USA > Alaska > Alaska: its history and resources, gold fields, routes and scenery > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
If the indications of the placer fields mean anything, they suggest that the interior of Alaska is, in a very few years, des- tined to become a great center of quartz mining.
Those who have not had personal experience in placer mining cannot realize the fascination which is always with one engaged in this occupation. It is a healthful, hopeful, rugged and inde- pendent life. The placer miner goes alone into the mountain fastnesses with pick, shovel and pan, far away from every scene of civilization. He feels a pride in picking out the yellow frag- ments, which he has separated from the dirt by dextrous dipping, gradually letting the gravel run out with the water, while the yellow deposits settles around the edge and gravitates to the
62
ALASKA.
bottom of the pan. Before venturing upon the life, he is naturally overcome with dread of separation from home and friends. He realizes that he is to be deprived of the pleasures of society; per- haps he is leaving a loving wife and children behind, but when once in the field these recollections crowd him on to new life and spur him to renewed efforts. And when, perhaps, he lias secured his treasure and returns to find that he has not been forgotten, life seems to open up through a vista of years a new and happy existence. In no place on earth can you find such loyalty to friends, such honor among men, as in the camp of the miner. They are the architects of their own laws, and executioners as well. Their lives develop all the characteristics that go to make up a strong nature, and the dangers with which they come in contact, school them to bear their burdens calinly and to meet peril, or death if need be, with fortitude.
CHAPTER VIII.
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
ALASKA, in a peculiar sense, is the home of fur-bearing animals. It abounds in "fish, flesh and fowl." The bays and inlets teem with aquatic birds and animals, and the land is the home of the bear, wolf, deer, cariboo, m100se, fox, wolverine and many others widely distri- buted.
Early in the history of the Russian occupancy of Alaska, the sea otter skin traffic, which for a long time had 110 competitor, began to find a rival of mag- nitude in the fur seal trade.
I11 1786, the year succeeding the discovery of the Pribilof group of islands, over five hundred thousand fur seals were killed by Russian hunters, and the figures have even been placed as high as two millions. Whether the latter figures are exagger- ated or not, it is true, that twenty years from that time, the fur seal had almost entirely disappeared from these islands. More than half of the skins taken on the Pribilof islands were thrown into the sea in an advanced stage of decomposition, because of careless curing, and the waters were so poisoned as to drive away the seals for several successive seasons.
Chinese merchants trading on the Siberian frontier, placed a high value upon these skins, and frequently refused to exchange teas with the Russian traders for any other commodity. When the Russian-American company obtained exclusive control of the Russian possessions in America, the fur seals were so nearly destroyed that, for a time, the new company's traffic was quite
64
ALASKA.
insignificant. Prompt and efficient remedy was at once applied, by prohibiting the killing of seals for five years, from 1807 to 1812. At the expiration of that time the shy animals had returned, sufficiently recuperated to afford a continuous and reliable source of revenue.
The art of plucking and dying seal skins was invented by the Chinese. The exact date when this process was adopted by the English is unknown, but it occurred some time during the first half of the nineteenth century, as a regular demand for seal skins can be traced from that time. Shipments, directly to New York and London, were inaugurated about 1850, and these shipments continued at the rate of from twenty thousand to sixty thousand skins per annum, until the transfer of the Russian possessions to the United States.
When the question of acquiring Russian America was dis- cussed in Congress, no particular stress was laid upon the pros- pective value of the fur seal industry, though it was known to be one of the principal sources of revenue to the Russian-Ameri- can company. During the last decade of Russian ownership the agents in charge of the Pribilof islands reported each year that the fur seals were increasing in such numbers that the rookeries were crowded beyond their capacity. Each report was accom- panied by urgent requests to be permitted to kill more seals, to make room for the increasing millions. The fact that it was pos- sible to continue the slaughter, at the rate of one hundred thousand per annum, for twenty years after our purchase, seems to prove that when the United States acquired these valuable islands, the industry was in as prosperous condition as when dis- covered by Pribilof in 1786.
The radical restrictions of late years limiting the number of seals to be killed annually to one hundred thousand, were based upon careful observations and estimates; but the indiscriminate slaughter inaugurated within the past few years, by sealing ves- sels from British Columbia, which encounter the migrating ani- mals on their way to the breeding grounds, and kill males and females alike, has fully justified the still more radical restrictions since inade.
The only hauling or breeding grounds of the fur seal known in Alaska are upon the Islands of St. Paul and St. George. On the Otter islands, these animals occasionally haul up, but do not breed. The Pacific and Antarctic oceans have been
-
-
FUR SEAL ROOKERY, ST. PAUL ISLAND.
65
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
scoured by sealers and emissaries of trading firmns, in search of supposed "winter homes" of the fur seal; but at the present day the fact seems to be established, that after leaving their con- fined breeding places, they scatter over the broad Pacific to loca- tions where extensive elevations of the bottom of the sea enable them to subsist upon fish until the instinct of reproduction calls them again, from all directions, to their common rendezvous.
The killing of fur seals is done altogether on land, and has been reduced, through long observation and practice, to a science. Under the present lease the company has been restricted to kill less than seven thousand five hundred each year; and the only individuals permitted to do the work are the able-bodied Aleutian hunters, now living on the islands, whose ancestors were brought from the Aleutian islands by the Russian government. They receive forty cents per seal. Life-long practice has made them expert in using their huge clubs and sharp skinning knives, both instruments being manufactured expressly for this purpose. These men are proud of their skill as sealers, and will not demean themselves by doing any other kind of work.
The labor connected with the killing of seals may be divided into two distinct processes; the separation of the seals of a cer- tain age and size from the main body and their removal to the killing ground: and the final process, of making another sorting among the select, and killing and skinning them. A damp, cloudy day is especially desirable for both driving and killing.
The young male seals, to the age of four years, invariably segregate themselves, in the rear of the so-called rookeries-or groups of families -that line the sea sliore; and the experienced native crawls in between the families and these "bachelors." This is accomplished without difficulty, and the animals are driven inland, in droves of from one to three thousand each, very slowly, lest the animals become overheated and injure the quality of their skins. When the slaughter ground is reached, twenty or thirty seals are separated from their fellows, in quick succession, surrounded by their executioners armed with clubs, and the killing begins. The experienced eye of the Aleut quickly discovers if the seal is either under or above the specified age or size, and if such a one be found, he is dismissed, with a gentle tap on the nose, and allowed to make his way to the shore and escape.
5
$
66
ALASKA.
The men with clubs proceed from one group to another, striking the seals violently on the nose to stun them. Others immediately follow with long, sharp knives, and stab each stunned seal to the heart, to insure immediate death. Then the skinners come and, with astonishing rapidity, divest the carcasses of their rich and valuable covering, leaving, however, the head and flippers intact. Carts, drawn by mules, follow the skinners, and into these the pelts are thrown to be carried away to the salt houses, and salted down for the time being, like fish in barrels. Later, after pressure is applied, they are rolled in bundles of two each, with the fur inside, securely strapped, and are then ready for shipment. The wives and daughters of the sealers linger
around the bloody field and reap a rich harvest of luscious blub- ber, carrying it away on their heads and shoulders, the oil drip- ping down over their faces and garments.
The sea otter seems to exist chiefly on a line parallel with the Japanese current, from the coast of Japan along the Kurile islands to the coast of Kamchatka, and thence westward along the Aleutian chain, the southward side of the Alaska peninsula, the estuaries of Cook inlet and Prince William sound, thence eastward and southward along the Alaska coast, the Alexander archipelago, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. But it is becoming scarcer each year, owing to the recklessness with which it has been hunted and killed. Three distinct times, dur- ing the existence of the Russian-American company, their agents
FRANKLIN 6.FINO (OM)
KILLING FUR SEAL, ST. PAUL ISLAND.
67
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
in the Kurile islands have reported the sea otter extinct, but each time it has appeared again, after a few years respite from hunting. They change from one feeding ground to another. At the present date, about the Kurile islands and Kamchatka, few are killed annually, and Attu island and several smaller islands, which formerly furnished many hundred sea otter skins every year, now produce less than a dozen skins in the same time. The outlying reefs of Atka, also, once furnished an abun- dant supply of these skins, but are now entirely deserted. From the Island of Unimak eastward, however, sea otter lias become more plentiful, and within a radius of fifty miles of the island, about one thousand are taken annually. But the hunting is carried on recklessly by whites and natives alike, with firearnis, in direct violation of the law. They are still found in the waters of the Kadiak archipelago, as well as in the southern portion of Cook inlet.
The land otter is one of the most widely distributed fur-bearing animals in Alaska, unless we except the fox. Its skin is highly valued, and is now utilized in the manufacture of an imitation seal skin. The land otter is found on the whole coast of Alaska, from the southern boundary to Norton sound. Within the Arctic circle it is confined to the upper portions of the rivers emptying into Kotzebue sound and the Arctic ocean; and it is also found along the whole course of the Yukon, and, as far as known, in nearly all parts of the Alaska peninsula, the Kadiak archipelago, and the coast from Mt. St. Elias to the southern boundary.
There has been a great decline, both in the supply and demand for beaver, during the last fifty years. Once it was the most important among the fur-bearing animals of continental Alaska. This animal has frequently suffered from the excessive and pro- longed cold of the Arctic winter, in the interior country north of Cook inlet and the Yukon. The ice in the river and lakes has formed so rapidly, and to such a thickness at times, that the animals found it impossible to keep open the approaches to their dwellings under water, and died of starvation before spring. Hundreds of putrifying carcasses have been found by natives in the beaver lodges. Old beaver dams scattered over the- conti- nental portion of Alaska testify to the former abundance of the animal. Though now hundreds are taken where formerly thou- sands were captured, and notwithstanding the demand has les- sened, the supply has not increased.
6S
ALASKA.
When the Hudson's Bay Company were lords of the entire Northwest American continent, the skins of these animals repre- sented the value of an English shilling, and were used and accepted as common currency. The present price of a beaver skin of average size, in Alaska, is from six to twelve dollars. The Indians of the interior and a few of the Eskimo tribes look upon the flesh of the beaver as a great delicacy. It is a dish which they always set before honored guests, and is also much used in festivities. The long incisors of the beaver are made into chisels, small adzes and other tools, for the working of wood and bone.
The brown bear, a huge, shaggy animal, is found in nearly every section of the territory. The northern limit of its habitat is about sixty-seven degrees north latitude. It prefers an open, swampy country to the timber. The brown bear is an expert fisher, and during the salmon season it frequents all the rivers, and their tributaries, emptying into Bering sea and the North Pacific. At the end of the annual salmon run, it retreats to the tundra, where berries and small game are plentiful This ani- mal has been called the road-maker of Alaska, for not only are swampy plains, leading to the easiest fording places of streams and rivers, intersected by his paths, but the hills and ridges of mountains are also marked by his footsteps. The largest speci- miens are found at Cook inlet. On its west side they can be seen in herds of twenty five or thirty. From the fact that their skins are not very valuable, and also that they are of a fierce disposi- tion, they are little hunted. Before attempting to kill one the native hunter invariably addresses a few complimentary remarks to his intended victim.
The Thlinkits have a tradition, told them by the shamans, that the brown bear is a man who has assumed the shape of an animal. The tradition relates that this secret of nature first became known through the daughter of a chief. The girl went into the woods to gather berries, and incautiously spoke in terms of ridicule of a bear, whose traces she observed in her path. In punishment for her levity, she was decoyed into the bear's lair and there compelled to marry him and assume the form of a bear herself. After her husband and her ursine child had been killed by her Thlinkit brethren, she returned to her home in her former shape and related her adventures. In deference to this generally received superstition, when the natives run across bear tracks in
69
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
the woods, they immediately say the most charming and compli- mentary things of bears in general, and their visitor in particular.
The black bear generally confines himself to timber and mnoun- tain regions. It exists on a few islands in Prince William sound, and on Kadiak island, and is found on rivers emptying into the Arctic, and is plentiful southward to the valley of the Yukon. The skins command high prices, and are increasing in vale yearly. The animals are shy, and great skill and patience are required to hunt them. Like the brown bear, they are expert fishers, wading into the streams and, as a salmon comes along, they strike with dextrous paw and land their fish on the bank, where it furnishes a toothsome feast. Unlike the brown bear, , however, the natives do not fear them in the least. The glossiest and largest of black bear skins come from the St. Elias Alpine range and Prince William sound, but the black bear never attains the size of his brown relative.
The red fox is found in every section of Alaska. In fact, this animal seems omnipresent. It varies in size and in the quality of its fur from a specimen as large as the high-priced Siberian fire fox, to the small, yellow-tinged creature that rambles fur- tively over the rocky islands of the Aleutian chain. Like a poor relation, he mingles persistently with his aristocratic cousins, the black and silver foxes, always managing, in course of time, to deteriorate the blood and tarnish the coat of his richer rela- tive. His diet is heterogenous, fish, flesh and fowl being equally satisfactory to his taste ; nor does he disdain shellfish, mussels, or the eggs of aquatic birds. He is rarely hunted or trapped by the natives, from the fact that his fur is cheap, and they never eat his flesh, except when driven to it from famine.
The king of the vulpine family is the black or silver fox. In the mountain fastnesses of the interior, and on the headwaters of the large rivers, he is found in his prime. He is of large size, with long, soft, silky fur, varying in color from the silver tint to the deep jet black, the latter being the most rare and highly prized. They are found along the boundaries between Alaska and British Columbia, in the country of the Chilkats, the Takus, the upper Copper river, upper Yukon, Tanana and Kuskoquim rivers. In the last named regions, skins may be bought front ten to fifteen dollars each, but in Southeast Alaska, where com- petition is strong, forty and fifty dollars each is frequently paid for them. Black foxes, of an inferior quality, are found on the
70
ALASKA.
sea coast, on the shores of Norton sound, in the interior of Kotzebue sound, along the Yukon, and on the Colville river. They are quite plentiful on Kadiak island and most of the Aleu- tian islands ; but they have been transported by man's agency to many of these points.
Along the southwestern coast there are many islands, removed from the shore a few miles, uninhabited and never visited by natives. In a number of instances white men have gathered a few pairs of blue, black and silver foxes, when young, from the natives, and taken them to these islands and turned them adrift. They arrange with the natives to carry food to them at stated periods, and they become, in a measure, tame. They increase very rapidly, and in three or four years become a source of profit- able industry for the projectors of the enterprise. On the seal islands the propagation of the blue fox has been carried on for some years, only a certain number being killed each year. The blue fox was first discovered on the Aleutian islands in 1741. It has been protected against intermixture with other and inferior foxes, and the skins are of the finest quality and command a high price in the market.
The cross fox partakes of the distinguishing qualities of both the red and black, and is evidently the result of unrestricted intermixture, the connecting link between the plebian and the patrician. The skin of the cross fox is valued but little more than the red, from two to three dollars being paid for the best.
Almost the only high-priced fur found in the Yukon basin is the silver fox, and it forms a most important element in the trade of that region.
The white fox is found along the continental coast of Alaska, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim river northward to Point Bar- row. Its fur is snowy white, soft and long, but is not durable ; hence it does not command a high price in the market. The white fox is fearless, and will enter villages and dwellings in search of food, or out of mere curiosity. It will eat anything to satisfy hunger, and in the depth of winter the natives find it un- safe to leave any article of clothing, dog harness or boat material where these thieving little animals can find them.
Mink are plentiful on the coast, but not on the islands, except- ing those of Prince William sound. They are also abundant on the Yukon and many other rivers. The spell of fashion has
71
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
made this skin of but little value. But within the past two years it has become more popular, and in a few years it may be as fashionable as when, a score or more years ago, it was the pride of every woman to possess a cape made from the fur of these pretty animals.
The polar bear is found only on the Arctic coast where there are large bodies of ice. With the moving ice fields, he enters, and leaves the waters of Bering sea. From fifty to one hundred of these animals are killed yearly, principally by the natives. It sometimes happens, when a whale that has been struck by a har- poon and not killed, in time dies and is washed ashore, the polar bears will come from all directions, drawn by the scent of the carcass, and feed on the blubber. Natives then come upon them with their crude weapons and slay them in large numbers.
The lynx is found in the wooded mountains, and wolves, both grey and white, are plentiful, but rarely killed.
Muskrats abound all over Alaska, and rabbits and inarmots are killed for their flesh ; the natives use the skins of the former for clothing. Especially is this true in the Arctic region, as the reindeer, the animal that formerly supplied them with skins for clothing, are fast disappearing.
Wolverines are plentiful on the upper Yukon and the lake sections. The skins are rarely exported, as a ready market is found among the inhabitants of the coast region of the Yukon and Kuskoquim, who prefer this shaggy, piebald fur to any other trimming for their wearing apparel. This skin is very highly prized among the Eskimo, as it serves as an excellent protection for their faces against the severe blasts, when sewed around their hoods.
Deer are very abundant, especially in Southeast Alaska, where, in winter, they are recklessly slaughtered for their hides, when driven to the coast by long continued snow. So reckless has this slaughter become that there is great danger of their being exterminated, unless Congress passes a law prohibiting the exportation of deer hides from the territory for a number of years. Deer form a large supply of food for the natives of Southeast Alaska; and the wanton manner in which they are killed bids fair to eliminate a food product of vast importance. They are hunted, in the rutting season, by a call made from a blade of grass placed between two strips of wood, which produces a very
72
ALASKA.
clever imitation of the cry of the deer. This call leads them to the ambushed hunter; and so deceptive is it that it is not unusual to get a second shot should the first fail. The wolves play great havoc with the deer; and it is remarkable that they exist in such numbers among so many ruthless enemies.
Moose, cariboo and deer are found in the upper Yukon coun- try, and especially on the White river moose are reported by the natives to be plentiful, and of large size.
The deer of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions have been con- founded with the reindeer of other localities. While they cer- tainly belong to the same family they are what is called the barren ground cariboo, which differs from the upland cariboo and domesticated reindeer in being smaller in body and horns.
The mountain sheep and goat are found along the highest mountains of the coast and in the interior, in droves of twenty or more. They seem to prefer the highest altitudes and most precipitous steeps. Their wool is long and fine, and when nicely cleansed and tanned makes beautiful rugs. The horns of the sheep are made into bowls and ladles by the natives; and many rare and beautiful pieces worked up in this way find ready pur- chasers in tourists.
Bald and gray eagles are numerous throughout Southeast Alaska, and are also found, to some extent, in the interior wher- ever there is large timber. The natives kill them in large num- bers and pluck the feathers, leaving nothing but the down. When cleansed the skins are sewn together, about thirty of them being required to make a robe, which is, at once, rich and beau- tiful.
Humming birds, in large numbers, having the delicate plum- age of those found in warmer climates, flit from bush to bush in Southeast Alaska. Native boys tie small pieces of red flannel on a limb, and cover them thinkly with pitch. The bright color attracts the tiny birds, who alight on the flannel. Their little feet adhere so tenaciously to the pitch that they cannot extricate theniselves, so they become an easy prey to the youngsters who trap them, only to worry them to death with savage cruelty.
In all the waters of Alaska, whether in the southeastern count- try, the interior, or Arctic regions, ducks and geese in every variety are found in vast numbers Alaska appears to be especi- ally adapted as a natural breeding ground. The smaller varieties
FRANKUNG -FRIGGI
JUNEAU.
73
LAND AND SEA ANIMALS.
of land and timber birds are as numerous as the water fowl, and the graceful swan are found in large numbers in many parts of the territory.
In Arctic Alaska the disappearance of the snow and ice is immediately followed by the arrival of birds from the south in large numbers, and, in a few weeks, the Eskimo revel in the variety and number of eggs found among the grass and tundra. Besides the wholesale robbing of nests for eggs the young fledglings are eaten by the Eskimos with a keen relish. Their stay is brief, however, for none, save the most hardly of the Arctic birds, remain to pass the long months of winter in this region.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.