Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-15

yards beyond which seemslike the tropics
in mxuriance, though his wood is secured
where the Arctic seemingly intrudes. 1t
is curious combination, indeed, to sit
on the ice-foot half as high as a tall, tow
ering tree and that slopes back into
glacier 1000 TO 1900 feet thick and be
in the shade Of the evergreen that stands
on the border of dense forest. One
would think that sitting on the ice in the
deep shade may be little too chilly, but
after ono has been been walking III the
plarino sun over the white ice he feels
as if he would like TO crawl under the
shade of the North Pole to cool of and
fifteen to twenty miles of Ice must be
crossed to reach this point.
THE GLACIERS.
These great fingers OF ice from the vast
glaciers evidently have their long periods
Of advance and retreat, for where ! stood
the white gistening mass was eating at
the very limbs and trunks of trees that
we're in full leaf. while in another place
could be seen long windows OF dead
trees partially covered by moraine,
whore the ice bad evidently once
worked. although the edge OF the re-
treating glacier was now nearly half
mile away. Where the ice was now adj
vancing we inferred it was at n rapid
gait. for the trees were green and alive
that it was grinding to pieces, while
beyond the windrow of Old dead trees,
killed probably decades before, the
standing trees were also dead for a
hundred yards or so, showing that the
glaciers presence for that distance was
haneiul either by chilling the forest so 1t
could not grow, or more likely by the
swamps OF ice-water il eemedtot throw out
about that distance, and which. IN con-
stantly bathing the roots. no doubt had
2 more deleteriouS effect than the chilled
air on their branches. From all this we
suppose that the advancing glacier was
so rapid la its gait, for 1t was killing
more by direct crushing than by its mere
presence and indirect effect on roots and
branches. So far have spoken only OF
the forests directly facing the Pacihc
Ocean.
Once over the coast range OF noun
tains and nature takes on different
phase in many respects regarding the
woodlands. Arctic winter prevails IN
stead of an almost continuous raia-
storm. On the highlands OF tue interior
the growth is stuAted and IN sparse
quantity. Here | found the cOntorted
pine. as naturalsts call it, and it is GER
tlinly well named, for more contorted,
twisted, snarled, crooked, irregular, and
gnarled tree I never saw. re-
member one that stood in the mid
die Of q small prairie ! crossed and
which attracted my attention SO much
that | examined it infinitely. 1t looked
like a bent corkscrew holding alOft a
pint of fsh-hooks. 1t was dead, proba-
bly, in sheer despair from not being able
to twist in some new direction; and ex-
aiming where the gnarled bark had
fallen from the trunk. 1t could he seen
that the woody fbres were twisted
around the heart as an axis, making four
or five revolutions in the height OF
about twenty feet. Now, this
heart or axis OF the tree again made
about dozen spiral turns. like a cork
screw, as | have said, which used up
about third Of its length or, in other
words, it would have been thirty feet
high il Slaughtered ont Then, rs if to
add confusion to disorder, the whole
tree was bent to the northward IN a
sort of general keeping with all ex-
posed trees, as a result OF the prevailing
southern winds. The limbs looked rs
if they were all trying to avoid each
other, and even themselves.
In Southeastern Alaska grows the
beautiful yellow cedar, which would
bring 500 to $50 per thousand feet in
San francisco as fancy wood for arts
tic purposes when smuSgled through 1t
brings SO to 800 per thousand feet.
wholesale, there if the law allowed it to
be cut, which 1t makes every effort to
prevent, although it is sold in some parts
Of the Territory, cut as cord-wood, at 50
TO $3.50 per cord, under the dispensa-
ton which allows residents to cut timber
for their own personal use.