OCR Text |
Show vestigating" the city, as the afreets were- blocked in many places with huge masses of ice. rendering passage almost al-most impossible. The buck, too. became uneasy, and we started on the return trip, reaching camp the next day.tired, but satistied that wo had been the first men to gaze ou that silent city for centuries. cen-turies. "After spring had broke I made some strikes in nugget gold at the headwaters headwa-ters of the river, working with the In-diaus In-diaus through the summer months,' leaving camp for the Yukon about the end of August. We reached the river all right, the trip down being easy, and in due time I got back to Juneau, where I took the steamer for the South. "It was while I was at Juneau I saw newspapers with an account of the mirage seen at Muir glacier. I did not make any allusions to this, though, as I did not think any one would believe me, but I am positive that the mirage of Muir glacier is tho reflection of the frozen city found by me." Juneau Tunes. A DEAD CITI - A DESCRIPTION OF THE FROZEN CITY OF THE NORTH. The Tro or a Minor Who Ru Seen tho 0.:inal of tho Muir Claclor Mirage In Ice Hound Alaska, Since the story of tho Muir glacier mirage first became known, your correspondent cor-respondent has made every effort to f;et substantial news concerning it, but teyond the statements of Prof. Wil-loughby. Wil-loughby. and the word of one or two who had seen tlio mirage, nothing tangible until yesterday could bo ob-taiued. ob-taiued. Bv the steamer Eider, which arrived at Victoria from the North, came a miner, who left tho vessel at that port, and did not go on to San Francisco, us ho nt lirst intended. From tins miner, wno is a very intelligent man, a most remarkable story vasob-tained, vasob-tained, and the tirst description of the Silent City is hero given. George II. Kershon is the name given by the narrator of the tale. He says lie is a nativo of England, but left that country when a lad for the gold fields of Australia, w here several years were passed. New Zealand. Cape Colony, n ud California were also visited, and in his fortieth year he joined a party of miners who were bent on exploring the secrets of icebound Alaska. Kershon Ker-shon is a hardy-looking man, with a well-knit frame, indicative of an ability abil-ity to withstand physical hardship, while his clear, blue eyes are a surety that whatever he undertakes ho will carry through. "Yes," he said. "I think I am the first white man who ever gazed on the frozen city of the North. In the sum- mer of 1888 I was one of a party of six who left here to go north prospecting. Of the other five, I know not where they are. We took the steamer to Juneau, where we left her. buying a small sloop to take our kits up to Yukon. After several weeks of awful toil wo reached a fork. "I was for going up this fork and prospecting, but the other five were against it; but ns I was determined to go I left the party, engaged an Inditiu canoe, with two bucks, and started up off this unknown fork. We had a terrible ter-rible time. The stream narroed in between high cliffs and shot with dizzy swiftness down the gulches, making it necessary to tow the canoe by means of a line from the banks, two doing this, while tho third man rested. Progress Pro-gress was necessarily slow, and for many days we toiled before the range of cliffs and mountains were passed. Ouce a 100-foot waterfall barred us, and it took three days to get around it. "After that it was a bit easier. The river broadened out and the country was more level. The banks were well wooded and gume was plentiful. We kept ou like this, alwnys going north, wheu, after six weeks, a range of mountains was sighted. I believed this to be tho luad Of the river, and pressed on to reach it before the cold weather set in. "Snow was now falling very often, and it was evident that the summer was nearly done. At length wo reached the wild country again, and the stream, which had beo'n subdividing itself iuto lesser ouos, soon became too difficult to navigate. This was almost at the foot of tho mountain range spoken of. Here I determined to camp for the winter, and good quarters were found. Everything was mado snug, as the weather up there is something awful; aw-ful; but we were in a deep ravine.over-run ravine.over-run by high cliffs, which broke the fury of the winds, and tbo best was made of it. Game was plentiful, and large quantities of moose and bear were shot aud frozen for use during the long winter months. "Before long the cold came, and at times it was impossible to stir frem cover. Especially was this the case when the wiuds blew. At other times it was fairly comfortable, although the lack of sun made it gloomy enough. Toward the end of winter it began to get lighter and the gales were less frequent. fre-quent. ' One day I delermined to try to scale one of tho mountains near us, as I got so tired and weary with being penned up in such a confined place. This idea I put before the Indians. One of them said he would go with me; the other would not risk it, so he was left in camp. A storm shortly arose, blowing heavily for three days, but as soon as the weather bad settled myself and the Indian started off on our trip. "We went right tip the line of the frozen river, which, being a solid mass of ice, made a good roadway. Following Follow-ing this for about twenty miles,' at a pretty steep rise, we reached a plateau between the foothills and high range. Here the stream ended, and we started to climb one of the big hills. After a lot of hard work wo reached a point near the summit. A wonderful view was had from here, but the strangest thing was a city in one of the valleys. 'You may bet I was surprised to see it. At tirst I thought ic was some fantasise fan-tasise arrangement of tlio ice and snow which had assumed the form of a city, but examination with a glass showed that such was not the case, it being too regular in appearance. "It was a city, sure enough. "Determined to see more of it. I commenced to work downward, although al-though the buck was rather frightened, he evidently not considering it 'good medicine.' "After several hours of hard work I reached the outskirts of this mysterious city, and found that this place was laid outin streets. with blocks of strange-looking buildings, what appeared ap-peared to bo mosques, towers, ports, &c. Mod every evidence of having been built by art. " "Tho whole was of solid ice, or seemed to be but blows from a hatchet on one of the walls disclosed the fact that beneath this barrier of ice was some sort of building material. It looked to be wood, but of stone-like hardness, and apparently petrified. "The silence around the place was something ghostly. Not the slightest sound broke the awful stillness of the place, which, added to the weird look of the empty streets, made it grew-tome grew-tome eacuz'a. I soon got tired of in- |