Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/alaskaournorther01carp CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS Familiar Talks About Countries and Peoples WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED ON THREE HUNDRED THOU- SAND MILES OF TRAVEL OVER THE GLOBE "READING CARPENTER IS SEEING THE WORLD" ALASKA OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND Alaska is no land of perpetual ice and snow. Wild flowers bloom everywhere; delicious fruits and vegetables grow to great size and ripen quickly in the days of the long sun, and its scenic beauties are unsurpassed. CARPENTER’S IVORLD TRAVELS ALASKA OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND BY FRANK G. CARPENTER LITT. D„ F^RcCL-S. WITH 123 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1925 7^3 6 COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 2. S - / 3 / 9 / 9 ? G. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I N THE publication of this volume on Alaska I wish to thank the officials of our Government at Washington for letters which have given me the invaluable assistance of our authorities in the Terri- tory. 1 thank also those men of Alaska at the head of its great productive undertakings for their generous courte- sies in enabling me to study what has been achieved in our northern wonderland and according me privileges seldom available to the traveller. I acknowledge, too, the assistance and cooperation rendered by Mr. Dudley Harmon, my editor, and Miss Ellen McB. Brown and Miss Josephine Lehmann in the revision of notes dictated or penned by me on the ground. While most of the illustrations are from my own nega- tives, certain photographs have been supplied by the United States Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Education, the Coast & Geodetic Survey, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Alaskan Engineering Commission, the International News Reel Corporation, the Publishers’ Photo Service, and Dr. L. S. Sugden and the Canadian Pacific Railway. F. G. C. vii 7 Z & 3 & CONTENTS \ CHAPTER I II III V VI VII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX JCX Just a Word Before We Start . Ketchikan The Town of the Good Indians . Alaska’s Golden Fisheries .... The Story of “Seward’s Ice Box” . The Thlingets and the Hydahs . Totem Indians and Their Customs . Farm Lands of the Future .... At Juneau Treasures Under the Sea . . . . The World’s Greatest Glaciers Skagway, the Gate to the Klondike . Over the Gold-Seekers’ Trail . In the Yukon Flats Winter Tales of Tanana Hot Springs in Cold Lands .... Fairbanks, the Chicago of Alaska . Homesteading Under the Arctic Circle Thawing Fortunes out of the Ice . Stories of Gold and Gold Miners . PAGE I 5 1 3 21 32 44 52 6o 69 78 87 96 106 1 1 5 124 133 139 148 156 162 IX CHAPTER CONTENTS PACE XXI Among the Old Timers . XXII From Fort Gibbon to the Sea XXIII The City of Golden Sands XXIV Creeks that Made Millionaires XXV The Dog Derby of Alaska XXVI Reindeer Meat for AmericanMarkei XXVII Among the Eskimos XXVIII School Republics of the Arctic . XXIX Fur Seals and Fox Farms . XXX The Aleutian Islands XXXI The City of Seward XXXII Across Kenai on Horseback . XXXIII Our Northern Game Preserve . XXXIV The Biggest Thing in Alaska XXXV Mount McKinley, the “Most High” XXXVI The Story of Kennecott .... XXXVII On the Copper River Railroad . XXXVIII Women on America’s Last Frontier Bibliography . Index 169 178 183 191 197 205 2 14 222 230 239 1 250 256 263 271 281 289 296 302 31 1 3i5 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS In Our Northern Wonderland . . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Eddystone Rock 4 Ketchikan Mountain-side 5 Making Soundings 12 Father Duncan 13 Salmon in Ketchikan 20 Indian Village 21 A One-hundred-pound Halibut 28 Drying Salmon 29 Salmon at the Spawning 29 Sitka Harbour 36 Indians at Sitka 36 Battle-scarred Blockhouse 37 “The Lady of Kazan” 44 Chilkat Blanket 45 Tools of Indian Magic 45 School Gardens 48 Indian Cooperative Store 48 Indians in Native Garb 49 Totems in Marble 52 Indian Canoe 53 Strawberry Patch 60 Pastures Near a Glacier 61 Alaska’s Rich Harvest 61 Alaska Spruce 64 xi ILLUSTRATIONS FACIN* PAGE The Pack Horse Arctic Oil Juneau ■ The Governor’s Residence . Repairing the Planked Streets Mills at Gastineau . A Glacial Lake and Falls . Beside a Glacier Taku Glacier Flowers and Ice . Where Glaciers Come from To a Glacier by Automobile Skagway Fourth of July Celebration In the “ Flower City ” . “Soapy” Smith’s Memorial Mrs. Pullen Staking out a Corner . Athapascan Mother and Child “Calico Bluffs” International Boundary On the Yukon Flats Taking on Fuel . Prehistoric Ivory . Bear Drinking Pop An Outdoor Cache . When the Ice Breaks . At the Hot Springs . Mt. McKinley at Night Library at Fairbanks . A Snug Home . xii 65 68 69 76 76 77 84 85 92 92 93 93 100 100 101 104 105 108 109 1 16 117 1 '7 124 124 125 132 1 32 133 133 140 140 ILLUSTRATIONS PACING TAGS Winter Bridge at Fairbanks The Homesteader .... Pitching Hay Roadhouse on the Creeks . Over the Winter Trail . Rex Beach’s Cabin The “Sourdough’s” Dog Team Thawing with Steam Points . A Sluice Box Miner’s Shack Cleaning Gold Nenana Coal Hiding from the Camera . Ruby Iditarod Going Ashore at Nome Nome’s Log Cabin Club Going to the Dance Hydraulic Mining . Panning Gold The Alaskan Husky. Carrying the Mail . Dog-team Delivery . Alaskan Puppies Pupmobile Eskimo and Reindeer . A Reindeer Herd . Reindeer Awaiting Slaughter . St. John’s in the Wilderness . Eskimo Children . Eskimo Dress 141 148 149 156 1 56 157 1 57 164 165 172 172 173 180 181 181 188 189 192 193 196 197 204 204 205 205 208 209 209 212 213 220 xiu ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The Kayak 221 Native Dances 221 Going to School 224 Kivalina Community Council 225 Manual Training at Selawik 225 Hospital at Kanakanak 228 Young Eskimos 228 White Fox Furs 229 Seal on the Pribilofs 236 Silver-gray Fox Pups 237 Basket Weaving 240 Whale Dance 241 Waiting for a Seal . 244 The Beluga Whale 244 Kodiak • 245 An Old Aleut Home 245 Resurrection Bay 252 Seward 253 View near Resurrection Bay 253 Going through Kenai 260 Fishing in a Kenai Stream 261 A Caribou 268 The Lynx 269 Railroad through the Mountains 276 Snow Sheds on the Railroad 277 View of Mt. McKinley 284 Climbing Mt. McKinley 285 Bridge at Hurricane Gulch 288 Cordova 289 Camp in the Snow 292 The Bonanza Mines •>. 293 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PACE Glaciers along Copper River . . . . / 300 Keystone Canyon . . . . . . . . pi Driving the First Spike. 304 Homesteading 305 The “Two Girls’ Waffle House” 305 MAPS Alaska and the Klondike 24 Alaska and the United States Compared. ... 56 xv ALASKA OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND ALASKA OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND CHAPTER I JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START O F ALL the countries I have visited, our Polar Wonderland is among the most interesting. Lying as it does at the northwestern end of the continent, so close to Asia that one might fly from Alaska to Siberia within fifteen minutes, and so near the North Pole that an airplane might make the trip between breakfast and dinner, it forms a part of our union with British America, tying us as it were to Europe and Asia, and hooking us on to the topmost peak of the world. Alaska is truly a land of surprises. In some parts the winters are as mild as those of Virginia and in others as severe as in Sakhalin or Kamchatka. It has summers as hot at midday as Bangkok and Rangoon, and so cool at night that one welcomes blankets. It has seasons when the sun shines at midnight, and winter days so dark that the electric light can be turned off in the schools and the homes only from eleven to one. It is a land of jungles that vie with the Himalayas in their dense vegeta- tion, and of scanty mosses springing from desert beds of perpetual ice. It has gorgeous wild-flowers, mighty forests, vast glaciers, mountains capped with snow, and 1 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND valleys out of which spout by the thousands the vents of volcanoes. It is beyond conception among the grandest of all nature’s wonderlands. A most interesting feature was the virgin newness of all my surroundings. I travelled for days through the wilds, seeing hardly a cabin. 1 sailed on the rivers through long stretches where not a vestige of man could be seen, and 1 could easily imagine myself a Columbus or a Hernando de Soto discovering a world. When 1 crossed Bering Sea on the edge of the winter I felt like an Arctic explorer, and in the Aleutian Islands the perpetual mists chilled my soul with the fear that I had on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland when the fog horn blew day and night. The talks of this book are the notes made during my travels. They were written on steamer and on train, on foot and on horseback, now in motor cars riding from one mining camp to another, now on the top of glacier-clad mountains, and now in tunnels where men were getting out gold from under the earth. They represent chats with the hardy pioneers of our farthest North; men who of all our citizens are the most patriotic Americans; men who can see straight and shoot straight; the survivors of stampedes to many a far-away camp, true men, and strong men, the weaklings having died on the way. Indeed, I met no one in my journeys who, to use an Alaskan ex- pression, had “a wishbone where his backbone should be.” When 1 started north 1 had a stomach, and lungs, and liver, and lights. All seemed to be ailing as I climbed the gang plank of the ship at Seattle. I lost them that night; and for four months and more, as far as I knew, they had no existence. 1 ate buckwheat cakes and ‘‘sour dough,” and bear meat and fat pork in the heart of midsummer; 2 JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START I breathed champagne in the air of the mountains; my liver worked like a seventy-horsepower automobile, and as for my lights, whatever and wherever they are, they were dormant. Our Northland is undergoing a change. The Govern- ment is adopting a more liberal policy as to the territory. The forest and oil fields are being exploited. The fisheries are protected and the catch will increase. Fox farming is rapidly becoming a substantial industry, with over a hundred farms, the majority of which are on islands along the coast. The railway from Seward to Fairbanks has opened vast areas of arable land to the homesteader, and the best of hard wheat is now grown and milled in the Tanana Valley. I rode through grasslands where the spears on the ends of the stalks tickled the ears of my horse, ate strawberries on the Arctic Circle, and at Skag- way saw dahlias as big as a dinner plate. In the gardens along the Yukon and Tanana I dug potatoes of twenty-seven varieties, cut off cabbages as big as the head of a bull, and pulled up turnips that would surprise the best soil of the Temperate Zone. 1 visited several successful dairies near Fairbanks, and on Kodiak Island found a government experiment station where they are raising fine cattle and sheep. Near the mouth of the Yukon I saw hundreds of reindeer, and at Nome visited packing plants where they were being killed and frozen for export to the markets of our larger cities. At the same time new mineral areas are being prospected, iron of good grade is known to exist, and the coal deposits cover a region almost as big as the mine fields of Penn- sylvania. The nickel of Chichagof Island is supposed to surpass that of Canada or New Caledonia, and high- ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND grade tin is being mined on the Seward Peninsula near Bering Strait. The government geologists and others are finding new wells of petroleum, and the coal beds opened up by the railroads promise a new supply of fuel for the fleets of the eastern Pacific. The copper output is now worth tens of millions of dollars a year, and rich silver mines are being worked just over the international boundary near the Portland Canal. There are still fortunes in gold underlying the beds of prehistoric ice, and more quartz gold is being discovered. Indeed, the future of Alaska is bright. CHAPTER II KETCHIKAN I AM in Ketchikan, the first port at which our steamers call in entering Alaska. It is at the southern end of the Panhandle, the strip of islands and mainland at the lower end of our territory that seems to be cut out of British Columbia. The Panhandle begins just above Skagway near the pass over the mountains to the Klondike and Dawson, and extends south for more than three hundred miles. It consists of many large islands and a strip of mainland about thirty miles wide which runs from the Pacific Ocean to the crest of the coast mountain range, the whole making a territory as big as South Carolina. This district is known as Southeastern Alaska. It has its own climate, its own vegetation, and its own peculiar products and resources. It is covered with green from one year’s end to the other and differs from the great Alaskan interior as much as Maine differs from Florida. I shall be travelling within it for some weeks to come. The town of Ketchikan lies not far from the inter- national boundary. It is only forty miles north of the Canal and within six hours’ sail of Prince Rupert, the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the port which the Canadians are developing as the gateway to the shortest route to Japan and the Orient. Ketchikan is as far north of Seattle as the distance 5 ALASKA — OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND between New York and Toledo. After leaving Seattle, I sailed for more than five hundred miles through Cana- dian waters before 1 came to the edge of Alaska, and from there made my way in and out among the islands to Revilla Gigedo, on the shores of which lies Ketchikan. The trip took me over two days. I despair of giving you any idea of the beauties of this voyage, they are so many and so varied. The route from Seattle to Skagway is known as the Inside Passage. It is a winding in and out among half-submerged mountains. It is floating through great lakes studded with islands. It is travelling along and within fiords like those of west Norway. Now you have the wonders of the Swiss lakes, now those of the Inland Sea of Japan, and now scenery like that on the coasts of New Zealand. There are all sorts of combinations of sea and sky, of evergreen slopes and snow-capped mountains. There are ever-shifting colour effects and marvellously beautiful sunsets. These are the characteristics of Southeastern Alaska. The whole district between the Portland and Lynn canals is composed of islands covered with evergreen trees many of which are four or five feet thick. A number of the islands have snow-capped mountains whose green walls rise almost straight up from the water. Most of the mainland is also one mighty wall of green. The islands, which are of all shapes and sizes, float upon sapphire seas. When the tide is low — and the tide here rises and falls to the height of a two-story house — these islands seem like floating gardens. Then vegetation does not begin until fifteen or twenty feet above the water, and there are only precipices of black rock below. The islands are bedded upon the rocks and as the water falls 6 KETCHIKAN the living earth seems to be lifted up. The forests sit aloft on pedestals of stone, and mountains of green and white tower above their rocky bases. Here bold cliffs, brown and gray walls several hundred feet high, rise sheer from the blue waves; there the bare rocks thrust out from the growth of pines on the hillsides. As you sail on to the northward the channels vary. Now they widen into great lakes, now they are rivers as narrow as the Hudson or the Rhine. Sometimes the way lies through gorges between the islands and the main- land. In places the waters are a thousand feet deep. In others, there are great rocks as steep, as high, and as sharp as the Washington Monument, which come within twenty or thirty feet of the surface. These are the terrible pinnacle rocks that rip open the hulls of the steamers. They are constantly being searched for and marked with buoys by the wire drag of our Coast and Geodetic Survey. Indeed, the seas about Alaska are so dangerous that they are sometimes called the “Graveyard of the Pacific.” The commerce of the territory is rapidly increasing in im- portance, yet fifty years after our purchase the United States Coast Survey admitted that ninety-two per cent, of its waters were unsurveyed and that it would take two vessels fifty-nine years to complete a first survey of the exposed areas, in addition to the wire-drag and inshore parties necessary in the sheltered portions. The Govern- ment’s ships are keeping everlastingly at it, however, and I have been out with one of the wire-drag boats and have seen how the needle-tipped peaks of the Panhandle coast are detected. A wire cable with buoys attached is slung be- tween two ships and set at a fixed depth. As the vessels sail along the buoys are pulled under like a fish-line bob 7 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND when the wire strikes a hidden rock, which is then marked by a float and its position recorded. Over a thousand pinnacle rocks, terrible menaces to navigation and undis- covered by the ordinary survey methods, have been found by the use of the wire drag. But let us come back to Ketchikan. The town is situated on the southern shore of Revilla Gigedo Island, in a region where the salmon come in great hordes every summer and near banks from which are taken most of the halibut sent from Alaska to the United States and to Canada. Revilla Gigedo is about one third as large as Porto Rico. It is fifty miles long and twenty miles wide and is made up of mountains which for much of the time have their heads in the clouds. Ketchikan lies right on the water against a background of towering green mountains crested with snow. The harbour is the shape of a half-moon protected by islands. It has no beach to speak of and the business district rests upon piles. The streets are plank roadways built upon posts, and much of the freight is carried about on trucks and carts pushed by men. Horses are unpopular, for their shoes roughen the planks and they shake the town as they trot through the streets, so they are being replaced by automobiles and motor delivery trucks. The residential section of the city clings to the sides of the cliffs higher up. It is so steep that one has to climb stair- ways to reach some of the streets, while others have winding roadways of boards upon which slats have been nailed to keep one from slipping. The Ketchikaners make one think of tree dwellers, who climb ladders to get to their homes. The best houses, which are high on the cliffs, far above 8 KETCHIKAN the harbour, seem to grow out of the rocks. Nevertheless, nearly every home has its little lawn with shrubs and flowers and a tiny garden patch, although the soil has to be sprinkled with gold dust to make them. In this connection the captain on my steamer coming up told me a story of a Ketchikan man who sailed with him last month. This man was sitting at the captain’s right hand at dinner. During one meal he was in a brown study. Course after course passed and he ate but little. At last he burst out in an agonized soliloquy: “I knew I’d forget it! I knew I’d forget it! I knew I’d forget it!” “What,” said the captain, “have you forgotten some- thing your wife told you to bring back from outside?” “Yes, I have,” was the reply. “And I knew I’d forget it. She made me promise to bring seven sacks of good soil to lay on the rocks and make her a garden. And now I’ve forgot it. ” Some of the Ketchikaners raise vegetables and berries. In the garden of H. C. Strong I saw raspberry bushes as high as my shoulder, which for more than two months during the summer, give him all of that fruit he can eat. The berries, which are large and of a fine flavour, never become mushy when ripe. Ketchikan also raises currants, salmon berries, and many beautiful flowers. There is so much moisture that the plants will grow on the rocks with very little soil. It has been raining steadily ever since I arrived, and to-day during a downpour 1 asked one of the citizens: “Does it never stop raining in Ketchikan?” He replied, with a laugh: “I hardly know, I have lived here only fifteen years.” 9 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND The city really has rain for more than two-thirds of the year and an annual precipitation of over thirteen feet. The leaves of the trees drip almost as steadily as those of the famous forest sprinkled by the mist of the Zambesi Falls in Central Africa. Indeed, the southern coast of Alaska is one of the rainiest parts of the world. Juneau, the capital, is much like Ketchikan, while on some of the Aleutian Islands a day of sunshine is a rarity. But the people go about regardless of the wet. They wear oilskin hats and rubber coats or slickers, and if they tramp up the mountains they put on rubber boots reaching to the waist. Some of the ladies even have slicker suits consisting of skirts and jackets. No one thinks of staying away from a party or tea on account of the weather, and women go visiting clad in oilskins covering dresses fit for a party in New York or Washington. Some people here tell me, however, that Ketchikan has many bright days and that its climate is unsurpassed by any other part of our country. The inhabitants are healthy. The children have bright eyes and rosy cheeks. They play about everywhere, notwithstanding the rain. In the winter they coast down the board roads which in places run for more than a mile up and down the hills. The town has but little snow at any time of the year, but then the frosts are so heavy that there is splendid sledding until 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning. If there is not enough frost, the roads can be sprinkled at night and will be covered with ice in the morning. Many people of the United States think of all Alaska’s winter as bitterly cold. Their idea of the country is ex- pressed in Bret Harte’s “Arctic Vision’’: 10 KETCHIKAN Where the short-legged Eskimo Waddles in the ice and snow, And the playful polar bear Nips the hunter unaware. Ketchikan has neither Eskimos nor polar bears and there is little ice and snow. The thermometer seldom falls to zero, and the climate is as mild as that of Atlanta or Rich- mond. The stores here are excellent. Most of them are on the water front built upon piles that rest on the rocks. The shops have plate-glass windows and the goods are well displayed. In one window I saw a full line of electri- cal apparatus, including electric irons, toasters, and heaters. Another shows a large supply of thermos bottles and baby carriages. The butcher shops have quarters of red beef just in from Seattle, and the fruit stores sell raspberries and strawberries grown in Alaska, oranges and figs from California, and apples from Oregon and British Columbia. The supply of eatables is quite as good as that of the provision stores in the States, and the prices are not much higher. Indeed, I believe one can live almost as cheaply in Ketchikan as in Cleveland, Kansas City, or Kalamazoo. 1 have a room and bath at the Revilla Hotel, one of the two leading taverns. The Revilla is a three-story frame building within a stone’s throw of the sea. The hotel office is a loafing place and poolroom as well, and the guests and outsiders are knocking the billiard balls over the tables at all hours of the night. As the hotel serves no meals I have to go out to the restaurants. I am eating at the Poodle Dog grill, where I sit on a stool at the lunch counter and eat my ham and eggs or other meat from a ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND great oval platter. The Poodle Dog advertises these hot platters as its specialty and serves food in no other way. The town has an excellent and abundant water supply from a lake high up in the mountains. Any one who wants a drink of pure mountain water has only to fit his mouth over the little porcelain bowls of the sanitary drinking fountains at every street corner and take in all he will. In addition to the lake, Ketchikan has a rushing stream flowing in cascades and rapids right through it. In the salmon season this stream is one pink-and- silver mass of fish. The fish come by the thousands and swim up the stream to spawn, toiling their way through the rapids and jumping the falls. At that season any one may have fish for the taking, and quantities are caught for the canneries. This stream furnishes the city its electric power and runs the street lights and telephones. It gives electric heat to some of the houses. During my stay I have had dinner with one of the leading citizens whose home is a beautiful house of ten rooms lighted and heated by electricity. The cooking is done on an electric stove, and hot water is supplied in the same way. Yet he tells me that his fuel and light bills, even in midwinter, are not more than eighteen dollars a month. 12 CHAPTER III THE TOWN OF THE GOOD INDIANS O N ANNETTE ISLAND, just south of Ketchi- k kan, is Metlakahtla, the seat of one of the ’ most remarkable experiments in the civiliza- tion of the Red Man. This is the town of the Good Indians established by Father William Duncan, whose wonderful work with these natives justified his title of the "Apostle of Alaska.” Father Duncan began life as a commercial traveller in England, and at twenty-one was well on his way toward a salary of five thousand dollars a year. He decided, however, to give up his work and become a missionary. He went to college expecting to be sent out to India, but instead he was ordered to the western coast of British Columbia to work with a tribe of Indians known as the Tsimpeans. These Tsimpean Indians were then among the most barbarous of any on the North American continent. They believed in witch doctors and practised cannibalism. They were hunters and fishers and clothed themselves in the skins of bears and wolves. In their weird dances they put the skulls of bears on their heads. Their medicine men wore hideous masks and tried to frighten off disease with horrible noises. If the demon of disease did not leave, the witch doctors would hack away the sore places with their knives, or suck or burn away the 1 J ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND ailing flesh. Any one they pointed out as possessed of evil spirits or as a witch was killed by his tribe. The Tsimpseans had also curious ideas regarding the treatment of their women. Young girls approaching womanhood were confined far away in isolated cabins, and when brought back were supposed to have dropped down from the moon and to be ready for marriage. On such occasions there were great feasts at which the youths of the tribe were initiated into dog eating, cannibalism, and devil dancing. The Indians believed in spirits and the transmigration of souls. When Father Duncan arrived in Victoria on his way to this work he was told by the agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company that if he went he would beyond doubt be killed. When Duncan still insisted, he said: “Well, my good man, if you are to be killed and eaten 1 suppose you are the one most interested, and we shall have to let you do as you wish. ’’ With this permission, Father Duncan was allowed to go to Fort Simpson, in British Columbia, not far from Prince Rupert. On his way up the beach to speak to the officer in charge at the fort stockade he came to a place where the remains of a number of human beings were scattered about and was told that the bodies he saw had been hacked to pieces and thrown on the sand in a fight between two parties of savages a few days before. At that time many of the tribes along the coast of British Columbia were cannibals and Father Duncan actually saw a band of Indians on the beach eating a boy who had died of tuberculosis, and he had every reason to believe that a woman he saw killed was disposed of in the same fashion. Here is his own account of the latter incident: *4 THE TOWN OF THE GOOD INDIANS “ I had heard of the cannibalism, and one day an officer of the fort ran into my house and told me that the 1 ndians were about to kill one of their women. He warned me to keep indoors and said that I would surely be killed if I attempted to interfere. A moment later another man rushed in and said that the woman had already been killed. We went out to the beach where there was a crowd of Indians. They were divided into two bands, each led by a stark-naked brave. All were howling horribly. They had killed a woman and cut her in two and each of the nude Indian leaders was carrying half of the woman’s body by his teeth. As we came up the bands separated, each gathering around its leader. They sat down on the sand so crowded together that I could not see. When they got up not a vestige of the woman was to be seen. What became of the flesh I do not know, but I believe it was devoured. I doubt, however, whether it agreed with them, for the officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company fort near by told me that it was the custom of the Indians after every such cannibal feast to come into the post the day following and buy large quantities of epsom salts.” In those early days there were several attempts to kill Father Duncan. On one occasion a tribal chief de- manded that the mission school be closed because his beautiful daughter was just about to drop down from the moon to be married. The chief said that she had gone away and would come back in great state. She would drop from the moon into the sea and would rise out of the water with a bearskin over her shoulders and thus appear to the people. At this time there would be many cere- monies that would prevent the school being kept open. >5 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND Father Duncan refused to close the school and the chief persisted in his demands. At last, on the day before the feast, he sent two men with long knives to kill the mission- ary, whose life was saved by a friendly Indian who had taught him the native language. The school was kept going. The missionary kept steadily at his work until he had converted eight or nine of these tribes to the Christian religion and made them about the most law-abiding and civilized people of the Indian race. To belong to Father Duncan’s community the Indians did not have to promise to become Christians but they did have to agree that they would drink no liquor, that there should be none of the performances of the medicine men over the sick, and that they would do no work on Sunday. They had their own council and governed themselves. They had their own boats, and they established a canning factory and put up salmon for shipment. They learned to make ropes and brushes, to weave, and to spin. Father Duncan went to England and brought back musical instruments and they established a brass band. They had a school- house and a church with an organ, which some of them were able to play. They had their market house, their shops, their carpenters, tinners, coopers, and other mechanics. What it has taken ages to accomplish with other uncivilized peoples these Indians, under Father Duncan, achieved in less than thirty years. Then the Church of England began to meddle with Duncan’s mission, sending a bishop to rule over him and the Indians. Finding that his work was being un- done, Father Duncan asked the United States to allow his Indians to settle on our territory. That was in 1887. 16 THE TOWN OF THE GOOD INDIANS The matter was much agitated in the United States. Father Duncan was supported by Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, and others, and through their efforts a territory was allotted to him and his Indians on the north- western side of Annette I sland. They came in August, and the first thing they did was to erect a flagpole and hoist the Stars and Stripes. They had speeches by the United States Commissioner of Education and by Father Dun- can, and later on divine service consisting of song and praise in the Tsimpsean language. The next day a portable sawmill was unloaded, and the people began at once to clear the forests and erect buildings for their new homes. They built a cannery, and year by year added to their structures until they had a town hall, a church, a schoolhouse, a store, a public library, and the other buildings necessary to a civilized community. The settlement was called the New Metlakahtla and since then the Indians have been known as the Metlakahtlans. In 1891 Annette Island was set aside by Congress as a reservation for them and it was provided that it should be used by them in common under such rules and regula- tions as might be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. Annette Island is one of the most beautiful parts of Southeastern Alaska. It is fifteen miles long and ten miles wide, and is formed by a long wooded mountain on the backbone of which are a number of beautiful lakes. About the harbour of Metlakahtla the land slopes gently down to the sea. Here the trees have been cut away and a few hundred acres have been cleared and divided up into town lots. On the left of the harbour a silvery cascade tumbles down the side of the mountain. 17 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND It comes from Lake Chester a short distance inland and eight hundred and fifty feet above the sea. The most conspicuous building in Father Duncan’s settlement is a great white frame structure with two towers. This is the Westminster Abbey of Metlakahtla. It is Father Duncan’s church and was built by the Indians at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. It is the largest church in Alaska and seats five hundred people. On the left of the church is the public school erected by the United States, and still farther away are Father Duncan’s twelve-room guest house, his office, his school, and the great store he built to supply the needs of the people. Right at the dock is a salmon cannery with a capacity of about a million cans a year, which has at times been a very profitable undertaking, giving work to all the people and bringing in a good revenue to the colony. Connected with it is a box factory which turns out the twenty thousand cases or boxes used for shipping the fish. At times as many as ten thousand salmon have been handled in a day. One of the striking buildings of the new Metlakahtla is the library and jail. This is painted in the colours of the American flag. The first story is bright red; it is the jail. The second story is snow-white; it is the library. The cupola on the top is blue. Close to the beach and running back from it toward the public buildings are the homes of the people. There are several hundred of them, all built by the Indians with money earned in the community enterprises established by Father Duncan. The houses are cottages of one and two stories. They have glass windows, porches, and comfort- 18 THE TOWN OF THE GOOD INDIANS able surroundings. Each has a lot about eighty feet front and ninety feet deep, and every family has its garden. The community has its own preachers and public speakers. Some of the sermons, in the Tsimpsean lan- guage, are full of eloquence and beauty. Here, for instance, is one urging the people to believe that the Saviour will take care of them: “ Brethren and sisters: You know the eagle and its ways. The eagle flies high. The eagle rests high. It always rests on the highest branch of the highest tree. We should be like the eagle. We should rest on the highest branch of the highest tree. That branch is Jesus Christ. When we rest on him all our enemies will be below and far beneath us.” Another preacher who had formerly been vicious and high-tempered, speaking of himself, said: “ I will tell you what I feel myself to be. I am like a bundle of weeds floating down the stream. I was going down with all my sin, like the weeds, covered with earth and filth; but I came to the rapids, when lo! there was a pole stuck fast and firm in the rock, and I clutched at the pole, and there I am now. The stream is passing by and washing away my filth. Christ to me is the pole; I hold to him and am safe.” I might cite other quotations to show the civilization, intelligence, and piety of the Metlakahtlans. They are far above the average of their race and they are now aspiring to a higher education, to full United States citizenship, and to ownership of land in severalty. Under the regulations fixed by the Secretary of the Interior the Indians govern their colony through a council of : 9 ALASKA* — OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND twelve, elected annually, and their church is directed by twelve elders, also chosen by vote of the people. From reading the following translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Tsimpsean one gets some idea of what it means to •work with these Indians in their own language: IVee-Nahgwah-dnm koo tsim lacbahgab, Nclootiksb ah Noo-wahnt, Shabaksbeab ntsabbany, Shah-koad-kan turn wabl ab balletsobamee. Ne-wabltksb tsim lacbab-gab. Kinnam klabgam ab chah quah abm shkabboo wenayah. Kamkoadan ah nabt-abiackamee, new-abl-dab dee willab bam hoadamum ab babt-acb-ah-deab gam; Killobmd^ah tahtaink umt shpiet t'in shpahlt koadumt; addab mah al tillabmantkum ab babt-acbabdat; Ahwill n'tsabbaniat, addab nahkat kettandat, tilth n’cloadant, addab turn clab~ willab wabl. Amen. A beautiful rushing stream flows right through Ketchikan. In spring it is pink and silver from bank to bank with the hordes of salmon that jump the falls on their way upstream to spawn. Getting nine tenths of their living from the sea, the Indians locate their villages on the narrow beach between the water and mountainside. They have learned to use tools and put up frame houses in place of rude huts. CHAPTER IV Alaska’s golden fisheries D URING the last two weeks I have visited several fishing centres of Southeastern Alaska, and have gone through many of the canneries where they are putting up salmon for shipment to all parts of the world. There are more than seventy- five such canneries in Southeastern Alaska alone and nearly twice that number in the whole territory. I have also gone through the cold storage plants at Ketchikan and elsewhere, where they are freezing salmon for export, and have seen the various processes of mild-curing and smoking and pickling the fish for the market. But few people appreciate what Uncle Sam is now getting out of the waters of this territory. The fishing industry is the most important business in Alaska. So far the seas have proved almost as valuable as the land. Including the operations of the seal fisheries, we have realized more than half a billion dollars from them. We are now getting almost six times as much annually from Alaskan fish as the sum we paid for the whole territory when we bought it from the Russians, and we have received more than seventy times that amount since the purchase was made. If the industry is properly protected and fostered it should produce at that rate for all time to come. Indeed, the waters of Alaska have to be reckoned among 21 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND the big sources of our food supply. They produce hundreds of millions of pounds of food every year, and the canned salmon alone is enough to give ten meals to every family in the United States and still leave some for export. The fresh salmon sold in a year runs upward of three million pounds, while the salmon frozen, mild-cured, and pickled comes to fifteen million pounds. The annual halibut export amounts to about seven million pounds, and the codfish to ten million. In addition to this there are many other kinds of fish in these waters that will eventually be caught and shipped, so that in some respects the industry is at its beginning. In the water divisions which the United States Bureau of Fisheries has made of the territory, Southeastern Alaska is known as Fishing District Number One. It is by far the most important of the water regions of our territory, having something like ten thousand men engaged in fishing. This district has great halibut banks off its many islands and is the seat of the fresh fish industry of Alaska. The fishing investments there amount to some- thing like thirty million dollars, most of which is in salmon. The second fishing district is known as that of Central Alaska. This begins at Yakutat Bay and includes the great Gulf of Alaska and all of the waters south of the mainland and along the Aleutian Islands, which run al- most to Asia. The ocean bed of a great part of this enormous district is paved with fish. The bulk of the catch is salmon, but there is also an annual export of cod, amounting to millions of pounds, from the extensive cod banks south of the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. 22 ALASKA’S GOLDEN FISHERIES These banks compare with those of Newfoundland. Some of them are one hundred and twenty miles long and of great width. They are so situated that the Arctic and the Japanese currents bring them a great deal of fish food and the cod come there by the millions to eat. The third district, Western Alaska, includes banks swarming with cod. It embraces Bristol Bay, where the salmon run into the streams by the tens of millions a year, the deltas of the Kuskokwim and the Yukon rivers, as well as the coast of Norton Sound and all the waters along Seward Peninsula to Cape Prince of Wales at Bering Strait. We have also an island in the middle of the strait about which some fishing is done. As far as its fisheries are concerned, Western Alaska is next in import- ance to Southeastern Alaska. There is a fairly well-authenticated story of how one of the salmon kings started his fortune in the fish industry on the basis of the then-despised light- coloured salmon. This man had put up his cannery at a location past which the fish came in great num- bers on their way in to spawn. He was right in his selection of a site, and the salmon were caught in vast quantities. They were all, however, of the light pink variety, and the fisherman was in despair. At that time no light-coloured salmon had been shipped, and the demand everywhere was for salmon of an almost red hue. The man canned his catch and sold it by means of a label which implied that it was the only sanitary fish on the market. The label read: “This salmon is warranted not to turn red in the can.” Most of the catch went to the Southern States, and the drummers selling it did their business so well that in some of the towns in that part of 23 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND the United States to this day you can hardly sell a red salmon. The people think it is spoiled, and has, there- fore, turned red in the can. In interior Alaska both whites and natives are in- directly dependent on dried salmon for their very exist- ence during the winter. One of the most important phases of the salmon industry is the fact that dried salmon is the best food for the “husky,” or Alaskan team dog. Of the seventy million dollars invested in the fishing industry of Alaska sixty-two millions are devoted to catching, canning, and shipping of salmon. There are four species of this fish, all of which are delicious. The largest and most valuable is the king salmon, which has an average weight of twenty-two pounds and some- times weighs as high as one hundred pounds. This is found in Southeastern Alaska in all months of the year, and in May and June it runs up many of the rivers to spawn. The next in size is the sock-eye, or red salmon, which is about a yard long and has an average weight of five pounds. It is found all over Alaska and runs chiefly from June until the middle of August. The silver or Coho salmon is not so valuable, on account of the paleness of its flesh. It weighs on an average about six pounds, and runs later than the sock-eye. The hump-back is the smallest of our salmon. It is caught by the millions in Southeastern Alaska, and many of the canneries depend upon it. It weighs up to eleven pounds. In addition to these four species Alaska has the dog salmon, which is good for freezing, salting, and smoking, but poor for canning, and is shipped largely to Japan. Catching the salmon and bringing them to the canneries is a great industry by itself. There are certain weeks or 2 4 ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE Few Americans appreciate either the character or the extent of their northern treasure house, which now, with the Government Railway, more than ever invites the business man and traveller. ALASKA’S GOLDEN FISHERIES months of the year during which these fish come from the ocean into the fresh waters of the rivers to spawn. The spawning grounds are often a thousand miles or more inland. I have seen the fish fighting their way up the Yukon two thousand miles from its mouth at Bering Sea, and they may be found in great numbers climbing over the rocks of the streams that flow down the mountains of the coast into the Pacific. When they are four or five years old the instinct to spawn sends the salmon up into the inland creeks and rivers. There seems to be something in the contact with the fresh water coming down into the ocean that causes the fish to run toward it. Usually they pair off. When they have gone far enough from salt water the male, with his tail and snout, digs a broad, shallow nest in the gravelly stream bed in which the female deposits her eggs. After they have been fertilized by the milt of the male, the pair cover them up with sand and gravel, then float down the stream tail first, never swimming or making any effort to get back to sea. In a few days both the male and female die. Four or five months later the young hatch and soon, guided by some instinct, make their way down to the ocean where they stay until they are ready to rush back to fresh water, spawn, and die like their parents before them. In the spawning season the salmon come up stream in such hordes that they can be caught in traps both station- ary and floating, in nets fastened to posts and stakes in the rivers, and in seines which are brought from the Reaches and the boats. They are caught also by fish wheels moved by the currents of the river in such a way that the nets of wire or cord attached to the wheels scoop 25 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND up the fish as they swim against the current and fairly shovel them down into the boats. Fish wheels of this kind are to be seen here and there along the coast, and there are hundreds of them owned by the Indians along the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers. The business of the Alaskan canneries is enormous. The one I went through in Ketchikan covers several acres. It will put up seven and one half million cans of salmon this year besides freezing hundreds of thousands of pounds to be sent to the East. When the fish are brought in by the boatloads and dumped out by the thousand they are still alive and flopping, and they are hardly dead as they start into the “iron chink,” a machine which cleans each fish, cutting off its head, tail, and fins and taking out its insides within the time of a watch tick. All this work used to be done by hand, and Chinese hands at that. When the machine was invented to take the place of the Chinaman it was nicknamed the “iron chink,” and so it is known to this day. The inventor was a cook of Seattle named Smith, who made a fortune out of his invention. His machine will clean thirty thousand fish in ten hours, or as much as was formerly done by fifty of the most expert Chinese. Nevertheless, the whole thing is not much bigger around than a flour barrel and not more than eight feet in height. It consists of a number of knives so arranged that as the fish flies in one knife cuts off the head and at the same time another chops off the tail. As the fish moves on a third knife rips up the belly and other knives take off the fins. At the end the fish has been split, the backbone taken out, the blood removed, and the salmon is ready for the can. Before being put into the can, however, it is care- 26 ALASKA’S GOLDEN FISHERIES fully inspected by men who watch the fish as they make their way over endless belts to the chopper. The chopper automatically cuts the fish into pieces of the right size for the can in such a way that each can gets its own share of the several parts of a fish. There must be some from the back and some from the belly in order to supply the streak of lean and the streak of fat which, as in bacon, are necessary to make the can of salmon just right. The machine puts into each can just sixteen ounces. As the cans move onward they pass through an automatic weighing machine which drops out any that are underweight. After this the cover of the can is fitted on by machinery in such a way as to allow the steam to escape, and the tins travel on into a furnace or exhaust box where the temperature is two hundred and twelve degrees. Next another machine makes the tops tight, without acid or solder, and the cans are moved on into great retorts where they are cooked for an hour and a half in a heat of two hundred and fifty-four degrees. When they come out they are ready to be labelled and packed into boxes for shipment to all parts of the world. The halibut is one of the most interesting fish that swims the seas. It is the largest of the flat fish. I have seen many which, if stood upon their tails, would reach high above my head and some which I venture are over three feet in width. The average halibut weighs about one hundred pounds, but some have been caught weighing as much as three hundred. Halibut fishing has nothing gamy or sporting about it. Long lines are dropped down into the sea until the baited hook rests on the bed of the ocean. Sometimes the lines are so long that when loaded 27 ALASKA — OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND with fish it takes the steam engine on the fishing vessel the better part of a day to wind them up. They are divided into sections, each section having a float or buoy that rides on the surface and is marked by a flag in the daytime and by a light at night. Some halibut fishing is now carried on direct from the ship. A few years ago it was all done in dories or small boats, which were taken out in large vessels. The men would go out in the dories to set the lines and later bring the halibut back to the vessel. The fishing parties usually stay out from ten days to three weeks. They carry ice with them, and the moment the fish are taken from the hook they are cleaned and packed in the ice. When they reach the cold storage plant they are washed and shipped in cold storage cars direct to the markets. If they are not to be shipped immediately halibut are put into freezers where they remain for twenty-four hours at a temperature of ten to twenty degrees above zero. Next each one is dipped four or five times in fresh water until it becomes entirely incased in a thin sheet of clear ice. It can then be held in cold storage at a temperature of four degrees below freezing. Finally, the fish get another coating of ice, are wrapped separately in vege- table parchment paper, packed in paper-lined boxes of seventy-five pounds’ capacity, and sent eastward in the cold storage trains. I have gone through some of the big freezing establish- ments both in Prince Rupert and in Ketchikan. Each town has its cold storage plants where halibut and salmon are frozen. The largest one 1 visited has a capacity of fourteen million pounds of fish. Its buildings are right 28 Next in importance to the salmon of Alaska is the halibut. The average halibut weighs about one hundred pounds, but some have been caught weighing as much as three hundred pounds. The pink flesh of tens of thousands of drying salmon add to the colourful scenes of Alaska. The dried fish are eaten by Indians and white men and are the chief winter food of the sled dogs. The life story of both the male and female salmon ends with the spawn- ing. The adults leave the ocean for the rivers and streams, but only the young fish survive to make the return journey. ALASKA’S GOLDEN FISHERIES on the harbour, and the fish are frozen stiff as soon as they come from the wharves. I went into the freezing chambers, the walls and pipes of which were covered with frost. The temperature is far below zero. The smell of the ammonia used to pro- duce refrigeration almost overcame me as I walked between the great masses of fish laid one upon another like so many sticks of cordwood. I took up one of the smaller fish and let it drop on the floor. It was as hard as stone and the noise of its fall was like the crack of a pistol. I examined the fish, but there was no bruise or dent in the flesh. I stood it on end, resting the tail on the floor, and it did not bend in the least. A great deal of halibut is salted and put in hogsheads for shipment. Each hogshead holds about eight hundred and fifty pounds, and when full is worth around a hundred dollars. The halibut intended for salting is dressed before it is packed. It is hung by the gills to a hook then sliced in two, the back and the front forming great slabs of snow-white meat. The backbone is cut out; the front, or belly, has no bones. After cleaning, the slabs are sprinkled with salt and put into the hogsheads in layers with a layer of salt between each two layers of fish. Some halibut is smoked, in which form it may be bought in almost any grocery store. Herring, the halibut’s favourite food, are found in nearly all the waters of Alaska. They move about in great schools, some of which cover several square miles. Twice a year, when they swim to the shores to spawn, they come in such large schools that they can be scooped up from the water right into the boats. One way of catching them is by driving nails into a board so that they stick out several 29 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND inches. The boards are then dragged through the schools and the fish catch between the nails and are pulled by the boardful into the boats. In one year more than a million pounds of herring were caught at Prince Rupert alone and frozen by the cold storage plants to be sold for bait. A large proportion of the herring catch of Alaska is used for manufacture of fertilizer and oil, but at that statistics show an output of more than eight million pounds annually cured for food. There are also large cod fisheries in Alaska, and the cod are said to be equal to those caught on the Banks of Newfoundland. Much of the cod fishing is about the Aleutian Islands, and there are many vessels and stations devoted to the industry. The amount of cod caught annually runs to more than twelve million pounds. In addition to the ordinary cod there are black cod, a fish of about the same size as the ordinary cod, but darker in colour. The flesh, which is much richer in oil, may be prepared in such a way that it is delicious. It has been eaten for many years in Alaska, and has latterly been shipped to Seattle, where the restaurants make a special feature of barbecued black cod. This consists of the backs of the fish, which are kippered or smoked after being salted, served with drawn butter. There is a prospect that an extensive industry will some time arise in the shellfish of Alaska. There are oysters on the southern coast as large as saucers, and there are many places among the Alaskan islands where you can catch crabs as big as dinner plates. There are clams large and small, delicious little butter clams and others good to eat the size of a man’s hand. 1 am told, however, that one has to be very careful as 30 ALASKA’S GOLDEN FISHERIES to the source of his clam supply. Some of these bivalves feed in the water near the copper deposits, and the copper poisons their meat. The captain of one of our Coast Survey steamers, in speaking of this recently, told me how his life was saved by a pussy-cat. Said he: “ It was a narrow escape. I had bought a fine mess of clams and was just about to eat some of them raw when I decided I had better test their edibility by giving one of them to my cat. The pussy ate it, and a moment later she rolled over and went into convulsions. She kept on kicking until every one of her nine lives had departed.” 3 * CHAPTER V THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” C OME with me for a walk through the old town of Sitka. It was founded in 1799 at about the time that George Washington was dying at Mount Vernon, and was a thriving manu- facturing centre, building ships and making bells, plows, picks, and spades when the Indians were still hunting deer on the site of Chicago. For more than one hundred years it was the capital and commercial centre of Alaska. Sit- uated here in the Panhandle one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Ketchikan and about as far north of Seattle as Minneapolis is north of New Orleans, it was selected by the Russians as the seat of their government and as the chief home of the officials and traders sent out by the Czar to what was then Russian America. Sitka was the capital of Alaska when we bought the territory, and it was here that the country was formally transferred to the United States. After that it remained the capital for almost forty years, until the seat of government was transferred to Juneau in 1912. Looking at Sitka as it is to-day, one does not wonder that the Russians chose it as their chief place of residence. The town has a climate as mild as that of Baltimore or Richmond, and its surroundings are so beautiful that it must some time be a summer resort and place of perma- nent residence for retired capitalists. It is situated on 3 2 THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX ” Baranof Island within a short distance of the open Pacific. It lies on a little bay at the mouth of a fast-flowing river in the arena of an amphitheatre of snow-clad mountains. The waters in front of it have scores of small wooded islands, while all about the hills rise to the clouds. One of the mountains is known as the Holy Cross from a figure of the cross in perpetual snow which gleams out near its summit. This is Mt. Verstovia, which has a mantle of white throughout the winter, but in the summer the snow disappears, with the exception of this gigantic cross painted by the hand of God upon a background of green. Another mountain is Edgecombe, on the Island of Kruzof, over the way. Mount Edgecombe is an extinct volcano as regular and as beautiful in its outlines as Fujiyama in Japan. It was one of the first of the landmarks discovered by Captain Cook when he sailed through these waters in 1776. On the hill, at one side of the town, was the site of the Baranof castle, where the Russian governor lived, and there to-day is the headquarters of the agricultural ex- periment station. To the left of the cliffs at the entrance of the harbour are the wharves with the main business street, named after President Lincoln, running back from them, and farther down the cove is a long row of two and three story houses, with many flagstaffs rising above them. That is the Indian settlement. The town has altogether something like one thousand Indians, and we shall see Indians everywhere as we move through the streets. It has also about five hundred whites. In Sitka modern residences of Americans and log build- ings more than one hundred years old, put up in the days of the Russians, stand side by side. There is one great ware- 33 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND house of logs so carefully fitted together that you could not put a knife blade between them. The logs are each two or three feet in diameter. That building, which was a warehouse when we took over the territory, frequently had a million dollars’ worth of furs stored in it. At the time of the sale to the United States it contained thirty thousand sealskins which then sold for less than three dollars apiece. A little farther up the street is a log building covered with the moss of many decades, and still farther away, near the Russian cemetery, is a Russian blockhouse bear- ing the scars of the wars with the Indians. The Sitka of to-day has a number of fine churches and a large missionary school. There is an Episcopal church, built of stone, with the residence of the Bishop of Alaska behind it, and there are the half-dozen large buildings of the Sheldon Jackson School belonging to the Presbyter- ians. These buildings include industrial departments and dormitories for both Indian boys and girls. The children are clean and well dressed and the school has done a great work with its practical educational methods. At Sitka is also the Old Pioneers’ Home where aged and dependent men and women, who have spent their years assisting in the development of Alaska, are well cared for by the territorial government. The most prominent church building in the town is the Russian cathedral. It stands at the end of the main street coming up from the wharves on the site of a church that was built here more than a century ago, when Baranof was governor. The present building dates far back in the Russian occupation, but it was in use until the Bolshevik regime in Russia sus- pended the activities of the Russian Church in Alaska. 34 THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” The Russians did a great deal of mission work here. They had mission stations on many of the Aleutian Islands and others scattered over the territory even to the mouth of the Yukon. The Russian cathedral at Sitka is a museum of interesting pictures and jewels. Many of its paintings were brought around Cape Horn or across Si- beria, and some of th^nrlffe by famous artists. One is an icon bearingTheTaoe of the Lady of Kazan. It represents a madonna and child and is of great beauty. I am told that the church refused an offer of twenty-five thousand dollars from J. Pierpont Morgan for this single painting. Of late years Sitka has lost its commercial importance. The removal of the capital to Juneau took away about all the United States offices, and there is now no more quiet town in the territory. The place is away from the main lines of travel and is reached only by a small steamer, or by the tourist boats in the summer, which bring sight- seers here on account of Sitka’s beauty and historic in- terest. It is well worth a visit. The history of Alaska covers just about one hundred and fifty years, and, roughly speaking, it may be divided into three periods of fifty years each. \ The first fifty was the period of exploration and discovery. The next fifty was the time of the Russian occupation, and the last half century covers the time since we purchased the territory. Alaska was discovered by the Russians during the eighteenth century but very little was known about it until almost the beginning of the nineteenth. It was in 1 71 1 that Peter Popoff sailed from Siberia around through Bering Strait and brought back rumours that a continent existed on the other side of Asia. Seventeen years later Peter the Great of Russia, who had heard of these stories, 35 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND sent Vitus Bering from Kamchatka to find out if they were true. Bering went through the strait which now bears his name, but it must have been foggy, for he did not see the American shore or even the Diomede Islands, which lie in the middle of the Strait. So he came back and reported that he had found nothing. He tried it again nine years later with a similar result, and it was not until 1741 that he saw the American continent and dis- covered the Shumagin Islands. At that time he anchored near the mouth of the Copper River and went on back through the Aleutians to the Island of Bering, a part of Siberia. He was wrecked on that island and died there of scurvy. Some of his sailors who made their way back to the mainland carried the story of the existence of Alaska and of the wonderful furs of the Aleutians. From that time the Russians made many expeditions to the Aleutians. Their glowing reports attracted the attention of other navigators, especially Britons and Spaniards, who made many voyages of exploration along the Alaskan coasts. It was in 1774 and 1775 that Juan Perez was sent by the King of Spain from Mexico to the north. He reached Dixon Entrance, our international boundary, in 1774, and the year following came to Sitka Sound. Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, at just about the time that Jefferson was writing the Decla- ration of Independence. It was he who established the fact that there was no land connection between America and Asia, and he surveyed a part of the coast, outlining the chief features through more than twelve degrees of latitude. He then went south to Hawaii, where he was killed by the natives. Later still there were other explorations by the Russians, 36 Sitka, the old capital of Russian America, has a safe and commodious harbour. Its surroundings are so beautiful and its climate is so mild that it should become a favourite summer resort for people from the States. Indians so dislike to have any one pass behind them that when they can they sit with their backs against a wall. When we bought Alaska this old Russian warehouse contained thirty thousand seal skins, which then sold for less than three dollars apiece. The old blockhouse at Sitka still shows the scars of the wars which Baranoff, first Governor of Russian America, waged against the Indians. In one massacre all but five of the colonists at Sitka were killed. THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” who formed trading companies, and there were inde- pendent fur traders from England and from our Atlantic coast. Five ships from New England came to Alaska in the latter part of the eighteenth century to buy furs. One of these, commanded by Captain Gray, took his cargo of furs to Canton, China, where he got a cargo of tea, which he carried on around the Cape of Good Hope to Boston, making the first voyage of an American vessel around the world. He landed in Boston, August io, 1790. Meanwhile, the Russians had been gradually staking out their claims to Alaska, and about the beginning of the last century they made treaties with England which conceded to them the Alaskan coast down to fifty-four degrees forty minutes of north latitude. At that time it is said that Russia had a great ambition to control the Pacific, and that it was her aim to grab the whole of California and the Hawaiian Islands as well. Baranof, the Russian who founded Sitka, had fur trading stations as far south as where San Francisco now is, and actually owned the farm which later came into the hands of John Sutter, on which gold was first discovered in California. Eight years before our national capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington Baranof established at Kodiak the first Russian colony. Among the settlers were a number of convicts, of whom he made fur-traders and farmers, controlling them with an iron hand. He was small in stature, but he had the qualities of a Napoleon, and it was due to his management and organization that Russia got such a foothold on our continent. He had many fights not only with the Indians but also with his own people. At one time, when one of the colonists at- 37 ALASKA — OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND tempted to assassinate him, he grabbed hold of the hand holding the weapon and then strangled the man to death with his own hands. In 1799 he moved his headquarters to Sitka, and three years later, while he was absent, the Indians massacred the Russians, killing all of the officers and thirty men. Only five Russians escaped. The Indians built a fort of logs and defied the Russians, but Baranof came back with a gunboat and starved the Indians into submission. Baranof then moved the site of Sitka eight miles, to where the town now is. About the time he came to Sitka there was formed the Russian Fur Company, a monopoly backed by the government, the Czar, and the Empress, and many of the nobility. Baranof continued to manage the territory until 1817, when, through political trickery, he was deposed. He left Sitka and died on his way home at Batavia, Java, in 1819. During the time of Russia’s ownership much of the Alaskan coast was explored. The Yukon River was opened up as far as the mouth of the Tanana by Lieuten- ant Zagoskin, and Kotzebue went through Bering Strait and discovered Kotzebue Sound on the Arctic Ocean north of the Seward Peninsula. The delta of the Kus- kokwim became pretty well known, likewise the southern coast, including the Panhandle, the Gulf of Alaska, the Alaskan Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. Complications, however, were arising with the British, who, under the Hudson’s Bay Company, were pushing their trading stations from the Mackenzie River on to the Yukon. Russia became anxious lest her American holdings should fall into the hands of Great Britain. At the time of the Crimean War she offered to sell us Alaska, 38 THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” but President Pierce refused to become a party to the trans- fer. The matter was again taken up when Buchanan came in, at which time an offer of five million dollars was made by us and declined by the Russians. The negotiations were continued, but the Civil War was then brewing and the pro-slavery element would not agree to the purchase of any more territory that was likely to be non-slaveholding. The subject was dropped until after the close of the war. It was in 1863 that the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany planned to build a land line across North America to Asia, and a little later they sent exploration parties down the Yukon and over the Seward Peninsula to Bering Strait and into Siberia. They explored the Yukon Valley and brought forth much new information regarding Alaska. They were about ready to push their line through when the Atlantic cable proved successful. Meantime, an increased interest had sprung up regarding Alaska. The negotiations for its purchase were resumed, and, to cut short a most interesting story, Russia offered to sell the territory to us for about two cents an acre. The actual figure was seven million dollars, with an extra two hundred thousand to settle the claims of the Russian resi- dents and to pay the cost of the transfer. Late one night Baron Stoeckl, the Russian ambassador at Washington, came to the house of William H. Seward, our Secretary of State, and told him that he had just re- ceived dispatches from the Czar authorizing him to sell Alaska. Secretary Seward was playing whist at the time and the Ambassador said that he would come to the State Department on the morrow to make the treaty. Secre- tary Seward replied: “Why should we wait until to- 39 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND morrow, Mr. Ambassador? Let us make the treaty to- night.” “But the department is closed,” replied the Russian. “You have no clerks, and my secretaries are scattered about the town.” “Never mind that,” said Secretary Seward. “1 can easily get the necessary clerks, and if you can bring to- gether your legation by midnight you will find us awaiting you at the department, and we will settle the business.” To this the ambassador consented. They met at twelve o’clock at the Department of State and by four in the morning the treaty was engrossed, signed and sealed, and ready for transmission to the Senate. Within a month it had been approved and Alaska was ours. Up to that time the territory had been known as Russian America. It needed a new name, and all kinds of ridiculous titles were suggested. One was “The Zero Islands,” another “Andy Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,” another “Seward’s Ice Box,” and a fourth “ Walrus-sia.” The treaty was called the “Polar Bear Treaty” and the senators who favoured it were dubbed the Eskimo sen- ators. The name “Alaska” was finally chosen at the instance of Charles Sumner, who said that it was the title which the natives used. Translated, it means “The Great Mainland.” The ceremony of taking possession of Alaska was per- formed here at Sitka on Friday, the 1 8th of October, 1867. Two hundred American soldiers under General Jefferson C. Davis took their position on the east side of the flag- staff near the castle, and an equal number of Russian soldiers were lined up opposite them. It was three thirty o’clock in the afternoon when the Russian captain ordered 40 THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” his men to haul down the Russian flag. The men tried to do so, but it had caught in the ropes and would not move. A Russian soldier climbed up to bring down the flag. He tried and failed. Another man tried and did not succeed. A third soldier climbed up and got it, but it slipped from his hands, was caught by the wind, and fell on the bayonets of the Russian soldiers. The incident was so affecting that the Princess Maksutoff, who was present with the Russians, wept, and the soldiers were visibly moved. Following this, “Old Glory” was hoisted, and the American gunboats in the harbour and the Russian bat- tery on shore fired salutes. Prince Maksutoff, the Russian commissioner, then stepped forward and said to General Rousseau, the American commissioner: “By the author- ity of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the territory of Alaska.” Prince Maksutoff then handed over the insignia of his office as governor, and General Rousseau made a speech accepting the transfer. That was all. With less than two hundred words Alaska’s allegiance was changed and a new empire was added to Uncle Sam’s domain. Let me tell you briefly what we got for that investment in land at two cents an acre. Alaska is a world in itself, an unknown world at that to most of us, though every man, woman, and child in the United States is a part owner. The territory, which has an area of nearly six hundred thousand square miles, contains more than one sixth of all the land under the American flag. If Alaska could be lifted up and dropped down upon the main body of our country, with its eastern end touching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, the westernmost end would be in 4i ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND the Pacific beyond Los Angeles. Beginning not far west of Los Angeles, the territory extends Uncle Sam’s domin- ions almost to Japan. Nome is three thousand miles west of San Francisco; and the mainland of Alaska is less than forty miles from Siberia at Bering Strait. The Island of Attu, at the end of the Aleutian chain, is not far from Asia. From north to south, Alaska reaches al- most as far as the distance from Canada to Mexico. This mighty territory is a world in the variety of its lands, its resources, its climates, and its waters. It is a country of seas, lakes, and rivers and of almost as many islands as the empire of Japan. It has a vast continental mainland with mountains and valleys, rolling plateaus, and great lowland plains. The navigable waters of its rivers reach many thousands of miles. Alaska has the highest mountains on the North Amer- ican continent. It has some of the greatest glacial fields upon earth, and scores of its peaks never lose their snow. McKinley, which kisses the sky at over twenty thousand feet, is the tallest mountain north of the Isthmus of Panama. A little farther east is Mount St. Elias, which is eighteen thousand feet high, and about Mount Wran- gell, in a territory not three fourths as big as Massachu- setts, there are ten snow-clad peaks twice as high as Mount Washington and two which are higher than Mont Blanc. The Alaskan Range runs around the whole southern coast and has a width here and there approximating eighty miles. The Range has several low passes, and one of these, Broad Pass, is only twenty-seven hundred feet above the sea. It is from six to eight miles in width and it forms an easy way for Uncle Sam’s new railroad into the great central valley. 42 THE STORY OF “SEWARD’S ICE BOX” Like the senators who ridiculed Secretary Seward when he purchased Alaska, we are apt to think of it in terms of the North Pole — of mountains of ice and of perpetual snow. We have read of the terrible cold, where the thermometer falls to seventy degrees below zero; of the reindeer and dog teams flying over the snow, and of the Cimmerian darkness of the long winter nights. The truth is, Alaska is a world in its climates. Only one fourth of the country lies inside the Arctic Circle. Parts of it are as temperate as Tennessee or Kentucky, and South- eastern Alaska, a region larger than Maine, has a winter climate milder than that of Washington city. The great Yukon Valley, a land of rolling plains and plateaus, has winters like those of Montana and northern Dakota, and the summers of the whole territory are not far different from those of Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia. In midsummer I found the whole land covered with a dense vegetation, and it seemed to me that if any part of it could be set down into the main body of the United States the change would not be recognized. There is such crass ignorance concerning the climate of Alaska that I shall say a little more about latitude. Take the city of Seward, the terminus of our new railroad. That town is no farther north than Petrograd, and it is not nearly so cold in winter. Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is in about the same latitude as Edinburgh, Scotland, and is, I venture, by far the warmer. The same is true of Sitka and Copenhagen. The whole Scandina- vian peninsula is within the latitudes of Alaska, and some of the Aleutian Islands are farther south than Birmingham, England, Berlin, Dublin, or Warsaw. Ketchikan and Moscow are on about the same parallel. 43 CHAPTER VI THE THLINGETS AND THE HYDAHS T HE Alaskan Indians are of half-a-dozen dif- ferent stocks. Those I have seen most in my travels in Southeastern Alaska are the Thlin- gets, an Indian family scattered throughout the whole of this part of the country. There are four or five thousand of them divided among a dozen or more tribes, including the Auk, the Chilkat, the Kake, the Sitka, Stikine, Tongass, and Yakutat. The Klukwans are Thlingets and so are the Hunas. These people are semi-civilized, and nearly every tribe has its own church and school. And then there are the Hydahs, numbering five or six hundred, and the Tsimpseansof Metlakahtla. The Athapascans, who number about four thousand, are divided into twelve tribes and may be seen all along the Yukon and Tanana rivers. The Aleuts, of whom there are about fifteen hundred, are closely allied to the Eskimos. They live in the long island chain extending from south- western Alaska almost to Asia, and are fishers and hunters. The finely woven baskets made by their women show that they have some artistic ability. The Indians of Alaska look far more like the Chinese and Japanese than like the Red Men of the States. They have yellowish or light brown complexions. Their eyes are a trifle slanting, and their cheek bones are as high as those of the Mongols or the inhabitants of Thibet 44 The Russian cathedral at Sitka is famous for its chimes and its valuable paintings, many of them embellished with precious stones. It refused twenty-five thousand dollars for this Madonna and Child, called “The Lady of Kazan.’’ The Chilkat blankets, originally made only for chiefs, are always of three colours — white for the wool from which they are woven, black for the Crow clan, and yellow for the beak of the patron bird of the Eagles. The Indians once thought that the evil spirits causing disease could not be exorcised without noise of rattles like these. Before beginning his work the witch doctor always took a drink of native paint. THE THLINGETS AND THE HYDAHS When they are dressed like white men it is difficult to tell them from the Japanese who come north to work in the fish canneries, and it is a question whether they did not originally come from Asia, crossing from Kamchatka in their canoes to the Aleutian Islands and making their way to the Alexander Archipelago. Bering Strait is only fifty or sixty miles wide, and there are two islands in the midst of it, so that it would have been easy for the Chukchi and other Mongolian tribes to cross over from Asia to the mainland of this continent. Some of the Indian customs here are the same as those that prevailed in Japan before it adopted western civiliza- tion, and it is not hard to imagine that these customs may have come down from their Mongolian ancestors. For instance, when I first visited Japan, every widow shaved her head as smooth as a billiard ball to show that she was mourning for her husband. She also stained her teeth black to make herself unattractive. The widows of the Thlingets shaved their heads the same way until the missionaries taught them better, and they even painted their faces black as a sign of mourning. The black used was a water colour, and if this were streaked with tears it brought the widow respect because of her grief for her dead husband. Cremation is com- mon in Japan. It was for years practised in Alaska. The Chinese will undergo any privation to have a good funeral. The Alaskan Indians do likewise. In Southeastern Alaska I have seen many of the Thlin- gets. These Indians are found on the coast and in the islands of the Panhandle, their settlements extending as far north as Prince William Sound. They are the Indians best known to the tourists, and their totem poles or tribal 45 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND emblems and coats-of-arms, although gradually dis- appearing with the advance of civilization, are still to be seen in the villages. The Thlingets always build their villages near the shore; since nine tenths of their support comes from fishing, they like to live right on the beach. Nearly every family has its boats, while some families even own gasoline launches. Their houses are usually scattered about, without regard to any fixed plan. It is only lately that any of them have had gardens. In the past the buildings were made of rude slabs and bark thrown to- gether over pole rafters. No house had a chimney or window and the smoke passed out through a hole in the roof. Now, most of the houses are shingle-roofed, com- fortable frame dwellings with windows and chimneys. Some of them are ceiled, and some are papered and painted. The Indians have become good carpenters and use modern tools. The newer buildings show some regard for sanitary requirements, and a few of their towns have plank sidewalks and electric plants. In Klukwan the Indians have piped the water from the mountains and established a municipal water system. Klukwan is a village of the Chilkats, on the Chilkat River not far from Skagway. The town is said to be three hundred years old and to have once had a population of a thousand souls. Its people were traders, exchanging dried fish and oil for furs with the Athapascans of the interior. The Chilkats are great trappers. They have divided their hunting grounds among the various families and the hunting rights descend from generation to genera- tion. They have been noted for their skill in the various industries. They wove blankets a century ago. They also forged copper and did beautiful carving. Much of 46 THE THLINGETS AND THE HYDAHS this skill departed upon the advent of civilization, but they now make moccasins and cut out miniature totem poles and other things for the tourists. The settlement of Klukwan has a flourishing coopera- tive store, which is so good that it gets much trade from the whites, and it is said that the Indians come a distance of a hundred miles to buy there. The town has its men’s club, which holds meetings every week, when matters of town interest are discussed. The Government is trying to induce these Indians to go into canning and some canning machinery has been sent there. The school teachers advise that a sawmill be installed. They say that the boys are quick to learn carpentry, and they are now making chairs, tables, and sleds in the school shops. Recently they began to work in sheet metal and to make airtight stoves. The work of civilization among the Indians has been promoted by both missionaries and school teachers. The missionaries came first. They established schools, in- dustrial and otherwise, and converted the Indians to Christianity. After the missionaries came the United States Bureau of Education, which has taken charge of the natives of Alaska. Beginning with the establishment of schools in all of the villages, it has added many other kinds of social service work to its activities. The teachers are now instructing the adult Indians in sanita- tion and civil government. They are inducing them to establish stores and to engage in all possible self-sustaining industries. So far the most remarkable progress has been among the Hydahs, a tribe of five or six hundred Indians on Prince of Wales Island. On the government reservation there 47 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND they have built a town called Hydaburg, which is perhaps the most advanced Indian community of the world. The natives have organized a cooperative trading company paying big dividends to the stockholders. In 1911, when the settlement was first organized, the par value of a share in the Hydaburg Trading Company was ten dollars. Ten years later the accumulation on each share, including the stock dividend and the purchase dividend each year, amounted to almost two hundred and fifty dollars. The company now owns, besides its store, a saw-mill, a cannery and dock, a moving picture outfit, an automobile truck, and equipment for electric lighting. Nearly every family in Hydaburg has stock in this trading company, and the people are rapidly growing well- to-do. Many have gasoline launches and all have com- fortable homes. The town elects its own officers. It has a mayor and councilmen and the business of the place is transacted in English. One of the first cooperative works was the building of a sidewalk. There was no money in the village treasury, but the young men brought in the proceeds of their sea- son’s fishing, and the Indian girls had a basket social. Two hundred and ninety dollars were realized from the food sold. This bought the lumber, and the men gave their labour for nothing. That sidewalk is the best in Southeastern Alaska. It is ten feet wide and more than half a mile long. Since then the citizens have erected a municipal dock four hundred and forty feet long, with a front of fifty- five feet. The cooperative store has created a hunger for business training, and business methods are taught in the school. The village has town meetings at which all 48 One of the government teachers reports that he has supervised the making of seventeen native school gardens inside the Arctic Circle. At a fair at Nulato two-pound potatoes were exhibited by proud child gardeners. Under the leadership of the United States Bureau of Education the In- dians now manage their own cooperative stores. They patronize the candy counter so much as to injure the teeth of the rising generation. The tendency of the Alaska Indian is to dress more and more like the whites, but the native garb and regalia are still often seen. Indian women are by no means slaves and frequently control the family purse. THE THLINGETS AND THE HYDAHS matters of public interest are discussed and the popular vote determines what shall be done. The Hydahs are not Thlingets. They belong to a different Indian family, and for a long time their only home seems to have been on Queen Charlotte Island off the coast of British Columbia. Later some of them moved to the west coast and about two hundred years ago,, according to their traditions, they drove the Thlingets out of a part of Prince of Wales Island and settled there. They have always been considered superior Indians and have had the reputation of being the best painters, carvers, and canoe builders of Southeastern Alaska. In the past they hollowed their canoes out of single logs of cedar, and built houses of cedar beams and planks, which were worked out with adzes of stone. At one time there were something like eight thousand of them, but during our possession of Alaska the number in the United States territory has never been more than six or eight hundred. Among the other movements to better the Indians of Alaska is that of school farming. Both children and adults are shown how to make gardens, and some of the villages are growing vegetables and berries of various kinds. One of the teachers reports that he has supervised the making of seventeen native gardens inside the Arctic Circle. The Government is doing all it can to improve the sanitary conditions among the Indians. The teachers are cleaning up the towns and the doctors and nurses of the Bureau of Education go from village to village and give directions for the care of the sick as well as instruction in how to keep the well healthy. It is estimated that thirty per cent, of the natives have consumption in some form 49 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND or stage and that eight per cent, of the deaths are due to tuberculosis. Of late a number of the squaws have taken to feeding their infants from the bottle. Since they know nothing about the preparation of this baby food, many of the children come out of the nursing stage feeble and scrawny. The school children are examined for trachoma, adenoids, and other diseases. They are taught to take care of their teeth and are warned against the use of tobacco and alcohol. Alcohol has been the curse of the Indians of Alaska. It is said that before the coming of the Russians they knew nothing of liquor in any form. But they soon ac- quired the art of brewing and drinking, first the Russian quass, and later American whiskey. I ts sale to the I ndians has long been forbidden, but there have always been some whites willing to make money by supplying the natives with whiskey. The Alaskan Indians try to imitate the whites in many ways. They are now dressing much the same, except that they delight in brighter colours. During my trip we have had a number of Indian men and women with us on the steamers. The other day a young squaw sat down at the table opposite two travelling salesmen from Seattle. As the meal went on they noticed that the girl’s orders were the same as their own. She was pretending to study the menu, but they concluded that she could not read and that this was her first experience with the white man’s victuals. Thereupon, one of them ordered for his dessert a slice of custard pie and winked at his friend to do the same. The squaw in her turn gave a similar order. When the pie came one of the travelling men 50 THE THLINGETS AND THE HYDAHS seized the catsup bottle and sprinkled a liberal allowance of hot tomato sauce over his pie. His friend followed suit and then shoved the catsup across the table to the copper- skinned girl. She did the same, only more so. The men stopped eating to watch the agony of the Indian. The fair squaw, however, heroically finished her pie without winking, and, as far as any one could see, the joke was on the salesmen. 5 8 CHAPTER VII TOTEM INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS I N SOUTHEASTERN Alaska a curious survival of the old Indian customs is seen in the totem poles which the natives used to put up before each house and often over the graves of the chiefs and heads of families. These totem poles are neither tombstones nor idols, and they were never regarded as such by the Indians. They are tribal crests or coats-of-arms, of which the natives are as proud as are the nobility of Europe of their emblems of heraldry. The Indian can read the story of a totem pole as easily as we read a news- paper. He knows just what each sign means, and where the tribal sign ends and the individual signs begin. The totem in front of a house tells him not only who lives there, but also the story of the owner’s ancestors. Similar crests are used on baskets, on moccasins, and in carvings of wood, stone, and copper. If a native had a letterhead he would probably print some of these signs on the top of the sheet. One of the former curators of the Sheldon Jackson Museum at Sitka says that the totem pole was invented by the Hydah Indians, and that it was of three different kinds. One kind was erected in front of a house. This had the figures of different animals, and represented the totems of a family and their relatives. Another was called the death totem. This was often a hollow mortuary post 52 Members of the Bear, the Whale, and the Frog families are buried under their respective totems in the native cemetery at Klukawn. Their memo- rials are carved of marble quarried near by. The breast bone of the mallard duck furnishes the design, and totemic emblems the decorations, for the best Indian boats. This old canoe was adapted by the white man for mail delivery. TOTEM INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS which contained the ashes of the dead and was sometimes erected over the grave. A third class of totem poles was put up by the Hydahs to memorialize remarkable events. These totems were historical records and their story was told by series of carved figures — a sort of picture-writing. The Hydahs were divided into three classes: the rich, the middle classes, and the slaves. The slaves were never allowed to erect poles in front of their dwellings, and the higher the pole, as a general rule, the richer and more aristocratic the owner. The totem poles about the dwellings of the Indians range in height from that of a man to that of a four-story house. They are carved out of solid tree trunks, and some of the larger ones are valued at several thousand dollars apiece. Many of them are beautifully carved, their ugliness being that of design rather than execution. Most of the carvings are of animals and birds, The house poles indicate to which of the two great families of South- eastern Alaska the inmates belong. These are known as the Eagle and the Crow. Each has its subdivisions, which are shown by subtotems. To the Eagle family belong the subdivisions of the Bear, Wolf, Shark, Whale, and others; and to the Crow family belong the Seals, Frogs, Salmons, and Beavers. There are numerous other subdivisions, but they all belong either to the Eagles or the Crows. According to the unwritten law of these Indians, a husband and wife cannot be of the same tribal family. A Miss Crow must always expect to marry a Mr. Eagle. It is perfectly proper for her to unite with a Shark, Whale, Wolf, or Bear, for they all go back to the Eagle family, but she cannot marry a Salmon, Seal, Frog, or Beaver, who descend from the Crow. 53 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND Some branches of the families so divided are much more aristocratic than others, and a woman who marries beneath her is considered to have disgraced her family. She is more despised than an English duchess who marries a shopkeeper, and at her death her relatives will not chip in for as costly a funeral as though she had married in her own class. A daughter of one of the Brown Bear divi- sions would be shamed by a marriage with a son of the Mouse or the Snail, while the Crows and Eagles at the top of the genealogical tree can marry only one another. Another curious thing is the high position that woman has always held among these Indians. She rules the family. No bargain is made, no journey is undertaken, no important thing done without consulting her. On the totems the emblem of the wife is at the very top of the pedigree pole, and the totem of the husband comes lower down. Any Indian, on seeing the totem pole, can tell the family of the mother and knows that it rules the house. If he belongs to the same family he is sure to be welcome, but otherwise he thinks awhile before he risks stopping. I am told that most of these Indian families were founded by women. The Bear family started with a chief’s daughter, who, according to the legend, was out one day with some other girls picking strawberries. A great bear came up and all of the girls but the chiefs daughter ran away. She put her hands on her hips and laughed at him. Thereupon the bear ran after the other maidens and killed them. He fell in love with the girl who had scorned him and made her his wife. The fruit of the union was a child half girl and half bear, who became the maternal ancestor of all the natives now belonging to the 54 TOTEM INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS Bear totem. Another story tells how a family originated with a female grizzly bear, and a third of how a woman founded the tribe of Woodworms. The Indians love a fine funeral. They will take what they have and borrow more from their friends to spend in making a great show. They put the favourite posses- sions of the deceased with the body and clothing and bed- ding alongside the coffin. After the funeral is over they give a great feast in honour of the departed, eating the food which is supposed to nourish his spirit as it goes to the other world. In Southeastern Alaska it rains so much and the soil is so shallow that the Indians do not bury their dead in graves, but put them in little wooden vaults that look like tiny houses set upon poles. In the early days, before the coming of the missionaries, many of these Indians burned their dead, depositing their ashes in hollow poles. Among some of the tribes the ashes and bones left after the cremation of a body were put into a sack which was kept in the family dead house. Indeed, these and other customs, myths, and folklore of the Alaskan Indians are so interesting that our Govern- ment should put its scientists to work gathering a record of them before it is too late. We need some such work in Alaska as Frank Cushing did among the Zunis and James Mooney among some of the Indian tribes of the West. What we have concerning the natives of Alaska comes largely from missionaries, and from Ivan PetrofF, who wrote a great part of the census of 1880. Mr. Livingston F. Jones lived for twenty years among the Thlingets and got his information concerning them at first hand. His book, “A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska,” gives legends of the Crow, Deer, and other families, and includes tra- 55 ALASKA-OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND ditions of many of the tribes. The Whale family, for example, is said to have originated from an Indian boy who amused himself by carving images of whales out of cedar and sailing them upon the waters. One day one of his cedar whales expanded before his eyes and turned into a real live whale, which swam away. From this fact his parents knew he would become a great chief, and he did not disappoint them, for he founded the Whale tribe, branches of which are scattered throughout Southeastern Alaska. The Thlingets have legends concerning the origin of man and telling how the sun, the moon, and the stars came to be. According to their story of the flood, all the men and animals were destroyed with the exception of a raven. This raven was a sort of witch bird. He could change himself at will and put his feathers off or on like a garment. When the flood had gone down, he looked about for a mate of his own kind, but could find none. At last he took a cockle-shell from the beach and called it his wife. By and by he heard a faint cry from the shell like that of a baby. The noise grew louder and louder, and at last a little female child came out. This child married the raven and from the two came all of the Indians of this part of the world, and so the country was p«opled. The raven is held sacred among the Thlingets, who in the past considered him a god. He was known as Yehl, the creator of the world. He was the benefactor of man- kind and enjoyed the greatest respect. His power was unlimited. He put sun, moon, and stars in their places, and from him came man, animals, and plants. Before he was born the world was dark; but with him came light. 56 ALASKA AND THE UNITED STATES COMPARED If Alaska could be laid upon the United States, it would cover eight states of our Middle West and with the Panhandle resting on the Georgia Coast, the tip of the Aleutian Islands would fall on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in southern California. TOTEM INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS Few people realize the change that has been brought about among these Indians through the work of the mis- sionaries and the bringing in of our civilization. Canni- balism was common along the coast of British Columbia when Father Duncan came. Slavery existed among the Thlingets at the time we took possession of the territory, and Ivan Petroff in his report for the Govern- ment on the condition of these Indians in 1880 said that able-bodied slaves were slaughtered on festive occasions, and that it was not uncommon for a rich man or chief to have slaves killed and buried with him, in order that he might have servants in the spirit land. There are Indians living in Alaska to day who were slaves in their youth, and it is said their children are looked down upon by the families which have always been free. The slaves were of two classes — those captured in warfare and those born into bondage. The children of slaves became slaves in turn, waited upon their masters, did all sorts of menial work, and were cruelly treated. Not infrequently they were sacrificed to emphasize the power and wealth of an owner, who thus showed that he could afford to destroy such valuable property. Before the missionaries came polygamy prevailed. To- day marriages are usually held in the churches. Monog- amy is common, and even the chiefs seldom have more than one wife. In the past some of the heads of the tribes had as many as twenty wives. A Russian au- thority speaks of a man on the Nass River who had forty. In such cases the first wife ruled the harem. Child mar- riages used to be common, and even now marriages take place at an early age. One of the old Thlinget customs was to pen up the girls in some out-of-the-way place as 57 ALASKA — OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND they reached the marriageable age. A wooden coop or jail was made for the maiden where she was kept for from four months to a year. There was no light in the coop except what filtered through the cracks, so that when the door was opened tl.e girl came out pale and wan and supposedly humble and ready for marriage. The mar- riages were usually arranged by the relatives, and the girls were carefully restrained from making any advances to the men. Mr. Livingston Jones says that infanticide was not un- common. Twins were considered bad luck and were often killed at birth. The usual method of killing babies was to stuff their mouths with moss or grass, and they were usually carried into the woods to be put to death. This was done by the women, generally the rela- tives of the mother. Mr. Jones tells some queer stories of how the natives received the white man’s civilization. When they first saw a steamboat they thought it was a demon and took to the woods. They called it a fire canoe and thought it might bring some terrible disease, such as smallpox. To ward off the danger they pulled up certain native vege- tables, which they held below their eyes as they looked at the steamboat. They went wild over the phonograph when it came and paid a quarter to hear a single tune. When the first negro came north they advanced all kinds of theories as to what made him black, and when they saw a man with a wooden leg they regarded him with great wonder. Another curiosity was a man who had a wig, which he put on and off, and a still greater marvel was a store keeper who had a set of false teeth. The Indians flocked to the store, and their amazement knew 58 TOTEM INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS no bounds when they saw him take out of his mouth a set of uppers, gums and all, and then replace them. The natives came in from many miles around to see the won- derful sight, aud the storekeeper found his “set” an ex- cellent business getter. 59 CHAPTER VIII FARM LANDS OF THE FUTURE I HAVE just had my first view of the practical possibilities of Alaskan farming. Our Agricultural Department’s experimental station at Sitka is the headquarters from which the four other experiment stations are managed. One of these is at Rampart, on the Yukon River, near the Arctic Circle. Another is near Fairbanks, in the rich valley of the Tanana, in the heart of Alaska; a third is on the Island of Kodiak, not far from Seward; and the fourth is in the Matanuska Valley, which is being opened up by the government railroad. Kodiak is bigger than Porto Rico. Its specialty is stock raising and dairying. The Fairbanks station, which is in the centre of a great agricultural region, is devoted to all- round farming. Rampart is so far north that it forms the best place for experiments in raising oats, barley, and wheat for planting in cold lands. At Matanuska grain, hogs, cattle, and potatoes are raised. The government farm at Sitka lies under the shadow of Mount Verstovia, about a quarter of a mile from the town. The experiments here are chiefly in raising vegetables, berries, and small fruits. This is because of the character of Southeastern Alaska, which, though a region of rich vegetation, is better adapted to small farms and truck gardens than to large-scale farm operations. 1 wish I could show you the vegetation of Southeastern So Small fruits and vegetables in southeastern Alaska grow to twice the size usual in the States. It is believed, however, that Alaska farmers’ truck gardens will be limited to supplying local markets. On the way to Mendenhall Glacier cows pasture on rich grass in the shadow of snow-capped mountains. This section of Alaska should some day have many small farms. Pea crops like this raised on a farm near Sitka prove conclusively that Alaska lands are ready to yield bountiful harvests, needing only cultiva- tion to make them wonderfully productive. FARM LANDS OF THE FUTURE Alaska. For the last month I have been travelling along the coast and in and out among the islands, and the flowers and trees are a series of surprises. The topography of the country is much like that of the Alleghanies or the Blue Ridge, but the forests are thicker and the growth is denser. Nearly everywhere the bushes are so thick that it would be impossible to make a way through them with- out an axe or a knife. Beginning at the water’s edge, the forest runs to the snow line about a thousand feet above the sea. For that distance the trees are choked with undergrowth; but above it the heavy vegetation disap- pears, and a carpet of grass or moss stretches up to the edge of perpetual snow. Everywhere in the forest there is spongy, ankle-deep moss. Many of the trees are hung with mosses, and the bushes beyond the tree line seem to bend over and cling to the ground, bowed down, I suppose, by the heavy snow which lies upon them during the winter. The chief trees are evergreens. There are many spruce, and red and yel- low cedars, including a vast deal of timber which would make wood pulp and which in the future will probably supply the newspaper demands of the States. The In- dians use the cedar bark to make rope, and they tear out the inner part of it and weave it into baskets and cloaks. And then the wild flowers! They grow everywhere. There are Alpine geraniums, goldenrod, and buttercups, and bluebells with cups an inch long. There are yellow violets and red daisies and lilies as black as ink. There are rosy laurel and pink bryanthus and little blue forget-me-nots such as we have at home. Southeastern Alaska has three varieties of orchids and other air plants as well. 61 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND This is a land of berries. The salmonberry, which is ripe throughout the summer, is twice as large as the largest raspberry, and tastes much the same. There are also raspberries that grow on the ground and cranberries of several varieties. There are wild strawberries and blueberries and red huckleberries. Strawberries are raised commercially at Haines and are shipped to Juneau and other towns. As to the cultivated parts of Southeastern Alaska, they are so few at this writing that they are hardly worth mentioning. Coming up from Seattle the tourist does not see a dozen farms bigger than a bedspread; and in most places the land is so steep that it reminds m^., of West Virginia, where it is said the corn is planted with shotgun s** from t^re oppo site hills. Nevertheless, back in the valleys are little cultivated patches where the pioneers have cleared off the dense timber and set up their homes. Professor C. C. Georgeson, who is at the head of the government agricultural experiments in the territory, tells me that there will eventually be many small farms scat- tered throughout this part of Alaska. He says that they will grow up to supply the mining centres with vegetables and fruits. He does not expect them to come soon, be- lieving that it will be the task of a generation or so to clear the forests and take off the moss. He thinks the coast region is best adapted to gardening, chicken raising, and dairying, while the natural-grass meadows may be utilized for stock raising. Small farms are already growing up about many of the fishing stations. One of the best of these is that of C. A. Burckhardt, the president of the Alaska Pacific Fisheries at Yess Bay, just north of Ketchikan. He tells me that 62 FARM LANDS OF THE FUTURE he raises rhubarb with leaves as big as a parasol and stems the length of a baseball bat and quite as thick. He grows strawberries four inches in circumference. Mr. Burckhardt, who spends only his summers in Alaska, takes his Jersey cow, Daisy, back and forth with him each season. She was first brought up on account of Mr. Burckhardt’s baby daughter, and the experiment worked so well that Daisy has spent her summers in the North ever since. She seems to know when the time has come to flit southward. She goes on board the ship with- out urging and thrives under these changes. At the Sitka experiment station there are acres of straw- berries and raspberries and orchards of apples, cherries, and apricots. The strawberries are finer than I have seen in any part of the United States or Europe. The plants are vigorous and are loaded with fruit. 1 saw some berries almost as big as hen’s eggs and many over an inch in diameter. These big berries have been produced by cross-breeding the wild native plants with other straw- berries brought here from all parts of the world. There are now several thousand different kinds of strawberries growing at the station, but nearly all of them have more or less Alaskan blood in their veins. I wish you could taste them. They are strawberry all through. Only a few have a tart flavour, and most of them are so delicious that they fairly melt in your mouth. The plants are much hardier than our strawberries and bear for about two months, yielding fruit as late as September. Among the other experiments going on at this station is the crossing of salmonberries with the raspberry. The salmonberry, which is as big as the largest blackberry, is red or pale yellow. It is delicious to taste, and is used 63 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND in great quantities all over Alaska. Raspberries also will grow well almost anywhere, and the crossing is suc- cessful, although the new fruit partakes more of the flavour of the salmonberry. The station is also breeding apple and cherry trees that will grow in parts of the territory, and is making experi- ments with filberts and other nuts of the hardier varieties. The most surprising things on the farm are its pansies, poppies, roses, and other beautiful flowers. Among the pansies now growing are many as big around as the bottom of a tumbler, and some are as black as ink and as soft as silk plush. There are also roses of exquisite perfume and poppies of the most brilliant red and as big around as a tea plate. These poppies, which come from Asia and are perennial, are among the new wonders of Alaska. 1 went over the experiment farm with Director George- son. There is no man better fitted by ability and ex- perience for his position. When I met him in Japan years ago on my first newspaper trip around the world, Mr. Georgeson, then a professor in the Imperial College of Agriculture at Tokio, was introducing modern farming into the land of Japan. Born in Denmark, he had been trained in farming on some of the large estates of that country before he came to the United States. For more than twenty years Professor Georgeson has been in charge of Uncle Sam’s farming interests in Alaska. He has travelled all over the territory, studying its soils, its climate, plant life, and farming possibilities. He has been the manager of a half-dozen different experiment stations and has combed the world for grasses and plants suited to this part of the United States. We were loking at some alfalfa grown from seed im- 64 The mills and forests of the United States cannot supply the demand for newsprint. Yet in southern Alaska there are billions of feet of spruce and other woods suitable for paper making growing on slopes accessible to tidewater. A large part of our northernmost territory still remains unexplored, so that one may have the thrill of starting off with packhorse and supplies on a trip into the uncharted wilds. FARM LANDS OF THE FUTURE ported from Siberia, when I asked Professor Georgeson to give me his idea of the future of Alaskan farming. He replied : “There is no doubt that Alaska will some day support a large farming population. I see no reason why the territory should not eventually have a stable population of three millions or more. We are discovering new plants and grains every season. This alfalfa, for example, will grow all along the Yukon, and we have made successful experiments with it north of that river. I estimate that Alaska has about one hundred thousand square miles that can be used for agricultural purposes. That means that it has sixty-four million acres, or an agricul- tural area as large as the states of Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. It must not be under- stood that all this land is available for cultivation, however, for the estimate includes about fifty thousand square miles which will have little value except for grazing purposes. “Of this territory about fifty-seven million acres lie in the interior beyond the coast range of mountains. The other seven million acres are in the coast region and on the islands near by. Each section will have its own crops based on its soil and climate. Some of the islands will be devoted to grazing and dairying, while from the gardens of Southeastern Alaska vegetables will be shipped to Seattle and command a higher price than the Puget Sound produce on account of their superior quality. Indeed, such shipments are even now being made.” In answer to my question whether Alaska would ever raise dairy products for the United States, Professor Georgeson replied: 65 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND “There is no reason why it should not. The climate of the Aleutian Islands is so mild that in many years hardy cattle and sheep can stay out all winter or be kept over with a small amount of hay and fodder. We can also raise cattle in the Yukon Valley, though there they have to be fed during nearly eight months of the year. In the interior grass grows as high as my head, and our experi- ments have shown that it is possible to raise many va- rieties of hardy grains.” “Tell me something about the soil of Alaska. How does it compare with that of the best parts of the United States?” “The best soil of our Middle West,” replied Professor Georgeson, “can be duplicated in very few places on earth. I doubt whether Alaska has any agricultural area equal to that. The country has no prairie lands, and there are no extensive bodies of uniform quality. Still, some parts are excellent for farming. The silt loam of the Tanana Valley will compare in productiveness with some of the best soil to be found elsewhere, and we have at the Fair- banks station land excelled only by the rich prairie soils of the Middle West. There are good lands in the Ma- tanuska and Susitna valleys, and, in fact, there are millions of acres that can be made into farms.” “Where will be the farming centre of Alaska?” “There will be many such centres,” said Professor Georgeson. “Farms will spring up about every import- ant mining settlement. Fairbanks is the largest of the gold camps to-day and that region has the most and best farmers. Since the Government decided to build the railroad two or three hundred families have located home- steads in the Matanuska Valley with a view to supplying 66 FARM LANDS OF THE FUTURE the demands of the coal mines of that region. There are a number of successful farms in the neighbourhood of Seward and many small ones about Juneau, which is another mining centre of great importance. There are little places scattered throughout this part of the territory and, indeed, wherever there is a local market you will find a farm centre. These will grow, and as new settlements are established other farms will be opened up.” “Would you advise Americans to come to Alaska to engage in farming?” I asked. “Yes, if they understand the conditions and know what they are going to find when they reach here and are ready to stay and grow up with the country. I would not advise people to rush in pell-mell and take up home- steads wherever they can be found simply because Uncle Sam will give them a farm for nothing. The would-be speculators will stand a slim chance of making money by a rise in land values. There is no land for sale, and Uncle Sam is the sole owner. He will give his real estate only to bona-fide settlers who will keep on the job. The farmers most likely to succeed are the men who know the climate and what crops can be grown. Norwegians and Swedes and Finns have been brought up under conditions such as we have here. They are used to long winters and short summers; they understand the methods of culture necessary, and they are, 1 believe, best suited to the country.” “How much money should a young man have who wishes to take up a homestead? Give me some idea of the cost of clearing the land.” “The right young man might come to Alaska without any money and make a success,” said Professor Georgeson. 67 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND “ But in that case he would have to work for wages for other farmers or in the mining camps to get sufficient to live on until his farm paid. His path would not be an easy one. On the other hand, if he had a thousand dollars or so he could buy a team of horses or yoke of oxen and some farm tools. He could put up a modest house and furnish it. “He might still have to work out occasionally, but he could soon clear enough land and get a sufficient start in cattle, sheep, and poultry to make life on the farm practi- cable. Such a man should locate on land that is already surveyed by the Government, and he should investigate the cost of implements, furniture, and freight before start- ing. He will find the freight rates high. The average price from Puget Sound to Fairbanks has been about sixty dollars a ton, but the rate via the new government rail- way, in carload lots, will, it is thought, eventually be only half this much. If the man could have four or five thousand dollars it would be still better, but with that amount of money he could make a fair start almost any- where in the States. “There is one thing that should be well understood,” continued Professor Georgeson, “and that is that the settler must have enough muscle and skill to do most of the work on his own farm. If he starts out paying wages for clearing land he will soon be bankrupt. The wages of Alaska are governed by those paid in the mines of the interior, most of which are usually much higher than wages in the States. Sometimes it has cost us as much as one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre to clear land on the experiment station farms.” 68 Even oil is included in the mineral wealth of Alaska. The petroleum lake shown here is in the region of Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of our continent. Clouds float down the mountain wall behind the city into the main street ot Juneau, a centre of the mining and fishing industries, buzzdng with politicians, lawyers, promoters, and tourists. CHAPTER IX AT JUNEAU E /ING Alaska’s old capital, I have come on to Juneau, the capital of to-day and the biggest city of the territory. It is a great mining and fishing centre and a live, up-to-date place. Here are the residences of the governor and the chief officials, whose offices are in an old frame structure not far from the governor’s mansion, and here the territorial legis- lature meets every two years. Juneau has also a pre- tentious frame courthouse of two stories with a little dome on the top, and a city hall with a cupola that reminds one of the head of a pearl diver in his diving suit, ready to drop into the deep. Most of the houses of Juneau are of frame. The country about is covered with timber, and there are great sawmills at the wharves that supply the building materials. Of late, however, concrete structures have been going up. The Juneau of to-day has only three thousand inhabi- tants, but every man in the town is a hustler, and the place hums with politicians, lawyers, tourists, and miners. The crowd is of all classes and costumes. Some of the men wear clothes of the latest cut of Broadway or Fifth Avenue, while others wear slouch hats, mackinaws, and khaki trousers. Some have on boots that reach to the 69 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND knees, and now and then you meet one in white rubber pantaloons. Drays, automobiles, and carriages move about through the city and a motor stage runs to the mining town of Thane three miles down the channel. At that place are the mills and reduction plant of the Alaska Gastineau gold properties. Near by are the Juneau gold mills, and on the other side of the channel, in plain view, are the Tread- well mines, with the towns of Treadwell and Douglas around them. Juneau is beautifully situated on the mainland, at the head of the Gastineau Channel, a narrow strait which separates it from Douglas Island. The channel connects Stephens Passage with the Lynn Canal, at the northern end of which is Skagway. The harbour is so good that all of the ships that pass through Alaskan waters, excepting those plying between Seattle and Nome, call here. During the summer there are boats north or south every day and tens of thousands of tourists pass through. The town is right on the water, with wooded mountains rising almost perpendicularly behind it to a height of per- haps two thousand feet. 1 have seen cliffs of this height in other parts of the world, but they were mostly straight walls of gray, red, and black rock, as bleak and bare as the Desert of Sahara. The walls behind Juneau are covered with a vegetation as green as that of the Valley of the Nile. The city is cut out of the rocks or, rather, it is propped up by them. Most of the houses and streets stand upon stilts. The irregularities of the rocky foundation have been overcome by a trestlework of piles. The wharves 70 Ketchikan is built on the steep mountainside rising up from the water. The streets are planks laid on piles, and a four-horse dray or heavy motor truck jars a whole block. Eddystone Rock is not as great a menace to ships on the southeastern coast of Alaska as the many similar pinnacles which lie hidden under the water. AT JUNEAU are on piles, and from the channel as the tide falls they look like an army of centipedes tramping out to the ocean. It is now planned to fill in the space between the piles with the waste rock dust from the gold mills, thus giving Juneau a substantial foundation. In the town of Doug- las, over the way, a beach of such tailings was made along the edge of the channel and the baseball grounds are laid out upon them. Millions of dollars have come from the sand lying inside that diamond. The streets of Juneau consist of more than ten miles of planked roadways running up hill and down. They give no spring to the feet, and your hips keep bobbing up to your waist and tire your anatomy. Both the central wooden roadways and sidewalks are so tipped that the water runs off into gutters of wood. As such streets are costly and need constant repair, the plan is gradually to replace them with a macadam of the gold-mine tailings. The business section runs parallel with the channel. Close to the docks are sawmills, lumber yards, sheet- metal works, and machine shops, and farther back are long streets devoted to stores, banks, and shops of all kinds. The town with its department stores, cigar factories, daily newspapers, and thriving banks does a much larger volume of business than would be handled in a place several times its size in the United States. Chicken Ridge, the Nob Hill of Juneau, is at the upper end of the city, well back from the water. The residents are not in love with the name and talk of changing it to Bellevue or Bon Air, or some other less plebeian title. The houses are pretty two-story frame structures built on patches cut out of the rocks. The richest man in the town has a lawn about as big as a parlour rug, which tour- 7 » ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND ists are taken to see as one of the sights of the city. Other fine homes are still higher up and some of them cling to the green wall of the mountains. When I made a call last evening upon the editor of one of the Juneau papers 1 had to climb a pathway several times as high as that which leads to the Tea House of the One Hundred Steps above Yokohama, Japan. These houses of J uneau have no double windows or other special arrangements for winter protection. Nevertheless, the people tell me they have no trouble in keeping warm. The thermometer seldom falls below zero, and the heavier water pipes are laid on the top of the ground. The chief complaint is of the long nights and the short days. In midwinter the electric lights have to be turned on two or three hours after noon, and it is not daylight until nine o’clock in the morning. In midsummer there are but few hours of real darkness. Up to ten o’clock at night one can go anywhere without lights, and the dawn comes between two and three o’clock in the morning. The winter climate here suits even the Negroes, those children of the tropical sun. I had my shoes shined this morning by a coloured bootblack whose stand is on the main street. He charged me fifteen cents for the shine, and told me that in the interior I shall have to pay not less than a quarter. As he worked I asked him if the winter did not chill his African blood. He replied “no,” adding that the winters here are quite as warm as those of Baltimore, where he was born, and that most of the time he does not need even an overcoat. He has lived four years in Alaska, and has worked as far north as Anchorage, the railroad town on Cook Inlet. He complains that Juneau is a poor place for bootblacks, except in the sum- 72 AT JUNEAU mer. The winters have so much rain that the people go about in oilskins and rubbers and no one wants a shine. I am living at the Hotel Zynda, a concrete five-story building not far from the courthouse and the governor’s residence. It has some rooms with baths and an elevator that runs now and then— usually then. Like most of the Alaska hotels it has no dining room, and I have to walk two or three blocks to the restaurants. The food is excellent and comparatively cheap. As these Alaskans have big appetites, the caterers make their portions gener- ous. One order of chops or steak is sufficient for two people, and a single order of cracked crab is more than one man can eat. The crabs here are as big around as a dinner plate and delicious. The menu is a la carte, and as many of the dishes are given French names as the vocabulary of the restaurant keeper will permit. Among those on the bill of to-day, for instance, were “consomme en cup” and “beefsteak en platter.” The waiters were good-natured girls from Sweden. Many summer visitors, less informed than I was, bring to Alaska a great supply of unnecessary clothing. They load up with furs and overcoats only to find that the interior of the country is roasting and that the children are going about with bare feet. A party which went down the Yukon this season had nothing but heavy woollens along. Their steamer ran aground on one of the islands where they were stranded for five days with the thermometer at ninety degrees in the shade. The same ignorance prevails as to the food of the country. The multimillionaire president of a gold- dredging company of the Klondike brought a load of fresh meats and vegetables with him to Dawson for fear he 73 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND would suffer. When he got there, he found at the hotel everything he had on his ship. They tell a story here of one of the merchants of Cordova, the ocean terminus of the Copper River Rail- road, who ordered some woollen goods from a Minnesota mill through an agent in Seattle. The goods should have arrived within thirty days. Upon their failure to come, the agent wrote the Minnesota firm and received the reply that the order had not been filled, as navigation was already closed and there was no use in making any ship- ment to Alaska at that time of the year. The truth is that Cordova is right on the Pacific Ocean and ships call there every week the year round. A Chicago man recently said to an Alaskan, who was telling stories about his country: “1 can believe every- thing but what you say about the mosquitoes. There can be no mosquitoes in a land where there is so much ice and snow.” Any one who has travelled in Alaska in summer knows that the country abounds in mosquitoes, and that at times it is impossible to go anywhere in the woods unless every bit of one’s skin is protected. Many of our people evidently think that the Klondike belongs to Alaska and that Dawson is one of its cities. This ignorance extends even to some of the government officials at Washington. Not long ago one of the big executives of our Post Office Department sent a letter of censure to the postmaster at Dawson because he had not been submitting his reports to the department at Washington. He told the postmaster that the Dawson office would be closed unless a report was submitted at once. The postmaster replied that Dawson was the capital and chief city of Yukon Territory, and that its reports went 74 AT JUNEAU only to the Canadian Government at Ottawa. The in- cident occasioned great laughter in this part of the world and the Dawson agent thought so much of it that he had the letter framed and hung up in the post office. To give another instance: One of the clerks of our Treasury Department once wrote to an official at Sitka, when that town was the capital, that the Treasury had very few blanks of the kind Sitka had asked for, but that the Alaska official might easily run across to Nome and get some, as Nome had a double supply. Now, Nome is as far from Sitka as New York is distant from Omaha. The only way is by sea, the voyage is as long as from New York to Liverpool, and the steamers go once a month. Few people appreciate the distances in Alaska. By the ordinary summer routes it is from eighteen hundred to two thousand miles from J uneau to Fairbanks. Neverthe- less, a merchant of the latter town told me that he had received a letter from a Boston firm, saying that they had drawn upon him through a banking establishment at Juneau. Another citizen of Fairbanks ordered a well-known dictionary, consisting of ten or eleven volumes, which had been extensively advertised in the magazines. The man sent the money and asked that the books be delivered at Fairbanks. A month or more afterward he received a letter saying that the books had been shipped him from the publishers’ Canadian branch, the company evidently thinking that Fairbanks was in Canada. The result was that the books were held at the international boundary for duty and have not yet been delivered. Another amusing story belongs to the time of the boundary dispute between the United States and Canada. 75 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND When the subject came up in Congress a senator wanted to know “when the Lynn Canal was dug and who dug it.” When it is remembered that the Lynn Canal is one of the great fiords of the North American continent and that it was ploughed out by Nature in the prehistoric past, the fund of information of the questioner can be appreciated. A letter received at Juneau from a Philadelphia firm in response to an order for certain goods to be sent C. O. D. stated that the Philadelphia firm could not send goods C. O. D. to foreign countries. Whatever the degree of ignorance about it “outside,” Alaska is far from lacking in culture. 1 am surprised at the number of college men I run across in Southeastern Alaska. More than half of the professional men are grad- uates of colleges, and J uneau has a thriving university club. The majority are from western institutions, but Yale, Har- vard, Princeton, and Cornell all have their representatives. The graduates of the University of Washington at Seattle came to dinner together on one occasion and thirty-five sat down to the table. The public schools of Juneau are good. The high school has its business branches with courses in public speaking, mechanical drawing, sewing, and cooking. It gives its graduates certificates admitting them to the University of California and other Western colleges. I came here expecting to find a population of men only. The sexes are almost equally divided. Many of the women have come as school teachers, or as clerks or stenog- raphers, and have married. Some of the young men have gone back home for their wives, and the girls who are born here usually stay. The population is not tran- sient, as is often supposed. I meet daily men who have 76 The Governor of Alaska has his official residence at Juneau where the Territorial legislature meets. Administration is seriously hampered by the leagues of red tape extending from a score of government bureaus at Washington four thousand miles away. The streets consist of more than ten miles of planked roadways laid up hill and down. It is planned to replace them with macadam made from the tailings of the gold mines of Douglas and Treadwell. The mills of the Gastineau mines are said to be the largest and most modern gold-crushing plants of the world. The machinery is designed to get the maximum of the gold specks from the rock with the minimum of labour and expense. AT JUNEAU been in Alaska from fifteen to thirty years, and find young men and women who expect to spend their lives here. There is much civic spirit in the town, which believes in municipal ownership. It owns and operates the prin- cipal wharf and it has a fuel depot where it supplies coal to the city. This municipal establishment has at times had a marked effect in keeping down the price of both coal and gasoline as sold by local dealers. The city has also aided in the building of a cold storage plant with a freezing capacity of eighteen thousand pounds a day and storage rooms for fifty thousand pounds of fish. CHAPTER X M TREASURES UNDER THE SEA Y TYPEWRITER is clicking away on the roof of the modern Cave of Aladdin. The rock underneath me has been cut up into tunnels, which wind about in a maze more complicated than the labyrinth of Rosamond’s Bower. Some of the passageways go far out under the ocean and others have been cut for miles through the mountain. Out of them have come treasures far more valuable than those brought by the Slaves of the Lamp, and from them to-day a long procession of genii is continually marching, bringing out fresh gold from the caverns under the hills and the sea. I am speaking of the Treadwell and Alaska-Gastineau mines situated on Douglas Island in the Gastineau Channel and on the mainland opposite. It is these prop- erties which have given to Juneau the name of the Golden Belt City and made for her a place among the gold centres of the world. The rocks in these hills have yielded some- thing like eighty millions of dollars, or more than eleven times what we paid for the entire territory. There are in Alaska two kinds of gold mining — placer mining and quartz mining. In placer mining loose bits of gold, ranging in size from tiny grains to big nuggets, are washed out of gravel or sand, usually in or near the bed of a stream. The gold mining around Fairbanks and 78 TREASURES UNDER THE SEA Nome is of this character. In a quartz mine there are lodes, or veins of hard rock sprinkled with specks of gold, which must be ground to powder before the gold can be ex- tracted by chemical process. Such ores are known as high or low grade, according to the amount of gold recovered from a ton of rock. The mines in the Juneau district, the most important quartz lodes yet found and worked in all Alaska, consist of low-grade ores. Nevertheless, they have produced more than four fifths of all the quartz gold mined in the territory. These Juneau mines are among the most famous gold properties, being the first where paying quantities of gold were separated from such low-grade ore. Much of the ore in the Treadwell group contains less than two dollars’ worth of gold to the ton, and of the millions of tons which have been mined the average has produced only two dollars and forty-two cents per ton. The Gastineau mines are an even lower-grade proposition, the average there being only one dollar and a half per ton. Have you any idea of what gold ore carrying only one dollar and a half a ton means? Gold is worth twenty dollars an ounce, and at that rate a dollar and fifty cents’ worth of gold would equal only about one thirteenth of an ounce. Divide a twenty-dollar gold piece into thirteen parts and no part will be as big as a pea. Neverthe- less, that pea of gold is all that is to be found in one whole ton of this ore. A ton of ore is a cartload for two horses. Grind your pea into the finest powder and put one of the grains of that powder into every bit of rock in the cartload and you have some idea of how the gold is scattered through the rock and how difficult it is to get it all out. 79 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND Or suppose the gold to be salt, and the ore to be water. 1 went to a drug store to-day and weighed out enough salt to just equal the weight of the gold in a ton of this ore. The salt did not fill a teaspoon. But a ton of water would fill a two-hundred-and-fifty-gallon hogshead. Now, if you should drop your spoonful of salt into the hogshead and churn up the water until the salt is thoroughly mixed through it all, you would have just the proportion of gold and rock in some of the mines of which 1 am writing. Think of getting the pea made of gold powder out of the cartload of rock in such a way that half of it will more than pay all the costs, and you have the problem which the operators of the Gastineau mine successfully solved. Obviously, in times of high prices for chemicals, sup- plies, and labour, these mines, like other low-grade prop- erties, cannot be operated at a profit, and are forced to close down until prices drop and the buying power of gold goes up, or until cheaper ways of treating the ore are found. But before I go further let me tell you something of the romance of these properties. Immediately back of me on the side of the mountain is the great Glory Hole, on the site where the first gold was discovered. It is several hundred feet above the Gastineau Channel, and far down the slope of the mountain, the upper portions of which are now covered with snow. The Glory Hole is a mighty ellipse eight hundred feet long, six hundred feet broad, and more than six hundred feet deep. The Washington Monument could be dropped down inside and its aluminum tip would still be fifty feet from the top. It could be laid lengthwise within it and the ends would not touch the sides. The walls of the Glory Hole are of black rock 80 TREASURES UNDER THE SEA streaked with drab and gray, while here and there is a string of white quartz from which comes the gold. As I looked down on it, a great rock slid off the top and went crashing down to the bottom. It was from such rocks that the mine got the name of Glory Hole. Miners were often killed by them and thus transported to Glory. Strange to say, many of the deaths were due to crows, which made the neighbourhood of the Glory Hole their favourite roosting and feeding place. They were so numerous that trumpeters were stationed about the hole to warn the miners of danger in case a flock should light on the edges. The first blast of the trumpet meant, “The crows are now lighting,” and the second warned the miners that the rocks were loosening and would soon be down upon them. A slight pecking of the gravel over- head was liable to start an avalanche that would carry tons of rock down the sides. Even now the Glory Hole is by no means safe. The earth and the rock about it have not yet reached their equilibrium, and slides like those in the Panama Canal sometimes occur. The richest ore of the Treadwell mines was found at the top. Like cream, it seemed to have risen from the low- grade gold-bearing rock underneath. This ore was dis- covered by a Canadian whose nickname was French Pete and whose real name was Pierre Erussard. When Juneau and Harris were making their gold finds on the opposite side of the Gastineau Channel, and beginning to pros- pect Douglas Island, French Pete came along with some Indians. He washed the sands on the beach and found colour. A little later he climbed up the hills to where the Glory Hole is and there discovered an outcrop of gold- 81 ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND bearing quartz upon which he located two claims. He named one claim Paris where he expected to spend the great treasures he had discovered, and called the other Bear’s Nest, because it was in a little cave occupied by a bear and two cubs. French Pete then started mining, but had nothing more than rockers and sluice pots and could crush and wash only the softer parts of the lode. He did not get enough to pay well, and a little later on sold the mine to John Treadwell for the sum of five hun- dred and five dollars to pay a pressing debt. John Treadwell, who had come to Alaska at the instance of some California capitalists, had been prospecting in the Silver Bow basin, back of Juneau, and had found quartz gold in the belt where the Ebner mine now is. But the gold was poor, and he was about to give up in despair and go back to San Francisco when he met Pete and learned of his discovery on Douglas Island. He went to see the claims, but did not think much of them, as the ore seemed to be of too low a grade to pay for the mining. He sug- gested, however, that Pete should give him a quit-claim deed for the two properties for five hundred dollars, and he would try to sell them to the capitalists of San Francisco. Pete had a store, and the understanding was that if the mines were opened the miners would trade at his store. This was an additional consideration, and so for five hundred dollars was sold this property from which have already come more than sixty millions of dollars. The stock was floated in San Francisco and Treadwell got one third of it. The other owners were large capi- talists, among them D. O. Mills, much of whose fortune came from this source. Later on the Rothschilds of Lon- don bought into the property, and to-day the mine is 82 TREASURES UNDER THE SEA owned by the Mills estate, the Rothschilds, and other rich men. From the start the mines were operated with large capital. The first excavations were in the Glory Hole, out of which five million tons of gold-bearing rock have been taken. About fifteen years ago the first under- ground stoping was done, and then began the tunnelling of the earth and the work altogether underground. I can- not tell you just how many miles of underground works there now are, but the mining goes on for a long distance up and down the Gastineau Channel and far out under the ocean. The ore is lifted into great shafthouses, from which it descends by gravity to the mills. The ore bodies dip toward the channel, and some of the tunnels have hundreds of feet of salt water overhead. There are four mines in the Treadwell group— the Treadwell, the Mexican, the Seven Hundred, and the Ready Bullion. The first three suspended operations in 1917 when a cave-in flooded the workings. One month after French Pete made his discovery a handful of prospectors landed on Douglas Island. One of them scooped up a pan of gravel from the foot of what seemed to be an outcropping of a quartz lode and washed it out. When he saw what a find he had made, he ex- claimed, “We have it, boys, almost the ready bullion!” And so was christened the mine which 1 went through yesterday with Mr. Russell G. Wayland, assistant man- ager of the Treadwell properties. We climbed into a five-ton steel bucket as big as a hogs- head and held on to the rim. Then an electric signal was given and we shot down into the darkness. The great bucket wobbled this way and that as we fell. Our 8 } ALASKA— OUR NORTHERN WONDERLAND descent was at an angle of about fifty degrees. We con- tinued at that angle for something like two thousand feet, after which the fall was even more precipitous. At last we stepped out far under the sea. With acetylene lamps we picked our way through the tunnels and stopes. The tunnels were lighted by electricity and each of them had its railroad. We walked between the tracks, stepping now and then to the side, and squeezing ourselves to the wall to let the ore trains pass. These trains were of cars drawn by mules. At one place we passed a mule stable, and I was told the mules were kept down in the mines for several years at a time. Those I saw were fat and not at all vicious. The darkness does not affect their eyesight, as is generally supposed. 1 stopped now and then in the stopes, or great caverns, where the miners were blasting the ore. They use drills operated by compressed air to sink the holes for the dyna- mite, and thus blast out great rooms away down under the water. These stopes are several hundred feet high, and of almost an acre in area. Some of them are filled with gold ore nearly to the roof. Nevertheless, only a slab of rock lies between them and the ocean. Leaving the mines, 1 went through the mills, where they were crushing the mighty masses of rock to powder and saving the small quantities of gold. The red buildings may be seen from the ship’s deck as one rides up the channel. They wall the sides of the hills and as one comes near them a noise like so many blasts of artillery fills the air. Inside the din is furious. You may shout into the ear of the man at your side but you cannot make yourself heard. You cannot even hear your own words. “Niag- ara is a soft hum beside Treadwell,’’ said John Burroughs. 84 9 ' 4 - Kent, Rockwell. “Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska.” London, 1920. Muir, John. “Travels in Alaska.” New York, 191 5. Powell, Addison. “Trailing and Camping in Alaska.” New York. 1909. Scull, E. M. "Hunting in the Arctic and Alaska.” Philadelphia, 1909. Sheldon, Charles. “The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon.” New York, 19 1 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Stephenson, W. B., Jr. “Land of Tomorrow.” New York, 1919. Stuck, Hudson. “Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled.” New York, 1914. “The Ascent of Denali.” New York, 1914. “Voyages on the Yukon and Its Tributaries.” New York, 1917. “A Winter Circuit of Our Arctic Coast.” New York, 1920. Underwood, J. J. “Alaska an ‘Empire in the Making.’ ” New York, 1920. Young, S. H. “Alaska Days with John Muir.” New York, 1915. “Adventure in Alaska.” New York, 1919. The nine departments of the National Government and the twenty-three separate offices or bureaus having duties and controls in Alaska are a prolific source of information on the territory. An exhaustive list of their publications may be had on application to the Superin- tendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The following government documents deserve especial mention: Interior Department: Annual Report of the Governor of Alaska. General Information Regarding Alaska. Geological Survey: Future of Alaska Mining and the Alaskan Mining Industry in 1919, by Alfred H. Brooks and H. V. Martin. Bull. 714. Alaskan Mining Industry in 1920, by Alfred H. Brooks. Bull. 722. Bureau of Fisheries: Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920, by Ward T. Bower. Document No. 909. Pacific Salmon Fisheries, by John N. Cobb. Document No. 902. Department of Agriculture: Annual Report of the Alaska Agri- cultural Experiment Stations. Bureau of American Ethnology: Eskimo about Bering Sea. 1 8th Ethnology Report. 1897. Part 1 . Thlinget Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton. Ethnology Bull. 39. Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic Relationship of the Thlinget Indians. 26th Ethnology Report. 312 INDEX INDEX Agriculture, future of, in Alaska, 60. Akutan Island, whalingstation on,244. Alaska, how named, 40. Alaska Anthracite Railroad, new coal developments of the, 280. Alaska Commercial Company, activi- ties of, 143; fur seal monopoly of, 232. Alaska Engineering Commission, per- sonnel, 272; their work at Anchor- age, 275. Alaska-Gastineau mines, 78. Aleutian Islands, development of the, 239 - All- Alaska Sweepstakes, the, 198. Allan, Scotty, saved by his lead dog, 203. Anchorage, a live railroad town, 273, 274. Anderson, Peter, one of first party to climb Mt. McKinley, 285. Andreafski, fuel oil tank at, for Yukon steamers, 181. Annette Island, Father Duncan’s work with Indians of, 13. Annette Island Reservation of Met- lakahtla Indians, 17. Anvik, Indian settlement on Lower Yukon, 181. Athapascans, and sub tribes, the, 44; visited on the Yukon, 117. Ayer, Fred M., mining engineer and owner of racing dogs, 198, 199. Baker Hot Springs, visit to the, 133. Baldy of Nome, famous sledge dog, 203. Baranof, Russian Governor of Alaska, 33; fur trading stations of, in Cali- fornia, 37; establishes first Russian colony at Kodiak, 37. Basket work, Indian, 104. Beach, Rex, his old home at Rampart, ' 51 - Bear cubs as pets, 12 1. Bears, in many varieties, 267. Belle Island Hot Springs, 133. 3 Beraud, G. E., noted assayer and chemist, 163. Bering, explorations in Alaska waters, 3 6 - Bering Sea, size and climatic condi- tions, 239. Betting on the spring ice-break, 129. Birch, Stephen A., story of discovery of Kennecott copper mines, 290. Boundary, U. S. Signal Corps station at, 119. Brackett, George A., toll-road builder, m. British explorations along coast of Alaska, 36. Broad Pass, a promising mining dis- trict, 278. Brooks, De-Alfred H. estimate of gold output, 1 9 1 ; survey of Mt. McKinley region, 284. Browne, Belmore, attempts to climb Mt. McKinley, 282, 286, 287. Bryntesen, John, gold miner, 191, 192. Burckhardt, C. A., successful garden of, 62. Burial customs, native, 55. Burials, in solid ice, 132. Cadzo, Dan, and his home in the wilderness, 122. Canadian Mounted Police, not ham- pered by red tape, 171. /Canneries, salmon, 2 1 ; process of dressing and canning, 26. Cannibalism among the coast Indians, 14. Carcross, on crest of the Divide, 113. Caribou, abundance of, 264. Cats, necessary in fox farming, 237. Central heating, at Fairbanks, 145. Charitableness in Alaska, 166, 172. Chatanika, mining at, by steam thaw- ing of ice layer, 1 59. Childs Glacier, reached by Copper River Railway, 297. Chilkats, advancement of the, 46. •5 INDEX Circle City, the almost deserted village, 120. Civilization among the Indians, ef- forts for, 47. Climate, variableness of, 1, 10, 43; of Sitka, 32; Aleutian Islands, 66, 243; Juneau, 72; Skagway, 97; White Horse, Yukon Territory, 1 10; Tanana, 125 ; Fairbanks, 1 54; Nome, i89;Seward, 254;.an Alaska woman’s opinion of, 131. Coal fields, development of the, 279. Coast Survey, work in behalf of naviga- tion, 7. Cod fisheries, extent of, 30. Cook, Captain, early explorations along Alaskan coast, 36. Cook, Dr. Frederick, claims to have made ascent of Mt. McKinley, 285. Copper deposits, the story of Kenne- cott, 289. Copper River Railway, the country along the, 296. Cordova on the Copper River Rail- way, 296. Cremation among Indian tribes, 45, 55. Crime, extent of, in Alaska, 172. Cyanide process of gold extraction, 86. Dahlia growing at Skagway, 97. Dairy farming, possibilities in, 65. Davis, General Jefferson C., in command of troops at transfer of Alaska to the United States, 40. Dawson, time of opening and clos- ing of navigation, 129; the gold rush to, hi. Dehn, Judge, U. S. Commissioner at Tanana, on the climate, 125. Deckey, W. A., names Mt. McKinley, 284. Diomede Island, catch of fur sold in Alaska markets, 218. Dog races, the Derby of Alaska, 197. Dogs, the motive power, 197, et seq. Douglas Island, under-sea gold mining at, 78. Duncan, Father William, work with the Indians at Metlakahtla, 13. Dyea, city of, now farm land, 99. Eagle, first American town on the Yukon, 1 19. Edes, W. C., on Alaska Engineering commission, 272. Eldridge, George, explorations on Mt. McKinley, 284. Erwin, L. T., U. S. Marshal at Fair- banks, reminiscences of, 165, 170. Eskimos, customs and progress of the, 214; schools and self-government, 222. Experiment station work, in finding suitable crops, 149. Explorations by Russians, British, and Spaniards, 36. Farming, teaching of, among natives, 49; the promising future, 60; in the Tanana valley, 148. Fairbanks, astonishing growth of, 139; richest of gold-mining districts, 1 56. Fairbanks Experiment Station, suc- cess of, 60, 1 49. Fink, Albert, founder of Nome Kennel Club, 200. Fisheries, extent of, 21. Flowers, wild, of Southeastern Alaska, 61. Forests, extent of, 61. Fort Gibbon, U. S. army post, 124. Fort Yukon, now mainly a fur-trading post, 122. , Fox farming, a growing industry, 236. Fruits, wild, of Southeastern Alaska, 62. Fur seal, habits and range of the, 232. Fur seal industry of the Pribilof Islands, 230. Game, abundance of, on Kenai Pen- insula, 260,263; hunting restrictions, 263. Game preserve of Mt. McKinley Park, 287. Gardening, at Nome, 187. Georgeson, Professor, in charge of Agricultural Experiment work in Alaska, 64. Glaciers, the world’s greatest, 87. Gold, yield from Yukon Basin, 156. Gold mining under the sea, at Douglas Island, 78. Goods for Alaska trade, 144. Gray, Captain, early visit to Alaska, 37. Griggs, Prof. Robert F., discovers “ Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, ” 247 - Grub staking, with good and bad results, 1 58. 3 1 6 INDEX Guggenheim mines, in Iditarod dis- trict, 1 8 1 . Halibut fisheries of Southeastern Alaska, 22, 27. Hay, high price of, in mining regions, 135 - Herring fisheries, extent of, 29. History of Alaska and its purchase by the United States, 32 et seq. Holy Cross Mission, on Lower Yukon, 181. Homestead farming, possibilities of, 66; not recommended, 138. Homesteading under the Arctic Circle, 148. Hot springs, visits to, 133. Hydahs, customs of the, 44; remark- able progress of, 47. Hydraulic mining in glacial ice, 193. Iditarod district, gold mines of the, 181. Indian cemetery at Nulato, 179. Indian tribes, of Alaska, the, 44. Inside Passage, travel through the, 6. Ivory carving of the Eskimos, 219, 220. Jones, Dr. Lester, on troubles of the Aleuts, 243. Juneau, impressions of, 69; as a gold- mining centre 78. Kaltag, trading post on Lower Yukon, 180. Kantishna, mining district of, 278. Karstens, Harry, with Archdeacon Stuck in ascent of Mt. McKinley, 286. Katmai, Mount, explorations of vol- cano on, 247. Kenai Peninsula, horseback trip across, 236. Kennecott copper mines, the story of, 289. Ketchikan, the post of, 5, 8. Kivalina, school republic at, 226. Klukwan Indians, advancement of the, 46, 47. Kodiak, first Russian colony estab- lished at, 37. Kodiak Island, cattle raising on, 245; heavy fall of volcanic ash on, 246. Latouche copper mine, discovery of, 293. Lindbloom, Erik, gold miner, 191, 192. Lindeberg, Jafet, gold miner, sports- man, and capitalist, 191,199, 206. Lloyd, Thomas, one of first party to climb Mt. McKinley, 285. Log Cabin Club, the, at Nome, 186. Lopp, William T., pioneer in reindeer introduction, 209; Chief of Alaskan Division of Bureau of Education, 222. Lord’s Prayer, in Tsimpsean language, 20. McGonogill, Charles, one of first party to climb Mt. McKinley, 285. Mail service, in winter, 132. Maksutoff, Prince, at ceremony of transfer to the United States, 41. Malaspina Glacier, size of, 94; effect of earthquake on, 95. Marriage customs of natives, 53,57. Mastodon and other pre-historic animals, preserved in arctic ice, 12 1,2 19. Matanuska Agricultural Experiment Station, 60. Matanuska coal fields, development of, 273, 274, 279. Mears, Col. Frederick, chairman of Alaska Engineering Commission, 272. Meat and poultry under home “cold storage,” 128 Mendenhall Glacier, reached by auto- mobile, 91 . Metlakahtla, Indian town established by Father Duncan, 13. Miles Glacier, reached by Copper River Railway, 297. Mitchell, Margaret, success in gold mining, 306. Moose, in Kenai Peninsula, 266; in- fluence of rabbits on quantity of moose in a locality, 269. Mosquitoes, prevalence of, 74, 180. Mount Edgecombe, extinct volcano, 33 - Mount McKinley, highest in North America, 42, 281. Mount St. Elias, height of, 42. Mount Verstovia, of the Holy Cross, 33 - Mountain sheep, finest of Alaska game, 260, 266. Mountains of Alaska, 42. 317 INDEX Muir Glacier, movement of, 94. Muldrow, Robert, survey of Mt. McKinley, 284. Nenana coal fields, development of, 278, 279. Noatak, school republic at, 227. Nolan Mine, a cleanup at the, 160. Nome, the City of Golden Sands, 183 Northern Commercial Company, activities of, 143. Nulato, Indian cemetery at, 179. Old timers, tales of the, 169. Panhandle, the, or Southeastern Alaska, 5. Perez, Juan, Spanish explorations of, 36. Photography under the midnight sun, 122. Pinnacle rocks, charting of by Coast and Geodetic Survey, 7. Point Barrow, industrial school for Eskimos, 227. Polygamy formerly prevalent among natives, 57. Potatoes, good crops in the Tanana valley, 1 50. Poultry keeping, difficulties and re- wards, 126. Pribilof Islands, fur seal industry of the, 230; government fox farms on, 236. Protective coloration of Arctic game animals and birds, 269. Pullen, Mrs. Harriet, hotel of, at Skagway, 98; makes good in Alaska, 304. Pup-mobile, the dog car railroad, 137, ' 97 - Rabbits, abundance of, 269. Railroad, government, the biggest thing in Alaska, 271. Rainfall, excessive, at Ketchikan, 9; in Southeastern Alaska, 110; scanty at Fairbanks, 154; excessive, at Unalaska, 243. Rampart Agricultural Experiment Station, 60, 150, 151. Raven, legend of the, 56. Red tape, U. S. Marshal’s difficulties with, 171. Reindeer, for native meat supply and shipment to the States, 3, 205, et seq. Resurrection Bay, early history, 255. Reyburn, D. L., survey of Mt. Mc- Kinley region, 284. Rhoads-Hall mine, discovery of the, 162. Riggs, Thomas, Jr., on Alaska Engin- eering Commission, 272, 277. Rousseau, General, at ceremony of transfer to the United States, 41. Ruby, mining town on the Lower Yukon, 178. Russian occupation of Alaska, 32 et seq. Salmon, abundance of, 12; spawning habits of, 25. Salmon fisheries of Southeastern Alaska, 21. Schofield, G. D., owner of farm sub- irrigated by hot springs, 136. School republics of the Eskimo, 222. Seal, fur, habits and range of the, 232. Seal industry of the Pribilof Islands, 230. Seward, City of, situation and develop- ment, 250. Seward, William H, as Secretary of State negotiates purchase of Alaska, 39 - Seward, Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion, 60. Sheldon, Charles, explorations of Mt. McKinley region, 283, 288. Sitka, history, climate, and location, 32 . Sitka Agricultural Experiment Station, 60, 63. Skagway, gate to the Klondike, 96; “Flower City of Alaska,” 97. Slavery, among the natives, 57. Smith, Jack, with Clarence Warner discovers Kennecott copper deposits, 291. Smith, "Soapy,” career at Skagway, 10 1 . Southeastern Alaska, the Panhandle, 5 - Spanish explorations along coast of Alaska, 36. Steam thawing of ice, in prospecting for gold, 158. Still, crude, used by Eskimos for mak- ing alcohol, 224. 3.8 INDEX StoeckI, Baron, Russian ambassador, negotiates sale of Alaska to the United States, 39. Strawberries, success with, at Sitka, 63. Strong, H. C., success with raspberries at Ketchikan, 9. Stuck, Archdeacon, first climbs highest peak of Mt. McKinley, 286. Sumner, Charles, suggests name Alaska for the new territory, 40. Taku Glacier, movement of, 88. Tanana, the hub of Alaska, 124. Tanana River, heavy with silt, 137; agricultural land along the, 138, 139. Tanana valley, farming in the, 148. Taylor, William, one of first party to climb Mt. McKinley, 285. Tenakee Hot Springs, 133. Terrill, Monte, an old timer, 169. Thlingets, and sub tribes, 44 et seq.; legends of the Creation and the Flood, 56. Totem poles, and their meaning, 52. Trade of Alaska, importance of, 147. Treadwell mines, 78. Tsimpsean Indians, Father Duncan’s work with, 13. Tuberculosis, extent of, among natives, 49 - Turkeys, driven in overland, 167. Unalaska, excessive rainfall at, 243. Unimak Island, active volcanoes on, 241; largest of the Aleutian group, 242. “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes/' discovery of, 247. Vegetables, production of, 3; raised by aid of hot springs, 134, 136; home gardens at Fairbanks, 142; in Tan- ana valley, 150; gardens along the Lower Yukon, 178. Volcanic ash deposit on Kodiak Is- land, 246. Volcanoes, of the Aleutian Islands, 241. Wainwright, Eskimo school republic at, 225. Walrus, more than a match for the polar bear, 268. Warner, Clarence, with Jack Smith discovers Kennecott copper de- posits, 291 . Weber, F. J., dahlia gardens of, at Skagway, 97. Western Union Telegraph Company, early explorations, 39. Whale meat, palatable and nutritious, 244 - Whaling industry, extent of, 244. White, Elmer J., American consul at White Horse, 112. White, Miss Martha, first white child born in Alaska, 303. White, Mrs., first white woman to establish a home in Alaska, 303. White Pass Railway, construction of the, 106. Wickersham, James, first attempt to climb Mt. McKinley, 284. Wild flowers of Southeastern Alaska, 61 . Willow Creek, mining town, 278. Women, position of among the natives, 54 - Women of Alaska, the, 302. Women’s Clubs of Alaska, 308. Wood carving, Indian, 104. Wood pulp, timber suitable for, 61. Yak, Tibetan, introduction of, 246. Yukon Flats, impression of the, 115. Yukon River, navigation on, 129, 178. 359 n \j 4<% ™ ij^ 5 1 8 ' ^ Junl4*361 J|H g 8f - I — -j£iiS 1 N IV- WAP $ 4 > A_/ yy — JSffrW ;v li- ' 9 * * -JO rf MAY 2JT4?| ■t Lim - 1 | T .i', ' • '|£/ ; j '■^Gu o '- ' :■ : - 1 * I %22*»1 'M ^ | . — Library Bureau Cat. no. 1137 1 * 917.98 C295A 73636