cess and riches up under the Arctic Circle, where the year consists of a day and a night a night of winter and a day of summer-time, when the sun brings forth vegetation with wondrous speed and the warmth of a temperate zone diffuses itself over all the land. Visitors will learn how Alaska in the last twelve years has produced enough of the yellow metal, piled one above another in $20 goldpieces, to reach ten miles upward into the air twice as high as the Himalaya Mountains- $1,200 a foot, $12,500,000 a mile, and totaling more than $125,000,000. Laid side by side those gold-pieces would reach from New York to Philadelphia.

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition hopes to exploit most fully the resources of western British North America. British Columbia, the province that faces the Pacific, has coal areas sufficient to supply the civilized world for a hundred years, and almost every metal known, to say nothing of the finest bodies of timber left standing upon the American continent. Per capita, Holland enjoys the largest trade of any nation on the globe. British Columbia stands second. Only a tenth of the available land is settled upon, and only a small part of that is under cultivation, yet the agricultural and fruit yield is $4,000,000 a year.

Washington, Oregon and Idaho, with the other western states, will have a variety of resources to show that will be a revelation to those not familiar with the Pacific slope. The timber industry of Washington, when in full blast, employs close to one hundred thousand men, and would fill with lumber and shingles a train of cars reaching two-thirds of the way from New York to San Francisco. Because of the long haul and high freight rates to the eastern market only the best grades of lumber can be shipped, and in the mills and forests are wasted each year enough lumber to fill fifty-three thousand carloads, worth close to $15,000,000. The value of the annual product is something like $85,000,000. Washington wheat brings in half that much more a year, while fruit and other produce are worth many millions in addition.

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific will be a commercial exposition, and perhaps the greatest mission it can accomplish will be in the line of extending America's trade upon the Pacific, the bringing closer together of the shores of the world's greatest ocean. Three transcontinental railways now reach Puget Sound: the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern and the Canadian Pacific, and at least three more will soon touch tidewater at Seattle. The Harriman lines are extending northward

ther to the northward the Grand Trunk is stretching across the Canadian plains and mountains.

All these lines will haul timber and other products eastward, but they wish freight for the westward trip and hope to secure it through the extension of Pacific commerce. This trade of the Pacific amounts to almost $4,000,000,000, of which the United States controls a fifth. By bringing together the people from all the nations that face this great body of water, the exposition will show to each the needs of the others, and commerce must grow by leaps and bounds. America will profit by an untold sum, and will be in vastly better position to compete with the aggressive traders of Japan. So apt are these Japanese to learn that they are making machinery similar to that in America and are buying American cotton, wheat and other raw materials, manu

Central Republics are purchasing immense quantities of lumber from the Northwest mills, but the future should see them buying many other products and occupying a much closer relation to the Northwest and all the United States. Australia is one of Puget Sound's greatest purchasers of timber products, and constantly exhibits the most friendly interest in American institutions and industries.

Taking all these things into consideration - the wealth of Alaska and the British Yukon, the undeveloped resources and possibilities of the Pacific slope, the vast trade that is to be gained on the Pacific, and the future that is unmistakably in store for all the Far West is it at all remarkable that the people of Seattle assembled and said, "We will show America and the world what we have by means of the A.-Y.-P."?

A New Harbor-Guide System

SINCE

By Malcolm Campbell

men first "went down to the sea in ships," the greatest dangers have not been upon the open waters, but when approaching shore and even when entering the harbor. For exposed headlands, lights of one sort or another have been used for many hundreds of years; the first form being a simple bonfire, the next a fire of faggots in an iron basket on the top of a tower, the next a stationary oil-burning lamp. There has up to the present time been practically no change in the system since the oil lamp, protected by glass panes, was introduced. It has been made to revolve, so as to obtain the "flash" or time lights, and electricity has been utilized, but the principle has remained the same.

On shoals and banks and on lonely headlands the old-style lighthouse serves its purpose well, except in time of heavy fog, and then the fog-horn or bell is of some assistance to the blinded ships, but in narrow and winding entrances to harbors or where a channel is difficult they are almost worthless. An incoming ship must have a pilot thoroughly familiar with the local conditions, and even then the entrance is not always made with safety. Not infrequently vessels have grounded in the harbor of New York.

Now comes forward an inventor with a scheme which apparently will solve all difficulties so far as harbors are concerned, once the ship has picked up the lights which should indicate its entrance. The plan has received the approval of many naval officers and experienced seamen, and while it has not yet been actually tried in a harbor, appears to be in every way practical.

This new system is known as the "subaqueous," and consists, briefly, of a cable

laid upon the bed of the bay or river, and having at suitable intervals short branches to which are attached incandescent lamps fitted with reflectors which will concentrate the light into parallel beams as nearly as possible. The whole system is designed to withstand the pressure and corrosive action of sea water. The lamp and reflector are made sufficiently buoyant so that they will maintain an upright position. As the effect of waves does not extend to a depth exceeding their own height, the outfit will be always in still water. The cable is connected with a shore supply station, and the whole system is at all times controlled from the shore.

With this system in use, an incoming vessel, upon reaching the harbor mouth, would see a brilliant spot of light upon the water and heading toward it, would see another and another stretching on in a line which, if followed, would bring her safely to anchorage. Strangely enough, this system would be even more effective in a fog, as the beams of light, striking upward, would appear almost like pillars of flame.

The value of the "subaqueous" system in time of war is obvious. With all lights out, there could be no danger of an enemy slipping in too close, while, if desired, the pathway in or out could be lighted up for a friendly vessel for so long as she needed the guidance, and then the current might be shut off. The cost of such a simple system is, naturally, far below that of a regular lighthouse equipment.

A particularly important point is the obviously short time which would be required to lay a cable with its lights in a harbor.

A sad possibility in connection with this system is that the advertising man may get hold of an outfit, with the result

AM

Some Uses for Seaweed

By Charles A. Sidman

MONG the most valuable of the aquatic resources of the world, and one which is extensively utilized in France, Ireland, Scotland, the East Indies, China, Japan and the United States, is the seaweed. In most of these countries it is used for food and medicine, and in the manufacture of jellies, candies, and other food preparations. It is also used for the sizing of textiles, stiffening the warp of silks, clarifying wines, beers, coffee and other drinks, and in the manufacture of

rocks just below low-water mark. The fronds are from three to six inches long and usually purple, but when exposed to a bright light while growing are of a yellowish-green color.

The crop is usually gathered between the months of May and September. A small part is gathered by hand, but most of it is torn from the rocks by means of rakes used from boats. The rakes are made especially for the purpose, have a fifteen-foot handle and a head twelve to fifteen inches wide, with twenty-four to twenty-eight teeth six inches long and an eighth of an inch apart. If the rocks are not scraped too clean in the early part of the season, it is possible in some of the warm sheltered coves to gather two crops a season. The output in recent years has varied considerably. Occasionally heavy storms do damage by tearing the plant

from the rocks and scattering it along miles of beach.

In the preparation and curing of Irish moss, fair weather and much sunshine are the principal requisites. When first brought ashore, the plants are washed in salt water, and then spread on the sandy beach to dry and bleach. After twentyfour hours in good weather, they are raked up and again washed, and again spread on the beach to dry. Three washings are usually sufficient for complete cleansing, curing, and bleaching, but as many as seven are sometimes given. After the final washing, the plants are left in the sun, the entire process requiring about two weeks of good weather and sunshine. At the end of this period the plants fade and are white or strawcolored. Two more weeks are then required to sort and prepare the product for shipping.

The moss is sent to market in barrels holding about one hundred pounds, and the first crop is usually shipped in August. The product has a wide distribution in the United States and Canada, part going to druggists and grocers while the larger part is taken by brewers.

In Japan the seaweed industries owe their importance to the great extent of the coast line; to the abundance and variety of the useful seaweeds; and to the ingenuity of the people in putting the different kinds of plants to the most appropriate uses and in utilizing them to the fullest extent. The value of the seaweeds prepared in Japan at the present time exceeds over two million of dollars annually, this sum excluding the values of very large quantities of marine plants which do not enter into commerce but are used locally in the families of the fisher

men.

One of the most valuable of the products of seaweeds, comparable to isinglass and used for some of the same purposes, is known to the Japanese as kanten. This means "cold weather," having reference to the fact that kanten is and can only be made during the cold months, December to February. The kanten industry dates back to about 1760. In the early years it was simply a mass of jelly formed by the boiling of the seaweed, but at the present time the entire output is in the more convenient form of sticks and bars.

Kanten is pearly white, shiny, and semitransparent, having in block form a loose, flaky structure. It is tasteless and odorless. In cold water it swells but does not dissolve, but in boiling water it is readily soluble and on cooling forms a jelly. In Japan kanten is used largely for food in the form of jellies, often colored, and as an adjunct to soups, sauces and other dishes. In foreign countries it is employed in a variety of ways, although chiefly in food preparations where a gelatin is required, such as jellies, pastries, candies, and many desserts, in all of which it is superior to animal isinglass. It is one of the most important food products of Japan, while in China it is used as a substitute for edible bird nests.

Many of the seaweeds of Japan are used for making funori, a name given to a kind of glue. This product, which is used for stiffening fabrics, is readily converted into a glue or paste by immersion in boiling fresh water, and is extensively used in that form by the Japanese. The principal objects for which it is employed are the glazing and stiffening of fabrics, being commonly used as a starch for clothing. Other purposes are the coating of papers, cementing of walls and tiles, and the decorating of china.

One of the most useful products in medicinal lines, that of iodin, is made from other varieties of seaweed. This industry is assuming such large proportions in Japan that it may be safely said that Japan now supplies a considerable part of this commodity used in the world, supplanting Scotland, which formerly produced most of the iodin extracted from marine plants.

In view of the large consumption of iodin in the United States and the facility with which it may be prepared, in crude form, at many places on the New England coast, it is remarkable that the manufacture of this product has not been undertaken on a large scale. There is undoubtedly a good opportunity to develop a new industry in every section of the United States coasts, and to establish a profitable trade in the various species and preparations of seaweed by increasing the output of the species already sparingly utilized. Every year wagonloads of weed are strewn on farm lands as a fertilizer, which, if the utility of the weed were