Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-17

yet out of the earth beneath bubbles
warmth that defies the temperature of the
pole. Such men claim that within a limited
area smouldering combustion of the deep
buried stores of coal is going on.
Go North for CoalP
At any rate the coal is there and its
presence on the coast has been the saliva
ton of more than one hardy whaling crew
nipped in the Arctic ice and obliged other
wise to spend the long frozen half-year
| night without fuel. Yet, even if this under
ground slow combustion is going on, 1t will
be centuries before the supply of fuel is
exhausted, or indeed well afire. Meanwhile
is the region of almost perpetual winter
the terrible frozen north which explorers
have died in vain attempts to penetrate
the repository whence the world is to draw
its ultimate supply of fuel?
III seems strange, but why not? Already
the miner is camped upon it's edges and the
prospector is tramping toward it's frozen
heart from many directions The vast inn
pulse which the discoveries of rich gold
bearing territory in northern Alaska has
given to the exploration and working Of
this region, the settlement of the region
beneath the Arctic circle now rapidly going
on. and the great demand there for fuel
for domestic purposes and for mining is
turning the eyes of the shrewd pioneers of
the worlds industries toward the all but
unknown Arctic coal fields, and their de-
velopment is already vaguely begun. Ship
loads of this coal, blasted from the face of
the cliffs or picked up on the berg battered
beaches. already reach Nome, Port Clar-
ence and other Arctic coast towns where its
need is great The quality more nearly re-
SembleS camel coal than ANYTHING else 7
have seen.
Hoodlum, the Eskimo, whom the coal
bag bogies were chasing up the beach, es-
capped them in safety and lived to tell the
tale about the lamp in the winter igloo. But
he ar ell for
there is night in that country in sum-
mer, after having been chased into the sea
by last and particularly vicious coal sack
HoOdlum appeared before the CAPTAIN and
ruefully explained that he must give up his
job. He liked the pay of tobacco flour
ammunition and cloth passing well, but he
could not stand the work of the black spir-
its which the white man evoked from the
cliff. 1t was explained to him that 1t was
not the spirits which the white man was
getting from the cliff. but fuel, and in dem
onstration of this fact and that he and the
other Eskimos might not leave u.s. the
whole tribe was invited to the camp ashore,
where an ordinary coal-burning cook stove
was set up.
Here wood fire was started before their
eyes, and when 1t was burning we'll coal
was put on. A look of contemptuous intelu-
gence passed from one to another of the
fur-clad innuits. and they winked and muir
INJURED "kokopolook' to one another Ko-
kopolook is the Eskimo equivalent of
darn fool" and the look meant: I'VE
thought these men were crazy and now we
know it," But few moments afterward
the cover was again taken off the fire. and
the coal shown to be blazing merrily and
giving forth much heat. Then there were
mods of appreciation and understanding,
and the tribe retired to their topeks for
sleep. evidently much impressed with a
new-found scheme for cheap fuel
The next morning every Eskimo wahinee
was much berated by her husband for not
cooking the breakfast well or not having
1t on time. And the reason was that each
had tried and tried again to make fragments
of coal burn in the open on an ordinary
driftWood fire, and had simply put the fire
out thereby. This carried them back to
their original conviction that it was the
white mans magic that evoked wicked
spirits from the cliff. spirits that entered
coal bags and chased them. and that it
was that. and that only, that made the
black stones burn.
The coal lies In countless millions of tons,
locked beneath the Arctic ice today as 1t
has lain since the first Eskimo trod the
arctic seabeach. but the tribes freeze over
this storehouse Of warmth, and only the
white man has the key that unlocks the
door to the magic Of its use.