Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-08-08
Discovery of Deepest
Canyon In the World.
y.rtna Coe. Found by DR. F A. Cook American Alaska
One thousand Feet Deeper Than Famous Grand
Canyon and Much More Impressive

| trees on the mile-hlgh rim, This is
] the Colorado II varies in width from
Q few hundred yards to 8 miles Ris-
ing out of It's depths to the level OF
its rims are mountains as high a.
| Mount Washington. There are per
feet pyramids, the most beautiful and
highly colored temples, buttes like bat
tleshlps, and such a profusion of IT,
tanic chaos as was supposed tn occur
! nowhere else on the face of the earth
The great canyon of the Yentna Is
altogether different To begin, II
traverses land of perpetual snow
| and ice. Immediately north OF the
| range which 1t drains to the south
west Is the Yukon Everywhere
| around II are the great Alaskan noun
tains, eliminating in Mckinley, an
| even mile higher than the highest
mountain in the United States. Search
| ing for n passage through the range
| along the sides of this canyon. DIR.
| Cook says.
UNEMPLOYED MOUNTAINS,
"Our position here was unique. The
foaming waters of the Yentna were
more than 1000 feet below us, rush
ing from bluff to bluff In system of
uneXplored canyons which for perpen-
dicular cliffs and superb mountains
of great altitude surpassed the glories
of the Grand canyon of the Colorado
river. To the south We're huge. snow
capped mountains unnamed and uneX-
plored, among them large snow basins
and glaciers feeding the Yentna and
the KuSkokwin.. ...,...
Toward the Ton2ona the walls of
the canyon rose in successive tiers TO
1000 feet. For sheer cliffs and daZ-
cling contrast of color, the scene sur
passed that of the Grand canyon. The
canyon narrowed as we advanced, and
4. To. ..
beast We saw tracks of mountain
sheep, moose and bear, but the foot
ing was too dangerous for horses, and
we turned back"
DIR. Cook makes no estimate of the
length of the Yentna canyon. Judg
ing by what he says, he and his COM
panions did not go into it more than
10 or 10 miles.
The Grand canyon of the Colorado
river is more than 900 miles long,
For els miles of this distance there is
nothing to choose in depth or grand
eur between one part of the chasm
and another The canyon of the Vent
ma Is probably short This must be
so, because the glaciers which feed it
are in sight upon every hand, and
the mountains 1t drains sometimes
overlook 1t from the rim. The Col
orado upon the other hand drains a
vast extent of territory hundreds of
miles above the canyon. The Green
river brings its waters all the way
from Wyoming.
The depth Of a canyon is from its
rim, or the plateau level. The noun
tains along the rim are wholly indie
pendent of its depth.
There are high mountains along the
Colorado, but the canyon carries the
river mile below the plateau from
which they rise. This is also true of
the Yentna and the greater mountains
which overlook it.
ONLY RECENTLY KNOWN.
Mount Mckinley is almost four
miles high It's companion peaks are
scarcely shorter II this range stood
Immediately upon the rim of the
Yentna canyon, the drop from the
topmost peak to the Eentna river
would be $4,000 feet, OF a little more
than five miles.
DIT. Cook very readily explains why
the Yentna canyon and Mount Nc
Kinley are just coming to the knowl-
edge of geographers. The native pop
ulation of Alaska is very small. What
there is of II lives almost entirely upon
the sea coast The native food Is tho
salmon, which is abundant and so
easily captured that the Alaskan In
dian neither plants nor hunts for sub
sistence.
The result Is that the Indians on
Cook inlet have very little knowledge
of the interior, and in their slight
contact with the whites they have
said little about 1t. Mount Mckinley.
of course, was not to be hid
The Russians saw 1t, and the native
name, Bolshoy. Is Russian for big; but
the Russians never went near 1t. and
until 1898 no one had ever estimated
it's height The Yentna canyon was
only discovered in the course of eX-
ploring Mckinley. But Cor those en-
thusiastic Americans who twice tried
to climb the great peak the world
would not know today that its great
est natural wonder lies off in the will
derness east of Cook inlet.
As an illustration of the exceptional
inoccupation of that part of American
Alaska, DR.. Cook relates that big game
was always abundant upon every
hand Great herds of caribou regard
ed them with the Indifference of wild
animals strange TO the chase. Moose
We're plentiful, and unafraid. Grizzly
and brown bear met on the trail and
visited their camps. Flocks of noun
tain sheep looked down upon them
from the heights.
DR.. Cook says IL Is unquestionably
the greatest big game country left
iinon earth.-Spokesman Review.