The Wrangell sentinel. (Wrangell, Alaska) 1909-current, 1933-02-24

| picture was taken where Ruggles
claimed, but about SO miles straight
| west and still in the Susitna water
she'd
| | believe it is only one of many
abandoned cabins you will find
along the line of the Alaska Rail
road. Small groups of men known as
station contractors lived in these
camps as they cleared the right of
way and built road bed, blasting
| away rock. This cabin, l believe,
can be located in the Broad Pass
district after taking a comfortable
ride over the railroad.
Stamp of Novice
| Another paragraph stamps Mr..
Ruggles as novice. He states that
during the cold winters in the North
guns and glasses are not brought
into the house where there is a
warm fire for they not only sweat
and form rust on account of the
|
warm room, but when taken out in
| to weather far below zero, the glass
es will fog and the guns will some
times freeze so they cannot be work
ed. Now, if you have high class
guns, don't leave them out in the
winter anywhere south of the AL
aska Range for the weather is not
constant but ranges from below
zero to above freezing. The winter
care of guns is this: bring them in,
| hang them high up on the wall in
back of the stove with the bolt
| drawn back or the action open. They
will Immediately sweat out and by
the time you have eaten your sup
per and washed the dishes, the guns
will be perfectly dry. Then give
| them a wipe inside and out with
slightly oiled rag. From my own eX-
perience | will contradict Mr.. Rug
giles again by saying that binocu-
| lars or camera lenses will not fog
! when taken from a warm room into
the cold. Neither will guns sweat
and what causes them to freeze Is
oil congealing in the bolt, around
| the firing pin and handspring. To
prevent freezing, rinse bolt in gaso-
| line or take apart and wipe dry and
then lubricate very lightly with
Hopes No. 8 gun Oil,
! The writer's next statements do
not match up. He watches the carl
| bou, he says, for three hours mi
grating from the country due to
warm wind which settles the snow
| to ten inches of hard crust, that was
almost ice when it froze again.
Back on Day Shift
Now in all previous wolf descrip-
| tions he seec them and watches
their actions in broad daylight, but
| on this day while the caribou are
| migrating the wolves are not ON the
job-off visiting or sleeping, l sup
pose-and, of course, they do not
| see the caribou leave the country.
THAT night" says Mr.. Ruggles,
tions about our cabin and we knew
they were scattered all over the
plateau hunting the caribou. But
the caribou had made their getaway
while the snow was melting and
| now the heavy thaw with the new
freeze had wiped out their trails
and scent" Now get load of this:
The very next day while hauling in
some wolf-killed caribou carcasses
he saw many small packs of wolves
roaming over the great barrens.
All, ha! the little devils are back on
| day shift 1t makes me wonder if
that guy is trying to start a STAN
pede of trappers up into that
country. If I were not familiar with
conditions there, l would be tempt
| Further along in the article Mr..
ed to slip the scope sight on the 27O
rifle and go take look
| Ruggles says: with our glasses we
often watched the wolves dig down
through the crusted snow in search
of old bones;" so you see, it was
| just the day the caribou went
| away that the wolves were off duty.
| will now skip some of the Chez
| chako's rawlings but of course If
you would understand what / am
raving about, you should read both
Mr. Ruggles' articles, particularly
the recent one.
Mr.. Ruggles is now leaving on a
sled trip to hunt caribou for food.
He says: eve travelled as light as
possible, hauling an Arctic sleeping
robe made for two, one double blan-
| ket one six- hv-aipht canvas torn