waive further proceedings for the time being and take legal action against the trespassers on his property when such action became possible. Thereupon the prisoners were discharged. Most of them returned immediately to their rockers, while a few of the more exuberant remained in town to celebrate their release from captivity.

"The summary action of the commandant and its

unexpected outcome had a salutary effect, and from that time until the close of the season the beach was open to all who wished to work. The number of rockers rapidly increased, and by October there were fully 2,000 men working on the beach. For six or seven miles above Snake River there was an almost unbroken line of tents, and profitable work was carried on at various points from ten to twenty miles west of Nome. There were no formal regulations as

to size of rocker claims. Miners placed their rockers on unoccupied ground and marked off spaces-usually from fifteen to twenty-five feet-along the beach, and by common consent held undisturbed possession until they had worked out their ground, when they moved farther up the beach.

"The beach gold is fine and difficult to save without copper plates, which were scarce and expensive last fall. The gold is found in two principal pay streaks running along the beach and varying greatly in richness and width. The richest pay streak was found on the upper edge of the beach, next to the tundra. This varies in width from ten to thirty feet, and in many places extends under the tundra, but here the frozen ground makes rocking unprofitable. Lower down on the beach, near the water's edge, another rich pay streak exists which varies from ten to twenty feet in width and in many places is as rich as the upper one. At several points intervening pay streaks are found, and in some localities the pay extends the entire width of the beach, but this is exceptional. The gold is found in a layer of ruby sand, generally from one to four feet below the surface. The pay dirt varies in thickness from one to six inches and lies under a false bed rock of muck and blue clay. In several instances a second layer, which proved richer than the first, was found. Many marvelously rich spots were worked, most of these being at the mouth of small draws at the edge of the tundra. Sand yielding from $5 to $20 to the pan was frequently found in these rich places, and as high as $72 was washed from a single pan. Coarse gold exists in some localities, pieces weighing from fifty cents to $1 being common, and a two and one-half ounce nugget was picked up near the water's edge several miles above town. There

were many well authenticated instances in which men averaged over $100 a day for a month or more. The best returns reported were secured from an exceptionally rich spot about seven miles west of Nome. Here three men, using one rocker, in forty days took out $32,000. From a hole twelve feet square and four feet deep they rocked out $9,000 in three days.

"No satisfactory estimate of the output of beach gold can be made, for the reason that comparatively little of it passes through the hands of the commercial companies. As a rule the miners were reticent about their affairs; but a large number admitted that they had taken out from $2,000 to $5,000 apiece, and showed the gold dust to substantiate the admission. It is probable that the beach produced (season of 1899) between $1,750,000 and $2,000,000.,

"No thoughtful man who walked along this golden street in the bright sunlight of last October will ever forget the picture presented there. For many miles. along the beach double ranks of men were rocking, almost shoulder to shoulder, while their partners stripped the pay streak and supplied the rockers with water and pay dirt. Nearly all were working with an energy and dogged perseverance which suggested the husbandman shocking his sheaves and now and then casting anxious glances at the black cloud fast rising in the west. Others, seemingly less fearful of the future, were passing jokes or singing as they worked. Scattered along the lines were many of the poor fellows who had been brought down on the revenue cutter Bear or on coasting schooners from Kotzebue Sound, where they had spent a winter of indescribable hardships. Ragged and half starved, and in many cases suffering from scurvy, they had been cast on the beach at Nome like driftwood, their only hope being

that they might secure transportation to Puget Sound on a revenue cutter, for which they would be forced to pay the highest price ever charged in this country of high prices-the affidavit of a "destitute." They had had visions of wealth in the north which they had failed to realize through no fault of theirs, unless it be a fault to believe too implicitly what one reads in popular accounts. But here, in this barren, forbidding waste, their dreams were coming true, for there was scarcely a man in either of these long lines of happy workers who could not return home at the close of the season with gold enough to enable him to spend a restful winter among his friends and bring him back next spring to the scene of his labors. In front of the tents men were cleaning up, and in numerous cases securing from thirty to forty ounces from the day's run of a rocker. Among these was an old grayhaired miner who had spent twelve years on the Upper Yukon, where he had never made enough in any one season to carry him through in comfort to the next. With trembling hands he exhibited the receipts of a commercial company for over $6,000 worth of gold dust which he had rocked out in less than sixty days, and exultantly cried: 'Thank 'Thank God! I'm going

home!'"

The output of gold from the beach during the season of 1900 is estimated at $1,000,000. The beach at Topkok furnished more than one-third of this amount, and the beach in the vicinity of Nome produced the balance.

The beach gold is bright in color, having much the appearance of fresh brass filings. It is worth at the United States Mint about $18.20 per ounce; if not melted, from 5 to 8 per cent. less, according to the amount of dirt or sand contained therein.

CHAPTER XXV

PORT SAFETY

ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN-WHERE SITUATED— THE ESTUARY-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOIL -PURE WATER-SANITARY CONDITIONS-FREE FROM DEBT-GOLD AND FISH-THE LONG LAGOON-IMPROVEMENTS-SAFETY HARBOR HOW TO CROSS THE Bay.

The preliminary steps toward the organization of the town of Port Safety, Alaska, were taken at a meeting of the citizens of the place held under date of December 5, 1899. At this meeting M. J. Burns, J. E. Sinclair, Frank Lewis and Eugene McElwaine were elected as a Board of Trustees, duly empowered to make, in trust for the several use and benefit of the inhabitants, an application for a town site entry, embracing one hundred and sixty acres of government land lying on the Port Safety peninsula, and to order the official survey thereof. The town was formally organized at a subsequent meeting of the citizens, held on the 22d, the same month and year.

Port Safety is situated on the west shore of Bering Sea, at the head of a magnificent bay, near the entrance to Norton Sound, and twenty-two miles east from the city of Nome. It is in the center of the Bonanza Mining District, which promises to be one of the richest mining districts of the coast.

The estuary of Port Safety is the only harbor on the west shore of Bering Sea between Golovin Bay and Port Clarence, and presents the only safe anchorage and wharf privileges in a shore line of 150 miles.