The times., 1901-06-09
WHEN THE YUKON FREEZES
An Important Event of the Year
in the Northwest.

The Day When the Ice "Setsn for
VeneratIon-A silence That BeGets
Fear-Methods of transportation.
The freezing of the Yukon Is one event
OF the northern year The other is the
breakup in May. The day the ice sets
for good is chaIked carefully on cabin
doors up on the creeks. with lesser for
tuities, like the first day of sluicing,
when King Salmon or cariboo start to
run. when the cleanup began. The Ice
in northern river forms at its head but
the river closes from it's mouth.
In the torrents up Pelly River. under
the Rockies up White River under the
ST. Elias Alps, in the tiny meadow creeks
feeding Forty-Mile and SiXty-Mile, tho
September frOsts make a little rim-ice,
tumble it out into the larger tributaries
and churn IL to slush In the Father OF
Northern Waters it is lost. More is form
ed. and more. and more The little creeks
are playing LilIiputians to the river Gull
liver. Early in October a chunk OF siush.
no bigger than hand. and like soaked
cotton waste, steals down In midstream
past the big camp. Some one sees It, and
it is noted in the Daily Nugget" or the
Dawson News" Bets are made when
the river win set
Day by day the slush thickens: lifts IT.
self from the water; the tops whiten like
chunks OF snow. After these cold nights
the river is full of it. The next day a
raft can't cross, the next a boat has to
twist through the lanes of mushy ice.
with some one in the stern, posed as
Washington's pilot on the Delaware. By
the middle Of October the river is full OF
slush-ice. Tne Yukon Is moving road
way, rough and very white. The soft
cakes elbow each other and give out a
swaSh like the rustic OF a million Silken
skirts. The last sc0w leaves for Forty
Mile. and timid Old-timers shake their
heads and say the men are taking their
lives IN their handS-which they are-and
can never make landing a Fort Cudahy-
The march of the ice Is impressive:
idiers stand on the bank, thinking. watch
hard and gritty; the thin lanes Of water
close; the cakes nudge and Jolt each
other, down by Circle City or the Ram
parts the ice blocks where the channel
is narrow, at a bend, among the bars
OF the great flats. That IS only for
night. IT jams now here, now there,
along the whole two thousand miles of
river, and breaks again. which makes the
white procession onIy little slower and Il
little nOisicr.
For week the river is so full you don't
see how it runs at ali. More bets are
made. with the recklessness of near set
tlement- The men have landed at Forty
nine and are thinking OF going down to
Eagle. The smooth ice, which has been
eating Out gradually a rod from
shore. will bear man, and some one
starts for Indian River. old-timerS again
opposing. 1t is strange how the longer
men live by a northern river the more
they feel toward il Veneratton and a
namelesS fear. IN lands like these, where
no other deity gets any show, is it Won
deTfui that river gods are bOrn2
Then one morning away down BY Iana-
for good. At Dawson they DO not know
it and won't for days. The jam does not
eat steadily upstream but by leaps and
bounds. In a night there are blocks at
MiniOn Creek, at Charley River, Forty
mile, and between them the water clears
to lake, and is smooth. black ice the
next day. On the next a watcher at the
big camp where the bets were made sees
the crowded cakes lift over the rim-ices
float ashore, and strand in the slOughS-
The water startS-up the banks, and who-
ever lives on lowlands gets ready to fly,
for when the water backs UP thus June
freshets are remember Out in the
moving lane the big cakes saunter and
twist along-then stop, one BY one, one
pressing on the other
The watcher sees a berg turn on end,
big as a house, another is lifted clear out
of water, high and dry on the rim-ice,
another cavorts and vanishes. Meanwhile
there is d cayernOuS gulping. SplaShing, a
creatk, and strain like ShtVerlng timber,
and the roar ends like the noise OF q
very cold the halting cakes, not becOm-
ing at once homogeneous, are put TO
enormous pressure. But If it IS below
80 degrees, a man viii rush out from
Front street and cross the river ten min
utes after the cakes have stopped The
=. Nugget and the News bring out eX-
tras: the bets are paid; Dawson celebrates
as only Dawson can.
But in the north nature cannot change
the face of things without kiiHng some
one. RumOr comes down on the shore-lce
as-g,rl. rFurE No
at White River; a man shedding at Stew
art was frozen in and eaten by his dogs
that four mail dog teams, the last leaving
White House, early in October. are hung
mn along the river. and King. half-breed
and veteran dog-driyer for the queen, IS
dying of pneumonia
All this, because the mall teams are
breaking trail" and the river Is Hood
ing over the settling shore ice. Axe IN
hand the leader beats down the waist
high ridges of ice thrown up Wnen the
cakes jammed. Travel is matter OF
one mile, two miles an hour on the stretch
OF 401. The Alaskan sled IS long ana
narrow, built lightly, high above the
ground with basket sides and handles
extended backward from their top held
By the hind driver. In guiding II, ne -
ierked. buheted. thrown on his race,
kept forever on the run over the rougnest
sort of ice in balancing the sled NO
harder work is known TO man.
All along the river loaded nat ScOWS
have been stranded in low water and
-rOZen IN ! neN leIL W nite HORSE zoo idlcs
1Verreaching themselves to get In the
freshest haHbut. candies. and Christmas
ards for the holiday trade. and TO break
n corner in hay and cats Their owners
IA 2. drifted down on RATS TO Dawson
through the ice, and have started break
Eg trail up-river to their scOWS before
= xhite and Indian Vandals get into theu-
n a month the trail IS hard.
Horse sleigbS. bicycles, dog teams, and
,omnGn ''musnerS'' on foot stream out
llong the boulevard of ice, four hundred
niles long. their faces all fur, and their
,odies scarlet and blue in the night-gOwR
,arka. made of bed-ticking. From post 10
,ost the fat sergeant of mounted police
5 driven by the English younger son.
With bottle of Seagrams under his
ODE. A murder o. two is done when he
iOesn't see or can't see; the body is
hOved under the ice, and found gnaWed
y dOb-Salm next spring in a slough
Owu by Circle. The stars are shining at
a. m. in a sky of polished brass: the
trange arctic sunlight. which is deep In
liza pink lies like pigment on the white
Hills; steam bolts from the airhOles in
he silence which to some men is more
errible than death.-New York CONNER
al Advertiser.
Two Cities COntrasted.