^34 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



receipt of the reports, and prepared to buffet the still ice-bound 

 waters of the Pacific to gain early access to the new land of promise. 

 In a brief period the fame of Golovnin Bay had been spread broad- 

 cast, only to be again dimmed by the later announcements that the 

 earlier reports of finds were only " fakes." Making and unmaking 



An Off-Siioke View of Nome. 



are a part of all new mining centers, and in an incredibly short 

 time all manner of conclusions are arrived at regarding the possi- 

 bilities of a location. 



New reports of finds made along the coast of Bering Sea, about 

 fifty miles west of Golovnin Bay, called renewed attention to the 

 region, and those who in the early summer of the past year (1899) 

 timidly ventured their fortunes to share in a possible discovery, 

 found, on their arrival at the tundra-bound shores about Cape 

 iSTome, that miles of territory had already been located as claim 

 sites, that sluice-boxes were in full operation, and that sackfuls of 

 gold dust and nuggets had been carefully laid to one side, repre- 

 senting " outputs " of tens of thousands of dollars. At this time 

 many of the journals of civilization in the East, repeating the warn- 

 ings that they persistently threw out following the discovery of 

 gold in the Klondike, jealously guarded the secrets of the earth 

 by doubting, or even denying, the claims to discovery, but, withal, 

 wisely counseling against that haphazard and purseless rush which 

 is one of the invariable accompaniments of gold announcements. 

 A new mining district had suddenly sprung into existence, and 

 before two months had passed — i. e., by the early days of Sep- 



