ALASKA. 1 9 



In Massacbusetts* our forefathers had a land in which all the 

 necessaries of life, and many of the luxuries, could be produced 

 from the soil with certainty from year to year; in Alaska their 

 lotwouldhavebeeu quite the reverse, and they could have main- 

 tained themselves there with no better success than the present 

 inhabitants. Attention should be directed to the development 

 of its mineral wealth, which I have reason to think will yet 

 prove to be considerable, and effort should be made to stimu- 

 late and protect the present available industries of the fur- 

 trade, the canning of salmon, &c. 



* " I have seen with surprise and regret, that men whose forefathers 

 •wielded the ax in the forests of Maine, or gathered scanty crops on the hill- 

 sides of Massachusetts, have seen fit to throw contempt and derision on the 

 acquisition of a great territory naturally far richer thau that iu which 

 they themselves originated, (!) principally on the ground that it is a ' cold' 

 country." (W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Kesources, p. 242, Boston, Lee & 

 Bhepard, 1870.) 



