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WJLLJAM L). lUJYCE. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE PANAMA 
 CANAL 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 By 
 
 WILLIAM D. BOYCE 
 
 Publisher of "The Saturday Blade," "Chicago Ledger. 
 
 "The Farming Business," and the "Indiana 
 
 Daily Times." 
 
 RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1914 
 
 BY 
 
 W. D. BOYCE 
 
 OEC 30 1914 
 
 ^ 
 
 ICI.A393U03 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ALASKA and the Panama Canal Zone, one lying against 
 the Arctic Ocean and the other in the tropics, one under- 
 laid with perpetual ice and frost, and the other overlaid with 
 perpetual verdure. These are among our most valuable out- 
 lying possessions. With these registering the present limits 
 of our country north and south, and with the Philippines in 
 the Orient and Porto Rico in the Atlantic marking our boun- 
 daries east and west, the commanding magnitude of our nation 
 is made plain. 
 
 For Alaska we paid Russia $7,200,000, for the Panama 
 Canal Zone we paid the Panama Republic $10,000,000. These 
 were bargain prices, the sums paid being insignificant as com- 
 pared to the value of the lands, the one being small, but as 
 important as any piece of ground of equal size upon the 
 globe, the other magnificent in area and containing wealth 
 many times greater in amount than the price we paid for it. 
 For years Alaska has been a particularly interesting country 
 to me, but after 8,000 miles of travel in this vast Northern 
 Territory of ours, I was more than ever impressed with its 
 great resources, and the further fact that our governmental 
 policy was crippling and restricting its proper and natural 
 development. I fully believe that Alaska should be made into 
 a colonial possession and not remain a Territory. I also 
 believe that our Government should not engage in railway 
 construction in Alaska, where failure can be the only result. 
 It has seemed to me that not only was Alaska in itself worth 
 writing about, but that political obstructions that have been 
 placed in the path of its progress ought to be removed. My 
 reasons, I believe, will be found "good and sufficient" by 
 readers of the chapters on Alaska that follow. 
 
 As for the Panama Canal Zone and the great Canal itself, 
 few things on earth so entirely justify description. But my 
 object has been something more, that is to present to the pub- 
 lic my plan for making the Canal Zone yield the American peo- 
 
 vii 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 pie profitable returns upon their enormous investment. It is 
 my opinion that this can be done by making the Canal Zone a 
 great Free Port of Exchange for the products of all nations ; 
 that is, a zone free of all custom duties, thus encouraging the 
 nations of the world to trade with us. How this can be done at 
 the Canal, and how other nations have made profitable use of 
 this principle for the stimulation of trade, the reader will find 
 fully stated in that portion of this book dealing with the Canal 
 Zone. 
 
 The wide interest created by my book, Illustrated South 
 America, published two years ago, suggested to me that there 
 was public need of a companion volume that would give read- 
 ers and investigators a comprehensive view of the United 
 States Colonial System and our Dependencies. Few among 
 us thoroughly appreciate that we have become a great coloniz- 
 ing power, owning thousands of islands in adjoining seas, 
 possessing otiier bodies of land lying outside of the immediate 
 boundaries of the United States, and with several Republics 
 not owned by us depending upon us for protection. This 
 fact is of importance to citizens of the United States ; they and 
 their children ought to be fully posted about it so as to 
 act intelligently on questions of policy that are now pending, 
 and other questions that are Ixiund in the future to arise. 
 Hence I am issuing simultaneously with this book a vol- 
 ume of 65S pages, highly illustrated, entitled United States 
 Colonies and Depe>idencies. which deals fully with all our 
 possessions and spheres of influence. The contents of this 
 smaller book are reprinted from a portion of the larger one, 
 as there may be readers who are especially interested only 
 in Alaska and the Panama Canal. The matter contained in 
 this book was first printed in The Saturday Blade, one of our 
 papers, and, as in the case of my South American letters, there 
 were a number of requests for its reproduction in a more 
 
 permanent form. ,. ^1 
 
 '- Very truly, 
 
 lM;-:^r7^>^>-pf.'^ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. SITUATION AND RACE SOURCE 
 
 II. DISCOVERY AND FUR TRADING 
 
 III. UNCLE SAM IN ALASKA 
 
 IV. MINING IN ALASKA 
 
 V. Alaska's railroads 
 
 VI. SEALS AND SALMON 
 
 VII. FARMING IN ALASKA 
 
 VIII. INTERIOR ALASKA 
 
 IX. COAST TOWNS OF ALASKA 
 
 X. TYPES AND SCENES 
 
 
 I 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 48 
 
 . 
 
 60 
 
 . 
 
 69 
 
 • 
 
 87 
 
 
 109 
 
 THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC OP 
 PANAMA 
 
 I. THE CANAL AND REPUBLIC 
 II. BUILDING AND OPERATION 
 III. TOLLS AND A FREE PORT , 
 
 130 
 142 
 153 
 
 IX 
 
ALASKA 
 
 Area in square miles, 590,884, about one-fifth the size of the 
 entire United States — Population, census 1910, 64,356, 
 nearly equally divided betzveen zvhites and natives, about 
 one person to every nine square miles; population slightly 
 decreasing ozving to cessation of railroad building and zvith- 
 drazval of coal lands; capital, Juneau, population, 1914, 
 about 4,000 — Chief resources of Alaska, gold, silver, copper, 
 coal, tin, fisheries, furs, timber, seals, agricidture (the latter 
 to be developed) — Imports to Alaska from the United 
 States in 1913, $20,82^,262; exports from Alaska to United 
 States, $24,634,987, exclusive of gold and other minerals 
 estimated at $22,000,000; fisheries and furs yield about 
 $18,000,000 annually; extent of forests, 156,250 square 
 mUes; extent of coal fields, estimated by United States 
 survey, 12,66/ square miles. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SITUATION AND RACE SOURCE). 
 
 "Yukon Crossing^ July 2, 191 3. 
 "To Editor, Dazvson Nezvs: 
 1 1 T N REPLY to your telegram for 100 words by wire on 
 X my first impression of Alaska, I send you the ft)llowing: 
 "After viewing the wonderful natural scenery of this por- 
 tion of North America, there is no doubt in my mind that the 
 first inhabitants of the American Continent crossed over from 
 Asia, only a few miles distant, to Alaska, and were so charmed 
 by the natural beauty of the valley of the Yukon that they 
 never returned. Each year should double the number of 
 tourists to a country where the camera, the artist's brush and 
 
 I 
 
2 ALASKA 
 
 the writer's pen can only give to the world the faintest idea o£ 
 the beauties of nature, the treasures of the mines, the rare fur 
 animals, the countless fishes of the sea and streams, the rich- 
 ness of the soil and the big-heartedness of the splendid white 
 men and women who have made this country their home. 
 
 "W. D. BOYCE." 
 
 The above was written when I had reached the great valley 
 of the Yukon. Afterward I traveled many thousands of miles 
 through Alaska, visiting nearly every ocean port and island 
 and mainland division, but I did not change my mind, nor 
 could I have expressed myself more truthfully in lOO or i,ooo 
 words. The story of the creation of the world was told in 
 600 words. It will take 25,000 words and numerous photo- 
 graphs to give the reader an adequate conception of past, 
 present and future Alaska. 
 
 East Cape, Siberia, in Asia, is no doubt "the mother of 
 America." From the nearest sheltered harbor it is less than 
 fifty miles from Siberia to Alaska by water. Midway there 
 
 mam 
 
 ' Tw^r>(**abt*A9l*S" " 
 
 THE DIOMEDE ISLANDS. BERING STRAITS, 
 
ALASKA 3 
 
 are two islands, the Diomedes, which break the journey by 
 small boat, so that the tiny canoe, or kayak, for one person, or 
 the big skin boat carrying twenty or more men or women, could 
 in perfect safety cross in the summer time, making daily round 
 trips to Alaska. In the winter time it is always entirely 
 frozen over, and without doubt the aborigines crossed from 
 East Cape to Cape Prince of Wales, as people do now, using 
 reindeer, dogs or traveling on snowshoes. For eight months 
 each year, owing to Bering Straits being one solid field of ice, 
 North America and Asia are as one. This is the all-land or ice 
 route from the United States to Europe, through Asia, for the 
 person who gets seasick or is afraid of water. 
 
 While on board ship, a few miles north of the Diomede 
 Islands, one clear morning, I could see very easily and dis- 
 tinctly both Asia (Siberia) and North America (Alaska). As 
 I stood looking at both shores I was reminded of the wild 
 scheme, put forward some years ago, by which it was proposed 
 to connect the two continents with a railroad tunnel. Such a 
 tunnel would certainly need really to "penetrate the bowels of 
 
 BETWEEN ALASKA AND SIBERIA. 
 
4 ALASKA 
 
 the earth," as the water in the Bering Straits, the entrance to 
 the Arctic Ocean, is very deep. 
 
 The current from Bering Sea runs north into the Arctic 
 Ocean, not south out of that ocean, as many think. Therefore, 
 there are never any icebergs in the Bering Sea or North Pacific 
 Ocean, such as we find in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ice 
 pack in Bering Sea must wait for the ice to move with the 
 current northeast in the Arctic Ocean ; hence the late opening 
 of Bering Sea, about June loth, each year. The well-known 
 mining town of Nome, on the upper coast, has only four 
 months of connection with the outside world, from middle 
 June to middle October. Point Barrow, on the Arctic Ocean, 
 the most northerly place belonging to the United States, is open 
 to navigation for less than sixty days each year, and in some 
 years hardly at all, if the ice pack does not move out early. 
 
 Speculation as to the place and manner of mankind's origin 
 
 LANDING IN AN OOMIAK, A WALRUS-SKIN BOAT, BERING SEA. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 EAST CAPE, SIBERIA, NATIVES. 
 
 ESQUIMAU TOM-TOM PLAYERS, CAPE PRINCE OF WALES. 
 
6 ALASKA 
 
 has always been interesting, and to ascertain from whence came 
 the original human stock of any country is of the greatest im- 
 portance if one is to understand its conditions and history. 
 Long before man had developed a reasoning mind and become 
 "scientific," tradition and guessing gave us our only ancient 
 history. However, the educated and thoughtful people of the 
 world today, for the most part, agree that the first race of 
 human beings to appear upon the earth was the yellow-skinned 
 man, and that he came into life — how we know not — in Asia, 
 where no doubt the first land showed itself above the pre- 
 historic ocean. In Asia the world still has its highest moun- 
 tain. 
 
 In Africa, and other countries where I have hunted big 
 game, I always found the widest and plainest game paths led 
 to the point or region from which came the game for which I 
 was looking. So with hunting for the origin of the human 
 race, the investigator finds that every trail or path leads back 
 to Asia. Clearly the first human inhabitants of the North 
 American Continent came to Alaska from Asia, and spread 
 south and east until they reached the furthermost southern 
 point of South America. The human family, white, black or 
 yellow, live longer, grow bigger and stronger and develop better 
 minds in the belt around the world between the parallels 20 
 degrees and 50 degrees north or south of the equator, unless in 
 a locality affected by the hot or cold currents which flow 
 through the ocean, much the same as rivers flow through the 
 land. In these temperate zones north and south of the equator 
 we find the greatest body of fertile land and the best timber and 
 cattle, agricultural products, fruits, grains, minerals and climate 
 — in short, everything that goes to develop and sustain the 
 highest type of man. I bring this forward in order that the 
 reader may intelligently follow the first inhabitants of the 
 American Continent as they spread from the far northwest 
 coast of Alaska southward until they peopled the island of 
 Tierra del Fuego, south of the Straus of Magellan, the most 
 southern point in South America. 
 
 The North, South and Central American Indians no doubt 
 
ALASKA 7 
 
 sprang from the Esquimaux, who came from Siberia, in Asia. 
 They Hved underground in northern Alaska during the long, 
 hard winters, in a country where firewood and ''fire water" 
 were scarce, letting into their habitations as little cold, fresh 
 air as possible. The result was small men and women, with 
 flat noses, and rather short of life as well as of stature. 
 Economy in housekeeping forced many of them to live in one 
 
 THREE OF A KIND. 
 
 "igloo," or cave house, with only one opening in the ceiling to 
 permit the smoke to pass out. As the nights are nearly twenty- 
 four hours long for six months of the year, windows, had they 
 been possible, would have been of little use. They lived almost 
 wholly upon fresh and dried fish and seal or walrus oils, and 
 clothed themselves with the skins of fur-bearing animals. Need- 
 less to say, during the long, dark winters they took few chances 
 of "taking cold" by changing their clothes or bathing. As with 
 the little boy whose mother wished to wash him, they preferred 
 to be "dirty and warm rather than clean and cold." Only two 
 
8 ALASKA 
 
 prime necessities confronted them, getting something to eat 
 and keeping warm in the winter. 
 
 Evidently they were more prosperous in Alaska than in 
 Siberia. Hence they kept working their way south and east 
 and finding more pleasant lands, where food was more plentiful 
 and the climate less severe ; also, where the nights in winter 
 and days in summer were not so long, and where they could 
 live on the top of the ground and enjoy a greater amount of 
 fresh air. These conditions produced stronger and larger- 
 bodied, larger-lunged Esquimaux. This larger man the world 
 came to call an Indian. His greater lung capacity necessitated 
 larger nostrils, and he therefore grew a larger nose in order to 
 take into his lungs more fresh air. He found wild game for 
 food that had animal fat instead of fish fat, and that agreed 
 with him better. He developed a stronger mind and body, 
 learned to reason and concentrate his mental faculties upon the 
 wild animals and wild game about him until he understood 
 their habits, and was able to invent easier and surer methods of 
 taking them. 
 
 In fact, it was not long until the Indian began the everlast- 
 ing struggle that has since been and today is world-wide — 
 trying to get what the other fellow has, with or without his 
 consent, otherwise known as "war." This wave of Indians 
 continued spreading southward and eastward until the Atlantic 
 Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico were reached. The fittest race 
 of Indians seems to have developed along the North Mississippi 
 River, especially in the territory once occupied by the Sioux 
 tribes and bufl^alo herds. This portion of the country must 
 have been the happy hunting grounds, or Heaven, of which 
 every Indian dreamed when he had a very full or very empty 
 stomach — and it was always one or the other with these primi- 
 tive people. 
 
 After the Indian got south of 20 degrees north, or into what 
 is now Old Mexico and the Central American States, he began 
 to slip back again. The climate was too hot for him and life 
 was too easy, as he learned to live on fruits and vegetables and 
 it was not necessary to kill much of the game, which was small 
 
ALASKA 9 
 
 and not so plentiful as farther north. The Indian tribes soon 
 spread through what is now Central America and that part 
 of South America which lies north of the equator. Condi- 
 tions were easy, their lives not very long, and the small or 
 undersized Indian apjicared. 
 
 The Indian tribes continued spreading southward until they 
 reached in South America a country much like southern Canada 
 and the United States ; then they grew big and strong and 
 brave again, not little and weak and treacherous, as the investi- 
 gator usually finds them in the low tropics. The type of Indian 
 after you get 50 degrees south begins to dwindle in size and 
 they are not so strong in character. It is hard for them to get 
 anything to eat. Remember always that through all South 
 America there is no evidence of there ever having been wild 
 game, to any important extent, and that the South American 
 Indians always were vegetarians, or at least only very small 
 meat eaters, which fact accounts for their peaceful disposition. 
 This, no doubt, is the reason why the Spaniards conquered 
 
 INDIAN SQUAW AND CHILD. TYPE OF CANOE USED ON THE YUKON RIVER. 
 
lO 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 TOTEM POLES AT SITKA. 
 
 them so easily, while the whites of 
 North America have a very differ- 
 ent tale to tell in regard to the 
 North American Indians. The low- 
 est and weakest race of Indians I 
 have ever seen lived on the island 
 of Tierra del Fuego, south of the 
 Straits of ]\Iagellan. 
 
 The reader will, no doubt, won- 
 der why I have thus taken him with 
 the Indian from the Arctic to the 
 Antarctic Ocean ; it was to show him 
 the effect of climate on mankind. 
 This is one of the questions that 
 must be seriously considered in con- 
 nection with the development of 
 Alaska, and the furnishing of a gov- 
 ernment for a country on the Arctic 
 Ocean, so far from Washington 
 and — Heaven. However, Alaska is 
 a country of many contradictions, as 
 hereafter will become obvious to the 
 reader. 
 
 The spreading of the Indians 
 from the Arctic to the Antarctic 
 waters no doubt occupied many 
 thousands of years, indeed so long 
 a period of time that no one even 
 dares to guess its length. The white 
 race, however, with superior mind 
 and skill, in a few centuries took 
 practically everything away from 
 the Indians, an example of the law 
 of "the survival of the fittest." 
 
 The Esquimaux and Indians 
 always believed in the existence of 
 a Supreme Being and, having a 
 
ALASKA 
 
 II 
 
 vague belief in a hereafter, they reverently cared for their 
 dead. For many years the Indians in southeastern Alaska 
 erected monuments in the shape of carved poles, known as 
 
 AN ANCIENT TOTEM PULE. MR. BOVCE OX LEFT. MR. SCOTT 
 C. BONE ON RIGHT. 
 
12 ALASKA 
 
 totem poles. These monuments, made of cedar trees, told 
 the story of both the male and female sides of the families — 
 they were real family trees. Each Indian family had as its 
 original stock a name applied to a bird, fish or animal, and 
 intermarriage between the various classes was regarded as 
 extremely bad form. For instance, a Bear could not wed a 
 Wolf, but a Bear might take an Eagle as her husband (the 
 woman was the head of the family) and a Beaver might marry 
 a Salmon. 
 
 These totem poles related family history extending back six 
 or seven generations, and, erected all over the country, they 
 caused Alaska to be known as "the land of totem poles and 
 ice." They are still considered sacred by the natives, but on 
 account of the ravages of time are becoming scarce. Accom- 
 panied by Scott C. Bone, publisher of the Seattle Post-Intclli- 
 gcncer, I was passing by an old Indian burying ground when 
 we came upon a totem pole so decayed that it was impossible 
 to take a photograph of it without lifting it up. We put the 
 pole back in place after its picture had been taken, and hastily 
 departed, for our guide assured us that the natives would 
 shoot us if they saw us touching it. Some time ago certain 
 enterprising residents of Seattle stole an Alaskan totem pole 
 and set it up in a public square. The natives had seen nearly 
 everything else pass into the possession of white men, but the 
 theft of the tombstone was too much ; they refused to acquiese 
 in the robbery and the matter was taken up by the Government 
 when they protested, and settled only after a great deal of 
 trouble. The pole still remains, however, in the public square 
 at Seattle. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DISCOVERY AND FUR TRADING. 
 
 THERE is a record that as far back as 1648 Russia knew 
 there was a country inhabited by people east of Siberia, 
 but credit for finding the Island of St. Lawrence in Bering Sea 
 — the very first Alaskan land the whites set foot upon — is 
 given to \'itus Bering, a Danish navigator in the employ of the 
 Russian navy. That was in 1728. He conducted a second 
 expedition to Alaska in 1741, sighted Mount St. Elias, and 
 landed near Controller Bay on Kayak Island. It was a sorry 
 day indeed for the Alaskan Indians, but it had to come, as 
 hardship and seeming disaster have come to many another 
 group of inferior people in the evolution of the human race. 
 This same Controller Bay in 191 1 was the scene of a second 
 "Boston Tea Party," although this was an "Alaska coal party." 
 
 GLACIER (»\ C().\ IKOI.LI-K I'.AV, ALASKA. 
 13 
 
14 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 It seems that the Government at Washington had withdrawn 
 from settlement and possible use certain coal lands near this 
 port, and coal, so necessary in Alaska, that could have been 
 mined at their back door, was shipped from British Columbia. 
 The settlers objected to this enforced condition, and they met 
 on the dock and dumped the Canadian coal into the harbor, as 
 their historic ancestors had done to the tea in Boston harbor 
 nearly a hundred and fifty years before. It is not easy to 
 understand a policy that bottled up a home product and forced 
 people to import, especially when that product was so essential 
 an article as coal and the country Alaska. 
 
 But to return to the main subject. Vitus Bering made a 
 report for the Russian Government that the country was frozen 
 up all of the time, which is about the sort of erroneous impres- 
 sion some of our Government people seem to have of Alaska 
 today. But needing roots and herbs for medicine, Bering sent 
 Dr. Stellar ashore, and Stellar made a dififerent report to the 
 Russian Government. Chirikoff, who accompanied Bering in 
 a separate ship, sent two small boats ashore with sailors at 
 another point, and all the sailors were murdered by the Indians. 
 Remember, they were now operating on the southeast coast of 
 Alaska, nearly i,ooo miles from the original Esquimau settle- 
 ment, and in a section affected by the warm Japan Current, 
 and that the all-the-year-round above-ground outdoor life of the 
 Esquimaux had produced by this time a warlike Indian. In 
 fact, the Indians over all North America by 1741 had grown 
 to be a physically strong people and were pretty warlike in 
 character. Bering died of scurvy on his return journey and was 
 buried on Bering Island. The cross erected over his grave was 
 the first mark or display of ownership or discovery of Alaska 
 by Russia. His ship had been wrecked and he expired before 
 they reached land, but the sailors of his crew that survived 
 constructed another boat from the material saved, and crossing 
 Bering Sea to Russia, reported conditions and what they had 
 found. 
 
 The Russians, having conquered Siberia and subdued the 
 Esquimaux, had an easy time with them and the Indians in 
 
ALASKA 
 
 15 
 
 Alaska, as the Russians had firearms and the natives only 
 bows and arrows and spears. Alaska was rich in valuable 
 furs, and the subdued races there were soon brought almost to 
 a condition of slavery. Of course, they sometimes rebelled 
 under the cruel treatment they received from the dishonest and 
 murderous Russians, who forced them to deliver more and 
 more furs or their own lives. 
 
 While the Russians were working farther east the British 
 were working west through northern Canada, until they finally 
 established trading posts on the Mackenzie River, flowing into 
 the Arctic Ocean. Several other countries sent out expedi- 
 tions to this portion of the New World. Spain had Mexico and 
 
 RELICS OF THE RUSSIAN OCCUPATION. 
 
i6 ALASKA 
 
 California and claimed all the northwest Pacific Coast clear 
 through to the Arctic Ocean. Russia claimed — weakly, how- 
 ever — the coast extending down to California. If Spain and 
 Russia could have agreed upon a point on the Pacific Coast, 
 giving Russia the land north and Spain the country south, it 
 afterward would have placed the United States in a very awk- 
 ward position. But as both claimed what is now the States of 
 Oregon and Washington and also British Columbia, we slipped 
 in between and put up a better claim by settling Oregon and 
 Washington. It was a very great mistake that we did not at 
 the same time settle what is now the Canadian Pacific Coast. 
 
 Immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War, 
 Captain Cook, a famous English navigator, sailed from .the 
 Pacific Ocean to survey the Alaskan coast, and, if possible, find 
 a northwest connection between the Hudson Bay and the 
 Pacific Ocean. He stopped on his return at the Hawaiian 
 Islands and was murdered there. He did more to furnish sur- 
 veys and information about the northwest Pacific, Bering Sea 
 and the Arctic Ocean than all other explorers who had pre- 
 ceded him. 
 
 In 1783 the first permanent Russian settlement was made 
 in Alaska on Kodiak Island. When there I saw some evidence 
 of this settlement, a stone foundation that was said to have 
 been a portion of a warehouse. 
 
 At about this time France, and even Italy, added their 
 claims to a portion, if not all, of Alaska. With Russia in pos- 
 session, and with England, France and Italy having claims 
 already filed, it looked for some time as if Alaska might attract 
 as much attention as she has since the discovery of gold at 
 Dawson and Nome. A gigantic game was being played by the 
 nations with large divisions of the earth's surface as the stakes. 
 Naturally there was a great deal of anxiety and feeling. How- 
 ever, things settled down, Russia farming out the whole of 
 Alaska to the Russian-American Trading Company, a Russian 
 corporation, and England turning over nearly all of western 
 and northwest Canada to the Hudson Bay Fur Company. The 
 English company had put in a trading post by this time as far 
 
ALASKA 
 
 17 
 
 west as Fort Yukon. This was in Russian Alaska, and it 
 looked as if these two hig fur monopoly corporations would 
 precipitate their respective countries into serious trouble with 
 each other. During the year 1793 two important events of 
 lasting benefit to Alaska and the world occurred. George 
 Vancouver, who had been an officer with Captain Cook, was 
 commissioned by England to survey the Pacific Coast from 35 
 degrees to 60 degrees north, or from the southern coast of 
 California to Skagway. This was the largest order ever given 
 to a surveyor, and it was completed in one year and so well 
 done that navigators today go by \'ancouver's charts. If our 
 Government had charted the bottom of the "inside" ship passage 
 from Seattle to Skagway there would not have occurred the 
 
 SOME SNAPSHOTS OF MAN S HliST FRIEM) IX ALASKA. 
 
i8 ALASKA 
 
 wrecking of numerous vessels and the loss of many lives, as 
 has been the case along this passage during recent years. This 
 famous road for vessels lies, for a large part of the way, near 
 the coast and sheltered from the open sea by a series of islands, 
 and would be safe were the bottom of the course charted for 
 the guidance of sailors. When the weather is favorable the 
 scenery along this passage is very fine. 
 
 But to return. Another celebrated British subject, Alex- 
 ander Mackenzie, a member of the Northwestern Fur Com- 
 pany, a competitor of the Hudson Bay Company, afterward 
 taken over by the trust, crossed Canada to the Pacific Ocean 
 in 1793 by dog team and small boats and came out in the region 
 of Queen Charlotte Sound, about 500 miles north of Seattle. 
 The only other crossing from ocean to ocean previously made 
 was through Mexico, only a few hundred instead of thousands 
 of miles. 
 
 It was evident at about the beginning of the year 1800 that 
 England had made up her mind to push her frontier through 
 to the Pacific Coast, based on the claims she inherited when 
 she took over Canada from France. Russia that year estab- 
 lished a fort and trading post at Sitka. The Indians massacred 
 the Russians, but they returned and rebuilt Sitka at a point 
 a few miles west of the original site, and put up a good block- 
 house where Sitka stands today. This became the Russian 
 capital of Alaska, and remained so until the country was turned 
 over to the United States m 1867. 
 
 Several interesting characters represented Russia as Gov- 
 ernors of Alaska, while in reality they were only general man- 
 agers of the Russian-American Trading Company. The most 
 brutal and able of these was Alexander Andrevich Baranof, 
 who ruled for twenty-five years — from 1792 to 18 17. His life 
 was constantly in danger from the Russian renegades and 
 criminals who were sent or came to Alaska, and who lived 
 promiscuously with the Indians. We find very little pure 
 Esquimau or Indian blood today in Alaska, these strains being 
 largely intermingled with Russian. 
 
 Baranof, who had the reputation of being a very brave 
 
ALASKA 19 
 
 man, wore a coat of chain mail under his outer clothing. He 
 was absolutely opposed to anything except fur trading, and 
 the first Indian who brought in gold was put to death. Fishing 
 was only carried on to obtain food. There was one tribe of 
 Indians, the Thlinkits, who made him a great deal of trouble. 
 Their belief was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life 
 for a life," and every time anything happened to an Indian 
 they blamed it onto the Russians, and whenever they caught a 
 Russian, guilty or not, they made him pay the debt. The result 
 was that many lives were sacrificed. 
 
 Baranof's manner of disposing of criminals and his enemies 
 was by shooting them, and it is said to have been his custom 
 to execute ten Indians before breakfast. He would stand 
 them up against a wall in the courtyard. By mistake one 
 morning only nine were brought out and the officer was very 
 much disturbed because he had to go back after breakfast and 
 shoot the tenth. History gives us an account of several trag- 
 edies that would make good plots for fiction. Baranof's own 
 daughter fell in love with a young Russian officer, or prince, 
 who was sent out to Alaska. The old man, not favoring the 
 match, sent the young prince on a mission which was reported 
 to the daughter as resulting in the death of her lover. She 
 took the matter so much to heart that she committed suicide, 
 and it is said that in a certain room in the old palace the ghost 
 appears twice a year. I was in this room at Sitka, but am 
 sorry to say it was the wrong day on which to see the ghost 
 walk. 
 
 Baranof, like many another hard-fisted dictator of the old 
 days, fostered religion, and during his administration many 
 Greek Catholic missionaries came to Alaska and churches were 
 established. Even today a majority of the Esquimaux, Indians 
 and half-breeds of Alaska are in the Greek Catholic Church. 
 
 The Russian-American Trading Company grew and pros- 
 pered exceedingly under Baranof, agreeing to pay a certain 
 percentage of its earnings to the Russian Government for the 
 privilege of practically monopolizing the whole of Alaska. Of 
 course, the Government was in doubt, and had good reason to 
 
GREEK CHURCH, UNALASKA M>* a 
 
 ''•««CW„c„, ST,,,, 
 
 'SM.VD 
 
 SOME GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF ALASKA. 
 
ALASKA 21 
 
 be, as to whether or not it always received its just share, or 
 percentage, and was constantly investigating or checking up 
 the Trading Company. The Russian Government claims that 
 it always operated Alaska at a loss, which I believe is true, and, 
 except for the gold and fish the United States has received 
 from Alaska, the same would be true of our occupancy of the 
 same territory. Baranof finally started to return to Russia — a 
 broken-down old man — but died at sea. His enemies say that 
 he was poisoned, but it seems more probable, after the life he 
 had led, that he died from natural causes. 
 
 The next Alaskan Governor of importance was Baron 
 Rezanof, direct from the Russian court. He not only repre- 
 sented the Russian-American Trading Company, but he also 
 represented Russia in a broad way. He had heard of the 
 mythical "Isle of Gold," and instead of punishing the Indians 
 for bringing in gold he rewarded them. He seemed to have 
 had the faculty of recognizing a "good thing" when he encoun- 
 tered it, not unlike an American merchant who discovered that 
 a man had been falsely representing himself as a collector for 
 the firm, and taking in more money than any two of the firm's 
 real collectors. The merchant hired a detective and said : 
 
 "I want that man caught as quickly as possible." 
 
 "All right," said the detective, "I'll have him in jail in less 
 than a week." 
 
 "Great Scott !" said the merchant, "I don't want him put in 
 jail ; I want to hire him !" 
 
 Rezanof didn't kill the Indians who brought in gold; he 
 hired them to go out after more. 
 
 This same astute Rezanof attempted to establish a Japanese 
 colony in Alaska, but this was a failure. He did succeed, how- 
 ever, in establishing several manufacturing institutions. 
 Among his successful undertakings was the building of ships 
 and the establishing of a foundry where they made bronze 
 church bells. 
 
 Alaska, up to that time, 1830, had produced no grains 
 fruits or vegetables, and as there were only a few months in 
 the year in which they could receive supplies of this kind from 
 
22 ALASKA 
 
 Russia, Rezanof concluded that he would take a shipload of 
 church bells and furs to San Francisco — then owned by Spain 
 and a port of Mexico — and trade them for grain and dried 
 vegetables, such as beans, peas, etc. When he arrived at Yerba 
 Buena, now San Francisco, he found the Spanish Governor of 
 Mexico had placed an embargo on trading with Russia, and he 
 was officially refused an opportunity to exchange his bells and 
 furs for the commodities of that country. However, he was 
 in no hurry to return to Sitka, and as the local Governor had a 
 beautiful daughter, Seiiorita Concepcione, he put in his time 
 quite pleasantly and made love to the pretty Spanish girl — for- 
 getting to tell her, however, that he had a large family at home. 
 He succeeded also in impressing her father as a very desirable 
 son-in-law, and while Rezanof made himself agreeable to the 
 Governor and his daughter, the commander of his ship quietly 
 got rid of the cargo of bells and furs and stored away a shipload 
 of grain and provisions, with the natural but surprising result 
 that one pleasant morning the Baron failed to call on the Gov- 
 ernor and his daughter because he was far out at sea. It is 
 said the matter resulted in another suicide — of a Spanish young 
 lady this time. 
 
 In course of time Spain presented the matter to the Court 
 of St. Petersburg, and Baron Rezanof was recalled and more 
 "gum shoe" men were sent to Alaska — the same as we are 
 sending them there today for the United States — and an 
 investigation was instituted, a new Governor appointed, and 
 history repeated itself until Russia at last realized how impos- 
 sible it was for her to operate a territory so far away from the 
 seat of Government, and wisely sold out to the United States. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 UNCLE SAM IN ALASKA. 
 
 THE first white men to cross t'ne United States territory 
 between the Spanish possessions to the south and the 
 British possessions to the north were the members of the 
 expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804- 
 06. This party was sent out by President Jefferson to ascer- 
 tain how promising and valuable was the great territory we 
 had acquired by the Louisiana Purchase from France. The 
 expedition passed through the immense region which now 
 forms the States of IMissouri, Kansas. Nebraska, South Da- 
 kota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, 
 to the Pacific Ocean. The party consisted of twenty-nine men. 
 They traveled 8.500 miles and w^ere gone nearly three years. 
 Great dangers and suffering and hardships were encountered, 
 but they brought back a mass of information regarding the 
 geography of the region, and reports on the flora and fauna and 
 climate and the Indian tribes of the vast domain they had 
 traversed. The journey was one of the notable exploration 
 feats of history, and of immense value to the United States. 
 Immigration to the Oregon and Washington territories actively 
 began about 1832. Missions were founded by the Alethodists 
 and Presbyterians, and by 1845 the American population of 
 this Northwest region had reached 3,000 people. Prominent 
 among the pioneer missionaries was Marcus Whitman, whose 
 party took the first wagon across the Rocky Mountains, reach- 
 ing the Columbia River in 1836. After a varied career in that 
 far-off country Whitman and twelve of his associate workers 
 were massacred by the Cayuse Indians in 1847. Indian trou- 
 bles were frequent from the beginning of settlement by whites, 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
24 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 NATIVE CHILD, 
 NOME. 
 
 the Shoshone War of 1866-68 and the Modoc War 
 of 1864-73 being widespread and serious. 
 
 The boundary hnes were fixed with Russia in 
 1824-25 at 54 degrees 40 minutes, and finally set- 
 tled between the United States and British Colum- 
 bia at 49 degrees in 1846. The most important 
 boundary line treaty affecting the United States 
 was decided in our favor in October, 1903, when 
 the commission appointed to settle the line between 
 Canada and Alaska decided in our favor. This 
 was rather hard on our neighbors, as it forever 
 confines the Yukon Territory to the interior, giving 
 the seacoast in front of it to the United States. Until the dis- 
 covery of gold at Dawson, this isolated piece of British terri- 
 tory was of little concern, but its big yield of the yellow metal 
 has put it conspicuously "on the map." Two of the American 
 members of the commission were United States Senators 
 Henry Cabot Lodge and Elihu Root. Canada 
 ,- undoubtedly has always felt hurt for having been 
 
 u ' cut out from the Pacific Ocean by this treaty and 
 
 showed its resentment by voting down reciprocity 
 with the United States. 
 
 A good story is told of how the British nearly 
 lost the remainder of the Pacific Coast, that por- 
 tion lying between the State of Washington and 
 Alaska. In 1840 England sent out a sportsman- 
 statesman to look the country over to see if it 
 was worth fighting for. The United States was 
 putting up at least a good "bluff." This secret 
 agent of the Crown viewed the disputed region, 
 saw that the streams and rivers were full of 
 salmon, the great English game fish, and putting 
 his fishing rod together, carefully tried every 
 . • Kifly. He was unable to get a "rise." Disgusted, 
 ",t^y ,/' so the story goes, he returned to England and 
 A PATRIOT, HOLY CROSS Solemnly reported to the King that the country 
 MISSION. was "not worth a 'bob' ; the salmon would not 
 
ALASKA 25 
 
 rise to a fly." If we had only known of this report and "stood 
 pat" it looks as if we might have won without a single battle. 
 
 The pioneers who followed the trail blazed by Lewis and 
 Clark up the Missouri River, across the Rockies and Cascade 
 Mountains to Puget Sound, and set up the battle cry of "54-40 
 or fight," knew what they were talking about. Had the United 
 States boundary line been carried north to meet the then south- 
 ern Russian Alaska boundary line, at 54 degrees 40 minutes 
 north. Great Britain, or Canada, would have been cut out of 
 ports on the Pacific Coast, and our coast line would have been 
 continuous. 
 
 The Government at Washington at that time, however, 
 knew about as much regarding the Pacific Coast, and especially 
 the northwest Pacific, or Puget Sound country, as it does about 
 certain portions of Alaska and the needs of the people of the 
 whole of Alaska, today. Indeed, the great and wise Daniel 
 Webster stated frankly in the United States Senate that he 
 didn't know anything about the country west of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and further, he "didn't give a d — n." 
 
 This parallels the position, through lack of information, 
 taken by the last national administration with reference to 
 Alaska. If each member of Congress could take six months 
 or a year ofif and travel from 15.000 to 20,000 miles in Alaska, 
 he would more intelligently understand that country's needs. 
 But about the time he had fitted himself to legislate for the 
 32,000 white people — equal to about one-sixth of the popula- 
 tion of the constituency of a member of Congress — he might 
 fail of reelection, and the new Representative or Senator 
 would have to do it all over again, or guess at it. 
 
 We now come to the purchase of Alaska from Russia by 
 the United States for $7,200,000. England and Russia were 
 not friendly, and the great Hudson Bay Fur Company, with 
 its powerful London influence and owning nearly one-half the 
 land in western Canada, was eager to have the Crown secure 
 Alaska. The United States and Russia w^ere very friendly, 
 and, besides, in 1S67. the United States was under obligations 
 to Russia and anxious to pay off its debt. Both countries were 
 
26 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 desirous of keeping England from adding to her Canadian 
 possessions. Neither Russia nor the United States considered 
 Alaska worth anything commercially — gold had not yet been 
 discovered — or the American Government would have paid 
 far more for the possession of this territory, which is equal to 
 one-fifth the size of our own country. \Ye have — up to and 
 including 191 2 — taken out of Alaska in gold, furs, fish, etc., 
 $510,753,251. Adding the expense of governing the country 
 to the original cost of $7,200,000, we are about $490,000,000 
 ahead. Not a bad bargain. 
 
 It is reported that on October 18, 1867, when the Russian 
 flag was lowered at Sitka and the Stars and Stripes hoisted, 
 there was little enthusiasm and considerable sadness on both 
 sides. We were not celebrating any victory and Russia, our 
 friend, was giving up part of her territory. We were assum- 
 ing new responsibilities in taking over a vast country that we 
 knew very little about, and facing possible trouble with Eng- 
 land. We had no colonial experience and our political situa- 
 tion at the time was rotten. Corruption was everywhere. 
 Secretary of State Seward, who had really forced the deal 
 through Congress, was blamed on every side. We started 
 
 NATIVE ALASKAN PUPPIES, THREE MONTHS OLD. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 V 
 
 wrong and, except for the find- 
 ing of gold, would still be "in 
 bad," as after forty-five years of 
 ownership only 32,000 white peo- 
 ple live in the whole of Alaska, 
 and the total would be less, 
 except that a lot of them cannot 
 get away. Every steamer leav- 
 ing an Alaskan port, when I was 
 there, stationed two men at the 
 gangway to keep out stowaways. 
 As soon as the Stars and 
 Stripes went up at Sitka the 
 United States army took posses- 
 sion, and located military posts 
 not only at Sitka, but at Tongas 
 and Wrangell, and complete 
 military rule was established 
 throughout the Territory. The 
 Esquimaux, Indians and Rus- 
 sians occupying the country were 
 all taken over, and while we 
 made no agreement whatever 
 with reference to how we would 
 treat the Esquimaux and Indians, 
 we did enter into an agreement 
 with reference to the Russian 
 subjects. The treaty of cession, 
 signed May 28, 1867, between 
 the United States and Russia 
 provided as follows: "The 
 inhabitants of the ceded terri- 
 tory ... if they should pre- 
 fer to remain in the ceded terri- 
 tory, they, with the exception of 
 the uncivilized tribes, shall be 
 admitted to the enjoyment of all 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 9- 
 
 1 
 
 ' i^^^^^k 
 
 
28 ALASKA 
 
 the rights and immunities of citizens of the United States, and 
 shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of 
 their liberty, property, and religion. The uncivilized tribes 
 will be subject to such laws and regulations as the United 
 States may from time to time adopt in regard to aboriginal 
 tribes of that country." 
 
 In practically making citizens out of the Russians in Alaska 
 we took over a people who talked a different language and had 
 a religion unlike our own. There are few pure-blooded Rus- 
 sians left today in Alaska; as I mentioned before, they have 
 largely intermarried with the Indians, and quite a percentage 
 of the half-breed Russian-Indian women are now living with 
 white prospectors and trappers. 
 
 The United States customs revenue and navigation laws 
 were at once extended to Alaska, and the army and navy ruled. 
 In 1885, by an act of Congress, Alaska was attached to the 
 State of Oregon for judicial purposes. 
 
 As early as 1869 the Alaska Commercial Company estab- 
 lished steam navigation on the lower Yukon River to control 
 the little fur trading posts. In 1870 a twenty years' lease of 
 the Pribilof fur-seal islands was made to the same company. 
 The Alaska Commercial Company was owned by a lot of 
 American grafting politicians, mainly of the Eastern States, 
 who had sufficient power at Washington to cause the army to 
 look the other way while they did as they pleased in Alaska. 
 The Russian-American Company did the same thing while 
 Russia owned the territory. 
 
 In 1882 the Arctic explorer, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, 
 an officer in the United States army, on leave of absence from 
 his command, was engaged by the New York Herald to explore 
 the Yukon River from its source to its mouth. He was the 
 first white man to cross over the \\niite Pass route from the 
 point where Skagway is now located to the headwaters of 
 the Yukon. He built a raft with the aid of some Indians and 
 floated down the entire course of the river for 2,200 miles, 
 making many interesting discoveries, and finally landed at St. 
 Michael. He attempted to change the name of the river from 
 
ALASKA 
 
 29 
 
 Yukon to Bennett in honor of Mr. Bennett, publisher of the 
 New York Herald, but this change the Government wisely 
 refused to recognize. He did, however, succeed in naming 
 Lake Bennett, on the White Pass in Yukon Territory, in honor 
 of his employer. 
 
 Lieutenant Schwatka is an old friend of the writer, and con- 
 tributor to TJie Saturday Blade. I thought of him frequently 
 as I sailed down the Yukon River. We passed one steamboat 
 bearing his name. He is endeared to the readers of my publi- 
 cations through the discovery of a race of people in Old 
 Mexico, the cliff and cave dwellers, which was supposed to have 
 been extinct for over 300 years, and aided the writer in bring- 
 ing to the United States in 1890 thirteen Indians, men, women 
 and children, who were pronounced by the professors at Har- 
 vard, Yale and Princeton as being genuine descendants of the 
 original cave and cliff dwellers of Arizona and New Mexico ; 
 in fact, through him the very first expedition of TJie Saturday 
 Blade was made successful. 
 From St. IMichael, Schwatka 
 coasted along the Sew^ard 
 Peninsula toward Bering 
 Strait in the Arctic Ocean, and 
 brought back to the writer 
 
 NATIVE IN KAYAK, 
 LOWER YUKON. 
 
 placer-m i n e d 
 gold from the 
 region in which 
 the c i t y o f 
 Nome no \v 
 
 l^ffii ---./^;,i. 
 
 KAYAKS, NATIVE CANOES, IN BERING SEA. 
 
30 ALASKA 
 
 stands. Had I felt confidence in his discovery, Nome and 
 the Alaska gold fields would have been opened up ten years 
 earlier than they were. 
 
 In 1900 Alaska was granted civil government with judicial 
 power and four judicial districts were created. The first man 
 sent to Nome with judicial functions was Judge R. N. Stevens 
 of Bismarck, North Dakota, who remained there about five 
 years. He also is an old and close personal friend. Readers 
 will therefore understand that for the last twenty-five years I 
 have been in personal touch with the Alaskan situation, and 
 that many of the present problems touching the territory are 
 not new ones to me. 
 
 In 1900 the United States Government began building a 
 system of trails, roads and telegraph and cable lines in Alaska. 
 The work has been under the supervision of Colonel W. P. 
 Richardson, who has spent millions of Government money 
 with little or no benefit to the people who live in Alaska. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MINING IN ALASKA. 
 ar^ OLD in the Shushana!" 
 
 \J The same old thrilhng cry that, beginning in 1897, with 
 "Gold in the Klondike !" started the rush of gold seekers to the 
 then unknown North. Like all gold stampedes, only a small 
 percentage of those in the rush were ever favored by fortune 
 with the richer strikes — strikes that would pay to work, with 
 returns sufficient to justify the exorbitant cost of labor and 
 supplies typical of all pioneer conditions in a frontier land. 
 The great majority of the less favored, and those unfamiliar 
 with mining and frontier conditions and hardships, turned their 
 faces and "mushed" homeward. The statements made by 
 many of them upon arriving at home were much the same in 
 effect as the statement of the lady bargain hunter when she 
 came home from a fire sale of dry goods. 
 
 "Well, wife, what did you find at that wonderful fire sale?" 
 inquired her husband. 
 
 "Why, my dear, I bought some of the loveliest silk stock- 
 ings you ever saw for fourteen cents a pair. There isn't a thing 
 the matter with them, except that the feet are burned off." 
 
 Many of the returned gold seekers had bought "perfectly 
 lovely" claims, except that the claims contained no gold. The 
 others, those with determination and grit, pushed on through 
 the new, unknown North, and from their efforts came the 
 discoveries of Fairbanks, Nome and the Seward Peninsula, 
 Circle, Rampart, Koyokuk, Yakataga, \\'illow Creek, Nizina, 
 Chisna, Chistochina, Bremner, Kobuk, \"aldez Creek, Yentna, 
 Bonnifield, Kantishna, Innoko, Kuskokwim, Squirrel Creek. 
 Mulchatna, Tacotna. Iditarod, Good News Bay, Ruby. Anvik. 
 Fox, and the Shushana. Each time the same thrilling cry, 
 "Gold!" 
 
 31 
 
32 ALASKA 
 
 The hardier of those who failed to strike it in the former 
 stampedes, supplemented each time with new recruits, shoul- 
 dered their pack of beans, bacon, shovel, pick and gold pan, and 
 hastened to the newer camp, lured on by the cry of gold — the 
 magnet that has opened up and made known to the civi- 
 lized world the great mineral resources of Alaska, a land in 
 area ten times as large as the State of Illinois, a land unequaled 
 by any like area in the world for its general distribution of 
 gold placers. Sixteen years after we first heard the magic 
 cry "Gold in the Klondike," we heard the cry repeated with 
 "Gold in the Shushana," one hundred and fifty miles southwest 
 of the Klondike and in the eastern part of central interior 
 Alaska. 
 
 Each new strike during the last sixteen years has made 
 known large deposits of low-grade gravels that would not pay 
 to work under the primitive and costly methods of the indi- 
 vidual. In later years areas of sufficient extent have been 
 obtained to warrant the installation of costly hydraulic and 
 dredging machinery, and the richer portions have been oper- 
 ated, but, even with the most improved methods of handling, 
 there remain great areas that, owing to the excessive cost of 
 labor and supplies, would not pay. These areas of low-grade 
 ground, which it will take years to work out, will have to await 
 improved transportation facilities, as the only means of redu- 
 cing the prohibitive costs. 
 
 In the Shushana district a recent quoted price of such com- 
 modities as beans, bacon, sugar, etc., was $i per pound, the 
 price of one sack of flour being $50. Thus it has been during 
 all of the gold stampedes, with costs greater or less, governed 
 by the distance from rail or steamboat terminals. As soon as 
 trails and roads are cut out and streams bridged, these costs 
 are reduced, but never have they reached the basis where it is 
 possible to work the gravels of lower value, except in a few 
 favored sections close to water transportation, where large 
 hydraulic or dredging plants could be maintained. The result 
 has been that the "cream" has been skimmed from the richer 
 deposits and the others left until the country shall be generally 
 opened up and it will pay to build railroads. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 33 
 
 Attracted to Alaska by the lure of gold were many miners 
 of long experience who turned their attention to quartz pros- 
 pecting, with the result that Alaska has proved to be a land 
 not only of great and widely scattered placer-gold deposits, 
 but with some deposits of gold quartz, also with copper, coal, 
 iron, tin, marble, gypsum and many other valuable minerals, 
 fortunately near the coast and easily reached by short rail- 
 roads that private capital will surely build when our Govern- 
 ment sees fit to lift the baneful conservation and reservation 
 ban placed on everything. Of course, if the United States 
 Government should ever build a railroad, or take over and 
 operate the roads already built in Alaska, which do not pay, 
 the laws would have to be changed to make it possible to open 
 
 SCENE IN THE INTERIOR OF THE TREADWELL MINE. 
 
34 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 up the country. No railroad will pay in a "bottled up" country. 
 Gold quartz has been found in many sections of Alaska, but 
 only where situated on tidewater 
 have these properties proved profit- 
 able to work. The world-famous 
 Treadwell in southeastern Alaska 
 is now operating to a depth of i,8oo 
 feet, and is crushing and handling 
 at a handsome profit ore averaging 
 only $2.35 gold per ton. On this 
 property, most favorably situated 
 on the shore of Douglas Island, 
 with a splendid harbor, the cost of 
 mining has been reduced to a mini- 
 mum. About 4,000 tons of ore are 
 handled each day. The Treadwell 
 ore body has been developed for a 
 distance of about three-fourths of 
 a mile and in places has a width of 
 200 feet. 
 
 Across Gastineau Channel on the 
 mainland, and within two miles of 
 the Treadwell, are two properties 
 now being opened for development 
 —one by the Treadwell Company 
 and the other by the Alaska Gasti- 
 neau Mining Company. In the 
 opening up of the latter property 
 $4,500,000 will be expended before 
 the beginning of operations. A 
 plant is being installed with a capac- 
 ity of 6,000 tons per day, and it 
 promises to cut even the low cost of 
 production attained at Treadwell. 
 
 Near Seward, Mr. S. O. Morbard 
 has just erected a ten-stamp mill 
 working rich ore, but here the un- 
 just and ridiculous United States 
 
ALASKA 
 
 35 
 
 Government tax of $ioo per mile has put the railroad out of 
 business and there is little being done. The successful opera- 
 tion of the Cliff mine, in the Valdez district, has given an 
 impetus to mining that has resulted in the discovery and 
 development of a number of promising properties. In the 
 Kenai Peninsula and Willow Creek regions there are now in 
 operation six small mills. The properties on which these are 
 located, not being on tidewater, are subject to heavy costs of 
 transportation, and only the richer properties are being devel- 
 oped. Southwestern Alaska has only one small stamp mill, on 
 Unga Island. The Seward Peninsula has two small mills. 
 
 With the decline of the rich placer mines in the Fairbanks 
 region attention was directed to the quartz discoveries which 
 were first made in 1903. In 1909 the first stamp mill was 
 erected. This was home-built and consisted of three stamps. 
 The results were so satisfactory that in 1912 there were in this 
 district fifteen small mills with a total of fifty-eight stamps. 
 The ore being crushed probably averages about $50 per ton. 
 
 GOLD CONCENTRATORS AT THE TREADWELL MINE. 
 
36 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 SINKING A PROSPECT HOLE ON ESTHER CREEK, NEAR FAIRBANKS. 
 
 Operations in this section extend over a distance of twenty- 
 five miles. As to the extent of the district, no estimate can be 
 made. The field being in the Tanana interior, about 380 miles 
 from the coast, the cost of development and operations is so 
 excessive that only the higher grade ore can be mined. 
 
 Gold quartz discoveries have been made in many other 
 widely separated sections of Alaska. In many instances these 
 are so remote from rail or water transportation that very little 
 work has been done on them and their value and extent are not 
 known with any degree of accuracy, but from the profitable 
 results already obtained it can be conservatively predicted that 
 Alaska has many rich undevek)ped quartz deposits. 
 
 The existence of copper in Alaska was known to the Rus- 
 
ALASKA 37 
 
 sians in early days, but it is evident that their information was 
 secondary and through the Indians. It was not until 1899 that 
 any of the richer deposits were pointed out by the natives to 
 the whites. In that year prospectors were guided to the 
 Latouche Bonanza copper deposit on Latouche Island, 
 Prince William Sound, and to the Nikolai deposit in the 
 Copper River region. It was in the latter, named after Chief 
 Nikolai, that prospectors, searching the surrounding country 
 in the following year, discovered the famous Kennecott 
 Bonanza deposit, said to run 60 per cent copper, the mine 
 that caused the Guggenheims and Morgans to spend $20,- 
 000,000 in building a railroad 196 miles long at a cost of 
 over $100,000 a mile in order to transport the ore to the coast. 
 
 SLUICING FOR GOLD OX ESTHER CREEK, NEAR FAIRBANKS. 
 
38 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 This mine during the last two years of operation paid $3,000,- 
 000 in dividends. The railroad has been run at a big loss, and, 
 it is said, they are more than willing that Uncle Sam should 
 step in and spend some of his money. 
 
 Copper deposits have been discovered on the northeast 
 slope of this range of mountains, extending from the White 
 to the Nabesna River, a distance of about sixty miles. In 
 southwestern Alaska and in southern Alaska are a number of 
 producing copper mines on tidewater. The Kennecott Bonanza 
 is the only interior copper mine now being worked. 
 
 Coal is found in several explored sections of Alaska, rang- 
 ing in quality from lignite to anthracite. As only one-fourth 
 of Alaska is geologically known, and only a very small part 
 of this area by detailed surveys, any estimate of the enormous 
 quantity of coal available is purely speculative. The United 
 States Geological Survey in a recent publication states that it 
 is probably safe to say that the minimum estimate of Alaska's 
 coal resources should be placed at 150,000,000,000 tons, and 
 that the actual tonnage may be many times that amount. This 
 estimate, stated to be a minimum one, would provide for an 
 output of 10,000 tons daily — the present output of all the coal 
 mines in British Columbia — for over 40,000 years. This being 
 
 COAL FIELDS ON THE NENANA RIVER. THE DARK STREAKS ARE- 
 ENORMOUS LAYERS OF COAL. 
 
ALASKA 39 
 
 true, I can see no good reason for reserving, conserving or 
 "bottling" it up. The coal today being used by the United 
 States Government for the supply of our naval and revenue 
 vessels in Alaskan waters, and as fuel for the Northern army 
 posts, is brought from Australia in Norwegian vessels at a 
 cost of about $15 per ton, while the billions of tons of Alaskan 
 coal remain undeveloped and tied up by our Government's 
 policy.* 
 
 Tin promises to become one of the valuable mineral 
 resources of Alaska. It is found in the Seward Peninsula and 
 in the region between the Tanana and Yukon Rivers. It is 
 only during the last four years that there has been any intelli- 
 gent effort made in the mining of tin in Alaska. In 1910 the 
 value of tin ore exported from Alaska was $6,750. In 191 2 
 the value was $90,831. In 191 3 there was also a substantial 
 increase. These are the only known tin deposits of any extent 
 on the North American Continent, and a large amount of tin 
 plate is used in the Alaskan fishing industry. With the tin 
 industry sufficiently developed to warrant the construction of 
 smelting works in the North, it would result in a great saving, 
 as all tin ores now have to be shipped to Europe for reduction. 
 
 Gypsum for the manufacture of plaster of paris and land 
 plaster, or fertilizer, has likewise been found and is being 
 mined on tidewater in southeastern Alaska. The value of this 
 industry in 1912 was $129,375. 
 
 Petroleum has been discovered in the Controller Bay and 
 Cook Inlet regions of Alaska, and in the former locality a small 
 refinery has been erected, from the products of which the local 
 markets are supplied with gasoline. The Alaskan oils in both 
 of these fields are of a paraffin base, the type that is daily 
 becoming more valuable, owing to the heavy demand for gaso- 
 line. 
 
 *Note: — Since the above was written and first pulilisherl our Gov- 
 ernment naval experts on fuel liave condemned this coal, stating 
 that it is not fit for navy use. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Alaska's railroads. 
 
 ALASKA, like all new countries, has her share of success- 
 ful men, also of windy boomers and human failures. 
 The human failures and Government employes all want the 
 Government to spend a lot of money in Alaska in building rail- 
 roads, wagon roads, bridges and winter trails, dredging har- 
 bors and other cash-distributing projects. In fact. I heard it 
 suggested that if Canada would permit, it would be a good 
 scheme to pump the Japan Current into the source of the 
 Yukon River, and from thence let it flow west down that 
 stream, making a perpetual warm country out of the Valley of 
 the Yukon. This, of course, would be objected to by the 
 Alaskans living on the Pacific waters, as it would favor 
 the Yukon Valley and Bering Sea, and leave their part of the 
 country frozen eight months out of the twelve. So you see 
 how impossible it is to please or serve more than 3,000 or 
 4,000 people in Alaska at less than a cost of several billions of 
 dollars without disappointing the other 28,000. 
 
 Seriously speaking, it must not be forgotten that the 32.000 
 white people in Alaska are scattered over a territory one-fifth 
 the size of the United States. The winters, except for a 
 small strip of country along the southeast coast — afifected by 
 the warm Japan Current — extend over eight months of the 
 year. This meager and widely scattered population and the 
 long Arctic winters unquestionably make the shaping and 
 handling of most projects unusually risky and difficult. Never- 
 theless, Alaska is a wonderful country in many ways, and I 
 have never met with a braver, stronger lot of men — two- 
 thirds of the population are men — in any other part of the 
 world. They come from everywhere, but especially from the 
 
 40 
 
ALASKA 41 
 
 Pacific Coast and gold-producing States ; some from Australia, 
 Canada and the cold countries of Europe. 
 
 Keep in mind all the time, however, that it is over 1,500 
 miles from Ketchikan, the southeast corner of Alaska, to Cape 
 Prince of Wales, on Bering Strait, northwest of Nome. And 
 again, it is over 1,500 miles from Unalaska and Dutch Harbor, 
 in the southwest corner of Alaska, to the Arctic Ocean north of 
 Fort Yukon. While Alaska is not equal to a country 1,500 
 miles square, it is just as difficult to serve from a transporta- 
 tion standpoint, and nearly all of its service must be by rail, as 
 compared with water, except a few fishing towns and ports 
 on the south and southwest coasts, as the rivers, as well as 
 Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, are frozen for eight months, 
 and sometimes more, each year. 
 
 I traveled over 8,000 miles in Alaska, and found the popula- 
 tion of 32,000 whites pretty evenly divided between the inland 
 and coast, and was impressed with the impossibility of our 
 Government acting fairly toward the whole of Alaska in 
 undertaking to supply them with transportation, to say nothing 
 of the enormous expense and inevitable loss when it shall be 
 attempted. As nearly as I can calculate, it would cost $200,- 
 000,000 to serve 20,000 of the 32,000 Alaskans with railroads 
 at an annual loss of $30,000,000 a year, or equal to $1,500 a 
 year pension for each man, woman and child brought within 
 the transportation belt. 
 
 Of course, for $50,000,000 five thousand people can be 
 served, but the rates and percentage will remain the same, and 
 the rest of the people, entitled to equally as good treat- 
 ment, will be disappointed, and with a just cause for complaint. 
 
 Now, as to traffic or tonnage to be developed by the Gov- 
 ernment in spending millions of dollars for railroads. It seems 
 doubtful if any great amount of freight can be secured, aside 
 from coal, and the cost of mining the coal — with labor in 
 Alaska from $4 to $6 a day — the quality of the coal, and the 
 long water haul after the railroad has brought it to the Alaskan 
 coast — Alaska's coal is in the interior — must all be considered. 
 Always remember, that steam coal at Seattle, the nearest 
 
42 ALASKA 
 
 market, 1,200 miles distant by water, is selling at about $3 a 
 ton ; that the only thing Alaska timber is really good for is to 
 be used as firewood, and that the whole northwest Pacific Coast 
 has an abundance of such fuel ; and, furthermore, that the 
 Panama Canal, from a commercial standpoint, is expected to 
 supply California with cheap coal, in order that vessels may 
 have a cargo both ways, and reduce the carrying charges on 
 American bottoms using the canal and loaded with Pacific 
 Coast fruits, grains and lumber for Eastern and European 
 ports. 
 
 If the Alaskan coal fields are fully opened up, and are as 
 extensive and as cheap to mine as claimed, and the rail and 
 water haul as cheap as on the Atlantic Coast, then less coal will 
 go through the Panama Canal, and there will be empty bottoms 
 going west and double charges for cargoes coming east. 
 
 However, I am getting away from Alaska, though not from 
 what afifects Alaska. Cut off as it is from the United States, 
 with Canada in between, but with a splendid navigable ocean 
 and an inside course, back of islands, which enables vessels to 
 sail from Seattle to Skagway on waters equal to a big river 
 that widens out to lakes here and there, the coast town trans- 
 portation by water from the southeastern port of Ketchikan 
 to Seward, 800 miles to the northwest, is ideal and open the 
 year around. On this coast line of 800 miles we find more or 
 less prosperous towns, with 50 per cent of the total population 
 of Alaska. 
 
 Almost every coast town that has a port open the year 
 around is claiming to be the only point from which to reach 
 the interior of Alaska. It is perfectly natural that each of 
 these points should wish to benefit from the building of a rail- 
 road, although I am only trying to be frank and truthful when 
 I say that the deadest towns I was in, like Skagway, Cordova 
 and Seward, had railroads. Apparently, it was only while 
 money was being spent in building these roads that the towns 
 showed great activity. 
 
 There are eight railroads in Alaska. Six have failed, and 
 only four are being operated at all, and but a portion of the 
 
ALASKA 
 
 43 
 
 year. I will tell you about the only two that have never gone 
 into the hands of a receiver, although these two have never 
 paid the stockholders any dividends. 
 
 The White Pass & Yukon Route, from Skagway, Alaska, 
 to White Horse, in the Yukon Territory, Canada, is no miles 
 in length. Twenty miles of the line is in the United States. 
 In 1897, when the Dawson placer deposits were discovered, 
 thousands of men sailed from all over the world to Skagway, 
 winter and summer alike, and hundreds lost their lives on the 
 White Pass through snowslides and exposure. Then this rail- 
 road was quickly and well built by English capital, and the trail 
 destroyed by blasting for rail construction. There followed a 
 rate of twenty cents a mile per passenger, with "any old rate" 
 for freight. The same rates are still in effect, and as the com- 
 pany owns the boats on the Yukon River for some 1,200 miles, 
 passengers and shippers are up against the same monopoly of 
 internal trat^c, both in the Yukon Territory and Alaska proper. 
 
 INSPIR.\TI0X POINT, OX WHITE PA.'^S R.MLROAD. 
 
44 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 ALONG THE LINE OF THE COPPER RIVER AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD. 
 
 Yet, even at the prices named, the company is unable to pay 
 a dividend. The trains and boats are good, the best to be found 
 anywhere in Alaska, and passengers are treated like human 
 beings, but there is simply not enough business. 
 
 The Copper River & Northwestern, the only other road 
 in Alaska not in the hands of a receiver, is owned and operated 
 by the Guggenheims and Morgans, and runs from Cordova to 
 Kennecott, 196 miles, to reach a number of rich copper prop- 
 erties, especially the Bonanza group of mines, owned by the 
 same interests. The Copper River & Northwestern Road is 
 well kept up, and is the only standard-gauge road in Alaska. 
 All the others are narrow-gauge. 
 
 Next, we have the many times failed and confiscated Alaska 
 Northern. It starts at Seward, and is built north seventy- 
 
ALASKA 
 
 45 
 
 two miles to Nowhere. This is known as the Frost Road, not 
 because it was such a "frost," or is located in Alaska, but on 
 account of the promoter's name being Frost. It was constructed 
 by Canadian capital, and broke the bank in Canada that backed 
 it. Frost, himself, has recently been tried criminally by the 
 United States courts. However, he was acquitted, and although 
 his reputation as a promoter is not good, it is generally believed 
 that he was so handicapped by United States Government 
 
 SEVVAKD HARBOR AND U. S. BATTLESHIP MARYLAND. 
 
 regulations, and the conservation of coal lands he hoped to 
 open in Alaska, that he never had a chance to win, even acting 
 on the square. 
 
 Owing to the inability of this road to pay the United States 
 Government tax of $roo a mile each year, it has been closed 
 down, and something like i,ooo people in Seward and along 
 the line completely put out of business. The road could not 
 earn the tax. The receivers for the railroad company offer to 
 let the people living in Seward and along the line operate it 
 free of rent for tracks and equipment, but the United States 
 Government said, "No taxes, no run," and there you are! No 
 
46 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 wonder they have been singing all over Alaska the song, 
 "Bottled-up Alaska!" The Nome & Seward Peninsula Rail- 
 road, the most northerly railway in the world, 104 miles long, 
 is not operated by the receivers ; they cannot pay the Govern- 
 ment tax. Again, "Bottled-up Alaska!" 
 
 The Tanana \^alley Railroad, forty-five miles in length, 
 operates from the Tanana River to Fairbanks, and from Fair- 
 banks out to some of the placer creeks. The last receiver has 
 paid the Government tax and is trying to put the road in suc- 
 cessful shape. Its equipment and tracks when I was there 
 were in rather bad condition, and most of the mining camps 
 on the line were still largely depending on teams and dogs for 
 their freight. The Yakutat Road of twelve miles to the sal- 
 mon cannery is little more than a tramway, while the Cook 
 
 VIEW OF A SECTION OF THE ' BUSTED ALASKA NORTHERN RAILROAD. 
 
ALASKA 47 
 
 Inlet Road, eight miles in length, and Katalla Road, six miles 
 long, have been abandoned. 
 
 The reader now has the history and condition of the 465 
 miles of railroads already constructed in Alaska. These rail- 
 roads were evidently constructed long before there was really 
 anything worth while for them to haul, unless, like the Gug- 
 genheims and Morgans, they created their own tonnage by an 
 investment many times the cost of building the railroad. 
 
 J\ly theory is, that if Alaska really contains the ore and 
 coal to warrant building railroads, and our Government will 
 take the "lid off" so that capital can invest with reasonable 
 hope of returns, the railroads will follow as a natural result. 
 Otherwise, it is my conviction that they should never be con- 
 structed just to accommodate and enrich a few people or boom 
 a town, at the expense of the people of the entire United 
 States.* 
 
 ♦Note: — Since this chapter on Alaskan railroads was publishecl as 
 an article in The Saturday Blade, the United States Congress has 
 passed a bill appropriating $35,000,000 to construct a railroad in 
 Alaska. What route it will take will depend upon the report of 
 engineers now making surveys. Of course, the report of the engi- 
 neers upon the several routes will depend upon political promises 
 and change in Govei-nment, etc., and is an old political scheme to 
 evade keeping a political promise. Only $1,000,000 of the $35,000,000 
 has thus far been made available, and it is probable that this is 
 all the Government will attempt or intends to do. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SEALS AND SALMON. 
 
 A THICK fog. One could see less than i,ooo feet ahead. 
 Captain Johnny O'Brien was on the bridge of the 5. 6". 
 Victoria, known as the "Holy Roller" on account of her con- 
 tinuous rolling. We were taking soundings. I stood beside 
 the sailor who was letting out the line. He called "Forty-two 
 fathoms," then "Nineteen fathoms," and the engine of the ship 
 was reversed so suddenly we were nearly thrown off our bal- 
 ance. One more ship length — and there would have been 
 another "Alaskan shipwreck" to report. 
 
 Captain O'Brien was cautiously sailing a course unknown 
 to him. We were off St. Paul Island, the largest of the Great 
 Seal Island group, and about 400 miles from the mainland. We 
 dropped anchor and remained where we were all night. The 
 next morning was clear, and the first day during two weeks a 
 landing was possible. We were only a half-mile from shore 
 and were rowed in small boats to a rough beach. 
 
 Did you ever own or pay for a sealskin? Possibly you are 
 like the old German to whom a friend said : "Hans, did you 
 ever buy a gold brick?" and Hans replied: "No, but I bought 
 what I thought was a gold brick." Every skin that looks like 
 a sealskin is not genuine. 
 
 The Pribilof Islands, owned by the United States since we 
 bought Alaska from Russia, have furnished enough fur-seal 
 skins to make several million jackets, coats, muft"s, hats and 
 gloves. Sealskin is the finest and softest fur that grows on 
 any animal, in the water or upon the shore, and is about the 
 most expensive. Ninety per cent of all fur-seal skins in the 
 world have been taken on a group of four islands in Bering 
 Sea, called the Pribilof Islands because they were discovered 
 
 48 
 
ALASKA 
 
 49 
 
 by a Russian of that name, in 1786. I was eager to visit the 
 rookery of the fur-seals on St. Paul Island, as it is the chief 
 breeding place of the seal herds. 
 
 If we had full knowledge of the inner history of the United 
 States Government's purchase of Alaska, we would find that 
 the same Senators who engineered the deal at once busied 
 themselves in organizing the Alaskan Commercial Company, 
 which was given a monopoly of taking the fur-seals on the 
 Pribilof Islands, and anywhere, in fact, that these valuable 
 creatures could be found in Alaska. The company was to pay 
 to the Government a nominal sum of about one dollar per 
 skin and take care of the natives on these islands, but all it 
 did was to "skin" the natives, as well as the seals, and bribe 
 and fool the poor clerk sent out by the United States to count 
 the number of seals killed. The company reported having 
 taken and settled with the Government for about 3,500,000 skins 
 in forty years. It was estimated that there were 5,000,000 seals 
 
 CAVE XE.-\R THE LANDING, ST. PAUL ISLAND. 
 
50 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 in Alaskan waters when this political "skin corporation" got the 
 monopoly from an administration it controlled. Add the 
 natural increase in forty years, and there is little doubt that 
 l5,ooo,OCK) male seals, under four years of age, would be more 
 nearly the real total number killed than 3,500,000. 
 
 Today there are hardly enough seals left "for seed" — 
 only about 100,000 of all sexes, mostly old bulls and 
 females. Quite recently the United States Government began 
 suit against the heirs of the men who controlled this skin cor- 
 poration. In order to throw dust in the eyes of the Govern- 
 ment, the corporation claimed that Canada and Japan were 
 killing many seals in the open sea. By international agreement 
 every country controls and owns the fishing rights within three 
 
 A NATIVE FAMILY, ST. PAUL ISLAND. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 51 
 
 miles of its shore, both mainland and island, but beyond that 
 the water is open to the world. Inside and outside the three- 
 mile zone it was claimed Canada and Japan took seals, but even 
 this right was given up by Great Britain for Canada, doubtless 
 because all the sealskins are dyed in London by a process con- 
 trolled by a rich monopoly, and this business is worth more to 
 Great Britain than a few seals taken by poor Canadian fisher- 
 men. It is also true that the Japanese fleet that operates in these 
 waters often violates the law and takes the risk of being cap- 
 tured. Occasionally the Japs are arrested by a United States 
 revenue boat crew and are sent to jail for a few months. That 
 is all. 
 
 The United States Government has for the past three years 
 
 A RUSSIAN SWEAT-BATH HOUSE, ST. PAUL ISLAND, 
 
ALASKA 53 
 
 refused to farm out these islands and has gone into the seal 
 business on its own account. In igii we took only 12,000 
 seals and realized on them $385,892, or over ^t,2 per skin. 
 During the years 1912 and 1913 the Government has killed only 
 enough to provide seal meat for the natives who live on the 
 islands. The herds are now increasing rapidly, and this 
 industry should net the Government over $1,000,000 a year 
 when we really begin killing again. 
 
 So much for the history and business side. We will now 
 turn to the habits of the seals, for they are peculiarly interest- 
 ing creatures. The seals on the Pribilof Islands are all fur- 
 seals. Every seal, wherever found, has hair, but this seal has 
 a thick fur under the hair. It is the fur that makes the skin 
 valuable, the hair being removed in tanning. The hair on the 
 adult seals is usually a dark gray. They are known as "sea- 
 bear." The males are called "bulls," the females "cows" and 
 the young ones "pups." The females live in a harem bossed 
 by an old bull, and the other adult males live to themselves and 
 are called "bachelors." The place inhabited by seals on the 
 shore is called a "rookery," and where they are taken, killed and 
 skinned a "fishery." 
 
 The large old bulls have harems of different sizes. I saw 
 them with from six to sixty cows. The bulls fight among 
 themselves and their greatest concern appears to be in keeping 
 their cows from reaving them. During the breeding season, 
 and while the ofl:'spring are young — June, July and August on 
 the Pribilof Islands — the bull never leaves the rookery or his 
 harem. He goes without food for three months at a time or, 
 as it were, hibernates during the summer as the bear does in 
 the winter. It would be a great scheme to cross the seal and 
 the bear, and produce an animal that would not need to cat 
 during either winter or summer. 
 
 The cow seal gives birth to one pup every year and nurses 
 it. She goes to the ocean for food and will remain as long as 
 seven days. If she is killed the pup starves to death. Hence 
 the killing of a cow always results in two deaths. A big bull 
 weighs about 400 pounds and is from six to seven feet in 
 
ALASKA 55 
 
 length. The weight of a cow seal usually approximates 
 eighty pounds and it measures about four feet in length. 
 
 All seals live on fish and squid found in the ocean. The 
 correct practice is to kill off all "bachelors" at three years of 
 age. Their fur is then in prime condition, and, as they have 
 no harem, they live useless lives. The custom on the Pribilof 
 Islands has been to drive the bachelors across the island like so 
 many sheep to the slaughtering point, where they are simply 
 clubbed to death and skinned. The natives, half-breed Rus- 
 sians or Indians, are given all they want to eat and the rem- 
 nants of the carcasses are buried. It is necessary to drive the 
 seals very slowly, as they move in what appears to be short 
 jumps, and if the ground is rough or stony they injure the 
 skins and the fur. 
 
 One attractive feature of female seal life is the absence of 
 old maids, widows, grass widows and unmarried maidens. As 
 they are not killed for their skins, they always belong to some 
 harem. The seals have their secret. No one knows where 
 they go in the winter, or between September and June. They 
 disappear from the Pribilofs and return the following summer. 
 The educated seals that the public sees in circuses and shows 
 are not the fur-seals. They have only hair on their bodies. 
 They are the more intelligent. 
 
 Fur-sealing is an industry that should always be conducted 
 by the Government or under the strictest Government control, 
 if that is possible so far away. The world's next largest 
 "rookery" to that on the Pribilof Islands, where fur-seals are 
 taken, is off the coast of Uruguay, South America, and is 
 handled by the Uruguayan Government very successfully. 
 
 The total market value of the raw fur-seals taken in Alaska 
 since the United States bought the country in 1867 is $52,257,- 
 135. The total from the salmon and other fishing, up to the 
 close of 1912, is given as $167,420,000, or a grand total from 
 Alaskan waters since the United States took over the country 
 of $219,672,135. while the total value of the gold mined since 
 1867 is $213,018,719, leaving a balance in favor of salmon and 
 
56 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 AN ALASKAN FISH-WHEEL. ON THE YUKON. 
 
 seals, or fishing, of $6,000,000. Yet, almost every one thinks of 
 Alaska as only a cold, gold-producing country. 
 
 Salmon fishing in the North Pacific Ocean has been much 
 more profitable and certain of success than gold mining on the 
 shore. Few people understand the peculiarities of the salmon. 
 They hatch in a fresh-water stream, go to the ocean and remain 
 about three years, then come back to the stream in which they 
 were born, deposit there their eggs or spawn, and die. They 
 do not return to the ocean. No other fish is like the salmon in 
 this respect. 
 
 I was much interested in what I was told by Bishop Rowe 
 of the Episcopal Church, who is known and loved all over 
 Alaska. He considered fishing the chief necessary and per- 
 manent industry of Alaska, especially for the poor people and 
 natives. He told me that unless the new Territorial Legisla- 
 ture passed adequate protective laws, fishing in Alaska had 
 
ALASKA 
 
 57 
 
 A CANNING FACTORY AT PETERSBURG, ALASKA. 
 
 seen its best days. He related to me how the first Legislature, 
 that of the spring of 1913. had refused to pass a law prohibit- 
 ing fishing by setting nets at the mouths of rivers up which the 
 salmon go to spawn. He hoped that the next Legislature 
 would not be so shortsighted. 
 
 The fishing industry of Alaska is assuming immense pro- 
 portions. As an illustration, it may be mentioned that twenty- 
 six new salmon-packing establishments were built in 191 2, while 
 large additions have been made to the fleets engaged in the 
 deep sea and whaling industries. 
 
 The salmon industry now extends from Ketchikan in 
 southeast Alaska, for a distance of 2,000 miles, following the 
 general course of the shore line, to Bristol Bay in Bering Sea, 
 
58 ALASKA 
 
 and at this time an unknown distance beyond, but not less than 
 800 miles, both on the mainland and northwest of Nome and 
 the larger islands. Five species of salmon are used commer- 
 cially, known respectively as, first, Coho or Silver ; second, 
 Dog or Cum ; third, Humpback or Pink ; fourth, King or 
 Spring; fifth, Red or Sockeye. Of these the King is especially 
 valuable on account of its large size, as it attains a length of 
 four feet and a weight of more than thirty pounds, and the 
 Sockeye on account of the deep red color of the flesh, which 
 many people fancy is essential as indicating good salmon. 
 
 The halibut fishing is carried on chiefly off the shores of 
 the islands of southeast Alaska, the headquarters of the 
 industry being Ketchikan and Petersburg. I saw Mr. Forbes, 
 editor of Leslie's Weekly, catch a halibut off the Island of St. 
 Paul, while waiting for the fog to rise, that weighed over 120 
 pounds. The cod banks are located along both the north and 
 south shores of the Alaska Peninsula, fourteen curing stations 
 being on the Shumagin and neighboring islands. These are 
 said to be the most extensive codfishing grounds in the world 
 and the catch is only limited by the demand. 
 
 Herring abound in number beyond conception in the waters 
 of the southeastern Archipelago, those in the northern waters 
 equaling in size and flavor the far-famed Yarmouth bloaters 
 of England. They are prepared as food, oil and fertilizer, 
 and are the chief bait used in the cod and halibut fisheries. 
 Four factories for commercial products are located at Killisnoo 
 and other points west and south of Ji-nieau. The Japanese do 
 most of the herring fishing, and take their catch to Japan. 
 
 While the several species of fish life which I have mentioned 
 furnish the bulk of commercial products, reliable authorities 
 state that not less than 250 kinds of edible fish are found in 
 Alaskan waters. Trout and grayling abound in almost all the 
 lakes and streams and make the territory an angler's paradise. 
 
 A gradual diminishing of the number of Arctic whales, those 
 producing whalebone, has followed the radical change to 
 modern methods. It is now customary to have a home shore 
 station from which small, powerful steamers cruise, killing the 
 
ALASKA 
 
 59 
 
 DRYING SALMON ON LOWER YUKON. 
 
 whales with explosive bombs, inflating them to prevent sinking, 
 and towing them to the rendering works on shore. Three 
 such stations were under operation in 19 12. 
 
 The value of fish taken and marketed for 1912 was $17,- 
 391,000. or only $6,000 less than all the gold mined in Alaska 
 for the same year. The investment of all kinds in the fishing 
 industry in 191 1 was: In vessels of all kinds. $5-559.534; -'^ea 
 fishing apparatus. $27,782; shore fishing apparatus, $724,383; 
 shore property, $7,564,023; cash capital, $8,795,387; the total 
 being $22,671,109. Of this sum $19,931,215 was invested in 
 the salmon-canning industry. In 1912 the product was 4,060,- 
 189 cases, valued at $15,551,794, canned salmon alone. 
 
 So. you see. Alaska's waters produce both food and (skin) 
 clothing in abundance. Nature always takes care of those 
 who trust her and do not violate her laws. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FARMING IN ALASKA. 
 
 ii/'^ OLD is where it is found," is an old and true saying. 
 \J Finding it does not, however, depend on chmate, soil, 
 elevation or favorable natural conditions. This is not true of 
 farming. Agricultural products require congenial surround- 
 ings, although through the development of seeds and the 
 intelligent handling of soils and crops we are now growing 
 grains, fruits and vegetables in many regions of the world 
 unthought of heretofore. Man cannot eat gold, timber or 
 coal. He must have foodstuff, and if he is to be strong and 
 effective, he must have it in abundance and reasonably cheap. 
 Before I went to Alaska I was pretty well informed regard- 
 ing the gold and fishing and furs and game of that country, 
 but was ignorant as to the agricultural possibilities and 
 products. After covering thousands of miles and seeing nearly 
 every developed spot where anything that grows to be eaten 
 was at its best, I am convinced that it is a poor country for farm- 
 ers and always will be. Should you succeed in getting a small 
 patch cleared up at a place where there was a "boom on," you 
 could get fancy prices for one or two years, or until the boom 
 was over. Except for the long summers and nightless days 
 in Alaska, it would be impossible to grow anything. No 
 warmth comes from the soil or from beneath the surface. As 
 far down as a shaft has ever been sunk — over 2,000 feet — ice 
 is found. This ice was not made by freezing from the top 
 downward. For millions of years the country has been built 
 up from the bottom, ice upon ice that never thawed out in 
 the summer. The thick moss that grows nearly everywhere 
 is a complete protection from the sun, and when you sink a 
 pick through it you think you have struck rock. Clear oft" 
 
 60 
 
ALASKA 6i 
 
 this moss, or other vegetation, and scrub timber, and you have 
 the frozen earth. The sun will draw out the ice and frost 
 from about one foot of soil the first year. Break this up and 
 the next year it will thaw out deeper, until after a number of 
 years the frost, on account of the long days, will disappear 
 from the soil by June ist to a depth of two or three feet. 
 
 Where alfalfa has been tried it turns yellow as soon as the 
 roots strike the ice. Of course, with the frost always coming 
 out of the ground, you can raise crops where you have only 
 a few inches of rainfall in the summer. Interior and north- 
 west Alaska is very dry in the summer. Only where the 
 Japan Current comes close to the southeast coast and the 
 islands do they have much rain. 
 
 In Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russian Siberia, farm- 
 ing has been fairly successful in a latitude as far north as most 
 of Alaska, and this has given hope to the wish that we might 
 make an agricultural country out of our own far Northern 
 possession. For many centuries the above-mentioned coun- 
 tries have been thickly settled and labor has been very cheap. 
 An acre could be cleared at little cost, but that is not the case 
 in Alaska, where common labor, employed only a few months 
 in the year, receives from $3 to $6 per day of eight hours. It 
 costs from $125 to $150 to prepare an acre for the plow. The 
 investor expends an amount equal to the total cost per acre 
 of first-class farm land near a good market in an old country 
 before he begins to raise anything to sell in this region of day- 
 less night and nightless day. 
 
 Again, the Government land laws are all against the settler, 
 it being practically impossible to secure title to a homestead. 
 Little or no land has been surveyed. The investor must make 
 a private survey at his own expense, costing from $300 to $700 
 for each claim, and take the chances then of the Government 
 issuing him a deed. I heard little beside complaints from the 
 people who had been led to believe Uncle Sam was willing to 
 give them farms in Alaska. Agricultural enterprise in that 
 country suggests the reply of a student when asked what were 
 the different kinds of farming. Fie answered, "Extensive, 
 
62 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 CANTALOUPES ON THE GOVERNMENT FARM AT FAIRBANKS. 
 
 GROWING STRAWBERRIES, U. S. GOVERNMENT FARM, SITKA. 
 
ALASKA 63 
 
 intensive, expensive and pretensive." The two latter defini- 
 tions apply particularly to farming in Alaska. 
 
 It is possible, however, that the industrious, plodding for- 
 eigner from the far North countries of Europe and Asia can 
 work out something, in the next century, in this land. I will 
 quote the United States homestead law on proving up. Each 
 homesteader may take 320 acres. Here is how he can prove 
 it up. 
 
 "That at least one-eighth of the area embraced in the 
 entry was continuously cultivated to agricultural crops, other 
 than native grasses, beginning with the second year of entry ; 
 and that at least one-fourth of the area embraced in the whole 
 entry was so continuously cultivated with the third year of 
 entry." 
 
 Under this law not a whole claim of 320 acres has yet 
 been lawfully proved up in Alaska. One-fourth of 320 acres 
 is 80 acres; at a cost of $125 an acre to put in the first crop, 
 the farmer would have invested $10,000 in clearing the land — 
 the price of a good Iowa farm. As I previously stated, it is 
 impossible for Washington, D. C, to legislate for Alaska. 
 Congress cannot enact wise legislation for a country so far 
 away. 
 
 Agriculture in Alaska, at its best, should follow as an 
 adjunct to other occupations. ]\Iethods suitable in one part 
 of the country may be unsuitable in others. Bottom lands 
 producing a rank growth of grass may be too cold and sour 
 for root crops, until thoroughly broken up and cultivated so 
 as to let in the air and assist decomposition of the dead vege- 
 tation, which takes place but slowly in ground saturated with 
 water. Where drainage is absent or very imperfect the result 
 is swampy ground, known in the North as tundra, or iiiits- 
 kcg, in which the dead vegetation, instead of being trans- 
 formed into soil through the process of decay, is slowly 
 converted into peat, or turf, as it is called in Ireland, to become 
 in time an imperfect coal. The best lands are the gently 
 sloping hills composed of silt and fine gravel, which are also 
 those on which the birch makes its best growth, these lands 
 
64 ALASKA 
 
 having been enriched by the leaves of the deciduous trees and 
 drained of standing water. 
 
 It should be clearly understood that for the present, at 
 least, farming must partake more or less of the character of 
 market gardening around the mining centers, gradually expand- 
 ing as these industries grow ; remembering also that on those 
 things which can be grown in Alaska, but if not grown in 
 Alaska must be imported, the cost of transportation will be 
 added to the price the farmer receives. 
 
 Northwestern Canada is giving free land, free seeds and 
 financial assistance during the first year, where such aid is 
 wanted. In contrast with these inducements, it seems to be 
 our policy to burden the settlers with conditions almost pro- 
 hibitive in some respects, shutting out many who might other- 
 wise become good and valuable citizens. Certainly our policy 
 has sent many hundreds to countries with more liberal ideas 
 and a better understanding of the early years of pioneer life. 
 
 C. C. Georgeson, superintendent of the agricultural experi- 
 ment stations in Alaska, is a six-foot-two native of Denmark, 
 big of body and big of mind. He came from a cold country. 
 Previous to his employment in Alaska he was connected with 
 agricultural colleges in the States of Kansas, Minnesota and 
 Washington. The Japanese Government also employed him 
 to put its agricultural schools on a scientific basis, and Japan 
 never engages any but the best experts. If anything can be 
 made out of farming in Alaska, Superintendent Georgeson 
 will bring it about. He established the first experimental 
 station at Sitka twelve years ago. He now has stations at 
 Rampart and Fairbanks. He was successful in raising cattle 
 on Kodiak Island until a volcanic eruption covered the island 
 with ash and destroyed the grass. He had about one hundred 
 head of pure Galloway cattle, and this hardy Scotch breed 
 was doing well until he was compelled to ship them to the 
 State of Washington, as he found it was cheaper to ship 
 cattle to the hay than the hay to the cattle. The grass is 
 growing again on Kodiak Island and erelong the herd will 
 be returned. When I was there he was planning the bring- 
 
I L ASK A 
 
 65 
 
 A DAIKV AT 1 AIKIIAXKS, ALASKA. 
 
 ing in of a bull yak from Tibet, in nortbern Cbina, and 
 crossing/ with very bardy breeds of cattle, witb the bope of 
 producing stock tbat will live outdoors all winter in Alaska 
 witbout hay or feed being furnished. 
 
 Superintendent Georgeson told me tbat the only thing that 
 interfered with successful sheep raising was the big brown 
 bears, so plentiful on the island. Nevertheless, he had a rather 
 large flock of sheep and had imported two rams, a Lincoln and 
 Cotswold. The volcanic ash, however, weighed down their 
 wool so heavily they could not get up and they died. The 
 sheep of his flock preferred to feed on the mountain sides and 
 only needed hay in January, February and March. 
 
 His horses were doing well. You must remember, how- 
 ever, that Kodiak Island is quite a favored spot and the climate 
 there is tempered by the warm Japan Current. All over Alaska 
 one finds an abundance of wild grass, "red top," suitable for 
 wild hay, and there is no doubt but that, in time, a breed of 
 
66 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 cattle, sheep and horses will be developed sufficiently hardy 
 to take care of themselves and supply the home market, and 
 sufficient oats and hay will be raised to feed them through the 
 long winter months 
 
 The Government has agricultural farms at Rampart and 
 Fairbanks as well as at Sitka. The two first-named points are 
 in the interior — near the Arctic Circle — where from the first, 
 or middle, of May until the first of August there is practically 
 no night. The sun does not disappear below the horizon on 
 an average of over one and a half hours per day during these 
 three months. This is equal to an average of nearly five 
 months of sunshine and daylight during a period of three 
 
 i^imm^ 
 
 THE SPOTLESS CABIN OF C. H. ANWAY, HAINES, ALASKA. MR. 
 ANWAY IS A BACHELOR AND ALSO A STRAWBERRY KING. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 67 
 
 months. I observed very little difference between the experi- 
 mental crops of these three widely separated stations. If 
 there was any superiority it seemed in favor of the interior 
 farms, although they have only about twelve inches of rainfall 
 in a season. The frost coming out of the ground continuously 
 during the summer season, of course, furnishes moisture. 
 The grains raised are oats, barley, wheat and rye. The wheat 
 
 and rye should be 
 put in during the 
 a u t u m n, and, if 
 there is a good fall 
 of snow, they are 
 sure to do well and 
 mature. Sometimes 
 the oats and barley 
 sown in May are 
 caught by the early 
 frosts, but are 
 worth almost as 
 
 much for forage as 
 if matured. Potatoes 
 do well all over 
 Alaska, and the mar- 
 ket, in the interior, at 
 least, is supplied l)y 
 h o m e-grown tubers. 
 It is estimated tli;!i 
 every acre planted lo 
 potatoes, in the rigln 
 -kind of ground and 
 
 KHLH.Akl! GROW IXG ()i\ Till-: L LARK \ 
 TABLE FARM, NEAR SKAGWAY. 
 
 i:ge- 
 
68 ALASKA 
 
 properly cared for, produces a crop that sells for $600. As 
 farming this, in a sense, is specializing. What I have said 
 derogatory to the chances of successful agriculture in Alaska, 
 of course, is meant to imply that the chances are not large and 
 sure as with the extensive farming that prevails in the United 
 States. 
 
 Strawberries grow everywhere in Alaska. Usually a hardy 
 tame variety is crossed with the wild strawberry and does very 
 well. If the growers would do as J. W. Banbury, publisher 
 of the Indiana Daily Times (a friend of mine), who owns 
 a ranch in Idaho, claims to do, cross them again with the 
 milkweed, they might get strawberries and cream from the 
 same plant. Gooseberries thrive and blueberries are very 
 plentiful. I was eager to try the salmon berries, but did 
 not like them. Wild currants grow in every part of the coun- 
 try. Raspberries are also plentiful. An attempt is being 
 made to grow apples, cherries and plums at Sitka, with indif- 
 ferent success. Rhubarb is grown successfully, in some regions 
 reaching a height of six feet. The cabbage is one of Alaska's 
 most important vegetables. 
 
 In addition to potatoes and cabbage, cauliflower, peas, let- 
 tuce and radishes are raised in quantities sufficient to supply 
 home consumption. Our steamer on leaving Fairbanks took 
 on board for our use during the trip to St. Michael $500 
 worth of vegetables from one farm. I was curious to know 
 what the chickens of Alaska would do about "going to bed," 
 when there was no night in the summer, and about their "get- 
 ting up" in the winter, when there is no day. I observed, 
 however, that at about the usual hour, 7 p. m., the old rooster 
 flapped his wings and flew up on the roost, the hens following, 
 and at about five in the morning he crowed and all flew down 
 again. I was informed they repeated this in the winter time 
 at approximately the same hours, all of which are good 
 examples of the influence of heredity and the force of habit. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IXTERIOK ALASKA. 
 
 WHEN I say Interior Alaska, 1 mean that portion made 
 accessible by navigating the great rivers and their 
 tributaries. It is possible, during four or five months of each 
 year, to navigate with shallow-draft steamers some 3,000 miles 
 of Alaska's rivers, and, by pushing and pulling boats up or 
 around the rapids and shallows of side streams, approximately 
 2,000 miles more. These water courses furnish the only prac- 
 tical means of transportation for heavy goods or machinery to 
 the interior, because they are open as long as people can work 
 comfortably out of doors. 
 
 "The Klondike and Dawson !" Because involuntarily 
 almost every one mentally associates these with Alaska, it 
 seems proper to give them a place here. "The Klondike!" 
 These were magic words in 1897, and the excitement and results 
 they produced w'ill go down in history with the famous gold 
 rush to California in 1849. In the minds of many the Klon- 
 dike is thought to be a part of Alaska. It is not. It is the 
 name applied to the gold-mining section of the Yukon Terri- 
 tory, which belongs to Canada. The dividing line is at the 
 mountain summit called White Pass. This point also is the 
 w^atershed; the w^aters flowing north and east go into the 
 Yukon River, and those flowing south and west enter the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Here one finds at the international boundary line an Ameri- 
 can and a Canadian customhouse. Here also we find Canadian 
 Northwest mounted police — known the world over for their 
 bravery and honesty. It is said that no criminal ever escapes 
 them and justice is quickly dealt, as well as assistance given to 
 the poor unfortunate wayfarer. 
 
 The rails of the \\'hite Pass & Yukon Railwav end at 
 
 69 
 
70 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 i 
 
 VIEW OF WHITE HORSE, ON TH 
 
 White Horse, just below the White Horse Rapids. ]\Iany 
 lives were lost in running these rapids before there was a rail- 
 road here. The waters are very swift and many dangerous 
 bowlders and rocks project from the bottom of the river. 
 White Horse is the head of navigation on what is practically 
 the Yukon River. Above the rapids another line of steamers 
 will carry you 600 or 700 miles southeast in the Yukon Terri- 
 tory for a few months in the summer. From White Horse to 
 Dawson, a distance of 300 miles, the Yukon River is much 
 more picturesque than from Dawson to the point where it 
 empties into the Bering Sea. 
 
 We stopped at a coal mine on the Yukon, where we picked 
 up a barge loaded with 300 tons of coal. This barge was 
 pushed ahead of us down the river to Dawson, a distance of 
 some 300 miles, the boat company charging $2 a ton for the 
 service. The coal was rather a poor quality. 
 
 Dawson, the seat of the original rush to Alaska and the 
 Klondike, has today a population of about 3,000, while at one 
 
!^UKON RIVER, IN THE KLONDIKE. 
 
 time it had 15,000. The day has gone by when the sporty 
 placer miner "sands" the floor with gold dust for the dancing 
 girl, which was not an uncommon practice at a time when 
 placer miners were taking out over $1,000 a day from a single 
 claim. However, the day for high prices has not gone by, the 
 smallest coin in circulation being a 25-cent piece. Even at the 
 postoffice when you buy one stamp they will give you twelve 
 2-cent stamps or no change. The newspapers sell for 25 cents 
 a copy. Still, as a contradiction to this, good beef was selling 
 at 25 cents per pound, live cattle being brought in from western 
 Canada and slaughtered at Dawson. 
 
 As for the gravel deposits from which came the stores of 
 gold which made the Klondike famous, they were first dis- 
 covered in the creek bottoms where the seasoned prospector 
 always conducts his first explorations. It was not until the 
 work in the creek bottoms was well under way, and the creek 
 claims were producing their millions, that the discovery was 
 made that high upon the hills a deposit of gravel existed which, 
 
72 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 COAL MINE ON THE YUKON RIVER, ABOVE DAWSON. 
 
 in a great many places, was as rich in gold as the creek beds 
 themselves. The discovery of these higher-level deposits, now^ 
 known as the "White Channel," is generally attributed to a 
 novice who knew no better than to climb a hill to locate a 
 placer claim. As the discoveries followed one after another 
 on the various hills, it was soon found that a large channel of 
 gravel existed, following the general course of the present 
 streams but high above them, at elevations ranging from 150 
 feet at the upper end of the hill deposits to 300 feet and over 
 at the lower end. Thousands of miners were soon swarming 
 upon the hills, sinking shafts, driving tunnels and taking out 
 the gold-bearing materials as rapidly as their co-laborers were 
 in the creek bottoms. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 73 
 
 A DREDGE ON LOWER BONANZA, DAWSON DISTRICT. 
 
 THAWING OUT GROUND WITH STEAM BEFORE DREDGING. 
 
74 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 But these high elevations were waterless, and the placer 
 miner can do nothing without water. The small quantity of 
 snow melting in the springtime enabled him to wash but a very 
 limited yardage of gravel and sand that he took out in the 
 winter. 
 
 Then the great Yukon Gold Company, organized by the 
 Guggenheims, brought a pipe-line five feet in diameter from a 
 lake sixty-five miles distant, at a cost of $4,000,000, to supply 
 water for hydraulic purposes in washing down the hills and 
 leaving the gold in the sluice-boxes. The amount of gold 
 that this company takes out annually is somewhat of an 
 unknown quantity, although it is estimated by practical miners 
 to be about $2,000,000 per annum, and there are millions of 
 cubic yards of sand and gravel yet to be washed down. 
 Although this section of the Yukon Territory is almost inside 
 the Arctic Circle they are able to work dredges and hydraulic 
 placer claims over 200 days in the year. 
 
 When the creek bottoms ceased to pay the hand placer 
 miner the great dredges stepped in, and today the Canadian 
 Gold Mining Company has five dredges. Three of these 
 dredges have a capacity of 14,000 yards of gravel and sand a 
 day, and average 10,000 cubic yards, including the daily stop 
 to clean up. It requires only eleven men to operate one of 
 the dredges, three men on each shift and two foremen, one 
 night and one day. Everything is operated by electricity. The 
 sand and gravel they wash runs about thirty cents to the cubic 
 yard. 
 
 One of the interesting processes in mining I found at Daw- 
 son is that of thawing out the frozen ground. They drive 
 steam pipes down into the ground and then turn on the live 
 steam. The ground never thaws out more than a foot or so in 
 the summer time and it would be impossible to do placer 
 mining without the aid of steam in preparing the sand and 
 gravel for the miner. 
 
 When our boat arrived at the dock at Dawson we were met 
 by Commissioner George Black, Mrs. Black, and some of their 
 friends. The Commissioner of Yukon Territory holds a similar 
 
76 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 AWAITING THE ARRIVAL OF TOURIST STEAMER AT DAWSON, 
 ON THE YUKON. 
 
 position to that occupied by the Governor of one of the United 
 States Territories. Mrs. Boyce and I were invited to remain 
 at Commissioner Black's residence as their guests, especially 
 for the reason that Mrs. Black was from Chicago and glad to 
 see some one from home. So were we. That night Com- 
 missioner Black celebrated the coming in of the Fourth of 
 July, which was the following day, with the same demonstration 
 that would have attended a similar function in the United 
 States. Many firecrackers were exploded, sounding natural, 
 although the skyrockets did not show up well in the all-night 
 daylight, but we fired them off just the same. We could 
 hardly realize that we were under the Canadian Jack instead 
 of the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 After leaving the Yukon Territory and spending some time 
 in Alaska, the difference in the character of government fur- 
 nished the people was very marked, and in talking with many 
 
ALASKA 
 
 77 
 
 Alaskans the unanimous expression was in favor of the enforce- 
 ment of our laws with the same rapidity and fairness that 
 prevails in the Yukon Territory. Dawson should remain the 
 best interior town in either the Yukon Territory or Alaska. 
 
 In 1898, one of my newspapers, The Saturday Blade, 
 financed an expedition to dredge for gold on the Yukon River 
 and its side streams. The Dawson boom was then at fever 
 heat. Ildo Ramsdell, for years in charge of the art depart- 
 ment of The Saturday Blade, was made captain of the expedi- 
 tion. A specially constructed boat and dredging outfit was 
 shipped, in the knock-down, to St. Michael, where it was put 
 together, and proudly steamed for the mouth of the Yukon 
 River. As this river has probably one hundred mouths, it 
 apparently took the expedition all summer to decide which one 
 
 FRONT STREET, DAWSON. 
 
78 ALASKA 
 
 to go through. By that time the prunes and rice had been 
 consumed and the river was frozen up, and all but three of the 
 fourteen in the party deserted and "cold-footed it" back across 
 the country to St. Michael. Captain Ramsdell and two others, 
 however, stuck to the ship, or rather, the ship froze to them, 
 and they remained until the next summer, when they traded the 
 machinery of the ship for moose meat and also walked out. 
 Two years later I heard from Captain Ramsdell in Montana. 
 While in Alaska his feet had been frozen. My newspaper had 
 promised its readers many thrilling stories and wonderful 
 photographs of the gold fields. The "fall down" was so dis- 
 tinct we still hear echoes of it. This is the first time the story 
 has ever been told, and, I have to confess, not a photograph 
 or even a camera ever reached us from Alaska. Captain 
 Ramsdell said it was so cold that when he shot the 50-100 
 Winchester rifle I gave him, so much ice congealed inside the 
 gun that he could not shoot it again until he had melted the ice 
 out. 
 
 Fifteen years passed before I concluded to investigate 
 Alaska personally. Then I decided to begin at the source of 
 the Yukon, as I might thus be able to get down the river before 
 it froze up and bring home photographs and a description of 
 the country. So I started in on Alaska Territory from Eagle, 
 the northeastern port of entry, which is 1,700 miles from the 
 mouth of the Yukon. Except for a customhouse and wire- 
 less station, and the caretaker of a million-dollar abandoned 
 fort. Eagle would not be on the map. It is on the boundary 
 line between Canada and Alaska. The United States Govern- 
 ment finished the million-dollar fort in 1900 and occupied it 
 only one year. This is an example of the way the Govern- 
 ment has squandered money ni Alaska, and will, while it 
 continues to be extravagantly and inefficiently represented 
 in this distant Territory. Had the million dollars been 
 spent on the natural transportation routes — the rivers — 'it 
 would have been of practical benefit to miner and settler. 
 
 The next point of importance one reaches in descending the 
 Yukon River is Fort Yukon, northwest 300 miles from Eagle. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 79 
 
 This town is within the Arctic Circle, being Gy degrees north 
 hititude. For one month of the year the sun never sets. I 
 took splendid photographs at midnight. Fort Yukon is a very 
 old trading point, and was once in the hands of the British 
 Hudson Bay Company. At one time it almost caused a war 
 between Russia and Great Britain. Historically, and in many 
 other respects. Fort Yukon was the most interesting point, to 
 me, in Alaska. The Wells Fargo Express Company has an 
 office there ; in fact, this company does all the express business 
 
 A BIG MOOSE HEAD AT MINER S CABIN, FORT YUKON. 
 
 of Alaska, as well as operating 77.000 miles of railway in the 
 United States. At Fort Yukon I interviewed an old Indian 
 trapper. He had recently sold a silver-fox skin for $600. He 
 had bought two sewing machines and eight clocks and had 
 them all in his one-room cabin, and was debating what to do 
 with the balance of the money. 
 
 From Fort Yukon we passed on down the river 243 miles to 
 
8o ALASKA 
 
 Rampart, an abandoned mining camp. Some mining is done 
 in the interior and the supphes are still taken in from this 
 river port. Two interesting characters lived at Rampart in 
 1897. One was ex-Sheriff McGraw of Seattle, who had practi- 
 cally "skipped" the State of Washington on account of the 
 defalcation of one of his employes. He found a paying placer 
 mine near Rampart, sold it for $27,000, then returned to 
 Seattle, paid his debts and was afterward elected Governor 
 of Washington. He was always considered an honest man. 
 The other character referred to is Rex Beach, the author I 
 took a photograph of a deserted cabin, said to have been 
 occupied by him. I asked an old timer if Mr. Beach had once 
 lived in that cabin. His answer was, "Possibly so, or in some 
 cabin around here." I asked what Beach had "worked at" 
 when in Rampart, and he replied : ' "Mostly at carpenter work." 
 
 They tell a story characteristic of justice in the early days 
 of Rampart. A tough youth, charged with firing his revolver 
 in the crowded street, was brought into court. 
 
 "Twenty dollars and costs," said the magistrate. 
 
 "But, your honor, I did not hit any one," protested the 
 young man, "I fired into the air." 
 
 "Twenty dollars and costs," firmly repeated the justice. 
 "You might have hit an angel. Besides, this court needs the 
 money." 
 
 Across the river from Rampart an experimental agricul- 
 tural station has been established and is quite a success. At this 
 station supplies are received once a year. It was in midsum- 
 mer that I was there, and packages containing presents for the 
 following, or possibly the past, Christmas were delivered from 
 the boat on which I arrived. 
 
 Three hundred and twenty-five miles down the river from 
 Rampart we docked at Tanana, where a river of the same 
 name flows into the Yukon. Here the Government has built 
 Fort Gibbon, costing another million dollars, and keeps some 
 soldiers. This fort, being located at a more central point, is 
 a place of shelter for stranded prospectors and miners. There 
 is no possible actual use for any soldiers, as the Alaskan Indian 
 
ALASKA 
 
 8i 
 
 is as harmless as a dog and never did make any trouble for us. 
 The chief business of the inhabitants of Tanana seemed to be 
 that of running saloons and supplying "booze" to the United 
 States soldiers. 
 
 One of the tributaries of the Yukon River is the Tanana 
 River. Fairbanks, the most important town in Alaska except 
 Juneau, the capital, is at the head of navigation for large 
 boats on the Tanana River. It took us over two days to go 
 350 miles upstream, owing to the many sandbars. Fairbanks 
 is the center of a placer-mining district and in the past has 
 been quite prosperous. At present it has about 2,500 popula- 
 tion, having had at one time about 5,000. Several rich quartz 
 properties have been discovered in the region, though the 
 extent of the ledges so far is unknown, but the prospects for 
 Fairbanks being a permanent town are undoubtedly good. In 
 order to supply transportation to this town all the year around 
 
 THE WATERFRONT AT FAIRliAiXKS. 
 
82 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 A WELLS FARGO STAGE STARTING FROM CHITINA TO FAIRBANKS. 
 
 and open up some coal fields, the United States Government 
 proposes spending some fifty million dollars in the construc- 
 tion of a railroad. I suggested to the people at Fairbanks that 
 it would be better for them to persuade the Government to 
 take the interest on the investment, together with the wear 
 and tear and loss in operating a fifty-million-dollar railroad to 
 serve a few thousand people, and give a pension of $1,500 a 
 year to each man, woman and child, instead of building them 
 a railroad. 
 
 In the vicinity of Fairbanks some farming has been devel- 
 oped which pays, owing to the very high price of agricultural 
 products and green stuff. The Government agricultural 
 experiment station at Fairbanks, however, did not seem to be 
 doing so well as those at Sitka and Rampart. It was said the 
 rainfall had been only eight inches for the season in which I 
 was there. When our boat left Fairbanks over one thousand 
 idle men came down to see us off. I was informed that there 
 
ALASKA 
 
 83 
 
 is employment only two or three months of the year for men 
 in this section of Alaska. Wages approximate six dollars a 
 day, but the cost of living is in proportion. It was near Fair- 
 banks that a celebrated bishop of Alaska was held up by a 
 highwayman. The bishop tells the story on himself. After 
 he had been relieved of his purse he informed the highwayman 
 that he was the bishop of a certain denomination. The high- 
 wayman handed back his purse, exclaiming, "My God, bishop, 
 I belong to that church myself !" 
 
 We returned down the Tanana River to Fort Gibbon, 
 where we were transferred from the steamer Yuko>i to the 
 old river steamer Sarah, the most uncomfortable, dirtiest and 
 poorest boat I have ever been aboard on any water or in any 
 country in the world. In addition to everything else she was 
 a perfect firetrap, and it is said that the company that owns 
 
 THE TOWN OF RUBY, THE NEWEST CAMP ON THE YUKON. 
 
84 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 this line got $250,000 out of the United States ("lOvernment 
 for river tonnage tax in eight years, while Colonel Richardson, 
 who represented Uncle Sam, was in authority. We dropped 
 down the river 175 miles from Fort Gibbon to Ruby, one 
 of the newest boom towns in Alaska. There never has been 
 any mining in the immediate vicinity of Ruby ; it has only 
 been a distributing center for some placer mines in the interior. 
 The town, only a few years old, had apparently seen its best 
 days and seemed on the decline. In looking over the place I 
 was reminded of the story of the traveling man in an Arkansas 
 village who asked a local merchant what they did to pass the 
 time. The answer was, "We skin strangers." The traveling 
 man then asked, "What do you do when there are no 
 strangers?" The merchant replied, "We skin each other." 
 That was the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Ruby, as 
 near as I could ascertain. However, there were a number of 
 very enterprising trappers, some of the ex-prospectors, who 
 
 lived in the de- 
 W' serted cabins in the 
 summer and out 
 with the Indians in 
 the winter, buying 
 and trading with 
 
 them for their furs. 
 Leaving Ruby, wo 
 steamed down the 
 river to Anvik, an 
 old mission t o w n, 
 where a tributary 
 enters the Yukon. 
 Upon one side of the 
 river running into 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGES ON YUKON RIVER. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 85 
 
 NATIVE CHILDREN AT HOLY CROSS MISSION. 
 
 HOLY CROSS MISSION, ON THE YUKON, 
 
86 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 the Yukon lived the Christian Indians, belonging to the church, 
 and on the other side were the Siwash Indians, who were still 
 heathen. I observed that the Indians who were not cared for 
 by the missionaries had great quantities of dried salmon, while 
 the Indians who were with the church did not feel the necessity 
 of providing themselves with a winter's svipply of fish. Appar- 
 ently they were satisfied that "the Lord would provide." 
 
 From Anvik to the mouth of the Yukon we made a num- 
 ber of stops, but the places we visited hardly justify separate 
 descriptions, since thev were really only repetitions of nearly all 
 towns on the river, which, for the most part, consisted of one 
 log store with a big cloth sign, another general store and saloon 
 combined, some fish being smoked on racks, dogs tied to stakes, 
 white trappers sitting by themselves, a number of Indian wom- 
 en with half-breed babies, and several lonely graves. 
 
 COLONEL W. p. RICHARDSON, WHO 
 HAS HAD CHARGE OF GOVERN- 
 MENT WORK IN ALASKA. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COAST TOWNS OF ALASKA. 
 
 THE natural port from which to sail for Alaska, and from 
 which to supply the Alaskan trade, is Seattle. A number 
 of boats sail every week in the year as far north as Skagway 
 and Seward. Often these are vessels that have seen better 
 days on the Atlantic Ocean, and have deteriorated to a point 
 where the insurance companies will no longer insure them for 
 the rough waters of the Atlantic, and are sent around to the 
 smooth waters of the Pacific, where the companies will again 
 take the risk of insuring them. During the year in which 
 I sailed to, and returned from, Alaska, five of these old ships 
 were wrecked, with considerable loss of life. At no place in 
 
 the world have I seen so many 
 wrecked vessels as were beached on 
 the shores of Alaska. It is im- 
 practicable to apply our marine 
 laws to the boats making Alaskan 
 ports on account of the conditions 
 being so entirely different. It would 
 save many lives and hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars if our Govern- 
 ment would chart the bottom of the 
 inland sea that leads to Alaska, in- 
 stead of wasting big sums of money 
 in surveying routes for impossible 
 railroads that will never be con- 
 structed. 
 
 Metlakatla, a thousand miles up 
 the coast from Seattle and the first 
 point one touches in Alaska, is one 
 of the most interesting places I 
 
 FATHER DUNCAN, THE GRAND 
 
 OLD MAN, 
 
 87 
 
88 ALASKA 
 
 visited while in our Northern possession. It is a one-white- 
 man-and-i,5oo-Indian island. The white man is Father Dun- 
 can, and he is both the spiritual and temporal ruler of the 
 town and island. He came out as a missionary from England 
 over sixty years ago and began work with the Indians in 
 British Columbia. He did not like the laws or conditions in 
 British Columbia, so he petitioned Uncle Sam to let him use 
 this island, to which he moved his Indian followers and where 
 he has conducted his work and lived his life in his own w^ay. 
 He was formerly a tanner by trade, had good Scottish com- 
 mercial ideas, and has demonstrated wdiat really can be done 
 with the Indian when in honest, competent hands. The chief 
 industry of the island is fishing. All business is carried on 
 in Father Duncan's name for the benefit of the community, 
 and the cost of maintaining the schools and church, local gov- 
 ernment, fire department and local improvements is paid by 
 him. Father Duncan is now over eighty-five years of age, 
 
 EXCURSION PARTY ON STEPS OF FATHER DUNCAN S CHURCH AT 
 METLAKATLA. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 89 
 
 mrMT': rr.fm. xtsl-j:.- -I'r^ 
 
 and it is a serious question as to what will become of the 
 Indians when he dies, as there seems to be no strong character 
 in sight to take his place. 
 
 I asked an Indian what denomination or creed they be- 
 longed to. He said the only creed they had was the Bible. 
 He did not know what the word creed or denomination meant. 
 That is typical of Father Duncan. He has taught the life of 
 Christ without partiality. A few years ago some politicians 
 wished to reorganize the island and place it exclusively under 
 United States laws as to schools, government, etc. Father 
 Duncan stated that he had $80,000 in the bank at Seattle, and 
 owned all the industries, but was willing to turn over legally 
 everything he had in the world to his Indian followers, if the 
 
90 
 
 t? 
 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 •aHEEaassE^ 
 
 
ALASKA 
 
 91 
 
 ~1 
 
 KETCHIKAN AND ITS HARBOR. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF ALASKA, 
 
92 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 meddlers would not disturb 
 him in his school or church 
 work as long as he lived. He 
 is a strange, genuine, wonder- 
 ful old man, and everything 
 he does rings true. 
 
 The real commercial me- 
 tropolis of southeastern Alas- 
 ka is Ketchikan, a bustling 
 town of over 2,000 popula- 
 tion. Again, salmon fishing 
 is the chief source of revenue, 
 although some quartz mines 
 have been developed near this 
 point. The local newspaper 
 was doing well — which is the 
 best evidence of a live com- 
 munity. 
 
 The next port north at 
 which we stopped was W'ran- 
 gell, which has a population of 
 800. We arrived after 10 p. m. 
 and here I had my first ex- 
 perience in taking photographs 
 that late in the evening. At one 
 time it was quite an important 
 point where miners left for 
 the Klondike or the northern 
 Canadian interior. Many 
 good stories were told by old 
 miners of what Wrangell had 
 been when it was a "wide- 
 open" town. Here, also, I 
 was introduced to my first 
 totem pole. They hope to de- 
 velop a good water power 
 here and establish a pulj) and 
 paper mill, if the conservation 
 
 
 ^^KhI 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
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 ^^^I^^^^^^^H 
 
 \r 
 
 
 
 
 
 '.^BKI' u 
 
ALASKA 
 
 93 
 
 regulations of the United States Government will permit 
 them to develop their local resources. There is a large 
 quantity of spruce and pine in the vicinity suitable for pulp 
 wood. When I was there the tide was out and the beach was 
 covered with crabs and the smell of dead fish and refuse from 
 the canneries was everywhere. There are many nice people 
 living in Wrangell for whom one cannot help feeling sorry. 
 The Stikine River comes in at this point, furnishing splendid 
 salmon fishing during the season. 
 
 Petersburg, our next stop north, is headquarters for halibut 
 fishing. Large canneries have been established there. They 
 also have a sawmill which runs the year around. The best 
 time for halilnit fishing is during the winter months. Much 
 of the halibut served in Chicago and New York hotels comes 
 from Alaskan waters. In a single day over 1,000,000 pounds 
 of halibut has been landed on the docks at Seattle from Alaska. 
 The population of Petersburg is about 1,000. 
 
 The next port north is Juneau, the new capital of Alaska. 
 
 THE GOVERNOR S MANSION AT JUNEAU. 
 
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ALASKA 95 
 
 The old capital was Sitka. Juneau was the only town I visited 
 in Alaska that was really booming; it has a population of about 
 4,000. The first Legislature of Alaska met at Juneau in the 
 winter of 1912-13. While in conversation with a prominent 
 lawyer here, Judge Jennings, I remarked that he bore the same 
 name as a friend of mine, Charlie Jennings, who was a good 
 poker player, and I hinted that perhaps he was also skilled in 
 the game. His laconic reply was : "Yes, what I make playing 
 poker I lose practicing law." 
 
 After the port of the great Treadwell mine, which I de- 
 scribed in the chapter on mining, the next town of importance 
 up this coast is Haines. Fort William H. Seward is located 
 here, with a detachment of soldiers. Chilkat River enters the 
 sea at this point, and the Indian reservation of the same name 
 is located up the river. Here the Government erected good 
 buildings for the Indians, who promptly abandoned them, and 
 the buildings are now falling into ruin. This is a fairly good 
 agricultural country for some miles around. The cleanest 
 cabin I was in while in Alaska, spotlessly clean in this instance, 
 was owned and occupied by C. H. Anway. (See picture on 
 page 66.) He is growing rich selling strawberries. The only 
 thing he seemed to lack was a wife. I covered the country 
 around Haines in an automobile, finding the region level and 
 the roads good. The snow-capped mountain scenery is truly 
 magnificent. The officers and their families at the fort afford 
 considerable society for the community. 
 
 Skagway is no doubt remembered by readers as the point 
 from which miners in 1897-98 worked their way, through 
 almost indescribable hardships and difficulties, across White 
 Pass into Yukon Territory during the Dawson placer-mining 
 boom, with this town as the base of supplies. Near this place 
 I saw a lonely grave at the foot of a tree, on which had been 
 carved a cross marking the grave of a prospector who com- 
 mitted suicide after he had lost for the third time his complete 
 outfit in trying to get across the Pass. He left a note in which 
 he had written: "H — 1 cannot be worse than this; I'll take a 
 chance." 
 
96 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 Skagway at one time had a population of 5,000 or 6,000. 
 It now has possibly 2,000. It is the head of navigation, and the 
 terminus of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. Many stories, 
 both dramatic and humorous, are told about this town, when 
 every other building was a saloon and dance house and gam- 
 bling joint. One narrative, I remember, was that of a certain 
 tenderfoot who one day came rushing in headlong flight around 
 the corner of a building and bumped into the sheriff. The 
 sheriff grabbed the frightened fellow and yelled angrily : 
 
 "Where are you running to and what's the matter?" 
 
 *T am trying to keep two men from getting into a fight," 
 panted the tenderfoot. 
 
 "Who are the men ?" demanded the sheriff. 
 
 "I am one of them !" gasped the tenderfoot and fainted. 
 
 Coming back southwest from Skagway we reached Sitka, 
 the old Russian and American capital of Alaska, which I 
 
 VIEW OF THE TOWN OF 
 
ALASKA 
 
 97 
 
 described in a previous chapter. Here we left the "inside 
 passage," and sailed for Cordova, 350 miles northwest of 
 Sitka. This town, situated on a good harbor, impresses one 
 as having a future of considerable importance, owing especially 
 to the great copper and gold mines possible to reach through 
 the only real railroad in Alaska, the Copper River & North- 
 western, which starts here, running 196 miles northeast. It is 
 owned and operated by tiie Guggenheims and the Morgans, as 
 I have previously mentioned, to get out the ore from their 
 great Bonanza copper mine at Kennecott. A branch of this 
 road is the most natural outlet for the great coal fields located 
 about 200 nu'les from the coast. When I was in Cordova 
 there were but few men left in the region, owing to the latest 
 placer-mining strike at Shushana, accessible from the terminus 
 of the Copper River & Xorthwestern Railway. Cordova, built 
 on the side of a mounUiin, is very picturesque. Two vast 
 
 SITKA AND ITS HARBOR. 
 
98 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE 
 
ALASKA 
 
 99 
 
 TOWN OF VALDEZ, ALASKA. 
 
 I III iiii 
 
 OF SEWARD, ALASKA. 
 
100 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 glaciers, the Childs and the Miles, are located forty miles up 
 the Copper River from here. 
 
 Prince William Sound, on Alaska's central southern coast, 
 affords a great and well-protected harbor. Cordova is on the 
 southeast shore of the Sound and Valdez is on the northeast, 
 only about forty miles as the crow flies, but lOO miles by water 
 and almost impossible to reach by land, owing to the many 
 glaciers. Valdez is at the end of the Government trail from 
 Fairbanks, People here told me that Colonel Richardson, at 
 the head of the Government Improvement Department in 
 Alaska, has spent $2,000,000 on a trail between Valdez and 
 Fairbanks, less than 400 miles away, and except in winter, 
 when you can go any place in Alaska on ice and snow, it is a 
 mighty poor trail. It is the same old condition of politics and 
 favoritism under which poor pioneer settlers are imposed upon. 
 A part of Valdez is wet during several months in the summer 
 as the result of the seepage of water from a glacier. The 
 United States Government made an appropriation of $50,000 
 to protect the town. The "protection," which I saw and pho- 
 tographed, consisted of some brush placed on the ground and 
 bowlders piled on top to keep it there. It is a signal example 
 of where the people's money goes in Alaska. Valdez has a 
 population of approximately 2,000. 
 
 Latouche is on an island of the same name, 100 miles from 
 Valdez on the northwest corner of Prince William Sound. 
 
 5 M-i: ii M^» i^iM^'^'-^' ^^^^^l^^t l^ ^ 
 
 DT'TCTT HARBOR ON 
 
ALASKA 
 
 lOI 
 
 There is nothing there but a copper mine of very low-grade ore, 
 running from 2j^< to 5 per cent. I was informed that this ore 
 is carried for practically nothing, as ballast for ships, to the 
 smelters in the State of Washington. 
 
 There was a time when it looked as if Seward, seventy 
 miles west of Latouche, and the most westerly open-the-year- 
 round port on the mainland coast of Alaska, would become a 
 town of importance, and, except for the conservation and reser- 
 vation policy of the United States Government in tying up 
 the natural resources of Alaska, there would doubtless be 
 several thousand prosperous people at the present time in this 
 town. At one period the population of Seward numbered 
 some 2,000, today it is about 700. The Alaska Northern Rail- 
 way, constructed northward from Seward for nearly 100 miles, 
 has been practically confiscated by the United States because it 
 could not pay the annual Government tax of $100 per mile. 
 Why railroads in Alaska should pay the Government $100 per 
 mile per year for the privilege of opening up new country is 
 one of the strangest of the many puzzles presented by Ameri- 
 can statesmanship. 
 
 One hundred and seventy-five miles southwest of Seward 
 we came to the great island of Kodiak, which I described in the 
 chapter on Alaskan farming. Dutch Harbor is on Unalaska 
 Island, at the passage between the Pacific Ocean and Bering 
 Sea. It is a well-protected harbor, where the weather is never 
 
 UNALASKA ISLAND. 
 
102 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 NATIVE CHILDREN AND MIXED RACES, UNALASKA MISSION. 
 
 very cold, and it is nearer to Japan than to the United States. 
 It was an important base of supphes when Russia owned 
 Alaska and is now used by the United States Government in 
 connection with the revenue cutter service. 
 
 Seven hundred and fifty miles north we came to St. 
 Michael, a very old Russian trading post near the mouth of 
 the Yukon, In the summer time river boats on the Yukon 
 meet the ocean-going steamers at this point, transferring pas- 
 sengers and freight. St. Michael has a rather shallow harbor 
 and will, in my opinion, never be a port of very great impor- 
 tance. One of the chief attractions on shore seems to be bears 
 trained to drink beer, the bears being chained to posts in front 
 of saloons. Tourists, through curiosity, are induced to buy 
 bottles of beer for each thirsty Bruin, a source of considerable 
 
ALASKA 
 
 103 
 
 revenue for the drinking places. I made a photo- 
 graph of a bear "caught in the act." There is a 
 law against giving or selling liquors to Indians in 
 Alaska. Why not also apply it to bears ? It would 
 seem that drunken bears might be as dangerous as 
 drunken Indians only that they keep the bears 
 chained up while the Indians run loose. 
 
 We now come to the "jumping off place" in 
 Alaska, the last town of any importance in the far 
 northwest corner of the Territory — Nome, 105 drinking beer 
 miles from St. Michael. Early in October, 191 3, 
 a large part of this poor town was destroyed by a terrific 
 storm which swept in from Bering Sea. Fire added to the 
 havoc wrought by the waves, and more than 500 persons 
 were left homeless. In 1899 very rich placer deposits were 
 discovered at Nome, and since that year many millions of 
 dollars' worth of gold has been removed. The placer mines 
 
 SLUICING FOR GOLD IN THE STREETS OF NOME. 
 
104 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 are now practically exhausted. The buildings of Nome are of 
 temporary construction, even the Government structures being 
 made out of flimsy material, and the population, at one period 
 over 12,000, when I was there was less than 1,000. There is 
 no harbor at Nome. Ships drawing more water than a row- 
 boat or shallow barge anchor out in the open, two or three 
 miles from the rough shore, which is constantly being beaten 
 by waves. Every person who attempts to land on shore from 
 a boat gets soaking wet from the flying spray. A pier has 
 
 LANDING PASSENGERS T.V AERIAL TROLLEY AT NOME. 
 PHOTOGRAPHED DURING A FOG. 
 
o 
 
 < 
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ALASKA 
 
 107 
 
 been constructed a half-mile from the shore, where passengers 
 and freight are landed from lighters plying between the ocean- 
 going vessels and the pier. From this pier one is carried by an 
 aerial tramway to a high dock on the shore. When I went 
 ashore some of my fellow passengers refused to risk their 
 lives by this method of transportation, although I think they 
 were needlessly alarmed. 
 
 Dog racing on the ice in the winter furnishes the residents 
 of Nome their most absorbing sport. The Kennel Club of 
 Nome occupies much the same position as do the jockey clubs 
 of big cities. One of the rules of the club is that all dogs must 
 
to8 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 ESQUIMAU IVORY CARVER, NOME. 
 
 be registered when they start and be brought back dead or 
 ahve, to prevent substitution. Racing dogs have been sold in 
 Nome from $250 to $1,200 each. From six to twelve dogs are 
 hitched to a sled. The Derby is run late in the winter to 
 Candle Creek and return to Nome, a course of over 400 miles. 
 "First money" ranges from $2,500 to $10,000. Every person 
 in Nome talks "dog" the same as they talk "horse" in Ken- 
 tucky. It is a striking example of man's ability to extract 
 thrills and excitement from almost any environment. 
 
w 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TYPES AND SCENES. 
 HEN one makes a long journey through a great, strange 
 country like Alaska, certain striking objects are encoun- 
 tered and scenes witnessed which do not readily fit into the 
 regular narrative, yet that are important and remain vivid in 
 one's memory. I shall mention a few such items here. 
 
 Dropping down the deadly quiet Yukon River late one 
 summer evening, we came to Nulato, where there was an 
 Indian missionary school, church and cemetery. In the purple 
 half-light and mysterious loneliness of the mountain region, 
 the scene was weird and different in many aspects from any 
 other place I had ever visited. I took a photograph which 
 shows a portion of the cemetery, a number of Indian tombs 
 crowning a hill, all constructed on top of the ground. What 
 the camera does not convey to the reader is the fact that each 
 small house for the dead, marked by a cross, was painted a 
 distinctly different color. The sun, burning low on the horizon 
 line, reflected from these uncanny dwellings of the dead all 
 the hues of the rainbow. This glow of vivid colors about the 
 crude tombs where the forms of men lay lifeless produced a 
 strange effect upon the mind. It was much like bedecking a 
 corpse with many-hued ribbons, and you can fancy how 
 strange a sight that would be. If it were the intention of these 
 Indians to make their last resting place so conspicuous that 
 Gabriel could not miss them on the morning of the resurrec- 
 tion, they have certainly succeeded. When the Great Angel 
 finally arrives and proceeds to "page" the sleepers of Alaska 
 he can hardly miss them. 
 
 The ice glaciers of Alaska are among the most impressive 
 and curious natural formations that I have seen anywhere. 
 
 109 
 
ALASKA III 
 
 One of the largest of these is the great Childs Glacier on the 
 Copper River. Many of the glaciers abut upon the ocean, and 
 it is rarely that one finds in the interior upon a river forty 
 miles from the sea a "live" glacier, traveling at the rate of four 
 feet every hour, as does the Childs Glacier, It is impossible 
 for any photograph to show more than a small portion of this 
 tremendous formation. It is over 300 feet high, and has a 
 face wall abutting on the river several miles in width, and 
 extends sixty miles back into the valley and high up a moun- 
 tain side. Quite a "block of ice," you see. Every few min- 
 utes thousands of tons of ice break loose from the wall or 
 face of the glacier and rush down into the water with a noise 
 like thunder or the booming of cannon. The plunge of these 
 gigantic masses into the river raises the water until it washes 
 across the 1,500 feet of distance between the wall of ice and 
 the opposite rocky shore and sends waves hundreds of feet 
 up the river bank. In fact, it is dangerous to stand close to the 
 river unless one is a good "sprinter." The play of nature's 
 forces here is so grand that the spectacle becomes fascinating. 
 People stand by the hour waiting and watching for the pale 
 blue masses of creeping ice to break loose, fall and plunge 
 roaring into the river. The boom and shock are fairly stun- 
 ning. 
 
 As I stood there looking at the towering glacier an old story 
 that I had read somewhere came to my mind. It was the tale 
 of a young married couple who on their bridal journey visited 
 a "live" glacier, that is, a moving glacier as distinguished from 
 a glacier that becomes obstructed and remains motionless. As 
 the bridal pair were "honeymooning" about upon the glacier, 
 the husband sHi:)ped and fell into a deep crevasse from which 
 his body could not be recovered. The bride, naturally, was 
 heartbroken. However, her grief was slightly assuaged when 
 a wise old professor informed her that the body of her young 
 husband would be frozen and preserved, much as if he had 
 been placed in cold-storage, and that in forty years that portion 
 of the glacier containing the body would reach the sea and the 
 remains could be recovered. The professor added that prob- 
 
112 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 ably the physical life of the young man would be locked and 
 held in a state of suspended animation, and it was barely possi- 
 ble that he would regain consciousness when he was "thawed 
 out." So, sustained by hope, the bride remained true to his 
 memory for forty years. Just as the long period of waiting 
 was ended the crevasse in the glacier reached the seashore, 
 precisely as the professor had figured, and the cold-storage 
 husband came to light. Also, as the great man had predicted, 
 the frozen man awoke to life when they thawed him out. The 
 wife was an old woman while the husband was, naturally, still 
 a young man. It looked like tragedy, but the writer of the 
 story was resourceful. The wife by practicing mental sugges- 
 tion, New Thought, and a species of Christian Science, had 
 kept herself young and beautiful, and the strangely reunited 
 pair finished the wedding journey that had been interrupted 
 forty years before, came home and went to keeping house, 
 and lived happily ever after. Of course, the story was per- 
 fectly easy to believe. However, standing there and looking 
 up at the cold and frowning face of the Childs Glacier, it 
 
 TOURIST PARTY AND A PORTION 
 
ALASKA 
 
 113 
 
 occurred to me that if the young cold-storage husband had 
 been released from the sort of grinding and crashing crevasses 
 that were yawning above the Copper River, he would hardly 
 have been worth thawing out. 
 
 But to be serious. The moving glaciers of Alaska are not 
 only beautiful and amazing, they are sometimes a menace. An 
 instance is that of the railroad bridge over the Copper River. 
 This is the largest and most expensive bridge in Alaska. It is 
 1,500 feet long and cost $1,500,000. It is located between the 
 Childs and Miles glaciers, and was erected in the winter, the 
 work being carried forward upon the ice. The contractors 
 narrowly escaped failure, as they succeeded in getting the last 
 span of the bridge in position only an hour before the ice went 
 out of the river. When the bridge was located at this point 
 the Childs Glacier was nearly three-quarters of a mile distant. 
 Now it is only 1,200 feet away and is creeping nearer with the 
 passing of each year. I stood upon the bridge with the rail- 
 road superintendent, and I asked him what they would do in 
 two or three years, when the gigantic moving wall of ice 
 
 £*Jit * * * A 4 jlSJL *U » A 
 
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 OF THE GREAT CHILDS GLACIER. 
 
114 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 
 
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 COLUiMBIA GLACIER, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 
 
 reached the abutments of the bridge. For answer he only 
 shook his head and walked away. 
 
 On Prince William Sound, near Valdez, our steamer took 
 on ice for the ship's use directly from a glacier. It is called 
 the Columbia, and is one of the most beautiful in Alaska. This 
 g'lacier is four miles long and 300 feet in height, and con- 
 tinually huge masses are breaking from its face and falling 
 with thunderous crashes into the sound. It is a common 
 practice for ships to take on ice from a certain part of this 
 glacier. The Columbia is a "live" glacier. Where a "live" 
 glacier forms, the land beneath it is always sloping, and the 
 glacier keeps pushing forward by reason of more ice continu- 
 ally forming behind it. A "dead" glacier is a river of ice 
 dammed in a pocket, or where the land beneath it slopes down- 
 ward toward a mountain or some high point. In southeastern 
 Alaska alone there are 170 glaciers of sufficient importance to 
 have received names. The glacier crop never fails. 
 
 I was surprised at the tanieness of the reindeer of Alaska. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 117 
 
 When we were going down the Yukon, several herders went 
 up into the hills and drove four or five hundred down to the 
 river bank for us to inspect. Ten years ago the United States 
 Government imported from Siberia 1,280 head of reindeer, 
 which is practically a domesticated caribou. When the last 
 reindeer census was taken there were forty-six herds in Alaska, 
 containing 33,000 animals. The natives own 60 per cent of the 
 herds and the missions and the Government own most of the 
 remainder. The reindeer was imported because the enormous 
 destruction of game, seals and walrus had reduced the natives 
 to the verge of starvation. These hardy animals, in addition 
 to furnishing the natives with food and clothing, are largely 
 used for transportation, having taken the place of dogs in 
 drawing sleds in many districts. One of the contradictions 
 found in Alaska is that the reindeer thrive better on dried moss 
 found under the snow than on green foodstuffs. 
 
 It is estimated that Alaska has grazing ground sufficient to 
 support 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 head of reindeer, and indica- 
 tions are that the industry will extend over the entire Alaskan 
 Peninsula and many Northern localities not yet occupied. The 
 export of reindeer meat, with its by-products, is expected to 
 form an important item in Alaska's undeveloped resources. In 
 Norway and Sweden smoked reindeer tongues are sold at 
 markets everywhere, and reindeer skins are marketed all over 
 Europe, being worth in their raw condition from $1.50 to 
 $1.75 each. The skins are used for gloves, riding trousers and 
 
 the binding of books. The hair 
 is utilized in many ways and 
 from the horns is made the best 
 variety of glue. 
 
 Alaska has had in the past and 
 has today men of unusual char- 
 acter, some brave as lions, some 
 tenacious as bulldogs, some un- 
 scrupulous as Satan, and some 
 as unselfish and kind as the Man 
 of Galilee. Among this latter 
 
 BISHOP PETER TRIMBLE ROWE. 
 
ii8 ALASKA 
 
 class is the best loved man in Alaska, Bishop Peter Trimble 
 Rowe of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is the most 
 trusted man in all this land of distrust. The shy Indian child, 
 or abused, hungry, outlawed dog, comes to him in confidence. 
 The "busted" miner or down-and-out "bum" almost feels the 
 touch and presence of his childhood's mother when near him. 
 God was good to Alaska when He sent Bishop Rowe to repre- 
 sent Him. He was there before gold was discovered, before 
 he was a bishop. He has pulled his own sled with only a poor 
 Indian to help him over thousands of miles of unbroken, 
 snowy trail. He has frozen and starved with the poor, been 
 the honored guest of the rich and the host to everybody — 
 white man, Indian or half-breed. He has not been particular 
 about creeds, nor has he favored, as many missionaries do, 
 only the "members of the church." He first considers the 
 temporary or worldly need of those with whom he comes in 
 contact, and afterward explains that this was what Christ 
 taught: "Feed My Lambs." 
 
 If Alaska were made into a United States colony, as it 
 should be, he would no doubt, if he would accept, be the first 
 Governor elected by the whole people. He understands the 
 whole country's commercial needs better than all the political 
 officers and officials sent from Washington. If the "Great 
 White Father" would ask the advice of Peter Trimble Rowe, 
 Alaska would get what every honest man wishes it may have — 
 a square deal. 
 
 Another able and popular man is Hon. J. F. A. Strong, first 
 Governor of Alaska since full territorial government went into 
 efifect, who was appointed in the spring of 1913 by President 
 Wilson. He is a pioneer Alaskan settler. He started a news- 
 paper at Skagway before the rush into Dawson in 1897. Real- 
 izing the great opportunities for making a quick fortune at 
 Dawson, he started over the WHiite Pass, packing his outfit and 
 trying to get through a small printing plant with the first rush 
 in 1897. After encountering hardships which none but a 
 thoroughbred frontiersman could have overcome, he succeeded 
 in getting to Dawson and there established his newspaper. 
 
ALASKA 
 
 119 
 
 Like everybody else, he went into mining and did placer mining 
 with his own hands. From Dawson, Canada, he went down 
 the Yukon and up the Tanana. He ran another newspaper at 
 another point in interior Alaska — the name of the town I have 
 
 
 
 ^^^^1 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M 
 
 1 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 HON. JOHN F. A. STRONG, GOVERNOR OF ALASKA. 
 
 forgotten. From that point he went to Nome and was there 
 during the boom, conducting the most influential newspaper 
 in such a broad-gauged way that he accomplished a great deal 
 of good in that camp, which was torn and rent by factional 
 9 
 
I20 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 fights for many years. No doubt his wise counsel prevented 
 much bloodshed. Although always a Democrat and true to 
 his party at a time when the Republican administration fully 
 controlled the Alaskan situation, he retained the respect and 
 confidence of every one. From Nome he went to Juneau, the 
 present capital of Alaska, and started another daily paper, and 
 with the change of national administration was the most logical 
 man in all Alaska for the position of first political Governor. 
 He lives in a beautiful home in Juneau erected by the United 
 States Government as the residence of the Governor, and he 
 and his charming wife occupy the first position in social life as 
 well as government. He is a real pioneer, understanding the 
 needs of the country, and, unless overruled at Washington, will 
 be able to do a great deal for Alaska. Although he is only about 
 fifty years of age the hardships of this new country have turned 
 his hair snowy white ; he has the military carriage of an ofiicer 
 in the regular army and all the diplomacy of a statesman. He 
 
 INDIAN GIRLS SEWING AT SITKA MISSION SCHOOL. 
 
) 
 
 ALASKA I2i" 
 
 is an honest man and, irrespective of party, was the choice of 
 the people of Alaska for Governor. President Wilson never 
 made a more popular appointment. 
 
 If the good intentions of our Government and the mission- 
 aries produced such results in Alaska as they do at home, the 
 native Alaskan child would have a good start in the world. 
 But when you consider the "world" they start in, their blood 
 and surroundings, they have precious little chance of success 
 after the only happy days they ever know — their school days — • 
 during which they are guarded and cared for mentally and 
 physically and get a start that would be promising anywhere. 
 
 The Greek Catholic Church, which first took Christianity 
 to Alaska, in the early days of Russian occupation, maintains 
 missions at a dozen localities, and now nearly every Christian 
 denomination is represented by one or more missions. Alore 
 than a score of native schools are maintained under the control 
 of a commissioner of education, most of them being at the 
 mission stations, but despite all efforts of the missionaries, a 
 great many native children are still out of reach of educational 
 facilities. However, the attempt at industrial education of the 
 natives has met with considerable success at some missions. 
 The United States Government also spends a large amount 
 of money on the native Alaskans for food, clothing and 
 schools. My observations led me to believe, however, that as 
 usual only a relatively small percentage of this money reaches 
 its intended jjurpose. 
 
 Having shot big game in nearly all parts of the world, the 
 opportunities for this sort of sport in Alaska interested me. 
 Investigation convinced me that Alaska is one of the finest 
 natural hunting grounds in the world, as bull moose, brown, 
 black and grizzly bears, mountain sheep and goats, caribou, 
 deer and other big game, as well as many varieties of smaller 
 game, are so numerous in many parts of the Territory that 
 sportsmen rarely fail in getting good results. Under the game 
 laws, nonresidents must obtain hunting licenses from the 
 Governor, and on the Kenai Peninsula they must employ 
 registered guides. The big game hunting season opens on 
 
122 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 August I St and lasts four months. During the closed season 
 bears, moose, mountain sheep and other game may be killed by 
 miners and explorers in search of food, but cannot be shipped 
 from the Territory. 
 
 In the number and variety of its bears, Alaska is without 
 a rival. Scientists report that there are thirteen varieties, but 
 these are classified into four general types — brown, black, 
 grizzly and polar bears. Brown bears, which are noted for 
 their size and ferocity, are most numerous in southeastern 
 Alaska. A variety of the brown bear, called Kodiak, is found 
 on the island of that name. Black bears roam in many parts 
 of the Territory, but are especially common in the southeastern 
 region. Grizzly bears are found along the coasts and in the 
 interior. Polar bears, the largest of all, confine themselves 
 chiefly to the ice floes of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. 
 The polar bear does not hibernate in winter, but remains on the 
 
 ice and lives on seals and fish. 
 
 ^^1 In Nome there are a number of 
 I noted polar bear hunters. 
 
 The moose is the largest 
 hoofed wild animal in North 
 America, and ranges throughout 
 the timbered portion of Alaska, 
 with the exception of the south- 
 eastern coast region. Because 
 of the fact that few men will kill 
 a cow moose, these animals have 
 not diminished like the caribou. 
 The caribou of the plains roam 
 the barren North in the summer 
 and return southward in the 
 winter. For years great herds 
 have been killed ofif at the south- 
 ern feeding grounds, but there 
 are said to be millions more in 
 the far North. The caribou are 
 not so wary as the moose, but 
 
 AN ALASKAN BROWN BEAR. 
 
V -^U 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^«5, 
 
 SNAPSHOT OF AN ALASKAN BULL MOOSE. 
 
124 
 
 ALASKA 
 
 MOUNTAIN GOATS FROM SUMMIT OF WHITE PASS, ALASKA. 
 
 the species found in the woodlands is more difficult to hunt 
 than the plains variety, being wilder and also having the pro- 
 tection of the foliage. In the southeastern coast region there 
 are many deer of the blacktail variety. The blacktail ranges 
 farther north than any other American deer. 
 
 The mountain sheep of Alaska are nearly pure white, more 
 graceful, somewhat smaller and with more slender horns than 
 the Big Horn or Rocky Mountain sheep. They are most 
 numerous about the main divides and the higher peaks, and 
 hunting them is one of the most exciting sports. ^Mountain 
 goats are abundant in regions where there are few mountain 
 sheep. The mountain goat of Alaska resembles the chamois 
 of Europe. 
 
 There are four varieties of fox in Alaska, one being the red 
 
ALASKA 
 
 I2< 
 
 fox ; the others are the silver-gray, the cross and the black. 
 The selling of fox skins has become a most profitable industry. 
 Large shipments, increasing in quantity with each year, are 
 made from Alaska. There are many fox farms and the devel- 
 opment of the industry is giving employment to many people. 
 Fox farming is principally confined to the black and silver-gray 
 varieties. Other valuable fur-bearing animals which are plen- 
 tiful in the Territory are the lynx, mink, otter, and marten, or 
 American sable. The stoat, or ermine, is found in some parts 
 of Alaska. There is a bounty on wolves, which have practically 
 exterminated the small deer in southeastern Alaska. The 
 wolverine is encountered in many parts of the country, where 
 it hves chiefly as a scavenger. 
 
 Of all the birds of Alaska the ptarmigan are the most 
 interesting. They have served as food for many a prospector 
 and explorer in the far North. The color of their feathers 
 
 STUFFED ALASKAX PTARMIGAX. SHOWING THE PLUMAGE OF THE 
 DIFFERENT SEASONS. 
 
126 ALASKA 
 
 changes from a tortoise-shell in the summer to a beautiful 
 white in the winter. While it is difficult to see them when 
 they are on the snow, they are easy to kill except in the mating 
 season, as they do not flee when one approaches them, and it 
 is often possible to knock them over with rocks and sticks. 
 The mother birds are cunning when protecting their nests, 
 however, endeavoring to lead visitors as far away as possible. 
 Nature has provided these birds with a covering for their legs 
 of hairlike feathers, to protect them from the severe cold. 
 There are five varieties of grouse in Alaska, one of the best 
 known being the blue grouse. 
 
 Ducks, geese, plover, snipe, brant and many other species of 
 birds are found upon almost all of the lakes and streams. 
 Near St. Michael a tract of country equal in extent to fifty by 
 one hundred miles square, and particularly fitted for the pur- 
 pose by reason of its swamps and waterways, has wisely been 
 set apart as breeding ground for the above species of feathered 
 creatures. Hence, you see, duck shooting and kindred sports 
 promise to continue good. 
 
 Apropos of duck shooting, an Alaskan friend of mine 
 related to me how an official tenderfoot from Washington, 
 D. C, came out to his town on a Government mission. My 
 friend took the official out duck shooting. The official had 
 never before in his life fired a gun at a flying bird, but the 
 first duck he shot at fell dead to the ground. 
 
 "Well, you got him !" exclaimed my friend in surprise. 
 
 "Yes," replied the tenderfoot, "but I might as well have 
 saved my ammunition, the fall would have killed the duck 
 anyb.ow !" 
 
 His mental processes were about on a plane with the reason- 
 ing of persons who believe that, as in the case of Alaska, a 
 country can be wisely governed and provided for by statesmen 
 who never saw it and live 5,000 miles away. I am glad to note 
 that Franklin K. T.ane, United States Secretary of the Interior, 
 now openly admits this view of the case. 
 
 A strictly constructive program of development should be 
 adopted for Alaska, a scheme that will release and bring the 
 
ALASKA 
 
 127 
 
 energies of Alaska herself into action. So far as possible the 
 resources of Alaska should be set free from Government 
 restrictions, and the development of the country left to Alas- 
 kans. If the Government should build railroads in Alaska, 
 let us be sure that it goes no further than that, giving every one 
 an equal opportunity in the matter of rates and business rights, 
 and keeping political favoritism out of the situation. Individ- 
 uals prompted by individual interests will always develop a new 
 country more rapidly than Government agencies, if the indi- 
 viduals are not overtaxed or hampered by unjust and restricting 
 laws. Remember that Alaska is the largest body of unused and 
 neglected land now belonging to the United States. The demand 
 for homes in the "States" is greater 
 than the supply. Alaska should be opened 
 up rapidly and upon a liberal and per- 
 fectly fair basis of opportunity to all. 
 Many brave and energetic people are 
 already there, many more of like char- 
 acter will follow when the Government's 
 policy becomes sane and liberal instead 
 of hurtful and restrictive. Above all, 
 Alaska's need is to be constructed into 
 a colony, with very limited connection 
 with Washington, D. C., that the Alaskans 
 themselves may develop and control their 
 country according to their ambitions and 
 needs. It is quite true that Alaska on 
 August 24, 191 2, was created a Territory, 
 with a Legislature of its own, but the act 
 creating it a Territory states that "it shall 
 be a Territory, under the laws of the 
 United States, the government of which 
 shall be organized and administered as 
 provided by law." Hence the United 
 States Government holds the whip hand. 
 Mowever, the first Legislature that con- 
 vened at Juneau, in the spring of 19 13, 
 
 ALASKAN BALD EAGLE. 
 
128 ALASKA 
 
 did well, though Congress has the right to annul any of its 
 acts. 
 
 Twenty-three members attended the meeting of the first 
 Legislature. The election was held in November, 1912, and 
 complete returns did not reach Juneau until February 12, 19 13, 
 as the ballots and registers had to be transmitted through the 
 mails overland in winter. If the vote had been close in any 
 district there would have been trouble, for it was impossible 
 to issue election certificates until the members apparently 
 elected had arrived at the capital. Senators and Representa- 
 tives from the Northwestern (Nome) District traveled with 
 dog teams to the head of the sleigh-stage line at Fairbanks, a 
 distance of from 700 to 900 miles, then followed the stage trip 
 of 360 miles to \^aldez and a voyage by steamer from \"aldez 
 to Juneau, about 700 miles. One Senator walked over the 
 frozen trail several hundred miles, stopping at road houses on 
 the way. His official mileage allowance was 15 cents a mile. 
 The distance traveled by the members, to Juneau and returning 
 to their homes, averaged 2,451 miles, or an average allowance 
 for traveling expenses of $3^>7.65. On account of the time 
 consumed this would hardly pay their board bill cii route. 
 
 There is no strong political party in Alaska — the residents of 
 a Territory do not vote in national elections — and so the main 
 question in the mind of each Legislator was "What is best for 
 Alaska?" instead of "How can I serve my party?" A lawyer 
 was President of the Senate and a miner was Speaker of the 
 House. The Legislature enacted eighty laws. The first law. 
 No. I, granted women in Alaska the same right to vote as the 
 men. This Legislature also furnished Alaska with long- 
 needed public health statutes, laws for bank regulation and for 
 relief of the poor ; created a territorial treasury, made impor- 
 tant amendments to the mining laws, which had been imposed 
 without regard to conditions in the Territory, enacted an 
 employers' liability law and revised licenses and taxes. The 
 Legislature was confronted with the difficulty of raising rev- 
 enues in a Territory whose population is small and whose 
 developed resources are already taxed heavily under L^nited 
 
ALASKA 129 
 
 States laws for the benefit of our rich National Government, 
 but the new revenue law is not regarded as being vicious and 
 is expected to yield $240,000 a year. The Legislature author- 
 ized appropriations amounting to $60,000 a year for two years. 
 One of its most important acts was the passing of a poll tax 
 law for the construction of highways. The new tax of $4 
 per capita is being collected with little trouble, so universal is 
 the demand for real roads in Alaska. Even with the draw- 
 back of a Government 5,000 miles distant the Alaskans are 
 hopeful. 
 
 And now reluctantly my pen and Alaska part, but not for- 
 ever. How can I forget this big, poor, rich Territory? So 
 long as I can secure the public ear through my pen and voice 
 will I try to help Alaska to her own, so long will I advocate 
 the making of Alaska a colony of the United States instead 
 of a Territory. This country of contradictions, with the Arctic 
 Ocean on one side and warm Japan Current on the other ; this 
 far North country of perpetual spring and winter ; this country 
 of glaciers and strawberries ; this land of the midnight sun 
 and sunless midday; this country of highest mountains and 
 deepest sea; this country of longest rivers and fairest flowers; 
 this country of wildest animals and tamest seals; this country 
 where the reindeer gets fatter in the winter than in the sum- 
 mer; this country of richest mines and poorest transportation; 
 this country of bravest men and lowest outcasts — may you 
 some day be intrusted to work out your own salvation, as you 
 alone can do it. with Uncle Sam lending you a helping, not a 
 hindering, hand. 
 
THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND 
 REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 
 
 Canal Zone, contains 286,j2o acres — United States paid Repub- 
 lic of Panama $10,000,000 for the land, paid France $40,- 
 000,000 for Canal work and Panama Raikvay — Panama 
 Raihvay, 48 miles long — Canal jo miles long; cost to United 
 States over $400,000,000, cost to France $j 40,000,000; total 
 final cost, including interest, over $1,000,000,000 — People 
 employed in Canal during construction 40,000 — Governor, 
 Colonel George IV. Goethals. Republic of Panama, area 
 ^2,000 square miles — Present population, estimated, 400,000 
 — Free public schools ^64 — Chief resources, bananas, coffee, 
 cacao, coconuts, cattle, rubber, vanilla, sugar, valuable 
 zvoods, tobacco, pearls, minerals, excepting coal — Exports, 
 1913, $4,234,010; imports, $23,j4/,ooo — Capital, Panama 
 City, population, estimated, jO,ooo — Governor, until 1916, 
 Belisario Porras. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CANAL AND REPUBLIC. 
 
 IT WAS my good fortune to go through the Panama 
 Canal Zone on foot at the beginning of my travels 
 in South America, over three years ago, and to study in 
 this intimate way the work on what has been justly called the 
 greatest engineering feat mankind ever attempted. When 
 I was there in 191 1 the Big Ditch was only partly com- 
 pleted, a vast army of men was busy with excavators, explo- 
 sives and dredges, our engineers were in the midst of a strug- 
 gle with Nature that called into play every resource of mod- 
 ern science and skill. Returning to the Isthmus recently. I 
 saw the barriers torn away and the Canal an accomplished 
 fact, a wonderful new highway "free and open to the ves- 
 sels of commerce and war of all nations on terms of entire 
 equality," in accordance to the provisions of our treaties. 
 Though cargo ships are being floated from ocean to ocean, 
 
 130 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 131 
 
 there is much work to be done and many details to be com- 
 pleted before the plans of the Canal builders are fully realized. 
 Nature has not yet been permanently subdued by the engineers. 
 The great expenditure of treasure is by no means ended. But 
 in giving the world this object lesson in American enterprise, 
 ingenuity and perseverance, we have let no monetary con- 
 siderations stand in our way. I can only repeat what I said 
 
 PROFILE MAP OF THE PANAMA CANAL. 
 
132 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 two years ago in Illustrated South America. "We are short- 
 ening distance and thereby saving time, and, consequently, 
 lengthening human lives. We must take our reward and 
 satisfaction in that. . . . The final, ultimate effect on 
 humanity of the expenditure of money by Governments must, 
 of course, be considered, rather than whether or not the 
 expenditure will make returns in cash, for the civilizing and 
 broadening of the minds of men is. in the final analysis, the 
 true profit." 
 
 The Panama Canal Zone is the most important of our 
 cjutlying possessions. In many respects it is the most vitally 
 valuable bit of land owned by the United States, internal or 
 external. Because this peculiarly important possession of 
 ours cuts directly through the heart of the Republic of 
 Panama, from which country we obtained it, and because 
 the United States has guaranteed the independence of this 
 Republic in which the Canal Zone lies, it is only proper to 
 take a glance at the land in which we have planted this great 
 enterprise. The, Republic of Panama is distinctly a United 
 States dependency, and when one promises to "shoulder the 
 
 MR. BOYCE ON THE BAYANO RIVER, INTERIOR PANAMA. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 133 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 ..._-.-, 
 
 ^ ' -WVV*^PEJ1B»/TT-T 
 
 
 
 f ^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 
 L 1 _>j^ 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 MK^-' 
 
 
 
 ^••"A 
 
 uM 
 
 
 
 ^K^^Ki 
 
 
 
 ^^^B^ 
 
 ^^J 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^1 
 
 
 
 ^K £; ' '^M*^t' ' 
 
 
 voISm 
 
 9 
 
 NATIVE VILLAGE ().\ THE ISAVANO RIVER, INTERIOR OF 
 PANAMA REPUBLIC. 
 
 flights" of a country, however small, that country becomes 
 interesting. 
 
 The Rei)ublic of Panama is not of very great area, though 
 it embraces within its limits practically the whole of the 
 American Tsthnius. The area of the countrv is approximately 
 32.000 square miles. This is an estimate only, as no actual, 
 careful survey has ever been made. Its total land frontier — 
 that is, between Costa Rica on the north and Colombia on 
 the south — is about 350 miles, while its combined coast line 
 u])on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans aggregates 1.245 miles. 
 Its greatest length is about 430 miles, with a varying width of 
 37 to 1 10 miles. Both coasts are studded with islands and 
 indented with bays. The islands have been estimated to num- 
 I)er something over 1,700, small and great. A backbone of 
 mountains runs throughout the length of the country, rising 
 into peaks at some points and falling to com]iarativelv low 
 elevations at others, as in the pass of Culebra, which we 
 pierced in digging the Canal. 
 
 The country is bisected with hills and valleys, running up 
 into the moimlains. with alknial stretches of level land along 
 the seacoast upon eitlier side. From this crooked, rambling 
 
134 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 land 300 streams flow into the Pacific Ocean and 150 into the 
 Atlantic Ocean waters. The slopes of the mountains and 
 much of the low lands are covered with 'jungle and forest. 
 This, briefly, is the topography of the Republic, the "baby 
 brother" we have pledged ourselves to protect. 
 
 It has improved since we began associating with it. The 
 Panama of today "shows off well" in contrast with the Panama 
 of yesterday. While little more than a decade has passed 
 since it became self-governing, its improvement and progress 
 are very marked. All investigators agree on this point. 
 Panama people may not exactly like to have it openly stated, 
 but the fact remains that the rapid and great improvement 
 in their national life could hardly have taken place without the 
 helpful influence of their big Northern neighbor. Before 
 we indirectly helped them to independence and separation 
 from Colombia the history of the Isthmus was one of bicker- 
 ings and revolutions. Since the bloodless revolution of Novem- 
 ber 3, 1903, which set them free, they have had peace, and 
 have reaped the harvest of peace, which is progress. 
 
 One important thing we did, we made it possible for them 
 to disband their standing army. This they did in 1904. This 
 was a distinct blessing, since it is a fact that the army in 
 almost every Latin-American country is a bone of conten- 
 tion between the rival political parties. Whichever party 
 wins over the army is practically assured of gaining the Presi- 
 dency and offices, and incidentally the treasury. Within a year 
 after Panama gained its independence the Commander-in- 
 Chief of the army laid a plot to overthrow the President of 
 the Rejiublic. The United States Government told him plainly 
 that if he made a single move we would take charge. He 
 "wilted" and quit. The standing army was no longer of any 
 use in gathering political spoils, so it was disbanded. In 
 point of fact, the Republic of Panama needs no army, since its 
 peace and defense are guaranteed by the United States. 
 
 The human element of this tropical dependency of ours 
 consisted of 386,745 persons, according to the last census taken, 
 which was in 191 1. This included 36,000 Indians, and 50.000 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 135 
 
 people under the jurisdiction of the Canal Zone. The latter 
 number, which has greatly diminished since the practical com- 
 pletion of the Canal, should, of course, be deducted from the 
 enumeration. Still, counting its natural increase since the last 
 census, the Republic probably contains close to 400,000 people. 
 ' The native inhabitants are mingled Spanish, Indian and Xegro. 
 speaking a Spanish dialect. There are some immigrants from 
 Europe and the United States, and some 3.500 Chinese. 
 
 The country is divided into seven provinces, administered 
 by Governors appointed by the President of the Republic. 
 The principal towns are Panama City, upon the Pacific side, 
 with an estimated present population of 50,000; Colon, on 
 the Atlantic, with 25,000 or more ; David, in the northern 
 part, with something over 10,000; Los Santos with 8,000; 
 Santiago, with some 7,000, and Bocas del Toro, built up by the 
 banana interests of the United Fruit Company, with 6,000. 
 Some of these cities have grown with great rapidity since 
 the advent of the Canal builders in 1904. The city of Panama 
 then had about 20,000 inhabitants, an old-fashioned, unsani- 
 tary Spanish town. Now it enjoys most of the conveniences of 
 other modern cities, including taxicabs and an electric street 
 railway. Colon also is rapidly being modernized. Their near- 
 ness to the eastern and western terminals of the great Canal 
 of course stimulates them ; to be near a big, vital thing like the 
 Canal naturally "starts things." 
 
 However, outside the big centers, the wheels do not turn 
 very rapidly. The great lack is adequate transportation 
 facilities from the interior to the ports. One sees far too 
 
 ■'^ DISTANT \li:W OF THE CITY OF PANAMA 
 
136 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 CORNER OF A PUBLIC SQUARE IN PANAMA CITY. 
 
 much produce going to market on pack-ponies and two- 
 wheeled ox-carts over very poor roads. When Panama became 
 a repubHc there was scarcely a road in it worthy of the 
 name. Recently they have begun to "get busy" in road-build- 
 ing, the Government assisting with large sums of money. 
 They have improved the cities, and are beginning to realize 
 that to sustain the cities they must help the country, where 
 agriculture has been in a primitive, backward condition. 
 
 Since the North Americans arrived in 1904, the Panama 
 people have constructed municipal buildings, including school- 
 
 RAILWAV STATION, PANAMA CITY. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 137 
 
 houses, in all of the important 
 towns; a $1,000,000 national 
 palace and theater in Panama 
 City, a national institute for boys 
 costing $800,000, and numerous 
 other fine improvements, hut 
 they are painfully "shy" on rail- 
 roads. Outside the Canal Zone 
 line, they have only about 150 
 miles of track, consisting mainly 
 of the United Fruit Company's 
 road and branches in the pnn- 
 ince of Bocas del Toro, prin- 
 cipally a banana-carrying road. However, the present admin- 
 istration of the Republic is planning the building of several 
 electric lines, which, when they materialize, will aid the much 
 needed development of the country. 
 
 They have a lot of resources in the Reptiblic ; bananas 
 galore, coffee and cacao, sugar, tobacco, mahogany and other 
 valuable woods, and almost everv common mineral except 
 coal. It is an old volcanic region with a rich soil, and all it 
 needs is the application of muscle and brains. It is begin- 
 
 CITV JIALL, PANAMA CITY. 
 
 A GLIMPSE OF COLON HARBOR 
 
138 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 ning to look as if these requisites 
 were going to be brought to 
 bear. 
 
 They have some wise laws 
 and a pretty sound constitution. 
 The President of the Republic 
 is elected for a term of four 
 years and cannot succeed him- 
 self, which tends to curtail politi- 
 cal plotting. He is elected by 
 popular vote, and is assisted by 
 three A'ice-Presidents and a 
 Cabinet of five members. The 
 law-making body consists of a 
 single National Assembly con- 
 taining twenty-eight members 
 elected by the people. The 
 present incumbent of the presi- 
 dential chair is Dr. Belisario 
 Porras, an able and progressive 
 man. 
 
 Financially the little Republic 
 is in good condition, its total 
 governmental revenues for 1913 amounting to $5,300,000, 
 with a budget of expense estimated at $3,840,000. It has no 
 national debt and is not likely to contract one. Evidently we 
 are to be free of monetary trouble concerning it, at least for 
 some time to come. Agriculturally the soil of the Republic 
 has hardly been scratched ; its immense resources in fruits 
 have only been developed in respect to the banana, the United 
 Fruit Company having shipped from the Bocas del Toro dis- 
 trict alone last year over 6,000,000 bunches of that fruit ; it 
 has capacity for the raising of beef cattle by the million, 
 though it has at present probably not more than 100,000 within 
 its limits. Plainly the Republic has a future if it can once 
 get started, and there are signs that it is getting under way. 
 This is a very brief outline of the country in which we 
 
 UNITED STATE.S LEGATION BUILDING, 
 
 PANAMA CITY. BUILT BY 
 
 THE FRENCH. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 139 
 
 have planted our g-isi-antic entei"i)rise. the Canal, the eountry 
 we have contracted to protect and to insure a continuous 
 peace. 
 
 At i)resent the task is almost nothing; what the future may 
 hring forth no man can tell. ( )ur guardianship of the Repub- 
 lic is a mild one, but necessity might compel us to shut out 
 intruders, safeguard the health of the Republic, or supervise 
 its elections, though it is not the wish or intention of the 
 people of the United States to annex Panama. At present we 
 have all the fish we can fry ; what may be the inclinations or 
 desires of our children's children, however, we do not know. 
 We hope it may not be conquest, only helpfulness and peace. 
 
 Having hurriedly sketched the country containing the 
 Canal, we will return to the "Great Furrow" itself. It is worth 
 looking at and justifies "tall talk." 
 
 The history of the Isthmus and the building of the Canal 
 is a kind of wonder story, the story of a world-dream that 
 continued through 400 years and finally came true. I he 
 early Spanish explorers had a vision of it. Balboa's 
 first report to Spain, after he had climbed the forest-covered 
 hills and discovered the Pacific, was accompanied by a recom- 
 mendation that a canal be immediately dug across the Isthmus. 
 Evidently Balboa, or rather Saavedra, his lieutenant, who 
 
 A STREET IN COLON. 
 
I40 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 made the suggestion, did not wholly appreciate how difficult 
 the job would be. What the Spaniard had in view was a 
 sea-level canal, and when one considers, for instance, the 
 excavation of Culebra Cut with the tools of Balboa's day, 
 one sees that the explorer's recommendation was slightly 
 premature. It is an interesting fact, however, that in Bal- 
 boa's time the hydraulic lock system had been invented. The 
 great locks of the Panama Canal are the same in principle as a 
 lock produced four centuries ago by Leonardo da Vinci, the 
 great Italian artist-engineer, for lifting vessels over eleva- 
 tions — a most important discovery, but the Spaniards seem 
 not to have considered it. At any rate, they dismissed the 
 canal project ; some historians say because of the adverse 
 influence of the Church. The wise Spanish bishops, quoting 
 Sacred Scripture, declared, "What God hath joined together 
 let no man put asunder." Then again, long-haired profes- 
 sors told the public that if a canal were digged across the 
 Isthmus it would change the Gulf Stream and make an iceberg 
 out of England ! Their acumen was about on a par with that 
 of a certain Western woman who, when told of the trouble and 
 unsanitary conditions at first encountered on the Isthmus, said, 
 "Well, if it was so hot and unhealthy, why on earth did they 
 go away ofif down there to dig the Canal, anyhow !" 
 
 As was natural, almost immediately upon its discovery 
 the Isthmus of Panama became an important trade route 
 between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The principal modes of 
 transit were mule trains, canoes and small boats part of the 
 way, and often human backs. Out of this traffic grew the 
 first European settlement on the mainland of America, the 
 old city of Panama, founded in 15 19. For over 150 years 
 Panama remained the chief city on the Pacific Coast. The 
 Eurojicaiis found it difficult to believe that there wasn't some 
 natural waterway across the Isthmus. In fact, some of the 
 early maj)s published in Europe showed an imaginary "vStrait 
 of Panama." Finally they got it through their heads that 
 the barrier between the two oceans was a real one. After 
 that the idea of cutting a way through never wholly died. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 141 
 
 Surveys were first made by the vSpanish in 1581. They 
 reported that the scheme was impossible. Then the idea sim- 
 mered for over a century, when it took root in the mind of a 
 famous Scotchman. W'ilham Paterson, the founder of the 
 Bank of Engkmd. Paterson's project was to estabhsh a set- 
 tlement on the Isthnuis, cut a canal, and through its con- 
 trol "hold the key to the commerce of the world." The great 
 banker's idea is the one we should now develop, by making 
 the Canal a port free of import and export custom duties, as 
 I will later point out. Paterson's attempt failed; at that time 
 the carrying out of so difficult and tremendous an engineer- 
 ing feat was impossible. 
 
 Again the Spanish surveyed the Isthmus for a canal. That 
 was in 1771. The movement ended in smoke, and once 
 more the idea simmered. Then in 1855 Americans opened a 
 railroad across the Isthmus. The exploration and surveys 
 for this railroad are said to have cost the life of a man for 
 every tie. 
 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the great Suez Canal, 
 formed a company in Paris in 1877 to dig a shipway through 
 the Panama Isthmus. Actual work was started in the next 
 year. A red letter day on the calendar of the De Lesseps 
 company was January 20, 18S0, when, in the presence of a 
 distinguished gathering, the engineers fired the first blast for 
 tearing a way through Culebra Mountain. But after seven 
 years, wdien the impossibility of building a sea-level canal 
 within the estimated twelve years became apparent, De 
 Lesseps quit the project. It was announced that the work 
 could not be completed for the estimated cost of $240,000,000, 
 for the very good reason that $300,000,000 had already been 
 spent. The company went into bankruptcy. In 1894 a new 
 French company started work again, but in five years" lime 
 little was accomplished, and finally operations ceased. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 BUILDING AND OPERATION. 
 
 EVERY one is so familiar with the story of how we 
 ohtained the Canal Zone and "made the dirt fly" that it is 
 not necessary to go into extended detail here. In 1904 the 
 rights and property of the French companies were taken over 
 at an agreed price of $40,000,000, that heing the extravagantly 
 appraised value of the initial excavation work, the Panama 
 Railroad, maps and data, buildings and machinery. Terri- 
 torial rights came to the United States from a treaty with the 
 new Republic of Panama, which came into being through a 
 revolt from Colombia. Colombia had refused to grant us 
 the rights necessary to insure our position in constructing the 
 Canal. The treaty with Panama included the payment of 
 $10,000,000 and an annuity of $250,000, to begin nine years 
 after the treaty was signed. At the conclusion of negotiations 
 the rival Nicaraguan Canal project w'as discarded and the 
 United States was ready to begin digging, assured of the use 
 and absolute control of a canal zone ten miles wide across 
 the Isthmus, having an area of 286,720 acres, and jurisdic- 
 tion over waters three miles from either side of the zone. By 
 a new treaty recently signed between the United States and 
 Panama, we are given sovereign rights in the waters of Colon 
 and Ancon, the harbor towns at the ends of the Canal. This 
 settles the last question as to complete American control of 
 the waterway. 
 
 The decision that made Panama a high-level lock canal 
 was not made by Congress imtil 1906. In the meantime yel- 
 low fever and malaria had caused alarming mortality, the 
 same terrors which baffled the French having appeared in the 
 workers' camps, and the problem of safeguarding health 
 loomed up as greater than the one of engineering. Vigorous 
 
 142 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 143 
 
 sanitary measures were under- 
 taken. Colonel \\'illiam C. Gorgas 
 began his remarkable work, and 
 through his untiring efforts and 
 those of his able assistants, the 
 Canal Zone was made a safe place 
 in which to work. Without these 
 brave, skillful men of the medical 
 department, the building of the 
 Canal would not have been accom- 
 plished. The death rate in the 
 Canal Zone is lower than in most 
 American cities. 
 
 In 1907 came the man who has 
 really built the Canal. Colonel 
 George W. Goethals of the United 
 States army headed a commission 
 which took the place of the first 
 one, on which men had been ap- 
 pointed from civil life. Colonel 
 Goethals and the new Commission have been united in action 
 and unusually efficient. Colonel Goethals is now Governor 
 of the Canal Zone. 
 
 When the Government steamship Ancon made her trip 
 through the Canal August 15, 1914, officially opening the new 
 ocean highway to traffic, many notable people were there. 
 The most modest man was one holding an umbrella over his 
 head and keeping as much in the background as possible. 
 That was Colonel Goethals. His country has learned to appre- 
 ciate his worth, quiet though he has been about the work and 
 the trials he has had. The task in itself has been of a mag- 
 nitude that is diUicult to realize, and in addition there have 
 been the influences of tropical conditions, of Government con- 
 trol and of uncertain labor markets to deal with. For the 
 efficient Goethals and those under him there is all honor. The 
 mistakes that have been charged have been dwarfed by the 
 successes of the herculean undertaking, and in the history of 
 
 COLONEL WILLIAM C. GORGAS, THE 
 
 MAN WHO MADE THE CANAL 
 
 ZONE SANITARY. 
 
144 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 the Canal's construction, we are glad to state, there is not the 
 smallest blot of proved corruption or graft, excepting in the 
 company stores run by the Panama Railroad, which is owned 
 by the United States Government. 
 
 At times as many as 45,000 men have been employed on 
 the Canal. The average number has been 40,000. It should 
 be kept in mind, too. that the work had to be carried on at a 
 distance of two thc^usand miles from the base of supplies. 
 
 When the Canal was officially opened, a little more than 
 
 COLONliL GEORGE W. (iOETHALS, CHFEF BUILDER OF THE CANAL. 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 145 
 
 I N. ' 
 
 i« 
 
 
 
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 hHHI^p^^^^^B 
 
 
 
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 rjom 
 
 r^ 
 
 i 
 
 r ^^,^ 
 
 THE FIRSI' IJOAT, A GOVERNMENT LIGHTER, PASSING THROUGH 
 MIRAFLORES LOCKS. 
 
 ten years after American work began on the Isthmus, over 
 $400,000,000 had been expended by our Government. Much 
 remained to be done, incUuhng dredging, the extent of which 
 nobody could forecast, deepening of the channel for the larg- 
 est ships, completion of fortifications and buildings, beautifica- 
 tion and numerous other "final touches." It was originally 
 estimated that it would cost $157,000,000 to build the Canal. 
 After spending a good deal of time on the Isthmus three 
 years ago, investigating and drawing conclusions to the best 
 of my judgment, I made this estimate: ''When the project 
 is entirely finished, over $1,000,000,000 will have been invested 
 by the United States and France." I have no reason to change 
 my opinion now, when the total already is $740,000,000, add- 
 ing the $400,000,000 we have si)ent to the $340,000,000 spent 
 by the French, and adding interest on the money spent up to 
 
146 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 date, it will be seen that the total rises already close to 
 $1,000,000,000. 
 
 The original estimate on the cost of digging missed the 
 mark so widely because the American engineers were unac- 
 quainted with the materials of which the whole country of the 
 Canal Zone is made — lava ash. Before the major portion of 
 
 THE GREAT CITCARACHA .SLIDE. 
 
 the excavating was done it was necessary to remove many 
 million cubic yards of slide material upon which the engineers 
 had never figured. They learned that in order to reduce the 
 pressure .so the water would hold the soil back they must 
 materially increase the excavation, and even with the grade 
 greatly reduced the slides came with disconcerting frequency. 
 When the Big Ditch was opened to traffic. Colonel Goethals 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 M7 
 
 pointed out that the earth had not reached a state of equil- 
 ibrium, and that probably it would be necessary to continue 
 dredging for many months. It was hoped that these earth 
 movements would not be so extensive as to interfere with 
 navigation, though the channel at several points in Culcbra 
 Cut necessarily would be reduced consideral)ly in width for 
 a while. Just two months after the opening of the water- 
 way, rains caused a serious landslide north of (iold Mill, where 
 the earth reaches its greatest height on the Isthmus. Thou- 
 sands of cubic vards of rock and dirt entered the channel. 
 
 lil.OVVING ri* THE DIKE AT MIRAFLORES W'lTH 4O,O00 POrXIXS OF DYNAMITE, 
 BEGINNING THE INFLOW OF WATER CONNECTING THE TWO OCEANS. 
 
 completely blocking it for a distance of 1,000 feet. Ships 
 passing through when the slide occurred were forced to wait 
 until the great dredges could reopen the channel, an oi)eration 
 U'hich consumed much valuable time. 
 
 The total excavation in the Canal has been over 232,000,- 
 000 cubic yards, with C'ulebra Cut, nine miles long, the most 
 
148 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 difificult and uncertain part of the work. Here over 30,000,000 
 cubic yards of material, lying outside the intended banks of 
 the Canal, was swept down into the cut. The excavation in 
 the cut represents about one-half of the digging done by 
 Americans. Slides frequently put the railroad system out of 
 commission. Often they wrecked dirt trains and steam shovels. 
 The work of removing the debris at Culebra took up many 
 months. Colonel Goethals did the best he could, however. As 
 an illustration, in 1909 the cost of removing a cubic yard of 
 slide material was around 78 cents for the whole cut. With the 
 slides more troublesome in 1912 the cost was forced down 
 to 55 cents. Fourteen per cent of the total excavation of 
 191 3 was from slides. The Canal locks were ready ten months 
 before Culebra was in shape. But for the slides, ships would 
 have been going through that much earlier. And when the 
 passage of ships became possible, dredges were still at work in 
 the cut. 
 
 The length of the Canal from deep water to deep water 
 is fifty miles, and from the two shore lines, forty miles. It 
 takes ten hours to make the trip. ( It requires only sixteen 
 hours for ships to pass through the Suez Canal, eighty-six 
 miles long, but there are no locks.) \'essels passing from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific successively go through the approach 
 channel in Limon Bay, onward seven miles to the Gatun 
 locks, where three locks lift them eighty-five feet to the level 
 of Gatun Lake ; thence through the lake to Bas Obispo and 
 Culebra Cut ; thence through the cut for nine miles to Pedro 
 Miguel, where they are lowered thirty feet by lock to a small 
 lake; thence one and a half nfiles to Miraflores, where two 
 locks in series drop them to the Pacific level ; passing out into 
 the Pacific through a channel about eight and a half miles 
 long. This channel has a bottom width of 500 feet. The chan- 
 nel in Culebra Cut has a minimum bottom width of 300 feet. 
 
 Gatun Lake was formerly the valley through which the 
 turbulent Chagres River flowed into the sea. The problem of 
 controlling the flood waters of the river was most diflicult. 
 for the heavy tropical rains come down the mountain sides 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 149 
 
 into the narrow valley with such force that the river has 
 been known to rise more than twenty-five feet in twenty-four 
 hours. To control the flood the great Gatun Dam was built, 
 holding back the waters and forming Gatun Lake, which has 
 risen to cover about 164 square miles. The spillway of Gatun 
 Dam, made of concrete on a rock foundation, permits the flow 
 of 154,000 cubic feet per second. The normal flow through 
 this spillway operates the hydro-electric plant which supplies 
 power and light for the operation of the Canal, there being 
 enough power available for any probable demand for years 
 to come. Nearly everything about the Canal is run by elec- 
 tricity, and recently the engineers have been considering sub- 
 stituting electric power for steam on the Panama Railroad. 
 The entire length of the Canal is so well lighted that pas- 
 sage at night is practically as safe as during the day. 
 
 THE COMPLETED GATUN LOCK.'^, LOOKING N(mTII TOWARD THE 
 ATLANTIC ENTRANCE. 
 
I50 
 
 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 In passing through Gatun Lake, vessels get valuahle ser- 
 vice for which no additional charge is made. One of the most 
 expensive items of salt-water navigation is the accumulation 
 of barnacles on ships' bottoms, which in time become so 
 numerous as to impede the progress of even a powerful steam- 
 ship. For this reason ships have to go into dry dock and 
 get scraped at regular intervals. Fresh water, however, is 
 fatal to the barnacles. The vessels going through Gatun Lake 
 are thus relieved of their troublesome burdens of marine 
 mollusks. 
 
 The Gatun locks comprise the largest monolithic concrete 
 structure ever built. Like the locks at the Pacific end, they 
 are built in pairs, to reduce the danger of accident and increase 
 efficiency. Five different lengths of chamber are provided by 
 intermediate gates, so that there is no waste of water or time, 
 such as would be the case were a 500-foot ship lifted in a 
 1, 000- foot chamber. The weight of the largest Gatun lock 
 
 STEAMSHIP "aNCON" PASSING THROTtgH GATUN LOCKS, JUNE II, I914. 
 THE FIRST LARGE Sllll' TO PASS THROUGH. 
 
y 
 
 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 151 
 
 THE STEAMSHIP "SANTA CLARA ENTERING MIRAELORES LOCKS UNDER 
 TOW OF ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES, JUNE I9, I914. 
 
 gate is 1,483,700 pounds, and it cost a little over four cents 
 a pound. There are forty-six lock gates in the Canal, all 
 made of steel plates, riveted to structural steel frames. Their 
 total weight is 118,488,100 pounds. Vessels are raised or 
 lowered in the locks at the rate of three feet a minute. All 
 gates and valves are operated by electricity. 
 
 \'essels are not permitted to pass through the locks under 
 their own power, but are towed by electric locomotives, four 
 to a ship. These are among the most interesting features of 
 the Canal, but one does not hear them called electric locomo- 
 tives there. When I was a boy in Pennsylvania I used to 
 like to follow the tow path of the canal until I met a canal 
 boat, and got a chance to help drive the mules. It was nearly 
 as much fun as riding the elephant on circus day. In my mind 
 11 
 
152 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 the mule is identified with canals. So I was not surprised 
 that everybody else, including the makers of the electric loco- 
 motives, as they watched these wonderful little engines at 
 work, spoke of them familiarly as "the mules." 
 
 The "mules" cost $13,217 each, and there are three dozen 
 of them. They run on tracks laid on the lock walls and have 
 gear wheels operating on racks between the rails, to keep 
 them from being pulled off the tracks by the towing strain. 
 Should a towing line break, the ship can be prevented from 
 colliding with the lock gates by chain fenders which extend a 
 hundred feet ahead of each gate. Emergency dams can be 
 swung into place in the event of any accident to the gates. 
 
 There are certain works which were in use in the final 
 stages of the construction work of the Canal that can be 
 cleared away. One of these is the pontoon bridge. The road- 
 way of the Panama Railroad had to be shifted many times 
 during the construction, but it was an important aid, and con- 
 tinues to be. The sight of a train crossing the pontoon bridge 
 at Paraiso was novel. 
 
 At Colon, on the Atlantic, or rather at Cristobal, they 
 were recently working on the big coaling station, building the 
 reloading bridge. The station at Colon has a storage capacity 
 of five hundred thousand tons of coal, and the station at P)al- 
 boa, at the Pacific end, has a capacity of three hundred thou- 
 sand tons. The Canal Commission \y\\\ sell coal to any vessels 
 wanting it, but there will always be a hundred thousand tons 
 in reserve for the United States navy, ready for emergency. 
 
 I noted also the work being done on the wireless stations 
 at Colon and Balboa. A\'ireless telegraphy has so many uses 
 that the Government found it necessary to assert its right to 
 control this means of communication. \A'ith the responsibili- 
 ties that it has at Panama it could not afford that its e(|uip- 
 ment should be incomplete. The Canal stations are now in 
 communication with the great tower near \\'ashington, D. C. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TOLLS AND A FREE PORT. 
 
 IT IS difficult to estimate what the traffic through the Canal 
 is going to be in the future. The European nations 
 having gone to war just when the big waterway was opened 
 for their cargoes has upset all calculations. That the tolls 
 would pay operating expenses seemed doubtful. However, 
 though the European war had largely curtailed shipping activi- 
 ties, Colonel Goethals reported as this book was sent to press, 
 that the Canal traffic was exceeding expectations, indicating 
 that within a year the tolls might pay operating expenses, but, 
 of course, no interest on the enormous investment. 
 
 In accordance with the Canal Act of August 24, 1912, the 
 following rates of tolls are to be paid by vessels passing 
 through the Canal : 
 
 1. On merchant vessels carrying passengers or cargo, 
 $1.20 per net vessel ton — each 100 cubic feet — of actual earn- 
 ing capacity. 
 
 2. On vessels in ballast, without passengers or cargo, 40 
 per cent less than the rate of tolls for vessels with passen- 
 gers or cargo. 
 
 3. Upon naval vessels, other than transports, colliers, hos- 
 pital ships and supply ships, 50 cents per displacement ton. 
 
 4. Upon army and navy transports, colliers, hospital ships 
 and supply ships, $1.20 per net ton, the vessels to be measured 
 by the same rules as are employed in determining the net 
 tonnage of merchant vessels. 
 
 For a fair-sized freight vessel, it is estimated, the tolls 
 amount to about $5,000. This is, of course, only a nominal 
 charge, considering that ships save a 10,000-mile voyage around 
 South America, but it is probably all the traffic will stand. 
 Operating expenses of the Canal are estimated at about 
 
 153 
 
154 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 $4,000,000 a year. The interest on the huge investment, how- 
 ever, is $20,000,000 a year, indicating a continuous fixed charge 
 of nearly $25,000,000 per year, which in time will bring the 
 American cost of the Canal to my estimate of $1,000,000,000. 
 
 The Canal rules require tolls to be paid in cash, except 
 that in the case of steamship companies having boats fre- 
 quently using the Canal they may be paid by check or draft, 
 if prompt payment of same has been assured by depositing 
 with the Canal authorities at least $15,000 worth of accepta- 
 ble bonds. 
 
 Upon my last visit I found that the Canal Zone had 
 changed materially since I first saw it. Then it was filled with 
 clusters of buildings, created by the Canal Commission, in 
 which to house the workers and ofiicers. And there were the 
 native villages and the natives themselves. Some of these 
 villages were along the route of the waterway, and as the 
 construction progressed they were drowned out, or would 
 have been, had not the Canal Commission moved them away. 
 It is the idea of Colonel Goethals, the chief builder of the 
 Canal and present Governor, that the Zone should be denuded 
 of human habitations. That is naturally the military idea, but 
 the Canal is for commerce. So on either side of the Canal I 
 found only tropical jungles and wilderness. Many people 
 have argued that the Zone lands ought to be settled upon and 
 cultivated by Americans. This will be done some day. Colonel 
 Goethals is firmly of the opinion that this priceless piece of 
 work can better be defended by leaving the obstructing jungle 
 on either hand. Knowing what that jungle is, T agree with 
 him that it would beat barbed wire entanglements in keei:)ing 
 a foe at a distance, but this is a peace Canal. 
 
 ()ne of the new sights to me was the fortifications in the 
 Bay of Panama. The fortifications are upon the islands of 
 Perico, Naos, and Flamenco, which were ceded to the United 
 States as part of the Canal Zone. The islands occupy a posi- 
 tion in the Pacific commanding the western approach to the 
 Canal. Some of the largest guns and mortars ever con- 
 structed are already being placed in position upon these 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC i 
 
 00 
 
 islands. At Balboa, on tlie mainland, another set of fortifi- 
 cations will be established, while on the Atlantic side there 
 will be forts on Margarita Point, north of Colon, another on 
 Toro Point, across the bay from Colon, and one on the main- 
 land at Colon. In the neighborhood of the canal locks at 
 Catun, IMiratiores. and Pedro Miguel, there will be con- 
 
 VTEW IN TTTF JT'XGT.F OF THF PAXA^tA T^EPriUJC. 
 
156 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 structed strong field defenses to provide against possible 
 attacks by landing forces. In these fortifications strong sec- 
 tions of the United States army are to be maintained. Of 
 course, detailed description or photographs of these fortifica- 
 tions are not permitted by the Government, which is right. 
 However, we may rest assured that big things are being done, 
 since about $4,000,000 has already been expended on the 
 project. Congress having appropriated over $10,000,000 for 
 these prime defensive works. 
 
 But to revert to the Canal. I do not want to ofifend my 
 South American friends by calling any of their countries a 
 part of our own chain of United States colonies ; they are not ; 
 but in watching the first freight vessels go through the Canal, 
 and in talking of prospective cargoes, it occurred to me that 
 these West Coast countries might, in point of results, be con- 
 sidered our commercial colonies, or, if they prefer to put it the 
 other way, they might call us their commercial colony. The 
 Canal traffic, at any rate, is going to bring us closer together. 
 
 I heard, while at the Canal, that the port of Guayaquil, 
 Ecuador, at last is going to sanitate itself so as to get some of 
 the benefits of the Big Ditch, and to insure the better mar- 
 keting of its cacao, rubber, cofifee, hides, ivory nuts, and 
 Panama hats, in the United States. Peru is also considering 
 making Callao a port capable of taking care of big vessels 
 that could bring out her cargoes of copper, wool and sugar. 
 Chile, since my visit to that country, has made a good deal of 
 headway with the port of Valparaiso and has also improved 
 some of her other ports. Chilean nitrates were among the first 
 cargoes that went through the Canal, and these are being 
 followed by copper from the great Guggenheim mines, and 
 by other products. This is only the beginning of a vast vol- 
 ume of commerce flowing between South America and the 
 United States. Especially must this come true since the 
 European war opens the way for augmented trade between 
 our nation and the republics to the south of us. 
 
 In order to stimulate this trade, and make our huge Canal 
 investment profitable to us, I am confidently putting forward 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 157 
 
 a plan to make the Canal Zone a free port, and, thruugli the 
 influence of this fact, to create a world-wide city at the 
 Canal for the exchange free of duty of our commodities with 
 the South American repuhlics and other nations. 
 
 I here quote from an address which I made a year ago 
 before the Southern Commercial Ct)ngress at Mobile, Ala- 
 bama, and which was published afterward by the United 
 States Senate as Senate DociDiieiit j^;^^: 
 
 "The definition of a free port is: *A harbor where the 
 ships of all nations may enter on paying a moderate toll and 
 load and unload. The free ports constitute great depots 
 where goods are stored without paying duty ; these goods 
 may be reshipped free of duty. The intention of having free 
 ports is to stimulate and facilitate exchange and trade.' 
 
 "There is no reason why the Canal Zone cannot be made 
 into a city of 500,000 people in twenty years and produce 
 sufficient income from dockage, tolls, taxes, rents, leases, etc.. 
 
 UPPER GATES OF GATUN LOCKS. PARTLY OPEN. TAKEN P.EFORE WATER 
 WAS LET INTO LOCKS. 
 
158 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 to pay the interest on at least the original capital invested by 
 the United States. We have 286,720 acres inside the Canal 
 Zone. Already many millions of dollars have been spent to 
 make the Zone sanitary and a desirable place to live in the 
 year round. Nearly all of this will be a complete loss unless 
 we build a great city there. The Panama Railroad, for which 
 we paid millions and spent millions more to move and rebuild, 
 will be a 'white elephant' on our hands, on the basis of invest- 
 ment, unless we build a big city at that point. 
 
 "Through the stimulus arising from making the Canal Zone 
 a free port, a great commercial city can be built along the 
 whole Canal from one end to the other with docks everywhere. 
 This city would become a great commercial clearing house 
 not only for the merchants and manufacturers of North, Cen- 
 tral and South America, but for the whole world. Trade in 
 every republic on the American Continent is necessarily more 
 or less restricted by a protective tarifif, therefore, we need one 
 spot, at least, for free exchange. It it just as necessary as a 
 clearing house for the great banks in our big cities. 
 
 "Remember, the entire Canal is a land-locked, fresh-water 
 harbor, berthing the largest vessels in the world, where bar- 
 nacles can be scraped off the bottoms of ships — an advantage 
 possessed by only one other great inland port city in the world. 
 The building of a big metropolis on the Canal Zone is no 
 experiment, no wild theory. It has been successfully worked 
 out and proved by Germany and England and a numljer of 
 smaller countries. 
 
 "The only way to create a big city at the central ])()int 
 between North and South America, the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans, the Far East and the Far West, is to make the Canal 
 Zone a free city and free port. By this I mean free from 
 import or export duties into and out from the Canal Zone. 
 This will not affect the primary question of tolls for passing 
 through the Canal. If created a free port and protected 
 through international treaty, so it could not be aft"ected by 
 changes in our administration or home policies, merchants and 
 manufacturers from all over the world would build factories 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 159 
 
 and warehouses and establisli Ijranches and agencies at this 
 World Center for quick distribution, delivery and sale. Many 
 South Americans would establish agencies and branches there 
 to reach the world's commerce. In fact, it would become an 
 immense World's Department Store where everything for the 
 use of the people of all nations could be found. Tt would 
 
 PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS AT NIGHT, SHOWING ELECTRK AL ILLUMINATION 
 
 OE THE CANAL. 
 
 become the greatest transshipping i)ort in the world, especially 
 as many boats suitable for the Pacific ( )cean are not sea- 
 worthy or insurable on the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 "As lawyers put it : 'What you have been saying is testi- 
 mony — give us evidence of what a free port or city will do 
 toward creating a metrojwlis of half a million in a few years.' 
 Here is the evidence: Hamburg, Germany; Copenhagen, 
 Denmark; (libraltar; Hong Kong (formerly Chinese, now 
 British) ; Singapore; Punta Arenas, Chile; Aden, on the Red 
 Sea. and the Island of St. Thomas, near Porto Rico. 
 
i6o PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 "After Great Britain had taken Gibraltar from Spain, and 
 that country would not deal with Gibraltar, the Sultan of 
 Morocco forced the British Government, in 1705, to make a 
 free port of Gibraltar by refusing to supply the food necessary 
 to maintain the fortress, unless all import and export duty was 
 taken off. The law of necessity caused the most powerful 
 Government in the world, more than two hundred years ago, to 
 establish the first free zone on a little rock pile three miles long 
 by one-half mile wide, controlling the entrance to the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea. Here is Lesson No. i, that should not be over- 
 looked. Today there is a population of 27,000 at Gibraltar 
 and over 4,000,000 ship tonnage is cleared yearly. As there 
 is no duty, only a tax on tobacco and liquors, there are no 
 statistics on the annual business. 
 
 "Hamburg, Germany (before the 1914 war), was a notable 
 example of the benefits of free exchange. Hamburg, through 
 this wise policy, became the greatest port in Europe. In 1888, 
 2,500 acres of the harbor of this inland city were set apart as 
 a free harbor, where ships could unload and load without 
 custom duties. A gigantic system of docks, basins and quays 
 was constructed at an initial cost of $35,000,000, which at 
 present-day cost would be double. A portion of the old town 
 containing 24,000 people was cleared to make room for this 
 great project. After that Hamburg grew enormously, reach- 
 ing the third position as a port in the world, with over 1,000,- 
 000 population, being the second largest city in Germany. 
 Without question the free zone of the harbor had a great 
 influence on the expansion of Hamburg as a port. 
 
 "Copenhagen is the most important commercial town of 
 Denmark. The trading facilities were greatly augmented in 
 1894 by making a portion of the harbor a free port. It has 
 had a marked effect on the trade of Copenhagen and Denmark. 
 
 "Hong Kong Island and City is a British possession 
 acquired from China in 1841. Hong Kong is a free port and 
 has no customhouse, and its commercial activities are chiefly 
 distributive for a large portion of the Far East, much as the 
 Panama Canal Zone would become if made a free port. The 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC i6i 
 
 only commodity that pays a duty at Hong Kong is opium. 
 Owing to the fact that it is a free port, official figures on its 
 trade cannot be had, as in the case of ports that collect custom 
 duties, but since it was made a free port the population has 
 increased from a few thousand to 456.739. From this port 
 there is an immense exchange of commodities between (ireat 
 Britain and her colonies, the ports of China, Japan and the 
 United States. This fact, investigation shows, is largely due 
 to the advantages arising from the fact that the port of Hong 
 Kong is free from custom duties to all nations. 
 
 "Singapore is another good example. It is the capital of 
 the British Straits Settlements, and lies about midway between 
 Hong Kong and Calcutta, India, and close to the Malay 
 Archipelago. It is less than 100 miles north of the equator, 
 or 500 miles farther south than the Panama Canal Zone. It 
 has good advantages of position, but above all, the policy of 
 absolute free trade has made Singapore the center of a trans- 
 shipping trade that is surpassed in the Orient only by Hong 
 Kong and one or two of the great Chinese ports. The con- 
 tinuously rapid growth of Singapore and the Straits Settle- 
 ments, of which it is the capital, has fully demonstrated the 
 wisdom of this policy. In 1819 when the region was ceded to 
 Great Britain that portion of the country had almost no busi- 
 ness or population. At present Singapore's free exports and 
 imports exceed $500,000,000 annually, or about one-seventh 
 of the total imports and exports of the whole United States. 
 There are no custom duties except on opium. The population 
 is about 275,000. Neither Hong Kong nor Singapore is as 
 well situated for international trade or enjoys as good and 
 healthful climate as the Panama Canal Zone. 
 
 "Port Said is another case in point. The building of the 
 Suez Canal created the city of Port Sa'id on a sandpile at the 
 entrance to the Canal from the Mediterranean Sea, with fresh 
 water 125 miles away. It is about the "livest wire" of any 
 city in the world — at least, that I have ever visited. It has 
 over 100,000 population, and except for an Egyptian duty on 
 
i62 PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 
 
 many articles would be a great trading center for others than 
 tourists. 
 
 "Aden, situated on a strip of British territory in Arabia, 
 on the Red Sea, where nothing grows and fresh water must 
 be brought a long distance, has 50,000 population on account 
 of its being a free port and city. 
 
 "Punta Arenas, Chile, on the Straits of Magellan, the farth- 
 est south of any city in the world, is a free port and city, 
 and has a population of 15,000. I was surprised at its impor- 
 tance and its tine stone buildings and good streets. The only 
 local support of Punta Arenas is wool and sheep, mostly from 
 the old Patagonia country of Argentina and the island of 
 Tierra del Fuego. Its importance arises chiefly from its being 
 a free port, permitting a Chilean city to trade duty free with 
 Argentina. 
 
 "The free exchange of commodities, on account of there 
 being no duty, import or export, put the island of St. Thomas, 
 near Porto Rico, belt^iging to Denmark, on the map. It is a 
 good example of what no export or import duty will do for a 
 poor, out-of-the-way island. Nearly every excursion to the 
 West Indies docks there to trade. Its one port carries the 
 largest stock and does the greatest Panama hat trade in the 
 world. Many vessels coal there. It has a great trade with all 
 the West India Islands. 
 
 "England has tried out the free port and free city idea 
 thoroughly and this is what the Encyclopedia Ih-itaiiiiica .says: 
 'In countries where custom duties are levied, if an extension 
 of foreign trade is desired, special facilities must be granted 
 for this purpose. In view of this a free zone sufficiently 
 large for commercial purposes must be set aside. English 
 colonial free ports, such as Hong Kong and Singa])ore, do 
 not interfere with the regular home customs of India and 
 China. These two free harbors have become great shipping 
 ports and distributing centers. The policy which led to their 
 establishment as free ports has greatly promoted British com- 
 mercial interests." " 
 
 I was fully convinced after visiting Singapore and Hong 
 
PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND REPUBLIC 163 
 
 Kong during the past year, that we should make the splendid 
 port of Manila a free port and city, or we can never expect 
 to secure, develop and hold our share of the trade of the 
 Orient. Secretary of State Bryan stated to me that he strongly 
 favored this policy in the development of our colonies, and the 
 Panama Canal Zone is our most important colony. 
 
 This question is a paramount one in the development of 
 our commercial relationship with South America and other 
 countries; hesides. it will make the Panama Canal pay. If 
 we do not act soon some other country owning one of the 
 West India Islands, well located to trade with ships passing 
 through the Canal, will take advantage of the situation. 
 Already the Panama Republic intends to benefit from our 
 investments in the Canal by creating a free city bordering on 
 the Canal Zone. We should not stop short with the com]:)le- 
 tion of the Canal, but continue the great enterprise to a more 
 notable, as well as profitable, conclusion, by extending our 
 commerce and trade, not only with South America, but with 
 the entire world. I sincerely hope it may never be necessary 
 to use the big Canal to pass our navy quickly from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, and z'icc zrrsa. in times of war. But if the 
 necessity arises, without question we will find it "mighty 
 handy." 
 
 The F*anama Canal is the greatest industrial undertaking 
 ever attempted and successfully carried to completion by any 
 nation of the world, and we should all feel proud of our coun- 
 try, and that we are citizens of the United States of North 
 America. 
 
UNITED STATES 
 COLONIES 
 
 AND 
 
 DEPENDENCIES 
 
 By VV. D. BOYCE. 
 
 Mr. Boyce, for his papers, personally visited all the Colonies 
 of the United States, and wrote Travel Articles that were 
 more popular, when printed in serial form, than his South 
 American Stories. Possibly this was because they were about 
 countries under our flag. He felt his work would not be 
 complete unless he included the Dependencies of the United 
 States. He returned to Cuba, after some years' absence, but 
 did not have the time to visit the Dominican Republic or Haiti, 
 l)ut had the work done for liim by competent employes. He 
 does not seek to take more than the credit of carefully editing 
 the copy and subject treated on these two Dependencies. The 
 success attained in producing "Illustrated South America" led 
 Rand, IMcNally & Co. to take the publication of the "United 
 States Colonies and Dependencies," also. The first edition is 
 ten thousand copies ; retail price $2.50. If it is as good a seller 
 as "Illustrated South America" other editions will be printed. 
 
 Four Separate Books Containing the Same Matter as 
 
 "United States Colonies and Dependencies" are 
 
 Printed by the Same Publishers, at $1.00 Each. 
 
 "Alaska and Panama," One Volume. 
 
 "Hawaii and Porto Rico," One Volume. 
 "The Philippines," One Volume. 
 
 "United States Dependencies," One Volume. 
 
ILLUSTRATED 
 SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 By 
 W. D. BOYCE 
 
 The "copy" for this book was originally printed in the "Chicago 
 Satiu'diiy Blade,"' one of our four papers, as Travel Articles, by 
 Mr. Boyce, on South America. Owing to requests from many peo- 
 ple that it be printed in book form, ;t was issued by the oldest and 
 best known publishers of historical books and maps in Chicago, 
 Rand, McNally & Co., and in less than two years has reached its 
 third edition. Price, $2.50. For sale by all book dealers, or Rand, 
 McNally & Co., Chicago. 
 
 PRESS COMMENTS. 
 
 San Francisco Chronicle — The author has a natural bent 
 toward the study of the origin of the various peoples of South 
 America. 
 
 Brooklyn Eagle — A good book it is, every page bearing the 
 finger-prints of a keen and capable reporter. 
 
 New York Mail — Best pictorial record of travel yet. 
 
 Pittsburgh Post — It is a most valuable contribution to current 
 literature. 
 
 Atlanta Journal — In the 600-odd pages of this volume is a 
 wealth of human as well as historical and practical interest. 
 
 Cleveland Leader — He gave himself an "assignment" to "cover" 
 that territory and he came back with the "story." 
 
 Utica Daily Press — He wrote as he traveled while all the sights, 
 facts and events were fresh in his mind. 
 
 Editor and Publisher — In all this book of nearly 700 pages 
 there is not a dreary page. 
 
 Florida Times-Union — Written by an American business man 
 who catches the salient point of view. 
 
 Houston Chronicle — Full of valuable information and of com- 
 mercial as well as literary interest. 
 
 Kansas City Star — An exceedingly readable volume of some 
 600 pages. 
 
 Troy (N. Y.) Record — A good substitute for an actual trip 
 through the little Republics of South America. 
 
 News, Salt Lake City — Hardly a page of this volume is without 
 illustration. 
 
 San Francisco Call — Recommended for the exceptional full- 
 ness and interest of its pictorial contents. 
 
 Evening Star (Wash., D. C.) — A wonderfully interesting, his- 
 torically accurate, splendidly pictured and narratively delightful 
 book. 
 
 South American (Caracas, Venezuela) — A truthful portrayal of 
 first impressions. 
 
 Herald — Buenos Aires (Argentina) — A timely, interesting and 
 valuable treatise. 
 
91,581,000 CIRCIMTION 
 
 W. D. BOYCE CO. 
 
 (Established 1886) 
 
 Daily and Weekly Newspaper and Periodical Publishers, 
 500 North Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 
 
 THE SATURDAY BLADE 
 
 is twenty-seven years old and never missed an issue. It is a big 
 newspaper, full of the big things that happen. Special attention is 
 paid to news that continues from week to week, and new inven- 
 tions and discoveries. At all times it 1ms an expedition in some 
 f)art of the world, for ne^v and cnrions descriptive articles and 
 photographs. The Saturday Blade is illustrated in colors. 
 
 THE CHICAGO LEDGER 
 
 is forty-two years old and has never missed an issue. It is a 
 periodical with special articles and departments. The liction 
 stories are all Avritten to order, nsually topical, and ^^iU\ a moral 
 that helps to shape public opinion in favor of Justice, Kight and 
 the A'obility of Labor. It is handsomely illustrated in colors. 
 
 THE FARMING BUSINESS 
 
 Successor to tha Weekly Inter-Ocean Farmer. 
 
 This publication had its foundation in the subscription list 
 (80,000 subscribers) to the Weekly Inter-Ocean Farmer, for forty- 
 two years a prosperous weekly, reaching the people in the country 
 for several hundred miles around Chicago. Knowing that there 
 were many publications reaching the farmer and owners of farms 
 that were telling the agriculturist how to do things he knew as 
 much about as the editor — we believed the new and useful field 
 was in publishing a farm paper with the slogan, "The Applicafon 
 of Practical Business Principles to Agriculture," and our success 
 was instantaneous, as we had found a free and unoccupied field. 
 
 INDIANA DAILY TIMES, 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., 
 
 is owned by W. D. Boyce Co. It is a popuhxr Afternoon Indepen- 
 dent Daily of over GO, 000 copies daily and rapidly growing. Cir- 
 culation doubled in past two years. The motto the Daily Times 
 lives up to is: "A square deal ai.d fair play for everybody." 
 
 TOTAL ANNUAL CIRCULATION OF THE FOUR PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Ninety-one Million Five Hundred and 
 Eighty-one Thousand 
 
237 90 
 

 
 
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 1^ MAY 90 
 
 N. MANCHESTER, 
 «Si^ INDIANA 46962