Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-01-16

gallons. Ihe season LASTS from august
to February. This year the Kilisnoo
factory shipped 1S, 7o2 gallons of oil
as the product Of one months work
The fish are caught, usually. IN large
nets. Dying almost Immediately after
being brought to the surfaco of the
water, they are dumped into large
1at-bottomed barges, towed by small
steam tugs, and carried to the factory
wharf, where they are deposited IN
tank having capacity of fifty tons.
From this tank car runs up an
incline to another bin, where the fish
are again unloaded. From there they
are sI.oveled at necessary times into
the press room, where they sre
repeatedly crushed and heated until
the oil is abstracted and only the dry
residue is left. To separate the Oil
from the water that it contains there
is a series of tanks into which the
liquid runs until the two ingredients
are properly divided.
For long time the crushed and OIL
less herring was allowed to go to
waste. Left to itself. the illsmelling
mass quickly becomes pile of living
worms. At last it was determined to
.
about a year ago the company began
to make phosphates or fertilizers from
it. At present the factory is not in
the best order, but yet 1t produces
some LOO sacks of guano a month,
aud the experiment is considered
success, a fertilizer of great richness
being produced at a comparatively
small cost.
Of all the scenic attrac tons of this
country, naturally so prolific in nat
ural wonders, Glacier bay must be &C
knowledged the grandest, most beau
tiful, and most interesting. Taere is
nothing that can equal it on this con-
tinent, and nothing in the old world
that has at once its grandeur and its
picturesque beauty. The bay itself is
a wide, long, natural inlet, leading In
a northwesterly direction far away
toward a range of snowy peaks.
Uninbabited, and first visited by a
white man only few years ago, vixen
John Muir penetrated to its head, the
bay never fails to call forth the high
est encomiums of the learned and the
ignorant, the travelled and those who
are novices in sight seeing. When
Alaska is more generally visited Gla
cier bay will be the feature of attrac-
ton. None WAC has ever seen this
bay can forget its aspect, with its
glaciers and mountains and phantom
ships of ice sailing over the deep cold
waters.
Leaving Chilkhat for Glacier bay,
we followed Lynn canal during
greater part Of the day, but later turn
ed sharply to the right into a broad
basin that gradually narrows into the
straits leading to the bay. Were it
not for its neighbor, Lynn canal would
be q marked feature of Alaska. Long
aud narrow, 1t extends southwark be
tween parallel ranges Of capped
! paaks, and affords at every turn a
view of wonderful variety and beauty.
| There, at one moment, the steep sides
of the hills are overrun with water
falls, showing white amid the dark
green trees, and again glacier presses
It's way through an opening IN the
cliffs and runs It's long arm down into
the blue-tlnged waters. In the dis
tance the mountains visible from
Lynn canal ase marshalled against
the sky like
Ships of some vast fleet
S,iling through wind and sleet.
Northward especially the peaks are
imbued with a grandeur which be
longs particularly to Alaska. White
as driven snow, clear-cut and many
shaped, they fill the horizon with
their majestic heights and add yet
another coloring to that lavish display
of varied hues so characteristic of the
country when the sky is clear of
clouds and the sunlight falls upon the
deep-land snow and forests and huge
glaciers that fill the mountain ra
vines
But Glacier bay is indescribabl4.
Its grandeur discourages one attempt
ing to paint it, " said the artist. On
right and left ran two high ridges of
forest-covered hills, with here and
there a whitened peak lifting its head
above the greenness. Around us lay
the unruffled waters of the bay,
stretching away towards the south
past group of tree grown islands to
where line of pale blue SUBMITS rose
into view. No cahoes were visible,
no sails appeared ia sight, no towns or
villages or camps relieved the wilder
ness of the neighboring shores. A
wilderness lay all about us, with wat
ers bathing the feet of mountains and
snowbanks resting on rocky nights,
while in the distance, so far removed
that only their general outlines could
be seen aid every gly scar was hid,
| looned the TRIBE SUBMITS of the Fair
weather range, shooting pure and
white sixteen thousand feet the hills
gathered about their base, and forn
ing the northern boundary of the bay.
| Other ranges have a greater altitude
than this of Fairweather, but few rise
from so near the sea, and have SO lit
tie TO rob them of their height Look
ing at this group the mountains seem
to have shot up from the ground, and
they stand like cakes of ice, frosted
with fresh fallen snow. They were
hundred miles away when we krst
caught sight of them, yet seemed not
half that distance, sfor the air was
crisp and clear.
There are altogether six hundred
glaciers in Alaska, varying in size,
but in nearly every case having di-
nensiens far greater than any in
Switzerland. Those extending down
from the Fairweather group and from
the lesser heights guar ding the bay
on the north and south, and which
drop portions of their immense bulk
into the deep waters of the inlet,
number six in all. The largest of
these is the Muir glacier, explored and
measured first by John Muir, who
was guided to it by Indians. 1t is fifty
miles or more in length, and where it
touches the bays is three miles in
width, and has solid height above
the water OF 200 feet, with pinnacie's
of spire-lke design rising 50 feet and
1O0 feet above the more solid mass.
Underneath the immense cakes and
blocks of SHOW AID ice constituting
the glacier. which are piled together
in the widest and most disorderly
manner, runs living stream of va
ter, coursing through its hidden pas
sage with rumble as of thousand
carts. Escaping from the ice at last.
the river boi1s upward from the gla-
cier front, then mingles with the wa
ters OF the bay, and flows off toward
the outer sea. The constant wear of
this sunless stream, acting with other
causes, forces particles OF the glacier,
Al L