I am now brought to consider the character of these possessions
and their probable value. Here I am obliged to confess a dearth of
authentic information easily accessible. Few among us read Russian, so
that works in this language are locked up from us. One of these, in
two large and showy volumes, is now before me, entitled “An Historical
Survey of the Formation of the Russian-American Company, and its
Progress to the Present Time, by P. Teshmeneff, St. Petersburg.” The
first volume appeared in 1860, and the second in 1863. Here, among
other things, is a tempting engraving of Sitka, wrapt in mists, with
the sea before and the snow-capped mountains darkened with forest
behind. Judging from the table of contents, which has been translated
for me by a Russian, the book ought to be instructive. There is also
another Russian work of an official character, which appeared in 1861
at St. Petersburg, in the “Morskoi Sbornik,” or Naval Review, and is
entitled “Materials for the History of the Russian Colonies on the
Coasts of the Pacific.” The report of Captain-Lieutenant Golowin,
made to the Grand Duke Constantine in 1861, with which we have become
acquainted through a scientific German journal, appeared originally in
the same review. These are recent productions. After the early voyages
of Behring, first ordered by Peter and supervised by the Imperial
Academy, the spirit of geographical research seems to have subsided at
St. Petersburg. Other enterprises absorbed attention. And yet I would
not do injustice to the voyages of Billings, recounted by Sauer, or of
Lisiansky, or of Kotzebue, all under the auspices of Russia, the last
of which may compare with any as a contribution to science. I may add
Lütke also; but Kotzebue was a worthy successor to Behring and Cook.
Beside these official contributions, most of them by no means fresh,
are materials derived from casual navigators, who, scudding these seas,
rested in the harbors as the water-fowl on its flight,--from whalemen,
who were there merely as Nimrods of the ocean, or from adventurers in
quest of the rich furs it furnished. There are also the gazetteers and
geographies; but they are less instructive on this head than usual,
being founded on information now many years old.
Perhaps no region of equal extent on the globe, unless we except the
interior of Africa or possibly Greenland, is so little known. Here I
do not speak for myself alone. A learned German, whom I have already
quoted, after saying that the explorations have been limited to the
coast, testifies that “the interior, not only of the continent, but
even of the island of Sitka, is to this day unexplored, and is in
every respect _terra incognita_.”[36] The same has been repeated of
the other islands. Admiral Lütke, whose circumnavigation of the globe
began in 1826, and whose work bears date 1835-36, says of the Aleutian
Archipelago, that, although frequented for more than a century by
Russian vessels and those of other nations, it is to-day almost as
little known as in the time of Cook. Another writer of authority, the
compiler of the official work on the People of Russia, published as
late as 1862, speaks of the interior as “a mystery.” And yet another
says that our ignorance with regard to this region would make it a
proper scene for a chapter of Gulliver’s Travels.
Where so little was known, invention found scope. Imagination was
made to supply the place of knowledge, and poetry pictured the savage
desolation in much admired verse. Campbell, in the “Pleasures of Hope,”
while exploring “Earth’s loneliest bounds and Ocean’s wildest shore,”
reaches this region, which he portrays:--
“Lo! to the wintry winds the pilot yields
His bark careering o’er unfathomed fields.
…
Now far he sweeps, where scarce a summer smiles,
On Behring’s rocks or Greenland’s naked isles;
Cold on his midnight watch the breezes blow
From wastes that slumber in eternal snow,
And waft across the waves’ tumultuous roar
_The wolf’s long howl from Oonalaska’s shore_.”
All of which, so far at least as it describes this region, is
inconsistent with truth. The poet ignores the isothermal line, which
plays such a conspicuous part on the Pacific coast. Here the evidence
is positive. Portlock, the navigator, who was there toward the close
of the last century, after describing Cook’s Inlet, which is several
degrees north of Oonalaska, records his belief “that the climate here
is not so severe as has been generally supposed; for, in the course
of our traffic with the natives, they frequently brought berries of
several sorts, and in particular blackberries, equally fine with
those met with in England.”[37] Kotzebue, who was here later, says
that he found “the weather pretty warm at Oonalaska.”[38] South of the
Aleutians the climate is warmer still. The poet ignores natural history
also, as regards the distribution of animals. Curiously enough, it
does not appear that “wolves” exist on any of the Fox Islands. Coxe,
in his work on Russian Discoveries,[39] records that “reindeer, bears,
_wolves_, ice-foxes, are not to be found on these islands.” But he was
never there. Meares, who was in those seas, says, “_The only animals_
on these islands are foxes, some of which are black.”[40] Cook, who
visited Oonalaska twice, and once made a prolonged stay, expressly
says, “Foxes and weasels were _the only quadrupeds_ we saw; but they
told us that they had hares also, and marmottas.”[41] But quadrupeds
like these hardly sustain the exciting picture. The same experienced
navigator furnishes a glimpse of the inhabitants, as they appeared to
him, which would make us tremble, if the “wolves” of the poet were
numerous. He says, “To all appearance, they are the most peaceable,
inoffensive people I ever met with”; and Cook had been at Otaheite. “No
such thing as an offensive or even defensive weapon was seen amongst
the natives of Oonalaska.”[42] Then, at least, the inhabitants did
not share the ferocity of the “wolves” and of the climate. Another
navigator fascinates us by a description of the boats, which struck
him “with amazement beyond expression”; and he explains: “If perfect
symmetry, smoothness, and proportion constitute beauty, they are
beautiful; to me they appeared so beyond anything that I ever beheld.
I have seen some of them as transparent as oiled paper.”[43] But these
are the very boats that buffet “the waves’ tumultuous roar,” while “the
breezes” waft “the wolf’s long howl.” The same reporter introduces
another feature. According to him, the sojourning Russians “seem to
have no desire to leave this place, where they enjoy that indolence so
pleasing to their minds.”[44] The lotus-eaters of Homer were no better
off. The picture is completed by another touch from Lütke. Admitting
the want of trees, the Admiral suggests that their place is supplied
not only by luxuriant grass, but by wood thrown upon the coast,
including trunks of camphor from Chinese and Japanese waters, and “a
tree which gives forth the odor of the rose.”[45] Such is a small
portion of the testimony, most of it in print before the poet sang.[46]
Nothing has been written about this region, whether the coast or the
islands, more authentic or interesting than the narrative of Captain
Cook on his third and last voyage. He saw with intelligence, and his
editor has imparted to the description a clearness almost elegant.
The record of Captain Portlock’s voyage from London to the Northwest
Coast, in 1785-8, seems honest, and is instructive. Captain Meares,
whose voyage was contemporaneous, saw and exposed the importance of
trade between the Northwest Coast and China. Vancouver, who came a
little later, has described some parts of the coast. La Pérouse, the
unfortunate French navigator, has afforded another picture of it,
painted with French colors. Before him was Maurelle, an officer in the
Spanish expedition of 1779, a portion of whose journal is preserved in
the Introduction to the volumes of La Pérouse. After him was Marchand,
who, during a circumnavigation of the globe, stopped here in 1791.
The Voyage of the latter, published in three quartos, is accompanied
by an Historical Introduction, which is a mine of information on all
the voyages to this coast. Then came the successive Russian voyages
already mentioned, and in 1804-6 the “Voyage to the North Pacific” of
Captain John D’Wolf, one of our own enterprising countrymen. Later
came the “Voyage round the World” by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, with
a familiar sketch of life at Sitka, where he stopped in 1837, and an
engraving of the arsenal and light-house there. Then followed the
“Overland Journey round the World,” in 1841-2, by Sir George Simpson,
Governor-in-chief of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with an account of a
visit to Sitka and the hospitality of its governor. To these I add
the “Nautical Magazine” for 1849, Volume XVIII., which contains some
excellent pages about Sitka; the “Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society of London” for 1841, Volume XI., and for 1852, Volume XXII.,
where this region is treated under the heads of “Observations on the
Indigenous Tribes of the Northwest Coast of America,” and “Notes on
the Distribution of Animals available as Food in the Arctic Regions”;
Burney’s “Northeastern Voyages”; the magnificent work entitled
“Description Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie,” which appeared
at St. Petersburg in 1862, on the tenth centennial anniversary of
the foundation of the Russian Empire; the very recent work of Murray
on the “Geographical Distribution of Mammals”; the work of Sir John
Richardson, “Fauna Boreali-Americana”; Latham on “The Nationalities
of Europe,” in the chapters on the population of Russian America;
the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and the admirable “Physical Atlas”
of Alexander Keith Johnston. I mention also an elaborate article by
Holmberg, in the Transactions of the Finland Society of Sciences
at Helsingfors, replete with information on the Ethnography of the
Northwest Coast.[47]
Doubtless the most precise and valuable information has been
contributed by Germany. The Germans are the best of geographers;
besides, many Russian contributions are in German. Müller, who
recorded the discoveries of Behring, was a German. Nothing more
important on this subject has ever appeared than the German work of
the Russian Admiral Von Wrangell, “Statistische und Ethnographische
Nachrichten über die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestküste von
Amerika,” first published by Baer in his “Beiträge zur Kenntniss des
Russischen Reiches,” in 1839. There is also the “Verhandlungen der
Russisch-Kaiserlichen Mineralogischen Gesellschaft zu St. Petersburg,”
1848 and 1849, which contains an elaborate article, in itself a volume,
on the Orography and Geology of the Northwest Coast and the adjoining
islands, at the end of which is a bibliographical list of works and
materials illustrating the discovery and history of the western half
of North America and the neighboring seas. I also refer generally
to the “Archiv für Wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland,” edited by
Erman, but especially the volume for 1863, containing the abstract
of Golowin’s report on the Russian Colonies in North America, as it
appeared originally in the “Morskoi Sbornik.” Besides these, there are
Wappäus, “Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik von Nord-Amerika,”
published at Leipsic in 1855; Petermann, in his “Mittheilungen über
wichtige neue Erforschungen auf dem Gesammtgebiete der Geographie,”
for 1856, p. 486, for 1859, p. 41, and for 1863, pp. 70, 237, 277;
Kittlitz, “Denkwürdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem Russischen Amerika,
nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka,” published at Gotha in 1858;
also, by the same author, “The Vegetation of the Coasts and Islands of
the Pacific,” translated from the German, and published at London in
1861.
Much recent information has been derived from the great companies
possessing the monopoly of trade. Latterly there has been an unexpected
purveyor in the Russian American Telegraph Company, under the direction
of Captain Charles S. Bulkley; and here our own countrymen help us.
To this expedition we are indebted for authentic evidence with regard
to the character of the region, and the great rivers which traverse
it. The Smithsonian Institution and the Chicago Academy of Sciences
coöperated with the Telegraph Company in the investigation of the
natural history. Major Kennicott, a young naturalist, originally in
the service of the Institution, and Director of the Museum of the
Chicago Academy, was the enterprising chief of the Yukon division of
the expedition. While in the midst of his valuable labors, he died
suddenly, in the month of May last, at Nulato, on the banks of the
great river, the Kwichpak, which may be called the Mississippi of the
North, far away in the interior, and on the confines of the Arctic
Circle, where the sun was visible all night. Even after death he
was still an explorer. From this remote outpost, his remains, after
descending the unknown river in an Esquimaux boat of seal-skins,
steered by the faithful companion of his labors, were transported
by way of Panama to his home at Chicago, where he now lies buried.
Such an incident cannot be forgotten, and his name will always remind
us of courageous enterprise, before which distance and difficulty
disappeared. He was not a beginner, when he entered into the service
of the Telegraph Company. Already he had visited the Yukon country by
the way of the Mackenzie River, and contributed to the Smithsonian
Institution important information with regard to its geography and
natural history, some of which is found in their Reports. Nature in
novel forms was open to him. The birds here maintained their kingdom.
All about him was the mysterious breeding-place of the canvas-back
duck, whose eggs, never before seen by naturalist, covered acres.
If we look to maps for information, here again we are disappointed.
Latterly the coast is outlined and described with reasonable
completeness; so also are the islands. This is the contribution of
navigators and of recent Russian charts. But the interior is little
more than a blank, calling to mind “the unhabitable downs,” where,
according to Swift, the old geographers “place elephants for want of
towns.” I have already referred to what purports to be a “General Map
of the Russian Empire,” published by the Academy of Sciences at St.
Petersburg in 1776, and republished at London in 1780, where Russian
America does not appear. I might mention also that Captain Cook
complained in his day of the Russian maps as “singularly erroneous.” On
the return of the expedition, English maps recorded his explorations
and the names he assigned to different parts of the coast. These were
reproduced in St. Petersburg, and the Russian copy was then reproduced
in London, so that geographical knowledge was very little advanced.
Some of the best maps of this region are by Germans, who excel in maps.
I mention an excellent one of the Aleutian Islands and the neighboring
coasts, especially to illustrate their orography and geology, which
will be found at the end of the volume of Transactions of the Imperial
Mineralogical Society at St. Petersburg to which I have already
referred.
Late maps attest the tardiness of information. Here, for instance, is
an excellent map of North America, purporting to be published by the
Geographical Institute of Weimar as late as 1859, on which we have the
Yukon pictured, very much like the Niger in Africa, as a large river
meandering in the interior with no outlet to the sea. Here also is a
Russian map of this very region, as late as 1861, where the course of
the Yukon is left in doubt. On other maps, as in the Physical Atlas of
Keith Johnston, it is presented, under another name, entering into the
Frozen Ocean. But the secret is penetrated at last. Recent discovery,
by the enterprise of our citizens in the service of the Telegraph
Company, fixes that this river is an affluent of the Kwichpak, as the
Missouri is an affluent of the Mississippi, and enters into Behring
Sea by many mouths, between the parallels of 62° and 63°. After the
death of Major Kennicott, a division of his party, with nothing but a
skin boat, ascended the river to Fort Yukon, where it bifurcates, and
descended it again to Nulato, thus establishing the entire course from
its sources in the Rocky Mountains for a distance exceeding a thousand
miles. I have before me now an outline map just prepared by our Coast
Survey, where this correction is made. But this is only a harbinger of
the maturer labors of our accomplished bureau, when the coasts of this
region are under the jurisdiction of the United States.
In closing this abstract of authorities, being the chief sources of
original information, I cannot forbear expressing my satisfaction,
that, with the exception of a single work, all these are found in
the Congressional Library, now so happily enriched by the rare
collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Sometimes individuals
are like libraries; and this seems to be illustrated in the case of
Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, who is thoroughly
informed on all questions connected with the natural history of Russian
America, and also of George Gibbs, Esq., now of Washington, who is
the depositary of valuable knowledge, the result of his own personal
studies and observations, with regard to the native races.