Fort Wrangel news., 1898-08-17
TERRIBLE SUFFERING.
Two Gold Hunters Lose Their Outfit and Clothing and for Twenty Days Face Starvation. Picked Upby
 the Monte Cristo.

St. Louis, Mo, ant Albert SSauson, of Duluth, left Fort Wraugcl in n we'll built, flat bottomed boat for pros pectiug trip up the Stikeen river. The formcris 53 years old and the latter 29, and both were strong. rugged men, in 1 first class health, and possessed of q determination that generally brings success in any undertaking. They had with them an outfit consisting of 2n pounds of meat, lOO pounds of corn meal, l2 sacks of flour, 51 pounds of sugar, 25 pounds of dried peaches, 20 pounds of coffee, and other provisions, blankets, guns and full set of cooking utensils and miners tools. With hard work and many hardships, they made their way on up the Stikeen to the mouth of the lskoot river, and turning up that stream reached point about fifty miles from the confluence of the two rivers. by the 22nd of July. At this place there were some swift rapids, in the river, which was some 3OO yards wide. and they found it impossible to row against the current. They turned toward the shore and in turning, the boat shipped water and filled about two-thirds full. They landed and tied the rope, which was fastened to the boat, to tree, and endeavored to swing the boat in to the shore and unload their outfit. The current was too strong however, and the men were unable to hold the boat toward the shore and it swung ont further into the current and started down stream and when the 80 foot line was frightened, it parted and soon the boat and ali its contents were out of sight and gone forever. Tine men had been working hard and had but little clothing on, each wearing a pair of trousers. Bathon had well worn coat and Swanson blouse and this was all They started down the river and. on the llth of this month, last Thursday, the Monte Cristo picked them up and brought them down to this city
 A News man hearing of this misfor- tune boarded the Monte Cristo last Monday morning and soon found the men. The evidences, of suffering, starv ation and hardship, were still to be ob served in their faces. They both look ed at least fifteen years older than the ,,.,., 4Io,. ,,,,o 4ba Nov.. ,uou RafboD is sapparently the more rugged of the two and we selected him to give Us an account of the experience they had, i'll fact. Swanson Was just a little rattled, and the former declared that he was crazy Bathon speaks q very broken English. but fortunately the writer could talk with him in his native tongue, but what this article contains will be only a feeble effort i'll describ- ing the terrible suffering that these two men endured between the 22nd day of July and the llth day of this month. when they were picked up, almost dead from starvation, and naked, both hay ing worn out the scanty clothing they wore when they lost their boat and out fit
 What did you do when you lost your boat?" asked the News man.
 Well, we had nothing to eat, no matches, no blankets and you might say no clothing We of course started down the river. We had gone up about fifty miles. At night it was cold, too cold to sleep, and then the mosquitoes, My God! how terribly they do torture a person"
 What did you eat?"
 He gave his shoulders shrug and said: We ate raw frogs legs, berries and grass and that was all we had to keep us alive for twenty days"
 "You say you were naked when you were picked up by the Monte Cristo. What became of the pants that you wore?' was asked.
 l "We wore them out coming down the river. The brush and fallen timber was so hard to get through and soon wore out what little clothing we had on. The day before we saw the boat that took us in, we once thought of giving up and not trying to make any further effort to save our lives, but somehow we kept on climbing logs and going l through the brush. No one can know