territory, this majestic river and tributaries, with these lofty 
mountains, capacious harbors and numerous islands, is of no 
greater value than to supply the wants of a small Indian popula¬ 
tion and afford a resting place for wild animals and birds. 
An examination of the resources of the country during its 
present neglected condition may lead us to hope that a nobler 
mission awaits it when better known and appreciated by govern¬ 
ment and people. 
In 1S67 the*. United States, through the agency of the Honora¬ 
ble Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, purchased from the 
Russians all their Alaska possessions for seven million, tw r o hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars. An unlooked-for enterprise of this char¬ 
acter on the part of the government, which was to deplete our 
Treasury so largely (?), was met with opposition, censure and 
ridicule. Nor did it end here, for, in addition to the charge of 
unwarranted extravagance, hostility to tax-payers, conniving with 
Russians, the government was adjudged quite insane, and thought 
incapable of future legislative and executive acts tending to our 
prosperity. The continued assurance of Mr. Seward, however, 
that the purchase was w r ise,—necessitated, in fact, by its proxim¬ 
ity to the United States,—and that we were only placing our 
money at interest, induced us finally to accede to the proposition, 
and, looking to the future needs of our country, to accept his 
declarations as superior wisdom. 
Have we occasion to regret the purchase when we consider the 
small sum expended for so vast a territory, and the fact that two 
of its smallest islands (St. Paul and St. George), only a few r 
miles in circumference, have not failed, and w ill probably never 
fail, to pay us yearly a good interest on the money invested, and 
for which the Russian Fur Company paid annually to the Russian 
Crown three hundred thousand rubles? 
The fur-seal fishery at these remote islands in Behring Sea, 
known as the Pribyloff group, is the leading industry and the 
chief source of the supply of superior skins. It is thought a mod¬ 
est estimate that, prior to our possession, these islands furnished 
from three hundred to five hundred thousand skins annually; and 
on one occasion, it is said, the Russians destroyed three hundred 
thousand to prevent the market being overstocked. This whole- 
