3 3° The National Geographic Magazine 



COMMERCIAL ALASKA 



THE title of a monograph just is- 

 sued by the Treasury Bureau of 

 Statistics is "Commercial Alaska in 

 1901." In it are presented some strik- 

 ing figures about this little-understood 

 territory of the United States. A mill- 

 ion dollars a month is the estimate made 

 by the Bureau of Statistics of the pres- 

 ent value of the market which ' ' frozen 

 Alaska ' ' offers to the producers and 

 manufacturers of the United States. 



Gold, fish, and furs are, according to 

 this monograph, the principal industries 

 of Alaska at the present time, and they 

 send to the United States 15 million dol- 

 lars' worth of their products — 8 mill- 

 ions of gold, 6 millions of fish, chiefly 

 salmon, and the remainder furs. 



The cost of Alaska was $7,200,000. 

 The revenue which the government has 

 derived from it since its purchase 

 amounts to over 9 million dollars, and 

 the value of the products are now twice 

 as much every year as it cost. The 

 total value of the products of Alaska 

 brought to the United States since its 

 purchase is (according to the best esti- 

 mates that the Bureau of Statistics is 

 able to make) about 150 millions, of 

 which 50 millions are precious metals, 

 .so millions products of the fisheries, 

 chiefly salmon, and 50 millions more 

 furs, chiefly seal fur. Probabfy 50 

 million dollars of American capital are 

 invested in Alaskan industries and busi- 

 ness enterprises, including transporta- 

 tion systems. In the salmon fisheries 

 alone the companies engaged have a 



capitalization of 22 million dollars, and 

 the value of their plants, including ves- 

 sels, is given at 12 million dollars. In 

 the mining industries there are large 

 investments, the great quartz mill at 

 Juneau being the largest quartz stamp- 

 mill in the world, while several other 

 quartz mills represent large invest- 

 ments. 



The Mazamas. — The annual outing of 

 the Mazamas this summer is a trip to 

 the summit of Mount Adams. The 

 Mazamas are a society of mountain 

 climbers and one of the most unique 

 organizations in the United States. The 

 qualification for membership is the as- 

 cent of some snow-capped peak formid- 

 able enough to make the ascent more 

 than a pleasure trip. The society was 

 organized in the summer of 1894, "on 

 the summit of Mount Hood. So much 

 enthusiasm was felt at that time that 

 193 people climbed the 11,225 f ee t to 

 the summit of Mount Hood in order to 

 attend the first meeting. Each year 

 the club makes successful expeditions 

 up some mountain. Mounts Baker, 

 Rainier, Adams, Hood, and Jefferson, 

 us well as Crater Lake, on the summit 

 of Mount Mazamas, have each been 

 visited. 



An expedition to take meridian meas- 

 urements in the Arctics, north of Spitz- 

 bergen, left Tromso late in Jul} 7 . The 

 expedition was organized in Sweden, 

 and is directed by Dr P. Rubin and inr 

 eludes Dr von Zeipal as astronomer and 

 Lieu. Duner as cartographer. 



GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



Mosaics from India. By Margaret B. 



Denning. Illustrated. New York : 



Fleming H. Revell Co. 



The title of this book is well fitted to 

 its contents. Each chapter is a story 



in itself. The customs of the people 

 are set forth by graphic terms and illus- 

 trations. The author shows the oppo- 

 sition that has been brought against 

 the missionaries by the superstitions of 



