Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-09-24

duroy logs, asked Tom Davis how the road
was built and kept in order. He replied that
it was community affair." the government
and the people clubbing together and paying
the cost. He said that the road was worked
altogether by the local community until two
years ago, and that every one was then SUBJ
ject to one days work on the road, or to paw
poll tax of So. Think of country where
the hands on the road are valued at So day.
That is the current wages in this part of the
Tanana valley. Men are paid SIS day and
board or So day when they find themselves
The men who are unloading the hay from
the steamer are getting ST per hour
rode all day long on the Tanana river in
coming from Fort Gbbon to the Baker hot
springs. The Tanana flows into the Yukon
at Fort Gibbon. 1t rises on the eastern slope
of the coastal range, and goes for 600 miles
before it loses itself in the Yukon. The river
has greater volume than that of the Poto-
mac; and where it joins the Yukon it is like
an inland sea. 1t has many islands, some of
which are forested with spruce and birch
that rise straight and tall behind the willows
bordering the shore At little distance the
willows look like hedge, and you seem to
see floating forest inclosed by a green
fence IS or 20 feet high
The river is sluggish and it carries down
vast deal OF silt The water is as thick as
bean soup, and glass of it, allowed to settle,
will soon hide the bottom of the tumbler
There are frequent sandbars and you pass
ic1a dc ,,,e e. Al
bare brown patch of silt to forest-clad
patches washed by the waves. Now and
then the river has floating islands, and great
beds of green, with brushes and trees upon
them, move down the stream. In places the
river is from five to ten miles in width 1t is
shallow, and it is always building up and
tearing down the valley through which it
flows.
AS you ride along in the steamer, you can
see the banks crumbling The water melts
the icy strata under the soil and trees,
bushes and the earth in which they are
growing fall down into the current under
your eyes. The river banks are lined with
trees still living and still green, which have
fallen this way into the current. At times
the water so melts the frozen strata that
caves are formed under the matted moss,
and where there is an open space and no
trees this green mat falls down into the
stream hanging from above as though it
were great green carpet laid from the bed
of the river up to the shore.
am surprised at the vegetation that COW
ers this part of Alaska. All along the Yukon
and Tanana are trees of fairly, good size.
There are spruce and other evergreens 80 or
40 feet tall and some of them are one or two
feet in thickness. The bushes grow far up
the sides of the mountains and the land
seems rich in the valleys. At the wood
camps, where the trees have been cut away
to furnish fuel for the steamers, there are
great beds of pink ire-weed rising out OF
high grass. There are wild flowers every
where, and the scenery seems anything but
that of this cold icy land OF the north AS
you go up the river you may, here and there.
see them clearing the land. The pioneers
are chopping little farms out of the woods.
They first cut the trees and year later pull
the stumps out by the roots. The ice is SO
close to the surface that the roots cannot 60
down. After clearing they plant little
patches of vegetables or fields of oats-hay
None of the farms is large, and | venture
that it will be long time before the local
market will be great enough to pay the
farmers of the United States to leave their
good homes to try their luck here
FRANK G. CARPENTER.