270 THE STORY OP THE MINE.
The American prospector, cheerful and energetic
as ever, is at work in hundreds and thousands of once-
abandoned camps, whose ledges could not be profit-
ably worked by old methods. He is busy revealing new
treasures in the islands of TJnga and Unalaska, in camps
along the Yukon, in the south-coast Alaskan gold
fields, and in Eritish Columbian districts, such as Cas-
siar. Caribou, and Eossland. Prospectors are searching
mile by mile the mountains of Washington, Oregon,
and California, all the way down to the Mexican Hne.
The entire length of the great Eocky Mountain min-
eral belt is being prospected more vigorously than ever
before. Only the other day, out in the Mojave desert,
a large district was found, where placer gold and rich
quartz veins abound and new camps are there being
established. One of these is called the Randsburg.
As usual, stories of the rediscovery of the long-lost
" Gunsight " and " Pegleg " mines come from various
parts of the desert. Every issue of the mining journals
contains hundreds of items from new camps, illustrat-
ing the toils and triumphs of the prospector as he tests
surface gravel claims, or tunnels for ancient river chan-
nels under lava beds, as in Idaho, or finds in all sorts
of unheard-of places the gleam of minerals, useful or
precious.
