The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-11
A WINTER or Q
Another Tale Of suffering and Death from
Moose Creek. xeIg a-5

Moose Creek, in Idaho Territory, just across
the Occur dAlene range from the Nine Mile
mining district, in Missoula county, bids fair
to achieve a rather unenviable notoriety as a
sort of Upas Valley of the north, If its NEGRO
logical record for a season or two more at all
resembles what it has been for an equal
length Of time in the immediate past. Our
readers will remember the CHASTITY story with
which we were startled just a year ago when
the Missoulian published the report of the
discovery made by the miner who first le-
turned to Moose from outside winter quarters
how the company of Kanaka miners left
there in the fall were found either dead or
missing, the missing being afterwards found
on the trail where they had succumbed to
disease and died while attempting to reach
the nearest settlements. Such was the story
of last year, and this year it is to be supple
mented by another very similar in character,
with the difference, only, that this time Chi
namen instead of Sandwich Islanders are the
victims. ".' %
Last fall when the white miners left the
district (where twelve feet of snow is nothing
at all uncommon in midwifery, there re-
manned a somewhat numerous company of
Cinnamon who had determined to pass the
winter there, the now to the contrary, not
withstanding. Sure enough they did pass the
winter, but in doing it the managed, some of
them at least, to pass in their checks at the
same time. A couple of weeks ago when the
pioneers Of the white miners reached the dig.
gings their Chinese neighbors were found to
be in the most forlorn condition imaginable
Of the nine survivors only one was able to
walk with any ease, the remaining eight
having been reduced to helplessness by sour
Wy, while to three or four the disease haC
already proved fatal. Taking in the situation
!, at a glance, one of the white men Immediately
returned to Missoula for assistance. Being
ple%ntifully supplied with the requisite rene
dies, and furnished with a willing corps o
helpers in the persons of a half dozen fellow
countrymen of the sufferers, the modern
Good Samaritan set out for the scene of tn
disaster, expecting to arrive in time to saw
the greater number of the invalids from thu
doom so certain in tile absence of speedy re
lief. No further intelligence has been re
ceived since the return of those going to tn,
rescue. The fatality of a year ago is attributed
f to the too liberal use of spruce tea. Either as
beverage or as medicine the Kanakas, from tn.
appearance of their cabins in which theil
dead bodies were found, seem to have par
taken very literally of a detection of spruce
leaves, and to its astringent qualities their fate
is supposed to be due. On the other hand
the scurvv of the Cinnamon was caused by
improper food, a main portion of their winter
supplies having consisted of dried salmon; o.
fish caught late in the fall, in their "third run,
when they are altogether unfit for food, owing
principally to the wounds and bruises received
IN making their way over the rocky shoals il
the low stage of water then prevailing.