I ALASKA: ITS HISTORY, INDUSTRIES, ETC. ii 



jecture, since the vendor is probably infringing the laws of 

 his country in selling them. 



Judging from conversations on the subject with my own 

 friends in England, the prevailing idea at home seems to be 

 that the hardships which one should be prepared to endure, 

 as regards climatic conditions in Alaska, are closely allied to 

 those experienced by members of a party in search of the 

 North Pole. If it is possible to form a sound opinion after 

 spending only some seven months in the country, and with- 

 out any knowledge of the Polar regions, I do not hesitate to 

 pronounce the idea a gross fallacy. The season of 1 903 was 

 noteworthy owing to the extreme lateness and severity of 

 the spring, which was stated by many of the old pioneers to 

 be a record in this respect, so far as their memory served 

 them. Even then, although the conditions were not those 

 of actual comfort, life in a small cotton tent was not unbear- 

 able even as early as the end of April. Many days in May 

 left much to be desired from the point of view of a man 

 living in camp on the Alaska Peninsula, but others were just 

 about as good as could be wished. During June, and from 

 then onwards to the end of September, the weather was a 

 great revelation to our party, bad weather being an un- 

 known quantity. The summer closely resembled a very fine 

 summer season in Norway, with the exception that I have 

 not seen in that country such long spells of days without 

 rain or wind as those in the Kenai Peninsula. On many 

 days during August and September, when climbing moun- 

 tains after sheep, or toiling over fallen timber in the 

 moose-country round Cook's Inlet, the heat of the sun 

 and the absence of wind were so marked that our only 

 desire was for less of the former and more of the latter. 

 Briefly then, if England could be favoured every year with 



