Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1898 — FORTUNES IN SILVER. [ARTICLE]

FORTUNES IN SILVER.

4 Region of Alaska Where the Wkltt Metal Abounds. On the head water es the Oopp«t River, Alaska, about 200 mile& Som the sea coast, where but one whit# man has ever succeeded In reaeblns dwells a strange and peculiarly mysterious race es Indians. In recent years, through soma traA ers, they have acquired possession 0 { a few guns, and now when they oem4 down to the trading posts at the hea£ of Oook’s inlet, they* often bring bUllem moulded out of silver and other metal* The Indians have a great many primitive weapons and cooking utensils, aS es which are rudely though skillfully made out of pure copper. They have frequently Informed the white traders that silver and copper abound in Immense quantities at the base of a peak back of Spirit mountain, which is now reckoned as being the highest mountain in North America by surveyors an# engineers who have viewed it from a distance. The winter is the only time the Indians visit the coast for trading purposes. In the summer the post on the Kueek River is abandoned on account es the rapacious appetite of the mosquitoes, it being impossible for a human being to survive their attack* Several instances are known where they have killed and devoured ladlai dogs. The only reason, apparently, why American prospectors have not visited the upper Copper River country is its almost complete inaccessibility. Several parties have attempted to ascend the river, but from the nature es the stream, being excessively swift and turbulent, one might ae well try te climb Niagara Falls. The river is lined on each «14e ter miles and miles with nothing bet glaciers, whose walls are perpendicular from the summit to an unknown depth below the water and whose every side ts seamed with crevices so deep as to be almost fathomless. The Juneau Mining Record says that a party will try .to find this new Bldorado this talL-J F