Territorial Acquisitions.—Population of Alaska.—Steady Commercial
Growth.—Primeval Forests.—The Country teems with Animal Life.—A Mighty
Reserve of Codfish.—Native Food.—Fur-Bearing Animals.—Islands of St.
George and St. Paul.—Interesting Habits of the Fur-Seal.—The Breeding
Season.—Their Natural Food.—Mammoth Size of the Bull Seals.
The subject of the addition of Alaska to the United States suggests the
fact that our territorial acquisitions from time to time form certain
decided and interesting landmarks in the history of the country. Thus,
in 1803 we acquired Louisiana from France by the payment of fifteen
million dollars. In 1845 Texas was annexed and her debt assumed,
amounting to the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars. In
1848 California, New Mexico, and Utah were acquired from Mexico, partly
through war, and by the payment of fifteen million dollars. In 1854
Arizona was purchased from Mexico for ten million dollars. And last, but
by no means least, Alaska, as has been stated, was obtained from Russia
in 1867 for seven million two hundred thousand dollars. “By this
purchase,” said Charles Summer in his able speech before Congress, “we
dismiss one more monarch from this continent. One by one they have
retired; first France; then Spain; then France again; and now Russia;
all give way to the absorbing Unity which is declared in the national
motto, _E Pluribus Unum_.”
At the time of the transfer of Alaska, the native population, Russians,
half-breeds and all, did not probably exceed forty thousand; indeed,
careful inquiry seems to indicate that this is an overestimate. Since
that period the native population has steadily decreased, but the white
population has increased, it is believed, sufficiently to make good the
estimated aggregate of twenty-two years ago. In 1867 the commerce of
Alaska was officially reported as being two million five hundred
thousand dollars for the current year. The published estimate for the
last year made it a fraction less than seven million dollars, of which
about a million five hundred thousand dollars was in gold bullion.
Certainly this shows a very steady if not rapid commercial growth.
Competent individuals estimate that the commerce of the Territory for
the year 1889 will reach ten million dollars in amount. The increase in
the number of fish-canning establishments alone will add two millions to
last year’s aggregate. The shipment of preserved salmon exported in tins
and barrels is increasing annually.
The available timber now standing in the Territory might alone meet the
ordinary demand of this continent for half a century. Though the extreme
northern part of Alaska is treeless, its southern shores, both of the
islands and mainland, are covered with a dense forest growth, the
Aleutian group excepted. It is the visible wealth of the country, and a
source of admiration to all appreciative visitors.
Fort Tongas is very near the southeast point of Alaska, and about ten
miles north of Fort Simpson; the former American, the latter English
territory. When the ground was cleared to establish the American fort,
“yellow cedar-trees,” says W. H. Dall, “eight feet in diameter were cut
down. The flanks of all the islands of this archipelago bear a
magnificent growth of the finest timber, from the water’s edge to
fifteen hundred feet above the sea.” It must be a cedar of magnificent
proportions out of which the natives can hew and construct a canoe
seventy feet long capable of carrying one hundred men. This the Haidas
do, producing models both swift and seaworthy, the prows extending in a
peak not unlike the ancient galleys of Greece, decorated with totemic
designs. These magnificent forests, having never felt the stroke of the
axe, present a growth naturally very dense and peculiar, the branches of
the tall trees being often draped with long black and white moss, dry
and fine as hair, which it resembles. This characteristic recalled the
same effect observed upon the thickly wooded shores of the St. John
River in Florida, and the Lake Pontchartrain district of Louisiana. The
fallen trees and stumps are cushioned by a growth of green, velvety
moss, nearly ten inches in thickness, and are also decked with creeping
vines in the most picturesque manner; among which is seen here and there
deep red clusters of the bunch-berry. The timber is pronounced by good
judges to be as valuable as that of Oregon and Washington, compared with
which our forests in Maine are hardly more than tall undergrowth. A very
large percentage of the Alaska timber grows at the most convenient
points for shipment, making it especially available. The white spruce,
called the Sitka pine, rises to a height of from a hundred and fifty to
a hundred and eighty feet, and measures from three to six feet in
diameter. When this growth is cut into dimension lumber it very much
resembles our southern pitch-pine. There is also found in these forests
the usual variety of cedar, fir, ash, maple, and birch trees, mingled
with the others of loftier growth. The yellow cedar of this region grows
nowhere else of such size and quality. It is much prized, and best
adapted for shipbuilding, having been found to be unequaled for
durability, and also because it is impervious to the troublesome teredo,
or boring worm, which destroys the ordinary piles under the wharves at
Puget Sound, as well as at Sitka, so rapidly as to render it necessary
to renew them every three or four years. Southern latitudes, in the
neighborhood of the Gulf of Mexico, suffer equally from the depredations
of this active marine pest. The Alaska cedar is also a choice cabinet
wood, possessing a very agreeable odor, considerable quantities of it
being shipped for select use in San Francisco and elsewhere. The coast
of the Alexander Archipelago comprises nearly eight thousand miles of
shore line, forming long straight avenues of calm deep water many miles
in length, sprinkled with islands densely wooded from the water’s edge,
while the number of good harbors is almost countless, in which vessels
may lay alongside the land and receive their cargoes of timber or lumber
in the most convenient manner.
When the woods of Maine and Michigan cease to yield satisfactorily, as
they must do by and by, we have here a ready source of supply which no
ordinary demand can exhaust in many years. One enthusiastic writer upon
this subject predicts that this part of the North Pacific coast will
eventually become the ship-yard of the American continent. One is hardly
prepared to indorse so sweeping a prediction, but that there is a nearly
inexhaustible supply of the necessary timber for such a purpose even an
inexperienced visitor cannot fail to realize. It is gratifying to know
that these forests are free from all danger by fire, which often proves
so destructive in the State of Washington and elsewhere. This immunity
from a much dreaded exigency is owing to the frequent rains, which keep
the undergrowth in Alaska so moist that the flames cannot spread.
Speaking of Fort Tongas, we should not forget to mention that a native
couple, educated by the missionaries, are here teaching a school of
young natives numbering fifty pupils, for which our government pays them
five hundred dollars per annum. The success attained by these
instructors in teaching the ordinary branches of an English education is
surprising. Tongas, it will be remembered, is the most southerly point
of our Alaska possessions.
The country teems with animal life. The sea which laves its shores and
the outlying islands is so full of excellent fish as to have been a
wonder in this respect since the days of the earliest navigators. The
same may be said of its rivers, inlets, and lakes, the former being
famous for the abundance, size, and excellence of the salmon which they
produce, and which are annually packed for exportation in such large
quantities to various parts of the world. We were told by the overseer
of the canning factory at Pyramid Harbor that the entire product of the
establishment was already—the season but just commencing—engaged by a
Liverpool house. To secure the delivery the foreign merchant had
cheerfully advanced five hundred pounds sterling.
“The Alaska banks would be an ocean paradise to the Newfoundland
fishermen,” says Professor Davidson. “The eastern part of Behring Sea
‘is a mighty reserve of cod,’ and the area within the limits of fifty
fathoms of water is no less than eighteen thousand miles.” “What I have
seen,” said W. H. Seward at Sitka, in 1869, “has almost made me a
convert to the theory of some naturalists, that the waters of the globe
are filled with stores for the sustenance of animal life surpassing the
available productions of the land.” The coast also abounds in oysters,
clams, mussels, and crabs. The oysters are small, but of excellent
flavor, and might be greatly improved by cultivation. Clams and mussels
are much esteemed by the aborigines, the first-named being large and of
prime quality. They dry the clams, as they do salmon and cod, using no
salt in the process, but stringing them by the score on long blades of
strong grass, and in this shape laying them away for winter use. There
is certainly some special preservative quality in the atmosphere here
which enables the natives to keep clams unfrozen in good condition for
several months. The matter of “ripeness,” however, makes no difference
to these Indians, who seem actually to prefer their fish a little
putrid, and oil is purposely kept until it becomes so before they will
use it.
The hills and valleys of the islands and the mainland support more
fur-bearing animals than can be found on any other part of this
continent, and we certainly believe of any other part of the world. The
great variety includes bears of several species, wolves, beavers, deer,
foxes, caribou, martens, mountain goats, moose, musk-oxen, and others.
Herds of walruses are found on the far north coast, as well as in
Behring Sea, which yield food to the natives, and the best of ivory for
sale to the traders. It is a curious fact that no reptile, toad, lizard,
or similar animal is to be found in Alaskan territory. The waters of the
North Pacific, from the most westerly of the Aleutian Islands up to
Behring Strait, swarm with cod, haddock, sturgeon, large flounders, and
halibut, while our hardy whale men successfully pursue their mammoth
game both north and south of the strait. When the country was first
discovered, there was another important animal found here in
considerable numbers, known as the sea-cow, which furnished Vancouver
and his crew with wholesome and palatable meat, and which had formed a
source of food supply for the aborigines probably for centuries. But
this large, amphibious animal, thirty feet long and seal-like in shape,
has now entirely disappeared. This was owing to merciless slaughter by
the Russians, who found the sea-cow an easy prey to capture, because of
its inactivity and clumsiness in the water, besides which, the creature
is said to have been utterly fearless of man, making no effort to escape
when attacked. They are represented to have been fierce when attacked by
the wolves, and to have been fully able to defend themselves.
Two islands lying to the north of the Aleutian group form a favorite
resort of the fur-seal, which so abounds in this region that nearly a
century of active war waged upon them by the hunters, for the sake of
their valuable skins, has produced no perceptible diminution in their
numbers. This is partly owing, however, to the fact that of late years
the killing has been restricted as to the aggregate annual number, and
also as to the sex and age of the seals. The pelts sent from Alaska have
not fallen short of a hundred thousand annually for the last twenty
years, and it is believed by those who should be able to judge correctly
that this number has been very much exceeded. There is hardly an
uninterested person in the Territory who will not express this opinion.
The two islands referred to in Behring Sea, namely, St. Paul and St.
George, together with two smaller and unimportant ones named
respectively Otter Island, which is situated six miles south of St.
Paul, and Walrus Island, about the same distance to the eastward, are
known as the Prybiloff group. St. Paul is thirteen miles long by four
broad; St. George is ten miles long and between four and five broad.
Neither of them have any harbor in which vessels can safely lie, but
they anchor half a mile or more off shore, and freight is taken or
delivered by means of lighters. So violent is the surf at times on these
islands in mid-ocean that if the wind is unfavorable no attempt at
landing is made. Otter Island is peculiar in being nothing more nor less
than an extinct volcano, with a still gaping, threatening crater, and an
elevation of three hundred feet above the surrounding sea. Its only
occupants consist of water-fowl and blue foxes, both as plentiful as
peas in a pod. The animals were introduced long ago for breeding
purposes, and have greatly increased. These are the “seal islands” so
often spoken of, and which furnish four fifths of all the sealskins used
in the markets of the world. This sounds like an extravagant estimate,
but it is believed to be quite correct.
The islands are of volcanic origin, having been thrown up from the
bottom of the sea in comparatively modern times. When one speaks of
geological facts, one or two thousand years are considered very brief
periods. At the time of their discovery, St. George and St. Paul were
uninhabited, but native Aleuts, the nearest of whom lived about two
hundred miles south of these islands, were brought hither and
domesticated, to work for the Russian Fur Company. Since the transfer to
our government these people have worked uninterruptedly for the Alaska
Commercial Company, which has, in addition to the headquarters of the
seal-fishery, some forty trading stations in the Territory.
We speak of the “seal-fisheries,” but there is in reality no fishing
about the business. The seals are all taken on land. The employees of
the company get between the seals and the water and drive such as are
selected inland like a flock of sheep. They move slowly, pulling
themselves along by their fore flippers, as a dog might do with his hind
legs broken, but they get over the ground at the rate of one or two
miles in the hour, and are driven the latter distance to the warehouse
before the killing takes place.
It is curious that these two islands only, with a few small spots in the
North Pacific, should possess the peculiar conditions of landing-ground
and climate combined which are necessary for the perfect life and
reproduction of the fur-seal. H. W. Elliott, who acted as United States
government agent for four seasons at the seal islands, and who is good
authority upon this special subject, says: “With the exception of these
seal islands of Behring Sea, there are none elsewhere in the world of
the slightest importance to-day. When, therefore, we note the eagerness
with which our civilization calls for sealskin fur, in spite of fashion
and its caprices, and the fact that it is and always will be an article
of intrinsic value and in demand, it at once occurs to us that the
government is exceedingly fortunate in having this great amphibious
stock-yard, far up and away in this seclusion of Behring Sea, from which
it can draw continuous revenue, and on which its wise regulations and
its firm hand can continue the seals forever.”
This writer’s remarks should be qualified, however, so far as to state
that the Russians possess some profitable “rookeries” situated on the
Commander Islands, seven hundred miles to the southwest of the Prybiloff
group, where the same policy of protection for breeding purposes is
enforced as govern the traffic of our own islands. It is true that the
product of the Russian islands is as nothing compared with that of St.
Paul and St. George. A small number of fur-seal are also secured on the
coast of Brazil, and at the Shetland and Falkland Islands, giving
perhaps twenty thousand pelts annually from other sources than those
named in Alaska. It is our own opinion that at least forty thousand
pelts are sent to market by unauthorized people from the islands and
coast of Alaska, which number should be added to the hundred thousand
which the regular company are entitled to export, in getting at the
aggregate produced by the Territory.
The two seal islands leased to the Alaska Commercial Company are about
thirty miles apart, and are seemingly among the most insignificant
landmarks known in the ocean. It is only on very modern maps that they
are designated at all, but they afford to the seals the happiest
isolation and shelter, their position being such as to envelop them in
fog banks nine days out of ten during the entire season of resort.
Neither the seals nor the natives can long bear the glare of the summer
sun, and so find no fault with this prevailing screen between them and
the sky. There are no icebergs, properly so called, in these waters.
Behring Strait is too shallow for anything but light field ice to pass
into the North Pacific or Behring Sea; there is therefore no fear of
visits from the polar bears often seen floating about in the frozen sea
at the north. They would make sad havoc among the seals were they to get
so far south, and drive them away altogether. Ice floats off from the
immediate shores in the spring, but encountering the thermal current,
this soon dissolves, and is no impediment to navigation. It is marvelous
that the natives dwelling on the group do not die of the poisoned
atmosphere arising from the thousands upon thousands of seal carcasses
annually slaughtered, and which are left to decay upon the ground. The
stench thus created is so powerful that vessels sailing to leeward,
three or four miles off shore, are permeated by it, and though their
captains may not have been able to get a solar observation for many
days, they can easily tell their exact latitude and longitude by “dead
reckoning.” Naval surgeons have been detached by government to visit and
examine the physical condition of the people on St. George and St. Paul,
touching this very matter, and they have reported that the natives
enjoyed good health, the mortality among them being at a very low
average compared with that of other semi-civilized communities favorably
situated. There is a church and school-house on each of the islands,
with white teachers, and also a skilled physician, who is paid for his
services by the Commercial Company.
The fur-seal traffic has heretofore exceeded all other regular business
in value conducted in this Territory, though the product of the precious
metals will in future probably take the lead, hard pressed by the
rapidly growing development of the fisheries. The habits of the seal are
interesting and very peculiar. It is a social animal, and evinces a
degree of intelligence nearly approaching that of the dog. Occasionally
a young one is found domesticated among the natives of the more populous
islands, and when thus brought up among human beings they become very
tractable, and are easily taught many amusing tricks. They move in
herds, coming to the breeding grounds in large numbers, and at regular
periods of the year, that is in the latter part of May and early in
June. The contrast between the male and female seal is great, the former
being large, bold, and aggressive, the latter small, peaceful, and
quiet; both are models of grace and symmetry after their kind. While the
males are specimens of great physical strength, the females are
delicate, timid, and affectionate. The young are born blind and so
remain for a couple of weeks, or more. When they are about six weeks old
the mother takes them into the water to teach them to swim. They are
very shy of the sea at first, but persistent effort on the mother’s part
soon makes them expert swimmers, and rapidly develops that side of their
nature. During the breeding season the old males remain on shore,
fasting all the while, and growing extremely thin, living by absorption
of the blubber which they accumulate while at sea, so that upon retiring
at the end of the season they are but a mere shadow of their former
selves. They return again the next season, however, as plethoric as
ever.
“All the bulls,” says Mr. Elliott, “from the very first, that have been
able to hold their positions, have not left them from the moment of
their landing, for a single instant, night or day; nor will they do so
until the end of the rutting season, which subsides entirely between
August 1st and 10th. It begins shortly after the coming of the cows in
early June. Of necessity, therefore, this causes them to fast, to
abstain entirely from food of any kind, or water, for three months at
least; and a few of them actually stay out four months, in total
abstinence, before going back into the ocean for the first time after
‘hauling up.’ They then return as so many bony shadows of what they were
a few months previously, covered with wounds; abject and spiritless,
they laboriously crawl back to the sea to obtain a fresh lease of life.”
The natural food of the seal is believed to be small fishes and kelp,
that prolific product of the ocean which is found floating in nearly all
latitudes, being torn from its rocky bed by storms and carried
everywhere on the tides and currents. The females seldom give birth to
more than one at a time, and though they are naturally a very docile
animal, the mother will fight savagely for her young. The old males
weigh from two to three hundred pounds each, when they first land, soon
gathering a harem about them of a dozen females or more, and permitting
no other bull to approach the circle. There are occasional elopements
among the females, enticed away by young bachelor seals, who have no
family ties to occupy them, but as a rule the females remain loyal, at
least during the season. The full grown male reaches seven feet in
length, and the female about five feet; the latter averages about a
hundred pounds in weight, the former weigh twice as much and often more.
Nature seems to produce a much larger number of females than of males,
besides which the law protects the female from the hunter. The killing
of these animals on St. Paul and St. George is nearly all done in six
weeks of each year, say from the 10th of June to the 20th of July. As
regards the fur, a seal at four years of age is thought to yield the
best, and is therefore considered to be at that time in his prime. It is
the males of this age, accordingly, which are selected for slaughter. So
numerous are these animals that the shore is often black with them,
three or four thousand being in sight within the space of a hundred
square rods. The pups are full of playfulness, rolling and tumbling
about like a litter of kittens. The rule not to kill the old bulls and
female young is a necessary precaution to prevent the extermination of
the race, which indiscriminate slaughter has probably done in so many
other places.
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