Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-07-20
MAMMOTHS IN ALASKA. :
VALUABLE DISCOVERY MADE BY THE
 ALASKA FUR COMPANY.


 sfsnstcr Creatures Twenty Feet High and Thirty Feet in Lencth-Tusls Weighing
 $50 Pounds-Garden "sass" and Gla- cfers Side by Side
 "Alaska is country of paradoxesI"
 That is what Mir. Cola F. Fowler, of the Alaska Fur and Commercial con- pany, said in answer to the question of reporter respecting his late field of operations.
 During all that time, up to two months ago, when resigned and started for home" said Mir. Fowler, ''I have had my headquarters at Kodiac, which is the most northern station occupied by agent. of our company. We have our head quarters in San Francisco, and trading stations all over Secretary Stewards pur- chase. AS yet Alaska is almost terra mcogrita. The country immediately sur rounding some of the principal rivers like the Yukon, Snake and Stickeer has been explored, and few miles inland from the coast line, but the great in- terior is almost unknown. What we have learned of it is a surprise, and was the foundation of my answer to your question.
 Alaska is certainly country of par adoxes. You who live here in the states look upon it as land of perpetual ice and snow, and yet you would be aston ished if told you that grew in my garden at Kodiac abundant crops of rad ishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, cauliflow- CTS, cabbage, peas, turnips, potatoes, beets, parnips and celery. Within five miles of this garden was one of the larg- est glaciers in Alaska, and between the fertile coast slip and the interior is reared along the entire sea boundary a contin- uous mountain of perpetual ice and snow.
 During your twelve years residenc, in Alaska what was the most wonderful thing you ever saw or heard there?'
 Mir. Fowler smiled at this question, and, after a moments hesitation, said: 1.-Two years ago last summer left Ko- diac for trip to the headwaters of the Snake river, where our travelling agents had established a trading station at an Indian village. The chief of this family of Innuits was named To-lee-ti-ma, and to him was we'll recommended. He ;eceived me hospitably, and I at once began negotiations for the purchase of big lot of fossil ivory which his tribe had cached near the village. The lot Teighed several thousand pounds, and was composed of the principal and infe- rior tusks of the mammoth, the remains of thousands of which gigantic animals arc to be found in the beds of interior Alaskan water courses. subjected the ivory to rigid inspection, and upon two of the largest tusks discovered fresh blood traces and the remains of partly decomposed flesh.
 II questioned To-lee-ti-ma, and he as- sured me that less than three months before party of his young men had en- countered drove of monsters about fifty miles above where he was then en- camped, and had succeeded in killing two, an old bull and COW. At my re- quest he sent for the leader of the hunt ing party, a young and intelligent h. dian, and questioned him closely about his adventure among a race of animals that the scientific people claim are ex- tinct. He told a straightforward story, and have no reason to doubt its truth.
 KILLING A MONSTER.
 "He and his band were searching along 8 dry water course for ivory, and had found a considerable quantity. One of tho bucks, who was in advance, rushed in upon the main body one morning with the startling intelligence that at a spring of water about a mile above where they then were he had discovered the sign of several of the big teeth They had come down to the spring to drink from a lofty plateau farther inland, and had evidently fed in the vicinity of the water for some time. The chief imme. diately called about him his warriors, and the party, under the leadership of the scout, approached the stream.
 "They had nearly reached it when their ears were suddenly saluted by chorus of loud, shrill, trumpet like calls, and an enormous creature came crashing toward them through the thicket, the ground fairly trembling beneath its ponderous footballs. With wild cries of terror and dismay the Indians fled, all but thechief and the scout who had first discovered the trail of the monsters. They were armed with large caliber muskets and stood their ground, opening fire on the mammoth. A bullet must have pene- trated the creature's brain, for it stag. gered forward and fell dead, and subse. quently, on their way back to their camp ground, they overhauled and killed COW big teeth, which was evidently the mate of the first one killed.
 ''I asked the hunter to describe the monster, and, taking a sharp stick, he drew me picture of the male animal l in the soft clay. According to his de. l it was at least twenty feet in 1 height and thirty feet in length. In | general shape it was not unlike an ele- l phant, but its ears were smaller, its eyes | bigger and its trunk longer and more | slender. Its tusks were yellowish white | in color and six in number. Four of i these tusks were placed like those of boar, one on either side in each jaw; they were about four feet long and came to sharp point. The other two tusks he brought away.
 "I measured them and they were over fifteen feet in- length and weighed up wards of 250 pounds each. They gradu- ally tapered to sharp point and curved inward. The monsters body was GOV cred with long, coarse hair of reddish dun color. took copy of the rude sketch made by the Indian.
 By the way, our late governor. the Hon. Alfred P. Swineford, has pretty investigated the matter, and he IS certain from thorough sitting of na- i've testimony that large herds oj these are to be found on the high Diateaus in interior Alaska about the of the Snake riyer."-Phila-