Our New Alaska; or, the Seward purchase vindicated ... Illustrated, etc

Front matter

Forest and Stream Books. Cance and Boat Building, By w. p. Stephens. 192 pp., and thirty plates of working drawings. Price $1.50. Canoe Handling, ByC B. Vaux,"Dot," Price $1.00. Camp &* Canoe Cookery, By "Seneca," Price$i.oo. Woodcraft, By "Nessmuk," Price $1.00. Do<r Training, By S. T. Hammond, Priœ $1.00. Angling Talks, By George Dawson, Price 50 cents. Antelope and Deer of America, By John Dean Caton, L.L. D., Price $2.50. Small Yachts, By C. P. Kunhardt, Quarto. (Size of page, I4r2 ■ r*J4i with sixty-three full-page plates.) Price $7.00. The Canoe Aurora, By Dr. Chas. A. Neide, Price $1.00. ENTRANCE TO THE STICKEEN RIVER. OUR NEW ALASKA; OR, THE SEWARD PURCHASE VINDICATED. BY CHARLES HALLOCK,^. AUTHOR OF THE "FISHING TOURIST," "SPORTSMAN'S GAZETTEER," "CAMP LIFE IN FLORIDA," ETC. ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES BY PROF. T. f. RICHARDSON.

NEW YORK : FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO., 1886. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886^ by FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

Preface

. " Man has not found Alaska yet," says Edwards Roberts in the Overland Monthly. " Alone in the North she rests upon the bosom of her seas, waiting patiently for her deliverance." The special object of this book is to point out the visible resources of that far off territory, and to assist their lag gard development; to indicate to those insufficiently informed the economic value of important industries hitherto almost neglected, which are at once available for immediate profit; to elucidate the vexed problem of labor supply; to impress upon Congress the advantage, as well as the duty, of providing proper protection for the people, and granting them representation through a chosen delegate, who shall be competent and conscientious to instruct and advise, and efficient to push their claims and their necessities, so that they may voice the needs of this great integer of the republic, and contribute without let or hindrance to its wealth and prosperity ; and finally to prove conclusively that the " Seward Purchase " was not so bad a bargain after all.

At the same time attention is directed to those extraordinary physical phenomena whose marvelous combination makes Alaska the most attractive region in the world for sojourners and summer tourists. I would fain divert a portion of the travel which habitually goes to Europe to this new field of commerce and adventure. I would popularize home excursions among our votaries of fashion — Yosemite, Alaska, and the Yellowstone — as the primary and proper thing to " do " before attempting the Old VVorld tour ; and so make it incumbent upon every American citizen, who would claim consideration abroad, to be duly accredited at the home office as competent to travel. Hitherto our new possession has seemed almost a myth too vague and intangible to tempt even the Argonauts. Like an unexpected legacy, its magnificence and value have not yet been comprehended; but the time is close at hand

PREFACE.

. when her mighty forests will yield their treasures, her mines will open out their richness, her seas will give of their abundance, and all her quiet coves will be converted into busy harbors. Her grassy islands, her rounded foot-hills and her bounteous table-lands will pasture goodly herds, and her exuberant soil teem with vegetables and fruit. The gelid out-put from her glacier fronts — the crystal ice-floes which fill her most sequestered channels — will be harvested where they float, for transportation to the semi-torrid latitudes below; pleasure yachts will thread the intricacies of her studded islands, and no retreat for invalids and summer saunterers will be half so popular. Already the vibrations of the pending boom begin to agitate the air. The favorable reports of government explorers sent out to investigate the interior as well as the coast, are re-assuring.

Letters of inquiry from intending settlers come from every section. Official departments are getting down to systematic work. New industries have been established within the present year. Capital will no longer be withheld grudgingly from enterprises waiting to be developed ; and by the time this book is ready to leave the press, a tide of emigration will set strongly in the direction of the Aleutian Isles. Talk of the sterility of Alaska, and its inhospitable soil ! Why there are eleven kinds of edible berries which mature in August, and strawberries grow in lavish profusion right under the breadth of the glacier fields in latitude sixty degrees. The mightiest giant of our eastern pineries is but a pigmy in diameter beside the average conifer of Alaska, where the undergrowth is so dense, and the " slash " so intricate, below the snow-line, that progress through it is almost impossible, and three miles a day is a difficult feat to accomplish.

Alaska has been egregiously misconceived, maligned and misrepresented. The very encomiums which enraptured tourists have bestowed upon her Alpine scenery, have served to discourage settlement or adventure; men forgetting that the forbidding Alps do not constitute the whole of Switzer land. Frigid impressions of her climate and agricultural capabilities have been reflected from her glacier fields and snow-clad peaks. Beneath her dazzling drapery fancy apprehended a stark dead body instead of a livino* force. What poets admire to paint as " The land of the midnight sun," matter-of-fact folks accept as the polar world. And so Alaska is misjudged. Alaska has been belied. Not only are her marvelous resources generally ignored, but they have been systemati-

PREFACE.

. III cally and semi-officially denied. Authentic statements of disinterested investigators have been sedulously contra dicted in the interest of parties whom it paid to keep the possibilities of the country close. It was so during the Russian occupation, and has been so ever since, and from kindred motives. No conscientious person ever dared affirm that the country was absolutely worthless; that a region with 2,000 miles of breadth and 25,000 miles of coast line (!) had absolutely nothing in it worth having; but the Russian government, which yielded its prerogatives to the fur companies, could itself get nothing out of it, and so, perhaps, it came to be for sale. Only within a few years past has the light of truth begun to gleam steadfastly through the fog, inasmuch as the country had been previously inaccessible to us; but now, with a regular bi monthly steamer to principal ports, and the omnipotent fact published broadcast by the Sitka paper, that milk is sold at ten cents a quart, and lettuce is given away in the local market, some caution must be observed in pronouncing the territory valueless, incapable and agriculturally worthless.

The scope and fitness of Alaska for agriculture and stock raising are not yet recognized, simply because they have not been extensively tested. The illimitable wheat region of the British North-west, once supposed to be a desert, it has been proved can feed the world. The intense cold of winser, instead of being a drawback, acts in the farmer's interest. The deeper the frost goes .the better. As it thaws out gradually in the summer, it loosens the sub-soil and sends up the needed moisture to the roots of the grain. The Canadian explorers in Rupert's Sound, in the interest of a railway to Hudson's Bay, claim that the country is not only densely forested but contains valleys and plains which promise rich wheat harvests when once they shall have come under cultivation. The interior of Alaska seems to be equally assuring, since all the witnesses in nature, there indigenous, rise up and testify to it.

The geese which fly north in April and return in November, the grouse which brood in May, the flowers which bloom in June, the uncounted herds of caribou, the abundance of moose, bears, mountain goats, birds and other animal life, the exuberance of wild fruits and forest growth, the expansive prairies and moss-covered plains, and the almost tropical heat of mid-summer, all attest the presence of conditions, climatic and otherwise, upon which to predicate deductions altogether favorable. And Alaska " is waiting for deliverance." She holds her

PREFACE.

. arms outstretched, and her lap filled with offerings, bidding us come and take them as our recompense, if we will but set her free from isolation and introduce her to the com mercial world. My unpretentious sketch may not add any great amount of information to what has already been written of this strange country, but what I have contributed is mainly from my own personal observation, unaided by reports and reference books, which I have purposely refrained from con sulting. Its south-western coast line for a distance of one thousand miles has become already pretty well known, and is now being thoroughly surveyed by the government. My illustrations show some of its characteristics. It will take years to develop its visible resources, to say nothing of those which do not yet appear ; and, therefore, we need not care at present to speculate much upon what lies inland, back of the coast range.

It is better to utilize the oppor tunities at hand than to search for others which may not exist. The territory is vast, and centuries of systematic investigation will hardly suffice to reveal its fullest capabilities. Population will penetrate into the interior as soon as economic industries are fairly introduced along the sea board, and if there be any land fit for cultivation it will be promptly brought into requisition to supply local demands. Those who know, and have raised fine potatoes one hundred and fifty miles up the Stickeen River, which matured in August, affirm that Alaska can supply her home people from the outset, and pari passu with their numerical increase, with fresh meat, and vegetables, game and berries, fish and dairy products, leaving the lower latitudes to supply the cereals and groceries.

If minerals are found as widely distributed as indications suggest, the process of develop ment and occupation will be rapid. Upon the whole, our people have shown considerable energy in taking hold to make something of what appeared to be "no good." They have done fairly well with their cumbersome acquisition, and events are likely to prove that the " Seward Purchase " was not only dirt cheap, but a remunerative investment. I am pleased to add that the pages of this volume have been read by the specialists of the Smithsonian Institution and by the government officials most familiar with Alaska, and by them approved. Charles Hallock. Washington, D. C, April 13, r886. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Itinerary of the Trip. — Excursion routes — Interesting overland trip — Luxurious coast voyage — Canadian Pacific and Northern Pacific — A superb thoroughfare — The Columbia river country — A smoky atmosphere — A big breakfast — Superabundance of the Pacific coast — Glimpse of Mt. Hood — Puget Sound — Victoria — Indian camp — Policy toward the Indian population — Chinese thrift — A new deal for John — Pigtails no more, -

Chapter II

Itinerary Continued. — At Sea — Ox-tail soup — Enchantment begins — Delectable views — Mountains and mælstroms — A dangerous strait — Fog whistles — Kinship of fellowship — A training school for bears — Indian civilization — High-toned Hydahs — A missionary's ideal — Curious houses —Exquisite ware — Customs without duties — Holding the mirror up to nature — Nautical diaries — Salt-water confidences — A hasty burial — Suicide of a rooster — Totem poles — An old trading post — Native sculpture — Magnificent scenery — An old smuggler — U . S. surveys — Countless salmon — A live town — Gold in sight — Native villages — Negro settlers — A community of " traveling men " — Destructive teredo — Devils' club — Salmon canneries — The furthest point north, ---------- -iq

Chapter III

As Excursionists See It. — Very salubrious — No mosquitoes — Always cool — A 2,000 mile excursion — A new creation — Archipelago of mountains — Snow clad peaks — Whales in landlocked basins — Giant kelp — Salt-water pyrotechnics — Blanket-sail and paddle — Jelly-fish — A symphony of surf — A stretch of rough water — Clouds and fog — Reduplicated wonders — Arctic and tropical paradoxes, ---------

Chapter IV

Economically Considered. — The " American Desert" reclaimed — " Bad Lands " not so bad — The fruitful Northwest — Chinook winds — Appearances which mislead — Frigid regions which are sometimes hot — Ocean currents — The Kuro-Siwo — Ice as a fertilizer — Rank vegetation — Agricultural capabilities — Small native fruits — Stock ranges — Wintering stock — Dairy products — VI CONTENTS. 79 Beet sugar— Prices current— A big timber preserve — Three hundred million acres— Arctic for ests — Forest fires — Indian smoke signals— Commercial woods— Their relative value— The great fur land — Native middle men — An unworked region — Mineral resources — Seal fisheries — Commercial fisheries — Candle fish— Rock cod— A hospitable fishing ground — Atlantic fishermen— Invited west— Opportunities lying idle— Canadian example— Alaska neglected— Two negro men of nerve— Private enterprise — Future prospects, ------- 4°

Chapter V

An Interior View. — Early settlements — Interior trading-posts — Russian and English occupation — Suggestions for profitable exploration — Government expeditions — Newspaper statements misleading — Intentional misrepresentations — Settlement discouraged — Schwatka's Yukon journey — Interior tribes and settlements—The interior defined — Fluvial geography — Grass prairits and tundras — Subsoil irrigation — Herds of cariboo and moose — Luxuriant vegetation — Glacial action — Gold deposits — The Yukon delta — Esquimo — Immunities of the coast - - - 66

Chapter VI

Home of the Siwash. — A race of canoemen — Water routes — Canoe patterns — War canoes — Canoe manufacture — Camping out — Chinook jargon — A bloody house-warming — Slavery — Con.*ubinage — Creoles — Some queer customs — Old-time relics — Hard-working natives — Heavy packs — Gallantry to women — Some bad traits — Typical native houses — Dirt and abundance — Totem poles and pedigrees — Indians who are well fixed — Grotesque handiwork — Native dyes — Hoochinoo — Gambling,

Chapter VII

Good Indians. — Redskins with beards — Ethnology of Pacific coast tribes — Waifs from Asia and Mexico — British Indian policy commended — Solution of the Indian problem — The Russian policy and methods — Savage appeal for teachers — A "wanwan," or peace conference — Chilkats and Chilkoots — A "potlatch " and a truce — War dance — Versatility in handicraft — Missionary efforts — Antagonisms — Female lapses, - - - 91

Chapter VIII

Medicine and Mythology. — Shaman burial houses — Medicine men — Frightening disease — A terrible doctor — Medicine rattles — Methods of burial — Cremation — Transmigration of souls — A ghost with teeth — Funeral ceremonies — A funeral pile — Mourning customs — Vandalism of curio hunters— Hieroglyphs and mythology — Heraldic emblems — The thunder-bird — Legend of Mt. Edgecumb — Some Alaskan snakes — Native humor — Religious zeal, ---------- 10S CONTENTS. VII 130 168

Chapter IX

Alaska's Mineral Wealth. — The "stuff" there — Testimony of naval officers — Developments retarded from lack of capital — The largest stamp-mill in the world — Douglas Island — Insular and mainland deposits — Placer mining — Silver Bow basin — An " araster." — A lively mining town — Native miners — Gold on the Yukon — Sitka mines — " Lake Mountain Mining Company " — History of mining in Alaska — Nick Haley — The Stickeen gold diggings — Coal and other minerals — Marble quarries — Well-behaved miners, .-...- 120

Chapter X

Commercial Fisheries. — How fishing-grounds are located — Prolific waters — Alaskan enterprise — The Chilkat salmon cannery — A picturesque location — Seining and curing salmon — Indian employes — Store-houses perched in trees — A "dog-salmon" — Halibut — Decrease of the Atlantic halibut catch — Indian methods of catching halibut — Deep-sea fishing — Dog-fish oil — Future possibilities — Varieties of Pacific coast fishes — Viviparous fishes — Rock fish — The black cod and its capture — Herring fisheries — Ranges of commercial fishes — The oolachan or candle fish — Sturgeon and their capture — Other economical fishes and marine products — Atlantic fishermen on the Pacific,

Chapter XI

Rambles along Shore. — Down by the sea — Anadramous and fresh water fishes — The sea trout — Fishing for sport — Spawning seasons — What the ebb tide reveals — Gigantic mollusks — Absence of oysters — Immense kelps — The incoming tide — Marine phosphorescence — Creeping and crawling monstrosities — Animate flowers and fruits — Devil fish — Black bass — Shore birds — Sea fowl — Breeding places — Routes of migration — Pass shooting — Fishing bears — Voracity of flies — Deer shooting — Mountain climbing — Rock ptarmigan — Among the peaks — Mountain goats — Mt. St. Elias silver bear — Bighorn sheep — Stalking, 153

Chapter XII

The Glacier Fields. — Home of the iceberg — Glacial dynamics — Glacier fields of Greenland — Spirits of the ice — Esquimo superstition — Tlle Muir glacier — An iceberg factory — Progressive movement of glaciers — Glacier Bay — Fairy scenes — Lassoing an iceberg — Supernatural colors — An Arctic landscape — Realm of desolation — Astounding phenomena — Artillery in the air — An apathetic spectator — The mer de glace — A ganglion of glaciers — Moraines— Glacial recession — Outfit for glacial exploration — Icebergs by moonlight, -------- CONTENTS. 178

Chapter XIII

Russia in America. — Sleepy Sitka — Steamer day — A one-horse town — Sight-seeing — An informal ball — Dust of the Roraanoffs — An early sunrise — Local amusements — A charming site — A waif from Asia — Sitka's environs — Hot springs and volcanoes — Russian mementoes — High life in the bush — The Greek Church in America — An ecclesiastical wreck — Indian communicants—A useful institution — General dilapidation — Ghost of the castle — Russian dwellings — A drive and a park — Seat of government — Straight business — An Alaska newspaper — Mileage for culprits — Territorial affairs — Beyond Sitka — Wonderful Scenery —Mt. St. Elias,