River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-08-01

BitCH HidoSNo a eftohtlCu 1ldiiuluis u
! wild cranberrlet remains of las
, summers product. On the mountain
side, which | climbed one day for hal
a mile, / founds the old fashioned
wind-lowers, or tanemones. and tn,
, yellow buttercuN A week of th
glorious sunshine had done wha
would have requi{ed a month in lowe
: ATTITUDES.
1t was time to be off. The jam haC
burst aud alreaF the spring food
threatened TO driye US from GU
island. IL was merry crowd thai
went floating swiftly down the noble
river. Five hundred miles to Fort,
Milei And we Made it in five day,
with but littlei use of the oars
Imagine the grarf sweep of the river
that bore us alonk one hundred miles
in twelve hCurI through canon,
where the pent mi waters rushed will
express speed, causing great swelli
that threatened n engulf us at any
moment, but thai ks to our experience
ed guide, we roEe them all safely
through rapids, tho, where the rock.
dashed the waters Onto foam.
| Numerous large rivers deboucl
into the Yukon eich adding its quota
to the already swollen food. Al
through the mountainous region the
river averages, except where con.
tracted by a canod, from half mile
to mile in width, in the intervals
frequently widening out to four OF
five miles and in the lower portion OF
its course sometimes to twenty.
The great eyenttof the year, in all
this section, is tho breaking up of the
ice in the Yukon liver. The extreme
cold of these Arctic winters has
'~ozen the ice to = thickness of ten
feet. The earlier spring floods of a
more southern lfitade, where the
river heads. must burst asunder
and sweep away Sll this mass of ice
even before the sub has had any effect
upon it. The exhibition of power is
stupendous, and the noise deafening
as the angry waiers lift and roll,
| grind and crush millions of tons of
ice before it. Jdms are frequently
formed, and the; waters piling up
sometimes fifty ffet high are held
back until their tccum ulated force
sweeps all before Them. Then the
jam is working ts the miners say,
and woe to anything in its path till
its momentum is Expended. Whole
islands are frequently swept clean OF
all their timber dnd great cakes of
ice are forced high upon the banks
and far inland, mapping off tree
trunks like pipe stems.
One day while Waiting for an ice
jam to break, al party of us had
surrounded a bearl Bruin, cut off by
enemies on all sidNs from escape to
the woods, made bold break for the
jam lin an attempt TO reach the other
shore. He had got half way across
when the jam began working" In
an instant the whdle mass was rolling
and grinding in awful power. Great
blocks of ice and Shole tree trunks
were hurled aloft. The bear struggled
savageiy for life. First he was
thrown high above the ice like a
huge black ball, to fall out of sight
into the churning mass, then appear
ing again only to b Z tossed hither and
thither, till at la st he disappeared
altogether, a ushed and lifeless
| mass.
| We reached For& Mile on the LIST
of June. Forty gwo days had been
required to accomplish the 500 miles
from Juneau. Later in the season
after the lakes Opeh, the time can be
shortened to % OF 30 days, but in
that case all the outfit must be packed
by the Indians froA salt water to the
head of Lake BENNETT, INVOLVING
considerable expense.
| Forty Mile is supply point of the
largest mining camp on the Yukon
1t contains abouti one hundred log
cabins, the winter bones of the three
or four hundred miners who work in
the neighboring diggings during the
summer season. Although the Post
| itself is in the Queens dOmains-the
placer mines, situated sixty miles
| inland, are in our own ter oory, and
the Yukon itself, which thus far in
its course has beet flowing through
the great Northwest Territory Of
Canada, crosses the boundary line
into Alaska sh4rt distance below
Forty Mile.
Coarse gold was discovered on the
| Forty Mile river IN 1885 and since
| that date, mining pas been carried on
with more or lesss success. In any
other country thehe gulches would
| Weld fabulous wealth, but with the
numerous drawbacks connected with
| this Arctic land, tile returns are only
moderately remun irative.
The soil has beenIfrozen for count
| less ages possibly TO depth OF
hundreds of feet. frbe short summer
has but little effect Upon this frozen
mass, especially Were, as in most
cases, heavy blanfet of moss covers
everything, How then does the
miner proceed? H. has wandered VI
gulch the Septem Der preceding and
occasionally pannsng some grave
where the rim rock Shows in the bed OF
stream, has discovered favorable
prospect" But She does not yet
know if there is ami pay on the bed
rock. This he caSnot we'll discover
the present season as the frozen
ground, hard as flint, defies al effort.
of pick and slovei, neither can he
thaw the ground AFT surface water
will sweep i'm and Hood his fires. ST
he stakes out hist claim and wait:
until the following March, when the
cold of winter has IclOsed everything
/ may mention ere that springs
streams, creeks any all, except a few
Of the largest riYert, are frozen solid
: So in March our miner has no water
} to bother him. Hf proceeds to choI
out the soil a fewt inches at time
until he reaches hfd-rDck sometimes
fifteen or twentyt feet below. o.
course he has been Testing the thaweC
I n . Il. L.