The Alaska citizen., 1914-07-27

/ the troubles OF the lovers, but the
apparent sympathy Of the dogs, just
I at critical moment, changed the
+ sublime to the ridiculous. and even
/ tie actors were forced 10 stop and
/ join in the general laughter
/ Trail Heavy rains, II seems.
/ To Be put the trail from here
Improved to Valdez and Chitina out
Of commission for .
short time. and Paris with his auto
load of passengers was forced to
return to this city. John Zug, super
! intendent of the road commission,
/ has made an inspection OF the road
/ for some distance. and he declares
that the impassability is only tenn
porary. and will soon be overcome.
/ t. is reminds me of some infor-
nation that las come from Valdez
to the effect that Lieutenant Glen
| Edgerton. OF the road commission
has warned the Stanley Automobile
| Co. of Seattle that the company had
best not attempt at the present
| time to establish a line OF automo-
| biles between Valdez and this city
The company had planned to es-
tablish the line and had written to
the Valdez chamber of commerce
for information about the road. The
| letter was handed to Mr.. Edgerton
who replied to IT, Among other
things. he said:
THE road from Valdez to Fair
banks is 1895 miles in length, 1t
crosses two mountain ranges and
numerous rivers. large and small,
In character it is a fair earth road,
but the ditching and drainage is not
entirely completed. The rivers are
all bridged, with the exception OF
the Tanana. on which ferry is
maintained.
Our funds are SO limited that
in the event OF unusual accidents.
such as earth slides and washouts
road we might be unable to make
repairs promptly and your operations
might be suspended Indefinitely.
ut is believed that one OF your
cars could make the trip at any
time between July l and October
/, but it would probably not be
able to make over 80 miles per
day and in the case of very unfav
orable weather it is probable that
considerable difficulty would be en-
countered.
I'VE would not consider this an au
tomobile road and would under no
circumstances take the responsibility
of advising you to establish an auto
line at this time. We are, however,
endeavoring to secure sufficient
funds to permit US to improve the
road to standards suitable for light
auto traffic and hope to accomplish
this eventually"
Late Recent rains are sure
Fall indication of a late fall,
Expected according to John Char
ley" the vegetable gard
ener, who assured me the other day
that he had studied climatic condi-
lions in Alaska for the last eleven
years, and knew what continuous
summer rain meant.
According to John, the heavy
fall OF rain means also fine In
dian summer, with no snow until
winter time. The winter. too, he
inferred, would not be severe, and
I am hoping that his forecast will
prove to be correct
Other people who have made more
or less study of Alaska climate
assure me also that the late spring
that we had this year indicates
late fall, and there seems to be a
general feeling among gardeners
that this will prove to be an excel
lent season for vegetables. and es-
pecially for potatoes.
Siberia Now that so many fox
Has Fox farms are springing up.
Supply why would it not be
we'll for some of our
enterprising men to take trip TO
Siberia to get good breeding foxes.
where. 1t is said. they are plentiful.
According to an item in the Nome
Industrial Worker, that attracted my
attention a few days ago, Captain
William Thompson of the schooner
Trader recently brought a big cargo
of furs from Siberia to Nome. and
he asserts that foxes are plentiful
there The following is from the
item in the Industrial Worker:
Captain, Thompson reports that
there were plenty of foxes to be
had on the Siberian coast the past
winter, Charley Carpenter, also we'll
known in Nome, having purchased
about six hundred from the natives,
mostly OF the white variety. although