Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1892-01-07
EXPLORING ALASKA
Some Thrilling Experiences of a Party
of Scientists in That Far-off
Country.
1t is Described as Strange Land of
Many New and Interesting !:
Features.
Luxuriant Vegetation Where There is
No Ice-Mount St. Elias Not
Volcano.

Il
Volcano.
MI. Israel G. 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 a glacier
1000 square miles in area and as big as
all those of the Alps put together.
Along the edge Of the glacier, all the
way from Icy bay to Yakutat bay, there
extends a 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 raspberrles, 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
them reminded him of killing pigs. OF
brown and black bears he saw and shot
great many. The expedition met with
enough per'1s, 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
slip would have precipitated the party
down the frozen precipices thousapds 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 800
feet. and they had to lower man by q
rope to chop out another, there being no
other way of getting down. Such acci-
dents as this were not uncommon.
HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES.
Avalanches were continually falling,
rushing down the slopes with the speed
of railway trains and with a roar like
thunder that could be heard twenty
miles away.
One night abort 10 o'clock the party
was passing over bad place in the
Agassiz glacier. Two men were in the
lead, drawing sled. Suddenly they
disappeared from sight, having fallen
into fissure in the ice. Luckily they
were caught upon 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 crew
ice, and was only saved by the pack
fastened to his shoulder, which inter
rupted his progress through a twist in
the frozen tunnel that had yawned for
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 frozen
sea. This glacier of Malaspina, from
1850 to 1900 feet thick, is interesting,
not merely because of its enormous size,
but also by reason of the fact that it is
the only one now in existence of the
same type as the glacier which formerly
covered all Of this continent as far south
as Philadelphia aud st. Louis, leaving
traces that are visible to this day in
scratches on the rocks.
A GLACIAL RIVER.
Where the land in that region is bare
of ice the vegetation attains an almost
tropical luxuriance, and the Arctic
jungles are we'll nigh impossible to the
explorer. One of the chief obstacles en-.
countered in threading them is q plant
known as the s'devils club, which grows
to height of ten or fifteen feet, its stems
running along the ground for some dis.
tance and then turning upward. Every
part of its surface, even to the ribs oi
the leaves, is thickly set with spines,
which inflict painful wounds, and break.
ing off in the flesh cause fostering sores.
In the Lucia glacier occurs most int4r.
esting feature in the shape of glacial
river which comes out from mountain
through an archway of ice, flows for 4
mile and half in plain view, and then
is lost to sight in another tunnel. Where
the stream emerges finally is unknown.
No explorer has as yet been bold enough
to enter the tunnel and drift through,
after the fashion of Allan Quatermain
and Umslopogaas The greatest risk in
such an undertaking would be from fall.
idg blocks of ice. At the mouth Of the
tunnel there are always confused noises
and rhythmic vibrations to be heard
from the dark recesses within, The air