Volume 15 — THE CESSION OF RUSSIAN AMERICA TO THE UNITED STATES. (continued 2)

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.

CHARACTER AND VALUE OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.

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 traffic4,145,869.76

Sale of furs1,709,149.00

Commercial licenses2,403,296.61

Other traffics170,235.76

Total8,528,551.13

Expenditures from 1850 to 1859, inclusive.

Silver Rubles.

Sustenance of the colony2,288,207.20

Colony’s churches71,723.18

Benevolent institutions143,366.23

Principal administrative officers1,536,436.49

Tea duty1,764,559.85

Transportation and packing of tea586,901.72

Purchase and transportation of merchandise213,696.29

Insurance of tea and merchandise217,026.55

Loss during war and by shipwreck132,820.20

Reconstruction of Company’s house in St. Petersburg76,976.00

Capital for the use of the poor6,773.02

Revenue fund capital135,460.40

Dividends1,354,604.00

Total8,528,551.13

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.

Places of Observation. Mean Temperature in Degrees Fahrenheit. Precipitation in Rain or Snow. Depth in Inches.

Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Year. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Year.

St. Michael’s, Russ. Am. Lat. 63° 28´ 45´´ N.28.7552.2527.007.0027.48……………

Fort Yukon, Russ. Am. Lat. (near) 67°.14.2259.6717.37-23.8016.92……………

Ikogmut, Russ. Am. Lat. 61° 47´19.6249.3236.050.9524.57……………

Sitka, Russ. Am. Lat. 57° 339.6553.3743.8032.3042.2818.3215.7532.1023.7789.94

Puget Sound, Wash. T. Lat. 47° 7´48.8863.4451.3039.3850.757.523.6815.1320.6546.98

Astoria, Oregon Lat. 46° 11´51.1661.3653.5542.4352.1316.434.8521.7744.1587.20

San Francisco, Cal. Lat. 37° 48´55.3958.9858.2950.2555.736.650.092.6913.4922.92

Nain, Labrador Lat. 56° 10´23.6748.5733.650.4026.40……………

Montreal, Canada East Lat. 45° 30´41.2068.5344.9316.4042.777.6611.207.420.7227.00

Portland, Maine Lat. 43° 39´40.1263.7545.7521.5242.78……………

Fort Hamilton, N. Y. Lat. 40° 37´47.8471.3555.7932.3251.8211.6911.649.8810.3143.52

Washington, D. C. Lat. 38° 54´54.1973.0753.9133.5753.6910.4810.5310.1610.0641.23

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:—

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.

Next to berries were plants for food; and these were in constant abundance. Behring, on landing at the Shumagin Islands, observed the natives “to eat roots which they dug out of the ground, and scarce shaked off the earth before they eat them.”[119] Cook reports at Oonalaska “a great variety of plants, several of them such as we find in Europe and in other parts of America, particularly in Newfoundland: … all these we found very palatable, dressed either in soups or in salads.”[120] La Pérouse, who landed in latitude 58° 37´, finds a French bill of fare, including celery, chicory, sorrel, and “almost all the pot-herbs of the meadows and mountains of France,” besides “several kinds of grass suitable for forage.” Every day and each meal the ship’s kettle was filled with these supplies, and all ate them in soups, ragouts, and salads, much to the benefit of their health.[121] Portlock mentions at Port Etches, besides “fine water-cresses,” “just above the beach, between the bay and the lake, a piece of wild wheat, about two hundred yards long and five yards wide, growing at least two feet high,” which, “with proper care, might certainly be made an useful article of food”; and at Cook’s Inlet he reports “ginseng and snakeroot.”[122] Meares reports at the latter place “inexhaustible plenty” of ginseng, and at Prince William Sound “snakeroot and ginseng, some of which the natives have always with them as a medicine.” He adds: “The ginseng of this part of America is far preferable to that of the eastern side.”[123] Billings finds at Kadiak “ginseng, wild onions, and the edible roots of Kamtchatka,” and then again at Prince William Sound “plenty of ginseng and some snakeroot.”[124] Vancouver finds at Port Mulgrave “wild vegetables in great abundance.”[125] Langsdorff adds to the list, at Oonalaska, “that sweet plant, the Siberian parsnip.”[126] These, too, I quote precisely, and in the order of time.

Since the establishment of Europeans on this coast, an attempt has been made to introduce the nutritious grains and vegetables known to the civilized world, but without very brilliant success. Against wheat and rye and against orchard fruits are obstacles of climate, perhaps insuperable. These require summer heat; but here the summer is comparatively cold. The northern limit of wheat is several degrees below the southern limit of these possessions, so that this friendly grain is out of the question. Rye flourishes further north, as do oats also. The supposed northern boundary of these grains embraces Sitka and grazes the Aleutian Islands. But other climatic conditions are wanting, at least for rye. One of these is dry weather, which is required at the time of its bloom. Possibly the clearing of the forest may produce a modification of the weather. At present barley grows better, and there is reason to believe that it may be cultivated successfully very far to the north. It has ripened at Kadiak. Many garden vegetables have become domesticated. Lütke reports potatoes at Sitka, so that all have enough.[127] Langsdorff reports the same of Kadiak and Oonalaska.[128] There are also at Sitka radishes, cabbages, cauliflowers, peas, and carrots,—making a very respectable list. At Norton Sound I hear of radishes, beets, and cabbages. Even as far north as Fort Yukon, on the parallel of 67°, potatoes, peas, turnips, and even barley, have been grown; but the turnips were unfit for the table, being rotten at the heart. A recent resident reports that there are no fruit-trees, and not even a raspberry-bush, and that he lost all his potatoes during one season by a frost in the latter days of July; but do not forget that these potatoes were the wall-flowers of the Arctic Circle.

Thus it appears that the vegetable productions of the country are represented practically by trees. The forests, overshadowing the coast from Sitka to Cook’s Inlet, are all that can be shown under this head out of which a revenue can be derived, unless we add ginseng, so much prized by the Chinese, and perhaps also snakeroot. Other things may contribute to the scanty support of a household; but timber will, in all probability, be an article of commerce. It has been so already. Ships from the Sandwich Islands have come for it, and there is reason to believe that this trade may be extended indefinitely, so that Russian America will be on the Pacific like Maine on the Atlantic, and the lumbermen of Sitka vie with their hardy brethren of the East.

These forests, as described, seem to afford all that can be desired. The trees are abundant, and they are perfect in size, not unlike

But a doubt has been raised as to their commercial value. Here we have the inconsistent testimony of Lütke. According to him, the pines and firs, which he calls “magnificent,” constitute an untried source of commercial wealth. Not only California, but other countries, poor in trees, like Mexico, the Sandwich Islands, and even Chili, will need them. And yet he does not conceal an unfavorable judgment of the timber, which, as seen in the houses of Sitka, suffering from constant moisture, did not seem durable.[129] Sir Edward Belcher differs from the Russian admiral, for he praises especially “the timber of the higher latitudes, either for spars or plank.”[130] Perhaps its durability may depend upon the climate where it is used; so that, though failing amidst the damps of Sitka, it may be lasting enough, when transported to another climate. In the rarity of trees on the islands and main-land of the Pacific, the natural supply is in Russian America. One of the early navigators even imagined that China must look this way, and he expected that “the woods would yield a handsome revenue, when the Russian commerce with China should be established.”[131] American commerce with China is established. Perhaps timber may become one of its staples.

A profitable commerce in timber has already begun at Puget Sound. By official returns of 1866 it appears that it was exported to a long list of foreign countries and places, in which I find Victoria, Honolulu, Callao, Tahiti, Canton, Valparaiso, Adelaide, Hong Kong, Sydney, Montevideo, London, Melbourne, Shanghae, Peru, Coquimbo, Calcutta, Hilo, Cape Town, Cork, Guaymas, and Siam; and in this commerce were employed no less than eighteen ships, thirty barks, four brigs, twenty-eight schooners, and ten steamers. The value of the lumber and spars exported abroad was over half a million dollars, while more than four times that amount was shipped coastwise. But the coasts of Russian America are darker with trees than those further south. Pines, in which they abound, do not flourish as low down as Puget Sound. Northward, they are numerous and easily accessible.

In our day the Flora of the coast has been explored with care. Kittlitz, who saw it as a naturalist, portrays it with the enthusiasm of an early navigator; but he speaks with knowledge. He, too, dwells on the “surprising power and luxuriance” of the pine forests, describing them with critical skill. The trees which he identifies are the Pinus Canadensis, distinguished for its delicate foliage; the Pinus Mertensiana, a new species, rival of the other in height; and the Pinus Palustris, growing on swampy declivities, and not attaining height. In the clearings or on the outskirts of thickets are shrubs, being chiefly a species of Rubus, with flowers of carmine and aromatic fruit. About and over all are mosses and lichens, invigorated by the constant moisture, while colossal trees, undermined or uprooted, crowd the surface, reminding the scientific observer of the accumulations of the coal measures. Two different prints in the London reproduction of the work of Kittlitz present pictures of these vegetable productions grouped for beauty and instruction. I refer to these, and also to the Essay of Hinds on “The Regions of Vegetation,” the latter to be found at the end of the volumes containing Belcher’s Voyage.

In turning from the vegetable products of this region, it will not be out of place, if I refer for one moment to its domestic animals, for these are necessarily associated with such products. Some time ago it was stated that cattle had not flourished at Sitka, owing to the want of proper pasturage, and the difficulty of making hay in a climate of such moisture. Hogs are more easily sustained, but, feeding on fish, instead of vegetable products, their flesh acquires a fishy taste, which does not recommend it. Nor has there been great success with poultry, for this becomes the prey of the crow, whose voracity here is absolutely fabulous. A Koloschian tribe traces its origin to this bird, which in this neighborhood might be a fit progenitor. Not content with swooping upon hens and chickens, it descends upon swine to nibble at their tails, and so successfully “that the hogs here are without tails,” and then it scours the streets so well that it is called the Scavenger of Sitka. But there are other places more favored. The grass at Kadiak is well suited to cattle, and it is supposed that sheep would thrive there. The grass at Oonalaska is famous, and Cook thought the climate good for cattle, of which we have at least one illustration. Langsdorff reports that a cow grazed here luxuriously for several years, and then was lost in the mountains. That grazing animal is a good witness. Perhaps also it is typical of the peaceful inhabitants.

5. Mineral Products.—In considering the Mineral Products, I ask attention first to the indications afforded by the early navigators. They were not geologists. They saw only what was exposed. And yet, during the long interval that elapsed, not very much has been added to their conclusions. The existence of iron is hardly less uncertain now than then. The existence of copper is hardly more certain now than then. Gold, which is so often a dangerous ignis-fatuus, did not appear to deceive them. But coal, which is much more desirable than gold, was reported by several, and once at least with reasonable certainty.

The boat that landed from Behring, when he discovered the coast, found among other things “a whetstone on which it appeared that copper knives had been sharpened.” This was the first sign of the mineral wealth which already excites such interest. At another point where Behring landed, “one of the Americans had a knife hanging by his side, of which his people took particular notice on account of its unusual make.”[132] It has been supposed that this was of iron. Next came Cook, who, when in Prince William Sound, saw “copper and iron.” In his judgment, the iron came, “through the intervention of the more inland tribes, from Hudson’s Bay, or the settlements on the Canadian lakes,” and his editor refers in a note to the knife seen by Behring as from the same quarter; but Cook thought that the copper was obtained near at home, as the natives, when engaged in barter, gave the idea, “that, having so much of this metal of their own, they wanted no more.”[133] Naturally enough, for they were not far from the Copper River. Maurelle, in 1779, landed in sight of Mount St. Elias, and he reports Indians with arrow-heads of copper, which “made the Spaniards suspect mines of this metal there.”[134] La Pérouse, who was also in this neighborhood, after mentioning that the naturalists of the expedition allowed no stone or pebble to escape observation, reports ochre, copper pyrites, garnets, schorl, granite, schist, horn-stone, very pure quartz, mica, plumbago, coal, and then adds that some of these substances announce that the mountains conceal mines of iron and copper. He reports further that the natives had daggers of iron, and sometimes of red copper; that the latter metal was common enough, serving for ornaments and for the points of arrows; and he then states the very question of Cook with regard to the acquisition of these metals. He insists also that “the natives know how to forge iron and work copper.”[135] Spears and arrows “pointed with bone or iron,” and also “an iron dagger” for each man, appear in Vancouver’s account of the natives on the parallel of 55°, just within the southern limit of Russian America.[136] Lisiansky saw at Sitka “a thin plate made of virgin copper” found on Copper River, three feet in length, and at one end twenty-two inches in breadth, with various figures painted on one side, which had come from the possession of the natives.[137] Meares reports “pure malleable lumps of copper ore in the possession of the natives,”—one piece weighing as much as a pound, said to have been obtained in barter with other natives further north,—also necklaces and bracelets “of the purest ore.”[138] Portlock, while in Cook’s Inlet, in latitude 59° 27´, at a place called Graham’s Harbor, makes another discovery. Walking round the bay, he saw “two veins of kennel coal situated near some hills just above the beach, and with very little trouble several pieces were got out of the bank nearly as large as a man’s head.” If the good captain did not report more than he saw, this would be most important; for, from the time when the amusing biographer of Lord Keeper North described that clean flaky coal which he calls “candle,” because often used for its light, but which is generally called “cannel,” no coal has been more of a household favorite. He relates, further, that, returning on board in the evening, he “tried some of the coal, and found it to burn clear and well.”[139] Add to these different accounts the general testimony of Meares, who, when dwelling on the resources of the country, boldly includes “mines which are known to lie between the latitudes of 40° and 60° north, and which may hereafter prove a most valuable source of commerce between America and China.”[140]