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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, FEbRuARy 20, 2020
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
A TERRIBLE SCOURGE
EBA’S NOSE KNOWS
ou’ve no doubt heard of rescue dogs being
saved by being trained to have some useful skill.
One example would be the University of Washington’s
Active Conservation Canines, who lead useful lives after
being taught to sniff out wildlife scat that’s collected for
research.
Eba, the personal pet of University of Washing-
ton researcher Deborah Giles, underwent the training
and has found fame with her very specific talent: She
has a nose for orca poop, according to Q13fox.com
(bit.ly/EbaNose). Eba is pictured, courtesy of visitsan-
juans.com
“Imagine, you’re out on the ocean and you’re
looking for a poop floating in the water in this huge area,
well how do you find it?” researcher Sam Wasser told
Q13Fox. “All of a sudden, Eba jumped up and runs to
the bow of the boat and what that told us was she had
the scent. We never would have known there was a scat
there.”
Why, you may ask, is that so important? Well, an orca’s
poop reveals a lot about the mammal’s overall health, and
can also reveal pregnancy or miscarriage. All of which is
vital information for those who are studying the endan-
gered southern resident orcas who visit Puget Sound.
The added advantage of examining scat is that the
mammals’ health can be monitored from a distance, with-
out disturbing them.
The problem has always been trying to find the prod-
igal poop so it can be collected. Humans can’t usually
smell it, and that’s where Eba comes in. Giles and Wasser
made use of Eba’s unusual talent last summer.
“If you don’t collect data, then you don’t know what’s
going on,” Wasser noted. No problem, now: Eba’s on the
job.
Y
HIDE AND SEEK
A
n alarming tidbit from The Daily Astorian on
Thursday, Feb. 20, 1879:
“Resolved, that the chief of police be required to notify
all persons living in the vicinity of the family in which
a death has recently occurred by diptheria to fumigate
their premises and take all necessary and proper means
to prevent the spread of that terrible scourge of children
from spreading among us.
“… And that the authorities and sextons of all the
churches be informed that it would be unsafe … to permit
their churches to be used for purpose of holding burial
services over any person who dies of diptheria, and warn-
ing all persons from … attending any funeral service held
over the body of a person dying from that disease.”
In the 1880s there was no vaccine for diptheria, a
scary disease whose symptoms included a sore throat,
fever and swollen neck glands. A membrane of dead tis-
sue would build up covering the back of the throat and
tonsils, making it hard to swallow or breathe, and could
(and sometimes did) lead to suffocation. Diptheria could
also cause heart failure, and children were especially
susceptible.
Pages from a biography of Astoria doctor Bethenia
Owens-Adair (1840-1926), written circa 1905, pro-
vided by Liisa Penner of the Clatsop County Histor-
ical Society, give one a glimpse of the suffering the dis-
ease caused.
During a 60-hour period in 1903, Dr. Owens-Adair
(pictured), who was in her mid-60s at the time, was
out and about on her horse in the dead of winter mak-
ing house calls to tend to children stricken with dipthe-
ria (one of whom died), and performing fumigations.
She traveled over 100 miles, and only had two hours of
sleep during this ordeal. You can read the excerpt at bit.
ly/adairnotes
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention, an antitoxin for treatment was first used in the
1890s. The current vaccination, mixing the diptheria tox-
iod with the tetanus toxoid and the pertussis (whooping
cough) vaccine, became widespread during the 1940s.
Thanks to vaccination, the disease is now considered rare
in the U.S. (bit.ly/CDCdip)
THIS ‘N THAT
F
rom the Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1882 edition of The Daily
Astorian:
• Brenham Vandusen is said to be an expert at turn-
ing sumersaults.
Note: Brenham (1856-1926, pictured inset) was in
his mid-twenties at the time his acrobatic prowess was
noted. He’s former Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen’s
great-grandfather, and a son of Adam Van Dusen, who
arrived on the North Coast in 1847; at the time, his wife,
Caroline, wrote, “Astoria was barely a village of two frame
houses, two log cabins and shacks.” (bit.ly/adamvand)
• The Seattle Chronicle says the Garfield is the name of
the largest steel sailing vessel afloat.
Note: Built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland,
and owned by North Western Shipping Co., the ship was
292 feet long and 41 feet wide. She was reputed to be the
largest full-rigger in the world at the time of her launch in
January 1882. (bit.ly/garfsail)
• Thirteen starving men, shipwrecked on the China
Sea, lived 10 days on boiled rope made of the fuzz of the
coconut.
Note: The “fuzz” is actually the husk of the coconut,
which is used to make coir rope — ideal for a marine
environment because it’s fairly waterproof and resistant to
damage by salt water. However, it’s not what’s for dinner.
• Correspondences with friends are like trousers with-
out suspenders — hard to keep up.
‘WOW US, WILL YA?’
‘A WASTED FORTUNE’
ell, OK, folks here’s a bit of a contest for you
from TMZ.com. The question of the day is: “Ever
wanted to put your seemingly useless talents to good
use?”
There’s a $5,000 bonanza for the talent video of “unique
skills” they like the best in their “Show Us Your Talent”
contest. The winner will also appear on the show “TMZ
on TV.” Two staffers are shown, courtesy of TMZ, dis-
playing their skills.
You can only submit one video, and the deadline is
11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The entry form and rules are here:
tmz.com/pages/talent
“… We’re looking for a video no longer than 90 sec-
onds,” the website says, “and also … something we can
broadcast without getting fined by the FCC. So keep it
clean, people. Anything nifty, neat, clever or awe-inspir-
ing will do just fine … Wow us, will ya?”
W
nd, the latest Bigfoot news is: Recently, two men
made a 10-minute video showing a Sasquatch-ish crit-
ter roaming around in Salt Fork State Park in Ohio; they
also recorded some blood-curdling screams (bit.ly/Ograss-
man). A screenshot of the “Ohio Grassman” (Ohio’s ver-
sion of Bigfoot) is shown.
The video has over 644,000 views on YouTube, 500
comments and was picked up by news media all over the
country, and even as far away as New Zealand.
Incidentally, Ohio is a veritable hotbed of Bigfoot sight-
ings (bfro.net/gdb/#usa), but what you see on the video,
mostly, are tree trunks, while the critter plays peek-a-boo.
Hoax or real? You decide.
A
BEST DRESSED
he Buffalo Bills were unable to win in the
playoffs,” The Astorian sports reporter Gary
Henley wrote, “but Astoria High School graduate Jordan
Poyer managed to score an individual honor last week,
following his third season as a starting safety with the
Bills.
“The Bills had their 2019 post-season fan awards, and
Poyer was voted as Buffalo’s ‘Best Dressed’ player. Poyer
was also a finalist for ‘Best Social Media,’ but lost out
to Dion Dawkins. ‘Funniest Player’ was Tre’Davious
White.”
“Poyer finished the 2019 season as Buffalo’s sec-
ond-leading tackler,” Henley noted, “with a team-high
three fumble recoveries.”
‘T
A
n oversight last month from the Jan. 30, 1881, edi-
tion of The Daily Astorian:
“A.J. McEwan, an Oregon pioneer, died on Friday
last at east Portland. He was a lawyer by profession and
came to Oregon from California in 1847. He established
the first salmon fishery on the Columbia River at Woody
Island (off Brownsmead). He leaves two brothers and one
sister in this city, and one brother at Skipanon.”
It’s doubtful Alexander John McEwan (1824-
1881) was a lawyer, but no matter, he had lots of other
professions.
According to his wife, Clementine, he was born in
New Brunswick, Canada, then moved to Boston, New
York City, Madagascar, New Orleans, Rio de Janiero, San
Francisco and the California gold mines on the Yuba and
Feather rivers, before winding up in Astoria with $20,000
(about $504,000 now) in gold.
According to the Morning Oregonian: “He built a
salmon fishery on Woody Island, it being the first ever
properly established on the Columbia. He made a mile of
nets which were used in catching the salmon, and he put
up 250 barrels the first season, which he shipped to San
Francisco at enormous expense.
“The salmon was kept several months without find-
ing sale, and in order to stop the heavy expense of storage
he instructed his agents to roll the salmon into the bay,
which was done. He piled up his nets, cooper tools, etc.,
in the fishery house and left, never returning to it again,
and to-day the old house still stands on the island, a mark
of wasted fortune.”
From there, he went on to a disastrous attempt to herd
stock across the plains (they died or ran off), sheep farm-
ing (no sheep survived), then squandered money on vari-
ous other losing ventures before making his home in east
Portland, working as a bookkeeper.
He never fully recovered from a thigh bone break in
1874, and the evening of Jan. 27, 1881, he was found
inexplicably lying in a gutter. A doctor was summoned,
but he died the next day, “chilled to death,” a Morn-
ing Oregonian headline noted. “From the time he was
found until death, McEwan never spoke a word.” (bit.ly/
JAMcEwan1)
‘ONLY IN OREGON …’
un rerun: “Only in Oregon,” Tita Montero observed.
“On Friday, April 30, I was going south on the New
Youngs Bay Bridge about 8 p.m. Traffic was stopped as
if to let a boat through, except the bridge light remained
green. Curious.
“After waiting a couple of minutes, I saw a car coming
up slowly in the northbound lane with another following,
also slowly, about seven car lengths behind. Amazingly,
there was a deer between them — they were escorting a
deer across the bridge!
“The deer was obviously scared, as it was quite ner-
vously prancing and high stepping. But everyone was
stopped for this deer. Of course, I had to wonder how
the deer got itself into the situation. I hope someone got
video, because it was so unbelievable!” (In One Ear,
5/6/11)
F