380 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Ocean in the north, and having for its southern boundary a line indicating the water- 

 shed between the Yukon River system and the streams emptying into the Arctic and 

 impinging upon the coast of Bering Sea just north of Port Clarence." 



With this vast tract this company has nothing whatever to do. The interior is 

 virtually an unknown and uuexplored region. As to the coast trade, we have no 

 knowledge or sources of information not possessed by the public at large. We believe 

 that the facts, as stated by Mr. Petrott", are correct. He says: 



" It is impossible to obtain statistics of the provisions, manufactured goods, arms, 

 and ammunition shipped to the Arctic coast of Alaska, and disposed ot among the 

 natives there, chiefly because the bulk of this trade has fallen into the hands of ille- 

 gitimate traders, who clear from American ports for the coast of Siberia, then touch 

 at the Sandwich Islands to lay in a supply of spirituous liquors, and finally cruise 

 along the Alaskan coast, purchasing all the furs, fossils, and walrus ivory in the hands 

 of the Arctic Inuuits with rum, breech-loading arms, and ammunition. Tliis traffic, 

 though quite extensive in volume, lies at present altogether without the pale of offi- 

 cial investigation, and only the continuous presence of one or two vessels of the rev- 

 enue marine in these waters could reduce the trade of the Arctic division to a legiti- 

 mate basis." 



This company may, therefore, be excused from any defense as to the Arctic division. 



Fourth. The Yukon division. 



This division lies immediately to the south of the Arctic division, contains 176,715 

 square miles, and comprises the valley of the Yukon River as far as it lies in Alaska, 

 and its tributaries north and south. It extends east and west from Bering Sea to 

 the British Possessions, and is bounded south, in part, by the Kodiak division, already 

 reviewed, and the Koskokvira division, shortly to be referred to. No State or Terri- 

 tory in the United States at all approaches in area this vast Yukon division, except- 

 ing only Texas. Yet, within its wide domaiu, the Alaska Commercial Company has 

 but one station or trading post, and that is at Saint Michael or Michaelovski, situated 

 on Norton Sound, which its vessels visit once a year only. At this place the company 

 has a store and an agent and assistant agent. A captain and engineer to each of two 

 small river steamers, a carpenter, and a laborer. Its business is with the traders who 

 number about a dozen. It never comes in contact with the natives or hunters, but 

 obtains all the commodities it purchases from the traders at agreed rates, and in turn 

 sells its supplies to the traders at fair prices. 



The company also runs two small steamers from St. Michael up the river in summer 

 to carry supplies to the traders, and to bring down the peltries there purchased. It 

 also at times receives orders or commissions for articles to be purchased at San Fran- 

 cisco, which it always fulfills at fair and reasonable rates, and delivers the articles at 

 St. Michael or on the river. The traders referred to also have two small steamers of 

 their own running from St. Michael to carry supplies up to their stations on the river 

 and return with pelts. These traders also have stations at various places on the 

 river where they keep supplies, with which to barter with the hunters for peltries. 

 There are eight of these stations on the river — Fort Reliance, Tanana-h, Novikakat, 

 Nulato, Anvik, Mission, Andreivsky, and Kotlik. The entire business of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company in this division amounts to about $30,000 per annum. 



Vessels can but rarely, and for short periods, approach the anchorage, or very near 

 the anchorage, at St. Michael, and never before the latter part of June, on account of 

 large bodies of ice that drift in the waters of Norton Sound and the straits between 

 the delta of the Yukon and St. Lawrence Island. The river is not open for navigation 

 untilJuly, and closes at the end of September. Sea-going vessels can not enter the 

 river, and all supplies for the interior are transferred necessarily at St. Michael to the 

 smaller crafts that ascend the river. The vessels of the traders are usually frozen in 

 near their upper trading stations in winter, and return in the following summer, 

 whilst the small steamers of the Alaska Commercial Company make return trips and 

 winter at St. Michael. 



The mountains are covered with forests almost impenetrable, and the great plains 

 are almost all swamps and covered with snow for seven and eight months of the year. 

 Mining has not proved a success, or sufficiently promising to induce a large influx of 

 miners. Some mines have been found on the Tennanah, paying little more than la- 

 borers' wages, for the season is too brief to warrant any expectation of greater re- 

 wards. We respectfully refer to the statement of Mr. Schieflelin, an energetic and 

 experienced miner, found in the appendix. (No. 6 of Appendix.) 



Wliilst the river is abundant in fish and the forests in game, the food supply from 

 these sources is not greater than the demands of the Indians, for in the fishing sea- 

 son the concentration of tribes on the river banks is so great as practically to depop- 

 ulate the greater part of the adjacent territory. The better authority and most re- 

 liable explorers of this region state that there can be no well-grounded expectation of 

 this ever being an agricultural country. 



