Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-03-10
A DEAD CITY IN ALASKA
A MINERS STORY OF A nseeprrr
AND ICE COVERED TOWN.

" I" Rave Seen the Original of
'"e MUIR Glacier Mirage-It Ia Ga NO.
North That Months Are Reou,r.a :.
reach the Piace-An Unsupportea w.
once the story Of the Muir glacier
mirage trst became known vonr co,.ra
spondent has made every effort to 90.
substantial news concerning it, but be.
yond the statements of Professor Wi
loughby, and the word of ona or t,ro
VINO mad seen the mirage, nothing tanei.
oie could be obtained. BY the steamer
Elder, which arrived recently at v;c+o-
ma from the north, came miner ,vbo
'eit the vessel at that port, and did not
go on TO San Francisco, as he at first in
tended From this miner, who is n very
intelligent man, a most remarkable st,,ry
was obtained, and the first description
OF the Silent City is here given.
george Ii. Kershon is the name eiven
by the narrator of the tale.
hershon is a hardy looking man. with
well knit frame, indicative of an abil-
ity to withstand physical hardship. while
his clear, blue eyes are surety that
whatever he undertakes he will carry
through.
yes" he said, II think am the first
white man who ever gazed on the frozen
city of the north. In the summer of
1888 was one of party of six who left
here to go north prospecting. Of the
other five | know not where they are
We took the steamer to Juneau. where
we left her, buying a small sloop to take
our kits up to Yukon. After several
weeks of awful toll we reached fork.
Il was for going up this fork and
prospecting, but the other five were
against it; but as was determined TO
go left the party, engaged an Indian
canoe, with two bucks, and started up
OFF this unknown fork. We had terri
BILE time. The stream narrowed in be-
tween high cliffs and shot with dizzy
swlftness down the gulches, making it
necessary to tow the canoe by means of
line from the banks, two doing this
while the third man rested.
WOODS AND ICE.
After that it was a bit easier. The
river broadened out and the country was
more level The banks were well wood
ed and game was plentiful. We kept on
like this, always going north, when after
six weeks a range OF mountains were
sighted AT length we reached the wild
country again, and the stream, which
had been subdividing itself into lesser
ones, soon became too difficult to navi-
gate. This was almost at the foot of
the mountain range spoken of. Here
determined to camp for the winter, and
good quarters were found
Before long the cold came. and at
times it was impossible to stir from
cover. Especially was this the case
when the wind blew At other times it
was fairly comfortable, although the
lack of sun made it gloomy enough
"One day determined to try to scale
one of the mountains near us, as got
so ti~ed and weary with being penned
up in such a confined place. This idea |
put before the Indians, One of them
said he would go with me; the other
would not risk it, so he was left in camp
I'VE went right up the line of the fro
zen river, which, being solid mass of
ice, made good roadway Following
this for about twenty miles, at pretty
steep rise, we reached plateau between
the foothills and high range, Here the
stream ended and we started to climb
one OF the big hills After lot of hard
work we reached point near the sum-
NIT A wonderful view was had from
here, but the strangest thing was city
in one of the valleys.
you may bet was surprised to see
it. At first thought it was some fan
tastic arrangement of the ice and snow
which had assumed the form of city
but examination with a glass showed
that such was not the case, it being toe
regular in appearance.