ALASKA. 



37 



Hyda fashion their buoyant and graceful canoes, both large and small, from 

 spruce logs, and split from them also the huge planks used in the construction of 

 their houses. The lumber manufactured from the Sitka spruce is much less 

 durable than the yellow cedar, very knotty, and consequently not adapted for 

 shipbuilding. 



3. Hemlock {^Abies mertensiana). — Though this tree generally exceeds the 

 spruce in size, it is of rare occurrence, much less valuable as timber, but well 

 adapted for fuel. 



Balsam fir [Abies canadensis). — This tree is found only in small, scattered 

 bodies, and is of little value as timber, but the natives use its bark for tanning 

 and for other purposes. 



5. Scrub pine (Pinus contorta). — The scrub pine is found throughout the 

 interior of Alaska in small, scattered bodies up to the highest latitudes, but it is 

 of no value as timber. 



Thus it will be seen that the forests of Alaska are altogether coniferous, as the 

 small bodies of birch and the alder and willow thickets on the lower Yukon and 

 Kuskokwim rivers can scarcely be considered to come under this head. Aside 

 from the yellow cedar, which is rare, the timber wealth of Alaska consists of the 

 Sitka spruce, which is not only abundant and large (trees of from 3 to 4 feet in 

 diameter being quite common in southeastern Alaska and Prince William Sound), 

 but also generally accessible. 



To give even an approximate estimate of the area of timbered lands in Alaska 

 is at present impossible, in view of our incomplete knowledge of the extent of 

 mountain ranges, which, though falling within the timber limits, must be deducted 

 from the superficial area of forest covering. 



A few small sawmills of exceedingly limited capacity have been erected at 

 various points in southeastern Alaska, to supply the local demand of trading 

 posts and mining camps, but finished building lumber is still largely imported even 

 into this heavily timbered region. In all western Alaska, but one small sawmill 

 is known to exist, which is on Wood Island, St. Paul Harbor, Kadiak. This 

 mill was first set up to supply sawdust for packing ice, but since the collapse oi 

 that industry, its operations have been spasmodic and not worth mentioning. 

 Lumber from Puget Sound and British Columbian mills is shipped to nearlv 

 all ports in western Alaska for the use of whites and halt-breeds, while the 

 natives in their more remote settlements obtain planks and boards by the very 

 laborious process of splitting logs with iron or ivory wedges. On the treeless 

 isles of the Shumagin and Aleutian groups, as well as in the southern settlements 

 of the Alaska peninsula, even firewood is imported from more favored sections 

 of the Territory and commands high prices. 



The driftwood washed upon the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic is of 

 very little value as building material and can not be worked into lumber. 



