The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09
BIG DAY FOR DAWSON CITY.
FREEZING OFF THE YUKON IS THE
GREAT EVENT OF NORTH
ERIN YEAR
RIVER HELD IN. vENERAT1oN
Bets Made on the Date When the
Ice VIII Become Solid
Papers Issue
Extras.

The freezing of the Yukon is one event
OF the Northern year, says the New York
Commercial Advertiser. The other is the
breakup in May. The day the ice ''sets"
Tor good is chalked carefully on cabin
doors up on the creeks, with lesser for
tu1t1es. like the first day Of slu1cing, when
King Salmon or cariboo start to run.
when the cleanup began. The ice In
Northern river forms at it's head, but
the river closes from its mouth. In the
torrents up Pelly river, under the Rock
les, up White river under the ST. Elias
Alps, in the tiny meadow creeks feeding
Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile, the Septem-
Der frosts make a. little rim-ice, tumble
1t out into the larger tributaries and
churn It to slush. In the Father of
Northern Waters it is lost. More is
formed, and more, and more The little
creeks are playing Liliputians to the river
CULVER. Early in October a chunk Of
slush, no bigger than a hand, and like
soaked cottonwaSte, steals down in mid
stream past the big camp. Some one sees
1t, and it is noted in the Daily Nugget Or
the Dawson News Bets are made when
the river will set"
Day by day the slush thickens; lifts
itself from the water; the tops whiten
like chunks Of snow. After these cold
nights the river Is full of it. The next
day raft can't cross the next boat
has to twist through lanes Of musily ice,
| with some one in the stern. posed as
! WaslIington's pilot on the Delaware. By
the middle Of October the river is. full of
slush ice. The Yukon is a moving road
way, rough and very white. The soft
cakes elbow each other, and give out
swish like the rustling of a million siI<en
skirts. The last scows leaves for Forty
Mile, and timid old-timers shake their
| heads and say the men are taking their
live in their hands, which they are, and
can never make, landing at Fort Cudany.
The march of the ice is impressive; idlers
| stand en- the bank, thinking, watching it
for hours. The swishing sound gets hard
and gritty; the thin lanes of water close;
the cakes nudge and jolt each other;
down by Circle City OF the Ramparts, 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, row, there, along the whole
1900 miles of river, and breaks again,
which makes the white procession only a
little slower and a little noisier. For a
week the river is as full you don't see
how it runs at all. More bets are made,
with tho recklessness of near settlement
The men have landed at Forty-nine and
are thinking of going down to Eagle.
The smooth ice, which has been eating
our gradually a rod or so from shore will
| bear man, and some one starts for In
dian river, old-tinIers again opposing. 1t
is strange how the longer men live by a
Northern river the more they feel toward
it a Veneration and a naneless fear. In
lands like these, where no other deity
gets any show, is 1T wonderful that river
gods are born?
VAN TEALTs FOR GOOD.
Then one morning away down by Ia
mana or Milato the procession's van hats
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 a 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 ice,
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 remembered. Out in the
moving lane the big cakes saunter ami
twist along-then stop, one by one one
pressing on the other. The watcher sees
a berg turn on end, big as a house, an
other Is lifted clear out of water, high
and dry on the rim ice, another cavorts