Pathless Treasure Fields of the Frozen Northland. John Muir Writes of the Vast Country, Rich in Gold, That Has Not Been Disturbed by the Prospector. There is No Occasion for Seekers After Fortune to Rush Pell-Mell Into the Region of Snow and Ice, for Alaska, for Many Years, Will be the Poor Man's Mining Country.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1897
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Pacific; Yukon; Yukon Basin; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/240; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1239/viewcontent/215.pdf

PATHLESS TREASURE HELDS OP THE FROZEN NORTHLAND,? John Huir Writer of the Vast Country, Rich in Gofcl, That Has Not Been Disturbed by the Prospector. There Is No Occasion for Seekers After Fortune to Rush Peff- Meff Into the Region of Snow and Ice, for Afaska, for Many Years, Wiff Be the Poor flan's Mining Country. JESy John Mtair. All the world Is sprinkled -with gold, but precious p- sparsely in most places. Nature, it seems, put just enough of the exciting stuff into the starry mass to keep people on the move. Most of that portion of it lying within reach of the miner in the two Americas is ou the Pacific side, in the main mountain ranges. All the mountains from the Straits of M_ageUan_to Alaska are gold-bearing, and man rnlneT'T5'*Tn"em have beeli worked'for centuries and are stUl 'being—worked:—axil the best of the discovered placers to the southward—the poor man's mines—are apparently exhausted, therefonTaltention has beenHurned to the north. Most of the Yukon basin is covered with auriferous gravel, gJji|LdEifCraslt"ia caTTeaT" But~only'rwTteTeThT* g'oTd it "Holds has been concentrated by the washing of streams still in existence or by those that have vanished with the glaciers is it rich enough to pay for working, whether on the plains at the base of the fountain mountains or in the hollows and valleys in their midst. El Dorados and bonanzas are becoming rather common nowadays, for in the general mining revival in progress 'new ones, big or little, are being discovered every year. But they never lose their charm or lack a crowd. From King Solomon's time to our own every fresh discovery has been followed by a wave of excitement, and the counting of the yellow ounces has been eagerly listened to by the indus- Itrious and lazy alike. Strange to say, the more remote and inaccessible the new mines, the richer they are thought to be and the more anxiously are they sought for. Big, pathless, frozen Alaska is an ideal country for El Dorados. Unexplored countries are growing scarce, and therefore the world has ...