The daily morning Alaskan., 1900-05-18
Over Two Tons of Powder
Exploded at Once.
BREAKS BENNETT LAKE
Ice Smashed and Piled Up for Miles
--Huge Wave as a Result of the
Convulsion--TwoH Hundred Feet of
Mountain Removed.

Two and half tons of powder were
fired in one mighty blast on the railroad
along Lake Bennett at noon Wednesday.
The pent up energy of the giant shot
threw the granite mountains into tremor
for miles, and wrested from its sleep of
ages the pondrous weight of six thousand
cubic wards of rock.
There was no report to be heard half a
mile awav. Simply one huge convulsion
occurred, as though the mother earth were
in the agony e death, and the irresistible
force lifted off face of the mountain for
200 feet. and let the loosened mass drop
with mighty splash into the lake.
The blast was fired in the construction
of the grade ten miles beyond Bennett.
The point where the shot was fired was
along snuous cliff standing 200 feet per-
penol ularlv above the surface of the lake.
and continuing sheer precipice of great
depth below the water.
II was expected the mass of rock would
! fill the edge Of the lake, but no, down 1t
| went to an obiivious rest fathoms below
the surface.
So terrific was the effect of the tremor
and of the falling of the rock that the Ice
of the lake was cracked into thousands of
pieces distance of four miles. For five
miles the waves danced along the narrow
strip of open shore and lifted chunks of Ice
upon the beach. Men standing half mile
from the blast on the shore saw the I'M
usual phenomenon of water rising in a
tidal wave a height of four feet almost
directly under them.
"Ihese wonders seem more wonderful
vet" saws H. c. Barley, the Skagway
photographer, who was present, when it
is considered that the lake at the place of
the blast is full mile in width.
1.-THE Ice of the lake was two or three
feet thick, but being nearly ready to break
up, was of course, rotten and in places
could be pierced with stick. Yet 1t was
something extraordinary to see that great
frozen sheet thrown into such hubub in
almost the twinkling of an eye. 1t was
split in all directions, and fell and rose
and ground peevishIv in huge pieces as
big. some of them, as city block.
Fearful of the rock being thrown high
in the air,evervone had gotten so far away
that no one saw the rock in upheaval and
descent. Yet 1t is known now that /,
simply lifted and went over in one up
heaval and plunge.
1.-THE shots were all flied in a tunnel
running inward thirty feet direct from the
face of the cliff, and turning to one side
twenty-five feet, and to the other twenty
feet. These tunnels kept the force of the
powder confined, and smothered what
would otherwise have been loud report.
No energy went to waste by escaping at
openings. All combined to shake the
foundations of the mountain and seek al,
opening BY lifting off the huge mass aboy'
1t.
"Onee the load was lifted the fore wa!
81 Spcnt Uildt tlc Suhohc diooe HUH ti''
the scene of the blast In languid drift.
1.-THE first intimation we had of tn,
shots having gone off was tremor like al
earthquake. 1t swaved the mountain.
that stand bulwark of solid grInite fo
miles, as though they were nothing NOR,
than frail frame houses.
Had we known no rock would b,
thrown, we would have stood across tn,
lake and watched the bluff In its travail.
| This shot was the largest ever fired ir
this part of the country, and perhaps viii
rank with the largest shots in the world
The powder, caps and fuse used cost (
thousand dollars or more.