The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-01-11
EXPLORING ALASKA.
THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF A PARTY
OF SCIENTISTS.

The Strange Land of the Far Northwest
Has Many Interesting Features-Lux-
uriant Vegetation Where There Is No
Ice-St. Elias Not a Volcano.
Mr.. Israel c. Russell has returned to
Washington from that region Of eternal
ice and snow in Alaska, where the high
est peak in North America rises to an
altitude of 10000 feet from glacier
1000 square miles in area and as big as
all those of tha Alps put together
Along the edge of the glacier, all the
way from ley bay to Yakutat bay, there
extends strip of green coast which is
covered with luxuriant vegetation.
Strawberry vines cover the ground for
miles, and the verdant fields are red
dened as far as the eye can reach with
luscious fruit, which compares favor
ably in point of size and flavor with the
finest grown in temperate ATTITUDES.
There are huckleberries, too, and ''sal-
mon berries" which are something be-
tween blackberries and raspberries, but
of giant size, measuring nearly two
inches in diameter. All the lowlands
are carpeted with violets, buttercups,
yellow monkey flowers and other wild
blossoms. Here and there, in the midst
of the vast ice fields, are the loveliest
gardens watered by the melting snow.
There are plenty of grizzly bears in
the vicinity of Mount st. Elias, but Mr..
Russell did not find them very danger
Gus. He says that his encounters with
Id ~ Ii
brown and black bears he saw and shot
great many. The expedition met with
enough perils. however, to satisfy the
most adventurous geographical explor-
ers. Nearly all of the climbing had to
be done up steep walls of ice and snow
by cutting steps. AT almost any time a
slip would have precipitated the party
down the frozen precipices thousands of
feet. On one occasion they were de-
scending when they found that an ava
lanche had carried away the steps which
they had made in going up. The i'm
promptu staircase was destroyed for 30O
feet, and they had to lower man by a
rope to chop out another, there being no
other way of getting down. Such acct
dents as this were not uncommon.
HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES.
Avalanches were continually falling,
rushing down the slopes with the speed
of railway trains and with roar like
thunder that could be heard twenty
miles away
One night about 10 o'clock the party
was passing over bad place in the
Agassiz glacier. Two men were in the
lead, drawing Il sled. Suddenly they
disappeared from sight, having fallen
into fssure in the ice. Luckily they
were caught upon a projecting ledge at
the depth of about twenty feet, else they
would never have been seen again
They were hauled out with ropes. The
| next day in the same neighborhood Mr.
Russell CHANGED to look behind him and
saw that the ice field over which he had
| just passed was gone, leaving an enor-
nous hole Of unknown depth. Another
time one of his men tumbled into a crev.
ice, and was only saved by the pack
fastened to his shoulder, which inter.
rupted his progress through twist IL
the frozen tunnel that had yawned fol-
him.
The Agassiz glacier is one of the -four
| great glaciers which, together with about
thousand small ones, flow out from the
mountains at the north to the mighty
| Malaspina glacier, pouring their streams
of ice continually into this vast frozer
sea. This glacier of Malaspina, from
1900 to 1900 feet thick, is interesting
| not merely because of it's enormous size
| Int ole Nv. e 20 hot 10
the only one now in existence of thu
same type as the glacier which formerly
| covered all of this continent as far south
as Philadelphia and st. Louis, leaving
traces that are visible to this day il
| scratches on the rocks.
| A GLACIAL RIVER.
Where the land in that region is bart
of ice the vegetation attains an almos
tropical luxuriance, and the Arctic
jungles are well nigh impossible to tn,
explorer. One of the chief obstacles en-
countered in threading them is plan
known as the "devil's club, which grow
to height of ten or fifteen feet, its stem
running along the ground for some dis
lance and then turning upward. Ever,
| part of its surface, even to the ribs o
the leaves, is thickly set with spines
which infict painful wounds, and break
ing off in the flesh cause fostering sores
In the Lucia glacier occurs most inter
esting feature in the shape Of a glacia
river which comes out from mountain
through an archway Of ice, flows for
mile and half in plain view, and thel
is lost to sight in another tunnel. Wher
the stream energies finally is unknown
No explorer has as yet been bold enough
to enter the tunnel and drift through
after the fashion of Allan Quatermail
and Umslopogaas. The greatest risk il
such an undertaking would be from fall
idg blocks of ice. At the mouth of tn
tunnel there are always confused noise
and rhythmic vibrations to be hear
from the dark recesses within. The al
is filed with pulsations like deep orga'
notes, and it requires but little imagina
ton to transform these strange sound
into the voices and songs of inhabitant
of the neither world. 1t used to be SUP
posed that Mount st. Elias was volcano
and sea captains sailing on the Pacifi
have often beheld what they imagine
to be smoke issuing from its summit
but this is mistake, and it is probabl
that the alleged smoke was really ava
l4nche dust blown upward by the wind
Washington Cor. New York Sun.