6 



ALASKA. 



do not include the output of the rich Klondike 

 mines in British Columbia. Alaska imported 

 $9,137,608 of this Canadian gold in the nine 

 months ending with September, 1901, against 

 $13,115,389 in a similar period in 1900. The gold- 

 dust receipts at the Seattle Assay Office for the 

 year up to Sept. 30, 1901, from all Alaska and 

 Klondike districts, amounted to more than $25,- 

 000,000, and the total receipts for the three years 

 this office has been in operation exceed $50,000,000. 

 The last steamers sailed from Nome on Oct. 24, 

 1901. bringing out more than $1,000,000 in treas- 

 ure, and the lakes and the Yukon river were 

 expected to keep open for traffic out of the Klon- 

 dike till the middle of November. 



While, the mines of the Klondike have come 

 up to the estimates made last spring of the prob- 

 able output, Nome has been disappointing, al- 

 though the yield is in excess of $6,000,000. The 

 estimates for Nome made last spring were $10,- 

 000,000, but by reason of the late and unfavorable 

 season, causing the ground to remain frozen un- 

 til July 10, the output was cut nearly one-half. 

 Interviews with many well-known miners who 

 have returned to spend the winter confirm all the 

 statements regarding the disadvantages and dis- 

 couragements in nearly all the Nome districts and 

 camps this season. 



The year has been a prosperous one for Dawson, 

 and the frontier mining-camp has rapidly blos- 

 somed into a handsome capital city, with all the 

 modern conveniences, beautiful homes, and well- 

 graded thoroughfares. Many men who have dug 

 fortunes out of the earth are staying in the city 

 and spending money in building it up. While the 

 placers have proved rich and predictions have 

 been made that they will hold good for ten years 

 more with extensive hydraulic plants to operate 

 them, additional attention has been given this 

 season to quartz-mining, and several hundred lo- 

 cations have been made in the Dawson district. 

 These properties will be prospected and developed 

 this winter, and the winter diggings that were 

 neglected last season will also be made to contrib- 

 ute to the wealth of the country this winter. 

 The first gold stamp-mill ever built on the Yukon 

 is under construction near Dawson, and it will 

 operate on ore that gives gold values of $20 a ton. 

 There has been everything to encourage business 

 men and miners in the Klondike region this year. 



Fisheries. Cod, halibut, and herring have 

 long been the food of the natives, and are now 

 being taken in paying quantities by vessels from 

 San Francisco and Puget Sound; but while Alaska 

 possesses what are probably the greatest cod-fish- 

 ing banks in the world, estimated to be 125,000 

 square miles in extent, salmon canning is the 

 only great fishing industry. The first canneries 

 were erected in 1878, and the industry now has 

 between $11,000,000 and $12,000,000 invested in 

 buildings, machinery, tackle, boats, and steam- 

 vessels. The total pack in 1898 was 974,601 cases, 

 20,518 barrels, and 4,300 half-barrels; total value, 

 $3,544,128. The estimated pack in 1899 was 

 1,000,000 cases and 15,000 barrels, and for 1900, 

 1,250,000 cases. Until 1899 there were no laws or 

 rules regulating the location of these canneries or 

 the manner in which the fish should be taken; 

 each canning company built where it pleased, and 

 the slaughter of fish went on without let or hin- 

 drance. On the best streams, as the Karluk, Ka- 

 diak island, many canneries have been built close 

 together, and there is the sharpest rivalry as to 

 which shall put up the largest pack. In conse- 

 quence the rivers and inlets are being rapidly de- 

 pleted, and an industry now yielding more than 

 $3,000,000 annually is threatened with extinction. 



The pack at Karluk river in 1894 was 229,284 

 cases, in 1896 226,428 cases, and in 1897 154,- 

 262 cases. In 1898 the pack had dropped to 

 60,000 cases, and in 1899 to 40,000 cases. A 

 hatchery has been for several years maintained 

 by the Alaska Packers' Association, but so far 

 there is little sign of replenishment. In speak- 

 ing of the decline, Capt. Jefferson F. Moser, of 

 the United States Fish Commission steamship 

 Albatross, says : " The output of salmon for a 

 single year in 1897 was about 43,000,000 cans, 

 so one does not wonder that the streams of 

 Alaska are becoming depleted. This depletion, 

 already serious, is caused not by overfishing alone, 

 but by ' barricading,' a process instituted before 

 the acquisition of Alaska by the United States, a 

 means whereby the fish are actually prevented 

 from ascending the streams to spawn and are com- 

 pelled to remain practically impounded in the 

 lower waters, awaiting the pleasure of the pack- 

 ers. Although this practise is punishable by a 

 heavy fine and imprisonment, the laws are not 

 enforced." The new code of 1899 made it neces- 

 sary for the packers to erect hatcheries after Jan. 

 1, 1901. This was strenuously opposed by the 

 packers and fishermen, as were the following sec- 

 tions, placing restraints on illegal taking of the 

 fish: 



" It is forbidden to lay any seine, gill, or other 

 net within 100 yards of the mouth, on either side, 

 or immediately abreast of the mouth, of any river 

 or stream, whereby, in the setting or hauling of 

 said seine, gill, or other net, it may drift wholly 

 or partially across and operate to close the mouth 

 of said river or stream." 



"Traps, whether 'fixed or stationary obstruc- 

 tions' (built on piles or webbing) or constructed 

 of webbing and boats and susceptible of removal 

 from place to place, are declared to be obstruc- 

 tions which ' impede the ascent of salmon to their 

 spawning grounds,' and their use is hereby for- 

 bidden." 



Sealing. Not including a few sealskins 

 brought directly into San Francisco from the 

 north, the total catch in the Arctic in 1901 was 

 24,127, most of the skins going to Victoria, the 

 rendezvous of the sealing schooners. The Bering 

 Sea catch was 10,314, the Copper island catch 

 3,838. the coast catch 8,985, and the approximate 

 Indian catch 1,000 skins. The world's catch of 

 fur sealskins for the year 1901 is approximately 

 54,000 skins. 



Timber. The whole coast of Alaska, includ- 

 ing the islands from 54 40' to the eastern part 

 of Kadiak island, is covered with timber to the 

 snow-line of the mountains. Hemlock and spruce 

 prevail, but in places there is the yellow or Sitka 

 cedar, and upon Prince of Wales island the red 

 cedar attains large size. Young timber springs 

 up very rapidly, and the great amount of rain 

 falling upon the ground carpeted with moss that 

 holds the water like a sponge, preserves this great 

 timber from destruction by fire. Forests of 

 coniferw exist along the rivers of the interior, 

 the Yukon, Tanana, and Koyukuk, trees on the 

 latter stream attaining a size of two feet in diam- 

 eter. The Government has not put these lands 

 on the salable lists, and every man who builds a 

 fire to cook a meal or builds a house to cover his 

 head is a trespasser on this great timber reserve. 

 The early disposal of these timber tracts is a mat- 

 ter of great concern to the people, for they would 

 at once enter into the lumbering business, and in 

 the near future could build up a very profitable 

 trade with Japan and China. The great facilities 

 for water transportation will make the southeast- 

 ern coast very desirable for lumber shipments. 



