THE LATEST EL DORADO.

Evening Star, Issue 11267, 14 June 1900, Page 4

THE LATEST EL DORADO.

A great rush by miners and fortune-seekers has. already been made to the Cape Nome mining camps in Alaska, and the yields which are being made by the digger's are much larger than have been secured in any other part of the Alaska goldfields. Miners and speculators returning from the Cape Nome country tell remarkable stories of the richness of the dirt. Much of the digging is done on the beach, and the cradling shows the sand to be exceedingly rich. ? It has been said that several men have cradled from £B,OOO to-£12,000 in a few weeks. Think of going down to a beach reaching for hundreds of miles and there " panning out" gold worth from two to four shillings a pan with as little labor as shaking common sand through a sieve! There are certain drawbacks, however, which must be taken into account. Cape Nome is on the eastern shore of Behrmg Sea, or the western coast of Alaska, about 2,680 miles in a direct line, north-west from San Francisco. The cape is forty miles north of the 64th parallel of latitude, and within 150 miles of the Arctic Circle, so, as might be expected, the drear and treeless promontory upon which the new goldfields are situated is exposed to cold, biting winds, which sweep its sandy stretches, and during many months of the year it is blocked with ice, unsheltered from the severest rigors of an Arctic winter. The summer is short, chill, and wet. and then myriads of mosquitoes render life almost intolerable. The gold-washing district extends along the base and sides of a range of hills that skirts the southern side of Cape Nome, and also for ntiles up and down the sandy beach. It is this latter that has made Cape Nome famous throughout the world. Nothing like it has ever before been discovered. "Upon the information of a Native, a Swedish-American missionary named Hultbarg started up the Chinook P.ivcr on a prospecting expedition, and stayed sufficiently long in the district to discover promising indications of gold. An old prospector heard of this, and a secret investigation on his own account led to the discovery of Anvil Creek, a tributary of the Snake Kiver, where gold running almost 20s to the pan was found. An attempt was made to keep these facts secret, but rumors spread like wildfire, and soon hundreds of prospectors were en route to Cape Nome, undeterred by the winter cold, which reached SOdeg below zero. The hardships many of them endured were beyond description. Their only thought was" to be on the ground as soon as possible. Shelter of some-kind was an absolute necessity, and tents of every description soon covered a' good deal of ground. With the coming of spring miners began to flock into the district, and by June the village of tents had assumed considerable proportions; so that when the chill winds of last October began cj sweep down from the north Nome City boasted several busy streets. To-day the town extends a mile or so along the breach. Winding, lane-like thoroughfares are flanked by rude and hastily-constructed shanties of rough pine boards, canvas houses, and dirty, weather-beaten tents. A score of cheap saloons, half as many gambling hells, live or six dance places, and a very crude apology for a hotel constitute the principal buildings. Nevertheless, Nome is now un organised city, with a mayor and council. Prices, of course, are high. In winter coals, sell at £ls per ton, and wood for building purposes costs £SO the thousand feet. Provisions are equally dear. The housekeeper in Nome City pays during the winter 4s for a pound of sugar, beef costs 8s 6d. flour 2s 6d a pound. Small hams sell from £2 to £2 10s each. You pay 12s for a rude, home-cooked breakfast or dinner, and a cot without blankets costs 4s a night. For 10s a wayfarer may have a covering also! Locks and safes do not exist in Nome, and frequently thousands of dollars' worth of dust and nuggets is placed within easy reach of the marauder if he cares to take the risk of detection. If detected, however, and found guilty, the penalty is death, and there is no appeal from the rough courts of miners, who try and judge the case. Henoe a comparatively small degree of lawlessness exists. According to an expert from the State Mining Bureau of California, Captain L. B. Butler, nowhere else on earth are there sn<-.h rich placer mines at at Cape Nome. " The district will astonish the world in two years more," he says, and will continue to astonish it yearly for a long tjnve, Nome's output of gold for 1898, its first season of washing, was £IBO,OO0 —many times greater than that of CloDdyke in its first season. The output of gold for four months last summer wa3 between £400,000 and £460,000.. It is not saying too much to state that four times that amount will be washed ont hy *fogape Nome miners this summer, and by

the summer of 1901, when machinery and'. modem appliances have been ■ mtrod«ei»9, the annual clear-up will exceed £30,000,000 at a conservative estimate!