Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

COLD-FIE

[ocr errors]

afterward. ist explorers of the Hudson precious meta Their statem of the earliest he country appea

Prince of Wales, or Behring Strait, being washed by the ice- "black current," and other names, impinging on the Paci bound waters of the Arctic Ocean; from thence to the Aleu- Coast and moderating it to such an unusual extent. It is sa tian Islands by Behring Sea, while its southern shores face that the cold of zero has never been known upon the Aleuti the great Pacific Ocean from Dixon Entrance (or Sound) to Islands at the sea-level, while it is almost as moderate upon th the island of Attu, a longitudinal spread of nearly 60°, or eastern horn where it faces the sea, fresh cauliflower havit roughly equal to that from New York city to the Rocky been taken from a garden in Sitka for a Christmas dinne Mountains. Physical Features.-The Arctic shores of A. are while ice sufficiently thick to cut for winter storage there hi low and flat, those of the Pacific high and mountainous, seldom been known. Although this is phenomenally mi while those facing Behring Sea grade in between, approxi- temperature for winter so far northward, yet this wint mating the character of the northern or southern coasts as weather is quite disagreeable, owing to the protracted raire it had been kn these are approached. As Italy, in outline, has been com- of that season of the yr., which also extend far into the fasted in norther pared to the shape of a boot, and other countries have been and spring, leaving only a short summer of about three month Brush territory, i compared to the outlines of familiar objects to impress them when there is pleasant weather along the Alaskan Pacifiers began push graphically upon the mind, so A. may be taken to represent coast. This unusual rain-fall is no doubt due to the precip was several yrs an inverted bullock's head, the left horn being the Aleutian tation of the warm moisture rising from the surface of things were Islands and the right horn of the animal the narrow strip be- warm Japanese Current condensed by the cold sides of the over the disco tween the Pacific Ocean and the Dominion of Canada, (or high snow-covered mountains facing this coast. The climateekers into British Columbia and the British North-west Territory.) The of the Behring Sea coast and adjacent islands grades from Klondike goldname A. was attached by the Russians (from an Aleut word) that of the Arctic Ocean to the mild weather of the Pacifics of the Huds to the large peninsula in the south-western part of A., of St. Lawrence Island and Norton Sound being inaccessible with the India which the Aleutian Islands form the natural continuation. It is winter from ice, while on the Aleutian Islands cattle graze alas 1848, whe the corruption of the word Aliaska by Americans that gave us winter. Population and Productions. The population de place being i the present title of the Territory when Russian Am. was ceded sparse for so vast an area, although from its abundant stap by Russia to the U. S. This Aliaska peninsula was thought productions of furs, fisheries, and mining it is capable by the early Russian explorers to be a large island, but Capt. containing, and at no distant day probably will contain, a ver Cook, the famous English navigator, proved its peninsular much denser population. The white people are nearly all i character later. This immense tract of land-occupying be- south-eastern A., or the right-hand horn, the large mining and tween 560,000 and 570,000 sq. m., (the exact area is 565,862 fishing industries there and the seat of government attracting sq. m. by the last U. S. census, but the surveys of the coun- them thither. Juneau, a mining town in this section, which try have not reached the point that will justify such exact- is situated on the mainland opposite Douglas Island, is the 69, who stated ness,) an area about equal to the U. S. east of the Mississippi metropolis of A., having about 1,000 people in and near it on the Yukor River, the Gulf States excluded-naturally presents varied On Douglas Island is the rich Treadwell gold mine, the largest be metal to wat characteristics over so wide a field that no intelligible descrip- and most productive in A., and whose output is probably very of explorers tion can be given of it as a whole. Its most important river near to $100,000 a month. Sitka, the seat of the U. S. dis, but gave is the YUKON, (q. v.,) which has a 1. of 2,044 m., and which trict government, and formerly the head-quarters of the Rus Na gold hunters divides the rectangular body of A. almost into equal parts N. sian government, when it was called New Archangel, is the the Klondik and S. of that great stream. N. of the Yukon River, and es second place in size. Wrangell, near the mouth of the Stick ed George Ho pecially when nearing the Arctic Ocean, the land is flat and een River, and once the base of all supplies for the Cassia oot Pass, we covered with a growth of moss that flourishes in these swampy mines of British Columbia, now about worked out, was once gaboring count districts, here called tundra. The winter weather here is very a place of considerable size and activity, but is now almost severe, and the ground is frozen to a great depth, much deeper abandoned. Killismoo, where there is a large herring fishery and than it thaws in the summer, so that the water that collects herring o-works, is a point of some importance. There are in this season cannot drain through the impervious frozen several salmon canneries, managed by whites, scattered strata below, and forms vast marshy plains similar to those through this part of the territory. The total population by of northern Siberia, and like them called tundras (pronounced census of 1890 was 30,329. The native population is composed toon-drays) by the Russians. On these many reindeer feed, of three quite distinct races: the Esquimaux, the Aleuts, furnishing part of the food in the summer season for the Es- and the Indians. The Esquimaux, as in other parts of Am., quimaux of the coast, who at other seasons live on seal, walrus, live almost wholly upon the sea-coast and a short distance whales, polar bears, and a few other animals of that region. up the principal rivers, deriving their main sustenance from Approaching the Yukon the country in places becomes more the water in the way of fish, marine mammals, etc. Begin hilly, and even mountainous, but it is rather the older geo- ning at Demarcation Point, in the Arctic Ocean, they are graphical formations projecting in Alpine peaks and chains found on all the coast line of that body of water, and on through the flat tundra land, which lies between as deposited Behring Sea to Bristol Bay, where they cross the neck of by some ancient ocean, than continuous hilly or mountainous the Aliaska Peninsula and face the Pacific Ocean as far E. country. S. of the line of the Yukon the country becomes as about Cape Suckling or Cape Yaktog, almost in sight of more broken as the Pacific Ocean is approached, and espe- Mount St. Elias. Their most inland village is probably Maka

[ocr errors]

ng quantities e miners, formi the same rout all parties foll the Lewes od the small st and gold in

[ocr errors]

The first rich and a bar in igh as $100 w George M. D the Canad region the fo aring that it considerable went into the

the

but the mos several hund Circle City, tween the men were t of gold a y

gamute, on the Yukon River, 300 m. from its mouth, although stories of gre
there are a number of unknown inland tribes farther N. whose
villages are not well known as to situation. They also oc- the way of t
cupy St. Lawrence and a few other islands. Their popula-
tion, coupled with the Indian, by the last census was put at
30,329, including all races-whites, black, mixed, native, and
Chinese. The Indians belong to two very distinct and separate
classes, those on the sea-coast-the Tlinkits of south-eastern
A. and the interior tribes of many names along the upper
courses of the rivers, whose mouth and lower parts are held
by the Esquimaux. The Tlinkits range from Mount St. Elias
to Dixon Sound, occupying nearly all of the right horn of, or
south-eastern, A. They number between 7,000 and 8,000, and
are subdivided into many tribes, as Awks, Stickeens, Chil-
kats, etc., by which names they are generally known rather
than Tlinkits. They are the Koloshes of the Russians. They
have been quite aggressive and warlike, making hostile ex
cursions as far as Puget Sound to wreak vengeance. The
Indians of the interior are mostly along the Yukon, the!
Tanana, the Porcupine, the Copper, and a few other rivers,
deriving their sustenance from the fish of these streams as
well as the game of the country. The Aleuts, numbering
nearly 2,000, occupy the Aleutian Islands and the Seal (Pri-
byloff) Islands of St. Paul and St. George. To the latter,
however, they were carried by the Russians to assist in the
seal fisheries for which those islands are celebrated. The
timber of A. begins about the line of the Yukon, and extends
southward over the whole country except an irregular strip

cially toward the western and central part, until there begins one of the grandest mountain chains of the world, the St. Elias Alps, and its spurs. This range includes Mount St. Elias, which latest observations show to be possibly on British territory, and to be 18,023 ft. h. Two or three unnamed peaks lately found by the U. S. Geological Survey are still higher, the highest being about 19,500 ft. From the Alpine Kenai Peninsula in both directions, toward the S.-E. and S.-W., the two horns of A. dip into the sea. Toward the S.-W. are the Aleutian Islands, a submerged mountain-chain whose higher peaks project through the sea as islands, and which form the boundary between Behring Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Toward the S.-E. the outer half of the mountainous land has been partially submerged, the great ocean filling in the ancient valleys nearest the sea until the largest ocean steamers can readily navigate the deep, bold water between the innumerable islands in this part of A. From this reason these channels, with similar ones along the shores of British Columbia, have been called the "inland passage" to A., whence ocean steamers ply regularly from the north-western parts of the U. S. to Sitka and other ports in south-eastern A. The climate of A. varies considerably throughout its vast extent. In general the northern part and its interior has an almost arctic severity over all of it, while the narrow strip between the Pacific Coast ranges of mountains and that ocean and the Aleutian Islands have a phenomenally mild climate for so high a latitude. This latter is caused by the warm equatorial cur rent from the S.-W. called the Japanese Current, Kuro Siwo,

The gre region beg rich strik on a smal nanza Cr his rude to an In claim, a The ne wonder

[ocr errors]

overrun

were st

[ocr errors][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

he Seale o the la

assist in Drated and exte

egnat 5

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

serted, and Dawson City, in the heart of the Klondike region sprang up almost in a day. The first hut was put up in September, and six months later there were 500 buildings in the town.

While it had been known at least as early as 1860 that
gold existed in northern and western Alaska and the ad-
jacent British territory, it was not until 1880 that the pioneer
gold-hunters began pushing into the almost unknown regions,
and it was several yrs. later before any thing like really News of the wonderful richness of the Klondike fields
"rich" diggings were found. Even then there was no ex-reached the outside world early in 1897, and excited uni-
citement over the discoveries, and there was no great rush of versal interest. Every steamer that could be pressed into
fortune-seekers into the country until 1896, when the service for the long voyage to Alaska was crowded with
famous Klondike gold-field was fairly opened up.
gold-seekers, and by September of that yr. the population
of Dawson City was estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000.

Agents of the Hudson Bay Company, seeking for furs and
trading with the Indians, discovered the great Yukon River Up to the close of navigation on the Yukon in September,
as early as 1848, when Fort Selkirk was built as a trading 1897, the amount of gold dust and nuggets received at U.S.
post, the place being plundered and destroyed by the natives mints from the Klondike was more than $2,000,000, and
four yrs. afterward. The records do not show whether the estimated output of the region up to September was
these first explorers found gold, but it is known that other $4,000,000. With the influx of thousands of additional
agents of the Hudson Bay Company reported the existence | miners in the spring of 1898 it was believed that the pro-
of the precious metal in the region of the upper Yukon in duction of Klondike gold would be very largely increased,
1860. Their statements attracted no general attention. while further explorations, especially on the Amer. side
One of the earliest public announcements that gold existed of the line, were confidently expected to result in the dis-
in the country appeared in a volume of travels by Whymper covery of newer and equally rich fields. The Klondike region
in 1869, who stated that minute particles of gold had been has not been fully explored, but it is believed to be about
found on the Yukon, and added that there was not enough 700 sq. m. in extent.
of the metal to warrant a
"rush
to that section. A small
party of explorers descended the Yukon to the Behring Sea
in 1867, but gave out no stories of gold.

No gold hunters appear to have penetrated into what is
now the Klondike region until 1878, when a prospector
named George Holt, starting from Sitka, crossed over the
Chilkoot Pass, went down the Lewes River, and searched the
neighboring country. He returned with a report of gold in
paying quantities. Two yrs. afterward, in 1880, twenty-ing the precious metal.
five miners, forming the first expedition of gold-seekers, went
by the same route from Sitka to the Yukon, and after that
small parties followed from time to time. They prospected
along the Lewes, Hootalingua, Pelly, and Big Salmon Rivers,
and the small streams emptying into them. Many of them
found gold in small quantities, but none grew rich in a
day.

The first rich strike was made in 1886, when a few men
found a bar in the Stewart River from which they took as
high as $100 worth of gold each in a day.

George M. Dawson, at the head of an expedition sent out
by the Canadian government, explored the upper Yukon
region the following yr. and made an official report de-
claring that it was rich with gold. His statements attracted
considerable attention, and the number of prospectors who
went into the country steadily increased, but the absence of
stories of great bonanzas," the tremendous difficulties in
the way of traveling, except in the very short summers, and
the constant peril of starvation in the long winters, kept all
but the most hardy and determined adventurers away. Still,
several hundred miners penetrated the district and founded
Circle City, well to the westward of the boundary line be- !
tween the U. S. and British possessions. By 1892 these
men were taking out an aggregate of about $300,000 worth
of gold a yr.

The great inpouring of gold-seekers into the Klondike
region began in the late summer of 1896. It was due to a
rich strike made by George Cormack in August of that yr.,
on a small stream running into the Yukon, now called Bo-
nanza Creek.
After taking out $1,200 worth of gold with
his rude implements in eight days, Cormack had to return
to an Indian village for food. He had properly located his
claim, and told white men in the village of his discovery.
The news spread among the scattered prospectors with
wonderful rapidity, and in a fortnight Bonanza Creek was
overrun with the treasure-hunters. Two hundred claims
were staked out in two weeks. Circle City was nearly de-

Up to the present only placer mines have been worked in Alaska and the Klondike. Placer mining is simply the washing of dirt with running water, which carries away the dirt and pebbles, leaving the heavier particles of gold, which sink to the bottom of the receptacle. Little prospecting has been done for quartz gold, but experts have no doubt of its presence, and that with its discovery would come the introduction of machinery for crushing the rock and extractAs will be seen on the map of Alaska, there are three principal routes to the gold-fields from the U. S. proper. The longest of these is the all-water route via the Yukon River. It is the easiest, but is available only for a few months in the summer. The ice does not permit navigation of the river before the middle of June, and closes it again early in September. The steamer route from San Francisco to St. Michael is 3,150 m., and from St. Michael up the Yukon to Dawson City is 1,652 m., making the trip from San Francisco to the Klondike by this route 4,802 m.

The route most commonly used by Amer. miners in 1897 is from Juneau and Dyea through the Chilkoot Pass, though the obstacles in the way of travelers are very great. From October to March Chilkoot Pass is swept by terrible storms and the temperature falls to 30 and 40 degrees below zero, and even lower. Food and supplies of all kinds must be drawn on sledges or carried on one's back, and after the headwaters of the Yukon are reached there are numerous falls and rapids through which no boat can pass, making portages necessary. The distance from Dyea to Dawson City by this route is about 575 m.

The third route to the Klondike is via Teslin Lake and the Hootalingua River. Starting at Wrangell, the route is up the Stikeen River to Telegraph Creek, the head of navigation on that river, a distance of 150 m.; thence overland 150 m. to Teslin Lake, and thence down the Hootalingua to the Yukon, the total distance from Wrangell to Dawson City being about 900 m. Other ways into the gold-fields will undoubtedly be opened up as the country is developed and new strikes of placer or quartz gold are made.

Customs officers have been stationed by the Canadian government at the boundary line on each of the routes, and duties are levied upon all goods and supplies carried across not the product of or purchased in the Dominion. The U. S. government has made Dyea a port of entry where Canadian and other foreign vessels may land passengers and cargoes.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
« ÖncekiDevam »