| Show 7 7 STEWARDS PURCHASE alaska its climate and its people as seen been by a niril naval Of floer I 1 I 1 dr herbert W Yern demana sins late passed assistant surgeon united stales marine hospital service has been absent from detroit about five years y ears eny says the free fre prem and during dury most ot of that time has bits been on the alaska elation station having passed one year in sitka made two cruises ou on the revenue cutter corwin go ing through bearings Beh rings straits nearly as fur far north as where the J jeannette ean nette was lost and visiting point barrow the northernmost of the united state possessions he ile also cruised along the entire e coast and the islands which fol form the in most ost valuable portion of tho territory as far as is now known when in the arctic ocean the cor corbia gl 11 was caught in the ico ice just aa as the jeannette was and only escaped capel destruction de by a mere inere chance jn in fact so little likelihood was there of escape that all preparations were ma malle me to abandon the chip ship I 1 the reason for making these theve ex northerly trips wa was to licitr trading by whalers chalers wh alers this trading being the sup supplying plying the i native alaskans with the vile vilest it hinda linda of liquor the whalers go to the sandwich islands buy honolulu rum which is an abominable liquor and bring it up to ibis this coast with them one of these native natives w will ill trade himself for liquor and the practice of the tho whalers wa was to give i a bottle of rum costing 50 cents for worth of whalebone on st lawrence inland island in the autumn I 1 of 1879 there were twenty five hundred natives who procured from the whalers a large quantity of rum As L aou as they got gut it according to their custom they stupefied fied them selves with it and kept themselves iu in that condition until it was all gono gone by that time the fishi fishing ida season was over and they had no provisions the ime ia in so beav heavy y as to keep away the walrus and seal and when spring came canie there were lees less than three hundred of the n natives alive the rest of them having starved to death on a smaller island here there was in the autula autumn a population of only eleven were round al aliye iye to 10 stop this wholesale murder of the natives by the illicito illi cite traders the carwin was ent sent north the whaling vessels were boarded and whenever auy any of this trading rum was found the heads of the barrel 8 were knocked out and the liquor thrown into the sea dr in answer to a question as to whether the impress impressions us of tui niner tourists relative to 01 ol alaska were correct said that people who 0 only i go as far nort north h as sitka have seen nothing of its climate p people eople and peculiarities sitka is in the latitude of edinburgh scotland and is so warm that during the year be spent there it froze only t twenty I 1 two nig nights lits this extreme warmth is caused by tha the influence of the japan cu current aren t As far north as sitka the islands along the coast together with the coast are heavily timbered with spruce pine ho hemlock and NY what hat is called alaska cedar mineral has been found upon many of them il a everal coal deposit deposits of not very good quality but which will be of great value aleo also have been discovered while upon douglas island near juno city which is about t fifteen miles long by three or four broad and inhabited by a tribe called Kli Klin ngit gits is the largest gold mine in the world the fish the calire coast aud and the aleutian islands are be yond description ai as to kind and quality and the banks blinks of newfoundland found idland land bear no kind of co comparison P arin ison to this region there are cod salmon halibut of immense immens e s size i il e a kind called the dandle fish w which h i ch the natives catch and dry setting fire to the tail burn it aa they would a candle there is an infinite variety of other kinds of tub fish the supply I 1 is inexhaustible and the val U beof the fisheries is beyond computation the ealmon are of rare quality and are found fonn d way u up P in the aret arctic 0 ocean where at the mouth of every river and freshwater fresh water inlet the king sal amonso I monso called on account of their eize which will average fifty pounds each are caught with the greatest ease case this king salmon is a fine C eating fish firm and of good texture and easily canned and can aeries are being established at desirable points at the mouth of the river which is seven miles M iles broad there is a cannery which employs seventy five and which ia is supplied by nets which are set lie more than one hundred yards frera from shore to fish out this river or control the salmon 13 is an impossibility the supply sup V y cannot be Fx exhausted bausted the ie a of equal size and hae has equal fishing advantages and there is also the same opportunity in the yukon river there ia is mineral upon ithe the aleutian islands but their great value will be as fishing stations for there is no doubt that here is the great fishery of the world whales are plenty and about thirty y w whaling bal ing vessels go up to catch them each season tho the vessels average ten whales each each whale beav being worth from to they are hunted for the ibal whalebone ebone only and the oil is only taken to pay expenses with the seal 1 islands four in number are under the control of tho the alaska commercial company who pay an annual rental to the united states of and aud a it royalty on every seal 1 they catch of gf 1 their annual catch being limited to so that their rental is which is more tt 0 an the tha interest on tha th paid for tho the entire ter dr says that the to its lease and that under its protecting care the number of sea fri 1 4 s is is constantly increasing while if the seal sial fiah fisheries eries were thrown open the geals seals would soon be exterminated the seals come out of water in june I 1 and tho the males are then fat and elick slick but for three months ho lie does not go back into tho the water again and eats noth nothing ia g the males fight fiercely together r and when at the end of three months they go back into the water they are so thin as to be almost skeletons and are covered with scare scars the hunt ere ers kill none but what are kno known wn as s bachelor seas and thus the r race ace u preserved the rhe greatcoat great cost of the ekin skin ie is the transportation to london a and 0 d the dyeing of it there there is no direct communication with tho the seal islands and sitka and they are there therefore fore practically nea nearer san francisco than the mainland of alaska as s all letters and other articles passing between the two places go by way of san francisco before the commercial company assumed control the natives were squalid 9 i filthy and lived in huts buts which mch tw were ere partially excavated in the soil the portion above ground being built of driftwood and such other material as they could collect now they live in neat one story cottages cotts built for them by the company but which on account of the liberal compensation they are fire allowed they are enabled to furnish and do furnish very comfortably they have free schools live on seal sea i meat and fiali fiall do nothing but kill seals and for this average a year income income in the way of provisions they have nothing to buy but flour and they lay up some money banking it with the company and receiving 4 per cent interest on it th they a e y are however fond of fine clot clothes h e s and jewelry and are extravagant in that way wearing geld gold watches and bending sending to london for broadcloths and velvets velvety vel vets and yet said the doctor 1 I have seen them pack packing dg r sealskins while wearing these high priced articles on the mahi mainland laud miners leaving the coast and CO crossing g the range reach a part of the yukon u kou river where hr some of them are taking out a day in coarse gold b but I 1 everything they eat cat and every everything tb lug the they have is packed picked over the mountains at a cost of 81 a pound their expenses are enormous and the semo season only last three months in northern alaska in sinking a shaft to tho the depth of seventy five feet it was found that the gron ground I 1 d was kaill frozen coolid when men the summer cornea comes the sun shines almost continuously and the temperature is very high hi 9 hl the surface of the ground thans to the depth of several feet but the water does not run runoff off the ground thus becoming a sort of swamp or bog covered by an excessive growth of grasses lichen lic bent mosses mossea and anti field flower flowers robins thrushes sea birds iu in fact fa ct all birds that are of migratory habits go there and of course in the sea son the shooting is splendid eplen did dr aid said that he had been on both sides of behlings Be Beh brings rings straits traits and that the Esqui maux both in alaska and in siberia both men and women were above instead of below average size strong healthy and well formed they are uniformly y friendly to the whites and a person is is 0 as safe among them as he would be in the streets of if detroit in siberia they have no money and trading is the th erule rule the reindeer being the standard of value the deer are as tame as dogs are herded like catt cattle le and one man can take care of twelve or fifteen hundred as they will follow wherever he lie leads leada they are raised for their flesh and hides bides alaska of all the territories ie is alone denied representation in con gress and what is worse there is practically 11 no civil law there the 9 united cited states land laws do not apply there and there is but one way of obtaining valid title to property and that is by purchase from some one who holds a good russian title to obtain government lands there is but one way and that is under the mining laws which give a possessory title ony enythe the bolder holder only retaining title as long aa as he doca does a certain amount of work on the claim each year |
