ALASKA IN SUMMER

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1928, Page 8

ALASKA IN SUMMER

SUNSHINE 24 HOURS A DAY

‘ WELLINGTON, November 20

A vivid description of little-known Alaska was given by Mr Robert Bell, of Christchurch, who returned by the Alaunganui after a visit to Alaska, north-west Canada, and California. “Alaska,” said .Mr Bell, “ is a much maligned country. It is popularly regarded as a land of snow, ice and death-dealing blizzards. For seven months rtf the year this may he true, hut for the other five months it is a land of sunshine and flowers. The popular misconception may he laid at the doors of those writers ol fiction who have dealt for the most part with the tragic incidents of the Klondike gold rush in ’9B, hut these novelists, in their desire to harrow the souls of their readers, forgot to paint the other and brighter side of the picture, namely, the fact that Ifor at least lour solid months of the year the sun shines without intermission. Indeed, during those months, the sun works overtime. In midsummer it does not set at all during the 24 hours of file day. And it tapers off from that to 20. 18, and Hi hours and so on a day.

WHEAT—GO RUSH ELS TO ACRE

“It requires little imagination to envisage the amount of growth, not only of flowers lmt of crops and garden produce, generated by so much sunshine, when the fertilising power ol the snow and frost, which have melted and sunk into flic earth, is also taken into account. For instance, the yield (if wheat at the Government agricultural farms has been as high as GO bushels to the acre, of oats 101 bushels, of barley GG bushels, and of pons 21 bushels. 1 have seen vegetables—potatoes, cabbages, lettuce, etc. —growing in gardens in .Dawson, which lies within two degrees of the Arctic Circle, that would make the amateur gardeners of New Zealand envious. As for flowers, 1 have rarely seen larger or more genrgoously-coloured blooms ol dahlias, chrysanthemums, gladioli and delphiniums than in the gardens oi the residents of Skagway and Dawson. As ifor wild flowers, I have never in my travels in many countries seen such wealth of colour or variety of species. Sweet peas, forget-me-nots lupins, roses, fireweed, asters, bluehells. larkspur and many others clothe the hillsides and - valleys like multicoloured carpets. Surely it is time tin* popular misconception ol this fertile land was removed.

DREDGES PLOUGH EOR GOLD

“ When T speak of Alaska T mean not only that huge tract ol country purchased by America from Russia in 18(53, hiit that vast region extending from the Northern Pacific to the Arctic Ocean known as the A ukon territory oif Canada. Apart from the teeming fertility of the soil, those countries are immensely rich in minerals, whi.h so far have scarcely been tapped. Coal, gold, slver, and other minerals still await the pioneer, the Klondike \ alley and its tributaries, which only 3'J years ago attracted the alluvial minei and yielded such rich rewards, are now being ploughed to a depth ol 30 and .-,() feel l»v mammoth dredges in the quest for the yellow metal. The miles upon miles of huge mounds of tailings after those monsters luivo passed along appal the visitor, who cannot help deploring that such a iiertile valley should he so ruthlessly devastated and turned into a wilderness of stones in the mad desire for a quick return, instead “f being tilled and yielding every yeai its harvest of golden grain.

TRAPPER SUCCEEDS THE MINER

“'inis great country, too, has unlimited supplies of timber, and its forests are the home ol thousands ol animals, whose furs are in demand the world over, at prices which are steadily moving up at fashion’s decree. It the day of the miner with his shovel and pan has gone —I should say. tcmpoiaiilv gone —the day of the trapper has surely succeeded, lor lie is receiving a larger and ever larger reward for Ins labour, isolation and hardships. “ Transportation is one of the difficulties of this vast region. True the Yukon is navigable for over 2990 mites and many steamers ply on its broad bosom, hut railways and roads have scarcely yet begun their civilising influence. in time these will come. Strange as it may appear, aviation is not unknown in this tar and littb known land, for at Dawson L saw a landing plateau Ifor the air service which plies during several months of tin* year, carrying passengers and mails to isolated places.”