Sinking on a Claim at Klondike.

Manawatu Herald, 13 September 1898, Page 3

Sinking on a Claim at Klondike.

We arrived at Discovery in the morning, staked out claims 4 and 5 above, and at the present time are busy sinking to bedrock. The method of sinking is as follows: — The country is everywhere covered with a coating of moss from eight inches to a foot deep. Immediately below this moss is the frozen ground, which cannot be got out by any process but thawing. The roots of the trees run about on top of this frozen soil. You strip off the moss where you propose to sink, then light a fire and let it burn for about three hours. This will thaw the frozen ground for a few inches down. You take out the remains of the fire, throw out the soil and the water melted out, then lay another fire and go through the same process. This operation is repeated every three or four hours, and by this means the prospector can get down about a foot every twentyfour hours by keeping the fires, going day and night. While the fire is burning out you cut timber and make ready for the next burning. It is a slow proj cess, and an extremely warm job to go I down the shaft, remove the ashes, &c, and throw out the thawed soil. After j a few feet of soil gravel is reached, j but everything is frozen solid to bedrock. To a certain extent this is an advantage, as water never drains into : the mine from the sides or bottom. : The only water to contend with is the ■ little thawed out by the fires, and what - ; ever of surface water may drain in. 1 This year, however, the spring and , summer has been so exceptionally dry, absolutely no rain having fallen, that a shaft can be put to bedrock anywhere,