The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-26
AMID CANADIAN ROCKIES.
(From the New York Post.)

(From the New York Post)
With Vavasour. who had come from the
Papal college at Quebec years before maps
or river, We stood wei within the Alaskan
latitudes on a summit of the first chain
summer no white man. had pierced the
Cordilleras so near the Arctic, and at this
valley wherever the streams flowed west
still cold that somehow suggested the
presence and domination of deadly wastes
We passed downward for an hour in the
combined darkness of the heavy vapors
and of the gigantic peaks overshadowing
lions Of stir in the thick silence about
us. The mist began a restless motion,
settled to a slight upward drift, we knew
We might make the glacier by noon-time.
Then the mist passed onward faster, bend
ing TREMENDOUSLY through the burdened
cobwebS. 1t Waxed into resiStleSS tor
Ward until it Seemed as if bY stretching
out our arms and leaning backward we
to Strong toTrenf ike the upturned food
of river; thunder rolled far below and
murs of the clearing storms of morning.
Vavasour turned at the tensest moments
ward. He saw a darkness looming through
the masses of advancing phantOms-chari-
OTIS, the vans of armies, white hosts of mid
night caverns. He discovered points Of
darkness in the distant undulating forest,
haste of an explorer. The rush of the
streams. like a chorus delayed in long
an organ swell. 1t blew colder and more
gustily; circles of light arched the edges
steps and less flowing garments the phan-
toms passed at greater distance; little
around US; gardens dropped suddenly from
the dawn winds it seemed there had been
caught a wandering ocean Of golden chaff,
tad C1Tr~f1 Of l1n
plains Of cloud. e -'''0 - 'AA7
We had been moving in a world so
seemed to awaken from the unrealities of
the clear afternoon Travelled still down.
ward through the dark forest on the heed
were nearly at the, level of the FinIay
river. yet we found the air cold, the trees
and barren. We. looked in vain for the
rich prairie that broke the warm wilder
ness east of the mountains; there was
nothing here but short, dried grass in the
mosphere clear as the sheen of steel
of the coast aatS h RoeTe the
forbidding land All there is of summer
only God knows where, blown suddenly
and stopped again at no ones will. 1t
is gray and white, like old mems hair. and
an the stun midday, when the leaves are
h faiHn 9g It is Ike hear frost that the sun
and cannot Three o'clock and one must
shudder in these short Septembers There
| are lights on the cold lakes that would be
SINISTER were they not, too, beautiful And
you must mistrust the signs of outward ma
ture, for they are unreal in their very
glory.
This night we saw the Atnah tents on
the white fiat by Thutage lake, and the
dark forms, like shadows, moving among
them.
.'Watch!'' said Vavasour
indeed, there was unusual activity for a
SlWash camp at so late hour Already
ShOrn # NJ n
and leaf, planted in a great semicircle
around fire, and the light came through
IKE sunset behind a grating; and each
stout pole was capped with another pole
that was leaned inward, until ali met in
the middle, as if a tepee had been poised
oenDerately upon a cylinder
All at once crowd collected at the
north end of the structure; then it widen
eter, its members crossing and recrossing
one to another in a solemn dance Now
tney all STOOD apart in the twilight, raised
their hands into the air and threw their
Whlte fabric rose from their feet to mid
air and settled with its center upon the
apex OF the framework. Slowly the trern-
bling edges settled until they sWeDt the
like the spreading circles from a stone cast
INTO the river, and in single file the In
dams marched within.
Navasour led US across the little stream
at our feet to the plain of the encamp-
ment: We reused the fire between two de-
serted camps, and having cooked our sum
per, Notwithstanding to the long chants
of uncadenced music
Co1ored shirts and waists Numbered
| so that the colors will not fade. Peer
less Steam Laundry, 112 and ia West
Eighth street.