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Show HOW THEY HANDLE AIM! GRAVEL Modern Mining" Is Contrasled With That of the Early Alaskan Pioneer. TREMENDOUS PROBLEM Year-Round Frost Involved World of Difficulties hi Past Decades. The ICnglnoerlng a ltd Mining Journal lias nil Interesting discussion relative to tho hydraullcklng of the frozen gravel on Bonanza Creel: of the Yukon country, coun-try, nhicii old-timers, sour-doughs as they arc called, will view with unusual attention. As Irs known the Yukon ground In fiOKen the year-round to a depth of unknown extunt. and bad the uuestlon of hydraullcklng been broached to the sdampedcrs of 1S07-S. they would have considered .such a system Impossible Impos-sible for this reason. A favoiile source of speculation of tho Alaskan .ploneui was as lo the manner man-ner iir which the future operator would solve the mining of theso frozen gravels, grav-els, and It was decmod certain that some patent thawing machine would be perfected In time to solve the groat problem. prob-lem. The ploncr had but one way to proceed, which wuji to build a five lu his .shaft ami allow It lo smoulder all night. By this method he loosened about sl.v inches of gravel In I he bottom of the shaft, and If he was extraordinarily energetic he would sot two tires within twenty-four houra and work like a Trojan Tro-jan In thus making about one foot of depth dally. Hard Task at Best. Au bod rock, the objective point, was llkoly to be anywhere from a few to 130 feet or more from tho surface, and once bed rook is giancd drifting or crosseuillng was . necessary us a. rule to ?lnd tho old fhannel. or the lowest point where t.htt gold logically should concentrate, concen-trate, tho early development effort nut-urally nut-urally was vcrv slow and beset with Innumerable In-numerable difficulties. The must difficult diffi-cult work was the preparation of the flro wood, so much of It being necessary neces-sary and it frequently had to be transported trans-ported entirely by hand-power from a distance, through dncn hiiowk and with the thermometer fondling with a cold hand the 50 below zero mark. Strange as 11. may serm, many see-tlons see-tlons of the Yukon are filled with small penoII-seaniK of hot water which cat their way through tho frozen ground with no low of energy, never ' thawing more than necessary In their progrcte from depth. It frequently happened that the smouldering fire of the prospector would tup one of these warm water courses and Ihe worker would be dismayed dis-mayed the next morning to find his shaft full to tho brhn with water, tho top of which a)rcad would bo covered with an ever deepening lllm of ice. In this manner many months of weary work would be all for naught, and tho prospector would have lo abandon the shaft that had cost him so much limo and effort und try his luck somewhere else. Capital Solves Problems. Modern method!) of mining gravel by hydraullcklng are n success evidently, bul. It took time and big capital to bring thia about, two highly Important factors not usually available to ihu pioneer. He bat: the choice, therefore, of returning homo, or trying some new .spot where his l meagre success will be followed by the attraction of capital again meuning his elimination, or he may o to work for I thla capital for wages. After a while ono will ride to Dawson or Fairbanks in a Pullman car. and a wlnler trip to Alaskan Alas-kan points will be considered something of a pleasant, outing. When that time arrlvrs Alaska, will bo the richest mineral min-eral section of the world. |
