Digging Through ice to Gold.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3962, 14 December 1906, Page 4 (Supplement)

Digging Through ice to Gold.

THE ARCTIC REGION HOLDS NUMBERLESS (FORTUNES.

Never in the world’s history did any nation ever .secure such a gigantic bargain as did the United States when she purchased Alaska from Russia. She gave less than a million and a half for tho whole vast territory, and to-day Alaska is producing far more than her purchase money in gold every twelvemonth. From Capo Nome, alone, where the climate is so'tend bio that mining is only possible during four months of the year, a single shipment of a half a million pounds’ worth of gold arrived not long ago in San Francisco 1 . Tho mineral wealth of the Arctic was never suspected until a few; years ago. Now a year never passes without some, fresh and startling geological surprise from tho far North or equally distant South. Not long since, coal was found in Spitzbergon. Samples were brought back to Europe, tested chemically, and tried on railways. The unanimous opinion was that it was some of the finest steam coal in the world, so good that it may prove a formidable rival to Welsh. A company has been formed in Norway to work the deposit, and fifty miners have already been sent north. The seams aro more easily worked than any others in existence. They crop out of tho cliffs over tho sea, and it is estimated that 80 tons can be cut daily and landed in Drontheim at Bs. to 10s. a ton. In 1814 we practically gave the Faroe Islands away to Denmark, In Suclcro, ona of those islands, there is a great fiord with cliffs a thousand foot high, in which the coal lies in thick layers. It is tho finest natural coaling station in tho world. Fortunately we still own Southhampton Island in Hudson Straits, though no doubt a few years ago we would have taken almost anything that was offered for it. In the year 1900, the wha'er “Active’’ came home from Southhampton with half a dozen cases of samples of granite and mica. Graphite is at present one of the mrst valuable of minerals, and tho rocky hillocks all over the island abound with both graphite and mica. To tho north of Japan, in the chilly seas which wash the base of the Kamsclatkan cliffs, rises tho treble-peaked island of Etrnfu. Its three mountains, each of which are about 2.800 feet in height, are masses of almost pure sulphur. Nowhere else in tho world is there .such a vast store of this volcanic mineral. Owing to the intense cold, it is only possible to work the sulphur from May to October, but during those months tho 300 Japanese labourers who are at work cut and -ship -over 10,000 tons of the mineral. A rope transmission plant was constructed in 1899, and the yellowcrystals loaded into iron buckets run down the long slopo by force of gravity, at tho '.umo time pulling the empty ones hack to the summit. Bouvet Island, in the Antarctic, is also possessed of immense treasures of sulphur. But as it is 1,800 miles southwest of tho Cape, and as its cliffs are coated with dee and almost perpendicular, it is not likely that the deposits will pay for working. Gold has been found in tho .soil of Tierra, del Fnego, but it is not yet known whether there is alluvial which ■will pay for working; coal, however, there is in plenty awaiting the needs of future generations. To return north, Iceland is full of mineral wcaltii which is as yet almost unexplored. There is coal, iron, lime, and sulphur, and over in Greenland aro great deposits of cryolite, the oro from which aluminium is largely extracted. Tho daily papers liave recently bem full of tho wonderful gold discoveries on Peace jßivor, in Manitoba. This can hardly be called wan Arctic region, and yet it is certainly sub-Arctic Another new Klondike is in Ungavaland, which is the least known and most desolate portion of tho great peninsula of Labrador. An exploring party working north from Whalo River have found not only an abundance of gold, but also silver, copper, iron, anthracite coal, gypsum, and cinnabar. If Ungavaland was not cursed with a, climate, compared with which that of St. Petersburg is mild and genial, there would have already been a rush to this treasure vault of Nature. A few months ago Father Paradis, a well-known Canadian Roman Catholic priest, went over part of this same country, and confirms all that the former party said. He declares that so thick is tho gold that, looking down through tho clear waters of Lake Onasitica, ho was able to see tho yellow metal shining along ledges of rock below the surface. WIRE WHEELS FOR MOTOR CARS. Cue la-son of the Tour A' Trophy rare held Tit mouth in Eng on I ;s that wire wheel-, wlreh are 1 uhtcr than the I’.sual artille.y wlnels are perfect y su’.lahle for m f r- w, and qu.lc capable of with laming the ress.s ■'•■at up by fr t driv ug i ouiv.l er. n.w- .and dims. Seven of ten e:;;o wh eh fin•i.she I wore filled with W' e a h d'. Oro would have thought tint tin xueri.’nco ol the bnyele mnmifacluivr.s w. a d have tair.ht the; les'on long ago. hut. tv th one exception, in England, motor-ear firms have discard, d the wire win-1 except for Ugh I rar . It n difficult to find a it a. an fi r Hid, for the «/••; ;• tr-t on wheel takes nj: n po’-Ueu of the read shocks, and 11,I 1 , tlnxcl’o! a. I,a; ii.ua on tyros! than the rigid wooden wheel. Perhaps the lesson taught by the Islo of Man race may not oe without its effect on future designs OINTMENT FOR RHEUMATISM.. If you have rheumatism of tho joints or even muscular rheumatism, get your chemist to fix you tho following oliitineut, which 'will relieve you :—Belladonna, fifteen grains ; salicylic acid one draohm; vaseline, one ounce. Those should ho carefully rubbed iu a mortar together until thoroughly mixed. Anoint tho affected parts sparingly with the ointment and then lay over it a piece of oiled silk, or soft paper. In acute cases of rheumatism this application should ho anado several times a day, and tho parts covered with cotton flannel. In joints occasionally afflicted with rheumatism or in lumbago, the part should l>o anointed, thoroughly rubbed in. and no covering but tho orlinary clothing need boused. “Health.'’