Iditarod Pioneer
ONE dollar per_^ IDITARoITaLA^MTURDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER 18. 1916_ »«wre.curr_
OFFICIAL VOTE OF TOLSTOI
SHOWS SURPRISING TOTALS
The official vote of Tolstoi precinct, re
ceived by The Pioneer on Thursday evening
last, in a letter dated on election day, shows
surprising totals in some instances. Dan
Sutherland, for territorial senator, received
the highest vote 35 and C. K. Snow, for
the legislature, also received a big vote. The
majority of Wickersham was 9 votes, in
stead of 10, as reported in The Pioneer last
week. The vote in detail was as follows:
For Delegate- Lewis, 7 ; Sulzer, 18; Wick
ersham, 27.
For Attorney General Cobb, 9; Grigsby,
27; Schofield, 11.
For Senator—McCabe, 10; McGowan, 2;
Sutherland, 35.
For Representatives Bean, 7; Burns, 3;
Collins, 3; Dunn. 7; Green. 10; Hess, 4;
Huey, 4; Kilgore, 19; Ledger. 3; Monahan,
8; Norland, 9; Snow, 28; \ inal, 25; W ell
ster, 17 ; W'estenvik, f>.
For Road Commissioner--Jensen, 22;
Ross, 10; Sabin, 5; Steil, 3.
Eight-hour Law- For. 40; against. 1.
Dry. 43 ; wet, 9.
Total vote cast 54.
-♦
PLATINUM MAY BE PRODUCT
OF BOOB CREEK WORKINGS
Ira Van Orsdol, the Tolstoi miner, was
in the city several days during the past
week, and had in his possession a small phial
of mineral that has attracted a great deal |
of interest. It was secured in the course of j
placer operations on Mr. \ an Orsdol s work ,
jugs on Boob creek, and mention of the oc |
eurrence of this miner: 1 heretofore has been j
made in these columns. It is generally sup- ;
posed to be platinum, but some of the :
characteristics do not tally with those of
that precious metal, and it may be that it
is some similar-appearing mineral that has
not yet been classiiied by local amateur
mineralogists. The price of platinum has
shared in the general rise since the begin
ning of the European war, and is said to
be in the neighborhood of $00 per ounce;
so that if the find should prove to be that
mineral it would be a valuable side product,
and in fact might constitute the principal
value of some of the claims in that region,
it is said to occur quite generally.
Mr, Van Orsdol ays that the mineral i
- aved with the placer gold, and while not
appearing in large quantities, there is enough
of it to make it an important factor in the
va'ue of the ground worked, should i! prove
to be platinum. In workings on adjoining
creeks, ihe mining man says, it is also fre
quently found, and one man told Mr. \ an
Orsdc 1 that if it shou! 1 prove to be platinum j
he had enough of it to constitute a pay
streak in itself.
The stuff in Mr. \ an Orsdol's possession
is in small particles ranging in size up to
that of a grain of rice. It is steel-gray in
color, and cannot be fused with a blowpipe.
Platinum is malleable, while the mineral in
question, when struck a heavy blow with a
hammer, was unaffected, while the hammer ;
was dented. Apparently the stuff is of about j
the same weight as gold.
James I-'arrel!, who has made mineralogy \
a matter of considerable study, furnishes I
The Pioneer with the following information
with regard to platinum, gleaned from a
text book on “Mineralogy and Crystallog
raphy,’’ which will be of interest to miners
and others:
Platinum is described as a malleable,
steel-gray to white metal, occurring in small
grains and nuggets in alluvial sands, very
rarely in small cubes. Its luster is metallic,
streak steel gray, its color light steel gray;
it is opaque, malleable, and often magnetic.
It is infusible before a blowpipe, and un
affected by fluxes or any single acid, but is
soluble in aqua regia. It is found in allu
vial deposits with other refractory miner
als. as gold, iridosmine, chromite, corun
dtnn, zircon, diamond, etc. It is said to
occur in syenite, and is sometimes found in
eluded in masses of chromite or of serpen
line. By far the larger part of the plati
num of commerce is obtained from placer
deposits in the Ural mountains; Borneo,
Brazil and the United States of Colombia
also produce small amounts. It has been
identified in many of the gold regions of
the United States, but only in small quanti
ties, and the quantity annually produced is
insignificant. Sperrylite. which is a possi
ble future source of platinum, is a tin
white, brittle and opaque mineral of metal
lic luster, and is chiefly interesting as bein '
the only native compound of platinum. It
is found in minute crystals in small quanti
ties in the nickel-bearing pyrrhotic and ehal
copyrite of Sudbury, Canada, and in the
cupric sulphide, covellite, occurring at the
Rambler mine, in Wyoming.
-♦
DR. CONLEY PASSED AWAY
ON LONG CREEK RECENTLY
Dr. Daniel Conley, one of the oldest and
most widely-known physicians of Interior
Alaska, passed away at his home in Long
City on the 29th of last September. Dr.
Conley had been a resident of Alaska for
nearly twenty years, and had practiced his
profession in many of the placer camps, in
cluding the Koyukuk, Fairbanks, Ilot
Springs, Ruby and Long. The deceased
was about sixtv years of age.
-_ «
DREDGE SHUTS DOWN
The big dredge of the d ukoti Gold Com
puny, oil Flat creek, shut down for the
season on the 14th inst., and since that
time a force of men has been busily en
gaged in dismantling the machinery and
getting the boat in shape to withstand the
winter storms. Last year the dredge closed
down on November 17.
--*
THE MAIL
The mail closes on Sunday night at Hat
and at 9 a. m. Monday at Iditarod each
week. The incoming mail is due on Satur
day. but it is not likely that it will con-i.-l
of other than purely local mail. The Ruby
Tokotna service commenced on October 1.
and is semi-monthly. Last week’s mad
brought a small consignment of matter
from this route.
❖ -
W. C. Mitchell, the lumberman, left yes
terday on a short business trip to Tolstoi,
and expects to be absent about a week.
CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH SUGGESTED
BY TRADES UNIONISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN
The suggestion of the Trades Union Con- :
gress tu Premier Asquith that wealth he
conscripted shows how curiously our ideas
have become inverted by "civilization,’
says William 1„ Chenery, a writer for the
Chicago Herald.
The conscription of wealth appeals to
nearly everyone- -'except Socialists as be
tig a radical doctrine. Tet the most con- |
•native leaders think that the conscrip
|on of men is natural and right. Indeed,
the conservatives in every nation are de
manding compulsory service of men, both
in war and in peace, when they call it uni
versal military training.
What a singular state of affairs is this!
We regard it as natural for the state to
take any man from his home and his work,
to expose him to disease and mutilation
and death on the battlefield. We think it
proper and patriotic to deprive him of his
health, his limbs or his life. But we baik
at the idea of taking away the same man's
income, or his property. According to our
reasoning, what a man owns is more im
portant, more holy, than his life itself.
Premier Asquith, it is true, was able
to tell the trade unionists in England that
the conscription of wealth had already been
begun in the higher war taxes. The tax
on an income of £1,000 has been increased
from £28 to £138 since the war began.
And the end is not yet.
While all ol the service oi an engmie
men is demanded under conscription, an
income of £1.000 is conscripted only to the
extent of 14 per cent. The difference is
marked. It may be less so in the future.
This idea of the conscription of wealth,
of the using of all of a nation’s property
resources as well as all its human re
sources in time of emergency, is full of
possibilities. Suppose the average men and
women of a nation would say:
"You ask us to give ourselves and to
hazard our lives for the nation. Human
beings are of more value than things. Be
fore we surrender our bodies you, the gov
ernment, must enrol! all the property, all
the physical resources of the nation, in the
same cause. Not only must you conscript
wealth to the extent of 14 per cent, you
must take it all and set it to work at
its various tasks just as you use us men
and women.”
Strange things might occur if a doctrine
such as that proposed by the Trades Union
Congress to the British premier were to
find favor in a nation. Not only would
the burdens of war be spread out more
fairly, but war itself might be made im
possible. For the surplus wealth which
seeks investments in foreign lands would
be consumed at home and the great out
standing cause of modern war would be
eliminated.
But a conscription of wealth is not yet
an appealing slogan!
In his brilliant book. "Why War?” a
Scribner publication, Frederic C. Howe
shows how unequally the burden is now
borne in England. Says Mr. Howe:
“While the munitions makers in Great
Britain doubled their profits during the
first year of the war. while the bankers
maintained their old dividends and added
immense sums to their reserves, while the
ship owners increased freight rates from 500
to fiOO per cent and freight rates on food
stuffs went up from 10 shillings in 1014
to 75 shillings per ton in 1915. while coal
was advanced to prohibitive prices by op
erators, the working classes were asked in
the name of patriotism to continue their
old scale of wages in the face of the fact
that Hour rose 50 per cent, bread 40 per
cent, sugar fi8 per cent and meat from 40
to 50 per cent.
“War created fabulous profits for the
trading and financial classes; it cut the
wages of the workers from one-fourth to
one-third by reason of the mononolv
charges and the high cost of livi. which
the war entailed.”
The recent announcement that 77 per
cent of the excess war profits of the ship
owners would be taken in taxes and the
statement that the income tax on large
incomes would be graded to 33 per cent
are, however, movements in the direction
of leveling the profits and distributing the
financial load of the war.
Labor is the class which has the best
right to ask for a conscription of wealth.
For labor always pays the penalty and
escapes the profit of war. Moreover, labor
alone, by insisting on constantly higher
wages and shorter hours, may in time ab
sorb the surplus earnings whose invest
ment in politically disorderly countries now
makes for war.
Economists are seeing more and more
clearly—as Mr. Howe shows vividly —that
English finance in Egypt, German finance
in Turkey, French finance in Morocco, Ital
ian finance in Tripoli are at least some of
the great causes behind the war. Good
citizens here likewise are wondering if
America’s surplus income which has found
a lodgment in Mexico is responsible for
any of the intervention ambitions so noisily
expressed.
The facts for Europe seem fairly well
proved. So respectable a person as Lord
Cromer, for example, is the authority for
the statement that English finance brought
about the English occupation of Egypt.
Wealth thus not only is not conscripted in
war; it prospers by war in many ways, and
even lays the deep foundations for trouble.
But the British Trades Union Congress and
allied groups over the world may be able
; to make a difference for the future. The
Britishers at least have stated the issue,
1 clumsily, perhaps, but effectively.
If the proposal can be pushed in peace
times, a great blow will have been struck
at the possibility of an evil future.
ELECTION OF SULZER IS ASS EtED
BY SMALL PLURALITY OV l WICK
__
FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Nov. 16.—With two precincts to hear from
in the First division, four in the Second—Kiana, Barrow, Haycock and
Marshall—twelve in the Third, and several in the Fourth, including
the Koyukuk, Innoko and Kuskokwim, the returns from the recent elec
tion for delegate in congress show that Charles A. Sulzer, the Demo
cratic candidate, has a lead over James Wickersham of 1 42 votes. It
is not believed that the returns from the outlying precincts can so far
change the standing of the two candidates as to result in a victory for
Wickersham, and in fact it is confidently believed that the final returns
will show a clear plurality for Sulzer of at least two hundred votes.
The vote by divisions so far received is as follows:
Sulzer. Wickersham.
First division .. 2,409 1,891
Second division. 589 762
Thud divisio" . 1,597
Fourth division . l,5o5 1,521
Totals. 6,130 5,988
SOMEBODY BLUNDERED ON TELEGRAPH NEWS
For some as yet unexplained reason The Pioneer s telegraphic
service failed this week, and the paper makes its appearance without
a line of telegraphic news from the Outside. Whether this is the fault
of the news bureau in Seattle or of the cable or telegraph employes j
las not yet been ascertained, but we feel that an explanation is due
o our readers, whose only news medium The Pioneer is.
Some lime ago arrangements were made whereby the weekly
telegraphic news service for this paper was to be received on Thurs
day and Friday of each week, thus insuring the latest Outside news,
as the paper goes to press early on Saturday morning. On several oc
casions the Thursday installment d d not reach here until Friday, and
on one occasion the Friday news did not reach here until Satin day
noon, too laic for publication. The experience teaches that new ar
rangements must be made whereby our readers may be assuied of
the Outside news each week, even though it may be a day or so old
when it reaches them.
1 he mishap is all the more regrettable coming at this time, when
for five weeks the district has been without mail service, and we trust
our patrons will consider that the happening was unavoidable on our
part. _
TENDERNESS AND AFFECTION
NOT MONOPOLY OF WHITES
It may be true as a general rule that the
native- of Alaska are lacking in sentiment ;
that the ordinary virtue.- of kindness. of
affection, of love and self-sacritic have
no part in their make-up. And thi- esti
mate of the native character is borne out
in great measure by tiie tribal customs of
the aborigines in remote district- where to- y
do not come much in contact with the
whites. There arc horrible stories current
of helpless children being abandoned to the
elements, of blind, maimed or crippled off
spring of indifferent parents being turned
adrift in the wilderness to starve and die;
of helpless old men and women who have
become burdens to their relatives being
turned adrift to meet death alone and un
cared for. These tories are vouched for
by those who know the natives. But an in
cident occurred recently which provis that
even in the mind- of the aborigines there
are latent depths of humanitarian sentiment,
not untinged with self sacrifice, which only
tend to show that the instincts which sep
arate humanity from the brute creatures
are not the attributes solely of the Cau
casian race.
There is in this city a young Indian girl
who for several months past has been em
ployed at \ 'ms times by the ladies of the
community at odd tasks. She shows a de
sire to learn the ways of the white folks,
and the good ladies of the city have taken
an interest in her and have devoted consid
erable time to instructing her in the domes
tic arts. One of them acted as banker for
the girl’s mt t savings, which she took
a somewhat exaggerated interest in increas
ing, to such an extent, in fact, as to arouse
the curiosity of the good lady as to the
cause of her thrift. The answer was one
that astonished her and gave her an insight
into the native girl’s goodness of heart
hitherto unsuspected.
It appears that the girl has a little sister
who has been blind from infancy, and
whose sad condition has made a deep im
pression on the girl’s mind. Recently a
visitor to the city who is the possessor of
a glass eye came under her observation, and
she was greatly interested in the artificial
eye. She gained the impression that by
its aid the man’s sight had been restored,
and she immediately dreamed of a like bless
ing for her afflicted sister.
When asked by the lady who was the
custodian of her savings what she intended
to do with the money she replied that she
was saving it to purchase glass eyes for
her sister, and appeared proud and delighted
at the prospect. When the good lady gently
told her the truth, and she realized that
her self-sacrifice would be in vain so far as
restoring the little one’s sight was con
cerned, she wes greatly dejected, and re
fused to be consoled.
-▼
SCHOOL BENEFIT DANCE
TONIGHT AT MOOSE HALL
Quite an interest is manifested in the
social dance that is programed for tonight
at Moose hall, Flat, for the benefit of the
public school. The hall has been put :n
fine condition for the event, and the best
of music has been engaged. The price of a
ticket is only $2.
---*.
Jerry Ford was a visitor to the creeks
during the week.
KUSKOKWIM NEWS NOTES
Aniak. Alaska, Sept. 24.
The water in the Kuskokwim and tribu
taries has been lower all summer than for
many years. An unusually heavy catch of
fish is reported this year.
The enthusiastic manner in which the na
tives took to mrking gardens has been a
great surprise, and there is scarcely a na
tive cabin without one or two garden
patches. The yield has been unusually
good.
Among the death certificates filed in the
commissioner's office, in accordance with
territorial laws, was that of Chief Antony
A’amcty. whose death occurred at Horn
village on September 2. He was born in
lS.iS at Napamute. being nearly 60 years:
of age at tfie time of his death. The cause
given in the certificate was “throat con
sumption.'’ His sufferings were more than
usually severe at the end. He is reported
to have been conscious up to the time of his
death, hot for more than ten days had
been unable to swallow either food or water,
'everything that could possibly be done
for him was done. Chief Ajamaty, accord
ing to iribal customs, was chief of all the
territory lying between Russian Mission and
Sleetmute.
The largest and most imposing kashim
on the Kuekokwim river was erected dur
ing the past summer at Osk: waliek. It is
very large, and wholly above the ground.
The building is square, and has a supported
roof with windows at the apex. According
to the past traditions and superstitions of
the natives, no tool of metal was allowed
to be used in the erection of the Kashim,
but this one shows that they have out
lived some of the “preaching” of the medi
cine men.
SLOWER THAN OUR SERVICE
CHARLESTON. W. Va„ Sept. 23.—
Janies C. Mathews, while a resident of Tur
horo, N. C„ in ISSti, ordered two drumheads
from a New York musical supply concern
At the time he was a member of a minstrel
company, and when the supplies did not
reach him at Tarboro he left instructions
for them to be forwarded.
The package containing the drumheads
was received by mail by him here recently,
incased in the original wrappers. The post
mark showed it had been mailed shortly
after the order was sent, but there was
nothing to indicate where it had been (lur
ing that time.
---«--—
CAPTAIN ROGERS IN NEW ROLE
On Sunday last a frame building was
sledded from Black street by Alderman Paul
Laplant and deposited on the vacant lot
at the corner of First and Willow streets.
Such an unusual proceeding occasioned
quite a little questioning among our citi
zens. The buildings of this great city are
usually removed piecemeal and shipped to
Flat creek, or maybe Marshall, or some
other booming community, and the strange
spectacle of “toting” a structure tout en
semble or e pluribus unum (excuse our
Italian) made even the oldest inhabitant
sit up and take notice. The cause was
soon noised around, however, and all anx
ieties were allayed when it became known
I that Captain Jesse H. Rogers was backing
ihc enterprise, and in a short time he will
open up a flyer in the way i f a baked
; beau emporium. --
MANY DEPART FOR TOLSTOI
AND PLANS ARE FORMED
FOR MUCH PROSPECTING
_ i
The heavy fall of snow in the early part i
of the present week, with its promise of |
splendid trails when it becomes packed, i
has started the expected movement to
ward the Tolstoi district, and as the mining
season comes to a close in the Iditarod dis- I
trict with the closing down of the dredges, j
it may be expected that the travel to and
from the new district will be lively.
Nearly all of the prospectors who went
to the Tolstoi district last spring were men
of limited means, who took in small outfits
and after staking claims and doing location
and assessment work returned to Iditarod j
to spend the summer in earning another j
grubstake. Most of these will return, and
during the coming winter it is more than
likely that it will be demonstrated whether |
or not a populous and thriving community
wi 1 be built up, or whether it will be one
of the numerous small camps which fur- J
nish lucrative employment to a limited
number of men each season.
Boob creek, one of the first streams to i
be staked, has been proven already to con- !
tain extensvie gold deposits. While the '
paystreak has not yet been definitely lined
up, sufficient has been shown to justify
claim owners in going ahead with extcn- i
sive work, and imny men already are at
work there, with promise of many more
as the winter progresses. The ground b
deep and can be worked all winter. The
big problem there at present is to get wood
on the ground. None of the operators has •
procured fuel so far, and now that there is
plenty of snow there will be considerabl ■
activity in the woods. Fuel must be
hauled several mibs. Pay has been found
n at least five ch ims on this creek, and I
prospecting is still going on.
Riley <fc Monier, Van Orsdall, Beattie and
partners and several others are preparing
for extensive winter work on this creek.
Since late in tin* spring but little work
has been done on the adjacent creeks, but >
repc rts, more or less authentic, continue to j
come out at intervals of finds on Esperanto, j
Madison and other streams. All these will
receive renewed attention from now on, !
and many are extremely optimistic a*' to 1
the future of the district. Operations will
be watched with interest, : nd it would not
be surprising if a considerable rush to the
Tolstoi were started before spring.
I
i
Talk about absorbing interest in the late
election! The following b a striking illus
tration: One man left Tnbtoi last Wednes
day for Iditarod (the location of the only
telegraphic office within hundreds of miles', ,
another men departed from Ophir, and the
third from Dikeman, and from tins trio of
intelligent men if was impossible to get the ,
complete data of the result of the vote in 1
either instance.
MIKE POWERS PASSES AWAY
AFTER YEARS OF SUFFERING
Michael Powers, aged about 50 years,
died yesterday morning ut 2 o'el >ek at the
Hat hospital, after years of suffering from
tuberculosis. The remains were brought to
this city yesterday, and are now ut the un
lertaking rooms of •!. II. Smith.
Mr. Powers had been in the North dnee
the early days of the Klondike stampede,
and remained in Dawson until fie followed
the rush to the Fairbanks diggings about
1904. lie has been a resident of this camp
for the pa.-t six years A] hough he was
widely known throughout tin- district, lit:!.
is known of his early life beyond the fact
that in his younger days he was a seafaring
man, and occasionally, while talking with
friends, would speak of his experiences in
that connection. During hi- residence in
the Interior he was usually employed about
hotels and mining camp me«s houses.
“Mike,” as he was known to his friends, was
a man of very quiet and unobtrusive dispo
sition, of sp.endid intelligence, and was al
ways a great reader of historical and current
literature.
He is saiil to have had a sister in Buf
falo, N. V.
Funeral Tomorrov/
The funeral services will be held tom o'
row (Sunday' at the chapel of the under
taker's establishment, on Willow si reel.
A --
SID GOES PROSPECTING
Among those leaving for the Tolstoi dig
gings during the present week was our oM
and highly-esteemed friend Si;l Schbeman,
the well known society skating instructor,
who lately resigned a responsible po.-iii n
with Riley & McMillan of Otter creek. In
former years Sidney was a creek representa
tive of the old established firm of Schultb.
Kutt & Deahl, but owing to the great in
roads made during the past decade in that
line of endeavor by correspondence school
end mail-order houses, he decided to turn
his talents and attention to other channel-.
DIDN’T KNOW SIWASHES
Siil Schloeman tells this one on a friend
of his who goes by the high-sounding till0
of “The Count.” The count, of foreign
birth and distinguished appearance, hap
pened with Sid to be in a down-river camp
in which lived a squawman and his family.
Among the latter was an exceptionally
bright boy, and the count asked the squaw
man why he did not send him to schm-l.
He talked on the benefits of education for
the youngster to such an extent that the
squawman became peeved, and after he wa
out of earshot he u.-ked Sid who he was
“Oh. he’s a foreign nobleman, just travel
ing a round for his health." said Sid. "1 h!
I thought so,” rejoined the squawman.
yith a shrug of disgust. What the h
does he know about si washes’'"
♦
Job Printing at The Pioneer office.
STEFANSSON EXPEDITION FOUND RICH
COPPER ORE ON SHORES OF ARCTIC
That immense deposits of native copper
have been discovered on the Arctic shores
of Canada in the vicinity of Copper Mine
river, Coronation sound, and that the work
of Viljalmur Stefansson will be seriously
delayed owing to the loss of the schooner
Great Bear, were the assertions made to
the Juneau Empire recently by Dr. R. M.
Anderson, second in command of the Stef
ansson expedition.
Dr. Anderson passed through Juneau in
September i n his way to his home in Can
ada. He had been in command of the
southern or shore party of the expedition
since the expedition divided, and for the
past three years had been making geologi
cal surveys and topographical maps of the
country along the Arctic bonier of Can
ada. Dr. Anderson stated that the mem
bers of his party had not seen Stefansson
since March, 1913, at which time Stefansson
started north over the ice fields. They
have not been in communication with him
and never knew whether he was a.ive or
dead. Last summer, when Stefansson vis
ited Herschel island and bought the power
schooner Polar Bear. Anderson and his
party were working far to the eastward
and did not see him.
The southern parly spent the first win
ter. or the season of 1913, in winter quar
ters at Council point, and the next two
winters were spent in Union strait. The
work of the parly started at Point Harold
and extended east around the shores of
Coronation sound, and around the Kent
peninsula, near the mouth of the Mae
Kenzie river.
“The copper deposit discovered by us
consists of a vast mineralized belt of na
tive copper on the mainland near Copper
Mine river, and extending out to Prince
Albert island,” said Mr. Anderson. “VVe
sampled the deposit in hundreds of places
and made a survey of it from a geological
standpoint, but I am not at, liberty to
disclose the size of the deposit. As to the
value, I can’t say until the samples have
been assayed, and also until it is deter
mined whether the deposits can be worked
successfully or not.
“The copper ore is almost pure, as far
as we could tell. The natives of that
section use implements hammered from
the copper almost entirely. It makes good
snow knives, skinning knives and ice picks.
They have no steel there, and know noth
ing of smelting ore. The copper in their
implements is just as it comes from the
ground as to purity.
Dr. Jenness, anthropologist with the
party, is on board this steamer with forty
cases of implements used by the natives
there in their daily life, and the majority
of them are made of hammered copper.
The collection includes snow knives, ice
picks, skinning knives, dishes, sled runners,
spear heads and in fact hundreds of im
plements of that metal. He also has sam
ples of their articles of clothing and of
nearly everythin" used bv them.
“For fhe first two years it. was pret'y
monotonous in there. W e had no reading
matter at all, and did not know that the
European war was on until the mail reached
us overland on November It last year. After
that we were a'l right, as we received com
plete tiles of the daily papers of Ottawa
up to the time the mail left civilization for
the long trip overland and down the Mac
Kenzie river to our camp. After its arrival
we had i lenty of reading matter.
“There is plenty of large standing tim
ber there a few miles back from 'lie coa~.
Of course on the Arctic coast there is no
timber, but back about twenty mile.- on
the Copper Mine river, and a little farther
back on the MacKenzie, there are heavy
stands of timber. We used driftwood and
some coal which we took with us for fuel.
Our base camp was stationary and we
were not obliged to move around much.
We had the gasoline schooner Alaska and
were very comfortable on board her no
of the time.
' “We had no mtticulty in securing an mi
fresh meats we wanted. The annual mi
gration of the caribou herds passed close
to our headquarters, and we shot ill we
needed. Ducks and other migratory birds
are plentiful there in the summer time.
There are very few geese there in the
summer time.
“We broke camp in Union strait on July
13 of the present year, and reached Her
ischel island on July 20, having encountered
very little ice east of the island. On August
S we reached Point Barrow, and arrived
at Nome August 15.”
When questioned regarding the tempera
ture in the Arctic regions. Dr. Anderson
stated that it is not cold along the coast,
lie stated that las* December the tem
perature was but little below freezing point
and the average was between 15 and -’•>
degrees above zero. The coldest weather
encountered by the party during their en
tire stay in the north was 47 degrees be
low zero. Last winter the thermometer
only registered zero on one occasion.
When asked to account for it. Dr. An
derson stated that he could not. unless
it was on account of the dampness of the
atmosphere end the density of the air.
This is the ninth consecutive season Dr.
Anderson has spent in the Arctic, having
worked there four summers for the Ameri
can Institute of New 5 ork. This is aDo
his first trip Outside since the Stefansson
expedition sailed for the north on board
the ill-fated Karluk.
SKATING ENTHUSIASTS
In spite of the heavy fall of snow which
occurred early in the week, the local skat
ing enthusiasts refuse to be discouraged
and yesterday they were industriously shov
eling the foot or more of snow from the
rink on the river in front of the city.
Such enthusiasm deserves to he reward'd
with good sport-, and if a windstorm-does
not come along and undo their work some
merry times are promised. Among the
workers noticed cn the ice were Captsla
James Farrell, Judge GeragUty and.Jiy .IF
Fmith.