The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-04
ALASKA'S SILENT CITY
WONDERFUL SCENE WITNESSED BY
A PARTY OF EXPLORERS.
Mysterious Place Mirrored In the
Clear Atmosphere and Seen Mt the
Distance of One Hundred Miles.

SEATTLE, Wash, Sept. 3.-Alaska's ST.
lent city has emerged once more from its
mysterious hiding place and revealed its
presence TO six members of the party which
accompanied Prince Luigi up Mount ST
Elias. In the early morning of July 10 the
little party, while returning from the ocean
with supplies suddenly saw the city mir
rored in the clear atmosphere. The vision
was so clear that c. w. Thornton, well
known to Seattle business men and a lead
ing Y. NJ. c. A athlete, who first noticed
it, wrote in his notebook: 1T required no
effort of the imagination to liken it to a
city. 1t was so distinct and plain that it
required, instead, strong faith to believe
that it was not in reality a city"
While the silent city of which Miner
Bruce wrote was seen from Muir glacier,
, that seen by Mr.. Thornton and his COM
rades was noted from Malaspina, a glacier
over one hundred miles distant. 1t remained
perfect image for thirty minutes and then
slowly faded away while in its place APP
peared a rocky ridge. Following is the
story told in the words of Mr. Thornton:
Six of us separated from the main party
July to go back to the beach for provis-
ions. We were about forty miles from the
ocean and allowed three days for the trip
to the stores. Our party was composed of
Benno Alexander poet; Elm Osborg, Will
liam lehman, of Providence Hospital,
Seattle; Francis Fiorini, an interpreter:
William Steele, sailor and myself. After
leaving the main party near Russell camp
we made the trip to the beach, stopping
at Camp Independence on the way down.
or our way back, while crossina,the Malas-
pima glacier, about ten miles from Camp
n n "a xxrhfo fr
saw a strange sight.
1T was 3:45 O'Clock in the morning and
we were resting from a hard climb since
about 10 o'clock the night before We had
CHOSEN this time to make the climb because
II gave US hard snow. In the daytime the
poured boiling water on it. The atmosphere
was perfectly clear. There was not a cloud
IN sight and not a breath of air stirring.
1t was impossible to calculate distances.
1t was some time before sunrise and I
was looking around at the mountains in the
grandeur OF the sky, with its limitless sea
OF light blue. Mount ST. Elias, Mount New
comb, Mount Augusta and Mount Cook all
over 10000 feet high, the heads capped with
snow, stood out clear and well defined in
their great height, like mighty sentinels to
par the path Of the most courageous adven-
Newton, the Pynacale and many others
that have not been named, lay before our
group of grand colorng, that the languages
OF all ages, of all people, could not fur
nish figures of speech equal to an adequate
description.
When we looked to the north we were
thunderstruck to behold a magnificent city,
apparently resting a ridge, which is an
extension from the massive west side of
Mount st. Elias 1t was in truth a silent
was plainly visible, but not a sign of life
was to be seen. called the attention Of
my friends to the sight and found that they
saw everything exactly as / saw it. If il
was imagination on my part then there
were five lamentations that fell in the same
channel as l. This, however, is hardly pos
'At the right hand side as they faced
US We're what locked like two Chinese tenn
ter of the picture, was large building
with massive columns and a huge DOME
everything about the building was massive.
1t lowered above all other structures in the
city. making them appear 5warfed. Across
the entire front at equal distances one from
another, were those great columns. extend
ing from the ground to the roof. 1t was
impossible to distinguish either doors or
WINDOWS The dome appeared above the
roor, which had gradual slant. The dome
was first rounded out and then came to a
point at its extremity.
AT the left of the temple or whatever it
was, was a group of buildings having the
appearance of business blocks. There were
about six of these blocks. They were
square, having rows of windows denoting
about four stories. They had fiat roofs
Each of these buildings was set flush with
the street. and they made harmonious
picture, with short, even spaces between
them.
Next came what appeared to be a
church, with a tall, slender spire and at
the extreme left / think there were three
buildings that looked like factories Only
a portion of these buildings was visible
and 1t appeared as if the city extended in
that direction much farther than we could
see Yhis completed the picture that was
placed before our eyes. 1t lasted from 3:45
O'Clock in the morning until 400. 1t began
to disappear at Ais and faded away grad
ually, requiring only FIVE minutes to disap-
pear entirely. From the time we first no.
ticed it until it commenced to fade it
perfectly steady and the image perfect, as
previously described
city appeared to rest upon a ridge. / should
state that this portion of the ridge did not
appear until the city had entirely faded
away. The ridge was at least thirty miles
distant. but the city appeared much nearer,
SO it would seem that, the picture was in
the air between us and the ridge and that
the ridge really furnished a background.
From a scientific standpoint it may be
worthy of notice that on the same day that
we saw this picture there was one of the
severest storms on the ocean ever known in
that region. 1t lasted during that day and
the next. We did not know anything about
this, however, until we compared notes
with Captain Greenleaf of the yacht Ag-
gle. on our return from the mountain.
This city appeared to us more like a city
of the old country than anything else. We
were inclined to compare 1t with Russian
cities, and since reading Miner Bruce's de-
scription of Willoughbys Silent City, which
he claims to have identified as Bristol, Eng
land, and to have photographed after three
attempts on three different trips to Muir
glacier, have been reading up on the sub
ject of mifages endeavoring TO learn where
instances have been known where mirage
was thrown as great a. distance. Willough-
bys pictures are very indistinct. If our
silent city was a Russian city and his an
English differences in the distance might
explain the remarkable distinctness OF the
one we saw.
1--WE regretted that Sella. the world
famous mountain photographer, who was
one of Prince Lugi's party, was not with
us this time The only means we had OF
photographing the city was with pocket
kodak which | carried. I took two shots
at the city. having little hopes of obtaining
good results as tho city did not appear on
the finder on account of the great dis
lance and the smallness of the instrument.
I preserved the film, however. and had It
developed In one case there Is no picture
at all and i'm the other only a black shadow
where the picture ought to be.
so far as / know we are the first per-
sons to see the silent city from the Mala-
spina glacier and if WllOughbys descrip-
ton of the city seen from the Muir glacier
is to be relied on. there is little in common
between the two pictures. The poi2t from
which we took our observation is 100 miles
from where Willoughby saw the sight that