Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The gold resource of the Klondike region seems fully to sustain the
anticipations which had been put forth touching the product of 1899.
The better-known creeks, such as the Bonanza, Eldorado, and Hunker,
have kept well up with their record of the previous year, and give
indications of continuing as important factors in the calculation of
output for some time to come in the future. The introduction of a
certain amount of mining machinery, such as steam drills, thawers,
and powerful pumps--applied more particularly to the deposits of
the benches and hillsides--coupled with a more definite method of
conducting extensive operations on a comparatively economic basis,
has given fresh impetus to the work of mine holders, and made largely
remunerative that which had promised to be little profitable. A more
just administration of the mining laws has helped to a considerate
feeling among the miners, and reduced very materially the grievances
which formerly fell with thick force upon the offices of the Recorder
and Gold Commissioner. Access is now easily had to the records of
claims, and individual “cases” receive an early and proper hearing.
Electric plants have been introduced on some of the claims, so that
there need be no interruption in work for the full twenty-four hours of
the day.
Apart from the discovery of rich pay-dirt on creeks and gulches,
such as Last Chance (tributary to Hunker), Gold Bottom (tributary to
Sulphur), and American, Magnet, and Adams (tributary to the Bonanza),
concerning which much skepticism was expressed last year, the filling
in of assumed barren gaps in the general line of creeks has done much
to inspire the feeling that more of the broad area is gold-bearing
than the first surveys and explorations “indicated”--a feeling to
which particular confidence has been given by the surprising wealth
which has been washed out from the hillsides. For a nearly continuous
four miles of the “left limit” of the Bonanza, extending northward
from Gold Hill at the confluence of the Eldorado to the “forties below
discovery,” the crests of the hills at an elevation of some one hundred
and eighty to two hundred feet above the creek are laid bare with the
work of the shovel, pick, and drill, and the same or a corresponding
stratigraphical height is pierced elsewhere along the stream. Gold
Hill (and French Hill, on the Eldorado side), Skookum, Adams, Magnet,
and American Hills, and Monte Cristo, all have their summits capped by
what is now familiarly known as the “white layer”--a feature in the
landscape as interesting to the casual tourist as the construction is
important to the more fortunate claim holders who are located here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account