CAPTAIN AND MRS. A. LANE AR
RIVE IN FAIRBANKS FROM
ARCTIC OCEAN.
BELONG TO STEFANSSON PARTY
Coo pit* Travel Eleven Hours Dailj
When Thermometer Ranges Be
tween Seventy and Seventy-Foui
Degrees Below Zero.
Captain and Mrs. A. Lane arrived
recently in Fairbanks from Herschel
island, after a trip of more than twe
months in perhaps the coldest weath
er ever recorded for such a long pe
riod of time. The captain was one ol
the members of Vilhjalmur Stefans
son's Arctic exploration expedition.
He is the second man of the expedi
tion to reach Fairbanks, the other be
ing Alexander Allen.
When interviewed, says the Fair
banks Citizen, the captain told a story
that was wonderfully interesting, but
told it in a manner that would lead to
the belief that he and his wife had
just made a little pleasure jaunt, in
stead. of having made the long jour
ney down from Herschel island, via
the Porcupine river and Fort Y'ukon,
jirid then up to Faii*oanks.
The captain’s story of Stefansson’s
work in the two years in which the ex
j-’o er has not been heard from is a
mot interesting one. Nothing at all
i ;.d been heard from Stefansson until
r. ports and telegrams from him to
l! <• Canadian government and to a
Toronto newspaper were brought to
Fort Yukon a few weeks ago.
In the spring of 191(5 Stefansson
i . do a trip from South W est Hank's
hr: to North West Hank’s land, mak
ing the trip on the ice entirely. On
this trip he found several new islands,
n ver before recorded, and claimed
T se in the name of the Canadian
g v- nment for which he is working at
t! < > resent time. None of the islands
\\ « re as large as the one found on his
las: exploration trip several years
; go. but will nevertheless make size
a ;!e additions of land to Canadian ter
ri' cry.
Two Frozen to Death.
During this trip two men of the
Stefansson party were lost through
being frozen to death. The men
were Tete Barnard and Charles
Thompson, both residents of Nome,
Harnard, in particular, being well
known all over that district, and a
resident there for many years. These
men started out from South West
Hank's land to go to Stefansson with
mail, and became lost en route, per
ishing after many days of wandering
around on the open ice in the intense
cold.
Stefansson returned from this trip
to North West Bank’s land in safety
and is now making all preparations
for bis next dash this coming spring.
His trip this year is to be into land
that has never been explored before.
Daring Undertaking.
It is an undertaking of extreme
daring, but is thoroughly in keeping
with the former explorations of Stef
ansson. Stefansson had originally
intended to come out last fall, intend
ing first to go north 100 miles, and
then way off to the west with his
ship. He later changed these plans,
however, and is now going to make
the trip on the ice with dogs into this
unexplored country. This will take
him 300 or 400 miles north of the
coast, where land is known to be, but
which has never besn investigated by
white men up to this time.
Stefansson is now at Barter island
120 miles west of Herschel island
making everything ready for his su
preme dash into the unknown north
The Stefansson party is now engager
in building sleds, as they have not
near enough for the big trip, and coulc
not buy any at Herschel island.
Also Short of Dogs.
They are also short of dogs anc
will have to obtain more before they
can leave on the long journey. They
should be able to get plenty of dogs
however, from the natives later on in
the winter.
Captain Lane is loud in his praise
of Stefansson as an explorer. Start
ng in a few years Ago, the captain
ays, as an ethnologist, Stefansson has
developed into the greatest explorer
of recent times.
i The journeys which he makes would
simply overwhelm men like Peary or
Or. Cook, according to Coptain Lane.
Stefansson lives entirely off the ccun
ry through which he travels, and in
this way is able to go distances that
before were unheard of. The reason
why Stefansson will not start on his
dash over the ice until March or April
is because there is no game on the
j ice until that time. He will carry what
| food he can with him, but will depend
j for the most part 0:i the meat killed
dong the way. He can find seals, bear
nd even sea gulls for food, says Cap
tain Lane, where an ordinary person
would see nothing but a bleak expanse
j of ice.
Can Turn Sleds to ttoats.
The trip will be made entirely over
he ice. which is nearly all one solid
Ifnass. In case an open float is struck,
however, the sleds will be covered
j with waterproof canvas, and can be
used as boats to cross the open water
I to the floes on the farther side.
Captain Lane’s story of his own trip
from Herschel island sounds as if the
journey were no trick at all, but on
reviewing the hardships encountered
I it was really a marvelous mush. Cap
tain Lane and his wife started from
Herschel island November 8, in fairly
good weather. Stefansson was not at
! .he island then.
The Lanes did not come out the way
.he Lawson police patrol goes into the
sland, but came out by way of the
Porcupine river. This is a longer
route than the one the police go, but
is a far better road, and easier to
ravel, according to the captain. The
•aptuin came out over the Arctic hills,
lown the Porcupine river, and thus
m into Fort Yukon.
in]) i.oneiy.
The trip was a lonely one, not a
white person being seta from Iler
sckel Island until a branch of the Por
cupine was reached.
The weather was intensely cold
after the first week. During Novem
ber the thermometer ranged between
forty-five and sixty degrees below zero
and this the captain describes as mild
weather, saying they traveled slowh
during this period. After the first of
December the real weather overtook
them. The thermometer kept going
town at the rate of about two de
grees a day from forty-five on until
seventy-four degrees below zero was
reached. The coldest weather was
struck in the Porcupine river vallev,
and Captain Lane says he will vouch
that this is the coldest spot, bar none,
in all the world.
Goes Below Seventy.
December 22, 23 and 24 the tem
peratures were respectively seventy,
seventy-four and seventy-one below
zero. On these days the Lanes were
1 out eleven hours each day, and made
an average of twenty-four miles at
j least each day. They were short of
dog feed, and simply had to keep on
traveling, cold or no cold. The average
temperature for the month, from a
table kept by the captain, was 5D.240
j degrees below zero. And they travel
ed every day that month. There was
plenty of snow along the way, there
i being some eighteen inches in the
Porcupine valley and over three feet
in the Arctic hills. The Lanes pulled
into Fort Yukon on December 25, and
I rested there for a few days, and also
j stayed at Circle for a time, making
the trip through to Fairbanks from
Fort Yukon in ten days.
Captain Lane has four blue fox and
one silver fox skin with him, and they
are certainly wonderful skins. The
blue foxes are extremely rare, being
found in their wild state on the far
Arctic slopes. The captain trapped
one himself. The skins look almost
greyish in lamp light, but are of a
darker hue in daylight. They have a
silky feel. The silver fox is not so
rare, but being a larger skin, is worth
more. It is a fine specimen of a silver
fox, there being absolutely no rusty
color on it at all. Captain Lane had
other valuable furs, which he shipped
direct to the outside. He reports a
very slim catch of fur all along the
Porcupine and in the Fort Yukon re
' gion this winter, and says the trapper;
have become disgusted with their luck
[and that many of them are quitting
The reason for the absence of fur
bearing animals is probably because
there are no rabbits or ptarmigan t<
feed on.
Captain and Mrs. Lane after stay
ing a week in Fairbanks left over th<
trail for the coast to take steamshi]
passage to Seattle.
CORPORATION OPERATES FOUR
TEEN CANNERIES IN NORTH,
ONE BEING IN COOK INLET.
Association Owns Nine Ships, Twelve
Barks, One Barkentine, Thre<
Schooners and Sixty-Eight Steam
ships and Launches.
The annual report of the Alask;
' Packers’ association for the year 191r
t shows that the company operates
! fourteen canneries in Alaska, namely
two at Nushagak, two at Kviehak
three at Naknek, one at Egegak, om
! at Chignik, one at Alitak, one at Kar
luk, one in Cook inlet, one at Fori
Wrangell, and one at Coring.
The total pack of the company foi
the season of 1917 was 1,346,292 cas
es and 5,824 barrels of salt salmon.
The strong demand for foodstuff en
1; bled the company to dispose of its
pack at a good price.
The company packed 1,015,697 cas
es of red salmon.
The association now owns nim
; ships, twelve barks, one barkentine
th>-ee schooners and sixty-eight steam
'ships and launches, a total of ninety
! three vessels. The association main
tains six medical stations in Alask;
; where all employes and all natives
| who apply are given free treatmenl
and free medicines.
The association liberated 57,405,001
; fry from their hatcheries, and 6,840,
000 red salmon eggs were taken. Ev
ery cannery has a complete machine
| shop; every cannery district has i
i ship ways and large stocks of reserve
materials are kept on hand to provide
for all possible contingencies.
The profits for 1917 were $1,308,
269.41. Quarterly dividends of $2 pei
share were paid . A dividend of
per share was paid from the interes!
income of the insurance fund.
LIBERTY BAIL BONDS.
Thousands of banners and posters
and nobody knows how many circulai
letters and newspaper advertisements
have vied with one another in bringing
to public attention the excellent rea
sons why everybody should own Liber
ty bonds. Here is a reason which ha,
not been mentioned by any of the ban
ners, posters or advertisements, ob
serves a New A'ork exchange.
“Have you bought your Libert)
bond?” asked MeCole’s friend as tin
two came through the tube on ;
crowded subway train.
McCole replied proudly that he ha<
done so—with the bit of money he hat
been able to scrape together.
“You see,” he added, “I figured the)
was good things to have. F’r instance
if you got arrested and needed bai
| you could use them and not lose th<
:interest.
HAD HIDDEN WEALTH.
For twelve years Michael Kennej
| once a Brooklyn water inspector, live<
! in a small furnished room at 278!
!
Morris avenue, the Bronx. He seldon
spoke to anyone, and when he was ac
cidentally asphyxiated by gas the po
lice had no way of ascertaining wheth
er he had any relatives.
It was known he owned the two
family house in which he occupied i
room, and he was given a decen
burial. %
Public Administrator Hammer wen
to the Morris avenue house recently
and searched the room in hope o
finding information which might lea<
to relatives. In bureau drawers h<
found bank books representing depos
its of $20,000. Under an icebox ther<
was $2,041 in bills, and hidden in th<
■ hair of an old settee was $100 in gold
WOOD GUTTER
FREEZES WRIEE
H. ESTABROOK FOUND DEAD IN
CABIN NEAR HOT SPRINGS IN
FAIRBANKS DISTRICT.
HARES RAISED FOR FOX FEED.
Traveler from Arctic Region East of
Mackenzie River Tells of Having
Seen Blue-Eyed Eskimos and Giant
Race of Natives.
Overcome by heart disease while
taking a bath and then freezing to
death before regaining consciousness
was the fate of a wood cutter on an
island in the Tanana river, as chron
icled among other items by Deputy
Marshal J. L. Anderson, of the Hot
i Springs district, near Fairbanks, in
J his report to the marshal’s office a;
Fairbanks.
After detailing the death of the
wood-cutter, Deputy Marshal Anders
i makes reference to the light fur
; catch this season, tells of the seem
i ingly successful efforts of a fox farm
owner to raise Belgian hares as food
, for foxes, quotes a traveler from the
Arctic region east of the Mackenzie
i l iver as saving that he spent one win
ter with a tribe of blue-eyed Eskimos
[ and that he discovered a race of giant
| natives, declares a Hot Springs hcr
! tieultural expert is confident of rais
' ing in the warm soil of that locality
sweet corn on the cob, melons and
other similar products, and concludes
with a brief mention of mining activ
ity, which was kept at a minimum by
reason of intense cold weather.
The deputy’s report, as printed in
the Fairbanks News-Miner, follows:
i ounti Ifead in l atnn.
“Harvey Estabrook, a woodcutter
living on an island in the Tanana riv
er about five miles from lvemperville,
was found dead in his cabin recently
by Tex Browning1 and Joe Phillips,
: neighbors of his, who, having seen no
' smoke coming from his cabin for
| some time, went to investigate. Mr.
j Estabrook had evidently been taking
a bath, as his body was entirely nude
and a tub of frozen water was on the
floor, and a coal cil can of frozen
water sat on the stove. He was known
to be subject To heart trouble, and the
supposition is that while taking a
bath he was overcome by an attack of
the heart, and froze to death before
recovering sufficiently to renew his
fire in the stove. His body was taken
. to Hot Springs and held awaiting in
structions from relatives on the out
. side as to its disposition.
“The fur catch in the territory of
which Hot Springs is the supply point,
is proving very light this season, be
ing, so far, barely one-half of the
normal catch.
“George Morrison has finished kill
ing his ranch stock and will soon put
on the market about forty ranch-bred
i i silver and black fox pelts. Mr. Mor
; rison says that the Belgian hares
| with which he has been experimenting
| with a view of breeding them in quan
tities for fox feed are doing very nice
• lv and that the increase has been more
than satisfactory. His success with
| these hares and the total disappear
> ance from the Hot Springs district of
the wild rabbits has started quite a
number in this section to thinking of
raising hares for human consumption,
r and it now looks as though there
1 would be several Belgian hare ranches
> in Hot Springs next summer.
1 “John Kinnalley is visiting his
■ brother Dan, who is a partner in the
■ mining firm of Kinnalley, Hastings &
■ Kinnalley, of American creek, in the
Hot Springs district. The brothers
■ had not seen each other since their
i boyhood days thirty-six years ago,
: and had to be introduced, as neither
[■ knew the other by sight. John has
: recently returned from an extended
' tour of the Arctic coast to the east of
? the Mackenzie river and has some
1 very interesting tales to tell of that
; little-visited region and of the natives
■ up there. He spent one winter with
; a tribe of blue-eyed Eskimos and tells
; of a race of giant natives who aver
. age around six feet in height. He is
a firm believer in the probability of
a second Klondike being struck in the
Arctic and expects to return shortly,
so as to be in on the ground floor
when the big thing comes off.
“Charles Smith, the pioneer, con
tractor, miner, and dog-musher, is
visiting friends in Hot Springs. He,
like Mr. Kinnalley, is a staunch up
holder of the theory that a big strike
is due on the north slope of the Rock
ies and expects shortly to leave for
the Kobuk on an extended prospecting
trip.
V/ill Raise Sweet Corn.
“Mr. Hohenadel, one of the part
ners of Huddleston & Co., the lessees
of the Hot Springs ranch, is a horti
cultural expert, with many years’ ex
perience on the outside, and has prom
ised the people of Hot Springs and
vicinity to supply them next summer
with locally grown sweet corn-on-the
cob, melons, and such like delicacies.
He says that the warm soil in the im
mediate vicinity of the hot springs on
j the ranch is well adapted to the pro
| duction in the open air of many veg
j etables that are usually raised in
Alaska—if at all—under glass.
! “Nothing has been done lately on
the natatorium that Huddleston & Co.
are putting up on the ranch, the ex
treme weather making it impractica
ble to work to any advantage, but as
soon as the weather moderates work
on it will be resumed.
Work on Woodchopper.
“Fred Jorgenson has resumed oper
ations on the working shaft he is
sinking on his lay on the Lorraine
claim, immediately below Howell &
Cleveland’s old woi Kings on Wood
chopper creek.
“A little prospecting and some
building in the way of mess and bunk
houses in preparation for next sum
mer’s work, and a little woodcutting,
have been done recently, but, for the
most part, the severaly cold weather
which has prevailed in this section has
put a very decided damper on all
forms of outdoor activity.”
JAMES CLARK, OLD-TIMER IX
COUNTRY, SAYS GOLD WILL
BE TAKEN FROM SPRUCE.
NEW GROUND TO BE AVAILABLE
Dominion Government Appropriates
Money to Handle Water So Bedrock
Can be Worked at Reasonable Ex
pense to Claim Owners.
James Clark, an old-timer of Atlin
City, B. C., and well-known through
'the Atlin mining district, in an inter
view in the Skagway Alaskan, says
the Atlin miners recently received a
big boost from the Canadian govern
ment. Mr. Clark is visiting friends
in Skagway.
“Men working on Spruce creek in
the Atlin district,” said Mr. Clark,
“received word from F. H. Mobley,
member of the Canadian parliament
| from the Atlin district, that he had
I succeeded in raising sufficient money
| from the government to assist them
; in putting in a much-needed bedrock
drain. As this is an expensive piece
of work it was almost prohibitive for
the miners themselves to do.
This drain will open about two
miles of Spruce creek and give the
miners a show to work ground that
otherwise would be impossible. As
the stream bed is considered rich in
gold, it is thought next season will
see a great deal of increased work in
the vicinity of Atlin.
PREFERRED A DEMOCRAT.
A Bartholomew county drafted man
who failed to appear for examination
when called, was arrested and taken
before the draft board, says the In
dianapolis News. He said he didn’t
wish to go to war and wished to be
exempted. A member of the board
told him he could go before a notary
public and have his blank filled out.
“I don’t want to go before a notary
public,” he replied. “I’d rather go be
fore a democrat.”
TAKES CARE OF
THOMAS H. DEVINE LEAVES OR
PHANAGE ON WOOD ISLAND
TO ATTEND AGED PARENT.
GOES SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES
Long Vigil at Bedside Is Maintained
and only Fact of Dead Man’s Early
Life Known by Son Is That He Was
Born in New York.
Over to the westward near Popoff
island, one of the Shumagin group, a
incident took place recently which
shows the sterner side of life far from
the conveniences of civilization, and
j because the players were a half breed
I lad and his white father, does not les
! sen the interest in the affair, says the
Valdez Miner.
! Thomas H. Devine was recently a
scholar in the Baptist Orphanage on
, Wood island.
The lad left the orphanage and
journeyed several hundred miles
west to the Shumagins, where his
father dwelt alone, the boy’s mother
having died.
The elder Devine, or “Old Tom” as
he was called, was ailing when his
young son arrived, and shortly after
took to his bed.
Ill for Long Time.
I He was ill a month or so before the
inroads of disease betokened ap
proaching dissolution, and during all
these weeks the boy faithfully attend
ed the old man, cooking the meals,
tending to his few wants, and mak
ing hasty excursions around the isl
and to take up the nets which fur
nished them their daily food from the
sea.
The last two weeks of his father’s
illness were especially trying to
'*Young Tom,” as his father could
not sleep, and to use the boy’s words,
“was not as patient in his sufferings
as he should have been.” But the last
two nights of his father’s life were
made easier by his sufferings becom
ing deadened by the pangs of ap
proaching death, and the boy had a
little rest through the daytimes.
|
Sick Man Seemed Cheerful.
Up to the last day or so the lad
never suspected that his father was on
his death bed, as he became more
cheerful, and told his son that he was
willing, even anxious to die. The boy
thought his father talked queerly, but
had no idea that the end was so near.
It came without his knowing anything
about it. One morning he turned in
to have a little nap in the forenoon,
as his patient seemed to be resting
easily, and about 10:30 he arose to
prepare dinner. He cooked the meal
and sat down to await the time his
father would awake to eat it. The old
man seemed so quiet the boy went
over to him and found he was deao.
The end had come peacefully.
Went to Fishing Village.
The lad bravely set to work and af
ter laying out the corpse the best he
could, started by himself for Sand
point, a small fishing village and post
office on Humboldt harbor, established
in 1891. Upon arriving at Sand Point
he asked for help from the postmas
ter and another man, the only resi
dents within several hundred miles,
and they turned in and helped build
a coffin. A heavy southwester blew
in from the North Pacific and the boy
was compelled to lay up for two days
waiting for the gale to abate.
Finally the storm abated and he set
sail for home. He dug his father’s
grave and buried him, and distant
neighbors came and attended the fu
neral.
“Old Tom” Devine was bom in
Duchess county, New York. Beyond
this bit of information the son knew
nothing more of his father’s early his
tory; nothing of how he happened to
come to Alaska, or how he came to
settle thousands of miles from civili
zation, and lead a lonely life with a
native wife.
After the funeral the boy went to
the westward and is at work in a can
nery.
Anchorage Daily Times, “The
Newspaper of Alaska.”