St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-18
MILLIONS IN THE ICE.
vast Number of Ivory Tusks Locked
Up i'm the Arctic Region.

Up IN the Arctic Region
New York Journal.
Wealth is waiting for rYe man. who
shall have courage to essay a certain
bold exploit. 1t is not gold, nor silver.
nor yet precious stones, but ivory-the
finest ivory in the world Mines Of il
exist, in which are stored quantities Of
this valuable substance well nigh inex-
haustible. This is no idle tale designed
to 1nflame the Imagination It is cold
fact, resting upon indisputable author
ity. Let the most adventurous spirit
take advantage of the information
which is given by Lieut.. Schuetze; who
was sent by the United States govern
ment to bring back to this country the
bodies of De Long and his companions
after the jeanette disaster. These ILL
fated men, it will be remembered. per-
ished of starvation and cold in the Lena,
delta. The Lena rises in Eastern ST.
IBERIA and flows northward to the Arc
tic ocean. To the northeast Of it's
mouth there is group Of islands known
as New Siberia. 1t is on these islands
that the ivory mines are to be found. .
The Lena, however. has not one, butt
many mouths. It's delta covers an area
OF 5000 square miles. This frozen re-
gion was thoroughly explored by Lieuta
Schuetze in his search for the bodies! 4
Later he visited them again, bringing
the natives several thousand dollars
worth of gifts, which were sent by
Uncle Sam Thus he secured their con-
fidence, and they spoke to him of manYi
things which they had never commun&ii
icated to any other stranger. They
even told him about the ivory minesl
and showed him some tusks. i
They were mammoth tusks. The
ivory mines are deposits Of the tusks,
of mammoths that lived in that re-l
gion thousands Of years ago. All over,
Northern Siberia these huge animals
roamed in vast herds. The climate
at that time was comparatively mild.j
But there came sudden change
Fierce winter swept over the land-af
winter permanent and destined never
again to resign it's sway. The NAM
moths sought shelter in the valleys,
where they huddled together until,
overwhelmed by snowdrifts, they lay
down to die beneath f1eecy avalanches,
which were finally transformed into
solid ice. This ice, composed of gla-
ciers, was swept through gorges to-
ward the Arctic ocean, carrying the
buried creatures.
Thus buried in the ice, the man.
moths were likely to be preserved for
All indefinite period. Such, in fact,
was the result. and to this day it oc-
casionally happens that the thawing
| of mass Of ice by the short sum-
of the gigantic beasts, it's meat still
fresh enough to be fed to the dogs:
Such thing occurred in 1799 The
mounted skeleton is in the Imperial
museum at st. Petersburg The ami
NAL was small one, comparatively
speaking, being only nine feet high
and sixteen feet long.
When the Siberian natives had come
to know Mr.. Schuetze we'll they told
him about the ivory deposits in New
Siberia. The islands of the group, they
said, were built on mammoth bonesh'
Subsequent observation by the lieu
tenant confirmed this statement.
Mammoth ivory be it understood, is
more highly valued than any other
kind. 1t is worth 81 a pound in the
crude. The tusk of a big fellow will
measure fourteen feet in length and
will weigh four times as much as the
| tusk of large elephant. The market
demand for ivory is now supplied to
a great extent from Siberia. The NAM
moth tusks are carried enormous dis
tances overland to reach the nearest
railways. This kind of ivory is known
as fossil ivory, though that is q
| nniSOO1nnr