ALASKA 



141 



ALASKA 



are left. The 5,000 Tlingits and the 500 Haidas, 

 an allied stock, live in Southeast Alaska. The 

 best known and the most numerous of these 

 groups are the Eskimos (which see). They 

 live chiefly along the shores of Bering Sea and 

 rho Arctic Ocean. 



The spiritual, moral and economic condition 

 of the natives has been a burden upon the 

 white people since the first days of Russian 

 occupation. Many of the natives promptly 

 became Christians, and the Greek or Russian 

 Orthodox Church still maintains missions in 

 Alaska. Since 1867 many other religious de- 

 nominations have established missions, and 

 to-day practically the entire native population 

 at least professes Christianity. Schools were 

 formerly maintained in connection with nearly 

 all missions, but all native schools are now 

 under the control of the United States Bureau 

 of Education. The introduction of the Siberian 

 reindeer, to take the place of the caribou, is 

 the work of this Bureau. Another factor 

 which has helped the condition of the natives 

 is the rigid enforcement, since 1909, of laws 

 prohibiting the sale or even the gift of intoxi- 

 cating liquors to natives. 



Most of the natives live in small settlements 

 in a more or less strict tribal organization. 

 Many of these settlements are near, and often 

 larger than, the cities and towns built by the 

 whites. Fairbanks, with 3,541 people in 1910, 

 largest incorporated city, and the other 

 important towns are Nome, Cordova, Juneau 

 (the capital), Ketchikan, Treadwell, Douglas, . 

 Skagway and Valdez. Seward, the terminus of 

 the government railway, was incorporated in 



1912, and Tanana, a mining community, in 



1913. Sitka, once the capital and most impor- 

 tant city, now has only 500 people. All incor- 

 porated towns have public schools, supported 

 chiefly by various license fees,. 



Other Points of Interest. Measured in de- 

 grees of longitude, the difference between the 

 most easterly point of Alaska and the most 

 westerly point of its island chain is greater than 

 between New York and San Francisco; 

 out the distance in miles, 2,650, is about 600 

 less, since Alaska is much farther north, where 

 the degrees are shorter. 



When Secretary Seward was asked what he 



regarded as the most important act of his 



il career he replied without hesitation, 



iiase of Alaska." 



Some of the Indians of Alaska make lamps 



v use the dried body of a 



merely passing a pith or bark wick through 



it. So oily is this "candlefish," as it is called, 

 that it keeps the wick burning a long time. 



Among the popular nicknames of Alaska are 

 "Seward's Folly" and "Uncle Sam's Ice Box." 



A traveler has written, "In Alaska a glacier 

 is a wonderful torrent that seems to have been 

 suddenly frozen when about to plunge into the 

 sea. Down and down mountains wind these 

 snow-clad serpents, extending miles inland, 

 with as many arms sometimes as an octopus. 

 . . . Think of Niagara Falls frozen stiff, 

 add thirty-six feet to its height, and you have 

 a slight idea of the terminus of Muir Glacier." 



The "Labrador huskies," long-legged, shaggy 

 dogs, are still in many parts of Alaska the chief 

 motive power for transportation, each dog pull- 

 ing easily a load of about 150 pounds. The 

 native Indian dogs are also used, but they are 

 always hungry and are such thieves that they 

 are not entirely satisfactory. 



In the winter the nights are twenty-two or 

 twenty-three hours long in the Arctic region, 

 but the light from the aurora borealis is so 

 strong that work goes on just as usual. 



When the United States purchased Alaska 

 the general opinion was that it was "wasteful 

 extravagance to pay $7,200,000 for 590,000 

 square miles of icebergs and polar bears." 



The United States mail sledge is drawn by 

 dogs, the pick of the lot, and seem to delight 

 in their work. The government has consid- 

 ered the question of transportation of mails by 

 airships in certain sections of the country; it 

 has been declared entirely feasible. 



Perhaps nothing more accurately describes 

 the interior of Alaska than that expression be- 

 loved of writers the Great White Silence. 



In ancient geologic times Alaska was the 

 home of great herds of mammoths, those huge, 

 hairy elephants which were so much larger than 

 any animals that exist to-day. 



Salmon furnishes the chief food of the In- 

 dians o? the Pacific coast. Travelers declare 

 that the dried fish are stored in such great 

 quantities against the coming of winter that 

 they form a floor, several feet thick, in the 

 Eskimo huts. Each day parts of this "floor" 

 are eaten, until by summer the snow floor 

 appears. 



Scientists say that the Yukon carries to the 

 sea almost as much water as does the Missis- 

 sippi, and tint its vast floods keep the sea 

 water fresh several miles from the coast. 



The latitude range of Alaska is as great as 

 from Duluth to New Orleans. 



In the Panhandle region thorn aro literally 



