The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-12-31
FROM FAR ALASKA.
Rev. H. Beer Dishes Up Entertain
ing Sauce.

To THE EDITOR: From communica-
tons received from my old friends, [
learn that my letters from Alaska still
afford pleasure and interest to at least
some of our readers; and as it is al
ways a happiness to right-thinking
man to give pleasure to'others, there
fore take time to send you, once
more, few lines relating some of the
things about this most northerly por-
ton of Uncle Sans domain.
What interested me most before l
came here, was to learn about the
climate, and l take it that other people
are constituted much the same as [
am, so we will talk about the climate
and the seasons first.
Well then, on this eighth day of
December it is raining cats and dogs
as the saying in. We have had little
snow, but the rain has taken 1t nearly
all away, and the streets are in an
awful stste of slush and running water.
We have had few cold snaps, but [
do not think the thermometer has
gone down to zero yet. To one &C.
customed as l have been, to the eli
mate of Minnesota, this winter ap-
pears quite mild, but those who have
been living at Tacoma or Seattle or
other places on the Sound, complain
of the cold, and say it is disagreeable
enough.
1t must always be born in mind
that Alaska is very large territory,
and that am living in and speaking
of Southeastern Alaska. In the north
ern part understand that forty and
fifty below zero is not at all unusual,
and even sixty and seventy are exper-
fenced nearly every winter. Here I
am told, seventeen below zero is the
coolest remembered by that ubiquit
GUS person "the oldest inhabitant."
Those who have experience, consid-.
or the past season to have been unus-,
ually dry, to me on the other hand,
there seems to have been abundance
Of rain. The miners however, who
need plenty of water for hydraulic
mining, complain of a scarcity and
have been hindered in their operations
BY the lowness of the streams from
he mountains.
Every body has heard of the long
winter nights of those northern regions.
We have not yet got to the shortest
lays but this morning we had lamp
burning on the breakfast table at !
half past eight. and shall need the
lights again at three o'clock this after
noon. I am told the days close in
very rapidly now until the twentieth
If the month and from now until New
Year the days are all night, as an
[rishman would say. 1 find myself |
sadly out in my reckoning of times. I
;hink it must be supper time because
t has been dark so long, but on look
ng at my watch I find it is perhaps
only half past four or five o'clock.
Another thing in connection with
The climate which I think worth men
;ioning is the wind. All summer
long, we had less wind than in Min
nesota, but about month ago we
had some terrific storms. A peculiar
ty of the storms was their gusty
nature. 1t would be quite calm for a
while, then from out the canyons of
he mountains there would rush down
upon us a bowling roaring torrent of
wind that would shake the houses to
heir very foundations, and make tim
ID people excessively nervous. Out |
IN the bay these fearful winds would
the surface of the water into a
ine spray that would drift along in
he wind like steam from the waste
pipe of steam engine.
We had a spell of dry weather at |
he time these high winds prevailed,
and we we're in imminent danger of |
ire. Everything was very dry, and
We had a number of incipient fires.
We have very few brick chimneys in
.own, and the stove pipes through the
roofs cause many a house to burn.
One of our worst fires in the bush adj
jacent to the town, and a powder mag
azine was burned. The dynamite was
removed by two men at the risk of |
heir lives, even while the sparks were
falling all around them. In few
moments after the powder was re-
moved the building was all on fire and