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PICTURESQUE ALASKA. A Jourual ef a Tour
among the Mountains, Seas, and Islands of the
Northwest, frocn San Francisco to Sitka. By Abbv
J. Woodman. With Introduction by John G.
W'hittier, Illustrations and Map. i6mo, $i.oo.
ALASKA. The New Eldorado. A Summer Journey
to Alaska. By M aturiw M. Baliou. Crown 8vc,
$1 .50L Tovrisfs Edition, with 4 maps. i6mo, $1.00.
HOUGHTON. MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,
BosTcN AND New York-
I5allou'0 aiajsM
THE NEW ELDORADO
A SUMMER JOURNEY TO ALASKA
BY
MATURIN M. BALLOU
TOURIST'S EDITION WITH MAPS
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BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1889,
Bt MATURIN M. BAIXOU.
All rights reserved.
The Rirersiife Prei.', Cnmhridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by U. O. Houghton <& CompMiy.
PREFACE.
The Spaniards of old had a proverb signifying
that he who would bring home the wealth of the
Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with
him. If we would benefit by travel we must take
with us an ample store of appreciative intelli-
gence. Nature, like lovely womanhood, only re-
veals herself to him who humbly and diligently
seeks her. As Sir Richard Steele said of a certain
noble lady : " To love her is a liberal education."
Keen observation is as necessary to the traveler
who would improve by his vocation as are wings
to an albatross. The trained and appreciative
eye is like the object-glass of the photographic
machine, nothing is so seemingly insignificant as
to escape it. Careless, half-educated persons are
sent upon their travels in order, it is said, that
they may *' learn." Such individuals had best
first learn to travel. Those who improve the
modern facilities for seeing the world acquire an
inexhaustible wealth of information, and a delight-
ful mental resort of which nothing can deprive
iv PREFACE.
them. The power of vision is thus enlarged,
many occurrences "which have heretofore proved
daily mysteries become clear, prejudices are anni-
hilated, and the judgment broadened. Above all,
let us first become familiar with the important
features of our own beautiful and widespread
land before we seek foreign shores, especially as
we have on this continent so much of unequaled
grandeur and unique phenomena to satisfy and to
attract us. It seems to the undersigned that
perhaps this volume will have a tendency to lead
the reader to such conclusion, and certainly this
is its primary object.
M. M. B.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Paob
Itinerary. — St. Paul. — The Northern Pacific 'Railroad. —
Progress. — Luxurious Traveling;. — Hidiiijr ou a Locomo-
tive. — Night Experiences. — Prairie Scenes. — Immense
Grain-Fields. — The Badlands. — Climbing the Kocky
Mountains. — Cinnabar. — The Yellowstone Park. — Au
Accumulation of Wonders. — The Famous Hot Springs
Terrace. — How Formed. — As seen by Moonlight ... I
CHAPTER II.
Nature in Poetic Moods. —Is there Lurking Danger? — A
Sanitarium. — Tlie liberty Cnp. — The Giant's Thumb.—
Singular Caves. — Falls of the Gardiner River. — In the
Saddle. — Grand Caiion of the Yellowstone. — Far-Reach-
ing Antiquity. — Obsidian Cliffs. — A Road of Glass. —
Beaver Lake. — Animal Builders. — Aborigines of the
Park. — The Sheep-Eaters. — The Shoshoaes and other
Tribes 20
CHAPTER IIL
Norris Geyser Basin. — Fire beneath the Surface. — A Guide's
Ideas. — The Curious Paint Pot Basin. — Lower Geyser
Basin. — Boiling Springs of Many Colors. — Mountain
Lions at Play. — Midway Geyser Basin. — " Hell's Half
Acre." — In the Midst of Wonderland. — " Old Faithful."
— Other Active Geysers. — Erratic Nature of these Re-
markable Fountains 34
vi tONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
The Great Yellowstone Lake. — Myriads of Birds. — Solitary
Beautv of the Lake. — Tlie Flora of ilie Park. —Devas-
tating Fires. — Wi'd Auimals. — Grand Vokanic Centre.
— Mountaiu Clinibin;: and Wonderful Views. — A Story of
Discovery. — Government Exploration of the Reservation.
— Governor Washburn's Expedition. — "For the Benefit
of the People at Large Forever " 47
CHAPTER V.
Westward Journey resumed. — Queen City of the Moun-
tains — Crossing the Rockies. — Butte City, the Great
Mining Centre. — Montana. — The Red Men. — About the
Aborigines. — The Cowboys of the West. — A Successful
Hunter. — Emigrant Teams on the Pmiries. — Immense
Forests. — Puget Sound.— The Famous Stampede Tunnel.
— Immigration 57
CHAPTER VI.
Mount Tacoma. — Terminus of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road. — Great Inland Sea. — City of Tacoma and its Mar-
velous Growth. — Coal Measures. — The Modoc Indians.
— Embarking for Alaska. — The Rapidly Growing City of
Seattle. — Tacoma with its Fifteen Glaciers — Something
about Port Towusend. — A Chance for Members of Alpine
Clubs 73
CHAPTER VIL
Victoria, Vancouver's Island. — Esquimalt. — Chinamen.—
Remarkable Flora. — Suburbs of the Town. — Native
Tribes. — Cossacks of the Sea. — Manners and Customs. —
Tiie Early Discoverer. — Sailing in the Inland Sea. — Ex-
cur. --ion ists. — Mount St. Elias. — Mount Fairweather. —
A Mount Olympus. — Seymour Narrows. — Night on the
Waters. — A Touch of the Pacific 84
CONTENTS. TU
CHAPTER VIII.
Steamship Corona and hei- Passengers. — The New Eldo-
railo. — Tlie Greed for Gold. — Alaska the Synonym of
Glacier Fields. — Vegetation of the Islands. — Aleutian
Inlands. — Attoo our most Westerly Possession. — Native
Whalers. — Life on the Island of Attoo. — Unalaska. —
Kodiak, former Capifal of Russian America. — The Greek
Church. — Whence the Natives originally came .... 109
CHAPTER IX.
Cook's Inlet. — Manufacture of Quass. — Native Piety. —
Mummies. — The North Coast. — Geographical Position.
— Shallowness of Bchring Sea. — Alaskan Peninsula. —
Size of Alaska. —A "Terra Incognita." — Reasons why
Russia sold it to our Government. — The Price compara-
tively Nothing. — Rental of the Seal Islands. — Mr. Sew-
ard's Purchase turns out to be a Bonanza 127
CHAPTER X.
Territorial Acquisitions. — Population of Alaska. — Steady
Commercial Growth. — Primeval Forests. — The Country
teems with Animal Life. — A Mighty Reserve of Codfish.
— Native Food. — Fur-Bearing Animals. — Islands of St.
George and St. Paul. — Interesting Hahits of the Fur-
Seal. — The Breeding Sea.son. — Their Natural Food. —
Mammoth Size of the Bull Seals 143
CHAPTER XI.
Enormous Slaughter of Seals. — Manner of Killing. — Bat-
tles between the Bulls. — A Mythical Island. — The Seal
as Food. — The Sea-Otter. — A Rare and Valuable Fur. —
The Baby Sea-Otter. — Great Breeding-Phice of Birds.—
Banks of the Yukon River. — Fur-Bearing Land Animals.
Aggregate Value of the Trade. — Character of the Native
Race 159
yiii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
Climate of Alaska. — Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle. —
Winter and Summer Sejisons. — Tiie Jajianese Current. —
Temperature in the Inierior. — The Eskimos. — Their
Customs. — Their Homes. — These Arctic Regions once
Tropical. — The Missis-ip|ii of Alaska. — Placer Mines. —
The Natives. — Strong lucliuatioo for Intoxicants . . .173
CHAPTER XIII.
Sailing Northward. — Chinese Labor. — Unexplored Islands.
— Tlie Alexander Archipelago. — Rich Viigiu Soil. — Fish
Canning. — Myriads of Salmon. — Naiivc Villages. —
Reckless Habits. — Awkward Fashions and their Origin. —
Tattooing Young Girls. — Peculiar Effect of Inland Pas-
sages. — Mountain Echoes. — Moonlight and Midnight on
the Sea 186
CHAPTER XIV.
The Alaskan's Habit of Gambling. — Extraordinary Domes-
tic Carvings — Silver Bracelets — Prevailing Supersti-
tions. — Di.sposal of the Dead. — The Native " Potlatch."
— Cannibalism. — Ambitions of Preferment. — Himmn
Sacrifices. — The Tribes slowly decreasing in Numbers. —
Influence of the Women. — Wiichiraft. — Fetich Worship.
— The Native Canoes. — Eskimo Skin Boats 199
CHAPTER XV.
Still sailing Northward. — Multitudes of Water-Fowls. —
Native Graveyards — Curious Totem-Poles. — Trilial and
Family Kmblems — Division of the Tribes. — W^hence
the Race came. — A Clew to their Origin. — The
Northern Eskimos. — A Remarkable Museum of Aleutian
Antiquitie.<«. — Jade Mountain. — The Art of Carving. —
Long Days. — Aborigines of the Yukon Valley. — Their
Customs 212
CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XVI.
Fort Wrangel. — Plenty of Wild Game. — Natives do not
care for Soldier.'?, but have a Wiiolesoine Fear of Guuboats.
Mode of Trading. — Girls' School and Home. — A
Deadly Tragedy. — Native Jewelry and Carving. — No
Totem-Poles for Sale. —Missionary Enterprises. — Prog-
ress in Educating Natives. — Various Denominations en-
gaged in the Missionary Work • • 222
CHAPTER XVII.
Schools in Alaska. — Natives Ambitious to learn. — Wild
Flowers. — N.itive Grasses. — Bo:it Racing. — Avaricious
Natives. — The Candle Fish. — Gold Mines Inland. —
Chinese Gold Diggers. — A Ledge of Garnets.— Belief in
Omens. — More Schools required. — The Pestiferous Mos-
quito. — Mosquitoes and Bears. — Alaskan Fjords. — The
Patterson Glacier 231
CHAPTER XVin.
Norwegian Scenery. — Lonely Navigation. — The Marvels
of Takou Inlet. — Hundreds of Icebergs. — Home of the
Frost King. — More Gold Deposits. — Snow.storm among
the Peaks. — Juneau the Metropolis of Alaska. — Ank and
Takou Indians. — Manners and Customs. — Spartan Hab-
its. — Disposal of Widows. — Duels. — Sacrificing Slaves.
— Hideous Customs still prevail 246
CHAPTER XIX.
Aboriginal Dwellings. — Mastodons in Alaska. — Few Old
People alive. — Abundance of Rain. — The Wonderful
Treadwell Gold Mine. — Largest Quartz Crushing Mill in
the World. — Inexhaustible Riches. — Other Gold Mines.
— The Great Davidson Glacier. — Pyramid Harbor. —
Native Frauds. — The Chilcats. — Mammoth Bear. — Sal-
mon Canneries 258
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
Glacier Bay. — More Ice Bays. — Majestic Front of the Muir
Glacier. — The Boinbarclment of the Ghicier. — One of the
Grandest Sights in tlie World. — A Moving River of Ice.
— The Natives. — Abundance of Fish. — Native Cooking.
— Wild Bellies. — Hoouiah Tribe. — Copper Mines. — An
Iron Mouutaiu. — Coal Mines 275
CHAPTER XXI.
Sailing Southward. — Sitka, Capital of Alaska. — Transfer of
the Territory from Russia to America. — Site of the City.
— The Old Castle. — Ru>siau Habiis — A Haunted
Chamber. — Russian Elegance and Hospitality. — The Uld
Greek Church. — Rainfall at Sitka. — The Japanese Cur-
rent. — Abundance of Food. — Plenty of Vegetables. — A
Fine Harbor 293
CHAPTER XXn.
Contr.nst between Ameiicnn and Rn.^sian Sitka. — A Prac-
tical Missionary. — Tlie Sitka Industrial School. — Gold
Mines on tlie Island. — Environs of the Town. — Future
Prosperity of tiie Country. — Hot Sprinjrs. — Native Re-
ligious Ideas. — A Natural Taste for Music. — A Native
Brass Band. — Final View of the Capital 304
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Return Voyage. — Prince of Wales Island. — Peculiar
Effects. — Mand and Ocean Voyages contrasted. — Laby-
rinth of Verdant Islands. — Flora of the North. — Political
Condition of Alaska. — Return to Victoria. — What Cloth-
ing to wear on the Journey North. — City of Vancouver.
— Scenes in British Columbia. — Through the Mountain
Ranges 321
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XXIV.
In the Heart of the Kocky Mountains. — Struggle in a Thun-
der-Storm. — Grand Scenery. — Snow-Capped Mountains
and Glaciers. — Banff Hot Springs. — The Canadian Park.
— Eastern Gate of the llockies. — Calgary. — Natural
Gas. — Cree and Blackfect Indians. — Regina. — Farming
on a Big Scale. — Port Arthur. — North Side of Lake
Superior. — A Midsummer Night's Dream 338
EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA.
When the author of " The New Eldorado " wrote the
pages which form the body of this volume, he had no
thought of producing a guide-book, but wished simply to
describe the details of an extremely interesting and in-
structive journey from Boston to Sitka and back. Many
intelligent travelers have, however, used the volume as a
guide-book, and the author has been in receipt of many
requests for specific information regarding the means
and mode of making a similar journey. To meet these
inquiries, and render the volume more serviceable as a
companion to those who desire to visit Alaska, an itiner-
ary of the usual route followed by excursionists is here-
with prefixed to the original volume, and the whole is
issued in its present cheap and handy form.
Preparation fob the Journey.
Dress and Luggage. — On pp. 329, 330, of this vol-
ume, the reader will find such slight suggestion regard-
ing equipment as he may need. The traveler who does
not propose to play the role of an Arctic explorer will
find himself from beginning to end of his joui'ney under
much the same conditions as in traveling anywhere on
the Pacific coast. Every one will consult his own taste
in such matters as fieldglasses and photographic appa-
ratus, but the journey gives frequent opportunities for
getting interesting long-range views, and for catching
xiv EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA.
and preserving characteristic landscape effects. Good
photographs of Alaskan scenes can, however, be pro-
cured in our large cities as well as at Sitka and other
points.
Routes. — There are various ways of reaching Victo-
ria, Vancouver Island, at which point the following itin-
erary commences, depending, of course, upon the points
from which the traveler starts.
The Pacific Coast Steamship Company runs three
steamers to and from Alaska during the excursion sea-
son, which is from May to September, inclusive. The
best months for profitable enjoyment of the trip are
June, July, and August. These steamers sail fort-
nightly from their starting - points, and are large, con-
structed of iron, and fitted with every requisite, besides
many luxuries. Two of the steamers, namely, the
George W. Elder and the City of Topeka, start from
Portland, Ore. ; the third, known as the Queen, makes
Tacoma, on Puget Sound, her starting-point. All of
these vessels call at Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend,
and Victoria. Canadian passengers can take them at
Port Townsend or Victoria. Northern Pacific passen-
gers can take them at Tacoma.
Cofit of Excursion. — The Pacific Steamship Com-
pany advertise the following terms for excursion tickets
from San Francisco.
PRICE OF EXCURSION TICKETS TO ALASKA AND
RETURN,
Including a Berth and Meals on Ocean Steamers.
From San Francisco, via Victoria and Port Townsend,
returning same way $130.00
From San Francisco, via Victoria, returning via Tacoma,
Portland, and Columbia River 140.00
EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. XV
Prom San Francisco, via Portland and Tacoma, returning
via Victoria and Strait of Fuca $140.00
From Portland, Ore., via Astoria, returning same way . 109.00
From Portland, Ore., via Tacoma and Port Townsend . . 109.00
From Tacoma 100.00
From Seattle 98.00
From Port Townsend 95.00
From Victoria, B. C 95.00
TICKETS (not RETUKN), as FOLLOWS: —
San Francisco to Juneau or Sitka $7000
San Francisco to Wrangel 50.00
Portland to Juneau or Sitka 60.00
Portland to Wrangel 40.00
Tacoma to Wrangel 33.00
Tacoma to Juneau or Sitka . 53.00
Seattle to Wrangel 32.50
Seattle to Juneau or Sitka 52.50
Victoria or Townsend to Juneau or Sitka 5000
Victoria or Townsend to Wrangel 30.00
The company also provides for steerage passengers at about
half rates.
The Raymond Excursion Company of Boston organ-
izes personally conducted parties during the summer
months from that city and return, including a week in
the Yellowstone Park, all expenses and hotel bills paid,
for $500 (five hundred dollars), which, for a journey of
nearly eight thousand miles and occupying fifty days, is
a moderate price.
These excursions can be joined at any intermediate
point with corresponding reduction in price.
Time required. — The passage from Victoria through
the Inland Sea of Alaska and return occupies twelve
days, during which the traveler lives upon the steamer,
but will find time to land at several important places,
and to make brief excursions on shore.
xvi EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA.
Itixerart.
Aloxg the Coast of Vancouver Island. — Van-
couver stretches along the coast of British Cohimbia two
hundred miles in a northwesterly direction, and pursuing
the usual course of excursionists from Victoria, we turn
northward through Haro Strait. To the eastward is the
Island of San Juan, once a source of contention between
this government and Great Britain, as regarded the
boundary line between the two countries. The question
was settled in our favor by the late Emperor William
of Germany, who was mutually chosen by the two coun-
tries as arbitrator.
The prospect from the steamer's deck is here very
fine. Mount Baker, the Olynipian range south of Vic-
toria, with hundreds of other ])eaks on the islands and
mainland, all come within the view. From Haro Strait
we enter Active Pass, and thence the broad waters of
the Strait of Georgia, skirting the islands of Galiano,
Valdes, and Gabriola.
Strait of Georgia. — We continue on through the
Strait of Georgia, which nariows when the islands of
Texada and Lasqueti are reached. The view of the
mountains on the mainland at this point is very grand,
long lines of irregular snowy peaks presenting them-
selves to the eye in fantastic forms. A series of fiords
are passed which penetrate the land for a hundred
miles more or less, known successively as How Sound,
Jervis Inlet, Desolation Sound, Seymour and Belize
Inlets.
Great Elevations. — About Jervis and Bute Inlets
are peaks eight and nine thousand feet in height. A
group of slim, needle-like spires near the latter, over
eight thousand feet in height, are particularly noticeable.
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FIRST AND SECOND DAYS NORTHWARD.
EXCURiilONS TO ALASKA. xvii
A few scattered Indian tribes are the only inhabitants
hereabouts. Discovery Passage is a river-like channel
leading into Seymour Narrows, through which the tide
rushes with great force and velocity. From many of
the heights cascades are seen descending, fed by Alpine
snows.
Leaving Vancouver. — We now enter Queen Char-
lotte's Sound, forty miles in length, where the roll of the
Pacific is briefly encountered. Our course carries us by
Calvert Island and through Fitzhugh Sound, the lead
showing very great depth of water. Hunter Island is
passed, and we make our way through Fisher's Channel
and Lama Passage. On the shore of Campbell Island
is a small Indian village called Bella-Bella. Fi'om here
we emerge into Seaforth Channel, with its myriad of
wooded islands, and smooth, mirror-like waters.
MiLBANK Sound. — Our devious passage takes us
next through Milbank Sound, where another view of
the ojien Pacific presents itself. The shores of Finlay-
son Channel ai"e densely wooded to a height of fifteen
hundred feet, snow-capped peaks showing above the
forest. We soon pass through Wright Sound into Gran-
ville Channel, a straight reach of water fifty miles long,
bordered by lofty mountains which the foot of man has
probably never trod. Arthur Passage comes next, with
Kennedy Island on the right and Porcher Island on the
left. Chatham Sound is soon reached, and we pass Old
Metla-katla, the scene of Mr. Duncan's missionary ef-
forts and success. Port Simpson, a Hudson Bay Com-
pany post, is next seen on the right, and we continue
northward through Chatham Sound.
Alaska. — Having reached latitude 49° 4' north, we
are on the line between British Columbia and Alaska,
reaching the territory through Dixon Entrance, as it is
xviii EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA.
called. Next comes Clarence Strait, which is over one
hundred miles long and from four to eight wide. From
here we ai"e in what is known as the Alexandrian Archi-
pelago. All through this strait the large island, the
Prince of Wales, lies on the west of our course.
New Metla-katla. — At Port Chester, on Annetta
Island, which is one of the Gravina group, Mr. Duncan
has founded a new Metla-katla, and is rapidly building
up a substantial native town ; with schools, a church, and
several self-supporting industries. This indefatigable and
noble missionary is worthy of all honor and all trust.
The good work he has accomplished among the natives
seems almost miraculous.
Fort Wraxgkl. — On emerging from Clarence
Strait, the next place of interest is Fort Wrangel, situ-
ated at the mouth of the Stickeen River. This is the
home of the Stickeen tribe of Indians. Here a imniber
of totem poles, which are a sort of ancestral emblem, will
be seen near the shore. These carved wooden posts usu-
ally decorate the graves of Alaska Indians, and are also
placed before the rude cabins of some of the chiefs.
There are two missionary schools here.
Still Northward. — After leaving Fort Wrangel,
we soon enter Prince Frederick Sound, where rugged
mountain tops and snow-shrouded peaks are seen in all
directions. A first view is here obtained of the Patter-
son Glacier. A second glacier is seen as we progress
northward, followed by a third. Admiralty Island and
Takou Inlet are j)assed, where there are two glaciers,
one with a terminal morain before it, while the other is
constantly discharging miniature icebergs into the bay.
JuxEAU. — Ascending Gastlneau Channel, we reach
the mining town of Juneau, the most populous settlement
in Alaska. Three miles back of the town, in a deep
THIRD AND FOURTH DAYS NORTHWARD.
EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. xix
gulch, is situated what is called Silver Bow Basin, a rich
mining locality, which is being worked by a Boston com-
pany. Just across the channel, less than two miles, is
Douglas Island, where the famous Treadwell gold mine
is regularly turning out large quantities of the precious
metal.
Up Lynn Channel. — Lynn Channel is sixty miles
long, extending due north. High mountains line the
shore, and many glaciers are to be seen, two of which.
Eagle Glacier and Davidson Glacier, are especially in-
teresting. In this latitude the Arctic appearance of the
shore increases, and there is a glacier of more or less
importance in nearly every ravine. Vegetation grows
scarce, and the snow line is nearer to the sea level.
Pyramid Harbor. — The steamers usually anchor in
this harbor, near one of the Indian villages of the Chil-
cat tribe. It is here that explorers and miners take
their departure for the valley of the Yukon, this being
the most northerly point reached in Alaska by excur-
sion steamers, latitude 59° 10' north. The summer days
have here become notably long, there being only three
hours, out of the twenty-four, of perceptible darkness.
The Great Muir Glacier. — Retracing our course,
we are soon in Glacier Bay, when we come face to face
with the unequaled Muir Glacier. From this bay Mount
Crillon, sixteen thousand feet high ; Mount Fairweather,
five hundred feet less ; and La Perouse, over eleven thou-
sand feet high, are all in view. The glacier enters the
sea with a gigantic front over a mile in width, and nearly
three hundred feet high above the water. It has been
explored inland for forty miles, and exceeds anything of
the kind this side of the Polar zone. This great frozen
river moves seaward during the summer months at the
rate of forty-four feet during each twenty-four hours.
XX EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA.
The excursion steamers approach the front of the glacier
as near as it is safe, and afford all desirable opportunity
for observation. Time is also given for landing and as-
cending to the surface of this wonderful jjlienomenon.
Sitka, the Capital. — Steaming southward through
Peril Strait, we reach the wharf at Sitka. The ex-
tremely interesting scenery is dominated by the extinct
volcano, Mount Vestova, over three thousand feet in
height. There are hei-e many reminders of Russian oc-
cupation, the chief of which are the Castle, a plain block
edifice, and the Greek Church. Several other large
structures built during Russian occupancy now serve for
barracks for our soldiers, for a court-room and a post-
office.
Rkturning Southward. — From Sitka we turn
southward once more, having to retrace our way for a
distance of one thousand miles before we shall reach
Victoria, Port Townsend, and Tacoma. The route is
virtually the same as that pursued in coming northward,
but some of the places and some of the fine scenery
passed in the night become visible on the return by
daylight. The return trij) occujnes six days, including
stops.
Port Townsend. — Port Townsend, situated at the
head of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, is the port of entry
for the whole of Puget Sound district. The situation is
excellent and the climate equable. It is a thriving, en-
terprising town, with about five thousand inhabitants,
and is growing rapidly. Port Townsend is nine hun-
dred miles by sea from San Francisco and three thou-
sand five hundred from eitlier Boston or New York. It
is the outfitting ])lace for Alaska.
Seattle. — This enterprising city has a population of
forty thousand, and is constantly increasing in impor-
l:^
CL
FIFTH AND SIXTH DAYS NORTHWARD.
EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. xxi
taiice. Tlie Northern Pacific Railway has a branch to
this point, besides which it has other railway and steam-
boat connections. It is pleasantly situated between the
sound and a large body of water known as Lake AYash-
ington. Seattle has lately suffered severely from a
sweeping fire, but is now I'ebuilt in better form than
ever before. It is the oldest settlement on the sound.
Tacoma. — Tacoma is situated at the head of Puget
Sound, and is the terminus of the Northern Pacific Rail-
way, though this system is connected with other Pacific
coast points. The population is a trifle larger in the
aggregate than that of Seattle. This city has growing
manufacturing interests, and a large volume of well-
established trades. It is overshadowed, so to speak, by
the grand elevation known as Mount Tacoma, fourteen
thousand feet above the level of the sea.
Febkuaby, 1891.
THE NEW ELDORADO.
CHAPTER I.
Itinerary, — St. Paul. — The Northern Pacific Railroad. — Pro-
gress. — Luxurious Traveling. — Riding on a Locomotive. —
Ni<j;ht Experiences. — Prairie Scenes. — Immense Grain-Fields.
— The Badlands. — Climbing the Rocky Mountains. — Cin-
nabar. — The Yellowstone Park. — An Accumulation of
Wonders. — The Famous Hot Springs Terrace. — How
Formed. — As Seen by Moonlight.
A JOURNEY from Massachusetts to Alaska was
a serious undertaking a few years ago. It in-
volved great personal risk, considerable expense,
and many long months of weary travel ; but it is
now considered scarcely more than a holiday ex-
cursion, a good share of which may be denomi-
nated a marine picnic. That an important country,
so easily accessible, should remain comparatively
unexplored seems singular in the nineteenth cen-
tury, especially when its great mineral wealth and
natural attractions are freely admitted. The trip
to Sitka, the capital of the Territory, and back
is easily accomplished in three months, affording
also ample time to visit the principal points of
interest on the route, including the marvels of the
Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, which
2 THE NEW ELDORADO.
is not only not surpassed in grandeur and beauty
b}' any scenery on the continent, but in fact has
no parallel on the globe. The tiaveler also natu-
rally pauses on his way to examine at least one of
the great mining centres of this gold-pioducing
country, such as Butte, the " Silver City " of
Montana, where he may behold scenes eclipsing in
affluence the fabulous story of Midas. The plan
adopted by the author, as herein detailed, was to
make the westward journey by the Northern Pa-
cific Railroad to Tacoma, on Puget Sound, where
the remarkable inland sea voyage begins, thence
sailing north to Pyramid Harbor and Glacier Bay,
stopping as usual at the intermediate places of
interest.
On the homeward passage, to vary the journey
and to enjoy the wild scenery of British Colum-
bia, Alberta, Assiniboia, and Manitoba, he left
the steamer at Vancouver, returning by the Cana-
dian Pacific Railway, which presents to the lover
of nature such famous scenic advantages.
Tlie journey westward seems practically to
begin when the traveler reaches St. Paul, the
capital of Minnesota, by way of Chicago, as here
he strikes the trunk line of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, which has an exclusive and unbroken
track thence to Tacoma, a distance of nearly two
thousand miles, the whole of which is covered
Avith novelty and interest.
We will not pause to fully describe St. Paul,
that youthful city of marvelous growth, promise,
and beauty, with her mammoth business edifices
EXPANSION OF RA[LRO.\,DS. 3
of stone and brick, her palatial private residences,
and her charming boulevards. The most casual
visitor is eloquent upon these themes, as well as
regarding the open-handed hospitality of her
two hundred thousand inhabitants. Three iron
bridges span the Mississippi at St, Paul, one of
which is nearly three thousand feet long, sup-
ported upon arches two hundred and fifty feet in
span, and having a roadway elevated two hundred
feet above the water.
St. Paul is situated upon a series of terraces ris-
ing from the left bank of the Mississippi River,
its site being both commanding and picturesque.
Thus built at the head of navigation on a great
watervva}'', it naturally commands a trade of no
circumscribed character, besides enjoying the pres-
tige of being the State capital.
Were it not for the unlimited facilities of trans-
portation afforded by the grand and beneficent
railroad enterprise embraced in the Northern Pa-
cific system, the development of the vast and fer-
tile country which lies between Lake Superior and
the Pacific Ocean would have been delayed for
half a century or more. It should be remembered
that so late as 1850 there was not one mile of
railroad in existence west of the Mississippi River.
In 1836 there were, at most, but a thousand miles
in operation on the entire American continent.
This is an epoch of progress. Japan is traversed
by railways, even China has caught the contagion,
and is now building roads for the use of the iron
horse in more than one direction within that an-
4 .THE XE If ELD li A D O.
cient and widespread empire, while Russia and
India are " gridironed " with rails.
It was remarked in a congressional speecli in
the year 1847 that the Rocky Mountains would be
the limit of railroad enterprise across our conti-
nent ; that the barrier presented by these huge ele-
vations and the extensive " desert tract " beyond
them must certainly prevent the development of
the Pacific States.
'' Desert," indeed !
No land on the globe produces such remarkable
cereal crops as this very prairie soil is doing each
successive year, not o\\\y supplying our own rapidly
increasing population with the staff of life, but
also feeding the less fortunate millions of Europe,
where excessive labor and costly enrichment must
make up the deficit arising from an exhausted soil
and circumscribed area. The reader who follows
these pages will not fail to see how liable legis-
lators are to be mistaken in their predictions, and
how apt events are to transcend the weak judg-
ment of the confident and inexperienced declaimer.
Even that Titan statesman, Daniel Webster, put
himself on record in the United States Senate,
while speaking against a proposition to establish
a mail route through a portion of the western
country, as follows : " What do we want with
this vast, worthless area — this region of savages
and wild beasts, of deserts of shifting sands and
whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs?
To what use could we ever hope to put these great
deserts or those endless mountain ranges, impene-
EDEN OF THE NORTH PACIFIC. 5
trable, and covered to tlieir very base with eternal
snow? What can we ever hope to do with the
western coast, — a coast of three thousand miles,
rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a har-
bor on it? What use have we for this country?"
In crossing the continent by the route we have
chosen, one passes through a country whose grand
scenic charms can hardly be exaggerated, in de-
scribing which superlatives only will apply, and
whose agricultural advantages, natural resources,
and mineral wealth are probably unequaled in
the known world. We are taken through the
productive wheat-fields of Minnesota and Dakota,
among the gold and silver bearing hills of Idaho
and Montana, into the prolific, garden-like valleys
of Washington, whose lovely hopfields rival the
gorgeous display of Kent in England, and whose
abundant supply of coal and iron is only second to
that of Pennsylvania.
The State has been, and may well be, denomi-
nated the Eden of the North Pacific.
On our way we are constantly meeting immense
freight trains, laden with grain, flour, cattle, and
other merchandise, bound for the Atlantic coast ;
long strings of coal cars, winding snake-like round
sharp curves, and creeping up steep grades ; pas-
senger vans crowded with animated, intelligent
people, all together testifying to the great and
growing traffic of the West and Northwest. We
pass scores of lofty grain elevators, high piles of
lumber, and miles of various kinds of merchandise
prepared for, and awaiting, shipment eastward,
6 THE NEW ELDORADO.
nil of which evinces a local capacity for procluf-
tion far beyond our computation. How mar-
velous is the change from the conditions existing
in this region a few years since, when millions of
buffaloes roamed unmolested over these plains,
valleys, and hills from Texas to ]Manitoba! The
skeletons of these herds still sprinkle the prairies,
bleached by the summer sun and crumbled by the
winter's frost. Hundreds of carloads are annually
shipped eastward to the factories which manufac-
ture fertilizers.
As we speed on our western journey day and
night, gliding through long tunnels and deep rofk
cuttings, over airy trestles, immense embankments,
bridges, and viaducts, representing the skillful ac-
complishments of modern engineering, we carry
along with us the domestic conveniences of home.
The train, in fact, becomes our hotel for the time
being, where we bathe, eat, sleep, and enjoy the
passing scenery seated in luxuriously upholstered
easy-chairs, which at night are ingeniously trans-
formed as if by magic into soft and inviting beds.
The elegance and comfort of these parlor, dining,
and sleeping cars is calculated to make traveling
what it has in a measure become, an inviting lux-
ury. The miraculous cap of Fortunatus would
seem to have been pressed into our service. So
thoioughly perfected is the transcontinental rail-
road system that it is quite possible to enter the
cars in an Atlantic city, say at Boston or New
York, and not leave the train until five or six days
have expired, when the objective point on the Pa-
cific coast ifi rear-hed.
A NIGHT RIDE ON THE ENGINE. 7
While passing through deep gorges at night, or
creeping over a mountain top, the effect f loai one's
seat in the cars is weird and curious, especially
when the winding track makes long curves in the
tr.iin, so that the panting iron horse is seen fionj
the rear, all ablaze and emitting dense clouds of
smoke. The snow-tipped peaks on one side and
the threatening gulch of unknown depth on the
other assume a mantle of soft, gauze-like texture
in the clear moonlight. At times one half believes
the rails are laid upon tlie tree-tops, the brandies
of which loom up so close to us. Aw;iy in the val-
ley, two thousand feet and more below our level,
a rippling stream sparkles in the silvery light
wiiile on its way to swell some larger watercourse
which drains the rocky hills. Looking far across
the valley we try to make out the distant moun-
tains, but only dim phantoms of gigantic size are
seen, gliding stealthily away in the darkness.
We make interest with the conductor and en-
gineer of the train for a special purpose. We are
in search of a new sensation, to wit, such as m;iy
be derived from a night-ride on the engine, where
one can see all the engineer sees, which is indeed
little enou^^h. The headlight of the locomotive
throws its rays dimly on the darkness for a few
rods in advance of the train. But what does that
amount to, so far as being able to avoid danger?
That brief space is passed in a second of time, and
it is impossible to see what is beyond. The faith-
ful engineer stands with both hands upon the ma-
chinery, one with which to instantly apply the
8 THE NEW ELDORADO.
brakes, the other to shut olf the steam if danger
shows itself ahead. That is all he can do. What
a boisterous, asthmatic monster it is that drags
the long train through the darkness at the rate
of a mile in two minutes! How its hot breath
belches forth, and liow it springs and leaps over
the iron track, fed incessantly with fresh fuel by
the stoker! To one not accustomed to the oscil-
lating motion, it is nearly impossible to keep his
footing, much more difficult than on board of a
pitching or rolling ship at sea. The motion is
short, quick, and incessant. Black, — black as
Erebus ; how venturesome it seems to dash into
such darkness! What a tempting of fate! Yet
how few accidents, comparatively, occur ! " The
law of averages is what we calculate upon," said
the engineer of No. — ; "about so many people
will be killed annually out of a given number of
railroad travelers. We take all reasonable pre-
cautions to prevent accidents, but there are thou-
sands of exigencies beyond our control." If any
one proposes to you, gentle reader, to indulge in a
nighr-ride on a locomotive, take our advice, and
don't do it.
One does not linger in bed when passing
through a country famous for its scenery. The
experienced traveler has learned that the opening
hours of the day are those in which his best and
clearest impressions are received. He therefore
rises betimes to enjoy the cool, dewy freshness of
the morning. Now and again a prairie-owl is
seen groping its winged way to shelter from the
IMMENSE GRAIN-FIELDS. 9
increasing light. He is sure to see plenty of coy-
otes, gray wolves, and graceful antelopes on the
rolling prairies, each of these animals exliibit-
ing in some special and interesting manner its
natural proclivities. The prairie-dog nervously
diving into and leaping out of its little prairie
mound ; the wolf bravely facing and glaring at
the passing train, though careful to keep at a
wholesome distance ; and the antelopes in small
herds hastening away by graceful bounds over the
nearest hills, far too pretty and far too ornamen-
tal to shoot, suggesting in form and movements
that fnost picturesque of wild animals, the Tyro-
lean chamois.
Minnesota presents to the eye of the traveler a
grand and impressive country in the form of roll-
ing prairies, diversified by lakes, — of which there
are said to be ten thousand in the State, — forest t;,
and inviting valleys, the latter particularly adapted
for raising wheat and for dairy farming. Vast
fields of ripening cei'eals are seen stretching for
miles on either side of the railroad, without a
fence to break their uniformity. This State pos-
sesses among other advantages that of a climate
particularly dry, invigorating, and healthful. Four
hundred miles of our I'oute is through Northern
Dakota, where the farming lands are easily tilled,
well watered, and wonderfully prolific in crops.
The choicest wheat grown in America, known as
hard spring wheat, comes from this section, which
has been called " the granary of the world." The
gigantic scale on which wheat-raising is here con-
10 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ducted would seem incredible if faithfully de-
scribed to an old-time New England farmer. The
improvement which has been made in machin-
ery connected with sowing, reaping, harvesting,
and threshing grain enables one man to do as
much in this western country as a dozen men
could accomplish twenty-five or thirty years ago.
There are wheat farms here embracing twenty
thousand acres each, where economy in labor is of
the utmost importance, and where the employees
are so numerous as to be kept under semi-military
organization. The author has seen the big grain-
fiflds of Russian Poland in their prime, but they
ai*e as nothing when compared with those of
Northern Dakota, nor are the farming facilities
which are generally employed throughout Europe
nearl}' equal to those of this country.
At Bismarck, capital of the State, which is a
small but energetic and thriving place, the Missouri
River is crossed by a magnificent iron bridge,
hung high in air, which cost a million dollars.
This is the acme of successful engineering, jiass-
ing our long, heavy train of cars over a track of
gleaming rails from shore to shore without the
least perceptible tremor, or the deflection of a
single inch. The great waterway which it spans
measures at this place fully twenty -eight hundred
feet from bank to bank, though it is at this point
two thousand miles from its confluence with the
Mississippi.
The route we are following soon takes us
through what are called the Badlands, a most
THE BADLANDS. 11
siiisrnlfir region, Avhere subtevranean and surface
lires are constantly burning, where trees have
become petrified, and where the natural blue clay
lias been converted into terra cotta. This local-
ity, extending for miles and miles, has been called
Pyramid Park, on account of its fantastic forms
presented in a singular variety of colors, and be-
cause of its mounds, domes, pyramids, and rocky
towers. These vary as much in height as in form,
some measuring ten feet, some two hundred, while
all are clad in harlequin costume, black, Avhite,
blue, green, and yellow. It is called Badlands
in contradistinction to the adjoining country,
which is so very fertile, but the district is im-
proved as good grazing ground for many thousands
of cattle which supply our Atlantic cities with
beef. Some of the best breeds of horses fm-nished
to the Eastern States are raised, fed, and brought
into marketable condition on these peculiar lands.
This region forms a sort of tangible hint of
what we shall expeiience still farther on our
Wonderland journey in the interesting and un-
equaled valley of the Yellowstone, where there
are abundant evidences of volcanic force and sub-
terranean fires, and where Nature is seen in her
most erratic mood.
Just as we pass from Dakota into Montana, a
shoit distance beyond the Little Missouri River,
a lofty peak called Sentinel Butte is seen, at an
elevation of nearly three thousand feet above sea
level. The teeming, vigorous young life of the
Northwest is manifest all along the route, with
12 THE NEW ELDORADO.
its wonderful energy and its almost incredible
rate of progress. We were told that in the State
which we had just left three thousand miles of
railroad had been built and properly equipped
before it contained a single town of more than five
hundred inhabitants.
In the State of Montana we find a more hilly
country than that through which we have so re-
cently passed, yet it is well adapted to farming
and possesses large areas of excellent giazing
land. Indeed, there is scai'cely aivy part of this
territory, except the mountain ranges, wheie the
climate is not sufficiently mild for cattle to win-
ter out-of-doors. Undoubtedly they will thrive
better for being housed at night in the coldest
weather here or anywhere, but this is not abso-
lutely necessar}'. Ko food is required for them
except the native bunch grass, which cures itself,
and stands as hay until the succeeding spring.
Cattle are very fond of and will quickly fatten
upon it. Sheep husbandry is also a great and
growing interest heie. We observe now and
again a thrifty flock, tended by a boy-shepherd
accompanied by his dog, recalling similar scenes
in Tasmania and on the plains of Russia.
Statistics show that there are over two million
acres now under cultivation in Montana, and that
the territory is also fabulously rich in minerals.
The present output of gold, silver, and copper is
at the rate of three million dollars per month, and
the yield of the mines is steadily on the increase.
As we hasten on our wa}', looking on one side
CLIMBING THE ROCKY MOUNT AI\S. 13
far down into sombre depths, and on the other at
threatening, overhanging bowlders, or backward
At the road-bed cut out of the solid rock which
forms the cliff, we wonder at the successful auda-
city which conceived and built such a diflficult
highway. We have seen few instances of similar
engineering so remarkable as is exhibited at cer-
tain points on the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Equal difficulties have been overcome on the Zig-
zag Railway over the Blue Mountain Range, near
Sidney, Australia, and also in Northern India,
whei'e the narrow gauge railroad climbs the foot-
hills of the Himalayan Range to Darjeeling,
about eight thousand feet above the plains of
Hindostan, but in neither of these instances is
the work so thorough, or on so gigantic a scale,
as where the Northern Pacific crosses the Rocky
Mountains.
We are quite conscious of being on an up
grade, the large engine panting audibly, from its
extra exertion, and the train moving forward
no faster than one could walk. Presently tall,
snow-capped peaks come trooping into view, like
mounted Bedouins clad in fleecy white, as the
small city of Livingston is reached. This locality
is about forty -five hundred feet above the sea.
The town is situated in a beautiful valley, with
nothing to indicate its altitude except the snow-
crowned mountains not far away, standing like
frigid sentinels. The observant traveler will also
notice a certain rarefied condition of the atmos-
phere. Here we are about midway between the
14 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Great Lakes and the Pacific coast, — between
Superior, the largest lake on the globe, and the
Pacific, the largest ocean in the world.
Livingston contains three thousand inhabitants,
and is a thriving place, the frequent resort of
many lovers of the rod and gun, both large and
small game being found in abundance hereabouts.
Forty miles north of Livingston is Castle Moun-
tain mining district, rich in silver ores, and from
whose argentiferous soil millions of dollars have
been coined and hundreds of enterprising pros-
pectors enriched. A branch road is taken at this
point which runs directly southward to Cinnabar,
a distance of nearly fifty miles, from which place
coaches convey the traveler about six miles far-
ther to tlie Wonderland of our continent, — the
Yellowstone National Park.
The terminus of the railroad is known b}' the
name of Cinnabar because it is situated at the base
of a mou;itain bearing that title, remarkable for its
exposure of vertical strata of three distinct geolog-
ical ])eriods. Here is a famous place known as the
Devil's Slide, a singular formation caused by the
washing out of a vertical stratum of soft material
between one of quartzite and another of porphyry.
The slide is two thousand feet high, and being of
different color from the rest of the rocky mountain
side is discernible for many miles away.
We have now reached one of the most remark-
able points of our excursion, which demands more
than a j)ussing notice, sharing with the great gla-
ciers of Alaska the principal interest of the pres-
ent journey westward across the continent.
THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 15
This magnificent tenitorial reservation is situ-
ated in the northwestern part of Wyoming, em-
bracing also a narrow strip of southern Montana
and southeastern Idaho, l3ing in the very heart
of the Rocky Mountains, It was wisely witli-
drawn from settlement by an act of Congress in
1872, and is beneficently devoted forever to '• the
pleasure and enjoyment of the people." It forms
a great preserve for wild animals, and a natural
museum of marvels free to all. The well con-
ceived liberality of this purpose is only commen-
surate with the unequaled grandeur of the Park
itself, though at the time of passing this law com-
paratively little was actually known of the stu-
pendous marvels contained within its widespread
borders, besides which fresh discoveries of interest
are still being made annually.
Of all those who have endeavored to depict this
locality, none have been able to convey with the
pen an adequate idea of its wild magnificence, or
to give a satisfactory description of its acccumu-
lated wonders. The ej^e alone can appreciate its
indescribable beauty, majesty, and loveliness.
By the judicious expenditure of public money
and the liberal outlay of corporate enterprise iu
road and bridge building, not to mention other fa-
cilities, one can now pretty thoroughly explore the
Park in the brief period of a week or ten days.
To do this satisfactorily hei'etofore required thrice
this length of time, besides which, camping out
was necessary ; but it is no longer so, unless one
chooses to play the gypsy. This plan is adopted
16 THE NEW ELDORADO.
by a few summer tourists, who take with tliera a
regular camp outfit, depending upon the fish they
catch for a considerable portion of their food sup-
ply during this out-ot'-door life.
The Park is under the control of the Secretary
of the Interior. A local superintendent lives here,
who is assisted by a few game-keepers and gov-
ernment police, besides which there is a small gang
of laborers constantly at work during the favora-
ble season, building roads and bridges, opening
vistas here and there, and clearing convenient foot-
paths, under the direction of an army engineer.
Two companies of United States cavalry make
their headquarters in the Park during the summer
months, distributed so as to prevent any unlawful
acts of visitors. The size of the reservation is
sixty-four miles in length by fifty-four in width,
thus giving it an area of over three thousand six
hundred square miles. Or, to convey perhaps a
clearer idea of its extent to the reader's mind, it
may be said to be nearly one half the size of the
State of Massachusetts. It is a volcanic region
of incessant activity, with mountains ranging from
eight to twelve thousand feet in height, and
embracing a collection of spouting geysers, hot
springs, steam holes, petrified forests, cascades, ex-
traordinary canons, and grand waterfalls, such as
are unequaled in the known world.
We do not forget the well-known geysers of Ice-
land, or the Hot Lak(; district of New Zealand,
with which the traveled visitor finds himself con-
trasting the phenomena of the Yellowstone.
THE HOT SPRINGS TERRACE. 17
The writer of these pages happened lately to see
an article upon our National Park, written by the
Earl of Dunraven, in which that gentleman ques-
tions whether the singular natural exhibitions here
are not exceeded by those of New Zealand. We
are familiar with both localities, and shall dismiss
such a supposition simply by saying that the hot
springs of the British colony referred to are no
more to be compared with those of the Yellow-
stone Park, than is an artificial Swiss cascade com-
parable with Niagara. If Nature has anywhere
else shown so w^onderful a specimen of her handi-
craft, it has not yet been our lot to see it.
All the natural objects best worth visiting in
the Park are now accessible by daily stages, which
start at convenient hours from the hotel at Mam-
moth Hot Springs, making the round of the inter-
esting sights ; thus affording the general public
every needed facility for examining the strangeh^
attractive vicinity.
Near the hotel is an area of two hundred acres
and more, covered here and there with boiling,
terrace-building springs, which burst out of slop-
ing ground in ceaseless pulsations, at an elevation
of about a thousand feet above the Gardiner River
near by, into which the main portion of the chem-
ically im|)i-egnated waters flow. Five hundred
feet from the base of the springs the water be-
comes cool, tasteless, and perfectly clear to the
eye, as refreshing to drink as any water from the
purest mountain rill. In ordinai'y quantities it
has no evident medicinal effect, but is thought to
18 THE NEW ELDORADO.
be a wholesome tonic, with bldod-purifying power.
Some springs in the Park, tliough inviting in ap-
pearance, are to be avoided on account of cer-
tain objectionable medical properties which they
possess. The hot springs adjacent to the hotel
issue from many vents and at various elevations,
slowly building for themselves terrace after ter-
lace with circular pools, held in singularly beauti-
ful stalactite basins, formed by depositing in thin
layers the chemical substances which they contain.
Some are infused with the oxide of iron, and pro-
duce a coating of dt'licately tinted red ; others are
exquisitely shaded in yellow by an infusion of
sulphur; while some, from like causes, are of a
dainty cream color. Upon numerous basins there
are seen wavy, frill-like borders of bright green,
indicating the presence of arsenic. Here and there
the margins of the pools are scalloped and edged
with a delicate bead-work, like Oriental pearls,
while others are curiously honeycombed, and fret-
ted with singular regularity. No artistic hand,
however skillful, could equal Nature in these deli-
cate and exquisitely developed forms. The grand
terrace, viewed as a whole, is like a huge series
of stairs or steps, two hundred feet high and five
hundred broad, decked with variegated marble,
together with white and pink coral. This im-
mense calcareous formation might represent a
frozen waterfall, or a congealed cascade. Tiie
water, in most instances, is at boiling heat as it
pours out of the various openings, charged M'ith
iron, magnesia, sulphur, alumina, soda, and other
THE PARK b\' moonlight. 19
substances. Every spring lias its succession of
limpid pools spreading out in all directions, the
basins varying in size from ten to forty feet across
their openings. When the sun penetrates the half
enshrouding mist, and brings out the myriad col-
ors of these beautiful terraces, the effect is truly
charming ; it is as though a rainbow had been
shattered and the pieces strewn broadcast. While
thus wreathed in vapors, as the evening ap-
proaches and the whole is touched by the rosy
tints of the setting sun, the entire facade glows
with softest opaline blushes, like a conscious mai-
den challenged by ardent admiration. For a mo-
ment, as we gaze upon its illumined expanse, it
seems like a gorgeous marble ruin half consumed
and still ablaze, the fire of which is being extin-
guished by an avalanche of snow-clouds. Such a
scene cannot be depicted by photography ; it can-
not be represented faithfully by the artist's skillful
touch in oils, because, like the vivid beauty of a
sunset on the ocean, the light and shade are mo-
mentarily changing, while the prismatic hues
gently dissolve into each other's embrace.
If possible, let the visitor witness the niiigic of
the spot by moonlight. It is then fairy-like in-
deed, shrouded in a thin, silvery screen, — " mys-
terious veil of brightness made," — like the trans-
parent yashmak of an East Indian houri.
CHAPTER II.
Kature in Poetic Moods. — Is there Lurking Danger ? — A Sani-
tatium. — Tlie Liberty Cap. — The Giant's Tliumb. — Singu-
lar Caves. — Falls of the Gardiner River. — In the Saddle. —
Grand Canon of the Yellowstone. — Far-Reaching Antiquity.
Obsidian Cliffs. — A Road of Glass. — Beaver Lake. — Ani-
mal Builders. — Aborigines of the Park. — The Sheep-Eaters.
— The Shoshones and other Tribes.
How unapproachable is Nature in her poetic
moods ! how opulent in measure ! how subtle in
delicacy ! No structure of truest proportions
reared by man could equal the beauty of this
lovely, parti-colored terrace. It recalled — being
of kindred charm — that perfection of Moham-
medan architecture the T.ij-Mahal at Agra, as
seen under the deep blue sky and blazing sun of
India. Since the late sweeping destruction by
earthquake and volcanic outburst of the similarly
formed pink and white tenaces in the Hot Lake
district of New Zealand, at Tarawera, these of
the Yellowstone Park have no longer a known
rival. We may therefore congratulate ourselves
in possessing a natural formation which is both
grand and unique. In the far-away southern
country referred to, there were no more symp-
toms foretelling the awful convulsion of nature
■which buried a broad, deep lake, together with an
entire valley and native village, beneath lava and
A SANITARIUM. 21
volcanic ashes, than there is exhibited in our own
reservation at this writing. Wliat signifies it that
the Yellowstone Park has probably remained in
its present comparatively quiet condition for many,
many ages ? The liability to a grand volcanic out-
burst at any moment is none the less imminent.
History repeats itself. It has ever been the same
with all great throes of Nature. Centuries of
comparative quiet elapse, and then occurs, with-
out any obvious jDredisposing cause, a great and
awful explosion. The catastrophe of Pompeii is
familiar to us all, which, in its turn, repeated the
story of Herculaneum.
The Mammoth Hut Springs of the Yellowstone
Park are not only beautiful in the tangible forms
which they present, and the kaleidoscopic combi-
nations of color which they produce, though their
seeming crystal clearness is indescribable, but they
have also remarkable medicinal virtues which en-
liance their interest and practical value. It is on
this account that the place is gradually becoming
a popular sanitarium, drawing patients from long
distances at suitable seasons, especially those who
suffer from rheumatic affections and skin diseases.
Persistent bathing in the waters accomplishes
many remarkable cures, if current statements can
be credited, and there is ample reason for such
a result. The pure air of this altitude must also
be of great benefit to invalids generally, but more
especially to those suffering from malarial poison
and nervous prostration. The chemical proper-
ties of each spring are distinctive, most of them
22 THE NEW ELDORADO.
having been carefully analyzed, and the invalid is
thus enabled to choose the one which is presum-
ably best adapted to his special ailment.
Groups of pines, or single trees, find sufficient
nutriment in the calcareous deposit to support
life, and thus a certain barrenness is robbed of its
depressing effect, while the whole is partially
framed by densely wooded hills which serve to
throw the terraces strongly into the foreground.
When we last looked upon the scene the sun was
setting amid a canopv of gold and orange hues,
as the evening gun of the military encampment
in the valley echoed again and again in sonorous
tones among the everlasting hills, and died away
in the distant gorges of the Yellowstone.
A lady visitor who entered the Park at the
same time with the author, ozi the first day of her
arrival placed a pine cone in one of the springs
near to the hotel. So rapid is the action of the
mineral deposit which is eonstanth' going on that
at the close of the eighth day the cone Avas taken
from the spring crystallized, as it were, being en-
crusted with a silicious deposit nearl}^ the sixteenth
of an inch in thickness. Branches of fern, acorns,
and other objects are treated in a similar manner,
often producing very charming and peculiar orna-
ments which serve as pleasing souvenirs of the
traveler's visit.
In sight of the hotel piazza there is a curious
and interesting object, built up by a spouting
spring long since extinct, and which has been
named the Liberty Cap. It is a little on one side
THE GIANTS THUMB. .^3
but yet in front of the terraces, and appears to be
composed entirely of carbonate of lime. With a
diameter of about fifteen feet at the base, it grad-
ually tapers to its apex forty feet from the giound.
This prominent formation, though remarkable, is
yet no mystery. It was produced by the waters
of a spring, probably forced up by hydrostatic
pressure, os^erilowing and precipitating its sedi-
ment around the vent, until finally, the cause ceas-
ing, the pressure become exhausted and the cone
was thus formed. It n)ay have required ages of
activity in the spring thus to erect its own mauso-
leum, — no one can safely conjecture how long.
Still nearer to the terraces is a similar formation
called the Giant's Thumb. Both are slowly be-
coming disintegrated by atmospheric influences ;
we say slowly, since they may still exist, slightly
diminished in size, a hundred years hence. There
is manifestly a tendency in the springs which are
now active in other parts of the neighborhood to
build just such tall cylinders of sinter about tiu'ir
vents. Some of the partially formed cones in the
vicinity are perfect, as far as they have accumu-
lated, wliile others present a broken appearance,
as if shattered by a sudden explosion.
There are several caves in the neighborhood of
the terraces daintily ornamented with stalactites
of snowy v^hiteness, "where springs vi^hich have
long since become exhausted were once as active
as those which now render this place so interest-
ing. From one of these caves there issues a pe-
culiar gas, believed to be fatal to animal life. A
24 THE XEW ELDORADO.
bird, it is said, fl\ing across the entrance close
enough to inhale the vapor will drop lifeless to
the ground. We are not prepsvred to vouch for
this, — indeed we very much doubt the guide's
story, — but it naturally recalled the Grotto del
Cane, near Najilcs, where it will be remembered
the guides are only too ready to saciifice a dog foi
such visitors as are cruel enough to permit it, by
causing the animal to inhale the poisonous gas
which settles to the lower part of the cave so
named.
There is another cave not far from the hotel
very seldom resorted to, and Avhich appears to
have once been the operating sphere of a large
geyser, but which is now only a dark hole. Into
this one descends by a ladder. It is a weird,
uncanny place, requiring torches in order to see
after entering its precincts. Aroused by the arti-
ficial light, myriads of bats drop from the ceiling,
until the })lace seems alive with them. Now and
then in their gyrations one touches the visitor's
hand or cheek with its cold, damp body, causing
an involuntai'y shudder. Verily, the Bats' Cave
is not an inviting place to visit.
One of the first places which the stranger seeks
after enjoying the attractions of the terraces and
a few curiosities near to the hotel is the Middle
Falls of the Gardiner River, situated three or
four miles aw:iy in a southerly direction. Here
we look down into a broad, dark caiion consider-
ably over a thousand feet deep, and whose rough,
precipitous sides are nearlj'- five hundred feet
THE GRAND CANON. 25
apart at tlie summit, gradually narrowing towards
the bottom. The Gardiner River flows throiip-h
O
the gorge, having at one place an unbroken fall of
a hundred feet; also presenting a mad, roaring,
rushing series of cascades of three hundred feet
descent. The aspect and general characteristics
of this turmoil of waters recalled the famous
Falls of Trolhatta, in Sweden. The hoarse
music of the waters, rising through the branches
of the pines which line the gorge, pierce the ear
with a thrilling cadence all their own, while the
dark canon stretches away for many miles in
its wild and sombre grandeur. It is well to visit
this spot before going to greater distances from
the hotel. Impressive as it is sure to prove,
there is yet a much superior featui-e of the Park,
of similar character, which remains to be seen.
We refer to the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone
River, where an immense cataract is formed by
the surging waters near the head of the gorge,
which here narrows to about one hundred feet.
The volume of water is very great at the point
where it rushes over a ledge nearly four hundred
feet in height, at one bold leap. This is known
as the Lower Fall, there being another half a mile
above it, called the Upper Fall, which is one hun-
dred and fifty feet high. These falls are more pic-
turesque, but less grand than the Lower. They
are presented to our view higher up among the
green trees, where lovely wild flowers and wav-
ing fei'ns cling to the rocks, and under the inspir-
ing rays of the sunlight add t^ their brightness
26 THE NEW ELDORADO.
and crystal beauty. A waterfall, like an oil-
painting, may be hung in a good or a disadvan-
tageous position as to light, and both are largely
dependent upon this contingenc}^ for their inspir-
ing charm.
The Great or Lower Fall of the Yellowstone
Caiion is twice as high as Niagara, while the beau-
tiful blazonry on the walls of the deep gorge, like
some huge mosaic, all aglow with matchless color,
marvelous in opulence, adds a fascinating charm
unknown to the mammoth fall just named.
These varied hues have been produced by the
snow and frost, vapor and sunshine, the lightning
and tlie rain of ages, acting upon certain chemical
constituents of the native rock. This is said to
be the most wonderful mountain gorge, when all
of its belonginfjs are taken into consideration, yet
discovered. It is over twenty miles long, and is
in m;<ny places from twelve to fifteen hundied
feet deep. The author has visited the imposing
canons of Colorado, the thrilling gorges of the Yo-
semite, and some of still greater magnitude in the
Himalayan range of northern India, but never
has he seen the equal of this Grand Caiion of the
Yellowstone, or beheld so high a waterfall of
equal volume.
A siife platform has been erected at the edge
of the fall, where one can stand and witness its
amazing plunge of over three hundred and fifty
feet. The stranger instinctively holds liis breath
while watching the irresistible volume of water as
it advances, and follows it with the eye into tlj©
VIEW FROM INSPIRATION POINT. 27
profound depth of the canon. The best view of the
goiw, however, is thut obtained from Lookout
Point, situated about a mile south of the Lower
J'all. A half mile farther in the same direction,
and at the same elevation, lies Lispiration Point,
from whence a more comprehensive outlook may
be enjoyed, Tlie grouping of crags, pinnacles,
and inaccessible points is grand and inexpress-
ibly beautiful. Eagles' nests with their young are
visihie at eyries quite out of reach, save to the
monarch bird itself. On other isolated points, far
below us, are seen the nests of fish-hawks, whose
builders look like swallows in size as they float
upon the air, or dart for their prey into the swift,
tumultuous stream that threads the valley. Gaz-
ing upon the scene, the vastness of which is be-
wildering, a sense of reverence creeps over us,
— reverence for that Almighty hand whose power
is here recorded in such unequaled splendor. At
last it is a relief to turn away from looking into
the sheer depth and reach a securer basis for the
feet. Still we linger until the sunset shadows
lengthen and pass away, followed by the silvery
moonlight. Every hour of the day has its peculiar
charm of light and shade as seen upon the cailon
and its churning waters.
The excursion out and back from the hotel to
view the principal points of interest in the neigh-
borhood covers a distance of about seven miles
through the woods and along the threatening brink
of the gorge. A rude Indian trail affords the only
means of reaching the several outlooks. Saddle-
28 THE NEW ELDORADO.
horses are supplied for the excursion by the hotel
proprietor, and visitors generally avail themselves
of this mode of transportation. The horses em-
ployed for the service are remarkably sagacious
and sure-footed. Understanding exactly what is
required of them, they overcome the deep pitclu^s
and abrupt rises of the narrow, tortuous way witli
great ingenuity and caution. At times one is
borne so near the brink of the awful chasm as to
make the passage rather exciting. It must bfe ad-
mitted that a single misstep on the part of the ani-
mal which bears him would hurl horse and rider
two thousand feet down the cailon to instant de-
struction. There is no barrier between the cliff
and the few inches of earth forming the path.
Visitors are cautioned at starting to give the
horses their heads, and not attempt to guide them
as they would do under ordinary circumstances.
The intelligent animals fully comprehend the exi-
gencies of the situation. On the occasion of the
writer's visit the equestrian party consisted of nine
persons, including the guide ; of these, two ladies
and one gentleman abandoned the saddles after the
first mile, finding the seeming danger too much
for their nerves, and completed the long tramp on
foot.
" What wonderful majesty and beauty are hid-
den here from an unconscious world," said an ex-
perienced member of our little part}'' whom chance
had brought together at the brink of the gorge.
" Everybody visits Niagara," he continued, " but
few, comparatively, participate in the glory and
A GLASS ROAD. 29
loveliness of this place, and yet how superior in
attraction it is to those lines of summer travel, the
Natural Bridge of Virginia, the Mammoth Cave
of Kentucky, or even the justly famed Yosemite
Valley ; " — a sentiment which all heartily indorsed.
In these pages we pass rapidly from one great
attraction to another, because we have only a
limited space in which to speak of them, but the
intelligent and appreciative visitor will be more
leisurely in his examination. Hours may be prof-
itably occupied in the careful observation and
thorough enjoyment of each locality, the interest
growing by what it feeds upon. One hardly real-
izes the passage of time when occupied in the
contemplation of such strange and absorbing ob-
jects, and is apt to linger thoughtfully until he
is warned by the business-like suggestion of tiie
guide.
Another interesting spot which the stranger
will hasten to visit is the Obsidian Cliffs, situated
about a dozen miles from the hotel. These sin-
gular and, so far as Ave know, unique cliffs are
formed of volcanic glass, and measure a thousand
feet in length by nearly two hundred in height,
recalling in general effect the Giant's Causeway
in the north of Ireland. They rise in almost
vertical columns from the eastern shore of Beaver
Lake. The color of the glass is dark green, like
that of which cheap quart bottles are made, and
though the glass glistens like jet it is opaque. A
carriage road has been provided, — a glass road,
■ — a quarter of a mile long, running by the base
30 THE NEW ELDORADO.
of the cliffs. To construct this road large fires
were built upon the obsidian mass, which, when
thoroughly heated, was dashed with cold water,
causing it to crack and crumble to pieces. It was
a tedious undertaking, but an available roadway
was at last the result.
Close at hand is Beaver Lake, of artificial ori-
gin, having been created b}' the industrious ani-
mal after which it is named. A colony have here
built a series of thirty dams, thus forming a sheet
of water of considerable depth, half a mile in
width, and two miles long, framed by tall, straight
pines, and covered near the shore with aquatic
flowers. As we passed the lake, in its shady cor-
ners were seen flocks of ducks in gaud}' colors
and of many different species, while on the far side
representatives of the beaver tribe were kind
enough to exhibit themselves for our amusement.
The series of dams which these little creatures
have constructed hereabouts have falls of from
three to six feet each, extending for a distance of
nearly two miles. The lily plants which bordered
Beaver Lake were of a curious amber color, grow-
ing here and there in groups of great density.
At a snap of the driver's whip a bev}- of wild
ducks rose, but lazily settled again upon the water
close at hand. " Tiiey have read the printed reg-
ulations of the Park," said the driver, " and know
that no one wuU attempt to shoot them." Beyond
the lake are broad patches of level meads, sprin-
kled \\\t\\ lovely wild flowers, in which yellow,
purple, and white prevailed. The delicate little
THE ABOEIGINES. 31
phlox, modestly clinging to the ground, was fra-
grant above all the rest. Occasional spots border-
ing the pine woods showed the exquisite enamel of
the blue violets, which emitted their familiar and
welcome fi-agrance. These were dominated by a
tall, regal flower, clustering on one stem, whose
name we know not, but which formed great masses
of purple bloom.
Close to the curious and interesting Obsidian
Cliffs is a pleasant resort called Willow Park, a
cool, shady spot, where a clear stream of good
water flows through a stretch of rich pasture land,
forming a delightful rural picture, full of peaceful
and poetic suggestiveness. This is a favorite
camping ground for those who adopt that mode of
visiting the several sections of the Park.
The stranger looks about him in silent amaze-
ment, wondering how long Nature has been dis-
playing her erratic moods after the fashion exhib-
ited here, now smiling with winning tenderness,
and now frowning with implacable sternness. He
sees everywhere evidences of great antiquity, and
beholds objects which must date from time incal-
culably remote, but there is no recorded history
extant of this strange region. The original Indian
inhabitants of the Park were a very peculiar peo-
ple, — a sort of gnome race, — a tribe individually
of Liliputian size, who lived in natural caves, of
which there are many in the hills, where rude and
primitive implements of domestic use belonging to
the aborigines have been found. They do not
seem to have possessed even the customary leg-
32 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ends of savage races concerning their surroundings
and their origin. This tribe, the former dwellers
here, were called the Sheep-eating Indians, be-
cause they lived almost solely upon the flesh, and
clothed themselves in the skins, of the big-horn
sheep of these mountains, — an animal which is
found running wild in more or less abundance
throughout the whole northern range of the Rocky
Mountains, even where it reaches into Alaska.
These natives are represented to have been a timid
and harmless people, without iron tools or weap-
ons of any sort, except bows and arrows, to which
may be added hatchets and knives formed of the
flint-like volcanic glass indigenous to the Park.
They were an isolated people from the very na-
ture of their country, which was nearly inaccessible
at all seasons, and entirely so during the lung and
severe winters.
Other native tribes were debarred from this
region through superstitious fear, induced by the
incomprehensible demonstrations of Nature ex-
hibited in boiling springs, spouting geysers, and
the trembling earth, accompanied by subterranean
explosions. This seemed to them to be evidence
of the wrath of the Great Spirit, angered, perhaps,
by their unwelcome presence. The Sheep-eaters,
born among these scenes; gave no special heed to
them, and rather fostered an idea which prevented
others from interfering with the surrounding
game, and which also gave them immunity from
the\otherwise inevitable oppression of a stronger
and more aggressive people than themselves. As
J.\DIA\ IMPROVIDENCE. 33
civilization advanced westward, or rather as the
white man found his way thither, this Yellowstone
tribe gradually dwindled away or became united
with the Shoshones of Iowa. Their individuality
seems now to have been entirely lost, not a trace
of them, even, being discernible, according to
more than one intelligent writer upon the sub-
ject.
No Indians of any tribe are now permitted in
the reservation, otherwise, lazy as these aborigines
are, they would soon make reckless havoc among
the fine collection of wild animals which is gath-
ered here. The Indians are all in the annual
receipt of money and ample food supplies from
the government ; and the killing of extra game
and selling the hides would furnish them with
only so many more dollars to be expended for
whiskey and tobacco. These tribes have no idea
of economy, or care for the future. The reliance
they place upon government supplies promotes a
spirit of recklessness aiid extravagance. If their
potato crop fails, or partial famine sets in from
some extraordinary cause, it finds them utterly
unprepared to meet the exigency. Oftentimes it
is found that the government rations and supplies
have been sold, and the money received therefor
lavishly squandered.
CHAPTER III.
Norris Geyser Basin. — Fire beneath the Surface. — A Guide's
Ideas. — The Curious Paiul Pot Basin. — Lower Geyser
Basin. — Boiling Springs of Many Colors. — Mountain Lions
at Play. — Midway Geyser Basin. — "Hell's Half Acre." —
Li the Midst of Wonderland. — " Old Faithful." — Other Active
Geysers. — Erratic Nature of these Keinarkable Fountains.
A PLEASANT drive of twenty miles in a south-
erly direction from the Hot Springs Hotel, through
the wildest sort of scenerj', over mountain roads
and beside gorgeous canons, will take the vis-
itor to the Norris Geyser Basin, a spot which
promptly recalled to the writer somewhat similar
scenes witnessed at the aboriginal town of Ohine-
niutu, in the northern part of New Zealand.
Clouds of sulphurous vapor constantly hang alike
over both places, produced by a similar cause,
though the scene here is far more vivid and de-
monstrative. This whole basin is dotted by hot
water springs and fumaroles, which maintain an
incessant hissing, spluttering, and bubbling, night
and day, through the twelve months of the year.
The water which issues from these sources is of
various colors, according to the impregnating prin-
ciple which prevails, the yellow sulphur vats being
especially conspicuous to the sight and offensive to
the smell. What a strange, weird place it is I No
A GUIDE'S IDEAS. 36
art could successfully imitate these extravagances
of Nature. Some of the rills' are cool, others are
boiling hot; some are white, some pink or red,
and one large basin, fifty feet across, is called the
Emerald Pool, because of its intensely green color ;
yet it appears to be quite pure and transparent
when a sample is taken out and examined. Each
spring seems to be entirely independent of the
rest, though all are situated so near to each other.
An almost constant tremor of the earth is realized
throughout this immediate region, as though only
a thin crust separated the visitor from aii active
volcano beneath his feet ; and, notwithstanding the
various scientific theories, who can say that such
is not actually the case?
" I know all about the idea that these eruptions
of boiling water, steam, and sulphurous gases are
produced by chemical action," said our guide.
"I've heard lots of scientific men talk about the
subject, but I don't believe nothing of the sort."
" And why not ? " we asked.
" Do you believe," he said, " that chemical ac-
tion in the earth could create power enough, first
to bring water to 212° of heat, and then force it two
hundred feet into the air a number of times every
day in a column four or five feet in diameter, and
keep it up for quarter of an hour at a time?"
" Well, it does seem somewhat problematical,"
we were forced to answer.
"After living here summer and winter for six
years," he said, " I have seen enough to satisfy
me that there is a great sulphurous fire far down
36 THE SEW ELDORADO.
in the earth below us, which, if the steam and
power it acccumulates did not find vent through
the hundreds of surface outlets distributed all over
the Paik, would seek one by a grand volcanic
outburst."
"Put your hand on the ground just here," he
continued, as we walked over a certain spot where
our footfall caused a reverberation and trembling
of the soil.
'• It is almost too hot for the flesh to bear," we
said, quickly withdrawing our hand.
" Too hot ! I should say so. Now I don't be-
lieve anything but a burning fire can produce such
heat as that," he added, with an expression of the
face which seemed to imply, '• I don't believe you
do either."
" The original volcanic condition of this whole
region seems also to argue in favor of your deduc-
tions," we replied.
"That's just what I tell 'em," continued the
guide. " Them big fires that first did the business
for this neighboihood are still smouldering down
below. You may bet your life on that."
This rather startling idea is emphasized by a
smoking vent close at hand, which is also con-
stantly sending forth superheated steam and sul-
phurous gases, like the extinct volcano of Solfatara,
near Naples. Sulphur crystals strew the ground,
and are heaped up in small yellow mounds. Not
far away an intermittent geyser bursts forth every
sixty seconds from a deep hole in the rock-bed of
the basin, showing a stream of water six inches in
GIBBON PAINT POT BASIN. 37
diameter, and sending the same skyward thirty or
forty feet. Here also is a powerful geyser called
the Monarch, which leaps into action with great
regularity once in twenty-four hours, throwing a
triple stream to the height of a hundred and thirty
feet, and continuing to do so for the space of fif-
teen or twenty minutes. Beneath the sun's rays
all the colors of the prism are reflected in this ver-
tical column of w;iter, and not infrequently the
distinct arch of a rainbow is suspended like a halo
about its crown. Nature, even in her most fantas-
tic caprice, is always beautiful.
Tiiere are several other high-reaching and pow-
erful geysers in this vicinity, but we will not
weary the reader by pausing to describe them.
Gibbon Paint Pot Basin is next visited, being a
most curious area, measuring some twenty acres,
more or less, situated in a heavily-wooded district,
not far from Gibbon Canon. Here is a most
strange collection of over five hundred springs of
boiling, splashing, exploding mud, exhibiting many
distinct colors, which gives rise to the name it
bears. One pot is of an emerald green, another is
as blue as turquoise, a third is as red as blood, a
fourth is of orange yellow, another is of a rich
cream color and consistency. The visitor is struck
by the singularity of this hot-spring system, which
produces from vents so close together colors dia-
metrically opposite. The earth is piled up about
the seething pools, making small mounds all over
the basin, and forming a series of pots of clay and
silicious compounds. Near the entrance of Gibbon
38 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Canon is a remarkable collection of extinct gey-
sers ; the tall, slim, crystallized structures, origiuat-
ing like the Liberty Cap already described, look
like genii totem poles, corrugated by the finger of
time, and forming significant monuments of by-
gone eruptions, while the surrounding volcanoes
were slowly exhausting their fury. Even about
these long-extinct geysers there is an atmosphere
indicating their former intensity, though it is quite
possible they may have been sleeping for ten cen-
turies.
The locality known as the Lower Geyser Basin is
filled with striking and somewhat similar volcanic
exhibitions, though there are more hot springs
here than other phenomena, the aggregate number
being a trifle less than seven hundred, including
seventeen active geysers. In some respects this spot
exceeds in interest those previously visited, being
more readily surveyed as a whole. The variety
of form and the large number of these springs
are remarkable. As a rule they are less sulphurous
and more silicious than those already spoken of.
Here, as at the terraces near the hotel, the last
touch of beauty is imparted by the sun's rays
forcing themselves through the Avhite vapory
clouds which are thrown off by the mysteriously
heated waters. One of the large basins, meas-
uring forty by sixty feet, is filled with a sort of
porcelain slime, notable for its soft rose tints and
delicate yellow hues, which are brought out with
magic effect under a cloudless sky. This basin
has an elevation of over seven thousand feet above
MIDWAY GEYSER BASIN. 39
the level of the sea, and is surrounded by heavily-
"imbered hills which are four and five hundred
feet higher. Numerous as these springs and gey-
sers are, each one is strongly individualized by
some special feature which marks it as distinctive
from the rest, and renders it recognizable by the
residents of the Park, but which, however inter-
esting to the observing visitor, would only prove
to be tedious if here described in detail.
While sitting at twilight on the piazza of the
rude little inn where we passed the night in this
basin, there came out from the edge of the wood
on to a broad green plateau a couple of long tailed
mountain lions. They were not quite full grown,
and were of a tawny color. These creatures,
savao^e and dangerous enousjli under some circum-
stances, seemed half tame and entiiely fearless,
playfully romping with each other, and exhibiting
catlike agility. The proprietor of the inn told
us that not long since, upon a dark night, they
came to the house and attacked his favorite dog,
killing and eating him, leaving only the bones to
explain his disappearance in the morning. They,
too, must have read the regulations, " No firearms
permitted in the Park."
The Midway Geyser Basin is situated a few
miles directly south of that just spoken of, and
contains an extraordinai'y group of hot springs,
among Avhieh is the marvelous Excelsior Geyser,
largest in the known world. It bursts forth from
a pit two Imndred and fifty feet in diameter, worn
in the solid rock, and which is at all times rearlv
40 THE NEW ELDORADO.
full of boiling water, above which there is con-
stantly floating a dense column of steam, which
rising slowly is borne away and absorbed by the
atmosphere. The water which flows so continu-
ously over the brim has formed a series of terraces
beaming with beautiful tints. This stupendous
fountain is intermittent, giving an exhibition of
its startling powers at very irregular periods, when
it is said to send up a column of water sixty feet
in diameter to a height ,of from fifty to one hun-
dred feet! So great is the sudden flood thus pro-
duced in the Firehole River, which is here between
seventy-five and a hundred yards broad, that it is
turned for the time being into a furious torrent of
steaming, half-boiling water. The Excelsior has
also a disagreeable and dangerous habit of throw-
ing up hundred-pound stones and metallic debris
with this great volume of water, while the sur-
rounding earth vibrates in sympath}' with the
hidden power which operates so mysterious!}'.
Visitors naturally hasten to a safe distance during
these moments of extraordinary activity.
About midway between Firehole and the Upper
Geyser Basin is a strange, unearthly, vaporous
piece of low land, which is endowed with a name
more expressive than elegant, being called "HelTs
Half Acre." Here again it seems as if this spot
is separated from the raging fires below by only
the thinnest crust of earth, through which numer-
ous boiling springs find riotous vent. The soil
in many parts is burning hot, and echoes to the
tread as though liable to open at any moment and
HELL'S HALF ACRE. 41
swallow the venturesome stranger. During the
season of 1888, a lady visitor who stepped upon a
thin place sank nearly out of sight, and though in-
stantly rescued by her friends, slie was so severely
scalded as to be confined to her bed for a montli
and more at the Mammoth Springs Hotel. U'lie
air is filled with fumes of sulphui', and the place
would seem to be appropriately named. There
are forty springs in this " Half Acre," which, by
the way, occupies ten times the space which the
name indicates, where the seething and bubbling
noise is like the agonized wailing of lost spirits.
The place has another, and perhaps better, desig-
nation besides this satanic title, namely, Egeria
Springs. Great is the contrast between the heav-
ens above and the direful suggestions of the earth
below, as we behold it under the serene beauty of
the blue sky which jtrevails here in the summer
montlis, and which renders camping out in the
Park delightful. '^ You should come here during
a thunder-storm," said our companion, who is a
dweller in this region. " I have done so twice,"
he continued, " simply to witness the fitness of the
association : rolling thunder overhead and flashes
of lightning in the atmosphere, through which the
boiling vats, hissing pools, and steaming fissures
are seen in full operation, as though they were a
part and parcel of the electric turmoil agitating
the sky."
It is impossible to appreciate these various phe-
nomena in a single hurried visit. Like the Falls
of Niagara, or the Pyramids of Gizeh, they must
42 THE NEW ELDORADO.
become in some degree familiar to the observer
before he will be able to form a complete, intelli-
gent, and satisfactory impression which will re-
main with him. One cannot grasp the full sig-
niHcance of such accumulated wonders at sight.
We look about us among the green trees that bor-
der the open areas, surprised to behold the calm
sunshine, the tuneful birds, and the chattering
squirrels, moved by their normal instincts, utterly
regardless of these myriad surrounding marvels.
The grandest spouting springs are to be found
in Upper Geyser Basin, where there are twenty-
five active fountains of this character. Here is
situated the famous " Old Faithful," which, from
a mound rising gradually about six or eight feet
above the surroimding level, emits a huge column
of boiling water for five or six minutes in each
hour with never-failing regularity, while it gives
forth at all times clouds of steam and heated air.
The height reached by the waters of this thermal
fountain varies from eighty to one hundred and
twenty feet, and it has earned its expressive name
by never failing to be on time. It seemed, some-
how, to be a more satisfactory representative of the
spouting spring phenomenon than any other in
the entire Park, though it would be difficult to say
exactly why. Its prominent position, dominating
the rest of the geysers of the basin, gives it special
effect. Irrespective of all other similar exhibi-
tions, the stately column of "Old Faithful" rises
heavenward with splendid effect in the broad light
of day, or in the still hours of the night, once in
THE BEEHIVE AND THE GIANTESS. 43
every sixty minutes, as uniformly as the rotation
of the second-hand of a watch. The effect was
ghostly at midnight under the sheen of the moon
and the contrasting shadows of the woods near at
hand, while not far away, across the Firehole
River, tlie lesser geysers were exhibiting their er-
ratic performances, casting up occasional crystal
columns, which glistened in the silvery light like
pendulous glass. There is quite a large group of
geysers in this immediate vicinity, which perform
with notable regularity at stated periods. Thei'e is
one called the Beehive, because of its vent, which
has a resemblance to an old-fashioned straw arti-
cle of the sort, the crater being about three feet
in height. The author saw this spring throw
up a stream three feet in diameter nearly or quite
two hundred vertical feet for eight or ten minutes,
when it gradually subsided. There are over four
hundred geysers and boiling springs in this basin.
Among them is the Giantess, situated four hun-
dred feet from the Beehive, which does not dis-
play its powers oftener than once in ten or twelve
days; but when the eruption does take place, it
is said to exceed all the rest in the height which
it attains and the length of time during which it
operates. It has no raised crater, but comes forth
from a vent even with the surface of the ground,
thirty-four feet in length and twenty-four in
width. When it is in action, so great is the force
expended that miniature earthquakes are felt
throughout the immediate neighborhood. There
are seen, not far away, the Lion, Lioness, Young
44 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Faithful, the Grotto, the Splendid, etc., each one
more or less* operative. We have by no means
enumerated all the active fountains in this basin,
seeking only to designate their general character.
However well prepared for the outburst, one can-
not but feel startled when a geyser suddenly rises,
mysteriously and ghost-like, close at hand, from
out the deep bowels of the earth, its white form
growing taller and taller, while the spray expands
like weird and shrouded arms. To heighten this
sepulchral effect the atmosphere is full of sulphur-
ous vapors, while strange noises fall upon the ear
like subterranean thunder. What puzzling mys-
teries Nature holds concealed in her dark, earthy
bosom !
Let us not forget to mention, in this connection,
one of the largest fountains of the Kirehole Basin,
namely, the Grand Geyser, which is placed next
to the Excelsior in size and performance. This
fountain has no raised cone, and operates once in
about thirty-six hours. Of course the visitor is
not able to s(^e each and all of these strange foun-
tains in operation. He might remain a month
upon the ground and not do so ; consequently, he
is obliged to take some of the dimensions and per-
formances on trust ; but most of the staten)ents
which ai-e made to him can easily be verified.
When this Grand Geyser is about to burst forth,
the deep basin, which is twenty feet and more
across, first gradually fills with furiously boiling
water until it overflows the brim ; then it becomes
shrouded by heavy volumes of steam, out of which
VARYING ACTION OF THE GEYSERS. 45
come several loud reports, like the discharge of a
small cannon, when suddenly tlie whole body of
water is lifted, and a column ten or twelve feet
in diameter rises to a height of ninety feet, from
the apex of which a lesser stream mounts many
feet higher, until the earth trembles with the force
of the discharge and falling water as it rushes
towards the river. This strange exhibition lasts
for eight or ten minutes, then the fountain slowly
subsides, with hoarse mutterings, like some re-
treating and overmastered wild beast, growling
sullenly as it disappears.
It will thus be seen that these geysers vary
greatly in their action, in the duration of their
eruptions, and in the intervals which elapse be-
tween the performances. Some of them labor as
though the water was slowly pumped up from vast
depths, some burst foith with full vigor to their
highest point at once, while others become ex-
hausted with a brief effort. There are a few that
subside only to again commence spouting, being
thus virtually continuous; but these are not of
such power as to throw tlieir streams to a great
height. One group of this sort is called the Min-
ute Men, some of wliii-h spout sixty times within
the hour ; others eject small streams incessantly.
This immediate valley is very irregular in sur-
face and thickly wooded in parts, showing also the
ruins of many extinct geysers. It is a dozen miles
long and between two and three wide, literally
crowded with wonders from end to end. It con-
tains a collection of boiling and spouting springs
46 THE NEW ELDORADO.
on a scale which would belittle all similar phenom-
ena of the rest of the known world, could they be
brought together.
As the reader will have understood, the period
of activity with all the geysers is more or less
irregular, except in the instance of Old Faithful.
We have no knowledge of a simultaneous erup-
tion having ever taken place. Many of these
active springs which now exist will, doubtless,
sooner or later subside and new ones will form to
take their places, a process which has been going
on, no one can even guess for how many ages.
CHAPTER IV.
The Great Yellowstone Lake. — Myriads of Birds. — Solitary
Beauty of the Lake. — The Flora of the Park. — Devastating
Fires. — Wild Animals. — Grand Volcanic Centre. — Moun-
tain Climbing and Wonderful Views. — A Story of Discovery.
— Government Exploration of the Reservation. — Governor
Washburn's Expedition. — " For the Benefit of the People at
Large Forever."
In the southern section of the Yellowstone Park,
near its longitudinal centre, is one of the most
beautiful yet lonely lakes imaginable, framed in a
margin of sparkling sands, and surrounded by Al-
pine heights. One stretch of the shore about five
miles long is called Diamond Beach ; the volcanic
material of which it is formed, being entirely ob-
sidian, reflects the sun's rays like btilliant gems,
while the beach is caressed by wavelets scarcely
less bright. Surrounded by many wonders, the
lake is itself a great surprise, lying in the bosom
of rock-ribbed mountains at an elevation of nearly
eiglit thousand feet above the sea. We know of
but one other large body of water on the globe at
any such height, namely, Lake Titicaca, in South
America, famous in Peruvian history. The Yel-
lowstone Lake is always of crystal clearness, and
is fed from the eternal snow that piles itself up
on the lofty peaks which surround it, and which
are sharply outlined in all directions against the
48 THE NEW ELDORADO.
blue of the sky. The outlet of the lake is the
Yellowstone Iviver, which issues from the northern
end, while the Upper Yellowstone runs into it on
the opposite side. The lake is twenty-two miles
long by fifteen in width, and has an area of a hun-
dred and fifty square miUs. Its greatest depth
is three hundred ft^et, and it is overstocked with
trout, many of which, unfortunately, are infested
by a pai'asitic worm which renders them unfit for
food ; but this is not the case with all the fish ; a
large portion are good and wholesome. Geologists
find sufficient evidence to satisfy them that this
lake, now narrowed to the dimensions just given,
in ancient times covered two thirds of the present
Park. Aquatic birds abound upon its broad sur-
face, and build their myriad nests on its green
islands. They are of many species, comprising
geese, cranes, swans, snipe, mallards, teal, cur-
lew, plover, and ducks of various sorts. Pelicans
swim about in long white lines ; herons, in their
delicate ash -colored plumage, stand idly on the
shore, while ermine-feathered gulls fill the air
with their loud and tuneless serenade. Hawks,
kingfishers, and ravens also abound on the shore,
the first-named watching other birds as they rise
from the water witli fish, which the}'^ make it their
business, freebooter-like, to rob them of. The
lake has many thickly-wooded islands, and there
are several long, pine-covered promontories which
stretch out in a graceful manner from the main-
land, the whole forming a grand primeval solitude.
Now and again a solitary eagle, on broad-spread
YELLOWSTONE LAKE. 49
pinions, sails away from the top of some lofty pine
on the mountain side to the deep green seclusion
of the nearest island. Even the presence of this
proud and austere bird only serves to emphasize
the grave and solemn loneliness which rests upon
the locality.
It is a charming feature of this placid lake
which causes it to gather into its bosom a picture
of all things far and near : the clouds, " those
playful fancies of the mighty sky," seem to float
upim its surface ; the blue of the heavens is re-
flected there ; the tall peaks and wooded slopes
mirror themselves in its depths. As we look upon
the lake through the purple haze of sunset, a pic-
ture is presented of surpassing loveliness, tinted
with blue and golden hues, which creep lovingly
closer and closer about the quiet isles; while there
come from out the forest resinous pine odors, de-
lightfully soothing to the senses, accompanied by
the soft music of swaying branches, and the low
drone of insect life.
To linger over such a scene is a joy and an in-
spiration to the experienced traveler, who, in
wandering hither and thither upon the globe,
places an occasional white stone at certain points
to which memory turns with never-failing pleas-
ure, 'ilius he recalls a sunrise over the silvery
peaks of the grand Himalayan range ; a thrilling
view from the Mosque of Mahomet Ali at Cairo,
localizing Biblical story ; or a summer sunset-glow
on the glassy mirror of the Yellowstone Lake.
Along the mountain side^ east of the lake, are
60 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ancient terraces, indented shorelines, and other
evidences which clearly prove that, at no very
remote geological period, the surface of this grand
sheet of water was at least five or six hundred feet
higher than it is at the present time. Nearly two
hundred square miles of the Park are still covered
by lakes.
As to the flora of the Yellowstone Park, seventy-
five per cent, of the whole area seems to be covered
by dense forests, the black fir being the most plen-
tiful, often growing to three or four feet in diam-
eter and a hundred and fifty feet in height. The
white pine is the most graceful among the indig-
enous trees, and is always remarkable for its
statel}' symmetrical beauty. The thick groves of
balsam fir are particularly fine and fragrant, while
the dwarf maples and willows are charming fea-
tures as they mingle abundantly with larger and
more pi-etentious trees. Wild flowers. Nature's
bright mosaics, are found in great variety during
the summer, though there is rarely a night in this
neighborhood without frost, while the winters are
truly arctic in temperature. The larkspur, col-
umbine, harebell, lupin, and primrose abound,
with occasional daisies and other blossoms. Yel-
low water-lilies, anchored by their fragile steins,
profusel}' sprinkle and beautify the surface of the
shady pools. Exquisite ferns, lichens, and vel-
vety mosses delight the appreciative eye in many
a sylvan nook which is only invaded by squirrels
and song-birds.
Here, as in the valley of the Yosemite, it is
WILD ANIMALS. 61
melancholy to see the track of devastating fires
caused by the half -extinguished blaze left by care-
less camping parties. It is difficult to idealize how
intelligent people can be so wickedly i*eckless as
to cause such destruction. Many a forest mon-
arch stands bereft of every limb by the devouring
flames, and large areas are entirely denuded of
growth other than the shrubbery which springs
up quickly after a sweeping fire in the woods, as
though Nature desired to cover from sight the
devastating footsteps of the Fire King. The
grasses grow luxuriantly, especially alpine, timo-
thy, and Kentucky blue grass.
There are many wild animals in the Park, such
as elk, deer, antelope, big-horn sheep, foxes, buf-
falo, and what is called the California lion, a small
but rather dangerous animal for the hunter to
encounter. The buffalo is rarely seen in the
West, and it is said is now only to be found wild
in this Park. The streams and creeks also swarm
with otter, beaver, and mink. These animals are
all protected by law, visitors being only permitted
to shoot such birds as they can cook and eat in
their camps, together witli any species of bear
they may chance to fall in with ; and there are
several kinds of the latter animal to be found in
the hills. At least this has been the case until
lately ; but stricter rules have been found neces-
sary, and no visitors are now permitted to take
firearms with them while remaining in the Park.
The purpose of the government is to strictly pre-
serve the game, the effect of which has already
62 THE NEW ELDORADO.
been to render the animals gathered here less shy
of human approach, and to greatly increase their
number.
So abundant are the evidences of grand vol-
canic action throughout the lake basin that it has
been looked upon by scientists as the remains or
centre of one enormous crater forty miles across !
Dr. Hayden, the profound geologist, who was sent
professionally by the government to report upon
the Park, declares it to have been the former
scene of volcanic activity as great as that of any
part of this planet, a conclusion which the ob-
server of to-day is quite ready to admit, inasmuch
as the subsidence has yet left enough of the orig-
inal forces to demonstrate the sleeping power
which still lurks restlessly beneath the soil. We
wonder, standing amid such remarkable surround-
ings, how many centuries have passed since the
valley assumed its present shape. Everything is
indicative of high antiquity, and it is probably
rather thousands than hundreds of years since
this volcanic centre was at its maximum power
and activity. The valley has been partly exca-
vated out of ancient crystalline rocks, partly out
of later stratified formations, and partly from
masses of lava that were poured forth during a
succession of ages which make up the different
epochs of the earth's long histor3\
The lowest level of the Park is about six thou-
sand feet above the sea, and the average elevation,
independent of mountains, is much over this esti-
mate. It is very properly designated as the sum-
MOUNT WASHBURN. • 53
mit of the continent, and gives rise to three of the
largest livers in North America, namely : on the
north side are the sources of the Yellowstone ; on
the west, three of the forks of the Missouri ; and
on the southwest are the sources of the Snake
River, which flows into the Columbia, and thence
to the distant Pacific Ocean.
If possible, before leaving the neighborhood,
the visitor should ascend Mount Washburn, the
highest point of observation within the great
reservation, a feat easily accomplished on hoise-
back. Such an excursion is particularly desirable
since all the scenery of the Park is circumscribed
while we are at the level of its springs, geysers,
and lakes. The grand view from this elevation
will repay all the time and effort expended in its
accomplishment. Its height above the base is five
thousand feet, its height above the sea five thou-
sand moie. A clear day is absolutely necessary
for the proper enjoyment of such an excursion,
in order to bring out fairly the panorama of for-
ests, lakes, prairies, and mountains, decked by
the golden glory of the sunshine. In some direc-
tions the vision reaches a hundred and fifty miles
through space. Here, on the snmmit of Mount
Washburn, we virtually stand upon the apex of
the North American continent, if we except one
or two of the sky-reaching peaks of the Territory
of Alaska.
As we face the north, just before us lies the
valley of the Yellowstone, and in the distance,
looming far above its suiroundings, is the tall
64 • THE NEW ELDORADO.
Emiorrant Peak. To the eastward Index and
o
Pilot peaks pierce the clouds, beyond wliich
stretches away the Big Horn Range. In the
West the summits of the Gallatin Mountains fol-
low one another northward, while trending in the
same direction, but farther towards the horizon,
is the lofty Madison Range. We gaze until be-
wildered by peak after peak, mountain beyond
mountain, range upon range, mingling with each
other, all combining to form a glorious view em-
bodying the indescribably grand characteristics of
the Rocky Mountain system, the equal of whicli
we may never again behold.
The tall range of mountains which girdle the
Park are snow-covered all the year round, frigid,
giant sentinels, which long proved a complete
barrier to organized exploration, forming an amphi-
theatre of sublime and lonely scenery. The story
of the discovery of this Wonderland is briefly told
as follows : It seems that a gold-seeking prospector
named Coulter made his way with infinite per-
severance into the region in 1807, and after many
hair-bieadth escapes from Indians, wild beasts,
poisonous waters, and starvation, finally succeeded
in rejoining his comrades, whom he entertained
with stories of what he had seen, which seemed
to them so incredible that they believed him to be
crazy. Afterwards, first one and then another ad-
venturer found his way hither, and though each of
them corroborated Coulter's story, they were by
no means fully credited. But public attention and
curiosity were thus aroused, leading the govern-
GOVERNOR WASHBURN'S EXPEDITION. 55
ment to send Professor Hayden and a small ex-
ploring party to carefully examine the region.
This enterprise not only corroborated the stories
already made public, but greatly added to their
volume and amazing detail.
It was found that the representations of Coulter
and those who followed him, so far from exaggerat-
ing the wonders of the Yellowstone, in reality fell
far below the truth.
During the year 1870 Governor Washburn,
accompanied by a small body of United States
cavalry, entered the Park by the valley of the
Yellowstone, and thoroughly explored the canons,
the shores of the great lake, and the geyser region
of Firehole River, together with the various in-
teresting localities of which we have spoken. On
returning he declared that the party had seen the
greatest marvels to be found upon this continent,
and that there was no other spot on the globe
where there were crowded together so many natu-
ral wonders, combined with so much beauty and
grandeur.
Finally Congress, foi'eseeing that the greed of
speculators would lead them to monopolize this
Wonderland for mercenary purposes, promptly
took action in the matter, setting the region aside
as a National Park and Reservation, for the benefit
of the people at large forever, retaining the fee
and control of the same in the name of the gov-
ernment.
Not many persons have ever attempted to
traverse the Park in the winter season, but it has
5& THE NEW ELDORADO.
been done by a few hardy and adventurous people,
wlio nearly peiislied in the attempt. Such indi-
viduals have reported that the raging snow-storms
and blizzards which they encountered were on a
scale quite equal to the other demonstrations and
•natural curiosities of the place. The trees in their
neigliborhood were beautifully gemmed with the
frozen vapor of the geysers, and the heated sprin^^s
seemed doubly* active by the contrast between
their temperature and that of the freezing atmos-
phere. It was only by camping at night upon the
very brink of these boiling waters that life couM
be sustained, with the atmosphere at forty degrees
below zero.
One who comes hither with preconceived ideas
of the peculiar sights to be met with is sure to be
disappointed, not in their want of strangeness, for
the Park is overstocked with curiosities having
no counterpart elsewhere, but the features are so
thoroughly unique that his anticipations are tran-
scended both in the quality and the quantity of
the food for wonder whicli is spread out before
him on every side.
CHAPTER V.
Westward Journey resumed. — Queen City of the Mountains.—
Crossing the Rocliies. — Butte City, the Great Mining Centre.
— Montana. — The Red Men. — About the Aborigines. — The
Cowboys of the West. — A Successful Hunter. — Emigrant
Teams on the Prairies. — Immense Forests. — Puget Sound. —
The Famous Stampede Tunnel. — Immigration.
After a delightful, though brief, sojourn of ten
days in the Yellowstone Park, realizing that twice
that length of time might be profitably spent
therein, we returned to Livingston, where the
Northern Pacific Railroad was once more reached,
and the westward journey promptly resumed. The
Belt Range of mountains is soon crossed, at an
elevation of over five thousand five hundred feet.
A remarkable tunnel is also passed through, three
thousand six hundred feet in length, from which
the train emerges into a grand canon, and soon
arrives at the city of Bozeman. This place has
a thrifty and intelligent population of over five
thousand, and is notable for its rural and pictur-
esque surroundings, in the fertile Gallatin Valley,
which is encircled by majestic ranges of moun-
tains, shrouded in " white, cold, virgin snow."
Having passed the point where the Madison and
Jefferson rivers unite to form the headwaters of
that great river, the Missouri, whence it starts
68 THE NEW ELDORADO.
upon its long and winding course of over four
thousand miles towards the Mexican Gulf, we
arrive presently at Helena, the interesting capital
of Montana. This is called the " Queen City of
the Mountains," and is famous as a great and suc-
cessful mining centre, the present population of
which is about twenty thousand. It is said to
be the richest city of its size in the United States,
an assertion which we have good reasons for be-
lieving to be correct. The vast mineral region
surrounding Helena is unsurpassed anywhere for
the number and richness of its gold and silver-
bearing lodes, having within an area of twenty-
five miles over three thousand such natural
deposits, the ownership of which is duly recorded,
and many of wiiich are being profitably worked.
The city is lighted by a system of electric lamps,
and has an excellent water-supply from inex-
haustible mountain streams.
We were told an authentic story illustrating the
richness of the soil in and about Helena, as a gold-
bearing earth, which we repeat in brief.
It seems that a resident was digging a cellar on
which to place a foundation for a new dwelling-
house, when a passing stranger asked permission
to lemove the pile of earth that was being thrown
out of the excavation, agreeing to return one half
of whatever value he could get fioni the same,
after washing and submitting it to the usual treat-
ment by which gold is extracted. Permission was
granted, and the earth was soon removed. The
citizen thought no more about the matter. After a
NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY. 59
couple of weeks, however, the stranger returned
and handed tlie proprietor of the ground thirteen
hundred dollars as his half of the proceeds real-
ized from the dirt casually thrown out upon the
roadway in digging his cellar.
Between Helena and Garrison the main range
of the Rocky Mountains is crossed, and at an
elevation of five thousand five hundred and forty
feet the cars enter what is called the MuUan Tun-
nel. This dismal and remarkable excavation is
nearly four thousand feet long. From it the west-
ern-bound traveler finally emerges on the Pacific
slope, passing through the beautiful valley of the
Little Blackfoot.
The region through which we were traveling
stretches from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on
the Pacific coast, and spreads out for many miles
on either side of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
known as the " Northern Pacific Country." No
portion of the United Sates offers more favorable
opportunities for settlement, and in no other sec-
tion is there as much desirable government land
still open to preemption, presenting such a variety
of surface, richness of soil, and wealth of natural
productions. Intelligent emigrants are rapidly
appropriating the land of this very attractive
region, but there is still enough and to spare.
Europe may continue to send us her surplus popu-
lation for fifty years to come at the same rate she
has done for the past hnlf century, and there will
still be room enough in the great West and North-
west to accommodate them.
60 THE NEW ELDORADO.
As we left tlie main track of the Northern Pa-
cific Kiilroad at Livingston to visit the Yellow-
stone Park, so at Garrison we again take a branch
road to BuLte City, situated fifty-five miles south-
ward, and which is admitted to be the greate;-t
mining city of the American continent. Heie, on
the western slope of the main range of the Rocky
Mountains, stands the "Silver City," as it is gen-
erall}' called, though one of its main features is its
copper product, which rivals that of the Lake
Superior district in quantity and quality, giving
employment to the most extensive smelting works
in the world. There are thirty thousand inhab-
itants in Butte, and it is rapidly growing in terri-
tory and population. Its citizens seem to be far
above the average of our frontier settlers in intel-
ligence and thrift. The Blue Bird silver mine is
perhaps the richest in this locality, yielding every
twelve months a million and a half of dollars in
bullion ; while the IMoulton, Alice, and Lexing-
ton mines each produce a million dollars or more
in silver yearly. There are several other rich
mines, among them the Anaconda copper mine,
which gives an aggregate each year lai'ger in value
than any we have named. The Parrott Copper
Company, also the Montana and Boston Copper
Company, eac-h show an annual output of metal
valued at a million of dollars. In place of there
being any falling off in these large amounts, all of
the mines are increasing their productiveness
monthly bj-^ means of improved processes and
enlarged mechanicrd facilities. But we have gone
MONTANA. 61
sufficiently into detail to prove the assertion al-
ready made, that Butte City is the greatest mining
town on the continent. Eight tenths of its popu-
lation is connected, either directly or indirectly,
with mining.
" It would seem that the United States form
the ricliest mineral country on the globe," said an
English fellow-traveler to whom these facts were
being explained by an intelligent resident.
"That has long been admitted," said the
American.
"And what country comes next?" asked the
Englishman.
" Australia," was the reply. " But the United
States," continued the Amei'ican, " have another
nnd superior source of wealth exceeding that of
all other lands, namely, their agricultural ca-
pacity. There are here millions upon millions of
acres, richer than the valley of the Nile, which
are still virgin soil untouched by the plow or
harrow."
Not mining, but agriculture forms the great
and lasting wealth of our broad and fertile West-
ern States, rich though they be in mineral deposits,
especially of gold and silver.
Before proceeding further on our journey, let
us pause for a moment to consider the maguitude
of this imjierial State of Montana, which measures
over five hundred miles from east to west, and
which is three hundred miles from north to south,
containing one hundred and forty-four thousand
square miles. This makes it larger in surface
62 THE NEW ELDORADO.
than the States of New Hampshire, Vermont;.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Mary-
hiud, Ohio, and Indiana combined. With its vast
stores of mineral wealth and many other advan-
t:if];es, who will venture to predict its future possi-
bilities? It would be difficult to exaggerate them.
The precious metals mined in the State during the
last year gave a total value of over forty million
of dollars, which was an increase of six million
over that of the preceding year. Between forty
and fifty million dollars in value is anticipated as
the result of the local mining enterprise for the
current twelve months, and yet we consider this
to be the second, not the first, interest of Montana;
agriculture take the precedence.
Returning to Garrison, after a couple of days
passed at Butte City examining its extremely in-
teresting system of mining for the precious metals,
we once ?nore resume our western journey.
Along the less populous portions of the route
groups of dirty, but picturesque looking Indians
are seen lounging about, wrapped in fiery red
blankets. These belong to various native tribes,
such as the Sioux, Blackfeet, Cheyennes, and
Arapahoes. Bucks, squaws, and papooses gather
about the small railroad stations, partly from cu-
riosity, and partly because they have nothing else
to do ; but they are ever ready to sell trifles of
their own rude manufacture to travelers as sou-
venirs, also gladly receiving donations of tobacco
or small silver coins. The men are fat, lazy, and
useless, scorning even the semblance of working
THE WARDS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 63
for a livelihood, leaving the squaws to do the
trading with travelers. These are " wards " of
our government, who receive regular annuities of
money and subsistence, including flour, beef, blan-
kets, and so on. Support is thus insured to them
so long as they live, and no American Indian was
ever known to work for himself, or any one else,
unless driven to it by absolute necessity.
When the author first crossed these plains,
nearly thirty years ago, before there was any
transcontinental railroad, the Indian tribes were
very different people from what we find them to-
day. The men were thin in flesh, wiry, active, and
constantl}^ on the alert. They were ever ready
for bloodshed and robbery when they could be
perpetrated without much danger to themselves.
Contact with civilization has changed all this.
They have become fat and lazy. They have bor-
rowed the white man's vices, but have ignored
his virtues. When not fighting with the pale
faces, the tribes were, thirty and forty years ago,
incessantly at war with each other, thus actively
promoting the fate which surely awaited them as
a people. Their pride, even to-day, is to display
at their belts not only the scalps of white men
and women taken in belligerent times, but also
the scalps of hostile tribes of their own race.
We believe most sincerely in fulfilling all treaty
obligations between our government and the In-
dians, to the very letter of the contract, nor have
we any doubt that our official agents have often
been unfaithful in the performance of their duties;
64 THE NFAV ELDORADO.
but when we attempt to create saints and martyrs
out of the Red Men, we are certainly forcing the
canonizing principle. The}' are entitled to as
much consideration as the whites, but they are
not entitled to more. Tliey are crafty and cruel
by nature ; this is, perhaps, not their fault, but it
is their misfortune. Nothing is really gained in
our fine-spun moral theories by attempting to de-
ceive ourselves or others. The plain truth is the
best.
A little way from the railroad station on the
open prairie the camps of these aborigines may
often be seen, consisting of a few rude buffalo
hides or canvas tents, while a score of rough look-
ing ponies are grazing hard by, tethered to stakes
driven into the soil. Here and there in front of
a tent an iron kettle, in which a savory compound
of meat and vegetables is simmering, hangs upon
a tripod above a low fire built on the ground,
presided over by some ancient squaw, all very
much like a gypsy camp by the roadside in far off
Granada.
The male aborigines wear semi-civilized cloth-
ing made of dressed deerskins, and woolen goods
indiscriminately mixed ; their long coarse black
hair, decked with eagle's feathers, hangs about
their necks and faces, the latter often smeared
with yellow ochre. Now and then a touch of
manliness is seen in the bearing and facial expres-
sion of the bucks ; but the larger number are de-
bauched and degraded specimens of humanity,
who impress the stranger with some curiosity, but
COWBOYS. 65
with very little interest. Like the gypsies of
Spain, they are incorrigible nomads, detesting the
ordinaiy conventionalities of civilized life. The
Indian women are clad in leather leggings, blue
woolen skirts and waists, having striped blankets
gathered loosely over their shoulders. No one
ciin truthfully ascribe the virtue of cleanliness to
these squaws. The papooses are strapped in flat
baskets to the mothers' backs, being swathed,
arms, legs, and body, like an Egyptian mummy,
and are as silent even as those dried-up remains
of humanity. Whoever heard an Indian baby
cry ? The mothers seemed to be kind to the little
creatures, whose faces, like those of the Eskimo
babies, are so fat that they can hardly open their
eyes.
We are sure to see about these railroad stations
in the far West an occasional '' cowboy," clad in
his fanciful leather suit cut after the Mexican
style, wearing heavy spurs, and carrying a ready
revolver in his belt. His long hair is covered by
a broad felt sombrero, and he wears a high-col-
ored handkerchief tied loosely about his neck. He
enjoys robust health, is sinewy, clear-eyed, and in-
telligent in every feature, leading an active, open-
air life as a herdsman, and being ever ready for an
Indian fight or a generous act of self-abnegation
in behalf of a comrade. He will not object on
an occasion to join a lynching-party who happen
to have in hand some horse-thief or a murderous
scoundrel who has long successfully defied the
laws. These cowboys are splendid horsemen, sit-
66 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ting their high -pommeled Mexican saddles like
the Arabs. Tliey are oftentimes educated young
men, belonging to respectable Eastern families,
seeking a brief experience of this wild, exposed
life, simply from a love of independence and ad-
venture. They are chivalric, and nearly always
to be found on the side of justice, however quick
they may be in the use of the revolver. Their
life is spent amid associations, and in regions,
where the slow process of the law does not meet
the exigencies constantly occurring. The reader
may be assured that they are nevertheless gov-
erned by a sense of " wild justice," in which an
element of real equity predominates. To realize
the skill which they acquire, one must see half a
dozen of them join together in ''rounding up" a
herd of several hundred cattle, or wild horses,
scattered and feeding on the prairie, and from the
herds collect and sort out the animals belonging to
different owners, all being distinctly branded with
hot irons when brought from Texas or elsewhere.
In doing this it is often necessar}^ to lasso and
throw an animal while the operator is himself in
the saddle and his horse at full gallop. No eques-
trian feats of the ring equal their daily perform-
ances, and no Indian of the prairies can compare
with them for daring and successful horseman-
ship. Indeed, an Indian is hardly the equal of a
white man in anything, not even in endurance.
"An intelligent white man can beat any Indian,
even at his own game," says Buffalo Bill. Each
one of the aborigines has liis pony, and some have
PRAIRIE SCHOONERS. 67
two or three, but they are as a rule of a poor
breed, overworked and underfed. They are never
housed, never supplied with grain, but subsist
solely upon the eorirse bunch grass of the prairie.
The poor, uncared-for animals which are seen as
described about the natives' encampments tell
their own doleful story. The Indian ponies and
the squaws are alike always abused.
As we cross these plains straggling emigrant
teams are often seen, called " prairie schooners."
The wagons as a rule are much the Avorse for
wear, being surmounted by a rude canvas cover-
ing, dark and mildewed, under which a wife and
four or five children are generally domiciled. A
few domestic utensils are carried in, or hung upon
the body of, the vehich^ — a tin dipper here, a
water-pail there, a frying-pan in one place, and an
iron kettle in another. These wagons are usually
drawn by a couple of soriy-looking horses, and
sometimes by a yoke of oxen. Beside the team
trudges the father and husband, the typical
pioneer farmer, hardy, independent, self-reliant,
bound west to find means of support for himself
and brood. Many such are seen as we glide
swiftly over the iron rails, causing us to realize
how steadily the stream of humanity flows west-
ward, spreading itself over the virgin soil of the
new States and Territories, and producing a
growth in population no less legitimate than it
is rapid. These pioneers are almost invariably
farmers, and by adhering to their calling are sure
to make at least a cnmf n-table living.
68 THE NEW ELDORADO.
While stopping at a watering-place in the early
morning, the picturesque figure of a hunter was
seen with rifle in hand. Over his shoulder hung
the body of an antelope, while some smaller game
was secured to his leathern belt. He had -just cap-
tured these in the wild brown hills which border
the j)lateau where our train had stopped. Coop-
er's Leather-Stocking Tales were instantly sug-
gested to the mind of the observer, as he watched
the careless, graceful attitude and bearing of the
rugged frontiersman, whose entire unconsciousness
of the unique figure which he presented was espe-
cially noticeable.
After traveling more than five hundred miles
in Montana, which is surpassed in size only by
Alaska and Dakota, we enter northern Idaho, at-
tractive for its wild and picturesque scenery, — a
territory of mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, and
prairies combined, second only to Montana in its
mineral wealth, and possessing also some (»f the
choicest agricultural districts in the great West,
where Nature herself freely bestows the best of
irrigation in uniform and abundant rains. While
traveling in Idaho we find that the route passes
through a magnificent forest region, where the
trees measure from six to ten feet in diameter,
and are of colossal height, such growing timber
as would challenge comment in any part of the
world, consisting mostly of white pine, cedar, and
hemlock.
We soon cross into the State of Washington,
its northern boundary being British Columbia
SPOKANE FALLS. 69
and its soutliern boundary Oregon, from which it
is separated for more than a hundred miles of its
length by the Columbia River. Its form is that
of a parallelogram, fronting upon the Pacific
Ocean for about two hundred and fifty miles, and
having a length from east to west of over three
bundled and sixty miles. This State has im-
mense agricultural areas, as well as being rich in
coal, iron, and timber. We pause at Spokane
Falls for a day and night of rest. It is on the
direct line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and is
tlie principal city of eastern Washington, having
the largest and best water-power on the Pacific
slope. Government engineers report the water
fall here to exceed two hundred thousand horse-
power, a small portion only of which is yet im-
proved, and that as a motor for large grain and
flouring mills. Here we find a thrifty business
community numbering over twelve thousand, the
streets traversed by a horse railroad, and the place
having electric lights, gas and public water works,
with a Methodist and a Catholic college. It com-
mands the trade of what is termed the Big Bend
country and the Palouse district, and is the fitting-
out place for the thousands of miners engaged in
Coeur d'Alene County. In spite of the late dis-
astrous fire which she has experienced, Spokane,
like Seattle, will rapidly rise from her ashes.
Official reports show that over nine million acres
of this State are particularly adapted to the rais-
ing of wheat. Our route, after a brief rest at
Spokane Falls, lies through Pilouse County, where
70 THE NEW ELDORADO.
this cereal is raised in quantities proportionately
larger than even in Dakota, and at a considerably
less cost. Thirty-five to forty bushels of wheat
to the acre is considered a royal yield in Dakota
and the best locaUties elsewhere, but here fifty
bushels to the acre are pretty sufle to reward the
cultivator, and even this large amount is some-
times exceeded. One enthusiastic observer and
writer declares that Palouse County is destined to
destroy wheat-growing in India by virtue of its
immense crops, its favorable seasons, its economy
of production, and its proximity to the seaboard.
In the western part of the State, on Puget
Sound, the lumber business is the most important
industry, giving profitable employment to thou-
sands of people. The productive capacity of the
several sawmills on the sound is placed at two mil-
lion feet per day, and all are in active operation.
A new one of large proportions was also observed
to be in course of construction. The forests which
produce the crude material are practically inex-
haustible. The pines are of great size, ranging
from eiglit to twelve feet in diameter, and from
two hundred to two hundred and eighty feet in
height. No trees upon this continent, except the
giant conifeis of the Yosemite, surpass these in
magnitude. United States surveyors have de-
clared, in their printed reports, that this State
contains the finest body of timber in the world,
and that its forests cover an area larger than the
entire State of Maine.
The most productive hop districts that are
IMMIGRATION. 71
known anywhere are to be found in the broad
valleys of this State, where hop-growing has be-
come a great and increasing industry, yielding
remarkable profits upon the money invested and
the labor required to market the crop. The
course of the railroad is lined with these gorgeous
fields of bloom, hanging on poles fiftee» feet in
height, planted with mathematical regularity.
Large fruit orchards of apples, pears, peaches,
cherries, and other varieties are seen flourishing
here ; and residents speak confidently of fruit rais-
ing as being one of the most promising future in-
dustries of this region, together with the canning
and preserving of the fruits for use in Eastern
markets. We are reminded, in this connection,
that the United States crop reports also repre-
sent Washington as producing more bushels of
wheat to the acre than any other State or Terri-
tory within the national domain. This grand
region of the far northwestern portion of our
country is three hundred miles long, from east
to west, and two hundred and forty miles from
north to south, giving it an area in round numbers
of seventy thousand square miles. That is to
say, it is nearly as large as the States of New
York and Pennsylvania combined.
The immigration pouring into the new State
of Washington is simply enormous, its aggregate
for the year 1889 being estimated at thirty-five
thousand persons, the majority of whom come
hither for agricultural purposes, and to establish
permanent homes. One train observed by the
72 THE NEW ELDORADO.
author consisted of nine second-class cars filled
entirely with Scandinavians, that is, people from
Norway and Sweden, presenting an appearance
of more than average sturdiness and intelligence.
As the Pacific coast is approached we come to
the famous Stampede Tunnel, which is nearly ten
thousand feet long, and, with the exception of the
Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts, the longest in
America. On emerging from the Stampede Tun-
nel the traveler gets his first view of Mount
Tacoma, rising in perpendicular height to nearly
three miles, the summit robed in dazzling white-
ness throughout the entire year.
CHAPTER VI.
Mount Tacoma. — Termiuus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. —
Great luland Sea. — City of Tacoma and its Marvelous
Growth. — Coal Measures. — The Modoc ludiaus. — Embark-
ing for Alaska. — The liapidly Growing City of Seattle. —
Tacoma with its Fifteen Glaciers. — Something about Port
Townsend. —A Chance for Members of Alpine Clubs.
The city of Tacoma takes its name from the
grand towering mountain, so massive and sym-
metrical, in sight of which it is situated. We
cannot but regret that the newly formed State did
not assume the name also.
This is the western terminus of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, and is destined to become a great
commercial port in the near future, being situated
so advantageously at the head of the sound, less
than two hundred miles from tiie Pacific Ocean.
Its well-arranged system of wharves is already a
mile and a half long, while there is a sufficient
depth of water in any part of the sound to admit
of safely mooring the largest ships. The reports
of the United States Coast Survey describe Puget
Sound as having sixteen hundred miles of shore
line, and a surface of two thousand square miles,
thus forming a grand inland sea, smooth, serene,
and still, often appropriately spoken of as tlie
Mediterranean of the North Pacific. It is in-
74 THE NEW ELDORADO.
dented with many bays, harbors, and inlets, and
receives into its bosom tlie waters of numerous
streams and tributaries, all of which are more or
less navigable, and upon whose banks are estab-
lished the homes -of many hundred thrifty farmers.
History shows that long ago, before any Pil-
grims landed at Plymouth, Spanish voyagers
planted colonies on Puget Sound. From them
the Indians of these shores learned to grow crops
of cereals, though according to the ingenious Igna-
tius Donnelly's " Atlantis " they brought the
art from a lost continent. Puget Sound Ta?^y be
described as an arm of the Pacific which, running
through the Strait of Fuca, extends for a hundred
miles, more or less, southward into the State of
Washington. Nothing can exceed the beauty of
these deep, calm waters, or their excellence for
the purpose of navigation ; not a shoal exists either
in the strait or the sound that can interfere with
the progress of the largest ironclad. A ship's
side would strike the shore before her keel would
touch the bottom. Storms do not trouble these
waters ; such as are frequently encountered in
narrow seas, like the Straits of Magellan, and
heavy snow-storms are unknown. The entire ex-
panse is deep, clear, and placid.
Tacoma has about thirty thousand inhabitants
to-day ; in 1880 it had seven hundred and twenty !
The assessed valuation eight years ago was half
a million dollars. It is now over sixteen mil-
lion dollars, and this aggregate does not quite
represent the rapid increase of real estate. Here,
TACOMA. 75
months have witnessed more growth and progress
in permanent business wealth and value of prop-
erty than years in the history of our Eastern cities.
At this writing there is being built a large and
architecturally grand opera house of stone and
brick which will cost quarter of a million dollars,
besides which the author counted over forty stone
and brick business edifices in course' of construc-
tion, and nearly a hundred two and three story
frame-houses for dwelling purposes, of handsome
modern architectural designs. Away from the
business centre of the city the residences are uni-
versally beautiful, with well-kept lawns of ex-
quisite green, and small charming flower gardens
fragrant with roses, syringas, and honeysuckles,
mingling with pansies, geraniums, verbenas, and
forget-me-nots. It is astonishing what an air of
leisure and refinement is imparted to these dwell-
ings by this means, — an air of retirement and cul-
ture, amid all the surrounding bustle and rush of
business interests.
The city claims an ocean commerce surpassed
in volume by no other port on the Pacific except
San Francisco. Its substantial and well-arranged
brick blocks, of both dwellings and storehouses,
lining the broad avenues, are suggestive of per-
manence and commercial importance, while a gen-
eral appearance of thrift prevails in all of the
surroundings. Pacific Avenue is noticeably a fine
thoroughfare, — the principal one of the town.
The place seems to be thoroughly alive, and
especially in the vicinity of the shipping. The
76 THE NEW ELDORADO.
author counted fifteen ocean steamers in the har-
bor, and there were at the same time as many hirge
sailing vessels lying at the wharves loading with
lumber, wheat, coal, and other merchandise, exhib-
iting a degree of commercial energy hardly to be
expected of so comparatively small a community.
We were informed that four fifths of the citizens
were Americans by birth, drawn mostly from the
educated and energetic classes of the United
States, forming a community of much more than
average intelligence. Young America, backed by
capital, is the element which has made the place
what it is. It was a surprise to find a hotel so
large and well appointed in this city as the
" Tacoma " proved to be ; a five-story stone and
brick house, of pleasing architectural effect, and
having ample accommodations for three hundred
guests. It stands upon rising ground overlooking
the extensive bay. The view from its broad
piazzas is something to be remembered.
Across Commencement Bay is a point of well-
wooded land, called " Indian Reservation," where
our government located what remains of the Mo-
doc tribe who so long resisted the advance of
the whites towards the Pacific shore. These former
l)elligerents are peaceable enough now, fully realiz-
ing their own interests.
Statistics show that there is shipped from Ta-
coma, on an average, a thousand tons of native
coal per day, mostly to San Francisco and some
other Pacific ports. A large portion of this coal
comes from valuable measures belonaing to the
THE LUMBER BUSINESS. 77
Northern Pacific Railroad Company, situated thirty
or forty miles from Tacoma, and some from the
Roslyn mines farther away. The Wilkinson and
Carbonado mines form the principal source of
supply for shipment, and the Roslyn for use on
the railroad. These last are thirty-five thousand
acres in extent. One of the many veins of the
Roslyn coal deposit is estimated to contain three
hundred million tons of coal, conveniently situated
for transportation on the line of the Northern
Pacific Railroad.
The great Tacoraa sawmill does a very large and
successful business, finding its motor in a steam
engine of fourteen hundred horse-power, and hav-
ing over seven hundred men on its pay-roll. This
number includes mill-hands, dock-men, choppers,
and watermen, the latter being the hands who
bring the logs by rafts from different parts of the
sound. There are a dozen other sawmills in and
about the city. The lumber business of this
region is fast assuming gigantic proportions, ship-
ments being regularly made to China, Japan, Aus-
tralia, and even to Atlantic ports. A whole fleet
of merchantmen were waiting their turn to take
in cargo while we were there. We believe that
Tacoma will ere long become the second city on
the Pacific coast, and perhaps eventually a rival
to San Francisco. Its abundance of coal, iron, and
lumber, added to its variety of fish and immense
agricultural products, are sufficient to support a
city twice as large as the capital of California.
One sturdy gang of men, who are bringing in
78 THE NEW ELDORADO.
a large raft of logs, attracts our attention by
their similarity of dress and general appearance,
as well as by their dark skins and well-developed
forms. On inquiry we learn that they are native
Indians of the Haida tribe, who come down from
the north to work through a part of the season as
lumbermen, at liberal wages. They are accus-
tomed to perilous voyages while seeking the whale
and fishing for halibut in deep waters, command-
ing good wages, as being equal to any white labor-
ers obtainable.
We embark at Tacoma for Alaska in a large and
well-appointed steamer belonging to the Pacific
Coast Steamship Company, heading due north.
The first place of importance at which we stop
is the city of Seattle, the oldest American settle-
ment on the sound, and now having a busy com-
mercial population of nearly thirty thousand. It
has an admirable harbor, deep, ample in size, and
circular in form ; the commercial facilities could
hardly be improved. Here again are large sub-
stantial brick and stone blocks, schools, churches,
and various public and private edifices of archi-
tectural excellence. Enterprise and wealth are
conspicuous, while the neighboring scenery is
grand and attractive. To the east of the city,
scarcely a mile away, is situated a very beautiful
body of water, deep and pure, known as Lake
Washington, twenty miles long by an average of
three in width, and from which the citizens have
a never-failing supply of the best of water. The
lake has an area of over sixty square miles, and is
SEATTLE. 79
surrounded by hills covered with a noble forest-
growth of fir, spruce, and ced;u\ Seattle has four
large public schools averaging six hundred pupils
each, and a university to which there are seven
professors attached, with a regular attendance of
two hundred students.
Among the great natural resources of this re-
gion there is included sixty thousand acres of
coal fields within a radius of thirty miles of Seat-
tle. These coal fields are connected with the city
by railways. Tacoma and Seattle are also joined
by rail, besides two daily lines of steamboats.
Great is the rivalry existing between the people
here and those of Tacoma, but there is certainly
room enough for both; and, notwithstanding the
destructive fire which lately occurred at Seattle, it
is prospering wonderfully. About four miles dis-
tant from the centre of business is situated one of
the largest steel manufactories in this country, the
immediate locality being known as Moss Bay.
Here timber, water, coal, and mineral are close
at hand to further the object of this mammoth
establishment, which, when in full operation, will
give employment to five thousand men. Real
estate speculation is the pi'esent rage at Seattle,
based on the idea that it is to be the port of
Puget Sound.
Between the city and hoary-headed Mount
Tacoma is one of the finest hop-growing valleys
extant. It has enriched its dwellers by this in-
dustry, and more hops are being planted each
succeeding year, increasing the quantity exported
80 THE NEW ELDORADO.
by some twenty-five per cent, annually. It may
be doubted if the earth produces a more beauti-
ful sight in the form of an annual crop of vege-
tation than that afforded by a hop-field, say of
forty acres, when in full bloom. We were told
that the land of King County, of which Seattle is
the capital, is marvelous in fertility, especially
in the valleys, often producing four tons of hay
to the acre ; three thousand pounds of hops, or
six hundred bushels of potatoes, or one hundred
bushels of oats to the acre are common. It must
be remembered also that while there is plenty of
land to be had of government or the Northern Pa-
cific Railroad Company at singularly low rates,
transportation in all directions by land or water is
ample and convenient, a desideratum by no means
to be found everywhere.
From the deck of the steamer, as we sail north-
ward, the irregular-formed, but well-wooded shore
is seen to be dotted with hamlets, sawmills, farms,
and hop-fields, all forming a pleasing foreground
to the remarkable scenery of land and water pie-
sided over by the snow-crowned peak of Mount
Tacoma, which looms fourteen thousand feet and
more skyward in its grandeur and loneliness. How
awful must be the stillness which pervades those
heights! As we view it, the snow -line com-
mences at about six thousand feet from the base,
above which there are eight thousand feet more,
ice-to|)ped and glaeier-bound, where ti)e snow
and ice rest in endless sleep. There are embraced
within the capacious bosom of Tacoma fifteen
MOUNT TACOMA. 81
glaciers, three of which, by liberal road-making
and engineering, have been rendered accessible to
visitors, and a few persistent mountain climbers
come hither every year to witness glacial scenery
finer than can be found in Europe. Persons who
have traveled in Japan will be struck by the
strong resemblance of this Alpine Titan to the
famous volcano of Fujiyama, whose snow-wreathed
cone is seen by the stranger as he enters the har-
bor of Yokohama, tliough it is eighty miles away.
As we steam northward other peaks come into
view, one after another, until the whole Cascade
Range is visible, half a hundred and more in
number.
The summit of Tacoma is not absolutely inac-
cessible. A dozen daring and hardy climbers have
accomplished the ascent first and last ; but it in-
volves a degree of labor and the encountering of
serious dangers which have thus far rendered it
a task rarely achieved. Many have attempted to
scale these lonely heights, and many have given
up exhausted, glad to return alive from this peril-
ous experience between earth and sky. Members
of various Alpine clubs cross the Atlantic to climb
inferior elevations. Let such Americans test their
athletic capacity and indulge their ambition by
overcoming the difficult ascent of Tacoma.
Port Townsend is finally reached, — the port of
entry for Puget Sound district and the gateway
of this great body of inland water. Tacoma,
Seattle, and Port Townsend are all lively con-
testants for supremacy on Puget Siund. The
82 THE NEW ELDORADO.
business part of Port Townsend is situated at the
base of a bluft' which vises sixty feet above the
sea level, upon the top of whicli the dwelling-
houses have been erected, and where a marine
hospital flies the national flag. To live in com-
fort here it would seem to be necessary for each
family to possess a balloon, or that a big public
lift should be established to take the inhabitants
of the town from one part to the other. It is
rapidly growing, — street grading and building
of stores and dwelling-houses going on in its sev-
eral sections. Vancouver named the place after
his distinguished patron, the ]\Iarquis of Town-
shend. We were told that over two thousand
vessels enter and clear at the United States cus-
tom-house here annually, besides which there are
at least a thousand which pass in and out of the
sound under coasting licenses, and are not in-
cluded in this aggregate. The collections of the
district average one thousand dollars for each
"working day of the year.
Port Townsend is nine hundred miles from San
Francisco by sea, and thirty-five hundred miles,
in round numbers, from Boston or New York.
It is the first port from the Pacific Ocean, and
the nearest one to British Columbia, besides be-
ing the natural outfitting port for Alaska. We
were surprised to learn the extent of maritime
business done here, and that in the number of
American steam vessels engaged in foreign trade
it stands foremost in all tiie United States. Its
climate is said to be more like that of Italy than
PORT TOWNSEND. 83
any otlier part of America. The place is cer-
tainly remarkable for salubritj' and liealtbfulness,
and is universally commended by persons who
have had occasion to remain tiiere for any consid-
erable period. The view from the upper part of
the town is very comprehensive, including Mount
Baker on one side and the Olympic Range on the
other, while the far-away silver cone of Mount
Tacoma is also in full view. The busy waters
of the sound are constantly changing in the view
presented, various craft passing before the eye
singly and in groups. Long lines of smoke trail
after the steamers, whose turbulent wakes are
crossed now and then by some dancing egg-shell
canoe or a white-winged, graceful sailboat bend-
ing to the breeze.
Certain custom-house formalities having been
duly complied with, we continued on our course,
bearing more to the westward, crossing the Strait
of Juan de Fuca, bound for Victoria, the capital
of Vancouver Island and of British Columbia, at
which interesting place we land for a brief so-
journ. To the westward the port looks out
through the Strait of Fuca to the Pacific, south-
ward into Puget Sound, and eastward beyond the
Gulf of Georgia to the mainland.
CHAPTER yil.
Victoria, Vancouver's Island. — Esquimalt. — Chinamen. — Re-
markable Flora. — Suburbs of the Town. — Native Tribes. —
Cossacks of the Sea. — Manners and Customs. — The Early
Discoverer. — Sailing in the Inland Sea. — Excursionists. —
Mount St. Elias. — Mount Fairweather. — A Mount Olympus.
— Seymour Narrows. — Night on the Waters. — A Touch of
the Pacific.
The city of Victoria contains twelve thousand
inliabitants, more or less, and is situated just sev-
enty miles from the mainland ; but beyond the
fact that it is a naval station, commanding the en-
trance to the British possessions from the Pacific,
•we see nothing to conduce to the future growth of
Victoria beyond that of any other place on the
sound. The aspect is that of an old, steady-going,
conservative town, undisturbed by the bustle, ac-
tivity, and business life of such places as Taccmia
and Seattle. Vancouver, on the opposite shore,
being the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, bids fair to soon exceed it in business impor-
tance, though it has to-day less than ten thousand
inhabitants. The population of Victoria is highly
cosmopolitan in its character, being of American,
French, German, English, Spanish, and Chinese
origin. Of the latter there are fully three thou-
sand. They are the successful market-gardeners
of Victoria, a position they fill in many of the
VICTORIA. 85
English colonies of the Pacific, also performing the
public laundry work here, as we find them doing
in so many other places. In the hotels they are
employed as house-servants, cooks, and waiters.
Yet every Chinaman who lands here, the same as
in Australia and New Zealand, is compelled to pay
a tax of fifty dollars entrance fee. The surprise is
tliat such an arbitrary rule does not act as a bar
to Asiatic immigration ; but it certainly does not
have that effect, while it yields quite a revenue
to the local treasury. At most ports the importa-
tion or landing of Chinese women is forbidden,
but some of the gayest representatives of the sex
are to be seen in the streets of Victoria, with bare
heads, having their intensely black hair, shining
with grease, dressed in large puffs. The heavy
Canton silks in which they are clothed indicate
that they have plenty of money. They affect
gaudy colors, and wear heavy jade ear-rings, with
breastpins of the same stone set in gold. The
lewd character of the Chinese women who leave
their native land in search of foreign homes is so
well known as to fully warrant the prohibition rel-
ative to their landing in American or British ports.
The effort to exclude them is, however, not infre-
quently a failure, as with a trifling disguise male
and female look so much alike as to deceive an
ordinary observer. The Asiatics are up to all
sorts of tricks to evade what they consider arbi-
trary laws.
Officially Victoria is English, but in population
it 13 anything else rather than English. Until
86 THE NEW ELDORADO.
1858 it was only a small trading station belonging
to the Hudson Bay Company ; but in that year
the discovery of gold, on the bar of the Fraser
River and elsewhere in the vicinity caused a great
influx of miners and prospectors, mostly from Cal-
ifornia, and it was this circumstance which gave
the place a business start and large degree of im-
portance. The houses are many of them built of
stone and bricks, the gardens being also neatly
inclosed. The streets are macadamized and kept
in excellent order. The city is lighted by electric
lamps placed on poles over a hundred feet high,
and iias many modern improvements designed to
benefit the people at large, including large public
buildings and a fine opera house.
The harbor of Victoria is small, and has only
sufficient depth to accommodate vessels drawing
eighteen feet of water; but near at hand is a sec-
ond harbor, known as Esquimalt, with sufficient
depth for all practical purposes. If quiet is an
element of charm, then Victoria is charming ; but
we must add that it is also rather sleepy and tame.
It might be centuries old, everything moving, as
it does, in grooves. Business people get to their
ofl&ces at about ten o'clock in the morning, and
leave them by three in the afternoon. There is no
evidence here of the fever of living, no symptom
of the go-ahead spirit which actuates their Yankee
neighbors across the sound.
Esquimalt is situated but three or four miles
from Victoria, and is the headquarters of the Eng-
lish Pacific squadron, where two or three British
ESQUIMALT. 87
men-of-war are nearly always to be seen in the
harbor, and where there is also a very capacious
dry-dock and a naval arsenaL At the time of oar
visit a couple of swift little torpedo-boats were
exercising about the harbor and the sound. The
well-wooded shore is dressed in " Lincoln green,"
far more tropical than boreal. The many pleas-
ing residences are surrounded with pretty garden-
plots, and flowers abound. We have rarely seen so
handsome an array of cultivated roses as were found
here. So equable is the climate that these flowers
bloom all the year round. A macadamized road
connects Esquimalt with Victoria, running be-
tween fragrant hedges, past charming cottages,
and through delightful pine groves. We see here
a flora of great variety and attractiveness, which
could not exist in this latitude without an unusu-
ally high degree of temperature, accompanied with
a great condensation of vapor and precipitation of
rain. Victoria is admirably situated, with the sea
on three sides and a background of hish-rollins:
hills, and also enjoys an exceptionally good cli-
mate, almost entirely devoid of extremes.
The suburbs are thickly wooded, where palm-
like fern-trees a dozen feet high, and in great
abundance, recalled specimens of the same family,
hardly more thrivingly developed, which the writer
has seen in the islands of the South Pacific. The
wild rose-bushes were overburdened with their
wealth of fragrant bloom ; we saw them in June,
the favorite month of this queen of flowers. No
wonder that Marchand, the old French voyager,
88 THE NEW ELDORADO.
when be found himself here on a soft June clay,
nearly a centm-y ago, amid the annual carnival of
flowers, compared these fields to the rose-colored
and pei'fumed slopes of Bulgaria. If the reader
should ever coine to this charming spot in the far
Northwest, it is the author's hope that he may see
it beneath just such mellow summer sunshine as
glows about us while we record these pleasant im-
pressions in the queen-month of roses. Gluti-
nously rich vines of various-colored honeysuckles
were draped about the porticoes of the dwellings,
whence they hung with a self-conscious grace, as
though they realized how much beauty they im-
parted to the surroundings. The drone of bees
and swift-winged humming-birds were not want-
ing, and the air was laden with their delicious per-
fume. The wild syringas, which in a profusion of
snow-white blossoms lined the shaded roads here
and there, were as fragrant as orange-blossoms,
which, indeed, they much resemble. The air was
also heavy with a dull, sweet smell of mingled
blossoms, among which was the tall, graceful spi-
rea with its cream-colored flowers, so thickly set
as to hide the leaves and branches. The maple
leaves are twice the usual size, and fruit-trees bend
to the very ground with their wealth of pears,
apples, and peaches. The alders, like the ferns,
assume the size of trees, and cultivated flowers
grow to astonishing proportions and beauty. The
bark-shedding arbutus was noticeable for its pe-
culiar habit, and its bare, salmon-colored trunk
contrasting with its neighbors.
BRITISH COLUMBIA. 89
A portion of the site of Victoria is set aside as
a reservation, and named Beacon Hill Park, con-
taining choice trees and pleasant paths bordered
■with delicate shrubbery. But the whole place is
park-like in its attractive picturesqueness. In tiie
interior of the island there is said to be plenty of
game, such as elk and red deer, foxes and beaver.
These forests are dense and scarcely explored ;
sportsmen do not have to penetrate them far to
find an abundance of game, so that in the open
season venison is abundant and cheap in the town.
British Columbia, of which this city is the
capital, embraces all that portion of North Amer-
ica lying north of the United States and west of
the Rocky Mountains to the Alaska line. Its
area is three hundred and forty thousand square
miles, and it certainly possesses more intrinsic
wealth than any other portion of the Dominion,
except the eastern cities of Canada. It is but
sparsely settled, and its natural resources are
quile undeveloped.
The well-constructed roads in and about Vic-
toria give it an advantage over most newly set-
tled places, and the idea is worthy of all com-
mendation. The seaward, or western shore of
Vancouver, overlooking the North Pacific is very
rocky, and is indented by frequent arms of the
sea, like the fjords of Scandinavia, while the sur-
face of the island is generally mountainous.
The Haidas and the Timplons are the two na-
tive tribes of Vancouver, who are represented to
have once been very numerous, brave, and warlike.
90 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Some of their canoes were eighty feet long, and
most substantially coiistriicted, being capable of
carrying seventy-five fighting men, with their
bows, arrows, spears, and shields of thick wal-
rus hide. These war-boats were made from the
trunk of a single tree, shaped and hollowed in fine
nautical lines, so as to make them swift and buoy-
ant, as well as quite safe in these inland waters.
In these frail craft the natives were perfectly at
home, and excited the admiration of the early
navigators by the skill they displayed in managing
them, so that Admiral Liitke named them the
*' Cossacks of the Sea."
But the Haidas, like the tribes of the Aleutian
islands and the Alaska groups generally, have
rapidly dwindled into insignificance — slowly fad-
ing away. People who subsist on fish and oil as
staples can hardly be expected to evince much
enterprise or industry. It cannot be denied, how-
ever, that as a race they appear much more in-
telligent and self-reliant than the aborigines of
our Western States. Vincent Colyer, special
Indian commissioner, says with regard to the
natives of the southern part of Alaska and the
Alexander Archipelago : " I do not hesitate to say
that if three fourths of these Alaska Indians were
landed in New York as coming from Europe, they
would be selected as among the most intelligent
of the many worthy emigrants who daily arrive
at that port."
When these islands were first discovered by the
whites, the native tribes occupying them were
NATIVE TRIBES. 91
almost constantly at war one with another. The
different tribes even to-day show no sympathy for
each other, nor will they admit that they are of
the same origin. Each has some theory of its ex-
clusiveness and independence, all of which is a
puzzle to ethnologists.
There seems never to have been any union of
interest entertained amono; them. Before and
after the advent of the Russians tribal wars raged
among them incessantly. Blood was the only
i-ecognized atonement for offenses, and must be
washed out by blood ; thus vengeance was kept
alive, and civil war was endless. Bancroft in
his " Native Races of the Pacific " tells us that
the Aleuts are still fond of pantomimic perform-
ances ; of representing in dances their myths and
their legends ; of acting out a chase, one assum-
ing the part of hunter, another of a bird or beast
trying to escape the snare, now succeeding, now
failing, until finally a captive bird is transformed
into an attractive woman, who falls exhausted into
the hunter's arms.
With well-screened foot-lights, verdant woodland
surroundings, characters assumed by a trained bal-
let troupe, framed in tlie usual proscenium boxes,
with orchestra in fi'ont, this would be a fitting en-
tertainment for a first-class Boston or New York
audience.
The Indians, or portions of the native race, seen
in and about the streets of Victoria are of the
most squalid character, dirty and unintelligent,
being altogether repulsive to look upon.
92 THE NEW ELDORADO.
The Indians of the west coast of the island are
brought less in contact with the whites, and still
keep up to a certain extent their native manners
and customs, wearing fewer garments of civili-
zation, and being satisfied with a single blanket
as a covering during some portions of the year.
They are fond of wearing curiously carved wooden
masks at all their festivals, — some representing
the head of a bear, some that of a huge uird, and
others forming exaggerated human faces. There
seems to be a spirit of caricature prevailing among
them, as it does among the Chinese and Japanese.
These Vancouver aborigines have an original
and extraordinary method of expressing tiieir
waim regard for each other, in isolated districts
wheie they are quite by themselves. "When they
meet, instead of grasping hands or embracing,
they bite each other's shoulders, and the scars
thus produced are regarded with considerable sat-
isfaction by the recipient. Their sacred rites are
sanguinary, and their notions of religion are of a
vague and incomprehensible kind. They believe
in omens and sorcery, suffering as much from fear
of supernatural evil as the most benighted Afri-
can tribes. The west coast of Vancouver is nearly
always bleak ; the great waves of the North Pa-
cific breaking upon it, even in quiet weather, with
fierce grandeur, roaring sullenly among the rocks
and caves.
The distant view from the eastern side of Van-
couver is of a most charming character, embracing
the blue Olympic range of mountains in the State
VANCOUVER. 98
of Washington, whose heads are turbaned with
snow, while the lofty undulating peaks, taken en
masse, resemble the fiercely agitated waves of the
sea ; a view which vividly recalled the Bernese
Alps as seen from the city of Berne.
Vancouver is the largest island on the Pacific
coast, and is well diversified Avith mountains, val-
leys, and long stretches of low pleasant shore.
Its name commemoiates that of one of the world's
great explorers. Vancouver had served, previous
to these notable explorations, as an officer under
Captain Cook for two long and eventful voyages,
and was thus well fitted for a discoverer and pio-
neer. He made a careful survey of Puget Sound
with all of its channels, inlets, and bays, and wrote
a faithful description of the coast of the mainland
as well as of the islands. Though this was about
a century ago, so faithfully did he perform his
work that liis charts are still regarded as good au-
thority, though not absolutely perfect.
That practical seaman, in his sailing-ship, puts
us to shame with all our science and steam facili-
ties as regards surveys of this complicated region.
The coast survey organization of the United States
has done little more than to corroborate a portion
of Vancouver's work. It is surprising that the
government should neglect to properly explore
and define by maps the islands, ch^mnels, and
straits of the North Pacific coast. Notwithstand-
ing our boasted enterprise, we are behind every
power of Europe in these maritime matters.
The island of Vancouver has an area of eighteen
94 THE SEW ELDORADO.
thousand square miles, and is therefore larger than
Miissitchusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
Delaware comhiiied. It is only by these familiar
comparisons that we can hope to convey clearly
to the mind of the average leader such statistical
facts, and cause them to be remembered.
Reference has been made to the favorable cli-
mate of Victoria. We should state that the maxi-
mum summer temperature is 84° Fah., and the
minimum of the year is 22^.
Frum here our course lies in a northwest di-
rection, leading through the broad Gulf of Geor-
gia, which separates Vancouver from British Co-
lumbia. Tlie magnificent ermine -clad head of
Mount Baker is seen, for many hours, to the east
of our course, looming far, far above the clouds,
and radiating the glowing beauty of the sunset,
"which happened to be exceptionally fine at the
close of our first day out from Victoria. The
atmosphere, sea, and horizon were all the color
of gold. The surface of the water was unbroken
by a ripple, while it flashed in opaline variety the
brilliant hues of the evening hour. The grand
scenery which we encounter foreshadows the char-
acter of the voyage of a thousand miles, more or
less, northward, to the locality of the great gla-
ciers, forming a vast interior line of navigation
nnequaled elsewhere for bold shores, depth of
water, numberless bays, and inviting harbors.
The course is bordered for most of the distance
with continuous forests, distinctly reflected in the
placid surface of these straits and sounds. At
SAN JUAN. 95
times the passage, perhaps not more tluin a mile
in width, is lined on either side with mountains
of granite, whose dizzy heights are capped with
snow, up whose precipitous sides spruce and pine
trees struggle for a foothold, and clinging tliere
thrive strangely upon food afforded by stones
and atmosplieric air. Occasionally we pass some
deep, dark fjord, which pierces the mountains far
inland, presenting mysterious and unexplored vis-
tas. We come upon the island of San Juan, not
long after leaving Victoria, which was for a con-
siderable period a source of serious contention
between England and America, the ownership
being finally settled by arbitration, and awarded
to us by the late Emperor of Germany. San Juan
is remarkable for producing limestone in suffi-
cient quantity to keep scores of lime-kilns occu-
pied for a hundred years. The island was only
important to us by its position, and as establish-
ing certain boundary lines.
Now and again smoke is seen winding up-
wards from some rude but comfortable cabin on
the shore, where a white settler and his Indian
wife live in semi-civilized style. A rude garden
patch adjoins the cabin, carpeted with thriving
root crops, bordered by currant and gooseberry
bushes, while numerous wooden frames are reared
close by on which to dry salmon, cod, and hali-
but for winter use. Three or four half-breed
children, with a marvelous wealth of hair, and
clothed in a single garment reaching to the
knees, watch us with open eyes and mouths as
96 THE NEW ELDORADO.
we glide along the smooth water-way. At last
the father's attention is called to us by the excla-
mations of the papooses, and he waves us a sa-
lute with his slouchy fur cap. It is only a little
spot on the lonely shore, but it is all the world to
the squatter and his brood. One pauses mentally
for an instant to contrast this type of lonely ex-
istence with the fierce and furious tide of life
which exists in populous cities. Steamers, sailing
craft, or native canoes have no storms to encoun-
ter here ; the course is almost wholly sheltered,
while coal or wood can be procured at nearly any
place where the steamer chooses to stop. The
fierce swell of the Pacific, so very near at hand,
is completely warded off by the broad and beauti-
ful islands of Vancouver, Queen Charlotte, Prince
of Wales,- Baranoff, and Chichagoff, which form
a matchless panorama as they slowly pass, day
after day, clad in thrifty verdure, before the eyes
of the delighted voyager. Throughout so many
hours of close observation one never wearies of
the charming scene.
The trip between Victoria and Pyramid Har-
bor, in many of its features, recalls the voyage
from Tromsoe, on the coast of Norway, to the
North Cape, where the traveler beholds the grand
phenomenon of the midnight sun, — passing over
deep, still waters, winding through groups of
lovely islands, covered with primeval forests and
veined with minerals, amidst the grandest of
Alpine scenery, where the nearer mountain peaks
afe clad in misty purple and those far away
THE INLAND SEA. 97
are wrapped in snow shrouds, where signs of hu-
man life are seldom seen, and the deep silence
of the passage is broken only by the shrill cry oi
sorae wandering sea-bird. In both of these north-
ern regions, situated in opposite hemispheres,
grand mountains, volcanic peaks, and mammoth
glaciers form the guiding landmarks. The gla-
ciers of Alaska are not only many times as large
as anything of the sort in Switzerland, but they
have the added charm of the ever-changing beau-
ties of the sea, thus altogether forming scenery
of peculiar and incomparable grandeur. One of-
ten finds examples of the Scotch and Italian lakes
repeated again and again on this iidand voyage,
where the delightful tranquillity of the waters so
adds to the appearance of profound depth. It re-
quires but little stretch of the imagination to be-
lieve one's self upon the Lake of Como or Lake
Maggiore.
The enjoyment afforded to the intelligent tour-
ist on this delitrJitf ul route of travel is beinsc more
and more appreciated annually, as clearly evinced
by the fact that over two thousand excursionists
participated in the trips of steamers from Puget
Sound to Sitka last year, by way of Glacier Bay
and Pyramid Harbor, representing nearly every
State in the Union, and also embracing many
European travelers. " I thought it would be as
cold as Greenland," said one of these tourists to
us; "but after leaving Port Townsend I hardly
once had occasion to wear my overcoat, night or
day, during the whole of the fourteen days' sum-
98 THE NEW ELDORADO.
mer voyage through Alaska's Inland Sea. The
thermometer ranged between 68° and 78° during
the whole trip, while the pleasant daylight never
quite faded out of the sky."
Mount St. Ellas, inexpressibly grand in its pro-
portions, is probably the highest mountain in
Alaska, and, indeed, is one of the half dozen lofti-
est peaks on the globe, reaching the remarkable
height of nearly twenty thousand feet, according
to the United States Coast Survey. It may fall
short of, or it may exceed, this measurement by a
few hundred feet. Owing to the low point to
which the line of perpetual snow descends in this
latitude, St. Elias is believed to present the great-
est snow climb of all known mountains. Another
notable peculiarity of this grand elevation is, like
that of Tacoma, in its springing at once from the
level of the Pacific Ocean, whereas most moun-
tains, like those of Colorado, Norway, and Switz-
erland, say of twelve or fourteen thousand feet in
height, rise from a plain already two or three
thousand feet above sea level, detracting just so
much from their effectiveness upon the eye, and
from their apparent elevation. Vitus Behring, a
Dane by birth and the discoverer of the strait
which bears his name, first sigiited this mountain
on St. Ellas' day, and so gave it the name which
it bears. When the American whalemen on the
coast saw the summit of Mount Fairweather from
the sea, they felt sure that some days of fair
weather would follow, hence we have the expres-
sive name which is bestowed upon it. Mount St.
MOUNT FAIRWEATHER. 99
Elias, with its snow and ice mantle reaching nearly-
down to sea level, is higher than any elevation in
Norway or Switzerland, rising from its base in
pyramid form, straight, regular, and massive, to
three times the height of our New England giant
in the White Mountain range of New Hampshire,
namely. Mount Washington. Only the Hima-
layas and the Andes exceed it in altitude. Eleven
glaciers are known to come down from the south
side of St. Elias, one of which, named Agussiz
Glacier, is estimated to be twenty miles in width
and fifty in length, covering an area of a thou-
sand square miles !
Fairweatlier is situated about two hundred miles
southeast of Mount St. Elias, its hoary head being
often visible a hundred miles and more at sea ;
risinor above the foo-s and clouds, its summit is
recognizable while all other land is far below
the horizon. W^e were told that when the earth-
quake occurred at Sitka in 1847, this mountain
emitted huge volumes of smoke and vapor. Tiie
force of volcanic action in Alaska is, however,
evidently diminishing, though occasional slight
shocks of earthquakes are experienced, especially
on the outlying islands of the Aleutian group
and near the mouth of Cook's Inlet.
Besides these loftiest mountains named, —
" Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads
touch heaven," — Mount Cook, Mount Crillon,
and Mount Wrangel should not be forgotten.
Lieutenant H. T. Allen, U. S. A., makes the height
of the latter exceed that of Mount St. Elias, but
100 THE NEW ELDORADO.
we think it very questionable. This officer's state-
ment that Mount Wrangel is the birthplace of
some of the largest glaciers known to exist seems
much more likely to be correct. In this region,
therefore, this far northwest territory of the
United States, we find the highest elevations on
the North American continent. The mountain
ranges of California and Montana unite with the
Rocky Mountains, and turning to the south and
west form the Alaska Peninsula, finally disappear-
ing in the North Pacific, except where a high
peak appears now and then, raising its rocky crest
above the seti, like a giant standing breast-high
in the ocean, and thus they form the Aleutian
chain of treeless islands, which stretch away west-
ward towards the opposite continent. That these
islands are all connected beneath the sea, from
Attoo, the most distant, to where they join the
Alaska Peninsula, is made manifest by the exhibi-
tion of volcanic S3'mpathy. When one of the lofty
summits emits smoke or fier}' debris the others are
similarly affected, or at least experience slight
shocks of earthquake. So the several islands
which form the Hawaiian group are believed to be
joined below the ocean depths, and several, if not
all, of the islands of the West Indies are con-
sidered to be similiarly connected.
This has been in some period, long ago, a very
active volcanic region, as the loft}' peaks, both
among the Aleutian Islands and on the mainland,
which emit more or less smoke and ashes, clearly
testify ; not only suggestive of the past, but sig-
TEXADA. 101
nificaiit of possible contingencies in the future.
There are, in fact, according to the best authori-
ties, sixty-one volcanic peaks in Alaska. One of
the extinct volcanoes near Sitka, Mount Edge-
combe, according to the Coast Pilot, has a diuien-
sion at the ancient crater of two thousand feet
across, and an elevation of over three thousand
feet above the sea. The depth of the crater is
said to be three hundred feet. From the top,
radiating downwards in singular regularity, are the
deep red gorges scored by the burning lava in its
fiery course, as thrown out of the crater less than
a hundred j'eais ago.
This is a Mount Olympus for the natives, about
which mnny ancient myths are told by these im-
aginative aborigines.
For more than twenty-four hours after sailing
from Victoria tlie irregular, kelp-fringed shore of
Vancouver, which is three hundred miles long, is
seen on our left, until presently the large, iron-
bearing island of Texada, with its tall summit,
appears on the right of our course. The magnetic
ore found here in abundance is of such purity as
to render it suitable for the manufacture of the
highest grade of steel, and it is shipped to the
furnaces at Seattle and elsewhere for this purpose.
It is found in pursuing the voyage northward
that the fierce tide-way prevailing in some of the
deep, narrow channels produces such turbulent
rapids that steamers are obliged to wait for a
favorable condition of the waters before attempt-
ing their passage, as the adverse current runs at
102 THE NEW ELDORADO.
the rate of nine miles an hour. This was espe-
cially the case in the Seymour Narrows, which is
about nine hundred yards wide, and situated at
no great distance from Nanaimo, in the Gulf of
Georgia. It is a far more tumultuous water-way,
at certain stages of the tide — which has a rise
and fall of thirteen feet — than the famous Mael-
strom on the coast of Norway. The latter is also
caused by the power of the wind and tide, though
it was long held as the mystery and terror of the
ocean.
The author remembers in his school geography
a crude woodcut, which depicted a ship being
drawn by some mysterious power into a gaping
vortex of the ocean, and already half submerged.
It was intended to represent the terrible perils of
passing too near the Maelstrom, off the Lofoden
Islands. In after years he sailed quietly across
this once dreaded spot in the North Sea, without
experiencing even an extra lurch of the ship.
Thus do the marvels and terrors of youth melt
away. Travel and experience make great havoc
in the wonderland of our credulity, and yet modern
discovery outdoes in reality the miiacles of the
past.
A poweiful steamer which attempted to pass
through the Seymour Narrows at an unfavorable
state of the water, last season, was unable to
make way against the current, and came near
being wrecked. By ciowding on all steam she
succeeded in holding her position until the wa-
ters subsided, though she made no headway for
NANAIMO. 103
two hours. It was here that the United States
steamer Saranac was lost a few years since, being
caught at disadvantage in the seething waters,
and forced upon the mid-chaniiel rocks. Her
hull now Hes seventy fathoms below the surface of
the sea. Since this event took place the United
States ship Suwanee struck on an unknown rock
farther north, and was also totally wrecked. Per-
haps after a few more national vessels are lost
in these channels our government will awaken
from its lethargy, and have a proper survey
made and reliable charts issued of this important
coast and its intricate water-ways. A single ves-
sel is now engaged in tliis survey, but half a
dozen should be employed in Alaskan waters.
Nanaimo is situated on the east side of Vancou-
ver Island, seventy miles from Victoria, with
which it is connected by railroad. It is a thrifty
little town, mainly supported by the coal interest,
though there are two or three manufacturing es-
tablishments. The extensive coal mines in its
neighborhood are of great value, and are con-
stantly worked. These coal deposits are of the
bituminous sort, particularly well adapted for
steamboat use, and are so situated as to facilitate
the growing commerce of these islands. Many
thousands of tons are shipped during the summer
months to San Francisco. We are told that it
cost the proprietors of these coal mines one dollar
and a half a ton to place the product on board
steamers, which on arriving at San Francisco
fetches from twelve to fifteen dollars per ton-
104 THE NEW ELDORADO.
There are five mines worked here, giving employ-
ment to some two thousand men, who receive
two dolhirs and a half per day as laborers.
There is not a lightliouse upon any headland
amid all of these meandering channels, though it
must be admitted that navigation is rarely im-
peded for want of light in summer, as one can see
to read common print at midnight upon the ship's
deck without artificial aid any time during the
traveling or excui'sion season of the year.
Kow and again we look ahead inquiringly as we
thread the labyrinth of islands and wonder how
egress is possible from the many mountainous cliffs
rising, sullen and frowning, directly in the steam-
er's course. The exit from this maze is quite in-
visible ; but presently there is a swift turn of the
wheel, the rudder promptly responds, and we
gracefully round a projecting point into another
lonely, far-reaching channel framed by granite
peaks a thousand feet in height.
At night, when all but tlie watch were sleep-
ing, how gaunt and weird stood forth those tall,
black sentinel rocks, past which we were gliding
so silently, while oveihead was spread the broad
firmanent of space, dimly lighted by heaven's dis-
tant lamps ! How suggestive the dark, myste-
rious shadow^s I how active the imagination ! Was
the atmosphere indeed peopled with the invisible
spirits of bygone ages? Did the air-waves vibrate
with tlie history of the long, long past, the un-
known story of these silent fjords and deep water
gorges? Is it only thousands, or tens of thou-
THE GULF OF GEORGIA. 105
sands, of years since the first human beings ap-
peared and disappeared among these now wild,
untrodden shores?
The inlets which are found at the head of the
Gulf of Georgia, northeast of Vancouver Island,
are miniature Norwegian fjords, deeper and darker
than the sombre Saguenay ; a hundred and eighty
fathoms of line will not reach the bottom. They
are from forty to sixty miles in length, with uii
average width of nearly two miles, being walled
by abrupt mountains from four to seven thousand
feet in height. A grand elevation, whose name
has escaped us, stands eight thousand feet above
the sea at the head of Butte Inlet, while Mount
Alfred, at the head of Jarvis Inlet, is still higher.
A remarkable feature of these elongated arms of
the sea is their great depth, some of them meas-
uring over three hundred fathoms. It is a popu-
lar idea that the phosphorescence of the sea is
exhibited in its strongest effect in the tropics ;
but we have seen in the Gulf of Georgia, after
sunset, so brilliant an illumination from this cause
that it was only comparable to liquid fire, quite
equal in intensity to anything the author has wit-
nessed in the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean Sea.
It is impossible to convey by the pen an idea of the
novel splendor of the scene. A drop of this flame-
like water, dipped from the sea in equatorial or
Arctic waters and placed under the microscope is
found to be teeming with the most curious living
and active organisms. These myriads of tiny
creatures are so minute that, were it not for the
106 THE NEW ELDORADO.
revelations of the microscope, we should not even
know of their existence. Nor iire these infini-
tesimal objects the smallest representatives of ani-
mal life ; glasses of greater power will show still
more diminutive creatures.
Persons who are accustomed to make sea-voy-
ages do not forget to supply themselves with a
good but inexpensive microscope, for use on ship-
board. The abundant specimens of minute ani-
mal and vegetable life which the sea affords,
form a source of instructive amusement by which
many otherwise monotonous hours are pleasantly
beguiled. A little familiarity with the instru-
ment enables one to profitably entertain a whole
ship's company with its powers.
In the region between Vancouver and Queen
Charlotte Island we cross an open reach of the sea,
and while the Pacific swell tosses us about after
the usual erratic fashion of its unpacific waters,
we observe a few ocean sights which serve pleas-
antly to vary the experience of the trip. A school
of humpback whales put in an appearance, full of
sport and frolic, in such extraordinary numbers
that three or four are seen in the act of spouting
;ill the while. In spots the sea is yellow, where
its surface is covered for acres together with that
animated food for other piscatory creatures, the
jelly-fish. The shining, furry head of a sea-lion
comes up to the surface now and again, gazing
curiously at us with big, glassy eyes, and turning
its face nimbly from side to side. A school of
porpoises play about the hull of the steamer, leap-
ON THE PACIFIC. 107
ing high out of the water and falling back again
in graceful curves. The only shark we chanced
to meet with on the entire voyage was observed
in our wake just before entering Smith's Sound,
south of Calvert Island. In this region the huge
gona-bird was seen sailing slowly on the wing, re-
calling the albatross of the low latitudes in its
long, lazy sweeps, as well as by its size and grace-
fulness. These bird-monarchs of the north meas-
ure eight feet from tip to tip, and glide with or
against the wind on their broad, outspread pin-
ions without the least visible muscular exertion,
a mystery of motive power which is sure to chal-
lenge the observer's curiosity.
In the narrow passages the tall peaks, arched
by the soft gray of the clouds and the clear blue
of the sky, cast deep shadows Avhere the water
looked like pools of ink, whose blackness intensi-
fied the fact of their great but unknown depth.
The American whalers have never been accus-
tomed to seek their big game in these immediate
waters, preferring to attack the leviathans in lesser
depths, such as the waters of Behring Sea, or far-
ther north in the vicinity of the strait, between
the frozen ocean and the North Pacific. There,
if a whale dove after being struck by the harpoon,
he was sure very soon to fetch up in the muddy
bottom ; but here, among the channels of the isl-
ands, he might dive, and dive again, to almost any
depth, and unless great care was taken he was lia-
ble in his lightning-like velocity to carry down
with him a wliole boat's crew and all their be-
108 THE yEW ELDORADO.
longings. Were it not that the whaling industry
has gradually declined here, as it has done in
all other sections of the globe, the possession of
Alaska, with its great number of safe harbors,
would be an invaluable boon to those of our coun-
trymen engaged in that branch of commercial en-
terprise.
Inland sea travel is the perfection of stearaboat-
ing, but the rapidly-changing landscape of these
wild Alaskan shores, rimmed with sharp volcanic
peaks, at last wearies the senses, and one is forced
to seek a brief intermission by finding rest in
sleep, only, however, to again renew the charm
with greater zest on the morrow.
CHAPTER VIII.
Steamship Corona and her Passengers. — The New Eldorado. —
The Greed for Gold. — Alaska the Synonym of Glacier Fields.
— Vegetation of the Islands. — Aleutian Islands. — Attoo
our most Westerly Possession. — Native Whalers. — Life on
the Island of Attoo. — Uualnska — Kodiak, former Capital of
Russian America. — The Greek Church. — Whence the Na-
tives originally came.
OlTR journey through that portion of Alaska
known as the Inland Sea was made in the steam-
ship Corona, Captain Carroll, a commander who
has had long experience in these waters. His
pleasure seemed to lie in the degree of enjoy-
ment which he could afford his passengers, and
the amount of information which he was enabled
to impart to them. There were on board the Co-
rona the members of a large excursion party con-
ducted by Raymond & Whitcomb of Boston,
numbering some eighty persons. We have rarely
seen together a large party of ladies and gentle-
men embracing so many cultured and agreeable
persons. They had already occupied some weeks
in a tour of Mexico and southern California. It
was exceedingly pleasant to see the courtesy and
consideration exercised among them towards each
other, — amenities which go so far to lighten the
inevitable inconveniences of travel, and to en-
hance its enjoyments. Oftentimes friendships are
110 THE NEW ELDORADO.
formed under such circumstances which continue
through every exigency to the very end of life.
Having reached forty-nine degrees and four min-
utes North Latitude, we come to the boundary
line between British Columbia and the United
States, Dixon Entrance being on the left :ind Fort
Tongas on the right. Here the fai-reaching Port-
land Canal, or more properly channel, penetrates
the mainland for a great distance, precisely like
the Norwegian fjords, presenting, with its various
arms, stupendous watery caiions, whence arise
mountain precipices thousands of feet high on
either side of the deep narrow course, their heads
shrouded in perpetual snow. Tliis channel, or
fjoril, runs neaily due north, and forms a boundary
line to its head between the English and United
States possessions.
Opposite and just south of Fort Tongas lies
Fort Simpson, on British soil, and close at hand
is Metla-katla, where that self-sacrificing mission-
ary, Mr. Duncan, gathered and established a vil-
lage of a thousand Christian residents from the
various savage tribes of the vicinity. By his indi-
vidual effort, with almost miraculous success, he
raised from the lowest depths of barbarous life a
law-abiding, religious, industrious, and self-sup-
porting community, who justly considered him
their moral and physical savior. Official persecu-
tion drove Mr. Duncan from Metla-katla to the
nearest available American island, namely, An-
netta, lying some sixty miles northward. Eight
hundred of these aborigines whom he had re-
THE METLA-KATLA INDIANS. HI
claimed from savage life and its terrible practices
have followed him with their families, freely aban-
doning all their property and improvements at
Metla-katla, and are now struggling to create for
themselves a new and permanent home under the
United States.
The Senate committee, whose members lately
visited Alaska, made a call at Annetta, and
" found," as one of its members writes to the
press, " the Indians living in an apparent condition
of contentment, and engaged in almost all the pur-
suits of the whites. Their execution of artistic
designs upon silver wrought by themselves into
bracelets, rings, and all kinds of jewelry is mar-
velous. Baskets made in brilliant colors from
stripped reeds constitute a beautiful and artistic
employment of most of the women of the tribe.
Their particular ambition is their anxiety to pos-
sess lands in severalty, or to have cei'tain parcels
set aside for them, that they may cultivate and
hold in individual right. They ask that the whole
of Gravine Island be given to their tribe. They
found the state of the morals of the Indian women
at Annetta, or, as they call it, New Metla-katla, far
above the average of Indian women of this Terri-
tory. At Sitka the committee visited the habita-
tions of the Indians, and learned much from per-
sonal intercourse as to their habits and needs. It
was found that the companionship and virtue of
the women is a matter of simply dollars and cents,
and not difficult to negotiate for."
" The committee were surprised to observe such
112 THE NEW ELDORADO.
an apparent freedom from rowdyism, quarrels, and
disturbances of any chai'acter in any portion of the
Territory, and remarked the entire absence of six-
shooters about the person of a single individual, a
feature always so prominent in the mining camps
of the West.''
Until Alaska — The New Eldorado — came
into our possession, it was from the persistent and
adventurous fur-traders that our knowledge of the
country was almost solely obtained. To most of
the public it was (and is still to many) scarcely
more than a geographical expression, occupying
an insignificant space on the extreme northwest
portion of the maps of Xorth America, without any
regard being paid to the scale on which the other
States and Territories of the country are deline-
ated. The fact nevertheless stares us in the face,
that Alaska is nearly as large as the whole of the
United States lying east of the JNIississippi River,
or three times as large as France. Within the last
twenty years greater intelligence has been shown,
in part through missionaries, — self-sacrificing and
devout men, — who have sought by their teachings
to abolish the wild superstitions of the natives,
together with their cruel rites of Shamanism. Or-
ganized companies of explorers, as well as enter-
prising miners and prospectors, have also liberally
furnished us with general information relating to
this great outlying province, Avhich has been found
to be so full of mineral wealth and future promise.
But so vast is the Territory, so varied the climate,
and so undeveloped are the means of access to its
AGENTS OF PROGRESS IN ALASKA. 113
several parts, that our infonnation as regards de-
tail is still very meagre. There are not ten miles
of roadway in all of Alaska outside of the island
of Kodiak ; or rather, we should say, the island
just opposite Kodiak, namely. Wood Island, which
has a road constructed completely round it, cov-
ering a dozen miles or thereabouts. The only
road at Sitka is not over a mile and a half in
length, and these two are the only ones in this
vast Territory. Two objects of commercial gain,
the profitable fur-trade and seeking for gold, have
been tiie great agents of progress and development
thus far in Alaska. In a like manner it was the
greed for gold that first sent the Spaniards to iMex-
ico and Peru ; in pursuit of the lucrative fur-traf-
fic the French and Britons opened the way for
civilization in Canada. Here in Alaska it will
not be philanthropy, — some of whose noblest ex-
ponents are upon the ground, — but self-interest ;
not government enterprise, but the seeking for
precious metals, which will gradually unfold the
great wealth and resources of this extensive prov-
ince, whose area is greater than the thirteen orig-
inal States of this Union. The hope of commer-
cial gain has doubtless done nearly as much for
the cause of truth and progress as the love of
truth itself. The course of nmltitudes, guided by
the natural instinct of selfishness, will be overruled
by a higher power for the general good.
The very name of Alaska has to the popular
ear a ring of glacier fields and snow-clad peaks,
conveying a frigid impression of the climate quite
114 THE NEW ELDORADO.
contrary to fact. The most habitable portions of
the country lie between 55° and 60° north, about
the same latitude as that of Scotland and south-
ern Scandinavia, but the area of this portion of
Alaska is greater than that of both these coun-
tries combined. The name is derived from Al-
ay-ck-sa, which was given to the mainland by
the aborigines, and which signifies " great coun-
try." On the old maps it is very properly desig-
nated as Russian America, and so it really was
until its transfer from the possession of that gov-
ernm.ent to our own. It was at the request of
Charles Sumner, whose able, eloquent, and con-
sistent advocacy did so much towards its acquire-
ment, that the aboriginal title of Alaska was
adopted. The portion of the cotmtry which is
at present visited by excuiTionists is the south-
eastern coast line and the archipelago of the Sit-
kan Islands or Alexander group. If one desires
to reach the vast country and islands lying to the
west and northwest, the proper way to do so is
to sail direct from San Francisco for Unalaska
and Kodiak. The last named island lies south of
Cook's Inlet, one of the most remarkable volcanic
regions in the Territor}-. Sitka is five luiudred
and fift}' miles to the eastward of Kodiak, Cook's
Inlet is well named, as the great discoverer sailed
to its very head in 1778, being the first white
man who ever did so, and, indeed, few have done
it since. This was while he was prosecuting his
vain search for a northwest passage around the
continent of America. The finest and largest
DOMESTIC GARDENING IN KODIAK. 116
salmon which were ever known are taken in
Cook's Inlet, reaching the weight of one hundred
pounds in some instances, and measuring six feet
in length. The island of Kodiak is also famous
for its excellent and abundant salmon fisheries.
In 1874 a committee from the Icelandic resi-
dents of Wisconsin, aided by our government,
made an excursion to Alaska to determine whether
it would be advisable to recommend their people
in Iceland to seek homes in and about Kodiak.
The report of this committee, which consisted of
three experienced and intelligent men, was pub-
lished from the government printing-office in
Wasliington, and from it we quote as follows : —
" Potatoes grow and do well, although the na-
tives have not the slightest idea of how they
should be cultivated, which goes to show they
would thrive excellently if properly cared for.
Cabbages, turnips, and the various garden vege-
tables have great success, and to judge from the
soil and climate there is no reason why everything
that succeeds in Scotland should not succeed at
Kodiak. Pasture land is so excellent on the
island, and the hay harvest so abundant, that
our countrymen would here, just as in Iceland,
make sheep breeding and cattle-raising their chief
method of livelihood. The quality of the grass
is such that the milk, the beef, and mutton must
be excellent; and we had also an opportunity to
try these at Kodiak."
The purpose of colonizing portions of Alaska
with people from Iceland is being revived, and
IIG THE NEW ELDORADO.
active measures to this end are now progressing.
The people of that country are eager to avail
themselves of such an opportunit}'. They are
being gradually crowded out of their native land
by the increased flow of volcanic matter over
their plains and valleys. Alaska, while it affords
them in certain portions, say the valley of the
Yukon, a climate similar to their own, ofi;ers them
also many advantages over the place of their
nativity. It is authoritatively stated that over
fifty thousand souls will gladly avail themselves of
this chance to emigrate to Alaska, provided our
government will aid them in the matter of trans-
portation. At this writing, in the village of
Afognak, on the island of Kodiak, with a popula-
tion of three hundred natives, over one hundred
acres of rich land is planted in potatoes and tur-
nips, and has yielded annually a large crop of ex-
cellent vegetables for three or four consecutive
years. If it were necessary we could point to
several other successful agricultural developments
in islands even less favorably situated than is the
Kodiak group. Nevertheless, there are plenty of
writers who assert that domestic vegetables will
not grow in Alaska. One has no patience with
such perversion of facts.
Miss Kate Field says in a late published article
relative to Alaska : " In agriculture Alaska is not
promising, but the country is by no means as
impossible in this respect as it has been repre-
sented. ' There is not an acre of grain in the
whole territory,' wrote Whymper. Because there
ATTOO. 117
was no grain grown, it by no means follows that
grain cannot be grown in certain localities. Hun-
dreds of acres of land near Wrangel can be drained
and cultivated. The Indians on the neighboring
islands raise tons of potatoes and turnips for their
own consumption. Butter made for me by the
Scotch housekeeper of Wrangel mission was a
sweet boon, and proved that cows were a success
in that region, and that dairies were a mere ques-
tion of time.*'
The island of the Aleutian group situated the
farthest seaward is named Attoo, and forms the
most westerly point of the possessions of the
United States. This island is situated about
seven thousand five hundred miles in a straight
line from the eastern coast of Maine, and is a
little over three thousand miles west of San Fran-
cisco, making that city about the central point
between the extreme east and west of this Union.
It would be neai'er, if one desired to reach Eng-
land from Attoo, to continue his journey west-
ward, rather than to travel east and cross the
Atlantic. A few moments' examination of the
globe or a good map of the world is especially
desirable in this connection, and unless one is
already familiar with this region will prove in-
teresting and instructive. The Aleutian group,
besides innumerable islets and rocks, contains
over fifty islands exceeding three miles in length,
seven of them being over forty miles long. Uni-
mak, which is the largest, is over seventy miles
long, with an average width of twenty.
118 THE NEW ELDORADO.
It seems almost impossible to conceive of these
islands having ever been densely populated, where
human life is so sparsely represented to-day, and
yet scientific investigation gives ample proof that
in tiie far past every cove and bay echoed to the
cry of the successful otter hunter, and the beaches
were lined with numberless bidarkas or native
canoes. The mummies which W. H. Dall brought
hence may have been ten centuries old. This
able investigator tells us of ruined villages and
deserted hearths, to be found in almost any
sheltered cove or favorably situated upland. A
few strokes of the pick and the spade is sure to
unearth arrow-heads, stone axes, and chipped im-
plements of flint, or perhaps even the singularly
proportioned bones of a now extinct human race.
Bones have been exhumed on these islands which
have puzzled scientists to account for.
When these islands were discovered by the
Russians the inhabitants of Attoo were numer-
ous, warlike, and brave, being well supplied with
otter skins, and altogether were a self-reliant and
thrifty tribe. Now the place contains but one
small village, numbering about a hundred and
twenty souls, situated on the south side of the
island in a sheltered cove.
There are residents living upon Attoo to-day
who have in their time witnessed two wrecks of
Japanese vessels upon their shores ; and who can
say that Attoo was not originally peopled in this
manner by Asiatics thousands of years ago? It
was so late as 1861 that the last Jsipanese junk
ATTO WHALERS. 119
was stranded upon the island ; three of the Japa-
nese sailors surviving were ultimately sent home
by way of Siberia overland.
The sea-otter has been driven from this im-
mediate neighborhood by too vigorous and indis-
criminate pursuit, but the sea-lion, various water-
fowls, and plenty of cod, halibut, and salmon still
abound among these lonely islands of the North
Pacific. Occasionally a dead whale is stranded
on the shore, which is considered a cause for great
rejoicing, every part of the animal being utilized
by the natives. No matter how putrid the flesh
may be, it is eagerly eaten by these people, both
raw and cooked. When a school of whales appears
in sight of these shores, the natives go out in their
frail boats, and with lances so prepared as to work
into the vitals of the big creatures, they pierce
them in the most vulnerable places, leaving the
animal to die where it will, and trusting to the
currents to carry the body where they can reach
it. To their lances there are securely attached
inflated sealskin buoys, which render diving a
very laborious exertion to the whales, and which
aid finally in securing the carcass. In this way,
it is said, the natives get one whale out of
fifteen or twenty which they succeed in harpoon-
ing. Whales, singular to say, are more esteemed
as food by all the Alaskan shoi'e tribes than any
other product of the sea, or, in fact, any other sort
of food. The securing of one is an event cele-
brated with limitless feasting and rejoicing. A
New England whale-ship captain told the writer
120 THE NEW ELDORADO.
that lie luid seen these natives cut long strips of
blubber from the body of a stranded whale, which
had been so long dead that it was with difficulty
he could breathe the atmosphere to leeward of the
carcass, and chew upon the same with the greatest
relish until it had entirely disappeared down their
throats, the oil dripping all the while in small
streams from the corners of their mouths. This
is not a practice confined to the Aleuts, but ex-
tends throughout the several groups of islands, and
is also a marked habit of the Eskimos proper,
living both north and south of Behring Strait, and
on the coast of the Polar Sea.
" The natives would rather have a dead whale
drift ashore," says Mr. George Wardman, United
States Treasury agent in Alaska, "than to own
the best crop of the biggest farm in the United
States. Dead whale is a great blessing in the
Aleutian part of our Alaska possessions, and agri-
cultural pioducts are but little sought after or
valued. The dead whale may be so putrid that
the effluvia arising from it will blacken the white
p;iint of a vessel lying one liundred yards distant,
but, all the same, the whale is a blessing."
There is a variety store kept on Attoo by an
agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, where
the natives exchange their furs for tea, sugar,
and hard biscuit, besides tobacco and a few fancy
articles.
The mountains whicli surround the settlement
are two or three thousand feet in height, " rock-
ribbed and ancient as the sun," and are white
DRIFT-WOOD. 121
with snow for a considerable portion of the year.
These Aleutiiin Islands, bounded by wave-battered
rocks, stretching far out in the Pacific towards
Asia, have no trees, the soil not having sufficient
depth to support them, but they are thickly cov-
ered with a low-growing, luxuriant vegetation in
great variety. Between the mountains and the
sea are many natural prairies, with a rich soil of
vegetable mould suitable for domestic gardening.
The wood consumed by the inhabitants as fuel is
the product of drift-logs or trees reclaimed from
the sea. On the breaking up of winter in the
large islands at the northeast and on the mainland,
the unsealing of the ice-bound rivers sends down
from the great forests through which they flow
thousands of fallen trees, many of which are very
large. This is especially the case with the Yukon
River, which empties its immense accumulation of
debi'is into Norton Sound, and the Kuskoquin,
emptying into a bay of the same name one hun-
dred and fifty miles farther south. When these
tree trunks find their way to the open sea, the
prevailing currents bear them southward to the
Aleutian Islands, where a large number become
stranded at Attoo, and are promptly secured
and stored for use as fuel. It would seem to be
rather a precarious source of supply to depend
upon for this purpose, but we were told that, as a
rule, it was ample to meet the demand. There is
also a stocky vine growing in great abundance
upon the islands, which the native women gather
and dry, and this makes a quick, strong fire. At
122 THE NEW ELDORADO.
certain seasons the women may be seen in long
lines coming from the hills, each one bearing upon
her back a monster bundle of this product, which
they store for use when the other source of fuel
fails them or proves insufficient. The people of At-
too have tamed the wild goose, of which they rear
cousiilerable flocks for domestic use, similar to our
New England custom with the tame bird, and it is
said they are the only tribe in Alaska who do so.
Loner since the bk;e fox was bv some means intro-
duced upon the island, and being at first properly
protected, the place has become fairly stocked with
them, a certain number only being killed annually
by the natives, and from their valuable fur these
Aleuts realize quite a large sum. Were it neces-
sary, lumber could be brought in small quantities
from the island of Kodiak, or even from the main-
land far away ; but there is very little use for it
in Attoo, the houses being built of drift-logs and
not of boards. Besides the low, thrifty species of
shrubbery growing on these islands, there are also
wild berries in great abundance, the original seeds
having probably been brought by tlie birds from
the mainland. Grasses grow luxuriantly, being
cut and cured to feed a few small Siberian cattle
through the winter months, though it is hardly
necessary to house them at all. They are kept
on only one or two of the larger islands of the
group. Domestic animals might do well here with
a little care, but the attention of the natives is
given almost exclusively to the products of the sea,
whose very bounty demoralizes them. At Una-
UNALASKA. 123
laska, of this same group, the natural grass grows
to six feet in height, and with such body that one
must part it by exerting considerable force in or-
der to get through. The natives braid it into use-
ful and ornamental articles, hats, baskets, mats,
and the like. This prolific growth is represented
to be remarkably nutritious, and cattle are very
fond of it. W. H. Dall predicted that this Aleu-
tian district will yet furnish California with its
best butter and cheese ; while Dr. Kellogg, bot-
anist of the United States Exploring Expedition,
wrote : " Unalaska abounds in grasses, with a cli-
mate better adapted for haying than the coast of
Oregon. The cattle are remarkably fat, and the
milk abundant." This is the refitting station for
all vessels passing between the Pacific Ocean and
Behring Strait, and here also is the principal trad-
ing post of the Alaska Commercial Company.
Mr. George Wardman, United States Treasury
Agent, stated that on his late visit to this island
he saw in one warehouse sea-otter skins ready for
shipment which were worth quarter of a million
dollars in the London market. This will repre-
sent, perhaps, two thirds of all this class of pelts
furnished to the world annually, as comparatively
few go from any other quarter. Other land furs
are brought here for shipment to San Francisco,
two fur companies having headquarters at Una-
laska. The place has some sixty native houses,
and perhaps five hundred inhabitants. Unalaska
is known to be rich in both gold and silver mines,
one of which is owned by a San Francisco com-
124 THE NEW ELDORADO.
pany, and wliich it is proposed to fully develop
and work during the coming year, careful tests hav-
ing proven its prospective value.
The same fertility seen at Unalaska exists also
at Kodiak and Atagnak, where the small breed of
cattle that live upon the grass are as fat as seals,
and requh-e no shelter all the year round. There
is a small ship-yard near the first named island,
where vessels of twenty-five and thirty tons are
built for fishing in the neighboring sea. These
two islands, situated just off the eastern shore of
tlie Alaska Peninsula, are called the garden spots
of this region, enjoying more sunshine and fair
weather than any other part of the Territory.
They contain rich pastures, beautiful woodlands,
and broad open fields, which during the summer
are carpeted with constant verdure and wdld flow-
ers. Kodiak was for a long time the capital of the
Russian American possessions, but the govern-
ment headquarters were removed for some reason
to Sitka. On Wood Island, opposite Kodiak, is
the clear and spacious lake which so long fur-
nished ice to the dwellers on the Pacific coast, but
particularly to the people of San Francisco. The
whole range of Aleutian Islands from Attoo to
Kodiak contains between four and five thousand
inhabitants, nearly all of whom are called Chris-
tians, being members of the Greek Church. They
are very generally half-breeds, that is, born of in-
termarriage between emigrant Russians and native
women. Professor Davidson was struck by the
strong resemblance of the aboriginal tribes inhab-
NATIVE ARTlSTiS. 125
iting these islands to the Chinese and Japanese,
and was satisfied that they came originally from
Asia. There are many very intelligent persons
among them. " They are docile, honest, industri-
ous, and very ingenious," says Professor Davidson.
The women of Unalaska have always been noted
for the beauty and variety of their woven grass
mats and various other ornamental work, particu-
larly in the combinations of colors and unique
designs.
This cunning of the hand and artistic ingenuity
is not confined to the women ; the men are also
skillful carvers and engravers. Whenever they
have been afforded a fair degree of instruction,
and the opportunity to exercise their ability, they
have proved themselves to be adepts especially in
this last mentioned branch of skilled labor. We
have seen artistic work produced by a native Un-
alaskan which it was difficult to believe was not
the performance of some experienced and thor-
oughly educated European.
The thirty-eight charts in the Hydrographic
Atlas of Tebenkoff were all drawn and engraved
on copper by a native Aleut.
On the island of Unga, one of the Shumagin
group, situated half way between Unalaska and
Kodiak, is a small settlement of a score of white
men and about a hundred and fifty natives. By
a regulation of our Treasury Department, only
natives are allowed to hunt the sea-otter, and
therefore these white men have married native
wives, thereby becoming natives in the eyes of the
126 THE NEW ELDORADO.
law. The revenue derived from the sea-otter trade
on this ishind is said to average from six to seven
hundred dollars a year to every family. Off the
southern shore of the Shumagin group is the best
cod fishing bank that is known. It is estimated
that a million good-sized cod were taken here last
season and shipped to San Francisco. This me-
tropolis of California once depended upon the
product of our Newfoundland fisheries for its
salted cod, but has drawn its supply for the last
few years almost entirely from the coast of Alaska,
and the consumption has increased every year.
CHAPTER IX.
Cook's Inlet. — Manufacture of Quass. — Native Piety. — Mum-
mies. — The North Coast. — Geographical Position. — Shal-
lowness of Behring Sea. — Alaskan Peninsula. — Size of
Alaska. — A " Terra Incognita." — Reasons why Russia sold
it to our Government. — The Price Comparatively Nothing.
— Rental of the Seal Islands. — Mr. Seward's Purchase
turns out to be a Bonanza.
Cook's Inlet, which lies to the north of the
ishmd of Kodiak, was esteemed by the Russians
to be the pleasantest portion of Alaska in the
summer season, with its bright skies and well
wooded shores. It stretches far inland in a north-
easterly direction, and is quite out of the region
of the fogs which prevail on the coast. Gold has
been profitably mined for some years on the Kak-
ny River, which empties into the eastern side of
this extensive inlet, and good coal abounds in the
neighborhood.
When the Russians first came to this region
they taught the natives to make what they called
quass, a cooling and comparatively harmless acid
drink. To produce this article rye meal is mixed
with water, in certain proportions, and allowed to
remain in a cask until fermentation takes place
and it is sour and lively enough to draw. Lat-
terly the natives have learned to add sugar, and
thus to produce a fermented liquor of an intoxica-
128 THE NEW ELDORADO.
tinjr nature. Profrress in this direction has been
made until now they mix a certain portion each
of sugar, floui', dried apples, and a few hops, when
they can be obtained, putting the whole into a
close barrel or cask. When fermentation has
taken place and the mixture has worked itself
clear, it forms a strong intoxicant. This article
proves the cause of a thousand ills among the abo-
rigines. In each of the scattered villages among
the islands there is sure to be seen a few broken-
down victims of this active poison, who have im-
poverished their families and wrecked their own
constitutions.
In each of these Aleutian islands there is found
a Russian - Greek chapel and a regularly ap-
pointed priest, this religion being preferred by
the natives to that of all other sects, captivating
their simple minds by its gorgeous show and its
mystery. Their honest devotion, however, to a
religion which they cannot comprehend may be
reasonably questioned. There can be no doubt
that their idolatrous customs and original panthe-
ism have been almost entirely abandoned, — cere-
monies which were elaborately described by the
early voyagers, and which involved strange incan-
tations and even human sacrifices. Intercourse
with the whites has at least had the effect of
abolishing the most objectionable features of their
early superstitions. The bishop of the organiza-
tion is a Russian and resides in San Francisco,
whence he controls these parishes, which he occa-
sionally visits, being amply supplied with pecu-
NATIVE PIETY. 129
niary means by the home government at St. Pe-
tersburg, The piety of these Aleuts is very pro-
nounced, so far as all outward observances go, and
we were told that they never sit down to their
meals without briefly asking a blessing upon their
rude repast. Golovin, a Russian who lived many
years among the Aleuts, says : " Their attention
during religious services is unflinching, thougli
they do not understand a Avord of the whole rite,"
The same author goes on to say, " During my ten
years' stay in Unalaska not a single case of mur-
der happened among the Aleutians. Not an at-
tempt to kill, nor fight, nor even a considerable
dispute, although I often saw them drunk," Hunt-
ing is the principal source of their support, and to
get the sea-otter they often make long, exposed
trips in their undecked boats, and experience
many trying hardships. When they return to
their homes at the close of the season, having been
nearly always reasonably successful, the quass
barrel is brought into requisition, and its contents
partaken of to excess, drunken orgies following
with all their attendant evils.
The Aleuts are a very honest people, quite un-
like the Eskimos of the north, who are natural
pilferers. They are also possessed of a certain
stoicism which compels admiration. When they
are sick or suffering great pain they utter no com-
plaint, and outwardly are always content, no mat-
ter what the future may send as their lot. An
Aleut is never known to sigh, groan, or shed a
tear. If he feels it, he never evinces immoderate
130 THE NEW ELDORADO.
joy, but is alwii^s quiet, moderate, and grave.
They are in a great degree fatalists, and believe
that what is deci'eed by the power in the sky
will come to pass, whatever they may do to pre-
vent it. It is Kismet.
It is an interesting fact that before these islands
were discovered b}' the Russians, the natives were
in the practice of preserving their dead in the
form of mummies, and this had probably been
their habit for centuries. Satisfactory evidence
is afforded by what is found upon the islands to
show that they have been the residence of popu-
lous tribes for over two thousand years. Mr.
Dall, in his indefatigable researches, was able to
secure several examples of the mummified dead
on these outlying islands, eleven of which came
from one cave on the south end of Unalaska, but
none were ever found or known to have existed
upon the mainland. This fact is looked upon
by ethnologists as an important addition to our
knowledge of the prehistoric condition of these
peculiar people of the far Northwest, now part
and parcel of our widespread population. The
mumniies of Peru and those of Alaska are now
arranged side by side in the cases of the Smith-
sonian Institution at Washington, and what is
very singular is that they seem, in their general
appearance, to be almost identical.
The interior of Alaska and its more Arctic
regions north of the valley of the Yukon remain
still only partially explored. No moi'e is actually
known of it than of Central Africa. It would be
POINT BARROW. 131
anything but a pleasure excursion, at present, to
penetrate the extreme northern harbors of the ex-
tended coast line, which are mostly uninhabited,
and which are tempest-swept for a large portion
of the year. Northwestern Alaska shares with
northeastern Siberia the possession of the coldest
winter climate in the world, but we must remem-
ber it is not always winter, and thousands of Es-
kimos heie find life quite tolerable. Beyond 70°
of north latitude no trees are to be found ; even
shrubs liave disappeared, giving place to a scanty
growth of lichens and creeping wood-plants. Even
here, however, Nature asserts her prerogative and
brings forth a few bright flowers and blooming
grasses in the brief midsummer days. Point
Barrow is what might be termed, in common par-
lance, " the jumping-off place ; " the beginning of
that mysterious ocean where the compass needle,
which lies horizontal at the equator, attracted by
an unexplained influence dips and points straight
downward. There is no lack of animal life in
this frozen region, the sea is as full as in the
tropics ; the whale here finds its birthplace, and
herring issue forth in countless columns to seek
more southern seas, while the air is darkened by
innumerable flocks of sea-fowl. The wolves, the
polar bear, and other fur-bearing animals afford
meat and clothing to the Eskimo to an extent
far exceeding his requirements. Only thoroughly
organized expeditions and a few adventurous
whalers attempt to pass Point Barrow, a long
reach of low barren land, and the most northerly
132 THE NEW ELDORADO.
portion of the Territory, which projects itself into
the great Arctic Ocean very much after the fash-
ion of the North Cape of Norway, in the eastern
hemisphere, at latitude 71° 10'.
There is a villajje at Point Barrow containing
about a hundred and fifty people, living in houses
partly under ground as a protection against the
cold. The roofs are supported by rafters of whale
jaws and ribs. This people we call the Eskimo
proper. They have a severe climate to contend
with, but are abundantly supplied with food and
oil from the sea. They have a strange aversion
to salt, and any food thus cooked or preserved
they will not eat unless driven to it by dire neces-
sity. Our government is just about to erect a
comfortable structure here as a sort of refuge to
shipwrecked navigators of the Polar Sea, this
being the verge of those unknown waters which
guard the secret of the Pole.
A peninsula makes out from near the centre
of the western coast of Alaska, the terminus of
wliich is the nearest point between this continent
and Asia, the two being separated by Behring
Strait, where the East and the West confront
each other, and where the extreme western bound-
ary of our country is the line which separates Asia
from America. This is called Cape Prince of
Wales, a rocky point rising in its highest peak
to twenty-five hundred feet above the sea. Here
is a village of Eskimos numbering between three
and four hundred souls, who do not bear a good
reputation. They are skilled as fishermen on the
CA VE-D WELLERS. 133
sea and hunters on the land, to which it niav be
added that they are professional smugglers. Here
it is quite possible in clear weather to see tlie
Asiatic coast — Eastern Siberia — from United
States soil, the distance across the strait being
about forty miles. There are two islands in the
strait, known as the Dioniedes, almost in a direct
line between Cape Prince of Wales on one side
and East Cape on the other; stepping-stones, as it
were, between the two continents. Occasional in-
tercourse between the natives of the two opposite
shores is maintained to-day by means of sailing
craft, and doubtless has been going on for hun-
dreds, if not for thousands, of years. So moderate
are the seas, and so calm the weather hereabouts
at some portions of the year, that the passage is
made in open or undecked boats.
On King's Island, fifty miles south of Cape
Prince of Wales, there is a tribe of veritable cave-
dwellers. The island is a great mass of rock,
with almost perpendicular sides rising seven hun-
dred feet above the sea. On one side, where the
angle is nearly forty-five degrees, the Eskimos
have excavated homes in the rock, about half a
hundred of which are two hundred feet above the
sea. These people openly defy the revenue laws,
and are the known distributers of contraband arti-
cles, especially of intoxicants.
Behring Sea, where it washes the shores of
Alaska, from Norton Sound to Bristol Ba}^ is
slowly growing more shallow, having but fifteen
fathoms depth, in some places, forty miles off the
134 THE NEW ELDORADO.
west shore of the tnainhmd, and growing shal-
lower as it approaches the continent. This has
caused a speculative writer to suggest the possible
joining of Asia and America, at some future
period, by the gradual filling up of Behring Sea.
The reason of this is obvious. The Yukon River
brings down from its course of two thousand miles
and more many hundred tons of soil daily which
it deposits along the coast, while the Kuskoquin
River, second only to the Yukon in volume, is en-
gaged in the same work about a hundred and fifty
miles south of where the greater river empties into
Norton Sound. These large water-ways carry,
like the Mississippi, immense deposits to the sea,
and the process has been going on night and day
for no human being knows how long.
One hundred and fifty miles from the mouth
of this Kuskoquin River the Moravians of Beth-
lehem, Pa., support a missionary establishment.
The station is named Bethel, one of the most iso-
lated points in Alaska, receiving a mail but once
a year ! Truly, nothing save fulfilling a conscien-
tious sense of duty could compensate intelligent
people for thus separating themselves from home
and friends.
We have spoken of a peninsula making out at
the north towards Asia, but this comparatively
insignificant projection from the mainland should
not be permitted to confuse the reader's mind as
regards the Alaska Peninsula, properly so called,
•which extends from the southern part of the Ter-
ritory, ending in the islands which form the Aleu-
VOLCANOES. 135
tian group. This peninsula is undoubtedly one
of the most remarkable in the world, being fifty
miles broad and three hundred long, literally piled
with mountains, some of which are but partially
extinct volcanoes, emitting at the present time
more or less smoke and ashes, sometimes accom-
panied by blazing gases discernible at night far
away over land and sea, appearing to the mid-
night watch on board ship like a raging confla-
gration in the heavens. The principal islands of
the group of which we have been speaking, and
which stretch far away from the southwestern
corner of the Alaska Peninsula towards Kam-
schatka, as though extending a cordial hand from
the Occident to the Orient, are as follows : Uni-
mak, with a volcanic peak nine thousand feet
high ; Unalaska, whose peak is five thousand
seven hundred feet high ; Atka, with a height of
four thousand eight hundred feet ; Kyska, which
is crowned by an elevation of three thousand seven
hundred feet ; and Attoo, whose tallest peak is
over three thousand feet. This island is just about
four hundred miles from the Asiatic coast. Uni-
mak has a large lake of sulphur within its borders,
and all of these islands have more or less hot
springs. From those in Unalaska loud reports
issue at intervals, like the boom of cannon, recall-
ing our late similar experience in the Yellowstone
Park.
Alaska constitutes the northwestern portion of
the American continent, and has a coast hne ex-
ceeding eleven thousand miles. The extreme
136 THE NEW ELDORADO.
length of the Territory, north and south, is eleven
hundred miles, and its breadth is eight hundred.
It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean,
on the east by British Columbia, on the south by
the Pacific Ocean, and on the west by Behring
Strait and the North Pacific. Our geographies
and encyclopredias help us to little more than the
boundaries of this great Territory, -which contains
nearly six hundred thousand square miles. The
latest published estimates give the aggregate
number of square miles as nineteen thousand less
than the amount we have named, but Governor
Swineford and other residents of the Territory
believe it to be an underestimate. As there is
no actual survey extant, the figures given can only
be a reasonable approximation to the true num-
ber. The boundary dividing Alaska and British
Columbia was settled by treaty between England
and Russia in 1825, and the same line is recog-
nized to-day as separating our possessions in this
quarter from those of Great Britain. Alaska is
as large as all of the New England and Middle
States, with Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee combined.
So far as size is concerned, the Territory is, there-
fore, an empire in itself, being equal in area to
seventy-one States like Massachusetts, and con-
taining as many square miles as England, Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzer-
land, and Belgium united. It has been estimated
by competent judges that, with its islands, it has
a coast line equal to the circumference of the
A TERRA IXCOGSITA. 137
globe. Very few of our people, even among the
educated class, have an adequate idea of the im-
mensity of this northwestern Territory, two thirds
of which abounds in available resources, only
awaiting development. Were Alaska situated (in
our Atlantic coast it would extend from Maine to
Florida.
Miss Kate Field, in a comprehensive article
already quoted from, published in the " North
American Review," justly censuring Congress for
its supineness and ignorance in relation to Alaska,
says : " American citizens, living comfortabl}' on
the Atlantic seaboard, knowing their own wants
and dictating terms to their submissive representa-
tives, take little heed of those new additions to
the United States which are destined to be tliH
crowning glory of the Republic. When a nation
is so big as to render portions of it a terra incog-
nita to those who make the laws, there's some-
thing rotten this side of Denmark ! . . . The
march of empire goes on in spite of human falli-
bility, and now the land of the midnight sun
knocks at the door of Congress. She is twenty-
three years old, and asks to be treated as though
she were of age. The big-wigs at Washington
rub their eyes, put on their spectacles, and wonder
what this Hyperborean hubbub means?"
In examining the geograpliical characteristics of
Alaska, we observe a peculiarity in its outlying
islands which is also found in the construction of
the continents. Thej' all have east of their south-
ern points series of islands. Thus, Alaska has
138 THE NEW ELDOliADO.
the Sitkan or Alexander group; Africa has Mada-
gascar ; Asia has Ceylon; Australia has the two
large islands of New Zealand; and America has
the Falkland Islands. Alaska is the great island
region of the United States.
It is not for us to enter into the brief history of
the country, that is, brief as known to us, but it
is well to fix in the mind the fact that Russia's
title was derived from prior discovery. Behring
first saw the continent in this region of North
America, July 18, 1741, in latitude 58° 28', and
two days later anchored in a bay near a point
which he called St. Elias, a name which he also
gave to the great mountain overshadowing the
neighboring shore. It is sufficient for our pur-
pose that we know this Territory was purchased
from Russia by our government in 1867, after
that country had occupied it a little more than a
century, paying therefor the sum of seven million
two hundred thousand dollars. It has been truly
said that it was practically giving away the coun-
try on the part of Russia ; but doubtless diplomatic
reasons influenced the Tzar, who would much
rather have presented it outright to the United
States than to have it, by conquest or otherwise,
fall into the hands of England, who was known
to crave its possession as connected with her
Pacific coast interests. So when the first Napoleon
sold us Louisana, he did so not alone in considera-
tion of the money, which was doubtless much
needed by his treasury, — amounting to sixty mil-
lion francs, — but because he was not willing
A BONANZA. 139
to leave this distant territory a prey to Great
Britain in the event of hostilities between France
and England, which were then imminent. He
was glad, as he remarked, " to establish forever
tlie power of the United States, and give to Eng-
land a maritime rival destined to humble her
pride;" adding, "It is for the interest of France
that America should be great and strong."
Alaska was a white elephant to Russia, but in
our hands it has already proved a bonanza.
Any one can now see that the sum named as an
equivalent for this colossal territory was a trifling
value to place upon it, when its great extent is
realized, together with its vast mineral wealth and
inexhaustible supply of fish, fur, and timber. It
is in fact the only great game and fur preserve left
in the Western world, inviting the trapper and
hunter to reap a rich return for their industry.
Nowhere else on this continent do wild animals
more abound, or enjoy such immunity from harm,
as is afforded them in the dense, half-impenetrable
forests of Alaska, where Nature herself becomes
our gamekeeper, preventing the too rapid extinc-
tion of animal life.
From a lease in favor of the Alaska Commercial
Company of San Francisco, giving them the ex-
clusive right to take seals on the Prybiloff group
of islands, our government has received four and
one half per cent, interest, annually, during the
last nineteen years, on the entire purchase-money
paid to Russia. This same company, whose term
is just about to expire, would gladly renew the
140 THE NEW ELDORADO.
lease with our government at a considerable ad-
vance upon the amount heretofore paid; but it is
an open question whether the continuance of this
great monopoly is for the best interest of Alaska,
when considered in all its bearings.
Undoubtedly this contract is a real benefit in
one way. The company, through its agents, will
take good care to see that no outside interest in-
terfeies with their rights so as to permit any indis-
criminate slaughter of the seals. Whereas, were
the capture of these peltries not guarded, an end
of the product would be brought about in a very
short time. There is a manifest injustice in all
monopolies, iis we view them ; but of two evils, in
this instance we should perhaps feel inclined to
choose the least by selling the privilege to a re-
sponsible company. It must be admitted that the
high-hnnded course of the present company, their
arbitrary assumptions, and their treatment of the
natives generally, are represented in a very bad
light by many residents of Alaska ; but little else,
however, could be expected of so great a monop-
oly. One thing is certain, and that is, the com-
pany has realized a great fortune by its contract.
There were plenty of people who ridiculed the
acquisition of this Territory at the time when it
was brought about ; but there were also some far-
seeing statesmen, influenced by no selfish motives,
who felt very different about the matter, among
whom was Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State,
and to whom the credit is mostly due for con-
summating the important purchase. That able
SEWARD'S CROWNING GLORY 141
diplomat considered the transaction to have been
the most important act of his official career, and
pnt himself on record to that effect. He remarked,
in discussing the matter at a public meeting, " It
ma}' take two generations before the purchase is
properly appreciated." Mr. Seward was right. It
was a crowning glory for him to have added a
new empire to his country's domain, though in
1867 its great commercial importance was hardly
known, even to himself. Its valuable gold depos-
its were then thought possibly to exist ; but sub-
sequent developments have ah-eady far outstripped
anticipations in that direction, and the large yield
of the precious metal is annually increasing.
" I thought when Alaska was purchased, in
1867," says that keen observer and clever writer,
Caj>tain John Codman, " that it might answer for
a great skating park; but now I know, from
merely coasting along its southeastern shores and
landing at a few of its outposts, that the seven
million two hundred thousand dollars paid for it
is less than the interest of the sura that it is worth.
A great part of it is yet unexplored, for its whole
area is three times greater than the republic of
France; but what has been discovered is invalua-
ble, and what has not been discovered may be
valuable beyond calculation."
So little did we, as a people, appreciate the new
acquisition that it was almost entirely neglected
for seventeen years. Not until 1884 was it
granted a territorial government, Hon. John H.
Kinkead, ex-governor of Nevada, being the first
142 THE NEW ELDORADO.
governor appointed for Alaska. " Twenty years
ago," says Governor Swineford of Alaska, " I made
political capital out of Seward's purchase. I called
it the refrigerator of the United States. I heaped
obloquy on William H. Seward. I shall spend
the rest of my life in making reparation to what I
have so foully wronged." Such has been the
general testimony of all who speak from personal
observation, and uninfluenced by sinister motives.
CHAPTER X.
Territorial Acquisitions. — Population of Alaska. — Steady Com-
mercial Growth. — Primeval Forests. — The Country teems
with Animal Life. — A Mighty Reserve of Codfi.-h. — Native
Food. — Fur-Bearing Animals. — Islands of St. George and
St. Paul. — Interesting Habits of the Fur-Seal. — The Breed-
ing Season. — Their Natural Food. — Mammoth Size of tlie
Bull Seals.
The subject of the addition of Alaska to the
United States suggests the fact that our territo-
rial acquisitions from time to time form certain
decided and interesting landmarks in the history
of the country. Thus, in 1803 Ave acquired Lou-
isiana from France by the payment of fifteen mil-
lion dollars. In 1845 Texas was annexed and
her debt assumed, amounting to the sum of seven
million five hundred thousand dollars. In 1848
California, New Mexico, and Utah were acquired
from Mexico, partly through war, and by the
pajnnent of fifteen million dollars. In 1854 Ai'i-
zona was purchased from Mexico for ten million
dollars. And last, but hj no means least, Alaska,
as has been stated, was obtained from Russia in
1867 for seven million two hundred thousand dol-
lars. "By this purchase," said Charles Sumner
in his able speech before Congress, "we dismiss
one more monarch from this continent. One by
one they have retired ; first France ; then Spain ;
144 THE NEW ELDORADO.
then France again ; and now Russia; all give way
to the absorbing Unity which is declared in the
national motto, E Plurihus U7ium"
At the time of the transfer of Alaska, the native
population, Russians, half-breeds and all, did not
piobably exceed forty thousand ; indeed, careful
inquiry seems to indicate that tiiis is an overesti-
mate. Since that period the native population
has steadily decreased, but the white population
has increased, it is believed, sufficiently to make
good the estimated aggregate of twenty-two years
ago. In 1867 the commerce of Alaska was offi-
cially reported as being two million five hundred
thousand dollars for the current year. The pub-
lished estimate for the last year made it a fraction
less than seven million dollars, of which about a
million five hundred thousand dollars was in gold
bullion. Certainly this shows a very steady if
not rapid commercial growth. Competent indi-
viduals estimate that the commerce of the Terri-
tory for the year 1889 will reach ten million dol-
lars in amount. The increase in the number of
fish-canning establishments alone will add two
millions to last year's aggregate. The shipment
of preserved salmon exported in tins and barrels
is increasing annually.
The available timber now standing in the Ter-
ritory might alone meet the ordinary demand of
this continent for half a century. Though the
extreme northern part of Alaska is treeless, its
southern shores, both of the islands and mainland,
are covered with a dense forest growth, the Aleu-
FORESTS. 145
tian group excepted. It is the visible wealth of
the country, and a source of admiration to all ap-
preciative visitors.
Fort Tongas is very near the southeast point of
Alaska, and about ten miles north of Fort Simp-
son ; the former American, the latter English
territory. When the ground was cleared to estab-
lish the American fort, " yellow (;edar-trees," says
W. H. Dall, " eight feet in diameter were cut
down. The flanks of all the islands of this archi-
pelago bear a magnificent growth of the finest
timber, from the water's edge to fifteen hundred
feet above the sea." It must be a cedar of mag-
nificent proportions out of which the natives can
hew and construct a canoe seventy feet long capa-
ble of carrying one hundred men. This the Haidas
do, producing models both swift and seaworthy,
the prows extending in a peak not unlike the
ancient galleys of Greece, decorated with totemic
designs. These magnificent forests, having never
felt the stroke of the axe, present a growth natu-
rally very dense and peculiar, the branches of the
tall trees being often draped with long black and
white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resem-
bles. This characteristic recalled the same effect
observed upon the thickly wooded shores of the
St. John River in Florida, and the Lake Pontchar-
train district of Louisiana. The fallen trees and
.stumps are cushioned by a growth of green, vel-
vety moss, nearly ten inches in thickness, and are
also decked with creeping vines in the most pic-
turesque manner ; among which is seen here and
146 THE NEW ELDORADO.
there deep red clusters of the bunch-berry. The
timber is pronounced by good judges to be as val-
uable as that of Oregon and Washington, com-
pared with which our forests in Maine are hardly
more than tall undergrowth. A very large per-
centage of the Alaska timber grows at the most
convenient points for shipment, making it espe-
cially available. The white spruce, called the
Sitka pine, rises to a height of from a hundred
and fifty to a hundred and eighty feet, and meas-
ures from three to six feet in diameter. When
this growth is cut into dimension lumber it very
much resembles our southern pitch-pine. There
is also found in these forests the usual variety of
cedar, fir, ash, maple, and birch trees, mingled with
the others of loftier growth. The yellow cedar of
this region grows nowhere else of such size and
quality. It is much prized, and best ad;i|)ted for
shipbuilding, having been found to be unequaled
for duiability, and also because it is impervious
to the troublesome teredo, or boring worm, which
destroys the ordinary piles under the wharves at
Puget Sound, as well as at Sitka, so rapidly as to
render it necessary to renew them every three or
four years. Southern latitudes, in the neighbor-
hood of the Gulf of Mexico, suffer equally from
the depredations of this active marine pest. The
Alaska cedar is also a choice cabinet wood, pos-
sessing a very agreeable odpr, considerable quanti-
ties of it being shipped for select use in San Fran-
cisco and els(i where. The coast of the Alexan-
der Archipelago comprises nearly eight thousand
AN INEXHAUSTIBLE LUMBER SUPPLY. 147
miles of shore line, forming long straight avenues
of calm deep water many miles in lengtli, sprin-
kled with islands densely wooded from the water's
edge, while the number of good harbors is almost
countless, in which vessels may lay alongside the
land and i-eceive their cargoes of timber or lumber
in the most convenient manner.
When the woods of Maine and Michigan cease
to yield satisfactorily, as they must do by and by,
we have here a ready source of suppl}"^ which no
ordinary demand can exhaust in many years. One
enthusiastic writer upon this subject predicts that
this part of the North Pacific coast will eventually
become the ship-yard of the American continent.
One is hardly prepared to indorse so sweeping a
prediction, but that there is a Jiearly inexhausti-
ble supply of the necessary timber for such a pur-
pose even an inexperienced visitor cannot fail to
realize. It is gratifying to know that these forests
are free from all danger by fire, which often
proves so destructive in the State of Washington
and elsewhere. This immunity from a much
dreaded exigency is owing to the frequent rains,
which keep the undergrowth in Alaska so moist
that the flames cannot spread.
Speaking of Fort Tongas, we should not forget
to mention that a native couple, educated by the
missionaries, are here teaching a school of young
natives numbering fifty pupils, for which our gov-
ernment pays them five hundred dollars per an-
num. The success attained by these instructors
in teaching the ordinaiy branches of an English
148 THE NEW ELDORADO.
education is surprising. Tongas, it will be remem-
bered, is the most southerly point of our Alaska
possessions.
The country teems with animal life. The sea
which laves it?^ shores and the outlying islands is
so full of excellent fish as to have been a wonder
in this respect since the days of the earliest navi-
gators. The same may be said of its rivers, inlets,
and lakes, the former being famous for the abun-
dance, size, and excellence of the salmon which
they produce, and which are annually packed for
exportation in such large quantities to various
parts of the world. We were told by the over-
seer of the canning factory at Pyramid Harbor
that the entire product of the establishment was
already — the season but just commencing — en-
gaged by a Liverpool house. To secure the deliv-
ery the foreign merchant had cheerfully advanced
five hundred jiounds sterling.
"The Alaska banks would be an ocean paradise
to the Newfoundland fishermen," says Professor
Davidson. " The eastern part of Behring Sea 'is
a mighty reserve of cod,' and the area within the
limits of fifty fathoms of water is no less than
eighteen thousand miles." " What I have seen,"
said W. H. Seward at Sitka, in 18G9, "has almost
made me a convert to the theory of some natural-
ists, that the waters of the globe are filled with
stores for the sustenance of animal life surpassing
the available productions of the land." The coast
also abounds in oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs.
The oysters are small, but of excellent flavor, and
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 149
might be greatly improved by cultivation. Clams
and mussels are much esteemed by the aborigines,
the first-named being large and of prime quality.
They dry the clams, as they do salmon and cod,
using no salt in the process, but stringing them
by the score on long blades of strong grass, and
in this shape laying them away for winter use.
There is certainly some special preservative qual-
ity in the atmosphere here which enables the
natives to keep clams unfrozen in good condition
for several months. The matter of " ripeness,"
however, makes no difference to these Indians,
who seem actually to prefer their fish a little
putrid, and oil is purposely kept until it becomes
so before they will use it.
The hills and valleys of the islands and the
mainland support more fur-bearing animals than
can be found on any other part of this continent,
and we certainly believe of any other part of the
world. The great variety includes bears of several
species, wolves, beavers, deer, foxes, caribou, mar-
tens, mountain goats, moose, musk-oxen, and
others. Herds of walruses are found on the far
north coast, as well as in Behring Sea, which
yield food to the natives, and the best of ivory
for sale to the traders. It is a curious fact that no
reptile, toad, lizard, or similar animal is to be
found in Alaskan territory. The waters of the
North Pacific, from the most westerly of the Aleu-
tian Islands up to Behring Strait, swarm with
cod, haddock, sturgeon, large flounders, and hali-
but, while our hardy whalemen successfully pursue
loO THE NEW ELDORADO.
their mammoth game both north and south of the
strait. When the country was first discovered,
thei*e was another important animal found here
in con.siderahle" numbers, known as the sea-cow,
which furnished Vancouver and his crew with
wholesome and palatable meat, and which had
formed a source of food supply for the aborigines
probably for centuries. But this large, amphib-
ious animal, thirty feet long and seal-like in shape,
has now entirely disappeared. This was owing to
merciless slaughter by the Russians, who found
the sea-i ovv an easy prey to capture, because of
its inactivity and clumsiness in the water, besides
which, the creature is said to have been utterly
fearless of man, making no effort to escape when
attacked. They are represented to have been
fierce when attacked by the wolves, and to have
been fully able to defend themselves.
Two islands lying to the north of the Aleutian
group form a favorite resort of the fur-seal, which
so abounds in this region that nearly a century
of active war waged upon them by the hunters,
for the sake of their valuable skins, has produced
no perceptible diminution in their numbers,
riiis is partly owing, however, to the fact that of
Lite years the killing has been restricted as to the
aggregate annual number, and also as to the sex
and age of the seals. The pelts sent from Alaska
have not fallen short of a hundred thousand annu-
ally for the last twenty years, and it is believed
by those who should be able to judge correctly
that this number has been very much exceeded.
THE SEAL ISLANDS. 151
There is hardly an uninterested person in the
Territory who will not express this opinion.
The two islands referred to in Behring Sea,
namely, St. Paul and St. George, together with
two smaller and unimportant ones named respec-
tively Otter Island, which is situated six miles
south of St. Paul, and Walrus Island, about the
same distance to the eastward, are known as the
Prybiloff group. St. Paul is thirteen miles long
by four broad ; St. George is ten miles long and
between four and five broad. Neither of them
have any harbor in which vessels can safely lie,
but they anchor half a mile or more off shore, and
freight is taken or delivered by means of light-
ers. So violent is the surf at times on these
islands in mid-ocean that if the wind is unfavor-
able no attempt at landing is made. Otter Isl-
and is peculiar in being nothing more nor less
than an extinct volcano, with a still gaping, threat-
ening crater, and an elevation of three hundred
feet above the surrounding sea. Its only occu-
pants consist of water-fowl and blue foxes, both
as plentiful as peas in a pod. The animals were
introduced long ago for breeding purposes, and
have greatly increased. These are the " seal
islands " so often spoken of, and which furnish
four fifths of all the sealskins used in the markets
of the world. This sounds like an extravagant
estimate, but it is believed to be quite correct.
The islands are of volcanic origin, having been
thrown up from the bottom of the sea in compara-
tively modern times. When one speaks of geolog-
i:>2 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ical fdcts, one or two tlionsand years are considered
very brief periods. At the time of their discovery,
St. George and St. Paul were uninhabited, but
native Aleuts, the nearest of wliom lived about two
hundred miles south of these islands, were brought
hither and domesticated, to work for the Russian
Fur Company. Since the transfer to our govern-
ment these people have worked uninterruptedly
for the Alaska Commercial Company, which lias,
in addition to the headquarters of the seal-fishery,
some forty trading stations in the Territory.
We speak of the " seal-fisheries," but there is
in reality no fishing about the business. The
seals are all taken on land. The employees of
the company get between the seals and the water
and drive suc-h as are selected inland like a flock
of sheep. They move slowly, pulling themselves
along by their fore flippers, as a dog might do
with his hind legs broken, but they get over the
ground at the rate of one or two miles in the hour,
and are driven the latter distance to the warehouse
before the killing takes place.
It is cuiious that these two islands onlj^ with
a few small spots in the North Pacific, should pos-
sess the peculiar conditions of landing-ground and
climate combined which are necessary for the per-
fect life and leproduction of the fur-seal. H. W.
Elliott, who acted as United States government
agent for four seasons at the seal islands, and who
is good authority upon this special subject, says :
" With tlie exception of these seal islands of
Behring Sea, there are none elsewhere in the
OTHER SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 153
world of the slightest importance to-day. When,
therefore, we note tlie eiigeiness with which ouv
civilization calls for sealskin fur, in s]3ite of fashion
and its caprices, and the fact that it is and always
will be an article of intrinsic value and in de-
mand, it at once occurs to us that the government
is exceedingly fortunate in having this great am-
phibious stock-yard, far up and away in this seclu-
sion of Behring Sea, from which it can draw
continuous revenue, and on which its wise regu-
lations and its firm hand can continue the seals
forever."
This writer's remarks should be qualified, how-
ever, so far as to state that the Russians possess
some profitable " rookeries " situated on the Com-
mander Islands, seven hundred miles to the south-
west of the Prybiloff group, where the same policy
of protection for breeding purposes is enforced as
govern the traffic on our own islands. It is true
that the product of the Russian islands is as noth-
ing compared with that of St. Paul and St. George.
A small number of fur-seal are also secured on the
coast of Brazil, and at the Shetland and Falkland
Islands, giving perhaps twenty thousand pehs an-
nually from other sources than those named in
Alaska. It is our own opinion that at least forty
thousand pelts are sent to market by unauthor-
ized people from the islands and coast of Alaska,
which number should be added to the hundred
thousand which the regular company aie entitled
to export, in getting at the aggregate produced
by the Territory.
154 THE NEW ELDORADO.
The two seal islands leased to the Alaska Com*
mercial Company are about thirty miles apart,
and are seemingly among the most insignificant
landmarks known in the ocean. It is only on
very modern m;ips that they are designated at all,
but they afford to the seals the happiest isolation
and shelter, their position being such as to envelop
them in fog banks nine days out of ten during
the entire season of resort. Neither the seals nor
the natives can long bear the glare of the sum-
mer sun, and so find no fault with this prevailing
screen between them and the sky. There are
no icebergs, properly so called, in these waters.
Behring Strait is too shallow for anything but
light field ice to pass into the North Pacific or
Behring Sea ; there is therefore no fear of visits
from the pol ir bears often seen floating about in
the frozen sea at the north. They would make
sad havoc among the seals were they to get so far
south, and drive them away altogether. Ice floats
off from the immediate shores in the spring, but
encountering the thermal current, this soon dis-
solves, and is no impediment to navigation. It is
marvelous that the natives dwelling on the group
do not die of the poisoned atmosphere arising
from the thousands upon thousands of seal car-
casses annually slaughtered, and which are left to
decay upon the ground. The stench thus created
is so powerful that vessels sailing to leeward,
three or four miles off shore, are permeated by it,
and though their captains may not have been able
to get a solar observation for many days, they can
HABITS OF THE SEAL. 155
easily tell their exact latitude and longitude by
" dead reckoning." Naval surgeons have been
detached by government to visit and examine the
physical condition of the people on St. George
and St. Paul, touching this very matter, and they
have reported that the natives enjoyed good
health, the mortality among them being at a very
low average compared with that of other semi-civ-
ilized communities favorably situated. There is a
church and school-house on each of the islands,
•with white teachers, and also a skilled physician,
who is paid for his services by the Commercial
Company.
The fur-seal traffic has heretofore exceeded all
other regular business in value conducted in this
Territory, though the product of the precious
metals will in future probably take the lead, hard
pressed by the rajDidly growing development of
the fisheries. The habits of the seal are interest-
ing and very peculiar. It is a social animal, and
evinces a degree of intelligence nearly approach-
ing that of the dog. Occasionally a young one
is found domesticated among the natives of the
more populous islands, and when thus brought up
among human beings they become very tractable,
and are easily taught many amusing tricks. They
move in herds, coming to the breeding grounds in
large numbers, and at regular periods of the year,
that is in the latter part of May and early in
June. The contrast between the male and female
seal is great, the former being large, bold, and ag-
gressive, the latter small, peaceful, and quiet ; both
156 THE NEW ELDORADO.
are m'id.*ls of grace and symmetry after their
kind. Wliile the males are specimens of great
physical strength, the females are delicate, timid,
and afTectionafe. The young are born blind and
so remain for a couple of weeks, or more. When
they are about six weeks old the mother takes
them into the water to teach them to swim.
They are very shy of the sea at first, but persist-
ent effort on the mother's part soon makes them
expert swimmers, and rapidly develops that side
of their nature. Daring the breeding season the
old males remain on shore, fasting all the while,
and growing extremely thin, living by absorption
of the blubber which they accumulate while at
sea, so that upon retiring at the end of the season
they are but a mere shadow of their former selves.
They return again the next season, however, as
plethoric as ever.
"All the bulls," says Mr. Elliott, "from the
very first, that have been able to hold their posi-
tions, have not left them from the moment of
their landing, for a single instant, night or day ;
nor will they do so until the end of the rutting
season, which subsides entirely between August
1st and 10th. It begins shortly after the coming
of the cows in early June. Of necessity, there-
fore, this causes them to fast, to abstain entirely
from food of any kind, or water, for three months
at least ; and a few of them actually stay out four
months, in total abstinence, before going back
into the ocean for the first time after ' hauling
up.' They then return as so many bony shadows
ON THE BREEDING GROUNDS. 157
of what they were a few months previously, cov-
ered with wounds ; abject and spiritless, they labo-
riously crawl back to the sea to obtain a fresh lease
of lifeV'
The natural food of the seal is believed to be
small fishes and kelp, that prolific product of the
ocean which is found floating in nearly all lati-
tudes, being torn from its rocky bed by storms
and cai-ried everywhere on the tides and currents.
The females seldom give birth to more than one at
a time, and though they are naturally a very do-
cile animal, the mother will fight savagely for her
young. The old males weigh from two to three
hundred pounds each, when they first land, soon
gathering a harem about them of a dozen females
or more, and permitting no other bull to approach
the circle. There are occasional elopements among
the females, enticed away by young bachelor seals,
who have no family ties to occupy them, but as
a rule the females remain loyal, at least during
the season. The full grown male reaches seven
feet in length, and the female about five feet; the
latter averages about a hundred pounds in weight,
the former weio-h twice as much and often more.
Natui'e seems to produce a much larger number
of females than of males, besides which the law
protects the female from the hunter. The killing
of these animals on St. Paul and St. George is
nearly all done in six weeks of each year, say
from the 10th of June to the 20th of July. As
regards the fur, a seal at four years of age is
thought to yield the best, and is therefore con-
158 THE NEW ELDORADO.
sidered to be at that time in bis prime. It is tbe
males of tbis age, accordingly, wbich are selected
for slaugbter. So numerous ai'e these animals
that the shore is often black with them, three or
four thousand being in sight within the space of a
hundred square rods. The pups are full of play-
fulness, rolling and tumbling about like a litter of
kittens. The rule not to kill the old bulls and
female young is a necessary precaution to prevent
the extermination of the race, which indiscrimi-
nate slaughter has probably done in so many other
places.
CHAPTER XL
Enormous Slaughter of Seals. — Manner of Killing. — Battles
between the Bulls. — A Mythical Island. — The Seal as Food.
— The Sea-Otter. — A Rare and Valuable Fur. — The Baby
Sea-Otter. — Great Breeding-Place of Birds. — Banks of the
Yukon River. — Fur -Bearing Land Animals. — Aggregate
Value of the Trade. — Character of the Native Race.
Surgeon J. B. Parker tells us in a published
article upon the fur-seals of Alaska, that just
previous to the transfer of the country to this
government five hundred thousand sealskins were
being taken from these islands annually, though it
was pretended by the Russians that they restricted
the number to one quarter of this total. The
strange instinct of the animals which causes them
to return yearly in such marvelous numbers to be
slaughtered is a mystery difficult to solve. Per-
sistent cruelty exercised towards them for a cen-
tury has not disturbed their affection for this
chosen breeding-place of their ancestors in Behr-
ing Sea.
The seals are universally killed by a sharp blow
upon the head from a club, which fractures the
skull and produces instant death. The natives
are so skillful in dealing this blow that a second
one is not necessary, and the seal cannot reason-
ably be supposed to suffer any pain, so that the
operation is robbed of all cruel features. The fre-
lP)0 THE NEW ELDORADO.
qnent battles fought between the old bulls to main-
tain possession of their chosen ground and their
harems are represented to be of the fiercest char-
acter, sometimes ending in the death of one of the
combatants, though they are so very hardy and
tenacious of life that this is by no means common.
The breedincj season is at its heij^^ht in the middle
of July. Early in September, the pups having
learned to swim, the " rookeries " are gradually
broken up for the season, old and young departing
together for the deep-sea feeding grounds, nothing
being seen of them again as a body until the fol-
lowing May or June. It is quite a mystery as to
where they go, but that they promptly disperse in
various directions seems most probable, as no seals
are met with in large numbers by navigators of
the Pacific or the South Seas, and they only land
for breeding purposes. The author has seen a few
in the month of j\Iarch off the Samoan group of
islands, also in the month of December near the
coast of Cochin China. And again, in crossing
the Indian Ocean from Bombay to the mouth of
the Red Sea, in February, an occasional head of
the fur-seal would appear above the surface of the
ocean, showing how widely dispersed these ani-
mals are. There is a theory which has long ex-
isted, to the effect that when the seals depart from
Behring Sea they seek a lonely island group in the
centi'al Pacific Ocean, somewhere between 53° and
65° north latitude, and longitude 160° to 170°
west, where they pass their winter months in peace
and plenty. Expeditions have been fitted out at
"ALASKA PORK." Ih.
San Francisco for the purpose of discovering these
possible islands, but no one has ever seen them.
Those most conversant with seal-life do not entei--
tain this supposition, and for good reasons. If any
such land existed in the region designated it would
surely have been discovered, as it is too near the
direct track of commerce not to have been sighted
o
long ago.
The flesh of the fur-seal is eaten by the natives,
and the blubber also serves for fuel, as well as fur-
nishing a much-used oil. The stench of the burn-
ing fat is extremely disgusting to one not accus-
tomed to it. There is but little lean meat on the
animal ; nearly the whole body is composed of
blubber. The whites eat the flesh of the young
seal, which is not unpalatable when properl}^ pre-
pared, and is called Alaska pork. When the fe-
males arrive at the " rookeries," like the old males,
they are in remarkably good flesh, so much so, in-
deed, as to render locomotion difficult ; but though
they do not fast like the bulls, they nevertheless
become quite thin by the end of the season.
St. George and St. Paul islands contain about
three hundred and. fifty Aleuts, whose sole busi-
ness is killing and skinning the seals, and after-
wards salting and packing the pelts for shipment.
They are all in the regular employment of the Com-
mercial Company, which leases the islands. By
the terms of the lease from our government, only
natives of the Aleutian group of islands can be em-
ployed to kill the seals ; no whites except the over-
seers are permitted to remain on the two islands.
1G2 THE NEW ELDORADO.
An agent of the United States occasionally visits
them to see that the spirit of the lease is faithfully
adhered to ; otherwise they are quite isolated from
the outer world. Under the protective system,
which is presumedly adhered to, the number of
seals is said to be on the increase, and the space
on the shores which they occupy is enlarged yeaily.
It has been officially estimated, after actual in-
spection, that over one million seals are born
on these islands every year. It is asserted that
double the number of pelts now authorized could
safely be taken from the Pribyloff group annually,
and it would certainly seem so, when this extraor-
dinary fecundity is realized. But it must also be
taken into consideration that man is not the only
enemy which the fur-seal has to encounter. When
the young ones leave the shore to begin their deep-
sea life, they become the prey of many marine
cormorants, among which the shark is said to be
the most active. This tiger of the ocean does not
attack the large, full-grown seals, who are too
wary and active for him, but the young ones often
fill his capacious maw.
The aborigines employed upon the seal islands
do not reach a very old age ; persons of over fifty
years are seldom found among them. Consump-
tion is the most fatal disease which they en-
counter; this runs its course with singular speed
after being once contracted. All attempts of the
physicians are in vain; the patient, falling into
a condition of hopeless indifference, soon passes
away. We were told that the natives of Alaska
THE SEA-OTTER. 163
generally were very difficult to treat medically, ig-
noring the benefit of medicines, and generally
refusing to take them. These semi-savages will
not hesitate to resort to incantations to exorcise
evil spirits (or disease, which to them is the same
thing), but they fear to use the white man's agent
to remove these evil influences.
For a number of years the manufacture of oil
from seal blubber was followed by the fur com-
pany with profit, thus disposino; of the carcasses
of the animals whose skin had been removed ; but
oil-making on the seal islands has been discon-
tinued, as being no longer a paying business.
The sea-otter is a large animal, having fine,
close black fur, sprinkled with long, white-tipped
hairs, which strongly individualize it and add
much to its beauty. Its pelt is used mostly for
trimming, being both too heavy and too expensive
for making up into entire garments. The size of
a full-grown skin is about four feet in length by
about two and a half wide. It is a solitary marine
animal, never seen in numbers, rarely even with
a mate, and is extremely shy, demanding great
patience and shrewdness in the hunter to insure
its capture. This animal rarely lands except to
bring forth its young, and the natives say that it
sometimes gives birth to its progeny on floating
sedge or kelp at sea. Of this material the ingen-
ious creature makes a sort of buoyant nest, ac-
cording to the natives' ideas. When sleeping, it
floats upon its back, carrying its young clasped
to its body in a ludicrously human fashion. The
164 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Indians hunt the animals by going out a consid
erable distance to sea in their fiail canoes, and
watching for the appearance of the otter's nose
above the water, they paddle silently towards it
so as not to disturb the game. At the proper
moment the well-balanced and delicate lance
is thrown with unerring aim. A careful watch
is then kept for the reappearance of the otter,
which must sooi\ come to the surface to breathe,
being a warm-blooded, respii'atory animal. A
second lance is pretty sure to disable the otter,
when it floats helpless on the surface, falling an
easy prey to the pursuer. At times six or eight
natives in single canoes join in the hunt, so as to
form a broad circle ; the nearest one to the otter
when he rises after being wounded is the one to
throw the second lance. The hunters obtain from
the local traders between forty and fifty dollars
for a full-grown otter skin, and sometimes double
that amount, so that if successful in the pursuit
they are well rewarded for many hours of pa-
tient watchfulness, aside from which they realize
a keen enjoyment in the pursuit as sportsmen.
The hunters oftenest pursue their game alone,
and if a native secures an otter after a whole week
of watching he feels well repaid, though during
that time he has lived on a scanty supply of food,
and has sle[)t nightly in the open air exposed to
the rain. Sometimes his watch is kept in his
boat upon the sea, and sometimes among the
rocks on the shore, in a bay where the otters are
known to resort occasionally. A few years of
THE FUR OF THE SEA-OTTER. 165
such rough life and exposure ages even an Ahiskan
Indian, and it is not surprising that rheumatism
and consumption should so prevail among them.
Up to a certain stage such a life may liarden the
hunter, but the turning-point comes at last, and
when the native begins to fail in physical strength
he does so rapidly; simply giving way to the
first attack, rejecting all medicine which the
white man may offer, and unless he is an impor-
tant member of his tiibe, a chief or a leader of
some sort, even the shaman or medicine man with
his incantations is not called in. Good nursing is
discarded, the invalid considers it to be his fate to
die, and seems to go half way to meet the grim
destroyer.
The fur of the sea-otter varies in beauty of
texture and value according to the animal's age
and the season of the year in which it is captured.
They are considered to be in their prime when
about five years old, and those skins which are
taken in winter are always of a more beautiful
texture than those which are secured in summer.
Of all animals hunted by man it is most on the
alert, and, as we have said, most difficult to ob-
tain. One intelligent statement declares that be-
fore they were so systematically hunted eight
thousand skins were shipped from Alaska in a
single year, but we believe that from four to five
thousand otter skins would be considered a good
twelve months' yield in these days. The Saanack
islets and reefs are the principal resort of these
animals on the coast, and hither the natives come
166 THE NEW ELDORADO.
from long distances to hunt tbem, camping on the
main island. Frequent attempts have been made
to rear the young sea-otter, specimens being often
taken when the mother is captured, but they al-
ways perish by starvation, never partaking of
food after being separated from the mother ; a
well-known fact, which was referred to with not a
little sentiment by the experienced hunter who
related the circumstance to us. " Him die of
broke heart," said the native, attempting an ex-
pression of tenderness upon his egg-shaped fea-
tures, which proved a ludicrous caricature. We
saw a stuffed specimen of a young sea-otter in a
native cabin at Juneau, consisting of the skin
only, but very cleverly mounted and preserved by
the hunter who had captured its mother.
It is somewhat singular that the world's sup-
ply of otter fur, like that of sealskin, comes almost
entirely from the coast of Alaska, in the North
Pacific and Behring Sea. Otter fur may be said to
be almost confined in its geographical distribution
to the northwest shores of America.
The successful pursuit of the animal, so far as
the natives are concerned, is of even more impor-
tance than that of the fur-seals, for contingent
upon its chase, and from the proceeds of its pelts,
some five thousand natives are enabled to live in
comparative luxury. It requires, as we have
shown, great energy, hardihood, and patient ap-
plication to effect its capture, but the sea-otter is
a most beneficent gift of Providence to these ab-
origines, and administers, as well, to the pride of
BIRDS. 167
the fashionable world. The natives in former
times attached great importance to preparing
themselves for hunting the sea-otter, fasting, bath-
ing, and performing certain mystic rites before
embarking for the purpose. After his return
from a successful hunt the Aleut was accustomed
to destroy the garments which he wore during the
expedition, throwing them into the sea, so that
the otters might find them and come to the con-
clusion that their late persecutor had been
drowned and there was no further danger in fre-
quenting the shore. This practice, ridiculous as
it seems to us, servesto illustrate the superstitious
character of the Alaskan natives, who seldom fail
to see omens in the most trifling every -day occur-
rences.
The interior and northern parts of Alaska are
the greatest breeding- places for birds in the
world, being the resort of innumerable flocks,
which come from various parts of this continent,
and others which make the tropical islands their
home a large portion of the year on both the
Atlantic and Pacific sides of America. These
myriads of the feathered tribes consist largely of
geese, ducks, and swans, coming hither for nest-
ing, and to fatten upon the wild salmon berries,
red and black currants, cranberries, blackberries,
bilberries, and the like, which greatly abound dur-
ing the brief but intense Arctic summer. There
are eleven kinds of edible berries which mature in
August, among which the wild strawberries are
the finest flavored we have ever eaten. It is said
168 THE NEW ELDORADO.
that the geese especially become so fat feeding
upon the plentiful supply of wholesome food that
at the close of the season they can hardly fly, and
are thus easily caught by the natives, who, in
turn, feast luxuriously upon their tender and suc-
culent flesh. Explorers tell us that they have
seen on the banks of the Yukon — the great river
of central Alaska, and the third in magnitude
in America — the breeding-place of the canvas-
back ducks, which has been heretofore a matter
of some mystery. They prepare on the banks
of this northern watercourse broad platforms of
sedge, mingled with small tU'igs and bushes, laid
compactly on marshy places, and without build-
ing a carefully arranged nest deposit their eggs
in untold numbers. That keen and scientific
observer, the late Major Kennicott, says he saw
on the banks of the Yukon acres of marshy
ground thus covered with the eggs of the canvas-
back ducks, in numbers defying computation.
" Tlie region drained by the Upper Yukon is
spoken of by explorers," says Mr. Charles Hal-
lock, editor of "Forest and Stream," "as bfing
a perfect Eden, where flowers bloom, beneficent
plants yield their berries and fruits, majestic
trees spread their umbrageous fronds, and song-
birds make the branches vocal. The water of tlie
streams is pure and pellucid ; the blue of the rip-
pled lake is like Geneva's ; their banks resplen-
dent with verdure, and with grass and shining
pebbles."
At the first approach of winter the augmented
THE HAIR-SEAL. 169
millions of birds take flight for the low latitudes,
or their homes in the temperate zone, tlie old
birds accompanied by the broods which they havj
hatched in the solitudes of the far north. Those
which have come fioni the neighborhood of tlie
Caribbean Sea turn in their flight unerringly in
that direction ; those from the South Pacific
islands heading as surely for that tropical region.
Only the ptarmigan and the Arctic owl, with a
few of the white-hawk family, remain to brave
the winter cold of northern Alaska, with the
hardy Eskimo, the walrus, and the polar bear.
The smaller tribes of birds are well represented
here in the summer season, even including several
species of swallows, martins, and sparrows, these
tiny creatures seeming to follow some general
bird instinct. Even the domestic robin is seen as
far north as Sitka. Limited scientific researcli
lias recognized and classified one hundred and
ninety -two different kinds of birds which ai'e
found in this Tenitory, a considerable number of
which were unknown to science previous to 1867.
We have said nothing relative to the hair-seals,
or sea-lions, of Alaska, because their importance
is comparatively insignificant, having no commer-
cial value. Nevertheless, they are utiliz,ed by
the ingenious natives in various ways ; the hides
serve as a covering for a certain class of boats,
made with wooden frames, and are also employed
for several domestic purposes. The walrus is
found in largest numbers on the north coast, in
the true Arctic region, affording some valuable
170 THE NEW ELDORADO.
oil, together with considerable ivoi'V, in carving
which the natives are very expert. Though the
fur-trade of the land is by no means equal to that
of the sea, still its aggregate results are very con-
siderable. It employs numerous hunters and
gives profitable business to many white traders,
nearly all of whom make a permanent home in
the Territory. Undoubtedly the most prolific
and valuable fur-yielding district on the main-
land is the valley of the Yukon, where the beaver,
marten, several kinds of bears, with the wolf and
fox, afford the best fur. We saw at the princi-
pal store in Wrangel many packages of bearskins
prepared for shipment to San Francisco. These
packages would average five hundred dollars each
in value, and had been gathered from those
brought in by the natives during the two weeks
intervening between the arrival of the regular
steamers. Single bearskins sell here, according to
their marketable character, for from twenty-five to
thirty-five dollars each. The natives make little
or no use of these skins, preferring the woolen
blanket of commerce. The red and cross fox is
found everywhere in the Territory, and its skin is
comparatively cheap. It is singular that the blue
fox is found only on the islands of St. Paul, St.
George, Attoo, and Atkha, while the white fox is
to be sought only at the far north. There is also
the black fox, whicii, however, is a great rarity,
thought to be an occasional accident of nature;
the skins always biing extravagant prices from
the traders. The black fox is not found in any
THE FUR-TRADE. 171
special locality, but occurs now and again in any
part of the Territory. The skin of the silver fox/
is also highly prized, and proves a valuable peltry
to the native hunters, forty dollars each being
the usual price paid by the white traders. Only
a few hundred are taken yearly. The land-otter
and the beaver so abound as to make up a large
total value annually. The latest official records
show that there has been produced and shipped
from Alaska annually an average of fifty-seven
thousand beaver skins ; eighteen thousand land-
otter skins ; seventy-one thousand foxes' skins of
the various sorts ; and of musk-rats two hundred
'and twenty-one thousand. These figures should
be largely added to in each instance (we were
told by one official that this aggregate estimate
should be doubled), in order to include the un-
registered pelts which are annually secured by
various hunters, both whites and natives, and
which find their way to distant markets through
irregular channels, more especially over the bor-
ders of British Columbia.
This fur-trade is open to all, but requires capi-
tal, organization, and persistency to make it profit-
able. The natives do nearly all of the hunting
and trapping, and will oidy engage in it, as a rule,
to supply themselves with means to procure cer-
tain luxuries from the trader's store, such as sugar,
tea, and tobacco. We are sorry to add to these
comparative necessities the article of whiskey,
which is only too often furnished illicitly to the
eager natives. When these wants are supplied
172 THE NEW ELDORADO.
they idle away their time until stimulated once
more by their necessities to go upon the trail of
the fiir-boaring animals. Of course there are some
exceptions to this, many of tliem being steady and
willing workers, but we speak of the average na-
tive. There is no fear of the supply of furs being
exhausted under tliis system of capture ; even a
combined and vigorous effort on the part of the
hunters could not accomplish that in many years.
Unlike our western Indians, these Alaskans are
a comparatively thrifty race, entirely self -sustain-
ing, and never require support from the govern-
ment, notwithstanding idUmess is their besetting
sin, as is, indeed, characteristic of uncivilized peo-
ple everywhere.
We were told of several of these aborigines who
had learned the lesson of thrift from the whites
to such good effect as to have saved sums of
money varying from one to five hundred dollars,
which they had deposited in the Savings Bank of
San Francisco, and upon which they drew their
annual interest ; an investment, the safety and
economy of which they fully appreciated.
CHAPTER XII.
Climate of Alaska. — Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle. — Win-
ter and Summer Seasons. — The Japanese Current. — Tem-
perature in the Interior. — The Eskimos. — Their Customs.
— Their Homes. — These Arctic Regions once Tropical. —
The Mississippi of Alaska. — Placer Mines. — The Natives. —
Strong Inclination for Intoxicants.
It is a well-known fact, proven by official ob-
servations, that the climate of the Pacific coast is
considerably more temperate than that of the
same latitude on the Atlantic side of the conti-
nent. The record of ten consecutive years, kept
at Sitka, gave an annual mean of 46° Fah,
Tliis is in latitude 57° 3' north, and is found b}^
comparison to be four degrees warmer than the
average of Portland, Me., or six degrees warmer
than the temperature of Quebec, Canada. The
average winter is milder, therefore, at Sitka than
it is at Boston, however singular the assertion
may at first strike us, in connection with the com-
monly entertained idea of this northwestern Ter-
ritory. The me.an winter temperature of Sitka
and Newport, R. L, are very nearly the same, and
there is only a difference of six degrees in tlieir
mean yearly temperature, though there is a differ-
ence of sixteen degrees of latitude.
We have before us a printed letter which ap-
peared in the " Philadelphia Press," signed by
174 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Mr. C. F. Fowler, late an agent of the Alaska
Fur Company, who has resided for twelve years
in Alaska, in which he says : " You who live in
the States look upon this country as a land of per-
petual ice and snow, yet I grew in my garden last
year, at Kodiak, abundant crops of radishes, let-
tuce, can-ots, onions, cauliflowers, cabbages, peas,
tui'nips, potatoes, beets, parsnips, and celery.
Within five miles of this garden was one of the
largest glaciers in Alaska." In a certain sense it
is surely a country of paradoxes.
The harbor of Sitka is never closed by ice,
which cannot be truthfully said of Boston or New
York.
Dr. Sheldon Jackson, long resident in the Ter-
ritory as United States general agent of educa-
tion for Alaska, tells us that the temperature of
Sitka and that of Richmond, Va., are nearly iden-
tical. Mr. McLean of the United States Signal
Service, who has been located at Sitka for several
years, says, " the climate of southern Alaska is
the most equable I ever experienced."
There is in Alaska a very large section of coun-
try, composed of islands and the mainland, where
the average temperature is higher than at Chris-
tiania, capital of Norway, or Stockholm, capital
of Sweden, — where the winters are milder and
the fall of rain and snow is less than in southern
Scandinavia, which is the geographical counter-
part of Alaska in the opposite hemisphere. Sitka
harbor is no more subject to arctic temperature
than is Clresapeake Bay. " It must be a fastidi-
TEMPERA TURE. 1 7 5
ous person," said Mr. Seward in his speech upon
Alaska, *' who complains of a climate in which,
while the eagle delights to soar, the humming-
bird does not disdain to flutter." If it is some-
times misty and foggy on the coast, it is not so to
a greater extent than is the case during a large
portion of the year in the cities of London and
Liverpool.
Both the islands and mainland of this latitude
afford 'ample grass for cows, sheep, and horses,
also producing, with ordinary care, the usual do-
mestic vegetables, as we have shown, the asser-
tion of certain writers to the contrary notwith-
standing. We have not far to look for the cause
of this favorable temperature existing at so north-
erly a range of latitude. The thermal stream
known as the Japanese Current, coming from the
far south charged with equatorial heat, is precisely
similar in its effect to that of the better known
Gulf Stream on our Atlantic coast, rendering the
climate of these islands and the coast of the main-
land of the North Pacific remarkably warm and
humid. We speak especially and at length of this
subject of the temperature of Alaska, because a
wrong impression is so generally held concerning
it. At a distance from the coast the temperature
falls, and most of the inland rivers are closed by
ice half the year. Even in the interior we are in
about the same latitude and average temperature
of St. Petersburg. Thus on the line of Behring
Strait the annual mean at Fort Yukon, which lies
just inside of the Arctic circle, six hundred miles
176 THE NEW ELDORADO.
inland from Norton Sound, is 16.92° ; this is in
latitude ^-^° north. Along the coast of southern
Alaska the fall of snow is not greater in amount
than is experienced during an ordinary winter in
the New England States, and it disappears even
more quickly than it does in Vermont and New
Hampshire. In the interior and at the far north,
the quantity of snow is of course much greater,
and covers the ground for about half the year.
But where the sun shines continuously through-
out the twenty-four hours, the giowth of vegetable
life is extremely rapid. The snow has hardly dis-
appeared before a mass of herbage springs up, and
on the spot so lately covered by a white sheet,
sparkling with frosty crystals, there is spread a
soft mantle of variegated green. The leaves, blos-
soms, and fruits rapidly follow each other, so that
even in this boreal region there is seed-time and
harvest. The annual recurrence of this carnival
season is all the more impressive in the realm of
the Frost King.
The Japanese Current, already referred to,
strikes these shores at Queen Charlotte Island in
latitude 50° north, where it divides, one portion
going northward and westward along the coast of
Alaska, and the other southward, tempering the
waters Avhich border upon Washington, Oregon,
and California; hence their mild climate. Sea
captains who frequently make the voyage between
San Francisco and Yokohama have told the au-
thor that this Japanese Current — with banks
and bottom of cold water, while its body and sur-
DIVERSITY OF CLIMATE. 177
face are warm — is so clearly defined as to be dis-
tinguishable in color from the ordinary hue of the
Pacific Ocean, and that its deep blue forms a visi-
ble line of demarcation between the greater body
and itself along its entire course. The thermom-
eter will easily define such a cin-rent, and this the
author has often seen demonstrated from a ship's
deck ; but it must be a very keen e^^e that can dis-
tinguish such differences of color at sea as the
above assertion would indicate.
In so extended a territory as that of Alaska,
with broad plains, deep valleys, and lofty moun-
tain ranges, it is reasonable to suppose there must
be a great diversity of climate. The brief in-
land summer is represented to exhibit marked
extremes of heat, and the winter corresponding
extremes of cold. W. H. Dall, an undoubted au-
tliority in all matters relating to the valley of the
Yukon, though his book upon the country was
published some twenty years since, says : " At
Fort Yukon I have seen the thermometer at noon,
not in the direct rays of the sun, stand at 112°, and
I was informed by the commander of the post
tliat several spirit thermometers graded up to
120° had burst under the scorching sun of the
Arctic midsummer." Fort Yukon is the most
northerly point in Alaska inhabited by white men.
It is estimated that ten or twelve thousand Eski-
mos live in the uninviting region north of the Yu-
kon valley. They are a most remarkable people,
who are struggling with the cold three quartei-s of
the year, and who seem to be strangely content
178 THE NEW ELDORADO.
with a bare existence. Their days and nights,
their seasons and years, are not like those of the
rest of tlie world. Six months of day is succeeded
by six months of night. They have three months
of sunless winter, three months of nightless sum-
mer, and six months of gloomy twilight. No
Christian enlightenment or religious teaching of
any sort h<is ever found its way into this region.
The people believe in evil spirits and powers who
are in some way to be propitiated, but have no
conception of a Divine Being who overrules all
things for good. Like the southern Alaskans they
are superstitious to the last degree, and discover
omens in the most ordinary occurrences. The
decencies of life are almost totally disregarded
among them, their highest purpose being appar-
ently the achievement of animal comfort and
gorging themselves with food and oil.
Their sky is famous for its beautiful auroral dis-
play — gorgeous pyrotechnics of nature — in the
long, chill winter night, when a brilliant arch spans
the heavens from east to west, marked with oscil-
lating hues of yellow, blue, green, and violet, ren-
dering everything light as day for a few monionts,
then falling back into darkness. So off the coast
of Norway among the Lofoden Islands, the hardy
men who pursue the cod-fishery in that region,
during the winter season, depend upon the Aurora
Borealis to light their midnight labor, that being
considered the most favorable hour of the twenty-
four to secure the fish. Without this nocturnal
met(!()ric illumination, it would be darkness indeed
in the polar regions for half the year.
THE ESKIMOS. 170
This phenomenon in its Arctic development is
so much intensified as to quite belittle the exhi-
bition with which we are familiar in New Eng-
land, and which is called the Northern Lights.
It is certainly very odd that these boreal natives,
the Eskimos proper, should have precisely the
same mode of salutation which the New Zealand
Maoris practice, though they are separated by so
many thousand miles of ocean, namely, the rubbing
of noses together between two persons who desire
to evince pleasure at meeting. No matter how oily
the Eskimo's nose may be, or however dirty the
Maori's face, to decline this mode of salutation
when offered is to give mortal offense, either in
tropical New Zealand or in arctic Alaska, at
Point Barrow or at Ohinemutu. " The home of
the Eskimos," says Bancroft, in his excellent work
on the natives of the Pacific coast, " is a model of
filth and freeness. Coyness is not one of their
vices, nor is modesty ranked among their virtues.
The latitude of innocency characterizes all their
social relations ; they refuse to do nothing in pub-
lic that they would do in private." They seem to
live in a primitive state, without craving anything
of the white man's possessions, except tobacco and
rum, which are smuggled to them by contraband-
ists, who come on to the coast to trade for furs and
ivory. This class of traders, sailing from San
Francisco, and stopping at the Hawaiian Islands
to procure a few hogsheads of the vilest intoxicant
which is made, pass along the northern coast of
Alaska, touching at certain places where they are
180 THE NEW ELDORADO.
expected annually. The walrus not only sup-
plies the Eskimo with food, but its tusks are
used as the common currency among them, and
are secured in considerable quantities by tiie il-
licit traders. The encroachment of unscrupulous
contrabandists renders the utter extinction of the
walrus only a question of time. It is to be re-
gretted that the wholesale slaughter of this ani-
mal cannot be prevented. If this could be brought
about, as in the instance of the fur-seal, we might
continue to get ivory from the shores of the
Frozen Sea for all time. The natural enemy of
the walrus is the polar bear, but his most relent-
less pursuer is man.
These Eskimos wrap their dead in skins closely
sewed and lay them in the tundra, together with
the worldly possessions of the deceased, without
any funeral ceremonies. It would be sacrilege
for any one to disturb this property left with the
body, and no member of the tribe would think of
doing so.
In the Yukon Valley the remains of elephants
and buffaloes are found fossilized, as those of the
rhinoceros were discovered on the opposite conti-
nent in Siberia, thus showing that this now
arctic region was once tropical, a conclusion,
nevertheless, which seems to be almost impossible
to the traveler while gazing upon Niagaras of
frozen rivers in the month of July.
The Yukon River is the Mississippi of Alaska,
forming with its several tributaries the great in-
land highway of the Territory. As yet there are
THE YUKON RIVER. 181
no roads in the country, everything is transported
by water or on the backs of the natives ; the great
importance of such an extensive water-way c;in
therefore be readily understood. The magnitude
of the Yukon — one of the twelve longest rivers
in the world — will be realized by the fact tliat
it is still a matter of doubt among different writ-
ers which of the two rivei-s named is the largest
with respect to the volume of their currents,
though Ivan Petroff, in his report as agent of the
Secretary of the Interior, speaks thus confidently
upon the subject : " The people of the United
States will not be quick to take the idea that the
volume of water in an Alaskan river is greater
than that discharged by their own Mississippi ;
but it is entirely within the bounds of honest
statement to say that the Yukon River, the vast
deltoid mouth of which opens into Norton Sound,
of Behring Strait, discharges every hour of re-
corded time as much, if not one third more, water,
than the ' Father of Waters ' as it flows to the
Gulf of Mexico."
This writer does not seem to us given to exag-
geration, but still we are a little inclined to question
the accuracy of his estimate as to the volume of
water borne seaward by this great Alaskan river.
The Yukon rises in the Rocky Mountain range
of British Columbia; entering Alaska at about
64° north latitude, and pursuing its course nearly
from east to west across the entire Territory, it
finally empties, as stated, into Behring Strait
through Norton Sound. The liver is navigable for
182 THE NEW ELDORADO.
fifteen to eighteen hundred miles, while its entire
length is computed at over two thousand miles, with
an average width of five miles for half the distance
from its mouth. There are several places on the
lower Yukon where one bank is invisible from
the other. It is seventy-five miles across its five
mouths and the intersecting deltas. At some
places, six or seven hundred miles inland, the
I'iver expands to twenty miles in breadth, thus
forming in the interior a series of connected lakes,
which explorers pronounce to be deep and navi-
gable in all parts. This great water-way can only
be said to have been partially explored, but those
])ersevering pioneers who have made the attempt
to unravel its mysteries have given us extremely
interesting details of their experiences, all uniting
in bearing witness that its banks are rich in fur-
bearing animals, and that its waters are stocked
with an abundance of fish, including the all-per-
vading salmon. These valuable fishes follow the
same instinct which they exhibit in other parts of
the world, in their annual pilgrimage of reproduc-
tion, that is, after entering a river's mouth, to
advance as far as possible towards its source.
Besides fish and fur-bearing animals, the region
through which the Yukon flows contains abundant
deposits of gold, silver, copper, nickel, and bitu-
minous coal. Some placer gold mines which
were worked on its banks and in its shallows, so
long as the season permitted, are credibly reported
to have yielded to one party of prospectors
nearly eighty dollars per day to each man.
THE INLAND TRIBES. 183
The trouble to be encountered in working these
phicers is owing to their remoteness from all sources
of supply, and the exposure to the long winters
which prevail in the placer gold-producing regions.
These are obstacles, however, which will one of
tliese days be overcome by the erection of suitable
shelter, and a rich new mining field will thus be
permanently opened. There are a number of
trading-posts along the course of the Yukon at
which white men reside permanently to traffic
with the natives, purchasing furs from such as will
hunt ; and there are many who are represented to
be industrious and provident, supplying the whites
with meat and fish as well as with pelts, fully ap-
preciating the advantage of steady habits and reg-
ular wages. In this respect the inland tribes dif-
fer materially from most of those living on the
coast ; the latter care little for work or wages until
they are driven by necessity to seek employment.
We speak in general terms ; there are of course
many worthy exceptions, but savage races have
little idea of thrift, and like the wild animals are
aroused to action only by the demands of hunger.
In equatorial regions where the nutritious fruits
are so abundant that the natives have only to
pluck and to eat, they are sluggish, dirty, and
heedless, living only for the present hour. In this
Arctic region where the sea is crowded with food
and the fields are covered with berries, the same
listlessness prevails as regards the future with
nine out of ten of the aborigines. These remarks
do not apply to the Aleuts, from whom the Com-
184 THE NEW ELDORADO.
mercial Company obtains its workmen. These
are mostly half-breeds, who are far more civilized
than are our Western Indians.
The proprietors of the Tread well gold mine,
Douglass Island, and of the works at Silver Bow
Basin, employ large numbers of the natives, find-
ing them to be reliable and industrious laborers.
" Where we can separate these Alaskan natives
from the objectionable influences which are apt to
grow up in populous centres, Hnd especially from
multitudes of adventurous miners who come from
a distance, we find them to be faithful and tracta-
ble workers," said an employer to us.
" How about the Chinese ? " we asked.
" They are excellent workers," was the reply.
" Set them a task, show them how to perform it,
and it will surely be done. They are almost like
automatons in this respect and require no watch-
ing.''
'' Then why not employ them more generally?"
"Because of the prejudice, the unreasonable
]>rejiidice, against them. Our other workmen re-
bel if we keep many Chinamen on the pay-roll."
This corresponded exactly with the author's
experience elsewliero, in various parts of the world
where the Chinese have sought a new home out-
side of China. John is not perfect, but he is in-
finitely superior to a large portion of the drinking,
rowdy, and restless foreign element which fills so
large a place in the labor field of this country.
The greatest care is necessary to keep spiritu-
ous liquors away from the aborigines, a craving
NATIVE DESIRE FOR INTOXICANTS. 185
for which is beyond their control where there is a
possibility of its being obtained. When they fall
under its influence they seem to utterly lose their
senses, and become dangerous both to themselves
and to the whites. As has been intimated, the
only means of locomotion is afforded by the water-
courses, and the natives, being excellent canoeists,
find ample employment of this nature, both in
traversing the rivers and along the shore of the
islands. The waters of the Yukon, like those of
the Neva at St. Petersburg, freeze to a depth of
five or six feet in winter.
CHAPTER XIII.
Sailing Northward. — Chinese Labor. — Unexplored Islands. —
The Alexander Archipelago. — Rich Virgin Soil. — Fish Can-
ning. — Myriads of Salmon. — Native Villages. — Reckless
Habits. — Awkward Fashions and their Origin. — Tattooing
Young Girls. — Peculiar Effect of Inland Pa&sages. — Moun-
tain Echoes. — Moonlight and Midnight on the Sea.
Let us observe more order in these notes, and
resume the course of our experiences in consecu-
tive form.
As we speed on our sinuous course northward,
inhaling with delight the pure and bahny atmos-
phere, beai-ing always a little westerly, winding
through narrow channels which divide the richly
wooded wilderness of islands, avoiding here and
there the ambuscaded reefs, the pleasurable sen-
sation is intense. The scenery, while in some
respects similar to that of the St. Lawrence River
and the Hudson of New York, is yet infinitely su-
perior to either. After having reached latitude
54" 40' we come upon Dixon Entrance, a reach
of the sea which separates Alaska from British
Columbia, and from this point we are sailing ex-
clusively in the purple shadow of our own shore,
and in the watei's of the United States. At times
we pass islands as laige as the State of Massachu-
setts, whose picturesque and irregular mountain-
ous surfaces are covered with immemorial trees,
NATURE ALONE ANTIQUE. 187
and whose unknown interiors are believed to be
rich in coal, iron, silver, and other metals. The
axe has never echoed in the deep shade of these
dense plantations of nature ; they form a pathless
wilderness, solemn and silent, save for the stealthy
ti"ead of wild beasts, the mournful music of wav-
ing pines, and the occasional notes of wandering
seabirds. Tlie migratory flocks of the tropics as
a rule go farther north to raise their broods, but a
few, weary of wing, shorten their aerial journey
and build nests on these islands. For many cen-
tui'ies past the great columnar trees have grown
to mammoth size, and have then fallen only by
the weight of years, enriching the ground with
their decayed substance and giving place to
another similar growth, which, in its turn, has
also flourished and passed away. How like the
course of human races ! This process has been
going on perhaps for twice ten thousand years.
" Nature alone is antique," says Carlyle. The
past history of Alaska, except for a comparatively
short period, is a blank to the people of the nine-
teenth century.
Day after day there is a continuous and un-
broken chain of mountain scenery. On the right
of our course is a broad strip of the mainland, an
Alpine region, thirty miles in width, which forms
a part of southern Alaska, bounded on the east by
British Columbia, and on the west by the many
spacious islands, which create so perfect a break-
water that the constant swell of the contiguous
ocean is not felt. Some of these islands lie within
188 THE NEW ELDORADO.
a quarter of a mile of each other, on either side
of our way, and yet the water is far too deep to
admit of anchoring, the peaks rising abruptly
from unknown depths to thousands of feet above
the sea. The channels seem still more narrow
from the great height of the mountains which line
the course. The eye catches with delight the
bright ribbons of waterfalls tumbling down their
sides, in gleeful uproar, foaming and sparkling to-
wards the depths below. These are fed by melt-
ing snow and hidden lakes far up in the cloud-
screened summits. Some of these waterfalls,
narrow and swift, leap from point to point, now
forming small cascades, and now continuing in a
perpendicular form like a column of crystal.
Others, so abrupt and precipitous are the heights
from which they are launched, fall in an unbroken
stream, clinging to the cliffs at first, but quickly
expanding into a thin sheet rivaling the Bridal
Veil of the Yosemite, and reaching the base in a
constant gauzelike spray.
The wide, open tracks seen now and then on
the steep, thickly-wooded mountain sides, reaching
from high up to the snow-line down to the very
surface of the water, are the pathways swept by
giant avalanches. What immense power and
lightning-like speed are suggested by the broad,
clean swath that is left ! The wind caused by
the rushing avalanches is almost equally resist-
less, the trees on either side of the track being
torn into splinters by it.
Now and again, above the tops of the giant
THE ALEXANDER ARCHIPELAGO. 189
pines, one can see moving objects on the exposed
peaks and cliffs, almost too far away and too
small for identification, but we know them to be
wild mountain goats, — the Alaskan chamois, —
quite safe from the hunters in these perilous
heights, never trod by the foot of man. The ten-
der glow of twilight enshrouding mountain peaks,
emerald isles, and the gently throbbing bosom of
the sea, added daily a witching charm to a scene
which already seemed perfect in beauty.
The principal island group lying off the shore
of southwestern Alaska is named the Alexander
Archipelago, in honor of the Tzar of Russia. It ex-
tends about three hundred miles north and south,
and is seventy-five miles from east to west, em-
bracing over eleven hundred islands, scarcely one
of which has been explored. The group reaches
from Dixon Entrance to Cross Sound, in latitude
68° 25' north. Upon landing at one of these
islands it was found to be covered by an impervi-
ous forest ; the mass of timber and undergrowth
was so compact as to defy oiu* progress. The tan-
gle of bushes, roots, vines, and branches formed
almost as impenetrable a wall as though built of
masonry. The wildest jungles of India are not
more dense. Where not covered and hidden by
trees, the earth was flecked here and there by
the sun, being carpeted with moss and ferns so
thickly spread as to form a spongy surface, upon
which only the velvety feet of small wild animals
could be sustained. A human pedestrian, were
he to attempt to pass over it, would sink in this
190 THE NEW ELDORADO.
vegetable compound knee- deep at every step.
There are no paths in these jungles ; the natives
have no occasion to penetrate them, their living
comes from the sea, and the river courses are their
hunting m-ounds.
This virgin soil, were it to be drained and
cleared of trees, would be rich beyond calculation,
while the climate is such as to warrant the growth
and ripening of any vegetation which will thrive
on the Atlantic coast north of Cliesapeake Bay.
One who has not seen it in Alaska knows not
what rank and luxuriant forest undergrowth is.
No tropical islands can surpass the Alexander
Archipelago in this respect. Thus far no one has
come to this region with the idea of testing its
availability for agricultural purposes; it is other
business which has attracted them. Nothing of
any account has ever been done in the way of
stock-raising, though the winters of southern Alas-
ka, of Kodiak, and the Aleutian Islands are much
milder than are those of Wyoming or northern
Dakota, and there is plenty of food for innumera-
ble herds all the year round. If government will
but give the Territory of Alaska proper land laws,
this region will promptly invite emigration, and
be rapidly peopled by thrifty stock-growers.
As we increase our northern latitude forests of
tall cedars, spruce, and hemlock still line the
shore of the mainland, and cover the countless
islands with a mantle of softest green. It is not
surprising that artists become enthusiastic over
the infinite variety of shades found in these ver-
FISH-CANNING. 191
dant woods, an effect which we have never seen
excelled even in equatorial regions. Gliding over
the still, deep, pellucid surface of the ocean, we
behold these cliffs, forests, and mountains, with
coronets of snow reflected therein, as though there
was another world below, like that above the rose-
tinted sea. One finds almost exactly repeated
here the bold, towering peaks, and low-lying rocky
isles of the Lofoden group in the far North Sea
of the opposite hemisphere, whose sharp, jagged
pinnacles have been aptly compared to shark's
teeth.
Near Cape Fox, on the mainland, there are two
large fish-canning establishments, where salmon
are packed in one pound tin cases for shipment
to distant markets, and in which a few Chinamen
are employed. Some Indian women also find
occupation in the establishment, while their hus-
bands capture and bring in the fish in large quan-
tities. This is a rapidly growing and profitable
business in this region, there being already forty
or fifty such factories along the coast and among
the islands north of Cape Fox.
Kasa-an Bay makes into Prince of Wales Isl-
and twenty miles, more or less, from Clarence
Strait. Here tl.ere are several villages of Kasa-an
Indians. No spot on the coast is more famous for
the abundance and excellence of its salmon ; at
certain seasons the waters of the bay swarm with
them. Here is a large cannery, or fish-packing
station, where native women do most of the indoor
work. Two thousand barrels of salted salmon
192 THE NEW ELDORADO.
were shipped from this bay last year. This was
independent of those used in canning. There
would seem to be no limit to the expansion of an
industry that can furnish such desirable, every way
wholesome, and nutritious food to be sold in all
parts of the world.
The North Pacific Trading and Packing Com-
pany of San Francisco has been doing a profitable
business on the coast for many years. In spite of
government neglect, commerce is steadily increas-
ing and developing Alaska ; it invades all zones,
proving the greatest of civilizing agencies. Not
only is it the equalizer of the wealth, but also of
the intelligence, of nations, and this one branch
alone is gradually populating whole districts.
When the active packing season is over there is
still profitable employment for all. Some are oc-
cupied in making the tin cans to hold one pound
each ; others are taught to become coopers, fur-
nishing the casks for shipping such fish as are
split, salted, and exported in that form ; while oth-
ers arc occupied in making pine-wood boxes to
contain two dozen each of the filled cans. Thus a
well-conducted fish-packing establishment employs
many people, and presents a busy scene all the
year round.
The salmon are so plenty in the regular season
that an Indian will sometimes deliver at the can-
ning factory three or four canoe-loads in a single
day. They are mostly caught by net or seine, but
often during the height of the season the natives
absolutely shovel the salmon out of the water and
BEARS. 193
on to the shore with their paddle blades. We
were told that as many as three thousand salmon,
and even more, are sometimes taken at a single
haul of the seine; also that fish of this species
weighing from twenty to thirty pounds were com-
mon here. Great numbers are discarded at the
factories because they do not prove to be of the
high pink color which is required hy the purchas-
ers and consumers. It seems that the bears know
very well when the run of salmon commences, and
that there are certain quiet inlets where the fish
are sure to get crowded and jammed, so that Bruin
has only to reach out his paws and di^aw one after
another on to the shore and eat until he has his fill.
The bear-paths leading to these spots are strongly
marked, and the animals are thus easily tracked
and shot by the hunters. It is the white men who
capture them most generally, as the natives have
some mysterious reverence and fear combined re-
gai-ding this animal. They do hunt them, how-
ever, but shrive themselves of all sense of wrong
by going through some mystic rites. Mr. Cliarh'S
Hallock says : " There are bears enough in AJaska,
giizzly, cinnamon, and black, to furnish every man
on the Pacific with a cap and overcoat, and leave
breeding stock enough for next year's supj)ly."
The grizzly bear is a dangerous animal to encoun-
ter single-handed. A bullet seems to have no
more effect upon him, unless it strikes a vital spot,
than it does upon an elephant. It is necessary to
use guns of large calibre when hunting the animal,
and the whites rarely seek them unless several
tried men band together for the purpose.
194 THE NEW ELDORADO.
From time to time small native villages are seen
on the islands and the mainland, all typical of the
people, and quite picturesque in their dirtiness and
peculiar construction. Some of their cabins are
built of boards, but mostly they are rude, bark-
covered logs. In front of these dwellings stand to-
tem-poles, presenting hideous faces carved upon
them in bold relief, together with uncouth figures
of birds, beasts, and fishes. A portion of these
tall posts are weather-beaten and neglected, signifi-
cantly tottering on their foundations, green with
mould, unconsciously foreshadowing the fate of
the aboriginal race. Groups of natives in bright-
colored blankets, with scarlet and yellow handker-
chiefs on their heads, come into view, watching us
curiously as we glide over the smooth water, while
bevies of half-naked children are seen shifting
hither and tliither in clamorous excitement. What
wonderfully bright, black eyes these children
have ! Some of the women are gathering kelp,
for the shores are lined with edible algse, posses-
sing not only fine nutritious qualities, but being
also a. recognized tonic, with excellent medicinal
properties. This sea-product is collected in the
most favorable season of the year, and after being
pressed into convenient sized and esculent cakes
is stored for future use. The native liamlets are
always built near to the shore, aceessibility to the
water being the first consideration, because from
that source comt'S nine tenths of their subsistence.
To clear the forest and secure open fields presup-
poses more thrift and application than these na-
AWKWARD FASHIONS. 195
tives possess ; but it would unveil some of the
richest soil in the world. These Alaskans have
no idea of sewerage, or the proper disposal of do-
mestic refuse. All accumulations of this sort are
thrown just outside the doors of their dwellings,
to the right and left, anywhere in fact which is
handiest. The stench which surrounds their cab-
ins, under these circumstances, is almost unbeara-
ble by civilized people, and must be very unwhole-
some. These natives have broad faces, small,
pig-like eyes, and high cheek bones, not very nice
to look upon, yet not without a certain expression
of real intelligence gleaming through the accumu-
lated dirt.
" What is needed here," said a humorous ob-
server to us, " is the mission teacher with his
Bible, spelling-book, and — soap ! "
The women cut their hair short on the fore-
head, nearly even with the eyebrows, causing one
to surmise that these Thlinkits — a generic name
given to the tribes in this vicinity — must have
set the fashion of " banging " the hair, which is so
popular among civilized belles. Just so the Japa-
nese women originated the hideous fashion of the
" bustle." The author saw this awkward and un-
becoming appendage worn upon the backs of the
women of Yokohama, Tokio, and Nagasaki three
years before it appeared upon the streets of Bos-
ton and New York. And now we hear of the
" clinging " style of drapery, in which underskirts
even are discarded, called the Grecian or classic
style. Alas ! will nothing but extremes satisfy the
196 THE NEW ELDORADO.
importunate demands of fashion ? Heaven send
that we do not import another fashion from Alaska
or the South Seas, namely tattooing. It is quite
common here, among young girls of about twelve
years of age, whose cheeks and chins are often
thus disfigured by irregular lines. The more the
natives associate with the whites, however, the
moi-e rarely this tattooing is resorted to, and it may
be said, as a fashion, to be going out in Alaska,
though it is undoubtedly one of the most widely
diffused practices of savage life, from the Arctic
to the Antarctic circle.
The Alaskans have an original way of produ-
cing this indelible marking, the color being fixed
by drawing a thread under the skin, whereas the
usual mode among various savages is by pricking
it in with a needle. The favorite colors are red
and blue. We were told that common women
were permitted to adorn their chins with but one
vertical line in the centre, and one parallel to it
on either side, while a woman of the better or
wealthier class is allowed two vertical lines from
each corner of the mouth. The New Zealand
Maori women tattoo their chins in a very similar
manner, keeping the rest of the face in a natural
condition.
We had threaded the intricate labyrinth of
islands, bays, and channels, guarded by miles upon
miles of sentinel peaks, nearly all day, on one oc-
casion, under a depressing fog and rain, when sud-
denly a bold headland was rounded, which had
seemed for hours to completely bar our way, and
MOUNTAIN ECHOES. 197
we passed out from under the shadow of the
frowning cliffs and the gloom of the dark fathom-
less waters just as the sun burst forth, warm,
bright, and resistless, while the view expanded
before us nearly' to the horizon. The mist, like
shrouded ghosts, stole silently away, vanishing
behind the rocks and cliffs. Every dewy drop
of moisture, on ship and shore, glittered like dia-
monds in the dazzling rays of the new-born light,
changing the verdant islands into a glory of
color, and the whole view to one of majestic love-
liness, through which we glided as smoothly as
though in a gondola upon the Grand Canal at
Venice.
When approaching a landing or anchorage, a
signal gun is fired from the forecastle of the ship,
creating a series of echoes deep, sonorous, and
startling, but especially remarkable for the num-
ber of times tlie sound is repeated. One single
gun becomes multiplied to a whole broadside.
The report is taken up again and again by other
localities, and thus is conveyed for miles away,
finally sinking to a whisper, as it were, among the
foot-hills of the giant elevations.
The most impressive scenes realized by the trav-
eler are those of moonlight and midnight. How a
love of the stars and the sea grows upon one, and
life has so few moments of perfect contentment !
What melody and magic permeate the pure,
placid atmosphei-e, bounded by the sapphire sea
and the azure sky ! How tender and beautiful is
the utter stillness of the hour! Such scenes of
198 THE NEW ELDORADO.
gladness make the heart almost afraid, — afraid
lest there should be some keen sorrow lurking in
ambush to awaken us from pleasant dreams to
the stern, disenchanting experiences of real life.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Alaskan's Habit of Gambling. — Extraordinary Domestic
Carvings. — Silver Bracelets, — Prevailing Superstitions. —
Disposal of the Dead. — The Native " Potlatch." — Canni-
balism. — Ambitions of Preferment. — Human Sacrifices. —
The Tribes slowly decreasing in Numbers. — Influence of the
Women. — Witchcraft. — Fetich Worship. — The Native Ca-
noes. — Eskimo Skin Boats.
The aborigines of Alaska are slow in their
movements, and in this respect resemble the Lapps
of Scandinavia, having also a drawling manner of
speech entirely in consonance with their bodily
movements. They are as inveterate gamblers as
the Chinese, often passing whole days and nights
absorbed in the occupation, the result of which is
in no way contingent upon intelligence or skill,
until finally one of the party walks off winner of
all the stakes. Their principal gambling game is
played with a handful of small sticks of different
colors, which are called by various names, such
as the crab, the whale, the duck, and so on. The
player shuffles all the sticks together, then count-
ing out a certain number he places them under
cover of bunches of moss. The object seems to
be to guess in which pile is the whale, and in
which the crab, or the duck. Individuals often
lose at this seemingly trifling game all their
worldly possessions. We were told of instances
200 THE NEW ELDORADO.
where, spurred on by excitement, a native risks
his wife and children, and if he loses, they be-
come the recognized property of the winner, nor
would any one think of interfering with such a
settlement. These extreme cases, of course, are
rare.
It is impossible to see the aborigines eagerly
absorbed in the game without recalling Dr. John-
son's characteristic definition of gambling, namely,
" A mode of transferring property without pro-
ducing any intermediate good."
Inside of the rude native houses one finds many
hideous carvings, representing impossible animals
and strange objects of all sorts, after the style of
the totem-poles, of which we shall have occasion
to speak. Many of their small domestic uten-
sils are made from the horns of the mountain
goats, and are also curiously carved with night-
mare objects, as evil to look upon as African
idols. Yet some of these articles show consider-
able skill and infinite patience in execution. We
have seen specimens that it was difficult to be-
lieve were executed by the hand of an uncultured
savage. Before the Russians introduced iron and
steel knives, the aborigines seem to have carved
only with copper and stone im])lenients, produ-
cing remarkable lesults under the circumstanc(^s.
The young women wear silver bracelets, pounded
out of American dollar pieces, some of which
are an inch broad, and are covered elaborately
after civilized models, others bear native heraldic
devices of birds, beasts, and fishes, which are said
SUPERSTITIONS. 201
to represent the arms of the wearer's family, it
being customary for each tribe and person to
adopt some distinctive seal or crest. They much
prefer silver ornaments to those of gold or other
material ; though they are not slow to realize in-
trinsic values, probably they choose the less expen-
sive metal because it is Alaska fashion.
In spite of all the missionary effort which is
made to enlighten these natives, they are still
slaves to the most debasing superstitions. Scarcc-
1}^ a month passes in which the civil authorities are
not called upon to interfere with the people for
cruelty. We were told of one instance whicli lately
occurred at Juneau. A native was seriously ill,
and the medicine-man, having failed to relieve him
by his noisy incantations, charged an old member
of the tribe with having bewitched the invalid.
He was consequently seized, tied up, and whipped
until nearly insensible, being left for three days
without food. By chance the authorities heard of
the case and released the old man. The two prin-
cipal natives who had been guilty of the maltreat-
ment were tried and fined twenty dollars each.
The very next day the old man was missing, and
it was found that he had again been tied up and
whipped. The two culprits admitted repeating
their cruelty, saying they had paid for the right
to whip out the witch from the old man, and it
must be done before the invalid would recover.
These ignorant creatures entertained no malice to-
wards the old native ; it was only a matter of duty,
as the}' thought, to exorcise the evil one which
202 THE NEW ELDORADO.
had possessed tlie invalid. This is a fair sample
of the superstition of the average Alaskans.
When a member of the family dies, the body is
not removed for final disposal by the door which
the living are accustomed to use, but a plank is
torn from the side or back of the dwelling, through
which the corpse is passed, after which the place
is at once carefully made whole. This, they say,
is to prevent the spirit of the defunct from find-
ing its way back again, and thus bringing ill luck
upon the living. A still more superstitious and
savage custom prevails among some of these igno-
rant natives.
If a person dies in a cabin, it is held that the
place becomes sacied to his spirit, and there-
fore is unfit for the living. To avoid this diffi-
culty the dying are passed out of the domicile
through st)me temporary hole into the open air to
breathe their last, so that neither the house nor
the threshold may be sacrificed to the spirit of
the dead. Slaves, besides poor widows and or-
phans, when they die, are often disposed of in
the most summary and unfeeling manner, being
exposed in the woods, or cast into the sea as
food for the fishes. In this connection we re-
member that the highly civilized and rich Par-
sees of Bombay do not hesitate to give the dead
bodies of their cherished ones to the vultures, in
those terrible Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill.
The ceremonies which follow all funerals among
these aborigines are peculiar affairs, and for the
carrying out of which each person saves more or
FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 203
less of his worldly effects to leave after death. As
soon as the body of the deceased is disposed of,
then commences what is here culled a "potlatch,"
signifying a " big feast," conducted very much
atter the style of the New Zealanders on a similar
occasion. Everybody is invited and a free spread
or feast provided, the same being kept up for sev-
eral days and nights, so long, indeed, as the pur-
ciiasing power lasts. Whiskey is freely dispensed,
when it can be had, but if not obtainable, as it
is a contraband article, then "hoochenoo," made
from flour and molasses well fermented, takes its
place, being equally intoxicating and nuiddening.
Dancing, wailing, singing, fighting, and grave in-
decencies follow each other, until the means to
keep up the potlatch left by the deceased are ex-
hausted, and his surviving family oftentimes im-
poverished.
Cremation is the Thlinkit's favorite mode of
disposing of his dead. The bodies of slaves and
"witches" are disposed of with great secrecy.
They are not considered worth burial, and are
sometimes cast into the sea, but water burial is
infrequent. The bodies of chiefs lie in state sev-
eral days ; the people observe certain rites ; then
the body is cremated and the ashes are encased in
the base of a totem erected to his memory. Sha-
mans (doctors) are never cremated. After lying
in state four days, one day in each corner of the
cabin, the body is taken out of the house through
the smokestack, or some opening other than the
door, and conveyed some distance to a deadhouse
204 THE NEW ELDORADO.
built for this particular occupant. There in its
last resting-place the body is seated in an upright
position. The pHrapheriuilia of his rank and office,
some blankets and household effects to add to his
comfort in the spirit-land, are entombed with the
remains.
Another occasion for indulging in the potlatch
is when some one is desirous of securing extraor-
dinary influence in his tribe, generally a chief
seeking to establish superior position or popular-
ity over some rival. Natives have been known to
save their means for years, augmenting them by
industry and self-denial, in order finally to give
a grand and unequaled feast of this character.
When the time arrives not only are all the host's
own tribe invited, but those of the next nearest
tribes not akin to his own. Such a festival often
lasts for a whole week, nntil the last blanket of
the giver is sacrificed. These strange festivals,
we were told, are fast passing into disuse, at least
among those tribes brought most in contact with
the whites, though on a smaller scale they do still
exist all over the southern region of Alaska.
There is, perhaps, no positive evidence that can-
nibalism ever prevailed among the Indians of this
region, yet it is gravely hinted that it did on the
occasion of these funeral {)Otlatches years ago. To
sacrifice the life of one or more of the slaves of
the deceased we know was common, and if their
bodies were not barbecued and eaten, then these
natives of the North Pacific were entirely differ-
ent in this respect from those who lived in the
DECAY OF THE RACES. 205
South Pacific. The medicine-men, even to-day,
devour portions of corpses, believing that they ac-
quire control of the spirit of the deceased thereby,
and gain influence over demon spirits in the other
sphere. Such pnictices are, however, rare, though
Mr. Duncan of Metla-katla tells us he has wit-
nessed the repulsive performance. The places near
each hamlet where the dead are finally placed
often number many more gi'aves, or square boxes
containing the bodies, than theie are present in-
habitants in the settlement. All this region was
formerly many times more populous than it is to-
day. Here, as in Africa, New Zealand, Califor-
nia, and Australia, where the white man appears
permanently, the black man slowly but surely
vanishes. The progress of civilization, as we call
it, is fatal to native, savage races all over the
world. Catlin, who lived among and wrote so
well about our Western Indians, summed up the
matter thus : " White man — whiskey — toma-
hawks — scalping-knives — guns, powder and ball
— smallpox, debauchery — extermination." But
it is not alone gunpowder, rum, and lasciviousness
which are the active agents to this end ; there is
also a subtle influence which is not clearly under-
stood, and which it is difficult to define, but which
is as potent, if not more so, than the agencies
above suggested. The destiny which heaven de-
crees for a people will surely come to them. This
has been clearly exemplified in the instance of the
North American Indians, as well as among the
South Sea Islanders in Australia and the Ha-
206 THE NEW ELDORADO.
waiian Islands. Of an entire and intelligent peo-
ple, the aborigines who once occupied Tasmania,
there is not to-day a living representative ! The
land is solely possessed and occupied by white
Europeans, before whom the natives have steadily
vanished like dew before the sun.
Mr. Frederick Whymper, who wrote about the
Northwest some twenty years ago, speaking upon
this subject, refers to the experience of a Mr.
Sproat, a resident of the region near Puget Sound,
who employed large numbers of natives as well
as whites in manufacturing lumber. Mr. Sproat
conducted his large business and the place where
it was established on temperance principles ; no
violence or oppression of any sort was permitted
towards the natives. They were in fact better
fed, better clothed, and better taught than they
had ever been before. It was only after a con-
siderable time that any symptom of a change
was observed among the Indians. By and by a
listlessness seemed to creep over them, and they
"brooded over silent thoughts." At first they
were surprised and bewildered by the presence
of the white men, and the machinery and steam
vessels which they brought with them. They
seemed slowly to acquire a distrust of themselves,
and abandoned their old practices and tribal hab-
its, until at last it was discovered that a higher
death-rate was prevailing among them. "No
one molested them," says Mr. Sproat ; " they had
ample sustenance and shelter for the support of
life, yet the people decayed. The steady bright-
INFLUENCE OF THE WOMEN. 207
ness of civilized life seemed to dim and extin-
guish the flickering light of savageism, as the
rays of the sun put out a common fire."
Upon the same subject and people, H. W. El-
liott says : " These savages were created for the
wild surroundings of their existence ; expressly
fitted for it, and they live happily in it ; change
the order of their life, and at once they disappear,
as do the indigenous herbs and game before the
cultivation of the soil and the domestication of
animals." We shall not comment upon these
remarks, though to us it is an extremely inter-
esting subject ; the reader must draw his own
inference.
The men of these native tribes are strong and
vigorous ; the women are, however, forced to per-
form most of the domestic labor, and all of the
drudgery, yet it was observed that they held the
purse strings. That is to say, a native buck al-
ways defers to his wife in any matter of trade as
to the price either to ask or to pay. The women
of Alaska are certainly in a better condition and
are better treated than those belonging to any of
our Western Indian tribes, with whom we are ac-
quainted. Though they are called upon to do
much menial work, they do not seem to be actu-
ally abused. The male Alaskan performs a cer-
tain liberal share of domestic duties, but not so
with the Indian of our Western reservations. The
latter makes his wife a beast of burden. They
are generally clothed in the garments of civiliza-
tion, though of coarse material and of the cheapest
208 THE NEW ELDORADO.
manufacture. The ready-made clothing store has
reached even the islands of the North Pacific.
Polygamy is common among the aborigines, chas-
tity is little heeded, and young girls are sold b}'
their mothers for a few blankets, she and not the
father having the acknowledged riglit of dispos-
ing of them. Dr. Sheldon Jackson writes most
feelingly as follows : " Despised by their fathers,
sold by their motliers, imposed upon by their
brothers, and ill-treated by their husbands, cast
out in their widowhood, living lives of toil and low
sensual pleasure, untaught and uncared for, with
no true enjoyment in this world and no hope for
the world to come, crushed by a cruel heathenism,
it is no wonder that many of them end their
misery and wretchedness by suicide."
It was found on inquiry that the ratio of births
among the Alaskan shore tribes was considerably
greater than among civilized communities, but the
death-rate is, on the other hand, excessive. The
wretched ignorance of the mothers as to the ob-
servance of the simplest sanitary laws, as well ;is
the gross exposure of their infants, is the principal
cause of this needless mortality.
The aborigines, where not brought in contact
with the government schools and missionaries,
still retain their system of fetich worship, be-
ing very much under control of their medicine-
men, who pretend to influence the demons of the
spirit world, so feared by the average savage.
Their moral degradation is extreme, and their
practices in too many instances are terrible to
NATIVE CANOES. 209
relate. Slaves are sacrificed, as already stated, at
the owner's death, that they may go before and
prepare for his arrival in the future state. Vile
witchcraft is still believed in among most of the
tribes, and murderous consequences follow in many
cases. All kinds of barbarity are inflicted upon
women, children, and slaves. We are told by Dr.
Sheldon Jackson that it was surprising to see how
quickly these savage practices yielded to the power
of Christian teachings, and how rapidly they faded
away before the influence of association with a few
intelligent, conscientious white teachers. What
these people need is education and Christian influ-
ence, which will work a great and rapid reform
among them in a single generation.
The canoes of the tribes about the Alexander
Archipelago are dug out of well-chosen cedar logs,
and ai'e given the really fine lines for which they
are remarkable by means of hot water and steam,
together with the use of cunningly devised braces
and clamps. The wood being once thoroughly
dried in the desired shape, will retain it. Wonder-
ing how the exquisite smoothness was produced in
forming their boats without a carpenter's plane, it
was found by inquiry that the natives dry the
coarse skin of the dogfish and use it as we do
sandpaper. The time spent upon the construction
and ornamentation of these canoes is apparently
of no consideration to the native, and the market
value of the best will average one hundred dollars.
It is the Alaskan's most necessary and most prized
piece of property. Some which we saw were
210 THE NEW ELDORADO.
eighty feet in length, and capable of holding one
hundred men. It must be remembei'ed that al-
most the entire population live on the coast or
river banks in a country where there are no
roads. These canoes have no seats in them ; the
rower places himself on the bottom, and thus situ-
ated uses his paddles with great dexterity. They
are quite unmanageable by a white man who is
not accustomed to them, as much so at least as a
birch canoe, such as the Eastern Indians build on
the coast of Maine. But the Alaskan boat is far
superior to the birch-bark canoe in every respect.
We saw one paddled by a boy at Pyramid Harbor,
neat and new, which the lad, say twelve years of
age, had dug out of a spruce log with his own
hands, quite unaided. Its lines were admirable,
and the finish was excellent. When the sun beats
down upon these boats, the owner splashes water
upon the sides about him to prevent their warp-
ing, and for this pui-pose carries a thin wooden
scoop. When not in use they are carefully cov-
ered up to shelter them from the sun's rays. Some
tribes use a double paddle, that is, an oar with a
blade at each end, which they dip on one side and
the other alternately ; other tribes use the single-
bladed paddle. Each one of the males among the
natives has his canoe, for the water is his only
highway, and without his boat he would be as
helpless as one of our Western Indians on the plains
without his pony. When the "dug-outs" are
drawn up upon the shore in scores, they present
a curimis appearance, packed with grass and cov-
ESKIMO SKIN BOATS. 211
ered with matting to keep them from being
cracked and warped by the sun. The bows and
stern of many of them are elaborately carved to-
tem-fashion, and also painted in strange designs
with a black pigment. The fore part of the boat
rises with an upward sheer, and is higher at the
prow than at the stern. There is another form of
boat used by the Eskimos and natives of the out-
lying islands, being a simple frame of wood, cov-
ered with sea-lion skin from which the hair has
been removed. These boats are covered over the
tops as well as the bottoms, being almost level
with the sea, leaving only a hole for the occupant
to sit in, thus making them absolutely water-
tight, a life-boat, in fact, which will float in any
water so long as they will hold together. The
waves may dash over them but cannot enter them.
These skin-covered boats, admirably adapted to
their legitimate purpose, are known on the coast
as " bidarkas," in the management of which the
natives evince great skill, making long journeys in
them, and braving all sorts of weather. Like the
Madras surf-boats, no nails are used in their con-
struction, either in the skeleton frame or in put-
ting on the covering, the several parts being
lashed and sewed together in the most artistic fash-
ion with sinews and leather thongs, which enables
them to bear a greater strain than if they were
held together by any other means. The thongs
admit of a certain degree of flexibility when it is
required, an effect which cannot be got with nail
fastenings.
CHAPTER XV.
Still sailing Northward. — Multitudes of Water-Fowls. — Native
Graveyards. — Curious Totem-Poles. — Tribal and Family
Emblems — Division of the Tribes. — Whence the Race
came. — A Clew to their Origin. — The Northern Eskimos. —
A llemarkable Museum of Aleutian Antiquities. — Jade Moun-
tain. — The Art of Carving. — Long Days. — Aborigines of
the Yukon Valley. — Their Customs.
Still sailing northward, large numbers of ebon-
hued cormorants are seen feeding on the low,
kelp-coveied rocks, contrasting with the snow}'
whiteness of the gulls. Big flocks of snipe, ducks,
and other aquatic birds line the water's edge, or
rise in clouds from some sheltered nook to settle
again in our wake. Higher up in air a huge bald-
headed eagle is in sight nearly all the while, as
we sail along the winding watercourse. The
eagles of Alaska, unlike those of other sections of
the globe, are not a solitary bird, but congregate
in considerable numbers, and residents told us
they had seen a score of them roosting togetlier
on the branches of the same tree, but we must
confess to never having seen even two together.
Elsewhere the eagle is certainly a bird whose
solitary habits are one of its marked character-
istics. We observe here and there near native
villages, more square boxes and totem-poles indi-
cating the resting-places of the dead. Some tribes
AN ALASKAN GRAVEYARD. 213
continue to burn their dead, and tliese boxes con-
tain only the ashes, but the missionai'ies and the
whites generally have so opposed the idea of
cremation that many of the natives have aban-
doned it. The burial above-ground in the square
boxes referred to is a peculiar idea. These coffins,
if they may be so called, are about three feet and
a half long by two and a half wide, and are often
elaborately carved and painted with grotesque
figures. The corpse is disjointed and doubled up
in order to get it into this compass, though why
this is done when a longer box would so much
simplify matters, no one seems to know. We
were told that some of the Alaskan tribes used
to place their dead in trees, or on the top of four
raised poles, a similar practice to that which once
prevailed among certain tribes of our Western
Indians, but the mode just described is that which
most generally prevails. There seems to be some
difference of opinion as regards the real signifi-
cance of the totem-poles. They appear to be de-
signed in part to commemorate certain deeds in
the lives of the departed, near whose grave they
are reared, as well as to indicate the family arm.s
of those for whom they are erected. Thus, on
seeing one special totem-post surmounted by a
wolf carved in wood, beneath which a useless gun
was lashed, inquiry was made as to its signifi-
cance, whereupon we were told that the deceased
by whose grave it stood had been killed while
hunting wolves in the forest. This was certainly
a very literal Wiiy of recording the fate of the
hunter^
214 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Some tribes adopt the crow, some the hawk,
and some the bear or the whale, as their distinc-
tive tribal emblem. The poles are carved from
bottom to top, averaging thirty or forty feet in
height, — though some are nearly a hundred feet
high, — and from three to four feet in diameter,
the height also signifying the importance of the
individual, that is, his social grade or standing in
the tribe. Some of the carvings are mythological,
for these people have an oral mythology of the
most fabulous character, which has been handed
down from father to son for many centuries.
The carvings on the coffin-boxes, though often
elaborate, to a white man's eye are meaningless.
As we have said, when a chief dies, some valu-
able personal effects are always deposited with
his body in the coffin, and one would suppose that
such objects were safe from pilfering fingers of even
strangers ; yet these articles are constantly offered
for sale, and are eagerly purchased by curio-hunt-
ers who come hither from various parts of this
country.
The aborigines of Alaska are divided into vari-
ous sub-tribes, such as Hooniahs, Tongas, Auks,
Kasa-ans, Haidas, Sitkas, Chinooks, Chilcats, and
so on.
Ivan Petrol?, who was sent by the United States
Government to Alaska in 1880, as special agent
of the census, divides the native population of the
Territory as follows : —
First. — The Innuit or Eskimo race, which
predominates in numbers and covers the littoral
ORIGIN OF THE NATIVE RACES. 215
margin of all Alaska from the British boundary
on the Arctic to Norton Sound, the Lower Yukon,
and Kuskoquin, Bristol Bay, the Alaska Penin-
sula, Kodiak Island, mixing in, also, at Prince
William Sound.
Second. — The Indians proper spread over
the vast interior in the north, reaching down to
the seaboard at Cook's Inlet and the mouth of the
Copper River, and lining the coast from Mount
St. Elias southward to the boundary and peo-
pling the Alexander Archipelago.
Third. — The Aleutian race, extending from
the Shumagin Islands westward to Attoo, — the
Ultima Thule of this country, — whom Petroff
terms the Christian inhabitants. These last cer-
tainly conform most fully to all the outward prac-
tices of civilization and universally recognize the
Greek Church.
Whence these people originally came is a ques-
tion which is constantly discussed, but which is
still an unsolved problem. Some words in their
language seem to indicate a Japanese origin, and
some seem clearly to be derived from the Aztec
tongue belonging to that peculiar people of the
south. Hon. James G. Swain of Port Town-
send, w^ho has given years of study to the subject
of ethnology as connected with the tribes of the
Northwest, states that he found among them a
tradition of the Great Spirit similar to that of the
Aztecs, and that when he exhibited to members
of the Haida tribe sketches of Aztec carvings,
they at once recognized and understood them.
216 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Copper images and relics found in their possession
were identical with exhumed relics brought from
Guatemala. These are certainly very significant
facts, if not convincing ones. The Alaska natives
have some Apache words in their language, which
points to a common oiigin with our North Amer-
ican Indian tribes, but these suggestions are purely
speculative. There are able students of ethnol-
ogy who insist upon the origin of these Alaskans
being Asiatic for various good and sufficient rea-
sons, instancing not only their personal appear-
ance, but the similarity of their traditions and cus-
toms to those of the people of Asia. To have
come thence it is remembered that they had only
to cross a narrow piece of water forty miles wide.
This passage is frequently made in our times by
open boats. At certain seasons of the year, though
in so northern a latitude, the strait is by no means
rough. Mr. Seward says: "I have mingled
freely with the multifarious population, the Ton-
gas, the Stickeens, the Kakes, the Haidas, the Sit-
kas, the Kootnoos, and the Chilcats. Climate and
other c-ii'cumstances have indeed produced some
tlilTerences of manners and customs between the
Aleuts, the Koloschians, and the interior conti-
nental tribes, but all of them are manifestly of
Mongol origin. Although they have preserved no
common traditions, all alike indulge in tastes,
wear a physiognomy, and are imbued with senti-
ments peculiarly noticed in China and Japan."
The Eskimos proper differ but little from the
southern and inland tribes of Alaska generally ;
JADE MOUNTAIN. 217
few of them are ever seen soutli of Norton Sound
or the mouths of the Yukon. Their home is in the
Arctic portion of the Territorj', bordering the
Frozen Ocean and Behring Strait. It is obvious
that climatic influences create among them diffei-
ent manners and customs, causing also a slightly
different physical formation, but otherwise they
seem to be of the same race as the people of the
Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, or indeed
of any of the several groups and of the mainland
lying to the south. That these Eskimos resemble
physically the Norwegian Lapps, to be met with
at about the same latitude in the eastern hemi-
sphere, is very obvious to one who has carefully
.observed both races in their homes. This similai'-
ity extends in rather a remarkable degree also to
their dress as well as domestic habits.
In the region they occupy, near the source of
the Kowak River, which empties into Kotzebue
Sound by several mouths after a course of two
or three hundred miles, is Jade Mountain, com-'
posed, as far as is known, of a light green stone
which gives it the name it bears. An exploring
party from the United States steamer Corwin
brought away one or two hundred pounds of the
mineral in the summer of 1884. The hardness
and tenacity of these specimens are said to have
been remarkable, as well as the exquisite polish
which they exhibited when treated by the lapi-
dist. Jade Mountain must be in latitude 68°
north, between two and three hundred miles south
of the Yukon above the line of Behring Strait.
218 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Yet the exploring party found the thermometer to
register 90° Fah. in the shade, while their great-
est annoyance was caused by the mosquitoes. The
Kowak abounds in sulmon, pike, and white-fish.
" The 'color' of gold," says the printed report of
the expedition, " was obtained almost everywhere."
Nearly eighty species of birds were collected,
tliough the party were absent from the Corwin but
about seven weeks. The white spruce was found
to be the largest and most abundant tree, and the
inhabitants all Eskimos.
The remarkable museum of ancient arms,
dresses, wooden and skin armor, and domestic
utensils exhibited in New York city in 1868 by
Mr. Edward G. Fast, and which was collected by.
him while in the employment of our government
among the people of the Northwest, revealed some
very important facts as to their history. The col-
lection proved clearly that two or three hundred
years ago these natives of Alaska enjoyed a much
higher degree of civilization than is exhibited by
their descendants to-day. That they have deteri-
orated in industry, steadiness, and ability generally
is obvious. The art of forging must have been
known to them in the earlier times, as shown in
this collection of admirable weapons, clearly of
native manufacture and of most excellent finish.
The art of carving was possessed by them in far
greater perfection than they exhibit in our day,
while the skillfully made dresses of tanned leather
worn by the ancient Aleuts nearly equal those in
which the warriors were clad who accompanied
THE ESKIMOS. 219
Cortez and Pizarro when they landed on this con-
tinent. Mr. Fast was singularly fortunate in se-
curing whole suits of armor, masks, and war im-
plements for his unique museum of Alaskan
antiquities. In association with Russians and
Americans for a century, more or less, these abo-
rigines have readily adopted the vices of civiliza-
tion, so to speak, and have sacrificed most of their
own better qualities. Indolence generally has
taken the place of the warlike habits and stead-
iness of purpose which must have characterized
them as a people to a large degree before the
whites came with firearms and fire-water. How
forcibly is the law of mutability impressed upon
us ! From a state of comparative power and im-
portance, this people has dwindled to a condition
simply foreshadowing oblivion.
Rev. W. W. Kirby, a missionary who reached
the valley of the Yukon by way of British Colum-
bia, fully describes the Eskimos whom he mingled
with in the northwestern part of the Territory.
He considers them to be more intelligent than
the average Alaska Indians, and far superior to
them in physical appearance, the women especially
being much fairer and more pleasing to look upon.
They are more addicted to the use of tobacco
than are these southern tribes, often smoking to
great excess, and in the most peculiar manner,
swallowing every swiff from their pipes, until they
become so poisoned as to fall senseless upon the
ground, where they remain in this condition for ten
or fifteen minutes. They dress very neatly with
220 THE NEW ELDORADO.
deerskins, wearing the hair on the outside. The
men have heavy beards, shave the crown of their
heads, leaving the sides and back growth to fall
freely about the face and neck. Mr. Kiiby is
obliged to censure the thievish propensities of this
people, which was a source of great trouble and
considerable loss to him. Speaking of his high
northern latitude when among the Eskimt)S. he
says: "As we advanced farther northward, tlie
sun did not leave us at all. Freqiiently did I see
him describe a complete circle in the heavens."
As far south as Pyramid Harbor, latitude 59°
11' north, the sun does not set in midsummer
until about two o'clock in the moi'ning, rising
again four hours later. Even during these four
sunless hours fine print can be read on the ship's
deck without the aid of any other than the natural
light.
Mr Kirby found the Indians of the Yukon
valley to be rather a fierce and turbulent people,
more like our Western Indians than any other
tribes whom he met. Their country is in and
about latitude 65° north, and beginning at the
Mackenzie River, in British Columbia, runs
through Alaska to Behring Strait. They were
formerly very numerous, but have frequently been
at war with the Eskimos north of them, and have
thus been sadly reduced in numbers, though they
are still a strong and powerful people.
There is a singular system of social division
recognized among them, termed respectively
Chit-sa, Nate-sa, and Tanges-at-sa, faintly repre-
YUKON MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 221
senting the idea of aristocracy, the middle class,
and the poorer order of our civilization. There
is another peculiarity in this connection, it being
the rule for a man not to marry in his own, but
to take a wife from either of the other classes.
Thus a Chit-sa gentleman will marry a Tanges-
at-sa peasant without hesitation ; the offspring in
every case belonging to the class to which the
mother is related. This arrangement has had a
most beneficial effect in allaying the deadly feuds
formerly so frequent among neighboring tribes,
and which have been the cause of so reducing
their memorial strength by sanguinary conflicts.
CHAPTER XVI.
Fort Wrangel. — Plenty of Wild Game. — Natives do not caro
for Soldiers, but have a Wholesome Fear of Gunboats. — Mode
of Trading. — Girls' School and Home. — A Deadly Tragedy.
— Native Jewelry and Carving. — No Totem-Poles for Sale.
— Missionary Enterprises. — Progress in Educating Natives.
— Various Denominations Engaged in the Missionary Work.
We prefer to think it was to see the sun rise
that we got up so early on arriving at Fort Wran-
gel, and not because of the torturing fact that our
berth was too short at both ends, and kept us in
a chronic state of wakefulness and cramp. The
distance passed over in coming hither from Vic-
toria was about eight hundred miles. The place,
having about five hundred inhabitants, is advan-
tageously situated on an island at the mouth of
the Stickeen River, which rises in British Colum-
bia and has a length of nearly two hundred and
fifty miles. There is here an excellent and ca-
pacious harbor, surrounded by grand mountains,
while lofty snow-crowned summits more inland
break the sky-line in nearly all directions, — moun-
tain towering above mountain, until the view is
lost among far-away peaks, blue and indistinct.
This elevated district contains wild goats, with
now and then a grizzly bear, fiercest of his tribe,
while in its ravines and valleys the little mule-
deer, the brown bear, the fox, the land-otter, the
FORT WRANGEL. 223
mink, and various other animals abound. As to
the small streams and river courses which thread
the territory, they are, as all over this country,
crovrded with fish, the salmon prevailing. The
inland haunts within twenty leagues of the coast
are little disturbed by the natives. The abun-
dance of halibut, cod, and salmon at their very
doors, as it were, is quite sufficient to satisfy the
demands of nature, and it is only when tempted
by the white man's gold that the aborigines will
leave the coast to go inland in search of pelts and
meat, in the form of venison, goat, or bear flesh.
The town, consisting of a hundred houses and
more, is spread along the shore at the base of a
thickly wooded hill, flanked on either side by a
long line of low, square, rough-hewn native cabins.
A peep into the interior of these was by no means
reassuring. Dirt, degradation, and abundance
were combined. The few domestic utensils seen
appeared never to have been washed, being thick
with grease, while the stench that saluted the ol-
factories was sickening. There were no chairs,
stools, or benches, the men and women sitting
upon their haunches, a position which would be
a severe trial to a white and afford no rest what-
ever, but which is the universal mode of sitting
adopted by savage races in all parts of the world.
The place was named after Baron Wrangel, gov-
ernor of Russian America at the time when it
was first settled, in 1834, being then merely a
stockade post. After the United States came into
possession of the country it was for a short time
224 THE NEW ELDORADO.
occupied by our soldiers, but ere long ceased to be
held as a military post, the soldiers being with-
drtiwn altogether from the Territory. It was soon
discovered that the natives cared nothing for the
soldiers; they could alvrays get away from them in
any exigency by means of their canoes ; but they
had, and still have, a wholesome fear of a revenue
cutter or a gunboat, which can destroy one of
their villages, if necessary, in a few minutes.
A steamer can always move very rapidly from
place to place among the islands, making her pres-
ence felt without delay, when and where it is most
needed. At the outset of our taking possession
of Alaska, an example of decision and power was
necessary to put the natives in proper awe of the
government, and it followed quickly upon an un-
provoked outrage committed by the aborigines.
One of their villages, not far from Sitka, was
promptly shelled and destroyed in half an hour.
Since then there has been no trouble of conse-
quence with any of the tribes, who have profound
respect for the strong arm, and to speak plainly,
like most savage races, for nothing else.
Fort Wrangel has two or three large stores for
the sale of goods to the natives, and for the pur-
chase of furs, Indian curiosities, and the like. It
is also the headquarters of the gold miners, who
gather here when tlie season is no longer fit for
out-of-door work at the placers.
Seeing the natives crowding the stores, it was
natural to suppose the traders were driving a good
business, but a proprietor explained that these
GIRLS' SCHOOL AND HOME. 22;")
people were slow buyers, making liim many calls
before purchasing. They look an article over three
or four different times before concluding they want
it ; then its cost is to be considered. The native's
squaw comes and approves or disapproves ; the
article is discussed with the men's neighbors, and,
finally, his resolution having culminated, he goes
away to earn the money with which to make the
purchase! "Such customers are very trying to
our patience," remarked the trader, " but after
you once understand their peculiarities it is easy
enough to get along with them."
A truly charitable enterprise has been estab-
lished here ; we refer to the Indian Girls' School
and Home, supported by the American Board of
Missions, where the pupils are taught industrial
duties appertaining to the domestic associations
of their sex, as well as the ordinary branches of a
common school education. No effort, we were
told, is made to enforce any special tenets of faith,
but these girls are taught morality, which is prac-
tical religion. The example is much needed here,
both among these native people and the whites.
To show what strict adherents these Alaskans
are to tribal conventionalities, we can do no better
than relate a singular occurrence, for (he trutli of
which Dr. Jackson is our authority.
" Near the Hoonah Mission, a short time ago,
a deadly tragedy took place. A stalwuil native
came into the village and imbibed too freely of
hoochinoo. "Walking along the street he saw a
young married girl with whom he was greatly in-
226 THE NEW ELDORADO.
fatuated. The girl was afraid to meet bim and
turning ran to ber bouse. The man gave pursuit
and gained entrance to the house. All the in-
mates escaped in terror. Tbe desperado boldly
continued bis hunt for the woman, and the hus-
band of the woman with a few friends took refuge
in bis own house again. Tbe ravishing fiend re-
turned, and demanding admittance battered in
the door with an axe, and as he entered was shot
and instantly killed. The friends of the dead
man met in council, and according to their cus-
tom demanded a life for bis life. The husband
and protector of his wife's virtue gave himself into
the custody of bis enemies and was uuceremoni-
ously killed ! "
The production of native jewelry is a specialty
here, and some of tbe silver ornaments of Indian
manufacture are really very fine, exhibiting great
skill and originality, if not refined taste. Their
carvings in ivory are exceedingly curious, skill-
ful, and attractive, especially upon walrus teeth,
whereon tbey will imitate precisely any pattern
that is given to them, with a patient fidelity
equaling tbe Chinese. The native designs are
far tbe most desirable, however, being not only
typical of tbe people and locality, but original
and fitting. The time devoted to a piece of work
seems to be of no consideration to a native, and
forms no criterion as regards tbe price demanded
for it. From tbe sale of these fancy articles tbe
aborigines receive annually a considerable sum of
money. It is indeed surprising bow they can get
NATIVE CARVINGS. 227
such results without better tools. With some ar-
tistic instruction they would be cupable of produ-
cing designs and combinations of a choice char-
acter, and which would command a market among
the most fastidious purchasers. Their present
somewhat rude ornaments iiave attracted so much
attention that two or three stores in San Fran-
cisco keep a variety of them for sale. But it is
the charm of having purchased such souvenirs on
the spot which forms half their value.
Speaking of these souvenirs, the author was
shown some stone carvings at Victoria, on the pas-
sage from Puget Sound northward, which were
of native manufacture, and thought to be idols.
It was afterwards learned that these were the
works of the Haidas of Queen Charlotte Island,
about seventy or eighty miles north of Vancouver
Island. There is here a slate-stone, quite soft
when first quarried, which is easily carved into
any design or fanciful figure, but which rapidly
hardens on exposure to the air. The stone is
oiled when the carving is completed, and this
gives it the appearance of age, as well as makes
it dark and smooth. The natives of this north-
west coast do not worship idols, therefore these
are not objects of that character, though they are
curious and interesting. It is among these Haidas
that the practice of tattooing most prevails, and
they still cover their bodies with designs of birds,
fishes, and animals, some of which are most hide-
ous caricatures. This tribe is said to be the most
addicted to gambling of any on the coast, the
228 THE NEW ELDORADO.
demoralizing effect of which is to be seen in vari-
ous forms among them.
Fort Wrangel has several demon-like totem-
poles. There is a sort of fascination attached to
these awkward objects which leads one carefully
to examine and constantly to talk about them.
Before some cabins there are two of the weird
things, covered with devices representing both
the male and female branches of the family
which occupies the cabin. It was found that
much more importance was attached to these em-
blems here than had been manifested farther
south. An interested excursionist who came up
on our steamer, wishing to possess himself of a
totem-pole, found one at last of suitable size for
transportation, and tried to purchase it, but dis-
covered that no possible sum which he could offer
would be considered as an equivalent for it. All
of his subsequtmt efforts in this line proved"
equally unsuccessful so far as totem-poles were
concerned, and yet we remember that they are to
be found in many of our public museums through-
out the States, and we have seen large ones lying
upon the ground moss covered and neglected. It
appeared to be only the rich native who indulged
in an individual totem-pole. The cost of one, say
forty or fifty feet long, carved after the orthodox
fashion, with the free feast given at all such rais-
ings, is said to be over a thousand dollars. The
more lavish the expenditure on these occasions, the
greater the honor achieved by the host.
There is a successful day-school established here
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES. 229
besides the Indian Girls' Home, which is accom-
plishing much good in educating the rising gener-
ation, and in introducing civilized manners and cus-
toms. The children evince a fair degree of natural
aptitude, learning easily to read and write, but
are a little dull, we were told, in arithmetic.
Adult, uneducated natives, however, are quick
enough at making all necessary calcuhitions in
their trades with the whites, either as purchas-
ers of domestic goods, or in selling their peltries.
The Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Mo-
ravians, Quakers, Baptists, and Roman Catholics
all have missionary stations in different parts of
the country. Schools have also been established
for the general instruction of whites and natives at
Juneau, Sitka, Wrangel, Jackson, and other local-
ities under direction of our government officials,
and proper teachers have been supjDlied, the whole
system being under the supervision of a compe-
tent head, Mrs. J. G. Hyde, who teaches school
at Juneau, in her last year's report, says ; " Many
of the scholars, who, when the term began last
September, could not speak a word of English, can
now not only speak, but read and write it. They
can also spell correctly and are beginning in the
first principles of arithmetic. To the casual ob-
server perhaps nothing seems more absurd than the
attempt by any process to enlighten the clouded
intellect of this benighted people. Indeed, the
most squalid street Arabs might be considered
a thousand times more desirable as pupils. But a
few days' work among and for them convinces the
230 THE NEW ELDORADO.
teacher that she has not a boisterous, uncontrol-
lable lot of children, but as much the opposite as
it is possible to imagine. Children who habitu-
ally refrain from playing during intermission that
they may learn some lesson or how to do some
fancy work are not to be classed with the wild,
wayward, or vicious. Boys who, when their regu-
lar lessons are done, are continually designing and
drawing cannot be said to be entirely devoid of
talent worthy of cultivation. While the develop-
ment must be slow in most cases, there are a few
who would compare favorably with white children.
Their abnormal development of the faculty of form
gives them an inestimable advantage over their
more favored pale-face brothers in acquiring the
art of writing and drawing. Their mind acts very
slowly, but they make up in tenacity of purpose
what they lack in aptness."
At Sitka there is an industrial school which is
very successful training native boys and girls in
mechanical and domestic occupations, and of which
we will speak in detail in a further chapter.
CHAPTER XVII.
Schools in Alaska — Natives Ambitious to learn. — Wild Flow-
ers. — Native Grasses. — Boat Racing. — Avaricious Natives.
— The Candle Fish.— Gold Mines Inland. — Chinese Gold-
Diggers. — A Ledge of Garnets. — Belief in Omens. — More
Schools required. — The Pestiferous Mosquito. — Mosquitoes
and Bears. — Alaskan Fjords. — The Patterson Glacier.
The general plan of this school at Wrangel
struck us as being the most promising means of
improvement that could possibly be devised and
carried forward among the aborigines of Alaska.
We were informed that fourteen government day
schools were in operation in the Territory, under
the able supervision of tliat true philanthropist,
Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States General Agent
for Education in the Territory. The natives al-
most universally welcome and gladly improve the
advantages afforded them for instruction, espe-
cially as regards their children. Many individual
cases with which the author became acquainted
were of much more than ordinary interest ; indeed,
it was quite touching to observe the eagerness of
young natives to gain intellectual culture. Surely
such incentive is worthy of all encouragement.
One could not but contrast the earnestness of
these untutored aborigines to make the most of
every opportunity for learning with the neglected
opportunities of eight tenths of our pampered cliil-
232 THE NEW ELDORADO.
dren of civilization. Here is the true field of mis-
sionary work, the work of education.
In the neighborhood of Fort Wrangel plenty of
sweet wild flowers were observed in bloom, some
especially of Alpine character were very interest-
ing, — " wee, modest, crimson-tipped flowers," —
while the tall blueberry bushes were crowded with
wholesome and appetizing fruit, with here and
there clusters of the luscious salmon-berry, yellow
as gold, and so ripe as to melt in the mouth. At
the earliest advent of spring the flowers burst
forth in this latitude with surprising forwardness,
a phenomenon also observable in northern Sweden
and Norway. Such white clover heads are rarely
seen anywhere else, large, well spread, and fra-
grant as pinks. Among the ferns was an abun-
dance of the tiny-leaved maiden's hair species,
with delicate, chocolate stems. The soil also
abounds in well-developed grasses, timothy grow-
ing here to four feet and over in height, and the
nutritious, stocky blue grass even higher. Veg-
etation during the brief summer season runs riot,
and makes the most of its opportunity. Although
south of Sitka, Fort Wrangel is colder in winter
and warmer in summer, on account of its distance
from the influence of the thermal ocean current
already described.
Sometimes a purse is made up among the visit-
ors here and offered as a prize to the natives in
boat-racing. A number of long canoes, each with
an Indian crew of from ten to sixteen, take part in
the aquatic struggle, which proves very amusing,
AVARICE. 233
not to say exciting. The native boats are flat-bot-
tomed, and glide over the surface of the water with
the least possible displacement. An Alaskan is
seen at his best when acting as a boatman ; he
takes instinctively to the paddle from his earliest
youth, and is never out of training for boat-ser-
vice so long as he lives and is able to wield an oar.
No university crew could successfully compete with
these semi-civilized canoeists. Well-trained naval
boat-crews have often been distanced by them.
The avariciousness of the natives is exhibited in
their readiness to sell almost anything they pos-
sess for money, even to parting with their wives
and daughters to the miners for base purposes;
though, as we have seen, they do draw the line at
totem-poles. It should be understood that tliese
queerly carved posts are emblems mosth^ of the
past ; that is to say, although the natives carefully
preserve those which now exist, few fresh ones are
raised by them. Toy effigies representing these
emblems are carved and offered for sale to curio-
hunters at nearly all of the villages on the coast,
and as a rule are readily disposed of.
There is very little if any use in Alaska for
artificial light during the summer season, while
nature's grand luminary is so sleepless ; but wdien
tliese aborigines do require a lamp for a special
purpose, the}' have the most inexpensive and in-
genious substitute ever ready at hand. The water
supplies them with any quantity of the ulikon or
candle-fish, about the size of our largest New
England smelts, and which are full of oil. They
234 THE NEW ELDORADO.
are small in body, but over ten inches in length.
They are prepared by a drying process and are
stored away for use, serving both for food and
for liglit. When a match is applied to one end
of the dried ulikon, it \A'ill burn until the whole is
quite consumed, clear and bright to the last, giv-
ing a light equal to three or four candles. So
rich are these fishes in oil that alcohol will not
preserve ihem, a discoA^ery which was made in pre-
paring specimens for the Smithsonian Institution.
When the Indians of the interior visit the coast,
as many of them do annually, they are sure to lay
in a stock of candle-fish to take back with them
for use in the lone: Arctic nifjht. This fish runs
at certain seasons of the year in great schools from
the sea, invading the fresh-water rivers near their
mouths, when the natives rake them on shore by
the bushel and preserve them as described. When
boiled they produce an oil which hardens like
butter, and which the Alaskans eat as we do
that article, with this important difference, that
they prefer their oil-butter to be quite rancid be-
fore they consider it at its best, while civilized
taste requires exactly the opposite condition,
namely, perfect freshness. Putrid animal matter
would certainl}' poison a white man, but the
Alaskan Indians seem to thrive upon it.
Some inland districts, which are most easily
reached from this point, are rich in gold-bearing
quartz and placer mines, but especially in the
latter. We were credibly informed that over
three million dollars' worth of gold was shipped
INLAND GOLD MINES. 235
from here in a period of five years, tliougli no
really organized and persistent effort at mining
had been made, or rather we should say no
modern facilities had been employed in bringing
about this result. The machinery for reducing
gold-bearing quartz has not yet been carried far
inland because of the great difficulty of transporta-
tion. Gold quartz ledges are numerous and quite
undeveloped in the neighborhood of Wrangel.
The well-known Cassiar mines are situated just
over the Alaska boundary on the east side in
British Columbia, but the gold discoveries in
Alaska proper are proving so much more profit-
able that those of the Cassiar district have ceased
to attract the miners. There is a curious fact con-
nected with these deposits of the precious metal in
the region approached by the way of Wrangel. In
more than one instance, as reported by Captain
White of the United States Revenue Service,
placer gold, which is usually sought for in the
dry beds of river courses and in low lands, is here
found on the tops of mountains a thousand feet
high, where the largest nuggets of the precious
metal yet found in the Northwest have been
obtained. Many of the lumps of pure gold picked
up in this region have weighed thirty ounces and
L over. The idea of finding placer deposits on the
L tops of mountains is a novelty in gold prospecting,
^ The Stickeen River, which is the largest in the
Biouthern part of the Territory, has its mouth in
Btlie harbor of Fort Wrangel, discoloring the waters
^for a long distance with its chalk-like, frothy flow,
236 THE NEW ELDORADO.
a characteristic of all Alaska streams into which
the waters of the snowy mountains and glaciers
empty. The river is navigable for light-draft
stern- wheel steamers to Glenora, a liundred and
fifty miles from its mouth. After reaching this
place, the way to the Cassiar mines is overland
for an equal distance by a difficult mountain trail,
it being necessary to transport all provisions and
material on the backs of natives, who have learned
to demand good pay for this laborious service.
The interior upon this route is broken into a suc-
cession of sharply-defined mountains, separated by
narrow and deep valleys, similar to the islands off
the mainland. This is so decided a feature as to
lead Mr. George Davidson of the United States
Coast Survey to remark : " The topography of
the Alexander Archipelago is a type of the in-
terior. A submergence of the mountain region
of the maiidand would give a similar succession
of islands, separated by deep narrow fjords." The
sandy bed and banks of the Stickeen are heavily
charged with particles of gold, ten dollars per day
each being frequently realized by gangs of men
who manipulate the same only in the most primi-
tive fashion. Numbers of Chinamen availed them-
selves of this opportunity until they were expelled
by both the whites and the natives. The poor
" Heathen Chinee " is unwelcome everywhere
outside of his own Celestial Empire, and yet close
observation shows, as we have already said, that
these Asiatics have more good qualities than the
average foreigners who seek a home on our
shores.
A LEDGE OF GARNETS. 237
The scenery of the Stickeen River is pronounced
by Professor Muir to be superb and grand beyond
description. Three hundred ghiciers are known
to drain into its swift running waters, over one
hundred of which are to be seen between f\)rt
Wrangel and Glenora. Near the moiitli of tlie
river is the curious ledge of garnet crystals, which
furnishes stones of considerable beauty and bril-
liancy, though not sufficiently clear to be used as
gems. Choice pieces are secured by visitors as
cabinet specimens, however, and can be had, if
desired, by the bushel, at a trifling cost. Tliey
occur in a matrix of slate-like formation, some so
large as to weigh two or three ounces, and dimin-
ishing from that size the\' are found as small as a
pin-head. It requires three days of hard steam-
ing against the current to ascend the river as far
as Glenora from the mouth, whereas the same
distance returning, down stream, has frequently
been made in eight or ten hours. So necessarily
rapid is the descent of the Stickeen as to make
the downward tiip quite hazardous, except in
charge of a careful pilot. In the neighborhood of
Fort Wrangel there are some very active lx)iling
springs, which the natives utilize, as do the New
Zealanders at Ohinemutu, by cooking their food
in them.
In the crater of Goreloi, on Burned Island, is a
vast boiling spring, or rather a boiling lake, which
has never been intelligently described, and which
is represented by those who have seen it to be
unique. This strange body of water is eighteen
238 THE NEW ELDORADO.
miles in circumference. Tlie natives are well
supplied with legends relating to these remarka-
ble natural phenomena, including the extinct and
active volcanoes. Genii and dreaded spirits are
supposed by them to dwell in the extinct volca-
noes, and to make their homes in the mountain
caves. They believe that good spirits will not
harm them, and therefore do not address them-
selves to such, but the evil ones must by some
active means be propitiated, and to them their
sole attention is given, or, in other words, their
religious ceremonies when analyzed are simply
devil worship. All of the tribes, if we except
the Aleuts, are held in abject fear by their con-
jurers or medicine-men, who seemed to us to be
the most anant knaves conceivable, not possess-
ing one genuine quality to sustain their assump-
tions except that of bold effrontery. This seems
particularly strange, as the aborigines of the North-
west are more than ordinarily* intelligent, com-
pared with other half-civilized races, both in this
and other lands.
They are firm believers in signs and omens.
When Rev. Mr. Willard and wife first came to
the Chilcat country the winter was one of deep
snows and stormy weather. The natives said that
the weather-gods were angry at the new ways of
the missionaries. A child had been buried instead
of burned on the funeral pyre in accordance with
their customs. The mother of the child became
alarmed and felt that her life was in jeopardy for
permitting her child to be buried, so she kindled
BELIEF IN OMENS. 239
a fire over the grave in order to appease the gods
and bring fair weatlier. At school the children
had played new games and mocked wild geese.
So the girls of the Sitka Training School brought
on a very cold spell of weather by playing a game
called " cat's-back," and which caused a commo-
tion at the native village. A white man out with
some natives picked up some large clam-shells on
the beach to bring home with him ; the natives
remonstrated with him, saying that " a big storm
may overtake us, our canoe might capsize, and all
be drowned the next time we go on the water."
In tempestuous weather the native propitiates
the spirit of the storm by leaving a portion of
tobacco in the rock-caves alongshore, but in calm
weather he smokes the weed himself. It was
noticed, however, that the aboriginal Alaskans
were little given to the use of tobacco, less, in-
deed, than any semi-civilized race whom the writer
has ever visited. .
Governor Swineford, in his annual report to the
department at Washington, dated 1886, says : " I
have no reason to change or modify the estimate
I had formed on very short acquaintance of the
character of the native Alaskans. They are a
very superior race intellectually as compared with
the people generally known as North American
Indians, and are as a rule industrious and provi-
dent, being wholly self-sustaining. They are
shrewd and natural-born traders. Some are good
carpenters, others are skillful workers in wood and
metals. Not a few among them speak the English
240 THE NEW ELDORADO.
language, and some of the young men and women
have learned to read and write, and nearly all are
anxious forthe education of their children."
Our government should act upon this hint and
freely establish the UK^ans of education among the
Alaskans. True, it is systematically engaged in
promoting the cause in various ways, though not
very energetically. Congress having voted forty-
five thousand dollars to be expended for the pur-
pose during the year 1889. " School-houses are
the republican line of fortifications," said Horace
Mann. '' Among those best known," says Dr. Shel-
don Jackson, speaking of the native tribes, "the
highest ambition is to build American homes, pos-
sess American furniture, dress in American clothes,
adopt the American style of living, and be Amer-
ican citizens. They ask no special favors from the
American government, no annuities or help, but
simply to be treated as other citizens, protected by
the laws and courts, and in common with all
others furnished with schools for their children."
It was made the duty of the Secretary of the In-
terior, by the act providing a civil government for
Alaska, to make needful and proper provision for
the education of all children of school age witliout
reference to race or color, and all true friends of
progress and humanity will urge the matter until a
common school is established in every native tribe
and settlement having a sufficient number of
children.
We were told that tliere is good* hunting inland
a short distance from Fort Wrangel ; winter,
THE UBIQUITOUS MOSQUITO. 241
however, is tlie oiih' season when this can be suc-
cessfully pursued near to the coast in the wild dis-
tricts. The marshy " tundra " is then frozen and
covered with snow, making it possible to cross.
This is the period of the year also when the na-
tives of the interior prosecute their most success-
ful trapping and hunting, coming down to the
coast by the river in the summer to sell their
pelts and to purchase stores of the white traders.
The Russians have long since taught the aborig-
ines to depend much upon tea, but they care very
little for coffee. Rifles are greatly prized by them,
and though they are contraband nearly every In-
dian manages to possess one and knows how to
use it most effectually. They are very econom-
ical of ammunition, and never throw away a shot
by carelessness.
The pestiferous and ubiquitous mosquito is not
absent from these high latitudes. Tiiey are very
troublesome during the short summer season in
northern Alaska as well as among the islands of
the Alexander Archipelago. Strange that so frail
an insect should have reached as far north as man
has penetrated. Even while climbing the frosty
glaciers the excursionist will find both hands re-
quired to prevent their biting his face from fore-
head to chin. If they are a persistent pest in
equatorial latitudes, they are ten times more ven-
omous and voracious in these regions during cer-
tain seasons. The author has experienced this fact
also in Norway at even a mucli higher latitude
than he visited in the western hemisphere. The
242 THE NEW ELDORADO.
bites of these mosquitoes fortunately, like all flesh
wounds in this northern region, heal quickly, ven-
omous as they are, owing to the liberally ozon-
ized condition of the atmosphere as well as the
absence of disease germs and organic dust.
It is said that when the otter hunters or others
among the aborigines get wounded in any way,
their treatment is simple and efficacious, and
however severe the wound may be, it is nearly
always quickly healed. The victim of the acci-
dent puts himself uncomplainingly on starvation
diet, living upon an astonishingly small amount of
food for a couple of weeks, and the cure follows
rapidly.
Frederick Schwatka, in his excellent book en-
titled " Along Alaska's Great River," tells how
the mosquitoes conquer and absolutely destroy the
bears, and it seems that the native dogs are some-
times overcome by them in some exposed districts
of the Yukon valley. The great brown bear,
having exhausted the roots and berries on one
mountain side, cross the valley to another range,
or rather makes the attempt to do so, but is not al-
ways successful. Covered by a heavy coat of hair
on his body, his eyes, nose, and ears are the only
vulnerable points of attack for the mosquitoes, and
hereon they congregate, surrounding tin; bear's
head in clouds. As he reaches a swampy spot
they increase in vigor and numbers, until tiie ani-
mal's forepaws become so occupied in striving to
keep them off that he cannot walk. Then Bruin
becomes enraged, and, bear-like, rises on his hind
ALASKAN FJORDS. 243
legs to fight. It is a mere question of time after
this stage is reached until the bear's eyes become
so swollen from the innumerable bites that he can-
not see, and in a blind condition he wanders help-
lessly about until he gets mired and starves to
death. The cinnamon and black bears are most
common, the grizzly being less frequently met
with. The great white polar bears are not found
south of Behring Strait, though they are numerous
on the borders of the Arctic Ocean.
At every landing made 'by the steamer on our
meandering course among the islands Indians
come to the wharves to offer their curios or home-
made articles, only valuable as souvenirs of the
visit. As they mass themselves here and there,
either on the shore or the ship's deck, they form
picturesque groups, made up of bucks, squaws,
and pajjooses, presenting charming bits of color,
while they amuse the stranger by their peculiar
physiognomy and manners. During the excur-
sion season they must reap quite a harvest by the
sale of baskets and various domestic trinkets.
After leaving Fort Wrangel we are soon in the
wild, picturesque, and sinuous narrows which bear
the same name. The water is shallow ; here and
there are many dangerous rocks in the channels.
Inlets or fjords are often passed, so quiet and invit-
ing in their appearance as to tempt the traveler
to diverge from the usual route. Some of these
marine nooks are deep enough to float the largest
ship, yet far down through the clear water one
can see gardens of zoophytes invaded by myriads
244 THE NEW ELDORADO.
of curiously shaped lisli, large and small. The
bottom of these waters, like the land and sea of
Alaska, teems with animal life. A few hours'
dredging would supply the most enthusiastic nat-
uralist with ample material for a year's study.
In the many stops of the steamer to take or
deliver freight, brief boat excursions can be en-
joyed. On one of these occasions we saw the
first live octopus, or devil - fish, with two of its
fatal arms encircling a small fish, which, after
squeezing out its life, ^he octopus would devour.
The one which was seen on this occasion was not
very large, the rounded body being, perhaps,
eighteen or twenty inches across, but its vicious
looking tentacles, six in number, two of which
securely clasped its victim, were each three times
that length. The large eyes seemed out of pro-
portion to the animal's size, and were placed on
one side like those of the flounder.
The Patterson glacier is the first of the many
which come into view on this part of the voyage,
but they multiply rapidly as we steam north-
ward. It is vast in in-oportinns, though partly
hidden behind the moraine which it has raised.
Three or four miles back from its front rises a
wall of solid ice nearly a thousand feet in height.
The whole was rendered marvelously beautiful,
lighted up as we saw it by bright noonday sun-
shine, which brought out its frosty and opaline
colors of white, scarlet, and blue, in brilliant array.
Little has been written about the Patterson gla-
cier, but it is one of the most remarkable in size
GLA CIERS. 245
and other characteristics in all Alaska. Vessels
from San Francisco have taken whole cargoes of
ice from these Alaskan glaciers and transported
the same for use in California. There seems to
be no reason why the gathering of such a supply
should not be both possible and profitable, though
ice can now be so easily manufactured by artificial
means.
The fact that these glaciers are slowly decreas-
ing in size leads to the conclusion that the ex-
treme Arctic temperature in the north is slowly
growing to be less intense. Intelligent captains
of whaleships have made careful observations to
a like effect. It was once tropical in the Yukon
valley, — of that there is evidence enough; who
can say that it may not again be so a few thou-
sand years hence ?
CHAPTER XVIII.
Norwegian Scenery. — Lonely Navigation. — The Marvels of
Takou Inlet. — Hundreds of Icebergs. — Home of the Frost
King. — More Gold Deposits. — Snowstorm among the Peaks.
— Juneau the Metropolis of Alaska. — Auk and Takou In-
dians. — Manners and Customs. — Spartan Habits. — Dis-
posal of Widows. — Duels. — Sacrificing Slaves. — Hideous
Customs still prevail.
Before reaching Juneau we explored Takou
Inlet, where there are two large glaciers, one with
a moraine before its foot, the other reaching the
deep water with its face, so as to discharge ice-
bergs constantly. The bay was well filled with
these, some of which were larger than our steamer
(tlie Corona), and all were of such intense blue,
mingled with dazzling white, as to recall the effect
realized in the Blue Grotto of Capri. This berg-
producing glacier was corrugated upon its surface
in a remarkable manner, being utterly impassable
to human feet. It was nearly a mile in width and
its length indefinite; we doubt if it has ever been
explored. A thousand ice and snow fed streams
poured into the bay from the surrounding moun-
tains, which completely walled in the broad sheet
of water, so sprinkled with ice-sculpture in all
manner of shapes. The ceaseless music of falling
water was the only noise which broke the silence
of the scene. A cavalcade of fleecy clouds, kindly
TAKOU INLET. 247
forgetting to precipitate themselves in form of rain,
floated over our heads, producing delicate ligiits and
shades, with creeping shadows upon the surround-
ing mountains. The steamer's abrupt whistle was
echoed with mocking hoarseness from the sur-
rounding cliffs, causing the myriads of white-
winged wild fowl to rise from the icebergs until
the air was filled with them like snowflakes. How
wonderful it was ! A broad clear flood of sun-
shine enveloped the whole ; everything seemed so
serene, so grand, the sky so blue, and the angels
so near. It was all as magnificent as a gorgeous
dream, to the thoughtful observer a living poem.
Close in to the precipitous cliffs of the myrtle-
green hills were inky shadows, which formed the
requisite contrast to the crystal clearness of the
surroundings. For thousands of years this glacial
action has been going on, the story of the earth is
so old ; but its beauty is ever young, its loveliness
eternal.
On our way up Gastineau Channel — the tide-
waters of which have a rise and fall of sixteen
feet — we have presented to us veritable Norwe-
gian scenery, under a pale amethyst sky fringed
at the horizon with orange and crimson ; now glid-
ing close to precipitous cliffs enlivened by silvery
streams leaping down their sides, and now passing
the mouths of inlets winding among abrupt moun-
tains leading no one knows whither, for there are
no maps or charts of these lateral channels. The
Indian canoes may have occasionally penetrated
them, but never the keel of the white man. On
248 THE NEW ELDORADO.
the left stand the tall peaks of Douglas Island,
and on the right the jagged Alps of the mainland,
both rising to a height of a thousand feet or more,
on the continent side backed b}' elevations still
more lofty. The Takou River flows into the sea
and sfives its name to the neighborhood. Hei'e
the Hudson Bay Fur Company established and
maintained a trading-post for several years. All
this region is famous for its game, such as deer,
bears, caribou, wolves, foxes, martens, and minks,
together with the abounding big-horn sheep. In
place of wool these latter have a coat somewhat
like the red deer, and except in the size of their
horns they resemble our domestic sheep. We
are told that this district is also rich in gold placer
mines, and according to Professor Muir it must
eventually yield extremely profitable results to in-
telligent mining enterprise. In many localities
the placers have paid for years, though worked by
the most simple means. The experience of Cali-
fornia will undoubtedly be repeated in Alaska;
the great aggregate of gold which was realized
there will be duplicated here. After due thought
and personal observation relative to the subject,
we are willing to stand or fall upon the correct-
ness of this prediction. The result may not come
in the next year, or that following, but it will
come in the near future. Mining north of 54° 40'
is only in its infancy ; its growth has been far
more rajiid, however, than it was at the south,
both because of the richness of the mines, and be-
cause the business of mining is, and will continue
to be, done more intelligently.
JUNEAU. 249
Just before reacliing Juneau a singular phenom-
enon attracted our attention ; it was a furious
snowstorm among the mountain peaks, while all
about us was quite calm and pleasant. The thick
clouds of snow Avere driven hither and thither, from
one pinnacle to another, writhing and twisting like
a cyclone or water-spout at sea. It was a curious
contrast, the storm raging in those far upper cur-
rents, while we enjoyed a gracious wealth of sun-
shine in a temperature of 65° Fah.
Jutieau, located one hundred and fifty miles
southeast of Sitka, and about three hundred north
of Fort Wi'angel, is already a considerable mining
centre, with a population of about four thousand,
situated not far from Takou district, and is the
depot for the rich quartz and placer mines which
are located in the region back of it. The site of
the town is picturesque, being at the base of an
abrupt mountain cliff which is decked with spark-
ling cascades. We were told that there is a rise
and fall of twenty- four feet in the tide at the
wharf of Juneau, but think perhaps eighteen feet
would be nearer correct. The winter population is
swelled by the influx of miners when the placers
are not worked owing to snow and ice. Truth
compels us to say that the residents here, of both
sexes, are far from being of a desirable class. The
Indians of this vicinity are of the Auk and Takou
tribes; good traders and good hunters, but enemies
of each other, though not given to open hostility.
The native women, as if not content witii the nat-
ural ugliness which has been liberally bestowed
250 THE NEW ELDORADO.
upon tbem by Providence, besmear their faces with
a compound of seal-oil and lampblack, but for
what possible reason, except that, it is aboriginal
Alaska fashion, one cannot divine. It is said that
this is a sort of mourning for departed relations or
friends ; but the hilarity of those thus marked was
anything but an indication of sorrow. We can
well remember Yokohama wives, with blackened
teeth and shaved eyebrows, who looked, if possi-
ble, a degree worse than these Alaskan women.
In the latter case, however, the wives confessedly
sought to make themselves hideous to prevent jeal-
ousy on the part of their husbands ; but the native
women here do not assign any plausible reason
for smooching themselves in this offensive manner.
When their faces are washed, a circumstance of
rare occurrence, tl)ey are as white as the avenige
of white people who are exposed to an out-of-door
life. It is not the practice of the aborigines of
either sex to wash themselves with water. They
are sometimes seen to besmear their faces and
hands with oil, which they carefully wipe off with
a wisp of dry grass, or other substitute for the
towel of civilization. The effect is to make the
features shine like varnished mahogany ; but as to
cleanliness obtained by such a process, that does
not follow.
If it were possible to discover a soap mine here
there might be some hopes of introducing among
the natives that condition which common accepta-
tion places next to godliness. A traveling com-
panion remarked that although milk and honey
FEMALE EMBELLISHMENTS. 251
could not be said to flow in tliis neighborhood, oil
does.
Many of the women, like those of the South
Sea and the Malacca Straits, wear nose rings and
glittering bracelets, while they go about with bare
legs and feet. The author has seen all sorts of
rude decorations employed by savage races, but
never one which seemed quite so ridiculous or so
deforming as the plug which many of these women
of Alaska wear thrust through their under lips.
The plug causes them to drool incessantly through
the artificial aperture, though it is partially stopped
by a piece of bone, ivory, or wood, formed like a
large cuff-button, with a flat-spread portion in-
side to keep it in position. This practice is com-
menced in youth, the plug being increased in size
as the wearer advances in age, so that when she
becomes aged her lower lip is shockingly deformed.
It is gratifying to be able to say that this custom
is becoming less and less in use among the rising
generation, and the same may be said as to tattoo-
ing the chin and cheeks. The hands and feet of
the women are so small as to be noticeable in that
respect.
The girls and boys endure great physical neg-
lect in their youth, so that only the strongest are
able to survive their childhood. It was surprising
to see children of tender age of both sexes clothed
only in a single cotton shirt, reaeliing to their
knees, bare-legged, bare-footed, and bare-headed,
yet apparently quite comfortable, while our woolen
clothes and waterproofs were to us indispensable.
252 THE NEW ELDORADO.
We wore told that in infancy these children are
dipped every morning into the sea, without regard
to the temperature, or season of the year, com-
mencino; the operation when they are four weeks
old. This heroic, Spartan treatment of the bath
■will probably harden, if it does not kill, but un-
doubtedly the latter result is the more likely of
the two. The adults of some of the tribes break
holes in the ice in midwinter, and bathe with
marvelous fortitude, not for purposes of cleanli-
ness, but declaring that it makes them " brave and
strong, able to resist the cold, and to live long."
The next hour, however, they may be found sit-
ting on their hams as close to the fire in the mid-
dle of their un ventilated cabins as they can get,
closely wrapped in blankets, head and all. The
prevalence among them of rheumatism and con-
sumption shows that Nature cannot be outraged
with impunity even by half-civilized Alaskans.
The natives do not seem to know anything
about medicine, but when seriously ill they call in
their shaman or medicine-man, and submit to his
wild and senseless incantations, a process which
would drive a civilized patient distracted. Fifty
years ago an epidemic of small-pox swept away
one third of the population of this part of the
North Pacific coast, besides which, from various
causes, the number in the several tribes is steadily
decreasing. Vaccination having been introduced,
a second visit of the dreaded disease just men-
tioned was accompanied with a very much smaller
fatality. A scourge known as black measles is a
RUM THE NATIVE'S BANE. 2;33
frequent visitor among the youthful Alaskans, and
is quite as fatal as small-pox.
Strong efforts are made by our government
oflBcials to keep intoxicating liquors out of the
Territory, and the law makes them strictly con-
traband, but it is no more diflBeult or impossible
to smuggle in Alaska than it is in New York or
Boston. There are plenty of irresponsible whites
ready to make money out of the aborigines. Rum
is the native's bane, its effect upon him being sin-
gularly fatal ; it maddens him, even slight intoxi-
cation means to him delirium and all its conse-
quences, wild brutality and utter demoralization.
Molasses is sold freely to them, and the Indians
have learned how to distill rum from it, so that
they secretly produce a vile and potent intoxicant,
in spite of all prohibition.
When a native husband dies his brother's or
sister's son, according to their custom, must marry
the widow, but if there is no male relative of the
husband's living, the widow may then choose for
herself. If the individual who thus falls heir to
a widow does not fancy the conditions, he must
buy himself off, or fight the widow's nearest male
relative. Oftentimes, if the new alliance is par-
ticularly disagreeable, the victim escajjcs by pay-
ing so much cash or so many blankets. There
seems to be no hurt to a native's honor that ]K'cii-
niary consideration will not promptly heal. Cor-
poral punishment is considered by these aborigines
to be a great disgrace, and is very seldom resorted
to even with rebellious children. Theft is not
254 THE SEW ELDORADO.
looked upon as a crime ; but if discovered, tha
thief must make ample restitution ; and when his
peculation is known lie promptly does so without
question or murmur. They have the duel as a de-
cisive means of settling family feuds. When mat-
ters have come to the last resort, there is no se-
cret about the matter. The two combatants fight
publicly with knives, their friends looking on and
singing songs while the combat lasts. But these
duels, the same as with many other earlier savage
practices, are now nearly obsolete. Like our
Western Indians, their method of war was the
ambush and surprise, and like them they scalped
their prisoners and subjected them to savage cru-
elties. This also is more of the past than the
present, as no open conflicts would now be per-
mitted by the United States officials. The natives
deck themselves with paint, — yellow ochre, —
and look very much like the Sioux and Apache
Indians in this respect. A century ago they were
armed with flint-capped lances, bows, and arrows,
but association with the whites has now supplied
them with firearms. The old style of native
weapons has consequently disappeared, except the
lance with which they hunt the sea-otter. Fire-
arms they do not use in this occuj)ation, fearing to
frighten away the valuable game altogether. They
still manufacture bows and arrows for sale as
curiosities to visiting strangers. They pride them-
selves upon their accomplishments in singing and
dancing, but which to civilized ears and eyes are
only the grossest caricatures. In these notes of
i
SLAVES. 255
the natives we refer to no one tribe, but to the
aborigines of Alaska generally. The various
tribes of course differ froni each other. Those most
in contact with the whites, having abolished many
of their ancient habits, have adopted in a certain
degree such customs as they see the white people
follow. The holding of slaves is still practiced
among them. Formerly, as we have said, one or
two of these were sacrificed when their owner died,
if he was a chief, in order that he might be well
attended in the new sphere upon which he was
entering ; but this practice also has passed away
in most communities, with many other cruelties
which were once common. These slaves are gen-
erally descendants of parents who were taken in
battle during civil wars, though they are also
bought and sold for so many otter-skins, or so
many blankets. Such persons are always submis-
sive, and accept the position in which they find
themselves as a matter of course. This enforced
servitude will soon be entirely abolished.
Female infanticide has not been uncommon with
some tribes, but it does not prevail as has been
represented by late writers. It is true that there
have been cases where mothers, dreading to bring
up their girls to such lives of hardship as they
have themselves endured, have resorted to this
desperate alternative, but careful inquiry did not
satisfy us that such a practice now prevails if,
indeed, it has not entirely ceased. In common
•with nearly all semi-civilized and savage races,
the native Alaskans regard their women more in
256 THE NEW ELDORADO.
the light of slaves than as help-mates, and nearly
all the hard work, except hunting and fisiiiiig, falls
to their share. This is not a peculiarity of savage
life, after all ; horses and mules are not harder
■worked th;in are women in Germany and various
parts of Europe. The writer has seen women
carrying hods of bricks and mortar up long lad-
ders in Munich, while their husbands drank huge
"schooners" of beer and smoked tobacco in the
nearest groggery.
Here and there among the several tribes, strange,
unnatural, hideous customs are still extant, rela-
tive- to wives about to become mothers, and as to
young girls arriving at the age of puberty. We
realize, however, that is not for us to look at this
people through the lens of any small circum-
scribed moial code, but with kindly, hopeful
views, guided by a due consideration of their
normal condition. The conventionalities of civil-
ization do not apply ; latitude and longitude make
broad differences as to what constitutes vice and
virtue, reason or uni-eason. Modern instances are
inadequate as a criterion of comparison. One
who has traveled in many lands has learned to ex-
pand his horizon of judgment to accord with his
geographical experience.
Notwithstanding the light in which the Alas-
kan regards his women, there seems to be a uni-
versal concession made to them in all matters of
trade, wherein they undoubtedly hold the veto
power, and in some other respects their domestic
BjUthority is promptly acknowledged. Just where
POLYGAMOUS WIVES. 257
the line is drawn does not seem to be clear to a
stranger. After a native bad sold us some trifle,
bis wife in more than one instance came and
demanded it back again, carefully refunding the
consideration which was given for the same. To
this interference the husband seemed forced to
submit in silence, — forced by the arbitrary cus-
tom of his tribe. We were told that even among
themselves an agreement amounted to nothing at
all, as they claim the right, and exercise it, of
undoing any contract at will, provided the consid-
eration which passed is promptly refunded. Even
the white traders are obliged to yield to this
singular idea to a certain extent, for the sake of
peace.
The story so often told about polygamous
wives, that is women with husbands in the plural,
cannot be absolutely denied, but is an exaggera-
tion of facts. Such relations we were told did
exist, but to no great extent, among the tribes of
Alaska.
CHAPTER XIX.
Aboriginal Dwelliugs. — Mastodous in Alaska. — Few Old Peo
pie alive. — Abundance of Rain. — The Wonderful Treadwell
Gold Mine. — Largest Quartz Crushing Mill in the World. —
Inexhaustible Riches. — Other Gold Mines. — Tlie Great
Davidson Glacier. — Pyramid Harbor. — Native Frauds. —
The Cliilcats. — Mammoth Bear. — Salmon Canneries.
In some portions of the country the aboriginal
dwelliiig.s are constructed partly under ground ;
this is especially the case in the far north among
the Eskimos proper, on the coast of the Polar Sea.
Such cabins are entered by a tunnel ten feet long,
so low and small as to compel the occupants to creep
upon their hands and knees in passing through
it. 'J'he tunnel-entrance, which always faces the
most favorable point, is covered with a rude shed
to protect it from the snow and the severity of the
weather. The cabins are conical in form, cov-
eretl with turf and mud, a hole being left at the
top to permit the smoke to escape. The fire is
built in the middle of the apartment on the
ground. Around the space left for this purpose
is a platform of a few inches in height arranged
for living and sleeping upon. At night, in ex-
treme cold weather, a flap of skins is so arranged
that it can be drawn over the ojicning in the roof
which serves as a chimney, and thus, the entrance
being also closed, the occupants become hermeti-
MASTODONS. • 259
cally sealed, as it were, thoroughly outraging all
our modern ideas of ventihition. Twelve or
fifteen persons are often found together in such a
cabin with its one room, where the decencies of
life are utterly ignored, and where the stench to
civilized nostrils is really something dreadful to
encounter.
This description refers to the winter homes of
the people, where they hibernate like some species
of wild animals, but for the milder portion of the
year the Eskimos are nomadic, traveling hither
and thither, seeking the most favorable locations
for hunting and fishing, while living in rudely
constructed camps. They use tents adapted for
this itinerant life, made from prepared walrus
hides supported by a light framework of wooden
poles. The more thrifty supply themselves with
canvas tents bought of the whites, as being handier
for use and transportation.
Speaking of the interior of the countr}^ we have
the authority of Mr. C. F. Fowler, late agent of
the Alaska Fur Company, and long resident in
the country, and of Ex-Governor Swineford, both
of whom have carefully investigated the subject,
for stating that there exists a huge species of ani-
mals, believed to be representatives of the sup-
posed extinct mammoth, found in herds not far
from the headwaters of the Snake River, on the
interior plateaus of Alaska. The natives call
them " big-teeth " because of the size of their
ivory tusks. Some of these, weighing over two
hundred pounds each, were from animals so
260 THE NEW ELDORADO.
lately killed as to still have flesh upon them, and
were purchased by Mr. Fowler, who brought them
to the coast. These mammoths are represented
to average twenty feet in height and over thirty
feet in length, in many respects resembling ele-
phants, the body being covered with long, coarse,
reddish liairs. The eyes are larger, the eai's smaller,
and the trunk longer and more slender than those
of the average elephant. The two tusks which
Mr. Fowler brought away with him each measured
fifteen feet in length.
The author has almost universally found among
savage races at least a few very old people of
both sexes, who were apparently revered and
carefully provided for by their descendants and
associates, but here among the aborigines aged
persons are certainly not often to be seen.
Whether it is that, hardy and robust as they gen-
erally appear to be, they do not, as a rule, live to
advanced years, or that a summary method is
adopted to get rid of tiiem after they have out-
lived their usefulness, it is impossible to say. We
were told that such is certainly the case with
some of the tribes farthest from the influence and
supervision of the whites, and that half a century
ago the extremely old, being considered useless,
were frequently " disposed " of. It is clear enough
that there is nothing in the climate of this region
in any way inimical to health and longevity.
The women of the Takou district are very ex-
pert and industrious. They occupy a large por-
tion of their time in weaving baskets of split
RAINFALL. 2G1
cedar, far exceeding any similar Indian work
which we have chanced to see elsewhere, both in
the coloring and the very ingenious comhination
of figures. Some of these baskets are so closely
woven out of the dried inner bark of the willow-
tree that they will hold water without h>aking ;
the author also saw drinking-cups thus manufac-
tured. Visitors rarely fail to bring away interest-
ing specimens of native work in this particular
line ; the fine straw goods of Manila do not ex-
cel this in delicacy and beauty. In addition to
this attractive basket-work from the hands of the
women, the men of the tribe exhibit their natural
skill by carving silver bracelets (made from dol-
lar and half dollar coins), miniature totem-jDoles,
horn and wooden spoons, baby rattles and canoes,
in a very curious and original manner. Once a
fortnight, during the summer season, on the ar-
rival of an excursion party by steamer from the
south, the natives are, as a rule, completely cleared
out of their entire stock of these productions, and
they do not fail to realize fair prices, enabling
them to live very comfortably.
Though Sitka is the capital of the Territory,
Juneau is the principal settlement and headquar-
ters of the mining interests, containing over seven
hundred white residents. We have seen no sta-
tistics of the annual rainfall here, but can well
believe it to be what a certain person told us it
was, namely, over nine feet. It seemed to us that
the permanent residents should be web -footed.
The cause of this humidity 's very evident. There
262 THE NEW ELDORADO.
arises from the warm Japanese Current on the
coast a constant and profuse moisture. This the
winds convey bodily against the fi'osty sides of
the neighboring mountains, and then it is precip-
itated as rain ; at certain seasons of the year it
continues for weeks together.
There is compensation even in the fact of this
large annual rainfall, which at first thought seems
to be such an objection to this district. The gold-
bearing quartz which prevails here is treated, nec-
essarily, by what is known as the wet process, re-
quiring at all times an ample supply of water.
One successful superintendent told the author that
ore which is here so profitable would be in a dry
region, like that of some portions of our Western
States, worthless, or comparatively so, as it would
have to be ti'ansported in bulk to a more favor-
able locality. It seems to require two rainy days
to one pleasant one, which is about the average
proportion in the year, to provide sufficient water
to w^ork these large deposits properly. The sys-
tem of disintegrating, and of reclaiming the pre-
cious metal from the flint- like combination in
whicii it is held is marvelous in detail, evincing
the rapid progress which has been made in me-
chanical and chemical processes in our day.
It is found that June, July, and August are the
favorable months for the traveler to turn his face
towards the sliDres of Alaska, this being the sea- ■
son when the pleasant weather is most continu-
ous. It is not extremes of cold, but an over-abun-
dance of moisture in the shape of rain, which one I
THE TREAD WELL GOLD MINE. 263
must prepare for. An ample waterproof outside
garment will be found at times very serviceable.
The Tread well gold mine, just opposite Juneau,
on Douglas Island, is undoubtedly the largest in
the world, running at the present time two hun-
dred and forty stamps, the mill and machinery
having cost over half a million dollars; and tiiough
the author has visited the mines of Colorado, Mon-
tana, California, New Zealand, and Australia, he
has certainly never seen its superior in capacity
and golden promise. It is a true gold-bearing
quartz visible at the surface, four hundred and
sixty-four feet in width. The company owns
three thousand running feet upon this deposit, —
it can hardly be called a vein, — parts of which
have been tunneled and shafted simply to test its
extent, showing it to be practically inexhaustible,
no bottom having been found to the gold-bearing
quartz, nor any diminution in the quality of the
ore. The mill is run upon this quartz the whole
year, but as it is owned by a private corporation,
and there is no stock for sale, the exact output of
the mine is not known. The writer feefs safe in
saying, however, that no such body of gold-bearing
quartz is known to be* in existence elsewhere.
The laborers do not have to work in dark, un-
dergiound channels; all is above ground, and in
the season when darkness comes it is dispelled by
electric lights. No timbering or shafting is re-
quired ; it is simply an open quarry. Captain John
Codman, after visiting the mine, writes: "We
walked through the golden streets of this New
264 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Jerusalem, with golden walls on either side, and
wondered what men could do with so much
money." It is not a little confusing to a stranger,
when he first enters the great Treadwell jNIill,
to be greeted by the deafening cannonade of two
hundred and forty stamps. Each stamp weighs
nine hundred pounds, and the crushing capacity
of the whole mill is seven hundred and twenty
tons per da5\ The gold is shipped to the mint in
San Francisco in the form of bricks worth from
fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars each.
Douglas Island was named by Vancouver in
honor of his friend the Bishop of Salisbury, and is
eighteen miles long by about ten in width. This
remarkable quartz vein is believed to run the
whole length, though it is not alwaj^s visible at
the surface. Governor Swiiieford, in one of ins
annual reports, expresses his belief that ere long
the gold produced in this section alone will exceed
annuall}' the amount which was paid to Russia
for the whole of Alaska. This island, like Bara-
noff upon which Sitka is situated, is absolutely
seamed with gold-bearing quartz, and has been
carefully prospected and recorded by people inter-
ested in mining. Three hundred laborers are regu-
larly employed at the Treadwell Mill, whose seven
owners are opulent citizens of San Francisco. Tiie
work is prosecuted with great system and intelli-
gence. The quartz of this mine is not so rich as
that of many others, yielding on an average less^
than ten dollars to the ton, but it is so immense
in quantitv, and is so easily worked, that th(
SILVER BOW BASIN. 265
aggregate yield of the precious metal is indeed
remarkable. The mill turned out in the first
twelve months after it was started seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars in bullion, and is prob-
ably producing at this writing three times that
amount yearly.
The mine is admirably situated for the pur-
pose of receiving or shipping freight, as vessels
drawing twenty feet of water can lie alongside of
the rocks which form the natural shore less than
one hundred yards from the quartz mill. We
were informed that sixteen million dollars have
been offered and refused for this property. The
would-be purchasers were members of a French
syndicate. The agent says that the owners have
but one price, namely, twenty-five million dol-
lars, and they are in no haste to part with their
property even at that sum. On the mainland, just
across the channel from Douglas Island, three or
four miles back of Juneau, is Silver Bow Basin,
where there are gold deposits of vast extent and
richness. Here quite a population is engaged in
placer and quartz mining. The miners present
a motley crowd with their picks, shovels, and red
shirts, many with a stump tobacco pipe between
their lips, and all witji eager faces.
A spacious and thoroughly equipped quartz mill
is being erected by a Boston company of capitalists
for the purpose of developing a large property
which it is thought will nearly equal the Tread-
well in its output of the precious metal. This is
known as the Nowell mine, and it is said that the
266 THE NEW ELDORADO.
quartz assays one hundred dollars and over to the
ton. Silver Bow Basin is a small round valley ly-
ing in the hip of tiie mountains, accessible through
a deep gulch behind the town. It is surrounded
by noisy waterfalls, which supply just the needed
power for manipulating the gold quartz. Across
the range is another rich mineral locality, known
as Dix Bow Basin.
On Admiralty Islg^nd, near the northwest end of
Douglas Island, opposite Takou Inlet, there has
lately been discovered several gold deposits which
are owned by a Boston company. The prospect-
ings upon some of this well-defined vein liave
developed a percentage of gold to the ton so large
that we hesitate to specify it. " Thirty years
ago," said Mr. Thomas S. Nowell to us, "the
mines of Alaska would have proved comparatively
valueless ; the machinery and process that are
now so successfully applied to reducing the ores
were then unknown. The great econom}' and
consequent profit is derived from late discoveries
which are now perfected, producing machinery
which works as though it had the power of
thought."
The names of several other profitable mining
enterprises in this vicinity might be given, but we
have said enough to indicate the great mineral
wealth of this portion of the Territory, and to
justify our title of Thp: New Eldorado. There
are abundant gold indications all along the coast,
as well as upon the islands. In the sands of any
considerable stream between Cape Fox and Cook's
INEXHAUSTIBLE RICHES. 267
Inlet the "color" of gold can be obtained by the
simple process of panning. The question is not
where gold can be found in Alaska, for it seems
to be wonderfully and abundantly distributed, but
as to what localities \^ill best pay to expend
capital in developing. A number of abandoned
claims show that the failure to realize a satisfac-
tory profit in gold mining by eager, impatient,
and unreasonable individual seekers without proper
machinery is as frequent as in any other business
enterprise awkwardly planned. This is as appar-
ent in Africa, Australia, and California as it is in
this region. The Treadwell mine on Douglas
Island is in latitude 58° 16' north, just about on a
line with Edinburgh, Scotland.
We quote once more Mr. Nowell's own words :
" The mountains of Alaska abound in gold-bear-
ing quartz, the extent of their deposits exceeding
any similar discoveries in the world. There is
without doubt more gold-bearing quartz on Doug-
las Island alone, which can be worked at a hand-
some profit, than ten thousand stamps could crush
in a century ; a well-defined vein from two to six
hundred feet wide traversing the island for at least
from six to eight miles."
There is a missionary family, supported by the
Quaker persuasion, located at Douglas Island,
whose earnest effort in civilizing and teaching
the natives has been crowned with considerable
success. The self-abnegation and conscientious
labor of these people are truly worthy of all com-
mendation.
268 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Soon after leaving Jnnean, when near the head
of Lynn Channel, the grand Davidson glacier
comes into view, filling the space between two
lofty mountains. It measures twelve hundred feet
high by some three miles in breadth, being as
wide as a frozen sea and as deep as the ocean.
While looking upon it one is overawed by a sense
of its immensity and grandeur, as it seems hang-
ing, poised, ready to drop into the fathomless sea.
Where we pass it there intervenes a terminal mo-
raine overgrown witli trees and green foliage, which
contrasts vividly with the icy background formed
by the glacier. The glaciers of Europe are mere
pygmies in comparison with this marvel, which is
named after Professor Davidson, who has carefully
explored and described it. Both the Muir and
Davidson glaciers are spui's of the same great ice-
field, which has an unbroken expanse large enough
to lie over the whole republic of Switzerland.
The ^luir glacier will be reached presently in
Glacier Bay.
Soon after leaving the Davidson glacier we are
in Pyramid Harbor. This is the region of the
Chilcats, who were formerly one of the most
warlike tribes in the Territory, but who seem
to have outlived their belligerent propensities.
Th(nr rude, but picturesque cabins dot the neigh-
boring shore. The little settlement here consists
mostly of bark huts and a substantial trader's
store, together with an extensive and successful
fish -cannery. The product of the latter is over
a million pounds of fish per annum, the whole |
THE CHILCATS. 269
being engaged for 1889 to a Liverpool firm. This
amount is shipped in seventy thousand cases of
about fifty pounds each ; the fish are packed in tins
holding a pound each. This is an average amount
as regards various factories on the coast, though
some very much exceed it. The Indians now
cheerfully accept employment from the whites,
and gladly receive the regular wages which may
be agreed upon. They appear to be the best carv-
ers on the coast, and have an abundance of their
handiwork to sell to the interested white visitors.
Tliese articles consist of carvings in ivory (walrus'
teeth), decorated sheep-horns, copper and silver
bracelets, bows, arrows, and spearheads. As en-
gravers on copper and silver the Chilcats excel
all other people of the Northwest. Some of their
women wear a dozen narrow bracelets on each
arm, all of home manufacture. They are also
skillful in making ear-rings, and ornamental combs
out of ivoiy and sheep's horn. As successful
imitators they are remarkable, and will almost
exactly reproduce any design which is given to
them as a pattern. It seems strange tliat so ag-
gressive and warlike a tribe should be skilled in
carving aud many mechanical productions.
Certain people have bestowed nuKh honest but
needless sympathy upon these "poor abused In-
dians." Such persons may be assured that they
are amply able to look out for themselves and their
own interests, as regards all material matters.
No white man can get any advantage over an
Alaskan native in the way of trade ; they are
270 THE NEW ELDORADO.
sharpness itself in such things. For instance,
these Chilcats a few years since observed that
the white traders were particularly desirous of
obtaining black fox skins, and that for such pelts
they would willingly pay a handsome advance
over skins of other colors; a fine skin of tliis
sort bringing as high as thirty dollars, while the
common red ones were not worth (piarter of that
sum. The innocent natives soon began to pro-
duce the black skins in large quantities and re-
ceived their pay accordingly. Surprise being at
last excited by the remarkable abundance of the
black pelts, an explanation of the cause was sought,
when it was finally discovered that by a secret
process of dyeing the natives had made the red
fox skins temporarily into black. This was done so
cunningly that nothing but a careful examination
would detect the outrageous cheat, and not anti-
cipating anything of the kind the traders were
not on their guard. Of course no dyeing process
which they possessed was of a permanent nature
as applied to pelts, and these black furs when they
came to be prepared for market rapidly resumed
their natural color. When charged with this gross
deception, the Chilcats assumed the most innocent
expression and d^'uied any knowledge whatever in
the premises, only saying : " Fox, him get black
before him caught," thus lying concerning their
trickery as volubly as any white rogue might have
done.
We are told of several of these tricks played off
by the "poor abused Indians," one instance of
CHILCAT "APTITUDE:' 271
which we remember as having occurred at Fort
Wrangel, ilUistrating the " aptitude " of the abo-
rigines, not to give it any harder name. It seems
that a kindly disposed missionary, by exercis-
ing great patience, had taught some Indians to
read and write, and in the consciousness of his
own intentions felt amply paid by the goodly
progress of his pupils. One of these young men,
not over twenty yeai'S of age, was especially curi-
ous about arithmetic, and made considerable prog-
ress in figures in a very short time. He was soon
after hired by the superintendent of a fish-can-
ning establishment as a special assistant, with
good wages. Being given a note or due-bill of
twenty-five dollars by his employer, he quickly
saw his chance, and adroitly raised the figures to
two hundred and fifty dollars, got the bill cashed
at one of the neighboring trading establishments,
and suddenly disappeared with the proceeds there-
of. He has not since been seen.
The Chilcats have, until within a few years,
forcibly kept the natives of the interior away froth
the coast and the white men, thus monopolizing
the land fur-trade by acting as middle-men, so to
speak, but this embargo is now entirely removed.
By this and some other means, being naturally
thrifty and saving, they have come to be the rich-
est and most independent tribe of Indians in the
Northwest. Their women manufacture the famous
and really very fine Chilcat blankets, which are
slowly woven by hand on a primitive loom. The
base of these blankets is the long fleece of the
272 THE NEW ELDORADO.
mountain goats, which is tastefully manufactured
and ornamented, reminding one of the domestic
Oriental work offered for sale in tlie Turkish
bazaars of Cairo. The Chilcat blankets readily
bring forty dollars apiece, and the best of them
are sold for double that sum. They are ordinarily
about six feet long b}^ four broad, having in addi-
tion a long, ornamental fringe at each end. The
colors are black, white, yellow, and a dull blue,
the coloring matter being also of native manufac-
ture. These blankets used to be heirlooms in
the aboriginal families before the cheap woolens
of commerce were introduced among them, since
when they have become annually more and more
scarce, and are now purchased only by visitors to
carry away as curiosities. Even at the highest
price realized for them, if the maker's time were
to be reckoned of any account, the sum is a sorry
pittance for one of these blankets, which to prop-
erly finish will employ six months of a woman's
time.
*Pyramid Harbor, in latitude 59° 11' north, is
the most northerly point reached by the excursion
steamers on this part of the coast. The place
takes its name from a prominent conical forma-
tion upon an island within its borders. The clus-
ter of houses, cabins, and the canning factory
which mjike up what is known as Pyramid Har-
bor are situated uj)on a broad plateau on a sandy
beach, at the foot of a mountain which towers
three thousand feet heaven waid, covered with
trees to its summit and beautified by a bright,
PYRAMID HARBOR. 273
dashing waterfall visible from near the apex to
the bottom. This affords both a healthful water
supply for domestic use and a motor for the fac-
tory. The broad plateau, three or four miles iu
length and one wide, grass-grown, iind covered with
low shrubbery, is beautified by a floral display of
great variety, including wild roses, sweet peas,
columbines, white clover, and other varieties, hav-
ing also an unlimited amount of berries. The
wide mouth of the Chilcat River, which makes
into the bay a mile from this settlement, is a
swarming place for the salmon. The river is
very shallow and not navigable for anything but
native canoes. Twenty miles inland on its biink
is a large, independent settlement of the Chilcat
tribe.
On the mountain side, nearly half way up, just
back of the steamboat landing at Pyramid Har-
bor, there is a small plateau not more than ten or
fifteen feet square, entirely bare of timber, but
closely surrounded by dense woods. This spot is
quite inaccessible to human feet. A large cinna-
mon bear shows himself here often during the day-
time. A clear, sparkling stream of water comes
fi'om far above this place, rushing by one corner
of it, and hither comes Bruin to slake his thirst.
He knows very well that he is out of the hunter's
reach, and he is actually beyond rifle range. He
looks at that distance skyward no bigger than a
good-sized Newfoundland dog, but to appear of
such proportions to us so far below he must be a
very monster. Several attempts have been made
274 THE NEW ELDORADO.
by the whites to get near enough to shoot him, but
without success. The bear sat upon his haunches
when we saw hiui and peered down upon us as
we stood on the deck of the Corona with a
cool insoU-nee which must have been born of a
consciousness of entire safety. By usuig a good
glass his main moth size became more apparent,
showing that even when upon his haunches with
his body erect he must have measured about six
feet in height.
A settlement opposite to Pyramid Harbor is
known as Chilcat, where two large fish-canning
establishments afford profitable occupation for
quite a number of the residents, both natives
and whites. New canning factories are being lo-
cated in several places between Dixon Entrance
and this point, the supply of salmon being abso-
lutely unlimited ; the demand only is to be con-
sidered. The quantity shipped from liere annu-
ally to San Francisco for distribution is enormous,
almost beyond belief, and is steadily increasing.
In addition to this profitable and important indus-
try twelve thousand barrels of salted salmon were
exported last year from Alaska to southern Pacific
ports. The scenery about Pyramid Harbor is
arctic : the precipitous cliffs are covered with snow
on their tops^ and range upon range of snowy
mountains frame in the bay.
CHAPTER XX.
Glacier Bay. — More Ice Bays. — Majestic Front of the Muir
Gliicier. — The Bombardmeut of the Glacier. — One of the
Grandest Sights in the World. — A Moving River of Ice. —
Tlie Natives. — Abundance of Fish. — Native Cooking. —
Wild Berries. — Hooniah Tribe. — Copper Mines. — An Iron
Mountain. — Coal Mines.
From Pyramid Harbor we turn southward for a
short distance, and then agaiu towards the north,
soon reaching the ice-strewn waters of Ghicier
Bay, an open expanse of ocean fully thirty miles
long by from ten to twelve in width. This local-
ity is thus named because of the number of gla-
ciers which descend into it from the southern
verge of the frozen region. The still surface of
the water reflects the Alpine scenery like bur-
nished silver, only ruffled now and again by the
icebergs launched from the majestic front of the
Muir glacier, which fall with an explosion like the
blasting of rocks in a stone quarry. It is curious
to watch these enormous masses of ice rise to the
surface after their first deep plunge, see them set-
tle and rise again until their equilibrium becomes
fixed, and then slowly float away with their impe-
rial colors displayed, to join the fleet gone before.
They seem to exhibit in their vivid colors a radiant
joy at release from long imprisonment. It was a
gloriously bright day on which we approached the
276 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Muir glacier, the sun pouring down its wealth of
light and warmth to temper the crisp morning air.
A side-wheel steamer could not have made head-
way among the hundreds of floating icebergs ; but
the Corona wound in and out among them in
safety, piloted by Captain Carroll's skillful direc-
tion, occasionally leaving the color of her painted
hull along their sides by chafing them.
The ship was brought within fifty rods of the
glacier's threatening front, which was about three
hundred feet in height above the water, standing
like a frozen Niagara, and the lead showed it to
extend four hundred feet below the surface, mak-
ing an figgregate of seven hundred feet from top
to bottom. What a mighty power was hidden
behind the dazzling drapery of its iridescent fa-
cade!
Standing upon its surface a short way inland,
one could hear from its depths what seemed like
shrieks and groans of maddened spirits torturing
eacli other, as the huge mass was crowded more
and more compactly between the two abutting
mountains of rock through which it found its out-
let. Tlie roar of artillery upon a battlefield could
hardly be more deafening or incessant than were
the thrilling reports caused by the falling of vast
masses of ice from the glacier's front. Nothing
could be grander or more impressive than this
steady bombardment from the ice mountain in its
resistless progress towards the sea. Neither Nor-
way nor Switzerland have any glacial or arctic
scenery that can approach this bay in its frigid
GLACIER BAY. 211
splendor. No natives are to be seen ; not a sound
falls upon the ear save the hoarse cannonading of
the glacier. The white, ghostly hue of the sur-
roundings are startling ; even the dayhght assumes
a certain weird, bhiish tint, heiglitened by shim-
mering rvfflections from the ice-chasms and crev-
ices.
The author, in a varied experience of many parts
of the world, recalls but two other occasions which
affected him so powerfully as this first visit to
Glacier Bay in Alaska, namely: witnessing the
sun rise over the vast Himalayan range, the roof-
tree of the globe, at Darjeeling, in northern In-
dia, and the view of the midnight sun from the
North Cape in Norway, as it hung over the Polar
Sea. Our power of appreciation is limitless,
though that of description is circumscribed. Here
both are challenged to their utmost capacity.
Words are insufficient ; pen and pencil inadequate
to convey the grandeur and fascination of the
scene.
Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka t«lls us that a
veteran traveler said to him as they stood together
on the ship's deck regarding the scenery in this
remarkable bay : " You can take just what you
see here and put it down on Switzerland, and it
will hide all there is of mountain scenery in Eu-
rope. I have been all over the world, but you are
now looking at a scene that has not its parallel
elsewhere on the globe." The estimate has been
made by experienced persons that five thousand
living glaciers, of greater or less dimensions, are
278 THE NEW ELDORADO.
now steadily traveling clown towards the sea in
this vast Territory of Ahxska.
Glacier Bay is always full of vagrant icebergs
which are of blinding whiteness when under the
glare of the midday sun. The variety of colors
emitted by the bergs is charming to the eye, the
prevailing hues being crystal-white mingled with
azure blue, a faint touch of pink appearing here
and there, together with dainty gleams of orange-
yellow. Where a large smooth surface is pre-
sented, the prismatic shimmering is like that of
starlight upon the water. The variety in the
shape of the bergs is infinite. Some of them ex-
hibit singularly correct architectural lines, some
resemble ruins of ancient castles on the Rhine,
others, with a little help of the imagination, repre-
sent wild animals in various attitudes, or hideous
Chinese idols witli open mouths and lolling
tiongues. Sea birds hover over and light in large
numbers upon the opalescent masses. Ranging
alongside of a tall berg, a fall and tackle was rigged
out from the yard-arm of our steamer, while men
were sent to cut large blocks of ice from the hill
of frozen water. Two weighing nearly a ton each
were hoisted on board to keep our larder cool and
fill the ship's ice-cliest. The ice was pure as crys-
tal, and fresh as a mountain stream.
" Why don't you go nearer to the glacier?"
asked one of the passengers of the captain.
" Because I think we are quite near enough,"
was the quiet reply.
" Those avalanches don't reach more than thirty m
AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE. 279
or forty feet from the face of the ice cliff," con-
tinued tlie passenger.
'^ True," was the reply, " but they do not con-
constitute the only discluirges from the glacier."
" Why, where else can they occur but from the
face," asked the inquirer.
" Shall I tell you a certain experience which
I had near this very spot?" asked the captain.
" Whiit was it?" inquired a dozen eager voices.
And then the captain told the group of listeners
that when the Corona was here last season, laying
just off the Muir glacier, those on board were
startled by the sudden appearance of a huge mass
of dark crystal, as large as the steamer itself,
which shot up from the depths and tossed the
ship as though it had been an egg-shell. Passen-
gers were thrown hither and thither, and some
were severely bruised. It was a berg broken off
from the bottom of the ice mountain, four hun-
dred feet below the surface of the water. Had it
struck the ship in its upward passage, immediate
destruction must have followed, and the steamer
would have sunk as quickly as though she had
been blown up with gunpowder.
Mount Crillon, Mount La Perouse, and Mount
Fairweatlier are all visible from Glacier Bay, the
latter rising in the northwest so high above the
intervening hills that all its snowy pinnacles are
clearly defined.
The great glacier which forms the prominent
feature of this bay was named after Professor
Muir, state geologist of California. It has a front
280 THE NEW ELDORADO.
three miles wide, and has been explored to a dis-
tance of forty miles inland. The top surface is
tossed and broken by broad fissures so as to be
impassable, unless one goes back at least a mile
from its toppling and dangerous front. This
glacier exceeds anything of the sort this side of
the polar zone, and is fed by fifteen other glaciers,
so far as it has been explored, towards its source
among the lofty snow-fields. In walking upon its
surface great care should be observed. A thin
crust of snow and half-melted ice is often formed
over fissures into which one may easily be precipi-
tated. One of the party from the Corona, a lad}^
was thus engulfed for a moment, escaping, how-
ever, with a thorough wetting and some slight
bruises, together with a very large measure of
fright. This lady was temporarily in charge of
the pilot of the steamer, hence it was very gener-
ally remarked that he was doubtless a good ship's
pilot, but a poor one for navigating glaciers.
From carefully conducted measurements it is
known that this immense body — frost-bound,
transparent, and resistless — is moving into the
sea, during the summer months, at the rate of
forty feet in every twenty -four hours, and dis-
charging in that time one hundred and forty mil-
lion cubic feet of ice into the bay. It is not nec-
essary for us to discuss the cause of this regular,
uniform movement of the enormous mnss ; it may
be brought about by either dilation or gravitation,
both of which are most likely active agents to this
end, but certain it is that the glacier moves for-
ward as descrilx'd.
THE MUIR GLACIER. 281
One could have passed days in studying the
grandeur and beauty of the Muir glacier, in watch-
ing its slow but steady advance, its tremend(jus
avalanches, its rolling, tlumder-like dischai'ges, its
irregular, translucent front decked with amethyst
and opal hues by the afternoon sunlight, but time
was to be considered, the clay w-as closing, and we
finally steamed reluctantly away. Even after we
had lost sight of the great frozen river, we heard
its evening guns echoing among the mountains,
faint and fitful from the growing distance.
We pause for a moment, thoughtfull}'^, to recall
the brief hours passed in that boreal atmosphere,
crowded to repletion w-ith wonderful experiences,
where the ice deposited during the glacial period
is slowly wasting and wearing away, exposing
giant cedars which have been buried for ages
upon ages, a revelation and a process which we
may nowhere else behold. There is no touch of
civilization here ; the quiet and solitude is un-
broken, save by the thunder of the bergs break-
ing their long imprisonment. Somehow one feels
older, grayer, sadder, after witnessing these great
and startling throes of Nature, phenomena which
have been in operation thousands of years. It re-
minds the observer only too forcibly how infini-
tesimal is the space he occupies upon this planet,
and how utterly insignificant is his personality in
the vast scheme of the universe. Travel, while
teaching us numberless grand and beautiful truths,
solving many mysteries and vastly enlarging our
mental grasp, does not fail also to impress upon
282 THE NEW ELDORADO.
the most conceited the important and priceless
lesson of humility. But let us banish brooding
thoughts, and be glad for a little space ; to-morrow
the night cometh !
Among the evidences of the slow but steady
receding of the glacier we have Vancouver's rec-
ord that he was unable to enter this bay in 1793,
which is now navigable for over twelve miles in-
land. Once the ice field was level with the moun-
tain tops, now it has melted until the peaks are
far above its surface. Professor Muir tells us that
in the earlier days of the ice-age this glacier
stood at a height of from three to four thousand
feet above its present level ! Centuries hence the
place of the ghicier will doubtless be occupied by
a flawing river, and the laud will have entirely
thrown aside its mantle of ice and snow. What
a revelation this bay would have been to Agassiz !
After an arduous half day's climb, from the sum-
mit of the jNIuir glacier nearly thirty others are
to be seen in various directions, all steadily for-
cing their resistless way towards the sea, slowly
consummating the purpose of their existence.
How far glacial action has been concerned in
determining the topographical conditions of the
globe will long be, as it has long been, a subject
for deep scientific study.
At first thought it seems impossible that a sub-
stance like ice, often brittle as glass and as inelas-
tic as granite, can move as though it were fluid.
The motion of the giant mass is doubtless facili^
tated by subglacial streams issuing from its bot-1
A LAND OF WONDERS. 283
torn into the buy. The water flowing from two
sources of this character manifests itself at the
surface on each corner of the ice-front, where it
comes bubbling up with great force from the bot-
tom, a distance of from sixty to eighty fathoms.
As we lay in front of the grand facade what a
revelry of color was spread before us! The im-
mense and towering wall of ice seemed to throb
with the softening rays of the sun, penetrating
each broad fissure and narrow rift, all luminous
with blue and gold.
Scidmore Island was pointed out to us, a green
hilly land, near the mouth of the ba}^ named
after Miss E. R. Scidmore, who has written so ad-
mirably about Alaska. Another island was des-
ignated whereon a silver mine of great promise
has lately been successfully located and tested,
yielding results surpassing the most sanguine an-
ticipations of the owners.
All through this region one is constantly im-
pressed with a sense of vastness, everything seems
so stupenduous ; Nature is cast in a larger mould
than she is in other sections of the world. The
islands strike one as continental in dimensions,
the rivers are among the largest on the globe, the
ocean channels are the deepest, the primeval for-
ests are made up of giant trees and cover thou-
sands of square miles, the mountains are colossal,
and the glaciers are elsewhere unequaled. It is
a land of wonders, strange, fascinating, and beau-
tiful.
The natives of this latitude are robust and
284 THE NEW ELDORADO.
hearty in appearance, their regular food supply
being such as to sustain them in a good physi-
cal condition. Seal and fish oil are cheap and
abundant, and enter into all of their cooking com-
binations. During the ripening season the wild
berries, which are remarkably abundant, are gath-
ered by the bushel, giving employment to the
youthful portion o£ the community. Large quan-
tities are dried for winter use, but during the
bearing season the people almost live upon them,
always adding a portion of oil as a condiment.
Game, such as deer, bears, mountain goats, and
wild geese, is very plenty a little way inland.
These are hunted and supplied to the whites by
the aborigines, but they do not themselves seem
to care particularly for meat of any sort so long as
they can obtain plenty of fish and oil. At Sitka
and Fort Wiangel fine large codfish are retailed
at five cents each, a twenty pound salmon costs in
the season ten to fifteen cents, and halibut sell at
about the same rate according to size. These lat-
ter average from eighty to a hundred pounds in
weight on this coast, and in some parts of the
waters bordering western Alaska they are twice
that size. Ducks are to be had at ten and fifteen
cents per pair, wild geese at fifteen cents each,
and so on. The natives are pi'eerainently fish-eat-
ers, and are as a rule well developed about the
chest and shoulders, though the lower parts of
their bodies are diminutive owing to their exer-
cise being taken almost altogether at the paddle
while sitting in their boats. The physical con-
HALIBUT FISHING. 285
trast between them and oni- Western Indians, who
are meat-eaters, is very decided. The one lives
in a canoe a large portion of his time, the other
upon horseback or engaged upon long foot-
marches ; the one is lithe and sinewy, the other
is greasy and flabby. Though the physical con-
dition of our Western Indians is unquestionably
much superior to that of the native Alaskans, yet
the latter are the most intelligent.
The halibut, to which reference has just been
made, is found in great abundance upon tTie coast
at nearly all seasons of the year, and forms a
large portion of the food supply of the native
population, both for summer and winter. They
prefer to catch these fish by means of their own
awkward wooden hooks, rather than to use the
steel barbed instrument of the whites. They go
out for the purpose in their boats, exposing them-
selves in nearly all sorts of weather, anchoring
upon well-known fishing grounds by making use
of a stone fastened to a cedar-bark rope of their
own manufacture. Having filled their canoe,
which they can do in a very short time, they
leisurely retui-n to the shore, where the fish are
turned over to the care of the women, who soon
clean them, also removing the large bones, head,
fins, and tails, after which they cut the bodies
into broad thin slices, and doing so much of this
business they become very expert. These slices
of the halibut are hung on wooden frames, where
they rapidly dry in the wind and sun, no salt
being used in the process ; indeed, the natives
•286 THE NEW ELDORADO.
seem to have no use for salt so far as their own
food is concerned, and do not eat it as a seasoning.
After the hahbut is thus cured, the pieces are
packed away in the large cedar box which forms
each family's storehouse for such food, and when
wanted it is always ready, requiring but little
further treatment to make it palatable to native
Alaskan taste. As thus preserved the fish will
now and again become putrid. This, however, is
not considered by the people to detract in any
degree ""from its excellence and usefulness, but
rather to add zest to the flavor, just as a highly
civilized gourmand requires his birds to be kept
until tiie}' become a little "gamey " before he
considers them fit to serve to himself or his guests.
At certain seasons of the year the salmon are
eagerly sought and eaten, both fresh and dried,
but as intimated the halibut is a fish which can
be caught at nearly any time, and is therefore
perhaps more used than any other. There are
periods when these fish also leave the coast for a
short season, and against this absence the native
provides as we have described. The kind of
salmon which is mostly canned and prepared for
export in barrels from Alaska is of a pink species,
which is chosen, not because it possesses any pe-
culiar excellence of flavor, but because the color
is generally thought to be more desirable. They
are not considered here, either by the whites or
the natives, to be of quite so good quality as some
others which abound in this region, but it is the
pink salmon which the fanciful public demand,
and pink salmon which they get.
ALASKAN COOKERY. 287
All the cooking these natives seem to know
anything about is to boil or stew sucli food as
they do not consume nearly raw. Iron kettles
have been in their possession for many genera-
tions, and were originally procured from the
Russians. The condiment which they most affect
has already been referred to, being nothing more
nor less than rancid fish or seal oil, cooled and
hardened into a sort of oleomargarine, the bare
smell of which is sickening to the nostrils of a
white person. This grease is spread liberal K^ upon
all their food and eaten with manifest relish. The
inner bark of the spruce and hemlock trees is
collected by the women in considerable quantities
at certain seasons of the year, and is eaten by
them, both in the green and dried state, after
being dipped in this grease as described. The
Sitka Indians make a most atrocious salad of sea-
weed mixed with seal-oil, sometimes adding the roe
of herring, of which peculiar mixture they partake
with ravenous appetites, the roe having been pur-
posely kept until it is nearly or quite putrid. The
salmon-berry, while it is in season, is a most wel-
come and wholesome addition to their rather cir-
cumscribed larder. This berry is a sort of cross
between a strawberry and a blackberry, though
it is larger than the average of these delicious
berries as they grow in the woods of New Eng-
land. Hundreds of barrels of the native cran-
berry are gathered by the aborigines and ship|)ed
annually from here to San Francisco ; they are
smaller than the cultivated berry bearing the
288 Tin-: .VAir eldorado.
same name, which is grown in our Eastern States.
The wild strawberries found among these islands
and on the mainland excel in flavor the highly
cultivated berry of our thickly-settled States, and
may be found growing in abundance in the very
shadow of the glaciers.
The natives hereabouts have no domestic ani-
mals except a multitude of dogs of a mongrel
breed ; wolfish-looking creatures ; which ai'e of no
possible use, dozing all day and howling all night.
At the north the regularly bred Eskimo dog is a
very different animal, quite indispensable to his
master, and invaluable in connection with sledge
traveling.
The tribe occupying the region near to Glacier
Bay is known as the Hooniahs, an ingenious
and industrious people, who manufacture brace-
lets, spoons, and various ornaments out of silver
and copper. Some of the men of this tribe wear
a ring in their noses, like the women, but this
seems to be going slowly out of fashion. We wei'e
told that the men have as many wives as they
choose to take, and that they are not always care-
ful to properly discriminate between other men's
and their own, an act of dereliction from pro-
priety which is, however, by no means confined to
savage life. A great laxity in morals is also said
to prevail among most of the tribes from Behring
Strait southward to the Aleutian group of islands.
Let us not, however, be too censorious in judging
them ; if their virtues are found to be in the
minority, is not this also the case with most com-
MINERAL DEPOSITS. 289
mnm'ties wliich boast the elevating advantages of
culture and civilization ?
It has been known for a century more or less
that masses of pure copper were found by the abo-
rigines along the course of Copper River, which
flows into the Pacific Ocean midway between Mount
St. Elias and the peninsula of Kenai. The natives
exhibited one mass of pure copper, as naturally de-
posited, weighing over sixty pounds. The char-
acter of this mineral closely resembles that of our
Lake Superior district, and there is ever}' indica-
tion of its abundance in this region, not alone on
Copper River, but in several districts and islands.
The natives have utilized the article for many
generations in the manufacture of personal orna-
ments, and for making various useful household
utensils, such as stewpans and small kettles. Any
permanent rise in the market value of copper
would stimulate the development of the copper
mines of Alaska to compete with other portions of
our country. Petroleum is also found on Copper
River, forcing itself to the surface from some un-
deiground reservoir, and again near the Bay of
Katmai. This product was largely used by the
Russians for lubricating purposes.
Professor Davidson discovered in this vicinity
an iron mountain some two thousand feet high,
which was so full of magnetic ore as to seriously
aflfect his calculations and derange his compass.
Mr. Seward said of the same vicinity : " I found
there not a single iron mountain, but a whole
range of hills the very dust of which adhered to
290 THE NEW ELDORADO.
the magnet." There is plenty of coal also, and
with these two articles in juxtaposition a great in-
dustry may ultimately be the outgrowth. Viewed
as a sure foundation of commercial and manufac-
turing prosperity, coal and iron will prove, in the
long run, to be worth nearly as much to Alaska
as her abundant and inexhaustible gold supply.
Captain J. W. White of the United States reve-
nue marine says : " I have seen coal veins over an
area of forty or fifty square miles so thick that it
seemed to me to be one vast bed. It is of an excel-
lent steam-producing quality, having a clear white
ash. Tlie quantity seemed to be unlimited. This
bed lies northwest of Sitka, up Cook's Inlet which
broadens into a sea in some places." Nature has
provided fuel in limitless quantities for this great
Territory, both in the form of coal and of wood,
each of which is of the most available character,
both as regards the quality and the convenience
of location.
In speaking of the rich and varied prospects
of the country, let us not forget to mention the
abundance of pure white, slatuary marble, which
exists here in immense quarries, near the site of
which there are numerous safe and commodious
harbors, with great depth of water, inviting the
commerce of the world. We need not send to
Italy for a fine article in this line ; the choicest prod-
uct for statuary purposes is here upon our own
soil. While these sheets are going through the
press, the fact that a valuable quicksilver mine,
which was discovered at Kuskoquin some years
I
I
EFFORTS TO DEPRECIAl E ALASKA. 291
ago, now proves to be of high grade and purity,
is published to the world at large. If so, this is
extreniely providential, as there is now a constant
demand for mercury in the treatment of the gold-
bearing quartz of the numerous mines herea-
bouts.
The studied effort of certain writers to depreci-
ate the value of the Territory of Alaska in nearly
every possible respect seems very singular to us,
and is altogether too obvious to cany conviction
with it. The great amount of gold now being
realized every month of the year, the millions of
cured salmon and cod annually exported to other
sections, together with the rich furs regularly
shipped from the Territory, counted by hundreds
of thousands, must cause such people a degree of
mortification. One of these writers put himst'lf
on record by saying not long since that gold did
not exist in the Territory in paying quantities.
Yet there is a standing offer of sixteen million
dollars for the Treadwell gold mine on Douglas
Island, while within eight or ten miles of it, at
Silver Bow Basin, on the mainland, is another
gold mine, as has been shown, owned and worked
by a Boston company, nearly as valuable.
Referring to this auriferous deposit on Doug-
las Island, Governor Swineford says, in his ofH-
cial report to the government for the year 1887 :
"It is without doubt the largest body of gold-
bearing quartz ever developed in this or any
other country."
At last we prepare to turn our backs upon the
292 THE M-:\V KLDORAbO.
home of tlie glaciers and the locality of the most
remarkable gold deposits of the Northwest, sur-
feited with wonders, and actually longing for the
sight of something intensely common, satisfied
that the tourist who makes the voyage from Ta-
coma to Glacier Bay through the inland sea lias
the opportunity of beholding some of the grandest
scenery and natural phenomena on the globe.
\
1
CHAPTER XXI.
Sailing Southward. — Sitka, Capital of Alaska. — Transfer of the
Territory from Russia to America. — Site of the City. — The
Old Castle. — Russian Habits. — A Haunted Chamber. —
Russian Elegance and Hospitality. — The Old Greek Church.
— Rainfall at Sitka. — The Japanese Current. — Abundance
of Food. — Plenty of Vegetables. — A Fine Harbor,
From Glacier Bay our serpentine course lies
southward through the countless sounds, gulfs,
and islands of various shapes and sizes to Sitka,
the New Archangel of the Russians, Sitka being
the aboriginal name of the bay on which the town
is situated. This is the most northerly commer-
cial port on the Pacific coast, and lies at the base
of Mount Vestova on the west side of Baranoff
Island. The island is eighty-five miles long by
twenty broad, situated thirteen hmidred miles
north of San Francisco.
On the 18th of October, in the year 1867,
three United States men-of-war lay in the harbor,
namely, the Ossipee, the Jamestown, and the
Resaca. It was a memorable occasion, for on
that day the Muscovite flag was formally hauled
down and the Stars and Stripes were run up on
the flagstaff of the castle amid a salvo of guns
from the ships of both nations, thus completing
the official transfer of the great Territory of
Alaska from Russian to American possession.
294 THE NEW ELDORADO.
Up to this time the government of the country
had been virtually under the control of the rich
fur company chartered by the Tzar. Any policy
at variance with its purposes was treason ; immi-
gration, except for its employees, was rigorously
discouraged ; the imperial governor was actually
salaried by this great monopoly, while his public
acts were subject to its approval or otherwise.
With the date above given this condition of af-
fairs ceased and "a new regime began. Though
no radical change immediately took place, still
the atmosphere of our Union gradually permeated
these regions, our flag freely floated everywhere,
and our few officials assumed their responsibilities,
administering the laws of the Republic mercifully
as regarded the natives, but still with that degree
of firmness which is imperative in dealing with a
half-civilized race.
One cannot but conjecture what must have
been the secret thoughts of the thousands of abo-
rigines on this occasion, as they witnessed the cer-
emony of transferring Alaska from their former
to their new masters. It was an event of im-
mense interest, of most vital import to them, but
yet one in which they were entirely ignored.
They knew the significance of that change of
flags, of that roar of artillery, emphasized by other
naval and military movements, but they had no
voice whatever in the agreement by which they
were virtually bought and sold like so many head
of cattle, and their native land bartered for gold.
We leave the reader to moralize over this aspect
SITKA. 295
of the matter, a fruitful theme for the political
economist. With this change of government
came a new people ; the majority of the Russians
promptly left the country, and their pUices were
taken by Americans.
Sitka, the capital of the Territory, is shelt<^red
by a snow-crowned mountain range on one side,
and protected from the broad expanse of the Pa-
cific on the other by a group of many thickly
wooded islands. The waters of the harbor are as
clear as a mountain stream, so that, as in sailing
over the Bahama Banks, one can see the bottom
many fathoms down with perfect distinctness,
where the myriad curiosities of submarine life at-
tract the eye by their novel and varied display.
Among other tropical growth, sponges, coral
branches, and long rope-like alga? are seen, planted
here doubtless by the equatorial current which so
constantly laves these shores. The town lies clus-
tered near the shore, forming a pleasing picture as
one approaches from the sea. The most promi-
nent feature is the castle, not a battlemented, ivy-
covered, mediaeval structure, but a severely plain,
weather-beaten, moss-grown, dilapidated affair,
which crowns a rocky elevation of the town. It
is a hundred and forty feet long by seventy deep,
Constructed of huge cedar logs which are securely
riveted to the rock by numerous clamps and bolts.
This was for many years the grand residence of
the Russian governors, — after the capital was re-
moved from St. Paul, on the island of Kodiak, —
several of whom were of the Muscovite nobility
296 TUE NEW ELDORADO.
and brought hither their wives and daughters to
live with them in this isolated spot. One can
hardly conceive of a greater social contrast than
naturally existed between St. Petersburg and this
half savage hamlet of Baranoff Island. For deli-
cate and refined ladies, such a change from court
life must have been little less of a hardship than
actual banishment to dreaded Siberia.
It is not surprising that resort was had to I'ather
desperate means whereby to beguile the weary
hours. Many fell victims to gambling and strong
drink. The Russians, under nearly any circum-
stances, fail to be good examples of temperance,
and here cognac and vodhka flowed free as water.
To some of their official feasts and celebrations
the native chiefs were invited, and terribly demor-
alized by the potency of the viands to which they
were totally unaccustomed. Nor can it be won-
dered at that, being occasionall}'^ supplied with this
fire-water, the natives now and again broke out
in open revolt, which ended more or less seriously
both to the Russians and themselves. It will be
lemembered that once during the early times the
natives rose in a body and massacred or drove
every foreigner off the island, an act of savage pa-
triotism which cost them dearly.
Every " castle " must have at least one haunted
chamber, and we are told that this of Sitka was
no exception to the general rule. The story con-
cerning the same is variously told by different per-
sons, but we will give only the version we heard.
It seems that half a century and more since, the
A SIT KAN TRAGEDY. 297
Russian governor's family included a beautiful and
accomplished daughter nnmed Eruzoff, who was,
at the time the event occurred which we are about
to relate, but twenty years of age. There were
on her father's official staff two young noblemen
of St. Petersbui-g, Nicholas and Michael Burdoff,
about twenty-five years of age respectively. They
w^ere cousins, and had been ardent and intimate
friends from childhood. Both of the cousins fell
deeply in love with the governor's daughter, who,
in her delicacy, showed no preference between
them. The young men grew desperate in their
feelings. Never before had they disagreed about
the simplest matter; it was their delight to yi^-ld
to each other; but now their love for 'the beauti-
ful Eruzoff made them open rivals. One day they
went into the neighboring forest together, as they
said, to hunt, and were absent for two days. On
the evening of the second day Michael returned
unaccompanied by his cousin, whom he said he
had lost in the forest. He retired at once to
his own room in the castle, where he was found
dead in bed on the following morning, without a
wound or any sign to explain the cause, though
the post surgeon pronounced it to be a case of
heart disease. A few days afterwards, by means
of his favorite dog, the body of Nicholas was dis-
covered in the forest with a bullet through his
brain. The actual truth regarding the death of
the cousins cannot be known on earth, but the
chamber where Michael Burdoff breathed his last
is said to be often disturbed by a ghostly visitor
298 THE NEW ELDORADO.
at midnight. EruzofF was forced by her father to
marry an official of his choice, tiiough she was
broken-hearted at the loss of Michael Burdoff, who
proved to have been the one whom she loved best.
She died in her bridal year.
Interesting stories are told of the grand hospi-
tality — characteristic of the Russians — which
was so liberally dispensed within this castle, in
entertaining celebrated voyagers of various coun-
tries, and especially those of the United States.
It has always been the policy of the Tzars to cul-
tivate kindly feelings with our government, and
Russia is still our constant friend. The upper
part of the old castle was arranged for theatrical
representations, while in the other apartments the
nights were lendered merry witli cards, dancing,
and music. Rich furniture, valuable paintings,
and costly plate had been brought all the way
from Russia to equip this grand household among
a savage race. The toilets of the ladies were
perhaps a twelvemonth behind those of St.
Petersburg, but their diamonds and laces were
never out of fashion. Elegant chandeliers were
left by these former masters of the castle, which
show what the rest of the furniture must have
been to have harmonized with such gorgeous
ornaments. The visitor is shown the apartment
occupied by the venerable Lady Franklin at eighty
years of age, who came hither in search for her
lost husband, the Arctic explorer.
The quaint old Greek Church with the sharp
peak ot Vestova as a background is a prominent
CIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 299
and interesting edifice. Its emerald-green dome
and Byzantine spire, after the lioine fashion of
the Russians, together with its ehiborately em-
bellished interior and its ancient chime of bells,
strongly individualize the structure. Some pic-
tures of more than ordinary merit are to be seen
within its walls. One representing the Madonna
and Child is pronounced to be very valuable. It
is kept in perfect condition by the government of
St. Petersburg, which is the sole owner of all the
cluu'ches of the empire, at home and abroad.
The Tzar expends more money for church and
missionary purposes in Alaska to-day than all
the Christian sects of our country combined. For
the three chui-ches in Sitka, Kodiak, and Unalaska
the sum of fifty thousand dollars annually is set
aside and appropriated. Nevertheless, we believe
the Training School at Sitka exercises a much
higher civilizing influence, where the simplest
Chi'istian principles are taught, combined with
common school studies, and where instruction is
given in the daily industries of life. AH concede
that education and general intelligence are the
mainsprings of our system of government, and that
the perpetuity of its institutions depends thereon.
Ill view of these indisputable facts let our rulers
at Washington bestow liberally from out the
plethoric national treasury for educational pur-
poses in Alaska.
Most of the houses of Sitka are heavy log
dwellings, some of which are clapboarded outside
and smoothly finished within. In the winter
300 THE NEW ELDORADO.
season about a thousand Indians live here, the
white population being composed of the usual
government officials and agents, with a few store-
keepers engaged in the fur traffic and general
trade with the aborigines. Four or five hundred
miners and prospectors gather here also in the
winter, when it becomes too cold to prosecute
their calling far inland, where the thermometer
often falls to 20° below zero. Even this occasional
extreme could be easily endured, and the work be
little retarded, were suitable quarters provided.
In midwinter daylight continues at Sitka for only
six hours in tlie twenty-four, though by the first
of June there is virtually no night at all; the
stars take a vacation, while the evening and the
morning twilight merge into day.
The author had thought, heretofore, that the
rainfall at Bergen, on the coast of Norway, ex-
ceeded that of any other spot he had visited, but
here at Sitka " the rain, it raineth every day."
We have seen it rain harder in the tropics, but
not often. The brief downpour, however, is so
quickly followed by a flood of delicious sunshine
that the contrast is a charming revelation. Still
another effect is observable that, as rainy as it is,
at certain seasons the atmosphere is still peculiarly
dry. The writer was told that clothes would
quickly dry under a shed during the heaviest rains.
The fair weather is most likely to occur during the
excursion season, so that the stranger is not apt to
meet much annoyance in this respect while at the
capital. The annual rainfall is recorded as being
THE JAPANESE CURRENT. 801
ninety inches upon this island, a degree of humid-
ity which is attributed to the heated waters of the
equatorial regions, wliich warm the whole coast-
line of southern Alaska, insuring the mild win-
ters it enjoys.
Scientists tell us that the effect of this warm
current is equivalent to twenty degrees of latitude,
that is to say, the same products which are found
in latitude 40° north on the Atlantic coast thrive
in this region at 60° north, which is a little higher
than the latitude of Sitka. This beneficent stream,
arising off the coast of southern California, crosses
the Pacific south of the Sandwich Islands, and on
the coast of Asia turns northward in a grand
sweep, striking the shores of America, and return-
ing finally to its starting-point. " It is this," says
H. H. Bancroft, in his " History of the Pacific
States," " that clothes temperate isles in tropical
verdure, makes the silkworm flourish far north of
its rightful home, and sends joy to the heart of
the hyperborean, even to him upon the Strait of
Behring, and almost to the Arctic Sea."
The abundant moisture causes all vegetation to
grow most luxuriantly. " The enemies of this re-
gion, some of whom," said an official to us, " have
been paid for sinister purposes to write it down,
declare that it caimot be made to support a popu-
lation, as vegetables will not grow here, but vege-
tables have been successfully grown all about us
for more than fifty years." There are a plenty of
domestic cattle at Sitka, where we partook of as
sweet and rich milk as can be produced on our
302 THE NEW ELDORADO.
choice dairy farms at the East. The southern
portions of the Territory, both the islands and the
mainland, are better adapted to support a civilized
white popuhition than are the larger portions of
Norway and Sweden. It may be doubted if there
is anything finer in color than -the June greenery
of Sitka. Our first day at this unique capital had
been varied by alternate rain and sunshine, but
the closing hours of the day were clear and beau-
tiful, emphasized by such a grand and brilliant
sunset as is rarely excelled, the afterglow and
mellow twilight lasting until nearly midnight,
causing the turban of snow upon the head of
Mount Edgecombe to look like Etruscan gold.
John G. Brady, United States commissioner at
Sitka, writes from there as follows : " Though
Alaska is no agricultural country, yet there is
plenty of land for growing vegetables for a vast
population which can be easily cleared and culti-
vated. The food of this coast is assured unless
the Pacific current changes and rain ceases. Per-
haps there is not another spot on the globe where
the same number of people do so little manual
labor and are so well fed as in Sitka." The ca-
pacity of the island to produce a large variety of
garden vegetables, and of good quality, is abun-
dantly demonstrated by a resident who gains a
successful livelihood through the sale of these
products grown on his own land.
The bay is very lovely and naturally recalls
that of Naples, with its neighboring Vestova and
its beautiful islands. Though Mount Edgecombe
SITKA HARBOR. 30:',
with its great truncated cone, situated fifteen miles
away upon Kruzoff Island, is not now in active
condition, a centur}- ago, more or less, it poured
forth lava, fire, and smoke enough to rival the
Italian volcano which buried Pompeii in its fatal
debiis nearly two thousand years ago. We were
told that smoke and sulphurous vapor occasionally
issue from the old crater of Edgecombe, but saw
no distinct evidence of the fact. As we lookt^d
at the sleeping giant we wondered if it will one
day awake in its Plutonic power. The bay is
said to contain over one hundred islands, which
are mosth' covered with a noble giowth of trees,
rendered picturesque and lovely by green sh)ping
banks and shores fringed with golden-russet sea-
weed, bearing long, banana-like leaves. Many of
these islands are occupied, some by whites, some
by Indians. Japan Island, so-called, is the largest
in the bay, and is situated just opposite the town.
It was once improved by the Russians as an ob-
servatory, and now contains some fine gardens cul-
tivated both by whites and natives, from whence
the citizens obtain their supply of fresh vegetables.
Baranoff Island itself is mountainous and thi( kly
wooded, though there are large arable spots dis-
tributed here and there near to Sitka, dotted with
wild flowers in white and gold, — Flora's favorite
colors in this latitude. Never, save in equatorial
regions, has the author seen vegetation moi-e lux-
uriant than it is in its native condition in these
islands of southern Alaska.
CHAPTER XXII.
Contrast between Ameiicnn and Eussian Sitka — A Practical
Missionary. — Tiie Sitka Industrial School. — Gold Mines on
the Island. — Environs of the Town. — Future Prosperity of
the Country. — Hot Springs. — Native Keligious Ideas. — A
Natural Taste for Music. — A Native Brass Band. — Final
View of the Capital.
The Sitka of to-day contains about two thou-
sand inhabitants, but is a very different place fi om
that which the Russians made of it. The subjects
of the Tzar carried on shipbuilding, manufa6tured
wooden and iron ware, erected an iron furnace and
smelted native ore, made steel knives and agri-
cultural tools, axes, hatches, and carpenters' tools
generally. They established a bell foundry here
at which many bells and chimes were cast, and
shipped the products all along the Pacific coast,
especially to Mexico. The Greek Church was
kept up to the highest standard as regarded the
national forms, and employed nearly a score of
priests, which, together with some forty or fifty
civil officers attached to the governor's household
staff, made a considerable community of white
citizens, which was a constant scene of business
activity. The capital has, in some re.'^pects at
least, been greatly improved since it came into our
possession, but it bears unmistakable evidences of
antiquity. It has been made neat and clean, which
.-1 PRACTICAL MISSIONARY. 305
was certainly not a characteristic under its former
management, the streets have been regularly laid
out, and good sidewalks have taken the place of
muddy pathways, while some well -constructed
roads leading through the neighborhood have been
perfected. Though there is not seemingl}' so
much of local business going on as there used lo
be, still it is a far more wholesome and pleasant
place to live in than it was in the days of Mus-
covite possession. In Mrs. E. S. Willaid's pub-
lished letters from Alaska we learn how an officer
of our navy, namely, Captain Henry Glass of the
United States steamer Jamestown, in 1881, proved
to be the right sort of missionary to send on spe-
cial duty to Sitka.
" His first move," says this lady, " was to abolish
hoochinoo. He made it a crime to sell, buy, or
drink it, or any intoxicating drinks. He pre-
vailed upon the traders to sell no molasses to
the Indians in quantities, so that they could not
make this drink. He issued orders in regard to
clearing up the native ranches, whicli were fil-
thy in the extreme, and had been the scene of
nightly horrors of almost every description. He
appointed a police force from the Indians them-
selves, dressed them in navy cloth with ' James-
town ' in gilt letters on their caps, and a silver
star on their breasts. He made education com-
pulsory. The houses were all numbered and the
children of each house, each child being given a
little round tin plate on which was marked his
number and the number of his house. These
306 THE NEW ELDORADO.
plates weie worn on a string about the neck. As
the ehihh'en arrived in school they were regis-
tered. Wlioever failed to send their children were
fined one blanket. As soon as the}' discovered
that the captain was in earnest they submitted,
and I believe no blanket was forfeited after the
first week. The ranches have been cleaned, white-
washed, and drained, and all is peaceful and quiet
where a few months ago it was a place of strife."
The Sitka Industrial School — or as it is better
known hei'e, the Jackson Institution — is the most
interesting feature of the town, because one can-
not fail to realize how nnich good it is accomplish-
ing in the way of practical civilization and real
education among the natives. At this writing
there are nearly one hundi-ed boys, and about
sixty girls and young women, who are under the
parental caie of the Institution. The teaching
force consists of a dozen earnest workers, mostly
ladies fi-om the Eastern States. Resides the or-
dinary English branches taught in the school, the
girls are trained to cook, wash, iron, sew, knit,
and to make their own clothes. The boys are
taught carpentry, house- building, cabinet-mak-
ing, blacksinitliing, boat-building, shoemaking,
and other industries. The work of the school is
so arranged that each boy and girl attends school
half a day, and works half a day. The results
thus brought about are admirable. The " Mis-
sion," as the cluster of buildings forming the
school, the hospital, the residence for teachers, cot-
tages, and workshops is called, is situated beside
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 307
tlie road leading to Indian Rivei*, overlooking (ho
bay, the islands, and the sea, witli grand mountain
views on three sides. Fifteen different tribes are
represented in this Sitka Industrial School. Eng-
lish-speaking young natives who have been trained
here readily obtain good wages at the mines, in
the fish-cannei'ies, and wherever they apply for
employment among the white residents of the
Territory, while their influence with their tribes
is very great. That the Alaskans are teachable
and capable of attaining a higlier and better
plane of life has been abundantly proven by the
successful mission of this school during the few
years of its existence.
There is a small monthly newspaper published
at Sitka in the interest of the Training School
called '' The North Star." It is inexpensively
produced, and is calculated to disseminate infor-
mation in beiialf of the excellent mission, as well
as to add interest to its local affairs. The type-
setting and all the work on this little paper is
done by native boys. In his last published report
Dr. Sheldon Jackson says in rehition to the Alas-
kan natives: "Christianize them, give them a
fair school education and the means of earning a
living, and they are safe ; but without this the
race is doomed. We believe in the gospel of ha-
bitual indust'-y for the adults, and of industiial
training for the ciiildren. By these means they
can be reclaimed from improvident habits, and
transformed into ambitious and self-helpful citi-
zens."
308 THE NEW ELDORADO.
The Industrial Training Scliool at Sitka was
established as a day school by the Presbyterian
Board of Hume Missions in 1880, with Miss Olinda
A. Austin as teacher. Tl)e following fall circiun-
stances led to the opening of a boarding depait-
ment. Since then the institution has grown until
there are connected with it two large buildings
(one for boys and the other for girls), an industrial
building sheltering the carpenter and boot and
shoe shops, the printing-office and boat house, a
small blacksmith shop, a steam laundry, a bakery,
a iiospital, and six small model cottages. Every
building has been constructed by the pupils them-
selves under the direction of the one carpenter,
who acted as their instructor. Even the domestic
furniture, such as beds, chairs, bureaus, and the
like, is the handiwork of these native boys. We
can testify from personal observation that all is
wonderfully well done, and of excellent patterns.
There is a valuable gold mine situated six or
eight miles southeast of Sitka, eight hundred
feet above the sea level and about a mile from
deep water, on Silver Bay, where the largest
ships may lie beside the shore, the wharfage hav-
ing been prepared by Nature's own hand. The
quartz rock is here represented to be of excellent
quality, showing thirty dollars to the average ton,
and there is never-failing water near at hand suf-
ficient for running a hundred stainp-niill. Gold
has been mined at Silver Bay in a primitive way
for several years. Numerous other mines have
been located and opened on Baranoff Island which
J
ARRIVAL OF AN EXCURSION STEAMER. 309
give great promise, but this just mentioned has
accomplished thus far the best results. We took
notes of eleven mines upon which much work
had been done, shafts sunken, and tunnels run.
"The island is besprinkled with these gold-quariz
veins," said an intelligent citizen to us. " Pros-
pectors and miners have been attracted elsewhere
in the Territory by still more promising gold de-
posits. This, together with the want of capital,
is the reason the mines have not been opened and
worked on an extensive scale. This will follow,
however, in due time, for miners can work here
all the year round, with comfort as regards the
weather, and at the minimum cost of living."
The arrived of an excursion steamer at Sitka is
made the occasion of a regular holiday, which is
very natural with a people who live in so isolated
a place. As the steamer enters the several har-
bors of the inland passage northward, her pres-
ence is announced by a report from the cannon on
the forecastle, which awakens a score of sonorous
echoes from the rocky cliffs and nearest mountains^
also serving to arouse the sleepy natives and put
the dealers in curios on the qui vive. The few
caf^s do a thriving business; the nights, never
very dark in summer, are turned into d:iy, and
hours of revelry prevail. The aboriginal women
drive a lively business with their home-made cu-
rios, and indiscreet native girls promenade freely
with strangers. Peccadilloes are overlooked ; no
one seems to be held strictly to account. The offi-
cials are unusuallv lenient on such occasions, just
310 THE NEW ELDORADO.
as they are in Boston or New York on the Fourth
of July.
The immediate environs of Sitka present many
rural beauties, including river, forest, and wild
flowers, with here and there a rapid, musical cas-
cade. The same species of highly-developed white
clover as was seen at Fort Wrangel is a charming
feature here, fragrant and lovely, — '* Beautiful
objects of the wild bees' love." Buttercups and
dandelions are twice the size of those which we
have ill New England. Ferns are in great variety,
and the mosses are exquisite in their velvety tex-
ture, while tenderly shrouding the fallen and de-
caying trees they present an endless variety of
shades in green. There are over three hundred
varieties of wild flowers found on Baranoff Island,
and wild berries abound here as among all the isl-
ands and on the mainland. The wild raspberry,
salmon-berry, and thimbleberry are especially
luxuriiint and fine in size and flavor. The woods
are full of song-birds and of others more gaudy of
feather. These are only summer visitors, to be
sure, among which the rainbow-tinted humming-
bird made his presence obvious. A pleasant walk
is finely laid out along the banks of the sparkling
Indian River, a swift mountain stream, hedged
with thrifty and graceful alders, by which means
the citizens have created for themselves a charm-
ing and favorite promenade. Along the left bank
of this beautiful watercourse are woodland scenes
of exquisite rural beauty.
It would be foolish to suggest the idea that
FARMING NEAR SITKA. 311
Alaska promises to become eventually a great ag-
ricultural country; but it is equally incorrect to
say, as did a certain popular writer not long since,
tliat '• there is not an acre of farming laud in the
Territory." There are considerable areas of good
arable land now under profitable cultivation in the
Sitka district, and large farms, rich in virgin soil,
could be had for a mere song, as the saying goes,
in desirable localities, by clearing away the timber
and draining the land. Some twenty-five milk
cows are kept at Sitka; milk is sold at ten cents
per quart. Fresh venison is cheap and abundant,
and fibh of various kinds cost nearly nothing. In
the immediate vicinity there are three thousand
acres of arable land, much of which is well grassed
and covered with white clover. On the foot-hills
there is plenty of grass for the sustenance of sheep
and goals. Experienced residents told us that
wool-growing might be profitably pursued as a
business here, and that there was not a month in
the year when the animals would absolutely re-
quire to be housed. Hay is easily made, and is in
abundance at cheap rates. "I have never seen
finer potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and garden prod-
uce generally, than those grown here," says Gov-
ernor Swineford in his annual report to the De-
partment at Washington,
There is a great abundance of natural and nu-
tritious grasses in most parts of the country, but
especially in the southern islands and the Kodiak
group. The great prosperity of Alaska, however,
to be looked for in the near future, lies in the en-
312 THE NEW ELDORADO.
ergetic development of her coal trade, her fisher-
ies, and her extraordinary mineral wealth. The
immense supply of timbei', some of which is un-
surpassed in its merchantable value, will come into
use one or two generations later. The fur-trade,
already of gignntic proportions, cannot be judi-
ciously developed beyond its present volume, oth-
erwise the source of supply will gradually become
exhausted. It might be quadrupled for a few
years, but this would be killing the goose that lays
the golden egg. If protected, as our government
is striving to do for it to-day, it will continue in-
definitely to meet the market demand without
glutting or overstocking it. In this connection,
and after some inquiry, we cannot refrain from
expressing the fear that the legal limit as regards
the slaughter of the seals is greatly exceeded.
Over three million dollars' worth of canned salmon
were expoi-ted from Alaska last year. " This Ter-
ritory c;mi sup|>ly the world with salmon, herring,
and halibut of the best quality," says Dr. Sheldon
Jackson.
Twenty miles south of Sitka, on the same
island, there are a number of hot springs, strongly
impregnated with iron and sidphur, the sanitary
nature of which has been known to the Indians
for centuries, and hither they have been in the
habit of resorting for the cure of certain physical
ills, espcitially rheumatism, to which they are so
liable. Vegetation in the neighborhood of these
springs is tropical. The temperature of the water
is said to be 156° Fah. At the time of the Rus-
DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 313
sian possession the whites built hath-hons<^s on
the spot, and much was made of this sanitarium.
But all is now neglected, except that the natives
still occasionally resort to the place to enjoy the
tonic and recuperating effect of the waters. Any-
thing which will promote cleanliness among the
Alaskan tribes must be unquestionably of benefit
to them. There are plenty of hot mineral springs
all over the various island groups of the Territory,
and especially that portion which makes out from
the Alaska Peninsula westward towards Asia.
The most fatal diseases prevailing among the abo-
rigines after consumption are scrofulous affec-
tions ; the latter is thought to be aggravated, if not
induced, by their almost exclusive fish diet, supple-
mented by their gross uncleanliness. The Aleuts
of the south, the Eskimos of the north, and the
natives generally of the coast and the interior
sleep and live in such dark, dirty, unventilated
quarters, reeking with vile odors, that they cannot
fail to poison their blood and thus induce a myr-
iad of ills. As we have said, none of these natives
seem to have any intelligent idea of medicine, and
they do not possess any herbs, so far as we could
learn, which are used for medicinal purposes. If
a native is furnished with a prescription after the
manner of the whites, he requires at least twice
the amount of medicine which it is customary to
give to a white man, otherwise the dose will have
no apparent effect upon his system. Tiiis is a
never varying experience which medical men
have found repeated among all savage races.
314 THE NEW ELDORADO.
As far as one is able to compreliend the reli-
gious convictions of the native Sitkans, other than
the few who have gone through the form of pro-
fessing Christianity, they seem to entertain a sort
of animal worship, a reverence for special birds
and beasts. Like the Japanese tliey hold certain
animals sacred and will not injure them. It is
thus that they have some mystical idea about the
bear, which prevents them from willingly hunting
that animal. Ravens are nearly as numerous in
Sitka as they are in Ceylon, and no one will in-
jure them. They believe that the spirits of the
departed occupy the bodies of ravens, hawks, and
the like. One is reminded that in the temples of
Canton the Chinese keep sacred hogs ; the Par-
sees of Bombay worship fire; the Japanese bow
before snakes and foxes, as divine symbols; the
pious Hindoo deifies cows and monkeys; so there
is abundant precedent to countenance these sim-
ple natives of Alaska in their crude worship and
superstitions.
Their aboriginal belief is called Shamanism, or
the propitiating of evil spirits by acceptable offer-
ings. It is significant that the same faith is^ par-
ticipated in by the Siberians, on the other side of
Behring Strait. This is no new or original form
of religion; it was the faith of the Tartar race
before they became disciples of Buddhism.
These aborigines seem to anticipate a state of
future happiness, but not one of rewards and
punishments. All blessedness in this anticipated
eternity is for man ; woman, it seems, has no real
THE MOST POTENT MISSIONARIES. 315
inheritance in this world or the next ! Slavery,
vice, and misery would thus appear to be her
portion in life, and she expects nothing beyond.
This picture is not overdrawn. These natives
are now as much a part of our population as are
the people who live in Massachusetts or Rhode
Island, and our manifest duty is to educate them.
The light of reason will soon follow, and like the
rising sun will burn away this mist of ignorance
and superstition. Schools are the most potent
missionaries that can be established among any
savage race ; reasonable religious convictions will
follow as a natural result.
"When the missionary," says W. H. Dall,
" will leave the trading-post, strike out into the
wilderness, live in the wilderness, live with the
Indians, teach tliem cleanliness first, morality
next, and by slow and simple teaching raise their
minds above the hunt and the camp, — then, and
not until then, they will be able to comprehend
the simplest principles of right and wrong."
Though these Indians at the populous centres
often pretend to yield to the religious teachings
of the piofessional missionaries, still, like the
Chinese religious converts, they are pretty sure to
return to their idols and supeistitions. When the
Roman Catholic Bishop from San P^ranclsco came
among the natives of Alaska, and offered to baptize
their children, the Indians told him that he might
baptize them if he would pay them for it !
H. H. Bancioft, in his work upon the native
races of the North Pacific, says : " Thick, black
316 THE NEW ELDORADO.
clouds, portentous of evil, hang threateningly over
the savage during his entire life. Genii murmur
in the flowing river, in the rustling branches of
the trees are heard the breathings of the gods,
goblins dance in the vapory twilight, and demons
howl in the darkness. All these things are hostile
to man, and must be propitiated by gifts, prayers,
and sacrifices ; while the religious worship of some
of the tribes includes practices frightful in their
atrocity."
The Sitkans, like many other tribes, used to
burn their dead before the missionaries partially
dissuaded them from doing so, but some still adopt
cremation as a final and most desirable resort.
To one who has seen its universal application in
India, there are many strong reasons in its favor.
The Alaskan native idea of a hell in another
world constituted of ice, it is said, causes them to
reason that those buried in the earth may be cold
forever after, while those whose bodies are burned
will be forever warm and comfortable in the next
sphere. After the funeral these aborigines, as we
have shown, engage in a genuine " wake," reck-
lessly feasting and drinking to emphasize the im-
portance of the occasion, and to demonstrate their
unbounded grief.
The native women occasionally show some
taste for music and ability in playing upon the
accordion, almost the only instrument found in
their possession. A young Indian girl was seen
quite alone among the wild flowers just outside
the town (Sitka) who had been taught a few
NATIVE MUSICIANS. 317
pleasing airs, and who surprised us with a well-
played strain from a familiar opera. She was
a pretty, gypsy-like child of nature, evidently
having white blood in her veins, and was not
over sixteen years of age. The coarse, scanty
clothing could not disguise her handsome form,
bright, intelligent face, or hide the depth and
splendor of her jet-black luminous eyes. When
she discovered us the accordion was quickly thrust
behind her, while her downcast eyes expressed
moitification at being found alone by the white
strangers, playing to the flowers beside the Indian
River. She understood English and spoke it
fairly well, but hesitated to receive the bright bit
of silver offered to her. When we told her that in
the East it was the custom to pay those who played
to us upon musical instruments out-of-doors, and
described the itinerant hand -organist with his
monkey, and the brass bands which perambulate
city streets, she laughed heartily, thrust the shin-
ing silver in her bosom, and held out her hand
to greet us cordiall}'. As we turned our steps
back towards the town the innocent, winning
face of the young girl haunted us with thoughts
of hidden possibilities never to be fulfilled.
On the evening before we left Sitka a brass
band consisting of twenty-one performers marched
down to the wharf from the mission school, in
good military order, headed by their teacher as
band-master, and serenaded the passengers. The
band was composed entirely of native boys, the
oldest not over eighteen, not one of whom had ever
318 THE NEW ELDORADO.
seen a brass musical instrument two years ago.
They performed eight or ten elaborate pieces of
composition, not passably well, but admirably, in
perfect time, and with real feeling for the music
they expressed. It was a surprise to every one
on board the Corona to hear such a performance
by natives in this isolated spot in the far north.
A liberal puise was handed to the teacher to be
divided among them.
" Do you know what they will do with this
money ? " he asked, gratefully.
" Purchase some trifle, each one after his own
fancy," we replied.
" No, sir," said the teacher, " they will tell me,
every one of them, to purchase some new music
with the money, which they can practice and learn
to play together."
Their means are of course quite circumscribed,
and they have had but little variety afforded
them, either in school-books or music. They look
upon their musical tuition as a reward for good
behavior, and the severest punishment to them is
to be deprived of any favorite branch of instruc-
tion.
At our final view of Sitka, the quaint capital' of
Alaska was lying quiet and peacefully at the feet
of Vestova, while enshrouded in a voluptuous
sheen of afternoon sunlight. A rose-glow rested
on everything, beautifying the simplest objects.
Lofty, thickly-wooded hills formed the back-
ground, while the Greek church and tlie old cas-
tle dominated all the humbler buildings. The
A FINAL VIEW. 319
waters of the island-dotted bay were as still as an
inland lake, and flooded with golden reflections.
Now and again an eagle sailed gracefully from
one wooded height to another, and the hoarse
croak of many ravens, held sacred by the Indians,
greeted the ear. A few United States soldiers
lounged about their barracks, and a few cannon
were arranged upon the broad common. These
were light fieldpieces, more for show than for
use. Groups of natives clad iu bright-colored
blankets were seen here and there before their
simple dwellings which line the beach. A broad,
intensely green plateau forms the centre of the set-
tlement, about which the better houses of the
whites are situated. A little to the left, nearer to
the hills, is the curiously arranged burial-ground
of the aborigines, with a few totem-poles, and
many boxes reared above ground in which are de-
posited the remains of former chiefs. On a slight
rise of ground stands the ancient blockhouse, built
of logs, from which the Russians once made a des-
perate fight with the natives. Behind us i\Iount
Edgecombe loomed far up among the clouds, where
its apex was half hidden, and in the same direc-
tion, not far away, was the open Pacific. It was
nearly ten o'clock P. M. before the sun set behind
the distant western hills in a blaze of scarlet,
yellow, and purple, reflected by soft, butterfly
clouds and mountain tops in the east. After that
came the luminous moonlight, making a regal
glory of the darkness, and flashing in opal gleams
from the sea.
320 THE NEW ELDORADO.
While watching the rippling lustre of the water,
tremulous with starlight and the languid breath
of the night air, one was fain to ask if it was all
quite real, if this was not a fancy picture from the
land of dreams. Could these be the far-away
shores of Alaska? The pathos and tenderness of
the scene, the glow, and fire, and throbbing love-
liness, were indescribable. Even the few fleecy
clouds which sailed between us and the planets
seemed as if they came to waft ou 
