BIG GOLD FIND
BY GANUGKS
Saskatchewan Believed to Possess
Great Riches in Ancient
River Bed.
A good many jieople in this locality
will remember J. T. Kennedy, a bright
young man who was connected with the
road gang last summer and who left for
bis former home in Saskatchewan prov
ince, Canada, just before the close of
navigation.
In a letter to the Valley News Mr.
Kennedy says times are very lively in
that province, and he was agreeably
surprised to find that property of bis
had doubled in value during his ab
sence in Alaska.
He also tells of a gold strike east of
the Rockies which has attracted wide
spread interest.
The scene of the strike is at Birling, a
tank station on the Canada Northern
railway, forty-two miles west of North
Battleford. The strike is in an ancient
river bed and the gold is found in a soft
shale rock which can be placer mined;
but it may be that it will pay best to
mill the rook, for it assays |40 a ton.
The pay averages about It feet below the
surface, and the paystreak is known to
be 10 miles long and at places a mile
wide. Newspaper clippings indicate
that the find is so important that many
prospectors will thx'k to the country—
some claiming the number will reach
20,Otto within ten months.
The gold is surrounded by a country
fast being taken up in homesteads, but
near the gold the ground was passed up
because it was poor. An old prospector
named Hughes made the find months
ago. He kept mum, and hoped to get
jtossession of a large part of the ground.
Finally he got drunk and gave the snap
away.
Mr. Kennedy writes that he knows of
four or five miles of ancient river chan
nel -UR) miles north of Prince William,
Sask., which he proposes to test for
gold.
The bars of the Saskatchewan river
have been nx'ker worked and yielded a
little gold, and Mr. Kennedy writes that
a dredge is working at Prince William.
Informer times, however, the country
east of the Rockies was not looked upon
with favor by many prospectors.
A reciprocity treaty lietween New
Zealand anil South Africa has l>een
arrang'd.
(Sourdough Mikei
FREIGHTING
and PACKING
To all the Creeks
HOT SPRINGS TRADINC POST
-GENERAL MERCHANDISE ==:
The finest resort north of Seattle. Natural Hot Springs. Renew your youth with
the waters of the local Spa. Superior bathing and hotel accommodations. Our
table supplied with all varieties of the finest vegetables raised in our own gardens.
F. C. MANLEY, PROPRIETOR
“CHICKENS”
ARE ALL CONE
There has not been a ptarmigan or
“chicken" of any kind brought into
i Rampart this wintei. li one lias been
I seen on any of the nearby creeks or
i hillsides enquiry fails ro disclose the
fact.
Half a dozen years ago birds were
plentiful almost everywhere. Along the
valleys and hillsides of I’>ig Mi nook and
its tributaries ptarmigan (locked in
hundreds and it was no uncommon
thing to see them by the dozen right
amongst the cabins in the outskirts of
' town. Grouse, too, of sveral species,
including the white-meated kinds so
pleasing to [K-rsons of discriminating
appetite were especially thick along the
Yukon flats and were not scarce any
where.
They are all gone. Hunters have not
I shot them all, and it is not plain what
has become of them. They disappeared
gradually—not in a season, as if they
had migrated to other parts. Even last
winter a few ptarmigan were seen just
east of town and the summer Indore a
willow grouse hatched her brood near
the pond this side of Minook.
Some say extensive tires have de
stroyed great numbers and others that
had weather, like rain and snow followed
bv hard frost, in the nesting season has
destroyed the egg and the young. In
cold weather ptarmigan sleep in the
snow, burying themselves by thing |
against it with great force. It is said j
sometimes the snow liecomes crusted |
and many birds kill themselves in this
way.
Hawks amtowis, martens, loses ami
other animals prey U|*>n (lie birds. If
the large nilntlx-r of lynxes thut have
infested the country (or two or three
vear-i have also joined in the onslaught,
ami if they have followed the lords to
the breeding grounds in their forays,
that will aeeount for the disappearance
of ptarmigan and grouse, which, when
their eggs or voting are threatened, itive
the lie to that iooli-di old suar about self
preservation Is-ing the tlr.it law of na
ture and Iteconie easy vietiun of w hat
i-ver foe presents its'lf.
It was discovered in Montreal that a
clause in the city charter makes it
ill.g.d fora city magistrate to imprison
drunks. Fifty-two were released at
once and talk "( action for damages.
Formaldehyde is Harmful
Says the Highest Authority
Formaldehyde is generally believed to
be extensively employed as a preserva
tive of numerous food products intended
for consumption in Alaska. The claim
being sometimes beard that no injurious
effects follow its use for this purpose,
the following quotation is given from an
article by Bernard H. Smith, of the
bureau of chemistry, United States de
partment of agriculture, especially pre
pared for guidance in the use of formal
dehyde as a disinfectant, a deodorizer
and a fungicide:
“Because of its marked antiseptic
properties formaldehyde is an efficient
preservative. During the last few years
it has largely displaced alcohol as the
preservative of anatomical specimens, a
dilute solution being much used for this
purpose in medicine and surgery, in
pharmaceutical preparations, and in
microscopy. Sixteen years ago, when
the antiseptic properties of formalde
hyde were first discovered, tho com
pound was practically unknown except
to the chemists; now its uses have so
multiplied that they have extended to
food products, especially milk and
cream. Under various trade names it
has been put upon tbs market as a
‘harmless’ preservative of food prod
ucts, but the highest authorities con
sider it harmful in any quantity, and
its use in food products is prohibited in
a large number of states.”
An important investigation has been
made try the department of agriculture
to determine the effect of preservatives
and coloring matters, when added to
foods, upon the health of the consumer.
To this end a class of young men was
secured to whom were fed foods con
taining these articles. In so far as the
investigations have been completed, it
has been found without exception that
the addition of the ordinary preserva
tives to foods is prejudicial to health.
The same is true, also, of at least one of
the coloring matters commonly em
ployed, namely sulphate of copper.
IVIlatt A Pellatt, of Toronto, have
secured the right to drain the I'ohull
lake and mine its he<l. They are to pay
the Canadian government |l,t)tti,lWi for
tin* privilege. The last of the lake has
liven demonstrated to he as rich as any
other part of the wonderful Cobalt
district
SOLDIER FROZEN
NEAR TOLOVANA
Hogan, an infantryman out with a
repair gang on the telegraph line some
where beyond Tolovano, had his feet
frozen during the cold weather of a few
days ago.
At last accounts he had not been got
ten to the station and the extent of the
hurt is unknown.
Miscellaneous Items.
At Annapolis, Mil., Christmas Kve, a
mob numbering 25 men threw down the
jail door and lynched Henry Davis, a
negro who had criminally assaulted a
white woman. Everybody was “on,”
but nobody interfered. The culprit
confessed and good order prevailed.
At El Reno, Okla., Dec. 24, Captain
Edgar I!. Macklin, of the Twenty-fifth
infantry, was shot twice by a negro be
lieved fo be one of the soldiers dis
charged by President Roosevelt for par
ticipation in the Brownsville riot.
A general strike of miners stopped all
work at Goldfields, Xev., at Christmas
time, and affairs had not qeen settled at
last accounts. The miners demand an
increase from $4 ta $5 a day.
Wvnegar, who was nearly killed by
fumes from a coal stove at Teller, died
a week later, of pneumonia.
In New York $100,000 has been sub
scribed toward a monument to the late
Joseph Jefferson.
James Bryce, the new British ambas
sador, is the. first untitled Englishman
to represent his country at Washington.
The j
Miners Storei
.Iu>t mvivt*<l a full ami complete {
lint* of i
Men’s Furnishing <
Goods. i
SPECIALTIES: <
Underwear, \
Overshirts,
Socks <
\U» a « .>inpl* Ir lint* of (
r»mnA»»iAQ Ei^k*. Potatoes
UlUtullCu, and Onions