GREELY'S "HANDBOOK OF ALASKA" 



491 



GREELY'S "HANDBOOK OF 

 ALASKA"* 



THE American people, who are be- 

 coming very proud of our great 

 northern territory, will welcome this val- 

 uable contribution by Major-General 

 Greely to the literature of Alaska. Such 

 a book has been long needed that would 

 give a comprehensive, condensed, and 

 graphic description of the enormous re- 

 sources, wonderful scenery, and infinite 

 possibilities of a region which is more 

 than one-third greater than our Atlantic 

 States extending from Maine to Florida 

 combined. It is little more than one gen- 

 eration since Secretary Seward secured 

 the territory for our national domain, 

 but within this brief lapse of time Alaska 

 has contributed to her owners three hun- 

 dred and thirty-three millions of dollars 

 of wealth in furs, gold, and fisheries. The 

 yearly yield of products is nearly five 

 times the price paid for "Seward's folly" 

 in 1868, and yet the country is only on 

 the threshold of development. General 

 Greely's Handbook is particularly timely 

 in view of the contemplated visit of the 

 President to the territory this summer 

 and of the Alaska- Yukon Exposition, 

 which will be held during the next sev- 

 eral months at Seattle. 



No person is better equipped than the 

 author by experience and travel to pre- 

 sent the claims of Alaska to American 

 recognition, for he has made six visits to 

 Alaska, has thrice traversed the whole 

 Yukon Valley, visiting Fairbanks and 

 Prince William Sound twice and Nome 

 three times. For a considerable period 

 he exercised supreme military command 

 over Alaska, and under his control and 

 supervision was built the Alaskan Mili- 

 tary Telegraph System of 4,500 miles of 

 land lines, submarine cables, and wireless 

 stations. The installation of these mili- 

 tary lines for hundreds of miles through 

 an untraversed and subarctic wilderness 

 is one of the greatest achievements of our 



*Handbook of Alaska : Its resources, pro- 

 ducts, and attractions. By Major-General 

 A. W. Greely, U. S. A. With maps and 25 

 full-page illustrations. New York, Charles 

 Scribners Sons, 1909. $2.00. 



American soldiers.* The extent and im- 

 portance of this telegraph service may be 

 judged from the fact that the tariff on 

 private telegrams now amounts to 

 $250,000 annually, while Government tel- 

 egrams represent at least $100,000 in 

 tariff value. 



In Chapter I General Greely shows 

 how sharply Alaska differs in its geogra- 

 phy from the United States. Its physi- 

 cal features include : Fiords of great 

 depth of water confined by lofty precipi- 

 tous cliffs and from twenty to one hun- 

 dred miles in length ; vast glacial fields, 

 which are nowhere else equaled on the 

 North American continent ; volcanic 

 ranges, with many peaks of fire and lava, 

 stretching for one thousand miles from 

 smoking Wrangell westward to Bogos- 

 lof, and immense frozen tundra regions, 

 which are covered with a thick mat of 

 vegetation, composed of mosses, lichen, 

 shrubs, and some grass. 



In Chapter III the author contradicts 

 the general belief that the climate of 

 Alaska is arctic in its character and in its 

 severity. As General Greely rightly says, 

 there is no typical Alaskan climate any 

 more than there is a European or Ameri- 

 can climate. The extremes of latitude 

 and longitude in Alaska find their parallel 

 in Europe between Norway and Sicily and 

 from western France to central Russia. 

 It is interesting to note that the coldest 

 month of the year at Sitka, 31.4 degrees, 

 closely agrees with the coldest month of 

 St. Louis, 31.6 degrees. 



"The rigors of the past climate are 

 strikingly illustrated by the great depths to 

 which the ground is frozen. In the Nome 

 region a shaft has been sunk 120 feet 

 without reaching ground free from frost, 

 and near Dawson the earth was found 

 frozen to a depth of 200 feet." 



Chapter IV describes the waterways, 

 roads, and railroads. The river systems 

 of Alaska afford approximately four 

 thousand miles of navigable highways for 

 steamers, nearly twenty-seven hundred 

 being in the Yukon watershed. Con- 

 gress, beginning with 1905, has been mak- 



*See National Geographic Magazine, 1904, 

 pages 357-36i, 490-494- 



