MASKS FOR THE MASQUERADE. ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. MINERS STORE
Scientists
Teli but Half
Future Investigators May Question
Certain Conclusions Which Are
Now Looked Upon as Final.
One of the puzzles passed up to us by
modern seienee is of a geological nature,
and if anybody has even thought of'
trying to solve it the fact remains unre
corded so far as the public is aware.
In settling (to their own satisfaction) j
certain problems with which tlnir sci
ence has been confronted; the geologists
are ribbing up some posers for their
successors — questions, of course, that
need not agitate present-day investiga
tors, but which will rise up some time
and call for answers.
Scientists are going right ahead and i
establishing bv modern facts and theo
retical evidence reaching back into the
remotest past that the land areas of the 1
world have been either spouted up by
ebullient volcanoes, as have the isles of
the Pacific, or raised by internal pres
sure from the inner depths of the globe,
as have the mountain peaks and ranges
of the world. Shortly before the Peace
of Portsmouth did not Japan have added
to her domain a red-hot island from be
neath the sea? Did not, last summer, a
granite mass rise triumphant and take i
its place among the Aleutian group off
our own shores?
A scientist goes a-field equipped to
learn the history of the earth at first
hand. He climbs a mountain and finds
remains of fishes and marine animals in
the rocks, llow did they get there?
lie knows they did not climb the moun
tain; therefore some force must have
lifted the bottom of the sea high into
tiie air. Pretty much all over the earth
similar evnlence i- eneounlereil ami tin*
fact is established that She mountains
arc “uplifts” from the lower ami weaker
portions of the earth's mist. In con
sitlerable areas the hills and mountains
art' composetl of material formerly in a !
molten state—lava that hoiled out anil
congealed and remains stationary much
in the same fashion that water in places
in the interior of Alaska forces itself to
the surface, freezes, and continues to
break through the crust and freeze until
often before the winter has ended a
large glacier—a miniature mountain of
ice—has formed. In the east' of the
glaciers it does not take a very scientific
mind to fathom the process: the water
in seeking its level is obstructed and
the place of least resistance is overcome;
and when the summertime comes the
ice which formed as fast us the water
came in contact with tin- air melts and
obeys the law of gravity and of course,
gradually Imt inevitably, evaporates and
sous snow ami rain eventually supplies
material for more glaciers.
We are unite ready to understand, too,
that volcanic ris ks wear away and the
detritus has a tendency to seek lower I
levels. Tins granted, however, wilt not
eilrirute coming generations from tin
■ it hi lit that may surround them as they j
look back upon the scientific work of tin .
present time, like we ourselves look
baek anil shake our heads at the history
of the creation and of the flood.
To return to those “uplifts.” Their
evidence, it seems, is to he taken as
final. Mt. St. Elias and Mt. McKinley,
and all the mountains of lesser and
greater note that have not been formed
by an outflow of lava (through a process
similar to that which forms the gla
ciers alluded to) have been raised from
the lower levels by a system of boosting
from unknown forces in the hidden
depths—strangely like men are some
times thrust up into exalted stations
by unseen powers. It does not matter
that we* are not told what it is that
keeps the mountains from slipping back
to their former level: science has not
got to that yet. Hut the matter of the
uplifted mountains is not so hard to
swallow, after all. Learned philoso
phers tell us that even though the inte
rior of the earth be molten the pressure
upon it makes it harder and denser
than any known substance. That would
account for the mountain not sinking—
just as water confined in a tube would
resist all kinds of pressure up to
the breaking point of the tube. It is
now being determined, however, that
not only mountains, but vast land sys
tems and continents owe their existence
to “uplifts,” which in the main are be
lieved to be gradual and to be going on
all the time; that evidence can be
louiui to Dear out tiiese tacts in nearly
every part of the -world, and the
history of the earth is being thoroughly
established along these lines. 1 don't
propose to set myself against science or
pretend to understand such things at
all; but if the earth is a sphere of fixed
density and of changeless or nearly
changeless dimensions, with a center
toward which everything in it or upon
it presses, when one part of its surface
rises some other part must sink ; and if
lava spews out from its depths and
forms a wart on the shell, which we
name a mountain, a condition of noth
ingness is not likely to till the place that
the lava comes from. Likewise, if a
gigantic uplift, say, takes place, sudden
ly or gradually, and a continent rises
out of the l’acitic ocean, then the ocean
will settle down in a new place and be
just as big as it ever was. Theoretically,
at least, science can not get something
for nothing. It can not raise up a conti
nent without lowering something into
the hole. And to be consistent, when
it records and marks the boundary of
some vast land that has come up out of
the sea it ought to tell us something of
the one that went down into the sea.
Not to do so is to tell but bait’ the
story and discredit itself before those
who will continue the inquiry in the
future. IIub Sykes.
Vault Creek a Frost.
Northern Light, Jan. 5: Vault creek
ha.-* turned nut t<> !*• u "frost.” There
i* mi use in denying the fact any longer.
Tile operators* and laymen are leaving
and moving their machinery to more
promising crooks*. A «■««! many of the
miner.* have lout faith in the creek and
Iselieve that nothing will ever In* foun*l
worth while. In fact, they as-s*ert that
the only pay f*>iin*l is* in a narrow i*lit or
gully in I>edrock which formed a natural
“catch l>ai*iti" for the g*>1*I w hich i*turte*l
the sitampede. hitotigh holes* Itave been
pun*died to tscdrock to ltn*l the pay*
•Ircuk, no the **l*ls* ate agaimit one ever
l*-ing uncovered.
S. E. HEETER,
Freighter and Packer
Good Equipments and
Service Unexcelled
UL!LSLSJLfiJLSLiLJLSLSUiL8JlJl_2JUL8_BJlB_ttJ
CAPTAIN HEALEY
IN A BIC SCHEME
('apt. JohnJ. Healey arrived in Daw
son Dec. Hi and tells the News that he
has come to begin the work of the pre
liminary s urvey of the Trans-Alaska
Siberia railway.
The railway is projected to connect
the eastern and western hemispheres by
a line across Alaska, through a tunnel
under Bering strait and across Siberia
to the imperial Russian Siberian road at
Kansk. “I am here toengage engineers
and men for the preliminary work, and
by next summer there may lie dirt fly
ing and rails coming this way,” Captain
Mealy said to the Dawson paper. “Al
ready we-have secured from the Russian
government 61,000,000 million acres of
land, carrying with it the surface and
mineral rights. What the American
government will do for us for crossing
and opening Alaska remains to be seen.”
Why Not?
It is stated that the old timers from
the Koyukuk who first landed in the
Chandelar diggings staked only enough
ground which they could work to ad
vantage. Later gtampeders from Fair
banks, it is said, staked everything in
sight. If this is true, the old timers
should have escorted some of the gtam
peders over the divide. Why is it the
miners of a new district will not take
advantage of the Literal construction of
the United States mining laws and
make their own rules and regulations,
and then enforce them? A lot »f other
new districts will be opened in Alaska
and this is a good thing for the miners
to bear in mind.— Fbks. Northern Light.
F. M. A. L.
SMITH & COLLINS,
Proprietors
FIRST-CLASS
Wines, Liquors and
Cigars.
CASE GOODS
A Specialty
JULIUS RAHMSTORF,
GENERAL
MERCHANDISE
FULL LINE
Tin, Granite and Crockeryware
Northern Commercial Co.
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