THE ALASKAN GOLDFIELD.

Evening Star, Issue 10394, 16 August 1897, Page 3

THE ALASKAN GOLDFIELD.

Recent cables warning miners against proceeding to the Klonayke rosh, unless they are prepared to endure the. severest hardships in the hunt for gold, are fully confirmed by papers to hand by Saturday's mail. The ' San Francisco Call' of July 18 says :

The excitement over the gold discoveries has in no way decreased, and miners are besieged by prospective emigrants. The miners are willing to answer all inquiries as to the cost of getting to the fields and of subsisting after reaching there, but will advise no one directly to go into the country. While there i 3 undoubtedly plenty of gold—and there may be just as rich strikes made in other places as have been made in the Klondyke diggings—there ate any number of miners alreidy in the country who have made no money. "The winters," says one experienced man who has made his stake there, " are very cold, the mercury going down as low as 75deg below zero. The coldest weather last winter was in January and February. Miners have to use the greatest care not to work themselves into a perspiration, as the moisture would freeze and result in frostbite. In the summer it gets quite warm, and some vegetables are raised, and mosquitoes are fio numerous that gloves have to be worn while working. The discovery ot the Klomlyke diggiugs was made by a man named George Cormic. He is a man who had a great hold on the Indians, and they had told him that they knew where there wai gold. Last August they took him about halfway up the Bonanza, where he found pay dirt, and staked out a claim. As soon as the report spread that there was gold on the Bonanza the miners flocked in, and in a short time the City of Dawson had about 3,000 inhabitants. The mining district is about fifteen jniles from the city. It is in .the bed of the Bosiijnza, and is about twenty miles in length. "There is also gold along the El Dorado, which .empties into the Bonanza." The scarcity of food is the worst feature of the life at the mines. Supplies are received but once a year, and there •is very little in the country in the way of food. ■Caribou and moose are killed sometimes, and give 3 little fresh meat to relieve the monotony of liscon. Canned fruit is the p-incipal diet. The reluctance of the miners to encourage emigration to tlte Klondyke i 3 not from the fact that they want the gold for themselves and fear to have the .country overrun with people, but comes from the fear that the sudden influx of population without an adequate supply of food will cause a famine, and a great deal of suffering will ensue.

A private letter received by A. Berkeley (Cal.), university Btudent, from hia brother, who has been in Alaska for a year, stated : The Yukon fever has stricken the country badly. Even the business men are leaving. The stories are fabulous, yet true, as they are verified by the many different ones who know and by private letters to persons with friends here. The pay streak on the Klondyke averages from «>dol to 7dol to the pan. One man took out 90j000dol in 45ft of the creek. There are several juiles of the creek prospected thoroughly, and it does not show a single miss. .Wages for common laborers are 15dol a day.

Mr M'lntosh, Governor of the North-west Territory, in which is located the Klondyke ■district, considers the British Yukon goldSetds the richest ever trod by man. He speakfl of it as a great treasure-house an which gold has been accumulating for ages, and says the gold supply is practically inexhaustible. Governor M'lntosh estimates that the Klondyke and its tributaries yielded over j?,000,000dol in gold last winter, and that the British Yukon yield ■of gold for 1897 will not be less than 10,000,000d01. Returning miners substantiate the statements of the richness of the Klondyke region, but emphasise the fact that one must go through a hundred dangers to secure it.