696 R. A. F. PENROSE, JR. 



greater concentrating power would seem to be possessed by a channel 

 like the Strait of Magellan, where the tides run as fast as a very swift 

 river, and where they reverse their direction four times a day; for in 

 water running always one way, gold may become covered and pro- 

 tected from further concentrating action, but in water running first 

 one way and then another, gold that may be covered when the water 

 runs in one direction, may be uncovered and moved about when the 

 direction is reversed, eventually becoming more closely concentrated. 

 In fact, the conditions in the Strait of Magellan represent a natural 

 process of concentration, not at all unlike some of the artificial pro- 

 cesses that man has found best suited for concentrating gold. 



METHODS OF PROSPECTING 



Prospecting in the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego is a 

 more difficult task than in most places, and many a man has lost his 

 life in his search for gold in that bleak, inhospitable region, while 

 many more have rapidly become discouraged and returned to milder 

 climates. Most of the traveling is done in boats, as the land is much 

 cut up by deep tidewater channels and bays, and covered with dense 

 underbrush or imrriense peat bogs; while everywhere, even on the 

 mountain sides, the soil is soft and boggy, so that walking is difficult 

 and often impossible. Hence traveling in boats and stopping from 

 place to place along the shore is the most practical way of prospecting; 

 but here again another difficulty comes in, as the storms are frequent 

 and violent, and many a vessel has been hurled on the rocks and 

 everyone in her lost. The climate, however, though stormy, is not 

 extreme in temperature, the thermometer rarely going much below 

 zero or much above 60° Fahrenheit. The mean winter temperature 

 is about ;^T,° F. and the mean summer temperature is about 50° F. 



The natives, until recently, have been a considerable check to the 

 progress of mining. Many of them still use the bow and arrow of 

 their ancestors, and have fiercely opposed the invasion of the white 

 man; yet the sad fate of most American Indians is rapidly overtaking 

 them, and they will probably soon vanish before the miners and the 

 cattlemen. 



Aside from the difficulties of prospecting, the industrial conditions 

 under which gold is worked in this region are not as expensive as 



