The Cordova daily times., 1917-02-09
DESCRIBES TRIP TO THE LAND
 OF COLD


 York, who made trip to Alaska, has written his impressions of the coun. try in half page article published in the Springfield Republican. While some of his observations may depict actual conditions in the northland, he also gathered the usual amount of transformation that the average che chaco writer falls heir to. Under the caption of Voyage in Gold Land," MT. Foster says. among other things: The finest scenery in the world is within the United States. The Swiss and Tyrolese Alps would be lost, if placed among the snow covered noun tains that can be seen along the coast Neither the Caucasus nor the Pyrenees nor the Carpathians com pare with these in grandeur The gla- ciers of Alaska not only are the larg- , est in the world, but they are so countless that most of them have not yet a name. Icebergs can be seen in thCi iol hiutioii, u PiONCoo "hASh i' accompanied by roars from their mo ther glaciers. Anyone who cares to approach it in a launch. can mount one, as I myself did, like the polar bear in the advertisements.
 All of this can be seen from the deck of a comfortable and well ap- ct Thara of ioc af three lines through Puget Sound and along the coast of Alaska which com pare favorably with the boats that cross the Atlantic. I heartily recOm- mend journey upon any one of them to all who can endure large amount of fog and rain. Bears can be shot ports. Alpine climbers can find there new fields for adventure and explor- ation, and can immortalize themselves by climbing and naming peaks which have never been touched by the foot of man.
 The climate in summer is ideal WdIlH DS udy anu Stol Dy ui6hL, NlSh little rain. The mosquotoes, which are the plague of the country, rarely mo- lest the boats. The beauty of the Arctic sunsets and sunrises, with an interval of scarce an hour between the afterglow and the dawn, the clear ness of the twilights, the northern lights, amply make up for all the dis comforts of the journey. The men and women who are met upon the river are a sort which can nowhere else be found.
 The Ascetic Gold Digger. A--TAos 0se( sT4gussans are a sturdy race. None of the weddings have survived. this they show a striking contract to the canners of clans and salmon, on the coast especially, such of those as have left Washington and Oregon since those states became dry. (Most of them are celibates, who in the long winters spent in the log cabins in the "OOub pldCtlCO d IlioLaoeiS AhaosASy t The lust for gold has quenched every other passion. Winter after winter for more than fifteen years, many oi them have gone alone or with a single partner into the wilderness to search for mines, and returned every spring with gold insufficient to equal what D,,t dNn m and provisions. But they still con tinued, in the hope that some day they may strike fortune; undeterrec by the fact that comrades, who havf died were buried in paupers' graves After careful inquiry l could find no a single case where prOspector hat returned with fortune, or even competency, as the result of his dis covery.
 All the gold was carried away b! shopkeepers, gamblers and middle men. At one time miners had no cur rency, but paid for all purchases il gold dust. AS an agent of one of thu trading companies naiyely said. he al ways tried to be honest in the hand ling of the scales, but it was impos sible that they should be even, ant his duty to himself required that an, doubts be resolved in favor of his en ployers. Such profits as he made il that way were entered in his genera ammounts, but the agent of anothe company in Nome kept a separate at count of such profits and it amounte to more than S5,0O0 in a single veal
 Culture Among the Miners.
 The need of occupation during tn long winter evenings has made theI great readers of books, usually of serious character. They are good ge' tUgists and fal-+efsed-tu- -ofh2 branches of natural science. The favorite periodical is the Literary D gest. l saw in the interior of the te ritory no copy of story paper or Police Gazette. Upon the bar Of saloon at the junction of the Bonani and Eldorado creeks, few mill above where the Klondike receiv their waters, I found a copy of Char bers' encyclopaedia. used by the mi CTS to settle disputes that arose und
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