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The National Geographic Magazine 



covery, for many millions appear to be 

 in sight awaiting the pan or rocker to 

 separate the golden sand. The harvest 

 of gold from Cape Nome during the 

 summer of 1900 was $6,000,000 and the 

 total product of the Territory from 

 placers in 1899 was |i, 200, 000. 



But after the enumeration of these 

 latent resources of the Territory few are 

 left to describe. Alaska is not a country 

 for agriculture, nor for home-making. 

 It has paid us its purchase price man3^ 

 times over, and in the future will pour 

 much wealth into our laps, but it will 

 never pay, as other accessions to our 

 territory have paid, in making homes 

 for our people. At present few people 

 go to Alaska to live ; they go there 

 merely to stay until they have made 

 their stake. 



Farming as a business is impossible 

 under the climatic conditions prevalent 

 on the coast. It is granted at once that 

 it is possible to mature certain hardy 

 crops in favorable seasons, but this is 

 quite a different thing from raising crops 

 in competition with California and the 

 Willamette Valley, even when the cost 

 of freight is added. It must be done at 

 a profit or not at all. It is of no avail 

 to raise potatoes when they can be 

 brought from Portland and sold for less 

 than the cost of production in Alaska. 

 If there is any part of the Territory in 

 w^hich farming can be successfully car- 

 ried on, it is the interior, which has a 

 much more favorable summer climate 

 than the coast ; but even there success 

 would be doubtful. However, as the 

 higher rate of freight to the interior 

 will have the effect of a protective tariff 

 on home products, it may be possible to 

 raise grain and vegetables at a profit 



under conditions which would be pro- 

 hibitory on the coast. 



SCENERY 



There is one other asset of the Terri- 

 tory not yet enumerated — imponderable 

 and difficult to appraise, yet one of the 

 chief assets of Alaska, if not the great- 

 est. This is the scenery. There are 

 glaciers, mountains, and fiords else- 

 where, but nowhere else on earth is 

 there such abundance and magnificence 

 of mountain, fiord, and glacier scenery. 

 For thousands of miles the coast is a 

 continuous panorama. For the one Yo- 

 semite of California Alaska has hun- 

 dreds. The mountains and glaciers of 

 the Cascade Range are duplicated and a 

 thousand-fold exceeded in Alaska. The 

 Alaska coast is to become the show-place 

 of the earth, and pilgrims, not only from 

 the United States, but from far beyond 

 the seas, will throng in endless proces- 

 sion to see it. Its grandeur is more val- 

 uable than the gold or the fish or the 

 timber, for it will never be exhausted. 

 This value, measured by direct returns 

 in money received from tourists, will be 

 enormous ; measured by health and 

 pleasure, it will be incalculable. 



There is one word of advice and cau- 

 tion to be given those intending to visit 

 Alaska for pleasure, for sight-seeing. 

 If you are old, go by all means ; but if 

 you are young, stay away until you 

 grow older. The scenery of Alaska is 

 so much grander than anything else of 

 the kind in the world that, once beheld, 

 all other scenery becomes flat and in- 

 sipid. It is not well to dull one's ca- 

 pacity for such enjoyment by seeing the 

 finest first. 



