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34
A Trip To Alaska
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TRIP TO ALASKA
With Compliments of the Author
J. R. GORRELL, M. D.
Newton, Iowa, August 1905
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Ed. Newton Herald:
Seattle, Wash., July 14, 1905.
My Dear Sir:-Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado
presented a more beautiful appearance than I have ever be-
fore seen, due to the unprecedented rainfall during the early
spring and summer. There appeared to me to be a large
emigration to the West; fifteen men and two real estate
agents got off east of Denver. Some of them, judging from
the conversation I heard, had already purchased large tracts
of land and others were going to.
Denver is a rapidly growing city, situated on a plain, with
as few points of interest as any town of its size I have ever
known. The only point of interest in Denver, beyond the
great piles of brick and mortar, was a magnificent structure
lately erected by the Christian Scientists, having cost more
than $100,000, and one of the finest in architectural appear-
ance in the city of Denver.
I think no traveler can afford not to take a trip from
Denver to Silver Plume, passing through Georgetown. A
round trip can be made on Sunday for $2.00 and on a week
day for $3.75. The scenery up Clear Creek Canyon, after
having passed Golden, is in every way grand and beautiful.
The engineering is considered as fine as can be seen any-
where, as Georgetown is 3000 feet higher than Golden and
Georgetown is 30 miles. A niche for the railroad track is in
many places cut in the side of the mountain, and the rocks
hundreds of feet high overhanging the track, and a wild
dashing torrent is always plunging forward on its way to the
sea.
Georgetown in 1893 was a prosperous town of 4000. Its
decline began immediately after the discrimination against
silver, due, as I believe to the treachery of Grover Cleveland.
It now has a population of 1500. Buildings can be bought for
$250 that cost $1000.
5
Silver Plume, on a straight line, is a mile and a half
above Georgetown. The railroad is four and one half miles
long. Immediately above Georgetown is the celebrated loop
and there are three horse-shoes made by the railroad track
between the loop and Silver Plume. Silver Plume is about
1000 feet higher than Georgetown. I could have bought at
Silver Plume a beautiful little burro, weighing about 350
pounds, for $1.00. I telephoned the Express Company and
learned that it would have to be crated, which would cost
$3.00 and that the express charges from Silver Plume to
Newton would be $6.50 per hundred I did not buy it.
I unhesitatingly advise all my friends who contemplate
visiting the Pacific Slope to take the Colorado Midland from
Denver. There is no one point on the Colorado that quite
equals the Royal Gorge on the Denver & Rio Grande in
scenic beauty, but as the Royal Gorge is less than half a mile
long, and as there are thousands upon thousands of views
that rival it in scenic splendor along the Colorado Midland,
that, I think, is the most desirable route.
The ride from Denver to Colorado Springs, a distance of
74 miles, is very pleasant, as the train is almost all the way
near the foothills and the mountains in plain sight in the
distance. On the way there are many dumps, showing that
there has been, or is, mining in the mountains. Pike's Peak
and Gray's Peak are in view almost every moment of the way.
There is nothing whatever remarkable about Colorado
Springs, and it would probably be little known were it not
that it is situated near the Garden of the Gods and Manitou.
Colorado Springs, Colorado City and Manitou are now almost
one continuous town, When Messrs. Lufkin, Burns, Hogan
and myself visited Colorado Springs 26 years ago, we were
offered a brick building and a half acre of ground at Colorado
City, which was the former capital of Colorado, for $150.
Colorado City is about midway between Colorado Springs and
Manitou, and about 4 miles from each. That same brick
building and two lots could not now be bought for $40,000.
1
The Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie present the
same grand and beautiful appearance they did 26 year ago.
Manitou, which was then a town of half a dozen houses, now
has a population of 4000. The railroad from Manitou to
Leadville presents as great a variety of scenic beauty as I
have ever witnessed. In a distance of 130 miles the ascent
of over 5000 feet is made. Leadville has a population of
40,000, and has, I was told, the greatest altitude of any city
in the United States except one. It has an altitude of over
10,000 feet. The nights in Leadville are always cool, many
nights of the year there is frost.
The ride from Leadville west over the Colorado Midland
presents scenery that is, if possible, more wild and
awful than east of Leadville. One place in particular, called
"Hell's Gate," is to me as grand and awful as I ever witnessed.
Colorado not only has larger mining interests of gold,
silver, etc., than any other state, but in western Colorado the
coal interests are unsurpassed, even in West Virginia.
Salt Lake City, like Niagara Falls, is enjoyed more up-
on the second visit than the first. The place of special in-
terest is Temple Square, which is one of the most remarkable
places on the face of the earth. It is 40 rods sq. and has in
it the Temple, Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall. The in-
side of the Temple is never seen except by good Mormons.
The outside presents an appearance that is bewildering be-
cause of the domes, spires, arches, ballustrades and the female
figures at the top. I was informed by an architect, who was
not a Mormon, that he had studied the architecture of the
.
·
Temple and that it contained ancient, mediaeval and modern
architecture, in their most perfect development. The Temple
is nearly 300 feet square and the walls are 26 feet thick, 40
feet high, and then 16 feet thick from there 110 feet. It
was 40 years in building.
The Tabernacle is one of the most wonderful structures
on the face of the earth. It stands near the Temple. It is
190 feet wide 310 feet long, with a seating capacity of 12,000,
and can be emptied in three minutes in case of an alarm.
The inside presents the appearance of a great egg cut in two,
absolutely smooth. Upon what the roof rests cannot be seen.
The accoustic properties are, I suppose, the most wonderful
of any building of its size in the United States, and perhaps
in the world. It is a fact that a pencil can be heard, if
dropped one foot from the railing in front of the pulpit, a
distance of 270 feet. Low conversations can be
distinctly as you hear a friend if 16 feet from you. The As
sembly Hall is simply a large church with a seating capacity
of 4000.
heard as
Brigham Young is buried about two blocks from Temple
Square. No expensive mausoleum marks his resting place,
simply a modest iron railing fence, much like that which
surrounds the grave of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.
Little does either of them need marble, granite or bronze to
preserve their memory from oblivion. The Mormons in
Salt Lake believe Brigham Young received special messages
from God as to how to build the Temple and the Tabernacle.
Indeed, Mr. Folsom, one of the many fathers-in-law of Brig-
ham Young, and the father of Amelia, his favorite wife, told
me that Brigham Young was in communication with God
and received instructions direct from God, and that he, as
architect, made a record of whatever Mr. Young directed
him to make; and I do not know but that Brigham Young
on these occasions had wireless telegraphy between himself
and God.
The mayor and two-thirds of the council in Salt Lake
City are Mormons, and the Gentiles there believe the Mor-
mons to be as progressive, as high minded and as honorable
as those who are not Mormons, and at the time of election
they tell me the word "Mormon" and "Gentile" are never
used. No feeling of antagonism or hatred whatever exists
between them, and all Gentiles admit that the Mormons are
courteous, nice religious people.
Ogden is a little city of 40,000 people and nestles at the
foot of two mountain ranges that approach each other. It
also has a Mormon mayor and most of the council are Mor-
mons, and there has never been any clash or ill feeling be-
tween the Mormons and Gentiles there.
The valley from Ogden to Pocatello, a distance of 130
miles, varies in width from 10 to 50 miles. I think I am
safe in saying that I saw more stock, horses, cattle and sheep
in that valley, all the way from Ogden to Pocatello, than I
ever saw in the same area in Iowa. They raise a large
amount of alfalfa, wheat, sugar beets and vegetables. Not
all the crops in that valley need irrigation, as the rainfall
many seasons is sufficient to mature wheat and other small
grains.
From Pocatello through Idaho to the Oregon line is as
level as a floor, and we rode 20, 30, 40 or 50 miles at a stretch
and saw absolutely nothing growing but low sage brush.
I
was told that it never rains in Idaho. The soil is said to be
as rich as any soil in the United States and would produce
abundant crops if there was water to irrigate the land. The
Government has constructed a dam on Snake River, just be-
low Shoshone Falls, that is said will reclaim 270,000 acres.
The land is bought from the Government for $1 an acre, and
a water right costs $25. A private firm is also constructing
a reservoir from the waters of Snake River that is expected
will reclaim 100,000. The industry here is mainly that of
raising sugar beets; 20 tons of sugar can be raised to the acre
and have ready sale at $5 a ton.
As we approach Oregon, alfalfa and wheat are raised.
It is believed by those who live in eastern Oregon that alfalfa
is going to do very much for that country, as it will grow
almost wholly without irrigation. A great drawback to the
raising of wheat and alfalfa at present is the jack rabbit.
There are so many of them that annually they have what
they call a "Jack Rabbit Drive". Wire netting 8 or 10 feet
high, and a half mile long is put up in form of a cone, with
a wire netting to be drawn across, some distance back from
the apex of the cone so as to prevent the escape of the rab-
bits. Hundreds of men, boys, girls and some women sur-
round a great area of country and drive the rabbits into the
space enclosed by the wire netting. A man who rode with
me on the train told me he had been at one rabbit drive
where 4000 rabbits were caught and killed.
2
Portland is to me one of the most beautiful places I ever
saw. It has a population from 160,000 to 170,000 and is
rapidly increasing in size. The climate, in my judgment,
is not surpassed anywhere, unless it is at Seattle; the summers.
are delightful and the winters not extremely unpleasant.
The scenic beauty about Portland is, I think, not surpassed
by any place on the face of the earth. I have in the past
manifested a good deal of enthusiasm in speaking of Monti-
cello, Lookout mountain and the scenery about Pasadena,
California, and they are all beautiful, quietly beautiful, but
the view from Portland Heights and Willamette Heights, I
do believe, after mature reflection, is more beautiful than
any. The city is before you, the Willamette river at your
feet and a great lake to your left, Mt. Hood with its snow
capped peak and Mt. St. Helens in your front. I see nothing
to prevent Portland from being one of the important towns
of the world. It now has a jobbing trade of one hundred and
C
eighty-five million a year; it manufactures goods to the
amount of fifty millions a year; it has an ocean commerce of
twelve millions a year. There was shipped from Portland
last year 420,000,000 feet of lumber. The fish industry at
Portland, and that includes the Willamette and Columbia
river, is so wonderful that if a mathematical statement of
facts were made it would be regarded by persons not having
seen them as either a fearful exaggeration or as downright
lying.
There are 100 canneries on the Willamette and Columbia,
with a daily capacity of 50 tons each, and they are run to
their full capacity during the fishing season, from April 15
to August 15. They are now behind with their orders and
are rushing business to their fullest possible capacity for the
reason that an order has been received from Japan for 500,-
ooo tons of canned dog fish salmon. The dog fish is an in-
ferior fish and is only worth about one-half what the ordin-
ary salmon is worth, and as the fish have to be caught before
they are canned, the appliances for catching fish and the
number caught are, if possible, more wonderful than the
canning. There is one place called "Fishing Ground," about
30 miles up the river from Astoria, that belongs to a syndi-
cate and they have been offered $100,000 for their grounds,
which cover two and one-half miles up and down the river
the width of the river. They often catch or expect to catch
20 tons a day. They fish with nets which are thrown out
thousands of feet long with steam launches and pulled in
with horses. Great fish wheels, 30 feet in diameter, are seen.
every few hundred rods up and down the Willamette and
Columbia from Portland to the sea.
The lumber industries of Oregon and Washington are
other marvels of the Great West. Judging of the amount of
lumber in both states from what I have seen along the rivers
and railroads where I have traveled, there is already enough
sawed to supply all the demands of the United States until
the day of Judgment, and I have seen floating rafts in the
rivers that seem to me will produce twice the amount of
lumber that I have seen sawed, and it is believed by those
competent to judge that the lumber industry has only fairly
begun. The logging camps at no point are further out than
two or three or four miles from the rivers or railroads, and
all the rest of this vast country is still virgin forest, with
large trees standing near together, varying in height from
two to three hundred feet and in diameter from five to ten
feet. There are saw-mills everywhere, and many of them,
I am told, have a capacity of 1,000,000 feet a day.
The scenery along the Willamette and Columbia rivers
is wonderfully beautiful; a dense growth of low trees fringes
the banks and farther back and higher up is a magnificent
growth of larger trees. What surprised me not a little was
that I did not see a bird from Portland down to the mouth
of the Willamette, twelve miles, nor did I see a bird up the
Columbia to the Lock, 62 miles, nor did I see a bird on the
way to Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, nor did I see
a bird on the way from Portland to Seattle, a distance of 180
miles. I am not able to give the reason why, but I suppose
it is due to the fact that the nights are everywhere so cold
that there is almost no insect life, nor did I see on the way
any wild berries on which birds could have lived.
If it were possible for Daniel Webster and the other
great statesmen who were willing to trade Oregon, Washing-
ton, Idaho and Montana for the privilege of fishing in the
waters of Newfoundland, to see the development of the great
west they would be astonished beyond measure. Even
Daniel Webster said it would always remain a barren waste,
with from 1500 to 2000 miles of dangerous travel across a
desert to reach the Pacific coast. Thomas H. Benton alone,
with almost prophetic vision, seemed to have seen what the
Great West would be, and he by his influence alone, pre-
vented the trade. Even now, more than fifty per cent of the
trade with the Orient is known to be from the Pacific coast,
and beyond question it will continue to increase rapidly until
the bulk of the trade with the Orient is from the west. Ore-
gon and Washington, very unlike southern California, have
incalculable wealth to back them.
I forgot to say that while at Portland I visited my old
friend, T. F. Brown and took dinner with him and his daugh-
ter, Bird Clark Brown. They have a very pleasant home
and I think are happy and contented. Mr. Brown certainly
seemed very glad to see me and very cordial in his attentions
to me.
I am now writing in the office of my esteemed friend,
James A. Kerr, at Seattle. I have been here two days and I
am of the opinion that the climate of Seattle is not equalled
any place on the face of the earth. The summers cannot be
beaten. All the nights are cool and the days rarely ever get
above 75. Every prospect here seems to me to point to
Seattle as one of the great towns of the whole world. Puget
Sound affords ample facilities for all kinds of trade with
all parts of the world. The Great West is big in every way.
I believe it is no exaggeration to say that Mr. James A.
Kerr and his partner are doing more legal business and mak-
ing more money than all the lawyers in Newton. They pay
$140 a month office rent.
I have not been in Seattle long enough to give much
of an opinion, which I will do some time in the future. Yes-
terday, however, I visited Moran Bro's. ship yard. This firm
is now building the battleship "Nebraska." For their con-
tract they will receive $4,500,000 and when the vessel is
completed it will cost $6,500,000. Seattle rivals in activity
all lines I observed at Newport News.
I took dinner yesterday with James A. Kerr and his
family; visited with my old friend, Samuel Zinn uutil after 9
o'clock last night. Mrs. Lucian Harrah and her charming
daughter were also there.
Seattle, Washington, July 15.
I have spent the last two days in seeing points of special
interest in Seattle, and sizing up the town generally as to
its immediate and remote future, and also its adaptability for
permanent homes for the old and for the young.
Its climate I believe to be the best I have ever known.
During the whole year there has never been a really hot day
in Seattle. Rarely ever has the mercury risen higher than
76 in the hottest weather. The nights are always cool. It
is the finest place to sleep I have ever seen. After a good
night's sleep you arise feeling rested and refreshed, ready for
your breakfast and for business. There are no winters here.
Once in five years ice as thick as a pane of glass forms if
water is left out of doors. There are sometimes what people
here call cold rains, but they are as likely to occur in July as
in January, and if there are half a dozen cold rains in a year
it is more than they expect.
Of
The opportunities for men of means or brains are unsur-
passed and I think unequalled in the United States.
course no man can ever win in any department without
energy, but the climate is so invigorating that energy is
soon developed if lacking.
Everybody has heard of the world-famed Lake Washing-
ton, a magnificent body of fresh water four or five miles wide
and thirty miles long. The city of Seattle extends from
Puget Sound on the west to Lake Washington on the east, a
distance of four miles. There are four street car lines run-
ning every few minutes from the Sound to the Lake. On
the lake are four pleasure resorts, some of them as beautiful
as Palm Beach in Florida; and yet, notwithstanding the
fact that all the land between the Sound and the Lake
is held at fabulous prices, beautiful land, heavily wooded
can be bought at from $40 to $70 per acre on the island half
a mile from the lake front. Every foot of that land in less
than ten years will be worth $1000 an acre.
I visited the navy yard today, situated on
an island 16
miles west of Seattle. The boat passed two or three other
islands and a peninsula of the mainland, all of them heavily
wooded and wonderfully beautiful,-just the place for a per-
manent home, and any of that land can be bought for from
$20 to $30 an acre. I believe every acre of this land within
ten years will be worth $1000 an acre.
There are on the Sound front ten gigantic piers, extend-
ing far out into the water, from which great ocean steamers
are leaving and arriving every hour of the day and night.
On an island between the Navy Yard and Seattle is the
largest saw mill in the world; its daily average of lumber is
over 1,000,000 feet. Dimension lumber is worth from $6 to
$8 a thousand, and absolutely clear finishing lumber, which
is rarely, if ever, seen in Iowa, is worth from $12 to $15 a
thousand.
&
I think even now Seattle is a successful rival of San
Francisco for the trade of the Orient, Southern California
and South America, and I make the prediction now, with or
without prophetic vision, that it will in the near future not
only distance San Francisco for the trade of the world, but
that it will rival New York City and that in the not remote
future that even New York City will be second in point of
trade and even in population to Seattle, the grandest city on
the Pacific slope. This may appear to be unwarranted en-
thusiasm, but the future will demonstrate that I am not
dreaming.
The scenery on Puget Sound, near Seattle, is wonder-
fully beautiful. I said to Mr. James A. Kerr this morning
(who by the way was recognized at Newton as a brilliant
young man and who has developed into a man of great in-
fluence on the Pacific coast,) "Is there any scenery more
beautiful on the way to Skagway and Sitka?". He merely
smiled and said, "Wait and see."
It is true that the parks in and about Seattle can never
have tropical beauty, which probably tends to physical and
mental weakness; but you can sit in the shade of one of the
giant trees, 44 feet 8 inches in circumference, measured 28
feet above the ground, and the tree is 350 feet high, and
grow strong mentally and physically. I do not wish to be
understood as saying that tropical beauty tends to produce
mental or physical weakness, but I do believe that the cli-
mate that produces tropical beauty does produce physical
and mental weakness.
I have a ticket for Alaska, on steamer "Cottage City,"
which takes in Douglas, Juneau, Sitka and Skagway. I
leave tomorrow night at 9 o'clock and will be absent about
eleven days.
If I were sure that I would live five years more, I think
I could not resist the temptation to make one of the beautiful
suburbs of Seattle my permanent home.
The Louis and Clark Exposition at Portland is not in-
ferior to the Worlds Fair at St. Louis. The grounds are not
so large, not so many buildings,but the situation is much more
beautiful. The government building, and all the exhibits
with several new features is in every way equal to the gov-
ernment building at St. Louis. The Oregon building is
unique and far more interesting than any building I saw at
St. Louis. The roof is supported by fifty logs four feet in
diameter standing on their ends, and the entire building is
constructed of logs varying in size from two to ten feet in
diameter. The other buildings present substantially the
architectural appearance of those at St. Louis.
The illumination of the buildings and grounds and the
lake near which all the buildings stand on the night of the
fourth of July far surpassed anything at St. Louis. The
Trail presented several points of greater interest than the
Pike. The Carnival of Venice, in point of spectacular and
scenic beauty was incomparably more beautiful than any-
thing at St. Louis. The Davenport farm in which were all
the beautiful birds of the whole world, and the Arabian
Stallion presented to General Grant by the Sultan of Turkey,
and all the cartoons made by Mr. Davenport, and the wild
fowls of the island of Borneo from which all breeds of our
domestic chickens originated, and a thousand other interest-
ing things.
I talked with two persons a distance of one hundred
and ten feet, and saw their faces as distinctly as if they were
a few feet from me. The instrument used was an ordinary
telephone with a convex lens six inches in diameter at both
ends connected with a copper wire. To me it was the great-
est wonder of the Trail. As a whole the exposition was
much more interesting to me than was the exposition at
St. Louis. In part because it may have been that I was
never roasting in a temperature of one hundred in the shade.
Yours truly,
J. R. GORRELL.
}
STEAM SHIP "COTTAGE CITY,"
Alaska, July 24, 1905.
We left Seattle at 9 o'clock on the night of July 15th,
1905, on the Screw Propeller Cottage City and returned
twelve days thereafter, having visited Kitchikan, Fort
Wrangles where the earth works of an old Russian fort yet
remains, Juneau, Douglass, the Tredwell gold mine, Skag-
way, Funter Bay, where the largest salmon cannery in the
world is now in active operation, Sitka, Taku Glacier and
several Indian villages. Unusual courtesies were several
times extended to us becanse Commodore Gillis, his wife and
daughter were members of the excursion party, for whose
company and influence we are grateful.
There are a thousand islands in Puget Sound, a thousand
to twelve hundred in the straits of Fuka between Fort Town-
send and Victoria, and there are three thousand in the
Archipelago that extends from Victoria, B. C., to Skagway,
1
Alaska, a distance of a thousand miles. The islands, the
bays, inlets and the scenery increases in beauty as we go
north, and for the last one hundred miles before we reach
Skagway it beats the world. I sat on the upper deck many
hours with a judge who lives in Chattanooga and who had
traveled over every inhabited part of the world, and who had
in the last year spent three months in Switzerland. He as-
surred me that even the famous Lake Lucerne, though won-
derfully beautiful, was not equal to the indescribable splendor
of the view at thousands of places on our route. I unhesitat-
ingly say all that I have ever seen and I do not forget
Monticello, Lookout Mountain and the Columbia river-I do
not except the Grand Canyon of the Colorado-was as tame
as a pet kitten when compared with the most ferocious lion
that ever crouched in the jungles of Africa. Not alone one
grand view, but hour after hour of scenery that is soul stir-
ring. You are awed with the grandeur and vastness of the
snow-capped peaks in the distance, and overwhelmed with
the beauty of the mountains, islands, little and big, the bays,
narrow-necked peninsulas, etc., that are often very near you
in the channel through which you are passing.
#
On the afternoon of July 19, 1905, the following combi-
nation of scenic conditions presented themselves. I shall
never forget the day nor my emotions, but I cannot put them
on paper. Some of the rare beauties of nature have to be
seen to appreciate the superiority of the works of nature over
the works of art. . In every direction there were three ranges
of mountains in sight; the first, a low range broken with
elevations and depressions presenting the appearance of nice-
ly rounded low peaks, which appeared to rise out of the
water, and all along the shore line a luxuriant growth of
vegetation, and from very near the water's edge to the top a
heavy growth of timber; and the next range farther away,
and higher, also presenting the appearance of irregularly
rounded peaks heavily covered with evergreen timber; and
the third range was far away and towered above the others
like grand Alpine peaks, everywhere covered with snow and
more majestic than the world-renowned Pike and Gray's peaks.
The steamer is rapidly moving over the glassy waters of
Stephen's bay. The bay varies in width from 10 to 20 miles.
As evening is approaching you may look in any direction,
either from the bow, stern, or the larboard or starboard side
of the ship, and you see nothing but mountains everywhere
with no visible place through which you have passed and no
opening through which the vessel could pass. We are in an
archipelago of islands varying in size, distance and ap-
pearance. We see in every direction masses of floating ice,
varying in size from small pieces to masses as large as a
brick block. The sun is nearing the western horizon, the
time is 9:40 p. m., a thin fleecy red cloud extends for sixty
degrees along the northern and western horizon and is a
degree and a half high. The cloud is broken at short inter-
vals permitting the full rays of the sun to fall upon the water.
At 10:20 the sun has disappeared behind a low range of
mountains in the west but its rays still fall upon the snow-
capped peaks in the east, and the reflected rays from the
clouds fall upon the water in bright red streaks tinted with.
yellow. The variety of tints and colors upon the bay was no
doubt due to the difference in the density of the different
parts of the cloud, and also to the reflection and refraction of
the rays as they fell upon moving masses of ice. At 10:40
the clouds floated far up toward the zenith, and just as they
disappeared, the whole northern and western heavens were
lit up with streaks of almost dazzling brightness that shot up
in cones by the thousand that extended to the zenith.
While this northern and western illumination was at its
height, which reminds me of the splendor of cannonading at
night without the report of the guns, and without the sad
1.
thought that brothers are dying, the moon, just a little past
full, rose over the mountains in the east in all its northern
splendor, its rays seemed to mingle with the bright streaks
of the northern lights, and softened them into a pale yellow
tint, except where the rays of the moon fell upon the cakes
of ice all the colors of the rainbow were plainly visible. I
wondered if all this was real or was I only dreaming.
looked at my watch; it was 11:35; I took out of my pocket a
· railroad folder and read without difficulty.
In one hour the boat landed at Douglass and before the
gang plank was put out I saw Dr. I. H. Moore and his wife.
I think they were glad to see me. The doctor took me to his
office of which he is justly proud, as there is not an office in
Des Moines better equipped. He is the leading surgeon in
Alaska, and receives a salary of a thousand dollars a month.
as surgeon of the Tredwell mining company. It was
It was one
o'clock when we left his office and he spent the remainder of
the night and up to 8 a. m. showing me the different parts
of the plant. He first took me to Glory Hole, so called for
the reason that during the past year 28 have been accident-
ally killed in the hole and 127 injured. The excavation is
sixteen hundred feet long, two hundred and seventy feet
wide and five hundred feet deep. One hundred men are
working in the hole night and day, except a half day on the
fourth of July and a half day on Christmas. There are no
consecutive twenty minutes in the day or night that the
terrific roar of explosions cannot be heard. When many
shots are fired at once, which is often done, the roar is iden-
tical with the dull thunder-like sound of the firing by volley
of a six gun battery of smooth bore guns. He next took me
down the shaft 750 feet. I was awfully afraid, but the doc-
tor almost coerced me on the ground that it would be the
sight of my life. The movement of the cage was noiseless
and, as the shaft and all tunnels leading out from the shaft
are lighted by electricity, I had absolutely no fear after the
descent commenced. At the depth of 750 feet and extending
in different directions from the mouth of the shaft, there are
six miles of excavation large enough to permit four horses
and a load of hay to pass.
A narrow track railroad goes to all parts of the mine, and
is loaded and returned to the shaft, and eight cars with a
capacity of twenty tons each are hoisted every ten minutes.
The shaft extends three hundred feet deeper to which I did
not go on account of the mud and water, where the same
excavations and machinery is in operation that is in the tun-
nel above.
All the power in the mine and in the stamp mills is fur-
nished about eleven months in the year by the water. There
are two stamp mills, one with 300 stamps, the other 240.
Each stamp has the capacity of crushing 6½ tons of ore in
twenty-four hours. The stamps are in sections of five, and
any section can be removed and repaired while the mill is in
operation. Each stamps weighs one thousand pounds and
drops ten inches every two seconds. The hum and roar is
so loud that nobody pretends to talk; all wants are made
known by signs. The ore is low grade, only two dollars and
fifty cents to the ton, but there is such wonderful precision
in all departments, and such efficiency on the part of the
management, that the mine cleared in the last year three
million and five hundred thousand dollars.
Douglas is a nice little town of about a thousand that
would die in one day if the Tredwell mine was to cease op-
erations.
Juneau just across the bay two miles from Douglas is
the best town in Alaska. It has a population of three thou-
sand with no vacant houses, and a better court house than
Newton has. It is the most picturesque town I ever saw..
The cove on which the city stands is entirely covered with
t
houses surrounded in the rear with steep mountains a mile
high and in front by the bay, so that further growth seems
impossible.
Skagway now has a population of eleven hundred and
is at the end of the bay. During the rush to Klondike it
had a population of eight thousand. More than one half of
the buildings, business and residences, are "For Rent." The
Skagway and Yukon railroad gave us an excursion to
the summit, twenty miles from Skagway. The road has a
grade of four per cent, and the scenery is much like the
Canadian Pacific. About one half the distance is covered
with snow sheds and the remainder largely of high bridges.
As the ground was covered with snow at the summit, five or
six inches deep, and as I had no rubbers or over-shoes, I did
not get out of the cars.
The distance from Skagway to White Horse on the
Yukon is one hundred and eleven miles by rail and the pass
before the railroad was built was a little longer. In one of
the summers during the Klondike excitement four hundred
men and three thousand horses died on the way from Skag-
way to the Yukon which required from two to three months
to make the trip. It is now made in six hours over the nar-
row gaugue railroad. Sitka is the city of most interest to
tourists in Alaska. It has a population of three thousand and
while it is not so picturesquely situated as Juneau, its sur-
roundings are much more beautiful. It stands on a level
plain of considerable extent at the mouth of Indian river
with a low range of mountains in the rear with a dozen or
more beautiful little islands in the bay in front of the city.
The points of most interest to me were the totem poles, Shel-
don Jackson Museum and the Russian Greek church. The
totem poles stand on a little prairie, whether natural or made
by the Indians I do not know, on the banks of the Indian
river about a mile from the city. The prairie of about twenty
rods in irregular area, is surrounded by a dense growth of
large trees. The largest totem pole is 97 feet high, and was
made out of one half of a tree seven feet in diameter, hollow-
ed out in the back, presenting the appearance of a great
trough standing on its end. There is a record on the face
or rounded side in carving and painting of many intermar-
riages between different tribes, and of the valor of different
members of the tribes. It is believed to have been erected
in about 1801, and the painting on the different figures is
just as bright as it was when put on by the Indians a hun-
dred years ago.
Sheldon Jackson's museum is built of stone; is octagonal
in shape and is one hundred feet across. In it are rarest
Indian relics. The collection is large and embraces speci-
mens of everything connected with Indian life. I had a let-
ter to Mr. Sheldon Jackson, but he was absent in Washing-
ton city, which I very much regretted, as he, more than all
others, has brought into service 6,581 reindeer that are now
being domesticated. It is believed that in this land of deep
snow the reindeer will be of as much service as is the burro
in the south and west. The Greek church is quite a beauti-
ful old structure and is a relic of an effort made by Russia
to christianize the Indians. Some of the Indian tribes in
Alaska could now materially improve Russia by sending
missionaries there.
We visited Taku Glacier yesterday. It is the most in-
teresting glacier in Alaska. It is not so large as Muir glacier,
but at this season of the year no steamer can get nearer than
eight miles from the face of Muir glacier on account of ice-
bergs floating in the bay, whereas our steamers got within
one mile of the face of Taku. We first saw floating ice thirty
miles from the glacier. Juneau and Douglas get all the ice
used by lassoing masses of ice floating in the bay and towing
them ashore. Pieces of floating ice became more frequent and
the masses larger as we approached the glacier. When with-
in four or five miles great masses hundreds of feet long and of
every conceivable shape were to be seen in every direction.
The masses whether large or small are covered with snow until
the rays of the sun change their equilibrium, and they then
roll in such a manner as to expose the solid ice underneath
the snow. Every piece of ice not covered with snow is
as blue as the sky, no matter whether the sun is shining on
it or not. So near do the different pieces represent animals.
that it requires but little use of the imagination to see an ice
steamboat, a horse or a whale. One large piece, a hundred
feet long and extending fifteen feet out of the water, was a
perfect representation of a swan, neck, head and body, and
the reflection of the sun's rays from its different parts, and
the deep blue color given by the water or sky or both, to all
parts made it a wonderfully beautiful bird. As we approach
the face of the glacier our steamer moves more slowly and
cautiously between maws larger than our ship, and as the
bow approaches the ice flow, as it is called, the masses are
in contact with each other making a continuous field of ice.
In our front at a distance that appeared to be eighty rods,
but really à mile, there appeared to stand a solid wall of ice
a thousand feet high, extending from one mountain to an-
other, a distance of four miles. Our steamer remained sub-
stantially in the same position for three hours, and during
that time hundreds of fragments fell from the wall upon the
ice near by it. Only once did a mass of sufficient magnitude
break loose to cause a loud noise and violent commotion
in the water. While our boat was standing, a life boat was
let down and eight tons of ice were taken on board. We
had been out from Seattle eight days and our ice was gone.
We have not been out of sight of land during the entire voy-
age. Only twice did we feel the swell of the ocean, once in
the gulf of Georgia and again in Queen Charlotte's Sound,
-
Only a few of the
hours. We carry
and then only for a few hours each time.
ladies were sick and then only for a few
one hundred and forty-seven first class, and twenty-seven
second class passengers. Among the number is Commodore
Gillis, retired twelve years ago. A long marine life has
neither soured nor spoiled him. He is personally acquainted
with Dewey, Sampson and Schley.
I do not believe it would be an exaggeration to say we
have seen a thousand whales, most of them in the gulf of
Georgia. We have seen two fights to death of the whale,
between a whale and a thrasher. The thrasher is one species
of the shark family, and is armed with a fin or horn on its
back thirty inches long, as strong and sharp as the horn of a
buffalo with which, in a rapid motion underneath the whale,
he disembowels his victim. The whale appears to be fifty
feet long, and the thrasher about thirty, and during the con-
flict which was fierce, fast and furious and lasted more than
fifteen minutes, the entire body of the whale was out of the
water five or six times, and that of the thrasher several times.
When the whale was last seen his body appeared to be eight
or ten feet above the water, and the thrasher just underneath
his body. There was hanging from the lower part of the
body of the whale near the middle something that the cap-
tain said were his entrails protruding through a rent made by
the horn of the thrasher in his abdomen. Our steamer passed
directly over the scene of the conflict and the sea was bloody
for a considerable distance. The thrasher did not disappear
but remained apparently looking for the whale until we were
out of sight. The other fight was in the rear of the boat and
was not so plainly seen, but the same mode of attack by the
thrasher was observed.
The resources of Alaska in minerals, fish and lumber,
when developed, will be the marvel of the world. Even now
when all its industries are merely in their infancy they
represent more than one hundred million dollars annually.
Seward had a great head when he bought it for seven
million, five hundred thousand dollars. Within the last few
days three different orders of one thousand tons each of dog
salmon have been received from Japan. The weather has been
pleasant almost every day. I have worn a light overcoat every
day when on deck, and several times I wished for a heavy one.
This has been the happiest consecutive twelve days in
my whole life, not excepting my boyhood days. The thought
of getting back to Seattle and starting for the land of 95
degrees in the shade makes me tired. A few more words
about totem poles and this infliction is ended. There is a
difference of opinion about the different figures on the totem
poles. The belief of the scholarly woman who has charge
of Sheldon Jackson's museum in his absence, is that most of
them only record deeds of valor. That when any member
of a family performed some great feat, such as killing a
white man or a bear, he is given or takes one section of the
pole, and when other members of the family perform equal or
greater feats, they also have a section of the pole and so on
until it reached a height of fifty or sixty feet, and that there
was then cut in very bold relief and brilliantly painted the
figure of whatever had been slain by the hero, that gave him
a place in the pole. In early times when the hero died, a
niche was cut in the back side of the pole, which was always
one half of a tree varying in size from two to eight feet in
diameter, large enough to receive his body standing which
was then encased with a plaster that soon hardened and was
very durable. We were shown several such specimens in
the Jackson museum. Later on, commencing about two
hundred years ago, the body of the hero was burned and the
ashes encased in the niche in a highly decorated urn in the
same manner that had been used in former times with the
body. The present mode of burial is in a coffin in the ground,
L
and all who can afford it build a neat cottage five by eight
feet over the grave, which are all painted white and decorated
with bright colors to suit the taste of the surviving relatives.
She believes that the totem pole before referred to, which is
the largest and tallest ever seen in Alaska, lacking but three
feet of being one hundred feet on which there are forty-seven
different figures cut in bold relief and all of them brilliantly
colored represent deeds of valor and of intermarriages between
two of the most powerful tribes in Alaska.
One of the most interesting sights of our entire trip was
on our return at Ketchikan forty-four hours out from Victoria.
A little river about about 8 inches to a foot deep, and per-
haps sixty to eighty feet wide, empties into the bay, fifty
rods from the little Indian village. The stream runs rapidly
and there is a fall almost perpendicular of about two feet to
which a foot bridge goes from the pier where our steamer
landed. Below the falls the river is absolutely full of fish
struggling to get over the falls. They appear to be of uni-
form size weighing about ten pounds. You see them by the
hundreds at the same time make a leap, and perhaps one in
twenty are successful and the rest tumble head over heels
backward, immediately try it again. A man with rubber
boots could walk into the water and with a pitch fork could
throw out a ton in one hour. A most disgusting circum-
stance attended with a little excitement occurred here. A
man of middle age was standing on the bank forty or fifty
feet below the falls and his appearance was that of a man
who was both brutal and vicious. He was throwing far into
the river a piece of wood to which were securely fastened
four large fish hooks to which a long slender cord was at-
tached and then slowly pulling the hooks to the shore. Some
one or all the hooks never failed to catch one or more salmon
as he pulled the hooks through the water. Some of them
when liberated, floundered back into the river, but there
were hundreds lying about his feet that were dead. He was
doing it merely for amusement. The commodore said to
him, "Don't you think it is wicked to wantonly kill fish?"
to which he replied with a fiendish kind of a grin on his face:
"Them fish aint your'n and it is none of your damned busi-
ness." The old man walked up to him with an expression
on his face that looked as if a storm was approaching, and
said, "Those fish are not mine, but it is my business and if I
had the authority I would put you in irons for such unjusti-
fiable brutality." Just then a big fellow who lived in Mo-
bile, Alabama, pushed his way through the crowd, grabbed
him by the arm and said: "I'll drown the cowardly brute if
you say so."
Mrs. Gillis, wife of the commodore, who, by
the way, impressed me as one of the nicest elderly ladies in
the whole world, but who was in no sense squeamish about
drowning a bad man. She having shared the dangers of
several naval engagements with her husband during one of
which she stood on the bridge and waved the stars and stripes
amidst the smoke and thunder of the battle until twelve were
dead on the deck, and many others wounded, and the victory
won, said with an expression of dead earnestness on her face,
"You have my permission," but he jerked loose and shot in-
to the grove as if he thought his life was in danger, and I am
not sure that it was not, if he had not escaped, for it became
apparent from the thousands of fish scattered in every direc-
tion, some of them partially rotten, that he had been guilty
of the same infamous sport for many days, the indignation
not only of the men but the ladies as well, was fast assuming
a dangerous aspect that might have developed into violence
in a moment.
Notwithstanding the fact that the government is doing
everything in its power for the Indians 'in Alaska and the
people in Alaska are also giving them, old and young, male
and female, work when possible, they are fast passing away.
·
The government has established and maintains good
-
schools and one of the teachers from Iowa told me that the
Indian children were anxious to attend, and that they were
as apt as white children. I have talked with several Indian
children who speak our language perfectly. I did not hear
any of them say "have went," "I seen," etc., as you often
hear even professional men in Newton. Why they are pass-
ing away when the present environment seems so much
better than before the white man came is a mystery to me,
and yet everybody knows that in the last twenty years the
Indian population has diminished more than fifty per cent.
Those remaining appear to be happy and contented and are
nearly all of them fat and as jolly as an Irishman, and as I
said before, they are unlike any other tribe that I have ever
seen in that almost every grown woman has children. They
are all of them in their own villages and in Juneau, Sitka,
Skagway, Ft. Wrangles and Ketchikan trying to do in every
way just as the whites are doing. A merchant in Juneau
told me that when asked what kind they wanted, they in-
variably said, "same as white man." They all, even in their
own villages, live in nice houses, some of them two stories
high. Some of them are good carpenters and build their
own houses. Many of them have bedsteads, and soine of
them mattresses. Most of them, however, use skins for bed-
ding on the floor.
In all Alaska I saw but two "tepees"
made of canvas with the old fashioned fire in the center of
the tent. They both had the appearance of poverty. They
appear to be hospitable as they always meet you with a smile
and point to something on which you can sit when you go
into their tents or houses.
•
The whole country including the north end of Van-
couver island abounds in large game. Deer, bear, elk, moose,
caribou, wolf and mountain goat are found in great numbers
all the way to Skagway.
On some of the islands near Queen Charlotte's Sound a
ferocious brown bear is occasionally killed that weighs over
a ton. I saw one skin at Fort Wrangles that was taken
from one that weighed a ton and four hundred pounds and
judging from its size I did not doubt it.
There is one island on which there are no animals ex-
cept wolves. They are said to be in so great numbers that
even if a bear swims to the island he is torn to pieces and
eaten by the ravenous and starving wolves. The experiment
of raising foxes is being tried on one of the islands with the
appearance of success. The island is three miles wide and
twenty miles long. There are now over three hundred on
the island.
Two years ago the little rabbit was brought to the is-
land as food for the foxes and they are so prolific that they
furnish ample food for the foxes, and are increasing more
rapidly than the foxes. The skin and fur industry is worth
over one hundred thousand dollars to Alaska annually.
Beaver, otter, and mink are wonderfully plenty, and if a man
wishes to risk his life in a mix up with a brown bear he can
do it any day before breakfast.
Just after we had passed out of Queen Charlotte Sound
this morning and were within two or three hundred yards of
a beautiful, heavily timbered island, three deer suddenly
emerged from the dense undergrowth almost touching the
shore line and plunged into the water and commenced to
swim in the direction of another island perhaps a fourth of a
mile away. Within three minutes a half dozen or more
large gray wolves bounded through the brush and stood on
the shore with open mouths looking in the direction of the
fast disappearing deer. Agriculture although a good deal
talked about, cannot in my opinion ever be a success.
It is true that all kinds of vegetables mature here, and
perhaps wheat and oats would, but there is no room in all
this vast country for any thing beyond a few vegetables.
There are mountains everywhere with scarcely level land
enough on which to build the towns.
I forgot to say that on our way out, we were given an
hour and a half to fish in the Gulf of Georgia.
The ship carries more than two hundred hooks and lines
200 or 300 feet long. We baited the hooks with fresh
beef, and in less than one hour we had caught over four
hundred pounds. It required less time to catch them than
to land them on deck, which had to be done with a long
pike pole with an iron hook at the end. We caught nothing
but halibut, and one of them weighed over fifty pounds. I
caught one that weighed thirty pounds.
Fire drill is practiced twice a week on the Cottage City
and is very interesting. When the alarm is given every man
rushes to his post with, as Captain Atwater would say, "im-
mense impetuosity." The Cottage City carries seven life
boats with a capacity each of twenty-five persons, and four
life rafts with a capacity each of thirteen persons, and more
than enough life preservers for all passengers, the entire crew
and the officers. The alarm was given this morning at 10:30,
and within two minutes four streams of water from hose one
inch in diameter was flying one hundred feet from the ship,
and in four minutes four of the life boats touched the water,
two of the life rafts were detached ready to be pitched over-
board, and one expert put on and properly adjusted ten life
preservers in two minutes. Not a word was spoken, every
thing was done by signal from the whistle.
Much greater precaution is taken here than on the gulf
of Mexico, for the reason that there is constant danger from
rocks that have not been discovered and charted in the nar-
row channels all the way from Victoria to Skagway.
There have been several wrecks that I never heard of
Whether an effort is made to keep them from the papers I
do not know. We passed two wrecks, both large steamers,
one on a sand bar and the other crushed on a rock-bound
shore. The wreck on the sand bar lost no lives, but all on
board the steamer wrecked on the rocks were lost. The
total wreck of one of our best war ships with the loss of all
on board occurred about ten years ago in passing Seymour
Narrows, one of the most dangerous places on the inland
passage.
The passage is believed to be three miles deep, about forty
rods wide and a thousand feet long. No vessel is safe in
attempting to pass, except at low or high tide as at all other
times a torrent rushes thirty miles an hour with swirls and
under currents in which no vessel can live. When the tide
is high or low there is no current and the surface is as smooth
as glass, and does not appear more dangerous than a duck
pond.
On our return voyage on the Gulf of Georgia, only
twelve hours out from Victoria we had an exhibition that
for terrific splendor outranked anything we had seen. It is not
an exaggeration to say that fifty whales at a time were visible
from the steamer. Look in any direction and their great
bodies could be seen partially out of the water, often spout-
ing what appeared to be water, though we were told it was
not water, twenty feet high and their forked fin tales twenty
feet out of the water as they went down head first. Just in
front of the bow of the boat, not twenty rods distant there
occurred such a violent commotion in the water that fifty
passengers at once screamed, "look there," and just at that
moment the body of a whale believed to have been eighty
feet long sprang entirely out of the water, and there was
clinging to different parts of his body five thrashers that ap-
peared to have such a hold with their teeth that the violent
motion of the whale could not disengage them. The passen-
gers generally believed the thrashers to have been from
મ
+
twenty-five to thirty-five feet long. For the next five minutes
the sea lashed with foam, so furious and violent were their
struggles. At the last sight of the whale his body went out
of the water twenty feet, and at that moment a thrasher
darted underneath his body with such velocity that the horn
tore a great hole in his abdomen from which the blood could
be seen to gush in such quantities as to make the water bloody
until we had passed beyond the battlefield. ·
Paleontology in Alaska like paleontology elsewhere is
enveloped in mystery, only more so. In nearly all the north-
ern states including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, are
found fossil remains of the mastodon, but in none, so far as I
know, in such gigantic proportions as are found in great
abundance in Alaska. In the Sheldon Jackson museum at
Sitka there is a molar tooth in a state of perfect preservation
that measures eight inches across the grinding surface and
weighs twenty-seven pounds, and other bones that are be-
lieved to have been parts of an animal that was thirty feet
high. Naturalists say they were without hair on their bodies
and lived in a torrid zone. What change in the axial or
orbital motion of the earth has occurred to have caused the
extinction of this race of monsters in a land that now freezes
one hundred feet deep? Samuel George Morton, the greatest
geologist and naturalist, says the aboriginal skull found
underneath a stump in the twelfth growth of Cypress trees
at New Orleans had lain there one hundred thousand years
and that the turbid waters of the Mississippi had laved these
magnificent forests fifty thousand years earlier, was hundreds
of thousands of years posterior to the extinction of these
huge monsters of the north.
If it be true as scientists now speculate that Nature
leaves a photographic impression upon all masses and mole-
cules of matter of their environment, in their proper order in
time that only needs the right chemical to develop the pic-
+
ture, what a mighty revelation awaits the scholar of the not
remote future, and what an immeasurable step toward the
millennium if the hand and face of the assassin and thief
were accurately photographed.
Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, has a popula-
tion of twenty-five thousand, and in many respects is interest-
ing mainly I think because it differs from anything I have
seen in the United States. It is so radically different from
Seattle less than one hundred miles away that if you do not
know better you would think they were not on the same
planet. In Victoria everybody moves as if they were afraid
they would get there too soon. In Seattle everybody acts as
if they were dead sure they would not get there in time. All
street cars go on the left side, and foot passengers on the side
walk are expected to turn to the left. I ran slap dab into an
old Englishman on the side walk with so much momentum
that the thud seemed like the bow of a steamer striking an
ice berg. He appeared a trifle embarrassed, and said, "We
always goes on the other side you know." "Yes," I said,
"I have just learned that you do." All business houses are
opened in the morning between eight and nine, and closed
at four in the afternoon. Almost every business house and
some of the banks close for a horse race or a ball game. The
residences are substantially built, but with a few exceptions
lack the architectural beauty seen in the United States. I
rode to the end of the three street car lines and only saw one
house in process of erection. There has not been an accident
on the street cars in the last year because of the care on the
part of the motorman and the further fact that any man
under ninety years old could easily get out of the way of
the cars.
The Parliament building is a magnificent structure, hav-
ing cost over two millions of dollars. I have been told by
Americans that there was not in the United States a building
as absolutely perfect from an architectural point of view. I
do not know whether that is true or not, but I do think it is
fully equal to the Capitol in Iowa.
I was deeply interested in the museum that fills one of
the great wings, that has a much more extensive collection of
ancient Indian life, including over twenty totem poles, than
is seen in the Sheldon Jackson museum at Sitka. There
are also specimens elegantly mounted of every animal and
fish in British Columbia and in Alaska. It has a fine speci-
men of a thrasher about half grown that is fourteen feet long.
It is called at the museum "The Killer Whale Shark" and
has a horn, not in any sense a fin, near the middle of its back
that measured twenty-seven inches long. It is nine inches
broad where it leaves the back and ends in a point as sharp
and as hard as the horn of a buffalo. It also has teeth nine
inches long, curved backward. It is believed to be capable
of a more rapid motion in water than any other animal or
fish, and to be a more dangerous fighter than the shark. It
is the deadly enemy of the whale, which accounts for the
frequent encounters between the thrasher and the whale.
The curator of the museum is a man over seventy-six, who
has spent the last forty years in British Columbia and in
Alaska, and can talk the language of three different tribes.
He assured me that the Indians believed they were descended
from the lower animals. Some of the tribes from a bear,
others from a wolf, and others from an eagle, and that origin"
ally all were descended from a very low order and that in
their slow evolution had passed through all the lower orders
before reaching the highest order, man. He believed that
Chas. Darwin in his voyage around the world in the Beagle,
that took two years, must have gotten some of his ideas from
the Indians in Alaska or British Columbia. Darwin, in his
origin of species, does not refer to the Indians of Alaska or
British Columbia, and while there appears to have been be-
liefs entertained by the Indians in keeping with Darwinism,
I see no reason for believing that he ever saw an Alaskan
Indian. This whole dominion is but dimly lighted, but the
late enthusiastic investigation in ethnology may soon pour a
flood of light upon the dark places that will be astounding.
There appears to be a large amount of money in Victoria, but
there are no manufactures and I think very little commercial
importance in her future because every town is in the shadow
of that great western luminary, Seattle.
One of the many banks has paid up capital of seven
millions of dollars and yet it will only be a residential town
on account of its climate. Rents are low and property very
cheap in comparison with towns in the United States
on the Pacific coast, and yet the people are contented and
happy, and I do not believe they would stretch their con-
sciences until they would crack as some in the United States
do. If England had treated us, when we were young and did
not need spanking, as well as Canada is treated we probably
would have belonged to her now, and George Washington
and the other heroes of the Revolutionary war would have
been as little known as "the rose that sheds its fragrance on
the desert air."
Who knows what might have been if there is the un-
known quantity in the equation-all the British subjects in
Victoria and in his majesty's possession all the way to Alaska
were as loyal to their country as the people of the United
States are to our country and they love their King with the
same devotion we have for Roosevelt.
A few more words about Sitka and then I solemnly
promise to quit. The climate is delightful, winter and sum-
mer. There is never a hot day. Never above seventy, and
as that part of Alaska is warmed by ocean currents from Ja-
pan, it is not cold in winter. The old Greek church of
which I spoke has a chime of six bells with as sweet tones as
I ever heard. There are several fine paintings, one especially
of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, that was pronounced
by our party, a master-piece. It was painted in Russia more
than one hundred years ago.
On the afternoon of the day we spent at Sitka we were
given a potlatch in honor of Commodore Gillis. Originally
the potlatch, which is the Indian word for gift, was a feast, a
dance, and an occasion for great benevolence to the poor, by
those who were able to afford it and had aspirations to become
chiefs. Their donations, generally of blankets, were carried
to such an extent as to impoverish the giver. Now that all
are poor the potlatch has degenerated into a dance, and what
they call a feast at which they and we had absolutely nothing
• but dried halibut and whale oil. About one o'clock canoes
began to arrive from the different islands and villages near
Sitka. The canoes were all decorated with red and white
paint and the Indians without exception had their faces paint-
ed white with red streaks, and their head, body and leg dress
was bedecked with feathers of all colors and lengths, blended
or mixed with the tails of foxes, coon and mink, flying in
every direction and from all parts of their apparel. The mag-
nificent canoe in which the chief Kishpoot Wadda sat was
over fifty feet long, and was made out of a tree that was over
seven feet in diameter. It had been cut out leaving the shell
two or three inches thick, and the ends were carved most
beautifully, the bow representing an eagle and the stern a
bear.
The entire canoe above the water line was very beau-
tifully painted in many colors. As this great craft neared
the shore with twelve pairs of oars and twenty-four stalwart
Indians whose movement of the oars was in concert, their
dress as gaudy as the imagination could picture was a mag-
nificent sight. After landing they disappeared for a half
hour, at which time one of the most gaudily dressed went
among the houses, furiously ringing a bell. Instantly they
began to appear, each one carrying a rattle which he shakes
and jerks in a most violent manner to ward off evil spirits.
Their motions, contortions, jerks and gestures continued un-
til I thought they would fall from exhaustion. Louder and
more exciting the chanting became and swifter the motion of
the dancers; with frenzied yells and hair-raising war whoops
they leaped in the air and then crouched on the ground.
Again they would spring to their feet and their motions were
more convulsive than before, and when they were hoarse and
completely exhausted, all noise ceased and they formed in a
circle around the chief, and he made a speech ten minutes
long in which he told them what a mighty people they once
had been, but the Great Spirit had sent a great flood, that
destroyed all but a few good Indians who escaped in their
canoes. He spoke in a loud clear voice, and his few gestures
were mild and graceful.
They continued to sit on the ground in a circle with the
chief in the center, and two waiters passed halibut and whale
oil, of which they all ate heartily. The halibut was in small
pieces which were dipped in the whale oil. After they had
eaten they brought to each of us a piece half as large as a
hand, and a can of whale oil, and we had to eat or show dis-
respect. We each one worried down a small piece that we
had dipped in the oil. The whale oil was not rancid and
nasty like the whale oil of commerce. They immediately
went to their canoes and the potlatch was a thing of the past.
And as the fleet noiselessly glided over the smooth waters and
disappeared in the distance, the sight was curious and fascin-
ating, and in this carnival of a passing barbarism, there was
blended with it the sad thought that the disappearance of the
fleet typified the fate of the red man in keeping with the in-
exorable law of the "survival of the fittest, or unfittest," in
the cold and often heartless struggle for existence or suprem-
acy.
f
STEAM SHIP COTTAGE CITY,
Alaska, July 24th.
My Dear Sirs:-At Funter Bay on our way to Sitka we
unloaded one hundred tons of salt to be used in twenty days.
salting dogfish salmon which are shipped to Japan and sold
there for six cents a pound. On our return from Sitka we stop-
ped again at Funter Bay and took on board the Cottage City
six thousand cases of canned salmon, each case containing 48
cans of two pounds each. We also took on board one hun-
dred and seventy-five tons of salted dogfish. The canned
goods are sold in general market, the salted fish all go to
Japan. The fishing season begins here on the middle of June
and continues until October 15. On the Columbia river the
season begins April 15 and ends August 15th.
When we arrived here 36 hours ago on our way to Sitka
there were in four barges, 36 feet long, 20 feet wide and 4
feet high, over one hundred and twenty tons of fresh salmon
at the dock that had all been caught in the last twenty-four
hours. When we arrived this morning they had all been
either canned or salted and there were four other barges of
like capacity with those referred to and in them were over
two hundred tons caught in the last 36 hours. The cannery
employs seventy-three men, all Indians except the superin-
tendent and perhaps a half dozen Chinamen.
The capacity of this cannery, one of the best in Alaska,
is fifty tons a day. An Indian village of 400 nestles in a
beautiful cove near the cannery. The Indians, men, women
and children, are fat, jolly and contented. The superinten-
dent told me that they were good and trusty workers-I saw
one little boy eight years old who worked 9 hours every day
and received ten cents an hour. The men get twenty cents
an hour.
Everything is done by machinery except unloading the
fish from the barges. That is done with a pitch fork with
པ་
one tine. The Indians stand on the fish with rubber boots
and pitch the fish into a bucket on an endless chain that
carries them up to a large platform where they are prepared
for canning. The Indians on the barges chew tobacco while
they are working and I saw one blow his nose without step-
ping to the side of the barge, but the fish are carefully washed
in two tanks before they are beheaded and gutted, and also
in two other tanks after they are gutted. The fish are of
nearly uniform size weighing 8% to 9½ pounds. The wire
netting of which the trap is made permits all less than 8½
to pass through the meshes. Those caught are supposed to
be from two to three years old. Their habits are not
thoroughly understood, but they are known to go in fresh
water to spawn when they are four years old and then die. I
referred to one boy eight years old but there are many other
boys and women working in the cannery. The men are
large and muscular with high cheek bones and strong faces
resembling the Sioux. They are the lightest colored Indians
I ever saw. Almost every grown Indian woman has a baby
in her arms, and I am informed that they are kind and lov-
ing mothers. All Indian children in Alaska take the name
of mother. Why I do not know unless it was the reason that
it is always known who their mother was.
Yours truly,
J. R. GORRELL.
I met at Billings, Montana, an editorial excursion on
their way to the Crow Agency and the Custer battle. field.
There were fifteen and they represented as many different
towns in Oregon. They were as jolly a set as ever pushed a
pen. When they learned that I sometimes wrote for publi-
cation, and that there might be no doubt of it, I told it my
self, they adopted me as one of the party, and I accepted and
enjoyed their hospitality during the remainder of the day,
The hospitality of editors from the Pacific slope means the
best there is, all you want and as often as you will take it.
They brought it with them.
We spent the day up until two o'clock at the Agency
which is situated near the center of the Crow Reservation.
There are stationed here six hundred soldiers and a battery
of six modern guns on a fort that appeared impregnable.
There are expensive residences for the officers and very com-
fortable and commodious barracks for the soldiers. There
are at this time about two thousand five hundred Crow In-
dians on the reservation, which is ninety-five miles long and
varies in width from ten to thirty miles of beautiful land on
the south of Yellowstone river. The government has ex-
pended a large amount of money in constructing irrigating
ditches. They raise a good deal of wheat and oats, and they
have many hundred head of cattle and thousands of ponies.
Teepes can be seen by the dozen in every direction from the
fort on which the guns are mounted. We were informed
that Curly, the only survivor of the Custer massacre, was em-
ployed at the Agency. The colonel in command sent for
him and he soon came in smiling. We all shook hands with
him. He is now fifty-five years old and stands six feet, four
inches in his moccasins. He and White Swan were General
Custer's trusted scouts and fought at his side until it became
apparent to Custer that all would be killed, and then he urged
both of them to seek a place of safety if possible. Curly
went to the rear and covered himself with sand and brush so
that he was not discovered. White Swan refused to leave
the great white chief, and fell supposed to have been mortally
wounded, having been shot through the hips and shoulders
soon after Custer fell. He was supposed to be dead by the
Indians but a squaw in passing over the field immediately
after the battle, mashed the side of his head and face with a
stone, that disfigured him for life and left him deaf, almost
blind and almost speechless to the day of his death, which
occurred on the 14th day of April, 1905. Reno's men found
him in an unconscious condition near General Custer's body.
He was buried at his own request on the spot where Custer
fell. He was the only Indian who ever received a pension.
Curly has been offered a pension but at present declines to ac-
cept it, on the ground that he can work and does not need it.
After a good square dinner given us by the officers of
the Agency, the carriages were ordered and at two o'clock
we were driven to the Custer Monument near the center of
the little battle field, covering less than two acres on which
two hundred and sixty-one American soldiers died. The
battle field is four miles from the Agency and a half mile
from the railroad.
Our
Curly, at the request of the president of the association,
accompanied us, and pointed out the spot where Custer stood
when he left him,-and several other points of interest.
guide knew more of the details of the battle than Curly did,
and as he pointed the spot where General Custer fell, now
the last resting place of White Swan, and how after a minie
ball had torn its way through his chest, and another had
struck his head, and told us that as his life-blood gushed
away, he took White Swan by the hand and bid him an af-
fectionate farewell and said: "White Swan, if you live, tell my
wife my last thoughts were of her; tell how I died in battle,
she knows how I lived." Our hats were removed and we
stood in silence, and tears glistened and lips trembled. Of
the two hundred and sixty-one who fell on that sad July 6th,
1876, all their bodies were mutilated except General Custer
and the reporter for the Chicago Tribune, some of them in
too fiendish and brutal a manner to be spoken of.
The victory was a costly one for the Indians as they
left dead on the field in their haste nine chiefs, hundreds of
soldiers, and in one bunch twelve squaws that were killed
by our friends the Crow Indians. Curly believes that Gener-

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
L
3 9015 01802 4151
al Custer killed six of the nine dead chiefs, which of co
was a matter of conjecture, but is not unreasonable, as it
known that all the Indian chiefs vied with each in their
fort to kill the Great White Chief, as they called Custer, a
the six were all found on the field directly in front of t
position occupied by Custer, all within one hundred yar
and one of them only twenty-seven of my own steps from t
spot on which the bold and reckless Indian fighter fell.
say reckless for the reason that he did not know when
ascended the hill from the north, on which the battle w
fought, that four thousand braves were under cover of
timber on the Yellowstone river, less than half a mile sot
of the summit of the hill on which there was absolutely no
ing to conceal himself and his men. Instantly the Indi
moved by the left flank, surrounded the entire hill four n
deep, and the work of annihilation commenced and conting
until two hundred and sixty-one, as brave men as fell at
pass of Thermopalae, hallowed the ground with their blo
When White Swan became unconscious from his wou
there remained only General Custer and five others, his
brothers, his brother-in-law and his nephew, young Reed w
had accompanied the expedition for pleasure, had been kil
and their bodies were found within a few feet of where C
ter's body lay.
In the carnival of blood and depravity that followed, ev
the squaws took fiendish delight in mutilating the bodies;
the dead. The body of young Reed was almost beyo
recognition.
Where the awful responsibility lies for the Custer m
sacre, and thousands of others of a similar or even more br
character, there is a wide difference of opinion among the
most familiar with the Indian character.
Yours truly,
J. R. GORRELL.