ALASKA. 
12 7 
and Sitka. For this service, they are paid the sum of $18,000 
per year. When other trips are made and other places are visited 
by the steamers of the company, mails are also carried and deliv¬ 
ered on those trips and at those other places. By this more uncer¬ 
tain service, several mails have been delivered at Metlakahtla, Mary 
Island, Chilkat, and Hoonah, and the mail has been carried weekly 
instead of semi-monthly to the first-named places during the months 
of J une, | uly, and August. Another mail contract insures monthly 
mails served from Wrangel to Klawak and Howkan (or Jackson, 
which is the post-office name). A small steamer or steam launch 
plies between Wrangel and Howkan. Between Sitka and Una- 
laska, a distance of about 1,350 miles, a small steamer has made 
seven regular monthly trips, stopping at six places, from April to 
October.” 
In Special Consular Reports, Highways of Commerce, 1895, 
page 29, it is stated that the fare from San Francisco to Wrangel, 
by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, is $50; to Juneau or 
Sitka, $70. There is also steamship service from St. Michael’s, 
via Unalaska to Seattle and San Francisco. 
The report of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General of the 
United States for 1896 says that a post-office was authorized at 
Circle City March 19, 1896. The carrier for the first trip started 
from Juneau June 11 and reached Circle City July iffi carrying 
1,474 letters. He returned by way ot St. Michael, reaching 
Seattle August 19. On the second trip, the carrier left Juneau 
July 8, reaching Circle City August 6. Another trip was to be 
made in September, and four between November and May, 1897. 
PROPOSED RAILROAD. 
In 1886, in reply to an inquiry on the part of the United States 
Senate, the Director of the United States Geological Survey, 
Mr. J. W. Powell, presented a report on the feasibility of con¬ 
structing a railroad between the United States, Asiatic Russia, 
