The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-15

plorers have died in vain attempts to
penetrate. the repository whence the
world is TO draw its ultimate supply Of
fuel?
It seems strange. but why not? AL
ready the miner is camped upon it's
edges and the prOsDector is tramping
toward its frozen heart from many
directions. The vast impulse which the
discoveries of rich gold bearing terri
tory i'm 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 - great demand there
Iof 1uel Tor domestic purposes and for
mining is turning the eyes Of the
shrewd pioneers of the worlds indus
tries toward the all but unknown arc
tic coal fields, and their development is
already vaguely begun. ShiplOads Of
this coal, blasted from the face Of the
cliffs or picked up on the berg battered
! beaches, already reach Nome, Port
Clarence and other arctic coast towns
where It's need is great. The quality
more nearly resembles camel coal than
anything else have seen.
HoOdlum, the Eskimo, whom the coal
bag bOgies were chasing up the beach.
escaped them in safety and lived to tell
the tale about the lamp in the winter
! igloo. But that night, or rather, at
sleep time. for there is no night in
that country i'm summer, after having
/ been chased into the sea by a last and
/ particularly vicious coal sack, Hood
lum appeared before the captain and
ruefuily explained that ne must give
up his job. He liked the pay of to-
/ bacCO. flour. ammunition and cloth
+ passing we'll, but he could not stand the
work Of the black spirits which the
! white man evoked from the cliff 1t
/ was explained TO him that il was not
! the spirits which the white man was
/ getting from the cliff but fuel, and in
/ demonstration Of this fact and that he
and the other Eshmos may not leave
/ US, the whole tribe was invited to the
/ camp ashore, where an ordinary coal
! burning cook stove was set up.
/ Here a wood fire was started before
/ their eyes, and when it was burning
well coal was put on. A look of con-
/ temptuOus intelligence passed from one
/ to another Of the fur-clad innUits. and
/ they Winked and murmured "Kokopo-
/ look to one another. KOkODOlOOk is
[ the Eskimo equivalent of darn foo. %
and the look meant. we thought these
! men were crazy, and now we know IT,"
/ But a 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
l-weTe mods Of appreciation and UNDER
/ standing, and the tribe retired to their
! tOpeks for sleep. evidently much inn
! pressed with d new-fOund scheme for
/ cheap fuel.
The next morning every Eskimo wa
hinee was much berated by her hus-
band for not cooking the breakfast
well. or not having it 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 drift
! wood 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.