I pass now to a consideration of the character and value of these
possessions, as seen under these different heads: first, Government;
secondly, Population; thirdly, Climate; fourthly, Vegetable Products;
fifthly, Mineral Products; sixthly, Furs; and, seventhly, Fisheries.
Of these I shall speak briefly in their order. There are certain words
of a general character, which I introduce by way of preface. I quote
from Blodget on the “Climatology of the United States and of the
Temperate Latitudes of the North American Continent.”
“It is most surprising that so little is known of the great
islands and the long line of coast from Puget’s Sound to
Sitka, ample as its resources must be even for recruiting the
transient commerce of the Pacific, independent of its immense
intrinsic value. To the region bordering the Northern Pacific
the finest maritime positions belong throughout its entire
extent; and no part of the West of Europe exceeds it in the
advantages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial
accessibility of the coast. The western slope of the Rocky
Mountain system may be included as a part of this maritime
region, embracing an immense area, from the forty-fifth to the
sixtieth parallel and five degrees of longitude in width. The
cultivable surface of this district cannot be much less than
three hundred thousand square miles.”[48]
From this sketch, which is in the nature of a picture, I pass to the
different heads.
* * * * *
1. _Government._--The Russian settlements were for a long time without
any regular government. They were little more than temporary lodgements
for purposes of trade, where the will of the stronger prevailed.
The natives, who had enslaved each other, became in turn the slaves
of these mercenary adventurers. Captain Cook records “the great
subjection”[49] of the natives at Oonalaska, when he was there in 1778;
and a Russian navigator, fourteen years later, describes the islands
generally as “under the sway of roving hunters more savage than any
tribes he had hitherto met with.”[50] At Oonalaska the Russians for
a long time employed all the men in the chase, “taking the fruits of
their labor to themselves.”[51]
The first trace of government which I find was in 1790, at the
important island of Kadiak, or the Great Island, as it was called,
where a Russian company was established under direction of a Greek by
the name of Delareff, who, according to the partial report of a Russian
navigator, “governed with the strictest justice, as well natives as
Russians, and established a school, where the young natives were
taught the Russian language, reading and writing.”[52] Here were about
fifty Russians, including officers of the company, and another person
described as “there on the part of Government to collect tribute.”[53]
The establishment consisted of five houses after the Russian
fashion,--barracks laid out on either side, somewhat like the boxes
at a coffee-house, with different offices, represented as follows:
“An office of appeal, to settle disputes, levy fines, and punish
offenders by a regular trial; here Delareff presides, and I believe
that few courts of justice pass a sentence with more impartiality; an
office of receival and delivery, both for the company and for tribute;
the commissaries’ department, for the distribution of the regulated
portions of provision; counting-house, &c.: all in this building, at
one end of which is Delareff’s habitation.”[54] If this picture is not
overdrawn,--and it surely is,--affairs here did not improve with time.
But D’Wolf, who was there in 1805-6, reports “about forty houses of
various descriptions, including a church, school-house, store-house,
and barracks”; and he adds: “The school-house was quite a respectable
establishment, well filled with pupils.”[55]
There were various small companies, of which that at Kadiak was the
most considerable, all finally fused into one large trading company,
known as the Russian American Company, organized in 1799, under a
charter from the Emperor Paul, with the power of administration
throughout the whole region, including coasts and islands. In this
respect it was not unlike the East India Company, which has played
such a part in English history; but it may be more properly compared
to the Hudson’s Bay Company, of which it was a Russian counterpart.
The charter was for a term of years, but it has been from time to time
extended, and, as I understand, is now about to expire. The powers of
the Company are sententiously described by the “Almanach de Gotha” for
1867, where, under the head of Russia, it says that “to the present
time Russian America has been the property of a company.”
I know no limitation upon the Company, except that latterly it has been
bound to appoint its chief functionary, called “Administrator General,”
from the higher officers of the imperial navy, when he becomes invested
with what are declared the prerogatives of a governor in Siberia. This
requirement has doubtless secured the superior order of magistrates
since enjoyed. Among these have been Baron Wrangell, an admiral,
there at the time of the treaty with Great Britain in 1825; Captain
Kuprianoff, who had commanded the Azof, a ship of the line, in the
Black Sea, and spoke English well; Captain Etolin; Admiral Furuhelm,
who, after being there five years, was made governor of the province
of the Amoor; Admiral Woiwodsky; and Prince Maksutoff, an admiral
also, who is the present Administrator General. The term of service is
ordinarily five years.
The seat of government is the town of New Archangel, better known by
its aboriginal name of Sitka, with a harbor as smooth and safe as a
pond. Its present population cannot be far from one thousand, although
even this is changeable. In spring, when sailors leave for the sea and
trappers for the chase, it has been reduced to as few as one hundred
and eighty. It was not without a question that Sitka at last prevailed
as the metropolis. Lütke sets forth reasons elaborately urged in favor
of St. Paul, on the island of Kadiak.[56]
The first settlement there was in 1800, by Baranoff, the superintendent
of the Company, whose life was passed in this country, and whose name
has been given to the island. But the settlement made slow progress.
Lisiansky, who was there in 1804, records, that, “from his entrance
into Sitka Sound, there was not to be seen on the shore the least
vestige of habitation.”[57] The natives had set themselves against a
settlement. Meanwhile the seat of government was at Kadiak, of which
we have an early and friendly glimpse. I quote what Lisiansky says, as
exhibiting in a favorable light the beginning of the government, now
transferred to the United States.
“The island of Kadiak, with the rest of the Russian settlements
along the northwest coast of America, are superintended by
a kind of governor-general or commander-in-chief, who has
agents under him, appointed, like himself, by the Company
at Petersburg. The smaller settlements have each a Russian
overseer. These overseers are chosen by the governor, and are
selected for the office in consequence of their long services
and orderly conduct. They have the power of punishing, to a
certain extent, those whom they superintend; but are themselves
amenable to the governor, if they abuse their power by acts
of injustice. The seat of government is the Harbor of St.
Paul, which has a barrack, different store-houses, several
respectable wooden habitations, and a church, the only one to
be found on the coast.”[58]
From this time the Company seems to have established itself on the
coast. Lisiansky speaks of a single hunting party of nine hundred
men, gathered from different places, as Alaska, Kadiak, Cook’s Inlet,
Prince William Sound, and “commanded by thirty-six _toyons_, who are
subordinate to the Russians in the service of the American Company, and
receive from them their orders.”[59] From another source I learn that
the inhabitants of Kadiak and of the Aleutian Islands were regarded as
“immediate subjects of the Company,”--the males from eighteen to fifty
being bound to serve it for the term of three years each. They were
employed in the chase. The population of Alaska and of the two great
bays, Cook’s Inlet and Prince William Sound, were also subject to the
Company; but they were held to a yearly tax on furs, without regular
service, and they could trade only with the Company; otherwise they
were independent. This seems to have been before a division of the
whole into districts, all under the Company, which, though primarily
for the business of the Company, may be regarded as so many distinct
jurisdictions, each with local powers of government.
Among these were two districts which I mention only to put aside, as
not included in the present cession: (1.) the Kurile Islands, being
the group nestling near the coast of Japan, on the Asiatic side of the
dividing line between the two continents; (2.) the Ross settlement in
California, now abandoned.
There remain five other districts: (1.) the District of Atcha, with
the bureau at this island, embracing the two western groups of the
Aleutians known as the Andreanoffsky Islands and the Rat Islands, and
also the group about Behring’s Island, which is not embraced in the
present cession;--(2.) the District of Oonalaska, with the bureau at
this island, embracing the Fox Islands, the peninsula of Alaska to
the meridian of the Shumagin Islands, including these, and also the
Pribyloff Islands to the northwest of the peninsula;--(3.) the District
of Kadiak, embracing the peninsula of Alaska east of the meridian of
the Shumagin Islands, and the coast eastward to Mount St. Elias, with
adjacent islands, including Kadiak, Cook’s Inlet, and Prince William
Sound; then northward along the coast of Bristol Bay, and the country
watered by the Nushagak and Kuskokwim rivers; all of which is governed
from Kadiak, with redoubts or palisaded stations at Nushagak, Cook’s
Inlet, and Prince William Sound;--(4.) the Northern District, embracing
the country of the Kwichpak and of Norton Sound, under direction of
the commander of the redoubt at St. Michael’s; leaving the country
northward, with the islands St. Lawrence and St. Matthew, not included
in this district, but visited directly from Sitka;--(5.) the District
of Sitka, embracing the coast from Mount St. Elias, where the Kadiak
district ends, southward to the latitude of 54° 40´, with adjacent
islands. But this district has been curtailed by a lease of the Russian
American Company in 1839 for the space of ten years, and subsequently
renewed, where this Company, in consideration of the annual payment of
two thousand otter skins of Columbia River, under-lets to the Hudson
Bay Company all its franchise for the strip of continent between Cape
Spencer at the north and the latitude of 54° 40´, excluding adjacent
islands.
The central government of all these districts is at Sitka, from which
emanate all orders and instructions. Here also is the chief factory,
the fountain of supplies and the store-house of proceeds.
The operations of the Government are seen in receipts and expenditures,
including salaries and allowances. In the absence of a complete
series of such statistics to the present time, I mass together what I
have been able to glean in different fields, relating to particular
years, knowing well its unsatisfactory character. But each item has
instruction for us.
The capital of the Company, in buildings, wares, vessels, &c., was
reported in 1833 at 3,658,577 rubles. In 1838 it possessed twelve
vessels, with an aggregate capacity of 1,556 tons, most of which
were built at Sitka. According to Wappäus, who follows Wrangell, the
pay of the officers and workmen in 1832 amounted to 442,877 rubles.
At that time the persons in its service numbered 1,025, of whom 556
were Russians, 152 Creoles, and 317 Aleutians. In 1851 there were
one staff officer, three officers of the imperial navy, one officer
of engineers, four civil officers, thirty religious officers, and six
hundred and eighty-six servants. The expenses from 1826 to 1833, a
period of seven years, were 6,608,077 rubles. These become interesting,
when it is considered, that, besides what was paid on account of furs
and the support of persons in the service of the Company, were other
items incident to government, such as ship-building, navigation,
fortifications, hospitals, schools, and churches. From a later
authority it appears that the receipts reported at St. Petersburg for
the year 1855 were 832,749 rubles, against expenses, 683,892 rubles,
incurred for “administration in Russia and the colonies,” insurance,
transportation, and duties. The relative proportion of these different
expenses does not appear.
These are explained by other statistics, which I am able to give from
the Report of Golowin, who furnishes the receipts and expenditures from
1850 to 1859, inclusive. The silver ruble, which is the money employed
in the table, is taken at our mint for seventy-five cents.
_Receipts from 1850 to 1859, inclusive._
Silver Rubles.
Tea traffic 4,145,869.76
Sale of furs 1,709,149.00
Commercial licenses 2,403,296.61
Other traffics 170,235.76
------------
Total 8,528,551.13
_Expenditures from 1850 to 1859, inclusive._
Silver Rubles.
Sustenance of the colony 2,288,207.20
Colony’s churches 71,723.18
Benevolent institutions 143,366.23
Principal administrative officers 1,536,436.49
Tea duty 1,764,559.85
Transportation and packing of tea 586,901.72
Purchase and transportation of merchandise 213,696.29
Insurance of tea and merchandise 217,026.55
Loss during war and by shipwreck 132,820.20
Reconstruction of Company’s house in St. Petersburg 76,976.00
Capital for the use of the poor 6,773.02
Revenue fund capital 135,460.40
Dividends 1,354,604.00
------------
Total 8,528,551.13
Analyzing this table, we arrive at a clearer insight into the affairs
of the Company. If its receipts have been considerable, they have been
subject to serious deductions. From the expenditures we also learn
something of the obligations we are about to assume.
Another table shows that during this same period 122,006 rubles were
received for ice, mostly sent to California, 26,399 rubles for timber,
and 6,250 for coal. I think it not improbable that these items are
included in the list of “receipts” under the term “other traffics.”
In Russia the churches belong to the Government, and this rule
prevails in these districts, where are four Greek churches and five
Greek chapels. There is also a Protestant church at Sitka. I am glad
to add that at the latter place there is a public library, which
some years ago contained seventeen hundred volumes, together with
journals, charts, atlases, mathematical and astronomical instruments.
In Atcha, Oonalaska, Kadiak, and Sitka schools are reported at the
expense of the Company, though not on a very comprehensive scale;
for Admiral Wrangell mentions only ninety boys as enjoying these
advantages in 1839. In Oonalaska and Kadiak there were at the same
time orphan asylums for girls, where there were in all about thirty;
but the Admiral adds, that “these useful institutions will, without
doubt, be improved to the utmost.” Besides these, which are confined
to particular localities, there is said to be a hospital near every
factory in all the districts.
I have no means of knowing if these territorial subdivisions have
undergone recent modification. They will be found in the “Russischen
Besitzungen” of Wrangell, published in 1839, in the “Geographie” of
Wappäus in 1856, and in the “Archiv von Russland” of 1863, containing
the article on the Report of Golowin. I am thus particular with regard
to them from a double motive. Besides helping us to understand the
government, they afford suggestions of practical importance in any
future organization.
The Company has not been without criticism. Pictures of it are by no
means rose color. These, too, furnish instruction. Early in the century
its administration was the occasion of open and repeated complaint.
It was pronounced harsh and despotic. Langsdorff is indignant that
“a free trading company should exist independent, as it were, of the
Government, not confined within any definite regulations, but who can
exercise their authority free and uncontrolled, nay, even unpunished,
over so vast an extent of country.” In stating the case, he adds, that
“the Russian subject here enjoys no protection of his property, lives
in no security, and, if oppressed, has no one to whom he can apply for
justice. The agents of the factories, and their subordinate officers,
influenced by humor or interest, decide everything arbitrarily.”
And this arbitrary power seems to have prevailed wherever a factory
was established. “The stewardship in each single establishment is
entirely despotic; though nominally depending upon the principal
factory at Kadiak, these stewards do just what they please, without
the possibility of their being called to account.” If such was the
condition of Russians, what must have been that of natives? Here the
witness answers: “I have seen the Russian fur-hunters dispose of the
lives of the natives solely according to their own arbitrary will,
and put these defenceless creatures to death in the most horrible
manner.”[60] Our own D’Wolf records Langsdorff’s remonstrance in
behalf of “the poor Russians,” and adds that it was “but to little
purpose.”[61] Krusenstern concurs in this testimony, and, if possible,
darkens the colors. According to him, “Every one must obey the iron
rule of the agent of the American Company; nor can there be either
personal property or individual security, where there are no laws. The
chief agent of the American Company is the boundless despot over an
extent of country which, comprising the Aleutian Islands, stretches
from 57° to 61° of latitude and from 130° to 190° of east longitude”;
and he adds, in a note, “There are no courts of justice in Kadiak, nor
any of the Company’s possessions.”[62] Chamisso, the naturalist of
Kotzebue’s expedition, while confessing incompetency to speak on the
treatment of the natives by the Company, declares “his wounded feelings
and his commiseration.”[63] It is too probable that the melancholy
story of our own aborigines has been repeated. As these criticisms were
by Russian officers, they must have had a certain effect. I cannot
believe that the recent government, administered by the enlightened
magistrates of whom we have heard, has been obnoxious to such terrible
accusations; nor must it be forgotten that the report of Lisiansky,
contemporaneous with those of Langsdorff and Krusenstern, is much less
painful.
Baranoff, who had been so long superintendent, retired in 1818. He is
much praised by Langsdorff, who saw him in 1805-6, and by Lütke, who
was at Sitka in 1828. Both attribute to him a genius for his place,
and a disinterested devotion to the interests of the Company, whose
confidence he enjoyed to the end. D’Wolf says, “He possessed a strong
mind, easy manners and deportment,” and “commanded the greatest respect
from the Indians.”[64] Although administering affairs for more than a
generation without rendering accounts, he died poor. He was succeeded
by Captain Hagemeister. Since then, according to Lütke, an infinity of
reforms has taken place, by which order and system have been introduced.
The Russian officer, Captain Golowin, who visited these possessions
in 1860, has recommended certain institutional reforms, which are not
without interest at this time. His recommendations concern the governor
and the people. According to him, the governor should be appointed by
the Crown with the concurrence of the Company, removable only when his
continuance is plainly injurious to the colony; he should be subject
only to the Crown, and his powers should be limited, especially in
regard to the natives; he should provide protection for the colonists
by means of cruisers, and should personally visit every district
annually; the colonists, Creoles, and subject natives, such as the
Aleutians, should be governed by magistrates of their own selection;
the name of “free Creole” should cease; all disputes should be settled
by the local magistrates, unless the parties desire an appeal to the
governor; schools should be encouraged, and, if necessary, provided at
the public expense. These suggestions, in the nature of a reform bill,
foreshadow a condition of self-government in harmony with republican
institutions.
It is evident that these Russian settlements, distributed through an
immense region and far from any civilized neighborhood, have little
in common with those of European nations elsewhere, unless we except
the Danish on the west coast of Greenland. Nearly all are on the coast
or the islands. They are nothing but “villages” or “factories” under
protection of palisades. Sitka is an exception, due unquestionably
to its selection as headquarters of the Government, and also to the
eminent character of the governors who have made it their home. The
executive mansion and the social life there have been described by
recent visitors, who acknowledged the charms of politeness on this
distant northwestern coast. Lütke portrays life among its fogs, and
especially the attractions of the governor’s house. This was in the
time of Admiral Wrangell, whose wife, possessing a high education,
embellished the wilderness by her presence, and furnished an example
of a refined and happy household. His account of Sitkan hospitality
differs in some respects from that of English writers who succeeded. He
records that fish was the staple dish at the tables of functionaries
as well as of the poor, and that the chief functionary himself was
rarely able to have meat for dinner. During the winter, a species of
wild sheep, the Musmon or Argali, also known in Siberia, and hunted in
the forests, furnished an occasional supply. But a fish diet did not
prevent his house from being delightful,--as was that of Baranoff, at
an earlier day, according to D’Wolf, who speaks of “an abundance of
good cheer.”[65]
Sir Edward Belcher, the English circumnavigator, while on his voyage
round the world, stopped there. From him we have an account of the
executive mansion and fortifications, which will not be out of place in
this attempt to portray the existing Government. The house is of wood,
described as “solid,” one hundred and forty feet in length by seventy
feet wide, of two stories, with lofts, capped by a light-house in the
centre of the roof, which is covered with sheet-iron. It is about sixty
feet above the sea-level, and completely commands all the anchorage in
the neighborhood. Behind is a line of picketed logs twenty-five feet in
height, flanked at the angles by block-houses, loopholed and furnished
with small guns and swivels. The fortifications, when complete,
“will comprise five sides, upon which forty pieces of cannon will be
mounted, principally old ship-guns, varying from twelve to twenty-four
pounders.” The arsenal is praised for the best of cordage in ample
store, and for the best of artificers in every department. The interior
of the Greek church was found to be “splendid, quite beyond conception
in such a place as this.” The school and hospital had a “comparative
cleanliness and comfort, and much to admire,--although a man-of-war’s
man’s ideas of cleanliness are perhaps occasionally acute.” But it
is the social life which seems to have most surprised the gallant
captain. After telling us that “on their Sunday all the officers of the
establishment, civil as well as military, dine at the governor’s,” he
introduces us to an evening party and dance, which the latter gave to
show his English guest “the female society of Sitka,” and records that
everything “passed most delightfully,” especially, that, “although the
ladies were almost self-taught, they acquitted themselves with all the
ease and elegance communicated by European instruction.” Sir Edward
adds, that “the society is indebted principally to the governor’s
elegant and accomplished lady--who is of one of the first Russian
families--for much of this polish”; and he describes sympathetically
her long journey through Siberia with her husband, “on horse-back or
mules, enduring great hardships, in a most critical moment, in order to
share with him the privations of this barbarous region.” But, according
to him, barbarism is disappearing; and he concludes by declaring that
“the whole establishment appears to be rapidly on the advance, and
at no distant period we may hear of a trip to Norfolk Sound through
America as little more than a summer excursion.”[66] Is not this time
near at hand?
Four years afterward, Sir George Simpson, governor-in-chief of the
Hudson’s Bay Company, on his overland journey round the world, stopped
at Sitka. He had just crossed the continent by way of the Red River
settlements to Vancouver. He, too, seems to have been pleased. He shows
us in the harbor “five sailing vessels, ranging between two hundred
and three hundred and fifty tons, besides a large bark in the offing in
tow of a steamer”; and he carries us to the executive mansion, already
described, which reappears as “a suite of apartments, communicating,
according to the Russian fashion, with each other, all the public
rooms being handsomely decorated and richly furnished, commanding
a view of the whole establishment, which was in fact a little
village, while about half-way down the rock two batteries on terraces
frowned respectively over the land and the water.” There was another
Administrator-General since the visit of Sir Edward Belcher; but again
the wife plays her charming part. After portraying her as a native of
Helsingfors, in Finland, the visitor adds: “So that this pretty and
ladylike woman had come to this, her secluded home, from the farthest
extremity of the Empire.” Evidently in a mood beyond contentment, he
says: “We sat down to a good dinner in the French style, the party,
in addition to our host and hostess and ourselves, comprising twelve
of the Company’s officers”; and his final judgment seems to be given,
when he says: “The good folks of New Archangel appear to live well.
The surrounding country abounds in the chevreuil, the finest meat that
I ever ate, with the single exception of moose,” while “in a little
stream which is within a mile of the fort salmon are so plentiful at
the proper season, that, when ascending the river, they have been known
literally to embarrass the movements of a canoe.”[67] Such is the
testimony.
With these concluding pictures I turn from the Government.
* * * * *
2. _Population._--I come now to the Population, which may be considered
in its numbers and in its character. In neither respect, perhaps,
can it add much to the value of the country, except so far as native
hunters and trappers are needed for the supply of furs. Professor
Agassiz touches this point in a letter which I have just received from
him, where he says: “To me the fact that there is as yet hardly any
population would have great weight, as this secures the settlement
to our race.” But we ought to know something, at least, of the
people about to become the subjects of our jurisdiction, if not our
fellow-citizens.
_First._ In trying to arrive at an idea of their _numbers_, I begin
with Lippincott’s Gazetteer, as it is the most accessible, according to
which the whole population in 1851, aboriginal, Russian, and Creole,
was 61,000. The same estimate appears also in the London “Imperial
Gazetteer” and in the “Geographie” of Wappäus. Keith Johnston, in his
“Physical Atlas,” calls the population, in 1852, 66,000. McCulloch, in
the last edition of his “Geographical Dictionary,” puts it as high as
72,375. On the other hand, the “Almanach de Gotha” for the present year
calls it 54,000. This estimate seems to have been adopted substantially
from the great work, “Les Peuples de la Russie,” which I am disposed to
consider as the best authority.
Exaggerations are common with regard to the inhabitants of newly
acquired possessions, and this distant region is no exception. An
enthusiastic estimate once placed its population as high as 400,000.
Long ago, Schelekoff, an early Russian adventurer, reported that he
had subjected to the Crown of Russia 50,000 persons in the island of
Kadiak alone.[68] But Lisiansky, who followed him there in 1804-5,
says: “The population of this island, when compared with its size, is
very small.” After “the minutest research,” he found that it amounted
only to 4,000 souls.[69] It is much less now,--probably not more than
1,500.
It is easy to know the number of those within the immediate
jurisdiction of the Company. This is determined by a census. Even here
the aborigines are the most numerous. Then come the Creoles, and last
the Russians. But here you must bear in mind a distinction with regard
to the former. In Spanish America all of European parentage born there
are “Creoles”; in Russian America this term is applicable only to those
whose parents are European and native,--in other words, “half-breeds.”
According to Wrangell, in 1833, the census of dependants of the Company
in all its districts was 652 Russians, 991 Creoles, and 9,016 Aleutians
and Kadiaks, being in all 10,659. Of these, 5,509 were men and 5,150
were women. In 1851, according to the report of the Company, there was
an increase of Creoles, with a corresponding diminution of Russians and
aborigines, being 505 Russians, 1,703 Creoles, and 7,055 aborigines,
in all 9,263. In 1857 there were 644 Russians, 1,903 Creoles, and
7,245 aborigines, in all 9,792, of whom 5,133 were men and 4,659 were
women. The increase from 1851 to 1857 was only 529, or about one per
cent. annually. In 1860 there were “some hundreds” of Russians, 2,000
Creoles, and 8,000 aborigines, amounting in all to 10,540, of whom
5,382 were men and 5,158 were women. I am thus particular, that you
may see how stationary population has been even within the sphere of
the Company.
The number of Russians and Creoles at the present time in the whole
colony cannot be more than 2,500. The number of aborigines under the
direct government of the Company may be 8,000. There remain also the
mass of aborigines outside the jurisdiction of the Company, and having
only a temporary or casual contact with it for purposes of trade. In
this respect they are not unlike the aborigines of the United States
while in their tribal condition, described so often as “Indians not
taxed.” For the number of these outside aborigines I prefer to follow
the authority of the recent work already quoted, “Les Peuples de la
Russie,” according to which they are estimated at between forty and
fifty thousand.
_Secondly._ In speaking of _character_, I turn to a different class of
materials. The early Russians here were not Pilgrims. They were mostly
runaways, fleeing from justice. Langsdorff says, “The greater part of
the Promüschleniks and inferior officers of the different settlements
are Siberian criminals, malefactors, and adventurers of various
kinds.”[70] The single and exclusive business of the Promüschleniks was
the collection of furs. But the name very early acquired a bad odor.
Here again we have the same Russian authority, who, after saying that
the inhabitants of the distant islands are under the superintendence
of a Promüschlenik, adds,--“which is, in other words, under that of a
rascal, by whom they are oppressed, tormented, and plundered in every
possible way.”[71] It must be remembered that this authentic portrait
is not of our day.
The aborigines are all, in common language, Esquimaux; but they differ
essentially from the Esquimaux of Greenland, and they also differ among
themselves. Though popularly known by this family name, they have as
many divisions and subdivisions, with as many languages and idioms, as
France once had. There are large groups, each with its own nationality
and language; and there are smaller groups, each with its tribal idiom.
In short, the great problem of Language is repeated here. Its forms
seem to be infinite. Scientific inquiry traces many to a single root,
but practically they are different. Here is that confusion of tongues
which yields only to the presence of civilization; and it becomes more
remarkable, as the idiom is often confined to so small a circle.
Looking at them ethnographically, we find two principal groups or
races,--the first scientifically known as Esquimaux, and the second
as Indians. By another nomenclature, having the sanction of authority
and usage, they are divided into Esquimaux, Aleutians, Kenaians, and
Koloschians, being four distinct groups. The Esquimaux and Aleutians
are reported Mongolian in origin. According to doubtful theory, they
passed from Asia to America by the succession of islands beginning
on the coast of Japan and extending to Alaska, which for this
purpose became a bridge between the two continents. The Kenaians and
Koloschians are Indians, belonging to known American races. So that
these four groups are ethnographically resolved into two, and the two
are resolved popularly into one.
There are general influences more or less applicable to all these
races. The climate is peculiar, and the natural features of the country
are commanding. Cool summers and mild winters are favorable to the
huntsman and fisherman. Lofty mountains, volcanic forms, large rivers,
numerous islands, and an extensive sea-coast constitute the great Book
of Nature for all to read. None are dull. Generally they are quick,
intelligent, and ingenious, excelling in the chase and in navigation,
managing a boat as the rider his horse, until man and boat seem to be
one. Some are very skilful with tools, and exhibit remarkable taste.
The sea is bountiful, and the land has its supplies. From these they
are satisfied. Better still, there is something in their nature which
does not altogether reject the improvements of civilization. Unlike our
Indians, they are willing to learn. By a strange superstition, which
still continues, these races derive descent from different animals.
Some are gentle and pacific; others are warlike. All, I fear, are
slaveholders; some are cruel task-masters; others, in the interior, are
reputed cannibals. But the country back from the sea-coast is still an
undiscovered secret.
(1.) Looking at them in ethnographical groups, I begin with the
_Esquimaux_, who popularly give the name to the whole. They number
about 17,000, and stretch along the indented coast from its eastern
limit on the Frozen Ocean to the mouth of the Copper River, in 60°
north latitude, excluding the peninsula of Alaska, occupied by
Aleutians, and the peninsula of Kenai, occupied by Kenaians. More
powerful races, of Indian origin, following the courses of the great
rivers northward and westward, have gradually crowded the Esquimaux
from the interior, until they constitute a belt on the salt water,
including the islands of the coast, and especially Kadiak. Their
various dialects are traced to a common root, while the prevailing
language betrays an affinity with the Esquimaux of Greenland, and
the intervening country watered by the Mackenzie. They share the
characteristics of that extensive family, which, besides spreading
across the continent, occupies an extent of sea-coast greater than
any other people of the globe, from which their simple navigation has
sallied forth so as to give them the name of Phœnicians of the North.
Words exclusively belonging to the Esquimaux are found in the dialects
of other races completely strangers, as Phœnician sounds are observed
in the Celtic speech of Ireland.
The most known of the Russian Esquimaux is the small tribe now
remaining on the island of Kadiak, which from the beginning has been a
centre of trade. Although by various intermixture they already approach
the Indians of the coast, losing the Asiatic type, their speech remains
a distinctive sign of race. They are Esquimaux, and I describe them in
order to present an idea of this people.
The men are tall, with copper skins, small black eyes, flat faces,
and teeth of dazzling whiteness. Once the women pierced the nostrils,
the lower lip, and the ears, for ornaments; but now only the nostrils
suffer. The aboriginal costume is still preserved, especially out of
doors. Their food is mostly from the sea, without the roots or berries
which the island supplies. The flesh and oil of the whale are a special
luxury. The oil is drunk pure, or used to season other food. Accustomed
to prolonged abstinence, they exhibit at times an appetite amounting
to prodigy. In one night six men were able to devour the whole of
a large bear. A strong drink made from the strawberry and myrtle,
producing the effect of opium, has yielded to brandy. Sugar and tea
are highly esteemed; but snuff is a delight. Lisiansky records that
they would go out of the way twenty miles merely for a pinch.[72] They
have tools of their own, which they use with skill. Their baidars, or
canoes, are distinguished for completeness of finish and beauty of
form. Unlike those of the Koloschians, lower down on the coast, which
are hollowed from trunks of trees, they are of seal-skins stretched on
frames, with a single aperture in the covering to receive the person of
the master. The same skill appears in the carving of wood, whalebone,
and walrus-ivory. Their general mode of life is said to be like that
of other tribes on the coast. To all else they add knowledge of the
healing art and passion for gaming.
Opposite Kadiak, on the main-land east, are the Tchugatchi, a kindred
tribe, speaking the same language, but a different dialect. Northward
is a succession of kindred tribes, differing in speech, and each with
local peculiarities, but all are represented as kind, courteous,
hospitable, and merry. It is a good sign, that merriment should
prevail. Their tribal names are derived from a neighboring river, or
some climatic circumstance. Thus, for instance, those on the mighty
Kwichpak have the name of Kwichpakmutes, or “inhabitants of the great
river.” Those on Bristol Bay are called by their cousins of Norton
Sound Achkugmutes, or “inhabitants of the warm country”; and the same
designation is applied to the Kadiaks. Warmth, like other things in
this world, is comparative; and to an Esquimaux at 64° north latitude
another five degrees further south is in a “warm country.” These
northern tribes have been visited lately by our Telegraphic Exploring
Expedition, which reports especially their geographical knowledge and
good disposition. As the remains of Major Kennicott descended the
Kwichpak, they were not without sympathy from the natives. Curiosity
also had its part. At a village where the boat rested for the night,
the chief announced that it was the first time white men had ever been
seen there.
(2.) The _Aleutians_, sometimes called Western Esquimaux, number about
3,000. By a plain exaggeration, Knight, in his Cyclopædia of Geography,
makes them 20,000. Their home is the archipelago of volcanic islands
whose name they bear, and also a portion of the contiguous peninsula of
Alaska. The well-defined type has already disappeared; but the national
dress continues. This is a long shirt with tight sleeves, made from
the skins of birds, either the sea-parrot or the diver. This dress,
called the _parka_, is indispensable as clothing, blanket, and even as
habitation, during a voyage, being a complete shelter against wind and
cold. They, too, are fishermen and huntsmen; but they seem to excel as
artificers. The instruments and utensils of the Oonalaskans have been
noted for beauty. Their baidars were pronounced by Sauer “infinitely
superior to those of any other island,”[73] and another navigator
declares them “the best means yet discovered to go from place to place,
either upon the deepest or the shallowest water, in the quickest,
easiest, and safest manner possible.”[74] These illustrate their
nature, which is finer than that of their neighbors. They are at home
on the water, and excite admiration by the skill with which they manage
their elegant craft, so that Admiral Lütke recognized them as Cossacks
of the Sea.
Oonalaska is the principal of these islands, and from the time they
were first visited seems to have excited a peculiar interest. Captain
Cook painted it kindly; so have succeeding navigators. And here have
lived the islanders who have given to navigators a new experience.
Alluding especially to them, the reporter of Billings’s voyage says:
“The capacity of the natives of these islands infinitely surpasses
every idea that I had formed of the abilities of savages.”[75] There is
another remark of this authority which shows how they had yielded, even
in their favorite dress, to the demands of commerce. After saying that
formerly they had worn garments of sea-otter, he pathetically adds,
“but not since the Russians have had any intercourse with them.”[76]
Poor islanders! Exchanging choice furs, once their daily wear, for
meaner skins!
(3.) The _Kenaians_, numbering as many as 25,000, take their common
name from the peninsula of Kenai, with Cook’s Inlet on the west and
Prince William Sound on the east. Numerous beyond any other family in
Russian America, they belong to a widespread and teeming Indian race,
which occupies all the northern interior of the continent, stretching
from Hudson’s Bay in the east to the Esquimaux in the west. This is the
great nation called sometimes Athabascan, or, from the native name of
the Rocky Mountains, on whose flanks they live, Chippewyan, but more
properly designated as Tinneh, with branches in Southern Oregon and
Northern California, and then again with other offshoots, known as the
Apaches and Navajoes, in Arizona, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, thirty
degrees of latitude from the parent stem. Of this extended race, the
northwestern branch, known to travellers as Loucheux, and in their own
tongue as Kutchin, after occupying the inner portion of Russian America
on the Yukon and the Porcupine, reached the sea-coast at Cook’s Inlet,
where they appear under the name of Kenaians. The latter are said to
bear about the same relation, in language and intellectual development,
to the entire group, as the islanders of Kadiak bear to the Esquimaux.
The Kenaians call themselves in their own dialect by yet another name,
Thnainas, meaning Men; thus, by a somewhat boastful designation,
asserting manhood. Their features and complexion associate them with
the red men of America, as does their speech. The first to visit them
was Cook, and he was struck by the largeness of their heads, which
seemed to him disproportioned to the rest of the body. They were
strong-chested also, with thick, short necks, spreading faces, eyes
inclined to be small, white teeth, black hair, and thin beard,--their
persons clean and decent, without grease or dirt. In dress they were
thought to resemble the people of Greenland. Their boats had a similar
affinity. But in these particulars they were not unlike the other races
already described. They were clothed in skins of animals, with the fur
outward, or sometimes in skins of birds, over which, for protection
against rain, was a frock made from the intestines of the whale,
“prepared so skilfully as almost to resemble our gold-beater leaf.”[77]
Their boats were of seal-skin stretched on frames, and of different
sizes. In one of these Cook counted twenty women and one man, besides
children. At that time, though thievish in propensity, they were not
unamiable. Shortly afterwards they were reported by Russian traders,
who had much to do with them, as “good people,” who behaved “in the
most friendly manner.”[78] I do not know that they have lost this
character since.
Here, too, is the accustomed multiplicity of tribes, each with its
idiom, and sometimes differing in religious superstition, especially
on the grave question of descent from the dog or the crow. There is
also a prevailing usage for the men of one tribe to choose wives from
another tribe, when the tribal character of the mother attaches to the
offspring, which is another illustration of the Law of Slavery, _Partus
sequitur ventrem_. The late departure from this usage is quoted by the
old men as a sufficient reason for the mortality which has afflicted
the Kenaians, although a better reason is found in the ravages of the
small-pox, unhappily introduced by the Russians. In 1838, ten thousand
persons on the coast are reported victims to this disease.
(4.) Last of the four races are the _Koloschians_, numbering about
4,000, who occupy the coast and islands from the mouth of the Copper
River to the southern boundary of Russian America, making about sixteen
settlements. They belong to an Indian group extending as far south as
the Straits of Fuca, and estimated to contain 25,000 souls. La Pérouse,
after considerable experience of the aborigines on the Atlantic coast,
asserts that those he saw here are not Esquimaux.[79] The name seems
to be of Russian origin, and is equivalent to Indian. Here again is
another variety of language, and as many separate nations. Near Mount
St. Elias are the Yakutats, who are the least known; then come the
Thlinkits, occupying the islands and coast near Sitka, and known in
Oregon under the name of Stikines; and then again we have the Kygans,
who, beginning on Russian territory, overlap Queen Charlotte’s Island,
beneath the British flag. All these, with their subdivisions, are
Koloschians; but every tribe or nation has four different divisions,
derived from four different animals, the whale, the eagle, the crow,
and the wolf, which are so many heraldic devices, marking distinct
groups.
Points already noticed in the more northern groups are repeated here.
As among the Kenaians, husband and wife are of different animal
devices. A crow cannot marry a crow. There is the same skill in the
construction of canoes; but the stretched seal-skin gives place to the
trunk of a tree shaped and hollowed, so that it sometimes holds forty
persons. There are good qualities among Aleutians which the Koloschians
do not possess; but the latter have, perhaps, stronger sense. They
are of constant courage. As daring navigators they are unsurpassed,
sailing six or seven hundred miles in open canoes. Some are thrifty,
and show a sense of property. Some have developed an aptitude for trade
unknown to their northern neighbors, or to the Indians of the United
States, and will work for wages, whether in tilling the ground or other
employment. Their superior nature discards corporal punishment, even
for boys, as an ignominy not to be endured. They believe in a Creator,
and in the immortality of the soul. But here a mystic fable is woven
into their faith. The spirits of heroes dead in battle are placed in
the sky, and appear in the Aurora Borealis. Long ago a deluge occurred,
when the human family was saved in a floating vessel, which, after the
subsidence of the waters, struck on a rock and broke in halves. The
Koloschians represent one half of the vessel, and the rest of the world
the other half. Such is that pride of race which civilization does not
always efface.
For generations they have been warriors, prompt to take offence, and
vindictive, as is the nature of the Indian race,--always ready to exact
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This character has not
changed. As was the case once in Italy, the dagger is an inseparable
companion. Private quarrels are common. The duel is an institution. So
is slavery still,--having a triple origin in war, purchase, or birth.
The slave is only a dog, and must obey his master in all things, even
to taking the life of another. He is without civil rights; he cannot
marry or possess anything; he can eat only offal; and his body, when
released by death, is thrown into the sea. A chief sometimes sacrifices
his slaves, and then another chief seeks to outdo his inhumanity.
All this is indignantly described by Sir Edward Belcher and Sir
George Simpson. But a slave once a freedman has all the rights of a
Koloschian. Here, too, are the distinctions of wealth. The rich paint
their faces daily; the poor renew the paint only when the colors begin
to disappear.
These are the same people who for more than a century have been a
terror on this coast. It was Koloschians who received the two boats’
crews of the Russian discoverer in 1741, as they landed in one of
its wooded coves, and no survivor returned to tell their fate. They
were actors in another tragedy at the beginning of the century, when
the Russian fort at Sitka was stormed and its defenders put to death,
some with excruciating torture. Lisiansky, whose visit was shortly
afterward, found them “a shrewd and bold, though a perfidious people,”
whose chiefs used “very sublime expressions,” and swore oaths, like
that of Demosthenes, “by their ancestors, by relatives living and dead,
and called heaven, earth, the sun, moon, and stars to witness for them,
particularly when they meant to deceive.”[80] According to D’Wolf,
“both sexes are expert in the use of fire-arms,” and he saw them
bathing in the sea with the thermometer below freezing, running over
the ice, and “performing all manner of antics with the same apparent
enjoyment as if it had been a warm spring.”[81] The fort has been
repeatedly threatened by these warriors, who multiply by reinforcements
from the interior, so that the governor in 1837 reported, that,
“although seven hundred only were now in the neighborhood, seven
thousand might arrive in a few hours.”[82] A little later their
character was recognized by Sir George Simpson, when he pronounced them
“numerous, treacherous, and fierce,” in contrast with Aleutians, whom
he describes as “peaceful even to cowardice.”[83] And yet this fighting
race is not entirely indocile, if we may credit recent report, that its
warriors are changing to traders.
* * * * *
3. _Climate._--From Population I pass to Climate, which is more
important, as it is a constant force. Climate is the key to this whole
region. It is the governing power which rules production and life,
for Nature and man must each conform to its laws. Here at last the
observations of science give to inquiry a solid support.
Montesquieu has some famous chapters on the influence of climate
over customs and institutions.[84] Conclusions regarded in his day
as visionary or far-fetched are now unquestioned truth. Climate is a
universal master. But nowhere, perhaps, does it appear more eccentric
than in the southern portion of Russian America. Without a knowledge of
climatic laws, the weather here would seem like a freak of Nature. But
a brief explanation shows how all its peculiarities are the result of
natural causes which operate with a force as unerring as gravitation.
Heat and cold, rain and fog, to say nothing of snow and ice, which play
such a part, are not abnormal, but according to law.
This law has been known only of late years. Even so ingenious an
inquirer as Captain Cook notices the mildness of the climate, without
attempting to account for it. He records, that, in his opinion,
“cattle might subsist in Oonalaska all the year round without being
housed”;[85] and this was in latitude 53° 52´, on the same parallel
with Labrador, and several degrees north of Quebec; but he stops
with a simple statement of the suggestive fact. This, however, was
inconsistent with the received idea at the time. A geographer,
who wrote a few years before Cook sailed, has a chapter in which,
assuming that the climate of Quebec continues across the continent,
he argues that America is colder than Asia. I refer to the “Mémoires
Géographiques” of Engel.[86] He would have been astonished, had he
seen the revelations of an isothermal map, showing precisely the
reverse: that the climate of Quebec does not continue across the
continent; that the Pacific coast of our continent is warmer than the
corresponding Atlantic coast; and that America is warmer than Asia,
so far at least as can be determined by the two opposite coasts. Such
is the truth, of which there are plentiful signs. The Flora on the
American side, even in Behring Strait, is more vigorous than that
on the Asiatic side, and the American mountains have less snow in
summer than their Asiatic neighbors. Among many illustrations of the
temperature, I know none more direct than that furnished by the late
Hon. William Sturgis, of Boston,--who was familiar with the Northwest
Coast at the beginning of the century,--in a lecture on the Oregon
question in 1845. After remarking that the climate there is “altogether
milder and the winter less severe than in corresponding latitudes on
this side the continent,” he proceeds to testify, that, as a proof of
its mildness, he had “passed seven winters between the latitudes of
51° and 57°, frequently lying so near the shore as to have a small
cable fast to the trees upon it, and only once was his ship surrounded
by ice sufficiently firm to bear the weight of a man.”[87] But this
intelligent navigator assigns no reason. To the common observer it
seemed as if the temperature grew milder, travelling with the sun until
it dipped in the ocean.
Among authorities open before me I quote two, which show that this
difference of temperature between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
was imagined, if not actually recognized, during the last century.
Portlock, the Englishman, who was on the coast in 1786, after saying
that during stormy and unsettled weather the air had been mild and
temperate, remarks that he is “inclined to think that the climate here
is not so severe as has been generally supposed.”[88] La Pérouse,
the Frenchman, whose visit was the same year, having been before in
Hudson’s Bay, on the other side of the continent, says still more
explicitly, “The climate of this coast seemed to me infinitely milder
than that of Hudson’s Bay, in the same latitude. We measured pines
six feet in diameter and a hundred and forty feet high; those of the
same species at Fort Prince of Wales and Fort York are of a dimension
scarcely sufficient for studding-sail booms.”[89] Langsdorff, when at
Sitka in 1805-6, was much with D’Wolf, the American navigator, and
records the surprise of the latter “at finding the cold less severe
in Norfolk Sound than at Boston, Rhode Island, and other provinces of
the United States, which lie more to the south.”[90] D’Wolf, in his
own work, says: “January brought cold, but not severe weather”; and in
February, the weather, though “rather more severe than the previous
month,” was “by no means so cold as in the United States, latitude
42°.”[91]
All this is now explained by known forces in Nature. Of these the
most important is a thermal current in the Pacific, corresponding to
the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. The latter, having its origin in the
heated waters of the Gulf of Mexico, flows as a river through the
ocean northward, encircling England, bathing Norway, and warming all
within its influence. A similar stream in the Pacific, sometimes called
the Japanese Current, having its origin under the equator near the
Philippines and the Moluccas, amid no common heats, after washing the
ancient empire of Japan, sweeps north, until, forming two branches, one
moves onward to Behring Strait, and the other bends east, along the
Aleutian Islands, and then south, along the coast of Sitka, Oregon,
and California. Geographers have described this “heater,” which in the
lower latitudes is as high as 81° of Fahrenheit, and even far to the
north as high as 50°. A chart in Findlay’s “Pacific Ocean Directory”
portrays its course, as it warms so many islands and such an extent
of coast. An officer of the United States Navy, Lieutenant Bent, in a
paper before the Geographical Society of New York, while exhibiting the
influence of this current in mitigating the climate of the Northwest
Coast, mentions that vessels on the Asiatic side, becoming unwieldy
with accumulations of ice on the hull and rigging, run over to the
higher latitude on the American side and “thaw out.” But the tepid
waters which melt the ice on a vessel must change the atmosphere,
wherever they flow.
I hope you will not regard the illustration as too familiar, if I
remind you that in the economy of a household pipes of hot water are
sometimes employed in tempering the atmosphere by heat carried from
below to rooms above. In the economy of Nature these thermal currents
are only pipes of hot water, modifying the climate of continents by
carrying heat from the warm cisterns of the South into the most distant
places of the North. So also there are sometimes pipes of hot air,
having a similar purpose; and these, too, are found in this region.
Every ocean wind, from every quarter, traversing the stream of heat,
takes up the warmth and carries it to the coast, so that the oceanic
current is reinforced by an aërial current of constant influence.
These forces are aided essentially by the configuration of the
Northwest Coast, with a lofty and impenetrable barricade of mountains,
by which its islands and harbors are protected from the cold of the
North. Occupying the Aleutian Islands, traversing the peninsula of
Alaska, and running along the margin of the ocean to the latitude of
54° 40´, this mountain-ridge is a climatic division, or, according to
a German geographer, a “climatic shed,” such as perhaps exists nowhere
else in the world. Here are Alps, some of them volcanic, with Mount
St. Elias higher than Mont Blanc, standing guard against the Arctic
Circle. So it seems even without the aid of science. Here is a dike
between the icy waters of Behring Sea and the milder Southern Ocean.
Here is a partition between the treeless northern coast and the wooded
shores of the Kenaians and Koloschians. Here is a fence which separates
the animal kingdom, having on one side the walrus and ice-fox from the
Frozen Ocean, and on the other side the humming-bird from the tropics.
I simply report the testimony of geography. And now you will not fail
to observe how by this configuration the thermal currents of ocean and
air are left to exercise their climatic power.
One other climatic incident here is now easily explained. Early
navigators record the prevailing moisture. All are enveloped in fog.
Behring names an island Foggy. Another gives the same designation to
a cape at the southern extremity of Russian America. Cook records fog.
La Pérouse speaks of rain and continued fog in the month of August. And
now visitors, whether for science or business, make the same report.
The forests testify also. According to physical geography, it could not
be otherwise. The warm air from the ocean, encountering the snow-capped
mountains, would naturally produce this result. Rain is nothing
but atmosphere condensed and falling in drops to the earth. Fog is
atmosphere held in solution, but so far condensed as to become visible.
This condensation occurs, when the air is chilled by contact with a
colder atmosphere. These very conditions occur on the Northwest Coast.
The ocean air, coming in contact with the elevated range, is chilled,
until its moisture is set free.
Add to these influences, especially at Sitka, the presence of mountain
masses and of dense forests, all tending to make the coast warmer in
winter and colder in summer than it would otherwise be.
Practical observation verifies these conclusions of science. Any
isothermal map is enough for our purpose; but there are others which
show the relative conditions generally of different portions of the
globe. I ask attention to those of Keith Johnston, in his admirable
Atlas. But I am glad to present a climatic table of the Pacific
coast in comparison with the Atlantic coast, recently compiled,
at my request, from the archives of the Smithsonian Institution,
with permission of its learned secretary, by a collaborator of the
Institution, who visited Russian America under the auspices of the
Telegraph Company. By this table we are able to comprehend the relative
position of this region in the physical geography of the world.
------------+-----------------------------+-----------------------------
| Mean Temperature in | Precipitation in Rain or
| Degrees Fahrenheit. | Snow. Depth in Inches.
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
| S | S | A | W | Y | S | S | A | W | Y
Places of | p | u | u | i | e | p | u | u | i | e
Observation.| r | m | t | n | a | r | m | t | n | a
| i | m | u | t | r | i | m | u | t | r
| n | e | m | e | . | n | e | m | e | .
| g | r | n | r | | g | r | n | r |
| . | . | . | . | | . | . | . | . |
------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
St. |28.75|52.25|27.00| 7.00|27.48| … | … | … | … | …
Michael’s, | | | | | | | | | |
Russ. Am. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 63° 28´| | | | | | | | | |
45´´ N. | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Fort Yukon, |14.22|59.67|17.37-23.80|16.92| … | … | … | … | …
Russ. Am. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. (near) | | | | | | | | | |
67°. | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Ikogmut, |19.62|49.32|36.05| 0.95|24.57| … | … | … | … | …
Russ. Am. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 61° 47´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Sitka, |39.65|53.37|43.80|32.30|42.28|18.32|15.75|32.10|23.77|89.94
Russ. Am. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 57° 3´ | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Puget Sound,|48.88|63.44|51.30|39.38|50.75| 7.52| 3.68|15.13|20.65|46.98
Wash. T. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 47° 7´ | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Astoria, |51.16|61.36|53.55|42.43|52.13|16.43| 4.85|21.77|44.15|87.20
Oregon | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 46° 11´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
San |55.39|58.98|58.29|50.25|55.73| 6.65| 0.09| 2.69|13.49|22.92
Francisco, | | | | | | | | | |
Cal. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 37° 48´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Nain, |23.67|48.57|33.65| 0.40|26.40| … | … | … | … | …
Labrador | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 56° 10´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Montreal, |41.20|68.53|44.93|16.40|42.77| 7.66|11.20| 7.42| 0.72|27.00
Canada East | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 45° 30´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Portland, |40.12|63.75|45.75|21.52|42.78| … | … | … | … | …
Maine | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 43° 39´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Fort |47.84|71.35|55.79|32.32|51.82|11.69|11.64| 9.88|10.31|43.52
Hamilton, | | | | | | | | | |
N. Y. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 40° 37´| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Washington, |54.19|73.07|53.91|33.57|53.69|10.48|10.53|10.16|10.06|41.23
D. C. | | | | | | | | | |
Lat. 38° 54´| | | | | | | | | |
------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----
It is seen here that the winters of Sitka are relatively warm, not
differing much from those of Washington; but the summers are colder.
The mean temperature of winter is 32.30°, while that of summer is
53.37°. The Washington winter is 33.57°; the Washington summer is
73.07°. These points exhibit the peculiarities of this coast,--warm
winters and cool summers.
The winter of Sitka is milder than that of many European capitals.
It is much milder than that of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm,
Copenhagen, Berlin, or Bern. It is milder even than that of Mannheim,
Stuttgart, Vienna, Sebastopol in the Crimea, or Turin. It is not much
colder than that of Padua. According to observations at Sitka in
1831, it froze only two days in December and seven days in January.
In February, the longest frost lasted five days; in March, it did not
freeze during the day at all, and rarely in the night. During the next
winter, the thermometer did not fall below 21° Fahrenheit; in January,
1834, it reached 11°. On the other hand, a temperature of 50° has been
noted in January. The roadstead is open throughout the year, and only a
few landlocked bays are frozen.
The prevailing dampness at Sitka renders a residence there far from
agreeable, although it does not appear injurious to health. England
is also damp; but Englishmen boast that theirs is the best climate of
the world. At Sitka the annual fall of rain is about ninety inches.
The mean annual fall in all England is forty inches, although in
mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland the fall amounts
to ninety and even one hundred and forty inches. In Washington it is
forty-one inches. The forests at Sitka are so wet that they will not
burn, although frequent attempts have been made to set them on fire.
The houses, which are of wood, suffer from constant moisture. In 1828
there were twenty days when it rained or snowed continuously; one
hundred and twenty when it rained or snowed part of the day, and only
sixty-six days of clear weather. Some years, only forty bright days
have been counted. Hinds, the naturalist, records only thirty-seven
“really clear and fine days.”[92] A scientific observer who was there
last year counted sixty. A visitor for fourteen days found only two
when nautical observations could be made; but these were as fine as he
had ever known in any country.
The whole coast from Sitka to the peninsula of Alaska seems to have the
same continuous climate, whether in temperature or moisture. The island
of Kadiak and the recess of Cook’s Inlet are outside this climatic
curve, so as to be comparatively dry. Langsdorff reports winters
“frequently so mild in the low parts of Kadiak that the snow does
not lie upon the ground for any length of time, nor is anything like
severe cold felt.”[93] Belcher, on his passage between Montague and
Hinchinbrook Islands, found an “oppressively hot sun.”[94] The Aleutian
Islands, further west, are somewhat colder than Sitka, although the
difference is not great. The summer temperature is seldom above 66°;
the winter temperature is more seldom as low as 2° below zero. The
snow falls about the beginning of October, and is seen sometimes as
late as the end of April; but it does not remain long on the surface.
The mean temperature of Oonalaska is about 40°. Chamisso found the
temperature of spring-water at the beginning of the year 38.50°. There
are years when it rains on this island the whole winter. The fogs
prevail from April till the middle of July, when for the time they are
driven further north. The islands northward toward Behring Strait are
proportionately colder; but I remind you that the American coast is
milder than the opposite coast of Asia.
From Mr. Bannister I have an authentic statement with regard to the
temperature north of the Aleutians, as observed by himself in the
autumn of 1865 and the months following. Even here the winter does not
seem so terrible as is sometimes imagined. During most of the time,
work could be done with comfort in the open air. Only when it stormed
the men were kept within doors. In transporting supplies from St.
Michael’s to Nulato, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, they
found no hardship, even when obliged to bivouac in the open air.
On Norton Sound and the Kwichpak River winter may be said to commence
at the end of September, although the weather is not severe till
the end of October. The first snow falls about the 20th or 25th of
September. All the small ponds and lakes were frozen early in October.
The Kwichpak was frozen solid about the 20th or 25th of this month. On
the 1st of November the harbor at St. Michael’s was still open, but on
the morning of the 4th it was frozen solid enough for sledges to cross
on the ice. In December there were two thaws, one accompanied by rain
for a day. The snow was about two feet deep at the end of the month.
January was uniformly cold, and it was said that at a place sixty-five
miles northeast of St. Michael’s the thermometer descended to 58° below
zero. February was usually mild all over the country. In the middle
of the month there was an extensive thaw, with showers of rain. About
half the snow disappeared, leaving much of the ground bare. March was
pleasant, without very cold weather. Its mean temperature was 20°; its
minimum was 3° below zero. Spring commences on the Kwichpak the 1st of
May, or a few days later, when the birds return and vegetation begins.
The ice did not entirely disappear from the river till after the 20th
of May. The sea-ice continued in the bay of St. Michael’s as late as
1st June. The summer temperature is much higher in the interior than
on the coast. Parties travelling on the Kwichpak in June complained
sometimes of heat.
The river Yukon, which, flowing into the Kwichpak, helps to swell that
stream, is navigable for at least four, if not five, months in the
year. The thermometer at Fort Yukon is sometimes at 65° below zero
of Fahrenheit, and for three months of a recent winter it stood at
50° below zero without variation. In summer it rises above 80° in the
shade; but a hard frost occurs at times in August. The southwest wind
brings warmth; the northeast wind brings cold. Some years, there is
no rain for months; and then, again, showers alternate with sunshine.
The snow packs hard at an average of two and a half feet deep. The ice
is four or five feet thick; in a severe winter it is six feet thick.
Life at Fort Yukon, under these rigors of Nature, although far from
inviting, is not intolerable.
Such is the climate of this extensive region, so far as known, along
its coast, among its islands, and on its great rivers, from its
southern limit to its most northern ice, with contrasts and varieties
such as Milton describes:--
“For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery.”
* * * * *
4. _Vegetable Products._--Vegetable products depend upon climate. They
are determined by its laws. Therefore what has been already said upon
the one prepares the way for the consideration of the other; and here
we have the reports of navigators and the suggestions of science.
From the time this coast was first visited, navigators reported the
aspects which Nature assumed. But their opportunities were casual,
and they necessarily confined themselves to what was most obvious.
As civilization did not exist, the only vegetable products were
indigenous to the soil. At the first landing, on the discovery of the
coast by Behring, Steller found among the provisions in one of the
Indian cabins “a sweet herb dressed for food in the same manner as
in Kamtchatka.” That “sweet herb” is the first vegetable production
of which we have record on this coast. At the same time, although
ashore only six hours, this naturalist “gathered herbs, and brought
such a quantity to the ship that the describing of them took him a
considerable time.” This description was afterwards adopted by Gmelin
in his “Flora Sibirica.”[95]
Trees were noticed even before landing. They enter into descriptions,
and are often introduced to increase the savage wildness of the scene.
La Pérouse doubts “if the deep valleys of the Alps and the Pyrenees
present a scene so frightful, but at the same time so picturesque that
it would deserve to be visited by the curious, if it were not at one
of the extremities of the earth.”[96] Lisiansky, as he approached the
coast of Sitka, records that “nothing presented itself to the view
but impenetrable woods, reaching from the water-side to the very tops
of the highest mountains”; that he “never saw a country so wild and
gloomy; it appeared more adapted for the residence of wild beasts than
of men.”[97] Lütke portrays the “savage and picturesque aspect” of the
whole Northwest Coast.[98]
As navigators landed, they saw Nature in detail; and here they were
impressed by the size of the trees. Cook finds at Prince William Sound
“Canadian and spruce pine, and some of them tolerably large.”[99] La
Pérouse describes pines measuring six feet in diameter and one hundred
and forty feet in height, and then again introduces us to “those superb
pines fit for the masts of our largest vessels.”[100] Portlock notices
in Cook’s Inlet “wood of different kinds in great abundance, such as
pine, black-birch, witch-hazel, and poplar; many of the pines large
enough for lower masts for a ship of four hundred tons burden”; and
then again at Prince William Sound “trees of the pine kind, some very
large; a good quantity of alder; a kind of hazel, but not larger than
will do for making handspikes.”[101] Meares reports “woods thick,”
also “the black-pine in great plenty, capable of making excellent
spars.”[102] Sauer, who was there a little later, in the expedition
of Billings, reports that they “took in a number of fine spars”; and
he proceeds to say: “The timber comprised a variety of pines of an
immense thickness and height, some extremely tough and fibrous, and
of these we made our best oars.”[103] Vancouver mentions, in latitude
60°, a “woodland country.”[104] Langsdorff describes trees in the
neighborhood of Sitka, many of them measuring six feet in diameter and
one hundred and fifty feet in height, “excellent wood for ship-building
and masts.”[105] Lisiansky says, that, at Kadiak, “for want of fir,
we made a new bowsprit of one of the pine-trees, which answered
admirably.”[106] Lütke testifies to the “magnificent pine and fir” at
Sitka, adding what seems an inconsistent judgment with regard to its
durability.[107] Belcher notices Garden Island, in latitude 60° 21´, as
“covered with pine-trees”; and then again, at Sitka, speaks of “a very
fine-grained, bright yellow cypress” as the most valuable wood, which,
besides being used in boats, was exported to the Sandwich Islands, in
return especially for Chinese goods.[108]
Turning westward from Cook’s Inlet, the forests on the sea-line are
rarer, until they entirely disappear. The first settlement on the
island of Kadiak was on the southwestern coast; but the want of timber
caused its transfer to the northeastern coast, where are “considerable
forests of fine tall trees.”[109] But where trees are wanting, grass
seems to abound. This is the case with Kadiak, the peninsula of Alaska,
and the Aleutian Islands generally. Of these, Oonalaska, libelled in
the immortal verse of Campbell, has been the most described. This
well-known island is without trees; but it seems singularly adapted to
the growth of grass, which is often so high as to impede the traveller
and to overtop even the willows. The mountains themselves are for a
considerable distance clothed with rich turf. One of these scenes is
represented in a print you will find among the views of the vegetation
of the Pacific in the London reproduction of the work of Kittlitz.
This peculiarity was first noticed by Cook, who says, with a sailor’s
sententiousness, that he did not see there “a single stick of wood of
any size,” but “plenty of grass, which grows very thick and to a great
length.”[110] Lütke records, that, after leaving Brazil, he met nothing
so agreeable as the grass of this island.
North of the peninsula of Alaska, on Behring Sea, the forests do not
approach the coast, except at the heads of bays and sounds, although
they abound in the interior, and extend even to within a short distance
of the Frozen Ocean. Such is the personal testimony of a scientific
observer recently returned from this region. In Norton Sound, Cook,
who was the first to visit it, reports “a coast covered with wood, an
agreeable sight,” and, on walking into the country, small spruce-trees,
“none of them above six or eight inches in diameter.” A few days
afterward “a party of men were sent on shore to cut brooms, and the
branches of spruce-trees for brewing beer.”[111] On the Kwichpak, and
its affluent, the Yukon, trees are sometimes as high as a hundred feet.
The supply of timber at St. Michael’s is from the drift-wood of the
river. Near Fort Yukon, at the junction of the Porcupine and Yukon,
are forests of pine, poplar, willow, and birch. The pine is the most
plentiful; but the small islands in the great river are covered with
poplar and willow. Immense trunks rolling under the fort show that
there must be large trees nearer the head-waters.
But even in northern latitudes the American coast is not without
vegetation. Grass takes the place of trees. At Fort Yukon, in latitude
67°, there is “a thin, wiry grass.” Navigators notice the contrast
between the opposite coasts of the two continents. Kotzebue, while in
Behring Strait, where the two approach each other, was struck by black,
mossy rocks frowning with snow and icicles on the Asiatic side, while
on the American side “even the summits of the highest mountains were
free from snow,” and “the coast was covered with a green carpet.”[112]
But the contrast with the Atlantic coast of the continent is hardly
less. The northern limit of trees is full seven degrees higher in
Russian America than in Labrador. In point of fact, on the Atlantic
coast, in latitude 57° 58´, which is nearly that of Sitka, there are no
trees. All this is most suggestive.
Next after trees, early navigators speak oftenest of berries,
which they found in profusion. Not a sailor lands who does not
find them. Cook reports “a variety of berries” at Norton Sound,
and “great quantities” at Oonalaska.[113] Portlock finds at
Prince William Sound “fruit-bushes in great abundance, such as
bilberry-bushes, raspberry-bushes, strawberries, elder-berry-bushes,
and currant-bushes, red and black,” and “any quantity of the berries
might be gathered for a winter’s stock.”[114] Meares saw there “a few
black-currant-bushes.”[115] Billings finds at Kadiak “several species
of berries, with currants and raspberries in abundance, the latter
white, but extremely large, being bigger than any mulberry he had
ever seen.”[116] Langsdorff notes most of these at Oonalaska, with
cranberries and whortleberries besides.[117] Belcher reports at Garden
Island “strawberries, whortleberries, blaeberries, pigeon-berries, and
a small cranberry, in tolerable profusion, without going in search of
them.”[118] These I quote precisely, and in the order of time.