18 ALASKA. 



aminov* says, ^' In all tbe time of my living here there was 

 not one clay from morning to evening that was entirely with- 

 out wind, or was a perfect calm." The winds blow here strong 

 from all quarters, strongest in October, November, December, 

 and March. The gales do not usually last more than three days 

 at a time, but they follow in quick succession in the seasons 

 above mentioned. 



There are a multitude of little lakes of fresh water on the 

 islands, and in nearly all of the small streams (for there are no 

 large ones) are found brook- trout of good quality. 



In view of the foregoing, what shall we say of the resources 

 of Alaska, viewed as regards its agricultural or horticultural 

 capabilities ? 



It would seem undeniable that owing to the unfavorable cli- 

 matic conditions which prevail on the coast and in the interior, 

 the gloomy fogs and dampness of the former, and the intense, 

 protracted severity of the winters, characteristic of the latter, 

 unfit the Territory for the proper support of any considerable 

 civilization. 



Men may, and undoubtedly will, soon live here, in compara- 

 tive comfort, as they labor in mining-camps, lumber and ship- 

 timber mills, and salmon-factories, but they will bring with 

 them everything they want except fish and game, and when 

 they leave the country it will be as desolate as they found it. 



Can a country be permanently and prosperously settled that 

 will not in its whole extent allow the successful growth and 

 ripening of a single crop of corn, wheat, or potatoes, and where 

 the most needlul of any domestic animals cannot be kept by 

 l^oor people ? 



The Russians, who have subdued a rougher country, and set- 

 tled in large communities under severer conditions than have 

 been submitted to by any body of our own people as yet, were 

 in this Territory, after some twenty years at least of patient, 

 intelligent trial, obliged to send a colony to California to raise 

 their potatoes, grain, and beef; the history of their settlement 

 there, and forced abandonment in 1842, is well known. 



We may with pride refer to the rugged work of settlement 

 so successfully made by our ancestors in New England, bnt it 

 is idle to talk of the subjugation of Alaska as a task simply re- 

 quiring a similar expenditure of persistence, energy, and ability. 



* Zapieskie, &c., vol. 1, it. 98. 



