The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-09-10
ssIPPI. FRIDAY MORNING. SEPT. 10. 1909.
midnight, July %, passing through the
Icy Strait by tho Muir glacier into the

midnight, July %, passing through the
Icy Strait by tho Muir glacier into the
open sea, . distance Of 48-hour ride,
on which . number Of passengers got
sea sick the second day out. On the
first day the weather was clear and
warm and nearly all day we were in
sight Of a mountain panorama of in
describable grandeur and beauty. The
whole country along the Alaskan coast
is one continuous chain of high snow
capped mountains, ranging ordinarily
from two to seven thousand feet high,
but here there can be seen in addition
three mountains in the background
reaching from ten thousand to fourteen
Thousand feet high, and rounding the
landscape of with such bewildering i'm
pressive effects, that the stranger is
spellbound at the wonderful sight.
Later in the afternoon we got farther
into the open sea and the first signs Of
sea sickness became evident. The us
ual evening entertainment was struck
off the program and most of the passen-
gers retired quite early. The next
morning found many on the sick list,
but all recovered during the day and
when we reached Prince William bay
everybody on board had recovered and
was Of good, cheerful disposition. Cor
dova was reached the next morning,
July 81. This town is not much over
two years old and contains probably a
thousand people. 1t is situated on a
hillside and is the starting point of the
Copper River Railroad, which is COM
pleted fifty odd miles out in the noun
tains and employs at present about four
thousand men to extend the road to the
copper ore holdings owned by the COM
pany. On account of these operations
Cordova presents lively appearance.
rybody seems to be busy, either in
the mercantile business, or in putting
up new buildings. Our party was
scheduled for ride into the interior to
see the country. The business men as
we'll as the officials of the railroad
seemed to be particularly anxious that
such trip be made and at 8 o'clock in
the morning had a special train ready
at the wharf to take us out. The equip
ment of the train was modern in every
respect, consisting of first-class day
coaches and a baggage car carrying re-
freshments. The road runs along the
coast for a short distance and then
off into the interior, crossing
the Copper river, over which there is
now being built one Of the strongest
iron bridges in America, and terminal
ing about dozen miles farther on, in
close proximity to Two big glaciers,
one the Childs, to the left and one, the
Miles, to the right. 1t was nearly din
we might take look at the Childs gla
cier first. OF course we gladly availed
Of the opportunity of seeing
a really big glacier SO close by and
to take in the sight. But we had for
gotten that we were in Alaska and that
here had to be calculated
upon scale entirely it's own. Every
thing is immense, be it distance, size,
height, length or breadth. To the av-
erage eye the atmospheric conditions
here are deceiving. What appears to
be big hill Of six to eight hundred
feet high, at distance of apparently
four to five miles, looms up as a noun
tain from three to five thousand feet
high, after you have travelled at least q
dozen and more miles. Here the big
glacier appeared to be right at our
feet and everybody ran to get there
drst, but they soon fell into an easy
gait and not until they had travelled
over mile through underbrush and
over all kinds of powders strewn in all
did they reach a point of
close observation. At last they were
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