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Show ifQacAd Changs t S 'h U&lr ' $ " : COPPER. -Qivm VALLEY FAR up on the northwest coast of America, in the land of the midnight sun, Is a country which still defies the hardiest traveler; a land where huge mountains rise sheer out from the water's wa-ter's edge on an Ice-bound, storm-swept storm-swept coast; the home of vast glaciers, gla-ciers, unknown lakes and rivers, silent si-lent valleys and unpeopled wastes. Ponder a moment on these lines from the able pen of one who has lived the life and tramped the trails across the great unknown: No! There's the land. (Have you seen ItT) It's the cussedest land that I know, PVom the big. dizzy mountains that ecreen It, To the deep, deathlike valleye below. Some say God was tired when He made It; Borne say It's a And land to shun; Maybe: but there's some as would trade it ' For no land on earth and I'm one. So, Indeed, does the wanderer feel, once he has fought Nature In her sternest moods, or reveled In the short but glorious summers of Alaska, The rapid changes of climatic conditions condi-tions in the Arctic are constant sources of wonderment to the man who has never previously experienced them. Today he may roam over countless count-less miles of desolate, barren wastes, where snow and frost still hold the earth beneath their Iron grip. If perchance per-chance he passes there again within a few weeks' time, when once the sun's warm rays have played their part, the face of Nature seems to have entirely changed. Marvelous Changes. Here, In this valley, where a short time since nothing but snow lay deep. and woe betide him who Bcoffs at It. Even among the chosen ones and hardy pioneers of today terrible indeed in-deed are the signs written on many of their bodies. Scarred and rugged veterans vet-erans show, with a smiling face, places where once fingers or toes adorned their hands or feet, but which have now gone for ever, a token of man's struggle against Nature's cruelty. Let those who sit In a comfortable com-fortable chair by the fireside at home. In twenty degrees of frost, think what life is like in a tent with the thermometer ther-mometer reading BO degrees or 60 degrees de-grees below zero. ' Only those who have seen and felt it can realize what this means. Many Privations. -Probably no country on earth has lured so many people to ruin and destruction, de-struction, In proportion to the numbers num-bers visiting it, as Alaska has done In many of the great gold rushes which have taken place In recent years. The writer, during three seasons sea-sons spent in that country, and in trips extending from Its southernmost portions to the Arctic shores, has personally per-sonally been an eye-witness of many pitiful scenes there. The time has already arrived when fast steamers make pleasure trips during summer, and convey tourists in comfort along the southern coasts of Alaska, though some of the finest fjords and scenery on earth. But probably none of these luxurious travelers has any Idea of the privations suffered by many of the old-time pioneers who followed this route on Ihelr way to the new Eldorado. Nor can they hope to realize real-ize what a winter is like within the Arctic circle. Mr. R. W. Service has more accurately described thiB than . MaBdgaomMMMw... .Tm -f W Disenchantment Bay. far as the eye could reach, what sight Is It that meets the gaze? Luxuriant grasses waving In the wind and countless count-less flowers all bursting into bloom. The tender green of spring shows forth on every bush, while birds, and even butterflies, besport themselves where formerly no living thing was seen. Down through the smiling valley val-ley runs a babbling stream, and In its crystal waters numerous trout are busy feeding. What marvel, too, has brought to life myriads of mosquitoes and other Insect life from beneath those great stretches of snow and Ice which lay for months upon the ground? No man can tell nor any pen describe these manifold mysteries myste-ries of the frozen north. Here, in these brief, Bweet summer months, the nomad may linger, gazing by day or night on a never-setting sun, breathing an air the purest and most invigorating that ever was wafted on the breeze, coming from snow-tipped peaks and down their slopes which are densely clad with hardy mountain pines. But let the wanderer in quest of sunshine beware lest he overstays his welcome, since once that great magician, King Frost, asserts his sway, this is no land for the weaklings: weak-lings: Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones, Triem will I take to my bosom, them win I call my sons. For this is the stern law of Alaska., any other writer In the following splendid lines: The wlnterl the brightness that blinds you. The white land locked tight as a drum. The cold tear that follows and finds you. The silence that bludgeons you dumb. The snows that are older than history, The woods where the weird Bhadows Blant. The stillness, the . moonlight, the mystery. mys-tery. I've bade 'em bood-bye but I can't. No more awe-inspiring scene can be witnessed than that of the ice breaking up on some big river, such as the Yukon, or many others in Alaska, Alas-ka, when the pent-up waters burst their way in spring through many miles of Icy fetters, with an accompaniment accompa-niment of appalling noises which bewilder be-wilder the onlooker. Or again, let the traveler gaze a while at some spot where one of the huge glaciers ends abruptly in the sea, towering aloft above the waters. Here vast masses of ice constantly fall off, drift aimlessly aim-lessly about, and form a continual source of menace to unwary mariners. The photographs which accompany this article were taken recently by a friend who traveled part of the way along the coast of .Alaska with the writer, and owing to their excellence they convey a good Idea of prevailing conditions and scenery in the dark and silent north |