USA > Alaska > Alaska, its neglected past, its brilliant future > Part 7
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SITKA-GREEK CHURCH IN CENTRE.
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CHAPTER XVI.
SITKA AND ITS LOVELY EXCURSION GROUNDS.
A HASTY breakfast and we are all eager to land and take a near view of Sitka and its environs. The lethargic little capital wakens at our coming. The Governor, the Marshal and the other government officials show us all the honors that the city can offer. The Rev. Sheldon Jackson, the superintendent of education, and Rev. A. E. Austin, the mission leader, and their associates, call our attention to the efforts they have made and tell of their determination to continue their most ex- cellent work, while they most sadly lament the in- adequacy of the help they receive from the Govern- ment, which made such promising efforts at first when the Territory passed into its hands.
The Greek Church, despite all care, shows the ravages of time; and many houses which look as if a little labor and paint would redeem them from their rustiness, are sinking, as though infected with the apathy of the spiritless aboriginal inhabitants. An incongruous party they are, as we see them.
Among the inhabitants we find a few Americans. whose faces seem familiar, bright and active and cheerful, making us have a warm friendship, or a sort 8
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of family regard for them, it seems so long since we have seen any one outside of the ship that at all re- sembles our own people; a great number of Russians, many of them much like Germans in complexion, with a stolid, quiet expression ; a good many Creoles, some showing in color and features their white admixture, others holding closely to their darker progenitors; and a superabundance of pure Alaskan natives, dusky, bright-eyed, with medium-sized physical forms, and more intelligent in appearance than most of the Amer- ican Indians.
Here in this quiet harbor, where our own ship is the only craft except the native boats and several visiting vessels, a Russian fleet used to ride at anchor, making gay contrast by thein slender masts and float- ing flags with the surrounding lofty mountain peaks and tall, sombre pines.
The Stars and Stripes have given greater promise. It has already been proven how well worth those few millions of dollars this vast Territory has become.
There are stores in which we may purchase many works of savage art that surprise us, as we look from one to another, more gracefully fashioned or more artistically carved. Here, too, as at Juneau, we find Chilkat blankets wonderful in texture and ornamenta- tion. The Alaska Society of Natural History and Ethnology, which makes its headquarters at Sitka, is endeavoring to keep up an interest in the native art by
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collecting all obtainable specimens of their handicraft, particularly those which were made before the demand for curios tempted the production of more hastily ac- complished, and, therefore, imperfect work. It is to be hoped that there will be retained a sufficient number of perfect objects to show future ages what sort of artistic talent and manufacturing abilities the wild Alaskans possessed.
Notwithstanding the historic objects and the curi- osities to be seen in the town, it requires but a day or two to accomplish the round of sightseeing, but there is one advantage it possesses to summer tourists, and that is they can make it a centre, a sort of home, from which to make excursions to gold mines and many points of interest. Take advantage of the hotel accommodations offered and begin your round of won- der-seeking.
Indian River has been spoken of so admiringly that we concluded to see for ourselves its beauty. As it is not distant we will try at once to see if it arouses en- thusiasm in ourselves, as it has in others.
But wait, here is the Alaskan office (a cozy place, with busy people within, which we discovered in wandering up the main street), a paper, a real, live weekly news- paper published in this little city and containing news interesting, instructive and spicy. Papers are always welcome, but this one specially so because it is really good in style, and it often contains in a nutshell that
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which would require quite a length of time to hunt up and learn. For instance, the Governor's letter upon the resources and capabilities of different localities, the value of the mining districts, the advantages of the waterways, the fortunes still to be made in its seal fisheries, if properly protected and conducted, and other items that cannot help but interest one who is just upon the ground, and who has a desire to learn all that is possible of a land from which he is making ob- servations with so much pleasure.
Now for a walk to Indian River, past the Russian part of the town and the training school for natives to the stream containing the purest, sweetest and most delicious drinking water in the near neighbor- hood. But what place can boast of water clearer or inore abundant than this? It comes, rippling, dash- ing, singing and dancing over smooth stones, around which long weeds clasp their slender stems as it car- ries them along around the great moss covered boul- ders whose obstruction causes the waves and eddies to murmur sweet, tinkling music. On, on, it runs and leaps in joyous abandon, and pours its bounti- ful store into pails, demijohns, kettles; anything that one may bring, it fills with the same crystal, spark- ling welcome. On either side tall hemlocks spread their beautiful, airy branches; great pines make deeper shades where dainty trout may sport unharmed; graceful spruces lift their shaded spires toward the
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SITKA AND ITS EXCURSION GROUNDS.
blue, clear heavenly archway, whose perfect colorings rival even sunny Italy's world renowned, song-praised skies.
Briers and wood tangle make impenetrable jungles that feast the eye with their wonderful luxuriance, while they defy the most daring feet to defile their sacred pre- cincts. Mosses grow rich and tall enough to hold po- sition among the lovely ferns that bend and sway beneath the slightest breath of wind. Everywhere is wild, rich beauty, so restful, so lovely, that one turns with regret from each bridge or footpath, feeling that no where can there be equally beautiful scenes and tempting vistas. Beware how you promise yourself or others to spend a day in this most beautiful spot, for during the summer the twilight does not sink into deeper darkness, but it slowly melts into the rosy brightness of morning. The daylight lin- gers as if its tender care were needed to watch over such perfect loveliness! Only the greater stars and planets are permitted to throw their reflections into the swift flowing little river or upon the channel's more placid bosom. Vostovia and Edgecombe, with mountain and hill, and hill and mountain, cast their sombre protecting shadows over and around the tiny town as it nestles confidingly between them, fearing no water famine while its beautiful river near by glides on forever; dreading no greater isolation than now, while it possesses such a safe and beauti-
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ful harbor; trusting that the tardy Congress will not forget that its dignity, as a capital of so vast an area of country, requires finer buildings, and more attention than it has received in the past twenty years. Let the mining towns of Juneau, Douglas Island, Cir- cle City and Forty-mile Run flourish more rapidly and grandly as they will, let other cities and towns arise and become famous as they may, but restore the beautiful historic Sitka to its own place in the world's history.
We have seen Indian River! More than likely we will view it again before we leave the town, but our next trip must be more distant and more difficult to accomplish. As it is just the season for the fur seal catch, we will hope to next take you to the Priby- lov Islands and discuss the seals, beautiful and plenti- ful in their northern home away out on the secluded islands of St. Paul and St. George, far away in Ber- ing Sea.
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM BERING SEA TO THE SEAL, OR PRIBYLOV ISLANDS.
F OR those who are brave enough to face a Pa- cific Ocean voyage of twenty-five hundred miles or more, there are sometimes berths of- fered in a trim, seaworthy sailing vessel or steamer, bound for Unalaska, and on to the Pribylov, or Great Seal Islands, which lie fourteen hundred miles west, north-west from Sitka. The proper mode of reaching these islands is by one of the Alaska Com- mercial Company's vessels, or other steamers, direct from San Francisco or Sitka, as trips from there are an- nounced from time to time. The temptation is great, just now is the season to see the islands swarming with the wonderful fur-bearing animals. The danger of shipwreck is comparatively light, for nowhere can be found more careful sailors than those who traverse the waters of the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea.
And now the few who are going are escorted by their friends to the ship. Good-byes are spoken, the more impressive because of a weird, indistinct dread of the outcome of this undertaking. After all why not leave such voyages entirely to skilled navi- gators, who are used to dangerous trips, or to exploring scientists, who are always ready to risk life and limb
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for their beloved calling? All necessary equipments are provided and the voyage is not as long as that to Europe.
The wind swells our winglike sails, the ship glides out from its quiet moorings away from the pretty little town, away from the few but firm friends who stand upon Sitka's tumble-down wharf and wave adieu as long as we can see them ; away from the si- lent, swarthy, native on-lookers, who see nothing in the start about which to make an ado. Out from the lovely verdant islands of the harbor, farther out into the ocean, and farther from land until at last we see only here and there an island of the Aleutian group, wave-washed and barren except for the strips of kelp or seaweed that cling to it tenaciously as the waves ebb and flow. Across the tinted waters of the noble Pacific, away in the distance, we behold land; in fact, inany lands, for we are still skirting the great Aleu- tian chain.
Our captain will not now permit us to visit Kadiak, or Kodiak, Oonamak, or even Oonalaska, or Unalaska, as they are variously called. Passing through a very narrow strait, studded with cold, cheerless islets, whose only sign of life, visible to the eager vision, is a vast colony of sea birds, we sail into Bering Sea, whose waters we must plow for many hundred miles before we reach our destination.
It is evening, and though it is only twilight, yet the ship is anchored for the night, much to our surprise,
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for there seems nothing unusual in the appearance of the sea or sky, except fog-banks, to make precaution necessary. By full daylight the sails begin to flut- ter, the cordage to saw, the timbers creak, and we are off again. In due time we near the harbor and the little port; the sea roughens, the wind moans and growls ominously. Are we going to have a storm? What is that strange sound? It is a combi- nation of sounds, wild, novel, indescribable in its never-changing, perpetual rise and fall. The nearer we approach the more constant it becomes, and whether we are staying a short or a long time we will become so thoroughly used to it that when we leave the neighborhood its absence will be as noteworthy as is now the first experience.
We are close upon St. Paul Island, and the noise comes from the seal rookeries, where the angry roar of the old bulls, the peculiar cry of the mother seals, and the bleating of the pups ceases neither day nor night, from the first arrival on their breeding grounds in the spring, till later in the season, when they leave for other and more congenial quarters. Our ship nears the land again only to be tossed back by the waves that seem determined to hold sacred from stranger eyes the fog-draped islands. At last the hawsers are thrown and secured and the feat of land- ing begins. You who have never before tried landing in a surf boat with a restless sea running will laugh at
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the scrambling, the frantically outstretched arms and trembling knees, the footing almost lost, the more than breathless thankfulness when terra firma is reached.
Try it, and see how much better you will do with the little boat or even, perhaps, with a landing plank, one moment tilted toward the clouds and the next toward the seething waters, and always in the direc- tion contrary to the way in which you would fain have it toss you, giving a graphic example of pro- gressing "one step forward and two steps backward."
But we are safely landed at last, all counted, to be sure that none has lost his equilibrium, and all ready to explore the wonderful wind-swept, fog-dark- ened island.
The principal islands in the group are St. Paul, St. George, Otter and Walrus. The latter two are so named from their being the favorite resort of those animals, and in times gone by multitudes of them visited the islands. Now otters are very scarce, a catch of ninety-three in one season being worthy of re- mark, and the great price paid for them, $50 or more per skin, in the rough, making their rarity and beauty more desirable for the wealthy. Walruses, too, are yearly becoming less plentiful, a fearful prospect for the Aleuts or natives, a tall, hardy race, of Russian origin no doubt, if civilization were not already teach- ing them that there are other articles of diet equally
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nutritious and palatable as the rank, greasy, strong- smelling flesh of their favorite game.
A few seals visit these smaller islands annually, but other better beaches attract the animals in great abund- ance, as well as the people whose business it is to cap- ture them and secure the skins for. the Commercial Company, to whom by a lease from the United States Government they temporarily belong. The first lease expired in 1890, and the tribulation suffered by the seals since then will long be remembered.
All these islands are of volcanic formation, and bear unmistakable signs of eruption. One, Otter island, presenting the characteristics of a crater, shows marks that it must have been in activity but a short time ago.
The general contour of all these islands is rugged and rocky, with smooth cone-like hills, here and there enlivened by flats covered in summer with richly ver- dant grass, gaily colored lichens and lovely crinkled mosses. Here and there are found tiny lakes full of pure sparkling water, and from the lofty side of St. George's Island there drops a beautiful crystal water- fall four hundred feet high from its crest to its final plunge into the sea. Birds by the million swarm upon the island, joining with seals in making a din which quite rivals the wind and sea. Strange to say, there is an annual visitation of flocks of sparrows, which are eagerly gathered for food. During their stay the natives do scarcely anything but catch and
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eat of the dainty morsels, as though they would fain take sufficient of such food to last until their coming in the next season. And who can blame them? For even much of the food fish are denied them, the seals frightening from the coast those they do not devour. The constant diet of seal meat must pall even upon the appetites of the lovers of this queer, fishy, game-flavored material. The people are permitted to kill enough for food in addition to 100,000, now temporarily limited to a much smaller number, allowed for skins. Their annual allowance of 6,000 seals to about 400 inhabitants may give an idea how much depends upon this staple, but we cannot but wonder how it is possible for any human creature to be satis- fied with almost entirely one article of animal diet. How quickly they prove that the whole of humanity is kindred when butter, flour and sugar are more abundantly introduced into their cuisine by the ar- rival of supply vessels! And how, too, they show their savage improvidence when they will devour bis- cuits and sugar enough at one time to last an ordi- nary mortal two or three days, speaking in all bounds.
We now approach the slippery, sandy shallows which the seals choose as their "hauling grounds." Watch that huge seal-bull making his way along to his future field of conflict, for just as surely as he stations himself at a given point, so truly will he have to fight, tooth and nail, to hold it.
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See him as he rears his head, and gazes around, then bending forward plants his forward flipper, and drags or hauls himself toward it; then holding firmly the position gained, he reaches the other flipper for- ward as far as possible and hauls towards it, so alter- nating until he brings his dripping, shining body out of the water. The process looks tedious, even pain- ful, and it must be to an extent tiresome, for the animal rests often during the operation. This por- tion of the island is most desolate and lonely, ex- cept when the seals are present. It is flat, low and slippery, and even at the best of times, offensively odorous.
Other parts are rugged to grandeur, fair with grass and moss or brightened with rippling lakes. And everywhere, erected by the Russians many years ago, are now seen Greek crosses in different stages of decay, according to their exposure to wind and rain, or their being guarded from the elements.
In summer all sheltered spots are blooming with flowers that remind one tenderly of home. The colors, the shapes, even the less distinct perfume, speak of many miles and miles away across sea and mountain and many a lovely landscape view.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FUR SEALS OF PRIBYLOV ISLANDS, BERING SEA.
A PROPITIOUS day dawns for a visit to the rook- eries of St. Paul Island. The sun has kindly hidden behind a silver mist, that will grad- ually grow more and more dense, until it becomes the Aleut's delight, a heavy fog. The natives smile as they watch the preparation of visitors for ex- plorations over the island. They cannot realize that light rubber overgarments are more comfort- able than their own heavy storm coats, and that they are just as effective, against the constant ooze of the fog banks, as more cumbrous dress. Besides, they see no need for preparation. This royal mist is more welcome than the brighest sunshine. In fact, the few sunny days that come to their islands seeni somewhat distressing to them, as well as to the seals.
The sound from the voices of seals is as of a roar- ing waterfall. It is said by those who have made careful observations that the activity of the seal colo- nies never ceases day or night. It is most certain that they all have special seasons of rest, but at no certain time, and so few are indulging in cat naps at one time that their voices cannot be missed from the perpetual din. As the rookeries are approached,
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THE FUR SEALS OF PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 127
the sounds dissolve themselves, and when one is quite close all the romance of the roar of Niagara is lost in the loud howling of the bulls, the angry growl of some, which are disturbed, the fierce notes, like puff- ing steam of the approaching combatants, the shrill whistling call of others, or the sheep-like bleating of the cows and pups. A very pandemonium of noises, among which one's feeble calls are quite lost even to his own auditors.
But look at this living, moving mass! A swarm of bees would be quite an imperfect simile! Great seals, some weighing quite as much as five or six hundred pounds; surrounded by their families large or small, females which are smaller and in greater numbers, and tiny pups, just able to flounder about to join their voices to the general sound, and all so much alike that a description of one of either sex may serve for all. The males are a deep, dull brown, inclining to black, except in the older males, whose coats assume the proper shade for age, a sort of grizzly gray. The females are a beautiful steel gray, blending to spotless white on the chest and the under part of the body, while the pups are at birth and some months afterwards, jet black with the ex- ception of two tiny white spots near the shoulders.
The bulls are majestic in apppearance as they rear their heads and shoulders far above their smaller companions, ever watchful that no marauder shall
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interfere in the slightest degree with their numerous adopted companions and their little ones. But how frightful are the battles that are almost momentarily fought between these bulky animals. Some late comer may suppose that he may slyly take posses- sion of at least one cow from a family of forty. In an instant he is challenged to combat, and the possi- bility is that he may push off badly whipped or pay the penalty of such temerity with his life. These bat- tles are fierce and bloody beyond description, and there is scarcely a moment through the season that one or more is not in progress. The pretty, gentle, dark-eyed females never join in any contest. They are mild, as their beautiful heads and tender eyes de- note, and though not outwardly affectionate, they never neglect their young. Imagine a million or more of these creatures gathered in one comparatively small spot on an almost desolate island. When the heat at noon makes them restless, there is nothing in our ordinary language that can adequately de- scribe the grotesquely wonderful appearance 'of a million or two of animals industriously fanning them- selves with their hind flippers, or of thousands upon thousands of glossy black pups sporting among them- selves as playful as kittens.
But it is not from among the breeding seals that the animals are taken that furnish the valuable furs of commerce. There is a class seemingly set aside
A SEAL ROOKERY, ST. PAUL'S ISLAND, BERING SEA.
THE FUR SEALS OF PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 129
for the benefit of the traders. They are called by the inhabitants holluschickie, or bachelors. They are never allowed, if possible, by the older seals to put as much as their flippers upon the rookeries, but are compelled to herd with the yearlings and pups at a respectful distance, and their lives seem to be one continual round of play, from their coming until the time arrives for their being driven to slaughter.
When that time comes men appointed for that part of the work go in among the thousands of beautiful creatures, choose from them those whose perfection of fur promises greatest profit, and by skillful ma- nœuvring, get them into something like marching order, when with numerous assistants, each armed with a club, they are slowly driven from among their more fortunate companions to the killing grounds. Here they are divided into companies of about one hundred and fifty and quickly despatched, with clubs manufactured for the purpose by a New England firm.
In a very short time after the first blow is struck they are skinned, the skins are salted and packed for pickling previous to their being shipped to the deal- ers in San Francisco and elsewhere, who in turn pass them on to the dyers, in London, England, no other firm being able to dye and polish them to such per- fection and salable condition. The appearance of these hides or furs before being plucked of the coarse hair and dyed is not such as to tempt the eyes
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of fashionable ladies who are inclined to boast of their beautiful sacks and muffs as "pure London dyed." The long hair must all be removed, which is adroitly done by shaving thinly the under side of the skin so that the roots or bulbs of these bristle-like hairs are cut off, they are then pulled ont, leaving the fine, soft fur on the skin, which is thus made valuable ; and the dye and polish perfect their excellence.
The lovely silver gray of life becomes somewhat rusty after its salting and rough usage, and it is not until after it is properly dressed and colored that it appears in all its exquisite glossy beauty. Then with all the harsher hair removed the dainty, fluffy fur waves and glistens with every motion of the wearer. Softer than down, closer and finer than wool, it will always hold its place whatever fancy may for a moment or season crop up in rivalry.
Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands and indeed the whole of our Alaska property is valuable. The fur seal islands, the salmon, cod and halibut fisheries, the mineral lands, the vast timber forests, are all unde- veloped treasures, but sufficiently visible to the ob- serving mind. It is strange that a foreign power has let her imaginary rights pass unnoticed until thirty years have flown, and that she should just now awake to the importance of asserting them. All nations with- out a protest acknowledged the justice of the Ameri- can purchase and its lines of demarkation.
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Our Government knows the value of the seal fish- eries; it knows the enormous revenues yielded by that one industry alone, which of itself makes Alaska a great and valuable acquisition to our country, and it will be strange, indeed, if a few thousand miles of distance between it and the seat of our National Gov- ernment will prevent proper authority from being supplied for the protection of our interests and pos- sessions as well as the few hundred inhabitants of those storm-swept, treasure islands. American rights in Bering Sea, or in any other part of our posses- sions in the great North and North-West will no doubt be well cared for in the near future.
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