The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-20
eILPIr,s RA1LRoAp soEaMe.
Some of me Obstacles In the Way of
an Al-rail Route to Europe.
From the Rocky Mountain Relcs.

sumo OF me obstacles IN the Way OF
an Al-rail Route to Europe.
From the Rocky Mountain Yelcs
JUNEAU. ALASKA. Oct. 2s.-The project
OF ex-Goy. Gilpin Of Colorado TO build
line Of railway through the wilds of Alaska
to Cape Primes of Wales, 60 connect with
the Russian railway system through Sbe-
ria, thus linking the old and the new worlds
with a railroad, is feasible one and the
future will see it accomplished. But
the is giant obstacle in there
way of one mbroken line connecting the
two hemisphees, and this Is Behring straits
Mr.. Gilpin's Proposition is to bridge these
straits, which is all well enough in theory.
but quite different thing in practice. At
considerable expense the straits can IN
doubleday bebridged, as an island lies about
midway between the Asistic and American
shores; the distance is not great and the
waters shallow, the government charts
showing she greatest depth TO only thirty
two fatkoms
But could tbridge be built high enough TO
allow towering icebergs to pass under it?
and with strength to withstand the great
ice foes thatAre yearly swept down through
the straits from the Attic oceans The cur
rent in sweeping through the narrow straits
swift and strong, and great icebsrgs would
be borne against the bridge, its piers and
aoutements With force that neither steel
stringers or 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
n dnylr, oh sv "a -
that IS insurmountable. A ship railway
across the straits could run in the summer
only, as the straits freezs over during the
winter. and, as Capt. Emory of the United
States ship Thetis stated, the only practical
means of crossing these straits at oil seasons
OF the year is by tunnel!ug under them.
The character Of the coast line of Alaska
is such that railway building along it would
encounter obstacles almost as great as the
ice foes in Behring straits. The mountains
are rugged and precipitous in the extreme.
They break into precipice sheer into the
sea, and run back TO ATTITUDES of from 600 to
nearly ~, 900 feet, AID the crest of the range
is capped with eternal snow and ice Every
canon is an inlet from the sea, which,
octopuslike, seems to cling with mighty
arm to. the mountains for support.
Thus channels are navigable for the
largest ships, and, curious as it may seem,
SFSdb steamships. Ruu9 up UneSe narrow
canons. with barely passage room on either
side for miles, and came 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 taess canons comes
in the arms of glacier, with a surface like
an angry sea and cracked and scanned in
every direction. These glacial arms extend
back to the crest of the range, where they
join the main glecier, which expands into a
vast field of ice, as 1t were, the glacier
reaching its long arms down from above,
and the sea reaching up from below, and
clasping hands half way upon the mountain
side.
Late scientific Investigations have proved
that these glaciers move-that, at the rate
Of from fraction of an inch to a 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 q
time into the waters. A difficulty in build
ing across these icefelds would be that a
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 Gov.
Gilpin's railroad, across the headwaters of
the Stickeen and down the great valley of
the Yukon.