What book contains this description?

January 24, 2007 6:57 PM

What book contains this description (and where in the book if possible)? Alaskan / Yukon rivers that freeze on the surface in the winter, then run dry beneath the ice, leaving river tunnels which bears and other animals then inhabit. Thought it might be John McPhee's Coming Into the Country, or Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams, but paging through both I couldn't find it.
posted by Jackson to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

It's not McPhee's Coming Into the Country for sure, I just reread it. What a good book. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Here's a little something from google print that at least mentions the concept, from John Muir's travels in Alaska.

I hope you get a better answer.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:45 PM on January 24, 2007

It's not Arctic Dreams either, I don't recall it and couldn't find any reference just now.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 9:48 PM on January 24, 2007

There are rivers running inside glaciers that might also fit this. "Esker" is the name for the kind of deposit they leave once the glacier is gone; not sure what the term for the live in-glacier river is.

An author in a similar vein is Farley Mowat.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2007