ALASKA. 19 



In MassacLusetts* our forefatbers had a land in tchlch all the 

 necessaries of life, and many of the luxuries, could be x>^oduced 

 from the soil ivith certainty from year to year; in Alaska their 

 lot would have been quite the reverse, and they could have main- 

 tained themselves therewith no better success than the present 

 inhabitants. Attention should be directed to the development 

 of its mineral wealth, which I have reason to think will yet 

 prove to be considerable, and effort should be made to stimu- 

 late and protect the present available industries of the fur- 

 trade, the canning of salmon, &c. 



*"I bave seen with surprise and regret, that men whose forefathers 

 ■wielded the ax in the forests of Maine, or gathered scanty crops on the hill- 

 sides of Massachusetts, have seen fit to throw contempt and derision on the 

 acquisition of a great territory naturally far richer than that in which 

 they themselves originated, (!) principally on the grovmd that it is a ' cold' 

 country." (W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Eesources, p. 242, Boston, Lee & 

 iShepard, 1870.) 



