The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-04-05
MINING FOR MAsToDoNs IN THE
FROZEN VALLEY OF THE
YUKON.
Many Fine Specimens Are Being Un-
earthed-Finds to 30 Sent to
St. Louis.

it is a novel and interesting sight. Will
! liam Foster, Of Dawson, according to
| the Dawson News, has just returned
| from a sixty-mile jaunt to the find Of
mastodon bones on Quartz creek. He
describes the skeleton and his journey
to it as follows:
shaft 80 feet deep, and CROPPED our way
| through the drifts with lighted candles
! for about $50 feet, when we came upon
his royal highness at the end of this
drift.
He was facing with his head in
a horizontal position at about three
! feet above the floor of the tunnel and
| looked to me as if he might have
| kneeled down on his front legs when
ne had, some thousands of years ago.
given up the ghost.
One of his tusks was still frozen in
the roof Of the tunnel while the other
and the fore part of his head were sus-
pended in the open space from which
| the gravel had been removed after
thawing it out with ordinary steam
points.
The tuSkS are about six feet long and
seven inches in diameter where they
are firmly embedded in the sockets of
the skull.
They are curved upwards and taper
gradually to their upper ends, which
are about two inches thick.
The sensation of meeting this silent
| monster of prehistoric origin in such
| 4 place, associated with gold in the
frozen gravel, is something so novel,
so interesting and awe inspiring that
I cannot begin to describe it.
The specimen is indeed almost per-
feet, so far as the skeleton is con-
2erned, although there is no hide nor
hair so far in evidence.
Five-Foot Skull
The skull IS about five feet long, the
immense eye sockets are perfect, and
a large cavity in the top of the skull
| marks the former resting place Of his
gigantic brain.
This cavity was also filled with fro
zen gravel which Charley Swanson
| dug out with the end of his candle
stick and his fingers
Samples of this gravel will be pam
ned and the gold washed from the
| brain of the mastodon will be exhibited
| to hundreds of thousands of people
srom all parts Of the world, who will
visit the worlds fair at st. Louis.
| II addition to this fine specimen
swanson, Pearson & Vochelle, who are
| working this claim for gold as we'll as
mastodons, have found parts Of four gil
gantic ribs which were taken from the
face of the drift near the skull.
Mr.. Swanson and myself were in the
drift nearly all day last Monday while
we were thawing out the gravel so as
10 remove the skull from it's suspended
| position on the floor of the tunnel,
while Vochelle took care of the boiler
| near the shaft. The steam, laden with
foul odOrs from the phosphates of lime,
| permeated the entire atmosphere and
stencil while removing the thawing
gravel.
| Boulders, muck and gravel rained
down from the ceiling upon our heads
and bodies continually, while our can
dies, which were almost useless, were
frequently extinguished thereby, and
even knocked out of our hands.
This feeble glimmer of a single can
die would hardly penetrate the steam
laden air for a distance of a foot, so
we were continually cropping about In
| the steam looking for one another to
in of the steam points into the gravel.
We employed seven steam points at
the same time and used the greatest
| care i'll removing the thawed gravel
to prevent damaging this wonderful
| skeleton.
Mr.. Pearson, one of the owners Of the
claim, met with a serious accident in
this same drift, which laid him up for
repairs the day before my arrival, hav-
l
upon the ankle of his left leg while
working on the floor of the drift in re-
the maStodOn.
1t was a large boulder that fell from
the roof of the drift and it is almost