USA > Alaska > Peerless Alaska, our cache near the pole > Part 17
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abouts, to ascend to light her periodical beacon on the roof, without the help of the signal officer who has his crow's- nest there. The marines who guard the warehouse and magazine, keep an eye to the tottering walls when they make their turns, and pedestrians who pass under the projecting roof of the old trading-house, whence bullets were liable to rain upon the intruders, look aloft with more appre- hensions of dry rot than hot shot. The block-houses which remain can scarcely stand, and but one side of the old stockade guards the plaza, shutting off the Indian "ranch." So it is throughout the town. With its population reduced two-thirds and its business nine-tenths, with half the shops and dwellings tenantless, there is not a building of any kind I venture to say, without a window broken. There are not more than two or three which indicate fresh paint on their fronts, and not a new structure of any kind except in the purlieus of the Indian " ranch," where the sight of a fresh slab is richness to the eyes. On every side the grue- some ravens croak, truly the " embodiment of spirits long departed." Noting the abundant traces of a previous occu- pancy, with the dead past buried all around them, antiqua- rians already begin to speculate how many hundred years ago these bastion towers were built, so dilapidated and gray they look ; industriously they decipher the inscriptions on the ancient coins ; and simple minded Yankees, when they see their flag floating in the air, wonder if this is really their own " God's country," or where they are. Nevertheless and withal, the town has still a habitable and homelike look. There are gardens filled with vegetables and flowers, gera- niums in window pots, cows quietly grazing along the streets. Occasionally the thrum of a piano is heard, which is blessed music in the wilderness, though intolerable in town. Some of the Russian houses preserve their national characteristics, so that we have only to enter them to learn how the people live in Russia. As ladies have a better fac- ulty of observation and tact to describe domestic econo- mies, I will save myself the trouble of doing so by copying from my lady correspondent " Mintwood," who is accurate and vivacious. She says :
" As I am writing in one of them at this moment, I will describe it, as an illustration of one of the best Sitkan houses of Russian origin. It fronts directly on the bay with a charming outlook, and between the house and the bay is a large garden, in which a Russian neighbor has a fine colony of cabbages and some potato tops. The path from the gate leads up a gentle eminence between two rows
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of gooseberry bushes, which are loaded with fruit, and sup- plemented in the rear with currant bushes, also in bearing with green clusters. There is a row of pie-plant, in bar- rels, and a hot bed, the sash of which is a fish net. There are lines in the garden on which are strung pieces of shin- ing tin to frighten the ravens and crows. There are elder bushes and two fruit trees ; one, a crab-apple, was quite full of blossoms. A clump of wild roses bloom beautifully under one window, and under another is a fragrant bed of spearmint. In the back yard are four outbuildings, all of them having evidently at one time been dwelling houses ; two are of logs. The house itself, of one story and a loft, has a vestibule, opening into a hall, at the right of which is the large parlor, and at the left the large kitchen. In addi- tion to these rooms there are two good-sized bedrooms. The parlor has five windows, each window consisting of six panes, each pane a foot square, in two rows. The lower part of the window, of four panes, opens like a French win- dow. The window sills are deep, and at one window there is a green roller curtain. The parlor furniture consists of an old mahogany Russian sofa, with a high back entirely in veneer ; the hair-covered cushioned seat is dilapidated, and is temporarily upholstered with a rubber blanket. There are three chairs in various stages of infirmity, and a number of four-legged stools of ingenious construction. There is a mahogany table, and a ditto bureau, a modern and proba- bly native made piece of furniture, of yellow cedar, quite pretty, and consisting of closets and drawers. The skin of a mountain goat covers a considerable space on the bare floor, and a large box stove, for wood, that was manufac- tured in Philadelphia, has had a fire burning in it nearly every day. The papered walls have their attractions-an old Russian print of the Virgin Mary, and a local painting of Sitka. The bedrooms have bedsteads-rickety-and bureaus, and two pieces of broken looking-glass. The kitchen is comfortably furnished ; an abundance of tables and shelves, some dishes and glassware, an old brass samovar, a heavy copper boiler, skillets, other culinary uten- sils, a worn-out cooking stove that still serves the user of it well, nevertheless, and a pair of wooden buckets."
From the center of the town a macadamized road extends along the curve of the beach, amply wide for vehicles to pass abreast, lined by cosy dwellings on the landward side, and commanding a fine view of the bay and islands and the overhanging mountains. Perhaps some day the fashion- ables of Sitka will use it for a carriage drive, but as yet few
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vehicles have ever run over it. Quien sabe ? who shall tell ? This road leads past the Indian mission, and to In- dian River, just beyond, which is a favorite resort for visi- tors and towns-people as well. Since the occupancy of the town by the government marines, they have devoted lots of labor to building bridges, rustic seats and walks along this sparkling stream, which is broken into falls and picturesque reaches where trout disport ; and he who directed the work has done it admirably well, for every natural beauty has been left untouched, and as my friend already quoted de- clares, "it is just like walking through a magnificently wooded park which has gone wild for centuries, with only the walks left civilized." Some of the firs and hemlocks are simply immense, and the undergrowth is frightful to penetrate. In the midst of the forest I found a small potato patch which had been fenced, but it was hard in August to find either potatoes or fence. Some of the Indian boys dis- like to come to the river to fish for fear of bears, but no bears ever yet seemed to take a liking to any of them. This river furnishes the only good drinking water to be had, and the good people of the town walk out along these beautiful paths with tin pails and demijohns to bring in drinking water. The barracks details fetch it in a canoe, and that this inconvenience exists in Sitka is but one illustration of the decay and amazing enervation of the town. If it did not rain here so much, and barrels and casks under eaves were not kept well filled most of the time, the water ques- tion would be a more difficult one than it is.
Hitherto the management of local or territorial affairs has not been happy. None of the appropriations made for the support of the civil government or for specific purposes appear to have been accounted for. Until two years ago the government itself was not a success. Its seat was never warm. There was no ownership in any thing. It did not even know what belonged to it. A merchant claimed the public warehouse as his private property ; another citizen claimed the dock, and the navy had actually to build a wharf for its own necessities. (N. B. When there is any litigation in Alaska about wharves, the teredo steps in and eats them up before a decision can be reached.) The last administration was unfortunate. The governor broke his arm and had a paralytic stroke, and the district attorney was killed in California by falling from a railroad train. When their successors took office, the district judge was found not to be a success, and attempts were made to prevent the confirmation of the new governor. Now, how-
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ever, an auspicious era seems to have dawned. Immigra- tion is pouring in apace. The newspaper recently started at Sitka is a wide-awake journal, devoted heartily to the development of the country, and from it the public can obtain information which can be relied upon. Governor Swineford means "straight business." Much depends upon his sagacity and discretion. He is laboring to secure a remedy for defects in the law governing territorial organ- ization. There being no connection now between the different towns, in sending a prisoner from one point to another for trial, he is as liable to go via San Francisco as otherwise, taking three months for the transit, so that it is less expensive not to take than to make prisoners. What the government needs is a revenue cutter and one or two steam launches to serve as harbor police-boats and deputy sheriffs in these strange water-ways. Their moral effect alone would make all the difference in the world. It would insure good order and stability.
For whatever lies beyond Sitka, between it and Mt. St. Elias, 200 miles further west, I can not speak from my per- sonal experience. Recently excursion trips have been extended to include those additional waters, within whose limits are the greatest number of high and imposing peaks to be found in any range in the world. In a pamphlet of joo pages, beautifully printed and illustrated by the North- ern Pacific Railway Company, to influence summer travel to Alaska, I find the following synopsis from the pen of Lieutenant Schwatka :
" Almost as soon as Cape Spencer is doubled, the south- ern spurs of the Mount St. Elias Alps burst into view, Crillon and Fairweather being prominent, and the latter easily recognized from our acquaintance with it from the waters of Glacier Bay. A trip of an hour or two takes us along a comparatively uninteresting coast, as viewed from the 'square off our starboard beam ;' but all this time the mind is fixed by the grand Alpine views we have ahead of us, that are slowly developing in plainer outline here and there as we speed toward them. Soon we are abreast of Icy Point ; while just beyond it comes down a glacier to the ocean that gives about three miles of solid sea-wall of ice, while its source is lost in the heights covering the bases of the snowy peaks just behind. The high peak to the right, as we steam by the glacier front, is Mount La Perouse, named for one of the most daring of France's long list of explorers, and who lost his life in the interest of geographical science. His eyes rested on this range
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of Alpine peaks in 1786, just a century ago. Its sides are furrowed with glaciers, one of which is the ice-wall before our eyes, and which is generally known as the La Perouse Glacier. The highest peak of all, and on the left of this noble range, is Mount Crillon, named by La Perouse, in 1786, after the French Minister of the Marine ; while between Crillon and La Perouse is Mount D'Agelet, the astronomer of that celebrated expedition. Crillon cleaves the air for 16,000 feet above the sea, on which we rest, and can be seen for over a hundred miles to sea. It, too, is surrounded with glaciers in all directions from its crown. Crillon and La Perouse are about seven miles apart, nearly north and south of each other. About fifteen miles north- west of Crillon is Lituya Peak, 10,000 feet high; and the little bay-opening that we pass, between the two, is the entrance to Lituya Bay, a sheet of water which La Perouse has pronounced as one of the most extraordinary in the world for grand scenery, with its glaciers and Alpine shores. Our steamer will not enter, however ; for the pas- sage is dangerous even to small boats-one island bearing a monument to the officers and men of La Perouse's expe- dition, lost in the tidal wave which sweeps through the con- tracted passage like a breaker over a treacherous bar. Some ten or twelve miles northwest from Lituya Peak is Mount Fairweather, which bears abreast us after a little over an hour's run from Lituya Bay. It was named by Cook in 1778, and is generally considered to be a few hun- dred feet shorter than Mount Crillon. It is in every way, by its peculiar isolation from near ridges almost as high as itself, a much grander peak than Crillon, whose surround- ings are not so good for a fine Alpine display. Fair- weather, too, has its frozen river flowing down its sides ; but none of them reach the sea, for a low, wooded country, some three or four miles in width, lies like a glacis at the seaward side of the St. Elias Alps, for a short distance along this part of the coast. The somber, deep green forests add an impressive feature to the scene, however, lying between the dancing waves below and the white and blue glacier ice above. Rounding Cape Fairweather, the coast trends northward ; and, as our bowsprit is pointed in the same direction, directly before us are seen immense glaciers reaching to the sea. From Cape Fairweather (abreast of Mt. Fairweather) to Yakutat Bay (abreast of Mt. Vancouver) no conspicuous peak rears its head above the grand mountain chain which for nearly a hundred miles lies between these two Alpine bastions ; but, nevertheless,
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INDIAN VILLAGE-SITKA.
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every hour reveals a new mountain of 5,000 to 8,000 feet in height, which, if placed anywhere else, would be held up with national or state pride as a grand acquisition. Here they are only dwarfed by grander peaks."
THE SEALS OF PRIBYLOV
A treatise on Alaska, however ephemeral or unpreten- tious, would hardly be complete without some reference being made to its fur-seal fishery, upon which almost the only revenue of the territory was based up to the year 1884. Professor Henry W. Elliott's official report to the govern- ment, made in 1882, comprising the result of many years in- vestigation, is an exhaustive account of all there is to know about the subject ; and from it I have gathered the facts ap- pended. This is an illustrated volume of nearly 200 quarto pages, comprising a history of the fur-seal fishery from earliest dates ; the discovery of the Pribylov group in 1786 by the hardy Muscovite whose name they bear collectively ; the configuration and natural history of the Islands ; their acquisition by the United States ; the formation and opera- tions of the Alaska Commercial Company ; and a descrip- tion of the inhabitants, their occupation and mode of life. The breeding-places and habits of the seals and all their phocine kindred, the walrus, sea-lion, sea-otter, hair-seal, etc., and the methods employed to secure their hides, and to prepare and ship them to market, and to dye them to suit the wearers, are all given in the most considerate man- ner, with due regard to the sensibilities of the animals them- selves, which, next to the ladies who hope to wear their pelts, are unquestionably the parties chiefly interested. The details are intensely interesting to the reader, and to the seals excruciating, we may believe.
Located fourteen hundred miles west-north-west from Sitka, as the ship sails, and nearly two hundred miles from Oonalashka, the nearest land, sea-girt and beset with out- lying reefs, continually befogged in summer, and in winter swept by cruel icy blasts, the Pribylovs are hard to find. It is said that navigators have even touched their cliffs with their vessels' yard-arms before they were aware of their close proximity. And it is because of this isolation, as well as because they afford the only good resting place in Alaska, that the seals frequent them. They are all of volcanic origin, bearing some not remote traces of dynamic action,
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the crater of Otter island being " as distinctly defined, and as plainly scorched as though it had burned out yesterday." St. Paul island is thirteen miles in length by six in breadth, composed of rough, rocky uplands, rugged hills, smooth volcanic cones, parti-colored sand-dunes, grassy plats, and wet and slippery flats, where the seals most congregate. It is interspersed with pools and lagoons of good fresh water, in which a pretty minute viviparous fish is found. St. George is ten miles long by four and one-half miles wide, steep and precipitous on all sides, except at three short reaches of coast which the seals have appropriated for " rookeries." Like St. Paul, it also has many pools of water. Its highest land rises 930 feet, and St. Paul's 600 feet. Nearly half the shore of St. Paul is a sandy beach, while on St. George there is less than a mile of it all put together. Millions of sea- fowl breed and hover perpetually over their ledges and in- accessible terraces, and all the available spaces are filled with eggs in spring. There would be valuable guano de- posits except that they are annually washed clean off by the beating storms of winter, during which period the birds are discreetly absent. Each island has its village of resident overseers and employés, its killing-grounds, salting and packing houses, and its little harbor where vessels may load and discharge in favorable weather only. As for the rest, on St. George there is a water-fall which drops 400 feet per- pendicularly into the sea in spring ; a little running stream to diversify the asperity of the physical contour ; and on every prominent eminence a Greek cross erected there by Russians, some of them as long as sixty years ago. There is a good deal of grass-a dozen varieties of different lengths and quality, and a multitude of pretty flowers, ferns and mosses. Snow melts at a. very low temperature, and grass begins to grow at 34 degrees or 36 degrees even if it be covered by melting drifts of snow and the frost has hardened the ground for many feet beneath. Some success has followed attempts at gardening, and lettuce, radishes, turnips, and even small potatoes, have been grown in favored spots. Countless sparrows come in early spring and are gathered up for food by the thousands, just as the Israelites gathered quails. These birds agreeably vary the staple diet of seal meat, of which the little communities, about 400 souls all told, consume some 1200 pounds a day. The government allows them to catch 6,000 seals a year for their subsistence. Excepting two or three mules for work, the only animals on the islands are hosts of blue foxes, lem- mings which honeycomb the softer earth with their burrows,
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mice, and stump-tail cats, which run wild and roam every- where. On favorable nights when the air is still and the moonlight full, these incorrigible cats join in such an un- earthly caterwauling that the natives turn out en masse to in- terdict them. The shrieks of the tempest can not compare with the ferocity of the chorus. But for all, they decimate the mice. There are no reptiles on the islands, and no mosquitoes nor venomous flies ; but there is a variety of fly which settles down upon the grass of the killing-grounds making the surface appear as if it were bedaubed with liquid stove-polish, for the color they impart. Their food is the blood and offal of the slaughter. The perfume of the Pribylovs is intense, and one may perceive the odor far at sea when the wind is fair. On a hot day in the close cabins of the village it would be overpowering to any body who was not used to it. No fish can be caught within the vicinity, as the seals devour all that approach.
Six miles north from St. Paul Island is Otter Island, once frequented by herds of sea otters, a sheer, cold and un- broken mural precipice, except at a low depression on the north side. Its walls average 300 feet in height. It is fairly over-run with blue foxes. Walrus Island lies six miles southwest, once the abode of many of these animals, some of which will weigh a ton. It is a mere ledge barely lifted above the wash of angry waves, only a fourth of a mile long and 100 yards wide. It literally swarms with wild fowl, and is, therefore, very convenient for eggers, who, in other local- ities, have to climb up precipices, and swing from jutting ledges to gather their plunder. There is an island 200 miles north of St. Paul, but having no commercial connection with it, called St. Matthew, which is of volcanic origin, and fairly swarms with polar bears, which sometimes measure eight feet long and weigh 1,200 pounds. They are very timid, and flee precipitately, old and young, upon the ap- proach of man. There are deserted Russian cabins on the island, which were built and once occupied by bear-hunters, who did a big business in meat, pelts and oil. The tradi- tional ferocity of these animals seems to have wholly petered out in this sub-Arctic ursine community.
The Pribylov Islands were first peopled by a native colony brought over from Oonalashka and other Aleutian neighbor- hoods by the Russian fur-sealers in 1786, and were employed in their service ; but they lived miserably in hovels which were half dug-out. Now, under the American regime, and the fostering care of the Alaska Commercial Company, their progeny are happy and well provided for in all those respects
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which make a sealer's life worth the living. There are two hundred and forty-four people on St. Paul,of which twen- ty-two are whites, four are women ; on St. George ninety- two people, of whom eight are whites. On both islands each family lives in a snug frame dwelling, painted, and lined with tarred paper, furnished with a stove and fuel, and out- houses complete. Streets are laid out, and regularly platted ; there is a large church at St. Paul, and a smaller one at St. George ; a hospital at St. Paul, with a complete stock of drugs, and physicians on both islands to take care of the people ; a school-house on each island, for which teachers are paid by the company for eight months in the year to instruct the youth, one of these teachers being a native Aleut who accomplished a four years course of study in Rutland, Vt .; and a store on each island, where once a year the trading ship brings the latest fashions, and every body enjoys a holiday opening. The church services are held in the Russian language, and their support is maintained entirely bv native contribution. There are eighty families and eighty dwellings on St. Paul, and twenty-four at St. George, besides eight other structures, ecclesiastical and commercial, all painted and built by skilled mechanics, so that the settlements present an appearance up to the average of Eastern villages. The people all dress in modern attire, and eagerly discuss the newest fashion plates, but as yet silk " tiles " are unknown. Except during the sealing season, they have absolutely nothing to do but go to church and vegetate. Fully two hundred and ninety days of the year are occupied in observing the religious calendar. Many sleep away their time ; a few gamble ; some play the fiddle and accordeon. The population is very orderly. There are no policemen, no courts of justice, no fines, no crimes, and no instituted penalties for crimes. Quite frequently the islanders make a journey to their relatives on the mainland ; and to visit Oonalashka is like a rustic " doing " the metropolis. Oonalashka is no insignificant burg, be it known, for it discounts Sitka.
These islands are leased by the United States Govern- ment to the North American Commercial Company, and since 1870 have returned to the treasury the lump sum of $8,561,791.07. The schools are supported at the expense of the company, with 98 per cent. of the children in at- tendance. The seal catch is at present much less than it has been at former periods, but is likely to be restored by protection. Poachers are the cause of decimation, Japa- nese, Canadians, and Yankees.
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The methods of the company are very complete, and it seems almost impossible to improve upon them. Abuses and breach of trust are almost impossible within the environ- ment of restrictions by which they are hedged about, and it would be utterly impossible to catch more than the stipu- lated quota of seals without the fact becoming known at once. Only once have they caught the full complement (one hundred thousand) allowed by law, and then only inadvertently. Their rule is to make the number one thousand scant so as to avoid carping criticisms. The breeding grounds are protected, and obstreperous old males diligently kept off from them, but they are allowed to come to all other localities. One million seal pups are born every year, and of these there is a loss of fifty per cent. by whales, sharks, and predatory creatures, after they leave for their foraging grounds. While breeding they strictly fast. When they leave they go in independent gangs, and not all at once, and they range as far south as the forty-seventh parallel. Seals are in their prime at from four to five years of age, and only those which are desirable are selected for the annual drive. An average seal will measure six and a half feet long and weigh four hundred pounds, but they are caught up to six hundred pounds and seven and a half feet long. It is estimated, within the power of accurate calcula- tion, that there are over three millions of seals on each island in the breeding season, not counting the non-breeders, " old bachelors," etc. The entire catch of one hundred thousand seals is now made in about thirty working days, included between the 14th day of June and the Ist of August. Seals do remain longer than the latter date, but their fur deteriorates rapidly. The sealers work under the direction of foremen, who receive the wages due for their work, according to the tale, and divide it among them, making up a number of extra shares over and above the men's, which go to the widows, the priest and the church. They receive forty cents per seal, and fifty cents to one dollar per day for incidental labor. It is estimated that more than four millions of sealskins have been taken from the Pribylovs since 1797. When the killing season has arrived, details of men run in between the sleeping seals and the surf-wash, and drive them slowly to designated slaughtering grounds, at a speed of half a mile an hour, halting them occasionally to rest and cool off, for heating injures their fur ; and it is a comical sight to see the long procession, urged on by shouts and clapping of whale thigh- bones, and gesticulating arms on the flanks and rear, wad-
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