southern flank of Mount St. Elias. 

 At least 250 other glaciers have been 

 located and named. 



When we bought Alaska, it was 

 commonly thought that we had 

 made a poor buy. But the return 

 on the investment of $7,200,000 has 

 been about 2,430 percent. What is 

 more, the purchase of Alaska gave 

 the United States a stronghold to 

 dominate the North Pacific — a 

 necessity foreseen by William 

 Henry Seward, Lincoln's Secretary 

 of State, who negotiated the pur- 

 chase in 1867. 



A major seaport of Alaska is 

 named for Seward. Gateway to 

 the interior, Seward is the southern 

 terminus of the Alaska railroad, 

 and the outfitting center for big- 

 game hunters headed for Kenai 

 Peninsula. 



There are trophies to be taken on 

 the peninsula, but big game here 

 as well as elsewhere in Alaska is by 

 no means as plentiful as people have 

 been led to believe. 



Though gold mining is often 

 thought to be Alaska's ranking in- 

 dustry, it is overshadowed by the 

 commercial fisheries — to which 

 canning of salmon contributes 80 to 

 90 percent of the output. Trapping 

 and agriculture make significant 

 contributions to the economy, and 

 transportation and the growing 

 tourist trade add to the income of 

 this land whose 586,400 square miles 

 are a fifth as large as the 48 States. 

 Its expanse can be appreciated by 

 comparing a map of Alaska with a 

 map of the 48 States, drawn to the 

 same scale. North and south, parts 

 of Alaska would stretch from Can- 

 ada to Mexico, and east and west 

 from Georgia to California. 



This vast and sprawling land has 

 an intricate coast line totaling 

 33,000 miles. There are more than 

 3,000 islands, 1,100 of them in the 

 Alexander Archipelago through 

 which the Inland Passage winds its 

 way. Boats that thread the Passage 

 put in at three of Alaska's largest 

 cities, Ketchikan, Juneau (the 

 present capital), and Sitka (the old 

 Kussian capital). 



The population of Alaska is 

 sparse— about 129,000 in 1950. 

 Average distribution is 1 person to 

 every 5 square miles, as compared 

 with 50 to the square mile for the 

 48 States, 29 for Texas, and 748 

 for Khode Island. This popula- 

 tion is made up of outlanders of 

 many nationalities, and Aleuts 

 (pronounced alley-oots), Eskimos, 

 and Indians. 



Alaska's residents are governed 

 by the Territorial Legislature, 

 created in 1912. Its fish and wild- 





<<>. 



^A 



^x.'^A/ 



^o 



<- 



