Show CAPE NOME GOSSIP the most remarkable gold field in the world if not the most extensive that has been known in the history of gold mining is lying 11 beneath its covering of snow and ice waiting for the miners who will surely present themselves as soon as the spring sun shall have opened the country to them already more than three thousand men are on the spot some of them were participants in the brief harvest that made last summer memorable but most of them arrived just before the winter snows made further minin mining g impossible all along the northwest pacific coast thousands of other men are waiting and within the next few weeks another army of gold seekers will vill arrive the probability that a steamer will sail for alaska before may is extremely remote but the knowledge ed e of this fact does not discourage those who are so eager to get to the land of promise every day more of these pilgrims pilgrim s of fortune descend upon the ports of the pacific jacif ic and announce their determination to take the first steamer for the new digging already there are enough men in waiting to require require a fleet for their transportation how they will all manage td reach the gold fields when the season opens is somewhat of a mystery of course everyone remembers the rush that followed the announcement that gold had been found in the klondike but there is every indication that the descent upon cape nome next summer will be three times as great the one thing that attracts the adventurers is of course the gold and there can be no question that the klondike in its best days never offered better inducements in the klondike the mining is carried on under most unfavorable circumstances while at cape nome the bulk of the gold that was harvested last summer was simply combed out cut of the sands sanda of the beach the headquarters of the cape nome territory is anvil city so 80 named from the shape of the mountains above it at the mouth of the snake river and it is one of the most accessible mining towns on earth ships from any part martof of the earth may come to its very doors which will do away with all the troubles of transportation that have made life in the klondike region so unpleasant i the first discovery of gold at cape nome was vas made in september 1898 when a party of swedes found the precious metal on the creeks and in the gulches As soon as the discovery was announced a large party of mainers who had been stranded at st t michaels alaska hurried over to the new gold f fields where tey either secured work or staked claims methods of proving claims at this time were not as perfect as they have since become and as the result there was considerable unpleasantness unpleasant aness among those who were compelled to camp on the beach this was the condition of things in the early part of july 1899 when some of these stranded miners accidentally discovered gold in the sand at anig feet he whispered the word to a friend or two who were in the thelama same predicament and the news spread so swiftly that within a few hours all the unemployed were at work on the beach with any and all kinds of instruments that could be used in digging their success was more than any one had anticipated never in the world had such auch easy mining been heard of never had gold been found so unexpectedly gedly and so opportunely nely and it was not many days before most of the older claims were deserted for the sea shore although the beach combers as they are called continued at their work until winter set in they had apparently made no impression s upon the vast store of gold that lay upon the beach it is impossible to determine just how much 0 gold was taken out during that time from july to october but it is known that the beach combers alone were able to turn out about a day of course in the nature of things thinas this cannot continue indefinitely but when the gold deposit on the beach has been exhausted the men will go to work again acain on the numerous claims lying back from the sea and along the creeks the natural features of the cape nome district are divided into three regions the beach tundra and mountains gold is found fould in in each of these formations the beach oi of golden sands stretches away comparatively straight and smooth for miles and the precious metal found in the region undoubtedly came originally from the mountains it was probably washed out of the disintegrated 0 rocks and found lodgment in the sands of the beach as the waters carried the metal seaward along the beach the gold is quite fine having been reduced by the action of the waves upon the sands to the size of bird shot or even finer As the gold is considerably heavier than the sand it has worked down into it and most of it is found under two or three feet of sand resting upon the hard bard bottom that is known to miners as bedrock extending back from the shore is a coastline lin e cliff which rises at some spots about thirty feet above sea level it slopes gently upward until at the base of the mountain for four or five miles from the beach it has an elevation of from to feet this is the tundra zone which is traversed by the rivers and small streams that now flow from the mountains to the sea up to the present time the beach combing has been the most prof profitable bitable form of mining the tundra which is composed of gravel has been prospected to some extent but up to this time it has yielded 0 only from 10 to 30 cents a pan pala it is therefore believed that large capital will be required if this zone is to be mined with profit the future of cape nome as a gold mining property will depend upon the mountains and it la Is believed that gold is there invest in vast quantities as all the metal that has been found on th the e beach or in the tundra must have come from these hills last summer the diggings were extended I 1 into to many of the gulches through which the mountain streams flow and there tho the miners will continue their work in the spring in these gulches the diggings are coarse gold and the lar largest crest nuggets are worth about each to obtain this gold it is necessary for the miners to dig down to the clay under tho the creek gravels which are six or eight feet in thickness the fact that discovery claim on anvil creek produced last summer and that several other opher claims yielded nearly as much indicates the richness of the territory As information to the prospective miner will be of interest it may be noted that the distance direct to cape nome from san francisco is about 2800 miles while it is about abou t 2300 miles from seattle or tacoma what the fares will be next season cannou be foretold but last summer it cost from 60 to 75 to go from the pacific ports to st michaels and the fare from that port to nome a distance of about miles was some 20 more it is probable that the rates this year will not be much in excess of the charges last summer of course it is also impossible to predict as aa to the prospective miner s chances of becoming in a millionaire there is no question but that there is gold at cape nome and that some of those who go to that region will find wealth as a reward it is also quite as reasonable to predict that others will fail and the man who goes to that section with the expectation of escaping all hardships will be sorely disappointed it is not the intention of your correspondent therefore to give any advice on the matter those who have been attacked by the gold fever would go to nome in spite of all that might be said at home who are contented to remain at home would probably take little interest in such hard luck stories as might bo be told or words of caution that might be uttered butte intermountain I 1 |