{"id":7266,"date":"2021-01-09T11:41:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7266"},"modified":"2021-01-09T11:42:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T16:42:01","slug":"episode-220-yukon-diary-6-the-big-tooth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7266","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 220 YUKON DIARY 6 THE BIG TOOTH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 220    YUKON DIARY  STORY  6   THE BIG TOOTH<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan. 2021<\/div>\n

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This  is  Jack Acheson.  Every summer he came to Dublin Gulch, YUKON,  and found treasures of various kinds.  He gave me one of his treasures\u2026perhaps<\/div>\n
because we both wore similar work clothes.<\/div>\n

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This is a hairy  Mammoth, related to elephants distantly.  Once upon a time 10,000 years ago they <\/div>\n
wandered across  the Yukon after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia.   Once  here some of them<\/div>\n
met North America\u2019s Mastodons who look similar.   Both of these creatures were common residents<\/div>\n
of  North America until  killed by human predators.  They had  big teeth.  Huge tusks.  Jack finds<\/div>\n
them every year in Dublin Gulch, at least he did in the 1960\u2019s.<\/div>\n

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\u201cHow would you like this \u2026 a gift\u201d, said Jack  Acheson as he leaned against his Cat D6 in Dublin Gulch.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/div>\n
And he handed me a rock about the size of large can of fruit salad\u2026no, bigger than that.<\/div>\n
\u201cTake a guess\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201c A big chunk  of galena\u2026sort of shiny\u2026raw  silver and lead\u2026heavy.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWrong.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCertainly not gold.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLook at the layers\u2026clue to what it is.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHard\u2026looks like a stone layer cake\u2026 sidewise…many layers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWrong again.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhere  did you get it?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFound it right here in Dublin Gulch\u2026found a bunch of them<\/div>\n
and other weird stuff\u2026more every year it seems.\u201d<\/div>\n
“I Give up. What is it\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe tooth of a Hairy Mammoth\u2026a molar tooth\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt is incredible\u2026huge tooth.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe find lots of Mammoth teeth\u2026tusks,..bones\u2026right here in Dublin Gulch.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI noticed those long curved things leaning against your cabin\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThose are the tusks.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat do you do with them?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGovernment people from Whitehorse come and get them.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow old are they?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201c10,000 to 12, 000 years old\u2026ancient\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThere were mammoths  here in the Yukon?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLots of them I think\u2026herds\u2026whatever term is applied to a bunch of mammoths.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cComplete skeletons?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo\u2026we find piles  of bones\u2026sometimes single tusks\u2026sometimes <\/div>\n
just a tooth like this one I\u2019m giving you.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow  come the bones are all mixed up\u2026.spread around.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWater \u2026 flood \u2026 there once was a big glacial river here in the McQueen Valley.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIce?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, glacial ice swept down this valley as well\u2026ripped the hills apart.  You had<\/div>\n
lunch  up on Keno Hill I hear\u2026you sat on the edge of  a hanging valley<\/div>\n
where the ice  had ripped a great slab of rock\u2026cleaved it.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPossible the carcasses of those Mammoths got ground up and the hard<\/div>\n
parts  like teeth and tusks were piled in the sediment.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd you are giving this tooth to me?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou are more interested than many.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you sure this is a Mammoth tooth and not a  Mastodon  tooth?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAbsolutely.  Teeth are the easiest way to tell the difference.  This mammoth<\/div>\n
is  like a layer cake.   A  mastodon tooth on the other hand  looks like our<\/div>\n
teeth\u2026solid with bumps for grinding.   Both kinds  of teeth were for grinding<\/div>\n
but mastodons ground up bigger branches while the mammoths were more<\/div>\n
ground feeders.  The guys from Whitehorse told me that.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cThanks  Jack\u2026wonderful thing to have\u2026.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMammoth would have to lose this  tooth somehow.  Mammoths only had two sets<\/div>\n
fo teeth. Once they were worn down the mammoths starved to death.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSame could  happen to us if there\u2019re no dentists around.\u201d<\/div>\n

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That is how I got a treasure from the Yukon.  My very own Mammoth tooth.<\/div>\n
Gave it a special place in my rucksack  when the Yukon job was over.  A year<\/div>\n
later, in the fall of 1963, I  was hired  as a history teacher at Parkdale Collegiate<\/div>\n
Institute, west end of Toronto.  The tooth was a great teaching tool in that<\/div>\n
first year of teaching.   Not long.  Sometime in the following year I went<\/div>\n
to get my mammoth tooth and it was gone.<\/div>\n

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Some student stole my mammoth tooth!  Or maybe it was one of my<\/div>\n
fellow staff members.  Or maybe  one of the caretakers thought it<\/div>\n
was  garbage.   Most likely a kid.  I should have put the tooth in a<\/div>\n
safe place.<\/div>\n

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Now here is a question for you to think about.  WHAT WAS JACK ACHESON<\/div>\n
DOING  IN  THE YUKON IN 1962?  The answer may be<\/div>\n
obvious for most of you.   The next Episode 221 will provide an<\/div>\n
interesting answer… even if you guessed correctly.<\/div>\n

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Bill Dunn and  I did  not see any mammoths when we cooked  our lunch  beside a cliff that hung over this valley.  We did not even know<\/div>\n
those huge creatures once wandered around here\u2026did not know until i met Jack Acheson.   And got my mammoth tooth.  Not sure<\/div>\n
who has  that tooth now.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
January 2021<\/div>\n

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POST SCRIPT:  MAMMOTHS AND  MASTODONS<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/span>   The analysis of a mastodon tooth explains further how climate changes in Africa provoked the divergence of humans, chimps and gorillas. Loxodonta=African elephant; Elephas=Asian elephant; Mammuthus=mammoth; Mammut=mastodon<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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