FEATURES OF THE SITKAIST REGION. 33 



materials. Ex2:)eriments were also institvited and prosecuted, to 

 some extent, in making bricks, so much prized in the construction 

 of the big conventional Russian "stoves," the turning of wooden- 

 wai'e, the manufacture of woollen stutis from the crude material 

 brought up from California ; but the great cost of importing skilled 

 labor from far-distant Russia, and the relative expense of maintain- 

 ing it here, caused the financial faihu'e of all these undertakings. 

 Much money was also Avasted in attempting to make iron out of the 

 different grades of ore found in many sections of the country. The 

 only real advantage that the company ever reaped from the work- 

 shops at Sitka was that which accrued to it from the manufacture 

 of agricultural implements, which it sold to the indolent rancheros 

 of California and Mexico. Thousands of the primitive ploughshares 

 and rude hoes and rakes used in those countries then were made 

 here ; also axes, hatchets, and knives were turned out by industri- 

 ous Muscovites for Alaskan post-trading. The foundry was engaged 

 most of the time in making the large iron and brazen bells which 

 every church and mission from Bering's Straits to IMexico called 

 for. Most of these bells are still in use or existence, and give am- 

 ple evidence of skilful workmanship, and of this early development 

 of a unique industry on our northern coast. 



Naturally enough the contrast of what the Russian Sitka was, 

 with what the American Sitka is to-day, is a striking one : then a 

 force of six or eight hundred white men, with wives and families, 

 busily engaged as above sketched, directed by a retinue of fifty or 

 sixty subalterns of the governor, lived right under the windows of 

 his castle and within the stockade ; then the Greek-Catholic Bishop 

 of all Alaska also resided there, with a staff of fifteen ordained 

 priests and scores of deacons all around him, maintained regardless 

 of expense, at this time, by the Imperial Government in that eccle- 

 siastical jDomp so peculiar to this Oriental Church — then a fleet of 

 twelve to fifteen sailing-vessels, from ships in size to mere sloops, 

 with two ocean-going steamers, made the waters of the bay their 

 regular rendezvous, their hardy crews assisting to give life and stir 

 to the town, shore, and streets — all this ordered by the concentra- 

 tion of the entire trade and commerce of Alaska at New Archangel. 



Now, how different ! As you step ashore you scarcel}' pause to 



notice the handful of whites who have assembled on the wharf, but 



at once the impression of general decay is made upon your mind ; 



the houses, mostly the original Russian buildings, are settling here, 



3 



