San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-18
GiLPINS RAILROAD SCHEME.
Some OF the Obstacles in the Way of al
All Rail Route to Europe.

Some OF the Obstacles in the Way of an
All Rail Route to Europe.
The project of Ex-Governor Gilpin, of
Colorado, to build q line of railway through
the wilds of Alaska to Cape Prince of
Wales, to connect with the Russian rail
way system through Siberia, thus linking
the old and the new worlds with rail.
road, is II feasible one and the future will
see it accomplished. But there is a giant
obstacle in the way of one unbroken line
connecting the two hemispheres, and this
is Behring straits. Mr.. Gilpin's PROPOSE
ton is To bridge these straits, which is all
well enough in theory, but quite n differ
| ent thing in practice.
At considerable expense the straits can
| undoubtedly be bridged, as an island lies
about midway between the Asiatic and
American shores; the distance is not great
and the waters shallow, the government
charts showing the greatest depth to be
only thirty-two fathoms
But could Il bridge he built high enough
TO allow towering icebergs to pass under
it, and with strength to withstand the
great ice foes that are yearly swept down
through the straits from the Arctic ocean?
The current in sweeping through the mar.
row straits from one great sea into an
other is very swift and strong and great
icebergS would be borne against the bridge,
its piers and abutmeuts with n force that
neither steel stringcrs nor mason work
would stand against.
Should the structure stand for a time it
must ultimately give way before the great
ice block with the Curreut of the Arctic
ocean sweeping against it, that would fol
low any obstruction to its passage. The
ice flow il the only difficulty in the way of
bridging Behrin9 straits, and it is one that
is insurmOuntabe A ship railway across
the straits could run in the summer only,
as the straits freeze over during tue win,
ter and, as Capt. Emory, of the United
States ship ThetIs, stated, the only prac,
tiCal means of crossing these straits at all
seasons of the year is by tuuuclinV under
them
The character Of the coast line of Alaska
is such that railway building along ii
would encounter obstacles almost as great
as the ice foes in Behring straits. The
mountains are rugged and precipitOus in
the extreme; they break in preCpiCe sheer
into the sea, and run back to attitudes of
from 800 to nearly $1,000 feet, aud the crest
of the range is capped with eternal snow
and ice. Every canyon is IN inlet from the
sea which, octopus like, seems to cling with
mighty arms to the mountains for support
Thus channels are navigable for the larg.
est ships, and, curious Is it may seem, great
steamships glide up these narrow canyons,
with barely passage room on either side
for miles, and come TO anchor directly
under the towering ice capped peaks, in
the very heart of the coast range.
Where the waters of the sea end in these
canyons come ia the arms of a glacier,
with surface like an angry sea and
cracked and scanned in every direction.
These glacial arms extend back to the crest
of the range, whore they join the main
glacier, which expands into vast field of
ice, as it were the glacier reaching its long
arms down from above. and the sea reach
ing up from below, and claspiug hands
half way upon the mountain side.
Late scientific Investigations have proven
that these glaciers mOve-that, mt the rate
of from n fraction of an inch to u foot or
two daily, they are slipping down to the
sea, and with regularity that is remark.
able hurl from their fronts acres of ice at u
time into the waters A difficulty i'll rail
way building across these ice fields would
be that break would float a whole train
Of cars out to sea,
Through the interior of Alaska, rather
than along the coast lies the route for
Governor Gilpin's railroad, across the head
waters of the Stickecn and down the great
valley Of the YukOn.--Alaska Cor. Rocky
Mountain News.