22 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



Mr. William A. Kelly, the local superiiiteudeiit of schools for the 

 Sitka district, lives iu this village, and the public school for native 

 children, held in the building which once was the hospital of the bar- 

 racks, is in a very satisfactory condition under the care of Miss A, R. 

 Kelsey. 



On April 28 we found ourselves at the town of Juneau, which nestles 

 at the base of a towering mountain. It is the largest town in the Terri- 

 tory and has a population of about 2,000, which number is largely 

 increased when the miners from the neighboring regions winter there 

 and also in the spring when newcomers tarry to purchase outfits and 

 supijlies before going into the interior. Juneau is the commercial 

 metropolis of Alaska, and there is considerable rivalry between it and 

 Sitka, the historic capital of the Territory ; it has a court-house, jail, 

 hotels, and lodging houses, two Government schools — one for white and 

 the other for native children — a Presbyterian mission home and two 

 churches (white and native), Russo-Greek church, also a Roman Catholic 

 church, school, and hospital, opera house, bank, two weekly newspapers, 

 fire brigade, and electric light and telephone plants. 



Since my last visit to Juneau, in 1892, a new schoolhouse for natives 

 has been built and the schoolliouse for white children has been thor- 

 oughly renovated, and both buildings compare very favorably with 

 schoolhouses in places w ith the same population as Juneau anywhere 

 in the United States. Mr. E. Keller has charge of the school for white 

 children and Miss S. A. Saxman of the native school. 



On the o^jposite side of Gastineau Channel, 2 miles from Juneau, is 

 the town of Douglas, where is located the well-known Tread well gold 

 mine. Over $800,000 have been spent upon this plant since 1881. Its 

 stamping mill, where the gold-bearing quartz is i)ulverized, contains 240 

 stamps, and is the largest mill of its kind in the world. The gold is 

 shipped to the mint at San Francisco in the form of bricks worth sev- 

 eral thousand dollars each. During the year ending May 31, 1891, 

 240,000 tons of ore were treated, yielding $708,000, or $3.20 per ton. 

 In the village are two public schools. The one for white children is 

 taught by Mr. L. A. Jones and the school for native children is under 

 the care of Miss F. J. Work. The majority of the children in the school 

 for natives are inmates of the home maintained here by the Kansas 

 Yearly Meeting of Friends. 



From Douglas the vessel steamed up Lynn Canal to Dyea at the 

 head of the Chilkoot Inlet. This was the first time that the Topelm 

 had ever been to the head of the inlet, and she felt her way along very 

 cautiously. After careful sounding we anchored at about 6.30 p. m. 

 Around us were magnificent snow-capped mountains, and just opposite 

 a noisy waterfall leaped headlong down the face of the cliff'. The pilot 

 said that he would use it as a landmark for anchorage in the future. 

 Men who enter the mining regions of the Yukon from the headwaters 

 of the river take the trail which leaves tidewater at the head of this 



