TREACHEROUS GLACIER TRAILS
. AS DESCRIBED BY A CHEECHAKO
... w
Cordovans will remember J. A..
McGuire, who with a party of Eastern
hunters were here a year ago on their
way out from the Interior, after sev
eral weeks spent in the White River
country. Mr. McGuire has been
writing some interesting articles for
Outdoor Life relative to that trip, and
in a recent issue he describes the dan
gers of the glacier trails in a most
graphic manner. The following ex
cerpts are taken from the article:
“Many brave men lose their lives in
this wild country every year from a
variety of causes. s Most of them
become so hardened to the weather
and privations that they can endure
almost unbelievable trials on the trail.
We were told of one man and his dog
team who, a few years ago, subsisted
for ten days on rabbits alone, while
camped in a tent on Nizina glacier.
Freighters, prospectors and others
frequently get caught on the glaciers
in mid-winter in a blizzard and are
compelled to camp until it is over,
as in that intense winter climate, with
a twenty-five or thirty-mile wind blow
ing, there is no human that could
withstand the cold, piercing wind
while traveling.
“Dozens of graves in sequestered
spots dot the banks of these streams,
mute testimony to the severity of th#
Alaska winters. Seldom more than
a very few people know where these
me| are buried, as, when found,
whether dead or dying, there are us
ually but few in the discovering party
(more often but one) and very likely
it is necessary to make haste with the
obsequies in order to save their own
lives; so the body is laid to rest usu
ally in a fern-clad or pine-decorated
spot, with a blaze on a near-by tree
on which pencil or pen marks (soon,
of course, obliterated) are placed,
telling the man’s name, if known, and
the date of the burial. As most of
these graves are off the trail (which
changes almost yearly in most cases)
it may easily be understood how few
of them are known to the average
passerby. Shorty showed us one
such grave, that of Captain Taylor,
who was frozen to death while neck
ing a hand sled across Nizina glacier
in February, 1914.
“Cap related the tragic death of a
musher three years ago: ‘Two-Much’
Johnson and Fred Youngs were
freighting between McCarthy and
Shushanna, the gold camp. Return
ing to McCarthy with their big Yukon
sled pulled by sixteen dogs, they came
to the Shushanna glacier. This ice
field was a very dangerous one to
cross in the spring owing to its great
number of crevasses. When covered
with snow a foot or two deep a man
has to be very careful. The snow
bridges over the crevasses and makes
some of the narrow ones hard to see.
The men had stopped their sled to go
ahead and “sound” out the snow
covered crevasses with alpenstocks, j
when the dogs began fighting. A dog
fight out of the harness is a very
much mixed up affair, but when these
fighting ‘wolves’ of the North tangle i
up in a tooth battle with the harness
on, the mix-up is about as hard to
straighten out as a string puzzle.
Finally after they got cleared, they
were started; but. wrought up by
their late fighting, the dogs were very
nervous and erratic, and at one point
jumped over a crevasse before their
masters were ready for them. These
crevasses in many places had to be
bridged over by the men chopping off
the ice of the sides with picks until
the crack filled, thereby haking a safe !
trail over the opening. However, in
this case, the dogs broke away and
lan headlong into the crevasse. Only
the first eight of the sixteen f'ell in,
but their weight on the harness was
Ico much and it broke, letting them
down. ‘Too-Much’ Johnson, in trying
to get. the dogs straightened out, fell
in also. Some of these cracks are
hundreds of feet deep and Youngs
felt something must be done quickly
if his partner was to be saved. So
he hurried to the relief camp (a camp
the freighters maintain on or near
these glaciers, where men and means
are kept to render assistance in tuch
cases).' Returning with men, axes,
picks, ropes and every appurtenance
necessary, they began the search for
Johnson. They worked along this
crevasse and down in it (by lowering
men with ropes) all that day and dur
ing the whole night—using ‘bugs,' or
electric lights—but no trace of the
man could be found. When dgwn
broke they detected a dark object a
half mile away climbing over the top
of the crevasse. They ran up and
found it was Johnson, who barely
had strength to drag himself over the
top, wrhere he lay exhausted. They
found both hands and part of his
face frozen and the fingers worn al
most to stubbs in trying to climb up
over the icy sides. They wrapped
him up carefully, laid him on the sled
and started for McCarthy, but before
they reached the town he expired
thereby offering up another life —the
supreme toll—to the fascinating but
uncertain life of the frozen North.
* * *
“Never have I witnessed a more
beautiful sight than that which greet
ed us as we filed along on the surface
of the white ice that clear morning.
The clouds had not all lifted from the
highest peaks, whose dark promon
tories stood half-sheathed in their
filmy gowns of billowy mist. Rhino
ceros peak was thrice-attractive be
cause only his black-pointed crest
was visible, like a floating buoy,
above the feathery sea of encircling
clouds.
“As this was our first glacier travel
we felt very much that timidity one
would experience in walking on eggs,
fearing our horses might slip on the
treacherous ice, which was inter
woven with crevasses and pot-holes,
ridges and gullies. Solid terra firma
we had all found dangerous enough
at times, but this glacier traveling the
first hour of the first day was the
most ticklish thing we had experi
enced in many moons. After that we
took it as a matter of course, and
didn’t feel thrilly any more. As
every horse in the outfit had been
sharp-shod at McCarthy before leav
ing, we finally settled down to a reg
ular sourdough form of contentment
and took every slip, slide and skate
as a matter of course, trying to think
of the hair-breadth escapes from in
stant death (as they sometimes ap
peared to us) as the ordinary events
of a hunting trip in the Far North.
“Just the same, brothers, if any
one of you believes that an Alaska
glacier is anything resembling a boul
evard or skating rink in smoothness
you should be disillusionized; for
there are mountains, peaks, valleys
*
and canyons on the glacier—all on a
small scale, it is true, but they are
there in as varied projection and de
jection as in a range of the rockiest
mountains. The glacier surface is
serrated with little streamlets;
cracks and crevasses, the former run
ning from an inch in width to from
five to ten feet—crevasses the same.
Some pot-holes and crevasses extend
down through the ice hundreds of
feet. The horses used on the glacier
trail are as proficient at this work as
are the range riding horses in the rop
ing game. They have all had their
falls on the ice, their slips, slides and
rolls, and they know as well as a man
does what places are dangerous.
“While crossing a stream on a gla
cier this day one of our horses slipped
and fell, landing between two, ice
ridges in the bottom of a ‘draw’ al
most on his back. By chopping away
the ice on each side of the crack
he '-was able to rise. While taking
a short rest after this experience, the
beauty of the scene before us was re
flected again through mention of it
by Harry, who pronounced it a real
memory-jewel. On account of the
unusual lighting effect produced by
the clearing of the storm, I doubt if
many other travelers crossing this
glacier will ever again be treated to
just such a kaleidoscopic display of
colors as we witnessed. Many
shades each of green, blue and purple
appeared in each crevasse and pot
hole. In the perspective, extending
for miles, were seen the green-white
expanses of mountain and plain in
miniature, the sun’s rays dancing on
the shimmering corrugations and
casting shadows intermittently on the
glass-like iridescence.”
SEATTLE POLICE WILL
STUDY LAW AND WRESTLING
SEATTLE, Wash., Sept. 19 (by As
sociated Press).—Seattle police are
soon to begin courses in criminal
law, jiu jitsu, rules of testimony and
other points connected with their
work.
ITALY’S COAL PROBLEM
IS MOST SERIOUS ONE
-m -
ROME, Aug. 20 (Correspondence of
Associated Press).—The Italian gov
ernment is trying to obtain coal from
Southern Russia so as to stave off
the menace of a winter without a
source of heat. Two commercial
commissions have been sent to the
vast basin of the Donetz in Southern
Russia where Italian experts estimat
ed there were untouched coal lands
that would yield 57,000,000,000 of tons.
The experts also say there are 174,
000,000,000 of tons of coal in Siberia
or in parts of European Russia out
side of the Donetz basin.
It is calculated that of the coal sup
ply of Southern Russia were properly
exploited the territory would furnish
all the coal necessary for the Medi
terean countries.
Coal for Italy is now quoted at $5.50
at Norfolk, Va., but it costs $30 a ton
to bring it to Genoa.
DEPRECIATION OF MARK
CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES
COBLENZ, Aug. 25 (by mail).—
Hand grenades left over from the war
were used effectively recently by en
raged civilians in Zoppot in West
Prussia who attacked food stores on
the ground that shopkeepers were
grossly profiteering. According to in
formation reaching American army
headquarters a mob, armed with gren
ades, revolvers and other weapons,
attacked in numbers the stores which
were known to have charged high
prices.
In the interior of Germany marga
rine has been quoted recently at 6
marks per puond, whereas it formerly
cost 2.80 marks per pound. This is
attributed to the fact that large quan
tities have lately been bought abroad
at higher prices than formerly owing
to the low rate of German exchange.
The official rate of exchange for Au
gust at army headquarters is two
marks, twenty-two pfennings for one
franc, giving the mark a value in
American money of a fraction more
than six cents.
SOUTH AFRICA FINDS
PRICELESS WORK OF ART
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
Aug. 12 (by mail).—A British army
officer recently purchased for seven
and one-half shillings ($1.80) in a
Pretonia auction room a picture
which art critics believe to be a miss
ing Rembrandt—a work of priceless
value. The picture, portraying the
Crucifixion, has been sent to advisors
of the great art gallery at the Hague
for examination. The theory is that
the picture was brought to South
Africa by a member of a family of
Dutch noblemen who were patrons of
Rembrandt.
Job printing at Daily Times office.
MONTENEGRINS ARE
FEARFULLY IGNORANT
OF RULES OF HYGIENE
PARIS, Aug. 15 (Correspondence of
Associated Press).—Inhabitants of
the mountains of Montenegro live in i
ignorance of the most elementary
rules of hygiene and the strangest
superstitions concerning diseases still
flourish among them, says a report of
the mission of the American Red
Cross which has just returned from
that country.
The mountaineers believed that
physical ailments were carried on the
wings of baleful breezes and that
contagious diseases were distributed
during dark nights by evil spirits.
Thus they slept with their windows
hermetically sealed and tuberculosis
reigned supreme. The peasants re
ceived the advices, suggestions and
medicines of the American Red Cross
without enthusiasm.
One aged man suffering from a,
chronic affection of the throat insist-1
ed that it was caused by his tongue
being too small. He refused to make
use of the antiseptic gargle supplied
by the Red Cross until a doctor told
him it would make his tongue grow.
He was the most surprised Monte
negrin in the world when, after a few
days, he was cured.
On account of important business
I shall be compelled to be absent from
Cordova for about twenty days. I
shall sail on the Watson on the 28th
of September and return to Cordova
about October 15.
8-13 DR. L. VON M. ZESCH.
Home portraits of quality. Agency
Cordova drug store. Scarborough, pho
tographer. 14-tf
Your eyes fitted. Compound and
stigmatic lenses replaced. See Os
borne.
No one should be without an elec
tric plate, especially the kind with 3
different heats. Northwestern Hard
ware Company.
LEGAL ADVERTISEMENTS
fSUMMONS
—•—
In the District Court for the Territory
of Alaska, Third Division. Torger
Asbjorson plaintiff vs. Caroline
Asbjornson, defendant. No. C-176.
The President of the United States of
America, Greeting to the above
named defendant:
You are hereby required to appear
in the District Court for the Terri-’
tory of Alaska, Third Division, within
thirty days after’the completion of
the publication of this summons, to
wit, within thirty days after the 25th
day of October, 1919, and answer the
complaint of the above-named plain
tiff in the above-entitled action,
wherein said plaintiff prays that he
be given an absolute decree of di
vorce from you forever dissolving
the bonds of matrimony heretofore
existing between you and said plain
tiff.
And unless you so appear and
answer the plaintiff will take judg
ment against you for want thereof
and will apply to the court for the
relief demanded in his said complaint
as hereinabove set out.
The date of the order for service by
publication herein is September 3,
1919, and such order was duly made
and entered and tiled herein o.i said
date.
The date of the first publication of
this summons is September 13, 1919,
and the date of its last publication is
October 25, 1919.
WITNESS, The Honorable Charles
E. Bunnell, Judge of said court, and
the seal of said court, on this 3rd
day of September, 1919.
(Court Seal) ARTHUR LANG,
Clerk of the District Couit for the
Territory of Alaska, Third Division.
By JOHN B. MILLER,
Deputy.
GOOD EATS DINING ROOM
The Arctic Boarding House, next1
door to the Times office, has been
purchased by Mrs. Florence Wood
ward and Mrs. Hanna E. McCrary.
The name has ben changed to the
“Good Eats.” The home of “homey”
home cooking. Meal hours—Break
7 to 9; lunch 12 to 2; supper 5:30 to
7:30. _
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TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
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