46 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



courses of some of the larger rivers. The Eussian posts were all stock- 

 aded, and the powers of the governor were practically limited to the 

 range of his crude artillery. The Eussians made some coastal surveys, 

 a few inland explorations, and one abortive attempt to find gold, and 

 this was as far as they went in the study of the resources of their 

 distant colony. 



William H. Dall and his associates of the Western Union Telegraph 

 expeditions, in 1865-7, did much toward gaining a knowledge of the 

 vast interior. The navigators of various nationalities, who had ex- 

 plored and charted the coast line, had gathered fragmentary data of 

 the natural history and geology, and these, together with the specimens 

 collected by them, had found their way to European museums, where 

 they were examined and described by scientists. One of these, by name 

 Carl Greywingk, a German, with infinite pains and thoroughness, 

 compiled all the notes on the geology and geography of Alaska, then 

 known as Eussian America. He went so far as to publish a geologic 

 map of a part of the territory — a very remarkable piece of work, con- 

 sidering the fragmentary character of his data. 



It appears that the people of the United States were even more 

 indifferent to Alaska than the government at St. Petersburg. There 

 had been strong opposition to its acquisition, both by those adverse to 

 any territorial expansion, and also by a much larger number, who be- 

 lieved that we were purchasing a barren waste of ice and snow, whose 

 only resource was furs. After the treaty had been signed and military 

 occupation had been taken, the general opinion seemed to be, even 

 among the annexationists, that we had fulfilled our duties toward the 

 new possession. A policy of neglect of this northern province has been 

 consistently followed almost to the present day. It was sixteen years 

 after its annexation that Alaska was given a civil government, it was 

 thirty-three years before it was given a complete civil code, and over 

 a quarter of a century elapsed before systematic steps were taken toward 

 investigating its resources. 



In the meantime, individual enterprise did much toward opening 

 the province to civilization. A strong corporation had succeeded to 

 the interests of the old Eussian American Fur Company, and, though 

 it inherited most of the prejudices of its predecessors against the intro- 

 duction of any new enterprises, nevertheless its agents, bent only on 

 the acquisition of furs, did not a little to find new fields for the pros- 

 pector. 



The real exploration began with the advent of the restless gold 

 seeker. The search for gold on the west coast of our continent, begun 

 by the discovery of the California placers in 1848, gradually moved 

 northward into British Columbia, and by 1870 had reached the Cassiar 

 district, close to the Yukon watershed. It was the men trained in 



