Evening star., 1928-06-10

other explorers had found and the Eski-
mo phrase Cow. cow pcelick." denoting
that one was very hungry, came In very
handy. on occasions.
In 1896 on trip down the Yukon
River below the mouth of the Tanana
River, in a great bank of silt, Mr..
Schrader found the remains of a great
mastodon. with il-foot tusks. AS he
was then travelling in a rowboat, the
tusk was too weigtIty to be transported.
so he sawed off piece and this is now
reposing on the mantle piece of his
home. l41T Belmont street. The point
where the mastodon was found was
not far from the site of the present
town OF Fairbanks, but there was no
town there in those days.
Coal at sI2s a Ton.
In the Fall of 1899. Mr. Schrader
| came down the Yukon River and stop
ped at st. Michael's and heard that
there had been gold strike at Nome
In that community Accommodations were
at premium and the six or eight In
the Schrader party hired one room in
a hotel and slept on the floor. The
gold diggings we're along the beach and
ut Anvii Greek and the nrospectors
were living in tents on the beach.
Some OF the miners kept their gold
in old washtubs. covered with canvas.
buried in the ground beneath their
tents. Nuggets worth 81 to 50 were
given away By the miners TO the Gov
ernment men.
Some Of the inhabitants of Nome be-
iieved the gold was washed up by the
sea from its depths. as the beach would
be found sparkling with nuggets ana
| small pieces Of gold. but Mr.. Schrader
was able 10 inform them that the
churning OF the waves uncovered the
gold on the beach itself.
Coal sold at the handsome figure OF
$l25 ton in those days.
On one OF his wanderings In Alaska
MFR. Schrader was travelling down the
koyukuk River, and his craft had
dropped into quiet pool. Ahead he
saw an unexplained disturbance In the
water coming toward the party rapidly.
The craft met the wave head-on and
passed through two or three of them
Going ashore immediately. they found
that they had just passed through an
earthquake.
Mfr. Schrader pulled out his watch
and recorded that IT. was 2:22 pm. on
September 3, 1899. and later found that
this earthquake was the tail end Of the
convulsi0n that raised the coast of
Alaska 30 feet high. throwing turtles
and fish high and dry thousand miles
away, for he was in the interior OF
| Alaska, way up above the Arctic Circle.
| The late Or. Charles ID. Walcott. Sec
| retary OF the Smithsonian Institution
| was director Of the Geological Survey
when MIR. Schrad>r entered the F~rVir~.
| The survey was then located in the old
| Woodward Building, adjoining the Eb-
| biLt Hotel, at the corner OF Fourteenth
and r streets, where the new National
| Press Club Building now stands.
AS the result Of his Alaskan explora-
ton, Mr.. Schrader had published a
Government publication In which he
asserted that gold should be located at
q point near Nome where the beach
had been In ages agone. No one paid
any attention TO the paper for a year,
but oale day came the big gold strike
In that region.
I Recalls Alaskan Trips.
Looking back over more than quar-
ter OF century. Mr.. Schrader recalls
we'll the details OF those famous Alas
kan explorations, I'm the days when he
annually took ! 900 TO 1000 photo
graphs of scenes never before seen by
white men At the age Of 68 he looks
hale and hearty from his years spent
in the open studying the geology OF
soil over which the Stars and Stripes
float.
Yes" he unused, there's a lot OF
coal In Alaska and lot more gold"