THE SUXDAT OREGOXm, TOKTL'D, JANUARY 21, lOll KOTZEBUE AND THE K0BUK 'fCopyrisht. 117. by Frank G. Carpenter.) NOME. Alaska. There's a '.and above the Arctic, they call It Kotzebue; I seem to hear it caliin'. it's callin' me and you. It ain't no place for children, nor .for wom en, understand; TaIn't no place for mollycoddles, but for men with lots of sand. Seems a thousand miles from nowhere and a million from a sound, A-Judgin' from the silence that's a-hangin' all around. But again I hear it call In.' It's callin' me end you. So I'm sailin' in the mornln. sail In' north to Kotzebue. Edgar C. Raine. This letter relates to Kotzebue and the Kobuk. It deals with Arctic Alaska, that vast area which lies between the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean. It treats of one of the least known coun tries of the world and one of the strangest. My Information concerning it eomes from talks with its prospect ors who have drifted to Nome for their Winter supplies, and with the miners and traders who live there and who have taken advantage of open navis, tion to pay their annual Summer visU to this metropolis of the North. Last night, for Instance, I had a long talk with a man who has a etore and trad ing station on Kotzebue Sound, nd during my stay I have had several in terviews with Judge M. F. Moran. who represents our farthest north in the Legislature of Alaska. He lives so far away from Juneau, the capital, that his mileage allowance is J900. His home is at Shungnak, on the Kobuk River above the Arctic Circle, and eo far north that during the Summer he has broad daylight for three months in suc cession, while for a part of the Winter his home is almost shrouded in dark ness. But before I give the gist of these in terviews, let us take a bird'seye view of the- country . to which they relate. Arctic Alaska comprises about one fourth of the territory. It is almost half the size of Illinois and three times that of Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky. If you could lift it up and drop it down upon Europe, it would more than cover the half of France, Germany or the Spanish peninsula, and it would entirely hide the British Isles with its blanket of enow. Arctic Alaska may be said to begin a little south of Bering Strait and to run from there eastward to the Ca nadian boundary, and northward to the Arctic Ocean. The country comprises some parts of the northern watershed of the Yukon, and it includes the Rocky Mountain system, which, extend ing from the United States through Canada, runs almost to th Western end of Alaska. This range in Alaska is nearly 100 miles wide and it slopes down into the plains which border the Arctic Ocean. The mountains are a mile and a half high where the range leaves Canada, and they fall to the height of the Alleghanies, or lower, on their way westward. The coastal plains are a part of the tundra belt that encircles the Arctic Ocean. Much of the ground is low and swampy. It has great lagoons and mo rasses and many slow-flowing rivers. The plains are covered with moss, upon which the Eskimos graze their rein deer. There is practically no timber, except the stunted trees in the moun tains, and the alder and willows, which grow along the banks of the streams. The vast country has less population than any other under the American flag. It has a few white men living Innir TT n i 1 1 lr T-f i v t r nnrl Ihpr nrf. nil told, perhaps 3000 or 4000 Eskimos. The Eskimos are scattered along the Arctic Ocean in little -settlements, the largest of which have only 300 or 400 souTs. There are several Eskimo vil lages in the inter.ior. The Government has established schools at nearly all of these settlements and many of the Eskimos are growing rich in the rais ing of reindeer. They also hunt walrus for their ivory tusks, which they sell to the traders, and they deal largely in furs. One of the chief trading stations is at Kotzebue Sound. The white men in charge there tell me that they have during the Summer 500 native families lving in canvas tents, . and that the Eskimos come in by sea from as far north a Point Barrow. They use great skin boats, called omiaks, which are five or six feet in width and 30 feet long." Such boats will carry from five to eight tons. They have square sails and are propelled lso by. paddles. The natives bring with' them the furs they have caught in the Winter and trade them for calicos, ginghams and other cloth. --They buy all kinds of hardware and especially needier for the sewing of parkas and mukluks. They want the best of guns, knives and hatchets. They buy canned foods of various kinds and even stoves and win dow glass to take back to their homes. One reason for their coming to Kotze bue its to catch salmon, the Winter food supply for themselves and their dogs.. , T asked the trader to tell me some thing as to the character of Kotzebue Sound. He replied: it is a great Day, into wnicn now some of the largest rivers of North ern Alaska. One is the Kobuk. which is 600 or 700 miles long; another the 1! On poultry farms of any size, especially those that make a spe cialty of day-old chicks and cus tom hatching, a suitable place for the operation of an incubator is highly important- Incubators are run in a great variety of places and under varying condi tions, but for best results at the least labor and worriment to the operator a cellar or basement provides the most generally sat isfactory environment. The fol lowing article contains a design for an improved type of cellar, with instructions for building it. - BY ROBERT ARMSTRONG. Expert Poultryman and Writer. OME poultryraisers claim that an incubator can be operated any rJ where in the barn, attic, cellar, loft, shed, springhouse, in the kitchen, parlor or in a tent. Be that as it may, authorities agree that the best location is where the atmosphere Is to a great extent uniform and cool and where it is possible to obtain plenty of ventila tion at the same time. The air in the room for an incubator must be sweet and fresh, or the eggs will not receive the oxygen which they absolutely re quire. The above-mentioned conditions are seldom found in buildings above ground, especially in frame structures, hence the custom of running incubators in cellars and basements, and the popu larly accented Idea that they must be run In such place. Where only a few. machines are used they are usually operated in the cellar of the poultry- man s dwelling, which Is a good idea, except that.it is advisable to partition off a tight room for the machines, so that the heat from the furnace, if there la one. or drafts from windows or doors will not affect the hatches. Where the incubator eauipment Is extensive, nar ticularly where mammoth machines I W ZJ s ' I : : 1 i '- . .mf -.v-tv -A' Af I - ..' :v,.-,- . i n - ' ,K . - a v om,otr ifjSf rtCsJ-'trr. ' ' ;r.--. y - - - - - - - -' - . r I' 2 ss- if fh ' JBtJ1 . It fas JS- , T . I' .. , ' . ' .jT :i llje' -Jrf - - v. il 77-:. p ; xr Wl - ill . .-JN ) II W.. -f'-' " -ZdkjT TW xsl CZh I Noatak, which is almost as large, and a third is the Selawik, which is more than half the length of the Kobuk. The port is an open' roadstead, but there is good shelter for ships, except when the south wind blows." "What sort of a settlement have you at Kotzebue?" "It is little more than a trading sta tion. It has a etore and a fish can nery. The chief industry is the fish eries, the Eskimos coming from long distances to catch and dry their sup ply of fish for the Winter. "Are the fish of that region valu able?" "Yes. . They are caught in the ice bergs, and are fine and fat. Owing to the intense cold, they have a coat of blubber between the skin and the fleeh. We have a great many salmon and also speckled trout and Dolly Varden trout. Our cannery has a capacity of 15,000 cans per annum,, and it has been shipping salmon and salmon trout for four or live years. The salmon Is of a light color and it does not bring so much for that reason. But to offeet this we have the Dolly Varden trout, which reaches a weight of 10 or 15 pounds and a length of three feet. The trout are especially fine. They art caught in abundance when running and the output of the cannery mig"ht be greatly increased." at O ri of the best authorities on Kotze bue sound and the Kobuk River is Judge M. F. Moran, who lives on the Kobuk v two or three hundred miles from the sound. Said he: "It is three thousand miles from Se attle to Kotzebue, and the steamers make regular sailings thre every July and August.- There are- small steamers on the Kobuk, and goods are carried up that stream into the heart of the ter ritory. 1 live in the Kobuk Valley and have been there for 12 years. Winter and Summer. I have taken up a home stead, of 320 acres about S00 miles east of the Sound. It is the farthest north are used, best results are secured when . the apparatus is housed in a cellar spe- daily Duiit lor me purpose. It Is often desirable to hatch In the late Spring or even in the Summer months, but if the incubator is run in a house above ground, which is quickly heated by the sun s rays. It is difficult. almost Impossible, for the operator to keep the temperature of the egg cham bers low enough. Because the tempera ture t)f most structures above, ground varies- widely, every 24 hours, and be cause it is virtually out of the question to maintain moisture in such places x cept by radically artificial means, op erating incubators unfler these circum stances necessitates constant regulation and watching. . Essentials of at Good Cr-llar. The ideal cellar or structure in which to run a machine is built about two thirds below the ground level, which affords a fairly uniform, cool tempera ture, and one-third above the ground, which permits of adequate ventilation. In selecting a site, the first thing to consider is drainage, and on this ac count a hillside or high, dry ground i preferable. It is well, also, to consider the "location of the cellar in relation to the brooder house, dwelling and other conveniences. Remember that it will be visited often, from early in the morning until late at night, and in every kind of weather, which means some very bad weather, consequently it should be built with the idea of acces sibility. The cellar may be erected in con- Junction w-ith a brooder house, laying house, granary or other building, or it may be built as shown in the accom panying sketch, as a separate unit, with a gable roof. For the conveni ence of this article we will consider it as an independent building, though it is easily converted into any other modification. The cellar should be large enough to allow the attendant to work around the machine conveniently. If small ma chines are being used at the time of of any homestead In Uncle Sam's ter ritory." "What kind of . a climate have you?" I asked. "I consider the Kobuk Valley one of the most delightful parts of Alaska." replied Judge Moran. We have four months of very cold weather. J& the streams are frozen solid by the 1st of October and we have a steady cold from then until about the middle of May. Shortly after that the ice goes out with a rush and Summer begins. "How cold does it get during the Winter?" "The thermometer sometimes goes down to 60 or 60 degrees below zero, but as a rule it is much above that, and we have weeks when it is only a few degrees above or below. The air is dry and there is but little wind, and we have no trouble to keep ourselves warm. There are. perhaps. 75 white people who live on the Kobuk and its tributaries. Many of the men have brought their wives with them, and children have been born in the oun try. Among our people are emigrants from North Dakota and Minnesota; they say that the climate of the Ko buk is quite as good as the country from which they came." '. "Give me an idea of your Summers.' "They are delightful. We have many days when the thermometer goes up to 80. and I have seen.it at 9 degrees above zero. It is light all the time dur ing the Summer. We put away our lamps in March and do not bring them out until late In September. You can read a newspaper at any hour of t:-.e night without artificial light. There is so much sunshine that everything grows twice as fast as in the States. The grass along the river is as high as your head and the land everywhere is green rand spotted with wild . flowers. We have great fields of blue forget-me-nots, thousands of wild roses of a deli- building the cellar, it is best to provide for the installation of a mammoth ma chine at some future time, that is. to make the cellar1 wide enough to accom modate one .of the large, coal-burning tVDes. Mammoth machines reauire a cellar width of aoout 12 feet, and a ceiling height of 7 feet. Eight feet is better. Most machines are of the two sided type with compartments on both sides. Passageways at least three feet wide should be allowed for the handling of egg trays. Two mammoth machines a v be set up side by side in a cellar 20 feet wide, with plenty of room for convenient operation. A 1200-egg ma chine requires a Cellar length of 18 feet, and each additional section of I A v. i : LfQ: . iQs -H4fe j J ' acti.tn m bSi i ' 1 -LI" fcvifgggg-4 "' crrrgl Section 7Vp"'t t H -o r-? 4" . . . , YrS ; v f t j ; i! ... v J "J -n. or- ceumn " f oLj.i. pfT i ' .-- . 'u. - , Window Wi.M J ,. cat pink, buttercups as yellow as gold and sheets of f ireweed that wave under the wind like masses of flames. We have altogether 40 different varieties -I of wild flowers. We have also many wild berries. Our cranberries are only half as large as those of the States, but they are redder and their flavor is better. We have wild raspberries, gooseberries and currants, and salmon berries of a pale lemon color. We have 'all kinos of moss, and especially that upon which tne reindeer ieeas. mere are now several thousand, reindeer in the district. They are owned by the Eskimos. "We are now raising vegetables. We used to bring our turnips, potatoes, carrots and cabbages from Seattle, not realizing that we could grow them our selves. We now raise all we want out in the open, and also lettuce, peas and beans. We grow the finest of- toma toes and cucumbers in our hothout -s. "Tell me something about the game of the Kobuk?" ' "It is of many varieties, and we are so far north that no one bothers about getting a license for hunting. There is excellent fishing. The streams of the delta are such that you can travel hundreds of miles in a gasoline laurith. Thejj are deep, but the water is so clear, that you can see the bottom al most everywhere. "The whole valley is . full of wild birds. There are great flocks of wild gees, ducks and sandhill cranes that come to feed on the berries that grow on the banks of the lakes. These birds arrive about May 1. sending out their scouts in advance. The natives watch for the first goose and then prepare for the hunt. "We have,two species of ptarmhran." Judge Moran continued. "One of these is the size of a quail and the other that of a prairie chicken. These birds are to be found the year around, and, arrange to sav. they change their color with the season. In the Summer the about 300 eggs requires four extra feet. . In order to save on the labor of ex cavating, we recommend making the finished floor level about three feet be low the natural grade, and using what earth is removed from the hole to throw up an embankment around the cellar. This will secure the desired depth be low ground at the least expense. The walls should be built of stone, brick or concrete, and the floor should be made ofcement. also the entrance steps and areaway. In theaccompanylng dia gram we present a design for a cellar of concrete. 40 feet long and 14 feet wide, outside measuremirits. with a ceil ing height of TVz feet in the clear. The structure is made of concrete, because this material has come into general f n rm lift, and mav he erected bv the ipoultryman himself with the assistance of ordinary farm labor. Anyone who can handle a hatchet and saw and build a wooden form can execute a satisfac tory concrete Job, whereas a certain amount of skill is required to lay up stone or brick masonry. - V... V feathers are brown, the color of the j tundra. In the Winter they turn to snow white, so that it is difficult to see the birds against the snow. This Is a protection of nature. It is the same with our rabbits. They are brown, in the Summer and in the Winter snow white. We have millions of rabbits. They feed on the bark of the willow trees, and they will eat the bark as high as they can reach, standing on the snow as they do so. This kills the trees, and you ofteji see dead willow thickets of vast extent." "Have you any Dip; game?" "We have moose here and there and thousands of caribou. The caribou go about in large droves in the Winter. As to fur animals, we have otter and muskrat, ermine and marten, and our mink are noted the world over for their fine fur." "How about foxes?" "We have the best that can be found in the frigid zone," replied Judge Moran. "We have every kind, includ ing the red. the cross, the black or sil vertip and the white and the blue. All of these foxes belong to two families. The red fox -Includes the cross and the black. The white includes the blue. Our red foxes average about 17 pounds in weight. The white and blue foxes will run about eight pounds." "Can fur-farming be carried on at a profit in that part of Alaska?" "There is no doubt of it," said Judge Moran. "We have the ideal climate for fur production and we can breed foxes, marten, mink and ermine. The Kobuk was once the natural home of the bea ver, but that animal is now almost ex tinct. During one year we shipped muskrat skins to the amount of 9100. 000. We are now shipping none. Musk rats could be raised on farms all over A laska. "As for foxes. I have started a fur farm at Shungnak and am breeding whites, reds and crosses. I have had as many as 72 foxes at one time, and I am now rapidly increasing my sup ply by buying breeding stock of the natives. ' I pay them one and a half times the value of the skin. Until late ly I have lost a niamber of foxes be 'The work of keeping the floor water proof should be taken up In connection with the excavation. Excavate to a depth of nine, inches below the finished floor level, and fill It in with six inches of broken stone, cinders, broken tile brick bats or any other hard, porous material that will obtain perfect drain age. Never use ashes. Tamp this foun dation material to- a solid bed. and it Is then ready for the concrete floor slah. which should be abou( three inches Since the a.dvent of the incuba tor a branch of the poultry in dustry has evolved which was never even ; dreamed of by the most visionary, and which has exceeded the most sanguine ex pectations the day - old - chick business. There will be an In teresting article on this subject for next week. thick. The floor should be pitched to drain, for cleaning purposes. And if the cellar is located in particularly wet ground, a line of agricultural tile may be laid through the foundation material and led away from t.ie building to lower ground or to a dry well. We would use a finishing coat of cement on the floor, or else trowel the con crete to a smoeth surface. The walls should be about eight Inches thick, as shown. For the con crete throughout we would use the fol lowing proportion: 1 part cement Zhi parts sand, and 5 parts crushed stone pebbles, cinders or slag. The sand should be clean, sharp and coarse, and the large aggregate must be free of loam, clay or organic matter. We would use cement that is guaranteed to meet the United States Government standard. See that it is fresh and in no way affected by moisture. Needless to say, it must be stored in a dry place, as even dampness will cause cement to set, and it is then worthless. Measure the ingredient; for concrete; don't. guess at them: and mix them thoroughly. The secret of good con crete is to have the ingredients so thor oughly mixed that no two grains of sand or pieces of stone lie together without an, intervening coating or film ; f i;.Jp, cause I did not know how strong to make the pens or inclosures in which they were kt-pt. I began with high fences of chicken wire, but 'that wire was too weak and the mesh was not right. The animals walked right through It. Now J have a 14-gauge steel wire, with a two-inch mesh. It is made for fox fencing, and it seems to be excellent." "What do you know about the-Kobuk River " "I ought to know something," said Judge Moran. "1 have lived on the Kobuk for more than a decade and have hunted and fished and prospected for gold all along it and its tributaries. The Kobuk is about the best stream in arctic Alaska. It is 600 miles long. It flows from east to west, not far north of the arctic circle, and empties into the Arctic Ocean at Kotzebue Sound. The stream winds about like the Yu kon, and its delta has as many mouths as the Mississippi. In normal times it is navigable for 300 miles for steamers of two and one-half-feet draft. It is a better river than the Tanana. and shallow draft boats can go further up it." "I the country, well mineralized?" "Yes. there is more or less gold all along the Kobuk. You can drive your shovel almost anywhere into the gravel of the creeks and find color. In 1913, a nugget as big as my hand was brought into the store at Kotzebue Sound and traded for goods That nugget weighed 44 H ounces, and its actual value was almost $1000. The miner who brought it said he had found It when moving his sluice boxes. He had it on his shovel and had thrown it away with the other rocks, when he noticed that the shovel seemed heavy. He then went over to where he had thrown the stuff and found the nugget in the mud. He washed the mud off and saw that the lump was pure gold." "Then your gold must be coarse?" "Yes. it Is all free gold, some fine and some coarse. We catch It in sluice boxes and without quicksilver." "Is there much mining being done?" of cement, to insure perfect adhesion. Forms for concrete, while they are simply falsework , and afterward re moved, should be securely built of fairly good material. They should be strong enough to hold the weight of the concrete without bulging out of shape. Plan them so there will be no difficult measurements to understand, and aim to use them over and over again, as much as possible, which greatly reduces their cost. They should be adequately braced in sections best adapted to the York, and in sizes that are convenient to handle. I nan re Perfeet Vestllatlon. Proper ventilation is imperative. The egg chambers of the incubator must be generously supplied with fresh air at all times, yet there should be no risk of driving rains or direct cur rents of air blowing on the machine. The'windows are therefore fitted with double sash, as shown, the inner sash to open out and up. In this manner a free circulation of air is established. The windows are spaced about four feet part. It is a good plan to them with cellar-window wire or small mesh netting, to exclude cats and other marauders. The roof lis framed with 2 by 4-inch rafters, spaced about two: feet on cen ters, overlaid by sheathing boards and covered with a reliable grade of ready-to-lay patent roofing; or. the rafters may be shingle-lathed and a roof built of shingles. The ceiling Joists are 2 by 4-inch material, secured to the plates, which are "of similar material, and spaced about two feet apart. The loft space between the ceiling and the under side of the roof should be ven tilated in some way, either at 'the gables or by a ventilator. If a half story is built over the incubator cel lar, this loft space makes a good stor age room and a particularly suitable place for drying and curing feathers. Most mammoth incubators are heated by coal-burning, hot-water furnaces, consequently a chimney or flue of some kind is required. A concrete chimney may be built very easily, using terra cotta tile flue lining for the inside orm. and a wooden structure for the outside form. Build the entrance steps as shown, and provide a substantial, generous door. To estimate. Uie quantities of ingred "We have a number -of prospectors and miners who are working on the creeks that flow Into the Koouk. There are some also on the Squirrel and Shungnak Rivers. I have a mining property on Dahl Creek. In 1910 a nugget was found there that was worth 700. As to the gold of Arctic Alaska our country is in the infancy of its development. Many of the creeks carry low-grade gravel that will some day be dredged at a profit. We have also good quartz in which you can see the fine grains of gold with the naked eye." "What other minerals have you?" "The oountry has never been pros pected." replied Judge Moran. "It is full of minerals, but no one knows Just what there is nor the values. As to copper, we have some large de posits. Mr. Bradley, the. manager of the great gold mines at Tread well, took one option on a copper find near the Kobuk River at a price of S400.000. That was about 12 years ago. when copper was low. The price continued to decline and he finally gave up the option. At the present time the de posit could probably be 'mined at a great profit. v. "Among the other minerals we have large deposits of asbestos, silver and coal. Some of the silver is placer, and can be washed from the streams. We have also antimony and tungsten and a Jade, which. It is believed, will com mand .a high price in the market." "Are the coal deposits of any value?" "There is one mine on the Kobuk that has supplied the local demand for the past 18 years, and there are other beds of fairly good coal near the Arctic Ocean. There are some deposits near Cape Lisburne that have been known a long time. They were mentioned by Henry D. Woolfe, who had worked in them prior to the census of 1890. He describes the coal as semi-bituminous, and says it will make steam quickly, although it has a large percentage or ash. One of the deposits covers 25 square miles. It is also reported that there Is a lake of oil and oil springs northwest of Wainwright. The Gov ernment has Ions known of an oil belt there, but the region has not been sur veyed nor prospected. In fact, no one knows what we have in these far northern parts of" Alaska. It may be that the next great gold stampedelaWill be to this region." ients required for a concrete Job. which will also give you an idea of the cost, first figure tae cubical contents get the actual volume or capacity of the forms In cubic feet. Let this product represent the quantity of crushed stone, cinders or whatever is used for the large aggregate. Then, if the desired proportion or mixture for the concrete is 1 2hi 5. since t Is one-half of 5. the necessary sand, or small aggre gate, will be one-half of the large ag gregate, ox crushed stone. Similarly, the cement is one-fifth of the large aggregate. "J. Barleycorn' Named in Suit. nwr.A Hnv riTY. Okla.. Jan. 14. "John Barleycorn" was made co-respondent in a divorce suit filed here by Hazel Wadlow. seeking a separa tion from her husbana. Charles Wad low. The petition alleges that "'John Barleycorn' has been an intimate asso ciate of the defendant for three years past, and has been" a frequent visitor at the home, and at such times the de fendant has been constantly with him." Try This if You Have ' Dandruf f There is one sure way that never falls to remove dandruff completely and that fa to dissolve It. This destroys It entirely. To do this,- Just get about four ounces of plain, ordinary liquid arvon; apply it at night when retiring: use enough to moisten the scalp and rub it in gently with the finger tips. By morning most, if not all, of your dandruff will be gone, and three or four more applications will completely dis solve and entirely destroy every-slngle sign and trace of it, no matter how much dandruff you may have. You will find, too. that all itching and digging of the scalp will stop in stantly, and your hair will be fluffy, lustrous, glossy, silky and soft, and look and feel a hundred timed better. You can get liquid arvon at any drug store. It is inexpensive, and four ounces is all you will need. This simple rem edy has never been known to fall. Adv. 4