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SRA-i 

AN  EMPIRE 
L  IN  THE  MAKING 


JOHN  J. 
UNDERWOOD 


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Presented  to  the 
LIBRARY  of  the 

LXIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 


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ALASKA 

AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 


rbolo  by   I>obtM 


LEITINt;    «  "'    WAl  1:R  OO    IHL.  WORK.      GROUND  SLUICING  ON 
DAMI-I.S  CREEK,  NEAR  NOME,  ALASKA 


ALASKA 

AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 


BY 

JOHN  J.  UNDERWOOD 


WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND  A  MAP 


"I  hear  the  tread  oj  pioneers , 
Of  millions  yet  to  be; 
The  first  loxu  ivash  of  luaves  ivhere  soon 

Shall  roll  a  human  sea. 
The  elements  of  empire  here 

Are  plastic  yet  and  'ujarm, 
The  chaos  of  a  mighty  njoorld 
Is  rounding  into  form.  " 

—  Whittier 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1913 


Copyright,  1913 
By  DODD,  mead  &   COMPANY 

Published,  March,  1913 


LIER.. 


^^■^'/KGf  T.-.-.v-  , 


P 

90-3 


TO 

THOSE  GOOD  FELLOWS 

WHO   ARE   MEMBERS  OF  THE   NATIONAL 

PRESS  CLUB,  OF  WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

AND   OF  THE   SEATTLE   PRESS  CLUB, 

OF  SEATTLE,  WASHINGTON 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  information  contained  in  this  book  was  gathered  during 
an  almost  continuous  residence  of  fourteen  years  in  Alaska 
and  the  Yukon  Territory.  Much  of  this  time,  it  is  true,  was 
spent  in  fishing,  hunting,  exploring,  mining,  and  various  ways 
other  than  the  acquisition  of  data.  But  what  has  been  written 
is  as  accurate  as  it  is  humanly  possible  to  make  it.  The 
writer's  notes  and  observations  have  been  checked  up  with  gov- 
ernment reports  and  other  official  documents,  and  the  works 
of  Alfred  H.  Brooks,  Chief  of  the  Geological  Survey  in  Alaska, 
Skidmore's  "  History  of  Sitka,"  Dall's  "  Resources  of  Alaska," 
Senator  Sumner's  speech  on  the  resources  of  Alaska,  and  vari- 
ous documents  in  the  state,  treasury  and  other  departments 
of  the  government  have  been  freely  consulted. 

It  is  hoped  that  it  will  serve  not  only  as  a  guide  for  tourists 
and  sightseers  who  visit  the  Northern  wonderland,  but  also 
that  it  may  contain  matters  of  interest  to  the  stock  raiser,  the 
farmer,  the  miner,  the  prospector,  the  investor,  and  those  who 
may  go  to  Alaska  for  purposes  other  than  sight-seeing. 

A  few  of  the  photographs  herein  reproduced  were  taken  by 
the  writer,  but  the  majority  of  them  represent  the  work  of 
several  professional  photographers  situated  in  different  parts 
of  the  Northland. 


FOREWORD 

THE  LURE  OF  THE  NORTH 

Blood  red,  like  a  gigantic  ball  of  fire,  the  sun  was  sinking 
to  rest  behind  the  filmy  cloud  of  sulphurous  smoke  that 
zephyred  lazily  from  the  summit  of  Mount  Katmai.  Its 
rays  suffused  the  snow-capped  crests  of  adjacent  peaks  with 
shimmering  pink  and  purple  hues,  as  of  millions  of  scintillating 
gems  reposing  on  a  bed  of  white  velvet.  Like  one  hypnotised, 
an  Indian  gazed  at  the  scene,  magnificent  beyond  description. 
An  officer  of  the  law  touched  the  savage  upon  the  arm. 

"  Come,"  he  said. 

The  Indian  turned. 

"  Here  all  things  began  and  here  all  things  will  end,"  he 
murmured  in  the  guttural  of  his  native  tongue.  "  Here  the 
world  was  made:  here  have  I  lived,  here  have  my  fathers  lived 
before  me,  here  would  I  make  my  home,  here  would  I  die. 
But  now  the  Indian  is  as  the  moon  and  the  white  man  as  the 
stars.     The  paleface  says  I  must  go.     Yet  I  shall  return." 

The  Lure  of  the  North  was  in  the  savage  breast.  Like  the 
white  man  who  had  come  into  his  country  and  who,  slowly, 
surely,  was  blotting  his  tribes  from  off  the  earth,  the  son  of 
the  wilderness  had  absorbed  the  spirit  of  his  surroundings. 
The  difference  between  them  lay  in  that  the  Indian  knew  his 
return  was  inevitable.  Intuitive  was  the  knowledge  in  his 
primitive  mind  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  resist  the  uncon- 
querable yearning  which  compels  those  who  have  lived  in 
Alaska  ever  to  turn  their  faces  and  footsteps  towards  the 
North. 


FOREWORD 

As  surely  as  each  spring  the  sun  returns  to  break  the  fet- 
ters that  shackle  lake  and  river,  the  wandering  Alaskan,  when 
the  trees  begin  to  bud,  remembers  that  wild  roses  grow  be- 
neath the  snow  drifts;  that  nestling  in  the  bosom  of  Mother 
Earth  arc  sleeping  forget-me-nots,  anemones  and  violets,  wait- 
ing to  be  awakened  by  the  life-giving  breath  of  Chinook  winds 
and  warm  rains  into  velvety  fields  of  fragrant  blossoms. 

As  the  salmon  returns  each  spring  to  the  stream  of  its  na- 
tivity, as  the  myriad  migratory  birds  each  year  seek  again  their 
nesting  grounds  in  the  wilderness  of  marsh  and  lake  and  in  the 
cool  waters  of  the  Northland's  million  streams,  the  Alaskan 
feels  the  insatiable  desire  to  trek  back  into  the  realm  where  the 
midnight  beholds  the  sun  and  knows  not  stars  nor  darkness. 

He  thinks  of  the  trout  and  greyling  leaping  in  the  eddies 
and  the  dark  silent  pools.  He  hears  the  chattering  and  laugh- 
ing of  a  thousand  little  brooks  and  rills  as  they  rush  gaily 
over  the  stones  to  mingle  with  the  rivers.  He  scents  the 
pungent  fragrance  of  the  dank  undergrowth  crushed  beneath 
his  nioccasined  foot  as  he  treads  the  shadowy  depths  of  the 
primeval  forests.  In  his  ears  rings  the  call  of  the  moose  at 
twilight.  In  fancy  he  sees,  afar  on  the  high  peaks,  wild  goats 
and  sheep  with  their  gambolling  young.  Through  the  heavy, 
green  foliage  of  the  forest,  he  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  a  fright- 
ened black  bear  or  woodland  caribou.  Or,  perhaps,  he  may 
meet  a  snarling  and  ferocious  grizzly  as  he  strolls  in  his  home- 
sick day-dream  along  the  trails  of  the  silent  Northland. 

He  dreams,  too,  of  a  purling  stream,  whence  he  garners  in 
a  pan  the  yellow,  glinting  gold.  He  hears  the  rhythmical 
swish-swash  of  water  slopping  in  his  rocker  or  gurgling 
through  his  sluice-boxes.  In  the  early  morning,  when  the  pine 
trees  make  long  shadows,  he  feels  the  sting  of  frost  in  his  nos- 
trils as  he  listens  to  the  spruce  hen  clucking  for  her  chickens  or 
the  partridge  drumming  for  its  mate. 

X 


FOREWORD 

Never  yet  has  lived  the  expatriated  Arctic  Brother  who  has 
not  wondered  why  he  ever  came  to  pant  and  toil  beneath  brain- 
baking  suns  and  choke  his  lungs  with  the  dust  of  hot,  stifling 
streets.  What  madness  could  have  induced  him  to  exchange 
the  God-given,  pure  air  of  the  North  for  the  foul  atmosphere 
of  the  city? 

Satiated,  then  forgotten,  is  his  desire  to  see  and  feel  the  nov- 
elties and  taste  the  luxuries  of  the  great  outside  world  —  the 
white  lights,  the  crowded  avenues,  the  theatres,  the  motor  cars, 
the  thousand  and  one  things  that  man's  ingenuity  has  devised 
to  pander  to  the  pampered  appetite  of  civilisation.  He  has 
seen  them.  But  he  has  seen,  too,  the  lack  of  opportunity,  the 
distress,  the  worry,  the  oppression,  the  heart-breaking  poverty; 
and,  with  a  deep  and  abiding  disgust  for  the  selfishness,  shal- 
lowness and  meanness  of  it  all,  he  turns  again  to  his  belovtd 
Northland. 

The  greatness  —  the  bigness  —  of  Alaska  calls  to  him. 
The  great  glaciers,  weird  and  ghost-like,  relics  of  past  ages; 
the  towering  mountains;  the  mighty  rushing  rivers;  the  vast 
expanse  of  snow  and  ice;  the  phantasmagoria  of  the  Northern 
Lights;  the  largeness  of  heart  and  broadness  of  mind  of  the 
people;  the  richness  of  the  prizes  that  may  there  be  won  — 
these  are  the  things  that  ever  lure  him  back  to  the  North. 

Bigness  is  the  dominant  note  of  Alaska's  scenery.  Bigness 
is  the  dominant  note  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  Alaska's  peo- 
ple. It  is  a  land  of  big  mountains,  big  rivers,  big  forests,  big 
glaciers,  big  distances,  big  men.  It  is  no  cradle  for  the  puny 
nursling,  for  Alaska's  way  of  rearing  her  young  is  inexorably 
cruel.  She  kills  and  maims  and  drives  to  madness  the  weak- 
lings who  seek  to  become  her  foster  children.  The  death  sting 
of  her  fierce  blizzard  strikes  to  the  heart  and  her  iron  cold 
chills  the  brain.  She  allows  only  the  strongest,  the  bravest, 
the  fittest,  to  survive. 

ad 


FOREWORD 

UcT  moinU  arc  as  varied  as  her  scenery.  Her  glaciers,  far 
larger  than  the  far-famed  ice  fields  of  the  Alps,  now  thunder 
in  their  proj^rcss  like  duelling  batteries  of  heavy  artillery;  or 
lie  still,  dull  grey  or  steely  blue,  covered  here  and  there  vi^ith 
age-old  accumulations  of  debris.  Their  mood  is  that  of  desola- 
tion and  death. 

The  shimmering  waters  of  her  lakes  —  lying  sometimes 
'ncath  fleecy  clouds  in  the  open,  sometimes  in  the  shadows  of 
overhanging,  frowning  mountains  —  change  in  their  pellucid 
depths  from  blue  to  violet,  then  to  dark  green  and  black,  and 
again  to  heliotrope,  pink  and  gayer  colours,  soothing,  saddening 
and  cheering  by  turns. 

The  precipitous  mountains,  lifting  their  rugged  heads  above 
the  clouds  in  mighty  majesty,  or  showing  their  gaunt  outlines 
through  the  eddying  mists  like  dancing  skeletons,  are  funereal, 
repellent,  mysterious,  stern.  The  lonely  wanderer  shrinks  into 
insignificance  before  their  contemptuous  grandeur.  No  bright 
fancies  are  linked  with  their  memories.  Their  very  names  tell 
their  story.  Hope-deserted  prospectors  bitterly  have  called 
them  Starvation  Peak,  Death's  Head  Rock,  Poverty  Point, 
Mount  Weariness,  Mount  Disappointment,  Mount  Despair. 

The  forests,  in  places  impenetrable  through  rank,  half- 
tropical  undergrowth,  seem  to  stifle  a  sad  story  of  past  magnif- 
icence. In  their  gloomy  gorges  brood  the  spirits  of  regret  and 
remorse.  Few  tender  recollections  linger  in  their  dark  can- 
yons. They  are  fear-inspiring  in  their  sombre  shadows.  Yet, 
in  other  places,  Nature  paints  the  woodland  in  her  brightest 
colours.  White  silver  birch  and  quaking  asp  mingle  with  grey 
poplar  and  larch  and  dark  green  spruce  and  tamarack,  with 
here  and  there  a  gigantic  cedar  standing  like  a  silent  sentinel 
and  throwing  Its  black  shadows  into  limpid  lake  or  fjord. 
Verdure  stretches  down  to  the  water's  edge.  Feathered  song- 
sters warble  sueetly  as  they  flit,  in  their  bright  plumage,  from 

xii 


FOREWORD 

tree  to  tree.  Fragrant  odours  arise  from  the  carpets  of  moss 
and  the  hearts  of  millions  of  exquisitely  coloured  wildflowers. 
On  the  fringe  of  the  jungle,  broad,  verdant  plains  are  covered 
with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  wild  grasses.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
Northland  speaks  to  the  soul  of  the  life  and  happiness  that 
abounds  in  a  land  of  plenty. 

Her  rivers,  like  her  forests,  are  contradictory.  Kissed  by 
summer's  suns  and  fed  by  winter's  snows,  they  come  tearing 
down  canyons  like  herds  of  wild  and  frightened  horses,  toss- 
ing high  their  foaming  spray  to  warn  the  impudent  voyageur 
who  would  dare  their  fury  in  his  flimsy  canoe.  Others  flow 
serenely  over  sandy  bottoms,  clear  and  sparkling,  like  sheets 
of  silver.  At  times  they  are  peaceful,  calm.  Again  they  have 
the  strength  of  Titans. 

Sometimes  Alaska  becomes  terrifying.  And  man,  and  bird 
and  beast  —  even  her  own  wnld  ones  —  flee  before  the  tempest 
of  her  convulsions.  Smoke  and  flame  belch  from  her  moun- 
tains. Inky  clouds,  broken  only  by  the  lurid  volcanic  fires  and 
the  darting  flash  of  lightning,  forbid  the  sun.  The  air  rever- 
berates with  the  crash  of  thunder  and  the  booming  of  Nature's 
artillery  beneath  the  earth;  and  the  seas  boil  and  hiss  as  the 
incandescent  rocks  plunge  into  their  depths.  The  earth  shud- 
ders and  gasps  as  the  top  is  hurled  from  some  giant  peak  or 
mammoth  glacier  is  jarred  from  the  couch  where  it  has  rested 
for  centuries.  Perhaps,  to  the  accompaniment  of  terrific  de- 
tonations, an  island  rears  its  head  of  red-hot,  glowing  rock 
through  sw'irling  clouds  of  steam  from  the  bed  of  an  Arctic 
sea.  Another  island,  perhaps,  sinks  into  the  depths,  and  ships 
sail  over  the  spot  where  once  it  lay  and  the  lead  can  find  no 
bottom. 

Northward  of  the  Yukon  fierce  winds  sweep  savagely  across 
the  dreary,  barren  tundras.  The  "  musher,"  doggedly  strug- 
gling against  the  blinding  storm,  stands  out  in  the  dim  light  of 

xiii 


FOREWORD 

the  Arctic  winter,  unreal,  intangible  —  something  apparently 
animated,  and  yet  grotesque  and  ghost-like.  In  the  dark,  silent 
season,  when  the  wolf-dog  lies  down  in  the  snow  and  howls  at 
the  icy  moon  and  when  the  aurora  suffuses  the  heavens  with  a 
million  darting,  scintillating,  iridescent  rays,  the  winter  travel- 
ler in  the  North  —  as  the  wind  bites  cruelly  through  his  thick 
furs  —  feels  that  he  is  alone  and  deserted;  that  death  lies  in 
wait  for  him  around  the  next  bend  in  the  trail;  that  he,  like 
others,  who  have  dared  the  Northern  blizzard,  will  be  found 
stark  and  cold  on  the  frozen  plain  when  the  spring  sun  melts 
his  winding  sheet  of  snow. 

Alaska  is  the  land  of  ever-changing  impulses,  but  in  all  her 
moods  she  engenders  strength  and  virility.  When  the 
Northerner  is  wandering  through  sylvan  scenes,  where  brooks 
are  babbling,  where  the  sun  is  shining  overhead,  where  the  sky 
is  blue  and  all  the  trees  and  shrubs  and  streams  are  coloured 
in  pastel  shades,  he  is  calm,  contented,  happy.  When  placed 
before  the  fearful  grandeur  of  rugged,  snow-capped  moun- 
tains, the  terror  of  wind-swept  plains  or  the  silence  of  unre- 
sponsive forests,  he  is  imbued  with  the  courage  and  determina- 
tion that  is  essential  to  the  conquering  of  the  obstacles  that 
beset  his  path. 

The  dweller  in  the  wilderness  learns  to  acknowledge  the 
subtle  charms  of  its  solitude.  He  learns  to  read  the  lessons  in 
its  rocks,  and  trees,  and  fields  and  falling  leaves.  He  begins 
to  comprehend  why  the  nomadic  Arab  loves  his  heritage  of 
desert  sand. 

With  reckless  courage  and  undying  hope  the  Alaskan  ever  can 
ser  the  green  fields  in  the  distance  or  the  peaceful  valley  that 
lies  just  over  the  next  divide.  He  climbs  the  rockv  fastness,  he 
penetrates  the  untrodden  wilderness,  alone  and  unafraid.  Al- 
ways is  he  certain  that  some  day  he  will  find  the  fortune  that 
God  has  placed  there  for  him.^    Hardships,  privation,  misfor- 

xiv 


FOREWORD 

tune  he  endures  as  a  part  of  his  daily  lot.  Often  without  re- 
ward he  toils  for  many  years.  Perhaps,  after  a  bitter,  des- 
perate struggle  against  starvation  or  the  elements,  he  succumbs 
to  the  Arctic  blizzard ;  but  he  accepts  his  fate  unflinchingly  and 
without  complaint.  Occasionally  he  finds  his  last  resting  place 
in  some  deep,  dark  gulch,  or  on  some  barren  mountainside, 
where  he  sleeps  in  a  nameless  grave  with  none  to  mark  the  spot. 
When  the  call  comes,  it  finds  him  ready  to  pay  the  toll  of  the 
trackless  places  without  question  or  regret,  for  courage  and  for- 
titude abide  everlastingly  in  his  heart.  In  the  cold,  austere 
mountains;  in  the  silent  forests,  in  the  broad  plains,  in  the 
long  leagues  of  the  heart-breaking  trail,  he  finds  a  fit  compan- 
ion and  a  loving  affinity  in  life  or  in  death. 

Yet  with  all  the  various  moods  and  fancies  that  are  born  of 
scenery  so  beautiful  that  it  makes  the  heart  ache,  Alaska  essen- 
tially is  a  land  of  plenitude  —  bounteousness.  Beneath  her 
covering  of  moss  and  vegetation  mineral  treasure  worth  count- 
less millions  lies  hidden;  her  broad  acres  are  covered  with  riot- 
ous growth  of  wild  grain  and  luxuriant  grasses;  her  forests 
are  filled  with  ripened  timber;  beneath  her  sod  are  billions  of 
tons  of  coal.  With  extravagant  generosity  she  has  provided 
that  posterity  shall  be  nurtured  and  warmed  with  the  food  and 
fuel  of  her  bosom. 

In  the  years  yet  to  be  her  great  forests  will  deliver  their 
wealth;  her  mines  will  surrender  their  riches;  her  seas  will 
give  of  their  abundance;  her  hospitable  soil  will  yield  of  its 
marvellous  productivity;  her  verdant  fields  will  be  harvested; 
her  cereals  will  be  ground  into  flour  without  which  neither 
prince  nor  pauper  can  live;  her  sequestered  inlets  will  become 
thriving  industrial  centers  where  the  rumble  of  her  thousand 
mills  will  mingle  with  the  roar  of  many  furnaces. 

Alaska  is  calling  for  people.  Her  outstretched  arms  are 
filled  with  generous  offerings  to  those  who  would  come  and 

XV 


FOREWORD 

free   licr  from   the  isolation  she  has  suffered  for  unnumbered 
centuries. 

The  sturdy  men  and  women  who  conquered  the  great  North- 
west, who  pierced  the  back-bone  of  the  continent  with  railway 
tunnels,  who  made  productive  millions  of  acres  of  desert  land, 
were  of  the  same  hardy  stock  who,  to-day,  by  their  endurance, 
ciicrj:y  and  industry'  are  slowly  converting  the  vast  wilderness 
of  Alaska  into  an  Empire. 

These  are  the  unhonoured,  unknown  heroes  of  the  North. 
Some  day,  perhaps,  some  more  gifted  pen  will  undertake  to 
write  their  story.  Mine  shall  be  the  more  prosaic  task  of 
writing  something  about  the  land  that  is  theirs  —  "Alaska, 
an  Empire  in  the  making." 

The  Author. 


XVI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Leaving  for  Alaska  —  Vessel  sails  through  the  "  Mediterranean 
of  the  Pacific  " —  Magnificent  scenery  along  the  shores  of  Pu- 
get  Sound  and  the  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca  —  How  it  im- 
pressed different  people  —  Each  sees  in  it  that  which  most  ap- 
peals to  him  —  Spouting  whales  and  playing  dolphins  seen 
occasionally  —  Alaskan   story   told   in   the   smoking   room    .      .       i 

CHAPTER  II 

Through    Southeastern    Alaska    waters  —  In    the    Inland    Passage 

—  The  first  totem  poles  —  No  totems  among  the  Eskimos  — 
Indian  superstitions  and  some  of  their  possible  origins  — 
Barbarities  of  Indian  wars  —  Totem  pole  heraldry  —  Woman's 
place  among  Alaska  Indians  —  Indian  kinship  —  Indian  hos- 
pitality—  A  totem  pole  erected  to  a  white  man  —  The  Indian 

"  Bogey    Man "         lo 

CHAPTER  III 

Arriving  at  Ketchikan  —  Prince  Rupert  —  Railroad  building  in 
Alaska  and  Canada  —  Scenery  along  the  Canadian  coast  be- 
yond Prince  Rupert  —  Lack  of  navigation  aids  in  Alaskan 
waters  —  Ketchikan  —  Luxuriant  vegetation  of  Southeastern 
Alaska  —  Ketchikan  distributing  point  for  mines  —  Mining 
settlements 23 

CHAPTER  IV 

Metlakahtla  and  Wrangell  —  Metlakahtla   and   "  Father   Duncan  " 

—  Intelligent  Indians  —  Beyond  Metlakahtla  —  Wrangell  — 
Its  early  boom  —  The  Klondike  strike  —  A   reign  of  outlawry 

—  The  "Single  O  Kid" — Wrangell  now  quiet  and  respect- 
able—  Trolling  for  salmon  —  A  trip  up  the  Stikine  River  to 
Glenora  —  Arithmetic    at    Wrangell 30 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V 

PAGE 
Some  Alaskan  Glaciers  — Leaving  Wrangell —  Alaskan  Twi- 
liglit  —  Wrangell  Narrows  —  Petersburg  —  Halibut,  cod  and 
other  fisheries  — First  near  view  of  a  glacier- "  Dead  "  and 
"Live"  glaciers  in  Taku  Inlet  — Flowers  on  edges  of  ice 
fields  — The  largest  glacier  in  the  world  —  Glaciers  of  Cop- 
per  River 4^ 

CHAPTER  VI 

A  centre  of  industry  —  The  great  Treadwell  mine  that  has  pro- 
duced five  times  the  sum  paid  by  the  government  for  the  en- 
tire territory  of  Alaska  —  The  big  stamp  mill  and  concen- 
trating plant  —  Juneau,  the  capital  of  Alaska  —  Silver  Bow 
Basin  and  its  mines  —  The  origin  of  Hochinoo,  a  potent  bever- 
age—  Deserted    Katalla  —  Cordova    and    glaciers     ....     50 

CHAPTER  VII 

Running  past  the  exposed  coast  —  Valdez  and  its  mines  —  Seward, 
the  town  where  an  undertaker  can't  make  a  living — Cook's 
Inlet  and  Kenai  Peninsula  —  Cook's  Inlet  and  Kenai  Penin- 
sula, an  agricultural  and  mining  region  —  Sitka,  the  former 
capital    of    Alaska  —  Lover's    Lane  —  An    early    tragedy    .      .     61 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Buying  from  Indians  —  Purchaser  should  keep  eyes  open  —  Ivory 
artificially  aged  —  Elk  teeth  made  while  you  wait — Natives 
shrewd  bargainers  —  Copper  and  silver  ornaments — Native 
engraving  on  ivory  — Chilkat  blankets  — The  story  of  basket 
weaving— Helen  Gould's  prize  — Yukutat  baskets  highly 
prized  —  Attu    baskets    best    workmanship 70 

CHAPTER  IX 

Routes  to  Nome  and  the  Interior  — Unalaska  and  the  Aleutian 
Islanders  — The  route  via  Cordova  and  Chitina  —  Skagway 
route  is  most  popular  in  summer  —  Haines  and  the  Chilkat 
Indians  — Skag^vay,  a  city  of  romance  — The  Arctic  Brother- 
hood—A trip  on  the  White  Pass  and  Yukon  Railway  across 
the   mountains   and    along    lakes   and   rivers   to   Atlin    City    .     79 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  X 

PAGE 
From  Caribou  Crossing  to  Dawson  —  The  source  of  the  mighty 
Yukon  —  Fifty-Mile  River  and  the  White  Horse  Rapids, 
where  many  lives  were  lost  in  the  Klondike  stampede  — 
Miles  Canyon  —  Lake  Lebarge — Collins'  tragic  story  —  A 
ride  through  Five  Finger  Rapids  —  Dawsons'  past  and 
present 93 

CHAPTER  XI 

Down  the  river  to  Fairbanks  —  Forty-Mile,  the  pioneer  mining 
camp  of  the  Upper  Yukon  —  The  fighting  dogs  —  Eagle 
City,  at  the  boundary  line  —  Circle  City  —  Wada's  trip  into 
Fort  Yukon  from  the  Arctic,  and  the  sad  fate  of  his  trousers 

—  Fort  Hamlin  and  Rampart  City  —  The  Tanana  River  and 
Fairbanks,  the  metropolis  that  sorely  needs  a  railroad   .      .        .105 

CHAPTER  Xn 

Through  the  river  delta  to  the  sea  —  The  bloody  tragedies  and 
crimes  that  distinguished  the  early  settlement  of  the  lower 
Yukon  —  Old  Forts  along  the  river  and  at  St.  Michael  — 
Nome,  where  people  isolated  for  eight  months  make  winter 
pass  pleasantly  —  Ice  floes  drifting  through  Bering  Strait  — 
Siberia  only  seventy-five  miles   distant  —  Land  of  the   Eskimo  119 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  starting  point  —  Starting  point  for  Alaska  has  many  attrac- 
tions  for   tourists  —  Points  of   interest   and   picturesque  beauty 

—  Its  Golden  Potlatch,  the  festival  with  which  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  Alaska  is  celebrated  —  Mountain  climbing,  motor- 
ing, boating  and  fishing  trips  —  Energetic  people  build  up 
wonderful   city    in    past   ten    years 14Z 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Hunting  Grounds  —  Game  and  fur  bearing  animals  and  birds  of 
.  Alaska  —  Mosquitoes  make  life  a  burden  to  the  sportsman  dur- 
ing certain  seasons — Habits  of  the  moose,  caribou,  mountain 
sheep  and  goat  and  different  varieties  of  bear  —  Where  to  go 
and  what  to  take  —  Notes  on  Game  Laws  —  Where  guides  are 
needed  —  List  of  the  birds  and  animals  indigenous  to  the 
territory 156 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  XV 

PAGE 
Fiihinjc  a.  «n  industry  and  sport  —  Salmon-canning  business  alone 
annually  repays  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  twice  the 
amount  that  was  paid  to  Russia  for  the  entire  territory  — 
Like  Rold  mining,  the  business  has  its  romance  of  failure 
and  success  — Good  sport  for  anglers  in   Northern  streams    .    179 

CHAPTER  XVI 

Transportation  and  communication  —  Transportation  a  vital  prob- 
lem—Lack of  aid  to  navigation  — "The  Flat  Creek  Limited" 

—  Trunk  line  railroad  a  necessity  —  Bering  River  coal  fields 

—  Enormous  tax  on  railroads  — Government  should  lend  aid  — 
The  government  telegraph  system  —  Alaska's  agricultural  pos- 
sibilities   and    commerce 19* 

CHAPTER  XVII 

Climate,  agriculture  and  grazing  —  All  varieties  of  climate  —  In- 
fluence of  Japan  Current  —  Little  zero  weather  on  coast  —  Ex- 
treme humidity  —  Prolific  vegetable  growth  —  Agriculture  in 
Alaska  —  Fflrty  miles  of  natural  meadow  —  Climate  of  the 
interior  —  Stock    raising — Floriculture 2-1 1 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

Mines,  miners  and  mining  —  Alaska  has  produced  in  mineral  thirty- 
two  times  the  purchase  price  of  the  territory  —  Gold  —  Cop- 
per—  The  fascination  of  mining  —  The  life  of  the  prospector 

—  Fabulously  rich  mines  sold  for  a  song — Half  of  Alaska 
yet  to  be  explored  —  Gold  discovery  at  first  discouraged  by 
Russians  —  Russians  had  knowledge  of  iron  and  copper  — 
Advent  of  American  miners  —  First  shipments  of  gold  and 
silver  —  The  Treadwell  mine  —  First  placer  mining  — 
Later    discoveries  —  Copper    development  —  Tin  —  Coal  —  Oil 

—  Marble  —  Graphite — Iron  —  Variety  of  Alaska's  mineral- 
isation—  The  Alaska  coal  question 222 

CHAPTER  XIX 

The  reindeer  as  a  civilizer  —  Philanthropic  work  results  in  es- 
tablishing nucleus  of  tremendous  industry  —  Reindeer  can   be 


CONTENTS 

PAGH 
raised    for    market    more    cheaply    than    cattle    and    grazing 
ground    is    unlimited  —  Animals    become    important    factor    in 
food  and  transportation  problems  of  territory  —  Convert  pov- 
erty-stricken Eskimos  into  industrious,  thrifty  race    ....   243 

CHAPTER  XX 

The  Alaska  seal  herd  —  Treatment  of  fur  resources  by  United 
States  government  forms  one  of  the  blackest  marks  in  its  history 

—  Unfairness  shown  to  pelagic  sealers  —  Ruthless  slaughter 
decimates  greatest  fishery  wealth  ever  possessed  by  any  nation 

—  Killing  prodigal  to  the  point  of  recklessness  —  Habits  and 
Characteristics    of    valuable    mammals  —  Raising    young    seals  255 

CHAPTER  XXI 

Modern  whaling  on  Northern  Pacific  —  Driven  from  their  own 
country  by  new  laws,  Norwegian  whalers  invade  American 
waters  —  Bowhead  whale  hunting  in  its  decadence  —  Sup- 
planted by  modern  methods  which  afford  most  exciting  sport 
in  the  world  —  The  tragedies  and  phantom  ships  of  the  Arc- 
tic        273 

CHAPTER  XXn 

Raising  fur  for  the  market  —  Fox  breeding  a  precarious,  yet 
profitable  industry  —  Going  into  voluntary  exile,  sometimes 
for  more  than  a  year  at  a  time,  ranchers  lead  life  of  solitude 

—  Interesting  animal  farm  on  Middleton  Island  —  Others  on 
Yukon  and  Tanana  Rivers  —  Raising  foxes  on  Copper  River  — 
Fish,  birds,  seal  and  potatoes  form  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Reynard's  bill 

of  fare 283 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

Alaska  as  a  newspaper  field  —  Pioneers  of  newspaperdom  among 
the  vanguard  to  emblazon  the  glories  and  the  riches  of  the 
far  North  —  Through  diilerence  in  time  often  prints  news 
before  it  happens  —  Editors  must  have  physical  ability  — 
"The  Eskimo  Bulletin"  one  of  the  first  newspapers  published 
in    Northwestern   Alaska  —  Unique   journalistic  ventures    .     .  294 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

PAGE 

Missionaries  and  education  -  Because  they  teach  natives  how  to 
fiRurc  the  value  of  their  furs,  missionaries  are  not  welcomed 
by  traders  — "Cherokee  Bob"  believes  that  missionaries 
and  ministers  have  their  uses  — Natives  instructed  in  ele- 
mentary and  manual  training— Country  divided  by  differ- 
ent denominations  to  prevent  confusion  in  minds  of  natives    .    299 

CHAPTER  XXV 

Dops,  dop  "punchers"  and  dog  races  — The  part  played  by  this 
animal  in  the  development  of  Alaska  —  Its  courage  and  stead- 
fast loyalty  under  adverse  circumstances — Drivers  perform 
marvellous  feats  of  endurance —  The  All-Alaska  Sweep- 
stake Dog  Race,  the  Derby  of  the  far  North,  more  interesting 
and  exciting  than  baseball  championship  —  Animals  bred  from 
wolves 3^0 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

Spectacular  volcanoes  —  Slumbering  craters  spread  along  Aleutian 
Islands  and  mainland  contiguou's — How  they  spring  into  life 
at  intermittent  periods  —  Ever  changing  they  are  filled  with 
surprises  for  navigators  and  natives  alike  —  Islands  appear 
and  disappear  beneath  waves  —  Two  continents  may  yet  be 
made  one  by  seismic  disturbances 328 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

The  cost  of  living  in  Alaska  —  Meal  prices  vary  according  to  loca- 
tion—  Cheap  in  accessible  places  —  Transportation  problem 
is  important  factor  —  Prospectors  depend  on  country's  resources 
for  subsistence  —  Cabinet  officer  given  dinner  composed  of 
game,    wild    berries    and    vegetables 342 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

Discovert'  and  early  history  —  Vitus  Bering,  Danish  navigator 
credited  with  being  discoverer  of  Alaska  —  Dr.  G.  W.  Stel- 
lar, scientist,  first  brings  before  public  the  vast  resources  of  an 
empire  that  is  now  in  the  making — Atrocious  depredations  of 
early  frt-ehootcrs,  fur-hunters  and  traders  of  the  frozen  North 
—  Barbaric  savagery  practised  by  Russian  pirates   .      .      .      .350 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXIX 

PAGE 

British  and  Spanish  expeditions  —  Spaniards  contest  with  the 
RamanoflFs  for  conquest  of  newly  discovered  territory — First 
white  settlers  to  colonize  Dutch  Harbor  and  Unalaska  — 
Fierce  warlike  people  baffle  attempts  of  early  settlers  —  Re- 
garded as  invaders  and  unlawful  intruders  by  Russians  — 
Vancouver  supplements  work  of  explorers  by  exhaustive  geo- 
graphical   observations 357 

CHAPTER  XXX 

Occupation  by  the  Russians  —  Growth  of  Russian  fur  trade  —  St. 
Petersburg  takes  cognizance  of  disorders  and  outrages  com- 
mitted between  rival  companies  —  Warlike  Thlingits  refuse 
to  submit  to  Russian  occupation  —  Romance  combined  with 
history,  how  a  beautiful  princess  held  subjects  in  spell  — 
Her  untimely  end  —  How  Rezanof  wooed,  won  and  lost  the 
Governor's    daughter        367 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

English  explorers  in  Arctic  —  British  navigators  again  attempt  to 
discover  Northwest  passage  —  Mouth  of  Mackenzie  River  dis- 
covered by  Hudson  Bay  Company's  trader  —  Various  Frank- 
lin Relief  Expeditions  map  much  territory  north  of  Bering 
Strait  —  Western  Union  Telegraph  Expedition  spends  $3,- 
000,000  in  construction,  but  lines  proves  useless 378 

CHAPTER  XXXII 

American  occupation  —  Purchase  of  Alaska  from  Russia  in  1867 
following  bitter  controversy  which  brought  scorn  upon  Will- 
iam H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State — Stars  and  Stripes  car- 
ried to  Northernmost  part  of  America  by  brilliant  stroke  of 
foreign  policy  —  Congress  torn  in  strife  over  purposed  pur- 
chase —  General  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  takes  possession  of 
territory  385 

CHAPTER  XXXIII 

Transfer  to  the  United  States  —  National  emblem  flutters  to  the 
breeze  on  memorable  afternoon  of  October  i8,  1867  —  "Origi- 
nal" flags  as  plentiful  as  "genuine"  scarabs  at  Port  Said  — 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
History  of  Alaska  up  to  and  at  the  conclusion  of  Russian  pos- 
session —  Seed  of  discontent  which  to-day  manifests  itself  sown 
at  early  date  —  Murderous  Indians  terrify  the  whites   .      .      .   391 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 

Systematic  explorations  by  Americans  —  New  era  of  development 
begins  soon  after  American  acquisition  —  Approximate  posi- 
tion of  Canadian  boundary  line  established  —  Private  traders 
and  explorers  do  much  good  work  —  George  Holt  breaks 
down  opposition  of  natives  to  allowing  white  men  to  cross 
White  Pass  into  the  Yukon  —  Klondike  gold  fields  discovered 
and   rush   commences 4CX) 

CHAPTER  XXXV 

Work  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  —  Dr.  Brooks'  researches  on 
behalf  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  the  one  reliable 
medium  in  the  discovery  of  auriferous  gravel  —  Many  millions 
of  dollars  in  gold  now  added  to  the  world's  supply  —  Diffi- 
culties overcome  in  a  formerly  unexplored  empire  —  First  au- 
thentic information  of  the  new  gold  fields  at  Nome  —  Tales  of 
hardship    and    death ^15 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

The  discovery  of  the  Northwest  Passage  —  Roald  Amundsen  first 
to  bring  ship  through  tortuous  Northwest  Passage — Human 
interest  stories  of  his  fealty  to  the  members  of  his  intrepid 
crew  —  sterling  qualities  of  explorer  characterised  by  sub- 
lime modesty  which  precluded  dramatic  embellishment  of 
world-famed  deed  —  Story  of  his  valour  during  long  black,  sub- 
Arctic   night ^23 

CHAPTER  XXXVII 

Alaska  in  short  paragraphs  — Four  hundred  tons  of  gold  taken 
out  of  Alaska  since  1883,  aggregating  approximately  two 
hundred  million  dollars  as  a  return  for  the  far-sightedness  of 
Secretary  Seward  who  was  held  up  to  ridicule  when  he  com- 
pleted negotiations  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  with  Rus- 
sia in  the  purchase  of  Alaska  for  a  consideration  of  $7,200,000  43a 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Letting    the    water    do    the    work.     Ground    sluicing    on 

Daniels    Creek,    near    Nome,    Alaska Frontispiece 

Facing  page 
Cape  St.  Elias,  the  first  part  of  Pacific  North  America  to  be  seen 

by  White  men 6 

Iceberg  in  Controller  Bay,  where  Vitus  Bering  made  his  landing     .       6 

Lover's  Lane,  at  Sitka i8 

Driving  the  golden  spike  in  the  Iditarod  Railroad 26 

Higher  types  of  Eskimos.     Ablakok,  reindeer  king  of  Cape  Prince  of 

Wales,  and  the  belle  of  a  native  village     ....  ...     34 

Drying  Tomcod  for  winter  consumption.     Eskimos  dip  these  fishes 

in  seal  oil   and  eat  them  raw 46 

Chena  stamp  mill,  Fairbanks  district 54 

Cliff  mine  mill,  near  Valdez    ....  54 

"Kissed  by  the  summer's  suns  and  fed  by  winter's  snows,  they  come 

tearing  down  canyons" 64 

Squaw  and  papoose  beneath  a  thatch  of  drying  tomcod     ....     76 

Native  children,  a  little  afraid  of  the  camera 76 

Summer  night  at  Cordova,  the  town  that  sprang  into  existence  when 

the  construction  of  the  Copper  River  Railroad  was  commenced     84 

Map  of  Alaska 90 

Copper  River  bridge,  built  at  a  cost  of  $2,000,000 98 

On  Fairbanks  trail     ...  no 

Herd  of  walrus  on  the  floes  of  Bering  sea 126 

Party  of  walrus  hunters  hauling  the  kill  on  the  ice  floes  of  Bering 

Sea  134 

Pete  Larsen :  Kadiak  hunter  and  guide .      .   144 

Ursine   pugilists;    bear   cubs,   like   children,   are  both   playful   and 

quarrelsome         152 

An    Alaskan    prospector 160 

Three  little  bears  up  a  tree 174 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  page 

Alartka's    seas    and    streams    teem    with    fish.     Halibut    caught    in 

Cordova  Hay;  and  a  day's  catch  of  rainbow  trout  at  Seward     .    182 

Salmon  fiithinK ^^^ 

Revenue  cutter  Bear  caught  in  the  Northern  ice  pack  .  .  •  .206 
Captain  E.  P.  Bertholf,  holding  court  in  an  igloo  at  Point  Barrow  206 
Wild  berries  grow  luxuriantly  in  nearly  all  parts  of  Alaska  .  .  212 
CJarden  of  canteloupes,  grown  under  glass  in  Fairbanks  ....  212 
Wild  geraniums;  wild  anemones;  wild  red  currants  and  wild  irises  220 

Copper   Mountain   from  head  of  Landlock  Bay 230 

Hydraulic  mining  on  the  Pioneer  Company's  ground  at  Nome  .  .  238 
Reindeer  are  used  for  pleasure  rides  by  whites  and  natives     .      .      .   244 

Herds  of  reindeer  in  winter  pasture 252 

Seal  Colony  on  St.  Paul  Island 266 

Whaling  station   at  Point   Barrow,  the   Northernmost  point  of  the 

continent         278 

Barrow   Eskimos   aboard  U.   S.  Revenue  cutter,  which  visits  them 

once  a  year 278 

Where  sweet  peas  grow  eight  feet  tall;  A  Skagway  garden     .      .   288 
Old  Russian  buildings  at  Kadiak;  many  were  erected  under  Gov- 
ernor Shelikof 296 

The  Red   Dragon   Mission  at  Cordova,  where  Chrlstiainty  is  com- 
bined with  a  library  and  pool  room 300 

Under  the  shadow  of  A.  B.  Mountain,  is  built  the  Skagway  Camp 

of  the  Arctic  Brotherhood 300 

Eskimo  children  at  the  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  Mission     ....   308 

Hauling  freight  on  Bering  Sea 314 

Team  of  Siberian  racing  dogs  on  the  frozen  waste  of  Bering  Sea      .    324 

The  birth  of  Bogosloff  Island 334 

Oardening  is  one  of  the  principal  forms  of  recreation  at  Skagway     .   346 

Eldred  Rock  light,  Gastineau  Channel 354 

Cattle   ranging  on   Kadiak   Island  362 

Government  school  and  children  at  Kadiak,  where  manual  training 

is    taught 27^ 

A  trip  over  tlic  White  Pass  Railroad  is  one  to  be  remembered  .  .  380 
"Backed  by  beetling  hills  and  fronted  by  a  tranquil  bay,  Seward's 

situation   is  a   decidedly  attractive  one" 388 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing   page 
Wild  hay  and  red  top  grass  grow  luxuriantly  near  Seward           .   396 
W.  R.  Wise,  a  miner-rancher,  mayor,  chief-of-police  and  entire  pop- 
ulation of  Stillwater 396 

"The  shimmering  waters     .     .     .     change  in  their  pellucid  depths 

from  blue  to  violet" 406 

Indian  burial  in  the  barrens  of  the  Far  North 418 

A  group  of  scientific  investigators     .  418 

A  Northern  merchant-Japanese  sea-spiders  abound 424 

A  group  of  native  children   at  Nome 428 

Pretty  "Sunbonnet"  girls  and  "Overall"  boys,  Nome 434 


CHAPTER  I 
LEAVING  F.OR  ALASKA 

Vessel  sails  through  the  "Mediterranean  of  the  Pacific "- Magnificent 
s  ene  y  along  the  shores  of  Puget  Sound  and  the  StraU  of  Juan  d 
Fuca-How   It  impressed   different  people  -  Each  sees   .n   .t  th  t 
whch  most   appeals   to  him -Spouting   whales   and   playmg  dol- 
phins si  occasionally -Alaskan  story  told  in  the  smokmg  room. 

//y^^  LANG  I     Clank!" 

I  Loud   and   clear   the  telegraph   bell   rang   out 

V^    from  the  lower  regions  of   the  ship.     The  pro- 
peller began  to  churn  slightly. 

"  Cast  off  your  bow  spring  line.  Take  in  the  slack  on  the 
stern  lines."  The  order,  full  throated  and  resonant,  came 
through  a  megaphone  from  the  officer  on  the  bridge. 

The  steamship  Admiral  Sampson  began  to  slip,  slowly, 
steadily,  from  the  wharf  on  its  way  into  the  shimmering,  opales- 
cent waters  of  Puget  Sound.  The  voyage  to  Southeastern  and 
Southwestern  Alaska  had  commenced. 

Waving  good-bves,  shouting  last  farewells  and  messages  to 
friends  — some  with  smiles  and  some  with  suppressed  sobs — 
the  crowd  of  women  and  men  on  the  dock  melted  farther  and 
farther  away.  The  moving  vessel  seemed  stationary.  In  an- 
other slip,  close  to  the  one  from  which  the  Sampson  had 
emerged,  and  scheduled  to  leave  for  Alaska  the  same  evening 
with  a  big  crowd  of  tourists,  lay  the  Mariposa,  the  ship  upon 
which  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  while  travelling  from  point  to 
point  in  the  South  Seas,  had  written  some  of  his  charming 
stories. 


2        ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Tlu-  cn^^inc  bell  elangcd  at  intervals.  The  ship  backed  and 
went  ahead,  but  presently,  with  her  bow  turned  towards  the 
west,  her  speed  increased.  She  was  headed  for  the  Strait  of 
fiinn  (le  Fiica,  and  then  astern,  silhouetted  against  the  blue  sky- 
line, Seattle's  perspective  of  symmetrical  sky-scrapers  —  rising 
tier  upon  tier  back  into  the  hills,  where  boulevards  had  replaced 
the  foot  trails  and  forest  paths  of  a  few  years  ago  —  came 
into  vision.  It  seemed  a  fitting  monument  to  the  genius  of  in- 
dustry manifested  by  its  people. 

Aboard  the  vessel  was  a  distinguished  crowd.  Women  and 
men  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth,  of  all  avocations  and 
pursuits  were  here  assembled.  Among  them  were  Walter 
L,  Fisher,  Secretary  of  the  Interior;  Congressman  William 
Sulzer,  now  governor  of  New  York;  Max  Fleishman,  a  noted 
hunter,  who  had  just  returned  from  Africa;  Captain  Bald- 
win, a  former  champion  baseball  player;  officials  and  scientists 
from  Washington ;  several  Alaskan  prospectors,  a  playwright, 
a  number  of  newspaper  correspondents,  and  many  tourists  and 
hunters  and  others  on  business  or  pleasure  bent. 

Charmed  by  the  wonderful  scenery,  they  appeared  to  have 
little  desire  to  talk  to  each  other.  As  the  vessel  sped  along 
towards  the  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  with  the  picturesque, 
snow-capped  Selkirks,  a  spur  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  on 
one  side,  and  the  Olympics,  calm  and  majestic,  on  the  other, 
the  passengers  appeared  absorbed  in  their  own  meditations.  If 
they  spoke  at  all,  it  was  to  give  birth  to  a  superlative  phrase 
in  regard  to  the  scenery. 

The  fringe  of  trees  along  the  shore-line,  dotted  here  and 
there  with  small  settlements  and  quaint  bungalows,  made  a 
pretty,  rustic  scene.  The  panorama  was  an  ever-changing  one. 
The  placid  water  reflected  every  colour  of  the  arching  sky.  At 
times  the  sea  seemed  bathed  in  amethyst;  at  others  it  faded  to 
v.olet  and  heliotrope  or  coral  pink.     The  bright  sun  lit  up  the 


LEAVING  FOR  ALASKA  3 

background  of  white,  glittering  peaks.  The  foothills  in  the 
middle-distance  were  clothed  in  a  deep  purple  haze.  Above 
everything  towered  Mount  Rainier,  sharply  chiselled  against 
the  sky,  the  pearly  whiteness  of  its  topmost  peaks  glistening  in 
the  sunlight  like  a  field  of  diamonds. 

Broken  at  intermittent  periods  by  cliffs  of  chalk-white  or 
brown  umber  sand-stone,  immense  forests  of  fir  and  cedar, 
dark  green  and  black,  stretched  from  the  hills  to  the  water's 
edge.  Here  and  there  a  little  cascading  stream,  like  a  thread 
of  silver,  could  be  seen  dashing  its  troubled  way  down  the 
steep  mountain  sides.     It  was  all  inexpressibly  beautiful. 

"  What  a  picture  for  an  artist,"  murmured  a  young  lady 
tourist.     There  was  a  deep  reverence  in  her  voice, 

"  Imagine  the  thousands  of  summer  homes  that  would  be 
built  along  these  shores,  if  Puget  Sound  was  near  New  York," 
said  a  real  estate  man  from  the  city  of  lobster  palaces  and  a 
"  Great  White  Way." 

"  I'll  bet  there's  millions  of  trout  in  those  streams,"  ofiFered 
a  sportsman.  "  Those  woods  look  to  me  as  though  they  are 
just  full  of  deer  and  partridge,"  he  added. 

"  Millions  of  horsepower  to  be  harnessed,  and  billions  of 
feet  of  lumber  to  be  cut,"  commented  a  practical  man  from 
Minnesota. 

It  seemed  to  impress  them  all  differently.  Some  saw  the 
utility  of  it  —  the  profit  that  lay  latent.  But  all  were  en- 
tranced by  its  marvellous  beaut3\ 

The  ship  increased  her  speed.  The  shores  of  many  islands 
faded  into  the  background  as  new  ones  came  into  vision  to 
take  their  place.  But,  ever-changing  in  splendour,  the  giant 
crest  of  Mount  Rainier  could  still  be  seen,  maintaining  its 
sovereignty  over  all  its  kindred.  It  was  a  glittering,  glorious 
spectacle.  Beneath  it,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  stretched 
a  panorama  of  every  variety  of  scenery  —  a  sea  as  smooth  as 


4        ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  proverbial  millpond,  bays,  forests,  lakes,  rivers,  waterfalls, 
fertile  valleys,  and  range  after  range  of  rock-ribbed,  rugged 
mountains.  Each  new  vista  seemed  more  beautiful  than  the 
last.  A  newspaper  man,  fascinated,  gazed  at  the  ever-varying 
scene. 

"  What  form  of  temporary  insanity  could  have  Induced  me 
to  spend  my  last  vacation  in  Switzerland,  when  I  might  so 
much  easier  have  come  out  here?  "  he  asked  in  a  voice  of  won- 
derment. 

"  If  I  had  only  known,"  sighed  a  woman  from  an  eastern 
state,  "  I  would  have  come  long  ago." 

The  vessel  neared  Port  Townsend,  a  city  perched  on  a  high 
bluff.  The  bell  in  the  bowels  of  the  ship  clanged  again.  A 
customs  officer  came  aboard  for  a  few  moments.  Then  the 
vessel  resumed  its  voyage. 

Little  fishing  and  lumbering  hamlets,  like  toy  towns,  dotted 
the  shore-line,  while  primitive  forests  and  high  mountains 
formed  their  background.  Occasionally,  Indian  dug-out 
canoes,  with  their  fantastically-shaped  prows,  could  be  seen 
gliding  on  the  surface  of  the  water  close  to  the  shadowy  shore 
or  across  the  open  stretches  between  the  verdant  islands.  Every 
sweep  of  the  eye  brought  a  new  vista  on  this  remarkable  piece 
of  water,  which  rightly  has  been  called  "the  Mediterranean 
of  the  Pacific," 

Tumbling  cascades  came  down  from  the  hills,  sharp  prom- 
ontories protruded  from  the  beach,  and  once  in  a  while  the 
shore-line  almost  disappeared  in  inverted  bays.  At  times  the 
ship  was  on  a  wide  sea,  at  others  it  appeared  to  be  sailing 
through  a  river.  At  times  it  passed  so  close  to  the  shore 
that  it  appeared  as  though  one  easily  could  have  cast  a  lariat 
around  one  of  the  trees.  Occasionally  a  salmon  or  trout  leaped 
from  the  cool,  blue  water,  leaving  a  circling  eddy  to  mark  the 
spot,  and  the  sportsmen  aboard,  as  they  watched,  had  visions 


LEAVING  FOR  ALASKA  5 

in  which  they  heard  the  singing  of  a  reel  and  felt  the  tugging 
of  a  line. 

Yachts  and  j'awls,  schooners  and  square-riggers,  fishing  boats 
and  motorboats,  passenger  ships  and  freight  ships,  bound  to 
and  from  the  Orient  or  Alaska,  or  from  around  the  Horn, 
specked  the  water  in  widely-separated  places.  They  bespoke 
pleasure-seeking,   industry,  prosperity. 

The  Sampson  s  industrious  propeller  continued  to  chug  and 
churn  rhythmically.  The  vessel  sped  along.  The  beauty  of 
the  scenery  was  an  endless  variety  of  wonders. 

On  the  shores  of  many  islands  gigantic  cedars  stretched  high 
above  the  forests  of  spruce  and  pine.  Although  many  cen- 
turies old,  these  great  cedar  trees,  show  no  sign  of  decay,  either 
when  standing  or  lying  upon  the  ground.  In  places  their 
charred  and  blackened  trunks  stand  for  many  decades  as  accus- 
ing witness  of  white  man  and  Indian  alike,  who  leave  behind 
them  the  unquenched  camp-fire.^ 

Astern    of    the   vessel   was   the   placid,    mirror-like    sea;   on 

^A  red  cedar  tree,  1137  years  old  was  cut  in  the  Snoqualmie  forest 
in  1910  and  marketed  for  shingles.  This  tree  got  its  start  in  life 
some  720  years  before  the  discovery  of  America.  At  the  time  when 
William  the  Conqueror  fought  the  Battle  of  Hastings  and  founded 
the  British  aristocracy,  this  Washington  cedar  had  attained  the  dignity 
that  comes  with  294  years;  and  when  Cortez  began  the  conquest  of 
Mexico  it  was  hoary  with  the  weight  of  747  years.  Perhaps,  struck 
by  lightning  or  blown  down  by  a  storm,  it  fell  to  the  ground  two 
centuries  before  Columbus  crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  search  of 
America.  In  the  moss  that  formed  upon  it  after  it  had  fallen,  another 
cedar  took  root,  and  its  roots  spread  down  the  sides  of  the  dead  tree 
and  reached  the  ground.  The  annular  rings  of  the  standing  tree 
showed  it  to  be  757  years  old,  while  similar  marks  of  the  fallen  one 
showed  it  had  been  growing  380  years  before  it  was  laid  low.  The 
tree  had  lain  on  the  ground  for  757  years,  and  probably  more.  At 
the  end  of  that  time,  shingles  from  it  were  cut  and  scattered  broad- 
cast in  the  United  States  to  demonstrate  the  durability  of  the  wood. 
What  Nature  is  long  in  producing  she  does  not  speedily  destroy. 


6        ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

cither  beam  the  timbered  hills,  showing  here  and  there  the 
scars  left  in  their  serrated  sides  by  avalanches.  As  the  vessel 
ncared  the  entrance  to  the  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  the  sun 
began  to  sink  in  a  glory  of  gold  and  copper.  Occasionally, 
near  Vancouver  Island  a  spouting  w^hale  w^as  seen,  while 
dolphins  flashed  back  and  forth  from  the  bow  of  the  vessel. 
Evidently  they  were  bent  on  a  test  of  speed  with  the  Sampson. 
Close  to  the  shore-line  the  trees  and  hills,  reflected  in  the  deep, 
azure  water,  made  a  beautiful  picture. 

While  some  of  the  people  aboard  continued  to  gaze  enrap- 
tured at  the  magnificent  scenery  everywhere  presented,  others 
slowly  became  surfeited  with  it,  and  began  to  get  acquainted 
and  to  exchange  confidences.  In  the  light  of  the  setting  sun 
the  masts  and  spars  of  the  vessel  seemed  burnished.  The  snow- 
capped peaks  scintillated  in  pink  and  salmon  colour.  The  tree- 
tops  turned  to  a  deep  purple  and  violet.  An  Indian  paddling 
across  an  open  stretch  of  water  with  his  family  in  a  canoe 
added  a  touch  of  the  primitive  to  the  magnificent  scene.  A 
small  schooner,  its  sails  flapping  idly  in  the  still  air,  dipped 
languidly  to  the  scarcely  perceptible  swell. 

As  the  travellers,  with  appetites  sharpened  by  the  invigora- 
ting atmosphere,  wended  their  way,  in  response  to  the  welcome 
dinging  of  the  dinner  gong,  to  the  dining  room,  they  took  a 
last  longing  look  at  the  gorgeous  sunset,  the  beautiful  meander- 
ing shore-line,  the  majestic  mountains.  They  seemed  to  fear 
there  would  be  no  scenery  worth  the  while  on  the  morrow. 
The  sportsmen  aboard  took  one  more  intensely  interested  look 
at  the  flocks  of  wild  ducks  that  flew  from  time  to  time  across 
the  water  at  the  approach  of  the  vessel.  Perhaps,  they,  too, 
feared  they  had  shaped  their  itinerary  wrongly.  Considering 
the  many  points  of  interest  and  manifold  scenes  of  striking 
beauty  that  had  been  encountered  during  the  day  one  was 
mclmcd  to  wonder  why  there  were  not  hundreds  of  pleasure 


^-rtM^^ 


Photo  by  ^lacPherson. 

ICEBERG    IN    CONTROLLER   BAY,   WHERE    VITUS    BERING    MADE 

HIS  LANDINt; 


1 

u 

^^^^  '  ^^^^^r^^P^     ^ 

Photo  by   MacPherson. 

CAPE  ST.  ELIAS,  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  PACIFIC  NORTH  AMERICA 
TO  BE  SEEN   BY  WHITE  MEN 


LEAVING  FOR  ALASKA  7 

craft  sailing  this   immense  land-locked   sheet  of  placid  water, 

A  crowd  gathered  in  the  smoking  room  after  dinner. 
Among  them  were  many  who  had  visited  the  North  before. 
They  began  exchanging  stories  for  the  edification  of  distinguished 
passengers  making  their  first  trip  to  the  Northland,  They 
talked  of  rich  gold  strikes  they  had  just  missed,  of  big  stam- 
pedes over  the  snow,  of  fishing  and  hunting,  of  the  bears  they 
had  killed  and  the  big,  speckled  trout  they  had  caught.  From 
fishing  and  hunting  to  other  adventures  was  an  easy  step. 
Each  story  seemed  more  miraculous  than  the  one  before.  The 
meeting  broke  up  after  an  Alaskan  angler  told  the  story  of  a 
fox  farmer,  who  owned  an  island  about  200  miles  from  Seward, 
and,  who,  while  out  halibut  fishing  one  day,  cast  over  his 
anchor  with  seventy  fathoms  of  line  attached.  It  was  a  good 
story,  full  of  action,  of  shifting  scenes  and  changing  colours. 
Also  it  was  highly  improbable.  In  fact  some  of  those  who 
listened  thought  the  narrator  was  rather  reckless  in  his  man- 
ner of  handling  the  truth. 

"  It  seems  strange,"  he  said,  "  that  when  a  man  is  fishing 
on  an  ocean  5,cx30  miles  wide  and  a  thousand  feet  deep,  that 
he  should  cast  his  anchor  and  the  fluke  of  it  would  land  In 
the  blow-hole  of  a  whale  that  is  no  larger  than  a  man's  fist, 

"  What's  a  blow-hole  ?  Why,  the  orifice  in  the  top  of  a 
whale's  head  from  which  he  ejects  water  every  time  he  comes 
up  to  breathe.  Yes,  sir,  and  the  fluke  of  that  anchor  lodged 
right  in  that  place.  The  whale  happened  to  be  swimming 
right  at  the  point  where  the  anchor  was  sinking  to  the  bottom. 
You  folks  may  not  believe  it,  I  wouldn't  have  believed  it  my- 
self, if  it  hadn't  been  proved  to  me, 

"  As  soon  as  the  anchor  hit  that  whale  where  the  pippin  hit 
the  man  who  discovered  the  law  of  gravitation,  the  leviathan 
of  the  deep  started  off  at  a  terrific  rate  of  speed,  taking  the  boat 
with  him.     He  nearly  snapped  the  line  when  he  came  to  the 


8        ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

rnd  of  the  slack.  It  was  drawn  as  tight  as  the  '  G  '  string  on 
a  fiddle.  The  fox  farmer  was  standing  up,  getting  ready  to 
heave  a  fishing  line  overboard  when  the  boat  suddenly  jumped 
forward  with  a  terrific  lunge.  Fortunately  the  weather  was 
calm.  The  w  hale  headed  due  north,  the  bow  of  the  boat  just 
skipping  along  the  top  of  the  waves  like  a  hydroplane.  It 
swam  about  fifty  miles  in  less  than  an  hour,  and  then  made  a 
wide  detour  and  started  back  on  a  southerly  course. 

"That  boatman  was  frightened  all  right.  The  wind 
whistled  against  his  face  as  though  he  were  coasting  down  the 
side  of  a  mountain  in  an  automobile  equipped  with  neither 
brake  nor  wind-shield.  Volumes  of  spray  curled  away  from 
the  bow  of  the  boat  as  it  skipped  over  the  water,  and  behind  it 
was  left  a  wake  of  foam. 

"  The  fox  farmer  tried  to  walk  to  the  forward  end  of  his 
craft,  but  the  wind  caught  him  and  he  fell  back  in  his  seat. 
Then  he  noticed  that  the  mammoth  was  headed  for  Cor- 
dova Bay.  The  monster  squirmed,  twisted  and  flashed  through 
the  water,  trying  to  get  away,  but  its  efforts  were  in  vain. 
Once  in  a  while  the  marine  giant  came  to  the  surface  and 
shot  a  thin  column  of  water  into  the  air.  It  could  only  blow 
with  one  hole.  The  anchor  was  stuck  fast  in  the  other. 
P'inally  as  tliough  making  a  last  desperate  struggle,  the  animal 
turned  and  with  terrific  velocity  headed  again  for  the  open  sea. 
It  nearly  capsized  the  boat  in  making  the  turn.  The  fox 
farmer  decided  to  let  it  go,  and  seizing  a  hatchet  which  he  used 
for  bludgeoning  halibut,  he  severed  the  line  that  bound  his 
boat  to  the  whale.  The  exciting  journey  was  ended.  The 
rancher  wanted  to  go  into  Seward,  anyway,  as  he  was  out  of 
supplies." 

Everybody  greeted  this  yarn  with  incredulous  laughter. 
Hut  the  angler  insisted  that  his  fox-farming  friend  had  proved 
the  truth  of  the  story  by  showing  the  end  of  the  anchor  line, 


LEAVING  FOR  ALASKA  9 

which  clearly  manifested  that  it  had  been  chopped  off  by  a 
sharp  instrument. 

"  I  thought  you  said  the  whale  was  in  Cordova  Bay,"  in- 
terposed one  of  the  listeners.  "  Why  did  your  friend  go  to 
Seward  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  had  much  practice  in  telling  that  story,"  the 
narrator  explained,  "  and  sometimes  I  get  the  geography  mixed 
up."  He  still  insisted,  however,  that  he  had  given  a  veracious 
account  of  the  adventure. 

"  Oh,  well,"  said  a  newspaper  man,  who  has  a  predilection 
for  golf,  "  I  can  see  that  we  anglers  and  golf  players  have  got 
to  stick  together  on  this  trip.     I  believe  the  story." 

The  group  wandered  from  the  smoking  room  to  the  cool 
night  air  to  think  it  over. 

A  million  stars  were  twinkling  in  the  heavens  above  and  re- 
flecting themselves  from  their  infinite  heights  into  the  depths 
of  the  water  below.  Against  the  sky-line  could  be  seen  the 
crests  of  the  rugged  mountains  of  Vancouver  Island  and  the 
mainland  of  British  Columbia,  between  which  the  ship  sped 
on  her  way.  Little  cat's-paw  waves,  full  of  phosphorescent 
fire,  scintillated  on  the  sea,  and  the  wake  left  by  the  speed- 
ing ship  was  a  glowing  glory  of  ever-changing  form  and 
shape.  Looking  into  the  black  water  from  the  side  of  the 
vessel,  the  forms  of  mammoth  fish,  darting  aside  to  escape  what 
perhaps  they  thought  was  a  destroying  monster,  could  be  traced 
by  the  effulgent  glow  that  followed  their  every  curve  and  turn. 

It  was  a  night  to  make  one  dream.  It  breathed  infinity.  It 
was  a  night  to  make  one  meditate  upon  the  things  that  are  be- 
yond human  ken. 

And  the  propeller  churned  and  churned  in  its  never-ending 
rhythmical  gyrations,  as  the  ship  proceeded  on  its  way  to  the 
Northland. 


CHAPTER  II 

THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  ALASKA  WATERS 

In  the  Inland  Passage -The  first  totem  poles -No  totems  among 
the  Eskimos -Indian  superstitions  and  some  of  their  possible 
origins -Barbarities  of  Indian  wars -Totem  pole  heraldry - 
Woman's  place  among  Alaska  Indians- Indian  kinship  —  Indian 
hospitality -A  totem  pole  erected  to  a  white  man  — The  Indian 
"  Bogey  Man." 

TRULY  Alaska  —  meaning  "Great  Country"— 
rightly  has  been  named.  No  pen  can  describe  the  in- 
finite charm,  the  delicate  colouring,  the  peaceful  sub- 
limity, the  dignified  grandeur  of  the  Inland  Passage.  In  it 
the  least  imaginative  can  find  food  for  deep  reflection. 

The  grey  mists  of  morning  curled  around  the  blue  hills 
rising  on  both  sides  of  the  ship.  Each  fleeting  shadow  was 
reflected  in  the  azure  water  through  which  the  vessel  sped. 
Down  the  sides  of  the  rock-ribbed  hills  and  through  the  forests 
little  cataracts  chanted  their  lullabies.  On  every  side  was  a 
vista  of  enchanting  beauty.  The  breath  of  the  Japan  Current, 
warm  and  balmy,  intermingled  with  the  land  breeze  that 
was  aromatic  with  the  fragrance  of  pines  and  cedars  growing 
profusely  on  the  shores  of  the  tortuous  channels.  Yet  the  air 
had  none  of  the  languor  of  the  tropics.  It  was  clear,  bracing 
and  invigourating.  Its  effect  was  soothing.  Tired  nerves  re- 
laxed. 

Three  hundred  miles  through  winding,  twisting  waterways 
of  the  Strait  of  Georgia,  between  Vancouver  Island  and  the 
mainland,  with  hundreds  of  islands  lying  in  between,  was  a 

lO 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        ii 

voyage  of  ever-changing  charm  and  mysticism.  Giant  peaks, 
in  places  crested  with  snow  fields  and  small  glaciers,  rose 
almost  to  the  heavens.  The  sun,  shining  through  the  mists, 
painted  many  rainbows. 

"  Clang,  clang,"  went  the  bell  in  the  engine  room  just  be- 
fore Seymour  Narrows  was  reached,  and  the  vessel  slowed 
perceptibly.  Mariners  have  learned  to  run  through  this  con- 
tracted waterway  only  under  a  slow  bell  and  when  the  tide  is 
almost  at  a  standstill.  A  United  States  warship,  the  Saranac, 
in  the  days  when  the  country  was  new,  attempted  to  navigate 
the  pass  at  a  time  when  the  tide  was  full.  The  vessel  was 
caught  in  the  current,  refused  to  answer  the  rudder  and  one 
of  the  jutting  rocks  near  the  shore  pierced  her  hull. 

Since  that  accident,  vessels  sailing  to  Alaska  are  so  timed 
that  they  reach  the  entrance  to  the  "  Narrows  "  at  the  turn  of 
the  tide.  If  they  miss  the  appointed  time  the  passengers  are 
furnished  with  fishing-tackle  with  which  to  amuse  themselves 
until  conditions  are  right  for  safe  navigation. 

In  the  spring  tides,  water  churns  through  this  narrow  chan- 
nel at  a  speed  of  ten  to  twelve  miles  an  hour.  The  waterway 
is  walled  in  by  precipitous  hills,  so  close  that  it  appears  one 
might  easily  throw  a  biscuit  ashore,  while  in  places  ugly, 
shaggy-looking  rocks  protrude  above  the  water's  surface,  add- 
ing to  the  danger.  But  when  the  water  is  slack  —  that  is, 
at  flood  tide  —  Seymour  Narrows  is  as  placid  as  the  face  of 
a  sleeping  babe. 

As  the  vessel  threaded  its  way  through  picturesque  Discovery 
Passage,  just  beyond  the  Narrows,  the  passengers  searched  their 
vocabularies  for  superlatives  with  which  to  express  their  feel- 
ings. The  officer  who  left  the  bridge  at  this  point,  a  man  of 
direct  speech  and  plain  thought  encountered  no  such  impedi- 
ment. 

"  This  scenery  Is  pretty,  all  right,"  he  said,  "  but  personally 


12      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

I'd  like  it  a  whole  lot  better  if  this  salt-water  river  had  been 
hiiti  out  upon  horizontal  instead  of  vertical  lines.  If  it  had 
been  made  only  half  as  wide  as  it  is  deep,  and  if  the  tides  had 
been  shifted  to  some  other  place,  we'd  go  through  with  a  whole 
lot  less  trouble." 

Having  relieved  himself  of  a  few  plans  by  which  he  would 
have  improved  upon  Nature,  had  the  arrangement  of  things 
been  entrusted  to  him,  he  continued  on  his  way  to  his  "  watch 
below." 

As  the  Sampson  emerged  from  this  serpentine  passage,  Chat- 
ham Strait  came  into  view.  It  appeared  as  though  the  vessel 
would  swing  around  into  a  bay.  Then  the  ship  headed  for 
a  high,  green,  timbered  mountain.  Suddenly  it  veered  to  the 
right  and  another  unexpected  channel  opened  up.  It  was  like  a 
river  slowly  flowing  through  a  box  canyon  with  almost  per- 
pendicular walls  on  either  side.  The  feature  that  impressed 
the  practical  man  was  the  large  number  of  lights,  buoys,  and 
other  aids  to  navigation  which  had  been  placed  in  these  wa- 
ters by  the  Canadian  Government,  in  contrast  to  the  corre- 
sponding dearth  of  them  so  noticeable  upon  reaching  Ameri- 
can  waters. 

It  was  the  same  scenery  everywhere,  and  yet  it  was  differ- 
ent. The  high  mountains  were  splashed  with  two  distinct 
shades  of  green  —  the  dark  green  of  the  spruce,  pine,  and 
cedar  trees;  and  the  intense,  bright  green  of  the  clumps  of 
willows  and  alders  that  were  interspersed  through  the  forests. 

Occasionally  a  vessel  was  passed.  Now  and  then  a  small 
Indian  settlement  was  seen.  Salmon-trout  and  other  fishes 
leaped  from  the  water.^ 

>  On  one  trip  through  Chathanni  Strait,  the  writer  saw  two  deer — 
obviously  chased  through  the  woods  by  the  timber  wolves  —  swimming 
across  the  channel  to  one  of  the  many  islands.  Louis  Lane,  an  officer 
of  the  steamship  Corwn,  a  few  years  ago  saw  a  deer  swimming  across 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        13 

The  same  sinuous  course,  the  same  indented  shore-line,  con- 
tinued until  the  ship  had  reached  Queen  Charlotte  Sound 
where  the  swell  from  the  open  ocean  is  sometimes  encountered. 
The  distance  across  the  sound  is  thirty-seven  miles,  and  at 
times  the  weather  is  such  as  to  cause  those  who  readily  fall 
victims  to  seasickness  some  slight  discomfort. 

Vessels  cross  Queen  Charlotte  Sound  in  about  three  hours. 
At  the  northern  end  is  Fitzhugh  Sound,  and  beyond  that  is 
Lama  Passage.  Here  is  the  old  Bella  Bella  Indian  Settle- 
ment, founded  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  About  sixty 
years  ago  it  was  the  scene  of  many  sanguinary  tribal  wars,  at 
the  termination  of  which  a  tribe  known  as  the  Bella  Coolies 
was  almost  exterminated. 

Here  many  totem  poles  are  seen.  In  front  of  almost  every 
house  in  the  village  one  of  these  grotesquely  carved  totemic 
tombstones  have  been  erected  that  those  who  came  afterwards 
might  read  the  family  history  of  the  warriors  buried  there. 
Many  lives  were  sacrificed  in  the  fierce  internecine  wars 
waged  by  the  conflicting  tribes,  and  the  totem  poles  are  conse- 
quently numerous. 

The  pictographic  carvings  upon  these  poles  are  not  idols, 
as  is  generally  supposed,  but  are  regarded  as  genealogical  trees 
or  family  registers.  They  tell  the  nursery  tales  and  legends 
of  a  primitive  people.  The  carvings  are  symbolical  of  the 
subjects  they  represent,  and  there  always  is  some  arbitrary 
mark  upon  every  pole  by  which  members  of  the  various  tribes 
can  distinguish  the  clan  represented. 

Totems  may  be  seen  in  large  numbers  at  Killisnoo,  Kassan, 

one  of  these  channels.  He  succeeded  in  lassoing  the  animal  from  a 
small  boat  and  managed  to  keep  it  aboard  the  ship  for  some  time. 
The  deer  met  its  death  at  Nome  by  drowning  in  its  attempt  to  escape 
by  leaping  overboard.  In  the  winter  months  many  deer  may  be  seen 
along  the  coast.  Driven  from  the  mountains  by  the  deep  snow,  they 
go  to  the  lower  levels  and  subsist  upon  the  kelp  along  the  beaches. 


14      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Wrangell,    Ketchikan,    Sitka,    and   other   Northern   ports,   but 
they  rarely  are  seen  north  of  Seward. 

The  totem  pole  is  unknown  to  the  Eskimo,  who  has  little 
wood  at  his  disposal.  Not  only  are  the  Eskimo  methods  of 
tracing  genealogy  different  from  those  of  the  Southeastern 
natives,  but  so  also  are  the  methods  of  burial.  Many  of  the 
tribes  of  Southeastern  Alaska  practice  a  crude  form  of  crema- 
tion, while  the  Indians  of  the  far  North  wrap  their  dead  in 
canvas  or  other  covering  and  raise  them  upon  scaffolds  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  wolves  and  other  predatory  animals. 

In  the  interior  of  Southeastern  Alaska  many  of  the  natives^ 
after  cremating  their  dead,  leave  the  effects  of  the  deceased 
in  a  trunk  or  box  upon  the  top  of  the  grave.  These  graves 
never  are  robbed. 

The  Indians  in  this  region  have  many  queer  superstitions. 
The  writer,  in  a  trip  from  the  head  waters  of  the  Stikine 
River  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Francis  River,  and  thence 
across  Dr.  Dawson's  Portage  to  the  Pelly  and  thence  down  to 
the  Yukon,  encountered  Indians  who  held  many  strange  be- 
liefs and  superstitions. 

On  the  Liard  River  there  is  a  band  of  Indians  who  regard 
the  killing  of  a  squirrel  as  an  ill-omen.  Neither  will  they 
destroy  land-otters,  for  they  believe  that  the  spirits  of  these 
mammals  enter  the  bodies  of  living  squaws  and  the  Indian 
women  become  witches.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company's  factor 
at  Liard  Post,  now  dead,  had  a  record  of  five  otters  being 
killed  by  two  French-Canadian  trappers,  who  entered  that 
country.  The  following  year  the  natives  despatched  five 
squaws  — at  least,  the  squaws  went  hunting  with  the  tribe 
and  never  returned.  The  t\vo  offending  trappers  also  mys- 
teriously disappeared  about  the  same  time. 

These  natives  are  afflicted  with  a  yearning  for  medicine 
that   is  almost  an   obsession.     They  will   trade  anything  they 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        15 

possess  for  drugs,  and,  sick  or  well,  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
quantity  of  medicine  they  will  swallow  eagerly,  provided  the 
taste  is  sufficiently  nauseating.  If  one  gives  them  medicine 
that  is  pleasant  to  the  taste,  they  have  the  deepest  contempt 
for  its  medicinal  value  and  for  the  donor's  skill  as  a  physician, 
but  if  the  potion  has  all  the  evil  tastes  it  is  possible  to  con- 
coct, they  regard  it  as  a  sovereign  remedy  for  every  form  of 
disease. 

These  natives  have  a  superstition  that  a  big  bear,  endowed 
with  an  evil  spirit,  lives  in  the  mountains  at  the  head  of  the 
Liard  River  and  they  will  not  hunt  in  this  region.  This 
mythical  monster  is  supposed  to  have  one  foot  that  is  shaped 
like  that  of  a  moose,  and  a  native  who  declared  he  had  seen 
the  animal's  tracks  said  that  the  imprints  of  its  foot  were 
much  wider  than  a  sombrero  hat. 

In  addition  to  this  evil-spirited  bear,  according  to  the  be- 
lief of  the  Indians,  there  resides  somewhere  between  the  head- 
waters of  the  Francis  River,  tributarj^  to  the  Mackenzie,  and 
the  source  of  the  Pelly  River,  tributary  to  the  Yukon,  a  race 
of  people  who  have  fair  skins,  blue  eyes  and  long,  white  beards. 
There  are  three  theories  to  account  for  this  story  of  a  sup- 
posed race  of  white  Indians:  First,  that  they  are  the  descend- 
ants of  lost  Russian  trappers ;  second,  that  they  are  the  progeny 
of  the  5000  Vikings,  the  descendants  of  the  followers  of  Lief 
Eriksen,  who  disappeared  from  Newfoundland  between  the 
fourteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries;  and  third,  that  the  race 
has  no  existence  in  fact  —  at  least  in  this  region.  The  latter 
theory  probably  is  the  correct  one. 

The  writer  and  a  party  of  prospectors  spent  eight  months 
in  the  mountains  dividing  the  Mackenzie  and  Yukon  water- 
sheds at  their  headwaters  and  during  that  time  saw  no  trace 
or  mark  that  would  lead  to  the  belief  that  the  country  ever 
had  been  inhabited,  either  by  Indians  or  white  men.     Not  an 


i6      ALASfCA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

a-xo  mark  was  seen,  nor  was  a  fallen  tree  or  trace  of  fire 
discovered.  In  a  few  places  cottonwood  trees  had  been  felled, 
but  on  examination,  in  every  instance,  the  marks  on  these  trees 
clearly  showed  that  they  had  been  gnawed  through  near  the 
butt  by  beavers  or  broken  ofi  by  the  wind.  These  facts,  how- 
ever, do  not  prove  that  the  entire  section  is  uninhabited.  It 
is  a  vast,  mountainous  region,  embracing  thousands  of  square 
miles  of  unknown  territory,  and  it  would  take  many  years  to 
fully  explore  every  part  of  it.  Many  of  the  divides  are  cov- 
ered by  lakes,  but  there  are  few  glaciers,  as  compared  to  the 
conditions  on  the  other  side  of  the  coast  range.  The  tempera- 
ture, because  of  the  high  altitude,  is  intensely  cold  in  winter. 
In  practically  all  parts  of  Alaska,  the  Indians  have  a  legend 
pertaining  to  a  race  of  Nomadic  white  people,  who  live  In 
some  remote  part  of  tiie  territory,  but  when  one  inquires  for 
their  exact  whereabouts,  the  natives  always  say  they  are  liv- 
ing somewhere  at  a  considerable  distance  from  where  the  in- 
vestigator happens  to  be  situated.  Somehow,  the  Indians 
make  it  appear  that  these  white-skinned,  blue-eyed  savages  are 
always  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  explorer.  Roald  Amund- 
sen, discoverer  of  the  Northwest  Passage  and  of  the  South 
Pole,  searched  diligently  but  fruitlessly  for  this  probably 
mythical  tribe,  while  on  the  Arctic  journey  that  resulted  in 
his  discovery  of  a  Northern  waterway  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific.  Vilhjalmur  Stefansson,^  a  noted  ethnologist,  has 
been    in    tlie   Arctic    regions   eastward    of    the    mouth    of    the 

■  Since  the  above  was  written  Professor  Stefansson  has  returned  from 
the  Arctic  after  having  discovered  a  race  of  unknown  people  on  Vic- 
toria hiand.  He  informed  the  writer,  on  his  arrival  at  Seattle,  that 
there  are  probably  2000  people  on  the  island,  and  that  he  saw  about 
one  half  of  them.  Many  of  these  Indians  had  blue  eyes,  red  hair,  red 
beards  and  a.r  eyebrows.  Their  skins  were  fair.  Professor  Stefans- 
son. who  took  cephalic  measurements  of  the  members  of  the  tribe  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  they  are  of  unquestionable  European  origin. 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        17 

Mackenzie  River  from  1907  to  1912,  searching  for  this  lost 
tribe  and  studying  the  ethnology  of  other  tribes. 

The  Indians  of  the  Liard  and  Francis  Rivers  will  not  hunt 
in  the  country  in  which  these  streams  have  their  source.  They 
are  afraid  of  the  bear  with  the  moose-foot  and  evil  spirit, 
which,  a  long  time  ago,  they  say,  killed  a  number  of  their 
people.  The  country  is  overrun  with  game  animals  of  every 
description,  the  moose  paths  resembling  cattle  tracks  on  the 
Texas  plains.  Its  inaccessibility  has  prevented  any  great  num- 
ber of  white  men  from  going  into  this  region,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  transporting  trophies  to  the  coast  does  not  make  it 
an  ideal  ground  for  hunters.  This  country  is  the  habitat  of 
the  silver-tipped  bear,  the  largest  and  most  ferocious  animal 
of  the  species.  It  is  probable  that  in  some  prehistoric  time, 
the  natives,  then  equipped  with  spears,  bows  and  arrows  and 
other  primitive  weapons,  fought  with  one  of  these  animals 
and  the  bear  won.  Such  an  incident  may  have  been  the 
nucleus  of  the  tradition  of  the  bruin  with  a  bad  spirit  and  the 
cloven   hoof. 

Fort  Francis,  at  the  head  of  the  Francis  River,  at  one  time 
the  farthest  outpost  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  was  de- 
stroyed more  than  one  hundred  years  ago  by  Chilkat  Indians, 
who  crossed  the  coast  range  from  Skagway  to  wage  war  and 
levy  tribute  on  the  interior  tribes.  The  traders  were  mur- 
dered by  the  invaders,  many  Indians  were  killed  and  others 
marched  back  to  the  coast  as  slaves.  This  tragedy  may  have 
had  a  bearing  on  the  fact  that  the  Indians  rarely  travel  east- 
ward of  Francis  Lake.  The  natives  at  Liard  Post  say  that 
in  former  years  the  traders  consumed  "  five  snows  " —  five 
years  —  in  making  a  trip  from  Fort  Francis  to  Ottawa  and 
return. 

In  Southeastern  Alaska  the  natives  have  learned  the  uses 
of  mineral  springs,  in  which,  when  afflicted  with  sickness,  thry 


i8      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

bathe.  They  have  a  knowledge  of  elementary  hygienics. 
When  suffering  from  influenza  they  build  wickiups  by  stretch- 
ing hides  over  bent  willow-poles,  into  which  they  carry  heated 
stones.  When  a  sufficiently  warm  temperature  is  attained,  the 
sick  native  crawls  in,  taking  with  him  a  large  quantity  of  wa- 
ter to  drink.  The  effect  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  a  Turk- 
ish bath. 

It  is  not  many  years  since  practically  all  the  natives  of  the 
North  Pacific  Coast  engaged  in  war  with  interior  tribes  and 
enslaved  those  whom  they  captured.  The  captives  were  sub- 
jected to  all  of  the  barbarities  that  it  was  possible  to  conceive. 
One  of  the  popular  forms  of  amusement  was  to  tie  an  old 
and  decrepit  slave  to  a  rock  at  low-tide  and  allow  him  to  be 
drowned  by  the  incoming  water.  Another  highly  amusing 
pastime  was  to  lash  the  slave  in  a  leather  sack  and  then  jump 
upon  him  until  every  bone  in  his  body  was  broken. 

An  old-time  resident  of  the  territory  informed  the  writer 
that  at  Katalla  many  years  ago  four  native  slaves  were  buried 
alive  at  the  corners  of  a  house  that  was  about  to  be  built. 
The  slaves  seemed  to  enjoy  the  ceremony  as  much  as  did  their 
captors.  Thanks  to  the  energetic  efforts  of  the  missionaries 
these   barbarous  customs   no  longer  are  practised. 

Of  ancient  Indian  customs  and  usages  the  totem-pole,  which 
may  be  termed  the  Indian  heraldry,  alone  has  been  allowed 
to  remain.  It  represents  the  various  tribes  and  families. 
Among  the  totems  of  the  Haidas  are  the  eagle,  thrasher, 
whale,  crow,  wolf,  and  bear.  Sub-totems  are  sometimes 
formed  by  the  naming  of  a  child  for  some  natural  object.  To 
one  who  can  decipher  them,  the  poles  erected  in  front  of  the 
houses  form  a  history  of  the  family  within. 

The  figure  at  the  top  is  the  principal  symbol  of  the  male 
occupant,  and  the  grotesque  carvings  represent  traditional 
folklore  or  events  connected  with  the  history  of  the  tribe. 


LOVERS  LANE,  AT  SITKA,  IS  A  PRETTY  GRAVELLED  PATH, 
WHERE  "CROAKING  RAVENS  FLY  OVERHEAD,  AND  TINY 
HUMMING  BIRDS,  WITH  BURNISHED  BREASTS,  FLIT  BE- 
TWEEN THE  1U)UGHS.' 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        19 

Ages  ago,  according  to  "  Father  "  Duncan,  who  has  lived 
with  the  Metlakahtla  Indians  for  nearly  fifty  years  —  and  also 
according  to  ethnologists  of  note  —  the  totem  was  first 
adopted  to  distinguish  the  four  social  clans  into  which  the 
race  is  said  to  have  been  divided.  These  clans  were  known 
as  the   Kishpootwadda,   the  Lacheboo,   the   Canadda,   and   the 

Lackshkeak. 

The  Kishpootwadda  symbolically  were  represented  by  the 
fish-back  whale  in  the  sea,  the  grizzly  bear  on  land,  the  grouse 
in  the  air,  and  the  sun  and  stars  in  the  heavens.  These  sym- 
bols are  most  numerous  in  the  totems.  The  Canadda  symbols 
are  of  the  frog,  raven,  star-fish,  and  bull-head.  Those  of  the 
Lacheboos  are  the  wolf,  heron,  and  grizzly  bear.  The 
Lackshkeaks  selected  the  eagle,  beaver,  and  halibut.  Mem- 
bers of  a  clan  whose  heraldic  symbols  are  the  same,  although 
living  hundreds  of  miles  apart  and  speaking  different  lan- 
guages, are  regarded  as  blood  relations. 

In  the  dim  past,  according  to  native  traditions,  the  Indians 
lived  in  a  beautiful  land  where  there  was  unlimited  game  and 
an  abundance  of  fish.  It  was  in  this  mythical  realm  the  crea- 
tures who  head  their  totems  revealed  themselves  to  the  heads 
of  the  leading  families  of  the  day. 

Like  more  aborigines,  the  Indians  of  Alaska  have  a  leg- 
end of  a  flood  which  once  covered  the  earth.  Clam-shells 
found  in  the  high  gravels  of  the  hills  in  many  parts  of  the  ter- 
ritory are  pointed  to  in  verification  of  the  legend.  This  flood, 
according  to  tradition,  devastated  the  country,  and  the  In- 
dians scattered  in  every  direction.  When  the  waters  sub- 
sided they  settled  on  the  land  where  their  boats  rested,  and 
there  formed  new  tribal  relations.  This  theory  of  a  deluge 
accounts  for  the  wide  separation  of  families  blood-related  and 
having  the  same  totems. 

It  is  one  of  the  ambitions  of  the  leading  members  of  each 


20      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

clan  to  represent  the  symbols  of  heraldry  in  carvings  or  paint- 
ings. Upon  the  death  of  the  man  at  the  head  of  a  family  a 
totem  to  his  memory  is  erected  in  front  of  the  house  of  his 
successor.  On  this  pole  there  is  carved  the  genealogy  of  the 
dead  Indian.  Families  having  the  same  crest  are  forbidden 
to  intermarry.  A  Frog  may  not  marry  a  Frog,  nor  an  Eagle 
an  Eagle,  but  a  Lochinvar  of  the  Frog  family  may  woo  and  win 
—  sometimes  with  a  club  —  a  maiden  of  the  Whale  family,  or 
vice  versa.  By  some  tribes  the  marriage  relations  are  fur- 
ther restricted,  if  the  creatures  of  their  clan  have  the  same 
instincts.  For  a  Whale  to  marry  a  Halibut  would  be  an 
embarrassing  mesalliance,  and  both  animals  being  carnivorous, 
it  would  be  extremely  bad  form  —  to  say  the  least  —  should 
a  Wolf  and  a  Bear  intermarry.  Such  a  union  is  not  to  be 
thought  of.  It  wouldn't  be  tolerated  and  would  lead  to  so- 
cial ostracism  of  the  contracting  parties. 

Unlike  the  savage  tribes  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  the 
native  women  of  Alaska  have  a  more  important  place  in  the 
affairs  of  the  people  than  do  their  lords  and  masters.  Here 
the  ambitions  of  the  Suffragists  have  been  carried  to  the  fullest 
extremes.  The  women  of  the  family  do  all  the  bartering 
and  trading,  and  the  children  take  the  crests  of  their  mothers. 
The  members  of  the  father's  family  are  not  even  regarded  as 
relatives.  A  man's  heir  is  not  his  own  son,  but  his  sister's 
son.  It  is  a  very  complicated  system  of  relationship,  but  one 
that  tends  to  create  hospitality  among  the  various  tribes.  To 
what  one  has  the  others  generally  are  welcome.  A  strange 
Indian  upon  entering  a  settlement  looks  up  the  totem-poles 
which  to  him  arc  the  city  directory,  and  then  goes  to  a  house 
having  one  of  his  crests.  This  kinship  often  restores  peace  be- 
tween  hostile  tribes. 

There  is  no  more  hospitable  person  on  earth  than  the 
Alaskan   Indian,  and  the  furtlicr  north  one  goes,  the  greater 


THROUGH  SOUTHEASTERN  WATERS        21 

will   one   find    the   manifestation   of   this   spirit   of   generosity. 

Hundreds  of  hungry  prospectors  along  the  shores  of  Bering 
Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  have  been  succoured  by  the  Indians 
who  themselves  were  impoverished.  In  the  winter  of  igo2 
hundreds  of  gold-seekers  traversed  the  Inmamachuck  River, 
which  empties  into  Kotzebue  Sound.  Many  of  the  treasure 
hunters  ran  out  of  food,  and  but  for  the  generous  hospitality 
of  the  natives,  would  have  perished  of  starvation.  This  un- 
usual strain  upon  their  food  supply  left  the  Eskimos  very  short 
of  provisions  in  the  following  spring,  when,  to  add  to  their 
other  troubles,  a  scourge  of  pneumonia  broke  out,  and  being 
without  nourishing  food,  they  died  by  the  hundreds.  Prac- 
tically the  whole  tribe  was  wiped  out.  These  unselfish  peo- 
ple gave  up  their  own  lives  to  save  the  lives  of  the  white 
strangers.  This  is  not  by  any  means  the  only  instance  of 
their  self-sacrifice,  and,  to  the  shame  of  the  white  man  be  it 
written  that  his  government,  while  making  reservations  and 
conferring  many  other  blessings  upon  the  murderous  Sioux 
and  Apaches  and  dog-eating  Iggorotes  of  warmer  climes,  has 
done  little  for  the  benefit  of  these  kind-hearted  people  who 
became  wards  of  the  United  States  when  their  territory  was 
purchased  from  Russia, 

One  of  the  most  Interesting  totem  poles  In  Southeastern 
Alaska  and  the  only  one  so  far  as  known  to  the  writer  that 
ever  was  erected  In  the  honour  of  a  white  man.  Is  situated  at 
Ketchikan.  It  was  carved  many  years  ago  to  the  memory  of 
John  Swanson,  a  trader  for  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 
Swanson  was  the  captain  of  a  sailing  vessel  when  he  married 
his  Indian  bride.  Later  they  moved  to  Victoria  and  when 
Swanson  died  his  wife  returned  to  her  native  home.  Nailed 
to  the  pole  are  the  clothes  worn  by  the  trader  on  his  wedding 
day.  The  pole  Is  crested  by  an  eagle,  and  beneath  It  are  the 
carvings  of  the  clan  to  which   Mrs.   Swanson  belonged. 


22      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

The  Alaskan  Indians,  like  almost  every  other  primitive  race, 
have  a  "  bogey  man  "  story,  which  has  a  questionable  use  in 
frightening  children.  In  a  Northern  village  is  a  totem  sur- 
mounted by  the  whitened  face  of  a  European,  flanked  upon 
cither  side  by  the  figure  of  a  child  wearing  a  tall  hat.  The 
natives  account  for  its  existence  by  the  following  story: 

Long  ago  a  chief's  wife  left  a  temporary  summer  camp. 
Taking  her  two  children,  she  crossed  one  of  the  narrow  chan- 
nels to  an  island  where  she  gathered  spruce  boughs  for  holding 
salmon  eggs.  Before  entering  the  woods  she  drew  the  canoe 
up  on  the  beach  and  warned  the  children  to  remain  by  it. 
When  she  returned  the  children  had  disappeared.  The  mother 
called  to  them  many  times  and  they  answered  always  from 
the  woods  in  the  voice  of  crows.  When  she  sought  the  crows 
they  mocked  her  from  the  trees.  The  children  never  were 
recovered,  and  the  shaman,  or  medicine  man,  of  the  tribe  in 
some  occult  manner,  later  discovered  that  they  had  been  stolen 
by  a  white  man.^  This  story,  in  various  forms,  is  told 
throughout  Alaska.  The  reader  may  not  believe  it,  but  if  he 
remains  unconvinced,  the  Indian  will  furnish  corroborative 
testimony  by  showing  the  totem  pole. 

^  Some  of  the  Indian  legends  bear  a  striking  similarity  to  the  folk- 
lore of  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand,  especially  those  stories  which  per- 
tain to  fishing.  The  "  bogey  man "  fable  of  the  blacks  of  Eastern 
Australia  has  to  do  with  a  loathsome  monster  known  as  the  bunyip, 
which,  in  the  dense  tropical  darkness,  draws  its  horrible  bulk  from  out 
the  lagoons  and  sloughs.  The  bunyip,  according  to  the  black-fellows, 
is  somewhat  of  a  cross  between  a  colossal  octopus  and  an  elephant. 
Native  children  are  very  much  afraid  of  it,  and  even  grown-up  blacks 
rarely  move  through  the  woods  after  dark. 


CHAPTER  III 

ARRIVING  AT  KETCHIKAN 

Prince  Rupert  —  Railroad  building  in  Alaska  and  Canada  —  Scenery 
along  the  Canadian  coast  beyond  Prince  Rupert  —  Lack  of  naviga- 
tion aids  in  Alaskan  waters  —  Ketchikan  —  Luxuriant  vegetation 
of  Southeastern  Alaska  —  Ketchikan  distributing  point  for  mines  — 
Mining  settlements. 

PRINCE  RUPERT,  the  terminal  point  for  the  Grand 
Trunk  Pacific  Railroad,  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Skeena  River,  came  Into  view  almost  at  the  opening 
of  Dixon's  Entrance.  It  is  one  of  the  most  prosperous  cities 
in  the  Northwest.  Backed  by  government  assistance,  in  the 
shape  of  guaranteed  interest  on  bonds,  the  promoters  of  the 
railroad  have  opened  up  the  vast  mineral  deposits  of  British 
Columbia  and  the  gre&t  wheat  plains  of  the  Alberta  country. 
Desert  wastes  have  been  converted  into  thriving  wheat  fields, 
and  forest  wildernesses  have  been  reclaimed. 

Besides  receiving  financial  aid  from  the  government,  the 
Canadian  builders  were  knighted  by  the  King  of  England. 
Those  who  attempted  to  build  railroads  In  Alaska  were,  and 
still  are,  compelled  to  pay  a  license  fee  of  $ioo  per  mile  per 
annum  to  the  government  and  a  dockage  tax  of  ten  cents  the 
ton  on  every  pound  of  freight  they  handle  either  into  or 
out  of  Alaska,  while  in  addition  they  have  been  accused  of 
almost  every  crime  on  the  calendar. 

Another  distinct  difference  between  the  American  and 
Canadian  procedure  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Canadian  build- 
ers are  allowed  to  use  the  fuel  found  in  the  country  and  to 

23 


24      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

cut  tics  from  the  adjacent  forests.  Those  who  attempted  to 
build  railroads  in  Alaska  were  not  allowed  to  use  the  fuel 
that  existed  almost  beneath  their  tracks  of  steel,  but  were 
forced  to  import  coal  from  Canada  and  to  pay  a  dutj^  upon  it, 
and  the  taxes  and  restrictions  imposed  by  the  Forestry  Bureau 
of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  have  made  it  more 
economical  for  them  to  import  their  ties  and  other  lumber 
from    far-off  Washington   and   Oregon. 

One  of  the  plans  of  the  Alaskan  coal  miners  was  to  sell 
coal  to  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  Railroad,  and  a  contract  for 
delivery  \\as  entered  into.  Now  the  conditions  are  reversed. 
The  thought  that  Canada  soon  will  be  selling  coal  to  the 
United  States  navy,  and  that  ships  running  to  Alaska  —  a 
country  that  has  within  its  borders  an  almost  unlimited  sup- 
ply of  good  coal  —  are  utilising  fuel  oil  from  California,  does 
not  inspire  the  deepest  sense  of  admiration  for  the  manner  in 
which  the  United  States  government  has  managed  the  affairs 
of  its  Northern  possession.  Practically  every  large  enterprise 
in  Alaska  now  is  burning  California  oil. 

Beyond  Prince  Rupert  are  high  mountains,  at  times  thrust- 
ing themselves  to  the  heavens  and  again  merging  into  rotund, 
timbered  hills,  which  suggest  to  the  prospector  that  perhaps 
the  erosion  of  ages  had  left  deposits  of  precious  metal  in  the 
streams  flowing  between  them. 

Some  of  the  peaks,  with  their  sharp,  saw-tooth  tops,  sil- 
houetted against  the  sky-line,  appeared  weird,  grim,  and  for- 
bidding. Others  sloped  gently  from  green  middle  heights, 
as  though  tempting  the  wayfarer  through  these  labyrinthine 
channels  to  come  ashore  and  take  a  stroll  through  their  cool- 
ing woods.  Many  of  the  steep  hillsides  bore  the  trace  of  scars 
left  by  avalanches  that  had  cut  wide  swaths  through  the  tim- 
ber. Some  were  crowned  by  beds  of  ice  that  glittered  in  the 
sunlight  and  brought  a  thrill  to  the  hearts  of  the  mountaineers 


ARRIVING  AT  KETCHIKAN  25 

and  the  big  game  hunters.  Others  were  bathed  in  pearly  mists 
on  which  the  rays  of  the  sun  painted  opalescent  rainbows. 
Occasionally  small  clearings  in  the  timber  indicated  the  pres- 
ence of  the  settler. 

Hundreds  of  streams  cascaded  boisterously  down  the  rugged 
hillsides,  landing  at  the  bottom  in  gigantic  splashings  of  sil- 
very crystals.  The  mystery  and  mightiness  of  mountain  and 
running  water  were  everywhere.  In  places  rivers  joined  the 
sea,  from  broad  verdant  valleys.  Little  gushing  brooks  and 
rivulets,  emerging  from  the  woods  over  clear,  pebbly  bottoms, 
hinted  to  the  angler  of  the  futility  of  going  further  to  look 
for  sport. 

The  colouring  of  the  water  through  which  the  vessel  floated 
was  a  study.  Sometimes  it  was  a  silver-grey.  As  the  sun- 
light struck  it,  it  turned  to  blue  and  dark  green,  to  red  and 
violet,  to  creamy  pink  and  lilac,  and  to  a  hundred  other  shades 
of  colour.  Along  the  shores  were  reflected  the  deep  shadows 
of  woods  and  mountains.  The  unalterable  majesty  of  it  all 
—  the  richness  and  delicacy  of  its  colourings,  the  suggestion 
of  strength  and  immutability  —  made  it  a  scene  of  stupendous 
magnificence  impossible  of  description. 

With  an  ever-changing,  ever-varying  panorama,  the  vessel 
slipped  from  Lama  Passage  into  Millbank  Sound,  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  open  sea,  and  thence  through  Lover's  Lane, 
another  beautiful  picture  of  winding,  tree-fringed  water  and 
wrinkled  coast-line,  into  Graham's  Reach.  Along  the  shore 
at  intervals,  canneries  and  lumber  camps  were  sighted,  for  the 
Canadian  forests  are  open  to  exploitation  and  much  of  the 
wood  is  cut  and  manufactured  into  paper-pulp.  At  every 
bend  and  on  every  shoal  and  turn  there  was  an  acetylene 
light,  a  buoy,  or  other  beacon  to  guide  the  mariner. 

The  vessel  in  response  to  its  ever-pounding  propeller  glided 
through    McKay    Reach,    Wright    Sound,    Grenville   Channel 


26      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  Chatham  Sound,  to  Dixon's  Entrance,  passing  Port  Simp- 
son, a  small  Canadian  settlement  which  had  —  and  perhaps 
still  has  — hopes  of  becoming  the  terminal  for  a  transconti- 
nental  railroad. 

Cape  Fox,  near  Dixon's  Entrance,  is  the  Southeasternmost 
point  of  Alaska.  From  this  promontory  to  as  far  north  as 
the  traveller  cares  to  go,  he  will  find  an  alarming  lack  of  light- 
houses and  of  other  aids  to  navigation,  which  is  in  sharp  con- 
trast to  the  conditions  prevailing  in  Canadian  waters. 

Off  to  the  right  lies  Rudyerd  Fiord.  In  the  centre 
of  this  little  bay  there  arises,  sheer  and  precipitous,  a  great 
rock  monolith  that  is  several  hundred  feet  high.  Some  of  the 
excursion  steamships  make  a  trip  around  the  fiord,  that  the 
passengers  may  have  a  close  view  of  this  wonderful  piece  of 
natural  sculpture. 

From  Dixon's  Entrance  the  vessel  sped  through  Revilla 
Gigedo  Channel  into  Tongas  Narrows,  another  constricted 
waterway,  and  the  city  of  Ketchikan  came  into  view.  This 
city  gave  the  cabinet  officer  and  others  their  first  distinct  im- 
pression of  the  profligacy  of  Alaska's  resources. 

Beneath  the  compact  mass  of  timber  seen  from  the  ship 
grows  a  still  denser  mass  of  bushes,  vines,  and  berry-plants  of 
every  description,  and  an  underbrush  that  is  strongly  sug- 
gestive of  the  tropics.  Moss,  lichens,  ferns,  and  millions  of 
dainty  wild  flowers  are  everywhere.  The  air  all  along  the 
coast  is  saturated  with  moisture  from  the  Japan  Current,  and 
this  vaporous  atmosphere,  combined  with  the  vast  amount  of 
strong  sunlight  that  prevails  in  the  north  during  the  summer, 
makes  the  vegetable  and  plant  life  grow  quickly  and  with  a 
luxuriance  almost  beyond  belief. 

In  front  of  one  house  sweet  peas  had  been  planted.  They 
had  attained  a  height  of  fully  eight  feet  and  were  literally 
showered   with   fragrant  blossoms.     Even  some  of  the   totem 


ARRIVING  AT  KETCHIKAN  27 

poles  were  bewhiskered  with  clumps  and  sprays  of  moss,  and 
in  occasional  places  trees  could  be  seen  sprouting  from  this 
moss,  their  roots  extending  down  the  sides  of  other  trees  or 
down  logs  to  the  ground.  Humming  birds  and  other  repre- 
sentatives of  the  feathered  tribes  flitted  from  bough  to  bough. 

Alaska's  bountifulness  is  further  shown  in  the  cascading 
stream  that  enters  the  sea  from  the  back  of  the  town  and  which 
is  reached  by  a  winding  board-walk.  Lying  in  the  clear  wa- 
ter, below  the  falls,  can  be  seen  countless  thousands  of  salmon, 
their  tails  wiggling  slowly,  giving  them  just  sufficient  propul- 
sion to  maintain  a  steady  position  against  the  current. 

Every  few  seconds  one  of  these  fishes  separates  itself  from 
the  mass  and,  swimming  with  incredible  swiftness  through 
the  adverse  currents,  leaps  into  the  boiling  water  of  the  min- 
iature Niagara.  Sometimes  the  salmon  jump  several  feet  out 
of  the  water.  Occasionally  they  reach  a  nook  or  cranny  in 
the  rocks  above,  where  they  fight  desperately  against  the  tor- 
rent. Sometimes  they  make  the  riffle,  but  more  often  than 
not  they  are  thrown  back  into  the  cataract,  only  to  try  to  climb 
the  falls  time  and  time  again. 

"  If  at  first  you  don't  succeed,"  apparently  is  the  motto  of 
the  salmon  family.  The  word  "  fail  "  is  unknown  in  their 
lexicon.  Exhausted  by  their  efforts,  they  lay  in  the  slack  wa- 
ter for  a  few  minutes  to  recuperate  their  energies  and  then, 
impelled  by  the  instinct  that  urges  them  to  reach  the  spawning 
grounds,  they  make  another  struggle  to  surmount  the  obstacle. 

Photographing  salmon  in  the  act  of  jumping  a  waterfall  is 
exceedingly  difficult,  and  the  number  of  films  one  can  spoil, 
without  getting  a  picture  of  the  kind  desired,  is  remarkable. 
The  fishes  flash  plainly  into  vision,  sometimes  leaping  several 
feet  out  of  the  water.  In  attempting  to  obtain  photographs 
one  can  quickly  discover  that  the  eye  moves  faster  than  the 
hand.     Usually  by  the  time  the  camera  is  focussed  the  salmon 


28      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

cither  has  been  thrown  back  into  the  torrent  at  the  foot  of 
the  cascade  or  has  climbed  the  rapid,  and  another  fish  is  leap- 
ing at  some  other  point. 

A  youngster  sitting  above  the  rapids  had  a  string  of  trout 
weighing  several  pounds,  which  he  said  he  had  caught  in  two 
hours.  While  we  watched  he  hooked  two  big  ones,  and  the 
expeditious  manner  in  which  he  landed  them  certainly  con- 
veyed the  impression  that  he  v/as  not  addicted  to  that  unfor- 
tunate habit  of  recklessly  making  the  element  of  elasticity  the 
principal  component  of  the  truth  that  distinguishes  so  many 
anglers.  This  stream  rightly  is  named  Fish  Creek.  It  con- 
tains many  fishes  besides  salmon. 

Lying  out  in  the  bay,  not  a  half  a  mile  from  the  shore,  was 
a  floating  cannery  —  the  "Glory  of  the  Seas."  Beside  the 
hulk  lay  a  scow  containing  many  thousands  of  silver  salmon. 
Although  fishing  is  one  of  its  principal  industries,  Ketchikan 
is  not  by  any  means  a  fishing  village.  The  city  is  the  dis- 
tributing point  for  a  number  of  mines  situated  in  the  hills 
behind  the  town.  It  is  the  first  American  port  of  entry  in 
Alaska.  Having  abundant  water-power  in  its  back-yard,  it  is 
naturally  well  lighted.  The  population  is  Increasing  and  at 
the  time  this  was  written,  Governor  Walter  E.  Clark  had  just 
visited  the  city  with  a  view  to  enlarging  the  government  school 
accommodations. 

Tiiough  none  Is  surrounded  by  the  historic  Interest  that 
pertains  to  many  similar  Institutions  In  Alaska,  there  are 
churches  of  different  denominations  at  Ketchikan.  The  peo- 
ple of  Ketchikan  are  strong  fraternalists,  either  lodges  or  clubs 
of  all  the  better  known  fraternal  organisations  having  been 
inaugurated. 

All  passenger  vessels  plying  In  Alaskan  waters  are  equipped 
with  wireless  telegraphy,  but  the  only  news  received  at  sea  Is 
that  which  comes  in  brief  bulletins  that  are  picked  out  of  the 


ARRIVING  AT  KETCHIKAN  29 

ether  from  time  to  time  as  they  are  despatched  from  one  ship 
to  the  other. 

At  Ketchikan,  where  a  daily  newspaper  is  published,  the 
traveller  gets  his  first  complete  news  of  the  outside  world. 
The  Inland  Passage  has  a  news  service  peculiar  to  itself.  It 
has  to  do  with  boats  that  pass,  of  new  strikes  that  have  been 
made,  of  \\hat  the  cannerymen  are  doing,  of  when  the  con- 
servation craze  will  subside,  of  proposed  new  forms  of  govern- 
ment, and  so  forth. 

The  main  business  section  of  Ketchikan  lies  upon  a  flat  just 
a  few  feet  above  sea-level.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  mineralised 
zone,  in  which  Sulzer,  Niblack,  Hadley,  Coppermount,  and 
Hollis,  are  the  principal  settlements.  Sulzer  is  named  for 
the  New  York  governor  who  has  much  money  invested  in 
its  vicinity.  Several  mines  are  situated  upon  the  adjacent 
islands. 

Following  the  board  walk  which  trends  beneath  overhang- 
ing trees,  the  tourist  obtains  his  first  close  glimpse  at  the 
totem  poles.  The  city  was  once  the  home  of  the  Thlingit 
Indians.  As  evidence  of  their  occupation,  covering  a  period 
of  many  centuries,  there  still  remain  numerous  totemic  monu- 
ments. There  are  many  things  of  interest  to  the  tourists,  not 
the  least  attractive  being  the  many  curio  stores,  where  can  be 
purchased  Indian  baskets  and  many  souvenirs  made  by  the 
natives  during  the  winter  season. 

Being  industrious  and  prosperous,  few  of  the  residents  of 
Ketchikan  concern  themselves  with  the  political  conflicts  which 
have  been  the  cause  of  so  much  dissension  in  the  territory,  and 
especially  at  the  National  capital.  Their  transportation  prob- 
lem was  solved  by  nature.  The  ships  unload  right  at  the 
edge  of  the  land.  Being  close  to  Seattle  and  to  the  coal  sup- 
plies of  British  Columbia,  these  people  are  not  deeply  affected 
by  the  conflict  over  the  Alaskan  fuel  problem. 


CHAPTER  IV 

METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL 

Metlakahtla  and  "Father"  Duncan  — Intelligent  Indians  — Beyond 
Metlakahtla  — Wrangell- Its  early  boom  — The  Klondike  Strike 
—  A  Reign  of  outlawry  —  The  "Single  O  Kid  "— Wrangell  now 
quiet  and  respectable  — Trolling  for  salmon  —  A  trip  up  the 
Stikine  River  to  Glenora  —  Arithmetic  at  Wrangell. 

IN  the  grey  dawn  the  vessel  left  the  wharf  at  Ketchikan 
and  for  two  hours  wound  through  narrow  twists  and 
turns  of  placid  water.  As  the  sun's  rays  cast  their  ef- 
fulgence on  the  high  peaks,  and  as  hundreds  of  birds  in  the 
timber  began  their  morning  anthem,  the  vessel  glided  into  a 
small  bay.  On  a  broad  table-land  lay  that  dream  of  aborig- 
inal restoration,  Metlakahtla,  the  missionary  station,  of  which 
for  more  than  fifty  years  "  Father  "  William  Duncan  has  been 
the  guiding  spirit  and   presiding  genius. 

The  morning  mists,  blue  and  pearly  grey,  curled  around 
the  mountain  tops.  The  sea,  placid  as  a  mirror,  was  clear  as 
crystal:  long  strands  of  snake-like  kelp  and  masses  of  sea- 
weed drifted  idly  in  the  moving  tide.  Little  sponges,  sea- 
urchins  and  delicately  coloured  corals  could  be  seen  on  the 
bottom.  Vari-coloured,  translucent  jelly  fish  floated  lazily, 
flabbily,  in  the  shimmering  water, 

Hehind  the  town  of  many  buildings,  standing  out  from  the 
tangle  of  dank  vegetation,  the  lilac-tipped  hills  rose  tier  upon 
tier.  On  the  other  side  of  the  bay  jagged  peaks  thrust  their 
giant  heads  through  fleecy  vapours  that  obscured  the  upper 
sky.     In  the  rosy  dawn  Metlakahtla  looked  like  a  city  asleep. 

30 


METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL  31 

It   awakened    to   life   at   the   sudden   blast   of    the   steamship's 
whistle. 

Hundreds  of  Indians,  men,  women  and  children,  came  to 
the  dock,  for  the  arrival  of  the  "  Big  White  Chief  "  from 
Washington  was  expected.  There  are  no  more  intelligent  and 
prosperous  Indians  in  Alaska  than  the  Tsimpseans  who  live 
at  Metlakahtla.  They  are  well  educated  in  the  elementary 
branches,  have  a  definite  system  of  municipal  government,  own 
stores,  blacksmith  shops,  salmon  canneries,  cooperage  works 
and  other  industrial  enterprises  and  many  have  highly  culti- 
vated gardens.  Every  enterprise  is  conducted  by  Indians 
solely.  They  have  several  organisations,  including  a  temper- 
ance society  and  a  brass  band  which  is  much  sought  at  the 
country  fair  and  exposition  gatherings  through  British  Colum- 
bia and  the  Northwestern  States.  They  wear  the  clothes  of 
civilisation  and  conduct  themselves  very  much  in  the  way  of 
a  white  man. 

Prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  Cabinet  Officer,  there  had  been 
a  little  trouble  among  them.  Some  of  the  more  progressive 
favoured  the  inauguration  of  a  high  school,  and  they  w'anted 
to  know  what  was  going  to  become  of  the  sawmill,  canneries 
and  other  establishments  on  the  death  of  "  Father  "  Duncan, 
who,  though  hale  and  hearty  in  the  year  19 12,  was  slowly 
declining.  A  meeting  was  called  in  the  church,  which  is 
fitted  with  a  spire,  belfry  and  splendid  organ,  and  the  ques- 
tion was  debated  pro  and  con. 

Annette  Island,  on  which  the  settlement  is  situated,  is  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  although  the  progenitors 
of  the  inhabitants,  as  v\ell  as  many  of  those  still  alive,  were 
born  in  British  Columbia.  In  1887  the  Indians  moved  the 
village,  bag  and  baggage,  from  British  territory.  The  Island 
has  been  made  an  Indian  reservation,  and  missionaries  who 
have  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  establishment  of  reservations 


j2      ALASKA,  AN  PIMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  other  sections  of  the  territory,  have  complained  bitterly  that 
the  only  thing  ever  done  for  the  Northern  Indian  by  the 
United  States  government  was  the  creation  of  this  reservation 
for  the  benefit  of  a  tribe  of  aliens.  The  criticism  is  not  a 
just  one,  however,  as  much  beneficial  work  for  the  natives  has 
been  done  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  par- 
ticularly in  the  establishment  of  the  reindeer  industry,  which 
has  advanced  many  of  the  Eskimos  from  a  blubber-eating  class 
to  the  pastoral  stage  of  life. 

During  the  summer  season,  the  Metlakahtla  Indians  en- 
gage in  salmon  fishing  with  which  they  supply  their  own  up- 
to-date  cannery  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  many  of  them  devote 
their  time  to  the  exciting  sport  of  capturing  King  salmon  by 
trolling. 

When  the  vessel  pulled  out,  a  big  band  of  Indians  were  on 
the  wharf  to  wave  good-bye  and  give  a  cheer  for  the  ship,  a 
number  of  bashful  half-caste  children  standing  pathetically  in 
the  foreground.  Everybody  was  sorry  to  leave  this  cleanly, 
thriving,  pretty  and  in  many  ways  remarkable  place. 

On  leaving  Metlakahtla  higher  and  more  rugged  mountains 
appeared.  The  timber  was  thicker,  the  vegetation  more 
luxuriant.  Streams  having  their  sources  in  the  snow-kissed 
fields  at  the  mountain  crests,  rushed  down  the  hillsides. 
Numerous  flocks  of  gulls  and  terns  hovered  gracefully  around 
the  mouths  of  the  salmon-choked  creeks,  darting  and  pecking 
at  the  eyes  of  fishes  as  they  wriggled  over  the  riffles  and  shal- 
lows. 

From  sinuous  waterways,  the  vessel  glided  into  Clarence 
Strait,  a  long  sheet  of  water  lying  between  Etolin  and  Prince 
of  Wales  Islands,  on  both  of  which  are  situated  some  val- 
uable mines  and  commercial  ore  bodies  of  prospective  value. 
In  places,  the  forests  had  been  blown  down,  leaving  on  the 
ground   a   mass  of  tangled    and   criss-crossed   timbers.     These 


METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL  33 

windrows  are  picturesque  because  of  the  amount  of  devasta- 
tion  that  has  been  wrought  by  the  strong  gales. 

Occasionally  the  coast  range  is  split  by  wide  valleys  from 
which  flow  big  streams.  Upon  most  of  these  rivers,  salmon 
canneries  have  been  established.  Halibut  fishing  schooners 
were  passing  by  the  dozen  —  the  Sampson  was  nearing  the 
better  fishing  grounds.  The  coast-line  on  both  sides  was  in- 
dented with  many  little  bays  and  inlets,  dotted  at  intervals 
with  small   settlements  and  camps. 

Great  fields  of  kelp,  with  long  tentacles  spread  out  on  the 
water  like  a  giant  octopi,  were  scattered  here  and  there.  This 
salt  water  vegetation  has  its  roots  in  the  rocks  and  shoals, 
and  for  that  reason  is  avoided  by  mariners.  In  the  absence 
of  proper  aids  to  navigation,  these  kelp  fields  are  used  as  bea- 
cons, but  as  some  of  the  masses  are  not  growing  to  the  bottom, 
they  are  not  the  best  guides  conceivable. 

In  this  region,  the  Alaska  red  and  yellow^  cedar  are  pre- 
dominant in  the  forests.  Great  shaggy  trees,  centuries  old, 
many  of  them  over-ripened,  raise  their  hoary  heads.  The 
Alaska  cedar  is  said  to  be  impervious  to  the  teredo,  that  per- 
nicious little  borer  that  makes  life  miserable  to  the  owners  of 
docks  on  the  Pacific  Coast  and  correspondingly  pleasant  to 
the  owners  of  creosoting  plants.  To  make  the  docks  worm 
proof,  piles  used  on  the  Pacific  Coast  are  saturated  in  creosote 
before  being  driven  into  the  sea  floor. 

Some  of  these  Alaskan  cedars  attain  a  height  of  approxi- 
mately 200  feet,  and  many  of  them  are  more  than  thirty  feet 
in  circumference  at  the  butt.  The  wood  makes  splendid  fur- 
niture, which  Is  very  durable.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  the 
cedar  is  a  long  lived  tree,  and  its  durability  is  in  keeping  with 
its  longevity.  The  furniture  in  the  Arctic  Brotherhood  build- 
ing, a  handsome  log  structure  erected  at  the  Alaska-Yukon- 
Pacific    exposition,    held    at    Seattle    in    1 909,    was    made    of 


34       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Alaskan  cedar.  The  building  and  furniture  was  presented  to 
the  University  of  Washington  at  the  close  of  the  fair.  The 
Alaskan  cedar  has  a  pungent  odour  not  unlike  the  sandal  wood 
of  Australasia  and  the  Orient. 

A  wide  valley  through  which  the  turbid  Stiklne  River 
empties  into  the  sea  marks  the  approach  to  Wrangell,  one  of 
the  oldest  settlements  in  Southwestern  Alaska.  Beyond  the 
valley,  nestling  under  the  steep  hills  and  circling  around  the 
bay  like  a  half  moon,  have  been  erected  the  buildings  that  form 
the  town.  Situated  on  the  hill  is  an  old  Russian  blockhouse 
and  half  a  mile  from  the  wharf  are  many  totem  poles  which 
mark  the  graves  of  departed  Indian  chiefs.  At  widely  sep- 
arated points  are  gardens  In  which  berries  and  vegetables  grow 
prolifically. 

Wrangell  was  built  ahead  of  its  time.  Although  still  a 
prosperous  community,  It  holds  none  of  the  glory  incident  to 
the  boom  that  It  once  knew.  In  the  early  days,  'way  back  in 
the  late  '70's  and  early  '8o's,  It  was  the  outfitting  point  for 
30,000  miners  who  stampeded  up  the  Stiklne  River,  across 
the  plateau  from  Telegraph  Creek,  at  the  head  of  the  Stiklne, 
to  Dease  Lake,  thence  down  Dease  Lake  and  River  to  the 
Cassiar  gold  diggings. 

The  waters  of  the  Dease  join  the  Liard  and  become  a  part 
of  the  great  Mackenzie  River  which  empties  into  the  Arctic 
Ocean  about  200  miles  beyond  the  eastern  boundary  of  Alaska. 
Following  Alaska's  coast-line,  from  Wrangell  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Mackenzie  River,  Is  a  journey  of  more  than  10,000  miles. 
It  is  a  little  more  than  200  miles  from  Wrangell  to  a  portion 
of  the  headwaters  of  the  same  stream. 

When  the  mines  in  the  Cassiar  range  were  worked  out 
the  miners  sought  new  fields  of  endeavour  and  Wrangell  again 
settled  down  to  its  quiet,  humdrum  existence.  Deserted 
cabins   were    nailed    up.     The   gambling   houses   were   closed. 


Photo  copyngiit  Ijy   l.onicii    l!r 


HIGH  TYPES  OF  ESKIMOS.     ABLAKOK,  REINDEER  KING  OF  CAPE 
PRINCE  OF  WALES  AND  THE  BELLE  OF  A  NATIVE  VILLACiE 


METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL  35 

The  hulks  of  a  couple  of  old  vessels  that  had  been  used  as 
boarding  houses  in  the  days  of  mining  and  alcoholic  excite- 
ment were  left  to  rot.  The  customs  house  still  was  maintained 
and  once  in  a  while  a  revenue  cutter,  in  quest  of  smugglers, 
visited  the  place. 

In  1897,  Wrangell  again  was  electrified  into  metropolitan 
and  cosmopolitan  life  by  the  gold  strike  on  the  Klondike 
River,  a  tributary  of  the  Yukon.  Many  gold  hunters,  believ- 
ing they  could  reach  the  new  Eldorado  by  the  Teslln  Lake 
route  from  Telegraph  Creek  and  thus  avoid  the  dreaded  Chll- 
koot  Pass  and  White  Horse  rapids,  landed  at  Wrangell. 
Little  did  they  suspect  they  were  facing  a  difficult  journey  up 
a  dangerous  stream  and  they  likewise  were  ignorant  of  the 
obstacles  and  difficulties  to  be  met  on  the  trail  to  Lake  Teslln. 

Many  of  them,  finding  there  would  be  no  horse  feed  on  the 
Teslln  road  until  late  in  the  summer,  and  it  being  impossible 
to  pack  their  supplies  on  their  backs  across  the  200  intervening 
miles,  decided  to  change  their  plans,  and  instead  of  heading 
for  the  El  Dorado  at  Dawson,  crossed  the  divide  into  the 
Cassiar  range.  Few  were  rewarded  for  their  efforts  and  many 
died  of  exposure  and  hardships. 

With  the  influx  of  adventurers  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
to  Wrangell,  the  boards  were  ripped  from  the  doors  of  houses 
and  gambling  palaces  and  faro  layouts  and  roulette  wheels 
and  nearly  every  other  device  recognised  by  the  gambler  as 
having  a  certain  utility  in  the  process  of  separating  the  unwary 
gold  hunter  from  his  bank  roll  were  installed.  When  this  para- 
phernalia failed  to  accomplish  the  desired  result  with  neatness 
and  despatch,  more  strenuous  methods  sometimes  were  adopted. 

Wrangell  in  those  days  was  one  of  the  most  lawless  towns 
the  writer  ever  has  seen,  either  in  Alaska  or  anywhere  else. 
A  member  of  a  noted  family  of  Arizona  outlaws  acted  as 
deputy  United  States  marshal.     Holdups  were  common  occur- 


36      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

fences.  Many  bullet-pierced  bodies  were  found  in  the  bay. 
The  "  Soapy  "  Smith  gang  of  outlaws,  who  contemporaneously 
"  operated  "  at  Skagway  and  who,  after  a  desperate  gun  fight 
between  their  chief  and  the  better  class  of  citizens,  were  run 
out  of  that  town,  were  no  better  nor  worse  than  the  lawless 
element   which   infested   Wrangell.^ 

One  of  the  Wrangell  plans  for  acquiring  the  stranger's 
money  was  to  post  on  a  tent  a  notice  reading  "  Information 
About  the  Klondike  Given  Free."  Everybody  was  interested 
in  the  Klondike  and  scores  of  argonauts  entered  the  canvas 
structure,  only  to  have  a  revolver  poked  in  their  faces  and 
their  cash  and  jewellery  removed  from  pockets  or  money  belts. 
Complaints  to  the  authorities  were  remarkably  ineffective. 

The  gang  was  well  organised  and  only  once,  so  far  as  the 
writer  was  able  to  learn,  were  they  beaten  at  their  own  game. 
On  this  occasion  they  crossed  with  a  clean-faced,  mild  looking 
youth  of  about  nineteen  summers.  The  lad  was  known  as 
the  "  Single  O  Kid."  He  received  the  nickname  on  account 
of  his  proficiency  as  a  sharpshooter,  either  with  revolver  or 
rifle.  This  unostentatious,  innocent  looking  youngster,  in  a 
shooting  gallery  at  Wrangell,  hit  a  bull's-eye  125  consecutive 
shots.  The  gang  nicknamed  him  and  left  him  severely 
alone. 

One  day,  however,  a  plan  was  laid  by  the  gang  to  relieve 

1  The  head  of  the  "  Soapy "  Smith  gang  several  times  caused  to  be 
posted  outside  his  gambling  establishment  a  notice  to  the  effect  that 
men  were  being  recruited  for  the  Spanish-American  war  which  was 
then  in  progress.  Hundreds  of  men,  tired  of  packing  outfits  across 
Chilkoot  Pass,  decided  to  join  the  army.  They  were  drafted  into  a 
room  and  told  to  strip  in  readiness  for  a  physical  examination.  Then 
they  were  called  into  another  room  and  while  one  of  the  gang,  who 
pretended  to  be  an  army  surgeon,  "made  a  stall" — to  use  the  vernacu- 
lar—  at  conducting  the  examination,  his  confederates  proceeded  to  go 
through  the  pockets  of  the  clothes  left  in  the  adjoining  room  and  re- 
moved everything  of  value. 


METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL  37 

the  "  Kid's  "  uncle  of  his  loose  change.  A  "  friendly  "  game 
of  draw  poker  was  begun  and  the  victim  treated  to  an  ocular 
demonstration  of  what  is  colloquially  known  as  a  "  cold  deck." 
In  less  than  half  an  hour  his  bank  roll  was  reduced  to  the 
rubber  band  which  had  encircled  it.  The  "  Single  O  Kid  " 
watched  the  play  and  backing  towards  the  door  as  his  relative 
arose  from  the  table,  pulled  two  revolvers.  The  gamblers 
didn't  wait  for  an  invitation  to  throw  up  their  hands.  "  Un- 
cle "  recovered  not  only  his  own  money,  but  collected  also 
several  thousands  of  dollars  from  the  pockets  of  those  who  had 
attempted  to  fleece  him. 

While  the  "  Kid  "  held  his  "  irons  "  pointed  at  the  gang, 
with  their  blue  hammers  curled  back  menacingly  like  the 
heads  of  cobras  ready  to  strike,  his  uncle  left  the  building. 
Politely  then  the  gamblers  were  requested  to  face  the  wall,  in 
which  position,  in  response  to  the  "  Kid's "  gentle  direction, 
they  remained  for  several  minutes.  In  the  meantime  the 
"  Kid  "  vanished.  That  night  he  and  his  uncle  disappeared 
up  the  Stikine  River  and  Wrangell  knew  them  no  more. 

But  Wrangell  is  different  now.  It  is  a  quaint,  quiet  town 
of  about  1,000  people,  about  one-quarter  being  Indians.  It 
has  a  splendid  wharf,  sawmill,  several  fishing  stations  and 
is  headquarters  for  fishermen,  hunters  and  trappers  from  the 
interior.  Although  most  of  the  deer  which  abounded  on  the 
mainland  and  surrounding  islands  ten  years  ago  and  whose 
carcasses  occasionally  could  be  seen  piled  upon  the  wharf  like 
so  much  cord  wood,  have  been  driven  out  by  the  wolves,  there 
still  remain  some  good  hunting  grounds. 

One  of  Wrangell's  industries  is  salmon  angling.  The  little 
harbour  is  speckled  with  boats  from  the  after  ends  of  which 
trolling  lines  are  made  fast.  Angling  for  King  salmon  is  a 
profitable  business  and  one  that  affords  exciting  sport. 

The  man  who  feels  a  thrill  when  a  trout  tugs  at  the  end 


38      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  his  line  can  find  a  manifold  pleasure  in  a  fight  for  the  cap- 
ture of  a  King  salmon.  The  King  is  decidedly  game  and 
there  is  enough  uncertainty  as  to  the  result  of  the  struggle  to 
make  it  interesting.  The  fish  are  sold  to  the  salteries.  Those 
who  make  a  business  of  this  sport  earn  as  much  as  $20  per 
(lay  during  the  few  weeks  of  the  running  season.  A  stout 
line  is  needed  and  a  spoon,  so  shaped  that  it  will  not  only  spin 
but  dart  through  the  water  in  a  sidewise  movement,  is  re- 
garded as  the  best  lure  for  their  capture.  A  heavy  sinker, 
about  four  to  six  ounces,  should  be  placed  about  eighteen  feet 
from  the  end  of  the  line  to  which  the  spoon  is  attached.  Good 
goose  and  duck  hunting  is  obtainable  around  the  marshes  and 
lakes  on  the  mainland  and  islands. 

At  the  end  of  the  half-crescent  curve  of  the  sea  on  which 
the  town  is  built  are  a  number  of  Indian  houses,  which  ob- 
viously were  constructed  with  infinite  care,  many  of  the 
boards  having  been  hewed  from  the  logs  with  an  axe.  Here 
also  will  be  found  many  interesting  totem  poles  and  a  few 
curio  stores.  It  is  customary  for  a  number  of  squaws  to  meet 
each  vessel  as  it  lands  at  the  wharf,  where  they  display  their 
baskets,  fancy  beaded  moccasins  and  other  articles  of  their 
handiwork,  for  sale. 

A  trip  by  the  river  steamboat  to  Glenora,  the  head  of  navi- 
gation on  the  Stikine  River,  is  calculated  to  prove  attractive 
to  the  tourist  who  desires  to  leave  the  beaten  path  of  travel. 
The  boat  passes  through  American  territory  for  a  distance  of 
about  forty  miles  and  then  enters  Canadian  territory.  Glenora 
is  about  1 60  miles  from  the  confluence  of  the  Stikine  River 
and  the  sea.  The  trip  is  one  of  marvellous  scenic  beauty.  A 
short  distance  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  the  end  of  a  re- 
ceding glacier  that  has  cut  a  channel  through  the  mountain 
can  be  seen  from  the  river  steamer.  Several  glacial  streams 
join  the  Stikine  River,  heavily  charging  the  waters  with  silt. 


METLAKAHTLA  AND  WRANGELL  39 

At  Glcnora  the  vessels  are  unloaded  by  tlie  natives,  who  in 
1898  learned  enough  of  the  ways  of  the  white  man  to  in- 
augurate and  successfully  conduct  a  strike  for  higher  wages. 
During  the  stampede  to  the  Cassiar  diggings  in  1880,  these 
natives  were  not  so  well  versed  in  the  ways  of  the  world. 
Competition  for  the  river  trade  was  keen  and  a  rate  war  be- 
tween the  rival  ships  was  begun.  The  captain  of  one  vessel 
as  a  means  of  attracting  trade,  engaged  a  string  band  to  en- 
tertain the  miners  on  their  way  up  and  down  the  river.  His 
hated  rival  installed  a  loud,  shrieking  whistle,  not  unlike  a 
calliope.  When  the  band  on  one  vessel  began  to  play,  the 
captain  of  the  other  vessel  blew  the  whistle  to  drown  the  mu- 
sic. On  the  first  trip  after  the  new  attractions  had  been 
installed,  the  ship  with  the  band  was  the  first  to  reach  Glenora. 
The  natives  enjoyed  the  music  immensely.  They  were  having 
a  fine  time  until  an  hour  later,  when  the  other  craft  hove  in 
sight  around  a  bend  in  the  river  and  the  captain  gave  a  few 
blasts  of  his  whistle  by  way  of  salute.  Immediately  every 
Indian  ceased  work  and  took  to  the  hills,  where  they  re- 
mained several  days.  Neither  captain  could  get  his  ship  un- 
loaded, so  an  agreement  was  reached  to  eliminate  the  new  im- 
provements. 

Apart  from  its  other  accomplishments  Wrangell  has  evolved 
many  strange  and  awful  modifications  of  the  multiplication 
table  and  some  of  its  people  can  do  weird  tricks  with  the  cal- 
endar when  they  think  such  a  procedure  is  necessary  to  win  a 
debate. 

One  of  Wrangell's  standard  stories  is  that  of  an  Indian 
who  became  involved  in  a  dispute  with  a  trader  over  an  amount 
due  him.  The  remuneration  was  fixed  on  a  basis  of  hours 
worked.  The  Indian  could  read  a  little  and  write  less. 
When  his  native  eloquence  failed  to  convince  the  trader  of 
the  justice  of  his  contentions,   he  prepared   to  clinch   his  ar- 


40      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

gunicnt  by  producing  a  ready  reckoner  which  he  had  purchased 
from  the  trader  a  year  previously.  Proudly  he  pointed  to  the 
number  of  hours  worked,  the  rate  fixed  and  the  amount  placed 
opposite. 

Was  the  trader  convinced?     Not  at  all. 

"  Why,  that  book  ain't  no  more  good,"  he  explained.  "  It's 
all  out  of  date.  That's  last  year's  ready  reckoner.  The  latest 
ones  ain't  come  in  yet." 

The  Indian  is  still  trying  to  figure  it  out. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  was  given  an  inadvertent 
demonstration  of  this  ability  to  produce  an  unexpected  result 
with  figures.  The  citizens  had  elected  a  townsite  trustee  to 
obtain  a  patent  to  the  city  lots  in  the  name  of  their  various 
owners.  A  survey  was  necessary  and  a  civil  engineer  was 
employed  at  $io  per  day  to  do  the  work.  He  worked  until 
the  bill  totalled  $ii,ooo.  This  was  altogether  beyond  the 
anticipations  of  the  lot  owners,  so  they  asked  the  government, 
through  the  cabinet  officer,  to  pay  the  bill.  In  a  meeting  held 
in  a  log  cabin  much  of  the  blame  was  laid  to  the  absent  en- 
gineer. 

"  Well,  you  folks  must  have  known  what  the  bill  would 
amount  to,"  said  Mr.  Fisher.  "  If  you  knew  it  was  costing 
more  than  $io  per  day,  why  did  you  allow  the  engineer  to 
keep  on  working  for  nearly  three  years?" 

"  We  didn't  let  him  work  three  years,"  argued  one  of  the 
citizens.  "  He  worked  only  a  little  more  than  one  year  — 
about  nine  hundred  days  in  all." 

"  I  have  been  told  that  they  have  nights  in  Alaska  three 
months  long,"  commented  a  newspaperman,  "  but  this  is  the 
first  time  I  ever  heard  of  years  containing  900  days  each.  Yes, 
this  is  a  wonderful  country." 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME  ALASKAN  GLACIERS 

Leaving  Wrangell  —  Alaskan  twilight  —  Wrangell  Narrows  —  Peters- 
burg—  Halibut,  cod  and  other  fisheries  —  First  near  view  of  a 
glacier  —  "Dead"  and  "Live"  glaciers  in  Taku  Inlet  —  Flowers 
on  edges  of  ice  fields  —  The  largest  glacier  in  the  world  —  Gla- 
ciers of   Copper  River. 

BEFORE  wharves  and  warehouses  had  been  constructed 
at  Nome,  much  freight  and  baggage  from  the  fifty-six 
ships  that  arrived  there  in  the  great  stampede  of  1900 
was  piled  pell  mell  on  the  beach,  and  much  of  it  was  lost. 

A  lawyer's  trunk  was  missing.  His  incessant  inquiries  the 
first  day  made  life  a  burden  to  the  steamship  agent.  Finally 
the  agent,  angry  and  Irritated,  said: 

"  Now,  Judge,  don't  bother  me  any  more.  I'll  give  you 
my  sacred  word  of  honour  that  FU  find  that  trunk  for  3'ou 
before  dark." 

The  lawyer  went  away  satisfied,  but  the  next  day  he  real- 
ised that  it  would  not  be  dark  for  nearly  two  months. 

This  almost  continuous  daylight  Is  one  of  the  things  that 
makes  a  trip*  to  Alaska  a  novelty.  No  man  boasts  that  he 
works   from   sun  to   sun. 

On  leaving  Wrangell  the  passengers  were  able  to  read  their 
magazines  and  newspapers  without  artificial  light  until  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening  and  even  later.  As  the  ship  continued 
Its  way  through  winding  passages,  but  ever  working  north- 
ward, the  daylight  lengthened  perceptibly. 

From  Wrangell  the  route  to  Petersburg  lies  between  the 
mainland  and  an  archipelago,  of  which  Mitkolf  and  Kupreanoff 

41 


42      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Islands  arc  the  largest.  The  passage,  known  as  Wrangell 
Narrows,  is  a  most  unusual  piece  of  water  for  Alaska.  In 
contrast  to  nearly  all  other  channels  in  the  inside  passage,  this 
narrow  waterway  is  very  shallow,  a  condition,  which,  perhaps, 
has  been  caused  by  the  heavy  deposits  of  silt  brought  down  by 
the  Stikine  River  and  other  big  streams. 

Congress  has  been  threatening  for  some  years  to  pass  an 
appropriation  bill  to  dredge  this  channel.  Parenthetically, 
Congress  in  19 12  appropriated  $180,000  for  the  establishment 
of  a  lighthouse  at  Cape  St.  Elias,  but  a  large  amount  of  the 
material  for  the  beacon  was  lost  in  the  wreck  of  a  tender. 

Petersburg,  being  the  headquarters  for  the  halibut  fishing 
schooners  with  several  large  canneries  nearby  and  a  sawmill  in 
constant  operation,  has  grown  wonderfully  in  the  six  years  of 
its  existence.  It  has  a  permanent  population  of  nearly  1,000, 
every  one  of  whom  appears  to  be  profitably  employed. 

The  best  time  for  halibut  fishing  is  during  the  winter  months 
and  it  is  no  uncommon  sight  at  this  season  of  the  year  to  see  fifty 
or  sixty  schooners  in  the  harbour  on  the  same  day,  especially  if  the 
weather  is  heavy  on  the  fishing  banks.  Halibut  are  packed  in 
ice  and  shipped  to  Seattle,  thence  to  the  markets  in  the  eastern 
states.  Much  of  the  halibut  served  in  the  New  York  hotels 
comes  from  Petersburg  and  its  environs.  This  large  and 
nutritious  fish  wholesales  at  an  average  price  of  about  ten  cents 
the  pound  and  in  November,  191 1,  more  than  one  million 
pounds  of  halibut  was  landed  on  the  dock  at  Seattle  in  one  day. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  hardships  and  vicissitudes 
endured  by  the  prospectors  in  the  interior  of  Alaska,  but  their 
life  is  beset  with  no  more  dangers  and  privations  than  is  the 
life  of  the  halibut  and  cod  fisherman.  Those  who  embark  in 
this  business  must  be  equipped  by  Nature  to  withstand  the 
rigours  of  an  Alaskan  winter  at  sea.  The  weather  is  not 
particularly  cold,  in  fact  not  so  cold  as  in  the  harbour  of  New 


SOME  ALASKj\N  glaciers  43 

York,  but  Is  damp,  foggy,  and  generally  miserable.  Most  of 
the  halibut  fishermen  own  their  boats  and  when  the  season 
closes  in  April  they  devote  their  time  to  catching  salmon. 

The  herring  fishing  industry  here  is  being  developed  on  a 
commercial  basis.  A  few  years  ago  the  Alaska  herring  was 
used  only  for  bait  and  for  manufacturing  fertiliser.  Now  these 
fishes  are  shipped  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  in  competition 
with  the  Norwegian  herring,  which  they  equal  in  flavour  and 
nutritive  value.  In  many  of  the  markets  they  are  bought  in 
preference  to  the  Norwegian  variety. 

Another  source  of  income  for  the  residents  of  Petersburg  is 
found  in  the  rock  cod,  black  cod,  smelt,  trout,  bass  and  other 
fishes  of  which  there  is  an  abundance,  and  many  people  are 
beginning  to  market  the  soft-shelled  crabs  which  can  be  netted 
in  thousands.  When  the  tide  is  out  at  Petersburg,  the  table 
is  set,  for  the  beach  is  covered  with  clams;  and  the  day  is  not 
far  distant  when  these  bivalves  will  be  shipped  to  Seattle  and 
other  places.  The  saw-mill  cuts  an  average  of  forty  thousand 
running  feet  of  lumber  per  day,  and  much  of  it  is  used  in  mak- 
ing the  boxes  in  which  fish  is  shipped. 

Some  of  the  halibut  caught  in  this  locality  grow  to  tremen- 
dous size,  a  Chinaman  catching  one  off  the  wharf  in  191 1  that 
weighed  more  than  three  hundred  pounds.  It  took  four  men 
to  land  this  big  fish. 

Petersburg  is  ideally  situated  on  a  flat  surrounded  by  hills 
and,  unlike  most  cities  on  the  coast  of  Alaska,  its  expansion 
is  not  impeded  by  the  contour  of  the  country.  There  are  three 
good  hotels,  a  native  school  managed  by  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, a  school  for  white  children  which  is  managed  by  the  com- 
mon council  and  a  school  board  elected  each  year.  Tw^o 
churches  have  been  built  and  dedicated.  Altogether  it  is  one 
of  the  most  thriving,  industrious  communities  in  Alaska  and  it 
is  unusual  in  that  one  meets  few  natives  selling  curios. 


44       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Although  many  of  the  mountains  along  the  circuitous  route 
were  coroneted  with  small  glaciers,  sparkling  in  the  sunlight, 
it  was  not  until  Frederick  Sound,  a  few  hours'  sail  from  Peters- 
burg, was  reached  that  the  first  near  view  of  one  of  these  ice 
masses  was  obtained.  The  approach  to  La  Conte  Glacier  was 
heralded  by  a  flotilla  of  small  ice  floes,  pieces  of  which  were 
being  gathered  by  the  fishermen  for  use  in  packing  the  product 
taken  from  the  sea. 

Running  through  Frederick  Sound  into  Stephens  Passage,  the 
latter  a  beautiful  strip  of  water  lying  between  snow-crested 
mountains,  Taku  Inlet  was  reached.  Here  is  a  sight  the  equal 
of  which  can  be  seen  in  few  other  parts  of  the  world  —  a 
"  dead  "  and  a  "  live  "  glacier,  lying  a  short  distance  apart. 
The  ship  had  reached  the  glacial  belt,  where  mountains  of  ice, 
almost  as  old  as  the  world  itself,  were  visible.  The  "  dead  " 
glacier  on  the  left,  grey,  dingy,  receding,  with  a  wide  moraine 
between  its  edge  and  the  sea,  was  suggestive  of  an  era  long  since 
forgotten.  The  "  live  "  glacier,  with  its  sheer,  jagged  ice  cliffs 
rising  abruptly  from  the  sea,  presented  a  view  not  unlike  the 
pictures  one  sees  of  the  great  Antarctic  ice  wall. 

Like  many  other  ice  masses  in  Alaska,  the  "  live  "  glacier 
in  Taku  Inlet  keeps  up  an  incessant  thundering  and  creaking, 
as  it  discharges  tons  upon  tons  of  ice  into  the  sea.  There  is 
something  awesome  in  these  manifestations  of  Nature's  power. 
The  sight  of  Bering,  Muir,  La  Perouse,  and  other  great  ice 
rivers,  slowly,  irresistibly  creeping  towards  the  shore,  and  from 
the  shore  into  the  sea,  is  a  magnificent  one.  The  ponderous 
bulk,  the  frigid  vastness,  the  abysmal  crevasses,  the  tints  of 
the  ice  clififs,  the  minarets  and  spires  of  the  glacial  castles,  the 
gleaming  palisades,  the  incessant  crashing  and  grinding, 
the  floating  hibernal  bergs  with  their  prisms  reflecting  a  thousand 
scintillating  hues  are  sights  and  sounds  which  must  enthrall 
even  the  dullest  imagination. 


SOME  ALASKAN  GLACIERS  45 

And  yet  it  would  seem  that  here  have  the  equator  and  the 
poles  been  wedded.  At  the  edges  —  in  fact  in  the  very  shadows 
of  these  ice  cliffs  —  beautiful  wild  flowers  and  wild  grasses, 
growing  higher  than  a  man's  waist,  attest  the  fertility  of  the 
soil ;  and  in  the  near-by  woods  can  be  heard  the  voices  of  singing 
robins  and  the  low-toned  notes  of  humming  birds'  wings. 

On  the  bank  of  Copper  River,  adjoining  the  end  of  Childs 
Glacier,  there  is  a  big  field  of  wild  red  top  hay  and  close  by 
spruce,  willows,  alders  and  other  trees  thrive.  Dr.  Stellar,  the 
scientist  who  accompanied  Vitus  Bering  on  his  second  voyage  of 
discovery  in  1742,  reported  to  the  Empress  Catherine  that  he 
found  forget-me-nots  and  other  delicately  tinted  wild-flowers 
growing  at  the  edge  of  the  ice  fields,  and  it  was  only  his  great 
reputation  as  a  scientist  that  saved  him  from  being  branded 
as  the  Russian  equivalent  of  a  nature  faker. 

Many  of  the  glaciers  seen  along  this  route  do  not  come  down 
to  the  sea.  At  Disenchantment  Bay,  an  arm  of  Yakutat  Bay, 
a  few  years  ago  one  of  these  gelid  masses  was  thrown  by  seismic 
activity  into  the  water,  and  it  is  claimed  by  those  who  watched 
the  upheaval  that  the  resultant  wave  reached  a  height  of  137 
feet.     This  story,  however,  is  generally  discredited. 

The  Malaspina  Glacier,  visible  along  the  regular  route  from 
Juneau  to  Cordova,  in  the  year  1905-06  awakened  to  such 
activity  that  its  entire  surface  aspect  was  changed.  Timber 
was  uprooted  for  miles  and  the  bedrock  twisted  and  contorted. 
This  glacier,  by  the  way,  is  the  largest  in  the  world,  having 
a  sea  frontage  of  nearly  lOO  miles. 

Watching  an  active  glacier,  moving  steadily  forward  into  a 
river  or  sea,  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  sights  imaginable. 
No  written  description  can  give  an  adequate  idea  of  Its  im- 
mensity, its  sublime  strength  and  its  manifestation  of  irresist- 
ible power. 

In  August,   19 1 2,  a  lake  whicli  had  been  imprisoned  in  one 


46      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  the  numerous  crevasses  of  Miles  Glacier  — on  Copper  River 
a  few  miles  above  the  railroad  bridge  — broke  through  its  re- 
straining walls  and  hurled  thousands  of  tons  of  ice  and  an  in- 
calculable amount  of  water  into  the  river.  With  the  bursting 
of  the  ice  dam,  a  wave  estimated  to  be  thirty  feet  high  swept 
down  the  river,  spreading  over  the  flats  and  deluging  the  sur- 
rounding country.  Icebergs  weighing  many  tons  were  jammed 
against  the  buttresses  of  the  bridge,  but  the  structure  stood  the 
strain. 

Professor  Lawrence  Martin,  leader  of  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society's  19 lO  Expedition  to  Alaska,  in  describing  the 
action  of  Childs  Glacier,  on  Copper  River  below  the  railroad 
bridge,  says: 

"  Every  time  the  ice  cliff  was  undercut  by  the  river,  great 
masses  of  ice  would  cascade  down  the  front,  raising  a  gigantic 
wave  in  the  river.  People  in  Alaska  speak  of  the  discharge 
from  the  front  of  Childs  Glacier  as  *  sloughing.'  A  '  slough  ' 
has  always  raised  waves  in  Copper  River,  making  it  dangerous 
to  shoot  the  rapids  in  front  of  Childs  Glacier  in  a  boat,  or  to 
line  a  boat  up  the  opposite  bank;  but  in  the  spring  of  1910  the 
conditions  were  accentuated  by  the  advance  of  the  glacier  and 
the  pushing  of  the  river  eastward. 

"  During  the  advance  the  waves  washed  up  over  a  bank  five 
to  twenty-five  feet  in  height  and  rushed  back  lOO  to  200  feet 
in  the  alder  thicket.  Ice  blocks  up  to  ten  tons  in  weight  were 
thrown  in  among  the  trees.  Stones  a  foot  or  two  in  diameter 
were  hurled  into  the  thicket.  Alders  nine  to  eleven  inches  in 
diameter  were  stripped  of  leaves  and  bark  and  bent  backwards 
or  broken  off  short  or  uprooted  or  buried  beneath  the  gravel 
and  boulders  and  macerated  trunks  of  other  trees. 

"  The  river  bank,  which  was  cut  back  some  in  the  preceding 
year,  was  in  19 10  fairly  eaten  up  by  the  ice-berg  waves  which 
crossed   the   river,   fifty  to   sixty   feet   by  actual   measurement 


'^rm^ 


r.  < 

.h 

g< 

Oh 

x: 


SOME  ALASKAN  GLACIERS  47 

having  been  removed  along  the  bank  of  the  stream  facing  the 
glacier. 

"  Near  the  north  margin  of  the  glacier  is  an  easily  accessible 
portion  of  the  ice-front,  which  ends  upon  a  nearly  flat,  out-wash 
plain  of  glacial  gravels,  overgrown  with  alder  and  cotton-wood 
trees  fifty  to  one  hundred  years  old.  Here  the  glacier  was 
nearly  without  motion  from  1905  to  1909,  and  probably  for 
some  years  before,  so  that  small  shrubs  had  begun  to  grow  upon 
the  stagnant  ice  margin.  This  part  of  the  glacier  advanced 
1,500  to  1,600  feet  before  June  10,  19 10,  and  204  feet  more 
up  to  October  5.  The  rate  of  advance  is  phenomenal,  avera- 
ging two  to  eight  feet  a  day,  and  especially  remarkable  for  the 
edge  of  a  glacier  where  the  movement  is  always  the  slowest. 
.  .  .  Ice  blocks  were  sliding  down  the  frontal  slope,  many 
of  them  being  rolled  over  In  to  the  forest;  trees  were  over- 
turned, turf  and  grass  were  ploughed  up  and  carried  away  on 
the  ice  of  the  glacier. 

"  Yet  one  saw  and  heard  little  of  a  spectacular  nature  while 
traversing  the  ice-front.  It  was  an  Irresistible,  steady  move- 
ment, but  slow,  as  the  movement  of  the  hour  hand  of  a  clock 
is  slow." 

The  railroad  bridge  at  the  time  of  Professor  Martin's  exam- 
ination of  Childs  Glacier,  was  1,575  feet  from  the  north  mar- 
gin of  the  ice  mass.  This  bridge  is  the  key  to  the  $20,000,000 
railway  to  the  copper  and  coal  mines.  What  the  glacier  will 
do  In  the  future,  therefore.  Is  a  matter  of  deep  interest,  particu- 
larly to  the  owners  of  the  railroad  and  the  mines.  No  corps 
of  engineers  living  could  save  the  bridge  and  railway  if  the 
glacier  should  make  an  advance  upon  It.  That  such  a  con- 
tingency Is  not  impossible  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  within 
recent  years,  according  to  Professor  Martin's  observations, 
Hidden  Glacier,  in  Yakutat  Bay,  has  advanced  two  miles,  or 
more  than   10,000  feet,  and  burled  a  bench  mark  placed  near 


48       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  former  terminus  beneath  i,ioo  feet  of  ice,  while  the 
Haencke  Glacier  advanced  more  than  5,000  feet  in  ten  months. 

Usually  the  sightseer,  watching  a  glacier  in  action  for  the 
first  time,  is  loth  to  leave  it.  Attorney-General  George  W. 
Wickersham,  accompanied  by  Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labour,  Charles  Nagel,  in  igio,  made  a  trip  up  the  Copper 
River  to  inspect  the  railroad,  then  in  course  of  construction. 
The  cabinet  officers  were  accompanied  by  a  number  of  promi- 
nent citizens  from  Cordova,  who  were  desirous  of  showing  the 
distinguished  visitors  everj'thing  of  interest.  They  had  planned 
to  go  to  Tiekel,  a  point  a  few  miles  beyond  Childs  Glacier,  at 
which  place  they  stopped  en  route.  The  time  at  their  disposal 
was  limited  and  the  citizens,  to  whom  the  glacier  was  no  longer 
a  wonderful  attraction,  were  anxious  to  proceed  further  into 
the  interior. 

The  glacier  was  working  splendidly,  throwing  immense 
chunks  of  ice,  larger  than  the  capital  building  at  Washington, 
into  the  river.     Fascinated,  the  cabinet  officer  watched. 

"Well,  Mr.  Attorney-General;  it's  getting  late,  and  we 
should  be  getting  aboard  the  train  for  Tiekel,"  at  last  hinted 
one  of  the  citizens. 

"  Yes,  yes,  just  a  minute.  Another  berg  is  going  to  drop 
presently." 

Another  tremendous  chunk,  with  terrific  detonation,  fell 
thundering  into  the  river,  throwing  a  high  wave  that  dislodged 
rocks  from  the  banks,  and  left  salmon  wriggling  and  flapping 
among  the  bushes,  after  the  water  had  receded. 

"Wonderful!"  exclaimed  the  cabinet  officer.  "Wait  just 
a  few  minutes,  and  we'll  see  another  one  go." 

It  was  an  hour  or  more  later  that  the  attorney-general  re- 
gretfully allowed  himself  to  be  led  away. 

Some  resembling  church  steeples,  some  appearing  like  castles, 
the  bergs  floating  in  Taku  Inlet  and  other  Alaskan  waters  are 


SOME  ALASKAN  GLACIERS  49 

fantastically  shaped.  Many  are  the  colour  of  turquoise,  others 
are  pure,  glistening  white,  while  others  have  the  brilliancy  of 
a  blue-white  diamond.  The  colours  constantly  change  as  the 
sun  rays  play  queer  tricks  of  light  and  shade.  It  is  no  wonder 
the  glaciers  inspired  many  of  the  interesting  legends  of  the 
natives. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY 

The  great  Treadwell  mine  that  has  produced  seven  times  the  sum  paid 
by  the  Government  for  the  entire  Territory  of  Alaska  —  The  big 
stamp  mill  and  concentrating  plant  —  Juneau,  the  Capital  of 
Alaska  —  Silver  Bow  Basin  and  its  mines  —  The  origin  of  hochinoo, 
a  potent  beverage  —  Deserted  Katalla  —  Cordova  and  glaciers. 

APPROACHING  Gastlneau  Channel  the  mountains, 
clothed  to  the  snow-line  with  forests  of  timber  and 
green  foliage,  seem  to  rise  higher  than  ever.  Glaciers, 
great  and  small,  are  everywhere  visible.  Vast  rivers  of  ice 
fill  the  valleys.  In  Frederick  Sound,  the  vessel  passed  close 
to  Patterson  and  Baird  Glaciers,  which  dot  Stephens  Passage 
with  icebergs  practically  all  the  year  through.  A  condition 
appreciated  by  the  fishermen,  who  thus  are  saved  the  cost  of 
maintaining  an  ice  plant. 

Entering  Gastineau  Channel,  which  separates  Douglas  Island 
from  the  mainland,  the  great  Treadwell  mine,  employing  nearly 
two  thousand  men  and  operating  the  second  largest  stamp  mill 
in  the  world,  is  about  the  first  thing  that  attracts  the  sightseers' 
notice.  The  thunderous  roar  of  the  machinery  compels  one's 
attention.  In  the  centre  of  the  channel  is  a  pretty  island,  on 
which  has  been  placed  a  lighthouse,  and  stretching  out  to  meet 
it  is  a  gravel  bar,  from  behind  which  a  turbulent  stream  comes 
tumbling  down  to  the  sea. 

The  Treadwell  is  one  of  the  largest  mines  in  the  world  and 
there  are  few,  if  any,  where  the  employes  enjoy  better  living 
conditions.  Neat  cottages,  comfortably  furnished,  afford  quar- 
ters for  the  married  men,  and  a  good  hotel  has  been  established 

50 


A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY  51 

for  those  who  prefer  a  life  of  single  blessedness.  A  billiard  and 
pool  room,  a  library,  a  club  room,  a  theatre,  a  ball  room,  a 
swimming  tank,  a  turkish  bath  plant,  a  bowling  alley  and 
photographic  dark  room  are  many  of  the  modern  conveniences 
that  have  been  installed  for  those  who  delve  in  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  for  golden  treasure.  The  dining  room  and  a  modern 
bakery  plant  are  models  of  cleanliness  and  utility.  The  mine 
and  houses  are  lighted  by  electricity. 

Nine  hundred  stamps  and  gigantic  concentrating  plants  in 
the  past  thirty  years  have  extracted  from  the  ore  in  this  one 
mine,  gold  amounting  to  five  times  the  sum  paid  for  the  entire 
territory  by  the  government. 

The  Treadwell,  discovered  in  the  late  '70's  by  Pierre  Erus- 
sard,  known  throughout  the  territory  as  "  French  Pete,"  who 
died  at  Katalla  in  19 12,  was  sold  to  John  Treadwell,  a  carpen- 
ter, for  about  $400  —  some  say  $300.  Since  1882  it  has  pro- 
duced nearly  $50,000,000  in  gold  and  there  is  a  sufficient 
amount  of  ore  blocked  out  to  keep  the  machinery  in  operation 
for  seventy-five  years  to  come. 

Back  of  the  present  workings  is  a  big,  deep  quarry,  known  as 
the  "  Glory  Hole."  In  former  years  the  ore  was  taken  from 
this  open  gash,  but  when  the  cut  became  too  deep,  the  plan  was 
abandoned  and  a  system  of  main  shafts  adopted.  These  shafts 
sink  to  a  depth  of  1,700  feet  and  the  tunnels  below  extend  for 
a  considerable  distance  under  Gastineau  Channel.  A  five  stamp 
mill  was  erected  in  1882.  To-day  the  noise  from  the  tremen- 
dous mills  sounds  like  the  deafening  roar  of  Niagara  Falls  many 
times  multiplied. 

"  Do  not  speak  to  the  workmen  "  reads  a  warning  to  the 
visitors.  It  is  quite  unnecessary,  for  the  largest  megaphone  in 
the  world  would  leave  the  human  voice  inaudible  in  the  terrific 
din  of  the  mill  rooms.  Mr.  Kinzie,  the  manager  of  the  prop- 
erty, is  never  too  busy  to  issue  a  permit  to  those  whose  interest 


52       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  geology  is  sufficient  to  tempt  them  to  make  a  trip  towards 
the  centre  of  the  earth  in  one  of  the  cages. 

The  energy  for  the  colossal  plant  is  generated  from  a  water- 
fall a  few  miles  distant,  but  substitute  steam  power  is  used  on 
the  few  occasions  when  the  weather  becomes  so  cold  that  the 
stream  is  covered  with  ice.  In  point  of  tonnage  produced,  this 
mine  is  the  largest  in  the  United  States,  and  there  are  few  that 
surpass  it  in  the  steady  production  of  gold. 

For  many  years  coal  was  burned  at  the  mines  for  heating 
and  domestic  purposes,  but  failure  to  open  the  xA.laskan  fuel 
measures  to  development  finally  forced  the  company,  like  every 
other  large  enterprise  in  Alaska,  to  burn  California  fuel  oil. 

The  tide  of  Gastineau  Channel  rises  and  falls  from  ten  to 
twelve  feet.  That  part  of  the  channel  which  is  close  to  the 
discharge  pipes  of  the  mill  gradually  is  being  filled  with  pul- 
verised quartz. 

Almost  directly  opposite  the  big  oil  tanks,  on  the  other  side 
of  the  channel  and  within  ear  shot  of  the  reverberations  of  the 
stamp  mills,  lies  the  Davidson  Glacier,  perched  high  on  the  top 
of  a  mountain  and  to  the  eastward  lies  Douglas,  a  small  city 
peopled  mostly  by  the  employes  of  the  miners  and  a  few  Indians. 
Here  the  first  hammered  copper  and  silverware  is  offered  for 
sale  by  the  natives. 

Connected  with  Treadwell  and  Douglas  by  ferry  and  lying 
in  the  shadow  of  a  dark,  frowning  mountain,  lies  Juneau,  the 
capital  of  Alaska.  Juneau,  in  the  summer  evening  mists,  looks 
like  a  Swiss  village  on  the  shores  of  a  lake. 

Behind  the  town  and  connected  by  a  box-like  canyon  lies  the 
Silver  Bow  Basin,  where  many  mines  are  in  operation.  The 
high  mountains  divide  the  basin  from  the  coast-line,  and  the 
work  of  blasting  a  subway  through  the  solid  rock  was  com- 
menced in  191 1  by  a  mining  companj\  This  tunnel  when  com- 
pleted will  be  7,000  feet  long,  and  large  enough  to  operate  an 


A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY  53 

electric  car  system,  by  which  the  ore  will  he  hauled  to  the 
crushing  mills  and  concentrating  plants  on  the  coast.  Several 
hundred  stamps  have  been  landed  on  the  beach  and  these  will 
be  erected  and  ready  for  operation  in  1913,  by  which  time  the 
subterranean  passageway  will  be  completed. 

The  mines  in  Silver  Bow  Basin,  according  to  prominent 
mining  engineers,  are  richer  than  the  Treadwell,  and  the  ma- 
trices are  of  equal  immensity.  It  is  estimated  there  is  sufficient 
ore  in  sight  to  keep  the  big  stamp  mill  in  operation  for  more 
than  two  centuries. 

Although  it  is  not  so  busy  as  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  Klon- 
dike stampede,  when  thousands  of  miners  landed  there,  en  route 
to  the  interior,  Juneau  is  a  very  thriving,  prosperous  city.  An 
executive  mansion  is  being  constructed  under  the  supervision 
of  Grovernor  Walter  E.  Clark,  but  as  this  is  written,  the 
U.  S.  District  courthouse  and  the  public  school  are  the  most 
pretentious  buildings. 

The  most  interesting  structure  and  one  which  usually  is 
pointed  out  to  the  tourist,  is  the  house  of  the  late  Chief  John- 
son, who  was  head  of  the  Raven  branch  of  the  Taku  tribe  of 
Indians.  Johnson,  a  man  of  wonderful  endurance  and  remark- 
able physical  prowess,  attained  his  chieftainship  by  giving  a 
potlatch  that  cost  $20,000.  For  many  years  he  traded  with  the 
Indians  in  the  interior  and  along  the  coast  as  far  west  as 
Yakutat.  The  noted  brave  went  to  the  happy  hunting  grounds 
from  Killisnoo,  a  small  fishing  settlement,  in  1904,  when  a 
dog  jumped  from  a  canoe  in  which  he  and  several  others  were 
travelling.  Johnson  managed  to  swim  ashore,  but  he  was  so 
benumbed  by  the  cold  that  he  died  on  the  beach. 

Local  tradition  accredits  Johnson's  relatives  with  the  dis- 
covery of  the  utility  of  kelp  strands  as  a  "  worm  "  for  making 
the  whiskey  which  is  known  throughout  the  territory  as 
"  hoochinoo."     It    is    thought    the    name    was    derived    from 


54       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  Hootzanoo  Indians,  the  tribe  over  which  Johnson 
achieved  chieftainship.  The  usual  method  of  manufactur- 
ing this  alcoholic  beverage  is  to  place  a  mixture  of  fer- 
mented molasses,  flour,  sugar  and  cornmeal,  or  other 
cereal  in  a  kerosene  can,  attached  to  the  top  of  which  is 
an  old  gun  barrel.  The  barrel  passes  through  another  can 
filled  with  snow  or  ice  water,  and  acts  as  a  "  worm  "  in  a  dis- 
tillery. When  the  fermented  substances  are  heated  sufficiently, 
a  steam  arises,  which,  condensing  in  the  "  worm  "  pours  out 
at  the  other  end  in  the  form  of  "  hoochinoo."  Johnson's  pro- 
genitors discovered  that  a  long  piece  of  kelp,  which  is  hollow 
could  be  substituted  for  the  gun  barrel.  Since  the  advent  of 
missionaries  and  government  officials,  this  crude  method  of 
"  moonshining,"  which  in  former  years  was  carried  on  in  every 
part  of  Alaska  where  white  men  have  penetrated,  has  been 
greatly  restricted.  Some  of  the  natives  still  make  a  "  near- 
beer  "  from  asters,  blueberries,  strawberries  and  other  plants, 
which  is  mildly  alcoholic. 

"  Hoochinoo  "  is  a  most  formidable  beverage.  It  is  some- 
times called  "  squirrel  whiskey,"  because  it  obsesses  the  con- 
sumer with  a  desire  to  climb  a  tree.  One  drink  of  it  is  said 
to  have  sufficient  power  of  demoralisation  to  induce  a  man  to 
steal  the  thongs  from  his  own  snow-shoes,  while  two  will  im- 
bue him  with  a  yearning  to  murder  his  mother  or  the  first  baby 
he  can  find.  It  is  manufactured  in  various  grades  known  as 
"Aurora  Borealis,"  "Nitric  Acid,"  "Chain  Lightning," 
"  Snake  Juice,"  and  "  Battle  Axe  "  brands.  Each  brand  pro- 
duces a  different  effect,  and  as  a  general  rule,  it  can  be  guaran- 
teed to  convert  harmless,  big-souled,  broad-hearted  men  into 
fiends  incarnate. 

A  log  building  with  a  tall  bell  spire,  situated  a  short  distance 
from  Johnson's  place  of  residence,  was  the  first  church  built  in 
Juneau.     It  was  founded  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Mis- 


CHENA  STAMP  MILL,   FAIRBANKS  DISTRICT 


Photo  by  Hunt. 


CLIFF   MINE   MILL,   NEAR  VALDEZ 


A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY  55 

sions  and  did  good  service  as  a  place  of  worship  and  general 
meeting  house  until  1902,  when  a  new  structure  was  erected. 

Juneau  was  discovered  in  1880  by  Joseph  Juneau  and  Richard 
T.  Harris,  who  were  outfitted  at  Sitka.  The  town  was  first 
known  as  Harrisburg.  Juneau  and  Harris  made  a  fortune  in 
mining  at  this  point,  but  Juneau's  money  was  quickly  spent. 
Later  he  conducted  a  restaurant  at  Dawson. 

Gastineau  Channel  is  a  picturesque  piece  of  water  and  a 
source  of  constant  charm  to  the  residents  of  the  trio  of  towns 
that  had  been  built  on  its  shores.  This  waterway  was  ex- 
plored by  Russian,  Spanish  and  English  navigators,  all  of  whom 
named  it  differently.  The  channel  received  its  present  title 
after  the  transfer  of  the  territory  to  the  United  States,  the 
name  being  borrowed  from  a  vessel  owned  by  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company. 

Like  all  other  Alaskan  waters,  Gastineau  Channel  is  prolific 
in  sea  life  of  every  description.  In  the  many  streams  emptying 
into  it,  hundreds  of  trout  of  different  species  can  be  hooked 
and,  during  the  spawning  season,  these  waterways  teem  with 
salmon.  Schools  of  herring  and  small  fish  of  all  kinds  scurry 
in  every  direction  through  the  salt  water,  and  when  the  tide 
recedes  the  sandy  bottom  is  literally  covered  with  many  kinds  of 
sea  life.  Everywhere  on  the  sodden  shore  can  be  found  crabs, 
clams,  spirals,  periwinkles,  and  other  forms  of  shell  fish; 
while  starfish  of  diversified  colouring  are  left  stranded,  and 
creeping  things  with  hundreds  of  legs  drag  their  loathsome 
length  along  the  sand.  Among  the  yellow  and  green  weeds 
are  many  queer,  ludicrous  forms  of  life.  It  is  this  abundance 
of  living  creatures  that  attract  the  swarms  of  gulls  and  terns 
that  fly  screaming  and  screeching  through  the  warm  winds  above 
the  water.  The  surrounding  woods  produce  wild  raspberries, 
strawberries  and  other  fruits  in  abundance. 

At  Juneau  comes  the  parting  of  the  ways  for  Alaskan  tourists. 


56      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Those  taking  the  Soutlicastern  trip  go  up  Lynn  Canal,  a  pretty, 
narrow  channel,  skirted  with  glacier-capped  mountains,  to 
Haines,  Fort  Seward  and  Skagway,  returning  by  way  of  Sitka. 
From  Skagway  the  journey  may  be  continued  across  the  divide 
and  down  the  Yukon  River  to  Bering  Sea. 

Those  making  the  journey  to  Southwestern  Alaska  sail  along 
Gastineau  Channel  from  Juneau,  through  Icy  Strait  into  Cross 
Sound,  and  thence  to  the  Gulf  of  Alaska,  which  is  a  part  of  the 
Uacific  Ocean,  passing  Mount  Fairweather  and  La  Perouse, 
Malaspina  and  other  glaciers,  en  route.  The  giant  bulk  of 
Mount  St.  Elias,  the  first  point  of  Alaskan  land  seen  by  white 
man,  raises  in  'stolid,  lonely  majesty  high  above  its  related  peaks. 
The  coast  range,  clear-cut  and  sharp,  stands  out  pearly  white 
against  the  blue  sky  and  the  cooling  breezes  from  many  glaciers 
makes  sweaters  and  warm  clothing  desirable. 

The  ship  ploughs  on  through  the  blue  water,  past  the  white 
heights.  Whales  and  porpoises  sometimes  are  seen.  The  first 
stop  is  usually  made  at  Yakutat  Bay,  a  picturesque  cove,  where 
a  salmon  cannery  has  been  established.  This  place  was  first 
settled  by  the  Russians  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago.  At 
that  time  the  bay  was  the  habitat  of  many  sea-otters,  an  animal 
which  is  now  almost  extinct  in  Alaska. 

Beneath  the  bluest  skies,  through  the  bluest  seas,  hedged  in 
by  the  bluest  hills  and  glaciers,  Katalla,  occupied  by  the 
"  bluest  "  people  in  Alaska,  is  reached.  It  lies  in  a  slight  in- 
dentation in  the  coast,  but  otherwise  is  exposed  to  the  full  sweep 
of  the  sea  in  an  unbroken  line  as  far  south  as  the  Antarctic 
Ocean.  Close  by  is  Controller  Bay,  which  in  reality  is  a  mud 
flat  on  the  shore  of  the  open  ocean.  The  deposit  of  silt  from 
Bering  River,  which  flows  beneath  Bering  Glacier,  has  caused 
a  low  marsh  to  form  for  some  distance  into  the  sea  towards 
Kayak  Island,  upon  which  Dr.  Stellar,  a  scientist  who  accom- 
panied Vitus  Bering  on  his  second  voyage  of  discovery,  made 


A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY  57 

a  landing  in  1742.  This  makes  the  "bay."  Heavy  wind- 
storms prevail  at  nearly  all  seasons  of  the  year  and  as  the  bay 
is  shallow,  a  landing,  more  often  than  not,  is  accomplished  with 
much  difficulty. 

A  few  years  ago  Katalla  was  a  thriving  metropolis.  Im- 
mense deposits  of  coal  had  been  discovered  a  few  miles  in  the 
interior.  Railroads  were  being  built,  mines  were  being  devel- 
oped, everybody  was  busy  and  prosperous.  Suddenly  like  a 
flash  from  a  clear  sky  came  the  order  for  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Alaska  coal  land  from  entry  and  Katalla  commenced  to 
languish.  Its  buildings  became  tenantless,  its  population  de- 
creased. Many  of  those  who  had  spent  years  of  labour  and 
much  money  in  development,  were  forced  to  return,  broken  in 
fortune  and  spirit,  to  cities  in  the  United  States  to  start  life 
anew.  Katalla  is  a  melancholy  sight.  It  seems  to  brood 
pathetically  on  its  former  good  prospects  and  bright  hopes. 
The  mineral  is  there  in  abundance,  but  it  cannot  be  mined. 

On  the  shores  of  the  bay  and  at  short  distances  in  the  in- 
terior, are  oil  wells,  but  caps  are  screwed  on  most  of  the  casings. 
No  patents  to  the  land  have  been  granted,  and  the  owners  are 
fearful  of  making  further  investment  in  development  work  lest 
they  share  the  fate  of  the  men  who  discovered  the  coal  lands. 

The  country  contiguous  to  Katalla,  is  covered  with  berries 
and  wild  fruits  of  various  kinds.  There  is  some  good  agricul- 
tural land  there,  but  most  of  it  is  covered  by  the  Chugack  forest 
reserve  and  is  therefore  practically  unavailable  to  settlement. 

A  headline  jutting  into  the  sea  and  the  wreck  of  a  vessel 
jammed  on  a  rock  marks  the  entrance  of  Prince  William  Sound, 
at  the  head  of  which  lies  Cordova  Bay.  The  sound  is  perfectly 
landlocked  by  high  mountains  and  should  it  ever  be  used  as  a 
coaling  station  —  which  is  not  improbable  —  a  few  forts  will 
make  it  absolutely  impregnable. 

At  the  head  of  the  bay  is  built  the  city  of  Cordova.     Back 


58      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  it  lies  the  Copper  River  Valley,  one  of  the  routes  to  the  in- 
terior, and  seaming  the  mineralised  mountain  sides  are  two  of 
the  world's  icy  marvels  —  Childs  and  Miles  Glaciers.  Beyond 
lie  the  Kennicott  and  other  rich  copper  mines.  The  Kennicott 
mine  in  191 1  increased  the  value  of  the  copper  product  of 
Alaska  by  nearly  $2,000,000.  Experts  believe  there  is  as  much 
copper  in  this  particular  zone  as  in  all  of  the  State  of  Michigan. 

Along  the  valley  lies  a  standard-gauge  railroad,  191  miles 
in  length,  the  building  of  which  was  filled  with  romance.  Its 
construction  is  regarded  as  a  distinct  feat  in  world's  engineering. 
The  road  crosses  the  river  between  the  two  glaciers  mentioned. 
The  false  work  for  the  bridge  was  laid  on  the  ice  in  winter. 
Men  were  hired  to  work  night  and  day.  M.  J.  Heney,  the 
contractor,  the  man  who  built  another  "  impossible  "  road  across 
the  mountains  from  Skagway,  and  his  chief  engineer,  E.  C. 
Hawkins,  conceived  the  idea  of  using  the  river  ice  for  a  founda- 
tion for  the  bridge  scaffolding.  As  the  spring  approached  hun- 
dreds of  men  were  kept  busy  every  minute  of  the  day  and  night, 
for,  if  not  completed  by  the  time  the  ice  burst,  all  of  the  work 
and  material  would  have  been  lost.  The  ice  went  out,  carry- 
ing the  false  work  with  it,  less  than  an  hour  after  the  last  spike 
was  driven  in  the  connecting  span,  and  the  work  was  com- 
pleted. The  bridge  cost  $1,400,000.  The  road  opens  another 
route  to  the  great  interior  country,  where  lie  countless  millions 
of  tons  of  coal  and  the  tremendous  ore  bodies  of  the  White, 
Tanana  Valleys  and  other  mineralised  regions. 

With  its  roof  caved  in  and  partially  covered  with  moss  and 
vegetation,  the  ruins  of  an  old  Russian  trading  post,  known  as 
Alagniak  lies  near  the  railroad  track,  21  miles  from  Cordova, 
At  this  point  the  Indians  of  a  hundred  years  ago  from  the 
Upper  Copper  River  Valley  and  the  heads  of  the  Tanana  and 
White  River  Valleys  sold  their  furs  to  the  Russian  traders  who 
came  in  from  their  stations.     The  cruelty  of  these  traders  led 


A  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY  ig 

to  tragedy  when  Governor  Baranof  sent  an  expedition  up  the 
river.  The  natives  in  retah'ation  murdered  the  party  at  a  point 
near  Tiekel. 

Several  fenced  graves,  some  marked  with  rude  monuments, 
on  the  hillside  at  Alagniak  bear  mute  testimony  to  the  sufferings 
endured  by  the  many  argonauts,  who  in  the  Klondike  stampede 
of  1897-98  ascended  the  Copper  River  in  the  endeavour  to  reach 
Dawson. 

The  scenery  along  the  railroad  is  wonderful  in  its  magnifi- 
cence, and  it  aifords  the  traveller  a  rare  opportunity  of  viewing 
an  active  glacier  at  close  range.  Along  the  river's  edge  for  a 
distance  of  three  miles,  Childs  Glacier  raises  its  frigid  bulk, 
like  a  solid  wall,  against  the  side  of  the  torrential  river.  The 
mass  is  constantly  moving  forward  at  an  estimated  speed  of 
three  and  a  half  feet  a  day.  The  swift  stream,  flowing  against 
the  glacier's  edge,  cuts  underneath,  and  every  few  minutes  gi- 
gantic bergs,  some  of  them  weighing  thousands  of  tons,  fall 
with  a  mighty  splash  into  the  water. 

The  face  of  the  glacier  is  more  than  three  hundred  feet  high 
and  three  miles  long.  Nobody  knows  its  exact  dimensions.  Its 
gigantic  body  has  been  traced  back  in  to  the  mountain,  through 
riven  slope  and  chasm,  for  a  distance  of  seventy-five  miles,  at 
which  point  the  end  was  not  yet  in  sight.  Across  the  river  is 
Miles  Glacier. 

Although  these  glaciers  are  within  fifty  miles  of  the  city, 
and  notwithstanding  that  the  bridge  between  them  was  built 
by  using  ice  for  a  foundation,  the  people  of  Cordova  in  the 
winter  of  1911-12  suffered  an  ice  famine.  Usually  they  had 
been  able  to  cut  sufficient  ice  from  the  near-by  trout  streams  and 
lakes,  but  the  Japan  Current  that  season  played  a  scurvy  trick 
upon  them  by  keeping  the  air  so  warm  that  no  ice  formed. 
This  climatic  condition,  while  unusual,  existed  to  a  greater  or 
lesser  extent   all   over  Alaska  In    19 12.     It  Is  hoped,   by  the 


Co      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

residents,    that    this   desirable    change    will    prove    permanent. 

Cordova  has  good  hotels,  a  number  of  churches,  a  chamber 
of  commerce,  a  few  automobiles  and  several  other  adjuncts  of  a 
metropolitan  city.  Its  docks  are  the  finest  in  Alaska  and,  as  it 
is  the  outlet  for  mineral  zones,  and  coal  fields,  it  is  likely  that 
it  ultimately  will  be  developed  into  a  smelting  centre  about  the 
size  of  Butte,  Mont. 

Chitina,  131  miles  on  the  railroad  from  Cordova,  is  the  start- 
ing point  for  Fairbanks  and  other  interior  cities.  Kennicott, 
at  the  end  of  the  railroad,  192  miles  from  Cordova,  is  the  point 
of  departure  for  hunters  who  seek  trophies  from  the  bands  of 
mountain  sheep,  moose,  caribou,  black  and  brown  bear,  moun- 
tain goats  and  glacier  bear  that  inhabit  the  upper  slopes  of  the 
Copper  and  White  River  Valleys. 


CHAPTER  VII 
RUNNING  PAST  THE  EXPOSED  COAST 

Valdez  and  its  Mines  —  Seward,  the  Town  where  an  Undertaker  can't 
make  a  living  —  Cook's  Inlet  and  Kenai  Peninsula  —  Cook's  Inlet 
and  Kenai  Peninsula,  an  Agricultural  and  Mining  Region  —  Sitka, 
the  former  capital  —  Lover's  Lane  —  An  early  tragedy. 

FROM  Cordova  the  vessel  passed  between  Hinchinbrook 
Island  and  the  mainland  into  Prince  William  Sound. 
On  the  left  of  the  ship  is  a  line  of  high,  rugged 
mountains  v^^hose  tops  usually  are  mantled  in  snow.  Vegeta- 
tion is  thick  and  abundant,  reaching  from  the  snow-line  to  the 
water's  edge.  The  shore  is  wrinkled  with  many  little  bays  and 
inlets,  and  in  most  of  these  can  be  seen  the  launch  or  rowboat 
of  the  prospector,  who  is  ever  searching  the  rocks  and  hills  for 
traces  of  precious  metal. 

The  ship  passes  in  silent  review  before  Nature's  rugged 
pageantry  of  rock  and  ice  and  trees,  broken  at  intervals  with 
grassy  slopes  and  shelving  beaches.  A  stop  is  made  at  Ellamar 
where  a  copper  mine  is  operated,  and  from  there  the  vessel  slips 
into  the  broad  and  picturesque  bay  of  Valdez,  passing  Fort 
Liscum  en  route. 

Like  nearly  every  other  coastal  city  in  Alaska,  Valdez  lies 
at  the  foot  of  high  hills,  while  six  miles  away,  and  cutting  off 
the  town  from  a  number  of  payable  quartz  mines,  lies  the 
Valdez  Glacier,  which  now  and  again  allows  rivers  of  water 
to  break  through  its  crevasses  and  flood  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. 

The  pleasure  seeker  will  find  much  enjoyment  in  a  buggy 
ride  along  the  road  constructed  by"  the  Alaska  Road  Commission 

6i 


62      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

to  Keystone  Canyon,  fourteen  miles  distant,  where  the  "  Bridal 
Veil  "  and  other  beautiful  waterfalls  may  be  seen.  This  road, 
by  the  way,  is  a  part  of  the  trunk  road  leading  to  Fairbanks. 

The  Valdez  quartz  mines  were  developed  for  the  most  part 
with  money  subscribed  by  its  wide-awake  business  people.  A 
prospector  known  as  "  Red "  Ellis  —  because  of  his  long 
auburn  hair  —  nobody  ever  knew  his  real  name  —  is  respon- 
sible for  much  of  the  mining  that  has  been  done  in  that  country. 
A  few  years  ago  Ellis  found  a  good  prospect  six  miles  from 
Valdez.  Local  business  people  were  Induced  to  subscribe 
$10,000  to  place  machinery  upon  it,  and  for  many  months  there- 
after it  paid  dividends  at  the  rate  of  about  eighty  per  cent,  per 
month  on  the  amount  invested.  Naturally  this  lucrative  re- 
turn gave  an  Impetus  to  the  development  of  other  prospects. 

For  many  years  Valdez  was  the  outfitting  point  for  Fair- 
banks, Copper  Center,  Kennicott  and  other  mining  settlements 
in  the  Interior,  but  the  construction  of  the  Copper  River  and 
Northwestern  Railroad  from  Cordova  diverted  a  large  amount 
of  the  traffic.  Mountain  sheep  and  goats  may  be  obtained  In 
the  hills  a  few  miles  from  the  city  and  if  one  Industriously 
casts  artificial  flies  on  any  of  the  streams,  one  usually  will  be 
rewarded  with  a  creel  full  of  speckled  trout. 

Along  the  shores  of  the  bay  are  scattered  many  mines  and 
prospects  which  make  Valdez  their  outfitting  point.  About 
eighty  miles  distant  Is  Port  Wells,  a  new  settlement  where  some 
mineralised  quartz  veins  have  been  uncovered.  Contiguous  to 
Valdez  is  Slate  Creek  and  a  number  of  other  placer  mining 
camps. 

The  vessel  next  touches  at  Latouche,  where  another  copper 
mine  is  in  operation.  Here  are  millions  of  beautiful  ferns  and 
wildflowers,  forget-me-nots,  anemones  and  buttercups  being 
the  predominant  varieties. 

Through  a  protected  channel  to  Resurrection  Bay,  one  of  the 


RUNNING  PAST  THE  EXPOSED  COAST      63 

best  harbours  on  the  Alaskan  coast,  the  vessel  sails  to  Seward. 
Backed  by  beetling  hills,  broken  with  a  low  divide  that  slips 
gently  into  the  mountains  and  fronted  by  a  tranquil  bay, 
Seward's  situation  is  a  decidedly  attractive  one.  Built  on 
gradually  raising  ground,  with  a  slate  bottom,  the  sanitation  of 
the  town  is  perfect. 

A  naval  coaling  station  has  been  established  here,  and  it  is 
expected  that  within  a  short  time  thousands  of  tons  of  anthra- 
cite and  bituminous  coal  from  the  Matanuska  coal  fields  will 
be  placed  therein  for  the  use  of  the  United  States  warships. 
Seward  is  practically  1,500  miles  nearer  to  the  Philippines  than 
the  Mare  Island  Naval  Station  at  San  Francisco. 

It  also  is  the  outfitting  point  for  many  hunters  who  seek 
trophies  in  the  Kenai  Peninsula.  So  abundant  is  the  game  in 
this  section  that  several  times  the  car  running  along  the  track 
has  collided  with  flocks  of  partridges. 

When  the  town  was  founded  in  1902,  its  only  inhabitants 
were  a  white  man  named  Lowell  and  his  native  familJ^  He  is 
said  to  be  a  direct  descendant  of  the  family  which  founded  the 
town  of  Lowell,  IVIass.  Not  thinking  the  land  had  any  partic- 
ular value  the  Lowell  family  did  not  file  upon  it,  but  after  the 
arrival  of  the  Alaska  Central  railroad  engineers,  Mrs.  Lowell 
applied  for  a  homestead.  She  later  relinquished  her  right,  and 
recertified  scrip  was  filed  by  the  Ballaine  Brothers,  by  whom 
the  idea  of  building  a  railroad  was  conceived.  Mrs.  Lowell 
was  given  $4,000  in  cash  and  $40,000  in  town  lots. 

Seward  passed  through  the  boom  stage  and  then  settled  into 
a  substantial  town,  dependent  entirely  upon  its  own  resources 
—  the  many  paying  quartz  mines  and  placer  camps  that  have 
been  located.  It  has  the  usual  number  of  churches,  a  branch 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  a  commercial  club  and  all  the  institutions 
that  go  towards  making  up  a  modern  city.  There  are  two 
doctors,  but  owing  to  the  healthfulness  of  the  climate  or  the 


64      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

water  or  other  fortuitous  conditions,  no  undertaker  has  been 
able  to  make  a  living  there.  There  is  an  axiom  that  people 
never  die  at  Seward  except  by  accident. 

More  than  lOO  years  ago  Governor  Baranof,  a  Russian 
prominent  in  the  history  of  the  territory,  established  a  ship- 
building yard  on  Resurrection  Bay.  These  were  the  first  ships 
constructed  on  the  western  shores  of  America,  one  of  them 
being  launched  in  the  summer  of  1794.  The  "Iron  Gover- 
nor "  chose  Resurrection  Bay,  where  the  town  of  Seward  is 
now  built,  because  it  afforded  him  a  perfectly  protected  harbour 
and  the  necessary  timber.  Beyond  the  narrow  passage  at  the 
entrance,  the  bay  opens  into  a  land-locked  sheet  of  water,  fifteen 
miles  wide.  It  has  the  fault  of  many  Alaska  harbours  —  it  is 
too  deep.  But  this  is  not  necessarily  a  drawback.  The  waters 
contiguous  to  Seattle  are  extremely  deep,  but  that  condition 
does  not  seem  to  have  hampered  its  development  into  one  of 
the  most  important  shipping  centres  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  builders  of  the  Alaska  Central  Railroad  planned  to  tap 
the  Matanuska  coal  measures,  two  hundred  miles  in  the  in- 
terior, but  after  seventy-two  miles  of  steel  had  been  laid,  it 
was  learned  there  was  no  likelihood  of  the  fuel  beds  being 
opened  to  development  and  further  construction  work  was 
abandoned.  A  railroad  automobile  car  makes  trips  from 
Seward  to  the  head  of  the  line  at  Kern  Creek,  carrying  sup- 
plies to  a  number  of  quartz  mines,  which,  owing  to  a  lack  of 
fuel,  are  operated  on  a  limited  scale. 

While  the  scenery  along  this  railway  has  not  the  broad, 
rugged  grandeur  of  that  seen  from  the  Copper  River  and  North- 
western Railroad  running  from  Cordova,  a  trip  over  the  line 
is  well  worth  the  time  expended.  The  line  passes  through 
sylvan  scenes  to  Kenai  Lake,  and  is  fringed  with  grass-grown 
prairies  and  good  timber.  After  crossing  a  divide,  it  runs 
through  rough  country  w^here  the  altitudes  of   the   peaks  are 


RUNNING  PAST  THE  EXPOSED  COAST      65 

from  6,000  to  8,000  feet,  some  of  them  being  crowned  by 
glaciers  larger  than  those  of  Switzerland.  Many  pretty  water- 
falls and  swift  streams  are  seen  after  the  car  leaves  the  crest 
and  reaches  the  down  grade  to  Turnagain  Arm,  at  the  upper 
end  of  Cook  Inlet,  named  for  the  great  English  navigator  by 
whom  it  was  discovered. 

With  the  single  exception  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  the  tides 
are  higher  at  Cook  Inlet  than  any  other  part  of  the  world,  the 
extreme  from  highest  to  lowest  being  nearly  sixty  feet.  The 
incoming  tide  runs  in  a  "  bore  "  from  eight  to  ten  feet  high. 
Kern  Creek,  at  the  head  of  Turnagain  Arm,  is  the  starting 
point  for  many  mining  fields  in  the  interior  and  along  the  shore 
of  Cook  Inlet.  At  Sunrise  City  are  some  placer  mines  and 
quartz  veins  which  mill  good  values. 

Kenai  Peninsula,  through  part  of  which  the  railroad  runs, 
is  prolific  in  vegetable  growth.  Many  farms  have  been  culti- 
vated along  the  route  and  these  furnish  the  Seward  markets 
with  all  the  vegetables  needed  to  supply  the  population.  Seward 
is  connected  with  the  gold  fields  of  Iditarod  by  a  trail  recently 
constructed. 

From  Seward  vessels  run  to  Seldovia,  Sand  Point,  Unga, 
Kodiak  and  Dutch  Harbor  and  settlements  on  the  Alaskan 
Peninsula  and  the  Aleutian  Islands.  On  Kodiak  Island  the 
largest  bear  in  the  world  are  found  and  on  Nunivak  Island  there 
are  thousands  of  caribou.  The  industries  in  these  places  are 
fishing  and  mining.  The  Aleutian  chain  is  largely  volcanic, 
and  once  in  a  while  a  splendid  pyrotechnic  display  may  be 
seen.     This  route,  however,  is  off  the  general  line  of  travel. 

Returning  vessels  on  the  Southwestern  voyage  first  touch 
Juneau  and  sail  through  Chathain,  Peril,  Olga  and  Neva 
Straits  to  Sitka,  sometimes  stopping  at  Killisnoo,  a  fishing  vil- 
lage, en  route.  The  ship  winds  through  the  same  labyrinthine 
maze  of  water  margined  by  woods,  that  distinguishes  the  jour- 


66      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

ncy  through  the  Inside  Passage.  Sitka  lies  in  an  island-studded 
harbour  that  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Alaska. 

Surrounded  by  high  mountains,  more  rounded  by  erosion 
than  those  along  other  parts  of  the  coast,  and  with  Mount 
Edgecumbe,  clear-chiselled  against  the  blue  sky  in  the  western 
background,  it  affords  a  scene  decidedly  picturesque.  The 
water  in  the  harbour  is  as  clear  as  crystal,  and  objects  may  be 
seen  on  the  bottom  at  a  depth  of  forty  feet.  Usually  the  arrival 
of  a  ship  is  greeted  by  a  number  of  natives  who  offer  for  sale 
slippers,  baskets,  hammered  copper  ornaments  and  other  crudely 
constructed  articles. 

Baranof  Island,  on  which  Sitka  is  situated,  is  named  after 
the  noted  Russian  governor.  It  was  the  first  capital  of  the 
territory  after  the  transfer.  It  is  veiled  in  historical  interest, 
and  a  few  of  the  incidents  pertaining  to  its  early  history  are 
dealt  with  in  another  chapter  of  this  volume. 

For  the  tourist,  the  points  of  interest  to  be  visited  are  the 
Mission  and  Industrial  school,  the  Indian  village  that  straggles 
along  the  shore-line,  the  Russian  cemetery,  the  old  Russian 
blockhouse,  the  Graeco-Russian  Church,  with  its  chimes  that 
were  brought  across  the  Siberian  Steppes  from  Moscow,  and 
the  famous  painting  of  Madonna  and  Child,  the  masterpiece 
of  some  monk  whose  name  has  been  lost  to  history.  The  church 
pipeorgan  is  more  than  lOO  years  old  and  still  gives  forth 
sweet  music  when  touched  by  the  hand  of  a  musician. 

The  old  blockhouse  brings  thoughts  of  the  bloody  battles 
that  were  fought  between  the  Russians  and  the  natives,  while 
the  many  totem  poles  interest  those  of  a  retrospective  mind. 

One  of  the  attractions  of  the  place  is  "  Lover's  Lane,"  a 
gravelled  path  built  through  rustic  scenery  to  the  banks  of  In- 
dian River.  The  byway  is  bestrewn  with  almost  every  kind  of 
wddflower  and  the  trees  are  hoary  with  moss.  It  was  along 
this  path  the  Russian  Princess,  whose  phantom  later  was  pur- 


RUNNING  PAST  THE  EXPOSED  COAST      67 

ported  to  inhabit  Baranof  Castle,  strolled  with  her  ill-fated 
lover. 

The  pathway  had  grown  over  with  vegetation  when  the 
United  States  took  possession  of  the  territory,  but  a  new  path 
was  cleared  in  1884.  Much  ingenuity  was  manifested  in  cut- 
ting the  new  trail  so  as  to  bring  into  view  all  the  best  points 
of  scenery  and  the  mysteries  of  forest  growth. 

Along  Indian  River,  a  clear,  sparkling  stream,  are  many  ferns 
with  spreading  fronds;  trees  of  the  well-named  Devil's  Club, 
with  its  wide,  tropical  leaves;  moss  and  lichens  of  every  variety 
and  bushes  of  golden  salmon  berries,  blue  berries,  moss  berries 
and  raspberry  and  strawberry  vines  scattered  between.  The 
stream  is  spanned  by  rustic  bridges  and  in  the  clearings  along 
the  shaded  river  bank  are  the  remains  of  a  few  buildings  which 
obviously  are  of  Russian  origin.  Croaking  ravens  fly  overhead, 
and  tiny  humming  birds,  with  burnished  breasts,  flit  between 
the  boughs. 

The  Baranof  blarney  stone,  reputed  to  have  the  same  powers 
of  imparting  cajolery  to  the  tongue  as  its  namesake  in  Ireland, 
lies  at  the  side  of  the  trail.  It  is  marked  with  the  names  of 
American  war  vessels  that  visited  Sitka  in  the  early  days  of 
its  history,  and  also  with  Russian  characters.  Many  improb- 
able legends  have  been  built  around  this  rock. 

There  is  another  romance  connected  with  this  shady  path- 
way. It  is  related  that  many  years  ago  two  American  officers, 
who  had  been  comrades  for  years,  fell  in  love  with  a  beautiful, 
clear-skinned,  dark-eyed  Russian  girl.  The  ties  of  friendship 
quickly  were  broken,  but  suddenly  restored.  As  it  is  ever  the 
way  with  woman,  the  time  came  when  she  made  her  choice. 
Thereafter  the  rivals  started  off  together  on  a  hunting  expedi- 
tion. Only  one  of  them  returned  and  he  reported  that  his 
brother  oflficer  had  been  gored  to  death  by  a  stag.  A  few  days 
later  other  officers  made  a  search  and  discovered  the  body  of  the 


68      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

successful  aspirant  for  the  girl's  hand  in  the  tangled  gorse.  A 
bullet  hole  in  his  heart  bore  mute  testimony  to  the  tragedy. 
Returning,  they  found  the  unrequited  suitor  dead  in  his  bed. 
Two  versions  of  the  cause  of  his  death  were  given  —  that  the 
ghost  of  his  victim  had  appeared  to  him  and  that  he  had  there- 
upon died  of  fright,  and  that  he  had  swallowed  a  dose  of  poison. 
The  official  report  called  it  accidental  gunshot  wound  in  one 
case  and  heart  disease  in  the  other. 

Indian  River  is  not  the  only  stream  where  the  sportsman  may 
experience  all  the  thrills  that  come  from  the  tugging  of  the 
gamey  trout.  Behind  the  town  is  a  lake  that  teems  with  game 
fishes,  and  scattered  in  every  direction  are  little  brooks  and 
creeks,  where  trout  may  be  landed  at  almost  every  day  of  the 
year. 

Apart  from  the  fishing  industry,  which  is  carried  on  in  all 
parts  of  Alaska,  the  people  of  Sitka  to  a  greater  or  lesser  ex- 
tent are  interested  in  mining.  The  Chicagoff  Mine,  where  a 
big  stamp  mill  runs  night  and  day,  is  but  a  few  miles  from  the 
town,  and  a  gypsum  plant,  which  produces  a  large  portion  of 
the  plaster  of  Paris  used  in  the  United  States,  is  another  centre 
of  industrial  effort. 

Opposite  Sitka  is  Japonsky  Island,  so-called  because  a  Japan- 
ese junk,  carried  from  faraway  Nippon  by  the  Kuro-Siwa,  or 
Japanese  current,  many  years  ago,  found  refuge  there.  Six 
miles  north  is  Old  Harbor,  where  Baranof  builded  a  town 
that  was  destroyed  by  the  natives.  Twelve  miles  distant  are 
three  hot  springs.  In  i860  the  Russians  erected  a  hospital  at 
these  springs,  which  are  said  to  have  great  medicinal  value. 
An  effort  was  made  in  19 12  by  residents  of  Sitka  to  rehabili- 
tate the  sanitarium  but  it  was  learned  that  the  government  had 
withdrawn  from  entry  160  acres  of  land  surrounding  every 
h(it  spring  in  Alaska  and  the  project  was  dropped.  It  is  said 
that  eggs  may  be  boiled  in  these  springs  and  if  the  tourist  is 


RUNNING  PAST  THE  EXPOSED  COAST      69 

short  of  eggs  he  will  find  a  cold,  clear  lake  a  short  distance 
away  where  he  can  obtain  trout  that  will  answer  the  purpose. 

Silversmithing  is  the  principal  industry  of  the  native  women, 
while  hunting  and  fishing  is  the  favourite  vocation  of  their  flat- 
faced  husbands.  Curiously  carved  bracelets,  rings  and  other 
articles  of  barbaric  adornment  are  manufactured  by  the  Sitka 
natives  and  now  that  gold  has  been  found  on  the  Island,  it  is 
probable  that  they  will  make  ornaments  of  this  metal  also. 
Basketry  is  another  one  of  their  forms  of  employment.  From 
Sitka,  vessels  return  by  various  routes  to  Seattle,  but  as  a 
general  rule  they  call  at  the  mining  and  fishing  settlements  of 
Southeastern  Alaska  which  have  been  visited  on  the  Northern 
trip. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BUYING  FROM  INDIANS 

Purchaser  should  keep  eyes  open  —  Ivory  artificially  aged  —  Elk  teeth 
made  while  you  wait — Natives  shrewd  bargainers  —  Copper  and 
Silver  ornaments — Native  engraving  on  ivory  —  Chilkat  blankets 
—  The  story  of  basket  weaving  —  Helen  Gould's  prize  —  Yakutat 
baskets  highly  prized  —  Attu  baskets   best  workmanship. 

BECAUSE  the  native  of  Alaska  places  little  value  on 
his  time,  visitors  to  the  territory  will  meet  some  diffi- 
culty in  bargaining  with  them  for  the  beaded  moc- 
casins, Hammered  copper  and  silver  ornaments,  carved  ivory, 
baskets  and  other  wares.  In  Southwestern  Alaska  these  ar- 
ticles generally  are  offered  for  sale  by  the  wives  of  the  tribes, 
but  at  Nome  and  in  the  interior,  the  tourist  will  find  no  sex 
discrimination  among  the  Eskimos,  males  and  females  alike 
peddling  ivory-carved  cribbage  boards,  pieces  of  ivory,  coloured 
with  the  ages  of  a  thousand  years,  and  many  kinds  of  furs. 

In  buying  old  ivory,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  consult  somebody 
who  knows  the  customs  of  the  country,  for  in  recent  years 
Poor  Lo  has  become  aware  that  the  soft  velvety  tinting  of 
old  ivory  is  highly  prized  by  his  white  brethren  and  with  true 
business  instinct  has  discovered  artificial  means  of  colouring 
the  material.  A  short  boiling  in  seal  oil  will  give  a  walrus 
tusk  as  much  tone  as  it  would  acquire  from  the  elements  in 
several  hundred  years.  Old  ivory,  like  antique  furniture,  can 
be  made  while  you  wait. 

Walrus  teeth  also  are  offered  for  sale  by  the  Eskimos.  A 
few  years  ago  these  were  sold  at  a  price  of  about  fifty  cents 
the  dozen,  but  in  recent  times  white  men,  in  whom  the  desire 

70 


BUYING  FROM  INDIANS  71 

to  be  ranked  as  predatory  plutocrats  has  overcome  their  con- 
scientious scruples,  by  a  judicious  use  of  lathes  and  polishing 
wheels,  have  converted  thousands  of  these  walrus  molars  into 
"  genuine  elk "  teeth.  These  imitations  are  so  cleverly  exe- 
cuted that  even  an  expert  finds  difficulty  in  differentiating  be- 
tween the  real  and  the  spurious.  Full  many  a  member  of  the 
Benevolent  and  Protective  Order  of  Elks  is  proudly  wearing 
on  his  watch  charm  a  tooth  that  had  its  original  sphere  of 
usefulness  in  masticating  mussels,  sea-grass  and  other  food  that 
entered  the  voracious  mouth  of  a  walrus.  The  development 
of  the  "  elk  tooth  "  business  of  course  created  a  big  demand 
for  walrus  grinders,  with  the  result  that  the  Eskimo  raised 
his  prices.  The  teeth  now  are  sold  at  prices  ranging  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  each. 

In  buying  furs  from  the  natives,  the  stranger  in  Alaska 
perhaps  will  find  it  to  his  advantage  to  rub  his  hand  along 
the  pelt  a  few  times,  as  the  native  conscience  does  not  bar  the 
use  of  a  little  lampblack  which  greatly  improves  the  appear- 
ance of  the  hide. 

In  Southeastern  Alaska  the  native  women  are  sharp,  shrewd 
bargainers  and  when  they  cannot  receive  the  price  which  they 
deem  the  article  to  be  worth,  they  await  the  arrival  of  the 
next  steamship,  or  sometimes  keep  it  for  a  year  or  longer,  rather 
than  sell  it  a  few  cents  below  the  price  placed  on  it.  They 
take  no  account  of  time  or  the  cost  of  travel. 

In  Nome  and  the  lower  Yukon  River  districts,  the  natives 
offer  for  sale  many  implements  and  ornaments  carved  out  of 
ivory.  They  probably  learned  to  make  ivory  toothpicks  from 
the  whalers  or  explorers   in  this  region. 

They  are  a  simple-minded  people  and  much  afraid  of  any- 
thing which  they  do  not  understand.  In  1899,  the  writer 
was  camped  on  the  beach  at  Nome,  in  company  with  an  Eng- 
lishman who  had  a  plate  of  false  teeth.     Some  Eskimos  came 


72      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

along  one  da}',  offering  ivory  toothpicks  for  sale.  The  Eng- 
lishman nonchalantly  put  his  hand  to  his  mouth,  pulled  out 
the  plate  and  began  inserting  one  of  the  toothpicks  between  the 
bicuspids.  The  natives  gave  a  yell  and  streaked  across  the  tun- 
dra as  fast  as  they  could  travel.  Later  one  of  them  mustered 
up  sufficient  courage  to  return  for  his  wares. 

A  Nome  bartender,  annoyed  by  a  number  of  Eskimos  who 
had  formed  the  habit  of  wandering  into  his  saloon  to  listen  to 
the  "  canned  music "  of  his  phonograph  conceived  a  way  of 
frightening  them  away.  Two  joints  of  one  of  the  bartender's 
fingers  had  been  amputated,  and  whenever  he  saw  an  Eskimo 
approaching  he  would  poke  the  abbreviated  member  into  his 
ear  or  eye.  It  would  give  the  impression  that  his  finger  had 
sunk  into  the  centre  of  his  head.  The  Eskimos  would  take 
one  look  at  this  performance  and  then  hurriedly  leave,  never 
to   return. 

But  however  simple-minded  the  Northern  native  may  be  in 
some  respects,  they  quickly  learn  to  drive  hard  bargains  and, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  tourist  in  Alaska  can  buy  Indian  bas- 
kets or  other  products  just  as  cheaply  in  the  stores  as  from 
the  native  vendors. 

Ornaments  made  of  hammered  copper  and  silver  can  be 
purchased  at  any  of  the  towns  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  the  sil- 
versmiths of  the  Sitka  tribes  and  the  Chilkat  coppersmiths 
living  around  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal  being  very  skilful  in  this 
work.  Their  principal  products  are  spoons,  rings,  bracelets 
and  blankets. 

Before  the  advent  of  the  white  men  in  the  country,  the 
natives  possessed  little  other  metal  than  copper,  which,  it  is 
surmised,  they  pried  out  of  the  matrices  at  the  head  of  White 
River.  The  discovery  in  comparatively  recent  times  of  many 
tons  of  native  copper  nuggets  concentrated  in  the  stream  beds 
in  that  locality,  corroborated  this  theory.     The  natives  along 


BUYING  FROM  INDIANS  73 

the  Arctic  coast  of  the  territory  are  believed  to  have  acquired 
their  copper  from  the  fittings  of  lost  exploring  ships,  but  it  is 
more  likely  they  obtained  this  metal  from  the  copper  lenses 
which  have  since  been  discovered  northward  of  Kotzebue 
Sound  and  along  the  Arctic  coast. 

Copper  ornaments  were  the  most  venerated  charms  of  the 
Chilkat  and  other  tribes  of  Indians  in  Southeastern  Alaska, 
while  in  the  Northern  region  the  metal  was  used  for  more 
practical  purposes.  It  never  has  been  proved  that  these  na- 
tives at  any  time  had  knowledge  of  the  lost  art  of  tempering 
the  metal  supposed  to  have  been  known  to  the  prehistoric  peo- 
ple in  other  parts  of  the  continent. 

Natives  of  Southeastern  Alaska  stand  well  towards  the 
first  rank  as  engravers  and  sculptors  among  the  savage  tribes. 
Their  carvings,  for  the  most  part  executed  with  the  end  of 
a  file,  a  pocket  knife  or  other  crude  engraving  tool,  are  works 
of  art  in  design  and  execution.  The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand 
are  clever  carvers,  but  much  of  their  work  is  done  in  wood, 
on  the  doors  of  their  whares,  or  houses.  This  predilection 
also  is  manifested   in  the  carvings  upon  their  own  faces. 

With  the  arrival  of  every  boat  at  a  Southeastern  Alaska 
port  practically  every  piece  of  ivory  is  sold,  but  there  always 
seems  to  be  an  abundance  of  it  in  the  curio  stores. 

The  arrival  of  the  white  man  in  the  territory  brought  silver 
and  gold  and  the  white  metal  came  to  be  used  in  preference 
to  copper  for  ornamental  purposes.  Coins  are  hammered  into 
long,  smooth  bars,  bent  and  welded  into  the  shape  of  brace- 
lets or  rings,  ear-rings,  combs  for  the  hair,  and  then  beauti- 
fully carved. 

All  the  Alaska  Indians  are  very  imitative  and  while  they 
retain  the  savage  ideas  of  workmanship  in  their  carvings,  they 
frequently  make  faithful  copies  of  designs  appropriated  from 
civilisation.     At  Nome  the  writer  saw  a  picture  of  President 


74      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Taft  reproduced  on  a  walrus  tusk.  Obviously  it  had  been 
copied  from  the  pages  of  a  magazine.  What  one  sees  in  metal 
in  Southeastern  Alaska,  one  is  pretty  sure  to  see  duplicated  in 
ivory  in  the  Northwestern  portion  of  the  territory.  Watch 
chains,  charms,  buttons  and  many  other  things  of  an  ornamen- 
tal nature  are  made  of  ivory,  and  recently  it  became  the  fad 
amongst  the  natives  to  carve  miniature  "  billikens,"  reproduc- 
tions of  "  Mutt  and  JefiE "  and  other  well-known  characters 
of  the  comic  supplements  out  of  walrus  and  mastodon  ivory. 
Their  efficiency  at  copying  anything  they  see  lends  circumstan- 
tiality to  the  theory  of  many  ethnologists  that  the  natives  of 
Northwestern  Alaska  originally  came  from  Japan. 

The  Chilkat  blanket,  which  until  a  few  years  ago  was  the 
distinctive  ceremonial  robe  of  the  native  tribes  from  Vancouver 
Island  to  Prince  William  Sound,  is  woven  of  wool  shorn  from 
the  hides  of  mountain  sheep.  It  is  not  unlike  the  Navajo  rug 
in  gorgeous  colouring,  but,  with  very  rare  exceptions,  the  col- 
ours are  brought  into  exquisite  harmony.  The  Chilkat  In- 
dians, living  at  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal,  are  credited  by 
tradition  with  having  invented  the  crude  weaving  appliances. 
They  make  a  few  of  these  robes,  but  the  white  men  brought 
simpler  and  more  expeditious  methods  of  obtaining  covers  for 
the  native  bed,  with  the  result  that  blanket-weaving  slowly  is 
being  relegated  to  the  realm  of  lost  arts.  Throughout  Alaska, 
the  natives  make  robes  and  garments  from  the  pelts  of  the 
marmots,  which  have  their  habitat  on  the  southern  mountain 
exposure  practically  all  over  the  territory. 

The  collection  of  specimens  of  Indian  engraving  and  rugs, 
however,  has  not  yet  become  one  of  the  fads,  and  while  the 
natives  find  a  ready  sale  for  creations  in  metal  and  wool  there 
is  a  much  stronger  demand  for  their  basketry.  The  collection 
of  Indian  baskets  has  been  fashionable  for  the  past  ten  years, 
during  which  many  of  these  intricately-designed  and  quaintly- 


BUYING  FROM  INDIANS  75 

decorated  receptacles  have  been  utilised  to  adorn  the  dens, 
cosy  corners  and  curio  rooms  in  many  well-ordered  homes  in 
the  United  States.  In  the  period  specified,  the  price  has  more 
than   doubled. 

Basketry  is  said  to  have  been  invented  by  the  Aleuts,  but  as 
wicker  work  is  found  among  the  natives  of  Northwestern 
Alaska  and  as  their  pottery  shows  traces  of  having  been 
moulded  in  baskets,  there  is  some  room  for  doubt  on  this  point. 

The  most  highly  priced,  and  unquestionably  the  most  beau- 
tiful, baskets  come  from  Attu,  a  small  island  situated  at  the 
easternmost  end  of  the  Aleutian  chain.  Specimens  of  this 
work  may  be  purchased  very  cheaply  on  the  island,  at  an  ad- 
vance of  about  100  per  cent,  at  Dutch  Harbor  and  at  an 
increasing  price  as  the  distance  from  the  point  of  manufacture 
is  attained.  It  is  asserted  by  collectors  that  there  are  less  than 
forty  basket-weavers  left  at  Attu.  There  is  little  natural  food 
on  the  island  and  during  the  past  ten  years  disease  and  semi- 
starvation  have  greatly  decimated  their  ranks.  Arrangements 
recently  were  made  by  the  government  to  ship  seal  carcasses 
from  the  Pribilof  Islands  to  relieve  the  destitution  with  which 
they  seem  always  to  have  been  afflicted.  Attu  baskets  are 
made  of  very  fine  straw,  and  woven  through  it  are  strands  of 
richly-coloured  silk.     They  range  in  price  from  $25  to  $150. 

The  largest  basket  ever  made  was  woven  a  number  of  years 
ago  for  Miss  Helen  Gould,  now  Mrs.  Finley  Shepard,  as  an 
appreciation  of  food  given  the  natives  at  a  time  when  they  were 
sadly  in  need  of  it.  Several  months  were  expended  in  its  con- 
struction by  the  most  expert  weavers  on  Attu  Island,  and  it 
is  probably  the  masterpiece  of  the  Aleutian  race. 

Many  years  ago,  according  to  tradition,  three  distinct  tribes 
of  Indians  —  the  Thlingits,  Haldas  and  Tsimpseans  —  oc- 
cupied practically  all  of  the  coast  of  Southeastern  Alaska.  Al- 
though   they    speak    different    languages,    they   use   a   7"hllngit 


76      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

jargon  for  commercial  purposes.  The  Haidas  drove  the 
Thlingits  from  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands,  and  now  they 
extend  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Prince  William  Sound  and 
for  a  considerable  distance  into  the  interior. 

This  nomadic  race  gave  to  the  vv^orld  the  ancient  and  mod- 
ern Yakutat  baskets.  The  early  baskets  of  the  Yakutats  show 
considerable  ornamentation  around  the  rims,  and  were  woven 
in  a  substantial  manner.  The  texture  is  composed  of  slendey 
spruce  roots  and  grasses,  coloured  with  vegetable  dyes.  De- 
signed in  various  geometric  angles  and  figures,  these  baskets 
easily  are  recognised  by  the  collector.  Yakutat  baskets,  mel- 
lowed with  age,  are  highly  prized  by  the  collectors,  and  while 
many  stores  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States  carry  Indian 
baskets  for  sale,  few  of  them  carry  genuine  Yakutats. 

In  the  interior  of  Alaska,  the  Indians  manufacture  baskets 
from  birch  bark,  which,  being  pliable  and  tough,  can  be  bent 
into  almost  any  conceivable  shape.  The  Indians  of  the  far- 
interior  Mackenzie  River  tributaries  use  similar  material,  but 
very  few,  if  any,  of  the  island  tribes  make  the  straw  baskets 
which  have  become  so  popular. 

A  basket  making  craze  struck  Nome  a  few  years  ago  and 
many  white  women  learned  the  art.  During  the  winter 
months,  when  there  was  little  else  than  dancing  parties  to 
occupy  their  time,  they  foregathered  during  the  sunless  after- 
noons, bringing  their  weaving  with  them,  much  the  same  as 
their  progenitors  in  New  England  carried  their  tatting  and 
knitting.  In  the  region  north  of  the  Aleutian  peninsula,  prac- 
tically all  of  the  baskets  are  made  of  straw  and  fine  grass, 
gathered  by  the  natives  in  swamps  and  lagoons.  Some  of  it 
is  sold  to  the  white  women. 

By  the  Indian  women  of  Southeastern  Alaska,  root  gather- 
ing is  regarded  as  a  diversion.  They  view  these  e?jpeditions, 
as  well  as  berry-picking  ventures,  in  much  the  same  light  as  a 


Clioto  by    Dobbs. 

SQUAW  AND   PAPOOSE   BENEATH   A 
^  THATCH  OF  DRYING  TOMCOD 


Photo   by    Uobbs. 

NATIVE   CHILDREX,   A   LITTLE   AFRAID   OF   THE   CAMERA.    BIT 
WILLING    ro   HAVE  THEIR   PICTURES   TAKEN 


BUYING  FROM  INDIANS  77 

Sunday  school  miss  views  a  picnic.  The  old  women  form  a 
party,  taking  their  blankets,  cooking  utensils  and  a  few  young- 
sters along  with  them,  and  live  in  the  woods  for  days.  The 
roots  are  scraped,  then  parboiled,  and  then  left  in  a  pan  of 
water  for  two  or  three  weeks.  When,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
oldest  squaw^  in  the  camp,  the  material  has  become  sufficiently 
pliable,  it  is  soaked  in  a  pan  of  lukewarm  water.  The  next 
process  is  to  remove  the  fibrous  tendrils  from  the  parent  roots, 
in  which  process  a  peculiarly-shaped  knife  is  used.  One  end 
is  attached  to  a  stick  set  firmly  in  the  ground,  and  the  slim, 
tenuous  root  is  scraped  with  a  clam-shell  until  it  has  a  glossy 
and  smooth  appearance. 

When  the  weaving  is  commenced,  the  start  is  made  on  the 
bottom  of  the  basket,  which  is  held  in  place  between  sticks 
until  this  part  is  woven.     Then  the  sides  or  walls  are  built  up. 

Many  of  the  Indian  tribes,  especially  those  on  Attu  Island, 
cover  fantastically-shaped  bottles,  jugs  and  other  vessels  with 
beautiful  grass  work.  How  they  make  each  strand  fit  per- 
fectly around  these  vessels  is  indeed  wonderful.  Cigarette  and 
card  cases,  beautiful  in  design,  also  are  manufactured  by  these 
ingenious  people. 

One  of  the  remarkable  things  about  all  Indian  basket 
weavers  —  remarkable  because  of  their  unsanitary  methods  of 
housekeeping  —  is  that  each  basket  is  carefully  wrapped  in 
cloth  during  the  process  of  manufacture  to  keep  it  from  be- 
coming soiled. 

Baskets  are  offered  for  sale  in  nearly  every  curio  store  in 
Alaska,  and  frequently  specimens  of  work  done  by  the  Fraser 
River  Indians  of  British  Columbia  will  be  found  side  by  side 
with  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  Point  Barrow.  The  Point 
Barrow  natives  make  their  baskets  of  grass  and  they  usually 
are  decorated  with  pieces  of  fur,  fawn  reindeer  hide,  or  walrus 
ivory.     The  baskets  manufactured  by  the  Fraser  River  Indians 


78       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

are  made  from  the  roots  of  cedar  trees,  and  ornamented  with 
strips  of  wild  cherry  and  crabapple  bark. 

The  Chilkat  Indians,  who  for  many  years  waged  war  on 
the  natives  of  the  Interior,  weave  their  baskets  from  spruce 
roots.  Evidently  the  artistic  temperament  is  not  highly  de- 
veloped in  this  tribe,  for  they  use  very  little  colouring.  Per- 
haps they  reserve  all  their  artistic  feelings  for  their  blankets 
into  which  they  weave  all  the  bright  colours  in  the  spectrum. 

The  Haidas  Indians  manufacture  baskets  and  hats  of  straw 
and  spruce  roots.  The  hats  are  worn  at  potlatches,  war 
dances  and  other  notable  events.  Indians  in  British  Columbia 
and  in  Oregon  and  Washington  do  much  basket  weaving. 

The  product  of  the  Indian  race,  from  Oregon  as  far  north 
as  Point  Barrow,  may  be  purchased  In  Seattle  and  Portland 
and  in  practically  every  city  in  Alaska,  but  the  store-purchased 
basket  has  not  the  sentimental  value  of  the  one  bought  from 
the  squatting  squaw  In  the  Indian  village,  with  Its  memories 
of  totem  poles,  smoky  cabins,  dirty  children  and  snarling  dogs. 

To  those  travellers  in  Alaska  who  become  addicted  to  the 
curio  or  basket-buying  craze,  the  advice  Is  offered  that  more 
satisfaction  will  be  found  in  the  article  that  is  purchased  In  Its 
native  environment  than  can  be  derived  from  the  same  thing 
if  it  be  obtained  in  a  common-place  store. 


CHAPTER  IX 
ROUTES  TO   NOME   AND   INTERIOR 

Unalaska  and  the  Aleutian  Islanders  —  The  route  via  Cordova  and 
Chitina  —  Skagway  route  is  the  most  popular  in  summer  —  Haines 
and  the  Chilkat  Indians  —  Skagway,  a  city  of  romance  —  The 
Arctic  Brotherhood  —  A  trip  on  the  White  Pass  and  Yukon  Rail- 
way across  the  mountains  and  along  lakes  and  rivers  to  Atlin  City. 

THERE   are  three   routes   by   which    Nome,   the   me- 
tropolis of   Bering   Sea,   and    Fairbanks,   the   largest 
city    in    the    interior    of    the    territory  — "  Alaska's 
Golden   Heart  " —  may  be   reached   from  Seattle. 

The  first  and  most  direct  is  through  the  Strait  of  Juan  de 
Fuca,  thence  across  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  Unimak  Pass,  thence 
through  Bering  Sea  to  Nome,  thence  across  Norton  Sound  to 
St,  Michael,  and  from  that  point  up  the  Yukon  and  Tanana 
Rivers   to   Fairbanks. 

The  second   route  is   from   Cordova,   by  the  Copper   River' 
and  Northwestern  Railroad   to   Chitina,   thence   across  a  trail 
of  about  400  miles  to  Fairbanks,  and  thence  down  the  Tanana 
and  Yukon  Rivers  to  Bering  Sea. 

The  third  journey  is  via  Skagway,  at  the  head  of  Lynn 
Canal,  across  the  coast  mountain  range  by  the  White  Pass 
Railroad  to  White  Horse,  down  the  Yukon  River  to  Fort 
Gibbon.  To  Fairbanks  the  route  from  Fort  Gibbon  is  up 
the  Tanana  River.  To  Nome  it  is  down  the  Yukon  River 
to  St.  Michael,  and  thence  across  Norton  Sound. 

Apart  from  what  charm  may  be  found  in  a  waste  of  water 
stretching  from  horizon  to  horizon,  the  first  journey  offers 
nothing   in   the  way  of   scenic  attractiveness,   unless   it  should 

79 


8o      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

so  happen  that  the  vessel  makes  a  call  at  Dutch  Harbor  and 
Unalaska,  on  Unalaska  Island.  But  as  these  historic  places, 
where  the  Russians  made  their  first  attempt  at  settlement,  lie 
sixty  miles  out  of  the  regular  line  of  travel,  passenger  ships 
seldom  stop  there. 

Unalaska  is  one  of  the  prettiest  places  in  the  North.  Here 
will  be  found  the  first  Grseco-Russian  church  erected  in  the 
territory,  vi^hich,  like  a  similar  edifice  at  Sitka,  is  filled  w^ith 
beautiful  paintings  and  ornate  tapestries.  Dutch  Harbor  and 
Unalaska  lie  about  half  a  mile  apart,  the  latter  at  the  head  of 
a  land-locked  bay  surrounded  by  rounded,  fertile  hills.  It  is 
peopled  by  a  few  traders  and  many  natives,  some  of  whom  are 
direct  descendants  of  the  early  Russian  traders.  It  is  the 
headquarters  for  the  United  States  Revenue  Cutter  Service  in 
Alaska  and  a  coaling  station  for  the  craft  operated  by  this  de- 
partment of  the  government  is  maintained  there.  The  Jessie 
Lee  Home  has  a  mission  at  Unalaska,  where  a  number  of  na- 
tive and  half-caste  children  are  cared  for. 

A  few  stunted  spruce  trees  which  are  said  to  have  been 
planted  by  the  Russian  settlers,  comprise  the  only  growing 
timber  on  the  island,  but  the  grass  grows  waist  high,  and  in 
the  fields  are  thousands  of  wild  violets  and  other  fragrant 
flowers. 

In  former  years  many  thousands  of  caribou  subsisted  on  the 
island,  their  keen  eye-sight  being  ample  protection  against  the 
primitive  native  weapons,  but  with  the  importation  of  rifles 
the  herds  soon  were  exterminated. 

The  Aleutian  Islands,  of  which  Unalaska  is  the  principal 
settlement,  jut  out  boldly  from  the  coast  of  Alaska,  extending 
far  into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  climate,  being  governed  by 
the  Japan  Current,  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific,  is  moderate 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  the  biting  cold  of  winter  and  the 
oppressive  heat  of  summer  both  being  pleasantly  noticeable  by 


ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  8i 

their  absence.  Good  fishing  may  be  found  in  the  mountain 
streams,  but  except  for  a  few  ptarmigan,  a  species  of  grouse, 
the  island  has  very  few  attractions  for  the  hunter.  To  the 
tourist,  it  offers  one  of  the  cheapest  markets  in  Alaska  for  the 
purchase  of  fox  skins  and  other  furs  and  also  of  specimens  of 
Attu  basketry. 

Lack  of  picturesque  scenery  does  not  prevent  many  people 
from  taking  the  ocean  journey  to  Nome.  It  offers  the  ad- 
vantage of  reaching  the  point  of  destination  in  about  nine  days, 
as  against  from  eighteen  to  twenty  days  by  the  other  routes. 

The  Cordova  and  Chitina  route  is  traversed  only  by  those 
who  have  an  abundance  of  time.  The  trip  across  country 
from  Chitina  offers  much  in  the  way  of  scenic  attractiveness, 
but  it  has  its  disadvantages.  The  traveller  must  furnish  his 
own  horses  and  buckboard,  and  although  much  work  has  been 
done  on  the  road,  there  are  more  passable  thoroughfares  in 
Alaska.  Because  it  is  several  hundred  miles  shorter,  it  is  used 
during  the  winter  season,  when  the  Yukon  River  and  Bering 
Sea  are  covered  with  ice.  Winter  mails  to  Nome  and  Fair- 
banks are  delivered  by  this  route.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  with  the  building  of  a  road  from  Seward  to  Iditarod,  by 
which  the  distance  is  reduced,  the  Nome  mail  after  igi2  will 
be  carried  over  the  new  thoroughfare. 

The  journey  via  Skagway  is  the  most  popular  one  in  sum- 
mer, especially  to  those  who  are  robbed  of  the  joy  of  ocean 
travel  by  seasickness.  The  Inland  Passage,  described  in  pre- 
vious chapters,  is  followed  to  Juneau  and  from  there  the 
scenery  is  surpassed  in  few  parts  of  the  world. 

Through  Lynn  Canal,  a  narrow  strip  of  water  edged  by 
glacier-capped  mountains  from  which  many  fretting  water- 
falls tumble  down  to  the  sea,  the  distance  to  Skagway  from 
the  triumvirate  of  cities  at  the  head  of  Gastineau  Channel  — 
Juneau,    Douglas    and    Treadwell  —  is    one    hundred    miles. 


82      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Fort  Seward,  a  United  States  Army  post,  lies  under  one  of 
these  mountains.  Farther  along,  Haines,  formerly  Haines 
xMission,  the  terminal  point  of  the  Dalton  trail  to  the  interior, 
is   seen. 

Haines  lies  at  the  head  of  Portage  Cove,  a  little  indentation 
in  the  coast  line.  The  townsite  is  situated  on  the  neck  of  a 
peninsula  between  the  Chilkat  River  and  the  Canal.  Long 
before  the  white  man  entered  Alaska,  Haines  was  the  point 
where  the  Indians  from  the  interior  brought  their  furs  to  trade 
with  the  Chilkat  Indians,  a  warlike  tribe  which  from  time 
immemorial  waged  war  upon  the  natives  living  beyond  the 
coast  range.  In  these  battles  many  were  enslaved.  The  first 
house  was  built  in  1878,  when  George  Dickenson  established 
an  agency  for  the  Northwest  Trading  Company,  a  concern 
which  since  has  been  merged  into  other  enterprises. 

Situated  in  one  of  the  richest  agricultural  regions  in  Alaska, 
Haines  is  surrounded  by  many  profitable  farms.  Thirty  miles 
away,  through  a  forest  of  good  timber,  lies  Porcupine,  a  mining 
settlement.  Sixty  miles  distant  are  the  Glacier  coal  beds. 
Haines  also  is  the  outlet  for  the  Rainy  Hollow  country,  where 
several  good  copper  prospects  have  been  located.  A  railroad 
is  projected  from  Haines  to  the  head  of  the  White  River  Valley 
and  Fairbanks. 

Twenty  miles  from  the  town  is  the  Klukwutoo  settlement, 
the  home  of  about  five  hundred  natives.  Haines  is  the  head- 
quarters for  the  tribes  that  form  the  Klukwan-tann  —  a  host 
of  tribes  and  sub-tribes.  They  hold  their  potlatches  and  dances 
in  the  city.  Many  of  their  houses  are  decorated  with  totems 
carved  on  boards.  Some  of  these  ornamental  timbers  are 
lashed  together  with  rawhide  thongs,  which  indicates  they 
were  made  before  the  natives  discovered  a  method  of  manu- 
facturing copper  nails.  This  is  the  home  of  the  'Chilkat  In- 
dians, a  branch  of  the  Thlingits,  the  most  war-like  of  all  the 


ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  83 

Northern  tribes,  who  for  many  years  dominated  the  tribes  of 
the  interior  and  prevented  white  men  from  crossing  the  coast 
range  through  Chilkoot  Pass,  a  steep  and  icy  trail  which  they 
discovered.  Although  in  recent  years  they  have  become  ad- 
dicted to  eating  food  similar  to  that  consumed  by  white  people, 
salmon  and  game  still  form  the  staples  on  their  bill-of-fare. 

For  many  generations  these  Indians  have  been  accustomed 
to  making  long  and  hazardous  journeys  over  the  mountains 
and  this  occupation  has  brought  a  physical  development  that 
is  remarkably  different  from  other  tribes,  whose  members,  by 
virtue  of  many  years  of  paddling  in  canoes,  have  developed 
tremendous  chests  and  slightly  atrophied  lower  limbs. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  Indians  made  Haines 
their  headquarters  lies  In  the  fact  that  the  country  contiguous 
thereto  is  extremely  fertile. 

The  railroad  projected  from  this  point  to  the  head  of 
White  River,  where  large  copper  nuggets,  sometimes  weigh- 
ing as  much  as  two  tons,  are  found,  when  constructed,  will 
traverse  thousands  of  acres  of  meadow  land,  covered  with  wild 
red-top,  wild  rye  and  other  grasses.  The  Indian  Bureau  of 
the  Department  of  the  Interior  in  19 12,  appointed  an  agent 
to  instruct  the  Indians  at  Haines  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

In  this  region  prospectors  turn  their  horses  loose  in  the  fall 
to  forage  for  themselves  and  corral  them  again  In  the  spring. 
Interesting  from  a  zoological  standpoint  Is  the  statement  of 
a  number  of  prospectors  who  declare  that  in  the  spring  — 
when  the  wolves  are  able  to  travel  over  the  snow  crust  and 
hoofed  animals  sink  to  the  bottom  —  the  horses  and  moose 
"  yard  up  "  together  for  mutual  protection  against  predatory 
animals. 

The  moose  In  the  spring,  to  protect  their  young  against 
wolves,  enter  a  compact  formation  not  unlike  the  army 
mancEuvre  known  a3  the  "  British  Square."     They  stand  back 


84      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

to  back  in  a  circle,  with  the  calves  in  the  centre,  and  slash  at 
their  assailants  with  the  sharp-pointed  hoofs  on  their  fore- 
feet. 

Skagway,  at  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal,  apart  from  its  historic 
interest,  is  the  starting  point  for  the  Interior  country  —  the 
land  of  high  mountains,  great  rivers  and  giant  waterfalls. 
Gardening,  if  one  may  judge  from  the  appearance  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  pretty  cottages  in  this  quiet  city  —  quiet  to  those  who 
saw  it  in  the  days  of  the  Dawson  gold  stampede  —  is  one  of 
the  principal  forms  of  recreation.  Every  dwelling  has  its  lit- 
tle garden  plot,  either  upon  the  window  sill  or  in  the  plot  of 
ground  surrounding  the  house.  The  soil  must  be  very  fertile, 
for  nowhere  can  be  seen  taller  or  better  developed  plants  of 
every  description  than  are  to  be  found  in  this  town. 

Skagway,  the  town  that  grew  from  a  few  tents  to  a  city 
of  fifteen  thousand  people  in  a  few  months,  Is  filled  with  mem- 
ories of  romance  and  adventure.  In  1897-98  many  thousands 
of  hardy,  adventurous  spirits  gathered  here  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  to  commence  their  pilgrimage  to  the  remote  golden 
Mecca  that  lay  behind  forbidding  mountains,  beyond  the  roar- 
ing, raging  torrents  of  the  dreaded  White  Horse  rapids,  past 
the  treacherous,  boiling  water  of  Miles  Canyon,  and  the  many 
weary  miles  of  the  broad  and  mighty  Yukon.  Some  found  a 
fortune,  others  a  lonely  grave,  with  naught  but  gurgling 
streams  to  chant  their  requiem;  and  still  others,  broken- 
hearted and  disappointed,  returned  to  acknowledge  failure. 

In  the  wild,  gold-hunting  days,  the  prudent  visitor  kept  his 
revolver  close  to  his  hand.  The  city  of  tents  was  filled  with 
fugitives  from  justice  and  the  criminal  element  of  other 
places.  Then  one  had  considerable  difficulty  in  finding  hotel 
accommodations.  But  not  so  now.  The  Skagway  hotels 
are  said  to  be  the  finest  and  best-managed  hostelries  in  the 
North. 


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ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  85 

Skagway  is  one  of  the  prettiest  towns  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
From  a  distance  the  mountains  seem  to  float  in  fleecy  clouds 
over  the  city.  The  sombre  hills  are  covered  with  glaciers 
that  glisten  like  fields  of  pearls.  The  woods  are  filled  with 
dainty  green  ferns  and  a  thousand  varieties  of  beautiful  flow- 
ers. 

Skagway  received  its  name  from  the  native  word,  "  Skagua," 
meaning  "  the  home  of  the  North  Wind."  Thlingit  tradi- 
tion says  that  every  time  a  white  man  crossed  the  summit  of 
what  now  is  known  as  White  Pass  the  warm  breath  of  the 
Chinook  wind  melted  the  snow  and  caused  a  disastrous  ava- 
lanche. To  this  day  the  more  superstitious  among  the  Chil- 
koots  and  Chilkats,  when  passing  the  harbour  of  Skagway, 
delay  a  moment  and  repeat  a  prayer,  "  Skagua  eshan  —  00  — 
han."      (O,  Skaguay,  have  mercy  upon  us.) 

It  is  a  pretty  legend.  It  tells  of  Chute,  a  brave,  wild  and 
reckless  hunter,  of  his  beautiful,  dark-eyed  sweetheart,  Skug- 
way;  and  the  woman  of  mystery,  Dugek.  It  tells  how  the 
dainty,  graceful  Skugway,  after  a  quarrel  with  her  high-spir- 
ited lover,  floated  away  towards  the  mountains  and  finally 
disappeared  in  a  seam  in  the  rock.  Heartbroken,  Chute  called 
and  called  upon  her  to  return,  but  she  answered  him  not. 
Later  Dugek  appeared  to  him  as  he  sat  fishing  by  the  side  of 
a  stream. 

"  Chute,"  she  said,  "  I  am  the  woman  of  mystery.  It  is  I 
who  control  the  destinies  of  the  mountains  and  the  warm  winds 
that  sweep  across  their  face.  Let  no  stranger  enter  my  realm 
and  I  will  watch  over  thee  and  thine.  Let  not  Skugway  be 
disturbed  in  her  slumbers  by  the  footfall  of  the  paleface." 

It  may  be  that  the  Indians  for  many  years  jealously  guarded 
the  mountain  trail  to  the  Interior  from  the  white  man,  because 
of  Dugek's  warning,  but  there  is  reasonable  ground  for  the 
suspicion  that  they  were  prompted  also  by  the  desire  to  keep 


86       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

to  themselves  the  profits  made  in  trading  with  interior  natives, 
upon  whom,  from  time  to  time,  they  waged  war  and  levied 
tribute   in   furs  and  slaves. 

Whether  Dugek  was  offended  by  the  unwelcome  invasion  of 
white  men  or  otherwise,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  one  of 
the  most  disastrous  tragedies  of  the  North  occurred  on  the 
Chilkoot  trail  in  1898,  when  pack-burdened  white  men  climbed 
the  steep  trail  in  thousands.  Chinook  winds  melted  the  snow, 
and  an  avalanche  crashed  down  the  mountain  side,  killing  more 
than  seventy  argonauts  and  wounding  many  others. 

"  Dugek  is  enraged,"  the  Indians  said. 

White  men  pronounced  it  one  of  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
country  and  proceeded  to  bury  their  dead  and  care  for  their 
wounded. 

In  the  stampede  to  Dawson,  several  pieces  of  commercial 
ore  and  free-gold  quartz  were  picked  up  in  the  streams  ad- 
jacent to  Skagway,  but  although  many  prospects  have  been 
found,  no  paying  mines  have  been  developed. 

The  long  street  which  forms  the  principal  thoroughfare  of 
the  city  is  crammed  with  good  buildings,  many  of  which  were 
erected  at  the  time  when  the  Klondike  stampede  was  in  prog- 
ress. Some  of  these  structures  bring  back  memories  of  stir- 
ring events,  when  gambling  was  in  progress  and  "  Soapy 
Smith  "  ruled  the  criminal  element  that  infested  the  place. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  considering  its  early  history,  Skag- 
way is  now  peopled  by  the  most  law-abiding  citizens  in  the 
North.  Owing  to  the  absence  of  criminality,  it  has  not  been 
necessary  to  hold  a  term  of  the  United  States  district  court 
there  for  several  years  past.  Skagway  was  "  cleaned  up " 
when  Smith  and  his  gang  of  followers  were  driven  out.  And 
it  has  been  kept  clean. 

The  town  has  good  schools  and  churches.  It  is  the  home 
of  the  first  camp  of  the  Arctic  Brotherhood,  a  strong  fraternal 


ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  87 

organisation  founded  fourteen  years  ago  by  American  and  Brit- 
ish residents  for  mutual  protection  against  grafting  officials, 
cheating  gamblers  and  other  breakers  of  the  law.  The  motto 
of  the  organisation  is  "  No  boundary  line  here."  It  devel- 
oped into  a  social  and  fraternal  order  and  branches  since  have 
been  established  in  almost  every  town  in  Alaska.  The  home 
of  the  Skagvvay  lodge  is  situated  on  the  main  street  of  the 
town  under  A.  B.  Mountain,  so  named  because  peculiar  deep 
clefts  in  the  rock  remain  filled  with  snow  long  after  the  bal- 
ance of  the  hillside  is  bare,  thus  leaving  the  letters  "  A.  B." 
standing  out  clear  and  distinct,  as  though  painted  there  in 
white  by  some  giant  hand. 

Although  situated  on  a  wide  flat,  Skagway,  like  nearly  all 
other  Pacific  coastal  towns  north  of  British  Columbia,  never 
will  be  an  ideal  place  for  the  automobile.  Many  side  trips 
may  be  made  from  Skagway  at  the  expenditure  of  a  little  time 
and  money,  but  these  peregrinations  are  by  water,  with  the 
one  exception  of  a  trip  on  the  White  Pass  and  Yukon  Railroad 
that  "  snakes  itself  "  across  the  mountains  to  the  source  of  the 
Northern  "  Father  of  Waters." 

Rock-ribbed,  steep,  as  though  forbidding  man  to  attempt 
to  climb  their  lofty  heights,  range  after  range  of  mountains 
raise  their  snaggy,  saw-teethed  edges  to  the  clouds;  glaciers 
dead  and  alive  rest  peacefully  like  icy  giants  asleep,  or  grind 
away  at  their  epoch-making  toil;  huddled  together  in  the 
mountain  tops,  streams  that  can  be  spanned  in  a  step  gurgle 
through  the  rocks  to  join  one  of  the  greatest  waterways  of  the 
continent;  miniature  rivers  race  over  the  surface  of  the  glaciers; 
silvery  streams,  half  hidden  in  canyons,  can  be  seen  in  the 
depths  below;  alluring  lakes  in  every  valley  and  mountain  de- 
pression absorb  from  tlic  sky  its  ever-changing  shades  of  blue 
and  grey  and  pink  and  crimson ;  misty  torrents  clatter  over 
the  rocks,  while  rainbows  flicker  and  play  in  their  mists;  and, 


88      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

save  for  the  insignificant  train  that  crawls  puffingly  along  the 
dizzy  slopes,  through  man-made  tunnels  and  over  spider- 
legged  bridges,  all  is  as  when  the  world  was  made.  It  is  a 
scene  never  to  be  forgotten. 

Sturdy  men,  imbued  with  courage  and  determination,  looked 
at  this  coastal  barrier. 

"  The  only  way  to  carry  freight  and  passengers  across  those 
mountains  is  by  balloon,"  they  said.  "  This  is  an  aeronaut's 
job,  not  an  engineer's." 

Yet  it  seemed  but  a  few  days  from  the  time  the  work  was 
begun  till  the  railroad  was  finished  and  those  who,  foot-sore, 
bone-weary  and  heart-sick,  had  laboriously  climbed  the  moun- 
tain path,  carrying  their  goods  and  chattels  on  their  aching 
backs,  were  able  to  ride  over  the  mountain  in  all  the  comforts 
that  a  Pullman  train  affords. 

This  road,  constructed  by  M.  J.  Heney  and  E.  C.  Hawkins, 
builders  also  of  the  Copper  River  and  Northwestern  Railroad 
from  Cordova,  is  one  of  the  greatest  engineering  feats  in  the 
world.  A  trip  over  it  is  one  to  be  remembered.  It  is  full  of 
thrills  from  the  time  the  train  enters  the  Skagway  River  Val- 
ley till  the  top  of  the  summit  is  reached.  The  austere  moun- 
tains above,  the  flower-bestrewn  valley  below,  make  the  jour- 
ney a  most  captivating  one.  The  train  at  times  glides  along 
the  side  of  a  sheer  wall,  with  a  cliff  of  rock  hundreds  of  feet 
high  on  one  side  and  the  dark  depths  of  an  abyss  on  the  other. 
The  rocks  jut  out  at  sharp  angles  from  the  precipitous  wall  on 
the  side  of  the  roadbed  and  it  appears  as  though  the  speeding 
cars  must  dash  over  the  cliff,  but  they  swing  around  a  curve, 
and  the  train  continues  on  its  sinuous  ascent.  Water  that  is 
hungry  green,  and  later  white  with  foam,  as  it  dashes  over 
cataracts,  is  seen  here  and  there  all  along  the  route  and  in  one 
place,  just  beyond  a  dark  tunnel,  a  very  high  bridge  has 
been  throv/n  across  a  chasm  at  the  bottom  of  which  rages  the 


ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  89 

Skagway  River,  crashing  over  the  boulders  on  its  way  to  the 
sea. 

This  is  known  as  "  Dead  Horse  Canyon,"  because  in  the 
days  of  distress  and  travail,  five  half-starved  pack-horses,  rather 
than  continue  longer  to  struggle  with  their  burdens  up  the 
steep  grades,  are  said  to  have  hurled  themselves  over  the  cliff 
to  be  dashed  to  death  on  the  rocks  below. 

"  This  blasted  country  is  so  steep  that  it  bends  over  back- 
vi'ards,"  remarked  a  survey's  flagman  when  the  road  was  being 
surveyed.  It  appeared  as  though  mountain  goats  instead  of 
men  must  have  been  engaged  in  the  construction.  In  places 
the  roadbed  is  cut  into  the  solid  rock  in  "  s  "  and  "  z  "  angles. 
Here  and  there  on  the  hillside  stunted  spruce  trees  and  wil- 
lows grow  and  between  the  crevices  and  crannies  in  the  rocks 
splinters  of  grass  raise  their  green  heads.  In  the  days  when 
supplies  were  carried  on  men's  backs  across  these  spurs,  the 
willows  and  spruce  were  held  sacred.  To  have  cut  them 
would  have  been  regarded  as  a  capital  offence,  for  they  were 
used  to  assist  the  struggling  crowds  up  the  steep  inclines. 

Twenty  miles  from  Skagway,  beyond  the  summit  of  the 
range,  a  bronze  monument  marks  the  boundary  between  Amer- 
ican and  Canadian  territory.  Here  the  flags  of  the  dominant 
Anglo-Saxon  races  float  close  together. 

The  salty  ozone  of  the  sea  is  left  behind.  An  environment 
of  dainty  loveliness  takes  the  place  of  stupendous  grandeur. 
The  train  glides  along  the  shores  of  lake  and  river,  which  re- 
flect the  shadows  of  tree  and  hillside.  The  headwaters  of 
the  Yukon  have  been  reached.  With  increasing  speed,  the 
locomotive  runs  along  Thompson  River  to  Middle  Lake. 
These  lakes  are  strips  of  sun-kissed  blue,  skirted  on  one  side 
by  pebbly  beaches  and  by  buff-coloured  mountains  on  the 
other,  with  here  and  there  a  glen  studded  by  poplar,  larch  and 
balm  of  Gilead  trees.     The  slopes  are  covered  with  fireweed, 


90       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

larkspur,  goklen-roJ,  marguerites,  dandelions,  asters,  and 
other  varieties  of  wild  flowers,  but  there  is  an  absence  of  the 
moss  and  dank  vegetation  that  marks  the  coastal  plains  and 
hillsides.     The  air  is  less  heavily  charged  with  moisture. 

Deserted  and  silent  is  the  ephemeral  town  of  Bennet,  once 
a  settlement  that  teemed  with  all  the  life  and  hurry  and  fren- 
zied excitement  of  a  gold  stampede,  where  beds  and  meals  had 
to  be  spoken  for  in  advance  and  where  the  clicking  of  the 
ivory  ball  or  the  roulette  wheel,  the  droning  monotone  of  the 
crap-dealer  and  the  raucous  voice  of  the  dance  hall  "  bawler  " 
were  heard  from  dawn  to  dark  and  from  dark  to  dawn  again. 
All  that  remains  of  it  is  a  few  tumble-down  shacks  that  once 
were  used  as'  gambling  houses  and  saloons.  It  is  like  a  city 
of  the  dead. 

The  train  rattles  along  the  shores  of  the  lake,  where  once 
men  had  toiled  with  dog  team  or  pack-horses  or  where  they 
had  builded  their  first  boats  to  float  down  the  Yukon  to  the 
Dawson  El  Dorado.  Lake  Bennet  is  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful pieces  of  water  in  Alaska.  It  is  twenty-seven  miles  long, 
and  from  half  a  mile  to  five  miles  wide.  On  one  side  it  is 
as  level  as  a  plain,  on  the  other  side  mountains  raise  their 
crests  to  great  elevations,  while  off  to  the  right  a  few  glaciers 
are  visible.  At  the  head  of  the  lake,  near  the  point  where 
once  the  frontier  town  stood,  a  stop  is  made  for  luncheon. 

Lake  Bennet  teems  with  a  species  of  mammoth  trout  that 
resembles  a  land-locked  salmon.  These  fish  bite  readily  at  a 
trolling  spoon,  and  put  up  a  game  fight  when  hooked.  A 
specimen  of  this  fish  weighing  twenty-one  pounds  furnished 
one  of  the  courses  in  an  "  Alaska  product  "  dinner  given  to 
Secretary  Fisher  and  his  party  by  O,  L.  Dickeson,  president 
of  the  railroad.  In  his  private  car. 

Caribou  Crossing,  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Bennet,  is  a  narrow 
stream    connecting    Lake    Bennet    with    Lake    Nares.     It    is 


ROUTES  TO  NOME  AND  INTERIOR  91 

spanned  by  the  Northernmost  swinging  bridge  in  the  world. 
Caribou  Crossing  was  so  named  because  in  former  years  herds 
of  wild  reindeer  numbering  many  thousands  came  to  this  place 
to  make  their  crossing  from  the  plains  to  the  mountain  regions 
in  their  annual  migrations.  Indians  declare  these  animals 
were  so  numerous  that  their  horns  looked  like  tops  of  the  for- 
ests and  that  sometimes  it  took  them  two  months  to  pass  this 
point. 

Caribou  Crossing  is  the  dividing  line  between  British  Colum- 
bia and  Yukon  territory.  There  is  a  good  hotel  here  as  at 
all  other  stops  along  the  line.  Like  all  of  the  section  houses 
and  every  other  structure  occupied  by  an  employe  of  the  rail- 
road, the  hotel  is  adorned  with  a  cultivated  garden.  Presi- 
dent Dickeson  conceived  the  idea  of  adding  the  beauty  of 
cultivated  flowers  to  the  natural  beauty  of  the  country.  The 
vegetables  eaten  on  its  train  and  river  steamers  and  in  its  ho- 
tels are  grown  on  a  farm  near  Skagway  that  is  owned  by  the 
company,  and  the  fish  which  form  a  course  on  the  bill-of-fare 
in  these  places  are  caught  fresh  every  day  from  the  lakes  and 
streams.  This  is  one  of  the  few  places  in  the  world  where 
a  man  Is  paid  to  spend  his  summer  in  fishing  for  trout. 

At  Caribou  one  will  notice  a  difference  in  the  prices  of 
commodities  sold  in  the  stores.  American-made  articles  are 
the  more  expensive,  while  English  goods,  upon  which  no  duty 
Is  paid,   are  cheaper. 

At  Caribou,  connection  Is  made  with  river  vessels  running 
to  Atlin,  a  voyage  of  eighty  miles  through  a  chain  of  long, 
narrow  lakes  in  whose  depths  are  mirrored  the  snow-capped 
peaks  and  pine-clad  hills  that  line  their  shores.  Placer  gold 
was  found  at  Atlin  In  1899,  and  since  that  time  considerable 
mining  has  been  done  in  that  locality.  The  route  lies  through 
Nares  and  Tagish  Lakes,  to  Taku  Lake,  thence  through 
Golden  Gate,  a  beautiful  fresh-water  passage,  to  Taku   Inlet, 


92      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

where  connection  is  made  with  a  railroad  running  along  the 
shores  of  the  Atlinoo  River,  a  short,  turbulent  stream  that 
connects  Taku  Inlet  with  Atlin  Lake.  Atlin  City  lies  on  the 
opposite  shore  of  the  lake  and  is  reached  by  another  steam- 
boat. The  lake  shores  are  carpeted  with  moss,  and  here  as 
in  many  other  places,  a  bouquet  of  fragrant  wildflowers  may 
be  gathered  in  a  few  minutes.  To  the  lover  of  superb  lake 
and  woodland  scenery  the  journey  is  wonderfully  fascinating. 


CHAPTER  X 

FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON 

The  source  of  the  mighty  Yukon  —  Fifty-Mile  River  and  White  Horse 
Rapids,  where  many  lives  were  lost  in  the  Klondike  stampede 
—  Miles  Canyon  —  Lake  Lebarge  —  Collins'  tragic  story  —  A  ride 
through   Five   Finger   Rapids  —  Dawson,   past   and   present. 

BEYOND  Caribou  Crossing,  the  train  speeds  along  a 
high  plateau  where  the  bracing  air  is  redolent  with 
the  pungent  odour  of  balsam  and  pine  and  the  deli- 
cate fragrance  of  wild  roses.  To  the  right  are  Lake  Nares, 
Lake  Marsh  and  Fifty-Mile  River,  a  stream  that  connects 
Lake  Marsh  with  Lake  Lebarge.  Here  is  the  source  of  one 
of  the  greatest  waterway  systems  in  North  America,  a  stream, 
which  it  has  been  calculated  discharges  every  hour  nearly  one- 
third  more  water  than  does  the  great  Mississippi. 

Through  the  poplar,  balsam  and  spruce  trees  that  grew  out 
of  the  moss-carpeted  ground,  flocks  of  mallard,  widgeon,  sprig- 
tail  and  other  species  of  ducks  could  be  seen  flapping  their 
way  over  the  surface  of  the  lakes  and  on  the  gravel  bars  of 
Fifty-Mile  River  acres  upon  acres  of  wild  onions  shot  up  be- 
tween the  rounded  stones. 

Here  is  the  home  of  the  Stick  Indians,  a  jolly,  mirth-loving 
tribe,  kind-hearted  and  hospitable,  who  up  until  a  few  years 
ago  were  tyrannised  over  in  a  most  brutal  manner  by  the 
war-like  Chilkats  from  the  coast.  Missionaries  have  done 
much  for  these  natives.  Few  of  them  drink  and  all  of  them 
speak  comparatively  good  English. 

Watching  one  of  these  Indians  drive  a  light,  birch-bark 
canoe  into  the  bank  of  the  river,  I  addressed  him  in  Chinook, 

93 


94       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

a  jargon  invented  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  factors  and 
spoken  by  all  Indians  who  trade  with  this  great  organisation. 
I   said : 

"  Klowhayah.  Kah  mika  chaco?"  (How  are  you? 
From  where  did  you  come?) 

"Have  you  not  learned  to  speak  English  yet?"  he  asked 
in  reply.  Then  he  told  me  he  had  come  from  Fort  Selkirk 
and  that  he  was  quite  well,  thank  you;  and  with  true  cour- 
tesy expressed  the  hope  that  I  also  was  enjoying  very  good 
health. 

Not  many  years  ago  this  region  was  one  of  the  greatest 
game  ranges  in  the  North  American  continent.  Hundreds  of 
moose  occupied  the  gulches  and  draws  in  the  winter  and  fol- 
lowed the  snow-line  in  summer  to  evade  the  mosquitoes.  Cari- 
bou in  herds  of  thousands,  after  wading  and  swimming  the 
ford  at  Caribou  Crossing,  subsisted  on  the  moss  growing  so 
abundantly  on  the  plains  and  hillsides.  But  with  the  In- 
vasion of  the  white  man  these  animals,  like  the  coveys  of 
grouse  in  the  forests  and  the  mountain  sheep  and  goats  that 
climbed  the  mountains,  have  been  driven  to  the  more  inac- 
cessible places. 

Running  along  Fifty-Mile  River,  it  is  noticed  that  the  wa- 
ter gradually  falls  below  the  level  of  the  railroad  track  and 
soon  the  great  cataract  of  Miles  Canyon  and  the  White  Horse 
Rapids  are  reached.  In  these  treacherous  waters  hundreds 
of  adventurers  at  the  time  of  the  stampede  to  Dawson  gave  up 
their  lives.  Thousands  of  gold  hunters  steered  a  flotilla  of 
small  craft  through  the  seething  cauldrons.  The  more  cau- 
tious among  them  elected  to  walk,  laboriously  climbing  the 
steep  hill  that  forms  one  of  the  walls  of  the  canyon  and 
portaging  their  boats  to  an  eddy  about  half-way  through  White 
Horse  Rapids  and  below  the  most  dangerous  places.  The  men 
who  walked  did   not  necessarily  manifest  a  lack  of  courage; 


FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON      95 

they  simply  had  a  proper  and  commendable  regard  for  their 
lives.  The  conditions  were  summarised  by  a  frontier  wag, 
who,  feeling  cheerful  at  escaping  from  the  rapids  with  his 
life  after  losing  his  boat  and  outfit,  posted  two  placards  on  a 
tree  near  the  head  of  the  canyon.  The  first,  with  a  finger 
pointing  up  the  steep  incline  to  the  top  of  the  wall,   read: 

"  This  way  —  two  weeks." 

The  second  notice  indicated  a  route  leading  straight  into 
the  throat  of  the  roaring  canyon.     It  was  marked: 

"  This  way  —  two  minutes." 

The  canyon  is  more  than  a  mile  in  length  and  its  basalt 
walls  rise  perpendicularly  from  the  raging  water  to  an  eleva- 
tion of  about  200  feet.  Above  the  upper  gate  the  river  grad- 
ually narrows  from  a  width  of  about  1,200  feet  to  approxi- 
mately 150  feet  and  the  current  Increases  to  an  alarming  speed. 

Many  boatmen,  although  warned  by  the  roaring  of  the 
cataracts,  which,  accentuated  by  the  basalt  walls  which  act  as 
sounding  boards,  can  be  heard  for  miles,  were  unable  to  make 
a  landing  above  the  entrance  to  the  canyon  and,  whether  they 
would  or  not,  were  forced  to  make  the  perilous  journey. 

Once  a  boat  is  plunged  into  the  seething  maelstrom,  there 
is  no  turning  back.  Only  the  quickest  action,  an  iron  nerve 
and  the  greatest  skill  and  accuracy  at  the  steering  oar  can 
save  it  and  its  occupants.  The  velocity  of  the  water,  as  it 
crashes  over  the  rocks,  is  terrific.  A  moment's  hesitation,  the 
slightest  mistake  of  the  pilot,  more  than  likely  ends  in  irre- 
trievable disaster.  A  vacillating  hand  at  the  stern  sweep  will 
send  the  craft  sidewise  over  one  of  the  cascades  into  the  de- 
vouring grip  of  the  whirlpool  —  and  there  is  the  finish. 

Half  way  through  the  canyon  the  stream  widens  percepti- 
bly and  here  are  a  great  number  of  rocks  over  which  the  surg- 
ing water  plunges  madly,  throwing  clouds  of  spray  high  in 
the  air.     A  narrow  channel  close   to   the   frowning  wall   on 


96      ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  right  is  clear  of  formidable  reefs  and  offers  the  voyageur 
a  small  margin  of  safety,  but  even  here  he  must  avoid  the 
whirlpools. 

The  outlet  of  the  canyon  is  marked  by  the  same  high  white 
walls,  adorned  with  trees  on  top.  A  fall  of  nearly  forty  feet 
is  accomplished  in  the  canyon  and  the  rushing  water  boils  out 
in  a  deafening  roar  and  with  tremendous  speed. 

The  White  Horse  Rapids  are  reached  in  a  few  seconds  and, 
although  the  river  is  considerably  wider,  its  dangerous  swift- 
ness is  not  decreased.  Masses  of  green  water  crash  over  the 
rocks  and  turn  to  clouds  of  foam  and  spray.  The  river  bottom 
is  strewn  with  reefs  and  clefts.  Again  the  seething  stream 
contracts  to  a  channel  even  narrower  than  before  and  one 
watching  it  wonders  how  such  a  stupendous  mass  of  water 
can  battle  its  way  through  this  narrow  channel.  It  is  a  fun- 
nel of  churning,  boiling  cascades.  Surveyors  declare  the  centre 
of  the  stream  is  several  feet  higher  than  the  water  next  the 
bank,  a  condition  created  by  the  speed  of  the  current.  Navi- 
gators must  follow  this  crown  of  foaming  water.  To  leave 
it  means  that  their  craft  will  be  smashed  to  splinters  against  the 
hard,  basalt  walls.  The  waves  in  this  cauldron  dash  up  four 
and  five  feet  high. 

It  has  been  said  that  men  who  went  over  the  Chilkoot  trail 
placed  their  lives  in  hourly  jeopardy.  It  would  be  near  the 
truth  to  say  that  those  who  shot  their  boats  through  Miles 
Canyon  and  the  White  Horse  Rapids  placed  their  lives  in 
danger  every  second.  In  navigating  swift  water,  there  must  be 
a  crew  of  oarsmen  and  a  pilot.  It  is  necessary  to  propel  the 
boat  faster  than  the  current  will  carry  it  in  order  to  give  it 
steerage  way.  Otherwise  it  would  drift  with  the  stream  and 
quickly  be  dashed  to  kindling  against  the  rocks  or  caught  in  a 
vortex  and  whirled  to  the  bottom.  Navigating  a  boat  through 
this  part  of  the  Yukon  is  a  real  man's  job.     It  is  no  occupa- 


FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON       97 

tion  for  a  nervous  person.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  work 
of  running  a  boat  through  a  rapids  brings  a  feeling  of  exalta- 
tion that  nothing  else  can  produce  and  many  people  make  a 
practice  of  shooting  canoes  through  "  white  water "  for 
amusement.  None,  however,  choose  Miles  Canyon  or  White 
Horse  Rapids  for  this  form  of  recreation.  A  short  distance 
below  the  rapids  is  the  town  of  White  Horse,  the  terminal  of 
the  railroad,  but  the  train  stops  at  the  canyon  that  those  who 
desire  may  enjoy  a  sight  of  this  marvellous  spectacle. 

At  White  Horse  is  stationed  a  detachment  of  the  North- 
west Mounted  Police.  It  is  the  outfitting  point  for  a  number 
of  copper  mines  situated  a  few  miles  distant,  many  of  which 
ship   their  ore  to  smelters  on   Puget  Sound. 

Steamers  usually  leave  White  Horse  for  Dawson  in  the 
evening,  but  as  the  trips  are  made  in  summer,  when  the  sun 
shines  practically  all  night,  this  makes  little  difference  to  the 
sightseer.  Down  the  river  a  short  distance  is  Lake  Lebarge, 
a  broad  but  shallow  sheet  of  water  about  thirty  miles  long. 
On  one  side  are  high  hills  and  on  the  other  a  flat  country  cov- 
ered with  wild  geraniums  and  other  flora.  The  outlet  of 
Lake  Lebarge  is  through  a  narrow,  swift,  twisting  stream, 
the  banks  of  which,  cut  by  the  current,  leave  many  trees 
overhanging  in   the   river.     These  are  known   as  "  sweepers." 

About  four  miles  from  the  lower  end  of  Lake  Lebarge  is 
a  clump  of  poplar  and  quaking  asp,  where  is,  or  was,  a  wooden 
slab  marking  the  grave  of  Joseph  Collins,  one  of  the  unfor- 
tunates who  met  his  death  on  the  river  during  the  great 
stampede.  Collins  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  pertinacity. 
Three  times  he  packed  his  outfit  across  Chilkoot  Pass,  and 
three  times  he  lost  it  by  accident.  The  first  time  his  year's 
supplies  were  buried  in  the  snowslide  at  Sheep  Camp.  He 
returned  to  Skagway  and  purchased  another  outfit.  This 
time  a  sail  altogether  too  large  for  the  boat  it  propelled  was 


98       ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

struck  by  a  squall  of  wind  on  Lake  Bennet,  the  craft  capsized 
and  the  second  outfit  was  lost.  Still  undiscouraged,  and  be- 
fore his  clothes  were  dry,  Collins  again  was  on  his  way  to 
Skagway,  where  with  what  little  money  he  had  left  he  pur- 
chased another  load  of  supplies  and  hired  more  packers.  He 
built  another  boat  which  he  guided  safely  through  the  dan- 
gers of  Miles  Canyon  and  White  Horse  Rapids,  but  on  the 
river  below  Lake  Lebarge,  rounding  a  right-angle  bend  in  the 
stream,  his  batteau  was  carried  by  the  swift  current  against  a 
"  sweeper  "  and  capsized. 

Some  miners  camped  nearby  heard  a  shot  in  the  woods. 
They  found  Collins  with  a  bullet  in  his  brain  and  written 
in  pencil  on  a  piece  of  birch-bark  pinned  to  a  tree  was  the 
message : 

"  Hell  can't  be  any  worse  than  this  trail.     I'll  chance  it." 

The  clear  water  of  the  Lewes,  or  Upper  Yukon  River,  in 
which  fish  can  be  seen  swimming  away  from  the  ship  or  leap- 
ing at  flies  near  the  shore,  gradually  becomes  darker  as  the 
vessel  floats  down-stream.  In  places  tundra  water  stained  by 
decomposed  moss  and  vegetation  enters  the  main  river  and  in 
other  places  creeks  which  have  their  source  in  glacial  moraines, 
and  are  therefore  heavily  charged  with  silt,  impair  the  spark- 
ling clearness  of  the  principal  waterway. 

Along  the  banks,  when  stops  are  made  at  wood  camps,  one 
sometimes  will  see  what  appears  from  a  distance  to  be  red 
moss,  but  which  upon  examination  is  found  to  be  millions  of 
crimson  cranberries.  Geraniums,  roses,  blue-bells,  violets  and 
other  flowers  grow  luxuriantly  and  here  and  there  masses  of 
blossoming  fireweed  and  fields  of  cotton  plant  make  a  strong 
contrast  to  the  green  of  the  moss  and  foliage. 

The  river  winds  between  high  terraces,  sometimes  denuded 
of  timber,  and  around  mountains,  which  apparently  are  ever 
changing    their   position.     One   time   a   mountain   will   appear 


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FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON      99 

straight  ahead.  The  boat  makes  a  turn  or  two  and  it  is 
seen  off  the  beam  or  astern  of  the  vessel.  More  circuitous 
twists  and  turns  and  the  same  old  mountain  will  appear  dead 
ahead  again.  It  gives  one  the  impression  of  passing  the  same 
point  several  times. 

One  of  the  pleasant  surprises  of  the  journey  down  the  river 
is  the  Five  Finger  Rapids,  so  called  from  the  fact  that  four 
rocks  protrude  to  a  height  of  about  forty  feet  from  the  centre 
of  the  stream,  dividing  it  into  five  channels.  The  river,  be- 
cause of  the  addition  of  many  large  tributaries,  rapidly  becomes 
wider,  but  it  narrows  considerably  as  the  Five  Finger  Rapids 
are   approached. 

Here  the  water  is  very  swift  and  as  the  steamboat  dashes 
through  the  channel  the  passengers  have  a  thrilling  ride.  The 
fantastically  shaped  rocks  make  the  scene  quite  picturesque. 
In  one  of  the  swift  channels  there  is  an  abundance  of  water 
and,  as  it  is  comparatively  straight,  there  is  no  danger  in  steer- 
ing a  vessel  through.  The  ride,  nevertheless,  is  sufficiently 
exciting.  The  isolated  towers  of  the  rocks  are  the  breeding 
places  for  thousands  of  fresh  w^ater  gulls  and  terns,  which 
there  have  sought  sanctuary  from  foxes  and  other  animals  that 
prey  on  their  eggs  and  young.  By  what  process  of  instinct 
or  reasoning  the  birds  figured  out  that  no  living  animal  could 
swim  the  boiling  current  and  make  a  landing  on  the  rocks 
where  they  have  found  a  refuge,  is  a  problem  for  ornitholo- 
gists to  solve. 

At  Fort  Selkirk,  the  Lewes  River  Is  joined  by  the  Felly 
and  the  two  form  the  Yukon  River  proper.  The  Pelly  cut- 
ting through  hundreds  of  miles  of  clay  hanks,  carries  a  large 
amount  of  mud  and  from  this  point  all  hope  of  catching 
greyling  and  trout  on  the  Yukon  with  artificial  flies  may  as 
well  be  abandoned.  In  the  streams  running  from  the  hills, 
however,  these  fish  may  be  hooked  in  hundreds.     At  Selkirk, 


100     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

formerly  one  of  the  outposts  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  is 
another  detachment  of  the  mounted  police  and  a  few  stores. 
On  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Yukon,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pelly, 
the  chimneys  of  an  abandoned  fort  still  are  visible. 

Below  Fort  Selkirk  there  is  an  absence  of  the  clay  bluffs. 
There  are  innumerable  islands.  At  some  places  the  hills 
come  down  to  the  water's  edge  sharp  and  sheer.  At  others 
the  shore  is  lined  with  rolling  prairies,  broken  at  intervals  by 
wide,  fertile  valleys.  The  scenery,  which  is  not  unlike  that 
of  the  Inland  Passage,  is  as  varied  as  it  is  picturesque  and  in- 
teresting. Small  settlements  and  Indian  villages  are  sprin- 
kled along  the  banks. 

A  short  distance  below  one  of  the  timbered  islands,  nestling 
in  a  big  wide  flat  at  the  edge  of  a  valley,  lies  Dawson,  a  quiet, 
orderly  town,  with  a  marked  absence  of  gambling  houses, 
dance  halls  and  other  adjuncts  of  a  frontier  civilisation  that 
distinguished  it  in  the  early  days  of  its  history.  Contrary  to 
the  expectation  of  those  who  have  read  romances  of  the  North- 
ern gold  fields,  Dawson  has  fine  schools,  churches,  hospitals, 
libraries,  newspapers,  a  telephone  and  telegraph  service,  an 
electric  light  plant  and  a  railroad  running  to  the  creeks. 
There  are  many  fine  homes,  around  which  splendid  flower  and 
vegetable  gardens  have  been  cultivated.  The  town  that  sprung 
up  in  a  night  has  passed  through  all  the  stages  of  life  typical 
to  a  frontier  mining  camp,  and  settled  down  into  a  sober,  staid 
community. 

The  days  when  thousands  of  dollars  were  wagered  at  a 
single  bet  on  the  faro  table,  when  the  egg  market  was  cor- 
nered to  win  a  woman's  smile,  when  potatoes  were  sold  at 
one  dollar  each  and  eaten  raw  with  the  relish  of  an  apple, 
when  stove  pipes  were  traded  on  the  "  ounce-for-half-ounce  " 
basis  —  an  ounce  of  stove-pipe  for  half  an  ounce  of  gold  dust 
—  have  passed. 


FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON       loi 

But  Dawson  never  was  as  lawless  as  represented.  The 
Northwest  Mounted  Police,  acting  in  conjunction  with  an  in- 
stitution known  locally  as  the  "  Corbett  and  Fitzsimmons," 
took  care  of  that.  As  an  eradicator  of  crime  and  the  criminal 
element  the  "  Corbett  and  Fitzsimmons  "  was  brilliantly  suc- 
cessful. It  consisted  of  several  cross-cut  saws  and  a  few  thou- 
sand heavy  logs.  Every  man  who  was  convicted  of  disobey- 
ing the  law  was  given  a  saw  and  introduced  to  the  woodpile. 
With  an  iron  ball  attached  to  his  foot,  he  was  forced  to  saw 
wood  for  ten  hours  a  day,  summer  or  winter,  and  there  were 
always  a  few  soldiers  around  to  see  that  he  performed  his 
daily  stint.  In  winter,  when  the  thermom.eter  fell  to  as  low 
as  fifty  and  sixty  degrees  below  zero,  prisoners  were  compelled 
to  saw  vigorously  in  order  to  keep  warm. 

The  gun-fighting,  law-breaking  element  from  Skagway  and 
other  coast  towns  usually  took  one  look  at  the  woodpile  and 
then  hurriedly  decided  to  move  down  the  river  into  American 
territory.  The  Canadian  authorities  kept  men  stationed  at 
Lake  Tagish.  Every  time  an  undesirable  passed,  word  would 
be  sent  ahead  of  him  to  Dawson.  On  reaching  the  metropo- 
lis of  the  Klondike,  he  would  be  taken  to  the  police  head- 
quarters, passing  the  "  Corbett  and  Fitzsimmons "  en  route. 
At  the  station  the  unwelcome  immigrant  would  be  questioned 
as  to  his  antecedents.  He  would  take  a  second  look  at  the 
woodpile  as  he  left  the  building.  It  was  unnecessary  to  urge 
him  to  leave.  Usually  he  made  a  bee  line  for  his  boat  as  fast 
as  he  could  and  proceeded  down-stream. 

Notorious  "  bad  men,"  who  boasted  they  had  more  notches 
in  their  guns  than  there  are  quills  on  a  porcupine  and  w^ho 
bragged  of  being  so  "  tough  "  that  an  axe  wouldn't  make  a 
dent  in  them,  were  so  tame  in  Dawson  that  they  would  eat 
out  of  the  hand.  The  rhythmical  "  Corbett  and  Fitzsimmons  " 
put  a  fear  into  their  hearts  that  nothing  could  eliminate.     The 


I02     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

thought  of  such  strenuous  labour  was  really  painful  to  this 
element. 

In  1898  food  at  Dawson  was  purchased  at  exorbitant  prices. 
A  man,  addicted  to  faro,  installed  a  pie  counter  in  a  gambling 
house.  A  slice  of  one  of  these  delicacies,  which  were  filled 
with  dried  apples  or  prunes,  cost  one  dollar.  The  miners  did 
not  need  the  services  of  a  detective  to  inform  them  when  the 
proprietor  of  the  counter  was  losing  at  the  faro  game,  for  on 
these  occasions  twelve  pieces  would  be  cut  from  a  pie  instead 
of  six.  This  gambling  vendor  of  comestibles  later  opened  a 
restaurant  and  when  it  was  discovered  that  he  boiled  tallow 
candles  in  the  soup  to  give  it  flavour  there  were  threats  of 
lynching. 

There  are  several  good  hotels  in  Dawson  now  and  the 
traveller  can  obtain  a  meal  there  that  compares  favourably 
with  the  cuisine  of  the  best  hotel  in  any  city  in  the  "  States." 

The  city  of  Dawson  was  founded  by  Joseph  Ladue,  a  trader 
and  gold  miner  who  had  lived  in  the  country  for  many  years 
prior  to  the  sensational  discovery  of  gold  on  the  tributaries 
of  the  Klondike  River  that  brought  60,000  people  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  over  the  mountains  and  down  the  Yukon. 
There  were  less  than  one  hundred  cabins  in  Dawson  when  the 
vanguard  of  the  great  hegira  arrived  and  in  a  few  days  thou- 
sands of  tents  had  been  pitched  on  the  river  bank.  Along  the 
water  front  thousands  of  boats  were  wedged  together  three 
or  four  deep.  But  the  Canadian  authorities  soon  brought 
order  out  of  the  chaos. 

Dawson's  richest  placers  are  now  exhausted.  The  mam- 
moth dredge  that  bites  its  way  through  the  banks  of  streams, 
tearing  down  rocks  and  trees  and  hoisting  thousands  of  yards 
of  gravel  into  immense  flumes,  has  replaced  the  pick  and 
shovel,  the  sluice  box  and  rocker,  and  other  crude  placer  min- 
ing devices. 


FROM  CARIBOU  CROSSING  TO  DAWSON       103 

Even  the  Klondike  River,  v/hich  the  pioneers  considered  too 
deep  and  too  wet  to  be  worked  at  a  profit,  is  being  operated 
by  the  gold  ships  that  grind  their  way  up-stream  and  leave  in 
their  trail  huge  piles  of  gravel  and  detritus  from  which  the 
particles  of  gold  have  been  extracted.  A  huge  flat  on  the  upper 
bank  of  the  Klondike  River,  at  its  confluence  with  the  Yukon, 
where  the  first  settlers  builded  their  cabins,  has  been  com- 
pletely demolished. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  this  region  is  claimed  by  George 
Carmack  and  Robert  D.  Henderson.  Carmack  made  an  im- 
mense amount  of  money  from  the  claims  which  he  staked  on 
Eldorado  and  Bonanza  creeks,  streams  to  which  Henderson 
claims  to  have  directed  him.  Henderson  received  a  government 
reward. 

The  men  who  stampeded  to  Dawson  from  the  lower  Yukon 
country  on  receipt  of  news  of  the  strike  did  their  first  mining 
by  thawing  the  frozen  ground  with  fire  and  hot  rocks.  The 
frozen  muck  above  the  gravel  was  amenable  to  the  pick  —  if 
that  implement  were  diligently  and  vigorously  applied  —  but 
when  the  frozen  gravel  was  reached,  no  steel  tool  could  make 
an  impression  on  it.     It  was  just  as  hard  as  solid  granite. 

It  is  related  that  Jack  London,  the  novelist,  in  company  with 
a  spectacular  character  known  as  "  Swiftwater  Bill,"  purchased 
a  couple  of  claims  on  one  of  the  payable  creeks.  London 
pecked  at  the  muck  on  top  of  the  gravel  till  his  hands  were 
blistered  and  his  back  ached.  Not  making  much  headway,  he 
kindled  a  fire  to  thaw  the  muck.  The  soil  softened  for  several 
feet  down  —  more  than  he  could  shovel  out  at  one  shift.  At 
dark  he  left  his  pick  and  shovel  sticking  in  the  soft  mud.  That 
night  the  temperature  fell  to  sixty  degrees  below  zero  and  when 
London  returned  the  next  morning  he  found  his  implements 
frozen  in  so  solidly  that  a  steam  derrick  could  not  have  lifted 
them  out.     To  have  started  another  fire  to  re-thaw  the  ground 


I04     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

would  have  burned  the  wooden  handles  from  his  tools.  So 
London  quit  the  claim  and  went  to  Dawson.  Soon  after- 
wards he  left  the  country  and  began  writing  stirring  tales  of 
the  North.  The  claim  he  forfeited  subsequently  yielded  nearly 
$1,000,000.  "  Swiftwater  Bill"  made  an  immense  fortune, 
which  fast  living  and  slow  horses  soon  dissipated.  Early  in 
1912,  he  was  in  Peru,  South  America,  where  it  was  reported 
he  had  discovered  the  source  from  which  the  Incas  procured  the 
gold  taken  from  them  by  Cortez  and  other  Spanish  invaders. 

While  the  excitement  of  the  mining  boom  has  passed,  there 
still  remain  many  things  worth  seeing  at  Dawson  and  not  the 
least  interesting  are  the  many  beautiful  gardens  and  thriving 
farms  adjacent  to  the  city.  It  probably  will  come  as  a  surprise 
to  many  people  in  the  Eastern  states,  whose  mental  picture  of 
the  Yukon  is  a  view  of  ice-crusted  hills  and  polar  bears,  to 
learn  that  the  farms  near  Dawson  grow  many  tons  of  veg- 
etables over  and  above  the  amount  necessary  for  local  consump- 
tion. 

Trips  may  be  made  from  the  city  to  the  mines  on  the  various 
creeks  either  by  railroad  or  stage  and  back  of  the  town  is  a 
winding  trail  leading  to  the  top  of  a  hill  that  has  an  elevation  of 
about  1,800  feet  above  the  river  level.  The  climb  is  not  diffi- 
cult and  the  view  obtainable  is  well  worth  the  effort.  From 
the  summit  the  valley  of  the  Yukon  can  be  seen  stretching 
towards  the  Arctic  Circle  at  Fort  Yukon,  while  to  the  west- 
ward are  hundreds  of  snow-capped  spurs  that  form  a  part  of 
the  mountain  chain  which  reaches  almost  from  the  Arctic  Ocean 
to  Mexico. 


CHAPTER  XI 

DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO   FAIRBANKS 

Forty-Mile,  the  pioneer  mining  camp  of  the  Upper  Yukon  —  The 
fighting  dogs  —  Eagle  City,  at  the  boundary  line  —  Circle  City  — 
Wada's  trip  into  Fort  Yukon  from  the  Arctic,  and  the  sad  fate  of 
his  trousers  —  Fort  Hamlin  and  Rampart  City  —  The  Tanana 
River  and   Fairbanks,  the  metropolis  that  sorely  needs  a  railroad. 

BETWEEN  the  river  banks  bordered  with  timber  and 
gay  with  wildflowers,  a  stern-wheel  steamboat  carries 
passengers  down  the  broad  Yukon  to  a  point  within  the 
Arctic  Circle,  thence  through  the  wide  delta,  near  its  conflu- 
ence with  the  sea  and  across  a  short  stretch  of  ocean  water  to 
St.  Michael.  There  is  much  sameness  about  the  scenery,  yet  it 
is  never  uninteresting.  When  Dawson  is  left  behind,  attention 
turns  to  the  river  itself  and  soon  one  realises  from  the  rapidly 
growing  volume  that  it  has  every  right  to  take  rank  among  the 
largest  streams  on  the  continent.  From  Lake  Bennet  to  St. 
Michael  is  a  distance  of  more  than  2,000  miles  and  it  Is  navig- 
able for  light  draft  vessels  to  White  Horse,  where  further 
navigation  is  impeded  by  the  rapids. 

The  clean-cut  banks,  the  great  river  studded  with  a  maze  of 
islands,  numberless  streams  running  in  from  between  the  rounded 
or  precipitous  hills,  the  primeval  forest  on  every  side  are  calcu- 
lated to  bring  delight  to  those  who  love  Nature  unscarred  by  the 
despoiling  hand  of  man.  Once  in  a  while  a  moose  will  be  seen 
swimming  through  the  turbid  water  and  occasionally  a  black 
bear  is  visible  on  the  jutting  rocks  clumsily  fishing  for  salmon  or 
gnawing  at  the  berries  in  the  woods.  Bird  and  animal  life 
abounds  everywhere.     On  the  upper  reaches  of  the  river  the 

105 


io6     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

voyageur  will  see  many  flocks  of  ducks  and  as  sundown  ap- 
proaches he  will  obtain  occasional  glimpses  of  big  Arctic  hares 
playing  on  the  sandbars.  In  the  lower  river  he  will  see  clouds 
of  wild  geese  and  brant. 

Fifty  miles  below  Dawson,  a  hooting  whistle  announced  the 
approach  of  Forty  Mile,  a  small  settlement  a  few  miles  from  the 
boundary  line  that  separates  Yukon  Territory  from  Alaska. 
The  whistle  had  an  amazing  effect  on  the  landscape.  The 
banks  of  the  river  seemed  to  quiver  with  the  movement  of 
dogs.  They  came  running  from  every  direction.  What  ap- 
peared like  clumps  of  brush  and  grass  suddenly  became  ani- 
mated streaks  of  dog  headed  for  the  river  bank.  There  were 
every  kind  and  description  of  canine  —  great  huskies  bred  from 
the  Mackenzie  River  timber  wolves,  malamutes,  terriers,  great 
danes,  mastiffs,  and  all  the  different  grades  of  mongrel  that 
this  miscellaneous  collection  could  produce.  The  multitude 
of  animals  seemed  imbued  with  but  one  desire  —  there  was  but 
one  thing  worth  living  for:  to  reach  the  river  bank  before  the 
other  dogs. 

Contrary  to  expectation  they  did  not  assemble  at  the  point 
where  the  gang-plank  was  laid  for  the  passengers  to  disembark, 
but  huddled  in  a  tail-wiggling  mass  at  a  point  opposite  the 
galley,  where  they  gave  every  possible  manifestation  of  canine 
delight.  They  squirmed  and  wiggled  and  barked  with  pleas- 
ure. It  was  good  to  receive  so  royal  a  welcome,  even  if  of- 
fered by  dumb  animals. 

Two  minutes  later  the  cook  threw  ashore  a  barrel  of  scraps 
from  the  table.  Instantaneously  the  seventy  or  eighty  raven- 
ous animals  were  transformed  into  a  writhing,  fighting,  biting, 
snarling  mass.  Each  tried  to  get  its  own  share  of  the  feast 
and  as  much  as  it  could  grab  of  what,  on  a  basis  of  equity,  be- 
longed to  others.  Bristling  hair  and  flashing  teeth  were  every- 
where.    They    rended    and    tore    at   each   other   like    fighting 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         107 

tigers,  one  great  Dane  standing  bravelj^  in  the  centre,  while 
malamutes  and  huskies  darted  at  him  from  all  sides  and 
snapped  their  teeth  into  his  flesh.  Occasionally  he  fought 
back,  clamping  his  strong  jaws  on  his  assailants.  It  was  a 
battle  royal.  Where  there  was  flesh,  they  bit  at  it  impartially, 
but  the  canine  nearest  the  food  came  in  for  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  attacks. 

The  malamutes  are  the  quickest  in  action.  Time  and  again 
they  bounded  into  the  midst  of  the  fray  like  a  flash,  gav^e  one 
rending  snap  at  the  enemy  and  regained  the  outskirts  of  the 
pack  before  a  counter  bite  could  be  delivered.  The  infuriated 
animals  in  the  centre  fought  with  unbridled  savagery  against 
those  w^ho  attacked  them  from  the  outer  lines,  stopping  once 
in  a  while  to  inaugurate  hostilities  among  themselves.  Arbi- 
tration between  the  malignant  belligerents  was  out  of  the 
question.  Amidst  yelps  of  pain  and  snarls  of  rage,  up  and 
down,  the  battle  waged.  Meanwhile  the  size  of  the  pile  of 
food  gradually  diminished,  but  not  until  the  last  particle  was 
consumed  were  hostilities  suspended.  Then  they  went  their 
various  ways,  some  to  lick  their  chops  in  the  smug  satisfaction 
of  an  appetite  appeased  and  others  to  lick  the  soreness  from 
the  wounds  and  scars  of  battle. 

Apparently,  the  logic  of  the  Alaskan  dog  is  that  when  there 
is  nothing  left  to  fight  for,  there  is  no  sense  in  fighting.  When 
the  spoils  of  war  are  no  longer  in  sight,  peace  is  declared. 

With  variations  the  performance  was  repeated  at  nearly 
every  stop  down  the  river.  The  cooks  on  the  vessels  make 
a  practice  of  saving  table  scraps  till  a  town  is  reached  and  the 
cry  of  "  steamboat  "  or  the  blast  of  a  whistle  is  all  that  is 
needed  to  start  every  dog  within  radius  of  the  sound  on  a 
wild  rush  to  the  river  bank. 

Forty  Mile  is  the  pioneer  mining  town  of  the  Yukon  Val- 
ley, gold  having  been  discovered  on  Bonanza  Bar,  a  tributary 


io8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  Forty  Mile  Creek,  in  1887.  This  stream  has  Its  source 
in  Canadian  territory,  but  flows  into  the  Yukon  on  the  Ameri- 
can side  of  the  boundary  h'ne.  When  the  Klondike  gold  fields 
were  discovered,  the  pioneer  town  temporarily  was  deserted, 
but  many  of  the  claim  owners  soon  returned  to  their  first  love. 
In  1 91 2  about  four  hundred  men  were  engaged  in  mining  in 
this  locality,  about  half  on  the  Canadian  side  and  half  in 
American  territory. 

The  nearer  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  is  approached  the 
greater  is  the  amount  of  mud  it  seems  to  carry.  Between  Forty 
Mile  and  Eagle  City,  the  current  cuts  into  the  soft  banks, 
and  allows  tons  upon  tons  of  earth  and  gravel  to  fall  with 
loud  splashes  into  the  stream.  Some  of  the  banks  are  thirty 
and  forty  feet  high  and  are  overgrown  with  trees  and  carpets 
of  moss.  In  places  the  bank  of  the  river  presents  the  appear- 
ance of  having  been  lined  with  moss  and  trees  growing  on 
horizontal  instead  of  vertical  lines.  The  moss  hangs  down 
like  a  protecting  curtain  and,  until  torn  out  by  the  jagged 
roots  of  floating  trees,  forms  a  natural  barrier  to  the  further 
encroachment  of  the  river. 

The  next  stop  is  made  at  the  boundary  line,  where  Eagle 
City  is  situated.  Gold  was  discovered  on  Mission  Creek  in 
1896,  but  the  output  never  has  been  large.  It  is  the  end 
of  the  Valdez-Eagle  telegraph  line.  Although  Eagle  City  is 
forty-nine  miles  below  Forty  Mile  by  following  the  river,  the 
distance  in  a  straight  line  is  only  thirteen  miles. 

Fort  Egbert  was  established  at  Eagle  by  the  government  in 
1897  and  much  of  the  work  of  the  soldiers  during  the  succeed- 
ing two  years  was  in  aiding  destitute  miners,  who,  after  fight- 
ing their  way  up  the  Copper  River  Valley,  crossed  the  moun- 
tains and  reached  the  Yukon  at  Eagle  or  Forty  Mile  in  a 
weary,  tattered  and  hungry  condition. 

Many    tributaries    between     Eagle    and    Circle,    the    next 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         109 

stopping  point,  increase  the  volume  of  the  Yukon.  The  main 
stream  winds  and  twists  in  every  conceivable  direction,  but 
gradually  works  its  way  through  the  hills  in  a  northerly  direc- 
tion till  Fort  Yukon,  situated  less  than  a  mile  north  of  the 
Arctic  Circle,  is  reached.  Many  of  the  creeks  in  this  region 
are  attracting  the  attention  of  dredging  and  hydraulic  engineers. 
Fine  gold  was  found  in  some  of  the  gravel  banks  in  191 1  and 
it  is  likely  that  within  the  next  few  years  big  mining  plants 
will  be  in  operation.  Should  a  railroad  be  built  through 
American  territory  from  the  coast  to  the  Yukon,  the  inland 
terminal  will  be  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  Circle  or  Eagle. 
A  shorter  route  to  the  interior  waterway  system,  however,  is 
offered  by  way  of  Fairbanks,  on  the  Tanana  River,  one  of 
Yukon's  big  tributaries,  and  as  quartz  mining  and  other  per- 
manent industries  are  developing  more  rapidly  there  than  on 
the  Yukon  proper,  it  probably  will  receive  early  consideration 
of  construction  engineers  and  capitalists. 

Circle  City,  190  miles  below  Eagle  by  the  river  route,  in 
1896-97,  was  the  most  populous  settlement  in  Interior  Alaska, 
but  when  gold  was  discovered  in  the  Klondike  it  became  de- 
populated. In  the  winter  of  1897-98,  when  a  partial  famine 
occurred  at  Dawson,  hundreds  of  miners  took  the  trail  over 
the  ice  to  Circle  and  remained  there  until  the  following  spring, 
when  steamboats  brought  more  food  into  the  country.  With 
the  exhaustion  of  the  rich  placers  at  Dawson,  many  of  the 
old-timers  returned  and  resumed  operations  on  the  payable 
streams  which  they  had  deserted.  One  of  these  creeks  is  called 
Mastodon,  receiving  that  name  from  the  fact  that  discovery 
of  many  tons  of  mastodon  ivory  and  mammoth  bones  proved 
conclusively  that  in  some  prehistoric  age  it  had  been  the  burial 
ground  for  a  large  number  of  these  extinct  mammoths. 

Below  Circle  the  river  runs  in  a  straight  northeasterly  direc- 
tion, but  unless  one  looked  at  the  map  one  never  would  sus- 


no    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

pect  it.  The  stream  broadens  out  and  circles  around  hundreds 
of  islands.  It  seems  as  though  its  course  follows  every  point 
of  the  compass.  Though  flat  in  stretches,  the  country  is  in- 
teresting. So  numerous  are  the  islands  that  it  is  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  mainland.  Occasionally  stops  are  made  to  re- 
plenish the  wood  that  is  fed  into  the  maw  of  the  furnaces  and 
here  and  there  is  an  Indian  settlement,  with  its  array  of  hun- 
gry-looking dogs  and  racks  of  drying  fish. 

Indians  in  this  region  do  not  use  seine  nets  but  a  kind  of 
scoop,  which  they  drag  through  the  water  in  a  rhythmical 
motion.  Their  salmon,  after  being  sun-dried,  is  cached  in 
huge  bins  built  upon  poles  several  feet  from  the  ground,  where 
it  is  out  of  the  reach  of  the  dogs. 

At  Fort  Yukon,  one  of  the  oldest  settlements  on  the  river, 
the  summer  traveller  can  read  print  about  the  size  of  that 
ordinarily  used  in  a  newspaper  just  as  easily  at  midnight 
as  at  noon.  Here  is  the  land  of  the  Midnight  Sun  in  real 
earnest.  Here  it  is  possible,  for  several  days  in  June,  to  see 
the  sun  sink  to  the  horizon  in  the  north  at  midnight,  then 
gradually  rise  again  and  travel  toward  the  east. 

Fort  Yukon  never  has  been  of  any  importance  as  a  mining 
centre,  but  for  many  years  has  been  the  trading  point  for  many 
hunters  and  trappers  from  the  Porcupine  River  and  the  region 
lying  between  the  Yukon  and  the  Mackenzie  River  delta. 
The  post  was  established  in  1848  by  John  MacMurray,  an 
explorer  in  the  employ  of  the  Russian-American  Fur  Com- 
pany. The  Hudson  Bay  Company  professed  to  believe  this 
was  Canadian  territory  and  that  the  Yukon  emptied  into  the 
Arctic  Ocean  somewhere  adjacent  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mac- 
kenzie River.  There  were  no  Indians  here  at  the  time  Mac- 
Murray  crossed  from  Hudson  Bay  and  built  his  post,  but  a 
tribe  was  recruited  from  the  outcasts  or  deserters  from  different 
tribes.     The  supplies  were  brought  overland  from  York  Fac- 


Photo  by  Welden. 

ON  FAIRBANKS  TRAIL.— "WHITE  SILVER  BIRCH  AND  QUAKING 
ASP  MINGLE  WITH  GREY  POPLAR  AND  LARCH  AND  DARK- 
GREEN   SPRUCE   AND  TAMARACK" 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         in 

tory,  on  Hudson  Bay,  four  thousand  miles  distant  and  four 
years  were  consumed  in  making  the  trip.  When  Alaska  was 
transferred  to  the  United  States,  it  was  decided  to  determine 
astronomically  the  position  of  Fort  Yukon.  The  141st 
meridian  —  the  dividing  line  —  was  found  to  be  where  Eagle 
is  now  situated,  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  compelled 
to  vacate.  This  determination  of  the  boundary  was  made  in 
1869.  The  survey  of  the  whole  boundary  line  since  has  been 
practically  completed. 

Between  Fort  Yukon  and  Fort  Hamlin  the  Chandalar  joins 
the  Yukon  from  the  north.  Jujiro  Wada,  a  celebrated 
musher,  in  1907  travelled  from  the  head  of  the  Chandalar 
River  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  along  the  bleak  shore  of  the  Polar 
Sea  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  and  then  ascended  that 
stream  to  the  Rat  River.  Here  he  crossed  another  divide  to 
the  headwaters  of  the  Porcupine.  He  occupied  more  than  a 
year  upon  the  journey  and  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
his  dogs  and  himself  subsisted  on  the  game  that  fell  to  his 
rifle  and  shot  gun.  While  travelling  along  the  northern  coast, 
he  killed  a  great  many  seal  and  his  clothes  became  saturated 
with  the  oil. 

Driving  up  the  Mackenzie  River  to  the  Porcupine  he  was 
afflicted  with  snow  blindness.  He  saw  flocks  of  ptarmigan, 
but  every  time  he  raised  his  gun  to  shoot  the  refraction  of  the 
sun  from  the  snow  struck  the  pupils  of  his  eyes  and  blinded 
him.  For  several  days  he  and  his  dogs  were  very  short  on 
rations  and  finally  were  reduced  to  a  condition  where  he  had 
to  boil  the  babeesh  rawhide  in  his  snowshoes  for  food.  Two 
of  his  dogs  died  and  were  eaten  by  the  other  animals.  As 
the  dogs  became  weaker  from  semi-starvation  they  formed  the 
discomiforting  habit  of  sniffing  enviously  at  Wada's  legs.  This 
gave  him  an  idea.  He  stripped  ofi  his  oil-saturated  trousers 
and    fed   them   to   the   famished   brutes.     The   garments  were 


112     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

chewed  till  every  particle  of  seal  oil  had  been  extracted. 
Starving  and  nearly  blind  Wada  drove  into  the  post  in  his 
underclothes.  He  looked  up  as  he  reached  the  store  and  the 
pain  in  his  eyes  caused  the  tears  to  flow  copiously.  The  trader 
thought  Wada  was  crying  and  wept  in  sympathy. 

The  statement  that  famished  dogs  chewed  a  pair  of  overalls 
for  the  purpose  of  extracting  what  nutriment  could  be  found 
in  the  seal  grease  upon  them  may  sound  incredible  to  those 
unacquainted  with  the  Alaskan  malamutes,  but  those  who 
know  the  propensities  of  this  canine  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  of  its  authenticity.  It  is  worth  noting  in  this  con- 
nection that  the  natives  of  St.  Lawrence  Island  and  many  of 
the  Eskimo  tribes,  in  winter  when  food  is  scarce,  keep  their 
dogs  alive  by  feeding  them  ptarmigan  and  other  bird  feathers 
soaked  in  seal  oil. 

The  Yukon  Flats  continue  till  Fort  Hamlin,  about  125 
miles  distant,  is  reached.  Here  a  government  school  has  been 
established.  Through  these  flats  the  traveller  will  see  count- 
less thousands  of  geese  and  brant  which  make  this  region  their 
nesting  ground,  but  there  is  an  absence  of  other  game.  Cattle 
and  horses  manifest  an  antipathy  to  grazing  on  a  field  where 
geese  have  been  feeding,  and  the  absence  of  moose  and  caribou 
from  the  lower  Yukon  Flats  would  indicate  that  these  animals 
also  find  the  company  of  web-footed  birds  objectionable. 

Below  the  flats  the  river  narrows  between  high  ridges  and 
Rampart  City,  which  was  founded  in  1897  during  the  Klon- 
dike gold  stampede,  comes  into  view.  The  gold  here  was  dis- 
covered by  two  white  men  and  Joe  Minook,  a  half-breed  Rus- 
sian, for  whom  the  principal  creek  was  named.  There  are 
approximately  200  miners  employed  and  a  big  hydraulicking 
plant  is  operated. 

Many  of  the  Indian  women  in  this  region  adorn  their  faces 
by  tattooing  their  chins  with  three  vertical  marks  which  have 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         113 

the  appearance  of  having  been  done  in  Indian  ink.  Rex  Beach, 
the  famous  author  of  Alaskan  stories,  lived  at  this  settlement 
for  several  months.  On  his  second  day  in  camp,  he  was  en- 
deavouring to  identify  to  another  resident  a  certain  squaw  from 
whom  he  had  purchased  a  salmon. 

"  You  must  know  her,"  positively  declared  Beach.  "  She's 
short  and  dirty  and  absent-minded  and  carries  her  house  num- 
ber marked  on  her  chin,  so  that  she  won't  forget  it.  Her 
number  is  one  hundred  and  eleven." 

Apart  from  the  qualification  of  absent-mindedness,  the  de- 
scription would  have  answered  for  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the 
Indian  women  in  the  settlement. 

Situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  Tanana  and  Yukon  Rivers 
is  the  city  of  Tanana,  or  Fort  Gibbon,  which  came  into  prom- 
inence in  1899  through  the  erection  of  a  military  post  for  the 
relief  of  suffering  miners  who  had  become  confused  in  the 
maze  of  mountains  and  glaciers  at  the  head  of  the  Copper  River 
and  wandered  down  the  Tanana.  Primarily,  of  course,  the 
military  was  instructed  to  maintain  law  and  order. 

At  Tanana,  which  is  the  transfer  point  for  freight  and 
passengers  to  Fairbanks,  the  tourist  will  get  his  first  glimpse 
of  a  herd  of  Alaska  reindeer,  provided  the  vessel  remains  a 
sufficient  length  of  time  to  allow  of  a  visit  to  the  government 
station. 

Fairbanks  is  not  on  the  regular  itinerary,  but  Yukon  boats 
usually  make  connections  with  those  running  to  the  Tanana 
metropolis.  The  Tanana  River  is  a  broad  stream,  carrying  a 
vast  amount  of  water  —  probably  nearly  half  as  much  as  the 
Yukon.  The  valley  is  one  of  the  most  fertile  in  Alaska  and, 
notwithstanding  its  northern  latitude,  crops  of  rye,  barley,  oats 
and  other  cereals  have  been  grown  for  several  years  previous 
to  191 1  without  a  failure. 

Eighty  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  River  is  the 


114    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Manlcy  Hot  Spring,  a  health  resort  patronised  by  the  residents 
of  the  Interior  of  Alaska.  Besides  possessing  medicinal  quali- 
ties, the  subterranean  heat  from  these  springs  keeps  the  ground 
thawed  all  through  the  year  and  a  splendid  dairy  farm  is  main- 
tained. Celery,  peas,  beans,  carrots,  potatoes,  turnips,  cab- 
bages, cauliflower  and  other  vegetables  are  grown  in  the  open 
and  canteloupes,  tomatoes  and  mushrooms  are  cultivated  under 
glass  to  supply  the  guests  at  the  hotel  and  the  miners  on  the 
adjacent  creeks,  while  crops  of  wheat,  oats,  rye  and  clover  are 
matured  for  the  horses  and  cattle.  The  Hot  Springs  were 
discovered  in  the  winter  of  1903  by  mushers  bound  for  the 
gold  strike  at  Fairbanks,  but  it  was  not  until  the  discovery  of 
gold  on  What  Cheer  Bar,  Thanksgiving  and  Otter  Creeks,  in 
1906,  that  a  permanent  settlement  was  established. 

About  two  hundred  miles  above  the  Hot  Springs  is  Fair- 
banks, a  well-built  city,  with  good  schools,  churches,  hotels, 
hospitals,  all  the  branches  of  fraternal  societies  and  many 
other  modern  institutions. 

For  pastime  Fairbanks  has  a  curling  club,  a  basketball  team 
and  a  baseball  league.  The  baseball  umpire  calls  "  play  ball  " 
at  ten  o'clock  P.  M.  on  June  21  and  the  game  finishes  anywhere 
from  midnight  till  two  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Each  year 
a  midsummer  festival  is  held.  It  commences  at  sunrise,  which 
is  equivalent  for  midnight  in  the  "  States  "  and  continues  for 
three  or  four  days.  One  of  the  features  is  an  agricultural  and 
dairy  product  fair  at  which  prizes  are  awarded  for  the  best 
exhibits. 

Fairbanks  has  a  city  council  and  a  school  board.  But  here, 
as  elsewhere  in  Alaska,  many  of  the  statesmen  are  guided  by 
principles  which  might  be  regarded  as  peculiar  in  other  coun- 
tries. The  councilmen  are  chosen  more  for  their  native 
sagacity  and  simple  honesty  than  for  their  attainments  in 
scholarly  oratory.     At  one  meeting  of  the  council,  a  few  years 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         115 

ago,  a  franchise  was  under  consideration.  On  the  face,  It 
looked  as  though  it  must  prove  a  benefit  to  the  community. 
It  was  without  a  flaw.  Almost  everybody  was  in  favour  of  it 
until  a  miner  who  had  been  elected  to  the  council  arose: 

"  Now  that  ordinance  looks  all  right,"  he  announced.  "  It's 
going  to  be  a  good  thing  for  the  city,  but  I  happen  to  know 
that  fellow  what's  boosting  it  is  an  infernal  crook.  I  don't 
know  what's  wrong  with  that  law  he's  trying  to  put  across, 
but  I  guess  we  had  better  hire  a  lawyer  and  try  to  find  out. 
Anyway,  I  know  that  fellow  that's  boosting  it,  and  he's  so 
crooked  that  he  meets  himself  every  time  he  turns  a  corner. 
So  that's  the  reason  I  am  opposed  to  it." 

The  bill  was  defeated,  and  investigation  proved  that  the 
councilman  who  objected  to  its  passage  was  right  in  his  esti- 
mation  of   its   demerit. 

In  1906  a  bill  passed  the  national  legislature  giving  Alaskans 
the  right  to  elect  a  delegate  to  Congress.  There  were  many 
men  in  the  country  who  had  never  exercised  the  privilege  of 
the  franchise.  Frank  Waskey,  a  well-known  miner  and  pros- 
pector, was  one  of  the  candidates.  On  election  day  a  rugged 
frontiersman  leaned  wearily  on  the  counter  at  the  polling 
booth  and  asked  to  be  instructed  in  the  most  approved  manner 
of  marking  a  ballot. 

"  I've  walked  sixty  miles  to  vote,"  he  explained.  "  I'm 
rather  new  to  this  election  business,  but  I  want  to  vote  for 
Waskey  and  I  don't  want  to  make  no  mistakes  about  it." 

The  clerk  directed  him.  He  walked  into  the  booth,  marked 
his  ballot  and  deposited  it  in  the  box.  Then  he  pulled  out 
his  gold  poke  and  untied  the  string. 

"What's  the  damage?"  he  asked. 

The  judge  hastened  to  explain  that  it  was  not  customary  on 
the  part  of  the  government  to  charge  for  the  privilege  of  voting. 

"  Well,"   he   said,   surprised,   "  if   I'd   have  knowed   that   I 


ii6     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

would  have  made  that  cook  of  mine  come  in  and  vote  for 
Frank,  if  I  had  to  drag  him  by  the  scruff  of  the  neck." 

The  Waskey  adherent  waited  around  town  till  the  election 
was  over,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  choice  elected. 
Incidentally,  Waskey  made  a  very  capable  delegate  in  Con- 
gress, but  after  spending  one  winter  in  Washington  —  the 
period  of  his  term  —  he  returned  to  the  north  and  went  off 
into  the  wilderness  for  a  few  years.  When  last  heard  from 
—  June,  1912  —  he  had  made  a  new  gold  discovery  at  Good 
News  Bay,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kuskokwim  River. 

For  miles  above  and  below  Fairbanks,  the  forest  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  has  been  denuded  of  its  timber  by  the  miners 
who  burned  the  wood  for  steam  thawing.  Fifty  miles  beyond 
Fairbanks  lie  the  great  Bonnifield  coal  measures,  the  biggest 
coal  seams  in  Alaska.  One  of  these  beds  of  coal  is  more  than 
150  feet  thick.  It  has  been  estimated  by  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  that  this  coal  field  contains  billions  of  tons 
of  fuel.  It  is  not  of  the  highest  grade,  but  would  do  excellent 
service  in  the  boilers  used  for  steam  thawing.  Because  a 
short-sighted  governmental  policy  kept  miners  from  using  this 
coal,  they  were  compelled  to  burn  wood,  with  disastrous  results 
to  their  pocket  books  and  the  forest.  Here  is  a  cold  country 
and  it  would  seem  the  natural,  sensible  course  to  follow  would 
be  to  allow  the  people  who  inhabit  that  region  to  burn  the  fuel 
which  Nature  in  her  infinite  wisdom  placed  there.  With 
freight  costing  as  high  as  six  cents  the  pound,  it  was  obviously 
out  of  the  question  to  transport  fuel  from  the  United  States 
or  Canada  and  thus  the  forests  were  destroyed.  The  miners 
had  no  option  in  the  matter.  The  need  of  fuel  was  imperative. 
But  they  were  compelled  to  pay  a  federal  stumpage  tax. 

If  there  is  any  town  in  the  world  that  is  in  need  of  transpor- 
tation facilities,  Fairbanks  is  that  very  place.  The  region  has 
produced  more  than  $30,000,000  in  raw  gold  and  according  to 


DOWN  THE  RIVER  TO  FAIRBANKS         117 

careful  estimates  made  by  the  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey, more  than  half  of  that  sum  was  expended  in  defraying  the 
transportation  charges.  A  small  railroad,  the  northernmost 
on  the  American  continent,  runs  from  Chena,  at  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Tanana,  to  Fairbanks  and  the  adjacent  gold 
producing  creeks.  The  material  for  this  road  was  transported 
into  the  country  at  a  cost  of  approximately  six  cents  the  pound, 
or  $120  a  ton.  The  winter  freight  rate  from  Fairbanks  to 
Cordova  in  191 1  was  one  dollar  the  pound.  Mail  and  bag- 
gage is  carried  over  the  road  from  Fairbanks  to  Chitina,  a 
station  on  the  Copper  River  and  Northwestern  Railroad. 

There  are  two  waj's  in  which  the  interior  transportation 
problem  may  be  solved.  The  first  is  to  establish  a  port  of 
entry  at  Fairbanks,  and  allow  Canadian  ships  plying  on  the 
Yukon  to  land  freight  there,  and  the  second  and  better  plan 
is  to  construct  a  railroad  from  some  point  on  the  coast,  pref- 
erably Cordova  or  Seward.  The  Canadian  government  es- 
tablished a  port  of  entry  at  Dawson  for  the  accommodation  of 
American  ships  operating  on  the  Yukon,  and  there  is  no  valid 
reason  why  the  favour  should  not  be  reciprocated,  especially 
when  it  would  tend  to  break  up  a  monopoly  and  accommodate 
the  American  miners  at  Fairbanks.  The  railroad  from  the 
coast  to  Fairbanks  eventually  must  be  built  in  order  to  give 
the  country  an  outlet  to  the  coast  at  all  seasons  of  the  year. 

The  Tanana  Mines  Railroad  was  projected  to  the  Bonnifield 
coal  measures,  which  it  was  thought,  would  be  made  available 
to  furnish  fuel  for  mining  and  domestic  purposes  at  Fairbanks, 
but  with  the  order  for  the  withdrawal  of  all  coal  lands  in 
Alaska  from  entry,  that  part  of  the  project  was  abandoned  and 
construction  discontinued. 

While  its  population  decreased  in  1909-10,  when  gold  was 
found  at  Iditarod  and  later  at  Ruby  City,  Fairbanks  remains 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  cities  in  Alaska.     It  has  before  it 


ii8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

a  great  future  in  mining  and  also  in  agriculture.  Many 
quartz  mines  are  in  operation  and  in  contradistinction  to  the 
veins  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  they  carry  gold  in  large  quanti- 
ties. It  would  be  impossible,  at  this  writing,  owing  to  the 
heavy  cost  of  freight  and  fuel,  to  work  any  but  the  highest 
grades  and  most  profitable  ores.  Half-a-dozen  quartz  mills 
are  in  steady  operation.  That  these  plants  arc  small  is  true, 
but  as  soon  as  the  fuel  is  obtainable  from  the  local  fields  and 
transportation  facilities  are  obtained,  their  capacity  will  be  in- 
creased several  hundred  per  cent. 

That  Fairbanks  and  the  Tanana  Valley  have  a  future  as  an 
agricultural  district  has  been  proven  beyond  all  question.  Al- 
ready a  sufficient  amount  of  vegetables  for  the  local  markets 
are  grown  there.  The  soil  is  marvellously  productive.  From 
six  acres  planted  in  potatoes,  one  man  sold  more  than  $4,000 
worth  of  tubers.  Owing  to  the  persistent  activity  of  Falcon 
Joslin,  president  of  the  local  railroad,  who  exported  seed  grain 
from  Norway  and  Russia,  many  acres  of  wheat,  oats  and 
other  cereals  have  been  planted  and  matured.  The  size  of  the 
"  stools  "  or  clusters  that  grew  from  one  grain  were  enormous 
and  in  igii  Fairbanks  cereal  products  were  awarded  several 
prizes  at  an  agricultural  fair  held  in  Minneapolis.  Near  the 
head  of  the  Tanana  Valley  are  thousands  of  acres  of  wild 
grasses,  growing  shoulder  high,  and  a  large  quantity  of  this 
is  cut  each  autumn  to  feed  horses  and  cattle  during  the  winter. 
Agriculture,  however,  like  the  mining  industry,  is  greatly  re- 
tarded because  of  lack  of  transportation.  Thousands  of  cattle 
could  be  wintered  in  the  Fairbanks  region,  but  there  is  no  trail 
by  which  they  may  be  driven  to  the  markets  of  the  coast. 
With  the  advent  of  a  railroad  from  the  seaboard  this  difficulty 
will  be  eliminated. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THROUGH   RIVER  DELTA  TO  THE  SEA 

The  bloody  tragedies  and  crimes  that  distinguished  the  early  settle- 
ment of  the  Lower  Yukon  —  Old  forts  along  the  river  and  at  St. 
Michael  —  Nome,  where  people  isolated  for  eight  months,  make 
winter  pass  pleasantly  —  Ice  floes  drifting  through  Bering  Strait 
—  Siberia  only  seventy-five  miles  distant  —  Land  of  the  Eskimo. 

THE  steamboat,  aided  by  the  swift  current  of  the 
Tanana  River,  makes  a  rapid  journey  over  the  275 
miles  between  Fairbanks  and  the  Yukon.  Along 
the  sides  of  the  stream  a  number  of  camps  have  been  estab- 
lished by  prospectors,  woodchoppers,  fishermen  and  Indians, 
and  once  in  a  while  a  native  in  his  birch-bark  canoe  —  a  fragile 
looking  craft  —  is  encountered.  Here  and  there  below  Fair- 
banks a  few  farms  are  visible  on  the  banks  and  on  the  islands. 
The  scenery  is  very  similar  to  that  seen  on  the  Yukon  for 
many  miles  below  Dawson,  but  the  water  is  much  clearer. 

Below  the  confluence  of  the  Yukon  and  Tanana,  the  speed 
of  the  current  increases  perceptibly,  and  the  run  to  Kokrines, 
a  fur-trading  post  and  telegraph  station,  140  miles  distant,  is 
accomplished  in  a  few  hours. 

Like  many  other  telegraph  stations  in  Alaska,  Kokrines  has 
succoured  many  exhausted  and  freezing  mushers  travelling  from 
the  Koyukuk,  Chandalar  and  other  far-distant  diggings.  The 
telegraph  stations,  in  regions  where  there  are  no  roadhouses,  are 
used  by  the  winter  mail  carriers.  These  outposts  of  the  tele- 
graph service  more  appropriately  could  be  called  rescue  stations, 
for  they  perform  the  same  service  for  the  wayfarer  by  land  that 
marine  life-saving  crews  perform  for  the  traveller  by  sea. 

"9 


I20     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Considerable  prospecting  has  been  done  in  the  vicinity  of 
Kokrincs,  and  some  low-grade  gravels  have  been  uncovered. 
So  far,  however,  the  results  have  not  been  such  that  they  are 
calculated  to  startle  the  world. 

Between  Kokrines  and  Louden  on  the  bank  of  the  Yukon, 
is  Ruby  City  and  from  here  a  trail  has  been  built  to  the 
diggings,  thirty  miles  distant,  where  a  considerable  amount  of 
auriferous  gravel  has  been  uncovered.  Ruby  City  became  the 
lure  of  the  prospector  in  the  fall  of  191 1,  when  hundreds  of 
men,  on  receipt  of  a  report  of  a  new  strike,  stampeded  from 
Fairbanks,  Iditarod  and  other  camps.  A  real  estate  boom 
started,  and  in  the  excitement  that  prevailed  for  a  few  weeks, 
lots  were  sold  at  fabulous  prices.  Then  the  news  w^as  dis- 
seminated that  hole  after  hole  had  been  sunk  to  bed  rock  and 
no  paystreak  discovered.  A  slump  in  realty  values  followed. 
Then  gold  was  found  and  values  increased.  At  this  writing, 
August,  191 2,  the  country  has  not  been  sufficiently  prospected 
to  determine  whether  Ruby  City  will  develop  into  a  per- 
manent community.  Alluvial  mining  is  an  ephemeral  indus- 
try at  the  best,  but  many  of  the  placer  camps  in  Alaska  have 
developed  into  fields  where  the  more  permanent  industry  of 
quartz  mining  is  conducted  successfully.  It  is  likely  that  in 
this  respect,  the  history  of  California,  Colorado,  and  other 
mining  states  will  be  repeated  in  the  Northern  Territory. 

A  short  distance  below  Ruby  City  is  Louden,  another  rein- 
deer and  telegraph  station  and  trading  post. 

Ever  widening  and  increasing  in  volume,  the  Yukon  River 
receives  the  Koyukuk,  another  big  tributary,  which  drains  a 
vast  country  to  the  northward.  This  stream  is  navigable  by 
small  river  steamers  for  a  distance  of  more  than  500  miles 
from  its  confluence  with  the  Yukon.  In  1898,  many  gold 
hunters,  finding  Dawson  overcrowded,  stampeded  to  the  Koyu- 
kuk, and  established  the  town  of  Bettles  at  the  head  of  river 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  121 

navigation  on  that  stream.  Gold  in  paying  quantities  had  been 
found  on  the  Koyukuk  as  early  as  1892,  when  a  number  of 
prospectors  began  working  Frying  Pan  and  other  river  bars. 
Because  of  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  the  miners  named 
their  new  settlement  Coldfoot.  In  igo6  many  large  nuggets 
were  found  on  Nolan  Creek,  as  much  as  $300,000  being  ex- 
tracted from  one  little  "  patch  "  of  ground.  As  a  general  rule, 
however,  the  field  was  unprofitable.  Since  that  time  some 
good  quartz  mines  have  been  found  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
district  yet  will  develop  into  an  active  mining  centre. 

Koyukuk  River  is  said  to  be  inhabited  by  more  mosquitoes  to 
the  square  foot  than  any  other  part  of  the  world,  but  this 
probably  is  an  exaggeration,  as  there  are  some  thickly-infested 
"  mosquito  belts  "  in  British  Columbia,  and  one  will  find  quite 
a  large  number  of  these  voracious  pests  in  almost  any  place  in 
Alaska,  especially  in  the  woods.  Koyukuk  was  given  the 
laurel  for  mosquitoes  because  in  1899,  a  man  was  so  severely 
bitten  that  he  succumbed  to  his  injuries,  and  a  prospector  a 
year  later,  who  wrecked  his  boat  and  became  marooned  on  one 
of  the  many  islands  in  the  river,  was  driven  insane  by  the 
boring  proclivities  of  these  inveterate  and  industrious  stingers. 

Nulato,  one  of  the  largest  Indian  settlements  on  the  Yukon, 
lies  a  few  miles  below  the  Koyukuk.  A  trading  post  was 
founded  here  by  Malakoff,  a  half-breed  Russian,  in  1838.  Its 
early  history  is  one  of  blood  and  crime.  Indians  who  were 
driven  up  the  Yukon,  or  Kwikpak  as  the  river  was  then  known, 
fearing  a  repetition  of  the  atrocities  perpetrated  upon  them  by 
the  Russians  at  St.  Michael,  made  desperate  efforts  to  keep  the 
white  invaders  out  of  the  country.  Several  times  the  post  was 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  on  one  occasion  the  traders  were  mur- 
dered. 

The  most  notable  of  the  "  reprisals  "  enacted  by  the  savages 
was  the  cold-blooded  murder  of  Lieutenant  Bernard,  an  Eng- 


122     ALASIvA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

lish  navigator,  who  passed  Nulato  and  reached  the  mouth  of 
the  Koyukuk.  Bernard  ascended  the  river  in  the  hope  of 
finding  some  trace  of  the  survivors  of  the  Sir  John  Franklin 
expedition,  whom,  it  was  thought,  might  have  found  a  route 
across  the  range  of  mountains  on  the  Arctic  coast  and  reached 
some  of  the  streams  flowing  toward  the  Yukon.  Bernard's 
murder  never  was  avenged.  Historians  give  two  accounts  of 
the  manner  of  the  Englishman's  death.  The  first  is  as  above 
stated,  and  the  second  is  that  he  was  killed  in  a  massacre  of 
Russian  traders  at  Nulato. 

Alaskan  history  records  that  Kerchinikoff,  a  Russian  trader 
notdd  for  his  murderous  instincts,  also  met  his  death  at  Nulato. 
Kerchinikoff  had  the  reputation  of  having  killed  enough  In- 
dians to  fill  his  grave  with  skulls  and  to  build  a  high  column 
of  bleached  and  fleshless  craniums  for  a  tombstone.  He  lived 
to  be  a  very  old  man,  but  from  his  very  youth  his  ruthless 
savagery  had  made  his  name  a  terror  to  the  unfortunate  In- 
dians. He  built  forts  along  the  river  banks  as  far  as  the 
Russians  penetrated,  and  some  of  these  rude  log  structures 
may  still  be  seen  at  Andreafski,  St.  Michael  and  other  places. 

He  never  let  an  insult,  real  or  fancied,  to  the  company  of 
which  he  was  the  head  in  that  section,  go  unpunished,  and  was 
the  first  man  to  use  a  cannon  against  the  Indians.  It  is  said 
that  at  one  time,  after  the  Russian  traders  at  Andreafski  had 
been  massacred  by  the  natives,  Kerchinikoff  placed  two  cannons 
at  the  prow  of  his  river  boat,  and  having  no  lead,  loaded  them 
with  chains,  nails,  scrap  iron  and  other  miscellaneous  articles. 
Near  Nulato  he  found  the  band  that  had  murdered  his  traders. 
They  laughed  derisively  when  the  Russian  demanded  the  sur- 
render of  the  murderers.  As  the  natives  fired  a  shower  of 
arrows  at  the  vessel  Kerchinikoff  simultaneously  touched  off 
both  cannons.  A  terrific  explosion  rent  the  air,  and  when  the 
smoke  cleared,  a  dozen  Indians  dead  and  horribly  mutilated, 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA         123 

were  stretched  on  the  beach,  while  many  others,  wounded  and 
panic-stricken,  fled  to  the  woods.  Not  another  white  man  was 
murdered  from  that  day  until  Kerchinikoff,  after  a  drunken 
orgy,  was  stabbed  and  slashed  to  death  as  he  lay  on  the  river 
bank  in  sight  of  the  graves  of  the  many  Indians  he  had  so 
cruelly  slain. 

With  Kerchinikoff  out  of  the  way,  the  Indians  again  became 
hostile,  and  wreaked  a  bloody  vengeance  for  the  horrible 
cruelties  that  had  been  inflicted  upon  them  from  time  to  time 
by  their  Russian  conquerors. 

There  are  now  a  few  houses  and  stores  at  Nulato,  a  tele- 
graph station,  and  one  of  the  largest  reindeer  herds  in  Alaska. 
It  is  the  summer  transfer  point  for  the  light-draught  vessels 
plying  on  the  Koyukuk  River. 

This  section  of  the  Yukon  Valley,  except  for  a  few  isolated 
hills,  is  very  flat,  and  there  is  a  marked  difference  in  the  types 
of  Indians  found  in  this  region.  Their  higher  cheek-bones  give 
them  a  resemblance  to  the  Eskimos.  Instead  of  the  dug-out 
or  birch-bark  canoe,  they  use  the  kyak  and  bidarkie,  craft  which 
are  made  by  stretching  walrus  skin  over  a  few  light  timbers. 
Here  also,  one  will  see  the  dead  buried  in  coflins  placed  on 
stilts  or  in  the  trees.  Some  of  the  natives  wear  coats  made 
from  the  skins  of  geese  and  other  birds  that  fly  over  the  river 
in  countless  thousands. 

At  Kaltag,  a  few  miles  below  Nulato,  there  is  a  trading 
post,  a  government  telegraph  station,  and  a  wireless  station, 
which  was  erected  by  private  enterprise  as  a  means  of  main- 
taining communication  with  the  Iditarod  gold  fields.  From 
Kaltag,  in  winter,  a  trail  leads  overland  to  Unalaklik,  eighty 
miles  distant.  To  reach  the  same  point  by  following  the  river, 
the  distance  is  more  than  600  miles.  The  Kaltag  cut-ofE 
shortens  the  route  to  Nome  by  about  500  miles  and  this  trail 
is  used  by  mail  carriers  and  other  travellers  during  the  winter. 


124     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Bending  to  the  southward,  the  Yukon,  with  a  few  high  hills 
on  the  left  and  flat  ground  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see  on  the 
right,  soon  reaches  Shagcluk  Slough,  a  lake-like  sheet  of  water 
which  leads  to  the  Idltarod  and  Innoko  diggings.  The  In- 
noko  River,  one  of  the  most  sluggish  and  crooked  streams  in 
Alaska,  seeps  into  the  head  of  Shageluk  Slough.  The  con- 
tiguous country  has  few  distinguishing  features  and  the  stream 
is  so  sinuous  and  its  water  so  slow  of  movement,  that  a  party 
of  prospectors,  after  camping  for  the  night,  started  their  craft 
down-stream  one  morning,  and  did  not  discover  their  mistake 
till  several  hours  later  when  they  found  one  of  their  former 
camping  places. 

At  the  head  of  Innoko  River  are  the  alluvial  diggings, 
where  a  few  men  take  out  about  $300,000  annually  in  gold 
dust.  One  of  the  branches  of  the  Innoko  is  the  Iditarod  River. 
From  the  Yukon  to  Dykeman,  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Iditarod,  is  about  350  miles,  and  from  there  to  the  diggings  the 
distance  is  about  75  miles.  Iditarod,  discovered  late  in  1909, 
yielded  about  $6,000,000  in  the  first  two  years  of  its  existence, 
one  claim  on  Flat  Creek,  producing  an  average  of  $40,000  per 
week  during  the  open  season.  In  19 12  a  number  of  the  claims 
were  bonded  to  a  big  dredging  corporation,  and  a  gold  ship 
was  floated  down  the  river  from  Dawson  to  operate  the  ground. 

With  the  exception  of  gambling,  Iditarod  possesses  all  the 
elements  of  a  frontier  camp,  but  the  installation  of  wireless 
telegraphy,  a  telephone  system  and  other  conveniences  rapidly 
are  bringing  it  within  the  realm  of  civilisation.  Iditarod  was 
supposed  to  be  the  last  frontier  of  Alaska,  but  new  discoveries 
on  the  headwaters  of  the  Kuskokwim  River  about  75  miles 
distant,  threaten  to  deprive  it  of  this  honour.  Being  off  the 
regular  line  of  travel  and  having  an  abundance  of  mosquitoes 
and  no  scenic  attractiveness  worth  mentioning,  it  is  not  likely 
to  become  of  interest  to  the  tourist. 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  125 

In  the  winter  of  1911-12  the  residents  of  Iditarod  ran  short 
of  meat.  The  last  of  the  cold-storage  beef  was  eaten  at 
Thanksgiving,  hut  the  miners  manifested  their  independence  of 
the  fresh  food  trust  by  crossing  the  Kuskokwim  divide  and 
bringing  back  a  number  of  reindeer  which  they  had  purchased 
from  the  missions  on  that  stream.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  flocks  of  ptarmigan  there  is  very  little  game  in  this  local- 
ity. 

Owing  to  the  vagaries  of  the  Japan  Current,  the  weather 
at  Iditarod  in  1912  was  very  mild  and  sluicing  was  con- 
tinued long  after  navigation  was  closed  on  the  Yukon.  One 
ton  of  gold  dust  and  bullion,  worth  approximately  $1,100,000, 
was  hauled  across  the  trail  to  Seward  by  dog  team  and  shipped 
to  the  mints.  The  scene  was  laid  for  a  dramatic  highway 
robbery,  but,  apart  from  one  of  the  sleds  tumbling  over  a 
clli?  and  nearly  falling  into  the  sea  near  Knik  Arm,  the  mushers 
found  the  journey  uneventful. 

Gold  was  discovered  on  the  bars  of  the  Innoko  River  as 
early  as  1886,  about  which  time  a  number  of  miners  worked 
the  gravel  with  rockers.  The  particles  of  yellow  metal  which 
they  extracted  from  the  sand  were  extremely  fine  and  bore 
every  evidence  of  having  been  carried  a  great  distance,  but  none 
of  the  prospectors  conceived  the  Idea  of  penetrating  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  stream  or  its  tributaries,  where,  in  the  natu- 
ral process  of  erosion  and  deposition,  the  greater  quantity  of 
gold  would  be  lodged.  Many  years  ago  a  Russian  expedition  as- 
cended the  Innoko  River  to  its  head  and  crossed  to  the  Kuskok- 
wim Valley.  The  members  of  this  party  doubtless  traversed 
Gaines  Creek,  but  they  made  no  mention  of  having  found  any 
trace  of  mineral. 

Holy  Cross  Mission,  where  a  Grsco-Russian  church  was 
established  about  1849  and  later  abandoned,  is  the  next 
point  of   interest   to  break  the  Yukon's   monotony  of  wooded 


126    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

islands  and  broad  waterways.  Eight  miles  below  is  Russian 
Mission,  where  a  Gra?co-Russian  church  has  been  maintained 
for  many  years.  It  is  not  unlike  the  other  churches  of  this 
denomination  in  Alaska,  excepting  that  it  has  little  of  the 
wealth  of  fine  paintings  and  metal  ornamentation.  A  band  of 
Indians,  many  of  whom  bear  traces  of  Russian  ancestry,  are 
cared  for  at  the  mission.  The  United  States  maintains  schools 
at  both  Holy  Cross  and  Russian  Mission. 

Through  the  same  interminable  scenery  of  wooded  islands, 
surrounded  by  winding  sloughs  of  muddy  water,  with  a  slightly 
undulating  country  to  the  north,  the  vessel  winds  its  crooked 
way  along  till  Andreafsky  is  reached.  This  settlement  lies  in 
one  of  the  many  curves  or  bays  of  the  Yukon  Delta,  and  beyond 
the  facts  that  it  is  the  place  where  river  vessels  are  laid  up  in 
the  ice  for  the  winter  and  that  a  government  reindeer  herd  is 
maintained,  there  is  nothing  particularly  interesting  about  it. 
A  trading  post  was  established  here  in  1850,  and  the  number 
of  atrocious  crimes  against  the  natives  which  distinguished 
Russia's  occupation  of  all  parts  of  the  territory,  are  said  by 
historians  to  have  been  repeated  here. 

A  short  distance  from  Andreafsky  the  Yukon  splits  into  a 
labyrinth  of  different  outlets,  which  for  untold  ages  have 
poured  their  burden  of  mud  and  silt  into  Bering  Sea,  causing 
the  coast-line  to  extend  closer  and  closer  to  Siberia.  The  dis- 
tance from  the  confluence  of  the  northerly  branch  of  the  Yukon 
with  the  sea,  to  the  mouth  of  the  most  southerly  branch  is 
more  than  sixty  miles.  The  country  surrounding  the  Yukon 
delta  is  flatter  than  a  badly-told  story.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  this  land  has  been  built  up  from  the  desposition  of  soil 
make  by  the  Yukon  during  many  centuries.  For  aeons  this 
great  river  has  been  depositing  mud  and  sediment  into  the 
waters  of  the  eastern  shores  of  Bering  Sea,  where,  because  of 
lack  of  current,  it  sinks  to  the  bottom  and  builds  up  shoals  and 


itr 


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-^i- 


vi.T 


V 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  127 

sandbars.  How  long  Nature  has  thus  been  employed  in  this 
land-extending  process  no  man  can  tell,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that,  as  the  centuries  roll  by,  the  shores  of  Alaska  slowly 
will  proceed  eastward,  and  —  unless  in  the  meantime  the 
course  of  the  Yukon  is  changed  —  when  a  few  million  years 
have  elapsed,  St.  Lawrence  Island  in  Bering  Sea  will  become 
a  part  of  the  mainland  of  Alaska.  This  steady  encroachment  of 
the  American  coast  need  not,  however,  interfere  with  the  plans 
of  those  visionaries  who  think  it  possible  to  connect  America 
and  Asia  by  a  railroad  running  through  a  tunnel  under  Bering 
Sea  from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  Alaska,  to  East  Cape,  Siberia. 
The  distance  between  the  two  countries  is  less  than  eighty 
miles  and  the  Diomede  Islands  in  the  centre  of  Bering  Strait  can 
be  utilised  for  a  sub-station. 

Man  is  never  so  well  satisfied  as  when  engaged  in  "improv- 
ing upon  Nature."  The  propensity  is  inherent  in  every 
healthy  human  being.  It  finds  its  first  manifestation  in  child- 
hood. When  a  youngster  sees  a  narrow  stream  his  first  im- 
pulse is  to  hunt  for  a  board  with  which  to  span  it  so  that  he 
may  have  an  enjoyable  half-hour  trotting  from  one  side  to 
the  other.  Grown  to  manhood  the  predilection  is  intensified. 
When  a  man  finds  two  sheets  of  water  separated  by  a  narrow 
strip  of  land  his  hands  begin  to  itch  for  a  shovel  with  which 
to  connect  them  by  a  canal.  When  he  finds  two  large  areas  of 
land  separated  by  a  narrow  strip  of  water,  he  never  is  satis- 
fied till  he  sees  somebody  bringing  them  together  by  bridge  or 
subway  tunnel.  It  is,  therefore,  not  improbable  that  at  some 
time  in  the  not-too-remote  future,  engineers  and  financiers 
will  join  forces  in  the  construction  of  a  tunnel  under  Bering 
Straits,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  few  hundred  miles  of  railroad 
in  Alaska  and  Siberia,  make  it  possible  to  ride  from  New  York 
to  Paris  on  wheels.     The  idea  is  one  that  appeals  to  the  im- 


128     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

summation,  however,  likely  will  be  found  in  the  heavy  over- 
burden on  the  sea  floor.  The  bottom  of  Bering  Strait,  in 
places,  is  covered  with  142  fathoms  of  water,  and  the  tunnel 
will  require  a  strong  roof  to  support  it.  Engineers,  however, 
revel  in  obstacles  of  this  kind.  The  battleship  Maine  was  ex- 
posed on  the  bottom  of  the  sea  by  means  of  a  coffer  dam, 
which  nobody  except  the  engineers  thought  could  resist  the 
pressure  of  the  sea  against  it. 

"  A  subway  tunnel  was  built  under  East  River,"  these  vision- 
aries say,  "  then  why  not  under  Bering  Straits?  " 

Through  tortuous,  twisting  channels  of  the  North  branch 
of  the  Yukon  to  the  wireless  station  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
is  but  a  few  hours'  run.  The  river  banks  are  composed  of 
alluvial  deposits,  covered  with  clumps  of  willows,  and  here 
and  there  a  lone,  stunted  spruce  tree.  The  stream  is  shallow 
and  its  few  navigable  channels  constantly  change.  The  wake 
of  the  boat  on  striking  the  shore  stirs  up  the  mud  and  washes 
back  in  a  wave  of  slimy  ooze.  However,  when  the  last  point 
is  rounded,  Bering  Sea  is  in  sight,  and  the  river  journey  prac- 
tically has  been  completed. 

St.  Michael,  lying  on  an  island  a  few  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  is  reached  through  a  channel  between  the  island 
and  mainland  knov/n  as  St.  Michael  Slough,  a  shallow 
strip  of  water  upon  which  considerable  dredging  has  been  done 
by  the  government.  The  distance  from  White  Horse  to  St. 
Michael  is  more  than  2,000  miles. 

St,  Michael  is  a  small  settlement  comprising  a  number  of 
warehouses,  a  shipyard,  a  military  post,  a  Russian  church  and 
a  few  stores.  Excepting  at  such  times  as  steamers  are  lying 
at  the  wharf,  it  is  a  dismal-looking  place.  One  of  the  sights 
of  the  settlement  is  an  old  Russian  fort  near  the  Alaska 
Commercial  Company's  hotel.  It  bears  the  marks  of  many 
bullets,  but  a  majority  of  the  missiles  were  lodged  there  from 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  129 

rifles  aiul  revolvers  carried  by  the  adventurers  bound  for  the 
Klondike  in  the  celebrated  gold  rush,  and  who  used  the  fort 
on  hilarious  occasions  for  target  practice. 

St.  Michael  was  founded  in  1833  by  Michael  Tebenkoff,  an 
employe  of  the  Russian-American  Company,  and  originally  was 
named  Michaeloffsky  Redoubt.  The  site  was  chosen  because 
of  the  excellent  defence  it  offered  against  the  Indians  of  the 
Yukon  and  the  Interior.  There  is  not  a  stick  of  growing  tim- 
ber on  the  island,  but  the  inhabitants  are  furnished  firewood  by 
logs  which,  carried  down  the  Yukon  in  flood,  drift  up  on  the 
beach.  The  old  Russian  buildings  are  made  of  logs  that  were 
rafted  down  the  river  or  hauled  on  sledges  from  the  Interior. 
Some  of  the  timber  used  in  the  Russian  buildings  must  have 
been  brought  from  Sitka  or  Siberia,  as  there  is  no  lumber  of 
that  particular  kind  in  the  valleys  of  the  Yukon  or  Kuskokwim 
Rivers. 

The  distance  by  river  from  Dawson  to  St.  Michael  is  1,600 
miles,  if  the  shortest  channels  are  followed.  The  distance  from 
St.  Michael  to  Seattle  is  from  2,400  to  2,800  miles,  according 
to  the  course  steered.  St.  Michael  is  the  transfer  point  for 
vessels  plying  on  the  Yukon.  Being  a  military  reservation,  no 
liquor  is  sold  and  the  various  commercial  companies  there  op- 
erating do  business  by  permission  of  the  U.  S.  War  Depart- 
ment. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  miles  across  Norton  Sound  from  St. 
Michael  lies  Nome,  the  largest  town  in  Northwestern  Alaska, 
a  distributing  point  for  all  the  mining  fields  on  Seward  Penin- 
sula, and  a  trading  station  for  hundreds  of  whalers,  walrus 
hunters  and  fur  dealers,  all  of  whom  ply  their  vocation  on  the 
Siberian  coast,  along  the  shores  of  Alaska  as  far  North  as  Point 
Barrow,  and  along  the  barren  lands  edging  the  Polar  Sea  as 
far  East  as  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River. 

Viewed  from  the  open  sea,  Nome  is  not  an  inviting  place. 


I30     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Except  for  a  low,  rounded,  sombre-looking  range  of  hills  that 
rise  brokenly  in  the  background,  the  country  is  flat  and  the 
absence  of  trees  along  the  shore-line  make  a  bleak  and  inhos- 
pitable picture,  that  in  some  way  conveys  an  impression  of  lone- 
liness and  desolation. 

On  days  when  the  Arctic  sun  is  shining  —  which  are  not  of 
such  frequent  occurrence  as  to  become  monotonous  —  the  land- 
and  sea-scape  presents  one  of  the  prettiest  views  imaginable. 
The  water  is  the  colour  of  lilac  and  little  purling  waves  lov- 
ingly lave  the  auriferous,  ruby-coloured  sand  on  the  beach. 
Here  and  there  a  white  speck  of  a  sailboat  is  seen,  and  schoon- 
ers, tugs  and  steamships  dot  the  roadstead.  The  tundra  plain 
on  the  shore  is  brown  and  green,  and  the  air  is  filled  with  sum- 
mer heat.  Pretty  wild-flowers  adorn  the  Arctic  moor,  and 
ducks  and  snipe  can  be  flushed  from  sequestered  pools  and 
lakes,  while  ptarmigan  lead  their  young  to  hide  in  the  grass- 
grown  meadows. 

But  sometimes,  almost  with  the  suddenness  of  a  curtain 
dropping  in  a  theatre,  the  scene  changes.  Black  lowering 
clouds  obscure  the  sun,  furious  winds  lash  the  sea  and  great, 
white-capped  waves  crash  on  the  beach,  smashing  boats  and 
sweeping  it  clear  of  merchandise,  coal  or  what-not  that  may  be 
piled  there.  The  thunder  of  the  surf  can  be  heard  for  miles. 
The  ships  in  the  roadstead  drop  their  anchors  and  for  a  while 
try  to  ride  out  the  storm,  but  when  their  kedges  commence  to 
drag  they  scud  for  safety  in  the  lee  of  Sledge  Island.  Woe  be- 
tide the  captain  and  crew  of  the  sailing  vessel  who  has  anchored 
his  vessel  too  close  to  shore.  Without  sufficient  sea  room  to 
make  a  tack  against  the  wind,  his  vessel  almost  assuredly  will 
pile  its  bulk  on  the  beach  to  be  smashed  to  smithereens  by  the 
surf.  Sometimes  the  tempest  blows  from  sullen  skies  for  two 
or  three  consecutive  days  on  which  occasions  the  water  smashes 
against  the  bulkheads  and  buildings  that  line  the  shore  and  dq- 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  131 

molishes  the  gold-saving  devices  that  from  time  to  time  are 
installed  on  the  beach. 

In  some  places  back  of  Nome,  and  at  an  elevation  higher 
than  that  upon  which  the  city  is  built,  driftwood  in  large 
quantities  has  been  found,  clearly  indicating  that  at  some  com- 
paratively recent  date  big  waves  must  have  swept  far  past 
where  Nome  now  stands.  Should  such  a  storm  occur  again, 
it  certainly  would  blot  the  city  out  of  existence.  Native  tradi- 
tion says  that  less  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  giant  seas  were 
swept  inland  by  the  wind,  causing  much  loss  of  Eskimo  life 
and  destruction  of  igloos. 

Nome  is  open  to  navigation  from  about  May  15  till  Novem- 
ber I.  For  the  balance  of  the  year  the  sea  is  covered  with  solid 
ice,  and  the  residents  are  cut  off  from  the  outside  world,  which 
can  be  reached  only  after  a  long  and  dangerous  trip  over  the 
frozen  trail  to  Valdez,  Cordova,  or  Seward,  has  been  accom- 
plished. 

In  the  autumn,  generally  about  October  25,  Bering  Sea  be- 
gins to  take  on  a  covering  of  slush  ice.  A  month  or  six  weeks 
later  the  Arctic  ice  pack,  a  solid  field  from  four  to  forty  feet 
in  thickness  and  hundreds  of  square  miles  in  extent,  floats  down 
from  the  North  and  effectually  covers  the  sea.  In  the  spring 
these  immense  fields  of  ice  float  gently  out  to  sea  and  are  car- 
ried Northward  again  by  the  currents.  As  the  field  passes 
through  Bering  Strait,  a  narrow  strip  of  water  between  the 
easternmost  point  of  America  and  the  westernmost  point  of 
Asia,  it  forms  a  magnificent  spectacle.  The  ice  pack  has  all 
the  irresistible  power  of  a  slowly  moving  glacier  many  times 
multiplied.  Instead  of  moving  two  or  three  feet  a  day  like 
a  glacier,  the  sea  ice  pack  passes  at  a  rate  of  from  two  to  three 
miles  an  hour.  Great  bergs  fighting  their  way  through  the 
narrow  channel,  crash  and  grind  against  each  other  like  colossal 
giants   clashing   on   a  football   field.     The   creaking,   crushing 


132     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

noise  can  be  heard  for  many  miles.  The  power  of  these  im- 
mense fields  is  so  great  that  one  often  wonders  they  do  not 
push  the  Diomede  Islands,  two  small  splotches  of  rock  in  the 
centre  of  the  straits,  off  the  map. 

A  few  years  ago  the  ice  moved  during  the  winter  and  cut 
off  a  wharf  as  though  the  piles  had  been  so  many  toothpicks. 
At  a  point  six  miles  above  Nome  it  pushed  big  bergs  far  up  on 
the  tundra,  crushing  a  few  cabins  to  splinters.  A  similar  oc- 
currence was  recorded  at  Bonanza  Slough,  a  point  about  twenty 
miles  east  of  Nome. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  are  but  two  seasons  at  Nome, 
July  and  winter.  But  the  seasons  should  be  divided  into  four 
months  of  work  and  eight  months  of  play.  The  natural  in- 
ference would  be  that  the  2,500  to  3,000  people  who  remain 
in  Nome  after  the  last  vessel  has  left  for  the  South,  would 
experience  a  monotonous,  desolate  and  generally  lonesome 
time.  Such  an  impression  is  as  far  as  possible  from  the  true 
condition  of  affairs.  Knowing  they  will  be  isolated  for  the 
ensuing  eight  months  and,  with  little  work  to  do,  they  plan  for 
a  season  of  enjoyment  and  social  gaiety.  There  are  club  meet- 
ings, dancing  parties  and  musical  concerts  by  the  score.  The 
Eagle  and  Arctic  Brotherhood  halls  are  well  equipped  for  these 
purposes  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  three  days  when  the 
big  dog  race  is  in  progress,  there  is  scarcely  a  night  from  the 
time  the  last  boat  leaves  till  the  first  vessel  arrives  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  that  some  form  of  amusement  is  not  provided. 
These  entertainments  are  not  by  any  means  of  the  crude  char- 
acter that  would  be  expected.  The  women  are  just  as  well 
gowned  and  the  men  are  just  as  carefully  groomed  as  though 
they  were  in  attendance  at  an  inaugural  ball  at  the  National 
capital.  With  the  exception  of  the  dog  race,  the  same  condi- 
tions prevail  at  Fairbanks,  Dawson  and  other  interior  settle- 
ments in  the  great  North  country.     All  of  these  towns  have 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  133 

their  women's  clubs,  their  fraternal  societies  and  various  so- 
cial  organisations. 

Many  forms  of  open-air  amusement  and  recreation  are  fur- 
nished, the  principal  ones  being  ski  jumping,  snow  shoeing, 
tobogganing,  hunting  and  dog  and  reindeer  racing.  Many  of 
the  business  men  form  parties  and  go  caribou  and  polar  bear 
hunting.  The  big  day  of  the  year  at  Nome,  however,  is  the 
one  in  the  spring  when  a  cloud  of  smoke  is  seen  on  the  horizon. 
The  cry  of  "  Steamboat!  "  whether  it  be  midnight  or  noon,  is 
enough  to  bring  every  one  out.  The  whistles  screech,  bells 
ring  out,  and  the  beach  soon  is  lined  with  people,  for  the  first 
boat  will  soon  be  in,  the  season  of  isolation  ended  and  another 
busy  summer  commenced. 

The  arrival  of  the  first  steamship  from  the  outside  means  a 
replenishment  of  the  larder  in  fresh  vegetables,  fruit,  eggs  and 
the  delicacies  of  which  there  may  have  been  a  shortage  through 
the  winter.  Nome  loses  its  air  of  gaiety  and  sociabilit)\  Every- 
body becomes  imbued  with  a  desire  to  hustle,  for  in  a  little 
more  than  one  hundred  days  the  sunshine  at  midnight  will  have 
come  and  gone,  the  days  will  be  shortened  and  another  season 
of  isolation  closing  in  upon  them.  Water  is  turned  into 
ditches  and  the  piles  of  gravel,  which  have  been  taken  out  of 
the  frozen  ground,  by  thawing  machines,  are  shovelled  into 
sluice  boxes  where  their  harvest  of  glinting  metal  is  extracted. 
The  boilers  of  the  dredging  machines  are  fired  up,  the  wheels 
of  industry  grind  industriously,  and  this  is  the  condition  in 
which  the  tourist  will  find  Nome  on  his  arrival  from  St. 
Michael. 

On  the  busy  main  street  unkempt  and  unwashed  Eskimos 
will  be  met  peddling  their  pieces  of  ivory  and  jade.  In  the 
stores  will  be  seen  the  stock  of  furs  that  have  just  come  from 
Siberia  or  from  some  other  point  on  the  Arctic  coast.  Pros- 
pectors will  be  seen  carrying  their  packs  across  the  hills,  and 


134     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  miners  will  be  conveying  their  gold  dust  to  the  banks  for 
shipment  to  the  outside.  Nome  in  summer  is  one  of  the 
busiest  places  in  the  universe. 

Trips  may  be  made  to  Anvil  Creek  and  other  near-by  aurifer- 
ous streams,  where  big  hydraulic  plants  are  at  work.  Down 
the  coast  forty  miles  is  Solomon  River  where  dredges  are  tear- 
ing the  gravel  from  the  river  floor  and  robbing  it  of  its  gold. 
More  primitive  forms  of  mining  will  be  seen  in  the  Kougarok 
and  Casa-de-Pago  districts,  both  of  which  are  accessible.  If 
the  health  is  run  down,  rejuvenation  can  be  found  in  the  wa- 
ters of  the  Kruzgamapa  hot  springs,  sixty  miles  distant,  where 
mushrooms,  celery  and  many  other  vegetables  are  grown  almost 
in  the  shadow  of  the  Arctic  circle.  There  are  many  pictur- 
esque journeys,  one  of  them  being  to  climb  to  the  top  of  Anvil 
Mountain,  which  is  not  difficult  of  ascent  and  offers  a  splen- 
did view  of  the  surrounding  country. 

Should  a  trip  to  the  coast  of  Siberia  be  thought  desirable, 
it  is  probable  that  accommodations  can  be  secured  on  one  of 
the  schooners  or  other  vessels  engaged  in  that  trade.  It  is 
only  a  few  days'  journey,  but  —  except  for  tribes  of  ragged, 
dirty  Indians,  the  descendants  of  the  war-like  Chuckchees,  a 
few  reindeer  herds  and  a  barren,  timberless,  desolate-looking 
coast  line  —  there  is  little  that  is  worth  the  seeing.  The  Si- 
berian coast  is  very  similar  in  appearance  to  the  coast  of  North- 
ern Alaska,  a  vista  of  bare,  open  plains  and  snow-capped 
mountains.  Provided  there  is  no  haze  and  the  atmosphere 
conditions  are  otherwise  favourable,  the  Siberian  coast  may  be 
seen  from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  Alaska,  with  a  strong  glass. 
The  distance  between  the  two  countries  is  about  75  miles. 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  by  the  way,  is  380  miles  further  to  the 
westward   than   Honolulu. 

There  are  three  railroads  on  the  Seward  Peninsula  but  they 
do  not  operate  steadil}\     Here  as  elsewhere  in  Alaska  can  be 


r 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  135 

felt  the  obstacle  to  progress  that  is  found  in  the  lack  of  fuel. 
Coal  brought  to  Nome  from  Canada  costs  from  $17  to  $23  the 
ton,  and  there  is  not  a  railroad  anywhere  in  the  United  States 
that  could  pay  those  prices  for  fuel  and  operate  at  a  profit. 
The  Seward  Peninsula  Railroad  runs  from  Nome  to  Lane's 
Landing,  or  Shelton,  in  the  Kougarok  district,  a  distance  of 
eighty  miles.  It  has  water  competition  and  does  not  carry  a 
vast  amount  of  freight.  In  191 1  the  government  taxes  against 
it,  which  had  not  been  collected  for  a  year  or  two  past,  were  a 
greater  amount  than  the  total  gross  earnings  of  the  road.  An- 
other railroad  runs  from  the  mouth  of  Solomon  River  to  the 
Casa-de-Pago  district,  but  apart  from  hauling  coal  for  the 
dredging  machines  and  a  few  miners'  supplies,  it  docs  little 
business.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  The  heavy  cost 
of  operation  —  in  other  words  lack  of  fuel  —  brought  about 
its  downfall.  The  third  railroad  runs  from  Council  City  to 
Ophir  Creek,  a  distance  of  seven  miles.  It  is  owned  by  the 
Wild  Goose  Mining  and  Trading  Company  and  it  is  largely 
used,  when  used  at  all,  in  hauling  the  company's  supplies  and 
machinery.  There  is  considerable  timber  on  the  Neukluk  and 
Fish  Rivers,  adjacent  to  Council  City,  and  in  the  locomotives 
on  this  road  wood  is  burned  for  fuel. 

Although  gold  was  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Nome,  on  the 
Neukluk  River,  eighty  miles  distant  to  be  exact,  as  early  as 
1867  by  some  of  the  members  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Expedition,  it  was  not  discovered  in  payable  quantities 
until  the  fall  of  1898,  when  Jafet  Lindeberg,  Erik  Lindblom 
and  John  Brynteson  uncovered  a  rich  paystreak  on  Anvil 
Creek,  a  stream  which  empties  into  Snake  River,  about  three 
miles  from  where  the  town  is  situated.  The  pioneers  formed 
the  Pioneer  Mining  Company  and  staked  claims  on  Anvil  and 
several  other  creeks.  The  following  spring,  1899,  the  news 
of    the    discovery    percolated,  over    the    country    to    Dawson. 


136     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Thousands  of  disappointed  Klondikers  who  were  returning 
down  the  Yukon  en  route  to  the  United  States,  stopped  off  at 
Nome,  and  another  swarm  of  prospectors  from  the  Kotzebue 
Sound  country,  ragged,  starving,  weary  and  disappointed,  also 
made  Nome  their  Mecca. 

In  the  meantime  gold  was  found  in  fine,  flaky  particles  on 
the  beach.  This  was  "  No  man's  land."  A  strip  along  the 
shore  front  between  high  tide  mark  and  the  sea,  had  been  re- 
served from  location  as  mining  ground  by  the  government  for 
wharfage  purposes.  Mining  claims  could  not  be  located,  but 
there  was  no  provision  in  the  law  to  prevent  any  one  from 
extracting  the  gold.  A  miners'  meeting  was  held  and  by  mu- 
tual consent  it  was  agreed  that  each  man  should  be  entitled 
to  as  much  ground  as  he  could  reach  with  his  shovel  from  the 
edge  of  the  hole  in  which  he  was  working. 

Then  trouble  arose.  Who  could  define  the  high  tide  mark? 
Those  who  had  located  claims  on  the  tundra  declared  it  ex- 
tended down  to  the  sea.  Those  who  were  working  on  the 
beach  contended  it  extended  to  the  edge  of  the  tundra.  Fights 
and  shooting  matches  between  the  claim  owners  and  the  beach 
miners  were  frequent.  Finally  the  military  arrived.  The 
claim  owners  caused  arrests  to  be  made,  but  Lieutenant  Craigie, 
in  charge  of  the  troops,  insisted  that  the  claim  owners  put  up 
the  amount  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  prisoners. 
Then,  instead  of  arresting  a  few  men,  he  gathered  in  the  beach 
workers  by  hundreds.  These  men  had  to  be  fed  and  lodged, 
and  the  claim  owners  decided  the  cost  was  greater  than  the 
prize  for  which  they  were  contending,  and  ordered  the  dis- 
charge of  the  detained  free-for-all  miners. 

Some  of  the  new  arrivals  scattered  over  the  hills  in  search 
of  new  fields,  while  others  set  up  rockers  and  extracted  gold 
from  the  beach  sands.  In  a  few  weeks  saloon  keepers  and 
gambling  house  proprietors  arrived  and  the  place  took  on  all 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  137 

the  improvements  that  distinguish  the  frontier  mining  camp. 
The  beach  miners  made  from  $10  to  $100  per  day  and  many 
of  them  left  for  the  South  In  the  fall.  Scattering  through  all 
parts  of  the  United  States  and  each  carrjn'ng  sacks  containing 
from  a  few  hundreds  to  a  few  thousands  of  dollars  In  gold  dust, 
it  was  but  natural  that  the  new  Eldorado  should  be  Invested 
with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  especially  as  it  was  impossible 
to  reach  the  field  till  the  following  spring. 

When  the  sea  was  clear  of  Ice  In  igoo,  approximately  sixty 
vessels  of  every  kind  and  description,  all  loaded  with  fortune 
hunters,  steamed  and  sailed  Into  the  roadstead.  Many  of  the 
new  arrivals  expected  they  could  find  the  gold  nuggets  sim- 
ply by  scratching  over  the  ground  with  a  stick.  The  gold  area 
of  the  beach  sand  soon  was  exhausted  by  the  crowd  and  many 
returned  to  civilisation  deeply  disappointed. 

With  the  arrival  of  the  swarm  of  miners,  there  also  arrived 
authorities  to  maintain  law  and  order  in  the  camp.  Instead, 
they  conspired  to  steal  the  gold  mines  from  those  who  had  dis- 
covered them  —  or  at  least  to  steal  the  proceeds  thereof.  How 
bloodshed  was  averted  in  those  strenuous  days  is  a  marvel,  but 
the  cooler  heads  prevailed,  with  the  result  that  a  great  many 
federal  officials,  including  judges,  district  attorneys  and  other 
court  officials  were  sent  to  prison.  In  the  decision  handed 
down  by  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  at  San  Francisco  where 
the  defendants  were  sentenced,  one  of  the  judges  characterised 
the  proceedings  of  the  court  at  Nome  as  "  one  of  the  most 
villainous  and  outrageous  conspiracies  in  the  history  of  juris- 
prudence." 

Among  the  invading  crowd  were  many  who  were  totally 
unfitted  physically  and  mentally  to  combat  the  rigorous  condi- 
tions of  an  Arctic  country.  Many  fell  victims  to  typhoid, 
pneumonia  and  other  diseases.  Many  in  destitute  circum- 
stances were  transported  on  a  revenue  cutter,  at  government 


138     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

expense,  to  a  more  salubrious  and  less  strenuous  environment. 

Several  millions  of  dollars  in  gold  were  taken  out  of  the 
Nome  fields  the  first  year  and  many  enterprises  in  which 
the  investment  of  capital  was  needed  were  inaugurated,  but  the 
insecurity  of  title  created  by  corrupt  officials  prevented  the  pro- 
moters from  inducing  anybody  to  invest. 

The  following  year  many  new  fields  were  discovered.  The 
Kougarok  country  to  the  Northward  and  Solomon  River  to 
the  Eastward,  began  to  yield  their  precious  burden,  and  sev- 
eral creeks  in  the  vicinity  of  Council  City,  eighty  miles  dis- 
tant from  Nome,  which  had  been  staked  in  1898,  also  became 
productive. 

Then  a  stampede  started  to  Kotzebue  Sound.  The  rush 
was  created  by  James  Blankenship,  who  claimed  he  saw  the 
ghost  of  an  Indian  at  the  prow  of  his  boat  directing  him  as  to 
the  best  way  to  travel.  Blankenship  may  or  may  not  have 
seen  this  Indian  spirit  —  most  people  believe  that  he  did 
not  —  but  the  fact  is  that  he  put  out  into  Bering  Sea  in  an 
open  boat,  sailed  through  Bering  Strait  into  Kotzebue  Sound 
and  found  extremely  rich  gravel  on  Candle  Creek,  a  stream 
which  had  been  crossed  by  many  prospectors  two  or  three  years 
previously. 

Since  that  time  Candle  Creek  and  other  streams  in  that  lo- 
cality have  produced  an  aggregate  of  between  $600,000  and 
$1,000,000  annually  in  gold  dust.  Coal  was  found  a  few 
miles  distant  from  Candle  Creek,  and  notwithstanding  the 
proclamation  that  all  coal  lands  in  Alaska  are  withdrawn  from 
entry,  the  Candle  Creek  miners,  in  1912,  were  still  mining 
the  fuel.  It  is  a  poor  grade  of  lignite,  but  sufficient  for  their 
purposes. 

The  Nome  population  gradually  decreased  as  the  placers 
were  exhausted,  but  the  industry  received  a  new  lease  of  life 
in    1905,    when   an   ancient  beach    deposit   richly   impregnated 


THROUGH  RIVER  DELTA  TO  SEA  139 

with  gold  was  discovered  by  J.  C.  Brown  at  the  base  of  Anvil 
Mountain.  This  ancient  marine  deposit,  the  elevation  of 
which  was  sixty-seven  feet  above  the  present  sea-Ievcl,  follows 
the  contour  of  the  present  beach-line.  It  yielded  several  mil- 
lion dollars.  Practically  all  the  rich  deposits  now  have  been 
worked  out,  and  the  lower  grade  gravels  are  being  worked  by 
dredges  and  other  labour-saving  devices.  Already  sufficient 
ground  has  been  proved  to  keep  these  machines  in  operation  for 
thirty  years,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  some  good  quartz 
veins  will  be  developed. 

Ships  leave  Nome  for  Seattle  every  eight  or  ten  days,  and 
connection  is  made  with  Yukon  River  steamers.  If  the  tourist 
desires  to  spend  a  few  days  in  Nome,  much  of  interest,  apart 
from  the  mining  industry  will  be  found  to  attract  attention. 
Fishing  is  obtainable  in  Nome  River  and  other  watercourses, 
and  a  visit  to  the  Eskimo  village  on  the  sandspit,  near  the 
mouth  of  Snake  River,  usually  is  worth  the  trouble  involved. 

The  Eskimos  are  a  jolly,  fun-loving  and  industrious  people. 
Their  environment  is  a  rigorous  one,  and  this  condition  nat- 
urally has  engendered  the  desire  to  work.  They  have  a  dis- 
tinct resemblance  to  the  Japanese,  in  feature  as  well  as  char- 
acteristics, and  assuming  that  primitive  man  in  his  wanderings 
across  the  earth  followed  the  lines  of  least  resistance,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  guess  that  they  might  easily  have  crossed  Bering 
Strait  on  the  ice  or  in  skin  boats,  just  as  the  Siberian  natives 
do  to-day.  During  the  summer  natives  from  Diomede  Islands, 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales  and  Siberia,  congregate  at  Nome  to  do 
their  trading.  These  events  usually  are  celebrated  by  the 
playing  of  tom-toms  and  native  dances. 

Although  the  coast  line  of  Alaska  extends  a  good  many 
thousands  of  miles  beyond  Nome,  none  of  the  passenger  steam- 
ships run  in  that  direction.  Nome  is  the  end  of  the  journey 
for   the   tourist.     The   return    to   the   "  States "   can   be  made 


I40    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

either  by  ascending  the  Yukon  River  or  by  taking  a  steamship 
bound  for  Seattle.  The  latter  journey  occupies  about  ten 
days,  the  former  about  thirty. 

A  journey  to  any  part  of  Alaska  acts  as  a  tonic  to  tired 
nerves  and  enervated  systems.  The  great  country  has  much 
that  Is  unique  and  interesting  to  offer  to  the  traveller,  the 
pleasure  seeker,  the  home-builder  and  the  investor.  The  glory 
of  the  North  is  dawning;  its  infinite  vi^onders  are  gradually 
unfolding. 

The  National  Monetary  Commission  recently  estimated  the 
annual  expenditures  of  Americans  who  visit  Europe  at  $200,- 
(XX),000.  The  editor  of  the  London  Statist  places  the  figure 
at  $170,000,000.  Some  New  York  bankers  in  a  joint  discus- 
sion with  French  financiers  placed  it  at  nearly  $400,000,000. 
There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  sum  expended  in  Euro- 
pean travel  is  between  $200,000,000  and  $400,000,000  per 
annum.  In  September,  191 2,  the  Associated  Press  correspond- 
ent at  London  filed  a  news  despatch  stating  that  the  number 
of  people  preparing  to  return  to  America  after  spending  the 
summer  in  Europe  was  more  than  thirty  thousand. 

If  our  own  country  were  better  known  much  of  this  economic 
waste  would  be  avoided.  This  is  an  era  of  conservation  and 
our  financial  as  well  as  our  natural  resources  should  be  con- 
served. We  have  mountains,  glaciers,  rivers,  and  other  nat- 
ural attractions  which  by  far  surpass  anything  to  be  seen  in 
Europe  and  it  should  be  remembered  that  each  dollar  diverted 
from  European  travel  into  the  United  States  assists  in  giving 
the  American  traveller  better  facilities  and  accommodations 
and  redounds  to  the  prosperity  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  STARTING  POINT 

Starting  point  for  Alaska  has  many  attractions  for  tourists  —  Points 
of  interest  and  picturesque  beauty  —  Its  Golden  Potlatch,  the 
festival  with  which  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Alaska  is  celebrated 
—  Mountain  climbing,  motoring,  boating  and  fishing  trips  — 
Energetic  people  build  up  wonderful  city  in  past  ten  years. 

THE  voyager,  having  completed  his  tour  of  Alaska,  now 
returns  to  Seattle,  known  as  the  "  City  of  Parks  and 
Playgrounds,"  the  starting  and  concluding  point  for 
practically  all  vessels  plying  in  Alaska  waters.  Located  on 
the  shores  of  Elliott  Bay,  an  arm  of  Puget  Sound,  125  miles 
from  the  open  ocean,  Seattle  has  become  the  American  port  of 
a  number  of  principal  steamship  lines  operating  upon  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean  and  the  home  port  of  some  of  the  greatest  freight 
carriers  in  the  world. 

The  Alaskan  tourist  would  do  well  to  plan  his  trip  so  that 
he  will  arrive  in  Seattle  a  few  days  before  the  sailing  date  of 
his  Northward  journey,  for  there  are  many  things  worth  seeing 
in  and  around  this  thriving  Western  metropolis,  which,  in  ten 
years  leaped  from  a  city  of  80,000  to  one  of  237,000  people, 
who  are  establishing  new  industries,  acquiring  new  railroads, 
new  steamship  lines,  and  who,  with  hydraulic  giants,  are  wash- 
ing away  the  hills  that  impede  the  erection  of  new  sky  scrapers. 
A  42-story  "  cloud-tickler "  is  in  course  of  construction  and 
plans  are  being  drawn  for  a  second  one  as  this  is  written. 

The  West,  so  far  as  the  Pacific  Coast  cities  are  concerned,  is 
no  longer  "  wild  and  woolly."  The  day  of  the  gun-fighter, 
the  bad  man,  has  passed.     The  gambling  dive  and  the  dance 

141 


142     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

hall  no  longer  flourish.  The  luxuries  of  the  "  effete  East  " 
long  since  have  found  their  way  into  the  Western  cities.  The 
tourist  will  find  in  Seattle  every  luxury  and  every  evidence  of 
refinennent  and  culture  that  can  be  found  in  the  Eastern  cities, 
with  many  new  and  original  ideas  along  these  lines  that  have 
been  added  by  the  Westerners. 

Seattle  is  a  city  of  optimistic  enthusiasm,  and  if  the  Eastern 
tourist  desires  to  see  this  emotion  manifested  at  its  most  riotous 
point,  he  should  time  his  arrival  for  Potlatch  week,  about  the 
middle  of  July.  The  word  "  Potlatch  "  was  taken  from  the 
Chinook  jargon,  invented  by  the  factors  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  as  a  means  of  universal  communication  between  the 
whites  and  natives.  Translated  the  word  represents  "  free 
gift,"  "  a  big  feast  at  which  presents  are  given  away  by  the 
tyee,  or  chief,"  "  cause  for  merriment  and  rejoicing,"  "  a  sea- 
son of  thanksgiving."  The  Seattle  Potlatch  was  evolved  for 
the  purpose  of  appropriately  celebrating  the  arrival  of  the 
steamship  Portland  with  the  first  cargo  of  treasure  from  the 
Northern  gold  fields,  on  July  17,  1897,  a"  event  from  which 
Seattle's  extraordinary  prosperity  and  development  was  dated. 

The  Potlatch  carnival  lasts  one  week.  It  costs  the  people 
of  Seattle  approximately  $500,000,  but  as  very  little  of  this 
money  leaves  the  city,  and  as  it  is  a  big  advertisement,  nobody 
seems  to  mind  the  expense.  The  spirit  that  created  the  Pot- 
latch is  the  same  public  spirit  that  caused  Seattle  to  outstrip 
its  neighbours  in  the  development  of  new  industries.  Ap- 
proximately $100,000  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  committee, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  provide  bands,  aeroplanes,  aviators,  and  a 
thousand  other  forms  of  public  entertainment.  The  balance 
of  the  money  is  expended  in  decorations,  prizes  for  motor-boat 
races,  athletic  contests,  floats  for  the  various  parades  and  in 
many  other  ways.  Countless  flags  and  thousands  of  yards  of 
bunting  are  used  in  decorations. 


THE  STARTING  POINT  143 

Travellers  from  distant  parts  flock  to  the  hotels,  and  men 
and  women  mingle  in  gay  Bohemian  life  in  the  cafes  and  thea- 
tres; sailor-men  from  distant  ports,  lumberjacks  from  the  tall 
fir  woods,  fishermen  and  city  men,  business  men  and  bankers, 
country  men  from  the  fruit-farms  and  sage-brush  deserts,  pros- 
pectors from  the  far  North,  and  visitors  from  the  far  South, 
unite  in  making  the  event  a  happy  one. 

Every  form  of  pageant  known  to  man,  from  animated  totem 
poles  to  beautiful  floral  displays  are  features  of  the  event.  In 
1912  nearly  $50,000  was  expended  in  flowers  used  in  decora- 
ting automobiles  and  other  vehicles  which  took  part  in  one  of 
the  many  parades. 

The  Portland  Rose  Festival  is  scheduled  to  take  place  about 
four  weeks  before  the  Potlatch,  and  after  that  comes  the 
Montamara  Festo  at  Tacoma.  Other  fairs  and  carnivals  are 
held  at  various  cities  in  the  Northwestern  states  throughout 
the  summer. 

Coming  over  the  Great  Northern  Railway  the  traveller  will 
have  the  pleasure  of  passing  through  the  Glacier  National 
Park  and  the  magnificent  Cascade  Mountains.  He  will  find 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  State  of  Washington,  which  a  few 
years  ago  was  a  barren  desert,  stained  with  the  golden  yellow 
of  ripening  wheat,  not  growing  in  occasional  patches,  but  in 
areas  miles  in  extent.  On  the  middle  levels  he  will  find  the 
deep  green  of  alfalfa,  tinged  with  the  purple  of  its  blossoms, 
and  still  lower  In  the  valleys  he  will  find  the  thriving  vegetable 
gardens.  But  the  crowning  feature  of  the  eastern  valleys,  its 
richest  possession  and  the  guarantee  of  its  greatest  future,  will 
be  found  in  its  orchards  filled  with  thrifty,  vigorous  trees, 
trimmed  and  planted  in  perfect  symmetry,  and  their  limbs  cov- 
ered with  white  and  pink  blossoms  or  bowed  under  burdens  of 
fruit.  The  orchards  of  Eastern  Washington  present  a  spec- 
tacle that  always  will  be  a  pleasant  memory. 


144     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

The  beauties  and  wonders  of  the  Puget  Sound  country  are 
manifold,  Seattle,  tempered  by  the  Japan  Current,  has  one 
of  the  most  equable  climates  in  the  world.  There  is  little,  if 
any,  snowfall  except  in  the  mountains,  and  zero  weather  is 
unrecorded.  The  annual  temperature  is  51.4  degrees,  ranging 
from  40.6  in  January  to  64.7  degrees  in  August.  The  average 
high  temperature  is  74  degrees  in  July  and  70  degrees  in 
August;  the  average  low  temperature  is  43  degrees  in  Decem- 
ber and  38  in  January. 

The  climatic  conditions,  it  is  asserted  by  medical  authorities, 
are  responsible  for  the  remarkable  healthfulness  of  Western 
Washington.  The  last  census  showed  that  the  death  rate  in 
Seattle  is  8.53  per  thousand,  said  to  be  lower  than  any  other 
large  city  in  the  United  States.  The  nights  are  cool  and  in- 
vigourating,  insuring  restful  sleep ;  malaria  and  kindred  dis- 
eases are  practically  unknown.  Cedar  River  water,  soft  and 
pure,  and  piped  to  the  city  by  gravity  from  beneath  a  glacier 
twenty  miles  distant,  is  owned  by  the  city.  The  plant  has  a 
daily  capacity  of  65,000,000  gallons,  while  the  reservoirs  and 
stand  pipes  have  a  capacity  of  272,000,000  gallons.  The  av- 
erage daily  consumption  is  35,000,000  gallons.  The  city  also 
owns  a  lighting  plant  and  sells  its  surplus  current  to  con- 
sumers. Seattleites  claim  theirs  is  the  best  lighted  city  in  the 
world  —  and  it  looks  it.  It  uses  inore  electricity  for  street 
lighting  than  any  other  city  in  America. 

Seattle  has  thirty-seven  improved  public  parks,  twenty  play- 
grounds and  a  municipal  bathing  beach.  During  the  summer 
months  the  bands  which  give  concerts  at  these  resorts  are  paid 
by  the  city.  Thirty  miles  of  scenic  boulevard  within  the  city 
are  open  to  trafKc.  The  park  board  has  under  its  jurisdiction 
1,688  acres  and  is  engaged  in  constructing  a  boulevard  system 
fifty  miles  in  length  following  the  lakes  and  Puget  Sound, 
reaching  numerous  sightly  elevations,  and  practically  encircling 


THE  STARTING  POINT  145 

the  city.  Unlike  most  cities  the  streets  of  Seattle  arc  very 
wide  and  traffic  rarely  becomes  congested. 

Rolling  back  from  the  shores  of  Piiget  Sound  to  the  beaches 
of  Lake  Washington  is  a  series  of  hills,  from  the  summits  of 
which  the  snow-capped  peaks  of  the  Cascade  range  on  the 
east  and  the  Olympic  Mountains  on  the  west,  offer  an  ever 
changing,  ever  wonderful  panorama  of  scenic  grandeur.  On 
the  hills  the  city  of  Seattle  is  built.  The  famous  Seattle  re- 
grades  have  been  completed,  and  any  part  of  the  city  can  be 
reached  by  slow  and  easy  ascent.  The  hills,  washed  away  by 
hydraulic  power,  filled  up  the  tide-flats  and  converted  these 
waste  places  into  splendid  factory  sites. 

Seattle  is  practically  bounded  by  three  lakes,  Green,  Union 
and  Washington,  the  latter  a  beautiful  body  of  water  fringed 
with  trees,  thirty  miles  in  length  and  varying  in  width  from 
one  to  five  or  six  miles.  An  automobile  boulevard,  designed 
to  skirt  this  sheet  of  water  is  now  under  construction.  The 
thoroughfare  runs  through  wooded  ravines  along  the  crest  of 
the  highlands,  at  times  giving  a  clear,  sweeping  view  of  the 
lake  and  Mount  Ranier,  14,525  feet.  The  towering  peaks 
of  the  Cascade  ranges,  the  Olympic  Mountains,  Mounts  Baker 
and  St.  Helens  and  the  higher  peaks  of  the  coast  ranges  are 
nearly  always  within  the  range  of  vision. 

Lake  Washington,  which  is  to  be  connected  with  Puget 
Sound  by  a  canal  now  in  course  of  construction  through  Lake 
Union,  furnishes  one  of  the  finest  fresh-water  resorts  on  the 
western  coast.  Incidentally,  an  idea  of  the  climate  can  be 
gained  from  the  fact  that  frequently  motor-boat  races  are  held 
on  Lake  Washington  in  January.  A  Seattleite  once  truthfully 
said  that  Lake  Washington  never  has  been  covered  with  enough 
ice  to  make  a  cocktail.  Roses  bloom  and  the  grass  is  green 
the  year  around. 

Beaches  and  salt  water  resorts  are  to  be  found  everywhere, 


146     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  the  country  abounds  in  good  fishing  places.  King  County 
annually  spends  a  large  amount  in  the  cultivation  of  trout, 
black  bass,  and  other  game  fishes,  turning  millions  of  fry  into 
the  streams  and  lakes  every  year  from  the  hatcheries.  Trout 
streams,  coming  from  the  snow-capped  Cascade  Mountains,  en- 
ter the  bay  close  to  the  city,  and  many  of  them  may  be  reached 
by  electric  car  line. 

Within  reasonable  distance  are  the  famous  Scenic  and  Sol 
Due  hot  springs.  The  former,  situated  right  in  the  heart  of 
the  Cascade  range  and  reached  by  the  Great  Northern  Rail- 
way, furnishes  excellent  fishing  and  hunting  at  all  seasons  of 
the  year.  In  the  winter  guests  are  entertained  with  toboggan- 
ing, ski-jumping,  and  other  out-door  sports.  The  Sol  Due 
hot  springs  are  in  the  Olympics,  and  the  waters  of  both  springs 
are  said  to  be  excellent  for  rheumatism  and  to  have  other 
medicinal  values. 

Interurban  electric  trains  run  from  Seattle  to  Tacoma  and 
from  Seattle  to  Everett,  while  small  vessels  plying  in  Puget 
Sound  afford  innumerable  short  and  pretty  water  trips  that 
may  be  made  in  a  day  from  the  city.  Olympia,  on  Budd  Inlet, 
the  southernmost  water  of  Puget  Sound,  is  a  beautiful  boat 
trip. 

Those  interested  in  naval  affairs  will  find  something  to  their 
taste  in  the  short  trip  to  the  Bremerton  navy  yard,  where  the 
big  government  docks  usually  hold  two  or  more  battleships  or 
cruisers.  Trips  by  water  may  be  taken  to  the  lumber  camps 
that  dot  the  shores  of  the  sound,  to  Edmonds,  the  home  of  the 
big  strawberry;  to  the  fishing  grounds,  to  Bellingham,  Blaine 
and  Vancouver;  to  Victoria  and  Vancouver  on  the  Canadian 
side  of  the  boundary  line,  or  out  through  the  smooth  waters 
of  the  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Under 
a  clear  blue  sky,  and  in  a  climate  that  always  is  cool  and  in- 
vigourating,  rather  than  hot  and  enervating  as  are  many  of  the 


THE  STARTING  POINT  147 

inland  and  eastern  cities,  the  Northwest  offers  to  the  tourist  a 
splendid  summer  outing. 

Close  to  Seattle  are  canoeing  grounds  innumerable.  Many 
business  people,  during  the  summer  months,  live  either  in 
house-boats  on  the  sound  or  lakes,  or  at  camps  established  in 
the  woods  which  can  be  reached  by  electric  railroad  or  by 
some  of  the  craft  plying  these  waters.  Ever  changing  sunsets 
on  the  water,  furnish  sights  to  be  remembered.  Not  only  on 
the  sound,  but,  on  the  various  lakes,  yachts,  motor-boats,  and 
rowboats,  ply  back  and  forth  carrying  scores  of  campers  and 
lovers  of  waterscape  scenery.  The  annual  power  boat  race 
from  Ketchikan,  Alaska,  through  perfectly  land-locked  waters 
to  Seattle,  is  an  event  of  much  interest. 

For  the  historian  the  Northwest  contains  many  points  of 
interest,  such  as  old  forts  and  battlefields  of  Indian  wars;  the 
dens  of  contraband  purveyors  of  silk  and  opium,  who,  in  the 
early  days,  dodged  revenue  officers  through  the  intricate  and 
beautiful  bays  and  estuaries;  among  the  multiplicity  of  islands 
and  the  deceiving  smugglers'  caves.  Puget  Sound's  alluring 
archipelago  forms  a  picture  of  beauty  that  rivals  the  Thousand 
Islands  of  the  St.  Lawrence  in  scenic  grandeur  and  surpasses 
them  in  climatic  conditions. 

Aside  from  the  boulevard  drives,  the  automobilist  will  find 
many  good  roads,  especially  along  the  Pacific  Highway,  which 
ultimately,  by  good  asphaltum  or  macadamised  road,  will  con- 
nect Seattle,  Spokane,  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles  and  other 
southern  cities.  In  addition  to  the  government  road  to  Mount 
Rainier,  there  are  good  driveways  from  Seattle  to  Snoqualmie 
Falls,  a  cataract  higher  than  Niagara;  to  Bellingham,  to 
Everett,  to  Olympia,  and  along  the  mountain  road  to  Lake 
Crescent  that  nestles  in  the  Olympics.  These  routes  pass 
through  a  country  of  splendid  natural  scenery. 

Good-roads  clubs  and  other  organisations  have  done  much 


148     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

for  the  automobilist  in  the  Northwest.  Nature  had  done  her 
part  and  it  remained  for  the  hand  of  man  to  make  it  available. 
It  matters  not  what  direction  the  automobilist  follows,  a  gor- 
geous panorama  spreads  out  before  him. 

Broad,  hard,  gravel  roads,  as  smooth  and  level  as  a  dance 
hall  floor  in  Alaska,  trend  in  every  direction,  and  in  the  prairie 
country  between  Tacoma  and  Olympia,  the  speed  limit  is  un- 
known. Many  motorists  choose  Mount  Rainier  as  their  ob- 
jective point.  One  starts  with  the  mountain  in  full  view  and 
rides  through  ever-changing  scenery.  The  road  passes  through 
dense  forests  and  sylvan  glens  all  along  the  route,  and  the  road 
in  the  Nisqually  canyon  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  parts  of 
the  trip. 

To  Lake  Cushman,  a  favourite  resort  for  anglers,  is  another 
excellent  trip;  and  the  run  to  Portland,  where  one  gets  a  fine 
view  of  Mount  Hood,  Mt.  St.  Helens  and  Mount  Adams, 
should  not  be  overlooked.  Good  roads  and  superb  scenery  are 
to  be  found  on  the  journeys  to  Grays  Harbor,  Aberdeen, 
Hoqulam  and  the  Moclips  Beach,  where  may  be  enjoyed  a 
straight-away  run  over  beach  sand  so  smooth  and  hard  that 
a  tire  leaves  no  track  as  it  spins  along.  Not  the  least  fascina- 
ting of  these  many  motor-trips  will  be  found  in  the  clear 
sparkling  streams  which  afford  good  fishing.  Meals  may  be 
obtained  at  various  places  along  the  road. 

To  the  visitor  who  does  not  care  for  motoring  or  boating 
the  street  car  system  of  Seattle  furnishes  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity for  seeing  many  places  that  are  distinctly  worth  while. 

Sight-seeing  cars  leave  Pioneer  Square  twice  daily,  and  those 
aboard  pass  three  hours  in  travelling  a  route  of  twenty-six 
miles  through  urban  and  suburban  wonderland.  Trolley  lines 
run  to  all  parts  of  the  city  and  the  suburbs  and  the  interurban 
lines  connect  with  outlying  cities.  From  the  higher  elevations 
of  the  city  one  gets  a  sweeping  panoramic  view  of  the  coast 


THE  STARTING  POINT  149 

lines  of  Puget  Sound,  the  Olympic  and  Cascade  Mountains, 
the  manufacturing  districts  of  Ballard,  and  West  and  South 
Seattle,  Lake  Washington  and  many  other  places  of  interest. 
Capitol  Hill  is  crowned  by  Volunteer  Park,  and  from  here 
another  magnificent  view  is  obtained.  Along  the  slopes  of 
these  hills,  overlooking  the  sound,  many  beautiful  residences 
have  been  erected  by  the  wealthier  citizens  of  Seattle.  There 
are  a  thousand  places  worth  seeing,  and  as  the  city  is  inter- 
sected with  car  lines  running  in  almost  every  conceivable  di- 
rection, they  are  easily  accessible. 

He  who  seeks  a  renewal  of  spirit  in  the  great  world  of  out- 
of-doors,  the  one  who  loves  mountain  scenery,  amply  will  be 
repaid  for  the  time  and  effort  expended  in  ascending  to  Rainier 
National  Park.  Rainier  is  the  peer  of  American  Western 
mountains.  Its  foothills,  covered  with  forests  of  fir  and  cedar, 
rise  wave  on  wave,  like  a  dark  green  sea.  One  can  leave 
Seattle  or  Tacoma  in  the  morning,  and  before  the  stars  are  in 
the  sky  be  at  a  mountain  camp  more  than  a  mile  above  the 
ocean  level.  The  government  roads,  beginning  where  the  rail- 
road ends  at  the  park  boundary,  make  this  possible.  The  roads 
traverse  forest  scenery  by  easy  grade  to  the  ice  fields  which  lie 
at  an  elevation  of  four  thousand  feet.  Annual  trips  are  made 
to  the  summit  by  the  Mazamas  and  other  mountain  climbing 
organisations.  At  the  beginning  of  the  road  is  found  the  Na- 
tional Park  Inn,  and  at  the  upper  terminus,  known  as  Para- 
dise Valley,  is  an  attractive  summer  camp,  which  is  maintained 
for  the  accommodation  of  travellers.  The  ascent  from  this 
point  should  be  undertaken  only  when  the  weather  is  settled, 
and  other  conditions  favourable,  and  it  is  advisable  for  the 
tenderfoot  to  take  a  guide.  While  there  are  no  insurmountable 
obstacles  in  the  way,  the  climb  calls  for  considerable  endur- 
ance. 

The  conditions  being  propitious,  mountain  climbing  has  be- 


150     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IiN  THE  MAKING 

come  one  of  the  popular  out-door  sports  of  the  Northwest,  and 
from  the  summer  resorts  in  the  Olympic  range  many  of  the 
journeys  are  projected.  Some  climbs  are  marked  by  well-worn 
trails,  others  are  less  accessible,  but  all  are  full  of  charm  to 
him  who  loves  to  reach  the  pure  atmosphere  of  the  higher  ele- 
vations. 

Mount  Baker,  to  one  of  whose  peaks  athletes  annually  con- 
tend in  a  Marathon  race  from  Bellingham,  lies  to  the  North- 
ward of  Seattle.  The  summit,  rising  clear  and  sharply 
chiselled  above  the  snow-line,  is  difficult  of  access,  and  its 
ascension  is  no  undertaking  for  the  kid-gloved  dilettante. 

The  experienced  mountaineer,  in  the  country  contiguous  to 
Seattle  and  Tacoma,  will  find  hills  to  be  climbed  and  many  new 
peaks  to  be  conquered ;  while  the  novice  in  this  strenuous  sport 
will  find  a  hundred  pleasures  in  these  fir-clad  Western  Alps. 

Termed  "  The  Naples  of  America,"  Tacoma,  which  is  easily 
reached  from  Seattle  by  steamship,  by  launch,  by  electric  car, 
automobile  or  railroad  train,  will  be  found  well  worth  a  visit. 
With  seventy  miles  of  asphalted  boulevards  and  paved  streets, 
an  extensive  park  area,  and  a  picturesque  location  on  a  bluff 
overlooking  Commencement  Bay,  Tacoma  is  a  most  attractive 
city.  It  is  the  youngest  of  the  large  cities  in  the  West,  in- 
creasing its  population  from  approximately  I'.ooo  in  1880  to 
nearly  100,000  in  191 1.  It  has  one  of  the  largest  deep-water 
harbours  in  the  world,  and  is  the  starting  point  for  many  won- 
derful sight-seeing  trips.  Electric  cars  connect  the  city  with 
many  pleasure  resorts,  and  it  boasts  a  stadium  with  a  seating 
capacity  of  30,000  persons.  Although  close  to  Seattle,  Tacoma 
has  many  marks  of  dissimilarity  from  its  neighbour,  and  the 
Alaskan  tourist  would  be  repaid  for  the  time  expended  in 
travelling  from  one  to  the  other. 

To  those  who  have  other  interests  than  sight-seeing  In  their 
journey  through  Seattle  to  Alaska,  let  it  be  stated  that  both 


THE  STARTING  POINT  151 

Seattle  and  Taconia  offer  exceptional  educational  advantages. 
There  are  sixty-one  grade  and  higli  schools  in  Seattle,  and  a 
present  enrollment  of  45,537.  The  University  of  Washington 
is  situated  between  Lakes  Washington  and  Union  on  a  plot 
of  355  acres.  The  university  attendance  in  1912  was  more 
than  2,000.  The  institution  is  free  to  the  youth  of  the  state 
and  is  provided  with  every  facility  for  imparting  education. 
Some  of  its  buildings  originally  were  a  part  of  the  Alaska- 
Yukon-Pacific  Exposition.  Seattle  has  more  than  150  churches 
of  various  denominations. 

At  the  Puget  Sound  Navy  Yard,  situated  at  Bremerton,  a 
few  miles  from  Seattle,  the  largest  battleship  afloat  can  be 
docked.  Employment  is  given  at  the  yards  to  from  1,200  to 
I  500  men,  and  the  expenditure  for  supplies  purchased  in  Seat- 
tle exceeds  $100,000  per  month.  Fort  Lavvton,  a  United 
States  military  post,  is  situated  within  the  city  limits  of 
Seattle.  The  605  acres  of  land  which  makes  an  ideal  drill 
ground  and  garrison  and  fort,  was  presented  to  the  government 
by  the  public-spirited  people  of  the  Puget  Sound  metropolis. 

Established  in  July,  1908,  the  Seattle  branch  of  the  assay 
office,  up  to  December  31,  19 10,  has  received  and  paid  for 
gold  dust  to  the  value  of  $199,094,871.05.  The  amount  pur- 
chased up  till  the  close  of  191 2  was  approximately  $252,000,- 
000.  Roughly  estimated,  the  gold  received  at  the  Seattle 
assay  office,  during  the  period  mentioned,  weighed  504  tons. 
Alaskan  gold,  mineral,  and  fish,  comes  to  Seattle  by  every 
boat,  and  much  of  it  is  exchanged  for  merchandise  and  other 
products.  The  volume  of  trade  between  Seattle  and  Alaska 
during  the  last  decade  has  amounted  to  more  than  $500,000,- 
000.  Some  gold  has  been  mined  in  the  State  of  Washington, 
but  not  sufficient  to  make  any  great  difference  to  the  assay 
office  receipts.  The  bulk  of  the  precious  metal  received  came 
from  Alaska  and  the  Yukon  Territory. 


152     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

With  hydro-energy  In  almost  incalculable  quantities  latent 
in  the  thousands  of  swift  streams  that  have  their  source  in  the 
Cascade  and  Olympic  Mountains,  Seattle  naturally  developed 
into  a  manufacturing  centre.  Tvro  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand horse-power  has  been  developed,  a  similar  amount  is  now 
in  process  of  development  and  many  millions  of  horse-power 
are  awaiting  the  installation  of  Pelton  wheels  and  other  ma- 
chinery. Incidentally,  It  has  been  computed  by  hydrographers 
in  the  service  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  available  water  power  in  the  United  States  is 
located  in  Oregon  and  Washington. 

Seattle's  shipment  of  flour  increased  i,6oo  per  cent,  in  twelve 
years,  and  with  the  development  of  the  great  grain-fields  in 
the  interior,  this  industry  is  destined  to  show  still  greater  in- 
crease. 

The  following  figures,  although  perhaps  somewhat  tiresome 
to  the  general  reader,  might  be  interesting  to  the  travelling 
business  man:  The  population  of  Seattle,  according  to  the  last 
census  Increased  194  per  cent,  in  the  ten  years  preceding.  In 
1901  the  bank  deposits  were  $20,237,862;  in  191 1  they  had 
increased  to  $76,715,191.  Bank  clearances  in  1901  were 
$144,694,367;  in  1911  they  were  $552,640,350.  Postoffice 
receipts  in  1901  were  $228,437,  in  191 1  they  were  $1,000,375. 

The  latest  government  manufacturing  census  was  taken  in 
1909.  This  placed  capital  invested  at  $46,472,000,  and  the 
value  of  manufactured  products  at  $50,569,000. 

Seven  railroad  systems  have  their  terminals  located  in  Seat- 
tle, connecting  with  every  point  In  the  United  States,  and  the 
Grand  Trunk  Pacific,  a  Canadian  system,  connects  with  Seat- 
tle by  its  own  line  of  steamships. 

Believing  that  the  water  transportation  business  will  greatly 
increase,  the  Port  District  voted  in  March,  1912,  $8,100,000 
for  the  construction  of  dockage  facilities  Including  $5,000,000 


*'^*^, 


URSINE  PUGILISTS.— BEAR  CUBS,  LIKE  CHILDREN,  ARE  BOTH 
PLAYFUL  AND  QUARRELSONHi.— THEIR  CLUMSY  MOVEMENTS 
AND  PART-HUMAN  EXPRESSIONS  ARE  HIGHLY  INTERESTING 


THE  STARTING  POINT  153 

for  the  acquisition  of  a  site  and  the  erection  of  six  concrete 
wharves,  1,400  feet  long  and  150  feet  wide.  The  terminal 
facih'ties,  as  planned,  are  to  be  similar  to  the  terminals  at 
Brooklyn,  New  York.  In  June,  191 2,  the  Pacific  Terminal 
Company,  an  aggregation  of  eastern  capitalists,  submitted  a 
proposal  for  a  lease  of  the  Harbor  Island  Railway  and  Deep 
Sea  Terminals,  agreeing  to  expend  $6,000,000  in  the  construc- 
tion of  piers,  warehouses,  industrial  buildings,  and  terminal 
railroad   facilities. 

The  transportation  business  with  the  Orient  has  shown  a 
wonderful  increase  during  the  last  decade,  and  it  is  believed 
that  Seattle  ultimately  will  become  one  of  the  principal  ship- 
ping points  for  countries  in  the  far  East.  This,  taken  together 
with  the  increase  in  business  and  the  establishment  of  steel 
industries  which  will  follow  the  opening  of  the  Alaskan 
bituminous  and  anthracite  coal  fields,  it  is  believed,  will  war- 
rant the  expenditures  proposed  for  dockage  and  other  trans- 
portation  facilities. 

Seattle  and  King  County,  assisted  by  appropriations  made 
by  the  general  government,  are  constructing  a  waterway  con- 
necting Puget  Sound,  Lake  Union,  and  Lake  Washington. 
When  completed  this  will  create  the  deepest  and  most  perfectly 
land-locked  fresh  water  harbour  in  the  world.  Warships  and 
other  craft  plying  in  salt  water,  upon  being  placed  in  fresh 
water,  immediately  lose  their  barnacles  and  other  impedimenta. 
Thus,  dry  docking  frequently  will  be  obviated.  The  concrete 
lock  in  the  waterway,  which  is  being  installed  by  the  federal 
government,  will  cost  $2,275,000.  Ample  dockage  facilities 
will  be  provided  on  both  lakes,  together  with  the  rail  accom- 
modations necessary  for  the  industrial  concerns.  A  railroad 
is  now  building  around  the  shores  of  Lake  Union,  and  many 
new  industries  are  being  established  there.  Completion  of  the 
Lake   Washington    Canal    will    increase    Seattle's   water-front 


154     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

from  fourteen  to  one  hundred  and  forty  miles.  Already 
$20,000,000  has  been  set  aside  to  be  expended  in  harbour  im- 
provements during  the  next  five  years. 

In  mentioning  Seattle's  many  industries,  one  is  tempted  like 
the  walrus,  in  Lewis  Carroll's  "  Through  the  Looking  Glass  " 
to  exclaim : 

"  The  time  has  come,"  the  walrus  cried, 

"  To  speak  of  divers  things  — 
Of  ships,  and  shoes,  and  sealing  wax, 

And  cabbages  and  kings." 

Lumbering  and  fishing  are  perhaps  the  most  important,  and 
there  are  also  shipyards,  saw  mills,  shingle  mills,  stove  fac- 
tories; flour,  feed,  and  cereal  mills;  brick-yards,  terra-cotta 
works;  and  foundries,  machine  shops,  breweries,  factories  and 
plants  for  the  manufacturing  of  doors,  sashes,  blinds,  wooden- 
Ware,  excelsior,  barrels,  boots,  shoes,  clothing,  wagons,  car- 
riages, furniture,  tinware,  soap,  crackers,  candies,  candles, 
pickles,  brooms,  baking  powder,  drugs,  jewellery,  fish-nets, 
woollen  goods,  trunks,  and  innumerable  household  commodities 
and  food  products. 

During  the  last  decade  Seattle  has  enjoyed  a  most  extraor- 
dinary increase  in  wealth  and  also  in  population.  It  is 
strategically  situated  to  become  an  important  figure  in  the  mer- 
chant marine  of  the  Pacific  and  it  is  in  the  centre  of  a  region 
endowed  with  many  undeveloped  resources.  Behind  it  lies 
millions  of  untilled  acres  that  rapidly  are  being  made  to  yield 
to  the  farmer's  touch.  Seattle  is  peopled  by  "  boosters  "  who 
have  unbounded  faith  in  that  their  city  eventually  will  become 
the  New  York  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  new  arrival  soon  be- 
comes imbued  with  their  enthusiasm.  "  We  have  the  re- 
sources," they  cry,  "  give  us  more  people,  and  we  will  build  an 
Empire." 


THE  STARTING  POINT  155 

But  they  are  not  sitting  down  idly  and  waiting  for  the 
people  to  come.  They  are  seeking  the  home-seekers.  Already 
a  movement  has  been  made  by  the  New  Seattle  Chamber  of 
Commerce  to  solidify  the  various  commercial  organisations  with 
a  view  to  using  their  combined  strength  and  effort  in  attract- 
ing the  better  class  of  immigrants  from  the  European  countries 
and  placing  them  on  the  unoccupied  areas  of  rich  and  fertile 
soil.  When  the  Panama  Canal  is  finished  they  expect  ships 
from  the  European  countries  to  run  direct  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
to  deposit  their  hordes  of  working  people,  and  that  these  will 
make  the  fallow  lands  productive. 

Considering  the  possibilities  of  its  trade  with  the  Orient,  its 
latent  resources,  the  approaching  development  of  Alaska,  and 
its  manifold  other  advantages,  who  can  say  that  the  period 
of  Seattle's  growth  is  not  yet  to  come? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

HUNTING  GROUNDS 

Game  and  fur  bearing  animals  and  birds  of  Alaska  —  Mosquitoes 
make  life  a  burden  to  the  sportsman  during  certain  seasons  — 
Habits  of  the  moose,  caribou,  mountain  sheep  and  goat  and  va- 
rious species  of  bear  —  Where  to  go  and  what  to  take  —  Notes  on 
Game  Laws  —  Where  guides  are  needed  —  Birds  and  animals 
indigenous   to  the  territory. 

FROM  the  tiny  mosquito  to  the  stately  moose  and  the 
ferocious  Kadiak  bear,  Alaska  is  populous  with  game 
of  many  different  kinds  and  descriptions.  The  word 
"  game  "  is  not  applied  to  the  mosquito  in  the  sense  that  these 
insects  are  good  to  eat  —  although  often  enough  they  manage  to 
mix  themselves  in  with  the  cuisine  of  the  woodsman  —  but  in 
the  sense  that  they  are  imbued  with  the  pugnacity  and  perti- 
nacity of  a  bulldog.  In  addition  they  are  endowed  with  a 
nasal,  buzzing  voice  that  is  more  irritating  and  nerve-racking 
than  the  cry  of  the  lone  timber  wolf,  and  a  "  bill  "  that  some 
miners  declare  has  greater  boring  force  than  a  diamond  drill. 

A  prospector  in  British  Columbia  once  told  the  writer  that, 
on  the  Liard  River,  he  spread  a  paper  in  the  bottom  of  his 
tent  and  swung  his  hunting  knife  through  the  air.  This  more 
or  less  veracious  chronicler  declared  that  he  killed  seventeen 
mosquitoes  at  the  first  pass.  He  averred  also  that  the  atmos- 
phere in  that  locality  was  so  full  of  mosquitoes  that  the  only 
way  for  them  to  increase  their  numbers  was  to  reduce  their 
size. 

The  mosquitoes  come  with  the  first  warm  nights  of  sum- 
mer, and  live  through  the  season  till  the  first  frost.  After 
that  peace  reigns  —  or  rather  peace  would  reign  if  it  were  not 

156 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  157 

for  the  gnats,  which,  although  not  so  pugnacious  as  the  mos- 
quitoes, are  quite  as  industrious  and  can  be  depended  upon  to 
make  the  life  of  the  Alaskan  a  miserj-  to  the  flesh  and  a  burden 
to  the  soul. 

The  tale  is  told  that  in  the  early  history  of  the  Yukon,  be- 
fore the  advent  of  judges  and  peace  officers,  the  vigilance  com- 
mittees found  in  the  mosquito  an  able  ally  in  holding  their 
prisoners.  They  had  no  jails  other  than  mosquito  tents. 
When  they  desired  to  hold  a  law-breaker  until  such  time  as  his 
case  could  be  tried,  they  put  him  in  a  mosquito  tent  and  took 
his  clothes  from  him.  There  was  no  danger  that  he  would 
attempt  to  escape.  Parenthetically  the  usual  method  of  punish- 
ing crimes  against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  community  in 
those  days  was  to  put  the  offender  in  a  boat  with  a  few  pounds 
of  food  and  a  pair  of  oars  and  let  him  float  down-stream  to 
the  sea. 

By  the  end  of  July  —  before  the  hunting  season  opens  — 
most  of  the  mosquitoes  are  gone,  but  sometimes  for  the  first 
week  or  two  in  August  there  is  an  abundance  of  what  are 
known  to  the  Indians  as  "  no-see-ums,"  and  to  the  white  man  as 
gnats. 

Fighting  off  mosquitoes  and  gnats  is  an  art  that  few  people 
other  than  Indians  can  learn.  The  aborigines  are  not  by  any 
means  Immune  to  the  bite  of  these  insects,  but  they  annoy  the 
Indian  less  than  the  white  man.  I  have  observed  that  when  an 
Indian  sees,  or  rather,  feels,  the  bite  of  a  gnat  or  a  mosquito, 
he  does  not  make  a  vicious  slap  at  it.  Being  devoid  of  "  tem- 
perament "  he  accepts  the  bite  phllosophicallj^  He  doesn't 
allow  himself  to  be  angered,  but  calmly  brushes  off  the  oft"ender. 
A  white  man  has  less  patience.  When  one  of  these  insects  in- 
jects its  "  bill  "  through  his  epidermis,  he  loses  his  temper  and 
slaps  and  cuffs  the  mosquito  —  and  himself  —  vigorously  and 
angrily,  thereby  —  the  Indian  thinks  —  making  himself  a  more 


158     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

attractive  mark  to  other  mosquitoes.  The  Indian  regards  the 
annual  invasion  of  the  mosquitoes  and  the  "  no-see-ums  "  as  a 
kind  of  a  game  between  himself  and  the  insects.  The  game  is 
for  the  Indian  to  see  hovi^  many  insects  he  can  kill  without  be- 
coming angry.  Every  time  he  quietly  brushes  off  a  mosquito 
or  a  gnat,  he  mentally  marks  down  one  point  in  his  own  favour. 

The  mosquito  literally  is  "  the  fly  in  the  ointment  "  of  the 
Alaskan  hunter.  In  countless  trillions  they  have  their  being 
and  buzzing,  and  there  is  no  escaping  them.  There  are  sev- 
eral kinds  of  salves  which,  their  vendors  declare,  will  discourage 
the  mosquitoes'  unpleasant  activity,  but  the  experience  of  the 
writer  is  that  the  insects  find  these  concoctions  quite  palatable. 
In  fact,  many  of  these  alleged  mosquito-bite  preventives  seem 
to  encourage  the  little  pests  and  to  sharpen,  rather  than  satiate, 
their  appetites.  In  the  still  air  the  mosquitoes,  during  the  sea- 
son, hover  over  head  in  clouds,  but  at  the  first  breath  of  wind 
they  disappear  and  hide  beneath  the  bushes  or  grass.  Immunity 
may  be  found,  however,  in  mosquito  tents,  if  they  are  properly 
pitched  and  in  mosquito  screens  attached  to  the  top  of  the  hat 
and  tied  securely  around  the  neck  beneath  the  shirt  collar. 

But  despite  these  disadvantages,  no  portion  of  the  North 
American  continent  presents  a  more  attractive  field  for  the 
sportsman  and  the  angler  than  does  Alaska.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  South  African  veldts,  it  is  the  greatest  hunting 
country  extant,  but  lest  the  reader  should  think  it  has  no  disad- 
vantage, the  writer  has  emphasised  the  fact  that  there  are  some 
mosquitoes,  and,  in  the  interests  of  comfort,  the  sportsman  or 
naturalist  going  to  Alaska  in  the  early  summer  is  advised  to 
make  preparations  to  cope  with  the  little  pests. 

It  matters  not  what  part  of  Alaska  the  hunter  goes,  game  in 
abundance  can  be  found.  But  the  big  game  hunter  should 
bear  in  mind  that  Alaska  is  a  tremendous  territory,  and  that 
the  species  of  big  game  which  can  be  found  in  one  region  will 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  159 

not  necessarily  be  found  in  another.  For  instance  the  game  to 
be  found  in  Southeastern  Alaska  is  entirely  different  from  that 
found  on  the  Alaska  Peninsula  or  on  Kadiak  Island,  and  again 
the  game  found  in  the  lands  edging  on  Bering  Sea  and  the 
Arctic  Ocean  is  different  from  that  found  in  other  places.  He 
should  remember  also  that  the  only  part  of  the  country  where 
the  law  enforces  the  hunter  to  take  a  guide  is  in  the  Kenai 
Peninsula  region. 

The  angler  will  find  practically  the  same  species  of  fish  in  all 
of  the  Alaskan  streams,  as  more  fully  described  in  another  chap- 
ter, and  shore  birds,  water  birds  and  many  varieties  of  grouse 
can  be  found  all  over  Alaska.  The  herbivorous  game  confines 
itself  generally  to  individual  districts.  Taking  these  animals  in 
proportion  of  the  utility  to  the  prospector  and  sportsman,  the 
moose  comes  first,  and  therefore  the  deer  family  will  be  the  first 
to  be  considered. 

Speaking  generally,  the  moose  ranges  from  the  boundary  of 
British  Columbia  as  far  North  as  the  Yukon  River,  although 
there  are  a  few  isolated  places  along  the  coast  where  they  will 
not  be  found.  Some  moose  have  been  killed  on  the  tributaries 
entering  the  Yukon  from  the  North,  but  there  is  none  on  the 
Seward  Peninsula  or  the  Arctic  coast. 

The  moose  is  the  largest  hoofed  animal  of  North  America, 
and  the  best  specimens  can  be  obtained  on  the  Kenai  Peninsula, 
on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Yukon,  in  the  country  surrounding 
Mount  McKinley,  and  in  the  valleys  of  the  Kuskokwim  and 
White  Rivers.  Moose  are  easily  stalked  during  the  months  of 
early  summer,  when  the  mosquitoes  force  them  out  of  the  brush 
into  the  rivers  and  lakes.  Some  of  these  pools  contain  alkali, 
and  here  moose  and  other  wild  animals  always  will  be  found. 

Fattened  by  the  abundant  vegetation,  the  moose  are  in  prime 
condition  in  the  running  season,  which  begins  about  August 
first  and  lasts  for  six  weeks.     At  this  season  the  bulls  take  to 


i6o    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  higher  altitudes,  where  they  fight  many  vicious  battles 
for  the  favour  of  the  females.  It  is  contended  by  some  natural- 
ists that  the  moose  eats  the  wild  grass  that  grows  everywhere 
in  the  territory  in  luxuriant  abundance,  but  the  writer's  ob- 
servation has  been  that,  with  the  exception  of  some  bunch  grass 
and  horse  dock,  they  subsist  almost  exclusively  on  young  wil 
lows,  birch  and  alders.  In  fact  in  the  winter  season,  especially 
in  sections  where  the  snow  is  deep,  the  animals  seek  the  draws 
and  gulches,  where  these  plants  grow,  and  remain  there  prac- 
tically all  winter. 

In  winter  they  are  an  easy  prey  to  the  game  hunter  equipped 
with  long  snowshoes,  for  the  moose  when  chased  out  of  the 
gulch,  sinks  belly  deep  in  the  snow  as  it  plunges  along.  A 
moose  might  easily  have  an  hour's  start  of  a  man  on  snow- 
shoes,  and  be  caught  in  a  chase  of  a  couple  of  hours.  When 
driven  out  of  the  gulches,  they  invariably  make  for  a  lake  or 
river,  where  the  snows,  carried  off  the  ice  by  the  winds,  are 
not  as  deep  as  on  the  solid  ground.  The  cow  moose  is  usually 
accompanied  by  her  calf  all  through  the  winter,  and  wherever 
a  hunter  sees  two  moose  tracks,  it  is  reasonably  safe  to  figure 
that  he  is  on  the  trail  of  a  cow  and  her  calf.  In  the  chase  the 
cow  leads,  and  will  not  desert  her  calf  unless  closely  pressed. 
The  cow  moose  remains  in  splendid  condition  all  winter,  and 
her  flesh  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  that  of  the  bull,  which  be- 
sides being  tough  and  stringy,  has  little  or  no  fat. 

After  the  running  season  the  male  moose  generally  remain 
in  the  higher  altitudes,  while  the  cows  and  calves  are 
found  around  the  lakes  and  streams.  The  bulls  will  be  found 
at  timber-line  till  about  the  middle  of  January,  when  they  are 
forced  down  the  mountain  by  deeper  snows,  and  they  sometimes 
join  the  cows  in  the  draws  and  gulches.  '  By  this  time  their 
antlers  have  been  shed.  In  the  spring,  when  the  snow  becomes 
crusted    and   wolves   may    run   along   the   surface   and   moose 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  i6i 

break  througli  to  the  solid  ground,  the  animals  "  yard  up  "  for 
mutual  protection  —  thai  is,  they  band  themselves  together, 
and  when  attacked,  form  a  circle,  keeping  the  calves  in  the 
centre  and  fighting  off  their  assailants  with  their  forefeet.  It 
has  been  noted  by  many  prospectors  that  horses  turned  loose 
in  the  White  River  Valley  to  forage  for  themselves  during 
the  winter,  "  yard  up  "  with  the  moose  in  the  spring  to  protect 
their  foals,  making  the  wolf  the  common  enemy  of  both  species. 

The  calving  season  is  about  the  middle  of  May,  or  earlier, 
according  to  latitude  and  climatic  conditions,  and  is  contem- 
poraneous with  the  growing  of  new  horns  by  the  male.  The 
cow  is  not  endowed  with  antlers  at  any  season.  Like  all  her- 
bivorous animals  that  shed  their  horns,  the  antlers  first  appear 
in  a  "  velvet  "  of  fine  brown  fur,  and  in  the  case  of  the  moose, 
it  is  streaked  with  grey.  Believing  this  fur  does  not  match 
his  complexion  or  become  his  particular  style  of  beauty,  the 
male,  shortly  before  running  season,  becomes  obsessed  with  a 
desire  to  eliminate  the  trimming,  and  if  it  does  not  wear  away 
fast  enough,  he  accelerates  its  departure  by  rubbing  his  antlers 
against  trees.  In  the  latter  part  of  August  the  hunter  fre- 
quently will  notice  spruce  and  other  trees  surrounded  by  hoof 
marks.  These  are  the  tracks  of  moose  which  have  been 
"  sprucing  up  "  for  the  running  and  fighting  season.  By  the 
end  of  August  the  horns  are  in  good  shape  to  give  battle  to 
their  adversaries. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  the  biggest  moose  will 
have  the  largest  "  spread  "  of  antlers,  and  it  is  believed  that 
when  disturbed  by  their  natural  enemies  during  the  growing 
season  the  horns  will  be  smaller  than  on  a  previous  year.  It 
may  be  taken  as  a  general  rule,  however,  that  the  animal  that 
has  a  large  and  beautiful  set  of  antlers  is  not  the  best  for 
eating  purposes.  The  writer  has  observed  that  generally  the 
meat  of  a  moose  that  has  large  antlers  is  more  fitted  for  sole 


i62     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

leather  than  for  human  consumption,  and  the  larger  the  antlers 
the  tougher  the  meat.  There  may  be  exceptions  to  this  rule, 
but  they  have  not  come  within  the  observation  of  the  writer. 

Much  has  been  written  pertaining  to  the  ferocity  of  the 
wounded  moose,  but  although  the  writer  has  encountered  many 
of  these  animals,  he  has  yet  to  see  the  first  one  attempt  to  make 
a  fight.  When  wounded  the  moose  almost  invariably  turns  and 
faces  its  assailant,  but  it  rarely  offers  an  attack,  even  when 
accompanied   by  its  young. 

Sometimes  a  wounded  moose  will  hang  its  head,  its  ears  will 
sag,  and  it  will  have  every  appearance  of  being  on  the  point  of 
dropping  dead,  but  let  it  get  a  start  through  the  trees,  and 
more  than  likely  the  hunter  will  have  to  chase  it  for  two  or 
three  days  to  catch  up  with  it  and  he  may  never  see  it  again. 
The  moose  differs  greatly  from  any  of  the  bear  family  in  this 
respect.     A  wounded  bear  is  very  liable  to  show  fight. 

In  winter,  a  cow  moose,  when  pressed  hard  along  a  river 
or  lake  by  a  hunter,  will  desert  her  calf  and  when  the  young 
one  becomes  tired,  he  runs  off  from  the  side  of  the  frozen 
stream  into  the  timber  and  deep  snows  where  he  turns  and 
faces  his  pursuer  with  a  comical  expression  of  injured  inno- 
cence as  though  he  would  say: 

"  Why  on  earth  are  you  chasing  me  ?  I  haven't  done  any- 
thing." 

The  baby  moose  has  a  large  and  beautifully  expressive  eye, 
and  if  the  little  fellow  looks  at  him,  a  hunter  needs  to  steel 
his  heart  before  he  can  shoot.  More  than  one  man,  even 
when  short  of  meat  and  who  would  find  much  exhilarative  en- 
joyment in  drawing  a  bead  on  a  silver-tip  or  Kadiak  bear,  the 
most  savage  of  the  species,  has  lost  his  nerve  when  it  came 
to  sending  a  bullet  into  a  calf  moose  that  happened  to  stare 
into  his  eye. 

Next  to  the  baby  camel,  the  young  moose  is  about  the  most 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  163 

amusing  and  friendly  animal  on  earth.  He  has  a  confiding, 
confidential  way  about  him  and  has  not  the  slightest  fear  of 
man.  Like  the  emu  of  Australia  and  the  antelope  of  the 
American  plains,  he  has  all  the  inquisitiveness  of  youth,  and 
much  to  the  annoyance  of  his  mother,  quite  frequently  makes 
friends  with  the  first  man  he  sees. 

The  mother,  however,  has  some  of  the  propensities  of  the 
nouveaux  riches  and  is  inclined  to  be  particular  about  the  early 
associations  of  her  offspring.  If  one  may  judge  by  her  conduct, 
her  head  is  filled  with  school  copy-book  precepts  about  the 
evils  of  bad  company,  and  instances  have  been  recorded  where 
ultra-exclusive  mother  moose  have  resented  undue  familiarities 
from  plebean  humans.  Like  other  mothers  she  never  sees  a 
fault  in  her  own  offspring,  but  lays  the  blame  entirely  to  his 
associates.  Woodsmen  do  not  consider  it  good  form  to  pet  a 
small  moose  when  the  precocious  and  ingratiating  young  ani- 
mal comes  running  towards  them.  The  mother,  resentful  and 
jealous,  might  make  it  necessary  for  them  to  climb  a  tree  or 
bring  rifles  to  their  shoulders. 

But  to  the  general  credit  of  the  Alaskan  prospector,  be  \t 
written,  there  are  few  men  in  the  forests  of  the  North  who 
wantonly  slay  a  cow  moose.  On  the  bear,  the  wolf,  the  eagle 
and  other  destroyers  of  game,  a  relentless  and  unceasing  war 
is  waged,  but  few  moose  or  other  food  animals  have  been  killed 
in  Alaska  by  prospectors  for  the  mere  wanton  joy  of  killing. 
The  observation  of  this  unwritten  law  has  caused  a  big  increase 
in  the  number  of  moose  and  other  game  animals  in  the  Kenai 
Peninsula  and,  in  fact,  nearly  all  over  the  territory. 

Much  amusement  can  be  gained  from  watching  a  cow  moose 
educating  her  calf.  The  writer  once  lay  hidden  down-wind 
behind  some  willows  in  an  open  pine  park  for  nearly  an  hour 
watching  a  moose  and  her  offspring.  Apparently  the  mother 
was  showing   the  young  one  which  were   the  most  succulent 


i64    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

plants  to  be  eaten,  for  every  time  she  found  a  young,  budding 
willow,  she  would  munch  a  few  bites,  and  then  with  a  low 
mooing  sound,  call  the  calf  to  her  and  direct  its  attention  to  the 
plant.  The  calf  would  munch  a  few  leaves,  and  then  run  back 
to  his  play.  He  was  a  busy  little  chap,  investigating  every  tree 
and  shrub.  Once  he  came  within  ten  feet  of  where  I  was 
hidden,  but  did  not  get  my  scent.  The  cow  lay  down,  and 
began  to  chew  her  cud  after  the  manner  of  a  bovine.  I  knew 
that  she  had  no  idea  of  my  presence,  so  I  snapped  a  small  dry 
twig.  Instantly  she  stopped  her  meditative  chewing  and  threw 
up  her  head,  thrusting  the  ears  forward,  and  sniffing  the  air. 
Clearly  she  was  disturbed,  but  the  calf  glanced  casually  around 
to  see  if  there  was  anything  new  to  attract  his  attention.  A 
few  minutes  later  I  broke  a  larger  twig.  This  time  the  cow 
was  certain  that  she  could  not  have  been  mistaken.  She 
jumped  to  her  feet  instantly  and  called  for  her  calf,  but  faced 
the  direction  opposite  to  the  one  in  which  I  was  lying.  Her 
hearing  clearly  was  at  fault.  She  evidently  thought  the  sound 
of  something  crashing  through  the  woods  had  been  borne  to  her 
on  the  wind  instead  of  against  it.  She  looked  for  a  few  min- 
utes in  almost  every  direction,  and  certainly  her  eyesight  was 
not  good,  or  she  surely  would  have  seen  me.  At  intervals  I 
repeated  the  performance,  and  after  some  time  it  began  to  get 
on  her  nerves. 

The  moose  has  no  particular  fear  of  man,  for  I  have  seen 
many  of  them  that  would  not  run  when  they  first  saw  a  hunter, 
but  this  one  obviously  was  disturbed  by  something  which  she 
could  not  understand,  and,  after  getting  up  and  lying  down 
again  several  times,  she  trotted  off,  taking  her  inquisitive 
youngster  with  her,  presumably  to  enjoy  a  siesta  in  a  quieter 
spot  where  there  were  fewer  disturbing  influences. 

A  cow  moose  teaching  her  calf  to  swim  is  also  an  interesting 
sight.     Heading  against  the  current,  the  mother  gets  further 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  165 

and  further  into  the  water,  looking  back  over  her  shoulder  to 
see  that  the  calf  is  following.  The  young  one  keeps  close  to 
its  maternal  parent,  and  the  mother,  being  properly  cautious, 
remains  out  in  the  deep  water  only  a  few  minutes  at  a  time. 
On  returning  to  the  shallows,  she  wanders  up-stream  a  little 
distance  and  then  repeats  the  performance.  In  the  summer 
the  mother  protects  the  calf  from  the  wolves  by  piloting  her 
young  into  willow  brush,  where  the  little  fellow,  with  his 
long,  gangling  legs,  has  no  trouble  in  striding  out  of  harm's 
way.  The  short-legged  wolves  soon  become  entangled  in  the 
underbrush  and,  if  not  careful,  pawed  by  the  cow's  sharp  fore- 
feet. If  there  is  a  lake  or  river  nearby,  the  mother,  carefully 
keeping  herself  between  her  young  and  the  enemy,  dexterously 
manoeuvres  her  calf  into  the  water,  and  keeps  it  there  till  danger 
has  passed.  The  wolf  is  too  wise  in  the  ways  of  the  wilder- 
ness to  take  any  chances  by  swimming  out  to  attack  a  moose 
that  has  her  feet  on  solid  bottom. 

To  the  prospector,  the  animal  next  in  importance  to  the 
moose,  because  of  its  food  value,  is  the  caribou.  There  are 
two  varieties  of  caribou  —  the  woodland,  found  in  small  herds 
of  five  or  six  the  year  around  in  the  timber-sheltered  foothills; 
and  the  caribou  of  the  plains,  that  cross  the  barren  tundras 
in  their  countless  thousands,  roaming  Northward  in  the  sum- 
mer and  returning  southward  as  winter  approaches.  Natural- 
ists estimate  there  are  more  than  3,000,000  of  the  latter  variety 
in  the  Barren  Lands  of  the  far  North,  but  in  many  of  the 
southerly  latitudes,  they  have  been  practically  exterminated. 

The  advent  of  the  rifle  on  Unalaska  Island  and  on  the 
Seward  Peninsula  was  followed  by  the  destruction  of  the 
caribou.  So  long  as  the  Indians  were  compelled  to  hunt  with 
bows  and  arrows,  the  caribou  were  allowed  to  reproduce  their 
kind  and  keep  pace  with  the  natural  consumption.  The  In- 
dians wantonly  slaughtered  many  thousands  of  these  valuable 


i66    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

animals  for  the  mere  joy  of  killing,  and  the  result  was  dis- 
astrous to  the  animals  and  the  Indians  as  well.  Not  more  than 
a  dozen  years  ago  the  writer  saw  about  4,000  fawn  "  reindeer  " 
skins,  really  young  caribou,  on  the  Yukon.  "  Unborn  rein- 
deer "  coats,  made  from  the  skins  of  fawn  caribou,  were  sold 
by  the  thousands  in  Alaska  a  few  years  ago,  and  these  coats 
meant  the  wiping  out  of  many  thousands  of  female  caribou. 

Professor  Vilhjalmar  Stefansson,  who  recently  discovered  a 
new  race  of  blond  Eskimos  in  the  far  North,  when  discussing 
with  the  writer  the  modes  of  living  of  these  people,  expressed 
the  opinion  that  the  introduction  of  rifles  among  them  would 
mean  their  extermination,  because  it  would  result  in  the  an- 
nihilation of  the  caribou  herds  upon  which  they  subsist. 

The  caribou  travel  in  a  graceful  trot,  rocking  from  side  to 
side  as  they  run,  and,  unless  of  necessity,  never  change  their 
gait.  Their  antlers  average  twenty  points  and  are  very  grace- 
ful in  contour.  In  their  migrations  they  range  as  far  south 
as  British  Columbia  and  as  far  north  as  the  shores  of  the  Arctic 
Ocean.  They  begin  their  northern  journey  about  the  end  of 
March  and  return  in  September  and  October,  usually  follow- 
ing the  same  route  year  after  year. 

Like  other  wild  animals  that  roam  in  bands,  caribou  select 
a  leader  of  the  herd,  and  when  the  hunter  succeeds  in  killing 
the  chief,  he  may  shoot  as  many  as  he  wants,  for  when  the 
head  of  the  herd  falls,  the  balance  become  panic-stricken  and 
"  mill  "  like  frightened  cattle.  Frequently  they  stampede  back 
and  forth  in  front  of  a  stand  for  a  day  at  a  time,  or  until 
another  animal  takes  up  the  lead.  If  the  second  leader  is 
killed,  they  become  more  excited  and  terrified  than  before. 
By  picking  off  the  leaders,  a  herd  can  be  held  within  rifle- 
range  until  the  last  animal  is  shot. 

Although  not  so  large,  the  caribou  is  a  much  prettier  and 
more  graceful  animal  than  the  moose,  and  they  are  less  cun- 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  167 

ning  —  in  fact,  they  are  somewhat  stupid,  and  cling  to  their 
feeding  grounds  in  spite  of  hunters  and  depredatory  animals 
till  they  get  ready  to  leave. 

The  woodland  caribou,  is  somewhat  wild  and  because  of  the 
protection  it  receives  from  the  dense  foliage  in  summer,  is 
more  difficult  to  hunt.  The  female  caribou  differs  from  the 
female  moose  in  that  the  former  is  endowed  with  horns,  w-hich 
it  is  believed  she  does  not  shed  in  winter. 

Other  hoofed  game  in  Alaska  includes  the  mountain  sheep 
and  goat.  Sheep  and  goats  inhabit  the  higher  altitudes,  where 
they  subsist  upon  tufts  of  grass  that  grow  out  among  the  crags 
and  rocks,  sometimes  pawing  away  the  snow  with  their  feet, 
but  often  seeking  pasture  lands  on  the  high  points  where  the 
winds  keep  the  ground  clear  of  snow. 

The  hunter  who  seeks  the  sheep  and  goat  trophies  must 
be  endowed  with  strong  lungs  and  legs,  for  the  animals 
usually  are  found  travelling  up  and  down  steep  hills  and 
around  clififs  which  are  almost  inaccessible  to  man.  To  suc- 
cessfully hunt  these  animals  the  best  method  is  to  climb  high 
into  the  mountains,  and  hunt  downwards.  It  is  futile  to  ap- 
proach a  flock  of  sheep  or  goats  from  below,  because  they  in- 
variably have  one  of  their  number  perched  high  on  a  rock  where 
he  keeps  a  lookout  for  everything  moving  below  him.  When 
the  sentinel  sees  or  scents  danger,  he  emits  a  few  low,  clear 
bleats,  and  the  flock  scatters  to  higher  and  rougher  ground,  or 
hide  themselves  among  the  rocks  and  crags.  Their  eyesight  is 
nearly  perfect,  but  they  never  expect  an  enemy  to  approach 
them  from  a  high   altitude. 

Of  the  two  species  the  goat  is  the  larger,  but  the  meat  of  the 
sheep  is  the  more  palatable  and  epicureans  prefer  it  to  domes- 
ticated mutton.  The  goats  have  straiaiht  horns,  which  do  not 
make  handsome  trophies. 

Neither   male    nor    female   ever   shed    their   horns,    but    the 


i68     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

head  adornment  of  the  male  is  much  larger  than  that  of 
his  helpmate.  The  horns  of  the  ram  frequently  make  a  full 
turn,  and  the  base  sometimes  measures  from  thirteen  to  fifteen 
inches  in  circumference.  The  fleece,  when  full  grown,  is 
almost  perfectly  white,  and,  for  this  reason,  they  are  difficult 
to  hunt  in  winter.  Although,  more  like  hair  than  wool,  the 
coats  of  the  mountain  sheep  make  an  excellent  robe. 

Of  the   fur-bearing  animals,   the  bear   is  easily  the  largest. 
His  domain  is  from  the  southernmost  to  the  northernmost  parts 
of  Alaska.     In  Southeastern  Alaska  the  black  bear  is  the  more 
common,  while  around   Southwestern  Alaska  the  brown   bear 
has  his  being.     Another  variety  of  brown  bear  known  as  the 
Kadiak,   has  its  habitat  on   Kadiak   Island;   the  silver   tip,   or 
grizzly,  lives  along  the  coast  and  in  the  interior;  the  glacial 
bear  inhabits  the   glacial   moraines;   and   the   polar  bear   lives 
among  the  ice  floes  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  occasionally  in 
Bering  Sea.     Any  of  these  animals  is  capable  of  giving  an  in- 
teresting   battle.     All   will    fight    desperately   when   wounded, 
and  there  are  instances  on   record,  where  all  of  the  families, 
with  the  exception  of  the  black  and  glacial  bear,  have  opened 
the   attack.     When   an   unarmed   prospector   meets  a   bear   on 
the  trail,  he  regards  it  as  being  in  conformity  with  the  best 
usages  of  wilderness  society,  particularly  in  the  mating  season, 
to  give  Bruin  the  right-of-way. 

There  is  scarcely  a  native  village  on  Cook's  Inlet  or  the 
Alaska  Peninsula  that  does  not  contain  at  least  one  man  who 
has  been  mauled  by  a  brown  or  grizzly  bear.  On  the  Alaska 
Peninsula  two  men  have  met  death  and  five  have  been  crippled 
within  the  five  years,  ending  in   19 12. 

At  Seldovia,  in  191 1,  a  mate  of  a  fishing  schooner,  while  in 
a  state  of  undue  exhilaration  resulting  from  a  too-frequent  in- 
dulgence in  "  hoochinoo,"  became  imbued  with  the  idea  that 
he  was  another  "  white  hope."     He  could  fight,  too, —  a  fact 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  169 

which  he  demonstrated  by  beating  up  a  couple  of  miners.  His 
victories,  in  a  way,  were  the  cause  of  his  undoing. 

Chained  to  a  big  tree  was  a  three-year-old  brown  bear, 
which  its  owner  had  raised  from  a  cub.  It  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  brawling  mariner. 

"  I  can  lick  anything  with  hair  on,"  he  declared,  and  walk- 
ing up  to  the  animal,  struck  it  savagely  on  the  nose  with  his 
fist.  In  the  fraction  of  a  second  the  air  was  filled  with  bear 
claws  and  teeth  and  in  the  flash  of  an  eyelash  the  sailor  was 
laid  low.  One  man  ran  for  a  rifle,  but  another  with  greater 
presence  of  mind,  picked  up  a  peavy  and  began  prodding  at 
the  bear's  head.  The  infuriated  animal  stood  up  to  fight  off 
its  new  assailant,  and  thus  gave  excited  onlookers  an  oppor- 
tunity to  drag  the  unconscious  sailor  out  of  the  danger  zone. 

A  few  carefully  directed  rifle  shots  subdued  Bruin's  fighting 
spirit.  The  sailor,  severely  slashed  and  bitten,  was  charged 
with  insanity  before  the  United  States  Commissioner.  The 
jury,  without  leaving  their  seats,  adjudged  him  guilty  and  he 
was  committed  to  the  lunatic  asylum  in  which  Alaska's  insane 
are  confined,  at  Mount  Tabor,  Oregon. 

The  bear,  wolf,  wolverine,  and  eagle  are  regarded  as  the 
great  destroyers  of  Alaskan  game,  and  Alaskan  prospectors, 
irrespective  of  the  game  laws,  wage  an  unceasing  war  of  ex- 
termination upon  them. 

Brown  and  Silver-tip  bears  are  highly  prized  by  hunters,  but 
the  glacial  bear,  because  of  its  finer  fur  is  considered  one  of  the 
most  valuable  specimens  of  the  genus  Ursus.  Polar  bears,  as 
has  been  stated,  are  found  only  far  to  the  northward  of  the 
Aleutian  Islands.  To  hunt  polar  bears  successfully,  one  must 
leave  Nome  early  in  the  spring  and  follow  the  ice  fields  in 
their  northward  journey  into  the  Arctic.  If  the  wind  blows 
from  the  westward,  the  bears  are  carried  across  the  Northern 
Ocean  towards  Alaska  on  the  ice  floes,  and  one  or  more  gen- 


I70    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

erally  will  be  seen  in  a  hunt  of  a  few  days.  In  any  event,  the 
hunter  in  this  region  is  fairly  sure  of  some  good  sport  in  walrus 
hunting. 

Captain  Louis  L.  Lane  of  Nome  who,  it  is  believed,  has 
killed  more  polar  bears  than  any  other  living  white  man,  is 
authority  for  the  statement  that  this  animal  never  leaves  the 
ice.  It  does  not  hole  up  in  winter  as  do  all  other  members 
of  the  bear  family,  but  by  following  the  ice  pack,  subsists  on 
seal  and  fish.  Only  on  very  rare  occasions  are  these  animals 
found  in  Bering  Sea,  but  a  trip  into  the  Arctic,  near  the  coast 
of  Siberia,  is  usually  productive  of  a  successful  polar  bear  hunt. 
The  Siberian  grizzly,  a  bear  indigenous  to  the  coast  of  Siberia, 
also  Is  found  in  large  numbers  along  the  Arctic  shore  of  the 
Czar's  Easterly  water-front.  The  Siberian  bears  are  small  and 
their  skins  have  little  value. 

Bears  are  protected  by  the  game  laws  In  Alaska,  but  may  be 
killed  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  in  the  adjoining  Canadian 
territory. 

Much  resembling  a  miniature  bear  in  appearance  is  the  wol- 
verine, whose  black  coat  and  orange  coloured  sides  give  one 
the  idea  of  a  colossal  skunk.  The  wolverine  is  very  shy  and 
about  the  size  of  a  yearling  cub.  They  are  said  to  be  the 
strongest  wild  animal  of  their  size.  Usually  they  live  on  car- 
rion, but  they  are  rarely  too  timid  to  take  a  chance  on  their 
lives  by  stealing  from  a  prospector's  cache. 

Driven  from  British  Columbia  by  the  bounty  hunters,  there 
are  many  wolves  in  the  territory,  and  during  the  past  eight 
or  ten  years  they  have  practically  exterminated  the  small  deer 
In  Southeastern  Alaska.  The  passage  of  a  law  In  19 12  pro- 
viding for  a  bounty  on  these  animals  in  Alaska,  probably  will 
reduce  their  numbers. 

Next  in  shyness  to  the  wolverine  Is  the  lynx,  a  variety  of 
cat,  whose  coat  of  soft  grey  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  brush 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  171 

through  which  he  bounds  on  all  fours.  His  principal  food  is 
rabbits  and  small  birds. 

The  gamest  and  most  courageous  animal  for  its  size 
in  Alaska  is  the  little  stoat,  or  ermine.  Smaller  than  an  or- 
dinary-sized ferret,  this  little  fellow  has  the  strength  and  ability 
to  slay  an  Arctic  hare  or  rabbit  many  times  his  size,  and  will 
carry  off  frozen  fish  heavier  and  larger  than  himself.  In  win- 
ter his  coat,  except  for  the  tip  of  the  tail,  turns  snow  white. 

The  rabbit,  like  the  ptarmigan,  changes  his  colour  to  suit  his 
environment.  During  the  summer  season  bunny  wears  slaty 
grey  fur,  but  as  winter  approaches  this  changes  to  snow  white. 
A  peculiarity  of  the  Alaskan  rabbit  family  is  that  every  seven 
years  they  apparently  disappear.  When  rabbits  are  plentiful, 
moose  and  other  animals  are  scarce.  It  is  generally  supposed 
that  the  rabbits  die  off  every  seven  years,  but  the  writer  offers 
the  opinion  that  they  migrate  to  other  parts  of  the  country. 
In  a  winter  spent  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Francis  River,  in 
British  Columbia,  the  writer  noticed  that  while  there  were 
hundreds  of  moose  in  one  section  of  the  country,  there  were 
no  rabbits.  During  the  winter  season  it  was  necessary  to 
travel  down  the  river  about  sixty  miles,  where  several  hunters 
and  trappers  were  encamped.  They  reported  an  utter  absence 
of  moose,  but  an  abundance  of  rabbits.  It  is  probable  that 
rabbits  have  the  same  effect  on  moose  grounds  that  geese  have 
on  a  field  where  cattle  are  grazed.  The  bovine  has  an  antip- 
athy to  eating  the  grass  in  a  pasture  that  has  been  walked  over 
by  a  flock  of  geese. 

The  fox  family  in  Alaska  is  represented  by  four  varieties — • 
the  red,  cross,  silver-grey  and  black,  or  blue.  Their  habits  are 
too  well  known  to  need  detailed  description  here.  Squirrels, 
rabbits  and  different  species  of  grouse  form  their  chief  food 
supply. 

Besides  the  lynx,  fox,  mink,  otter  and  bear  there  are  many 


172     ALASICA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

fur-bearing  animals  in  Alaska,  but  the  most  valuable  of  these 
is  the  marten,  or  American  sable,  which  can  be  found  in  nearly 
all  parts  of  the  territory.  In  isolated  sections  a  few  beaver  are 
sometimes  found. 

The  whistling  marmot  and  many  other  kinds  of  squirrels 
are  very  numerous  in  the  territory,  and  so  also  are  ground  hogs 
and  porcupines. 

Crane,  ducks,  geese,  swan,  plover,  snipe,  curlew,  brant,  and 
ten  different  species  of  wild  ducks  can  be  found  on  practically 
all  of  the  streams  and  lakes  in  the  territory.  There  are  five 
varieties  of  grouse  and  two  varieties  of  ptarmigan.  The 
feathers  of  the  latter  bird  are  analogous  to  the  fur  of  the 
rabbit  and  ermine,  changing  from  a  rich  tortoise-shell  colour 
in  the  summer  to  a  beautiful,  creamy  white,  very  slightly 
blended  with  shell  rose,  in  winter. 

On  the  ground  these  birds  are  extremely  difficult  to  see, 
especially  in  winter,  when  the  only  thing  visible  against  the 
glaring  whiteness  of  the  snow  is  the  slight  dark  rim  that 
encircles  the  eye.  Their  summer  plumage  is  a  slaty  grey  com- 
bined with  tortoise-shell,  which  seems  to  fit  in  with  the 
brown  moss  and  green  leaves.  Except  in  mating  season,  they 
are  quite  approachable,  and  one  may  kill  them  with  rocks  or 
crawl  up  and  knock  them  from  willow  trees  with  long  sticks. 

In  mating  season  the  female  birds  are  very  cunning.  Their 
nests,  made  on  the  ground,  amongst  the  moss  and  brush,  are 
well  hidden.  If  a  man  approaches  the  nest,  the  hen  does 
not  move  till  he  is  within  two  or  three  steps  of  it.  Then, 
with  tail  feathers  straggling  and  one  wing  hanging  down  as 
though  broken,  she  excitedly  flutters  and  hops  away,  giving  an 
excellent  imitation  of  a  bird  that  has  been  severely  wounded. 
Always  she  travels  just  fast  enough  to  keep  out  of  reach,  but 
when  sufficiently  distant  from  the  nest  —  at  a  poinc  where  she 
thinks   the   enemy   will   be  unable   to   discover   it   again  —  she 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  173 

mounts  into  the  air  and  gracefully  soars  out  of  sight,  after- 
wards circling  back  to  her  home.  If  a  hunter  disturbs  a  ptar- 
migan when  her  chickens  have  been  hatched,  the  ground  ap- 
pears for  a  moment  to  be  covered  with  animated  balls  of  down 
moving  in  every  possible  direction,  but,  like  a  flash,  they  seem 
to  melt  into  the  brush  and  moss,  and  search  as  one  will,  it  is 
only  very  rarely  that  one  of  them  can  be  found.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  mother  gives  an  exhibition  of  well-simulated  pain, 
and  by  her  flutterings  and  hopplngs,  does  everything  possible 
to  attract  the  attention  of  the  intruder  to  herself. 

Both  varieties  of  ptarmigan  grow  long  hair-like  feathers 
completely  down  their  legs  to  the  very  tip  of  their  claws  in 
winter  as  a  protection  against  the  severe  cold  of  the  climate 
in  which  they  live. 

In  a  country  so  full  of  game  as  is  Alaska,  it  is  only  natural 
that  birds  of  prey  are  very  numerous,  and  amongst  these,  the 
two  species  of  eagle  —  the  bald  and  the  golden  —  are  the 
greatest  destroyers  of  game.  These  birds  levy  a  fearful  toll 
on  the  squirrels,  rabbits,  mice,  ptarmigan,  grouse  and  other 
small  animals  and  birds.  There  are  several  varieties  of  owls 
including  the  Richardson;  the  great  grey,  or  Arctic;  the  short- 
eared,  the  snowy,  the  horned  and  the  pigmy,  the  latter  about 
the  size  of  a  bluejay.  Although  carnivorous  in  their  instincts, 
these  are  not  so  destructive  as  eagles. 

Another  bird  of  prey  is  the  jay,  or  camp-robber,  called  by 
the  Indians  for  obvious  reasons,  the  "  Hudson  Bay  Bird." 
This  bird  is  extremely  impertinent,  and  will  pick  at  a  ham  or 
a  piece  of  meat,  even  though  it  be  attached  to  the  tent.  Be- 
sides these  there  are  ten  different  varieties  of  hawks  and  any 
number  of  ravens  and  crows. 

Great  multitudes  of  small  birds  can  be  found  on  all  sides. 
They  include  one  or  more  varieties  of  robins,  jays,  tomtits, 
rufus-hummers,     blue-birds,     swallows,     martens,     sand-pipers, 


174    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

sparrows,  snow-birds,  linnets,  and  many  others  peculiar  to  the 
Arctic. 

Speaking  broadly  one  may  hunt  any  part  of  Alaska  and  be 
reasonably  sure  of  finding  good  sport,  but  the  better  places,  of 
course,  are  where  the  least  hunting  has  been  done.  Except 
for  a  lack  of  caribou,  there  is  perhaps  no  better  hunting  ground 
in  North  America  than  on  Kenai  Peninsula.  An  excellent 
hunting  ground  offering  almost  every  variety  of  game  can  be 
reached  by  crossing  Scolai  Pass  from  the  interior  end  of  Copper 
River  and  Northwestern  Railroad  to  the  head  of  White  River. 
The  Kuskokwim,  the  Susltna,  the  Tanana  and  many  other 
streams  in  Alaska,  because  of  their  extreme  fertility  offer 
splendid  hunting  grounds,  and  another  good  place  is  around  the 
base  of  Mount  McKinley,^  the  highest  mountain  on  the  North 
American  continent,  and  one  which  has  yet  to  be  conquered. 

The  climate  of  Alaska  is  about  as  varied  as  its  game,  and 
apart  from  the  sport  to  be  obtained  in  the  hunting  fields,  a 
few  weeks  in  the  bracing,  invigourating  atmosphere  is  a  good 
tonic  for  tired  nerves.  The  herds  of  game  do  not  exist  in 
such  quantities  that  one  may  shoot  the  limit  of  one's  license  in 
a  day  or  two,  and  the  hunter  who  goes  to  Alaska  expecting  to 

^Captain  Cook,  of  North  pole  fame  —  or  infame, —  claimed  to  have 
ascended  this  mountain.  Men  who  were  at  the  base  of  the  mountain 
at  the  time  say  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  have 
done  so  in  the  time  at  his  disposal,  and  the  photographs  which  he 
showed  as  being  the  top  of  the  mountain  later  were  proven  to  have 
been  taken  on  top  of  a  hill  less  than  8,000  feet  above  sea  level. 
Thomas  Lloyd  and  a  party  of  three  other  miners,  of  Fairbanks,  climbed 
to  what  they  thought  was  the  topmost  peak  of  the  mountain,  but  it 
was  later  discovered  in  1912  by  Herschell  Parker  and  Bellmore  Brown 
that  there  was  a  still  higher  peak  further  to  the  Northward.  Brown 
and  Parker  were  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the  top  of  this  peak 
when  they  were  overtaken  by  a  blizzard  and  had  to  "  hole  up "  for 
three  days,  during  which  time  they  ran  out  of  food.  They  were  com- 
pelled to  hasten  back  to  their  camp  lower  down  the  mountain  side  as 
soon  as  the  storm  subsided. 


THREE  LITTLE  HEARS  UP  A  TREE.  THE  PROSPECTOR  REFUSED 
TO  YIELD  THE  TRAIL,  A  FIGHT  FOLLOWED,  AND  THEN  A 
MAN  WITH  A  RIFLE  APPEARED.  THE  SHE-BEAR  LIES  DEAD 
AT  THE  FOOT  OF  THF  TREE 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  175 

secure  many  valuable  trophies  without  working  hard  and  skil- 
fully for  them  is  destined  to  be  disappointed. 

In  the  higher  altitudes  sharp,  frosty  weather  can  be  depended 
upon,  and  the  nights  almost  are  invariably  cool  enough  to  make 
a  good  blanket  or  robe,  with  a  rubber  or  canvas  sheet  beneath 
it,  acceptable.  A  small  cooking  outfit,  of  course,  is  essential, 
but  it  is  well  to  reduce  the  weight  of  everything  to  a  minimum, 
and,  while  not  leaving  behind  anything  that  will  deprive  one 
of  ordinary  comforts,  a  large  outfit  is  not  recommended.  Good 
woollen  underwear  should  be  worn,  and  a  couple  of  Denham 
or  khaki  suits,  with  plenty  of  pockets  in  the  coats,  are  about  all 
that  is  necessary  for  bodily  comfort.  The  coat  should  be  made 
so  that  a  sweater  can  be  worn  underneath.  If  knickerbockers 
are  worn  they  should  be  made  very  loose  and  not  buttoned  or 
laced  at  the  knee,  as  one  requires  perfect  freedom  for  climbing, 
especially  when  in  pursuit  of  mountain  sheep  or  goats.  In 
footwear  a  few  pair  of  thick  woollen  socks,  and  low  shoes,  oil- 
tanned,  of  medium  weight,  but  the  soles  of  which  should  be 
sufficiently  thick  to  carry  a  few  caulks  or  heavy  nails,  will 
suffice.  In  the  coastal  regions,  because  of  heavy  precipitation, 
oilskins  are  a  necessity  and  gum  boots  or  thigh  waders  will  be 
found  convenient. 

A  good,  high-power  rifle  is  essential.  The  30.30  is  heavy 
enough  for  the  smaller  bear  and  moose,  but,  in  order  to  make 
certain  of  a  killing  when  hunting  caribou  or  the  larger  varieties 
of  bear,  a  rifle  of  higher  shocking  force  is  necessary,  and  one 
of  the  various  makes  of  30.40  or  a  weapon  still  stronger  is 
recommended.  The  caribou,  although  smaller  and  lighter 
than  the  moose,  has  much  greater  vitality;  and  the  capacity  of 
the  silver  tip,  Kadiak,  brown,  polar  and  glacial  bears  to  assimi- 
late lead  without  immediate  apparent  reduction  of  strength  or 
ferocity,  is  marvellous.  Occasionally  a  big  bear  of  the  varieties 
mentioned  has  been  killed  at  the  first  shot,  but  this  does  not 


176     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

happen  very  often.  Therefore,  the  hunter  will  find  it  to  his 
advantage  to  take  a  high-power  rifle  and  make  it  answer  all 
purposes  by  shooting  steel-jacketed  bullets  when  hunting  com- 
paratively small  game  and  soft-nosed  bullets  for  the  hardier 
kinds.  There  are  many  different  brands  of  rifles,  nearly  all 
of  which  give  excellent  results. 

Each  sportsman  has  a  predilection  for  a  rifle  that  suits  his 
own  particular  fancy.  Smokeless  powder  cartridges,  of  course, 
are  almost  universally  used.  Personally,  the  writer  prefers  one 
of  the  recently  created  high  power  rifles,  such  as  the  Mannlicker 
or  the  Ross,  yet  in  a  hunt  for  big  game  that  lasted  nearly  a 
year  and  a  half,  and  during  a  large  portion  of  which  time  when 
the  life  of  everybody  in  the  party  depended  upon  the  aggregate 
ability  of  the  members  to  pull  quickly  and  shoot  straight,  I 
obtained  excellent  service  from  an  old  .45  calibre  Winchester, 
carrying  a  ball  about  the  size  of  a  man's  thumb  and  shooting 
ninety  grains  of  black  powder.  I  had  seen  a  moose  killed  at 
a  distance  of  1,182  snowshoe  steps,  approximately  1,200  yards, 
with  a  30.30  Winchester,  but  experience  taught  me  to  have 
a  very  kindly  regard  for  that  old,  black-powder  "  gun."  It 
weighed  about  fourteen  pounds  and,  at  the  end  of  a  long  day's 
walk,  I  often  felt  as  though  I  had  been  carrying  a  small  cannon 
on  my  shoulder,  but,  to  use  a  sporting  phrase,  "  it  brought  home 
the  bacon." 

In  addition  to  a  high-power  rifle,  a  shot-gun  or  a  small 
calibre  rifle  should  be  taken  for  birds  and  small  game,  and  some 
good  fishing  tackle  is  necessary. 

The  trout  in  Alaska  streams  are  as  fickle  as  in  other  places. 
Frequently  they  will  take  a  spoon  bait,  if  it  is  allowed  to  spin 
in  the  riffles.  If  they  have  any  preference  in  flies,  it  is  for  the 
professor  but  they  often  strike  at  royal  coachmen  and  brown 
and  black  hackles.  The  greyling  take  brown  and  black  hackles, 
coachmen,    royal    coachmen,   and   black   and   grey   gnats.     For 


HUNTING  GROUNDS  177 

all  purposes,  the  coachmen  and  hackles  will  be  found  the  most 
serviceable.  The  greyling  seem  to  have  a  preference  for  a 
fly  that  has  only  a  moderate  amount  of  red  in  it.  A  can  or 
two  of  specially-prepared  salmon  eggs  will  be  found  useful. 
Because  of  the  frost  in  winter,  there  are  very  few  angle  worms 
in  Alaska,  and  grasshoppers  are  not  abundant.  Whether 
worms  would  make  a  good  bait  is  an  experiment  that,  I  think, 
has  yet  to  be  tried.  A  number  of  spare  hooks  should  be  taken, 
as  one  can  often  catch  both  trout  and  greyling  with  a  bait 
when  they  will  not  strike  at  a  spoon  or  other  lure.  For  bait  a 
small  piece  of  meat,  a  fish-eye,  or  a  piece  of  the  giblet  of  any 
of  the  many  birds,  usually  gives  excellent  results.  Salmon 
eggs,  however,  are  the  bait  that  can  be  most  depended  upon. 

The  season  for  fishing  is  open  all  through  the  year,  but  the 
general  big  game  hunting  season  opens  on  August  i.  It  is 
better  to  get  into  the  territory  the  latter  part  of  July,  so  that 
a  few  days'  angling  for  King  salmon  may  be  enjoyed  along  the 
coast  before  the  game  season  opens. 

Because  of  the  fact  that  the  caribou  herd  in  the  Kenai  Pen- 
insula was  destroyed.  Congress  made  that  region  a  semi-game 
preserve,  and  insisted  on  each  hunter  in  this  section  being  ac- 
companied by  a  licensed  and  registered  guide.  While  a  guide 
will  add  a  good  deal  to  the  pleasure  of  the  trip,  the  law  — 
with  the  exception  above  noted  —  does  not  make  it  incumbent 
upon  the  hunter  to  take  one  unless  he  so  desires.  Every  hunter 
must  procure  a  license  which  is  obtainable  only  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  Alaska  at  Juneau  and  which  is  good  only  during  the 
year  it  is  issued.  The  fee  is  fifty  dollars  to  American  citizens 
and  one  hundred  dollars  to  aliens.  There  is,  of  course,  a  pro- 
vision in  the  law  which  provides  that  m.iners,  prospectors  and 
settlers  may  kill  any  kind  of  game  at  any  season  of  the  year 
for  food,  but  it  is  unlawful  for  any  person  to  kill  a  cow  or 
yearling  moose,  or  for  any  one  person  to  kill  in  any  one  year 


178     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

more  than  the  number  specified  of  each  of  the  following  ani- 
mals: 

Two  moose,  one  walrus  or  sea  lion,  three  caribou,  three 
mountain  sheep,  three  brown  bears,  or  to  kill  in  any  one  day 
more  than  twenty-five  grouse,  ptarmigan,  shore-birds  or  water- 
fowl. 

At  any  point  to  the  northward  of  latitude  sixty-two  degrees 
brown  bear  may  be  killed  at  any  time,  and,  as  the  animals  are 
considered  destroyers  of  game,  prospectors  in  this  region  take 
full  advantage  of  this  clause  in  the  law.  Moose,  caribou, 
walrus,  mountain  sheep  and  sea  lions  may  be  killed  from  August 
I  to  December  lO,  both  inclusive.  Southward  of  latitude 
sixty-two  degrees,  moose,  caribou  and  mountain  sheep  may  be 
killed  from  August  20  to  December  31,  both  inclusive;  brown 
bear  from  October  i  to  July  i,  both  inclusive;  deer  and  moun- 
tain goats  from  April  I  to  February  i,  both  inclusive;  grouse, 
ptarmigan,  shore-birds  and  waterfowl  from  September  i  to 
March  i,  both  inclusive. 

Each  license  entitles  the  holder  to  ship  the  number  of  trophies 
allowed  under  the  law.  The  Secretary  of  Agriculture  is  au- 
thorised to  modify  the  closed  seasons,  providing  different  closed 
seasons  for  diiiferent  parts  of  Alaska,  and  placing  further  re- 
strictions and  limitations  upon  the  killing  of  game  for  a  period 
not  exceeding  two  years  in  any  one  locality. 


CHAPTER  XV 

FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT 

Salmon-canning  business  alone  annually  repays  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  twice  the  amount  that  was  paid  to  Russia  for  the 
entire  Territory  —  Like  gold  mining,  the  business  has  its  romance 
of  failure  and  success  —  Good  sport  for  anglers  in  Northern 
streams. 

IF  placed  end  to  end,  the  cans  of  salmon  packed  in  Alaska 
in  191 1  would  make  a  chain  9,918  miles  long.  It  would 
reach  from  Manila  to  New  York  and  some  distance  be- 
yond into  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  pack  amounted  to  134,- 
500,000  cans.  The  value  was  a  little  more  than  $16,000,000. 
More  than  $25,000,000  is  invested  in  the  cannery  business. 

Secretary  William  H.  Seward,  when  drawing  up  the  treaty 
which  ceded  Alaska  to  the  United  States,  demonstrated  great 
foresight  by  inserting  the  provision  that  "  the  waters  that  sur- 
round the  land  "  be  included  in  the  transfer.  Fishes  taken 
from  these  waters  every  year  repay  to  the  United  States  more 
than  twice  the  amount  that  was  paid  for  the  entire  territory 
—  and  this  from  the  salmon  alone.  It  takes  no  account  of  the 
halibut,  cod,  whalebone,  sealskins,  herrings,  crabs,  and  other 
products  of  Alaskan  waters,  and  all  of  which  form  a  very  im- 
portant item  in  the  world's  affairs.  In  1910  more  than  15,000 
persons  were  employed  in  the  salmon  industry  alone.  The  sta- 
tistics for  191 1  and  1912  are  not  available  as  this  is  written, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  number  has  been  greatly  in- 
creased. Of  the  people  employed  in  1910,  6,836  were  whites, 
4,147  Indians,  2,411  Chinese,  2,206  Japanese,  4  Koreans,  and 
16  Filipinos.     The  general  consensus  of  opinion   is  that,  in 

179 


i8o     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

later  years,  the  proportions  of  whites  and  Indians  were  increased. 

From  its  southernmost  to  its  northernmost  limits,  the  seas 
of  Alaska  are  one  immense  aquatic  farm.  "  There  are  just  as 
good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  was  caught,"  is  an  aphorism,  and 
also,  there  are  just  as  good  salmon  sites  left  in  Alaska  as  those 
that  already  have  been  segregated  from  the  government  domain. 
So  far  none  of  the  canners  have  gone  above  Bristol  Bay,  but 
salmon  swim  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic  Ocean.  In  Salt  Lake, 
near  Teller,  just  below  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  the  writer  has 
seen  salmon  so  plentiful  that,  apparently,  there  was  not  room 
enough  in  the  water  for  the  vast  horde,  and  they  pushed  each 
other  out  on  the  banks. 

Many  fish  prospectors,  in  the  summer  of  1912,  located  fishing 
sites  from  Bristol  Bay  as  far  north  as  the  mouth  of  the  Kuskok- 
wim  and  Yukon  Rivers,  and  as  time  goes  on,  they  will  advance 
even  further  north. 

Except  the  rush  of  fortune  hunters  of  California  in  the  early 
fifties  and  the  big  trek  of  gold  seekers  to  the  Klondike  and 
Alaska  in  the  late  nineties,  no  phase  of  Western  life  has  been 
invested  with  more  fascinating  romance  and  dramatic  incident 
than  the  beginning  and  development  of  the  salmon  industry 
on  the  Alaskan  Pacific.  What  Bret  Harte  did  for  the  Cali- 
fornia gold  hunters.  Rex  Beach  in  his  "  Silver  Horde  "  did 
for  the  salmon  fishermen.  The  lure  of  gold  never  was  more 
dazzling  to  the  prospector  for  the  yellow  metal  than  the  "  end 
of  the  rainbow  "  to  the  prospector  for  red  salmon.  The  gold 
yield  of  Alaska  in  191 2  was  not  very  much  greater  in  value 
than  the  salmon  output. 

"  The  Pacific  salmon  are  the  most  valuable  fishes  not  only 
of  the  United  States,  but  also  of  the  entire  Western  Hemi- 
sphere," wrote  Dr.  Hugh  Smith,  assistant  United  States  com- 
missioner of  fisheries,  in  a  recent  report.  "  With  the  single 
exception  of  sea  herrings,  Pacific  salmon  are  commercially  the 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       i8i 

leading  fishes  in  the  world.  The  salmon  have  in  fact  been 
Alaska's  most  valuable  contribution  to  the  world's  needs,  ex- 
ceeding in  abundance  and  importance  those  of  any  other  re- 
gion." 

Alike  has  the  history  of  the  seeker  of  golden  metal  and  the 
seeker  of  silver-sided  fishes  been  marked  with  its  grim  tragedies. 
Success  in  one  has  been  about  in  the  same  proportion  as  success 
in  the  other.  It  is  claimed  by  the  miner  that  the  gold  taken 
out  of  the  ground  is  the  cleanest  money  extant  —  that  it  has 
no  blood  upon  it,  that  it  has  made  no  man  poorer  and  caused 
no  heartsickness  and  poverty.  But  this  also  is  true  of  the  fish 
farmer,  for  he  adds  to  the  world's  food  supply  and  helps  to 
alleviate  the  hunger  and  poverty  which  the  Scriptures  say 
"  shall  be  with  us  always." 

Both  are  surrounded  by  the  elements  of  chance.  Both  have 
their  failures  and  successes.  At  one  time  or  another  the  Alaska 
Packers'  Association  owned  forty-four  canneries  in  Alaska. 
Now  this  company,  once  leader  of  the  territory,  operates  but 
fourteen.  In  igo2  there  were  twenty-seven  canneries  in 
Southeastern  Alaska.  In  that  same  year  and  the  succeeding 
years,  two-thirds  of  the  number  went  into  the  hands  of  re- 
ceivers. 

Years  of  high  prices  always  create  a  rush  to  the  salmon  field 
such  as  is  now  in  progress,  and  these  stampedes  invariably  are 
followed  by  periods  of  depression  and  financial  disaster. 
Profits  are  great  when  the  catch  is  big  and  the  prices  high,  but 
this  condition  does  not  prevail  always. 

The  salmon  canning  industry  in  Alaska  had  its  beginning 
almost  with  the  history  of  the  territory  so  far  as  American 
enterprise  be  concerned,  and  was  coincident  with  the  first  dis- 
coveries of  gold.  The  first  canneries  were  built  in  1878. 
Gold  was  discovered  near  Sitka  the  same  year  and  at  Juneau 
two  years  later.     The  first  stamp  mill  installed  in  Alaska  was 


i82     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

erected  at  the  Stuart  mine  near  Sitka  in  1880.  In  1882  two 
more  canneries  were  built,  and  others  were  added  in  the  suc- 
ceeding years  till  1888,  at  which  time  there  were  seventeen 
canneries  in  operation  in  Alaska,  and  the  output  in  that  year 
was  412,000  cases.  The  value  of  the  Alaskan  salmon  pack, 
even  at  this  early  date,  totalled  millions  and  attracted  national 
attention. 

Consumers  of  salmon,  as  a  general  rule,  especially  those 
living  on  the  Atlantic  Coast,  are  not  generally  aware  that  there 
is  a  generic  difference  between  the  salmon  of  the  Atlantic  and 
the  salmon  of  the  Pacific.  The  Atlantic  salmon  is  of  the  genus 
salmo  salar,  and  there  is  but  one  kind.  The  fish  is  of  a  uni- 
form reddish  colour  and  the  mature  fish  of  uniform  size  and 
weight. 

The  Pacific  salmon  is  of  the  genus  oncorhyncus  and  there 
are  five  distinct  varieties.  Eliminating  the  Latin  names,  which 
are  interesting  only  to  naturalists,  these  are:  King  or  spring 
salmon,  known  also  on  the  Columbia  River  as  chinook;  sock- 
eye,  blueback  or  red  salmon;  the  cohoe,  silver,  tyee  or  medium 
red,  according  to  the  locality  in  which  they  are  taken;  the 
humpback  or  pink  salmon,  and  the  dog  or  chum  salmon.  Still 
another  variety  is  found  in  Pacific  waters  on  the  coast  of 
Japan,  but  it  has  no  commercial  importance  worth  mention- 
ing. 

Another  very  distinct  difference  between  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  salmon  is  that  the  former,  after  spawning  in  fresh 
water,  returns  to  the  sea  while  the  Pacific  salmon,  after  making 
arrangements  for  a  myriad  reproduction  of  its  kind,  dies. 
Once  it  leaves  the  feeding  grounds  in  the  salt  water  it  takes 
no  food,  and  in  fact,  is  believed  to  become  physically  incapable 
of  taking  food.  On  rare  occasions,  however,  a  silver  salmon 
of  the  male  sex  playfully  will  grab  for  a  trout  fly.  With  the 
exception  of  the  sockeye,   pink  and  chum  salmon,  all  of  the 


ALASKA'S  SEAS  AND  STREAMS  TEEM  WITH  FISH.  HALIBTT 
CAUGHT  IN  CORDOVA  BAY;  AND  A  DAYS  CATCH  OF  RAIN- 
BOW TROUT  AT  SEWARD 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       183 

varieties  will  snap  at  a  trolling  spoon  before  entering  fresh 
water. 

The  people  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  United  States  are 
not  the  only  ones  who  are  ignorant  of  the  difference  in  the 
salmon  species.  A  Pacific  Coast  canneryman  in  19 12  received 
a  letter  from  the  United  States  vice-consul  at  Liverpool,  who 
asserted  that  British  food  manufacturers  had  complained  to 
him  that  much  of  the  canned  salmon  shipped  into  Great  Britain 
from  Alaska  was  not  salmon,  and  that  the  cans  had  been 
filled  with  "  a  species  of  fish  known  as  the  sockeye."  The 
sockeye,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  one  of  the  high-grade  sal- 
mon. The  vice-consul  was  very  indignant  at  this  alleged 
fraud,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Britishers  were  justi- 
fied in  their  complaints. 

As  those  engaged  In  the  canning  industry  do  considerable 
business  in  foreign  markets,  it  necessarily  follows  that  they  have 
much  correspondence  with  the  United  States  consuls.  A 
Pacific-coast  canneryman  some  time  ago  wrote  a  letter  to  a  vice- 
consul  In  Germany.  Not  having  any  German  postage  stamps 
and  knowing  that  United  States  stamps  would  be  valueless  in 
that  country,  and  yet  wishing  to  enclose  the  amount  of  postage 
for  a  reply,  the  canneryman  wrapped  a  ten-cent  piece  In  the 
letter.  He  received  the  information  desired,  and  at  the  bottom 
of  the  letter  was  a  postscript  In  which  it  was  stated  that  the 
law  of  the  United  States  prohibited  employes  of  the  consular 
service  from  accepting  gratuities,  and  that  the  dime,  therefore, 
was  returned  with  thanks  and  best  wishes. 

Pacific  salmon  life  Is  one  of  the  unsolvable  m3'sterles.  How 
does  the  salmon  fry  find  Its  way  to  the  feeding  grounds  In  the 
salt  sea?  Where  does  It  learn  to  return  again  to  the  parent 
stream,  or  one  contiguous  thereto,  as  It  has  been  proven  that 
many  of  them  do?  Where  are  the  feeding  grounds  of  the  vast 
hordes  of  salmon  that  come  up  yearly  from  their  home  in  the 


i84     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

mighty  deep?  How  far  do  they  travel  going  or  coming? 
What  do  they  live  upon?  Nobody  knows.  Even  Rex  Beach, 
the  human  tarpon,  who  is  said  to  be  able  to  talk  the  fish  lan- 
guage and  who  is  said  to  have  fins  growing  under  his  shirt, 
answers  with  only  a  silent  shake  of  his  head,  and  mutters,  "  It's 
too  deep  for  me." 

The  salmon  domain  is  almost  incalculable  in  its  immensity. 
They  range  all  the  way  from  Monterey,  Cal.,  as  far  north- 
ward as  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  even  as  far  easterly  on  "  the  top 
of  the  world  "  as  the  Mackenzie  River,  on  the  American  side, 
and  from  Japan  to  the  northernmost  streams  of  Siberia  on  the 
Asiatic  seaboard  of  the  Pacific.  It  generally  is  believed  that 
the  young  of  salmon  lay  off  the  continental  plateau  at  a  depth 
of  about  lOO  fathoms  and  find  their  feeding  grounds  there. 

Just  what  they  feed  upon  never  has  been  ascertained,  but  all 
species  of  salmon,  with  the  exception  of  the  chum  when  the 
old  home  movement  is  at  its  zenith  —  shortly  before  they  reach 
the  river  mouths  —  will  snap  at  a  spoon  troll  with  avidity. 
Trolling  for  King  salmon  is  developing  into  one  of  the  indus- 
tries. With  the  exception  of  those  caught  near  the  confluence 
of  the  rivers  with  salt  water,  the  salmon  —  like  the  shad,  her- 
ring, mackerel  and  other  migratory  fishes  —  is  never  found  at 
sea.     They  simply  vanish. 

"  When  salmon  go  to  sea,  that  is  the  last  we  see  of  them," 
experts  declare.  But  when  the  on-shore  invasion  commences, 
it  is  the  consensus  of  expert  piscatorial  opinion,  it  begins  to  the 
westward  along  the  Aleutian  Islands,  because  there  they  are 
found  in  the  early  part  of  May.  The  King  salmon  comes  first 
and  they  are  followed  by  the  sockeye  or  red  salmon.  Soon 
thereafter  they  appear  in  Cook's  Inlet  and  Prince  William 
Sound. 

Further  south  in  the  vicinity  of  Icy  Strait,  salmon  appear  be- 
tween June  10  and  June   15.     At  Wrangell,  Karta  Bay,  and 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       185 

Ketchikan,  the  sockeyes  appear  in  July,  and  still  later  along  the 
coast  of  British  Columbia. 

The  King  is  followed  by  the  run  of  red  or  sockeye.  The 
humpbacks  run  early  in  July,  while  the  cohoe,  or  silver,  sal- 
mon is  the  autumn  fish.  The  run  of  "  dog  "  salmon  varies  in 
different  localities. 

The  stranger,  who  knows  nothing  of  the  habits  of  the  sal- 
mon, invariably  can  tell  from  a  distance  when  the  run  has 
commenced  because  of  the  number  of  gulls  that  hover  over  the 
bars  and  riffles  of  the  streams,  picking  at  the  eyes  of  the  fishes. 

Red  or  sockeye  come  first  in  point  of  commercial  value,  pink 
or  humpback  second,  and  the  others  are  a  negligible  quantity. 
Not  more  than  40,000  cases  of  King  salmon  were  canned  in 
191 1,  but  many  thousands  of  pounds  of  this  fish  —  the  product 
of  the  angler  with  a  trolling  spoon  —  were  put  up  in  mild 
cure  pickle.  These  were  shipped  in  cold  storage  to  Seattle, 
thence  to  the  European  markets.  Reports  indicate  that  the 
run  of  King  salmon  was  destroyed  in  a  few  places  in  1912  by 
the  fall  of  volcanic  ash  from  Mount  Katmai,  but  these  reports 
have  not  been  authenticated. 

Western  Alaska  produces  five-sixths  of  the  red  salmon  out- 
put. Southeastern  Alaska  is  the  native  habitat  of  the  pink 
salmon,  which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  chief  food  prod- 
ucts. Pink,  or  humpback  salmon,  constitute  two-thirds  of 
the  pack  of  Southeastern  Alaska.  By  those  most  familiar  with 
its  qualities  it  is  regarded  as  the  most  delicate  and  the  most 
nutritious  of  Alaska  salmon. 

It  has  the  delicate  pink  colour  of  the  delicious  brook  trout 
and  is  not  surpassed  in  flavour  by  any  species  of  fresh-water 
fish  taken  in  Alaska  or  elsewhere.  When  cooked  they  lose 
their  rich  colour  and  this  lack  of  colour,  which  in  nowise  af- 
fects their  food  value  nor  their  succulency  nor  flavour,  never- 
theless, controls  the  market  price,  the  value  of  salmon  being 


1 86     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

graded  according  to  colour  in  the  order  of  red,  medium  red, 
pink  and  pale.  The  difference  in  the  nutrition  of  the  list  is 
very  slight. 

It  is  easily  apparent  from  a  chemical  analysis  that  the  vari- 
ation in  the  amount  of  protein  —  the  flesh  and  muscle-produc- 
ing, life-sustaining  element  —  is  very  slight  in  the  various 
grades;  that  in  this  particular,  cohoe  or  medium  red  and  the 
chum  salmon  are  more  valuable  than  the  supposedly  high-grade 
red  salmon,  and  that  the  pink  or  humpback  is  within  a  very 
small  fraction  of  being  just  as  rich  as  the  sockeye.  The  latter 
is  much  richer  in  the  fats  alone. 

Why  does  colour  become  such  an  important  factor  in  the 
salmon  market,  when  it  contributes  absolutely  nothing  to  the 
food  value  or  the  flavour  of  the  fish?  Because  colour  is  a 
fetich.  A  long  time  ago  somebody  said  the  world  was  flat, 
and  it  remained  flat  until  someone  else  proved  it  was  round. 
Also  a  long  time  ago  somebody  said  that  red  fish  were  better  in 
food  values  than  lighter  coloured  ones,  and  so  it  will  remain 
until  the  knowledge  that  the  opposite  has  been  proved  becomes 
generally  disseminated. 

The  preference  for  the  high-coloured  fish  is  a  prejudice  in- 
herited from  the  mother  countries  and  the  states  bordering  on 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  There's  no  place  in  the  world  as  great 
as  New  York,  and  there  isn't  anything  of  any  kind  that  is  as 
good  as  that  produced  in  New  York  —  if  one  takes  the  word 
of  some  of  the  people  of  New  York  for  it.  Salmon  were  dis- 
covered in  the  Hudson  River  many  years  before  Lewis  and 
Clark  descended  the  Columbia.  Of  course  it  couldn't  be  pos- 
sible that  the  salmon  in  the  Columbia  had  the  same  amount 
of  food  value  as  the  salmon  in  the  Hudson.  The  difference  in 
the  colour  proved  it. 

The  Atlantic  salmon  is  a  red  fish,  but  the  Pacific  salmon 
vary  in  colour  from  the  blood-red  of  the  sockeye  to  the  pale 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT      187 

anemic-looking,  but  more  nutritious,  chum,  or  "  dog  "  salmon. 
All  salmon  look  alike  to  a  majority  of  the  consumers,  but  there 
is  an  impression  with  the  trade  that  superiority  or  inferiority 
is  determined  entirely  by  the  intensity  of  the  carmine  in  the 
flesh  tinting. 

Not  only  is  the  "  dog  "  salmon  unfortunate  in  its  lack  of 
pleasing  colour,  but  it  has  a  repellent  name,  and  everybody 
knows  the  old  adage  about  the  canine  with  a  sinister  cognomen. 
Where  this  fish  obtained  its  ill-favoured  title  is  not  known  def- 
initely. It  has  been  known  by  that  name  from  the  time  gold- 
seekers  first  came  to  the  coast.  In  the  dawning  history  of  the 
Northwest,  great  quantities  of  this  fish  were  dried  and  they 
furnished  the  bulk  of  the  staple  food  for  hunters  and  trappers 
on  the  Pacific  Coast  —  and  also  for  their  dogs,  for  there  were 
no  "  canned  goods  "  in  those  days  and  "  embalmed  beef  "  was 
an  unknown  quantity.  Even  to-day  in  the  northern  latitudes 
this  fish  is  put  up  in  large  quantities  by  the  Indians  and  fed  to 
the  dogs  universally  used  for  the  transportation  of  supplies  and 
the  haulage  of  burdens  over  the  snow  by  sled.  Hence  the  use 
of  the  name.  The  King  or  sockeye  salmon  is  not  so  easily  pre- 
served by  drying,  and  frequently  it  becomes  musty  and  spoiled. 

The  Indians  prefer  "  dog  "  salmon  as  an  article  of  food  to 
any  other  fish  that  swims  in  the  icy  waters  of  the  North.  The 
Eskimos  always  keep  on  hand  a  large  supply  for  themselves 
and  their  dogs.  The  Japanese  and  Orientals,  who  also  know 
of  its  excellent  food  value,  prefer  it  to  any  other  kind  of 
salmon.  "  Dog  "  salmon  is  the  best  kind  of  freezing  fish  and 
it  brings  good  prices  in  the  eastern  markets.  It  is  outclassed 
in  the  canned  salmon  market  solely  because  of  its  unfortunate 
name  and  colour.  The  colour  fetish,  like  other  superstitions, 
dies  hard.  Not  so  very  long  ago  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
naturalists  in  America  declared  that  the  light  colour  of  many 
chinook,  or  King,  salmon  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  had 


i88     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

deteriorated  or  spawned,  and  it  was  only  when  absolutely  con- 
vinced to  the  contrary  that  he  changed  his  mind. 

A  big  fleet  of  vessels  is  engaged  to  carry  the  salmon  fisher- 
men and  their  equipment  to  Alaska.  Except  when  the  salmon 
are  running,  the  canneries,  save  for  a  watchman  or  two,  are 
deserted.  For  ten  or  eleven  months  everything  about  the  can- 
nery buildings  seems  lifeless,  but  suddenly  on  a  summer  day  in 
June,  when  each  breath  of  the  fresh  and  invigourating  atmos- 
phere seems  to  give  a  new  span  of  life,  the  first  vessel  of  the 
fleet  arrives.  The  long  silence  of  the  winter  is  broken  —  the 
city  of  a  few  days  has  sprung  into  active  being.  Indians 
gather  from  miles  around,  and  in  the  Southeastern  waters,  pas- 
senger vessels  discharge  a  horde  of  Chinese,  Japanese  and  white 
fishermen.  They  separate  into  their  various  villages  —  for 
fishermen  are  very  clannish.  Usually  they  do  not  wait  long  in 
idleness.  So  well  known  are  the  habits  of  the  salmon,  that 
by  the  time  the  boats  are  launched,  the  nets  straightened  out  and 
the  fishing  gear  made  ready,  the  "  silver  horde  "  is  in  sight. 

Natives  bring  the  news  that  swarms  of  fish  are  returning 
to  the  rivers  that  gave  them  birth  —  the  streams  from  which 
they  emerged  four  years  previously  as  tiny  fry.  Impelled  by 
the  irresistible  call  of  Nature,  they  come  in  countless  millions 
to  propagate  their  kind,  and  when  this,  their  last  task,  is  com- 
pleted, to  die.  Their  four-year  cruise  in  unknown  seas  is 
ended.  The  sea  seems  alive  with  them.  Their  silvery  backs 
and  sides  glint  and  flash  in  the  sunlight,  like  the  bayonets  of 
an  army,  as  they  jump  playfully  in  the  water. 

On  the  shore  everybody  becomes  feverishly  active.  The  run 
has  commenced  and  the  toilers  on  sea  and  the  workers  on  land 
must  make  the  most  of  the  season  of  four  weeks.  Sailing  craft 
tack  here  and  there,  tugs  and  launches  sputter  out  into  the  bay, 
and  hundreds  of  small  craft,  from  the  Indian  canoe  to  the  big 
surf  boat,   dot  the  waters.     Each  fisherman  works  as  fast  as 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       189 

he  can  to  secure  a  large  share  of  the  spoils.  Every  kind  of 
trap  is  used,  from  the  primitive  spear  of  the  Indian  and  the 
troll  of  the  fisher  of  King  salmon,  to  the  huge  seine  nets  which 
can  be  operated  only  by  powerful  tugs. 

Barges  loaded  with  fish  are  rushed  to  the  wharves,  and  still 
wriggingly  alive,  they  are  thrown  out  by  men  who  use  a  one- 
tined  fork.  The  fish  pass  into  the  clutches  of  a  machine  known 
as  the  "  Iron  Chink,"  an  indescribably  intricate  mixture  of 
clanking  wheels  and  shafts  and  whirling  knives,  that  works 
with  almost  human  ingenuity.  When  the  salmon  leave  the 
machine,  they  are  cleaned  of  every  speck  of  blood  and  viscera 
and  every  fin  has  been  eliminated.  The  waste  and  offal  is 
dropped  through  a  chute  into  the  sea,  and  above  the  discharge 
point  the  air  is  populous  with  gulls,  cormorants  and  other  birds 
which  have  gathered  from  far  and  near  to  reap  their  share  of 
the  profits  that  come  when  the  salmon  is  doomed  to  death  — 
whether  by  the  hand  of  man  or  by  the  immutable  law  of  Na- 
ture that  placed  its  span  of  life  at  four  years.  The  birds, 
squawking  and  screaming,  fight  and  wrangle  with  each  other 
over  the  proceeds. 

From  the  calloused  maw  of  the  ingenious  "  Iron  Chink," 
the  cleaned  fish,  cut  into  pieces,  pass  into  a  revolving  chain  of 
trays  —  one  fish  to  each  tray  —  that  works  something  after 
the  manner  of  a  miniature  bucket  dredge.  The  pieces  of  fish 
are  carried  to  a  point  where  a  great  rammer-like  contrivance, 
known  as  a  "  filler,"  plunges  back  and  forth,  and  here  it  is 
met  by  a  machine  that  carries  empty  cans.  As  each  tinned  re- 
ceptacle comes  opposite  the  ramming  machine,  it  is  filled  with 
salmon,  and  then  proceeds  on  its  way  to  the  soldering  room. 
Passing  a  table,  the  cans  are  wiped  by  men  to  remove  any 
grease  that  would  prevent  the  solder  from  adhering,  and  a 
small  piece  of  tin  is  placed  on  the  top  of  each  can.  Then  like 
a  company  of  tin  soldiers,  the  cans  travel  in  an  orderly  row  to 


190    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  soldering  machine,  which  is  kept  at  a  .white  heat  by  a  roar- 
ing blast  furnace.  Each  can  rolls  through  a  trough  of  molten 
solder,  and  on  leaving  this  groove,  it  is  upended  by  an  ingenious 
device  and  stands  bottom  up.  The  cans  are  then  thrust  into 
a  tank  of  water  to  ascertain  whether  they  are  air-tight.  If 
any  bubbles  arise,  the  punctured  vessel  is  eliminated.  The  ad- 
mission of  air  would  cause  the  salmon  to  spoil  after  it  is  cased. 
Also  the  can  would  bulge  at  the  top.^ 

Taken  out  of  their  bath  of  hot  water,  a  crate  of  cans  is 
carried  on  a  miniature  railroad  to  a  great  boiler  where  the  fish 
is  cooked  by  steam  for  two  hours  at  a  temperature  of  248  de- 
grees Fahrenheit.  Then  the  rows  of  cans  are  shellacked  and 
labelled  by  a  swarm  of  workers  who  are  as  active  as  a  hive  of 
bees.  In  the  casing  factory,  the  clatter  of  hammer  and  nails 
is  terrific.  It  sounds  something  like  a  small  boiler  factory  in 
action  with  several  steel-riveting  machines  playing  the  accom- 
paniment. 

The  work  of  preparing  and  canning  the  salmon  is  carried 
on  with  incredible  swiftness.  Taken  from  the  traps  alive  and 
only  as  needed  at  the  cannery,  the  fish  are  landed  at  the  wharf 
before  they  have  expired.  From  that  time  till  they  reach  the 
point  where  they  spurt  forth  from  the  soldering  machine  in  a 
steady  stream  of  cans  and  are  placed  in  the  cooking  cauldron, 
not  more  than  five  minutes  have  elapsed. 

Strenuous  activity  continues  at  the   cannery  settlement  for 

^  In  buying  canned  goods  of  any  kind  purchasers  will  find  it  to 
their  advantage  to  see  that  both  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  can  is 
perfecly  flat  or  curved  slightly  inward.  If  the  top  of  the  can  is 
curved  outwards  with  a  bulging  appearance,  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  material  within  is  putrified.  Practically  all  canned  goods 
are  cooked  in  the  cans,  after  they  have  been  soldered.  When  the  air 
within  cools  it  causes  the  top  and  sometimes  the  bottom  of  the  can, 
to  contract  slightly.  If  the  vessel  is  not  air  tight  the  opposite  is  the 
result. 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       191 

about  four  weeks,  and  then  one  morning  the  nets  come  up  with 
only  a  very  few  fish.  The  next  haul  will  bring  not  one.  The 
run  is  over.  The  white  men  begin  to  idle  and  devise  waj's  of 
spending  their  money.  Some  go  into  the  interior  and  prospect 
for  the  balance  of  the  year.  Others  join  the  halibut  fleet. 
The  Chinese  gather  around  a  fan-tan  table.  The  Indians  go 
their  various  ways;  for  them  the  summer  has  been  a  long, 
profitable  holiday.  The  groaning,  creaking  winches  begin  to 
load  the  "  silver  horde  "  into  ships.  The  buildings  are  closed 
and  watchmen  are  placed  in  charge.  Tents  are  struck.  Laden 
with  the  treasure  of  the  deep,  the  ships  depart  for  the  south, 
the  bustling,  busy  settlement  becomes  silent  and  deserted  for 
another  year. 

There  are  three  important  cannery  districts  in  Alaska,  the 
Bristol  Bay  and  Western  district,  the  central  district  and  the 
Southeastern  district.  In  the  two  former  districts  the  prin- 
cipal grade  is  red  salmon,  the  best  known  and  most  popular 
salmon  on  the  market.  In  Southeastern  Alaska,  while  some 
reds  are  packed,  the  principal  product  is  humpbacks  or  pinks. 
The  canneries  in  this  district  are  much  more  accessible  than  in 
the  others.  Most  of  the  supplies  and  labourers  are  sent  up  on 
the  regular  Alaskan  steamships  rather  than  in  special  sailing 
ships  owned  by  the  cannery  companies.  Here,  too,  trap  fish- 
ing is  more  prevalent  and  fewer  small  fishing  boats  are  em- 
ployed. 

Aside  from  the  canning  enterprises,  there  are  other  impor- 
tant branches  of  the  salmon  industry.  The  salmon  pickling 
business  every  year  gives  employment  to  several  hundred  peo- 
ple. The  mild-curing  business,  which  consists  of  putting  the 
choice  King  salmon  in  a  light  brine  and  shipping  them  by  re- 
frigeration to  Europe,  in  191 1,  employed  nearly  1,000  people, 
whose  product  was  valued  at  approximately  $250,000.  The 
dry-salting,  smoking  and  salmon   freezing  industries  also  con- 


192     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

tribute  their  part  to  the  world's  supply  of  nutritious  edibles. 

Being  one  of  their  chief  sources  of  food,  the  salmon  is  a 
most  important  factor  in  the  economic  affairs  of  the  natives  of 
Alaska.  In  Southeastern  Alaska,  up  until  recent  times,  the  na- 
tives used  seine  nets  made  of  sinew,  but  latterly  they  use  almost 
every  contrivance  known  to  the  white  man,  this  being  par- 
ticularly true  of  the  natives  at  Metlakahtla,  where  they  are 
part-owners  of  a  fully-equipped,  modern  cannery. 

On  the  Yukon,  Copper  and  other  rivers,  in  which  the  water 
is  not  very  clear,  they  use  a  sort  of  a  scoop  net,  which  is 
dragged  through  the  water  from  the  bank  of  the  river  or  from 
a  canoe.  Just  how  they  can  tell  the  location  of  a  salmon  in 
water  as  thick  as  ordinary  pea  soup,  is  one  of  the  native  mys- 
teries which  white  men  have  been  unable  to  solve. 

In  the  far  northern  country,  where  from  time  immemorial  the 
seal  and  salmon  have  been  the  staple  food  supplies,  the  natives 
use  nets  made  of  sinew. 

Split  down  the  backbone,  the  fish  are  dried  on  scaffoldings 
which  are  just  high  enough  to  be  out  of  reach  of  the  dogs. 
Some  few  tribes  of  natives  add  smoke  to  the  drying  qualities 
afiforded  by  the  sun,  and  this  process  improves  the  flavour.  In 
order  to  facilitate  the  drying  process,  a  few  horizontal  slits  are 
cut  in  the  sides  of  each  fish  after  it  is  split.  These  splits 
cause  the  fish  to  dry  in  little  squares,  just  about  enough  for  a 
nice  mouthful. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  tell  when  one  is  approaching  an  Indian 
camp  during  the  salmon-drying  season  —  provided  one's  ol- 
factory organs  are  in  working  order.  The  smell  of  the  place 
differs  widely  from  that  of  a  flower  store.  The  Indians  gen- 
erally are  not  learned  in  sanitary  science,  and  leave  the  of¥al 
and  scraps  of  salmon  lying  on  the  beach  or  river  bank  where, 
if  not  consumed  by  the  dogs,  it  soon  becomes  putrified,  and, 
therefore,   in   the  summer  time,   the   traveller   in   Alaska  will 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       193 

find  it  advisable  to  approach  all  Indian  camps  from  up  wind. 

Whether  the  Alaskan  streams  are  being  depleted  is  a  ques- 
tion that  nobody  seems  able  to  decide.  Some  people,  mostly 
those  who  never  have  seen  Alaska  and  wouldn't  know  a  fish- 
trap  if  they  saw  one,  declare  that  the  industry  is  being  wantonly 
sacrificed  to  the  greed  of  the  cannery-men,  and  they  point  to 
the  fact  that  the  Atlantic  streams  were  destroyed  by  over- 
fishing. They  say  that  the  fish-trap  is  inimical  to  the  survival 
of  the  industry. 

Fish-traps  are  used  wherever  available,  and  it  is  claimed 
for  them  that  they  constitute  a  scientific  method  of  fishing. 
They  cannot  be  used  everywhere.  Several  conditions  are  re- 
quired. Essentially  a  fish-trap  must  be  provided  with  clear 
water,  good  driving  or  anchorage  ground,  and  a  suitable  place 
for  the  passage  of  fish.  They,  apparently  at  least,  are  not  as 
destructive  of  fish  life  as  the  opponents  of  the  trap  allege. 
They  preserve  the  fish  alive  until  needed,  and  when  not  re- 
quired at  the  cannery  they  may  be  liberated  unharmed. 

Except  in  a  few  instances,  where  the  streams  in  times  past 
have  been  fenced  or  otherwise  obstructed,  there  is  no  sign  of  a 
general  depletion  of  Alaskan  salmon.  Many  red  fish  streams 
that  had  been  fenced  and  barricaded  by  the  Indians  and  Rus- 
sians in  the  early  history  of  the  packing  industry,  are  now  pro- 
ducing larger  quantities  of  fish  than  ever  before.  This  is  true 
of  Redoubt  River,  near  Sitka;  of  Hetta  River,  on  Prince 
of  Wales  Island,  and  of  many  others.  Several  streams,  on  the 
contrary,  are  not  as  productive  as  in  former  years. 

It  may  be  true  that  the  salmon  were  fished  out  of  the  streams 
tributary  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  but  it  would  be  impossible  to 
charge  the  destruction  of  fish  life  to  overfishing.  No  provision 
was  made  for  repropagation,  and  much  of  the  destruction  no 
doubt  was  due  to  other  influences  of  civilisation,  such  as  the 
pollution   of   streams  by   sewage,    the   offscourings   of   woollen 


194    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

mills,  sawdust  from  lumber  mills  and  other  materials  which 
caused  these  streams  to  teem  with  germs  which  are  totally  de- 
structive of  fish  life  and  highly  dangerous  to  human  life  as 
well. 

It  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  among  fishing  men  who  have 
studied  the  canning  business,  that  the  streams  of  Alaska  should 
be  preserved  as  near  as  possible  to  their  present  natural  condi- 
tions. So  long  as  the  clear  water  remains,  there  is  hope  that 
the  fish  will  continue  to  use  Alaska  for  a  spawning  ground. 

The  interior  valleys  of  Alaska  indubitably  will  be  taken  up 
as  agricultural  ground,  but,  these  streams  are  not  important 
factors  in  the  fishing  industry.  It  is  also  within  the  realm  of 
reasonable  certainty  that  many  large  industrial  centres  will  be 
established  on  the  coast  of  Alaska.  There  is  an  abundance  of 
coal  and  iron  along  these  shores,  and  the  day  is  within  meas- 
urable distance  when  these  mineral  deposits  will  become  im- 
portant factors  in  the  affairs  of  the  steel  industry  of  the  United 
States.  Just  what  effect  the  establishment  of  steel  mills  and 
ore  smelters  will  have  on  the  salmon  fishing  industry  it  is 
difficult  to  determine.  Certain  it  is,  that,  with  the  building 
of  towns  in  California  the  fish  were  driven  away  from  the 
coast  of  that  state,  just  as  their  number  was  diminished  in  the 
Atlantic  streams. 

There  is  every  hope,  however,  that  in  these  enlightened  days, 
the  problem  of  a  future  supply  of  salmon  in  Alaskan  waters 
will  prove  reasonably  simple.  It  needs  the  aid  of  science  — • 
artificial  propagation  —  to  supplement  the  work  of  Nature. 
The  government  already  maintains  two  salmon  hatcheries  in 
Alaska,  while  several  are  maintained  by  the  cannery  owners. 
As  time  goes  on  the  number  doubtless  will  be  increased.  A 
system  of  hatcheries  covering  the  entire  field  from  Southeastern 
Alaska  to  Bering  Sea  has  been  proposed,  and  there  is  reason- 
able hope  that  Congress  will  make  the  appropriations  necessary 


SALMON  FISHIXG.— "IMPKLLLD  H\  llli:  IKRIISIS  I'lBLE  CALL  OF 
XATLRE,  IHEV  COMK  L\  COUNTLESS  MILLIONS  TO  THE 
FRESH  WATER  STREAMS  TO  PROPAGATE  THEIR  KIND,  AND, 
WHEN  THIS  LAST  TASK  IS  DONE.    TO    DIE" 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       195 

to  carry  out  this  plan.  No  effort  should  be  spared  to  keep 
this  Alaskan  marine  farm  in  its  present  state  of  magnificent 
productivity,  for  the  salmon  canning  industry  is  one  of  Amer- 
ica's best  assets. 

The  halibut  industry  occupies  second  place  in  the  commercial 
fisheries  of  Alaska.  At  present  the  business  Is  practically  re- 
stricted to  Southeastern  Alaska,  the  few  fish  taken  in  Central 
Alaska  being  consumed  in  the  towns  in  that  section.  This  is 
almost  wholly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  present  steamship  facil- 
ities of  this  section  of  Alaska  are  inadequate  for  the  handling 
of  this  species  as  expeditiously  as  required.  Halibut  are  re- 
ported from  various  places  in  Cook  Inlet,  from  all  along  the 
Alaskan  Peninsula  and  the  adjacent  islands,  and  in  Prince 
William  Sound. 

In  Western  Alaska  the  fish  is  reported  from  a  number  of 
places,  the  natives  usually  catching  and  using  it  for  food.  The 
natives  of  the  Pribilof  Islands,  when  fishing  off  the  islands, 
catch  numbers  of  halibut  and  these  are  usually  very  choice 
specimens.  In  Southeastern  Alaska  halibut  appear  to  be  most 
abundant  in  the  numerous  sounds  and  straits  during  the  winter 
months. 

Most  of  the  fishing  in  the  protected  waters  of  Southeastern 
Alaska  has  heretofore  been  done  in  winter,  as  the  fish  were 
then  most  abundant  and  the  prices  realised  were  better  than 
in  the  summer  when  the  Puget  Sound  fleet  operates  on  the 
Flattery  Banks,  off  the  Washington  coast,  and  brings  in  fish 
In  such  abundance  that  the  Alaska-caught  fish,  which  have  to 
be  shipped  on  the  steamers  plying  between  Seattle  and  South- 
eastern Alaska  ports,  cannot  compete.  In  191 1,  however,  the 
New  England  Fish  Company  bought  and  froze  all  halibut 
brought  to  Its  Ketchikan  plant  and  as  a  result  a  number  of 
fishermen   continued  halibut  fishing  throughout  the  year. 

In  summer  the  fish  are  scattered  considerably,  but  during 


196     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  winter  they  school  on  banks  in  the  waters  of  Hecate  Strait 
and  off  the  chain  of  islands  along  the  coast  of  British  Columbia 
and  Southeastern  Alaska. 

Dealers  located  at  Hoonah,  Juneau,  Douglas,  Scow  Bay, 
Petersburg,  Wrangell  and  Ketchikan  handle  the  fish  from  the 
fishing  boats.  Scow  Bay  which  is  on  Wrangell  Narrows,  about 
five  miles  from  its  head,  is  the  principal  shipping  point.  Here 
are  moored  several  large  house  scows,  floats  and  barges,  along- 
side of  which  the  fishing  boats  tie  up  and  deliver  their  catch, 
to  be  boxed  in  ice  for  shipment  and  put  aboard  the  regular 
steamers  for  Seattle,  which  pass  through  the  Inland  Passage 
every  few  days.  The  fish  are  packed  with  ice  in  bins  aboard 
the  vessel  on  the  banks.  The  fishermen  furnish  their  own  ice, 
which  generally  is  secured  from  icebergs  which  have  been 
broken  ofif  from  near-by  glaciers  and  are  floating  around  in  the 
bays,  sounds,  and  straits. 

The  waters  of  Southeastern  Alaska  teem  with  herring, 
which,  although  a  nutritious  fish,  is  manufactured  into  guano 
and  also  used  for  halibut  bait.  In  recent  years,  however,  sev- 
eral tons  of  herring  have  been  salted  down  and  placed  on  the 
market  in  competition  with  the  herring  from  Norway  and 
the  Eastern  coast  of  the  United  States.  In  Northwestern 
Alaska,  several  barrels  of  herring  are  pickled  each  year  for 
local  consumption. 

Black  and  rock  cod,  the  latter  a  vari-coloured  fish,  can  be 
hooked  in  practically  all  parts  of  Alaskan  waters,  and  many 
thousands  of  these  fishes  are  shipped  to  the  United  States.  A 
so-called  "  kelpfish,"  which  resembles  a  sea-bass  generally  can 
be  caught  without  much  trouble  near  tlie  kelpfields.  It  is  a 
gamey  fish  and  offers  much  more  sport  than  that  which  can  be 
derived  from  lugging  sluggish  halibut  and  cod  from  great 
depths.  Soft-shell  crabs,  some  of  which  are  called  Japanese 
sea    spiders,    abound    in    Alaskan    waters,    and    the    shelving 


FISHING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  AND  SPORT       107 

beaches,  when  the  tide  is  out,  are  simply  alive  with  crabs, 
clams,  cockles,  abelones  and  other  shellfish. 

The  streams  and  lakes  of  Alaska  are  alive  with  trout  of  all 
varieties,  greyling,  whitefish  and  pickerel,  while  in  Lake 
Selawik,  north  of  Kotzebue  Sound,  a  fish  called  "  Chee,"  very 
much  resembling  a  white  fish  in  shape  and  taste,  but  weighing 
from  thirty  to  fifty  pounds,  can  be  caught  in  abundance  during 
the  winter  months. 

Alaska  is  a  veritable  paradise  for  the  angler.  The  streams 
have  not  been  fished  out,  and  one  is  always  sure  of  a  fairly 
good  day's  sport  on  almost  any  mountain  stream  north  of 
British  Columbia. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

TRANSPORTATION    AND    COMMUNICATION 

Transportation  a  vital  problem  —  Lack  of  aid  to  navigation  —  "  The 
Flat  Creek  Limited" — Trunk  line  railroad  a  necessity  —  Bering 
River  coal  fields  —  Enormous  tax  on  railroads  —  Government 
should  lend  aid  —  The  government  Telegraph  system  —  Alaska's 
agricultural  possibilities  and  commerce. 


T 


"^HE  years  that  have  passed  since  Alaska  passed  into 
the  possession  of  the  United  States  have  disclosed  to 
an  astonished  world  its  great  w^ealth  and  wonderful 
possibilities.  Its  auriferous  gravels  have  yielded  untold  treas- 
ure; its  colonies  of  seal  and  other  mammals  have  loaded  the 
markets  with  valuable  and  beautiful  furs ;  its  seas  have  given 
up  their  wealth  of  food  fishes;  its  barren  tundras  have  pre- 
sented us  the  nucleus  of  the  reindeer  industry  and  taught  a 
lesson  in  the  civilisation  of  savage  tribes;  its  agricultural  pos- 
sibilities promise  returns  in  excess  of  all  expectation;  its  un- 
measured timber  areas  will  furnish  wood  pulp  and  lumber 
long  after  other  forests  have  been  exhausted ;  and  its  undelved 
coal  mines  suggest  a  national  opulence  beyond  the  dreams  of 
avarice.  It  has  furnished  a  wealth  of  material  for  the  novelist 
and  a  paystreak  of  sensational  news  for  the  daily  journals  into 
which  the  history  of  the  United  States  is  written. 

Yet  Alaska  has  many  problems  and  the  most  essential  of  so- 
lution is  that  of  transportation  on  both  land  and  water.  Its 
coast-lines  are  bereft  of  those  aids  to  navigation  which  are  so 
necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  people.  In  summer  months 
when  the  days  are  long,  lighthouses  are  unimportant,  but  dur- 
ing the  winter  when  the  nights  are  long  and  snowstorms  are 

198 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    199 

frequent,  travel  by  water  is  a  decidedly  danij;crous  undertaking. 

Alaska's  means  of  transportation  on  land  are  Indian  trails, 
a  comparatively  few  miles  of  gravel  roads  constructed  under 
the  able  supervision  of  the  Alaska  Roads  Commission  and 
short  stretches  of  railroad. 

What  is  the  use  of  all  this  wealth  in  Alaska,  if  there  are 
no  facilities  for  bringing  it  to  the  markets  of  the  world  ? 

The  lack  of  lighthouses  along  the  coast  can  be  supplied  by 
small   appropriations   from   the  government   treasur3% 

The  roads  and  trails  in  the  interior  can  partially  be  reme- 
died by  taxes  levied  on  property  in  Alaska  under  the  Terri- 
torial Government  law  for  Alaska  passed  by  Congress  shortly 
before  adjournment  in   1912. 

The  construction  of  trunk  line  railroads  is  the  most  impor- 
tant problem  with  which  the  territory  is  confronted.  The 
coal  land  question  is  important,  but  its  greatest  importance  is 
in  the  effect  it  will  have  in  furnishing  tonnage  for  a  railroad 
running  from  the  coast  to  the  interior  waterway  system  —  a 
road  that  would  make  productive  the  mineral  and  agricultural 
wealth  which  has  been  discovered. 

Alaska  has  used  almost  every  known  method  of  transporta- 
tion. Dog  teams  haul  supplies  from  the  towns  to  the  mines ; 
horses  are  utilised  on  well-beaten  trails;  reindeer  teams,  in 
some  places,  carry  the  mails;  every  conceivable  kind  of  boat, 
from  the  Eskimo  bidarka  to  the  ocean  liner,  has  been  used  on 
the  waters;  and  there  are  sundry  short  stretches  of  railroad, 
most  of  them  beginning  at  tidewater  and  ending  nowhere. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  necessity  for  a  trunk  line  rail- 
road in  Alaska  can  be  found  than  in  the  traction  system  in- 
stalled in  191 1  to  operate  between  Iditarod  City  and  Flat 
Creek.  This  railroad  is  seven  miles  long,  and  besides  being 
one  of  the  Northernmost  on  the  continent,  it  has  other  claims 
to  distinction.     The   rails  are   composed   of  wooden   stringers, 


200     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

spiked  to  a  corduroy  log  road  and  sheathed  with  hoop  iron. 
The  motive  power  is  seventeen  mules,  operated  by  an  engineer 
who  finds  a  long  whip  and  sulphurous  language  more  effica- 
cious than  a  throttle  valve.  The  "  train  "  covers  the  distance 
from  terminal  to  terminal  in  two  hours  on  an  average  trip,  al- 
though on  one  occasion  it  made  the  journey  in  one  hour  and 
forty-two  minutes.  On  this  trip,  however,  the  train  was 
styled  "  The  Flat  Creek  Limited "  and  an  excess  fare  was 
charged.  No  stops  were  made  along  the  road,  except  at  such 
times  as  a  component  part  of  the  locomotive  hesitated  long 
enough  to  grab  a  mouthful  of  the  bunch-grass  that  grows  close 
to  the  track  in  a  few  isolated  places.  Being  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  agents  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  the 
operators  of  the  railroad  felt  they  might  with  impunity  charge 
a  single  fare  of  $3.00  and  $5.00  for  a  return  ticket;  and  with- 
out fear  of  expensive  legal  complications,  fix  the  freight  tariff 
at  2^  cents  a  pound,  or  $40  a  ton  for  large  lots. 

The  road  was  opened  with  appropriate  celebration,  the  driv- 
ing of  the  golden  spike  to  join  the  last  connecting  rails  and 
the  consumption  of  vast  amounts  of  alcoholic  and  maltous 
beverages  being  the  leading  features  of  the  entertainment. 

Prosperous  miners  are  prone  to  celebrate  on  the  slightest 
provocation  and,  as  the  Iditarod  mines  produced  nearly  $5,000,- 
000  in  virgin  gold  that  year,  the  opening  of  the  railroad  offered 
too  good  an  excuse  for  the  inauguration  of  festivities  to  be 
wantonly  overlooked. 

To  justify  its  admission  into  the  blessed  company  of  great 
railroad  systems,  the  "  train  "  had  not  been  in  operation  a  week 
before  it  was  held  up  by  a  gang  of  highwaymen  and  $40,000 
in  gold  dust  was  stolen  from  the  "  express  car  " —  an  open 
truck  with  collapsible  sides  ordinarily  used  for  hauling  cord- 
wood  and  other  freight.  But  with  better  fortune  than  usually 
distinguishes  the  operators  of   railroads  in  the  United  States, 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    201 

the  bandits  who  "  stuck  up  "  the  Iditarod  Special  were  so 
energetically  pursued  by  a  gang  of  miners,  many  of  whom  were 
able  sharpshooters,  that  the  robbers  were  compelled  to  abandon 
their  ill-gotten  loot.     But  that  is  by  the  way. 

The  rates  charged  on  this  railroad  is  the  proposition  to  be 
considered.  It  is  one  that  is  calculated  to  arouse  the  envy  of 
traffic  managers  in  the  States. 

"  Three  dollars  for  a  ride  of  seven  miles  and  forty  dollars 
a  ton  for  freight!  Splendid!  Where  is  the  place?"  railroad 
operators  ask. 

And  strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  residents  of  Iditarod  do 
not  denounce  the  owners  of  the  system  as  an  avaricious,  in- 
iquitous aggregation  of  predaceous  plutocrats,  but  regard  them 
as  public  benefactors  deserving  of  all  the  public  honours  and 
encomiums  it  is  possible  to  bestow  upon  them. 

Before  the  season  of  191 1  closed  the  road  had  hauled  nearly 
4,000  tons  of  freight  to  Flat  Creek;  the  miners  took  joy  rides 
over  the  line  merely  for  the  purpose  of  manifesting  their  ap- 
preciation, and  contracted  for  the  haulage  of  $40,000  worth  of 
cord-wood  to  be  delivered  in  the  spring  of  19 12. 

Why  these  strange  conditions?  Have  these  ordinarily  in- 
telligent people  become  afflicted  wath  Arctic  lunacy?  Why  are 
they  willing  to  pay  extraordinarily  heavy  freight  and  passen- 
ger rates  and  hail  the  men  who  extort  these  prices  from  them 
as  their  deliverers? 

The  answer  is  simple.  The  Iditarod  system  traverses  a 
miasmatic  tundra  bog  in  which  horses  sink  to  their  bellies  and 
which  is  almost  impassable  for  the  man  travelling  afoot. 
Iditarod  City,  the  point  of  supply,  was  separated  from  Flat 
Creek  and  its  millions  of  dollars  by  this  swamp.  Supplies  — 
before  the  advent  of  the  railroad  —  were  freighted  across  at 
a  cost  of  from  five  to  ten  cents  the  pound  and  a  journey  from 
the  mines  to  the  metropolis  was  regarded  by  the  miners  much 


202     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  the  same  light  as  a  trip  from  New  York  to  Astoria  was 
viewed  in  the  days  when  the  fur  companies'  agents  and  savage 
tribes  were  the  sole  occupants  of  the  territory  to  the  North- 
west of  the  Rocky  Mountains — one  of  hardship  and  vicissi- 
tude. The  Bonanza  Mine  on  Flat  Creek,  only  one  of  many, 
with  a  small  crew  of  men  produced  an  average  of  $40,000  per 
week  in  gold  dust,  after  the  railroad  was  installed.  Prior  to 
that  time  the  claim,  like  many  others,  was  impossible  of  opera- 
tion, because  of  lack  of  supplies. 

This  Northern  traction  system  is  important  —  vitally  so  — 
to  the  hardy  discoverers  of  the  Iditarod  gold  fields,  but  is  im- 
portant also  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  inasmuch  as  it 
demonstrates  that  what  that  system  did  for  those  frontier 
miners  and  prospectors,  a  trunk  line  railroad  running  from 
the  coast  to  the  coal  fields  and  thence  to  the  Yukon  River  will 
do  for  a  large  number  of  the  people  of  Alaska. 

In  the  construction  of  railroads  in  Alaska,  however,  whether 
the  task  be  done  by  the  government  or  by  private  enterprise,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  work  cannot  be  contemplated 
for  the  accommodation  of  those  engaged  in  the  ephemeral  in- 
dustry of  placer  mining,  but  for  those  engaged  in  quartz  min- 
ing, agriculture  and  other  lines  of  permanent  endeavour. 

For  instance,  in  order  to  furnish  cheap  fuel  to  the  United 
States  navy  and  the  residents  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  in  competi- 
tion with  the  California  oil  fields,  the  Alaskan  product  would 
not  find  a  very  ready  sale  if  the  freight  rate  was  the  same  as 
on  the  Iditarod  railroad  system  —  approximately  $6.00  per 
ton-mile.  In  order  to  compete  with  other  fuels,  Alaska  coal 
must  be  landed  to  the  coast  at  a  rate  not  to  exceed  i|  cents 
a  ton-mile,  and  with  a  haul  of  200  miles  from  the  Matanuska 
coal  fields  to  the  coast,  this,  in  itself,  will  place  a  fairly  heavy 
charge  against  the  cost  of  production. 

Therefore,    the    most    economical    methods    of    construction 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    203 

should  be  adopted  and  the  shortest  route  offering  the  easiest 
grades  should  be  selected,  and  the  problem  of  protecting  the 
road  from  attack  in  the  event  of  war  also  is  worthy  of  consid- 
eration. 

The  road  should  be  built  to  open  up  the  coal  fields,  and  fur- 
nish transportation  to  the  people  resident  in  the  interior  of 
Alaska. 

The  Bering  River  coal  fields  can  be  reached  from  Cordova 
with  a  railroad  only  eighty  miles  long  and  running  over  a  flat 
country.  The  same  point  can  be  reached  from  Katalla  and 
Controller  Bay  with  twenty-seven  miles  of  steel.  Personally, 
the  writer  has  little  faith  in  the  possibility  of  ships  finding 
good  harbourage  in  Controller  Bay.  It  really  isn't  a  bay,  but 
a  mud  flat  on  the  open  ocean,  the  mud  having  been  deposited 
by  rivers  running  from  beneath  Bering  and  other  glaciers,  all 
of  which  streams  are  heavily  charged  with  silt.  With  few 
exceptions,  every  attempt  to  make  a  landing  of  any  large 
amount  of  freight  at  Controller  Bay  or  Katalla  has  resulted 
in  loss  through  the  heavy  weather  that  prevails  there.  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  Walter  L.  Fisher,  in  191 1  had  consid- 
erable diflRculty  at  this  point  and  a  barge  load  of  government 
supplies  was  carried  to  sea  in  1912.  These  are  only  two  of 
the  many  hundreds  of  similar  occurrences.  Behind  Controller 
Bay  lies  a  big  glacier,  making  a  cold  zone.  When  the  warm 
air  of  the  Japan  Current  strikes  this  glacier,  it  immediately 
rises  and  allows  a  heavy  draft  of  wind  to  replace  it.  But 
harbour  facilities  are  problems  for  engineers  to  conjure  with 
and  doubtless  they  will  be  given  due  consideration  by  the 
members  of  the  Alaska  Railway  Commission,  who,  as  this  is 
written,  October,  191 2,  are  examining  the  Alaskan  coal 
fields  and  transportation  problems  on  behalf  of  the  government. 

With  sufficiently  few  exceptions  to  make  such  exceptions 
noticeable,  railroad  construction  in  Alaska  has  not  been  profit- 


204     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

able,  and  many  of  the  lines  have  gone  into  the  hands  of  the  re- 
ceivers. The  laws  applying  to  railroad  construction  under 
private  enterprise  do  not  tend  to  encourage  investment.  Every 
mile  of  railroad  is  compelled  to  pay  a  federal  license  tax  of 
one  hundred  dollars  per  mile  per  annum  and  a  dockage  tax 
of  ten  cents  the  ton  on  all  freights  handled.  The  Copper 
River  and  Northwestern  Railroad  Company's  taxes  last  year 
were  greater  than  the  entire  amount  received  from  passenger 
fares,  and  the  tax  for  three  years  on  a  railroad  at  Nome  was 
greater  than  its  gross  income  for  one  year.  Add  to  this  the 
heavy  cost  of  coal,  which  must  be  imported  from  Canada  and 
on  which  forty  cents  a  ton  duty  is  charged  and  it  readily  will 
be  seen  that  the  conditions  for  making  large  profits  from 
investments  in  Alaskan  railroads  are  not  ideal.  In  places 
where  a  steady  supply  of  freight  can  be  secured,  however,  the 
taxes  are  not  regarded  as  particularly  burdensome. 

Apart  from  the  haulage  of  the  coal  to  the  coast,  there  would 
not  be  sufficient  freight  at  first  to  pay  operating  expenses  for 
a  railroad  to  the  interior  of  Alaska.  Many  of  the  transcon- 
tinental lines  in  America  were  built  and  these  railroads  brought 
the  settlers.  This  is  true  of  practically  all  railroad  systems 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  These  railroads  were  assisted 
by  government  grants.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  if  the 
resources  of  Alaska  are  to  be  made  available,  the  government 
must  lend  its  assistance. 

It  has  come  about  that  there  is  much  talk  of  the  construction 
of  a  railroad  in  Alaska  by  the  government.  In  the  develop- 
ment of  the  nation,  the  people  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of 
looking  to  the  government  to  undertake  everything,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  if  this  policy  is  persisted  in  for  any  length  of 
time,  it  inevitably  will  result  in  the  State  governments  losing 
their  individuality  and  independence  and  the  central  govern- 
ment with  its  vast  bureaus  will  become  a  great  source  of  power 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    205 

in  the  entire  nation.  In  other  words  tlie  jj;overniTicnt  will 
become  trustified,  as  it  is  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
where  government  ownership  of  the  railroads  and  other  public 
utilities  has  been  in  operation  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and,  inci- 
dentally, it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  people  of  Australia  have 
made  but  very  slow  progress  under  this  system.  Australasia 
is  within  a  small  margin  of  being  as  large  as  the  United  States, 
the  country  is  quite  as  rich  in  mineral  and  other  resources  as 
the  North  American  continent,  and  yet  there  are  less  than  five 
million  people  living  there.  Australasia  has  about  17,706  miles 
of  railroad  as  compared  with  302,928  miles  in  the  United 
States. 

There  is  at  present  one  good  example  of  government  owner- 
ship in  Alaska  in  the  telegraph  system  of  the  territory,  which 
is  owned  and  operated  exclusively  by  the  government  under 
the  direction  of  the  Department  of  War.  The  tolls  charged 
on  this  system  are  such  as  would  force  a  private  corporation  to 
keep  a  hydrant  playing  on  its  stock  books  to  keep  down  the 
dividends  to  a  point  where  they  would  not  create  a  public 
scandal. 

The  system  is  composed  of  2,633  miles  of  submarine  cable, 
1,125  miles  of  land  telegraph  line,  much  of  which  has  now  been 
abandoned,  and  nine  wireless  stations.  The  cost  of  construc- 
tion, betterments  and  extensions,  according  to  government 
bookkeeping,  has  amounted  to  $2,098,130,  exclusive  of  appro- 
priations included  in  estimates  up  till   1914. 

Mile  for  mile,  the  government  charges  at  least  280  per  cent, 
more  for  service  in  Alaska  than  does  either  of  the  large  com- 
panies operating  in  the  United  States. 

The  rate  charged  for  a  message  of  ten  words  from  Seattle 
to  Nome,  a  distance  of  2,340  miles  by  steamship  course  and 
2,879  miles  by  the  telegraph  and  cable  route,  is  $3.80  and 
thirty-eight  cents  for  each  extra  word.     The  rate  charged  by 


2o6     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

either  of  the  commercial  companies  for  a  ten-word  day  message 
from  Seattle  to  New  York,  a  distance  of  3,000  miles,  is  $1,00, 
and  seven  cents  for  each  additional  word.  The  rate  for  tele- 
graph and  cable  messages  from  Seattle  to  London  or  Berlin, 
a  distance  more  than  twice  as  great  as  that  from  Seattle  to 
Nome,  is  $2.90.  Messages  between  points  in  the  United 
States  are  transmitted  on  about  an  equal  mileage  basis. 

The  net  earnings  on  business  transmitted  over  the  Alaska 
system  in  191 1,  including  government  messages,  amounted  to 
$344,308.24.  The  average  cost  of  maintenance  and  operation 
of  the  system  for  the  5^ears  1907-1911,  is  given  as  $372,824.45, 
and  at  first  calculation  it  certainly  appears  as  though  the  gov- 
ernment has  been  doing  business  at  a  loss.  The  items  of  ex- 
pense are  made  up  of  salaries  and  rations  for  officers  and  en- 
listed men  in  the  signal  service,  and  the  maintenance  and 
operation  of  the  cable  ship  Burnside.  But  although  the  entire 
cost  of  maintenance  and  operation  of  the  Burnside  is  charged 
against  the  Alaska  telegraph  system,  the  ship  actually  gives 
less  than  25  per  cent,  of  its  time  to  this  business,  and  for  the 
balance  of  the  year  is  engaged  principally  in  other  work  on 
Puget  Sound.  The  Burnside  worked  on  the  Alaska  cable  In 
1 9 10  for  about  eighty  days.  The  members  of  the  U.  S.  Sig- 
nal Service  In  Alaska  are  a  part  of  the  defence  system  of  terri- 
tory, and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  cost  and  main- 
tenance should  be  charged  against  the  military  department, 
instead  of  all  of  it  being  charged  against  the  Alaskan  cable. 

About  25  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  signal 
service  in  Alaska  would  be  a  fair  proportion  to  charge  against 
the  Alaska  cable  system,  and  on  this  estimate  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  government,  Instead  of  doing  business  at  a  loss.  In 
191 1,  made  a  profit  on  the  enterprise  of  about  $251,098.  The 
entire  cost  of  maintenance  and  operation  properly  chargeable 
against  the  system  is  about  $93,210. 


^ 

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REVENUE  CUTTER  BEAR  CAUGHT  IN  THE  NURi HERN  ICE  PACK. 


CAPTAIN   E.  P.  BERTHOLF,    HOLDING  COURT   IN   AN    IGLOO   AT 
POINT   BARROW 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    207 

Alaska's  ten  3'ears'  experience  with  the  government  tele- 
graphic system  has  not  shown  government  ownership  to  be  the 
brilliant  success  that  has  been  claimed  for  it.  True,  the  gov- 
ernment has  profited,  but  at  a  terrific  cost  to  the  people  who 
have  used  the  service. 

This  telegraph  system  furnishes  the  reason  why  some 
Alaskans  are  not  rampantly  enthusiastic  about  government  own- 
ership of  railroads  in  the  territory.  But  there  are  other 
Alaskans  who  believe  that  if  the  government  undertook  the 
operation  of  a  railroad  in  the  territory,  it  would  be  forced  by 
competition  and  by  the  fact  that  the  experiment  would  be 
watched  by  the  people,  to  conduct  it  on  a  sound  business  basis. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  the  government  guarantee  the  in- 
terest on  the  bonds  of  a  railroad  in  Alaska,  along  the  lines 
adopted  in  the  Philippines,  and  probably  this  idea  would  meet 
with  general  satisfaction.  In  any  event  it  would  not  involve 
the  experimental  work  of  operating  a  railroad  under  a  bureau 
system. 

Whether  it  is  built  by  the  government  and  operated  under 
a  bureau,  or  built  and  operated  by  private  enterprise,  or  by 
the  government  guaranteeing  the  interest  on  the  bonds,  is  mate- 
rial. But  the  main  thing  is  that  the  people  of  Alaska  need 
a  railroad,  and  as  time  goes  on  they  will  need  many  railroads. 

Any  writer  who  advocates  the  building  of  a  railroad  from 
any  particular  point  on  the  coast  is  sure  to  meet  the  opposition 
and  criticism  of  the  residents  of  other  towns.  There  is  a  par- 
tisan jealousy  in  Alaska,  as  elsewhere.  It  is  argued  on  the  one 
hand  that  the  road  should  be  constructed  by  private  enterprise; 
that  the  government  has  no  constitutional  right  to  engage  in 
private  enterprise  for  profit.  On  the  other  hand.  It  is  con- 
tended that  the  government  is  able  to  build  railroads  more 
cheaply,  for  it  can  sell  its  three  per  cent,  bonds  at  par  while 
a  private  corporation  must  sell  its  five  or  six  per  cent,  bonds 


2o8    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

at  a  discount.  The  private  corporation  must  at  least  earn 
its  fixed  charges,  while  the  government  can  afford  to  make 
lovi^er  rates  and  even  operate  at  a  loss  during  a  few  years  to 
encourage  the  great  development  which  will  follow  and  which 
will  more  than  justify  the  investment. 

Then,  too,  development  will  proceed  more  rapidly  ahead  of 
railway  construction  by  the  government  whenever  a  route  has 
been  selected.  Capital  can  then  be  induced  immediately  to  begin 
the  development  of  mines  in  the  interior,  and  homesteaders  will 
settle  in  advance  of  the  construction  of  such  lines,  because  of 
the  assurance  of  the  government  that  the  road  will  be  built; 
while  in  the  case  of  private  corporations,  with  the  long  record 
of  receiverships  which  have  attended  nearly  all  pioneer  rail- 
roads, both  in  the  United  States  and  in  Alaska,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  see  the  smoke  of  the  engine  along  the  route  before 
capital  will  be  justified  in  making  any  heavy  expenditures  in 
the  development  of  the  interior.^ 

The  future  of  Alaska  is  dependent  —  in  a  measure  at  least 
—  upon  the  gold  quartz  mines  and  commercial  ores  of  the 
interior  and  the  agricultural  development  that  is  sure  to  follow. 
The  agricultural  lands  are  in  the  same  latitude  as  Norway, 
Sweden  and  Finland  and  larger  than  all  three  combined;  and 
as  has  been  pointed  out  in  another  chapter,  the  Alaskan  lands 
have  the  advantage  of  the  tempering  influence  of  the  Japan 
current,  which  is  larger  than  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Atlantic. 

Alaska's  population  in  1910  was  64,356,  an  increase  of  764 
during  the  ten  preceding  years,  but  these  figures  do  not  neces- 

^  Early  in  1913  the  Alaska  Railroad  Commission  filed  its  report, 
pointing  out  three  feasible  routes:  From  Seward  to  Iditarod,  from 
Chitina  to  Fairbanks  and  from  a  point  on  the  Copper  River  Road  to 
the  Bering  River  coalfields.  President  Taft  recommended  that  the  con- 
struction be  done  either  by  the  government  itself  or  by  a  government 
guarantee  of  the  interest  on  the  construction  bonds,  and  that  the  roads, 
when  completed,  be  leased  to  private  parties. 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION    209 

sarily  indicate  that  the  population  will  remain  stationary  al- 
ways. There  is  both  room  and  opportunity  for  the  settler. 
As  time  goes  on  a  better  administration  of  the  country's  affairs 
will  be  evolved.  As  this  is  written  elections  to  choose  the  first 
legislature  of  the  territory  are  being  arranged,  and  while  this 
legislature  will  not  be  empowered  to  administer  the  public  land 
of  the  territory,  it  will  be  able  to  make  such  recommendations 
to  Congress  as  will  place  the  country  open  to  development. 

It  may  sound  like  a  wild  dream  to  say  that  within  a  few 
years,  European  immigrants,  instead  of  landing  at  New  York 
and  remaining  there  to  wear  out  their  lives  in  the  polluted 
atmosphere  of  the  sweat-shops,  will  sail  through  the  Panama 
Canal  and  land  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  to  make  productive  the 
unoccupied  areas  of  land  in  the  western  states  and  in  Alaska, 
—  rearing  their  families,  building  their  schools,  and  evolving 
a  race  of  robust,  intelligent  citizens;  but  it  is  a  dream  that 
likely  will  come  true,  for  Alaska  is  capable  of  raising  every 
pound  of  beef,  every  pound  of  vegetable  and  every  pound  of 
butter  or  other  dairy  product  that  her  people  will  need  till  the 
white  population  increases  to  two  hundred  times  its  present 
number. 

The  annual  commerce  of  Alaska  with  the  United  States 
averages  $52,000,000  in  round  numbers.  The  total  trade  with 
Hawaii  slightly  exceeds  that  of  Alaska,  and  that  of  Porto  Rico 
just  about  equals  it.  The  trade  of  Hawaii  and  Porto  Rico 
cannot  advance  to  any  great  extent,  because  these  islands  al- 
ready are  supporting  a  large  population.  Both  their  trade  and 
their  population  are  near  their  maximum.  Alaska,  on  the  con- 
trary, has  abundance  of  room  for  many  millions  of  people,  and 
its  present  population  and  trade  are  at  their  minimum.  Under 
no  conditions  that  can  be  devised  or  that  are  likely  to  arise, 
can  Alaska's  population  be  reduced,  and  the  day  surely  will 
come  when  its  trade  will  exceed  that  of  all  the  rest  of  our 


210     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

insular  possessions  and  the  "  open  door "  trade  with  China 
combined. 

Although  this  government  spends  millions  of  dollars  in  the 
arts  of  diplomacy  and  in  the  maintenance  of  a  fleet  in  Asiatic 
waters  to  protect  the  "  open  door  "  to  China,  the  Alaska  trade 
is  worth  over  $4,000,000  more  per  year  to  the  United  States 
than  is  the  Chinese  trade  and  the  balance  of  trade  with  China 
is  heavily  against  the  United  States.  While  the  Alaska  trade 
will  increase,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  the  Chinese  trade 
will  not.  Alaska  is  a  coming  country  of  abundant  resource, 
peopled  by  Americans;  China  is  an  old  country,  and  manufac- 
turing will  be  the  principal  industry  in  its  future. 

Basing  Alaska's  population  at  65,000,  and  an  estimated  total 
white  population  of  40,000,  which  is  near  enough  for  practical 
purposes,  the  statistics  of  trade  show  that  each  white  person 
in  Alaska  is  worth  in  trade  to  the  United  States  $1,302.75; 
but  when  the  Indians  and  Eskimos  are  included  the  trade  value 
is  decreased  to  $801.69  per  capita.  A  white  man  in  Alaska 
is  worth  in  trade  to  the  United  States  as  much  as  4.6  Hawai- 
ians,  27  Porto  Ricans,  or  394  Filipinos. 

Statisticians  estimate  that  the  maintenance  and  purchase  of 
the  Philippines  have  cost  the  people  of  the  United  States  more 
than  $500,000,000  in  twelve  years.  It  is  needless  to  go  into  a 
discussion  of  a  comparison  of  these  figures  with  what  the  gov- 
ernment has  expended  in  Alaska.  Briefly  the  figures  are:  cost 
of  purchase  and  maintenance  of  Alaska  for  forty-two  years, 
$15,500,000;  receipts  from  Alaska,  $460,000,000;  profit  to  the 
United  States,  $444,500,000.  And  Alaska  could  be  sold  to- 
morrow at  a  profit  of  several  billions  of  dollars  on  its  visible 
assets. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING 

All  varieties  of  climate — Influence  of  Japan  Current  —  Little  zero 
weather  on  the  coast  —  Extreme  humidity  —  Prolific  vegetable 
growth  —  Agriculture  in  Alaska  —  Forty  miles  of  natural  meadow 
—  Climate    of    the    interior  —  Stock    raising — Floriculture. 

EXCLUSIVE  of  the  almost  immeasurable  area  of 
reindeer  grazing  ground  that  lies  north  of  the  Yukon 
River,  Alaska  contains  65,000,000  acres  of  agricul- 
tural and  grazing  land  and  it  has  an  unlimited  supply  of  cli- 
mate of  every  kind  and  description.  It  generally  is  supposed 
that  the  temperature  of  Alaska  is  hyperborean  —  that  it  is 
the  land  of  icicles,  so  cold  that  the  birds  lay  frozen  eggs,  and 
fly  backward  to  keep  the  snow  from  blinding  thein,  Alaska 
is  associated  in  the  minds  of  many  with  frozen  rivers,  fur-clad 
Eskimos  and  polar  bears.  But  this  popular  conception  is  far 
from  the  truth.  It  rained  in  many  parts  of  Alaska  on  Christ- 
mas Day,  191 1,  and  on  January  i,  19 12,  the  warm  weather 
at  Dawson  was  celebrated  by  an  outdoor  carnival  appropri- 
ately called  a  "  thermodance,"  at  which  the  participants  wore 
linen  dusters  and  straw  and  Panama  hats  were  the  only  kind 
shied  into  the  arena.  In  some  places  in  Alaska  last  winter 
there  was  not  enough  ice  on  the  rivers  from  which  to  cut  the 
supply  for  the  following  summer. 

Spoiled  child  of  Nature,  Alaska  has  been  endowed  with 
about  everything  that  could  be  desired  in  the  way  of  climate. 
In  places  her  summer  days  are  three  months  long,  and  at  other 
places  at  other  times  Old  Sol  does  not  show  his  head  above 
the   horizon    for   3   period   of   six   weeks.     Alaska's   climate    is 

211 


212     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

governed  largely  by  that  old  friend  of  our  schooldays,  the 
Kuro  Siwo,  or  Japan  current,  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  which  brings  beads  of  perspiration  to  the  brows  of 
Alaskans  in  the  open  air  while  their  cousins  in  Kansas,  Min- 
nesota and  other  states  are  either  hugging  the  stove  or  breaking 
off  the  icicles  that  hang  down  from  the  stoop.  In  the  far 
North  and  in  the  distant  interior  beyond  the  influence  of  the 
Japan  current  the  weather  is  disagreeably  warm  in  the  summer 
and  so  cold  in  the  winter  that  the  quicksilver  freezes  and  one's 
breath  rattles  on  the  atmosphere  like  the  rustling  of  straw. 

Because  Alaska  lies  far  toward  the  north,  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  its  climate  is  cold.  The  temperature  is 
determined  not  by  degrees  of  latitude  but  by  ocean  currents, 
mountain  ranges  and  the  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis 
from  east  to  west.  The  winds  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  produce 
an  equatorial  current  flowing  in  the  same  direction  —  from  east 
to  west.  Reaching  the  Asiatic  coast  this  warm  current  di- 
vides, part  going  north  towards  America,  warming  the  country 
adjacent  to  the  shore-line  of  the  ocean  as  the  gulf  stream  of 
the  Atlantic  warms  the  British  Islands. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  influence  that  warms  the  coast 
land  in  winter  keeps  it  cool  in  summer,  and  that  is  why  the 
thermometer  rarely  falls  to  zero  on  the  Alaskan  coast  as  far 
north  as  the  Aleutian  Peninsula.  Records  taken  at  Sitka  from 
1900  to  1912  prove  that  there  never  has  been  a  week  in  the 
winter  when  the  temperature  was  as  cold  as  at  New  York 
City,  Washington,  D.  C,  or  Berlin,  Germany,  nor  has  therQ 
ever  been  a  week  in  summer  at  Sitka  when  the  temperature 
has  been  as  high  as  at  any  of  the  other  three  places  mentioned. 
The  mean  temperature  at  Sitka  for  February,  191 1,  the  cold- 
est month  of  the  year,  was  33  degrees.  Across  the  coast  range, 
however,  where  the  temperature  is  not  influenced  by  the  Kuro 
Siwo  the  summers  are  warm  indeed  and  the  winters  are  ex- 


WILD  BERRIES  GROW  LUXl  RiANTLV  IX  NEARLY  ALL  PARES  UF 
ALASKA— A  TRAY    OF   SALMON   BERRIES 


GARDEN    OF    CANTELOUPES,    GROWN    UNDER    GLASS    IN 
BANKS,  NOT  FAR  SOUTH  OF  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE 


FAIR- 


CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING       213 

tremely  cold.  But  there  is  no  typical  Alaskan  climate  any  more 
than  there  is  a  typical  European  climate. 

One  remarkable  thing  is  the  redistribution  of  timber.  As 
the  waters  of  the  Japan  current  strike  the  Aleutian  Peninsula, 
they  flow  back  along  the  coast  to  the  south,  picking  up  along 
the  shores  at  high  tide  cedar,  fir  and  other  trees  which  are 
swept  down  to  the  beach  by  the  rivers  from  the  interior,  and 
carrying  them  into  the  region  of  the  southeast  trades,  which 
take  them  out  to  sea  till  the  logs  are  finally  stranded  on  the 
Hawaiian  and  other  islands  in  the  Pacific.  The  natives  of 
the  many  islands  in  the  South  Seas,  long  before  they  saw  Cap- 
tain James  Cook  and  his  gallant  crew  of  white  men,  believed 
their  progenitors  came  from  the  East,  and  drifted  to  the  islands 
in  their  boats  just  as  the  trees  had  come  to  them  from  some 
distant  land  closer  to  the  rising  sun.^ 

Besides  adjusting  the  climate  to  an  equable  temperature  the 
Japan  current  drenches  the  atmosphere  along  the  coast-line 
of  Alaska  with  moisture.  This  humidity,  taken  together  with 
an  extra  proportion  of  sunlight  and  a  fertile,  mineralised  soil, 

1  Among  other  interesting  tales  related  to  the  writer  by  a  Maori, 
at  Christchurch,  New  Zealand,  several  years  ago,  was  one  to  the 
effect  that  a  long,  long  time  ago,  a  chief  named  Tamoa,  together  with 
his  wife,  was  fishing  in  a  canoe  close  to  the  shore  of  a  place  called 
Hawaggie  (presumably  Hawaii),  when  a  terrific  off-shore  storm  arose. 
The  wind  blew  and  blew  for  several  days,  lashing  the  sea  into  a 
fury,  but  being  a  good  boatman,  Tamoa  with  the  assistance  of  his  wife 
managed  to  keep  the  frail  craft  afloat.  After  several  days  the  tempest 
subsided.  Tamoa  and  his  wife  were  then  very  hungry,  so  he  threw 
over  a  fish  line.  The  line  soon  afterwards  gave  a  tremendous  jerk, 
and,  pulling  with  all  his  strength,  Tamoa  managed  to  bring  a  monster 
to  the  surface.  Much  to  his  surprise  he  found  that  he  had  a  big 
island  on  the  end  of  his  line.  The  Maoris  call  this  piece  of  land  Hine 
Tamoa,  meaning  "  the  child  of  Tamoa."  Although  ethnologists  de- 
clare the  people  of  New  Zealand  and  Hawaii  are  the  same  people,  it 
is  likely  that  the  legend  had  its  genesis  in  the  fact  that  on  the  shores 
of  New  Zealand  many  logs  from  other  countries,  including  the  con- 
tinent of  America  are  found. 


214     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

naturally  makes  Ideal  conditions  for  agriculture.  Moisture 
and  light  are  necessary  to  growth.  If  a  potato  is  planted  in 
a  dark  cellar  where  there  is  only  one  ray  of  light,  the  plant 
will  grow  toward,  and  often  through,  the  crack  whence  the 
light  comes.  Everybody  has  observed  that  potted  flowers  in 
a  window  always  grow  towards  the  side  nearest  the  sun. 
So,  with  sunlight  for  as  long  as  twenty-two  hours  a  day,  a 
fertile  soil  and  an  atmosphere  drenched  with  moisture,  it  is 
not  strange  that  the  growth  of  vegetable  life  in  portions  of 
Alaska  is  extremely  prolific  —  so  prolific  in  fact,  as  to  appear 
semi-tropical. 

Generally  speaking,  the  conditions  favourable  to  agricultural 
pursuits  are  south  of  the  Aleutian  Peninsula,  but  there  are  many 
fertile  valleys  in  the  interior,  where  crops  have  been  success- 
fully grown  by  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture's  experts. 
These  crops  have  been  grown  not  for  a  year  or  two,  but  for 
eleven  successive  years,  and  even  as  far  north  as  Fort  Yukon, 
which  is  inside  the  Arctic  Circle,  agriculture  has  been  con- 
ducted successfully. 

North  of  the  Aleutian  Peninsula  the  shores  are  washed  by 
the  Bering  Sea,  a  cold  body  of  water,  tempered  slightly  by  the 
Japan  current  and  covered  with  Ice  for  seven  or  eight  months 
in  the  year.  When  the  sea  is  covered  with  Ice,  there  Is  no 
evaporation  and  this  condition,  In  conjunction  with  an  ab- 
sence of  high  mountains,  makes  the  country  a  semi-arid  one, 
and  therefore  not  conductive  to  agriculture,  except  In  Isolated 
places  where  the  earth  Is  warmed  by  mineral  springs. 

Within  one  hundred  miles  of  the  coast  the  Influence  of  the 
warm  Japan  current  Is  dissipated,  and  the  climate  becomes 
continental,  with  great  difference  in  temperature  in  summer 
and  winter.  Yet  the  Intense  heat  of  summer,  together  with 
the  almost  continuous  sunshine,  makes  agriculture  possible.  In 
the  interior  of  Alaska  the  writer  has  ridden  through  a  plain 


CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING       215 

of  wild  red-top  grass  that  was  forty  miles  long  and  as  broad 
as  the  eye  could  see,  and  while  many  theories  relating  to 
farming,  both  optimistic  and  pessimistic,  have  been  advanced, 
the  fact  remains  that  a  great  many  homesteads  have  been  taken 
up  in  the  interior  valleys,  and  that  the  settlers  are  conducting 
them  at  a  profit. 

Naturally  the  chief  crop  in  this  section  is  hay.  Wild  hay 
grass  grows  abundantly,  but  no  better  manifestation  of  the 
country's  productiveness  along  other  lines  can  be  found  than 
in  the  fact  that  in  the  Tanana  Valley  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  have  been  segregated  for  agricultural  pur- 
suits, and  that  since  a  portion  of  this  land  has  been  cultivated, 
there  has  been  a  great  diminution  in  the  amount  of  potatoes 
and  fresh  vegetables  shipped  to  Alaska. 

The  shipments  of  potatoes  from  the  States  to  Alaska  in  the 
fiscal  year  191 1  were  smaller  by  25,149  bushels  than  in  1910; 
of  hay,  by  2,155  tons;  of  beans  and  peas,  by  7,322  bushels; 
and  of  onions,  by  964  bushels.  The  decrease  in  these  ship- 
ments was  entirely  due  in  large  measure  to  the  increased  do- 
mestic production,  for  there  was  no  decrease  in  the  population. 
The  imports  of  many  of  these  articles  were  also  smaller  in 
1910  than  in  191 1,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  the 
shipments  will  be  reduced  more  and  more  as  time  goes  on  and 
more  farms  established. 

The  191 2  potato  crop  at  Dawson  and  at  other  points  along 
the  Canadian  Yukon  River  was  valued  at  $30,000.  The  veg- 
etable crop  also  included  many  tons  of  cabbages,  carrots,  tur- 
nips, rutabagas,  celery,  parsnips  and  other  edibles.  The  oats, 
timothy,  rye  and  hay  crops  were  successfully  harvested.  The 
grain  was  fully  matured,  the  stalks  growing  to  a  height  of 
over   five   feet. 

Vegetables  can  be  grown  In  nearly  every  part  of  Alaska  with 
astonishing   success.     At   practically   all   of   the   military   posts 


2i6     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  at  nearly  every  city  in  Alaska  there  are  a  few  truck  gar- 
dens. Even  at  Coldfoot,  on  the  Koyukuk  River,  68  degrees 
north  latitude,  a  considerable  distance  wn'thin  the  Arctic  Circle, 
potatoes,  cabbages,  peas,  turnips  and  rhubarb  are  successfully 
matured,  to  say  nothing  of  excellent  berries  of  large  size  and 
delicious  flavour.  The  vegetables  in  all  parts  of  Alaska,  be- 
cause of  the  quick  growth  produced  in  the  tremendous  amount 
of  sunshine,  have  a  crispness  and  tenderness  elsewhere  unknown. 
At  the  Holy  Cross  Mission,  on  the  Yukon  River,  farming  and 
stock-raising  have  been  conducted  successfully  for  many  years, 
and  the  sa.  e  is  true  of  many  other  parts  of  Interior  Alaska, 
besides  many  places  on  the  coast  and  in  the  southeastern  sec- 
tion  of  the  territory. 

The  islands  are  particularly  fertile,  and  although  many  of 
them  are  bare  of  timber,  practically  all  are  covered  with  a 
luxuriant  growth  of  grass  and  wild  berries.  The  same  con- 
ditions are  found  also  on  the  barren  lands,  or  tundra,  north- 
ward of  the  Yukon.  While  not  suitable  for  a  steady  diet, 
these  wild  fruits  are  delicious  and  nutritious.  That  these 
berries  have  life-sustaining  qualities  is  evidenced  in  the  fact 
that  several  different  men,  at  various  times,  when  lost  without 
firearms  or  fish-hooks  have  kept  themselves  alive  by  eating  these 
native  fruits. 

In  the  big  valleys  of  the  interior  agricultural  conditions  are 
good  and  while  occasional  failure  of  crops  have  been  reported 
these  disasters  are  not  so  frequent  as  in  many  of  the  central 
states.  On  the  islands  and  inlets  of  Southeastern  Alaska  the 
growing  season  is  about  six  months.  It  is  about  five  months 
at  Skagway  and  about  107  days  in  the  interior.  Practically 
everjrwhere  vegetables  mature  when  proper  ground  is  chosen 
and  the  plants  are  given  attention.  So  far  the  chief  vegetable 
crop  of  the  territory  is  the  potato,  but  in  order  to  grow  tubers 
successfully  southern  exposures  should  be  chosen  for  planting. 


CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING       217 

Twenty-two  varieties  of  potatoes  have  been  grown  successfully 
in  all  parts  of  Alaska,  but  as  a  general  rule  the  best  results 
were  obtained  by  causing  the  "  bog-oranges  "  to  sprout  before 
planting. 

In  many  of  the  Alaskan  valleys,  the  black  or  chocolate  loam 
that  has  been  deposited  by  rivers  during  by-gone  centuries  is 
from  ten  to  twenty  feet  deep.  In  these  places  wild  oats  and 
rye  grow  to  full  maturity,  and  while  the  whole  country  offers 
possibilities  to  either  the  stock-breeder  or  the  agriculturist,  the 
territory  may  be  said  to  be  interspersed  with  many  sections 
which  only  will  be  useful  as  reindeer  grazing  ground. 

There  are  many  great  valleys  —  the  Yukon,  the  Tanana, 
the  Kuskokwim,  the  Susitna,  the  White,  and  several  others  — 
where  agriculture  eventually  will  be  supporting  a  large  popu- 
lation. In  these  places  the  last  frost  may  be  said  to  occur  be- 
tween the  first  and  the  middle  of  May,  and  the  first  fall  frost 
from  September  first  to  September  fifteenth.  The  Susitna  Val- 
ley alone  contains  nearly  6,000  square  miles  of  good  grass  land 
less  than  2,000  feet  above  the  sea-level.  The  soil  is  a  loam, 
freely  fertilised  with  decayed  vegetable  matter,  and  besides 
being  covered  by  nutritive  wild  grasses,  the  valley  is  prolific 
with  wild  rhubarb  and  currants  and  berries  of  every  descrip- 
tion. There  is  no  doubt  that  this  district  and  countless  other 
large  areas  can  produce  vegetable  and  forage  crops. 

Professor  C.  C.  Georgeson,  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of 
Agriculture,  after  twelve  years  of  experimentation  work  in  va- 
rious parts  of  Alaska,  declares  there  is  no  possibility  of  the 
failure  of  the  country  in  agriculture.  During  his  experience 
in  the  North  many  different  varieties  of  rye,  oats,  timothy, 
barley  and  winter  wheat  have  been  successfully  matured. 
There  are  no  killing  frosts  in  the  summer,  but  wheat  can  be 
grown  only  in  places  where  there  is  a  snowfall  of  at  least 
thirty  inches,  and  it  must  be  planted  in  the  fall  and  matured 


2i8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  following  year.  Professor  Georgeson  thinks,  however,  that 
rye  will  be  the  staple  crop  of  Alaska  cereals.  It  Is  a  hardier 
plant  and  makes  more  nutritious  bread  than  wheat.  There  are 
thousands  of  acres  of  rye  growing  wild,  but  it  is  not  so  nutri- 
tious as  the  cultivated  variety. 

Besides  the  many  farms  and  truck  gardens  conducted  by  pri- 
vate individuals,  four  agricultural  experiment  stations  are  main- 
tained in  Alaska  by  the  government.  One  of  these  stations 
was  situated  on  Kadlak  Island  and  was  devoted  almost  ex- 
clusively to  experimentation  in  raising  cattle  and  sheep,  but 
unfortunately  much  of  the  stock  was  destroyed  by  a  fall  of 
volcanic  ash  that  occurred  in  June,  19 12.  A  herd  of  ninety 
Galloway  cattle  and  about  as  many  sheep  were  bred  at  this 
station  and  the  percentage  of  loss  was  much  less  than  in  Mon- 
tana, Kansas  and  other  states.  The  sheep  grew  to  enormous 
size,  the  rams  weighing  as  much  as  300  pounds  and  yielding 
about  thirty  pounds  of  wool  each  year.  The  cattle  were  gen- 
eral utility  animals  —  good  milkers  and  excellent  beef. 

In  this  connection  it  is  noteworthy  that  horses  are  bred  by 
the  miners  at  the  head  of  White  River.  The  animals  are 
turned  loose  in  the  fall.  There  is  only  a  slight  snowfall  in 
this  locality  and  the  horses  live  in  the  valley  all  winter. 
The  horses  soon  learned  the  habits  of  the  moose.  As  soon  as 
the  mosquitoes  appear  in  the  spring,  the  horses  begin  to  browse 
along  the  hillsides,  ascending  higher  and  higher  as  the  snow 
disappears. 

The  Agricultural  Department's  expert  conducted  a  small 
truck  farm  near  Fairbanks  and  In  191 1  the  yield  of  three  acres 
of  potatoes  was  sold  for  $1,800.  Five  acres  of  potatoes  planted 
In  19 1 2  gave  every  promise  as  this  is  written  of  yielding  about 
$5,000.  There  never  has  been  a  failure  of  the  potato  crop  In 
any  part  of  Alaska,  but  In  some  places,  because  the  wrong 
variety  was  planted,  the  product  has  been  rather  small.     From 


CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING       219 

the  station  at  Copper  Center,  now  abandoned,  the  department 
sold  $5,000  worth  of  hay  from  forty  acres. 

Vegetables,  however,  are  not  the  only  plants  that  have  re- 
ceived attention.  The  Sitka  station  has  been  devoted  largely 
to  horticulture,  and  the  day  is  not  so  very  far  distant  when  the 
Alaskan  strawberry  will  be  famous  throughout  the  United  States. 
By  a  process  of  hybridisation  a  berry  that  retains  all  the  flavour 
of  the  wild  strawberry  and  the  size  and  colour  of  the  best 
varieties  of  the  cultivated  fruit,  has  been  produced.  The  new 
berry  grows  more  vigorously  than  either  parent.  Fruit  trees 
have  been  brought  to  a  state  of  bloom  and  in  one  instance  to 
bearing  apples. 

Besides  producing  raspberries,  strawberries  and  currants  of 
the  finest  varieties,  a  large  number  of  ornamental  plants  have 
been  cultivated.  The  most  successful  flower  so  far  grown  is 
the  rosa  rugosa,  a  beautiful  crimson-coloured,  sweet-scented  rose 
from  North  Japan.  This  plant  grows  well  anywhere  on  the 
Alaska  Coast  region.  Hundreds  of  ornamental  plants  such  as 
pansics,  nasturtiums,  California  poppies,  sweet  williams,  phlox, 
lilies  and  iris,  grow  just  as  well  and  in  many  cases  better  than 
in  the  States. 

In  the  fields  of  luxuriant  wild  grasses,  the  great  variety  of 
vegetation,  the  abundance  of  wild  fruits,  Nature  offers  sub- 
stantial testimony  that  Alaska  is  an  attractive  field  for  the 
agriculturist;  and  it  is  corroborated  in  the  many  gardens  at  the 
missions,  on  the  many  homesteads  and  in  the  work  of  the  Agri- 
cultural Department.  Further  testimony  is  found  in  the  great 
wheat  fields  of  Alberta  and  Manitoba,  which  districts  in  the 
past  few  years  have  been  converted  into  an  immense  granary. 
The  moose,  the  mountain  goat,  the  mountain  sheep  on  the  hill- 
sides and  valleys  and  the  great  bands  of  caribou  that  roam  the 
plains  are  Nature's  method  of  showing  us  that  Alaska  is  a  stock- 
raising  country.     Yet  no  man  of  limited  means  would  be  justi- 


220    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

fied  in  going  to  Alaska  under  the  present  conditions  to  engage 
in  farming. 

That  there  is  something  lacking  in  Alaska  is  evidenced  in 
the  fact  that  while  the  population  of  the  Western  provinces  of 
Canada  for  the  three  years  ending  June,  191 2,  is  estimated  to 
have  increased  at  the  rate  of  1 1 ,800  a  month  in  American  citi- 
zenship alone,  the  population  of  Alaska  increased  less  than  800 
in  the  ten  years  ending  in  19 10.  There  can  be  no  great 
difference  in  the  natural  elements  of  the  two  countries.  The 
mere  fact  that  an  imaginary  line  divides  Canada  from  Alaska 
makes  no  difference  in  the  soil,  the  atmosphere  or  the  water 
that  falls  from  the  clouds.  If  there  be  any  advantage  it  surely 
rests  on  the  side  of  Alaska,  for  the  American  territory  is  closer 
to  the  tempering  influence  of  the  Japan  current,  it  has  less 
elevation  and  there  are  fewer  killing  frosts. 

Alaska  lacks  railroad  transportation  and  markets  for  Its 
products.  Apart  from  the  amount  consumed  by  local  com- 
munities there  is  no  sale  for  Alaskan  agricultural  products 
and  there  never  will  be  until  such  time  as  a  means  of  cheap 
transportation  is  furnished  from  the  interior  valleys  of  Alaska 
to  the  markets  of  the  world.  There  is  a  splendid  opportunity 
to  raise  cattle  in  many  parts  of  Alaska,  but  no  means  by  which 
they  could  be  taken  to  the  markets  for  sale. 

Mining  is  the  paramount  interest  in  Alaska,  and  it  will  prob- 
ably continue  to  be  for  some  time  to  come.  But  the  building 
of  railroads  in  Alaska  is  inevitable.  The  day  must  come  when 
the  government  either  must  build  a  trunk  railroad  itself  or 
throw  the  country  open  and  offer  inducement  for  private  cap- 
ital so  to  do.  Then  the  homesteader  will  settle  ahead  of  the 
construction  lines  and  there  will  be  a  full  fruition  of  the  terri- 
tory's natural  products. 

Finland,  Sweden,  Norway  and  Iceland,  countries  not  so 
highly  mineralised  as  Alaska  and  containing  less  arable  land, 


Ap 


«  ^-f"  ^r  -• 


Photos  hy   I'edersen. 


WILD    GEKAMUMS,    WILD    ANEMONES,    WILD    RED    CIRRANTS 
AND   WILD   IRISES 


CLIMATE,  AGRICULTURE  AND  GRAZING  221 
support  a  population  of  more  tha,)  t^^•clvc  millions  of  people 
vvh.le  Alaska -a  much  richer  country  -  supports  a  population 
o  less  than  40.000  white  people  and  about  an  equal  number 
of  natives.     Surely  this  condition  cannot  prevail  always 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING 

Alaska  has  produced  in  mineral  thirty-two  times  the  purchase  price  of 
the  territory  —  Gold  —  Copper  —  The  fascination  of  mining  — 
The  life  of  the  prospector  —  Fabulously  rich  mines  sold  for  a 
song — Half  of  Alaska  yet  to  be  explored  —  Gold  discovery  at 
first  discouraged  by  Russians  —  Russians  had  knowledge  of  iron 
and  copper  —  Advent  of  American  miners  —  First  shipments  of 
gold  and  silver  —  The  Treadwell  mine — First  placer  mining  — 
Later  discoveries  —  Copper  development  —  Tin  —  Coal  —  Oil 
—  Marble  —  Graphite  —  Variety  of  Alaska's  mineralization  —  The 
Alaska   coal   question. 

NATURE  has  been  extremely  profligate  in  the  distri- 
bution of  her  riches  throughout  Alaska,  but  more 
than  in  any  other  particular  has  she  been  gener- 
ous in  the  manner  in  which  she  has  scattered  mineral  wealth 
over  the  entire  territory.  To  the  miner  and  prospector  Alaska 
has  been  the  land  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  Not  always  has  she 
enriched  in  a  material  sense  the  individuals  who  climbed  her 
jagged  hillsides  or  delved  in  her  stream  beds  in  search  of 
glinting  metal,  but  her  aggregate  contribution  to  the  world's 
supply  of  gold  and  other  treasure  has  been  tremendous. 

Since  active  mining  first  began  in  1880,  Alaska,  up  until 
191 1,  had  produced  in  round  numbers  $206,000,000  in  mineral, 
nearly  thirty  times  the  amount  paid  to  Russia  for  the  entire 
territory.  The  yield  for  191 2,  if  the  estimates  made  by  banks 
and  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  are  correct  will  in- 
crease the  yield  to  about  thirty-two  times  the  amount  originally 
invested  by  Uncle  Sam  in  his  real  estate  "  dicker  "  with  the 
Czar  of  Russia  pertaining  to  a  little  strip  of  ice-covered  prop- 

222 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  223 

crty  then  known  as  Alayaska.  Of  the  amount  produced  till 
the  close  of  191 1,  $195,000,000  was  in  gold,  much  of  which 
came  at  a  time  when  it  was  badly  needed  to  relieve  the  dis- 
tressing financial  conditions  that  followed  the  panics  of  1893 
and  1907. 

Alaska  produced  its  first  copper  in  1901,  but  up  until  1910 
the  yield  u^as  not  great.  About  $1,500,000  worth  was  pro- 
duced in  191 1,  but  with  tlie  construction  of  the  Copper  River 
and  the  Northwestern  Railroad  to  the  mines  in  the  Copper 
River  Valley  and  the  opening  of  other  deposits  of  this  metal 
at  a  point  contiguous  to  steamship  transportation,  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  the  production  will  be  increased  by  ap- 
proximately 300  per  cent,  in  191 2.  The  manner  in  which  the 
copper  industry  was  stimulated  by  the  opening  of  the  railroad 
mentioned  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  need  of  railroads  in 
other  parts  of  the  territory,  to  say  nothing  of  the  necessity  for 
the  opening  of  the  Alaska  coal  fields,  which  would  allow  of  tlie 
construction  of  a  smelter  in  Alaska. 

It  is  not  the  mere  monetary  reward  that  attracts  fortune 
hunters  to  Alaska.  It  is  an  inherent  characteristic  of  the  hu- 
man to  love  any  occupation  that  offers  an  element  of  chance. 
The  mythical  pot  of  gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow,  the 
romance  and  the  mystery  of  mining  make  it  an  attractive  avo- 
cation. There  are  hundreds  of  men  in  Alaska  who  have  more 
money  than  they  really  want  and  yet  they  find  more  happiness 
in  wandering  over  the  hills  with  a  scant  supply  of  beans  and 
bacon  than  they  can  obtain  in  all  the  lighted  highways  of  civili- 
sation. The  yellow  metal  lures  undaunted  hearts  ever  to 
search  for  treasure,  and  it  is  to  this  propensity  of  the  human 
kind  that  the  world  owes  many  of  its  greatest  achievements  in 
science,  art,  literature  —  everything  that  makes  the  world 
worth  while. 

It  is  not  the  lust  for  gold  —  the  mere  acquirement  of  money 


224     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

—  that  attracts  miners  to  Alaska,  but  the  joy  experienced  in 
actually  taking  from  the  ground  a  piece  of  virgin  gold  — -  some- 
thing that  has  made  the  world  richer  and  that  has  caused  no 
heartaches  nor  sorrows.  There  is  a  fascination  about  a  mining 
field  that  no  other  place  in  the  world  offers.  Once  become 
addicted  to  mining  and  it  is  difficult  to  abstain  from  it. 

As  a  study  of  human  nature  the  people  of  a  mining  camp 
can  furnish  interesting  material.  Endowed  with  physical 
courage  and  initiative,  brought  together  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  unfettered  by  traditions  or  conventions,  unhampered  by 
personal  vanities,  the  gold  hunter  stands  in  a  new  mining  com- 
munity as  God  created  him,  and  he  is  surrounded  by  fellows  of 
his  own  kind.  He  regards  all  as  his  friends ;  he  knows  that  they 
have  endured  the  hardships  and  privation  that  he  has  suffered. 
Among  them  more  than  likely  he  will  find  one,  or  perhaps 
many,  whom  he  has  seen  in  other  mining  fields  in  distant  coun- 
tries and  under  different  conditions.  Around  the  camp-fires 
one  hears  tales  of  men  who  have  wandered  in  every  out-of-the- 
way  corner  of  the  world ;  stories  of  fortunes  just  missed,  of  lost 
mines  and  lost  creeks,  of  competencies  made  and  dissipated  or 
lost  again.  It  matters  not  whether  it  be  under  the  burning 
sun  of  the  desert  or  in  the  biting,  silent  cold  of  the  Arctic,  it 
makes  no  difference  what  flag  floats  over  them,  they  are  one 
people,  with  one  purpose.     On  a  gold  stampede  all  are  kindred 

—  a  rough,  masterful,  whole-hearted,  generous  crew,  ready  to 
divide  with  each  other  in  times  of  stress  what  the  gods  have 
given,  who  greet  you  with  the  open  hand  of  fellowship,  whose 
charity  comes  from  the  heart.  Among  them  the  stranger's  past 
is  his  own  and  his  future  is  in  the  keeping  of  everybody. 
They  won't  ask  his  patronymic  and  they  care  not  whence  he 
came.  If  the  new  arrival  offers  the  information,  it  is  accepted 
at  its  face  value;  if  he  is  uncommunicative,  they  give  him  a 
nick-name  and  let  it  go  at  that.     Locked  in  their  own  breasts 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  225 

are  their  own  family  secrets,  and  perhaps  eacli  occasionally 
allows  a  homesick  sigh  to  escape  his  lips,  but  they  manifest  no 
curiosity  in  regard  to  the  family  skeletons  of  their  neighbours. 
Imbued  with  a  love  of  adventure,  each  is  ready  to  accept  the 
other  for  what  he  is  —  not  for  what  he  possesses  nor  for  what 
glories  or  honours  his  past  might  hold.  One  hears  much 
of  the  decline  of  prospecting,  but  so  long  as  country  remains 
untraversed  and  gold  undiscovered  there  also  will  remain  the 
prospector. 

Less  than  three-fifths  of  Alaska  has  been  covered  by  white 
men,  and  none  can  tell  where  the  end  of  the  mineral  zone  may 
lie.  In  Victoria  Land,  far  to  the  eastward  of  the  Mackenzie 
River  and  lying  almost  in  the  centre  of  the  Polar  Sea,  where 
Vilhjalmar  Stefansson  in  19 12  discovered  a  tribe  of  people  who 
theretofore  never  had  seen  a  white  man,  there  are  lenses  of 
native  copper  from  which  these  aborigines  have  fashioned  their 
implements  and  weapons.  The  time  is  coming  —  and  soon  — 
when  these  regions  will  be  invaded  by  the  prospector.  Let 
somebody  find  a  little  gold,  and  a  stampede  will  follow. 

Cold  weather  does  not  discourage  the  prospector.  Seventy 
degrees  below  zero  holds  no  terrors  for  him.  They  are  the 
grittiest  men  on  earth,  possessing  abundant  push  and  energy 
and  all  the  attributes  that  go  to  make  up  a  virile  manhood. 

By  going  prepared  for  the  cold  they  know  they  will  encoun 
ter,  they  sometimes  accomplish  a  journey  of  1,000  or  more 
miles  across  unknown  country,  where  there  is  not  a  sign  of 
habitation,  with  comparatively  little  inconvenience.  They 
carry  fur-lined  sleeping-bags,  w-hich  they  lay  on  the  snow  at 
night,  and  then  crawl  in  and  buckle  the  flaps  over  their  heads. 
Their  underwear  is  of  the  best  grade  of  wool,  and  with  a 
light  Denham  parka  outside  to  break  the  wind,  they  are  able 
to  travel  long  distances  through  the  bitter  cold.  When  camp 
is  made,  the  word  "  hustle  "   finds  its  fullest  significance ;  a 


226     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

fire  is  started,  snow  or  ice  is  melted  into  water  and  a  meal  is 
prepared  with  astonishing  quickness.  Usually  a  large  pot  of 
pork  and  beans  is  cooked  and  then  set  out  and  allowed  to  freeze. 
The  frozen  mass  is  thrown  in  a  sack  next  morning,  and  when 
camp  is  made  at  nightfall,  a  few  chunks  of  it  are  chopped  ofi 
with  an  axe  and  put  in  a  frying  pan  to  warm.  By  the  time 
the  water  is  boiling  for  the  coffee,  the  beans  are  thoroughly 
warmed  and  supper  is  ready. 

The  writer  once  joined  a  rush  from  Dawson.  The  point 
■where  gold  was  supposed  to  have  been  found  was  about  one 
hundred  miles  down  the  Yukon  River  and  up  another  stream. 
In  some  manner  the  news  of  the  alleged  strike  had  assiduously 
been  circulated  amongst  the  gambling  fraternity  and  a  great 
many  of  that  class  of  citizens  hit  the  trail.  Haste  in  arriving 
at  the  alleged  New  Eldorado,  of  course,  was  a  matter  of  prime 
importance,  as  the  first  on  the  field  naturally  had  the  selection 
of  the  most  favourable  looking  claims.  Many  of  the  mushers 
made  the  journey  without  stopping,  eating  frozen  bread  or 
hard-tack  to  sustain  themselves  as  they  jogged  along  the  trail 
behind  their  tired  dogs.  The  experienced  stampeders  came 
prepared,  and  a  few  minutes  after  their  arrival  on  the  scene  they 
had  fires  going  and  their  bacon  and  beans  thawing.  But  it  was 
not  so  with  those  gamblers.  They  stood  around  in  the  intense 
cold  eating  chunks  of  frozen  bread  and  other  ice-encrusted  food. 
One  of  them  attempted  to  make  some  flapjacks,  a  kind  of  hot- 
cake.  He  mixed  the  flour  into  thin,  syrupy-looking  batter,  and 
then  placed  the  bucket  in  which  it  was  contained  in  the  snow 
while  he  attended  the  fire.  By  the  time  he  had  the  fire  ar- 
ranged to  his  liking,  the  dough  had  frozen  solid. 

Once  in  a  while  a  stampeder  becomes  sick  on  the  trail.  If 
he  is  travelling  alone  it  is  quite  likely  he  will  die,  but  if  others 
are  with  him,  he  is  placed  in  a  sleeping  bag  in  the  sled  and 
driven  along.     If  necessary,  stops  are  made  and  warmed  irons 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  227 

or  bottles  of  hot  water  are  placed  at  the  sick  man's  feet.  The 
hardships  and  inconveniences  sometimes  are  many,  but  ever  in 
the  mind  of  the  stampeders  is  the  knowledge  of  the  fortunes 
made  by  others  who  shared  similar  experiences.  They  like  to 
remember  that  some  of  the  miners  on  the  creeks  of  the  Klondike 
amassed  wealth  at  the  rate  of  more  than  a  dollar  a  minute  dur- 
ing an  entire  long  winter;  they  remember  incidents  in  which 
miners  have  taken  out  $1,000  with  every  bucketful  of  gravel; 
and  no  sooner  do  they  arrive  at  the  scene  of  a  new  strike  than 
they  stake  out  their  mining  claims  and  begin  an  eager  investiga- 
tion of  the  gravel. 

The  life  of  the  miner  and  the  prospector  is  one  of  romance; 
it  is  filled  with  thrilling  incidents;  and  many  arc  the  claims 
worth  millions  that  have  been  sold  for  a  song.  The  Treadwell 
Mine  that  has  produced  nearly  $50,000,000  was  sold  for  $400 ; 
one  of  the  richest  claims  in  the  Nome  district  was  sold  for  $30 
and  a  bottle  of  whiskey.  One  of  the  greatest  producers  on  the 
celebrated  third  beach  line  at  Nome  —  one  of  the  richest  placer 
mines  in  the  world  —  was  traded  for  a  gasoline  engine  that  was 
out  of  repair.  There  is  always  an  element  of  uncertainty  about 
mining.  Every  time  a  hole  is  sunk  to  bedrock  the  prospector 
has  one  chance  of  striking  it  rich.  Thus  is  he  ever  hopeful. 
Nature's  hidden  yellow  treasure  is  the  lodestone  that  draws 
them  all  —  some  to  find  a  fortune  and  some  to  suffer  travail 
and  bitter  disappointment. 

Much  of  the  placer  mining  in  Alaska  is  conducted  in  wintei, 
when  the  temperature  is  anything  but  Floridian.  The  extreme 
cold  is  an  aid  to  the  miner,  as  it  freezes  the  earth,  and  by 
thawing  a  hole  to  the  bottom  with  steam  or  hot  rocks  he  is 
saved  the  trouble  of  timbering  the  walls  of  his  shafts  or  the 
roofs  of  his  tunnels.  Besides  that,  he  has  no  water  to  contend 
with.  In  many  places  in  Alaska,  where  part  of  the  ground  is 
frozen  and  part  thawed,  the  gold  yet  remains  in  the  thawed  sec- 


228     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

tion,  while  that  in  the  frozen  gravel  long  since  has  been  ex- 
tracted. 

Although  millions  of  dollars  still  are  annually  produced  by 
the  primitive  methods  of  the  individual  placer  miner,  many  of 
the  fields  now^  are  operated  by  dredges  and  other  labour-saving 
devices.  There  yet  remains  more  than  half  of  the  territory  to  be 
explored  and  as  mineral  is  found  in  these  at  present  inaccessible 
places,  their  history  w^ill  be  much  the  same  as  that  of  other 
fields  more  fully  developed.  First  will  come  the  lone  prospec- 
tor with  his  dog  team  in  winter  or  his  crude  boat  in  summer. 
He  will  be  followed  by  a  horde  of  stampeders,  who  will  install 
sluice  boxes  and  do  their  work  largely  with  pick  and  shovels, 
and  then,  when  the  richest  of  the  ground  is  worked  out,  will 
come  the  dredge  or  the  hydraulic  elevator  and  wash  out  the  last 
speck  of  the  precious  metal. 

The  earliest  exploitation  of  metal  in  Alaska  was  the  recovery 
of  copper  nuggets  from  the  stream  beds  or  native  matrices  by 
the  natives  on  the  Copper  and  White  Rivers.  This  primitive 
mining  consisted  of  digging  into  the  banks  with  a  caribou  horn 
or  other  primitive  shovel,  and  it  probably  was  carried  on  for 
countless  generations  before  the  arrival  of  the  white  man. 
Vitus  Bering  and  Dr.  G.  W.  Stellar,  who  made  a  landing  at 
Kayak  Island  in  Controller  Bay  in  1 741,  and  were  driven  from 
there  by  a  storm,  noted  that  the  natives  used  knives,  arrow 
heads,  spear  points  and  other  weapons  and  implements  made  of 
copper.  Natives  in  many  parts  of  Alaska  when  first  encoun- 
tered by  explorers  were  found  to  be  using  copper  for  similar 
purposes. 

The  name  of  the  discoverer  of  gold  in  Alaska  appears  to  have 
been  lost.  Historians  relate  that  during  the  Baranof's  reign 
in  Alaska,  the  discovery  of  precious  metal  was  vigorously  dis- 
couraged, several  Russians  and  half-breeds  being  flogged  for 
bringing  samples  of  gold-bearing  ore  and  placer  gold  to  New 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  229 

Archangel.  A  stream  of  profits  from  sea  otter  and  other  furs 
poured  into  the  treasury  of  the  company  of  which  Baranof  was 
the  head,  but  after  the  "  iron  governor  "  had  passed  on  and  the 
indiscriminate  slaughter  carried  on  by  the  hunters  had  practi- 
cally exterminated  the  sea  otter,  the  Russian-American  Com- 
pany turned  its  attention  to  mining,  and,  influenced  probably 
by  the  gold  discoveries  in  California  in  1849,  a  mining  engineer 
named  Doroshin  was  sent  out  to  explore  for  precious  metal  and 
commercial  ores.  Doroshin,  with  a  large  force  of  labourers  pros- 
pected the  several  streams  on  Kenai  Peninsula,  but  the  result 
of  two  years'  work  was  only  a  few  ounces  of  placer  gold  and 
although  Doroshin  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  field  was  a 
favourable  one  for  exploitation,  further  efforts  were  abandoned. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  an  industry  that  at  this  writing, 
1912,  has  been  yielding  an  average  of  about  $12,000,000  an- 
nually for  twelve  years  past.  The  present  output  is  about  $16,- 
000,000  annually. 

The  Russians,  aided  by  American  capitalists,  who  formed  a 
subsidiary  company  for  the  purpose  of  exporting  ice  from  the 
glaciers  of  Alaska,  made  another  effort  to  embark  in  mining  in 
1854,  when  considerable  work  was  done  on  the  coal  measures 
near  Port  Graham,  on  the  east  side  of  Cook  Inlet.  A  small 
amount  of  coal  was  taken  to  the  company's  shipyards  at  Sitka, 
and  several  hundred  tons  was  shipped  to  California.  The  fuel 
brought  only  a  low  price,  so  the  export  business  was  dropped.^ 

Within  a  few  miles  of  the  point  where  the  Russians  mined 
the  coal  and  gold,  were  three  of  the  richest  copper  mines  in 
Alaska,  many  streams  carrying  payable  placer  gold,  and  some 
quartz  veins  richly  permeated  the  glinting  metal.  These  re- 
mained to  be  discovered  by  the  energetic  prospectors  who  in- 
vaded the  country  after  the  territory  was  transferred   to   the 

^  W.  G.  Whorf  was  granted  a  patent  to  this  ground  in  1913,  after 
living  on   the   ground   for  twelve  years. 


230     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

United  States.  Within  a  few  miles  also  lay  the  Matanuska 
coal  fields,  an  immense  deposit  of  bituminous  and  anthracite 
coal,  hundreds  of  square  miles  in  extent. 

The  Russians  also  made  a  search  for  iron  ore  beds,  but  with- 
out positive  results.  It  appears  from  the  records  of  the  com- 
pany that  many  of  the  Russians  knew  of  the  copper  deposits. 
They  probably  had  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  lenses 
that  developed  into  the  Ellamar  and  other  mines,  and  it  is  likely 
that  they  saw  the  big  green  hill  that  later  was  developed  into 
the  Bonanza  Mine.  They  could  not  avoid  seeing  it,  as  the  hill 
at  one  time  was  covered  with  copper  stain,  and  from  a  distance 
it  looked  like  a  field  of  intensely  green  grass. 

After  the  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United  States,  American 
prospectors  from  California  and  other  parts  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  invaded  Alaska,  and  two  years  after  the  transfer  —  in 
1869  —  they  found  placer  gold  at  Sumdum  Bay.  A  payable 
quartz  vein  was  found  near  Sitka  in  1877,  and  the  first  mill 
was  installed  about  three  years  later.  The  first  real  output  of 
placer  gold  came  from  Juneau  in  1880,  and  it  was  followed 
soon  after  by  the  metal  shipped  from  the  great  Treadwell  mine. 
Silver-lead  ores  were  found  at  the  head  of  Fish  River,  a  tribu- 
tary of  Norton  Bay  on  Seward  Peninsula  in  1880,  and  a  small 
shipment  was  made  in  1883.  Placer  gold  also  was  discovered 
in  this  region  by  members  of  the  Telegraph  Survey  Expedition, 
but  the  metal  was  not  found  in  payable  quantities  until  1898. 

Gold  was  reported  from  the  bars  of  the  Yukon  tributaries 
by  the  early  explorers  and  fur  traders,  but  the  first  actual  min- 
ing was  done  on  Cassiar  Bar,  on  Lewis  River,  by  a  party  of 
American  miners  who  were  among  the  first  to  force  their  way 
across  the  Chilkoot  Pass.  As  the  route  became  better  known 
more  prospectors  penetrated  the  interior,  and  in  1887,  placer 
gold  was  found  on  the  Alaskan  side  of  the  boundary  in  the 
Forty-Mile  region.     Gold  was  found  at  Rampart  in  1893  and 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  231 

before  that  on  the  bars  of  the  Innoko  River  and  other  streams 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon.  In  1896,  when  the  dtscovery 
of  the  Klondike  gold  fields  was  made,  there  were  about  1,000 
prospectors  in  the  country. 

Meanwhile  prospecting  and  development  had  continued  along 
the  coast-line.  The  Treadwell  was  producing  about  two-thirds 
of  the  entire  output  of  approximately  $500,000  per  annum,  and 
several  other  quartz  veins  which  since  have  been  developed  into 
mines,  had  been  opened  up  in  the  Juneau  region.  The  placers 
of  the  Sunrise  district  in  Cook  Inlet  were  discovered  in  1894, 
and  a  gold  bearing  ledge  had  been  opened  up  on  Unga  Island 
in   1886. 

Gold  in  payable  quantities  was  found  on  Seward  Peninsula, 
on  Ophir  Creek  in  March  and  at  Nome  in  September,   1898. 

By  1900  the  field  was  in  a  high  state  of  productivity,  and  as 
the  years  went  by  it  was  found  that  the  precious  metal  was 
disseminated  practically  all  over  the  Peninsula.  The  Koyukuk 
was  discovered  in  1899,  and  the  Fairbanks  district  in  1902.  A 
paystreak  was  uncovered  in  the  Kotzebue  Sound  country  in 
1902,  in  the  Copper  River  Basin  in  1899  and  1902,  in  the 
Susitna  Basin  in  1904  and  1906;  at  the  head  of  the  Innoko 
River  in  1907,  at  the  Iditarod  in  1909,  at  Ruby  and  Good 
News  Bay  in  191 1,  and  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Kuskokwim 
River  in   191 2. 

From  1880  till  191 1  these  fields  produced  gold  to  the  value 
of  $195,000,000  and  as  a  number  of  quartz  veins  have  been 
developed  and  new  placer  fields  discovered,  it  is  within  the 
realm  of  reasonable  expectation  that  this  output  will  increase 
as  time  goes  on. 

The  exploitation  of  the  commercial  metals  commenced  in 
1 88 1,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  open  up  the  copper  de- 
posits on  the  easterly  side  of  Prince  of  Wales  Island.  Work 
soon  was  suspended  till   1899,  when  operations  were  resumed, 


232     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  at  the  same  time  the  development  of  the  copper  deposits 
on  Prince  William  Sound  also  was  begun. 

The  presence  of  placer  copper  deposits  in  the  Copper  and 
White  River  Basins  was  known  to  the  Russians  through  their 
relations  with  the  natives,  but  there  is  no  record  of  these 
places  having  been  visited  by  white  men  till  1 891.  The  feeling 
between  the  Russians  and  the  natives  was  not  conducive  to  in- 
terior exploration.  The  native  law  of  reprisal  is  "  a  life  for 
a  life,"  and  as  many  natives  had  been  murdered  by  the  Russians, 
the  latter  did  not  deem  it  safe  to  make  journeys  to  parts  re- 
motely situated  from  their  stations  and  forts. 

The  lode  deposits  in  the  Copper  River  district  were  dis- 
covered by  a  band  of  argonauts  who  were  endeavouring  to  reach 
Dawson  through  this  valley  in  1898.  The  discovery  led  to 
systematic  search  and  the  finding  of  copper  on  the  Chitina 
River,  a  tributary  of  the  Copper,  and  other  places  in  that  region 
was  affected  in  the  succeeding  years  up  until  1903,  in  which 
year  the  copper  at  the  head  of  White  River  was  also  located. 
The  metal  at  the  head  of  Copper  River  was  not  made  available 
until  191 1,  when  the  Copper  River  and  Northwestern  Railroad 
was  constructed  to  the  Bonanza  Mine  at  Kennicott. 

Placer  tin  was  discovered  in  the  Seward  Peninsula  in  1900 
by  members  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and  the 
lode  tin  was  discovered  three  years  later.  The  mines  were 
operated  in  a  more  or  less  desultory  manner  till  191 1,  when  a 
dredge  was  installed  on  Buck  Creek,  and  a  real  production 
commenced.  With  the  installation  of  the  dredge  the  produc- 
tion averaged  a  little  more  than  $1,000  a  day.  The  tin  fields, 
however,  are  so  situated  that  the  climate  makes  operation  for 
more  than  130  days  a  year  impossible. 

Although  coal  mining  in  Alaska  dates  back  to  1854,  the  first 
systematic  work  was  done  in  1880  at  Kootzanoo  Inlet,  followed 
in  1888  by  the  opening  of  a  coal  measure  at  Kachemak  Bay, 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  233 

Cook  Inlet.  Coal  beds  on  the  Alaska  Peninsula  were  first 
opened  in  1889;  and  those  at  Herendeen  Bay  and  at  Chignik 
in  1893.  Coal  mining  began  on  the  Yukon  in  1895,  near  Hess 
Creek.  After  Dawson  was  discovered,  mines  were  opened  on 
the  Yukon  in  both  American  and  Canadian  territory,  but  the 
fuel  is  of  poor  quality,  and  not  much  of  it  was  mined.  The 
Cape  Lisburne  fields,  perhaps  the  biggest  measures  of  high-grade 
coal  in  Alaska,  were  found  by  early  explorers,  and  a  little  fuel 
was  taken  from  time  to  time  for  the  use  of  whalers  and  revenue 
cutters.  One  cargo  was  shipped  to  Nome,  but  the  vessel  carry- 
ing it  was  wrecked  en  route. 

The  government  since  has  put  a  ban  on  all  coal  mining  in 
Alaska,  but  in  spite  of  this  fact,  government  teachers  at  Wain- 
wright  Inlet  in  191 1  and  1912  took  nearly  2,000  sacks  of  high- 
grade  coal  from  the  beds  which  lie  in  the  country  between  Icy 
Cape  and  Point  Barrow.  The  natives  in  this  locality  have  been 
taught  to  burn  coal  for  their  own  use. 

The  high-grade  coal  fields  in  the  Bering  River  field  near 
Controller  Bay,  which  have  been  the  cause  of  so  much  political 
and  legal  controversy,  began  to  attract  attention  in  1895,  but 
prospecting  was  not  commenced  till  several  years  later.  De- 
velopment of  the  Matanuska  coal  fields  began  about  1903,  al- 
though they  had  been  discovered  some  years  before. 

The  Russians  were  the  first  to  discover  oil  seepages  in  Alaska, 
but  the  first  drilling  was  not  done  till  1901  at  Controller  Bay- 
and  at  Cook  Inlet  in  1902.  The  people  resident  at  Katalla 
make  their  own  gasoline  and  kerosene,  but  there  has  been  no 
great  production  of  oil  from  this  field.  Several  wells  were 
sunk,  and  it  is  believed  that  flows  of  oil  were  encountered,  but 
the  cups  were  screwed  on  the  casings.  It  is  thought  that  in- 
ability to  secure  patents  to  the  ground  is  the  cause  of  the  inac- 
tivity. 

Marble  for  tombstones  and  building  purposes  was  quarried 


234     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  Alaska  about  1898,  but  the  business  was  not  conducted  on  a 
large  scale  till  1904.  In  that  year  a  quarry  was  opened  up  on 
Prince  of  Wales  Island  and  many  shipments  were  made.  A 
gypsum  deposit  was  opened  on  Chicago ff  Island  in  1904,  and  a 
large  amount  of  the  plaster  of  Paris  manufactured  in  the 
United  States  came  from  this  deposit  till  June,  19 12,  when 
the  wharf  collapsed  and  operations  temporarily  were  suspended. 
Three  marble  quarries  were  in  operation  in  191 2. 

The  first  discovery  of  graphite  in  Alaska  was  made  in  1900 
in  the  Port  Clarence  region  on  Seward  Peninsula,  but  no  large 
shipments  were  made  till  19 1 2. 

Except  for  the  practice  of  thawing  frozen  gravel,  and  occa- 
sionally freezing  thawing  gravel  to  keep  back  a  flow  of  water, 
the  mining  methods  in  Alaska  are  very  similar  to  operations  in 
other  countries,  and  apart  from  lack  of  transportation  facilities 
no  unusual  difficulties  are  presented. 

Several  immense  deposits  of  iron  ore,  both  magnetite  and 
hematite,  have  been  found  in  various  parts  of  Alaska,  but  so  far 
no  actual  development  work  has  been  done.  Analyses  made  of 
an  immense  iron  bed  situated  near  Nome  gave  high  returns  in 
manganese,  and  other  constituents  that  experts  say  would  make 
it  an  ideal  smelting  ore.  The  cost  of  shipment,  however,  is 
so  great  that  under  present  conditions  it  is  questionable  whether 
it  could  be  worked  at  a  profit. 

Geologists  declare  there  is  a  greater  variety  of  minerals  in 
Alaska  than  in  any  other  mineralised  zone  in  the  world,  and 
many  of  the  veins  exploited  carry  several  enrichments.  A 
quartz  mine  near  Nome  was  first  thought  to  be  an  antimonial 
ore,  but  a  few  feet  from  the  surface  it  turned  to  a  mineralisa- 
tion of  lead  and  silver,  and  at  a  depth  of  250  feet  showed  high 
gold  values.  In  several  places  in  Alaska  coal  and  gold  and 
coal  and  iron  are  found  in  proximity  to  each  other. 

Alaska  has  produced  in  commercial  quantities  the  metals  gold, 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  235 

silver,  copper,  lead  and  tin,  and  the  non-metallic  minerals  coal, 
petroleum,  gypsum,  marble  and  mineral  waters.  In  addition 
to  these  there  are  deposits  of  iron,  tungsten,  antimony,  quick- 
silver, asbestos,  sulphur,  jade,  peat,  mica,  graphite,  molybdenum 
and  bismuth.  Its  precious  stones  so  far  as  known  are  garnets, 
an  abundance  of  extremely  small  rubies  in  the  ruby  sands,  a 
few  olivines  and  agates.  Platinum  has  been  found  in  very 
small  quantities  in  association  with  placer  gold. 

While  the  metalliferous  minerals  have  produced  a  great 
amount  of  wealth,  it  is  to  the  Alaskan  coal  measures  that  the 
people  of  the  Pacific  Coast  states  must  look  for  a  share  of  their 
future  prosperity.  The  amount  of  bituminous,  semi-bitumi- 
nous, anthracite  and  semi-anthracite  coal  in  Alaska  is  stupendous, 
while  lignite  is  scattered  all  through  the  country  and  there  is 
an  almost  unlimited  amount  of  energy  in  the  peat  beds  should 
the  material  be  turned  into  producer  gas.  Alaska  also  possesses 
tremendous  latent  hydro-energy  in  the  many  mountain  streams 
and  swift  rivers. 

Without  going  in  to  the  controversy  over  the  Alaska  coal 
lands,  and  without  espousing  the  cause  of  either  those  who  are 
trying  to  open  the  coal  to  development  under  restricted  condi- 
tions, under  government  supervision,  by  government-owned 
railways  or  under  private  enterprise,  let  it  be  stated  that  there 
are  three  salient  facts  that  have  not  been  generally  disseminated, 
but  which  should  be  made  known  to  the  public: 

(a)  The  experts  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 
estimate  there  are  21  million  acres  of  coal  land  in  Alaska  con- 
taining approximately  150  billion  tons  of  high-grade  coal. 

(b)  The  total  area  of  coal  land  claimed  by  the  men  who 
discovered  and  attempted  to  develop  the  fields  is  32  thousand 
acres. 

(c)  Those  who  attempted  to  segregate  a  portion  of  the  coal 
measures  in  the  Matanuska  and  Bering  River  fields  paid  to  the 


236     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

government  $320,000  in  cash  and  took  a  receipt.  The  money 
was  paid  as  the  purchase  price  of  the  land,  which  the  law  pro- 
vided should  be  ten  dollars  an  acre.  The  land  was  not  trans- 
fered  to  them,  nor  has  their  money  been  returned. 

No  criticism  is  offered  on  these  facts,  either  pro  or  con,  but 
they  are  matters  of  record  and  should  be  considered  when  the 
Alaskan  coal  question  is  discussed.  However,  it  is  not  the 
province  of  this  chapter  to  argue  the  merits  of  the  coal  con- 
tention either  for  the  claimants  or  against  them,  but  to  present 
facts  in  relation  to  the  various  fields  and  to  discuss  their  prob- 
able effect  on  the  industries  of  Alaska  and  the  commerce  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  states. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  feature  of  the  Alaska  coal  land, 
so  far  as  the  people  of  the  whole  of  the  United  States  is  con- 
cerned, lies  in  the  fact  that  these  fields  are  about  1,500  miles 
closer  to  the  Philippines  than  is  the  naval  coal  base  at  San 
Francisco;  and  approximately  12,000  miles  nearer  to  the  Phil- 
ippines than  is  the  present  source  of  naval  fuel  supply  in  West 
Virginia.  Coal  for  the  Pacific  fleet  of  warships  and  naval  sta- 
tions is  brought  around  Cape  Horn  from  the  Pocahontas  fields 
in  West  Virginia  and  landed  on  the  Pacific  Coast  at  a  cost  of 
nearly  one  hundred  per  cent,  more  than  it  would  cost  to  trans- 
port the  same  amount  of  a  slightly  better  quality  of  fuel  from 
the  Alaskan  fields.  And  it  should  be  considered  also  that  much 
of  the  naval  fuel  transported  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  is  carried  on 
foreign  ships,  which,  in  the  event  of  a  war,  would  be  considered 
to  be  carrying  contraband  cargo,  and,  therefore,  subject  to  at- 
tack. Should  these  foreign  colliers  be  waylaid  and  destroyed 
while  a  war  was  in  progress  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  United 
States  warships  would  be  left  fuelless  and  absolutely  helpless. 
For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  the  Alaska  coal  fields  should 
be  opened  to  development  as  quickly  as  possible. 

The  difference  in  the  cost  to  the  government  in  buying  coal 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  237 

in  Alaska  and  in  West  Virginia  and  transporting  it  to  the 
Pacific  is  probably  sufficient  to  cover  the  cost  of  construction 
of  a  new  battleship  every  year.  It  is  estimated  by  competent 
engineers  that  the  minimum  saving  would  be  approximately 
$1,000,000  annually. 

So  far  as  the  conservation  of  the  Alaska  coal  supply  for  future 
generations  is  concerned,  let  it  be  stated  that  in  the  process  of 
transporting  coal  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  an  amount  of 
coal  equal  to  twenty-two  per  cent,  of  the  tonnage  shipped  is 
consumed  in  the  boilers  of  the  vessel  that  carries  the  cargo. 
There  are  approximately  70,000,000  people  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  against  20,000,000  on  the  western 
side.  Therefore,  the  coal  measures  of  the  eastern  states  will 
become  exhausted  before  those  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  indub- 
itably the  time  will  come  when  coal  will  have  to  be  transported 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  unless  some  other  form  of 
energy  be  invented  in  the  meantime.  There  can  be  no  conser- 
vation of  natural  resources  in  burning  up  twenty-two  per  cent, 
of  eastern  fuel  in  transporting  it  to  the  West  and  later  burning 
up  twenty-two  per  cent,  of  western  fuel  in  transporting  it  to 
the  East. 

In  the  steel  industry  also,  the  effect  of  the  opening  of  the 
Alaskan  coal  fields  will  be  felt  severely.  There  is  an  abundance 
of  iron  ore  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  but  no  available  coking  coal  — 
or  rather  coking  coal  of  a  quality  that  will  "  stand  up  "  in  an 
open  hearth  furnace.  It  is  cheaper  for  the  western  people  to 
pay  freight  on  steel  manufactured  in  the  eastern  states  than  to 
pay  freight  on  coke  to  manufacture  the  steel  on  the  Pacific, 
because  coke  is  a  bulky,  and  therefore  costly,  material  to  carry, 
and  besides  that,  it  disintegrates  and  deteriorates  in  the  process 
of  transportation. 

Alaska,  or  parts  of  it,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  a  cold 
country,  and  Nature  clearly  intended  that  the  people  who  in- 


238     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

habited  the  territory  should  use  the  fuel  which  she  placed  there 
for  them.  It  certainly  never  was  intended  that  they  should  be 
compelled  to  import  their  fuel  from  Canada  at  a  cost  of  upwards 
of  $1,000,000  per  annum  more  than  it  would  cost  to  mine  the 
fuel  that  lies  in  their  own  back  yards. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  when  the  facts  about  the  Alaskan 
coal  situation  become  known,  the  fields  will  be  opened.  They 
will  be  opened  to  furnish  fuel  to  the  American  navy,  and  soon 
thereafter  there  will  be  many  big  smelting  centres  in  Alaska. 
It  is  probable  that  steel  manufacturing  will  be  commenced,  and 
it  is  reasonably  certain  that  a  city  about  the  size  of  Butte,  Mon- 
tana, and  another  about  the  size  of  Scranton,  Pennsylvania, 
will  be  established  in  Alaska,  somewhere  adjacent  to  the  coal 
and  copper  fields. 

These  towns  most  probably  will  be  Cordova  and  Seward. 
Within  one  hundred  miles  of  Cordova  lies  the  great  Bering 
River  coal  fields.  Within  two  hundred  miles  of  Seward  are 
located  the  great  Matanuska  coal  measures.  Surrounding  each 
are  countless  millions  of  tons  of  smelting  ore  in  varying  degrees 
of  richness  and  diversification  of  mineral. 

The  development  of  those  coal  fields  will  place  half  a  million 
people  in  Alaska  within  five  years.  This  will  increase  the  an- 
nual trade  with  the  North  from  $50,000,000  to  $500,000,000. 

The  steel  trade  will  be  revolutionised,  for  instead  of  paying 
$20  a  ton  freight  on  steel  from  Pittsburg  —  the  original  cost 
of  steel  many  times  repeated  —  the  steel  goods  will  be  manu- 
factured on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Seattle's  population  will  Increase 
to  a  million  of  people,  and  along  the  shores  of  Puget  Sound  will 
be  a  number  of  small  steel  manufacturing  towns. 

The  opening  of  the  coal  fields  will  cause  the  building 
of  hundreds  of  miles  of  railroads  in  Alaska,  which,  besides 
furnishing  a  means  of  transportation  for  the  commercial  and 
precious  ores,  will  open  up  a  tremendous  agricultural  district. 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  239 

According  to  Alfred  H.  Brooks,  chief  of  the  Alaska  Division 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and  a  member  of  the 
Alaskan  Railroad  Commission,  the  Bering  River  and  Matan- 
uska  fields  furnish  the  only  known  source  of  high-grade  fuels 
near  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  the  recent  discovery  of  a  small  quan- 
tity of  bituminous  coal  near  Spokane,  Washington,  may  in  after 
years  affect  the  Pacific  Coast  market.  Whether  the  field  dis- 
covered near  Spokane  is  sufficiently  large  to  give  it  commercial 
importance  yet  remains  to  be  determined,  and  from  the  fields  of 
the  North,  for  the  present  anyway,  must  come  the  high-grade 
steaming  and  coking  and  anthracite  coals  needed  by  the  rapidly 
growing  population  of  the  Pacific  seaboard  states.  Unless  they 
are  utilised,  the  manufacturing  and  smelting  industries  and  the 
United  States  navy  on  the  Pacific  must  largely  depend  on  for- 
eign fuels,  except  as  coal  may  be  brought  around  Cape  Horn 
from  the  fields  of  Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia,  or  until  the 
completion  of  the  Panama  Canal,  when  the  route  will  be 
changed. 

Alaska's  own  need  for  high-grade  fuels  for  smelting  and  other 
purposes  can  be  supplied  only  from  the  Alaska  fields,  unless  it 
be  transported  for  many  thousands  of  miles.  The  cost  of  trans- 
portation of  fuel  from  the  mines  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  or  from 
Australia  or  from  the  inland  fields  of  China  to  Alaska,  pro- 
hibits their  use  in  the  North,  if  used  for  the  purpose  of  smelting 
any  but  the  very  highest  grades  of  ore.  At  present  the  high- 
grade  ores  of  Alaska  are  transported  to  Tacoma  for  reduction, 
and  in  the  process  there  is  necessarily  a  heavy  waste.  The 
highest  grade  copper  ore,  for  instance,  yields  an  average  of 
probably  35  per  cent,  copper.  This  means  that  the  ships'  car- 
goes contain  65  per  cent,  of  gangue  or  waste  material,  and  thou- 
sands of  tons  of  low-grade  copper,  such  as  is  mined  in  Arizona, 
Montana  and  Michigan,  is  thrown  on  the  waste  dumps. 

While  there  is  an  abundance  of  good  coal  in  the  Bering  River 


240    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  Matanuska  fields,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  certain  por- 
tions of  these  fields  are  badly  faulted,  and  the  coal  is  crushed 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  cannot  be  marketed  in  its  present  con- 
dition. It  also  is  true  that  a  large  amount  of  this  coal  is  of 
a  friable  nature,  that  is,  it  gradually  disintegrates  into  small 
particles  or  "  slack "  when  exposed  to  the  atmosphere.  The 
crushed  or  friable  coal  ultimately  will  have  commercial  value 
when  briquetting  machines  are  installed,  but  it  has  no  present 
commercial  value,  and  will  have  none  until  the  solid  coals  are 
mined  to  so  great  a  depth  that  the  cost  of  extraction  will  be 
as  great  as  that  of  briquetting.  The  fabulous  values  placed 
on  some  of  these  coal  claims  by  irresponsible  people  who  are 
ignorant  of  the  facts  are  extremely  ridiculous. 

The  solid  coals  of  Bering  River  and  Matanuska  fields  are 
the  highest  grade  fuels  in  the  United  States.  This  has  been 
proven  not  only  by  tests  of  small  samples  made  by  members  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  but  by  a  bulk  test  of  nearly 
one  hundred  tons  burned  in  the  U.  S.  battleship  Nebraska. 

According  to  estimates  made  by  members  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  by  Falcon  Joslin  and  other  engineers  com- 
petent to  form  opinions  on  the  subject,  coal  from  either  the 
Matanuska  or  Bering  River  fields  can  be  landed  in  Puget 
Sound  ports  at  less  than  five  dollars  a  ton.  Coal  mining  in 
Alaska  presents  no  difficulties  that  have  not  been  met  and  over- 
come in  other  places.  The  climate  is  no  more  severe  than  that 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  water  transportation  problem  already 
has  been  solved. 

The  Bering  River  field  can  be  opened  from  a  number  of 
different  points,  and,  despite  statements  to  the  contrary,  it  is 
nevertheless  a  fact  that  the  Copper  River  and  Northwestern 
Railroad  does  not  pass  any  point  that  is  nearer  than  forty  miles 
from  these  fields.  A  branch  line,  however,  has  been  surveyed, 
and   in   the   event   of  patents   being  granted   to   some  of  the 


MINES,  MINERS  AND  MINING  241 

claims  on  this  field  in  the  near  future,  a  line  to  connect  Cor- 
dova with  the  field  doubtless  will  be  constructed. 

Some  of  the  claims  are  so  situated  that  the  coal  can  be  exca- 
vated and  laden  in  barges  moored  in  the  Bering  River,  and  by 
this  means,  transported  to  tidewater.  This  latter  condition 
makes  the  control  of  the  field  by  the  railroad  an  impossibility. 

The  Matanuska  field  lies  two  hundred  miles  from  tidewater 
at  Seward,  and  when  opened  to  development  the  fuel  will  be 
hauled  to  the  coast  for  shipment  on  the  Alaskan  Northern  Rail- 
road, seventy  miles  of  which  has  already  been  constructed. 
Should  the  Alaska  Northern  route  prove  impracticable,  an 
entrance  to  the  field  can  be  gained  by  building  a  spur  from  the 
Copper  River  and  Northwestern  Railroad  at  Chitina,  and  land- 
ing the  coal  at  Cordova.  This  fuel  will  be  used  not  only  in 
the  local  market  afforded  by  the  quartz  mines  of  Valdez  and 
Seward,  but  a  large  quantity  will  be  brought  to  Pacific  Coast 
ports  further  south  in  competition  with  the  fields  of  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Pennsylvania,  to  be  used  in  the  form  of  coke  at  the 
Pacific  Coast  smelters. 

Because  Alaska  coal  can  be  landed  on  Puget  Sound  at 
less  than  five  dollars  a  ton,  the  following  figures  on  the  present 
Pacific  Coast  prices  for  high-grade  coke  and  coal  are  significant: 
Special  grades  of  coal  which  come  from  the  Eastern  fields  com- 
mand fancy  prices  —  blacksmith  coal  $11  to  $12  and  anthra- 
cite $15  to  $20  a  ton.  Coke,  in  the  Pacific  Coast  states,  is 
sold  with  slight  variations  either  way,  at  the  following  prices: 
San  Francisco,  furnace  coke,  $9  to  $10;  gas  coke,  $7  to  $8; 
Oregon  and  Washington  coke,  $7;  Belgian  coke,  $11. 

The  Pacific  Coast  and  territories,  including  Hawaii  and 
Alaska,  use  annually  about  4,5(X),ooo  tons  of  coal,  about  200,- 
000  tons  being  consumed  in  the  form  of  coke.  Recent  discover- 
ies of  large  bodies  of  smelting  ores  on  the  Western  Coast,  will 
soon  cause  a  great  increase  in  demand  for  coking  coals  and  the 


242     ALASPCA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

smelting  industry  is  destined  to  increase  at  tremendous  speed. 

When  new  steel  mills  are  established,  as  thej'  soon  will  be, 
the  amount  of  coke  used  on  the  Pacific  Slope  will  increase  to 
1,000,000  tons  per  annum.  At  present,  however,  the  market 
conditions  are  about  as  follows: 

Without  competition,  furnishing  coal  to  northern  towns, 
mines,  southbound  ships,  et  cetera,  Alaska  has  a  market  for 
120,000  tons  of  coal  annually.  Under  the  present  conditions 
it  would  be  absolutely  impossible  for  other  fields  to  compete 
in  this  market. 

Under  competition  strongly  favouring  Alaska,  there  is  an 
annual  market  for  350,000  tons  for  hard  coal,  and  under  even 
competitive  conditions  a  market  for  1,000,000  tons  of  coal  can 
easily  be  found  in  the  fuel  used  by  steamers  entering  Bering 
Sea,  the  coal  burned  in  the  northwestern  section  of  Alaska,  in 
California  ports,  in  the  trans-Pacific  steamships,  in  the  coal  used 
by  the  United  States  navy  on  the  Pacific  and  in  the  blacksmith 
and  anthracite  coal  used  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  opening  of  the  Alaska  coal  fields  will  enable  the  gov- 
ernment to  keep  a  fleet  of  battleships  on  the  waters  of  the  Pacific 
and  give  employment  to  thousands  of  men  engaged  in  coal  min- 
ing and  other  industries.  These  miners  will  furnish  a  market 
for  the  agriculturist"  who  will  go  to  Alaska  as  soon  as  con- 
ditions warrant. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE   REINDEER  AS   A   CIVILISER 

Philanthropic  work  results  in  establishing  nucleus  of  tremendous  in- 
dustry—  Reindeer  can  be  raised  for  market  more  cheaply  than 
cattle  and  grazing  ground  is  unlimited  —  Animals  become  im- 
portant factor  in  food  and  transportation  problems  of  territory  — 
Convert  poverty-stricken  Eskimos  into  industrious,  thrifty  race. 

A  FEW  years  ago  when  the  price  of  meat  in  the  United 
States  began  to  soar  so  high  that  it  scarcely  could  be 
reached  without  the  aid  of  an  aeroplane,  the  sugges- 
tion was  made  that  the  swamps  of  Florida  and  other  southern 
states  be  stocked  with  hippopotami  and  mammals  of  similar 
character,  the  flesh  of  which  is  not  only  toothsome,  but  nutri- 
tious. 

The  scheme  sounded  wildly  fantastic,  of  course,  but  for 
some  time  it  was  regarded  as  a  probable  means  of  reducing  the 
high  cost  of  living.  The  idea  died  out  as  impracticable,  and 
it  generally  was  conceded  that  there  was  no  method  by  which 
the  depredations  on  the  public  purse  by  the  so-called  meat  trust 
could  be  frustrated. 

Few  people  realised,  and  many  yet  have  failed  to  realise,  that 
in  Alaska  there  rapidly  is  being  builded  a  meat  industry  that 
is  destined  to  become  a  most  important  economic  factor  in  the 
affairs  of  the  beef  barons. 

The  Alaskans,  in  many  parts  of  the  territory,  solved  the 
meat  problem  by  eating  reindeer.  At  the  present  writing  rein- 
deer steaks  and  chops  are  served  in  the  best  hotels  in  Seattle 
and  other  western  cities  at  prices  that  compare  more  than 
favourably  with  the  tariff  on  cuts  of  beef  and  mutton, 

243 


244     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Reindeer  meat  is  more  succulent  and  nutritious  than  either 
beef  or  mutton.  Every  portion  of  the  reindeer  is  as  tender  as 
the  tenderloin  of  beef,  and  its  flavour  is  delicious  —  somewhat 
of  a  cross  between  beef  and  mutton,  with  just  a  faint  suggestion 
of  venison  intermingled.  In  the  Hotel  Washington,  one  of 
the  best  hostelries  in  Seattle,  where  a  porterhouse  steak  costs 
about  $2.00,  a  cut  of  reindeer  meat  is  served  at  75  cents. 

Stretching  from  the  northern  bank  of  the  Yukon  River  to 
the  Arctic  Ocean  is  the  greatest  reindeer  grazing  land  in  the- 
world.  The  number  of  deer  which  this  land  will  support  is 
almost  incalculable.  The  caribou  is  a  wild  reindeer,  and  it  is 
certain  that  where  the  wild  ones  can  subsist,  so  also  can  the  tame 
ones.  Dr.  Grenfell,  the  Labrador  missionary,  furnished  the 
information  that  the  country  north  of  Hudson  Bay  will  sup- 
port 10,000,000  of  these  animals,  and  this  government  supplied 
him  a  few  female  deer  to  form  the  nucleus  of  the  herd. 
The  Russian  government  will  not  allow  any  more  to  be  sold. 

The  introduction  of  reindeer  into  Alaska  was  the  result  of 
a  suggestion  made  by  M.  A.  Healey,  captain  of  the  revenue 
cutter  Bear.  The  idea  was  adopted  by  the  Education  Bureau, 
in  response  to  a  petition  filed  by  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson.  Lieu- 
tenant E.  P.  Bertholf,  in  1893,  made  a  trip  across  Siberia  to 
the  eastern  coast,  purchasing  a  number  of  deer,  which  later 
were  shipped  to  Alaska  across  Bering  Strait.  In  all  1,280 
deer  were  imported  between  the  years  igo2-o6,  and  their  breed- 
ing was  placed  under  the  supervision  of  Laplanders,  who  taught 
the  natives  how  to  handle  and  raise  them.  The  purchase  of 
the  reindeer,  like  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  was  regarded  as  a 
wilful  waste  of  public  funds,  but  from  these  few  deer,  the 
herd  now  numbers  about  35,000,  and  in  the  meantime  they  have 
converted  the  natives  who  own  them  from  an  impoverished  to 
an  affluent  people. 

Besides  those  killed  for  their  own  use  last  year,  the  net  in- 


L^"m.'fjim ..     CO 


X'X 


CO 

CO  ■< 


.    a. 

c«  td 

-J  ^ 


THE  REINDEER  AS  A  CIVILISER  245 

come  to  native  deer  men  from  animals  slaughtered  and  sold  for 
market  was  $42,216,  divided  among  460  native  owners.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  despite  the  number  killed  for  meat  each 
year,  the  reindeer  herd  doubles  everj^  three  years,  it  readily 
will  be  seen  that  this  industry  has  latent  possibilities. 

There  are  now  forty-seven  herds  of  reindeer  in  the  territory, 
more  than  half  of  them  being  owned  by  the  Eskimo  herdsmen. 
Regulations  governing  the  control  of  the  herd  were  adopted 
by  the  Interior  Department  in  1907,  and  worked  out  by  W.  T. 
Lopp,  chief  of  the  bureau  in  Alaska,  whose  twenty  years'  ex- 
perience with  the  natives  qualified  him  to  get  the  best  results. 

Nobody  realised  that  the  first  deer  imported  were  destined 
to  become  the  nucleus  of  a  tremendous  industry.  It  was  de- 
sired to  advance  the  civilisation  of  the  natives  from  the  hunting 
to  the  pastoral  stage  and  to  provide  a  food  supply  for  them  to 
take  the  place  of  the  seal  and  whale  blubber  and  the  wild 
caribou,  which  had  been  driven  so  far  north  that  to  many  of 
the  natives  they  were  Inaccessible.  It  is  now  estimated,  by 
men  who  have  studied  the  reindeer  business,  that  within  twenty 
years  a  herd  of  at  least  2,000,000  domesticated,  prime  animals 
shall  have  been  accumulated  in  the  territory. 

Reindeer  can  be  raised  for  the  market  more  cheaply  than 
cattle.  They  thrive  on  tundra  wastes  where  a  goat  or  other 
animal  would  starve,  and  there  are  more  than  300,000  square 
miles  available  for  grazing  lands.  The  reindeer  digs  beneath 
the  snow  In  winter  and  eats  the  moss,  and  In  summer  eats  grass 
and  foliage.  Like  cattle,  they  fatten  on  the  summer  range  and 
grow  poorer  in  the  winter. 

The  reindeer  formerly  was  a  wild  caribou,  having  been  do- 
mesticated by  the  natives  of  Lapland  centuries  ago.  Frequently 
wild  caribou  are  seen  in  the  reindeer  herds,  and  the  govern- 
ment recently  has  established  a  colony  of  natives  who  will  ex- 
periment in  the  domestication  of  caribou  fawns.     It  Is  estimated 


246     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

there  are  3,000,000  wild  caribou  ranging  on  the  barren  lands 
of  the  Mackenzie  River,  and  there  are  many  thousands  on 
Nunivak  Island.  There  also  are  many  large  herds  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Beaver  River. 

While  I  have  misgivings  as  to  the  reindeer  ever  becoming  to 
the  musher  of  Alaska  what  the  camel  is  to  the  traveller  on  the 
deserts  of  Australia  and  Africa,  there  certainly  no  longer  can 
be  any  doubt  as  to  the  animal's  usefulness  as  a  source  of  food 
supply. 

The  reindeer  is  a  good  pack  animal,  under  certain  conditions, 
but,  in  the  presence  of  dogs,  he  is  what  might  justly  be  termed 
"  a  little  flighty."  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of  starting, 
many  years  ago,  from  Nome  to  Candle  Creek,  three  hundred 
miles  distant,  with  an  outfit  that  was  to  have  been  drawn  by 
reindeer.  I  had  been  told  so  much  of  the  many  advantages 
possessed  by  these  animals  over  a  dog  team  —  their  ability  to 
feed  themselves  on  the  moss,  and  hence  the  advantage  of  having 
to  carry  no  food  supply  for  them,  of  their  speed,  their  docility 
and  general  tractability  —  that  I  decided  to  dispense  with  the 
faithful  dog  team  that  had  done  me  good  service  on  many 
former  occasions;  that  had  shared  with  me  the  hardships  of 
the  trail  and  the  contents  of  the  "  grub-box." 

We  loaded  the  outfit  on  the  sleighs,  in  the  back  yard  of  a 
saloon,  and  everything  was  going  merrily,  until  a  pack  of  wolf- 
dogs  came  into  vision.  The  appearance  of  the  canines  was  im- 
mediately followed  by  several  streaks  of  reindeer  splitting  the 
atmosphe^re  across  the  tundra,  and  my  dunnage  was  scattered 
all  the  way  from  Nome  to  the  top  of  Anvil  Mountain. 

In  a  temperature  of  about  thirty  degrees  below  zero,  but 
moderated  somewhat  by  the  warmth  of  the  deer  driver's  pro- 
fanity, we  gathered  the  outfit  up  in  several  different  pieces,  and 
some  of  it  never  was  recovered.  I  had  regarded  myself  as 
being  very  proficient  in  the  use  of  swear  words,  but,  after  lis- 


THE  REINDEER  AS  A  CIVILISER  247 

tening  to  that  deer  driver's  vocabulary,  I  felt  that  I  had  been 
deceiving  myself  and  was  only  the  poorest  kind  of  an  amateur. 
Also  it  caused  me  to  change  my  similes  in  expressing  degrees 
of  profanity,  and  thereafter  I  substituted  "  swear  like  a  deer 
driver  "  for  other  forms  relating  to  dog  mushers,  oxen  drivers, 
mule  skinners,  and  West  Australian  teamsters. 

This  was  my  one  and  only  attempt  to  use  the  reindeer  as  a 
means  of  transportation.  But  prospectors,  who  have  driven 
them  in  both  summer  and  winter,  have  informed  me  that,  when 
the  animals  are  away  from  the  towns  and  the  dogs,  they  make 
the  ideal  beast  of  burden.  They  are  tractable  and  easily 
trained,  and  there  never  is  any  worry  about  their  food  supply. 
They  are  good  travellers,  easily  covering  thirty  and  forty  miles 
a  day  across  country  where  no  trail  has  been  broken  for  them. 
They  rapidly  become  accustomed  to  their  drivers,  and,  if  treated 
with  ordinary  kindness,  show  an  animal-like  reciprocation,  fre- 
quently coming  to  the  tent  and  begging  mutely  for  little  tid-bits 
from  the  camp  table. 

Being  Indigenous  to  the  country,  Nature  seems  to  have  pro- 
vided them  with  a  foot  especially  adapted  to  traversing  land 
covered  with  deep  snow.  They  have  wide  feet,  hollowed  out 
underneath,  and  as  they  do  not  sink  deeply  Into  the  snow,  It  is 
thought  that  the  pressure  of  their  feet  on  the  snow  surface, 
forms  a  cushion  that  prevents  them  from  sinking  in  after  the 
manner  of  a  horse  or  other  hoofed  animal. 

While  the  foot  of  the  caribou  or  reindeer  does  not  in  any 
respect  resemble  that  of  the  camel,  it  operates  In  a  somewhat 
similar  manner.  In  Australia  I  frequently  have  seen  a  train 
of  camels  walk  across  a  desert  and  beat  down  a  trail  almost 
as  hard  as  asphalt,  while  a  man  on  foot  would  sink  to  his  knees 
In  the  loose,  ash-like  sand. 

The  moose  is  enabled  to  overcome  the  snow  conditions  by 
the  long  legs  with  which   it  has  been  endowed.     In   this  con- 


248     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

nection  it  is  worth  noting  that  short-haired  dogs  brought  to 
Alaska,  sometimes  grow,  during  the  winter  season,  a  heavy- 
coating  of  fur-like  material  beneath  their  scant  natural  covering. 

Plymouth  rock  and  other  fowls  with  legs  as  innocent  of 
covering  as  their  mouths  are  of  teeth,  in  their  second  winter  in 
Alaska,  grow  feathers  clear  down  to  the  points  of  their  toes. 

It  frequently  happens  that  the  wild  caribou  associate  them- 
selves with  reindeer.  The  native  herders  near  St.  Michael  in 
1908  lassoed  a  buck  caribou  which  had  intermingled  with  the 
reindeer.  By  placing  a  cow-bell  around  the  animal's  neck  the 
herders  ascertained  that  it  remained  with  the  reindeer  about 
six  weeks.  The  male  caribou  is  larger,  more  slenderly  built, 
and  has  longer  legs  than  a  buck  reindeer.  The  same  year  the 
native  herders  shot  two  large  caribou  bucks  found  grazing 
with  forty  female  reindeer  which  had  strayed  away  from  the 
main  herd  about  three  weeks  previously.  The  caribou  put  new 
blood  into  the  reindeer  herd  and  doubtless  improved  the  breed. 

Wolf-dogs  have  been  a  serious  menace  to  the  management 
of  the  herds  and  also  a  cause  of  friction  between  those  natives 
who  own  reindeer  and  those  who  do  not.  In  recent  years  the 
natives  have  imported  collie  cattle  dogs  from  Scotland  and  in 
some  cases  have  crossed  them  with  malamutes.  These  canines 
soon  become  accustomed  to  deer,  the  products  of  the  cross- 
breeding apparently  retaining  all  of  the  gentleness  and  much 
of  the  sagacity  of  the  collies  and  very  little  of  the  wolfish  pro- 
pensities of  the  malamutes. 

Although  timber  wolves  have  not  bothered  the  reindeer  herds, 
excepting  at  Illianna  Bay,  there  is  some  danger  that  the  deer 
herds  will  not  much  longer  be  immune  from  attack  by  these 
destroyers  of  forest  life.  During  the  past  ten  years  bounty 
hunters  in  British  Columbia  have  driven  the  wolves  into  South- 
eastern Alaska,  where  they  have  practically  annihilated  the 
great  herd  of  red-tailed  deer  which  formerly  ranged  that  sec- 


THE  REINDEER  AS  A  CIVILISER  249 

tlon.  A  law  providing  for  the  payment  of  a  bounty  on  wolves 
in  Alaska  was  passed  by  Congress  in  1912,  and  it  is  probable 
that  bounty  hunters  will  drive  these  predatory  mammals  far- 
ther north,  where  they  will  raid  the  reindeer  herds  which  at 
present  are  left  undisturbed.  Night  herding  of  reindeer  is 
necessary  all  through  the  year  in  Siberia  because  of  the  wolves 
which  infest  that  country.  Should  the  wolves  in  Alaska  be 
driven  from  their  present  habitat,  similar  methods  for  com- 
bating them  will  have  to  be  adopted.  The  reindeer  will  not 
scatter  during  the  winter  months,  but  it  is  necessary  to  watch 
them  at  night  from  October  till  May.  Constant  watching  is 
necessary  during  the  time  there  is  no  snow  on  the  ground,  as 
deer  are  inclined  to  wander  far  afield  during  this  period,  and 
it  is  more  difficult  to  herd  them  during  the  mating  season,  Sep- 
tember and  October,  than  any  other  time.  Under  ordinary 
circumstances  one  man  and  two  or  three  well-trained  dogs  can 
herd  one  thousand  reindeer  without  difficulty. 

With  the  exception  of  a  little  foot-rot,  which  occasionally 
makes  its  appearance,  there  is  no  disease  among  the  reindeer  of 
Alaska  at  the  present  time.  When  the  symptoms  of  this  plague 
of  nearly  all  herbivorous  animals  are  noticed,  the  natives  effect 
a  prompt  cure  by  driving  the  herd  to  drier  pasturage. 

The  principal  practical  uses  of  the  reindeer  to  date  have  been 
to  furnish  food  and  clothing  to  the  natives  and  white  settlers 
and  as  a  means  of  transportation.  Living  solely  on  moss,  in 
the  winter,  the  reindeer  does  not  make  an  ideal  draft  animal 
during  this  season  and  cannot  keep  up  the  strain  of  travel 
longer  than  six  or  eight  consecutive  days.  In  this  respect  the 
deer  is  not  unlike  the  horse  that  is  fed  on  straw  and  hay  only. 
When  the  reindeer  becomes  plentiful  enough  that  relays  can 
be  secured  every  four  or  six  days  from  herds  along  travelled 
routes,  the  animal  will  become  an  important  factor  in  the  trans- 
portation problems  of  the  country. 


250    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Experiments  in  training  fawns  for  draft  animals  are  now 
being  conducted,  the  subjects  of  the  experiments  being  taught 
to  eat  cereals  and  other  solid  foods  as  well  as  moss.  There 
are  at  present  about  25,000  sleigh  reindeer  in  Alaska.  A  most 
striking  illustration  of  the  animals'  use  as  a  source  of  food  sup- 
ply was  made  apparent  in  1897,  when  a  number  of  deer  were 
driven  from  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  to  Point  Barrow,  and 
there  slaughtered  and  consumed  by  more  than  400  starving 
whalers  whose  ships  had  been  caught  in  the  ice  the  previous 
summer. 

The  total  number  of  Alaskan  reindeer  is  distributed  in  herds 
among  twenty-eight  stations  —  eighteen  of  these  being  owned 
by  the  government  and  ten  by  the  church  missions.  The  Lap- 
land reindeer  herders  own  more  than  three  thousand  deer. 
Several  natives,  who  received  payment  in  reindeer  for  work 
performed  at  the  government  stations,  have  become  independ- 
ently rich.  Mary  Antisarlok,  known  as  the  "  reindeer  queen, 
of  Alaska,"  has  a  very  large  herd  at  Golovin  Bay;  while 
Ablakok,  who  lives  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  carries  the  proud 
title  of  "  reindeer  king  "  of  the  section  in  which  he  resides. 

When  the  industry  was  placed  under  the  direction  of  W.  T. 
Lopp,  he  immediately  installed  an  endless  chain  system  of  re- 
warding the  apprentices,  which  has  proved  successful.  Under 
this  plan  a  boy  is  taken  to  the  station  and  taught  the  methods 
of  herding.  His  apprenticeship  lasts  five  years,  during  which 
time  he  receives  $355  in  food  and  clothing  and  upon  his  dis- 
charge he  is  given  a  bonus  of  from  six  to  ten  reindeer,  and  their 
increase  during  this  term,  with  which  to  start  a  herd  for  him- 
self. It  is  estimated  that  within  ten  years  every  Eskimo  fam- 
ily in  Alaska  will  be  represented  by  one  or  more  reindeer  own- 
ers. 

During  his  apprenticeship  each  native  is  instructed,  in  keep- 
ing accounts,  in  marketing  of  reindeer,  and  in  other  practicable 


THE  REINDEER  AS  A  CIVILISER  251 

methods  connected  with  the  industry ;  and  also,  before  he  can 
become  an  owner  of  deer,  the  novitiate  must  become  proficient 
in  the  branches  of  elementary  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic. 

Although  the  natives  are  not  slow  to  adopt  most  of  the 
vices  common  to  the  white  man,  "  reindeer  rustling  "  has  not 
yet  become  popular  amongst  them.  The  natives  are  inher- 
ently honest  and  the  Biblical  injunction  against  stealing  is  rarely 
broken. 

As  the  owner  of  sixty  or  seventy  deer  the  graduate  native 
apprentice  gets  an  abundance  of  outdoor  occupation  which  is 
congenial  to  his  propensities,  and  he  soon  becomes  a  factor  in 
providing  a  safe,  sane,  and  certain,  support  for  future  genera- 
tions of  his  race,  and  a  man  of  standing  in  the  community. 
This  result  costs  the  government  $355.  As  a  practical  indus- 
trial feature  of  public  school  education  there  is  nothing  known 
in  the  world  that  compares  with  it.  It  is  attracting  the  atten- 
tion of  educators  in  all  civilised  countries. 

The  plan  of  making  the  native  of  Alaska  self-supporting  and 
independent  has  many  advantages  over  the  system  of  sending 
Alaskan  native  children  to  the  government  Indian  schools  at 
Carlisle  and  Chemawa  for  a  period  of  from  eight  to  ten  years, 
at  an  approximate  cost  of  from  $1,600  to  $2,000  —  if  they  are 
able  to  live  that  long  in  the  environment  of  the  school  —  to  be 
returned  to  their  own  country,  discontented,  and  in  every  way 
totally  unfitted  to  take  up  the  burden  of  life.  The  Alaska 
Indian  who  has  been  given  a  college  education  is  one  of  the 
problems  of  the  territory.  Lazy,  dissolute,  and  shiftless,  and 
thinking  themselves  too  high  caste  to  associate  with  their  own 
people,  they  become  outcasts  and  pariahs  on  the  various  com- 
munities. 

The  government  does  not  sell  any  female  reindeer  to  either 
white  men  or  natives,  but  at  present  is  planning  to  distribute  all 
of  the  deer  of  its  remaining  herds  during  the  next  three  or  four 


252     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

years.  Stations  will  be  established  on  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
and  on  Kodiak  and  Nunivak  Islands.  The  various  missions 
in  Alaska  have  been  loaned  herds  of  one  hundred  reindeer  for 
a  period  of  five  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  they  have  been 
able  to  build  up  herds  of  their  own  and  to  repay  the  govern- 
ment loan.  The  Moravian  Mission  at  Bethel,  on  the 
Kuskokwim  River,  owns  a  herd  of  nearly  three  thousand  rein- 
deer, and  many  other  missions  own  herds  composed  of  more 
than  one  thousand  animals.  Each  year  the  surplus  male  deer 
are  killed  and  eaten  by  the  native  families  or  sold  to  white  pros- 
pectors. 

The  missions  take  native  apprentices,  teach  them  the  best 
methods  of  raising  the  animals  and,  at  the  end  of  their  period 
of  apprenticeship,  pay  them  their  salary  in  reindeer.  Lapland 
reindeer  herders,  who  were  brought  to  Alaska  to  teach  the  best 
methods  of  reindeer  raising,  are  given  the  same  privileges  as 
are  the  missions.  Already  some  of  the  members  of  this  hardy 
northern  race  have  accumulated  herds  of  nearly  one  thousand. 

The  young  Eskimos  take  to  herding  like  goslings  to  water. 
They  regard  the  work,  not  as  a  labour,  but  as  a  recreation. 
They  readily  learn  to  harness  and  drive  the  deer,  watch  and 
train  the  fawns,  and  to  throw  the  lasso.  Lariat  throwing,  in 
fact,  has  become  one  of  their  favourite  forms  of  amusement, 
and  they  are  far  more  expert  at  it  than  are  the  Laplanders,  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  uses  of  the  "  rope "  before  coming  to 
America. 

As  the  deer  grows  a  new  set  of  hair  each  fall  and  discards  it 
again  in  the  spring,  a  new  method  of  marking  had  to  be  de- 
vised. In  lieu  of  the  branding  iron  a  small  aluminum  button 
is  fastened  to  the  ear  of  each  deer.  All  private  owners  and 
herders  have  their  individual  marks  which  must  be  registered 
with  the  local  superintendent  of  the  reindeer  stations  and  also 
at    Washington.     While    there    is    no    likelihood    of    "  deer- 


^^  BW^BIR^. 


% 


\ 


HERDS  OF  REINDEER  IN  WINTER  PASTIRE— BECHN  AS  A  IMIIL- 
ANTHROPIC  WORK,  THE  GOVERNMENT,  IN  ITS  REINDEER 
INDUSTRY,  POIND  A  LUCRAEIVE  INVES  ENHIN  I" 


THE  REINDEER  AS  A  CIVILISER  253 

rustling  "  becoming  prevalent  in  Alaska,  the  brands  are  never- 
theless necessary  far  identification  purposes. 

The  skins  of  the  reindeer  are  used  for  many  purposes  but 
principally  for  making  clothing.  Reindeer  parkas  and  sleeping- 
bags  have  excellent  qualities  for  resisting  moisture  and  cold, 
and  are  a  boon  to  mail-carriers  and  mushers  who  sleep  out- 
doors in  the  freezing  temperature  of  winter.  The  hair  of 
reindeer  is  not  merely  a  hollow,  tubular  structure  with  a  cav- 
ity extending  through  its  entire  length,  but  is  divided  ofE  into 
numerous  cells,  like  so  many  miniature  water-tight  compart- 
ments in  an  ocean-liner.  These  cells  are  filled  with  air,  and 
their  walls  are  so  elastic  and  have  such  strong  resistance,  that 
they  are  not  broken  up  during  the  process  of  manufacture  or 
by  swelling  when  wet.  The  cells  expand  in  water  and  a  per- 
son clothed  completely  in  reindeer  skins  is  carrying  a  life 
belt,  sufficiently  buoyant  to  prevent  him  from  sinking  should 
he  fall  into  a  lake  or  river. 

Already  the  reindeer  industry  has  placed  many  of  the  na- 
tives above  want  and  most  of  the  missions  in  Alaska  have  be- 
come not  only  self-supporting,  but  are  gradually  gaining  a 
position  whereby  they  will  be  enabled  to  give  a  part  of  their 
revenue  to  similar  institutions.  The  reindeer  grazing  grounds 
in  Alaska  are  practically  illimitable  and,  within  a  very  few 
years,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  government  will  be  in  a  po- 
sition to  throw  the  industry  open  to  whites  and  natives  alike. 

The  reindeer  is  important  to  the  prospector,  not  only  as  ^r 
source  of  meat  supply,  but  as  a  means  of  transportation  through- 
out the  country.  With  ten  head  of  reindeer,  which  number 
one  man  can  manage  single-handed,  each  packing  one  hundred 
pounds  of  food  and  supplies,  prospectors  will  be  enabled  to 
make  journeys  to  places  that  under  other  conditions  are  inac- 
cessible. 

Statisticians  figure  that  within  a  very  few  years,  Alaska  will 


254    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

be  shipping  annually  to  the  United  States,  from  five  thousand 
to  seven  thousand  carcasses,  and  thousands  of  tons  of  delicious 
hams  and  tongues.  The  day  is  within  measureable  distance 
w^hen  big  reindeer  ships  from  Arctic  and  sub-Arctic  Alaska 
will  roll  into  Seattle  and  other  western  cities  as  the  great 
cattle  trains  now  hourly  enter  Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  Long 
before  the  end  of  the  present  century,  Alaska,  from  her  cattle, 
reindeer,  and  agricultural  resources,  will  be  helping  to  feed 
the  two  hundred  million  men  and  women,  whom,  it  is  esti- 
mated, will  then  be  living  within  the  border  of  the  United 
States. 

The  creation  of  this  industry  in  the  far  North  was  not  acci- 
dental, but  the  result  of  patient  study  and  personal  sacrifice. 
Much  time  and  thought  have  been  expended-  upon  it  and  many 
hardships  and  privations  have  been  endured  by  those  connected 
with  it,  and  among  the  many  deserving  a  word  of  credit,  Wil- 
liam T.  Lopp,  head  of  the  Bureau  of  Education,  is  a  prominent 
figure. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD 

Treatment  of  fur  resources  by  United  States  Government  forms  one 
of  the  blackest  marks  in  its  history  —  Unfairness  shown  to  pelagic 
sealers  —  Ruthless  slaughter  decimates  greatest  fishery  wealth 
ever  possessed  by  any  nation  —  Killing  prodigal  to  the  point  of 
recklessness  —  Habits  and  characteristics  of  valuable  mammals  — 
Raising  fur  for  the   market. 

SAILING  a  clumsily-constructed  craft  through  a  North 
Pacific  fog,  Gerassium  Pribilof,  a  Russian  navigator, 
heard  a  strange,  bellowing  sound,  not  unlike  the  bark- 
ing of  a  band  of  dogs.  He  anchored,  and  when  the  fog  cleared, 
he  saw  for  the  first  time  the  islands  which  bear  his  name.  It 
did  not  take  him  long  to  discover  that  the  barking  emanated 
from  male  fur  seals,  the  skins  of  which,  at  that  time,  were  very 
highly  prized  by  the  Chinese,  whose  infinite  patience  had  de- 
vised a  plan  for  plucking  the  long  hairs  that  protrude  from 
the  silky,  glossy  fur. 

Pribilof  made  his  discovery  in  the  summer  of  1786,  at  which 
time  he  was  employed  by  the  Lebedof^  Company,  one  of  the 
many  firms  of  traders  which,  at  that  time,  were  levying  tribute 
upon  the  natives  and  fighting  among  themselves  for  control 
of  the  fur  industry.  Pribilof  named  the  island  St.  George, 
after  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed.  After  landing  his  otter  hunt- 
ers, he  returned  to  Unalaska.  By  the  following  spring  it  was 
generally  suspected  that  he  had  discovered  a  good  thing,  and 
when  he  weighed  anchor,  several  navigators  hoisted  sail  and 
followed. 

During  the  first  season  Pribilof's  hunters  killed  more  than 

255 


256     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

2,000  sea  otters,  more  than  40,000  seals  and  accumulated  nearly 
15,000  pounds  of  walrus  ivory.  The  invading  horde  of  hunt- 
ers killed  with  wanton  recklessness,  hundreds  of  pup  seals  and 
young  otters  being  sacrificed  to  their  greed.  The  Russian- 
American  Company,  by  Imperial  ukase,  later  chased  out  all 
the  small  traders,  but  there  was  no  surcease  of  the  slaughter. 
Some  idea  of  the  size  of  the  seal  herd  at  that  time  can  be 
gained  from  a  statement  made  by  officials  of  the  Bureau  of 
Fisheries  to  the  effect  that,  between  1801  and  1804,  80,000 
seal  pelts  were  accumulated  in  the  Company's  warehouses  on 
the  islands.  Practically  all  of  these  skins  were  spoiled  by 
improper  methods  of  curing  and  were  destroyed. 

The  discovery  enabled  Russia  to  re-open  its  trade  with  China, 
from  whence  the  Romanoffs  had  been  driven  by  the  energy  and 
better  facilities  of  the  British  and  Dutch.  Alexander  Baranof, 
who  became  governor  of  the  territory,  developed  the  trade  into 
a  most  lucrative  one,  and  extended  it  to  California  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  as  well  as  to  China.  But  the  amount  of 
real  profits  from  the  business  probably  never  will  be  known  — 
although,  perhaps,  the  information  might  be  found  buried  in 
the  records  of  the  Russian-American  Company,  now  reposing 
in  the  archives  of  the  State  Department,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 

When  the  territory  was  purchased  by  the  United  States,  the 
most  ardent  advocates  of  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  made  no 
mention  of  the  commercial  value  of  these  islands,  and  Senator 
Sumner  made  no  reference  to  them  in  the  great  speech  which 
decided  the  destiny  of  Alaska.  Hayward  Hutchinson,  repre- 
senting a  number  of  San  Francisco  capitalists,  bought  the  good- 
will and  buildings  on  the  islands  owned  by  the  Russian-Amer- 
ican Company.  He  reached  the  Pribilof  Islands  in  1868,  a 
year  after  the  purchase  was  completed,  and  there  met  Captain 
Morgan,  of  Connecticut,  who,  representing  some  eastern  cap- 
italists, casually  had  drifted  to  that  region  for  the  purpose  of 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  257 

looking  over  its  possibilities  with  a  view  to  investment.  They 
combined  forces,  thereby  making  the  record  of  carrying  out 
the  first  "  gentleman's  agreement  "  in  the  territory.  Through 
the  efforts  of  their  financial  backers,  Congress,  in  1869  passed 
a  law  declaring  the  Islands  to  be  a  reservation,  and  prohibiting 
any  one  from  killing  fur  seals  except  under  certain  restrictions. 
The  following  year  —  on  July  i,  to  be  exact  —  the  Islands 
of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George  were  leased  to  the  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company  for  a  period  of  twenty  years. 

Lying  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  first  island  of  the 
Aleutian  Chain  and  three  thousand  miles  vilest  of  the  main- 
land, the  four  little  rocky  islands,  which,  doubtless  were  thrust 
up  from  the  sea  by  the  subterranean  seismic  disturbance  in 
bygone  centuries,  are  completely  isolated.  For  many  years, 
none  but  the  representatives  of  the  government  and  of  the 
company  holding  the  lease  was  permitted  to  disembark  there. 
Both  of  the  larger  islands  are  composed  principally  of  lava, 
large  chunks  of  pumice  stone  and  other  volcanic  deposits. 

While  there  is  some  doubt  about  the  amount  of  money  made 
by  the  Russians  from  the  seals  on  the  islands,  there  is  no  doubt 
about  the  immense  profits  reaped  by  their  American  succes- 
sors. An  official  paper,  published  in  1 903  by  the  U.  S.  Treas- 
ury Department,  places  the  value  of  fur  seals  taken  from  the 
islands  at  $35,000,000,  and  another  document,  published  in 
1910,  estimates  the  values,  up  to  that  time,  exclusive  of  the 
pelagic  yield,  at  $50,366,757.  This  amount,  added  to  the 
value  of  other  Alaskan  marine  products,  such  as  walrus  ivorj'^, 
salt-water  furs,  whalebone  and  fish,  brings  the  total  aquatic 
yield  up  to  the  magnificent  value  of  $193,562,601  —  roughly 
about  twenty-seven  times  as  much  as  was  paid  for  the  entire 
territory.  And  the  manner  in  which  these  resources  have  been 
treated  by  this  government  forms  one  of  the  blackest  marks  in 
its  history! 


258     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

It  was  in  the  late  '8o's  or  early  'go's  that  the  term  "  seal 
poachers  "  fitted  frequently  in  the  columns  of  the  newspapers 
and  magazines.  A  pelagic  sealer  became  in  the  public  mind 
necessarily  a  thief  and  a  pirate,  just  as,  in  the  present  day,  the 
men  who  discovered  and  gave  to  the  United  States  21,000,000 
acres  of  coal  land  in  Alaska,  have  become  perjurers,  land 
thieves,  grafters,  liars  and  cheats,  all  because  they  asked  the 
privilege  of  buying  32,000  acres  of  the  land,  which  they  found 
in  the  wilderness,  at  $10  an  acre,  as  the  law  provided. 

True,  the  international  tribunal,  sitting  at  Paris  in  1 903, 
decided  that  the  pelagic  sealer  was  neither  a  poacher,  a  thief, 
nor  a  pirate,  and  that  Uncle  Sam's  previous  contentions  as  to 
Bering  Sea  being  an  American  and  Russian  lake  were  abso- 
lutely wrong,  but  by  that  time  the  legitimate  pelagic  sealer 
was  ruined  in  purse  and  reputation.  Never  has  he  been  able 
to  secure  justice  from  the  Government  nor  from  the  public. 

Did  the  great  body  of  the  American  people  receive  any  ben- 
efit from  this?  On  the  contrary,  it,  too,  has  suffered  from  the 
mishandling  of  the  seal  question. 

In  a  recent  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Fisher- 
ies this  statement  is  made: 

"  The  Alaska  fur  seals  constitute  the  most  valuable  fishery 
resources  that  any  nation  ever  possessed.  It  is  a  little  less  than 
a  national  disgrace  that  the  herd  of  four  to  six  million  seals 
which  came  into  our  possession  when  Alaska  was  acquired  from 
Russia,  and  has  been  in  our  charge  ever  since,  should  have  been 
allowed  to  dwindle  until  to-day  it  numbers  less  than  150,000 
of  all  ages." 

The  writer  visited  the  Pribilof  Islands  In  the  summer  of 
19 10  in  company  with  Governor  Walter  E.  Clark,  and  was 
shown  by  an  agent  pictures  of  millions  of  seal  living  on  points 
of  land  that  had  not  a  vestige  of  vegetation  upon  them.  The 
same  places,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  were  covered  with  a  thick, 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  259 

heavy,  rank  grass  and  many  wildflowers.  Before  the  govern- 
ment commenced  to  "  mine  the  seals  under  a  leasing  system  " 
the  pumice  rocks  in  that  locality  were  worn  smooth  and  round 
by  the  movement  across  them  of  many  mammals.  To-day 
those  rocks  are  covered  with  moss  and  buried  in  vegetation. 

For  generations  the  fur  seal  business  of  the  world  has  cen- 
tred in  the  hands  of  a  little  group  of  Londoners.  At  the  head 
of  that  group  is  the  fur-buying  firm  of  C.  E.  Lampson  &  Sons, 
established  some  75  years  ago,  and  continuing  since  then  in  its 
commanding  position.  This  firm  is  said  to  handle  fully  ninety 
per  cent,  of  the  fur  seal  skins  of  the  world.  Through  its  busi- 
ness connections,  it  has  immense  power  financially  in  both  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States. 

By  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  world's  supply  of  fur  seal 
comes  from  the  Pribilof  group  of  islands.  Here  the  seals 
have  their  "  rookeries  " ;  here  their  young  are  born  and  raised 
through  the  trials  of  babyhood.  In  winter  the  herd  abandons 
the  islands  and  slips  away  into  unknown  seas.  Early  in  the 
spring  the  animals  appear  in  droves  far  off  the  coast  of  Oregon, 
gradually  swimming  northward,  arriving  at  their  summer  home 
in  Bering  Sea  about  July  I. 

Promptly  on  the  discovery  of  the  islands  by  Pribilof,  the 
organisation  of  that  parent  of  conservation  forces  which  do  not 
conserve  —  the  Russian-American  Fur  Company,  was  orj^an- 
ised,  and  the  Russian  Government  granted  the  monopoly  of  the 
Seal  Islands,  under  approved  conservation  lease,  to  the  cor- 
poration. 

Killing  was  prodigal  to  the  point  of  recklessness  in  the  early 
days,  but  in  1803  restrictions  were  placed  on  the  annual  catch. 
From  1803  to  1805  no  killing  whatever  was  permitted  on  the 
Island  of  St.  George  and  from  1803  to  1807  the  Island  of 
St.  Paul  was  absolutely  closed  to  the  butchers.  Conservative 
killing  continued  for  some  years,  but  gradually  greed  got  the 


26o     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

upper  hand,  until  in  1830,  the  company  found  the  herd  threat- 
ened with  extinction,  and  grew  still  more  conservative.  But, 
even  at  that,  in  1834  actual  count  showed  that  there  were  only 
"8,118  fresh  young  seals,  males  and  females  together"  left 
alive  on  St.  Paul;  so  the  following  year  it  was  decreed  that 
there  should  be  no  killing  whatever.  The  herd  was  studied 
and  fully  protected  until  1838,  when  iO,00O  were  killed  with 
no  perceptible  harm  to  the  herd.  The  number  was  gradually 
raised  until  6o,cx)0  were  killed  in  1843,  and  this  was  considered 
normal. 

When  the  United  States  took  over  the  territory  in  1867, 
there  was  a  riot  of  slaughter  at  first,  268,000  being  killed  in 
1869.  At  this  point  the  world's  fur  trade  began  to  take  a  hand 
in  the  matter  and  on  March  3,  1869,  the  rookeries  were  set 
apart  as  a  reservation.  The  next  year  the  leasing  system  was 
adopted  in  the  United  States,  and  the  monopoly  of  taking  seals 
on  the  islands  was  granted  to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company 
for  twenty  years,  the  company  agreeing  not  to  take  more  than 
100,000  skins  a  year;  to  pay  $55,000  a  year  rental  and  two 
dollars  tax  on  each  skin. 

To  see  that  the  company  did  not  violate  the  law  the  govern- 
ment stationed  an  $i,8oo-a-year  treasury  department  employe 
on  the  islands! 

In  1890  the  United  States  granted  a  lease  for  the  next 
twenty  years  to  the  North  American  Commercial  Co.,  a  sub- 
sidiary of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  at  a  rental  of 
$60,000  a  year,  a  revenue  tax  of  two  dollars  on  each  skin,  and 
an  additional  charge  of  $7.62^  on  each  skin. 

Under  the  first  lease  the  bookkeeping  methods  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department  showed  a  net  profit  of  $5,738,724,  although 
this  is  one  of  those  purely  fictitious  government  profits,  taking 
no  account  of  overhead  charges,  extra  cost  of  the  naval  and 
revenue  cutter  patrol  and  other  high  expenses. 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  261 

But  not  even  Government  bookkeeping  could  save  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  lease  for  the  second  twenty-year  period.  That 
plainly  shows  a  net  loss  of  $2,247,554. 

As  an  actual  fact,  if  allowance  be  made  for  all  the  elements 
that  should  be  charged  into  the  safeguarding  of  this  monopoly, 
a  showing  of  a  net  loss  of  many  millions  would  result.  And 
we  haven't  got  even  the  seals  left. 

On  June  i,  1910,  the  government  undertook  to  manage  the 
seal  rookeries  itself.  During  each  of  the  two  seasons  since 
it  has  killed  about  12,000  skins,  a  total  of  nearly  25,000. 
These  have  been  sold,  as  ever  before,  to  the  same  old  London 
buyers,  for  there  is  the  market.  The  trade  was  perturbed  when 
it  was  first  proposed  that  the  government  stop  the  leasing  pol- 
icy, and  sought  to  prevent  action  by  Congress,  but  did  not  suc- 
ceed. After  all,  it  has  not  been  so  badly  hurt  as  it  feared. 
The  profits  to  the  general  government  last  year  amounted  to 
$388,189.44.  Under  the  leasing  system  the  number  of  seals 
killed  would  have  given  the  government  a  profit  of  only 
$132,107. 

Then  certain  persons  and  organisations,  including  the  Camp 
Fire  Club  of  America,  began  nagging  the  government  and  al- 
leging that  Uncle  Sam  has  been  killing  pups  as  well  as  mature 
male  seals  in  order  to  supply  the  market  demands.  It  is  only 
fair  to  say  that  while  the  Camp  Fire  Club  proceeded  from  the 
best  of  motives  there  are  indications  that  some  of  the  objec- 
tions made  by  others  to  the  administration  of  the  seal  islands 
were  formulated  not  for  the  worthiest  purpose. 

During  the  forty  years  of  leasing  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment contentedly  and  repeatedly  declared  that  its  lessees 
were  honest,  that  the  government  agents  on  the  islands  were 
infallible  and  that  Uncle  Sam  was  not  being  cheated  in  the 
slightest  degree,  either  in  count  of  seals  killed  or  amount  of 
tax  paid.     The  sublime  "  faith  that  passeth  all  understanding  " 


262     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

characterised  the  attitude  of  the  government  officials  through- 
out. For  years  only  one  $i,8oo-a-year  agent  stood  between 
it  and  fraud.  The  record  shows  there  was  no  fraud.  In  1892 
and  1893  the  annual  catch,  as  officially  reported,  on  the  islands, 
fell  to  about  7,000.  That  was  just  after  the  new  lease,  with 
the  higher  royalty  charge,  went  into  effect. 

In  1889,  when  the  first  lease  was  about  to  expire,  the  offi- 
cial catch  reported  was  102,617. 

But  the  contention  of  the  government,  throughout  the  period 
of  the  lease,  as  expressed  by  its  officers,  ever  was  that  the  grad- 
ual reduction  in  the  size  of  the  herds  was  due,  not  to  reckless 
killing  on  the  rookeries,  but  to  the  pernicious  activity  of  the 
pelagic  or  open-sea  sealers. 

From  time  immemorial  the  Indians  of  the  Washington  and 
British  Columbia  coasts  were  accustomed  to  going  out  in  their 
canoes  after  the  migrating  seals  in  the  spring  and  harvesting 
skins.  About  1885  the  Indians  of  Neah  Bay,  Washington, 
who  were  above  the  ordinary  in  intelligence,  outfitted  their 
own  schooners  and  engaged  in  the  business. 

Presently  white  men  began  to  follow  their  example.  Schoon- 
ers were  outfitted  at  San  Francisco  to  engage  in  the  occupation. 
It  was  a  hardy,  dangerous  life,  containing  every  element  of 
sport  and  fairness.  The  ordinary  schooner  would  carry  from 
six  to  eight  hunters  armed  with  shot-guns  as  a  rule,  though  a 
few  carried  rifles.  Each  hunter  had  a  boat  and  two  boat  pull- 
ers. 

Far  off  shore,  in  some  instances  as  far  as  600  miles  —  for 
the  north-bound  seals  cover  a  wide  extent  of  ocean  —  when 
the  weather  served,  the  boats  would  be  cleared  away  and  spread 
fan-shaped  over  the  water,  ranging  seven  or  eight  miles  from 
the  parent  craft.  And  when  a  storm  came  up,  or  a  thick. 
North  Pacific,  "  pea-soup  "  fog  suddenly  shut  down,  not  al- 
ways did  they  win  their  way  back.     Many  were  the  tragedies 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  263 

of  the  pelagic  seal  trade.  Not  a  season  passed  but  that  some 
boat's  crew  were  lost.  There  is  the  tale  of  the  Sophia  Suther- 
land's crew  and  a  host  of  others  of  like  character,  grim  remind- 
ers of  the  hazard  of  the  life  of  the  seal  hunter,  a  life  that  has 
passed  away. 

The  hunters  naturally  were  picked  men.  The  seal  is  a  shy 
animal  and  the  only  target  he  presents  in  the  water  is  a  head 
about  the  size  of  one's  fist.  Rising  and  falling  on  the  sea  it 
is  an  elusive  mark,  particularly  when  the  platform  from  which 
the  hunter  had  to  aim  was  also  most  unstable. 

But  some  one  —  of  course,  not  the  lessees  —  told  Uncle  Sam 
that  this  was  a  most  vicious  practice,  that  the  pelagic  hunters 
killed  more  females  than  males  and  that  they  were  solely  re- 
sponsible for  the  reduction  of  seal  life  on  the  islands.  Accord- 
ingly Uncle  Sam  frowned  severely  on  pelagic  sealing.  The 
Indians  first  were  put  out  of  business  and  then,  by  new  regula- 
tions, the  industry  was  made  so  difficult  for  Americans  that 
most  of  them  went  to  British  Columbia.  There  the  shrewd 
Canadians  had  already  embarked  in  the  sealing  business. 

Russia,  on  the  western  side  of  Bering  Sea,  has  a  duplicate 
group  of  seal  rookeries,  though  not  so  large  as  those  on  the 
American  side.  When  the  pelagic  sealers  began  to  pursue 
the  seal  into  the  broad  stretches  of  Bering  Sea,  the  Bear 
and  the  Eagle  had  conference  together  and  determined  that 
while  thty  couldn't  reach  the  pesky  Canadian  on  the  Pacific, 
that  they  would  try  to  bluff  him  out  of  the  sea. 

Accordingly,  in  1886,  the  doctrine  was  proclaimed  that 
Bering  Sea  was  a  Russian  and  an  American  lake  and  that  the 
ordinary  law  of  the  three-mile  off-shore  limit  of  jurisdiction 
didn't  "  go  "  there.  They  announced  that  any  scaler  who  en- 
tered that  sea  was  a  poacher  and  subject  to  arrest  and  the  con- 
fiscation of  his  property.  Naturally  one  might  have  expected 
that  the  British  lion  would  roar  over  this.     True,  he  did  roar, 


264     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

but  the  sound  was  as  mellow  as  the  cooing  of  a  suckling  dove. 

As  related  previously,  the  fur  seal  business  is  one  loaded 
down  with  trade  agreements,  and  the  big  London  operators 
had  their  arrangements  with  both  the  American  and  Russian 
lessees.     So  the  British  protest  was  but  mildlj^  perfunctory. 

Then  arose  the  term  "  seal  poacher."  Any  pelagic  sealer  — 
whether  he  remained  outside  of  Bering  Sea  or  went  into  the 
"  grave-yard  of  the  Pacific  " —  was  blazoned  to  the  world  as  a 
poacher.  Schooner  after  schooner  was  seized.  One  was  taken 
even  as  far  south  as  Neah  Bay,  Wash.,  and  held  as  a  seal 
poacher. 

The  only  possible  poaching  would  be  an  attempt  to  land  on 
the  rookeries  and  take  the  seals  there,  but  in  the  ten  years  of  the 
greatest  activity  of  the  pelagic  sealers  not  more  than  four  such 
attempts  were  made. 

According  to  the  theory  of  the  American  and  Russian  Gov- 
ernments —  a  theory  held  to  this  day  —  the  only  proper, 
sportsmanlike  and  humane  way  to  kill  seals  is  to  wait  until 
the  animals  have  hauled  themselves  out  on  the  beach,  a  sanc- 
tuary to  which  they  resort  for  breeding  purposes,  where  they 
have  no  chance  to  get  away,  and  then,  when  the  poor,  harmless 
animals  are  absolutely  defenceless,  bravely  and  intrepidly  beat 
them  to  death  with  a  club. 

Open  sealing  was  a  disgraceful,  unsportsmanlike  butchery! 
The  ethical  way  to  kill  seals  was  to  cut  out  the  bulls  —  and  if  a 
few  cows  slipped  in  accidentally,  perhaps,  it  didn't  matter  much 
—  drive  them  across  the  hills  to  the  slaughtering  grounds,  mak- 
ing them  carry  their  own  skins  to  the  shambles.  What  matter 
that  they  came  ashore  to  raise  their  families  —  for  the  little 
seals  have  a  voice  and  manner  that  is  not  unmindful  of  little 
children  —  there  were  dividends  to  be  paid,  and  those  dividends 
builded  not  one  school,  nor  one  church,  nor  one  library,  nor 
made  one  home   in  Alaska  the  happier  or  more  prosperous. 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  265 

The  bodies  of  the  animals  were  left  to  rot  at  the  places  where 
the  skins  were  taken,  to  breed  pestilence  and  disease.  The 
smell  from  this  decaying  seal  meat,  is  one  of  the  most  unpleas- 
ant sensations  that  my  olfactory  nerves  ever  have  experienced. 
It  can  be  felt  —  or  "smelt" — for  miles,  and  while  I  will  not 
vouch  for  the  truth  of  the  statement,  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  navigators,  when  sailing  through  a  heavy  fog,  steer  their 
course  to  St.  Paul  Island  by  the  smell.  I  often  have  been 
told  of  things  which  "  smelled  to  Heaven,"  and  think  that 
St.  Paul  Island,  after  a  seal  killing,  must  be  one  of  them.  Part 
of  the  carcasses,  in  191 1,  were  salted  down  and  shipped  in 
the  United  States  revenue  cutters  to  the  starving  natives  of 
other  islands.  The  odour  of  carcasses  left  on  the  ground  in 
previous  years,  however,   remained. 

Russia  seized  numerous  American  schooners  sealing  on  the 
Russian  side,  imprisoned  their  crews  and  confiscated  their  ves- 
sels. The  United  States  seized  many  more  Canadian  and 
American  schooners  on  the  American  side  and  meted  out  sim- 
ilar treatment. 

In  1892  it  was  decided  to  submit  the  British  protest  against 
the  American  and  Russian  theory  of  a  closed  sea  —  a  mare 
clausum  —  to  international  arbitration.  To  prepare  for  this, 
American  agents  went  to  Alaska  and  elsewhere  and  took  a  vast 
number  of  affidavits  to  prove  that  90  per  cent,  of  the  seals 
killed  in  the  open  sea  were  females  frequently  with  young. 
Certain  willing  and  mercenary  scientists,  making  but  a  cursory 
examination,  agreed  to  back  up  these  statements.  The  British 
commissioners  —  Baden  Powell  among  them  —  followed  up 
the  trail  of  the  American  agents  and  secured  a  great  mass  of 
counter  affidavits,  in  many  cases  from  the  same  men.  When 
these  counter  affidavits  were  presented  at  the  tribunal  sitting 
at  Paris  the  following  year,  the  American  representatives  were 
confounded. 


266     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

The  United  States  lost  its  case.  The  tribunal  held  that 
Bering  Sea  was  not  a  lake  and  that  the  seizures  had  been  un- 
lawful. However,  as  a  result  of  the  sittings,  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain  and  Russia  entered  into  an  agreement  not 
to  seal  within  sixty  miles  of  the  rookeries.  Thereafter  the 
three  nations  enacted  legislation  to  put  the  pelagic  sealer  out 
of  business.  Thus  the  industry,  so  far  as  those  three  nations 
are  concerned,  perished. 

But  Japan  was  not  a  party  to  the  agreement  and  could  seal 
up  to  the  three-mile  limit  about  the  rookeries.  Accordingly 
the  pelagic  sealing  industry  became  a  Japanese  monopoly.  And 
what  a  ruthless  monopoly!  Undeterred  by  any  law  of  na- 
tions or  humanity,  the  Japanese  raided  rookeries  on  both  the 
Russian  and  American  sides,  laid  off  the  rookeries  to  kill  the 
seals  swimming  out  to  feed  and  conducted  themselves  as 
veritable  pirates.  With  a  gentleness  remarkable  in  contrast 
with  the  treatment  accorded  in  the  past  to  American  sealers, 
the  United  States  government  has  been  most  considerate  of 
the  Japanese  freebooters.  True,  it  confiscated  their  ramshackle 
schooners  when  they  were  caught  within  the  three-mile  limit, 
but  it  treated  the  crews  with  all  honour  and  paid  their  passage 
home. 

The  seal  mother  will  suckle  no  pup  but  her  own,  and  the 
sight  of  hundreds  of  little  seals,  hungry  and  emaciated,  flop- 
ping around  amongst  the  herd  in  search  of  the  mother  to  nur- 
ture them,  nuzzling  at  all  the  females  and  being  driven  off, 
filling  the  air  with  strangely  human-like,  baby  cries,  is  one  of 
the  most  heartrending  things  imaginable.  The  mothers,  which 
have  gone  outside  the  three-mile  limit  to  feed,  have  been  killed 
by  the  Japanese  poachers,  and  the  forfeiture  of  the  mother  life 
means  the  forfeiture  also  of  not  only  the  life  of  the  baby  she 
left  at  home  in  the  rookery,  but  also  of  the  life  of  the  baby  yet 
unborn  that  she  carried  with  her. 


SEAL  COLONY  ON  ST.  PAUL  ISLAND  AND  BABY  SLAL  CRYIXC; 
PITLOrSLY  FOR  ITS  MOTHER.  NO  FEMALE  SEAL  hi  I  US 
PARENT  WILL  SUCKLE  IT 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  267 

Counts  of  the  dead  pups  on  the  various  rookeries  were  made 
in  1908  and  1909.  In  the  latter  year  3,786  baby  seals  were 
found  dead  and  125  in  a  starving  condition.  In  October, 
1908,  more  than  three  thousand  dead  pups  were  found  on  St. 
Paul  Island  alone.  It  was  impossible  to  determine  the  death 
rate  on  St.  George  Island,  because  the  blue-foxes,  which  have 
their  habitat  there,  eat  the  bodies  of  the  young  seals  immediately 
after  death.  Furthermore,  according  to  the  report  of  the  bu- 
reau of  Fisheries,  the  bodies  of  such  pups  as  die  early  in  the 
season  have  almost  disintegrated  by  October,  and  cannot  be 
seen  when  the  count  is  made  late  in  the  fall.  The  increased 
mortality  among  the  young  seals  doubtless  was  caused  by  in- 
creased pelagic  sealing. 

The  seal  is  an  amphibious  mammal  and  is  polygamous  in  its 
habits.  Immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  the  herd  at  the  breed- 
ing grounds,  vicious  battles  are  fought  between  the  developed 
male  seals  for  the  domination  of  the  harems,  and  several  small 
colonies,  composed  of  many  female  seals  and  one  lord  of  each 
harem,  are  formed.  This  leaves  a  large  number  of  robust 
young  male  seals  to  form  colonies  of  their  own,  from  whence 
they  cast  envious — ^and,  perhaps,  amorous  —  eyes  at  the  fe- 
male seals  in  the  harems;  and,  once  in  a  while,  they  make  a 
raid,  when  the  lord  of  the  harem  is  not  looking,  and  endeavour 
to  steal  some  of  the  females.  If  they  are  successful,  they  then 
lay  the  foundation  for  a  harem  of  their  own. 

The  bull  seals  remain  on  the  island  to  domineer  over  their 
various  households  and  multitudinous  better  halves,  and  the 
bachelor  seals  remain  in  the  hope  that  they  will  find  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  foray  on  the  colonies  and  steal  some  of  the 
sultan  seals'  wives.  Bloody  battles  between  the  lords  of  the 
harems  and  the  bachelor  seals  frequently  occur,  with  the  result 
that  many  valuable  skins  are  spoiled  by  the  rending  teeth  of 
the  competitors.     The  mother  seals  swim  out  to  sea  in  search 


268     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  salmon  and  other  food,  and  there  meet  death  at  the  hands 
of  the  Japanese  poachers.  As  a  majority  of  the  seals  killed 
at  sea  are  females,  the  effect  of  the  pelagic  catch  is  felt  di- 
rectly on  the  breeding  herd.  Practically  all  of  the  young  seals 
found  dead  on  the  islands  show  that  they  have  died  of  starva- 
tion. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  term  of  the  lease  held  by  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company,  the  Japanese  poachers  occasion- 
ally raided  the  islands,  and,  a  few  years  ago,  in  a  battle  fought 
between  the  Japanese  invaders  and  the  natives  who  police  the 
island,  eleven  Japanese  were  killed.  In  the  summer  of  19 lO, 
a  Japanse  schooner  was  seized  and  confiscated  by  the  United 
States  revenue  cutters,  and  a  crew  of  forty-nine  poachers  were 
taken  to  Valdez  and  jailed  for  a  period  of  two  months.  The 
same  year,  while  I  was  at  Dutch  Harbor,  five  of  eleven  Jap- 
anese, who  were  in  prison  and  awaiting  deportation,  made  their 
escape  into  the  hills,  but  finally  were  captured.  One  of  the 
escapes  was  a  carpenter  of  the  Japanese  schooner  and  the  cap- 
tain of  this  vessel  requested  U.  S.  Deputy  Marshal  W.  B. 
Hastings  to  loan  him  a  knout  or  cat-o'-nine-tails  with  which  he 
intended  to  administer  to  the  Nipponese  "  chips "  a  public 
flagellation.  The  federal  officer  could  not  speak  Japanese,  but 
by  means  of  the  sign  language  and  some  slight  assistance  from 
an  interpreter,  gave  the  captain  to  understand  that  if  he  wanted 
to  do  any  flogging,  he  would  have  to  perform  his  castigation 
outside  of  the  three-mile  limit. 

In  191 1  Uncle  Sam  held  conference  with  representatives  of 
Russia,  Great  Britain  and  Japan,  and  it  was  agreed  they  jointly 
should  patrol  Bering  Sea  and  that  no  sealing  of  any  kind  should 
be  permitted  within  sixty  miles  of  the  shore  of  any  territory 
controlled  by  any  of  these  countries.  Under  this  treaty  each 
nation  was  permitted  to  kill  seal  in  its  own  territory. 

Congressman  William  Sulzer,  of  New  York,  in  order  to 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  269 

make  the  treaty  effective,  introduced  a  bill  providing  that  a 
certain  number  of  the  bachelor  seals  on  the  Pribilof  Islands 
be  killed  each  year  under  government  supervision,  and  that 
every  ship,  of  whatever  flag,  carrying  sealing  gear,  found  within 
sixty  miles  of  any  port  of  either  American,  British,  Japanese 
or  Russian  territory,  immediately  be  confiscated  and  the  crew 
and  officers  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  or  both.  The 
shameful  manner  in  which  the  herd  had  been  depleted  was 
drawn  to  the  attention  of  Congress  and  a  fight  was  made  to 
stop  sealing  of  any  kind  for  a  period  of  years.  When  the  bill 
passed  the  House,  it  provided  that  all  of  the  surplus  bachelor 
seals  be  slaughtered  and  their  skins  sold  by  the  Government. 

But  about  this  time  a  number  of  Alaskans  were  in  Washing- 
ton endeavouring  to  induce  Congress  to  make  appropriations 
for  the  construction  of  roads  and  trails  in  the  territory,  and 
these  Northerners  suggested  that  Uncle  Sam  might,  with  per- 
fect propriety,  put  back  into  the  territory  in  road  construction 
that  money  which  was  derived  from  the  country's  resources, 
through  the  seal  herd.  Immediately  objection  was  raised  in 
the  Senate. 

"You  can't  improve  on  Nature,"  said  these  Solons;  "and 
the  way  to  preserve  the  seal  herd  of  Alaska  is  to  stop  killing 
seals." 

Somebody,  of  course,  pointed  out  that  the  cattle  rangers  of 
the  Western  States  annually  slaughter  a  large  number  of  male 
bovines  for  market,  and  suggested  that  the  same  principle 
might,  with  advantage,  be  applied  to  the  seal  herds  of  Alaska; 
and  some  naturalists  had  the  audacity  to  suggest  that  in  this 
manner  a  magnificently  profitable  business  could  be  builded  up. 
But  the  thought  that  the  profits  thus  derived  should  be  ex- 
pended in  Alaska  seemed  to  dampen  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
senators  on  this  proposition,  and  when  the  bill  finally  was 
passed  and  signed,  it  provided  that  no  seals  shall  be  killed  on 


270    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the    Pribilof   Islands   until    the   expiration   of   the   year    1922. 

The  history  of  the  sealing  business  to  date,  amongst  other 
things,  shows  that,  following  the  award  of  the  Paris  tribunal, 
the  British  Government  demanded  and  collected  from  the 
United  States  full  damages  for  the  unlawful  seizure  of 
Canadian  schooners  by  American  revenue  cutters.  The  Can- 
adian "  poachers "  were  vindicated  and  paid.  The  United 
States  Government  made  Russia  pay  damages  to  the  outside 
limit  to  the  American  sailors  seized  by  Russian  warships. 

But  those  American  sailors  seized  under  precisely  similar 
circumstances  by  their  own  government!  What  became  of 
them?  They  never  have  received  a  cent.  Broken  in  fortune, 
shaken  of  nerve,  dim  of  eye,  aged  and  heart-sick,  many  of  them 
facing  a  grave  in  Potter's  Field,  they  have  been  beseeching  Con- 
gress for  years  for  permission  to  let  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court  for  the  Ninth  Circuit  hear  and  adjudicate  their  claims, 
but  their  pleadings  have  been  in  vain. 

Until  1908  it  was  contended  by  naturalists  that  the  fur-seal 
never  could  be  raised  in  captivity.  Hundreds  of  pups  had  been 
taken  from  time  to  time,  but  always  they  died  a  few  weeks 
after  their  capture.  Although  apparently  suffering  greatly 
from  hunger,  the  young  mammals  refused  to  eat.  Judson 
Thurber,  a  boatswain  on  the  United  States  revenue  cutter 
Bear,  who  had  sailed  Alaskan  waters  for  twenty  years  and 
had  many  times  made  an  effort  to  rear  seals  to  maturity,  acci- 
dentally discovered  the  secret  of  success.  Poking  his  hand 
into  the  mouth  of  a  pup  seal,  he  discovered  that  the  tongue 
was  fastened  to  the  lower  gum  by  a  ligament.  He  broke  the 
connecting  tissue  and  immediately  the  young  seal  began  to  eat. 
He  tried  the  same  experiment  on  another  pup  with  the  same 
result.     They  were  fed  condensed  milk  and  granulated  fish. 

Thurber  soon  discovered  another  remarkable  peculiarity  of 
the  seal:  namely,   that  they  have  a  decided  antipathy  to  any 


THE  ALASKA  SEAL  HERD  271 

man  who  uses  tobacco.  They  are  the  antithesis  of  the  black 
goat  which  acts  as  the  ship's  mascot  and  is  a  voracious  chewer 
of  the  narcotic  weed.  Not  only  will  they  refuse  to  eat  a  fish 
that  has  been  handled  by  a  tobacco  smoker,  but  they  frequently 
will  attack  him. 

The  fur  seal  Is  almost  as  sinuous  as  a  snake,  and  Its  teeth 
are  sharp  as  needles.  While  it  generally  Is  playful,  it  some- 
times suddenly  stretches  out  Its  body  like  a  striking  adder  and 
makes  a  vicious  snap  at  anybody  within  reach.  In  handling 
seals  Thurber  soon  found  that  It  was  much  safer  never  to  go 
near  them  unless  his  hands  were  protected  with  thick  canvas 
gloves. 

In  1909  Thurber  brought  two  seals  to  Seattle  and  was  In- 
structed by  the  Treasury  Department  to  turn  them  over  to 
the  Bureau  of  Fisheries  at  Washington.  By  this  time  the  ani- 
mals had  learned  to  follow  him  around  the  ship.  Whenever 
Thurber  came  from  below  decks  they  would  begin  to  bark, 
and  if  he  had  a  fish  In  his  hand  they  gave  every  manifestation 
of  delight.  The  seals  rarely  snapped  at  their  captor,  and  he 
handled  and  petted  them  with  Impunity.  The  animals  were 
a  year  old  when  they  reached  Washington.  The  morning 
Thurber  was  leaving  he  received  a  hurry-up  call  on  the  tele- 
phone from  one  of  the  attendants  at  the  aquarium.  The  seals 
had  escaped  from  their  tank  and  were  waddling  around  the 
building.  The  caretaker  attempted  to  capture  one  of  them  and 
received  a  severe  bite  on  the  hand.  Until  the  seals  became 
acquainted  with  their  new  keepers,  they  were  left  severely  alone. 
It  was  discovered  that  the  seal  has  no  preference  for  salt  water. 
Two  tanks,  one  of  salt  water  and  one  of  fresh,  were  placed 
side  by  side,  and  the  animals  gambolled  and  swam  In  the  fresh 
water,  going  Into  the  other  tank  very  rarely. 

In  the  summer  of  191 1  Thurber,  acting  under  government 
instructions,   constructed   a  big   wooden   tank   on   the   revenue 


272     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

cutter  Bear.  Later  he  captured  ten  young  seals  on  Pribilof 
Islands.  By  splitting  their  tongues  away  from  their  lower 
gums,  every  one  of  them  lived  and  was  landed  safely  in  Seat- 
tle. Two  of  these  animals  were  placed  in  Woodland  Park, 
at  Seattle,  and  the  remainder  were  forwarded  to  Washington, 
where  they  were  taken  over  by  the  Bureau  of  Fisheries, 

Thurber  seems  to  have  established  beyond  any  question  that 
the  fur-seal  can  be  raised  in  captivity,  but,  so  far,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  this  can  be  done  at  a  profit.  A  healthy  young 
seal  eats  about  two  pounds  of  fish  per  day,  at  an  average  cost 
of  ten  cents.  At  this  figure  it  costs  $109.50  to  sustain  a  seal 
for  three  years,  the  time  when  its  skin  is  most  valuable.  The 
raw  skins  are  marketed  at  an  average  of  less  than  fifty  dollars 
each.  Perhaps,  if  they  were  placed  in  a  large  lake  from  which 
they  could  not  escape  and  where  a  food  supply  of  fish  could 
be  raised,  the  business  of  seal  farming  could  be  conducted  at  a 
profit. 

Should  fashion  decree  that  seal  skin  garments  shall  be  the 
mode,  the  price  of  pelts  —  because  of  the  suspension  of  killing 
on  the  Pribilof  rookeries  —  will  greatly  advance  during  the 
next  ten  years.  Fox  farming  is  conducted  in  Alaska,  and  it 
may  be  that,  within  a  few  years,  seal  farming  will  be  added  to 
the  many  industries  of  the  territory. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
MODERN  WHALING  ON  NORTHERN  PACIFIC 

Driven  from  their  own  Country  by  new  laws,  Norwegian  whalers  in- 
vade American  waters  —  Bowhead  whale  hunting  in  its  deca- 
dence—  Supplanted  by  modern  methods  which  afford  most  exciting 
sport  in  the  world — The  tragedies  and  phantom  ships  of  the 
Arctic. 

ALTHOUGH  for  many  years  whaling  in  Alaska  has 
been  a  source  of  great  profit  to  those  engaged  in  it,  it 
is  only  within  the  past  two  years  that  the  industry  has 
been  developed  to  its  fullest  fruition.  In  former  times  it  was 
the  custom  for  sailing  vessels  to  enter  the  Arctic  Ocean  where 
they  remained  for  two  or  three  years  before  making  a  full 
catch.  There  only  the  bow-head  or  "  right  "  whale  is  taken. 
The  baleen,  or  bone  which  hangs,  fringe-like,  from  the  upper 
jaw  and  is  used  as  a  strainer  through  which  to  eject  water 
taken  into  the  cave-like  mouth  together  with  shoals  of  fish  and 
sea  animalculae,  has  great  commercial  value,  the  price  running 
as  high  as  three  dollars  a  pound. 

The  development  of  steam  whaling  on  the  Pacific  Coast  is 
largely  due  to  political  activity  in  Sweden  and  Norway,  in 
which  countries  for  more  than  a  century  the  industry  had  been 
conducted  successfully  and  profitably.  A  few  years  ago  a  wave 
of  conservation  swept  over  Scandinavia.  It  was  contended  by 
the  fishermen  that  the  whales  drove  the  herring  close  in  shore 
where  they  easily  were  trapped  in  seines,  and  that  the  killing 
of  the  giants  of  the  sea  allowed  the  herring  to  swim  into  deeper 
water  where  the  catch  was  more  difficult.  Legislation  pro- 
hibiting  whaling   was   enacted   and   many   whaling   companies 

273 


274    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

were    driven    out    of    business    in    all    Scandinavian    waters. 

With  millions  of  dollars  invested  in  ships  and  gear  they 
sought  a  new  field  of  operation.  They  tried  the  seas  around 
the  Orkney  Islands  and  north  of  Great  Britain  without  suc- 
cess. They  sent  their  ships  to  the  African  coast  and  the  south- 
erly portion  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  in  the  vicinity  of  Tasmania 
and  Australia,  with  a  like  result.  Then  they  sought  the  west 
coast  of  South  America  where  paying  stations  were  established. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  the  adventurous  crew  penetrated  the 
North  Pacific  Ocean  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
that  a  highly  profitable  field  was  found.  Here  the  humpback, 
sulphur-bottom  and  grey  whales  never  had  been  hunted,  the 
endeavours  of  the  whalers  in  that  region  having  been  confined 
to  the  bow-head  —  the  leviathan  that  yields  the  bone-like  ma- 
terial that  is  used  in  making  stays  for  high-grade  corsets,  joists 
for  ladies'  collars  and  the  various  arts  in  which  a  tough,  yet 
elastic,  substance  is  required. 

The  Alaskan  whalers,  up  till  a  few  years  ago,  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  value  of  the  humpback  and  sulphur-bottom.  The 
latter  is  the  largest  mammal  on  "  earth  and  its  waters  "  to-day. 
All  of  the  varieties  yield  the  excellent  oil  which,  deodourised 
under  a  recently  invented  process,  makes  the  finest  toilet  soap, 
and  spermaceti,  used  in  compounding  beauty  creams,  is  one  of 
the  by-products.  Occasionally  the  hunters  are  awarded  with 
rich  prizes  in  ambergris.  Fertiliser  is  made  from  the  residue 
after  the  whale  oil  is  extracted. 

Like  the  discoverer  of  the  Pribilof  Islands,  the  pioneer  in 
this  new  whaling  field  soon  found  that  he  was  to  have  many 
competitors.  The  first  factories  established  made  large  profits, 
and  as  a  result  nearly  twenty  companies  commenced  operations 
in  191 1  and  1912,  with  their  headquarters  at  Seattle.  Two 
of  these  firms  operate  floating  factories,  while  another  company 
owns  the  great  ice-breaking  ship,  Kit,  which  has  been  used  in 


WHALING  ON  NORTHERN  PACIFIC        275 

Norwegian  waters  with  great  success.  This  vessel  plys  the 
ocean  adjacent  to  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  an  effort  was  made 
by  the  residents  of  Nome  in  19 1 2  to  secure  the  enactment  of 
legislation  that  would  allow  this  foreign-bottom  ship  to  sail 
between  American  ports  during  the  winter  season  and  carry 
mail  from  Dutch  Harbor  to  Nome,  through  five  hundred 
miles  of  Ice,  thereby  keeping  the  roadstead  open  to  passenger 
and  other  vessels.  The  necessary  permission  to  violate  the 
coastwise  maritime  laws  was  refused  by  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labour,  and  a  bill  providing  for  a  special  con- 
cession to  this  particular  vessel  was  defeated  In  committee. 

Beyond  the  fact  that  the  whale  is  the  biggest  animal  extant, 
little  is  known  about  It.  It  shows  evidence  of  having  lived,  in 
prehistoric  ages,  upon  the  land,  at  which  time  It  probably 
crawled  after  the  manner  of  an  alligator  or  other  saurian. 
When  cut  open  the  four  legs  which  have  become  atrophied 
from  disuse  plainly  can  be  observed.  It  suckles  its  young  like 
a  cow,  but  where  the  calf  Is  born  has  never  been  learned.  Nat- 
uralists place  the  average  span  of  life  for  a  whale  at  a  thou- 
sand years. 

Hunting  the  whale,  if  the  hunter  Is  lucky,  is  a  profitable 
business,  a  single  "  right  "  whale  sometimes  yielding  bone  to 
the  value  of  $10,000.  It  Is  said  by  those  engaged  in  it  to  be 
the  greatest  and  most  exciting  sport  in  the  world.  The  old 
method  was  to  harpoon  the  large  mammal  from  a  dory  or 
whaleboat,  a  float  being  attached  to  the  end  of  the  harpoon 
line,  but  that  plan  of  capture  Is  now  carried  on  only  by  the  na- 
tives of  the  far  northern  coast  and  by  a  few  of  the  white  bow- 
head  hunters. 

Harpooning  these  obese  animals  from  a  small  boat  is  a  dan- 
gerous occupation,  for  not  always  does  the  leviathan  of  the 
Northern  waters  submit  to  the  harpoon  without  resentment ; 
sometimes  It  turns  upon  its  pursuers  and   with  one  flip  of  its 


276    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

mighty  tail,  smashes  the  boat  to  splinters  or  throws  it  high  in 
the  air,  precipitating  its  tormentors  into  the  icy  water.  Unless 
rescued  quickly,  their  death  is  certain,  for  few  men  can  with- 
stand the  freezing  temperature  of  the  Arctic  Sea.  It  is  prob- 
ably for  this  reason  that  few  Eskimos  learn  to  swim.  They 
believe  that  if  they  fall  into  deep  water  there  is  little  hope  of 
escape. 

In  latitudes  north  of  Kotzebue  Sound,  where  the  natives 
engage  in  whale  hunting  —  not  only  as  a  means  of  securing  a 
supply  of  blubber  for  food,  but  also  for  the  purpose  of  collect- 
ing "  bone "  which  they  sell  to  whalers  and  traders  —  it  is 
customary  to  place  a  number  of  ornaments  and  strangely 
marked  pieces  of  ivory  at  the  head  of  the  skin  boat  from  which 
they  do  their  harpooning.  Also  the  shaman,  or  medicine  man, 
of  the  tribe  chants  a  few  songs  and  performs  weird  incanta- 
tions. According  to  the  native  belief,  these  precautions  give 
them  good  luck  and  an  immunity  from  accident.  These  na- 
tives have  a  gift  of  crude  artistry  and  tell  the  stories  of  their 
adventures  in  rude  sketches  etched  in  ivory. 

The  modern  method  of  hunting  the  whale  Is  to  fire  the  har- 
poon from  a  machine  gun,  not  unlike  a  small  cannon,  placed  on 
the  forward  deck  of  a  ship  or  tug.  The  harpoon  carries  an  ex- 
plosive bomb,  which  not  only  gives  the  hunted  animal  a  severe 
sensation  of  shock,  but  also  causes  the  barb-like  instrument  to 
open  after  it  reaches  a  point  deep  in  the  beast's  flesh.  As  soon 
as  the  animal  is  struck  by  one  of  these  bombs,  it  sounds  —  that 
is,  it  dives  to  the  sea-bottom  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
depth  of  the  water  in  which  it  is  located.  That  it  dives  with 
terrific  speed  is  evidenced  in  the  fact  that  quite  often  after  the 
whale  is  captured  and  dragged  to  the  ways  at  the  station  for 
dissection,  it  is  found  to  be  bleeding  freely  from  wounds  caused 
by  the  rock  and  gravel  which  became  imbedded  in  its  head 
when  it  struck  the  floor  of  the  sea. 


WHALING  ON  NORTHERN  PACIFIC        277 

After  sounding,  the  wounded  mammoth  returns  to  the  sur- 
face and  blows  skyward  a  thin  column  of  water  through  the 
holes  in  the  top  of  its  head.  Then  it  makes  a  mad  dash 
through  the  sea,  lashing  the  water  to  a  foam  with  its  colossal 
tail  and  dragging  the  tug  or  other  craft  along  behind  it.  Or- 
ders are  issued  for  full  speed  astern,  but  the  puny  strength  of 
a  gasoline  motor  or  light  steam  engine  is  as  nothing  compared 
to  the  propelling  power  in  the  tail  of  a  wounded  whale.  For 
miles  the  race  continues,  with  the  gigantic  animal  getting 
weaker  and  weaker.  From  time  to  time  as  the  wounded  whale 
arises  to  the  surface  to  "  blow,"  another  harpoon  is  shot  into 
its  quivering  flesh,  and  the  succession  of  concussions  finally 
exhausts  the  monster,  which,  however,  always  can  be  depended 
upon  to  put  up  a  game  struggle  for  its  life. 

Not  infrequently  the  hunter  of  whales  witnesses  a  furious 
battle  between  a  "  killer "  whale  and  a  swordfish.  The 
"  killer "  whale  is  the  most  vicious  animal  in  existence.  It 
swims  with  the  speed  of  a  torpedo,  is  endowed  with  tremendous 
strength,  the  tenacious  courage  of  an  enraged  Hon,  and  the 
savage  ferocity  of  a  wounded  tiger.  This  murderer  of  the 
seas  is  said  to  be  able  to  kill  anything  that  swims.  Even  a 
polar  bear  will  refuse  to  give  it  battle,  and  whalers,  Caucasian 
and  Eskimo  alike,  leave  it  severely  alone.  It  attacks  on  the 
slightest  provocation  and  sometimes  provocation  is  not  neces- 
sary to  arouse  its  brutal  and  destructive  instincts.  It  fights 
with  teeth  and  tail,  and  in  its  conflicts  with  the  swordfish  it 
curves  and  turns  for  fresh  attacks  with  lightning-like  rapidity. 

Many  are  the  tales  of  vicissitude  that  have  come  out  of  the 
Arctic;  many  are  the  lives  that  have  been  sacrificed  in  this 
industry  —  some  of  them  wantonly.  Bowhead  whaling  is  a 
hard  life,  full  of  danger,  hardship  and  privation.  The  ships 
stay  out  for  two  and  three  years,  and  not  always  do  they  get 
back  with  a  full  crew.     Shocking  tales  of  the  brutality  of  the 


278     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

officers  and  crews  of  these  vessels  have  been  told,  and  many  of 
them,  unfortunately,  are  only  too  true. 

"  There's  never  a  law  of  God  or  man  runs  north  of  fifty- 
three,"  is  a  favourite  quotation  of  whaling  captains.  With 
crews,  oftentimes  recruited  —  maybe  shanghaied  —  from  the 
slums  of  the  waterfront,  the  captain  must  be  a  law  unto  him- 
self and  is  compelled  to  rule  his  men  with  a  hand  of  iron. 
When  the  vessel  goes  into  winter  quarters  in  the  Arctic,  where 
the  sun  is  not  seen  for  a  period  of  six  weeks,  all  of  the  arms, 
marlin  spikes,  capstan  bars  and  everything  that  can  be  utilised 
as  a  weapon  is  carefully  removed  to  the  officers'  quarters  on  the 
ship. 

Isolated  from  the  world,  in  an  inhospitable  climate,  living 
on  the  coarsest  food,  without  recreation,  and,  worse  than  all, 
without  the  light  of  the  sun,  the  sailors  soon  become  discon- 
tented, irritable,  quarrelsome  and  ready  to  mutiny,  with  or 
without  justification,  at  a  moment's  notice.  Frequently  mu- 
tinies have  occurred  with  disastrous  results,  as  many  silent  and 
lonely  graves  on  Herschell  Island  and  the  mainland  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River  testify.  Many  of  these 
emeutes,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  were  distinctly  justifiable. 

The  first  bowhead  whale  was  captured  in  Bering  Sea  in 
1848.  A  few  years  later  there  were  nearly  100  vessels  in 
Arctic  waters,  and  as  the  animals  were  driven  farther  and 
farther  North  the  hunters  followed. 

The  first  disaster  to  the  Pacific  whaling  industry  occurred 
in  1865  when  the  rebel  cruiser  Shenandoah,  commanded  by 
Captain  Waddell,  entered  the  Oskosh  Sea  and  began  to  destroy 
the  fleet.  Some  of  the  ships  were  driven  into  the  ice  floes, 
from  which  not  all  of  them  returned.  Many  vessels  were  de- 
stroyed, four  were  bonded  by  the  rebel  commander,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  of  the  sailors,  taken  from  craft  that  had  been 
scuttled  or  set  afire,  were  sent  back  to  the  United  States.     The 


WHALING  ON  NORTHERN  PACIFIC        279 

loss  in  ships  and  w  halebone  was  estimated  at  more  than  $2,000- 
000. 

The  next  big  disaster  occurred  in  1 87 1  when  a  fleet  of 
thirty-seven  ships  were  caught  in  the  ice.  Several  of  the  ves- 
sels were  driven  by  the  floes  onto  the  shoals  near  Icy  Cape  and 
wrecked.  One  was  crushed  to  splinters  between  big  bergs 
and  two  were  carried  away  in  the  solid  drifting  fields.  Early 
in  the  fall  the  whole  ice  pack  began  to  settle  towards  the  north- 
east, carrying  the  thirty-seven  imprisoned  vessels  with  it.  A 
consultation  of  captains  was  held  and  it  was  decided  to  take 
to  the  whaleboats.  Twelve  hundred  men  and  a  few  women 
embarked  in  these  small  craft,  dragging  them  across  the  hum- 
mocks and  rowing  them  across  the  channels  of  open  water. 
After  suffering  much  hardship  and  privation,  the  party  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  the  southern  edge  of  the  pack  where  they 
were  taken  aboard  the  seven  ships  that  had  not  been  caught. 
They  reached  Honolulu  without  the  loss  of  a  single  life.  Two 
of  the  missing  ships  were  found  the  following  year,  one  was 
saved,  the  other  had  been  crushed  like  an  egg-shell  between 
gigantic  ice-floes.  The  remaining  vessels  never  were  seen 
again.     The  loss  was  more  than  $3,000,000. 

One  of  the  greatest  tragedies  of  the  North  occurred  in  1876. 
The  ice  came  down  early  in  August  and  thirty  vessels  were 
imprisoned.  It  was  decided  to  make  for  the  shore  in  whale- 
boats,  but  seventy  men  refused  to  acquiesce  in  this  agreement, 
preferring  to  trust  their  lives  to  the  chance  of  the  ships  getting 
clear  the  following  spring  rather  than  facing  death  on  the 
blizzard-swept  ice  plain.  Those  seventy  men  and  thirty  ships 
disappeared  in  the  great  maw  of  the  Arctic  and  never  a  trace 
of  them  has  been  seen  since.  The  crowd  of  men  and  three 
women  who  started  for  shore  endured  fearful  hardships,  many 
of  them  dying  on  the  way. 

By  agreement  It  had  been  decided  that  those  who  could  not 


28o    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

keep  up  with  the  procession  —  hauling  the  boats  across  the  ice, 
rowing  them  across  the  open  leads  and  using  them  to  bridge 
crevasses  —  should  be  left  to  their  fate. 

I  never  shall  forget  the  horror  of  the  tale  of  that  trip  as  it 
was  told  to  me  by  an  old  Arctic  whaler  named  Brody,  who 
was  a  mate  on  one  of  the  vessels.  He  became  snow-blind  and 
guided  himself  by  tying  his  hand  to  a  buckskin  thong,  the 
other  end  of  which  was  made  fast  to  one  of  the  boats.  With 
the  party  was  a  boy  about  twelve  years  old  to  whom  Brody 
was  much  attached.  The  little  fellow,  although  demon- 
strating superb  courage,  soon  become  exhausted.  For  many 
weary  miles  he  was  carried  by  his  snow-blinded  comrade,  who 
stumbled  and  staggered  over  the  ice  hummocks,  partly  from 
semi-blindness  and  partly  from  exhaustion. 

In  one  of  the  brief  respites  taken  by  the  party  Brody  laid 
the  little  fellow  down  to  rest,  but,  blinded  by  the  glare  of  the 
snow,  he  could  not  find  him  when  the  journey  was  resumed. 
Before  he  had  gone  one  hundred  yards  he  heard  his  little  com- 
panion, deserted  and  left  to  die  alone  on  the  wintry  waste, 
crying  for  help.  He  tried  to  wrench  himself  from  the  life 
boat  to  go  back,  but  others  prevented  him.  Then  he  realised 
that  —  snow-blinded  as  he  was  —  if  he  left  the  party  he  never 
would  be  able  to  win  his  way  back,  and,  with  the  child's  cry 
for  help  ringing  in  his  ears,  he  continued  on  his  painful,  stum- 
bling way.  He  said  he  heard  that  soul-racking  cry  in  his  sleep 
for  many  years  afterwards. 

Weary,  exhausted,  nearer  dead  than  alive,  with  many  of 
their  number  missing,  the  party  reached  the  land  four  days 
after  leaving  the  ship.  Every  hour  of  the  journey  had  been 
filled  with  horror.  Later  the  wind  blew  the  ice  from  the  shore 
and  they  made  their  escape  to  Point  Barrow  where  they  re- 
mained till  the  following  spring,  and  there  one  of  them  in 
(I911,  was  still  waiting,  in  the  hope  that  they  will  find  some 


WHALING  ON  NORTHERN  PACIFIC        281 

trace  of  the  thirty  gallant  vessels  and  seventy  shipmates  they 
left  behind,  never  to  see  them  again. 

Stories  of  phantom  ships  held  fast  in  the  ice  are  brought 
down  from  the  northeasterly  shores  of  the  Arctic  from  time  to 
time  by  Eskimos,  and  it  may  be  that  some  of  the  vessels,  with 
the  frozen  forms  of  many  men  lying  on  tiieir  decks,  are  still 
floating  hither  and  3^on  at  the  mercy  of  wind  and  tide  in  that 
circling  ice  field,  more  than  six  thousand  miles  in  circumfer- 
ence, that  surrounds  the  North  Pole. 

Another  disaster  occurred  in  1897,  when  more  than  forty 
vessels  were  cut  off  by  the  ice  at  Point  Barrow  and  several  of 
them  were  reduced  to  kindling  by  the  impact  of  colliding  ice 
fields.  Government  aid  was  sent,  Captain  E.  P.  Bertholf, 
Dr.  S.  J.  Call  and  Lieutenant  D.  H.  Jarvis,  officers  of  the 
U.  S.  Revenue  Cutter,  Bear,  driving  reindeer  from  St.  Michael 
to  their  relief.  Prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  rescuers,  however, 
the  whalers  had  killed  a  number  of  caribou,  which,  with  the 
supply  of  food  already  on  hand,  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
sustain  them  till  the  following  spring. 

In  connection  with  this  disaster  Captain  George  F.  Tilton 
made  one  of  the  most  remarkable  journeys  in  the  annals  of 
Alaska  travel.  With  a  dog  team,  he  mushed  from  Point  Bar- 
row to  Katmai,  a  distance  of  more  than  3,000  miles,  over  an 
unbroken  trail,  and  then  rowed  eighty  miles  across  Shelikof 
Strait  to  Kadiak,  in  order  to  send  news  of  the  disaster  to  the 
civilised  world. 

The  life  of  the  whaler  in  the  early  days  was  one  of  constant 
danger,  and  conspicuous  among  the  dramatic  events  in  whaling 
history  is  the  looting  of  a  schooner  by  natives  at  Cape  Prince 
of  Wales  and  of  their  punishment  a  few  w^eks  later  when 
they  attempted  to  seize  the  whaling  brig  William  H.  Allen, 
commanded  by  Captain  Giley.  Nearly  one  hundred  natives 
boarded  the  brig  from  skin  boats,  and  in  the  fight  on  the  decks 


282     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

that  followed  their  attempt  to  seize  the  vessel,  more  than  half 
of  them  were  killed.  One  white  man  fell  a  victim  to  knife 
stabs  and  three  others  were  wounded.  When  the  natives  real- 
ised their  plan  to  capture  the  ship  was  doomed  to  failure,  many 
of  them  jumped  overboard  and  were  drowned. 

Another  disaster  in  which  three  ships  were  lost  occurred  in 
1896. 

The  day  of  the  whaler  in  the  Arctic  is  passing.  The  great 
bowhead  whale  slowly  is  disappearing.  It  has  been  driven 
farther  and  farther  north.  Perhaps  in  the  ice  around  the 
north  pole,  which  ships  dare  not  enter,  and  where  the  explo- 
sive bomb  of  the  white  man  and  the  harpoon  of  the  native  can- 
not disturb  its  peaceful  existence,  it  has  found  a  haven  of  refuge. 

The  industry  of  bowhead  whaling,  in  which  millions  of  dol- 
lars have  been  invested,  and  millions  in  profits  have  been  made, 
is  in  its  decadence.  It  is  being  replaced  by  the  newer  industry, 
in  which  the  products  of  the  formerly  despised  humpbacks  and 
other  varieties  are  converted  into  marketable  commodities. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET 

Fox  breeding  a  precarious,  yet  profitable  industry  —  Going  into  vol- 
untary exile,  sometimes  for  more  than  a  year  at  a  time,  ranchers 
lead  life  of  solitude  —  Interesting  animal  farm  on  Middleton 
Island  —  Others  on  Yukon  and  Tanana  Rivers  —  Raising  foxes 
on  Copper  River  —  Fish,  birds,  seal  and  potatoes  form  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Reynard's  bill-of-fare. 

TO  the  person  who  finds  charm  In  solitude,  fox  farm- 
ing in  Alaska  is  an  ideal,  and,  sometimes,  a  profita- 
ble vocation.  "  Man  is  a  gregarious  animal," 
Disraeli  said,  but  he  certainly  did  not  have  the  fox  farmers 
of  Alaska  in  mind  when  he  made  this  generalisation. 

Although  not  misanthropists,  these  fox  farmers  lead  a  life 
of  perfect  isolation.  They  are  ruralists  in  the  extremest  de- 
gree. "  The  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  forgot,"  they  are 
the  most  exclusive  people  on  earth.  Neighbourliness,  compan- 
ionship, fraternity,  to  them  are  unknown  quantities.  The 
"  company  "  on  their  islands  is  generally  limited  to  two  per- 
sons, and  in  some  places  the  fox  rancher  lives  absolutely  alone. 
The  social  conditions,  opportunities  for  interchange  of  thought 
and  other  amenities  of  life  certainly  are  not  extensive.  The 
nun  who  takes  the  veil  leads  a  life  of  gay  social  intercourse 
compared  to  the  fox  farmers  of  the  North.  Theirs  is  a  life 
of  loneliness,  ostracism,  exile,  desolation. 

There  are  many  fox  ranches  in  the  great  country  north  of 
British  Columbia,  both  in  American  and  British  territory,  but 
the  greater  number  are  situated  on  the  isolated  islands  of  the 
Aleutian  Peninsula,  where  ships  call  but  once  a  year  or  so  and 
sometimes  not  that  often;  where  newspapers  a  year  or  more 

283 


284    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

out  of  date  are  read  with  eagerness.  There  are  fox  farms  on 
the  Yukon  River,  a  small  one  on  the  Tanana  River;  and  a 
ranch,  upon  which  it  is  proposed  to  raise  marten  for  the  fur 
market,  has  been  located  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Copper 
River.  Marten  farming,  however,  may  truly  be  said  to  be 
in  its  infancy.     In  fact,  it  is  only  in  the  experimental  stage. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  fox  farms  in  Alaska  is  located 
on  Middleton  Island,  about  125  miles  from  Valdez.  It  was 
established  more  than  twenty  years  ago  by  P.  D.  Temple  and 
subsequently  passed  into  the  hands  of  Thomas  Vesey  Smith, 
who  was  known  as  "  Middleton  Island  "  Smith,  in  order  to 
distinguish  him  from  "  Kayak  Island  "  Smith,  a  trader  who 
lived  near  Controller  Bay.  This  farm  is  now  owned  by  Tim 
Marcum,  and  is  operated  by  a  native  and  his  wife. 

The  island  is  seven  miles  long  and  approximately  a  mile 
and  a  half  wide.  "  Lonesomeness  "  nor  any  other  word  ade- 
quately can  describe  .the  conditions  that  there  exist.  At 
widely  separated  intervals  —  perhaps  of  two  or  three  years  — 
whaling  vessels  call,  and,  once  in  a  while  the  ranch  is  raided 
by  Japanese  poachers.  About  ten  acres  of  land  has  been  culti- 
vated in  potatoes,  most  of  which  are  fed  to  the  foxes.  These 
tubers,  together  with  rice,  corn  meal,  fish  and  seal  oil  during 
the  winter,  and  birds'  eggs  during  the  summer,  form  the  food 
supply  for  the  two  hundred  or  more  foxes  that  live  in  the 
burrows. 

Except  in  December,  when  the  trapping  is  done,  the  animals 
are  tame.  As  each  Mrs.  Reynard  raises  from  five  to  seven 
young  foxes  each  year,  only  the  males  are  killed.  The  skins  are 
in  prime  condition  when  the  animals  are  one  year  old.  The 
pelts  in  19 1 2  brought  an  average  price  of  forty-two  dollars  each. 
But  for  the  depredations  of  Japanese  poachers,  who  slaughter 
males  and  females  alike,  there  now  would  be  a  large  number 
of  animals  in  the  burrows.     These  forays  are  -always  timed  to 


RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET  285 

coincide  with  the  absence  of  the  caretaker,  who  must  leave  the 
island  once  a  year  to  obtain  provisions. 

The  island  is  the  summer  nesting  ground  of  countless  thou- 
sands of  sea-birds,  and  these  add  variety  to  Mrs.  Reynard's 
daily  bill  of  fare.  Foxes  apparently  find  the  eggs  of  gulls 
a  great  delicacy,  for  they  hunt  for  them  assiduously.  Gulls, 
themselves,  by  the  way,  prey  on  the  sea-parrots  that  nest  on 
the  island. 

During  a  comparatively  recent  volcanic  eruption  on  the  Alas- 
kan peninsula,  when  the  top  was  blown  off  Mount  Katmai,  the 
island  was  covered  with  volcanic  ash  to  a  depth  of  about  four 
inches,  but  this  did  not  damage  the  potato  patch  nor  do  any 
apparent  injury  to  the  fox  crop. 

Along  the  waterways  in  the  interior  of  Alaska,  fox  farming 
is  developing  rapidly,  a  large  number  of  skins  being  marketed 
each  year.  More  fortunate  than  the  islanders,  the  men 
engaged  in  this  coming  industry  in  the  interior,  alwa3'S  catch 
their  crop  after  it  grows.  They  manage  their  farms  on  much 
the  same  principle  as  a  poultry  farm  is  conducted.  Unlike  the 
foxes  on  the  island,  the  interior  Reynards  are  not  compelled  to 
"  rustle "  most  of  their  own  food,  and,  therefore,  are  more 
easily  caught  when  the  season  for  harvesting  the  fur  commences. 

George  Armstrong  has  a  small  fox  ranch  near  White  Horse, 
on  the  Yukon,  where  he  raises  the  silver-grey  and  black  species. 
Sometime  ago  one  of  the  blacks  escaped  by  gnawing  a  hole 
through  the  wire  netting  enclosure.  Its  skin  was  worth  from 
five  hundred  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  A  reward  of 
two  hundred  dollars  was  offered  for  its  return  alive,  and 
promptly  every  Indian  and  many  palefaces  went  on  a  still  hunt. 
A  young  Indian  sighted  a  bushy  tailed  animal  several  miles  down 
the  river,  and  set  traps  for  it,  freely  distributing  thereabouts 
the  kind  of  food  it  had  been  accustomed  to  eating.  The  fugi- 
tive never  had  been  compelled  to  depend  on  its  own  resources 


286    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

or  initiative  and  had  not  developed  the  cunning  of  its  brothers 
who  live  on  the  islands  and  in  the  forests.  It  fell  an  easy 
victim  to  the  wily  Indian. 

Silver-grey,  black,  red,  Arctic,  and  red  and  silver-grey  cross 
foxes  are  being  raised  on  the  Tanana  and  Yukon  in  many 
places,  in  some  instances  the  animals  being  cared  for  by  the 
women  of  the  family,  like  so  many  chickens. 

On  St.  Paul  and  George  Islands  fox  farming  has  been 
carried  on  under  government  supervision  for  many  years. 
When  the  seals  were  taken  over  by  the  government.  Uncle 
Sam  fell  heir  to  the  foxes  that  live  on  the  islands.  The  net 
proceeds  from  the  skins  in  1910  was  approximately  twenty 
thousand  dollars. 

For  many  years  past  fox  trapping  has  been  a  source  of 
revenue  to  the  natives  on  Pribilof  Islands.  In  1909,  there 
was  a  large  falling-off  in  the  number  trapped.  This  was  not 
due  to  a  diminution  of  the  herds  —  if  that  word  "  herd  "  cor- 
rectly may  be  used  —  but  to  an  invasion  of  millions  of  sea- 
quail,  which,  apparently  suffering  from  some  plague  of  disease, 
fell  upon  the  beaches  in  countless  thousands  or  were  washed 
up  from  the  sea.  The  birds  were  devoured  by  the  foxes,  and 
so  long  as  the  migration  lasted,  it  was  impossible  to  induce  the 
animals  to  go  anywhere  near  a  trap. 

The  foxes  on  these  islands  are  fed  salted  cod  and  salmon, 
which  they  do  not  eat  readily,  unless  a  little  seal-meat  be 
mixed  with  it.  Mrs.  Fox  finds  that  seal-meat  adds  piquancy 
to  her  menu,  and  frequently  during  the  summer  months,  she 
makes  a  foray  on  the  deserted  pup-seals  in  the  rookeries.  Dead 
seal-pups  are  also  consumed  by  the  foxes.  Mr.  Reynard  pre- 
fers killing  his  own  food,  and  so  long  as  the  living  young  seals 
are  available,  during  the  summer  months,  most  of  the  seal- 
meat  left  out  for  food  remains  untouched. 

Foxes  begin  to  change  and  lose  their  fur  late  in  February 


RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET  287 

and  early  in  March,  according  to  latitude  and  climatic 
conditions,  and  sometimes  they  become  afflicted  with  mange. 
Should  the  weather  become  very  cold  after  the  fur  has  been 
shed,  their  ranks  are  decimated.  Denuded  of  their  natural 
protection,  they  have  little  chance  to  survive  a  northern  bliz- 
zard. 

The  Pribilof  Island  foxes  are  caught  in  immense  box  traps, 
the  best  animals  being  saved  for  breeding  purposes,  and  the 
balance  killed  for  the  fur.  No  male  weighing  less  than  ten 
pounds  is  killed.  No  lame,  blind,  or  badly  coloured  fox  is 
allowed  to  live.  Many  of  the  foxes  on  the  island  do  not  pass 
through  the  traps,  and  many  of  them  have  been  seen  without 
brands.  These  unbranded  animals  are  bred  in  remote  parts 
of  the  islands  and  they  keep  out  of  the  paths  of  the  Indian 
caretakers.  The  money  for  which  the  skins  are  sold  is  turned 
into  a  government  fund  and  reimbursed  in  buying  food  for 
the  natives  living  on  the  island. 

The  foxes  on  St.  Paul  Island,  one  of  the  Pribilof's,  do 
not  take  kindly  to  hand  feeding,  and  for  this  reason,  their 
increase  is  not  rapid.  Salmon,  sea-lion  meat,  and  seal  car- 
casses, are  thrown  to  them  from  time  to  time,  but  few  of  them 
eat  it.  A  scourge  of  disease  killed  many  in  1903,  and  since 
that  time  the  increase  has  been  very  slow. 

Captain  Otto  W.  Carlson,  a  former  agent  of  the  Alaska 
Commercial  Company,  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  to 
attempt  the  domestication  of  foxes.  He  leased  an  island  near 
Unga,  and  for  several  years  attempted  to  raise  these  animals 
for  the  fur.  Silver  fox  skins  at  that  time  were  worth  as 
high  as  $1,000  each.  Carlson  conceived  the  idea  of  raising 
them  in  captivity.  He  tried  to  produce  the  valuable  silvery 
pelts  by  crossing  white  and  blue  foxes,  but  finally  gave  it  up, 
and  went  in  exclusively  for  the  blues. 

Because  it  cannot  be  imitated,  the  pelt  of  the  silver-grey  fox 


288     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

has  a  remarkable  value,  the  price  ranging  to  as  high  as  $2,500 
each.  A  pair  of  silver-greys  for  breeding  purposes  is  readily 
saleable  at  $5,000.  Save  at  the  tip  of  the  tail,  the  colour  of 
the  fur  is  black,  w^hile  around  the  hips  is  found  the  silver-grey 
band  which  gives  the  fur  its  great  value.  The  hairs,  at  the 
root  and  tip,  are  black,  but  between  these  two  points,  it  is 
grey.  This  vari-colouring  produces  the  beautiful  sheen  which 
it  is  impossible  for  experts  to  imitate.  The  bidding  on  the 
London  market  at  the  four  annual  sales  is  always  spirited  when 
silver-grey  foxes  come  under  the  hammer.  Silver-greys  are 
said  to  have  been  successfully  raised  on  a  fox  farm  at  Wyoming, 
Ontario,  by  T.  L.  Bowerman,  who  expended  many  thousands 
of  dollars  before  he  achieved  success. 

P.  D.  Temple,  about  twenty  years  ago,  commenced  fox  farm- 
ing on  Middleton  Island.  In  1903  he  sold  out  to  Thomas 
Vesey  Smith,  a  former  sea-captain,  and  his  partner,  Hans  Ger- 
manson. 

There  is  very  little  timber  on  the  island,  the  total  of  devel- 
oped trees  being  thirteen  of  the  spruce  variety.  The  island 
is  covered  with  heavy  grass,  and,  as  in  many  other  places  in 
Alaska,  wild  strawberries,  wild  rhubarb,  wild  celery,  salmon 
berries,  and  other  fruits  and  vegetables,  grow  in  profusion. 
Smith  and  his  partner  found  a  very  small  cabin  on  the  island, 
which  had  been  erected  by  their  predecessor.  Being  a  tall 
man,  Smith  cut  a  hole  through  the  side  of  the  shack  to  let  his 
feet  through  when  he  stretched  full  length  in  his  bunk,  and 
then  built  a  projecting  covering.  For  two  years  they  lived 
on  the  island,  and  then,  to  his  horror  and  dismay.  Smith 
discovered  that  his  partner  was  afHicted  with  insanity.  In- 
sisting that  somebody  on  the  island,  unseen  by  Smith,  was  try- 
ing to  poison  him,  Germanson  refused  to  eat.  Later  he  be- 
lieved that  other  sinister  persons  were  lying  in  wait  to  murder 
him.     Smith  had  a  problem  on  his  hands.     He  had   to  feed 


RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET  289 

the  foxes,  attend  to  the  crops  of  potatoes,  and  the  work  of 
running  the  ranch.  He  was  afraid  to  sleep  for  fear  that  his 
partner,  who  w^as  developing  homicidal  mania,  would  do  him 
bodily  harm  and  thus  imperil  both  of  their  lives. 

After  this  fearful  condition  had  continued  for  two  months, 
Smith  managed  to  attract  the  attention  of  a  passing  schooner 
by  which  he  sent  \vord  to  friends  in  Valdez,  telling  them  of 
his  predicament.  Three  months  later  help  arrived.  Ger- 
manson  had  become  violent,  and  great  diplomacy  had  to  be 
used  in  inducing  him  to  embark  on  the  vessel  bound  for  the 
mainland.     He  died  a  few  months  later  at  Juneau. 

From  that  time  Smith  lived  alone  on  the  island,  leaving  it 
once  a  year  in  his  Columbia  River  fishing-boat  and  going  to 
Valdez  for  supplies.  He  usually  left  enough  food  to  sustain 
his  foxes  for  ten  days.  After  passing  a  day  or  two  in  Valdez 
visiting  friends,  he  would  embark  again  for  his  solitary  home 
in  the  North  Pacific,  where  he  would  remain  until  the  follow- 
ing year. 

But  Smith  was  not  without  his  daily  papers.  On  each  an- 
nual visit  to  Valdez  he  secured  a  j^ear's  file  of  the  Philadelphia 
Ledger,  which  had  accumulated  at  the  postoffice  during  his 
voluntary  exile.  He  read  one  of  these  papers  every  morning 
after  breakfast,  and  enjoyed  it,  he  said,  just  as  much  as  though 
he  were  back  in  the  Eastern  States  and  the  news  had  been  pub- 
lished that  day. 

Yet  Smith's  life  was  not  without  incident  and  action.  On 
one  occasion,  he  found  on  his  return  from  Valdez,  that  the 
land  whereon  he  was  "  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed  "  had  been 
raided  by  a  Japanese  poacher  during  his  absence,  many  of  his 
foxes  killed,  and  his  home  burned.  Once  he  encountered  a 
storm  and  was  carried  nearly  a  hundred  miles  out  of  his  course. 
Another  time  he  reached  his  island  when  the  water  was  so 
rough  that  he  could  not  land,  and  was  compelled  to  go  to  the 


2go     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

island  of  Nucheck,  fifty  miles  further  north,  and  await  the 
subsidence  of  the  wind  and  sea. 

Although  of  a  kindly,  genial,  patient,  good-natured,  and 
even  humorous  temperament.  Smith  was  an  intensely  method- 
ical man.  It  might  be  added  that  he  was  of  a  retiring  dis- 
position. He  laid  out  a  routine  of  work  for  the  entire  year 
and  followed  it  faithfully.  After  reading  his  morning  paper, 
he  carried  food  out  to  the  foxes  in  one  part  of  the  island,  and 
returned  for  lunch.  He  spent  the  winter  afternoons  fishing 
and  seal  shooting,  the  proceeds  of  his  line  and  rifle  going  to 
help  feed  the  foxes.  His  summer  afternoons,  when  the  island 
was  covered  with  birds  and  when  fox  food  was  correspondingly 
plentiful,  were  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  his  potato  patch. 
Smith  truly  could  have  been  accused  of  having  "  fallen  into 
a  rut."  It  seemed  a  strange  trick  of  fate  that  a  man  who 
could  endure  the  hardships  of  the  life  he  followed  for  nearly 
ten  years,  should  fall  an  easy  victim  to  what  at  first  was  a 
trifling  ailment.  After  selling  his  island,  Smith  emigrated  to 
Puget  Sound,  contracted  a  severe  cold,  developed  pneumonia 
and   typhoid,   and  died. 

Although  the  conditions  by  which  he  was  surrounded  were 
anything  but  desirable  from  a  social  viewpoint,  Smith's  life 
among  his  foxes  was  full  of  interest,  and  he  talked  upon  the 
subject  —  when  he  talked  at  all,  which  was  not  often  —  in- 
terestingly and  entertainingly.  He  made  many  experiments  to 
improve  the  value  of  the  skins,  studying  the  breeding  methods 
of  cattle  and  sheep  ranchers,  and  applying  them  to  the  animals 
he  raised.  He  also  made  many  experiments  along  new  and 
original  lines.  The  first  of  these  ventures  turned  out  disas- 
trously. 

When  he  took  the  Island  over  it  was  stocked  with  grey  foxes. 
Smith  thought  that  by  crossing  these  with  the  blue  variety,  he 
would  be  able  to  produce  the  silver-grey  variety.     The  differ- 


RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET  291 

ently  coloured  animals,  however,  far  from  associating  with  each 
other  on  terms  of  amity,  fought  savagely  on  every  conceivable 
occasion.  A  feud  sprang  up  between  them.  It  was  a  case  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest  in  muscle  and  cunning  and  in  a  very 
few  months  all  of  the  greys  had  been  killed  ofE  and  a  new 
dynasty  of  foxdom  was  established  with  blue  as  the  national 
colour.  Then  internecine  strife  broke  out.  The  conquering 
blues  formed  themselves  into  small  colonies  which  were  con- 
stantly at  war  with  each  other. 

Smith's  task  of  feeding  them  was  a  long  and  laborious  one. 
Carrying  a  load  of  food  he  walked  daily  from  one  end  of  the 
island  to  the  other.  The  animals  soon  came  to  know  his  whis- 
tle and  later  to  time  his  arrival.  As  he  came  in  sight  they 
would  rush  out  from  their  burrows,  and  for  a  short  distance, 
trot  along  at  his  heels,  barking  like  so  many  pleased  dogs. 

Each  colony  of  foxes  had  a  specific  territory  to  itself,  which 
had  been  defined  by  some  unknown,  but  nevertheless  immut- 
able, form  of  self-government.  The  animals  were  careful  not 
to  wander  from  the  range  dominated  by  the  colony  to  which 
they  belonged,  and  every  time  a  fox  strayed  into  the  domain 
of  another  colony,  there  followed  a  fight,  with  a  resultant 
financial  loss  to  Smith.  Many  of  the  animals,  which  burrowed 
near  Smith's  cabin,  became  very  tame,  playing  in  and  around 
the  domicile  as  would  so  many  puppies.  Several  of  them  slept 
on  Smith's  bed,  but  being  wary  of  their  ever-ready,  snapping 
bite,  he  never  attempted  to  pet  or  stroke  them. 

In  the  summer  when  the  island  is  the  nesting  place  for 
myriads  of  sea  birds,  battles  royal  between  the  Reynard  colonies 
are  of  frequent  occurrence.  The  birds,  like  the  foxes  which 
prey  upon  them,  establish  colonies^  for  themselves.  The  sea- 
parrots  conceal  their  eggs  by  l^rying  them  in  mud  in  one 
part  of  the  island.  The  foxes  living  in  that  locality  find 
their   table   always  set.     The   guillemots  build   no   nests,   but 


292     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

lay  their  eggs  in  the  shelves  and  crevices  in  the  sides  of  the 
cliffs.  Frequently  they  carry  their  eggs  between  their  feet 
as  they  fly  from  one  part  of  the  island  to  another.  When 
Smith  moved  some  of  those  eggs,  the  mother  bird,  returning 
from  the  sea,  would  not  settle  on  some  other  guillemot's  egg, 
but  would  search  around  for  her  own.  But  that  is  a  digres- 
sion. 

The  best  branches  of  the  Reynard  family  living  near  this 
guillemot  settlement  had  an  abundance  of  the  material  from 
which  omelettes  are  made.  The  sea  gulls  make  their  nests  in 
the  long  grass.  One  of  the  favourite  pastimes  of  the  fox 
colonists  who  there  abided  was  hunting  and  birds'-nesting. 
Later  in  the  season,  when  the  young  birds  began  to  hop  around, 
the  foxes  surfeited  themselves  with  delicacies,  which  maybe 
they  found  to  be  an  equivalent  for  the  spring  chicken  and 
broilers  so  highly  prized  by  humans.  Like  their  kinfolk,  the 
wolves,  these  slant-eyed,  short-legged  mammals,  preyed  upon 
every  other  species  of  wild  life  that  their  cunning  could  con- 
quer. 

The  problem  of  the  high  cost  of  living  for  foxes  never  dis- 
turbed Smith's  placid  equanimity  during  the  summer  season. 
On  one  occasion  during  the  trapping  season,  however,  the  food 
problem  caused  considerable  difficulty.  Not  that  there  was  too 
little  food,  but  too  much  of  it.  Several  dead  whales  had  been 
washed  up  on  the  beach,  and  the  wily  animals  would  not  go 
near  Smith's  traps.  His  yield  that  year  was  the  lowest  of 
any  in  his  fox-farming  experience. 

The  number  of  skins  annually  taken  varied  from  one  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  down  to  seventy-five.  Overfeeding  and  the 
non-infusion  of  new  blood,  Smith  declared,  caused  a  deterio- 
ration of  the  stock. 

Smith's  experience  on  the  island,  had  it  been  written,  in- 
dubitably would  have  proven  a  distinct  contribution  to  natural 


RAISING  FUR  FOR  THE  MARKET  293 

history.  It  would  have  added  much  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
best  methods  of  domesticating  and  raising  fur-bearing  animals. 
The  caribou  has  been  domesticated  into  the  reindeer,  and  rein- 
deer grazing  has  developed  into  one  of  the  recognised  indus- 
tries of  the  North.  Fox-farming,  though  beset  with  difficul- 
ties, in  many  instances  has  proved  profitable,  and  that  it  will 
be  developed  into  a  more  stable  vocation  is  well  within  the 
realm  of  probability. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
ALASKA  AS  A  NEWSPAPER  FIELD 

Pioneers  of  Newspaperdom  among  the  vanguard  to  emplazon  the 
glories  and  riches  of  the  far  North  —  Through  difference  in 
time  often  prints  news  before  it  happens  —  Editors  must  have 
physical  ability  —  "The  Eskimo  Bulletin"  one  of  the  first  news- 
papers published  in  Northwestern  Alaska  —  Unique  journalistic 
ventures. 

ALTHOUGH  the  publication  of  newspapers  in  Alaska 
is  about  as  unprofitable  as  this  business  usually  is  in 
the  frontier  countries  and  in  the  smaller  cities  of  the 
United  States,  there  are,  nevertheless,  some  decidedly  credit- 
able journals  printed  and  circulated  in  the  territory.  Many 
of  the  plants  in  the  larger  towns  are  equipped  with  the  modern 
linotype  and  up-to-date  engraving  plants.  In  the  larger  cities 
of  Alaska,  skeleton  telegraph  dispatches,  copied  from  the  ne\^'S 
disseminated  by  the  Associated  Press  and  other  similar  insti- 
tutions, are  received;  and  often  it  happens  that  the  result  of 
prize  fights  fought  in  the  Central  or  Eastern  States  has  been 
given  to  the  reading  public  in  Alaska  —  in  point  of  local  time 
—  before  the  event  took  place.  This  is  accomplished  by  the 
difference  in  time  between  the  points  of  occurrence  and  publi- 
cation. That  is  to  say,  when  it  is  midday  at  New  York,  it  is 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  at  Nome. 

Every  gold  stampede  is  followed  by  the  appointment  of  a 
United  States  Commissioner  and  a  deputy  marshal,  who  are 
despatched  to  enforce  the  law  at  the  new  diggings  and  it  is  not 
long  thereafter  until  some  itinerant  newspaper  man  and  a 
printer  or  two  make  their  appearance  with  a  handful  of  type, 

394 


ALASKA  AS  A  NEWSPAPER  FIELD  295 

some  paper,  a  pot  of  ink,  and  an  old  hand  press,  and  commence 
the  publication  of  a  "  Great  Moral  Enlightener."  If  the  town 
does  not  "  pinch  out,"  these  somewhat  primitive  plants  are 
developed  Into  more  pretentious  enterprises. 

Turning  out  a  newspaper  in  Alaska  frequently  requires  an 
editor  who  is  not  a  molly-coddle.  As  in  other  places,  every 
man  in  the  community  knows  more  about  the  best  methods  of 
running  a  new^spaper  than  the  editor  himself,  and  the  moulder 
of  public  opinion  in  the  far  North  frequently  is  called  upon 
to  exercise  considerable  ph3'sical  effort  and  a  degree  of  aptitude 
with  natural  weapons  of  defense  in  order  to  maintain  his  dig- 
nity and  a  proper  standing  in  the  community. 

Captain  Libby,  a  member  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Expedition,  published  the  first  English  newspaper  in  Alaska, 
on  Sunday,  October  14,  1868,  at  Grantly  Harbor.  In  the 
absence  of  the  printing  press,  the  paper  consisted  of  written 
sheets,  bound  together  with  bent  pins,  and  its  publication  was 
continued  for  one  year,  under  the  name  of  The  Esquimaux. 
The  complete  file  of  the  paper  was  taken  to  San  Francisco, 
where  it  was  printed  and  distributed  as  a  souvenir  after  the  ex- 
pedition had  disbanded. 

The  first  newspaper  printed  from  type,  in  English,  produced 
in  Alaska,  of  which  there  is  any  record,  was  published  at  Sitka 
soon  after  the  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United  States,  and 
one  of  its  early  issues  reports  a  mass  meeting  attended  by  a 
number  of  American  citizens,  who  memorialised  Congress  and 
demanded  the  rights  of  full  territorial  government,  which,  by 
the  way,  was  granted  them  in  19 1 2.  The  owners  of  this  paper 
expected  that,  under  American  occupation,  there  would  be  a 
large  influx  of  population  to  Alaska,  but  they  were  grievously 
disappointed  and,  in  1 87 1,  sold  the  plant  to  Beriah  Brown, 
father  of  the  present  Dean  of  the  Seattle  Press  Club,  who 
shipped  it  to  Seattle,  where  it  was  used  for  printing  The  Fuget 


296     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Sound  Dispatch,  the  first  daily  paper  published  in  Western 
Washington. 

The  Eskimo  Bulletin  was  the  pioneer  paper  of  Northwestern 
Alaska  where  it  was  issued  yearly  from  1895  to  1900  by  the 
Mission  School  at  Cape  Prince  of  Wales.  The  staff,  accord- 
ing to  the  publisher's  statement,  was  composed  of  W.  T.  Lopp, 
editor  and  publisher;  Oo-ten-na,  engraver;  Ke-ok,  I-ya-tung-uk 
and  Ad-loo-at,  compositors.  Its  columns  were  adorned  with 
crude  wood-cuts  depicting  whale,  walrus  and  polar  bear  hunts, 
which  were  produced  in  the  art  department  under  the  guiding 
hand  of  Mr.  Oo-ten-na.  The  mechanical  work,  and  probably 
a  large  amount  of  the  reporting,  was  done  by  the  natives.  It 
contained  no  telegraphic  or  "  outside  "  news,  and  there  was  a 
marked  dearth  of  items  pertaining  to  divorces  and  absconding 
bank  cashiers,  such  as  usually  find  their  way  into  the  front  page 
of  the  metropolitan  dailies.  Still,  this  paper  contained  much 
interesting  news,  illustrative  of  the  life  and  environment  of  the 
region  in  which  it  was  published.  Judging  from  the  following 
item,  which  is  quoted  verbatim,  one  of  the  reporters  had  in- 
herited some  of  the  habits  of  the  modern  yellow  journalist: 

"  Sok-wena,  while  herding  reindeer,  found  a  lynx  behind  a 
tuft  of  grass.  Being  unarmed,  he  whipped  it  with  his  lasso 
until  It  cowered  at  his  feet,  when  he  was  able  to  give  it  a 
blow  with  his  fist  which  crushed  its  skull." 

Had  this  event  happened  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  in  New 
York,  when  the  gathering  of  news  is  always  a  problem,  the 
story  doubtless  would  have  been  good  for  a  scare  head  on  the 
front  page  the  next  morning. 

Other  Items  worth  noting  In  the  1897  issue  of  The  Eskimo 
Bulletin  are: 

"  Soap  Is  becoming  an  article  of  exchange  at  the  Cape." 

"The  Norwhal  (a  whaling  ship),  tied  up  at  the  Ice  here 
on  May  24,  and  gave  us  the  news  that  McKinley  was  elected 


ALASKA  AS  A  NEWSPAPER  FIELD  297 

and  Corbett  defeated."  (Tlie  election  took  place  nearly  three 
years  previously.     Autiior.) 

"  Pik-u-enna  shot  a  white  bear  in  January." 

"  A  small  building  boom  struck  town  last  summer.  Three 
new  buildings   (above  ground)   were  erected." 

**  Several  whales  w^ere  seen  in  the  spring,  but  none  captured. 
In  January,  April  and  May  our  natives  were  short  of  rations." 

A  "  Special  to  the  Bulletin,"  dated  October  20,  1896,  con- 
tained the  news  that  Harry  DeWindt,  an  English  explorer, 
after  having  been  deceived  and  annoyed  for  several  weeks  by 
Chief  Kohora  in  Siberia  had  become  disgusted  and  had  given 
up  his  proposed  walking  trip  across  Siberia  and  returned  to 
Unalaska  on  the  Steamer  Belvedere. 

Another  unique  journalistic  venture  was  the  Aurora  Bore- 
alis,  the  first  issue  of  which  was  published  at  St.  Michael, 
October  31,  1897,  the  mechanical  work  being  done  by  a  mime- 
ographing machine.  The  subscription  price,  according  to  the 
published  announcement,  was  one  dollar  the  copy.  Seal  oil, 
gold  dust,  blubber,  fur,  ivory,  and  fish  were  exchangeable  for 
subscriptions,  ten  of  which  were  given  for  one  porterhouse 
steak. 

Early  in  1898,  The  Rampart  Forum,  a  small  journal,  was 
printed  on  a  mimeographing  machine  at  Rampart  City.  It 
carried  advertisements,  "  grape-vine "  telegraphic  dispatches, 
all  the  local  news  of  that  region,  and  copies  were  at  one  dollar 
each.     Sam    Hubbard,    Jr.,   of   California,   was   the   publisher. 

Among  the  miners  at  Rampart  at  that  time  were  Rex 
Beach,  Jack  London,  Roy  Norton,  and  George  Howard  Pres- 
ton, all  of  whom  since  have  distinguished  themselves  in  the 
literary  world,  but  none  of  them  contributed  to  the  columns 
of  The  Forum,  except  once  when  an  indignant  letter  was  writ- 
ten to  the  editor.  Beach  was  the  best  man  of  the  crowd  at 
manual  labour,  and  it  was  said  of  him  that  he  could  shovel 


298     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

more  gravel  into  a  sluice  box  and  chop  more  wood  in  a  given 
time  than  any  other  man  in  the  camp.  Old  prospectors  in 
that  region  declare  that  a  great  w^orkman  was  lost  to  the  mining 
world  when  Beach  laid  down  the  pick  to  take  up  the  pen. 

The  art  of  printing,  except  in  remote  and  inaccessible  places 
on  the  far  frontier,  has  greatly  improved  in  Alaska  in  the  last 
ten  years,  and  preparations  are  being  made  at  Cordova  to  print 
and  publish  an  up-to-date  magazine.  It  will  contain  175 
pages,  mostly  articles  dealing  with  Alaska  subjects,  illustrated 
with  photographic  reproductions  of  scenes  and  events  in  the 
country.  A  number  of  well-known  writers,  some  of  whom 
have  made  their  mark  in  the  literary  world,  will  be  among  its 
contributors. 

The  following  is  a  full  list  of  the  newspapers  published  in 
Alaska  early  in  191 2,  and  the  number  doubtless  will  be  added 
to  and  subtracted  from,  according  to  the  migrations  of  the 
various  communities,  as  time  goes  on : 

Chitina,  The  Chitina  Leader  (weekly)  ;  Cordova,  Cordova 
Daily  Alaskan;  Douglas,  The  Douglas  Island  Neivs  (weekly)  ; 
Fairbanks,  Fairbanks  Times  (daily  and  weekly),  Fairbanks 
Daily  News-Miner  and  Tanana  Tribune,  The  Alaska  Citizen 
(weekly).  Miners'  Union  Bulletin  (weekly)  ;  Haines,  The 
Haines  Pioneer  Press  (weekly)  ;  Hot  Springs,  Hot  Springs 
Echo  (weekly)  ;  Iditarod,  Iditarod  Nugget  (weekly),  Iditarod 
Pioneer  (weekly)  ;  Juneau,  Daily  Alaska  Dispatch,  Weekl-} 
Alaska  Dispatch;  Ketchikan,  Ketchikan  Miner;  Kodiak,  Or- 
phanage News  Letter  (monthly)  ;  Nome,  Nome  Nugget  (daily 
and  weekly)  ;  Nome  Industrial  Worker  (weekly)  ;  Ruby  City, 
The  Ruby  Record  (weekly)  ;  Seward,  Sezuard  Weekly  Gate- 
way; Sitka,  The  Thlingit  (monthly)  ;  Skagway,  The  Daily 
Alaska;  Tanana,  Yukon  Valley  Neius  (weekly)  ;  Valdez,  The 
Alaska  Prospector,  the  Valdez  Daily  Miner;  Wrangell,  The 
Wrangell  Sentinel  (weekly). 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION 

Because  they  teach  natives  how  to  figure  the  value  of  their  furs, 
missionaries  are  not  welcomed  by  traders  — "  Cherokee  Bob  "  be- 
lieves that  missionaries  and  ministers  have  their  uses — Natives 
instructed  in  elementary  and  manual  training — Country  divided 
by  different  denominations  to  prevent  confusion  in  minds  of 
natives. 

AS  it  is  in  the  South  Seas,  so  is  it  in  the  Arctic  and 
sub-Arctic    regions:   missionaries   and   traders   do   not 
harmonise.     There  is  about  as  much  affinity  between 
them  as  between  oil  and  water. 

The  traders  —  or  at  least  many  of  them  —  take  a  melan- 
cholic pleasure  in  telling  of  how,  in  those  glorious,  pristine 
days  of  large  profits  in  barter  and  trade  before  the  missionaries 
arrived,  the  natives  were  so  honest,  so  truthful,  and  so  delight- 
fully simple-minded  that  they  could  not  lie  nor  steal;  every- 
thing then  was  lovely  and  harmonious;  and  comparing  these 
conditions  with  the  present,  when,  the  traders  declare,  it  is 
unsafe  to  go  ashore  in  a  strange  village  with  your  shoe  laces 
untied  for  fear  the  natives  will  steal  your  foot-wear  from  your 
feet.  With  more  or  less  detail  pertaining  to  the  iniquities  of 
the  missionaries,  the  traders  manage  to  paint  a  really  lachry- 
mose picture  of  many  good  races  of  savages  having  been  spoiled 
by  the  detrimental  influences  of  those  who  attempted  to  civilise 
them. 

The  missionaries,  maybe  in  reprisal,  tell  of  the  degrading  in- 
fluence the  white  man,  especially  the  trader,  has  had  on  the 
natives;  how  Poor  Lo  was  inveigled  into  an  awful  battle  with 

299 


300     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Demon  Rum;  how  the  tribes  have  become  tainted  with  disease 
and  addicted  to  the  sins  and  vices  of  his  white  brother;  how 
his  country  has  been  stolen,  his  game  killed  off  and  his  means 
of  livelihood  destroyed;  and  the  unfortunate  part  of  it,  for 
the  trader,  is  that  the  missionaries'  statements  generally  are 
borne  out  by  the  shameful  facts. 

The  trader  is  solicitous  for  the  native's  welfare,  but  having  a 
selfish  purpose  to  subserve,  his  efforts,  no  matter  how  altru- 
istic his  purpose,  are  open  to  a  reasonable  amount  of  suspicion. 
It  is  natural,  too,  that  the  trader  should  not  regard  the  mis- 
sionary in  the  kindliest  light,  for  the  missionary  makes  an  ex- 
asperating practice  of  teaching  the  native  how  to  figure  and 
of  educating  him  up  to  the  real  value  of  the  furs  and  other 
goods  which  he  has  for  sale,  with  the  result  that  the  trader 
cannot  buy  as  cheaply  as  in  those  halcyon  days  when  great 
piles  of  valuable  furs  were  sold  in  exchange  for  a  bottle  of 
alcoholic  liquor,  a  few  fish  hooks,  beads,  or  an  old  rifle.  Be- 
sides that,  the  missionary  discourages  the  aborigines  in  the  prac- 
tice of  drinking  intoxicating  liquors,  and  also  —  with  the  aid 
of  revenue  cutter  officers  and  other  officials  —  strenuously  dis- 
courages the  white  man  from  giving  or  selling  highly  exhila- 
rating beverages  to  the  natives.  It  is  therefore  to  be  expected, 
when  all  the  circumstances  are  considered,  that  at  the  points 
where  trade  is  conducted,  one  will  hear  stories  that  reflect 
discredit  on  the  men  of  cloth.  The  writer  heard  many  of  these 
stories,  but  during  fourteen  years'  residence  in  the  territory  he 
was  unable  to  verify  a  single  one  of  them,  and  little  credence 
is  placed  in  them  by  the  people  of  Alaska  generally. 

As  "  Cherokee  Bob,"  a  profane  prospector,  once  sagely  re- 
marked : 

"  Missionaries  and  ministers  is  all  right.  Now  there's  my 
friend  Bishop  Rowe,  as  fine  a  fellow  as  I've  ever  met  on  the 
trail.    The  boys  don't  hold  it  up  against  him  none  becuz  he's 


Till'    Kl.n   DRAGON  MISSION   A  1    C()K1)()\A,   Will  Kl     t  IlKlSriAN- 
rrV   IS  COMBINED  WITH   A  L1BKAK\    AND   PODl.   ROOM 

UNDER   I  HE  SHADOW  OF  A.  B.  MOUNTAIN,  IS  BUILT  THE  SKAG- 
WAV   CAMP   OF  THE   ARCTIC   BROTHERHOOD 


MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION  301 

a  bishop.  A  feller  can  be  a  bishop  if  he  wants  to  and  still 
be  human.  If  he  don't  do  no  good,  he  certainly  don't  do  no 
harm,  and  if  he  can  get  any  fun  out  of  thumping  a  pulpit  why 
let  him  go  to  it.  We  can't  all  be  miners  or  gamblers  or 
prospectors  or  hold-up  men." 

"  Cherokee,"  as  has  been  remarked  was  somewhat  profane. 
His  strong  admiration  for  Bishop  Rowe  probably  arose  from 
that  propensity  which  teaches  us  to  admire  in  others  that  which 
we  do  not  ourselves  possess.  "  Cherokee  "  gloried  in  the  many 
manly  qualities  which  have  endeared  Bishop  Rowe  to  every- 
body in  the  North,  and,  besides  that,  he  had  the  greatest  ad- 
miration for  the  divine's  ability  to  express  himself  in  strong 
terms  without  swearing. 

The  story  goes  that  Cherokee's  first  acquaintance  with  the 
Bishop  was  at  a  point  on  the  trail  near  Circle  City.  "  Chero- 
kee "  was  coming  from  Fairbanks,  and  the  Bishop  was  going 
to  that  place.  "  Cherokee  "  had  been  having  a  hard  time.  It 
had  snowed  every  day  since  he  left  Fairbanks,  there  were  no 
road-houses  on  the  way;  he  had  been  compelled  to  snowshoe 
a  new  trail  every  foot  of  the  distance;  he  had  run  out  of  food 
for  both  himself  and  the  dogs,  and  was  in  a  much  discouraged 
and  highly  disgusted  state  of  mind.  It  was  bitterly  cold  and 
both  had  their  faces  entirely  swathed  in  fur. 

"  How's  the  trail  from  here  to  Fairbanks?  "  asked  the  Bishop 
pleasantly,  after  the  customary  salutation  of  the  Northern  way- 
farer, had  been  exchanged. 

"  Cherokee  "  did  not  realise  that  he  was  addressing  a  man  of 
the  cloth,  and  he  tore  off  an  avalanche  of  profanity  that  lasted 
for  several  minutes.  He  swore  once  or  twice  between  every 
word,  and  even  divided  the  words  into  syllables  to  get  in  an 
extra  expletive. 

"  It's  the  blankest,  blank,  blank,  blank,  blankety  blank  trail 
any  blankety  blank  blank  blank  man  has  ever,  blankety  blank 


302     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

saw,"  he  explained.  "  How's  the  blankety  blank  trail  from 
Circle  to  Dawson  ?  " 

"  It's  just  about  in  the  condition  which  you  have  so  graph- 
ically described  as  pertaining  to  the  trail  from  here  to  Fair- 
banks," the  Bishop  replied  mildly. 

When  "  Cherokee "  learned  he  was  addressing  the  highest 
dignitary  of  the  Church  of  Alaska,  he  nearly  swooned.  It  is 
related  that  the  Bishop  turned  back  and  helped  the  tired  musher 
and  his  exhausted  team  into  Circle  City,  and  never  once  chided 
him  for  his  use  of  profanity.  Hence  "  Cherokee  "  was  ready 
to  fight  for  the  Bishop  at  the  drop  of  the  hat. 

In  the  North  are  many  men  who  by  their  vigorous  manhood 
and  undying  energy  are  carrying  hope  to  the  hearts  of  the 
Indians,  and  among  those  who  have  been  prominent  in  this 
work  might  be  mentioned  Bishop  Rowe,  Father  van  der  Pol, 
S.  J.;  J.  Sheldon  Jackson,  and  W.  T.  Lopp,  the  present  head 
of  the  Bureau  of  Education  in  Alaska,  the  officers  of  the 
Revenue  Cutter  service,  and  many  others.  These  men  make 
many  long,  hard  journeys  over  the  country  in  both  summer  and 
winter,  their  influence  extending  over  the  589,000  square  miles 
of  which  the  territory  is  composed.  Besides  the  natural  ob- 
stacles which  the  country  presents,  they  often  are  hampered  by 
lack  of  means.  Unscrupulous  white  men  have  a  tendency  to 
degrade  the  natives,  and  their  early  superstitions  are  difficult 
to  eradicate.  The  writer  holds  no  brief  for  J.  P.  Morgan,  the 
noted  financier,  but  to  him  belongs  the  credit  of  materially  as- 
sisting in  making  the  consecration  of  the  Bishop  of  Alaska 
possible.  One  reads  of  so  few  things  that  are  creditable  to 
captains  of  finance  in  these  days  that  the  recording  of  one  good 
act  with  which  nobody  can  find  fault  should  prove  quite  re- 
freshing. 

Gregory  Shelikof,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Russian  Fur 
Company,  was  the  first  man  to  conceive  the  idea  of  doing  some- 


MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION  303 

thing  for  the  benefit  of  the  Alaskan  natives.  In  1784  Shclikof 
began  to  teach  the  rudimentary  branches  of  education  in  Alaska, 
while  his  wife  instructed  the  women  of  the  tribes  in  sewing  and 
other  branches  of  what  is  now  known  as  domestic  science. 
Empress  Catherine  II  became  interested  in  the  work  Shelikof 
began  and  through  her  efforts  seven  clergymen  and  two  laymen 
reached  Kadiak  in  1794  and  there  established  schools.  These 
teachers  gave  religious  instructions  and  directed  the  natives  in 
agricultural  and  industrial  pursuits.  The  work  inaugurated 
by  Shelikof  was  carried  on  by  his  successor  in  office.  In  1820 
the  first  school  was  opened  at  Sitka,  where  the  natives  were 
taught  the  Russian  language  and  instructed  in  the  trades  and 
elementary  navigation,  the  idea  being  to  raise  competent  serv- 
ants to  take  charge  of  the  company's  affairs. 

Mission  work  among  the  Aleuts  was  commenced  in  1824  by 
Ivan  Veniaminoff,  who,  after  learning  the  language  of  the 
natives,  translated  the  Scriptures  for  them,  and  then  returned 
to  Russia,  where  he  was  made  the  Bishop  of  the  Independent 
Diocese  of  Russian  America.  Later  he  sailed  back  to  Sitka 
where  he  founded  the  Cathedral  Church  and  undertook  the 
conversion  of  the  Thlingits. 

In  1840  educational  matters  in  Alaska  were  given  consider- 
able impetus  by  Captain  Etolin,  a  half-caste  who  received  his 
own  education  in  the  local  schools.  Etolin  became  chief  di- 
rector of  the  Russian  Fur  Company,  which  dominated  the  ter- 
ritory at  that  time,  and  he  recognised  the  possibility  of  convert- 
ing the  Indians  into  more  useful  citizens.  While  religion  was 
taught  in  all  his  schools,  astronomy,  navigation  and  arithme-* 
tic  were  considered  the  more  important  studies.  He  was  as- 
sisted by  his  wife,  who,  improving  on  the  example  set  by 
Madame  Shelikof,  founded  a  school  for  half-caste  girls,  in- 
structed them  in  household  duties  and  established  a  fund  from 
which  the  graduates  were  given  a  dowry  on  their  marriage  to 


304     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

officers  or  employes  of  the  company.  This  plan  was  further 
improved  by  Veniaminof¥,  who,  in  1841,  established  a  theologi- 
cal seminary  which  was  maintained  at  Sitka  till  the  territory 
was  transferred  to  the  United  States. 

Although  it  has  been  the  custom  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  take  pride  in  their  public  school  systems  and  their 
advanced  stage  of  educational  matters,  the  Alaskan  Indians 
were  left  from  1867  till  1884  to  work  out  their  own  salvation, 
so  far  as  the  government  was  concerned.  In  1884  an  appro- 
priation of  $25,000  was  secured  for  educational  purposes  in 
Alaska,  Dr.  J.  Sheldon  Jackson  receiving  the  appointment  of 
superintendent  of  education.  In  leasing  the  Seal  Islands  to 
the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  government  provision  was 
made  for  the  maintenance  of  two  schools,  one  on  St.  George 
and  one  on  St.  Paul  Islands  for  a  period  of  eight  months  in 
each  year.  More  than  thirty  thousand  other  natives,  however, 
were  left  without  government  educational  instruction,  save  for 
that  which  was  given  them  by  the  wives  of  the  officers  of  the 
United  States  Army  who  were  garrisoned  at  Sitka  to  occupy 
the  territory  on  behalf  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  missionaries  stepped  in,  the 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions  being  the  first  to  enter 
the  field.  A  school  was  opened  at  Wrangell  in  1877  and  an- 
other at  Sitka  a  year  later.  In  1880  the  first  missionary  ar- 
rived at  Haines  Mission  at  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal,  and  within 
the  next  two  years  several  others  had  been  established.  The 
Indians,  although  somewhat  lacking  in  the  instincts  of  morality, 
were  quick  to  learn  and  gladly  welcomed  the  missionaries,  but, 
as  before  stated,  these  agencies  of  civilisation  were  not  popular 
with  the  traders. 

Prior  to  the  passage  of  the  bill  which  granted  an  appropria- 
tion for  educational  purposes,  the  Moravian  Missionaries  from 
Bethlehem,  Pa.,  had  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  and 


MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION  305 

had  established  a  mission  on  that  stream  and  later  on  the 
Kuskokwim  and  Nushagak  Rivers,  where  institutions  still  are 
maintained.  The  Friends'  Mission  was  established  at  Cape 
Blossom  on  Kotzebue  Sound  a  year  later  and  others  followed. 

About  1907  it  was  mutually  agreed  that  the  country  should 
be  divided  between  the  dozen  or  more  denominations  that  had 
entered  the  country,  the  guiding  idea  being  that  if  different 
denominations  were  conducted  in  the  same  place,  the  simple 
minds  of  the  natives  would  become  confused. 

The  Presbyterians  being  the  first  to  occupy  Southeastern 
Alaska  took  that  section  of  the  country  and  other  denomina- 
tions moved  out;  the  Baptists  selected  Cook's  Inlet  and  Prince 
William  Sound  region ;  the  Methodists  chose  the  Shumagin 
and  Aleutian  Islands  and  the  Aleutian  Peninsula ;  while  the 
Moravians  elected  to  hold  to  the  valley  of  the  Kuskokwim 
and  the  Nushagak  Rivers;  the  Swedish  missionaries  occupy  Nor- 
ton Sound ;  the  Norwegians  the  Port  Clarence  district,  and  the 
Quakers  still  remain  at  Kotzebue  Sound.  The  Congregation- 
alists  are  situated  at  different  points  along  the  shore  of  Bering 
Sea  and  Bering  Strait,  and  the  Episcopalians  control  the 
Yukon  Valley  and  the  country  to  the  northward.  The 
Graeco-Russian  Missions  are  scattered  broadcast  throughout 
the  territory,  many  of  their  missions  still  being  in  the  places 
where  they  were  built  before  Alaska  was  transferred  to  the 
United  States.  This  agreement,  however,  does  not  apply  to 
churches  and  chapels  established  in  the  centres  of  population 
and  at  practically  all  the  large  settlements  in  Alaska  the  travel- 
ler will  find  churches  of  different  denominations. 

Educational  appropriations  were  made  from  year  to  year, 
and  in  1896,  Senator  H.  M.  Teller,  of  Colorado,  obtained 
legislation  providing  for  the  introduction  of  reindeer  into  the 
country.  The  plan  for  distribution  of  the  deer  was  worked 
out  by  W.  T.  Lopp,  who  became  superintendent  of  education 


3o6    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  Alaska.  Many  of  the  natives  since  have  become  practically 
independent.  The  department  and  the  missionaries  work  hand 
in  hand  in  developing  the  reindeer  industry.  Nearly  every 
branch  of  education  is  taught,  and  the  condition  of  the  natives, 
despite  the  deteriorating  influences  that  come  from  associating 
with  white  men,  are  much  better  off  than  they  were  forty  or 
fifty  years  ago. 

The  education  of  the  native  is  not  confined  to  the  three  R's, 
but  they  are  given  manual  training  and  instruction  in  village 
sanitation,  morality  and  the  domestic  arts.  The  teachers, 
physicians  and  others  in  the  employ  of  the  department  strive 
to  elcvi.te  the  race  intellectually  and  to  better  their  physical 
condition,  and  despite  the  discouraging  reports  of  disease  among 
them,  their  efforts  are  being  attended  with  gratifying  success. 
The  government  force,  which  conducts  the  native's  schools, 
situated  at  intervals  from  one  end  of  Alaska  to  the  other,  is 
composed  of  five  district  superintendents,  eight  nurses,  four 
contract  physicians  and  102  teachers.  Eighty-one  public 
schools  are  maintained  with  an  enrollment  of  3,841  and  an 
average  attendance  of  1,689.  The  teachers  also  act  as  reindeer 
supervisors.  Of  the  33,629  of  these  animals  in  the  territory, 
20,071  are  owned  by  the  natives.  The  work  of  teaching  the 
natives  is  exacting  and  calls  for  persons  well  equipped  both 
mentally  and  physically  and  actuated  by  the  highest  altruistic 
motives.  Some  of  the  teachers  are  located  in  portions  of  Alaska 
where  the  sun  is  not  visible  for  a  period  of  six  weeks  in  the 
winter,  and  where  the  opportunities  for  social  intercourse  are 
decidedly  limited.  Quite  frequently  their  nearest  white  neigh- 
bour lives  at  a  point  more  than  a  hundred  miles  distant,  and 
they  receive  mail  and  fresh  food  supplies  but  once  a  year,  when 
it  is  brought  in  on  a  revenue  cutter.  Owing  to  the  uncertain 
ice  conditions  the  missionaries  and  government  teachers  along 
the  Northern  shore  of  Alaska  sometimes  do  not  get  their  sup- 


MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION  307 

plies  in  the  summer  of  each  year,  and  on  these  occasions  they 
must  depend  largely  upon  the  resources  of  the  country  for  sub- 
sistence. 

Hospitals  for  the  natives  have  been  established  at  Juneau 
and  at  Bristol  Bay,  where  the  natives,  ovt'ing  to  the  prevalence 
of  tuberculosis  and  the  intrusion  of  the  serpent  among  some  of 
their  Russian  ancestors,  are  in  a  deplorable  physical  condition. 
Much  beneficial  work  has  been  performed  by  the  medical  corps 
of  the  Bureau  in  all  parts  of  Alaska,  and  the  mortality  percent- 
age has  been  greatly  reduced.  In  spite  of  this  fact,  however,  the 
Northern  Indian  and  Eskimo  is  slowly  being  wiped  out  of 
existence.  Statisticians  estimate  that,  at  their  present  death 
and  birth  rate,  the  whole  race  will  be  exterminated  in  less  than 
one  hundred  years. 

The  cost  of  maintenance  of  the  Educational  Bureau  In  Alaska 
is  approximately  $ioo,CKX)  per  annum,  but  the  government  in 
return  for  the  expenditure  is  building  up  a  reindeer  industry 
which,  in  a  very  few  years,  will  be  worth  several  millions  of 
dollars.  Every  dollar  spent  by  the  government  in  Alaska 
profited  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  a  ratio  of  about  one 
hundred  for  one,  and  the  money  expended  on  the  natives  — 
apart  from  the  standpyoint  of  humanitarianism  —  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  otherwise  than  safely  and  profitably  invested.  The 
natives  have  been  advanced  from  the  hunting  and  fishing  to 
the  pastoral  stage  of  life  and  it  is  within  the  realm  of  prob- 
ability that  many  of  them  will  progress  to  the  agricultural 
stage. 

An  Indian  village,  on  the  arrival  of  a  school-teacher  or 
missionary,  usually  is  in  a  deplorably  unsanitary  and  unhealthy 
condition,  but  through  the  untiring  efforts  of  the  teachers  a 
change  soon  is  wrought.  It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  eliminate 
from  the  aboriginal  mind  the  superstitions  inherited  from  past 
ages.     This  is  particularly  true  in  cases  of  sickness.     The  pa- 


3o8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

tient  takes  the  white  physician's  medicine  a  few  times,  and  if 
it  does  effect  an  almost  immediate  cure,  he  resorts  to  the  in- 
cantations of  the  tribal  medicine  man. 

The  natives  are  very  industrious,  but  prefer  to  accomplish 
everything  by  direct  methods.  In  19 lo  the  writer  met  at 
Nome,  an  almost  heartbroken  missionary  who,  after  consider- 
able labour,  had  managed  to  obtain  a  small  schooner  for  the 
natives.  Then  he  purchased  a  gasoline  engine  with  which  to 
propel  the  vessel.  On  the  first  trip  everything  progressed 
nicely  till  the  propeller  hit  an  ice  cake  and  one  of  the  blades 
was  broken  off.  The  schooner  was  beached,  and,  after  in- 
structing the  natives  to  take  ofi  the  propeller,  the  missionary 
left  them  for  several  hours.  When  he  returned  he  found  that 
instead  of  uncoupling  the  propeller  from  the  shaft,  they  had 
procured  a  number  of  files  and,  with  infinite  labour,  had 
severed  the  three  inch  piece  of  steel  that  connected  the  pro- 
peller with  the  motor,  completely  ruining  it.  But  despite  sun- 
dry discouragements  of  this  character,  both  government  teach- 
ers and  missionaries  do  much  sincere,  painstaking  and  zealous 
work. 

Apart  from  the  educational  work  done  by  the  government 
teachers  and  the  missionaries  there  are  three  kinds  of  schools 
in  Alaska.  The  government  and  native  schools,  conducted  by 
federal  appropriation;  schools  for  both  whites  and  children  of 
mixed  blood  leading  a  civilised  life  outside  of  incorporated 
towns,  supported  by  federal  licenses  collected  outside  incorpo- 
rated communities,  and  the  public  schools  supported  by  the  fed- 
eral licenses  collected  within   incorporated  communities. 

There  are  many  high  schools  in  Alaska,  and  the  standard 
of  education  is  quite  as  advanced  as  in  any  part  of  the  United 
States.  In  exhibits  of  school  work  at  the  St.  Louis  World's 
Fair  in  1903,  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Exposition  in  1905,  the 
Jamestown    Exposition    in    1907-08,    and    the    Alaska- Yukon 


l*«4,i/ 


MISSIONARIES  AND  EDUCATION  309 

Pacific  Exposition  in  1909,  many  of  the  prizes  for  general  effi- 
ciency were  awarded  to  Alaskan  schools. 

The  native  and  mixed  schools  are  wisely  and  intelligently 
conducted  under  the  supervision  of  the  Bureau  of  Education, 
and  the  schools  within  incorporated  communities  are  governed 
by  school  boards  consisting  of  three  members,  one  of  whom  is 
elected  each  year.  In  addition  to  the  schools  virtually  all 
of  the  Alaskan  centres  of  population  have  literary  and  debating 
societies  and  there  are  many  well-filled  libraries  in  different 
parts  of  the  territory. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

DOGS,   DOG   "PUNCHERS"  AND   DOG  RACES 

The  part  played  by  this  animal  in  the  development  of  Alaska  —  Its 
courage  and  steadfast  loyalty  under  adverse  circumstances  — 
Drivers  perform  marvellous  feats  of  endurance  —  The  All- 
Alaska  Sweepstake  Dog  Race,  the  Derby  of  the  far  North,  more 
interesting  and  exciting  than  baseball  championship — Animals 
are  bred  from  wolves. 

PERHAPS  at  some  time  in  the  near  or  remote  future,  a 
genius  may  invent  an  automobile  that  will  travel  over 
the  Alaskan  snovt^-fields.  Maybe,  at  a  not  very  distant 
date  reindeer  w^ill  have  been  taught  to  eat  oats  and  thereby 
become  endovi^ed  w^ith  sufficient  endurance  to  stand  the  strain 
of  a  long,  hard  journey  over  the  wind-svi^ept,  frozen  plains. 
But  for  some  considerable  time  it  is  certain  that  the  dog  is 
destined  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  Alaskan 
transportation  problems,  especially  in  those  sections  of  the 
territory  that  are  difficult  of  access. 

The  malamutes  and  huskies,  tv^^o  varieties  of  dogs  bred 
from  the  wolf  by  the  natives  from  one  end  of  Alaska  to  the 
other,  have  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  development 
of  Northwestern  Canada  and  Alaska.  They  were  utilised  by 
the  Indians  before  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  invaded  the 
Great  Northwest,  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago.  Just  where 
the  first  of  the  species  came  from  has  been  lost  in  history,  but 
the  natives  still  have  a  crude  method  of  breeding  them  by 
crossing  the  females  with  wolves.  The  difference  in  the  husky 
and  malamute  is  that  the  former  is  bred  from  the  timber  wolf, 
while  the  latter  has  for  its  male  progenitor  the  wild  dogs  that 

310 


DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    311 

have  roamed  the  silent  plains  of  Alaska  since  time  immemorial. 

Besides  making  remote  parts  of  the  territory  accessible  to 
the  miner,  prospector  and  explorer,  these  Alaskan  dogs  have 
contributed  their  mite  to  the  English  language  —  that  is,  in  so 
far  as  English  is  spoken  in  Alaska.  The  command  "  mush 
on  "  or  "  mush  "  directed  to  a  reasonably  intelligent  dog  in 
the  United  States  would  be  productive  of  nothing  more  than  a 
pricking  up  of  the  ears  and  a  quizzical  sidewisc  look  that  might 
be  translated  into  "Come  again.  Boss;  I  don't  get  you."  But 
when  the  order  "  mush  "  is  given  to  an  Eskimo  dog  it  will 
result  in  the  animal's  departure. 

The  word  "  mush  "  means  "  get  out  of  the  way,"  or  "  go 
ahead."  It  was  not  derived  from  the  squashy  condition  of 
northern  trails  in  springtime,  but  had  its  origin  with  the  French- 
Canadian  dog  drivers  employed  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company, 
who  told  their  dogs  to  "  marche-on."  The  corruption  of  the 
word  into  "  mush,"  together  with  its  nouns  and  adjectives,  has 
been  incorporated  into  the  English  used  through  Northwestern 
Canada  and  Alaska,  as  "  he  is  a  good  mushing  dog,"  or,  "  we 
mushed  from  Dawson  to  Nome,"  which  would  apply  to  two 
or  more  travellers;  or  "it  was  tough  mushing,"  meaning  that 
the  trail  was  in  a  bad  condition  for  travelling.  A  stranger  in 
Nome  hearing  the  command  "  mush,"  given  to  the  multitude 
of  malumutes  which,  on  cool  days,  adorn  the  sidewalks  on  the 
sunny  side  of  the  street,  remarked : 

"  It  seems  to  me  there's  ten  thousand  darned  dogs  in  this 
town,  and  every  last  one  of  'em  is  named  '  mush.'  " 

Except  that  the  husky  is  somewhat  larger  than  the  mala- 
mute,  both  varieties  are  very  similar  in  appearance.  Their  usual 
colour  is  a  smoky  grey,  although  once  in  a  while  a  black  mala- 
mute  is  encountered.  These  are  about  in  the  proportion  of 
black  sheep  in  a  flock.  Both  have  round-pupilled  eyes,  and 
long  hair,  under  which  in  winter,  they  grow  a  soft  fur  which 


312     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

is  discarded  in  summer;  both  have  bushy  tails,  strong  legs  and 
deep  chests.  Neither  malamute  nor  husky  has  learned  how- 
to  bark,  but  both  can  howl  and  yelp  loudly  in  voices  that  are 
decidedly  and  positively  unmusical.  The  ringing  of  church 
bells,  the  playing  of  a  band,  or  the  singing  of  a  soprano  or  tenor 
voice  will  cause  them  to  sit  forlornly  on  their  haunches  and  give 
forth  the  most  horribly  discordant  wails  it  is  possible  to  im- 
agine. 

Their  characteristics  are  identical  in  every  respect.  Both 
are  faithful  servitors,  great  fighters  in  a  rather  cowardly  man- 
ner, and  inveterate  thieves.  Even  when  not  hungry  they 
steal  just  to  keep  in  practice.  When  a  fight  starts  every  dog 
within  hearing  distance  of  the  yelping,  snarling  combatants 
yearns  to  become  an  active  participant  and  loses  no  time  in 
gratifying  his  ambition  in  this  respect.  The  code  which 
prompts  a  man  to  lend  aid  to  the  under-dog  does  not  appeal 
to  the  malamute  and  husky.  Their  ethics  are  the  very  antithe- 
sis of  this  worthy  principle.  When  two  dogs  begin  fighting 
the  others  do  not  sit  idly  by  on  their  haunches  —  an  impression 
created  in  a  w^idely  read  Alaskan  novel,  but  the  battle  very 
quickly  develops  into  one  in  which  every  dog  in  the  vicinity 
is  involved,  and  each  deems  it  his  bounden  duty  to  bite  and 
rend  with  all  the  savage  ferocity  of  his  nature  at  whatever 
unfortunate  animal  happens  to  have  been  thrown  to  the  ground. 
Dogs  are  impartial  in  attack  and  absolutely  devoid  of  filial 
regard.  The  prostrate  canine  might  be  their  own  unrespected 
father,  but  a  little  matter  of  blood  relationship  makes  no  dif- 
ference. The  mandate  of  Alaska  dogdom  is,  "  Keep  your  feet, 
or  pay  the  penalty  of  having  your  hide  bitten  and  torn  to 
shreds."  The  idea  of  two  huskies  engaging  in  a  fight  to  the 
death,  while  their  team  mates  coolly  squatted  on  the  snow  and 
calmly  watched  the  progress  of  the  fracas,  like  the  holders  of 
ring-side  seats  at  a  pugilistic  encounter,  is  ridiculous. 


DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    313 

During  the  summer  the  chief  occupation  of  an  Alaskan  clog 
seems  to  be  to  lie  on  the  sidewalk  and  push  the  white  man  off 
into  the  mud,  but  he  comes  out  strong  in  the  winter  as  a  sharer 
of  hardship,  an  aid  to  transportation,  a  worker  and  a  sport. 
Like  the  true  Bohemian  who  always  is  willing  to  share  with 
you  your  own  last  dollar,  the  Alaskan  dog  will  share  with  you 
the  hardships  of  the  trail  and  with  equal  impartiality  will  di- 
vide with  you  the  contents  of  the  provision  chest.  In  fact,  he 
will  more  than  divide;  if  not  closely  watched,  he  will  eat  it  all. 

Still,  he  has  many  good  qualities.  It  is  true  that  with  the 
advent  of  a  full  moon  in  the  sky,  he  makes  night  hideous 
with  mournful  howls  that  sound  more  dismal  than  the  wail  of 
a  chorus  of  lost  souls  in  Sheol,  but  apart  from  that,  he  is  not  a 
bad  companion.  When  disgrace  or  poverty  overtakes  his 
owner,  he  is  quite  sympathetic,  and  doesn't  hide  his  tail  be- 
tween his  legs  in  shame,  but  very  tactfully  pretends  that  he 
doesn't  know  there  has  been  a  change  of  fortune,  and  wags  his 
tail,  jumps  around,  "  smiles "  and  gives  other  demonstrations 
of  cheerfulness  as  though  he  would  say,  "  Buck  up,  old  chap ; 
the  worst  is  yet  to  come." 

He  is  a  true  philosopher,  and  accepts  wnth  gratitude  what 
the  gods  give.  If  you  hand  him  a  piece  of  tough  raw-hide 
from  a  snowshoe  or  from  the  lashing  of  a  sled,  he  will  not 
turn  up  his  nose  at  it  and  mutely  "  kick  about  the  grub,"  but 
will  wiggle  his  haunches  and  lick  his  chops  in  well-simulated 
ecstasy,  while  his  quizzical  eyes  seem  to  remark,  "  Why,  this 
fricasseed  snowshoe,  although  somewhat  plebeian,  is  excellent. 
It's  really  enjoyable  and  quite  nutritious  when  properly 
chewed." 

Worldly  affairs  make  no  difiference  to  him.  When  hard 
luck  comes,  he  is  broad-minded  enough  to  make  believe  that 
he  doesn't  notice  the  change  in  the  quality  of  the  cuisine.  He 
is  just  as  affectionate,  just  as  faithful  when  living  on  rawhide 


314     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

or  snowballs  and  wind  pudding  as  he  is  when  the  bill-of-fare 
is  made  up  of  breast  of  ptarmigan  and  choice  cuts  of  moose  or 
caribou  steak. 

Many  are  the  instances  recorded  in  Alaska  where  dogs  have 
shown  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  that  well  might  put  men  to 
shame.  The  Council  City  Camp  of  the  Arctic  Brotherhood 
endowed  life  membership  on  a  worthless-looking  little  mongrel 
named  "  Growler,"  who  lived  at  the  lodge  headquarters  for 
many  years  and  never  was  asked  to  do  a  stroke  of  work.  With 
age  he  grew  arrogant,  and  tried  to  run  the  whole  Institution. 
Yet  those  sturdy  Northern  men  were  patient  with  his  ill  looks 
and  disagreeable  temper,  for  "  Growler "  had  demonstrated 
that  he  was  made  of  the  right  material.  "  Growler's  "  ow^ner, 
"  Old  Man  "  Waldron,  lived  on  Fox  River,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  the  settlement,  and  on  Christmas  Eve,  1 901,  started 
for  Council  City  to  participate  in  the  Christmas  Dinner  and 
Tree  annually  arranged  by  the  members  of  the  Arctic  Brother- 
hood. Council  City's  population  at  this  time  consisted  of  about 
600  men,  thirty-five  women  and  eighteen  children.  Not  hav- 
ing enough  little  folks  to  go  'round,  the  Christmas  Tree  was 
made  a  semi-public  affair,  to  which  everybody  was  invited,  es- 
pecially the  children  and  their  mothers.  Without  the  young- 
sters, the  Christmas  Tree  obviously  would  have  been  an  awful 
fizzle. 

"  Old  Man  "  Waldron  sent  w^ord  that  he  would  be  in  towm 
to  take  part  in  the  festivities,  but  a  howling  blizzard  sprang  up 
the  day  before  the  event,  and  his  seat  at  the  feast  was  vacant. 
It  was  supposed  that  he  had  remained  at  his  camp,  and  the 
Arctic  Brothers  quaffed  a  toast  to  his  health.  Two  days  later 
four  of  his  dogs,  carrying  parts  of  their  harness,  appeared. 
Examination  showed  that  they  had  bitten  the  leather  which 
doubtless  had  bound  them  to  a  sled.  On  the  third  morning  a 
party  started  out  to  search,  and  the  next  afternoon  they  found 


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DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    315 

"  Growler  "  lying  half  starved  in  the  snow,  and  beneath  him 
was  the  frozen  body  of  his  dead  master. 

The  same  year  George  A.  Carpenter,  a  newspaper  man,  and 
Billy  Vint  and  Robert  Hunter,  tvvo  prospectors,  were  caught 
in  a  blizzard  on  the  Noxapago  Divide,  the  crest  of  country 
which  forms  the  source  of  the  water  running  into  Kotzebue 
Sound  and  the  streams  flowing  into  Port  Clarence  on  the 
eastern  end  of  Seward  Peninsula.  They  attempted  to  pitch 
a  tent,  but  the  wind  seized  it  and  wrenched  it  from  their 
hands,  and  for  three  days  men  and  dogs  huddled  together  in 
the  snow.  Famished  and  freezing,  they  began  to  eat  frozen 
raw  bacon  and  to  melt  snow  in  their  mouths  to  alleviate  their 
torturing  thirst. 

On  the  fourth  day,  while  the  blizzard  still  roared  in  their 
ears,  they  elected  to  desert  their  camp  and  try  to  walk  before 
the  storm  in  the  forlorn  hope  of  finding  a  roadhouse  or  other 
habitation.  To  have  faced  the  wind  or  to  have  stopped  to  rest 
would  have  meant  certain  death.  To  keep  the  blood  flowing 
in  their  veins  and  their  flesh  from  freezing,  exercise  was  im- 
perative. They  knew  that  once  started,  there  could  be  no 
turning  back,  no  stopping  to  rest  by  the  wayside.  After  a 
time  a  craving  for  sleep  beset  them,  but  they  fought  it  ofF, 
wildly,  desperately.  At  times  they  became  slightly  delirious. 
Now  and  again  as  they  staggered  along  there  appeared  before 
them  a  vision  of  waiters  bearing  steaming  cups  of  coffee;  a 
phantom  smell  of  sizzling  bacon  tantalised  their  olfactory 
nerves.  In  fancy,  they  heard  men  talking  on  the  plains. 
Tents  and  houses  appeared  before  their  eyes,  only  to  vanish 
again  in  the  next  squall  of  whirling  snow.  They  lost  all  sense 
of  direction.  All  they  knew  was  they  kept  the  wind  at  their 
backs  for  they  felt  certain  that  in  it  Death  stalked. 

Two  days  later  Carpenter,  completely  exhausted,  was  unable 
to  proceed  another  step.     He  could  scarcely  keep  his  eyes  open 


3i6     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  his  weary  leg  muscles  refused  to  move.  Every  step  for 
the  past  ten  hours  had  been  a  separate  agony.  The  wind  still 
howled  and  hurled  the  snow  around  in  twisting  sheets,  while 
the  steely  cold  cut  like  knives  through  their  clothes  and  into 
their  quivering  flesh.  They  could  scarcely  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  make  a  couch  in  the  soft,  inviting  snow.  Carpenter 
fell  prone,  and,  feeling  that  he  was  jeopardising  the  slim 
chance  for  life  that  belonged  to  his  companions,  he  begged 
them  to  bury  him  alive,  where  the  wolves  would  not  get  his 
body,  and  where  he  hoped  that  he  might  be  able  to  fight  off  the 
white  death  sting  of  the  Arctic  till  help  came. 

Of  the  fifteen  dogs  with  which  the  party  was  equipped  on 
leaving  Candle  Creek  on  the  fateful  journey,  only  "  Big  Jim," 
in  whose  veins  flowed  the  blood  of  St.  Bernard  and  mastiff 
parentage,  remained.  "  Jim "  was  Carpenter's  wheel  dog. 
The  animal  stayed  by  his  owner. 

Soon  after  his  companions  had  disappeared  in  the  spume  of 
whirling,  blinding  snow,  Carpenter  slept.  He  awakened  with 
the  feeling  that  he  was  being  smothered,  and  raised  his  arm 
to  brush  away  the  bank  that  had  drifted  over  his  face.  The 
wind  tore  the  mitten  from  his  hand,  and  in  his  weakened  con- 
dition, he  was  unable  to  pull  the  member  back  under  the  white, 
frozen  blanket.  As  the  digit  began  to  freeze  "  Big  Jim  "  laid 
his  ice-incrusted  body  upon  it  in  a  futile  attempt  to  start  the 
blood  pumping. 

On  the  eighth  night  after  Carpenter,  Vint  and  Hunter  had 
stopped  at  the  top  of  the  divide,  a  number  of  mushers,  who 
were  crowded  together  in  a  little  igloo  made  of  willows  and 
banked  with  tundra  sod,  heard  their  dogs  barking.  They 
found  Hunter,  half  conscious,  stumbling  through  the  storm. 
He  wore  both  mittens  on  his  right  hand. 

"  I  thought  I  would  try  to  save  one  of  them,"  he  mumbled 
through  cracked  and  freezing  lips.     His  left  hand  was  white 


DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    317 

and  solid  as  a  piece  of  sculptured  marble.  One  of  his  moc- 
casins was  frozen  to  his  foot. 

In  a  voice  made  harsh  by  suffering,  he  incoherently  informed 
his  rescuers  that  two  other  badly  frost-bitten  and  exhausted 
men  were  wandering  somewhere  through  the  biting  cold  on 
the  snow-drifted  tundra. 

With  the  assistance  of  dogs  and  a  native,  the  mushers  fol- 
lowed the  back  trail  and  found  Vint  lying  exhausted  on  the 
icy  plain  and  being  slowly  buried  under  the  drifting  snow. 
Vint  tried  to  direct  them  to  where  Carpenter  lay,  but  having 
wandered  in  every  direction  that  would  keep  the  wind-driven, 
frozen  particles  of  snow  from  striking  his  eyes,  his  ideas  as  to 
location  were  vague  and  useless. 

While  one  party  rushed  Vint  to  the  igloo,  another  contin- 
ued the  search.  Just  as  dawn  was  breaking  the  next  morning, 
they  heard  the  baying  of  a  dog.  It  was  "  Big  Jim."  For 
nearly  nine  days  this  faithful  animal  had  eaten  very  little 
food,  and  for  the  last  five  he  had  eaten  none  at  all,  but  he 
chose  to  suffer  the  pangs  of  starvation  rather  than  leave  his 
down-and-out  master  to  die  alone. 

Kissed  by  the  withering  frost,  Hunter  lost  a  few  toes,  a 
part  of  one  heel,  and  one  hand ;  Vint  paid  tribute  to  the  Bored 
King  with  the  ends  of  a  couple  of  fingers,  a  toe,  and  part  of 
his  nose.  Carpenter  sacrificed  one  foot,  both  hands,  both  ears, 
part  of  his  nose  and  finally  died  under  the  shock  of  a  third 
operation  by  which  his  remaining  foot  was  to  have  been  ampu- 
tated. 

And  the  dog?  Well,  when  we  met  him  on  the  street,  we 
raised   our   hats   to    "  Jim." 

There  are  many  tales  of  hardship  and  heroism  in  the  North 
in  which  dogs  have  done  their  part  and  more.  Even  in  con- 
nection with  the  story  told  above,  other  deeds  of  courage  and 
self-sacrifice  were  performed.     Carpenter,  physically  worse  off 


3i8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

than  either  of  his  travelling  companions,  was  taken  to  Nome 
on  a  dog  team  driven  by  Joe  Vint,  a  brother  of  one  of  the  in- 
jured men,  and  A.  D.  Nash,^  a  mail  carrier  and  intrepid 
musher.  There  were  not  dogs  enough  to  haul  all  three,  and 
the  two  other  survivors  insisted  that  Carpenter  should  be  the 
first  to  go. 

There  was,  too,  the  story  of  "  Southpaw  "  Bill  Griffith,  a 
Candle  Creek  mail  carrier,  who  in  1909,  when  crossing  Death 
Valley,  which  received  its  name  because  of  the  number  of 
mushers  who  there  perished,  took  a  repeating  shot-gun  from  his 
sled  to  kill  some  ptarmigan.  The  barrel  had  been  contracted 
by  the  cold,  and  when  Griffith  fired,  the  breech-block  blew 
out.  Penetrating  his  face  at  the  side  of  the  left  eye,  the  two- 
inch  piece  of  sharp-pointed  steel  shattered  the  bone  and  pro- 
truded again  in  front  of  the  left  ear.  Griffith  was  knocked 
down  by  the  shock.  Half  blind  and  suffering  excruciating 
agony,  he  felt  the  piece  of  steel  sticking  out  of  his  face,  and 
tried  vainly  to  dislodge  it.  Blood  pouring  copiously  from  the 
wound  stained  the  snow. 

Completely  blinded  in  the  left  optic  and  with  the  right  eye 
shedding  tears  so  profusely  that  he  could  scarcely  see,  the  mail 
carrier  deliberately  laid  his  face  in  the  snow  and  kept  it  there 

^  Nash  subsequently  again  distinguished  himself  at  the  time  of  the 
San  Francisco  earthquake,  when  he  drove  an  automobile  loaded  with 
dynamite,  that  was  badly  needed  in  the  burning  city,  from  Goldfield 
to  Reno,  Nevada,  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour.  The  machine 
jumped  and  bumped  over  the  rocks  and  ruts  in  the  primitive  road, 
but,  with  marvellous  good  luck  rather  than  judgment,  the  deadly  cargo 
did  not  explode.  With  the  certainty  that  he  was  likely  to  be  blown 
into  eternity  at  any  moment,  Nash  never  choked  down  the  throttle  or 
slackened  speed  till  he  reached  Reno,  where  a  special  train  was  wait- 
ing to  carry  the  dynamite  to  San  Francisco.  Nash,  by  the  way,  made 
a  couple  of  million  dollars  in  mining  in  Nevada,  but  he  is  remembered 
in  the  North  more  for  his  daring  courage  on  the  trail  as  a  musher 
and  a  mail  carrier  than  for  his  ability  as  a  captain  of  industry. 


DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    319 

till  it  was  frozen  solid,  thus  stopping  the  flow  of  blood.  He 
felt  his  way  back  to  the  sled  and,  unable  to  see  the  trail, 
yelled  to  his  dogs  to  "  mush  on."  Without  being  directed  the 
team  carried  him  to  a  roadhouse  at  the  head  of  Fish  River, 
nearly  sixty  miles  distant,  whence  he  was  hurried  to  a  hospital 
at  Council  City. 

Many  remarkable  feats  of  endurance  have  been  performed 
by  mushers  on  Northern  trails,  but  a  large  part  of  the  credit 
belongs  just  as  much  to  the  dogs  as  to  their  drivers.  Pounding 
the  trail,  day  in,  day  out,  several  mail  carriers  have  driven 
their  teams  an  aggregate  of  5,000  miles  during  the  eight  months 
of  the  Arctic  winter,  and  many  spectacular  one-day  runs  have 
been  made. 

Ellington  Strother  Bunch,  a  newspaper  correspondent,  when 
"  punching  dogs "  in  Alaska,  established  a  record  for  the  run 
from  Little  Delta  to  Fairbanks,  a  distance  of  102  miles,  which 
he  traversed  in  twelve  hours,  carrying  a  passenger.  The  run 
was  made  on  a  wager. 

Perhaps  the  most  brilliant  continuous  run  ever  recorded  was 
made  by  Peder  Berg,  a  young  Swede  of  superb  endurance,  who 
in  the  All-Alaska-Sweepstake  dog  race  of  1909,  covered  a  dis- 
tance of  137  miles  in  nineteen  hours. 

The  middle  distance  record  is  held  by  John  Johnson,  who 
won  the  All- Alaska-Sweepstake  dog  race  of  19 10  with  a  team 
of  Siberian  wolf-hounds,  owned  by  the  Honourable  Fox  Ram- 
say, a  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie.  Including  stops, 
Johnson  and  his  team  covered  the  distance  of  412  miles  in  71 
hours,  14  minutes  and  20  seconds.  Ramsay  drove  the  team 
that  finished  second,  but  as  he  was  joint  owner  with  his  uncle 
and  Colonel  L.  Stuart  Weatherly  in  both  teams,  he  shared  in 
the  first  prize. 

The  long  distance  records  are  held  by  Jujiro  Wada,  a  sturdy 
Japanese,  who  frequently  has  driven  his  team  into  the  wilder- 


320    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

ness  over  several  thousand  miles  of  unbroken  trail  and  unknown 
country.  For  a  vv^ager  of  $5,000  he  offered  to  drive  a  team 
from  Nome  along  the  coast  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  Hudson 
Bay,  or  some  other  point  on  the  North  Atlantic  seaboard. 

The  short  distance  record  is  held  by  Split-the-Wind,  an 
Eskimo  boy  endowed  with  wonderful  powers  of  endurance  who 
ran  thirteen  white  men  completely  off  their  legs  in  a  Marathon 
race.  In  191 1,  Split-the-Wind  defeated  the  time  made  by 
Ablakok's  racing  reindeer  team  over  the  eight  mile  course  be- 
tween Nome  and  Fort  Davis  and  return.  He  drove  a  team 
of  Missouri  hound  dogs  owned  by  Sol  Warren,  and  covered 
the  distance  in  40  minutes,  9  seconds,  which  was  nineteen  sec- 
onds less  than  the  time  consumed  by  the  racing  reindeer. 

Short  distance  dog  races  and  deer  races,  while  highly  amus- 
ing to  the  native,  are  but  the  hors-d'oeuvres  in  the  satiation  of 
the  Caucasian  appetite  of  the  North  for  sport.  The  big  event 
of  the  year  is  the  Annual  All-Alaska-Sweepstake  dog  race  from 
Nome  to  Candle  Creek  and  return,  a  distance  of  412  miles.  • 
This  event  is  a  unique,  thrilling  contest  - —  a  contest  of 
strength,  speed,  endurance,  courage  and  judgment.  It  is  an 
event  in  which  everybody  —  men,  women,  children  and 
Eskimos  —  are  interested.  For  months  before  the  race  the  en- 
tire population  "  talks  dog."  Other  subjects  of  conversation 
are  tabooed.  During  this  period  the  animals  scheduled  to  take 
part  in  the  struggle  have  the  time  of  their  lives  —  they  are 
carefully  trained  and  fed  upon  good  porterhouse  steaks  and 
other  choice  cuts  of  meat. 

The  intense  interest  in  the  sport  may  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that  when,  in  1909,  a  racing  dog  wantonly  killed  thirty- 
five  sheep  that  were  browsing  on  the  hillsides,  and  the  owner 
of  the  mutton  on  the  hoof  sued  the  proprietor  of  the  dog,  the 
jury  promptly  returned  a  verdict  to  the  effect  that  "  Alaska 
is  a  dog  country  not  a  sheep  country,"  and  that,  therefore,  the 


DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    321 

owner  of  the  horned  ruminants  was  not  entitled  to  damages. 
The  dog  racing  enthusiast  pleaded  the  "  unwritten  law  "  and 
the  jury,  by  their  verdict,  obviously  agreed  with  him  in  the 
far-fetched  theory  that  the  sheep  must  have  been  the  aggressors 
in  the  sanguinary  conflict  that  ended  so  unfortunately. 

During  the  period  of  eight  months,  when  the  residents  of 
Northwestern  Alaska  are  cut  off  from  the  civilisation  of  the 
United  States  by  the  ice  which  covers  Bering  Sea,  dog  racing 
becomes  the  one  question  of  real  importance.  Several  short 
races  are  held  during  the  winter,  but  early  in  April,  when 
daylight  is  long  and  the  trails  are  in  good  condition,  the  An- 
nual AlI-AIaska-Sweepstake  is  staged.  While  this  event  is 
in  progress  all  business  is  absolutely  suspended.  The  laundries, 
stores,  schools,  courts  and  every  other  place  of  business  with 
the  exception  of  the  saloons,  of  course,  are  closed. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  there  is  any  other  sport  in  the  world 
that  contains  so  many  elements  of  danger  and  calls  for  so  much 
endurance  and  judgment.  Across  treeless  tundras,  frozen 
streams  and  rugged  divides,  along  the  icy  coast,  and  often  in 
the  face  of  blinding  blizzards,  the  competitors,  men  and  dogs 
alike,  struggle  for  supremacy  from  start  to  finish.  The  course 
is  along  the  shores  of  Bering  Sea,  over  the  Topkok  Divide  to 
Council  City,  along  Fish  River  to  Death  Valley,  across  the 
valley,  and  down  the  Keewalik  River  to  Candle  Creek  and 
return  by  the  same  route.  It  is  a  trail  bestrewn  with  many 
obstacles.  The  time  consumed  is  generally  about  eighty  hours, 
during  which  nobody  sleeps.  The  igii  and  1912  races  were 
won  by  A.  A.  ("Scotty")  Allen,  who  drove  a  team  owned 
by  himself  and  Mrs.  C.  E.  Darling,  a  California  writer  of 
verse  and  short  stories. 

While  the  race  doubtless  is  sufficiently  exciting  for  the  com- 
petitors, it  is  not  all  that  could  be  desired  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  spectator.     To  a  considerable  extent,   it  is  a   matter  of 


322     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

mathematics  and  sustained  effort  at  computation.  The  teams 
start  fifteen  minutes  apart  and  the  one  that  covers  the  course 
in  the  least  time  is  adjudged  the  winner.  The  process  of  wit- 
nessing the  big  dog  race  at  Nome  is  about  as  follows: 

With  his  coat  well  buttoned  up  and  the  ear-flaps  of  his  fur 
cap  pulled  down  to  keep  out  the  frost,  the  onlooker  walks 
from  the  main  street  of  the  town  to  the  ice-covered  shore  of 
Bering  Sea,  where  with  a  number  of  others,  all  of  whom  ex- 
citedly are  "  talking  dog  dope,"  he  stands  around  in  the  cold 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  hears  a  shot  fired.  This  is  the 
signal  for  starting.  Immediately  following  the  detonation  of 
the  pistol,  the  spectator  sees  a  streak  of  dog,  with  a  man  and  a 
sleigh  attached  to  its  hind-most  end,  vanish  down  the  coast 
and  slowly  melt  into  the  scenery  where  the  snow  and  sky 
blend.  Then  he  returns  up-town,  warms  his  hands  at  the  saloon 
stove  and,  fifteen  minutes  later,  returns  to  the  ice-covered  sea, 
hears  another  shot,  and  watches  another  team  go  streaking 
across  the  frozen  trail.  He  continues  this  performance  ten  or 
twelve  times,  or  until  the  last  team  has  started.  Then  for 
three  days  and  three  nights,  he  stands  around  the  blackboard 
in  one  of  the  various  saloons,  leaving  only  long  enough  to  grab 
an  occasional  hasty  meal  at  a  near-by  lunch-counter,  and  with 
pencil  and  paper  computes  the  positions  of  the  different  teams 
as  reports  of  their  progress  are  received  over  the  long  distance 
telephone.  Before  the  race  is  finished,  he  has  as  many  figure- 
covered  pieces  of  paper  as  a  busy  bookmaker's  clerk  at  a  race- 
track. A  few  of  his  figures  have  to  do  with  the  bets  he  makes 
as  the  race  progresses,  but  otherwise  they  pertain  entirely  to 
mileage  and  the  effluxion  of  time. 

The  spectators  also  must  be  endowed  with  certain  powers 
of  endurance.  Once  in  a  while  an  onlooker  leaves  the  black- 
board to  phone  the  reports  to  his  home,  where,  more  than 
likely  his  wife  and  a  dozen  other  women  have  foregathered, 


DOGS,  DOG  "  PUNCHERS  "  AND  DOG  RACES    323 

each  of  them  busily  engaged  in  figuring  out  the  positions  of 
the  different  teams  and  speculating  as  to  the  winner. 

On  the  second  day,  when  the  teams  are  on  the  return  jour- 
ney, the  interest  increases,  and  by  the  time  the  teams  are 
twenty  miles  from  Nome  the  excitement  becomes  intensified, 
and  especially  so,  if  the  racers  are  only  a  short  distance  apart, 
according  to  time.  When  the  leading  team  passes  Fort  Davis, 
a  cannon  is  fired  and  everybody,  excepting  those  in  the  hos- 
pital or  otherwise  incapacitated,  immediately  finds  a  nice,  cool 
perch  on  the  ice-hummocks  of  Bering  Sea,  where  they  excitedly 
wait  till  the  winning  teams  stagger  and  limp  across  the  line  — 
and  the  race  is  over  for  another  year.  The  driver  of  the 
winning  team  is  raised  shoulder  high  and  carried  to  the  Arctic 
Brotherhood  hall,  where  a  wreath  is  placed  on  his  brow,  and 
after  this  ceremony  is  over,  he  is  rushed  to  a  Turkish  bath 
house. 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  the  drivers,  owners 
or  spectators  engage  in  this  strenuous  sport  solely  for  the  hon- 
our of  winning.  The  prize  usually  is  $10,000  in  gold  and  a 
massive  silver  loving  cup,  and  an  aggregate  of  about  $200,000 
is  wagered  on  the  result.  Of  course,  gambling  is  against  the 
law  in  Alaska,  but  wagering  on  a  dog  race  euphemistically  is 
termed  "  backing  one's  judgment,"  which  is  entirely  different 
from  gambling.     It's  more  like  dealing  on  the  stock  exchange. 

Owing  to  a  decrease  in  population  in  Northwestern  Alaska 
during  the  past  few  years  —  a  condition  largely  attributable 
to  the  fact  that  an  unwise  government  policy  forces  the  resi- 
dents to  import  their  coal  at  a  great  cost  from  Canada  —  the 
prize  money  for  the  dog  race  in  the  years  191 1  and  1912,  was 
reduced,  and  the  amounts  wagered  on  the  results  were  smaller. 

Mining  being  their  principal  business,  the  people  of  Alaska 
naturally  have  a  predilection  for  engaging  in  anything  that 
contains  within  it  an  element  of  chance,  and  this  not  unusual 


324     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

propensity  finds  its  strongest  manifestations  in  the  many  raffles 
of  cold-storage  turkeys  that  are  held  at  Thanksgiving  and 
Christmas.  Nobody  thinks  of  buying  a  turkey  —  they  all 
want  to  win  one  in  a  raffle.  They  try  to  flatter  themselves 
into  believing  that  this  is  the  cheapest  method  of  acquiring  a 
"  gobbler."  A  turkey  raffle  holds  the  same  attraction  for  a 
man  in  Alaska  that  a  department  store  bargain  sale  holds  for 
a  woman  in  the  United  States.  The  temptation  in  an  oppor- 
tunity to  obtain  something  at  a  reduced  price  is  too  great  an 
attraction  to  be  resisted.  It  frequently  happens  that  one  man 
will  win  from  fifteen  to  twenty  turkeys.  Turkey  every  day 
for  dinner  till  these  are  eaten  has  obvious  gastronomic  impos- 
sibilities, and  for  the  next  month  or  six  weeks  the  "  lucky  " 
winner  of  a  large  number  of  birds  will  diligently  and,  quite 
often  fruitlessly,  hunt  for  indigent  families  upon  whom  to 
bestow  a  portion  of  his  surplus  of  riches.  Under  these  circum- 
stances an  opportunity  to  bet  on  a  dog  race,  naturally  is  wel- 
comed. 

Dog  racing,  besides  having  within  itself  all  the  alluring  ele- 
ments of  chance  that  are  essential  to  its  popularity,  requires 
the  exercise  of  judgment  of  the  keenest  order.  One  of  the 
rules  of  the  Nome  Kennel  Club,  under  whose  management  and 
auspices  the  contests  are  held,  is  that  every  dog  must  be  regis- 
tered at  the  start  and  that  the  driver  must  return  with  the 
same  dogs,  dead  or  alive.  Therefore,  it  is  necessary  that  the 
owners  and  drivers  shall  choose  dogs  possessed  of  equal  speed 
and  endurance.  If  any  of  the  dogs  break  down  or  die  from 
exhaustion,  they  must  be  carried  on  the  sled,  and  thus  they 
prove  an  impediment  to  their  team  mates.  Lack  of  judgment 
in  this  respect  has  lost  many  races  and  many  big  wagers. 

The  Nome  Kennel  Club  was  founded  by  Albert  Fink,  an 
attorney,  ostensibly  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  breed  of 
dogs  used  in  the  country  during  the  winter  to  transport  miners 


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DOGS,  DOG  "PUNCHERS"  AND  DOG  RACES    325 

and  supplies  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another.  The 
development  of  dog  racing  was  incidental.  It  was  never 
thought  that  this  sport  would  come  to  be  ranked  of  the  same 
importance  in  Alaska  as  is  the  competition  for  the  baseball 
pennant  in  the  United  States. 

Many  different  kinds  of  dogs  are  bred  for  racing  purposes, 
and  speedy  animals  bring  high  prices.  Those  of  sufficient  class 
to  compete  in  the  Derby  of  the  North  are  sold  as  high  as  $250, 
and  as  much  as  $1,200  has  been  paid  for  a  good  leader.  The 
general  plan  of  breeding  is  to  cross  one  of  the  well-known 
species  of  speedy  dogs  with  the  native  malamute  or  husky. 
Among  the  breeds  most  favoured  are  Missouri  bird  hounds, 
great  Danes,  Airedales  and  Russian  stag-hounds. 

The  Siberian  dogs  imported  into  the  territory  by  the  Hon. 
ourable  Fox  Ramsay  and  his  partner,  Colonel  L.  Stuart  Weath- 
erly,  which  won  a  sensational  race  in  igio  and  broke  the 
time  record,  are  small  animals  with  a  trace  of  the  fox  in  their 
make-up.  Their  appearance  is  that  of  the  wolf-dog  in  minia- 
ture. The  bushy  tail,  the  thick  hair,  and  the  strong  legs,  are 
all  there,  but  the  pupil  of  the  eye  is  elliptical  in  shape,  and 
this  fact  leads  to  the  well-grounded  suspicion  that  their  an- 
cestors belonged  to  the  Reynard  family.  These  dogs  are  not 
fast,  but  possess  wonderful  endurance,  usually  making  the  412- 
mile  journey  with  but  two  or  three  hours'  rest.  The  mala- 
mutes  and  huskies,  and  all  of  their  crosses  are  faster,  but  they 
lack  the  qualities  of  endurance  possessed  by  their  Siberian 
cousins. 

Racing  and  working  dogs  arc  fed  but  once  a  day.  They  arc 
given  their  meal  after  the  day's  work  is  done,  and  then  they 
lie  down  in  the  snow  to  sleep  like  tired  children.  If  a  storm 
arises,  they  allow  the  snow  to  blow  over  them,  and,  buried  be- 
neath it,  sleep  comfortably  till  morning. 

If  their  food  is  too   hot   they  pull  the  vessel  containing  it 


326    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

into  the  snow  or  on  to  the  ice,  and  test  the  temperature  with 
their  long  tongues  until  it  is  cool  enough  to  be  eaten  without 
scalding  the  mouth.  In  summer  they  forage  for  themselves, 
catching  ptarmigan,  rabbits,  ground  squirrels  and  other  fauna. 
This  desire  to  hunt  sometimes  causes  trouble  for  the  mail  car- 
rier or  musher.  If  one  of  his  dogs  sights  a  flock  of  ptarmigan 
or  a  rabbit,  he  gives  a  peculiar  howl  which  acquaints  his  team 
mates  with  the  fact,  and  then  helter-skelter,  the  entire  team 
races  after  the  game,  dragging  the  sled  and  driver  behind  them. 
It  may  sound  like  a  fish  story,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that 
Alaskan  dogs,  when  pressed  by  hunger,  will  go  fishing,  wading 
into  the  streams  and  standing  like  statues  on  the  river  bars 
till  they  spy  a  salmon  wriggling  up  over  the  shallow.  Then, 
like  a  flash,  they  jump  for  the  fish.  Usually  the  struggle  is 
brief  and  the  dog  generally  wins. 

In  summer  a  few  Alaskan  dogs  become  afflicted  with  a  dis- 
ease called  hydrophobia,  which  is  highly  contagious,  if  they  bite 
another  animal  of  their  own  species,  but  there  never  has  been 
recorded  in  the  territory  a  case  of  a  human  dying  of  rabies. 
This  strange  malady  causes  the  dogs  to  rush  along,  snapping 
their  jaws  and  biting  at  their  own  spinal  columns;  meanwhile 
frothing  at  the  mouth  and  displaying  other  symptoms  peculiar 
to  a  mad  dog. 

Those  imported  from  the  United  States  are  called  "  out- 
side "  dogs.  Many  of  them  are  faster  than  the  Alaskan  ani- 
mals, but  they  lack  the  endurance  of  the  Northern  species,  nor 
are  they  as  well  adapted  to  the  country.  In  a  short  journey 
over  a  hard  trail,  especially  in  the  spring  when  the  snow  is 
crusted,  the  feet  of  the  outside  dog  will  be  cut  to  ribbons  and 
he  will  leave  a  trail  of  blood  wherever  he  goes.  Such  a  mis- 
fortune rarely  befalls  the  native  animal.  The  years  that  his 
ancestors  have  lived  in  the  Northern  environment  have  evolved 
a   foot   that   is  impervious  to   the   hard  cutting  edges   of   the 


DOGS,  DOG  "  PUNCH  KRS"  AND  DOG  RACES    327 

crusted  snow,  and,  besides  that,  hair  grows  right  down  to  the 
tips  of  the  toes  as  a  protection  against  the  rigorous  climate. 

When  pressed  for  food,  Northern  dogs  are  not  above  com- 
mitting acts  of  cannibalism,  and  there  are  many  cases  on  record 
in  Alaska,  where  mushers,  In  desperate  straits,  have  eaten  their 
dogs  to  save  their  lives. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES 

Slumbering  craters  spread  along  Aleutian  Islands  and  mainland  con- 
tiguous —  How  they  spring  into  life  at  intermittent  periods  — 
Ever  changing  they  are  filled  with  surprises  for  navigators  and 
natives  alike  —  Islands  appear  and  disappear  beneath  waves  — 
Two  continents  may  yet  be  made  one  by  seismic  disturbances. 

SMOKING  and  quavering  —  now  and  again  with  sub- 
terranean rumblings,  at  times  with  loud  detonations  as 
of  a  thousand  thunder  crashes  rolled  into  one  —  more 
than  twenty  volcanoes  are  in  more  or  less  active  eruption  in 
Alaska,  scattering  sand  and  volcanic  dust  over  the  landscape. 
Sometimes  this  rain  of  ash  is  a  light  veneer;  but,  in  the  summer 
of  19 12,  when  a  new  volcano  burst  through  the  mass  of  rock 
and  muck  that  for  years  had  choked  it,  the  top  was  blown  ofi 
Mount  Katmai.  The  fall  of  ash  on  Kodiak  Island  and  along 
the  shores  of  Shelikof  Strait  that  followed  the  explosion  at- 
tained a  depth  of  from  one  to  twenty  feet. 

Alaska  is  always  spectacular.  Its  slumbering  craters,  spread 
along  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  on  the  mainland  contiguous 
thereto,  at  intermittent  periods  and  sometimes  with  dramatic 
suddenness,  spring  into  active  life. 

To  the  eastward,  just  off  the  line  of  travel  to  Bering  Sea, 
lay  those  ever-changing  pieces  of  real  estate  —  Bogosloff  Is- 
lands. Thrusting  themselves  up  from  beneath  the  brine,  as 
though  impelled  by  some  colossal  Atlas,  and  again  subsiding 
beneath  the  waves  —  one  day  churning  the  ocean  into  a  caul- 
dron of  scalding  water,  killing  millions  of  fishes  and  birds  and 
seals,  and  the  next  sinking  from  sight  and  leaving  a  calm  and 

328 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  329 

placid  sea  where  before  mammoth  peaks  had  stood  —  these 
islands  are  something  with  which  scientists  conjure. 

Within  the  past  ten  years  Alaska  has  been  the  scene  of  al- 
most every  phenomenon  known  to  science.  New  islands  have 
been  formed,  older  ones  have  been  destroyed ;  earthquakes 
have  shaken  millions  of  tons  of  glacial  ice  from  mountain  tops 
where  it  was  lodged  aeons  ago ;  submarine  convulsions  have 
buried  the  deep-sea  cable  beneath  thousands  of  tons  of  rock 
and  debris.  These  are  the  signs  of  a  constant  struggle  of  the 
elements,  which  indicate  that  maybe  a  new  and  mighty  conti- 
nent is  in  the  throes  of  labour. 

Few  of  the  Alaskan  volcanoes  are  constantly  violent.  Some 
continuously  send  forth  a  thin  column  of  smoke,  some  emit 
poisonous  gases,  and  still  others,  after  sleeping  peacefully  for 
many  years,  suddenly  break  forth  into  startling  activity. 

Such  an  eruption  was  witnessed  on  June  6,  1912,  from  Shel- 
ikof  Strait  by  the  passengers  on  the  steamship  Dora.  It  was 
spectacular  and  awe-inspiring  to  the  last  degree;  yet,  consider- 
ing the  magnitude  of  the  cataclysm,  little  damage  was  done. 
So  far  as  is  known  the  lives  of  only  three  natives  were  lost. 

Sailing  this  landlocked  sheet  of  water  in  beautiful  weather, 
lazily  watching  the  dolphins  playing  In  the  blue  and  white 
waves  that  purled  back  from  the  prow  of  the  ship,  the  passen- 
gers were  suddenly  appalled  by  a  succession  of  quick,  sharp 
reports,  which  seemed  to  emanate  from  the  shore  about  sixty 
miles  distant.  The  crepitation  was  followed  by  small  tidal 
waves,  which  caused  the  vessel  to  oscillate  violently.  It  was 
noticed  that  Mount  Katmai  —  formerly  an  extinct  volcano  — 
was  smoking. 

A  terrific  detonation,  the  concussion  of  which  stunned  many 
of  the  voyagers,  was  heard.  Panic-stricken,  they  stared  at  the 
mountain  in  the  distance.  More  terrifying  explosions,  culmina- 
ting in  one  more  deafening  than  all   the  rest  combined   and 


330    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

which    gave    the   sensation    of    shredded    ear-drums,    followed. 

"  Had  the  world  exploded  ?  "  they  wondered. 

Big  columns  of  smoke  and  flame  belched  from  the  peak. 
They  looked  again.  The  topography  of  the  country  was 
changed!  The  whole  top  of  the  mountain  was  missing! 
Floating  miles  high  above  it,  like  an  inky  pall,  was  a  gigantic 
black  cloud. 

With  the  speed  of  an  express-train  the  bank  of  smoke  began 
to  spread  out  like  a  huge  fan,  one  wing  of  it  coming  rapidly 
toward  the  vessel.     It  seemed  an  overhanging  emblem  of  death. 

Immediately  the  ship  headed  for  the  open  sea.  The  terrible 
thing  above  —  hideous,  relentless,  deathly  —  followed.  It  was 
weird,  uncanny.  There  seemed  no  escape.  Forced-draught 
and  a  full  head  of  steam  availed  little  in  the  race.  The  cloud 
above  was  gaining.  For  two  hours  firemen  below  decks 
sweated  and  toiled,  shovelling  coal  into  the  furnace,  but  the 
terrible  cloud,  hovering  above  like  a  death-angel,  came  nearer 
and  nearer.  Its  close  approach  to  the  fleeing  ship  was  her- 
alded by  thousands  of  sea-fowl  and  shore-birds  that  scudded, 
squawking  and  shrieking,  before  it.  The  bright  sunshine  was 
transformed  into  twilight,  and  within  an  hour  the  vessel  was 
enveloped  in  darkness  so  dense  that  the  water  could  not  be 
seen  from  the  decks  and  a  lamp  was  held  close  to  the  couipass  in 
order  properly  to  direct  the  vessel's  course.  Many  birds, 
wounded  and  exhausted,  fell  dying  all  over  the  ship.  The 
darkness  was  complete,  absolute. 

Blinding  flashes  of  lightning  now  and  again  rent  the  atmos- 
phere, leaving  the  outlines  of  the  ship  standing  out  —  an  in- 
tangible spectre  in  the  ghastly  glare.  Like  a  duel  between  big 
batteries  of  heavy  artillery,  the  detonations  continued,  occa- 
sionally subsiding  to  a  loud  rumble.  Volcanic  ash  fell  in 
clouds  and  pumice  pebbles  pattered  on  the  deck  like  buckshot. 
Stifling,  suffocating  gases  vitiated  the  air  and  breathing  was 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  331 

accomplished  with  difficulty  and  agony.  The  passengers 
sought  their  staterooms,  only  the  officers  and  crew  remaining 
on  deck. 

An  electric  storm,  accompanied  by  terrifying  crashes  of 
thunder  and  streaks  of  forked  lightning  that  played  clear  across 
the  heavens,  added  to  the  horror  of  the  phantasmal  scene. 
The  explosions  ceased  and  a  wind  sprang  up  causing  the  sea 
to  churn  and  the  ship  to  rock  and  pitch  in  violent  motion. 
Sparks  of  lightning  danced,  ghost-like,  in  the  Stygian  darkness 
across  the  gap  in  the  wireless  instrument,  but  despite  this,  the 
operator  stuck  to  his  key  and  endeavoured  to  call  Kodiak,  a 
small  town  on  the  island.  He  received  no  answer.  The  land 
station  had  been  struck  by  lightning. 

Two  ships,  running  for  safety,  scudded  by  in  the  ominous 
pall.  Between  the  intermittent  reverberations  of  the  belching 
mountain  and  the  crashing  of  the  thunder,  the  bells  and  fog 
signals  of  the  other  vessels  were  heard. 

Suddenly  the  wind  assumed  the  velocity  of  a  cyclone,  shriek- 
ing and  whistling  wildly  through  the  shrouds  like  a  chorus  of 
lost  souls.  Passengers,  affrighted  and  avi'e-stricken,  watched 
and  heard.  The  captain  bellowed  his  orders  from  the  bridge 
through  a  megaphone;  the  tempest  hurled  his  words  back  into 
his  throat.  Waves,  weighing  tons,  dashed  over  the  fore  part 
of  the  vessel  and  washed  it  clean  of  ashes. 

The  passengers,  already  nearly  suffocating,  were  seized  with 
violent  paroxysms  of  coughing  and  all  felt  miserably.  The 
cries  of  wounded  and  dying  birds  as  they  fell  on  the  deck  and 
into  the  sea,  added  to  the  eerie  weirdness  of  the  surroundings. 
For  ten  hours  the  vessel  groped  and  struggled  through  the 
stupendous  waves  that  tossed  angrily,  like  miniature  mountains 
of  seething  water.  Then  the  air  became  thinner  —  there  was 
less  dust. 

From   darkness  the   ship   merged   into   a   sickly   yellow  twi- 


332     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

light,  through  which  the  sun  shone  like  a  fiery  red  sphere.  Be- 
hind, like  some  immutable  monster  of  death,  was  the  great 
black  cloud,  spreading  out  and  covering  an  area  of  I0,000 
square  miles.  It  looked  as  though  it  would  envelop  the  earth. 
Further  beyond,  the  growling  mountain  spasmodically  coughed 
up  columns  of  smoke  and  sheets  of  flame  in  violent,  jerking  con- 
vulsions, and,  as  forked  lightning  played  about  the  great  orifice 
on  the  top  of  the  crater,  darting  here  and  there  like  writhing 
snake-tongues  of  blue  and  yellow  flame,  the  passengers  shud- 
deringly  surveyed  the  scene  through  the  sub-Arctic  twilight, 
and  spoke  only  in  hushed  and  husky  whispers.  The  spectacle 
was  magnificent;  but  awe-inspiring  and  dreadful  in  its  mag- 
nificence. 

Dust  and  soot  were  everywhere.  Foreign  elements  per- 
meated the  food,  the  dishes,  the  kitchen-ware,  the  remotest 
parts  of  the  ship.  Eyes,  ears,  noses,  and  lungs,  were  filled 
with  ashes;  clothes  reeked  with  white  sand  and  the  pores  of 
the  skin  were  choked  with  grime.  For  nearly  twenty  hours 
the  vessel  had  been  swaddled  by  the  cloud.  Emerging  into 
clear  air,  her  decks  were  covered  a  foot  deep  with  sand  and  ash. 
It  was  a  terrifying  experience,  yet  none  of  those  who  passed 
through  it  felt  any  ill  effects  afterwards. 

The  country  within  a  radius  of  hundreds  of  miles  of  the 
volcano  was  covered  with  ash  and  sand,  but  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  fall  was  heavier  on  the  westerly  side  than  on  the 
easterly  side  of  Kodiak  Island,  although  the  easterly  side  is 
closer  to  the  mountain.  For  several  days  after  the  eruption 
the  water  was  tainted  with  sulphuric  acid.  Many  millions  of 
fishes  were  killed  by  the  subterranean  concussions.  One  of 
the  remarkable  phenomena  in  connection  with  the  eruption 
was  the  changing  of  all  red  paint  to  a  dull  brown  colour,  and 
the  blackening  of  all  silver  and  brass  ware.  Fishing  was  sus- 
pended for  several  days  at  the  canneries  adjacent  to  the  crater 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  333 

because  of  the  damage  done  the  streams  to  which  the  sahnon 
run  from  the  sea  to  spawn. 

Bogosloff  Islands,  those  pieces  of  real  estate  upon  which  it 
would  be  impossible  to  levy  taxes  because  of  their  habit  of  doing 
the  disappearing  trick,  have  gone  through  many  transforma- 
tions. It  —  or  they  —  was  first  noted  in  1790  as  one  island, 
by  the  Russian  admiral,  Bogoslofif.  When  the  United  States 
took  over  the  territory  the  island  had  multiplied  itself  into 
two.  The  new  addition  to  the  island  family  was  named  "  Cas- 
tle Rock,"  because  it  was  a  mere  rock  shaped  like  a  castle. 

Then  the  original  island  grew  larger,  and  later  a  second 
one,  known  as  the  New  Bogosloff,  appeared.  Still  later,  a 
strip  of  land  connecting  the  two  thrust  up  from  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  much  to  the  astonishment  of  navigators  who  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  sailing  between  the  two  while  hunting  sea  lions 
on  their  shores.  New  Bogosloff  was  created  in  the  winter  of 
1886-87.  It  was  born  about  four  miles  from  the  old  Bogosloff 
and  has  remained  stationary  ever  since.  In  1 905-06,  a  new 
volcanic  island  known  as  the  "  Metcalf-Perry  Peak  "  was  thrust 
up  between  the  two  islands.  In  1 906-07  there  appeared  an- 
other small  upthrust  of  land  which  was  named  "  McCulluch 
Peak "  in  honour  of  the  officers  aboard  the  U.  S.  revenue 
cutter  McCulluch  by  whom  it  w\is  first  observed.  In  October, 
1907,  "  McCulluch  Peak  "  disappeared,  and  on  July  7,  1908, 
the  "  Metcalf-Perry  "  Peak  split  into  halves  and  one  half  sank 
to  a  watery  grave.  There  was  created  In  its  place  a  long, 
narrow  band  of  rock  joining  the  Old  and  New  Bogosloff  Is- 
lands into  one  parcel  of  realty. 

The  crew  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Albatross,  In  1908,  while  trawling 
off  the  islands,  observed  the  surface  of  the  ocean  rising  in  a 
gigantic,  dome-like,  swelling,  suggestive  of  a  colossal  soap- 
bubble  pushing  its  way  through  the  water,  and  then  sub- 
siding.    This    occurred    several    times,    and    before    each    sub- 


334    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

sidence  there  was  a  tremendous  escape  of  gas.  Then  gigantic 
clouds  of  smoke  and  steam  issued  from  the  place  where  the 
humps  of  water  had  been  seen.  As  the  astonished  officers  and 
crew  watched,  the  eruption  gradually  grew  in  immensity  until 
it  appeared  as  though  it  would  reach  the  sky.  The  spectacle 
which  they  witnessed  doubtless  was  a  subterranean  volcano 
growing  into  activity,  and  which  later  added  bulk  to  the 
Bogosloffs. 

On  September  19,  1910,  another  new  island  was  born,  the 
officers  and  crew  of  the  revenue  cutter  Tahonia  being  eye- 
witnesses to  the  accouchement.  When  twenty-five  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  island,  the  vessel  encountered  a  terrific  electrical 
Btorm,  an  unusual  condition  in  that  region.  Surmising  that 
the  island  was  "  cutting  a  few  capers,"  Captain  Johnstone  H. 
Quinan  headed  his  vessel  for  Bogosloff.  An  immense  black 
cloud  was  hanging  over  the  islands.  As  the  vessel  approached, 
it  was  seen  that  a  column  of  smoke  and  flame  was  spouting 
like  a  geyser  from  the  sea.  Lightning,  forked  and  wicked, 
dazzled  the  eye  as  it  darted  through  the  inky  clouds,  suffusing 
sea  and  sky  to  the  horizon.  The  sultry  air  was  rent  by  ear- 
splitting  crashes  of  thunder. 

Fire  Island  was  barely  distinguishable  through  the  heavy 
clouds  of  ashes,  and,  when  the  revenue  cutter  arrived  within 
ten  miles,  it  was  plainly  observed  that  molten  lava,  rock,  steam, 
and  smoke,  were  being  shot  into  the  air  from  the  centre  of  a 
salt-lagoon  that  had  been  formed  on  one  spur  of  the  island. 
Titanic  forces  were  at  work  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  beneath 
the  sea-floor,  creating  a  prodigious  disturbance,  generating  tre- 
mendous heat  and  making  a  circling  wind  that  could  be  felt 
for  several  miles  distant. 

The  vast  amount  of  red-hot  lava  emanating  from  the  sea 
covered  the  Tahoma  with  volcanic  sand  and  pumice.  It  was 
found  necessary  to  hose-down  the  decks  and  to  make  for  the 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  335 

leeward  of  the  island.  At  a  distance  of  six  miles  the  tempera- 
ture was  uncomfortably  warm.  From  a  distance  of  four  miles, 
the  island  was  photographed  by  Lieutenant  Bagger.  Streaks  of 
red-hot  lava  and  flame  could  be  seen  through  the  column  of 
smoke,  steam,  and  ashes,  that  ascended  to  an  elevation  of  half 
a  mile.  The  steam  and  smoke  raised  its  head  in  billowy  clouds, 
covering  the  heavens. 

Far  beyond  was  another  pyrotechnic  display,  in  which  great 
masses  of  fire  rose  and  fell,  scattering  sparks  and  hot  rocks 
all  over  the  island  and  into  the  sea. 

Several  weeks  later,  when  the  volcano  had  subsided,  revenue 
officers  found  there  an  insecure  footing  on  a  land  of  hot  ashes 
and  baked  mud,  from  the  centre  of  which  there  spouted  a  large 
column  of  scalding  water.  The  loud  rumbling  from  beneath 
the  surface  made  it  necessary  for  the  investigators  to  shout  to 
each  other  in  order  to  be  heard  for  a  distance  of  only  a  few 
feet. 

In  addition  to  the  lava  lying  on  the  new-born  land,  evidence 
of  the  terrific  heat  was  to  be  found  everywhere.  All  over 
the  island  lay  the  skeletons  of  many  birds,  which  had  been 
roasted  to  death  as  they  alighted  upon  the  land  to  rest  from 
their  long  sea  flights.  These  bird  skeletons,  scattered  in  thou- 
sands along  the  rocks,  were  so  affected  by  the  heat  and  fumes 
that  they  disintegrated  into  a  fine  white  powder  the  moment 
they  were  handled. 

An  effort  was  made  to  take  a  moving  picture  of  Bogosloflf 
in  eruption,  in  191 1.  A  small  schooner  was  chartered  for  the 
purpose,  but  with  the  perverseness  and  unreliability  for  which 
they  are  noted,  the  islands  refused  to  erupt  while  the  moving- 
picture  camera  and  its  operator  were  in  sight. 

Volcanoes  are  temperamentally  hysterical,  peculiarly  impul- 
sive, erratic  and  petulant.  Just  about  the  time  that  a  pho- 
tographer gets  his  camera  focusscd  upon  a  harmless  appearing 


336    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

column  of  smoke,  the  crater  is  just  as  likely  as  not  to  heave  a 
cough  that  sends  thousands  of  tons  of  volcanic  ash  and  rock 
scattering  over  the  landscape.  Nearly  always  a  volcano  can 
be  depended  upon  to  do  the  thing  that  is  least  expected. 

Taking  photographs  of  volcanoes  for  many  reasons,  most  of 
which  are  obvious,  is  not  always  attended  with  success,  but  the 
pastime  inevitably  is  productive  of  a  certain  degree  of  excite- 
ment. 

Besides  the  spectacular  Bogoslofif  volcanoes,  there  is  "  Old 
Moses,"  on  Nunivak  Island.  He  belches  up  a  small  stream 
of  fire  at  all  times  and  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  but  is  not 
often  excessively  violent.  "  Old  Moses  "  for  a  long  time  was 
used  for  a  beacon-light  by  navigators  sailing  from  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Ocean  into  Bering  Sea,  but  with  the  natural  an- 
tipathy for  doing  anything  useful  that  is  manifested  by  almost 
every  volcano,  this  old  curmudgeon  began  to  quench  his  fires 
in  the  spring  and  fall  —  the  seasons  when  Unimak  Pass  is  most 
used  by  vessels  plying  between  Nome  and  Seattle.  The  gov- 
ernment finally  tired  of  his  vagaries  and  erected  a  permanent 
lighthouse  at  this  point. 

Much  of  the  history  of  the  Alaskan  volcanic  zone  has  been 
written  in  the  last  few  years,  and  a  part  of  it  has  been  pre- 
served in  the  legends  of  the  natives  indigenous  to  this  region. 
According  to  traditions  of  the  Aleuts,  Mount  Chernarboro  that 
is  now  known  as  St.  Augustine,  situated  at  the  entrance  to 
Cook  Inlet,  was  inhabited  a  long  time  ago  by  a  pair  of  bel- 
ligerent gods. 

One  was  the  god  of  fire  and  one  was  the  god  of  water. 
They  became  involved  in  a  battle  which  resulted  in  the  blow- 
ing ofif  of  the  mountain-top  and  in  a  rain  of  flame  and  molten 
rock  falling  upon  the  domiciles  of  the  people.  Poor  Lo  was 
forced  to  seek  a  home  upon  the  mainland. 

Because   of   the   advantages   in  otter-hunting  that   Chernar- 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  337 

boro  offered,  that  place  again  became  the  habitat  of  a  large 
tribe  of  natives.  After  a  slumber  of  many  years  the  volcano 
awakened  in  many  new  places,  tearing  a  side  out  of  the  moun- 
tain and  throwing  it  down  the  hill  to  lodge  with  a  crash  upon 
the  native  village.  Those  natives  who  escaped  never  returned, 
and  to  this  day  their  descendants  will  not  inhabit  this  section. 

Chernarboro  for  many  years  has  given  off  a  light  smoke  and 
sulphurous  gas,  but  the  volume  of  the  smoke-cloud  increased 
tremendously  during  the  recent  eruption  of  Mount  Katmai. 
Far  down  the  side  of  the  mountain  can  be  seen  the  tremendous 
chunks  that  were  blown  from  its  top  and  sides  when  the  cata- 
clysm of  the  native  legends  occurred.  The  top  of  the  crater 
is  marked  by  the  bleached  skeletons  of  many  birds  and  animals 
that  ventured  too  close  to  the  poisonous  gases. 

Usually  the  crater  is  cold,  but,  once  in  a  while,  it  gives  a 
mammoth  belch  that  is  indicative  of  its  old  time  strength.  The 
legend  of  the  natives  is  corroborated  by  old  Russian  charts 
made  previous  to  1825  which  indicate  that  a  navigable  chan- 
nel formerly  existed  between  St.  Augustine  and  the  mainland. 

Akutan  Volcano,  situated  on  Akutan  Island,  is  a  very  busy 
little  noise-maker.  Like  its  kindred,  it  works  spasmodically, 
lying  asleep  for  a  few  days,  weeks,  or  months,  and  then,  when 
everyone  is  lulled  to  a  sense  of  peace  and  security,  arousing  the 
neighbourhood  and  frightening  the  wits  out  of  the  native 
Aleuts  by  a  riot  of  violent  explosions  that  sound  as  though 
electric  sparks  were  being  contacted  with  bomb-factories.  At 
each  crash  a  puff  of  smoke  ascends,  and  this  descends  later  in 
a  cloud  of  volcanic-ash. 

Pogrumo,  on  Unimak  Island,  is  more  gentle,  more  refined  in 
its  actions.  It  acts  like  a  well-trained,  hand-fed  pony,  and  is 
really  a  nice,  clean,  little  volcano.  It  never  becomes  exceed- 
ingly violent,  and  never  is  so  ill-mannered  as  to  throw  cinders 
over  the  beautiful,  white  robe  of  snow  in  which  Nature  keeps 


338     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

it  garbed.  Nor  does  it  indulge  in  the  turbulent,  ill-bred, 
paroxysms  of  coughing  and  belching  that  distinguish  the  man- 
ners of  its  less  cultured  kinfolk.  Usually  a  slow,  hazy,  good- 
natured-looking  wisp  of  smoke  floats  away  from  its  cap  —  six 
thousand  feet  above  sea-level  —  much  resembling  the  product 
of  a  clear  Havana  rolling  from  the  mouth  of  some  lacka- 
daisical giant  who  is  too  indolent  to  exhale  a  deep  breath. 

Pavloff,  rising  9,000  feet  above  sea-level  on  the  eastern  end 
of  the  Alaska  Peninsula,  on  the  contrary,  is  exceedingly  stren- 
uous and  volatile.  It  is  the  most  violently  active  of  all  the 
Alaskan  volcanoes.  It  is  so  unreliable  and  performs  such  un- 
expected antics,  that  it  has  become  known  as  "  Old  Pop-off." 
The  name  aptly  describes  it.  The  only  certain  thing  about 
this  volcano  is  the  uncertainty  of  what  it  will  do  next. 

Unlike  gentle  Pogrumo,  Pavloff  in  its  fits  of  temper,  musses 
up  the  landscape  by  scattering  inky  black  and  dirty  grey  ashes 
for  miles  around,  much  to  the  annoyance  and  discomfort  of  its 
neighbours  —  the  Shumagin  Islands.  These  islands,  although 
sixty  miles  away,  cannot  escape  from  the  grime  and  ash  with 
which  Pavloff  pollutes  the  atmosphere.  At  the  time  when  the 
New  Bogosloff  was  born  from  the  sea,  Pavloff,  as  though 
voicing  its  disapproval  and  jealousy,  became  violently  angry, 
and  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  long,  crashing,  cannonading, 
threw  hot  rocks,  sand,  lava  and  ash,  into  the  air  and  all  over 
the  scenery. 

Makushan,  near  Unalaska,  plainly  seen  from  Dutch  Har- 
bor, was  discovered  by  the  Russians.  He  Is  a  more  inveterate 
smoker  than  the  late  Mark  Twain,  once  in  a  while  stopping  to 
get  a  fresh  light  —  though  not  often  nor  for  long.  Close  to  his 
smoking  mouth  are  large  deposits  of  pure  sulphur  upon  which 
considerable  exploratory  work  has  been  done.  Natives  are 
afraid  of  him,  but  for  an  outrageous  stipend  of  fifty  dollars  a 
day  they  will  guide  inquisitive  visitors  to  the  lips  of  his  crater. 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  339 

Makushan  Is  surrounded  by  a  number  of  pot  holes  beneath 
the  snow.  These  are  formed  by  bolh'ng  springs  which  burst 
up  in  unexpected  places,  and  are  a  constant  menace  to  the  ex- 
plorer. Iron-rods  stuck  into  the  ground  near  the  mouth  of 
the  crater,  become  white  hot. 

Kupreanoff  Volcano,  situated  at  the  head  of  Stepavok  Bay, 
and  named  after  an  old  Russian  trader  whose  principal  ambi- 
tion in  life  —  tradition  says  —  was  to  make  life  miserable  for 
the  Indians,  is  unique.  Its  crater  lies  in  the  centre  of  a  field 
of  glacial  ice,  centuries  old,  and  one  may  step  in  a  few  minutes 
from  a  point  that  is  hotter  than  Panama  to  another  that  is 
as  cold  as  the  North  Pole.  The  smoke  and  steam  rises  through 
the  crevasses  in  the  ice  in  a  hundred  different  places,  and  as 
these  steaming  cracks  are  scattered  over  a  w'ldt  area,  the  orifice 
of  the  volcano  never  has  been  located  definitely. 

Becharoff,  on  Becharoff  Lake,  near  Cold  Bay,  is  often  re- 
ported by  prospectors  to  be  addicted  to  the  smoking  habit.  But 
as  it  is  somewhat  isolated  from  the  general  line  of  travel,  little 
is  known  about  it,  and  the  reports  may  be  slanders. 

Redoubt,  situated  on  Cook  Inlet,  is  another  volcano  that 
has  a  deplorable  predilection  for  springing  into  violent  activity 
at  unexpected  moments.  It  not  only  emits  much  sulphurous 
smoke  itself,  but  it  causes  mail-carriers  and  "  mushers  "  to  emit 
much  sulphurous  language.  It  is  about  2,000  feet  high,  and 
usually  puffs  out  light  harmless  clouds.  Every  once  in  a  while, 
however,  something  goes  wrong  with  its  digestive  organs,  and 
then  it  throws  up  tremendous  masses  of  ash  and  sand  which 
settle  on  the  snow  and  make  sleighing  almost  impossible  — 
hence  the  avalanches  of  lurid  language  from  the  "  mushers." 
During  the  recent  slight  unpleasantness,  when  the  top  of  Mount 
Katmai  was  blown  to  smithereens,  Redoubt  became  disagree- 
ably active  and  scattered  volcanic  matter  for  several  miles 
around. 


340    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Illiamna,  with  three  distinct  volcanoes,  towers  10,000  to 
12,000  feet  above  sea-level.  It  is  adjacent  to  Cook's  Inlet, 
but,  as  it  offers  nothing  in  the  way  of  mineral  to  the  prospector, 
it  never  has  been  thoroughly  investigated.  Mount  Illiamna  was 
in  violent  eruption  in  1854,  at  which  time  it  discoloured  the 
landscape  by  depositing  volcanic  ash  and  pumice  over  the  con- 
tiguous country.  The  name  is  said  to  be  an  old  Russian  word 
meaning  "  monument."  The  natives  declare  that  Illiamna  is 
the  home  of  a  monstrous  fish  which  lives  part  of  its  time  in 
Lake  Illiamna,  and  part  in  the  mountain.  They  believe  this 
leviathan  is  ever  on  the  watch  to  catch  the  unwary  prospector 
or  fisherman.  As  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  their  legends, 
they  know  of  many  Indians  and  some  white  men  who  attempted 
to  cross  the  lake  and  never  returned.  The  lake  is  the  largest 
body  of  fresh  water  in  Alaska.  It  frequently  is  swept  by  ter- 
rific gales.  It  is  eighty  miles  long,  and  eight  to  ten  miles  in 
width  —  somewhat  larger  than  Long  Island  Sound. 

Although  its  surface  is  only  fifty  feet  above  sea-level,  it  is 
several  hundred  feet  deep,  and  in  some  places  the  bottom  has 
not  been  found.  Lake  Clark,  with  which  Illiamna  is  connected 
by  a  small  stream,  is  more  than  fifty  miles  long  but  very  nar- 
row. The  surface  of  Lake  Clark  is  220  feet  above  the  tides 
but  it  is  more  than  600  feet  deep.  It  is  believed  that  both 
lakes,  originally,  were  formed  by  volcanoes  burning  out  the 
inside  of  the  mountain  and  allowing  the  walls  to  collapse. 

Douglas  is  a  peculiar  volcano,  situated  near  the  entrance  to 
Cook  Inlet,  and  belching  up  from  beneath  a  number  of  small 
glaciers  —  about  the  size  of  those  found  in  Switzerland  —  it 
resembles  a  South  Sea  squid.  Its  black  tentacles  of  lava  ex- 
tend down  the  hillsides  of  bluish-white  ice  like  the  feelers  of 
an  octopus.  It  is  one  of  the  most  reliable,  steady  smokers  in 
the  business  and  is  not  afflicted,  generally,  with  convulsions. 

There  is  a  small  active  volcano  on  Attu  Island,  the  eastern- 


SPECTACULAR  VOLCANOES  341 

most  piece  of  land  on  the  Aleutian  Chain,  The  few  poverty- 
stricken  natives  living  there,  who  are  visited  occasionally  by 
traders  and  revenue  cutter  men,  seem  unafraid  of  it. 

The  Aleutian  Islands  are  all  more  or  less  of  volcanic  forma- 
tion, but  the  smoking  volcanoes  —  as  has  been  shown  —  are 
by  no  means  limited  to  the  islands.  There  are  hundreds  of 
cold  and  dead  craters  throughout  this  section  of  Alaska  and,  as 
they  are  a  somewhat  uncertain  quantity,  they  may  awaken  and 
give  a  fire-works  show  for  the  edification  of  the  natives  at  al- 
most any  time. 

It  is  certain  that  beneath  the  Northern  Pacific  Ocean  many 
subterranean  fires  are  burning,  and  there  are  those  who  believe 
that  this  condition  ultimately  will  be  the  means  of  linking  the 
American  continent  to  Siberia. 

Bering  Sea,  the  charts  show,  gradually  is  becoming  shal- 
lower. While  this  in  some  cases  is  due  to  subterranean  activ- 
ity, there  is  no  doubt  that  the  heavy  deposition  from  the  glacial 
streams  have  considerable  to  do  with  this  result. 

The  bottom  of  Bering  Sea  is  a  level  valley,  covered  by  only 
a  few  fathoms  of  water.  It  is  not  beyond  the  possibilities  of 
Nature  that  a  subterranean  upheaval  is  liable  to  raise  the  pres- 
ent sea-floor  to  water-level  and  thus  make  one  continent  stand 
where  two  stood  before. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  ALASKA 

Meal  prices  vary  according  to  location  —  Cheap  in  accessible  places  — 
Transportation  problem  is  important  factor  —  Prospectors  depend 
on  country's  resources  for  subsistence  —  Cabinet  officer  given  din- 
ner composed  of  game,  wild  berries  and  vegetables. 

THE  high  cost  of  living  in  Alaska  despite  a  general 
impression  to  the  contrary  —  is  not  a  more  difficult 
problem  than  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  The 
cost  of  living  in  the  North  is  purely  a  matter  of  location.  In 
those  places  in  Alaska  which  are  easily  accessible,  food  stuffs 
are  sold  at  about  the  same  price,  plus  the  freight,  as  in  the 
States.  Meals  are  sold  at  Juneau,  Skagway,  Seward,  Cordova, 
Valdez  and  other  points  along  the  coast  at  a  slight  advance  of 
the  prices  that  prevail  in  the  leading  cities  on  the  Pacific  sea- 
board farther  south. 

The  food  problem  and  the  transportation  problem  are  insep- 
arably linked.  Where  freight  charges  run  up  as  high  as  $20O 
per  ton,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  food  prices  will  be  pro- 
portionately altitudinous. 

There  is  one  other  factor,  though,  that  plays  a  part  in  the 
problem  in  so  far  as  inaccessible  districts  are  concerned.  This 
is  the  wild  game  and  fish  which  the  country  furnishes.  In 
places  where  moose,  caribou  and  deer  are  plentiful,  the  pros- 
pectors dry  large  quantities  of  meat  in  the  winter  season  for 
use  the  following  summer,  when  most  of  their  time  is  devoted 
to  searching  for  mineral.  In  places  where  there  is  a  scarcity 
of  large  game,  there  always  is  an  abundance  of  ptarmigan  or 
spruce-hens  in  the  winter,  and  myriads  of  ducks,  geese,  snipe, 

342 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  ALASKA         343 

and  other  game  birds  in  the  summer.  These  are  pickled  or 
made  into  sausage  to  be  eaten  during  busy  seasons. 

Many  prospectors  and  explorers  have  been  known  to  travel 
thousands  of  miles  in  Alaska  with  nothing  more  than  a  rifle, 
a  sack  of  salt  and  plenty  of  ammunition.  Several  years  ago, 
together  with  a  number  of  others,  I  lived  for  nearly  six  months 
at  the  headwaters  of  the  Mackenzie  River,  and  we  had  little 
other  food  than  moose  meat.  We  were  in  a  country  that  was 
untravelled  by  either  white  men  or  Indians,  and  naturally 
game  of  every  kind  was  plentiful. 

The  amount  of  moose  meat  that  a  healthy  man  will  eat  in  a 
cold  country,  when  he  has  little  or  no  other  food,  is  almost 
beyond  belief.  The  appetite  seems  insatiable.  In  the  cabin 
in  which  I  lived  with  four  others,  we  cooked,  every  day,  a 
copper-kettle  the  size  of  a  five-gallon  oil  can  filled  with  moose 
meat.  We  ate  moose  steaks  for  breakfast  and  roast  or  baked 
moose  meat  for  dinner.  The  boiled  meat  we  consumed  be- 
tween meals.  We  had  coffee,  tea,  a  little  rice  —  about  enough 
for  a  few  spoonfuls  each,  once  a  week  —  a  little  flour  of  which 
we  made  gravy  and  an  occasional  loaf  of  bread,  and  an  abun- 
dance of  salt.  In  long  journeys  on  snowshoes,  or  over  the 
trail  in  the  spring,  we  chewed  dry  moose  meat  between  meals. 
Cream,  sugar,  butter,  eggs,  bacon,  and  potatoes,  were  deli- 
cacies that  we  remembered  having  tasted  away  back  in  the 
dim  and  misty  past.  This  bill-of-fare  was  continued  for  six 
months,  less  four  days.  There  never  was  a  night  nor  day 
during  that  time  that  we  did  not  awaken  with  ravenous  appe- 
tites and  go  to  bed  with  our  hunger  unappeased.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  a  man  might  eat  all  the  moose  meat  in  the  world 
and  still  be  hungry. 

Strangely  enough  this  had  a  beneficial  effect  upon  our  consti- 
tutions. We  were  all  more  or  less  affected  with  slight  stomach 
troubles,  but  otherwise  in  perfect  health,  many  of  the  party 


344     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

performing  feats  of  endurance  that  would  have  won  honours 
in  a  Marathon  race.  Near  us  were  camped  two  other  parties, 
making  a  total  of  fourteen  in  all.  The  stout  men  became 
lighter,  and  light  men  increased  their  weight  proportionately. 
I  was  heavier  by  twenty  pounds  when  I  finished  that  journey 
than  I  ever  have  been  before  or  since. 

As  it  was  with  us,  so  it  has  been  with  hundreds  of  other 
prospectors  in  Alaska.  In  places  inaccessible,  where  **  white 
man's  food  "  is  scarce,  that  good  old  provider.  Nature,  steps  in 
and  fills  the  void.  I  have  eaten  many  meals  in  Alaska,  the 
edibles  for  which  were  the  products  of  the  country,  and  found 
them  just  as  palatable  as  the  cuisine  of  the  best  hotels  in  large 
cities. 

In  the  summer  of  191 1,  with  Walter  L.  Fisher,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior;  Walter  E.  Clark,  Governor  of  Alaska,  several 
scientists  connected  with  government  bureaus  and  a  number  of 
newspaper  correspondents,  the  writer  made  a  journey  along  the 
coast  of  Alaska.  We  were  introduced  to  a  keeper  of  a  road- 
house  at  Kern  Creek,  71  miles  in  the  interior  from  Seward, 
who  undertook  to  give  the  cabinet  officer  a  gastronomic  demon- 
stration of  the  products  of  the  country.  The  components  of 
the  bill-of-fare,  with  the  exception  of  bread,  coffee  and  sugar, 
were  locally  grown  under  cultivation  or  culled  from  the  ad- 
jacent woods  where  they  grew  wild. 

The  dinner  was  served  in  a  log  building,  in  which  had  been 
placed  a  long  table  made  of  boards  cut  from  the  forest.  The 
table  was  covered  with  snowy  napery  and  adorned  with  ex- 
quisitely-coloured and  fragrant  wild  irises,  forget-me-nots, 
bleeding  hearts,  poppies,  butter-cups,  daisies,  anemones,  gerani- 
ums, bluebells,  blue  and  yellow  violets,  and  many  other  floral 
specimens  which  grow  in  such  riotous  profusion  in  Alaska's 
woodlands. 

Owing  to  an  oversight  on  the  part  of  the  shipping  agent  at 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  ALASKA         345 

Seward,  the  crab  cocktail  which  headed  the  bill-of-fare  was 
eliminated.  The  meal  began  with  Indian  relish,  pickled 
cucumbers,  beets,  onions,  celery,  radishes,  green  onions  and  a 
few  other  edibles  of  that  character.  The  guests  disposed  of 
portions  of  moose  nose  bouillon,  and  then  proceeded  through  a 
fish  course  of  mountain  and  rainbow  trout,  taken  from  a  near-by 
stream,  and  Arctic  greyling,  another  delicious  fresh-water  fish 
served  with  wild  parsley  sauce.  Then  followed  salmis  of  wild 
young  mallard  and  sprig-tail  duck,  roast  breast  of  ptarmigan 
with  wild  currant  and  wild  gooseberry  jelly,  roast  breast  of 
spruce  hens,  or  grouse,  garnished  with  wild  huckleberry  and 
wild  high-bush  and  low-bush  cranberry  jelly.  After  those  ap- 
petisers had  been  disposed  of,  the  real  business  of  eating  began. 

Came  boiled  shoulder  of  wild  mountain  sheep  with  wild 
onion  sauce ;  roast  saddle  of  mountain  goat,  roast  haunch  of 
caribou,  roast  tenderloin  of  moose.  These  were  eaten  with 
wild  red  and  black  currant,  wild  gooseberry  and  other  jellies, 
cottage  cheese  was  interspersed,  and  bottles  of  currant,  cran- 
berry and  blueberry  wines  were  placed  at  the  elbow  of  each 
guest.  The  native  grown  new  potatoes,  turnips,  beets,  cauli- 
flowers, Brussel  sprouts,  parsnips  and  other  vegetables  were 
served  in  side  dishes  with  the  different  courses  as  the  meal 
progressed. 

Razor-edged  appetites  with  which  the  guests  had  arrived, 
long  since  had  been  appeased,  and  they  began  to  speculate  on 
the  utility  of  rubber  waistlines.  They  hoped  the  roadhouse 
keeper  would  serve  the  coffee.  But  he  was  not  accustomed  to 
entertaining  a  member  of  President  Taft's  cabinet,  and  he 
seemed  imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  appetite  of  the  visiting 
official  should  be  in  proportion  to  the  dignity  of  his  position 
in  the  world  of  affairs.  He  didn't  intend  that  the  tender- 
footed  crowd  of  "  chechacoes  "  should  go  back  to  Washington 
and  other  large  cities  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States 


346    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  tell  their  friends  they  had  been  unable  to  get  anything  to 
eat  in  the  Alaskan  wilderness. 

His  neatly  dressed  and  white-aproned  waiters  brought  on  a 
delicious  salad  composed  of  chopped  wild  celery,  onions  and 
parsley,  with  just  a  suggestion  of  wild  sour-grass  or  sorrel,  and 
smothered  in  mayonnaise  made  from  wild  goose  and  duck  eggs 
gathered  from  near-by  lake  shores  and  marshes.  The  hard 
boiled  eggs  which  formed  a  part  of  the  salad  were  taken  from 
his  poultry  yard  at  the  back  of  the  hostelry. 

Everybody  fervently  hoped  that  the  end  of  the  Alaskan  re- 
sources had  been  reached.  But  that  roadhouse  keeper  insisted 
that  we  at  least  taste  of  his  dessert.  A  wealthy  epicurean 
would  surely  give  a  lot  of  money  for  an  appetite  such  as  that 
roadhouse  keeper  seemed  to  think  we  possessed. 

In  came  the  waiters  again,  laden  with  pies  and  tarts  filled 
with  wild  rhubarb,  wild  raspberries,  wild  gooseberries  and  red 
and  black  wild  currants,  and  bowls  of  delicious,  thick  whipped 
cream. 

"  Well,  he's  reached  his  limit  now,"  was  the  innermost 
thought  of  every  one. 

"  This  is  where  he  hands  out  the  cigars  and  black  coffee," 
commented  Robert  D.  Heinl,  a  correspondent  for  Leslie's 
Weekly,  who  was  a  member  of  the  party.  But  he  was  mis- 
taken. Back  came  that  roadhouse  keeper  and  his  waiters.  His 
hospitality  was  unbounded. 

"  Won't  you  try  a  few  of  these  wild  strawberries,  wild 
salmon  berries  and  wild  currants  with  a  little  of  this  whipped 
cream?"  he  said.  "They're  delicious,"  he  tempted.  "I  eat 
'em  myself." 

We  protested,  but  as  guests  we  had  to  be  agreeable.  Even 
that  wasn't  the  end.  Once  more  he  and  his  waiters  returned 
with  bar-le-duc,  crackers,  cheese  and  coffee. 

"  I'm    all    out    of    cigars,"    he    apologised    to    Mr.    Fisher. 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  ALASKA         347 

"  That  shipping  agent  fell  down  on  me.  But  there's  some 
pretty  good  chewing  tobacco  here,  if  any  of  you  would  care 
for  it." 

This  performance  with  variations  was  repeated  in  other 
places  along  the  line  we  travelled,  and  the  cuisine  for  a  dinner 
given  by  President  O.  L.  Dickeson,  of  the  White  Pass  and 
Yukon  Railroad,  being  distinctly  Alaskan,  even  to  the  bill-of- 
fare  which  was  printed  on  the  tanned  skin  of  a  wild  goat. 

And  yet  there  have  been  isolated  cases  where  men  starved 
to  death  in  Alaska,  and  there  was  one  case  in  which  cannibal- 
ism was  attempted.  James  Hall,  a  miner,  in  1900,  became  lost 
on  the  tundra  adjacent  to  Nome  for  a  period  of  sixty-seven 
days.  He  had  neither  shot-gun  nor  other  weapon.  He  sub- 
sisted on  wild  berries.  He  was  in  a  starved  and  badly  emaci- 
ated condition  when  found. 

In  the  winter  of  1911-1912  several  hundred  miners  were 
situated  in  the  Iditarod  diggings.  Owing  to  some  unforeseen 
circumstance,  the  fresh  meat  did  not  reach  the  settlement  be- 
fore the  freeze-up,  which  cut  them  ofi  from  the  usual  source  of 
supply  for  the  ensuing  seven  months.  There  are  no  moose  or 
caribou  in  that  section  of  the  country;  the  ducks  and  geese  had 
gone  South ;  the  few  bears  had  "  holed  up  "  for  the  winter. 
Ptarmigan  and  grouse  w^ere  scarce.  The  last  fresh  meat  in 
the  camp  was  eaten  for  Thanksgiving  dinner. 

Did  those  miners  go  without  meat  for  Christmas  and  the 
balance  of  the  season  of  isolation?  Not  while  any  of  their 
number  had  any  power  of  initiative  left.  Several  of  them 
walked  to  a  reindeer  station  on  the  Kuskokwim  River,  about 
one  hundred  miles  distant,  and  drove  in  a  herd  of  animals  which 
they  purchased  from  one  of  the  missions. 

The  cost  of  a  meal  to  a  traveller  in  Alaska  is  entirely  de- 
pendent on  the  location.  In  places  to  which  food  is  easily 
transported,  the  price  is  little  higher  than  in  Seattle.     Meals 


348     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

are  served  at  Nome  at  only  a  slight  advance  on  the  "  outside  " 
prices,  but  at  Iditarod,  not  more  than  seven  hundred  miles 
avi^ay  from  the  Bering  Sea  metropolis,  the  cost  of  food  is 
from  lOO  to  200  per  cent,  higher.  A  copy  of  a  paper,  pub- 
lished at  Iditarod,  October,  191 1,  gives  the  following  prices, 
which  it  was  expected  would  prevail  during  the  winter  months. 

Flour,    hundred    pounds $10.00 

Rolled   oats,    hundred   pounds 10.00 

Potatoes,  bushel   8.00 

Oranges,   dozen 1.25 

Corn,   best,    three   cans   for i.oo 

Apples,  dozen i  .00 

Prunes,    dried,   pound 25 

Cornmeal,  hundred  pounds 10.00 

Bacon,  pound 40 

Ham,  hundred  weight 37-50 

Fresh  beef,  pound 35  to  .75 

Chicken,  pound    75 

Eggs,  dozen 75 

Coffee,  pound 62 

Milk,  can 33 

Oats,  pound 07 

Compared  to  the  charges  for  the  same  commodities  in  the 
United  States,  these  prices  would  rather  tend  to  discourage 
complaint  about  the  high  cost  of  living.  The  reason  for  the 
high  tariffs  at  Iditarod  was  not  because  of  its  isolation  but  be- 
cause of  a  lack  of  roads,  and  a  consequent  heavy  cost  of 
transportation.  On  Flat  Creek,  which  Is  only  seven  miles 
distant  from  the  town  of  Iditarod,  the  tariff  on  everything  was 
Increased  fifty  dollars  a  ton,  which  was  the  cost  of  freighting 
supplies  from  one  point  to  the  other. 

The  tourist  in  Alaska,  if  he  is  on  the  regular  line  of  travel. 


THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  ALASKA  349 

may  depend  on  being  asked  to  pay  a  slight  advance  on  what 
he  would  be  charged  for  the  same  accommodations  in  New 
York.  If  he  is  off  the  regular  line  of  travel,  the  price  will 
be  graded  according  to  the  distance  and  the  transportation 
facilities.  If  he  is  very  far  off  the  regular  line  of  travel, 
where  there  are  only  a  few  white  men,  it  may  happen  that  his 
meals  will  not  cost  him  anything,  for  in  that  case,  the  chances 
are  that  the  men  he  will  meet  will  be  dependent  upon  the 
resources  of  the  country  for  their  subsistence,  in  which  case 
their  hospitality  will  be  as  prodigal  as  the  hospitality  of  the  ter- 
ritory itself. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

DISCOVERY  AND  EARLY  HISTORY 

Vitus  Bering,  Danish  navigator  credited  with  being  discoverer  of 
Alaska — Dr.  G.  W.  Stellar,  scientist,  first  brings  before  public 
the  vast  resources  of  an  empire  that  is  now  in  the  making  — 
Atrocious  depredations  of  early  freebooters,  fur-hunters  and  traders 
of  the  frozen  North  —  Barbaric  savagery  practised  by  Russian 
pirates. 

TO  Vitus  Bering,  a  Danish  navigator  holding  a  com- 
mission in  the  Russian  Navy  —  according  to  the  best 
authorities  —  belongs  the  credit  for  the  discovery  of 
the  territory  now  known  as  Alaska;  but  to  Dr.  G.  W.  Stellar, 
a  scientist  who  accompanied  him,  belongs  the  credit  for  the  dis- 
covery that  Alaska  possessed  latent  resources  of  economic  im- 
portance. 

In  1728  Bering  discovered  and  named  St.  Lawrence  Island. 
On  July  18,  1 741,  in  corrumand  of  another  expedition,  Bering 
sighted  Mount  St.  Elias,  and  some  days  later  he  made  a  land- 
ing at  Kayak  Island,  near  Controller  Bay.  Many  of  the 
sailors  having  contracted  scurvy.  Dr.  Stellar  was  sent  ashore 
to  search  for  herbs  that  could  be  used  medicinally.  Bering's 
log  reported  the  new  land  to  be  arid,  sterile,  and  perpetually 
frozen.  Two  j^ears  later,  however,  when  Dr.  Stellar's  account 
of  the  expedition  was  published  a  different  picture  was  drawn. 
Stellar  told  of  finding  many  edible  berries  and  floral  specimens, 
among  the  latter  being  the  forget-me-not,  which  since  has  been 
adopted  as  the  floral  emblem  of  the  territory. 

The  conflicting  reports  produced  a  controversy  not  unlike 
the  North  Pole  embroglio  of  recent  times,  and,  at  intermittent 

350 


DISCOVERY  AND  EARLY  HISTORY         351 

periods,  that  section  of  Alaska  where  Bering  landed  has  been 
a  cause  of  controversy  ever  since.  The  violent  storm  which 
broke  loose  soon  after  Bering's  landing  and  caused  him  to  sum- 
mon Stellar  back  to  the  ship  before  he  had  completed  his  ob- 
servations, was  prophetic  of  many  other  disturbances  that  have 
pertained  to  that  region  in  recent  years. ^ 

On  his  second  voyage  of  discovery  in  1741  Bering  was  ac- 
companied by  Chirikoff,  who  commanded  another  ship. 
Shortly  after  leaving  Oskosh  Peninsula  the  ships  became  sepa- 
rated by  strong  winds  and  heavy  seas,  and  the  two  commanders 
never  met  again.  Chirikoff  sighted  the  Alaskan  Coast  on 
July  15,  1 741,  and  dispatched  a  boat  and  a  crew  of  men  to 
the  shore.  They  did  not  return,  and  the  next  day  he  sent 
another  crew  ashore.  These  men  met  the  fate  of  those  who 
had  preceded  them.  Authorities  disagree  as  to  the  number 
of  men  killed.  Some  say  that  all  of  those  who  went  ashore 
were  murdered  by  the  natives,  while  others  declare  that  only 
two-thirds  of  the  boat  crews  were  clubbed  to  death.  It  is  cer- 
tain, however,  that  Chirikoff,  having  no  more  boats,  put  to  sea 
and  returned  to  the  Asiatic  Coast,  sighting  many  of  the  Aleu- 
tian Islands  en  route. 

Bering's  journey  ended  disastrously.  Leaving  Controller 
Bay,  he  continued  westward  along  the  line  of  the  Aleutian 
Islands,  of  which  he  gained  but  a  superficial  knowledge. 
Scurvy  and  other  diseases  continued  to  break  out  among   the 

^  In  1911  Controller  Bay  was  the  basis  for  a  political  storm  which 
prevriled  at  Washington  over  the  elimination  of  certain  shore  lands 
from  the  Chugack  forest  reserve.  In  May  of  the  same  year,  the 
citizens  of  Cordova  dumped  a  quantity  of  Canadian  coal  from  the 
wharf  as  a  protest  against  land  regulations  which  compel  them 
to  buy  fuel  from  a  foreign  country  when  there  was  an  abundance  of 
it  almost  under  their  feet.  This  incident,  which  directed  widespread 
attention  to  the  most  vital  need  of  the  time  in  the  territory,  has  gone 
down  into  contemporary  history  under  the  significant  name  of  the 
"  Cordova  Coal  Party." 


352     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

crew.  The  commander  himself  was  stricken,  and,  for  several 
days,  his  vessel  drifted  around  the  North  Pacific,  sailing  first 
one  direction  and  then  another  without  an  objective  point,  and 
finally  was  blown  ashore  on  Bering  Island.  The  commander 
and  several  of  his  men  there  died  of  scurvy,  starvation  and 
exposure  and  were  buried  in  a  trench  dug  in  the  frozen  earth. 
The  survivors  constructed  another  craft  from  the  wreckage 
of  their  vessel  and  the  following  summer  reached  Kamchatka, 
from  which  place  they  reported  the  disaster  to  the  Empress 
Catharine  at  St.  Petersburg.  The  rude  cross  on  the  Island 
which  marked  the  grave  of  Bering  and  his  unfortunate  com- 
panions, was  the  first  emblem  of  the  extension  of  Russian 
sovereignty  beyond  the  western  coast  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

While  former  voyages  were  not  fruitful  of  results  commen- 
surate with  the  elaborate  preparations  made,  the  explorations 
conducted  by  Bering  and  Chirikoff  were  of  considerable  im- 
portance from  a  geographical  standpoint.  Two  points  on  the 
American  continent  were  fixed  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy 
and  the  location  of  some  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  were  estab- 
lished. 

The  explorations  of  Alaska  were  made  from  three  directions 
—  from  the  west  by  the  Russians  who  crossed  Siberia  and 
Bering  Sea;  from  the  east  by  the  English,  through  the  Macken- 
zie River  Valley;  and  from  the  south  by  navigators  of  various 
nationalities  exploring  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Pacific.  While 
the  French  voyageurs  and  their  successors  from  Great  Britain 
were  approaching  Alaska  from  the  eastward,  the  Russians  had 
crossed  the  Ural  Mountains  and  gained  the  western  coast  of 
Siberia,  where  they  had  established  trading  relations  with  the 
Eskimos  who  inhabit   that  country. 

Yermac  Timofeief  and  a  band  of  Cossack  adventurers  are 
said  to  have  been  the  first  to  cross  the  Ural  Mountains  and 
commence  the  conquest  of  Siberia.     In   1906,  a  coat  of  mail, 


DISCOVERY  AND  EARLY  HISTORY         353 

made  of  pieces  of  steel  roughly  lashed  together  with  rawhide 
throngs,  and  a  helmet  were  found  near  Anadir  Bay,  Siberia, 
by  a  party  of  American  miners  who  had  gone  into  that  coun- 
try under  a  concession  held  by  the  Northeast  Siberia  Company. 
These  articles,  together  with  a  few  old  coins,  were  found  buried 
beneath  several  feet  of  gravel.  It  is  believed  they  were  orig- 
inally the  property  of  Timofeief  or  Deshnef,  both  of  whom 
entered  that  country  about  the  year  1648.  Deshnef  is  reported 
to  have  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Kolyma  River,  which  flows 
into  the  Arctic  Ocean  north  of  East  Cape.  In  1648  Deshnef 
sailed  through  what  is  now  known  as  Bering  Strait. 

The  progress  of  the  Cossack  adventurers  up  to  this  time 
had  been  —  excepting  for  the  physical  condition  of  the  country 
itself  —  comparatively  easy.  The  natives  were  peaceful  and 
easily  subdued,  but  south  of  East  Cape  the  Cossacks  met  the 
warlike  Chuckchees  who  gave  them  many  hard  battles. 

More  than  a  half  century  elapsed  before  these  Siberian  ex- 
plorations were  extended,  when  in  171 1,  another  Cossack, 
Popof  by  name,  was  sent  to  East  Cape  to  collect  tribute  from 
the  native  Chuckchees,  who  refused  to  acknowledge  the  sover- 
eignty of  Russia.  Popof's  mission  was  unsuccessful  in  that 
respect,  but  he  returned  to  St.  Petersburg  with  an  account  of 
the  existence  of  the  Diomede  Islands,  between  which  now  lies 
the  dividing  line  of  American  and  Asiatic  water,  and  rumours 
of  a  continent  lying  to  the  eastward. 

Peter  the  Great  immediately  ordered  the  organisation  of  an 
expedition  to  investigate  and  verify  Popof's  statement  and  ex- 
tend their  explorations,  Vitus  Bering,  fleet  captain  in  the 
Russian  Navy,  being  placed  in  command.  The  Emperor  of 
all  the  Russians  did  not  live  to  see  his  plan  executed,  but  his 
wishes  were  carried  out  by  the  Empress  Catharine. 

On  his  first  journey  In  July,  1728,  Bering  sailed  from  East 
Cape  through  the  Strait  which  bears  his  name,  stood   to  the 


354     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

northeast  for  a  day,  and  then  returned  to  his  point  of  embark- 
ation without  having  sighted  the  American  continent.  Al- 
though Bering  believed  this  short  voyage  was  important,  inas- 
much as  it  definitely  proved  the  absence  of  an  eastern  connection 
with  Asia  with  North  America,  his  evidence  was  so  meagre 
that  other  nations  refused  to  accept  it,  and  it  was  not  until 
Captain  James  Cook's  voyage,  half  a  century  later,  that  con- 
vincing proof  was  obtained. 

In  1 73 1  a  Cossack  named  Gwosdef,  who  had  been  sent  in 
command  of  a  small  fleet  to  subdue  the  Chuckchees,  was  blown 
ashore  on  the  American  Continent,  near  Norton  Sound.  He 
made  his  way  back  to  Siberia  in  an  open  boat. 

Bering  made  a  second  voyage  in  1729  but  it  proved  barren 
of  results.  The  interest  excited  by  the  discoveries  accidentally 
made  by  Gwosdef,  confirming  the  native  rumours  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  continent  to  the  eastward,  caused  the  organisation  of 
the  big  expedition  commanded  by  Bering  and  Chirikof?.  This 
expedition  resulted  in  the  definite  discovery  of  the  territory 
which  more  than  one  hundred  years  later  was  bought  from 
Russia  by  the  United  States  and  which  since  has  proved  one  of 
the  best  real  estate  bargains  in  the  history  of  this  nation. 

Following  Bering's  discovery  a  horde  of  fur  hunters  and 
traders  built  primitive  ships  on  the  east  coast  of  Siberia  and,  in 
these  frail  vessels,  embarked  on  many  hazardous  and  fool-hardy 
enterprises.  These  roving  and  marauding  freebooters  depended 
largely  for  subsistence  on  such  food  as  could  be  obtained  from 
the  sea.  All  of  the  iron  necessary  for  shipbuilding  on  Bering 
Sea  had  to  be  transported  across  the  country  from  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  a  craft  was  devised  that  could  be  constructed  without 
metal,  the  planks  being  sewed  together  with   rawhide  thongs. 

These  vessels  —  ill-equipped,  scantily-provisioned  and  manned 
by  crews  with  little  knowledge  of  seamanship  —  were  intrepidly 
sailed  into  the  unknown  seas  by  their  commanders  and  crews, 


DISCOVERY  AND  EARLY  HISTORY  355 

many  losing  their  lives  by  wreck,  starvation  and  scurvy,  and 
many  meeting  deserved  death  at  the  hands  of  the  outraged 
natives.  The  risks  were  great,  but,  when  the  expeditions  were 
successful,  so  also  were  the  profits. 

The  first  white  residents  of  Alaska  were  men  who  had  few, 
if  any,  other  virtues  than  physical  courage  and  energy.  The 
mastery  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  portions  of  the  Alaskan 
coast  is  a  chapter  of  ruthless  murder  and  rapine  that  ever  will 
remain  a  blot  of  shame  on  Russia's  record.  The  natives  were 
reduced  to  a  condition  of  practical  slavery,  and  in  many  places, 
the  sands  were  stained  with  their  innocent  blood. 

Firearms  in  the  hands  of  the  invaders  gave  them  a  tremen- 
dous advantage  over  the  helpless  natives  whose  weapons  of  de- 
fence were  bows  and  arrows  and  spears  tipped  with  bone. 
Some  of  the  forts  built  by  the  Russians  are  still  in  existence, 
one  of  them  being  at  St.  Michael. 

The  Aleuts,  at  first  friendly  to  the  murderous  strangers,  soon 
ascertained  their  true  character,  and,  although  not  so  warlike 
as  other  Eskimo  tribes  of  the  North  nor  as  prone  to  defend 
themselves  as  the  Haidas  and  Thllnglts  of  southeastern  Alaska 
upon  whom  the  Russians  later  attempted  to  levy  tribute,  they 
did  not  give  up  without  resistance.  Many  times  they  wrought 
a  bloody  reprisal  on  their  oppressors,  but  their  struggle  was 
hopeless;  and  in  the  half  century  which  followed  Bering's  dis- 
covery, ruthless  and  barbaric  savagery  was  practised  by  these 
Russian  pirates  to  such  an  extent  that  it  threatened  to  exter- 
minate the  aboriginal  population  of  the  islands  and  mainland. 

The  privilege  to  plunder  and  murder  the  natives  at  will  was 
not  openly  sanctioned  by  the  Russian  authorities,  but  that 
government  was  ready  enough  to  exact  tribute  on  the  furs  and 
other  valuables  taken  from  the  unfortunate  natives.  An  orgy 
of  murder,  torture  and  outrage  followed  the  visit  to  these 
shores  of  almost  every  Russian  trader,  but  the  death  cry  of  the 


356     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

unfortunate  Aleut  never  reached  St.  Petersburg.  It  was 
through  these  murderous  gangs  of  barbaric  traders  that  the 
civilised  world  gained  its  first  definite  knowledge  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Alaska.  The  country  was  born  in  travail  and  sufifer- 
ing,  injustice  and  wrong,  and,  to  a  much  lesser  extent,  the  same 
conditions  have  existed  almost  ever  since. 

The  court  of  St.  Petersburg,  beyond  the  exaction  of  tribute 
on  furs,  paid  little  heed  to  its  possessions  on  this  continent  for 
more  than  half  a  century  after  Bering's  discovery.  During  this 
period  two  attempts  at  official  investigation  were  made,  but  the 
net  result  of  both  was  practically  nil.  In  1767  Lieutenant 
Synd  of  the  Russian  Navy  was  sent  to  explore  the  American 
coast,  and,  though  the  results  of  his  explorations  were  meagre 
and  his  statements  unreliable,  there  seems  no  doubt  that  he 
landed  on  Seward  Peninsula  somewhere  south  of  where  the 
Nome  gold  fields  are  now  located.  About  this  same  period 
Captain  Krenltzin  reached  the  Alaska  Peninsula  on  a  similar 
mission. 

While  Bering's  explorations  had  discovered  what  is  destined 
to  become  a  new  empire,  yet  for  more  than  a  third  of  a  century 
later,  when  English  and  Spanish  navigators  were  on  this  coast, 
Russia  had  made  no  permanent  settlement  in  Alaska.  True, 
the  Romanoffs  had  developed  the  lucrative  fur  trade  at  the  cost 
of  many  thousands  of  innocent  lives,  but  It  had  made  no  at- 
tempt whatever  to  exploit  many  of  the  resources  of  the  main 
continent.  The  traders  first  established  the  location  of  the 
Aleutian  Islands  and  Kodlak;  Krenltzin  had  determined  a  few 
positions  In  the  eastern  chain  of  the  Islands  and  along  the  south 
coast  of  the  peninsula.  These,  together  with  Bering's  discov- 
ery and  the  acquisition  of  a  little  knowledge  of  the  mainland 
lying  adjacent  to  Bering  Strait,  comprised  the  sum  total  of  the 
Russian  official  investigation  in  North  America  prior  to  the 
advent  of  men  of  other  nations. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

BRITISH  AND  SPANISH  EXPEDITIONS 

Spaniards  contest  with  the  Romanoffs  for  conquest  of  newly  discovered 
territory — First  white  settlers  to  colonise  Dutch  Harbor  and 
Unalaska  —  Fierce  warlike  people  baffle  attempts  of  early  set- 
tlers—  Regarded  as  invaders  and  unlawful  intruders  by  Rus- 
sians—  Vancouver  supplements  work  of  explorers  by  exhaustive 
geographical   observations. 

ABOUT  the  time  that  the  Romanoffs  were  extending 
their  influence  over  Alaska  from  the  west,  the  Span- 
iards began  to  approach  it  from  the  south.  Eager  for 
the  conquest  of  new  lands,  Spain,  which  was  then  at  the 
zenith  of  its  fame  as  a  colonist,  already  had  settled  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  reports  of  the  Russian  encroachments  in  the  North 
caused  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  to  send  out  several  expeditions 
to  explore  Alaska's  coast  and  the  adjacent  islands,  the  com- 
manders being  instructed  to  plant  the  arms  of  Spain  where 
they  found  the  country  uninhabited  save  by  the  natives.  Perez, 
a  Spanish  ensign,  discovered  Queen  Charlotte  Islands  in  1774, 
and  the  following  year  Lieutenant  Bodega  y  Quadra  reached 
Cross  Sound. 

Immediately  following  the  American  Revolutionary  War, 
Captain  James  Cook,  a  famous  British  navigator  commenced 
the  first  systematic  survey  of  Alaska,  his  departure  from  Eng- 
land being  almost  coincident  with  the  signing  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  at  Philadelphia  in  1776.  After  mapping 
portions  of  the  continent  of  South  America,  Cook  spent  a  win- 
ter among  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  then  sailed  to  the  north, 
making  his  first  discovery  of   the  Alaska  coast   in    1778   near 

357 


358     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Mt.  Edgecumbe,  which  had  been  sighted  by  Quadra  four  years 
earlier.  Cook  sailed  thence  to  the  westward  making  systematic 
observations  on  Prince  William  Sound  and  Cook  Inlet  and 
later  going  to  Dutch  Harbor  and  Unalaska,  where  he  was 
hospitably  received  by  the  band  of  Russian  traders,  who  were 
the  first  white  settlers  in  this  particular  region.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  John  Ledyard,  an  American,  who  accompanied 
Cook,  was  the  first  man  to  interview  the  Russians, 

Entering  Bering  Sea,  Cook  continued  his  surveys  northward 
through  Bristol  Bay,  Norton  Sound,  and  Bering  Strait  where 
he  first  encountered  the  Arctic  ice  pack.  He  skirted  the  ice 
floes  to  the  westward  until  he  found  a  promontory  where  the 
ice  was  fast  to  the  Siberian  mainland,  which  point  he  named 
Cape  North.  He  then  returned  to  the  south  along  the  Si- 
berian coast,  making  careful  observations  on  the  way.  This 
famous  navigator  spent  the  winter  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
where,  together  with  a  number  of  his  intrepid  companions,  he 
met  his  death  in  a  fierce  battle  with  the  Kanakas.  Captain 
Clarke  then  took  command  of  Cook's  two  vessels,  and  the  fol- 
lowing year  set  out  to  extend  his  surveys  further  north ;  but, 
again  encountering  the  Arctic  ice  pack,  was  forced  to  return 
without  having  penetrated  much  further  north  than  Cook  had 
gone  the  previous  year. 

While  Cook  had  been  unsuccessful  in  discovering  the  north- 
east passage  to  Hudson  Bay  —  which  was  traversed  by  Roald 
Amundsen  from  the  eastward  in  1904-06  —  the  British  naviga- 
tor, from  a  scientific  viewpoint,  had  enormously  increased  the 
knowledge  gained.  Besides  definitely  establishing  the  fact 
that  there  was  no  land  connection  between  Asia  and  America, 
Cook  outlined  and  mapped  the  large  coastal  features  of  Alaska 
from  latitude  58°  north  to  70°  north,  and  added  considerably 
to  the  world's  exact  scientific  information  concerning  the  con- 
tour of  the  coast  line  in  latitudes  to  the  southward.     He  also 


BRITISH  AND  SPANISH  EXPEDITIONS      359 

convinced  himself  of  the  futility  of  British  expectations  of  the 
discovery  of  a  navigable  sea  to  the  northward  of  the  continent 
of  America,  which  the  Britishers  hoped  to  find  in  order  to  give 
themselves  a  shorter  route  to  India.  The  expectation  of  dis- 
covering this  northern  waterway  was  based  on  Hearne's  ex- 
ploration, in  1 77 1,  from  Hudson  Bay  to  the  mouth  of  the  Cop- 
per Mine  River.  This  result  was  not  generally  acknowledged, 
and  it  remained  for  one  of  Cook's  officers,  Vancouver,  to  bring 
the  final  proof  of  the  accuracy  of  Hearne's  observations  about 
fifteen  years  later. 

Cook,  besides  contributing  largely  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
geography  of  the  Alaskan  coast,  was  responsible  for  the  inaugu- 
ration of  a  new  era  in  the  explorations  of  the  seaboard  of  that 
countrj'.  Vague  and  haphazard  reports  of  previous  explorers 
were  replaced  by  concise  charts  and  accurate  observations,  many 
of  which  stood  the  test  of  more  detailed  investigation.  His 
work  was  continued  after  his  death  by  several  officers  who  ac- 
companied him  on  the  first  fateful  expedition  and  who  were 
trained  in  his  methods. 

Though  some  of  the  Russian  traders  had  reached  Kodiak  as 
early  as  1762,  it  was  not  until  after  Cook's  voyage  that,  find- 
ing sea  otters  w^ere  becoming  scarce  in  the  seas  adjacent  to  the 
Aleutian  Islands  and  the  trade  less  profitable,  they  began  to 
seek  new  hunting  grounds  to  the  northeast. 

In  1 78 1  a  company  of  Eastern  Siberian  merchants  was 
formed  to  exploit  the  American  fur  trade,  the  leader  of  this 
organisation  being  Gregor  Ivanovich  Shelikof,  who,  with  Ivan 
Golikof,  was  the  first  to  use  the  commercial  methods  so  popular 
to-day,  these  two  holding  a  majority  of  the  stock.  An  ex- 
pedition was  sent  out  in  1783  under  Shelikof 's  command  and 
founded  a  colony  at  Three  Saint's  Bay.  on  the  southerly  end  of 
Kodiak  Island.  This  was  the  first  settlement  within  the  limits 
of  Alaska,  and  was  the  pioneer  of  the  Russian  occupation.     It 


36o     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

was  maintained  for  three-quarters  of  a  century,  until  the  terri- 
tory was  transferred  to  the  United  States.  Many  of  the  relics 
of  Russian  occupancy  of  Kodiak  Island  are  still  visible,  amongst 
them  being  a  warehouse  with  a  stone  foundation,  which  is  said 
by  old  settlers  to  have  been  constructed  by  the  enslaved  natives 
and  Russian  prisoners. 

At  the  time  the  first  Russian  Colony  was  founded,  several 
trading  vessels,  commanded  by  Potan  Zaikof,  invaded  Prince 
William  Sound.  The  same  barbarous  savagery  which  had 
been  so  successful  in  subduing  and  pillaging  the  Aleuts  was 
instituted,  but  Zaikof  and  his  followers  found  to  their  cost 
that  they  were  dealing  with  a  fierce,  warlike  people,  and,  after 
many  dramatic  and  sanguinary  incidents  had  been  enacted,  the 
expedition  ended  disastrously. 

Nagaief,  a  member  of  the  party,  discovered  the  Copper  River 
and  ascended  it  as  far  as  the  Miles  and  Childs  Glaciers,  be- 
tween which  ice  masses  the  stream  is  now  spanned  by  a  bridge 
constructed  by  the  Copper  River  and  Northwestern  Railroad. 

In  the  meantime  the  published  account  of  Cook's  voyage 
brought  the  territory  into  international  controversy.  His 
records  being  regarded  as  absolutely  authentic,  they  aroused 
cupidity  in  the  breasts  of  nations  who  realised  that  the  rich 
fur  trade  of  the  North  American  continent  rapidly  was  passing 
into  a  Russian  monopoly.  The  English  traders  were  the  first 
to  inaugurate  an  action  which,  in  modern  idiom  would  be 
known  as  "Busting  the  fur  trust."  James  Hanna,  in  1785, 
explored  the  west  coast  of  Vancouver  Island  in  British  Colum- 
bia and  made  several  voyages  to  the  coast  of  Alaska.  Similar 
expeditions  were  made  by  the  English  and  American  trading 
ships  and  crafts  of  other  nationalities,  their  logs  and  chart 
tracts  adding  to  the  general  knowledge  of  the  northwest  coast. 

The  new  invaders  were  regarded  as  unlawful  intruders  by  the 
Russians  and  many  petitions  protesting   against   foreign  ships 


BRITISH  AND  SPANISH  EXPEDITIONS      3C1 

engaging  in  this  trade  were  sent  to  St.  Petersburg,  but  without 
the  desired  result.  While  the  traders  of  various  nationalities 
were  struggling  for  supremacy  in  the  north,  their  home  govern- 
ments were  not  unmindful  of  the  importance  of  Alaska  from 
a  commercial  and  strategic  viewpoint.  The  British,  Spanish 
and  French  governments  manifested  a  more  or  less  laudable 
desire  to  wrest  some  of  this  rich  territory  from  the  hands  of 
the  Russians,  much  the  same  as  these  and  other  nations  quite 
recently  have  been  demonstrating  an  inclination  to  portion  out 
among  themselves  certain  sections  of  China  and  of  the  conti- 
nent of  Africa.  The  English  claims  were  based  on  the  dis- 
coveries made  by  Cook  and  by  those  of  his  officers  who  suc- 
ceeded him;  the  French  suggested  that  the  coast  of  Alaska  was 
a  part  of  the  territory  of  Canada;  the  Spanish  declared  the 
country  should  be  theirs,  because  it  was  a  northern  extension 
of  their  California  coast  line,  and  they  also  claimed  title  to 
Alaska  by  right  of  the  discoveries  made  by  Quadra. 

Spain  strengthened  her  claims  by  adding  to  Quadra's  dis- 
cover}' an  expedition  led  by  Arteaga,  with  Quadra  second  in 
command,  which  sailed  from  Mexico  in  1779  and  surveyed 
Port  Bucarreli,  on  the  west  side  of  Prince  of  Wales  Island. 
Later  Arteaga  entered  Prince  William  Sound  and,  acting  on 
instructions,  took  possession  of  what  he  believed  was  a  newly 
discovered  land.  Neither  he  nor  any  of  his  lieutenants  were 
aware  of  the  fact  that  Cook  had  gone  through  the  same  cere- 
mony, in  the  name  of  the  British  government,  a  year  previous 
and  on  almost  precisely  the  same  spot.  Arteaga  and  Quadra 
made  a  cursory  exploration  to  the  southwest  as  far  as  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  Kenai  Peninsula,  and  then  returned  to  Mexico. 

The  French,  up  to  this  time,  had  done  nothing  that  entitled 
that  country  to  lay  claim  to  the  territory;  and  to  gain  a  more 
or  less  valid  advantage.  La  Perouse,  after  whom  one  of  Alaska's 
great  glaciers  is  named,  was  dispatched  to  the  north  in  1785. 


362     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

A  year  later  he  landed  at  Lituya  Bay  and  took  formal  posses- 
sion. Ignoring  his  instructions  to  survey  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
he  then  sailed  southward  without  again  landing  on  the 
Alaskan  Coast. 

Apparently  satisfied  that  the  work  done  by  Arteaga  had  es- 
tablished a  right  of  sovereignty,  the  Spaniards  took  no  further 
action  for  several  years.  The  story  of  Cook's  voyages  and  re- 
ports of  numerous  trading  vessels  that  visited  the  coast,  how- 
ever, again  aroused  Spanish  action.  In  1788  two  vessels,  com- 
manded by  Estevan  Martinez  and  Gonzales  Haro,  were  sent 
to  gather  further  information.  While  Martinez  explored 
Prince  William  Sound,  Haro  visited  the  Russian  settlement  on 
Kodiak  Island  and  obtained  full  knowledge  of  the  Russian  oc- 
cupation. Delarof,  who  was  then  directing  the  Russian  coloni- 
sation, while  politely  and  cordially  welcoming  the  visiting  Span- 
iard, was  very  careful  to  fully  impress  upon  his  guest  the  vast 
extent  and  importance  of  the  Russian  settlements,  of  which,  at 
that  time,  there  were  only  six.  Sailing  to  Unalaska,  the 
Spaniards  went  through  the  absurd  performance  of  taking  pos- 
session, in  the  name  of  His  Most  Catholic  Majesty,  of  Unimak 
Island  which  had  contained  a  Russian  colony  and  had  been  under 
Muscovite  influence  for  upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
They  then  returned  to  Mexico. 

Martinez's  report  made  it  plain  to  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico 
that  Spanish  claims  to  the  territory,  to  be  effective,  must  be 
enforced  by  more  decisive  action.  Both  vessels  were,  therefore, 
again  dispatched  to  take  possession  of  Nootka  Sound,  on  the 
west  coast  of  Vancouver  Island,  which  had  been  discovered  by 
Cook  and  later  used  as  a  rendezvous  by  English,  American  and 
Portuguese  traders.  The  American  ships  were  unmolested  by 
the  Spaniards,  but  vessels  flying  the  English  colours  were 
warned  off.  This  arbitrary  action  by  Martinez  brought  forth 
an  immediate  protest  by  the  British  government  and  commis- 


2»    « '  • 


BRITISH  AND  SPANISH  EXPEDITIONS      363 

sioners  representing  both  countries  were  appointed  to  adjudicate 
the  rights  of  each.  The  commissioners  held  their  meeting  at 
Nootka,  and,  like  many  other  peace  conferences,  the  affair  led 
to  a  disagreement  and  broke  up  in  a  row.  The  Spaniards, 
however,  subsequently  receded  from  their  position  and  with- 
drew their  forces,  leaving  the  region  in  possession  of  the  natives 
and  traders. 

Malaspina,  an  Italian  navigator,  was  the  next  explorer  to 
make  futile  claim  to  the  territory  on  behalf  of  Spain.  In  1791 
he  sailed  north  in  command  of  two  Spanish  corvettes  under  in- 
structions to  make  scientific  observations  and  to  encircle  the 
globe  through  the  northwest  passage,  rumours  of  which  again 
were  being  circulated.  He  sighted  land  at  Mt.  Edgecumbe 
and,  following  the  coast  to  the  northwest  entered  Yakutat  Bay, 
then  known  as  Port  Mulgrave,  having  been  named  after  one 
of  the  officers  who  sailed  with  Cook.  En  route  this  expedition 
named  the  great  Malaspina  Glacier.  Notwithstanding  that 
Portlock  and  Dixon  had  surveyed  and  published  a  chart  at 
Yakutat  Bay  some  years  before  and  that  the  Russians  for  many 
years  had  used  it  as  a  trading  point,  Malaspina  went  through 
the  foolish  ceremony  of  taking  possession  of  this  "  newly  discov- 
ered land."  He  visited  Prince  William  and  Cross  Sounds  and 
then  sailed  again  to  the  South,  apparently  making  no  effort 
whatever  to  reach  Bering  Sea  or  to  enter  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  forgetting  all  about  his  instructions  to  circumnavigate  the 
continent. 

George  Vancouver,  one  of  Cook's  midshipmen,  who  was  the 
British  representative  in  the  Nootka  dispute  with  the  Spaniards 
received  orders  in  1793  to  survey  the  coast  between  the  thirty- 
fifth  and  sixtieth  parallel  of  latitude,  a  task  which  he  faithfully 
executed  in  that  and  the  following  year.  In  command  of  two 
vessels,  he  accurately  mapped  thousands  of  miles  of  the  coast- 
line of  Southeastern  Alaska,  supplemented  the  work  of  previous . 


364     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

explorers  westward  as  far  as  Cook  Inlet,  and  gave  to  the  world 
a  tremendous  amount  of  knowledge  relative  to  the  coast-line 
of  Oregon  and  Washington.  His  work  stamps  him  as  one  of 
the  most  accurate  and  trustworthy  explorers  that  history  has 
ever  known.  Not  an  indentation  of  the  mainland,  and  scarcely 
a  break  in  the  shore-line  of  the  numerous  islands  escaped  his 
observation.  Even  in  this  present  day  of  steam  propelled  ves- 
sels and  with  accurate  charts  and  maps  to  mark  the  course,  it 
is  no  light  task  to  thread  the  intricate  waterways  of  the  Alexan- 
der archipelago.  That  Vancouver  could  do  so  much  work  and 
make  such  extended  and  accurate  surveys  in  the  short  time  that 
he  was  occupied  on  the  task  would  be  regarded  even  In  this  day 
of  modern  nautical  equipment,  as  little  short  of  marvellous. 
Vancouver  was  a  great  navigator  and  a  worthy  successor  of  the 
famous  Cook  under  whom  he  studied  navigation  and  geodesy. 
When  his  report  and  maps  were  completed  the  coast-line  of 
the  mainland  of  Alaska,  from  Dixon  entrance  as  far  north  as 
Cape  Belcher,  had  been  charted  with  a  great  degree  of  ac- 
curacy. 

While  the  Russians  and  Spaniards  were  squabbling  between 
themselves  and  at  the  same  time,  attempting  to  dispossess  all 
other  nations  of  commercial  and  territorial  rights  In  the  coastal 
zone  of  Alaska,  an  aggressive  rival,  the  British,  was  steadily 
encroaching  upon  this  region  from  the  east.  French  voyageurs, 
in  batteaus,  by  dog-team  and  other  methods  of  transportation, 
following  the  route  of  the  Great  Lakes,  had  crossed  half  of  the 
American  continent  long  before  the  Russians  had  knowledge 
of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  and,  about  the  time  Bering  landed  Dr. 
Stellar  at  Controller  Bay,  Verandrye  had  reached  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Rocky  Mountains  near  the  headwaters  of  the  Mis- 
souri River.  Ten  years  later  another  pioneer  trader  established 
a  post  at  the  present  sight  of  Calgary,  Alberta,  at  the  very  base 
of  the  dividing  range  and  less  than  five  hundred  miles  from 


BRITISH  AND  SPANISH  EXPEDITIONS      365 

Pacific  waters.  This  post,  like  many  others  occupied  by 
French  pioneers,  was  abandoned  when  Canada  passed  under  the 
domination  of  the  English. 

The  English  fur  trade  gradually  was  expanded  to  regions 
into  which  the  French  voyageurs  had  broken  the  trail,  but  the 
Rocky  Mountain  barrier,  for  a  long  time,  marked  its  western 
limit.  Alexander  Mackenzie  was  the  first  to  cross  the  summit 
and  to  introduce  a  new  factor  into  the  development  of  Alaska. 

Mackenzie,  a  member  of  the  Northwest  Fur  Company,  a 
sturdy  rival  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Fur  Company,  by  dog  team 
and  flat-bottomed  scow  ascended  the  rapid  and  sinuous  Peace 
River  from  Lake  Athabasca,  then  traversed  the  headwaters  of 
the  Eraser,  and  after  crossing  the  coast  range,  reached  Pacific 
waters  in  the  vicinity  of  Queen  Charlotte  Sound.  This  jour- 
ney, the  first  made  across  the  continent  north  of  Mexico,  was 
accomplished  in  1793,  at  the  same  time  that  Admiral  Van- 
couver was  making  his  memorable  survey  of  the  coast-line. 
It  was  the  first  step  in  the  fierce  rivalry  which  was  destined  to 
spring  up  between  the  two  great  competitors  in  the  fur  trade  — 
the  Russian-American  and  Hudson  Bay  Companies.  Trading 
posts  were  later  established  on  the  Mackenzie  River  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  traditions  of  the  natives,  the  journey  from  these 
posts  to  Quebec  and  return  occupied  a  period  of  seven  years  and 
was  accomplished  only  with  great  difficulty  and  much  hardship 
and  privation. 

Although  Russia's  previous  official  explorations  had  been  dis- 
tinguished rather  for  their  failures  than  for  what  they  accom- 
plished, the  authorities  at  St.  Petersburg  in  1785  determined 
to  make  one  more  effort.  This  expedition  was  placed  under 
the  command  of  Joseph  Billings  who,  in  the  light  of  his  ac- 
complishments, seems  to  have  been  chosen  more  because  he 
had  been  attached  to  one  of  Cook's  ships,  than  because  of  any 
particular  merit  or  experience  of  his  own.     Billings  sailed  from 


366    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Kamchatka  in  1789,  passed  through  Bering  Strait,  penetrated 
the  Arctic  Ocean  to  about  latitude  69°  and  then  returned  to 
his  starting  point.  In  1790  he  made  a  second  start,  and  the 
two  vessels  of  the  expedition  after  stopping  at  Unalaska  and 
Kodiak  —  both  of  which  places  already  were  occupied  by  Russia 
—  reached  Prince  William  Sound.  Then  he  returned  again 
to  the  point  of  debarkation.  In  the  following  year  he  made  a 
third  start,  once  more  reaching  Unalaska,  whence  he  sailed 
northward  touching  at  Pribilof  Islands,  Seward  Peninsula,  and 
St.  Lawrence  Island  all  of  which  places  had  been  visited  by 
other  navigators.  Billings  himself  subsequently  landed  on  the 
Chuckchee  Peninsula,  Siberia,  whence  he  made  a  hazardous, 
and  apparently  fruitless  journey  into  the  interior.  His  two 
vessels  wintered  at  Unalaska  Island  and  returned  home  the 
following  spring.  This  expedition,  which  cost  seven  years  of 
time  and  many  thousand  of  roubles,  accomplished  nothing  ex- 
cept to  gain  some  information  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
natives  had  been  abused,  and,  in  some  cases  wantonly  slaugh- 
tered by  the  savage  and  ferocious  Russian  traders.  The  report, 
'  however,  was  not  productive  of  any  amelioration  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  oppressed  people. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS 

Growth  of  Russian  fur  trade  —  St.  Petersburg  takes  cognisance  of 
disorders  and  outrages  committed  between  rival  companies  — 
Warlike  Thlingits  refuse  to  submit  to  Russian  occupation  — 
Romance  combined  with  history,  how  a  beautiful  princess  held 
subjects  In  spell  —  Her  untimely  end  —  How  Rezanof  wooed,  won 
and   lost   the   Governor's   daughter. 

IMPORTANT  changes  in  the  Russian  fur  trade  took 
place  in  the  last  two  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  Shelikof  Company,  after  its  settlement  at  Kodiak  in 
1783,  gradually  extended  its  trading  occupations  to  the  main- 
land and  neighbouring  islands.  By  imperial  ukase  this  com- 
pany, in  1788,  was  given  exclusive  control  of  the  regions  ac- 
tually occupied  by  its  agents,  and  in  1792  another  important 
step  vi'as  taken  when  Alexander  Andrevich  Baranof  was  ap- 
pointed chief  director  of  the  company's  American  interest. 
Baranof  held  this  post  for  twenty-five  years,  during  which  time 
he  demonstrated  himself  to  be  a  far-sighted,  energetic  man,  but, 
of  course,  unscrupulous  and  arrogant  to  the  last  degree.  Stormy 
scenes  greeted  his  inauguration  in  office  and  they  were  a  fitting 
introduction  of  the  events  to  follow. 

Rival  traders  had  established  themselves  at  Cook  Inlet,  where 
for  many  years  they  quarrelled  and  fought  among  themselves, 
but  finally  united  in  opposition  to  the  common  enemy,  the 
Shelikof  Company,  Baranof  —  after  the  manner  of  some 
American  people  of  the  present  day  —  assumed  an  authority 
which  he  did  not  legally  possess,  and  arrested  and  imprisoned 
the   ring-leaders  of  the  opposing   forces,   thus  restoring   some 

367 


368     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

measure  of  peace.  That  Baranof's  life  was  often  threatened 
and  that  he  took  no  unnecessary  chances  of  losing  it  was  evi- 
denced in  the  fact  that  a  coat  of  chain  mail,  which  he  wore 
constantly,  was  found  in  his  castle  at  Sitka. 

The  "  iron  governor  "  sent  an  engineer  named  Semoyloff  to 
make  an  investigation  of  the  Copper  River  Valley.  Together 
with  his  companions,  Semoyloff  ascended  the  stream  as  far  as 
the  Miles  and  Childs  Glaciers.  Here  the  party  was  set  upon 
by  Indians  and  ruthlessly  murdered.  The  chief  of  the  tribe 
took  Semoyloff's  note  books  and  effects  back  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river  and  delivered  them  to  some  of  the  explorer's  com- 
panions, who  had  been  left  in  charge  of  a  supply  station  that 
had  been  there  established.  The  chief  informed  these  men 
that  he  had  not  wantonly  murdered  Semoylof?  and  his  party, 
but  had  simply  executed  them  in  retaliation  for  outrages  com- 
mitted by  other  Russians.  This  incident  appeared  to  be  an 
unpleasant  memory  with  Baranof,  and  it  is  said  of  him  that 
he  never  relaxed  his  discipline  of  the  natives  or  his  watchfulness 
for  his  ow^n  safety. 

While  Baranof  was  energetically  looking  after  the  interests 
of  his  company  in  other  directions  and  vigorously  pushing  the 
fur  trade,  a  shipyard  was  established  on  Prince  William  Sound 
and  attempts  were  made  at  agriculture  and  stock  raising  at 
Kodiak  and  Yakutat  Bay.  Prospectors,  who,  in  1 900,  were 
sinking  a  shaft  on  Prince  William  Sound  encountered  a  stratum 
of  wooden  chips  nearly  three  feet  thick  and  thought  at  first  they 
had  discovered  a  new  geological  marvel.  Although  they  could 
find  no  traces  of  its  former  existence  above  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  they  later  learned  that  their  shaft  was  located  on  the 
site  of  the  abandoned  shipyard.  The  first  Greek  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries arrived  from  Siberia  in  1794  and  the  same  year  the 
first  convicts  were  transported  from  Russia  and  settled  at 
Yakutat  Bay.     Few  traces  of  Russian  occupation  at  this  point 


OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS  369 

can  now  be  found,  the  site  of  the  old  settlement  being  occupied 
by  a  salmon  cannery.  At  Kodiak,  however,  many  of  the  build- 
ings erected  by  Russian  convicts  and  enslaved  natives  are  still 
in  existence.  It  is  worth  noting,  too,  that  a  large  percentage 
of  the  natives  who  now  live  at  these  places  bear  strong  traces 
of  partial  Russian  ancestr}^  many  of  them  being  almost  as  fair 
complexioned  as  Anglo-Saxons. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  court  at  St.  Peters- 
burg began  to  take  cognisance  of  the  disorders  and  outrages 
committed  by  the  irresponsible  fur  traders  and  the  authorities 
became  weary  of  the  quarrels  between  the  rival  companies. 
They  were  also  desirous  of  maintaining  Russian  prestige  in 
America  by  responsible  representation,  and  it  was  the  action 
then  taken  that  later  enabled  Russia  to  sell  the  territory  to 
the  United  States  without  a  dispute  involving  the  claims  of 
other  countries. 

The  Shelikof  Company  which  had  strong  financial  backing 
in  Europe  was  given  a  new  charter  under  the  name  of  the 
Russian-American  Company.  The  imperial  proclamation 
which  established  this  company,  dated  1799,  granted  this  cor- 
poration exclusive  privileges  of  trade  and  occupation  of  North- 
ern America  north  of  latitude  55°,  and  including  the  Aleutian 
Islands.  By  two  extensions  of  time  the  grant  was  continued 
sixty  years.  From  this  time  until  the  transfer  of  the  territory 
to  the  United  States,  the  history  of  the  company  is  the  history 
of  Alaska.  The  region  now  being  definitely  in  the  hands  of 
the  Russians  and  the  limits  of  the  possessions  of  both  countries 
being  determined  by  treaty  with  England  in  1825,  other  nations 
decided  there  was  no  chance  to  participate  in  the  "  melon- 
slicing  "  and  discontinued  their  explorations.  While  the  Rus- 
sian-American Company  was  too  deeply  engrossed  in  making 
profits  from  the  resources  of  its  grant  and  the  furs  brougiit  in 
by  the  natives  to  attempt  explorations  or  surveys,  its  trading 


370    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

agents  greatly  enlarged  their  field  of  operations  and  gained  some 
knowledge  of  new  areas.  Trading  posts  were  located  at  vari- 
ous places  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  and,  in  1799,  Fort  Archangel 
Gabriel  was  built  on  the  shores  of  Sitka  Bay. 

Contrary  to  Russian  expectation,  the  warlike  Thlinglts  of 
this  region  did  not  submit  to  Russian  transgression  as  did  the 
Aleuts  and,  during  the  entire  Russian  occupation,  they  proved 
themselves  aggressive  and  formidable  enemies,  many  times 
shooting  down  the  Russian  agents  from  ambush  in  reprisal  for 
the  murders  of  their  people. 

The  Thlingit  law  is  based  on  the  Mosaic  doctrine  — "  An 
eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth."  In  1802  they  attacked 
and  destroyed  Fort  Archangel  Gabriel  and  practically  wiped 
out  all  of  the  Russian  settlers.  A  few  survivors  were  saved 
only  by  the  timely  arrival  of  an  English  vessel.  Two  years 
later  Baranof  attacked  the  Thlingits  with  forces  brought  from 
Kodiak  and  drove  the  natives  out  of  their  stronghold  at  Sitka, 
of  which  he  took  possession.  About  a  year  later  he  moved  the 
capital  of  the  colony  from  Kodiak  to  this  post,  which  he  named 
New  Archangel.  Here  he  established  himself  as  governor  of 
the  entire  territory  and  built  a  castle  in  which  to  live.  It  was 
here  some  few  years  later  that  a  Princess  is  supposed  to  have  re- 
enacted  the  story  of  Romeo  and  Juliet  by  killing  herself  in  a 
moment  of  grief  over  the  death  of  her  lover. 

The  truth  about  the  fate  of  this  beautiful  Princess  is  buried 
in  conflicting  traditions,  but  it  is  the  general  consensus  of  these 
legends  that  for  many  years  she  haunted  the  northwest  chamber 
of  the  castle,  in  which  apartment  she  either  was  murdered  or 
committed  self-destruction.  Twice  a  year  the  swish  of  her 
ghostly  wedding  gown  is  supposed  to  have  chilled  the  listeners' 
blood,  as  she  unceasingly  walked  through  the  rooms,  wringing 
her  jewelled  hands.  At  Easter  time  she  wandered  with  sor- 
rowful and  lachrymose  mien  about  the  old  building,  bemoan- 


OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS  371 

ing  the  fate  of  her  dead  lover  and  leaving  a  perfume  of  wild 
briar  roses  as  she  passed.  By  tradition,  this  lady,  who  was  a 
daughter  of  one  of  the  old  governors,  was  forced  to  marry 
against  her  will,  and  she  disappeared  from  the  wedding  festiv- 
ities and  voluntarily  took  poison. 

Another  story  is  to  the  effect  that  Governor  Baranof  sent 
her  lover  away  on  a  mission  to  Siberia  and  told  the  Princess 
that  he  had  been  killed  at  sea.  The  room  in  which  she  is  sup- 
posed to  have  met  her  death,  is  the  one  that  was  occupied  by 
Secretary  Seward  during  his  visit  to  Alaska,  and  it  also  was 
used  as  a  guest  chamber  by  Lady  Franklin,  who  journeyed 
north  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  trace  of  the  brave  husband 
who  sacrificed  his  life  and  that  of  his  intrepid  companions  in 
a  fruitless  effort  to  find  the  Northwest  passage. 

Baranof,  holding  absolute  power  of  life  or  death  and  being 
the  sole  arbiter  of  right  and  wrong,  ruled  the  colony  with  an 
iron  hand.  He  used  the  knout  frequently  and  was  not  slow  to 
resort  to  the  gallows  or  to  stand  his  victims  against  a  wall  as 
targets  for  Russian  sharpshooters.  In  this  manner  he  kept  the 
turbulent  Indians,  Siberian  renegades,  and  unruly  traders  in 
a  state  of  obedience  and  subserviency.  He  died  at  sea  on  his 
return  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  tradition  says  that  he  was 
poisoned.  The  descendants  of  the  Thlingits  and  of  the  Rus- 
sian slaves  prefer  to  believe  that  his  death  was  accompanied  by 
the  most  excruciating  agony. 

Captain  Haguemeister  succeeded  Baranof  as  governor,  and 
after  him  came  a  long  line  of  Russian  nobles.  About  this  period 
Baron  Rezanof,  a  chamberlain  at  the  Russian  court,  appeared 
at  Sitka.  His  mission  was  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  Rus- 
sian-American Company,  to  study  the  country's  resources  with 
a  view  to  extensive  colonisation,  and  to  establish  trade  relations 
with  Japan,  which  is  only  a  few  hundred  miles  distant  from 
the  eastern  end  of  the  Aleutian  Archipelago.     Rezanof  was  the 


372     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

first  man  to  foresee  the  tremendous  latent  resources  of  the  terri- 
tory. Contrary  to  the  plan  followed  by  Baranof  —  who  ad- 
ministered to  a  Russian  settler  a  severe  flogging  with  a  knout 
because  he  had  brought  to  headquarters  a  piece  of  gold-bearing 
quartz  —  Rezanof  sent  engineers  into  the  field  to  search  for 
the  mythical  Island  of  Gold,  which  tradition  said  existed  some- 
where in  the  Northern  Pacific  Ocean.  This  Monte  Christo 
of  the  Pacific,  believed  in  by  the  natives,  may  have  been  Tread- 
well  Island,  which  since  then  has  produced  nearly  seven 
times  as  much  gold  as  the  United  States  paid  for  the  whole 
territory. 

Rezanof's  dream  of  establishing  relations  with  the  Japanese 
was  thwarted  when  the  residents  of  Nippon  not  only  refused 
to  enter  into  negotiations  with  him,  but  treated  him  with  great 
discourtesy.  In  retaliation,  he  planned  to  lead  an  expedition 
to  Japan,  capture  and  enslave  a  number  of  Japanese,  and  use 
them  as  colonists  of  the  territory.  With  this  end  in  view  he 
built  a  large  barracks  on  Japonski  Island,  in  Sitka  Harbor, 
but  he  died  before  he  found  a  means  of  executing  his  plan. 

Finding  that  Sitka  was  short  of  agricultural  products  and 
with  a  view  to  extending  Russian  domination  down  the  Pacific 
coast  as  far  as  Mexico,  Rezanof  made  a  journey  to  Yerba 
Buena,  now  known  as  San  Francisco,  ostensibly  to  get  such 
food  stuffs  as  would  relieve  the  residents  of  the  Russian  colony 
of  the  scurvy,  a  disease  from  which  many  of  them  were  suffer- 
ing. He  had  established  a  ship-building  yard  at  New  Archan- 
gel and  a  factory  in  which  the  bronze  bells  used  at  the  missions 
in  California  and  Mexico,  were  manufactured. 

With  a  ship-load  of  bells  and  some  furs,  the  Prince  sailed  to 
Yerba  Buena  where  he  expected  to  exchange  his  goods  for  food 
stuffs.  It  was  on  this  southward  journey  that  he  conceived  the 
idea  of  driving  the  Spanish  settlers  and  British  traders  from  the 
Pacific.     On  arrival  at  Yerba  Buena,  however,  he  discovered 


OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS  373 

that  the  viccroyal  government  of  Mexico  had  issued  an  embargo 
against  trade  with  their  Russian  neighbours,  and  the  governor 
of  the  colony  refused  to  allow  him  to  make  a  shipment. 
Rezanof  spent  several  months  in  the  Spanish  town  that  is  now 
known  as  San  P'rancisco  and,  during  this  time,  his  bright  mind 
and  courtly  manners  won  not  only  the  confidence  of  the  governor, 
but  also  the  heart  of  his  daughter,  Dona  Concepcione.  The 
story  of  their  unrequited  love  was  later  woven  into  a  lyrical 
romance  by  Bret  Harte.  At  a  time  when  the  governor  did 
not  happen  to  be  looking,  Rezanof  loaded  his  ship  with  cereals 
and  other  foods,  and  sailed  to  the  north  never  to  return. 

For  the  purpose  of  inducing  the  Russian  court  to  carry  out 
his  dream  of  Russian  domination  of  the  Pacific,  he  left  Sitka 
for  St.  Petersburg  via  Siberia;  and,  when  crossing  a  frozen 
stream  in  the  Chuckchee  country,  his  horse  broke  through  the 
ice.  Although  Rezanof  escaped  drowning,  he  was  so  severely 
chilled  that  he  contracted  pneumonia  and  died  a  few  days  later. 

Under  Baranof's  regime  the  activities  of  the. Russians  during 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  mainly  confined  to 
commercial  projects,  although  several  minor  explorations  were 
undertaken  by  naval  officers  who  were  in  the  employ  of  the 
company.  Khwostof  and  Davidof  investigated  the  Aleutian 
Islands  in  1802;  Bassanof  inspected  the  Copper  River;  surveys 
were  made  of  the  Alexander  Archipelago  and  in  the  vicinity 
of  Kodlak  by  Captains  Krusenstcrn  and  Lislansky  in  1 804-05. 

Captain  Golovnin,  for  whom  Golovnin  Bay  was  named,  was 
sent  out  by  the  Russian  government  in  18 10,  and  a  -second  time 
in  1 81 8  to  investigate  the  company.^     Golovnin  was  sent  from 

^  This  practice  of  investigation  which  has  become  intensely  popular 
in  the  United  States  during  the  past  few  years  has  been  carried 
on  in  Alaska  almost  ever  since  the  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States.  It  is  an  unusual  day  in  the  North  when  one  does  not  meet 
a  special  agent  of  one  of  the  various  departments  of  government,  who 
is  engaged  in  "  making  an  investigation."     There  are  those  in  Alaska 


374     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

St.  Petersburg  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  Russian-Ameri- 
can Company  and  the  status  of  the  natives.  He  made  some 
contribution  to  geographic  knowledge  but  only  incidentally. 
His  principal  mission,  it  is  conceded  by  historians,  was  to  ascer- 
tain whether  the  Russian-American  Company  was  dealing 
fairly  with  the  Russian  government  in  the  matter  of  tribute, 
there  having  arisen  a  suspicion  at  St.  Petersburg  to  the  general 
effect  that  the  officers  of  the  company  had  been  engaging  in  the 
practice  popularly  known  in  Alaska  in  this  age  as  "  knocking 
down." 

Otto  von  Kotzebue,  commander  of  the  Rurik,  made  the  most 
important  exploring  voyage  of  this  period.  Like  many  of  hii 
predecessors,  he  was  instructed  to  find  a  northeast  passage 
around  the  continent  of  America  connecting  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Oceans.  Kotzebue  sailed  from  Kronstadt  in  1815  and 
reaching  Kamchatka  the  following  year,  sailed  for  Bering 
Strait.  Coasting  along  the  north  side  of  the  Seward  Penin- 
sula, he  entered  and  surveyed  the  great  sound  which  bears  his 
name.  On  his  return  passage  he  visited  Unalaska  and  after 
wintering  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  returned  to  the  north, 
but  did  not  extend  his  explorations. 

That  this  sound  was  visited  by  some  other  Russian  explorer 
a  few  years  later  and  of  which  there  is  no  record,  is  evidenced 
in  the  fact  that  a  large  post,  used  as  a  monument,  upon  which 
was  carved  in  Russian  the  date.  May,  1826,  and  which  had 
the  Russian  letter  "  K  "  at  the  head  of  it,  was  found  by  the 
writer  in  1909  on  an  island  opposite  where  the  city  of  Keewalik 
now  stands.  Together  with  the  monuments  placed  there  by 
Captain  F.  W.  Beechy,  of  H.  M.  S.  Blossom,  and  the  monu- 

who  say  that  this  practice  is  a  survival,  under  United  States  rule, 
of  the  practice  of  government  by  espionage  which  was  inaugurated 
in  Alaska  by  Russia  and  which  still  is  continued  in  other  Russian 
possessions. 


OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS  375 

merits  of  Captain  Thomas  E.  L.  Moore,  Commander  of 
H.  M.  S.  Plover;  and  of  Captain  Henry  Kellett,  commander 
of  H.  M.  S.  Herald  in  1849,  this  crude  record  of  Russia's 
unknown  explorer  was  removed  to  Seattle  and  became  the 
property  of  the  University  of  Washington.  Whalers  report 
that  a  monument  left  by  a  member  of  the  Franklin  expedition 
at  a  point  three  hundred  miles  east  of  Point  Barrow  was 
burned  by  the  natives  for  firewood  about  the  j'ear  1906. 

Although  Baranof  paid  little  attention  to  adding  to  the 
scientific  or  geographical  knowledge  of  Alaska,  a  change  was 
wrought  when  the  directorship  of  the  Russian-American  Col- 
ony was  transferred  to  naval  officers  some  of  whom  were  men 
of  scientific  attainments.  Besides  adding  to  the  geographical 
knowledge  of  the  country,  systematic  meteorologic  records  w^ere 
kept  at  Sitka  for  many  years  and  a  magnetic  station  was  main- 
tained. Baron  F.  P.  von  Wrangell,  for  whom  Fort  Wrangell 
in  Southeastern  Alaska  was  named,  coming  into  the  governor- 
ship of  Alaska  fresh  from  Arctic  explorations,  carried  on  the 
most  important  explorations  of  the  company.  Captain  Mi- 
chael T.  Tebenkof,  who  succeeded  Wrangell  also  was  an 
explorer,  and  his  atlas  of  the  Northwestern  coast  of  America 
comprising  a  summary  of  all  previous  investigations,  is  the 
most  important  contribution  to  the  geography  of  Alaska  that 
was  made  during  the  entire  Russian  occupation.  In  1826  a 
big  expedition,  inaugurated  by  the  company  and  directed  by 
Kramchemko,  Etolin,  and  Vasilief,  spent  two  years  examining 
the  shore-line  of  Bristol  Bay  and  Norton  Sound. 

While  there  is  no  record  of  this  expedition  reaching  Kotze- 
bue  Sound,  it  is  thought  that  the  Russian  monument  found 
there  and  bearing  the  date  1826  and  the  letter  "  K,"  might 
have  been  placed  there  by  a  boat  or  hunting  party  that  Kram- 
chemko sent  out.  It  would  have  been  possible  for  this  boat 
expedition  to  have  reached  Kotzebue  Sound,  either  by  ascend- 


376     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

ing  Fish  River  to  its  head  from  Norton  Bay,  and  crossing  the 
divide  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Keewalik,  and  travelling  down 
that  stream  to  its  confluence  with  the  sea,  or  the  trip  might 
have  been  accomplished  by  taking  a  sail-boat  through  Bering 
Straits.  It  is  more  than  likely  however  that,  if  the  parties 
who  left  the  monument  were  members  of  the  Kramchemko 
expedition  they  made  the  journey  from  Norton  Sound  over  the 
ice  by  dog  team,  as  the  streams  usually  are  frozen  .over  until 
about  the  middle  of  May  and  the  ice  frequently  does  not  leave 
Bering  Sea  until  about  that  date. 

Captain  Lutke,  acting  on  behalf  of  St.  Petersburg  authori- 
ties, visited  Unalaska  and  the  Pribilof  Islands  in  1827  and  sur- 
veyed the  northern  coast  of  the  Alaskan  Peninsula.  Vasilief 
mapped  the  southern  coast  of  the  peninsula  a  few  years  later. 
Minor  expeditions  w^ere  made  under  the  direction  of  the  com- 
pany from  1 81 8  to  1832  during  which  period  Bristol  Bay  and 
the  Kuskokwim  regions  were  visited  by  Korsakof,  Vasilief  and 
Kolmakof .  Malakof  explored  the  Susitna  —  since  proved  to 
be  one  of  the  richest  agricultural  and  mineral  valleys  in  the 
north  —  in  1834.  The  most  important  of  these  expeditions 
was  one  directed  by  a  half-caste  named  Andrei  Glasunof  who 
crossed  from  the  Russian  post  at  St.  Michael  to  the  Yukon 
and  thence  to  the  Kuskokwim.  This  journey,  taken  together 
with  Malakof's  trip  up  the  Yukon  River  as  far  as  Nulato, 
opened  the  way  for  the  interior  fur  trade  which  later  proved  so 
profitable  to  the  company  and  correspondingly  disastrous  to  the 
natives. 

Lieutenant  Zagoskin,  of  the  Imperial  navy,  commanded  the 
most  fruitful  inland  expedition  conducted  by  the  Russians. 
Zagoskin,  in  1842-43  ascended  the  Yukon  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  Tanana  and  explored  the  lower  stretches  of  the  Koyukuk, 
also  doing  considerable  work  on  the  Innoko  River  and  crossing 
a  divide  to  the  waters  of  the  Kuskokwim. 


OCCUPATION  BY  THE  RUSSIANS  377 

All  of  these  streams  since  have  become  potential  factors  in 
the  gold  supply  of  the  United  States.  Zagoskin  established 
a  post  at  Nulato  and,  as  far  as  his  time  and  means  would  per- 
mit, made  track  surveys  and  astronomic  determinations  of 
position.  He  also  gathered  considerable  data  on  the  native 
population  and  the  resources  of  the  region  traversed.  Al- 
though he  must  have  traversed  Gaines  Creek,  a  gold  producer 
in  the  Innoko  district,  and  have  passed  within  a  few  miles  of 
the  now-celebrated  Iditarod  diggings,  he  made  no  mention  of 
the  mineral  possibilities  of  this  region.  But  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  many  hundreds  of  white  American  prospectors  and 
explorers  traversed  this  region  within  the  past  twenty  or  thirty 
years  and  did  not  discover  gold  until  igo6,  it  is  not  strange  that 
Zagoskin  overlooked  these  latent  resources. 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  developments,  with  river  vessels 
running  many  hundreds  of  miles  above  the  Tanana  River,  it  is 
of  interest  to  note  that  Zagoskin  stated  that  the  Yukon,  or 
Kwikpak,  as  he  called  it,  was  not  navigable  above  its  confluence 
with  the  Tanana.  From  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  to  the 
headwaters  of  Pelly  River,  the  principal  tributary  to  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Yukon,  is  a  distance  of  approximately  three  thou- 
sand miles ;  and  it  is  about  two  thousand  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Tanana  to  Lake  Bennet  which  forms  the  headwaters 
of  the  Lewis  River,  another  important  tributary  to  the  North- 
ern Father  of  Waters,  which  the  natives,  being  provincial,  say, 
"  comes  down  from  the  mountains  of  mystery  and  vanishes  in 
the  valley  of  nowhere." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

ENGLISH  EXPLORERS  IN  ARCTIC 

British  navigators  again  attempt  to  discover  Northwest  passage— i. 
Mouth  of  Mackenzie  River  discovered  by  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
trader  —  Various  Franklin  Relief  Expeditions  map  such  territory 
north  of  Bering  Strait  —  Western  Union  Telegraph  Expedition 
spends   $3,000,000   in    construction,    but    line   proves   useless. 

ACTIVITY  in  Arctic  exploration,  in  the  meantime, 
had  been  actively  conducted  by  English  navigators, 
who  still  sought  to  find  a  channel  through  the  North- 
west passage,  but  which  remained  to  be  discovered  by  Roald 
Amundsun,  the  explorer  who  later  planted  the  Norwegian  flag 
at  the  South  Pole.  Alexander  Mackenzie,  in  1789,  had 
floated  down  the  river  which  bears  his  name  from  Great  Slave 
Lake  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  In  1826  Sir  John  Franklin  had 
travelled  westward  along  the  Arctic  Coast  of  Alaska  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River  to  Return  Reef;  Captain 
F.  W.  Beechy,  who  had  been  instructed  to  co-operate  with 
Franklin,  carefully  charted  the  southern  coast  of  Seward  Pen- 
insula to  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  and  did  much  surveying  in 
Kotzebue  Sound.  He  carried  his  work  northward  until 
blocked  by  the  ice.  Cape  Blossom,  at  which  point  a  Quaker 
Mission  is  now  located,  was  named  after  Beechy's  ship. 
Beechy's  mate,  Elson,  commanding  a  boat  expedition,  jour- 
neyed to  Point  Barrow  which,  it  was  hoped,  Franklin  would 
have  reached  from  the  east.  Franklin's  men  were  blocked  by 
the  ice  one  hundred  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Point  Barrow,  and 
this  part  of  the  coast-line  remained  a  hiatus  in  the  charts  for 
several  years. 

378 


ENGLISH  EXPLORERS  IN  ARCTIC        379 

Representing  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  Peter  Warren 
Dease  and  Thomas  Simpson  travelled  down  the  Mackenzie 
and  followed  the  coast  westward  but  they  also  encountered  im- 
penetrable ice.  Simpson,  however,  continued  on  foot  and  in 
native  boats,  reaching  Point  Barrow  August  4,  1837,  and  thus 
completing  the  exploration  of  the  entire  coast-line  of  Alaska, 
which  Bering  had  begun  nearly  one  hundred  years  pre- 
viously. 

The  series  of  Franklin  Relief  expeditions,  sent  out  by  the 
British  government  between  1848  and  1853,  gave  another  im- 
petus to  northern  investigation.  Although  the  principal  pur- 
pose of  these  expeditions  was  to  find  and  succour  the  courageous 
Franklin,  the  commanders  incidentally  added  much  to  the 
world's  knowledge  of  the  territory.  The  hope  of  finding  a 
Northwest  Passage  still  "  sprang  eternal  "  in  the  hearts  of  the 
British,  and  in  1849  Captain  E.  L.  Moore,  in  the  ship  Plover; 
and  Captain  Henry  Kellett,  commanding  the  ship  Herald  and 
the  yacht  Nancy  Daiuson,  anchored  in  Kotzebue  Sound  where 
they  spent  the  winter.  Lieutenant  Pullen,  commanding  a  boat 
expedition  was  sent  northward.  He  traversed  the  coast-line 
to  Point  Barrow,  proceeded  eastward  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Mackenzie  River,  and  ascended  that  stream  to  a  point  where 
a  Hudson  Bay  post  had  been  established. 

Other  parties  commanded  by  Moore  and  Kellett  explored 
the  Buckland  River  and  other  waterways,  while  Lieutenant 
Bedford  Pim  crossed  the  eastern  end  of  Seward  Peninsula  and 
reached  the  Russian  post  at  St.  Michael.  Dr.  Simpson,  sur- 
geon of  the  expedition,  explored  the  Selawik  and  Kobuk 
Rivers.  Jade  axes  and  other  implements,  which  he  found  in 
the  hands  of  the  natives,  led  to  the  discovery,  a  few  years  ago, 
of  the  source  of  this  mineral  in  Jade  Mountain,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  Cape  Blossom.  The  Plover  spent  the 
two  following  winters  at  Point  Barrow,  where  her  commander 


38o    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

gained  much  knowledge  of  the  geography  and  natural  history 
of  the  country. 

General  Robert  S.  McClure,  in  1 850,  sailed  eastward  past 
Herschell  Island  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River  untit 
his  progress  was  stopped  by  the  ice  near  Banks  Land.  His 
crew,  however,  continued  the  journey  on  foot  and  were  the 
first  white  men  to  travel  from  Pacific  to  Atlantic  waters  over 
the  shore-line  of  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Much  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  journey  was  covered  by  dog  teams  across  the  solid  ice 
which  lay  on  the  Arctic  Ocean,  Captain  Richard  CoUinson, 
in  the  British  ship  Enterprise,  passed  Point  Barrow  the  fol- 
lowing year,  and  subsequently  wintered  at  Walker  Bay,  on 
the  north  coast  of  Alaska.  Commander  Trollope  spent  the 
winter  of  1843  on  the  south  side  of  Seward  Peninsula,  and 
during  that  season  some  of  his  crew  crossed  to  Kotzebue  Sound. 
The  surveys  of  these  British  explorers  were  all  modelled  after 
the  careful  and  efficient  methods  adopted  by  Captain  Cook, 
and  many  of  their  charts  are  still  in  use.  The  accounts  of 
these  voyages,  taken  together  with  the  history  of  the  Franklin 
expeditions,  up  until  twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago,  contained 
practically  all  of  the  accurate  knowledge  that  had  been  ob- 
tained of  that  section  of  Alaska  which  lies  within  the  Arctic 
Circle. 

Lieut.  J.  J.  Bernard,  of  H.  M.  S.  Enterprise,  made  a  most 
unfortunate  expedition  into  Alaska  in  1851.  He  was  dis- 
patched to  search  for  the  members  of  the  Sir  John  Franklin 
expedition,  some  of  whom,  it  was  thought,  were  still  living. 
Bernard  landed  at  St.  Michael,  and  ascended  the  Yukon  River 
Nulatto,  where,  together  with  a  number  of  his  companions, 
he  was  murdered  by  Koyukuk  Indians. 

The  American  whaler  Superior,  Captain  Roys,  was  the  first 
commercial  vessel  to  pass  through  Bering  Strait  into  the  Arctic 
Ocean.     The    trip    resulted    favourably,    a    large    amount    of 


Plioto   by    Callarmau. 


TO  HE  REMFAI- 

THK  fi.o\vf:r- 


A  TRIP  OVER  THE  WHITE  PASS  RAILROAD  IS  ONE 
BERED.     THE   AUSTERE   MOrNTAINS   ABOVE, 
BESTREWN     VALLEY     BELOW,    AND    THE     SPIDERV-LEGC.ED 
BRIDC7ES   MAKE  THE  JOrRNE\'   A   CAP  II\A  liXd   ONE. 


ENGLISH  EXPLORERS  IN  ARCTIC  381 

whalebone  and  oil  being  obtained  and  Roys'  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  many  others  during  the  succeeding  years.  The  whal- 
ing industry  on  the  Arctic  coast  of  Alaska  continued  to  be  a 
most  important  and  profitable  one  until  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War,  at  which  time  it  received  a  severe  set-back  from  the 
commander  of  the  Confederate  privateer  Shenandoah,  who  way- 
laid the  whalers  as  they  came  out  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and 
destroyed  and  captured  many  of  their  vessels.  Many  whaling 
stations  have  since  been  established  in  Alaska,  where  the  am- 
phibious mammals  are  hunted  by  the  natives  during  the  spring 
and  summer  seasons,  and  their  bone  and  other  products  stored 
in  the  warehouses  awaiting  the  arrival  of  trading  vessels  from 
the  South. 

While  much  has  been  said  and  written  of  the  hardships  and 
vicissitudes  experienced  by  explorers,  who  in  recent  years  have 
searched  for  the  North  Pole,  little  has  been  heard  of  the  pri- 
vations endured  by  the  crews  of  the  whaling  fleets  of  Alaska, 
who  sometimes  spent  three  successive  years  in  the  Land  of 
Night  for  the  few  dollars  that  are  paid  them  on  their  return 
to  San  Francisco  —  if  it  so  happens  that  their  ship  has  been 
fortunate  in  capturing  a  number  of  whales. 

During  the  period  of  Russian  occupation  of  Alaska  the  only 
Qther  important  contribution  to  the  knowledge  of  the  territory 
was  made  by  Lieutenant  William  Gibson,  U.  S.  N.,  who,  in 
the  schooner  Fenimore  Cooper,  made  surveys  along  the 
Aleutian  Islands  in  1855.  Gibson  commanded  the  Rodgers 
United  States  Northern  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition  and 
some  of  the  vessels  of  this  fleet  reached  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

The  English  fur  trade  did  not  establish  itself  near  the  east- 
ern boundary  of  Alaska  until  many  years  after  Mackenzie 
made  his  notable  journey  to  the  Pacific.  The  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  backed  by  tremendous  capital  and  manned  by  rugged 
Scotch  pioneers,  pushed   its  outposts  to  the  westward,  but  it 


382    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

did  not  reach  the  Pacific  watershed  until  about  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Campbell  established  a  post  on  the 
headwaters  of  the  Pelly  in  1840  and  built  Fort  Selkirk  at 
the  confluence  of  the  Pelly  and  Lewis  Rivers  eight  years  later. 
Fort  Yukon  was  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Porcupine 
River  in  1847. 

A  few  years  previous  to  this  several  posts  had  been  estab- 
lished on  the  headwaters  of  the  Mackenzie  and  Liard  Rivers, 
in  British  Columbia,  notably  at  Fort  Liard  and  Fort  Francis. 
The  traders  at  the  latter  post  were  murdered  by  Chilkat  In- 
dians who  crossed  the  divide  from  where  Skagway  now  stands 
to  wage  a  war  on  the  Francis  River  tribes.  This  post  was 
never  rebuilt,  it  being  an  inflexible  rule  of  the  company  never 
to  reconstruct  an  establishment  that  is  destroyed  by  the  na- 
tives. 

The  English  traders  on  the  Yukon  watershed  learned  from 
the  natives  that  the  Russians  were  in  possession  of  the  lower 
end  of  this  stream,  and,  about  1850,  some  of  them  made  a 
trip  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana,  which  was  the  uppermost 
point  reached  by  the  Russians  who  had  penetrated  no  further 
than  Zagoskin  had  explored  for  them  in  1843. 

The  preliminary  exploration  of  the  main. Yukon  River  was 
made  by  traders  employed  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and 
its  first  mapping  was  done  by  the  members  of  the  scientific 
corps  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  expedition.  This  com- 
pany contemplated  the  construction  of  a  telegraph  line  from 
the  United  States  through  British  Columbia  and  Alaska,  to 
Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  whence  they  expected  to  be  able  to 
cross  Bering  Strait  to  Siberia,  and  thus  bring  the  United 
States  into  telegraphic  communication  with  Asia  and  Europe. 
Many  of  the  old  poles  and  crude  insulators  erected  by  the 
members  of  this  expedition,  are  still  standing  in  Alaska.  Be- 
fore the  work  was  finished,  however,  the  trans-Atlantic  cable 


ENGLISH  EXPLORERS  IN  ARCTIC  383 

was  laid  and  the  project  was  abandoned  after  $3,000,000  use- 
lessly had  been  expended. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company  in  1834  arbitrarily  attempted 
to  establish  itself  at  several  points  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  but 
its  agents  were  promptly  ejected  by  the  Russians.  At  a  con- 
ference held  in  1837  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  leased  this 
coastal  belt  from  the  Russians  for  ten  years.  The  British 
Company  then  controlled  the  fur  trade  on  the  upper  rivers 
while  the  Russian-American  Company  controlled  that  on  the 
lower  reaches  of  the  streams. 

In  1863  word  was  received  at  Sitka  that  gold  had  been 
discovered  at  the  head  of  the  Stikine  River  and  an  expedition 
was  sent  out  to  ascertain  whether  the  metal  had  been  found 
in  Russian  territory.  The  party  was  accompanied  by  William 
P.  Blake,  an  American  geologist  who  surveyed  the  lower  part 
of  the   Stikine   River. 

The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  commenced  its 
work  in  1863.  The  project,  which  contemplated  the  building 
and  maintaining  of  a  telegraph  line  through  thousands  of  miles 
of  almost  unexplored  territory  in  America  and  Asia,  was  con- 
ceived by  Percy  M.  D.  Collins,  and  in  the  three  years,  during 
which  the  surveyors  were  In  the  field,  much  important  geo- 
graphic knowledge  of  the  territory  north  of  Puget  Sound  was 
gained.  The  explorations  in  Siberia  also  were  fruitful  of 
important  results. 

Owing  to  the  uninhabited  condition  in  the  territory  it  was 
necessary  for  the  members  of  the  party  to  carry  all  of  their 
supplies  from  the  United  States.  They  endured  great  hard- 
ships and  Robert  Kennicott  forfeited  his  life  at  Nulato  in 
1866  to  the  excessive  exposure  and  privation  to  which  he  had 
been  subjected.  Kennicott  was  head  of  the  scientific  corps, 
serving  under  Captain  Charles  S.  Buckley,  chief  engineer.  He 
was  chosen  because  of  his  knowledge  of  the  country  gained  in 


384     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

1860-61,  when  he  had  reached  Fort  Yukon  by  following  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company's  trail  from  the  Mackenzie.  William 
H.  Dall,  who  took  the  leadership  of  the  Scientific  Corps  after 
Kennicott's  death,  alone  continued  his  researches  on  Norton 
Sound  and  the  Lower  Yukon  after  the  telegraph  survey  party 
was  disbanded.  His  book,  based  on  these  investigations,  and 
reports  which  he  wrote  later  under  the  auspices  of  the  coast 
survey,  are  still  the  standard  works  on  Alaska. 

Kennicott,  Frank  Ketchum,  and  Michael  LeBarge  left  the 
mouth  of  the  Yukon,  in  1865,  to  survey  that  stream,  and  after 
Kennicott's  tragic  death,  Ketchum  and  LeBarge  ascended  the 
river  to  Fort  Yukon.  The  following  summer  they  reached 
Fort  Selkirk,  about  1,500  miles  further  up-stream.  Dall  and 
Frederick  Whymper  reached  Fort  Yukon  in  the  summer  of 
1867,  making  the  first  definite  survey  of  this  stream.  In  1865 
Baron  Otto  von  Bendeleben  and  W.  H.  Ennis,  also  of  the 
telegraph  survey,  crossed  from  Golovnin  Bay  to  Port  Clarence. 
J.  T.  Dyer  and  Richard  T.  Cotter,  crossed  from  Norton  Bay 
to  the  confluence  of  the  Koyukuk  with  the  Yukon,  while  Cap- 
tain E.  E.  Smith  carried  on  surveys  in  the  Yukon  Delta. 

These  surveys  definitely  identified  the  Yukon  of  the  Hudson. 
Bay  Company  with  the  Kwikpak  of  the  Russians  and  added 
other  important  geographical  knowledge.  The  survey  lines  es- 
tablished by  these  explorers  are  practically  those  that  are  now 
used  by  telegraph  lines  operated  in  Alaska  by  the  United 
States  government.  Perhaps  the  most  important  accomplish- 
ment of  this  expedition  was  the  more  or  less  exact  information 
which  the  explorers  furnished  the  American  public  during  and 
after  the  negotiations  by  which  Russian  America  became  part 
of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

AMERICAN  OCCUPATION 

Purchase  of  Alaska  from  Russia  in  1867  following  bitter  controversy 
which  brought  scorn  upon  William  H.  Seward,  Secretarj^  of  State 
—  Stars  and  Stripes  carried  to  Northernmost  part  of  America  by 
brilliant  stroke  of  foreign  policy  —  Congress  torn  in  strife  over 
purposed  purchase  —  General  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  takes  possession 
of   territory. 

AFTER  many  months  of  negotiation,  the  territory  of 
Russian  America  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  in 
1867,  a  treaty  hetween  the  two  countries  being  rati- 
fied by  the  Senate  May  28  of  that  year.  Secretary  of  State 
Wilh'am  H.  Seward  is  generally  given  credit  for  the  conception 
of  the  idea  of  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  but  there  are  many  other 
claimants  to  the  honour.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  Seward 
fixed  the  price  at  $7,200,000  —  less  than  two  cents  an  acre 
for  the  entire  territory  —  and  it  also  is  certain  that  to  Seward 
and  to  Senator  Charles  Sumner  belongs  much  of  the  credit 
for  forcing  the  people  of  the  United  States  into  one  of  the 
best  land  bargains  this  nation  ever  has  made. 

Seward,  Sumner  and  others  who  favoured  the  purchase  were 
liberally  ridiculed  by  their  confreres  in  the  national  legislature. 

The  Emperor  of  Russia,  during  the  Crimean  War,  fearing 
that  the  English  would  blockade  and  bombard  the  Russian 
towns  on  the  American  and  Kamchatkan  coast,  offered  to  sell 
the  territory  to  the  United  States.  This  offer  was  made  in 
1854.  If  is  generally  conceded  that  the  Czar  patterned  after 
Napoleon,  who  sold  the  land  embraced  in  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase to  the  United  States  more  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 

385 


386     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  territory  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  British  than 
for  the  money  which  it  brought  him. 

The  first  tangible  recorded  offer  to  sell  Alaska  to  the  United 
States  was  declined  by  President  Pierce,  and  negotiations  en- 
tered into  with  President  Buchanan  were  called  off  by  Russia 
after  an  offer  of  $5,000,000  had  been  made  for  the  territory. 
It  was  stated  by  Robert  J.  Walker,  who  assisted  in  drawing  up 
the  legal  documents  to  transfer  the  territory  to  the  United 
States,  that  the  Czar  had  offered  to  sell  Alaska  during  Presi- 
dent Polk's  administration  for  the  mere  payment  of  government 
incumbrances  and  the  cost  of  transfer.  This  information  was 
largely  disseminated  after  Seward's  negotiations  had  been  com- 
pleted, and,  as  a  result,  Seward  was  denounced  on  all  sides 
for  making  a  bad  bargain.  Alaska  was  referred  to  as  "  Sew- 
ard's Icebox,"  and  the  treaty  was  derided  as  the  "  Esquimaux 
Acquisition  Treaty."  While  the  matter  was  pending  there 
were  many  conclaves  at  the  residence  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
"  Esquimaux  Senators "  were  common  names  for  the  guests 
and  the  country  was  referred  to  as  "  Walrussia,"  "  American 
Siberia,"  "Zero  Islands,"  "  Polaria '^  and  "  Icebergia."  It 
remained  for  Charles  Sumner  to  suggest  the  name  which  Alaska 
bears  to-day.  In  the  language  of  the  natives  interviewed 
by  Captain  Cook,  the  great  English  navigator,  the  word 
"  Alayaska  "  means  "  The  Great  Land."  Referring  to  one  of 
the  treaty  dinners  a  newspaper  reporter  wrote: 

"  There  was  roast  treaty,  boiled  treaty,  treaty  in  bottles, 
treaty  in  decanters,  treaty  garnished  with  appointments  to  of- 
fices, treaty  in  statistics,  treaty  in  military  point  of  view,  treaty 
in  territorial  grandeur,  treaty  clad  in  furs,  treaty  ornamented 
with  walrus  teeth,  treaty  flopping  with  fish,  and  treaty  fringed 
with  timber."  Other  "  edibles  "  on  the  menu  were  "  icebergs 
on  toast,"   "  seal   flipper's  frappe,"  and  "  blubber  au  naturel." 

In  the  spring  of  1867,  after  a  syndicate  of  fur  traders  had 


AMERICAN  OCCUPATION  387 

proposed  to  bu}'  the  country  from  Russia  on  their  private  ac- 
count and  had  gone  so  far  as  to  consult  Secretary  Seward  about 
it,  the  plan  of  purchase  by  the  United  States  assumed  definite 
shape.  Secretary  Seward  and  Baron  Stoeckl,  the  Russian  min- 
ister, entered  negotiations  which  were  conducted  with  great 
secrecy.  At  that  time  President  Johnson  was  involved  in  a 
bitter  fight  with  his  political  enemies  and  threats  of  impeach- 
ment were  discussed  by  the  House  of  Representatives  prior  to 
its  adjournment  of  March  4,  1867. 

Rumours  of  proposed  grafts  and  contemplated  schemes  to 
drain  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  seemed  to  be  in  the 
air,  and  the  appropriation  committee  of  the  House  had  grown 
wary  and  vigilant ;  warring  factions  in  Mexico  were  imploring 
for  loans  of  many  millions  of  dollars  from  this  country ;  the 
intense  excitement  which  followed  the  assassination  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  and  the  attempted  murder  of  the  members  of 
his  cabinet  had  not  yet  subsided,  and  the  nation  generally  was 
in  an  extremely  unsettled  condition.  With  discord  on  every 
hand.  Secretary  Seward  flashed  a  brilliant  stroke  of  foreign 
policy  and  —  counting  upon  warding  off  some  of  the  sentiment 
hostile  to  the  administration  —  he  consummated  the  purchase 
of  Alaska  in  the  hope  that  the  project  of  carrying  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  to  the  Northernmost  limits  of  the  continent  and 
three  thousand  miles  west  of  San  Francisco,  would  cause  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  to  thrill  with  patriotism  and  for- 
get their  troubles  at  home.  On  the  night  of  March  29,  1867, 
Baron  Stoeckl  went  to  Secretary  Seward's  home  and,  waving 
a  telegram  said: 

"  To-morrow  we  can  draw  up  a  treaty  for  the  transfer  of 
Russian  America." 

"  No,"  replied  Seward ;  "  we  will  do  it  now." 

They  worked  all  night  and  the  grey  of  dawn  had  appeared 
when    their   task  was  completed.     The    treaty  was  signed   at 


388     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

four  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  sent  to  the  Senate  the  same 
day  for  ratification,  much  to  the  chagrin  of  the  English  min- 
ister, Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  who  wanted  the  territory  for  his 
own  country.  He  was  so  exasperated  at  the  news  that  he  tele- 
graphed to  the  Earl  of  Derby,  his  superior,  for  instructions  to 
protest  against  the  acceptance  of  the  treaty  by  the  United 
States. 

The  measure  was  confirmed  on  April  lo,  chiefly  through 
the  brilliant  efforts  of  Senator  Charles  Sumner,  who,  although 
opposed  to  the  purchase  at  first,  delivered  an  address  which 
was  one  of  the  greatest  efforts  of  his  life  and  an  epitome  of  all 
that  was  known  concerning  the  territory  at  that  time.  Every 
scientific  work,  every  report,  every  chart  and  every  narrative 
of  the  explorers  were  consulted  by  Sumner,  and  this  famous 
speech  for  many  years  was  regarded  as  an  authoritative  refer- 
ence on  the  territory.  The  articles  were  exchanged  and  the 
treaty  proclaimed  by  the  President  on  June  20,   1867. 

It  is  worth  noting  in  passing  that  Secretary  Seward  had  in- 
tended to  keep  the  matter  wholly  secret  until  the  treaty  had 
been  ratified,  but  a  New  York  newspaper  reporter,  who 
shadowed  the  Secretary  of  State,  caught  an  inkling  of  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  by  overhearing  a  portion  of  the  conversa- 
tion between  Seward  and  Baron  Stoeckl,  and  the  news  was 
given  to  the  world  before  the  document  was  sent  to  the  Senate. 

Secretary  Seward  trod  a  thorny  path  after  he  had  consum- 
mated this  great  bargain.  His  newly  acquired  territory  was 
the  theme  of  every  newspaper  wit  and  joker  in  the  country 
and  brought  upon  him  much  public  condemnation,  Alaska  be- 
ing frequently  referred  to  as  "  Seward's  Treacherous  Pur- 
chase." 

Considerable  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  Congress 
to  make  the  necessary  appropriation  to  pay  for  the  territory. 
While  Seward's  champions  proclaimed  Alaska  a  veritable  Gar- 


k/^; 


AMERICAN  OCCUPATION  389 

den  of  Eden,  his  enemies  declared  that  its  only  products  were 
icebergs  and  polar  bears  and  that  its  future  settlers  would  have 
to  cultivate  their  fields  with  snow-ploughs.  A  democratic  ed- 
itor said : 

"  The  treaty  has  a  clause  binding  us  to  exercise  jurisdiction 
over  the  territory  and  give  government  to  forty  thousand  in- 
habitants now  crawling  over  it  in  snow-shoes.  Without  a 
cent  of  revenue  to  be  derived  from  it,  we  will  have  to  keep 
soldiers  and  six  men-of-war  up  there  and  institute  a  territorial 
form  of  government.  No  energy  of  the  American  people  will 
be  sufficient  to  make  mining  speculations  profitable  in  60° 
north  latitude.  Ninetj'-nine  one-hundredths  of  the  territory  is 
absolutely  worthless."  Agricultural  possibilities  were  consid- 
ered too  ridiculous  to  be  worthy  of  consideration. 

Following  the  impeachment  trial  and  acquittal  of  President 
Johnson,  May  17,  1867,  General  M.  P.  Banks  introduced  in 
Congress  a  bill  appropriating  $7,200,000  to  be  paid  to  Russia 
in  exchange  for  Alaska.  The  bill  hung  in  the  balance  for 
many  weeks,  but  at  a  night  session  June  30,  with  General 
Garfield  in  the  chair,  General  Banks  made  a  most  eloquent 
speech,  which,  by  its  very  audacity  and  genius,  won  the  votes 
of  the  opponents  to  the  purchase.  Judge  Louthbridge  opposed 
the  measure,  while  three  democrats  —  Bayor,  of  Pennsjdvania ; 
Pruyn,  of  New  York;  and  Johnson  of  California  —  made 
great  speeches  advocating  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  Many 
other  congressmen  spoke  for  and  against  it,  Thaddeus  Stevens 
closing  the  debate  with  an  oration  in  its  favour.  On  July 
14,  the  bill  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  ninety-eight  to  forty-eight, 
and  fifty-three  members  not  voting.  The  House,  in  passing 
the  measure,  included  a  clause  which  provided  that  thereafter 
the  House  as  well  as  the  Senate  should  take  part  in  the  con- 
sideration of  treaties. 

Another  squabble  occurred  as  to  which  country  should  pay 


390     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  cost  of  the  cablegrams  transmitted  in  connection  with  the 
negotiations  for  the  transfer.  These  expenses  amounted  to 
nearly  $30,000,  and,  when  the  bill  for  its  share  was  presented 
to  Russia,  the  Czar,  claiming  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  treaty 
that  the  United  States  should  bear  all  the  expenses  of  transfer, 
refused  to  pay  his  proportion.  Polite  diplomatic  notes  were 
exchanged,  representatives  of  the  State  Department  visited  the 
home  of  the  Russian  representative,  and  vice  versa,  but  nothing 
was  done  till  the  cable  company  reduced  the  bill  and  the 
United  States  paid  all. 

For  many  years  Great  Britain  had  been  making  overtures 
to  buy  that  particular  strip  of  the  territory,  thirty  or  forty 
miles  wide  and  three  hundred  miles  long,  which  is  known  as 
the  Alaskan  Pan  Handle,  and  its  mining  adventurers  and 
traders  had  made  threats  to  force  the  Russians  to  evacuate; 
yet,  by  the  queer  turnings  of  diplomacy,  this  section  of  Alaska 
came  into  the  possession  of  the  United  States  and  is  still  cov- 
eted by  our  British  kin. 

Secretary  Seward  was  more  than  "  dee-lighted  "  with  the 
success  of  his  efforts.  He  felt  that,  by  having  gone  far  enough 
north  to  counteract  any  leaning  or  sentiment  toward  the  South 
—  that  he  had  been  accused  of  harbouring  —  he  had  his  ene- 
mies on  the  run.  He  planned  to  divide  the  country  into  six 
territories.  In  this  connection  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the 
House  of  Congress  in  1912  by  Congressman  William  Sulzer, 
now  Governor  of  New  York,  to  split  Alaska  into  three  parts 
and  to  give  to  the  residents  of  each  a  measure  of  local  self- 
government. 

The  President  and  Mr.  Seward  lost  no  time  in  clinching 
their  bargain.  Immediately  upon  the  money  becoming  avail- 
able. Brigadier  General  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  was  furnished 
with  a  handsome  silk  flag  and  voluminous  instructions  as  to 
the  proper  procedure  to  take  possession  of  the  territory. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

National  emblem  flutters  to  the  breeze  on  memorable  afternoon  of 
October  i8,  1867  —  "Original"  flags  as  plentiful  as  "genuine" 
scarabs  at  Port  Said  —  History  of  Alaska  up  to  and  at  the  con- 
clusion of  Russian  possession  —  Seed  of  discontent  which  to-day 
manifests  itself  sown  at  early  date  —  Murderous  Indians  terrify 
the   whites. 

BECAUSE  the  raising  of  the  American  Flag  in  Alaska 
marked  the  commencement  of  an  era  of  prosperity  and 
comparative  freedom  for  that  country,  the  particular 
emblem  which  fluttered  to  the  breeze  on  that  memorable  after- 
noon of  October  18,  1867,  has  great  sentimental  value  to  those 
who  have  become  interested  in  the  country's  development. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  up  until  the  year  1908,  there  were  at 
least  a  dozen  "  perfectly  good  "  specimens  of  this  particular 
flag.  They  were  as  plentiful  as  "  genuine  "  scarabs  at  Port 
Said. 

In  1908  the  commissioners  of  the  Alaska-Yukon-Pacific  Ex- 
position, held  at  Seattle  the  following  year,  made  it  known  that 
they  desired  to  place  this  flag  on  exhibition.  Immediately  the 
newspaper  columns  were  filled  with  the  names  of  people,  who 
related  with  an  abundance  of  circumstantial  detail  how  the 
one  and  only  flag  had  come  into  their  possession.  This  led  to 
an  investigation  which  revealed  that  the  emblem  that  marked 
the  end  of  Russian  domination  on  this  continent  had  been 
placed  in  a  vault  in  the  Department  of  State,  and  that  it  yet 
remains  there. 

But   while   there   were   a   large   number  of   owners  of   the 

391 


392     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

"  original  flag,"  they  were  not  nearly  so  plentiful  as  are 
the  claimants  to  the  honour  of  pulling  the  line  that  hoisted  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  to  the  mast  at  Sitka.  The  latter  can  be 
discovered  amongst  the  old-timers  in  Alaska  as  plentifully  as 
can  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  be  found  in  the 
towns  and  villages  of  the  New  England  States, 

The  honour  of  hoisting  the  flag,  it  is  morally  certain,  be- 
longed to  George  Lovell  Rousseau,  a  son  of  Brigadier-General 
Lovell  H.  Rousseau,  who,  acting  on  behalf  of  the  United 
States  government,  formally  received  the  territory  from  Prince 
Maksoutoff,  who  represented  Russia. 

General  Rousseau's  official  report  on  file  in  the  Department 
of  State  leaves  little  room  for  doubt  on  this  point. 

Concerning  the  disposition  of  the  flag.  General  Rousseau's 
report  dated  from  the  Headquarters  of  the  Department  of  the 
Columbia,  Portland,  Oregon,  December  5,  1867,  as  made  to 
Secretary  of  State  William  H.  Seward,  says: 

"  With  this  report  and  accompanying  papersj  I  return  to 
you  the  United  States  flag  used  on  the  occasion  of  the  transfer 
of  the  territory." 

The  flag  was  placed  in  the  archives  of  the  Department  of 
State. 

The  party  landed  at  New  Archangel  on  October  18,  1867. 
It  was  a  clear,  beautiful  day,  and  it  was  arranged  that  formal 
acquisition  of  the  Territory  should  be  made  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  General  Jeff  C.  Davis  was  in  command  of 
the  American  troops;  Captain  Emmons,  in  command  of  the 
United  States  warship  Ossipee;  Captain  Bradford,  in  command 
of  the  United  States  ship  Resaca;  and  Captain  McDougall,  in 
command  of  the  United  States  ship  Jamestown.  These  officers 
were  present  on  behalf  of  the  United  States.  Captain  Alexis 
Petchouroff  and  Prince  Dimitry  Maksoutoff,  governor  of  the 
Territory,  were  present  on  behalf  of  Russia. 


TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES       393 

The  flag  was  lowered  by  a  Russian  sailor  after  some  trouble 
resulting  from  an  entangling  of  the  Czar's  emblem  with  the 
ropes  and  mast.  The  difficulty  was  soon  overcome,  and,  with 
salutes  from  the  Ossipee,  the  American  flag  given  to  General 
Rousseau  by  Secretary  Seward  for  the  purpose  of  proclaiming 
the  occupation  of  Russian  Territory  by  the  United  States,  was 
hoisted  by  George  Lovell  Rousseau,  the  General's  private  sec- 
retary. 

As  the  American  flag  reached  the  top  of  the  pole,  some 
American  bystanders  gave  a  spontaneous  cheer.  Captain 
Petchouroff  then  advancing  and  addressing  the  American  offi- 
cer, said:  "General  Rousseau,  by  authority  from  His  Majesty, 
the  Emperor  of  Russia,  I  transfer  to  the  United  States,  the 
Territory  of  Alaska." 

General  Rousseau  made  a  suitable  reply  in  as  few  words 
and  the  ceremony  was  at  an  end.  The  transfer  was  conducted 
with  the  utmost  friendliness   and  courtesy  on  both  sides. 

The  official  report  describes  the  economic  conditions  as  to 
titles  held  at  that  time  by  Russian  subjects  and  fully  details 
affairs  concerning  climatic  conditions  and  the  wonderful  possi- 
bilities of  agriculture,  fishing  and  forests.  A  complete  map, 
detailing  every  building  in  New  Archangel,  was  made  by  the 
officers  under  General  Rousseau  and  forwarded  with  the  report. 

While  under  Russian  rule  the  colony  ran  along  on  exceed- 
ingly pleasant  lines  —  for  the  officials  of  the  company.  Many 
elaborate  social  affairs  were  held  and,  it  is  related  by  some  his- 
torians, that  a  tremendous  amount  of  vodka  and  other  alcoholic 
beverages  were  consumed.  As  the  Russian  flag  floated  down, 
the  Princess  Maksoutoff,  seeing  the  end  of  the  reign  of  gaiety 
which  she  had  so  long  enjoyed,  wept  bitterly. 

The  history  of  Alaska,  until  the  end  of  Russian  occupation, 
is  largely  a  history  of  the  explorations  carried  on  in  the  country, 
and,  as  the  development  of  the  territory  is  due  to  the  work  of 


394     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  explorers,  it  must  continue  so  to  be.  Secretary  Seward  was 
the  first  distinguished  American  statesman  to  visit  Alaska. 
He  brought  back  with  him  much  information  pertaining  to 
the  territory  and  to  the  great  Northwestern  section  of  the 
United  States.  Seward  made  the  prediction  that  the  north- 
west would  be  developed  into  an  empire  and  that  Alaska  would 
pay  back  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  the  cost  of  its 
purchase  many  times  multiplied.  But  he  did  not  live  to  see 
his  prediction  verified. 

The  famous  Secretary  of  State  returned  with  a  large  col- 
lection of  curios  and  souvenirs,  amongst  them  being  a  dance 
cloak  covered  with  Chinese  coins,  that  the  Russians  had  prob- 
ably obtained  at  the  period  of  their  trade  with  China  and  had 
sold  to  the  Indians  in  exchange  for  furs.  An  expert  in  the 
Chinese  Embassy  later  examined  these  coins  and  declared  that 
some  of  them  dated  back  to  the  twelfth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
and  a  few  of  them  bore  the  dates  of  the  early  years  of  the 
Christian  era.  Mr.  Seward  also  brought  back  with  him  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  Alaska  cedar,  which,  in  combination  with 
California  laurel,  was  used  in  the  panellings  and  furnishings 
of  his  home. 

Collectors  of  Customs,  postmasters  and  a  few  other  federal 
officials  were  appointed,  and  the  country  was  placed  under  mili- 
tary rule.  The  officers  of  the  garrison  restrained  the  sur- 
charged animalism  of  the  Indians  from  overflowing,  but,  after 
ten  years'  occupation,  the  military,  in  1877,  sailed  away;  an-d, 
as  no  form  of  civil  government  was  substituted  to  succeed  the 
military  rule,  the  residents  began  to  despair.  Then  and  there 
was  sown  the  seed  of  discontent  in  Alaska  which  even  to-day 
manifests  itself  in  repeated  petitions  to  Congress  for  the  right 
of  home  rule  —  granted  in  1912  —  and  occasional  murmurings 
of  secession  and  revolution. 

In    the   absence   of   the   military,   the   Indians,    immediately 


TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES       395 

beginning  to  presume  upon  their  immunity  from  punishment, 
distilled  illicit  liquor  —  still  known  as  Hoochinoo  —  openly 
and  without  hindrance.  Pandemonium  reigned.  The  tribe 
leaders  burned  buildings  on  the  parade  ground,  killed  and  muti- 
lated cattle  and  horses,  and  gambled  on  the  church  steps  in 
defiance  of  the  Russian  priest. 

Real  trouble  began  when  three  white  men  were  murdered 
by  Indians  a  few  miles  from  Sitka  in  November,  1878,  at  a 
point  now  called  Murderer's  Bay.  Friendly  Indians  arrested 
and  placed  the  murderers  in  the  guard  house,  and  immediately 
the  whole  settlement  was  up  in  arms.  The  white  citizens, 
who  had  been  vainly  appealing  for  protection  to  their  own 
government,  were  in  a  state  of  siege  and  at  the  mercy  of  the 
enraged  savages.  Although  there  were  about  three  hundred 
white  people,  they  were  outnumbered  three  to  one  by  the  In- 
dians, and  in  momentary  dread  of  a  massacre.  The  Russians 
gathered  at  the  house  of  the  priest  and  prepared  to  sell  their 
lives  as  dearly  as   possible. 

Failing  to  receive  help  from  the  United  States,  the  Ameri- 
cans made  a  last,  desperate  appeal  to  the  British  Admiral  at 
Victoria.  To  his  credit  be  it  written.  Captain  A'Court,  of 
H.  M.  S.  Osprey,  without  waiting  to  exchange  polite  diplo- 
matic notes  with  Washington  officials,  sailed  immediately  for 
Sitka,  where  he  quickly  restored  a  condition  of  quietude. 

Three  weeks  later  the  United  States  revenue  cutter  Oliver 
JVoolcott  came  in  and  anchored  close  to  the  big  British  war- 
ship. The  Osprey  reached  Sitka  in  March,  1879,  and  re- 
mained, ostensibly  to  protect  the  few  British  citizens,  until 
early  in  April,  when  the  United  States  steamer  Alaska  arrived 
in  port.  The  captain  of  the  Alaska  declared  the  Indian  scare 
groundless  and  his  presence  unnecessary,  and  once  more  the 
people  were  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  Indians,  but  the  naval 
authorities  at  Washington,  after  receiving  the  report  of  Cap- 


396     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

tain  A'Court,  ordered  the  Alaska  back,  and  the  vessel  remained 
until  reh'eved  by  the  Jamestown  the  following  summer. 

Captain  Lester  A.  Beardslee,  of  the  Jamestown,  instituted 
many  reforms  and  kept  the  natives  in  subjection.  He  made 
many  raids  upon  native  moonshiners,  supervised  treaties  of 
peace  betv^^een  warring  tribes  and  kept  a  naval  protectorate 
over  the  infant  mining  camp  which,  in  the  meantime,  had  been 
established  by  American  citizens  at  Juneau. 

He  was  relieved,  in  1881,  by  Captain  Glass  of  the 
Wachusett,  who  remained  at  the  head  of  Alaskan  affairs  until 
1882  when  Captain  Merriman,  of  the  Adams,  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  Alaskan  station.  Captain  Merriman  became 
a  power  among  the  Indians  and  he  and  his  ship  played  an 
important  part  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Peace  and  order 
reigned  at  Sitka,  Indians  and  miners  at  Juneau  were  chastised 
when  they  deserved  it  and  protected  in  whatever  rights  any  of 
them  had  in  the  abandoned  territory.  Crooked  traders  and 
distillers  of  illicit  liquor  generally  had  a  most  unpleasant  time 
of  it  during  this  period.  Captain  Merriman,  besides  exercis- 
ing a  general  police  duty  about  the  territory,  acted  as  referee, 
umpire,  probate  and  appellate  judge,  arbiter  of  many  vexed 
questions,  and  frequently  the  judgment  of  a  modern  Solomon 
had  to  be  called  into  requisition  in  deciding  issues  in  local 
tribal  wars.  Many  times  he  was  called  upon  to  tear  asunder 
those  whom  Indian  ceremonies  had  made  one,  to  protect  young 
native  Beau  Brummels,  who  scorned  the  proposal  to  marry 
their  uncle's  widow;  to  save  those  doomed  to  death  by  torture 
for  witchcraft;  to  prevent  killing  of  slaves  at  funerals  and 
Potlatch  festivals,  and  to  administer  the  estates  of  deceased 
chieftains.  These  duties  demanded  the  exercise  of  tact  and 
no  inconsiderable  portion  of  diplomacy.  His  departure  from 
the  wharf  was  witnessed  by  wailing  groups  of  natives,  who 
regarded  him  as  the  Great  White  Father  of  the  country. 


WILD  HAY  AND  RED  TOP  GROW  LrXURIAXTLV  NEAR  SEWARD 


I'llotu     l,v     K 


W.  R.  WISE,  A  MIXER-RANCHER,  MAYOR,  CHIEF-OF-POLICE,  AND 
ENTIRE   POPri-AIION    OF    STILLWATER 


TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES      397 

Captain  Mcrriman  was  succeeded  by  Captain  J.  B.  Coghlan 
and  a  long  line  of  naval  officers  who,  besides  continuing  the 
work  instituted  by  Captain  Merriman,  gave  much  of  their 
time  to  making  careful  surveys  of  the  channels  of  the  inland 
passage  of  Alaska.  The  history  of  the  naval  protectorate  in 
Alaska  is  a  bright  contrast  to  the  less  creditable  military  rule, 
and  very  much  better  for  the  citizens  than  the  government  of 
the  Russians. 

Yet,  accustomed  to  the  liberties  and  privileges  which  they 
had  enjoyed  in  the  United  States,  the  American  residents  of 
Alaska  were  deeply  discontented.  Self-government  is  an  in- 
herent principle  of  Americanism,  and  these  Argonauts  of  the 
Northern  frontier  made  constant  and  repeated  demands  for  the 
institution  of  a  civil  form  of  government  in  Alaska.  Seven- 
teen years  after  the  signing  of  the  treaty,  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  granted  a  skeleton  form  of  government  to  the 
territory  which  had  proved  itself  a  paying  investment  from 
the  day  it  was  purchased.  Customs  changed  slowly.  Each 
year  Presidential  messages  were  sent  to  Congress  drawing  its 
attention  to  the  fact  that  Alaska  was  being  shamefully  neg- 
lected, but  despite  these  repeated  admonitions  it  can  be  stated 
without  prejudice  that  conditions,  up  to  the  year  igi2,  have 
not  changed  substantially. 

About  the  year  1882  the  commander  of  a  Russian  man-of- 
war,  stationed  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  threatened  to  proceed  to 
Sitka  to  examine  into  the  defenceless  and  deplorable  condition 
of  the  Russian  residents  to  whom  the  government  of  the  United 
States  had  not  extended  the  protection  and  civil  rights  guar- 
anteed in  the  treaty.  Promises  that  something  would  be  done 
immediately  were  made,  just  as  the  same  promises  are  being 
made  to-day. 

After  innumerable  petitions  and  the  introduction  in  Con- 
gress of  more  than  thirty  bills  granting  a  civil  form  of  govern- 


398     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

ment  to  Alaska,  without  any  result  being  obtained,  the  pioneers, 
in  1882,  threatened  to  unite  with  the  Russian  residents  of  the 
territory  in  an  appeal  to  the  Czar  for  the  rights  which  the 
treaty  guaranteed.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  United 
States  had  taken  several  foreign  governments  to  task  for  the 
persecutions  imposed  upon  Jews,  peasants  and  other  subjects 
within  European  and  Asiatic  borders,  and  the  Czar  of  Russia, 
doubtless,  gladly  would  have  welcomed  an  opportunity  to 
memorialise  and  lecture  this  Republic  in  a  similar  cause. 

The  bill  providing  civil  government  for  Alaska  was  Intro- 
duced by  Senator  Harrison  on  December  4,  1883,  and,  after 
it  had  been  amended  by  the  "  Insurgents "  of  that  period, 
passed  the  Senate  on  January  4,  1884.  It  was  approved  by 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  May  13  of  that  year,  after 
the  members  had  done  considerable  tinkering  with  it,  and  a 
day  later,  it  was  signed  by  President  Arthur  and  became  a  law. 
Alaska  was  made  a  territory,  but  not  a  land  district  of  the 
United  States,  anomalous  as  that  condition  may  seem,  and  it 
is  partially  attributable  to  this  peculiar  form  of  government 
that  Alaska  has  not  progressed  as  rapidly  as  has  the  contigu- 
ous territory  in  British  Columbia.  The  citizens  who  had 
struggled  against  such  tremendous  odds  for  many  years,  were 
exceedingly  bitter  at  the  skeleton  government  granted   them.^ 

At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  this  law,  many  of  the  resi- 
dents of  Alaska  were  more  loyal  to  the  Czar  of  Russia  than  to 
the  United  States  government,  and  it  is  this  feeling  of  discon- 
tent, still  existing,  which  is  responsible  for  the  exodus  of 
Alaskans  to  the  Western  Provinces  of  Canada. 

Under  the  act  of  1884  John   H.  Kinkead,  ex-Governor  of 

^  This  bitterness  remains  in  the  hearts  of  many  Alaskans  to  this 
day,  and  it  probably  will  remain  until  such  time  as  they  are  granted 
the  privilege  of  having  a  voic^  in  the  making  of  the  laws  which  they 
are  compelled  to  obey. 


TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES       399 

Nevada,  was  made  the  first  executive.  The  other  officers  of 
this  first  government  were:  John  G.  Brady,  Commissioner  at 
Juneau,  afterwards  governor;  George  P.  Ihrie,  Commissioner 
at  Fort  Wrangell;  Chester  Seeber,  Commissioner  at  Unalaska; 
Ward  MacAlh'ster,  Jr.,  United  States  District  Judge;  E.  W. 
Haskell,  United  States  District  Attorney;  M.  C.  Hillycr, 
United  States  marshall  for  the  District  of  Alaska;  and  Andrew 
T.  Lewis,  clerk  of  court.  These  officers  reached  their  sta- 
tions in  September,  1884,  ^nd  inaugurated  the  first  civil  gov- 
ernment in  Alaska. 

At  this  time  the  grossest  ignorance  of  the  geography  of  the 
country  prevailed.  Letters  were  addressed  to  "  The  United 
States  Consul  at  Sitka,"  and  to  "  The  Governor  of  Alaska 
Territory  "  long  before  the  country  had  any  such  official  or 
any  right  to  be  called  a  territorj\  This  ignorance  of  Alaskan 
affairs  exists,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  in  the  Eastern  States 
to  this  day,  a  lawyer  at  Nome  in  19 10  having  received  a  let- 
ter from  the  publishers  of  a  prominent  American  magazine 
requesting  him  to  remit  the  amount  of  extra  postage  involved 
in  sending  the  magazine  to  foreign  countries.  Apparently  the 
circulation  department  of  this  journal  had  not  yet  learned 
that  Alaska  was  a  part  of  the  United  States,  and  hundreds 
of  people  in  the  Eastern  States  still  believe  that  the  Klondike 
gold  fields  are  situated  in  Alaska,  although  it  has  been  stated 
in  public  prints  thousands  of  times  that  the  Klondike  region  is 
part  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
SYSTEMATIC  EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS 

New  era  of  development  begins  soon  after  American  acquisition  — 
Approximate  position  of  Canadian  boundary  line  established  — 
Private  traders  and  explorers  do  much  good  work  —  George  Holt 
breaks  down  opposition  of  natives  to  allowing  white  men  to  cross 
White  Pass  into  the  Yukon.  Klondike  gold  fields  discovered  and 
rush  commences. 

WITH  the  exception  of  the  work  done  on  the  Yukon 
River,  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  exploration 
of  the  interior  of  Alaska  until  after  the  territory- 
was  transferred  to  the  United  States.  The  hoisting  of  the 
American  Flag  marked  a  new  era  in  the  work  of  opening  the 
country  to  development.  Soon  after  the  transfer  the  Coast 
and  Greodetic  Survey  began  the  task  of  charting  the  coast-line 
of  Alaska  and  it  has  been  actively  engaged  in  this  work  ever 
since.  When  it  is  considered  that  the  Alaska  coast-line  is  ap- 
proximately twenty-six  thousand  miles  long,  one  will  have  some 
conception  of  the  amount  of  labour  involved.  Other  government 
vessels  such  as  those  of  the  Revenue  Marine  Service,  Fish  Com- 
mission and  Navy,  have  made  large  contributions  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  Alaskan  coastwise  navigation ;  while  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  has  done  much  valuable  work  in  the  interior. 
Soon  after  the  transfer  Americans  began  to  realise  the  op- 
portunities for  trade  that  Alaska  offered.  A  strong  American 
corporation  purchased  the  interests  of  the  Russian-American 
Company  and  made  many  millions  of  dollars  on  the  seal  and 
other  fisheries.  While  these  millions  were  taken  out  of  Alaska, 
very  little  money  was  expended  in  the  development  of  the  ter- 

400 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  401 

ritory,  and  the  cost  of  exploration,  to  a  large  extent,  was  borne 
by  the  general  government. 

Trading  posts  were  established  on  the  Yukon  and  other 
streams  flowing  into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  1869  the  first 
river  steamboat  ascended  the  Yukon. 

For  the  purpose  of  settling  the  disputes  between  American 
and  British  traders,  Captain  C.  W.  Raymond,  U.  S.  A.,  in 
1869,  was  instructed  to  lead  an  expedition  up  the  Yukon  River 
and  establish  the  approximate  position  of  the  boundary  line. 
Raymond,  besides  gathering  important  data  pertaining  to  the 
natives  and  to  the  fur  trade  and  other  resources,  accurately 
surveyed  the  lower  Yukon  River. 

Much  of  the  exploration  work  in  Alaska  was  done  by  pri- 
vate traders,  conspicuous  among  them  being  Jack  McQuesten, 
Joe  Ladue,  Arthur  Harper  and  Frank  Densmore.  These  men, 
who  frequently  depended  entirely  for  subsistence  on  the  pro- 
ceeds of  their  rifles,  and  without  any  of  the  aids  of  the  modem 
explorer,  made  numerous  long  and  hazardous  trips  into  the  in- 
terior. Several  lost  their  lives  by  drowning  in  the  swift 
streams,  many  were  frozen  to  death,  and  still  others  found 
nameless  graves  in  the  lonely  mountains.  These  pioneers  left 
few  records  of  their  journeys,  but  it  is  known  that  Harper  vis- 
ited the  White  and  Tanana  Rivers,  McQuesten  the  Koyukuk 
and  many  other  tributaries  of  the  Yukon,  one  of  which  still 
bears  his  name,  and  that  Densmore  ascended  the  Kuskokwim 
for  a  considerable  distance.  The  knowledge  gained  by  these 
men,  through  their  intercourse  with  the  natives,  later,  in  part, 
was  embodied  in  maps  of  Alaska  and  in  part  preserved  by  word 
of  mouth,  and  when  prospectors  ascended  the  Yukon  in  the 
early  eighties,  these  charts  were  of  great  assistance. 

Gold  was  reported  on  the  Yukon  as  early  as  the  Telegraph 
survey  of  1867,  but  was  not  found  in  workable  quantities  for 
many  years  later.     Dan  Libby,  a  member  of  von  Bendeleben's 


402     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

party,  which  was  installing  a  section  of  the  telegraph  line  near 
Norton  Sound,  discovered  gold  in  the  Seward  Peninsula,  near 
Norton  Bay.  In  1897,  shortly  after  the  news  of  the  Klondike 
strike  was  flashed  to  the  world,  Libby  organised  a  party  in 
San  Francisco  and  returned  to  Golovnin  Bay.  This  party  lo- 
cated Melsing  and  Ophir  Creeks,  on  both  of  which  Libby  had 
discovered  traces  of  gold  twenty  years  previously.  These  and 
other  adjacent  streams  have  since  produced  several  million  dol- 
lars, but  it  required  the  excitement  coincident  to  the  Klon- 
dike stampede  to  cause  Libby  to  return  to  the  North  and  bring 
about  their  development.  It  is  notable  also  that  John  Dexter, 
one  of  the  earliest  locaters  in  the  Nome  gold  fields,  staked  a 
homestead  on  Ophir  Creek  nearly  twenty  years  before  Libby 
returned  and  proved  that  the  gravel  in  these  streams  contained 
enough  of  the  glittering  metal  to  give  many  men  a  competency. 

The  date  of  the  first  systematic  prospecting  in  Alaska  Is 
somewhat  uncertain,  but  it  is  known  that  some  time  between 
1873  and  1878,  George  Holt  crossed  the  Chilkoot  Pass  and 
reached  the  Lewis  and  Yukon  Rivers. 

Fearing  that  their  lucrative  trade  with  the  interior  natives 
would  be  interfered  with,  the  Chilkoot  Indians  strenuously 
objected  to  allowing  white  men  to  cross  the  mountains  by  their 
trading  route  over  Chilkoot  Pass.  These  Indians  frequently 
had  waged  war  on  the  natives  of  the  interior  and  many  of  the 
latter  had  been  enslaved  by  their  coastal  oppressors.  Captain 
Beardslee,  commander  of  the  Jamestown,  broke  down  the  op- 
position of  the  Indians  and,  through  his  intervention,  a  party 
of  sixteen  miners,  led  by  Edmund  Bean,  crossed  the  mountains 
and  descended  the  Lewis  River,  as  far  as  the  Teslin.  Many 
others  followed  in  the  next  few  years  and  some  of  these  tra- 
versed the  entire  length  of  the  Lewis  and  the  Yukon  to  St. 
Michael. 

John  Muir,  the  great  naturalist  and  explorer,  accompanied 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  403 

by  the  Rev.  S.  Hall  Young,  discovered  Muir  Glacier  and  ex- 
plored Glacier  Bay  in  1879.  Muir's  glowing  discriptions  of 
the  wonderful  scenery  of  Alaska,  in  later  years,  led  to  the 
development  of  a  tourist  route  through  Southeastern  Alaska 
waters.  Although  Muir  and  Young  were  the  first  men  to 
examine  Glacier  Bay,  it  had  been  seen  two  years  earlier  by 
Lieutenant  C.  S.  A.  Wood  who,  in  company  with  some  native 
hunters,  was  making  some  explorations  in  the  Fairweather 
Mountains. 

The  De  Long  expedition  sailed  in  the  steamer  Jeannette 
from  San  Francisco  in  1879  to  search  for  the  North  Pole.  On 
her  return  the  vessel  was  crushed  in  the  ice  ofl[  the  Siberian 
coast  and  abandoned  on  December  21,  1881.  The  officers  and 
crew  outfitted  themselves  with  sleds  and  boats,  and  made  an 
effort  to  gain  the  mainland.  Chief  Engineer  G.  W.  Melville 
reached  the  shore  and,  falling  in  with  some  natives,  was  saved. 
Lieut.  De  Long,  together  with  his  boat  party  made  a  landing 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Lena  River,  where  all  but  two  of  them 
died  of  starvation.  Lieut.  Chipp,  In  command  of  the  third 
boat  party,  doubtless  perished  among  the  ice  floes,  for  he  was 
never  heard  of  again.  Altogether  more  than  twenty  lives  were 
lost.  The  revenue  cutter  Rodgers  rescued  the  survivors  the 
following  year. 

Ivan  Petrof,  an  agent  of  the  Tenth  Census,  who  long  had 
been  a  resident  of  the  territory,  made  a  notable  contribution  to 
the  knowledge  of  geography  and  resources  of  Alaska.  He 
spent  two  years  travelling  along  the  coast  and  on  the  lower 
Yukon  and  Kuskokwim  Rivers,  his  familiarity  with  the  native 
tribes  and  Russian  inhabitants  enabling  him  to  gather  much 
data  pertaining  to  regions  which  he  did  not  visit.  His  general 
map  of  Alaska,  though  largely  based  on  the  statements  of  na- 
tives and  traders,  was  fairly  accurate  and  delineated  the  general 
features  of  the  geography,  and  he  was  the  first  man  to  mani- 


404     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

fest  a  clear  conception  of  the  distribution  of  the  mountain 
ranges  in  Alaska. 

Lieutenant  Frederick  Schwatka,  in  1882,  two  years  after 
the  Indian  route  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Yukon  had  been  in 
use  by  prospectors,  made  a  most  notable  journey  from  Lake 
Bennet  to  Fort  Selkirk.  After  crossing  the  range,  Schwatka 
built  a  raft  and  navigated  this  unwieldy  craft  through  the 
many  dangerous  rapids. 

From  Fort  Selkirk  he  continued  down  stream  to  Fort  Yukon, 
but  this  section  of  the  river  already  had  been  explored  by  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  survey  and  others.  Charles  W. 
Hoffman,  the  topographer  who  accompanied  Schwatka,  made 
the  first  actual  survey  of  the  Lewis  and  Yukon  Rivers. 
Sketched  from  the  raft  as  he  drifted  by,  the  work  was  rather 
crude,  but  only  in  very  recent  years  has  it  been  superseded  by 
more  complete  maps.  In  the  decade  that  followed  the  publi- 
cation of  Schwatka's  account  of  his  rather  exciting  trip 
down  the  Yukon  —  a  journey  which  had  been  made  by  many 
others  before  him  —  many  exploring  expeditions  were  sent  out 
by  the  government. 

During  the  years  1881-83,  a  meteorological  and  magnetic 
station,  in  charge  of  Lieutenant  P.  H.  Ray  was  maintained  at 
Point  Barrow  by  the  U.  S.  Signal  Service  but  no  explorations 
of  any  importance  were  attempted. 

The  Geographical  Society  of  Bremen,  Germany,  in  188 1, 
took  a  hand  in  Alaska  exploration  by  dispatching  Dr.  Arthur 
Krause  to  make  an  examination  of  the  coast  along  Lynn  Canal 
into  the  Chilkoot  River  Basin.  Krause  published  a  map  which 
for  the  next  ten  years  was  used  as  a  basis  for  all  other  maps 
of  the  region  visited  by  him. 

Although  that  spectacular  piece  of  water  above  the  Miles 
and  Childs  Glacier,  on  Copper  River,  was  named  Abercrom- 
bie  Rapids  in  honour  of  Lieutenant  W.  R.  Abercrombie,  who, 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  405 

in  1884,  was  detailed  to  make  an  exploration  of  Copper  River, 
the  expedition  led  by  him,  in  the  light  of  results  secured,  is 
generally  regarded  as  a  failure. 

The  following  year  Lieutenant  Henry  T.  Allen,  who  was 
dispatched  to  complete  the  work,  made  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able journeys  in  the  annals  of  official  Alaskan  exploration. 
With  four  men,  Allen  landed  at  the  mouth  of  Copper  River 
in  March,  1885.  In  a  poling  boat  and  with  dog  sleighs,  he 
traversed  this  stream  for  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles; 
then  crossed  the  divide  by  way  of  the  Suslota  Pass  at  the  head 
of  the  Tanana,  and  obtaining  another  boat  from  the  natives, 
followed  that  stream  to  its  confluence  with  the  Yukon.  From 
the  time  the  party  left  the  head  of  the  Copper  River 
until  it  reached  the  Yukon,  in  the  following  June,  the  mem- 
bers subsisted  entirely  on  the  game  which  fell  to  their  arms. 
For  many  weeks  moose  meat  was  the  only  item  on  their  daily 
menu,  although,  at  times,  they  found  a  dietary  change  in  an 
occasional  rabbit  or  a  few  ptarmigan.  They  reached  the 
Yukon  in  a  half  starved  and  somewhat  exhausted  condition. 

With  indomitable  energy  Allen  re-outfitted  and,  with  one 
companion,  crossed  to  the  Koyukuk  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Melozi  River  and  explored  it  almost  from  the  Arctic  Circle  to 
its  junction  with  the  Yukon.  He  crossed  by  portage  from  the 
lower  Yukon  to  Norton  Sound  and  then  made  his  way  to  St. 
Michael,  whence  he  returned  to  the  United  States  by  steam- 
ship. 

With  the  exception  of  Dr.  Alfred  H.  Brooks,  of  the  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey,  Lieutenant  Allen  by  his  energy  and  courage, 
added  more  to  the  knowledge  of  interior  Alaska  than  any  man 
who  preceded  him  or  succeeded  him.  Allen  made  careful 
sketch  surveys  and  noted  all  facts  which  came  within  his  ob- 
servation; and,  within  one  season,  he  made  maps  of  three  of 
the  larger  rivers  of  the  territory,  which,  until  accurate  surveys 


4o6    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

were  made  twelve  years  later,  were  the  basis  of  all  the  maps 
used. 

Extensive  explorations  were  conducted  by  officers  of  the 
Navy  and  of  the  Revenue  Marine  Service,  during  the  years 
1883-86,  along  the  rivers  tributary  to  Kotzebue  Sound.  In 
1883,  Lieutenant  George  E.  Stoney,  of  the  revenue  cutter  Cor- 
win,  who  had  been  dispatched  to  Siberia  to  distribute  presents 
to  the  natives  who  had  aided  the  Jeannette  relief  expedition, 
examined  Kotzebue  Sound  and  explored  the  delta  of  the  Kobuk 
River. 

The  year  following,  these  explorations  were  continued  and 
resulted  in  the  discovery  of  Selawik  Lake  aad  other  important 
waterways. 

Stoney  made  a  third  trip  into  this  region  in  1886,  and  spent 
the  winter  in  making  extensive  explorations.  He  was  accom- 
panied by  a  large  and  well-equipped  party,  and  the  result  of 
the  work  was  the  discovery  of  the  Noatak  and  of  the  Alatna, 
the  latter  a  tributary  of  the  Koyukuk;  the  Selawik  River  and 
Chandlar  Lake,  in  which  the  Colville  River  has  its  source. 
Ensign  Reed  explored  the  Noatak  and  Assistant  Engineer 
Zane,  reached  the  Yukon  by  way  of  the  Pah  and  Koyukuk 
Rivers.  Ensign  W.  L.  Howard,  with  two  white  men  and  two 
natives,  left  the  winter  camp  in  April  and  proceeded  northeast 
across  the  Noatak  to  the  valley  of  the  Colville,  followed  do\vn- 
stream  for  twenty  miles,  and  then  crossed  another  divide  to 
the  headwaters  of  Chipp  River,  Here  they  abandoned  the 
dog  teams  and  descended  the  coast  in  native  skin  boats,  arriving 
at  Point  Barrow,  July  15.  This  was  the  first  party  of  white 
men  to  cross  Northern  Alaska,  and  this  expedition  was  the 
first  to  attempt  to  make  instrumental  surveys  in  the  interior  of 
the  territory. 

The  first  white  man  to  reach  the  headwaters  of  the  Kobuk 
was   Lieutenant  John   C.   Cantwell,  of   the   Revenue   Marine 


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EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  407 

Service,  who,  in  1884,  navigated  this  stream  as  far  as  Walker 
Lake.  Charles  H.  Townsend,  of  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission, 
accompanied  the  party  as  naturalist. 

S.  B.  McLenigan,  of  the  Revenue  Marine  Service,  with  one 
companion,  in  1885,  ascended  the  Noatak  River  about  three 
hundred  miles  and  made  a  careful  sketch  survey  of  that  stream. 

Being  considered  at  that  time  the  highest  peak  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  because  it  was  the  first  point  sighted  by  white  man 
on  the  mainland  of  Alaska,  Mount  St.  Elias  had  long  been  a 
subject  of  deep  interest.  Bering,  who  discovered  and  named 
it,  knew  it  only  as  a  distant  peak  which  thrust  itself  above 
the  clouds,  and  he  made  no  attempt  to  get  near  it.  Cook, 
Dixon  and  Vancouver,  also  noted  this  mountain.  In  1786, 
La  Perouse  saw  Mount  St.  Elias,  and  Dagelet,  his  astronomer, 
calculated  its  altitude  as  12,672  feet.  Five  years  later  Malas- 
pina  entered  Yakutat  Bay  and  surveyed  Disenchantment  Bay, 
its  inland  extension,  which  he  hoped  would  prove  a  Northeast 
passage.  Malaspina  calculated  the  altitude  of  St.  Elias  as 
17,851  feet.  Tebenkof's  Atlas  placed  its  altitude  at  17,000 
feet.  In  1854,  Dall  and  Baker  made  a  rough  triangulation 
and  reported  the  elevation  at  more  than  ig,ooo  feet.  The 
Coast  Survey  triangulation,  made  in  1892,  shows  the  elevation 
of  this  mountain  to  be   18,024  feet. 

In  1886,  Frederick  Schwatka,  with  Professor  William  Libby, 
and  Lieutenant  H.  W.  Seaton-Kerr,  led  an  expedition  which 
was  financed  by  the  New  York  Times,  to  ascend  the  mountain. 
Little  was  known  of  the  conditions  of  travel,  and  the  venture 
ended  in  failure.  Two  years  later,  an  altitude  of  11,400  feet 
was  attained  by  a  party  consisting  of  W.  H.  Topham,  Edwin 
Topham,  and  George  Brocas  —  three  Englishmen  —  and  Wil- 
liam Williams,  an  American. 

Mark  V.  Kerr  and  I.  C.  Russell,  in  1890,  acting  jointly 
for  the  National  Geographic  Society  and  the  U.  S.  Geological 


4o8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Survey,  attempted  to  scale  the  mountain,  and,  although  their 
efforts  were  unsuccessful,  much  important  data  was  obtained. 
Russell  and  Kerr,  after  living  for  four  days  in  rude  shelters 
in  snow  banks  on  the  upper  slopes  of  the  mountain,  without 
fuel  and  almost  without  food,  encountered  a  violent  blizzard 
and  were  forced  to  descend.  The  following  year  Russell 
gained  an  altitude  of  14,800  feet,  when  he  again  was  forced 
by  severe  storms  to  return. 

These  two  expeditions  resulted  in  the  collection  of  a  large 
amount  of  data  pertaining  to  the  glacial  history  of  the  region, 
and  a  fairly  accurate  map  of  the  slope  of  the  mountain.  Rus- 
sell's determination  of  18,100  feet,  as  the  height  of  the  upper- 
most peak,  was  remarkably  accurate,  when  the  conditions  under 
which  the  calculation  was  made  are  considered. 

Prince  Luigi,  the  noted  Italian  explorer,  was  the  first  to 
reach  the  summit  of  Mount  St.  Elias.  He  followed  the  route 
which  Russell  had  laid  out,  and  adopted  the  methods  the  latter 
had  recommended.  Landing  at  Yakutat  Bay,  in  1897,  with 
a  large,  thoroughly-equipped  expedition,  some  of  the  members 
of  which  were  recruited  from  the  Seattle  Athletic  Club,  Luigi 
"  mushed  "  across  the  forty  miles  of  snow  and  ice  between  the 
coast  and  the  base  of  the  mountain,  and  reached  the  summit 
on  July  31,  five  weeks  after  leaving  his  ship.  While  his  re- 
port contains  much  that  is  of  geographic  interest,  it  is  chiefly 
valuable  as  a  contribution  to  the  literature  of  mountaineering 
in  America. 

Soon  after  the  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Yukon,  at  Forty 
Mile  and  Circle  City,  the  international  boundary  became  a 
question  of  great  importance.  In  1888,  William  Ogilvie  and 
George  M.  Dawson,  for  whom  Dawson  City  afterward  was 
named,  made  sur\'^eys  of  the  route  from  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Lewis  River.  In  the  following  year 
Ogilvie  extended  his  surveys  down  the  Yukon  to  the  interna- 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  409 

tional  boundary,  and,  in  1890,  continued  them  to  tlic  head  of 
the  Porcupine,  wliich  had  been  surveyed  in  the  previous  year 
by  R.  G.  McConnell,  of  the  Canadian  Survey. 

About  this  period  Dawson  made  a  trip  from  Fort  Wrangell, 
in  Southeastern  Alaska,  to  the  head  of  the  Stikine  River,  thence 
across  the  Cassiar  Range  to  Dease  Lake,  down  the  Dease  River 
to  the  Liard,  up  the  Liard  to  the  Francis  River,  up  the  Francis 
River  to  Lake  Francis,  thence  across  a  spur  of  the  Cordillera 
Range  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Pelly  River,  and  down  the 
Pelly  River  to  its  confluence  with  the  Lewis  at  Fort  Selkirk. 
He  carefully  mapped  all  of  this  country,  most  of  which  was 
practically  unknown  up  to  that  time,  and,  while  most  of  the 
ground  covered  is  in  Canadian  territory,  his  maps  and  charts 
were  later  of  great  assistance  to  American  prospectors  who  in- 
vaded that  section  soon  after  the  sensational  gold  discovery  on 
the  Klondike  River. 

Meanwhile  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
had  dispatched  two  parties  to  the  boundary  line.  J.  E.  Mc- 
Grath,  who  headed  the  first  party  established  an  astronomic 
Station  near  the  boundary  on  the  Yukon,  and  J.  H.  Trainer, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  other  party,  installed  a  similar  sta- 
tion where  the  boundary  crossed  the  Porcupine.  Turner's 
party,  in  1890,  made  a  winter  trip  with  dog  teams  from  the 
Porcupine  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  following  as  nearly  as  possible 
the  one  hundred  and  forty-first  meridian.  This  was  the  second 
time  that  Northern  Alaska  was  crossed  by  white  men. 
Professor  I.  C.  Russell,  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  accom- 
panied McGrath  to  the  boundary  from  the  mouth  of  the  Por- 
cupine and  returned  to  the  coast  with  a  party  of  prospectors 
by  way  of  Lewis  River  and  Chilkoot  Pass. 

Frank  Leslie's  Weekly,  in  i8go,  sent  an  exploring  expedition 
into  Alaska,  but  so  far  as  can  be  learned,  no  official  report  of 
the  work  done  by  the  party  has  been  filed.     About  this  time, 


4IO    ALASPCA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Jack  Dalton,  in  company  with  a  man  named  Glave,  made  a 
trip  from  the  coast,  through  the  St.  Elias  Range,  to  the  Alsek 
River. 

In  1 89 1,  C.  Willard  Hayes,  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey, 
Lieutenant  Schwatka,  and  Mark  Russel,  a  prospector,  crossed 
the  divide  from  the  head  of  the  Taku  River,  near  Skagw^ay,  to 
Teslin  Lake,  v^^hich  stream  they  descended  to  Fort  Selkirk. 
They  continued  down  stream  to  the  White  River,  which  they 
ascended  to  its  head.  Although  deserted  by  their  Indian 
packers,  they  crossed  another  divide  to  the  Nizina  where  they 
built  a  boat,  and  then  floated  down  the  Copper  River  to  Cor- 
dova Bay. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  different  portions  of  British  Colum- 
bia, Alaska  and  the  Yukon  territory,  induced  Congress,  in  1895, 
to  recognise  the  importance  of  an  investigation  of  the  mineral 
resources  contained  in  Uncle  Sam's  northern  domain,  and 
through  a  small  appropriation,  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey  was  enabled  to  send  its  first  party  to  the  north. 

Dr.  George  F.  Becker,  aided  by  C.  W.  Purington,  made  a 
preliminary  investigation  of  the  gold  deposits,  and  W.  H.  Dall 
studied  the  coal  beds  of  the  Pacific  coastal  belt.  In  1896, 
J.  E.  Spurr,  with  H.  B.  Goodrich  and  F.  C.  Schrader,  visited 
the  important  placer  districts  of  Alaska  on  the  Yukon  and  did 
some  topographic  and  geologic  mapping. 

Although  thirty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  territory  had  been 
ceded  to  the  United  States,  the  general  public  was  still  almost 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  geography,  resources  or  climate  of 
Alaska.  Every  newspaper  still  referred  to  Alaska  as  a  "  land 
of  eternal  snow  and  ice,"  and  gave  the  impression  that  it  was 
inhabited  by  fur  traders,  and  blubber-eating  Eskimos.  In  the 
public  mind  the  word  "  Alaska  "  was  still  synonymous  with  ice- 
bergs, polar  bears,  bleak,  snow-covered  coasts,  and  a  country 
generally  uninhabitable  for  white  men. 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  411 

The  news  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  abundance  on  the  Klon- 
dike River,  Yukon  Territory,  during  the  summer  of  1896, 
startled  the  world,  and  many  of  the  illusions  concerning  Alaska 
and  Northern  Canada,  soon  were  dispelled. 

George  W.  Carmack's  discovery  of  a  New  Eldorado,  on  a 
tributary  of  the  Klondike,  brought  a  swarming,  seething  horde 
of  fifty  thousand  gold  hunters  into  Alaska  and  the  adjacent 
portions  of  Canadian  territory,  and  made  the  name  "  Klon- 
dike "  a  household  word  in  every  civilised  country  on  the 
globe.  The  glamour  of  romance,  the  distance,  the  inaccessi- 
bility of  the  field,  and  the  hardships  and  vicissitudes  with 
which  the  trail  was  bestrewn,  only  tended  to  make  the  diggings 
the  more  attractive  to  the  adventurers.  Every  newspaper  in 
the  United  States,  and  many  in  foreign  countries,  published 
glowing  accounts  of  the  unprecedented  riches  of  the  Arctic 
Bonanza.  From  every  corner  of  the  world,  men,  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  living  on  the  frontier  and  who  were  inured 
to  the  hardship  and  privation  incident  to  pioneer  life,  stampeded 
for  Alaska.  Two  weeks  after  the  news  of  the  strike  reached 
the  Coolgardie  gold  fields,  in  Western  Australia,  a  ship  left 
Freemantle  for  Skagway,  and  every  one  of  its  berths  were  filled 
by  Australian  miners,  hunters  and  sharpshooters.  Thousands 
left  England  and  the  European  countries  and  crossed  the  At- 
lantic, bound  for  the  new  diggings  where  they  hoped  to  find  a 
fortune.  Then  was  demonstrated  the  fact  that  the  author  who 
wrote  "  Distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view,"  knew  what 
he  was  talking  about. 

Hardly  had  the  Klondike  excitement  subsided  when  another 
sensational  discovery  was  made  in  the  Nome  placer  fields  where 
the  glittering  metal  was  first  unearthed  late  in  1898  and  be- 
came generally  known  a  year  later.  Again  the  attention  of 
the  world  was  attracted  to  Alaska,  and  a  second  exodus  to  the 
northern  regions  occurred   in    1900, 


412    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Of  the  thousands  who  entered  the  Yukon  Basin  during  this 
memorable  stampede  a  large  percentage  had  no  conception  of 
the  difficulties  and  dangers  that  confronted  them.  An  English- 
man, after  travelling  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  a  modern 
steamship  and  thence  across  the  continent  on  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Railroad,  on  reaching  Vancouver,  British  Columbia, 
remarked : 

"  Well,  don'tcherknow,  the  worst  part  of  the  trip  is  over, 
bah  jove!     What?" 

He  had  no  anticipation  of  the  weary,  back-breaking  work 
of  packing  across  Chilkoot  Pass  that  was  ahead  of  him,  or  that 
he  later  was  to  be  introduced  to  that  relic  of  the  Spanish  In- 
quisition, known  as  the  whip-saw,  used  by  the  prospectors  to 
cut  the  timber  from  which  their  boats  were  constructed. 

Hundreds  of  those  who  started  for  Dawson,  buoyed  up  with 
the  hope  that  within  a  year  they  would  return  to  civilisation 
and  join  the  millionaire  class,  never  had  any  previous  training 
for  the  work  they  had  so  rashly  undertaken.  Scores  of  them, 
after  finding  the  labour  of  carrying  their  supplies  across  the 
coast  range  too  strenuous  for  their  constitutions,  sold  their  out- 
fits and  returned  to  civilisation,  broken-hearted,  bitterly  disap- 
pointed, and  with  their  dreams  of  future  affluence  shattered 
into  a  million  fragments.  Many  of  those  who,  after  infinite 
labour  and  heart-breaking  toil,  had  crossed  the  divide  and 
floated  down  the  river,  became  discouraged  at  the  outlook 
when  they  reached  Dawson  and  continued  in  their  boats  down 
the  Yukon  to  St.  Michael,  whence  they  returned  home  with- 
out having  struck  a  pick  in  the  ground. 

The  more  venturesome  prospector,  however,  found  no  risk 
too  hazardous,  no  danger  too  great,  no  labour  too  hard,  no 
privation  too  painful,  and,  at  this  writing,  sixteen  years  later, 
there  is  hardly  a  stream  in  the  explored  sections  of  Alaska  that 
has  not  been  panned  by  him  and  hardly  a  quartz  outcrop  that 


EXPLORATIONS  BY  AMERICANS  413 

lias  nut  resounded  to  the  sturdy  blows  of  liammcr-licaded  pick. 

Evidences  of  his  intrepidity  and  energy  are  to  be  found  from 
the  tropical-like  jungles  of  Southeastern  Alaska  to  the  treeless, 
wind-swept  tundras,  which  skirt  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

Although  prospectors  have  travelled  far  and  wide  in  Alaska, 
they,  as  a  class,  have  added  little  to  the  knowledge  of  its  geog- 
raphy. As  a  rule  they  follow  but  two  purposes,  one  to  find 
gold,  and  the  other  to  get  through  the  country.  Ever  seeing 
green  fields  in  the  distance,  they  wander  around  like  restive 
spirits,  and  the  information  obtained  by  them  seldom  is  exact, 
even  when  available,  for  their  conception  of  where  they  have  been 
is  often  quite  as  vague  as  their  ideas  as  to  where  they  are  going. 
Though  their  contribution  to  geographic  knowledge  is  small, 
these  pioneer  prospectors,  at  the  expense  of  hard  toil  and  much 
suffering,  and  frequently  at  the  sacrifice  of  life  or  limbs,  have 
blazed  the  trails  for  the  settler,  the  miner,  the  surveyor,  and 
the  agriculturalist. 

A  demand  for  more  definite  information  pertaining  to  the 
resources  of  Alaska  followed  the  public  interest  aroused  by 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  Klondike,  and  money  was  appro- 
priated for  investigation  under  various  bureaus  of  the  federal 
government.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  enabled  to 
expand  its  surveys,  which  had  been  carried  on  ever  since  the 
purchase  of  the  territory. 

Captain  P.  H.  Ray,  and  Col.  Wilds  P.  Richardson,  in  com- 
mand of  a  company  of  infantry,  were  sent  to  Alaska,  in  1897, 
to  establish  military  posts  and  to  give  succour  and  relief  to  in- 
digent and  unfortunate  miners  and  prospectors  when  it  was 
found  necessary.  These  of^cers  also  built  trails  and  telegraph 
lines.  Their  work  provided  a  nucleus  for  that  which  subse- 
quently was  carried  on  in  Alaska  under  the  direction  of  the 
U.  S.  Signal  Corps  and  the  Alaska  Road  Comm.ission,  of  which 
Lieutenant  —  now  Lieutenant-Colonel  —  Wilds  P.  Richardson, 


414     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

at  this  writing,  is  president.  The  army  officers  also  attempted 
explorations  and  surveys  but  these  were  only  partially  success- 
ful, and  since  have  been  forgotten.  But  the  humane  work 
which  they  did  in  relieving  destitute  and  frozen  miners  long 
will  be  remembered. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

WORK  OF  THE  U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 

Dr.  Brooks'  researches  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey, the  one  reliable  medium  in  the  discovery  of  auriferous 
gravel  —  Many  millions  of  dollars  in  gold  now  added  to  the 
world's  supply  —  Difficulties  overcome  in  a  formerly  unexplored 
empire  —  First  authentic  information  of  the  new  gold  fields  at 
Nome  —  Tales   of  hardship   and   death. 

IN  1898,  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  began  its  systematic 
explorations  in  the  interior  of  Alaska,  and  in  all  the 
efforts  of  this  government  in  dealing  with  the  territory, 
the  one  act  which  stands  out  as  a  stroke  of  remarkable  ability 
was  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Alfred  H.  Brooks  to  take  charge 
of  this  work.  Dr.  Brooks  has  proven  himself  capable,  efficient 
and  industrious  beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectations,  and 
the  work  which  has  been  done  under  his  direction  has  proved 
of  inestimable  value  to  the  residents  of  the  territory.  Tire- 
lessly energetic,  unassuming,  honest  and  conservative  to  the  last 
degree,  and  a  keen,  careful  and  scientific  observer.  Dr.  Brooks 
is  most  highly  regarded  in  the  territory,  and  his  name  has 
come  to  be  used  in  Alaska  as  a  synonym  for  everything  that  is 
accurate,  definite,  and  authentic.  His  wonderful  ability  to 
gather  and  disseminate  knowledge  of  the  country's  geology  and 
resources  and  his  keen  insight  into  the  real  reasons  for  Alaska's 
lack  of  development,  caused  a  well-known  Alaskan  to  remark: 

"  There  are  but  two  who  know  the  truth  about  Alaska's 
resources.     These  are  Alfred   H.   Brooks  and   Providence." 

In  making  a  journey  along  the  fringe  of  the  territory  and  to 
the   coastal   coal   fields   for   the   purpose   of   studying  Alaska's 

415 


4i6    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

problems,  in  the  summer  of  191 1,  Walter  L,  Fisher,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  chose  as  his  companions  men  who  long  had 
resided  in  the  territory  and  who  had  studied  conditions  there. 
The  one  upon  whom  the  Cabinet  Officer  came  chiefly  to 
depend  for  accurate  information  was  Dr.  Brooks.  The  news- 
paper correspondents  in  the  party  gave  Dr.  Brooks  a  news- 
paper promotion  to  the  rank  of  General.  They  called  him 
"  General  Information."  On  his  return  to  the  national  capital, 
Secretary  Fisher  promoted  Dr.  Brooks  to  the  office  of  chief 
geologist  of  the  United  States,  but,  being  more  interested  in 
finishing  the  work  which  he  had  so  successfully  conducted  in 
Alaska  for  more  than  twelve  years  than  in  his  own  advance- 
ment. Dr.  Brooks  declined  the  honour  and  the  increased  re- 
muneration which  the  more  authoritative  position  would  have 
brought  him. 

The  United  States  Geological  Survey  has  pointed  out  to 
the  prospectors  not  only  the  places  where  it  is  useless  for  them 
to  search  for  gold,  but  also  the  regions  in  which  payable  gold 
is  likely  to  be  found.  The  discovery  of  auriferous  gravel  in 
the  Tanana  district  in  1902,  which  since  that  time  has  added 
many  millions  of  dollars  to  the  world's  supply  of  gold  coin, 
was  attributable  to  the  work  done  by  this  department.  Two 
years  before  the  strike  was  made  the  department  issued  a  re- 
port in  which  it  was  stated  that,  in  all  probability,  payable  gold 
would  be  discovered  in  the  region  where  it  later  was  found. 

The  problems  which  confronted  the  Geological  Survey  when 
it  first  entered  Alaska  were  appalling.  Immediate  publication 
of  maps  of  unexplored,  or  only  partially  explored,  regions  was 
demanded.  While  the  gold  excitement  was  at  its  height, 
there  was  an  insistent  public  demand  for  these  maps,  and  the 
members  of  the  survey  had  little  opportunity  in  the  first  year 
or  two  to  do  any  extensive  mapping  or  exploration.  The  prob- 
lem was  to  make  surveys  of  the  possible  routes  of  travel,  which 


U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  417 

were  chiefly  confined  to  the  larger  rivers,  and  to  include  within 
these  as  wide  areas  as  possible. 

The  first  season's  work  resulted  in  about  three  thousand 
miles  of  instrumental  traverses,  with  reconnaissance  maps  of  an 
area  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  square  miles,  besides  more  ac- 
curate surveys  of  about  two  thousand  square  miles.  The  tra- 
verses were  largely  confined  to  the  more  important  rivers.  The 
work  had  to  be  planned  with  a  very  incomplete  knowledge  of 
the  geography,  climate  and  other  conditions  of  travel,  and  all 
supplies  and  equipment  had  to  be  transported  from  Seattle. 
Landing  in  Alaska,  the  survey  parties  were  dependent  entirely 
upon  their  own  resources  for  transportation.  The  first  year 
they  travelled  by  following  the  waterways  in  canoes,  which  the 
surveyors  carried  on  their  backs  over  portages,  but  after  some 
knowledge  of  the  country  was  gained,  it  was  found  that  horses 
could  be  used  to  advantage  for  the  transportation  of  supplies. 

At  this  time  very  little  was  known  of  the  interior  of  Alaska. 
Of  the  586,400  square  miles  of  territory,  very  little  of  it,  ex- 
cepting that  contiguous  to  the  coast,  had  been  mapped.  At 
the  present  writing  about  one-fifth  of  the  country  has  been 
covered  by  the  Geological  Survey  maps,  while  practically  four- 
fifths  have  been  partially  explored. 

The  first  year's  explorations  were  conducted  on  the  Kuskok- 
wim,  Susitna,  Tanana,  Matanuska  and  Copper  Rivers.  All 
of  these  offered  possible  routes  to  the  interior.  The  Copper 
River  work  was  done  by  the  Geological  Survey  and  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  other  streams  was  carried  on  by  Captain  Edward 
F.  Glenn  and  Captain  William  R.  Abercrombie,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  War  Department,  to  whose  parties  geologists 
from  the  Geological  Survey  were  attached.  The  other  rivers 
were  mapped  by  the  Geological  Survey  parties. 

With  a  small  detachment  of  men  and  several  pack  horses. 
Captain   Glenn,   accompanied   by  W.   C,   Mendenhall,   of  the 


4i8     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Geological  Survey,  left  the  coast  at  Cook  Inlet,  crossed  the 
mountain  range  and  descended  the  Delta  River  to  the  Tanana, 
whence  he  returned  to  the  coast  by  the  same  route.  Much 
valuable  information  was  collected  by  Mendenhall,  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey. 

At  the  head  of  the  Tanana  Lieut.  J.  C.  Castner  was  de- 
tached to  continue  the  exploration  to  Circle,  on  the  Yukon, 
With  two  others  he  crossed  the  Tanana,  but  the  lateness  of  the 
season  prevented  him  from  finishing  his  projected  journey. 
After  losing  both  horses,  the  three  attempted  to  return  down 
the  Volkmon  River  to  the  Tanana  on  a  raft.  Their  primitive 
boat  struck  a  "  sweeper  "  and  everything,  including  their  shoes, 
was  lost.  Many  days  later  they  reached  the  Tanana  almost 
dead  from  hunger  and  exposure,  but  were  fortunate  enough  to 
find  some  friendly  Indians,  Minor  explorations  were  con- 
ducted by  H.  G.  Larnard  and  William  Yanert,  also  of  Glenn's 
party. 

Captain  Abercrombie's  expedition  landed  at  Valdez  and 
followed  the  path  made  by  hundreds  of  prospectors  across  the 
Valdez  Glacier.  F.  C.  Schrader,  of  the  Geological  Survey 
who  was  a  member  of  this  expedition,  did  some  creditable  work 
in  the  Copper  River  Basin, 

G.  H.  Eldridge  and  Robert  Muldrow  of  the  Geological 
Survey  with  five  others  explored  the  Susitna.  They  dragged 
their  supplies  in  canoes  against  the  swift  current  until  they 
reached  Jack  River  from  which  point,  with  packs  on  their 
backs,  they  pushed  on  to  Cantwell  River,  a  tributary  of  the 
Tanana.  Here  their  supplies  gave  out  and  they  were  forced 
to  return  to  their  boats,  which  they  reached  in  a  semi-starved 
condition.  They  made  surveys  throughout  the  journey,  and 
the  position  and  height  of  Mt.  McKinley,  23,380  feet,  were 
determined  for  the  first  time. 

J.  E.  Spurr  and  W.  B,  Post  of  the  Geological  Survey  as- 


INDIAN   BURIAI     IN     IHK   BARRENS   OF  THE   FAR   NORTH 


A    GROUP    OF    SCIENTIFIC    INVESTIGATORS 


U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  419 

cended  the  Yetna,  the  left  fork  of  the  Susitna  and  packed 
their  outfit  across  a  divide  to  the  Kuskokwim,  floated  down  that 
stream,  and  returned  to  Cook  Inlet  by  an  Indian  trail  across 
the  Alaska  Peninsula. 

The  same  year  the  two  most  important  southern  branches 
of  the  Yukon,  the  Tanana  and  White  Rivers,  were  surveyed. 
A.  H.  Brooks  and  W.  J.  Peters  crossed  Chilkoot  Pass  from 
Skagway  to  Lake  Marsh,  whence  they  later  embarked  in 
canoes  for  White  River,  shooting  the  White  Horse  Rapids  and 
many  other  pieces  of  turbulent  water,  en  route.  They  as- 
cended White  River  after  the  manner  of  beasts  of  burden  by 
dragging  their  canoes  with  tow  lines  against  the  raging  current. 
After  a  desperate  struggle  they  reached  the  head  of  the  swift 
stream  and  crossed  a  divide  to  the  Tanana,  down  which  they 
leisurely  floated  to  the  Yukon.  They  surveyed  about  io,CK)0 
square  miles  of  territory. 

E.  C.  Barnard,  following  a  similar  route  from  the  coast  to 
the  Yukon,  made  a  survey  of  about  2,000  square  miles  in  the 
Forty  Mile  River  Basin. 

Brooks  and  Peters  the  following  year  extended  their  surveys 
westward  from  Lynn  Canal  along  the  northern  base  of  the 
St.  Elias  Range  to  the  headwaters  of  the  White  and  Tanana 
Rivers,  and  thence  northward  to  the  Yukon  at  Forty  Mile. 
The  party  started  out  with  fifteen  horses,  but  only  five  of  the 
animals  survived  the  difficulties  of  the  journey.  Schrader  and 
T.  G.  Gerdine,  the  same  year,  left  Fort  Yukon  in  canoes,  as- 
cended the  Chandlar  River,  and,  after  making  a  sixteen  mile 
portage,  reached  the  Koyukuk  and  floated  down  that  stream  to 
the  Yukon. 

In  the  fall  of  1899  Brooks  and  Schrader  met  at  St.  Michael 
and,  after  the  close  of  navigation,  visited  the  newly  discovered 
placers  at  Nome.  They  sent  from  there  the  first  authentic  in- 
formation about  the  new  gold  field.     In   1900  Schrader,  Ger- 


420    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

dine  and  A.  C.  Spencer  mapped  a  large  area  in  the  Copper 
River  Valley,  while  Brooks,  Barnard,  Peters  and  Mendenhall 
did  a  vast  amount  of  work  in  Seward  Peninsula. 

Surveys  in  Northern  Alaska  were  conducted  in  1901.  The 
Yukon,  Koyukuk  and  Kobuk  Rivers,  the  Arctic  Ocean  and 
Kotzebue  Sound  were  explored  and  mapped.  Schrader  and 
Peters  made  a  trip  for  the  entire  length  of  Alaska  from  its 
southernmost  limit  to  Point  Barrow.  In  the  course  of  their 
journey  they  traversed  the  Endicott  Mountains  and  brought 
back  the  first  authentic  information  in  regard  to  this  great 
range.  Theirs  was  probably  the  most  noted  exploration  made 
by  the  Geological  Survey  and  it  resulted  in  the  collection  of  a 
mass  of  valuable  information.  Mendenhall  and  Reaburn  also 
did  considerable  work  in  the  northern  region  this  year,  notably 
along  the  Kobuk  River. 

During  the  same  year  Brooks  made  a  number  of  geological 
studies  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  and  Gerdine,  Collier  and 
Witherspoon  did  much  areal  mapping  in  Seward  Peninsula. 

In  1902,  Brooks  and  Reaburn  extended  the  survey  northwest 
from  Cook  Inlet  through  the  Alaska  range,  and  bending  north- 
east, passed  close  to  the  base  of  Mt.  McKinley  and  on  to  the 
Nenana  River,  whence  they  took  a  northwesterly  route  across 
the  Tanana  to  Rampart,  on  the  Yukon.  During  the  same 
season  Collier  studied  the  geology  of  the  Yukon,  Peters  made 
a  detailed  survey  near  Juneau,  and  Schrader,  Gerdine,  Men- 
denhall and  D.  C.  Witherspoon  did  areal  mapping  on  the  Cop- 
per River  Basin, 

In  1899,  under  the  auspices  of  the  War  Department  a  mili- 
tary trail  was  constructed  across  the  Chugach  Mountains  from 
Valdez  and  minor  exploration  work  was  done.  Oscar  Rohn,  a 
civilian  employe  of  the  expedition  led  by  Capt.  Abercrombie, 
with  one  companion  made  a  very  daring  journey.  He  crossed 
the  Wrangell  Mountains  to  the  Tanana  and  then  returned  to 


U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  421 

Copper  River,  making  a  sketch  map  and  geologic  investigations. 

From  that  time  to  the  present  day  various  investigations  have 
been  conducted  by  the  Geological  Survey,  contour  maps  have 
been  made  of  about  120,000  square  miles,  many  of  the  coal 
measures  of  Alaska  have  been  surveyed  and  a  whole  library  of 
scientific  data  pertaining  to  the  geology  and  topography  has 
been  printed  by  this  Department  all  of  which  has  been  of  tre- 
mendous value  to  those  who  have  sought  to  develop  the  mani- 
fold resources  of  the  territory.  The  increased  knowledge  of 
the  geology  of  the  country  has  given  the  explorer  a  much 
better  understanding  of  the  places  where  he  is  liable  to  find 
the  fortune  that  he  ever  is  seeking.  The  reports  printed  by 
the  Department  have  been  of  inestimable  value  not  only  to  the 
fortune  hunters,  but  also  to  those  who  have  made  Alaska  a 
source  of  investment.  The  work  of  the  Geological  Survey 
has  been  the  means  of  refuting  many  of  the  wild  and  chimerical 
stories  published  in  various  magazines  by  those  whose  interests 
are  best  subserved  by  a  lack  of  development. 

Of  the  120  or  more  parties,  which  the  Geological  Survey 
has  sent  to  Alaska,  not  a  single  one  has  failed  to  execute  the 
work  allotted  to  it.  This  is  largely  because  of  the  able  and 
efficient  management  of  Alfred  H.  Brooks  and  his  ability  to 
select  capable  men  for  leadership  of  the  expeditions.  He  has 
chosen  men  especially  fitted  by  nature,  as  well  as  by  experience 
and  training,  for  the  various  undertakings,  and  the  physical 
work  and  discomforts,  as  well  as  the  hardships  sometimes  in- 
volved have  cheerfully  been  shared  by  leaders  and  men  alike. 

Besides  publishing  a  library  of  information  pertaining  to  the 
country's  resources  the  members  of  the  survey  have  enlightened 
the  world  in  regard  to  the  climate  of  the  territory  and  its  other 
physical  conditions. 

Alaska  exploration  never  has,  and  probably  never  will  be, 
easy.     The  history  of  geographic  investigation  has  been  a  tale 


422     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  almost  continuous  suffering  and  hardship,  and  not  infre- 
quently of  death.  Scores  of  men  who  had  gone  forth  into  the 
wilderness  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  competency  have  found  in- 
stead a  nameless  sepulchre  in  the  forsaken  mountains  or  at  the 
bottom  of  the  frozen  streams.  Let  those  who  are  not  person- 
ally familiar  with  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  encountered 
judge  not  too  harshly  the  men,  who  —  with  sweating  brows, 
aching  backs  and  blood-blistered  hands  —  have  attempted  to 
make  the  territory  productive.  Many  are  the  lives  that  have 
been  forfeited  in  efforts  to  conquer  the  wilderness,  and  many 
are  the  sacrifices  that  will  be  made  in  the  years  yet  to  be,  for 
many  large  areas  are  still  practically  unexplored. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 
THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE 

Roald  Amundsen  first  to  bring  ship  through  tortuous  Northwest  Pas- 
sage —  Human  interest  stories  of  his  fealty  to  the  members  of 
his  intrepid  crew  —  Sterling  qualities  of  explorer  characterised 
by  sublime  modesty  which  precluded  dramatic  embellishment  of 
world-famed  deed  —  Story  of  his  valour  during  long,  black,  sub- 
Arctic  night. 

WHILE  Roald  Amundsen  cannot  properly  be  classed 
among  those  whose  explorations  have  tended  to 
the  development  of  Alaska,  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
first  man  to  bring  a  ship  through  the  long-sought  Northwest 
Passage  —  a  task  in  which  many  lives  had  been  sacrificed  —  a 
few  words  pertaining  to  his  work  and  his  personal  character- 
istics might  not  be  out  of  place. 

This  daring  Norwegian  navigator,  in  1912,  sprung  suddenly 
into  fame  and  public  acclamation  by  discovering  the  South  Pole. 
But  Amundsen  is  no  newspaper  explorer,  and  it  certainly  was 
not  his  fault  that  the  daily  journals  of  the  world  carried  his 
name  in  their  headlines  for  many  days. 

Amundsen,  be  it  remembered,  is  the  only  explorer  of  the 
northern  Polar  regions,  who,  in  recent  years,  has  accomplished 
anything  of  great  scientific  value.  It  is  true  that  he  did  not 
discover  the  North  Pole,  nor  did  he  search  for  it,  but  he  did 
definitely  determine  the  position  of  the  magnetic  pole  —  a  serv- 
ice which  since  has  proved  of  inestimable  value  to  other  navi- 
gators, and  he  gathered  a  large  amount  of  scientific  data  per- 
taining to  the  botanical  and  geological  condition  of  the  Polar 
regions. 

423 


424     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Apart  from  finding  the  Northwest  passage,  his  mission  was 
partially  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  some  trace  of  the  de- 
scendants of  fifteen  hundred  Vikings  who  were  lost  from  New- 
foundland in  the  fourteenth  century  and  were  never  heard  of 
again.  A  commander  of  one  of  the  ships  that  was  lost  was  a 
descendant  of  Lief  Erickson,  who  is  credited  with  landing  on 
that  part  of  America  which  forms  the  United  States  long  be- 
fore the  discovery  made  by  Columbus.  Erickson  and  his  fol- 
lowers are  supposed  to  have  established  a  settlement  on  the 
New  England  coast.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  blond 
Eskimos  discovered  by  Vilhjalmar  Stefansson  in  191 2  are  the 
descendants  of  the  lost  Vikings. 

A  legend  of  the  natives  on  the  Northern  coast  of  America 
is  to  the  effect  that  a  race  of  blue-eyed,  light-complexioned  peo- 
ple inhabit  part  of  the  land  adjacent  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and 
it  was  for  these  people  Amundsen  was  searching  as  he  navigated 
the  tortuous  channels,  which  had  baffled  every  explorer  who 
had  preceded  him.  He  did  not  find  the  descendants  of  his 
missing  compatriots,  but  he  did  find  a  race  of  Eskimos,  who, 
theretofore,  never  had  seen  a  white  man. 

These  natives  —  short  of  limb  but  with  tremendous  chest 
and  shoulder  development  —  were  not  the  primitive  people 
that  generally  would  be  supposed.  They  had  discovered  a 
method  of  gouging  the  pure  copper  from  the  matrices  in  the 
vicinity  of  their  habitat  and  making  it  into  knives,  spears,  dishes 
and  other  utensils,  tools  and  weapons.  Amundsen  and  his  as- 
sociates could  not  understand  them  sufficiently  to  ascertain 
whether  they  had  any  tradition  pertaining  to  the  flood,  such  as 
is  possessed  by  practically  every  uncivilised  tribe. 

The  writer  was  the  first  newspaper  man  to  interview  Amund- 
sen after  he  had  accomplished  his  journey  along  the  Northern 
coast  of  the  Continent  of  America.  I  had  travelled  some  thou- 
sands  of   miles  to    get   that   story,    but   Amundsen's    inherent 


A  NORTHERN  MERCHANT.— JAPANESE  SEA-SPIDERS  ABOUND  IN 
NORTHERN  WATERS,  AND  THE  SHELVING  BEACHES,  WHEN 
THE  TIDE  IS  OUT,  ARE  COVERED  WITH  CRABS,  CLAMS.  AND 
OTHER  SHELLFISH 


DISCOVERY  OF  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE     425 

modesty  precluded  the  possibility  of  even  one  sensational  fea- 
ture. 

On  reaching  Bering  Sea,  in  1906,  Amundsen's  sloop,  the 
Gjoa,  was  met  near  Nome  by  several  launches  loaded  with 
prominent  citizens  who  wanted  to  do  him  honour.  But 
Amundsen  as  a  hero  was  sadly  disappointing.  He  could  not 
play  up  to  the  part.  Public  praise  seemed  to  embarrass 
him. 

Trying  to  get  an  interview  from  him  was  like  pulling  teeth. 
In  answer  to  questions  he  simply  said  "  yes  "  or  "  no  " ;  and 
told  of  the  different  places  where  his  ship  had  stopped  on  the 
hazardous  journey. 

"Didn't  you  have  any  accidents?"  I  asked.  "Were  there 
no  hardships  and  privations?" 

"  Oh,  no;  we  got  along  pretty  well,"  he  answered,  in  a  soft, 
mild  voice. 

"  Wasn't  there  any  incident  of  a  thrilling  nature  of  any 
kind  or  character?"  I  finally  asked  in  desperation,  as  I  saw  a 
big  story  fading  away  from  me. 

"  Oh,  no,"  he  replied,  "  we  had  a  pretty  good  time,  all 
things  considered.     It  wasn't  half  bad." 

I  knew,  from  the  size  of  Amundsen's  ship,  that  there  must 
have  been  some  period  in  the  two  years  when  he  was  out  of 
supplies.  It  was  apparent  that  the  small  sloop  occupied  by 
himself  and  his  six  companions  was  not  of  sufficient  capacity  to 
carry  food  to  sustain  them  for  a  period  of  two  years  —  unless 
they  took  their  sustenance  in  tabloid  form. 

"How  did  you  get  along  for  food?"  I  asked. 

"  Well,  we  took  some  with  us,  which  lasted  for  quite  a  while, 
and  when  that  was  used  up,  we  killed  seals  and  walrus  and 
Polar  bears,  and  when  we  reached  the  Mackenzie  River  delta 
we  found  plenty  of  wild  caribou." 

"Did  all  of  your  men  enjoy  good  health?"  I  Interrogated. 


426     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Then  his  face  changed;  a  tear  flickered  for  a  moment  in  his 
clear,  blue  eye. 

"  That  was  the  only  sad  part  of  the  whole  trip,"  he  said. 
"  One  of  my  men,  and  a  braver  fellow  never  stood,  was  left 
behind  in  a  frozen  grave  at  Herschell  Island.  He  died  of  con- 
gestion of  the  lungs.  It  was  to  save  him  and  to  get  some 
tobacco  for  the  rest  of  the  boys  that  I  left  Herschell  Island  last 
winter  and  went  to  Eagle  City."  He  spoke  of  the  trip  as 
though  he  had  crossed  the  street  to  a  corner  drug-store. 

Amundsen's  story  of  his  trip  to  the  South  Pole  was  told  in 
language  which  manifested  the  sterling  qualities  of  the  man. 
He  told  of  enduring  no  hardships;  of  no  thrilling  adventures. 
His  account  of  the  journey  was  a  statement  of  bare  cold  fact, 
unadorned  by  anything  that  would  tend  to  give  it  dramatic  em- 
bellishment or  to  create  the  impression  that  the  venture  was 
in  the  remotest  degree  exciting. 

What  better  could  demonstrate  the  superb  courage  and  in- 
nate gentleness  and  kindness  of  the  man  than  his  journey  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River  to  Eagle  City,  Alaska? 

One  cold  February  day  in  1906  a  huge  figure  of  a  man, 
blond-bearded  to  the  eyes  and  somewhat  gaunt  from  privation, 
but  looking  physically  as  hard  as  the  frozen,  granite  hills, 
mushed  into  Eagle  City  behind  a  team  of  weary  wolf-dogs. 
With  hardly  a  pause  for  rest,  he  began  to  purchase  medicines, 
tobacco,  a  small  amount  of  provisions  and  a  few  delicacies. 

Mistaking  him  for  a  prospector  who  had  been  out  in  the 
hills  for  a  protracted  period,  people  inquired  where  he  came 
from,  and  were  informed  that  he  had  been  cruising  in  a  little 
sloop  up  north,  that  he'had  put  his  little  vessel  in  winter  quarters 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River,  that  one  of  his  associates 
was  sick,  that  all  were  out  of  tobacco,  and  that,  accordingly, 
he  had  jaunted  down  to  Eagle  —  a  mere  matter  of  a  little 
more  than  one  thousand  miles  on  foot  over  an  unbroken  trail  — 


DISCOVERY  OF  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE     427 

to  secure  the  commodities  needed.  He  might  have  been  talking 
of  having  ridden  four  or  five  miles  to  a  country  store,  so  far 
as  appearing  to  regard  his  journey  as  anything  unusual  was 
concerned. 

Alone,  save  for  the  company  of  his  dogs,  he  had  made  a 
tremendous  journey  in  the  dead  of  the  black,  sub-Arctic  win- 
ter, through  a  country  he  had  never  seen  before,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  start  back  in  two  days! 

Even  in  Alaska,  where  feats  of  physical  courage  and  endur- 
ance are  not  remarkable,  Amundsen  had  done  a  wonderful 
thing.  "  Just  another  Swede  prospector,"  was  the  general 
judgment  of  Amundsen  in  this  northern  mining  camp.  All 
Scandinavians,  by  the  way,  are  "  Swedes  "  in  Alaska,  and 
"  Swede  luck  "  is  proverbial.  Also  parenthetically,  this  "  Swede 
luck,"  in  practically  one  hundred  per  cent,  of  the  cases,  is  a 
direct  result  of  hard  work  and  determination  to  labour  in  the 
face  of  repeated  failure. 

By  accident  this  tall,  blond,  gentle-eyed  "  Swede  "  learned 
that  the  U.  S.  Signal  Corps  had  established  a  telegraph  station 
at  Eagle  City  and  that  it  was  possible  to  transmit  a  message 
from  that  point  to  the  outside  world.  Thereupon  he  filed  with 
the  sergeant  in  charge  a  brief  message,  written  in  Norwegian 
and  addressed  to  "  Haakon,  Christiania,  Norway." 

In  a  few  hours  the  sides  of  the  little  log  cabin,  which  did 
duty  as  a  telegraph  station,  began  to  bulge  outward  with  the 
events  which  were  transpiring  within.  Presently  the  excite- 
ment spread  to  the  entire  camp.  From  the  other  end  of  the 
wire  had  come  a  statement  from  a  Seattle  newspaper  man 
which  made  plain  the  real  meaning  of  the  telegram  filed  by  the 
stranger.  That  little  sloop  in  winter  quarters  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mackenzie  had  come  not  from  the  Pacific,  but  from  the 
Atlantic. 

The  great  feat  of  discovering  the  Northwest  passage  had  been 


428     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

accomplished!  The  dream  of  explorers  since  the  days  of 
Columbus  had  come  true!  This  shabby,  travel-worn  "Big 
Swede,"  smoking  his  pipe  and  tending  his  dogs  and  going  his 
own  modest  way  in  camp,  had  done  this  wonderful  thing!  It 
was  almost  unbelievable! 

Telegrams  from  all  over  the  world  began  to  pour  into  tlie 
little  log-cabin  telegraph  station  in  the  far  North.  They  came 
from  kings,  presidents,  emperors  and  philanthropists,  from 
magazine  editors  and  frantic  managing  editors  of  daily  news- 
papers. The  telegraph  key  clicked  incessantly.  Messages  ad- 
dressed to  Captain  Amundsen  came  in  reams  and  bundles,  and 
the  recipient,  although  a  man  whom  it  is  difficult  to  jar  from 
his  calm  and  unemotional  manner,  seemed  much  perturbed. 

He  hurriedly  sent  a  bald,  brief  statement  of  what  he  and 
his  companions  had  done  during  the  two  years  he  had  been 
absent  from  civilisation.  Then  he  harnessed  his  dogs  and 
started  back  on  the  long  jaunt  over  the  frozen  trail  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River.  Excitedly  newspaper  editors 
telegraphed  to  Eagle  City,  imploring  Amundsen  to  send  them 
some  account  of  the  "  human  interest  "  features  of  his  "  story," 
but  the  explorer  had  vanished  down  the  trail. 

Besides  the  message  that  he  filed  to  King  Haakon,  he  had 
sent  a  telegram,  telling  in  the  exact  language  of  the  scientist 
that  he  had  navigated  the  Northwest  passage,  that  he  had 
definitely  determined  the  location  of  the  magnetic  pole  and  that 
he  had  encountered  a  hitherto  unknown  race  of  people  in  the 
Arctic  regions.  Terse,  modest,  but  backed  with  corroborative 
data,  was  the  message.  Then  he  faded  into  the  wilderness  of 
ice  and  snow  —  alone.  He  had  to  get  that  medicine  to  his 
sick  sailor  and  his  companions  needed  the  tobacco.  Behind  him 
the  world  clamoured  through  the  telegraph  key  for  more  news 
of  his  wonderful  feat,  but  he  had  again  receded  into  the 
"  never-never "  country,  beyond  the  confines  of  civilisation. 


<-i. 


DISCOVERY  OF  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE     429 

So  it  was  also  in  the  bald  tale  of  Amundsen's  latest  exploit, 
the  discovery  of  the  South  Pole.  One  could  read  between  the 
lines  the  unconscious  betrayal  of  those  same  qualities  of 
strength,  modesty  and  manly  solicitude  for  his  companions  that 
marked  the  Arctic  journey.  The  tale  he  sent  out  from  Ho- 
bart,  Tasmania,  was  wofully  lacking  in  word  pictures  of 
"  purple  snows  "  and  "  ghastly,  frozen  nights."  It  dealt  not 
at  all  in  the  emotions  and  heart  throbs  which  emanated  from 
another  polar  explorer  of  recent  years,  and  it  sought  not  to 
emphasise  his  own  courage  and  daring.  Rather  it  gave  the 
impression  that  going  to  the  South  Pole  was  not  so  very  much 
of  a  task  after  all,  and  that  much,  if  not  all,  of  the  credit  be- 
longed to  the  brave  men  who  accompanied  him. 

Amundsen  was  not  afraid  that  any  other  white  man  would 
share  with  him  the  honour  of  reaching  the  top  of  the  earth. 
If  there  was  any  honour  in  it  there  was  enough  for  all.  He 
did  not  allow  his  companions  to  do  practically  all  of  the  work 
until  the  goal  was  in  sight ;  and  then  send  them  back.  Amund- 
sen was  anxious  that  others  should  share  equally  with  him  any 
of  the  honours  or  encomiums,  and  when  it  came  to  setting  up 
the  flag  at  the  pole  all  hands  were  permitted  to  assist  in  driv- 
ing home  the  shaft. 

While  Amundsen  was  making  his  hazardous  overland  jour- 
ney from  the  ice  barrier  to  the  pole  his  ship  —  the  Fram  — 
reached  the  southernmost  point  attained  by  any  vessel.  His 
joy  was  more  in  the  feats  performed  by  the  ship  than  in  what 
he  had  accomplished  himself.  "  Farthest  north ;  farthest 
south,"  he  cabled.     "Good  old  Fram!" 

Helmer  Hansen,  that  blond,  laughing  Viking,  whom 
Amundsen  says  is  the  most  efficient  dog-team  driver  the  world 
has  ever  known,  and  who  accompanied  his  chief  on  both  expe- 
ditions, had  a  whole  chain  of  mountains  named  after  him,  and 
the  other  members  of   the  party  all  stood  as  Godfathers  for 


430    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  new-found  Antarctic  scenery.     But  we  do  not  learn  that 
Amundsen  named  anything  for  himself. 

The  fact  that  when  this  great  navigator  departed  from  the 
Polar  regions  he  left  behind  a  substantially-built,  well-stocked 
house  for  winter  quarters  for  the  use  of  subsequent  explorers, 
complete  and  ready  for  occupancy,  even  to  the  dishes  on  the 
table  and  the  oil-filled  lamp  and  matches,  demonstrated  that 
he  was  thoughtful  of  the  next  man.  Like  the  true  frontiers- 
man, he  believes  in  "  leaving  the  latch  string  on  the  outside." 

With  all  the  world  ready  to  do  him  honour,  Amundsen  did 
not  come  back  to  civilisation  to  write  lurid  and  highly  imag- 
inative magazine  articles  or  to  go  on  a  lecture  platform  and 
tell  of  the  hardships  and  privations  he  had  endured.  He  sent 
only  that  scientific  data  which  would  enlighten  and  benefit 
humanity,  and  then  elected  to  sail  straight  away  to  the  other 
end  of  the  world,  through  Bering  Straits  and  into  the  Arctic, 
to  complete  his  scientific  work  there.  The  civilised  world  will 
not  have  the  pleasure  of  making  a  hero  of  him  until  his  work 
is  done. 

When  he  reached  Hobart  from  the  South  Pole,  Amundsen 
allowed  nobody  to  go  aboard  his  ship  for  several  days.  This 
was  not  because  he  is  unkindly  or  inhospitable.  On  his  arrival 
at  Nome,  several  years  before,  he  learned  the  bitter  lesson  that 
public  admiration  is  not  always  unmixed  with  selfishness.  He 
visited  the  city  and  also  allowed  his  men  to  go  ashore  at  Nome 
for  two  or  three  days.  During  this  time  his  sloop  was  be- 
sieged by  souvenir  hunters,  who  stole  his  geological  specimens, 
the  implements  used  by  the  unknown  race  of  people  he  had 
discovered  —  and  which  had  considerable  value  from  an  ethno- 
logical standpoint  —  and  one  day  he  discovered  an  inveterate 
"  picker-up  of  unconsidered  trifles  "  sawing  a  piece  out  of  the 
mast  of  his  ship  for  a  memento. 

The  story  of  this  sturdy  Norseman   is  an   epic.     Quite  as 


DISCOVERY  OF  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE     431 

much  in  what  he  has  not  written  as  in  what  he  has  written 
does  one  find  the  measure  of  Roald  Amundsen.  By  the  peo- 
ple of  the  North,  Amundsen  is  revered  and  respected  for  what 
he  has  proven  himself  to  be:  A  Man. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
ALASKA  IN  SHORT  PARAGRAPHS 

Four  hundred  tons  of  gold  taken  out  of  Alaska  since  1883  aggrega- 
ting approximately  two  hundred  million  dollars  as  a  return  for 
the  far-sightedness  of  Secretary  Seward  who  was  held  up  to 
ridicule  when  he  completed  negotiations  on  behalf  of  the  United 
States  with  Russia  in  the  purchase  of  Alaska  for  a  consideration 
of  $7,200,000. 

SEARCHING  through  reports,  bulletins,  and  other 
documents  Issued  by  various  departments  of  govern- 
ment and  in  other  places  where  authentic  and  valuable 
information  is  likely  to  be  discovered,  the  following  salient 
facts  about  Alaska  were  found  to  exist  in  191 2: 

The  coast-line  of  Alaska,  measuring  around  all  of  the  is- 
lands, is  approximately  26,000  miles  long,  more  than  the  dis- 
tance around  the  world. 

One  mine  in  Alaska  has  produced  seven  times  as  much  gold 
as  the  United  States  paid  for  the  entire  territory.  This  mine, 
the  Treadwell,  operates  the  second  largest  stamp  mill  in  the 
world.  It  is  exceeded  in  size  only  by  the  De  Beers  property 
on  the  Witswatersrand,  South  Africa. 

Alaska  contains  approximately  twenty-one  million  acres  of 
coal  lands.  Of  this  amount  thirty-two  thousand  acres  were 
staked  by  the  men  who  discovered  these  lands.  According  to 
the  estimates  of  competent  engineers  and  geologists,  the  coal 
in  Alaska  is  sufficient  to  sustain  the  people  oi  the  United 
States  for  5,300  years  at  the  present  rate  of  consumption. 

The  receipts  of  the  government  from  Alaska  have  greatly 
exceeded  the  sum  paid  for  that  territory.     The  purchase  price 

432 


ALASKA  IN  SHORT  PARAGRAPHS  433 

of  the  territory  was  $7,200,000,  paid  to  Russia  —  some  his- 
torians say  as  a  return  favour  for  sending  a  Russian  fleet  of 
warships  to  San  Francisco  at  the  time  when  their  presence 
might  have  been  needed.  The  total  government  receipts  up 
till  June  30,  1903  (according  to  the  Monthly  Summary  of 
Commerce  and  Finance  of  the  United  States  for  July,  1903) 
was  $9,555,900.  Practically  all  of  this  sum  was  re-expended 
in  the  territorj\ 

During  the  past  ten  years,  the  commerce  of  Alaska  with  the 
United  States  —  in  and  out  —  has  amounted  to  more  than 
$500,000,000,  several  millions  more  than  the  trade  of  the 
United  States  with  the  Orient. 

The  mineral  production  of  Alaska  from  1883  to  1910 
amounted  to  $206,000,000,  more  than  $195,000,000  of  this 
amount  being  in  gold.  The  avoirdupois  weight  of  gold  taken 
out  of  Alaska — roughly  figured  —  is  a  little  more  than  four 
hundred  tons.  This  does  not  include  several  million  dollars 
in  gold  brought  to  the  United  States  by  Americans  from  the 
Klondike  region. 

Since  the  occupation  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  Alaska 
has  yielded  fishery  products  —  walrus,  ivory,  aquatic  furs, 
fur  seals,  whalebone  and  fish  —  to  the  value  of  $210,000,000. 
The  food  fishes  at  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  19 10  had  netted 
$129,301,482  and  the  fur  seals  $50,366,767. 

The  iron  for  the  first  bells  made  in  California  by  the 
Jesuits  was  brought  from  Alaska,  when  the  territory  was  occu- 
pied by  the  Russians. 

The  gross  area  of  Alaska  is  590,804  square  miles.  The 
Governor  of  Alaska  states  that  the  area  is  369.539,6oo  acres. 
It  cost  the  United  States  government  less  than  two  cents  an 
acre. 

The  area  of  Alaska  equals  the  combined  area  of  the  states 
of  Maine,   New   Hampshire,  Vermont,   Massachusetts,   Rhode 


434    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,   Georgia,   Florida,   Mississippi,  and  Tennessee. 

Alaska  is  more  than  twice  the  size  of  the  German  Empire, 
nearly  thirteen  times  the  size  of  New  York  State,  larger  than 
all  of  the  states  north  of  the  Ohio  and  Potomac  Rivers  and 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  is  something  more  than  one-fifth 
the  size  of  the  United  States  proper.  It  would  make  nearly 
five  hundred  states  as  large  as  Rhode  Island. 

A  large  portion  of  the  easily  accessible  land  of  Alaska  has 
been  dedicated  to  solitude  in  the  shape  of  forest  and  other 
reserves.  The  forest  reserves  in  some  places  have  been  made 
to  extend  over  agricultural  and  mineral  land  where  it  is  im- 
possible to  find  a  stick  of  timber  thicker  than  a  man's  wrist. 

A  large  portion  of  Alaska  lies  in  the  same  latitude  as  Swe- 
den, Norway  and  Finland ;  it  has  a  much  better  climate,  more 
fertile  soil,  and  is  larger  than  all  three  of  these  countries  com- 
bined. 

Estimates  made  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, in  experiments  extending  over  eleven  years,  placed  the 
area  of  arable  and  grazing  land  at  sixty-four  million  acres. 
This  department  estimates  that  the  territory  is  susceptible  of 
sustaining  a  population  of  from  three  to  five  million  persons 
by  agricultural  pursuits  alone. 

There  is  more  agricultural  land  in  Alaska  than  in  all  the 
Scandinavian  Peninsula,  which  supports  a  population  of  more 
than  ten  million  stock  farmers  and  agriculturalists.  This  is 
exclusive  of  the  tremendous  reindeer-grazing  lands  stretching 
northward  from  the  Yukon  to  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

Naturalists  declare  that  more  than  three  million  caribou, 
or  wild  reindeer,  can  be  found  on  the  tundra  on  the  shores 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Economists  believe  that  the  reindeer 
industrj'   of  Alaska   ultimately  will   be   developed   to   a   point 


ALASKA  IN  SHORT  PARAGRAPHS  43s 

where  it  will  become  a  most  important  factor  in  the  affairs 
of  the  so-called  meat  trust. 

Horses  turned  loose  in  the  White  River  Valley  ten  years 
ago  and  left  without  care,  have  not  only  survived  the  many 
hard  winters,  but  have  greatly  multiplied  in  numbers.  These 
horses  mingle  with  moose  in  the  spring  for  mutual  protection 
against  wolves  and  other  predatory  animals. 

Alaska  has  the  highest  mountain  —  Mount  McKinley  —  on 
the  continent  of  North  America.  Its  utmost  altitude  is  20,464 
feet. 

The  glaciers  In  Alaska,  many  of  which  are  easily  accessible 
from  the  coast,  and  some  of  which  can  be  reached  by  railroad, 
are  much  larger  than  any  other  glaciers  in  the  world,  unless  it 
be  those  recently  discovered  near  the  South  pole. 

The  scenery  encountered  on  the  journey  through  the  Inland 
waters  of  Alaska  compares  quite  favourably  in  majestic 
grandeur  and  rare  beauty  with  the  fjords  of  Norway,  and 
Alaska's  mountain  scenery  is  said  to  be  quite  equal  in  mag- 
nificence to  that  of  Switzerland. 

The  Yukon  River  has  a  total  length  of  nearly  three  thou- 
sand miles,  and  it  is  about  the  fifth  largest  stream  in  the  world. 
It  is  navigable  for  small  river  vessels  for  a  distance  of  about 
twenty-four  hundred  miles. 

The  copper  product  of  Alaska  for  the  year  191 1  was  worth 
$2,830,000,  an  increase  of  more  than  four  hundred  per  cent, 
over  the  production  of  the  previous  year. 

Alaska  contains  the  only  tin  mines  of  any  importance  on  the 
continent  of  North  America. 

Besides  gold,  copper  and  tin,  Alaska  produces  silver,  gj'psum, 
marble,  graphite,  petroleum,  mica,  lime,  and  mineral  waters 
of  various  kinds.  In  metals  and  minerals  prospectively  valu- 
able, but  not  produced  in  commercial  quantities  are  tungsten, 
lead,    arsenic,     antimony,    manganese,     bismuth,     quick-silver. 


436    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

corundum,  slate,  zinc,  and  garnets;  and  many  other  minerals 
have  been  found. 

Great  iron  deposits,  both  magnatite  and  hematite,  have  been 
discovered  in  many  places,  and  optimistic  geologists  predict 
that  when  the  bituminous  coal  of  Alaska  is  made  available  to 
use,  many  steel  mills  will  be  established  in  the  territory. 

Alaska  was  the  first  country  in  the  world  to  use  the  wireless 
telegraph  system  for  commercial  purposes. 

Alaska,  according  to  government  geologists  contains  more 
coal  than  Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia  combined. 

The  population  of  Alaska  as  given  by  the  last  census  is 
64,356,  made  up  of  36,555  whites,  the  balance  being  composed 
principally  of  natives  and  a  few  Chinese  and  Japanese  engaged 
in  the  fishing  industry. 

The  population  of  Alaska  increased  only  767  during  the 
past  ten  years.  There  has  been  a  steady  decrease  in  popula- 
tion since  the  territory  was  covered  with  forest  reserves. 

The  principal  industries  of  Alaska  at  the  present  time  are 
fur  hunting,  fishing,  and  gold  and  copper  mining.  It  is  gen- 
erally conceded,  however,  that  coal  mining,  farming,  and  stock 
raising  will  be  added  to  these  industries  within  the  next  five 
years. 

Alaska  is  one  of  the  few  parts  of  the  United  States  that 
offers  the  sportsman  a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty  of  se- 
curing moose,  caribou,  mountain  sheep,  mountain  goat,  and 
bear  trophies.  The  largest  and  most  ferocious  animals  found 
in  the  United  States  to-day  are  said  to  be  the  brown  and 
Kodiak  bears  which  inhabit  the  Alaskan  Peninsula  and  the  ad- 
jacent islands. 

The  only  commercial  telegraph  a<id  cable  system  operated 
directly  by  United  States  government  ownership  is  in  Alaska. 

It  is  estimated  by  the  Bureau  of  Fisheries  that  twenty  million 
dollars  have  been  invested  in  the  Alaska  fishing  industry. 


ALASKA  IN  SHORT  PARAGRAPHS  437 

The  cod  banks  of  Alaska  are  said  by  the  United  States 
Fish  Commission  to  be  among  the  finest  in  the  world.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  halibut  banks. 

The  herring  which  swims  the  waters  of  Alaska  is  said  to 
be  quite  the  equal  of  the  Norwegian  variety. 

Alaska  possesses  the  only  disappearing  and  re-appearing  is- 
lands in  the  world.  The  topography  of  the  Bogosloff  Islands 
has  been  changed  many  times  during  the  past  twenty-five  years. 
New  peaks,  at  irregular  intervals,  thrust  themselves  up,  through 
clouds  of  fire  and  steam,  from  the  sea,  while  others  subside  be- 
neath the  waters. 

Alaska  contains  about  twenty  active  volcanoes. 

The  Alaska  cable  occasionally  has  been  damaged  by  sub- 
terranean seismic  disturbances. 

Alaska  contains  a  tremendous  amount  of  timber,  but  a  large 
proportion  of  it  has  very  little  other  commercial  value  than 
for  making  wood  pulp. 

There  is  but  one  life-saving  station  in  Alaska.  It  is  lo- 
cated at  Nome,  on  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea.  During  the  five 
years  since  it  was  installed  its  members  have  gone  to  the  relief 
of  287  ships  in  distress  and  have  rescued  many  persons  from 
drowning. 

The  only  forms  of  business  in  Alaska  which  are  exempt 
from  the  federal  taxation  are  those  of  the  newspaper  and  the 
barber  shop. 

Alaska  has  no  vote  in  Congress,  but  is  represented  by  a  del- 
egate who  has  the  privilege  of  introducing  bills  for  which  he 
cannot  vote. 

Twenty-six  newspapers  are  published  in  Alaska,  many  of 
them  receiving  telegraphic  despatches  daily  from  the  outside 
world. 

Cattle  raised  on  government  stations  in  Alaska  under  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  are  wintered  with   less  mortality 


438     ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

than  in  the  States  of  Montana,  North  and  South  Dakota,  or 
Kansas. 

The  temperature  at  many  points  in  Southeastern  and  South- 
western Alaska  is  not  so  cold  as  at  Washington,  D.  C,  or 
New  York  City  in  the  winter,  nor  as  warm  as  either  of  these 
places  in  the  summer.  The  atmosphere  in  this  section  of 
Alaska  is  tempered  by  the  Japan  current.  East  of  the  Coast 
Range,  however,  the  thermometer  drops  to  seventy-two  degrees 
below  zero  in  the  winter  and  occasionally  rises  to  one  hundred 
and  six  degrees  in  the  shade  in  summer.  A  temperature  of 
one  hundred  and  six  degrees  in  the  shade  was  recorded  at  some 
of  the  settlements  on  the  streams  entering  Kotzebue  Sound 
and  the  Arctic  Ocean  in  191 1. 

Among  the  edible  berries  found  in  Alaska  are  wild  huckle- 
berries, red  and  black  raspberries,  red  and  black  currants, 
gooseberries,  high  and  low  bush  cranberries,  salmon  berries, 
strawberries,  in  countless  trillions;  juniper  beirries,  Oregon 
grapes,  moss  berries  and  many  other  varieties  of  wild  fruits. 

In  edible  vegetables  Alaska  grows  native  celery,  thyme, 
sage,  onions,  sour-grass,  rhubarb,  and  other  varieties.  In  wild 
grasses  it  produces  every  year,  waiting  for  those  who  will  har- 
vest it,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  tons  of  wild  rye,  red  top, 
and  many  other  grasses  all  of  which  make  good  hay. 

The  rivers  of  Alaska  teem  with  edible  fishes  of  various  kinds, 
the  principal  specimens  being  salmon,  greyling,  many  kinds  of 
trout,  and  white  fish. 

Alaska's  game  birds  include  ducks,  geese,  swan,  snipe,  plover, 
ptarmigan,  grouse,  partridge,  and  many  other  species. 

At  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year,  191 1,  Alaska's  account  in 
the  Treasury  Department,  when  epitomised,  showed  the  fol- 
lowing result:  Debit  —  Purchase  price  $7,200,000;  cost  of 
maintenance  over  receipts  in  federal  treasury  for  forty-two 
years,   $8,300,000;    total    debit   $15,500,000.     Credit  —  Min- 


ALASKA  IN  SHORT  PARAGRAPHS  439 

eral  resources  $225,000,000;  fish  and  furs,  $210,000,000;  other 
resources  $25,000,000;  total  receipts  from  Alaska  $460,000,- 
000;  profit  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  $444,500,000. 

Alaska  was  bought  for  $7,200,000.  It  already  lias  paid  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  In  products,  dividends  approxi- 
mating six  thousand  three  hundred  per  cent,  on  the  invest- 
ment.    It  is  worth  to-day  not  millions,  but  billions. 

Many  of  the  Alaskan  placer  regions  are  in  the  process  of 
transition  to  fields  for  both  placer  and  quartz  mines.  Twelve 
quartz  mills  have  been  imported  into  the  territory  within  the 
past  year. 

Alaska's  northern  placer  fields  offer  an  excellent  opportu- 
nity for  dredging  enterprises,  twenty-six  of  these  gold  ships 
having  been  installed  within  the  past  two  years. 

The  Easternmost  point  of  Alaska  is  less  than  eighty  miles 
from  the  shores  of  Siberia,  the  Westernmost  point  of  Asia. 
When  the  atmospheric  conditions  are  favourable  Siberia  can 
be  seen  with  a  strong  glass  from  the  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  the 
Easternmost  point  of  Alaska. 

Coaling  stations  established  by  the  government  on  the  shores 
of  Alaska's  mainland  are  more  than  2,500  miles  nearer  to  the 
Philippines  than  the  coaling  stations  at  Mare  Island  navy  yard. 

Nome,  the  Easternmost  city  of  Alaska,  is  six  thousand  miles 
from  New  York  and  there  is  a  difference  of  six  hours  in  time. 

Northern  Alaska  affords  one  of  the  few  places  where  the 
hunter  may  get  a  shot  at  polar  bears  and  walrus. 

Statistics  show  that  in  Alaska  there  is  less  crime  per  capita 
than  in  any  state  in  the  union. 

Alaska  has  many  warm  medicinal  springs,  and  ferns  and  wild 
berries  grow  profusely  in  their  proximity. 

There  are  many  missions  in  Alaska  and  every  town  has  one 
or  more  churches. 

Alaska  has  many  fraternal  societies,  the  leading  ones  being 


440    ALASKA,  AN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  Arctic  Brotherhood,  the  Elks,  Masons,  Eagles,  Odd  Fel- 
lows, and  other  well-known  societies  have  branches  there. 
The  members  of  the  Mystic  Shrine  have  made  two  pilgrim- 
ages to  Nome  and  other  cities  in  Alaska. 

Alaska  does  not  tolerate  open  gambling.  Gambling  was 
closed  down  tight  in  the  territory  in  1906. 

During  the  summer,  Alaska,  even  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  is  carpeted  with  the  most  daintily  coloured  and  beauti- 
ful wildflowers,  the  principal  specimens  being  wild-briar 
roses,  forget-me-nots,  blue  and  yellow  violets,  irises,  poppies, 
butter-cups,  geraniums,  anemones,  blue-bells,  daisies,  fire-weed, 
all  the  blooms  of  all  the  berries,  and  many  others. 

Alaska,  acre  for  acre,  is  believed  by  experts  to  be  more  val- 
uable than  many  of  the  states  in  the  Union.  Its  latent  water- 
power  energy  is  incalculable. 

The  development  of  Alaska's  resources  is  hardly  yet  begun, 
nor  have  all  of  its  possibilities  been  discovered.  Only  two 
fifths  of  the  territory  has  been  mapped,  and  many  portions  of 
it  have  never  been  trodden  by  the  foot  of  a  white  man.  Prac- 
tically all  its  wealth  of  forest,  fisheries,  and  minerals  Is  still 
untouched  by  commerce  and  represents  millions  of  dollars 
many  times  multiplied. 


THE   END 


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F  Ifinderwood,   John  Jasper 

909        Alaska,  an  empire  in  the 

U6      making