getting down as low as seventy and eighty degrees below goro occasionally. But when the oold is so groat there is a porfectly doad calm as calm as it i in your room and at night the stars are so clear that they seem to hang from the sky. Tho alwence of wind during the winter readily accounts for our not suffering much from the oold We found plenty of game while we were there, along and in the neighborhood of the river, but it is be coming scarcer each season, and it is generally lot to be independent of the resources of the country iu that particular. I havn't any doubt that richor digging are yet to be found in that region. The part of it we trav eled over did not embrace more than five hundred and fifty miles in all, including tho feeders, tho Salmon and Stewart rivers. Tho richest diggings will undoubtedly lo found along the headwaters of tho Yukon. At tho I cad of tho Stew art river 1150 diggings wero found by Messrs. lUmwoll and Fraxnr. Thero are aUiut seventy-five ni u who will winter at Fort Nelson, near tho junction of tho Stewart and Yukon. Quito a settlement is hero established, con sisting of several sulwtantiid storo buildings and the houses of tho miners. It is a lienutiful location and evinces an eye for business and leauty on tho jwirt of tho locator. Very little prospecting fur quarts ha been done so far; miners confining their attention principally to placers. I have hoard of but one ledge on tho Yukon, disoovorod accidentally, aooitnouft of which assayed 2,000 per ton. We found got I iu every stream wo prospected, and from other miners who have traveled over a greater extent of territory than I have, am in formal that gold is found ov r a wider range in north ern Alaska than in any stnto or territory on tho Facillo const. Thero is no doubt that wo havo in Alaska thn largest quarto lodge that was over found, and recent in formation proves that wo havo also tho most extensive placer diggings iu thn world. I haven't douo very well myself - have very little to show for my seasons' work, only $l,t!H-i after paying my ex pennon, but there are othurs who have mado as high as 11,000 iu less timo. J am going back next spring and with now machinery and tho experience I have already gained, I cxpoot to clean up from (.1,000 to 110,000. Tho oountry is moun tainous in tho truest sense of tho word, broken, jagged and rugged, with vory littlo softness. Thero are stretch es of flat laud along tho river, thn result of ice and wa ter erosion. Theso flats are well limlwrod, and as far as I oould perceive, just a good as is found anywhere in south-eaatorn Alaska, with one additional feature that lent a glory and a beauty to tho laudscaiio in autumn, not seeu anywhere oxceiit in tho erjtt, ami that was tho BUorahunihinoo of small annuals, whoso folingn Ixwnme t blao of color when thn frost king Iswan his artistic work. Of these annuals, tho cotton-wood was the most abundant In spring and early summer tho number, variety and beauty of the wild flowers was bewildering. It was a HrfH't IhmuoI of color, and many of tho flowers are delicately erfuiuod. Tho auroral lights wero somo thing grainier than I had over seen Imforo. They at ways seemed far away, but now they oamo dowu In streams of gorgeous light right over mo. I felt as if they wore atmospheric glaciers, only that tlmy run lux I through smwo with lightning velocity and oloaved thn calmer, warmer air about inn, making a sizzling noise as of something burning. I think it is caused by intensely oold air, or a wedge of oold air coining in contact, or forcing its way into a winner stratum near thn earth. When 1 start! into tho Yukon country 1 wss fortunate in meeting a party going there, and thus had company. Coming back I got a littlo short of provender, but man aged to get through all right There is only one very dangerous place iu crowting the divide, and that is a rapid mountaiu stream not very deep, but very strong, which must I forded several times. W adopted thn plan of holding each other's baud while wn waded waist deep in the oold, icy stream, and gained the other I tide in safety.