APPENDIX TO CASE OP GREAT BHITAIN. 341 



SUMMARY. 



Mr. President, I now conclude this examination. From a review of 

 tlie origin of the Treaty, and the oeueral considerations with regard to 

 it, we have passed to an examination of these possessions nnder difter- 

 eut beads, in order to arrive at a Icnowledge of their character and 

 value; and here we have noticed the existing Government, which was 

 found to be nothing but a Fur Company, whose only object is trade; 

 tlien the population, where a very few Russians and Creoles are a scanty 

 fringe to the aboriginal rac.es; then the climate, a ruling influence, with 

 its thermal current of ocean and its eccentric isothermal line, by which 

 the rigours of that coast are tempered to a mildness unknown in the 

 same latitude on the Atlantic side; then the vegetable products, so far 

 as known, chief among which are forests of pine and lir waiting for the 

 axe ; then the mineral products, among which are coal and copper, if 

 not iron, silver, lead, and gold, besides the two great products of New 



England, "granite and ice;" then the furs, in('luding precious 

 89 skins of the black fox and sea-otter, which originally tempted the 



Settlement, ami have remained to this day the exclusive object 

 of pursuit; and lastly, the fisheries, which, in waters superabundant 

 with animal life beyond any of tne globe, seem to promise a new com- 

 merce to the country. All these 1 have presented plainly and impar- 

 tially, exhibiting my authorities as I proceeded. I have done little more 

 than hold the scales. If these have inclined on either side it is because 

 reason or testimony on that side was the weightier. 



WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE. 



As these extensive possessions, constituting a corner of the conti- 

 nent, pass from the Imperial Government of liussia, they will naturally 

 receive a new name. They will be no longer Kussian America. How 

 shall they be called"? Clearly any name borrowed from classical his- 

 tory or from individual invention will be little better than a misnomer 

 or a nickname unworthy of such an occasion. Even if taken from our 

 own history it will be of doubtful taste. The name should come from 

 the country itself. It should be indigenous, aboriginal, one of the 

 autochthons of the soil. Happily such a name exists, which is as proper 

 in sound as in origin. It appears from the Eeport of Cook, the illus- 

 trious navigator, to whom I have so often referred, that the euphonious 

 name now applied to the ])eninsula which is the continental link of the 

 Aleutian chain was the sole word used originally by the native island- 

 ers "when speaking of the American Continent in general, which they 

 knew perfectly well to be a great land." It only remains that, follow- 

 ing these natives, whose idaces are now ours, we too should call this 

 "great land" Alaska. 



Another change must be made without delay. As the Settlements 

 of this coast came easttcard from Eussia, bringing with the Russian 

 flag Western time, the day is earlier by twenty-four hours with them 

 than with us, so that their Sunday is our Saturday, and the other days 

 of the week are in corresponding discord. This must be rectified 

 according to the national meridian, so that there shall be the same 

 Sunday for all, and the other days of the week shall be in correspond- 

 ing harmony. Important changes must follow, of which this is typical. 

 All else must be rectified according to the national meridian, so that 

 within the sphere of our common country there shall be everywhere 

 the same generous rule and one prevailing harmony. Of course, the 



