UNITED STATES. 



765 



coasts of the United States and British North 

 America." 



Court of Alabama Claims. The Court of Commis- 

 sioners of Alabama Claims expired by limitation 

 at the close of the year. It had disposed of all 

 the cases before it by working rapidly during 

 the last weeks of its existence, but question 

 was afterward raised as to whether all the de- 

 terminations were final and valid. In Septem- 

 ber the accounting officers of the Treasury re- 

 fused to allow the expenses certified by the 

 judges of this court for the compensation of 

 extra counsel, experts, and clerks, in excess of 

 those provided for by law. This refusal was 

 sustained in November by the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral in an opinion rendered upon the question 

 of the right to incur expenses for these pur- 

 poses beyond what the statute expressly au- 

 thorized. 



Southern Industrial Enterprise. The following 

 is a statement of the manufacturing and min- 

 ing enterprises organized in the Southern States 

 in 1884: 



In Kentucky, Alabama, and Virginia some 

 extensive mining and iron companies, with 

 large capital, were organized, which runs up 

 the total of investments in these States, and 

 they also added many smaller establishments. 

 The list shows cotton and woolen mills, ma- 

 chine-shops, foundries, blast-furnaces, ice-fac- 

 tories, sawmills, planing-rnills, building-mate- 

 rial factories, furniture-factories, carriage and 

 wagon factories, handle-factories, etc. There 

 are many flour- mills and more tobacco-facto- 

 ries, and a large number of cotton seed oil-mills, 

 as well as mining enterprises of all kinds in 

 gold, silver, copper, mica, oil, coal, etc. 



Alaska. A. P. Swineford, appointed Gov- 

 ernor of the Territory in place of John H. Kin- 

 kead, reached Sitka on Sept. 15. His report 

 to the Secretary of the Interior, dated Oct. 1, 

 contains valuable information. In April the 

 Rev. Sheldon Jackson was appointed general 

 agent of education for the Territory. He re- 

 ports that during the summer he established 

 schools at Juneau, Sitka, Wrangell, Jackson, 

 Boyd (Hoonah), Haines, and Oonalashka. A 

 corps of teachers was also sent to establish 

 schools on Kuskokvim river, 150 miles above 

 where it flows into Behring Sea. The popula- 

 tion of this section is exclusively Esquimau. 

 The Industrial School at Sitka is doing good 



work in training native boys and girls in the 

 mechanical trades and in household duties. 

 The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions is 

 prosecuting religious and educational work in 

 the Territory. 



The enumeration of the inhabitants of Alaska 

 was begun, but not completed, in 1880 by Mr. 

 Ivan Petroff, employed by the Census Bureau. 

 His report shows the population of the western 

 section to have been as follows in 1880 : 



Aleuts., 



whites i":'::;:::::.:::::::::::::::::::::::: 2 'i 4 s 



Total civilized people ... 3 772 



Indians... 



Total 



24,661 



^ A great popular error," says the Governor, 

 " exists in regard to the climate of Alaska, the 

 prevailing impression being that it is blessed (or 

 cursed) with Arctic winters only. The winters 

 of northern and interior Alaska undoubtedly 

 correspond to the popular belief, but that be- 

 lief when applied to southeastern Alaska and 

 the Aleutian Islands becomes a popular fal- 

 lacy." The following is a meteorological sum- 

 mary for the twelve months ending Aug. 31, 

 1885: 



Governor Swineford deprecates the idea that 

 crops will not mature here, and says : " No- 

 where in my home travels, from Lake Supe- 

 rior to the Gulf of Mexico, from Washington to 

 Sitka, have I seen a more luxuriant vegetation 

 than here in southeastern Alaska. I find the 

 hardier vegetables all growing to maturity and 

 enormous size; white turnips weighing ten 

 pounds, cabbages twenty-seven pounds, and as 

 fine potatoes as can be found in any of the 

 Eastern markets I found growing at Wrangell, 

 Juneau, and here in Sitka. Wild timothy and 

 red-top grow to a height of from five to seven 

 feet, and in this vicinity all the hay was cured 

 during the past summer that will be required 

 during the winter." 



