THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF 



ALASKA 



BY WILLIAM HEALEY DALL 



HE history of Alaska is practically the history 

 of exploration and trade along its coasts and 

 within its borders. It may be conveniently 

 divided into characteristic periods. First 

 comes the era of discovery and exploration by inde- 

 pendent parties of Cossacks, hunters, and fur-traders, 

 whose reports led to the dispatch of the official expe- 

 ditions commanded by Bering, whose discoveries, in 

 turn, opened the floodgates for a tide of adventurers. 

 This period may be said to comprise the whole of the 

 eighteenth century up to June, 1799. The second period 

 began with the chartering of an imperial monopoly, the 

 Russian-American Company, to which was confided in 

 that year the control and exploitation of the Russian pos- 

 sessions in America. The characteristic figure in the 

 panorama of the events of this era is BaranofF. 



In 1867 a third period began with the American occu- 

 pation of the territory ; followed by the lease of the seal 

 islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, and by the 

 exploitation of the fisheries. A condition of anarchy pre- 

 vailed over the greater part of the Territory, due to legis- 

 lative neglect and executive indifference. With the open- 

 ing of the Klondike gold fields in 1895, a fourth era began, 

 into which the country has barely entered, and the outcome 

 of which it is yet too soon to predict. So far it has been 

 characterized by renewed exploration; by the grant from 



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