USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 64
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 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
The eulachon, or candle-fish, as it is often termed, a small silvery fish, seldom exceeding fifteen inches in length, and in appearance resembling a smelt, abounds in river and stream as far south as latitude 49°. It is most abundant in Alaskan waters, where for the three or four weeks during which the season lasts, the run is more marvellous even than that of salmon. The eulachon is the fattest of known fish, and the oil tried out from it is sold to the Indians on the Nass River near the Alaskan border22 at profitable rates.28 When dried, it serves as a torch, burning with a clear bright flame. Hence its name of candle-fish. When smoked
21 Besides 3,000 gals of whale oil and 12,000 of dog-fish oil. This industry was established by the North-west Trading Company of Portland. The com- pany has another station at Cordova Bay, where it was proposed to commence work in 1882. Hittell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 357.
22 The eulachon is also plentiful in the Fraser and Columbia rivers.
23 About $1 per gal. in 1881. Id., 355. Hittell states that the oil possesses valuable medicinal qualities.
667
THE CANDLE-FISH.
and prepared for table by broiling or steaming, it is equal in flavor to the finest quality of eastern mack- erel, and when pickled and shipped to San Francisco, finds a ready market.
On the Nass River, eulachon are usually caught in wicker baskets, and after being dried or smoked are stored up for future use. The fishing commences about the end of March; and in connection with it is a curious custom which prevails elsewhere among the natives and in other branches of fishery .. The first eulachon caught is addressed as a chief, and the natives gath- ering round him, tender profuse apologies that they should be compelled to destroy his kindred in order to supply their wants. Then follows a feast, with speeches, songs, dancing, and of course drinking, after which fish- ing commences in earnest and continues until all have procured a sufficient stock.
I have mentioned only the varieties that, with the exception perhaps of the white fish, have or are likely to have any commercial value, but in few parts of the world are other kinds more abundant. Among them may be mentioned the tom-cod, smelt, salmon-trout, and grayling,24 all of which are found in Alaskan waters, the first three being of excellent qual- ity.
The value of all the Alaskan fisheries, in which phrase is included the seal-hunting grounds, was esti- mated in the census of 1880 at $2,661,640, of which sum fur-seal skins and other pelagic peltry were valued at $2,096,500, and the fisheries proper at $565,140. What will be the commercial value of these fisheries, when, as will probably be the case at no very distant day, the Pacific states and territories are peopled with 15,000,000 instead of 1,500,000 peo- ple, and are threaded with railroads almost as com-
24 The tom-cod resembles the eastern fish of that name, but is much better flavored. Smelt are plentiful near Sitka and elsewhere. Salmon-trout of ex- cellent flavor are taken in the smaller rivers and streams. The grayling is of poor quality. Pike are taken in the lakes and ponds of northern Alaska, but are of little value as a table-fish, and are mainly used for dog-feed.
668
FISHERIES.
pletely as are now the western states of America? But when this shall happen, there will doubtless be more frequent communication with Mexico and Central and South America; for already Pacific coast manu- factures have found a foothold in all these countries, and it is predicted by political economists that the manufactures of this coast will exceed both mining and agriculture in aggregate wealth. The fur-seal industry is the only one at present utilized to any considerable extent, but it is not improbable that, even before the close of this century, the fisheries may become more valuable than are now the fur-seal grounds.
Of whaling enterprise in the neighborhood of the Alaskan coast, mention has already been made; but a few statements that will serve to explain the enor- mous decrease that has occurred in the catch within the last three decades may not be out of place.
Of the six or seven hundred American whalers that were fitted out for the season of 1857, at least one half, including most of the larger vessels, were en- gaged in the north Pacific.25 The presence of so vast a fleet tended of course to exhaust the whaling-grounds or to drive the fish into other waters, for no permanent whaling-grounds exist on any portions of the globe except in those encircled by ice for about ten months in the year. In the seas of Greenland, not many years ago, whales were rarely to be seen; in 1870 they were fairly plentiful. The sea of Okhotsk and the waters in the neighborhood of the Aleutian Islands were a few decades ago favorite hunting-grounds,28 but are now almost depleted, while in 1870 the coast of New Siberia was swarming with whales. Schools
25 Including of course the Bering Sea. Zabriskie's Land Laws, 882.
26 Davidson says that in 1868 whales were as plentiful near the Aleutian group as in the Arctic, but that the shoal waters of the latter greatly facili- tated their pursuit. Scient. Exped., 476. It would seem that, if they were as plentiful off the Aleutian Islands as the professor would have us believe, they would have been taken in greater number. The Aleuts found no diffi- culty in catching them.
669
WHALES.
of sperm-whale are occasionally seen between the Alaska Peninsula and Prince William Sound, and the hump-back sometimes makes its appearance as far north as Baranof Island. Between Bristol Bay and Bering Strait a fair catch is sometimes taken, but most of the vessels forming what is termed the north Pacific whaling fleet, now pass into the Arctic Ocean in quest of their prey.27 Probably not more than eight or ten of them are employed on the whaling grounds of the Alaskan coast.
In 1881 the whaling fleet of the north Pacific mustered only thirty, and in the following year forty craft, of which four were steamers.28 The catch for 1881 was one of the most profitable that has occurred since the date of the transfer, being valued at $1,139,- 000, or an average of about $57,000 for each vessel,29 some of them returning with cargoes worth $75,000, and few with cargoes worth less than $30,000. In 1883 the catch was inconsiderable, several of the whal- ers returning 'clean,' and few making a profit for their owners.
The threatened destruction of these fisheries is a matter that seems to deserve some attention. In 1850, as will be remembered, it was estimated that 300 whal- ing vessels visited Alaskan waters, and the Okhotsk and Bering seas.30 Two years later the value of the catch of the north Pacific fleet was more than $14,000,000.31 After 1852 it gradually decreased, until in 1862 it was less than $800,000; for 1867 the amount was about $3,200,000; in 1881 it had again fallen to $1,139,000;
27 Sen. Ex. Doc., 42d Cong. 2d Sess., 34, p. 2-3. It is there stated that of 28 right whales caught near the coast of Alaska during one season eleven were lost.
28 A steam whaler was despatched from San Francisco for the first time in 1880. Hittell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 347.
29 Including 354,000 lbs of whalebone worth $2 to $2.50 per lb., 21,000 bbls of oil at about 35 cents per gallon, and 15,000 lbs of ivory at 60 cents per lb. Id., 348.
30 P. 584, this vol. They were not of course all American vessels.
31 The fleet for that year consisted of 278 ships. Sen. Ex. Doc., 42d Cong. 2d Sess., 34, p. 4.
670
FISHERIES.
and for the season of 1883 there was a still further reduction. 32
The whaling-grounds of the north Pacific, though of course open to all nations, are now in the hands of Americans, and were so practically before the pur- chase.33 It is probable that the United States will continue to enjoy a virtual monopoly of this industry, for under present conditions it will erelong cease to be profitable.
32 In Id., 4-5, the value is stated of each year's catch between 1845 and 1867.
33 In 1864 there were only 14 whalers, in 1865, 18, and in 1866, 9 vessels sailing under other flags. Id., 5.
CHAPTER XXXI.
SETTLEMENTS, AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING. 1794-1884.
SITKA DURING THE RUSSIAN OCCUPATION-THE TOWN HALF DESERTED- SOCIAL LIFE AT THE CAPITAL-THE SITKA LIBRARY-NEWSPAPERS- FORT WRANGELL-TONGASS-HARRISBURG-SETTLEMENTS ON COOK IN- LET-KADIAK-WOOD ISLAND-SPRUCE ISLAND-THREE SAINTS-AFOG- NAK-THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS-VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND EARTH- QUAKES-SAINT MICHAEL-FORT YUKON-AGRICULTURE-STOCK-RAIS- ING-TIMBER-SHIP-BUILDING-COAL-MINING - PETROLEUM, COPPER, QUICKSILVER, LEAD, AND SULPHUR-SILVER AND GOLD.
IN May, 1794, Vancouver visited a settlement at Cook Inlet, which he thus describes: "We met some Russians, who came to welcome and conduct us to their dwelling by a very indifferent path, which was rendered more disagreeable by a most intolerable stench, the worst excepting that of the skunk I had ever the inconvenience of experiencing; occasioned, I believe, by a deposit made during the winter of an immense collection of all kinds of filth, offal, etc., that had now become a fluid mass of putrid matter, just without the rails of the Russian factory, over which these noxious exhalations spread, and seemed to be- come a greater nuisance by their combination with the effluvia arising from their houses."
Cleanliness and comfort were little regarded by the early settlers in Alaska. It will be remembered that Rezanof, calling on the chief manager in 1805, found him occupying a hut at Sitka, in which the bed was often afloat, and a leak in the roof was considered too trivial a matter to need attention. As late as 1841, ( 671 )
672
AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
Simpson, who visited the settlement during his voy- age round the world, declared it, as the reader will remember, the dirtiest and most wretched place that he had ever seen.1 Nevertheless, it continued to in- crease rapidly. On the site where the first colonists pitched their tents and lived in constant fear of the Kolosh, there stood, in 1845, besides other buildings, a spacious residence for the governor, a well furnished club-house for the lower officials, barracks for labor- ers and soldiers, an arsenal, a library, an observatory,2 and the churches, schools, and hospital of which men- tion will be made later. A wharf, with a stone foundation, and on which were several storehouses, led out into deep water, and the fort, from which floated the flag of the Russian American Company, was mounted with two rows of cannon, which com- manded all portions of the town.3
1 There was, however, a considerable improvement in the condition of the settlement before this date. Belcher gives a detailed description of Sitka at the time of his visit, in 1837, in which he notes the solidity of its buildings and fortifications, and its excellent ship-yard and arsenal. Narr. Voy. round World, i. 95-9. On the evening before Belcher's departure, Kouprianof, who was then chief manager, gave a ball at which the former remarks that the women, though almost self-taught, danced with as much ease and grace as. those who had been trained in European capitals. He speaks very favorably of Madame Kouprianof, and states that the wife of Baron Wrangell was the first Russian woman who came to Alaska. Id., i. 103-6. Davis, who arrived at Sitka on board the Louisa in 1831 (the first year of Wrangell's administration), speaks of the wives and daughters of the Russian officials as being exceedingly beautiful. Glimpses of the Past in Cal., MS., i. 2; but he was a mere boy at the time, and probably exaggerates, for in the Sitka Archives, MS., of this date but two women are mentioned as living at Sitka.
2 The observatory was built at the company's expense, and its reports were published by the academy of sciences at St Petersburg. Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 98. It was erected on one of the islands in Sitka Bay. Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 28.
3 Markof, Russkie na Vostotchnom Okeana, 54-6 (St. Petersburg, 1856, 2d ed.) Tikhmenef states that the number of guns in position was 60, and that there were 87 others in the arsenal and elsewhere, of all sizes, from 80-pound mortars down to one-pound falconets. Istor. Obos., ii. 328. Ward, who was at Sitka in 1853, says that the chief manager's residence was a very large two-story building, the lower part of which was used for his private apart- ments, offices, etc., while the upper floor was used for public receptions, balls, and dinner-parties. On the 4th of July, 1853, at which date an American bark was lying in the harbor, and several Americans were on a visit to the settlement, a salute of 13 guns was fired, and in the evening there was a dinner-party, at which champagne flowed freely and complimentary speeches were made. Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 13-14, 17-18. Many of the officers and officials in the company's service could speak English.
673
SITKA.
Such was Sitka about the middle of the present century, when its inhabitants mustered about one thousand souls; and there are to-day on the Pacific coast few more busy communities than that which peopled the capital of Alaska toward the close of the Russian occupation. After the withdrawal of the Russian employés who departed for their native land, and of American speculators who departed with
C. Spencer :2d2
Hoon yaho
Cross
ADMIRALITY
JACOB I.
ssage
CHICHAGOFL.
Chatham
-ckhontznalio
Port
&Angoon
R
Prince Frederick Sd.
KRUZOFT,
Klukway
C.Edgecumbe
Sitka
BREMBO
Whale B
Christian Sa!
· Shak w
ence
PRINCE
LOF
C.Ommaney
WALES
Klowak
BARANOF AND KRUZOF ISLANDS.
empty pockets, the settlement gradually fell into de- cay, and soon was but the ghost of its former self. In 1875 the population had decreased to one half; in 1883 it was little more;4 many of the dwellings were tenant- less; the harbor was almost deserted, and the arrival
4 In the S. F. Bulletin of Oct. 3, 1882, it is given at 560, of whom 250 were white people and 410 Indians. Most of the latter were probably creoles. In 1869 the Indian village adjoining Sitka contained 56 houses, with about 1,200 inmates.
HIST. ALASKA. 43
/St
BARANOF ISLAND
KUPRIANOF
674
AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
or departure of the mail steamer was the sole incident that roused from their lethargy the people of the once thriving town of Novo Arkhangelsk.
With the exception of the fort, or castle, which crowns a rock about a hundred feet in height, and is reached by a steep flight of steps, the buildings occupy a low and narrow strip of land at the base of Mount Verstovoi. On Kruzof Island, at the entrance of the bay, is Mount Edgecumbe, the prominent landmark of this portion of the coast. In the bay are several islets, which partly screen from view the portion of Baranof Island on which Sitka is built, until the ves- sel arrives within a few cables' length. On landing, one notices unmistakable signs of decay. Many of the houses are falling into ruins; and some of them, being built of logs and their lower portion continually water-soaked, are settling down on their foundations. After passing the fort we come to a better class of buildings, prominent among which is the Greek church,5 with its dome and roof painted an emerald green. Beyond this are the club-house, the principal school- house, and the hospital; then come a score or two of huts, and then the forest, through which is cut for a short distance a path, the second road made in Alaska before the purchase.6
Of social life at Sitka, before the transfer, some in- teresting records have been handed down to us by travellers, and by the annalists of the Russian Amer- ican Company, among whom were several of the com- pany's servants. Officers and officials had cast in their lot in this the Ultima Thule of the known world, far removed from all centres of civilization, and from all civilizing influences. Some were of noble birth, and had passed their youth and early manhood among the cultured circles of St Petersburg; but here, amidst
5 Adjacent to this building is the Lutheran chapel, which in 1877 was vacant.
6 Whymper's Alaska, 97-8. Other roads have been built since that date. Until 1867 Sitka had no regular communication with any point outside of Alaska. In the following year it was made a port of entry.
675
SOCIAL LIFE.
this waste, there was for many years no society, no home circle, no topic even for conversation. How best should they beguile the long years of their ban- ishment, the tedium of barrack life, the drear monot- ony of their voluntary servitude? No wonder that many fell victims to gambling and strong drink, sank even to yet lower depths, and gradually debased them- selves oftentimes below the level of the savage.
To remedy this state of affairs, and especially to pro- vide comfortable accommodation for unmarried officers and officials of the higher rank," Etholen, during the first year of his administration,8 established at Sitka a social club, furnished with reading, billiard, card,
and supper rooms. Here the members entertained visitors, when the hospitalities tendered by the gov- ernor were intermitted. Until the transfer, this in- stitution was conducted on the system adopted at its foundation, and wrought much benefit in the colony, save, perhaps, in the cause of temperance-a virtue which the Russians were loath to practise. "Rus- sian hospitality is proverbial," remarks Whymper, "and we all somewhat suffered therefrom. The first phrase of their language acquired by us was 'petnatchit cop- la'-fifteen drops. Now this quantity-in words so modest-usually meant a good half-tumbler of some unmitigated spirit, ranging from cognac to raw vodh- ka, and which was pressed upon us on every available occasion. To refuse was simply to insult your host. Then memory refuses to retain the number of times we had to drink tea, which was served sometimes in tumblers, sometimes in cups. I need not say the oft- described samovar was in every household. Several entertainments-balls, suppers, and a fête in the club- gardens-were organized for our benefit, and a number of visitors came off daily to our fleet of four vessels."9
" The distinction of 'honorable' and 'very honorable'-potchetnui and pol- upotchetnui-was made according to rank. The very honorables were naval officers and the higher officials; the honorables, petty officers, clerks, book- keepers, and the like.
8 On the 5th of November, 1840. T'ikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 244.
9 Alaska, 101-2. This occurred in 1865, during Maksutof's administra-
676
AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
At all seasons of the year the tables of the social club and of the higher class of employés were sup- plied with venison or other game, with chickens, pork, vegetables, berries, and of course with fish. A simi- lar diet was provided for the lower officials, while the staple food of the laborers was for about nine months in the year fresh fish, and for the remaining three, salt fish, 10
There was little variation in the routine of life at Sitka. Employés, other than the higher officials, were required to rise at 5 A. M., and to work in summer for about twelve hours a day; at reveillé and at 8 P. M. the drums beat; at 9 lights were extin- guished, and at half-hour intervals during the night bells were tolled, the sentries responding at each stroke.11 For the higher officials there were card- tion. Simpson, who took leave of Etholin in 1842, remarks: 'The farewell dinner, to which about thirty of us sat down, exceeded in sumptuousness any- thing that I had yet seen, even at the same hospitable board. The glass, the plate, and the appointments in general were very costly; the viands were ex- cellent; and Governor Etholine played the part of host to perfection.' Narr. Jour. round World, ii. 212. On festive occasions, as on the emperor's birth- day, etc., the officials and native chiefs dined with the governor, after divine service. All wore full dress and decorations. Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 29 et seq.
10 The Kolosh supplied the market with deer, fish, clams, and berries. Wrangell, Statist. und Ethnog., 12-13. Beef and mutton were rarely seen, even on the tables of the higher officials, and as late as 1876 could not be had at the one restaurant then open at Sitka, though according to the Alaska Times of Oct. 31, 1868, the market price of beef was 15 to 30 cents per lb. At the latter date eggs were selling at $1.50 per doz., and scarce at that. Milk was $1 to $1.50 per gal .; coffee 18 to 33 cents; ham and fresh pork 25 cents; and fish 6 cents per lb. In this year speculation was rife at Sitka, town lots being held, says Whymper, at $10,000. In May 1878 the Rev. John G. Brady, writing from Sitka to the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, says: 'This part of Alaska abounds in food. Yesterday I bought four codfish for ten cents, and a string of black bass for five cents. A silver salmon, weighing thirty-eight to forty pounds, is sold for fifteen or twenty cents. Last week I bought fifteen dozen fresh clams for ten cents, and about twenty pounds of halibut for the same price. Ducks, geese, grouse, and snipe are abundant and cheap. A good ham of venison will bring fifty cents.' Jackson's Alaska, 209- 10.
Il Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 41. This precaution was needed to provide against surprise from the Kolosh. Even after the purchase they were admitted only at 9 A. M. in order to exchange their peltry for other wares, and at 3 P. M. were driven out at the point of the bayonet if neces- sary. About 15 versts to the south-east of Sitka was the Ozerskoi redoubt, built as a protection against the Kolosh at the outlet of a lake seven miles in length. In 1853 there were six or eight houses, and a dam with fish-traps had been constructed at the mouth of the lake, the catch being marketed at Sitka. Id .; Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 332-3.
677
LIBRARY AND NEWSPAPER.
parties, dance-parties, or drinking-parties at the club- rooms, varied occasionally with an amateur theatrical entertainment, and when there was no other recourse the evening hours were passed at the library.
The Sitka library, which, it will be remembered, Rezanof founded in 1805, contained in 1835 about 1,700 volumes in the Russian and other languages, in addition to 400 periodicals and pamphlets, and a valuable collection of charts.12 Of any printed local literature before the purchase we have no records.
On the 1st of March, 1868, the first newspaper con- cerning Alaska, styled the Alaska Herald, was pub- lished in San Francisco by a Pole named Agapius Honcharenko,13 and contained the first part of a Rus- sian translation of the United States constitution. It was issued semi-monthly, printed in Russian and English, and about twelve months after its first ap- pearance, claimed a circulation of fifteen hundred copies.14 During the same year the Alaska Coast Pilot was published by the United States Coast Survey, and also the Sitka Times, which was at first issued in manuscript, and had but an ephemeral existence.15
Near the mainland, a little more than a hundred miles to the south-east of Sitka, is Fort Wrangell,
12 Wrangell, Statist. und Ethnog., 17. Of the books, 600 were Russian, 300 French, 130 German, 35 English, 30 Latin, and the rest Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. Khlebnikof, Zapiski, in Materialui, 116.
13 Who gives his autobiography as follows: 'I was born in the government of Kieff Aug. 19, 1832, and educated in Kieff. In 1857 I left Russia and was appointed to service with the Russian embassy to Greece. On the 2d of Feb. 1860, I was arrested in Athens for advocating the liberation of serfs, but suc- ceeded in escaping to England and subsequently to America, where I was em- ployed by the American Bible Society. I came to San Francisco in 1867. I was much persecuted by the representatives of Russia abroad.' Alaska Herald, Dec. 15, 1868.
14 On May 2, 1868, the first number of Free Press and Alaska Herald was first issued, and Honcharenko's name does not appear on the sheet. On June Ist of the same year the Herald again appeared under its old name, with Hon- charenko as proprietor, and in May 1872 passed into the hands of A. A. Stickney. The Russian articles were frequently repeated through three or four numbers.
15 It was issued weekly in MS. by T. G. Murphy, and contained advertise- ments and unimportant local items. The first printed number was published on April 29, 1869, and the last on September 13, 1870.
678
AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
built on an island of the same name, and situated about a hundred and thirty miles north of the boun- dary line of British Columbia, at the head of ship navigation on the route to the Cassiar mining district. While the mines were prosperous, this was, during a few months in the year, the busiest town in Alaska, the miners who ascended the Stikeen16 each spring to the number of about four thousand, and returned in the autumn, averaging in good seasons as much as fifteen hundred dollars per capita, and leaving most of their earnings among the store and saloon keepers. The fort is now deserted, and the town nearly so, ex- cept by Indians. The government buildings, which cost the United States a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, were sold in 1877 for a few hundreds. The main street is choked with decaying logs and stumps, and is passable only by a narrow plank sidewalk. Most of the habitations contain but one room, with sleeping-berths arranged round the walls and a stove in the centre, and many of them have neither windows nor openings, except for the chimney and a single door. Nevertheless, in these comfortless abodes sev- eral hundreds of white men were content to pass the long winter months in former years, and a few score still remain, who have not yet lost their faith in the mines.
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.