THE FROZEN NORTH.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10863, 12 January 1901, Page 8

THE FROZEN NORTH.

(Br Oca Sri-CiA_- Co-respondent, Philip Gebshel.) CAPE NOME, Spring, 1900. CAPE YORK DIGGINGS. While the majority of people going north make Nome their objective point, still a large number have made for Cape York, a district discovered last summer. It is about 100 miles northwest of Nome, on the Kota.ebue Peninsula of Alaska. In general features it is very similar to Nome. There is the same kind of beach with gold-bearing sands. In faot, so far these sands have proved to be even richer than those at Cape Nome. Thousands have left Nome for the new place. Some went by s__. Others went overland and then crossed Port Clarence to the Reindeer station, and in the middle of the exodus an arctic storm came

on. Nearly half of the men who started were never heard of again, for a lot bad gone in ordinary rowing boats. This new rush was the best thing that could have happened for Nome, for it relieved the pressure on the food supply. Many who were absolutely starving found fortunes at York cit*-

The district was discovered by the Esquimaux, and the first white man who knew of it was Lieutenant Hamlet, of the U.S. ■Navy. All along the Alaskan coast the American Government has its gunboats patrolling to guard the seal fisheries. When the ice comes down the warships sail south for the winter. But during tbe spring they patrol the whole coast from Point Barrow to Sitka. There is nothing much for the officers and men to amuse themselves with, and during the .past years none of them ev*r thought of prospecting for gold on the coast. The gunboats are about the oldest in the navy, because none would ev&r dream of a war occurring in the Behring Sea with any of the other naval powers. So the little fat gunboats waddle along the coast looking very formidable to the Esquimaux, and the officers go -ashore and shoot desr or talk to the captains of the -whalers, and then go back again and paddle up the coast. At this time the two gunboats on the'station were the Thetis and tbe Bear. The Thetis had called in at Port Clarence and Lieutenant Hamlet and Mr. Lopp, -who was the Government reindeer man, were starting inland on a shooting expedition. They were just beginning their journey when an Esquimaux came up to them and showed a small leather bag full of gold dust." Hamlet of course, knew of the Nome diggings, and be thought the native had come from there. Lopp questioned him, and in broken. English the man told them that he had panned out the .gold "up there," pointing to the north. The Esquimau didn't realise "what he had found, but he knew thait the white men sought eagerly after the yellow sanl, and they gave him a drink of whisky. The finding of a field -worth millions of dollars rewarded with a drink of whisky! Hamlet forgot all about the shooting expedition. So did Lopp, and arming themselves with shovels and pane they went with the native and washed out several pans of dirt at the place where the Esquimau had taken his, getting in one instance 20 dollars' worth. As the dirt was taken from the surface the result was encouraging, and Hamlet and Lopp lost no time in locating claims on the creek, which was name 3 Buhner in honour of the captain of the Thetis. On thjir return to the ship the news of the find -was communicated to the other officers, and it was surprising the number of applications for leave that were made to the captains of the Thetis and the Bear. THE NEWS IN ROME. Several weeks la/ter the news of the new discovery was circulated about Nome, and it caused a stampede. The first party to get aiway chartered a steam schooner, and upon arrival at Cape York, they located many of the best claims in the place. Another party chartered a launch, and on their Way they threatened to throw the captain overboard if he didn'b catch up to the steamer. The hitter vessel, however, beat them, and they got the captain amd poured all the engine oil over him to make him as they said, "look slippery." This made the captain angry, and be and two of his men fired long distance shots at them as they rowed towards the shore. The passengers replied with Winchesters, and the captain had to go below and dry- himself, swearing that he would send the whole United States amtv after them.

Wi j b ir all th ' e , cr<>w< i ! «oming in a district named Kanaugok was formed, and Mr. Lopp was elected recorder. It was decided thai the claim should be 600 ft up and down the E££ ? 7 **?*' and thß tundra bairns 1320 ft by 660 ft, As in Nome, the ground i« shallow, with an abundance of water during the entire working season. The principal locations have been made on the Ancavik River and its tributaries This stream enters the sea halfway between Cat>e York ond Cape Prince of Wales, "and is iSS? t^ enty r™ 1 ™ lan S an <* about 100 ft wide. The best ground discovered as jet is on Buhner Creek, and thfere is a peculiar slate quartz bearing iron pyrites in large quantities. The beach diggings are thick with gold, and the ground is exactly the same as at Cape Nome, and the place has not yet been known long enough for the sands to be more thai scratched. In the spring of 1901 Cape York sands will be the place where everybody will go. You cannot locate a- claim on the beach, because by the American law it is tideland. You can go down and dig whereever you like, so long as you don't go where another man is working. If you do that then there will be a row, and a row there may mean anything from a drink to a funeral. COMMERCIAL WEALTH. Because Alaska is coverel at times with ice and snow it must not be supposed that the whole place is a barren white desert. In the Aleutian Islands grasses grow sft and 6ft high. Strawberries, raspberries, salmon berries abound, and are of the finest qualities, both on the coast and inland. At Sitka, 300 kinds of flowers <*aye been grown or found, and Cook Inlet was noted among the Russians' as the garden of Alaska. Gold, silver, copper, galena, antimony, plumbago, coal, iron, sulphur, and other metals and minerals have been found. Petroleum, which we know as kerosene, is about to be developed, a company with large capital having taken the enterprise in hand. Coal has been found at many places, but has not vet been availed of to any great extent. The country has not onfy the seal, the whale, and salmon, but it has the walrus, sea-otter, cod, halibut, herring, oolij chan, and shellfish. Cod taken since the ac- ! quisition of the country has sold in the ! coast markets for 5,000,000 dollars. No other country in the world ha-t_so varied and < extensive fish preserves. They more than equal those of Northern Europe, Greenland, ; and Newfoundland combined. Gold has been found all along the coast. The Cook Inlet miners gel about 300.000 1 dollars per annum. On Unga. one of the I Aleutian Islands, is a quartz mine that has I yielded half a million dollars during the last I three years. On Douglas Island is the great TreadJwell mine, that has been worked fcr I fifteen years, yielding 9.000.000 dollars dur--1 ing that period. Connected with this mine is the largest milling plant in the worfd. having 880 stampers. At Sumdum is another ?teady all the rear round district. The fur of Alaska yield the Govern- ; raent of the United States a revenue of nine i dollars for each seal lawfully killed. So I far this has amounted to over seven million dollars, or more than ilie purchase price of I the whole country. When Russia sold j Alaska to the United States it was the best l.deal the latter country ever mad?. The whale fishery has been declining for a jreneratinn. Notwithstanding this fact, the Behring Sea and Arstie Ocean fishery during the I past twenty-five years has jriven 400.000 barrels of oil and 6.000,000 pcunds of whalebone. The packing of salmon betran sixteen years ago. In 1883 36,000 cases were put up, I "and in 1897 this number had increased to

1,000,000 cases, and each case contains forty-eight one-pound tins.. ./The Karluk cannery is the largest in the*" world, and the greatest recorded catches of salmon have occurred there.

But all these products are. only made use of by men who know that the gold cannot last for ever, and who are going in tor the really enduring business. Thethousonds of people who have come into the country have come to get as much gold as they can, and then get away again. They don't bother about the products. They go there for a spring or so, and get out again just as the winter is closing in. IN QUARANTINE. When you try to leave a place where a lot of men have got smallpox, you begin to find out that you cannot do everything you like. The theory is, that if a man is in a hot-bed of disease make him stop there. At least, this is an ordinary man's idea of it. Doctors have other ideas about the matter. If the man gets ill he will most likely die. If he doesn't he will live. Either way, it does not concern the authorities much, so long as the dif-case doesn't spread. Of course the man does not hold the same views, but, then, he cannot do anything, so he has to grin and bear it.

Soon after the smallpox broke out, some men tried to get out of Nome. They got as far as Williams's Head Quarantine Station, and then they were stopped. It was pathetic to see the way in which they argued with the health officers. They offered to give them any guarantee they "wished that they were free from all afflictions except toothache. One man had had that badly, and hs was very bad tempered. It gave you a chill to hear him swear when he found that he had to stop seven days in quarantine. He went on in such a way that they thought he must have saveral kinds of smallpox, and they eyed him suspiciously. When he commenced the others stopped, and liste"- , «w' in admiring silence.

But it was of no use, they had to go in. and twenty angry men got off the ship, and marched up to the station. After they had been there two days they found that the only amusements the place afforded were fishing and swopping yarns. Put together twenty men who have travelled in Alaska and America, and you will hear some good stories. They sat on an old boat down by the seashore, and smoked and talked. When they got tired of that they went fishing. One afternoon Grey, of Circe City, Wilcox and Harris, an ex-mayor of some* town or other, were having an argument about some mine in Atlin, a large goldfield to the northwest. They were ou- in tbe boat at the time, and the argument, began to get hot and noisy.

Grey had some samples with him, and he was maintaining that there were lots of ore like that which he had in Atlin, and Harris testily declared that no man ever brought Ruch stuff out of Atlin, for there was none of it there. He might get it if he went to the Klondike, Harris suggested.

"But I brought this ore right from Atlin," said Grey, as he produced a handful of decomposed rock. "That's the finest free-mill-ing ore on earth. You can pick the gold out of it anywhere. It is the highest ore I ever easy to handle, and costs less than nothing to mine. It is the pure thing, fluffy like feathers, and, in fact, it couldn't be better. Now Here are so*ne samples of Nome gold; I brought some -.way 100.5e," and he pulled handfuls of thi richlooking ore out of all his pockets. He seemed weighed down with it, and admitted that he had many dollars' worth. He sakl it buoyed him up all round t« carry it. That he wanted to argue was p->or stuff, and Harris wouldn't own to it. Nome gold was the best, and there was none like it in Atlin anywhere.

They were drifting over by this time near to the shore of ihe outer world, that is, beyond the guara* line. It always excited one in quarantine to go near the outside limit. You always want to see what the guards are going fo -do. Sometimes they talk very high, but then you can always come back, an- say you didn't know you were out of bounds.

Somehow or other they never could understand how it happened. Grey went overboard, and everybody yelled "look out," and prepared to clutch his hair when he should appear above the surface.

Wilcox nearly tumbled overboard in trying to look down through the water, trying to see him. Harris thought.he was going over too, and grabbed by the arm. Wilcox angrily winched his arm free, ai-d asked him if he wanted the man to drown.

"No, but look out how you catch him," and his reply was marked by the appearance of Grey's feet.

Wilcox didn't often recognise a soul wh.ii he saw one, but Grey's boots came from Atlin, and they were like his stories of the gold there. The boat was not laTge, and there was a danger that it would upset as the 1.0.h of them were on one side. They leaned over and tried to pull him in, but it was risky. Still there was nothing but his feet showing above the water. He was "down at the head," as sailors say of a sinking ship. The gold he had in his pockets w*as holding his head under water.

The situation was a terrible one, and they saw them from the shore, and sent out a lifeboat, but no man is expected to last when his head is under water for much over a minute. So they worked with might and main, and soon, heels first, they pulled him aboard.

They could see that he was all but done for. His coat was pulled down with the weight of the gold in it over his face, and that was what held his body down. It is peculiar, but a man's trunk will always take ite own head in these things. They worked over him for ten minutes, and poured out half a boatful of salt water. Then he gasped a few times, much to Harris's relief, who was feeling terribly about him. It is comforteble to have a man nearly dead whom you have been roasting a few minutes before. That was the wav Harris felt.

After they bad given Grey some brandy he began to revive, and showed an interest in life once more. He was leaning back contentedly in Harris's arms, and the exMayor looked as if he were nursing a child. The other two weTe wringing out their wet clothes.

Finally Grey managed to gasp that he felt better now. v

"Oh, those golden stairs," he exclaimed hysterically, under his breath, "and those silver streets," he added, a moment later, between gulps of salt water. "He's been up above," gasped Harris, in an alarmed wliisper. A respectful silence fell upon all.of them. "St. Paul told mc there was lots of freemilling ore in Atlin," said what was left of the Circle city man in a weak voice.

Harris looked awed, and rocked nervously

"But there is none in Nome to come up to it, as you tried to make out," persisted Grey. This was the old argument, and it made Harris mad, even though they all knew something supernatural was going on. "Who told you so?" demanded Harris, in a tone one would address to a spiritualist-. "Why I saw St. Michael on the golden shore of the Circle City, and he said you didn't know what you were talking about." Grey said this with a deep sea grin, and with sudden vivacity. Harris looked beaten.

'T guess I'm lost this shot," he said, nenitently, and he looked away over the water with a pensive sort of gaze. Then, after a little silence. "Celestial evidence is a. fine thing when you know how to make use of it/"'

Grey grinned, and tried to dry his face with his wet handkerchief.