Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-11-28
GlLPlN'S RAILROAD SCHEME.
From the Rocky Mountain News

Juneau, Alaska, Oct. 2S.-The project
of exGov. Gilpin of Colorado to build II
line of railway through the wilds of
Alaska to Cape Prince of Wales, to con
meet with the Russian railway system
through Siberia, thus linking the old and
the new worlds with railroad, is feast
BILE one and the future will see it accom-
pished. But there is a giant obstacle in
the way of one unbroken line connecting
the two hemispheres, and this is Behring
Straits. Mr.. Gilpn's proposition is to
bridge these straits, which is all we'll
enough in theory, but quite different
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 dis
lance is not great and the waters shallow,
the government charts showing the
greatest depth to be only thirty-two
fathoms.
But could bridge be built high
enough to allow towering icebergs to
pass under it d? and with strength to with
stand the great ice foes that are yearly
sweptdown through the straits from the
Arctic ocean? The current in sweeping
through the narrow straits from one
great sea into another is very swift and
great icebergs would be borne against the
bridge, its piers, and abutments with a
hnt Fri
mason work would stand against. Should
the structure stand for time it must
ultimately give way before the great ice
block, with the current of the Arctic
ocean sweeping against it, that would
follow any obstruction to its passage.
The ice flow is the only difficulty in the
way of bridging Behring Straits, and it
is one that is insurmountable. A ship
railway across the straits could run in
the sumner only, as the straits freeze
over during the winter. and, as Capt
Emory of the United States ship Thetis
stated, the only practical means of cross
ing these straits at all seasons of the year
is by tunnelling under them.
The character of the coast line OF
Alaska is such that railway building
along it would encounter obstacles al.
most as great as the ice foes in Behrine
Straits. The mountains are rugged and
precipitous in the extreme they break in
precipice sheer into the sea and run back
to attitudes of from 600 to nearly 10000
feet, and the crest of the range is capped
with eternal snow aud ice. Every canon
is an inlet from the sea which octopus
like, seems to cling with mighty arms to
the mountains for support. Thus channel:
are navigable for the largest ships, and
curious as it may seem, great steamship;
glide up these narrow canons, with bare
'ly passage room on either side for miles
and come to anchor directly under the
towering ce-capped peaks, in the very
heart of the coast range. Where tn,
waters of the sea end in these canoni
comes in the arms OF glacier, with {
surface like an angry sea and cracked
and scanned in every direction. Thes,
glacial arms extend back to the crest O.
the range, where they Join the mail
glacier, which expands into vast fielC
of ice, as it were, the glacier reaching it
long arms down from above, and the Sc;
reaching up from below, and claspins
hands halfway upon the mountain side
Late scientific investigations hav,
proven that these glaciers move-that, a
the rate of from fraction of an inch to
foot or two daily, they are slipping dow
to the sea, and with regularity that i
remarkable, hurl from their fronts acre
of ice at a time into the waters. \ diff
Guilty in railway building across these ic
fields would be that a break wonld tloa
whole train of cars out to sea.
Through the interior of Alaska, rathe
than along the coast, lies the route TO
Gov. Gilpn's railroad, across the head
waters of the Stickeen and down tn
great valley of the Yukon.