ALASKA. 1 27 



and Sitka. For this service, they are paid the sum of $18,000 

 per year. When other trips are made and other phices are visited 

 by the steamers of the company, mails are also carried and deliv- 

 ered on those trips and at those other places. By this more uncer- 

 tain service, several mails have been delivered at Metlakahtla, Mary 

 Island, Chilkat, and Hoonah, and the mail has been carried v^^eekly 

 instead of semi-monthly to the first-named places during the months 

 of June, July, and August. Another mail contract insures monthly 

 mails served from Wrangel to Klawak and Howkan (or Jackson, 

 which is the post-office name). A small steamer or steam launch 

 plies between Wrangel and Howkan. Between Sitka and Una- 

 laska, a distance of about 1,3^0 miles, a small steamer has made 

 seven regular monthly trips, stopping at six places, from April to 

 October.'' 



In Special Consular Reports, Highways of Commerce, 1895, 

 page 29, it is stated that the tare from San Francisco to Wrangel, 

 by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, is $50; to Juneau or 

 Sitka, $70. There is also steamship service from vSt. Michael's, 

 via Unalaska to Seattle and San Francisco. 



The report of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General of the 

 United States for 1896 says that a post-office was authorized at 

 Circle City March 19, 1896. The carrier for the first trip started 

 from Juneau June 11 and reached Circle City July 14, carrying 

 1,474 letters. He returned by way of St. Michael, reaching 

 Seattle August 19. On the second trip, the carrier left Juneau 

 July 8, reaching Circle City August 6. Another trip was to be 

 made in September, and four between November and May, 1897. 



PROPOSED RAILROAD. 



In 1886, in reply to an inquiry on the part of the United States 

 Senate, the Director of the United vStates Geological Survey, 

 Mr. J. W. Powell, presented a report on the feasibility of con- 

 structing a railroad between the United States, Asiatic Russia, 



