THE GOLD SANDS OF CAPE NOME. 643 



dred and twelve dollars — a magnificent specimen, measuring up- 

 ward of four inches in length — was obtained from the tailings of 

 "No. 1 below"; a larger one, of the value of four hundred and 

 thirty-four dollars, is to the credit of " Xo. 1 above." It is inter- 

 esting to note that these rich claims are located at the very issu- 

 ance of Anvil Creek from the mountains — i. e., at the contact with 

 the upper rise of the tundra — and other good properties are found 

 still lower down, a condition which makes it certain that the inner 

 reaches of the tundra, whatever the whole tundra may be, must 

 yield largely in gold. 



The city of Nome itself might properly be termed a model of 

 production. Before the end of June, 1899, there was practically 

 nothing on its present site; in early July it w^as still a place of 

 tents, but by the middle of September it had blossomed out into 

 a constructed town of three to four tliousand inhabitants, more 

 than one half of whom were properly housed in well-built cabins, 

 the lumber for which was in part brought from a distance of two 

 thousand miles, and none of it from less than one hundred miles. 

 Numerous stores and saloons had arranged themselves on both 

 sides of a well-defined street (which was here and there centrally 

 interrupted by building transgressions), the familiar signs of danc- 

 ing and boxing bouts were displayed in front of more than com- 

 fortably filled faro and roulette establishments, and in a general 

 way the site wore the aspect of riding a boom swell. And indeed 

 there was plenty of activity, for the final weeks of fine weather 

 warned of the impending wintry snows and blasts, and much had to 

 be done individually to shield one from these and other discom- 

 forts. There was at that time a threatening shortage in building 

 material, and fears were expressed for those who seemingly would 

 be obliged to spend the winter months — a dreary expanse of nearly 

 one half the year, with hurricane blasts of icy wind blowing with a 

 velocity of fifty to eighty miles an hour, and under the not very 

 comfortable temperature of —40° to —60° F. — in the frail shel- 

 ter of tents. How many, if any, remained in this condition can 

 not now be known. Much driftwood and some coal had been 

 secured by many of the more fortunate inhabitants, and it is pos- 

 sible that some provision has been made by which everybody of 

 the two or three thousand wintering inhabitants will receive 

 a proper measure of heating substance, without which the utmost 

 discomfort must prevail. The last coal before my departure sold 

 for seventy-five dollars per ton, but I suspect that later importa- 

 tions must have realized the better part of double this amount. 

 In early October flour could still be purchased for seven to eight 

 dollars per sack, and meat for a dollar a pound, but these prices 



