The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-26

Walcott, Lieut.. Col. James Allen came
 also from the Philippines, and took
 charge of the administrative and techni
 cal work.
 The cable instruments and tackle had to be made in and brought from
 England All of these preliminaries
 would never have been accomplished in
 time but for the extraordinary in- sistence and almost brutal energy dis
 played by the then secretary of war,
 Eilhu Root. The Burnside was un- fortunately delayed three weeks at San
 Francisco, after coming down from Haines Mission. It was September IA when having received the main strand of cable, she cleared Seattle for Juneau.
 Eight days later she arrived at Juneau,
 having struck submerged iceberg at might and cracked several plates below the bow
 At the point of the accident the cable
 was dropped, the end buoyed and forty miles laid into Juneau. Repairs made, the Burnside steamed to Sitka, drop ping cable and arriving October ?. AL though the stormy season set in she
 has laid the cable south to Queen
 Charlotte Island, and is now about starting from Seattle where 7SO miles
 of cable. which left New York August
 224 has arrived for this seasons oper-
 ations.
 Dr. Charles Arthur Hollick. in charge i of joint expedition of the United States Geological Survey and the New York Botanical Garden, who recent lily returned. from survey entirely across Alaska, brought back proof that the country was formerly tropical, and l later temperate. Ills. collections were largely of fosil fora sQincluding cycada, lsycamores, cypress, sequoia, and gink-
 go trees. The cyads, called sago palms, but still not palms, were plentiful. After reviewing Gen. Greely's awful experiences in an Alaskan winter, it is | a relief to know that Central Alaska has more than 100000 square miles of much milder climate than Georgia's, S, which is to be the future empire of
 power and wealth and the granary of the far north. This area borders on
 Resurrection Bay, where Seward, a new city, is the terminus of the Alaskan
 Central Railway, now being built in-
 land APO miles along the Susitna valley. It is to this country that rush of farmers is expected this spring, as the agricultural experiment stations main-
 tained there by the Government have
 proved satisfactorily that the soil will
 raise anything and is especially adapt
 ed to grain. The water never freezes,
 being tempered by the Japanese cur rent, but little snow falls, and the ther- mometer has never gone lower than two degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
 Resurrection Bay is ,00 feet deep, and
 has an area of seventy-two square miles. As naval and army base it would be able to protect Hawaii and strike Asia on one side and Canada on the other, while the Susitna valley be- hind would afford an unlimited com missary for any number of troops and warships. Seward had population of
 five hundred months after the railway construction steamer landed supplies in a dense on the shores of the bay, last April. The people gathered like magic
 at the sight of the big steamer. By au- tumn 1t had a wharf, churches, dance halls, restaurants, hotels, '"'avenues'
 and residences. A magnificent water
 sall near by will furnish it's water sup , ply. electric power and lighting A line of steamships will connect it with Seat tie, four days distant.
 An additional twenty hours by rail, on the completion of the Alaska Central
 Railroad will land one in Rampant, four hundrded miles north, for $145, from
 Seattle. It now costs $2S5 to reach Ram part via the Upper Yukon, and twen- ty-eight-day trip; or $500 via the lower Yukon, or a thirty -three-day trip. On the east side of the Susitna valley are the oil and copper fields, while all around it and through it are the rich est gold quartz ledges and placers of Alaska.-St Louis Republic