Lütke. According to him the pines and firs which he calls "magnificent" constitute an untried source of commercial wealth. Not only California, but other countries poor in trees, like Mexico, the Sandwich islands, and even Chili will need them. And yet he does not conceal an unfavorable judgment of the timber, which as seen in the houses of Sitka, suffering from constant moisture, did not seem to be durable. (Voyage, Tom. 1, pp. 105, 151.) Sir Edward Belcher differs from the Russian admiral, for he praises especially the timber of "the higher latitudes, either for spars or plank." (Voyage, vol. 1, p. 300.) Perhaps its durability may depend upon the climate where it is used, so that the timber of this region may be lasting enough when transported to another climate. In the rarity of trees on the islands and mainland of the Pacific the natural supply is in Russian America. One of the early navigators even imagined that China must look this way, and he expected that "the woods would yield a handsome revenue when the Russian commerce with China should be established." American commerce with China is established. Perhaps timber may become one of its staples. A profitable commerce in timber has already begun at Puget sound. By the official returns of 1866 it appears that it was exported to a long list of foreign countries and places, in which I find Victoria, Honolulu, Callao, Tahiti, Canton, Valparaiso, Adelaide, Hong Kong, Sydney, Montevideo, London, Melbourne, Shanghae, Peru, Coquimbo, Calcutta, Hilo, Cape Town, Cork, Guaymas, and Siam; and that in this commerce were employed no less than eighteen ships, thirty barks, four brigs,|| twenty-eight schooners, and ten steamers. The value of the lumber and spars exported abroad was over half a million dollars, while more than four times that amount was shipped coastwise. But the coasts of Russian America are darker with trees than those further south. The pines in which they abound do not flourish as low down as Puget sound. Northward, they are numerous and easily accessible.

In our day the Flora of the coast has been explored with care. Kittlitz, who saw it as a naturalist, portrays it with the enthusiasm of an early navigator; but he speaks with knowledge. He, too, dwells on the "surprising power and luxuriance" of the pine forests,|| describing them with critical skill. The trees which he identifies are the Pinus Canadensis, distinguished for its delicate foliage; the Pinus Mertensiana, a new species, rival of the other in height; and Pinus Palustris, growing in swampy declivities, and not attaining height. In the clearings or on the outskirts of thickets are shrubs, being chiefly a species of Rubus, with flowers of carmine and aromatic fruit. About and over all are mosses and lichens invigorated by the constant moisture, while colossal trees, undermined or uprooted, crowd the surface, reminding the scientific observer of the accumulations of the coal measures. Two different prints in the London reproduc

tion of the work of Kittlitz present pictures

beauty and instruction. I refer to these and also to the Essay of Hinds on the Regions of Vegetation, the latter to be found at the end of the volumes containing Belcher's Voyage.

In turning from the vegetable products of this region, it will not be out of place if I refer for one moment to its domestic animals, for these are necessarily associated with such products. Some time ago it was stated that cattle had not flourished at Sitka owing to the want of proper pasturage and the difficulty of making hay in a climate of such moisture. Hogs are more easily sustained, but feeding on fish, instead of vegetable products, their flesh acquires a fishy taste, which does not recommend it. Nor has there been greater success with poultry, for this becomes the prey of the crow, whose voracity here is absolutely fabulous. A Koloschian tribe traces its origin to this bird, which in this neighborhood might be a fit progenitor. Not content with swooping upon hens and chickens it descends upon hogs to nibble at their tails, and so successfully that the hogs here are without tails," and then it scours the streets so well that it is called the scavenger of Sitka. But there are other places more favored. The grass at Kodiak is well suited to cattle, and it is supposed that sheep would thrive there. The grass at Ounalaska is famous, and Cook thought the climate good for cattle, of which we have at least one illustration. Langsdorf reports that "a cow grazed there luxuriously for several years, and then was lost in the mountains.' That grazing animal is a good witness. Perhaps also it is typical of the peaceful inhabitants.

Mineral Products.

66

V. In considering the Mineral Products I shall first ask attention to such indications as are afforded by the early navigators. They were not geologists. Indeed, geology was at that time unknown. They saw only what was exposed. And yet during the long interval that has elapsed not very much has been added to their conclusions. The existence of iron is hardly less uncertain now than then. existence of copper is hardly more certain now than then. Gold, which is so often a dangerous ignis fatuus, did not appear to deceive them. But coal, which is much more desirable than gold, was reported by several, and once at least with reasonable certainty.

The

The boat that landed from Behring, when he discovered the coast, found among other things "a whetstone on which it appeared that copper knives had been sharpened. This was the first sign of that mineral wealth which already excites such an interest. At another point where Behring landed "one of the Americans had a knife hanging by his side, of which his people took notice on account of its unusual make." It has been supposed that this knife was of iron. Next came Cook, who, when in Prince William sound, saw "copper

an

and iron." In his judgment the iron came through the intervention of Indian tribes from Hudson bay or the settlements on the Canadian lakes, and his editor refers in a note to the knife seen by Behring as coming from the same quarter; but Cook thought that the copper was obtained near at home, as the natives, when engaged in barter, gave the idea "that having so much of this metal of their own they wanted no more. Naturally enough, for they were not far from the Copper river. Maurelle, the French officer in the service of Spain, landed, in sight of Mount St. Elias in 1779, and he reports Indians with arrow-heads of copper, "which made the Spaniards suspect mines of this metal there." La Pérouse, who was also in this neighborhood, after mentioning that the naturalists of the expedition allowed no rock or stone to escape observation, reports ochre, schist, mica, very pure quartz, granite, pyrites of copper, plumbago, and coal, and then adds that some things announce that the mountains contain mines of iron and copper. He reports further that the natives had daggers of iron and sometimes of red copper; that the latter metal was common enough with them, serving for ornaments and for the points of their arrows; and he then states the very question of Cook with regard to the way in which they acquired these metals. He insists that "the natives know how to forge iron and work copper." Spears and arrows "pointed with bone or iron," and also iron dagger" for each man, appear in Vancouver's account of the natives on the parallel of 54° 59', just within the southern limits of Russian America. Lisiansky also saw at Sitka "a thin plate of virgin copper," found on Copper river, three feet in length and at one end twenty inches in breadth, with figures painted on its sides, which had come from the possession of the natives. Meares reports 66 pure malleable lumps of copper in the possession of the natives,' sometimes weighing as much as a pound, also necklaces, all obtained in barter with other natives further north. Portlock, while in Cook's inlet, in latitude 59° 26', at a place called Graham's harbor, makes another discovery. Walking round the bay he saw "two veins of Kennel coal just above the beach, and with very little trouble several pieces were got out of the bank nearly as large as a man's hand." If the good captain did not report more than he saw this would be most important, for from the time when the amusing biographer of Lord Keeper North described that clean flaky coal which he calls "candle," because often used for its light, but which is generally called Kennel, no coal has been more of a household favorite. He reports further that "returning on board in the evening he tried some of the coal, and found it to burn clear and well." Add to these different reports the general testimony of Meares, who, when dwelling on the resources of this country, boldly includes "mines which are known to be between the latitudes of 40° and 60° north, and which may

|

hereafter prove a most valuable source of commerce between America and China."

It is especially when we seek to estimate the mineral products that we feel the want of careful explorations. We know more of the roving aborigines than of these stationary citizens of the soil. We know more of the trees. A tree is conspicuous. A mineral is hidden in the earth, to be found by chance or science. Thus far it seems as if chance only had ruled. The Russian Government handed over the country to a trading company, whose exclusive interest was furs. The company only followed its business when it looked to wild beasts with rich skins rather than to the soil. Its mines were above ground, and not below. There were also essential difficulties in the way of any explorations. The interior was practically inaccessible. The thick forest, saturated with rain and overgrown with wet mosses, presented obstacles which nothing but enlightened enterprise could overcome. Even at a short distance from the port of Sitka all effort had failed, and the inner recesses of the island, only thirty miles broad, were never penetrated.

The late Professor Henry D. Rogers, in his admirable paper on the Physical Features of America, being a part of his contribution to Keith Johnston's Atlas, full of knowledge and of fine generalization, says of this northwest belt of country that it is "little known in its topography to any but the roving Indians and the thinly-scattered fur-trappers." But there are certain general features which he proceeds to designate. According to him it belongs to what is known as the tertiary period of geology, intervening between the cretaceous period and that now in progress, but including also granite, gneiss, and ancient metamorphic rocks. It is not known if the true coal measures prevail in any part, although there is reason to believe that they may exist on the coast of the Arctic ocean between Cape Lisburne and Point Barrow.

Beginning at the south we have Sitka and its associate islands, composed chiefly of volcanic rocks, with limestone near. Little is known even of the coast between Sitka and Mount St. Elias, which, itself a volcano, is the beginning of a volcanic region occupying the peninsula of Alaska and the Aleutian islands, and having no less than thirty volcanoes, some extinct, but others still active. Most of the rocks here are volcanic, and the only fossiliferous beds are of the tertiary period. North of Alaska, and near the mouth of the Kwichpak, the coast seems to be volcanic or metamorphic, and probably tertiary, with a vein of lignite near the head of Norton's sound. At the head of Kotzebue's sound the cliffs abound in the bones of elephants and other extinct mammals, together with those of the musk ox and animals now living in the same latitude. From Kotzebue's sound northward the coast has a volcanic character. Then at Cape Thompson it is called sub-carboniferous, followed by rocks of the carboniferous age, being limestones, shales, and sandstones, which extend

from Cape Lisburne far round to Point Barrow. At Cape Beaufort, very near the seventieth parallel of latitude, and north of the Arctic Circle, on a high ridge a quarter of a mile from the beach is a seam of coal, which appears to be of the true coal measures.

From this general outline, which leaves much in uncertainty, I come now to what is more important.

It is not entirely certain that Iron has been found in this region, although frequently reported. The evidence points to the south, and also to the north. Near Sitka it was reported by the Russian engineer Doroschin, although it does not appear that anything has been done to verify his report. A visitor there as late as last year saw excellent iron, reported to be from a bed in the neighborhood, which was said to be inexhaustible, and with abundant wood for its reduction. Then again on Kotzebue's sound specimens have been collected. At 66° 35' Kotzebue found a false return in his calculations, which he attributes to the disturbing influence of "iron." A resident on the Youkon thinks that there is iron in that neighborhood.

Silver also has been reported at Sitka by the same Russian engineer who reported iron there; and, like the iron, in "sufficient quantity | to pay for the working."

Lead was reported by the Russian explorer, Lieutenant Zagoyskin, on the lower part of the Kwichpak; but it is not known to what

extent it exists.

Copper is found on the banks of the Copper river, called by the natives Mjednaja, meaning copper, and of its affluent, the Tshitachitna, in masses sometimes as large as forty pounds. Of this there can be little doubt. It is mentioned by Golowin in the Archiv of Erman as late as 1863. It was undoubtedly from this neighborhood that the copper was obtained which arrested the attention of the early navigators. Traces of copper are also found in other places on the coast; also in the mountains near the Youkon, where the Indians use it for arrow-heads.

Coal seems to exist all along the coast; according to Golowin "everywhere in greater or less abundance." Traces of it are reported on the islands of the Sitkan archipelago, and this is extremely probable, for it has been worked successfully on Vancouver's island below. It is also found on the Kenaian peninsula, Alaska, the island of Unga, belonging to the Shumagin group, Ounalaska, and far to the north at Beaufort. At the latter place it is "slaty, burning with a pure flame and rapid consumption," and it is supposed that there are extensive beds in the neighborhood better in quality. For an account of this coal I refer to the scientific illustrations of Beechey's Voyage. The natives also report coal in the interior on the Kwichpak. The coal of Ounalaska and probably of Alaska is tertiary and not adapted for steamers. With regard to that of Unga scientific authorities are divided. That

of the Kenaian peninsula is the best and the most extensive. It is found on the eastern side of Cook's inlet, half way between Cape Anchor and the Russian settlement of St. Nicholas, in veins three quarters of a yard or more in thickness, and ranging in quality from mere carboniferous wood to anthracite. According to one authority these coal veins extend and spread themselves far in the interior. It appears that this coal has been more than once sent to California for trial, and that it was there pronounced a good article. Since then it has been mined by the company, not only for their own uses, but also for export to California. In making these statements I rely particularly upon Golowin in the Archiv of Erman, and also upon the elaborate work of Grewingk, in the Transactions of the Mineralogical Society of Peters. burg for 1848 and 1849, (p. 112,) where will be found a special map of the Kenaian peninsula.

Gold is less important than coal, but its discovery produces more excitement. The report of gold in any quarter stimulates the emigrant or the adventurer who hopes to obtain riches swiftly. Nor is this distant region without such experience. Only a few years ago the British colony of Victoria was aroused by a rumor of gold in the mountains of the Stikine river, not far in the interior from Sitka. At once there was a race that way, and the solitudes of this river were penetrated by hunters in quest of the glittering ore. Discomfiture ensued. Gold had been found, but not in any sufficient quantities reasonably accessible. Nature for the present set up obstacles. But failure in one place will be no discouragement in another, especially as there is reason to believe that the mountains here contain a continuation of those auriferous deposits which have become so famous further south. The Sierra Nevada chain of California reaches here.

Traces of gold have been observed at other points. One report places a deposit not far from Sitka. The same writer, who reports iron there, also reports that during the last year he saw a piece of gold as large as a marble, which was shown by an Indian. But the Russian engineer, Doroschin, furnishes testimony more precise. He reports gold in at least three different localities, each of considerable extent. The first is the mountain range on the north of Cook's inlet and extending into Alaska, consisting principally of clay slate with per meating veins of Diorite, the latter being known as a gold-bearing rock. He observed this in the summer of 1851, About the same time certain Indians from the Bay of Jakutat, not far from Mount St. Elias, brought him speci mens of Diorite found in their neighborhood, making, therefore, a second deposit. In the summer of 1855 the same engineer found gold on the southern side of Cook's inlet, in the mountains of the Kenay peninsula. Satisfying himself, first, that the bank occupied by the redoubt of St. Nicholas, at the mouth of the Kaknu river, is gold-bearing, he was induced to

follow the development of Diorite in the upper valley of the river, and as he ascended found a gold-bearing alluvion gradually increasing, with scales of gold becoming coarser and coarser, instead of being scarcely visible as at first. It does not appear that the discoveries on Cook's inlet were pursued; but it is reported that the Hudson Bay Company, holding the country about the Bay of Jakutat under a lease from the Russian company, have found the Diorite in that neighborhood valuable. This incident has given rise to a recent controversy. Russian journals attacked the engineer for remissness in not exploring the Jakutat country. He has defended himself by setting out what he actually did in the way of discovery, and the essential difficulty at the time in doing more; all which will be found in a number just received of the work to which I have so often referred, the Archiv von Russland by Erman for 1866, volume 25, page 229.

Thus much for the mineral resources of this new-found country as they have been recognized at a few points on the extensive coast, leaving the vast unknown interior without a word.

Furs.

VI. I pass now to Furs, which at times have vied with minerals in value, although the supply is more limited and less permanent. Trappers are "miners" of the forest, seeking furs as others seek gold. The parallel continues also in the greed and oppression unhappily incident to the pursuit. A Russian officer who was one of the early visitors to this coast remarks that to his mind the only prospect of relief for the suffering natives "consists in the total extirpation of the animals of the chase,'" which he thought from the daily havoc must take place in a very few years. This was at the close of the last century. The trade still continues, though essentially diminished, an important branch of commerce.

Early in this commerce desirable furs were obtained in barter for a trifle, and when something of value was exchanged it was much out of proportion to the furs. This has been the case generally in dealing with the natives, until their eyes have been slowly opened. In Kamtschatka, at the beginning of the last century, half a dozen sables were obtained in exchange for a knife, and a dozen for a hatchet; and the Kamtschatkadales wondered that their Cossack conquerors were willing to pay so largely for what seemed worth so little. Similar incidents on the northwest coast are reported by the early navigators. Cook mentions that in exchange for "beads" the Indians at Prince William sound" gave whatever they had, even their fine sea otter skins," which they prized no more than other skins, until it appeared how much they were prized by their visitors. Where there was no competition prices rose slowly, and many years after Cook the Russians at Kodiak, "in return for trinkets and tobacco," received twelve sea otter skins and fox skins of different kinds to the number of

near six hundred. These instances will show in a general way the spirit of this trade even to our own day. On the coast, and especially in the neighborhood of the factories, the difference in the value of furs is recognized, and a proportionate price is obtained, which Sir Edward Belcher found in 1837 to be "for a moderately good sea otter skin from six to seven blankets, increasing to thirteen for the best, together with sundry knickknacks." But in the interior it is otherwise. A recent resident in the region of the Youkon assures me that he has seen skins worth several hundred dollars bartered for goods worth only fifty cents.

Beside whalers and casual ships with which the Esquimaux are in the habit of dealing, the commerce in furs on both sides of the continent north of the United States has for a long time been in the hands of two corporations, being the Hudson Bay Company, with its directors in London, and the Russian American Company, with its directors in St. Petersburg. The former is much the older of the two, and has been the most flourishing. Its original members were none other than Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, Earl Craven, Lord Ashley, and other eminent associates, who received a charter from Charles II in 1670 to prosecute a search after a new passage to the South sea and to establish a trade in furs, minerals, and other considerable commodities in all those seas and in the British possessions north and west of Canada, with powers of government, the whole constituting a colossal monopoly, which stretched from Labrador and Baffin bay to an undefined west. At present this great corporation is known only as a fur company, to which all its powers are tributary. For some time its profits have been so considerable that it has been deemed advisable to hide them by nominal additions to the stock. With the extinction of the St. Petersburg corporation under the present treaty the London corporation will remain the only existing fur company on the continent, but necessarily restrained in its operation to British territory. It remains to be seen into whose hands the commerce on the Pacific side will fall now that this whole region will be open to the unchecked enterprise of our citizens.

This remarkable commerce began before the organization of the company. Its profits may be inferred from a voyage in 1772, described by Coxe, between Kamtschatka and the Aleutians. The tenth part of the skins being handed to the custom-house, the remainder was distributed in fifty-five shares, containing each twenty sea otters, sixteen black and brown foxes, ten red foxes, three sea otter tails, and these shares were sold on the spot at from eight hundred to one thousand rubles each, so that the whole lading brought about fifty thousand rubles. The cost of these may be inferred from the articles given in exchange. A Russian outfit, of which I find a contemporary record, was, among other things, "seven hundred weight of tobacco; one hundred weight of glass

beads; perhaps a dozen spare hatchets and a few superfluous knives, of very bad quality; an immense number of traps for foxes; a few hams; a little rancid butter." With such imports against such exports the profits must have been considerable.

From Langsdorf we have a general inventory of the furs at the beginning of the century in the principal magazine of the Russian company on the island of Kodiak, collected on the islands, the peninsula of Alaska, Cook's inlet, Prince William sound, and the continent generally. Here were a great variety of the rarest kinds of fox skins," black, blackish, reddish, silver gray, and stone fox, the latter probably a species of the Arctic; brown and red bears, "the skins of which are of great value," and also"the valuable black bear;" the zisel marmot and the common marmot; the glutton; the lynx, chiefly of whitish gray; the reindeer; the beaver; the hairy hedgehog; the wool of a wild American sheep, whitish, fine, and very long, but he could never obtain sight of the animal that produced this wool; also “sea otters, once the principal source of wealth to the company, now nearly extirpated, a few hundreds only being annually collected." The same furs were reported by Cook as found on this coast in his day, including even the wild sheep. They all continue to be found, except that I hear nothing of any wild sheep save at a Sitkan dinner.

There has been much exaggeration with regard to the profits of the Russian corporation. An English writer of authority calls them "immense," and adds that formerly they were much greater. I refer to the paper of Mr. Petermann, read before the Geographical Society of London in 1852. (Journal, vol. 22, p. 120.) The number of skins reported at times is prodigious, although this fails to reveal precisely the profits. For instance, Pribolow collected within two years on the islands north of Alaska, which bear his name, the skins of 2,000 sea otters, 6,000 dark ice foxes, 40,000 sea bears or ursine seals, together with 1,000 poods of walrus ivory. The pood is a Russian weight of thirty-six pounds. Lütke mentions that in 1803 no less than 800,000 skins of the ursine seal were accumulated in the factory at Ounalaska, of which 700,000 were thrown into the sea, partly because they were badly prepared and partly in order to keep up the price, thus imitating the Dutch, who for the same reason burnt their spices. Another estimate masses the collection for a series of years. From 1787 to 1817, for only a part of which time the company existed, the Ounalaska district yielded upwards of 2,500,000 seal skins; and from 1817 to 1838, during all which time the company was in power, the same district yielded 579,000 seal skins. Assuming what is improbable, that these skins were sold at twenty-five rubles each, some calculating genius has ciphered out the sum-total of proceeds at more than eightyfive million rubles; or, calling the ruble seventyfive cents, a sum-total of more than sixty-three

million dollars. Clearly the latter years can show no approximation to any such doubtful result.

Descending from these lofty figures, which if not exaggerations are at least generalities and relate partly to the earlier periods, before the time of the company, we shall have a better idea of the commerce if we look at authentic reports for special periods of time. Admiral Von Wrangel, who was for so long governor, must have been well informed. According to statements in his work, adopted also by Wappaus in his Geographie, the company from 1826 to 1833, a period of seven years, exported the skins of the followinganimals: 9,853 sea otters, with 8,751 sea otter tails, 40,000 river beavers, 6,242 river or land otters, 5,243 black foxes, 7,759 black bellied foxes, 1,633 red foxes, 24,000 polar foxes, 1,093 lynxes, 559 wolverines, 2,976 sables, 4,835 swamp otters, 69 wolves, 1,261 bears, 505 muskrats, 132,160 seals, 830 poods of whalebone, 1,490 poods of walrus ivory, and 7,122 sacks of castoreum. What was their value does not appear. George Simpson, the governor-in-chief of the Hudson Bay Company, who was at Sitka in 1841, represents the returns of the company for that year as follows: 10,000 fur seals, 1,000 sea otters, 2,500 land otters, and 20,000 walrus teeth, without including foxes and martens. There is still one other report for the year 1852, as follows: 1,231 sea otters, 129 young sea otters, 2,948 common otters, 14,486 fur seals, 107 bears, 13,300 beavers, 2 wolves, 458 sables, 243 lynxes, 163 moleskins, 1,504 bags of castoreum, 684 black foxes, 1,590 cross foxes, 5,174 red foxes, 2,359 blue Arctic foxes, 355 white Arctic foxes, and also 31 foxes called white, perhaps Albinos.

Sir

Besides these reports for special years, I am enabled to present from the Russian tables of Captain Golowin another, covering the period from 1842 to 1860, inclusive, being as follows: 25,602 sea otters, 63,826 "otters," probably river otters, 161,042 beavers, 73,944 foxes, 55,540 Arctic foxes, 2,283 bears, 6,445 lynxes, 26,384 sables, 19,076 muskrats, 2,536 ursine seals, 338,604 marsh otters, 712 "pairs of hare," 451 martens, 104 wolves, 46,274 castoreums, 7,309 beavers' tails. Here is an inexplicable absence of seal skins. On the other hand, sables, which belong to Asia and not to America, are mentioned. The list is Russian, and perhaps embraces furs from the Asiatic islands of the company.

From a competent source I learn that the value of skins at Sitka during the last year was substantially as follows: sea otter, $50; marten, $4; beaver, $2 50; bear, $4 50; black fox, $50; silver fox, $40; cross fox, $25; red fox, $2. A recent Price Current in New York gives the prices there in currency, as follows: silver fox, $10 to $50; cross fox, $3 to $5; red fox $1 to $1 50; otter, $3 to $6; mink, $3 to $6; beaver, $1 to $4; muskrat, twenty to fifty cents; lynx, $2 to $4; black bear, $6 to $12; dark marten, $5 to $20. These New York