HANSON'S LTD. HARDWARE Furnifure Electric Appliances Beatty Farm Equipment HANEY B.C. For a country home, poultry or fruit farm ET IEA NOE oun’ in the ever popular MAPLE RIDGE District. —— HAL MENZIES LOUGHEED HIGHWAY, HANEY, B.C. FULLER-WATSON LTD. General Merchants WE SELL EVERYTHING PHONE 12 HANEY BC. Maple Ridge Motors Ford and Monarch Cars Ford — Ferguson Tractors TOWING PHONE 11 NITE 64-Y HANEY B.C. J. McGEACHAN Plumbing, Heating and Sheet Metal Works HANEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA _ HANEY GARAGE LTD. General Motors Dealers @ CARS AND TRUCKS @ PARTS AND ACCESSORIES HANEY B.C. LANGLEY COLD STORAGE A COMPLETE LOCKER SYSTEM LANGLEY PRAIRIE British Columbia Page Sixty-four speck of fuel either close to the cabin or in the immediate vicinity. A pan stood on the tin stove. Glancing into it, the two men were struck with the stark tragedy of the battle which the old man had put up with the grim spectre of death. The pan contained a little water, now frozen, with a few pieces of rawhide, which in the last extremity the old man had boiled to secure a little nourishment from the natural oils of the hide. Searching outside the cabin, the pair found further evidence of the struggle against starvation. A few dogs’ feet and part of a tail were seen. These had been severed with an axe, and it was quite evident that Cowan had eaten his two dogs when his food supplies had given out. In and about the cabin there were three firearms, two rifles and one shot- gun. Each of these weapons was found loaded in readiness for any game that might come close to the cabin. The only cooking utensils found in the hovel were a frying pan, a small pan to boil water, and a few tin cans. There was no lamp, nor could any candles be found, though these may have been eaten by the mice which abounded. Pack rats had also started building inside the cabin. For equipment, there was an old sleigh which was literally falling apart and of little use. A pair of old snowshoes were lying outside the entrance to the cabin, as well as an axe with a broken handle and an old saw. There was no bedding, outside of the blanket with which the deceased had coy- ered himself. A careful search for valu- ables only revealed one mink pelt which’ had been placed in a tin box under the old man’s bunk. Sadly the two men sur- veyed this scene of despair and of the heroic fight the old man had put up against such odds. The deceased was placed in his lone blanket, and then wrapped in canvas. The body was put on one of the sleighs and made ready for the journey back to Telegraph Creek. But before they left, seeing that the cabin was unfit for human habitation, and that someone might again try to use it, they put their weight to the sagging structure, pushed it over, and destroyed it. DEATH FRoM STARVATION AND CoLp A few meagre possessions of the de- ceased were loaded on the sleighs and the search party returned towards Telegraph Creek. Arriving at the main trail, eight miles from the cabin, Day suggested that they should examine the food cache to see if the old man had used this food at the cabin, instead of using it as an emer- gency supply to reach Telegraph Creek. They located the cache and found that it had been undisturbed except for the usual visitations of rats and mice. There were some powdered milk, some prunes, about five pounds of flour, salt and some soap. Due to the incursions of the rodents, the supplies were no longer fit for consump- a tion and were destroyed. Continuing A their way, the party reached the Eighteen Mile Ranch late on the night of April Sth. On April 7th, the coroner at Telegraph Creek held an inquiry into the death of the old man and, after hearing the ey. dence, came to the conclusion that he haq died of starvation and cold. Constable Redhead had been questioned by the coroner as to the time of death. The constable asserted that, in his opinion, death had taken place about the month of December, 1946. His grounds for this opinion were that moose had been yer plentiful in January of 1947, and there had been a number of moose tracks close to the cabin, in fact some only fifty fee away. Yet there was no evidence that the old man had killed one of these animals which would have provided him with a plentiful supply of food. Had he been — alive there is no doubt that he would haye shot one of them and left evidence in the way of carcass or bones close to the cabin, The coroner also recalled that he had warned the deceased against going trap- ping under such difficult conditions at his age in life, but the old man had been obdurate, and insisted he could make the trip. After the burial certificate was issued, Const. Redhead performed the last earthly service that could be rendered the old man, and buried him at Wards Hill, eighteen miles from Telegraph Creek, in the heart of the country which he had loved during his thirty-five years of trap- — ping and prospecting. The north drives a hard bargain, a human life for one mink pelt. THE proprietor of a restaurant in Prince Rupert didn’t have much money for ad- vertising purposes, so he bought a large fish bowl, filled it with water and put it in the window with this sign: “Contains invisible goldfish from Patagonia.” Four policemen were required to keep the crowd moving —New South Wales Police News. Telephones: Hardware 4211, Furniture 4341 Mc. & Mc. McFeely & Prior Limited McLennan, (Chilliwack) Dealers in Hardware, Furniture and Farm Equipment Chilliwack, British Columbia THE PEAKS AT CITY CENTRE Steak Dinner—Sandwiches—Fish & Chips Full Fountain Service Chilliwack, British Columbia