ALASKA. O 



lent, makesbift management of the Eussian-American Fur 

 Company in later times and tiiat of our energetic, economical 

 traders. 



The extravagant statements ■which have been made in regard 

 to the resources of this Territory, 'whicli, on the one hand, were 

 they true, would fit it for the future reception of a highly-civil- 

 ized population, while, on the other, it would be made a land 

 of utter desolation, worthlessness, and an entire loss of seven 

 millions of purchase-money, besides being a burden to the 

 General Government, these announcements, so often made 

 and reiterated throughout our country, have caused me to pay 

 great attention to the subject, and in this feport I have endeav- 

 ored to give a concise description of the agricultural character 

 of the Territory as I have seen it, which thus far might be truth- 

 fully summed up in saying that there are more acres of better 

 land lying now as wilderness andjungle in sightonthe mountain- 

 tops oftheAlleghanies from the car-windows of the Pennsylvania 

 road than can be found in all Alaska ; and whei it is remem- 

 bered that this land, wild, in the heart of one of our oldest and 

 most thickly-populated States, will remain as it now is, cheap, 

 and undisturbed for an indefinite time to come, notwithstand- 

 ing its close proximity to the homes of millions of ener.^etic 

 and enterprising men, it is not difficult to estimate the value of 

 the Alaskan acres, remote as they are, and barred out by a 

 most disagreeable sea-coast climate, leaving out altogether the 

 great West and vast agricultural regions of British America ; 

 but then, directly to the contrary, it would be wrong to hint by 

 this statement, true as it is, that the country is worthless, for 

 on the Seal Islands alone the Government possesses property 

 which would not remain in the market many days unsold were 

 it offered for seven millions, and from which the annual 

 revenue is doubly sufficient to meet all expenditures for the 

 proper government of the whole Territory, if the matter was 

 correctly adjusted. Again, it should be understood that, be- 

 yond a few outcrops of Tertiary coal and small leads near Sitka 

 of gold and silver, with reports of native copper in situ, nothing 

 is known whatever of the mineral wealth of the Territory at 

 the present writing, as far as I can learn, but which I have 

 reason to think will develop into some value. 



My opinion with reference to the fishing interests in the Ter- 

 ritory has been almost entirely formed by the accounts of old, 

 experienced fishermen whom I have met in the country person- 



