UNITED STATES. 



sion of a penal offense in Texas, of which a Mexican 

 citizen was the object. After demand had been made 

 for his release the charge against him was amended so 

 as to include a violation of Mexican law within Mexi- 

 can territory. This joinder of alleged offenses, one 

 within and the other exterior to Mexico, induced the 

 President to order a special investigation of the case 

 pending which Mr. Cutting was released. The in- 

 cident has disclosed a claim of jurisdiction by Mexi- 

 co, novel in our history, whereby any offense, com- 

 mitted any where by a foreigner, penal in the place ot 

 its commission, and of which a Mexican is the object, 

 may, if the offender be found in Mexico, be there tried 

 and punished in conformity with Mexican laws. This 

 jurisdiction was sustained by the courts of Mexico in 

 the Cutting case, and approved by the executive branch 

 of that Government, upon the authority of a Mexican 

 statute. The appellate court, in releasing Mr. Cut- 

 ting, decided that the abandonment of the complaint 

 by the Mexican citizen aggrieved by the alleged crime 

 (a libelous publication), removed the basis of further 

 prosecution, and also declared justice to have been sat- 

 isfied by the enforcement of a small part of the orignal 

 sentence. 



Civil Service. The Civil-Service Commission, 

 in its report for the year ending Jan. 16, 1886, 

 says: 



Applicants were examined within the year from 

 every State of the Union and from every Territory ex- 

 cept Utah. From three to six different examinations 

 were held in each of seventeen States. The whole 

 number of persons examined under the commission 

 during the year was 7,602, of whom 6,872 were males 

 and 730 were females. The whole number of exam- 

 inations held within the year was 150, all of which 

 were competitive except 5, and at these five examina- 

 tions only 8 persons were examined. If to those ex- 

 amined during the year the number examined during 

 the periods covered by the first and second annual re- 

 ports be added, the whole number thus far examined 

 will be shown to be 17,491. Of the 7,602 examined 

 during the vear, 5,034 attained the minimum of 65 per 

 cent., which makes them eligible for appointment, and 

 2,568 failed to show that degree of proficiency. Of 

 those examined, a trifle less than two thirds (66'22 per 

 cent.) succeeded. The average age of all those exam- 

 ined was thirty years. 



The whole number of appointments during the year 

 from those examined, each being for the probation- 

 ary period of six months, was 1,876. If to those we 

 add 2,300, the number appointed from the examina- 

 tions during the previous eighteen months (it being 

 borne in mind that appointments from the examina- 

 tions did not begin until July 16, 1883), it will be seen 

 that 4, 176 have been appointed in two years and a half 

 from those examined under the Commission. This is 

 between one third and one fourth of the whole num- 

 ber of places to which the examinations extend. 



Alaska. The Governor of Alaska is Alfred 

 P. Swineford; Clerk of District Court and 

 ex officio Secretary and Treasurer, Henry E. 

 Hayden, succeeding Andrew T. Lewis ; Dis- 

 trict Judge, Lafayette Dawson ; District At- 

 torney, M. D. Ball; Marshal and Surveyor- 

 General, Barton Atkins. The Governor, under 

 date of October 1, reports as follows to the 

 Secretary of the Interior : 



I can therefore speak of mv own personal knowl- 

 edge only of that part of Alaska which is included in 

 the thirty-mile strip of mainland that lies betweenBrit- 

 ish Columbia and tide-water, from Dixon's Entrance 

 to Mount Saint Elias, and the islands of the Alexan- 

 der Archipelago a geographical division embracing 

 less than one'twentieth ot the whole Territory. I 

 have, however, been able to obtain some little infor- 

 mation concerning the mineral and other resources of 

 the region beyond the Mount Saint Elias Alps. The 



best authorities up to a year ago credited Alaska with 

 581,107 square miles, but later and more accurate com- 

 putations very materially increase these figures. No 

 accurate enumeration of the inhabitants of Alaska has 

 ever been made, unless it may have been prior to the 

 purchase of the Territory by the United States. Nor 

 is it possible^ in my opinion, to arrive at more than a 

 mere approximation of the number of native people. 



From the best information at hand I esti- 

 mate the population of southeastern Alaska to 

 be about as follows : 



White : 



Sitka 600 



Juneau 1,500 



Douglas Is'and 500 



Wrangel and vicinity 150 



Killisnoo and vicinity 150 



All other places 200 



Total whites 8,100 



Natives (about) 7,500 



Total 10,600 



AtSitka (latitude 57 3', longitude 135 19'), 

 for the year ending Aug. 31, 1886, the highest 

 monthly mean temperature was 57'8, in Au- 

 gust; the lowest, 29 - 2, in January; annual 

 mean, 44'8 ; maximum, 72, in July and Au- 

 gust; minimum, 4, in January; total pre- 

 cipitation of rain and melted snow, 109'4 

 inches; number of clear days, 44; fair, 122; 

 cloudy, 199; days on which '01 of an inch or 

 more of rain and melted snow fell, 248. 



The fur-trade of Alaska may be approxi- 

 mately stated at the market value of $2,500,- 

 000 annually. Petroff, in his report, gives a 

 total value of Alaska furs for 1880 in the Lon- 

 don market at $2,181,832. 



Coal has been found at various points in this 

 Territory, but as yet no well-directed effort 

 has been made to develop any of the seams. 



Some beds of white marble, apparently of 

 very fine quality, have been found and partially 

 opened, both on Baranoff Island, near Sitka, 

 and on Admiralty Island, near Killisnoo. 



The great mine and mill on Douglas Island 

 stand to the credit of the only really practical 

 effort which has yet been made to develop 

 any one of the numerous gold-bearing ledges 

 in southeastern Alaska. 



Running on short time, or rather working 

 no more than what would be equal to full time 

 for two-thirds of its whole number of stamps, 

 the mill turned out in the first twelve months 

 a little over $750,000, in gold bullion, while 

 yet having on hand an accumulation of sul- 

 phurets (concentrates) of the value of at least 

 $250,000 more. 



Other mines are being opened on the same 

 ledge, which has been located by means of 

 exploratory test pits and trenches over a length 

 of eight or nine miles, and large new mills are 

 in contemplation, one or two of which are 

 almost certain to be built the coming year. 



Summarized, the annual value of the prod- 

 ucts of Alaska's industries is as follows: 



Fur-trade $2,500,000 



Gold bullion (including placer-mines) 800.000 



Fish (including cod and oil) 



Lumber 



725.000 

 50,000 



Total $4,075.003 



