The New Eldorado. A Summer Journey to Alaska

In examining the geographical characteristics of Alaska, we observe a peculiarity in its outlying islands which is also found in the construction of the continents. They all have east of their southern points series of islands. Thus, Alaska has the Sitkan or Alexander group; Africa has Madagascar; Asia has Ceylon; Australia has the two large islands of New Zealand; and America has the Falkland Islands. Alaska is the great island region of the United States.

It is not for us to enter into the brief history of the country, that is, brief as known to us, but it is well to fix in the mind the fact that Russia’s title was derived from prior discovery. Behring first saw the continent in this region of North America, July 18, 1741, in latitude 58° 28′, and two days later anchored in a bay near a point which he called St. Elias, a name which he also gave to the great mountain overshadowing the neighboring shore. It is sufficient for our purpose that we know this Territory was purchased from Russia by our government in 1867, after that country had occupied it a little more than a century, paying therefor the sum of seven million two hundred thousand dollars. It has been truly said that it was practically giving away the country on the part of Russia; but doubtless diplomatic reasons influenced the Tzar, who would much rather have presented it outright to the United States than to have it, by conquest or otherwise, fall into the hands of England, who was known to crave its possession as connected with her Pacific coast interests. So when the first Napoleon sold us Louisiana, he did so not alone in consideration of the money, which was doubtless much needed by his treasury, – amounting to sixty million francs, – but because he was not willing to leave this distant territory a prey to Great Britain in the event of hostilities between France and England, which were then imminent. He was glad, as he remarked, “to establish forever the power of the United States, and give to England a maritime rival destined to humble her pride;” adding, “It is for the interest of France that America should be great and strong.”

Alaska was a white elephant to Russia, but in our hands it has already proved a bonanza.

Any one can now see that the sum named as an equivalent for this colossal territory was a trifling value to place upon it, when its great extent is realized, together with its vast mineral wealth and inexhaustible supply of fish, fur, and timber. It is in fact the only great game and fur preserve left in the Western world, inviting the trapper and hunter to reap a rich return for their industry. Nowhere else on this continent do wild animals more abound, or enjoy such immunity from harm, as is afforded them in the dense, half-impenetrable forests of Alaska, where Nature herself becomes our gamekeeper, preventing the too rapid extinction of animal life.

From a lease in favor of the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco, giving them the exclusive right to take seals on the Prybiloff group of islands, our government has received four and one half per cent. interest, annually, during the last nineteen years, on the entire purchase-money paid to Russia. This same company, whose term is just about to expire, would gladly renew the lease with our government at a considerable advance upon the amount heretofore paid; but it is an open question whether the continuance of this great monopoly is for the best interest of Alaska, when considered in all its bearings.

Undoubtedly this contract is a real benefit in one way. The company, through its agents, will take good care to see that no outside interest interferes with their rights so as to permit any indiscriminate slaughter of the seals. Whereas, were the capture of these peltries not guarded, an end of the product would be brought about in a very short time. There is a manifest injustice in all monopolies, as we view them; but of two evils, in this instance we should perhaps feel inclined to choose the least by selling the privilege to a responsible company. It must be admitted that the high-handed course of the present company, their arbitrary assumptions, and their treatment of the natives generally, are represented in a very bad light by many residents of Alaska; but little else, however, could be expected of so great a monopoly. One thing is certain, and that is, the company has realized a great fortune by its contract.

There were plenty of people who ridiculed the acquisition of this Territory at the time when it was brought about; but there were also some far-seeing statesmen, influenced by no selfish motives, who felt very different about the matter, among whom was Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, and to whom the credit is mostly due for consummating the important purchase. That able diplomat considered the transaction to have been the most important act of his official career, and put himself on record to that effect. He remarked, in discussing the matter at a public meeting, “It may take two generations before the purchase is properly appreciated.” Mr. Seward was right. It was a crowning glory for him to have added a new empire to his country’s domain, though in 1867 its great commercial importance was hardly known, even to himself. Its valuable gold deposits were then thought possibly to exist; but subsequent developments have already far outstripped anticipations in that direction, and the large yield of the precious metal is annually increasing.

“I thought when Alaska was purchased, in 1867,” says that keen observer and clever writer, Captain John Codman, “that it might answer for a great skating park; but now I know, from merely coasting along its southeastern shores and landing at a few of its outposts, that the seven million two hundred thousand dollars paid for it is less than the interest of the sum that it is worth. A great part of it is yet unexplored, for its whole area is three times greater than the republic of France; but what has been discovered is invaluable, and what has not been discovered may be valuable beyond calculation.”

So little did we, as a people, appreciate the new acquisition that it was almost entirely neglected for seventeen years. Not until 1884 was it granted a territorial government, Hon. John H. Kinkead, ex-governor of Nevada, being the first governor appointed for Alaska. “Twenty years ago,” says Governor Swineford of Alaska, “I made political capital out of Seward’s purchase. I called it the refrigerator of the United States. I heaped obloquy on William H. Seward. I shall spend the rest of my life in making reparation to what I have so foully wronged.” Such has been the general testimony of all who speak from personal observation, and uninfluenced by sinister motives.

CHAPTER X

Territorial Acquisitions. – Population of Alaska. – Steady Commercial Growth. – Primeval Forests. – The Country teems with Animal Life. – A Mighty Reserve of Codfish. – Native Food. – Fur-Bearing Animals. – Islands of St. George and St. Paul. – Interesting Habits of the Fur-Seal. – The Breeding Season. – Their Natural Food. – Mammoth Size of the Bull Seals.

The subject of the addition of Alaska to the United States suggests the fact that our territorial acquisitions from time to time form certain decided and interesting landmarks in the history of the country. Thus, in 1803 we acquired Louisiana from France by the payment of fifteen million dollars. In 1845 Texas was annexed and her debt assumed, amounting to the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars. In 1848 California, New Mexico, and Utah were acquired from Mexico, partly through war, and by the payment of fifteen million dollars. In 1854 Arizona was purchased from Mexico for ten million dollars. And last, but by no means least, Alaska, as has been stated, was obtained from Russia in 1867 for seven million two hundred thousand dollars. “By this purchase,” said Charles Summer in his able speech before Congress, “we dismiss one more monarch from this continent. One by one they have retired; first France; then Spain; then France again; and now Russia; all give way to the absorbing Unity which is declared in the national motto, E Pluribus Unum.”

At the time of the transfer of Alaska, the native population, Russians, half-breeds and all, did not probably exceed forty thousand; indeed, careful inquiry seems to indicate that this is an overestimate. Since that period the native population has steadily decreased, but the white population has increased, it is believed, sufficiently to make good the estimated aggregate of twenty-two years ago. In 1867 the commerce of Alaska was officially reported as being two million five hundred thousand dollars for the current year. The published estimate for the last year made it a fraction less than seven million dollars, of which about a million five hundred thousand dollars was in gold bullion. Certainly this shows a very steady if not rapid commercial growth. Competent individuals estimate that the commerce of the Territory for the year 1889 will reach ten million dollars in amount. The increase in the number of fish-canning establishments alone will add two millions to last year’s aggregate. The shipment of preserved salmon exported in tins and barrels is increasing annually.

The available timber now standing in the Territory might alone meet the ordinary demand of this continent for half a century. Though the extreme northern part of Alaska is treeless, its southern shores, both of the islands and mainland, are covered with a dense forest growth, the Aleutian group excepted. It is the visible wealth of the country, and a source of admiration to all appreciative visitors.

Fort Tongas is very near the southeast point of Alaska, and about ten miles north of Fort Simpson; the former American, the latter English territory. When the ground was cleared to establish the American fort, “yellow cedar-trees,” says W. H. Dall, “eight feet in diameter were cut down. The flanks of all the islands of this archipelago bear a magnificent growth of the finest timber, from the water’s edge to fifteen hundred feet above the sea.” It must be a cedar of magnificent proportions out of which the natives can hew and construct a canoe seventy feet long capable of carrying one hundred men. This the Haidas do, producing models both swift and seaworthy, the prows extending in a peak not unlike the ancient galleys of Greece, decorated with totemic designs. These magnificent forests, having never felt the stroke of the axe, present a growth naturally very dense and peculiar, the branches of the tall trees being often draped with long black and white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resembles. This characteristic recalled the same effect observed upon the thickly wooded shores of the St. John River in Florida, and the Lake Pontchartrain district of Louisiana. The fallen trees and stumps are cushioned by a growth of green, velvety moss, nearly ten inches in thickness, and are also decked with creeping vines in the most picturesque manner; among which is seen here and there deep red clusters of the bunch-berry. The timber is pronounced by good judges to be as valuable as that of Oregon and Washington, compared with which our forests in Maine are hardly more than tall undergrowth. A very large percentage of the Alaska timber grows at the most convenient points for shipment, making it especially available. The white spruce, called the Sitka pine, rises to a height of from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and eighty feet, and measures from three to six feet in diameter. When this growth is cut into dimension lumber it very much resembles our southern pitch-pine. There is also found in these forests the usual variety of cedar, fir, ash, maple, and birch trees, mingled with the others of loftier growth. The yellow cedar of this region grows nowhere else of such size and quality. It is much prized, and best adapted for shipbuilding, having been found to be unequaled for durability, and also because it is impervious to the troublesome teredo, or boring worm, which destroys the ordinary piles under the wharves at Puget Sound, as well as at Sitka, so rapidly as to render it necessary to renew them every three or four years. Southern latitudes, in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Mexico, suffer equally from the depredations of this active marine pest. The Alaska cedar is also a choice cabinet wood, possessing a very agreeable odor, considerable quantities of it being shipped for select use in San Francisco and elsewhere. The coast of the Alexander Archipelago comprises nearly eight thousand miles of shore line, forming long straight avenues of calm deep water many miles in length, sprinkled with islands densely wooded from the water’s edge, while the number of good harbors is almost countless, in which vessels may lay alongside the land and receive their cargoes of timber or lumber in the most convenient manner.

When the woods of Maine and Michigan cease to yield satisfactorily, as they must do by and by, we have here a ready source of supply which no ordinary demand can exhaust in many years. One enthusiastic writer upon this subject predicts that this part of the North Pacific coast will eventually become the ship-yard of the American continent. One is hardly prepared to indorse so sweeping a prediction, but that there is a nearly inexhaustible supply of the necessary timber for such a purpose even an inexperienced visitor cannot fail to realize. It is gratifying to know that these forests are free from all danger by fire, which often proves so destructive in the State of Washington and elsewhere. This immunity from a much dreaded exigency is owing to the frequent rains, which keep the undergrowth in Alaska so moist that the flames cannot spread.

Speaking of Fort Tongas, we should not forget to mention that a native couple, educated by the missionaries, are here teaching a school of young natives numbering fifty pupils, for which our government pays them five hundred dollars per annum. The success attained by these instructors in teaching the ordinary branches of an English education is surprising. Tongas, it will be remembered, is the most southerly point of our Alaska possessions.

The country teems with animal life. The sea which laves its shores and the outlying islands is so full of excellent fish as to have been a wonder in this respect since the days of the earliest navigators. The same may be said of its rivers, inlets, and lakes, the former being famous for the abundance, size, and excellence of the salmon which they produce, and which are annually packed for exportation in such large quantities to various parts of the world. We were told by the overseer of the canning factory at Pyramid Harbor that the entire product of the establishment was already – the season but just commencing – engaged by a Liverpool house. To secure the delivery the foreign merchant had cheerfully advanced five hundred pounds sterling.

“The Alaska banks would be an ocean paradise to the Newfoundland fishermen,” says Professor Davidson. “The eastern part of Behring Sea ‘is a mighty reserve of cod,’ and the area within the limits of fifty fathoms of water is no less than eighteen thousand miles.” “What I have seen,” said W. H. Seward at Sitka, in 1869, “has almost made me a convert to the theory of some naturalists, that the waters of the globe are filled with stores for the sustenance of animal life surpassing the available productions of the land.” The coast also abounds in oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs. The oysters are small, but of excellent flavor, and might be greatly improved by cultivation. Clams and mussels are much esteemed by the aborigines, the first-named being large and of prime quality. They dry the clams, as they do salmon and cod, using no salt in the process, but stringing them by the score on long blades of strong grass, and in this shape laying them away for winter use. There is certainly some special preservative quality in the atmosphere here which enables the natives to keep clams unfrozen in good condition for several months. The matter of “ripeness,” however, makes no difference to these Indians, who seem actually to prefer their fish a little putrid, and oil is purposely kept until it becomes so before they will use it.

The hills and valleys of the islands and the mainland support more fur-bearing animals than can be found on any other part of this continent, and we certainly believe of any other part of the world. The great variety includes bears of several species, wolves, beavers, deer, foxes, caribou, martens, mountain goats, moose, musk-oxen, and others. Herds of walruses are found on the far north coast, as well as in Behring Sea, which yield food to the natives, and the best of ivory for sale to the traders. It is a curious fact that no reptile, toad, lizard, or similar animal is to be found in Alaskan territory. The waters of the North Pacific, from the most westerly of the Aleutian Islands up to Behring Strait, swarm with cod, haddock, sturgeon, large flounders, and halibut, while our hardy whale men successfully pursue their mammoth game both north and south of the strait. When the country was first discovered, there was another important animal found here in considerable numbers, known as the sea-cow, which furnished Vancouver and his crew with wholesome and palatable meat, and which had formed a source of food supply for the aborigines probably for centuries. But this large, amphibious animal, thirty feet long and seal-like in shape, has now entirely disappeared. This was owing to merciless slaughter by the Russians, who found the sea-cow an easy prey to capture, because of its inactivity and clumsiness in the water, besides which, the creature is said to have been utterly fearless of man, making no effort to escape when attacked. They are represented to have been fierce when attacked by the wolves, and to have been fully able to defend themselves.

Two islands lying to the north of the Aleutian group form a favorite resort of the fur-seal, which so abounds in this region that nearly a century of active war waged upon them by the hunters, for the sake of their valuable skins, has produced no perceptible diminution in their numbers. This is partly owing, however, to the fact that of late years the killing has been restricted as to the aggregate annual number, and also as to the sex and age of the seals. The pelts sent from Alaska have not fallen short of a hundred thousand annually for the last twenty years, and it is believed by those who should be able to judge correctly that this number has been very much exceeded. There is hardly an uninterested person in the Territory who will not express this opinion.

The two islands referred to in Behring Sea, namely, St. Paul and St. George, together with two smaller and unimportant ones named respectively Otter Island, which is situated six miles south of St. Paul, and Walrus Island, about the same distance to the eastward, are known as the Prybiloff group. St. Paul is thirteen miles long by four broad; St. George is ten miles long and between four and five broad. Neither of them have any harbor in which vessels can safely lie, but they anchor half a mile or more off shore, and freight is taken or delivered by means of lighters. So violent is the surf at times on these islands in mid-ocean that if the wind is unfavorable no attempt at landing is made. Otter Island is peculiar in being nothing more nor less than an extinct volcano, with a still gaping, threatening crater, and an elevation of three hundred feet above the surrounding sea. Its only occupants consist of water-fowl and blue foxes, both as plentiful as peas in a pod. The animals were introduced long ago for breeding purposes, and have greatly increased. These are the “seal islands” so often spoken of, and which furnish four fifths of all the sealskins used in the markets of the world. This sounds like an extravagant estimate, but it is believed to be quite correct.

The islands are of volcanic origin, having been thrown up from the bottom of the sea in comparatively modern times. When one speaks of geological facts, one or two thousand years are considered very brief periods. At the time of their discovery, St. George and St. Paul were uninhabited, but native Aleuts, the nearest of whom lived about two hundred miles south of these islands, were brought hither and domesticated, to work for the Russian Fur Company. Since the transfer to our government these people have worked uninterruptedly for the Alaska Commercial Company, which has, in addition to the headquarters of the seal-fishery, some forty trading stations in the Territory.

We speak of the “seal-fisheries,” but there is in reality no fishing about the business. The seals are all taken on land. The employees of the company get between the seals and the water and drive such as are selected inland like a flock of sheep. They move slowly, pulling themselves along by their fore flippers, as a dog might do with his hind legs broken, but they get over the ground at the rate of one or two miles in the hour, and are driven the latter distance to the warehouse before the killing takes place.

It is curious that these two islands only, with a few small spots in the North Pacific, should possess the peculiar conditions of landing-ground and climate combined which are necessary for the perfect life and reproduction of the fur-seal. H. W. Elliott, who acted as United States government agent for four seasons at the seal islands, and who is good authority upon this special subject, says: “With the exception of these seal islands of Behring Sea, there are none elsewhere in the world of the slightest importance to-day. When, therefore, we note the eagerness with which our civilization calls for sealskin fur, in spite of fashion and its caprices, and the fact that it is and always will be an article of intrinsic value and in demand, it at once occurs to us that the government is exceedingly fortunate in having this great amphibious stock-yard, far up and away in this seclusion of Behring Sea, from which it can draw continuous revenue, and on which its wise regulations and its firm hand can continue the seals forever.”

This writer’s remarks should be qualified, however, so far as to state that the Russians possess some profitable “rookeries” situated on the Commander Islands, seven hundred miles to the southwest of the Prybiloff group, where the same policy of protection for breeding purposes is enforced as govern the traffic of our own islands. It is true that the product of the Russian islands is as nothing compared with that of St. Paul and St. George. A small number of fur-seal are also secured on the coast of Brazil, and at the Shetland and Falkland Islands, giving perhaps twenty thousand pelts annually from other sources than those named in Alaska. It is our own opinion that at least forty thousand pelts are sent to market by unauthorized people from the islands and coast of Alaska, which number should be added to the hundred thousand which the regular company are entitled to export, in getting at the aggregate produced by the Territory.

The two seal islands leased to the Alaska Commercial Company are about thirty miles apart, and are seemingly among the most insignificant landmarks known in the ocean. It is only on very modern maps that they are designated at all, but they afford to the seals the happiest isolation and shelter, their position being such as to envelop them in fog banks nine days out of ten during the entire season of resort. Neither the seals nor the natives can long bear the glare of the summer sun, and so find no fault with this prevailing screen between them and the sky. There are no icebergs, properly so called, in these waters. Behring Strait is too shallow for anything but light field ice to pass into the North Pacific or Behring Sea; there is therefore no fear of visits from the polar bears often seen floating about in the frozen sea at the north. They would make sad havoc among the seals were they to get so far south, and drive them away altogether. Ice floats off from the immediate shores in the spring, but encountering the thermal current, this soon dissolves, and is no impediment to navigation. It is marvelous that the natives dwelling on the group do not die of the poisoned atmosphere arising from the thousands upon thousands of seal carcasses annually slaughtered, and which are left to decay upon the ground. The stench thus created is so powerful that vessels sailing to leeward, three or four miles off shore, are permeated by it, and though their captains may not have been able to get a solar observation for many days, they can easily tell their exact latitude and longitude by “dead reckoning.” Naval surgeons have been detached by government to visit and examine the physical condition of the people on St. George and St. Paul, touching this very matter, and they have reported that the natives enjoyed good health, the mortality among them being at a very low average compared with that of other semi-civilized communities favorably situated. There is a church and school-house on each of the islands, with white teachers, and also a skilled physician, who is paid for his services by the Commercial Company.

The fur-seal traffic has heretofore exceeded all other regular business in value conducted in this Territory, though the product of the precious metals will in future probably take the lead, hard pressed by the rapidly growing development of the fisheries. The habits of the seal are interesting and very peculiar. It is a social animal, and evinces a degree of intelligence nearly approaching that of the dog. Occasionally a young one is found domesticated among the natives of the more populous islands, and when thus brought up among human beings they become very tractable, and are easily taught many amusing tricks. They move in herds, coming to the breeding grounds in large numbers, and at regular periods of the year, that is in the latter part of May and early in June. The contrast between the male and female seal is great, the former being large, bold, and aggressive, the latter small, peaceful, and quiet; both are models of grace and symmetry after their kind. While the males are specimens of great physical strength, the females are delicate, timid, and affectionate. The young are born blind and so remain for a couple of weeks, or more. When they are about six weeks old the mother takes them into the water to teach them to swim. They are very shy of the sea at first, but persistent effort on the mother’s part soon makes them expert swimmers, and rapidly develops that side of their nature. During the breeding season the old males remain on shore, fasting all the while, and growing extremely thin, living by absorption of the blubber which they accumulate while at sea, so that upon retiring at the end of the season they are but a mere shadow of their former selves. They return again the next season, however, as plethoric as ever.

“All the bulls,” says Mr. Elliott, “from the very first, that have been able to hold their positions, have not left them from the moment of their landing, for a single instant, night or day; nor will they do so until the end of the rutting season, which subsides entirely between August 1st and 10th. It begins shortly after the coming of the cows in early June. Of necessity, therefore, this causes them to fast, to abstain entirely from food of any kind, or water, for three months at least; and a few of them actually stay out four months, in total abstinence, before going back into the ocean for the first time after ‘hauling up.’ They then return as so many bony shadows of what they were a few months previously, covered with wounds; abject and spiritless, they laboriously crawl back to the sea to obtain a fresh lease of life.”

The natural food of the seal is believed to be small fishes and kelp, that prolific product of the ocean which is found floating in nearly all latitudes, being torn from its rocky bed by storms and carried everywhere on the tides and currents. The females seldom give birth to more than one at a time, and though they are naturally a very docile animal, the mother will fight savagely for her young. The old males weigh from two to three hundred pounds each, when they first land, soon gathering a harem about them of a dozen females or more, and permitting no other bull to approach the circle. There are occasional elopements among the females, enticed away by young bachelor seals, who have no family ties to occupy them, but as a rule the females remain loyal, at least during the season. The full grown male reaches seven feet in length, and the female about five feet; the latter averages about a hundred pounds in weight, the former weigh twice as much and often more. Nature seems to produce a much larger number of females than of males, besides which the law protects the female from the hunter. The killing of these animals on St. Paul and St. George is nearly all done in six weeks of each year, say from the 10th of June to the 20th of July. As regards the fur, a seal at four years of age is thought to yield the best, and is therefore considered to be at that time in his prime. It is the males of this age, accordingly, which are selected for slaughter. So numerous are these animals that the shore is often black with them, three or four thousand being in sight within the space of a hundred square rods. The pups are full of playfulness, rolling and tumbling about like a litter of kittens. The rule not to kill the old bulls and female young is a necessary precaution to prevent the extermination of the race, which indiscriminate slaughter has probably done in so many other places.

CHAPTER XI

Enormous Slaughter of Seals. – Manner of Killing. – Battles between the Bulls. – A Mythical Island. – The Seal as Food. – The Sea-Otter. – A Rare and Valuable Fur. – The Baby Sea-Otter. – Great Breeding-Place of Birds. – Banks of the Yukon River. – Fur-Bearing Land Animals. – Aggregate Value of the Trade. – Character of the Native Race.

Surgeon J. B. Parker tells us in a published article upon the fur-seals of Alaska, that just previous to the transfer of the country to this government five hundred thousand sealskins were being taken from these islands annually, though it was pretended by the Russians that they restricted the number to one quarter of this total. The strange instinct of the animals which causes them to return yearly in such marvelous numbers to be slaughtered is a mystery difficult to solve. Persistent cruelty exercised towards them for a century has not disturbed their affection for this chosen breeding-place of their ancestors in Behring Sea.

The seals are universally killed by a sharp blow upon the head from a club, which fractures the skull and produces instant death. The natives are so skillful in dealing this blow that a second one is not necessary, and the seal cannot reasonably be supposed to suffer any pain, so that the operation is robbed of all cruel features. The frequent battles fought between the old bulls to maintain possession of their chosen ground and their harems are represented to be of the fiercest character, sometimes ending in the death of one of the combatants, though they are so very hardy and tenacious of life that this is by no means common. The breeding season is at its height in the middle of July. Early in September, the pups having learned to swim, the “rookeries” are gradually broken up for the season, old and young departing together for the deep-sea feeding grounds, nothing being seen of them again as a body until the following May or June. It is quite a mystery as to where they go, but that they promptly disperse in various directions seems most probable, as no seals are met with in large numbers by navigators of the Pacific or the South Seas, and they only land for breeding purposes. The author has seen a few in the month of March off the Samoan group of islands, also in the month of December near the coast of Cochin China. And again, in crossing the Indian Ocean from Bombay to the mouth of the Red Sea, in February, an occasional head of the fur-seal would appear above the surface of the ocean, showing how widely dispersed these animals are. There is a theory which has long existed, to the effect that when the seals depart from Behring Sea they seek a lonely island group in the central Pacific Ocean, somewhere between 53° and 55° north latitude, and longitude 160° to 170° west, where they pass their winter months in peace and plenty. Expeditions have been fitted out at San Francisco for the purpose of discovering these possible islands, but no one has ever seen them. Those most conversant with seal-life do not entertain this supposition, and for good reasons. If any such land existed in the region designated it would surely have been discovered, as it is too near the direct track of commerce not to have been sighted long ago.

The flesh of the fur-seal is eaten by the natives, and the blubber also serves for fuel, as well as furnishing a much-used oil. The stench of the burning fat is extremely disgusting to one not accustomed to it. There is but little lean meat on the animal; nearly the whole body is composed of blubber. The whites eat the flesh of the young seal, which is not unpalatable when properly prepared, and is called Alaska pork. When the females arrive at the “rookeries,” like the old males, they are in remarkably good flesh, so much so, indeed, as to render locomotion difficult; but though they do not fast like the bulls, they nevertheless become quite thin by the end of the season.

St. George and St. Paul islands contain about three hundred and fifty Aleuts, whose sole business is killing and skinning the seals, and afterwards salting and packing the pelts for shipment. They are all in the regular employment of the Commercial Company, which leases the islands. By the terms of the lease from our government, only natives of the Aleutian group of islands can be employed to kill the seals; no whites except the overseers are permitted to remain on the two islands. An agent of the United States occasionally visits them to see that the spirit of the lease is faithfully adhered to; otherwise they are quite isolated from the outer world. Under the protective system, which is presumedly adhered to, the number of seals is said to be on the increase, and the space on the shores which they occupy is enlarged yearly. It has been officially estimated, after actual inspection, that over one million seals are born on these islands every year. It is asserted that double the number of pelts now authorized could safely be taken from the Pribyloff group annually, and it would certainly seem so, when this extraordinary fecundity is realized. But it must also be taken into consideration that man is not the only enemy which the fur-seal has to encounter. When the young ones leave the shore to begin their deep-sea life, they become the prey of many marine cormorants, among which the shark is said to be the most active. This tiger of the ocean does not attack the large, full-grown seals, who are too wary and active for him, but the young ones often fill his capacious maw.

The aborigines employed upon the seal islands do not reach a very old age; persons of over fifty years are seldom found among them. Consumption is the most fatal disease which they encounter; this runs its course with singular speed after being once contracted. All attempts of the physicians are in vain; the patient, falling into a condition of hopeless indifference, soon passes away. We were told that the natives of Alaska generally were very difficult to treat medically, ignoring the benefit of medicines, and generally refusing to take them. These semi-savages will not hesitate to resort to incantations to exorcise evil spirits (or disease, which to them is the same thing), but they fear to use the white man’s agent to remove these evil influences.

For a number of years the manufacture of oil from seal blubber was followed by the fur company with profit, thus disposing of the carcasses of the animals whose skin had been removed; but oil-making on the seal islands has been discontinued, as being no longer a paying business.

The sea-otter is a large animal, having fine, close black fur, sprinkled with long, white-tipped hairs, which strongly individualize it and add much to its beauty. Its pelt is used mostly for trimming, being both too heavy and too expensive for making up into entire garments. The size of a full-grown skin is about four feet in length by about two and a half wide. It is a solitary marine animal, never seen in numbers, rarely even with a mate, and is extremely shy, demanding great patience and shrewdness in the hunter to insure its capture. This animal rarely lands except to bring forth its young, and the natives say that it sometimes gives birth to its progeny on floating sedge or kelp at sea. Of this material the ingenious creature makes a sort of buoyant nest, according to the natives’ ideas. When sleeping, it floats upon its back, carrying its young clasped to its body in a ludicrously human fashion. The Indians hunt the animals by going out a considerable distance to sea in their frail canoes, and watching for the appearance of the otter’s nose above the water, they paddle silently towards it so as not to disturb the game. At the proper moment the well-balanced and delicate lance is thrown with unerring aim. A careful watch is then kept for the reappearance of the otter, which must soon come to the surface to breathe, being a warm-blooded, respiratory animal. A second lance is pretty sure to disable the otter, when it floats helpless on the surface, falling an easy prey to the pursuer. At times six or eight natives in single canoes join in the hunt, so as to form a broad circle; the nearest one to the otter when he rises after being wounded is the one to throw the second lance. The hunters obtain from the local traders between forty and fifty dollars for a full-grown otter skin, and sometimes double that amount, so that if successful in the pursuit they are well rewarded for many hours of patient watchfulness, aside from which they realize a keen enjoyment in the pursuit as sportsmen.

The hunters oftenest pursue their game alone, and if a native secures an otter after a whole week of watching he feels well repaid, though during that time he has lived on a scanty supply of food, and has slept nightly in the open air exposed to the rain. Sometimes his watch is kept in his boat upon the sea, and sometimes among the rocks on the shore, in a bay where the otters are known to resort occasionally. A few years of such rough life and exposure ages even an Alaskan Indian, and it is not surprising that rheumatism and consumption should so prevail among them. Up to a certain stage such a life may harden the hunter, but the turning-point comes at last, and when the native begins to fail in physical strength he does so rapidly; simply giving way to the first attack, rejecting all medicine which the white man may offer, and unless he is an important member of his tribe, a chief or a leader of some sort, even the shaman or medicine man with his incantations is not called in. Good nursing is discarded, the invalid considers it to be his fate to die, and seems to go half way to meet the grim destroyer.

The fur of the sea-otter varies in beauty of texture and value according to the animal’s age and the season of the year in which it is captured. They are considered to be in their prime when about five years old, and those skins which are taken in winter are always of a more beautiful texture than those which are secured in summer. Of all animals hunted by man it is most on the alert, and, as we have said, most difficult to obtain. One intelligent statement declares that before they were so systematically hunted eight thousand skins were shipped from Alaska in a single year, but we believe that from four to five thousand otter skins would be considered a good twelve months’ yield in these days. The Saanack islets and reefs are the principal resort of these animals on the coast, and hither the natives come from long distances to hunt them, camping on the main island. Frequent attempts have been made to rear the young sea-otter, specimens being often taken when the mother is captured, but they always perish by starvation, never partaking of food after being separated from the mother; a well-known fact, which was referred to with not a little sentiment by the experienced hunter who related the circumstance to us. “Him die of broke heart,” said the native, attempting an expression of tenderness upon his egg-shaped features, which proved a ludicrous caricature. We saw a stuffed specimen of a young sea-otter in a native cabin at Juneau, consisting of the skin only, but very cleverly mounted and preserved by the hunter who had captured its mother.

It is somewhat singular that the world’s supply of otter fur, like that of sealskin, comes almost entirely from the coast of Alaska, in the North Pacific and Behring Sea. Otter fur may be said to be almost confined in its geographical distribution to the northwest shores of America.

The successful pursuit of the animal, so far as the natives are concerned, is of even more importance than that of the fur-seals, for contingent upon its chase, and from the proceeds of its pelts, some five thousand natives are enabled to live in comparative luxury. It requires, as we have shown, great energy, hardihood, and patient application to effect its capture, but the sea-otter is a most beneficent gift of Providence to these aborigines, and administers, as well, to the pride of the fashionable world. The natives in former times attached great importance to preparing themselves for hunting the sea-otter, fasting, bathing, and performing certain mystic rites before embarking for the purpose. After his return from a successful hunt the Aleut was accustomed to destroy the garments which he wore during the expedition, throwing them into the sea, so that the otters might find them and come to the conclusion that their late persecutor had been drowned and there was no further danger in frequenting the shore. This practice, ridiculous as it seems to us, serves to illustrate the superstitious character of the Alaskan natives, who seldom fail to see omens in the most trifling every-day occurrences.

The interior and northern parts of Alaska are the greatest breeding-places for birds in the world, being the resort of innumerable flocks, which come from various parts of this continent, and others which make the tropical islands their home a large portion of the year on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of America. These myriads of the feathered tribes consist largely of geese, ducks, and swans, coming hither for nesting, and to fatten upon the wild salmon berries, red and black currants, cranberries, blackberries, bilberries, and the like, which greatly abound during the brief but intense Arctic summer. There are eleven kinds of edible berries which mature in August, among which the wild strawberries are the finest flavored we have ever eaten. It is said that the geese especially become so fat feeding upon the plentiful supply of wholesome food that at the close of the season they can hardly fly, and are thus easily caught by the natives, who, in turn, feast luxuriously upon their tender and succulent flesh. Explorers tell us that they have seen on the banks of the Yukon – the great river of central Alaska, and the third in magnitude in America – the breeding-place of the canvas-back ducks, which has been heretofore a matter of some mystery. They prepare on the banks of this northern watercourse broad platforms of sedge, mingled with small twigs and bushes, laid compactly on marshy places, and without building a carefully arranged nest deposit their eggs in untold numbers. That keen and scientific observer, the late Major Kennicott, says he saw on the banks of the Yukon acres of marshy ground thus covered with the eggs of the canvas-back ducks, in numbers defying computation. “The region drained by the Upper Yukon is spoken of by explorers,” says Mr. Charles Hallock, editor of “Forest and Stream,” “as being a perfect Eden, where flowers bloom, beneficent plants yield their berries and fruits, majestic trees spread their umbrageous fronds, and song-birds make the branches vocal. The water of the streams is pure and pellucid; the blue of the rippled lake is like Geneva’s; their banks resplendent with verdure, and with grass and shining pebbles.”

At the first approach of winter the augmented millions of birds take flight for the low latitudes, or their homes in the temperate zone, the old birds accompanied by the broods which they have hatched in the solitudes of the far north. Those which have come from the neighborhood of the Caribbean Sea turn in their flight unerringly in that direction; those from the South Pacific islands heading as surely for that tropical region. Only the ptarmigan and the Arctic owl, with a few of the white-hawk family, remain to brave the winter cold of northern Alaska, with the hardy Eskimo, the walrus, and the polar bear. The smaller tribes of birds are well represented here in the summer season, even including several species of swallows, martins, and sparrows, these tiny creatures seeming to follow some general bird instinct. Even the domestic robin is seen as far north as Sitka. Limited scientific research has recognized and classified one hundred and ninety-two different kinds of birds which are found in this Territory, a considerable number of which were unknown to science previous to 1867.

We have said nothing relative to the hair-seals, or sea-lions, of Alaska, because their importance is comparatively insignificant, having no commercial value. Nevertheless, they are utilized by the ingenious natives in various ways; the hides serve as a covering for a certain class of boats, made with wooden frames, and are also employed for several domestic purposes. The walrus is found in largest numbers on the north coast, in the true Arctic region, affording some valuable oil, together with considerable ivory, in carving which the natives are very expert. Though the fur-trade of the land is by no means equal to that of the sea, still its aggregate results are very considerable. It employs numerous hunters and gives profitable business to many white traders, nearly all of whom make a permanent home in the Territory. Undoubtedly the most prolific and valuable fur-yielding district on the mainland is the valley of the Yukon, where the beaver, marten, several kinds of bears, with the wolf and fox, afford the best fur. We saw at the principal store in Wrangel many packages of bearskins prepared for shipment to San Francisco. These packages would average five hundred dollars each in value, and had been gathered from those brought in by the natives during the two weeks intervening between the arrival of the regular steamers. Single bearskins sell here, according to their marketable character, for from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars each. The natives make little or no use of these skins, preferring the woolen blanket of commerce. The red and cross fox is found everywhere in the Territory, and its skin is comparatively cheap. It is singular that the blue fox is found only on the islands of St. Paul, St. George, Attoo, and Atkha, while the white fox is to be sought only at the far north. There is also the black fox, which, however, is a great rarity, thought to be an occasional accident of nature; the skins always bring extravagant prices from the traders. The black fox is not found in any special locality, but occurs now and again in any part of the Territory. The skin of the silver fox is also highly prized, and proves a valuable peltry to the native hunters, forty dollars each being the usual price paid by the white traders. Only a few hundred are taken yearly. The land-otter and the beaver so abound as to make up a large total value annually. The latest official records show that there has been produced and shipped from Alaska annually an average of fifty-seven thousand beaver skins; eighteen thousand land-otter skins; seventy-one thousand foxes’ skins of the various sorts; and of musk-rats two hundred and twenty-one thousand. These figures should be largely added to in each instance (we were told by one official that this aggregate estimate should be doubled), in order to include the unregistered pelts which are annually secured by various hunters, both whites and natives, and which find their way to distant markets through irregular channels, more especially over the borders of British Columbia.

This fur-trade is open to all, but requires capital, organization, and persistency to make it profitable. The natives do nearly all of the hunting and trapping, and will only engage in it, as a rule, to supply themselves with means to procure certain luxuries from the trader’s store, such as sugar, tea, and tobacco. We are sorry to add to these comparative necessities the article of whiskey, which is only too often furnished illicitly to the eager natives. When these wants are supplied they idle away their time until stimulated once more by their necessities to go upon the trail of the fur-bearing animals. Of course there are some exceptions to this, many of them being steady and willing workers, but we speak of the average native. There is no fear of the supply of furs being exhausted under this system of capture; even a combined and vigorous effort on the part of the hunters could not accomplish that in many years. Unlike our western Indians, these Alaskans are a comparatively thrifty race, entirely self-sustaining, and never require support from the government, notwithstanding idleness is their besetting sin, as is, indeed, characteristic of uncivilized people everywhere.

We were told of several of these aborigines who had learned the lesson of thrift from the whites to such good effect as to have saved sums of money varying from one to five hundred dollars, which they had deposited in the Savings Bank of San Francisco, and upon which they drew their annual interest; an investment, the safety and economy of which they fully appreciated.

CHAPTER XII

Climate of Alaska. – Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle. – Winter and Summer Seasons. – The Japanese Current. – Temperature in the Interior. – The Eskimos. – Their Customs. – Their Homes. – These Arctic Regions once Tropical. – The Mississippi of Alaska. – Placer Mines. – The Natives. – Strong Inclination for Intoxicants.