ALASKA. 



277 



FOKT ST. MICHAEL. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



ALASKA. 



Purchase of Alaska by the United States. The Russian American Telegraph Scheme. Whymper's 

 Trip up the Yukon. Dogs. The Start. Extempore Water-filter. Snow-shoes. The Frozen Yu- 

 kon. Under-ground Houses. Life at Nulato. Cold Weather. Auroras. Approach of Summer. 

 Breaking-up of the Ice. Fort Yukon. Furs. Descent of the Yukon. Value of Goods. Arctic 

 and Tropical Life. Moose-hunting. Deer-corrals. Lip Ornaments. Canoes. Four-post Coffin. 

 The Kenaian Indians. The Aleuts. Value of Alaska. 



IN 1867 the Russian Government sold to the United States all of its posses- 

 sions in America, comprising an area of more than 500,000 square miles, equal 

 in extent to France, Germany, and Great Britain, stretching from 54 40' north 

 latitude to the Arctic Ocean. The sum paid was about seven and a quarter 

 millions of dollars. In this purchase is included Mount St. Elias, the highest 

 peak in North America, rising to a height 61 more than 18,000 feet, and one of 

 the loftiest single peaks on the globe. The real value of this new acquisition 

 was quite unknown to both buyer and seller. In the southern part, and on the 

 islands, there is considerable vegetation and forests of large trees ; and it is 

 said that there is some mineral wealth. But the greater part of the territory 

 is essentially Arctic. It now bears the designation of the Territory of Alaska, 

 an abbreviation of Aliaska, the name of the peninsula stretching into the North 

 Pacific Ocean. 



Little information has as yet been gained of this region. The most impor- 

 tant is the result of a journey up the River Yukon, performed in 1866 by Mr. 

 Frederick Whymper, an artist connected with the Telegraph Expedition. This 

 telegraph enterprise was undertaken in the confident expectation that the ca- 



