ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS. 
143 
I did not count on the inertia of Congress or the stupidity 
of officials, as I might now. Nevertheless progress has been 
made, and a summary of present conditions, perhaps even 
a peep into the future, is not inappropriate at this time. 
Since 1865 the fur-seal fishery has risen, produced its mil¬ 
lions, and declined to a point where its close in a commercial 
sense may almost be predicted. The first fisherman sought 
the cod in that year, and a modest fleet has kept the busi¬ 
ness going ever since, with more or less fluctuation in the 
catch. The salmon canner was then unknown, but has since 
invaded nearly every important fishing site. The placer 
miner has developed and exhausted the gold of the Stikine 
region, and pushed on to the headwaters of the Yukon and 
its affluents. The clink of the drill and the monotonous 
beat of the stamp-mill are familiar sounds on the quartz 
ledges, which in 1865 lay peacefully under their blankets of 
moss. The whaling fleet has laid its bones on the sandy 
bars of the Arctic coast, while the innovating steam whaler 
has pushed its way past Point Barrow into the very fastness 
of the ice at Herschel island, to find, in its turn, its occupa¬ 
tion gradually passing away. The imperial sea-otter is on 
the way to becoming a memory, and the Aleuts, his perse¬ 
cutors, are not unlikely to follow him. 
As regards the inhabitants of the territory, a complete 
change is conspicuous. Some thousands of white fishermen, 
hunters, miners, and prospectors are now scattered along the 
coast and rivers, on the whole a hard-working, orderly set, 
with here and there a rascally whisky smuggler or a stranded 
gentleman. Apart from a few mining camps, the parasites 
who live by the vices of others are few. A country where 
he who would live must work is not attractive to them. Cut 
off from direct contact with the rest of the United States, 
Alaska is really a colony and not a frontier territory in the 
sense usually understood. As such, its needs should have 
been the subject of study and appropriate legislation, the 
neglect of which by Congress so far is bitterly and justly 
resented by the entire population. Into political matters I 
