Hyder Weekly Herald

FIND BURKE'S BODY

Pilot Everett Wasson, who recently rescued Bob Martin and Emil Kading, survivors of the Burke party, from the wilds of the Atlin district, left Tuesday to complete his long errand of mercy by bringing in the body of Capt. E. J. A. Burke from the log grave in which it was placed by Martin and Kading after Burke succumbed to starvation and exposure on the grinding march through the snow after leaving Burke's plane in an effort to find food and shelter at Moose Lake, fifty miles away.

Wasson plans to land at the same lake where he stopped on his first rescue mission and will then mush to Burke's last camp in company with Joe Walsh, his trapper guide, and carry Burke's body over the ten miles of hard trail.

Martin and Kading are at Whitehorse recovering slowly from their terrible experience. They report that the plane was twice forced down by snow while returning to Atlin October 11. Once Burke got it into the air again, but scraped a hole in a pontoon the second time.

After waiting 7 days at the plane, they carved a message on a tree and started away, sinking every step in the soft snow and making only four miles a day. Their only food in 23 days was a duck and four squirrels. By Nov. 8, Burke's condition and kidney trouble became acute. Kading then killed a caribou with one of the 2 bullets left. The animal providentially crossed his path, as he was too weak to hunt and had to wait for game to come to him. The food, cooked on sticks and in an empty gas can, revived Burke's spirits but not his body and he died soon after in Martin's arms.

Kading and Martin went to bed at 3 P. M. daily to conserve food and fuel until they were found by Wasson, who saw their beacon smoke and dropped rations before landing at a lake 10 miles away.