The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-01-09
SEASON IN ALASKA.
winter the Best for Travel in Spite
of Intense Cold.

OF Intense Gold,
Rev. VIM. III. Judge, who,like Father
3arnum, is a Baltimorean, is stationed
at a mission house on the Shageluk.
a tributary of the Yukon. The Sis
tiers of st. Ann have three houses in
the valley, and are cooperating with
The priests in the work which they are
trying to carry on. The priests are
kept on the go constantly, travelling
hundreds of miles at a time in dog
sledges. They go up the Yokon as
far as the mines and the territory oc-
fcupied by the Indians and along the
coast to the villages of the EsquimauX,
who are essentially a constructing
people, never to be found any distance
in the interior, and always relying
mainly for their food upon fish and
water animals.
.Winter is the time for travelling
| with u.s." said Father Barnum. land
more especially the months of March
| and April. We have only two sea-
| sons, summer and winter, ten months
! of winter and two months of summer.
To be more precise, we have ten
| months when it is so cold that it is
| dry and two months of wet cold a
| corresponds with the summers in the
| states.
with us the summer is most of the
| time exceedingly dreary on account of
| the immense amount of fog. How
ever, when the weather is clear 1t is
very pleasant. The chief beauty of
| this season consists in the duration of
the light. The sky is brilliant all the
| time. The distance between the points
where the sur sets and where it rises
is so slight that the last hueS of even
ing merge into the glow of the aurora.
THE ground never thaws in the
western part of Alaska. In summer
the great wet plains are covered with
a rank growth of moss, but as o as
one gets down beneath this the ground
is hard and icy. 1t is this which
makes travelling so bad in the summer
The feet and the sledges sink down
into the moss with ease and it is very
hard to eXtricate them.
1--WE call 50 degrees below zero 8
mild winter, and when it doesn't &c
below that we laugh with joy. Wher
it gets up as high as zero we banl
the fires and send the Esquimau'
children out to play hocky on the ice
1t has been frequently said that whel
the winter is q severe one in the Unit
ed States it is mild with the Alaskan
and vice versa. Last winter we hat
it very mild, and l was told on reach
ing this country that the winter her
was a severe and hard one.
"Winter comes suddenly and in full
regalia; there is no gentle gradatiol
about it's approach. The arctic col
is dry and, intense. On a calm da,
one can move about out of doors Will
out discomfort. OF course, care has
be taken that the face OF hands ma
not freeze. If there is any wind, tn
case is very different.
1.-THE dreariest feature of winter
the darkness. The long hours c
gloom from 2 o'clock in the a%fternoo
until 10 in the morning render tn
season monotonous. Most of the TIN
1t Is cloudy, and a lamp Is needed I'll
whole day. There is a constant su
c~essfOn of storms, including terrlf
billiards., lasting from three to hN
days, during which n can not We
ture out of doors except at the risk
life.
an March the sun begins to be mo-
powerful, and then the eyes are a
fected by the glare. This snoW-blin'
ness is extremely troublesome al
productive of much pain. Sometime
after a trip the Jesuit fathers a
laid up for several days until the l.
fammation of their eyes has subS.de'
Smoked spectacles, of course, won
prevent snow-blindness, but the meta
lie rims render them unbearhble; go
giles are much better. About June
the ice disappears and the long Wlnt'
is over at last.'-Baltimore Sun.