LEGAL ASPECT OF ALASKA.
Commissioner Hermann, of the General Land Office, has announced that the following laws of the United States extend over Alaska, where the general land laws do not apply:
First—The mineral land laws of the United States.
Second—Town-site laws, which provide for the incorporation of town-sites and acquirement of title thereto from the United States Government by the town-site trustees.
Third—The laws providing for trade and manufactures, giving each qualified person 160 acres of land in a square and compact form.
The coal land regulations are distinct from the mineral regulations or laws, and as in the case of the general land laws Alaska is expressly exempt from this jurisdiction.
On the part of Canada, however, the provisions of the Real Property act of the Northwest Territories will be extended to the Yukon country by an order in council, a register will be appointed, and a land title office will be established.
The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil government for Alaska, has this language as to mines and mining privileges:
"The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on and after the passage of this act, be in full force and effect in said district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the President," and "parties who have located mines or mining privileges therein, under the United States laws applicable to the public domain, or have occupied or improved or exercised acts of ownership over such claims, shall not be disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect title by payment so provided for."
There is still more general authority. Without the special authority, the act of July 4, 1866, says: "All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and lands in which these are found to occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States and by those who have declared an intention to become such, under the rules prescribed by law and according to local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States."
The patenting of mineral lands in Alaska is not a new thing, for that work has been going on, as the cases have come in from time to time, since 1884.
One of the difficulties that local capitalists find in their negotiations for purchase of mining properties on the Yukon is the lack of authenticated records of owners of claims. Different practices prevail on the two sides of the line and cause more or less confusion. The practice has been at most of the new camps to call a miners' meeting at which one of the parties was elected recorder, and he proceeded to enter the bearings of stakes and natural marks to define claims. Sometimes the recorder would give a receipt for a fee allowed by common consent for recording, and also keep a copy for future reference, but in a majority of cases even this formality was dispensed with, and the only record kept was the rough minutes made at the time.
On the Canadian side a different state of affairs exists. The Dominion Government has sent a commissioner who is empowered to report officially all claims, and while no certificate is issued to the owners thereof, properties are thoroughly defined and their metes and bounds established. The commissioner in the Klondike district, whose name is Constantine, also exercises semi-judicial functions, and settles disputes to the best of his ability, appeal lying to the Ottawa Government.
As to courts and the execution of civil and criminal law generally, none were existent in the upper Yukon Valley on the American side of the line during 1897. The nearest United States judge was at Sitka. At Circle City and other centers of population the people had organized into a sort of town-meeting for the few public matters required; and a sort of vigilance committee took the place of constituted authority and police. As a matter of fact, however, the people were quiet and law-abiding and little need for the machinery of law is likely to arise before courts, etc., are set up. A movement toward sending a garrison of United States troops thither was vetoed by the War Department.
Canada, however, awoke to the realization that her interests were in jeopardy, and took early steps to profit by the wealth which had been discovered within her borders and the international business that resulted. The natural feeling among the Canadians was, and is, that the property belongs to the Canadian public, and that no good reason exists why the mineral and other wealth should be exhausted at once, mainly by outsiders, as has largely happened in the case of Canada's forests. A prohibitory policy was urged by some, but this seemed neither wise nor practicable; and the Dominion Government set at work to save as large a share as it could. As there are gold fields on the Alaska side of the line, and the approaches lie through United States territory, a spirit of reciprocal accommodation was necessary. One difficulty has been averted last spring by President Cleveland's veto of the Immigration bill, one provision of which would have prevented Canadian laborers drawing wages in this country, and probably would have provoked a retaliatory act.
Canada has already placed customs officers on the passes and at the Yukon crossing of the boundary to collect customs duties not only on merchandise but on miner's personal outfits. There is practically no exception, and the duty comes below 20 per cent. on but few articles. On most of the goods the duty is from 30 to 35 per cent., and in several instances higher, but the matter may be very simply adjusted by purchasing tools and outfits in Victoria or Vancouver, for thus far the United States has placed no corresponding obstruction in the way of Canadian travellers to the gold-fields, but, on the contrary, has made Dyea a sub-port of entry, largely to accommodate British transportation lines. The Canadian Government is represented in that region now only by customs officers and 20 mounted police, but it is taking steps to garrison the whole upper Yukon Valley with its mounted police,—a body of officers, whose functions are half military, half civil, and which, it may as well be conceded once for all, cannot be trifled with. There is no question but that they will do their level best to enforce the laws to the utmost. The commander of each detachment will be constituted a magistrate of limited powers, so that civil examinations and trials may be speedily conducted.
The plan is to erect a strong post a short distance north of the sixtieth degree of latitude, just above the northern boundary of British Columbia, and beyond the head of the Lynn Canal, where the Chilkoot Pass and the White Pass converge. This post will command the southern entrance to the whole of that territory. Further on small police posts will be established, about fifty miles apart, down to Fort Selkirk, while another general post will patrol the river near the international boundary, with headquarters, probably, in the Klondike valley.
The mining regulations of Canada, applying to the Yukon placer claims, are as follows:
"Bar diggings" shall mean any part of a river over which water extends when the water is in its flooded state and which is not covered at low water. "Mines on benches" shall be known as bench diggings, and shall for the purpose of defining the size of such claims be excepted from dry diggings. "Dry diggings" shall mean any mine over which a river never extends. "Miner" shall mean a male or female over the age of eighteen, but not under that age. "Claims" shall mean the personal right of property in a placer mine or diggings during the time for which the grant of such mine or diggings is made. "Legal post" shall mean a stake standing not less than four feet above the ground and squared on four sides for at least one foot from the top. "Close season" shall mean the period of the year during which placer mining is generally suspended. The period to be fixed by the gold commissioner in whose district the claim is situated. "Locality" shall mean the territory along a river (tributary of the Yukon) and its affluents. "Mineral" shall include all minerals whatsoever other than coal.
1. Bar diggings. A strip of land 100 feet wide at highwater mark and thence extending along the river to its lowest water level.
2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high water mark; also one at each end of the claim at or about the edge of the water. One of the posts shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim is staked.
3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and shall have placed at each of its four corners a legal post, upon one of which shall be legibly marked the name of the miner and the date upon the claim was staked.
4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long, measured in the direction of the mineral course of the stream, and shall extend in width from base to base of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts at or about the edge of the water and at the rear boundary of the claim. One of the legal posts at the stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim was staked.
5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square.
6. In defining the size of claims they shall be measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on the surface of the ground.
7. If any person or persons shall discover a new mine and such discovery shall be established to the satisfaction of the gold commissioner, a claim for the bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted. A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality shall have previously been worked at a different level.
8. The forms of application for a grant for placer mining and the grant of the same shall be according to those made, provided or supplied by the gold commissioner.
9. A claim shall be recorded with the gold commissioner in whose district it is situated within three days after the location thereof if it is located within ten miles of the commissioner's office. One day extra shall be allowed for making such record for every additional ten miles and fraction thereof.
10. In the event of the absence of the gold commissioner from his office for entry a claim may be granted by any person whom he may appoint to perform his duties in his absence.
11. Entry shall not be granted for a claim which has not been staked by the applicant in person in the manner specified in these resolutions. An affidavit that the claim was staked out by the applicant shall be embodied in the application.
12. An entry fee of $15 shall be charged the first year and an annual fee of $100 for each of the following years.
13. After recording a claim the removal of any post by the holder thereof or any person acting in his behalf for the purpose of changing the boundaries of his claim shall act as a forfeiture of the claim.
14. The entry of every holder for a grant for placer mining must be renewed and his receipt relinquished and replaced every year, the entry fee being paid each year.
15. No miner shall receive a grant for more than one mining claim in the same locality; but the same miner may hold any number of claims by purchase, and any number of miners may unite to work their claims in common upon such terms as they may arrange, provided such agreement be registered with the Gold Commissioner and a fee of $15 for each registration.
16. And miner may sell, mortgage, or dispose of his claims, provided such disposal be registered with and a fee of $5 paid to the Gold Commissioner.
17. Every miner shall, during the continuance of his grant, have the exclusive right of entry upon his own claim for the miner-like working thereof, and the construction of a residence thereon, and shall be entitled exclusively to all the proceeds realized therefrom; but he shall have no surface rights therein, and the Gold Commissioner may grant to the holders of adjacent claims such rights of entry thereon as may be absolutely necessary for the working of their claims, upon such terms as may to him seem reasonable. He may also grant permits to miners to cut timber thereon for their own use, upon payment of the dues prescribed by the regulation in that behalf.
18. Every miner shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally flowing through or past his claim, and not already lawfully appropriated as shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner be necessary for the due working thereof, and shall be entitled to drain his own claim free of charge.
19. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and open to occupation and entry by any person when the same shall have remained unworked on working days by the guarantee thereof or by some person in his behalf for the space of seventy-two hours unless sickness or some other reasonable cause may be shown to the satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner, or unless the guarantee is absent on leave given by the commissioner, and the Gold Commissioner, upon obtaining satisfactory evidence that this provision is not being complied with, may cancel the entry given in the claim.
20. If the land upon which a claim has been located is not the property of the Crown it will be necessary for the person who applies for entry to furnish proof that he has acquired from the owner of the land the surface right before entry can be granted.
21. If the occupier of the lands has not received a patent thereof the purchase money of the surface rights must be paid to the Crown and a patent of the surface rights will issue to the party who acquired the mining rights. The money so collected will either be refunded to the occupier of the land when he is entitled to a patent there or will be credited to him on account of payment of land.
22. When the party obtaining the mining rights cannot make an arrangement with the owner thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights it shall be lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his agents or the occupier to appoint an arbitrator to act with another arbitrator named by him in order to award the amount of compensation to which the owner or occupier shall be entitled.
The royalty and reserve additions to this, made since the recent discoveries and on account of them, are as follows:
1. A royalty of 10 per cent will be collected for the government on all amounts taken out of any one claim up to $500 a week, and after that 20 per cent. This royalty will be collected on gold taken from streams already being worked, but in regard to all future discoveries the government proposes
2. That upon every river and creek where mining locations shall be staked out every alternate claim shall be the property of the government.
These regulations, say the Canadians, are made with the purpose of developing a country, which, as elsewhere shown in this pamphlet, is capable of supporting a large permanent population and varied industries. Whether they can be enforced remains to be seen, and difficulties will certainly attend the collection of a royalty on gold-dust. The effect of these regulations, it is believed by the authors, will be to encourage permanent settlement and the treatment of mining as a regular industry and not simply as an adventurous speculation. Another effect, undoubtedly, will be to cause immigrants, including Canadians themselves, to prospect and mine on the United States side of the line, whenever they have an equal opportunity for success.
The boundary dispute does not as yet seriously affect the question or rights and privileges in the new gold regions, as the disputed part of the line, southeast of Alaska, runs through a region not yet occupied, and practically the whole of Lynn Canal is administered by the United States, and the Canadians act as though it were decided that their boundary was farther inland than some of them pretend. From Mt. St. Elias north, the 141st meridian is the undisputed boundary, and this has been fixed by an international commission, crossing the Yukon at a marked point near the mouth of Forty Mile Creek. Nearly or quite all of the diggings upon which are written Alaskan territory, as also are the valuable placers on Birch and Miller creeks. It will be a matter of extreme difficulty along this part of the boundary to prevent smuggling, to discover and collect Canadian royalties, and to capture criminals except by international coöperation.
CLIMATE, AGRICULTURE AND HEALTH.
The Weather Bureau has made public a statement in regard to the climate of Alaska, which says: "The climates of the coast and the interior of Alaska are unlike in many respects, and the differences are intensified in this as perhaps in few other countries by exceptional physical conditions. The fringe of islands that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean from Dixon Sound north, and also a strip of the mainland for possibly twenty miles back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast as it curves to the northwestward to the western extremity of Alaska form a distinct climatic division which may be termed temperate Alaska. The temperature rarely falls to zero; winter does not set in until Dec. 1, and by the last of May the snow has disappeared except on the mountains.
"The mean winter temperature of Sitka is 32.5, but little less than that of Washington, D. C. The rainfall of temperate Alaska is notorious the world over, not only as regards the quantity, but also as to the manner of its falling, viz.: in long and incessant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally abound, there being on an average but sixty-six clear days in the year.
"North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate becomes more rigorous in winter, but in summer the difference is much less marked.
"The climate of the interior is one of extreme rigor in winter, with a brief but relatively hot summer, especially when the sky is free from cloud.
"In the Klondike region in midwinter the sun rises from 9:30 to 10 a. m., and sets from 2 to 3 p. m., the total length of daylight being about four hours. Remembering that the sun rises but a few degrees above the horizon and that it is wholly obscured on a great many days, the character of the winter months may easily be imagined.
"We are indebted to the United States coast and geodetic survey for a series of six months' observations on the Yukon, not far from the site of the present gold discoveries. The observations were made with standard instruments, and are wholly reliable. The mean temperatures of the months October, 1889, to April, 1890, both inclusive, are as follows: October, 33 degrees; November, 8 degrees; December, 11 degrees, below zero; January, 17 below zero; February, 15 below zero; March, 6 above; April 20 above. The daily mean temperature fell and remained below the freezing point (32 degrees) from Nov. 4, 1889, to April 21, 1890, thus giving 168 days as the length of the closed season of 1889-'90, assuming that outdoor operations are controlled by temperature only. The lowest temperatures registered during the winter were: Thirty-two degrees below zero in November, 47 below in December, 59 below in January, 55 below in February, 45 below in March, and 26 below in April.
"The greatest continuous cold occurred in February, 1890, when the daily mean for five consecutive days was 47 degrees below zero.
"Greater cold than that here noted has been experienced in the United States for a very short time, but never has it continued so very cold for so long a time as in the interior of Alaska. The winter sets in as early as September, when snow-storms may be expected in the mountains and passes. Headway during one of those storms is impossible, and the traveler who is overtaken by one of them is indeed fortunate if he escapes with his life. Snowstorms of great severity may occur in any month from September to May, inclusive.
"The changes of temperature from winter to summer are rapid, owing to the great increase in the length of the day. In May the sun rises at about 3 a. m. and sets about 9 p. m. In June it rises about half past 1 in the morning, and sets at about half past 10, giving about twenty hours of daylight and diffuse twilight the remainder of the time.
"The mean summer temperature in the interior doubtless ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, according to elevation, being highest in the middle and lower Yukon valleys."
Accurate data of the temperature in the Klondike district were kept at Fort Constantine last year. The temperature first touched zero Nov. 10, and the zero weather recorded in the spring was on April 29.
Between Dec. 19 and Feb. 6 it never rose above zero. The lowest actual point, 65 below, occurred on Jan. 27, and on twenty-four days during the winter the temperature was below 50.
On March 12 it first rose above the freezing point, but no continuous mild weather occurred until May 4, after which date the temperature during the balance of the month frequently rose above 60 degrees.
The Yukon River froze up on Oct. 28 and broke up on May 17.
The long and severe winter and the frozen moss-covered ground are serious obstacles to agriculture and stock raising. The former can change but little with coming seasons, but the latter, by gradually burning off areas, can be overcome to some extent. On such burned tracts hardy vegetables have been and may be raised, and the area open to such use is considerable. Potatoes do well and barley will mature a fair crop.
Live stock may be kept by providing an abundance of shelter and feed and housing them during the winter. In summer an abundance of the finest grass pasture can be had, and great quantities of natural hay can be cut in various places.
Diseases: In spite of all that is heard in the newspapers regarding the healthfulness of the climate of Alaska and the upper Yukon, the Census Report of Alaska offers its incontestable statistics to the effect that the country is not more salubrious, nor its people more healthy than could be expected in a region of violent climate, where the most ordinary laws of health remain almost totally ignored. From the Government Report we quote the following:
"Those diseases which are most fatal to life in one section of Alaska seem to be applicable to all others. In the first place, the native children receive little or no care, and for the first few years of their lives are more often naked than clothed, at all seasons of the year. Consumption is the simple and comprehensive title for the disease which destroys the greater number of the people of Alaska. Aluet, Indian and Eskimo suffer from it alike; and all alike exhibit the same stolid indifference to its slow and fatal progress, make no attempt to ward it off, take no special precautions even when the disease reaches its climax.
Next to consumption, the scrofulous diseases, in the forms of ulcers, eat into the vitals and destroy them until the natives have the appearance of lepers to unaccustomed eyes. As a consequence of their neglect and the exigencies of the native life, forty or fifty years is counted among them as comparatively great age, and none are without the ophthalmic diseases necessarily attendant on existence in smoky barabaras. Against snow-blindness the Eskimo people use peculiar goggles, but by far the greater evil, the smoke poisoning of the opthalmic nerve is neither overcome nor prevented by any of them. All traders carry medicine chests and do what they can to relieve suffering, but it requires a great deal of medicine to make an impression on the native constitution, doses being about four times what would suffice an Englishman or American.