The Portland daily press., 1896-11-28

about Fifty miles above where ne Whs
then encamped, and had succeeded IN
Killlng two, an old bull and cow. Az
my request he sent for the leader OF the
hunting party, young and very intel
ligent Indian. and questioned him close
ly about his adventures among a race OF
animals that the scientific people claim
is extinct. He told me very straight
forward story, and / have no reason to
doubt it's truth.
"He and his band were searching
along dry water-course for ivory, and
had found a considerable quantity.
Suddenly one of the bucks, who was in
advance rushed In upon the ain body
with the startling intelligence that at a
spring of water about 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 lofty plateau further inland and
had evidently fed in the vicinity of the
water for some time. The chief imme-
diately held a council of war with his
principal mon and the whole party under
the leadership Of the scout cautiously
approached the spring.
H1hy had nearly reached it when their
ears were suddenly saluted by chorus of
loud trumpet-like calls and an enormous
through the thicket the ground fairly
trem bling beneath his ponderous foot
falls. With wild cries of terror and dis
may the Indians fed all but the chief and
the scout who had first discovered the
trail of the monsters. They were armed
with muskets of large oaliber and stood
their ground, opening fire on the man.
moth. A bullet must have penetrated
the creatures brain. for it staggered
forward and fell dead. Subsequently,
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.
WHAT THE INDIAN DREW.
~ asked the hunter to describe the
monster, and, taking sharp stick, he
drew me picture of the male animal in
the soft clay. According to his descrip-
tion, it was at least twenty feet in beigh
and thirty fset in length. In general
shape 1t was not unlike an elephant, but
it's ears were smaller, its eyes bigger,
and its trunk longer and more alender.
Its tusks were yellowish-white in color,
and six in number. Four of these tusks
were placed like those of a boar, one on
either side in each jaw; they were about
four feet long land came to a sharp
point. The other two tusks the Indians
brought away. l measured them and
they were over fifteen feet in length, and
weighed upward of $50 pounds each.
They gradually tapered to a sharp point,
and curved inward. The monsters body,
according to the Indians, was covered
with long, coarse hair of a reddish dun
color.
"By the way,' continued Colonel
Fowler, "when Alfred P. Swine ford was
Governor of Alaska, ne made very care-
full investigation of the reports Of living
mammoths. made by the Indians, and
af.er thoroughly sitting the native testi-
mony, he felt certain that large herds of
these monsters are still to be found on
the high plateaus in interior Alaska,
about the head waters of the Snake
River, and he incorporated this opinion
in one of his reports to the govern
me mt. I"
RESOURCES.
Continuing, the Colonel branc ched out
into an enthusiastic description of
Alaska, its resources and possibilities. in
the course of which be said: 81 have
been into the interior some, and it's de-
velopments were astonishing. The timber
is almost inexhausJible. There are i'm
mense and as yet unworked fields in
gold, silver, coal, and salt, and the.
meadow lands along the rivers are thick
ly carpeted with luxuriant growth Of
blue-joint grass. which affords excellent
pasturage during the spring and summer
months and can be converted into most
excellent hay. The tin, Der trees grow
to an immense size and have seen COM,
mon alders that measured sixteen inches,
in diameter. Our spring and fall seasons
are mild and balmy; the summers are
hot and the winters are not as cold as
they are in Dakota. Mining In Alaska
is yet in its infancy. Gold was first dis