ALASKA. 



ALLEN, WILLIAM 



21 



Yearly mean 42. 9, or 3 warmer than the 

 middle of Norway, or six inches less than As- 

 toria at the mouth of Oolumhia River. Greatest 

 rainfall, ninety-six inches, in 1850 ; least, fifty- 

 eight and six-tenths inches, in 1861. Greatest 

 in one month, twenty-one and three-tenths, 

 August, 1867; least, six and a half, in Novem- 

 ber, 1853. In the same month of August, 

 1867, the records of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion show that eighteen inches fell in Eastern 

 Pennsylvania! The yearly average of days 

 upon which rain, snow, and hail fell, or on 

 which fog prevailed, for fourteen years, was 

 two hundred and forty-five. 



It is to be noted that the above results are 

 from observations made hourly throughout the 

 year. 



The harbor of Sitka never freezes, and its ice 

 is unfit for the San Francisco market, which 

 derives its supply from Kodiak, in latitude 57 

 47', or 15 north of Boston. 



At Kodiak, some years, thermometer never 

 runs below zero. Lisiansky says that, in 1805, 

 the thermometer did not fall below 38 until 

 December 24th, when it reached 26. The cold- 

 est day that year was January 22d, when the 

 thermometer was above zero. 



Ice forms from fifteen to twenty-four inches 

 each year. Coldest temperatures noted are by 

 the ice company's agents within the last fifteen 

 years, when the thermometer has reached 18 

 below zero, but the men worked without extra 

 clothing, as the air was perfectly calm. The 

 ice is not thicker than that about Boston, al- 

 though nine hundred geographical miles far- 

 ther north ! 



Ounalaskafrom nine years' observation of 

 Bishop Benjaminoff. 



Temperature Fahrenheit. 



March 29.9 ) 



April 33.4 [ Spring 33.9 



May 41. 3) 



3 46.2) 



50.6 } Summer 49.6 



,.ust 51.9) 



jptember 43.7 ) 



ctober 36.7V '. 



ovember 32. 4 j 



Fall 37.5 



y 



June 

 July 

 August 

 September ...... 43. f 



Oct 



November 



December ...... 29.0 ) , 



January ........ 29. 5 > ................ Winter 30M 



February ........ 31. J Only 1.8 below Sitka 



37.8 for the year, or 5M below that 

 of Sitka. 



The highest temperature recorded is 77.0, 

 and the lowest only 0.6 below zero, but only 

 upon ten occasions was it recorded less than 

 10 above zero. 



Seventy American whalers yearly fish on 

 this coast, to ten English and French. At 

 present the principal fishing-ground is in the 

 region of Behring's Straits, on account of the 

 shallowness of the Behring Sea and Arctic 

 Ocean, which have only thirty fathoms of 

 water. On the great Fair weather ground, be- 

 tween Sitka and the entrance to Cook's Inlet, 

 in 60, the greater depth of water enabled the 

 whale to " sound " without touching bottom, 

 and to come up far away and in uncertain 



directions from the boat; but in the shoaler 

 water he invariably struck bottom, came up, 

 straight from the point struck, with his head 

 enveloped in a mud coat, and was easily taken. 

 But the u Fairweather ground " is so covered 

 with whale when the " whale feed " covers 

 those waters in June and July, that the old 

 navigators frequently mistook the spouting of 

 the hundreds around them for the surf break- 

 ing upon sunken rocks. (See Dixon, Meares, 

 Portlock, etc.) 



The great value of the territory consists in 

 the immense banks of cod, the woods, the furs, 

 and the deposits of coal, of which persons 

 found and brought away specimens. This 

 coal was found close to navigable waters, and 

 by analysis proved superior to any bituminous 

 on the Pacific ; the exact locality of the vein 

 or veins was not discvered on account of the 

 lateness of the season, etc., but the geologist 

 and mining engineer with the officials of the 

 Government reported that all the accompanying 

 geological conditions existed for good coal. 

 The specimens were found for a distance of 

 between five and seven miles. 



ALLEN, WILLIAM, D. D., an eminent scholar, 

 teacher, and author, President successively of 

 Dartmouth University and Bowdoin College, 

 born in Pittsfield, Mass., January 2, 1784 ; ctted 

 in Northampton, Mass., July 16, 1868. He was 

 the son of Rev. Thomas Allen, the first minis- 

 ter of Pittsfield, a patriot of the Revolution. 

 His mother was a daughter of Rev. Jonathan 

 Lee, of Salisbury, Conn., a descendant, in the 

 fifth generation, from Governor Bradford of 

 Plymouth. Entering Harvard College at the 

 early age of fourteen, Mr. Allen graduated in the 

 class of 1802, and commenced his theological 

 studies with Rev. Dr. Pierce, of Brookline, the 

 famous genealogist. In 1804 he was licensed 

 to preach by the Berkshire Association. In 

 1805 he received the appointment of Regent 

 or Proctor of Harvard College, succeeding 

 Rev. William Ellery Channing in this posi- 

 tion, and was also Assistant Librarian of the 

 College. He resided, in these capacities, in 

 Cambridge for six years, devoting himself sedu- 

 lously to intellectual pursuits. During this 

 period he prepared the first edition of his 

 American Biographical Dictionary (published 

 in 1809), which contained biographical sketches 

 of about seven hundred eminent Americans. He 

 also contributed, in 1807, to Drs. Bogue and 

 Bennett's (English) History of the Dissenters, 

 "Historical and Biographical Sketches, or an 

 Account of Religion in America," a manuscript 

 of 180 pages. In 1810 he delivered the Phi 

 Beta Kappa oration at Harvard College, Wash- 

 ington Allston being poet the same year. In 

 October, 1810, he was ordained as successor 

 to his father to the pastorate of the Congre- 

 gational Church in Pittsfield. In 1813 he 

 preached the annual election sermon before 

 the Legislature of Massachusetts. He was 

 married the same year to Maria Malleville 

 Wheelock, daughter of Hon. John Wheelock, 



