THE NEW GOLDFIELDS OF CAPE NOME

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 18, 12 July 1900, Page 4

THE NEW GOLDFIELDS OF CAPE NOME

Last June some lucky prospecton! made the discovery that the sandi on the shore of the extremity q Alaska were full of gold. Tl treasures of the fabled Pactoll were mere sweepings, it was sai| compared with the richness of th sands which were covered as uncovered by every tide on t| shore of Cape Nome. The sac and gravel on the sea-shore \y| full of gold in grains and in nugget No mining was neoessary. Whi the tide fell you simple scooped i the sand into buckets, washed awj the sand, and gathered pure g| by the handful. The news spres Soon two hundred men were i the spot scooping up the treasure! the new Tom Tiddler's grotiij In three months they had gatheM £500,000 worth of gold in grail and nuggets. Then the ded darkness o£ the Arctio win! descended upon the scene. I water froze solid over the Pactols sands. The miners waited spring. But already the newsh spread far and wide of the fabuli find. From all the northernoi regions a migration set in. Klft dyke, Dawson City, and alii goldfields of the Yukon supp] thousands of adventurers who joii in the rush to Cape Nome. many as fifty-one dog-teams stai from Dawson City in a singly <j The journey across the snowl ice in the Polar night was an al of a couple of months. But j had been twice as longloadstone would have been powa enough to attract them. For Cape Nome, it was whispered,! was gold to be had for the tald gold bepond the utmost dreaifiH avarice. Already tenihousandH are waiting for the first thaw.:|H Wonderful stories are told oil wealth of the new goldiaH Nuggets worth £100 are repjjH to have been found washed -of! the rain, while £5 and £10 nu|fl were not at all unusual, Meh|H had not a penny in their wH thought they were wretcM unlucky if their day's takingfM not exceed £5. £50 per dajjfl not regarded as extraordinary^ fortune. Men came honiejM little nuggets of gold stic^l ! their boots. The officials ofl Government estimate that in three months of this year's susfl no less a sum than £4,QOH sterling is certain to be gafl between tides at Cape NomjM has been decided by the DM States Government that tbujM fields, being a tidal water ifl beach, cannot be approp|M Each miner can approprfojjß much of the shore as his spa^B crossways will cover. 9CM work as long as he can stafljH the moment he drops, anofcblM take his place. Ff>r there sfl title-deeds to claims in Cape^B it is first come, first serjfl veritable Tom Tiddler's gfl where fortunes are to be h^jfl It is not surprising that,i^B circumstances, a rush to C&pjjM is setting in which casts evS to Klqndyke into the shade^M thousand men of all stations^H are making ready to sail the icebound waters are free,^B pr in the un par Jelled sci'fl^B 'gold. E^ery steamer ai<f|M vesspl on the Pacific Cosstf^B made ready to carry this !f|fl of Argonauts to the Gold|M The shipping companies Q*fl receive no less than £I>5Q|M fares for ferrying' the ijjH army of gold-seeker 3 aC ,^B 2,800 miles of water which^B Seattle from Capo Non^B with the 80,000 Argon&nfaffl ail food, clothing, boots, &^| necessaries, for Port Noine^H nothing — nothing but gold^H

(To be Continued.)

For children's hacking night, Woods' Great Peppen^H