The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-06
FREEZE FROM BOTTOM.
Freak of Nature in Winter Affecting
Alaskan Streams

Alaskan streams.
The waters of Alaska freeze from the
bottom. One may be gliding along on
a CLASSY lake, with a gorgeous sun over
head, in crisp invigorating atmos-
phere. There is not a sign of ice ex-
cept nigh up on the mountain sides. A
face, as though a tiny pebble had fallen
1n-then another, and still another.
There isn't a sound, and not even
mosquito to disturb the placid picture,
but still the little circles come.
Presently CLASSY bead bubbles about
in the center Of one of the widening cir
Giles, then larger one, and still larger
Those beads are tiny ice globules. They
then several together. In half an hour
the surface is covered. They have
grown as large as a butter beam and
nearly the same shape, but crystal clear.
In an hour they are as large as Iadys
watch, and each one has little grains of
sand sticking to it; some have large
piece of gravel sealed up inside.
The old sour dough" will row for the
shore when he sees these signs upon the
water, for he knows well that in few
hours the whole surface will be a mass
or slush ice, from which it will be i'm
possible to extricate a rowboat, and
equally impossible to leave it.
BY morning the cold air of the upper
world will have welded all this mass
together. If one will take the trouble
to peep into some shallow rivulet at
this time of year he may see nature in
| her workshop making a winter. Each
| tiny grain of sand is first given a coat
of ice. The coat grows thicker on the
upper side.
Finally it gets so thick that the
| buoyancy of the ice overbalances the
weight of the gravel: the mass leaves
the bottom, and, reaching a stratum of
warmer water, the ice melts a little,
releasing the gravel and hobs merrily
to the surface. The fact of its being
anahnrod n a cr1sox val OF he
has given it the name of anchor ice,"
and that freeze-up is expressively call
ed the anchor ice freeze-up."
After a week or two of good, hard
freezing there is nearly always chi
nook wind that comes up from the
south for the last flying visit, and the
ice is broken up into huge cakes. These
drift before the wind with the cur
rent, and when they are stopped by
some natural barrier they pile up on
each other, sometimes many feet high,
making the ice jams that are so hard
for t'mushers'' or LOG wallpapers to get
over in travelling.
| Then comes the real freeze-up, when
the surface of every lake and river is
sealed solid.
AS the cold grows more intense the
water in the depths gives off a vapor
/ and this, being warmer than the ice
meIts it here and there forming air
notes.-the rivers lungs. Woe betide
the unwary pedestrian who happens to
strike one of these air holes just before
it opens, for in each of them is written
the internal legend, Leave hope be-
hind, who enters here One may look
out upon the frozen surface of a lake
or river and see many of these air
holes, distinguished only by the vol
umes of vapor rising like the smoke of
huge signal fires upon prairie When
the weather moderates some of these
gigantic nostrils seem to be unneces-
sary, and thin coat of ice forms over
them. Then they are more dangerous
than ever, because the channel is just
beneath, ready to take a victim in
stantly into the bowels of the ice.
After a month or two of freezing
weather. the ice grows very thick The
waters beneath, dred up at their source,
shrink into smaller space, and the
great mass of ice settles" Long
cracks open up in it's surface with
laundering noises like volleys of artil
llery Then the water beneath, hard
pressed for an easy channel, runs into
/ and along these cracks, the surface
freezes up, and there is an artificial
subterranean river. so to speak. More
cracks open up and more of these little
rivers form, until the great mass of ice
contains a veritable network of indie
pendent streams
/ At this time of the year the s'checha-
ko,'' or tenderfoot, may dig with pick
and ak and shovel for twenty feet
4 down through the ice to get water, all
the time hearing its deep-toned gurgle
somewhere beneath
Finally he strikes almost dry sand
in the bottom of the river. but no wa
ter The sour dough-, on the other
hand. is a water witch. after fashion.
With his ak he will percuss the sur
face, just as the physician does a man s
chest and oftentiTneS one blow Will
open up a crystal river. His ears never
rnisleads him. The signs are 1nfalIple
New York Herald