[Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasbington. ] 
new york, Thursday, December 4 , 1879. 
) Volume 13—No. 18, 
i No* 111 Fulton Street, New York. 
Original. 
MOONLIGHT ON THE ANDROSCOGGIN. 
I STOOD in early youth upon the brink 
Of a sileut river, flowing solemn, slow, 
At that mysterious hour when shadow's grow 
To amnlo-e shade, and outlines softly sink 
To dimly blended masses dark, and shrink 
From earthly sight all earthly tilings below. 
Tho faint wind’s rushing wings had cooled the glow 
From out the last long ray of dying pink 
And erimson of the Sunset’s parting flush, 
And all was gloom. When o’er the rippled wave 
There leaped a sudden flash of silver Light— 
A quivering lanoe. All nature was a-bush. 
As haughtily along the jewelled pave 
Majestic swept the glorious queen of night. 
The shadows fled. The oloud of shimmering mist 
Fluttered, throbbed, and broke in rugged rents 
When through them flashed t he shaft, as through the tents 
Of some wild desert tribe avenging hissed 
The gliteriug spears of Tshmaelites, who wist 
Uf no law but of might. The tall flags bent 
Before the royal presence, as they sent 
Their homage thro’ the quiet ah', and kissed 
The ground In meek submission. Through tho reeds 
A murmuring whisper crept, that swiftly swelled 
The zephyrs to a rushing blast, and swept 
The white waves onward, strung with glistening heads— 
Then died away. And upward calmly welled 
The deep, strong breathing of a world that slept. 
Bethel, Me. Jobs Preston True, 
gt(c j§e§onru§ of JfhtzItH. 
W tFROM OUR OOBRESPONBENT ON BOARD THE JAMESTOWN.j 
T HE uninterrupted rain and storm for (lie last three 
weeks have so entirely broken up all shooting and 
fishing excursions that I have found myself at a loss for 
a supply of material suitable for your columns, but a 
scrap book loaned me by a friend bas filled the void. In 
this book my friend has pasted the gleanings from each 
monthly batch of papers, in which items in connection 
with Alaska affairs have appeared. It has become thus 
a history of the attempted rise and successful fall of the 
Sitka Republic. 
Among the scraps I find under date of January, 1879, 
a letter from Professor Henry W. Elliott, written to 
answer and confute certain points and assertions in the 
report of Major Morris, Special Agent Of the Treasury 
Department, as to Alaska, I am fully aware that Pro¬ 
fessor Elliott is entitled to he considered a reliable au¬ 
thority upon Alaska, as he has devoted much time and 
study to the subject, and from conversation with him 
previous to my visit to the country, and comparison of 
the views then expressed by him with such as I have 
formed, I find that in many essential poiuts our views 
coincide ; but in some, as expressed in this letter, in an 
interesting article published in Harpers of November, 
> 77 , and in letters to myself, we differ widely. In his 
critique on the paper of Morris he (Elliott) declares his 
“ willingness to cheerfully acknowledge himself in 
error” if the views he "holds and publishes can be shown 
by Morris to be erroneous. I do not know and have never 
Been Major M., and have no disposition to act as his 
champion, but I have learned something about Alaska, 
and looking upon Elliott's printed matter as public prop¬ 
erty I propose to myself the duty of accepting the chal¬ 
lenge thrown out to the Major. 
I think that it is probable that both gentlemen are some¬ 
what in the positions of the two honest men who fought 
to prove—the one that the shield was golden; the other 
that it was but silver. And I think that the advocate of 
silver is rather inclined to attribute the tarnished surface 
to an undue admixture of baser metal. They have seen 
this shield from very different points of view. I have 
been skirmishing around it for some time with my eyes 
well open, and provided with excellent assaying outfit, by 
which I have been enabled to, I believe, arrive at a very 
safe understanding as to the true nature of the metal. 
” Coming down from my generalities,” the three main 
points at issue between the two authorities are in connec¬ 
tion with tho resources of Alaska, agricultural and min- 
evalogical, and for stock-raising. 
As to the first I will quote :— 
“The Major knows as well as I do that the agricultural 
possibilities of Alaska are null and void; if he does not. 
then let him cite a single instance where an acre of 
ground has ever been or can be annually planted in Alaska 
successfully with a crop of either corn, wheat, barley, or 
potatoes. 
As to the second — 
“If bethinks stock of any kind can be successfully 
raised wheresoever in Alaska, let him locate a spot therein 
where he will undertake to manage profitably 500 head 
of cattle, sheep, or hogs; where he will not have to feed, 
water, and shelter then! six months out of every year, in 
a country where he cannot cure hay nor grow grain, 
As to the third — 
“ If the gold mines, of which the Major speaks so posi¬ 
tively, are so rich, why are they not worked? * * * 
When miners find anything of value in Alaska they will 
go it lively without any assistance from the Govern¬ 
ment,” and speaks of such reports as “ fairy tales.” 
Before undertaking to discuss the points thus raised, I 
wish to establish a firm basis. I assume, then, that tho 
strict letter of the text is not material so long as its spirit 
is taken fairly into consideration. For instance, that 
ability or inability upon the part of Major Morris to locate 
Spots to successfully manage a market garden, or run a 
stock farm, cure and make hay, etc., 'or superintend a 
gold mine, knot the questionat issue, but rather whether 
these businesses can ho transacted by auy one. 
Again, I would note that the wording of the points k so 
general that it would be impossible to either prove or dis¬ 
prove them entirely. The “either” and “or” in the first 
problem, and the specific number of head of stock in the 
third, are saving clauses. 
So far as I can judge, I agree with the Professor that 
an attempt to cultivate the cereals enumerated would 
probably he crowned with failure ; tire; summers are not 
long or hot enough to ripen the grain before the Septem¬ 
ber rains ; but potatoes can be grown and many other val¬ 
uable vegetables, as I shall presently show by facts. 
I am not sufficiently posted in the mysteries of a gran¬ 
ger's profession to undertake to speak very positively as 
to the number of stock of any kind which, any given 
amount of land would support, but that there is land 
here which will support some stock, I will ako prove 
by facts. 
And as to the necessity of giving shelter, food, and 
water for six months out of the year, 1 do not believe that 
it exists, and will give reasons for my unbelief; and 
facts again to prove that hay of good quality can be cured 
and has been. I will in answer, first treat of the agricul¬ 
tural possibilities and stock prospects in connection. 
First, as to vegetables. We have been here three 
mouths, and during that period have been plentifully 
supplied with a variety of good vegetables, among which 
have been radishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, cauliflower, 
cabbage, peas, turnips and potatoes, and have a prospect 
during the coming month of beets, parsnips and celery, 
all of which look well in the gardens. 
The cauliflower and cabbage are as good as I ever ate ; 
the potatoes are just coming on, and are not quite ripe 
yet. I had this day (Sept. 17th) a,t my dinner, a potato 
grown here which was seven inches long, three inches 
thick, and weighed one pound five ounces, and it was one 
of many I have seen which would average from one-half 
to three-quarters of a pound in weight. Its flavor was 
good, and 1 shall, as do all other people here, depend 
upon this market for my winter's supply. 
There are many small gardens whieh return crops, us 
in all other countries, in proportion to the care and Blrill 
displayed in their cultivation. I have seen plenty of 
“ the watery walnuts dubbed potatoes,” but they came 
from gardens belonging to people so excessively pious 
that they trusted God for everything, and put in no work 
themselves. Some of these gardens are over “a single 
acre” in extent, and have supplied good crops annually 
for quite a while. On Japonski and Biorka, and Survey 
aud other islands there are hundreds of acreB whieh 
could be cultivated with profit, if the population were 
great enough to furnish customers. On Biorka, an island 
about tweve miles from here, there is now under cultiva¬ 
tion a thriving vegetable garden of several acres, and 
these acres have been under " annual” cultivation for 
some years. 
In regard to stock raising : While the army was here 
Japonski Island was used as a stock ranebe. There lias 
been kept on it as many as sixty head of cattle, over one 
hundred of sheep, and over three hundred of hogs ; all 
of which obtained then- own food for a much greater por¬ 
tion of the year than they could have done in any Slate 
north of Alabama; and there was no difficulty iu getting 
good hay. Twelve miles north of here are the Katliansky 
and Nesqu.'isarklcy bays and plains, which, having been 
S lanted with timothy some years ago by a settler named 
loyle, furnished to the troops an average of sixty tons of 
good hay, cured during the heated spell of July, when 
the temperature goes up into the nineties ; and this year 
those who cuta little for their own supply estimate that 
there was at least one hundred tons. In the immediate 
vicinity of Sitka there are three thousand acres of arable 
land, much of which is now well grassed and covered 
with white clover. And on the summits of some of the 
foot hills there are plateaus now covered with .wild 
grasses, where, innumerable deer obtain pasturage and 
where goats and mountain 9heep would thrive, in gen¬ 
eral terms, then, I believe that the vicinity of Sitka, if 
provided with experienced truck gardeners and cattle 
raisers, would support with vegetables, fresh meat of 
several varieties, fish, game and berries of a dozen kinds, 
a population of three thousand people, and San Francisco, 
Portland aud Victoria would supply the cereals and 
groceries. 
But no such population could find homes here now. 
Most of the land belongs to the Government, and there is 
no way provided by which a home can be procured. The 
Territory having been ceded to us by treaty, k not sub¬ 
ject to preemption, and there are no" buildings here suit¬ 
able for dwellings which can bo obtained. 
The miners, who come by each steamer, camp out in 
the most gypsy-like manner, or roll up in their blankets 
in some one of the vacant rooms in the barn-like, dilapi¬ 
dated Government houses. There is uo hotel or board- 
ing-bouso of much capacity. Groceries and allnecessi- 
ties other than raised in the country are very expensive. 
An irruption of a hundred men would produce a comer 
on everything ; but with due time the expansion is prac¬ 
ticable. 
And now about the mines. I will not undertake, Mr. 
Editor, to give you any very valuable information about 
them. Reports in regard to mining matters are generally 
presumed to be tinctured, and I wish to avoid any such 
implication. 
But 1 will say that I firmly believe that the stories of 
their richuess are not all “fairy tales," and that there is 
plenty of rock which will pay well for working in this 
vicinity'. There are on Baranoff Island, on which Sitka 
stands, fifteen or twenty located and recorded quartz 
ledges, many of which have been found by assay to bo 
auriferous, and some of which are now being developed. 
A five-stamp mill, which had been laboring under disad¬ 
vantages incident to want of experience ol' its managers, 
“cleaned up" for last steamer and sent to market a fif¬ 
teen hundred dollar bar of gold — Alaska’s first; aud it 
will probably repeat tbe performance next month. 
And now, Mr. Editor, I think that you may fairly ex¬ 
pect that in your next issue there will be a card from 
Prof. E.. “ cheerfully acknowledging himself iu error.” 
He must believe my statements, even if he differs from 
my conclusions, and in thus entering into the discussion 
I comply with his own request that “ you 1 1] shall lake 
full notes, aud give to the world the truth about Alaska, 
as Isee it," and expressing a most flattering estimate of 
my capability and honesty. 
I will devote the rest of this letter to extracts from my 
journal: — 
EXTRACTS FROM MX DIARY. 
Sept. 1st to 7th.— A dull and gloomy week, with rain 
on six of the seven days. Wind generally from S. E., 
twice strengthening into a gale, as we could judge from 
the heavy sea visible outside, which produced heavy surf 
on the outlying reefs and islands. Total rainfall 2.3 
inches (don’t point that 23. I dread the man in your 
office, who, in my last, turned table-cloth and Table 
mountain into Sable.) 
Very few sea fish brought in on account of storm. 
Dog salmon very plentiful; the Indians and Creoles 
gaffing great numbers of them in the fresh water streams. 
No one but themselves will, however, partake of these 
hideous looking creatures. Salmon still jumping among 
the channels between the islands, but not very plentiful. 
Hunter’s caunery closed work and shipped produce, 
which, with that previously sent, amounts to over 280,- 
000 lbs. canned, and a number of barrels of corned. 
Caplin: For several days immense shoals of a small 
fish, which I believe to be caplin, have at each flood tide 
lined with a windrow, a yard wide, and several inches 
deep, the benches in the vicinity. The fish is about five 
inches long ; the back is nearly flat, and extends on each, 
side into a ridge, The back is dark green ; sides and 
belly pearl color, tinted with rose: ventral flu, remark¬ 
ably large ; no visible scales. They come in myriads ; 
and it was but a few minutes'work to gather a bushel, 
alive and hopping. Each incoming wave stranded its 
host, who foolishly seemed to be trying their best to get 
ashore out of the way. We found thorn very delicious 
greatly resembling smelt; but better, if possible. 
Codfish : A specimen, of so-called, was sent me from 
the cannery, where they gather in numbers to feed on 
the offal which escapes the squaws. This fish was not a 
cod, if, as I believe, all members of that family possess 
the tentacle from the lower jaw. This had none ; nor 
have I seen a fish here which has. In general appearance, 
this one resembled a rock cod. 
Trout: We have entirely ceased trout fishing; tho 
creeks are too high ; the fish too slimy, soft, aud flavor¬ 
less ; and salmon roe, our only successful bait, lias be¬ 
come scarce. 
There has hut little shooting been done during the 
week. A few beach birds have been shot, mostly plover 
and ringneoks. 
A petrel, of a genus entirely new to me, was shot near 
the ship. In shape it resembles the ordinary Mother 
Carey, but is somewhat larger, and differs in color. The 
length of the ordinary petrel is about seven inches ; color 
