Steamship Corona and her Passengers.—The New Eldorado.—The Greed for
Gold.—Alaska the Synonym of Glacier Fields.—Vegetation of the
Islands.—Aleutian Islands.—Attoo our most Westerly Possession.—Native
Whalers.—Life on the Island of Attoo.—Unalaska.—Kodiak, former Capital
of Russian America.—The Greek Church.—Whence the Natives originally
came.
Our journey through that portion of Alaska known as the Inland Sea was
made in the steamship Corona, Captain Carroll, a commander who has had
long experience in these waters. His pleasure seemed to lie in the
degree of enjoyment which he could afford his passengers, and the amount
of information which he was enabled to impart to them. There were on
board the Corona the members of a large excursion party conducted by
Raymond & Whitcomb of Boston, numbering some eighty persons. We have
rarely seen together a large party of ladies and gentlemen embracing so
many cultured and agreeable persons. They had already occupied some
weeks in a tour of Mexico and southern California. It was exceedingly
pleasant to see the courtesy and consideration exercised among them
towards each other,—amenities which go so far to lighten the inevitable
inconveniences of travel, and to enhance its enjoyments. Oftentimes
friendships are formed under such circumstances which continue through
every exigency to the very end of life.
Having reached latitude 54° 40′ (the fifty-four forty or fight of 1862),
we come to the boundary line between British Columbia and the United
States, Dixon Entrance being on the left and Fort Tongas on the right.
Here the far-reaching Portland Canal, or more properly channel,
penetrates the mainland for a great distance, precisely like the
Norwegian fjords, presenting, with its various arms, stupendous watery
cañons, whence arise mountain precipices thousands of feet high on
either side of the deep narrow course, their heads shrouded in perpetual
snow. This channel, or fjord, runs nearly due north, and forms a
boundary line to its head between the English and United States
possessions.
Opposite and just south of Fort Tongas lies Fort Simpson, on British
soil, and close at hand is Metla-katla, where that self-sacrificing
missionary, Mr. Duncan, gathered and established a village of a thousand
Christian residents from the various savage tribes of the vicinity. By
his individual effort, with almost miraculous success, he raised from
the lowest depths of barbarous life a law-abiding, religious,
industrious, and self-supporting community, who justly considered him
their moral and physical savior. Official persecution drove Mr. Duncan
from Metla-katla to the nearest available American island, namely,
Annetta, lying some sixty miles northward. Eight hundred of these
aborigines whom he had reclaimed from savage life and its terrible
practices have followed him with their families, freely abandoning all
their property and improvements at Metla-katla, and are now struggling
to create for themselves a new and permanent home under the United
States.
The Senate committee, whose members lately visited Alaska, made a call
at Annetta, and “found,” as one of its members writes to the press, “the
Indians living in an apparent condition of contentment, and engaged in
almost all the pursuits of the whites. Their execution of artistic
designs upon silver wrought by themselves into bracelets, rings, and all
kinds of jewelry is marvelous. Baskets made in brilliant colors from
stripped reeds constitute a beautiful and artistic employment of most of
the women of the tribe. Their particular ambition is their anxiety to
possess lands in severalty, or to have certain parcels set aside for
them, that they may cultivate and hold in individual right. They ask
that the whole of Gravine Island be given to their tribe. They found the
state of the morals of the Indian women at Annetta, or, as they call it,
New Metla-katla, far above the average of Indian women of this
Territory. At Sitka the committee visited the habitations of the
Indians, and learned much from personal intercourse as to their habits
and needs. It was found that the companionship and virtue of the women
is a matter of simply dollars and cents, and not difficult to negotiate
for.”
“The committee were surprised to observe such an apparent freedom from
rowdyism, quarrels, and disturbances of any character in any portion of
the Territory, and remarked the entire absence of six-shooters about the
person of a single individual, a feature always so prominent in the
mining camps of the West.”
Until Alaska—THE NEW ELDORADO—came into our possession, it was from the
persistent and adventurous fur-traders that our knowledge of the country
was almost solely obtained. To most of the public it was (and is still
to many) scarcely more than a geographical expression, occupying an
insignificant space on the extreme northwest portion of the maps of
North America, without any regard being paid to the scale on which the
other States and Territories of the country are delineated. The fact
nevertheless stares us in the face, that Alaska is nearly as large as
the whole of the United States lying east of the Mississippi River, or
three times as large as France. Within the last twenty years greater
intelligence has been shown, in part through missionaries,—
self-sacrificing and devout men,—who have sought by their teachings to
abolish the wild superstitions of the natives, together with their cruel
rites of Shamanism. Organized companies of explorers, as well as
enterprising miners and prospectors, have also liberally furnished us
with general information relating to this great outlying province, which
has been found to be so full of mineral wealth and future promise. But
so vast is the Territory, so varied the climate, and so undeveloped are
the means of access to its several parts, that our information as
regards detail is still very meagre. There are not ten miles of roadway
in all of Alaska outside of the island of Kodiak; or rather, we should
say, the island just opposite Kodiak, namely, Wood Island, which has a
road constructed completely round it, covering a dozen miles or
thereabouts. The only road at Sitka is not over a mile and a half in
length, and these two are the only ones in this vast Territory. Two
objects of commercial gain, the profitable fur-trade and seeking for
gold, have been the great agents of progress and development thus far in
Alaska. In a like manner it was the greed for gold that first sent the
Spaniards to Mexico and Peru; in pursuit of the lucrative fur-traffic
the French and Britons opened the way for civilization in Canada. Here
in Alaska it will not be philanthropy,—some of whose noblest exponents
are upon the ground,—but self-interest; not government enterprise, but
the seeking for precious metals, which will gradually unfold the great
wealth and resources of this extensive province, whose area is greater
than the thirteen original States of this Union. The hope of commercial
gain has doubtless done nearly as much for the cause of truth and
progress as the love of truth itself. The course of multitudes, guided
by the natural instinct of selfishness, will be overruled by a higher
power for the general good.
The very name of Alaska has to the popular ear a ring of glacier fields
and snow-clad peaks, conveying a frigid impression of the climate quite
contrary to fact. The most habitable portions of the country lie between
55° and 60° north, about the same latitude as that of Scotland and
southern Scandinavia, but the area of this portion of Alaska is greater
than that of both these countries combined. The name is derived from
Al-ay-ck-sa, which was given to the mainland by the aborigines, and
which signifies “great country.” On the old maps it is very properly
designated as Russian America, and so it really was until its transfer
from the possession of that government to our own. It was at the request
of Charles Sumner, whose able, eloquent, and consistent advocacy did so
much towards its acquirement, that the aboriginal title of Alaska was
adopted. The portion of the country which is at present visited by
excursionists is the southeastern coast line and the archipelago of the
Sitkan Islands or Alexander group. If one desires to reach the vast
country and islands lying to the west and northwest, the proper way to
do so is to sail direct from San Francisco for Unalaska and Kodiak. The
last named island lies south of Cook’s Inlet, one of the most remarkable
volcanic regions in the Territory. Sitka is five hundred and fifty miles
to the eastward of Kodiak. Cook’s Inlet is well named, as the great
discoverer sailed to its very head in 1778, being the first white man
who ever did so, and, indeed, few have done it since. This was while he
was prosecuting his vain search for a northwest passage around the
continent of America. The finest and largest salmon which were ever
known are taken in Cook’s Inlet, reaching the weight of one hundred
pounds in some instances, and measuring six feet in length. The island
of Kodiak is also famous for its excellent and abundant salmon
fisheries.
In 1874 a committee from the Icelandic residents of Wisconsin, aided by
our government, made an excursion to Alaska to determine whether it
would be advisable to recommend their people in Iceland to seek homes in
and about Kodiak. The report of this committee, which consisted of three
experienced and intelligent men, was published from the government
printing-office in Washington, and from it we quote as follows:—
“Potatoes grow and do well, although the natives have not the slightest
idea of how they should be cultivated, which goes to show they would
thrive excellently if properly cared for. Cabbages, turnips, and the
various garden vegetables have great success, and to judge from the soil
and climate there is no reason why everything that succeeds in Scotland
should not succeed at Kodiak. Pasture land is so excellent on the
island, and the hay harvest so abundant, that our countrymen would here,
just as in Iceland, make sheep breeding and cattle-raising their chief
method of livelihood. The quality of the grass is such that the milk,
the beef, and mutton must be excellent; and we had also an opportunity
to try these at Kodiak.”
The purpose of colonizing portions of Alaska with people from Iceland is
being revived, and active measures to this end are now progressing. The
people of that country are eager to avail themselves of such an
opportunity. They are being gradually crowded out of their native land
by the increased flow of volcanic matter over their plains and valleys.
Alaska, while it affords them in certain portions, say the valley of the
Yukon, a climate similar to their own, offers them also many advantages
over the place of their nativity. It is authoritatively stated that over
fifty thousand souls will gladly avail themselves of this chance to
emigrate to Alaska, provided our government will aid them in the matter
of transportation. At this writing, in the village of Afognak, on the
island of Kodiak, with a population of three hundred natives, over one
hundred acres of rich land is planted in potatoes and turnips, and has
yielded annually a large crop of excellent vegetables for three or four
consecutive years. If it were necessary we could point to several other
successful agricultural developments in islands even less favorably
situated than is the Kodiak group. Nevertheless, there are plenty of
writers who assert that domestic vegetables will not grow in Alaska. One
has no patience with such perversion of facts.
Miss Kate Field says in a late published article relative to Alaska: “In
agriculture Alaska is not promising, but the country is by no means as
impossible in this respect as it has been represented. ‘There is not an
acre of grain in the whole territory,’ wrote Whymper. Because there was
no grain grown, it by no means follows that grain cannot be grown in
certain localities. Hundreds of acres of land near Wrangel can be
drained and cultivated. The Indians on the neighboring islands raise
tons of potatoes and turnips for their own consumption. Butter made for
me by the Scotch housekeeper of Wrangel mission was a sweet boon, and
proved that cows were a success in that region, and that dairies were a
mere question of time.”
The island of the Aleutian group situated the farthest seaward is named
Attoo, and forms the most westerly point of the possessions of the
United States. This island is situated about seven thousand five hundred
miles in a straight line from the eastern coast of Maine, and is a
little over three thousand miles west of San Francisco, making that city
about the central point between the extreme east and west of this Union.
It would be nearer, if one desired to reach England from Attoo, to
continue his journey westward, rather than to travel east and cross the
Atlantic. A few moments’ examination of the globe or a good map of the
world is especially desirable in this connection, and unless one is
already familiar with this region will prove interesting and
instructive. The Aleutian group, besides innumerable islets and rocks,
contains over fifty islands exceeding three miles in length, seven of
them being over forty miles long. Unimak, which is the largest, is over
seventy miles long, with an average width of twenty.
It seems almost impossible to conceive of these islands having ever been
densely populated, where human life is so sparsely represented to-day,
and yet scientific investigation gives ample proof that in the far past
every cove and bay echoed to the cry of the successful otter hunter, and
the beaches now lined with numberless bidarkas or native canoes. The
mummies which W. H. Dall brought hence may have been ten centuries old.
This able investigator tells us of ruined villages and deserted hearths,
to be found in almost any sheltered cove or favorably situated upland. A
few strokes of the pick and the spade is sure to unearth arrow-heads,
stone axes, and chipped implements of flint, or perhaps even the
singularly proportioned bones of a now extinct human race. Bones have
been exhumed on these islands which have puzzled scientists to account
for.
When these islands were discovered by the Russians the inhabitants of
Attoo were numerous, warlike, and brave, being well supplied with otter
skins, and altogether were a self-reliant and thrifty tribe. Now the
place contains but one small village, numbering about a hundred and
twenty souls, situated on the south side of the island in a sheltered
cove.
There are residents living upon Attoo to-day who have in their time
witnessed two wrecks of Japanese vessels upon their shores; and who can
say that Attoo was not originally peopled in this manner by Asiatics
thousands of years ago? It was so late as 1861 that the last Japanese
junk was stranded upon the island; three of the Japanese sailors
surviving were ultimately sent home by way of Siberia overland.
The sea-otter has been driven from this immediate neighborhood by too
vigorous and indiscriminate pursuit, but the sea-lion, various
water-fowls, and plenty of cod, halibut, and salmon still abound among
these lonely islands of the North Pacific. Occasionally a dead whale is
stranded on the shore, which is considered a cause for great rejoicing,
every part of the animal being utilized by the natives. No matter how
putrid the flesh may be, it is eagerly eaten by these people, both raw
and cooked. When a school of whales appears in sight of these shores,
the natives go out in their frail boats, and with lances so prepared as
to work into the vitals of the big creatures, they pierce them in the
most vulnerable places, leaving the animal to die where it will, and
trusting to the currents to carry the body where they can reach it. To
their lances there are securely attached inflated sealskin buoys, which
render diving a very laborious exertion to the whales, and which aid
finally in securing the carcass. In this way, it is said, the natives
get one whale out of fifteen or twenty which they succeed in harpooning.
Whales, singular to say, are more esteemed as food by all the Alaskan
shore tribes than any other product of the sea, or, in fact, any other
sort of food. The securing of one is an event celebrated with limitless
feasting and rejoicing. A New England whale-ship captain told the writer
that he had seen these natives cut long strips of blubber from the body
of a stranded whale, which had been so long dead that it was with
difficulty he could breathe the atmosphere to leeward of the carcass,
and chew upon the same with the greatest relish until it had entirely
disappeared down their throats, the oil dripping all the while in small
streams from the corners of their mouths. This is not a practice
confined to the Aleuts, but extends throughout the several groups of
islands, and is also a marked habit of the Eskimos proper, living both
north and south of Behring Strait, and on the coast of the Polar Sea.
“The natives would rather have a dead whale drift ashore,” says Mr.
George Wardman, United States Treasury agent in Alaska, “than to own the
best crop of the biggest farm in the United States. Dead whale is a
great blessing in the Aleutian part of our Alaska possessions, and
agricultural products are but little sought after or valued. The dead
whale may be so putrid that the effluvia arising from it will blacken
the white paint of a vessel lying one hundred yards distant, but, all
the same, the whale is a blessing.”
There is a variety store kept on Attoo by an agent of the Alaska
Commercial Company, where the natives exchange their furs for tea,
sugar, and hard biscuit, besides tobacco and a few fancy articles.
The mountains which surround the settlement are two or three thousand
feet in height, “rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,” and are white with
snow for a considerable portion of the year. These Aleutian Islands,
bounded by wave-battered rocks, stretching far out in the Pacific
towards Asia, have no trees, the soil not having sufficient depth to
support them, but they are thickly covered with a low-growing, luxuriant
vegetation in great variety. Between the mountains and the sea are many
natural prairies, with a rich soil of vegetable mould suitable for
domestic gardening. The wood consumed by the inhabitants as fuel is the
product of drift-logs or trees reclaimed from the sea. On the breaking
up of winter in the large islands at the northeast and on the mainland,
the unsealing of the ice-bound rivers sends down from the great forests
through which they flow thousands of fallen trees, many of which are
very large. This is especially the case with the Yukon River, which
empties its immense accumulation of debris into Norton Sound, and the
Kuskoquin, emptying into a bay of the same name one hundred and fifty
miles farther south. When these tree trunks find their way to the open
sea, the prevailing currents bear them southward to the Aleutian
Islands, where a large number become stranded at Attoo, and are promptly
secured and stored for use as fuel. It would seem to be rather a
precarious source of supply to depend upon for this purpose, but we were
told that, as a rule, it was ample to meet the demand. There is also a
stocky vine growing in great abundance upon the islands, which the
native women gather and dry, and this makes a quick, strong fire. At
certain seasons the women may be seen in long lines coming from the
hills, each one bearing upon her back a monster bundle of this product,
which they store for use when the other source of fuel fails them or
proves insufficient. The people of Attoo have tamed the wild goose, of
which they rear considerable flocks for domestic use, similar to our New
England custom with the tame bird, and it is said they are the only
tribe in Alaska who do so. Long since the blue fox was by some means
introduced upon the island, and being at first properly protected, the
place has become fairly stocked with them, a certain number only being
killed annually by the natives, and from their valuable fur these Aleuts
realize quite a large sum. Were it necessary, lumber could be brought in
small quantities from the island of Kodiak, or even from the mainland
far away; but there is very little use for it in Attoo, the houses being
built of drift-logs and not of boards. Besides the low, thrifty species
of shrubbery growing on these islands, there are also wild berries in
great abundance, the original seeds having probably been brought by the
birds from the mainland. Grasses grow luxuriantly, being cut and cured
to feed a few small Siberian cattle through the winter months, though it
is hardly necessary to house them at all. They are kept on only one or
two of the larger islands of the group. Domestic animals might do well
here with a little care, but the attention of the natives is given
almost exclusively to the products of the sea, whose very bounty
demoralizes them. At Unalaska, of this same group, the natural grass
grows to six feet in height, and with such body that one must part it by
exerting considerable force in order to get through. The natives braid
it into useful and ornamental articles, hats, baskets, mats, and the
like. This prolific growth is represented to be remarkably nutritious,
and cattle are very fond of it. W. H. Dall predicted that this Aleutian
district will yet furnish California with its best butter and cheese;
while Dr. Kellogg, botanist of the United States Exploring Expedition,
wrote: “Unalaska abounds in grasses, with a climate better adapted for
haying than the coast of Oregon. The cattle are remarkably fat, and the
milk abundant.” This is the refitting station for all vessels passing
between the Pacific Ocean and Behring Strait, and here also is the
principal trading post of the Alaska Commercial Company.
Mr. George Wardman, United States Treasury Agent, that stated on his
late visit to this island he saw in one warehouse sea-otter skins ready
for shipment which were worth quarter of a million dollars in the London
market. This will represent, perhaps, two thirds of all this class of
pelts furnished to the world annually, as comparatively few go from any
other quarter. Other land furs are brought here for shipment to San
Francisco, two fur companies having headquarters at Unalaska. The place
has some sixty native houses, and perhaps five hundred inhabitants.
Unalaska is known to be rich in both gold and silver mines, one of which
is owned by a San Francisco company, and which it is proposed to fully
develop and work during the coming year, careful tests having proven its
prospective value.
The same fertility seen at Unalaska exists also at Kodiak and Atagnak,
where the small breed of cattle that live upon the grass are as fat as
seals, and require no shelter all the year round. There is a small
ship-yard near the first named island, where vessels of twenty-five and
thirty tons are built for fishing in the neighboring sea. These two
islands, situated just off the eastern shore of the Alaska Peninsula,
are called the garden spots of this region, enjoying more sunshine and
fair weather than any other part of the Territory. They contain rich
pastures, beautiful woodlands, and broad open fields, which during the
summer are carpeted with constant verdure and wild flowers. Kodiak was
for a long time the capital of the Russian American possessions, but the
government headquarters were removed for some reason to Sitka. On Wood
Island, opposite Kodiak, is the clear and spacious lake which so long
furnished ice to the dwellers on the Pacific coast, but particularly to
the people of San Francisco. The whole range of Aleutian Islands from
Attoo to Kodiak contains between four and five thousand inhabitants,
nearly all of whom are called Christians, being members of the Greek
Church. They are very generally half-breeds, that is, born of
intermarriage between emigrant Russians and native women. Professor
Davidson was struck by the strong resemblance of the aboriginal tribes
inhabiting these islands to the Chinese and Japanese, and was satisfied
that they came originally from Asia. There are many very intelligent
persons among them. “They are docile, honest, industrious, and very
ingenious,” says Professor Davidson. The women of Unalaska have always
been noted for the beauty and variety of their woven grass mats and
various other ornamental work, particularly in the combinations of
colors and unique designs.
This cunning of the hand and artistic ingenuity is not confined to the
women; the men are also skillful carvers and engravers. Whenever they
have been afforded a fair degree of instruction, and the opportunity to
exercise their ability, they have proved themselves to be adepts
especially in this last mentioned branch of skilled labor. We have seen
artistic work produced by a native Unalaskan which it was difficult to
believe was not the performance of some experienced and thoroughly
educated European.
The thirty-eight charts in the Hydrographic Atlas of Tebenkoff were all
drawn and engraved on copper by a native Aleut.
On the island of Unga, one of the Shumagin group, situated half way
between Unalaska and Kodiak, is a small settlement of a score of white
men and about a hundred and fifty natives. By a regulation of our
Treasury Department, only natives are allowed to hunt the sea-otter, and
therefore these white men have married native wives, thereby becoming
natives in the eyes of the law. The revenue derived from the sea-otter
trade on this island is said to average from six to seven hundred
dollars a year to every family. Off the southern shore of the Shumagin
group is the best cod fishing bank that is known. It is estimated that a
million good-sized cod were taken here last season and shipped to San
Francisco. This metropolis of California once depended upon the product
of our Newfoundland fisheries for its salted cod, but has drawn its
supply for the last few years almost entirely from the coast of Alaska,
and the consumption has increased every year.
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