RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN ALASKA 



.BY 



ELIZA RUHAMAH SCIDMORE 



When the United States made purchase of Russian America 

 by the treaty of June 20, 1867, there was acquired a vast empire, 

 whose shores were not even wholly surveyed or explored, whose 

 interior was untrodden by whites, and of whose resources almost 

 nothing was known. It had been maintained only as a fur- 

 preserve by the Russian company holding lease of the entire 

 country. They had made no effort to explore the interior, satis- 

 fied that the natives should bring their pelts down to the coast 

 forts. They had traced only the largest river for a few hun- 

 dred miles, and the Hudson Bay Company's men had dis- 

 covered its head-waters and found out that the Yukon and the 

 Russian Kwichpak were the same. The Coast range and its 

 great peaks were only known as navigators of the Pacific had 

 seen them, and of the interior ranges only the surveys of the 

 Western Union Telegraph Company in 1863-'65 had given any 

 account. 



There was a considerable interest in the new territory at the 

 time of its purchase, and Secretary Seward immediately arranged 

 for a scientific reconnaissance in the summer of 1867 under 

 the charge of Professor George Davidson, of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. His observations covered the coast 

 country from Dixon entrance to Unalaska, and so much of in- 

 terest resulted that the American Geographical Society of New 

 York petitioned Congress to have a thorough survey made of the 

 newly acquired territory. 



A quarter of a century has elapsed without the general govern- 

 ment yet undertaking any systematic scheme of survey or ex- 

 ploration. There are no official maps of the mining regians, 

 which have been adding $1,000,000 in gold to the wealth of the 

 world each year. Only the mineral laws and not the general 

 land laws apply to the territory, which has but a skeleton form 

 of government and no voice or representation at Washington. 



(173) 



