\ 
V, 
Towns and Trading Posts. 
The capital of the Territory is Sitka, located in 57 0 N., 135 0 
17' W., on a low strip of land on the west of Baranof Island. 
Mount Edgecumbe, an extinct volcano of 8,000 feet, opposite the 
town, is the landmark of the port. There is an industrial school, 
and the population was 1,190 in 1890. Salmon fishing and cur¬ 
ing is the chief industry. Steamers ply once a month between 
Sitka and Portland, Oreg. The harbor is small but commodious. 
Mean temperature (forty-three years), January, 314 0 ; August, 55.9 0 . 
Annual rainfall (thirty years), 84.06 inches. Senator Charles 
Sumner of Massachusetts called attention to the fact that the 
winter of Sitka is milder than that of many European capitals — 
Berlin, Copenhagen, Berne, Stuttgart, Vienna, or Turin. Mr. 
Dali (p. 235) says that the shortest distance from San Francisco 
Harbor to Sitka is 1,296 miles. By the inner passage, between 
the archipelago and the coast of British Columbia and Alaska, the 
distance is 1,647 miles; large sailing vessels have to go outside. 
Juneau (population 1,253, census of 1890) is located near the 
Lynn Channel, by which there are trails to the Yukon. Mr. 
Wilson (Guide to the Yukon Gold Fields) says that the year 1895 
witnessed a great improvement in the town, and Juneau is to-day 
a progressive city with fine buildings, wharves, electric lights, 
waterworks, hotels, etc. 
Wrangell, on the northern part of the island of the same name, 
is about 10 miles from the mouth of the Stikine, and is the point 
of departure for traders and miners penetrating into the interior by 
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