CAPE NOME, July 20.—After an eleven days' voyage from Kotzebue Sound we anchored off Anvil City on the morning of the 20th. Those eleven days make a nightmare. A succession of head gales with dense fogs. We were almost within sight of our destination when a southeaster began to hum through the rigging and a thick fog set in. The "Penelope" hove to and for two days we experienced a most disagreeable combination of rolling and pitching, with their inevitable conditions. When the clouds finally lifted we were back in Bering Straits. The northward current is remarkably strong at this season and it is almost impossible to stem it unless there is a fair wind, which in our case did finally favor us. We found our Cape Nome representatives all here save Cox, who was left with some claims toward Fish River. All are well, but from their account they must have had some sorry experiences. Dr. Gleaves, Gale and party were lost in the overland trip and ran out of provisions, resorting to their seventeen dogs for food in the last pinch. They finally reached supplies with barely enough meat for two days longer. Close shave. The body of Dr. De France of the "Iowa" party, was found frozen in the trail in the mountains.
On the 22d the "Penelope" sailed up the coast to our claims, which are located on the beach seven miles west of Anvil City. Here we have unloaded supplies and will proceed to work the claims far enough to see what they are good for. I have not visited "town" yet, but there must be two thousand inhabitants living mostly in tents or driftwood shacks. Several warehouses have been built and two substantial frame buildings are going up. They say there are ten thousand men in this district, mostly scattered out among the hills. Five thousand claims are recorded, but of these only about a dozen are known to be of value. Four are so far being worked, but these I know to be extremely rich, for anyone can look on and see the "shining" as it is separated from the gravel in the sluice boxes. Shafer and Stevenson were at these workings a day or two ago and saw two shovelfuls taken up indiscriminately pan out one $6 and the other $8. Those rich claims are in little cañons or ravines seven miles back from the coast in the hills. This is really a gold bearing region, for one can find colors almost anywhere. We can get from twenty-five to two hundred colors to a pan on our claims here, but they are very line, and I doubt their being saved in sluice boxes. The beach claims contain plenty of gold, but it will require improved machinery to make them pay.
I have left my bird skins and everything except a single change of clothing on the "Penelope," as we all have done. But I am afraid my collection is liable to damage from rats or mould. There is no place on shore to put the stuff and no through vessels that I know of to ship it by. The "Penelope" left night before last to take a prospecting party thirty miles down the coast to examine some country there and then to visit the claims where Cox was left. Nine of us are left here, with Harry Reynolds as foreman. We are at present digging holes in various places to see if we can find the "pay streak." No success yet. The gold on the beach is not "wash" gold, but no doubt comes from the bluff which borders the beach about one hundred feet back from the surf. From this bluff the smooth tundra extends back some five miles to the hills. Anvil City is at the mouth of Snake River, which extends back through the hills and heads in the high mountain ranges which we can just see through the gap. Anvil Creek, Snow Gulch and Glacier Creek, the rich spots, are tributaries of Snake River. To the westward is Penny River, but this whole country, including thirty miles along the water front, is all staked out. The district is under military control, and twenty soldiers are stationed at Anvil City. Without them there might be trouble. It seems that the first men to this region, the so-called "discoverers," staked out as many as one hundred claims each under power of attorney. They then formed a mining district and passed a law that powers of attorney cannot hold, thus handicapping those who have come in since, so one man can take up but one claim. The other night a miners' meeting was called in town to consider the matter. A resolution he brought up which, if carried, would throw the whole district open to be restaked. The lieutenant was there and he knew that if this passed there would be serious trouble. He informed the meeting that if this resolution was brought up he would clear the house. After some deliberation the resolution was couched in a different form, disguising its intent, but the officer kept his word and ordered the house cleared. There was some hesitation and several toughs even looked resistance, but the order was given to fix bayonets. The meeting was thus broken up and nothing more has been done.
Main Street, Anvil City.
The original staking was doubtless unfair, but if the district were now reopened it would be worse. There is little lawlessness in Anvil City, on account of the militia. A good many claims have been jumped and some of them two or three times. This will give work to the lawyers. Several of our own claims have been jumped, but we are on them now and possession is nine points of the law.
July 30.—This is Sunday and a day of rest for us. We have worked pretty hard the past week. In fact this is the first mining the L. B. A. M. & T. Co. has done. Prospect holes have been dug in different parts of the claims. Uncle Jimmy and I were set to digging hole back on the tundra, and if anyone doubts the work is hard let him try it for himself. We worked three days and got to a depth of ten feet with no favorable results. The tundra is thawed barely through its covering of moss, seldom more than six inches. The rest of the way the frozen ground was as hard as rock and had to be chipped off bit by bit. The hole was about four by five feet, just room enough to wield a heavy pick. We broke the points off the pick every day. A strata of pure ice a foot thick was encountered, but most of the way we worked through a sort of frozen muck or packed mass of unrotted vegetation which, when it thaws, looks and smells like barnyard filth.
After the first day the walls began to melt and cave in little by little, so that each morning and noon we would have to bale out a foot or more of mud and water. It was about as dirty work as one can imagine. The fresh clods, as we picked them out of the bottom, were so cold that for a time frost formed on the outside just like a cold piece of iron brought into a warm room in winter. Although as cold as a refrigerator down in the pit, the perspiration poured off from us from the stifling air. Only one of us at a time could work in the hole, so we had half hour shifts. Uncle Jimmy and I. The man on the outside had to haul up the bucketfuls of dirt and water, but he otherwise rested. After our long yachting trip this work was especially hard. But such labor gives one a tremendous appetite. Jesse Farrar is cook now. Shafer has deserted the company. He has obtained a position in a restaurant uptown at $1.50 per month and expenses, with prospects of $200 next mouth. C. C. Reynolds, Dr. Coffin, Clyde, Baldwin and Colclough have left on the steamer "Albion" for home. Yes, for home! All have made satisfactory arrangements with the company. As to the rest of us who "stay by the ship," there are none but could better his condition by leaving the company. But we who have a good deal of money invested, hate to leave everything when affairs are looking better than ever before.
We are in a gold country here and none can tell what may turn up. I never saw a single color in the Kowak region, but here the sand is sprinkled with them, though not in paying quantities everywhere. I must admit that even I, who do not know what homesickness is, would like very well to be at home for a while. I am losing time now. No matter if I were shoveling gravel and digging holes, that isn't improving myself any, is it?
I am still intent upon Dutch Harbor as soon as the company leaves Alaska. I do not suppose I will ever return to Alaska again, and I think a few months among the Aleutians would be time well put in, in the natural history line.