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Show fflposi IS PART I ILBJIIIGT! ison Travels a Month Reach the "Farthest rth" Barracks of Army. Gibbon Soldiers En-. En-. Peculiar Experiences the Frozen Land. GEORGE EVAN TAYLOR. !' ro: strifco every one t::at a ;0,t thousands of miles from ; '. united States una 400 mitts irtere'' was llkuly to cut much V w'nr.li'.S C'e 'orjcl war; yet t .ose of vs v'.io dli oar lovo1 win l!;erc- , . L Gibbon, in Alaska, is aoou. J20 -on. Nome. It Is the "largest military establishment i:i t:ie a,d"3 situated on the ulton river pol,U whero the Tanana flows into eat ri'.-er. .Member 11. ISIS, orders were w-, w-, , -,e western department for lour 0 proceed to this post "wUuou. Some idea 01 the extent of ei-essarv to reach the place may ,,i by "the fact l.iat It too.; a Li a day to reacn our destination. Dtrier.'-cs on the v.-ay were varies to make up a first-class vauue-low vauue-low Thev ranged from seasick- pkjkteg u tiie corpse of a frozen joit'i.'jildir.gs at Gib'uon are. rustic, 1 made as comfortable as- climatic ins will permit. Most of tne ma-i ma-i sl ipped thousands of mt'.es from tes. The post was garrisoned tne ar by a company of infantry, a v of the signal corps, a detach- the quartermaster corps, and a lent of the medical department. Life Enjoyable. t the fort was very interesting and little stretch of the Imagination say enjoyable. One of the most Ins sports is dog "mushing." light sled and about fifteen "hus- 10 can skip over the Ice and snow mparalive'ly rapid rate of speed, lams have been known to make g per hour for an extended length , in heavy freighting it is esti-:hat esti-:hat a fair sized dog can handle nds. hat, of course, the speed is considerably. "Mushing" parties jr common during the winter Crou-ds of both young and old in this pastime. Sometimes the l out for days at a time, doing in cookinjt, or stopping at a road-Anatiier road-Anatiier form of diversion was a ' twice each week. The films are in during tile summer months yd until used. saklng of the winter, it -wouid be 0 pass by without saying a word le northern lights. Jr is hard to leflnlte idea of them for the rea-; rea-; they are never exactly the same two occasions. During the. wln-' wln-' may be seen every night ex-icn ex-icn cloudy. Some evenings the 11 .seem so soft that it reminds wan's down, 'while at 'other times rs as a jagjred cliff. Another in- feature about the .lights is that o one looks at them the more Id like to. in's travel is also another wonder loti'lerland. in the winter the sun tile south and sets in the south, ring to the picture an idea, may Hi of its travel. Its "life" is so , at It barely gets above the tree-M tree-M then It is "at rest" for another ' )dd hours. luring this season that the merit mer-it the lowest, the coldest day be-elow be-elow zero. All windows are dou-ed, dou-ed, but even this did not prevent rom forming several inches thick isitle of the window. Kvery room hl with a stove and every stove mej with a fire which is never lo go out. :r Season Short. le reason advances the days . The month of .May is the month 3reakup." The sun is now shin-it shin-it iwelve hours and its warmth mien, appreciated by the inhab-Ust inhab-Ust spring the ice in the Yukon 1 Kort Gibbon on the thirteenth 'ay. This is a gala day for the IrdouKhs' u means new sup-cnance sup-cnance to fix up the old sluice id wash out their winter's "dig-in "dig-in tne day when all bets are sel-( sel-( bets are made by most every u in the country upon his judg-to judg-to just wueu the river will break so far us to name the hour and lie. "nmer, we may say, is July and Auarnst. in uus priori: .spfCf of linn: I nerrSeri :;:ot-yoni hihi vipo'i and t::e small I veaelLiblcw ot tec cnnlon 'rox to ma- I turn--". Tbo wild bprrios iiuiko a very ap- ( pel'.zme disa .rveil frc.s.'i or as jellv and : jnm. Tnif linieorrv is IIt- must tavored or tuo .sevefal varieties, ultnoug:: iho native na-tive cranberry is preiern-d by tho writer to tho ones thai, grare our holiday tables. Ve.tretation arrows rapidly during this short .sumiYK:!", duo lo tho. fact that trie sun is shining' almost continuously. Contrary Con-trary to its habit of rif-insr in the south in tlie win tor. in tho summer it risos in the north, makes a oompiete trip around the horizon and returns to pet in the north. There, are a l"ov days in -which the Htm never tets. There are prnhaMy few people who have had the privileo of pla'inpr as unique a baseball trumo as was indulged in on -Tune L'l lust. The L'amo was called at ():-i? v. m. and ended iiiter 10 midnight. mid-night. It. -was ju.st as easy to steal nome os in the sood old days upon the Eighteenth ward square. Durhisr the summer the dosrs are staked out on the river bank and the "g;as" l-oat painted up to take their place in tlie realms of transportation ami pleasu re jaunts. All the townspeople own or have an in teres t in a boat and the "launch" parties are as lmmerotis and hp weil attended at-tended as the "mushing " parties are in the white... The only pest to mar one's enjoyment of th'se lon.c summer flays is the mosquito, and that is unite enough. They iari;e, even larxfji than t.i'.e i may i rial ion ea n nict ' ire. and after l)eing" in cobl siora'o for ten mouths are ury j hunsry. I Salmon Plentiful. j The summer is ali-o the 'season of the salmon. Tin- fish are caught by means of a liuc wheel made of small poles and wire "mesh. The wheel is propelled by the force of the water and as the fish swim up stream to their spawning grounds they are dipped out and emptied in a larjje box on the side of l lie wheel. The salmon are stripped and buns' out in the sun to dry. A ft or drying they are smoked and then stored away for the long winter. The country still possesses some of the old romance that was ma ni tested in t he early days, of the goid rushes of and JftOO. Many oldtimors were met by the writer who are some of Rex Beaen's characters in "Tl'.e Spoilers" :i"d "The l-'.fii-rier." The privilege was also enjoyed of ridinir over tli.j railroaii wiiieb is the settiiiLr for Beach's "The Iron Trail." ,n-other ,n-other urit!fi eiuirate?- met at TLinana is Hudson Stuck, archdeacon of the 1 ukou, Indian educator and explorer. A word may be said about the fuel used by the post and the tuwnspoopk. tiirch and pine form the largest part and is used in large i plan til ies. The; wood for the fort is cut and hauled by contract. The specified a mount for t he present season is six thousand cords. Wayfarer Welcome. The trip out of Alaska may be termed an endurance test. Traveling up the Yukon Yu-kon in a river boat is tiresome at its best, but when it becomes necessary to plow through ice it becomes very irksome. The ice became so thick and heavy. that navigation navi-gation was impossible, resulting in the boat W-ing frozen in the iec. This caused a forced march, of twenty mih-s over the glaciers to a point of relief. Mention must be made of tho people me; wilh in this vast territory. Tor one ihing. they a;v lo crs i goud thinus t" cat and ine wayfarur nt.-ed never lack for a. 11 t hat he hs ahe i coesu inc. S; via 1 nicntion must be made of the Som-dough roLidhouse. managed by Mrs. N. V eager. The writer distinctly remembers a cold, frosty night in November, IHI. After a. day of travei over the trait with the mercury mer-cury at -le. below, we sat down to it i a -hie that, would have done justice to a king's dining room. Liberality Is another fea tire of t he Sourdough. More tha u $ i0'"0 was collected for the Red Cross at p. single entertainment given at Tanana and the total pop u la t ion of men, women and children would not exceed l-.". Alaska scenery is magnificent, to say the least. 1 The mountains rise lo diyyty heights and some are so steep as to be almost insurmountable. These are always al-ways snow-capped and fur tush a striking strik-ing contrast t the green verdure of the foothills during the summer men! lis. Mount McKinloy, which is the highest j point in North America, can be viewed 'from fort Gibbon. It towers more than ' IS, unit fe-it toward the sky and inspires one wilh the vastness of creation. Then there are t he broad tundras reaching i o the limit of one's vision, "L?y summer they ! are a vast swamp while in the winter they are a valley of ice. All in all. one may say that Alaska is still a land of wonders, the. land of the unexplored regions. |