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5811 FOUHD BOLD MINES One of the Richest "Placer" posits in Australia Pound By a Dog. One of the best known stories hearing on Australian gold mining--and one which has the merit of being strictly true--tells how, some thirty years ago, one of the richest of the many rich "placer" deposits in the Ballarat district was discovered by a dog. A disappointed prospector picked up a stone and threw it at the animal. The latter, returning good for evil, as is so frequently the dog's wont, brought back the missile to its master in its mouth. Something peculiar in its appearance caused the his hand, and It proved to be ing quartz. A similar i been reported to take it again in examine it carefully, a chunk of gold-bear- lcident has recently from Coolgardie. A dog, out walking with its master, chased and caught a kangaroo. In the struggle the ground got torn up, and the dog's owner, on arriving at the spot, found a true fissure vein off rich ore exposed. Another similar occurrence led to the discovery of one of the richest gold deposits ever unearthed in the British Isles. The place was a tiny hamlet in the Wicklow Mountains. A farmer had killed and cut up a steer, and, as was the custom, carried a portion to the school-master of the district as part payment in kind for the education of his children. While he was absent on his errand, a large dog' entered his shop, carried away a prime joint, ate what it could, and then, after the manner of his kind, proceeded to BURY THE REMAINDER. The irate owner went in search of the four-footed thief, discovered him in the very act of thus disposing of the surplus beef, being a frugal man, started to disinter it. Sticking to the fatty portions were certain heavy bright "pebbles," which were so unlike anything of the kind the tradesman had ever seen before that he thought it worth his while to preserve them, and show them to his friend, the schoolmaster. That gentleman had little hesitation in pronouncing the supposed "pebbles" to be nuggets of virgin gold, and enjoined the butcher to on no account share his secret with anyone else. The advice, though well meant, was difficult to follow. First one neighbor and then another discovered for himself what was in the wind, and in the end word even reached Dublin Castle, and troops were sent to the locality to guard the Government's royalty. By that time, however, more than 2,500 ounces, worth over f50,000, had been taken out by the peasantry ; and so pure was It that the Dublin shopkeepers used to exchange it for guineas, WEIGHT FOR WEIGHT. Enjoying a solitary supper of roast fowl one night, the late Mr. Sanuel Ireton, then Member of Parliament for the Western Division of County of Cumberland, found a tiny fragment of striated gold in the gizzard of a fowl he was carving. His first impulse was to send for the cook who had trussed the bird, and chide him for his carelessness in preparing it for tabic. His second to make inquiries regarding the calfty *hence it had come, and whereabouts its favorite pecklng-ground was situated. It transpired that the fowl was of his own rearing, and that, in company with several dozen other of its species* it had been wont to resort to the partially dried-up bed of a small stream, which ran through a portit of his estate, in order to obtain therefrom the gravel which its stinct told it was necessary for the proper keeping in order of Its digestive apparatus. As a result of this discovery the birds resorted t no more ; their places being taken by Mr. Ireton's laborers, who suc-( ceeded in washing out some $4,000 WORTH OF GOLD DUST. Deposits of other more or less precious metals, besides gold, have been discovered in like fashion. In the Cathedral of La Paz, in South America, there is preserved a silver pig with jewelled eyes, a thank-offering made long years ago by a pious Spanish prospector, who had been led to stumble across what proved to be an exceedingly valuable silver mine owing to preliminary investigations carried out by a inquisitive Tradition has it, too, that the enormously rich antimony beds, which are being worked to this day near Aurillac, in France, were covered by a boar, the property an itinerant truffle hunter ; while the existence of large subterranean oil-fields at Baku, on the shores the Caspian Sea, was first made manifest owing to the refusal oi cattle to graze on the paraffin-tainted grass which grew above Similarly, a wounded seal led a tramp prospector to the wonderful "golden beach" at Cape Nome, in Alaska. "Coyote's Luck," one of the richest of Arizona's carbonate mines, owes its curious name to the fact of its existence having been originally revealed by the burrowing of a small species of prairie wolf so-called ; while only the other day, in South Africa, a discarded army mule dying of thirst, started scraping with its fore-feet in the sandy for water, and unearthed a pocket of diamonds worth several THOUSANDS OF POUNDS. Undoubtedly, however, the most striking as well as the most curious among a host of incidents similar to the above, is afforded by the story of the discovery of what is n< known as the Canon Diablo metee ite, interest in which has been qui recently strongly re-aroused, owing to the fact of the finding of diamonds within the mass by Dr. Foote, an eminent American mineralogist. It is now nearly a quarter of a century ago since an Arizona stockman, named James Kelly, out after stray cattle, followed a steer's spoor into one of the most remarkable valleys it has ever been his lot to set foot in. Right in the centre he found the steer that had led him there dead. It had fallen into a huge pit in the ground, a crater formed by impact with the earth of an enormous meteoric mass of iron projected from space. The crater was carefully measured, and was found to be more than three quar-of a mile in diameter and six hundred feet deep. How immense must be the mass of iron lying be-ow may be inferred from these Many of the smaller fragmei found their way into geological sums and cabinets, and it while cutting a section of one these that Dr?; Foote found tools injured by something vastly harder than metallic iron. He attacked the specimen chemically, and afterwards announced to the itific world that the Canon Diablo meteorite contained diamonds both black and transparent. At this present moment several hundred mer ire energetically engaged in deepen-ng the crater aforesaid, in search ol the millions of diamonds buried there.--Pearson's Weekly. RAILWAY ACROSS SIBERIA Sketch of the Territory as From Train in Long Journey. ed by engineerg that the task would be a gigantic one, and no one could see where the profits were to come The Russian Government, however, knew more of the resources f Siberia than did the critics and the astuteness of the officials is now fully recognized. Last year 2,000,000 passengers nd 1,500,000 tons of goods were transported, and the traffic will increase with the complete opening of the line. That is pretty well for a country where you may travel for days without seeing a single house. It is impossible to estimate what the traffic will be when the country is developed to a quarter of its ability to produce. No doubt the passengers will amount to 50,000,000 and the freight to 100,000,000 tons a year. The population of Siberia already has grown to 9,000,000 from 6,000,000 since the road was st ed. Towns have sprung up in wilderness and smoke from factories is a common sight. Two years ago the junction of Tomsk had three houses, now there are 15,000 people While the main line -- the great artery -- will do wonders for the country, the branch lines, of which fully two score are projected, will people the country much more rapidly. The White Sea, Black Sea, and the Baltic will be connected with this great producing artery, and as t suit Russian shipping must gro\ take care of the exports of the ture. This fleet is startling to template, and the prediction is made that it will eclipse that of every country on the globe eventually. At every verst is passed a QUEER LITTLE SENTRY BOX by the side of the track. Looking out of the window one sees the sentry step into the roadway and wave the flag -- after the train has passed--to declare that all is well. There aro 10,000 such sentinels keeping watch. Russian system naturally dominates everything. Here it is, for example, in the stations, of which, by Siberian Railroad, and in a few j the way, there are 400. They weeks the entire line will be opened I built on a strictly systematic plan and graduated Into four classes. The for all kinds of traffic. After years f labor under ditlons, the Russian Go-* last accomplished its greatest work in the line of transportation. A surveying party has begun laying out a new branch of the Man-churian Railroad from Kwang-changtze to Girin. It will be about miles long. Girin is an important commercial center, being located at the crossing of many roads and at the head of navigation on the Sungari River. Siberia is pre-eminently a country of magnificent distances. It is one hundred times larger than the British Isles and double the size of the United States. It has a mining and agricultural area fifty times the size of England. It has rivers navigable for the largest flat bottom boats for 30,000 miles. Little is known to the outside world of its immense resources, but it probably is as rich a land in minerals as any in the world. Its forests are numbered by the hundreds of thousands of square All this field is now thrown open by the completion of this railroad, and it is expected that rapid development will proceed. For 4,000 miles there is an unbroken chain of rich mineral lands, in which are gold, silver, lead, copper and iron of unestimated wealth. The great railroad, with its 6,000 miles of iron rails, traverses this field and many will reap untold fortunes in exploiting these mines. EVERYTHING IN SIBERIA is big, with a vastness that is marvellous. Leaving Moscow on the Siberian express one is told that the first stage of the journey to the golden East is over the plains of Western Siberia. The traveler does not realize that it is 2,500 miles to the extreme border, which takes three days to cover. Through the entire trip of this stage there is not a hill or a cut through which the train passes. Reaching the Baikal region the scene shifts, much to the relief of the passenger. For a thousand miles the roadbed is cut through high, rocky mountains, and in the midst of the great world, which lies east, west, and south of it, Siberia the bridge of that world's commerce -- these certainties of the approaching future should make politician and trader alike pause. When Siberia expands it will flow southward over the Mongolian wastes, which irrigation and the engineer shall reclaim, and over fertile China, which the powers shall prove powerless to prevent. This, the greatest of the world's railroads -- and easily twice the longest -- is emphatically a pioneer line. The grades are something awful to contemplate. The train first goes up, then down, then swings around a precipice, perhaps changing the monotony by passing through a tunnel. All this takes about two days, for fast time is impossible. Then one comes to a lake that is half as big as England, and across which the train is ferried. This is a difficult undertaking in winter, for the ferry boat must break through the ice. It is an expensive operation, and it is doubtful if in the end it would not have been cheaper to build around. It is forty miles to the opposite shore, but it must be confessed that the trip is a delightful break in the monotonous journey. Once on the other shore there is a run of 1,500 miles to the Pacific Coast. All this country is hilly and rocky, and tfc," road winds around so much thai it is difficult to keep track of the points of the compass. Thws the line is divided into four great divisions--the plains, the forest rolling land of Central Siberia, the high mountainous ranges of the Baikal, and the hills of the Pacific section. In the section of tho forest there are more curves than in any other owing to the great marshes, but on the plains the road is as straight as a string for A THOUSAND MILES. When the project was- first broached to span the 6,000 miles by rails the idea was laughed at. It was realiz- first and second class are built of brick and stone; they have very good refreshment rooms and complete arrangements at the back for temporarily housing and dispersing the 250,000 picked emigrants now annually entering Siberia. The lower classes ore built of wood and cooked food is procurable at All, of course, have a water storehouse--banked with earth the roof to keep out the cold --and to every station there is rx tached a small dispensary, with dispenser in attendance, which is welcome enough sight in this land of distances. In the case of an accident, or of sudden illness, of course, his presence is doubly welcome, he charges nothing for his ser or his drugs. \ IN" ALBEETA. For a good many years the presence of coal oil in Southern Alberta has been known, but only recently have any decided steps been taken to ascertain the extent of the oil supply. The country where the oil deposits are is one of the richest and most picturesque districts in the Northwest. It lies at the foot of the beautiful Livingstone range of the Rockies, not very far from Mormon settlement of Cardston, a country where grain growing and ranching have been so successful; fact, no small circle would embrace a country . which produced wheat, cattle, coal and timber of the very best. Some ten or twelve years people who had seen the oily pearance of the water in certain creeks in the vicinity, and had ticed the lumps of a pitchy substance which appeared here and there, decided to investigate. Machinery was brought up .• from the east, and was on its way to the oil district when a prairie fire came along and burned all the woodwork of the apparatus. This is said to have so discouraged the prospectors that they abandoned their plans and made no further attempts. Recently, several wealthy men, old-timers in the country, brought in boring machinery and have sunk a well. The flow of oi! is claimed to be from 100 to 300 barrels a day, but at present the well is stopped up and work can hardly be resumed before the spring. Samples of oil have been tested, and the one recently analyzed is said to be of a VERY GOOD QUALITY, containing, in addition to illuminating oil, quite a percentage of fluid very suitable for lubricating. The only question is that of the supply, and until that is solved the success of the enterprise is uncertain. The men interested have great faith in their project, and are spending a considerable sum of money on the work. Oil has been noticed at several other points, and the successful working of this well would be the signal for activity elsewhere. Across the line in Montana, not far from the Canadian well, they are boring for oil. Next summer should see some important developments, and if the oil is really there in quantity it will be an additional product for the country and a valuable asset for the young Canadian west. WOMAN'S CHIEF VIRTUE. A Paris paper is taking the opinion of its readers on several points of general interest. The voting on the question, "Which are the most essential virtues of a woman ?" may be worth mentioning for the clew which it gives to French sociology. Economy comes first, with 1,420 votes ; fidelity and modesty are bracketed second, with 1,357; kindness is fourth, with 1,182; maternal love is considerably lower, with 539, while cleanliness and patience are the last two on the list. SECRET POLICE SYSTEM, THE METHODS ADOPTED BY VARIOUS COUNTRIES. How That of Great Britain Compares With Foreign Institutions. All the great nations require information about other countries which is not obtainable openly. For this reason the Intelligence Departments of the great military powers of the Continent are organized on a scale of cost and efficiency undreamed of in this constitutional country, says a writer in the London Express. In Russia the secret police employ a considerable number of agents, both male and female, who are resident in England. Some of these paid agents, or spies, are people well known to society. Their duties vary from diplomatic work of the highest delicacy to the collection of newspaper cuttings. THE SPY AT WORK. One of the points attended to by the Russian Secret Service is the record of every English public man who speaks or writes about Russia. On one occasion the present writer had the opportunity of seeing the system followed by the Russian police. Every speech and every writing of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre -- an innocent and not very formidable personage--with particulars of his birth, parentage, means, residence, habits, tastes and position were all entered up in a great portfolio. Mr. Shaw-Lefevre was, I believe, at one time associated with the Friends of Russian Freedom, and is, therefore, like all the other members of that body, carefully watched by the agents of Russia. Considerable sums are spent by Russia on secret service agents in Central Asia, Baluchistan, Persia and in India itself. The object of these agents is to belittle Great Britain and belaud Holy Russia. Constant diplomatic duels take place between British Consular agents and the avowed representatives of Russia. This subterranean war of secret agents is going on all over the GERMANY'S SYSTEM. The German system of secret service is conducted on much more scientific lines. German knowledge of the United Kingdom is completer than that of most Englishmen. I was lately informed by a British diplomatist of the highest rank that the German general staff possesses a schedule of the contents of all the chief residences in the Kingdom. Every picture and work of art of any considerable value is known to the German general staff, while the study of British topography, the mastery of our ordnance maps, the knowledge of the fords, smithies, obstacles, population and high roads form tho subject of examination from German officers who are told off to «Mto A dutg^ of acquiring full knowledge 'of the counties of the United Kingdom. The German agents in England, who are occupied in surveying our country with a view to contingencies, are generally to be found in couples in the guise of tourists. They know to a head how many horses the Irish farmers can supply within a given time. They have made a careful study of the idiosjh our leading men. Their ta.,™ its, health, friends and means carefully noted by the astut tons, who distil the honey of ..... mation from English fields for the The principal feature in which German Secret Service differs from that of England is that the Germans coordinate the whole of their knowledge, and have it ready to hand in a concentrated form whenever it is required. ENGLISH METHODS. The. English system is different. There is a Secret Service Fund controlled by the Foreign Office. So many Foreign Office agents are hostile to England, and are unpaid that the Foreign Office service is often found to be useless for naval or military purposes. During the last two years the admiralty has succeeded in wresting from the Foreign Office the control of the Secret Service, so far as it affects the navy. During the trouble with France over Fashoda agents of - the admiralty were busily watching French opinion in the great centers. The English Military Intelligence Department is again a sep- What is required is to concentrate in one spot the whole of the knowledge obtainable. The Foreign Office should be the brain, the eyes and the antennae of the nation. The German and Russian Foreign Offices fulfil these functions. The British Foreign Office not only does not know what is going to happen; it does not want to know; while the Military and Foreign Office Intelligence Departments are separated administratively. WHAT IS WANTED. After the heavy experience of the Boer war it is inconceivable that the Government will n forthwith to reorganize the whole of our intelligence system -- naval, military and diplomatic. Our ignorance of foreign countries contrasts unpleasantly with their knowledge about us. France is rapidly becoming a peaceful power, and is losing that passion for military glory which has oppressed her for hundreds of years. Germany and Russia, however, require careful watching, and the pacific tendencies of the French Republic may be dissipated by the temptations of an alliance that Germany may yet have to offer. What does the admiralty know about the German fleet? Very little. How many times has the naval attache in Berlin visited Emden, oi even Kiel? For what purpose are the miles of quays erected at Emden, a little village with a tenth-rate museum in it? If the Boer war taught us anything it was to enforce the lesson that knowledge is power. There is nothing so conducive to peace as a full knowledge of the Intentions and tendencies of other na-s. An enormous outlay may be saved by the reorganization and establishment of an efficient and up-to-date system of secret service. e Teu- THE PEOBEESS DJ BIWSOB NOW HAS A POPULATION OF SEVEN THOUSAND. Becoming Less of a Mining Camp and More of a Civilized Town. According to the latest official information Dawson City is being transformed into a town with a good deal of general business beside gold mining, and is acquiring a settled and civilized aspect. There are now five miles of macadamized streets in the city. The settled population is about seven thousand, nearly half of the total population of the Klondike mining district. Two hundred of the Canadian Mounted Police maintain order. The Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Salvation Army all have well built places of worship. Five small hospitals are ~" intained for the sick. Three daily newspapers are published, thirty-5 lawyers practice in the courts, 3 theatres afford amusement and there are four mutual benefls so- Three companies with twenty-throe steamers give facilities for freight and passengers on the upper Yukon, eight other steamboat companies with forty-one handle the traffic of the ri-tween Dawson and the Sea. There has been a large drop in the prices of many commodities as the facilities for transportation between Dawson and the ocean have improv-ColTee is now sold at 50 cents a pound, canned meats at 50 cents a fresh beef (the cattle being ;n into the country) at the very price of 25 cents a pound, pork and fish at 50 cents a pound potatoes at $2.50 a bushel, and oranges at 50 cents a dozen. On the whole, however, living, judged by our standards, is still very dear. Many cigars sell as high as a dollar apiece. THE WAGES OF MINERS $8 a day, and even at this rate leir savings are not very large. It as estimated that in 1901 the verage purchasing power of $1 in istern Canada was equal to that of 5 at Dawson. The ratio in 1902 as estimated at $1 to $4.50, show-ig that the high prices at Dawson re gradually decreasing. The smallest piece of money that as currency in the Klondike is 25 snts. The daily papers are smaller than the one cent papers of eastern Canada,'but they sell for 25 cents a umber, $4 by the month and $40 by the year, payable in advance. - A well-known person in Dawson, who recently said that the period of fancy prices had now passed away forever, as compelled to admit that he had st paid a quarter of a dollar for a lir of ordinary shoestrings. Rents are still very high. An office which in eastern Canada would be rented for $30 a month $130 in the Klondike. A aitress receives $100 a month and maid of all work earns from $75 > $125 a month. Hotel charges are high, but not corbitant for this out-of-the-way part of the world. A small room costs $2.50 a day, breakfast and lunch are served at 75 cents each, er at $1, and the meals are bet-than might be expected so far away in the wilderness. It is probable that for many years the Klondike region will be very important in the gold industry, though it may never again equal its PAST ANNUAL RACORD. The placers of the Klondike yielded u-ding to official figures in 1897 $2,250,000 with no machinery and roads, so that transportation very difficult. The output in 3 was $10,000,000, and in 1899 $16,000,000. In 1900, thanks to the employ-ent of machinery and to the fa-lities given by many well built roads, the placers turned out $22,-"5,000. AIL the other gold centres of Canada in that year yielded only $6,000,000. The gold product of the Klondike in 1901 amounted to $24,000,000, which was $4,000,000 more than the output from all our gold mines in Alaska during the same year. It is not expected that the Klondike production in 1902 will equal that of 1901, for no new discovery of gold was made during the year. " was due to the wonderful development of gold mining in the Klondike that Canada attained in 1901 the third place among the gold producing countries. It was surpassed only by the United States with $78,658,700 and Australia with $75,283,200, and took its place in advance of Russia, which mined $23,-000,800. The Klondike in the first three years after its discovery yielded one hundred times more gold than the Witwatersrand in the first three years after gold was found in that remarkable region, and nothing is more certain than that we have not yet begun to fathom the wonderful mineral Wealth of Alaska and the other northern parts of North Am- table FROM ERIffSJEEEB ISLE WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE LAND OF THE SHAMROCK. Some Personal and Business Note* That Will Interest Irish-Canadians. An Irish small farmer, aged 86, has been killed by his son near Tullamore. In some districts at County Down primroses were to be found in bloom at New Year. Patrick McCafferty, a farmer, ha» been killed by lightning at Cari rigart, county Donegal. Official efforts to revive Irish industries--fishing in particular--are having good results. Mr. Jane Joynt, a well-known Dublin barrister, has been found dead in bed from heart disease. In Dublin a limited liability company has been formed to carry on the Gaelic language movement. Ampng European countries the greatest percentage of old people, sxt to France, is found in Ireland. Armagh was almost in darkness >r a week recently. The leading stoker at the local gas works was on the spree. Drumkeen, county Donegal, Roman Catholic church has been damaged and the parochial house demolished by lightning. Dr. James O'Shaughnessy, an old magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant in 1, died recently at Limerick, 93rd year. the first time since the Reformation a peal of bells was rung in a Catholic church In Londonderry on hristmas Day. Dublin's park a'rea is 1,753 acres, a area sufficient to allow each 175 inhabitants an acre of breathing space. Edinburgh has 407 acres of At Sligo on the 30th ult. James Doherty was executed for murdering who had been the means of breaking off a match between the id man and a young girl. Dublin's city coroner has been compelled to postpone the inquest on the body of a man alleged to have been murdered, because the police re unable to get a jury together. 'If I were not an Englishman," id the Briton, patronizingly, "I should wish to be an Irishman." Indade ?" exclaimed the Irishman. Faith, if Oi was not an Irishman Oi'd wish Oi was one." At Limerick quarter sessions, on ie 3rd inst., a case had to be stopped because of one of the jurors being under the influence of drink. In connection with another case, Judgo Adams said it was a scandal to see many grand jurors coming into court under tho influence of drink. Watering carts of a certain Irish ,own are decorated with patent med-cine advertisements. An innocent rishman from the rural districts ooked at one the other day, and emarked : "Faith, it's no wonder £ is healthy, when they watqr " streets with Flaherty's s---- Tho King has paid dsits to Ireland. In 1848, when he vas made Earl of Dublin, and again .n 1853 he accompanied the late Queen and the Prince Consort ; in 1858 he was attached to the Grenadier Guards at the Curragh Camp; hile he visited the island again in 1864, 1871 and 1885. His Majesty made his first speech in Ireland in 1853, on the presentation of new colors to the Royal Hibernian School, when he was not yet twelve rsaparilla." ? old. WHAT PHYSICIANS LEARN. Erysipelas is now classed as a ontagious disease. The Grand Rapids and Indiana ailway recently sent a vaccination rain along its line and no employe It is suggested that the serum of suffering from vaccinia be Injected into a patient afflicted with tnall'pox. The heart beat of animals continues for some time after death. In France the heart of a criminal beat thirty hours after he had been decapitated. It has been shown that more than a gallon of salt solution can be introduced into the blood vessels in the course of an hour without destroying life or occasioning any dis- That the bubonic plague is carried from port to port by rats in ships is an established fact. A French investigator now finds that the disease is communicated from rat to rat by fleas, and that promiscuous intercourse between healthy and infected' rats or their cadavers never transmits the plague, while fleas conveyed the disease in eight tests out of nine. So medical officers a giving assiduous attention tc health and comfort of the i their district. LATE HOURS AND LONG LIFE. A German doctor, who has been collecting information about the habits of long-lived persons, finds that the majority of those who attained old age indulged in late hours. Eight out of ten persons over eighty never went to bed till well into the small hours, anel did not get up again until late in the TOMMY'S WRIGGLE. Scene--The breakfast table. Tommy is looking very gloomily across the table at his father, casting about for an excuse to stay home from school. Tommy--"Father, must I go to> school ?" Father--"Yes, my boy." A long pause. Tommy--"Must I go after break-Father--"Yes, Tommy." Tommy--"And after dinner 1"-Father--."Yes, Tommy ; you go to school like a good boy, now." - Tommy--"And after tea, too ?" Father--"No, Tommy, you needn't go then." Tommy (his face brightening up)-- "Well, then, I'll have my tea now." Master of Ceremonies--"Is it possible to lift the corner-stone again?" Master Mason--"I'm afraid not, sir. Why ?" 'Master of Ceremonies--"I left my hat in the receptacle MMMM left my hat in the receptacle with the records." Master Mason--"Never mind, sir. It will be of inflniU u'ie to the future historian-"