The case of Michael McMurray, at present a patient in the General hospital at this place where be is being treated for decaying fingers, the result of freezing, is almost without parallel in the annals of history aside from the wonderful and famous case of Robinson Crusoe.
Up to three weeke ago McMurray was located in the very heart of a vast
and, but for himself, unexplored territory one hundred and fifty miles north-east of Teslin post and near the headwaters of the Dease river. He had been there for five years, making an occasional trip to the post of Taylor & Drury at Teslin for supplies, it being
his habit to carry out on his back enough grub to last him two years as he depends principally on his rifle for his food. His last trip to the post was early last spring wher he again betook himself to the wilds for a stay of two years. But on the way out last spring he had the misfortune to badly freeze the two big fingers of his right hand, which misfortune accounts for his presence in the hospital.
As a result of the freezing the two injured fingers began to decay sometime during the summer and in order to remove the dead bone McMurray tied a strong string around the bone, fastened the other end to a tree and with a determined jerk, pulled the bones of both fingers off at the first joint.
While the injured digits did not heal, McMurray went ahead with his work of prospecting and mining and when winter set in to hunting and trapping.
Three weeks ago be was several miles from his cabin one day skinning a number of wolves he had shot and when he returned in the evening it was to find his cabin a heap of smoldering embers, it having been entirely consumed by fire during his absence. Everything he possessed on earth except the few clothes he wore at the time were gone. All the grub he had left was a piece of frozen moose meat hanging in a tree nearby, but he had not even a match with which to make a fire to cook it.
With a chunk of the frozen meat he struck out for Taylor & Drury's post 150 miles away. As his moccasins soon wore out he was forced to use his drawers to tie up his feet and that left nothing to cover his legs save a pair of overalls. However, he pushed bravely on, traveling day and night without sleep and nothing to eat save the frozen moose meat.
At the end of six days he reached the trading post more dead than alive, only his indomnitable grit and Irish pluck having caused him to withstand the rigors of the trip. At the post he was cared for a few days and then sent on to this place via Atlin, arriving here Friday of last week. He at once entered the hospital where Dr. Cade found it necessary to remove more bone from each of the injured fingers before there could be any process of healing.
Asked if he had no neighbors in the country where be was located, McMurray replied that he had but that they were located 200 miles south of where he was.
McMurray says he will return to his isolated retreat as soon as he gets out of the hospital, that he has located no less than six promising quartz ledges, five of which carry free gold and the sixth copper and other minerals. He has also located placer gold and from a shaft which he sunk took $4 after one fire only a few days before losing his cabin. He had the gold in a bottle in the cabin and it, of course, was lost in the fire.
McMurray who is evidently Irish, though reared in England, has been in
the Yukon since 1889 and during that time has prospected nearly the entire length of the great waterway, having spent several years around Circle City and a long time in the Stewart country. For the past 5 years he has been north-west of Teslin and about 40 miles from the British Columbia line He is a small, mild-mannered appearing man and is perhaps 55 years of age.
