Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-06-25

| down stream. the Selkirk burns about
one cord an hour. In coming back
against the current the CONSUMPTION
| is often four times as much. The wood
/ is largely spruce trees from three to
/ six inches in diameter. The logs arc
! sawed and split. and carefully piled.
/ Many Of the little islands we pass are
/ covered with the stumps OF trees cut
/ for the steamers, but most of the wood
stations are on the mainland, the cut
ting having been done on the banks or
! III the valleys back from tho river.
The scenery OF the Yukon abounds in
strange features. Our whole trip is
I through the Wilderness We seem to
have joined the army OF early Gxplor-
ers and TO be steaming through IL new
world. We pass places
Where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run, God knows
where.
Except At the wood piles where we
take. on our fuel there are no signs OF
life, and we ride for miles seeing only
/ an Indian tent or a cabin. The coun-
try has not been touched since Colum-
bus landed on the West Indies Islands.
B 1t is much the same as it was when
the cave dwellcrs, the ancestors of the
Esllimos. wrought with their tools OF
stone.
have seen most of the great rivers
of the world, the Rhine. the Danube,
the Nolga. the Nile, the Zaml,esi, the
SanEtse and the Hoang Ho | know
the Hudson. the mississippi the Gangcs,
"a
as the Amazon and the Parana and
many other streams OF more or less
fame. Nowhere else have l seen seen
cry like that of the Yukon. 1t is OF
its own kind Much OF the country
is semidcsert and much is as green
rs the valley OF the Nile Here the
hills, sloping almost prccpitously back
from the green fasthowing river, are
wrinklcd with dry waterways filled
with low forests. There is series OF
benches rising one over the other, maxi
ing great terraces from the edge OF
the stream TO the tops OF the noun
taiES.
Much Of the valley has been filed
with silt, and the Yukon has changed
its course like the Yellow River OF
China. cutting out new channels and
tearing up and throwing down islands.
Now we pass through gorges of silt
where the sand walls rise above us to
tho height of ,wentystory office
building; and now swing around beds
where we seem to be walled in by the
cuttings made by the water.
HILLS ARE COMPOSED
or EARTH wASHINGs
You cam see how Mother Nature
builds UP tho Garth. The hills are COM
no@'. at earth washings, The soil is
soft, and from year to year the shaggy
teeth Of old Father Time have been
/ gougiug long burrows out of their
sides. These burrows have caught the
moisture. forests of small evcrgreens
have grown UP in them and the land
scapc for miles looks as though it had
been plowed by the gods. and drilled
In with these crops Of green trees,
This makes the country look, when
seen from distance, az though It were
/ cultivated There Is n scanty grass
between tho patches of forests. and the
whole is like mighty farm planted 10y
! tn" ecnii OF tho Far North.
/ The scenery changes from time to
I time as we go down the river. Here
the banks are almost tlat and covered
with bushes. There on the opposite
sides thc!s are OF hare sandy glacial
aluvial. Al times the earth is so
/ friahle that II rolls down in avalanches
and n blast from our steam whistle
VIII start the sand flowing. II makes
one think of the locss cliffs on the
( plains of North China. Those cliffs con-
tain some OF the richest fertilizing mat
Ter on earth, and their dust carried
by tho wind cnriches the country upon
which Il drops the silt from the
Asyssiniau highlands cmrichcns the
Nile.
Tho soil from the upper Yukon Is
poorer than that which surrounds the
Dead Sea at the lower end OF the Jor-
dan. 1t lacks fet,ilizing qualities and
some Of il rests on he'd Of prehistoric
Ice. which carries off tho rainfall. lcav-
ing no moisture for plant life. The
glacial ice is seldom more than three
feet under the surface. The rain sinks
through the sand ana then flows off in
streams 1t is as though the land was
laid down on plates of smooth copper
tilted toward the valleys to carry the
rain straight to the rivers At least
that is the opinion of a geological cx-
pert who belongs to our party. He
tells mo the clouds give the region
"nl! ten or twelve inches OF water per
year and that the rainfall is abont like
'''Al Oh 'aIli"rHia III The neighborhood
of Los Angeles, and also that per
cent OF The water thai falls finds its
WAY 10 the streams
Much al our way down the Yukon
IS IN ana out among islands. III.
stream IS always building up and
tearing down the land through which
II flows, ana III. islands are in every
aiaE" Of formation. Here they are
shndhIEs as bare as tho doscr, of .;a-
nara, there they are busted with the
lEa On OF ihe'r first vegetation. a little
Nlth'I on are patches of land sur
rounded by water with bushes as high
as E"uT waist and farther still islands
covered with forest Each island has
!lt ""H shad" Of green from the fresh
"H" at tn" hrSt sprouts of the wheat
'.'"" !" IA" dark Green mixed with
Si''f %! the woods Of Norway and
~ t''e!. not Il few Of the Islands are
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