THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INDUSTRIES.
The United States census of 1890 definitely enumerated 21,929
inhabitants of Alaska, and estimated the existence of about 8,400 more.
Of those enumerated there were 3,922 white males and 497 white females;
82 black males; 770 "mixed" males, and 798 "mixed" females; and 2,125
male Chinese; while the native population included 7,158 males and
6,577 females. According to the same census there were in Alaska 11
organizations of the Orthodox Greek Church; with 22 edifices with a
seating capacity of 2,900 and a value of $180,000. The communicants
numbered 13,004. The Roman Catholic Church had 6 organizations, with
6 buildings, seating 540 persons, and valued at $9,700. There were
559 communicants. No less than 27 fire insurance companies were doing
business in the Territory, and in 1889 the risks written and renewed by
them aggregated $1,710,184.
The people of Alaska have been spoken of as Americans, Russians,
Hydahs, Tsimpseans, Thlinkets, Aleuts, Innuits or Eskimos and Tinneh,
or Athabascan Indians. Eight distinct languages and several dialects
are spoken. The Tsimpseans embrace only the settlement at Metlakahtla,
about one thousand people who came over from British Columbia. The
Hydahs have some five or six villages on the south end of Prince of
Wales Island with about nine hundred people. The Thlinkets reside in
from forty to fifty villages in the Alexander Archipelago and along
the coast from Cape Fox to Copper River. All these have become partly
civilized by contact with the whites and through the influence of
schools and missions, and there is a large number of those who can
speak English and have become excellent citizens. The Aleuts are also
partly civilized, but with a civilization conforming more nearly to
that of the Russians than our own. These reside upon the islands of the
Aleutian chain, the Shunagin and Kodiak groups, the Aliaska Peninsula
and the islands of St. Paul and St. George in Behring Sea.
There are a few Aleut half-breeds in Sitka. Many of these people
talk the Russian language. The Innuits and Tinnehs cannot be said to
be civilized, though their barbarism has been modified by contact
with white people. The Innuits reside along the coast from Nushegak,
in Behring Sea, to the eastern limit of our dominion in the Arctic
region. Lieutenant Ray speaks of them as living in a state of anarchy,
making no combinations, offensive or defensive, having no punishment
for crimes and no government. Given to petty pilfering, they make no
attempt to reclaim stolen property. They are social in their habits
and kind to each other. These people are obliged to devote all their
energies to procuring the necessary food and clothing to maintain
life. Their intelligence is of a low order and the race is apparently
diminishing. Physically they are strong and possess great powers of
endurance.
The Tinnehs occupy the interior, the Yukon valley, except the portions
near its mouth, and come down to the seashore only at Cook's Inlet.
They are called "Stick" Indians by the Thlinkets. These people have
many traits of the North American Indians elsewhere, and may properly
be designated as Indians. The other natives of Alaska are not true
Indians and have not generally been treated as such by the government.
They have no real tribal relations, though formerly the heads of
families were recognized as chiefs and called such.
At the present time, among the Hydahs, Tsimpseans, Thlinkets and
Aleuts, the so-called chiefs have very little, if any, power or
influence, as such. Among the Eskimos it may be doubted if the office
ever amounted to anything.
The progress of the natives of Southeastern Alaska toward civilization
is steady and certain, though it must not be supposed that these people
yet take high rank in learning, intelligence or morality. The educating
and elevating influences of the schools and missions, though doing
much, perhaps more than we should expect under the circumstances, must
be continued a long time in order to effect anything like satisfactory
conditions.
In some respects the physical condition of the different native tribes
is alike and in others not. All are strongly built, rather short, and
by their habits of living inured to hardship and endurance. The men
have very light or no beards, and frequently trim the scattering hairs
on their chins closely or pluck them out. The average height is less
than that of Europeans. They have an Asiatic cast of features and the
coast people are generally thought to have originated from Japanese
stock. The Eskimos have a language very similar to the Eskimos of
Labrador and almost identical with a small population upon the Asiatic
side of Behring Strait. Physically they differ from the Eskimos of
Greenland and Labrador, being more robust and healthy. All of the
natives of Alaska have small and delicately-formed hands and feet and
rather a massive head, straight black hair, dark eyes, high cheek
bones and nut-brown complexion. All are to a large extent fish eaters,
though the Tinnehs, living in the interior, or Ingalik tribes of the
Yukon, are compelled to subsist to a greater extent upon game and land
products.
Their dwellings, not so unlike originally, have now become quite
different in style and manner of construction. Those residing in
Southeastern Alaska have frame or block houses wholly above ground,
with sleeping apartments partitioned off from the main or living-room
where the central fireplace is located, like the state-rooms of a
river steamboat, and many of the Thlinkets have substituted the modern
cooking-stove and pipe for the fireplace and open chimney-hole in the
roof.
These people are all self-supporting; the Hydahs, Tsimpseans, Thlinkets
and Aleuts living comfortably with plenty of food and blankets. The
Eskimos, especially those of the Arctic region, have a hard time of
it to keep from starvation and death by freezing. The Tinnehs, or
Ingaliks, have less of the conveniences, not to say luxuries of life,
than any of the coast tribes. The last-named two tribes have small,
poorly built, partly underground houses, and their winter dwellings are
entirely covered with earth.
Mention has already been made of the town of Sitka, the capital of
the Territory. It is beautifully situated, sheltered by a range of
snow-covered mountains on the one side and on the other protected
from the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean and its storms by a
numerous group of thickly-wooded islands. The waters of the harbor are
singularly clear, so that in looking over the side of a vessel one can
see the bottom at a depth of many fathoms. A warm equatorial current
bathes this shore and bears into these Arctic regions many sponges,
coral branches and other growths of warmer latitudes. The town itself
lies clustered near the shore and presents a pleasing picture to the
visitor as he approaches it from the sea. Its most conspicuous feature
is the old weather-beaten and moss-grown castle which crowns a rocky
hill. This structure is 140 feet long and 70 feet wide, and is built
of huge cedar logs. It was for many years the official residence of
the Russian governors and was at times the scene of splendid social
gatherings. In its upper story were arranged a ball-room and a theatre,
and the building throughout was as richly furnished as a palace in St.
Petersburg or Moscow. Some of these rich furnishings still remain,
though as a whole the building is in a most dilapidated condition.
Another prominent building is the old Greek Church with its emerald
green dome, Byzantine spire, fine chime of bells and richly decorated
interior. It is liberally maintained, as indeed are all the other
Greek Churches in the Territory, by the Russian Government. Most of
the houses in Sitka are built of heavy logs, some of them being also
clapboarded outside. During the winter about 1,000 Indians live there
and the white population is composed of the government officials and
agents, a few store-keepers and traders, and perhaps four or five
hundred miners and prospectors from the inland regions. In midwinter
there are only about six hours of daylight in each day, and in
mid-summer there is for a time practically no night at all. Rain is
the principal feature of the climate, and this abundance of moisture
causes all vegetation to grow luxuriantly. There is an abundance of
vegetables and some fruit, and domestic cattle are kept successfully.
Nowhere outside of the tropics is a more luxurious natural vegetation
to be found than in these islands of southern Alaska. Sitka is a neat
and clean city, and as a rule is now quiet and orderly. It contains a
large industrial school, attended by 200 native boys and girls, the
course of study including nearly all useful industries. Twenty miles
south of Sitka, on the same island, hot springs are to be found, the
water of which is rich in sulphur and iron. For many generations these
have been a sanitary resort of the natives, and it is not unlikely that
in the near future they will be greatly visited by tourists from the
United States and elsewhere. The temperature of the water is about 155°
Fahrenheit, and the springs are surrounded by tropical vegetation.
After Sitka, the most important settlement in the Territory, is Fort
Wrangell. It is beautifully situated at the mouth of the Stickhin
River, where there is an excellent and capacious harbor, surrounded by
imposing mountains. The town consists of rather more than 100 houses,
and includes about 500 permanent inhabitants. There are two or three
large stores for the sale of goods to the natives and for the purchase
of furs and other natural products, as well as the quaint manufactures
of the Indians. There is also a flourishing industrial school for the
Indian girls. A leading native industry here is the manufacture of
jewelry from silver and ivory. In this the natives are very expert,
producing most elaborate patterns and copying any designs given to them
with the most patient and unfailing fidelity.
When the United States took possession of Alaska a great many active
and ambitious men on the Pacific coast were imbued with the idea that
much that was really valuable in Alaska in the line of furs and the
precious metals would be developed to their great gain and benefit if
they gave the subject the attention which it deserved. Accordingly,
many expeditions were fitted out at San Francisco, Puget Sound, and
other points on the Pacific coast, and directed to an examination of
these reputed sources of wealth in that distant country. Many years
have now rolled by, and in that time we have been enabled to judge
pretty accurately of the relative value of this new territory in
comparison with that of our nearer possessions, and it is now known
that the fur-trade of Alaska is all and even more than it was reputed
to be by the Russians.
In this connection the most notable instance, perhaps, of the great
value of these interests may be cited in the case of the seal islands.
It will be remembered that at the time of the transfer, when the most
eloquent advocates of the purchase were exhausting the fertility of
their brains in drumming up and securing every possible argument in
favor of the purchase, though the fur trade of the mainland, the
sea-otter fisheries, and the possible extent of trade in walrus oil
and ivory were dwelt upon with great emphasis, these fur-seal islands
did not receive even a passing notice as a source of revenue or
value to the public. Yet it has transpired, since the government has
been wise enough to follow out the general policy which the Russians
established of protecting the seal life on the Pribylof Islands, that
these interests in our hands are so managed and directed that they pay
into the treasury of the United States a sum sufficient to meet all the
expenses of the government in behalf of Alaska, beside leaving a large
excess every year.
Of other resources, such as the adaptation of the country for
settlement by any considerable number of our people as agriculturists
or husbandmen, and its actual value as a means of supplying gold and
silver, coal or timber, it must be said that as yet no very remarkable
gold or silver mines have been discovered, nor have there been any
veins of coal worked that would in themselves sustain any considerable
number of our people or give rise to any volume of trade.
The timber of Alaska in itself extends over a much larger area of that
country than a great many surmise. It clothes the steep hills and
mountain sides, and chokes up the valleys of the Alexander Archipelago
and the contiguous mainland; it stretches less dense, but still
abundant, along that inhospitable reach of territory which extends from
the head of Cross Sound to the Kenai peninsula, where, reaching down to
the westward and south-westward as far as the eastern half of Kadiak
Island, and thence across Shelikof Strait, it is found on the mainland
and on the peninsula bordering on the same latitude; but it is confined
to the interior opposite Kadiak, not coming down to the coast as far
eastward as Cape Douglas. Here, however, it impinges on the coast or
Cook's Inlet, reaching down to the shores and extending around to the
Kenai peninsula. From the interior of the peninsula, above referred to,
the timber-line over the whole of the interior of the great area of
Alaska will be found to follow the coast-line, at varying distances of
from 100 to 150 miles from the seabord, until that section of Alaska
north of the Yukon mouth is reached, where a portion of the coast
of Norton Sound is directly bordered by timber as far north as Cape
Denbigh. From this point to the eastward and northeastward a line may
be drawn just above the Yukon and its immediate tributaries as the
northern limit of timber of any considerable extent. There are a great
number of small water-courses rising here that find their way into the
Arctic, bordered by hills and lowland ridges on which some wind-stunted
timber is found, even to the shores of the Arctic Sea.
In thus broadly sketching the distribution of timber over Alaska
it will be observed that the area thus clothed is very great; yet
when we come to consider the quality of the timber itself, and its
economic value in our markets, we are obliged to adopt the standard
of the lumber-mills in Oregon and Washington. Viewed in this light,
we find that the best timber of Alaska is the yellow cedar, which in
itself is of great intrinsic value; but this cedar is not the dominant
timber by any means; it is the exception to the rule. The great bulk
of Alaskan timber is that known as Sitkan spruce, or balsam fir. The
lumber sawed from this stock is naturally not of the first quality.
These trees grow to their greatest size in the Sitka or Alexander
Archipelago. An interval occurs from Cross Sound until we pass over the
fair-weather ground at the foot of Mount St. Elias, upon the region
of Prince William Sound and Cook's Inlet, where this timber again
occurs, and attains very respectable proportions in many sections of
the district, notably at Wood Island and portions of Afognak, and at
the head of the Kenai peninsula and the two gulfs that environ it.
The abundance of this timber and the extensive area clothed by it are
readily appreciated by looking at the map, and are rendered still more
impressive when we call attention to the fact that the timber extends
in good size as far north as the Yukon Valley, clothing all the hills
within that extensive region and to the north of Cook's Inlet and Kenai
peninsula, so that the amount of timber found therein is great in the
aggregate. The size of this spruce timber at its base will be typified
in trees on Prince of Wales Island 50 feet and over in height, with a
diameter of at least three feet. They have not grown as fast as they
would have grown in a more congenial latitude to the south, such as
Puget Sound or Oregon; hence when they are run through the saw-mill the
frequent and close proximity of knots mar the quality and depress the
sale of the lumber. Spruce boards are not adapted to nice finishing
work in building or in cabinet-ware, or, indeed, in anything that
requires a finish and upon which paint and varnish may be permanently
applied, for under the influence of slight degrees of heat it sweats,
exuding minute globules of gum or rosin, which are sticky and difficult
to remove.
The other timber trees in south-eastern Alaska, Kadiak and Cook's
Inlet may be called exceptional. But one very valuable species of
yellow cedar (_C. nutkanensis_) is found scattered here and there
within the Alexander Archipelago and on the thirty-mile strip.
Here this really valuable tree is found at wide intervals in small
clumps, principally along shoal water-courses and fiords, attaining
a much greater size than the spruce, as frequently trees are found
100 feet high, with a diameter of five and six feet. The lumber made
from these is exceedingly valuable, of the very finest texture, odor
and endurance, and is highly prized by the cabinetmaker and the
ship-builder.
Thus it will be seen that the forests of Alaska are altogether
coniferous, as the small bodies of the birch and the alder and willow
thickets on the lower Yukon and Kuskokvim Rivers can scarcely be
considered to come under this head. Aside from the yellow cedar, which
is rare, the timber wealth of Alaska consists of the Sitka spruce,
which is not only abundant and large (trees of from three to four feet
in diameter being quite common in south-eastern Alaska and Prince
William Sound), but also generally accessible.
To give even an approximate estimate of the area of timbered lands in
Alaska is at present impossible, in view of our incomplete knowledge of
the extent of mountain ranges, which, though falling within the timber
limits, must be deducted from the superficial area of forest covering.
A few small saw-mills, of exceedingly limited capacity, have been
erected at various points in south-eastern Alaska, to supply the
local demand of trading-posts and mining-camps, but finished building
lumber is still largely imported even into this heavily-timbered
region. In all western Alaska but one small saw-mill is known to exist,
which is on Wood Island, St. Paul Harbor, Kadiak. This mill was first
set up to supply saw-dust for packing ice, but since the collapse
of that industry its operations have been spasmodic and not worth
mentioning. Lumber from Puget Sound and British Columbian mills is
shipped to nearly all ports in western Alaska for the use of whites and
half-breeds, while the natives in their more remote settlements obtain
planks and boards by the very laborious process of splitting logs
with iron or ivory wedges. On the treeless isles of the Shumagin and
Aleutian groups, as well as in the southern settlements of the Aliaska
peninsula, even firewood is imported from more favored sections of the
territory and commands high prices.
The fisheries cover a very large area, but their value and importance,
in consequence of the limited market afforded for exportation on the
Pacific coast, has not been fully developed. The supply certainly is
more than equal to any demand.
The soil of Alaska is not sterile, being at many points of the
requisite depth and fertility for the production of the very best
crops of cereals and tubers. The difficulty with agricultural progress
in Alaska is, therefore, not found in that respect. It is due to the
peculiar climate.
Glancing at the map the observer will notice that hydrographers have
defined the passage of a warm current, sufficient in volume and high
enough in temperature to traverse the vast expanse of the North Pacific
from the coast of Japan up and across a little to the southward of
the Aleutian Islands, and then deflecting down to the mouth of the
Columbia River, where it turns, one branch going north up along the
coast of British Columbia by Sitka, and thence again to the westward
until it turns and bends back upon itself. The other grand arm,
continuing from the first point of bifurcation, in its quiet, steady
flow to the Arctic, passes up to the northeastward through the strait
of Behring. This warm current, stored with tropical heat, gives rise
naturally, as it comes in contact with the colder air and water of the
north, to excessive humidity, which takes form in the prevalent fog,
sleet and rain of Alaska, as noted and recorded with so much surprise
by travelers and temporary residents from other climes. Therefore, at
Sitka, and, indeed, on the entire seaboard of South Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands, instead of finding a degree of excessive cold carried
over to the mainland across the Coast range, which the latitude would
seem to indicate, we find a climate much more mild than rigorous; but
the prevalence of fog clouds or banks, either hanging surcharged with
moisture or dissolving into weeks of consecutive rain, so retard and
arrest a proper ripening of fruits and vegetables in that climate that
the reasonable certainty of success in a garden from year to year is
destroyed.
When we look at Alaska we are impressed by one salient feature, and
that is the remarkable distances which exist between the isolated
settlements. It is not at first apparent, but it grows on the traveler
until he is profoundly moved at the expenditure of physical labor,
patience and skill required to traverse any considerable district of
that country.
The Sitkan district is essentially one of rugged inequality, being
mountainous on the mainland to the exclusion of all other features, and
equally so on the islands. It is traversed here, there and everywhere
by broad arms of the sea and their hundreds and thousands of lesser
channels.
Land travel is simply impracticable. Nobody goes on a road; savages
and whites all travel by the water. Perhaps the greatest humidity and
the heaviest rainfall in the Alaskan country occur here. The equable
and hot rigorous climate permits of free navigation at all seasons of
the year, and it is seldom, indeed, that the little lakes and shallow
lagoons near the sea-level are frozen so firmly as to allow of a
winter's skating.
The Aleutian and Kadiak districts are quite as peculiar in themselves
and as much individualized by their geological age and formation as
is the Sitkan division. They hold within their boundaries a range
of great fire-mountains--grumbling, smoking, quaking hills; some of
these volcanic peaks being so lofty and so impressive as to fix in the
explorer's eye an image superb and grand, and so magnificent as to
render adequate description impossible. Like the Sitkan district, the
Aleutian and Kadiak regions are exceedingly mountainous, there being
very little low or level land compared with the sum total of their
superficial area; but in that portion extending for 1,100 miles to the
westward of Kadiak, nearly over to Asia, bare of timber, a skeleton,
as it were, is presented to the eye and strikes one with a sense of an
individuality here in decided contrast with that of the Sitkan country.
The hills not clothed with timber are covered to their summits in most
cases with a thick crop of circumpolar sphagnum, interspersed with
grasses, and a large flora, bright and beautiful in the summer season.
To thoroughly appreciate how much moisture in the form of fog and rain
settles upon the land, one cannot do better than to leave the ship in
the harbor, or the post where he is stationed, and take up a line of
march through one of the narrow valleys near by to the summit of one of
the lofty peaks. He will step upon what appeared from the window of the
vessel a firm greensward, and sink to his waist in a shaking, tremulous
bog, or slide over moss-grown shingle, painted and concealed by the
luxuriant growth of cryptogamic life, where he expected to find a free
and ready path.
"Passing from this district," says Mr. Petroff, "a very remarkable
region is entered, which I have called the Yukon and the Kuskokvim
divisions. I have during two summers traversed the major portion of
it from the north to the south, confirming many new and some mooted
points. This region covers the deltoid mouth of a vast river, the
Yukon, and the sea-like estuary--the Amazonian mouth of another--the
Kuskokvim, with the extraordinary shoals and bars of Bristol Bay,
where the tides run with surprising volume. The country itself differs
strikingly from the two divisions just sketched, consisting, as it
does, of irregular mountain spurs planted on vast expanses of low,
flat tundra. It is a country which, to our race, perhaps, is far more
inhospitable than either the Sitkan or Kadiak divisions; yet, strange
to say, I have found therein the greatest concentrated population
of the whole Territory. Of course, it is not by agricultural, or by
mining, or any other industry, save the aboriginal art of fishing and
the traffic of the fur trade that the people live; and, again, when
the fur-bearing animals are taken into account, the quality and volume
of that trade are far inferior to those of either of the previously
named divisions, and we find the natives existing in the greatest
number where, according to our measure of compensation, they have the
least to gain.
"This country, outside of these detached mountain regions and spurs,
is a great expanse of bog, lakes, large and small, with thousands of
channels between them, and sluggish currents filled with grasses and
other aqueous vegetation, indicated to the eye by the presence of
water-lilies.
"The traveler, tortured by mosquitoes in summer, blinded, confused and
disturbed by whirling 'purgas,' snow and sleet in winter, finding the
coast rendered almost inaccessible by the vast system of shoaling which
the current of the great Yukon has effected, passes to the interior,
whose superficial area comprises nearly five-sixths of the landed
surface of the Territory.
"Here is an immense tract reaching from Behring Strait, in a succession
of rolling, ice-bound moors and low mountain ranges for 700 miles, an
unbroken waste, to the boundary line of British America. Then, again,
from the crests at the head of Cook's Inlet and the flanks of Mount St.
Elias northward over that vast area of rugged mountain and lonely moor
to the east--nearly 800 miles--is a great expanse of country, over and
through which not much intelligent exploration has been undertaken.
A few traders and prospectors have gone up the Tennanah and over the
old-established track of the Yukon; others have passed to the shores of
Kotzebue Sound overland from the Koyukuk. Dog-sled journeys have been
made by these same people among the natives of the Kuskokvim and those
of the coast between Bristol Bay and Norton Sound. But the trader as
he travels sees nothing, remembers nothing, but his trade, and rarely
is he capable of giving any definite information beyond the single
item of his losses or his gains through the regions he may traverse.
We know, however, enough to say now, without much hesitation, that
this great extent which we call the interior is by its position barred
out from occupation and settlement by our own people, and the climatic
conditions are such that its immense area will remain undisturbed in
the possession of its savage occupants."
The fur trade, which is at present the most important Alaskan industry,
consists of two general branches, the trade in land furs and that
in the furs of marine animals. The former has not, in late years,
decreased in volume, though a decline has been noticed in the supply
of certain sections. The land furs now exported from Alaska consist
of the skins of bears, brown and black, three or four kinds of foxes,
including the very valuable silver and blue foxes, otters, martens,
beavers, minks, muskrats, lynxes, wolves and wolverines. The sea-otter
and the fur-seal supply the pelagic furs, the seal being by far the
more important of the two. Indeed, at present the fur-seal constitutes
wholly one-half of Alaska's natural wealth. The value of the seal-skins
shipped from the Territory and sold in European markets during the
twenty-three years of American occupancy down to 1890 aggregates
about $33,000,000. In the same period the value of other furs was
$16,000,000, and of all other exports only about $14,000,000. The
canned salmon product, which dates only from 1884, has amounted to
nearly $7,000,000, and the value of the cod-fish taken since 1868 has
been fully $3,000,000. The supply of fish of various kinds in Alaska is
practically inexhaustible, but the stores lavished upon the natives of
that country by bountiful nature could not be more wastefully used than
they are now. Any development in the fishing industry must necessarily
be an improvement, causing a saving in the supply. The proportion of
Alaskan fish brought into the markets of the civilized world, when
compared with the consumption of the same articles by the natives, is
so very small that it barely deserves the name of an industry of the
country. The business, however, shows a decided tendency to increase
in magnitude, and within the last few years the shipments of salted
salmon in barrels from the Kadiak-Aleutian divisions have been steadily
increasing.
Next in importance to furs and fish are to be ranked gold and silver.
The first gold mines of real importance were opened at the end of 1880,
near the present settlement of Juneau. At present there are three or
four gold producing quartz mines which ship the precious metal to the
United States, the largest of them being the Treadwell or Paris mine,
which supplies a mill with 240 stamps. There are also paying mines in
the Yukon region which have produced for some years past gold dust
to the value of from $40,000 to $90,000 a year. The total value of
the gold found in Alaska since 1867 is about $4,000,000, but probably
as large a sum has been expended in the same time in prospecting and
opening and equipping the mines. The annual output of silver is
insignificant, amounting to only about $3,000.
Coal has been discovered in various parts of the Territory, but it
is all of the lignite variety. Only one of the veins is at present
operated, and it is situated on Herendeen Bay, on the north side of
the Alaska peninsula. Other veins near Cape Lisburne are utilized by
the ships which visit that region every year, but are not otherwise
systematically worked. Large deposits of copper and of cinnabar are
known to exist, but they are far inland and not readily accessible.
Fourth in importance among the resources of Alaska must be ranked
timber. It is not at present, however, an actual source of wealth,
since its exportation is prohibited by the United States Government and
even the utilization of the forests for local use for lumber and fuel
is much restricted.
The whaling industry is conducted by New Bedford and San Francisco
firms, chiefly north of Behring Strait, but cannot properly be included
among the resources of Alaska. During the season of 1890 the product
of this industry amounted to 14,567 barrels of oil, 226,402 pounds
of whalebone, and 3,980 pounds of walrus ivory, besides considerable
quantities of beaver, bear and white fox furs.
"In this survey of the wealth and resources of Alaska the observer
is struck," says Mr. Petroff, in the census report, "with one rather
discouraging feature: that all these vast resources, the products
of land and sea, are taken out of the country without leaving any
equivalent to the inhabitants. The chief industries, such as salmon
canneries, cod fisheries, mines, and the fur trade, are carried on
with labor imported into Alaska and taken away again, thus taking out
of the country the wages earned. Every pound of subsistence for these
laborers, as well as all of the clothing they use, is carried by them
into Alaska. The shipping of Alaska, which has become of considerable
value, is also carried on wholly by non-residents of the Territory, and
this state of affairs extends even to the important tourists' travel to
the south-eastern district of Alaska. Not only the passage-money, but
the whole cost of subsistence of these tourists during their stay in
Alaska goes to the California owners of the steamship lines. To give
an idea of the magnitude of this traffic it is only necessary to state
that the number of tourists' tickets sold each season exceeds 5,000,
each ticket representing an expenditure of not less than $100, making a
total of $500,000.
"The insignificant payments for furs and labor to natives are absorbed
entirely in the purchase of small quantities of food and raiment. The
spectacle of so vast a tract of country being thus drained continually
for twenty-three years without receiving anything to speak of in
return, cannot probably be equalled in any other part of the United
States and perhaps of the world. At the same time the only prospect for
a change in these circumstances by immigration and settlement of people
who could supply the demand for labor and develop the industries as
residents of the country would appear to be still in the far-distant
future."
The fur-gathering industry still holds the foremost rank in Alaska,
and the most important of its products are the pelts of the sea-otter
and the fur-seal. It is among the Aleutian Islands that these animals
are chiefly taken. The otter is widely distributed throughout the
archipelago. But the fur-seal is taken almost exclusively upon the
Pribyloff or Fur-seal Islands, where they resort in incredible numbers.
The taking of these interesting animals is controlled by the Alaska
Commercial Company, which has enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative trade
since Alaska came into the possession of this country. The actual
work of killing the animals and removing the skins is done by the
native Aleutians, in the Company's employ, and the operation, albeit
sanguinary, is highly picturesque.
In former times, says Mr. Ivan Petroff, the Aleutian hunters prepared
themselves for sea-otter expeditions by fasting, bathing and other
ceremonies. The sea-otter was believed to be possessed of a very
strong aversion to the female sex, and consequently the hunter was
obliged to separate himself from his wife for some time prior to his
departure, and also to prepare the garments he was to wear, or at least
to wash with his own hands such of his garments as had been made by
women. On his return from a successful hunt the superstitious Aleut of
former times would destroy the garments used during his expedition,
and before entering his hut dress himself anew from head to foot in
clothing prepared by his faithful spouse during his absence. The
hunting garments were then thrown into the sea. One old man stated,
in explanation of this proceeding, that the sea-otters would find the
clothing and come to the conclusion that their late persecutor must
be drowned, and that there was no further danger. With the spread of
the Christian religion among the sea-otter hunters most of these
superstitious ceremonies were abolished, but even at the present day
the sea-otter hunter occupies a prominent position in the community
and enjoys great social advantages. Anything he may want which is not
in the possession of his own family will be at once supplied by his
neighbors, and weeks, and even months, are spent in careful preparation
of arms, canoes and implements.
The mode of hunting the animal has not essentially changed since the
earliest times. A few privileged white men located in the district
of Ounga employ firearms, but the great body of Aleutian hunters
still retain the spear and in a few instances the bow and arrow. The
sea-otter is always hunted by parties of from four to twenty bidarkas,
each manned by two hunters. From their village the hunters proceed to
some lonely coast near the hunting-ground, either in their canoes or
by schooners and sloops belonging to the trading firms, a few women
generally accompanying the party to do the housework in the camp. In
former times, of course, this was not the case. The tents of the party
are pitched in some spot, not visible from the sea, and the hunters
patiently settle down to await the first favorable day, only a smooth
sea permitting the hunting of sea-otter with any prospect of success.
In the inhospitable climate of Alaska weeks and months sometimes
pass by before the patient hunters are enabled to try their skill. A
weatherwise individual, here yclept "astronome," generally accompanies
each party, giving due notice of the approach of favorable weather
and the exact time when it is best to set out, and few Aleuts are
bold enough to begin a hunt without the sanction of this individual.
At last the day arrives, and after a brief prayer the hunters embark
fully equipped, and in the best of spirits exchange jokes and banter
until the beach is left behind; then silence reigns, the peredovchik
or leader assumes command, and at a signal from him the bidarkas start
out in a semicircle from fifty to one hundred yards distant from each
other, each hunter anxiously scanning the surface of the water, at the
same time having an eye upon the other canoes. The sea-otter comes up
to the surface to breathe about once in every ten minutes, the smooth,
glossy head remaining visible but a few seconds each time.
As soon as the hunter spies an otter he lifts his paddle as a signal
and then points it in the direction taken by the animal, and the
scattered bidarkas at once close in a wide circle around the spot
indicated by the fortunate discoverer. If the animal comes up within
this circle the hunters simply close in, gradually beating the water
with their hands to prevent the escape of the quarry; but very often
the wary animal has changed his direction after diving, and the whole
fleet of canoes is obliged to change course frequently before the final
circle is formed. As soon as the otter comes up within spear's throw
one of the hunters exerts his skill and lodges a spear-head in the
animal, which immediately dives. An inflated bladder is attached to
the shaft, preventing the otter from diving very deep. It soon comes
up again, only to receive a number of other missiles, the intervals
between attacks becoming shorter each time, until exhaustion forces
the otter to remain on the surface and receive its death wound. The
body of the animal is then taken into one of the bidarkas and the hunt
continues if the weather is favorable. On the return of the party each
animal killed is inspected by the chief in the presence of all the
hunters and its ownership ascertained by the spear-head that caused
the mortal wound, each weapon being duly marked. The man who first
struck the otter receives from two to ten dollars from the owner. The
skins of the slain animals are at once removed, labelled and classified
according to quality by the agents of the trading firms and carefully
stored for shipment. It frequently happens that a whole day passes by
without a single sea-otter being sighted, but the Aleut hunters have
a wonderful patience and do not leave a place once selected without
killing some sea-otters, be the delay ever so long. There are instances
where hunting parties have remained on barren islands for years,
subsisting entirely on "algæ" and mussels cast from the sea. On the
principal sea-otter grounds of the present time, the Island of Sannakh
and the neighborhood of Belkovsky, the hunting parties seldom remain
over four or five months without securing sea-otters in sufficient
number to warrant their return. Single hunters have sold sea-otters
to the value of eight hundred dollars as their share of such brief
expeditions, but payment is not made until the return of the party to
their home station.
As soon as the result of a day's hunt has been ascertained, the chief
or leader reminds the hunters of their duty toward the Church, and
with their unanimous consent some skin, generally of a small animal,
is selected as a donation to the priest, all contributing to reimburse
the owner. The schools also receive donations of this kind, and the
skins thus designated are labelled accordingly and turned over to the
trading firms, who place the cash value at the disposal of the priest.
Rivalry in the business of purchasing sea-otter skins has induced the
various firms to send agents with small assortments of goods to all the
hunting-grounds, as an inducement to the members of parties to squander
some of their earnings in advance.
The method of killing the sea-otter is virtually the same in all
sections frequented by it.
The killing of fur-seals is accomplished entirely on land, and has been
reduced almost to a science of the greatest dispatch and system. The
able-bodied Aleuts now settled upon the two islands of Saint Paul and
Saint George are, by the terms of the agreement between themselves and
the lessees, the only individuals permitted to kill and skin the seals
for the annual shipment as long as they are able to perform the labor
efficiently within a given time. For this labor they are remunerated
at the rate of forty cents per animal. Life-long practice has made
them expert in using their huge clubs and sharp skinning-knives, both
implements being manufactured expressly for this use. These men are as
a class proud of their accomplishments as sealers, and too proud to
demean themselves in doing any other kind of work. For all incidental
labor, such as building, packing, loading and unloading vessels, etc.,
the lessees find it necessary to engage laborers from the Aleutian
Islands, these latter individuals being generally paid at the rate of
one dollar _per diem_.
The work connected with the killing of the annual quota of fur-seals
may be divided into two distinct features, the separation of the seals
of a certain age and size from the main body and their removal to the
killing-ground forming the preliminary movements; the final operation
consisting of another selection among the select, and killing and
skinning the same. The driving as well as the killing cannot be done
in every kind of weather, a damp, cool, cloudy day being especially
desirable for the purpose.
As it is the habit of the young male seals up to the age of four years
to lie upon the ground back of the so-called rookeries or groups of
families that line the seashore, the experienced natives manage to
crawl in between the families and the "bachelors," as they were named
by the Russians, and gradually drive them inland in divisions of from
2,000 to 3,000. It is unsafe to drive the seals more than five or six
miles during any one day, as they easily become overheated and their
skins are thereby injured. When night comes on the driving ceases,
and sentries are posted around each division, to prevent the animals
from straying during the night, occasional whistling being sufficient
to keep them together. In the morning, if the weather be favorable,
the drive is continued until the killing-ground is reached, where the
victims are allowed to rest over night under guard, and finally, as
early as possible in the morning, the sealers appear with their clubs,
when again small parties of twenty to thirty seals are separated from
their fellows, surrounded by the sealers, and the slaughter begins.
Even at this last moment another selection is made, and any animal
appearing to the eye of the experienced Aleut to be either below or
above the specified age is dismissed with a gentle tap of the club,
and allowed to go on its way to the shore, rejoicing at its narrow
escape. The men with clubs proceed from one ground to the other,
immediately followed by the men with knives, who stab each stunned
seal to the heart to insure its immediate death. These men are in turn
followed by the skinners, who with astonishing rapidity divest the
carcasses of their valuable covering, leaving, however, the head and
flippers intact. Only a few paces behind the skinners come carts drawn
by mules, into which the skins are rapidly thrown and carried away.
The wives and daughters of the sealers linger around the rear of the
death-dealing column, reaping a rich harvest of blubber which they
carry away on their heads, the luscious oil dripping down their faces
and over their garments.
The skins, yet warm from the body, are discharged into capacious
salt-houses and salted down for the time being like fish in bins. This
treatment is continued for some time, and after the application of
heavy pressure they are finally tied into bundles of two each, securely
strapped, and then shipped.