/ ^l^^ka W w^\i!; w N^v ^-H'K^^i:!:^■;S!^Jj^^!g!$im^^;^VS^ ; CHAf\bE>S NALLOCf^^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES i/^^ Forest and Stream Books. Canoe and Boat Building, By w. p. Stephens. 192 pp., and thirty plates of working drawings. Price $1.50. Canoe Handli7lg, ByC B. Vaux,"Dot," Price $1.00. Camp &= Canoe C^?^-^'^;^, By"Seneca," Price $1.00. Woodcraft, By "Nessmuk," Price $1.00. D0(r Training, By S. T. Hammond, Priae $i.oo. Angliflg Talks, By George Dawson, Price 50 cents. Antelope and Deer of America, By John Dean Caton, L.L. D., Price $2.50. Small Yachts, By C. p. Kunhardt, Quarto. (Size of page, i4'/xi'''/4, with sixty-three full-page plates.) Price $7.00. The Canoe Aurora, By Dr. Chas. a. Neide, Price $1.00. ENTRANCE TO THE STICKEEN RIVER. OUR NEW ALASKA; OR. THE SEWARD PURCHASE VINDICATED. BY CHARLES HALLOCK, AUTHOR OF THE "FISHING TOURIST," "SPORTSMAN'S GAZETTEER," "CAMP LIFE IN FLORIDA," ETC. ILLUSTRA TED FROM SKETCHES BY PROF. T. J. RICHARDSON. NEW YORK : FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO i886. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. F H 1^ PREFACE. " Man has not found Alaska yet," says Edwards Roberts in the Overland Mo/it/ily. " Alone in the North she rests upon the bosom of her seas, waiting patiently for her deliverance." The special object of this book is to point out the visible resources of that far off territory, and to assist their lag- gard development; to indicate to those insufficiently informed the economic value of important industries hitherto almost neglected, which are at once available for immediate profit; to elucidate the vexed problem of labor supply; to impress upon Congress the advantage, as well as the duty, of providing proper protection for the people, and granting them representation through a chosen delegate, who shall be competent and conscientious to instruct and advise, and efficient to push their claims and their necessities, so that they may voice the needs of this great integer of the republic, and contribute without let or hindrance to its wealth and prosperity ; and finally to prove conclusively that the " Seward Purchase " was not so bad a bargain after all. At the same time attention is directed to those extraordinary physical phenomena whose marvelous combination makes Alaska the most attractive region in the world for sojourners and summer tourists. I would fain divert a portion of the travel which habitually goes to Europe to this new field of commerce and adventure. I would popularize home excursions among our votaries of fashion — Yosemite, Alaska, and the Yellowstone — as the primary and proper thing to " do " before attempting the Old World tour ; and so make it incumbent upon every American citizen, who would claim consideration abroad, to be duly accredited at the home office as competent to travel. Hitherto our new possession has seemed almost a myth too vague and intangible to tempt even the Argonauts. Like an unexpected legacy, its magnificence and value have not yet been comprehended; but the time is close at hand 560508 n PREFACE. when her mighty forests will yield their treasures, her mines will open out their richness, her seas will give of their abundance, and all her quiet coves ■will be converted into busy harbors. Her grassy islands, her rounded foot-hills and her bounteous table-lands will pasture goodly herds, and her exuberant soil teem with vegetables and fruit. The gelid out-put from her glacier fronts — the crystal ice-floes which fill her most sequestered channels — will be harvested where they float, for transportation to the ^emi-torrid lati- tudes below; pleasure yachts will thread the intricacies of her studded islands, and no retreat for invalids and summer saunterers will be half so popular. Already the vibrations of the pending boom begin to agitate the air. The favorable reports of government explorers sent out to investigate the interior as well as the coast, are re-assuring. Letters of inquiry from intending settlers come from every section. Official departments are getting down to systematic work. New industries have been established within the present year. Capital will no longer be withheld grudgingly from enterprises waiting to be developed ; and by the time this book is ready to leave the press, a tide of emigration will set strongly in the direction of the Aleutian Isles. Talk of the sterility of Alaska, and its inhospitable soil ! Why there are eleven kinds of edible berries which mature in August, and strawberries grow in lavish profusion right under the breadth of the glacier fields in latitude sixty degrees. The mightiest giant of our eastern pineries is but a pigmy in diameter beside the average conifer of Alaska, where the undergrowth is so dense, and the " slash " so intricate, below the snow-line, that progress through it is almost impossible, and three miles a day is a difficult feat to accomplish. Alaska has been egregiously misconceived, maligned and misrepresented. The very encomiums which enraptured tourists have bestowed upon her Alpine scenery, have served to discourage settlement or adventure; men forgetting that the forbidding Alps do not constitute the whole of Switzer- land. Frigid impressions of her climate and agricultural capabilities have been reflected from her glacier fields and snow-clad peaks. Beneath her dazzling drapery fancy ap|)rehended a stark dead body instead of a living force. \Vliat poets admire to paint as •' The land of the midnight sun," matter-of-fact folks accept as the polar world. And so Alaska is misjudged. Alaska has been belied. Not only are her marvelous resources generally ignored, but they have been systemati- PREFACE. HI cally and semi-ofificially denied. Authentic statements of disinterested investigators have been sedulously contra- dicted in the interest of parties whom it paid to keep the possibilities of the country close. It was so during the Russian occupation, and has been so ever since, and from kindred motives. No conscientious person ever dared affirm that the country was absolutely worthless; that a region with 2,000 miles of breadth and 25,000 miles of coast line (!) had absolutely nothing in it worth having; but the Russian government, which yielded its prerogatives to the fur companies, could itself get nothing out of it, and so, perhaps, it came to be for sale. Only within a few years past has the light of truth begun to gleam steadfastly through the fog, inasmuch as the country had been pre- viously inaccessible to us; but now, with a regular bi- monthly steamer to principal ports, and the omnipotent fact published broadcast by the Sitka paper, that milk is sold at ten cents a quart, and lettuce is given away in the local market, some caution must be observed in pronouncing the territory valueless, incapable and agriculturally worthless. The scope and fitness of Alaska for agriculture and stock raising are not yet recognized, simply because they have not been extensively tested. The illimitable wheat region of the British North-west, once supposed to be a desert, it has been proved can feed the world. The intense cold of winter, instead of being a drawback, acts in the farmer's interest. The deeper the frost goes the better. As it thaws out gradually in the summer, it loosens the sub-soil and sends up the needed moisture to the roots of the grain. The Canadian explorers in Rupert's Sound, in the interest of a railway to Hudson's Bay, claim that the country is not only densely forested but contains valleys and plains which promise rich wheat harvests when once they shall have come under cultivation. The interior of Afeska seems to be equally assuring, since all the witnesses in nature, there indigenous, rise up and testify to it. The geese which fly north in April and return in November, the grouse which brood in May, the flowers which bloom in June, the uncounted herds of caribou, the abundance of moose, bears, mountain goats, birds and other animal life, the exuberance of wild fruits and forest growth, the expansive prairies and moss-covered plains, and the almost tropical heat of mid-summer, all attest the presence of conditions, climatic and otherwise, upon which to predicate deductions altogether favorable. And Alaska " is waiting for deliverance." She holds her IV PREFACE. arms outstretched, and her lap filled with offerings, bidding us come and take them as our recompense, if we will but set her free from isolation and introduce her to the com- mercial world. My unpretentious sketch may not add any great amount of information to what has already been written of this strange country, but what I have contributed is mainly from my own personal observation, unaided by reports and reference books, which I have purposely refrained from con- sulting. Its south-western coast line for a distance of one thousand miles has become already pretty well known, and is now being thoroughly surveyed by the government. My illustrations show some of its characteristics. It will take years to develop its visible resources, to say nothing of those which do not yet appear ; and, therefore, we need not care at present to speculate much upon what lies inland, back of the coast range. It is better to utilize the oppor- tunities at hand than to search for others which may not exist. The territory is vast, and centuries of systematic investigation will hardly suffice to reveal its fullest capa- bilities. Population will penetrate into the interior as soon as economic industries are fairly introduced along the sea- board, and if there be any land fit for cultivation it will be promptly brought into requisition to supply local demands. Those who know, and have raised fine potatoes one hundred and fifty miles up the Stickeen River, which matured in August, affirm that Alaska can supply her home people from the outset, and pari passu with their numerical increase, with fresh meat, and vegetables, game and berries, fish and dairy products, leaving the lower latitudes to supply the cereals and groceries. If minerals are found as widely distributed as indications suggest, the process of develop- ment and occupation will be rapid. Upon the whole, our people have shown considerable energy in taking hold to make something of what appeared to be "no good." They have done fairly well with their cumbersome acquisition, and events are likely to prove that the " Seward Purchase " was not only dirt cheap, but a remunerative investment. I am pleased to add that the pages of this volume have been read by the specialists of the Smithsonian Institution and by the government officials most familiar with Alaska, and by them approved. Charles Hallock. Washington, D. C, Ai)ril 13, 1886. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Itinerary of the Trip. — Excursion routes — Interesting overland trip — Luxurious coast voyage — Canadian Pacific and Northern Pacific — A superb thoroughfare — The Columbia river country — A smoky atmosphere — A big breakfast — Superabundance of the Pacific coast— Glimpse of Mt. Hood — Puget Sound— Vic- toria — Indian camp — Policy toward the Indian population — Chinese thrift— A new deal for John— Pigtails no more, - - 9 CHAPTER II. Itinerary Continued. — At Sea — Ox-tail soup — Enchantment begins— Delectable views— Mountains and mtelstroms — A dan- gerous strait — Fog whistles — Kinship of fellowship— A training school for bears— Indian civilization— High-toned Hydahs— A missionary's ideal — Curious houses —Exquisite ware — Customs without duties— Holding the mirror up to nature — Nautical diaries — Salt-water confidences — A hasty burial — Suicide of a rooster — Totem poles — An old trading post — Native sculpture — Magnificent scenery — An old smuggler — U . S. surveys — Count- less salmon — A live town— Gold in sight — Native villages — Negro settlers — A community of " traveling men " — Destruct- ive teredo — Devils' club — Salmon canneries — The furthest point north, .--.-- 19 CHAPTER III. As Excursionists See It. — Very salubrious — No mosquitoes— Always cool — A 2,000 mile excursion — A new creation — Archi- pelago of mountains — Snow clad peaks — Whales in landlocked basins — Giant kelp — Salt-water pyrotechnics — Blanket-sail and paddle— Jelly-fish— A symphony of surf— A stretch of rough water — Clouds and fog — Reduplicated wonders — Arctic and tropical paradoxes, .--- 3^ CHAPTER IV. Economically Considered. — The " American Desert" reclaimed — " Bad Lands " not so bad— The fruitful Northwest— Chinook winds — Appearances which mislead — Frigid regions which are sometimes hot — Ocean currents — The Kuro-Siwo — Ice as a fertilizer— Rank vegetation— Agricultural capabiiilies — Small native fruits— Stock ranges— Wintering stock— Dairy products— vi. COXl'EXTS. Beet sugar — Prices current — A big timber preserve — Three hundred million acres — Arctic for ests — Forest tires — Indian smoke signals — Commercial woods — Their relative value — The great fur land — Native middle men — An unworked region — Mineral resources — Seal fisheries — Commercial fisheries — Can- dle fish — Rock cod — A hospitable fishing ground — Atlantic fishermen — Invited west — Opportunities lying idle — Canadian example — Alaska neglected — Two negro men of nerve — Private enterprise — Future prospects, 4° CHAPTER V. An Interior View. — Early settlements — Interior trading-posts — Russian and English occupation — Suggestions for profitable exploration — Government expeditions — Newspaper statements misleading — Intentional misrepresentations — Settlement dis- couraged— Schwatka's Yukon journey — Interior tribes and settle- ments — The interior defined — Fluvial geography — Grass prairit s and tundras — Subsoil irrigation — Herds of cariboo and moose — Luxuriant vegetation — Glacial action — Gold deposits — The Yukon delta — Esquimo — Immunities of the coast - - - 66 CHAPTER VI. Home of the Siwash. — A race of canoemen — Water routes — Canoe patterns — War canoes — Canoe manufacture — Camping out — Chinook jargon — A bloody house-warming — Slavery — Con;ubinage — Creoles — Some queer customs — Old-time relics — Hard-working natives — Heavy packs — Gallantry to wonnn — Some bad traits — Typical native houses — Dirt and abundance — Totem poles and pedigrees — Indians who are well fixed — Gro- tesque handiwork — Native dyes — Hoochinoo — Gambling, - 79 CPIAPTER VII. Good Indians. — Redskins with beards — Ethnology of Pacific coast tribes — Waifs from Asia and Mexico— British Iiidian policy commended — Solution of the Indian problem — The Russian policy and methods — Savage appeal for teachers — A ' ' wan- wan," or peace conference — Chilkats and Chilkoots — A "pot- latch " and a truce — War dance — Versatility in handicraft — Missionary efforts — Antagonisms — Female lapses, - - - 9^ CHAPTER VIII. Medicine and Mythology. — Shaman burial houses— Medicine men — Frightening disease — A terrible doctor — Medicine rat- tles — Metliods of burial — Cremation — Transmigration of souls — A ghost with teeth — Funeral ceremonies — A funeral pile — Mourning customs — Vandalism of curio hunters — Hieroglyphs and mythology — Heraldic emblems — The thunder-bird — Legend of Mt. Edgecumb — .Some Alaskan snakes — Native humor — Religious zeal, ■ 108 CONTEXTS. VI 1. CHAPTER IX. Alaska's Mineral Wealth. — The "stuff" there — Testimony of naval oflicers — Developments retarded from lack of capital — The largest stamp-mill in the world — Douglas Island — Insular and mainland deposits — I'lactr mining — Silver Bow basin — An " araster " — A lively mining town — Native mmers — Gold on the Yukon — Sitka mines — " Lake Mountain Mining Com- pany " — History of mining in Alaska — Nick Haley — The Stickeen gold diggings — Coal and other minerals — Marble quarries — Well-behaved miners, ....-- 120 CHAPTER X. Co.MMERCiAL FISHERIES. — IIow fishing-grounds are located — Pro- lific waters — Alaskan enterprise — TheChilkat salmon cannery — A picturesque location — Seining and curing salmon — Indian employes — Store-houses perched in trees — A "dog-salmon" — Halibut — Decrease of the Atlantic halibut catch — Indian methods of catching halibut — Deep-sea fishing — Dog-fish oil — Future possibilities — Varieties of Pacific coast fishes — Viviparous fishes — Rock fish — The black cod and its capture — Herring fisheries — Ranges of commercial fishes — The oolachan or candle fish — Sturgeon and their capture — Other economical fishes and marine products — Atlantic fishermen on the Pacific, - - 130 CHAPTER XI. Rambles along Shore. — Down by the sea — Anadramous and fresh water fishes — The sea trout — Fishing for sport — Spawning seasons — What the ebb tide reveals — Gigantic mollusks — Absence of oysters — Immense kelps — The incoming tide — Marine phosphorescence — Creeping and crawling monstrosi- ties — Animate flowers and fruits — Devil fish — Black bass — Shore birds — Sea fowl — Breeding places — Routes of migration — Pass shooting — Fishing bears — Voracity of flies — Deer shoot- ing — Mountain climbing — Rock ptarmigan — Among the peaks — Mountain goats — Mt. St. Elias silver bear — Bighorn sheep — Stalking, 153 CHAPTER XII. The Glacier Fields. — Home of the iceberg — Glacial dynamics — Glacier fields of Greenland — Spirits of the ice — Esquimo super- stition — The Muir glacier — An iceberg factory — Progressive movement of glaciers — Cilacier Bay — Fair)' scenes — Lassoing an iceberg — Supernatural colors — An Arciic landscape — Realm of desolation — Astounding phenomena — Artillery in the air — An apathetic spectator — The mer de glace — A ganglion of glaciers — Moraines — Glacial recession — Outfit for glacial exploration — Icebergs by moonlight, -------- 168 Vlll. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. Russia in America. — Sleepy Sitka — Steamer day — A one-horse town — Sight-seeing — An informal ball — Dust of the Roman- offs — An early sunrise — Local amusements — A charming site — A waif from Asia — Sitka's environs- — Hot springs and volca- noes — Russian mementoes — High life in the bush — The Greek Church in America — An ecclesiastical wreck — Indian communi- cants — A useful institution — General dilapidation — Ghost of the castle — Russian dwellings — A drive and a park — Seat of govern- ment — Straight business — An Alaska newspaper — Mileage for culprits — Territorial affairs — Beyond Sitka — Wonderful Scener}' — Mt. St. Elias, 17S CHAPTER XIV. Seals of the Pribylovs. — Prof. Elliott's official report — Location of the islands — How they look — Why seals frequent them — Volcanic craters — Millions of sea-fowl — Civilization in Salt — Horticulture under difficulties — Stump-tail cats — Odoriferous isles — Home of the walrus and sea lion — A Polar bear asylum — Aleutian colonists — Cities in the sea — Schools and millinery openings — A full church calendar — Pious communities — No policemen — Large Alaska towns beyond Sitka — The Alaska Commercial Company — Seal rookeries — Driving, killing, skin- ning, and dyeing — High price of fur — Sealing in lower lati- tudes — Light and shade — Introspect and retrospect. - - - 192 ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece — Stickeen River, .... — U. S. Tripods in Channel, * . . . . 29 Klootchmans, 35 Stone Totem-Pole (Hydah), .... 65 Totem-Poles, 73 Seal Skin Bidarka, 78 Indian Chiefs (Hyas Tyee), .... 87 Indian Houses at Wrangell, .... 90 Metlah-kahtla, 105 Chiefs' House and Totem-Poles — Wrangell, 113 Indian Grave, 119 Indian Village — Sitka, 125 Black Cod, 139 Hunting Mountain Goats, . . . 163 MuiR Glacier, . 170 An Excursion Party, .... 199 ITINERARY. Twice a month a fairly good ocean steamer, with com- fortable appointments for excursionists leaves Portland, Ore- gon, for Alaska, carrying the mails, freight and passengers, and returning makes the round trip in about thirty days. It connects at Port Townsend, the United States port of entry for Puget Sound waters, with the regular steamer from San Francisco. The excursion season extends from June to September inclusive, but trips are made the whole year round. The best route to Portland for passengers from California and the South is by rail and stage. The 900 miles between San Francisco and Portland, is full of delight- ful experiences all the way. It used to make the heart ache to contemplate the journey, and the bones ache to accom- plish it ; but now almost seven-eighths of the distance are done by steam, and for the rest, it is but a charming epi- sode on wheels, taking the tourist through the most delight- ful scenery of the west coast, that he may be the better pre- pared to compare it with what is superlative beyond. All the scenic attractions of the coast range, of the San Joa- quin and Sacramento valleys, the Sierra Nevadas just within view, Mt. Shasta in its isolated grandeur, the Siskiyou Mountains, just across the Oregon line, and the Rogue River and Willamette Valleys, are vouchsafed to us within the limit of three days. How we bridge the mighty intervals of space, and handicap old time in this modern race of life ! For elegant comfort, without sight-seeing, the magnificent Steamers of the Pacific Mail Company, running from San Francisco to Portland, and Port Townsend on Puget Sound, afford an incomparable service. The boats of the trans- Atlantic routes to Europe are hardly more luxurious ; and those dwellers of the Pacific to whom the beautit-s of the in- land journey are familiar, generally choose the water route. Excursion tickets which are good for 40 days from date of issue, enable the tourist to accomplish both the inside and the outside routes. Eastern people choose the Union Pacific or Northern Pacific railroads, and Canadians the I O UR NE W ALA SKA . Canadian Pacific, according as geographical location meets their convenience. Those of the Southwest find their objective point most accessible by the Southern Pacific. Happy is he whose course leads across the northern tiers, where the phenomenal solar heat of midsummer is always tempered by a vitalizing atmosphere which cools when the sun goes down. It would do your honest hearts good to see the complaisance with which our Canadian neighbors regard their completed transit — a stupendous accomplish- ment whose engineering difficulties take precedence in com- parison with the mightiest of our own, and whose passage through the rugged gaps of three successive mountain ranges makes our single cut across the Rockies, seem almost common-place. Yet the Northern Pacific is a more inter- esting route, and the most desirable for all whose conven- ience permits a choice. It traverses a more diversified and populous country, and is besides the great continental artery whose pulsations are destined to keep the life-blood warm in all our Alaskan extremities. It will presently become the great feeder and factor of our Alaskan commerce, and the popular thoroughfare of two-thirds of those who, by and by, will regard the tour as imperative, as they have done the stereotyped tour of Europe, now becoming a familiar and effete experience. I recall with pleasure my journey over this great thorough- fare, and the vague anticipations of my first Alaska trip. My thoughts were full of the unknown land. The outlook seemed without a horizon. I felt more than ever " foot- loose," — like a candidate blind-folded for a first degree, or a novice after the preliminary toss of a blanket — not guess- ing what was coming next, but feeling that all would turn out right in the end. I fared sumptuously in the dining car ; and my time was agreeably divided between reverie and repletion. " Going to Alaska ! Going to Alaska ! " For three consecutive nights I had lain in my Pullman berth, traveling westward, and between the hours of som- nolence and semi-wakefulness, I would listen to the cadence of the car wheels as the train rumbled on, and each mono- tonous iteration, seemed always to repeat, with a repetition which made me tired : " Going to Alaska — goi/ig to Alaska — going to Alaska — going to Alaska — going to Alaska ! " Sometimes it would drop into a subdued refrain, and anon increase to a rattling emphasis when the train ran through a cut, and this continuous admonition was broken only when- ever we came to a full stop and all the waste air in the ITINERAR Y. 1 1 brakes blew off with a prolonged sigh and a fizz. Of course 1 had started from St. Paul with that intention (to go to Alaska) and it was perhaps well to know that I had made no mistake in the passage ; nevertheless, it was a rest to all the senses when daylight came to relieve the night-watch, and unfold the wondrous revelations of the trans-continen- tal trip. How impotent have been the attempts of pen and brush to impress the comprehension with the reality of things seen. In vain I hold up my hands and cry " 'mira- bile." No two days ' experiences were alike. Each suc- ceeding view and extended panorama was altogether dif- ferent from its predecessor, and one had hardly time to be amazed at this, before he was lost in new admiration of the other. " There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another glory of the stars." Across the illimita- ble grain fields and the prairie, through the mysterious " Bad lands," over the pine-clad and snow-capped moun- tains, past the far-reaching sage plains, and down the tran- scendent Columbia to the portals of the broad Pacific — every division of the grand thoroughfare we traversed was crammed full of novelty and absorbing interest. The delicious warmth of an August atmosphere lay over all, and delightful anticipations continually gave place to blissful realization. The tourist no sooner strikes the Columbia River than he seems to have gotten into a new kingdom of creation. The sudden transition from an interminable sage plain of more than one hundred miles in breadth to vertical cliffs and pal- isades which rise to fifteen hundred feet sheer out of the river — this unexpected step from the unlimited horizontal to the unattainable perpendicular — is of itself phenomenal. Then the architecture of the rocks and hills is different from any thing east. The rivers flow in mighty volume, green as emerald, and plunge into black rifts and chasms, churning their sides with foam. Shifting sands in their exposed beds blow into fantastic dunes and bury the underbrush along the shores until only their leafy tops protrude. Waterfalls leap from dizzy heights, emulating the Yosemite. The vegetation is luxuriant, and all the field of flora is new. Every thing is gigantic. The common alder bush grows to merchantable wood, and the principal forest trees into giant columns six feet thick. The orchards break down with redundant fruitage, and whenever there is a neglected gar- den patch the sweet briars and wild vines overrun the in- closing fences and bury them out of sight. Mosses cling to the limbs of trees in solid masses and festoons, and cover i2 OUR NEIV ALASKA. prostrate trunks ten i.iches deep. All along the route from the Dalles to Portland are gangs of Chinese, section-hands, at work along the railroad with costumes quaint and scanty, and features bland and child-like. It was against those ver- tical walls which overhang the Columbia, that they swung the indomitable heathen from the heights aloft, to drill and blast a passage for the railroad out of the solid rock. I know not how many dozens lost their lives in the dangerous exploit, but inasmuch as they stood substitute and proxy for supposed better men, this little trifle can hardly enter into the " Chinese Question." Of course all tourists rhapsodize the notable points of view along the river — the Dalles, Cape Horn, the Cascades, Pillars of Hercules, Rooster Rock and Multnomah Falls, each of which, if isolated and apart, instead of contiguous to each other, would constitute an attraction which tourists would travel far to visit. Not the least interesting novel- ties are the fish-wheels along the shores, both portable and stationary, which scoop up the running salmon from March to August by the tens of thousands, looking for all the world like the obsolete mill-wheels of New England. Occasionally little groups of Oregon Indians come in view, seeming one-third civilized and two-thirds blank. In vain, however, we look for the spectral outlines of Mount Hope and other notable peaks, for all the atmosphere is thick with smoke of forest fires which have spread all over the country ; and for six weeks past no one has drawn a breath of pure air, so that the inhabitants of this notoriously moist and fog-ridden region pray for rain. In course of time we come to a comfortable halt at the romantic little station of Bonneville, where a breakfast is served with more than Oriental profusion of melons, fruits and vegetables in every grown variety, and with milk and eggs, poultry, fish and meats, and every thing else toothsome and edible, piled on platters three tiers deep until the table holds no more — and still the waiters come with reinforcements, hands full, and loaded to the "gunnel." It seemed to the parched and dusty travelers from the arid sage plain, just now left behind, as if they had suddenly struck an oasis and every thing had been knocked into " pi " by the collision. The markets of Oregon and California were emptied out upon the board ; Ceres and Pomona sat helpless with their laps full. With this wide-open welcome the brief additional run to Portland was made without apprehension, although the approaching city could not be distinguished through the murk. ITINERARY. 13 There is a reputable tradition that when the atmosphere is clear, a view can be had from points of vantage whose unfolding is like a revelation of the celestial realm. Afar off in the horizon, just where the intense blue firmament seems to flank the spirit land, a trio of snowy peaks loom up from the somber plain in clear cut whiteness against the sky, like pyramids of crystal, Mt. Hood conspicuous and majestic above the rest. Rising in their purity to the very dome of heaven, and gleaming with a translucence super- natural, positive yet most intangible, they stand, as it were, the embodiment of the Eternal Trinity — not mere reflections of this material world. It is seldom that this beatific vision comes, even to patient watchers ; for fogs and mists obscure them in the spring, and clouds of smoke hang over them all the summer long ; but if, perchance, September rains should purify the air and lift the lowering veil, they appear momentarily to the world as the reflex of the divine transfiguration. As such, I beheld as one privileged. The time-favored denizens of Portland could not appreciate it more. I don't know why tourists prefer to take the Alaska steamer to Portland via the Columbia River, and its dis- tressful bar, with the supplementary and outside passage to Victoria, instead of choosing the Puget Sound route, except that they can thereby secure their berths for the voyage and survey serenely the subsequent scramble for places when the overland passengers arrive on board. The consideration is certainly important, but the experienced voyager can secure equal comforts by correspondence with the officials of the steamship company. One who took the river route writes : " The Lower Columbia has none of the grand and sub- lime scenery of the Upper Columbia, where it breaks its way through the Cascade Mountains, but it has a picturesque beauty all its own, wooded isles and bold headlands, the river banks being high, wooded bluffs, with mountains in the background. We had an occasional picture of lovely level farms lying along the river and stretching back for miles, but such glimpses of cultivation were rare. Settle- ments were few. At about four in the afternoon we reached Astoria, which is fifteen miles from the sea ; and to-day we climbed to the top of a high hill, from which we could see the breakers on the bar. Astoria is quite a pretty town, has a population of five or six thousand, and its chief industries, fish and lumber, remain the same in kind as when John Jacob Astor established his trading post here. 14 OUR A'E IV ALASKA. The best part of the town, in regard to residence, is back on the hills, which rise steep and near to the shore, while the business part is built on piles over tide water." An eight hours' ride by rail is a moderate journey, and while the steamer is buffeting the waves of the outside pas- sage, the overland tourist from Portland to Tacoma is per- mitted to enjoy the comforts of the superb hostelry at the head of the sound, and perchance to view the snow-crested peak of Mt. Tacoma, standing out in its. virgin purity, like a spirit of retrospection against the deep blue background of sky. On it there are glaciers equal in size to those found among the Alps. He may also observe the humble houses under the hill by the cove, where the presence of a half dozen Chinese small merchants was permitted for years to vex the equanimity of 7,000 people, but now hav- ing been charitably wiped out, is obnoxious no more. From Tacoma to Victoria there is a six hours' sail across a long reach of the sound by the splendid steamer " Olym- pian," palatial as any in the east, and electric-lighted in every apartment. On the route is Seattle, a goodly brick- built city of some ten thousand souls, already made histori- cal by its four days' war with a " barbarian horde " of Chinese 140 strong ; then Port Townsend, the lands' end of our western possessions before Alaska, perched high upon a perpendicular bluff whose top is reached by a hun- dred steps, with the mercantile traffic properly bestowed upon the flat below. At every intermediate hamlet and landing there is a saw-mill, with the primitive forest for a background and reminder of its purpose. On every side there are intimations of the country's recent settlement and the presence of the wilderness. Indian dug-out canoes of fantastic shapes with carved prows, steal quietly along the shadowy shores, or cross the open water between the embowered islands. Up and down, with every sweep of the eye, this notable Mediterranean stretches its majestic length of two hundred miles ; at times a broad expanse, anon no wider than a river, with many a point and promontory and curve of shore, roadsteads tortuous, channels narrow, and water bluer than the reflected skies, dotted with islands, indented with umbrageous recesses where the unsuspicious fish breaks the quiet surface, and offering in every littoral dell and sweep of forest such delights as sportsmen covet and endure long journeys to enjoy. And yet, on every side are budding hamlets and thrifty settle- ments with airs of comfort, farms and hop-fields, and busy saw-mills, and great ships sailing filled with surplus wheat. ITINERAR y. 1 5 and steamboats plying hither and yon — all significant of energetic industry and a prosperous future. It is said that a hundred steamboats ply the waters of the sound. But the speculative tourist, looking far beyond, Alaska- ward, is not content to abide. Victoria, the entrepot of British Columbia, claims direct attention, and there is not a surer refuge or resting place for the sea-worn and wayfar- ing than the land-locked basin which forms its harbor. While the good ship which is to take us onward waits at her dock, and the purser and steward are making out their lists, we have two days on shore to see the town. There is a commodious hotel, called the " Driard," where the most exacting guest can be made comfortable. It is quite up to the modern standard, built of stone, and occupies half a square ; containing within its walls a creditable Opera House, which alone cost $50,000 to construct. Its landlord is a dapper Louisiana Frenchman, acquainted with every body in the two countries, and therefore a companionable host for strangers to meet, having no race prejudices and providing plenty to eat. This far-western city is as substantial as it is charming. Started originally as a fur company's post, and afterward boomed into importance by the Fraser River mining excite- ment of 1858, time has proved that other than even extran- eous causes have contributed to its prosperity and growth. All the steamer lines of the Province center at Victoria, whence they reach all coast ports where settlements have been made, and penetrate far into the interior by ascending the Fraser River and other water-ways ; and trade increases constantly in proportion as the tributary settlements and industries expand. The flags were all at half mast the day I arrived, in commemoration of the Grant obsequies, and my heart warmed toward the good people for their respect shown to our great captain. Travelers say the town is intensely English in its composition. If so, it has a warm corner for its neighbors, and the *' English of it " is good will. A considerable portion of the town-site has been set aside and designated as " Beacon Hill Park," with winding drives, gentle undulations, conspicuous eminences, majes- tic trees, and a wonderful outlook toward the seas where some small earthworks and great guns frown imperiously ; but to me the entire location seemed like a natural park, with its numerous bridges and points of rock, its pictur- esque bays and inlets, its islands and bits of beach, its clusters of trees and luxuriant gardens, every eminence crowned with a modern villa, every cove cuddling a cosy i6 CR NE IV ALA SKA. cottage, and all the well-built business blocks occupying a curve of the land-locked harbor, constituting a picture of solid comfort and natural beauty which grew more and more attractive as it became familiar. There was just enough shipping to give the place an air of importance — some square-rigged vessels, some steamers, and a few old hulks which were well nigh past service. Here lay the old Hudson Bay steamer " Beaver," which crossed the ocean in 1832. It is said she has cheese aboard now which she brought then. Here was the " Otter," which laid the sub- marine cable, and the " Wilson G. Hunt," once plying in New York waters. Up the gorge, where the tide flows furiously, except at slack and flood, is a famous place for catching sea-trout with rod and fly. Everywhere about the bay Indian canoes were plying, and there were groups of tents on shore, with hectic salmon spread on neighboring rocks to dry. The dusky groups carelessly disposed about the grass, men, women, and children, in motley dress, sit- ting on native mats, and skins of mountain goats, knitting, mending clothes, plaiting baskets, lounging, or lazily turn- ing the half-cured fish, resemble a gypsy camp or holiday ]Mcnic, so civilized are their appearance and surroundings. Few visible traces of aboriginal barbarism remain, only some rude lip ornament, or cherished habit almost obsolete, or amulet, or knick-knack, transmitted from their remote progenitors. Red, black and yellow colors predominate in their rustic fancy, — yellow scarfs for the head or neck, red for shawls or jackets, and black for frocks and skirts of women. In the city streets we see the girls in pairs loll up to the shop windows with the easy abandon of habitues, laughing outright with delight at the glittering objects dis- played, as much enraptured and absorbed as a cat in catnip. Three generations of intercourse with white people whose policy has been justice and humanity and tempered with firmness, have won their confidence. They were treated kindly from the start, and no white man was permitted to do them an injustice without being punished for his conduct. At the same time they were made to understand that they were equally amenable to wrong doing. They were also given employment in pursuits suited to their proclivities and aptitude, which brought them food, trinkets, and cloth- ing they had before been destitute of, whereby they learned the value of friendly relations with the new-comers. Hence- forth we shall find them an omnipresent quantity along the coast, varying somewhat in features, habits, disposition and intelligence, but all well-disposed and tractable. Here in ITINERARY. 1 7 Victoria the tourist can pick up much information of Alaska, together with curios, photographs of scenery, maps of route and itineraries, not to omit a " Chinook " dictionary which will be useful to him at all times, and indispensable if he wishes to make the most of his opportunities to trade with the natives and learn the ways of the people ; all of which he can buy cheaper for cash than up the coast. The most interesting and aesthetic part of Victoria is the Chinese quarter, which is a cleanly business suburb of solid red brick blocks, with buildings two and three stories high ornamented with green verandas. Some of the stories and shops are very spacious, with superb fittings of gilt, tapestry and carved work, comprising stocks of general merchandise, drugs, spices and specialties. One of these Chinamen is said to own real estate within the limits worth $200,000. I took occasion to go through all parts of their reserve, into their theaters, joss houses and houses of pleasure, into their opium joints and their squalid and poverty-worn tenements where a dozen personsare herded togetherinasin- gleroom, and was compelled to change the impression which I had formed from popular hear-say. The worst I saw was not half as foul and repulsive as the slums of some populous eastern cities, outside of New York. They have a comforta- ble building where they board and lodge their kinsfolk when they first arrive, or when sick, or out of work, or on a visit from the interior. It is a sort of hotel-hospital. There are no Chinese beggars, for " John " takes care of his own in purse and person, and will even return their dead bodies to China, if desired. The impression that the return of dead Chinamen is imperative, is a myth, and absurd on the face of it ; but the prejudiced will believe any thing. I found them engaged in every kind of occupation, except the very highest, and was amazed at their general thrift, sobriety, and intelligence. The policy of the Canadians to- ward these Mongolians is much more liberal than ours, — as it has been with the Indians, — and in course of time they will surely profit by it. In British Columbia the occidental section of the Flowery Kingdom blooms and blossoms as the rose — a tea rose, as it were, whose fine points, not all of thorns, might be studied with advantage if we would only take the cue. But it is whispered in the inner chamber that the days of the cue are numbered. The conditions of a mighty dispensation are about to be fulfilled. The time is near at hand when the Chinese will be at liberty to cut off their cues and dispense with their large sleeves. They say that according to a prophecy in one of their 1 8 OUR iVE W ALA SKA. sacred books, the reigning dynasty that imposed, centuries ago, the custom of dress now in vogue, will come to an end, and the new government will make the abolishment of both permissible — an act devoutly hailed by Chinamen. Thence- forth, these insignia of race distinctions will not be any more imperatively imposed. Obstacles to naturalization and American citizenship will be removed. Indeed, the days of immunity are already being anticipated, and scores of Chinese here and in the United States are taking out papers. Leading celestials assert that the movement will soon be- come general, and that most of their people in the south- west will soon proceed to become American citizens and permanent residents ; that they will then bring over their wives and children and spend their earnings here ; and that all the money which has hitherto been sent abroad for their support will be " blowed .into " the treasury of the United States. Truly, the patience and long-suffering of the " heathen," in consequence of their two-fold religious and political disabilities, are worthy of admiration. For a free country such inflictions are hard to bear. It was at Victoria that I first noticed that exuberance of vegetation which surprised me still more when I reached Alaska. The maple leaves were larger than I could span ; alders grew into trees ; fruit-trees broke under the weight of fruitage ; honeysuckles grew rank, and moss clung to the trees in great masses ; ferns were several feet in length ; water melons as big as a barrel ; growing pines ran up into the air indefinitely. Everything on this coast is gigantic, from the rocks and mountains and " big trees " to the Chinese immigration, the forest fires, and the ambition of the politicians. No wonder that the people of the Pacific coast claim to be the most favored in the world ; they ab- sorb the beneficence of the Creator. Three miles from Victoria, at Esquimault, there is a naval station, with arsenal, hospital, dock-yard, and powder mag- azine, the latter located on an island. The dry-dock is sub- stantially built of concrete faced with sandstone, and will cost when fully completed a half million of dollars. The harbor is one of the deepest and securest in the world. ITINERARY.— Continued. It is no small task to equip and provision a steamer, car- rying two hundred persons, and get her under way for a month ; but finally all the pigs, and poultry, and cabbages, and crates of fruit, and ice, and carcasses of beef, are trun- dled aboard and stowed conveniently for the steward's daily deal ; the sheep and hay are snugly housed between decks, and the last reluctant steer is forced up the gangway by a twist of the tail so excruciating that it wrings out a sugges- tion of ox-tail soup for next day's bill of fare. Then the hawsers are cast off, and the good ship swings bravely into the stream on the hope of her new departure — bound for Alaska. First, there is an eight hour's run of 70 miles to the Brit- ish port of Nanaimo for coal, in the course of which, if the atmosphere be clear, the snow-clad peaks of the Cascade range of mountains will appear like a crystal rampart across the sea. There is a succession of them, rising one above the other, and looking as unreal and ethereal as a vision of fairy-land. Enchantment of the voyage begins at the very threshold of departure, and the first outlook is exhilarating with satisfying promise. Nanaimo is the headquarters of the Vancouver Coal Company, and the distributing depot of a large coal district. The coal areas of this province are widely spread, of whose product San Francisco alone takes 150,000 tons per annum. Departure Bay and Nanaimo are twin harbors connected by a deep narrow channel of ample width for navigation. The town lies along the bay, with streets quite irregular in conformity with the sinuosities of the indented shore line. A dense and continuous pine for- est, underlaid by coal measures, occupies the back ground. There is an octagonal block house three stories high, which years ago did duty for the Hudson Bay Fur Company. Hence, through the picturesque Strait of Georgia to the head of Vancouver, 300 miles or more, there are islands all the way. with a good deal of scrub cedar and fir ; now and then a farm house and clearing. Every body on board the steamer busily studies charts, picking out the course of the 2 O OUR NE W ALA SKA . ship in advance, and locating her hourly whereabouts. Hour after hour there succeeds an alternation of deep narrow channels hemmed in by mountains, and long reaches of open water which glisten with the scintillations of the sun. Deep bays reach far into the land, and projecting points invite the lambent breezes of the sea. Here and there are shoals with warning beacons, and tide-rips churned by counter-currents into foam, into which if a vessel without steam be caught, she drifts on dangers, powerless to escape. Of such mischances we see some victims now and then high and dry on sunken reefs, keeled over. Sometimes, when running close to land the jutting ledges seem about to pour their leaping waterfalls bodily upon the deck, and over- reaching boughs almost brush the taffrail as we pass. All the shores are lined with drift-wood and stranded trunks of enormous trees, weather-worn and naked. The average rise of tide is eighteen feet, and on the ebb and flow, its velocity through the narrow channels reaches nine miles an hour, so that vessels have to make intelligent forecast of time of tide, of fogs, and hours of moonlight. To attempt the passage except on flood and slack is to court destruc- tion, for although the mean depth of water is sometimes seventy fathoms, the tortuous straits are filled with hidden rocks. The first and worst of these is " Seymour Rapids," a passage less than a quarter of a mile wide, about nine hours run from Nanaimo ; and here in the awful swell and vortex which lashes each broken shore with the rage of Niagara's whirlpools, the U. S. man of War " Saranac " went down, shivered on a sunken rock ; and in the self-same place, by an extraordinary coincidence of mischances, the steamer " Grapplcr " was burned and sunk. She was carry- ing Chinese coolies, of whom seventy vainly struggled momentarily with the surging waves, and disappeared ; but they do say that their bodies periodically come to the sur- face, and pitch about the eddies, with pigtails streaming wildly in their wake, though the more matter-of-fact opinion is that the objects seen are only strings of kelp drifting on the tide. Other dangerous passages are Grenville Strait and Peril Strait. For the rest, the journey is at present without risk or peradventure, and with ordinary seaman- ship and prudence, depending much upon experienced pilots, may be made with less discomfort than the pas- sage of Long Island Sound ; for the sweep of the ocean blasts seldom reaches these sheltered by-ways. Fogs are chronic, however, for eight months of the year, and apt to occur at early morning, all the summer long, though they ITINERARY. 21 do not interrupt travel ; for navigators have learned to evoke the echoes from the enfilading walls and headlands by resonant blasts of the steam whistle, and so estimate their courses, whereabouts, and distances. By the time passengers have been two or three days at sea, they get to know many of the tricks of the ship, as well as of their fellow-voyagers. They have topics in common which promote familiar intercourse ; and so, between the scenery, the log, the bill of fare, and themselves, they find strong ties of mutual sympathy. Furthermore, the sailors had a bear aboard, named " Pete," which was raised on bilge water and was very tame; a black setter, a companion of the bear ; a toy terrier ; and a fine tom-cat; all of whose intellects had been largely developed by their association with tourists and shipmates. I know of no better training- school for bears than a voyage of this kind. From the head of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan frontier, the coast maintains the same mdented and tortuous line, flanked by innumerable islands. The mountains gradually increase in height, and at Grenville Narrows they rise to fully 3,000 feet, directly out of the sea ; some of them with snowy peaks, and numerous water-falls tumbling from their aerial reservoirs, but wooded at the base with conifers. As the civilization of this region is mainly apart from the route of the steamer, and unseen by tourists who imagine it all unsettled, I venture to prompt the reader from the pages of the West Shore Magazine, so that erron- eous impressions may not obtain. Some may be astonished at the proficiency of the Indians, not long since savage. We read : " The population of this region is chiefly In- dian, and they are both intelligent and industrious ; per- forming nearly all the labor of the two industries — salmon canning and lumbering — which have gained a foothold there. In going north. Rivers Inlet is the first reached where industries have been established. At its head is sit- uated the village of Weekeeno. On the inlet are two sal- mon canneries and a saw-mill. Bella Coola is situated at the head of Burke Channel, on the North Bentinck Arm. It is the site of a Hudson's Bay company post, and years ago was the landing place for the Cariboo mines. Bella Coola River is a considerable stream entering the arm from across the rr.^untains. Here is a tract of some 2,000 acres of rich delta land, which is partially cultivated by the In- dians. Bella Bella is a Hudson's Bay post on Camjibell Island, near the head of Milbank Sound, 400 miles north of Victoria. There are three Indian villages, with a combined 2 2. O UR NE IV A LA SKA . population of 500. The next important point is the mouth of Skeena River, a large stream flowing from the interior. It is a prolific salmon stream, and there are three canneries on its banks ; one at Aberdeen, another at Inverness Slough, and a third at Port Essington, near its mouth, where there is a small village of traders, fishermen and Indians. The river is navigable for light draught steamers as far as Mumford Landing, sixty miles inland, and 200 miles further for canoes. There are two missionary stations on the river, and along its course are many spots favorable for settle- ments. " Sixteen miles beyond the mouth of the Skeena is the town of Metlakahtla, on the Tsimpsheean Peninsula. There are a store, salmon cannery, a large church and school- house. This is an Indian missionary station, about which are gathered fully 1,000 Tsimpsheean Indians, who have been taught many of the mechanical arts. They have a saw- mill, barrel factory, blacksmith shop ; live in good wooden houses; do the work at the cannery, and are industrious in many other ways ; the women having learned the art of weaving woolen fabrics. Fifteen miles beyond Metlakahtla, on the northwest end of the same peninsula, is the impor- tant station of Fort Simpson, separated from Alaska Terri- tory by the channel of Portland Inlet. This is one of the finest harbors in British Columbia, and was for years the most important post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the upper country, furs being brought there from the vast inte- rior. Besides the company's post, the Methodist Mission has buildings valued at $9,000. There are about 800 Indians in the village, most of them living in good shingled houses and wearing civilized costumes. They are governed by a council, and have various organizations, including a temperance society, rifle company, fire company and a brass band. They earn much money in the fisheries. Forty miles up the Portland Channel is the mouth of Nass River, a very important stream in the fishing industry, being the greatest known resort of the oolachan. Two sal- mon canneries, a saw-mill, store, two missionary stations and several Indian villages are situated along the stream. The climate is favorable to the growth of fruit, cereals and root crops near the coast, and there are a number of quite extensive tracts of bottom lands, requiring only to be cleared to render them fit for agriculture or grazing. Further up the stream there are a number of good locations, and several settlements have been made. Gold is found in small quantities along the river. ITINERARY. 23 " A special feature of the province is the outlying group of large islands known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, the upper end lying nearly opposite the southern extremity of Alaska. They are three in number — Graham, Moresby and Provost — and are about 170 miles long and 100 wide. They are mountainous and heavily timbered, and the climate is more genial and the rainfall less than on the mainland coast, Along the northern end of Graham, the most northerly of the group, is a tract of low lands thirty-five miles in extent, and much level, arable land is to be found elsewhere, which only requires clearing. There are also many extehsive marshy flats requiring drainage to render them fit for culti- vation. The mineral resources of the islands are undoubt- edly great. The only industry now established is the fac- tory of the Skidegate Oil Company, on Skidegate Island in a good harbor at the southern end of Graham Island. In connection with this is a store. The Hudson Bay Company has a store and a trading post at Massett, near the upper end of Graham's Island, where there are a Protestant Mis- sion and a large Indian village. •* There are several villages on each of the islands of the group which are occupied by Hydah Indians, the most in- telligent of the aboriginal inhabitants of the coast. Their origin, in the absence of any written record or historical inscriptions, is an interesting subject for speculation. Their features, tattooing, carvings and legends indicate that they are castaways from Eastern Asia, who, first reaching the islands of Southern Alaska, soon took and held exclusive possession of the Queen Charlotte group. Their physical and intellectual superiority over the North Coast Indians, and also marked contrasts in the structure of their language, denote a different origin. They are of good size, with ex- ceptionably well developed chests and arms, high foreheads and lighter complexion than any other North American Indians. " Massett, the principal and probably oldest village of the Hydah Nation, is pleasantly situated on the north shore of Graham Island at the entrance to Massett Inlet. Fifty houses, great and small, built of cedar logs and planks, with a forest of carved poles in front, extend along the fine beach. The house of Chief Weeah, is fifty-five feet square, containing timbers of immense size, and planks three feet and one-half in width and eighteen inches thick. The vil- lage now has a population of about 250, the remnants of a once numerous people, the houses in ruins here having accommodated several times that number. Massett is the 24 OUR NE W ALA SKA. shipyard of the Hydahs, the best canoe-makers on the con- tinent, who supply them to the other coast tribes. Here may be seen in all stages of construction these canoes, which, when completed, are such perfect models for service and of beauty. This is the abode of the aristocracy of Hydah land. Other villages are the offshoots from the parent colony, caused by family and tribal feuds and quarrels." Although not included within the limits of Alaska, being some fifteen miles south of its frontier, I am pleased to be able to give fair sketches of the remarkable Indian settle- ment of Metlakahtla, above referred to, not only as an in- stance of the advanced state of civilization to which some of the Pacific coast Indians have already been brought, but because it is an earnest of the enviable results which must surely crown our own endeavors, if properly applied, and therefore an encouragement to persevere. Metlakahtla is truly the full realization of the missionaries' dream of aboriginal restoration. The population is 1,200, and there are but six white persons in the place. Like the mission Indians at Fort Simpson, its residents have also a rifle company of forty-two men, a brass band, a two gun battery, a cooper shop, and a large co-operative store where almost any thing obtainable in Victoria can be bought. We visited this port on our return trip from Sitka, and were received with displays of bunting from various points, and a five-gun salute from the battery, with Yankee Doodle and Dixie from the band of thirteen pieces. The Union-Jack was flying. The church is architecturally pretentious and can seat 800 persons. It has a belfry and spire, vestibule, gallery across the front end, groined arches and pulpit carved by hand, organ and choir, Brussels carpet in the aisles, stained glass windows, and all the appointments and em- bellishments of a first class sanctuary ; and it is wholly native handiwork ! This well ordered community occupy two-story shingled and clap-boarded dwelling houses of uni- form size, 25x50 feet, with three windows and gable ends and door in front, and inclosed flower gardens, and macada- mized sidewalks ten feet wide along the entire line of street. The chief peculiarity of these houses is, that none of them have chimneys, the apartments being heated by fires built on hearths in the center of the ground floor, and the smoke passing out through a flat cupola in the roof, after the fashion of Indian tenements in general. These people have also a large town hall or assembly room of the same capacity as the church, capable of accommodating the whole population. It is used for councils, balls, meetings, and for a drill room. ITINERAR V. 25 It is warmed by three great fires placed in the center of the building, and lighted by side lamps. The people dress very tastefully in modern garb, and I am not sure but they have the latest fashions. The women weave the cloth for all the garments, and there are gardens which afford vege- tables and fruit in abundance. It is as cleanly and orderly as the most punctilious Shaker settlement. A fine assort- ment of Hydah utensils, plaques, and carved work is on sale here. For exquisite beauty and quaint designs, there is nothing like Hydah ware to be found on the whole coast. A most beautiful table service of many pieces is on view at the U. S. National Museum in Washington, carved from black talcose slate. Miniature totem-poles two or three feet high, wrought of the same material, may also be bought at $5 to $7, American or Canadian money, both being current. From this point to American soil the distance is short. "Decensus Ai'erno." The transition from the neat and thrifty settlements left behind to the dilapidated and half- deserted line of buildings — formerly a Russian trading post of rank, but now the U. S. port of entry of Alaska, is not flattering to spread-eagle pride. When the weather- stained Custom House officer formally comes on deck, conscientious American citizens " go below." It was said that nothing remunerative to any body ever fol- lowed his official visits. Usually it was " too foggy " for him to discover the vessel, and this fog became so constitutionally prevalent in all that district that smug- gled goods were nowhere apparent until, one unpropitious day last February, Collector Keecher by some timely hint conveyed through the circumlocution oftice, was enabled to unearth at Tongass no less than $45,000 worth of opium packed in casks purporting to cover furs. However, the Territorial regime is full of irregularities, affecting other things than revenue, all of which will be speedily corrected whenever domestic order shall succeed official chaos. But I shall venture no reflections. I will hold no " mirror up to nature," for never did nature see herself to better ad- vantage than upon that early morn at Tongass. There was no fog theJi ; the early sun had scarcely risen ; and all the morning lights which painters find it so difficult to limn, filled the firmament with their transparency. Not only the trees and rocks, and mountains, the moss, the kelp, the gulls on wing, the reek of the smoke-stack, and the rosy glow of morn, but even the fleecy films of vapor which, in voluptuous summer float high in the upper air — the lace- 26 OUR NE W ALA SKA . like canopy embroidered on the blue — were mirrored on the water ; and each individual wave upturned by the cleav- ing prow formed reduplicating mirrors, like the facets of a gem, reflecting a consummate picture in each one. It was a moment of perfectly earthly peace. The impressionable young ladies on board declared that it was "just too lovely for any thing." These little maids from school all keep faithful diaries of the happenings aboard ship, nautical and social, the distances run each day, the places called at, what the steward laid for dinner, how many chickens there are left in coop, what the captain told them su^ rosa, and all the special and private information to be picked up in the purser's state-room, and the " after-run." They make themselves " solid " with the officers, tip the steward and waiters, and even button-hole the first officer for best boats when little side excursions are afoot, for on those Alaska journeys frequent opportunities are offered to go ashore at the regular landings, of which there may be ten, besides spe- cial trips to places of universal interest ; after each visit the cabins and state-rooms are littered with ferns, mosses, wild flowers, clam shells, bits of mineral, slippery kelps, Indian curios and souvenirs of all sorts brought aboard. One of these little exploring parties once came across a member of the ship's crew digging a hole in the ground on a secluded point, and when he told them he was to get three dol- lars for burying a dead Chinaman who had been sent over from the steamer in the yawl, they were paralyzed. The body lay on the ground beside him, covered with a coat. In their view such a summary disposal of a corpse was not at all in accordance with civilized customs, but it seemed to be approved in Alaska. This incident was of course duly noticed in the diaries, with comments. So also was the ad- venture of the " rooster and the cook." The chicken coop, it seems, stood on the hurricane deck in the lee of one of the paddle-boxes, and passengers would often stop on their matutinal turns aloft to inspect or feed the feathered inmates, and speculate upon the uncertainties and vicissi- tudes of galley life. On these occasions the chickens were always inclined to be sociable and would scufilc with each other fc^r donations ; but it was remembered that whenever the cook or his assistant, both of whom were Chinamen, ap- proached the coop, the apprehensive flock fled to the rear and bunched up in the corners. They knew the difference, and no wonder ! One by one the fatted victims were sum- marily withdrawn and served as soup or fricassee, until at last the cutest of them all, an old rooster who had hitherto ITINERARY. 27 evaded the intruded hand, was fairly cornered ; yet he did not succumb nor faint. Watching his chance, he sHpped John's grip, and getting free on deck, at last he gave both the Chinamen a desperate chase around the texas and the smoke-stacks, this way, and that way, and back again, headed off at every turn, feathers flying, pig-tails streaming, all hands cackling and squawling, and every passenger look- ing on quite interested. At last, utterly exhausted, the rooster was neatly coraled in a bunch of life-preservers (which were nothing to him then), when he suddenly took wing, and with one defiant and despairing shriek, flew over- board and was drowned ! He deliberately committed sui- cide rather than go to pot ; so he escaped the ignominy, but the passengers lost their salad. I am quite sure, if I desired a complete epitome of the voyage, with no details omitted, I could find it in one of these same records; but as I am not likely to meet any of these " Vassar Girls Abroad," it only remains for me to re- cite the bare fact of our due arrival at Wrangell, which was fifteen years ago a town of considerable importance, where large parties fitted out daily for the Stickeen mines located nearly three hundred miles inland across the country in British Columbia. There the whole region is even now filled with deserted cabins. There was a temporary glim- mer of brightness for Alaskan prospects, in the first dawn of the new " purchase," when no less than 3,000 people congregated here to " outfit." Then there were many shops and stores, and warehouses on the wharf, and all sorts of rude places of amusement, and a motly and unruly crowd such as always gathers at a frontier town. Even old hulks were improvised as boarding-houses. But the prospects " petered out," not for lack of mineral so much as lack of suitable mechanical appliances, and so both the mines and the town are now almost dead. There is a picturesque block-house on a convenient hill, and a grassy plaza with barracks where troops were quartered then, and a couple of small churches. Catholic and Protestant, on the crest of a ridge, with plank walks leading to them, but the barracks are now occupied by the Indian Mission of Mr. Young, and the bethels and brothels are boarded up. Every thing is dilap- idated and worn of paint, aud spacious hostelries where board was once $3.00 per day, have already tumbled into ruins, with the walls collapsed and the roofs fallen in. There are about 500 people left, chiefly Indians, whose better houses, many of them painted, occupy a picturesque curve of the shore and a point of land which projects into the harbor. A foot 28 OUR NE IV ALASKA. bridge also leads across an estuary to what is an island when the tide is full, and here are some of the best built houses and elaborate totem-poles. This part of the town has at least the charm of supreme novelty, and I dare say there is nothing like it to be seen in all Alaska; a hint of which visitors should take due note and govern themselves accordingly. I suppose that there will be a better civiliza- tion ere many years have passed, but this peculiar architec- ture and ornamentation stand to-day, not only as striking illustrations of the idiosyncracies of a peculiar people, but of their native capabilities, made more creditable and more conspicuous from lack of superior tools with which to cut, hew, carve and smooth. When it is borne in mind that their boards are split from hemlocks, riven with an ax, and planed with adzes, and that shaping and finishing is done with rude knives, it is apparent that the impartial judge will allow them many points for ingenuity and skill. This special subject I leave for a future chapter. Wrangell lies at the mouth of the Stickeen. One of these days not distant, a steamboat excursion up the Stickeen River through the great caiion which it has cut for its passage through the mountains, will be one of the most popular and exciting of all the experiences on this continent. There is steamboat navigation for one hundred and sixty miles from its mouth to Glenora, up to which point the river is usually clear of ice by the middle of April. There the Dominion custom- house is located on the supposed boundary line, and the scenery is of the most romantic character all the way, the wonderful creations of nature being diversified by trading posts, stores, and mining stations along the banks. Several fine glaciers are to be seen en route, and a number of tributary streams or branches flow into the main river. From the head of navigation there are canoe routes and overland trails for pack trains which lead to the gold mines at Deese Lake, eighty miles further, and to the noted quartz lodes and placers of Cariboo and Cassiar in British Colum- bia. The strip of territory owned by the United States and lying along the coast is only ten leagues wide by the Rus- sian Treaty of 1828 with Great Britain ; and the continual difficulties which arise between customs officials along an indeterminate boundary line, makes its speedy official estab- lishment in every respect very desirable. The distance between Victoria and Wrangell is a little less than eight hundred miles, the whole route so land- locked that not a qualm of sea-sickness is permitted to come U. S. TRIPODS IN CHANNEL, ITINERARY. 31 aboard, and all the emissaries of Neptune lie low among the grottoes of the deep. The further northward ones goes the grander the scenery becomes, the higher and more rugged grow the mountains, the whiter their caps of snow, the denser the surrounding forests, and the more numerous the streams which leap from the lips of the crags. There are fjords deeper and blacker than the Saguenay, open chan- nels greener than Niagara. Peaks are piled on peaks in most tumultuous forms. Outlines serrated and sharp cut the upper sky. Black ravines and dazzling patches of snow alternate. Scars seam the entire sides of lofty moun- tains, where the spring avalanches have scathed them of every vestige of soil and vegetation. The inlets are often enveloped in fogs, but when they lift, the surprises are bewildering. Sometimes it is the bases of the mountains which are revealed, and sometimes the peaks, with a filmy drapery floating athwart their sides, or a golden fleece hung gracefully over their broad shoulders. At Kasaan there is a wharf and cannery with an annex of Indian cabins like an old time negro quarter. There is a fleet of splendid canoes employed in the fishery, drawn high and dry upon the beach ready for use, but now tenderly covered with sails and mats to protect them from the alternate damp and sunshine. The hulk of an old sloop long since past usefulness, lies on the shore cracked, seamed, dismantled and keeled over. She has a history, for once she smuggled goods for the old Russian magnate, Carl V. Baronovick, and carried many a goodly cargo through the intricate water-ways which it did not pay to watch. Out in the stream the U. S. sur- veying steamer lies at anchor, with every thing taut and trim and her brass aglow with polish, like the " knocker of a big front door." She has done lots of work on the coast, and marked out the intricate and dangerous channels with tripods and can-buoys. Some twelve miles off is a Hydah village — one of the few to be found in Alaska — which excursionists sometimes visit for the collection of curios. Its head chief, " Scowl," who was quite a celebrity in his day, died two years ago, leaving a good house and an hon- orable pedigree, vouched for by no less than four totem- poles set up inside, and a tall one in front, outside, made of yellow cedar, which grows abundantly in the vicinity, and is exceedingly beautiful, taking a finish like satin wood, with an odor as distinctive as that of sandal-wood. At Salmon Bay the steamer stopped at another cannery to receive some three hundred barrels of salted salmon, and again at Naha Bay, near which there is a beautiful lake 32 UR NE W A LA SKA . connecting with the ocean by a tidal passage, into which the salmon were crowding to spawn. There is a double fall at the outlet of this lake ; the fresh water pouring out when the tide is low, and ihe salt water flowing in when the tide is high. Here the salmon were wedged so tightly for the whole length of two miles that they could not move at times. The rise of the tide is some eighteen feet and the entire channel, from the surface to the bottom, was jammed and packed solid, so that if a plank were laid upon the liv- ing mass, a person might have walked dry shod across it. This is hard to believe, but easy to understand when it is known that during the salmon " run," from early spring to August, the vast schools which swarm along the shores and fill the bays and inlets, swim in compacted masses six feet thick, so that it is impossible to thrust a spear or lift a boat- hook without impaling a fish. In rivers of Oregon the salmon often obstruct a ford so that horses can not pass, but in Alaska the astounding aggregate is infinitely greater, and large rivers being few, they crowd into available inlets as frightened sheep were never known to block a gangway. Juneau, or Harrisburg, is the metropolis of Alaska — a town of several streets and shops, stores and restaurants, with a trading-post, a dance-house, a brewery, a barber-shop, and a dramatic company. It is the depot for the rich placer mines behind the mountains back of it, and the live center from which radiates whatever of excitement there is in the territory, outside of " government circles " at Sitka. Gold ore was first discovered on Douglas Island, opposite, where there is to-day in operation the largest stamp mill in the world ; but it has since been found to exist in paying quan- tities on the main-land in the mountains back of Juneau. An Indian revealed the secret, for a consideration, to two prospectors named Harris and Juneau, who at once staked out claims and began to pan out pay dirt and nug- gets of free gold handsomely. The town is named for each of them respectively, though the post-office is now called Harrisburg. It is growing rapidly and is orderly. The miners themselves are temperate, industrious, and well- behaved, and are gradually gathering around them a com- munity of good citizens. One of the best of the miners, Michael Powers, with two others, was unfortunately killed last winter by an accidental cave in the " basin " where the placers are being worked. The population of Juneau in winter, when the mines are idle, is fully 1,500. The laborers employed are chiefly Indians, with a few Chinese. There are two villages of Indian huts built along the shore, one niXERARY. ZZ on either side of the town. They belong to different tribes who are traditional enemies — the Auks and the I'akus — but they live amicably enough with the white settlement sand- wiched in between them. Fleets of canoes ornament the sloping shores in front of the cabins, and wolfish dogs, brindled and yellow, with bushy tails and pricked ears, doze and loll in front of every door. As a general rule their bark is not dangerous. Beyond these dusky suburbs there are burying grounds, with strips of white and colored mus- lin tied to the tips of poles to indicate the graves, which would otherwise be lost in the teeming undergrowth that overruns them in a single season. It is a motley throng which crowds the wharf on "• steamer day," but not alto- gether so savage as might be imagined. It is purely cos- mopolitan, and one may land and move about the throng or through the streets of the town and not be stared at as he would be in any equal village of New England. It may be accepted for granted that there is not a white man in all the lot as " fresh " and "tender" as the tourist who supremely con- templates him with his eye-glasses, quite aloof. All of them have "traveled." Some of the stores are branches run by leading merchants of Oregon and San Francisco, and I doubt not one could find the latest cut of trowsers at the tailor's shop. Baths there are, hot and cold, and shaving- parlors with veritable black men behind the chairs, quite comfortable and luxurious to observe and enjoy. There were no less than five negroes in Juneau last year. Verily, the African is as widely scattered as the Israelite ! Here the tide falls twenty-five feet, and when it is dead low water all the piles of the wharf stand out in stark alignment, crusted with barnacles hung with sea-weed and bored by teredos. So destructive is this well-known sea-worm that piles have to be renewed every two years at a great deal of labor and inconvenience, and it is not unusual to find them actually eaten in two below the water-line. A ferry boat runs half hourly from Juneau to Douglas Island, where '.here is a saw-mill and a considerable settlement connected with the stamp-mill and ore-beds. In the center of the harbor is a pretty island, with a point stretching out from the main- land half the distance to meet it, on which there is an arti- ficial marble monument. Back of the point is a ravine with a goodly stream tumbling out of it in a series of cascades, discolored with the tailings of the sluices back in the moun- tains which have contributed to swell its volume. Up the timbered slope which skirts it a precarious foot-path leads to the "basin," along the edges of steep precipices and 34 OUR NEW ALASKA. through thickets of " devil's club " and luscious salmon- berry bushes. From Juneau to Chilkat and Pyramid Harbor, so called from a wedge-shaped island in the center of the channel, it is a twelve hours' run. Here are the two largest salmon canneries in the territory, together employing over one hundred hands. From this place a novel excursion may be made in canoes or boats to the Chilkat village, where the famous blankets are made. This tribe numbers a thousand souls at least. The women are expert manufacturers of baskets and mats, as well as blankets. The first are made from grass and the dried fiber of sea-kelps; the blankets from the wool of the mountain sheep and goats, woven by hand and dyed with native dyes in strangely wrought designs of blue, black and yellow. These are chiefly used in dances and on fete days. From Chilkat to Kilisnoo is the next stage. Here there is a cannery and phosphate works — phosphate made from the scraps of herring after the oil is extracted. With a run through Lynn Channel to Glacier Bay, where a day is passed in viewing the greatest wonder of the coast, and thence through Cross Sound, we finally reach Sitka, which is usually the termmal objective point of the long voyage, but is really a considerable distance on the home stretch, accomplished by a long detour to the northward, for Sitka lies in latitude fifty-seven degrees, while Chilkat is in latitude fifty-nine degrees, thirty minutes. In the gray of the early morn we can faintly discern the spectral summit of Mount Edgecumb right before us, and trace the dusky out- lines of the rambling town, the outlying islands, and the hull of the Pinta, U. S. man-of-war lying restfully at anchor a few cables length from the government pier. Thus hastily touching at points of interest, I have attempted to give the tourist a general idea of what he is to see. In a general way also, he will like to know what to take for the voyage. Presumably he will not require an evening dress, even should a ball be given at the "Castle of the Governor." Indispensible, however, are great-coats and gossamers, heavy shoes, warm underclothing, and short skirts for ladies, as well as light wraps and thin garments of all sorts, traveling caps, and stout canes for glacier-climb- ing. Those who are fond of fishing and hunting may carry shot-guns and tackle for both salt and fresh water use. A blue-fish outfit, with heavy sinker, and a black-bass rod, with reel and line, will be sufficient. Steamer chairs maybe bought at any port before leaving Victoria, and a half- ITINERARY. 35 dozen books will afford exceptionable pastime. Finally, if the officers of the line would only provide a steam launch, forty feet long, with a compound engine, to burn both wood and coal, and half a dozen skiffs for trolling, the service would be quite complete, and the passengers correspond- ingly happy. KLOOTCHMAN S. AS EXCURSIONISTS SEE IT. There is undoubtedly a tendency on the part of enthused and susceptible visitors to turn the bright side of Alaska always toward the light, for surely there was never scenery more grand, or climate more delectable. From the first of June to the end of September, throughout the whole excursion season, the temperature is equable. One needs not perspire without exercise. He is always cool and needs never be cold. Morning fogs burn off by ten o'clock ; rain seldom falls ; there is scarcely wind enough to fill a sail ; and the headway of the steamer makes a grateful breeze. On shore there are few insects or flies, no reptiles, and scarcely a butterfly or beetle. The whole excursion of fully 2,000 miles is one long blithesome holiday without a blemish. The thermometer ranges imperturbably and conscientiously between sixty degrees and seventy degrees. Looking back over my past sojourn on the North Pacific, and my saunterings along its extended coast, I am at first bewildered by the retrospect. Remote from other men, and from evidences of the very existence of men, except when intermittent glimpses are vouchsafed, I seem to have been adrift in a new creation, such as is sometimes outlined in our dreamland. I am lost in the height of the mountains, the depth of the sea, and the immensity of space. Every thing is on so enlarged a scale that there is no familiar standard of comparative measurement. When I stand in the heart of the Rockies I am impressed by the environ- ment of mountain chains and snow-clad peaks. I am appalled by the rugged grandeur of their height, and the interminable depth of their caiions and chasms. The senses are crushed and oppressed by their overwhelming weight. But in this archipelago of mountains and land- locked seas, objects individually so magnificent in them- selves as to startle the senses are multii^lied and reduplicated until they paralyze one's comprehension ! Looking ft)rward from the deck of the steamer, through a long vista of head- lands, whose clear-cut outlines are set against the sky in graduated shades of blue, I see a chevaux de /rise of snow- AS EXCURSIONISTS SEE 77'. 37 capped peaks so high that Mount Washington or White Top would seem hke hills beside them. Astern, or on either side abeam, the same stupendous view looms up in wondrous counterpart. Between the wave-washed foot-hills in the foreground close at hand, the sea is placid like a mirror, and all the gigantic firs which clothe the mountain side, the scores which the avalanche has made on the rocks, and the waterfalls which fall from perpendicular heights, higher than Yosemite, are pictured there in sublime reflec- tions. At night the glory of the stars and constellations is repeated from infinite heights to infinite depths, and the round, full moon seems regent of the whole universe. In land-locked basins, so small that the ship could scarcely turn, great whales disport, and all the battles of the brme are fought, like combats in a prize ring. It is funny to see whales playing in what seems to be a mountain lake, and, of course, all the sea lions rear up on the adjacent rocks and smile. Occasionally there are nights when the crests of all the waves are luminous, and the lustrous phosphoresence piles up under the prow in lumps of liquid light, and streams off in the receding wake of the vessel. Looking over the bow, a watchful eye will detect large fish darting aside to avoid the advance of the vessel, leaving the scintillations and curves of fire as they double and turn. The passengers watch these submarine pyrotechnics by the hour. Points and curves, headlands fiords and bays, sea-worn rocks and wooded islets, rocks and reefs awash at low water, narrow channels and precipitous heights, towering peaks and shadowy valleys, lu.xuriant forests and kelp-covered shores, waterfalls projected from dizzy heights, glaciers pressing toward the sea, and splitting off with thunder tones and roaring splash — these characterize the scenery and the landscape throughout the entire voyage. Occasion- ally an Indian village of huts or tents is seen on shore, or a canoe load of natives sweeps by under pressure of blanket- sail and paddle. Of course, throughout this extended coast-line, there are many islands of many different phases — some of them mere rocks, to which the kelps cling for dear life, like stranded sailors in a storm ; while others are gently rounded mounds, wooded with fir ; and others still, precipitous cliffs standing breast deep in the waves. Steaming through the labyrinths of straits and channels which seem to have no outlets ; straining the neck to scan the tops of snow-capped peaks which rise abruptly from the basin where you ride at anchor ; watching the gambols of great whales, thresher-sharks and 38 UR NE IV ALA SKA. herds of sea-lions, which seem as if penned up in an aquarium, so completely are they inclosed by the shadowy hills — one watches the strange forms around him with an in- tensity of interest which almost amounts to awe. In this weird region of bottomless depths, there are no sand beaches or gravelly shores. All the margins of main- land and islands drop down plump into inky fathoms of water, and the fall of the tide only exposes the rank yellow weeds which cling to the damp crags and slippery rocks, and the mussels and barnacles which crackle and hiss when the lapping waves recede. When the tide sets in, great rafts of algce, with stems fifty feet long, career along the sur- face ; millions of jelly fish and anemones crowded as closely as the stars in the firmament ; great air bulbs, with streamers floating like the long hair of female corpses ; schools of por- poises and fin-back whales rolling and plunging headlong through the boiling foam ; all sorts of marine and mediter- ranean fauna pour in a ceaseless surge, like an irresistible army. Hosts of gulls scream overhead, or whiten the ledges, where they squat content or run about feeding ; ducks and sandpeeps, eagles, ospreys, fish-crows and king- fishers, the leaping salmon and the spouting whales, fill up the foreground with animated life. Here and there along the almost perpendicular cliffs the outflow of the melting snow in the pockets of the mountains leaps down in dizzy waterfalls. From the canons which divide the foot-hills, cascades pour out into the brine, and all their channels are choked with salmon crowding toward the upper waters. I could catch them with my hands as long as my strength en- dured, so helpless and infatuated are these creatures of pre- destination. At the heads of many of these rivulets there are lakes in which dwell salmon trout, spotted with crimson spots as large as a pea; the rainbow trout with its iridescent lateral stripe; and his cousin germain, the ' cut-throat trout,' slashed with carmine under the gills. And there is another trout, most familiar to the eye in eastern waters, and doubly welcome to the sight in this far-off region — the Salvelinus Canadensis or ' sea trout,' which I have recognized these many years as a separate species. Here he is in his gar- niture of crimson, blue and gold, just like his up stream neighbors of New England and the Provinces, only here he is no " brook trout run to sea," for all the denizens of Alaska brooks are Salvelinus iridens, and not at all like him! and no naturalist claims that these last two are identical. Sometimes we cross the mouth of a sound open to the sea, where the full force of the Pacific waves rolls in to swell AS EXCURSIONISTS SEE IT. 39 the symphony of the inshore surf. There is a stretch of thirty miles across Queen Charlotte's sound, and of fifteen miles at Millbank, where even in ordinary weather passen- gers show the effects of the motion ; but these disagree- ments are brief. Some of the cloud effects are very grand, stretching, as they do, for scores of miles half-way up the mountain sides, overhanging the peaks or piled on top. Sometimes a blue pyramid or cone will be seen projected above a mass of clouds which has obscured the whole land- scape, just as the glory appeared to Jacob when he slept. Fogs are of almost daily occurrence. In the chilly mornings the hills are wrapped in a thick mantle, and all the little foot- hills are cuddled like bantlings in the fleecy vapors ; but when the warm sun mounts, the fogs disappear and the day comes out almost cloudless. After all one can not epitomize Alaska in a brief synopsis or resumi. There it stands before you in its inimitable wilderness of forest-clad mountains, eternal and snow- capped, outlined by the clouds and circumscribed by the sea : and one scarcely knows more of what lies on the sur- face of the one than under the billows of the other. The marvelous and the amazing are combined with startling effect wherever we go. Many of the wonders of the Yellowstone country are reduplicated here. We have in Alaska hot springs, lava beds and volcanoes as well; a volcano on Chernabura island. Cook's inlet, is said to be in active and sulphurous operation ; and these together with the unique interest of Russian and Indian life added, and the appar- ently incongruous juxtaposition of arctic and tropical fea- tures, which are continually presented, render the experi- ences of the tourist so delightful, and so novel withal, that it needs no artificial adjuncts to give them expression, and no new lights and shades in the coloring to make them at- tractive. The answering mirror held up to nature reflects on every side a goodly picture. It forecasts a future replete with promise. ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. But what of Alaska that is practical ? Is it frigid ? sterile ? God-forsaken ? a land of perpetual ice ? Will any- thing grow there ? Can any considerable population, apart from the coast, subsist on the country ? Are the natives any less savage than the seals and bears they hunt ? Are the traces of Russian occupation Siberian or barbarian ? Did the Muscovites leave any thing at all which Uncle Samuel wants ? Is there any gold or other mineral there ? Any thing which the Creator does not regret having made ? In a word, is our new possession good for any thing at all, except for another " National Park ? " a resort for tourists and mid-summer ramblers ? I answer in my preface with a broad declaration, and with equal emphasis on the title page. Years ago, when we gathered in the Louisiana purchase for the sum of $15,000,000 — a tract in itself nearly as large as Europe — there were immense areas of it which were deemed absolutely worthless ; and these were set off, in the transaction, against the more fertile tracts, with their diver- sity of climate, soil and vegetation. Especially, that very considerable portion of it which is now known as the Ter- ritory of Dakota — although a population of more than half a million have made it the peer of any state in every thing but privilege — was disregarded ; it "didn't count." On the maps it was marked " American Desert." At the best, in the opinion of merely superficial observers, it was only an illimitable buffalo range, rainless and treeless, whose russet- colored grass dried up in June for lack of moisture, and was worthless. Now it is the most valuable and productive portion of the entire Louisiana purchase ; capable of feeding the world with grain ; subsisting domestic herds as countless as the buffalo which once grazed over its broad expanse ; munificent in its out-put of precious metals ; underlaid with coal measures which form the subsidiary reserves of tl>e region lying west of the Mississippi River ; seamed and interspersed with out-croppings of the finest building stone yet discovered ; flowing with milk and the ECONOMICALL V CONSIDERED. 41 richness of its dairy products. Even the " Bad Lands " which were designated pre-eminently so, in contradistinction from others esteemed not quite so bad, have become the chosen grazing ground of herds which supply the East with beef, and of horses which bid fair to rival the swiftest and sturdiest stock of Kentucky and Vermont. So far from being sterile, the soil of the " Bad Lands " has been proved actually better for general farming than the heavy tenacious loam of the Red River Valley, just because it is lighter. Not less erroneously regarded was the illimitable territory of the British Northwest, whose agricultural possibilities are now ascertained to be co-extensive with her boundaries. This impression of incapacity was founded on its hyper- borean situation. But practical men who had to deal with practical measures, upon which the very life and perpetuity of the Canadian Dominion depended, went forward in advance of the projected railroad through the country, and ploughed and planted at intervals of every twenty miles, to test the quality of soil and climate ; and when without tillage or protection, the answering grain came up in bounteous profusion and ripened before the autumn frost, no better assurance of the future was desired ; and now the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railroad confidently pre- dict that the new Northwest will have fifty millions of people a century hence, with capacity to feed themselves and the rest of the world, if need be. Indeed, it seems incredible, and altogether unaccountable, to those who infer that the climates of all high latitudes are rigorous and inhospitable, to read in the current newspaper telegrams of the day, that spring wheat-sowing commenced at Maple Creek on February 4th, 1886, six hundred miles west of hyperborean Winnipeg, on the same parallel of latitude ; that the tem- perature ranged from fifty-four to fifty-seven degrees at Fort McLeod during the corresponding week ; and that the trains of the Canadian Pacific Railroad were all running on time through the snowdrifts of the mountain division. Maple Creek, lying at the east base of the rocky moun- tains, feels the influence of the Chinook winds which are wafted from the warm bosom of the Kuro Siwo, or Japan current, although they have to pass over four great moun- tain ranges — the Cascades, Gold, Selkirk and Rockies, each of which helps to cool and condense the atmosphere — whereas access to the interior of Alaska is obstructed only by the single barrier of the coast range. I have traveled over a great part of the British Northwest and British Columbia, and have read the official reports of 42 O UR NE W ALA SKA. their geological surveys, railway engineers, Hudson Bay officials and Indian inspectors ; I have gathered together all the facts I could find in books, and listened to the tales of miners and traders, and old settlers whose lives have been passed in the ultima thule ; and I have supplemented the whole with the observations photographed on the eye ; and having gotten together all this testimony, and dis- covered that the physical features of this vast region and Alaska are much alike with each one's advantages and objections reciprocally counterbalanced by the vagaries of isothermal lines, I am prepared to believe that Alaska is worth all that was paid for it, and to predict that in due course of time it will surprise the expectations of its pur- chasers more than despised Dakota or the Northwest has done. The elements of wealth pervade it ; they are through, above and around it. Misconceptions of the productive capabilities of a country spring from imperfect diagnosis. No mere superficial observation will suffice ; no hasty conclusions predicated upon general appearances. Nothing but a thorough examination of the soil, flora and fauna will furnish testimony of an absolute character that can be relied on Dakota was condemned because her summer rain-fall was meager, and the dry and arid appearance of every thing contrasted most unfavorably with the verdant green of eastern localities. The Northwest was condemned for like reasons — with the inferential objection of high latitude added ; but there were hidden influences underneath the soil, begotten by the very conditions which seemed adverse, that served to counteract them. The book of nature was left wide open, but men neglected to turn its pages. A high latitude is very naturally suggestive of cold, but in the code of climatology latitude is less arbitrary than isothermal lines. Even in countries truly frigid there is a season of respite from inexorable congelation. Most people imagine Iceland to be ice-clad and ice-bound the whole year round, and yet its summer lawns are verdant with rich grass, and the meadows are spangled with buttercups and daisies ; pigeons congregate upon the house-roofs, and the cows come home from pasture with the same straggling gait as the kine of other lands. Nine-tenths of the children at school believe the Arctic zone to be a realm of perpetual darkness and intolerable frigidity without a break, and would hoot with incredulity if told that its inhabitants swelter in the heat of her mid-summer sun, and that nothing but its brief duration prevents a high development of ver- ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 43 dure. But, compared with Alaska, the blessings and fruition of other northern lands in either hemisphere are insignificant — British Columbia alone excepted. Of course the modifying influence of the Japan Current, or Pacific Gulf Stream, which projects its vast volume of tepid water athwart the Aleutian Isles, is already well understood, but the results one sees there are hard to real- ize, and the reports we hear are listened to as mariners' tales. 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 forty degrees on the Atlantic thrive in latitude sixty degrees on the Pacific, which is but little north of the location of Sitka, and on a scale far more generous. Fruits, vegetables, plants, and trees are not only of greater size, but their yield is manifold, though it is fair to say, that the quality of flavor is not always as good. Oranges, which do not mature in the East above the latitude of Port Royal, S. C, grow to perfection in Shasta, California, in latitude forty-one degrees, which is a little higher than the latitude of New York City. Shasta also produces cotton, limes, soft-shell almonds, and superb prunes. By the same ratio of climatic progression, tomatoes, musk-melons and grapes ripen in the latitude of Victoria, but better back of the coast-range than on the seaboard, because of the higher temperature and immunity from exces- sive fogs and rain. The influence of ocean currents in distributing heat throughout the globe, and especially of the warm currents which modify the climate of the polar regions, is set forth very intelligibly in Croll's " Climate and ClimatoIo^Q',''' pub- lished by the .-Vppletons. By that influence, places which are now buried under permanent snow and ice were once covered with luxurious vegetation, and arctic regions enjoyed a comparatively mild and equable climate ; and vice versa. Hitherto this influence seems to have been enormously underestimated. Really, the amount of heat borne north by the Gulf Stream, w'hose volume and temper- ature have l)een ascertained with an approach to certainty, is computed to be more than equal to all the heat received from the sun within a zone of the earth's surface extending thirty-two miles on each side of the equator. Or, in other words, as a little calculation will demonstrate, the amount of equatorial heat carried into temperate and polar regions by this stream alone is equal to one-fourth of all the heat received from the sun by the North Atlantic from the Tropic of Cancer up to the Arctic Circle. But there 44 O UR NE W A LA SKA . are other great oceanic currents, especially the Kuro-Siwo, which, though not yet subjected to as careful mensuration, are believed to convey as much heat poleward as the Gulf Stream. Evidently, then, comparatively slight changes in the oceanic circulation would increase or decrease glacial conditions. The severity of climate, in Mr. Croll's view, is about as much due to the cooling effect of the permanent snow and ice as to an actual want of heat. An increase in the amount of warm water entering the Arctic Ocean, just sufficient to prevent the formation of permanent ice, is all that is really necessary to make the summers of Greenland as warm as those of England." It is obvious that a large decrease in its temperature and volume would lead to a state of things in northwestern Europe approaching to that which now prevails in Greenland. The causes which he assigns for changes in the volume and temperature of ocean cur- rents, he declares are actual and explicable, and by no means based on mere hypotheses ; all of which are set forth in a most intelligible and interesting manner in the volume referred to. Briefly epitomized, they may be stated in Mr. Crolls own words, as follows : " The causes of these changes may be found in physical agencies, stimulated or checked by changes in the eccen- tricity of the earth's orbit, provided the heat-transferring power of such agencies is suffered to be operative by such geographical conditions as now exist, and which there is not an atom of evidence for believing have been materially altered since the glacial epoch. It is unnecessary to postu- late the submergencies or the elevation of continents, or the existence of extra inter-continental channels, transporting northward additional heat currents, and thus contributing to ameliorate the climate of the pole. The geographical condi- tions and the physical agencies whichactually exist are amply sufficient to account for all the facts. When the eccentricity of the earth's orbit is at a high value, and the northern win- ter solstice is in perihelion, agencies are brought into opera- tion which make the southeast trade-winds stronger than the northeast, and compel them to blow over upon the northern hemisphere as far probably as the Tropic of Can- cer. The result is that all the great equatorial currents of the ocean are impelled into the northern hemisi^hcre, which thus, in consequence of the immense accumulation of warm water, has its temperature raised and snow and ice to a great extent must then disappear from the Arctic regions. When, contrariwise, the precession of the eciuinoxes brings round the winter solstice to aphelion, the condition of ECOXOMICALLY COXSIDEKED. 45 things on the two hemispheres is reversed, and the ncjrth- east trades then blow over upon the southern hemisphere, carrying the great equatorial currents along with them. The warm water being thus wholly withdrawn from the northern hemisphere, its temperature sinks enormously, and snow and ice begin to accumulate in temperate regions." Mr. CroU is also at pains to show that the mean interval between two consecutive interglacial periods (correspond- ing to the time required by the equinoctial point to pass from perihelion round to perihelion) is not, as is commonly assumed, 21,000, but 23,230 years. At intervals, therefore, of from 10,000 to 12,000 years the north pole will experi- ence the extreme of cold and the extreme of heat compat- ible with the coincident geographical conditions, and with the coincident eccentricity of the earth's orbit, the latter factor being ascertainable from Croll's tables. The final result, therefore, to which Mr. Croll would lead us is that those warm and cold periods which have alter- nately prevailed during past ages are simply the great secu- lar summers and winters of our globe, depending as truly as the annual ones do upon planetary motions, and like them also fulfilling some important ends in the economy of nature. It is needless to say that in a country as vast as Alaska the climate varies greatly ; but taken as a whole, it is more moderate and equable than that of any region of a corres- ponding latitude west of the Rocky Mountains — enjoying summers cooler, and winters much more mild. On its mountains there is perpetual snow, but not perpetual cold. There are large tracts of country where the mean yearly tem- perature is higher than that of Stockholm or Christiana of Europe, and where it is milder in winter, with a less fall of both rain and snow than in the southern portion of Sweden. Along the southern seaboard, which is the most habitable portion, the average temperature is forty-two degrees, with a common range between the zero point and a maximum of eighty degrees. Winter breaks up in March. Even in January, showers, such as we of the north have in April, alternate with the sunshine of May. John J. McLean, the U. S. Signal Ofificer at Sitka, has kindly furnished me the following synopsis of meteorological data for the winter of 1885-6. 4d OUR XEIV ALA SKA . Date. Nov. 1885. Dec. " Jan. 1SS6. Feb. " Mean Temp. Precipitation inches. 40.2 36. s 29.2 37-1 9-65 11,70 7-36 1S.84 Max. Temp. Min. Temp 50. 29-5 50.5 30.5 48. 4- 52.5 24. Ill the region fully subject to the influence of the equato- rial current, flowers bloom and vegetation remains green and bright the winter through, with only a temporary suspension for rest and recuperation, and there is little save the almanac to remind the stranger that winter is in transit, though the native knows it from the increased rainfall. The warm air coming off from the Gulf Streami meets the colder air from the north and evokes precipitation, more abundant on the main land coast than on the islands, or in the interior. And it is this steaming moisture which clothes the mountains to the height of more than a thousand feet with their dense growths of spruce, pine, alder, hemlock, and cedar. But it is not always calm and mild and delectable in that region ; for the Custom House officer who keeps his lonesome watch at the tumble-down post at Tongass, which is the southernmost limit of our possession, tells how the winds begin to blow about the istof November and sometimes hard enough to upset the crow's nest at the look-out, and whisk the shingles off the roof. Frequently he is weather-bound for weeks, and once he did not taste fresh meat for four months. In mid-winter snow sometimes falls as deep as four feet, an immense precipitation, but it seldom remains unmelted for more than a fortnight, and the temperature rarely falls to zero. In January, 1886, it reached five degrees, the coldest of the season for many years. Capt. L. A. Beardslee, com- manding the U. S. Steamer, Jamestown, on the Alaska Sta- tion, in his official report for 1879, made at Sitka, mentions the appearance of robins, sparrows and buntings in March, with ducks flying north. He gives four hundred and sixty- nine hours of blue sky out of a total of seven hundred and forty-four hours for the thirty-one days of the month. In April about one day in seven is cloudy. The summer up to September is uniformly dry, with an equable temperature. September temperature is sixty degrees in the shade, and seventy degrees in the sun, with a good deal of rain gener- ally. It is these early rains which prevent the ripening of grains on the coast. Cereals would do better in the interior despite the short summer. All kinds of vegetables mature ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 47 on the coast, and potatoes grow large and keep through the winter as seed for the next year's planting. As testimony to the dryness of the climate, the captain says : " Our guns (vessel of war) do not suffer as on our own coast." Hali- but and herrmg fishing occurs in April. Salmon fishing begins May i. Coots, teal, widgeon and sprigtail ducks arrive in September ; canvas-backs and mallards in October; geese fly in November. A great deal more has been written about Alaska than the public imagines. A whole library of information is avail- able among the shelves of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and all the traits and industries and social life and religious belief of its peculiar peoples are illustrated in the cabinets of the U. S. National Museum. The reports of Prof. Dall alone, whose research covers a period of seventeen seasons in Alaska, published under Government auspices, afford such explicit information that no one need be ignorant of its capabilities. But such valuable emana- tions as Government reports and "pub. docs." are usually consigned to the archives, to be presently forgotten, or per- haps exhumed in exigency for special reference, while the imperfect and baser effusions of irresponsible contributors find universal currency. Mr. Bancroft, in his exhaustive " History of Alaska," comprising seven hundred and fifty pages, has also given us all the information which research can unearth, from the earliest discovery of the country to the present day. The volume comprises a most valuable and authentic repertory of facts, geographical, historical and economical, coast-wise and in-board, all of which are sufficient to demonstrate and prove that the difficulty to be encountered in the agricultural development of Alaska, is not a climatic one, but rather lies in the extremely rugged and mountainous character of that portion which is most salubrious and accessible, rendering the agricultural areas comparatively small and remote from each other. It can not be conjectured that the far-off mterior will be available for generations, except for the very limited local demand which may possibly arise from the fortunate discovery of mines. Notwithstanding the habitable and cultivable modicum is relatively but little, it is of far greater extent and importance than would be supposed by those who fail to appreciate the magnitude of, the territory as a whole; and it must ever be borne in mind that the area of Alaska is greater than that of the original thirteen states, and poor indeed must be that plat of earth, so magnificent in sweep and superficies, which docs not contain the value inherent 48 O UR NE W A LA SKA . of $7,500,000, the equivalent of the "Seward Purchase." What real or tangible foundation is there for the impression that it can not decently support more than a handful of population, when other countries, which resemble it in climate and character, support large numbers ? The con- tributory causes of a false impression have already been hinted at in the preface of this volume, and will presently be made more clearly to appear. In the latter years, with the discovery of the fertility of our illimitable prairies and their boundless capacity for grain, men's ideas of farm dimensions expanded in propor- tion, until an area of less than 10,000 acres came to be regarded as small. But the era of bonanza farms has now passed away ; the great wheat fields are being subdivided ; mixed industries are being introduced, and with constantly diminishing areas it will be possible presently to conceive of a farm no larger than those they have in Scotland or New England ; and a country may be considered agricul- tural that is not wholly an alluvial level destitute of trees and stones. Nay, it may even come within the grasp of thought to imagine acres tucked away in the folds of the Alaska mountains or spread out like blankets upon the waste ter- races of the upper Yukon. No lands were ever more fruit- ful than the hill counties of Judea, where the desert encroached very nearly upon the fertile tracts, and there are few countries where the climatic conditions are better adapted to diversified crops than the mountainous seaboard of Alaska. With regard to its local or indigenous products, let me recite the testimony of Captain Beardslee, of the U. S. Navy, given in 1879, soon after his arrival on the station, to wit : " We have been here three months, and during that period have been plentifully supplied with a variety of good vegetables, among which have been radishes, lettuce, car- rots, onions, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, turnips and pota- toes, and have a prospect during the coming month of beets, parsnips and celery, all of which look well in the gardens. The cauliflower and cabbage are as good as I ever ate ; the potatoes are just coming on, and are not quite ripe yet. I had this day (Sept. 17th) at my dinner, a potato grown here which was seven inches long, three inches thick, and weighed one pound five ounces, and it was one of many I have seen which would average from one-half to three-quarters of a pound in weight. Its flavor was good, and I shall, as do all other people here, depend upon this market for my winter's supply. There are many small gardens which return crops, as in all other countries, in proportion to the ECONOMICALL V CONSIDERED. 49 care and skill displayed in their cultivation. I have seen plenty of * the watery walnuts dubbed potatoes,' but they came from gardens belonging to people so excessively pious that they trusted God for every thing, and put in no work themselves. Some of these gardens are over a single acre in extent, and have supplied good crops annually for quite a while. On Japonski and Biorka, and Survey and other islands there are hundreds of acres which could be culti- vated with profit, if the population were great enough to fur- nish customers. On Biorka, an island about twelve miles from here, there is now under cultivation a thriving vege- table garden of several acres, and these acres have been under annual cultivation for some years. So we eat and grow fat, when we thought to have had short commons." The captain is writing at Sitka, two hundred and forty miles up the coast from the southernmost boundary of the territory, where the climate may be supposed to be less favorable to perfect maturity of esculents. There are some good vegetable gardens at Wrangell and Tongass. Mr. and Mrs. Young, who have charge of the mission at Wran- gell, have a ranch of 1,600 acres at the mouth of the Stickeen River, on which they have successfully raised bar- ley and oats, but that is ninety-five miles southeast of Sitka. At the village of Haines, further up the Stickeen, there is another good ranch. Red raspberries are cultivated at Tongass. In the stores at Wrangell, I have seen fine pota- toes on sale in the month of August ; but these were not raised on the coast, but up the Stickeen River, one hundred and fifty miles back in the interior. As a matter of fact, the whole coast region is so like a vapor-bath or hot-house, that vegetation grows too exuberantly. There is no room for it, and indigenous plants crowd the economic products. If you fence a garden, or a grave-plot, the fence disappears from view the second year among the overgrowth. The same vegetable phenomena pertain to the interior, but there the summer temperature is inordinately higher, the skies are cloudless, and the supply of moisture derived from the reeking sub-soils and underlying strata of ice, abundantly sufficient. Wild hops, wild onions and wild berries grow in profusion; crab-apples, gooseberries, currants, black and red whortleberries, raspberries, cranberries, strawberries, red and white salmon berries (like raspberries, only four times the size), checker berries, pigeon berries, and angelica, fur- ni'h the native fruit supply. At berries we have to draw the line between Alaska and Southern British Columbia, which can supply the Dominion with choicest apples, pears, 5 o OUR NEW ALA SKA . plums, peaches, grapes, cherries, etc. One curious feature of Alaska vegetation is that nearly every flower is succeeded by a berry. In the same latitude of Labrador on the Atlantic side, the only solitary fruit is a little yellow berry, locally known as " baked apple," which grows among the grass and lichens ; and spruce sticks, no more than eight inches in diameter, illustrate the best forest growth. Why don't the Canadian Government remove its two thousand pinched and starving population from Labrador to British Columbia at the public expense ? They would earn their transportation in a year. As stock raising is the remunerative complement of every well constituted farm, it could be prosecuted by the Alas- kan granger with marked advantage. Certainly the climate is vastly more propitious than in Northern Minnesota and Dakota, where the grazing of fine sheep and the best blooded cattle is now prosecuted with signal profit. Like the bonanza wheat fields of the Northwest, so the illimitable cattle ranges of the further west are being sub-divided. Diversity of industry has become a necessity and a watch- word. Gradually the wheat fields and the cattle ranges are over-lapping and dove-tailing into each other. Very rapidly the farmer of the West is driving the desert before him. The developments of each succeeding year make it more and more obvious that the encroachment of the home- steader upon the grazing lands can not be checked. The Detiver Tribune says : — " Men have stood in line a hundred deep at the Land Offices waiting their turns to enter land upon which as little rain falls as in the most arid spot east of the Rocky Mountains. If this move can be made to pay them it simply means that all the plains will be home- steaded within a few years. It means that the large herds will disappear and that the lands will be fenced by their real owners. In short, it forebodes another change in the evolution of the arid cattle-grazing business greater than any that has gone before." Finally when all the land is homesteaded, men will look to Alaska, And why not ? Says Bancroft : — " (brasses thrive almost everywhere on the low-lands. Kodiak is a good grazing country, capable of sustaining large droves of cattle. On the Aleutian Islands trees do not grow, but the grasses are luxuriant." Lieutenant Schwatka in his report of the interior, speaks enthusiastically of the upland meadows and the grass-grown bluffs. Capt. Beardslee says : — " I am not sufficiently posted in the mysteries of a granger's pro- fession to undertake to speak very positively as to the num- ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 51 ber of stock of any kind which any given amount of land would support, but that there is land here which will sup- port some stock, I will also prove by facts. * * * While the army was here Japonski Island was used as a stock ranch. There has been kept on it as many as sixty head of cattle, over one hundred of sheep, and over three hundred of hogs ; all of which obtained their own food for a much greater portion of the year than they could have done in any state north of Alabama ; and there was no difficulty in getting good hay. Tw'elve miles north of here are the Katliansky and Nesquasarisky bays and plains, which, having been planted with timothy some years ago by a settler named Doyle, furnished to the troops an aver- age of sixty tons of good hay, cured during the heated spell of July, when the temperature goes up into the nineties; and this year those who cut a little for their own supply es- timate that there was at least one hundred tons. In the immediate vicinity of Sitka there are three thousand acres of arable land, much of which is now well grassed and covered with white clover. And on the summits of some of the foot-hills there are plateaus now covered with wild grasses, where innumerable deer obtain pasturage and where goats and mountain sheep would thrive." These references are to limited areas which have come within a circumscribed scope of observation. They illus- trate the coast region, just as arable places illustrate Switz- erland ; and Switzerland is a good country, if not strictly agricultural. With regard to the Yukon River country, Captain Wm. H. Dall, of the United States Coast Survey, says, in his report made to the Commissioner of Agriculture in 1867: — "Among the more valuable grasses, of which some thirty species are known to exist in the Yukon terri- tory, is the well-known Kentucky blue grass, which grows luxuriantly as far north as Kotzebue Sound, and perhaps to Point Barrow. *' The wood meadow-grass is abundant. The blue joint- grass {Calaytiagrostis canadensis) also reaches the latitude of Kotzebue Sound, and grows on the coast of Norton Sound with a truly surprising luxuriance, reaching in very favorable localities four or even five feet in height, and averaging at least three. Many other grasses enumerated in the list of useful plants grow abundantly, and con- tribute largely to the whole amount of herbage. Two species of E/ymus almost deceive the traveler with the aspect of grain-fields, maturing a perceptible kernel which the field-mice lay up in store. 52 OUR NE W ALA SKA. " The grasses are woven into mats, dishes, articles of clothing for summer use, such as socks, mittens, and a sort of hats, by all the Indians, and more especially by the Esquimaux. " In winter the dry grasses, collected in the summer for the purpose, and neatly tied in bunches, are shaped to cor- respond with the foot, and placed between the foot and the seal-skin sole of the winter boots worn in that country. There they serve as a non-conductor, keeping the foot dry and warm, and protecting it from contusion. " Grain has never been sown on a large scale in the Yukon territory. Barley, I was informed, had once or twice been tried at Fort Yukon, in small patches, and the grain had matured, though the straw was very short. The experi- ments were never carried any further, however, the traders being obliged to devote all their energies to the collection of furs." Respecting the Aleutian islands, he states that '' The climate is better adapted for haying than that of the coast of Oregon. The cattle were remarkably fat, and the beef very tender and delicate ; rarely surpassed by any well-fed stock. Milk was abundant. The good and available arable land lies chiefly near the coast, formed by the meeting and mingling of the detritus from mountain and valley with the sea sand, which formed a remarkably rich and genial soil, well suited for garden and root-crop culture. It occurs to us that many choice sunny hillsides here would produce good crops under the thrifty hand of enterprise. They are already cleared for the plow. Where grain-like grasses grow and mature well, it seems fair to infer that oats and barley would thrive, provided they were fall-sown, like the native grasses. This is abundantly verified by reference to the collections. Several of these grasses had already (September) matured and cast their seed before we arrived, showing sufficient length of season. Indeed no grain will yield more than half a crop of poor quality (on the Pacific slope), when spring-sown, whether north or south. " The Russians afiirm, with confirmation by later visitors, that potatoes are cultivated in almost every Aleutian village ; and Veniaminof states that at the village in Isanotsky Strait they have raised them and preserved the seed for planting since the begining of this century. " Wild pease grow in great luxuriance near Unalaska Bay, and as far north as latitude sixty-four degrees." There is no trouble about wintering cattle and sheep in Alaska. Old traders have declared to me that the ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 53 musk-ox exists in considerable numbers m the northern part of the territory, especially near the British boundary line, on the other side of which, in the vicinity of the Mackenzie River, Northwest Territory, they are quite numerous ; and although some naturalists strenuously in- sist that it does not, and never did, exist in Alaska, there seems no reason why the Rocky Mountain range should constitute an insuperable obstacle to their transit. There are several fine specimens of the musk-ox in the United States National Museum, all of which were obtained in the Mackenzie River country, but there are none from Alaska ; so that bodily proof is wanting. On the other hand we read in Lieutenant Schwatka's article printed in the Century Magazine in 1883, that the range of the musk-ox is from latitude 60 degrees to 79 degrees, and from the Rocky Mountain di- vide, westward, almost to the Behring Sea. The native mountain sheep and goats of Alaska weather through the inclement winters without sheds or cotes, or any shelter but the dense undergrowth which chokes every gully and ravine. Domestic utensils and ornaments are made by the natives from the horns of each, and the latter animals are in such abundance as to furnish wool for quite an extensive manu- facture of blankets and clothing. Wool-growing should be- come an important industry in Alaska, as it is in Oregon ; and better, for the atmosphere there is not so damp. Last summer a single train of twenty cars loaded with 4^8,000 pounds of wool was made up at Portland for Philadelphia, and this was only a fraction of the product of the State. So fine is the texture of the fleece of the Alaskan Mountain goat, that the meanest homespun Chilkoot blanket fetches twenty dollars. There is not the shadow of a doubt that these animals can be easily domesticated, and the wool product made immensely profitable. The very fact of their preference of location by the wild goats and sheep show that there is no portion of America more favorable for ovi- culture than the ridges of Alaska, while the numerous herds of cariboo, moose, and deer, away up on the plateau of the Yukon, testify with equal favor of the moors and moss- barrens of the interior. What subsists one class of animals should subsist its kin. In addition to the farming and herding, large supple- mentary revenues should be derived from the dairy, the poultry-yard and hog-pen. Indeed, butter, eggs, beef, pork and poultry sliould l)e always staples. A pork-packing es- tablishment might become an indispensable institution of 54 OUR KE VV ALA SKA. the coast, if one could only guarantee the flavor — as the hogs feed greedily on the sea-castings, growing enormously fat. Silk culture might be prosecuted, and also the culture of sugar beets. Alaska ought to manufacture her own sugar. A current newspaper paragraph states that the fac- tory at Alvarado, California, made 1250 tons of refined beet sugar last season. The Alvarado factory has been in operation six years, and its profits are computed at ^104,- 000 on an investment of 8125,000. The growers get S4.50 a ton for beets, and the yield is said to average twenty tons to the acre. The factory pays out about 890,000 a year for beets. Here are some Sitka market prices for the summer of 1885 : Venison 5 and 10 cents per pound ; a six pound salmon 10 cents ; grouse, per pair, 50 cents ; sugar 18 cents ; me- dium butter 75 cents the roll of less than two pounds ; eggs 50 cents per dozen ; a cabbage-head 25 cents ; new potatoes one dollar per bushel. Some goats are kept for milk. There is not only good land all along the coast, but plenty of it fit for cultivation of all the produce that there is likely to be a market for during many years to come. The present population of Southwestern Alaska, according to the report of Gov. Swineford, is, whites, 1,900 ; natives, 7,000. For the whole Territory the most reliable estimate is 30,000. The timber forests of Alaska are a standing testimony to the value of the " Seward Purchase," which even the most obstreperous objectors could not deny. The visible wealth of Alaska lies in her forests. Alaska is the great timber reserve of the continent. Trees of such size and commercial value exist nowhere else on the globe in such numbers and extensive areas of growth. There is a supply here of five thousand seven hundred million feet at a low estimate, a very large part of which is at once accessible for shipment, as saw-mills and vessels can lie right along- side the timber at tide-water, all the way up the coast as far as it extends. Saw-mills at two or more prominent points on the coast ought to pay well, for lumber is very high. If prices were less, the Indians alone would purchase large quantities. The first sawmill ever set up in South America was by a citizen of the Uniird States, who went to Ancud, Chili, in 1828, and it laid the foundation of his great wealth, accumulated there. The example might be followed here. We are approaching a time when the resources of the Union will be overtaxed, and timber will be scarce; but when all the states are drained of their product, there will ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 55 remain in Alaska a virgin reserve of more than 300,000,000 acres of the noblest timber in the world — a source of wealth upon which the people may draw for generations to come. All the islands are clothed with it ; the mountains of the adjacent mam-land are covered with it ; great areas of the interior plateau, which reaches to the verge of the Arctic sea, are untracked wildernesses of spruce. Only when peo- ple who are now strangers to the land and listeners to the story come to see the magnitude of these forests, and the stupendous individuality of their giant trees, will they be able to realize the truth of what is told them. The lumber- men of the old states, whose lives have been passed in logging camps, would stand appalled at the majesty of the Douglas pines, which tower heavenward, and whose diame- ter is nine feet at the base; or the famous red cedars, out of which the Indians make their dug-out canoes, some of them sixty feet in length with eight feet beam ! Alongside of some logs which one finds prone, the choicest cull of the Wisconsin and Minnesota drives, would look like fence posts. Beside standing trees, the tallest rampikes of the Maine forests resemble saplings. Here the alders grow to a diameter of sixteen inches, and an ordinary maple leaf has thirteen inches span. Rankness characterizes all the growth. But the trees are not all gigantic, or the forests all unscathed. The bulk of the forest trees are of ordinary height, say seventy feet or so, and the giants are distributed throughout at neighborly intervals, occupying the low- lands between the shoulders of the mountains; but many of the angular hill-sides along the coast fairly bristle with the skeletons of dead spruces, which have died from dearth of nourishment among the rocks; the survivors meanwhile drawing life from their decaying remains. As in all known forests frequented by man, fires have here run through vast areas of the wilderness, starting from carelessness of hunt- ers and trappers, causing conflagrations whose smoke obscures the sun for months together. It is sad to contem- plate the great destruction ; yet some of the forests of Alaska are over-populous. Time was, I ween, when the only smokes seen in the distant view were the signals of the tribes who wished to communicate with each other ; some for the purpose of barter, some to intimate the presence of intruders ; some to indicate the direction to be taken, or a point of rendezvous. Sometimes the signal was a big smoke, at others only a thin spiral ; again there were two or three adjacent, some large, others small, with many varia- tions adapted to the information to be conveyed. These 56 OUR NE W ALA SKA . Indian signals n^ere almost as perfect as the crude symbols of our army at the beginning of the war, before they were formulated into a fixed code. Commercially considered, the trees of Alaska rank as fol- lows : Yellow cedar, spruce, hemlock, alder and a species of fir or black pine. The Douglas pine, which is so abund- ant in British Columbia and possesses the chief commer- cial value there, is replaced in great part in Southern Alaska "by the white cedar, a splendid finishing wood, out of which the Indians carve their totem poles or heraldic columns. The red cedar grows in special abundance on the lower coasts, and extends inland to the Rocky Moun- tains. It is in great demand because of its durability. Of it the Indians make their canoes, roofing their houses with the bark and weaving the fiber into blankets. The cypress or yellow cedar is found in southern Alaska. It is suscepti- ble of taking a very fine polish, and considered valuable for boat-building and finishing purposes. It sells for $80 per thousand in San Francisco. It possesses a delightful odor, which like camphor wood it retains for a long time ; and, manufactured into boxes and chests, is very valuable for packing furs and other goods, as it is said to be a moth preventive. It is also extremely tough, and proof against the teredo sea-worm, and for this reason is in demand for piling and all submarine purposes. Samuel's West Shore Magazine supplies the following list of the principal trees of British Columbia, nearly all of which I believe are common to some portion of Alaska, but not all of equal perfection in the higher latitude : — " Juniper, or pencil cedar, found on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and on the shores of lakes in the inte- rior. The Weymouth, or white pine, [Finns strobus) found on the Lower Fraser, where it attains great size and beauty. The balsam pine attains a vigorous growth, but is of little value as timber. Yellow pine, [Finns ponderosd) flourishes in the interior. The wood is close-grained and durable, though very heavy. Scotch fir, [Finns Bankskiana) is found in the interior ; also on Vancouver Island, though of a smaller growth. Throughout the lower coast the hem- lock, [Abies sifkensis) grows to large proportions, its bark being exceedingly valuable for tanning purposes. The western larch, [Laj-ix occidentalis) grows to immense size in the bottoms along the international line. The yew, [Taxns brevi-folia) is found on the coast and as far up the Fraser as Yale. It does not attain the size of English yew. The natives utilize it for bows. Oak, [Q Garryand) grows ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 57 abundantly on Vancouver Islands. It is tough and service- able. Alder grows along the streams of the coast, and attains great size. It is useful for furniture. Maple is abundant on the islands and coast up to latitude 55 degrees. The wood is very useful for cabinet making. \'ine maple, a very strong white wood, is confined to the" coast. Crab- apple grows along the coast. Dogwood is found on Van- couver Island and opposite coast. The aspen poplar is found throughout the interior. Another variety of poplar abounds along the water courses near the coast, and is the kind so much in demand on Puget Sound for barrel staves. Two other kinds of poplar — all known as "cottonwood," — as well as the mountain ash, are found in the interior valleys." The white spruce is the most widely distributed of Alaska trees, covering the country inland to the Rocky Mountains and up to the very shores of the Arctic Ocean on the north. The white birch is also abundant in the interior, and is used for canoes by some tribes. The Cottonwood is found on the upper Yukon, where it is used for navigating its rough waters. Manifestly, there is in Alaska a great variety of merchantable woods which are available for new uses, and new woods which may be substituted for others nearly used up commercially. I am fully convinced of the great value of what is there unrecogni.-ed and unappreciated, but which we can not afford to ignore or overlook any longer. Some of the mosses of Alaska are of special economic value. They have long been utilized by the natives in various ways. Within twenty years the tree-mosses of Florida, Texas, and Louisiana have become important articles of commerce, chiefly as substitutes for curled horse hair in the manufacture of mattresses, cushions, etc., and the mosses of Alaska are equally desirable and available for like purposes. The supply is practically inexhaustible, and when it is contiguous to the coast it may be gathered without great labor. The impenetrable jungle of the Alaskan forest, with its windfalls of timber and profusion of wild fruit and succu- lent mosses, constitutes an incomparable nursery and pro- tection for its fauna, while the open ridges above the timber line are no less secure from man's intrusion by the natural obstacles interposed. Assuredly, there is no place on the continent where wild animals enjoy such perfect immunity from harm. It remains by its natural gifts the only great game and fur preserve left in the western world, and stands ready and wide open for the operations of intrepid hunters and trappers at the very time when other sources of supply 5 S O UR NE IV ALA SKA . have been drained, and denizens of cold countries are look- ing about them for substitutes for buffalo robes and the more costly furs which have now at last become priceless or extinct. American furs are becoming scarcer every year as civilization pushes into the wilds. Oregon, which within the memory of men not old, was one of the finest of hunting grounds, has practically ceased to yield any thing of the kind. Washington Territory is only productive in its wilder portions, and the same may be said of British Columbia. Alaska, however, remains almost intact, and not only the lucrative seal isles of Prybilov, but all the fastnesses of the coast range, the " barren grounds " of the great plateau, and the banks of the great rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean, still make it worth the absorbing attention of the fur trader, and the trapper. The stock of good merchantable fur is neither abundant nor cheap in Alaska ; but squirrel robes containing six or seven dozen skins neatly sewed together may often be bought cheap at the Indian " ranches." They make excellent cloak and coat linings. A red fox skin costs two dollars ; mountain goat fifty cents; black bear from ten to twenty-five dollars unmounted. Hair and fur seals range in price, undressed from three to ten dollars ; sea otter from ninety to two-hundred dollars — the most expensive of all American fur and the most desirable. Land otter is very pretty, and at one of the Sitka stores a shoulder cape and muff made up in San Francisco was offered at twenty-five dollars. The Russian occupation, which was founded on the fur trade and enriched itself for a century on its profits, withdrew from the field before the lead was half worked out, nay, scarcely opened ! The Hudson Bay Company was long ago attracted to the country by its inducements, and attempted to secure a foothold in it by establishing trading posts on the upper Yukon as far back as 1850, crossing the Rocky mountain divide from the head waters of the Mackenzie; but they were soon driven out by the Chilkoot Indians, the most energetic and business-like of the coast tribes, who had been for generations the self- constituted middle-men between the seaboard and the in- terior ; and the interior of Alaska has since remained an unoccupied field for the pursuit of an industry, which for a century enriched a masterful corporation and made it almost a sovereign power. If the brave spirits who started the Northwest Fur Company of years ago, and whose survivors are now few and hoary, could renew their youth and energy, they would ask no l)ctter opportunity for business than the one now so opportunely presented, with transportation ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED, 59 made easy and bases of supplies convenient, the natives not only friendly but earnestly disposed, the cost of outfit cheap, and a market more remunerative than was ever offered before. It is true that an enterprising company — now known as the Northwest Fur Company — has within a com- paratively short time, established trading posts at Chilkat, Sitka, Wrangell, and other points along the coast ; its methods are business-like and progressive, and its policy liberal ; but it will take an army of traders to fully occupy the field ; and so I repeat, it practically remains unoccu- pied. The successes of the Hudson Bay Company, through the protracted period of its sovereignty, are an earnest of the resources which are held in reserve in the Alaskan fur lands ; and inasmuch as its earnings reached millions an- nually, who dare say that the " Seward Purchase " is not as good as gold ? How long before our government will awake to realize the truth? With regard to the mineral resources of Alaska whose richness is rapidly coming to view with their development, I have chosen to devote a separate chapter. I will merely pause to mention that the total out-put of Alaska mines for the year 1885, is officially placed at $25 1,000. This amount is 3>2 per-cent on the purchase price of the territory. The most lucrative and best known industry of Alaska, is the seal ** fishery," so called, though the animals are usually driven upon the land and knocked on the head with clubs. For the exclusive privilege of catching seals, not to exceed 100,000 in number per annum, the Alaska Company of San Francisco, pays to the goverment the stipulated price of $317,000, every year. When the lease expires in 1890, it Will have paid into the United States Treasury $6,340,000, a sum equal to six-sevenths of the original purchase money. With regard to the possibilities of the Alaska Commercial fisheries, they may be regarded as simply illimitable. Fish are so abundant everywhere, that a dime will at any time procure from a native all the fish that ten men can eat. Halibut banks, cod-fish banks, and rock-cod bottoms, occur at inter- vals all along the coast. Salmon jam the rivers and tidal estuaries so that they can not move, in masses many yards wide and as deep as the normal rise of the tide (18 feet) from the surface to the bottom. In their spawning season candle-fish, or caplin — beautiful fish some seven inches long, like smelts — line the beaches at each flood-tide in windrows a yard wide and several inches deep, all alive and kicking, each incoming wave stranding a host of them. Herring swarm in all the estuaries and channels. 6o O UR'NE W ALASKA. All the inlets abound in fish of a hundred known and unknown kinds, good for food and good for oil and fertilizers. Whales and blackfish are plentiful off the coast and in the estuaries. There is wealth here for all who will spread their nets or cast the hook. Devastating storms and periodical dearth of fish do not make the fishing business too hazardous to undertake. Starvation never threatens. Our Cape Anners and Gloucester fishermen who breast the hardships of the Atlantic, will here find a more congenial climate ; spring opening with fulsome benefi- cence in early March ; fish swarming into every estuary and congregating on every outlying bank in ample season for Lenten market ; herring, cod and halibut enough to sat- isfy an eternity of Fridays, There labor stands already provided — men, native Indians accustomed for many gener- ations to the perils, intricacies and abounding munificence of the sea coast ; men, intelligent and industrious, waiting with open arms to welcome any enterprise which will give them congenial and profitable employment ; men of dusky hue, and strong sinews to breast the waves and haul the seine and heave the ponderous halibut and rock cod from their sequestered depths, who have already, of their own motion and energy, established canneries and oil factories along their sea-girt home ! Here on this boundless Pacific coast, where Yankee and Kanuck have each a thousand miles of scope, no questions of jurisdiction or marine pre- rogatives need arise ; whispers of awards and claims will be lo6t in the sounding surf ; dissensions and jealousy will be drowned in the overwhelming flood of fortune ; and no one will have to wait on the flow of tide. All the vessels of the coast-guard will be impressed for holiday jaunts among the clustering islands, and moods and tenses of men and tempests will remain symbolically *' pacific. " Should the attachments of home be too strong for the sturdy New Englanders to cut their latch-strings loose altogether and deter them from migrating for permanent establishment on new cruising grounds, the annihilation of time and distance by modern facilities of transcontinental transportation will make each trip and periodical sojourn little more than an annual holiday excursion. Compared with the precarious ventures of their progenitors who flocked to the North Atlantic fishing grounds before the early days of colonial settlement, their new departure would be a bagatelle — a mere reflection of personal hazard and commercial risk. Out in Alaska every thing which is required for this stu- pendous industry grows spontaneously — an abundance of ECONOMIC A LLY COXSIDERED. (, bait without cost ; all materials for building and cooperage; ice for packing, salt for curing, if it can be evaporatetl profitably, and twine for nets and seines, which is supplied by the gigantic kelp, a hundred feet in length, whose fiber is too tough to break. At no distant day ice from her glaciers will be harvested for consumption in lower latitudes, just as it is now gathered in San Rafael Bay, in South America, for refrigerating uses in Chili and equatorial towns. Some enterprising company will establish a set of piers or breakers in the bays where the glacier streams debouch, with flumes and machinery for squaring the ice for stowage in cargo ; and among the ice, packed in galvanized iron cases inclosed by wooden crates, fresh fish will be dispatched on ten-knot steamers to lower ports, and thence perchance to eastern cities where Pacific salmon have long been the precursors of the coming traffic. Thus a comlpined industry may secure a two-fold return from the capital employed. The rapid drift of time will see all these things accomplished, for men will not be content to grub when they can possess bonanzas for the gathering. Glut of labor will return no more " like a dog to its vomit," nauseating the whole industrial system ; but the surcharge will flow into the open channels of our new possession, and, with the relief that must follow, the present pressure will measurably cease to aggravate dis- tress. Capital will prefer to invest where it is least liable to disturbance, and in Alaska the field is broad, the laborers few, and the branches of industry new and almost untried. But, while we are listless, the citizens of British Columbia seem fully awake to the opportunities which lie before them, and appreciate the importance of their undeveloped resources, so very like our own in kind and quantity. Already they have steamers running to all essential points up the rivers and along the coast to the international boundary line. They have established numerous industries, thrown open public lands to settlement, civilized the Indians and insti- tuted schools for them and sumptuary laws. We have no need to try a single economic or political experiment. All this they have done for us, and we have only to profit by the outcome. Even the Indian problem, so difficult in the east, has been most satisfactorily demonstrated, as may be attested by their well-regulated and self-governed native communities, and by the public commercial records which show that the majority of fishermen, especially in the north- ern canneries, are Indians,* who are expert and reliable * Chiefly the Ilydahs and Shimpsheans. 62 OUR NEW ALASKA. and are preferred to any other kind of labor. On the steamers they are employed almost exclusively for rousta- bouts, and are paid higher wages than white men, because they can do more work and are more reliable and steady. What a blessed word of encouragement this is to our home philanthropists I In this very department of fish- eries, the authorities have taken advanced steps to attract that class of immigrants which, if the movement should become popular, must transfer a large share of the fishing interests of the Maritime Provinces to the Pacific coast. The laws of British Columbia are very liberal to those engaging in the fisheries, for they accord to all persons the right to use any vacant public property for the purpose of landing and curing fish. The Dominion Government, too, has promised valuable assistance to immigrants, and it is stated that a very considerable number of Lower Province fishermen will this year avail themselves of the inducements offered. If our neighbors now forestall us, the blame will be our own, for sagacious men of far-reaching perspicujty have been constantly pointing out our golden opportunities and instructing us how to improve them. In the matter of public lands, the Canadian law provides that any surveyed or unsurveyed crown lands not already occupied or recorded, may be entered, either as a pre-emption or home- stead, by any head of a family, widow, or single man over eighteen years of age, who is a British subject, or an alien who has declared his intention to become such. An alien can transact business and hold real estate. The price of land is $i.oo per acre. Side by side with this progressive policy, and as between two countries lying side by side and equally endowed by nature, we find that in Alaska there is no way provided by which a home may be procured. The territory having been ceded to us by treaty is not subject to pre-emption, and Congress has been most dilatory in providing means to remove the disability, or in enacting remedial laws. There has been an unwarrantable neglect of Alaska ever since its purchase in 1867, and the only wonder is that there has been any development at all. Not until the autumn of 1884 — seven- teen years after its purchase — was it represented by a Terri- torial governor ; and up to date of the present incumbency, which took place in September, 1885, no fruitful or serious endeavor was known to have been made by the territorial administration to use the large discretionary powers con- ferred on it for the advancement of the people, or the im- provement of the country's natural capabilities. To the ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. 63 enterprise of large private companies is due the prosecu- tion of the seal fisheries, and the gold mines, to which of late considerable attention has been directed. For the appli- cation of individual capital and labor there is as yet but small encouragement. Nevertheless, two negro men of nerve (praise to the race !) under stress of local pressure, have instituted a very creditable barber shop at Juneau. Bancroft's "History of Alaska" has summarized the general situation in a nutshell : " A country where there is no commerce, where there are few industries, where there are no schools except those supported by charity, where no title can as yet be gained to land, where there are no repre- sentative institutions and no settled administration, does not hold out any very strong inducements to emigrants. Although in name a civil and judicial district, Alaska is still, in practice, at this time — almost nineteen years after its cession — little more than a customs district." However, within the past twelve months, a good deal has been accomplished toward providing for the educational in- terests of the Territory, and under an act, or acts, of Con- gress which appropriated some forty thousand dollars for the purpose, common schools have been established at seven or eight points, as well as an industrial school at Sitka ; other schools have been authorized to be established at as many more points.* The present governor, too, upon taking possession of the not too stable seat of government last fall, at once undertook the establishment of a weekly paper there, through whose columns have been periodically disseminated truthful statements respecting the country and its needs and prospects, whereby the public mind is being prepared for the wholesome change which is anticipated in the not distant future. In his first official message to Con- gress he earnestly pressed upon their attention the impor- tance of immediately instituting an efficient police system and water patrol, of opening trails or roads from the coast to the headwaters of the Yukon River, of fixing the boun- dary lines beyond dispute, and increasing the mail facilities. He also recommended high license as the best device for correcting and checking the evils of a defiant and unwar- rantable liquor traffic. And he sent a commissioner in the winter to New Orleans, with native exhibits for the Exposi- tion, the collection embracing, according to the catalogue, specimens of gold-bearing quartz, coal, iron, and mica ; logs of spruce, yellow cedar, pine, alder, and fir, together * The Sitka public school has fifty pupils, boys and girls. 64 UR X£ ir ALA SKA . with polished boards and cubes of the same woods ; salmon, cod, rock cod, sea trout, sea bass, arctic trout, etc., pre- served in alcohol ; wheat, oats, timothy, clover, red-top, blue-joint ; potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cauliflowers, etc., together with wild fruits and berries in hermetically-sealed glass jars, articles showing the handicraft of the native Alaskans, and interesting curios. Subsequently, in May just past, he appeared in person before the Territorial Com- mittee of Congress, at Washington, to urge all that he had previously suggested and prayed for. The governor is obviously a live man, and enthusiastic, and well qualified to promote and guard the interests of his official charge. His principal appeal is for the privilege of local legislation ; and it ought to be a sufficient assurance and encouragement to us to know from our Canadian neighbors that " under wise local legislation the Province of British Columbia has pros- pered greatly, despite the neglect which it [also] long suf- fered at the hands of the home government, which could neither appreciate the value nor understand the needs of that far-distant dependency." So admitted the Earl Duf- ferin. And as our territorial neighbor has done, so may our new possession. The southwestern portion of Alaska, in particular, is a region so desirable that efforts have been repeatedly made within the past half century by the British or Canadian gov- ernments to acquire it by absorption or purchase. During the Crimean war schemes were afoot to wrest it from Rus- sia, and as late as 1878, in the Dominion Parliament, while the question of the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia was under consideration at Ottawa, the Hon. Mr. l)unster said : " Honorable gentlemen might laugh, but looking at the matter from a national point of view, he fully meant what he said from his knowledge of the country, that the Territory of Alaska possessed a more genial climate than Ottawa, notwithstanding its latitude, while its natural resources and capabilities were more valuable than people had any idea of. When honorable members of this house sneered at Alaska, he had a right to speak from his own personal knowledge and tell them they were mistaken ; and the day was not far distant when, from the geograph- ical position of this country, they would see the force of his remarks on this subject. The lease of Alaska was more than enough to pay one million dollars annually. It was the best investment the United States had ever made." At present there are scarcely a score of people who are aware what a revenue it brings, and what far greater income ECONOMICALL V CONSIDERED. 65 is likely to accrue, and those who read or listen to the gov- ernor's testimony smile with incredulity ! But it will hardly take *' a generation,"' as Secretary Seward believed it might, for the people to learn the truth. Lots of excursionists and " c/ie-c/iah-cos" (new comers intending to settle) will visit there this year. Every steamer's complement will be filled, from June to September.* Among the most observing and sagacious are to be Chief Justice Waite, of the U. S. Supreme Court, and Associate Justice Gray, and these we may be sure will judge correctly and report honestly. Whatever prejudiced or incompetent persons may say to the contrary, Caleb and Joshua will be believed. * The May steamer to Sitka took three hundred prospectors to Sitka and Chilkoot. STONE TOTEM-POLE (hAIDAH) AN INTERIOR VIEW. Alaska is an ultima tJuile only to those who live far from it. This is no more paradoxical than the fact that prox- imity always makes objects seem near. Alaska is a friendly and familiar neighbor to all the dwellers of the North Pacific, and the people of Port Townsend and Victoria think no more of the bi-monthly run to the Alaskan boun- dary than New Yorkers do of a trip to Boston. The depar- ture of the bi-monthly mail for Sitka attracts less attention than the sailing of a Cunarder for Great Britain. Van- couver passed this way and northward a full century ago. Up to 1793 the Spaniards disputed with the English for the possession of the coast. The shores of British Columbia have been settled for half a century at least ; fur-traders and miners have long kept it in a state of constant activity. So also Alaska is not a new discovery ; neither is its inte- rior a terra incognita. It has been known to the Russians throughout its length and breadth for nearly a century, and to the Hudson Bay Company for forty years or more. Voy- agers, trappers and hunters have traversed it in every direc- tion, but geographical explorers have known but little about it. There are Indians who have grown gray in the business of freighting goods across the mountains into the interior, over the very trails selected by the government parties who have been exploring the Yukon within the past three years. As much as eight tons of merchandise have been packed over tne Chilcat trail alone in a single season, and there were some eighty men in the brigade. There are lots of old residents, American-born, who are competent to speak of the resources of the entire country from personal acquaintance with it. There is Alex. Choquette, of Wran- gell, a French Canadian trader, who has dwelt in Alaska for twenty-eight years, and speaks all current languages, and the dialects of all the tribes, having mingled constantl)'^ with them. King Lear, a native of Ohio, also living at Wran- gell, has been a sojourner in the territory for nearly as long, and so has Capt. George, formerly of Massachusetts, who married a sister of the Russian priest at Sitka, and now AN INTERIOR VIEW. 67 serves as coast pilot for the regular steamers ; and so has Dick Willoughby, of Juneau, once of Virginia and now famous as a proprietor and mining expert. He has tramped the interior all through for hundreds of miles back, and knows every quarry, ledge, and stringer of quartz from the coast to the " Stewart," Tom Haley, of Sitka, an old sol- dier, has been prospecting since 1872, and has located a dozen gold " finds " during the interval, to which I shall refer at length. From such hardy men as these, weather- stained and self-informed, some of them settlers before the civil war, authentic and comprehensive information could be obtained at trifling expense in lieu of fitting out costly gov- ernment expeditions, whose best use is to verify current reports and establish facts upon official data. The United States Fishery Commission has of late years stimulated investigation of marine objects by enlis-ting the co-operation of sailors and fishermen at large, with the result that not less than 60,000 specimens have been collected by them, and thirty new varieties added to the list of North American marine fauna. Their interest and activity has been stimulated by honorable mention and an occasional intrinsic token of merit. By like methods, equally simple and inexpensive, the government might enlist the aid of all miners, traders, voyageurs and Indians penetrating to the interior of Alaska. It should have an agent at all outfitting points to give instructions, present inducements and furnish maps and diaries for entering each day's observations — mete- orological phenomena, the contour of the land, the quality of soil, the streams and their courses, and all plants, trees, animals, birds, fish, rocks and minerals should be scrupu- lously noted and the dates given. The Northwest Trading Company, who are the successors of the Russians, but whose views and policy are liberal and progressive, have ware- houses at ail principal points, which would constitute effi- cient bases of future operations under some such method as has been outlined. The establishment should be in charge of some officer of the signal service to be stationed at Sitka, who would also furnish tabulated statements of daily mete- orological reports. Such weather statistics would be invalu- able in determining the capabilities of the country whatever they are, and define the precise limit and duration of the seasons. However, the value of authorized expeditions should in nowise be belittled. The public will build with confidence upon official guaranty. Lieutenant Schwatka's exploration of the Great Yukon Valley from its headwaters to its 68 OUR NEW ALA SA'A . mouth, an intrepid voyage with no visible base of sup- plies or succor in the last emergencies ; the arduous jour- ney of Lieutenant Henry T. Allen, across the " Alaskan Range," in the 145th Meridian, from the headwaters of Cop- per river to the sources of the Tenana, a great tributary of the Yukon, 500 miles in length ; the winter residence and researches of Lieutenant G. M. Stoney, in the Northern dis- trict of Alaska, along the rivers which empty into the Arctic Ocean ; and the indefatigable investigations of the Hon. James G. Swan, whose remarkable collections enrich the United States National Museum ; all these, cov- ering such an extensive area, attest the heroism of modern science and the economic benefit therefrom derived, im- mediate and deferred. The published results of these in- vestigations have as yet appeared only in part ; the total will give final proof of their collective value. Newspaper writers who visit Alaska fall into the habit of repeating what some careless scribblers have placed on record, so that erroneous opinions hastily formed upon insuiificient data soon become a popular impression. Transient visitors to the coast, who observe the snow peaks and the glaciers, delight to fancy themselves in regions hyperborean, and in- vest them with a romance of the most frigid character ; hence misapprehension. Says one writer : " Flood the canons, gorges and plains of Colorado and you have Alaska." This might satisfy a view of the Archipelago from the apex of Mt. Edgecumb, but it will hardly apply to the great Yukon plateau, which is as broad as the Dakota plains from the Mississippi River to the Black Hills. It is in no respect remarkable that knowledge of the in- terior has never come to the exterior light until now. It was not for a long time in the interest of the Russian Fur Company, until necessity subsequently modified their policy, to encourage prospectors and miners, nor immigration and settlement, because the Russian government reserved the right to take away from it the control of any land in which mineral deposits were found. Wherefore maps and facts were kept secluded from vulgar curiosity, specimens of ore were kept locked up in iron chests tighter than they had ever been in the rock-ribbed pockets of the earth. At the same time the Chilcat and Chilkoot Indians, who maintained a monopoly of trade between the coast and that part of the interior drained by the upper Yukon, were not only jealous of white intrusion, but protested to Captain Beardslee, of the United States navy, that " the white men demoralized the Indians by selling or giving them liquor and debauching AN INTERIOR VIEW. 6<) their women." They naturally discouraged all investiga- tion and took pains to represent the interior as " kultus " — worthless, sterile and unprofitable. They were not only reticent, but evasive, and when closely questioned were very clever always in devising a substitute for the truth. And all this time the YukonRiver, which is the great water-way and thoroughfare of the interior, traversing its entire breadth, was lined with Russian trading posts and native villages as far up as the Tenana River, a thousand miles or more from its mouth ! There was a British trading post as far up as Stewart River, five hundred miles higher, in the year 185 1, notwithstanding a current newspaper paragraph declares that an Indian tribe has been found there recently who never before saw or heard of white people ; and miners had pioneered the way in search of gold for a considerable dis- tance down that portion of the river which lies still higher up and nearer its source. Following Lieutenant Schwatkain his voyage over this last mentioned section of the Yukon, which comprises a stretch of 500 miles, and referring to his record, we find one log-house located in the lake country which feeds the mighty stream, and from whence a trail only thirty-five miles long leads over the intervening coast range to the sea. Thence to Fort Selkirk, which marks the terminus of the first fluvial di- vision, two native villages were found, one at Nordenskjold, and the other at Kittahgon. In the next interval from Fort Selkirk to Fort Yukon, five hundred miles more, he enume- rates the following settlements : — 1. A populous Ayan village, situated a little below Sel- kirk, whose people were conspicuous for their *' Hebrew cast of countenance," and were " respectably neat and clean compared with Indians in general." They use birch bark canoes, and in summer occupy brush houses constructed with a ridge pole — in winter moose-skin tepees or lodges. They cure large quantities of salmon which have run up the river to spawn. 2. On the opposite bank of the river another village called Kowsk-hou. 3. At the mouth of Stewart River the ruins of an old Hudson Bay Company's post. 4. An Indian camp of a tribe called Tahk-ong. 5. Old Fort Reliance, abandoned. 6. The Indian village of Nuclaco. These people had many guns. 6. An Indian village of six log-houses with gable ends, called Klot-ol-kin, or " Johnny's Village." These people Y o OUR NE W ALA SKA . used canoes of birch bark and cured their salmon on scaf- folds of spruce poles. 8. Charley's Village, the counterpart of Johnny's, with the same number of houses. g. Fort Yukon ; a collection of tolerably well built houses, with stockade and block-houses. " For two hundred miles above and two hundred miles below Fort Yukon," Lieutenant Schwatka says, " the river flows through a region so flat that it seems like the floor of an empty lake. This area is densely timbered with spruce." The pale blue outline of the Romantzoff mountains are seen in the dim distance, far to the northward. The outlying spurs of the Alaskan range are seen to the south. The lower Yukon, a thousand miles in length, extends from this point to its delta in Bering Straits ; its banks all occupied by people. 10. An Indian village, a short distance below Fort Yukon. 11. An Indian burial-ground indicating the vicinity of a village. 12. Indian village above the *' Lower Ramparts." This part of the river was picturesque and not unlike the Hudson at West Point. 13. Old town above Lower Ramparts. 14. Another town below Lower Ramparts. 15. Trading post of Nuklakayet, eighteen miles below Tenana River. A ten-ton schooner was found here. 16. From this point down enumeration becomes tiresome. There is a continuous succession of Indian villages, and small trading stations all the way, day after day, with chaloupes and fishing craft. Fish weirs are spread all over the river, which has become very wide, and shallow near the shores. A steam tug plies between places. 17. Town of Kaltag, near the ancient mouth of the Yukon, " the south bank being a simple flat plateau, though the ncjrth bank is high and even mountainous for a distance of more than four hundred miles further on." 18. The picturesque trading post of Anvic. Just beyond Anvic, the last Indian village is passed, and about forty miles below it the Esquimaux Villages begin, of which there are many. Yet further down is a Russian Mis- sion with a Greek church ; still lower the town of Andre- avsky, near the head of the delta of the Yukon. Koatlik lies at the river's mouth. Two days' journey by steamer along the coast, north- east, is the picturescjue seaport of St. Michael. To sum up, the whole country covered by Schwatka's AN IN 7 ERIOR VIE VV. 7 r interesting journey, and especially the lower river, is far more populous than most persons had any idea of. The estimate of the interior population is 2,000 all told, of which the Ayans, the Tahk-heesh, the Tahk-ongs, and the Tenanas are the principal Indian tribes, and chief fur collectors of the unsurveyed wilderness. These constitute the nucleus of a commercial strength and a potent factor of production which should not be disregarded by political economists. They do not require civilizing at an inordinate cost to the public treasury, after the foolish old method now happily becoming obsolete, but merely to be shaped and directed. They are not indolent, abject, and apathetic, but merely unemployed sufferers by a temporary commercial depression. Since Russia withdrew her fostering care they have patiently been awaiting the revival of business. If so much merchandise went into the upper river country in the days of the Muscovite regime, to be distributed all over the con- tiguous districts.^ what an increased traffic would result from the impulse of a new successful deal, with Yankee enter- prise at the front and the stimulus of inevitable success con- stantly before it like a pillar of fire ? The territory of Alaska, is naturally divided into two immense districts, insular and continental ; and the latter, owing to its vast area and mountainous interruptions is again subdivided into three districts with more or less dis- tinctly defined boundaries and characteristics. The northern district, bordering the Arctic Ocean, and comprising a third, is principally a series of spruce timber fiats and moss barrens, or "tundras;" the eastern division, lying between the coast range of mountains and the Rockies, is occupied by the broken and diversified country which is drained by the upper Yukon, presenting every contour of mountain, valley and plain. The southwestern portion, not including the Alaska peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands, is in large part a spruce timbered flat, but the " Alaskan range " of mountains, 500 miles or more in length, occupies its southern portion. The delta of the Yukon on the west coast, is an alluvial flat. The Yukon, itself, nearly as long as the Mississippi, almost bisects the territory. It lies midway between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, flowing in a general east and west direction, but with a tremendous curvilinear sweep conformable to the outline of the coast, which carries it up through seven degrees of latitude into the very verge of the Arctic Zone. With its twenty or thirty great tribu- taries, it constitutes avast fluvial system which drains almost the entire territory. Besides this, there are several large 72 OUR NEW ALASKA. rivers like the Stickeen, the Taku, Suchitno, and Copper Rivers, which find their way to the sea through great gaps in the mountains, and others which drain the glaciers and the melted snows of the peaks. On the north shore are several large rivers flowing into the Arctic. The prevailing level of the great interior plateau is interrupted only by a few isolated mountains and mountain ranges, which lie princi- pally in the southwest. It is a co-ordinate and extension of the plateau of the Columbia and the country south of it, between the same meridians, except that the arid sage and prickly pear of the latter are replaced in Alaska by bound- less grass prairies and the so-called " tundras," on which the moss grows knee-deep, nurtured into rank exuberance by the constant melting under the fervid heat of midsummer of the omnipresent stratum of ice, which underlies it. In like manner the grain of Manitoba and the Northwest Territory is stimulated into a marvelous yield by the very instrumentality which wiseacres in the early period of inves- tigation declared would kill it. And the interior of Alaska is much milder than the region which lies east of the Rockies in the same latitude, as every body knows. The conditions of prolific growth in high latitudes are continu- ous moisture, and a temperature sufficiently high and evenly maintained to constitute an equivalent for the longer sea- sons of lower latitudes where rainfall is insufficient. Maturity can be secured by a forcing process in half the time that is reached by natural operations where the tem- perature and irrigation are uneven. In the long days of an Alaskan midsummer the sun dips but little below the horizon, and Venus, the brightest star that shines, alone is visible at midnight. Between sunset and sunrise the warmed earth suffers no temporary chill, even though per- petual ice lies not two feet beneath. Cole's new system of subsoil irrigation, which is attracting such general attention, and shows such prodigious results, is merely an arti- ficial api:)lication of the natural process in operation under the shadows of the north pole. It counteracts solar evapo- ration, supplying moisture to the growing plants as they need it, and becomes, as it were, the measure of the fertility of the soil. It is not unusual to find the ground frozen eight feet dftep in northern Minnesota ; and if it freezes a hundred feet deep in Alaska, what does it signify, more or less ? When the future reciuirements of settlement shall test the capabilities of the interior climate, it will undoubtedly be found as fruitful as Minnesota for all crops not requiring a long period of ripening. TOTEM-POLES. AN INTERIOR VIEW. 75 Lieutenant Schwatka says that luxuriant moss fields and great timber flats, densely covered with spruce, extend to the very verge of the Arctic Ocean. In his admirable report, which is more tropical than boreal in its coloring, he refers to these frequently, and to the great bands of caribou or reindeer which find pasturage t)n the tundra. He writes of grass-covered bluffs along the rivers ; of foot-hills, with an impenetrable underbrush of deciduous vegetation ; of vast expanses of treeless prairie, of thick black loamy soil ; of rank dead grass, which remains over until June from the previous year, looking like fields of yellow stubble. He speaks of thunder storms, of broods of young grouse early in June, of flowers on all sides, of cloudless skies and blistering sun, of wild hops and onions and berries in pro- fusion, of myriads of great mosquitoes, which drive the game to the mountain slopes above the timber line, and other like phenomena altogether at variance with commonly conceived opinions of the territory. Up to the very head- waters of the Yukon and its lateral tributaries, the noble saimon run ; the adjacent lakes are filled with salmon trout, which reach ten pounds in weight, and all the brooklets teem with mountain trout like those of Montana ; in the long reaches of the Yukon itself, as well as in its fluvial feeders, grayling which weigh a pound may be caught in great abundance ; and if one will pass through the country in mid-summer, as Schwatka did, he will find brush camps and canvas tents lining the river banks at frequent intervals, where the Indians are curing fish for their winter supply ; and should he for any reason pene- trate beyond into those vast tracts which white men have seldom trod, he will discover other Indians with stores of hides and pelts stripped from the scores of cariboo and moose which they have captured among the willow copses of the far-reaching " tundras," or perchance the skins of a few black or grizzly bears picked up accidentally beside some river bank or shore of lake — for the Indians fear to hunt in the tangles of the forest where the multitude of bears and the difficulties of the jungle make it unsafe to look even for small game ; and so they resort only to run- ways there, and the methods of the " still hunt." There is no use for hounds in the coverts of Alaska ; they might as well try to run through an osage hedge. The Indians use the reindeer or cariboo hide for clothing, dog-harness, and covering of tepees, or lodges ; and the very fact that so slight a habitation is a sufficient protection against the extremest rigors of the climate is evidence of its compara- 76 UK NE W ALA SKA . tive mildness ; albeit the Indians of the lower river have greater need of more substantial houses, which they build like those of white folks, with boards riven from the helm- lock and smoothed with adzes, thatching them with the bark of cedar. The tundras or moss barrens where they hunt professionally, and except for daily supply, are similar to the " muskegs " of northern Minnesota, and the adjacent country — not wholly a growth of yielding moss, knee deep, but interjected with thickets of willows and mingled with rank, coarse grass which grows breast high ; sometimes they are interspersed with cranberry bogs and patches of wild roses, with here and there a slough or pocket of water, dyed wine-color with the steepings of the dead leaves and mosses. Walking over a tundra is like promenading a feather-bed. This thick undergrowth of moss is found in all the forests and above the timber line as well ; and a lady correspondent of the American Register, of Paris, France, who is a botanist and an impulsive student of the woodlands, has written : " The Alaskan forests are the finest, in a picturesque way, in the United States. Trees grow upright from prostrate and dead trees, from the tops of stumps, and they are draped with black and white moss, dry, fine, and crinkly, like hair, which produce a most weird and Druidical effect. Mosses grow to a depth of from six to ten inches, and on the top of stumps, dead branches, and every dead thing is cushioned deep with moss and draped with vines. Par- ticularly does the Cornus Canadensis enwreath logs and stumps in the most charming way." All of which I hope will corroborate what others say of the exuberance of Alaska ; yet I think the tree mosses there can in nowise compare with those of Florida or Louisiana. The upper portion of the Yukon valley, or rather the entire region which the upper river drains, is spoken of as almost a perfected Eden. 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 the streams is pure and pellucid ; the blue of the rippled lakes is like Geneva's ; their banks resplendent with verdure, and with grass and shining peb- bles. Wherever the rocks lift up their crags they are cushioned with luxurious moss. Nature is enjoying a grateful surcease from labor. Lower down, in the middle country, the creation is quite unfinished. One can per- ceive that the processes of the glacial forces are still in operation. All the fluvial waters are white or milky with the glacial mud washed down from the sluices of the out- A N IN 1 EKIOR VIE W. 77 lying chains of mountains, where the Titanic pulverizers of their rocky flanks are yet industriously grinding. Like the muddy Missouri into the limpid Mississippi, pours the impetuous White River into the Yukon, with a current so swift that it sends its discolored waters, chalky with the debris of the glaciers nearly across the other streams, changing its sparkling blue into an element which even the fish avoid. A few miles below the White another river of the same size and character comes in, called the Stewart ; and others still, at frequent intervals — at least a dozen of them — as far down as the majestic Porcupine near Fort Yukon, five hundred miles or more. All such lakes as are widenings of the river beds are bordered with deep deposits of the same mud, which are gradually filling them up, pre- paring a richness of alluvial land which in the course of a brief span of geological time will constitute the most fertile fields of all the hyperborean world. And a thousand miles further down, the outflow of the Yukon delta is building out land in the Bering Sea, just as has been going on for centuries at the mouths of the Mississippi, forming shoals, dangerous to approach from the outboard, which every storm lashes into a muddy froth. The delta of the Yukon is a labyrinth of channels and islands whose upper ends are piled yards high with driftweod brought down by the cur- rent, and all the levels are fringed and interspersed with low willows which have replaced the poplars and spruces of the upper country. 'J'his is the land of the Esquimaux ; and hereaway, not only up stream, but along the coast, one can study their native habits and peculiarities, not so primitive and boreal as in the Kane country and Greeley land, yet still suggestive of sealskin, blubber, and whalebone. Though their houses are modern and within the civilizing influence of the Greek missions around which they have clustered for two generations, one will see their kayaks and bidarkas (sealskin canoes) and their toupiks (or summer tents of sealskin) scattered along the shore ; and if he should search behind the permanent winter dwellings he would find a cometik, or sled, convenient for winter use early in September, with sharp-eared dogs at hand to draw them at the proper time, though now listless in their summer mdolence, lazily snapping at flies congregated in the tena- cious atmosphere of stale fish. On pegs inside hang hairless sealskin boots well tanned and preserved by their natural oil, waterproof jackets made of walrus intestines, which find a ready sale to the tribes far southward, nets made of the prepared fibers of the sea-kelp, queer fish- 78 UR NE W ALA SKA. hooks of wood and bone, and many an ornament or utensil into whose ingenious composition are fabricated portions of the skeletons and integuments of walrus, seal and whale. Such are the varied features of our interior domain, not less foreign because our flag floats over them, but con- cerning us the more on that account, and well worth our investigation, not merely as hunters of curios, but as speculators and shrewd men of business. Undoubtedly portions of Alaska are very charming at certain seasons of the year, but the sophisticated explorer will incline to avoid them in fly-time. The romance of natural history is not confined exclusively to the tropics. The mosquitoes of Alaska are unquestionably bigger than the southern bred, and the higher up the Arctic pole we climb, the bigger and more insatiate they become. " In fact," says Schwatka, " our greatest inconvenience within the Arctic circle was the tropical heat (July 29th) and the dense swarms of gnats and mosquitoes that met us everywhere when we approached the land. That night none of the party could sleep notwith- standing the mosquito bars over us." But our summer saunterers along the coast will have none of these ex- cruciating experiences. There are no pestiferous insects to be dreaded, for every blessed breath which blows from the south will waft them inland, over the hills and far away. Seated in his comfortable easy chair on deck, while the steamer steadily pursues her weaving way through the clustering islands, each happy tourist who languidly follows these closing lines will be content to take for granted the truth of what they say, and scarcely incline at present to push the matter to a personal inquiry. SEAL-SKIN UIDARKA. HOME OF THE SIWASH. From the broad blue waters of Puget Sound to Bering Strait, beyond the Aleutian Isles, the high-prowed gondo- las of the natives are ever present. Crossing some wind- swept sound with bellying sails, gliding under the shadow of bold shores or drawn high and dry among the rocks before some temporary camp, they animate a solitude whose vast loneliness would otherwise be wearisome, despite the exquisite charms of the natural scenery. Whenever a steamer comes to an anchor, no matter in however so sequestered a cove or fiord, a half dozen canoes appear as if by magic, where none were visible before, and surround the vessel, eager to dispose of curios to the passengers. ^'■Sitkum tolla (half a dollar), sitkum tolla ! " pipes the shrill treble of the klootchmen, using the common Chinook vernacular, as they hold up to view their baskets, mats, miniature canoes, and carved spoons made from the horn of the mountain goat. ^'Sitkum tolla ! " chimes in the deeper voice of the stolid Siwash, who steadies the cranky craft with his paddle. And , one of the smart Alecks among the passengers, who under- stands human nature better than Chinook, yells back : ** Sixteen dollars be hanged, I'll give you $2.50." And so the trade is eagerly made, but the market is spoiled for the rest of the passengers, and Aleck enjoys a short-lived tri- umph until he learns true wisdom by experience. As ponies are to the plains Indians, so are canoes to the shore dwellers of the Pacific. They are the universal vehicles of locomotion and livelihood. In all Alaska there are but three horses, and one of these is said to be a mule. Be- yond the limits of compact populations there are no roads, excepting foot trails over the mountains, only the intermin- .able waterways through archipelagoes and long rivers which penetrate far into the land ; and the Indian who wishes to haul freight or travel, instead of hitching up his team, simply launches his canoe. These craft are of several different patterns, but the distinctive type is quite like a batteau in outline, high and sharp at both ends, with a broad flare and an inordinate prolongation of prow, which So . OUR NEW ALASKA. is often ornamented with grotesque carvings of nondescript creatures, animals, birds or fishes. One model has a pro- jecting prow or beak below the water-line, precisely like that of the old triremes of the Romans and the modern ram of our war ships. There is another pattern similar to the common Indian birch canoe. Their old-fashioned war ca- noes were formidable craft, carrying a hundred men, and Alaskan history relates how a fleet of ten of these made an expedition of i,ooo miles down the coast to one of the Hud- son Bay posts, in the early days, to capture a man against whom they had a grievance. The magnitude of their naval demonstration is sufficient evidence of their inherent nerve and determination. Indian trails are found all along the coast, which lead up to bodies of fine timber where canoes have iDcen built, and the valuable wood otherwise utilized for totem poles and for carving and building purposes. Upon some of these trails much labor has been expended in bridging ravines, corduroying marshy places, and cutting through trunks of fallen trees no less than six feet in diameter. Across the mountain ranges, in the interior, white birch grows to great size, and there its bark is substituted for the cedar. Dug- outs of Cottonwood are also used in broken water. There are no skin canoes used in Alaska south of Bering Sea. The largest wooden canoes are more than fifty feet long, capable of carrying sixty men, hewn from great cedar logs with much labor, being dug out with axes, and then thinned with adzes to the required thickness. They are next steamed by filling the cavities or holes with water heated by hot stones, so as to give them their graceful curves, after which they are spread to the desired width and braced. They have often as much as eight feet beam. Usually they are painted black outside, but when new they often show quaint decorations, in bright colors, which, however, are very soon losfe by weathering. The Indians take as great care of their canoes as the Arabs do of their horses. When not in use they are drawn up on sloping beaches in front of their villages or camps, and carefully covered with brush, mats or sails to protect them from the weather. A native will take off his own coat to wrap around the ornamental prow of his boat, which is as much as he would do for his " klootch." The best of the canoes, of course, cost a high figure, and great pains is f recjuently employed in clearing away bowlders and rocks to jirovide a snug berth for them upon the beach. They are weatherly craft in a sea way, and the fact that none HOME OF THE SI WASH. 8i of them are decked, speaks with high testimony of the habitually quiet moods of the Pacific, to say nothing of skillful seamanship. The native Alaskan is seldom wrecked or drowned. In tempestuous weather he propitiates the spirit of the storm by tossing a few wads of tobacco into the rock caves alongshore, and in calm he leisurely stuffs the same into his pipe and smokes serenely. By the way, these people smoke less than any others I have ever met, which is a fact phenomenal. One seldom sees a native with a pipe in his mouth. In the dry and sunny days of summer, when the salmon are running, and the climate is uniform perfection, the tem- perature scarcely varying ten degrees from sun to sun and month to month, the Siwash locks his winter cabin and takes his " klootah " and fishing outfit to some choice loca- tion where he can catch and cure a supply of fish for winter's use; and as the natives incline to be gregarious and combine for mutual help in hauling nets and hunting, he usually has plenty of company. Very picturesque are their aggregations of canvas tents and shanties of bark and boards which skirt the shore of some landlocked cove under the shelter of some circumjacent forest and overshadowing mountain, with busy canoes plying to and fro with the seines, and the klootchmen spreading out the ruddy salmon on the adjacent rocks to dry. " Klootch," or klootchman, is synonym for woman in the Chinook lingo, who may be wife, concubine, mistress, or actual slave, for partnership attach- ments are not always fixed by formulas of marriage in that lone country ; and every sojourner has his " klootch " in wedlock or otherwise, who acts as constant housekeeper or handmaiden. In the same vernacular her liege is known as " Siwash," which is a corruption of the French wox^sauvage, and is applied to the male sex generally. A queer jargon is this Chinook. Once upon a time, when very many nations were represented by a very few peo- ple in that vast region dominated by the fur companies, em- bracing Oregon and Washington Territories and all the country lying to the northward (the French perhaps being numerically the strongest), a sort of congress of national representatives formulated this universal language to facilitate intercourse. The words in most common use were adopted, a few of them purely native dialect, but a very large proportion bastard French. The remainder are simply phonetic, expressing, when pronounced, the ideas conveyed by the sounds ; for instance, amusement is "//f-///f," rain '^^ patter -chuck," a crow ^^ caw-caw," a 82 OUR NEW ALASKA. cough ^^ hoh-hoh," the heart " tu>n-iu?n," a handkerchief " hak-at-chum" etc. There are about five hundred and fifty words in all, and with this limited vocabulary and the use of signs, a man can travel the whole North-west over from Central Montana to Bering Sea. In fact, Chinook has almost superseded the native dialects, of which there are no less than ten upon the coast, and perhaps as many more in the interior. The different tribes seldom attempt to converse in each other's language. There are a few words in which the letter " 1 " is substituted for " r," Chinese fashion, indicating possibly an ancient Asiatic con- nection ; for most of such words are appropriated from the native tongues, a fact which no doubt must be gratifying to those who claim to be able to prove that the Chinese were the earliest discoverers of America. In the early days when the monotony of isolation was varied by reprisals among the tribes, slaves were habitually made by the victors, and I have heard it stated by white men who claim to have been residents at the time, and cog- nizant of the circumstances, that the Shimpshean Indians, near Dixon Channel, used to kill and eat certain parts of their prisoners, taking bites from the fleshy portions of the arm and breast and thigh to give them courage " skookum tujH-tum." Others placed the necks of their captives across a log, fastening the bodies to the ground by saplings weighted with stones at the ends, and so killed them with axes. Slaves were often killed at " house- warmings," one being placed under each of the corner up- rights when the frame was raised, the ceremony being sometimes attended with the greatest cruelty. With a house of irregular foundation lines the sacrifice of life was great. One occasionally catches accidental glimpses of old-time war-implements which indicate an ancient degree of savagery out of which these people seem to have long since passed. Slavery however continues to this day, and a sort of traffic is constantly maintained, whose conditions are more binding than the obligations of matrimony. NV'omen often, and sometimes men, arc traded for a valu- able consideration, or thrown into a bargain as a sort of remplisage — white people not seldom being the purchasers ; and I have heard that those so obtained make far more dutiful servants than others who farm out their labor, show- ing conscientious fidelity in their obligatory relationship. Some of the old settlers have women living witli them whose legal status it would be difficult to determine, but so it is in all the wilderness domain of the fur companies, the HOME OF THE SI WASH. 83 number of the half-breeds in the North-west being counted by tens of thousands. On the Ahiskan coast the hybrid product of a native crossed with a Russian is designated a " Creole," as with the French and Spanish mixtures in the Gulf of Mexico and West Indies. At Kasaan Bay the Indian widow of old Baronovick, the Russian smuggler, still lives, with a goodly inheritance and two buxom daughters, which, I have been informed, are at disposal for the moderate sum of $4,000 — for the lot ! The girls, as I saw them, seated on their home-veranda near the savory salmon cannery, and dressed in comely black dresses of modern mode, were not bad looking. The young women of the coast are uniformly comely, but their mouths are immense, and they have an excess of adipose, which grows greasy and more flabby as they grow older. They are very partial to gaudy frocks; but the prevailing costume is a black shawl over a calico skirt, and a bright yellow kerchief over the head. Very often they blacken their faces with deer tallow and charcoal, some say to keep off mosquitoes, some to improve their complexions, and others to hide defects. The older women thrust great stone orna- ments into their pendulous ears, and even some young women use a lip pin of silver, steel, or bone, which they push outward through the flesh from the inside of the lower lip. It is said this is the badge of^ wife-hood. But such fashions are not pretty. Like many of their discarded cus- toms and implements, they are the relics of a barbarism which passed away fully two generations ago. The girls look much better, according to modern ideas, in their silver bracelets and earrings, and the marvel is how so great improvement has taken place in so comparatively short a time. I have seen some of the gray-headed old folks take from their capacious chests souvenirs, such as medicine- rattles, masks, dance-blankets, stone war-clubs and idols ; and I fancied they regarded them tenderly, with some lingering regrets of the old time ; but very often they will part with these readily for cash to the curio-hunters, who frequently pay most exorbitant prices. Industry is one of the virtues of the Alaskans. When the men are not en- gaged in iishing and hunting, or employed at the several canneries on the coast, they build canoes and houses, pack goods on their backs over the mountains to the mines, and do all sorts of manual labor. They are very powerful. The regulation pack-load is seventy-five pounds. With this on their backs they will keep ahead of the most experi- enced mountain climbers, and I know of one who packed 84 OUR NE IV ALA SKA . over a steep new trail, which was hardly more than blazed and cleared, a load of 125 pounds, to-wit: two sacks of flour, a shovel, some drills, a ten-pound salmon, and his clothes and blankets. They do tremendous tasks on very short commons, but when they do get afoul of a full kettle they never leave it while there is a mouthful left. In camp they are splendid attendants, drying wet clothes, cleaning guns, cooking, building shelters, and doing all manner of " chores." Once I followed the trail six miles over the mountain from Juneau into Silver Bow Basin, and was as- tonished at the work going on there in hydraulic and placer mining. Sluices were built or dug up to the very snow line, and ten-inch iron pipes, as well as every other article of use and construction, and contents of dwellings and stores had been carried there upon the backs of Indians at one cent a pound ! These men are ambitious to earn praise and money, and are not mere eye-servants. The women, too, are seldom idle, and when at home are occupied with the needle, or with braiding, weaving, basket-making and em- broidery. Dogs are always members of the household. They are civil and mild-mannered, like their owners, and sel- dom bark. In the winter season they also do their share of appointed work, dragging sleds over the deep snows and freighting goods and fuel when the watercourses are frozen. They are of the true Esquimaux type, of colors brindle, white and tawny. However, the Indians have their bad traits as well as their good ones. In trading they are very unscrupulous. They will take a mean advantage of every opportunity. They will not abide by a contract. They will demand back what they have already sold, and tell you that their " klootch " objects to the trade. Like the strikers in Belgium, they put their women in front when they would shield their own craven selves. But this is policy ; for they well know the consideration with which the whites regard the fair sex. Indeed they are themselves quite chivalrous and consider- ate toward their women, imposing upon them no inequit- able burdens, but assuming upon themselves those heavier physical tasks which eastern squaws are obliged to perform unassisted ; even declining to excel them in the emulous and honorable competition of a canoe race, an act which they declare would cover them with everlasting disgrace. But it may be that the women wield the better paddle. — " Klaxta kumtux " — who knows ? When a tribe or com- munity becomes imbued with the elements of politeness, which is refined humanity, there is indeed hope for them. HOME OF THE SI WASH. 85 Nevertheless, they are arrogant and exacting when they have the upper hand, and like all subordinates must be kept in their lower places. Once the Chilkats threatened to kill some miners who wished to cross the mountains over to the Yukon, and refused to pack goods for them. The distance was seventy miles. But when they discovered that two of the miners had started for the gunboat for assistance, they wilted at once, and offered to take the party over for noth- ing. The moral effect of the gunboat now on the Alaska station has proved most potent on more than one occasion. It is an admirable substitute for the garrison, which was a needless expense and only made trouble. The typical native house is a one-room affair built of upright split slabs, with a door-way in front and a square hole in the roof for the passage of smoke. Sometimes there is a small window as well. The bare earth is the floor and a goat-skin or a bear-pelt the bed. Dirt, filth and abundance are the accessories. The walls and ceilings are grimy with smoke ; the pots and kettles smeared with a conglomerate of grease ; nothing seems ever to have been washed. Every thing is foul and squalid, and the strips of dried meat and fish, the oil bladders and pelts hung over the low rafters, are eloquent of degradation in the midst of plenty. The most pretentious houses in the country, with three or four exceptions, are those at Wrangell, some of which are 60x30 feet in dimensions, one story high, built of logs, planked on the outside, nicely whitewashed, with gable roof and doors and windows. They never have chimneys. The fire is built in the center of the sm.ooth earthen floor, and the smoke escapes through a flat cupola in the roof. An elaborately carved and gaudily painted totem pole usu- ally ornaments the front. Some of these are sixty feet high. They are popularly supposed to have some religious significance, but are merely heraldic devices illustrating the family history and showing the family crest, whether it be bear, beaver, eagle, shark, whale, wolf, frog or raven. To injure one was to insult the family to which it belonged ; to cut one down, an unpardonable offense. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that descent is reckoned through the female line, and it seems to prevail throughout the North American tribes, a custom which is probably of very ancient date. These totems have their counterpart in the pictured buffalo robes and coup-sticks of the Indians of the plains. To one who has never seen them before the effect is most startling. One writer says : " Seen in the wet, gray dawn of early morning, as I first 86 OUR NE W ALA SKA . saw them, they have a most weird and strange appearance ; for the ravens which are carved upon them, the whales and the bears, are all of huge proportions, and have a most melancholy way of glaring down upon all who stand gazing at the barbarous relics." But the totem poles are becoming weather-beaten and time-worn. The paint is nearly off, never to be renewed, and the pride of ancestry and achievement, as manifested by visible testimony, seems to have vanished with the pre- ceding generation. In many cases similar devices appear upon the tombs of the dead. Around the four sides of the interior of these houses is a raised platform several feet wide, the rear portion of which, opposite the entrance, is partitioned into state rooms and screened by curtains of cotton or woolen stuff. On either side of these sleeping apartments are slabs of heraldic devices fixed to the walls. The best houses have modern stoves, furniture, crockery and kitchen utensils, and are very clean and comfortable throughout. There is always a variety of traps, guns, nets, fishing implements, harpoons, spears, decoys for catching seals and all kinds of fur animals, birds and sea fowl. The families have ample supplies of oil suits, rubber boots, blankets, miscellaneous clothing, and even ornaments. No simple people were ever better " fixed " ; and, as I have stated, their capacity for improvement and adaptability to new and better methods of living and doing is very marked. If some master of the aesthetic school could only instruct them properly, what beautiful designs they might contrive in mats and rugs and shells and carving, and how hand- somely they could embellish their homes ! They have not only good taste, but a natural genius which could be culti- vated to marked advantage. Their preference for the gro- tesque manifests itself in all their ornaments and imple- ments, their cooking utensils and their costumes ; and there is scarcely an article of adornment, use or wear which is not elaborated with studies in natural history, some literal and others fanciful and ridiculously distorted. A good many devices are simply heraldic, corresponding to those seen on their totem poles, like the family crests paraded on the panels and dinner-service of people in a higher state of civilization. They have elaborate chests and boxes of red and yellow cedar ; spoons and dishes made from the horns of the mountain goat and sheep, set with mother of pearl obtained from the shells of the abe- lone ; trays of wood and stone highly polished and wrought INDIAN CHIKI-'S iHVAS-TVtE). HOME OF THE SI WASH. 89 in the forms of frogs, fishes and creatures half-animal and half-human ; fish-hooks, harpoons and spears of wood, bone, iron and copper, all ornamented with quaint devices ; masks and head-dresses made hideous or fanciful by every conceivable complexity of adjustment and contrivance ; blankets woven from the wool of goats and sheep in alle- gorical designs, and shirts of softest buckskin, beautifully painted and ornamented with bead-work. They are very clever in contriving pipes of old gun-barrels, and also of stone, wood and bone, inserting into the bowls of the wooden ones the brass collar of a kerosene lamp or the slide of an umbrella to serve as a lining. Formerly they made women's skirts of cedar bark and the fiber of sea- kelp. Some of their manufactures have attracted the attention of outside capital, and there are firms in New York and San Francisco who are regularly supplied with basket work and mats, which are made of the inner bark of roots and twigs of trees, shredded, dyed and plaited by hand. For dyes they extract the colors from calico, blankets, etc., and produce some brilliant hues, but they are not permanent. However, as they fade, they get to resemble more and more the India and Persian colors, and are very pleasing. A better dye of black and yellow was obtained from charcoal and a species of moss called sekhone. Their hats made of plaited roots and their wicker work are skillfully dyed to form pretty patterns. As silversmiths they are quite expert, making attractive bracelets from ham- mered coin, so attractive that the native market is kept well supplied by counterfeits shipped from San Francisco makers, which sell readily to tourists at $3.00 to $5.00 per pair. One considerable item of their handiwork is the manufacture of wooden decoys representing animals, birds, seals, etc., which they use in trapping and hunting. They cover bottles, demijohns and carboys with exquisite wicker work ; they make good beds from moss, caps and tobacco- pouches of furs and skins, and water-proof bags and pouches from the intestines of animals. Their magicians' rattles are perhaps the most elaborate of all their handi- work, being made hollow, usually in the form of a strange bird covered all over with carvings of strange creatures and human deformities, emblematic of the mysteries of their profession. They will trade readily for any thing they take a fancy to, or which is novel, but as they can buy almost any thing at the trading stores, they usually require silver coin to complete a purchase. Finally they manufacture a beastly intoxicating liquor 9° OUR NEW ALASKA. from molasses, called hoochinoo, the equal of which for vileness is hard to find anywhere. Like many other people with more sense, they have an inherent passion for gambling, in the prosecution of which the popular implements are polished ivory or bone sticks about the size of a pencil, which have their respective values and uses, best known to the initiated. INDIAN HOUSES AT WRANGELL. GOOD INDIANS. The cold-blooded maxim that the " only good Indians are dead Indians " does not apply to the natives of Alaska. Whatever may be truly or erroneously stated of the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains has small significance with respect to the dwellers on the west side. The " great con- tinental divide " seems to have segregated traits and char- acteristics as effectually as it has separated climates and indigenous products. As a whole the Indians of Alaska, both of the coast and of the interior, as far as known, are normally peaceable, tractable, intelligent, clever, eager to learn, useful, and industrious to a degree unknown else- where among the aborigines of America. The general statement, however, is subject to some qualification, inas- much as there are a good many different tribes — ten at least on the coast, and perhaps as many more in the interior — who are manifestly of divers origins, and, of course, differ variously in respect to the meritorious attributes accorded to them. Some are very slovenly and semi-barbarous, while others have attained a degree of civilization which compares favorably with the status of Caucasian communities. Vin- cent Colyer said : " I do not hesitate to say that if three- quarters of the natives of Alaska were landed in New York as coming from Europe, they would be selected as among the most intelligent of the many worthy emigrants who daily arrive at that port. In two years they would be admitted to citizenship, and in ten years some of their children, under the civilizing influence of our eastern public schools, would be found members of Congress." The great majority of all the people dress wholly or partially in the costume of the whites, and in the towns, where there are shops and stores, the women affect even the latest procurable fashions in frocks and headgear. In complexion, they are olive rather than red, not unlike a seafaring man or a worker on a farm ; and many of the men wear beards. The Hon. James G. Swan, correspondent of the Smithsonian Institution at Port Town- send, Wash., who has made a special study of Pacific coast ethnology, thinks the whole population up to the Arctic 92 OUR KE IV ALA SKA . belt have a common origin among the Aztecs, and attempts to establish this position by demonstrating an identity of many generic words common to both languages, and by similarity of features, implements, handiwork, carvings and religious emblems and ceremonies. One strong corrobora- tive coincidence rests on some old-time silver idols, which are quite identical in size, feature, and figure with the Chir- iqui idols of the Isthmus of Panama. Capt. Beardslee, U. S. N., who has likewise carefully investigated the subject, sustains Mr. Swan, so far as respects the tribe of Hydahs, who are exclusive occupants of Queen Charlotte's Island, in lati- tude 51 deg., but regards all other coast tribes as of Asiatic origin. He thinks the Hydahs were driven north by Cortez during the Spanish invasion. Diametrically opposite is Mr. Xewton H. Crittenden, in the West Shore Alagazine pub- lished at Portland, Or., who infers from incidental evidences that the Hydahs are castaways from Eastern Asia, who, first reaching the islands of Southern Alaska, soon took and held possession of the Queen Charlotte group. Mr. Edward Vining, in his new book entitled " The Discovery of Amer- ica ; or the Uncelebrated Columbus," inclines to a Chinese origin and reiterates the story from the original Chinese sources of the landing of Hwin Shin and a party of Bud- dhist monks on the coast of Mexico about the year 500 a.d. The spot marked out is about 20,000 Chinese miles east from Kamtchatka. There is also a record that the indi- genous populations reached a high degree of civilization. The houses were small, and of wood ; stone dwellings were not known. The people knew how to write, and used a paper made from cotton wool. They wore garments of fine linen. There was no iron, but copper, gold, and silver existed in large quantities. Also the fact is on record of the Spaniards finding at Quivisa the wrecks of large ships which Mr. Vining feels assured were of Chinese origin. The Hurons also had a tradition that ages ago their ances- tors were visited by beardless men clad in silk and wearing pigtails. There is assuredly a strong facial resemblance between the Chinese coolies now living on the coast and some of the native Indians. They seem to affiliate naturally, and to have some few words of common derivation. It is also true that there are Alaskan words of Aztec construction, espe- cially those having the terminal '* tl " and"xtl." With regard to the Hydahs, they certainly have a remarkable physical and intellectual superiority over all the other Paci- fic coast Indians, while marked contrasts in the structure of GOOD INDIANS. 93 their language denote a different origin from them. They are of fine stature, with exceptionally well-developed chests and arms, high foreheads, and lighter complexions than any other North American Indians. These people are engaged in the manufacture of fish-oil on a large and scientific scale, and they have a Protestant mission and trading post. It is proper to state that this tribe, with the exception of small detachments, is attached to liritish Columbia and not to Alaska, being situated a short distance south of the Alaska boundary ; and it is equally proper to credit their enviable condition to the wise policy pursued by the British govern- ment in cultivating friendly relations with them and educa- ting them to employments suited to their inclination and tastes. The plan of the British government has been never to recognize the Indian title, but certain tracts of land most prized by the Indians have been appropriated to their exclusive use, while at the same time they were made to understand that they must earn their own living the same as the white men they saw around them. It is gratifying to know that this view is likely to obtain with us henceforth, and to govern our own policy hereafter. Yet it must be allowed that the Indian problem in the United States has been more difficult to manage from the outset, because the Indians were vastly more numerous, wilder, and subject to food conditions which made them constantly nomadic, in- stead of communal and stationary. On the Pacific coast the advent of the white man has never diminished the food supply of the natives. They have fruit and game as before ■n abundance, and more fish than they know what to do with, while the lessons in farming which have been taught them have given them a source of food supply and variety which they were previously ignorant of ; so that they have never been compelled by starvation to make reprisals, like the transmontane plains Indians, to whom the buffalo in its prime supplied houses, fuel, food, clothes and utensils all at once. To the latter the extinction of the animals was like cutting down the palm trees to the South Sea Islanders ; and the shifts to which they have been forced in conse- quence are what is subduing them to the methods of those who toil for bread. In writing of the Indians of the Pacific coast, it is not easy to segregate the tribes of Alaska as distinct from most of the others, for all of them have many traits, customs, peculiarities and occupations in common, and some are intermixed by marriage. It is true, however, that the inhabitants of our new possession are much more degraded 94 OUR NEW ALA SKA . and generally demoralized than those of British Columbia, whatever they may have been under the Muscovite occupa- tion. Dawson's book, entitled " Indian Tribes of British Columbia," gives a very correct idea of the present status of the British Indians. While the Russians held possession of Alaska they also exercised a conservative and fostering care over their wards under a similar policy and system ; but since the American succession, the Indians have been left without visible control or guidance, and their course has been miserably downward. For nineteen years their women have been the special prey of a large floating popu- lation, and both sexes suffer a great deal from resulting maladies and consumption, and many are blind. Old age is rare, and all look old at foTty. The Russians established churches, mills, and trading posts along the coast, but the agents of Uncle Sam have let every thing go to decay and ruin, and at the capital itself (Sitka) the official quarters are located in buildings whose roof and gables are open to the weather, and the foundation timbers nearly undermined by rot ! No wonder the natives are laggards in the race of self-improvement. For a long time after the American succession they main- tained a hostile and often aggressive attitude. With all moral support and conserving influences withdrawn, they relapsed into partial savagery. For many years there was no civil government whatever in the territory. The " Shamans " or native magicians began to regain their ascendency over the people. The garrisons stationed at Sitka and Wrangell kept perpetually drunk on home-made hoochinoo ; they debauched the women and quarreled with the men. All industries along the coast were paralyzed. No business was done. There were none to buy the furs which the hunters had trapped and collected, and utter ruin seemed inevitable. At present, however, thanks to a com- bination of wise measures and ameliorating influences which have extended over the past six years, the country has set- tled into serenity of hope, and good order everywhere pre- vails. The Indians are hostile no more. They have pledged themselves to perpetual amity ; a consummation chiefly effected through the instrumentality of a wau-wau^ or conference held with the hyas-joint or grand commission of 1880, at which the first condition imposed by the Indians was " teachers, so that our children may not grow up stupid like their fathers ! " In one brief hour of conviction they spontaneously abandoned the traditions of the past and never looked back to the flesh-pots of barbarism. They GOOD IXDIAXS. 95 were willing and ready to accept the new dispensation, to live by it, and to qualify themselves to promote it. All they wanted was, to receive it undefiied. These Indians have sagaciously forecast their approaching opportunity, and are looking for the advent of commercial ventures with eager longing and open hands ready for employment. It would seem as if the red men were in advance of the philanthro- pists. All they want is a clean deal, and it is the fault of the government if it does not step in and occupy a field so nearly ripe for the harvest. The resources of Alaska are now known to be varied and rich enough to tempt invest- ment. The outlook is propitious, and the natives will aid us in every way to find out all there is to know about the country. The history of this palaver by which the entire popula- tion of the country may be said to have been conciliated at one diplomatic stroke, is interesting if not remarkable, inas- much as the key of the situation came to hand at the very outset. It seems that a domestic quarrel was on the eve of an outbreak between the Chilkats and Chilkoots in conse- quence of a drunken brawl the previous summer, at which blood was shed, and which could only be expiated by a requital in kind, or its equivalent in blankets ; and as the Chilkats did not consider the dead Chilkoot worth quite one hundred blankets (say $400), the usual " potlatch " preliminary to a war was in progress at the date of the pro- posed " wau-wau " (Aug. 24, 1880), at which fully three thousand Indians were estimated to be present. The object of the " wau-wau," or conference, to which the contestants were peremptorily invited by the naval commandant of the * Alaska station, backed by a persuasive gun-boat, was to settle the difficulty without war, and to re-establish peace. Now, nearly all of the Indians of Alaska are, according to tradition, descended from the Chilkats, and among these descendants are the Chilkoots, who have largely inter-mar- ried with them. The villages of the two tribes are about thirty miles distant from each other, situated well up the rivers, one of which, the Chilkat, flowing southeast, and the other southwest, converge to the head of a narrow peninsula which divides the upper end of Chatham Straits into two bays. There is a trail and portage across this peninsula, and at the lower Chilkat village on the west side, and at Portage Bay on the east, the two tribes meet to trade or get drunk when in harmony. At Portage Bay the post agent is in the confidence of the two. The Chilkats are the most powerful and warlike of all the tribes and as they have gd OUR NEW ALA SKA . alwaj's dominated the trade with the interior tribes, it is obvious that a maintenance of friendship and amicable intercourse with them was all important to secure the pro- tection of such whites as were prospecting in the far-off interior, as well as to conserve the future welfare of the entire territory. The happy result of the conference is thus related in* Capt. Beardslee's own written account, addressed to the author of this book at the date of the occurrence. The vessel which did duty on the momentous occasion was the North west Trading Company's tug-boat, " Favorite," with a howitzer in the bow and a gatling mounted on the upper deck. The regular naval coast detail, the " Jafnestown," lay in Sitka harbor. I quote : Pyramid Harbor, August 25. " That you get this letter may be a sign and token to you that success has crowned our efforts. I gave in yesterday afternoon, too restless to continue my summing up, and in spite of my prudent resolution donned my shooting habili- ments and started across the trail. About half way over I met in single file, first Pierre Errassan, who, with his hand- some six feet of figure arrayed in red shirt, leggins, and well revolvered, would have made a capital robber in Fra Diavolo ; and behind him five Indians, the foremost of whom I at once recognized by descriptions I had had as Klotz-Klotz, the chief of the Chilkats, a tall, well-built, dig- nified old fellow, from whose good looks, however, a wad of cotton, stuffed into a hole in his left cheek, somewhat detracted. From this hole, caused by a gun-shot wound, one of his sobriquets, " Hole-in-the-Cheek," has been derived. With him was another veteran, almost equally* powerful with himself and much older, Klotz being about sixty and Kak-na-tay about seventy or more. Both wel- comed me most heartily, for in spite of my decidedly unmil- itary rig, Errassan, with true shrewdness and French polite- ness combined, drew himself stiffly up as we neared each other, and making to me the most profound obeisance, omitted to offer me his hand, thus paying tribute to my greatness, which was his trump card with the Indians, and most gracefully and solemnly introduced me. " The costume of Klotz and Kak was not so gorgeous as to add to my discomfiture, as both they and their attend- ants were arrayed in blankets and leggins ; but in a big box carried by the latter was the wardrobe, in which he had expected to astonish and imi:)ress me. The retainers were in war paint, with cotton or down on their heads, which GOOD IXVIAAS. 97 indicated determination. Thus stripped of all external show of power, the old chief and I sat down under a great cedar tree and discussed the situation. I thinic that this meeting was a fortunate one, for 1 had with me cigars and a breech-loader, the free use of both of which I at once accorded; and the inliuence of a large meerschaum pipe, which some months ago I sent him as a present, had its weight. After all, if the true history of wars and diplomacy could be written, how many times such little matters have had more weight than elaborate speeches, convincing only their utterer. Free from disturbing influences, Klutz-Klotz unbosomed himself, and during that interview he admitted to me that his family was in the wrong, and that he would willingly assist in establishing peace. He claimed that the killed Chilkoot was not worth a hundred blankets, but that he would pay two hundred if no less would heal the breach. " The post trader made Klotz & Co. comfortable fur the night, and this morning about ten o'clock several large canoes, with flags flying, drums (Indian drums) beating, and propelled by about a dozen painted paddlers, each came around the point of Chilkoot Inlet and were shortly along- side. In the foremost was Danawah, the chief of the lower village, and a blind old Shaman, who is chief of the Chil- koots. They were directed to go ashore to the post trader's, to wait until the firing of a gun announced the readiness of the Tyhees to receive them. They refused to go to the trader's, because the Chilkats, their enemies, were there, but instead paddled in to the mouth of a creek, where on the beach they prepared and ate their meal and donned their pow-wow garments. At ii the sharp bark of the howitzer summoned them to the meeting, and both parties came alongside on different sides of the boat, and avoiding all intercourse wnth each other. When duly seated in the cabin they presented a not undignified appearance. All wore good American clothes, of which the coats were orna- mented with more or less insignia of various ranks of American and English officers of both army and navy, white shirts and shoes and stockings. On our side of the table, epaulets and full dress undoubtedly produced good effect. The interview lasted two hours, and during it the whole difficulty was adjusted, and when we left the stifling atmosphere of the cabin — for Indians even of high rank are odorous — for the upper deck we were a party of friends all under pledges for mutual benefit. Mine to them was, in answer to the request of both parties, ' Ves; I will do my utmost to assist you in this matter,' which matter was this : 98 UR NE W ALA SKA . " When you go to your country please tell them to send teachers to us as well as to the Stickeens, so that our chil- dren may not grow up stupid like their fathers." (The Stickeens are the Indians at Wrangell, where the Presby- terians have established a mission school which is doing much good.) I believe that they will keep their promises to treat well all white men coming to their country, and I know I will mine, and through you I now ask of any Chris- tians you may have among your readers — and I doubt not that such there are — to send to the missionary at Sitka, such articles as will be useful to the school which Mrs. Dickson, the v/ife of the post trader, has started on her own hook, and at which half a hundred children are being taught, and which is soon to be transferred to a neat frame building, which, designed for a store at Taku, has been, by Capt. Vanderbilt, given to the Indians at Portage Bay, and on each side of which building the Chilkats and Chilkoots, now re-united, promise to build villages so that their children may attend the schools. " The Indians were entertained by a few shots fired from the howitzer, and more by several volleys from the gatling which was mounted aft, and which was made to sweep an arc of one hundred and eighty degrees, at good canoe dis- tance. "Then they paddled ashore in company, lit a camp fire, and began a friendly potlatch on the beach, and we, satisfied with the day's work, started at 3 P. M. for home, as we have learned to consider Sitka, and are now anchored in a snug harbor for the night. " Yours &c., L. A. B." " Potlatch " is a term of varying significance applied to any assemblage, for whatsoever purpose, at which good cheer is provided. Sometimes a native will invite his friends to a house-raising and give away more grub and blankets than ten such houses would cost to build. Pot- latches are given at the outset of great undertakings, and in commemoration of the same. In its primary sense a pot- latch is a gift. In its expression, as an economic, or social, or moral force, it amplifies the uses and applications of the customary tobacco pipe in all grave affairs of red-men. It is preliminary to weighty councils, social entertainments, business undertakings, unexpected meetings of old or new friends, family reunions, celebrations, special observances, obsequies, etc. When grave complications threaten, and diplomacy is invoked, arguments are invariably re-enforced GOOD INDIANS. 99 by a war dance, or a series of dances, in the course of which the jarring factions who have met together to investigate and settle their differences (peaceably, or by arms,) endeavor to impress and intimidate each other by extravagant dis- plays of costume, menacing attitudes, hideous noises, uncompromising yells, consummate braggadocio, and illustrations of prowess and muscular science in pantomime, so that peradventure, each other's opponent may weaken before he ventures upon hostilities, or at least be timorous on the field of battle. The full significance of these methods is presumably understood by the present genera- tion of natives, though the young men do not appear to be well posted in the formula, seeming to regard the whole demonstration as a noisy farce ; and it is seldom nowadays that young or old can be induced to illustrate the nearly obsolete customs of their forefathers, an exhibition of which is apparently regarded with some such mixed interest as " ye old folks' concerts " of their progressive white brethren. However, for a few dollars contributed by inquisitive spectators or tourists they can usually be per- suaded to do the proper thing, and it has got to be quite the fashion, within the past two years, for excursionists to drum up some recruits from the Indian " ranche " at Sitka to give a war dance, or some other dance, on the parade ground, although such improvisations are obviously not as striking as the bona-fide demonstrations held at the Chilkat potlatch in 1880. The form is to build a huge bonfire in the center of the plaza, and after a sufificient time for suita- ble preparation, the maskers appear, marching in from the Indian quarter through the gate of the old Russian stock- ade, in full panoply of buckskin, paint and feathers, singing in a wild weird monotone which has a swinging cadence or rhythm that is quite infectious, and while the glow of the bonfire lights up their painted faces and fantas- tic toggery with the lurid tinge of Tophet, all the by- standers catch the inspiration and join the chant with sway- ing bodies and ever kindling fervor. It is much like the regulation Indian dance which most eastern readers have witnessed at the "Wild West Show " of Buffalo Bill in these later days — chiefly mechanical posturing and posing, with wild gestures and much brandishing of weapons — only that the Alaska natives do not pass and chassez around the fire, but dance in a single row, all on one side, like so many jacks-in-the box. Neither their performance nor their costumes begin to compare with what I have seen among the Mountain Crows and Sioux. Most of them had their I oo OUR NEW ALA SKA . faces painted red with dashes of black, chiefly on one side, and they wore preposterous head-dresses of cotton waste and goat horns, and fantastic ornaments that dangled, feathers which wabbled, and bits of metal that made a tinkling noise. Some wore their blankets, and others more meager costumes, with bodies daubed. The women bound their silver bracelets about their heads, spread wide open in crescent form, like the characters in old mythology, and the firelight glistened on their polished points like scintilla- tions from the moon ; but a pervading odor, whose origin was familiar and unmistakable, added a substantial realism to the scene. There are, perhaps, thirty thousand Indians in Alaska — though this estimate is based solely upon the number of tribes or bands known to the trading posts on the coast and in the interior ; and they are not only expert in their natural gifts of hunting, trapping and fishing, but they are splendid navigators and seamen. They would make good soldiers, surveyors, coast guards and policemen. They are very efficient help in the salmon canneries and oil factories, and they make good mill men, miners and agriculturists. That Indians will become farmers when it is made worth while, is shown in an appendix to General Crook's report, whence it appears that during 1885 the White Mountain tribes of Arizona had 2,120 acres of land under cultivation, raised 80,000 pounds of barley, and 3,500,000 pounds of corn. They sold to the government 700,000 pounds of hay and thirty-two tons of barley, and had 1,000,000 pounds of hay awaiting the quartermaster's order. These Alaskans are natural-born carpenters and workers in wood. Some of their carving on wood, bone, stone and metal is exquisite, and always original and unique. Their permanent houses are one-story and occasionally two-story frame buildings, and many of them have two or more windows fitted with sash and glass. The women weave beautiful cloth and blankets from the fleece of the mountain goat ; they sew very deftly, embroider, weave hats, mats and baskets, and make fishermen's nets. They also make waterproof cloth- ing from the intestines of the moose, bear and sea lion. There are also among them regular artificers in metals, jewelers, who manufacture the silver rings, bracelets and lip ornaments which are so common among themselves. If a dollar ever comes into their possession, it is hammered out at once into ornaments. It never goes back to the United States Treasury. Oh, that all the silver dollars could be sent to Alaska ! GOOD INDIA \^S. lOI There are already growing settlements at Sitka, Wrangell and Juneau, with populations aggregating several hundreds, and lesser communities elsewhere, at all of which native men and women are employed in every sort of (jut-of-door and household capacity, so that their versatility, industry and ingenuity have been fully tested. In British Columbia the Indians derive a considerable income from their labors in various occupations, and it has been declared that but for their aid several flourishing industries would cease to exist, or, at least, labor under serious disadvantages. The inner life of the Alaskan natives is extremely interesting to the visitor. There is every encouragement to hope for their ultmate absorption into civilization. Though temporarily under stress, they can be redeemed and rehabilitated. Careful Christian training of the healthy children among them, and a conservation of the unblemished adults from contamination, will restore their pristine man- hood and usefulness. Already the Rev. Sheldon Jack- son has established, within two years, an Indian mission at Sitka, whose spacious two-story buildings, and surrounding premises, with male pupils in gray cloth uniform, are very creditable to his efforts, and whose management seems equally so to an outsider, although his labors have been persistently antagonized by local officials, to whom obviously some personal indiscretion or want of tact has made him obnoxious. Mr. and Mrs. Young have charge of a mission at Wrangell, using the old buildings which served as officers' quarters and barracks when Wrangell was a "fort." The Haines mission at Chilkoot is very flourishing. Al Tongass a native couple — very nice people indeed, who were educated at the Wrangell mission — are teaching an Indian school which has an attendance of forty-tive pupils, the government paying a salary of $500 for their work. A number of young Indian men attend the military school at Forest Grove, Oregon. A Mrs. Macfarland has devoted much of a sojourn of eleven years to charitable labor among the girls and young women. It is unfortunate that any impediments should be placed in the way of this missionary work, by whomsoever done, for it must continuously be kept in mind, when considering the natives of Alaska, that they are not listless savages, un- tutored and wild, but that they constitute a valual)le indus- trial force in reserve — far superior to negroes or Chinese — which is at once available for service whenevjjr new com- mercial enterprises are established. Vet it is a deplorable I o 2 OUR NE W ALA SKA. fact that the missionaries have many adverse influences and obstacles to contend with, the chief of which I believe is the ambiguous attitude of the general government about the Indian question. If Congress would make the natives eligible to citizenship by a plan of probationary prepara- tion, most of the difficulties which now surround their ad- vancement would disappear. As with the schools in the East, so in Alaska, there is no provision for graduated pu- pils except to return them to their homes, where they speedily relapse into the degeneracy and immoralities of the old way. In the case of girls, it is easy to perceive that those who have been trained at the missions to habits of neatness, are all the more desirable. There has been not only a lack of sympathy and co-operation with missionary work on the part of the local government officials, but the Indians themselves are interested only in the immediate pecuniary gain to accrue, so that ignorant and unprinci- pled parents will often hire their educated daughters out for immoral purposes ; and when the women are corrupt, what chance is there for the morality of men? The best testimony that can be offered to demonstrate the disposi- tion of the Indians to receive the lights, rights, and benefits of Christian civilization is contained in the simple appeal made by Chief Toy-a-att, at Wrangell, as long ago as 1878, to an assemblage of several hundred whites and Indians ; and that appeal has not yet been regarded ! Is philanthropy a sop to Indian credulity ? Read what follows : — *' My Brothers and Friends : I come before you to- day to talk a little, and I hope that you will listen to what I say, and not laugh at me because I am an Indian. I am getting old and have not many summers yet to live on this earth. I want to speak a little of the past history of us Sitka Indians and of our present wants. In ages past, before white men came among us, the Indians of Alaska were barbarous, with brutish instincts. Tribal wars were continual, bloodshed and murder of daily occurrence, and superstition controlled our whole move- ments and our hearts. The white man's God we knew not of. Nature showed to us that there was a first great cause ; beyond that all was blank. Our god was created by us ; that is, we selected animals and birds, the images of which we revered as gods. " Natural instincts taught us to supply our wants from that which we beheld around us. If we wanted food, the waters gave us fish ; and if we wanted raiment, the wild GOOD INDIANS. I03 animals of the woods gave us skins, whicli we converted to use. Implements of warfare and tools to work with we constructed rudely from stone and wood. [Here the speaker showed specimens of stone, axes, and weapons of warfare.] " These," said he, holding them up to view, " we used in the place of the saws, axes, hammers, guns and knives of the present time. Fire we discovered by friction. [Here he demonstrated how they produced fire.] " In the course of time a change came over the spirit of our dreams. We became aware of the fact that we were not the only beings in the shape of man that inhabited this earth. White men appeared before us on the surface of the great waters in large ships which we called canoes. Where they came from we knew not, but supposed that they dropped from the clouds. The ship's sails we took for wings, and concluded that, like the birds of the air, they could fly as well as swim. As time advanced, the white men who visited our country introduced among us every thing that is produced by nature and the arts of man. They also told us of a God, a superior being, who created all things, even us the Indians. They told us that this God was in the heavens above, and that all mankind were His children. These things were told to us, but we could not understand them. " At the present time we are not the same people that we were a hundred years ago. Contact and association with the white man have created a change in our habits and cus- toms. We have seen and heard of the wonderful works of the white man. His ingenuity and skill have produced Steamships, railroads, telegraphs, and thousands of other things. His mind is far-reaching ; whatever he desires he produces. His wonderful sciences enable him to under- stand nature and her laws. Whatever she produces he im- proves upon and makes useful. " Each day the white man becomes more perfect in the arts and sciences, while the Indian is at a stand-still. Why is this ? Is it because the God you have told us of is a white God, and that you, being of His color, have been favored by Him ? " Why, brothers, look at our skin ; we are dark, we are not of your color, hence you call us Indians. Is this the reason that we are ignorant ; is this the cause of our not knowing our Creator ? " My brothers, a change is coming. We have seen and heard of the wonderful things of this world, and we desire 104 UR NE W ALA SKA . to understand what we see and what we hear. We desire Hght. We want our eyes to become open. We have been in the dark too long, and we appeal to you, my brothers, to help us. " But how can this be done ? Listen to me. Although I have been a bad Indian, I can see the right road and I de- sire to follow it. I have changed for the better. 1 have done away with all Indian superstitious habits. I am in my old age becoming civilized. I have learned to know Jesus and I desire to know more of Him. I desire education, in order that I may be able to read the Holy Bible. " Look at Fort Simpson and at Metlahkahtla, British Col- umbia. See the Indians there. In years gone by they were the worst Indians on this coast, the most brutal, bar- barous, and bloodthirsty. They were our sworn enemies and were continually at war with us. How are they now ? Instead of our enemies, they are our friends. They have become partially educated and civilized. They can under- stand what they see and what they hear ; they can read and write and are learning to become Christians. These Indians, my brothers, at the places just spoken of, are British Indians, and it must have been the wish of the Brit- ish queen that her Indians should be educated. We have been told that the British government is a powerful one, and we have also been told that the American government is a more powerful one. We have been told that the Presi- dent of the United States has control over all the people, both whites and Indians. We have been told how he came to be our great chief. He purchased this country from Russia, and in purchasing it he purchased us. We had no choice or say in change of masters. The change has been made and we are content. All we ask is justice. "We ask of our father at Washington that we be recog- nized as a people, inasmuch as he recognizes all other In- dians in other portions of the United States. " We ask that we be civilized, Christianized and educated. Give us a chance, and we will show to the world that we cdn become peaceable citizens and good Christians. An effort has already been made to better our condition, and may God bless them in their work. A school has been es- tablished here which, notwithstanding strong opposition by bad white men and by Indians, has done a good and great work among us. " This is not sufficient. We want our chief at Washington to help us. We want him to use his influence toward hav- ing us a church built and in having a good man sent to us GOOD IXDIAXS. 107 who will teach us to read the Bible and learn all about Jesus. And now, my brothers, to you I appeal. Help us in our efforts to do right. If you don't want to come to our church don't laugh and make fun of us because we sing and pray. " Many of you have Indian women living with you. I ask you to send them to school and church, where they will learn to become good women. Don't, my brothers, let them go to the dance-houses, for there they will learn to be bad and learn to drink whisky. " Now that I see you are getting tired of listenmg to me, I will finish by asking you again to help us in trying to do right. If one of us should be led astray from the right path, point out to us our error and assist us in trying to re- form. If you will all assist us in doing good and quit sell- ing whisky, we will soon make Fort Wrangell a quiet place, and the Stickeen Indians will become a happy people. I now thank you all for your kind attention. Good-by." MEDICINE AND MYTHOLOGY While cruising in the Alaskan archipelago the voyager often discovers, on some lone islet or low-lying point pro- jecting from a headland, what appears to be a miniature house, half hidden by a luxurious undergrowth. Sometimes it is whitewashed and sometimes it is painted in gaudy col- ors. Occasionally it has a little window in the side. As a rule it is remote from settlement of any kind, and affords the only suggestion of human occupation which is seen for miles. Only towering mountain peaks, pine-clad and snow-capped, and tortuous water channels intervene, and there is usually such an absence of animal life, owing to the physical formation of angular heights and fathomless depths, that even the scream of a gull seldom disturbs the solitude. The stranger v/onders at the apparent preference for isolation for any purpose whatsoever ; but, after having been duly informed, he learns to take it for grtmted whenever he sees them, that each of these diminuave tenements is the mortuary abode of some "Shaman" or Indian magician, whose supposed supernatural powers have not availed to avert the inevitable grip. Having completed the mortal period of his allotment for good or evil, whichever suits his individual caprice, he has been summarily shelved, as it were, by those who care to have nothing more to do with him or his occult dealings. They have swathed his poor body in cerements of sail-cloth and mats, covered it with a dance blanket, and laid it away like a discarded bundle whose usefulness is done. There it will dry into a mummy, or molder into decay. Nevertheless, he has been scrupu- lously provided for by his credulous subjects, who have care- fully placed beside him, within his wooden domicile, all the properties and appurtenances of his craft — his magic charms, hideous masks, grotesque wooden rattles, fantas- tic toggery, and nameless implements, which it is believed will serve him in some new embodiment which he is expected to assume. Formerly these relics were held in superstitious awe by the natives, and even the burial site was shunned. MEDICINE AND MYTHOLOGY. 109 But in these days of modern civilization and vandalism the graves are plundered of their contents, not only by ethno- logical students and visitors in search of curios, but by the natives themselves, whose cupidity has overcome the scruples of bygone days of abject barbarism. The Shaman,* or medicine man, is an omnipresent living conundrum to his unsophisticated people. He is a mystery which they can not comprehend, and a terror always, for while he is a handy sort of a personage to have in a com- munity, and is supposed to have power to heal the sick, he is, nevertheless, believed to be in league with the devil. The malign influence of his spells is a constant menace, and no one can tell when or upon whom it may fall. This is a hard reputation to have, but the Shaman promotes it. He is a self constituted bugaboo, having duly qualified himself for the role by a course of trying ordeals by fire, water, famine and direst torture. It is probably his attested aliility to survive inflictions which in ordinary course would cause death, rather than absolute immunity from any physical injury, which inspires his people with a superstitious fear. At the same time he is himself in constant apprehension of some clandestine influence at work to counteract his own. If his incantations and mummeries fail of success, he charges the failure and its blame to whomever he chooses. Many an innocent life has expiated an alleged interference in days gone by. Happily, his supremacy is now at an end. His sway was incontinently cut short by Capt. Beardslee, in 1879, when he interposed to prevent the murder of a woman who had been accused by a vengeful medicine man of being a witch. A witch used to have no more show in Alaska, than she did in the days of our disreputable Pilgrim forefathers. It is the professional business of the Shaman to scare people and to keep them scared. It pays. Whenever he wants money, instead of " holding a man up," he shakes his rattle at him. One shake will impoverish an ordinary Siwash, two will clean him out. It is the same with bodily ailments. As a medical practitioner he despises the use ©f nostrums, and discards all physic. His method is to frighten disease away. When summoned in a case of sickness he rigs himself out in a garb that w^ould scare a hobgoblin and in- crease the pallor of a ghost. An invalid must be in great extremity indeed when he will consent to send for a doctor. " Shaman " is the name applied to the sorcerer or magician among the Kalmui