The gold fields of the Klondike; fortune seekers' guide to the Yukon region of Alaska and British America; . anide process has greatly reduced the costof procuring gold from ore, making it profitable to workmines which would be worthless if treated in the old way. Under any circumstances, however, the mining of quartzis an expensive process, requiring capital and machinery,so that prospectors whose means are limited must, if theydiscover quartz mines, sell them, or an interest in them, tocapitalists. GOLD IN PLACERS. In contra-distinction to the quartz mine is the placermine, which is popularl
The gold fields of the Klondike; fortune seekers' guide to the Yukon region of Alaska and British America; . anide process has greatly reduced the costof procuring gold from ore, making it profitable to workmines which would be worthless if treated in the old way. Under any circumstances, however, the mining of quartzis an expensive process, requiring capital and machinery,so that prospectors whose means are limited must, if theydiscover quartz mines, sell them, or an interest in them, tocapitalists. GOLD IN PLACERS. In contra-distinction to the quartz mine is the placermine, which is popularly called a poor mans mine, be-cause, if a paying claim is located, the owner can work ithimself, needing nothing for his success except a pick,shovel, pan, water and a supply of food. Placer gold, in its various forms, is merely the waste of THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE 17: gold in ledges, separated and ground by volcanic, glacialor hydraulic action and finally deposited in alluvial soil,sand or gravel. The distribution of gold in veins is verywide, but on the continent of America is especially great. KLONDIKE MINER IN WINTER ATTIRE. in the Pacific Coast ranges of mountains which, in thebroader sense, may be considered as one chain, extendingfrom Patagonia to the Arctic Sea. Along the entire re-gion of these mountains, including the Rocky Mountain I78 THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE KLONDIKE and Sierra Nevada ranges in North America and the Andesand Cordilleras in South America, gold has been found atall points. Large deposits of alluvial gold indicate that atsome period it has been ground out of the vein in which itbelonged by some of natures forces and transported byothers. A strong geological theory is that all the variousveins of gold-bearing quartz are more or less disconnectedspurs of some great mother lode and that this lode ex-ists in some part of the great Pacific chain. Von Hum-boldt believed that the mother vein would prove to be inAlaska, and the unprecedented richness of
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