Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-20


M I'll HN glaciers between here and Sc
vel (0 ward, where our railroad is
49, ~ building Hundreds of them
EGg9SgS4 come down to the level of the
sea, and rs are always drop
ping icebergs into the tide waters. Alaska is
the greatest glacier region of the world, with
the exceptions only OF Greenland and Antarc-
tica There many glaciers in the south
eastern part of the territory, and you can see
some of the biggest of them by ride of four
or five days from Seattle on a comfortable
steamer. You can steam among icebergs as
big as a ship amid masses of crystal sapphire
right up to the walls of ice, the ends Of ice
rivers that are slowly flowing down the sides
of the mountains. Now and then the tide
leaves icebergs on the shores. and the green
pines bend over and kiss them with their
branches
am now in the Lynn canal on my way to
Skagway Looking through my stateroom
window, | can see wall of snow-capped
mountains, which are green almost to their
tops. Just opposite me is a great field Of ice
upheld between two lofty peaks. The field is
smiles in width, and it slopes upward until lost
in the clouds That field is glacier
The true glacial region Of Alaska begins a
little beyond the international boundary, and
it runs from there along tn ecoast for dist
ance as great as from New York to Chicago
1t skirts the ocean and extends for 100 miles
or so back into the interior. The most OF the
glaciers arc north and west Of Skagway They
are confined within an area about 100 miles
wide and 500 miles long, comprising terri
tory perhaps as large as the state of New
York. This. all told, does not comprise one
tenth OF Alaska, but it is that part of the
country most frequentcd by tourists, and it is
from their stories that many have received the
idea that Alaska is nothing but mountains and
NICE The truth is, most of the territory is
north Of these glacial ranges which border the
coast and great part of it is as dry as north
ern Dakota or Montana The Yukon valley
has crisp, cold winters and short dry summers.
The winters have clear skies, and the climate
is bearable In summer the whole land is COW
cred with the greenest of green, and the air is
so invigorating that one seems to be breathing
champagne
The interior Of the country is comparatively
low. The coast glacial region is rugged and
high. Many OF its mountains are lost in the
Clouds and some of their peaks kiss the skies
at an altitude higher than any other part of the
rcontinent. They are so high, 80 steep and so
cold that they precptate the water that rises
from the warm ocean currents that wash
southern Alaska, and give the snowfall that
has built up the glaciers and keeps them alive
Before | write more Of this region let me
show you some of the big ice masses Of south
eastern Alaska have lust left the Taku in
! let. 1t is a ford IS miles long, walled with
steep mountains and guarded by islands. In
steamng up it YOU can count 45 glaciers. and
at the end of it come to the famous Taku cla-
cier, the front wall Of which, where it enters
| the sea, is a mile wide and more than 200 feet
| high. The great river Of ice widens as it
kgoes back between the two mighty hills on each
! side. A little distance from the sea it is two
1 miles in width. and it continues to widen for
distance OF eight miles where it is lost in
great ice field close to the boundary of British
columbia
The Taku glacier is live glacier-that is,
it is moving down to the ocean and is always
dropping great bergs into the sea. 1t is travel
ing downward at the rate of eight or ten feet
day, and some of the masses which drop are
as large as the sky-scrapers of our principal
cities. Only little distance away, so near
that it can be photographed by swing of the
camera, is a dead glacier, whic hshows out on
the other side OF the hill at the west This is
also about mile wide, but it seems to end at
the shore and no icebergs come from its great