(Continued from Page Five)
lode and five hundred feetTto the oflier;
but he can measure off his claim five
hundred feet one way from discovery
and a thousand feet the other on the
lode. Of course he knows he must
stick to the vein and not try to locate
the whole face of the mountain, where
there may or may not be “mineral in
place. ’ ’
The theory of the mining law is that
all mineral deposits once belonged to
the crown. We have no crown in this
country, but our government establishes
a few simple preliminaries before it
will pass title of the people’s common
property to an individual. That in
dividual, if a skilled prospector, is ful
ly familiar with the law and with the
physical requirements of his calling at
this stage of the operation. Therefore
if, in his pin, or his horn spoon, or in
his iron or rock mortar, he finds a rich
showing, he does not rush off hotfoot
to the nearest camp, put proves out and
locates his mineral in place, taking
care that he can legally hold his find.
The blocking out of the ore in place s
properly a matter for an engineer, but
the prospector who cannot come back
with a definite description and definite
proof of everything he says regarding
his mineral find is not apt to get the
attention either of an investor or of an
engineer. In short, it is a business
that he is following, and he must use
the business principles of caution and
good judgment, as well as of initiative
and daring.
The glory or the prospector, however
was in the romantic days of adventure,
when each man had the right to think
he could grow rich by merely going
West and working at this or that call
ing for a time, as did the three men of
our story. No more thrilling reading
ever will be written than the history
of the prospector’s life—his many ad
venturing, his sudden wealth or his
narrow escapes therefrom. His is a
life remote, devoted to the wilderness,
and his are the ways of the open. He
sees what perhaps the big game hunt
er does not see or does not value.
Thus, in the far Southwest where our
three prospectors above mentioned fore
gathered, the writer once, while out
deer hunting, discovered a clean cut
six-foot vein of coal. There is a rail
road within six miles of that place to
day, though there was none within a
hundred at that time. Since we could
all burn pinon wood and did not need
coal, but did need venison, the hunter
passed on, finally killed his buck and
for a long time forgot the vein of coal.
Very likely it is there today. Again,
while bear hunting above the great
bend of the Columbia, our party once
picked up certain pieces of r otten
quartz which later assayed in very de
cent values. We were hungry and hur
ried, and did not pause to follow up
the float. Yet even on that hunt we
found far back where no man belong
ed, two silent men, with picks and shov
els, who were leading the water of a
little spring some hundreds of yards to
a certain flat, near which stood their
little tent. And when wTe came out of
that wilderness region, we did so down
a stream which, in 1867, was occupied
by an army of the boldest and hardiest
gold seekers of the West—the men
wrho left the Fraser and tried the Col
umbia, on French creek, Gold creek,
and many others, leaving behind them,
on certain pieces of bad water, the
gruesome name, Death Rapids, w^here
scores of them wrere drowned when they
tried to get out of that country on
rafts.
Those days were long before rail
way transportation, when supplies lmd
to come in over incredibly difficult
country. The adventurings of great
bodies of men into so remote and for
bidding a region was the best possible
proof of the potent lure which mineral
wealth always has proved for the bold
est and hardiest of men—[hose who
make their living out of doors; and
who, thus enable us, who make our liv
ing in doors, to barter and trade and
swap the tokens of wealth, all of which
ultimately must come from the soil it
self—in one form or other of the wealt
which all of us covet and few
of us attain. It is an old saying that
the cleanest money in the world is
what you dig out of a mine. The pros
pector’s trade is not only an interesting
but a clean one.
-IC
PflSS
Douglas
Commercial
Club
Alaska jewelry go4£
EXPERT WATCH REPAIRING Alaska
Don’t Forget the
ANDERSON TOBACOBY
Near the Saw Mill, Douglas
THE ECONOMY
of band work showi, In the life of
the linen.
DOUGLAS HAND LAUNDBY
Front Street
Hugh Day
BILLIARDS AND POOL
CIGARS AND TOBACCO
Bring that old suit down and let us
look at it. Chances are we can make it
Better let us put a new collar on
cold one of these days.
DOUGLAS CLEANING AND DYE WORKS
GOOD AS NEW
your overcoat now. It will turn
Having purchased the entire
stock of George Burford, I am sell
in all wool underwear at manufac
turers’ prices.
JACK MCDONALD
You’ll find the best Stock of
Tobaccos at the Douglas News
Stand.
R. R. HUBBARD
BY CAREFULLY BUYING
a small stock I can sell better Shoe*
for less money than other stores
DENNY ORFANUS
St. Ann’s Road
For a Good Smoke Try Douglas
HENRY CUY
JUNEAU FERRY & NAVIGA
TION COMPANY
Time Card
Leaves Juneau for Douglas and
Treadwell
*8:00 a. m. 1:00 p. m. 6:30 p. m.
9:00 a. m. 3:00 p. m. 8:00 p. m.
11:00 a. m. 4:30 p. m.
Leaves Treadwell for Douglas and
Juneau
*8:25 a. in. 1:40 p. m. 6:55 p. m.
10:35 a. m. 3:25 p. m. 8:25 p. in.
12 noon 4:55 p. m.
Leaves Douglas for Juneau
*8:30 a. m. 1:45 p. m. 7:05 p. m.
10:45 a. m. 3:30 p. ni. S:30 p. m.
12:05 p. m. 5:05 p. m.
*On Sundays this trip is omitted.
Late trip leaves Juneau at 11 o 'clock
on Wednesday and Saturday only.