of 



By Captain C. E. RADCLYFFE. 



(Read Feb. 1st, 1904.) 



"PERHAPS one of the smartest deals ever done by a 

 proverbially smart nation was the purchase of 

 Alaska in 1867 by the American Government from 

 Russia for a paltry sum of $7,000,000, in spite of 

 the fact that at the time of Secretary Seward's 

 scheme for the purchase, a number of Americans 

 were pleased to ridicule what they designated as 

 ( ' Seward's Folly" in buying a mass of icebergs. 

 Many of those men lived to recall their words and 

 the Russians to realise that they had made a bad bargain. 

 Regarded as a financial investment, it was good, since the 

 country has never yielded less than 5 per cent, interest on the 

 outlay. Two big commercial companies, which have rented the 

 PribilofT Islands from the Government for the purpose of killing 

 seals there, have more than repaid the purchase price in rent. 

 Moreover, it promises to become ere long, as regards mineral 

 wealth, the richest country in the world. 



Its resources in gold, silver, copper, and other ores are 

 unlimited. Recent discoveries on the coast near Kayak and 

 Yakutat, also on the Alaska Peninsula, give indications of the 

 greatest oilfields which have yet been found in the world. Even 

 to-day, although the country has been partly explored by small 



