Iditarod pioneer., 1915-08-21
DAWSON PROSPECTOR SAYS
 HAS FOUND MAMMOTH
Dawson News

"W atah, bring me mammoth steak!
 Such may be the cry in Dawson within a few days if R. A. Fox has just what he thinks he has Fox blew into town today from up the Yukon with a gunnysack filled with what he declares Is the steak of a prehistoric mammoth,
 Have I got it? We'll l should say have" declared Fox today.
 Just wait few minutes" continued Fox, land I will bring you some of the man. moth with the fat clinging to the sides of the meat"
 Fox was gone short while, and returned to the News office with several slabs wrapped in a gunnvsack. Unwrapplng It Tn the presence of several who had not been informed what the material was supposed to be, Fox said:
 "Now, see here-what is it?'
 A sourdough miner stepped up and looked through his glasses carefully as he turned over the strange substance.
 "Why," exclaimed the sourdough, that's asbestos Sure thing. I've seen it in the raw state, and I've seen the finished prod, uct"
 A veteran print who had called on the News dropped in and was asked what it was.
 Feeling the material carefully, he declared, "Why, asbestos, of course. l wish l had plenty of that for future use"
 In ambled a third man, who was shown piece and asked his verdict. Well, it looks like wood fiber" declared he, eau tiously.
 A cheechaco from Tacoma walked in and was shown the samples.
 What does she look like, MT. Chee- chako?" asked the discoverer.
 You don't get me on that" said the cheechaco five visited Seattle in my day. and I have nothing to say"
 "Well, now just let me tell all you tel- lows what it is you are looking q sad Fox. "That long, white, stringly, slabby stuff is nothing more nor less than the flesh of a prehistoric mammoth reduced to fiber. That winter portion, which is less arked by strings, is the residue of the fat. The real grease evaporated."
 "Where did you shoot that mammoth?' piped fellow in the crowd.
 Well, maybe you boys think you have it on me-" rejoined Fox 'but let me tell you I did shoot him. and l shot him on the Yukon river bank above Dawson, and the carcass Is now there.' All the fellows opened their mouth with astonishment. Everyone was from Missouri But it's this way" said Fox. Il shot him while he was lying compressed under 8 million tons of rock, and where he had been resting for two hundred million years.
 "As was coming down the Yukon in my canoe the other day l put over to the right IL. LoIo, nf Sixtymile river.
 "In secluded bend in the river, where 1t was almost a cove, 1 observed in cliff about thirty feet high singular whitlsh ob- feet projecting a foot or so from the regu- lar face of the rock. l got closer to 1t, and on inspection found it was the end of a mammoth tusk I took shot at 1t with my rifle and brought down part ot the ivory. That confirmed my first suspicious. had done ivory carving in Dawson for years, and I know mammoth ivory from mastodon ivory quite we'll. The mastodon ivory is checked like crocodile hlde and yellowish, while that of the mammoth IS whtlsh and has long grain.
 After securing the sample of the tusk, l got several sticks of dynamite and placed them in the face of the bluff just beneath the point where the tusk protruded. There is where l shot the mammoth Those sev- eral shots of dynamite disturbed enough Of his prehistoric majesty to afford me these samples. The dynamite explosions freed a cap of rock along the face of the bluff so