THE FORESTS OF ALASKA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The ordinary resident of the United States has no conception of 

 what Alaska really is. He has heard of the " Klondike " for the last 

 fourteen years, and he wrongly thinks it is in Alaska. He has heard 

 of great glaciers and high mountains, and that somewhere the ther- 

 mometer occasionally registers 80° below zero. Beyond this his 

 knowledge is likely to be even more fragmentary and unreliable. In 

 reality, Alaska is of continental dimensions, and one can no more state 

 briefly what its characteristics are than he can similarly describe those 

 of the entire United States; yet a few words concerning its most 

 salient features will not be amiss. 



Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000. The 

 value of all its products since that date has been nearly $350,000,000. 

 It has an area of 58G.000 square miles, or 375.000.000 acres, or more 

 than ten times that of the State of Illinois. From southeastern 

 Alaska to the end of the Aleutian Islands is as far as from Savannah, 

 Ga.. to Los Angeles. Cal. Its northernmost and southernmost points 

 are as widely separated as Canada and Mexico. Its range of tempera- 

 ture is greater than that between Florida and Maine. 



More than one-third of this immense territory is yet but little ex- 

 plored, despite the many years that it has been in the possession of the 

 United States, and despite the active efforts of prospectors, of traders, 

 and of representatives of various branches of the National Govern- 

 ment. The permanent population at the present time is estimated 

 at some 40,000 whites and 25,000 natives; about half of the latter are 

 Eskimo in the region adjacent to Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. 

 The most important product is gold, of which the output in 1908 was 

 valued at more than $19,000,000. Fisheries rank second, and the 

 salmon packed in 1908 had a value in excess of $10,000,000. 



Most of the internal improvements of Alaska have been made by the 

 War Department. The telegraph system is constructed and operated 

 by the Signal Corps, with offices at all important points. Trans- 

 mission depends not only upon cable and land lines, but on high- 

 power wireless stations as well. Roads are built chiefly by the Corps 

 of Engineers of the War Department. Railroads, except for short 

 37714— Bull. 81—10 2 9 



