Evening star., 1897-03-20
LIVING MAsToDoNs OF alaska.


Reason for Relieving Thnt the Species
ts Not Extinct.
Charles Hallock OF the Alaska Historical Society in
Forest and Stream.
Miners and Stick Indians who have come
out this fall from the headwaters of the
White river in Alaska, where they have
been prospecting for gold, bring almost
conclusive evidence of the presence of liv-
ing mastodons in that isolated region For
instar ce, the testimony Of such veracious
witnesses those residents of Denver,
Col, who were interviewed as recently as
October 18th by Editofn Eugene c. stahl
of the Juneau News, himself conscien-
tious naturalist of no mean abilities, is not
to be f1ippantly disregasied: nor the col
lateral testimony, which, Is more than cir
cumstantial, furnished by traders and in
telligent Indians. who profess to have seen
the animals and their massive footprints
The location of the ;pastodon country,
according to the sketch map of William
Ogilvie of the Dominion survey, is about
midway between Mt. STE Elias and the
Y ukon river. and 100 mllas due north from
st Elias, and less than that from old Fort
Selkirk and the mouth oftStewart river and
torty-Mile creek, where hundreds of gold
miners have been prospecting for ten years
or more. The White river is an affiuent
srh OF me ;, Yukon. , whose course is due north.
not remarkable unless the trappers and
wood runners of the old Russian American
Fur Company may by possible chance have
gotten there in years gone, by, and that
mastodons may have chosen this inaccessi-
bic seclusion as their final stamping ground
and still survive is also not improbable
Indeed, their actual living existence at the
present day is essentially necessary to ex-
plain the phenomena of the numerous
buried deposits OF remains of this animal
which have been discovered in Siberia and
Alaska, not only OF bones and tusks which
Eskimos have made articles of barter for
generations, but of well-preserved car
casses so fresh that the sled dogs of over
land arctic explorers have repeatedly been
led upon the f1esh-carcasses which were
supposed to have lain refrigerated and I'M
decayed for centuries, but which it is more
reasonable to believe, under the new testi-
mony and revelation on the White river,
have been buried within comparatively
recent period Of historical time.
Washouts along the deitas of the Lena,
Mackenzie and other arctic rivers are CON
stantly revealing masses of mastodon
tusks and bones: and deposits are often
found in just such bogs as overlap the
country adjacent to the White river head
waters, where the animals have been
drowned and mired by hundreds by some
flood or cataclysm which has overwhelmed
them. On the heights of land which separ-
ate the tributaries of the Yukon from the
af1uents of the Pacific ocean they would be
quite exempt from such catastrophe;
and as they have moss, grass browse and
fodder in unlimited supply in their present
habitat and temperature cold enough to
suit and plenty OF water to drink credu-
lous scientists will be ready to believe
from the evidence adduced that a remnant
OF this huge creature long supposed to
be extinct. still exists within possible ac-
cess of human habitations and a resident
population of at least 1000 miners traders
and furriers.