694 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (ALASKA.) 



Birches, Fort Gibbon, to Rampart. (See Tele- 

 graph.) 



The navy has a permanent marine post at Sitka 

 and on Japonski island, and the Bureau of 

 Equipment and of Yards and Docks have built 

 a wharf and coal sheds. Here also are a shell 

 house and a powder magazine. The Marine- 

 Hospital Service maintains a hospital at Dutch 

 Harbor. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1901, 

 11 patients were treated in the hospital and 

 treatment was furnished 59 out-patients; in the 

 year ended June 30, 1902, 12 patients were 

 treated in the hospital, and there were 62 out- 

 patients. 



In 1902 the United States Revenue-Cutter 

 Service had 6 boats in service about Alaska. The 

 Bear was used in the transportation of reindeer 

 from Siberia. The Thetis went to the relief of 

 the Portland and Jeanie, which left Seattle for 

 Cape Nome in the latter part of April and were 

 caught in the ice-pack and carried into the Arc- 

 tic Ocean. They carried besides several hundred 

 persons, passengers and crews, hundreds of tons 

 of mining machinery and provisions. They were 

 caught in the pack June 4, and June 17 were 

 sighted by* the steam-whaler Belvidere, the 

 Thetis lying by, 80 miles north of Cape Prince 

 of Wales in the Arctic Ocean. The 2 boats were 

 locked in the ice, almost within speaking dis- 

 tance of each other, in imminent danger of being 

 crushed. The provisions of both gave out and 

 they were forced to broach their cargoes. They 

 finally succeeded in breaking out, and on July 1 

 reached Nome with all on board well. 



The Manning was on patrol duty at the Seal 

 Islands, and the Perry and the Rush inspected 

 the canneries. The McCulloch surveyed for a 

 harbor on one of the Aleutian chain west of 

 Dutch Harbor. These vessels also provide trans- 

 portation for the various court officers on their 

 rounds. 



The Lighthouse Service has hitherto been 

 very incomplete. Alaska is not a district of 

 itself and is visited but once a year by the tend- 

 ers Columbine and Manzanita. At present only 

 2 lighthouses are in operation, both in south- 

 eastern Alaska, and 2 others, 1 in Clarence Strait 

 and another in Unimak pass, are nearing com- 

 pletion. 



Telegraph. Gen. Greely, Chief Signal-Officer 

 of the Army, announced the completion of the 

 military telegraph-lines between Fort Egbert, 

 Eagle City, and Fort Liscum, near Valdez. This 

 line brings in direct telegraphic communication 

 with the rest of the world the Copper river coun- 

 try and the Alaskan coast along Prince William 

 Sound. The telegraphic outlet from Port Egbert 

 is by a signal-corps wire, connecting the Cana- 

 dian Telegraph line at the international bound- 

 ary, whence a wire stretches through Dawson 

 to Ashcroft, on the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

 The line from Fort Egbert to Fort Liscum, 425 

 miles long, was built by almost inconceivable 

 effort and hardship through an uninhabited coun- 

 try, along rough and almost impassable trails. 

 All wire, insulators, and other line material, as 

 well as food for men and forage for animals, 

 were either dragged hundreds of miles by sleds 

 in midwinter or carried by packs on the backs of 

 mules. 



Education. The educational work of Alaska 

 is under the direct supervision of the Rev. Shel- 

 don Jackson, D. D., the United States General 

 Agent of Education for Alaska. The following 

 table shows the location of the public schools, 

 the race under instruction, and the total enrol- 

 ment and average monthly attendance for the 



school year extending from September, 1900, to 

 May, 1901: 



The small average attendance was due to two 

 epidemics pneumonia in arctic Alaska and 

 smallpox in southeastern Alaska that caused 

 much sickness and a great many deaths, partic- 

 ularly among the natives. 



The appropriation for 1900-'01 was $30,000, and 

 was disbursed as follows: Salaries of officials, 

 $4,865; salaries of teachers, $18,392.38; supplies, 

 $4,542.36; fuel and lighting, $869.05; repairs, 

 $521.41; rent, $180; traveling expenses, $546.25; 

 freight, $34.95; balance, $48.60. The expense per 

 capita of enrolment was $17.78. 



In addition to the schools established by the 

 United States Bureau, most of the missions to 

 Alaska maintain schools teaching general and in- 

 dustrial branches. 



The Sitka Training-School reports as follows: 

 "Pupils boarding, 150; day, 5; teachers, 15; 

 salaries, $6,949.91; current expenses, $7,995.89; 

 'repairs, etc., $997.03; total, $15,939.83. Tuition 

 received, $605.75." The Sitka Hospital reports as 

 follows : " Physician in charge and 2 nurses. 

 More than 1,500 patients have been treated in the 

 hospital and at the ranches, and a large number 

 of successful operations have been performed. 

 Smallpox was epidemic, and physicians, nurses, 

 and teachers acted heroically in caring for the 

 sufferers." Following is the report upon educa- 

 tion in Alaska for the year ending June 30, 19i)2, 

 from the annual statement of the United Stai.ea 

 Commissioner of Education, embodying the 

 terms and some of the practical workings of Ihe 

 new provision for educational funds, which su- 

 perseded the regular annual appropriation for 

 public schools in March, 1901: " This bureau has 

 maintained the past year, outside of incorpom t <<! 

 towns, 27 public schools, with 33 teachers and 

 an enrolment of 1,741 pupils. . . . ' An Act ma- 

 king further provision for a civil government 'or 

 Alaska, and for other purposes,' approved June 

 6, 1900. section 460, chapter xliv, Part II (31 Si it. 

 L., 330), provides a tax on business and trade in 

 the form of a license. In section 203, chapter xxi. 

 Part V, said act, provision is made whereby ">0 

 per cent, of said license money collected in iucor- 



