"black current," and other names, impinging on the Pacif Coast and moderating it to such an unusual extent. It is sa that the cold of zero has never been known upon the Aleuti Islands at the sea-level, while it is almost as moderate upon th eastern horn where it faces the sea, fresh cauliflower havir been taken from a garden in Sitka for a Christmas dinne while ice sufficiently thick to cut for winter storage there h seldom been known. Although this is phenomenally mil temperature for winter so far northward, yet this winte weather is quite disagreeable, owing to the protracted rair of that season of the yr., which also extend far into the fa and spring, leaving only a short summer of about three month when there is pleasant weather along the Alaskan Pacifi coast. This unusual rain-fall is no doubt due to the precip tation of the warm moisture rising from the surface of th warm Japanese Current condensed by the cold sides of th high snow-covered mountains facing this coast. The climat of the Behring Sea coast and adjacent islands grades frot that of the Arctic Ocean to the mild weather of the Pacific St. Lawrence Island and Norton Sound being inaccessible i winter from ice, while on the Aleutian Islands cattle graze al winter. Population and Productions.-The population i sparse for so vast an area, although from its abundant stapl productions of furs, fisheries, and mining it is capable o containing, and at no distant day probably will contain, a ver much denser population. The white people are nearly all i south-eastern A., or the right-hand horn, the large mining an fishing industries there and the seat of government attracting them thither. Juneau, a mining town in this section, which is situated on the mainland opposite Douglas Island, is the metropolis of A., having about 1,000 people in and near it On Douglas Island is the rich Treadwell gold mine, the largest and most productive in A., and whose output is probably very near to $100,000 a month. Sitka, the seat of the U. S. dis trict government, and formerly the head-quarters of the Rus sian government, when it was called New Archangel, is the second place in size. Wrangell, near the mouth of the Stick een River, and once the base of all supplies for the Cassiat mines of British Columbia, now about worked out, was once a place of considerable size and activity, but is now almost abandoned. Killismoo, where there is a large herring fishery and herring o-works, is a point of some importance. There are several salmon canneries, managed by whites, scattered through this part of the territory. The total population by census of 1890 was 30,329. The native population is composed of three quite distinct races: the Esquimaux, the Aleuts, and the Indians. The Esquimaux, as in other parts of Am., live almost wholly upon the sea-coast and a short distance up the principal rivers, deriving their main sustenance from the water in the way of fish, marine mammals, etc. Begin ning at Demarcation Point, in the Arctic Ocean, they are found on all the coast line of that body of water, and on Behring Sea to Bristol Bay, where they cross the neck of the Aliaska Peninsula and face the Pacific Ocean as far E.

Prince of Wales, or Behring Strait, being washed by the icebound waters of the Arctic Ocean; from thence to the Aleutian Islands by Behring Sea, while its southern shores face the great Pacific Ocean from Dixon Entrance (or Sound) to the island of Attu, a longitudinal spread of nearly 60°, or roughly equal to that from New York city to the Rocky Mountains. Physical Features.-The Arctic shores of A. are low and flat, those of the Pacific high and mountainous, while those facing Behring Sea grade in between, approximating the character of the northern or southern coasts as these are approached. As Italy, in outline, has been compared to the shape of a boot, and other countries have been compared to the outlines of familiar objects to impress them graphically upon the mind, so A. may be taken to represent an inverted bullock's head, the left horn being the Aleutian Islands and the right horn of the animal the narrow strip between the Pacific Ocean and the Dominion of Canada, (or British Columbia and the British North-west Territory.) The name A. was attached by the Russians (from an Aleut word) to the large peninsula in the south-western part of A., of which the Aleutian Islands form the natural continuation. It is the corruption of the word Aliaska by Americans that gave us the present title of the Territory when Russian Am. was ceded by Russia to the U. S. This Aliaska peninsula was thought by the early Russian explorers to be a large island, but Capt. Cook, the famous English navigator, proved its peninsular character later. This immense tract of land-occupying between 560,000 and 570,000 sq. m., (the exact area is 565,862 sq. m. by the last U. S. census, but the surveys of the country have not reached the point that will justify such exactness,) an area about equal to the U. S. east of the Mississippi River, the Gulf States excluded-naturally presents varied characteristics over so wide a field that no intelligible description can be given of it as a whole. Its most important river is the YUKON, (q. v.,) which has a 1. of 2,044 m., and which divides the rectangular body of A. almost into equal parts N. and S. of that great stream. N. of the Yukon River, and es. pecially when nearing the Arctic Ocean, the land is flat and covered with a growth of moss that flourishes in these swampy districts, here called tundra. The winter weather here is very severe, and the ground is frozen to a great depth, much deeper than it thaws in the summer, so that the water that collects in this season cannot drain through the impervious frozen strata below, and forms vast marshy plains similar to those of northern Siberia, and like them called tundras (pronounced toon-drays) by the Russians. On these many reindeer feed, furnishing part of the food in the summer season for the Esquimaux of the coast, who at other seasons live on seal, walrus, whales, polar bears, and a few other animals of that region. Approaching the Yukon the country in places becomes more hilly, and even mountainous, but it is rather the older geographical formations projecting in Alpine peaks and chains through the flat tundra land, which lies between as deposited by some ancient ocean, than continuous hilly or mountainous 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 Makacially toward the western and central part, until there begins gamute, on the Yukon River, 300 m. from its mouth, although one of the grandest mountain chains of the world, the St. Elias there are a number of unknown inland tribes farther N. whose Alps, and its spurs. This range includes Mount St. Elias, villages are not well known as to situation. They also ocwhich latest observations show to be possibly on British ter-cupy St. Lawrence and a few other islands. Their popularitory, and to be 18,023 ft. h. Two or three unnamed peaks tion, coupled with the Indian, by the last census was put at lately found by the U. S. Geological Survey are still higher, 30,329, including all races— -whites, black, mixed, native, and the highest being about 19,500 ft. From the Alpine Kenai Chinese. The Indians belong to two very distinct and separate Peninsula in both directions, toward the S.-E. and S.-W., the classes, those on the sea-coast-the Tlinkits of south-eastern two horns of A. dip into the sea. Toward the S.-W. are the A. and the interior tribes of many names along the upper Aleutian Islands, a submerged mountain-chain whose higher courses of the rivers, whose mouth and lower parts are held peaks project through the sea as islands, and which form the by the Esquimaux. The Tlinkits range from Mount St. Elias boundary between Behring Sea and the Pacific Ocean. To- to Dixon Sound, occupying nearly all of the right horn of, or ward the S.-E. the outer half of the mountainous land has south-eastern, A. They number between 7,000 and 8,000, and been partially submerged, the great ocean filling in the ancient are subdivided into many tribes, as Awks, Stickeens, Chilvalleys nearest the sea until the largest ocean steamers can kats, etc., by which names they are generally known rather readily navigate the deep, bold water between the innumera- than Tlinkits. They are the Koloshes of the Russians. They ble islands in this part of A. From this reason these chan- have been quite aggressive and warlike, making hostile ex nels, with similar ones along the shores of British Columbia, cursions as far as Puget Sound to wreak vengeance. The have been called the "inland passage to A., whence ocean Indians of the interior are mostly along the Yukon, the steamers ply regularly from the north-western parts of the Tanana, the Porcupine, the Copper, and a few other rivers, U. S. to Sitka and other ports in south-eastern A. The cli- deriving their sustenance from the fish of these streams as mate of A. varies considerably throughout its vast extent. In well as the game of the country. The Aleuts, numbering general the northern part and its interior has an almost arc- nearly 2,000, occupy the Aleutian Islands and the Seal (Pritic severity over all of it, while the narrow strip between the byloff) Islands of St. Paul and St. George. To the latter, Pacific Coast ranges of mountains and that ocean and the however, they were carried by the Russians to assist in the Aleutian Islands have a phenomenally mild climate for so high seal fisheries for which those islands are celebrated. The a latitude. This latter is caused by the warm equatorial cur timber of A. begins about the line of the Yukon, and extends rent from the S.-W. called the Japanese Current, Kuro Siwo, southward over the whole country except an irregular strip

GOLD-FIELDS OF ALASKA AND THE
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE.

While it had been known at least as early as 1860 that serted, and Dawson City, in the heart of the Klondike region gold existed in northern and western Alaska and the ad-sprang up almost in a day. The first hut was put up in jacent British territory, it was not until 1880 that the pioneer | September, and six months later there were 500 buildings in gold-hunters began pushing into the almost unknown regions, the town. and it was several yrs. later before any thing like really "rich" diggings were found. Even then there was no exeitement over the discoveries, and there was no great rush of fortune-seekers into the country until 1896, when the famous Klondike gold-field was fairly opened up.

Agents of the Hudson Bay Company, seeking for furs and trading with the Indians, discovered the great Yukon River as early as 1848, when Fort Selkirk was built as a trading post, the place being plundered and destroyed by the natives four yrs. afterward. The records do not show whether these first explorers found gold, but it is known that other agents of the Hudson Bay Company reported the existence of the precious metal in the region of the upper Yukon in 1860. Their statements attracted no general attention.

One of the earliest public announcements that gold existed in the country appeared in a volume of travels by Whymper in 1869, who stated that minute particles of gold had been found on the Yukon, and added that there was not enough 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.

News of the wonderful richness of the Klondike fields reached the outside world early in 1897, and excited universal interest. Every steamer that could be pressed into service for the long voyage to Alaska was crowded with gold-seekers, and by September of that yr. the population of Dawson City was estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000.

Up to the close of navigation on the Yukon in September, 1897, the amount of gold dust and nuggets received at U.S. mints from the Klondike was more than $2,000,000, and the estimated output of the region up to September was $4,000,000. With the influx of thousands of additional miners in the spring of 1898 it was believed that the production of Klondike gold would be very largely increased, while further explorations, especially on the Amer. side of the line, were confidently expected to result in the discovery of newer and equally rich fields. The Klondike region has not been fully explored, but it is believed to be about 700 sq. m. in extent.

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 extract

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 declaring 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 between the U. S. and British possessions. By 1892 these men were taking out an aggregate of about $300,000 worth of gold a yr.

As 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 numer ous falls and rapids through which no boat can pass, making portages necessary. The distance from Dye 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 The great inpouring of gold-seekers into the Klondike m. to Teslin Lake, and thence down the Hootalingua to the region began in the late summer of 1896. It was due to a Yukon, the total distance from Wrangell to Dawson City rich strike made by George Cormack in August of that yr., being about 900 m. Other ways into the gold-fields will unon a small stream running into the Yukon, now called Bo-doubtedly be opened up as the country is developed and new 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

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.