CHAPTER XVI.

NEW ALASKA

GENERAL REVIEW OF CLIMATE-RIVERS AND LAKES -DYING GLACIERS-AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES-MINERAL WEALTH - CIVIL GOVERNMENT — ALASKA'S FUTURE.

In an historical work published but a few years ago, it was proclaimed among other similar things that "Alaska, the unorganized Northwestern Territory of the United States, is desolate and cold to the last degree and can never become very populous, or of any economic value, until the plane of the ecliptic changes, and what is now an Arc

tic climate becomes torrid or at least temperate."

Such a description of the vast territory and its vaster possibilities, reckless as it is, fairly illustrates

the treatment accorded Alaska by writers and speakers since the day she came into the possession of the United States unto the present time.

The author of the words quoted, like many others, in the absence of information, drew the materials for his statements and predictions from unadvised and prejudiced political speeches, and from the reports of explorers who sailed along our coast and then wrote books as unreal and misty as the hills and mountain ranges they seemed to see. In assigning Alaska forever to hopeless inertness and solitude, he was not aware of the premonitory signs of life that were even then manifest. For hundreds of years neglected, and apparently in the icy grasp of death, Alaska has only been sleeping. It has needed but the kiss of civilization to make the tingling blood of progress and development leap along her arteries and veins and to cause her to awaken in her true character of a resourceful, helpful, even kindly Queen of the North.

So the historian, whatever favor in other respects he may have found or merited, as a prophet of Alaska's future will be without honor in his country, and deservedly so. The plane of the ecliptic, for all practical purposes, continues as before; the Arctic climate has not become torrid or even temperate; yet this unorganized territory of the far north is rapidly becoming populous, and its great economic value has already been conclusively proved to the world.

Through the efforts of William H. Seward, Secretary of State in the administration of President Johnson, reinforced with the earnest and appreciative genius and eloquence of Senator Charles Sumner, the terins of the purchase of Alaska from Russia were agreed upon March 30, 1867, and ratified by Congress on June 20th of the same year, and on the 18th of the fol

lowing October the formal transfer of the country was made. Since then, or during the years 1871 to 1900 inclusive, Alaska has returned to the United States treasury from the seal island leases alone $7,607,820.02, and she has paid in profits to the government beneficiaries of these islands approximately $60,000,000. Her immense fisheries and fur trade have made. many princely millionaires these two industries

yielding within the period of time mentioned over $100,000,000. Her forests and gold mines have yielded $40,000,000 more, making a grand total of over two hundred million dollars which "desolate and cold" Alaska has contributed to the wealth of the world during the last thirty years.

The famous Treadwell gold mine on Douglas Island has alone produced more gold than was paid by the United States for the whole of Alaska, and the small

Pribilof Islands are estimated to be worth under proper management $1,000,000 annually to the government.

Its

The Area of Alaska, as nearly as can be measured from the latest and best map yet issued by the government, is 590,884 square miles, or 378,165,760 acres. This area is greater than the combined area of the thirteen original states with California added; twice the size of Texas with Ohio and Indiana included; or nearly six times as large as the big state of Colorado. In other words, the area of Alaska is more than one-sixth that of all the rest of the states and territories. extreme length from north to south is 1,100 miles, and its extreme breadth from east to west is 800 miles. It has a coast line, including the islands, of 31,205 square miles, "greater than the coast line of all the rest of the United States.". The Aleutian chain of islands, celebrated in song and story, reaches out into the Pacific Ocean for a distance of 1,500 miles. The Alexander Archipelago, consisting of 1,100 islands, skirts the southerly portion of the territory, where the enormous moving glaciers are found.

The Climate of Alaska is not so rigid, not so "desolate and cold" as those in the States imagine. The writer has experienced greater cold among the hills of northwestern Pennsylvania than he ever has in Alaska, and he has wintered, too, far north of the Arctic Circle.

There has been considerable nonsense written about the Arctic region by Arctic explorers for revenue only, but the climax of exaggeration is always reached by these explorators when they come to speak about the weather. For this reason the climate of Alaska is the one thing above all others which the people of the States generally do not understand, and it is difficult for the average person who has never spent a winter

in the region to get a clear understanding of the climatic conditions as they exist here. One thing, however, we must bear in mind when we come to consider the climatic conditions of a place, and that is, that latitude is not the only cause which modifies the temperature of the air, and it is this important matter that so many people apparently overlook. Science, however, has demonstrated that it is possible for certain physical conditions to exist whereby 40 degrees below zero in one latitude is not as cold as 20 degrees below would be in another, and these figures might be changed to 50 and 10 respectively without exaggeration.

People who have visited North Dakota in the winter have experienced very cold weather as registered by the thermometer. Even here it is frequently from 40 to 50 degrees below zero. But even the casual visitor will say that he did not feel the cold in the Dakotas with the thermometer at this low point any more than he would 10 or 15 degrees below in Ohio or Pennsylvania. The reason of this is the differing conditions of the atmosphere in the different localities. In the Dakotas, as in Alaska, the atmosphere is dryer and in the middle states it is more humid. Where the latter condition exists, one feels the cold more, but less keenly where the former condition prevails. With the various causes that influence not only the temperature, but its effect on man, it is obviously a mistake to assume that any part of a country must be in any degree uninhabitable merely because it lies in high latitude.

We are told by recognized authority on this subject that the lowering of the temperature produced by latitude is small and that the height of a place has much more influence than the latitude. The latitude, the height above sea level, the direction of the winds, the proximity of the seas and of the ocean currents and