Gold in British Columbia.

Manawatu Herald, 29 July 1897, Page 2

Gold in British Columbia.

The Poat publishes a letter from a Mr Lippy of the Upper Yukong placer camps, which appeared in a paper published at Seattle, near Puget Sound, Washington Slate, and is as follows : — •• The Bummer mining, I expect, is about the same as everywhere else, except that the ground has to be bared to give the sun a chance at it before anything can be done. Each mine is 600 ft long, and the ground is from two to sixteen feet deep. The one on which I worked was on an average about 14ft to bedrock. We groundgluicad till about the 20th July ; then cleared up the old -cut, and by this time the drain was thawed out. Wo then c xtended the drain and built a tailing dam. The other dam being in, we set up a string of sluice boxes, and went to work shovelling in, with fair results, paying all expenses and leaving a small percentage for the owners." In winter operations are attended with much more difficulty. •• I 'will now tell you," proceeds Mr Lippy, " as well as I can how the winter mining is done. We clear the ground of brush and moss, then pick through the frozen muck (a black sandy loam). When we Btrike gravel we build a fire— small wood being plentiful — which will thaw on an average about lft. Gleaning this out we then put in another fire, putting in two each day till we strike bed-rock, which on my mine is from 17£ ft to 21ft. We then build a fire against the wall, which will thaw in from 12in to 24in. Thi3 is all hoisted by windlass to the surface, where it is dumped, it freezing up immediately. When the sun thaws it out in the spring it is sluiced in the good old way and cleaned up."