The National Geographic Magazine Vol. 09 - 04. April 1898 by National Geographic Society

1 01 - The Northwest Passes to the Yukon 14:23

The Northwest Passes to the Yukon by Eliza Ruhama Skidmore. While Vancouver's ships lay at anchor in July 1794 in his Port Frederick, the Comtaughton of the natives and the Hoonah post office of today, at the northwest end of Chichagoff Island, Messieurs Whidbey and Lemmeshire in a small boat followed the north shore of icy straits and penetrated the Long Lynn Canal, bringing back reports that ended Vancouver's hope and search for a northwest passage through from the Atlantic. The Fucus Straits and Delforte's river myths and dreams of hypothetical projectors and closet navigators, as this greatest of surveyors and explorers bitterly termed them. Whidbey's men rode up that finest fjord of all that landscaped coast to point seduction, so named because of the exceedingly artful character of the natives, who met them at that point and lured them further on up the western arm.

Chilkat Inlet, to the mouth of the river, just beyond the modern Pyramid Harbor. These artful natives had then enjoyed trade with white men, and the Chilkats and Chilcoots, really one tribe and closely related, were not only the greatest warriors and boldest buccaneers of the coast, but were great Greece traders, and middlemen as well. Two Greece trails led away from the two inlets across the range to the game country beyond. were the milder plains people. The Stik or Tenna tribes of Athabaskan stock were content to trap and trade at great disadvantage, exchanging their pelts and horns for the fish oil and sea products of the Coast tribes, and the goods which the latter obtained from white traders.

Russian, Boston, and Hudson's Bay Company traders realized more than 100 percent profit on the goods they gave the Chilkats in exchange for furs, and the Chilkats realized a still greater profit when they dealt with the Tennas. For the half-century that the Hudson's Bay Company ships regularly visited Chilkat Inlet, the traders never dealt directly with the Tennas. The Chilkats were relentless monopolists, meeting the Tennas at established camping grounds. at Tagish houses and other points beyond the range each year, and packing the furs back over the Chilket or the Shasakee Chilkoot Pass. Occasionally they brought Atena Chief down under escort as a great reward and honor, to allow him to look at the fire-ship of the white traders.

Mr. Robert Campbell, of the Hudson's Bay Company, who crossed from the Mackenzie River to the Pelle in 1842-43, wrote, The rascally Chilkat Indians from the Pacific coast were in the habit of making trading excursions to Peli. They ascended by Lynn Canal, thence crossed over the mountains to the head of Luz River. Descending this river, they came to the Peli, where, oftentimes, when strong enough, they pillaged and massacred the Peli Indians, than whom there could be no more honest men. In 1849, the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Selkirk at the junction of the Luz River and the Pelly, buying furs directly from the Tenna's, and sending them out by the chain of Hudson's Bay Company forts connecting with the Mackenzie River and Hudson Bay.

The difficulty of getting supplies into Fort Selkirk had induced the Hudson Bay Company to consider abandoning it. When the Chilkat chief, incensed at this interference with his fur trade, led a war party across the mountains, and plundered and burned the fort, the blockade of the passes was more strictly maintained than ever against the Tennas and Whites. The first white man to cross the range, according to local Chilkat and common Alaskan tradition, is said to have been a red-headed Scotchman in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. who, reaching the ruins of Fort Selkirk in 1864, started alone over the old Greece trail to the sea. He hid from the Indians all the way, but was captured near the coast, and held until ransomed by Captain Swanson of the Hudson's Bay Company's Laubeschiller on its regular visit to Pyramid Harbor.

Because of his red hair, he was regarded as a shaman and treated with distinction during his stay. Dr. Dawson discredits this story of the Scotch pioneer, as Fort Selkirk was in ruins at that time, and he believes the whole story arose from the fact that certain articles belonging to the traders at Fort Selkirk were brought to the trading ship on the coast. Professor George C. Davidson, who had visited the Chilkat country in 1867 when making a scientific reconnaissance of Russian America for Secretary Seward, Returned in 1869 to observe the eclipse of the sun, August 7th, establishing his station and observatory at the upper Chilkat village, where he was the guest of the great chief, Chartrich, Cloak Coots, or Hole in the Cheek, as that head of the Cinnamon Bear clan was variously known.

Secretary Seward and his party were escorted up the Chilkat River in Cloak Coots war canoe on eclipse day. and joining professor Davidson for another day carried away the astronomer and his instruments before there was time for him to make an intended trip toward the pass. During his stay, professor Davidson had induced Kloak Kutz and his wife to draw a very intelligible map of the route up the river to the Chilkat Pass and across to Fort Selkirk, a route Kloak Kutz had traversed since childhood. and which his father had traversed as one of the war party which burned Fort Selkirk. Lying face downward, the old chief and his wife discussed and laboriously drew on the back of an old chart the lines of all the watercourses and lakes, with the profile of the mountains as they appear on either hand from the trail.

The great glacier is indicated by snowshoe tracks to show the mode of progress. And the limit of each of the 14 days journey across the Fort Selkirk is marked by crossed lines on this original Chilkat map, which is still in the possession of Professor Davidson at San Francisco. There is a copy, topographical sheet number 2268, at the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Office at Washington. And this Klocuts map was the basis of the first charts. George Holt, a miner, claimed to have crossed the eastern the Chilkoot or Shawsakee Pass in 1872, and descending as far as Lake Marsh, returned by way of the Teslan to the headwaters of the Stikine, following in reverse a part of the route of Michael Burns of the Western Union Telegraph Company Survey, who came up from the Stikine region to the Teslan and Tagish Lake in 1867.

Holt crossed the pass again in 1874 and descended the Yukon to the portage connecting with the Cuscoquim. In 1877, Lieutenant C. E. S. Wood, United States Army, undertook independent explorations in Alaska. Mutiny of his canoe men prevented his reaching Mount St. Elias, which he wished to climb, but he visited Taylor and Glacier Bays on Cross Sound. Camped and hunted mountain goats around Geekie and Muir inlets, and crossed from the Muir Glacier to Lynn Canal. He spent some time with the Chilkets and Chilcoots, but neither Cloakcoots nor Donawak, the one-eyed tyrant of the Chilcoat village, would let him cross the mountains, which they pictured as full of dangers, although Lieutenant Wood was fortified with messages, gifts, and tokens from Donawak's sister, the wife of Sitka Jack.

An account of his stay Among the Tlingits in Alaska was published in the Century Magazine, July 1882. In 1878, Donawack peremptorily refused entrance to the prospectors Rath and Bean, but is said to have permitted George Holt to go as far as Fort Selkirk and return under guard. In 1880, the same Edmund Bean, with a party of nineteen miners, were placed under the special protection of Cloak Coots. Through the active interest and clever diplomacy of Captain L.A. Beardsley, United States Navy, and guided across the passes, after giving assurance that they would not interfere with the fur trade. A trader did slip in in the wake of the prospectors, but being detected was brought back and his life saved by Captain Beardsley's earnest interference.

As these miners went in, they met James Wynn, now of Juneau, coming out. and from him received warning of the dangerous rapids in the river beyond the lakes. Wynn has assured me that he had previously crossed the pass in 1879. Forty-five miners crossed the pass in the spring of 1882 and returned in the autumn, and the Indians, finding that the packing of miner supplies was more remunerative than the diminishing fur trade, virtually raised the blockade. and established an exorbitant tariff for transportation. The Drs. Krauss of the Geographical Societies of Berlin and Bremen spent the year 1882 and the succeeding winter at Pyramid Harbor and in the Chilkat villages, making their ethnographic studies published in the volume Die Klinket in die Hanner and in collecting for their museum.

Klo Kutz was, as usual, the patron and protector of scientists. and assisted in their exploration and survey of the Chilkat River and its branches, the Chilkat Pass, and the country beyond as far as the great lake named Lake Arkell in 1890. The Dr. Krause's maps of this region were published by the Berlin and Bremen Geographical Societies in 1883. In 1883, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, U.S. Army, crossed by the miners' usual trail, the Eastern Chilkoot. Orshasaki Pass, renamed it the Perrier Pass, and rafted his way down the Yukon to the sea. The miners who went in in 1883 sent back for provisions and spent the winter on the upper Yukon. In 1884, Dr. Everett, U.S. Army, crossed the Chilkat Pass along the Kraus Route, intending to explore westward and ascend the Copper River, cooperating with Lieutenant Abercrombie.

who attempted the exploration of Copper River from its mouth, but neither plan was followed to completion. When Lieutenant H.T. Allen explored the Copper River in 1885, his party ascended to the headwaters, crossed the divide to the Tanana, and ascended that stream to the Yukon. In 1890, Mr. E.J. Glaive, leading an expedition sent out by the Frank Leslie's weekly newspaper, followed the Dr. Krause's route to the Alsek Basin, went northward, and returning descending the Alsek to the ocean at Dry Bay. In 1891, Mr. Glaive proved his claim that packhorses could be taken over the range and could find sufficient pasturage in the bush country beyond. His pioneer Pack Horses in Alaska, published in the Century Magazine, September and October, 1892, describes his route across to Lake Arkell, a route now known as the Dalton Trail, Jack Dalton having been his assistant in the experiment with pack horses.

The existence of a lower pass still further east to be reached by an easy trail from Skagwig Creek was reported to Mr. William Ogilvie during his survey of 1887, and Captain Moore of his party was detailed to explore it. He determined the altitude of the pass was 2,400 feet above sea level, and named it in honor of Honorable Thomas White, Canadian Minister of the Interior. It was at once seen that White Pass most easily allowed a wagon road to be constructed across to Lake Bennett, a distance of 47 miles and a rise of 2,400 feet, in contrast to the distance of 27 miles and a rise of 3,500 feet on the Chilkoot. Chasaki, or Perrier Pass, again named as the Dyee Pass by Mr. Ogilvie. The passes to the Yukon Basin from Taku Inlet and River were known to Hudson's Bay Company traders and the Western Union Telegraph Company surveyors.

But were first definitely exploited as a route to the Yukon mining regions by the expedition of Lieutenant Schwatka, U.S. Army, and by Dr. C. Willard Hayes of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1891. They followed the North Fork of the Taku River and crossed to Lake Teslin, where they launched canvas boats and proceeded without interruption to Fort Selkirk. The river connecting Lake Teslin with the Loos, known to the Indians as Teslin II, and as the Hoot-a-linkua or Hooty-link to the miners was marked on the coast survey chart at the same time as the Nassathane or No Salmon and was renamed the Newberry River by Lt. Schwadka.

2 02 - Overland Routes to the Klondike 8:55

Overland Routes to the Klondike by Hamlin Garland By all accounts, the Yukon Valley is a grim country, a country of extremes. In winter, the sun hardly makes itself felt, rising pale and white, only for a few hours above the horizon, while in the summer it shines all day, and, as an Irishman might say, part of the night. Moss covers the high ground like a thick, wet sponge throughout vast areas. and the soil is, in effect, perpetually frozen. There is little vegetable mold, and plant life is sparse. Steam arises under the hot sun from the cold, rain-soaked moss, and the nights are foggy and damp, even in June and July. Gnats and mosquitoes move to and fro in dense clouds during midsummer, an ad to the many discomforts and discouragements of the region.

Life is a warfare. Fuel is scarce. There is little game and not many fish. There never were many Indians in the district. The valley is too inhospitable for life of any kind to greatly abound. Agriculture is practically impossible. It is likely to freeze any night of the year. The climate, in short, is sub-arctic in character. And in and about Dawson City, nearly all the features of the Arctic zone are realized. The ice does not go out of the river, even at Dawson, till late in May or June, and the river closes early in September. Having decided that he wishes to take the risk involved in entering this grim country, the miner must decide on his route. The routes may be divided into two groups, the overland and the seaport.

Of the overland, there are at present three, the Edmonton and Peace River route, The Old Telegraph Trail, and the Kamloops Inland Route. The Edmonton Route begins at Edmonton, a small town at the end of the northern spur of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and proceeds by way of Little Slave Lake to Peace River, thence across the divide into the valley of the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek and Teslin Lake, which is the headwaters of the Yukon. This route is a very long one, and little information is obtainable concerning it. It is undoubtedly practicable, and will be largely traveled by those not in breathless haste to get to Dawson City. It offers abundant fields for prospecting, and is a pleasant summer route.

It will take about sixty days to go from Edmonton to Teslan Lake. The citizens of Edmonton are using all means to make this route easy and safe. It cannot be safely used before the middle of May. Pack horses are plentiful, and feed is good from May 15th to November. The second overland route, the old Telegraph Trail, begins at Ashcroft, a small village on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and follows the Fraser River over an excellent stage road constructed by the Canadian government to the little town of Cuesnel, two hundred and twenty-three miles north. Good stopping places abound along the road. Here the road ends, and the trail turns to the west, and passing over a nearly level country with good grass reaches Fort Frazier on Frazier Lake, one hundred twenty-five miles from Quisnell.

Fort Frazier is a Hudson Bay post and trading store with two white men and several families of Indians, quite well civilized, settled near. A limited amount of supplies will be obtainable here. Up to this point, the trail is quite level, and though there are hundreds of creeks, none are deep or hard to pass. The three rivers, the Blackwater, the Mud, and the Nachaco, can be forded except in high water, when rafts will have to be used and pulled or paddled across. Neither of them is very wide. Many trails cross the route, and it will be necessary to have a native guide. unless some means should be taken to mark the main trail. In this one hundred twenty-five miles, there are over three hundred good hay swamps, and many Indian villages where feed for horses can be found in abundance.

Beyond Fort Fraser, the next supply point is Stewart, a Hudson Bay post, with three or four whites and eighty to one hundred Indians, who live in cabins and make their living by hunting, fishing, and trapping. From Fort Fraser to Hazleton is probably 325 miles. The trip from Quest Nell to Hazleton can be made by pack animals, and will require from 16 to 20 days. Hazleton has a small population of prospectors who winter in the neighborhood. A Hudson Bay post, a few cabins, and a couple of stores are all that are to be found here, although about 15,000 Indians trade at this point. The goods are brought up by a Hudson Bay boat on the Skeena River during high water. From here, it is about 200 miles to Telegraph Creek.

The trail has been traveled for 35 years, and the government has spent thousands of dollars to keep it in first-class condition. It will probably take about 10 days to cover this distance, as it is a little harder than before reaching Hazleton. There are two large stores at Telegraph Creek at present. And undoubtedly, a small town will immediately spring up there. From Telegraph Creek over to Testland Lake, the trail will be opened and operated by the Canadian government. A wagon road will be constructed, and a bill has already passed the House of Commons granting subsidies for a railway. The road at present is estimated to be about one hundred fifty miles long, and can be traversed in ten days or less.

The way is wooded and has no dangerous features. At Testland Lake is a sawmill, and lumber for rafts or boats can be purchased, and the rest of the journey made by water. The Ashcroft Trail and the Kamloops route, which is practically the same in character, is alluring. It begins in a genial climate between the coast range and a spur of the Rocky Mountains, and is therefore somewhat like eastern Washington in temperature and rainfall. After leaving Questnell, the trail plunges at once into the wild country, and to those who are fond of sport and adventure, it will offer a special charm. There are frequent stopping places, and the Indians are friendly, and if properly treated, will be a source of aid in case of necessity.

The advantages of this route are offset, however, by obvious disadvantages. It is very long. According to the most liberal estimates, It will take 40 days from Quest Nell to Telegraph Creek, though it can probably be done in less time, provided there are no delays for bridge-building. It will be possible to go in light, sending part of the outfit by way of Victoria to Telegraph Creek, and by leaving an advance order for supplies with the Hudson's Bay Company to be delivered on a certain date from their stores at Hazleton. It will not do to leave Quest Nell until the grass comes. Say, by the 10th of May. Before that time, even though it might afford a fairly good nip, it will still be watery and without sufficient nutriment.

After the 10th of May, the Ashcroft Trail will be a comparatively cheap and easy route to the Kaziar and Teslan Lake mines, with no duties and very little toll to pay. In the matter of outfitting, it is probable that Kamloops, Ashcroft, and Questnell will be able to furnish complete outfits for a limited number of pack trains, and being upon the Canadian Pacific Railway, supplies in case of need could be hurried forward by telegraph from Victoria, Vancouver, or Winnipeg. It is safe to count on about 50 days' time from Ashcroft. And while the expense will be light, probably not exceeding three hundred dollars for transportation in a year's provisions, it would not be well to start with less than five hundred dollars in hand, or within reach at Teslan Lake.

3 03 - The Future of the Yukon Gold Fields 11:24

The Future of the Yukon Goldfields by William H. Dahl The conditions likely to prevail in the near future at the Yukon goldfields have received but little attention in the public prints. Some discussion of them may, therefore, be useful. It is well understood among those who have had experience in that region that the most important question for the welfare of gold-seekers and others visiting the Yukon is that of transportation. Men and, to some extent, domestic animals may reach the Yukon by their own efforts. But their food, tools, tents, or other portable shelter, and the heavy clothing necessary for protection against exceptional conditions of temperature and weather must be carried. No man can carry his own provisions and outfit without assistance.

Even for dogs, the most economical draft animals, the necessary food will take up an exorbitant proportion of their load. It is hopeless to attempt to transport the necessity of life for thousands of people by the means hitherto in use. A conservative estimate places the number of people at present on the Yukon at five thousand. Few have estimated the number desirous of going in during the present season as low as fifty thousand. Should anything like that number succeed in reaching the Yukon during the next six months, It means that the transportation over that of the past season must be increased tenfold. A certain proportion must be allowed for waste, losses in transportation before reaching the destination, and the excess of need beyond the ordinary ration in more temperate climes.

The number of trips to Dawson from the seacoast, made in 1897, by the steamers now on the river, was seven in all. While with all conditions favorable, two trips per season can be made by a capable vessel, it is unsafe to reckon on more than one. For 50,000 people, 70 trips would have to be made in order to eliminate the possibility of starvation, which has stared so many in the face under present conditions. This provides not for comforts, not for necessary furniture, tools, and machinery adequate to improve conditions that exist, but merely to prevent things from getting worse. Does any reasonable person familiar with the reason believe that seventy trips are possible? Quite a number of flat-bottomed stern-wheelers for the Yukon are believed to be in process of construction at Analaska, the intention being to tow them to St.

Michael on the opening for navigation. Suppose that the fleet succeeds in reaching that port by 27 June. the average date when the ice goes out of Norton Sound. Allow a week for getting them loaded in working order and ready to start for the river with a few days' fuel on board. If they take much fuel, they cannot take goods. Once well within the delta, feeling their way cautiously over the sand bars of the river, unknown to most of their navigators, they must depend for fuel on wood cut from the banks. The wood of the country is spruce, with a little poplar and willow. These will not burn when green. When the river ice breaks up about June 1st, an enormous quantity of driftwood is carried down by the water, which runs bank full owing to the obstruction caused by the broken ice.

When the ice is fairly out, the river falls a little, and all along the bars, low banks, and level beaches, this wood is stranded. To remain until the freshet of next spring. It is mainly upon this driftwood that the steamers depend for fuel. The two old companies have landings scattered along the river, and Indians employed during the winter cutting up the wood and sledding it to places where the steamer can reach the bank. The population of the Yukon is small in proportion to the area. The reliable Indians are few and already engaged. When the first rush of the melting snows is over, The river falls rapidly into its normal channel and, for the most part, remains there during July and August.

Later, the mountain springs begin to give out, or freeze at night, and the river continues to fall. Wide flats appear on either side so that the spring drift, stranded on the shores, is separated from the channel by a wide space of sand and mud over which wood must be carried after being found and cut into suitable lengths for use. The dry spruce burns rapidly, and twelve cords a day seems a not unreasonable estimate for the amount required to run a good-sized boat well loaded. How much of each day will be used up in procuring wood by the steamers not belonging to the two old companies, anyone may estimate for himself. Taking this delay into consideration, It is evident the independent steamers are very unlikely to be able to make more than one trip up the river as far as Dawson during the season.

Let us allow two trips for each of the old company steamers, or say, 24 loads, and one trip each for 10 independent steamers. The total amounts to 34 loads, or less than half the number required to keep the assumed influx of people on a next-to-starvation basis. through the winter of 1898-99. I cannot emphasize too strongly that no dependence is to be placed on the rare beds of inferior ignite which occur on the upper river, even were any attempt made to work them, which is not the case. The lower river affords plenty of food in the shape of salmon, but this must be caught, dressed, and dried or salted in the height of the season, July and August, When the very men who need it are straining every nerve to reach the upper river where there is very little fish.

Once the ice sets in, transportation over it of any large body of food, such as would be required by the assumed population, is impossible. Enough has been said to show the impossibility of feeding 50,000 people by means of supplies carried up the river under present conditions. Now we may turn our attention to the other routes of supply. We are told that the Canadian government proposes to give a monopoly of transportation over the old trail from Glenora on the Stitkine River to Lake Teslin. No reasonable person familiar with the conditions of the region will believe that a railway 150 miles long can be built and equipped for traffic over this route in four months. No such person in his senses will claim that provisions could be taken from Lake Teslin to Dawson for a population of thousands in the winter season over the frozen river.

It is wholly impracticable. There is, therefore, no hope of adequate relief by this route. By the short route over the passes, if an immediate start is made, it is just possible The provisions might be rushed through before the close of navigation. But that this will be accomplished, there is little reason to hope. While legislatures are wrangling about special privileges, precious time is being wasted, and many lives will pay the penalty. Unless the rush for incomers is checked, and the influx of people rigidly restrained, I see no escape from the conclusion that the winter of 1898-99 will see starvation on the Yukon on an unparalleled scale. Every instinct of humanity calls aloud for the promotion of every possible transportation facility at once.

Nothing but the fullest freedom in putting through every possible means of transport while there is yet time Regardless of private greed and the not unnatural desire to retain national control of the means of transit, can be justified for a moment. The true interest of Canada, as well as of the United States, lies in the fullest development of the resources of the region. And without accepting all possible means of transportation, this is impossible. Those who may be able, from their own resources, To push through a year's supply of provisions for themselves will in the long run be as much interested as any others in the welfare of the whole mass of immigrants, for a starving man will respect no property rights in food, and no man in the face of starving people may hope to keep his own store intact.

Leaving out of account the impending crisis on the Yukon, it is the writer's belief that it is imperatively necessary For the development of the goldfields, the transportation for coal should be provided from the seacoast to the Yukon, avoiding the interrupted navigation of the Luz River. Here again, the change from the seagoing vessel to a river steamer on the Stitkan, from that steamer to the railway, and then to another steamer on the Teslan, makes a Stitkan route as impracticable. One transshipment to the railway at Pyramid Harbor And from the cars to barges on Yukon is so much simpler and cheaper as to put an end to argument. The present method of using wood of so poor a quality as spruce on the Yukon steamers cannot last if the country is to be permanently developed.

With coal floated downstream on barges from the headwaters, the steamers might be abundantly supplied with suitable fuel, and two or even more trips a season might be reckoned on as a certainty. British Columbia has coal in abundance, and here would be a means of its indefinite utilization, by which a far greater profit would inure to the people of that province than is possible through any short-sighted monopoly of transportation, which would infallibly strangle the development of their Yukon goldfield in a very short time. A broad and generous cooperation of both countries is essential, To a satisfactory outcome of the projects now in contemplation. Let us hope that it may be realized before it is too late.

The length of the coastline of Alaska is estimated at 18,211 miles, which is greater than that of the entire coastline of the United States.

4 04 - Notes on the Wild Fowl and Game Animals of Alaska 26:03

V. XIX. Notes on the wild fowl and game animals of Alaska, by E.W. Nelson. Biological Survey. U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Among the many interesting features to be seen by visitors to Alaska, the animal life is noteworthy for several reasons. During the brief summer, the otherwise desolate tundras are animated by swarms of waterfowl which arrive from the south in spring as soon as the bare ground begins to appear, and after a short delay, Set about their summer housekeeping. The waterfowl on the rivers and lakes of the interior are the familiar species which winter among the ponds and marshes of the western United States. The Canada, Hutchins, white-fronted and snowy geese are there with swans and freshwater ducks of many species. Besides these, sandhill cranes and numerous waders abound. One of the most strikingly colored species, along the small tributaries of the Yukon, is the harlequin duck.

The most interesting part of the bird life of this region, however, is found along the coast of Bering Sea. Four species of eidered ducks occur there, some of which are very handsome. Among these, the king, stellars, and spectacled eiders are shown in the accompanying illustrations. The emperor goose is another fine bird, peculiar to this country. It has its home in the marshy region between the mouths of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. It is the most elegantly dressed of its kind in America. The top and sides of the head and neck are snowy white. The chin, throat, and underside of the neck blackish, and the feathers of the back a soft, silky-gray color. bordered by a black crescent near the end and tipped with white.

The undersurface is similar, but duller, and the feet are vivid orange. The black brant pass along the coast of Bering Sea in great numbers every spring and afford royal sport to persons fortunate enough to choose good stands while the flight lasts. During the four years the writer lived at St. Michael, waterfowl was a very important item in the bill of fare, and, when the frosty autumn days approached, he sallied out with his companions into the marshes to lay in a supply of ducks and geese for winter. The question of cold storage cut no figure, for the two or three hundred birds brought in were drawn and hung up in an old warehouse. And the climate did the rest, enabling us to have roast duck or goose during the entire winter.

Among the numerous berries growing wild on the treeless hills of this coast, a kind of blueberry is very abundant in September, and the young ducks feed upon it until they become excessively fat and so delicately flavored that they are delicious morsels. We became tired of hung duck, however, before the winter ended, and when the first solitary goose came flying over in spring, on a reconnoitering trip there was general rejoicing. I still remember the hearty zest with which we put an extra edge on our knives and attacked the pioneer old gander that fell to our guns. He was lean and tough after his long flight, but was thoroughly enjoyed as an earnest Two kinds of ptarmigan are common on the mainland, and will be considered dainty birds by many a hungry prospector, although, to tell the truth, they are about the poorest flavored of the American grouse.

Their handsome summer plumage of mottled brown gives way in winter to one of snowy white. In winter, in the valley of the Cuscoquim, The ptarmigan, called willow grouse, gathered in large flocks. During my sledge journeys, I sometimes encountered flocks of hundreds among the patches of scrubby willows, and when flushed, it seemed as if the snowy surface of the ground had suddenly burst up and taken wing. When the first mossy knolls appear in spring, the willow grouse begins to lose its snowy winter dress. At first, A few brown feathers show about the base of the bill and gradually increase in number until the entire head becomes brown while the body is still white. This progressive change keeps pace with the melting snow, and with the disappearance of the last drifts, the last white feather has been dropped and the bird is in full summer garb.

The willow grouse begins its courtship in May with the appearance of the first brown feathers and It is vigorously carried on with loud, challenging notes of defiance, accompanied by many fierce, rough-and-tumble fights. When the ground is mostly bare, the snow remaining only in scattered drifts, the males choose these white patches as the stage upon which to strut and ruffle for the admiration of their female friends. In the tundras, They may be seen and heard on all sides as they fly up with stiffened wings a few yards above the snowbanks and then glide down, uttering loud, harsh notes. Every now and then, the efforts of some gallant cock become too obnoxious for his neighbor, who starts full tilt for his detested rival.

The latter likes nothing better and meets the enemy in midair. They clinch and fall to the ground, apparently using beak, wings, and claws in the encounter. During such times, the molt of white feathers is profuse, and the combatants are at the center of a perfect blur of whirling plumage. Directly, one of the birds gets enough and starts off in hasty flight, pursued for 30 or 40 yards by the victor, who then gives up the chase and Fairly splits his throat with exultant notes. The Eskimos take advantage of this belligerency and snare many ptarmigan by means of fine sinew nets placed on small stakes set on the snow around stuffed skins of male birds. The hunter conceals himself and imitates the challenge cries until a neighboring grouse dashes blindly at his supposed rival and becomes enmeshed in the net.

Aside from the birds, which have a definite value as food, are numerous smaller species, among which the Whiskey Jack will become a familiar character to the miners. He is a kind of Jay, with a dull, smoky brown coat and bright, inquisitive eyes, and is withal an intelligent and companionable little chap, who has no hesitation in sharing your camp for the gratification of a frank curiosity and sound appetite. His impish ways were always highly entertaining to me, and I do not doubt will furnish amusement to many a gold hunter in his lonely camp. Although I have dwelt upon the birds because they are more numerous and more generally distributed than most other kinds of game, the man who loves the rifle will find his opportunity among the mountains and valleys of the interior.

Formerly, large mammals were much more numerous in Alaska than at present, and the decrease has come about almost entirely since our ownership of the country. The history of the fur seal is well known. The sea otter is another animal that is passing away. Its doom is even more certain than that of the fur seal. For it is a dangerous thing for an animal to wear a coat worth from five hundred to a thousand dollars. All that has kept the sea otter from extinction is its shyness, and the fact that the stormy parts of the sea it frequents render its pursuit hazardous and uncertain. Upon the mainland are several fine mammals, among which native reindeer are the most generally distributed. There are two kinds of these deer, a large, dark-colored one, called the Woodland Caribou, which lives in the wooded district of the Upper Yukon, and a smaller, paler kind, called the Barren Ground Caribou, which lives in the open tundras or treeless country.

Barren Ground Caribou were once exceedingly numerous, and the coast hills along the shores of Norton Sound are still scored with their trails, leading diagonally up to the cool summits, where the animals used to go in summer to avoid the mosquitoes that swarm on the tundras. But even so far back as 1877, the caribou was very rare along most of the coast of Bering Sea. When Alaska passed under American control, it became possible for the natives to secure breech-loading rifles. Especially where whalers and trading schooners called, and the result was a rapid slaughter of the large game. Since the barren ground caribou usually live in the open tundras where there is no cover, it is extremely difficult for the hunter to approach unseen.

Like the antelope of our western plains, they are inquisitive animals, and before starting away, Often make a circuit about anything which excites their interest. Before they became sophisticated by the common use of guns, the Eskimos had an ingenious method of stalking them in open ground, which the old hunters told me was very successful. The Eskimos hunted in pairs, and when they found a bunch of caribou on an open plain, they would start directly for the animals, one hunter, walking immediately behind the other, Keeping step, with their bodies touching, so that from the front they appeared like one man. When they were still some distance away, the caribou would throw up their heads and start off to circle around the intruders.

The hunters kept on in their original course, apparently paying no attention to them, and when the men passed the first little bush, knoll, or other cover, The one in the rear sank down behind it while his companion kept on. The caribou continued to circle as the single hunter advanced, and were almost certain to pass close to the concealed man and thus afford a deadly shot at short range. The sudden appearance of the concealed hunter drew the attention of the game from the man who had gone on, enabling him to drop flat upon the ground without being noticed. The caribou, in starting off wildly from the new danger, often ran within shot of the man who had last concealed himself. Hunters told me that, in this way, they often got several shots before the animals finally gathered their wits and left the vicinity.

The large woodland caribou of the upper Yukon lives in the forest with the moose. The latter ranges over much of the interior. And during my residence in the country, a single individual was killed in the Yukon Delta close to the sea, a very rare occurrence. In summer, they are rarely hunted by the Indians in the dense forests of the upper Yukon, but are killed every now and then on the banks of streams or while swimming across them. In winter, they wander from place to place, browsing on the tender twigs of cottonwoods, White birches and willows, until the increasing depth of snow forces them to unite in yards. When caught in deep snow or with a heavy crust, they are easily killed by the Indians who follow them on snowshoes.

On the upper Yukon, the old method of moose hunting in early winter was for the Indians to go out on snowshoes after a heavy snowfall and search for fresh trails. When one was found, the swiftest runner, stripped to a shirt and breeches, and carrying a light shotgun loaded with ball, started off after the moose, while the women and slower runners followed. Sometimes a moose would run eight or ten miles before being overtaken. At this season, the cold is generally very intense, and the hunter would quickly freeze if he stopped while heated from his long run. and with so little clothing. For this reason, after killing the moose, he returned to camp at a run, leaving the followers to cut up and drag the carcass home.

When there was a light crust, small dogs were used to bring the moose to bay and enable the hunter to kill it with less exertion. Before the snow fell in autumn, the moose were stalked in the dense spruce thickets But they were very wary animals, and usually became alarmed, and started off at a swift trot, with a great clatter of hoofs, before the hunter caught sight of them. At such times, the Indian, knowing the country and the habits of the game, would run at his best speed to the opposite side of the small basin or valley, and take a position where he could see for some distance on all sides. For when started in this manner, The moose often made a wide circuit and returned within gunshot.

Two species of mountain sheep, quite different from one another and from the Rocky Mountain bighorn, are known in northwestern America. The first of these, a superb snow-white animal, was described by the writer some years ago as Ovis Dali, in honor of Professor William H. Dahl. The pioneer scientific explorer on the Yukon. The specimens, upon which my description was based, were obtained from the Fort Reliance country by Mr. L. N. McQuestin, now President of the Order of Yukon Pioneers. Dahl's Mountain Sheep is found over a wide area, from the low hills beyond the tree limit near the Arctic coast, south across the Yukon and Kuskokwim, Last year, Dr. J.A. Allen described another species from the headwaters of the Stikein River and named it Ovis stonae.

But little is known of this handsome animal, which has a dark, almost iron-gray coat, very different from the white of Dahl's sheep. The discovery of these two sheep in northwestern America indicates that we may expect other interesting, if less striking, new forms of animal life in the mountains of that region. In the high mountains bordering the Pacific coast north of Sitka, mountain goats occur, but we have little definite information concerning their range and abundance. Owing to the white color of Dahl's sheep, it is quite probable that, in many cases, they may have been mistaken for goats. Bears also are very numerous in some places, and several kinds are known to occur. The huge bear of Cadiac and the Alaskan Peninsula is the largest species in the world, and the skull of an old male looks as if he belonged to the animal life of a former geologic age when beasts of gigantic size roamed the Earth.

Black bears are generally distributed over the mainland. Except on the barren tundras bordering the Arctic coast. About the last of October, or first of November, they find a sheltered cleft or cavern in the rocks, where they make a bed of leaves and grasses and hibernate until the warm days of April bring them out again. On the upper Yukon, the Indians kill them with arrows, guns, or spears. Some of the bravest and most powerful of the hunters will attack them armed only with a long-bladed knife. In such cases, the hunter wraps a blanket about his left hand and arm, and with it thus protected, thrusts it out for the bear to seize as it rises upon its haunches, giving him an opportunity to make a fatal thrust under the guard thus formed.

Both Eskimos and Indians give these animals credit for supernatural knowledge and cunning. The Eskimo hunters are very careful not to speak in a disrespectful manner of bears, and are especially guarded against letting anyone know of their plan to go on a bear hunt. They believe firmly that if they should speak of such intention, these animals would know it at once, and would lie in ambush to attack them. Bears figure largely in the folklore and ceremonial dances of the Eskimos on the lower Cuscoquim and Yukon rivers. About the Arctic coast, the polar bear is a regular winter visitor, and a half-grown individual was killed near St. Michael in August 1880. They are common on the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean north of Bering Strait, and many were seen during the cruise of the Corwin in 1881.

The accompanying illustration represents a female killed by the writer near Wrangell Island while with the Corwin. In summer, these animals are usually well-fed and avoid encountering men whenever possible. In winter, when hunger presses, they become dangerous, and I have heard of several Eskimos who were killed and have seen others who were badly scarred from encounters with them. In the fall, As the pack ice comes south through Bering Strait, it brings great herds of walruses and many white bears. The latter sometimes reach the Fir Seal Islands, but only at rare intervals. Some years, many of the bears fail to retreat beyond the strait early enough in spring and are left stranded on St. Matthew and St.

Lawrence Islands. During the summer of 1874, Mr. Elliott and Lieutenant Maynard found them on St. Matthew Island to the number of several hundred. When these gentlemen landed on the neighboring Hall Island the same season, sixteen white bears were in sight as the boat approached the shore, ten of which were together on the beach. Quite a number were killed, and none showed fight. They were fat, and when asleep were easily approached. When aroused, they stood up and sniffed at the party as if to learn whether they were friends or foes, and when the men were scented, the bears ran back into the hills. At this time, they were seen feeding on grass and roots with motions like those of a grazing hog.

Aside from the whales, the walrus is the largest Alaskan mammal. Formerly, it was very numerous around the islands and along the American coast of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. During the cruise of the Corwin, we saw thousands of them on the border of the pack ice. The Eskimos report the female walruses to be very dangerous in April and May when they have young. At that time, they say, an old female will attack a man in a kayak on sight. and becomes as fierce and dangerous as an old bear. An Eskimo living at Cape Vancouver once told me of an encounter he had had with a walrus while seal-hunting in the drift-ice off the Cape, in which he and a companion had a narrow escape. They met and killed a young walrus without having seen the female.

A moment later, she arose in the water, and, catching sight of the hunters, The men had a hoarse, bellowing cry and dashed at them. The men paddled for their lives and reached a cake of ice just in time to escape. Here they were kept prisoners for nearly a day. Several times, supposing she had gone, they launched their kayaks, but the moment they did so, she appeared and drove them back on the ice. During our cruise in the Arctic, we saw many females with young. and the watchfulness of the old ones was very noticeable. The young nearly always swam directly in front of its mother, and the latter, in diving, always carried the little one under with her by resting the points of her tusks on its shoulders and forcing it down.

In the old days, when caribou were abundant, wolves were common and ran in large packs. With the growing scarcity of caribou, The wolves decreased until, during my residence at St. Michael, they were uncommon along the coast of Bering Sea and the adjacent interior. The white and blue arctic, or stone foxes, are common on the barrens, and red foxes are also common and much more widely distributed. The region about Dawson City was formerly noted for the number and quality of the black fox skins taken there every winter. Canada lynxes, wolverines, land otter, American sable, and mink are among the fur-bearing animals which helped make up the main wealth of Alaska until recent developments. Among the, quote, rats and mice and such small deer, end quote, are many animals of more or less interest.

The whistling marmots live in the mountains about the upper Yukon and Tanana rivers, and the bob-tailed little conies are also found in that region. The last-named animal makes its home in broken masses of rock, and has an amusing way of barking at strange visitors with a squeaking voice, like that of a toy dog. The great increase in the population of Alaska, which is now taking place, cannot but have a decided effect upon the large game. Most of the prospecting parties will be provided with rifles, and will take every opportunity of securing an addition to their scanty camp fare. With this going on in thousands of localities in the hitherto unvisited areas, the effect will necessarily be disastrous to such animals as bears, mountain sheep, caribou.

and moose. Unfortunately, not a museum in the world has even a passable representation from Alaska of any of these animals. The threatened early extermination of such fine species is to be greatly deplored, but cannot well be avoided. And it is altogether probable that within two or three years it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. To secure specimens for scientific purposes, the U.S. National Museum in Washington is the proper repository for a full representation of the animals indigenous to our territory, for exhibition purposes as well as scientific study, and it will be a great loss to science if any of the large Alaskan mammals become extinct. Before a proper series of skins and skulls is in the possession of this institution.

I wish to impress this upon settlers and others going to Alaska the present season, in the hope that, having their attention called to the importance of saving specimens, they may take a patriotic interest in placing them in the national capital.

5 05 - Climatic Conditions of Alaska 18:22

Climatic Conditions of Alaska by General A. W. Greeley, U.S. Army.

The most obvious elements of climate are those of temperature, humidity, precipitation and winds, and of these, temperature and precipitation affect most potently the comfort and prosperity of man. It is about 25 years since the writer was one of several consulted by the late General A. J. Meyer as to the establishment of stations of observation in Alaska, and in 1881 he was consulted by the late General W. B. Hazen regarding the extension of the system of such observations in the same remote and almost unknown region. A certain class of persons, those who plume themselves on being strictly utilitarian, then sneered at a policy that would expend a few hundred dollars annually for the purchase of instruments and for the cost of recording meteorological observations by volunteer observers on this outer edge of this civilized world.

Who knows or cares? said they, whether the Yukon River flows into the Bering Sea or the Arctic Ocean, and of what use is a knowledge as to the summer and winter conditions under which the animals of this river valley live and thrive? Today the question answers itself, and tens of thousands of men eagerly search for reliable and satisfactory data on which to base their plans and outfits for their search for fortunes in the gold regions of the upper Yukon. It therefore seems timely to bring together such observations of the climatic conditions of the different parts of Alaska, as may give at least a general idea as to the weather to be encountered. Most extensive countries have two kinds of climates.

First, the continental type, where far from the sea we find hot summers, cold winters, light rainfalls and much sunshine. Second, the littoral or shore type, where the heat of summer and the cold of winter are modified by moist winds from the ocean, bringing copious or heavy rains. To these, Alaska adds a third kind. The marine or island type, where the winters are, comparatively speaking, unduly warm and the summers unduly cool, while rains, fogs and cloudiness are prevalent through the greater part of the year. Considering first the marine climate, it is to be said that it prevails on all the outlying islands of Alaska in the Aleutian archipelago and in parts of the Alaskan Peninsula. Naturally, the extremes of temperature become more marked to the north.

The littoral or coast climate of Alaska is materially tempered by the oceanic current usually known as the Japan stream, which keeps at an abnormally high temperature the moisture-laden winds that, blowing landward, deposit large quantities of rain or snow, thus setting free large quantities of latent heat to warm the land. The enormous quantity of such heat and its influence on the temperature of the air may be imagined from Houghton's calculations, which show that one gallon of rainfall gives out latent heat sufficient to melt 75 pounds of ice or to melt 4.5 pounds of cast iron. The settlers and miners of Alaska will find that the coast conditions change rapidly as one goes inland to a continental climate of the most pronounced type.

Cool, cloudy and rainy summers and raw, damp, foggy and not very cold winters are to be anticipated along the immediate main coast or the inlets. Wherever rapidly rising shores are found, The hills or mountains are subject to heavy precipitation, with resulting deep snows and low temperatures for a considerable part of the year. Almost everywhere in Alaska, the climate changes decidedly within 100 miles of the mainland coast and becomes continental in its characteristics. Rain and snow are less frequent. The summers are longer and warmer. The sky is less cloudy, and the winter is marked with excessive cold, though the winds are much lighter and storms are infrequent. Continuous freezing weather, usually below zero, continues for months, and even in July, with midday temperatures of 70 to 80 degrees, it is an almost daily occurrence for the temperature to fall during the night to the neighborhood of the freezing point.

Let us now turn from general statements to specific data from such selected stations as are acknowledged as climatically typical of various parts of Alaska. In so doing, one turns naturally to Dahl's admirable article and tables on the meteorology of Alaska published in the Pacific Coast Pilot, 1879. Although his work and charts are 21 years old, Yet they are the only discussion and data that have ever been published on the general meteorological conditions of Alaska. St. Paul Island, Bering Sea, has a typical marine climate. Its lowest recorded temperature is minus 12 degrees and its maximum 62 degrees. The temperature rarely exceeds 50 degrees, and in 1875 it only reached 48 degrees. February is the coldest month, with an average temperature of 26.1 degrees, and August the warmest, with a mean of 48.4 degrees.

Sitka is a typical coast station for extreme southern Alaska and Point Barrow for the northern. In 45 years Sitka had extreme temperatures of 88 degrees and minus 4 degrees. The coldest month is January, 31.4 degrees, and the warmest, August, 54.9 degrees. Every year it is either rainy or snowy 200 days on an average. In 1856 rain and snow fell on no less than 286 days, but in 1883 there were only 114 such days. The annual rainfall is very great, being 81 inches, of which about one-half falls from September to December. Point Barrow, the extreme northern point of Alaska, is in 71 degrees 23 minutes north, 156 degrees 40 minutes west, and its climate is important as indicating closely that of the coastline of the whole tundra or moorland region situated along the Arctic Ocean.

It should be remembered that as one goes inland, the winter becomes colder and clearer, the summers warmer and drier. The observations of Captain P. H. Ray, 1881-83, and of H. M. S. Plover, 1852-54, are the base of the following notes. The winter is long, as freezing weather obtains from early September to early June, when summer comes in full force. The mean winter temperatures are December, minus 15.4 degrees, January, minus 17.5 degrees, and February, minus 18.6 degrees, with occasional periods when the cold is from 40 to 55 degrees below zero. The average heat of July is 38.1 degrees and of August 37.9 degrees, but the temperature often rises above 50 degrees and has touched 65.5 degrees.

The snowfalls are light, amounting, melted, to 8.25 inches, the greater part falling from July to October. The severity of the cold is indicated by the fact that the ground was found frozen, as far as excavations were made, to the depth of 38 feet. Winds and gales are most frequent from August to November, and the lightest winds are from February to May. The natives quit their snow huts for tents about May 1. The tundra is snow-free late in June. The watershed of the Yukon includes the regions whose climatic factors are at present of the greatest interest and prospective value. Fortunately, there are sufficient data to justify clear-cut statements that must closely approximate the truth. St. Michael, 68 degrees 28 minutes north, 162 degrees 4 minutes west, although an island, immediately borders the mainland near the mouth of the Yukon.

Its climatic characteristics have been fully set forth by Mr. E.W. Nelson. The winter is very long, the average temperature being below the freezing point from October to April, inclusive. The coldest month, February, Averages from 12 years observations, minus 2.3 degrees, but in 1877 it was minus 23.7 degrees. A temperature as low as minus 55 degrees has been observed. The warmest month, July, has a mean temperature of 53.6 degrees. It should be said that one summer month of any year closely resembles the same month of any other year, but there are great variations between the same winter months of various years. Spring bursts into summer about the middle of May, but it reverts more slowly to winter through a partial autumn.

Summer is very depressing, from its frequent spells of misty rain and the prolonged presence for many days of unbroken, low clouds. Winter is marked by long periods of beautifully clear days, which are usually of intense cold. Strong gales occur irregularly through the year. While most frequent in autumn, yet fierce winter storms are not uncommon, which, with their terrible accompaniments of blinding clouds of snow and temperatures considerably below zero, are wisely dreaded, as even the hardy natives sometimes perish therein. The harbour closes as a rule by October 15, and rarely opens before June 10. The breaking up of the Yukon ice about the 1st of June is usually followed by several foggy days.

Very light rains or snow are frequent and continued. The precipitations scarcely reach 18 inches annually, of which the greater part falls from July to September. Snow falls often in summer, sometimes in notable amounts. Rain or snow falls three days out of five from August to October, but only one out of four from January to March. At Nulato, 60 degrees 40 minutes north, 158 degrees 13 minutes west, the summer consists largely of warm, hazy days, free from high winds or much rain. The Yukon closes about October 20 and opens late in May. At Ikogmut Mission, 61 degrees 47 minutes north, 161 degrees west, the river closes about November 4 and breaks up about May 23, but in 1849 it remained closed until June 5.

Mr. A.J. Henry gives in the monthly weather review, August 1897, other temperature means for short periods. The lowest monthly means are as far as the temperature means for short periods. Follows. Tuklukyet, 65 degrees 10 minutes north, 152 degrees 45 minutes west, January, minus 11.1 degrees. Bell Isle, a short distance up the Yukon from Circle City, 65 degrees 30 minutes north, 142 degrees 38 minutes west, January, minus 15.8 degrees. Camp Colonna, about 64 degrees 45 minutes north, 141 degrees west, February, minus 15.3 degrees. Camp Davidson, about 67 degrees 30 minutes north, 141 degrees west, January, minus 17.4 degrees. Fort Reliance, 64 degrees 10 minutes north, 134 degrees 25 minutes west, January, minus 28.7 degrees.

The most important temperature observations in the Klondike regions are those made at Dawson from August 1895 to November 1896 by Mr. William Ogilvie, whose scientific standing and ability are guarantees of their worth. While they do not give all the mean temperatures, Yet they record the minimum and much information of value. In July only, the temperature did not sink below freezing. During June, July and August 1896, the temperature rose on 29 days above 70 degrees and thrice above 80 degrees. The extreme severity of the winter is indicated by the fact that from December 1st, 1895 to February 1st, 1896, the temperature fell below zero every day. On 28 days it fell lower than minus 40 degrees, on 14 days lower than minus 50 degrees, and on 9 days lower than minus 60 degrees.

The mean temperature for January 1896 was minus 40.7 degrees, and for February minus 35.4 degrees. Bright weather is the rule. From October 1st, 1895 to the 1st of May following, snow fell only on one day in seven. In June 1896, however, it rained on 12 days, and the temperature rose above 80 degrees. The Yukon broke up on May 17th and ran thickly with ice until the 23rd, when the first boat came down the river. Except for two weeks, the Yukon was free from ice until October 29th. It was frozen solid November 5th. The temperature observations at Fort Reliance, adjacent to Dawson, in 1880-89, Communicated to the National Geographic magazine of November 1897 by Mr. E.W. Nelson confirmed the severity of the winter climate.

The Yukon was frozen from November 2nd to May 14th. The mean temperatures for December, January and February were minus 31 degrees, minus 7 degrees and minus 29 degrees respectively, And on 35 days the thermometer registered between minus 40 degrees and minus 66 degrees. Snow fell but one day in February, and 25 days were perfectly clear.

With the middle of May, summer comes at once, the Yukon breaks up, the snow vanishes as if by magic, and vegetation develops with astonishing rapidity until opening September brings sharp frosts almost daily. By methods familiar to meteorologists, the temperature means for the three coldest months have been calculated for all the points hereafter named, except for St. Michael, which is definitely known. St. Michael, Mouth of Yukon, 3.3 degrees. Anvik, 65 degrees 37 minutes north, 160 degrees west, minus 1.2 degrees. Circle City, Minus 10.2 degrees. And Dawson, 64 degrees 5 minutes north, 138 degrees west.

Any single winter may be considerably warmer or colder than is here calculated, But the means are practically correct, and afford a good idea of all intervening points in the valley of the Yukon, and therefore have a definite value for all who seek to wrest from rugged and inhospitable nature the golden hordes of Alaska.

6 06 - A Yukon Pioneer, Mike Lebarge 5:01

A Yukon pioneer, Mike Labarge.

The first white men to explore the Yukon between the Russian settlements and the Hudson Bay post called Fort Yukon were Frank Ketchum of St. John's, New Brunswick, and Michael Lafarge of Chateau-Guey, Quebec. After the death of the lamented Kennecott at Nulato in May 1866, the expedition which he had planned, and which was only waiting for the ice to pass out of the river to make a start, was loyally and successfully carried out by his chosen and faithful companions. They ascended the river from Nulato to Fort Yukon, and then returned, crossing the portage of St. Michael to make their report to the Commander-in-Chief of the Telegraph Expedition, Colonel Chas S. Buckerley, at the port. The following year the party was augmented by William H.

Dow and Frederick Wimper, who wintered at Nulato. Ketchum and Labarge undertook a remarkable journey over the frozen river to Fort Yukon in March, accompanied by two Indians. They arrived safely at their destination, just as the ice was breaking up, and after the fresh it was over, took birch canoes at Fort Yukon, and continued their exploration to the junction of the Lewis and the Pelly at the site of Old Fort Selkirk. Returning, they joined Dal and Wimper at Fort Yukon, the second half of the party having made the journey to that point in canoes. The united party then descended the river to the sea and reached St. Michael in safety, thus making the first continuous trip from the headwaters to the sea.

Michel Lebarge was born in Chateauquay in 1837, of Canadian parents of French origin. In May 1865, he started for California on the steamer Golden Rule by the Nicaragua route. On the same vessel were Kennecott and his companions on their way to join the expedition of the Western Union Telegraph Company for the exploration of Russian America. The crossing of Nicaragua was accompanied by a number of lively incidents, including the loss of a steamer on the San Juan River. And the excellent qualities displayed by Labarge in trying circumstances attracted the attention of Kennecott and led to the engagement of the young Canadian in the corps of the northern explorers. After the disbanding of the Telegraph expedition, in which the courage, ingenuity, and companionable characteristics of the barge had made him a universal favorite, and cemented an enduring friendship with his American comrades, in 1868 he engaged in the fur trade in the Yukon River with a number of associates.

Under the name of the Pioneer American Fur Co., and in 1871 entered the service of the Alaska Commercial Company, from which he retired, with a modest competency, in 1875. He is now living in his native town in the province of Quebec. An indefatigable traveler, a delightful companion en route, or by the campfire, Full of expedients, whatever befell, tactful and adroit in his dealing with the natives, generous and helpful to the inexperienced, in short, a capital voyageur of the best type. No one who knew him in those days but thinks of him always with admiration and affection. His services to geography are commemorated by Lake Labarge, on the direct route to the Klondike, and Labarge River, an affluent of the Yukon from the north below Fort Yukon.

The name Labarge has been variously spelled. The form in use during the expedition has been adopted as here written by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Frank Ketchum lies under the green turf of an Unalaska hillside. May his faithful companion and our good friend survive for many happy years. William H.

7 07 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Introduction 5:30

Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Introduction by Samuel Franklin Emmons, U.S. Geological Survey. This paper, published with the permission of the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, is an abstract of a pamphlet prepared by his direction to accompany a map of Alaska and giving such information, compiled from data in the possession of the survey, as it was thought would prove useful to the traveler or prospector who might visit that region. Introduction Alaska was first visited by a Russian expedition Under Bering in 1741. In 1799, the territory was granted to a Russo-American Fur Company by the Emperor Paul VIII, and in 1839, the charter was renewed for 24 years. In 1867, it was ceded to the United States for a money payment of $7,200,000.

The first mining excitement in the interior was in the Kassar Mining District in British Columbia, around Dease Lake near the head of the Stickhine River from 1871 to 1887. Later prospectors found their way into the more northern regions and down the valley of the Yukon into American territory, where they discovered valuable placards on Birch Creek, Mission Creek, and Forty Mile Creek, small southern tributaries of the Yukon. In the autumn of 1896, still richer discoveries were made a short distance east of the boundary along the Klondike River, and a great rush of miners to these now famous diggings set in the following spring. Accurate data with regard to the geography of Alaska, it is as yet difficult to obtain.

The immediate coastline and the many islands which border it have been mapped by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. and the course of the great Yukon River, comparable in size to the Mississippi, was determined by the Western Union Telegraph Company's expedition in 1867, and by an expedition in 1869 under Lt. C. W. Raymond of the United States Engineers. What other information has been obtained with regard to the interior is derived from route and sketch maps made by individual explorers, who generally followed the valleys of the larger streams. Vast tracts of mountain land between these streams are yet practically unknown. Ketchum and Labarge of the Western Union Telegraph expedition were apparently the first white men to traverse the entire length of the Yukon River.

They traveled on ice and snow from St. Michael to Fort Yukon in the winter of 1866-67, and in the following summer made their way to Fort Silkirk and back, joining on the return W. H. Dahl, who had charge of the scientific work of the expedition, and who, with Frederick Wimper, had ascended to that point by water. In later years, scientific explorations of the interior had been made by members of the Canadian and the United States Geological Survey. In 1887, Dawson and McConnell of the Canadian Survey ascended the Stichine to the Liard, the former going northwestward by the Francis and Pelle to Fort Selkirk, the latter descending to the Liard to the McKinsey, and the following season crossing from the McKinsey to Fort Yukon by the Porcupine River and ascending the Yukon to its southwestern sources.

William Ogilvie of the same Corps entered the Yukon district in 1887 and has been there most of the time since. engaged in route and boundary surveys. In 1889, I. C. Russell of the United States Geological Survey, in company with the Boundary Party of the Coast Survey, ascended the Yukon River from its mouth to the head of boat navigation coming out over Chilkoot Pass. In 1899, under the auspices of the National Geographic Society, Russell explored the Mount St. Elias region from Yakutat Bay. In 1891, C. W. Hayes of the United States Geological Survey accompanied Schwartka's expedition up the White, across Goloj Pass, and down the Copper River. In the summer of 1895, G. F. Becker and W. H. Dahl, under orders of the director of the United States Geological Survey, made examinations of the coastal regions with reference to gold and coal, and in 1896, J.

E. Spur, assisted by H. B. Goodrich and F. C. Schrader, made a reconnaissance of the gold-bearing rocks of the Yukon District. It is from the reports of these later expeditions that the data contained in the following pages have been compiled.

8 08 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Geographical Sketch 37:16

Alaska has an area of 580,107 square miles. It is roughly quadrangular in outline, with a panhandle extension in the southeast along the coast and a peninsula stretching out into the ocean on the southwest, which continues in the chain of the Aleutian Islands that separate Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Its eastern boundary is formed by the 141st meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, and the westernmost portion of its mainland, Cape Prince of Wales, is on the 168th meridian, or within 54 miles of the easternmost point of Asia. In latitude, it extends from 54 degrees 40 minutes, the southern point of Prince of Wales Island, to Point Barrow. in 71 degrees 23 minutes north latitude, far within the Arctic Circle.

Its greatest extent in a north-south line is thus 1,100 miles and from east to west 800 miles. The coastline is much broken by arms of the sea, reaching far inland, either as open bays, as sounds or submerged river valleys, or as fjord-like inlets. The coast abounds in islands, which cover an aggregate area of 31,205 square miles and which, as a rule, are very mountainous. The chain of the Aleutian Islands, reaching nearly 1,500 miles into the Pacific Ocean, is largely of eruptive origin and contains many volcanic craters, some of which are yet active. They rise very abruptly from the sea, often to an elevation of several thousand feet, one on Unamak Island reaching a height of 8,955 feet. The Alexander Archipelago and the adjoining coast strip, the best-known and most frequented part of the territory, resemble the submerged portion of a narrow and precipitous mountain system.

The archipelago consists of 11 hundred islands, the largest and most southern of which is Prince of Wales Island. It is intersected by deep and relatively narrow waterways, which often run far inland and bear evidence of previous occupation by glaciers. In some cases, as at Glacier Bay, enormous living glaciers are found at their head. The islands themselves are steep-sided and rise to an average elevation of 2,500 feet. On the seaward side of Baranov Island, one of the outer tier on which Sitka is situated is a volcanic crater called Mount Edgkom, 2,855 feet high. Further northwestward, forming part of the same mountain line, The St. Elias Range, which follows the immediate coast, contains many high mountains and culminates to the north in Mount St.

Elias at an elevation of 18,024 feet. Mount Logan, further inland, is supposed to be still higher, and explorers report that far in the interior, between Copper River and the lower Yukon, There is a group of mountains extending in the same general direction of equal or perhaps even greater elevation, the highest point of which has been designated Mount McKinley. A second line of elevation is supposed to extend southwestward from near the head of Copper River, following the coast line in the direction of the Alaskan Peninsula. The rivers entering into the waters of the Alexander Archipelago are generally short, and only two, the Stichine and the Taku, are known to head beyond the crest of the mountains immediately adjoining the coast.

The Chilkat River is a considerable and rapid stream, entering the head of Lynn Canal from the northwest. It is probably less than one hundred miles in length. The next river northward is the Alsek, About which little is known, but it is supposed to head on the east side of the St. Elias Range in the vicinity of Mount Logan. Copper River is a larger stream than any of those thus far mentioned, and heads in a mountainous country, containing several high peaks with an estimated elevation of 12,000 to 18,000 feet, and little known except by the Indians. Rolled masses of native copper, of which their knives were made, were obtained somewhere in this region. A northwestern branch of this stream is said to head between the Sushitna and the Tanana rivers, possibly in the lake, which on the map is represented as being drained by the Sushitna.

The Sushitna also is an important stream, emptying into the head of Cook Inlet. Very wide and difficult of navigation near its mouth, owing to the great rise and fall of the tide. Its sources are in a high mountainous region, a main northwestern branch being supposed to head near Mount McKinley. The next large river, the Cuscoquim, is the second largest in the territory, its length being estimated at over 600 miles. It drains a mountainous region difficult of access. The Russians ascended it in boats as far as the Redoubt-Komakov, or crossed from the Yukon by a portage near Oknagamut. The currents of the lower stream are rapid. A winter route was also used from Fort Alexander up the Nushagak and down the Chulitna.

In summer, the morasses along this route may not be passable. Beyond Norton Sound, into which empties the Great Yukon, The principal streams of known importance are the Koak and the Noatak, which flow into Kotzebui Sound. The Colville River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean, is supposed to head in the same general region as the two just mentioned. The Yukon River has an estimated length of 2,000 miles, of which Three-fourths is continuously navigable for river steamers. It empties into Norton Sound through a wide delta in four principal mouths 50 to 64 miles in length. For about 100 miles above the delta, it has a general northwest course, then bends at right angles and has a southwest direction up to the bend at Fort Yukon just within the Arctic Circle.

Here it receives the waters of the Porcupine, a stream having the same general southwest course and heading near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Fort Yukon is distant in a direct line about 650 miles from the mouth of the river. Above this point, the general direction of the river is again northwest, but a short distance east of the international boundary It turns to a north-south course, which it maintains for nearly a hundred miles, through the upper ramparts. It is at the bend below this north-running stretch that the Klondike River enters from the east, above which, and more or less parallel, are the Indian and Stewart Rivers, all famous as draining a region phenomenally rich in gold. Near the upper end of this north-south course, the White River enters in the same direction from the south.

Above this, the Yukon resumes its northwest course and maintains it to Fort Selkirk, which is near the head of navigation. At Fort Selkirk, it splits into two main branches, the Peli, which drains the Rocky Mountain regions to the northeast, and the Lewis, which in several branches drains the region to the southwest and the many lakes on the eastern side of the coast ranges. The principal tributaries of the Yukon from Fort Selkirk to Fort Yukon are, on the south side, in descending order, White, 60 mile, 40 mile, Mission, 70 mile, and Charlie rivers, and on the north, From Dawson, at the mouth of the Klondike, downward, the Chandindu, Tatandu, Takandit, and Kandik rivers. From Fort Yukon, to the open country near the mouth of the river, the longer streams coming from the southeast are Birch Creek, Beaver, Tanana, and Noekakat rivers.

From the north come the Dahl, Tozikakat. Melozikakat and Koyukok rivers, the latter one of the largest tributaries, and said to be five hundred to six hundred miles in length. The Yukon is generally a broad and muddy stream, flowing with a current of three to nine miles an hour. Occasionally it runs in a narrow rocky canyon cut through lava, or across low mountain ranges, and such stretches are locally called ramparts. For the most part, however, its valley is wide, and the stream often spreads out into many channels with low wooded islands between, the whole covering a width said to reach ten miles in places. Dry spruce is practically the only fuel available for steamers along the Yukon. And the supply is limited and difficult to obtain.

Although the river is frozen up during eight months of the year, from October to June, its importance as a means of transporting supplies can hardly be overestimated. In the early years, when the connection between the upper and lower portions of the river was not absolutely known, the Hudson Bay fur traders were in the habit of taking their peltry from Fort Selkirk down to the mouth of the porcupine and up that stream to the Mackenzie, preferring to make this long and circuitous journey rather than encounter the difficulties of a more direct route across the mountains to the eastward. The international boundary between American and Canadian territory has no relation to the physical structure of the interior region.

Hence, in this description, that portion of British Columbia, which lies opposite the Alexander Archipelago and the coastal strip of American territory, southeast of Mount St. Elias, will be considered as part of the general province of Alaska. The known portions of the interior region, which lie mainly south of the Arctic Circle, belong to the drainage system of the Yukon River. This stream, with its various tributaries, drains the northwestern portion of the Cordilleran system included between the coast and the Mackenzie River Valley, which are about 700 miles apart and approximately parallel. The Mackenzie River flows from Great Slave Lake into the Arctic Ocean. To one tracing the broader features of physical structure, northwestward from the United States through British Columbia, It would seem that the mountainous region between the Yukon and the Mackenzie represents the Rocky Mountains proper, and the Alexander Archipelago and adjoining coast slopes, the coast ranges.

The basin of the Upper Yukon, the river above the Great Bend, would then be the representative of the Great Basin region in the United States. Since north of the 49th parallel, the uplift of the Sierra Nevada has merged with that of the coast ranges into one general system. The coast range proper is a broad elevated belt with many scattered peaks, but not differentiated into continuous ranges. Oceanward, it presents an abrupt, rugged front cut by fjord-like valleys. To the east is a plateau-like region, which descends gradually to the north from an elevation of 5,000 feet in the upper lake region to 3,000 feet in the lower Lewis and Peli River valleys. The river valleys in this stretch often lie 2,000 to 2,500 feet below the general plateau level.

In the interior region, the soil is frozen for a large portion of the year. So that there is comparatively little rock decay. Where there is no timber, the surface is generally covered with an abundant growth of moss. This, wherever the surface material is sufficiently compact to become impervious to water by freezing, produces large areas of swampy tracts even on sloping ground, which, except in the glaciated regions, or when cut through by large streams, The northwestern continental ice sheet, or Cordilleran Glacier of Dawson, which centered in British Columbia between latitudes 55 degrees and 59 degrees north, did not extend in this interior region north of the 62nd parallel. Hence, The greater part of the Yukon basin has not been glaciated except by local glaciers.

This fact has been readily recognized by the geologists who have visited the region in recent times, and indeed is evident, on inspection of the maps, by the abundance of lakes above this line and their absence below it. The Yukon, or All-Water Route. This route is by ocean steamer from Seattle or San Francisco to St. Michael, near the mouth of the Yukon, thence by river steamboat up the Yukon to Dawson. The length of this route is about 4,000 miles, it being nearly 2,700 from Seattle to St. Michael and about 1,300 up the Yukon to Dawson. Those taking this route aim to leave St. Michael early in July in order to avoid the delays in upstream progress caused by sandbars at low stages of water later in the season.

The time from Seattle to St. Michael is about 20 days, and that from St. Michael to Dawson the same, making about 40 days for the trip. Under favorable weather and circumstances, it may be made in less time. Though this route is the one over which commercial companies operating in the Yukon country transport their goods, it is seldom used by miners who wish to enter in the spring, since at that season it takes several weeks longer to make the trip by this route than it does to make it by some of the trails mentioned below. It is, however, Highly advantageous for persons unfitted to rough it on the trails. The Skagway or White Pass route. From Seattle to Skagway, a distance of 1,115 miles, the route is by ocean steamer northward along the coast and finally up Lynn Canal.

It is practically a still-water route. Being protected from the swells of the ocean by an almost continuous barrier of densely wooded islands. The trip requires about three and one-half days. Skagway is located on the east side of Daiya Inlet, a branch of Lynn Canal. Its population, which is much increased by people who have been unable to get across the trail, is said to be about 8,000. Daiya is situated four miles north of Skagway, west of the mouth of Daiya River and at the head of Daiya Inlet. The rise and fall of the tide in this inlet is about 24 feet. At Skagway, steamers find good anchorage within half a mile of the beach, to which freight is taken in lighters at high tide, which are unloaded when the tide recedes.

Several newly built wharves are said to be now in practical use, and the facilities for landing cargos are greatly superior to those at Daiya. From Skagway, the trail leads northeastward up the valley of the Skagway River, crossing the mountains at White Pass and running thence northward to the head of Lake Bennett, whose waters flow into the Yukon. The summit of White Pass is 2,400 feet above sea level, and its distance from Skagway is 18 miles. For the first four or five miles, there is a good wagon road which crosses the river several times by ford. At high stages of water, however, freight must be packed across on footbridges. Beyond this are long stretches of very miry and rocky ground, where a loaded man will sink knee-deep in the mud.

There are also several steep and rough ascents, of which Porcupine Hill is the sharpest. The last two miles before reaching the summit is a steady hard climb, but presents no cliffs or precipices. Many horses have been killed or have died on this trail. Seventy-five to one hundred pounds make a good load for the ordinary packer. From the summit to Lake Bennett, seventeen miles, the trail improves, although still bad. It is, for the most part, gradually downhill over an undulating, rocky surface. The timber line is reached again at the Meadows, about five miles beyond the pass, which is the ordinary camping place. The trail passes the two small lakes known as Summit and Middle Lakes, on which ferriage may be secured when the water is not frozen.

Midway between the latter and Lake Lindeman, about three miles before reaching Lake Bennett, the Canadian Custom House officials have put up a large log cabin, which is used as a place of shelter by those crossing the trail. At this point, A trail branches off to the right, down to Tushi Lake. But as there are seven miles of impassable river between Tushi and Tagish Lakes, travelers bound for the Yukon are warned from taking this route. At the head of Lake Bennett, the Skagway joins the Chilkoot Trail. The Skagway Trail is somewhat longer than that over the Chilkoot Pass, but the pass is much lower. It requires, however, considerable improvement in bad and swampy places. This route has been recently recommended by the United States Quartermaster's Department of Puget Sound.

The Daya or Chilkoot Pass Route. This trail has been used by the Indians for generations, and until a year ago was practically the only route followed by miners and prospectors who entered the interior. It is the shortest route to the headwaters of the Yukon. Dayya or Tayya is the Indian word meaning pack or load. Owing to the extensive shoals at the head of Dayya Inlet, The conditions for anchorage and discharging cargoes from ocean vessels are less favorable than at Skagway. They are either unloaded by means of lighters or put upon a rocky point about a mile from the beach whence they are hauled off in wagons. Daya Trail runs northeastward up the Daya River and across the Chilkoot Pass at an elevation of 3,500 feet.

to the head of Lake Lindemann, a total distance of 28 1⁄2 miles. The summit is 13 miles from Daiya, the first 6 1⁄2 miles following a comparatively open valley in which there is a good wagon road. Owing to the windings of the stream within the walls of the valley, the river must be crossed several times. By fords in summer, By ferries in spring when the water is deep. The trail then enters a narrow canyon with steep, rocky walls, which it follows to sheep camp at Timberline, four and one-half miles further on. Through the canyon, the trail is rougher, but horses have been successfully used for several years in packing to sheep camp. Good camping places are found all along the route, From Daia to Sheep Camp, and at several points, refreshments may be obtained.

Sheep Camp is the last camping place on the west side of the range, as from thereon there is no timber or fuel until Deep Lake, on the other slope, 12 miles distant, is reached. From Sheep Camp to Scales, where packs are weighed by the Canadian authorities, A distance of three and three quarters miles, the rise is about 1,800 feet. The trail is free from mud, and traveling is not difficult, though in places the ground is covered with boulders. From scales to the summit of the pass, the ground rises 1,000 feet in a distance of about half a mile, and masses of broken rock or talus make the climb very difficult. and impossible for pack animals. The building of an aerial or wire tramway with buckets carrying 400 pounds of freight has been contemplated for this portion of the route.

From the summit of Chilkoot Pass to Lake Lindemann, a distance of 15 1⁄2 miles, the trail descends first very steeply to a small lake called Crater Lake, And thence more gradually along the drainage way of a chain of lakes known as Long, Canyon, and Deep Lakes, which are connected with one another, and finally with Lake Lindemann by small streams. Till late in spring, the whole of this drainage way is frozen over, and one travels from the summit to Lake Lindemann by sled. On either side of the pass, Especially on the south, snow sometimes accumulates to a depth of fifty or sixty feet, forming a sort of neve of limited extent. Late in the season, when the drainage is open, a ferry sometimes plies on Long Lake a distance of four miles.

From the foot of Lake Lindemann, there is portage past the rapids to the head of Lake Bennett, where the Daya and Skagway trails meet. From the head of Lake Bennett to Dawson, 548 miles, there is a continuous waterway through lakes and rivers, which may be followed in summer by boat and in winter on the ice. Long stretches are navigable by light-draft steamers. Boats may be procured or built at the head of the lake, but in some respects the most advantageous method is to start early enough to travel on the ice as far as the foot of Lake LaBarge, where timber for boat-building is abundant, as in this way the dangerous passage of the White Horse Rapids is avoided. Lake Bennett is 26 miles in length, narrow and canyon-like in form, and deep at the lower end.

Fifteen miles below the bend, where the southwest arm comes in, Strong winds often prevail, producing a rough sea that is dangerous for boats, and parties are often storm-bound there for several days. A sluggish stream, two and one-half miles long and often not more than three feet deep, known as Caribou Crossing, extends from the foot of Lake Bennett to Tagish Lake. Thence there is clear sailing nineteen miles down Tagish Lake, and five miles along a river, deep enough for ordinary river steamers, to Marsh or Mud Lake. Marsh Lake is 19 miles long and empties into 50-mile River, whose current averages 3 to 4 miles an hour. About 25 miles down, the river enters Miles Canyon, a chasm about 100 feet wide and 5 eighths of a mile long.

Between perpendicular walls of basalt, 80 to 100 feet high. The swift, turbulent current carries a boat through this canyon in about three minutes. For a fair-sized boat, not too heavily loaded, which is kept under steerage way by one or more good oarsmen, and follows the middle of the stream so as not to be dashed against the steep rocks on either side, the passage is quite practicable. At the foot of the canyon, One must keep to the left until the heavy swells are passed, then turn sharply to the right and land on the east or right bank. A safer course, which is followed by many, is to portage one's load along the right side of the canyon over a hill about 200 feet high and run the boat through empty.

Three-eighths of a mile below this canyon are rapids about half a mile long, which, though very rough, Are not dangerous. A half mile below these are the White Horse Rapids, the most dangerous on the whole river. They are about one-third of a mile long, and are confined between low basaltic walls. Near their foot, the walls close together, forming a chasm only thirty yards wide, while the bed of the stream drops suddenly, so that the river rushes wildly through, leaping and foaming in a cataract. Many boats have passed successfully through, but others have been swamped, with loss of outfits and sometimes of life. The safer plan is to portage around the rapids and let the boat down by line. The portage is on the west shore, but on either side, a tramway could be constructed without great difficulty.

Lake La Barge, which is 60 miles below the White Horse Rapids, is 31 miles long. and easily navigable by steamers. There is abundant good timber at its foot. The river below Lake LaBarge, as far as Fort Selkirk, is known as the Lewis, and is also navigable for 160 miles down to the Five Finger Rapids. Here, a rock of conglomerate rises up from the river bottom, forming several islands, and backing up the river a foot or two. So as to produce a strong swell below. Steep cliffs of the same rock on either bank render a portage at this point impracticable. With proper steerage way and care, however, an ordinary boat may run the rapids safely. The right or east side is followed by most Yukon travelers, but Ogilvy of the Canadian survey, from actual experience, Pronounces the channel along the west bank as also passable.

For six miles below the Five Finger Rapids, the current is swift, and then occur the Rink Rapids, which extend halfway across the river from the western bank, producing a decided riffle. On the east side, however, the water is comparatively smooth and safe. Below this, The river is practically free from rapids, and navigation is unimpeded. Fort Selkirk, where the Pelly and Lewis unite to form the Yukon, is 65 miles below. Thence it is about 95 miles to the mouth of White River, 10 miles further to the mouth of the Stewart, thence 22 miles to 60-mile River, and 45 miles further to Dawson. At the mouth of the Klondike.

Dalton, or Chilcot Pass, route. This is an overland route following a direct course, more or less independent of waterways, from the head of Chilcot Inlet to Fort Selkirk. It has been used by J. Dalton, a trader, for some time as a pack-train route and for driving in cattle. But little is definitely known of its geography. It ascends first the Chilcat and Clahuela rivers, crossing the pass in 45 miles at an elevation of 3,000 feet, and thence descending into the drainage of the Takina River at Lake Arkell. From Lake Arkell, the trail is said to pass over an undulating plain. Well timbered in the valleys and with grass on the slopes. The distances from the head of the inlet are given as 75 miles to the watershed and 100 miles to Dalton's trading post.

From there to the Pelly, the distance is 200 miles, or 300 miles in all to the Pelly, and 350 to 400 to Fort Selkirk. The Stikein Route. By this route, one travels by boat from Fort Wrangell, 150 miles up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, and thence a little to the west of north, 150 miles to the head of Teslin Lake. The ascent of the Stikine River is tedious and sometimes dangerous, the current being swift and rapids numerous. It is, however, the route that was followed in former days by miners going to the Cassiard District. From Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, the trail is said to pass through a gently undulating and well-timbered country, which presents no obstacles to the building of a railroad.

Lake Teslin is said to be about 80 miles long and bounded on both sides by high mountains. From its foot down to the Lewis, The Tesslin River runs the Tesslin River, which is navigable except for two small rapids, one near its head, the other further down. In its lower course, the Tesslin spreads out into many channels, occupying a total width of two or more miles. This route appears promising, but is as yet only prospective. The Taku Route. This route ascends the Taku Inlet and River, and crosses directly to Lake Teslin or Aklen, a distance of 185 miles from Juno. Then, it is identical with the Stikein route. By this route, one travels by steamer from Juno, 18 miles up the Taku Inlet to the foot of a large glacier, which is often very dangerous to boats even at a distance of several miles, by reason of the ice masses that break off from it.

Then by boat, 60 miles up the Taku River to the head of canoe navigation. The portage which follows is for the first 20 miles through the canyon-like valley of an eastern branch, then for 50 miles in broad valleys of the upper Taku, 3,500 to 5,000 feet above sea level. For the last 15 miles, the route is in the densely wooded valleys of Teslin Lake, among many small ponds. This route is said to be not impracticable for a railroad, and a charter for one has already been granted by the Canadian government. Its merits, however, have not yet been thoroughly tested. Both this and the Stikine route have the undoubted advantage of avoiding the dangerous White Horse Rapids. The Copper River route. This, the only land route within American territory, would strike inland from near the mouth of the Copper River and follow a general northeasterly course toward the Klondike, thus crossing a great mountain range whose rough topography and many glaciers that fill the valleys and passes render general travel difficult.

Orca, the only settlement on the coast nearby, which is fifty miles beyond the mouth of Copper River and seven hundred miles from Sitka, Had, in 1897, a population of 22 Whites. It is the first post office west of Sitka. According to reports of natives confirmed by Lieutenant Allen, who crossed over to the Tanana in 1885, the better way is to start inland from Valdez Inlet on Prince William Sound, and crossing the Valdez Glacier, strike Copper River 180 miles above its mouth, Thus avoiding the gorge and the most dangerous rapids. From the Copper River basin, an advisable route would seem to be over the Skoloi Pass and down White River. But from observations made by Hayes, it appears that the pass, which has an elevation of over 5,000 feet, is occupied by a glacier 300 to 400 feet thick, and that White River abounds in rapids too rough for a loaded boat.

I. C. Russell, who visited the Mount St. Elias region in 1890 and 1891, reports a mountainous region to the northward occupied by huge glaciers. This region is to be explored during the coming summer by parties sent out by the War Department.

9 09 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Geological Sketch 13:42

Alaska and its Mineral Resources. Geological Sketch. Original. At present, so far as known, it is only in the coastal region that deep mining is being carried on in gold-bearing veins. Here it has become a well-established industry, and many large quartz mills are running on the ore extracted from these veins. The principal deposits of southeast Alaska are found in a belt somewhat over 100 miles in length, On the seaward slope of the mainland, reaching from Sumdum on the southeast, past Juneau to Burmers Bay near Seward on the northwest. This belt may be also considered to include the deposits on Admiralty and other interior islands. A second belt further west is represented by the deposits on the western side of Baranov Island, not far from Sitka.

The ores, though not always exceptionally rich, are worked at a good profit because of the natural facilities of the region for cheap production. The most notable instance of this is the great Alaska Treadwell Mine, which has extracted over $7 million worth of gold from an ore carrying $3.20 a ton, which is worked at an average cost of $1.35. Such conditions cannot be expected to obtain in the interior. These deposits occur in metamorphic slates, diabases, and granites, all similar to the rocks of the Oriferous Belt of California, and, probably like those, they are of post-Jurassic age. Owing to the dense covering of living and fallen forest trees in this region, Prospecting is extremely difficult, and it is probable that future exploration will prove the extent of these gold belts to be much greater than at present appears.

The gold-bearing beach sands from Lituya Bay to Yakutat Bay along the west foot of the St. Elias Range, and the placers at the head of Cook Inlet, around Turnagin Arm and on the Kaknu River, may have been derived from the wearing down of rocks of similar age and composition in the St. Elias Range and on the Kenai Peninsula. At Uack Bay on Kadiac Island, gold deposits in slates are being worked, and the gold-bearing beach sands of the western end of that island and at Portage Bay and the Ayaculic River On the neighboring mainland are apparently derived from metamorphic slates associated with granite, so that it is possible that these more recent gold-bearing rocks extend that far westward. On Unger Island of the Schumagen Group, still further west, Gold occurs in eruptive andesites of tertiary age, and mines have been opened on these deposits, the most important of which is the Apollo, one of the most successful in the province.

As the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands are largely made up of recent eruptive rocks, this is an important indication, showing the possibility of the occurrence of valuable deposits in such rocks. In the Yukon basin, the gold, so far as known at present, is derived from a much older series of rocks, for the gold-bearing slates of the coastal region have not yet been recognized there. While the exact age of these gold-bearing rocks has not yet been determined, they are known to be older than the limestones supposed to represent the Carboniferous and Devonian formations of the Cordilleran system. Hence, they are probably pre-Paleozoic, and in part are possibly as old as the Archean. The grounds for assuming this derivation are that these rocks contain abundant auriferous quartz veins, and that the richest placers thus far discovered are so situated that they must have been derived from them.

These rocks are classified by spur as follows, commencing at the base. Basal granite schist. This, so far as known, is the fundamental rock formation of the region. The granite has, characteristically, a somewhat schistos or gneissic structure, thus showing evidence of having been subjected to dynamic action or intense compression, and it may pass into a gneiss or even a mica schist, where this action has been most energetic. On the other hand, it is sometimes massive. Showing no parallel structure planes, and then is with difficulty distinguishable from the massive younger granites, which are also of frequent occurrence in the region, in the form of dikes and intrusive masses cutting across older rocks.

As distinguished from the granites of the coastal region, which are intrusive, these older granites are generally of reddish color and crumbly nature. While the later ones are dark gray from the abundance of hornblend as a constituent mineral. Birch Creek Series. Resting upon the fundamental granite is a series of rocks, roughly estimated as possibly 25,000 feet in thickness, named the Birch Creek Series, from the place of their typical occurrence. They consist mainly of quartzitic rocks, Generally thin-bedded, or schistose, so that they pass into mica schists. In some places, they contain carbonaceous matter and develop graphitic schists. There are also bands which probably originated as intrusive rocks, but which by compression have become schistose, like the other members.

These rocks have abundant quartz veins. They are generally parallel to the schistocity. or bedding, small and not persistent, but some cross the bedding and are then wider. They carry gold with abundant pyrites and sometimes galena. They are often broken and faulted.

Forty-mile series. Younger than the Birch Creek series, but in general closely associated therewith, is another thick series of rocks called the Forty Mile series because of their development on Forty Mile Creek. They are characterized by alternations of beds of marble from a few inches up to fifty feet in thickness, with quercitic and other schists, which may be micaceous, hornblendic, or garnitiferous. and sometimes graphitic. They are traversed by abundant dikes of eruptive rock, mostly granites and diorites. Two sets of quartz veins are developed in these rocks. One, an older set, which are generally parallel to the schistocity or lamination like those in the Birch Creek series, and like them, are broken by later movements, and carry pyrite and occasionally galena.

Two. A set of larger veins which form an apparent transition from dykes of aplite, a rock consisting of quartz and feldspar. They cut across the bedding and are not disturbed by later rock movements, hence are younger in age.

Rampart Series. This still later series is primarily distinguished from the preceding by the darker color of its rocks, which are dark green when fresh and become a dark red by weathering. They consist largely of basic eruptive materials, beds of diabase and tephaceous sediments, with hard green shales and some limestones containing glauconite or green silicate of iron. They also contain novaculites, or fine-grained quartzitic slates and jasperoids, or iron-stained quartzose rocks. Serpentine and chlorite, noticeable by their softness and green color, are frequent alteration products. These rocks also contain a few quartz and calcite veins, which are generally developed along shear zones or places where, by rock movement and compression, a series of closely oppressed parallel fractures are developed.

The basic character of these rocks and their large content of pyrite seem favorable to the concentration of ore deposits. They present, moreover, Certain analogies, both in composition and in geologic position, with the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior. But the observed veins are younger than the joints and sheer planes, which were probably produced by the rock movements that crushed the veins of the older Ceres, and assays of their ores have as yet shown but insignificant amounts of gold and silver. These veins, as well as those in the granite, are, moreover, much less abundant than those in the Birch Creek and Forty Mile series. Hence, it is thought, that the latter are probably the principal source of gold in the placers.

The younger rock series noted are, briefly, the following. Takandit series. This consists of limestones, sometimes white and crystalline, generally green or black, alternating with shales. In certain localities, notably on the Takandit River, it has conglomerates carrying greenish pebbles supposed to be derived from the rocks of the Rampart series. In the beds of this series have been found fossils of Carboniferous age and plants of Devonian aspect. Mission Creek series. Later than the Takandit series, but like it not very well defined, is the Mission Creek series, consisting of shales and thin-bedded limestones with gray sandstones. Locally, there are thin beds of impure lignite, and at the base, a conglomerate, cement rock of the miners, containing pebbles not completely rounded, derived from older rocks in the neighborhood, which sometimes carries gold.

The beds of this series are sometimes altered and sharply upturned and folded, but generally have a rather fresh appearance. In the neighborhood of sheer zones, they are impregnated with pyrite and carry small quartz veins. The limited exploration of these rocks has developed no important deposits of mineral. The age of the beds is as yet uncertain. But they are, in part, as late as Cretaceous.

Kenai series. Next above the Mission Creek rocks, and not always readily distinguishable from them, is a great thickness of rather loosely consolidated conglomerates, shales and sandstones, generally greenish in color, which are the coal-bearing rocks of the region. They everywhere contain plant remains and rest unconformably upon the older rocks. They have, however, been folded to a certain extent and stand upturned at angles of 20 degrees to 60 degrees. They are supposed to be of Eocene tertiary age. Later tertiary beds. Other and more recent tertiary beds have been observed generally in the more open country of the lower Yukon, which have little economic importance, though they sometimes contain thin lignitic seams.

They are variously known from the localities where they have been observed, as the Nullato sandstones and the Twelve Mile and Porcupine beds, the two last named being assumed to belong to the same series. The more recent formations, silts and gravels, will be considered under the heading Detritle or Placer Deposits.

10 10 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Distribution of Gold-bearing Rock Formation 11:35

Alaska and its Mineral Resources. Distribution of Gold-Bearing Rock Formation. by Samuel Franklin Emmons. The most definite facts with regard to the occurrence of the gold-bearing formations, the Birch Creek, Forty Mile, and Rampart series described above, were obtained by the reconnaissance made by members of the United States Geological Survey in the summer of 1896, under the charge of J. E. Spur, in the American portion of the Yukon District. and the exposures of these rocks, as shown on the maps of his report, have been indicated in colors on the accompanying map. Data gathered by earlier geologists, notably those of the Canadian Survey and of C. W. Hayes and I. C. Russell of the United States Geological Survey, have provided suggestions as to the extent of these rocks in outside areas.

But the reader need only bear in mind the enormous area and the difficulties of exploration and the want of accurate maps of the region, to realize that generalization must as yet be very tentative and liable to future change. As shown by the map, the belt in which these rocks have been found extends about five hundred miles in a general northwest-southeast direction, but there are indications that the actual extent of this exposure may be twice as great. The best-known exposures of these rocks occur along the northeastern flanks of a broad belt of fundamental granites and crystalline schists, which apparently form the central nucleus or backbone upon which they rest. This belt is known in a general way to extend up the Tanana River from near its mouth south-eastward across the White River below the Donjek.

In the latter region, C. W. Hayes reports quartzites and limestone resembling the Birch Creek and Forty Mile series on the southern flanks of the granite. But the width of the belt, and whether there is any considerable extent of the gold-bearing formations along its southern flanks, is as yet unknown. It may not improbably extend into the high range south of Tanana, of which Mount McKinley is the culminating point, and in which the Kokuswem and Sushetna rivers of western Alaska take their rise, for from the reports of Moverian missionaries and of the Traveler Dickey, it appears that gold occurs in the sands of each of these streams. To the westward, the granite backbone appears to pitch gently downward as its surface area narrows, and no exposures are known west of the Yukon River.

It is probably not a continuous mass of granite on the surface, but contains smaller areas of the latter rocks folded in with it. East of the international boundary, the area in which the granite occurs apparently widens, but its exposures are less continuous, and overlying rocks not yet having been ward away. One granite axis appears to extend eastward from the 40-mile district through the Klondike region in a nearly east-west direction, which is that of the prevailing strike of the sedimentary rocks. The Canadian geologists report a second granite axis on the Dees River, just below Dees Lake, which may belong to the older granites, though they do not make the same distinction that Spurr does between the older granites and the later intrusive rocks.

Rocks of the various gold-bearing series above the granite are reported at the following localities. Their first appearance to one ascending the Yukon from the sea is near the mouth of the Nowickaket. From here up to the Tanana River, rocks of the Birch Creek series outcrop frequently along the river when not concealed by tertiary sandstones and conglomerates, and the range of low mountains on the north side and parallel to the river is probably formed of these and forty-mile rocks. About three miles above the mouth of the Tanana, Granite is exposed on an island in the Yukon, and 12 miles higher calcareous quartzite schists of the 40-mile series appear under the tertiary conglomerates. From the mouth of the Tanana up to Fort Hanlon, at the lower end of the Yukon Flats, the river runs in a canyon-like channel known as the Lower Ramparts, cut through a low range of mountains, which consists principally of the dark greenish and reddish rocks of the Rampart series, except where these are buried under tertiary conglomerates.

The latter rocks occur immediately above the exposure of 40-mile rocks, and again from Minook Creek up beyond the mouth of Hess Creek. Higher up on these streams, the Rampart rocks come to the surface, and the 40-mile rocks are supposed to be uncovered at their very heads. Between the two areas of tertiary rocks, The rampart rocks occupy a belt fifteen to twenty miles wide along the river, and are cut by great dikes of intrusive granite. From Fort Hamilton up to near Circle City, a distance neglecting curves of about two hundred miles, the river flows through a perfectly flat region covered by fine silts and gravels known as the Yukon Flats, in which no outcrops of solid rock have been observed.

In the Birch Creek District, Around the headwaters of Birch Creek and southwest of Circle City, the Birch Creek series occupy a broad area. Their general strike is east and west, curving at either end to the northward, and the prevailing dip is between 5 and 30 degrees to the south. There is, however, evidence of a northern dip as well, and the 40-mile schists and marbles rest upon them along the trail to Circle City. probably belonging to the Forty Mile series, are also reported in the hills between Birch Creek and the Tenanna to the southward. At the crossing of Birch Creek by the trail from Circle City and along the Yukon River for thirty or forty miles above the Yukon Flats, rocks with the characteristic dark coloring of the Rampart series are exposed.

From these up to the mouth of Mission Creek, rocks of the Takendik Mission Creek and Kenai series occupied the banks of the river. On Mission Creek itself, only these later formations are found, but the gold in the gravels is supposed to come from the conglomerates of the Mission Creek series, which contain pebbles of the older rocks. On American Creek, the main branch of Mission Creek, which comes in from the south, The dark rocks, shales, limestones, and two facious beds which form the bedrock are supposed to belong to the rampart series, which also occur along the Yukon River from five to ten miles above Mission Creek to within twenty-five miles of the mouth of Forty Mile Creek. Above this, to some distance above Forty Mile Creek, the river runs in beds of the Mission Creek series.

It is in the Forty Mile District and the adjoining Mining District On tributaries of 60 Mile Creek, that the relations of the different gold-bearing series are best seen. Here there is an east-west axis, or backbone, running parallel to the upper part of 40 Mile Creek, and along the divide between it and 60 Mile Creek, with quartzite schists of the Birch Creek series resting immediately on it, both to the north and to the south. Above these, on either side, are the marbles and alternating schists of the Forty Mile series. Forty Mile Creek, below the forks, runs for a considerable part of its course along the junction between these two series on the northern flank of the anticline. Dykes of various eruptive rocks, including intrusive granite, are very abundant, especially on the south fork.

On the upper part of this fork are green tufts and slates of the rampart series, overlaid unconformably by The South Fork and 60 Mile Creek are supposed to head in a backbone of granite around 60 Mile Butte, which is surrounded by quartzite schists of the Birch Creek series. These regions lay partly in American, partly in Canadian territory. The Canadian area has not been studied by American geologists, except in wayside observations along such routes of travel as necessarily lay through it. The Canadian geologists, on the other hand, did not in their earlier and published observations recognize any subdivisions in the older rocks such as have been made by Spur. Hence, it is not possible to attempt even a proximate outline of the Canadian globe-bearing rock formations.

General geological data and local discoveries of gold-bearing gravels indicate that the gold-bearing area is very large, and may be roughly defined as reaching from Diez River to the boundary, with a width of two hundred to three hundred miles or more. The recent enormously rich discoveries have, however, been confined to a more limited area around the Klondike and Stewart River districts, over which it has been possible to extend, with a reasonable degree of probability, the colors indicated on the map for adjoining American areas. Thus, it is assumed that the east-west uplift of fundamental granite and overlying rocks extend eastward into the Klondike district. and that a second uplift in a southeasterly direction extends from upper Forty Mile Creek toward the valley of the Stewart River.

Spur noted outcrops of the Schistosed quartzites of the Birch Creek series for a large part of the distance from the mouth of Forty Mile Creek up to the junction of the Peli and the Lues at Fort Selkirk. Also granites at various points, in some cases Schistose, like the fundamental granite, and other fresh and massive-like intrusive granite. There were also occasional belts of marble belonging to the Forty Mile series, notably one five or six miles above the mouth of Sixty Mile Creek, not far from that of Stewart River. These observations afford a rough section across the belt of crystalline schists mentioned by the Canadian geologists as stretching eastward and southeastward along the Upper Peli and adjoining streams, and across the Francis River.

Along the eastern edge of the crystalline belt, they also recognized rocks of a general greenish color, made up largely of altered volcanic rocks, which would answer to the description of the Rampart series. Similar rocks were also noted at various points on the Luz, above its junction with the Pelle, notably in the Seminole Hills near the Big Salmon River, which may represent the development of the Rampart series on the south flanks of the Crystalline Belt.

11 11 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Placer or Detrital Deposits 17:18

Alaska and its mineral resources, Placer or Detritle deposits. The extraordinarily rich placer deposits of the Gulch's tributary to the Klondike River above Dawson and off similar gulches of the nearby Indian Creek and Steewatt River have been so recently opened that no detailed geological description of these localities has yet been received. In his report, however, Spur had shown that the strike of gold-bearing rocks in the Forty Mile District and the exposure observed along the Yukon indicated that their gold must have been derived from the same old bearing formations that had furnished the richest places in the districts visited by him. A brief statement of the prominent characteristics of these districts as given by him.

will therefore probably be of value. The hills surrounding the gulches of the Little Mainook and Hunter Creeks on the lower Yukon are formed of rocks of rampart series. The bedrocks are of dipies, tufts, impure shales and quartzites, and in the bottoms of the gulches There is from 10 to 20 feet of gravel. The gravel consists in part of angular fragments of rocks that form the walls of the gulch, in part of water-worn pebbles of Birch Creek skits, skit stoves, granite, and other rocks. The gold is generally in rounded, bean-shaped grains and nuggets, and less frequently in unborn particles. This points to a twofold origin of the gold, as derived, in part, from the rocks immediately about and in part, from distant and older rocks, which may have been worn down, possibly along an old seashore, into terrace gravels, and then, by subsequent erosion, brought into the present stream beds.

Further exploration In the hills to the south, we disclose the true source of these pebbles and of gold that accompanies them. On American Creek, in the Mission Creek district, the gold-bearing placers are also derived from rocks of the Rampart series, quartzite, skates, serpentines, and chlorotic rocks, and the gold is set by spur. The richest gravels have been found in the Birch Creek and Forty Mile Districts. In the entire Birch Creek District, which lies south of the Circle City and on Miller Glacier, Poker and Davis Creeks of the Forty Mile District near the international boundary, the bedrocks are always The quartzite skids of the Birch Creek series containing veins of quartz. The gravels rest as a rule directly on the skids, though in some cases as on Harrison and Eagle Creeks.

In the Birch Creek district, there is clay beneath the gravels and the gold, as a rule does not extend into the bedrocks, but occurs chiefly.

Generally, however, the skit is rotted and redundant from oxidation for a few inches to several feet below the surface, and in this part, the gold has settled into the cracks and joints. The pay gravels lie mostly next the bedrock in an average thickness of perhaps two feet. Though sometimes up to 10 feet, while the overlining gravels average 8 or 10 feet with a maximum of 25 feet. In the gravels, the skids is in quite large flat fragments, and the quartz is in boulders of varying size. The skids fragments lie flat and are mixed with sand. Showing that the sorting action of running water has not been carried far. In the concentrates from the sluice boxes, the heavier minerals associated with the gold, galena, magnetite, limonite, hornblende, and the carnite are in each case Such as are found in the neighboring skits, and the nuggets of gold often have pieces of quartz still adhering to them.

All these facts are evidence that the gold is derived from rocks in the vicinity, and is not brought from a great distance, perhaps by glaciers, as some erroneously suppose. The rocks of the Forty Mile series In the Forty Mile District, as already stated, form the west bank of Forty Mile Creek and south of the South Four Cross, the divide between Franklin Gulch and Napoleon Creek, where they are overlaen by green slates of the Rampart series, which in turn are overlaen by conglomerates of the Mission Creek series. In Franklin Creek, The bedrocks are marbles interbedded with mica and hornblende skits. The gravel contains fragments of marble, quartzite, mica skits, and vayan quads. At one point, a quartz vein is found in the bedrock, and below it, native silver have been found in the gravels, which apparently came from this vein.

It is the scyto's rocks that mostly carry the gold, as the marbles do not show much evidence of veins. In this gulch are two levels. The higher one, at the head of the gulch, had not been worked, while the pay gulch had been found mainly at the lower level near the mouth of the gulch. Chicken Creek, so called because it gold, occurs in grains the size of chicken feet, drains a wide area toward the catch-jump stock hills to the southwest, and the actual source of the gold is less readily defined. The gravel contains fragments of granite, quartzite, skid, and marble. On Napoleon Creek, conglomerate forms the bedrock near the mouth. The gravels contain fragments of quartzite, vein quartz, hornblent granite, and various eruptive rocks, and the source of the gold is assumed to be the conglomerate, which is made up of fragments of older rocks for the rocks higher up to the ground.

The gulch above the conglomerates have not been found to carry much gold. The most trustworthy reports from the Klondike region indicate that the exceptionally rich placer gravels thus far found occur in side valleys entering the mean Klondike valley from the south, such as Bonanza, El Dorado, and Hunker Creeks, and In some gulches across the Divide Tributary to Indian or Stevot rivers. No gold in paying quantities had been found on the Klontike itself. The placer deposit generally consists of 10 to 15 feet of frozen muck and decayed vegetation at the surface than a gravel bed that rarely pays. Below that a clay selvage under which is pay dirt from one to five feet in thickness, resting on the upturned edges of the skids from which it is separated by a clay selvage.

The pay streak or bottom of the old channel is usually very regular and straight, not following the bends of the present stream. It is said to average sixty per cent to the pan and may yield dollar one to dollar three. Only very exceptionally rich gravel can be worked at all under present conditions. Other Detrital Deposits Besides the placer gravels above described, there are other Detrital Deposits that may carry gold, some of which are known to occur in the Yukon district, but have not as yet been extensively worked. In the large streams, accumulation of gravel and sand are made in places of slackening current, such as inner site of curves, or at points where considerable coarse material is brought into the main stream by more rapid tributaries.

Such accumulations are called Bars and often contain much cold. In some cases, the entire mass of sand and gravel in a riverbed contain enough cold to be worked at a profit by mechanical processes. There must necessarily be a large amount of cold in the bars of the Yukon and its tributaries, but whether They are rich enough to be profitably worked under existing conditions, has not yet been proved. Another common form of detrital deposit is the fine sills, which often cover white areas. The most notable instance is what is called the Yukon Flats, which extend for 100 miles or more above and below the great bend of the river at Fort Yukon. and a considerable distance up the porcupine, thus covering an area perhaps 100 by 200 miles in extent.

Similar flats, but of more moderate dimensions, occur at various points along the lower course of the river, generally in the concave sides of coves. These silts are being deposited at present day in the annual floods. While the river waters cover such wide areas that their movement becomes as sluggish as those of a lake. There are, however, similar beds of silt of like appearance and constitution at altitudes of several hundred feet above the present stream, which are of widespread occurrence not only in the lower Yukon country, but in the plateau region. of British Columbia. The latter have been designated white silks by Dr. Dawson, who considered that they were laid down in fjords connecting with the sea, their material being furnished by the grinding of the retreating Cordillaran Glacier.

These ancient silks and the benches Or terraces that fringe the mountains all over the interior of Alaska, up to 3,000 feet above the present sea level, point to a comparatively recent submergence of the country to this deposit. The American geologists are inclined, however, to attribute a lacustrine origin to part at least of these silts. The absence of marine fossils in them is admitted by Dr. Dawson to be negative evidence against their marine origin. From an economic point of view, these cells are of little importance. However, as the gold contained in them would be so finely divided that it probably could not be extracted at a profit. It is otherwise, however, with the terrace gravels The children were restless.

In the cashier mining district, Quite a large proportion of the cold was derived from terrace gravels. The higher terraces, which are not confined to present valleys, but cross divides and sometimes forms plateaus, must have been worn down or redistributed by broader bodies of water, which would be less likely to concentrate the cold than river waters. They have already been observed. at 1,500 feet elevation, and if the hypothesis of submergence expressed above is correct, should be found up to 3,000 feet. They are probably of little economic importance. Ancient river gravels that have been protected from erosion by a covering of recent lava have not yet been noted in the Yukon Valley, though recent flows of Basaltic lava occur at various points, from the lake region of the Lewis River down to St.

Michael Island, sixty miles north of the mouth of the Yukon. In the upper Stikine Valley, such an old river channel, in which oriferous gravels had been protected by a recent flow of basalt, is cut through by the modern stream. and has caused a notable enrichment of its bars immediately below. It is a question, however, whether modern erosion in the Yukon Valley is sufficiently deep and active to expose such channels if they do exist there. Another source of gold which occupies an intermediate position between original and debt-rital deposits is what is generally known as fossil placers or conglomerate beds within a geological rock formation which is made up of material resulting from the varying down, generally on an old shore line of older gold-bearing rocks.

Such conglomerates have been observed in both the Mission Creek and caniseries of beds, and if Future study shows them to have been formed under favorable conditions, they may prove to be an important source of gold. According to Mr. Spur's observation, the modern places of Napoleon Creek in the Forty Mile District have been enriched by gold derived from the Bessel Conglomerate of Mission Creek series, which is made up of materials derived from from the Birch Creek, Forty Mile and Rampart series.

12 12 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Probable Extent of Gold-bearing Deposits 10:25

Alaska and its Mineral Resources. The Probable Extent of Gold-Bearing Deposits. By Samuel Franklin Emmons. In a new country, gold is first sought in the stream gravels, and thence traced up to its source. Very fine gold may be carried long distances by river waters. Hence, it is only when it becomes relatively coarse, or at any rate carries coarse particles, that the source may be considered necessarily near at hand. Fine gold is found in almost all the rivers of Alaska. Even the silts of the Yukon yield it in places. Gold has been found along the whole length of the Luz, the Teslan, the Big Salmon, the Peli, the Stewart, and the Selwyn, and on the Yukon River almost continuously from the junction of the Luz and Peli downwards.

Still further east, France's and Dees Rivers, the main branches of Laird River, which flows into the Mackenzie, carry gold. In the Kasser district, on the Dees River, gold was discovered as early as 1861. The district was actively worked as a placer camp from 1873 to 1887, during which time it yielded about $5 million worth of gold-dust. These upper regions are distant about 1,000 miles in a straight line from the known outcrops of gold-bearing rocks in the Rampart Mountains on the lower Yukon, and are within areas either in which exposures of the gold-bearing rocks as defined above actually known to exist, or in which the similar lithological character of rocks described renders it probable that in some part of the area they may be exposed.

There is also some evidence of the extension of rocks of the gold-bearing series to the northwest of the lower Yukon, Though it is yet impossible to determine whether the primitive gold-bearing rocks of the Birch Creek and Forty Mile series there come to the surface, or whether it is simply the fossil placers or gold-bearing conglomerates of later formations, who are made up of fragments of these older rocks that have furnished the gold of modern streams. In this region, gold has been found extensively along the Koyukuk, and, most abundantly, as already mentioned, where the valley cuts through the conglomerates supposed to belong to the Kenai series. This is at the forks, about three hundred miles above the mouth, below which the country is low and swampy.

Above the forks, the mountains close in and the sides of the valley become precipitous. The gold in the bars is said to be coarse, suggesting nearness to the source, and his yield is as much as one hundred dollars per day by use of the rocker. Prospectors are said to have explored to considerable distances above the forks, up to five hundred miles from the mouth, and to have recognized rocks similar to those of the Birch Creek and Forty Mile districts. This, if true, is important as an indication of still further extensions of the area of exposures of the older gold-bearing rocks. Further east, at the head of the Dahl River, Low, broken hills, apparently composed of schists and quartos rocks, extend northeastward to the Rormanzoff Mountains.

The latter are snow-covered in summer, and form the northern boundary of a low plain that lies to the north of Porcupine River. These mountains are likewise said to be made up of metamorphic schists and quartzites. Still further northwest, in the country to the northeast of Kutsobe Sound, Gold has been reported from the Kowak and Noatak rivers. It is possible that the older series of rocks is exposed in the mountains of this region, but more probable that the gold is derived from the conglomerates of the Mission Creek series, which, as already shown, afford gold on Napoleon Creek and in the Mission Creek district. Gold is also reported by prospectors from a belt of country which is generally parallel to the known gold belt, but set off to the southwest, and which corresponds to the supposed southwestern flank of the granite backbone.

Such discoveries have been reported from Fish Creek, which flows into Norton Sound, north of St. Michael, and from the upper Kuskokwim River, which flows into Bering Sea. On the Sushitna River, which flows into Cook Inlet, W. A. Dickey reports colors of fine gold in the sands all along the stream, and platinum on the upper river, where veins of white quartz carrying gold, silver, and copper were found in slates associated with granite and porphyry. Gold and copper have been reported by various persons from the region about the sources of the copper and white rivers. It is thus evident, That the elevated region along the heads of these various streams, and between them and the waters of the Tanana, possesses great possibilities in the way of mineral development.

But from all accounts, it is a region exceptionally difficult to access, and it may well be questioned whether it is advisable to attend until facilities for travel and obtaining supplies in the Yukon region have been increased, as they will be in the near future. More accessible is the region immediately north of the Tanana River, known as the Tanana Hills and Ketchumstock Hills, which, from reports, appears to be mainly a granite region, but in which it is likely that outliers or patches of the gold-bearing schists will be found enclosed within the granite area. Late reports by prospectors in the Tanana region state that the river has slack water, Navigable for steamers, one hundred fifty to two hundred miles above its mouth.

Above that, the current is swift. Mountains border the river on the north side from the mouth up. On the south, they are far distant. Colors are found in all the creeks. Those heading toward forty mile and seventy mile offer best promises, but no important prospects have been found. Toward Circle City, the creeks do not freeze up, and a hot spring was found in one of the gulches. In the mountain region to the northeast of the Yukon River, immediately above the bend, such observations as have been made do not offer much promise of exposures of the older gold-bearing schists. Older limestones occur there, but, though important gold deposits are known to occur in limestones, in the Yukon country the general rule appears to prevail that gold is concentrated mainly in the Sicilius rocks.

It may well be, however, that in the conglomerate or cement deposits of the coal-bearing formations that are known to occur in this northeastern region, there are portions sufficiently rich in gold to make paying placers by their watering down. In searching for such places, the prospector should study the character of the pebbles that make up the conglomerate. It is only when these include fragments of the gold-bearing rocks and occasionally of vain quartz that they are likely to be productive. For the region east of the international boundary, Spur had already pointed out, as a result of his observations in the summer of 1896, that the Klondike and Indian Creek regions were likely to show rich placers because the schists of the Birch Creek series and, to some extent, the marbles of the Forty Mile series formed the bedrock.

George M. Dawson reports bars of fairly coarse gold on the Pelle all the way up to the Houle River. Just below the mouth of the Macmillan, the river has cut a canyon through gray granite hills, below which are dark crystalline schists with east-west strike and northerly dip, associated with which are alternating marbles and chlorotic schists probably of the 40-mile series. Granite occurs again near the junction of the Loos. Of the valley of the Macmillan, Nothing was known. The Pelle, above the detour or bend, had a similar series of quartzite schists, which interbedded limestones on the north, while the Glenlion hills to the south were of granites. Above these are sandstones supposed to belong to the coal-bearing series and dipping forty-five degrees south.

Still higher up, in Houle Canyon, are marbles again, associated with schists and volcanic rocks, possibly of the Rampart series. Still further northeast, in the middle canyon of the Francis River, Dawson found marbles again, while in the Tucho Range to the east were seen granites and schists with abundant quartz veins. All along the summit of the coast range the prevailing rocks are granites, cut by later porphyry dykes. They form a belt twenty to eighty miles wide, and are generally of the hornblende or intrusive type. On the Daya and Skagway trails, They extend down on the northeast side to the mid-length of Lake Bennett. In the range of hills between Miles Canyon and the Teslan River are diabasic or dark eruptive rocks and limestones, which may belong to the Rampart series, though Dawson considers the limestones to be probably carboniferous.

Along the region of Rink and Five Finger Rapids, below the Big Salmon, are unfolded masses of Cretaceous rocks.

with conglomerate at the base, overlaid in places by lavas. Below these are greenish eruptive rocks, and then near the mouth of the Pelle is granite again, succeeded below the Pelle by basalt flows. Twenty-five miles below the Pelle, granitic rocks again appear, and are succeeded by crystalline schists of various kinds, which constitute the prevailing rock, down nearly to forty miles.

13 13 - Alaska and its Mineral Resources, Coal and Lignite 5:39

Alaska and its Mineral Resources. Coal and Lignite. Coastal Region. By Samuel Franklin Emmons. The coal of Alaska, so far examined, whether in the interior or on the seacoast south of Bering Strait, is of the Eocene or early tertiary age, and belongs without exception to varieties of lignite, brown coal, or glanz coal. North of Bering Strait, In the vicinity of Cape Lisbon, is a coal field of considerable extent containing a fuel which is believed to be of greater geological age, perhaps similar to that so extensively mined at Nanaimo and other points in British Columbia. As rocks of carboniferous age occur in close proximity to this coal, it was long supposed to belong to the Paleozoic coal measures, like that of Pennsylvania.

But an examination of the fossil plants actually associated with it has shown this opinion to be erroneous. The various coals of Alaska occur in beds interstratified with sandstone, shale, conglomerate, and clay. These rocks usually containing numerous fossil plants, leaves, cones, and amber derived from the fossilization of resin from the ancient coniferous forests. The geological formation containing the coal and leaf-bearing shales is called the Kenai formation, and is usually covered by beds of sandstone containing fossil oysters and other shells belonging to the Miocene or middle tertiary. Like all tertiary coals, the Alaska mineral is light in proportion to its bulk, burns rapidly with little smoke, and has a tendency to break up into small pieces under the action of the weather.

The glance coal is brilliant and clean to handle, like anthracite, for which it is often mistaken, but which, bulk for bulk, is considerably heavier. The brown coal gives a brown instead of a black streak when scratched, has the appearance of fossil wood, and in drying splits up into chip-like pieces. The coal-bearing strata are comparatively widespread, both along the coast and in the interior, but as yet, but few beds have been actually worked. In the Alexander Archipelago on Admiralty Island, coal seams and leaf-bearing shales crop out at a number of points along the shores of Kutsunahu Inlet, and a mine has been opened from which considerable non-coking coal has been extracted at the head of Davis Creek, near Kilisnu Village, almost 40 miles northeast of Sitka.

Coal or Coal-Bearing Strata has also been reported on Prince of Wales Island, near Kasahan Bay, on Lindenburg Peninsula of Kuprennough Island, on the northeast and also on the west side of Kuyu Island, on the southern point and in Seymour Canal, on the western side of Admiralty Island, at Whale Bay, Mbarnoff Island, 23 miles south of Sitka. and at various points on Chichagoff Island, northwest of that place. Similar occurrences have reported Latouya and Yakutat Bays on the southwest flanks of the St. Elias Range. The most important known coal field is on the east shore of Cook Inlet, on the Kenai Peninsula. Here, the coal beds cover an area of 70 by 30 miles and rise in high bluffs 2,000 feet above the sea.

At Kachamak Bay, where is the only good harbor, there are six or seven seams, the thickest of which is four feet thick. Several shiploads of the coal, which is of fairer average quality, have been taken out. Along either shore of the Alaskan Peninsula and on islands adjoining them, and in the Aleutian chain for some distance beyond Unalaska, coal strata are reported and have been worked or opened at Amalek Harbor, Ungar Island, Chignik Bay, on the south shore, and at Herondine Bay, on the north shore of the peninsula. North of the Yukon River, coal beds are reported at several points along Norton Sound, one on the Kolkwak River, which empties into Kutsobe Sound, and on the banks of a river entering into Wainwright Inlet on the Arctic Ocean.

The Cape Lisborne Coal Field extends in a general way from Cape Lisborne to Cape Beaufort, a distance of twenty-five miles. This coal has been extensively used by steam whalers. In the interior, coal strata have been observed at or near Andreevsky, Kaltaj, Nulato, and Melozykaket on the lower Yukon. Three seams have been mined on the right bank of the Yukon in the lower ramparts at Coal Creek, and coal has been taken from Coal Creek, which enters the Yukon from the north. There is some evidence of a considerable development of coal-bearing strata extending in either direction from this point, nearly parallel with the Yukon River, and not far north of it. Although these coals are rather light, their proximity to the gold-fields promises to render them of considerable industrial importance.

14 14 - The Civil Government of Alaska 16:55

The Civil Government of Alaska. By the Honorable George C. Perkins, U.S.S. A Bill Making Provision for the Civil Government of Alaska is now before Congress, and may become a law, but pending its passage, the political organization of the territory is as follows. The executive head of the territorial government is the governor, appointed by the president. The code of laws of the territory is that which was in force in the state of Oregon on May 17th, 1884. So far as the same may be applicable, and not in conflict with the provisions of the act providing a civil government for Alaska, or with the laws of the United States. There is a difficulty, however, in the machinery to enforce these laws, as there is only one judge who holds court at Sitka and Rangel in the narrow strip along the coast known as the Panhandle.

He is, however, authorized and directed to hold such special sessions as may be necessary at such times and places, as he may deen expedient. There are nine commissioners for the territory, who under the Act of May 17, 1884, exercise all the duties and powers, civil and criminal, now conferred on justices of the peace under the general laws of the state of Oregon. Commissioners are stationed in Unalaska, Cadyac, Circle City, Daia, St. Michael, Unger, Sitka, Juneau, and Rangel. These commissioners have also probate and habeas corpus jurisdiction, and are notaries, public, and recorders of deeds. There are a marshal and ten deputy marshals, the latter residing at the places mentioned above, and Douglas City.

They have the powers of constables under the laws of the state of Oregon. There is one district attorney for the district court, and one assistant. The salaries of these officials are as follows. Governor, $3,000. District Attorney, $2,500. Marshal, $2,500. District Judge, $3,000. Clerk, $2,500. Commissioners, $1,000. With the usual fees of U.S. Commissioners and Justice of the Peace for Oregon, and such fees for recording instruments as are allowed by the laws of the same state. Deputy Marshals, $750, with the usual fees of constables in Oregon. Under the Interior Department, there are twenty-one Indian police. Under the Treasury Department, there are four special agents stationed at the Pribilof or Seal Islands in Bering Sea, whose duty is to protect the seals from poachers and to see that the specified number of skins to be taken each year is not exceeded.

They are stationed at the Pribilof Islands. There is also an inspector for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska, with one assistant, whose headquarters are at Sitka, but whose duties take them to the various streams along the coast which the salmon frequent, and on which there are canneries. The customs service includes a collector of customs and two deputies at Sitka, and deputies at Juneau, Mary Island, Katiaak, Karlauk, Cook Inlet, Unger, Onalaska, St. Michael, Circle City, and Daia. Under the Interior Department, there is a General Agent of Education in Alaska, with an Assistant General Agent and a Superintendent for each of the two educational districts. There are 23 teachers and an enrollment of 1,267 pupils in 20-day schools.

These schools, with about 20 mission schools and homes, conducted by the various missionary organizations of the United States, the most efficient of which is the Industrial School at Sitka, with a few schools of the Russo-Greek Church, supported by the Russian government, constitute the educational facilities of Alaska. In Sitka, Juneau, and Douglas, separate schools are maintained for white and native children. During 1896, a schoolhouse was erected near the Treadwell Gold Mine on Douglas Island. and in 1897 a new schoolhouse was built at Hoona, Cheechagoff Island. In September 1896 the school was opened at Circle City. The government maintains five herds of reindeer in the territory, namely one at Cape Prince of Wales, numbering two hundred and fifty-three, one at Cape Nome, numbering two hundred and eighteen, one at the Swedish Mission at Gullivan Bay, and one at the St.

James Episcopal Station nearby, numbering together two hundred and six, and the central government heard at the Teller Station, numbering four hundred and twenty-three, making a total of one thousand, one hundred. There is a prohibition against bringing liquor into the territory, but it is evaded by smugglers from Canada and the United States, and at every settlement the numerous saloons seen are evidences of the extent of the smuggling operations. Annet Island in southeastern Alaska has been set aside as a reservation for the Metlakatla Indians who immigrated from British Columbia and to whom the island was assigned by the act of March 3rd, 1891. The Secretary of the Interior recommends that citizenship be extended to them.

The great necessity to commerce in consequence of the rush of gold-seekers to Alaska of more exact information regarding channels, etc., along the coast, has led the Coast and Geodectic Survey to send out two parties for the purpose of surveying the channels of entrance to the Yukon River and the navigability of the Copper River. The head of Cook's Inlet will also be examined. The geological survey has also sent men into the Alaska field. For the purpose of examining and reporting upon the mineral Resources of the Territory. A military reservation has been established by the government at St. Michael in Bering Sea, embracing a territory within a hundred miles radius from the port of St. Michael.

It takes in a portion of the Alaskan mainland, including the Delta of the Yukon. The policy of the government is to lease for a nominal sum sufficient area and water frontage for commercial, manufacturing, and shipbuilding purposes. The government has also a military station near Circle City, and another on the Copper River. Special legislation relating to Alaska has, up to the present time, had reference simply to the narrow strip along the southern coast, known as stated above as the Panhandle, and to the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands. Its provisions are not sufficiently flexible, to permit of its extension to the interior by executive action. There is, however, one exception, wherein the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to extend the customs laws throughout the territory.

The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and the rights incident thereto were put in force in Alaska by the Act of 1884 and the Act of March 3, 1891. The laws relating to lands and titles are as follows. The mineral land laws of the United States. Townsite laws, which provide for the incorporation of town sites and acquirement of titles thereto from the United States government to the town site trustees. The law providing for trade and manufactures, giving each qualified person one hundred and sixty acres of land in a square and of compact form. Applications for town sites. And for trade and manufacturing purposes are to be made to the marshal and clerk at Sitka. The coal-land regulations are distinct from the mineral regulations or laws, and the jurisdiction of neither coal-laws nor public land laws extend to Alaska, the territory being expressly excluded by the laws themselves from their operations.

The act approved May 17th, 1884, Providing for civil government in Alaska has this language as to mines and mining privileges. The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on and after the passage of this act, be in full force in effect in said district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the President, and parties who have located mines or mining privileges there under the United States laws applicable to the public domain, or have occupied or improved or exercised acts of ownership over such claims, shall not be disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect title by payments provided for.

There is still more general authority. The Act of July Fourth, 1866, says, All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed land and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States, and by those who have declared an intention to become such under the rules prescribed by law and according to local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States. The patenting of mineral lands in Alaska is not a new thing, for that work has been going on all the time.

In 1897, a surveyor-general was specifically provided for by the Act of June Twenty Fourth, and an additional land office authorized, but the latter could not be opened, as no appropriation was made for salaries. By the bill now before Congress, and which will undoubtedly become a law, The homestead land laws are extended over Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior. The bill provides that no indemnity, deficiency or loo lands pertaining to any land-grant outside of Alaska shall be located within the territory, that no entry shall be allowed extending more than forty rods along the shore of any navigable water, And along such shore a space of at least forty rod shall be reserved from entry between such claims.

That nothing within the act shall be so construed as to authorize entries to be made or title acquired to the shore of any navigable waters within the territory. That no homestead shall exceed forty acres unless it be located on meadow-land, or land chiefly valuable for grazing or agricultural purposes. of which one hundred and sixty acres may be entered as a homestead under the general land laws of the United States. That any citizen, association, or corporation may purchase, for purposes of trade, manufacture, or other productive industry, not exceeding forty acres, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, such a tract not to include mineral or coal lands, That a right-of-way one hundred feet wide may be granted to duly organized railroad companies, which are also given the right to take from unoccupied public lands adjacent such material as may be necessary in construction, and to purchase, not to exceed forty acres of land for terminal facilities, and twenty acres for stations, at a dollar, twenty-five per acre.

But the act cannot be construed to give such companies the ownership or use of minerals or coal within the right-of-way or terminal and station grounds, that all charges for transportation shall be fixed subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, that rights-of-way one hundred feet broad may be granted for wagon-roads, wire-rope, aerial, or other tramways on similar terms. All affidavits, proofs, and other papers in relation to lands which may have been or may hereafter be taken and sworn to anywhere in the United States shall be accepted. The Secretary of the Interior may cause to be appraised and sold the timber on the public lands in such quantities as he may prescribe to be used in the territory, but not for export purposes.

The president is authorized to divide the territory into two or more land districts and to appoint a register and receiver for each district. A bill making further provision for the civil government of the territory has been presented to Congress and is now under consideration. It may be amended before final adoption. It makes the following provisions. The temporary seat of government will be at Sitka. But there will be no legislative assembly and no delegate to Congress. The governor will be appointed and will have such powers as pertain to the governor of a territory. A district court is established with civil and criminal jurisdiction, and three district judges are provided, one presiding in each of the three divisions into which the district is divided.

One will preside in Sitka, one at St. Michael, and one at Circle City. At least two terms of court shall be held yearly at Sitka, and one in each of the other divisions. Special terms may be held if necessary. The jurisdiction of each division shall extend over the entire district, but the court may change the place of trial from one division to another in certain cases. The respective judges shall appoint and at pleasure remove commissioners for the district, who shall have the powers and jurisdiction of commissioners of the United States Circuit Courts. They shall also have the power and exercise the duties of justices of the peace, shall have jurisdiction in all testamentary and probate matters, shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus, shall have the power of notaries public, and shall have, when acting as justices of the peace, jurisdiction in suits not affecting titles, where the value involved is not over one thousand dollars.

Three clerks shall be appointed, one for each of the three divisions of the court. There shall also be three district attorneys. There shall be a marshal who shall appoint a chief deputy marshal for each division. The governor, with a salary of $4,000, attorneys $4,000, judges $6,000, clerks $2,500, and a marshal $4,000, shall be appointed by the president and shall hold office for four years. The commissioners shall receive double the usual fees of United States commissioners and of justices of the peace in Oregon. The chief deputy and deputy marshals double the usual fees of constables and deputy marshals in Oregon. The judges of the district shall divide it into three recording divisions, and each court may establish in its division one or more recording districts, which a commissioner shall act as recorder.

While the Clerk of the Court shall be ex officio recorder in any part of the district, not so established. Notices of location of mining claims shall be filed for record within ninety days from the date of discovery, and shall be recorded in the recording district wherein the claim is situated. The President is empowered to establish or discontinue land districts, and to appoint a Register and Receiver for each district so established. The United States mining law shall continue applicable to the territory. Natives of the Dominion of Canada shall be accorded the same mining rights and privileges as are given to Americans in British Columbia and the Northwest Territory. Nothing in the act shall be construed to put in force the general land laws of the United States.

The general laws of the state of Oregon, enforced January 1st, 1894, are declared to be the law and the territory.

15 15 - Some of the Conditions and Possibilities of Agriculture in Alaska 29:06

Some of the Conditions and Possibilities of Agriculture in Alaska By Walter H. Evans, Ph.D., Botanist, Office of Experiment Stations, U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the summer of 1897, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting under the authority from Congress, commissioned Dr. Sheldon Jackson of the U.S. Bureau of Education, Mr. Benton Killen, one of the regents of the Oregon Agricultural College, and the writer, to investigate the agricultural conditions and possibilities of Alaska. The report of this commission Dr. Jackson made a preliminary report on the Yukon Valley, while the other commissioners reported their observations along the coast from Dixon entrance to Unalaska. The following account consists in the main of an abstract of the Fuller report.

From the information gained, It appears that successful attempts have been made at a number of places along the Yukon River to raise hardy vegetables. Potatoes, turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, peas, etc. have been cultivated to considerable extent, some of them having been grown as far north as Circle City and Dawson. Berries abound in the interior, as they do along the coast, and grasses suitable for grazing and hay Mr. William Ogilvie, who is connected with the Land Survey of the Dominion of Canada, estimates the agricultural area of the Upper Yukon at about 460,000 acres. It is possible that the growing of vegetables could be considerably extended in this region. As the observations of the writer were confined to the coast region, that portion of Alaska will be considered more in detail.

Considered from an agricultural standpoint, the coast region is divided by a wide stretch of mountains, embracing the St. Elias and Fairweather ranges, in two rather characteristic regions—a timbered and a treeless region. The southwest, or wooded region, embraces the Great Alexandrian Archipelago, which consists of more than 1,000 islands, and the mainland as far as Juneau. The second, or southwestern region, much of which is barren of trees, extends from Cook Inlet along the Alaskan Peninsula westward, including the Aleutian Archipelago, Cadiac, and the neighboring islands, the Schumangan Group, and numerous other smaller islands. The northern and northeastern part of this region contains some timber, but in general the region is characterized by its remarkable wealth of grasses.

Toward the western portion of this area, the arborescent flora disappears entirely, or is represented by a few small stunted shrubs, mostly willows. Without entering into a general discussion of the meteorology of Alaska, attention may be called to two important facts. First, that the sum of effective temperatures for certain points in the coast region, although somewhat low, surpasses the effective temperatures of several localities in Europe of known agricultural capabilities. And second, that although the total annual precipitation is large, there is only one point at which as much as one-third of it falls during the summer months. The summer rainfall at Wrangel, Pyramid Harbor, and Kilisnu, is less than that at Indianapolis, Indiana, Raleigh, North Carolina, or Washington, D.C.

The soils of Alaska, to a great extent, are of vegetable origin, and to a considerable degree resemble what are called the rice lands of the South, or the peat formations of Europe and elsewhere. In some places in southeastern Alaska, there are deep deposits of this rich-looking soil Overlying slate or conglomerate bedrock, with often a deposit of gravel intervening, sometimes there is an impervious stratum of clay underlying the black soil. Where the soil lies directly on the bedrock, or is underlain with clay, the drainage is usually poor, and the land more or less marshy. Samples of what appeared to be average soils were collected at various places and transmitted to the Division of Soils of the Department of Agriculture.

In commenting upon the character of the samples analyzed, Professor Milton Whitney says, The organic content of many of these soils is very much higher than in any of the agricultural lands of the states. They correspond very nearly with the rice lands and peat formations. The black soils of the plains and the famous Red River Valley soils of the Northwest contain from 8 to 10 percent of organic matter, but seldom more. If these soils are so situated as to be well-drained, they should be capable of producing enormous crops, and with an abundant and well-distributed rainfall, they would be adapted to almost any kind of crop suited to the general climatic conditions of that portion of the country.

In several places, Complaints were heard of a decided acidity of the soil, but no definite information could be secured relating to it. In one place, the addition of a large amount of lime to a small plat had corrected the evil complained of. Peat formations are of a considerable extent in southeastern Alaska. In the southwestern portion of the country, volcanic material adds to the fertility and porosity of the soil in many places. In the Cook Inlet region, the drainage is usually good, the soil overlying deep deposits of gravel. Another characteristic soil formation is that which is so conspicuously illustrated by the tide flats of the Copper and Stikine rivers. These places are more or less marshy and are subject to overflow at high tides.

Where protected from the encroachment of the sea and sufficiently drained, They are generally considered as very productive soils. In the southeastern portion of Alaska, the Sitkan spruce, Pekia sitchanesis, and the hemlock Tsuga mertenissiana abound, now one and then the other predominating. They grow from tidewater to timberline, an elevation varying from 2,000 to 4,000 feet, and in some places the trees attain considerable size. Specimens of the Sitkan spruce were seen that were at least 8 feet in diameter, and probably more than 200 feet high. Logs of this species were seen at the Wrangel sawmill that approximated 100 feet in length, with an average diameter of more than 4 feet. At different places in the southeastern region, the so-called red and yellow cedar, Phuja gigantea, and Chimae kyperis nuatketessens abound, usually at some little elevation from the sea, although trees of considerable size were seen almost at sea level.

Seldom do these trees occur in such abundance as to wholly exclude other species. Another spruce, Tsuga petoni. was observed, but not in great abundance. But a single species of pine, Pinus contorta, was seen, and that was almost invariably found on the flats or on the edge of bogs. Two species of alder, Alnus oregana and A. viridis, were common along the streams and on the mountainsides where snow slides have swept away the dense growth of moss and conifers. Willows are common, but seldom were they seen to attain the dignity of trees. In the north and northeastern portion of what has been designated the southwestern part of the coast region, some spruce, Piccia synchensis, and cottonwood, Populus balsamia, occur, the trees frequently attaining a considerable size.

Considerable birch. Petula papyrifera. And perhaps among other species, occur in the upper part of the Cook Inlet region. But elsewhere, the forests of the southwestern coast are very insignificant. Local demands for lumber and fuel are the principal uses to which the timber is put, and with almost entire exemption from forest fires. The supply, if properly regulated, will be sufficient for all needs of Alaskans for a long time to come. Next to the timber... Perhaps the grasses of Alaska are among the most valuable of the plant products. In all parts of the country, they flourish to an extraordinary degree. In southeastern Alaska, wherever the timber is cut away and the undergrowth of the shrubs kept down, a dense growth of grass soon takes place to the exclusion of all other plants.

Of the Common Grasses, Timothy, Fleam Pretense. Alaska Redtop, Dechampsia caspitosa, and Debotnica, Bluegrass, Poepratensis, Orchidgrass, Dactylus glomerata, Wild Barley, Hordium boreale, Calamagrostis alutica, and Wild Rye, Elemus mollus, and other species are the most widely distributed. And are probably the most valuable for pasture and hay. Timothy, orchid grass, and bluegrass have become thoroughly established and grow to great size. One of the most common native grasses in the Alaskan Red Top. It is a prominent factor in nearly all grass mixtures and frequently exceeds a man in height. Specimens at Sitka, July 5, were a little more than four feet in height and just heading. Orchid grass, more than three feet in height, was seen as early as June 20, and the western part of Alaska, valley and hillside, as far as a thousand feet or more elevation, were green with grass during the time spent in that region.

The most common hay grasses, a Cadillac, are Proa pretensis, Descampsia caeus pitosa, and Hordeum boreale, with some wild Timothy, Phleum alpinum. Kalamogrostis langsdorphaea was the most abundant haygrass observed in Cook Inlet. At Unalaska, the common pasture and haygrasses appear to be Tricetum subspichetum and Kalamogrostis alutica. While clover was seen in many of the small meadows and dooryards, from which places it seems to be rapidly spreading, some red clover was also seen, but its adaptability to Alaskan conditions Can neither be affirmed nor denied, since apparently no thorough attempt has been made to introduce it. In a few places, alfalfa was also seen, that was beginning to seed in August.

On the tide flats, dense growths of sedges are common, and in some places a very common vetch, Vickia gigantea, occurs, and if utilized it would add considerable to the feeding value of the marsh hay. The nutritious character of the Alaskan grasses was not only shown by their analyses, but also by the sleek and fat cattle seen during the summer. Aside from pasturage, but little use is made of these grasses. The amount of hay that is made is wholly inadequate, and much more could undoubtedly be had if more care had been given the subject. The Abundance of Berries in Alaska has been a subject of remark by everyone who has written concerning this country. So far as could be learned, but little attention has been given to their cultivation, but the few attempts that have been made seem to promise favorably.

Hardly any berries are cultivated, except a few strawberries, courants, and raspberries, and of these both wild and cultivated forms were seen growing, and the adaptation of the wild plants to domestication was very evident. The wild strawberry was seen under cultivation at Wrangell, and specimens of Rubus Stelatus, known as Dewberry, Murang, and Kneshineka, were seen growing in a garden at Setka, and it seems probable that more could be done in this line. The flavor of most Alaskan berries was found to be excellent, and some of them might be worthy of introduction into the States. Of the berries which have widest distribution, May be mentioned the Salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis, two kinds of cranberries, the highbush, viburnum palkiflorum, and the little cranberry, vasinium vitis aidae, the red and black currant, rebus rubrum and R.

laxiflorum. Crowberries, Empitrum nigrum, huckleberries, Vassinium ulyginosum, and its variety Raspberries, Rupus strugosus, elderberries, Sambucus rasamosa, bunchberries, Cornus canadensis, and C. suesica, and the mulca. Our baked appleberry, Rubus chamea morris. Of less general distribution are strawberries, Phrygaria kiloensis, dewberries, Rubus stellatus, thimbleberries. R. Parvifloris, Cellal berries, Guteria shalon, Bog cranberries, Vicinium oxycoccus, Wine or beer berries, Arctostaphylus alpina, etc. These berries are used in many ways by the native and white population, and in addition to the consumption of fresh berries, many are stored up in various ways for winter use. The white population preserve The natives can and make jelly of the different kinds, while among the natives the principal method of preserving them is in seal oil, a vessel filled with berries preserved in this way, forming a gift that is usually high.

Numerous miscellaneous plants are used for food. Among the more common are the Labrador or Hudson Bay tea, Latum, Grewinlandicum, wild rice or coo, The underground bulbs of which are dried, powdered, and made into a sort of cake. Wild peas are employed, to some extent, and several species of mushrooms are collected for use. Quite a number of plants are used as pot herbs, and the medicinal value of others is recognized. Cultivated areas in Alaska are, with the exception of one or two notable instances, confined to kitchen gardens. In which are grown many of the heartier vegetables of our own gardens, such as lettuce, radishes, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions, peas, snap, beans, celery, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage, rhubarb, It is a subject of dispute whether or not potatoes mature in Alaska.

Under the methods of culture adopted in Alaska, it is very probable that a dry, starchy potato is not secured, as potato tops, seen late in the fall, were still quite green. In Cook Inlet and on Kadiyak Island, as well as elsewhere, the natives grow a small, round potato, the original stock of which is said to have come from Russia or Siberia, and so far as could be learned, It is the same now as it was fifty or one hundred years ago. No trouble was reported in securing sufficiently mature tubers so that the seed could be kept over from one season to another. Among some specimens of vegetables sent to the Department of Agriculture by Mr. Frederick Sargent of Cadillac were some potatoes, specimens of which weighed a pound each.

No doubt these were larger than the average. But it certainly disposes of the stock idea that potatoes will not grow larger than walnuts in Alaska. Complaints were heard in some places that cabbage and cauliflower would not head. There occasionally appears to be some ground for this. But 16-pound cabbages from Killisnew and 24-pound cauliflowers from Wrangell would rather indicate that in some places these plants do well. Local conditions may cause failures of these crops, just as seems to be the case with several others. Localities were visited where it was said that onions would not grow, others where beets could not be raised. But both of these vegetables were seen in flourishing conditions elsewhere.

In a few places, where attempts have been made to grow peas and snap beans, the efforts have been apparently quite successful. When the peas are gathered at frequent intervals, the vines are said to bear for an extra-long period. Specimens of a so-called dwarf pea were seen at Wrangell, that had grown to a height of three feet. Whether this was due to a mistake in the variety, or to the climate and soil, cannot be determined. During the past summer, cucumbers were reported to have been grown it to Eunach, but none were seen when that place was visited. But little appears to have been done In attempting to grow cereals throughout the whole country. It is reported that during the Russian regime, spasmodic attempts were made to do something in the line of promoting agriculture, but it appears that nothing of a permanent nature was accomplished.

At Yakutat, on the site of the old town, an agricultural colony was established and at various places in Cook Inlet the same was attempted. It is claimed that during Russian occupation, Oats, rye, barley, and buckwheat were grown to a considerable extent, but if this is true, there are now no traces of the fields where the grain was formerly cultivated. The few cereals seen growing were for the most part self-seeded, from hay, feed, etc. At Wood Island and Cadiac, mature oats were seen August 22nd that had evidently grown from seed scattered from feed or packing. A few specimens of barley were seen at one of the places that were about 15 inches high, headed but not ripe. The origin was probably due to the same causes as that of the oats.

At Tayunaki, limited experiment was made during the last summer with spring-sown wheat, rye, and barley, and on the last days of July, the barley and rye were about 15 to 18 inches high and fully headed out. The wheat had made a fine growth. But showed no tendency to head. At Sitka in 1896, a small plat of wheat was ripened in fairly good condition, and in 1897, at the same place, a plat of flax was sown, and on September 4th, the plant averaged about 30 inches in height and were in full bloom, the earlier capsules containing almost mature seed. About the only real farm in the country is on the island between Juno and Sitka, near the village of Kilesnu. It consists of about forty acres under cultivation, and has been under cultivation for about three years.

The equipment of stock consists of a team of horses, six head of cattle, and about thirty hogs. Part of the land was tide land, and dikes have been built to keep out the sea. Turnips, peas, cabbage, potatoes, Swedish turnips, beets, etc., are now grown extensively. The crop for this year consisted of about seven tons of potatoes, twenty tons of Swedish turnips, several tons each of beets, carrots, parsnips, and a large quantity of peas. Two silos are maintained at this place, and the owner is able to carry his stock through the winter in very good condition. He supplies some milk and meat, as well as vegetables, to the village of Kilisnu, where there is a fish oil and guano factory, and also to the steamers touching there during the season.

For the most part, the same methods of cultivation are pursued throughout nearly the entire country. The generally neglected appearance of gardens is everywhere apparent. It is not confined to the garden of the native, but too often that of the white man is as poorly cared for. Often a vast amount of labor is expended in planting the crop, but once planted, it is allowed to care for itself. The result is a large and luxuriant crop of weeds. Bedding up the soil is practiced nearly everywhere. On the lighter and better-drained soils, it is not as necessary as on the heavy, poorly-drained ones. Usually, the beds are formed about three or four feet wide, and raised as high above the general levels as can be economically done.

Most crops are planted in rows across the beds. The distances separating the individual plants varying according to the crop. Close planting seems to be the rule with nearly every crop. The attempt seems to be to secure the largest possible harvest from a limited area by planting a large amount of seed. Potatoes are not infrequently planted six inches apart, in rows separated not more than a foot. The result of such plantings is a thick growth of vines that covers the ground to such an extent that the sun's rays never reach the ground. Such methods can hardly fail to produce a yield of very inferior tubers.

At present, stock raising is carried on to a very limited extent, milk cows being the most common farm animal seen. At nearly every village, there were seen some cows, pigs, and poultry, while horses are kept at a few of the larger places. The team at the Killes' Snoo Farm is probably the only team in Alaska employed in agriculture, the other horses being used for teaming around the towns and packing around mining camps. At several places, dairies are maintained. Supplies of milk and a small quantity of butter At Cadillac, some years ago, an attempt was made to introduce sheep. Quite a number were placed on a small island, and as they had come from a much warmer and drier region, many died during the winter, in consequence of being poorly fed and not provided with shelter.

Pigs are reported to thrive exceedingly well in most parts of Alaska, but when allowed to run at large, Their flesh is liable to acquire a fishy flavor. The same objection is raised against the flesh of fowls, since their diet in winter consists almost entirely of fish refuse. The prevailing conception of Alaska as a region, wholly given up to glaciers and mountains, is strikingly at variance with the facts. In 1894, the director of the Geological Survey estimated the tillable land In southeastern and southwestern Alaska, as embracing between 4,000 and 5,000 square miles, or from 2,500,000 to 3,200,000 acres, an area about equal to that of the state of Connecticut. If the grazing lands be added to the above estimate, the acreage would be greatly extended.

The agriculturalists of Alaska will have some serious problems to consider. The more important, The most important thing is that the land must be cleared of the dense forest growth, and in some places, the deep moss will also have to be removed. The spruce stumps must be dug out, as they are very slow in rotting, and not infrequently produce large second-growth timber. In addition to clearing, the land must be thoroughly drained and protected against seepage from above. This ditching and removal of stumps is very laborious, and estimates of $200 per acre were given as a probable cost of preparing the soil for cultivation. This cost seems well-nigh prohibitive for agricultural purposes. However, the same process had to be followed elsewhere.

A report issued by the Experiment Station at Pullman, Washington, states the cost of clearing mucklands of cedar and alder stumps at the Pallyup substation to be $122.80 per acre. No definite information has been obtainable as to the cost of clearing farmland elsewhere. But, wherever practiced, the process is expensive. In the southwestern portion of the country, the expense of clearing away the stumps will not be required. Nor is draining necessary to the same extent as in the other region. The agricultural possibilities of Alaska can be estimated only from the rather meager evidence of limited experiment, and by comparing what has been accomplished in regions having somewhat similar conditions.

Agriculture as it exists in Alaska has been described in the previous pages. It is not expected that this country will ever rival the Mississippi Valley in its productiveness. But it does seem probable that agriculture and horticulture could be extended so as to supply local demands for many products. When the climatic conditions, topography, soils, etc., of Norway, Iceland, the Orkney Islands, as well as Scotland, Sweden, and Finland are compared with those of Alaska, it seems probable that what has been accomplished in European stations could also be done in this country, if properly undertaken. It is well established that many agricultural products flourish in parts of Northern Europe, having approximately the same temperature during their growing season as we find to exist in portions of Alaska, and if temperature is the controlling factor in plant distribution, there would seem no reason why the same varieties of plants would not succeed in both countries if properly introduced and cultivated.

Rye, oats, and barley Are grown in sufficient abundance in the north of Europe, not only to supply local demands, but also to some extent for export. Comparing Alaskan data secured from agricultural experiments that have not always been conducted in the best manner, with the results secured from other regions having a somewhat comparable climate, it seems safe to say that the coast region of Alaska possesses agricultural possibilities of no little importance. And with an enlightened native population and a permanent white one, it seems possible that the demand for many of the agricultural products could be supplied.

16 16 - The Metlakatla Mission in Danger 6:28

The Matlachlatlod Mission in Danger by William H. Dahl. The history of missions from the earliest epoch has been a struggle, not only against the natural obstacles of the situation, but against the indifference or criticism of opponents in the rear. It is not difficult to criticize. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. There are two modes of mission work among the Indians. One which draws its sinews of war from friends in the churches, and sends out salaried missionaries who devote themselves to teaching and the work of conversion.

The teachers often lack in practicality what they make up in devotion to the ideal. Nevertheless, it would be folly to deny that these missions have done much good in their way, and will continue to do so. Of them the scoffer says, The missionaries live at their ease, and do nothing for it but teach dogmas which the Indian cannot understand, and train girls to be good housewives, who, when their education is completed, will be sold by their heathen relatives to some miner or trader. When the mission is closed for want of funds or otherwise, the converts relapse into evil ways, and in a little while their last state is worse than their first. That there have been instances justifying to some degree this harsh view, every one familiar with Indian missions will admit.

The other method is to fit the Indians to provide for themselves and for the mission by industrial training, self-denial and hard work, shielding them in the early stages as we shield our own children from contact with evil men and things until stimulated both by their own material interests and by the truths of the gospel. In the course of time and growth they shall be able to stand alone, men among men, to fight the battles of life. This is the method of Hampton and Carlyle, whose most conspicuous exponent of the uncivilized frontier is the Reverend William Duncan of Metalaklatla, Annette Island, Alaska. This gentleman has given forty years of his life to the work among the Shemshinian Indians.

First it met on the British Columbia side of the line. Through the most injudicious exercise of religious narrow-mindedness, well-known, but of which there is insufficient space to speak here, the Indians were obliged to abandon their homes, church, and school, and much other property, and move over into American territory at Annette Island to obtain freedom of religious worship. Here, several years later, Congress granted them the use of the island. In confidence that they were at last safe from interference, under Duncan's direction, they went heartily to work. His plan was, in brief, to keep the colony together and free from undesirable elements, liquor and vice. To teach them to utilize the resources of the region to support themselves and their families by work.

To build good houses and maintain family life as known to civilization. and to teach the English branches and manual training to the young people. In pursuance of this ideal, Mr. Duncan put his own means and contributions of friends into the outfit of a salmon cannery, which has been worked by the Indians, as well as a sawmill and other correlated facilities. The success has been complete. The colony has maintained itself, some of the Indians have become shareholders, and the canning business has yielded a good profit. The evidence of this is overwhelming, and includes the testimony of almost every disinterested person who has visited the colony. Even the scoffers admit that as a business enterprise, the mission is a greatest success.

Its very success has become a source of danger. Business competition is nowhere sharper than in Alaska, because the ordinary safeguards of public opinion and well-enforced law are not available in restraint of greed and sharp practice. Most of the canneries are included in a trust, and outsiders have scant consideration, and must fight for their interests unceasingly and at great disadvantage. Nothing which might hurt the sensitive feelings of the trust can be found in the published reports of the official salmon inspectors. Yet it is the common opinion that the law is violated systematically except during the visits of the inspectors for a few hours during the whole season. Like all the Alaska Islands, a net island contains a few quartz veins.

There is good reason to think that none of them is of any great value, and no development work such as is required by law has been done on any of them. Under the reservation of Congress, the prospectors could not acquire any rights, at any rate. But an attempt is now being made to induce Congress to bolster up a speculation in these undeveloped leads by rescinding the Reservation Act, so as to cut off from the colony its waterworks, its mill and cannery, and to a large extent its fishery rights, and thus leave the people without resources, and open to the vices of the mining camp and rum cellar, to the inevitable destruction of all that has been hitherto accomplished. The bare statement of the facts carries its own commentary.

The friends of justice and of the Indian's right to work out his salvation, and eventually to take his place among the citizens of our common country, should make themselves heard before it is too late. In the end of the

17 17 - Agriculture in the Yukon Valley 1:58

18 18 - On Eskimo Geographic Names Ending in miut 2:45

19 19 - Geographic Literature 8:34

Geographic Literature. Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico by Mateus Romero. Pages Roman numeral 14 plus 286. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons. The modest title conveys an inadequate idea of the scope of this book, which is a compendium of useful and interesting data as to the resources and commercial progress of our sister republic. The high official position of Signor Romero has procured for him data inaccessible to most writers. While his long diplomatic service in the United States has enabled him to select wisely the statistical matter herein presented. He treats clearly from original sources, mining, railways, revenues, and expenditures, foreign trade in general, and especially the commercial relations between Mexico and the United States, the data in many cases extending to 1897.

The volume closes with an interesting article on the drainage of the Valley of Mexico, a problem that for 500 years baffled the local engineers, but which, now finally resolved, will be practically completed in June 1898. The subject of railways occupies the most space, as is proper, they constituting the most potent factor in the late astonishing development of Mexico. Senor Romero's account of the mining industries will command attention, not only from the interesting manner in which it is presented, but also from the predominating part played by silver in late years. Mexico has coined silver to the value of $3,530,000,000, and has used one-fourth as much more in the arts, etc. The coinage during the colonial period 1537 to 1821 averaged annually $7,500,000.

During the independence 1822 to 73, $15,600,000, and under the republic $24,700,000. It is estimated that the annual output of silver in Mexico will ultimately reach $100 million. The commercial relations between Mexico and the United States are treated fully, and the statistical tables illustrate forcibly the steadily increasing trend of Mexican trade toward this country. In 1872-73, the first regular report of the Mexican Statistical Bureau, the imports from the United States were valued at $6,430,000. In 1896 to 97, they amounted to $23,535,000, consisting principally of manufacturers of metal, wood, and cotton, and raw cotton, although corn figured largely, owing to the failure of the crop in Mexico.

In the same years, Mexico exported to the United States $16,430,000, 1872 to 73, and $30,714,000. The increase in exports is almost entirely in merchandise, the principal articles being copper, coffee, and fibers. The excellencies of Mexican climates scarcely appear in the meager meteorological data presented. and the value of the table on page 89 is impaired by the misprint of 1869 for the correct year, 1896. It is much to be regretted that so valuable a publication has no general map. A.W.G. Map of Alaska, showing known gold-bearing rocks with descriptive text containing sketches of the geography, geology, gold deposits, and routes to the goldfields. U.S. Geological Survey, page 44, Washington, 1898.

A report to Congress on agriculture in Alaska, including reports by Walter H. Evans, Benton Killen, and Sheldon Jackson, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, bulletin number 48, pages Roman numeral 4 plus 36, with map and illustrations. Washington, 1898. Rand McNally & Company's new 18x24 map of Alaska, showing also British Columbia, with portions of Northwest Territories, etc. Chicago and New York, Rand McNally & Company, 1897. Rand McNally & Company's official map of Alaska, including the Klondike District and adjacent goldfields, showing various routes to the mines. 24 by 36, cloth, Chicago and New York, Rand, McNally & Co., 1897. Golden, Alaska, an up-to-date guide, Klondike District, Yukon Valley, by Ernest Ingersoll.

Pages Roman numeral 5 and 160, with maps and illustrations, Chicago and New York, Rand, McNally & Co., 1897. The Golden North, by C. R. Tuttle. Pages, Roman numeral 10, plus 3007, with maps, Chicago and New York, Rand McNally & Co., 1897. Nothing could be more timely, or, for their purpose, more valuable, than the reports on Alaska, recently published by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the one on the mineral resources of the territory, and the other on its agricultural capabilities. While there is still much awaiting demonstration in both these fields of investigation, enough is definitely known to prove of the utmost utility to those who are seeking their fortune in the new Eldorado.

The principal authors of both reports have rendered the readers of the National Geographic magazine the service of summarizing the results of their investigations for this number. But the reports themselves should be carefully studied by all prospective visitors to the region described. The reputation of the well-known firm of Rand, McNally & Co., is fully maintained in their recent publications on Alaska and the Klondike. Their 18 by 24 map shows in considerable detail the whole of Alaska and the western portion of the Dominion of Canada. And notwithstanding the small scale on which it is drawn, it is clear and distinct in every particular. The official map, while twice the size of the foregoing, embraces a much smaller area, with the result that the different geographical features of the attractive region it represents stand out with a distinctness that leaves nothing to be desired.

Mr. Ernest Ingersoll's Golden Alaska contains much useful information for intending settlers, but is hardly up to the author's usual standard in its literary style. Mr. Tuttle's The Golden North is a somewhat more ambitious and more serious work, and not so obviously designed to meet a merely temporary want. While the two publications necessarily cover, to some extent, the same ground, Each has its place, and the two books are really complementary to each other. J. H.

End of Section 19. End of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume 9, April 1898.

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