2 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



The list of explorers who have visited the country from 

 time to time includes Russians, Englishmen, Americans, and 

 Spaniards, but it is far too long to be quoted in any detail. 

 A Russian traveller, Peter Popoff, appears to have been the 

 first to bring reports to his native land concerning the 

 wondrous new country across the ocean, his voyage having 

 been made about the year 1711. In 1728, and again in 

 1 74 1, Russian expeditions were sent out under Bering. 

 They collected some valuable and authentic information 

 about Alaska, but Bering himself did not survive his second 

 voyage. He died after the shipwreck of his party on one 

 of the Aleutian Islands. 



In 1776 the celebrated James Cook sailed from England, 

 and after coasting along the shores of British Columbia, 

 reached Icy Cape on the coast of Alaska. He, like Bering, 

 did not live to bring back in person the reports and charts 

 of his voyage, which finally reached England, but died by a 

 tragic fate on one of the islands of the Hawaian group. 

 Another important British expedition, which left England 

 in 1827, was led by Beechey, who succeeded in reaching 

 Point Barrow, the most northern cape of Alaska ; and during 

 the same year Franklin made a voyage to the Arctic regions 

 along the extreme northern coast of Alaska. 



From its first discovery until the end of the eighteenth 

 century the coast of Alaska was overrun by parties of 

 Russians, who looted or traded furs from the natives. At 

 the end of this period, that is to say about 1800, the Russian- 

 American Company was started by an imperial order, and 

 under its auspices the general state of affairs in the country 

 somewhat improved. It does not appear, however, that, 

 previous to the sale of Alaska to the Americans in 1867, the 

 natives can have enjoyed a particularly good time. Unarmed 



