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 . '^V J^-; * RUSSIAN AMERICA. 
 
 I!» '/M. J' n•^Jl.ll.Mi ■ ;-. • .'.i,. .11. ' •■ ;•.:■ 
 
 IN the maps of our great-grandfathers, what were tlien unknown 
 patches of the earth's surface used to be adorned, in lack of 
 other details, with hideous images of bears — signifying, doubtless, 
 that these animals were inonarchs of all they surveyed. In like 
 fashion, some sprightly cavillers at the late transfer of Russian 
 America to the Republic, have been parading their ignorance of 
 that region by portraying it as crammed with icebergs from Dixon's 
 Entrance to Behring's Straits. But now that Russian America is 
 Russian America no longer, and the " gentleman from Oonemak " 
 may soon be expected to whittle his desk in the House and imbibe 
 his train-oil cocktail in the Lobby, facts about our new north- 
 western lands should usurp the place of theory. ■ i, ;f.-v:fi;ii .■. 
 
 Jutting out from the continent like the stump of an arm shorn 
 short, Russian America displays at the first glance the broad 
 stretch of its domain — an area, in round figures, of 400,000 square 
 miles. From Cape Muzon, its southernmost cape, in latitude 64° 40', 
 to Cape North, nearly in latitude 73°, is a weep of eighteen de- 
 grees. From the easternmost summit of the mountain chain 
 which divides it from Columbia, in longitude 131 W., to the last 
 little Aleutian isle, out alone in Behring's Sea, in longitude 176 E., 
 b a span of 53°. Again, from Island Prince of Wales, in the south- 
 east corner, to Cape Prince of Wales, in the northwestern, the dis- 
 tance, as the crow flies, is about 1,500 miles, crossing none but 
 Russian American soil : the line joinir.g any other corners is some- 
 thing less. 
 
 What is the climate of this new territory oi' ours ? The whole 
 country seems to have been vaguely set down, hitherto, as, in 
 Claudio's phrase, a " thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice " — a barren, 
 cheerless Arctic tract, an ante-chamber to the Pole, a country where 
 
 Icy mountains, hiprh on mountains piled, 
 Seem to the sliivering sailors from afar 
 Shapeless and wlxite, an atmosphere of clouds. 
 
 On the other hand, one scientific gentleman (not really designing 
 to abuse the country) has incautiously described the climate of the 
 coast, as far as Behring's Straits, as " about the same, in Winter, 
 as that of Washington " — than which no comparison could be more 
 unsavory. However, this last assertion is couhur de rose : the aver- 
 age climate and temperature of tlie coast from British Columbia to 
 Behring's Straits, are almost precisely those of Newfoundland. 
 
 Rightly to understand the climate of Russian America, its 
 geography must be studied. To begin with, a country stretching 
 
 t 
 
unknown 
 n lack of 
 ioubtleas, 
 In like 
 Russian 
 orance of 
 n Dixon's 
 Lmerica is 
 onemak " 
 d imbibe 
 !W north- 
 
 rm shorn 
 he broad 
 )0 square 
 e 64° 40', 
 itoen de- 
 lin chain 
 3 the last 
 e 176 E., 
 he south- 
 , the dis- 
 none but 
 I is some- 
 
 le whole 
 to, as, in 
 a barren, 
 ry where 
 
 csigning 
 te of the 
 Winter, 
 be more 
 ihe aver- 
 imbia to 
 md. 
 
 rica, its 
 retching 
 
 RUSSIAN AMERICA. 
 
 105 
 
 across eighteen parallels, from 54° 40' to 72° 40', may well have 
 variety both of climate and products. This span embraces 1,200 
 miles on the same meridian, that is to say, a distance like thai, from 
 Mobile to Montreal. Again, all students of physical geography 
 know that the temperature of the North Pacific coast of this con- 
 tinent ia much higher than that of the Atlantic coast on the same 
 parallel. A thermal current from the China coast trends upward 
 along the shores of Asia, and sets across toward Russian America, 
 as the Gulf Stream sets across the Atlantic and raises the tempera- 
 ture of the European coast. According to the isothermal lines of 
 Humboldt, since affirmed, Sitka, the territorial capital, has the 
 mean temperature of St. Petersburg, while the whole coast, ad far 
 as Behring's Sea, has that of Newfoundland. The mean temperature 
 at Sitka is 34° V F. in Winter and 56° 2" in Summer : the climate 
 there is moist, with constant evaporation, little snow and much rain. 
 
 So much for the southeastern shore. Glancing at the southwest- 
 em, we find, in conning the chart (or the globe, which is less decep- 
 tive for high latitudes), that the harbors of Kodiak and Sitka are 
 on the same parallel, and that the southeramost part of Russian 
 America is the tip of this limb, not that of the other. By reason 
 of its nearness to the Asiatic thermal current, Kodiak has rather a 
 milder climate than Sitka. In fine, the Aleutian Islands and Ali- 
 aska, whence they are broken off, have nearly the climate of the 
 upper part of the British Isles, of which, by the way, they are the 
 exact counterpart in position, being in the same latitude and an 
 exact semicircle distant in longitude. 
 
 We are now prepared to look into the question of vegetation. 
 As the fact that Russian America extends north and south a dis- 
 tance like that from Florida to Labrador explains the ludicrous 
 discrepancies in the stories of its admirers and abusers (the one 
 likening its climate to that of the Inferno of Dante, the other to 
 that of the inferno of modern orthodoxy) so, too, this fact shows 
 how the same country can grow both " wheat and walrus," " rein- 
 deer and radishes." The " wheat-growing line " of geographers 
 passes in the neighborhood of New Archangel, and the " grain, 
 barley, ryo, oats " line includes the whole southerly coast, with the 
 Aleutian Isles, round to Behring's Sea. 
 
 However, it is to be hoped that it is not for horticultural uses 
 that the Republic aims to colonize Russian America. The climate 
 of nine-tenths of it is too cold and the soil too sterile, to relieve such 
 a purpose from being ludicrous. In a few favored spots, of which 
 mention has been made, there is now a limited agriculture, r,nd that 
 of a primitive sort ; elsewhere, none. Yet this scantiness of produc- 
 tion is partly due to the fur companies, who have found it for 
 their interest to import cereals rather than to divert labor into rais- 
 ing them. In the southern or coast districts and the islands, vege- 
 
 ■prnifi- N. W. Hjatr- ' 
 
 FRO^ .NC( A. „ l. .'WA 
 VICTOrtJA, L. ^. 
 
 105207 
 
X 
 
 106 
 
 RUSSIAN AMERICA. 
 
 tacion is not backward. Cabbages, potatoes, lettuce and turnips 
 can be grown there ; hay is made in plenty, the grass being luxu- 
 riant ; and as high as 60°, barley, buckwheat and rye can be raised. 
 
 Northern Russian America is good for notliing as regards vegeta- 
 tion, a few stunted shrubs and Alpine roots alone relieving the ice- 
 fields. So, too, over a great part of the western or Behring's Straits 
 coast — a thousand miles long — there is nothing valuable growing. 
 The shores there are vacant of timber, and stunted bushes, con- 
 taining untoothsome berries like the gooseberries and whortleber- 
 ries of the higher Mackenzie district, alone show "the place where 
 the trees ought to grow." The ground grows itself a shaggy coat 
 of moss, <»s the animals do of fur, to expel the Winter's flaw, Avhich, 
 by the way, is a terrible affair through the funnel or flue of Behr- 
 ing's Straits. Under the moss, the sheltered soil is thawed about 
 ten inches, and thence frozen solid deep into the bowels of the earth, 
 while across the Straits, on the Asiatic side, the thawed globe is 
 only about three inches deep, for lack of a moss blanket. The 
 Esquimaux there, instead of avoiding the gales in Winter huts, 
 pitches his shelter-tent of skin in an airy place, that the wind may 
 blow the Snow away. 
 
 Luckily, the upper waters of the Kvitchpak, like the Yukon 
 through its whole length, are lined with forests, and the former 
 nolle river, like the Mississippi, throws out great rafts of drifl wood 
 at its embouchure in Bhering's Sea, a part of which, floating many 
 miles along shore in the current which sets through the Straits, 
 furnishes the post of St. Michael with its only fuel. But, beside 
 the banks of the Kvitchpak, those of all rivers south of it, and most 
 of the islands, are rich in fine timber — chiefly the upland cypress, 
 varieties of the pine and larch, and the well-known " red-wood " 
 peculiar to the Pacific coast. There are, also, black and white 
 bircb, good wood for fuel and building. The forests come down to 
 the water's edge, and the estuaries are fringed with fine timber, so 
 that a saw-mill built on a river bank would find its food at hand. 
 There is no oak here, but there is, as we have shown, good lumber 
 for shipbuilding, and some excellent spar timber. In a word, all 
 lumber required for houses, vessels and boats, is to be had, and 
 possibly some could be sold for the same purposes on the Asiatic 
 coast. 
 
 That there are precious metals in Russian America admits no 
 doubt ; that they will not be worked in our day, admits of little 
 less doubt. With Colorado seamed and ridge<f with gold, it is odd 
 to hear anxious inquiries if the yellow ore may be had in our 
 new possessions. On the Stekeen River, the most southerly of 
 the considerable streams, gold has been discovered to exist. This, 
 however, is a trivial matter. Near the mouth of the Kupfer or 
 River, half way between Mt. St. Elias and Prince William's 
 
 Copper 
 
 \ 
 
 ( 1 f 
 
RUSSIAN AMERICA. 
 
 107 
 
 id turnipa 
 cing Inxu- 
 be raised, 
 •ds vegeta- 
 ig tlie ice- 
 g's Straits 
 i growing, 
 ishes, con- 
 'hortleber- 
 ace Avhore 
 aggy coat 
 iw, which, 
 B of Behr- 
 ived about 
 the earth, 
 I globe ia 
 ket. The 
 nter huts, 
 wind may 
 
 le Yukon 
 he former 
 Jrifl wood 
 ;ing many 
 ie Straits, 
 lut, beside 
 I and most 
 i cypress, 
 ed-wood " 
 md white 
 B down to 
 timber, so 
 at hand, 
 d lumber 
 word, all 
 had, and 
 le Asiatic 
 
 idmits no 
 i of little 
 , it is odd 
 id in our 
 therly of 
 ?t. This, 
 [upfer or 
 fVilliam's 
 
 Sound, copper has been found. What is worthier of note, iron 
 has been both found and worked. Most important of* all, coal is 
 certainly to be had, two mines having been opened on the Aleutian 
 Islands by the Russians, one of which, at Kodiak, is now working, 
 und the produce blazing at the forge in repairing ships, and even 
 supplying steam-vessels. 
 
 Apropos of coal, then, we leave gold, copper, cabbages and barlej", 
 to speak of more obvious benefits in Russian America. A hundred 
 sail of our Pacific whaling fleet frequent the North Pacific ; the 
 number will be doubled, and the trade growing between Asia and 
 America, especially in Japan and the Amoor country, will attract 
 steamers, provided coaling and repairs can be made cheap and sure. 
 
 The Russian-American coast is full of fine harbors, scattered 
 along a thousand miles. That of Sitka is open the year round. Ice, 
 such is the moist climate, cannot be readily gathered near there for 
 shipment to San Francisco, so that it is harvested higher up on the 
 coast. Kodiak harbor, on the same parallel, is an excellent one. 
 Cook's Inlet, between it and the mainland, is a fine sheet of water, 
 broad, deep and navigable, so that that famous sailor, penetrating 
 it, fancied it to be the northwest passage. Prince William's Sound, 
 further east, has deep water. Between Prince of Wales Island and 
 the Continent are several serviceable harbors. From the south- 
 eastern to the southwestern extremity of the seaboard, groups of 
 islands line the coasts, under whose shelter small boats can traverse 
 the shoal sounds by an " inside line " for a thousand miles. The 
 coal at Kodiak, its fine harbor and endurable climate, will doubtless 
 give it a claim as a naval station. 
 
 Salmon are abundant on the Kvitchpak, and excellent codfish and 
 halibut on the coasts. The commerce in fisheries will one day be 
 valuable for both continents, and fishermen will haunt these Pacific 
 islands as they do the colder ones of the same Latitude in the At- 
 lantic, The intrinsic merits of Russian America had better be 
 rested, not on its Washington-like climate and Lombardy gar- 
 dens, but, like Newfoundland's, on its fisheries and its furs. 
 Whales and walrus bob about plentifully in Behring's Sea, and 
 their ivory and oil will be made very profitable. Even the ice-trade 
 may be valuable, such are the facilities for making ice in the little 
 lakes near the coast. As to the fur trade, it is declining, from the 
 scarcity of the otter and seal ; the beaver, too, is decreasing the 
 world over. 
 
 Around all the islands, particularly the Aleutian, furs are still to 
 be had. Those of the fur-seal and sea-beaver are magnificent. Red 
 foxes are plenty, and have fine furs. Through the southwest 
 peninsula and adjoining islands, is found the so-called " American 
 sable," which is no sable at all, but a lecies of marten or mink, 
 with hair much shorter and less gloss j' than that of the genuine 
 
 1 f 
 
i 
 
 108 
 
 RUSSIAN AMERICA, 
 
 I 
 
 sable. There are ermines, muskrats, wolverines, whose furs may be 
 Been in abundance in New York, mink, a speries of river otter, and 
 beavers in great numbers. In the north are reindeer ; further south, 
 the ordinary red deer of the forest. 
 
 In the Russian American question, the shabbiest item is the 
 native people. These are few in number, and the fewer the better. 
 The total population of the region is under 60,000, whereof the 
 natives may be rudely set down at about 55,000. The latter are 
 divided into two great and absolutely distinct races — the ordinary 
 wood Indian, inhabiting the forest districts, and the Esquimaux. 
 They have been, from the earliest record to the present, in hostili- 
 ties, and in need of " military reconstruction," or a metropolitan 
 police. The Esquimaux have regular and permanent settlements, 
 but no form of government and no chiefs in authority, though the 
 counsels of the elders are received with the respect due to years. 
 The Indians, on the contrary, have their chieilains and " Big In- 
 dians." In breed, idiom of speech, and most traits, the Russian 
 Esquimaux resemble those of Greenland — and, as to that, the Laps 
 of Norway and Sweden. This race of train-oil eaters seems to have 
 followed the Arctic circle around the globe, as if determined to 
 " fight it out on that line." Wherever Esquimaux go, the reindeer 
 go with them, and thus their zone, girdling the earth, is also fixed. 
 While unable to congratulate the country on this accession to its 
 voters (for disabilities of smell and color are now unconstitutional), 
 we must own that the Esquimaux are teachable. Some have learned 
 English, and a few are now living in California. Next we come to 
 the " Indians not taxed," Of these, some tribes are lighter tinged 
 than the copper-colored savages whom we call " redskins," and 
 their ways also suggest alliance in origin with the yellow Asiatics. 
 The Russian troops formerly had severe fights with them. They 
 build excellent canoes, holding great numbers of warriors, for their 
 raids. Formerly considered as ugly customers, they have lately 
 got a better reputation. They are shrewd at a bargain, and have 
 much mechanical skill in carving and imitative work. In these 
 points, again, oi;ir thoughts are led back to the Chinese and other 
 Asiatics, And, for those who will not be content except, that all 
 men shall derives from a single pair of ancestry, and yet are puzzled 
 how to get the children of Adam across the Atlantic from Eden to 
 people America — it needs only to point to the few miles of sea at 
 Behring's Straits, On a fine Summer's day the Indians may be 
 seen shooting across, in perpetual solution of the ethnic problem, 
 
 Russia never has valued her American possessions a straw. They 
 are altogether too far from her centre of action, Russian 
 America, besides, has been hopelessly garroted by a monopoly, 
 being se' dowu as mere corporation real e tat« Above all, Russia 
 has not long been a maritime nation, two-thirds of her commerce, 
 
mmm 
 
 RUSSIAN AMERICA. 
 
 lot 
 
 rs may be 
 otter, and 
 her south, 
 
 em is the 
 the better, 
 lereof the 
 latter are 
 e ordinary 
 squimaux. 
 in hostili- 
 itropolitan 
 ittlements, 
 hough the 
 e to years. 
 "Big In- 
 le Russian 
 r, the Laps 
 ns to have 
 rmined to 
 le reindeer 
 also fixed, 
 ision to its 
 titntional), 
 .ve learned 
 re come to 
 Iter tinged 
 kins," and 
 V Asiatics. 
 3m. They 
 s, for their 
 ave lately 
 , and have 
 In these 
 and other 
 pv, that all 
 re puzzled 
 n Eden to 
 i of sea at 
 IS may be 
 iroblera, 
 m. They 
 Russian 
 nonopoly, 
 Jl, Russia 
 jommerce. 
 
 a score of years ago, as statistics show, being in the hands of Great 
 Britain alone. Russian America, therefore, cost her far more than it 
 came to, and should it do as badly for us, the bargain will bo a 
 sorry one. However, no parallel exists between Russia's use 
 of tliat territory and ours: for example, its tisheries (especially 
 now that those of the Atlantic are jeopardized) will probably train 
 seamen for our navy, while to Russia this benefit was nothing. 
 For a Russian to go to Russian America was equal to Siberian exile, 
 except for the honor and profit attendant. A bait of enormous 
 salary — enough to drive crazy with wild expectancy, our already 
 fluttering candidates for the post — reconciled nobles to taking the 
 governorship. Rear- Admiral Furlghellem (a German name, but he 
 was of Russian birth) held the post five years Prince Macsautoff, 
 whom some readers may have chanced to meet in Atlantic cities, 
 succeeded him, and is still living with his charming wife and family 
 in Sitka, in voluntary banishment from civilization. 
 
 The Russian colony is a petty affair. The Russians and half- 
 breeds combined probably do not exceed 3,000 or 3,500, of whom 
 the, Russians number about 650. The half-breeds are commonly 
 called "Creoles," an obvious misnomer aiming to designate the 
 oflfepring of a Russian father and a native mother. The capital, 
 New Archangel (or Sitka, as Americans generally call it), on the 
 island of Baranov or Sitka, is a town of about 800 inhabitants. It 
 boasts a fort, church, school and governor's mansion — a plain 
 structure, looking like a well-to-do farm-house. The remaining 
 architecture of Sitka is not impressive. The island, which slightly 
 rises from the sea, has a good harbor : Sitka is the native name, the 
 other a Russian euphuism. Beside the Greek church at Sitka, 
 there are a few others along the coast : a new religious sect, accord- 
 ingly, is added to our list, and the Frenchman's exclamation — 
 " Mon dieu ! what Republique ! one tousand religions and only one 
 gravy " — gains new point. 
 
 The Russian military force now there is trifling. At first it was 
 from 350 to 400 strong; then, less than 200; iifiw, hardly over 150 
 effectives. At Sitka, however, the fort has ordnance enough, of 
 minute calibre, to employ a battalion in its serving. The military 
 occupancy is a form, the governance of the territory being mainly 
 left to the Company. Along the coast is strung a chain of twenty 
 or thirty petty 1 rading-posts, protected by, or, rather, visibly con- 
 sisting of, a simple redoubt. The Russian term for this defence 
 and station is krepost ; we should perhaps call it stockade, or, more 
 exactly, block-house. These posts and all that in them is, at Sitka 
 and elsewhere, fall into our hands. 
 
 The Russian Company, wanting no intruders on its domains, has 
 checked inducements to colonization. At its headquarters in St. 
 Petersburg, it held a sort of dioiaum irn^rium with the Autocrat 
 
h 
 
 110 
 
 RUSSIAN AMERrCA. 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 n 
 
 fi ; 
 
 over the northwesterly limb of America. The Government snffored 
 its few troops — a single company only garrisoning Sitka itKelf— to 
 dispel the ennui of military duties by Fur Company work, at a 
 slight extra pay. The Company has many agents and hunters for 
 the gathering of fish and furs, and eight or ten good, sea-going ves- 
 sels, beside smaller crafl. Fort Nicholas is on Cook's Inlet; Fort 
 St. Michael, on Norton's Sound, a redoubt with accommodations 
 for sixty persons, is the head station of the Company for liehring's 
 Sea, seventy miles above the mouth of the Kvitchpak. 
 
 The Hudson's Bay Company has, on sufferance, one post. Fort, 
 Yukon, within "our" territory, at the junction of the Porcupine 
 and Yukon rivers, where, in latitude 66°, they form the Kvitchpak. 
 The treaties of 1825 and 1867 fix the line of demarcation, beyond 
 dispute, along the meridian 141° W. The rival companies guard 
 their hunters from collision by forbidding them a Avide band of 
 debatable ground midway between Fort Yukon and Fort St. 
 Michael. 
 
 Behring's Straits— the sluiceway between the Pacific and Asia — 
 always excites the student's curiosity. Along the neighboring shores 
 are written up on cape and inlet and estuary the imperishable 
 names of the hardy navigators who explored the coast — stout old 
 Behring, Cook, Barrow, Norton, Kotzebue, and we might well add 
 gallant Parry and Franklin. The shortest distance from hemisphere 
 to hemisphere is but 39 nautical miles or 40 statute miles. In Sum- 
 mer, Indians ply to and fro in their walrus-skin canoes, the water 
 being then often calm enough to cross a rati or skiff there. In 
 Winter the way is frozen solid and the traveling is in sledges, the 
 Indians trading the furs across from tribe to tribe. There are no 
 icebergs of consequence here, but when the ice breaks up, it breaks 
 usually into anchor ice. Whales then come down the straits, in 
 their breeding-season, it being needful for them to seek soundings. 
 
 In the bight of this slender strait which binds two oceans and 
 severs two continents, lie four little islands, whereof two come to 
 us and two are remanded to Russia. To us comes the great isle 
 of St. Lawrence, and, in brief, all the rest in Behring's Sea except 
 Behring's Island, which belongs to Kamtchatka. Will this strait, 
 the confluence of seas and severance of empires, be always a mere 
 Indian ford in Summer and ice causeway in Winter, or will it ever 
 be a commercial thoroughfare ? The crossing-point is below the 
 Arctic Circle — a thousand miles in latitude below where Wrangel 
 reached ; the snow, as usual in high latitudes, does not fall so freely 
 as further south. Once across the straits, and a coach and four in 
 Summer could be guided without an upset straight to St. Peters- 
 burg. There are no hostile Inrlians on the way. Some day, some 
 adventurous American, of the ocean-yachting sort, will drive his 
 chaise or sleigh from New York into St. Petersburg or Paris. 
 
 G. E. PoiO). 
 
ent suffered 
 a itself— to 
 work, .it a 
 hunters for 
 i-fToiug ves- 
 nlet; Fort 
 imoflations 
 r Behring'a 
 
 post, Fort, 
 Porcupine 
 Kvitchpak. 
 ion, beyond 
 miea guard 
 ic baud of 
 a Fort St. 
 
 and Asia — 
 )ring sliores 
 nperisliable 
 . — stout old 
 ht well add 
 hemisphere 
 s. In Sura- 
 i, the water 
 ' there. In 
 sledges, the 
 'here are no 
 p, it breaks 
 e straits, in 
 loundings. 
 oceans and 
 70 come to 
 ) great isle 
 Sea except 
 this strait, 
 ays a mere 
 will it ever 
 i below the 
 re Wrangel 
 "all so freely 
 and four in 
 St. Peters- 
 day, some 
 11 drive his 
 Paris. 
 E. Pond.