Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/163

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will go out in a happy progression. But not so these three outlaws among rivers. For, from the first moment that the Yukon begins to break up at its source, and finally pours its raging current into Lake Bennett, until it goes foaming into the Pacific, there is trouble all the way. All the way the water and the jamming ice pound along. Thundering, grinding, smashing, gnawing, breaking, almost like a mighty glacier all the way (each spring) the Yukon does battle with everything in its way. It is a mighty and majestic sight, but most destructive. But in other ways spring comes gently in Alaska. One of the first migrants to arrive from the South is the white arctic goose driving its wedge-shaped flying machine through the soft spring sky. This first spring arrival is quickly followed by others and soon the primeval woods are vocal with bird songs. The great piliated woodpecker is calling in his strident cackle, while he pounds away upon a rotten limb like a veritable woodchopper. The white-