K^ t O f , V n )r\. CtDO Alaska ^oo&0. PICTURESQUE ALASKA. A Jourual ef a Tour among the Mountains, Seas, and Islands of the Northwest, frocn San Francisco to Sitka. By Abbv J. Woodman. With Introduction by John G. W'hittier, Illustrations and Map. i6mo, $i.oo. ALASKA. The New Eldorado. A Summer Journey to Alaska. By M aturiw M. Baliou. Crown 8vc, $1 .50L Tovrisfs Edition, with 4 maps. i6mo, $1.00. HOUGHTON. MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, BosTcN AND New York- I5allou'0 aiajsM THE NEW ELDORADO A SUMMER JOURNEY TO ALASKA BY MATURIN M. BALLOU TOURIST'S EDITION WITH MAPS ^S 1^ m^^^m ^^S^ \„aa jfUitJti^uicBmrgj BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Copyright, 1889, Bt MATURIN M. BAIXOU. All rights reserved. The Rirersiife Prei.', Cnmhridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by U. O. Houghton <& CompMiy. PREFACE. The Spaniards of old had a proverb signifying that he who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. If we would benefit by travel we must take with us an ample store of appreciative intelli- gence. Nature, like lovely womanhood, only re- veals herself to him who humbly and diligently seeks her. As Sir Richard Steele said of a certain noble lady : " To love her is a liberal education." Keen observation is as necessary to the traveler who would improve by his vocation as are wings to an albatross. The trained and appreciative eye is like the object-glass of the photographic machine, nothing is so seemingly insignificant as to escape it. Careless, half-educated persons are sent upon their travels in order, it is said, that they may *' learn." Such individuals had best first learn to travel. Those who improve the modern facilities for seeing the world acquire an inexhaustible wealth of information, and a delight- ful mental resort of which nothing can deprive iv PREFACE. them. The power of vision is thus enlarged, many occurrences "which have heretofore proved daily mysteries become clear, prejudices are anni- hilated, and the judgment broadened. Above all, let us first become familiar with the important features of our own beautiful and widespread land before we seek foreign shores, especially as we have on this continent so much of unequaled grandeur and unique phenomena to satisfy and to attract us. It seems to the undersigned that perhaps this volume will have a tendency to lead the reader to such conclusion, and certainly this is its primary object. M. M. B. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Paob Itinerary. — St. Paul. — The Northern Pacific 'Railroad. — Progress. — Luxurious Traveling;. — Hidiiijr ou a Locomo- tive. — Night Experiences. — Prairie Scenes. — Immense Grain-Fields. — The Badlands. — Climbing the Kocky Mountains. — Cinnabar. — The Yellowstone Park. — Au Accumulation of Wonders. — The Famous Hot Springs Terrace. — How Formed. — As seen by Moonlight ... I CHAPTER II. Nature in Poetic Moods. —Is there Lurking Danger? — A Sanitarium. — Tlie liberty Cnp. — The Giant's Thumb.— Singular Caves. — Falls of the Gardiner River. — In the Saddle. — Grand Caiion of the Yellowstone. — Far-Reach- ing Antiquity. — Obsidian Cliffs. — A Road of Glass. — Beaver Lake. — Animal Builders. — Aborigines of the Park. — The Sheep-Eaters. — The Shoshoaes and other Tribes 20 CHAPTER IIL Norris Geyser Basin. — Fire beneath the Surface. — A Guide's Ideas. — The Curious Paint Pot Basin. — Lower Geyser Basin. — Boiling Springs of Many Colors. — Mountain Lions at Play. — Midway Geyser Basin. — " Hell's Half Acre." — In the Midst of Wonderland. — " Old Faithful." — Other Active Geysers. — Erratic Nature of these Re- markable Fountains 34 vi tONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The Great Yellowstone Lake. — Myriads of Birds. — Solitary Beautv of the Lake. — Tlie Flora of ilie Park. —Devas- tating Fires. — Wi'd Auimals. — Grand Vokanic Centre. — Mountaiu Clinibin;: and Wonderful Views. — A Story of Discovery. — Government Exploration of the Reservation. — Governor Washburn's Expedition. — "For the Benefit of the People at Large Forever " 47 CHAPTER V. Westward Journey resumed. — Queen City of the Moun- tains — Crossing the Rockies. — Butte City, the Great Mining Centre. — Montana. — The Red Men. — About the Aborigines. — The Cowboys of the West. — A Successful Hunter. — Emigrant Teams on the Pmiries. — Immense Forests. — Puget Sound.— The Famous Stampede Tunnel. — Immigration 57 CHAPTER VI. Mount Tacoma. — Terminus of the Northern Pacific Rail- road. — Great Inland Sea. — City of Tacoma and its Mar- velous Growth. — Coal Measures. — The Modoc Indians. — Embarking for Alaska. — The Rapidly Growing City of Seattle. — Tacoma with its Fifteen Glaciers — Something about Port Towusend. — A Chance for Members of Alpine Clubs 73 CHAPTER VIL Victoria, Vancouver's Island. — Esquimalt. — Chinamen.— Remarkable Flora. — Suburbs of the Town. — Native Tribes. — Cossacks of the Sea. — Manners and Customs. — Tiie Early Discoverer. — Sailing in the Inland Sea. — Ex- cur. --ion ists. — Mount St. Elias. — Mount Fairweather. — A Mount Olympus. — Seymour Narrows. — Night on the Waters. — A Touch of the Pacific 84 CONTENTS. TU CHAPTER VIII. Steamship Corona and hei- Passengers. — The New Eldo- railo. — Tlie Greed for Gold. — Alaska the Synonym of Glacier Fields. — Vegetation of the Islands. — Aleutian Inlands. — Attoo our most Westerly Possession. — Native Whalers. — Life on the Island of Attoo. — Unalaska. — Kodiak, former Capifal of Russian America. — The Greek Church. — Whence the Natives originally came .... 109 CHAPTER IX. Cook's Inlet. — Manufacture of Quass. — Native Piety. — Mummies. — The North Coast. — Geographical Position. — Shallowness of Bchring Sea. — Alaskan Peninsula. — Size of Alaska. —A "Terra Incognita." — Reasons why Russia sold it to our Government. — The Price compara- tively Nothing. — Rental of the Seal Islands. — Mr. Sew- ard's Purchase turns out to be a Bonanza 127 CHAPTER X. Territorial Acquisitions. — Population of Alaska. — Steady Commercial Growth. — Primeval Forests. — The Country teems with Animal Life. — A Mighty Reserve of Codfish. — Native Food. — Fur-Bearing Animals. — Islands of St. George and St. Paul. — Interesting Hahits of the Fur- Seal. — The Breeding Sea.son. — Their Natural Food. — Mammoth Size of the Bull Seals 143 CHAPTER XI. Enormous Slaughter of Seals. — Manner of Killing. — Bat- tles between the Bulls. — A Mythical Island. — The Seal as Food. — The Sea-Otter. — A Rare and Valuable Fur. — The Baby Sea-Otter. — Great Breeding-Phice of Birds.— Banks of the Yukon River. — Fur-Bearing Land Animals. Aggregate Value of the Trade. — Character of the Native Race 159 yiii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Climate of Alaska. — Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle. — Winter and Summer Sejisons. — Tiie Jajianese Current. — Temperature in the Inierior. — The Eskimos. — Their Customs. — Their Homes. — These Arctic Regions once Tropical. — The Missis-ip|ii of Alaska. — Placer Mines. — The Natives. — Strong lucliuatioo for Intoxicants . . .173 CHAPTER XIII. Sailing Northward. — Chinese Labor. — Unexplored Islands. — Tlie Alexander Archipelago. — Rich Viigiu Soil. — Fish Canning. — Myriads of Salmon. — Naiivc Villages. — Reckless Habits. — Awkward Fashions and their Origin. — Tattooing Young Girls. — Peculiar Effect of Inland Pas- sages. — Mountain Echoes. — Moonlight and Midnight on the Sea 186 CHAPTER XIV. The Alaskan's Habit of Gambling. — Extraordinary Domes- tic Carvings — Silver Bracelets — Prevailing Supersti- tions. — Di.sposal of the Dead. — The Native " Potlatch." — Cannibalism. — Ambitions of Preferment. — Himmn Sacrifices. — The Tribes slowly decreasing in Numbers. — Influence of the Women. — Wiichiraft. — Fetich Worship. — The Native Canoes. — Eskimo Skin Boats 199 CHAPTER XV. Still sailing Northward. — Multitudes of Water-Fowls. — Native Graveyards — Curious Totem-Poles. — Trilial and Family Kmblems — Division of the Tribes. — W^hence the Race came. — A Clew to their Origin. — The Northern Eskimos. — A Remarkable Museum of Aleutian Antiquitie.<«. — Jade Mountain. — The Art of Carving. — Long Days. — Aborigines of the Yukon Valley. — Their Customs 212 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVI. Fort Wrangel. — Plenty of Wild Game. — Natives do not care for Soldier.'?, but have a Wiiolesoine Fear of Guuboats. Mode of Trading. — Girls' School and Home. — A Deadly Tragedy. — Native Jewelry and Carving. — No Totem-Poles for Sale. —Missionary Enterprises. — Prog- ress in Educating Natives. — Various Denominations en- gaged in the Missionary Work • • 222 CHAPTER XVII. Schools in Alaska. — Natives Ambitious to learn. — Wild Flowers. — N.itive Grasses. — Bo:it Racing. — Avaricious Natives. — The Candle Fish. — Gold Mines Inland. — Chinese Gold Diggers. — A Ledge of Garnets.— Belief in Omens. — More Schools required. — The Pestiferous Mos- quito. — Mosquitoes and Bears. — Alaskan Fjords. — The Patterson Glacier 231 CHAPTER XVin. Norwegian Scenery. — Lonely Navigation. — The Marvels of Takou Inlet. — Hundreds of Icebergs. — Home of the Frost King. — More Gold Deposits. — Snow.storm among the Peaks. — Juneau the Metropolis of Alaska. — Ank and Takou Indians. — Manners and Customs. — Spartan Hab- its. — Disposal of Widows. — Duels. — Sacrificing Slaves. — Hideous Customs still prevail 246 CHAPTER XIX. Aboriginal Dwellings. — Mastodons in Alaska. — Few Old People alive. — Abundance of Rain. — The Wonderful Treadwell Gold Mine. — Largest Quartz Crushing Mill in the World. — Inexhaustible Riches. — Other Gold Mines. — The Great Davidson Glacier. — Pyramid Harbor. — Native Frauds. — The Chilcats. — Mammoth Bear. — Sal- mon Canneries 258 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. Glacier Bay. — More Ice Bays. — Majestic Front of the Muir Glacier. — The Boinbarclment of the Ghicier. — One of the Grandest Sights in tlie World. — A Moving River of Ice. — The Natives. — Abundance of Fish. — Native Cooking. — Wild Bellies. — Hoouiah Tribe. — Copper Mines. — An Iron Mouutaiu. — Coal Mines 275 CHAPTER XXI. Sailing Southward. — Sitka, Capital of Alaska. — Transfer of the Territory from Russia to America. — Site of the City. — The Old Castle. — Ru>siau Habiis — A Haunted Chamber. — Russian Elegance and Hospitality. — The Uld Greek Church. — Rainfall at Sitka. — The Japanese Cur- rent. — Abundance of Food. — Plenty of Vegetables. — A Fine Harbor 293 CHAPTER XXn. Contr.nst between Ameiicnn and Rn.^sian Sitka. — A Prac- tical Missionary. — Tlie Sitka Industrial School. — Gold Mines on tlie Island. — Environs of the Town. — Future Prosperity of tiie Country. — Hot Sprinjrs. — Native Re- ligious Ideas. — A Natural Taste for Music. — A Native Brass Band. — Final View of the Capital 304 CHAPTER XXIII. The Return Voyage. — Prince of Wales Island. — Peculiar Effects. — Mand and Ocean Voyages contrasted. — Laby- rinth of Verdant Islands. — Flora of the North. — Political Condition of Alaska. — Return to Victoria. — What Cloth- ing to wear on the Journey North. — City of Vancouver. — Scenes in British Columbia. — Through the Mountain Ranges 321 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XXIV. In the Heart of the Kocky Mountains. — Struggle in a Thun- der-Storm. — Grand Scenery. — Snow-Capped Mountains and Glaciers. — Banff Hot Springs. — The Canadian Park. — Eastern Gate of the llockies. — Calgary. — Natural Gas. — Cree and Blackfect Indians. — Regina. — Farming on a Big Scale. — Port Arthur. — North Side of Lake Superior. — A Midsummer Night's Dream 338 EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. When the author of " The New Eldorado " wrote the pages which form the body of this volume, he had no thought of producing a guide-book, but wished simply to describe the details of an extremely interesting and in- structive journey from Boston to Sitka and back. Many intelligent travelers have, however, used the volume as a guide-book, and the author has been in receipt of many requests for specific information regarding the means and mode of making a similar journey. To meet these inquiries, and render the volume more serviceable as a companion to those who desire to visit Alaska, an itiner- ary of the usual route followed by excursionists is here- with prefixed to the original volume, and the whole is issued in its present cheap and handy form. Preparation fob the Journey. Dress and Luggage. — On pp. 329, 330, of this vol- ume, the reader will find such slight suggestion regard- ing equipment as he may need. The traveler who does not propose to play the role of an Arctic explorer will find himself from beginning to end of his joui'ney under much the same conditions as in traveling anywhere on the Pacific coast. Every one will consult his own taste in such matters as fieldglasses and photographic appa- ratus, but the journey gives frequent opportunities for getting interesting long-range views, and for catching xiv EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. and preserving characteristic landscape effects. Good photographs of Alaskan scenes can, however, be pro- cured in our large cities as well as at Sitka and other points. Routes. — There are various ways of reaching Victo- ria, Vancouver Island, at which point the following itin- erary commences, depending, of course, upon the points from which the traveler starts. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company runs three steamers to and from Alaska during the excursion sea- son, which is from May to September, inclusive. The best months for profitable enjoyment of the trip are June, July, and August. These steamers sail fort- nightly from their starting - points, and are large, con- structed of iron, and fitted with every requisite, besides many luxuries. Two of the steamers, namely, the George W. Elder and the City of Topeka, start from Portland, Ore. ; the third, known as the Queen, makes Tacoma, on Puget Sound, her starting-point. All of these vessels call at Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend, and Victoria. Canadian passengers can take them at Port Townsend or Victoria. Northern Pacific passen- gers can take them at Tacoma. Cofit of Excursion. — The Pacific Steamship Com- pany advertise the following terms for excursion tickets from San Francisco. PRICE OF EXCURSION TICKETS TO ALASKA AND RETURN, Including a Berth and Meals on Ocean Steamers. From San Francisco, via Victoria and Port Townsend, returning same way $130.00 From San Francisco, via Victoria, returning via Tacoma, Portland, and Columbia River 140.00 EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. XV Prom San Francisco, via Portland and Tacoma, returning via Victoria and Strait of Fuca $140.00 From Portland, Ore., via Astoria, returning same way . 109.00 From Portland, Ore., via Tacoma and Port Townsend . . 109.00 From Tacoma 100.00 From Seattle 98.00 From Port Townsend 95.00 From Victoria, B. C 95.00 TICKETS (not RETUKN), as FOLLOWS: — San Francisco to Juneau or Sitka $7000 San Francisco to Wrangel 50.00 Portland to Juneau or Sitka 60.00 Portland to Wrangel 40.00 Tacoma to Wrangel 33.00 Tacoma to Juneau or Sitka . 53.00 Seattle to Wrangel 32.50 Seattle to Juneau or Sitka 52.50 Victoria or Townsend to Juneau or Sitka 5000 Victoria or Townsend to Wrangel 30.00 The company also provides for steerage passengers at about half rates. The Raymond Excursion Company of Boston organ- izes personally conducted parties during the summer months from that city and return, including a week in the Yellowstone Park, all expenses and hotel bills paid, for $500 (five hundred dollars), which, for a journey of nearly eight thousand miles and occupying fifty days, is a moderate price. These excursions can be joined at any intermediate point with corresponding reduction in price. Time required. — The passage from Victoria through the Inland Sea of Alaska and return occupies twelve days, during which the traveler lives upon the steamer, but will find time to land at several important places, and to make brief excursions on shore. xvi EXCURSIONS TO ALASKA. Itixerart. Aloxg the Coast of Vancouver Island. — Van- couver stretches along the coast of British Cohimbia two hundred miles in a northwesterly direction, and pursuing the usual course of excursionists from Victoria, we turn northward through Haro Strait. To the eastward is the Island of San Juan, once a source of contention between this government and Great Britain, as regarded the boundary line between the two countries. The question was settled in our favor by the late Emperor William of Germany, who was mutually chosen by the two coun- tries as arbitrator. The prospect from the steamer's deck is here very fine. Mount Baker, the Olynipian range south of Vic- toria, with hundreds of other ])eaks on the islands and mainland, all come within the view. From Haro Strait we enter Active Pass, and thence the broad waters of the Strait of Georgia, skirting the islands of Galiano, Valdes, and Gabriola. Strait of Georgia. — We continue on through the Strait of Georgia, which nariows when the islands of Texada and Lasqueti are reached. The view of the mountains on the mainland at this point is very grand, long lines of irregular snowy peaks presenting them- selves to the eye in fantastic forms. A series of fiords are passed which penetrate the land for a hundred miles more or less, known successively as How Sound, Jervis Inlet, Desolation Sound, Seymour and Belize Inlets. Great Elevations. — About Jervis and Bute Inlets are peaks eight and nine thousand feet in height. A group of slim, needle-like spires near the latter, over eight thousand feet in height, are particularly noticeable. I,.-^^ OutCN CHARLOTTr c„ ! /^^ tain John Codman, " that it might answer for a great skating park; but now I know, from merely coasting along its southeastern shores and landing at a few of its outposts, that the seven million two hundred thousand dollars paid for it is less than the interest of the sura that it is worth. A great part of it is yet unexplored, for its whole area is three times greater than the republic of France; but what has been discovered is invalua- ble, and what has not been discovered may be valuable beyond calculation." So little did we, as a people, appreciate the new acquisition that it was almost entirely neglected for seventeen years. Not until 1884 was it granted a territorial government, Hon. John H. Kinkead, ex-governor of Nevada, being the first 142 THE NEW ELDORADO. governor appointed for Alaska. " Twenty years ago," says Governor Swineford of Alaska, " I made political capital out of Seward's purchase. I called it the refrigerator of the United States. I heaped obloquy on William H. Seward. I shall spend the rest of my life in making reparation to what I have so foully wronged." Such has been the general testimony of all who speak from personal observation, and uninfluenced by sinister motives. CHAPTER X. Territorial Acquisitions. — Population of Alaska. — Steady Com- mercial Growth. — Primeval Forests. — The Country teems with Animal Life. — A Mighty Reserve of Codfi.-h. — Native Food. — Fur-Bearing Animals. — Islands of St. George and St. Paul. — Interesting Habits of the Fur-Seal. — The Breed- ing Season. — Their Natural Food. — Mammoth Size of tlie Bull Seals. The subject of the addition of Alaska to the United States suggests the fact that our territo- rial acquisitions from time to time form certain decided and interesting landmarks in the history of the country. Thus, in 1803 Ave acquired Lou- isiana from France by the payment of fifteen mil- lion dollars. In 1845 Texas was annexed and her debt assumed, amounting to the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars. In 1848 California, New Mexico, and Utah were acquired from Mexico, partly through war, and by the pajnnent of fifteen million dollars. In 1854 Ai'i- zona was purchased from Mexico for ten million dollars. And last, but hj no means least, Alaska, as has been stated, was obtained from Russia in 1867 for seven million two hundred thousand dol- lars. "By this purchase," said Charles Sumner in his able speech before Congress, "we dismiss one more monarch from this continent. One by one they have retired ; first France ; then Spain ; 144 THE NEW ELDORADO. then France again ; and now Russia; all give way to the absorbing Unity which is declared in the national motto, E Plurihus U7ium" At the time of the transfer of Alaska, the native population, Russians, half-breeds and all, did not piobably exceed forty thousand ; indeed, careful inquiry seems to indicate that tiiis is an overesti- mate. Since that period the native population has steadily decreased, but the white population has increased, it is believed, sufficiently to make good the estimated aggregate of twenty-two years ago. In 1867 the commerce of Alaska was offi- cially reported as being two million five hundred thousand dollars for the current year. The pub- lished estimate for the last year made it a fraction less than seven million dollars, of which about a million five hundred thousand dollars was in gold bullion. Certainly this shows a very steady if not rapid commercial growth. Competent indi- viduals estimate that the commerce of the Terri- tory for the year 1889 will reach ten million dol- lars in amount. The increase in the number of fish-canning establishments alone will add two millions to last year's aggregate. The shipment of preserved salmon exported in tins and barrels is increasing annually. The available timber now standing in the Ter- ritory might alone meet the ordinary demand of this continent for half a century. Though the extreme northern part of Alaska is treeless, its southern shores, both of the islands and mainland, are covered with a dense forest growth, the Aleu- FORESTS. 145 tian group excepted. It is the visible wealth of the country, and a source of admiration to all ap- preciative visitors. Fort Tongas is very near the southeast point of Alaska, and about ten miles north of Fort Simp- son ; the former American, the latter English territory. When the ground was cleared to estab- lish the American fort, " yellow (;edar-trees," says W. H. Dall, " eight feet in diameter were cut down. The flanks of all the islands of this archi- pelago bear a magnificent growth of the finest timber, from the water's edge to fifteen hundred feet above the sea." It must be a cedar of mag- nificent proportions out of which the natives can hew and construct a canoe seventy feet long capa- ble of carrying one hundred men. This the Haidas do, producing models both swift and seaworthy, the prows extending in a peak not unlike the ancient galleys of Greece, decorated with totemic designs. These magnificent forests, having never felt the stroke of the axe, present a growth natu- rally very dense and peculiar, the branches of the tall trees being often draped with long black and white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resem- bles. This characteristic recalled the same effect observed upon the thickly wooded shores of the St. John River in Florida, and the Lake Pontchar- train district of Louisiana. The fallen trees and .stumps are cushioned by a growth of green, vel- vety moss, nearly ten inches in thickness, and are also decked with creeping vines in the most pic- turesque manner ; among which is seen here and 146 THE NEW ELDORADO. there deep red clusters of the bunch-berry. The timber is pronounced by good judges to be as val- uable as that of Oregon and Washington, com- pared with which our forests in Maine are hardly more than tall undergrowth. A very large per- centage of the Alaska timber grows at the most convenient points for shipment, making it espe- cially available. The white spruce, called the Sitka pine, rises to a height of from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and eighty feet, and meas- ures from three to six feet in diameter. When this growth is cut into dimension lumber it very much resembles our southern pitch-pine. There is also found in these forests the usual variety of cedar, fir, ash, maple, and birch trees, mingled with the others of loftier growth. The yellow cedar of this region grows nowhere else of such size and quality. It is much prized, and best ad;i|)ted for shipbuilding, having been found to be unequaled for duiability, and also because it is impervious to the troublesome teredo, or boring worm, which destroys the ordinary piles under the wharves at Puget Sound, as well as at Sitka, so rapidly as to render it necessary to renew them every three or four years. Southern latitudes, in the neighbor- hood of the Gulf of Mexico, suffer equally from the depredations of this active marine pest. The Alaska cedar is also a choice cabinet wood, pos- sessing a very agreeable odpr, considerable quanti- ties of it being shipped for select use in San Fran- cisco and els(i where. The coast of the Alexan- der Archipelago comprises nearly eight thousand AN INEXHAUSTIBLE LUMBER SUPPLY. 147 miles of shore line, forming long straight avenues of calm deep water many miles in lengtli, sprin- kled with islands densely wooded from the water's edge, while the number of good harbors is almost countless, in which vessels may lay alongside the land and i-eceive their cargoes of timber or lumber in the most convenient manner. When the woods of Maine and Michigan cease to yield satisfactorily, as they must do by and by, we have here a ready source of suppl}"^ which no ordinary demand can exhaust in many years. One enthusiastic writer upon this subject predicts that this part of the North Pacific coast will eventually become the ship-yard of the American continent. One is hardly prepared to indorse so sweeping a prediction, but that there is a Jiearly inexhausti- ble supply of the necessary timber for such a pur- pose even an inexperienced visitor cannot fail to realize. It is gratifying to know that these forests are free from all danger by fire, which often proves so destructive in the State of Washington and elsewhere. This immunity from a much dreaded exigency is owing to the frequent rains, which keep the undergrowth in Alaska so moist that the flames cannot spread. Speaking of Fort Tongas, we should not forget to mention that a native couple, educated by the missionaries, are here teaching a school of young natives numbering fifty pupils, for which our gov- ernment pays them five hundred dollars per an- num. The success attained by these instructors in teaching the ordinaiy branches of an English 148 THE NEW ELDORADO. education is surprising. Tongas, it will be remem- bered, is the most southerly point of our Alaska possessions. The country teems with animal life. The sea which laves it?^ shores and the outlying islands is so full of excellent fish as to have been a wonder in this respect since the days of the earliest navi- gators. The same may be said of its rivers, inlets, and lakes, the former being famous for the abun- dance, size, and excellence of the salmon which they produce, and which are annually packed for exportation in such large quantities to various parts of the world. We were told by the over- seer of the canning factory at Pyramid Harbor that the entire product of the establishment was already — the season but just commencing — en- gaged by a Liverpool house. To secure the deliv- ery the foreign merchant had cheerfully advanced five hundred jiounds sterling. "The Alaska banks would be an ocean paradise to the Newfoundland fishermen," says Professor Davidson. " The eastern part of Behring Sea 'is a mighty reserve of cod,' and the area within the limits of fifty fathoms of water is no less than eighteen thousand miles." " What I have seen," said W. H. Seward at Sitka, in 18G9, "has almost made me a convert to the theory of some natural- ists, that the waters of the globe are filled with stores for the sustenance of animal life surpassing the available productions of the land." The coast also abounds in oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs. The oysters are small, but of excellent flavor, and FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 149 might be greatly improved by cultivation. Clams and mussels are much esteemed by the aborigines, the first-named being large and of prime quality. They dry the clams, as they do salmon and cod, using no salt in the process, but stringing them by the score on long blades of strong grass, and in this shape laying them away for winter use. There is certainly some special preservative qual- ity in the atmosphere here which enables the natives to keep clams unfrozen in good condition for several months. The matter of " ripeness," however, makes no difference to these Indians, who seem actually to prefer their fish a little putrid, and oil is purposely kept until it becomes so before they will use it. The hills and valleys of the islands and the mainland support more fur-bearing animals than can be found on any other part of this continent, and we certainly believe of any other part of the world. The great variety includes bears of several species, wolves, beavers, deer, foxes, caribou, mar- tens, mountain goats, moose, musk-oxen, and others. Herds of walruses are found on the far north coast, as well as in Behring Sea, which yield food to the natives, and the best of ivory for sale to the traders. It is a curious fact that no reptile, toad, lizard, or similar animal is to be found in Alaskan territory. The waters of the North Pacific, from the most westerly of the Aleu- tian Islands up to Behring Strait, swarm with cod, haddock, sturgeon, large flounders, and hali- but, while our hardy whalemen successfully pursue loO THE NEW ELDORADO. their mammoth game both north and south of the strait. When the country was first discovered, thei*e was another important animal found here in con.siderahle" numbers, known as the sea-cow, which furnished Vancouver and his crew with wholesome and palatable meat, and which had formed a source of food supply for the aborigines probably for centuries. But this large, amphib- ious animal, thirty feet long and seal-like in shape, has now entirely disappeared. This was owing to merciless slaughter by the Russians, who found the sea-i ovv an easy prey to capture, because of its inactivity and clumsiness in the water, besides which, the creature is said to have been utterly fearless of man, making no effort to escape when attacked. They are represented to have been fierce when attacked by the wolves, and to have been fully able to defend themselves. Two islands lying to the north of the Aleutian group form a favorite resort of the fur-seal, which so abounds in this region that nearly a century of active war waged upon them by the hunters, for the sake of their valuable skins, has produced no perceptible diminution in their numbers, riiis is partly owing, however, to the fact that of Lite years the killing has been restricted as to the aggregate annual number, and also as to the sex and age of the seals. The pelts sent from Alaska have not fallen short of a hundred thousand annu- ally for the last twenty years, and it is believed by those who should be able to judge correctly that this number has been very much exceeded. THE SEAL ISLANDS. 151 There is hardly an uninterested person in the Territory who will not express this opinion. The two islands referred to in Behring Sea, namely, St. Paul and St. George, together with two smaller and unimportant ones named respec- tively Otter Island, which is situated six miles south of St. Paul, and Walrus Island, about the same distance to the eastward, are known as the Prybiloff group. St. Paul is thirteen miles long by four broad ; St. George is ten miles long and between four and five broad. Neither of them have any harbor in which vessels can safely lie, but they anchor half a mile or more off shore, and freight is taken or delivered by means of light- ers. So violent is the surf at times on these islands in mid-ocean that if the wind is unfavor- able no attempt at landing is made. Otter Isl- and is peculiar in being nothing more nor less than an extinct volcano, with a still gaping, threat- ening crater, and an elevation of three hundred feet above the surrounding sea. Its only occu- pants consist of water-fowl and blue foxes, both as plentiful as peas in a pod. The animals were introduced long ago for breeding purposes, and have greatly increased. These are the " seal islands " so often spoken of, and which furnish four fifths of all the sealskins used in the markets of the world. This sounds like an extravagant estimate, but it is believed to be quite correct. The islands are of volcanic origin, having been thrown up from the bottom of the sea in compara- tively modern times. When one speaks of geolog- i:>2 THE NEW ELDORADO. ical fdcts, one or two tlionsand years are considered very brief periods. At the time of their discovery, St. George and St. Paul were uninhabited, but native Aleuts, the nearest of wliom lived about two hundred miles south of these islands, were brought hither and domesticated, to work for the Russian Fur Company. Since the transfer to our govern- ment these people have worked uninterruptedly for the Alaska Commercial Company, which lias, in addition to the headquarters of the seal-fishery, some forty trading stations in the Territory. We speak of the " seal-fisheries," but there is in reality no fishing about the business. The seals are all taken on land. The employees of the company get between the seals and the water and drive suc-h as are selected inland like a flock of sheep. They move slowly, pulling themselves along by their fore flippers, as a dog might do with his hind legs broken, but they get over the ground at the rate of one or two miles in the hour, and are driven the latter distance to the warehouse before the killing takes place. It is cuiious that these two islands onlj^ with a few small spots in the North Pacific, should pos- sess the peculiar conditions of landing-ground and climate combined which are necessary for the per- fect life and leproduction of the fur-seal. H. W. Elliott, who acted as United States government agent for four seasons at the seal islands, and who is good authority upon this special subject, says : " With tlie exception of these seal islands of Behring Sea, there are none elsewhere in the OTHER SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 153 world of the slightest importance to-day. When, therefore, we note tlie eiigeiness with which ouv civilization calls for sealskin fur, in s]3ite of fashion and its caprices, and the fact that it is and always will be an article of intrinsic value and in de- mand, it at once occurs to us that the government is exceedingly fortunate in having this great am- phibious stock-yard, far up and away in this seclu- sion of Behring Sea, from which it can draw continuous revenue, and on which its wise regu- lations and its firm hand can continue the seals forever." This writer's remarks should be qualified, how- ever, so far as to state that the Russians possess some profitable " rookeries " situated on the Com- mander Islands, seven hundred miles to the south- west of the Prybiloff group, where the same policy of protection for breeding purposes is enforced as govern the traffic on our own islands. It is true that the product of the Russian islands is as noth- ing compared with that of St. Paul and St. George. A small number of fur-seal are also secured on the coast of Brazil, and at the Shetland and Falkland Islands, giving perhaps twenty thousand pehs an- nually from other sources than those named in Alaska. It is our own opinion that at least forty thousand pelts are sent to market by unauthor- ized people from the islands and coast of Alaska, which number should be added to the hundred thousand which the regular company aie entitled to export, in getting at the aggregate produced by the Territory. 154 THE NEW ELDORADO. The two seal islands leased to the Alaska Com* mercial Company are about thirty miles apart, and are seemingly among the most insignificant landmarks known in the ocean. It is only on very modern m;ips that they are designated at all, but they afford to the seals the happiest isolation and shelter, their position being such as to envelop them in fog banks nine days out of ten during the entire season of resort. Neither the seals nor the natives can long bear the glare of the sum- mer sun, and so find no fault with this prevailing screen between them and the sky. There are no icebergs, properly so called, in these waters. Behring Strait is too shallow for anything but light field ice to pass into the North Pacific or Behring Sea ; there is therefore no fear of visits from the pol ir bears often seen floating about in the frozen sea at the north. They would make sad havoc among the seals were they to get so far south, and drive them away altogether. Ice floats off from the immediate shores in the spring, but encountering the thermal current, this soon dis- solves, and is no impediment to navigation. It is marvelous that the natives dwelling on the group do not die of the poisoned atmosphere arising from the thousands upon thousands of seal car- casses annually slaughtered, and which are left to decay upon the ground. The stench thus created is so powerful that vessels sailing to leeward, three or four miles off shore, are permeated by it, and though their captains may not have been able to get a solar observation for many days, they can HABITS OF THE SEAL. 155 easily tell their exact latitude and longitude by " dead reckoning." Naval surgeons have been detached by government to visit and examine the physical condition of the people on St. George and St. Paul, touching this very matter, and they have reported that the natives enjoyed good health, the mortality among them being at a very low average compared with that of other semi-civ- ilized communities favorably situated. There is a church and school-house on each of the islands, •with white teachers, and also a skilled physician, who is paid for his services by the Commercial Company. The fur-seal traffic has heretofore exceeded all other regular business in value conducted in this Territory, though the product of the precious metals will in future probably take the lead, hard pressed by the rajDidly growing development of the fisheries. The habits of the seal are interest- ing and very peculiar. It is a social animal, and evinces a degree of intelligence nearly approach- ing that of the dog. Occasionally a young one is found domesticated among the natives of the more populous islands, and when thus brought up among human beings they become very tractable, and are easily taught many amusing tricks. They move in herds, coming to the breeding grounds in large numbers, and at regular periods of the year, that is in the latter part of May and early in June. The contrast between the male and female seal is great, the former being large, bold, and ag- gressive, the latter small, peaceful, and quiet ; both 156 THE NEW ELDORADO. are m'id.*ls of grace and symmetry after their kind. Wliile the males are specimens of great physical strength, the females are delicate, timid, and afTectionafe. The young are born blind and so remain for a couple of weeks, or more. When they are about six weeks old the mother takes them into the water to teach them to swim. They are very shy of the sea at first, but persist- ent effort on the mother's part soon makes them expert swimmers, and rapidly develops that side of their nature. Daring the breeding season the old males remain on shore, fasting all the while, and growing extremely thin, living by absorption of the blubber which they accumulate while at sea, so that upon retiring at the end of the season they are but a mere shadow of their former selves. They return again the next season, however, as plethoric as ever. "All the bulls," says Mr. Elliott, "from the very first, that have been able to hold their posi- tions, have not left them from the moment of their landing, for a single instant, night or day ; nor will they do so until the end of the rutting season, which subsides entirely between August 1st and 10th. It begins shortly after the coming of the cows in early June. Of necessity, there- fore, this causes them to fast, to abstain entirely from food of any kind, or water, for three months at least ; and a few of them actually stay out four months, in total abstinence, before going back into the ocean for the first time after ' hauling up.' They then return as so many bony shadows ON THE BREEDING GROUNDS. 157 of what they were a few months previously, cov- ered with wounds ; abject and spiritless, they labo- riously crawl back to the sea to obtain a fresh lease of lifeV' The natural food of the seal is believed to be small fishes and kelp, that prolific product of the ocean which is found floating in nearly all lati- tudes, being torn from its rocky bed by storms and cai-ried everywhere on the tides and currents. The females seldom give birth to more than one at a time, and though they are naturally a very do- cile animal, the mother will fight savagely for her young. The old males weigh from two to three hundred pounds each, when they first land, soon gathering a harem about them of a dozen females or more, and permitting no other bull to approach the circle. There are occasional elopements among the females, enticed away by young bachelor seals, who have no family ties to occupy them, but as a rule the females remain loyal, at least during the season. The full grown male reaches seven feet in length, and the female about five feet; the latter averages about a hundred pounds in weight, the former weio-h twice as much and often more. Natui'e seems to produce a much larger number of females than of males, besides which the law protects the female from the hunter. The killing of these animals on St. Paul and St. George is nearly all done in six weeks of each year, say from the 10th of June to the 20th of July. As regards the fur, a seal at four years of age is thought to yield the best, and is therefore con- 158 THE NEW ELDORADO. sidered to be at that time in bis prime. It is tbe males of tbis age, accordingly, wbich are selected for slaugbter. So numerous ai'e these animals that the shore is often black with them, three or four thousand being in sight within the space of a hundred square rods. The pups are full of play- fulness, rolling and tumbling about like a litter of kittens. The rule not to kill the old bulls and female young is a necessary precaution to prevent the extermination of the race, which indiscrimi- nate slaughter has probably done in so many other places. CHAPTER XL Enormous Slaughter of Seals. — Manner of Killing. — Battles between the Bulls. — A Mythical Island. — The Seal as Food. — The Sea-Otter. — A Rare and Valuable Fur. — The Baby Sea-Otter. — Great Breeding-Place of Birds. — Banks of the Yukon River. — Fur -Bearing Land Animals. — Aggregate Value of the Trade. — Character of the Native Race. Surgeon J. B. Parker tells us in a published article upon the fur-seals of Alaska, that just previous to the transfer of the country to this government five hundred thousand sealskins were being taken from these islands annually, though it was pretended by the Russians that they restricted the number to one quarter of this total. The strange instinct of the animals which causes them to return yearly in such marvelous numbers to be slaughtered is a mystery difficult to solve. Per- sistent cruelty exercised towards them for a cen- tury has not disturbed their affection for this chosen breeding-place of their ancestors in Behr- ing Sea. The seals are universally killed by a sharp blow upon the head from a club, which fractures the skull and produces instant death. The natives are so skillful in dealing this blow that a second one is not necessary, and the seal cannot reason- ably be supposed to suffer any pain, so that the operation is robbed of all cruel features. The fre- lP)0 THE NEW ELDORADO. qnent battles fought between the old bulls to main- tain possession of their chosen ground and their harems are represented to be of the fiercest char- acter, sometimes ending in the death of one of the combatants, though they are so very hardy and tenacious of life that this is by no means common. The breedincj season is at its heij^^ht in the middle of July. Early in September, the pups having learned to swim, the " rookeries " are gradually broken up for the season, old and young departing together for the deep-sea feeding grounds, nothing being seen of them again as a body until the fol- lowing May or June. It is quite a mystery as to where they go, but that they promptly disperse in various directions seems most probable, as no seals are met with in large numbers by navigators of the Pacific or the South Seas, and they only land for breeding purposes. The author has seen a few in the month of j\Iarch off the Samoan group of islands, also in the month of December near the coast of Cochin China. And again, in crossing the Indian Ocean from Bombay to the mouth of the Red Sea, in February, an occasional head of the fur-seal would appear above the surface of the ocean, showing how widely dispersed these ani- mals are. There is a theory which has long ex- isted, to the effect that when the seals depart from Behring Sea they seek a lonely island group in the centi'al Pacific Ocean, somewhere between 53° and 65° north latitude, and longitude 160° to 170° west, where they pass their winter months in peace and plenty. Expeditions have been fitted out at "ALASKA PORK." Ih. San Francisco for the purpose of discovering these possible islands, but no one has ever seen them. Those most conversant with seal-life do not entei-- tain this supposition, and for good reasons. If any such land existed in the region designated it would surely have been discovered, as it is too near the direct track of commerce not to have been sighted o long ago. The flesh of the fur-seal is eaten by the natives, and the blubber also serves for fuel, as well as fur- nishing a much-used oil. The stench of the burn- ing fat is extremely disgusting to one not accus- tomed to it. There is but little lean meat on the animal ; nearly the whole body is composed of blubber. The whites eat the flesh of the young seal, which is not unpalatable when properl}^ pre- pared, and is called Alaska pork. When the fe- males arrive at the " rookeries," like the old males, they are in remarkably good flesh, so much so, in- deed, as to render locomotion difficult ; but though they do not fast like the bulls, they nevertheless become quite thin by the end of the season. St. George and St. Paul islands contain about three hundred and. fifty Aleuts, whose sole busi- ness is killing and skinning the seals, and after- wards salting and packing the pelts for shipment. They are all in the regular employment of the Com- mercial Company, which leases the islands. By the terms of the lease from our government, only natives of the Aleutian group of islands can be em- ployed to kill the seals ; no whites except the over- seers are permitted to remain on the two islands. 1G2 THE NEW ELDORADO. An agent of the United States occasionally visits them to see that the spirit of the lease is faithfully adhered to ; otherwise they are quite isolated from the outer world. Under the protective system, which is presumedly adhered to, the number of seals is said to be on the increase, and the space on the shores which they occupy is enlarged yeaily. It has been officially estimated, after actual in- spection, that over one million seals are born on these islands every year. It is asserted that double the number of pelts now authorized could safely be taken from the Pribyloff group annually, and it would certainly seem so, when this extraor- dinary fecundity is realized. But it must also be taken into consideration that man is not the only enemy which the fur-seal has to encounter. When the young ones leave the shore to begin their deep- sea life, they become the prey of many marine cormorants, among which the shark is said to be the most active. This tiger of the ocean does not attack the large, full-grown seals, who are too wary and active for him, but the young ones often fill his capacious maw. The aborigines employed upon the seal islands do not reach a very old age ; persons of over fifty years are seldom found among them. Consump- tion is the most fatal disease which they en- counter; this runs its course with singular speed after being once contracted. All attempts of the physicians are in vain; the patient, falling into a condition of hopeless indifference, soon passes away. We were told that the natives of Alaska THE SEA-OTTER. 163 generally were very difficult to treat medically, ig- noring the benefit of medicines, and generally refusing to take them. These semi-savages will not hesitate to resort to incantations to exorcise evil spirits (or disease, which to them is the same thing), but they fear to use the white man's agent to remove these evil influences. For a number of years the manufacture of oil from seal blubber was followed by the fur com- pany with profit, thus disposino; of the carcasses of the animals whose skin had been removed ; but oil-making on the seal islands has been discon- tinued, as being no longer a paying business. The sea-otter is a large animal, having fine, close black fur, sprinkled with long, white-tipped hairs, which strongly individualize it and add much to its beauty. Its pelt is used mostly for trimming, being both too heavy and too expensive for making up into entire garments. The size of a full-grown skin is about four feet in length by about two and a half wide. It is a solitary marine animal, never seen in numbers, rarely even with a mate, and is extremely shy, demanding great patience and shrewdness in the hunter to insure its capture. This animal rarely lands except to bring forth its young, and the natives say that it sometimes gives birth to its progeny on floating sedge or kelp at sea. Of this material the ingen- ious creature makes a sort of buoyant nest, ac- cording to the natives' ideas. When sleeping, it floats upon its back, carrying its young clasped to its body in a ludicrously human fashion. The 164 THE NEW ELDORADO. Indians hunt the animals by going out a consid erable distance to sea in their fiail canoes, and watching for the appearance of the otter's nose above the water, they paddle silently towards it so as not to disturb the game. At the proper moment the well-balanced and delicate lance is thrown with unerring aim. A careful watch is then kept for the reappearance of the otter, which must sooi\ come to the surface to breathe, being a warm-blooded, respii'atory animal. A second lance is pretty sure to disable the otter, when it floats helpless on the surface, falling an easy prey to the pursuer. At times six or eight natives in single canoes join in the hunt, so as to form a broad circle ; the nearest one to the otter when he rises after being wounded is the one to throw the second lance. The hunters obtain from the local traders between forty and fifty dollars for a full-grown otter skin, and sometimes double that amount, so that if successful in the pursuit they are well rewarded for many hours of pa- tient watchfulness, aside from which they realize a keen enjoyment in the pursuit as sportsmen. The hunters oftenest pursue their game alone, and if a native secures an otter after a whole week of watching he feels well repaid, though during that time he has lived on a scanty supply of food, and has sle[)t nightly in the open air exposed to the rain. Sometimes his watch is kept in his boat upon the sea, and sometimes among the rocks on the shore, in a bay where the otters are known to resort occasionally. A few years of THE FUR OF THE SEA-OTTER. 165 such rough life and exposure ages even an Ahiskan Indian, and it is not surprising that rheumatism and consumption should so prevail among them. Up to a certain stage such a life may liarden the hunter, but the turning-point comes at last, and when the native begins to fail in physical strength he does so rapidly; simply giving way to the first attack, rejecting all medicine which the white man may offer, and unless he is an impor- tant member of his tiibe, a chief or a leader of some sort, even the shaman or medicine man with his incantations is not called in. Good nursing is discarded, the invalid considers it to be his fate to die, and seems to go half way to meet the grim destroyer. The fur of the sea-otter varies in beauty of texture and value according to the animal's age and the season of the year in which it is captured. They are considered to be in their prime when about five years old, and those skins which are taken in winter are always of a more beautiful texture than those which are secured in summer. Of all animals hunted by man it is most on the alert, and, as we have said, most difficult to ob- tain. One intelligent statement declares that be- fore they were so systematically hunted eight thousand skins were shipped from Alaska in a single year, but we believe that from four to five thousand otter skins would be considered a good twelve months' yield in these days. The Saanack islets and reefs are the principal resort of these animals on the coast, and hither the natives come 166 THE NEW ELDORADO. from long distances to hunt tbem, camping on the main island. Frequent attempts have been made to rear the young sea-otter, specimens being often taken when the mother is captured, but they al- ways perish by starvation, never partaking of food after being separated from the mother ; a well-known fact, which was referred to with not a little sentiment by the experienced hunter who related the circumstance to us. " Him die of broke heart," said the native, attempting an ex- pression of tenderness upon his egg-shaped fea- tures, which proved a ludicrous caricature. We saw a stuffed specimen of a young sea-otter in a native cabin at Juneau, consisting of the skin only, but very cleverly mounted and preserved by the hunter who had captured its mother. It is somewhat singular that the world's sup- ply of otter fur, like that of sealskin, comes almost entirely from the coast of Alaska, in the North Pacific and Behring Sea. Otter fur may be said to be almost confined in its geographical distribution to the northwest shores of America. The successful pursuit of the animal, so far as the natives are concerned, is of even more impor- tance than that of the fur-seals, for contingent upon its chase, and from the proceeds of its pelts, some five thousand natives are enabled to live in comparative luxury. It requires, as we have shown, great energy, hardihood, and patient ap- plication to effect its capture, but the sea-otter is a most beneficent gift of Providence to these ab- origines, and administers, as well, to the pride of BIRDS. 167 the fashionable world. The natives in former times attached great importance to preparing themselves for hunting the sea-otter, fasting, bath- ing, and performing certain mystic rites before embarking for the purpose. After his return from a successful hunt the Aleut was accustomed to destroy the garments which he wore during the expedition, throwing them into the sea, so that the otters might find them and come to the con- clusion that their late persecutor had been drowned and there was no further danger in fre- quenting the shore. This practice, ridiculous as it seems to us, servesto illustrate the superstitious character of the Alaskan natives, who seldom fail to see omens in the most trifling every -day occur- rences. The interior and northern parts of Alaska are the greatest breeding- places for birds in the world, being the resort of innumerable flocks, which come from various parts of this continent, and others which make the tropical islands their home a large portion of the year on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of America. These myriads of the feathered tribes consist largely of geese, ducks, and swans, coming hither for nest- ing, and to fatten upon the wild salmon berries, red and black currants, cranberries, blackberries, bilberries, and the like, which greatly abound dur- ing the brief but intense Arctic summer. There are eleven kinds of edible berries which mature in August, among which the wild strawberries are the finest flavored we have ever eaten. It is said 168 THE NEW ELDORADO. that the geese especially become so fat feeding upon the plentiful supply of wholesome food that at the close of the season they can hardly fly, and are thus easily caught by the natives, who, in turn, feast luxuriously upon their tender and suc- culent flesh. Explorers tell us that they have seen on the banks of the Yukon — the great river of central Alaska, and the third in magnitude in America — the breeding-place of the canvas- back ducks, which has been heretofore a matter of some mystery. They prepare on the banks of this northern watercourse broad platforms of sedge, mingled with small tU'igs and bushes, laid compactly on marshy places, and without build- ing a carefully arranged nest deposit their eggs in untold numbers. That keen and scientific observer, the late Major Kennicott, says he saw on the banks of the Yukon acres of marshy ground thus covered with the eggs of the canvas- back ducks, in numbers defying computation. " Tlie region drained by the Upper Yukon is spoken of by explorers," says Mr. Charles Hal- lock, editor of "Forest and Stream," "as bfing a perfect Eden, where flowers bloom, beneficent plants yield their berries and fruits, majestic trees spread their umbrageous fronds, and song- birds make the branches vocal. The water of tlie streams is pure and pellucid ; the blue of the rip- pled lake is like Geneva's ; their banks resplen- dent with verdure, and with grass and shining pebbles." At the first approach of winter the augmented THE HAIR-SEAL. 169 millions of birds take flight for the low latitudes, or their homes in the temperate zone, tlie old birds accompanied by the broods which they havj hatched in the solitudes of the far north. Those which have come fioni the neighborhood of tlie Caribbean Sea turn in their flight unerringly in that direction ; those from the South Pacific islands heading as surely for that tropical region. Only the ptarmigan and the Arctic owl, with a few of the white-hawk family, remain to brave the winter cold of northern Alaska, with the hardy Eskimo, the walrus, and the polar bear. The smaller tribes of birds are well represented here in the summer season, even including several species of swallows, martins, and sparrows, these tiny creatures seeming to follow some general bird instinct. Even the domestic robin is seen as far north as Sitka. Limited scientific researcli lias recognized and classified one hundred and ninety -two different kinds of birds which ai'e found in this Tenitory, a considerable number of which were unknown to science previous to 1867. We have said nothing relative to the hair-seals, or sea-lions, of Alaska, because their importance is comparatively insignificant, having no commer- cial value. Nevertheless, they are utiliz,ed by the ingenious natives in various ways ; the hides serve as a covering for a certain class of boats, made with wooden frames, and are also employed for several domestic purposes. The walrus is found in largest numbers on the north coast, in the true Arctic region, affording some valuable 170 THE NEW ELDORADO. oil, together with considerable ivoi'V, in carving which the natives are very expert. Though the fur-trade of the land is by no means equal to that of the sea, still its aggregate results are very con- siderable. It employs numerous hunters and gives profitable business to many white traders, nearly all of whom make a permanent home in the Territory. Undoubtedly the most prolific and valuable fur-yielding district on the main- land is the valley of the Yukon, where the beaver, marten, several kinds of bears, with the wolf and fox, afford the best fur. We saw at the princi- pal store in Wrangel many packages of bearskins prepared for shipment to San Francisco. These packages would average five hundred dollars each in value, and had been gathered from those brought in by the natives during the two weeks intervening between the arrival of the regular steamers. Single bearskins sell here, according to their marketable character, for from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars each. The natives make little or no use of these skins, preferring the woolen blanket of commerce. The red and cross fox is found everywhere in the Territory, and its skin is comparatively cheap. It is singular that the blue fox is found only on the islands of St. Paul, St. George, Attoo, and Atkha, while the white fox is to be sought only at the far north. There is also the black fox, whicii, however, is a great rarity, thought to be an occasional accident of nature; the skins always biing extravagant prices from the traders. The black fox is not found in any THE FUR-TRADE. 171 special locality, but occurs now and again in any part of the Territory. The skin of the silver fox/ is also highly prized, and proves a valuable peltry to the native hunters, forty dollars each being the usual price paid by the white traders. Only a few hundred are taken yearly. The land-otter and the beaver so abound as to make up a large total value annually. The latest official records show that there has been produced and shipped from Alaska annually an average of fifty-seven thousand beaver skins ; eighteen thousand land- otter skins ; seventy-one thousand foxes' skins of the various sorts ; and of musk-rats two hundred 'and twenty-one thousand. These figures should be largely added to in each instance (we were told by one official that this aggregate estimate should be doubled), in order to include the un- registered pelts which are annually secured by various hunters, both whites and natives, and which find their way to distant markets through irregular channels, more especially over the bor- ders of British Columbia. This fur-trade is open to all, but requires capi- tal, organization, and persistency to make it profit- able. The natives do nearly all of the hunting and trapping, and will oidy engage in it, as a rule, to supply themselves with means to procure cer- tain luxuries from the trader's store, such as sugar, tea, and tobacco. We are sorry to add to these comparative necessities the article of whiskey, which is only too often furnished illicitly to the eager natives. When these wants are supplied 172 THE NEW ELDORADO. they idle away their time until stimulated once more by their necessities to go upon the trail of the fiir-boaring animals. Of course there are some exceptions to this, many of tliem being steady and willing workers, but we speak of the average na- tive. There is no fear of the supply of furs being exhausted under tliis system of capture ; even a combined and vigorous effort on the part of the hunters could not accomplish that in many years. Unlike our western Indians, these Alaskans are a comparatively thrifty race, entirely self -sustain- ing, and never require support from the govern- ment, notwithstanding idUmess is their besetting sin, as is, indeed, characteristic of uncivilized peo- ple everywhere. We were told of several of these aborigines who had learned the lesson of thrift from the whites to such good effect as to have saved sums of money varying from one to five hundred dollars, which they had deposited in the Savings Bank of San Francisco, and upon which they drew their annual interest ; an investment, the safety and economy of which they fully appreciated. CHAPTER XII. Climate of Alaska. — Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle. — Win- ter and Summer Seasons. — The Japanese Current. — Tem- perature in the Interior. — The Eskimos. — Their Customs. — Their Homes. — These Arctic Regions once Tropical. — The Mississippi of Alaska. — Placer Mines. — The Natives. — Strong Inclination for Intoxicants. It is a well-known fact, proven by official ob- servations, that the climate of the Pacific coast is considerably more temperate than that of the same latitude on the Atlantic side of the conti- nent. The record of ten consecutive years, kept at Sitka, gave an annual mean of 46° Fah, Tliis is in latitude 57° 3' north, and is found b}^ comparison to be four degrees warmer than the average of Portland, Me., or six degrees warmer than the temperature of Quebec, Canada. The average winter is milder, therefore, at Sitka than it is at Boston, however singular the assertion may at first strike us, in connection with the com- monly entertained idea of this northwestern Ter- ritory. The me.an winter temperature of Sitka and Newport, R. L, are very nearly the same, and there is only a difference of six degrees in tlieir mean yearly temperature, though there is a differ- ence of sixteen degrees of latitude. We have before us a printed letter which ap- peared in the " Philadelphia Press," signed by 174 THE NEW ELDORADO. Mr. C. F. Fowler, late an agent of the Alaska Fur Company, who has resided for twelve years in Alaska, in which he says : " You who live in the States look upon this country as a land of per- petual ice and snow, yet I grew in my garden last year, at Kodiak, abundant crops of radishes, let- tuce, can-ots, onions, cauliflowers, cabbages, peas, tui'nips, potatoes, beets, parsnips, and celery. Within five miles of this garden was one of the largest glaciers in Alaska." In a certain sense it is surely a country of paradoxes. The harbor of Sitka is never closed by ice, which cannot be truthfully said of Boston or New York. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, long resident in the Ter- ritory as United States general agent of educa- tion for Alaska, tells us that the temperature of Sitka and that of Richmond, Va., are nearly iden- tical. Mr. McLean of the United States Signal Service, who has been located at Sitka for several years, says, " the climate of southern Alaska is the most equable I ever experienced." There is in Alaska a very large section of coun- try, composed of islands and the mainland, where the average temperature is higher than at Chris- tiania, capital of Norway, or Stockholm, capital of Sweden, — where the winters are milder and the fall of rain and snow is less than in southern Scandinavia, which is the geographical counter- part of Alaska in the opposite hemisphere. Sitka harbor is no more subject to arctic temperature than is Clresapeake Bay. " It must be a fastidi- TEMPERA TURE. 1 7 5 ous person," said Mr. Seward in his speech upon Alaska, *' who complains of a climate in which, while the eagle delights to soar, the humming- bird does not disdain to flutter." If it is some- times misty and foggy on the coast, it is not so to a greater extent than is the case during a large portion of the year in the cities of London and Liverpool. Both the islands and mainland of this latitude afford 'ample grass for cows, sheep, and horses, also producing, with ordinary care, the usual do- mestic vegetables, as we have shown, the asser- tion of certain writers to the contrary notwith- standing. We have not far to look for the cause of this favorable temperature existing at so north- erly a range of latitude. The thermal stream known as the Japanese Current, coming from the far south charged with equatorial heat, is precisely similar in its effect to that of the better known Gulf Stream on our Atlantic coast, rendering the climate of these islands and the coast of the main- land of the North Pacific remarkably warm and humid. We speak especially and at length of this subject of the temperature of Alaska, because a wrong impression is so generally held concerning it. At a distance from the coast the temperature falls, and most of the inland rivers are closed by ice half the year. Even in the interior we are in about the same latitude and average temperature of St. Petersburg. Thus on the line of Behring Strait the annual mean at Fort Yukon, which lies just inside of the Arctic circle, six hundred miles 176 THE NEW ELDORADO. inland from Norton Sound, is 16.92° ; this is in latitude ^-^° north. Along the coast of southern Alaska the fall of snow is not greater in amount than is experienced during an ordinary winter in the New England States, and it disappears even more quickly than it does in Vermont and New Hampshire. In the interior and at the far north, the quantity of snow is of course much greater, and covers the ground for about half the year. But where the sun shines continuously through- out the twenty-four hours, the giowth of vegetable life is extremely rapid. The snow has hardly dis- appeared before a mass of herbage springs up, and on the spot so lately covered by a white sheet, sparkling with frosty crystals, there is spread a soft mantle of variegated green. The leaves, blos- soms, and fruits rapidly follow each other, so that even in this boreal region there is seed-time and harvest. The annual recurrence of this carnival season is all the more impressive in the realm of the Frost King. The Japanese Current, already referred to, strikes these shores at Queen Charlotte Island in latitude 50° north, where it divides, one portion going northward and westward along the coast of Alaska, and the other southward, tempering the waters Avhich border upon Washington, Oregon, and California; hence their mild climate. Sea captains who frequently make the voyage between San Francisco and Yokohama have told the au- thor that this Japanese Current — with banks and bottom of cold water, while its body and sur- DIVERSITY OF CLIMATE. 177 face are warm — is so clearly defined as to be dis- tinguishable in color from the ordinary hue of the Pacific Ocean, and that its deep blue forms a visi- ble line of demarcation between the greater body and itself along its entire course. The thermom- eter will easily define such a cin-rent, and this the author has often seen demonstrated from a ship's deck ; but it must be a very keen e^^e that can dis- tinguish such differences of color at sea as the above assertion would indicate. In so extended a territory as that of Alaska, with broad plains, deep valleys, and lofty moun- tain ranges, it is reasonable to suppose there must be a great diversity of climate. The brief in- land summer is represented to exhibit marked extremes of heat, and the winter corresponding extremes of cold. W. H. Dall, an undoubted au- tliority in all matters relating to the valley of the Yukon, though his book upon the country was published some twenty years since, says : " At Fort Yukon I have seen the thermometer at noon, not in the direct rays of the sun, stand at 112°, and I was informed by the commander of the post tliat several spirit thermometers graded up to 120° had burst under the scorching sun of the Arctic midsummer." Fort Yukon is the most northerly point in Alaska inhabited by white men. It is estimated that ten or twelve thousand Eski- mos live in the uninviting region north of the Yu- kon valley. They are a most remarkable people, who are struggling with the cold three quartei-s of the year, and who seem to be strangely content 178 THE NEW ELDORADO. with a bare existence. Their days and nights, their seasons and years, are not like those of the rest of tlie world. Six months of day is succeeded by six months of night. They have three months of sunless winter, three months of nightless sum- mer, and six months of gloomy twilight. No Christian enlightenment or religious teaching of any sort hrejiidice, against them. Our other workmen re- bel if we keep many Chinamen on the pay-roll." This corresponded exactly with the author's experience elsewliero, in various parts of the world where the Chinese have sought a new home out- side of China. John is not perfect, but he is in- finitely superior to a large portion of the drinking, rowdy, and restless foreign element which fills so large a place in the labor field of this country. The greatest care is necessary to keep spiritu- ous liquors away from the aborigines, a craving NATIVE DESIRE FOR INTOXICANTS. 185 for which is beyond their control where there is a possibility of its being obtained. When they fall under its influence they seem to utterly lose their senses, and become dangerous both to themselves and to the whites. As has been intimated, the only means of locomotion is afforded by the water- courses, and the natives, being excellent canoeists, find ample employment of this nature, both in traversing the rivers and along the shore of the islands. The waters of the Yukon, like those of the Neva at St. Petersburg, freeze to a depth of five or six feet in winter. CHAPTER XIII. Sailing Northward. — Chinese Labor. — Unexplored Islands. — The Alexander Archipelago. — Rich Virgin Soil. — Fish Can- ning. — Myriads of Salmon. — Native Villages. — Reckless Habits. — Awkward Fashions and their Origin. — Tattooing Young Girls. — Peculiar Effect of Inland Pa&sages. — Moun- tain Echoes. — Moonlight and Midnight on the Sea. Let us observe more order in these notes, and resume the course of our experiences in consecu- tive form. As we speed on our sinuous course northward, inhaling with delight the pure and bahny atmos- phere, beai-ing always a little westerly, winding through narrow channels which divide the richly wooded wilderness of islands, avoiding here and there the ambuscaded reefs, the pleasurable sen- sation is intense. The scenery, while in some respects similar to that of the St. Lawrence River and the Hudson of New York, is yet infinitely su- perior to either. After having reached latitude 54" 40' we come upon Dixon Entrance, a reach of the sea which separates Alaska from British Columbia, and from this point we are sailing ex- clusively in the purple shadow of our own shore, and in the watei's of the United States. At times we pass islands as laige as the State of Massachu- setts, whose picturesque and irregular mountain- ous surfaces are covered with immemorial trees, NATURE ALONE ANTIQUE. 187 and whose unknown interiors are believed to be rich in coal, iron, silver, and other metals. The axe has never echoed in the deep shade of these dense plantations of nature ; they form a pathless wilderness, solemn and silent, save for the stealthy ti"ead of wild beasts, the mournful music of wav- ing pines, and the occasional notes of wandering seabirds. Tlie migratory flocks of the tropics as a rule go farther north to raise their broods, but a few, weary of wing, shorten their aerial journey and build nests on these islands. For many cen- tui'ies past the great columnar trees have grown to mammoth size, and have then fallen only by the weight of years, enriching the ground with their decayed substance and giving place to another similar growth, which, in its turn, has also flourished and passed away. How like the course of human races ! This process has been going on perhaps for twice ten thousand years. " Nature alone is antique," says Carlyle. The past history of Alaska, except for a comparatively short period, is a blank to the people of the nine- teenth century. Day after day there is a continuous and un- broken chain of mountain scenery. On the right of our course is a broad strip of the mainland, an Alpine region, thirty miles in width, which forms a part of southern Alaska, bounded on the east by British Columbia, and on the west by the many spacious islands, which create so perfect a break- water that the constant swell of the contiguous ocean is not felt. Some of these islands lie within 188 THE NEW ELDORADO. a quarter of a mile of each other, on either side of our way, and yet the water is far too deep to admit of anchoring, the peaks rising abruptly from unknown depths to thousands of feet above the sea. The channels seem still more narrow from the great height of the mountains which line the course. The eye catches with delight the bright ribbons of waterfalls tumbling down their sides, in gleeful uproar, foaming and sparkling to- wards the depths below. These are fed by melt- ing snow and hidden lakes far up in the cloud- screened summits. Some of these waterfalls, narrow and swift, leap from point to point, now forming small cascades, and now continuing in a perpendicular form like a column of crystal. Others, so abrupt and precipitous are the heights from which they are launched, fall in an unbroken stream, clinging to the cliffs at first, but quickly expanding into a thin sheet rivaling the Bridal Veil of the Yosemite, and reaching the base in a constant gauzelike spray. The wide, open tracks seen now and then on the steep, thickly-wooded mountain sides, reaching from high up to the snow-line down to the very surface of the water, are the pathways swept by giant avalanches. What immense power and lightning-like speed are suggested by the broad, clean swath that is left ! The wind caused by the rushing avalanches is almost equally resist- less, the trees on either side of the track being torn into splinters by it. Now and again, above the tops of the giant THE ALEXANDER ARCHIPELAGO. 189 pines, one can see moving objects on the exposed peaks and cliffs, almost too far away and too small for identification, but we know them to be wild mountain goats, — the Alaskan chamois, — quite safe from the hunters in these perilous heights, never trod by the foot of man. The ten- der glow of twilight enshrouding mountain peaks, emerald isles, and the gently throbbing bosom of the sea, added daily a witching charm to a scene which already seemed perfect in beauty. The principal island group lying off the shore of southwestern Alaska is named the Alexander Archipelago, in honor of the Tzar of Russia. It ex- tends about three hundred miles north and south, and is seventy-five miles from east to west, em- bracing over eleven hundred islands, scarcely one of which has been explored. The group reaches from Dixon Entrance to Cross Sound, in latitude 68° 25' north. Upon landing at one of these islands it was found to be covered by an impervi- ous forest ; the mass of timber and undergrowth was so compact as to defy oiu* progress. The tan- gle of bushes, roots, vines, and branches formed almost as impenetrable a wall as though built of masonry. The wildest jungles of India are not more dense. Where not covered and hidden by trees, the earth was flecked here and there by the sun, being carpeted with moss and ferns so thickly spread as to form a spongy surface, upon which only the velvety feet of small wild animals could be sustained. A human pedestrian, were he to attempt to pass over it, would sink in this 190 THE NEW ELDORADO. vegetable compound knee- deep at every step. There are no paths in these jungles ; the natives have no occasion to penetrate them, their living comes from the sea, and the river courses are their hunting m-ounds. This virgin soil, were it to be drained and cleared of trees, would be rich beyond calculation, while the climate is such as to warrant the growth and ripening of any vegetation which will thrive on the Atlantic coast north of Cliesapeake Bay. One who has not seen it in Alaska knows not what rank and luxuriant forest undergrowth is. No tropical islands can surpass the Alexander Archipelago in this respect. Thus far no one has come to this region with the idea of testing its availability for agricultural purposes; it is other business which has attracted them. Nothing of any account has ever been done in the way of stock-raising, though the winters of southern Alas- ka, of Kodiak, and the Aleutian Islands are much milder than are those of Wyoming or northern Dakota, and there is plenty of food for innumera- ble herds all the year round. If government will but give the Territory of Alaska proper land laws, this region will promptly invite emigration, and be rapidly peopled by thrifty stock-growers. As we increase our northern latitude forests of tall cedars, spruce, and hemlock still line the shore of the mainland, and cover the countless islands with a mantle of softest green. It is not surprising that artists become enthusiastic over the infinite variety of shades found in these ver- FISH-CANNING. 191 dant woods, an effect which we have never seen excelled even in equatorial regions. Gliding over the still, deep, pellucid surface of the ocean, we behold these cliffs, forests, and mountains, with coronets of snow reflected therein, as though there was another world below, like that above the rose- tinted sea. One finds almost exactly repeated here the bold, towering peaks, and low-lying rocky isles of the Lofoden group in the far North Sea of the opposite hemisphere, whose sharp, jagged pinnacles have been aptly compared to shark's teeth. Near Cape Fox, on the mainland, there are two large fish-canning establishments, where salmon are packed in one pound tin cases for shipment to distant markets, and in which a few Chinamen are employed. Some Indian women also find occupation in the establishment, while their hus- bands capture and bring in the fish in large quan- tities. This is a rapidly growing and profitable business in this region, there being already forty or fifty such factories along the coast and among the islands north of Cape Fox. Kasa-an Bay makes into Prince of Wales Isl- and twenty miles, more or less, from Clarence Strait. Here tl.ere are several villages of Kasa-an Indians. No spot on the coast is more famous for the abundance and excellence of its salmon ; at certain seasons the waters of the bay swarm with them. Here is a large cannery, or fish-packing station, where native women do most of the indoor work. Two thousand barrels of salted salmon 192 THE NEW ELDORADO. were shipped from this bay last year. This was independent of those used in canning. There would seem to be no limit to the expansion of an industry that can furnish such desirable, every way wholesome, and nutritious food to be sold in all parts of the world. The North Pacific Trading and Packing Com- pany of San Francisco has been doing a profitable business on the coast for many years. In spite of government neglect, commerce is steadily increas- ing and developing Alaska ; it invades all zones, proving the greatest of civilizing agencies. Not only is it the equalizer of the wealth, but also of the intelligence, of nations, and this one branch alone is gradually populating whole districts. When the active packing season is over there is still profitable employment for all. Some are oc- cupied in making the tin cans to hold one pound each ; others are taught to become coopers, fur- nishing the casks for shipping such fish as are split, salted, and exported in that form ; while oth- ers arc occupied in making pine-wood boxes to contain two dozen each of the filled cans. Thus a well-conducted fish-packing establishment employs many people, and presents a busy scene all the year round. The salmon are so plenty in the regular season that an Indian will sometimes deliver at the can- ning factory three or four canoe-loads in a single day. They are mostly caught by net or seine, but often during the height of the season the natives absolutely shovel the salmon out of the water and BEARS. 193 on to the shore with their paddle blades. We were told that as many as three thousand salmon, and even more, are sometimes taken at a single haul of the seine; also that fish of this species weighing from twenty to thirty pounds were com- mon here. Great numbers are discarded at the factories because they do not prove to be of the high pink color which is required hy the purchas- ers and consumers. It seems that the bears know very well when the run of salmon commences, and that there are certain quiet inlets where the fish are sure to get crowded and jammed, so that Bruin has only to reach out his paws and di^aw one after another on to the shore and eat until he has his fill. The bear-paths leading to these spots are strongly marked, and the animals are thus easily tracked and shot by the hunters. It is the white men who capture them most generally, as the natives have some mysterious reverence and fear combined re- gai-ding this animal. They do hunt them, how- ever, but shrive themselves of all sense of wrong by going through some mystic rites. Mr. Cliarh'S Hallock says : " There are bears enough in AJaska, giizzly, cinnamon, and black, to furnish every man on the Pacific with a cap and overcoat, and leave breeding stock enough for next year's supj)ly." The grizzly bear is a dangerous animal to encoun- ter single-handed. A bullet seems to have no more effect upon him, unless it strikes a vital spot, than it does upon an elephant. It is necessary to use guns of large calibre when hunting the animal, and the whites rarely seek them unless several tried men band together for the purpose. 194 THE NEW ELDORADO. From time to time small native villages are seen on the islands and the mainland, all typical of the people, and quite picturesque in their dirtiness and peculiar construction. Some of their cabins are built of boards, but mostly they are rude, bark- covered logs. In front of these dwellings stand to- tem-poles, presenting hideous faces carved upon them in bold relief, together with uncouth figures of birds, beasts, and fishes. A portion of these tall posts are weather-beaten and neglected, signifi- cantly tottering on their foundations, green with mould, unconsciously foreshadowing the fate of the aboriginal race. Groups of natives in bright- colored blankets, with scarlet and yellow handker- chiefs on their heads, come into view, watching us curiously as we glide over the smooth water, while bevies of half-naked children are seen shifting hither and tliither in clamorous excitement. What wonderfully bright, black eyes these children have ! Some of the women are gathering kelp, for the shores are lined with edible algse, posses- sing not only fine nutritious qualities, but being also a. recognized tonic, with excellent medicinal properties. This sea-product is collected in the most favorable season of the year, and after being pressed into convenient sized and esculent cakes is stored for future use. The native liamlets are always built near to the shore, aceessibility to the water being the first consideration, because from that source comt'S nine tenths of their subsistence. To clear the forest and secure open fields presup- poses more thrift and application than these na- AWKWARD FASHIONS. 195 tives possess ; but it would unveil some of the richest soil in the world. These Alaskans have no idea of sewerage, or the proper disposal of do- mestic refuse. All accumulations of this sort are thrown just outside the doors of their dwellings, to the right and left, anywhere in fact which is handiest. The stench which surrounds their cab- ins, under these circumstances, is almost unbeara- ble by civilized people, and must be very unwhole- some. These natives have broad faces, small, pig-like eyes, and high cheek bones, not very nice to look upon, yet not without a certain expression of real intelligence gleaming through the accumu- lated dirt. " What is needed here," said a humorous ob- server to us, " is the mission teacher with his Bible, spelling-book, and — soap ! " The women cut their hair short on the fore- head, nearly even with the eyebrows, causing one to surmise that these Thlinkits — a generic name given to the tribes in this vicinity — must have set the fashion of " banging " the hair, which is so popular among civilized belles. Just so the Japa- nese women originated the hideous fashion of the " bustle." The author saw this awkward and un- becoming appendage worn upon the backs of the women of Yokohama, Tokio, and Nagasaki three years before it appeared upon the streets of Bos- ton and New York. And now we hear of the " clinging " style of drapery, in which underskirts even are discarded, called the Grecian or classic style. Alas ! will nothing but extremes satisfy the 196 THE NEW ELDORADO. importunate demands of fashion ? Heaven send that we do not import another fashion from Alaska or the South Seas, namely tattooing. It is quite common here, among young girls of about twelve years of age, whose cheeks and chins are often thus disfigured by irregular lines. The more the natives associate with the whites, however, the moi-e rarely this tattooing is resorted to, and it may be said, as a fashion, to be going out in Alaska, though it is undoubtedly one of the most widely diffused practices of savage life, from the Arctic to the Antarctic circle. The Alaskans have an original way of produ- cing this indelible marking, the color being fixed by drawing a thread under the skin, whereas the usual mode among various savages is by pricking it in with a needle. The favorite colors are red and blue. We were told that common women were permitted to adorn their chins with but one vertical line in the centre, and one parallel to it on either side, while a woman of the better or wealthier class is allowed two vertical lines from each corner of the mouth. The New Zealand Maori women tattoo their chins in a very similar manner, keeping the rest of the face in a natural condition. We had threaded the intricate labyrinth of islands, bays, and channels, guarded by miles upon miles of sentinel peaks, nearly all day, on one oc- casion, under a depressing fog and rain, when sud- denly a bold headland was rounded, which had seemed for hours to completely bar our way, and MOUNTAIN ECHOES. 197 we passed out from under the shadow of the frowning cliffs and the gloom of the dark fathom- less waters just as the sun burst forth, warm, bright, and resistless, while the view expanded before us nearly' to the horizon. The mist, like shrouded ghosts, stole silently away, vanishing behind the rocks and cliffs. Every dewy drop of moisture, on ship and shore, glittered like dia- monds in the dazzling rays of the new-born light, changing the verdant islands into a glory of color, and the whole view to one of majestic love- liness, through which we glided as smoothly as though in a gondola upon the Grand Canal at Venice. When approaching a landing or anchorage, a signal gun is fired from the forecastle of the ship, creating a series of echoes deep, sonorous, and startling, but especially remarkable for the num- ber of times tlie sound is repeated. One single gun becomes multiplied to a whole broadside. The report is taken up again and again by other localities, and thus is conveyed for miles away, finally sinking to a whisper, as it were, among the foot-hills of the giant elevations. The most impressive scenes realized by the trav- eler are those of moonlight and midnight. How a love of the stars and the sea grows upon one, and life has so few moments of perfect contentment ! What melody and magic permeate the pure, placid atmosphei-e, bounded by the sapphire sea and the azure sky ! How tender and beautiful is the utter stillness of the hour! Such scenes of 198 THE NEW ELDORADO. gladness make the heart almost afraid, — afraid lest there should be some keen sorrow lurking in ambush to awaken us from pleasant dreams to the stern, disenchanting experiences of real life. CHAPTER XIV. The Alaskan's Habit of Gambling. — Extraordinary Domestic Carvings. — Silver Bracelets, — Prevailing Superstitions. — Disposal of the Dead. — The Native " Potlatch." — Canni- balism. — Ambitions of Preferment. — Human Sacrifices. — The Tribes slowly decreasing in Numbers. — Influence of the Women. — Witchcraft. — Fetich Worship. — The Native Ca- noes. — Eskimo Skin Boats. The aborigines of Alaska are slow in their movements, and in this respect resemble the Lapps of Scandinavia, having also a drawling manner of speech entirely in consonance with their bodily movements. They are as inveterate gamblers as the Chinese, often passing whole days and nights absorbed in the occupation, the result of which is in no way contingent upon intelligence or skill, until finally one of the party walks off winner of all the stakes. Their principal gambling game is played with a handful of small sticks of different colors, which are called by various names, such as the crab, the whale, the duck, and so on. The player shuffles all the sticks together, then count- ing out a certain number he places them under cover of bunches of moss. The object seems to be to guess in which pile is the whale, and in which the crab, or the duck. Individuals often lose at this seemingly trifling game all their worldly possessions. We were told of instances 200 THE NEW ELDORADO. where, spurred on by excitement, a native risks his wife and children, and if he loses, they be- come the recognized property of the winner, nor would any one think of interfering with such a settlement. These extreme cases, of course, are rare. It is impossible to see the aborigines eagerly absorbed in the game without recalling Dr. John- son's characteristic definition of gambling, namely, " A mode of transferring property without pro- ducing any intermediate good." Inside of the rude native houses one finds many hideous carvings, representing impossible animals and strange objects of all sorts, after the style of the totem-poles, of which we shall have occasion to speak. Many of their small domestic uten- sils are made from the horns of the mountain goats, and are also curiously carved with night- mare objects, as evil to look upon as African idols. Yet some of these articles show consider- able skill and infinite patience in execution. We have seen specimens that it was difficult to be- lieve were executed by the hand of an uncultured savage. Before the Russians introduced iron and steel knives, the aborigines seem to have carved only with copper and stone im])lenients, produ- cing remarkable lesults under the circumstanc(^s. The young women wear silver bracelets, pounded out of American dollar pieces, some of which are an inch broad, and are covered elaborately after civilized models, others bear native heraldic devices of birds, beasts, and fishes, which are said SUPERSTITIONS. 201 to represent the arms of the wearer's family, it being customary for each tribe and person to adopt some distinctive seal or crest. They much prefer silver ornaments to those of gold or other material ; though they are not slow to realize in- trinsic values, probably they choose the less expen- sive metal because it is Alaska fashion. In spite of all the missionary effort which is made to enlighten these natives, they are still slaves to the most debasing superstitions. Scarcc- 1}^ a month passes in which the civil authorities are not called upon to interfere with the people for cruelty. We were told of one instance whicli lately occurred at Juneau. A native was seriously ill, and the medicine-man, having failed to relieve him by his noisy incantations, charged an old member of the tribe with having bewitched the invalid. He was consequently seized, tied up, and whipped until nearly insensible, being left for three days without food. By chance the authorities heard of the case and released the old man. The two prin- cipal natives who had been guilty of the maltreat- ment were tried and fined twenty dollars each. The very next day the old man was missing, and it was found that he had again been tied up and whipped. The two culprits admitted repeating their cruelty, saying they had paid for the right to whip out the witch from the old man, and it must be done before the invalid would recover. These ignorant creatures entertained no malice to- wards the old native ; it was only a matter of duty, as the}' thought, to exorcise the evil one which 202 THE NEW ELDORADO. had possessed tlie invalid. This is a fair sample of the superstition of the average Alaskans. When a member of the family dies, the body is not removed for final disposal by the door which the living are accustomed to use, but a plank is torn from the side or back of the dwelling, through which the corpse is passed, after which the place is at once carefully made whole. This, they say, is to prevent the spirit of the defunct from find- ing its way back again, and thus bringing ill luck upon the living. A still more superstitious and savage custom prevails among some of these igno- rant natives. If a person dies in a cabin, it is held that the place becomes sacied to his spirit, and there- fore is unfit for the living. To avoid this diffi- culty the dying are passed out of the domicile through st)me temporary hole into the open air to breathe their last, so that neither the house nor the threshold may be sacrificed to the spirit of the dead. Slaves, besides poor widows and or- phans, when they die, are often disposed of in the most summary and unfeeling manner, being exposed in the woods, or cast into the sea as food for the fishes. In this connection we re- member that the highly civilized and rich Par- sees of Bombay do not hesitate to give the dead bodies of their cherished ones to the vultures, in those terrible Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill. The ceremonies which follow all funerals among these aborigines are peculiar affairs, and for the carrying out of which each person saves more or FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 203 less of his worldly effects to leave after death. As soon as the body of the deceased is disposed of, then commences what is here culled a "potlatch," signifying a " big feast," conducted very much atter the style of the New Zealanders on a similar occasion. Everybody is invited and a free spread or feast provided, the same being kept up for sev- eral days and nights, so long, indeed, as the pur- ciiasing power lasts. Whiskey is freely dispensed, when it can be had, but if not obtainable, as it is a contraband article, then "hoochenoo," made from flour and molasses well fermented, takes its place, being equally intoxicating and nuiddening. Dancing, wailing, singing, fighting, and grave in- decencies follow each other, until the means to keep up the potlatch left by the deceased are ex- hausted, and his surviving family oftentimes im- poverished. Cremation is the Thlinkit's favorite mode of disposing of his dead. The bodies of slaves and "witches" are disposed of with great secrecy. They are not considered worth burial, and are sometimes cast into the sea, but water burial is infrequent. The bodies of chiefs lie in state sev- eral days ; the people observe certain rites ; then the body is cremated and the ashes are encased in the base of a totem erected to his memory. Sha- mans (doctors) are never cremated. After lying in state four days, one day in each corner of the cabin, the body is taken out of the house through the smokestack, or some opening other than the door, and conveyed some distance to a deadhouse 204 THE NEW ELDORADO. built for this particular occupant. There in its last resting-place the body is seated in an upright position. The pHrapheriuilia of his rank and office, some blankets and household effects to add to his comfort in the spirit-land, are entombed with the remains. Another occasion for indulging in the potlatch is when some one is desirous of securing extraor- dinary influence in his tribe, generally a chief seeking to establish superior position or popular- ity over some rival. Natives have been known to save their means for years, augmenting them by industry and self-denial, in order finally to give a grand and unequaled feast of this character. When the time arrives not only are all the host's own tribe invited, but those of the next nearest tribes not akin to his own. Such a festival often lasts for a whole week, nntil the last blanket of the giver is sacrificed. These strange festivals, we were told, are fast passing into disuse, at least among those tribes brought most in contact with the whites, though on a smaller scale they do still exist all over the southern region of Alaska. There is, perhaps, no positive evidence that can- nibalism ever prevailed among the Indians of this region, yet it is gravely hinted that it did on the occasion of these funeral {)Otlatches years ago. To sacrifice the life of one or more of the slaves of the deceased we know was common, and if their bodies were not barbecued and eaten, then these natives of the North Pacific were entirely differ- ent in this respect from those who lived in the DECAY OF THE RACES. 205 South Pacific. The medicine-men, even to-day, devour portions of corpses, believing that they ac- quire control of the spirit of the deceased thereby, and gain influence over demon spirits in the other sphere. Such pnictices are, however, rare, though Mr. Duncan of Metla-katla tells us he has wit- nessed the repulsive performance. The places near each hamlet where the dead are finally placed often number many more gi'aves, or square boxes containing the bodies, than theie are present in- habitants in the settlement. All this region was formerly many times more populous than it is to- day. Here, as in Africa, New Zealand, Califor- nia, and Australia, where the white man appears permanently, the black man slowly but surely vanishes. The progress of civilization, as we call it, is fatal to native, savage races all over the world. Catlin, who lived among and wrote so well about our Western Indians, summed up the matter thus : " White man — whiskey — toma- hawks — scalping-knives — guns, powder and ball — smallpox, debauchery — extermination." But it is not alone gunpowder, rum, and lasciviousness which are the active agents to this end ; there is also a subtle influence which is not clearly under- stood, and which it is difficult to define, but which is as potent, if not more so, than the agencies above suggested. The destiny which heaven de- crees for a people will surely come to them. This has been clearly exemplified in the instance of the North American Indians, as well as among the South Sea Islanders in Australia and the Ha- 206 THE NEW ELDORADO. waiian Islands. Of an entire and intelligent peo- ple, the aborigines who once occupied Tasmania, there is not to-day a living representative ! The land is solely possessed and occupied by white Europeans, before whom the natives have steadily vanished like dew before the sun. Mr. Frederick Whymper, who wrote about the Northwest some twenty years ago, speaking upon this subject, refers to the experience of a Mr. Sproat, a resident of the region near Puget Sound, who employed large numbers of natives as well as whites in manufacturing lumber. Mr. Sproat conducted his large business and the place where it was established on temperance principles ; no violence or oppression of any sort was permitted towards the natives. They were in fact better fed, better clothed, and better taught than they had ever been before. It was only after a con- siderable time that any symptom of a change was observed among the Indians. By and by a listlessness seemed to creep over them, and they "brooded over silent thoughts." At first they were surprised and bewildered by the presence of the white men, and the machinery and steam vessels which they brought with them. They seemed slowly to acquire a distrust of themselves, and abandoned their old practices and tribal hab- its, until at last it was discovered that a higher death-rate was prevailing among them. "No one molested them," says Mr. Sproat ; " they had ample sustenance and shelter for the support of life, yet the people decayed. The steady bright- INFLUENCE OF THE WOMEN. 207 ness of civilized life seemed to dim and extin- guish the flickering light of savageism, as the rays of the sun put out a common fire." Upon the same subject and people, H. W. El- liott says : " These savages were created for the wild surroundings of their existence ; expressly fitted for it, and they live happily in it ; change the order of their life, and at once they disappear, as do the indigenous herbs and game before the cultivation of the soil and the domestication of animals." We shall not comment upon these remarks, though to us it is an extremely inter- esting subject ; the reader must draw his own inference. The men of these native tribes are strong and vigorous ; the women are, however, forced to per- form most of the domestic labor, and all of the drudgery, yet it was observed that they held the purse strings. That is to say, a native buck al- ways defers to his wife in any matter of trade as to the price either to ask or to pay. The women of Alaska are certainly in a better condition and are better treated than those belonging to any of our Western Indian tribes, with whom we are ac- quainted. Though they are called upon to do much menial work, they do not seem to be actu- ally abused. The male Alaskan performs a cer- tain liberal share of domestic duties, but not so with the Indian of our Western reservations. The latter makes his wife a beast of burden. They are generally clothed in the garments of civiliza- tion, though of coarse material and of the cheapest 208 THE NEW ELDORADO. manufacture. The ready-made clothing store has reached even the islands of the North Pacific. Polygamy is common among the aborigines, chas- tity is little heeded, and young girls are sold b}' their mothers for a few blankets, she and not the father having the acknowledged riglit of dispos- ing of them. Dr. Sheldon Jackson writes most feelingly as follows : " Despised by their fathers, sold by their motliers, imposed upon by their brothers, and ill-treated by their husbands, cast out in their widowhood, living lives of toil and low sensual pleasure, untaught and uncared for, with no true enjoyment in this world and no hope for the world to come, crushed by a cruel heathenism, it is no wonder that many of them end their misery and wretchedness by suicide." It was found on inquiry that the ratio of births among the Alaskan shore tribes was considerably greater than among civilized communities, but the death-rate is, on the other hand, excessive. The wretched ignorance of the mothers as to the ob- servance of the simplest sanitary laws, as well ;is the gross exposure of their infants, is the principal cause of this needless mortality. The aborigines, where not brought in contact with the government schools and missionaries, still retain their system of fetich worship, be- ing very much under control of their medicine- men, who pretend to influence the demons of the spirit world, so feared by the average savage. Their moral degradation is extreme, and their practices in too many instances are terrible to NATIVE CANOES. 209 relate. Slaves are sacrificed, as already stated, at the owner's death, that they may go before and prepare for his arrival in the future state. Vile witchcraft is still believed in among most of the tribes, and murderous consequences follow in many cases. All kinds of barbarity are inflicted upon women, children, and slaves. We are told by Dr. Sheldon Jackson that it was surprising to see how quickly these savage practices yielded to the power of Christian teachings, and how rapidly they faded away before the influence of association with a few intelligent, conscientious white teachers. What these people need is education and Christian influ- ence, which will work a great and rapid reform among them in a single generation. The canoes of the tribes about the Alexander Archipelago are dug out of well-chosen cedar logs, and ai'e given the really fine lines for which they are remarkable by means of hot water and steam, together with the use of cunningly devised braces and clamps. The wood being once thoroughly dried in the desired shape, will retain it. Wonder- ing how the exquisite smoothness was produced in forming their boats without a carpenter's plane, it was found by inquiry that the natives dry the coarse skin of the dogfish and use it as we do sandpaper. The time spent upon the construction and ornamentation of these canoes is apparently of no consideration to the native, and the market value of the best will average one hundred dollars. It is the Alaskan's most necessary and most prized piece of property. Some which we saw were 210 THE NEW ELDORADO. eighty feet in length, and capable of holding one hundred men. It must be remembei'ed that al- most the entire population live on the coast or river banks in a country where there are no roads. These canoes have no seats in them ; the rower places himself on the bottom, and thus situ- ated uses his paddles with great dexterity. They are quite unmanageable by a white man who is not accustomed to them, as much so at least as a birch canoe, such as the Eastern Indians build on the coast of Maine. But the Alaskan boat is far superior to the birch-bark canoe in every respect. We saw one paddled by a boy at Pyramid Harbor, neat and new, which the lad, say twelve years of age, had dug out of a spruce log with his own hands, quite unaided. Its lines were admirable, and the finish was excellent. When the sun beats down upon these boats, the owner splashes water upon the sides about him to prevent their warp- ing, and for this pui-pose carries a thin wooden scoop. When not in use they are carefully cov- ered up to shelter them from the sun's rays. Some tribes use a double paddle, that is, an oar with a blade at each end, which they dip on one side and the other alternately ; other tribes use the single- bladed paddle. Each one of the males among the natives has his canoe, for the water is his only highway, and without his boat he would be as helpless as one of our Western Indians on the plains without his pony. When the "dug-outs" are drawn up upon the shore in scores, they present a curimis appearance, packed with grass and cov- ESKIMO SKIN BOATS. 211 ered with matting to keep them from being cracked and warped by the sun. The bows and stern of many of them are elaborately carved to- tem-fashion, and also painted in strange designs with a black pigment. The fore part of the boat rises with an upward sheer, and is higher at the prow than at the stern. There is another form of boat used by the Eskimos and natives of the out- lying islands, being a simple frame of wood, cov- ered with sea-lion skin from which the hair has been removed. These boats are covered over the tops as well as the bottoms, being almost level with the sea, leaving only a hole for the occupant to sit in, thus making them absolutely water- tight, a life-boat, in fact, which will float in any water so long as they will hold together. The waves may dash over them but cannot enter them. These skin-covered boats, admirably adapted to their legitimate purpose, are known on the coast as " bidarkas," in the management of which the natives evince great skill, making long journeys in them, and braving all sorts of weather. Like the Madras surf-boats, no nails are used in their con- struction, either in the skeleton frame or in put- ting on the covering, the several parts being lashed and sewed together in the most artistic fash- ion with sinews and leather thongs, which enables them to bear a greater strain than if they were held together by any other means. The thongs admit of a certain degree of flexibility when it is required, an effect which cannot be got with nail fastenings. CHAPTER XV. Still sailing Northward. — Multitudes of Water-Fowls. — Native Graveyards. — Curious Totem-Poles. — Tribal and Family Emblems — Division of the Tribes. — Whence the Race came. — A Clew to their Origin. — The Northern Eskimos. — A llemarkable Museum of Aleutian Antiquities. — Jade Moun- tain. — The Art of Carving. — Long Days. — Aborigines of the Yukon Valley. — Their Customs. Still sailing northward, large numbers of ebon- hued cormorants are seen feeding on the low, kelp-coveied rocks, contrasting with the snow}' whiteness of the gulls. Big flocks of snipe, ducks, and other aquatic birds line the water's edge, or rise in clouds from some sheltered nook to settle again in our wake. Higher up in air a huge bald- headed eagle is in sight nearly all the while, as we sail along the winding watercourse. The eagles of Alaska, unlike those of other sections of the globe, are not a solitary bird, but congregate in considerable numbers, and residents told us they had seen a score of them roosting togetlier on the branches of the same tree, but we must confess to never having seen even two together. Elsewhere the eagle is certainly a bird whose solitary habits are one of its marked character- istics. We observe here and there near native villages, more square boxes and totem-poles indi- cating the resting-places of the dead. Some tribes AN ALASKAN GRAVEYARD. 213 continue to burn their dead, and tliese boxes con- tain only the ashes, but the missionai'ies and the whites generally have so opposed the idea of cremation that many of the natives have aban- doned it. The burial above-ground in the square boxes referred to is a peculiar idea. These coffins, if they may be so called, are about three feet and a half long by two and a half wide, and are often elaborately carved and painted with grotesque figures. The corpse is disjointed and doubled up in order to get it into this compass, though why this is done when a longer box would so much simplify matters, no one seems to know. We were told that some of the Alaskan tribes used to place their dead in trees, or on the top of four raised poles, a similar practice to that which once prevailed among certain tribes of our Western Indians, but the mode just described is that which most generally prevails. There seems to be some difference of opinion as regards the real signifi- cance of the totem-poles. They appear to be de- signed in part to commemorate certain deeds in the lives of the departed, near whose grave they are reared, as well as to indicate the family arm.s of those for whom they are erected. Thus, on seeing one special totem-post surmounted by a wolf carved in wood, beneath which a useless gun was lashed, inquiry was made as to its signifi- cance, whereupon we were told that the deceased by whose grave it stood had been killed while hunting wolves in the forest. This was certainly a very literal Wiiy of recording the fate of the hunter^ 214 THE NEW ELDORADO. Some tribes adopt the crow, some the hawk, and some the bear or the whale, as their distinc- tive tribal emblem. The poles are carved from bottom to top, averaging thirty or forty feet in height, — though some are nearly a hundred feet high, — and from three to four feet in diameter, the height also signifying the importance of the individual, that is, his social grade or standing in the tribe. Some of the carvings are mythological, for these people have an oral mythology of the most fabulous character, which has been handed down from father to son for many centuries. The carvings on the coffin-boxes, though often elaborate, to a white man's eye are meaningless. As we have said, when a chief dies, some valu- able personal effects are always deposited with his body in the coffin, and one would suppose that such objects were safe from pilfering fingers of even strangers ; yet these articles are constantly offered for sale, and are eagerly purchased by curio-hunt- ers who come hither from various parts of this country. The aborigines of Alaska are divided into vari- ous sub-tribes, such as Hooniahs, Tongas, Auks, Kasa-ans, Haidas, Sitkas, Chinooks, Chilcats, and so on. Ivan Petrol?, who was sent by the United States Government to Alaska in 1880, as special agent of the census, divides the native population of the Territory as follows : — First. — The Innuit or Eskimo race, which predominates in numbers and covers the littoral ORIGIN OF THE NATIVE RACES. 215 margin of all Alaska from the British boundary on the Arctic to Norton Sound, the Lower Yukon, and Kuskoquin, Bristol Bay, the Alaska Penin- sula, Kodiak Island, mixing in, also, at Prince William Sound. Second. — The Indians proper spread over the vast interior in the north, reaching down to the seaboard at Cook's Inlet and the mouth of the Copper River, and lining the coast from Mount St. Elias southward to the boundary and peo- pling the Alexander Archipelago. Third. — The Aleutian race, extending from the Shumagin Islands westward to Attoo, — the Ultima Thule of this country, — whom Petroff terms the Christian inhabitants. These last cer- tainly conform most fully to all the outward prac- tices of civilization and universally recognize the Greek Church. Whence these people originally came is a ques- tion which is constantly discussed, but which is still an unsolved problem. Some words in their language seem to indicate a Japanese origin, and some seem clearly to be derived from the Aztec tongue belonging to that peculiar people of the south. Hon. James G. Swain of Port Town- send, w^ho has given years of study to the subject of ethnology as connected with the tribes of the Northwest, states that he found among them a tradition of the Great Spirit similar to that of the Aztecs, and that when he exhibited to members of the Haida tribe sketches of Aztec carvings, they at once recognized and understood them. 216 THE NEW ELDORADO. Copper images and relics found in their possession were identical with exhumed relics brought from Guatemala. These are certainly very significant facts, if not convincing ones. The Alaska natives have some Apache words in their language, which points to a common oiigin with our North Amer- ican Indian tribes, but these suggestions are purely speculative. There are able students of ethnol- ogy who insist upon the origin of these Alaskans being Asiatic for various good and sufficient rea- sons, instancing not only their personal appear- ance, but the similarity of their traditions and cus- toms to those of the people of Asia. To have come thence it is remembered that they had only to cross a narrow piece of water forty miles wide. This passage is frequently made in our times by open boats. At certain seasons of the year, though in so northern a latitude, the strait is by no means rough. Mr. Seward says: "I have mingled freely with the multifarious population, the Ton- gas, the Stickeens, the Kakes, the Haidas, the Sit- kas, the Kootnoos, and the Chilcats. Climate and other c-ii'cumstances have indeed produced some tlilTerences of manners and customs between the Aleuts, the Koloschians, and the interior conti- nental tribes, but all of them are manifestly of Mongol origin. Although they have preserved no common traditions, all alike indulge in tastes, wear a physiognomy, and are imbued with senti- ments peculiarly noticed in China and Japan." The Eskimos proper differ but little from the southern and inland tribes of Alaska generally ; JADE MOUNTAIN. 217 few of them are ever seen soutli of Norton Sound or the mouths of the Yukon. Their home is in the Arctic portion of the Territorj', bordering the Frozen Ocean and Behring Strait. It is obvious that climatic influences create among them diffei- ent manners and customs, causing also a slightly different physical formation, but otherwise they seem to be of the same race as the people of the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, or indeed of any of the several groups and of the mainland lying to the south. That these Eskimos resemble physically the Norwegian Lapps, to be met with at about the same latitude in the eastern hemi- sphere, is very obvious to one who has carefully .observed both races in their homes. This similai'- ity extends in rather a remarkable degree also to their dress as well as domestic habits. In the region they occupy, near the source of the Kowak River, which empties into Kotzebue Sound by several mouths after a course of two or three hundred miles, is Jade Mountain, com-' posed, as far as is known, of a light green stone which gives it the name it bears. An exploring party from the United States steamer Corwin brought away one or two hundred pounds of the mineral in the summer of 1884. The hardness and tenacity of these specimens are said to have been remarkable, as well as the exquisite polish which they exhibited when treated by the lapi- dist. Jade Mountain must be in latitude 68° north, between two and three hundred miles south of the Yukon above the line of Behring Strait. 218 THE NEW ELDORADO. Yet the exploring party found the thermometer to register 90° Fah. in the shade, while their great- est annoyance was caused by the mosquitoes. The Kowak abounds in sulmon, pike, and white-fish. " The 'color' of gold," says the printed report of the expedition, " was obtained almost everywhere." Nearly eighty species of birds were collected, tliough the party were absent from the Corwin but about seven weeks. The white spruce was found to be the largest and most abundant tree, and the inhabitants all Eskimos. The remarkable museum of ancient arms, dresses, wooden and skin armor, and domestic utensils exhibited in New York city in 1868 by Mr. Edward G. Fast, and which was collected by. him while in the employment of our government among the people of the Northwest, revealed some very important facts as to their history. The col- lection proved clearly that two or three hundred years ago these natives of Alaska enjoyed a much higher degree of civilization than is exhibited by their descendants to-day. That they have deteri- orated in industry, steadiness, and ability generally is obvious. The art of forging must have been known to them in the earlier times, as shown in this collection of admirable weapons, clearly of native manufacture and of most excellent finish. The art of carving was possessed by them in far greater perfection than they exhibit in our day, while the skillfully made dresses of tanned leather worn by the ancient Aleuts nearly equal those in which the warriors were clad who accompanied THE ESKIMOS. 219 Cortez and Pizarro when they landed on this con- tinent. Mr. Fast was singularly fortunate in se- curing whole suits of armor, masks, and war im- plements for his unique museum of Alaskan antiquities. In association with Russians and Americans for a century, more or less, these abo- rigines have readily adopted the vices of civiliza- tion, so to speak, and have sacrificed most of their own better qualities. Indolence generally has taken the place of the warlike habits and stead- iness of purpose which must have characterized them as a people to a large degree before the whites came with firearms and fire-water. How forcibly is the law of mutability impressed upon us ! From a state of comparative power and im- portance, this people has dwindled to a condition simply foreshadowing oblivion. Rev. W. W. Kirby, a missionary who reached the valley of the Yukon by way of British Colum- bia, fully describes the Eskimos whom he mingled with in the northwestern part of the Territory. He considers them to be more intelligent than the average Alaska Indians, and far superior to them in physical appearance, the women especially being much fairer and more pleasing to look upon. They are more addicted to the use of tobacco than are these southern tribes, often smoking to great excess, and in the most peculiar manner, swallowing every swiff from their pipes, until they become so poisoned as to fall senseless upon the ground, where they remain in this condition for ten or fifteen minutes. They dress very neatly with 220 THE NEW ELDORADO. deerskins, wearing the hair on the outside. The men have heavy beards, shave the crown of their heads, leaving the sides and back growth to fall freely about the face and neck. Mr. Kiiby is obliged to censure the thievish propensities of this people, which was a source of great trouble and considerable loss to him. Speaking of his high northern latitude when among the Eskimt)S. he says: "As we advanced farther northward, tlie sun did not leave us at all. Freqiiently did I see him describe a complete circle in the heavens." As far south as Pyramid Harbor, latitude 59° 11' north, the sun does not set in midsummer until about two o'clock in the moi'ning, rising again four hours later. Even during these four sunless hours fine print can be read on the ship's deck without the aid of any other than the natural light. Mr Kirby found the Indians of the Yukon valley to be rather a fierce and turbulent people, more like our Western Indians than any other tribes whom he met. Their country is in and about latitude 65° north, and beginning at the Mackenzie River, in British Columbia, runs through Alaska to Behring Strait. They were formerly very numerous, but have frequently been at war with the Eskimos north of them, and have thus been sadly reduced in numbers, though they are still a strong and powerful people. There is a singular system of social division recognized among them, termed respectively Chit-sa, Nate-sa, and Tanges-at-sa, faintly repre- YUKON MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 221 senting the idea of aristocracy, the middle class, and the poorer order of our civilization. There is another peculiarity in this connection, it being the rule for a man not to marry in his own, but to take a wife from either of the other classes. Thus a Chit-sa gentleman will marry a Tanges- at-sa peasant without hesitation ; the offspring in every case belonging to the class to which the mother is related. This arrangement has had a most beneficial effect in allaying the deadly feuds formerly so frequent among neighboring tribes, and which have been the cause of so reducing their memorial strength by sanguinary conflicts. CHAPTER XVI. Fort Wrangel. — Plenty of Wild Game. — Natives do not caro for Soldiers, but have a Wholesome Fear of Gunboats. — Mode of Trading. — Girls' School and Home. — A Deadly Tragedy. — Native Jewelry and Carving. — No Totem-Poles for Sale. — Missionary Enterprises. — Progress in Educating Natives. — Various Denominations Engaged in the Missionary Work. We prefer to think it was to see the sun rise that we got up so early on arriving at Fort Wran- gel, and not because of the torturing fact that our berth was too short at both ends, and kept us in a chronic state of wakefulness and cramp. The distance passed over in coming hither from Vic- toria was about eight hundred miles. The place, having about five hundred inhabitants, is advan- tageously situated on an island at the mouth of the Stickeen River, which rises in British Colum- bia and has a length of nearly two hundred and fifty miles. There is here an excellent and ca- pacious harbor, surrounded by grand mountains, while lofty snow-crowned summits more inland break the sky-line in nearly all directions, — moun- tain towering above mountain, until the view is lost among far-away peaks, blue and indistinct. This elevated district contains wild goats, with now and then a grizzly bear, fiercest of his tribe, while in its ravines and valleys the little mule- deer, the brown bear, the fox, the land-otter, the FORT WRANGEL. 223 mink, and various other animals abound. As to the small streams and river courses which thread the territory, they are, as all over this country, crovrded with fish, the salmon prevailing. The inland haunts within twenty leagues of the coast are little disturbed by the natives. The abun- dance of halibut, cod, and salmon at their very doors, as it were, is quite sufficient to satisfy the demands of nature, and it is only when tempted by the white man's gold that the aborigines will leave the coast to go inland in search of pelts and meat, in the form of venison, goat, or bear flesh. The town, consisting of a hundred houses and more, is spread along the shore at the base of a thickly wooded hill, flanked on either side by a long line of low, square, rough-hewn native cabins. A peep into the interior of these was by no means reassuring. Dirt, degradation, and abundance were combined. The few domestic utensils seen appeared never to have been washed, being thick with grease, while the stench that saluted the ol- factories was sickening. There were no chairs, stools, or benches, the men and women sitting upon their haunches, a position which would be a severe trial to a white and afford no rest what- ever, but which is the universal mode of sitting adopted by savage races in all parts of the world. The place was named after Baron Wrangel, gov- ernor of Russian America at the time when it was first settled, in 1834, being then merely a stockade post. After the United States came into possession of the country it was for a short time 224 THE NEW ELDORADO. occupied by our soldiers, but ere long ceased to be held as a military post, the soldiers being with- drtiwn altogether from the Territory. It was soon discovered that the natives cared nothing for the soldiers; they could alvrays get away from them in any exigency by means of their canoes ; but they had, and still have, a wholesome fear of a revenue cutter or a gunboat, which can destroy one of their villages, if necessary, in a few minutes. A steamer can always move very rapidly from place to place among the islands, making her pres- ence felt without delay, when and where it is most needed. At the outset of our taking possession of Alaska, an example of decision and power was necessary to put the natives in proper awe of the government, and it followed quickly upon an un- provoked outrage committed by the aborigines. One of their villages, not far from Sitka, was promptly shelled and destroyed in half an hour. Since then there has been no trouble of conse- quence with any of the tribes, who have profound respect for the strong arm, and to speak plainly, like most savage races, for nothing else. Fort Wrangel has two or three large stores for the sale of goods to the natives, and for the pur- chase of furs, Indian curiosities, and the like. It is also the headquarters of the gold miners, who gather here when tlie season is no longer fit for out-of-door work at the placers. Seeing the natives crowding the stores, it was natural to suppose the traders were driving a good business, but a proprietor explained that these GIRLS' SCHOOL AND HOME. 22;") people were slow buyers, making liim many calls before purchasing. They look an article over three or four different times before concluding they want it ; then its cost is to be considered. The native's squaw comes and approves or disapproves ; the article is discussed with the men's neighbors, and, finally, his resolution having culminated, he goes away to earn the money with which to make the purchase! "Such customers are very trying to our patience," remarked the trader, " but after you once understand their peculiarities it is easy enough to get along with them." A truly charitable enterprise has been estab- lished here ; we refer to the Indian Girls' School and Home, supported by the American Board of Missions, where the pupils are taught industrial duties appertaining to the domestic associations of their sex, as well as the ordinary branches of a common school education. No effort, we were told, is made to enforce any special tenets of faith, but these girls are taught morality, which is prac- tical religion. The example is much needed here, both among these native people and the whites. To show what strict adherents these Alaskans are to tribal conventionalities, we can do no better than relate a singular occurrence, for (he trutli of which Dr. Jackson is our authority. " Near the Hoonah Mission, a short time ago, a deadly tragedy took place. A stalwuil native came into the village and imbibed too freely of hoochinoo. "Walking along the street he saw a young married girl with whom he was greatly in- 226 THE NEW ELDORADO. fatuated. The girl was afraid to meet bim and turning ran to ber bouse. The man gave pursuit and gained entrance to the house. All the in- mates escaped in terror. Tbe desperado boldly continued bis hunt for the woman, and the hus- band of the woman with a few friends took refuge in bis own house again. Tbe ravishing fiend re- turned, and demanding admittance battered in the door with an axe, and as he entered was shot and instantly killed. The friends of the dead man met in council, and according to their cus- tom demanded a life for bis life. The husband and protector of his wife's virtue gave himself into the custody of bis enemies and was uuceremoni- ously killed ! " The production of native jewelry is a specialty here, and some of tbe silver ornaments of Indian manufacture are really very fine, exhibiting great skill and originality, if not refined taste. Their carvings in ivory are exceedingly curious, skill- ful, and attractive, especially upon walrus teeth, whereon tbey will imitate precisely any pattern that is given to them, with a patient fidelity equaling tbe Chinese. The native designs are far tbe most desirable, however, being not only typical of tbe people and locality, but original and fitting. The time devoted to a piece of work seems to be of no consideration to a native, and forms no criterion as regards tbe price demanded for it. From tbe sale of these fancy articles tbe aborigines receive annually a considerable sum of money. It is indeed surprising bow they can get NATIVE CARVINGS. 227 such results without better tools. With some ar- tistic instruction they would be cupable of produ- cing designs and combinations of a choice char- acter, and which would command a market among the most fastidious purchasers. Their present somewhat rude ornaments iiave attracted so much attention that two or three stores in San Fran- cisco keep a variety of them for sale. But it is the charm of having purchased such souvenirs on the spot which forms half their value. Speaking of these souvenirs, the author was shown some stone carvings at Victoria, on the pas- sage from Puget Sound northward, which were of native manufacture, and thought to be idols. It was afterwards learned that these were the works of the Haidas of Queen Charlotte Island, about seventy or eighty miles north of Vancouver Island. There is here a slate-stone, quite soft when first quarried, which is easily carved into any design or fanciful figure, but which rapidly hardens on exposure to the air. The stone is oiled when the carving is completed, and this gives it the appearance of age, as well as makes it dark and smooth. The natives of this north- west coast do not worship idols, therefore these are not objects of that character, though they are curious and interesting. It is among these Haidas that the practice of tattooing most prevails, and they still cover their bodies with designs of birds, fishes, and animals, some of which are most hide- ous caricatures. This tribe is said to be the most addicted to gambling of any on the coast, the 228 THE NEW ELDORADO. demoralizing effect of which is to be seen in vari- ous forms among them. Fort Wrangel has several demon-like totem- poles. There is a sort of fascination attached to these awkward objects which leads one carefully to examine and constantly to talk about them. Before some cabins there are two of the weird things, covered with devices representing both the male and female branches of the family which occupies the cabin. It was found that much more importance was attached to these em- blems here than had been manifested farther south. An interested excursionist who came up on our steamer, wishing to possess himself of a totem-pole, found one at last of suitable size for transportation, and tried to purchase it, but dis- covered that no possible sum which he could offer would be considered as an equivalent for it. All of his subsequtmt efforts in this line proved" equally unsuccessful so far as totem-poles were concerned, and yet we remember that they are to be found in many of our public museums through- out the States, and we have seen large ones lying upon the ground moss covered and neglected. It appeared to be only the rich native who indulged in an individual totem-pole. The cost of one, say forty or fifty feet long, carved after the orthodox fashion, with the free feast given at all such rais- ings, is said to be over a thousand dollars. The more lavish the expenditure on these occasions, the greater the honor achieved by the host. There is a successful day-school established here MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES. 229 besides the Indian Girls' Home, which is accom- plishing much good in educating the rising gener- ation, and in introducing civilized manners and cus- toms. The children evince a fair degree of natural aptitude, learning easily to read and write, but are a little dull, we were told, in arithmetic. Adult, uneducated natives, however, are quick enough at making all necessary calcuhitions in their trades with the whites, either as purchas- ers of domestic goods, or in selling their peltries. The Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Mo- ravians, Quakers, Baptists, and Roman Catholics all have missionary stations in different parts of the country. Schools have also been established for the general instruction of whites and natives at Juneau, Sitka, Wrangel, Jackson, and other local- ities under direction of our government officials, and proper teachers have been supjDlied, the whole system being under the supervision of a compe- tent head, Mrs. J. G. Hyde, who teaches school at Juneau, in her last year's report, says ; " Many of the scholars, who, when the term began last September, could not speak a word of English, can now not only speak, but read and write it. They can also spell correctly and are beginning in the first principles of arithmetic. To the casual ob- server perhaps nothing seems more absurd than the attempt by any process to enlighten the clouded intellect of this benighted people. Indeed, the most squalid street Arabs might be considered a thousand times more desirable as pupils. But a few days' work among and for them convinces the 230 THE NEW ELDORADO. teacher that she has not a boisterous, uncontrol- lable lot of children, but as much the opposite as it is possible to imagine. Children who habitu- ally refrain from playing during intermission that they may learn some lesson or how to do some fancy work are not to be classed with the wild, wayward, or vicious. Boys who, when their regu- lar lessons are done, are continually designing and drawing cannot be said to be entirely devoid of talent worthy of cultivation. While the develop- ment must be slow in most cases, there are a few who would compare favorably with white children. Their abnormal development of the faculty of form gives them an inestimable advantage over their more favored pale-face brothers in acquiring the art of writing and drawing. Their mind acts very slowly, but they make up in tenacity of purpose what they lack in aptness." At Sitka there is an industrial school which is very successful training native boys and girls in mechanical and domestic occupations, and of which we will speak in detail in a further chapter. CHAPTER XVII. Schools in Alaska — Natives Ambitious to learn. — Wild Flow- ers. — Native Grasses. — Boat Racing. — Avaricious Natives. — The Candle Fish.— Gold Mines Inland. — Chinese Gold- Diggers. — A Ledge of Garnets. — Belief in Omens. — More Schools required. — The Pestiferous Mosquito. — Mosquitoes and Bears. — Alaskan Fjords. — The Patterson Glacier. The general plan of this school at Wrangel struck us as being the most promising means of improvement that could possibly be devised and carried forward among the aborigines of Alaska. We were informed that fourteen government day schools were in operation in the Territory, under the able supervision of tliat true philanthropist, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States General Agent for Education in the Territory. The natives al- most universally welcome and gladly improve the advantages afforded them for instruction, espe- cially as regards their children. Many individual cases with which the author became acquainted were of much more than ordinary interest ; indeed, it was quite touching to observe the eagerness of young natives to gain intellectual culture. Surely such incentive is worthy of all encouragement. One could not but contrast the earnestness of these untutored aborigines to make the most of every opportunity for learning with the neglected opportunities of eight tenths of our pampered cliil- 232 THE NEW ELDORADO. dren of civilization. Here is the true field of mis- sionary work, the work of education. In the neighborhood of Fort Wrangel plenty of sweet wild flowers were observed in bloom, some especially of Alpine character were very interest- ing, — " wee, modest, crimson-tipped flowers," — while the tall blueberry bushes were crowded with wholesome and appetizing fruit, with here and there clusters of the luscious salmon-berry, yellow as gold, and so ripe as to melt in the mouth. At the earliest advent of spring the flowers burst forth in this latitude with surprising forwardness, a phenomenon also observable in northern Sweden and Norway. Such white clover heads are rarely seen anywhere else, large, well spread, and fra- grant as pinks. Among the ferns was an abun- dance of the tiny-leaved maiden's hair species, with delicate, chocolate stems. The soil also abounds in well-developed grasses, timothy grow- ing here to four feet and over in height, and the nutritious, stocky blue grass even higher. Veg- etation during the brief summer season runs riot, and makes the most of its opportunity. Although south of Sitka, Fort Wrangel is colder in winter and warmer in summer, on account of its distance from the influence of the thermal ocean current already described. Sometimes a purse is made up among the visit- ors here and offered as a prize to the natives in boat-racing. A number of long canoes, each with an Indian crew of from ten to sixteen, take part in the aquatic struggle, which proves very amusing, AVARICE. 233 not to say exciting. The native boats are flat-bot- tomed, and glide over the surface of the water with the least possible displacement. An Alaskan is seen at his best when acting as a boatman ; he takes instinctively to the paddle from his earliest youth, and is never out of training for boat-ser- vice so long as he lives and is able to wield an oar. No university crew could successfully compete with these semi-civilized canoeists. Well-trained naval boat-crews have often been distanced by them. The avariciousness of the natives is exhibited in their readiness to sell almost anything they pos- sess for money, even to parting with their wives and daughters to the miners for base purposes; though, as we have seen, they do draw the line at totem-poles. It should be understood that tliese queerly carved posts are emblems mosth^ of the past ; that is to say, although the natives carefully preserve those which now exist, few fresh ones are raised by them. Toy effigies representing these emblems are carved and offered for sale to curio- hunters at nearly all of the villages on the coast, and as a rule are readily disposed of. There is very little if any use in Alaska for artificial light during the summer season, while nature's grand luminary is so sleepless ; but wdien tliese aborigines do require a lamp for a special purpose, the}' have the most inexpensive and in- genious substitute ever ready at hand. The water supplies them with any quantity of the ulikon or candle-fish, about the size of our largest New England smelts, and which are full of oil. They 234 THE NEW ELDORADO. are small in body, but over ten inches in length. They are prepared by a drying process and are stored away for use, serving both for food and for liglit. When a match is applied to one end of the dried ulikon, it \A'ill burn until the whole is quite consumed, clear and bright to the last, giv- ing a light equal to three or four candles. So rich are these fishes in oil that alcohol will not preserve ihem, a discoA^ery which was made in pre- paring specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. When the Indians of the interior visit the coast, as many of them do annually, they are sure to lay in a stock of candle-fish to take back with them for use in the lone: Arctic nifjht. This fish runs at certain seasons of the year in great schools from the sea, invading the fresh-water rivers near their mouths, when the natives rake them on shore by the bushel and preserve them as described. When boiled they produce an oil which hardens like butter, and which the Alaskans eat as we do that article, with this important difference, that they prefer their oil-butter to be quite rancid be- fore they consider it at its best, while civilized taste requires exactly the opposite condition, namely, perfect freshness. Putrid animal matter would certainl}' poison a white man, but the Alaskan Indians seem to thrive upon it. Some inland districts, which are most easily reached from this point, are rich in gold-bearing quartz and placer mines, but especially in the latter. We were credibly informed that over three million dollars' worth of gold was shipped INLAND GOLD MINES. 235 from here in a period of five years, tliougli no really organized and persistent effort at mining had been made, or rather we should say no modern facilities had been employed in bringing about this result. The machinery for reducing gold-bearing quartz has not yet been carried far inland because of the great difficulty of transporta- tion. Gold quartz ledges are numerous and quite undeveloped in the neighborhood of Wrangel. The well-known Cassiar mines are situated just over the Alaska boundary on the east side in British Columbia, but the gold discoveries in Alaska proper are proving so much more profit- able that those of the Cassiar district have ceased to attract the miners. There is a curious fact con- nected with these deposits of the precious metal in the region approached by the way of Wrangel. In more than one instance, as reported by Captain White of the United States Revenue Service, placer gold, which is usually sought for in the dry beds of river courses and in low lands, is here found on the tops of mountains a thousand feet high, where the largest nuggets of the precious metal yet found in the Northwest have been obtained. Many of the lumps of pure gold picked up in this region have weighed thirty ounces and L over. The idea of finding placer deposits on the L tops of mountains is a novelty in gold prospecting, ^ The Stickeen River, which is the largest in the Biouthern part of the Territory, has its mouth in Btlie harbor of Fort Wrangel, discoloring the waters ^for a long distance with its chalk-like, frothy flow, 236 THE NEW ELDORADO. a characteristic of all Alaska streams into which the waters of the snowy mountains and glaciers empty. The river is navigable for light-draft stern- wheel steamers to Glenora, a liundred and fifty miles from its mouth. After reaching this place, the way to the Cassiar mines is overland for an equal distance by a difficult mountain trail, it being necessary to transport all provisions and material on the backs of natives, who have learned to demand good pay for this laborious service. The interior upon this route is broken into a suc- cession of sharply-defined mountains, separated by narrow and deep valleys, similar to the islands off the mainland. This is so decided a feature as to lead Mr. George Davidson of the United States Coast Survey to remark : " The topography of the Alexander Archipelago is a type of the in- terior. A submergence of the mountain region of the maiidand would give a similar succession of islands, separated by deep narrow fjords." The sandy bed and banks of the Stickeen are heavily charged with particles of gold, ten dollars per day each being frequently realized by gangs of men who manipulate the same only in the most primi- tive fashion. Numbers of Chinamen availed them- selves of this opportunity until they were expelled by both the whites and the natives. The poor " Heathen Chinee " is unwelcome everywhere outside of his own Celestial Empire, and yet close observation shows, as we have already said, that these Asiatics have more good qualities than the average foreigners who seek a home on our shores. A LEDGE OF GARNETS. 237 The scenery of the Stickeen River is pronounced by Professor Muir to be superb and grand beyond description. Three hundred ghiciers are known to drain into its swift running waters, over one hundred of which are to be seen between f\)rt Wrangel and Glenora. Near the moiitli of tlie river is the curious ledge of garnet crystals, which furnishes stones of considerable beauty and bril- liancy, though not sufficiently clear to be used as gems. Choice pieces are secured by visitors as cabinet specimens, however, and can be had, if desired, by the bushel, at a trifling cost. Tliey occur in a matrix of slate-like formation, some so large as to weigh two or three ounces, and dimin- ishing from that size the\' are found as small as a pin-head. It requires three days of hard steam- ing against the current to ascend the river as far as Glenora from the mouth, whereas the same distance returning, down stream, has frequently been made in eight or ten hours. So necessarily rapid is the descent of the Stickeen as to make the downward tiip quite hazardous, except in charge of a careful pilot. In the neighborhood of Fort Wrangel there are some very active lx)iling springs, which the natives utilize, as do the New Zealanders at Ohinemutu, by cooking their food in them. In the crater of Goreloi, on Burned Island, is a vast boiling spring, or rather a boiling lake, which has never been intelligently described, and which is represented by those who have seen it to be unique. This strange body of water is eighteen 238 THE NEW ELDORADO. miles in circumference. Tlie natives are well supplied with legends relating to these remarka- ble natural phenomena, including the extinct and active volcanoes. Genii and dreaded spirits are supposed by them to dwell in the extinct volca- noes, and to make their homes in the mountain caves. They believe that good spirits will not harm them, and therefore do not address them- selves to such, but the evil ones must by some active means be propitiated, and to them their sole attention is given, or, in other words, their religious ceremonies when analyzed are simply devil worship. All of the tribes, if we except the Aleuts, are held in abject fear by their con- jurers or medicine-men, who seemed to us to be the most anant knaves conceivable, not possess- ing one genuine quality to sustain their assump- tions except that of bold effrontery. This seems particularly strange, as the aborigines of the North- west are more than ordinarily* intelligent, com- pared with other half-civilized races, both in this and other lands. They are firm believers in signs and omens. When Rev. Mr. Willard and wife first came to the Chilcat country the winter was one of deep snows and stormy weather. The natives said that the weather-gods were angry at the new ways of the missionaries. A child had been buried instead of burned on the funeral pyre in accordance with their customs. The mother of the child became alarmed and felt that her life was in jeopardy for permitting her child to be buried, so she kindled BELIEF IN OMENS. 239 a fire over the grave in order to appease the gods and bring fair weatlier. At school the children had played new games and mocked wild geese. So the girls of the Sitka Training School brought on a very cold spell of weather by playing a game called " cat's-back," and which caused a commo- tion at the native village. A white man out with some natives picked up some large clam-shells on the beach to bring home with him ; the natives remonstrated with him, saying that " a big storm may overtake us, our canoe might capsize, and all be drowned the next time we go on the water." In tempestuous weather the native propitiates the spirit of the storm by leaving a portion of tobacco in the rock-caves alongshore, but in calm weather he smokes the weed himself. It was noticed, however, that the aboriginal Alaskans were little given to the use of tobacco, less, in- deed, than any semi-civilized race whom the writer has ever visited. . Governor Swineford, in his annual report to the department at Washington, dated 1886, says : " I have no reason to change or modify the estimate I had formed on very short acquaintance of the character of the native Alaskans. They are a very superior race intellectually as compared with the people generally known as North American Indians, and are as a rule industrious and provi- dent, being wholly self-sustaining. They are shrewd and natural-born traders. Some are good carpenters, others are skillful workers in wood and metals. Not a few among them speak the English 240 THE NEW ELDORADO. language, and some of the young men and women have learned to read and write, and nearly all are anxious forthe education of their children." Our government should act upon this hint and freely establish the UK^ans of education among the Alaskans. True, it is systematically engaged in promoting the cause in various ways, though not very energetically. Congress having voted forty- five thousand dollars to be expended for the pur- pose during the year 1889. " School-houses are the republican line of fortifications," said Horace Mann. '' Among those best known," says Dr. Shel- don Jackson, speaking of the native tribes, "the highest ambition is to build American homes, pos- sess American furniture, dress in American clothes, adopt the American style of living, and be Amer- ican citizens. They ask no special favors from the American government, no annuities or help, but simply to be treated as other citizens, protected by the laws and courts, and in common with all others furnished with schools for their children." It was made the duty of the Secretary of the In- terior, by the act providing a civil government for Alaska, to make needful and proper provision for the education of all children of school age witliout reference to race or color, and all true friends of progress and humanity will urge the matter until a common school is established in every native tribe and settlement having a sufficient number of children. We were told that tliere is good* hunting inland a short distance from Fort Wrangel ; winter, THE UBIQUITOUS MOSQUITO. 241 however, is tlie oiih' season when this can be suc- cessfully pursued near to the coast in the wild dis- tricts. The marshy " tundra " is then frozen and covered with snow, making it possible to cross. This is the period of the year also when the na- tives of the interior prosecute their most success- ful trapping and hunting, coming down to the coast by the river in the summer to sell their pelts and to purchase stores of the white traders. The Russians have long since taught the aborig- ines to depend much upon tea, but they care very little for coffee. Rifles are greatly prized by them, and though they are contraband nearly every In- dian manages to possess one and knows how to use it most effectually. They are very econom- ical of ammunition, and never throw away a shot by carelessness. The pestiferous and ubiquitous mosquito is not absent from these high latitudes. Tiiey are very troublesome during the short summer season in northern Alaska as well as among the islands of the Alexander Archipelago. Strange that so frail an insect should have reached as far north as man has penetrated. Even while climbing the frosty glaciers the excursionist will find both hands re- quired to prevent their biting his face from fore- head to chin. If they are a persistent pest in equatorial latitudes, they are ten times more ven- omous and voracious in these regions during cer- tain seasons. The author has experienced this fact also in Norway at even a mucli higher latitude than he visited in the western hemisphere. The 242 THE NEW ELDORADO. bites of these mosquitoes fortunately, like all flesh wounds in this northern region, heal quickly, ven- omous as they are, owing to the liberally ozon- ized condition of the atmosphere as well as the absence of disease germs and organic dust. It is said that when the otter hunters or others among the aborigines get wounded in any way, their treatment is simple and efficacious, and however severe the wound may be, it is nearly always quickly healed. The victim of the acci- dent puts himself uncomplainingly on starvation diet, living upon an astonishingly small amount of food for a couple of weeks, and the cure follows rapidly. Frederick Schwatka, in his excellent book en- titled " Along Alaska's Great River," tells how the mosquitoes conquer and absolutely destroy the bears, and it seems that the native dogs are some- times overcome by them in some exposed districts of the Yukon valley. The great brown bear, having exhausted the roots and berries on one mountain side, cross the valley to another range, or rather makes the attempt to do so, but is not al- ways successful. Covered by a heavy coat of hair on his body, his eyes, nose, and ears are the only vulnerable points of attack for the mosquitoes, and hereon they congregate, surrounding tin; bear's head in clouds. As he reaches a swampy spot they increase in vigor and numbers, until tiie ani- mal's forepaws become so occupied in striving to keep them off that he cannot walk. Then Bruin becomes enraged, and, bear-like, rises on his hind ALASKAN FJORDS. 243 legs to fight. It is a mere question of time after this stage is reached until the bear's eyes become so swollen from the innumerable bites that he can- not see, and in a blind condition he wanders help- lessly about until he gets mired and starves to death. The cinnamon and black bears are most common, the grizzly being less frequently met with. The great white polar bears are not found south of Behring Strait, though they are numerous on the borders of the Arctic Ocean. At every landing made 'by the steamer on our meandering course among the islands Indians come to the wharves to offer their curios or home- made articles, only valuable as souvenirs of the visit. As they mass themselves here and there, either on the shore or the ship's deck, they form picturesque groups, made up of bucks, squaws, and pajjooses, presenting charming bits of color, while they amuse the stranger by their peculiar physiognomy and manners. During the excur- sion season they must reap quite a harvest by the sale of baskets and various domestic trinkets. After leaving Fort Wrangel we are soon in the wild, picturesque, and sinuous narrows which bear the same name. The water is shallow ; here and there are many dangerous rocks in the channels. Inlets or fjords are often passed, so quiet and invit- ing in their appearance as to tempt the traveler to diverge from the usual route. Some of these marine nooks are deep enough to float the largest ship, yet far down through the clear water one can see gardens of zoophytes invaded by myriads 244 THE NEW ELDORADO. of curiously shaped lisli, large and small. The bottom of these waters, like the land and sea of Alaska, teems with animal life. A few hours' dredging would supply the most enthusiastic nat- uralist with ample material for a year's study. In the many stops of the steamer to take or deliver freight, brief boat excursions can be en- joyed. On one of these occasions we saw the first live octopus, or devil - fish, with two of its fatal arms encircling a small fish, which, after squeezing out its life, ^he octopus would devour. The one which was seen on this occasion was not very large, the rounded body being, perhaps, eighteen or twenty inches across, but its vicious looking tentacles, six in number, two of which securely clasped its victim, were each three times that length. The large eyes seemed out of pro- portion to the animal's size, and were placed on one side like those of the flounder. The Patterson glacier is the first of the many which come into view on this part of the voyage, but they multiply rapidly as we steam north- ward. It is vast in in-oportinns, though partly hidden behind the moraine which it has raised. Three or four miles back from its front rises a wall of solid ice nearly a thousand feet in height. The whole was rendered marvelously beautiful, lighted up as we saw it by bright noonday sun- shine, which brought out its frosty and opaline colors of white, scarlet, and blue, in brilliant array. Little has been written about the Patterson gla- cier, but it is one of the most remarkable in size GLA CIERS. 245 and other characteristics in all Alaska. Vessels from San Francisco have taken whole cargoes of ice from these Alaskan glaciers and transported the same for use in California. There seems to be no reason why the gathering of such a supply should not be both possible and profitable, though ice can now be so easily manufactured by artificial means. The fact that these glaciers are slowly decreas- ing in size leads to the conclusion that the ex- treme Arctic temperature in the north is slowly growing to be less intense. Intelligent captains of whaleships have made careful observations to a like effect. It was once tropical in the Yukon valley, — of that there is evidence enough; who can say that it may not again be so a few thou- sand years hence ? CHAPTER XVIII. Norwegian Scenery. — Lonely Navigation. — The Marvels of Takou Inlet. — Hundreds of Icebergs. — Home of the Frost King. — More Gold Deposits. — Snowstorm among the Peaks. — Juneau the Metropolis of Alaska. — Auk and Takou In- dians. — Manners and Customs. — Spartan Habits. — Dis- posal of Widows. — Duels. — Sacrificing Slaves. — Hideous Customs still prevail. Before reaching Juneau we explored Takou Inlet, where there are two large glaciers, one with a moraine before its foot, the other reaching the deep water with its face, so as to discharge ice- bergs constantly. The bay was well filled with these, some of which were larger than our steamer (tlie Corona), and all were of such intense blue, mingled with dazzling white, as to recall the effect realized in the Blue Grotto of Capri. This berg- producing glacier was corrugated upon its surface in a remarkable manner, being utterly impassable to human feet. It was nearly a mile in width and its length indefinite; we doubt if it has ever been explored. A thousand ice and snow fed streams poured into the bay from the surrounding moun- tains, which completely walled in the broad sheet of water, so sprinkled with ice-sculpture in all manner of shapes. The ceaseless music of falling water was the only noise which broke the silence of the scene. A cavalcade of fleecy clouds, kindly TAKOU INLET. 247 forgetting to precipitate themselves in form of rain, floated over our heads, producing delicate ligiits and shades, with creeping shadows upon the surround- ing mountains. The steamer's abrupt whistle was echoed with mocking hoarseness from the sur- rounding cliffs, causing the myriads of white- winged wild fowl to rise from the icebergs until the air was filled with them like snowflakes. How wonderful it was ! A broad clear flood of sun- shine enveloped the whole ; everything seemed so serene, so grand, the sky so blue, and the angels so near. It was all as magnificent as a gorgeous dream, to the thoughtful observer a living poem. Close in to the precipitous cliffs of the myrtle- green hills were inky shadows, which formed the requisite contrast to the crystal clearness of the surroundings. For thousands of years this glacial action has been going on, the story of the earth is so old ; but its beauty is ever young, its loveliness eternal. On our way up Gastineau Channel — the tide- waters of which have a rise and fall of sixteen feet — we have presented to us veritable Norwe- gian scenery, under a pale amethyst sky fringed at the horizon with orange and crimson ; now glid- ing close to precipitous cliffs enlivened by silvery streams leaping down their sides, and now passing the mouths of inlets winding among abrupt moun- tains leading no one knows whither, for there are no maps or charts of these lateral channels. The Indian canoes may have occasionally penetrated them, but never the keel of the white man. On 248 THE NEW ELDORADO. the left stand the tall peaks of Douglas Island, and on the right the jagged Alps of the mainland, both rising to a height of a thousand feet or more, on the continent side backed b}' elevations still more lofty. The Takou River flows into the sea and sfives its name to the neighborhood. Hei'e the Hudson Bay Fur Company established and maintained a trading-post for several years. All this region is famous for its game, such as deer, bears, caribou, wolves, foxes, martens, and minks, together with the abounding big-horn sheep. In place of wool these latter have a coat somewhat like the red deer, and except in the size of their horns they resemble our domestic sheep. We are told that this district is also rich in gold placer mines, and according to Professor Muir it must eventually yield extremely profitable results to in- telligent mining enterprise. In many localities the placers have paid for years, though worked by the most simple means. The experience of Cali- fornia will undoubtedly be repeated in Alaska; the great aggregate of gold which was realized there will be duplicated here. After due thought and personal observation relative to the subject, we are willing to stand or fall upon the correct- ness of this prediction. The result may not come in the next year, or that following, but it will come in the near future. Mining north of 54° 40' is only in its infancy ; its growth has been far more rajiid, however, than it was at the south, both because of the richness of the mines, and be- cause the business of mining is, and will continue to be, done more intelligently. JUNEAU. 249 Just before reacliing Juneau a singular phenom- enon attracted our attention ; it was a furious snowstorm among the mountain peaks, while all about us was quite calm and pleasant. The thick clouds of snow Avere driven hither and thither, from one pinnacle to another, writhing and twisting like a cyclone or water-spout at sea. It was a curious contrast, the storm raging in those far upper cur- rents, while we enjoyed a gracious wealth of sun- shine in a temperature of 65° Fah. Jutieau, located one hundred and fifty miles southeast of Sitka, and about three hundred north of Fort Wi'angel, is already a considerable mining centre, with a population of about four thousand, situated not far from Takou district, and is the depot for the rich quartz and placer mines which are located in the region back of it. The site of the town is picturesque, being at the base of an abrupt mountain cliff which is decked with spark- ling cascades. We were told that there is a rise and fall of twenty- four feet in the tide at the wharf of Juneau, but think perhaps eighteen feet would be nearer correct. The winter population is swelled by the influx of miners when the placers are not worked owing to snow and ice. Truth compels us to say that the residents here, of both sexes, are far from being of a desirable class. The Indians of this vicinity are of the Auk and Takou tribes; good traders and good hunters, but enemies of each other, though not given to open hostility. The native women, as if not content witii the nat- ural ugliness which has been liberally bestowed 250 THE NEW ELDORADO. upon tbem by Providence, besmear their faces with a compound of seal-oil and lampblack, but for what possible reason, except that, it is aboriginal Alaska fashion, one cannot divine. It is said that this is a sort of mourning for departed relations or friends ; but the hilarity of those thus marked was anything but an indication of sorrow. We can well remember Yokohama wives, with blackened teeth and shaved eyebrows, who looked, if possi- ble, a degree worse than these Alaskan women. In the latter case, however, the wives confessedly sought to make themselves hideous to prevent jeal- ousy on the part of their husbands ; but the native women here do not assign any plausible reason for smooching themselves in this offensive manner. When their faces are washed, a circumstance of rare occurrence, tl)ey are as white as the avenige of white people who are exposed to an out-of-door life. It is not the practice of the aborigines of either sex to wash themselves with water. They are sometimes seen to besmear their faces and hands with oil, which they carefully wipe off with a wisp of dry grass, or other substitute for the towel of civilization. The effect is to make the features shine like varnished mahogany ; but as to cleanliness obtained by such a process, that does not follow. If it were possible to discover a soap mine here there might be some hopes of introducing among the natives that condition which common accepta- tion places next to godliness. A traveling com- panion remarked that although milk and honey FEMALE EMBELLISHMENTS. 251 could not be said to flow in tliis neighborhood, oil does. Many of the women, like those of the South Sea and the Malacca Straits, wear nose rings and glittering bracelets, while they go about with bare legs and feet. The author has seen all sorts of rude decorations employed by savage races, but never one which seemed quite so ridiculous or so deforming as the plug which many of these women of Alaska wear thrust through their under lips. The plug causes them to drool incessantly through the artificial aperture, though it is partially stopped by a piece of bone, ivory, or wood, formed like a large cuff-button, with a flat-spread portion in- side to keep it in position. This practice is com- menced in youth, the plug being increased in size as the wearer advances in age, so that when she becomes aged her lower lip is shockingly deformed. It is gratifying to be able to say that this custom is becoming less and less in use among the rising generation, and the same may be said as to tattoo- ing the chin and cheeks. The hands and feet of the women are so small as to be noticeable in that respect. The girls and boys endure great physical neg- lect in their youth, so that only the strongest are able to survive their childhood. It was surprising to see children of tender age of both sexes clothed only in a single cotton shirt, reaeliing to their knees, bare-legged, bare-footed, and bare-headed, yet apparently quite comfortable, while our woolen clothes and waterproofs were to us indispensable. 252 THE NEW ELDORADO. We wore told that in infancy these children are dipped every morning into the sea, without regard to the temperature, or season of the year, com- mencino; the operation when they are four weeks old. This heroic, Spartan treatment of the bath ■will probably harden, if it does not kill, but un- doubtedly the latter result is the more likely of the two. The adults of some of the tribes break holes in the ice in midwinter, and bathe with marvelous fortitude, not for purposes of cleanli- ness, but declaring that it makes them " brave and strong, able to resist the cold, and to live long." The next hour, however, they may be found sit- ting on their hams as close to the fire in the mid- dle of their un ventilated cabins as they can get, closely wrapped in blankets, head and all. The prevalence among them of rheumatism and con- sumption shows that Nature cannot be outraged with impunity even by half-civilized Alaskans. The natives do not seem to know anything about medicine, but when seriously ill they call in their shaman or medicine-man, and submit to his wild and senseless incantations, a process which would drive a civilized patient distracted. Fifty years ago an epidemic of small-pox swept away one third of the population of this part of the North Pacific coast, besides which, from various causes, the number in the several tribes is steadily decreasing. Vaccination having been introduced, a second visit of the dreaded disease just men- tioned was accompanied with a very much smaller fatality. A scourge known as black measles is a RUM THE NATIVE'S BANE. 2;33 frequent visitor among the youthful Alaskans, and is quite as fatal as small-pox. Strong efforts are made by our government oflBcials to keep intoxicating liquors out of the Territory, and the law makes them strictly con- traband, but it is no more diflBeult or impossible to smuggle in Alaska than it is in New York or Boston. There are plenty of irresponsible whites ready to make money out of the aborigines. Rum is the native's bane, its effect upon him being sin- gularly fatal ; it maddens him, even slight intoxi- cation means to him delirium and all its conse- quences, wild brutality and utter demoralization. Molasses is sold freely to them, and the Indians have learned how to distill rum from it, so that they secretly produce a vile and potent intoxicant, in spite of all prohibition. When a native husband dies his brother's or sister's son, according to their custom, must marry the widow, but if there is no male relative of the husband's living, the widow may then choose for herself. If the individual who thus falls heir to a widow does not fancy the conditions, he must buy himself off, or fight the widow's nearest male relative. Oftentimes, if the new alliance is par- ticularly disagreeable, the victim escajjcs by pay- ing so much cash or so many blankets. There seems to be no hurt to a native's honor that ]K'cii- niary consideration will not promptly heal. Cor- poral punishment is considered by these aborigines to be a great disgrace, and is very seldom resorted to even with rebellious children. Theft is not 254 THE SEW ELDORADO. looked upon as a crime ; but if discovered, tha thief must make ample restitution ; and when his peculation is known lie promptly does so without question or murmur. They have the duel as a de- cisive means of settling family feuds. When mat- ters have come to the last resort, there is no se- cret about the matter. The two combatants fight publicly with knives, their friends looking on and singing songs while the combat lasts. But these duels, the same as with many other earlier savage practices, are now nearly obsolete. Like our Western Indians, their method of war was the ambush and surprise, and like them they scalped their prisoners and subjected them to savage cru- elties. This also is more of the past than the present, as no open conflicts would now be per- mitted by the United States officials. The natives deck themselves with paint, — yellow ochre, — and look very much like the Sioux and Apache Indians in this respect. A century ago they were armed with flint-capped lances, bows, and arrows, but association with the whites has now supplied them with firearms. The old style of native weapons has consequently disappeared, except the lance with which they hunt the sea-otter. Fire- arms they do not use in this occuj)ation, fearing to frighten away the valuable game altogether. They still manufacture bows and arrows for sale as curiosities to visiting strangers. They pride them- selves upon their accomplishments in singing and dancing, but which to civilized ears and eyes are only the grossest caricatures. In these notes of i SLAVES. 255 the natives we refer to no one tribe, but to the aborigines of Alaska generally. The various tribes of course differ froni each other. Those most in contact with the whites, having abolished many of their ancient habits, have adopted in a certain degree such customs as they see the white people follow. The holding of slaves is still practiced among them. Formerly, as we have said, one or two of these were sacrificed when their owner died, if he was a chief, in order that he might be well attended in the new sphere upon which he was entering ; but this practice also has passed away in most communities, with many other cruelties which were once common. These slaves are gen- erally descendants of parents who were taken in battle during civil wars, though they are also bought and sold for so many otter-skins, or so many blankets. Such persons are always submis- sive, and accept the position in which they find themselves as a matter of course. This enforced servitude will soon be entirely abolished. Female infanticide has not been uncommon with some tribes, but it does not prevail as has been represented by late writers. It is true that there have been cases where mothers, dreading to bring up their girls to such lives of hardship as they have themselves endured, have resorted to this desperate alternative, but careful inquiry did not satisfy us that such a practice now prevails if, indeed, it has not entirely ceased. In common •with nearly all semi-civilized and savage races, the native Alaskans regard their women more in 256 THE NEW ELDORADO. the light of slaves than as help-mates, and nearly all the hard work, except hunting and fisiiiiig, falls to their share. This is not a peculiarity of savage life, after all ; horses and mules are not harder ■worked th;in are women in Germany and various parts of Europe. The writer has seen women carrying hods of bricks and mortar up long lad- ders in Munich, while their husbands drank huge "schooners" of beer and smoked tobacco in the nearest groggery. Here and there among the several tribes, strange, unnatural, hideous customs are still extant, rela- tive- to wives about to become mothers, and as to young girls arriving at the age of puberty. We realize, however, that is not for us to look at this people through the lens of any small circum- scribed moial code, but with kindly, hopeful views, guided by a due consideration of their normal condition. The conventionalities of civil- ization do not apply ; latitude and longitude make broad differences as to what constitutes vice and virtue, reason or uni-eason. Modern instances are inadequate as a criterion of comparison. One who has traveled in many lands has learned to ex- pand his horizon of judgment to accord with his geographical experience. Notwithstanding the light in which the Alas- kan regards his women, there seems to be a uni- versal concession made to them in all matters of trade, wherein they undoubtedly hold the veto power, and in some other respects their domestic BjUthority is promptly acknowledged. Just where POLYGAMOUS WIVES. 257 the line is drawn does not seem to be clear to a stranger. After a native bad sold us some trifle, bis wife in more than one instance came and demanded it back again, carefully refunding the consideration which was given for the same. To this interference the husband seemed forced to submit in silence, — forced by the arbitrary cus- tom of his tribe. We were told that even among themselves an agreement amounted to nothing at all, as they claim the right, and exercise it, of undoing any contract at will, provided the consid- eration which passed is promptly refunded. Even the white traders are obliged to yield to this singular idea to a certain extent, for the sake of peace. The story so often told about polygamous wives, that is women with husbands in the plural, cannot be absolutely denied, but is an exaggera- tion of facts. Such relations we were told did exist, but to no great extent, among the tribes of Alaska. CHAPTER XIX. Aboriginal Dwelliugs. — Mastodous in Alaska. — Few Old Peo pie alive. — Abundance of Rain. — The Wonderful Treadwell Gold Mine. — Largest Quartz Crushing Mill in the World. — Inexhaustible Riches. — Other Gold Mines. — Tlie Great Davidson Glacier. — Pyramid Harbor. — Native Frauds. — The Cliilcats. — Mammoth Bear. — Salmon Canneries. In some portions of the country the aboriginal dwelliiig.s are constructed partly under ground ; this is especially the case in the far north among the Eskimos proper, on the coast of the Polar Sea. Such cabins are entered by a tunnel ten feet long, so low and small as to compel the occupants to creep upon their hands and knees in passing through it. 'J'he tunnel-entrance, which always faces the most favorable point, is covered with a rude shed to protect it from the snow and the severity of the weather. The cabins are conical in form, cov- eretl with turf and mud, a hole being left at the top to permit the smoke to escape. The fire is built in the middle of the apartment on the ground. Around the space left for this purpose is a platform of a few inches in height arranged for living and sleeping upon. At night, in ex- treme cold weather, a flap of skins is so arranged that it can be drawn over the ojicning in the roof which serves as a chimney, and thus, the entrance being also closed, the occupants become hermeti- MASTODONS. • 259 cally sealed, as it were, thoroughly outraging all our modern ideas of ventihition. Twelve or fifteen persons are often found together in such a cabin with its one room, where the decencies of life are utterly ignored, and where the stench to civilized nostrils is really something dreadful to encounter. This description refers to the winter homes of the people, where they hibernate like some species of wild animals, but for the milder portion of the year the Eskimos are nomadic, traveling hither and thither, seeking the most favorable locations for hunting and fishing, while living in rudely constructed camps. They use tents adapted for this itinerant life, made from prepared walrus hides supported by a light framework of wooden poles. The more thrifty supply themselves with canvas tents bought of the whites, as being handier for use and transportation. Speaking of the interior of the countr}^ we have the authority of Mr. C. F. Fowler, late agent of the Alaska Fur Company, and long resident in the country, and of Ex-Governor Swineford, both of whom have carefully investigated the subject, for stating that there exists a huge species of ani- mals, believed to be representatives of the sup- posed extinct mammoth, found in herds not far from the headwaters of the Snake River, on the interior plateaus of Alaska. The natives call them " big-teeth " because of the size of their ivory tusks. Some of these, weighing over two hundred pounds each, were from animals so 260 THE NEW ELDORADO. lately killed as to still have flesh upon them, and were purchased by Mr. Fowler, who brought them to the coast. These mammoths are represented to average twenty feet in height and over thirty feet in length, in many respects resembling ele- phants, the body being covered with long, coarse, reddish liairs. The eyes are larger, the eai's smaller, and the trunk longer and more slender than those of the average elephant. The two tusks which Mr. Fowler brought away with him each measured fifteen feet in length. The author has almost universally found among savage races at least a few very old people of both sexes, who were apparently revered and carefully provided for by their descendants and associates, but here among the aborigines aged persons are certainly not often to be seen. Whether it is that, hardy and robust as they gen- erally appear to be, they do not, as a rule, live to advanced years, or that a summary method is adopted to get rid of tiiem after they have out- lived their usefulness, it is impossible to say. We were told that such is certainly the case with some of the tribes farthest from the influence and supervision of the whites, and that half a century ago the extremely old, being considered useless, were frequently " disposed " of. It is clear enough that there is nothing in the climate of this region in any way inimical to health and longevity. The women of the Takou district are very ex- pert and industrious. They occupy a large por- tion of their time in weaving baskets of split RAINFALL. 2G1 cedar, far exceeding any similar Indian work which we have chanced to see elsewhere, both in the coloring and the very ingenious comhination of figures. Some of these baskets are so closely woven out of the dried inner bark of the willow- tree that they will hold water without h>aking ; the author also saw drinking-cups thus manufac- tured. Visitors rarely fail to bring away interest- ing specimens of native work in this particular line ; the fine straw goods of Manila do not ex- cel this in delicacy and beauty. In addition to this attractive basket-work from the hands of the women, the men of the tribe exhibit their natural skill by carving silver bracelets (made from dol- lar and half dollar coins), miniature totem-jDoles, horn and wooden spoons, baby rattles and canoes, in a very curious and original manner. Once a fortnight, during the summer season, on the ar- rival of an excursion party by steamer from the south, the natives are, as a rule, completely cleared out of their entire stock of these productions, and they do not fail to realize fair prices, enabling them to live very comfortably. Though Sitka is the capital of the Territory, Juneau is the principal settlement and headquar- ters of the mining interests, containing over seven hundred white residents. We have seen no sta- tistics of the annual rainfall here, but can well believe it to be what a certain person told us it was, namely, over nine feet. It seemed to us that the permanent residents should be web -footed. The cause of this humidity 's very evident. There 262 THE NEW ELDORADO. arises from the warm Japanese Current on the coast a constant and profuse moisture. This the winds convey bodily against the fi'osty sides of the neighboring mountains, and then it is precip- itated as rain ; at certain seasons of the year it continues for weeks together. There is compensation even in the fact of this large annual rainfall, which at first thought seems to be such an objection to this district. The gold- bearing quartz which prevails here is treated, nec- essarily, by what is known as the wet process, re- quiring at all times an ample supply of water. One successful superintendent told the author that ore which is here so profitable would be in a dry region, like that of some portions of our Western States, worthless, or comparatively so, as it would have to be ti'ansported in bulk to a more favor- able locality. It seems to require two rainy days to one pleasant one, which is about the average proportion in the year, to provide sufficient water to w^ork these large deposits properly. The sys- tem of disintegrating, and of reclaiming the pre- cious metal from the flint- like combination in whicii it is held is marvelous in detail, evincing the rapid progress which has been made in me- chanical and chemical processes in our day. It is found that June, July, and August are the favorable months for the traveler to turn his face towards the sliDres of Alaska, this being the sea- ■ son when the pleasant weather is most continu- ous. It is not extremes of cold, but an over-abun- dance of moisture in the shape of rain, which one I THE TREAD WELL GOLD MINE. 263 must prepare for. An ample waterproof outside garment will be found at times very serviceable. The Tread well gold mine, just opposite Juneau, on Douglas Island, is undoubtedly the largest in the world, running at the present time two hun- dred and forty stamps, the mill and machinery having cost over half a million dollars; and tiiough the author has visited the mines of Colorado, Mon- tana, California, New Zealand, and Australia, he has certainly never seen its superior in capacity and golden promise. It is a true gold-bearing quartz visible at the surface, four hundred and sixty-four feet in width. The company owns three thousand running feet upon this deposit, — it can hardly be called a vein, — parts of which have been tunneled and shafted simply to test its extent, showing it to be practically inexhaustible, no bottom having been found to the gold-bearing quartz, nor any diminution in the quality of the ore. The mill is run upon this quartz the whole year, but as it is owned by a private corporation, and there is no stock for sale, the exact output of the mine is not known. The writer feefs safe in saying, however, that no such body of gold-bearing quartz is known to be* in existence elsewhere. The laborers do not have to work in dark, un- dergiound channels; all is above ground, and in the season when darkness comes it is dispelled by electric lights. No timbering or shafting is re- quired ; it is simply an open quarry. Captain John Codman, after visiting the mine, writes: "We walked through the golden streets of this New 264 THE NEW ELDORADO. Jerusalem, with golden walls on either side, and wondered what men could do with so much money." It is not a little confusing to a stranger, when he first enters the great Treadwell jNIill, to be greeted by the deafening cannonade of two hundred and forty stamps. Each stamp weighs nine hundred pounds, and the crushing capacity of the whole mill is seven hundred and twenty tons per da5\ The gold is shipped to the mint in San Francisco in the form of bricks worth from fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars each. Douglas Island was named by Vancouver in honor of his friend the Bishop of Salisbury, and is eighteen miles long by about ten in width. This remarkable quartz vein is believed to run the whole length, though it is not alwaj^s visible at the surface. Governor Swiiieford, in one of ins annual reports, expresses his belief that ere long the gold produced in this section alone will exceed annuall}' the amount which was paid to Russia for the whole of Alaska. This island, like Bara- noff upon which Sitka is situated, is absolutely seamed with gold-bearing quartz, and has been carefully prospected and recorded by people inter- ested in mining. Three hundred laborers are regu- larly employed at the Treadwell Mill, whose seven owners are opulent citizens of San Francisco. Tiie work is prosecuted with great system and intelli- gence. The quartz of this mine is not so rich as that of many others, yielding on an average less^ than ten dollars to the ton, but it is so immense in quantitv, and is so easily worked, that th( SILVER BOW BASIN. 265 aggregate yield of the precious metal is indeed remarkable. The mill turned out in the first twelve months after it was started seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in bullion, and is prob- ably producing at this writing three times that amount yearly. The mine is admirably situated for the pur- pose of receiving or shipping freight, as vessels drawing twenty feet of water can lie alongside of the rocks which form the natural shore less than one hundred yards from the quartz mill. We were informed that sixteen million dollars have been offered and refused for this property. The would-be purchasers were members of a French syndicate. The agent says that the owners have but one price, namely, twenty-five million dol- lars, and they are in no haste to part with their property even at that sum. On the mainland, just across the channel from Douglas Island, three or four miles back of Juneau, is Silver Bow Basin, where there are gold deposits of vast extent and richness. Here quite a population is engaged in placer and quartz mining. The miners present a motley crowd with their picks, shovels, and red shirts, many with a stump tobacco pipe between their lips, and all witji eager faces. A spacious and thoroughly equipped quartz mill is being erected by a Boston company of capitalists for the purpose of developing a large property which it is thought will nearly equal the Tread- well in its output of the precious metal. This is known as the Nowell mine, and it is said that the 266 THE NEW ELDORADO. quartz assays one hundred dollars and over to the ton. Silver Bow Basin is a small round valley ly- ing in the hip of tiie mountains, accessible through a deep gulch behind the town. It is surrounded by noisy waterfalls, which supply just the needed power for manipulating the gold quartz. Across the range is another rich mineral locality, known as Dix Bow Basin. On Admiralty Islg^nd, near the northwest end of Douglas Island, opposite Takou Inlet, there has lately been discovered several gold deposits which are owned by a Boston company. The prospect- ings upon some of this well-defined vein liave developed a percentage of gold to the ton so large that we hesitate to specify it. " Thirty years ago," said Mr. Thomas S. Nowell to us, "the mines of Alaska would have proved comparatively valueless ; the machinery and process that are now so successfully applied to reducing the ores were then unknown. The great econom}' and consequent profit is derived from late discoveries which are now perfected, producing machinery which works as though it had the power of thought." The names of several other profitable mining enterprises in this vicinity might be given, but we have said enough to indicate the great mineral wealth of this portion of the Territory, and to justify our title of Thp: New Eldorado. There are abundant gold indications all along the coast, as well as upon the islands. In the sands of any considerable stream between Cape Fox and Cook's INEXHAUSTIBLE RICHES. 267 Inlet the "color" of gold can be obtained by the simple process of panning. The question is not where gold can be found in Alaska, for it seems to be wonderfully and abundantly distributed, but as to what localities \^ill best pay to expend capital in developing. A number of abandoned claims show that the failure to realize a satisfac- tory profit in gold mining by eager, impatient, and unreasonable individual seekers without proper machinery is as frequent as in any other business enterprise awkwardly planned. This is as appar- ent in Africa, Australia, and California as it is in this region. The Treadwell mine on Douglas Island is in latitude 58° 16' north, just about on a line with Edinburgh, Scotland. We quote once more Mr. Nowell's own words : " The mountains of Alaska abound in gold-bear- ing quartz, the extent of their deposits exceeding any similar discoveries in the world. There is without doubt more gold-bearing quartz on Doug- las Island alone, which can be worked at a hand- some profit, than ten thousand stamps could crush in a century ; a well-defined vein from two to six hundred feet wide traversing the island for at least from six to eight miles." There is a missionary family, supported by the Quaker persuasion, located at Douglas Island, whose earnest effort in civilizing and teaching the natives has been crowned with considerable success. The self-abnegation and conscientious labor of these people are truly worthy of all com- mendation. 268 THE NEW ELDORADO. Soon after leaving Jnnean, when near the head of Lynn Channel, the grand Davidson glacier comes into view, filling the space between two lofty mountains. It measures twelve hundred feet high by some three miles in breadth, being as wide as a frozen sea and as deep as the ocean. While looking upon it one is overawed by a sense of its immensity and grandeur, as it seems hang- ing, poised, ready to drop into the fathomless sea. Where we pass it there intervenes a terminal mo- raine overgrown witli trees and green foliage, which contrasts vividly with the icy background formed by the glacier. The glaciers of Europe are mere pygmies in comparison with this marvel, which is named after Professor Davidson, who has carefully explored and described it. Both the Muir and Davidson glaciers are spui's of the same great ice- field, which has an unbroken expanse large enough to lie over the whole republic of Switzerland. The ^luir glacier will be reached presently in Glacier Bay. Soon after leaving the Davidson glacier we are in Pyramid Harbor. This is the region of the Chilcats, who were formerly one of the most warlike tribes in the Territory, but who seem to have outlived their belligerent propensities. Th(nr rude, but picturesque cabins dot the neigh- boring shore. The little settlement here consists mostly of bark huts and a substantial trader's store, together with an extensive and successful fish -cannery. The product of the latter is over a million pounds of fish per annum, the whole | THE CHILCATS. 269 being engaged for 1889 to a Liverpool firm. This amount is shipped in seventy thousand cases of about fifty pounds each ; the fish are packed in tins holding a pound each. This is an average amount as regards various factories on the coast, though some very much exceed it. The Indians now cheerfully accept employment from the whites, and gladly receive the regular wages which may be agreed upon. They appear to be the best carv- ers on the coast, and have an abundance of their handiwork to sell to the interested white visitors. Tliese articles consist of carvings in ivory (walrus' teeth), decorated sheep-horns, copper and silver bracelets, bows, arrows, and spearheads. As en- gravers on copper and silver the Chilcats excel all other people of the Northwest. Some of their women wear a dozen narrow bracelets on each arm, all of home manufacture. They are also skillful in making ear-rings, and ornamental combs out of ivoiy and sheep's horn. As successful imitators they are remarkable, and will almost exactly reproduce any design which is given to them as a pattern. It seems strange tliat so ag- gressive and warlike a tribe should be skilled in carving aud many mechanical productions. Certain people have bestowed nuKh honest but needless sympathy upon these "poor abused In- dians." Such persons may be assured that they are amply able to look out for themselves and their own interests, as regards all material matters. No white man can get any advantage over an Alaskan native in the way of trade ; they are 270 THE NEW ELDORADO. sharpness itself in such things. For instance, these Chilcats a few years since observed that the white traders were particularly desirous of obtaining black fox skins, and that for such pelts they would willingly pay a handsome advance over skins of other colors; a fine skin of tliis sort bringing as high as thirty dollars, while the common red ones were not worth (piarter of that sum. The innocent natives soon began to pro- duce the black skins in large quantities and re- ceived their pay accordingly. Surprise being at last excited by the remarkable abundance of the black pelts, an explanation of the cause was sought, when it was finally discovered that by a secret process of dyeing the natives had made the red fox skins temporarily into black. This was done so cunningly that nothing but a careful examination would detect the outrageous cheat, and not anti- cipating anything of the kind the traders were not on their guard. Of course no dyeing process which they possessed was of a permanent nature as applied to pelts, and these black furs when they came to be prepared for market rapidly resumed their natural color. When charged with this gross deception, the Chilcats assumed the most innocent expression and d^'uied any knowledge whatever in the premises, only saying : " Fox, him get black before him caught," thus lying concerning their trickery as volubly as any white rogue might have done. We are told of several of these tricks played off by the "poor abused Indians," one instance of CHILCAT "APTITUDE:' 271 which we remember as having occurred at Fort Wrangel, ilUistrating the " aptitude " of the abo- rigines, not to give it any harder name. It seems that a kindly disposed missionary, by exercis- ing great patience, had taught some Indians to read and write, and in the consciousness of his own intentions felt amply paid by the goodly progress of his pupils. One of these young men, not over twenty yeai'S of age, was especially curi- ous about arithmetic, and made considerable prog- ress in figures in a very short time. He was soon after hired by the superintendent of a fish-can- ning establishment as a special assistant, with good wages. Being given a note or due-bill of twenty-five dollars by his employer, he quickly saw his chance, and adroitly raised the figures to two hundred and fifty dollars, got the bill cashed at one of the neighboring trading establishments, and suddenly disappeared with the proceeds there- of. He has not since been seen. The Chilcats have, until within a few years, forcibly kept the natives of the interior away froth the coast and the white men, thus monopolizing the land fur-trade by acting as middle-men, so to speak, but this embargo is now entirely removed. By this and some other means, being naturally thrifty and saving, they have come to be the rich- est and most independent tribe of Indians in the Northwest. Their women manufacture the famous and really very fine Chilcat blankets, which are slowly woven by hand on a primitive loom. The base of these blankets is the long fleece of the 272 THE NEW ELDORADO. mountain goats, which is tastefully manufactured and ornamented, reminding one of the domestic Oriental work offered for sale in tlie Turkish bazaars of Cairo. The Chilcat blankets readily bring forty dollars apiece, and the best of them are sold for double that sum. They are ordinarily about six feet long b}^ four broad, having in addi- tion a long, ornamental fringe at each end. The colors are black, white, yellow, and a dull blue, the coloring matter being also of native manufac- ture. These blankets used to be heirlooms in the aboriginal families before the cheap woolens of commerce were introduced among them, since when they have become annually more and more scarce, and are now purchased only by visitors to carry away as curiosities. Even at the highest price realized for them, if the maker's time were to be reckoned of any account, the sum is a sorry pittance for one of these blankets, which to prop- erly finish will employ six months of a woman's time. *Pyramid Harbor, in latitude 59° 11' north, is the most northerly point reached by the excursion steamers on this part of the coast. The place takes its name from a prominent conical forma- tion upon an island within its borders. The clus- ter of houses, cabins, and the canning factory which mjike up what is known as Pyramid Har- bor are situated uj)on a broad plateau on a sandy beach, at the foot of a mountain which towers three thousand feet heaven waid, covered with trees to its summit and beautified by a bright, PYRAMID HARBOR. 273 dashing waterfall visible from near the apex to the bottom. This affords both a healthful water supply for domestic use and a motor for the fac- tory. The broad plateau, three or four miles iu length and one wide, grass-grown, iind covered with low shrubbery, is beautified by a floral display of great variety, including wild roses, sweet peas, columbines, white clover, and other varieties, hav- ing also an unlimited amount of berries. The wide mouth of the Chilcat River, which makes into the bay a mile from this settlement, is a swarming place for the salmon. The river is very shallow and not navigable for anything but native canoes. Twenty miles inland on its biink is a large, independent settlement of the Chilcat tribe. On the mountain side, nearly half way up, just back of the steamboat landing at Pyramid Har- bor, there is a small plateau not more than ten or fifteen feet square, entirely bare of timber, but closely surrounded by dense woods. This spot is quite inaccessible to human feet. A large cinna- mon bear shows himself here often during the day- time. A clear, sparkling stream of water comes fi'om far above this place, rushing by one corner of it, and hither comes Bruin to slake his thirst. He knows very well that he is out of the hunter's reach, and he is actually beyond rifle range. He looks at that distance skyward no bigger than a good-sized Newfoundland dog, but to appear of such proportions to us so far below he must be a very monster. Several attempts have been made 274 THE NEW ELDORADO. by the whites to get near enough to shoot him, but without success. The bear sat upon his haunches when we saw hiui and peered down upon us as we stood on the deck of the Corona with a cool insoU-nee which must have been born of a consciousness of entire safety. By usuig a good glass his main moth size became more apparent, showing that even when upon his haunches with his body erect he must have measured about six feet in height. A settlement opposite to Pyramid Harbor is known as Chilcat, where two large fish-canning establishments afford profitable occupation for quite a number of the residents, both natives and whites. New canning factories are being lo- cated in several places between Dixon Entrance and this point, the supply of salmon being abso- lutely unlimited ; the demand only is to be con- sidered. The quantity shipped from liere annu- ally to San Francisco for distribution is enormous, almost beyond belief, and is steadily increasing. In addition to this profitable and important indus- try twelve thousand barrels of salted salmon were exported last year from Alaska to southern Pacific ports. The scenery about Pyramid Harbor is arctic : the precipitous cliffs are covered with snow on their tops^ and range upon range of snowy mountains frame in the bay. CHAPTER XX. Glacier Bay. — More Ice Bays. — Majestic Front of the Muir Gliicier. — The Bombardmeut of the Glacier. — One of the Grandest Sights in the World. — A Moving River of Ice. — Tlie Natives. — Abundance of Fish. — Native Cooking. — Wild Berries. — Hooniah Tribe. — Copper Mines. — An Iron Mountain. — Coal Mines. From Pyramid Harbor we turn southward for a short distance, and then agaiu towards the north, soon reaching the ice-strewn waters of Ghicier Bay, an open expanse of ocean fully thirty miles long by from ten to twelve in width. This local- ity is thus named because of the number of gla- ciers which descend into it from the southern verge of the frozen region. The still surface of the water reflects the Alpine scenery like bur- nished silver, only ruffled now and again by the icebergs launched from the majestic front of the Muir glacier, which fall with an explosion like the blasting of rocks in a stone quarry. It is curious to watch these enormous masses of ice rise to the surface after their first deep plunge, see them set- tle and rise again until their equilibrium becomes fixed, and then slowly float away with their impe- rial colors displayed, to join the fleet gone before. They seem to exhibit in their vivid colors a radiant joy at release from long imprisonment. It was a gloriously bright day on which we approached the 276 THE NEW ELDORADO. Muir glacier, the sun pouring down its wealth of light and warmth to temper the crisp morning air. A side-wheel steamer could not have made head- way among the hundreds of floating icebergs ; but the Corona wound in and out among them in safety, piloted by Captain Carroll's skillful direc- tion, occasionally leaving the color of her painted hull along their sides by chafing them. The ship was brought within fifty rods of the glacier's threatening front, which was about three hundred feet in height above the water, standing like a frozen Niagara, and the lead showed it to extend four hundred feet below the surface, mak- ing an figgregate of seven hundred feet from top to bottom. What a mighty power was hidden behind the dazzling drapery of its iridescent fa- cade! Standing upon its surface a short way inland, one could hear from its depths what seemed like shrieks and groans of maddened spirits torturing eacli other, as the huge mass was crowded more and more compactly between the two abutting mountains of rock through which it found its out- let. Tlie roar of artillery upon a battlefield could hardly be more deafening or incessant than were the thrilling reports caused by the falling of vast masses of ice from the glacier's front. Nothing could be grander or more impressive than this steady bombardment from the ice mountain in its resistless progress towards the sea. Neither Nor- way nor Switzerland have any glacial or arctic scenery that can approach this bay in its frigid GLACIER BAY. 211 splendor. No natives are to be seen ; not a sound falls upon the ear save the hoarse cannonading of the glacier. The white, ghostly hue of the sur- roundings are startling ; even the dayhght assumes a certain weird, bhiish tint, heiglitened by shim- mering rvfflections from the ice-chasms and crev- ices. The author, in a varied experience of many parts of the world, recalls but two other occasions which affected him so powerfully as this first visit to Glacier Bay in Alaska, namely: witnessing the sun rise over the vast Himalayan range, the roof- tree of the globe, at Darjeeling, in northern In- dia, and the view of the midnight sun from the North Cape in Norway, as it hung over the Polar Sea. Our power of appreciation is limitless, though that of description is circumscribed. Here both are challenged to their utmost capacity. Words are insufficient ; pen and pencil inadequate to convey the grandeur and fascination of the scene. Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka t«lls us that a veteran traveler said to him as they stood together on the ship's deck regarding the scenery in this remarkable bay : " You can take just what you see here and put it down on Switzerland, and it will hide all there is of mountain scenery in Eu- rope. I have been all over the world, but you are now looking at a scene that has not its parallel elsewhere on the globe." The estimate has been made by experienced persons that five thousand living glaciers, of greater or less dimensions, are 278 THE NEW ELDORADO. now steadily traveling clown towards the sea in this vast Territory of Ahxska. Glacier Bay is always full of vagrant icebergs which are of blinding whiteness when under the glare of the midday sun. The variety of colors emitted by the bergs is charming to the eye, the prevailing hues being crystal-white mingled with azure blue, a faint touch of pink appearing here and there, together with dainty gleams of orange- yellow. Where a large smooth surface is pre- sented, the prismatic shimmering is like that of starlight upon the water. The variety in the shape of the bergs is infinite. Some of them ex- hibit singularly correct architectural lines, some resemble ruins of ancient castles on the Rhine, others, with a little help of the imagination, repre- sent wild animals in various attitudes, or hideous Chinese idols witli open mouths and lolling tiongues. Sea birds hover over and light in large numbers upon the opalescent masses. Ranging alongside of a tall berg, a fall and tackle was rigged out from the yard-arm of our steamer, while men were sent to cut large blocks of ice from the hill of frozen water. Two weighing nearly a ton each were hoisted on board to keep our larder cool and fill the ship's ice-cliest. The ice was pure as crys- tal, and fresh as a mountain stream. " Why don't you go nearer to the glacier?" asked one of the passengers of the captain. " Because I think we are quite near enough," was the quiet reply. " Those avalanches don't reach more than thirty m AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE. 279 or forty feet from the face of the ice cliff," con- tinued tlie passenger. '^ True," was the reply, " but they do not con- constitute the only discluirges from the glacier." " Why, where else can they occur but from the face," asked the inquirer. " Shall I tell you a certain experience which I had near this very spot?" asked the captain. " Whiit was it?" inquired a dozen eager voices. And then the captain told the group of listeners that when the Corona was here last season, laying just off the Muir glacier, those on board were startled by the sudden appearance of a huge mass of dark crystal, as large as the steamer itself, which shot up from the depths and tossed the ship as though it had been an egg-shell. Passen- gers were thrown hither and thither, and some were severely bruised. It was a berg broken off from the bottom of the ice mountain, four hun- dred feet below the surface of the water. Had it struck the ship in its upward passage, immediate destruction must have followed, and the steamer would have sunk as quickly as though she had been blown up with gunpowder. Mount Crillon, Mount La Perouse, and Mount Fairweatlier are all visible from Glacier Bay, the latter rising in the northwest so high above the intervening hills that all its snowy pinnacles are clearly defined. The great glacier which forms the prominent feature of this bay was named after Professor Muir, state geologist of California. It has a front 280 THE NEW ELDORADO. three miles wide, and has been explored to a dis- tance of forty miles inland. The top surface is tossed and broken by broad fissures so as to be impassable, unless one goes back at least a mile from its toppling and dangerous front. This glacier exceeds anything of the sort this side of the polar zone, and is fed by fifteen other glaciers, so far as it has been explored, towards its source among the lofty snow-fields. In walking upon its surface great care should be observed. A thin crust of snow and half-melted ice is often formed over fissures into which one may easily be precipi- tated. One of the party from the Corona, a lad}^ was thus engulfed for a moment, escaping, how- ever, with a thorough wetting and some slight bruises, together with a very large measure of fright. This lady was temporarily in charge of the pilot of the steamer, hence it was very gener- ally remarked that he was doubtless a good ship's pilot, but a poor one for navigating glaciers. From carefully conducted measurements it is known that this immense body — frost-bound, transparent, and resistless — is moving into the sea, during the summer months, at the rate of forty feet in every twenty -four hours, and dis- charging in that time one hundred and forty mil- lion cubic feet of ice into the bay. It is not nec- essary for us to discuss the cause of this regular, uniform movement of the enormous mnss ; it may be brought about by either dilation or gravitation, both of which are most likely active agents to this end, but certain it is that the glacier moves for- ward as descrilx'd. THE MUIR GLACIER. 281 One could have passed days in studying the grandeur and beauty of the Muir glacier, in watch- ing its slow but steady advance, its tremend(jus avalanches, its rolling, tlumder-like dischai'ges, its irregular, translucent front decked with amethyst and opal hues by the afternoon sunlight, but time was to be considered, the clay w-as closing, and we finally steamed reluctantly away. Even after we had lost sight of the great frozen river, we heard its evening guns echoing among the mountains, faint and fitful from the growing distance. We pause for a moment, thoughtfull}'^, to recall the brief hours passed in that boreal atmosphere, crowded to repletion w-ith wonderful experiences, where the ice deposited during the glacial period is slowly wasting and wearing away, exposing giant cedars which have been buried for ages upon ages, a revelation and a process which we may nowhere else behold. There is no touch of civilization here ; the quiet and solitude is un- broken, save by the thunder of the bergs break- ing their long imprisonment. Somehow one feels older, grayer, sadder, after witnessing these great and startling throes of Nature, phenomena which have been in operation thousands of years. It re- minds the observer only too forcibly how infini- tesimal is the space he occupies upon this planet, and how utterly insignificant is his personality in the vast scheme of the universe. Travel, while teaching us numberless grand and beautiful truths, solving many mysteries and vastly enlarging our mental grasp, does not fail also to impress upon 282 THE NEW ELDORADO. the most conceited the important and priceless lesson of humility. But let us banish brooding thoughts, and be glad for a little space ; to-morrow the night cometh ! Among the evidences of the slow but steady receding of the glacier we have Vancouver's rec- ord that he was unable to enter this bay in 1793, which is now navigable for over twelve miles in- land. Once the ice field was level with the moun- tain tops, now it has melted until the peaks are far above its surface. Professor Muir tells us that in the earlier days of the ice-age this glacier stood at a height of from three to four thousand feet above its present level ! Centuries hence the place of the ghicier will doubtless be occupied by a flawing river, and the laud will have entirely thrown aside its mantle of ice and snow. What a revelation this bay would have been to Agassiz ! After an arduous half day's climb, from the sum- mit of the jNIuir glacier nearly thirty others are to be seen in various directions, all steadily for- cing their resistless way towards the sea, slowly consummating the purpose of their existence. How far glacial action has been concerned in determining the topographical conditions of the globe will long be, as it has long been, a subject for deep scientific study. At first thought it seems impossible that a sub- stance like ice, often brittle as glass and as inelas- tic as granite, can move as though it were fluid. The motion of the giant mass is doubtless facili^ tated by subglacial streams issuing from its bot-1 A LAND OF WONDERS. 283 torn into the buy. The water flowing from two sources of this character manifests itself at the surface on each corner of the ice-front, where it comes bubbling up with great force from the bot- tom, a distance of from sixty to eighty fathoms. As we lay in front of the grand facade what a revelry of color was spread before us! The im- mense and towering wall of ice seemed to throb with the softening rays of the sun, penetrating each broad fissure and narrow rift, all luminous with blue and gold. Scidmore Island was pointed out to us, a green hilly land, near the mouth of the ba}^ named after Miss E. R. Scidmore, who has written so ad- mirably about Alaska. Another island was des- ignated whereon a silver mine of great promise has lately been successfully located and tested, yielding results surpassing the most sanguine an- ticipations of the owners. All through this region one is constantly im- pressed with a sense of vastness, everything seems so stupenduous ; Nature is cast in a larger mould than she is in other sections of the world. The islands strike one as continental in dimensions, the rivers are among the largest on the globe, the ocean channels are the deepest, the primeval for- ests are made up of giant trees and cover thou- sands of square miles, the mountains are colossal, and the glaciers are elsewhere unequaled. It is a land of wonders, strange, fascinating, and beau- tiful. The natives of this latitude are robust and 284 THE NEW ELDORADO. hearty in appearance, their regular food supply being such as to sustain them in a good physi- cal condition. Seal and fish oil are cheap and abundant, and enter into all of their cooking com- binations. During the ripening season the wild berries, which are remarkably abundant, are gath- ered by the bushel, giving employment to the youthful portion o£ the community. Large quan- tities are dried for winter use, but during the bearing season the people almost live upon them, always adding a portion of oil as a condiment. Game, such as deer, bears, mountain goats, and wild geese, is very plenty a little way inland. These are hunted and supplied to the whites by the aborigines, but they do not themselves seem to care particularly for meat of any sort so long as they can obtain plenty of fish and oil. At Sitka and Fort Wiangel fine large codfish are retailed at five cents each, a twenty pound salmon costs in the season ten to fifteen cents, and halibut sell at about the same rate according to size. These lat- ter average from eighty to a hundred pounds in weight on this coast, and in some parts of the waters bordering western Alaska they are twice that size. Ducks are to be had at ten and fifteen cents per pair, wild geese at fifteen cents each, and so on. The natives are pi'eerainently fish-eat- ers, and are as a rule well developed about the chest and shoulders, though the lower parts of their bodies are diminutive owing to their exer- cise being taken almost altogether at the paddle while sitting in their boats. The physical con- HALIBUT FISHING. 285 trast between them and oni- Western Indians, who are meat-eaters, is very decided. The one lives in a canoe a large portion of his time, the other upon horseback or engaged upon long foot- marches ; the one is lithe and sinewy, the other is greasy and flabby. Though the physical con- dition of our Western Indians is unquestionably much superior to that of the native Alaskans, yet the latter are the most intelligent. The halibut, to which reference has just been made, is found in great abundance upon tTie coast at nearly all seasons of the year, and forms a large portion of the food supply of the native population, both for summer and winter. They prefer to catch these fish by means of their own awkward wooden hooks, rather than to use the steel barbed instrument of the whites. They go out for the purpose in their boats, exposing them- selves in nearly all sorts of weather, anchoring upon well-known fishing grounds by making use of a stone fastened to a cedar-bark rope of their own manufacture. Having filled their canoe, which they can do in a very short time, they leisurely retui-n to the shore, where the fish are turned over to the care of the women, who soon clean them, also removing the large bones, head, fins, and tails, after which they cut the bodies into broad thin slices, and doing so much of this business they become very expert. These slices of the halibut are hung on wooden frames, where they rapidly dry in the wind and sun, no salt being used in the process ; indeed, the natives •286 THE NEW ELDORADO. seem to have no use for salt so far as their own food is concerned, and do not eat it as a seasoning. After the hahbut is thus cured, the pieces are packed away in the large cedar box which forms each family's storehouse for such food, and when wanted it is always ready, requiring but little further treatment to make it palatable to native Alaskan taste. As thus preserved the fish will now and again become putrid. This, however, is not considered by the people to detract in any degree ""from its excellence and usefulness, but rather to add zest to the flavor, just as a highly civilized gourmand requires his birds to be kept until tiie}' become a little "gamey " before he considers them fit to serve to himself or his guests. At certain seasons of the year the salmon are eagerly sought and eaten, both fresh and dried, but as intimated the halibut is a fish which can be caught at nearly any time, and is therefore perhaps more used than any other. There are periods when these fish also leave the coast for a short season, and against this absence the native provides as we have described. The kind of salmon which is mostly canned and prepared for export in barrels from Alaska is of a pink species, which is chosen, not because it possesses any pe- culiar excellence of flavor, but because the color is generally thought to be more desirable. They are not considered here, either by the whites or the natives, to be of quite so good quality as some others which abound in this region, but it is the pink salmon which the fanciful public demand, and pink salmon which they get. ALASKAN COOKERY. 287 All the cooking these natives seem to know anything about is to boil or stew sucli food as they do not consume nearly raw. Iron kettles have been in their possession for many genera- tions, and were originally procured from the Russians. The condiment which they most affect has already been referred to, being nothing more nor less than rancid fish or seal oil, cooled and hardened into a sort of oleomargarine, the bare smell of which is sickening to the nostrils of a white person. This grease is spread liberal K^ upon all their food and eaten with manifest relish. The inner bark of the spruce and hemlock trees is collected by the women in considerable quantities at certain seasons of the year, and is eaten by them, both in the green and dried state, after being dipped in this grease as described. The Sitka Indians make a most atrocious salad of sea- weed mixed with seal-oil, sometimes adding the roe of herring, of which peculiar mixture they partake with ravenous appetites, the roe having been pur- posely kept until it is nearly or quite putrid. The salmon-berry, while it is in season, is a most wel- come and wholesome addition to their rather cir- cumscribed larder. This berry is a sort of cross between a strawberry and a blackberry, though it is larger than the average of these delicious berries as they grow in the woods of New Eng- land. Hundreds of barrels of the native cran- berry are gathered by the aborigines and ship|)ed annually from here to San Francisco ; they are smaller than the cultivated berry bearing the 288 Tin-: .VAir eldorado. same name, which is grown in our Eastern States. The wild strawberries found among these islands and on the mainland excel in flavor the highly cultivated berry of our thickly-settled States, and may be found growing in abundance in the very shadow of the glaciers. The natives hereabouts have no domestic ani- mals except a multitude of dogs of a mongrel breed ; wolfish-looking creatures ; which ai'e of no possible use, dozing all day and howling all night. At the north the regularly bred Eskimo dog is a very different animal, quite indispensable to his master, and invaluable in connection with sledge traveling. The tribe occupying the region near to Glacier Bay is known as the Hooniahs, an ingenious and industrious people, who manufacture brace- lets, spoons, and various ornaments out of silver and copper. Some of the men of this tribe wear a ring in their noses, like the women, but this seems to be going slowly out of fashion. We wei'e told that the men have as many wives as they choose to take, and that they are not always care- ful to properly discriminate between other men's and their own, an act of dereliction from pro- priety which is, however, by no means confined to savage life. A great laxity in morals is also said to prevail among most of the tribes from Behring Strait southward to the Aleutian group of islands. Let us not, however, be too censorious in judging them ; if their virtues are found to be in the minority, is not this also the case with most com- MINERAL DEPOSITS. 289 mnm'ties wliich boast the elevating advantages of culture and civilization ? It has been known for a century more or less that masses of pure copper were found by the abo- rigines along the course of Copper River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean midway between Mount St. Elias and the peninsula of Kenai. The natives exhibited one mass of pure copper, as naturally de- posited, weighing over sixty pounds. The char- acter of this mineral closely resembles that of our Lake Superior district, and there is ever}' indica- tion of its abundance in this region, not alone on Copper River, but in several districts and islands. The natives have utilized the article for many generations in the manufacture of personal orna- ments, and for making various useful household utensils, such as stewpans and small kettles. Any permanent rise in the market value of copper would stimulate the development of the copper mines of Alaska to compete with other portions of our country. Petroleum is also found on Copper River, forcing itself to the surface from some un- deiground reservoir, and again near the Bay of Katmai. This product was largely used by the Russians for lubricating purposes. Professor Davidson discovered in this vicinity an iron mountain some two thousand feet high, which was so full of magnetic ore as to seriously aflfect his calculations and derange his compass. Mr. Seward said of the same vicinity : " I found there not a single iron mountain, but a whole range of hills the very dust of which adhered to 290 THE NEW ELDORADO. the magnet." There is plenty of coal also, and with these two articles in juxtaposition a great in- dustry may ultimately be the outgrowth. Viewed as a sure foundation of commercial and manufac- turing prosperity, coal and iron will prove, in the long run, to be worth nearly as much to Alaska as her abundant and inexhaustible gold supply. Captain J. W. White of the United States reve- nue marine says : " I have seen coal veins over an area of forty or fifty square miles so thick that it seemed to me to be one vast bed. It is of an excel- lent steam-producing quality, having a clear white ash. Tlie quantity seemed to be unlimited. This bed lies northwest of Sitka, up Cook's Inlet which broadens into a sea in some places." Nature has provided fuel in limitless quantities for this great Territory, both in the form of coal and of wood, each of which is of the most available character, both as regards the quality and the convenience of location. In speaking of the rich and varied prospects of the country, let us not forget to mention the abundance of pure white, slatuary marble, which exists here in immense quarries, near the site of which there are numerous safe and commodious harbors, with great depth of water, inviting the commerce of the world. We need not send to Italy for a fine article in this line ; the choicest prod- uct for statuary purposes is here upon our own soil. While these sheets are going through the press, the fact that a valuable quicksilver mine, which was discovered at Kuskoquin some years I I EFFORTS TO DEPRECIAl E ALASKA. 291 ago, now proves to be of high grade and purity, is published to the world at large. If so, this is extreniely providential, as there is now a constant demand for mercury in the treatment of the gold- bearing quartz of the numerous mines herea- bouts. The studied effort of certain writers to depreci- ate the value of the Territory of Alaska in nearly every possible respect seems very singular to us, and is altogether too obvious to cany conviction with it. The great amount of gold now being realized every month of the year, the millions of cured salmon and cod annually exported to other sections, together with the rich furs regularly shipped from the Territory, counted by hundreds of thousands, must cause such people a degree of mortification. One of these writers put himst'lf on record by saying not long since that gold did not exist in the Territory in paying quantities. Yet there is a standing offer of sixteen million dollars for the Treadwell gold mine on Douglas Island, while within eight or ten miles of it, at Silver Bow Basin, on the mainland, is another gold mine, as has been shown, owned and worked by a Boston company, nearly as valuable. Referring to this auriferous deposit on Doug- las Island, Governor Swineford says, in his ofH- cial report to the government for the year 1887 : "It is without doubt the largest body of gold- bearing quartz ever developed in this or any other country." At last we prepare to turn our backs upon the 292 THE M-:\V KLDORAbO. home of tlie glaciers and the locality of the most remarkable gold deposits of the Northwest, sur- feited with wonders, and actually longing for the sight of something intensely common, satisfied that the tourist who makes the voyage from Ta- coma to Glacier Bay through the inland sea lias the opportunity of beholding some of the grandest scenery and natural phenomena on the globe. \ 1 CHAPTER XXI. Sailing Southward. — Sitka, Capital of Alaska. — Transfer of the Territory from Russia to America. — Site of the City. — The Old Castle. — Russian Habits. — A Haunted Chamber. — Russian Elegance and Hospitality. — The Old Greek Church. — Rainfall at Sitka. — The Japanese Current. — Abundance of Food. — Plenty of Vegetables. — A Fine Harbor, From Glacier Bay our serpentine course lies southward through the countless sounds, gulfs, and islands of various shapes and sizes to Sitka, the New Archangel of the Russians, Sitka being the aboriginal name of the bay on which the town is situated. This is the most northerly commer- cial port on the Pacific coast, and lies at the base of Mount Vestova on the west side of Baranoff Island. The island is eighty-five miles long by twenty broad, situated thirteen hmidred miles north of San Francisco. On the 18th of October, in the year 1867, three United States men-of-war lay in the harbor, namely, the Ossipee, the Jamestown, and the Resaca. It was a memorable occasion, for on that day the Muscovite flag was formally hauled down and the Stars and Stripes were run up on the flagstaff of the castle amid a salvo of guns from the ships of both nations, thus completing the official transfer of the great Territory of Alaska from Russian to American possession. 294 THE NEW ELDORADO. Up to this time the government of the country had been virtually under the control of the rich fur company chartered by the Tzar. Any policy at variance with its purposes was treason ; immi- gration, except for its employees, was rigorously discouraged ; the imperial governor was actually salaried by this great monopoly, while his public acts were subject to its approval or otherwise. With the date above given this condition of af- fairs ceased and "a new regime began. Though no radical change immediately took place, still the atmosphere of our Union gradually permeated these regions, our flag freely floated everywhere, and our few officials assumed their responsibilities, administering the laws of the Republic mercifully as regarded the natives, but still with that degree of firmness which is imperative in dealing with a half-civilized race. One cannot but conjecture what must have been the secret thoughts of the thousands of abo- rigines on this occasion, as they witnessed the cer- emony of transferring Alaska from their former to their new masters. It was an event of im- mense interest, of most vital import to them, but yet one in which they were entirely ignored. They knew the significance of that change of flags, of that roar of artillery, emphasized by other naval and military movements, but they had no voice whatever in the agreement by which they were virtually bought and sold like so many head of cattle, and their native land bartered for gold. We leave the reader to moralize over this aspect SITKA. 295 of the matter, a fruitful theme for the political economist. With this change of government came a new people ; the majority of the Russians promptly left the country, and their pUices were taken by Americans. Sitka, the capital of the Territory, is shelt<^red by a snow-crowned mountain range on one side, and protected from the broad expanse of the Pa- cific on the other by a group of many thickly wooded islands. The waters of the harbor are as clear as a mountain stream, so that, as in sailing over the Bahama Banks, one can see the bottom many fathoms down with perfect distinctness, where the myriad curiosities of submarine life at- tract the eye by their novel and varied display. Among other tropical growth, sponges, coral branches, and long rope-like alga? are seen, planted here doubtless by the equatorial current which so constantly laves these shores. The town lies clus- tered near the shore, forming a pleasing picture as one approaches from the sea. The most promi- nent feature is the castle, not a battlemented, ivy- covered, mediaeval structure, but a severely plain, weather-beaten, moss-grown, dilapidated affair, which crowns a rocky elevation of the town. It is a hundred and forty feet long by seventy deep, Constructed of huge cedar logs which are securely riveted to the rock by numerous clamps and bolts. This was for many years the grand residence of the Russian governors, — after the capital was re- moved from St. Paul, on the island of Kodiak, — several of whom were of the Muscovite nobility 296 TUE NEW ELDORADO. and brought hither their wives and daughters to live with them in this isolated spot. One can hardly conceive of a greater social contrast than naturally existed between St. Petersburg and this half savage hamlet of Baranoff Island. For deli- cate and refined ladies, such a change from court life must have been little less of a hardship than actual banishment to dreaded Siberia. It is not surprising that resort was had to I'ather desperate means whereby to beguile the weary hours. Many fell victims to gambling and strong drink. The Russians, under nearly any circum- stances, fail to be good examples of temperance, and here cognac and vodhka flowed free as water. To some of their official feasts and celebrations the native chiefs were invited, and terribly demor- alized by the potency of the viands to which they were totally unaccustomed. Nor can it be won- dered at that, being occasionall}'^ supplied with this fire-water, the natives now and again broke out in open revolt, which ended more or less seriously both to the Russians and themselves. It will be lemembered that once during the early times the natives rose in a body and massacred or drove every foreigner off the island, an act of savage pa- triotism which cost them dearly. Every " castle " must have at least one haunted chamber, and we are told that this of Sitka was no exception to the general rule. The story con- cerning the same is variously told by different per- sons, but we will give only the version we heard. It seems that half a century and more since, the A SIT KAN TRAGEDY. 297 Russian governor's family included a beautiful and accomplished daughter nnmed Eruzoff, who was, at the time the event occurred which we are about to relate, but twenty years of age. There were on her father's official staff two young noblemen of St. Petersbui-g, Nicholas and Michael Burdoff, about twenty-five years of age respectively. They w^ere cousins, and had been ardent and intimate friends from childhood. Both of the cousins fell deeply in love with the governor's daughter, who, in her delicacy, showed no preference between them. The young men grew desperate in their feelings. Never before had they disagreed about the simplest matter; it was their delight to yi^-ld to each other; but now their love for 'the beauti- ful Eruzoff made them open rivals. One day they went into the neighboring forest together, as they said, to hunt, and were absent for two days. On the evening of the second day Michael returned unaccompanied by his cousin, whom he said he had lost in the forest. He retired at once to his own room in the castle, where he was found dead in bed on the following morning, without a wound or any sign to explain the cause, though the post surgeon pronounced it to be a case of heart disease. A few days afterwards, by means of his favorite dog, the body of Nicholas was dis- covered in the forest with a bullet through his brain. The actual truth regarding the death of the cousins cannot be known on earth, but the chamber where Michael Burdoff breathed his last is said to be often disturbed by a ghostly visitor 298 THE NEW ELDORADO. at midnight. EruzofF was forced by her father to marry an official of his choice, tiiough she was broken-hearted at the loss of Michael Burdoff, who proved to have been the one whom she loved best. She died in her bridal year. Interesting stories are told of the grand hospi- tality — characteristic of the Russians — which was so liberally dispensed within this castle, in entertaining celebrated voyagers of various coun- tries, and especially those of the United States. It has always been the policy of the Tzars to cul- tivate kindly feelings with our government, and Russia is still our constant friend. The upper part of the old castle was arranged for theatrical representations, while in the other apartments the nights were lendered merry witli cards, dancing, and music. Rich furniture, valuable paintings, and costly plate had been brought all the way from Russia to equip this grand household among a savage race. The toilets of the ladies were perhaps a twelvemonth behind those of St. Petersburg, but their diamonds and laces were never out of fashion. Elegant chandeliers were left by these former masters of the castle, which show what the rest of the furniture must have been to have harmonized with such gorgeous ornaments. The visitor is shown the apartment occupied by the venerable Lady Franklin at eighty years of age, who came hither in search for her lost husband, the Arctic explorer. The quaint old Greek Church with the sharp peak ot Vestova as a background is a prominent CIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 299 and interesting edifice. Its emerald-green dome and Byzantine spire, after the lioine fashion of the Russians, together with its ehiborately em- bellished interior and its ancient chime of bells, strongly individualize the structure. Some pic- tures of more than ordinary merit are to be seen within its walls. One representing the Madonna and Child is pronounced to be very valuable. It is kept in perfect condition by the government of St. Petersburg, which is the sole owner of all the cluu'ches of the empire, at home and abroad. The Tzar expends more money for church and missionary purposes in Alaska to-day than all the Christian sects of our country combined. For the three chui-ches in Sitka, Kodiak, and Unalaska the sum of fifty thousand dollars annually is set aside and appropriated. Nevertheless, we believe the Training School at Sitka exercises a much higher civilizing influence, where the simplest Chi'istian principles are taught, combined with common school studies, and where instruction is given in the daily industries of life. AH concede that education and general intelligence are the mainsprings of our system of government, and that the perpetuity of its institutions depends thereon. Ill view of these indisputable facts let our rulers at Washington bestow liberally from out the plethoric national treasury for educational pur- poses in Alaska. Most of the houses of Sitka are heavy log dwellings, some of which are clapboarded outside and smoothly finished within. In the winter 300 THE NEW ELDORADO. season about a thousand Indians live here, the white population being composed of the usual government officials and agents, with a few store- keepers engaged in the fur traffic and general trade with the aborigines. Four or five hundred miners and prospectors gather here also in the winter, when it becomes too cold to prosecute their calling far inland, where the thermometer often falls to 20° below zero. Even this occasional extreme could be easily endured, and the work be little retarded, were suitable quarters provided. In midwinter daylight continues at Sitka for only six hours in tlie twenty-four, though by the first of June there is virtually no night at all; the stars take a vacation, while the evening and the morning twilight merge into day. The author had thought, heretofore, that the rainfall at Bergen, on the coast of Norway, ex- ceeded that of any other spot he had visited, but here at Sitka " the rain, it raineth every day." We have seen it rain harder in the tropics, but not often. The brief downpour, however, is so quickly followed by a flood of delicious sunshine that the contrast is a charming revelation. Still another effect is observable that, as rainy as it is, at certain seasons the atmosphere is still peculiarly dry. The writer was told that clothes would quickly dry under a shed during the heaviest rains. The fair weather is most likely to occur during the excursion season, so that the stranger is not apt to meet much annoyance in this respect while at the capital. The annual rainfall is recorded as being THE JAPANESE CURRENT. 801 ninety inches upon this island, a degree of humid- ity which is attributed to the heated waters of the equatorial regions, wliich warm the whole coast- line of southern Alaska, insuring the mild win- ters it enjoys. Scientists tell us that the effect of this warm current is equivalent to twenty degrees of latitude, that is to say, the same products which are found in latitude 40° north on the Atlantic coast thrive in this region at 60° north, which is a little higher than the latitude of Sitka. This beneficent stream, arising off the coast of southern California, crosses the Pacific south of the Sandwich Islands, and on the coast of Asia turns northward in a grand sweep, striking the shores of America, and return- ing finally to its starting-point. " It is this," says H. H. Bancroft, in his " History of the Pacific States," " that clothes temperate isles in tropical verdure, makes the silkworm flourish far north of its rightful home, and sends joy to the heart of the hyperborean, even to him upon the Strait of Behring, and almost to the Arctic Sea." The abundant moisture causes all vegetation to grow most luxuriantly. " The enemies of this re- gion, some of whom," said an official to us, " have been paid for sinister purposes to write it down, declare that it caimot be made to support a popu- lation, as vegetables will not grow here, but vege- tables have been successfully grown all about us for more than fifty years." There are a plenty of domestic cattle at Sitka, where we partook of as sweet and rich milk as can be produced on our 302 THE NEW ELDORADO. choice dairy farms at the East. The southern portions of the Territory, both the islands and the mainland, are better adapted to support a civilized white popuhition than are the larger portions of Norway and Sweden. It may be doubted if there is anything finer in color than -the June greenery of Sitka. Our first day at this unique capital had been varied by alternate rain and sunshine, but the closing hours of the day were clear and beau- tiful, emphasized by such a grand and brilliant sunset as is rarely excelled, the afterglow and mellow twilight lasting until nearly midnight, causing the turban of snow upon the head of Mount Edgecombe to look like Etruscan gold. John G. Brady, United States commissioner at Sitka, writes from there as follows : " Though Alaska is no agricultural country, yet there is plenty of land for growing vegetables for a vast population which can be easily cleared and culti- vated. The food of this coast is assured unless the Pacific current changes and rain ceases. Per- haps there is not another spot on the globe where the same number of people do so little manual labor and are so well fed as in Sitka." The ca- pacity of the island to produce a large variety of garden vegetables, and of good quality, is abun- dantly demonstrated by a resident who gains a successful livelihood through the sale of these products grown on his own land. The bay is very lovely and naturally recalls that of Naples, with its neighboring Vestova and its beautiful islands. Though Mount Edgecombe SITKA HARBOR. 30:', with its great truncated cone, situated fifteen miles away upon Kruzoff Island, is not now in active condition, a centur}- ago, more or less, it poured forth lava, fire, and smoke enough to rival the Italian volcano which buried Pompeii in its fatal debiis nearly two thousand years ago. We were told that smoke and sulphurous vapor occasionally issue from the old crater of Edgecombe, but saw no distinct evidence of the fact. As we lookt^d at the sleeping giant we wondered if it will one day awake in its Plutonic power. The bay is said to contain over one hundred islands, which are mosth' covered with a noble giowth of trees, rendered picturesque and lovely by green sh)ping banks and shores fringed with golden-russet sea- weed, bearing long, banana-like leaves. Many of these islands are occupied, some by whites, some by Indians. Japan Island, so-called, is the largest in the bay, and is situated just opposite the town. It was once improved by the Russians as an ob- servatory, and now contains some fine gardens cul- tivated both by whites and natives, from whence the citizens obtain their supply of fresh vegetables. Baranoff Island itself is mountainous and thi( kly wooded, though there are large arable spots dis- tributed here and there near to Sitka, dotted with wild flowers in white and gold, — Flora's favorite colors in this latitude. Never, save in equatorial regions, has the author seen vegetation moi-e lux- uriant than it is in its native condition in these islands of southern Alaska. CHAPTER XXII. Contrast between Ameiicnn and Eussian Sitka — A Practical Missionary. — Tiie Sitka Industrial School. — Gold Mines on the Island. — Environs of the Town. — Future Prosperity of the Country. — Hot Springs. — Native Keligious Ideas. — A Natural Taste for Music. — A Native Brass Band. — Final View of the Capital. The Sitka of to-day contains about two thou- sand inhabitants, but is a very different place fi om that which the Russians made of it. The subjects of the Tzar carried on shipbuilding, manufa6tured wooden and iron ware, erected an iron furnace and smelted native ore, made steel knives and agri- cultural tools, axes, hatches, and carpenters' tools generally. They established a bell foundry here at which many bells and chimes were cast, and shipped the products all along the Pacific coast, especially to Mexico. The Greek Church was kept up to the highest standard as regarded the national forms, and employed nearly a score of priests, which, together with some forty or fifty civil officers attached to the governor's household staff, made a considerable community of white citizens, which was a constant scene of business activity. The capital has, in some re.'^pects at least, been greatly improved since it came into our possession, but it bears unmistakable evidences of antiquity. It has been made neat and clean, which .-1 PRACTICAL MISSIONARY. 305 was certainly not a characteristic under its former management, the streets have been regularly laid out, and good sidewalks have taken the place of muddy pathways, while some well -constructed roads leading through the neighborhood have been perfected. Though there is not seemingl}' so much of local business going on as there used lo be, still it is a far more wholesome and pleasant place to live in than it was in the days of Mus- covite possession. In Mrs. E. S. Willaid's pub- lished letters from Alaska we learn how an officer of our navy, namely, Captain Henry Glass of the United States steamer Jamestown, in 1881, proved to be the right sort of missionary to send on spe- cial duty to Sitka. " His first move," says this lady, " was to abolish hoochinoo. He made it a crime to sell, buy, or drink it, or any intoxicating drinks. He pre- vailed upon the traders to sell no molasses to the Indians in quantities, so that they could not make this drink. He issued orders in regard to clearing up the native ranches, whicli were fil- thy in the extreme, and had been the scene of nightly horrors of almost every description. He appointed a police force from the Indians them- selves, dressed them in navy cloth with ' James- town ' in gilt letters on their caps, and a silver star on their breasts. He made education com- pulsory. The houses were all numbered and the children of each house, each child being given a little round tin plate on which was marked his number and the number of his house. These 306 THE NEW ELDORADO. plates weie worn on a string about the neck. As the ehihh'en arrived in school they were regis- tered. Wlioever failed to send their children were fined one blanket. As soon as the}' discovered that the captain was in earnest they submitted, and I believe no blanket was forfeited after the first week. The ranches have been cleaned, white- washed, and drained, and all is peaceful and quiet where a few months ago it was a place of strife." The Sitka Industrial School — or as it is better known hei'e, the Jackson Institution — is the most interesting feature of the town, because one can- not fail to realize how nnich good it is accomplish- ing in the way of practical civilization and real education among the natives. At this writing there are nearly one hundi-ed boys, and about sixty girls and young women, who are under the parental caie of the Institution. The teaching force consists of a dozen earnest workers, mostly ladies fi-om the Eastern States. Resides the or- dinary English branches taught in the school, the girls are trained to cook, wash, iron, sew, knit, and to make their own clothes. The boys are taught carpentry, house- building, cabinet-mak- ing, blacksinitliing, boat-building, shoemaking, and other industries. The work of the school is so arranged that each boy and girl attends school half a day, and works half a day. The results thus brought about are admirable. The " Mis- sion," as the cluster of buildings forming the school, the hospital, the residence for teachers, cot- tages, and workshops is called, is situated beside INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 307 tlie road leading to Indian Rivei*, overlooking (ho bay, the islands, and the sea, witli grand mountain views on three sides. Fifteen different tribes are represented in this Sitka Industrial School. Eng- lish-speaking young natives who have been trained here readily obtain good wages at the mines, in the fish-cannei'ies, and wherever they apply for employment among the white residents of the Territory, while their influence with their tribes is very great. That the Alaskans are teachable and capable of attaining a higlier and better plane of life has been abundantly proven by the successful mission of this school during the few years of its existence. There is a small monthly newspaper published at Sitka in the interest of the Training School called '' The North Star." It is inexpensively produced, and is calculated to disseminate infor- mation in beiialf of the excellent mission, as well as to add interest to its local affairs. The type- setting and all the work on this little paper is done by native boys. In his last published report Dr. Sheldon Jackson says in rehition to the Alas- kan natives: "Christianize them, give them a fair school education and the means of earning a living, and they are safe ; but without this the race is doomed. We believe in the gospel of ha- bitual indust'-y for the adults, and of industiial training for the ciiildren. By these means they can be reclaimed from improvident habits, and transformed into ambitious and self-helpful citi- zens." 308 THE NEW ELDORADO. The Industrial Training Scliool at Sitka was established as a day school by the Presbyterian Board of Hume Missions in 1880, with Miss Olinda A. Austin as teacher. Tl)e following fall circiun- stances led to the opening of a boarding depait- ment. Since then the institution has grown until there are connected with it two large buildings (one for boys and the other for girls), an industrial building sheltering the carpenter and boot and shoe shops, the printing-office and boat house, a small blacksmith shop, a steam laundry, a bakery, a iiospital, and six small model cottages. Every building has been constructed by the pupils them- selves under the direction of the one carpenter, who acted as their instructor. Even the domestic furniture, such as beds, chairs, bureaus, and the like, is the handiwork of these native boys. We can testify from personal observation that all is wonderfully well done, and of excellent patterns. There is a valuable gold mine situated six or eight miles southeast of Sitka, eight hundred feet above the sea level and about a mile from deep water, on Silver Bay, where the largest ships may lie beside the shore, the wharfage hav- ing been prepared by Nature's own hand. The quartz rock is here represented to be of excellent quality, showing thirty dollars to the average ton, and there is never-failing water near at hand suf- ficient for running a hundred stainp-niill. Gold has been mined at Silver Bay in a primitive way for several years. Numerous other mines have been located and opened on Baranoff Island which J ARRIVAL OF AN EXCURSION STEAMER. 309 give great promise, but this just mentioned has accomplished thus far the best results. We took notes of eleven mines upon which much work had been done, shafts sunken, and tunnels run. "The island is besprinkled with these gold-quariz veins," said an intelligent citizen to us. " Pros- pectors and miners have been attracted elsewhere in the Territory by still more promising gold de- posits. This, together with the want of capital, is the reason the mines have not been opened and worked on an extensive scale. This will follow, however, in due time, for miners can work here all the year round, with comfort as regards the weather, and at the minimum cost of living." The arrived of an excursion steamer at Sitka is made the occasion of a regular holiday, which is very natural with a people who live in so isolated a place. As the steamer enters the several har- bors of the inland passage northward, her pres- ence is announced by a report from the cannon on the forecastle, which awakens a score of sonorous echoes from the rocky cliffs and nearest mountains^ also serving to arouse the sleepy natives and put the dealers in curios on the qui vive. The few caf^s do a thriving business; the nights, never very dark in summer, are turned into d:iy, and hours of revelry prevail. The aboriginal women drive a lively business with their home-made cu- rios, and indiscreet native girls promenade freely with strangers. Peccadilloes are overlooked ; no one seems to be held strictly to account. The offi- cials are unusuallv lenient on such occasions, just 310 THE NEW ELDORADO. as they are in Boston or New York on the Fourth of July. The immediate environs of Sitka present many rural beauties, including river, forest, and wild flowers, with here and there a rapid, musical cas- cade. The same species of highly-developed white clover as was seen at Fort Wrangel is a charming feature here, fragrant and lovely, — '* Beautiful objects of the wild bees' love." Buttercups and dandelions are twice the size of those which we have ill New England. Ferns are in great variety, and the mosses are exquisite in their velvety tex- ture, while tenderly shrouding the fallen and de- caying trees they present an endless variety of shades in green. There are over three hundred varieties of wild flowers found on Baranoff Island, and wild berries abound here as among all the isl- ands and on the mainland. The wild raspberry, salmon-berry, and thimbleberry are especially luxuriiint and fine in size and flavor. The woods are full of song-birds and of others more gaudy of feather. These are only summer visitors, to be sure, among which the rainbow-tinted humming- bird made his presence obvious. A pleasant walk is finely laid out along the banks of the sparkling Indian River, a swift mountain stream, hedged with thrifty and graceful alders, by which means the citizens have created for themselves a charm- ing and favorite promenade. Along the left bank of this beautiful watercourse are woodland scenes of exquisite rural beauty. It would be foolish to suggest the idea that FARMING NEAR SITKA. 311 Alaska promises to become eventually a great ag- ricultural country; but it is equally incorrect to say, as did a certain popular writer not long since, tliat '• there is not an acre of farming laud in the Territory." There are considerable areas of good arable land now under profitable cultivation in the Sitka district, and large farms, rich in virgin soil, could be had for a mere song, as the saying goes, in desirable localities, by clearing away the timber and draining the land. Some twenty-five milk cows are kept at Sitka; milk is sold at ten cents per quart. Fresh venison is cheap and abundant, and fibh of various kinds cost nearly nothing. In the immediate vicinity there are three thousand acres of arable land, much of which is well grassed and covered with white clover. On the foot-hills there is plenty of grass for the sustenance of sheep and goals. Experienced residents told us that wool-growing might be profitably pursued as a business here, and that there was not a month in the year when the animals would absolutely re- quire to be housed. Hay is easily made, and is in abundance at cheap rates. "I have never seen finer potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and garden prod- uce generally, than those grown here," says Gov- ernor Swineford in his annual report to the De- partment at Washington, There is a great abundance of natural and nu- tritious grasses in most parts of the country, but especially in the southern islands and the Kodiak group. The great prosperity of Alaska, however, to be looked for in the near future, lies in the en- 312 THE NEW ELDORADO. ergetic development of her coal trade, her fisher- ies, and her extraordinary mineral wealth. The immense supply of timbei', some of which is un- surpassed in its merchantable value, will come into use one or two generations later. The fur-trade, already of gignntic proportions, cannot be judi- ciously developed beyond its present volume, oth- erwise the source of supply will gradually become exhausted. It might be quadrupled for a few years, but this would be killing the goose that lays the golden egg. If protected, as our government is striving to do for it to-day, it will continue in- definitely to meet the market demand without glutting or overstocking it. In this connection, and after some inquiry, we cannot refrain from expressing the fear that the legal limit as regards the slaughter of the seals is greatly exceeded. Over three million dollars' worth of canned salmon were expoi-ted from Alaska last year. " This Ter- ritory c;mi sup|>ly the world with salmon, herring, and halibut of the best quality," says Dr. Sheldon Jackson. Twenty miles south of Sitka, on the same island, there are a number of hot springs, strongly impregnated with iron and sidphur, the sanitary nature of which has been known to the Indians for centuries, and hither they have been in the habit of resorting for the cure of certain physical ills, espcitially rheumatism, to which they are so liable. Vegetation in the neighborhood of these springs is tropical. The temperature of the water is said to be 156° Fah. At the time of the Rus- DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 313 sian possession the whites built hath-hons<^s on the spot, and much was made of this sanitarium. But all is now neglected, except that the natives still occasionally resort to the place to enjoy the tonic and recuperating effect of the waters. Any- thing which will promote cleanliness among the Alaskan tribes must be unquestionably of benefit to them. There are plenty of hot mineral springs all over the various island groups of the Territory, and especially that portion which makes out from the Alaska Peninsula westward towards Asia. The most fatal diseases prevailing among the abo- rigines after consumption are scrofulous affec- tions ; the latter is thought to be aggravated, if not induced, by their almost exclusive fish diet, supple- mented by their gross uncleanliness. The Aleuts of the south, the Eskimos of the north, and the natives generally of the coast and the interior sleep and live in such dark, dirty, unventilated quarters, reeking with vile odors, that they cannot fail to poison their blood and thus induce a myr- iad of ills. As we have said, none of these natives seem to have any intelligent idea of medicine, and they do not possess any herbs, so far as we could learn, which are used for medicinal purposes. If a native is furnished with a prescription after the manner of the whites, he requires at least twice the amount of medicine which it is customary to give to a white man, otherwise the dose will have no apparent effect upon his system. Tiiis is a never varying experience which medical men have found repeated among all savage races. 314 THE NEW ELDORADO. As far as one is able to compreliend the reli- gious convictions of the native Sitkans, other than the few who have gone through the form of pro- fessing Christianity, they seem to entertain a sort of animal worship, a reverence for special birds and beasts. Like the Japanese tliey hold certain animals sacred and will not injure them. It is thus that they have some mystical idea about the bear, which prevents them from willingly hunting that animal. Ravens are nearly as numerous in Sitka as they are in Ceylon, and no one will in- jure them. They believe that the spirits of the departed occupy the bodies of ravens, hawks, and the like. One is reminded that in the temples of Canton the Chinese keep sacred hogs ; the Par- sees of Bombay worship fire; the Japanese bow before snakes and foxes, as divine symbols; the pious Hindoo deifies cows and monkeys; so there is abundant precedent to countenance these sim- ple natives of Alaska in their crude worship and superstitions. Their aboriginal belief is called Shamanism, or the propitiating of evil spirits by acceptable offer- ings. It is significant that the same faith is^ par- ticipated in by the Siberians, on the other side of Behring Strait. This is no new or original form of religion; it was the faith of the Tartar race before they became disciples of Buddhism. These aborigines seem to anticipate a state of future happiness, but not one of rewards and punishments. All blessedness in this anticipated eternity is for man ; woman, it seems, has no real THE MOST POTENT MISSIONARIES. 315 inheritance in this world or the next ! Slavery, vice, and misery would thus appear to be her portion in life, and she expects nothing beyond. This picture is not overdrawn. These natives are now as much a part of our population as are the people who live in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, and our manifest duty is to educate them. The light of reason will soon follow, and like the rising sun will burn away this mist of ignorance and superstition. Schools are the most potent missionaries that can be established among any savage race ; reasonable religious convictions will follow as a natural result. "When the missionary," says W. H. Dall, " will leave the trading-post, strike out into the wilderness, live in the wilderness, live with the Indians, teach tliem cleanliness first, morality next, and by slow and simple teaching raise their minds above the hunt and the camp, — then, and not until then, they will be able to comprehend the simplest principles of right and wrong." Though these Indians at the populous centres often pretend to yield to the religious teachings of the piofessional missionaries, still, like the Chinese religious converts, they are pretty sure to return to their idols and supeistitions. When the Roman Catholic Bishop from San P^ranclsco came among the natives of Alaska, and offered to baptize their children, the Indians told him that he might baptize them if he would pay them for it ! H. H. Bancioft, in his work upon the native races of the North Pacific, says : " Thick, black 316 THE NEW ELDORADO. clouds, portentous of evil, hang threateningly over the savage during his entire life. Genii murmur in the flowing river, in the rustling branches of the trees are heard the breathings of the gods, goblins dance in the vapory twilight, and demons howl in the darkness. All these things are hostile to man, and must be propitiated by gifts, prayers, and sacrifices ; while the religious worship of some of the tribes includes practices frightful in their atrocity." The Sitkans, like many other tribes, used to burn their dead before the missionaries partially dissuaded them from doing so, but some still adopt cremation as a final and most desirable resort. To one who has seen its universal application in India, there are many strong reasons in its favor. The Alaskan native idea of a hell in another world constituted of ice, it is said, causes them to reason that those buried in the earth may be cold forever after, while those whose bodies are burned will be forever warm and comfortable in the next sphere. After the funeral these aborigines, as we have shown, engage in a genuine " wake," reck- lessly feasting and drinking to emphasize the im- portance of the occasion, and to demonstrate their unbounded grief. The native women occasionally show some taste for music and ability in playing upon the accordion, almost the only instrument found in their possession. A young Indian girl was seen quite alone among the wild flowers just outside the town (Sitka) who had been taught a few NATIVE MUSICIANS. 317 pleasing airs, and who surprised us with a well- played strain from a familiar opera. She was a pretty, gypsy-like child of nature, evidently having white blood in her veins, and was not over sixteen years of age. The coarse, scanty clothing could not disguise her handsome form, bright, intelligent face, or hide the depth and splendor of her jet-black luminous eyes. When she discovered us the accordion was quickly thrust behind her, while her downcast eyes expressed moitification at being found alone by the white strangers, playing to the flowers beside the Indian River. She understood English and spoke it fairly well, but hesitated to receive the bright bit of silver offered to her. When we told her that in the East it was the custom to pay those who played to us upon musical instruments out-of-doors, and described the itinerant hand -organist with his monkey, and the brass bands which perambulate city streets, she laughed heartily, thrust the shin- ing silver in her bosom, and held out her hand to greet us cordiall}'. As we turned our steps back towards the town the innocent, winning face of the young girl haunted us with thoughts of hidden possibilities never to be fulfilled. On the evening before we left Sitka a brass band consisting of twenty-one performers marched down to the wharf from the mission school, in good military order, headed by their teacher as band-master, and serenaded the passengers. The band was composed entirely of native boys, the oldest not over eighteen, not one of whom had ever 318 THE NEW ELDORADO. seen a brass musical instrument two years ago. They performed eight or ten elaborate pieces of composition, not passably well, but admirably, in perfect time, and with real feeling for the music they expressed. It was a surprise to every one on board the Corona to hear such a performance by natives in this isolated spot in the far north. A liberal puise was handed to the teacher to be divided among them. " Do you know what they will do with this money ? " he asked, gratefully. " Purchase some trifle, each one after his own fancy," we replied. " No, sir," said the teacher, " they will tell me, every one of them, to purchase some new music with the money, which they can practice and learn to play together." Their means are of course quite circumscribed, and they have had but little variety afforded them, either in school-books or music. They look upon their musical tuition as a reward for good behavior, and the severest punishment to them is to be deprived of any favorite branch of instruc- tion. At our final view of Sitka, the quaint capital' of Alaska was lying quiet and peacefully at the feet of Vestova, while enshrouded in a voluptuous sheen of afternoon sunlight. A rose-glow rested on everything, beautifying the simplest objects. Lofty, thickly-wooded hills formed the back- ground, while the Greek church and tlie old cas- tle dominated all the humbler buildings. The A FINAL VIEW. 319 waters of the island-dotted bay were as still as an inland lake, and flooded with golden reflections. Now and again an eagle sailed gracefully from one wooded height to another, and the hoarse croak of many ravens, held sacred by the Indians, greeted the ear. A few United States soldiers lounged about their barracks, and a few cannon were arranged upon the broad common. These were light fieldpieces, more for show than for use. Groups of natives clad iu bright-colored blankets were seen here and there before their simple dwellings which line the beach. A broad, intensely green plateau forms the centre of the set- tlement, about which the better houses of the whites are situated. A little to the left, nearer to the hills, is the curiously arranged burial-ground of the aborigines, with a few totem-poles, and many boxes reared above ground in which are de- posited the remains of former chiefs. On a slight rise of ground stands the ancient blockhouse, built of logs, from which the Russians once made a des- perate fight with the natives. Behind us i\Iount Edgecombe loomed far up among the clouds, where its apex was half hidden, and in the same direc- tion, not far away, was the open Pacific. It was nearly ten o'clock P. M. before the sun set behind the distant western hills in a blaze of scarlet, yellow, and purple, reflected by soft, butterfly clouds and mountain tops in the east. After that came the luminous moonlight, making a regal glory of the darkness, and flashing in opal gleams from the sea. 320 THE NEW ELDORADO. While watching the rippling lustre of the water, tremulous with starlight and the languid breath of the night air, one was fain to ask if it was all quite real, if this was not a fancy picture from the land of dreams. Could these be the far-away shores of Alaska? The pathos and tenderness of the scene, the glow, and fire, and throbbing love- liness, were indescribable. Even the few fleecy clouds which sailed between us and the planets seemed as if they came to waft our hymn of praise to Heaven. Is not such surpassing beauty of na- ture an image of the Infinite One ? CHAPTER XXIII. The Return Vqyage. — Prince of Wales Island. — Peruliar Effects. — Island and Ocean Voyages contrasted. — Laby- rintli of Verdant Islands. — Flora of the North. — Political Condition of Alaska. — Return to Victoria. — What Cloth- ing to wear on tlie Journey North. — City of Vancouver. — Scenes in British Columbia. — Through the Mountain Ranges, The return voyage from Sitka by the inland course takes us first through Peril Straits, so named on account of its many submerged rocks and reefs. It is, however, a wonderfully pictur- esque passage between the two lofty islands of Chicagoff and Baranoff, strewn as it is with im- pediments to navigation. We pass the Indian village of Kootznahoo, occupied by a tribe of the same name, a people who have always proved to be restless and aggressive, requiring a strong hand to control them. They are peaceable enough now, having been taught some severe lessons by way of discipline. This tribe as a body still adheres to many of the revolting practices of their ances- tors, which other Alaskans, who are brought into more intimate relations with the whites, have dis- carded. They are also said to be more under the influence of their medicine-men, who foster all sorts of vile rites and superstitions, without the prevalence of which their occupation and impor- tance would vanish. 322 THE NEW ELDORADO. We make our way through the winding chan- nels of the Alexander Archipelago, of which the Prince of Wales Island is one of the largest and most mountainous. It is about a hundred and seventy-five miles long by fifty miles in width; that is to say, it is as large as the State of New Jersey, and in fact contains more square miles. It is mostly covered with dense forests of Alaska cedar, the best of ship -timber. The shores are indented on all sides by fjords extending a con- siderable distance into the land. Salmon abound in and about this island, which has led to the establishment of several large fish-cauninj; facto- lies, two new ones being added during the past season. The principal native tribe upon the island is known as the Haidas, whose vilhigea are scattered along the coast. The interior of the island is not only uninhabited, but it is unex- plored. The shore hamlets are called " rancher- ies." Each sub-tribe has a special one represent- ing its capital, where the head chiefs live. Their laws seem to be simply a series of conventional- ities. The houses of these Haidas are better structures than those of most natives of the Ter- ritoiy, and they surround themselves,, as a rule, with more domestic comforts. Woolen blankets appear to be the investment in which all the spare means of the members of this, as well as most other tribes, are placed, and by the nutnber they possess they estimate their wealth. Woolen blankets, in fact, averaging in value from two dol- I lars and a half to three and a half, are the native IN THE ALEXASDKR ARCHIPELAGO. 323 currency or circulating medium, being received as such when in good condition; and also given out at the trading stations as payment to natives for furs or for any service, unless specie is preferred. The meandering course of the steamer brings us now before one Indian hamlet and island, and now another; but these villages are very few in num- ber, hours, and even a whole da}', being sometimes passed, while on our course, without meeting a sol- itary canoe or seeing a human being outside the vessel's bulwarks. These islands, as a rule, have no gravelly or sandy beach, but spring abruptly from out the almost bottomless sea, in their pio- portions ranging from an acre to the size of a Eu- ropean! principality. Now and again we come upon a reach of the shore where it is shelving, and for a mile or more it is bastioned by a course of stones, of such uni- form height and even surface as to seem like the work of clever stone-masons. Skilled workers with plummet and line could produce nothing more regular. In some places, as we quietl}' glide close in to the shadow of the land, shut in by the morning fog and mist wreaths, the effects are very curious and even startling. It not being possible to see very far up the shrouded cliffs, down whose sides there rush narrow, silvery cascades, with a merry, laughing sound, they often have the appearance of coming directly out of the sky. It seems as though some peak had punctured one of the over- charged cloufls, and it was pouring out its liquid contents througb the big aperture. 324 THE NEW ELDORADO. The contrast between a voyage across the open ocean and a sail of two weeks in this inland sea is notable. In the former instance the voyagers find fruitful themes in the vast expanse and fabulous depth of the ocean, the huge monsters and tiny creatures occupying it, the record of the ship's progress, her exact tonnage, and the trade in which she has been encjacred since she was launched. Few persons have in themselves sufficient intel- lectual resources not to become oppressed with ennui under the circumstances. Between Puget Sound and Glacier Bay how different is the expe- rience 1 There is no monotony here ; every mo- ment is replete with curious sights, every succeed- ing hour full of fresh discoveries. The panoramic view is crowded all day long with sky-reaching mountains, scarred by wild convulsions ; verdant islands embowered in giant trees ; rocky peaks ris- ing from the bottom of the sea to a thousand feet and more above our topmast head ; cascades tum- bling down precipitous cliffs ; Indian hamlets dot- ted by totem-poles ; canoes gliding over the silent surface of the deep channels ; inlets crowded with schools of salmon ; mammoth glaciers emptying themselves into the sea and forming opaline ice- bergs sharply reflecting the sun's dazzling rays. There is no time for ennui among such scenes as these ; the eyes are captivated by the beauty and the variety, while the imagination is constantly stimulated to its utmost capacity. The flora of this far northern country does not exhibit the wonderful luxuriance and productive- AN ATTRACTIVE REGION. 325 ness which captivates us in the tropics, though one gathers some extremely attractive specimens. Nei- ther the flowers, the insects, nor the birtls are marked with the brilliancy of color which distin- guish those bathed continually in waves of equa- torial sunlight. Here, grandeur prevails over beauty ; the trees, if not so verdant, excel in size and majesty; the mountains, in height; the riv- ers, in volume and length ; while the glaciers are without comparison in magnitude and power. Here, i"s simplicity, vastness, magnificence; there, fertility, fragrance, loveliness. Neither in the north nor in the south is there the least infringe- ment upon the great harmonies of Nature; admi- rable consistency and order exist everywhere, typ- ifying a great, overruling, supreme Intelligence. We pause for a moment amid the silent tran- quillity to sum up our experience while gliding along this beautiful and peaceful inland sea on the return voyage. The author does not hesitate to pi'onounce Alaska to be one of the most at- tractive regions in the world for summer tourists. From early June to September the temperature prevailing upon the entire route is equable, the thermometer ranging all the while between sixty and seventy degrees Fah. The progress of the steamer always creates a gentle and agreeable breeze, which renders warm clothing desirable, especially at early morning and in the evening, though these are periods not so distinctly defined as with us in New England. An overcoat is rarelv rendered necessarv or desirable. If the 326 THE NEW ELDORADO. mosquitoes are troublesome at certain places on shore, in niarsliy regions, they are never so on the watei-, as the bieeze inevitably drives such insects awMV. Lt't us say especially there is no other such inviting resort for pleasure yachts as this inland, island-dotted sea of Alaska. If the fogs put in an appearance sometimes in the morning, they are after awhile burned away by the warmth of the sun. Local rains on shore are to be oc- casionally endured, but they are no great draw- back to observation and brief excursions. At Sitka, Wrangel, and Juneau several showers may occur during the day, with intervals of bright and cloudless skies between. We have witnessed seven copious, well-sustained showers of rain on a Miiy forenoon in Chicago, the intervals sand- wicln'tl with sunshine of gorgeous clearness and warmth. Why pretend that Alaska is exceptional in this respect? The weather is not ]>ei'fect, ac- cording lo our estimate, anywhere. Finall}'^ the extended trip upon the boat was found to cover a little over two thousand miles in all, and was with us one of continuous pleasure, enlivened by as bright and cheerful weather as one experiences on an average elsewhere, winding among an im- mense archipelago of mountains, emerald islands, and land-locked bays, through narrow channels dominat(Hl by precipitous cliffs, and crossing broad, lake-like expanses as placid as the serene blue overhanging all. No other government on the globe, in this nineteenth century, would permit so laige and im- POLITICAL CONDITION OF ALASKA. 827 portant a portion of its territory to remain unex- plored. Congress should send at once a thoroiighlv equipped scientific expedition, competent to report minutely upon the geology, fauna, flora, and geog- raphy of this immense division of the country. It is more than an ttversight, it is a gross blunder, not to do this without further delay. It" our own pen-pictures of this neglected Tei ritory shall in- cite to the fulfillment of such an act of ofiicial duty, these pages will have served at least one im- portant purpose. " With a comparatively mild climate," says C. E. S. Wood, in an account of a visit to Alaska, printed in the " Century Magazine," " with most valuable shipbuilding timber covering the islands, with splendid harbors, with inexhaustible fisheries, with an abundance of coal, with copper, lead, silver, and gold awaiting the prnspei-tor, it is surprising that an industiious, shipbuilding, fish- ing colony from New England or other States has not established itself in Alaska." The political condition of Alaska is anything but creditable to our countr}'. It has little more than the shadow of a civil government, atid is en- tirely without any land laws by which a resident can secure a title to the soil upon which he builds his house. The act of Congress dated ^Nlay 7, 1884, providing an apology for a civil government, was not passed until twenty years after the Terri- tory had been acquired. As a consequence the material progress of the country and its inviting possibilities remain undeveloped. With the ex- 828 THE NEW ELDORADO. tension of the United States local laws to this section, immigration would be at once promoted and various industries established. " Why we are so neglected is incomprehensible," said a resident of Sitka. " All we ask is the same advantages enjoyed by the citizens of the other Territories of the United States." It is certainly to be hoped that Congress will give early attention to this important matter, for Alaska is destined to become one of our most valuable possessions. We shall be excused for making use of so strong an expres- sion, but it is only too true that her interests have been persistently and shamefully neglected by the law-makers at Washington. " Like the dog in the manger," says Miss Kate Field, "Congress will do nothing for Alaska, nor will it permit Alaska to do anything for herself locally, or at Washington through a delegate. Yet, in 1890, two islands of this despised and neglected province will have paid into the United States Treasury '$6,340,000, — within one million of Alaska's entire purchase ! " Tiie present comparative isolation of Alaska will not be of lonj; duration ; not onlv are the facilities for reaching the Territory being annually increased from the east, but it is being also rapidly approached in this respect from the west. The Russian government is building a railroad in almost a straight line from Moscow to Behring Sea, which it is confidently believed will be com- pleted within five years. Direct communication will thus be established between St. Petersburg TOURING DRESS. 329 and the Russian Pacific ports, through Siberia, whose most easterly point is less than forty miles from the soil of Alaska. After sailing four or five clays southward, bear- ing always slightly to the east, through a wilder- ness of islands and along the mountain-fiiiiged coast of the mainland, the ship comes upon the open sea, and the passengers realize for a short time the effect of the Pacific Ocean swell. The sensitiveness of some people to its influence is as reniiirkable as the stolid indifference of others. Here, where the Japanese Current meets the cold air from off the coast, fogs are very liable to pre- vail, though it was not so in the writer's case. We are now in comparatively open navigation and can lay our course without fear. Soon Queen Char- lotte's Sound is entered, and for a day and a half the steamer again skirts the picturesque shore of Vancouver, whose features are reproduced in the deep, quiet waters with marvelous distinctness, until finally we are once more landed at Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. We are frequently asked since our return what clothing and other articles one should take, with which to make the inland voyage through Alaskan waters. This is easily answered. As the rainfall is frequent be sure to have a good stout umbrella. Ladies would do well to take a gossamer waterproof and gentlemen a mackintosh. Heavy shoes, that is Avith double soles, and a light overcoat should be provided. There is no occasion for fuLl dress, — court dress, 330 THE NEW ELDORADO. on this route, swallow-tails are so much needless baggage. Ladies' skirts should be short so they will not draggle on tlie wet deck of the steamer, or in walking through the damp grass, or over the surface of a glacier. In the latter instance gentle- men generally carry portable spikes that can be screwed on to the bottom of the shoes, and a staff cane with a stout ferule. When a party is formed to ascend a glacier a small hatchet and small rope should always be taken by some one of their num- ber. In case of an accident these often become of great importance. There need not be any acci- dent, however, if ordinary prudence is observed. A large and well-appointed steamer named the Islander, which plies legularly on this route, takes one across the island-sprinkled Gulf of Georgia in six or seven hours from Victoria to Vancouver on the mainland. Tliis is the ter- minus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, situated a short distance from the mouth of the Fraser River. From here the homeward course is almost due east through British Columbia, Alberta, As- siniboia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec to Mon- treal, thence southeast to Boston. So late, as 1886 the present site of Vancouver was covered with a dense forest of Douglass pines, cedar and spruce trees. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed to Vancouver in May, 1887, when the fust through train arrived from Montreal. The youthful city is well situated for commercial purposes on what is called Burrard Inlet* It has extensive wharves, substantial ware- CITY OF VANCOUVER. 331 houses, and very good hotel accommodations. Well-arranged public water-works bring the need- ful domestic supply in pure and healthful condi- tion from the neighboring hills. The surrounding scenery is strikingly bold, embracing the Cascade Range in the north, the mountains of Vancouver Island across the water in the west, and the Olym- pian Range in the south, while the great snowy head of Mount Baker rears itself skyward as the main feature in the southeast. The steamer whicli brings us here from Victoria pusses through a beautiful archipelago of peaceful islands, verdant and wooded to the very brink. The busy popula- tion of this infant city number between thirteen and fourteen thousand, and the place is growing rapidly. It is lighted by both gas and electricity. Forty substantial edifices for business and dwell- ing purposes are in course of erection at this writ- ing. There are steamers which sail regularly from here for Japan, China, and San Francisco. As it is in the midst of what may be called a wild country, there is excellent hunting near at hand and large game is abundant. Many sports- men, especially from England, make their head- quarters here while devoting themselves to hunting for a large part of the summer season. Four large English sloops of war were observed in the harbor at the time of the writer's visit, together wilh a couple of torpedo boats bearing the same flag, des- tined for Behring Sea, to "emphasize " the British side of the Alaska fishery question as between our government and that of Great Britain. 332 THE NEW ELDORADO. As one staiitls on the shore the harbor presents a picture of great variety and interest, compris- ing men-of-war boats })ulleil by disciplined crews; canoes, paddled by Indian squaws wiapped in high- colored blankets; boats loaded with valuable furs and propelled by aboriginal hunters; here a raft of timber, and there a steam ferry-boat. Just in shore there is passing as we watch the scene a native canoe carrying a sail made of bark-mat- ting, brown and dingy, steered with a paddle by an aged, withered, white-haired Indian, while in the prow is a four or five year old native boy, trailing his hands idly in the water over the side of the tiny craft. A striking picture of the voyage of life : thoughtless, happv^ vigorous youth at the prow, with weary age and experience awaiting the end at the stern. A couple of large steamers close at hand are getting under way loaded with preserved fish, put up at the canneries near bj' ; one is bound for Australia, the other for England, by way of Cape Horn. Vancouver has many edifices of brick and stone, with good churches and several schools; some of the private residences being remarkable for their complete architectural character in so new a city as this which forms the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The princijial part of the city occupies a penin- sula, bounded north by the waters of Burrard In- let, south by a small indentation called False Creek, and west by Englisli Bay. The city is fast ex- tending beyond these limits, both east and south. THE LONG JOURNEY HOMEWARD. 333 The peninsula rises gradually to an altitude of two hundred feet, more or less, aflfording the means of perfect drainage for the new city, which is laid out on a grand scale. A tramway, embracing the several submbs, is in course of construction, the motoi- for which will be electricity. We take the cars at Vancouver for our long journey homeward over the Canadian Pacific Rail- way, through the British Dominion to the Atlan- tic coast, indulging in a last admiring view of the grand elevation known as Mount Baker, which in these closing days of July is a mass of snow two thous;»nd feet from its summit. Upon starting our attention is first drawn to the gigantic trees, big sawmills, immense piles of lumber, and exten- sive brick-yards in the environs of the city. Small villages are passed, straggling farms, Indian camps, mining lodges, and Chinese "hives," where these people congregate after working all day at placer mining, and gamble half the night, sacrificing their laboriously acquired means. The grand winding valley of the Fraser River — a water- course as large as the Ohio — is followed for over two hundred miles in a nortlieasterly direction, affording glimpses of most charming and vivid scenery, leading through canons fully equaling in grandeur of form and beauty of detail anything of the sort in Colorado. Now and again groups of Indians are seen pre- paring the salmon tlu-y have caught for winter use. The fish are split and stretched flat by wooden braces, then hung in long pink lines upon 334 THE NEW ELDORADO. low frames of wood. The}^ use no salt in this cur- ing process, but simply dry the fish by atmos- pheric exposure, and succeed very well in thus preserving it. Dried salmon forms the principal staj)le of food for this people in the long Canadian winters. These natives, as in our own instance, are subsidized by the Dominion ; that is, they are placed upon reservations and receive a certain amount of money and rations annually from the government. Light green patches of raspberries are passed here and there, where children are gath- ering the ripe fruit in abundance, the bright color about their mouths betraying how abundantly they have feasted while thus engaged. It was a pleas- ant picture to gaze upon under the pearly blue sky, where we were suirounded with the fragrant odor of pine and spruce, and the ceaseless music of hurrying waters. At times the river rushes through deep rocky ravines, and at others expands into broad shallows with glittering sand bars, on which eager groups of miners are seen washing for gold. We cross a deep, cavernous gorge of the river on a graceful steel bridge, which, though doubtless of ample stiength, yet seems of spider-web proportions, then plunge into a dark tunnel to emerge directly amid scenery of the wildest nature, set with huge bowl- ders and noisy with boiling flumes and roaring cascades, where color, splendor, and inspiration greet us at each turn, while every object is soft- ened by the pale afternoon sunlight. By and by we pass up the valley of the Thom- 1 THROUGH THE GOLD RANGE. 335 son River, a tributary of the Fraser, finding our- selves presently in what is called the Gold, or Co- lumbian, range of mountains, a grand snow-clad series of hills. Our route through them for nearly fifty miles is in the form of a deep, narrow pass between vertical cliHs, forming land channels sim- ilar to the water-ways which we have latel}'^ left behind us in the Alexander Archipelago. At the small stations boys and girls board the cars with tiny baskets of luscious blackberries and ripe raspberries for sale, soon disposing of them to the passengers. These are picked within a dozen rods of the railway track, where they are seen ia great abundance. Wild flowers beautify the road- way, among which the most attractive are the golden-rod, the bright pink fire-weed, the towering and graceful spirea, the wild musk with its large bell-shaped scarlet flower, the fragrant tansy, with snow-ball clusters of white, and big patches of the tiny wild sunflower, its petals in deepest yellow, while among the lily-pads dotting the pools of wa- ter, orange-hued lilies are in full and gorgeous bloom. The scenery is strictly Alpine, but constantly varies as our point of view changes, and we thread miles upon miles of snow-sheds. Heavy veils of mist fringe the mountain-tops, and the tall peaks are wrapped in winding-sheets of perpi-tual snow. The ruGsed scenerv is fine, but finer is vet to come. Still climbing upwards, we are presently in the Selkirks, threading tunnels, dark gorges, som- bre canons, and narrow passes to the summit of 336 THE NEW ELDORADO. this remarkable range, forced onward by two pow- erful engines, one in the rear the other in front of the train. At a point known as Albert Canon the railway runs along the brink of several dark fissuies in the solid rock, three hundred feet deep, through which rushes the turbulent waters of the lUicilli- waet River (" Raging Waters "). Here the cars are stopped for a few moments that the passengers may the better observe the boiling flumes of angry waters, flecked with patches of foam, and corn- pressed within granite walls scarcely twenty feet apart. In approaching Glacier House station, at a cer- tain point the train ascends six hundred feet in a distance of two miles. This is accomplished by a zigzag course, utilizing two ravines which are favorably situated for the purpose ; the consum- mation is a grand triumph of engineering skill. While passing through this winding course we are serenaded by a chorus of dancing rapids, foam- ing cataracts, and rushing cascades. Here the torrents and waterfalls are innumerable, first on one side then on the other of our slowly-climb- ing train, and finally on both the right and the left, gleaming with bright prismatic rays while moving with tremendous impetus. Sir Donald, the highest peak of the Selkiik Range, shaped like an acute pyramid, now comes into view, rising to eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, and piercing the blue zenith with its inaccessible summit. It is named after one of the most ac- SIR DONALD. 337 tive promoters of this transcontinental railway. Sir Donald sends down from its immense snow- fields a ponderous glacier half a mile wide and eight miles long, presenting most of the charac- teristics of such frozen rivei's, thouo-h lacking: the grand effect of those so lately seen in Alaska, where they join the ocean in partially congealed form, thus producing thousands of icebergs. This Donald glacier is nevertheless equal to the average of European ones. The mountain has never yet been nscended. We were told tiiat a thousand dollars and a free pass over the railway for life await the successful mountain-climber who reaches the summit. In making our way through Beaver Canon and Stony Creek Canon, the highest timber railway bridge ever constructed is passed, three hundred feet Iiigh and four hundred and fifty long, sup- ported by direct uprights. Safe enough, per- haps, but one breathes freer and deeper when it is passed. It would seem as though mosquitoes could hardly thrive at such an altitude, but their number here is myriad, and their vicious activity at Glacier House station beggars description. CHAPTER XXIV. In the Heart of tlie Rocky ^Mountains. — Strujrgle in a Thunder- Storm. — Grand Scenery. — Snou-Cappcd Moiintninsand Ghi- ciers. — Banff Hot Springs. — The Canadian Park. — Eastern Gate of the Rockies. — Calgary. — Natural Gas — Cree and Blackfect Indians. — Regina. — Farming on a Big Scale. — Port Artliur. — North Side of Lake Superior. — A Midsum- mer Niglit's Dream. Rogers' Pass, at an altitude of four thousand two hundred and seventy-five feet above the sea, is situated between two ranges of snow-clad peaks, whence a dozen glaciers may be seen in various directions, frigid and ponderous. As we came through this remarkable pass, in the afternoon, dark clouds rapidly spread them- selves over the sky, reinforced by others more dense and threatening, engulfing us suddenly in darkness. Then the artillery of the heavens rang out in such deafening reports as to stifle all at- tempts at speech. The discharges and echoes among the gloomy gulches and tall peaks min- gled so rapidly th;it it was impossible to separate cause and elTect. The rain was like a cloud-burst. The sharp flashes of lightning were so incessant and blinding that one sat with closed eyes and bated breath. The great locomotive could bandy make way on the steep up-grade, the wheels hav- ing so much less hold upon the track when thus A MOUNTAIN STORM. 339 submerged. Passengers looked into each otlier's pale faces in fear and amazement. Still tlie slow, regular throh^ throb, of the iron horse was liea-rd through the din of the thunder and the roar of rushing waters. We did move forward, — barely moved. To stop would be destruction ; backward impetus would instantly follow, and no brakes are powerful enough to stop the train from a dash downward towards the plain if once it started in that direction. But stay. Soon there came a faint glimmer of light from out of the sky, gradu- ally this increased, the dark pall of the heavens was slowlj' removed, and the afternoon sun burst forth with soft, ineffable beauty. The thunder sounded farther and farther away, the echoes ceased, and the throb, throb of the ponderous en- gine steadily held the long train and forced the great load onward. At Field station, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, we begin an ascent of twelve hundred and fifty feet with two powerful engines, where the roadway is cut out of the sides of nearly per- pendicular clifTs to wliich it seems to cling with iron grasp,- overhanging the roaring torrent of the Kicking Horse River, which flows at a fabulous depth below. Here we cross now and agaiu trestle bridges, three hundred feet above some frightful gorge, or pass over a viaduct of great span. The highest point of the road is reached at fifty-thiee hundred feet above the level of the sea, or say just one vertical mile. This extreme elevation is about five hundred miles from Vancouver. 840 THE NEW ELDORADO.^ The scenery at this point is grand beyond de- scription, thrilling the whole nervous system while we gaze at it and vainly strive to comprehend its vastness. The very excess of emotion makes one dumb. The most experienced traveler watches the clianfjinof scene with a vivid interest. So wild, so comprehensive, and so startling a natural panf)rama is rarely met with in any land. A longing comes over the observer to divide the ecstasy of the moment with the loved ones left be- hind. No joy is complete which is not shared ; it is no hermit quality, but was born a twin. Moun- tains, valleys, glacier-bound peaks, domes, spires, and snow-capped pyramids are seen in all direc- tions, brought out in minute detail by the singu- lar clearness of the atmosphere. Tall forests are spread out far, far below our feet, the mammoth trees looking no larger than pen handles, while the river winds like a broad silver belt through the green sward of the valley. Thus the Canadian Pacific Railway passes for hundreds of miles along glacial streams in full sight of the frozen rivers which feed them. By and by we come in view of Castle Moun- tain, five thousand feet in height, which, with a little help of the imagination, becomes a giant's keej), tuireted, bastioned, and battiemented. At another point of view it presents a remarkable resemblance to the grand Indian Temple of Tan- jore. A short distance farther and we reach Banff, where a couple of days were most agreeji- bly passed by the author. The railway station THE CANADIAN PARK. 341 here is in the midst of sk3'-pic'rcing heights, whose first impression upon the traveler is both solemn and lonely. To the northward stands Cascade Mountain, nearly ten thousand feet in height; eastward is Mount Inglismaldie, beyond which looms up the sharp cone of Mount Peechee, reach- ing more than ten thousand feet into the blue ether. Close at hand rises the thickly wooded ridge of Squaw Mountain, in wliose shadow lie the beautiful Vermilion Lakes, the home of myriads of wild geese and ducks. Other mountains are in view, but in the memorable tableau which we re- call the grand peaks we have mentioned are the most prominent. This is the station for the Rocky Mountain Park, the altitude being forty-five hundred feet above the sea. At this point the Canadian gov- ernment has established a national reservation after the plan of our Yellowstone Park, between which and this place lies five hundi'ed snilesof the wildest sort of country. Tiiere is no comparison between the two parks, either in size, importance, or natural wonders. This reservation is twenty- six miles long by ten in width, embracing portions of three rivers, with two considerable lakes, cas- cades, and waterfalls. The scenery could not be otherwise than bold, being in the midst of such a mountain range and suri'ounded by such monarch elevations. Money is to be freely expended in making good paths, together with convenient av- enues and bridges. The Pacific Railway Hotel at Banff is a large, 342 THE NEW ELDORADO. adinirabl}' situated, and picturesque establishment, designed to accommodate fioui two to three hun- dred guests at a time, and is especially patronized by Canadian bridal parties. The view from it is superb, commanding the winding course of the Bow River and valley for miles, with the many adjacent mountains. The river pours swiftly down from its sources among the snow fields, and plunges seventy feet over rock and precipice close beside the hotel, passing almost beneath our feet as we stand up(m the broad piazza, gazing in ad- miration at the grand scenic carnival, and listen- ing to the tliiilling anthem of the rushing waters, while breathing the soft aroma of the Douglas pine and cedar forests which cover the surrounding slopes. The region in proximity to the hotel will give the lover of fishing ample sport. Trout of large size abound in Devil's Lake near at hand. A guest brought in forty pounds of this gamey fish, caught in two hours' time in the lake, while the author was at Banff. Wild sheep and moun- tain goats abound in the neighboring hills, while bears are more numerous than is desirable. Wild- cats, mountain lions, deer, and caribou are also frequently shot by the hunters. The restriction as to USB of firearms which is established in the Yellowstone Park does not apply in this region. Sportsmen roam whiMe they please and freely hunt the wild animals which roan) in this section of the country. Good roads and bridle paths take one in all direations among some of the finest scenery of the Rocky Mountains, where we watch BANFF HOT SPRl.SGS. 343 the morning sun dispel the mist which floats up- ward and away, disclosing the snow-decked peaks in their viigiii whiteness blushing roseate tints at the ardor of the sun. This is called the eastern gateway to the Rocky Mountains, tiirough which the grand Bow River flows on its diversified journey of fifteen hundred miles to Hudson Bay. There are extensive hot springs on the eastern slope of what is known as the Sulphur Range, some six thousand feet above tlie sea level. They are at different elevations, and have good bathing- houses erected over them, in chai'ge of courteous attendants. One of the springs is inside of a dome -roofed cave, which is a favorite resort of visitors to Banff. The medicinal character of these springs is considered so important that an iron pipe two miles in length conducts their heated waters for use at the hotel, the normal temperature being sustained by metallii; coils of superheated steam. It rains much and often in this region. The weeping clouds make one feel rather gloomy, purely out of sympathy for their ceaseless tears, but when the sun finally asserts his power and lifts the misty veil, then come forth in bold contrast silvery, sparkling, sky-reach- ing mountains, covered with their frosty mantles, together with richly wooded valleys and liver- threaded canons, opening views of uniivalcd sub- limity and grandeur. At Anthracite, five hundred and seventy miles from Vancouver, we are forty-three hundred and 344 THE ^'EW ELDORADO. fifty feet above the sea. Here are the remarkable coal mines located in the Fairholme Range, a true anthracite of excellent quality and of great im- portance to the railway. The pass through which the road takes us is four miles wide, great masses of serrated rocks rising on either side, back of which mountains tower above each other as far as the eye can reach, forming long vistas of lofty elevations so numerous as not to bear individual names. At Calgary, about a hundred miles farther east- ward, we are still thirty-four hundred feet above the sea. This is a particularly handsome and thriving young town, scarcely four years old, but containing three thousand inhabitants. It is pleas- antly situated on a hill-girt plateau, in full view of the jagged peaks of the Rockies, thirty or forty miles away, and which, as we look back upon them, form a vast blue and white crescent ex- tending aroimd the western horizon. Two placid rivers, the Bow and Elbow, wind through the broad green valley, adding a charming feature as they mingle with the tall waving grass. Here cattle and sheep ranches abound, extending west- ward to the very foot-hills of the gretit mountain range, and stretching far away to the southward a hundred and fifty miles to the United States boundary line. We were told that the cattle and horses ranging over this space would aggregate two hundred thousand head. As we passed through the Province of Alberta at night, occasionally jets of flaming natural gas, CROSSING THE PRAIRIE. 845 whicli finds vent througli the soil from reservoirs located at uiikiiown depths, were bmnint^ brightly to light us on the way. This gas, so liberally sup- plied by nature free of cost, is utilized to create a motive power at Langevin, where it pumps water for the use of the railway. Representatives of the aboriginal Cree and Blackfeet tribes form picturesque groups along the railway Hue, com- posed of barbarous, uncleanly looking squaws and bucks, the latter only kept from the warpath by the presence of the efficient mounted police. The contrast presented in emeiging from the mountain ranges on to tlie level country is very re- markable. For hundreds of miles we pass through an almost uninhabited, treeless country, a long, long reach of prairie as boundless as the sea, and where no more of human life is seen than on the ocean. There are no hills, scarcely any undula- tions ; the sun rises apparently out of the groiuid in Ihe early gray of the morning, and sets in the endless level of the prairie at night. Small sta- tions, twenty or thirty miles apart, have been built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, con- sisting of a dwelling-house and a water-tank for the necessary supply of its engines, but the line is thus characterized through a thousand miles, where there is no way travel, and no local busi- ness, outside of its own necessities. Tlie infer- ence is plain that it crosses this distance at ex- traordinary expense, which must be supported by the terminal business ou the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the road. 346 THE NEW ELDORADO. The Cree and Blackfeet tribes are said to have no religion and few superstitions, being a restless, dangerous race, ranking very low in point of in- telligence, even as savages. The efforts of the missionaries, we were told, have entirely failed to civilize or even permanently to improve the con- dition if the two tribes we have named. The women are hideously ugly, smeared with vermil- ion, and weighed down with cheap brass rings and bracelets of the same metal. The one article of sale offered to the traveler by these tribes is the polished horns of the butfalo, picked up upon the vast prairies of this region where they have been bleaching for many years. These are colored black by some process, and when highly polished are monnted in pairs, as they are placed by nature on the animal's head. At Regina, eleven linndred miles from Vancou- ver, we are still two tliousand feet aliove the sea. This is tlie capital of the Province of Assiniboia, situated in the centre of an almost iioundless plain. Here are the headquarters of the North- western Mounted Police, a very necessary military organization of a thousand men, distributed over this region to look after the Indians, who are ever ready to commit depredations when they feel they can do so with impunity, and also to preserve good order generally among the several frontier com- munities. It was at Regina that Louis Riel, the jM'incipal promoter of the late rebellion against the Dominion government, was tried and hanged ■"'"'■'""•■""•""""•"•■■'"I BLACKFEET INDIANS. 347 rebellion." Over the far-reacliing, trackless, arid prairies, as lonely as an Egyptian desert, the cloud effects towards tlie day's close are noticeably very fine, while the twilight lingers to the very verge of night. At times we pass through a broad tract of land ten miles or more square, from wliicli a whole forest has been swept by conflagration, probably started by an unfortunate spark from a passing locomotive, or, quite as likely, by the care- lessness of some camping party of sportsmen. These large spaces, which would otherwise be in- tensely dreary, are already carpeted with a fresh green undei'growth, with which nature always has- tens to obliterate the devastation caused by the ruthless flames. As our train stopped briefly at Regiiia a gioup of mounted Blackfeet Indians dashed across the prairie and drew up near the station. A wild, weird score of semi-savages, very picturesque in their garments of many colors and their decora- tions of quills, beads, and feathers, with a sralp hanging from the waist here and there among them. Their long, unkempt black hair flowed all about their necks and features, which were more or less besmeared with vermilion. Their leggings of deer-hide were fringed on the outer side, and their leather moccasins were lashed with deerskin thongs up the ankles. Some had stirrups, but most of them had none, their limbs hanging free and a blanket serving for a sadon(; the Al.iskang, 240. Eldorado, Tlie New, 112, 2f>6. Embellishments, female, 251. Eskimo skin-boata, 211. village, 132. Eskimos, 129, 131, 178, 179, 216. home of the, 217. Esquimalt, 86, 87. Fairweather, Mount, 98, 279. Fish-canning, 191, 192. Fisheries, 148. Forests of Alaska, 145, 189, 190. Fort Tongas, 110, 147. Wrangel, 222, 228, 232. Yukon, 177. Foxes, blue, 122. Funeral customs, 202. Fur-bearing animals, 149. Fur preserve, 139. Fur-seals, 150, 155. Fur-trade, 171. Gambling, 199. Garnets, a ledge of, 237. 354 INDEX. Gastineau Channel, 247. Georgia, Gulf of, 94, 105. Geysers, actiou of the, 45. Giant's Tliumb, tlie, 23. Girls' Scliool at Fort Wrangel, 225. Glacier Bay, 275, 270. Glass road, a, 29. Gold fields, 218, 248, 264. mines, 184, 235, 2t>3, 267. mining, 203. Gona-birds, 107. Grain fields, 9. Grand CaSou, 25. Graveyards, 213. Greek chapels, 128. HaUbut fishing, 285. Helena, 58. Hell's Half Acre, 40. Hoonah Mission, 225, 226. Hooniah tribe, 288. Hot springs of New Zealand, 17. Idols, 227. lujmigr.ition, 71. Indian aptitude, 271. fasliions, 195. Girls' Home, 229. Indians, American, C2. avarice among the.Alaekan, 233. Blackfeet, 347. governing the, 224. the Sheep-eating, 32. Industrial School, the Sitka, 306-308. Infanticide, 255. Inland Sea, the, 97. Inspiration Point, 27. Jackson, Dr. Sheldon, 174. Jade Mountain, 217. Japanese current, the, 176, 262, 301. junk, 118. •Tewelrv, native, 220. Juneau, 107, 201, 249, 261. Kakny River, 127. Kasa-an Bay, 191. Kpnnicott, Major, 168. King's Island, 133. Kismet, 130. Kndiak, 114, 124. Kootznahoo, 321. Kotzebue Sound, 217. Kowak River, 217. Kuskoquin River, 134. La Perouse, Mount, 279. Land of wonders, 283. Liberty Cap, the, 22. Livingston, 14. Lumber business, the, 77, 147. Marriage customs, Yukon, 221. M^todons in Alaska, 259, 260. MetU-katla, 110. Metla-katla, New, 111. Microscope, a, for use on shipboard, luO. Mineral deposits, 289. Minnesota, 9, 01. Missionaries in Alaska, 134, 229, 267, 315. Montana, 12, 02, Mosquitoes, 241. Mount Crillon, 279. Fairweather, 98, 279. La Perouse, 279. St. Elias, 99. Tacoma, 73, 81. W.asliingtou, 53. Muir glacier, 270, 280, 281. Mullan Tunnel, 59. Mummies, 118, 130, Nanaimo, 103. Native artists, 125, 227. canoes, 209. occupations, 194, 201, 269. piety, 129. race, decay of the, 205. rehgion, 178. Natives, dense ignorance of the, 201. of Vancouver, 90, 92. origin of tlie Al.aska, 215. Nature alone antique, 187. New Metla-katha, 111. New Zealand, hot springs of, 17. Night-ride on an engine, 7. Northern liglits, 178. Norton Sound, 121. Ob.sidian cliffs, 29. Ornaments of women, 200. Otter-hunting, mj-stery of, 166. Paint Pot Basin, 37. P.atterson glacier, 244. Point Barrow, 131. Polar Sea, the, 132. Political condition of Alaska, 327. Polvpanious wives, 2.57. Port Townsend, 81, 82, 83. Potlatch, 203, 204. Prairie schooners, 67. Prybiloff group, tlie, 139. Puget Sound, 74. Pyramid Harbor, 148, 211, 220, 268, 272. Queen Charlotte Island, 96, 227. Religion, native, 178. Rocky Mountains, climbing the, 13. Salmon, 192. preserved, 144. San Juan, 95. Soliools, 225, 231, 300-308. Sridmore Island, 283. Sea-cow, the, 150. INDEX. 355 Seal islands, 151, 153. Seals, enormous slaughter of, 159. tood of the, 157. fur, 150, 155. habits of the, 155. hair, 1G9. killing, 157, 159. young, 155, 150. Sea-otters, hunting, 165. Sea-otter trade, 120, 163. Seattle, 79. Seward's purchase, 141. Seymour Narrows, 102. Slieep-eaters, the, 32. Siberian cattle, 122. Silver Bow Basin, 184, 265. Silver mining, CO. Sitka, 111, 174, 230, 295, 311. Industrial Scliool, the, 306-308. pine-trees, 146. Slaves, 255. Snow-slides, 188. Spokane Falls, 09. St. Paul, 2, 3. Stampede Tunnel, 72. Steamboating, perfection of, 108. Stickeen River, 235, 237. Superstitions of the natives, 201, 238. Tacoma, 73, 75, 76. Takou Inlet, 246, 247. Tattooing, 196, 227. Temperance ui Alaska, 175. Terra incognita, a, 137. Terrace-building springs, 17. Texada, 101. Timber supply, 145. Totem-poles, 194, 2l3, 228. Touring dress, 329. Tourists, 97. Travel, luxury of, 6. Treadwfcll gold mines, 184, 263, 267. Trees, immense, 145. Tribes, the inl.md, 183. various Indian, 214, 215. Trickery of the Cliilcats, 270. Uualaska, 123, 135. Unga, 125. Unimak, 117. Vaccination, 252. Vancouver, 84, 93, 331. Victoria, 84, 85. Virgin soil, 190. Volcanic power, 35. Volcanoes, 135. Wards of tlie government, 63. Washburn, Governor, 55. Washington, State of, 69. W.aterfalls, 188. Whales, lOl!. dead, 119. Wheat-growing, 70. Wliiskey, 203. Winnipeg, 349. Winter in Alaska. 169. Wives, polygamous, 257. Women, influence of the Alaskan, 207. ornaments of, 200. Wonders, a land of, 283. 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