36 GRAVEL AND PLACEE MINING IN ALASKA. [bull. 263. 
From the second table, where the costs were reduced to one figure 
for each district, a third (table 1, p. 38) was prepared, giving as nearly 
as possible the average cost for each of the seventeen separate methods 
considered in one or more of the three provinces. Where the opera- 
tions from which the averages are derived exceed two in number, 
the fact is so indicated in the table. 
The attempt has been made to reject figures which were evidently 
not representative. The final figure arrived at is not, however, always 
satisfactory. For example, under No. 5 (the method of working open 
cut by shoveling into wheelbarrows, wheeling to bucket, hoisting and 
conveying to sluice by self -dumping carrier on cable) $2.14 is repre- 
sentative for the Klondike, where seepage water is generally pumped 
from the pit, and many operators pump the water for sluicing. On 
the other hand, at a plant in the Birch Creek district of Alaska, mining 
only 22 cubic yards per day and handling the water by a drain, the 
cost of operation was $1.50 per cubic yard. In No. 13 (drifting 
solidly frozen ground, steam or hot- water thawing, hoisting and con- 
veying with the use of the self -dumping bucket) the cost in the* 
Klondike is $1.95, while the higher figure given is arrived at by 
combining the expensive American camps of Fortymile and Fairbanks, 
where the cost is $4.63 and $3.56, respectively. 
The high cost of hydraulicking with use of hydraulic lift in Seward 
Peninsula is caused by the difficulty of moving the gravel to thd 
bed-rock sluice a and the expense of the ditches and installations. 
Hydraulicking by means of water under natural head without the use 
of the hydraulic lift, or some other means of elevating the material, 
was not seen by me in Seward Peninsula. It is understood that a 
hydraulic plant is in successful operation at Bluff, 50 miles to the east 
of Nome, but there are no data at hand concerning it. 
In the interior only bench gravels are hydrau licked. Steeper grades 
for sluices can be obtained, and the gravel is more easily moved. The < 
high duty of the miner's inch in the Klondike is a large factor in bring- 
ing down the cost of No. 1 and No. 16. 
It should be distinctly understood, if hydraulicking costs in the, 
interior appear attractively low, that the water supply is exceedingly; 
variable, and that no reliable estimate can be made beforehand of th( 
output of a given season's operations. Furthermore, while much o\A 
the bench gravel was originally rich, the pay streaks have beenlargeh 
drifted out, and the gold is not disseminated through the upper por j 
tion of the gravel to the extent that it is in the California grave 
banks. With regard to the pumping of water for hydraulicking pur 
poses, the practice can not be too strongly condemned. He is a bol< 
man who attempts it, and a singularly fortunate one who makes a finan 
cial success of it. 
a This is caused not only by the exceedingly gentle grades of the streams, but also by the shingl 
character of the material handled. 
