ALASKA AND ITS MINERAL RESOURCES 139 



the Pioneer American Fur Co., and in 1871 entered the service 

 of the Alaska Commercial Company, from which he retired, with 

 a modest competency, in 1875. He is now living in his native 

 town in the Province of Quebec. An indefatigable traveler, a 

 delightful companion en route or by the camp fire, full of expe- 

 dients whatever befell, tactful and adroit in his dealing with the 

 natives, generous and helpful to the inexperienced — in short, a 

 capital voyageur of the best type — no one who knew him in those 

 da} 7 s but thinks of him always with admiration and affection. 

 His services to geography are commemorated by Lake Lebarge, 

 on the direct route to the Klondike, and Lebarge river, an afflu- 

 ent of the Yukon from the north below Fort Yukon. The name 

 Lebarge has been variously spelled ; the form in use during the 

 expedition has been adopted as here written b}' the U. S. Board 

 on Geographic Names. Frank Ketchum lies under the green turf 

 of an Unalaska hillside. May his faithful companion and our 

 good friend survive for many happy years. 



Wm. H. Dall. 



ALASKA AND ITS MINERAL RESOURCES* 



By Samuel Franklin Emmons, 

 U. S. Geological Survey 



INTRODUCTION 



Alaska was first visited by a Russian expedition under Bering 

 in 1741. In 1799 the territory was granted to a Russo-American 

 fur company, by the Emperor Paul VIII, and in 1839 the charter 

 was renewed for twenty-four years. In 1867 it was ceded to the 

 United States for a money payment of $7,200,000. The first 

 mining excitement in the interior was in the Cassiar mining 

 district in British Columbia around Dease lake, near the head 

 of the Stikine river, from. 1871 to 1887. Later, prospectors found 

 their way into the more northern regions and clown the valley 

 of the Yukon into American territory, where they discovered 

 valuable placers on Birch creek, Mission creek, and Fortymile 

 creek, small southern tributaries of the Yukon. In the autumn 



* This paper, published with the permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, is an abstract of a pamphlet prepared by his direction to accompany a map of 

 Alaska, and giving such information, compiled from data in the possession of the Sur- 

 vey, as it was thought would prove useful to the traveler or prospector who might visit 

 that region. 



