The
ALASKA SOURDOUGH
Published for the Sourdough and
the Chechako as well, by A. B. Calla
ham.
Subscription price, $3.00 a year;
Six Months, $1.60; Three Months, $1.00.
Single Copies Ten Cents.
Issued Every Tuesday
Entered at the Post Office at Doug
las, Alaska, as second class mail mat
ten
Home Office, Old Methodist Church
Building, Douglas, Alaska. Tel. 36.
LOCATING THE LODE
The average man knows little of the
method which the prospector uses in
Ihis daily work says a writer in one of
the national weeklies. The most mod
est mountainside looks large and dis
couraging to the seeker for mineral
wealth. How does the prospector go
about finding mineral?
In the first place ,though he knows
gold may be found almost anywhere
unexpectedly, he districts his own ideas
determining what he is going to look
for, where he is going to look for it
and how far that region ought to be
from proved transportation. Usually
he works in a neighborhood of districts
already partially proved. Unless he s
a mere adventurer, hunting for gold
placers, he will know that an ore-body
found fifty miles from transportation is
worth many times the same ore body
a thousand miles from transportation—
and he will govern his search accord
ingly.
Having established his field of opera
tions, the prospector pushes out into the
hills. In general he will stick to the
waterways, present or past. He hangs
to the bottoms of valleys and ravines,
and examines with especial care all out
crops shown in cut banks or rock faces
which have been worn down by water.
He knows the powerful effect of eros
ion—that is to say, of weather upon
rocks, carried on through many genera
tions, know’s the effect of suowslides
and storms on exposed rock veins. He
knows that the force of gravitation
carries detached pieces of rock down
hill. Hence, probably keeping pretty
low down, his first search is for ‘ float ’
—that is to say, bits of rock which
do not look like the country rock on
which they are found, but which either
show mineral value or the earlier pres
ence of mineral value. Sometimes the
elements will have leached out the min
eral itself in a “specimen” of float,
so that only a stain remains. The
prospector examines this under the
glass and passes on, trying to find
more float of the same kind. Perhaps
he is passing up a depression between
two hills. Once in a while he finds a
piece of float, but after a while cease*
to find them. He turns now and goes
down his depression until the float is
no longer found in that direction. His
theory, though perhaps he has never
thought of it, is that the vein from
which those pieces of quartz came is
probably somewhere up the mountain
side, its locality making the apex of
the triangle over which the scattered
pieces of quartz have been carried by
the elements during many years past.
Acting consciously or unconsciously
on this theory, perhaps our prospector
now goes up a bit higher on his moun
tainside. Of course his float is not
abundant and it lies in no such regu
lar form as theory may give it; but
slowly and methodically he crosscuts
what he supposes to have been the
course of these falling bits of float.
He does this again and again, working
higher up all the time. Theoretically,
and sometimes practically, his deposit
of float gets narrower as he goes high
er. Also the specimens of flat ought to
show less and loss leaching—that is to
say, they should be fresher from the
vein.
Hour after hour, perhaps day after
day, the prospector runs out his trail,
nosing out the mineral, picking a bit
here and a bit there, very likely doing
some panning of the dirt as he works
on up and across; perhaps sometimes
grinding a specimen in his mortar
down at his camp and panning the resi
due for colors. If he gets results he
knows that this mineral must have
come from some vein somewhere. In
rare cases he can locate the lode quick
ly by sight in an outcrop marked defi
nitely by natural retaining walls. If
the ore body, like most quartz, is hard
er than the surrounding rocks, it will
project as the mountainface wears
down. Sometimes, however, the
reverse of this is true and the ore body
is softer than the wralls of the country
rock, in which case the vein is a de
pression and not an outcrop. In any
case, however, our prospector finally
locates what he thinks is his lode, or
“lead,” as it is pronounced.
The next thing is to trace out the
lode and determine whether there is a
workable ore body in sight. It is more
difficult on the ground than it is on
paper, for outcrops do rot always Come
with regular or easyily traceable walls.
Perhaps the prospector does not at first
know which way his lode runs. Per
haps he follows it out, losing it now
and then, through forest growth, some
times across regions covered by lesser
vegetation. He must use his judgment
and be patient. Sometimes ne does a
little picking or shovelling, proving his
judgment that he is still over his l-.do.
Granted that our prospector knows
that a specimen does not make a mine,
and granted that he has ultimately
figured out that it will niy to locate
on his discovery, there remains certain
other things which the business like
prospector must know and must do. It
will serve no good purpose for him to
find a valid mine and later to lose it
through his own ignorance or careless
ness. He cannot locate and hold a
claim on a place where he may have
found merely some good paying speci
mens of rich pieces of float. He can
only hold a claim located actually on
“mineral in place”—that is to say, on
the ore body proper. His vein may be
only a few feet wide or less, but for
working purposes the law will allow
him three hundred feet on each side of
it and fifteen hundred feet lengthwise
of the lode. He is obliged to follow
out that “mineral in place” through
out that fifteen hundred feet, wher
ever it goes; but the ends of his claim
must be parallel to each other. This
work, perhaps, is done in a virgin forest
perhaps on a steep, bare hillside; but
it must be done accurately. The
bounds of the claim must be marked
out in such unmistaken fashion that he
can prove he was the first to find and
locate his claim on “mineral in place”
He must put up a stake or monument
carrying his location notice at the point
of discovery, and he must set up at
least four stakes or monuments—one at
each corner of the claim. For legal
reasons it is far better to have a mon
ument also on the lode where it leaves
each end of the claim.
The prospector will not be allowed
by the deputy surveyor or by the court
any more ground than he has actually
staked out; so usually he is careful to
measure his claim rather large than
short, as the law will then only cut him
down to the fifteen hundred by six
hundred feet. If he be shrewd he may,
perhaps, make the end of his claim be
gin at the point of discovery and lo
cate a claim in each direction on the
lode from that point. It is his busi
ness to mark out such claim distinctly
and unmistakably. If he uses a blazed
tree for a monument it should be cut
deeply and inscribed unmistakably on
such and such a monument on such
and such a claim. It is not enough to
stick any sort of a piece of wood down
into any kind of a heap of stone. A
good prospector leaves the record of
the work of a man in his monuments,
piling them up carefully, so that the
elements will not remove their arti
ficial look. He is apt to inclose his lo
cation notice or to place it between
stones where it cannot be removed. In
short, he knows what the intent of the
law is; and, in order to protect his
rights, he leaves unmistakable, visible
evidence of liis occupancy and his in
tent.
The good prospector, however, is
there to sell a mine. Hence he looks
at accessibility when he locates his
claim, considering the lay of the coun
try. He knows that, thought not ob
liged to make his claim six hundred
feet wide, he cannot locate his mine
one hundred feet to one side of the
(Continued on Page Eight)
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