The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-13

and the men who have their claims
staked out are certain of riches.
Alaska is the biggest country that
l ever saw. I am asked if 1 saw such
or such man while l was up there.
Why, the country is as long as the
United States, and a man might be
there for years and never know who
is in any other part of the country
than that which he is in himself. The
Yukon is great river. Steamers run
for 1000 miles up the main stream, and
then there are branches and forks that
are navigable for that much farther
1t is "a stream that is the wonder of
all who see it. You read often that
the river is 80 miles wide at the mouth.
That is not so. 1t is not more than a
mile, but it has several mouths. 1t
forks long distance in the interior
and the two extreme mouths are 30
miles apart. That is what they mean
when they say that the mouth is 80
miles wide. 1t is so long and the mouth
is SO much farther north than the
headwaters that the ice gorges in the
early summer are magnificent. The
ice piles up hundreds of feet in height
and scrapes along the sides of the
mountains. 1t looks as If the noun
tains themselves were moving. These
gorges leave great cakes of ice high
up on the sides of the mountains, and
when they are seen in the summer it
looks like a mystery as to how they
got there. Some of them weigh tons.
The sound of the crashing ice in the
spring can be heard for 35 miles. 1t
is nerve-racking sound and it is
not pleasant to be in that country
while the ice is breaking up. I don't
want to be there again.
While I was in the customs service
we heard at st. Michaers that our old
friend, Mrs. Glenn. was in trouble
again with the officers at Dawson. She
had been trying to smuggle valuable
stuff into the British possessions and
had been caught at IT.. What became
of her we did not hear"
Mr.. Alternately has a couple of claims
on the beach at Nome and will return
in the spring to work them. This WIN
ter he will spend in Montana, with the
exception of few weeks during which
he will take trip East. He says that
the whole northern country is full of
doctors, who have gone in with the eX-
pectation of getting rich from drugs
and their administration. but there are
SO many of them that the competition
is too great. He says that there has
never been a death at Nome, and when
he left there was not even starter
for cemetery. The only sickness that
had been there at all was a little run
of typhoid fever, that was successfully
treated by surgeon who was among
the first to get to Nome. He pulled
through all of his patients, and, with
that exception. there has been NO ILL
ness in the camp. This is a remark
able record when the history of other
camps is considered. 1t is also strange
that there have been no killings. but
Mr.. Alternately says that the popula-
ton of the new camp is model. There
have been no quarrels, despite the fact
that the public strip often gave good
cause for them. The men who are
mining there are Of a different type
from those that are usually found in
such camps and have all worked and
lived together without friction. There
was but one man who attempted to
make a gun play, and he soon found
that it was unpopular According to
Mr. Abernathys story, Nome is a
model mining camp, both in point of
resources and the character of it's pop
ulation. His stories have inspired sew
eral Missoulians with a desire to see
the new country, at least, and it, is
possible that there will be more than
one return with Mr.. Alternately in the
Sprinp