CHAPTER XXXIII.

ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT. 1883-1885.

 

The little that is to be said as to the action of congress concerning Alaska during the opening years of the present decade, and for several previous years, may be summed up almost in ten words. Appropriations were made for the salaries and expenses of agents at the fur-seal grounds, and, as will presently appear, these salaries and expenses were voted with no niggard hand. Yet, during the long period that had now elapsed since the purchase of Russian America, petitions without number had been presented to congress, asking for some form of civil government. At one time the few Russian residents still remaining in Alaska were about to petition the tzar to secure for them the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as guaranteed by the treaty. On another occasion the commander of a Russian man-of-war, stationed on the Pacific coast, had determined to visit Sitka in order to inquire into the condition of his countrymen, to whom had been granted neither protection nor civil rights of any description. Each year the president of the United States called attention to the matter, and almost every year resolutions and bills were introduced in the senate for this purpose, but without result. Most of them were tabled; a few were passed to committee, and all were rejected. It was admitted that, as an abstract proposition, the Russians and creoles of this Ultima Thule were entitled to protection; but abstract justice was now somewhat out of date in congressional circles. Moreover, there were many conflicting interests to be considered, some parties desiring that settlement should be encouraged, and others wishing to retain as much of the mainland as possible for a stock-farm, and being therefore opposed to any legislation that would cause an influx of settlers, as was the case some thirty years ago with the Hudson’s Bay Company in Vancouver Island and New Caledonia. Meanwhile the outside world knew nothing of Alaska. During this interregnum, if we may believe Major Morris, dozens of letters were addressed to the “United States Consul at Sitka,” and many governors of states and territories sent copies of their thanksgiving proclamations to the “Governor of Alaska Territory,” years before that country enjoyed the presence of any such official.

At length, on the 4th of December, 1883, Senator Harrison introduced a bill to provide a civil government for Alaska, which, with some amendments, passed both houses, receiving the president’s signature on the 17th of May, 1884. Thus, after many years of waiting, this long-mooted measure took effect.

By the provisions of what we will call the organic act, Alaska was organized as a civil and judicial district, its seat being temporarily established at Sitka. A governor was to be appointed, who should perform generally such duties as belonged to the chief magistrate of a territory, and make an annual report to the president of his official acts, of the condition of the district with reference to its resources, industries, and population, and of the administration of civil government therein, the president having the power to confirm or annul any of his proceedings. A district court was to be established, with the civil and criminal jurisdiction of United States district and circuit courts, the judge to hold at least two terms in each year—one at Sitka, beginning the first Monday in May, and the other at Wrangell, beginning the first Monday in November—together with special sessions as they might be required for the despatch of business, at such times and places as were deemed necessary. The clerk of the court was to be ex officio secretary and treasurer of the district, recorder of deeds, mortgages, certificates of mining claims, and contracts relating to real estate, and also registrar of wills. A marshal was to be appointed, having the general authority and powers of United States marshals, with the right of appointing four deputies, who were to reside respectively in the towns of Sitka, Wrangell, Unalaska, and Juneau, and to perform the duties of constables under the laws of Oregon.

There were also to be appointed four commissioners, one to reside in each of the four towns above mentioned, and having the jurisdiction and powers of commissioners of United States circuit courts, together with those conferred on justices of the peace under the laws of Oregon. They were also to have jurisdiction, subject to the supervision of the district judge, in all testamentary and probate matters, and for this purpose their courts were to be opened at stated terms as courts of record. The general laws of Oregon, as they were then in force, were to be the law of the district, so far as they were applicable, and did not conflict with the provisions of the act or with the laws of the United States. But the district court was to have exclusive jurisdiction in all equity suits, in all capital criminal cases, and in those involving questions of title to land or mining rights. In civil cases, issues of fact might be determined by a jury at the request of either party, and appeal lay from the decision of the commissioners to the district court, in cases where the amount involved was $200 or more, and in criminal cases where the sentence was imprisonment, or a fine exceeding $100.

Alaska was created a land district, with a United States land-office, to be located at Sitka. The commissioner residing at that point, the clerk, and the marshal were to hold office respectively as registrar, receiver of public moneys, and surveyor-general of the district. The laws of the United States relating to mining claims, and the rights incident thereto, were to be in full force, subject to such regulations as might be made by the secretary for the interior. Nothing contained in the act, however, was to be so construed as to put in force within the district the general land laws of the United States.

The governor, judge, district attorney, clerk, marshal, and commissioners were to be appointed by the president, and to hold office for four years, or until their successors were appointed. The salaries of the governor and judge were to be each $3,000 a year, and of the district attorney, clerk, and marshal each $2,500 a year. The commissioners were to receive the fees usually pertaining to their office, and to justices of the peace in Oregon, together with such fees for recording instruments as are allowed by that state, and, in addition, a fixed salary of $1,000 a year. The deputy marshals were to receive salaries of $750 a year, besides the usual fees of constables in Oregon.

The attorney-general was directed at once to compile and cause to be printed, in pamphlet form, so much of the laws of the United States as was applicable to the duties of the several officials. The secretary for the interior was ordered to select two of the officials to be appointed under the act, who, with the governor, should constitute a commission “to examine into and report upon the condition of the Indians residing in said territory, what lands, if any, should be reserved for their use, what provision shall be made for their education, what rights of occupation by settlers should be recognized,” and other matters that might enable congress to determine the limitations and conditions to be imposed when the land laws of the United States should be extended to the district. He was also required to make temporary provision for the education of all children of school age without regard to race, until a permanent school system should be established, and for this purpose the sum of $25,000 was appropriated. Finally the manufacture, importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, mechanical, and scientific purposes, were forbidden, under the penalties provided in the revised statutes of the United States.

As a land purchase, Alaska had thus far proved a paying investment, though still undeveloped; and yet it was but a phantom of a government which congress now somewhat reluctantly bestowed upon it, a government without representative institutions, or the privilege of sending a delegate to congress. Meanwhile Russians, creoles, and Americans, who, year by year, had become more dissatisfied with the shadow of republican administration, expressed their contempt in no measured phrase for the dilatory action of the national legislature. Thankful for small mercies, however, they still waited and hoped, believing that south-eastern Alaska would, even in their generation, contain settlers enough to warrant the erection of a territory, though phantom rule might yet prevail in the unpeopled solitudes of the north. At least one step was gained, now that the drear interregnum of military occupation or revenue-cutter rule, in the land which the attorney-general declared to be Indian territory, had given place to the semblance of civil law.

As to the condition, training, and proposed reservations for Indians mentioned somewhat neatly in the text of the act, it is probable that the natives would be only too glad to be left alone as severely in the future as they have been in the past. Considering that they received no portion of the purchase money of their native soil, and, as yet, have reaped no benefit from that purchase, save the art of manufacturing hootchenoo, it would appear that this favor might at least be conceded. After the close of the military occupation, Indian outbreaks were of rare occurrence, as I have already mentioned, and in almost every instance were provoked by the misconduct of the white population. What will be the result should they be placed on reservations, and under such treatment as seems in store for them, is a question that the future may solve. At present they are the most contented of all the native tribes under American domination.

In considering the other provisions of the Harrison bill, it must be admitted that in one respect they were most liberal. For the salaries of the government officials of Alaska, with its handful of white inhabitants, there was appropriated, in 1884, the sum of $20,500, while for each of the territories of Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico the appropriation for the same purpose was less than $14,000. Moreover, there were appointed, ostensibly for the protection of the seal fisheries of Alaska, four government agents, whose joint salaries and expenses amounted for this year to $13,350, the chief agent receiving a larger stipend than fell to the share of the governor; and to enable the secretary of the treasury to use revenue steamers “for the protection of the interests of government,” was voted a further sum of $15,000. But outside of the seal islands the government had no interests to protect, for, as we have seen, apart from the rent and royalty paid for these islands, the income derived from the entire district was altogether inappreciable.

Thus we have, as the expenses of the so-called government of this district, an appropriation for the year of 1884 of about $50,000, or nearly four times the amount voted for any territory in the union, and this for the salaries and allowances of less than a score of officials, four of whom receive the lion’s share for keeping watch over the Prybilof Islands, and whose operations have as yet resulted merely in  finding of one slight discrepancy in the tale of skins, and that due to the mistake of one of the agents. After all, it is a far-away country, and government could well enough afford to be liberal. Nevertheless, why it is that the services of four highly paid agents and of a revenue-cutter should be at all needed in counting the tale of skins has never yet been explained. It would appear that such surveillance is wasted on a company which has paid within the past fifteen years about the sum of $5,000,000 into the United States treasury, and that, too, when it is directly against the interests of the company to slaughter more than the prescribed number of fur-seals. Concerning the duties of these agents, however, the statute is singularly reticent. Alaska has been usually regarded by government servants as a place in which to save money, wear out old clothes, and as there were no amusements, no newspapers, and but a single monthly mail, to study fortitude in the endurance of their high honors, and to show themselves indeed patriots on small pay.

The appropriation of $25,000 for educational purposes has thus far been of no practical benefit, for, as with the one of double that amount made some years before, it seemed no one’s business to administer it. No public schools were established as contemplated by the provisions of the act, and up to the close of 1884 neither reports nor suggestions had been made as to the disposition of the fund. In July 1884 a further sum of $15,000 was appropriated by congress for the support and education of Indian children of both sexes at industrial schools. In this matter action was at length taken, though of a somewhat negative character. Through Mr Kendall, the presbyterian board of missions at Sitka applied for a portion of the fund. On the recommendation of the commissioner for Indian affairs, the application was granted, and a contract was made with the society to provide for and educate one hundred children at the rate of $120 a year per capita, such contract to be annulled at two months’ notice.

Within less than a decade more has been done by this society to advance the cause of education in Alaska than was otherwise accomplished during all the years of American domination. Were it not for the efforts of the board of missions, there would probably have been no efficient school, and perhaps no school of any kind, in the territory, apart from those maintained by the Alaska Commercial Company.

It is claimed that the natives are quick to learn and eager to be taught, not from any moral sense, for, excepting perhaps the Chinese, there is no living nation in which the moral idea is so utterly dormant, but because they appreciate the practical benefit of an education. At the school maintained by the Alaska Commercial Company at St Paul Island, one of the pupils displayed such zeal and ability that he was sent at the expense of the company to complete his education at the state normal academy in Massachusetts, and after completing his five years’ course with credit, was placed in charge of the schools at the Seal Islands.

In the autumn of 1884 the officials who had been appointed by the president reached their several stations. John II Kinkead, ex-governor of Nevada, who had formerly resided at Sitka as merchant and postmaster, was chief magistrate; Ward McAllister, district judge; E. W. Haskell, district attorney; Andrew T. Lewis, clerk of court; M. C. Hilly er, marshal; and as commissioners, John G. Brady at Sitka, Henry States at Juneau, George P. Ihrie at Wrangell, and Chester Seeber at Unalaska.

On the 1st of October, 1884, some three weeks after his arrival, Governor Kinkead made his report to the president. On the 15th of September the commander of the United States naval forces relinquished to him all civil authority, his duties in that direction being now at an end. The complete organization of the civil government was delayed for a time by the absence of the district judge and the commissioner for Sitka, the former being detained at San Francisco through illness. Meanwhile the board of Indian commissioners assumed judicial authority, settling disputes to the satisfaction of the parties interested. The governor expressed the opinion that mining bade fair to rank foremost among the resources of the territory, and that within the next decade the output of precious metals in Alaska would form no unimportant factor in the finances of the general government. This industry has languished, he says, mainly for the reason that no title to mining lands, other than that of force, has thus far been recognized. For the same reason the grazing and agricultural capabilities of the territory, which he considered full of promise, were yet undeveloped. He urged that timber tracts, building-lots, agricultural areas, and mining lands be made subject to legal titles, for, without such titles, the progress of settlement must be slow and uncertain.

He recommended, also, that mail facilities be increased. There should be at least semi-monthly  communication with Port Townsend, and a monthly mail-steamer should run between Sitka and Unalaska, touching at several intervening ports. The distance between these ports is twelve hundred miles, but as there is no direct communication, persons wishing to avail themselves of the district court tribunal established at the capital must travel by way of San Francisco, and return by the same route, the entire journey being nearly eight thousand miles. The districts of Kadiak and Kenaï, which were altogether ignored in the organic act, should be placed under the protection of the civil authority; for in those districts were several hundred Russians and creoles, who were peaceable, industrious, and eager to share in the benefits of American progress.

The customs service could not be efficiently carried on with the means then at command. For this purpose it was necessary that at least one revenue-cutter should be constantly employed in cruising among the channels and inlets of the coast. At this time illicit traffic prevailed in many portions of the territory. The boundary line between the Portland canal and Mount St Elias should be speedily and definitely settled by a joint survey of the British and American governments, for several of the highways leading into British Columbia lie partly within the limits of Alaska, among them being the one leading to the Stikeen River mines.

On the subject of education the governor remarked that Alaska was entirely without schools for white children, the missionary schools being attended only by natives. The former were growing up in total ignorance, though their parents were most anxious to give them education, and would gladly pay for the services of teachers.

Finally, with regard to traffic in spirituous liquor, he stated that the military commander of the division of the Pacific had the right to grant permits for its introduction into the territory. Whether, or to what extent, the commander exercised that power, he was not aware; but, with or without permission, a very large quantity of liquor found its way into Alaska. The law forbade its introduction, except for certain purposes, but did not forbid its sale after it was introduced, and liquor was openly sold in all the principal settlements; though, on account of the severe penalties enforced by the naval and customs authorities, little of it was disposed of among the natives. The utmost vigilance on the part of officials could not entirely prevent this traffic, for countless devices were practised whereby the law was evaded; but in order to regulate it, the governor suggested the appointment of an executive council, with full power to act in the matter. He also recommended that saloon-keepers, tradesmen, and others should contribute, by a license, tax, or otherwise, to the support of government, paying at least enough to maintain the police and to keep the streets and sidewalks in repair.

It will be observed that, while the governor made some excellent suggestions as to what congress ought to do, he said nothing about what he himself intended to do. As ruler of a country so vast in extent, and containing such varied and conflicting interests, he was necessarily intrusted with discretionary powers. He appears to have fully understood the needs of the country, and had he continued in power, it is not improbable that he might have made some effort to supply them. He did not remain long enough in the territory, however, to frame any important measures, or at least to carry them into effect, although it was provided in the organic act that he should reside within the district during his term of office.

A few weeks after the inauguration of President Cleveland, Kinkead was requested to send in his resignation, A. P. Swineford of Michigan being appointed in his stead on the 9th of May, 1885.

In the exploration of the interior of Alaska and the survey of its coasts, bays, and rivers, considerable progress has been made during recent years, considering the immense area to be explored. Numerous expeditions have been undertaken in addition to those mentioned in a previous chapter, and many charts have been published, some of them valuable, and others so utterly worthless that the captain who should follow them would run his vessel at various points into the mountains of the mainland. Reports without number have been made by navigators as to the difficulties encountered among these intricate channels and dangerous harbors, but no reliable charts of the entire coast have as yet been made.

In the summer of 1883 Lieutenant Schwatka and six others traversed the upper Yukon by raft from its source to Port Selkirk, a distance of about five hundred miles, their object being to gather information as to the Indian tribes of that region, and for geographical exploration. The middle Yukon, as far as the junction of that river with the Porcupine, and the lower Yukon, extending from this point to the delta, had already been explored, as we have seen, by the servants of the Russian American Company, who occasionally ascended the stream from the direction of St Michael sometimes possibly as far as the present site of Port Reliance, and thence made their way partly overland to the Lynn canal. In the summer of 1883 the lieutenant set forth to explore the river from its source to its mouth, the basin of the upper Yukon being, as he thought, a terra incognita.

Leaving Chilkat on the 7th of June with thirteen canoes towed by a steam-launch belonging to the Northwest Trading Company, he passed through the Lynn canal and the Chilkoot Inlet, arriving at the mouth of a swift-running stream, some ninety feet in width, called by the Indians the Dayay. Here he took leave of the launch, and at this point, as he claims, his exploration commenced, though in fact he was on ground perfectly familiar to the Russians, even in the days of Baranof. Reaching the head of navigation on the 10th, the canoes were unloaded and their three or four tons of freight packed on the backs of seventy Indians, the party reaching, the same night, the head waters of the stream, under banks of snow, and at the foot of a pass about three thousand feet in height, which the lieutenant named Perrier Pass, and where, he says, “long finger-like glaciers of clear blue ice extended down the granite gulches to our very level.”

The ascent was a difficult one and not unattended with danger. In places the mountain side appeared almost perpendicular, and a few stunted juniper roots protruding through a thin covering of snow afforded the only support. The footsteps of the guides were turned inward and planted deep, thus giving a firm hold, and the remainder followed in their tracks, some of them using rough alpen-stocks, for the least slip would have dashed them down the precipitous slope hundreds of feet into the valley below. Arriving at the summit without mishap, the party found themselves in a drifting fog, such as many of my readers may have observed hanging in summer for days at a time over Snowdon or Ben Nevis, both of which mountains are but three or four degrees south of the point where they now stood. Descending the pass, the lieutenant afterward came in sight of two large lakes connected by a channel about a mile in length, and which he named lakes Lindermann and Bennett.

On the shore of the latter he built his raft, some fifteen by forty feet, with decks fore and aft, space being left for oars at the bow, stern, and sides, so that when laden it could be pulled in still water at a rate of more than half a mile an hour. Behind the forward deck was hoisted a nine-foot mast, a wall-tent serving for a sail, and for a yard its ridge-pole, while the projecting logs that supported the deck were used as belaying-pins. In this strange craft, built in the ice-cold water of the lake, the lieutenant launched forth on the morning of the 19th of June on his exploration of the upper Yukon.

The outset of the voyage was by no means propitious. The wind at first blew gently from the south, and hoisting sail, he made from two to three miles an hour; but the wind freshened into a gale and the gale increased to a cyclone, threatening to carry away the mast, while the waves swept the frail bark fore and aft, deluging ah on board, so that rowing became impossible.

On the following afternoon the party reached the northern end of Lake Bennett, and thence, without special adventure, made their way, by the route known as the Indian portage, to a point which Schwatka terms the grand canon of the Yukon, where are rapids some five miles in length, in places shoal and dangerous even for the navigation of a canoe. At first the waters pour in troubled foam between basaltic pillars, about seventy feet apart, then widen into a basin filled with eddies and whirlpools, and again pass through a second canon, almost the counterpart of the first. Thus the river flows onward for several miles, after which it narrows almost into a cascade, less than thirty feet wide, and with waves running five feet high. So swift and turbulent is the stream at this point, that, as the lieutenant relates, its waters dash up the banks on either side, falling back in solid sheets into the seething caldron below.

Stationing a few men below the cascade to render assistance, as the raft shot past them, Schwatka turned its head toward the outlet of the grand canon of the Yukon, through which he passed.

The party had now overcome their greatest difficulties. Repairing the raft, on the 5th of July they passed the mouth of the Tahkeena River, and thence, without further incident worthy of note, voyaged down the stream to Fort Selkirk, completing the journey mainly by raft down the middle and lower Yukon, and thence proceeded to St Michael, where they were met by the revenue-cutter Corwin.

In 1884 and 1885 several expeditions were undertaken by order of General Miles, then in charge of the department of the Columbia, which includes Alaska. In February of the former year Doctor Everette set forth from Vancouver Barracks for the purpose of exploring a portion of the Yukon, and the section of territory near the head of Copper River. Procuring Indian guides at Juneau, he proceeded to Chilkat, and there remained for three months, studying the language of the tribe. Thence, reaching the head waters of the Yukon by way of the Lynn canal and the Dayay River, following about the same route as was taken by Schwatka’s party in 1883, he voyaged down the stream, in a boat of his own construction, as far as the first fur-trading station. Here he awaited the arrival of the steamer from the Bering Sea, and being abandoned by his pack Indians, and unable to obtain a supply of provisions for winter use, he had no alternative but to complete his journey on­board that vessel, arriving at St Michael during the autumn, and reaching San Francisco on the 29th of August, 1885. .

Thus, as he claims, Doctor Everette made a running survey of the entire stream, from which, and from the information furnished by fur-traders, he prepared charts of the river, of his route, extending over twenty-six hundred miles, of the Yukon Lake system, of the greater portion of the Tennanah River, of the entire Kuskokvim River, and of many smaller streams in a region which had not yet been explored except by fur-traders, together with itineraries on a tabulated scale, accompanying the charts and showing every point of interest between Chilkat and St Michael. The doctor also states that he collected statistics concerning all the explorations made on the Yukon since the year 1865, together with a mass of in­formation setting forth the name, occupation, date of arrival and departure of every missionary, miner, and trader who had been on the Yukon since the date of the transfer. Finally, he collected the dialects of all the leading tribes in Alaska, from Chilkat through the interior to St Michael, thence north to Kotzebue Sound, and from that point south ward to the Aleutian Archipelago.

In the summer of 1885 the Corwin was again employed in explorations on the Alaskan coast, and it was proposed that her trip should extend as far northward as Kotzebue Sound. At Chatham Inlet Lieutenant Caldwell was sent to explore the Kowak River as far, if possible, as its head waters, and a second expedition, in charge of Engineer Lonegan, was ordered to explore the Noyataz. In the spring of 1885 Lieutenant Stoney, Ensign Purcell, Engineer Zane, Surgeon Nash, and some ten others, set forth to explore the Putnam River on board the schooner Viking, a steam-launch, having been built for that purpose at Mare Island. Procuring Indian guides and dogs at St Michael, where they arrived after a tedious voyage caused by light and contrary winds, they proceeded to St Lawrence Bay, and there obtained a supply of furs and warm clothing. The season was an open one, St Michael being clear of ice at the end of May, and it was hoped that at least two hundred and fifty miles of the stream could be explored before the expedition went into winter quarters about the 1st of October, after which the work of exploration was to be carried on by means of sledges. When the launch could proceed no farther she was to be employed in conveying provisions for the winter camp, and her engines and boilers were afterward to be used in running a saw-mill, by which timber could be cut for the construction of frame houses. In May 1886 Captain Stoney proposed to descend the river, returning to San Francisco in the autumn of that year.

During recent years frequent explorations of the interior have been made by mining prospectors, especially in the direction of the Yukon River and its tributaries. In 1878 and 1880 parties left for the head waters of that stream, and through the influence brought to bear by Captain Beardslee of the Jamestown were kindly received by the Chilkats, who, being assured that they would not interfere with their fur trade, guided them through their territory, indications of gold and large gravel deposits being discovered. In 1882 a band of forty-five prospectors from Arizona left Juneau for the same point, and returning in the autumn, reported discoveries of gold, silver, nickel, copper, and coal in the district between the Lewis and Copper rivers. During this year three prospectors proceeded to the mouth of Stewart River, which they ascended in canoes for two hundred miles. They found navigation somewhat easy, there being stretches of 100 miles where no portage was needed, and none of the portages exceeding half a mile. During their trip they examined more than a hundred streams, in all of which gold was discovered, though the ground and even the beds of streams where was running water were frozen. Hence, they said, it was impossible to work the deposits; but the fact that one of the party proceeded to San Francisco to purchase a schooner and load it with miners’ supplies for that quarter would seem to indicate that this was not the case. Between 1880 and 1883 more than two hundred prospectors visited the Yukon district, the Chilkats keeping control of the travel, and charging six to ten dollars for each hundred pounds of baggage conveyed over the portage between the river and the lakes.

The maps of the upper Yukon district made since the purchase have not changed materially the charts made by the Russians. Among them is one prepared by a native named Kloh-Kutz for Professor Davidson, which has been made the basis for an official chart. From the maps and publications of two doctors of the names of Krause, belonging to the geographical society of Bremen, who recently explored the neighborhood of the Yukon portages, the coast survey has gathered information of considerable value.

The Takoo mines, and especially those in the neighborhood of Harrisburg, or Juneau, and the quartz veins on Douglas Island, have attracted the most attention within recent years, and are the only districts that require further mention. The bars and shores of Takoo River have been searched for miles beyond the Takoo Inlet, and in most of the adjacent streams fine gold has been discovered, carried down by the glaciers that now lie amid the ravines and fiords of this region.

In 1879 Professor Muir expressed his belief that valuable quartz leads would be found on the mainland east of Baranof Island, and that the true mineral belt would follow the trend of the shore. His prediction was soon verified. In the following autumn a prospecting party left Sitka in charge of Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris, and encamping on the present site of the town of Juneau, followed up a large creek which discharges into the channel near that point. Here they found rich placers and several promising ledges. On their return to Sitka, with sacks full of specimens, a rush was made for this district, and during the winter a camp was established, which afterward developed into a town, among its inhabitants being a number of miners from Arizona and British Columbia. From the placers in this neighborhood it is estimated that about $300,000 had been obtained up to the close of 1883. The correct figures, however, cannot be ascertained even approximately, for, on account of the heavy express charges, many of the miners, proceeding to Wrangell, Victoria, San Francisco, or wherever they pass the winter, carry with them their own gold-dust. In 1884 the surface deposits showed signs of exhaustion, and many of the claims were abandoned, though some that were still partially worked yielded fair returns. Meanwhile prospecting was continued, and tunnels, run a short distance into several quartz ledges, disclosed a moderate amount of low-grade gold ore, but nothing that, under existing conditions, would pay for working.

In 1885 the most prominent mine in Alaska, and one of the most prominent on the Pacific coast, was the Treadwell, or as it is now usually termed, the Paris lode, at Douglas Island, discovered and recorded in May 1881, and deeded in November of that year to Mr John Treadwell. The property was afterward transferred to an incorporation styled the Alaska Mill and Mining Company, of which, in 1885, Mr Treadwell was superintendent, and under whose direction $400,000 had been expended on the development of the property. The results, however, fully justified the outlay.

A short time after the company took possession of its property two tunnels were run into the ledge, and thence and from the surface ore was extracted and worked in a five-stamp mill, for the purpose of thoroughly testing the mine. The returns being satisfactory, a third tunnel was run, at a vertical depth of 250 feet. An uprise of 275 feet at the foot-wall, having been made to the surface, is now used for an ore chute. The width of the ledge was found to be 450 feet, the ore-body averaging $8.50 per ton in free gold and five per cent of sulphurets, with an assay value of $100 per ton. Thereupon the company decided to erect a 120 stamp mill, with a capacity of 300 tons per day, and with 48 True concentrators and 24 Challenge ore-feeders, the mill being completed in the summer of 1885. Between June 19th and September 19th of that year the aggregate yield amounted to $156,000,43 though for various reasons, the principal one being an unusually dry season, and the fact that during the summer the snow and ice disappeared altogether from the neighboring mountains, the mill stood idle for one third of this period. about the close of 1885, or early in the following year, the superintendent proposed to erect two additional furnaces, and to place electric lights in the mine, mill, and surrounding works.

Adjoining the Paris ledge, and a continuation of the same vein, was the Bear ledge, believed to be also a valuable property, though as yet the latter has been but little developed. Elsewhere among the mountains that ridge Douglas Island from end to end are quartz lodes innumerable, some of which seem promising enough to warrant the investment of capital. That the most permanent mines so far discovered in Alaska should be found on an island—the island surveyed by Vancouver more than ninety years ago—is somewhat of an anomaly in mining annals; but Alaska, with her inland seas, her glaciers, her midnight suns in midsummer, her phantom auroras in midwinter, and her phantom government at all seasons of the year, is the land of anomalies.

At present it may be said that the mining interests of Alaska are mainly centred in Douglas Island. Elsewhere there may be large deposits of ore, but none of them have yet been extensively worked. Those in northern and central Alaska are too remote to be made available, and the lodes discovered near Sitka have proved of little value, the gold-bearing ore being of low grade and the veins broken in formation. In a country where travel is difficult and the cost of transportation excessive, only those mines can be made to pay which are situated near the coast, unless they be exceptionally rich. Moreover, on account of the forests and the dense growth of moss which hide the surface, Alaska is a very difficult country to prospect. As a rule, outcroppings are rarely found, and leads are usually discovered by following float ore and tracing it up stream to the main body. That the territory will, however, at some future date, contain a not inconsiderable mining population, is almost beyond a peradventure. Provisions are much cheaper than in most of the mining districts of British Columbia, and fish and game can be had for nothing. The main drawback appears to be that in Alaska miners are not content with such earnings as would elsewhere be considered a reasonable return for their labor.

Concerning the fisheries of Alaska, a few items remain to be added to those which have been already mentioned. The cannery established by Cutting and Company, at Kasiloff River, on Cook Inlet, in 1882, has been fairly successful, considering the difficulty in establishing a new enterprise of this description, the pack, after the first year, averaging some 20,000 cases. The varieties packed are the king salmon, the silver salmon, and what is known as the red fish, the last being similar to the red salmon of the Fraser River. The Kasiloff is not a navigable stream, its source being a lake about twenty miles from its outlet. Vessels freighted with goods for the cannery, or waiting for the season’s pack, are compelled to lie in an open road­stead, where there is a heavy fall and rise of the tide. Notwithstanding this drawback, however, the firm is satisfied with results so far, considering the depressed condition of the market. The Alaska Salmon Packing and Fur Company, at Naha Bay, has also been measurably successful, though in 1885 the pack was only of salt salmon. At that date there were two other canneries in operation, one at Bristol Bay, named the Arctic Packing Company, and the other at Karluk on Kadiak Island, the pack of the latter for 1885 being about 36,000 cases.

The total pack of Alaska salmon was estimated for the year 1885 at about 65,000 cases, and the fact that, in the face of extremely low prices, this industry has not only held its own, but increased considerably, while on the Columbia there has been a considerable decrease in the output, is significant of its future success. Thus far, however, profits have been very light. The amount of capital needed to establish and conduct the business is disproportionately large. Payments for material must be made at least four or five months before the product is laid down in San Francisco or in other markets, and it is found necessary to carry a large surplus stock of stores. The cost of the passage of employes is paid at all the Alaska canneries, together with their wages while journeying to and fro; and the repair of machinery is an unusually expensive item. The prospects of the business depend, of course, mainly on the continuance of heavy runs of fish on the Columbia River, and it is stated that the enormous catch year by year has already begun to tell very seriously on the run. The supply of salmon in the waters of Alaska is practically unlimited, and it is probable that the take is more than offset by the destruction of fur-seals, which devour the food-fish that frequent her shores, as salmon, smelt, and mackerel, each one consuming, it is said, no less than sixty pounds a day.

At Killisnoo, on the island of Kenashoo, originally a whaling-station, the Northwest Trading Company had, in 1885, a large establishment where codfish were dried, and herring and dog-fish oil, and fish guano manufactured. Large warehouses and works were built, near which was a village of Indians employed as fishermen, and receiving two cents apiece for the catch of codfish, boats being provided by the company. About $100,000 was invested in this enterprise, the oil-works alone having cost $70,000. The cod in these waters average about four pounds in weight, and as many as eight thousand are sometimes taken in a single day, producing about fifteen hundred boxes of the dried fish. Of herring, as many as five hundred barrels are occasionally caught at a single haul of the seine, each barrel yielding about three gallons of oil.

Thus it would appear that the fisheries of Alaska alone might furnish the basis of a considerable commerce; but under such conditions as now exist in that district, there is little field for commercial or industrial .enterprise, and it may be said that commerce, in its legitimate sense, does not exist. Imports of duty-paying goods, which, as I have said, for the twelve months ending March 1, 1878, were $3,295, amounted, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882, to $8,484; and meanwhile domestic exports showed a slight increase. For the latter year, if we can believe official reports, the entire foreign trade was with British Columbia, though, during that year, fifteen American vessels, with an aggregate measurement of 9,461 tons, and twenty-nine foreign vessels of 8,073 tons, entered Alaskan ports, while the clearances were twelve American vessels of 8,993 tons, and twenty-nine foreign vessels of 8,156 tons. Meanwhile the ship-building industry had fallen somewhat into decadence. In 1882 there was built a single vessel, probably a fishing-smack, with a measurement of 6.43 tons—somewhat of a contrast, compared with the days of the Russian American Company, when, as we have seen, a fleet of sea-going ships was launched in Alaskan waters.

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 be had to land, where there are no representative institutions and no settled administration, and where the rainfall is from five to eight feet a year, does not, of course, hold out any very strong inducements to settlers. Of 690 persons who arrived at Alaskan ports during the year ending June 30, 1880, 583 were merely passengers, the remaining 107 being miners from British Columbia. For the year ending June 30, 1882, matters were still worse, the total arrivals mustering only 27, of whom 17 were miners, while the departures for that year were 387.55 These, however, are merely the returns forwarded from the customs districts, and I give them for what they are worth.

While Alaska remains, as it is today, little more than a customs district, though in name a civil and judicial district, no better results need be anticipated. If it should happen that in the year 1890, when the lease of the Alaska Commercial Company expires, its privileges be divided, then there would doubtless be a considerable influx of population; but whether such influx would, under present conditions, be of benefit to the territory or to the United States is a somewhat doubtful question. Laying aside, however, the comments of the press, and of disappointed political adventurers, it would seem to an impartial observer that the claims of the company are not altogether unworthy of recognition. Leasing a few leagues of rock, hanging almost midway between the continents, they have, while making larger returns to stockholders year by year than were made by the Russian American Company in a decade, paid over to the United States almost the face of the purchase money, and by their forethought and business tact furnished, though perhaps incidentally, means for wasteful extravagance in other sections of the territory. It is probable that the lessees of the Prybilof Islands were at first no less sorely disappointed with their bargain than were the purchasers of the Treadwell lode, and it is almost certain that in neither instance did the parties foresee the difficulties that lay before them. The fact that they have confronted and overcome those difficulties, and while doing so have laid bare some of the resources of Alaska, is one that needs not be pleaded against them.

What there is to be pleaded against them, save perhaps their success as a business association—the fact that in 1885 they gathered nine tenths of the world’s supply of sea-otter skins and three fourths of its supply of fur-seal skins, their chain of posts extending from Kamchatka far inland to the wilderness on the purchase of which the secretary of state was accused of wasting $7,200,000; that when they entered upon this business seal-skins were barely salable at a dollar, and have since found a ready market at from twelve to twenty dollars—the reader will judge for himself from the statements that I have laid before him.

Excepting, perhaps, Mr Seward, none whose names are known in Alaskan annals provoked about the year 1870 so much of cheap ridicule as did the firm that now controls the seal islands. “What, Mr Seward,” asked a friend, “do you consider the most important measure of your political career?” “The purchase of Alaska,” he replied; “but it will take the people a generation to find it out.”