Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Chapter 9 Forcibly Launching the Gold Rush Season

For the next four days, they caught twenty or thirty pounds of fish each day, but they didn't catch any more cod.

Zhou Xin built a refrigerator out of snow, cleaned the fish, and put it inside to store.

Roughly estimated, these fish should last at least a month.

The enormous spruce tree has been completely broken down into pieces that can fit in a stove. Some pieces are stacked against the wall inside the cabin, while the rest, which don't fit indoors, are stacked against the wall outdoors to form a woodpile.

Looking at the piles of firewood and the refrigerator full of frozen fish, Zhou Xin felt very at ease.

We should have no problem getting through the winter safely.

With firewood and food ready, Zhou Xin suddenly had some free time, but he started to feel a little bored.

Temperatures are slowly rising, but it will still be about two weeks before the ice melts.

We can't just lie around eating in the snow forest cabin every day, can we?

I'm here to strike it rich, not for a vacation.

Looking at the firelight in the furnace, Zhou Xin suddenly had a flash of inspiration and came up with a solution.

Fire can melt snow into water, and naturally it can also melt ice in rivers.

Hand panning for gold means you can only wash a limited amount of soil each day.

Just thaw a small area along the riverbank and dig out enough thawed soil, and that's enough for hand washing.

Without hesitation, he immediately began collecting firewood in the forest.

It took a day to pile all the collected firewood on the ground about one meter away from the river, and the pile was more than a person high.

To ensure that enough heat could be generated to thaw the riverbank, he continued collecting firewood until it was as big as a small car.

Fortunately, in this kind of weather, there's no need to worry about setting the forest on fire.

After he was ready, he set an alarm and lit the pyre three hours before dawn.

The fire quickly grew larger, and eventually the entire pile of firewood was ablaze.

Flames shot up five or six meters high, illuminating the surroundings as bright as day.

Even from a distance, Zhou Xin could feel the heat on his face.

The raging fire reflected in his eyes as if it were sunlight shimmering.

He soon discovered that the strategy was working.

The snow around the campfire was melting at a visible rate, soon revealing the ground beneath.

Near the campfire, the snow on the river surface melted quickly, and the ice underneath shimmered in the firelight.

Clearly, the ice is melting rapidly.

The fire was raging, and Zhou Xin felt a wave of heat wash over him, making it difficult to even wear his winter clothes.

It seems this fire will definitely melt a sizable area.

As long as the mud and sand are dug up from the riverbank and piled up on the shore, even if it freezes again later, the water content will be much lower, making it easy to dig it up again.

After the fire goes out, the river water and mud will refreeze, and he doesn't have much time left.

Try to dig out as much sand and soil as possible before the mud and sand refreeze.

The campfire burned for more than five hours. By then, the sun had risen, and the ice and snow around the campfire, including parts of the river, had completely melted.

He went to the lake, put his hand into the icy water, grabbed a handful of mud and sand from the river, and smelled it for a while.

The aroma is rich and strong, indicating that the soil is indeed rich in gold.

The river froze very quickly, and he had to race against time.

To make things easier, he first lit a small fire on the riverbank, and then took off his thick winter coat.

Then, he took off his shoes and socks, stepped barefoot into the water, and began to shovel mud and sand from the riverbed.

The river water was still icy cold, but fortunately the embers of the campfire were still radiating warmth, so I wasn't too cold for the time being.

He used a shovel to scoop up shovelfuls of mud and sand, piling them on the bank.

Although the thawing depth of the riverbed is limited, a considerable amount of mud and sand can still be dredged up.

The continuous shoveling of sand quickly left him breathless, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Although the temperature of the campfire gradually decreased, I felt warmer and warmer.

The sand piles on the shore gradually grew larger, and the aroma of gold became even stronger.

The thought that every shovelful of mud and sand he dug up contained gold gave him an inexhaustible source of energy.

However, his legs and feet were still a bit sore from being soaked in the cold river water for so long that he had to go to the fire on the bank every now and then to warm himself up and add some firewood.

He didn't rest or eat, and continued working until the sun was setting. Several large piles of mud and sand had accumulated on the riverbank, estimated to be three or four cubic meters.

The river water was getting colder and colder, and the surface was beginning to refreeze.

He knew he had to stop, because his feet felt like they didn't belong to him anymore, and if he continued, there was a risk of frostbite.

But looking at the silt piled up on the shore and smelling the golden scent emanating from it, he knew that all the suffering he had endured was worthwhile.

He added firewood to the fire to make it burn brighter, and it took him a while to warm his feet before they fully recovered.

He put his shoes, socks, and clothes back on, and seeing that the sun hadn't completely set, despite being starving, he decided to first sift through a pan of sand.

After all, all that effort was for the gold here; only by seeing the gold can we truly be inspired.

He took out his gold pan, grabbed a handful of the accumulated mud and sand, and began to wash it in the river.

This gold rush went much more smoothly than the last one.

After panning for only a few minutes, he could already see a layer of fine gold dust on the edge of the pan.

There were also two pieces of gold the size of sesame seeds.

Gently shake the gold pan, and in the afterglow of the setting sun, the gold inside glitters.

He suppressed his excitement and continued sifting until all the gold in the dish was completely removed.

He took out a glass bottle about the size of an oral liquid and carefully put the gold into it.

This time, the bottom of the bottle was almost completely covered by gold.

And this was just a handful of mud and sand that I grabbed at random, less than one-thousandth of the mud and sand in front of me.

This time, I'm really going to make a fortune.

Based on this gold content, the mud and sand dug up today alone should yield several ounces of gold.

And this pile of mud and sand is just a drop in the ocean compared to all the mud and sand here.

Even disregarding the deep waters, thousands of ounces of gold could likely be found in the mud and sand of the shallow waters along the coast.

Only then did he finally relax, knowing that his gold rush would be a great success.

After standing up, he felt dizzy and lightheaded; he was actually suffering from low blood sugar due to hunger.

An intense hunger surged through his brain; he felt so hungry he could eat a whole cow.

He extinguished the fire, picked up a few still-burning pieces of firewood, and returned to the cabin.

No antifreeze measures are needed for the thawed river surface, as the ice won't thicken much overnight and can be easily broken off tomorrow.

After lighting the fire, he first ate a Snickers bar to tide him over, and then began to think about what to eat to treat himself tonight.

Looking at the two remaining bags of pickled cabbage and beef noodles that he couldn't bear to eat, he suddenly had a good idea.

Let's make sauerkraut fish tonight!