Our Arctic province, Alaska and the Seal islands

Introduction

Ir the writer could materialize in the reader’s mind that large ageregate of printed matter now stacked on book-shelves and filed in newspaper columns, which has been published to the world during the last eighty years upon Alaska, the effect would certainly be startling.

Scores of weighty volumes, hundreds of pamphlets and magazine articles, and a thousand newspaper letters, have been devoted to the subject of Alaskan life, scenery, and value. In contemplation of this, viewed from the author's standpoint of extended personal experience, he announces his determination to divest himself of all individuality in the following chapters, to portray in word, and by brush and pencil, the life and country of Alaska as it is, so clearly and so truthfully, that the reader may draw his or her own inference, just as though he or she stood upon the ground itself.

How differently a number of us are impressed in the viewing of any one subject, by which observation we utterly fail to agree as to its character and worth! This variance is handsomely illustrated by the diverse opinion of Alaskan travellers.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, February 26, 1886.

nt

CGN TENTS.

Chapter I

DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER 2.2.0 5.06- cee eeceecnses pp. 1-12

The Legend of Bering’s Voyage.—The Discovery of Russian America, or Alaska, in July, 1741.—The Return Voyage and Shipwreck of the Discoverer.— The Escape of the Survivors.—They Tell of the Furs and Ivory of Alaska. —The Rush of Russian Traders. —Their Hardy Exploration of the Aleutian Chain, Kadiak, and the Mainland, 1760-80, inclusive.—Fierce Competition of the Promyshlineks finally Leads to the Organization and Domination of the Russian American Company over all Alaska, 1799, —Its Remarkable Success under Baranov’s Administration, 1800-18, inclusive.—Its Rapid Decadence after Baranov’s Removal.—Causes in 1862-64 which Led to the Refusal of the Russian Government to Renew the Charter of the Russian American Company.—Steps which Led to the Negotiations of Seward and Final Acquisition of Alaska by the U. 8. Government, 1867.

Chapter II

The Vast Area of Alaska.—Difliculty of Comparison, and Access to her Shores save in the Small Area of the Sitkan Region.—Many Americans as Officers of the Government, Merchants, Traders, Miners, etc., who have Visited Alaska during the last Eighteen Years.—Full Understanding of Alaskan Life and Resources now on Record.—Beautiful and Extraordinary Features of the Sitkan Archipelago.—The Decaying Town of Wrangel.—The Wonderful Glaciers of this Region.—The Tides, Currents, and Winds.— The Forests and Vegetation Omnipresent in this Land-locked Archipelago. —Indigenous Berries.—Gloomy Grandeur of the Cafions.—The Sitkan Climate.—Neither Cold nor Warm.—Excessive Humidity. —Stickeen Gold Excitement of 1862 and 1875.—The Decay of Cassiar.—The Picturesque Bay of Sitka. —The Romance and Terror of Baranovy’s Establishment there in 1800-1805.—The Russian Life and Industries at Sitka. —The Contrast between Russian Sitka and American Sitka a Striking One.

vil CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

The White Man and the Indian Trading.—The Shrewdness and Avarice of the Savage.—Small Value of the entire Land Fur Trade of Alaska.—The Futile Effort of the Greek Catholic Church to Influence the Sitkan Indians.—The Reason why Missionary Work in Alaska has been and is Impotent.—The Difference between the Fish-eating Indian of Alaska and the Meat-eating Savage of the Plains.—Simply One of Physique.—The Haidahs the Best Indians of Alaska.—Deep Chests and Bandy Legs from Canoe-travel.—Living in Fixed Settlements because Obliged To.—Large ‘‘Rancheries” or Houses Built by the Haidahs.—Communistic Families. —Great Gamblers.—Indian ‘‘ House-Raising Bees.”—Grotesque Totem Posts.—Indian Doctors ‘‘ Kill or Cure.”—Dismal Interior of an Indian ** Rancherie.’’—The Toilet and Dress of Alaskan Siwashes.—The Unwritten Law of the Indian Village.—What Constitutes a Chief.—-The Tribal Boundaries and their Scrupulous Regard.—Fish the Main Support of Sitkan Indians.—The Running of the Salmon.—Indians Eat Everything. —Their Salads and Sauces.—Their Wooden Dishes and Cups, and Spoons of Horn.—The Family Chests.—The Indian Woman a Household Drudge. —She has no Washing to Do, However.—Sitkan Indians not Great Hunters.—They are Unrivalled Canoe-builders.—Small-pox and Measles have Reduced the Indians of the Sitkan Archipelago to a Scanty Number. --Abandoned Settlements of these Savages Common.—The Debauchery of Rum among these People. —The White Man to Blame for This.

CHAPTER TLV:

The Hot Spring Oasis and the Humming-bird near Sitka.—The Value and Pleasure of Warm Springs in Alaska.—The Old ‘‘ Redoubt” or Russian Jail.—The Treadwell Mine.—Futility of Predicting what may, or what will not Happen in Mining Discovery.—Coal of Alaska not fit for Steaming Purposes.—Salmon Canneries.—The Great ‘‘ Whaling Ground’’ of Fairweather.—Superb and Lofty Peaks seen at Sea One Hundred and Thirty-five Miles Distant.—Mount Fairweather so named as the Whalemen’s Barometer.—The Storm here in 1741 which Separated Bering and his Lieutenant.—The Grandeur of Mount St. Elias, Nineteen Thousand Five Hundred Feet.—A Tempestuous and Forbidding Coast to the Mariner. —The Brawling Copper River.—Mount Wrangel, Twenty Thousand Feet, the Loftiest Peak on the North American Continent.—In the Forks of this Stream.—Exaggerated Fables of the Number and Ferocity of the Natives.—Frigid, Gloomy Grandeur of the Scenery in Prince William Sound.—The First Vessel ever built by White Men on the Northwest

CONTENTS. vil

Coast, Constructed here in 1794.—The Brig Phenix, One Hundred and Eighty Tons, No Paint or Tar —Covered with a Coat of Spruce-Gum, Ochre, and Whale-oil, Wrecked in 1799 with Twenty Priests and Deacons of the Greek Church on Board.—Every Soul Lost.—Love of the Natives for their Rugged, Storm-beaten Homes.

CHAPTER V.

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Cook’s ‘‘Great River.”—The Tide-rips, and their Power in Cook’s Inlet.— The Impressive Mountains of the Inlet.—The Glaciers of Turnagain Canal. —Old Russian Settlements.—Kenai Shore of the Inlet, the Garden-spot of Alaska.—Its Climate best Suited to Civilized Settlement.—The Old “Colonial Citizens”’ of the Russian Company.—Small Shaggy Siberian Cattle.—Burning Volcano of Ilyamna.—The Kenaitze Indians.—Their

Primitive, Simple Lives. —They are the Only Native Land-animal Hunt-

ers of Alaska.—Bears and Bear Roads.—Wild Animals seek Shelter in

Volcanic Districts.—Natives Afraid to Follow Them.—Kenaitze Archi-

tecture.—Sunshine in Cook's Inlet.—Splendid Salmon.—Waste of Fish

as Food by Natives.—The Pious Fishermen of Neelshik.—Russian Gold-mining Enterprise on the Kaknoo, 1848-55.—Failure of our Miners to

Discover Paying Mines in this Section.

CHAPTER VI.

Kadiak the Geographical and Commercial Centre of Alaska.—Site of the First Grand Depot of the Old Russian Company.—Shellikov and his Remarkable History, 1784.—His Subjection of the Kaniags.—Bloody Struggle.— He Founds the First Church and School in Alaska at Three Saints Bay, 1786, One Hundred Years ago.—Kadiak, a Large and Rugged Island.—The Timber Line drawn upon it.—Luxuriant Growth of Annual and Biennial Flowering Plants.—Reason why Kadiak was Abandoned for Sitka.—The Depot of the Mysterious San Francisco Ice Company on Wood Island.—Only Road and Horses in Alaska there.—Creole Ship and Boat Yard.—Tough Siberian Cattle.—Pretty Greek Chapel at Yealovnie.—Afognak, the Largest Village of ‘‘ Old Colonial Citizens.” —Picturesque and Substantial Village.—Largest Crops of Potatoes raised here. —No Ploughing done; Earth Prepared with Spades.—Domestic F'owls.— Failure of Our People to Raise Sheep at Kolma.—What a ‘‘ Creole” is.—The Kaniags or Natives of Kadiak; their Salient Characteristics —Great Diminution of their Numbers.—Neglect of Laws of Health by Natives. —Apathy and Indifference to Death.—Consumption and Serotula the Scourge of Natives in Alaska ; Measles equally deadly.—Kaniags are Sea-otter Hunters.—The Penal viii CONTENTS.

Station of Ookamok, the Botany Bay of Alaska.—The Wild Coast of the Peninsula.—Water-terraces on the Mountains.—Belcovsky, the Rich and Profligate Settlement.—Kvass Orgies.—Oonga, Cod-fishing Rendezvous. —The Burial of Shoomagin here, 1741.—The Coal Mines here Worthless.

CHAPTER VIL

Searching for the Otter. —Hxposure and Danger in Hunting Sea-otters.—The Fortitude, Patience, and Skil! of the Captor.—Altasoy and his Band of Cruel Cossacks. —Feverish Energy of the Harly Russian Sea-otter Traders.—Their Shameful Excesses.-—Greed for Sea-otter Skins Leads the Russians to Explore the Entire Alaskan Coast, 1760-1780.—Great Numbers of Sea-otters when they were First Discovered in Alaska.—Their Partial Extermination in 1856-40.—More Secured during the Last Five Years than in all the Twenty Years Preceding.—What is an Otter?—A Description of its Strange Life.—Its Single Skin sometimes Worth $500.—The Typical Sea-otter Hunter.—A Description of Him and his Family.—Hunting the Sea-otter the Sole Remunerative Industry of the Aleutians. —Gloomy, Storm-beaten Haunts of the Otter.—Saanak, the Grand Rendezvous of the Hunters.—The ‘‘Surround” of the Otter.—‘‘ Clubbing” the Otter.— ‘¢Netting ’ the Otter.—‘‘ Surf-shooting”’? Them.

CHAPTER VUL

The Aleutian Islands.—A Great Volcanic Chain.—Symmetrical Beauty of Shishaldin Cone.—The Banked Fires in Oonimak.—Once most Densely Populated of all the Aleutians ; now Without a Single Inhabitant.— Sharp Contrast in the Scenery of the Aleutian and Sitkan Archipelagoes, —Fog, Fog, Fog, Everywhere Veiling and Unveiling the Chain Incessantly.—Schools of Hump-back Whales.—The Aleutian Whalers.—Odd and Reckless Chase.—The Whale-backed Volcano of Akootan.—Striking Outlines of Kahlecta Point and the ‘‘ Bishop.”’—Lovely Bay of Oonalashka. —No Wolf e’er Howled from its Shore.——Illoolook Village. —The ‘‘ Curved Beach.”—The Landscape a I'ascinating Picture to the Ship-weary Traveller.—Flurries of Snow in August.—Winds that Riot over this Aleutian Chain.—The Massacre of Drooshinnin and One Hundred and Fifty of his Siberian Hunters here in 1762-65.—This the only Desperate and Fatal Blow ever Struck by the Docile Aleutes.—The Rugged Crown and Noisy Crater of Makooshin.—The Village at its Feet.—The Aleutian People the Best Natives of Alaska.—All Christians.—Quiet and Respectful.—Fashions and Manners among them.—The ‘‘ Barrabkie.”—Quaint Exterior and Interior.—These Natives Love Music and Dancing.—Women on the

CONTENTS. ix

Wood and Water Trails.—Simple Cuisine.—Their Remarkable Willingness to be Christians. —A Greek Church or Chapel in every Settlement. —General Intelligence.—Keeping Accounts with the Trader's Store.— They are thus Proved to be Honest at Heart.—The Festivals or *‘ Prazniks.”—The Phenomena of Borka Village.—It is Clean.—Little Cemeteries.—Faded Pictures of the Saints.—Atto, the Extreme Western Settlement of the North American Continent.—Three Thousand Miles West of San Francisco !—The Mummies of the ‘‘ Cheetiery Sopochnie,’’—The Birth of a New Island.—The Rising of Boga Sloy.

CHAPTER IX.

The Fur-seal Millions of the Pribylov Islands.—Marvellous Exhibition of Massed Animal-life in a State of Nature.—Story of the Discovery of these Remarkable Rookeries, July, 1786.—Previous Knowledge of them Unknown to Man.—Sketch of the Pribylovy Islands.—Their Character, Climate, and Human Inhabitants.—A Realm of Summer-fog.—The Seal-life here Overshadows Everything, though the Bird Rookeries of Saint George are Wonderful.—No Harbors.—The Roadsteads.—The Attractive Flora.—Only Islands in Alaska where the Curse of Mosquitoes is Removed.—Natives Gathering Eggs on Walrus Islet. —A Scene of Confusion and Uproar.—Contrast very Great between Saint Paul and Saint George. —Good Reason of the Seals in Resorting to these Islands to the Exclusion of all other Land in Alaska.—Old-time Manners and Methods of the Russians Contrasted with Our Present Control.—Vast Gain and Improvement for Seals and Natives.—The Character of the Present Residents.—Their Attachment to the Islands.—The History of the Alaska Commercial Company.—The Wise Action of Congress.—The Perfect Supervision of the Agents of the Government.—Seals are more Numerous now than at First. —The Methods of the Company, the Government, and the Natives in Taking the Seals,

CHAPTER X.

Difference between a Hair-seal and a Fur-seal.—The Fur-seal the most Intelligent of all Amphibians.—Its singularly Free Progression on Land.—Its Power in the Water.—The Old Males the First Arrivals in the Spring.— Their Desperate Battles one with Another for Position on the Breeding Grounds.—Subsequent Arrival of the Females.--Followed by the ‘‘ Bachelors.”—Wonderful Strength and Desperate Courage of the Old Males.— Indifference of the Females. —Noise of the Rookeries Sounds like the Roar of Niagara.—Old Males fast from May to August, inclusive ; neither Eat x CONTENTS.

nor Drink, nor Leave their Stations in all that Time.—Graceful Females. — Frolicsome ‘* Pups.”-—They have to Learn to Swim !—How they Learn. — Astonishing Vitality of the Fur-seal.—‘‘ Podding” of the Pups.—Beautiful Eyes of the Fur-seal.—How the ‘‘ Holluschickie,” or Bachelor Seals, Pass the Time.—They are the only ones Killed for Fur.—They Herd alone by Themselves in spite of their Inclination; Obliged to.—They are the Champion Swimmers of the Sea.—A Review of the Vast Breeding Rookeries.—Natives Gathering a Drove.—Driving the Seals to the Slaughtering Fields.—No Chasing—no Hunting of Seals.—The Killing Gang at Work: Skinning, Salting, and Shipping the Pelts.—All Sent Direct to London.—Reasons Why.—How the Skins are Prepared for Sacks, Muffs, ete.

CHAPTER XI.

A Pelagic Monarch.—Marked Difference between the Sea-lion and the Fur-seal.—The Imposing Presence and Sonorous Voice of the ‘‘ Sea-king.”’— Terrible Combats between old Sea-lion Bulls. —Cowardly in the Presence of Man, however.—Sea-lions Sporting in the Fury of Ocean Surf.—It has no Fur on its Huge Hide.—Valuable only to the Natives, who Cover their ‘‘Bidarrah” with its Skin.—Its Sweet Flesh and Inodorous Fat.—Not such Extensive Travellers as the Fur-seals.--The Difficulty of Capturing Sea-lions.—How the Natives Corral them.—The Sea-lion ‘‘ Pen” at Northeast Point.—The Drive of Sea-lions.—Curious Behavior of the Animals. —Arrival of the Drove at the Village.—A Thirteen-mile Jaunt with the Clumsy Drove.—Shooting the old Males.—The Bloody ‘* Death-whirl.”— The Extensive Economic Use made of the Carcass by the Natives.— Chinese Opium Pipes Picked with Sea-lion Mustache bristles.

CHAPTER XII.

** Nooshagak ;”? Wide Application of an Innuit Name.—The Post and River. — Countless Pools, Ponds, and Lakes of this District bordering Bristol Bay. —The Kskimo Inhabitants of the Coast.—The Features and Form of Alaskan Innuits.—Light-hearted, Inconstant, and Independent.—Their Dress, Manners, and Rude Dwellings.—Their Routine of Life.—Large and Varied Natural Food-supplies.—Indifferent Land Hunters, but Mighty Fishermen.—Limited Needs from Traders’ Stores —Skilful Carvers in Ivory.—Their Town Hall, or ‘‘ Kashga.”—They Build and Support no Churches here.—Not of a real Religious Cast, as the Aleutians are.—The Dogsand Sleds ; Importance of Them here. —Great Interest of the Innuit in Savage Ceremonies.—The Wild Alaskan Interior.—Its Repellent Features alike Avoided by Savage and Civilized Man.—The Indescribable Misery

CONTENTS. xi of Mosquitoes.—The Desolation of Winter in this Region.—The Reindeer Slaughter-pen on the Kvyichak River.—Amazing Improvidence of the Innuit.—The Tragic Death of Father Juvenals, on the Banks of the Great Tlyamna Lake, 1796.—The Queer Innuits of Togiak.—Immense Muskrat Catch.—The Togiaks are the Quakers of Alaska.—The Kuskokvim Mouth a Vast Salmon-trap.—The Ichthyophagi of Alaska.—Dense Population.— Daily Life of the Fish-eaters.—Infernal Mosquitoes of Kuskokvim ; the Worst in Alaska.—Kolmakovsky ; its History.

CHAPTER XII.

The Mississippi of Alaska: the Yukon River, and its Thorough Exploration. — Its vast Deltoid Mouth.—Cannot be Entered by Sea-going Vessels.—Its Valley, and its Tributaries.—Dividing Line between the Eskimo and the Indian on its Banks.-—The Trader’s Steamer; its Whistle in this Lone Waste of the Yukon.—-Michaelovsky, the Trading Centre for this Extensive Circumpolar Area.—The Characteristic Beauties of an Arctic Landscape in Summer.—Thunder-storms on the Upper Yukon : never Experienced on the Coast and at its Mouth.—Gorgeous Arches of Auroral Light; Beautiful Spectacular Fires in the Heavens. —Unhappy Climate. —Saint Michael’s to the Northward.—Zagoskin, the Intrepid Young Russian Explorer, 1842.—Snow Blizzards.—Golovin Bay; our People Prospecting there for Lead and Silver.—Drift-wood from the Yukon Strews the Beaches of Bering Sea.—Ookivok, and its Cliff-cave Houses.—Hardy Walrus-hunters.—Grantley Harbor; a Reminder of a Costly American Enterprise and its Failure.—Cape Prince of Wales—facing Asia, thirty-six miles away.—Simeon Deschney, the first White Man to see Alaska, 1648. His Bold Journey.—The Diomede Islands ; Stepping-stones between Asia and America in Bering Straits. —Kotzebue Sound; the Rendezvous for Arctic Traders; the Last Northern Station Visited by Salmon.—Interesting Features of the Place.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Monotonous Desolation of the Alaskan Arctic Coast.—Dreary Expanse of Low Moorlands.—Diversified by Saddle-backed Hills of Gray and Bronze Tints.—The Coal of Cape Beaufort in the Arctic.—A Narrow Vein.— Pure Carboniferous Formation.—Doubtful if these Alaskan ‘‘ Black Diamonds ” can be Successfully Used.—Icy Cape, a Sand- and Gravel-spit.— Remarkable Land-locked Lagoons on the Beach.—The Arctic Innuits. — Point Barrow, Our Extreme Northern Land, a Low Gravel-spit.—The Butxii

Contents

tercup and the Dandelion Bloom here, however, as at Home.—Back to Bering Sea.-—The Interesting Island and Natives of St. Lawrence.—The Sea-horse.—Its Uncouth Form and Clumsy Life.—Its Huge Bulk and Impotency on Land.—Lives entirely by Clam-digging.—Rank Flavor of its Flesh. —The Walrus is to the Innuit just as the Cocoa-palm is to the South Sea Islander.—Hunting the Morse.—The Jagged, Straggling Island of St. Matthew.—The Polar Bears’ Carnival.—Hundreds of them here.—Their Fear of Man.—‘‘ Over the Hills and Far Away,” whenever Approached.— Completion of the Alaskan Circuit.

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

SirKA SOUND, . : : : : c : : : . Frontispiece. SEA-COW, . : ; : ‘ C : : : . Kacing page 4 GRAND GLACIER, Icy BAy, . ‘ , : , Z a 19 KoorzNAHoo INLET, - ‘ : : 3 : F gs 2 GLIMPSE OF SITKA, i ‘ : ; ‘ : , ot 32 STICKEEN SQUAW BOILING BERRIES AND OIL, : : Ye 58 Mount Sr. Exvtas, 19,500 FEET, . : ; 5 rs =e 73 MountT WRANGEL, 20,000 FEET, . : < : : oe 77 VALDES GLACIER, PRINCE WILLIAM’S SOUND, : . as 78 Mount Inyamna, 12,060 FEET, F < : : : 87 KENAITZE SALMON TRAP, CooKk’s INLET, 3 5 #6 95 CREOLES AND ALEUTES, PENCIL PORTRAITS, 6 Ot 108 BELCOVSKY, VILLAGE OF, F 5 : ‘ ‘ : ge 120 SEA-OTTER SURROUND, . : 3 3 : 2 e 140 CLUBBING SEA-OTTERS, . 5 2 : ‘ F . 143 A GLIMPSE OF SHISHALDIN, . ‘ ‘ : 5 ° HE 146 ALEUTES WHALING, 5 P a ¢ : : ; oe 152 VILLAGE OF OONALASHKA, ; 4 ; : : : ae 156 VOLCANO OF MAKOOSHIN, 5,475 FEET, . ‘ : s ey 160 OONALASHKAN NATIVES CODFISHING, . : 5 5 of 168 VILLAGE AND HARBOR OF ATTOO, : : : : ss 179 Norru SHORE OF St. GEORGE ISLAND, : : 5 as 200 NETTING CHOOCHKIES, . : ‘ 2 : : 5 = 209 APPROACH TO Sr. GEORGE ISLAND, : : ‘ ‘s 227 HAIR-SEALS, GROUP OF, . : F j . A - ee 255 FUR-SEALS, P : : ; 2 : : ; ss 258 “OLD JOHN,” PORTRAIT OF AN AGED ae -SEAL, 3 262 OLD FUR-SEAL BULLS FIGHTING, . : es 266 SUNDRY SEAL SKETCHES, FROM AUTHOR'S BORINOTiOy es 277