Along Alaska's Great River / A Popular Account of the Travels of an Alaska Exploring Expedition along the Great Yukon River, from Its Source to Its Mouth, in the British North-West Territory, and in the Territory of Alaska

by Frederick Schwatka

The timber of Alaska in itself extends over a much larger area of that country than a great many surmise. It clothes the steep hills and mountain sides, and chokes up the valleys of the Alexander Archipelago and the contiguous mainland; it stretches less dense, but still abundant, along that inhospitable reach of territory which extends from the head of Cross Sound to the Kenai peninsula, where, reaching down to the westward and south-westward as far as the eastern half of Kadiak Island, and thence across Shelikof Strait, it is found on the mainland and on the peninsula bordering on the same latitude; but it is confined to the interior opposite Kadiak, not coming down to the coast as far eastward as Cape Douglas. Here, however, it impinges on the coast or Cook's Inlet, reaching down to the shores and extending around to the Kenai peninsula. From the interior of the peninsula, above referred to, the timber-line over the whole of the interior of the great area of Alaska will be found to follow the coast-line, at varying distances of from 100 to 150 miles from the seabord, until that section of Alaska north of the Yukon mouth is reached, where a portion of the coast of Norton Sound is directly bordered by timber as far north as Cape Denbigh. From this point to the eastward and northeastward a line may be drawn just above the Yukon and its immediate tributaries as the northern limit of timber of any considerable extent. There are a great number of small water-courses rising here that find their way into the Arctic, bordered by hills and lowland ridges on which some wind-stunted timber is found, even to the shores of the Arctic Sea.

In thus broadly sketching the distribution of timber over Alaska it will be observed that the area thus clothed is very great; yet when we come to consider the quality of the timber itself, and its economic value in our markets, we are obliged to adopt the standard of the lumber-mills in Oregon and Washington. Viewed in this light, we find that the best timber of Alaska is the yellow cedar, which in itself is of great intrinsic value; but this cedar is not the dominant timber by any means; it is the exception to the rule. The great bulk of Alaskan timber is that known as Sitkan spruce, or balsam fir. The lumber sawed from this stock is naturally not of the first quality. These trees grow to their greatest size in the Sitka or Alexander Archipelago. An interval occurs from Cross Sound until we pass over the fair-weather ground at the foot of Mount St. Elias, upon the region of Prince William Sound and Cook's Inlet, where this timber again occurs, and attains very respectable proportions in many sections of the district, notably at Wood Island and portions of Afognak, and at the head of the Kenai peninsula and the two gulfs that environ it. The abundance of this timber and the extensive area clothed by it are readily appreciated by looking at the map, and are rendered still more impressive when we call attention to the fact that the timber extends in good size as far north as the Yukon Valley, clothing all the hills within that extensive region and to the north of Cook's Inlet and Kenai peninsula, so that the amount of timber found therein is great in the aggregate. The size of this spruce timber at its base will be typified in trees on Prince of Wales Island 50 feet and over in height, with a diameter of at least three feet. They have not grown as fast as they would have grown in a more congenial latitude to the south, such as Puget Sound or Oregon; hence when they are run through the saw-mill the frequent and close proximity of knots mar the quality and depress the sale of the lumber. Spruce boards are not adapted to nice finishing work in building or in cabinet-ware, or, indeed, in anything that requires a finish and upon which paint and varnish may be permanently applied, for under the influence of slight degrees of heat it sweats, exuding minute globules of gum or rosin, which are sticky and difficult to remove.

The other timber trees in south-eastern Alaska, Kadiak and Cook's Inlet may be called exceptional. But one very valuable species of yellow cedar (C. nutkanensis) is found scattered here and there within the Alexander Archipelago and on the thirty-mile strip. Here this really valuable tree is found at wide intervals in small clumps, principally along shoal water-courses and fiords, attaining a much greater size than the spruce, as frequently trees are found 100 feet high, with a diameter of five and six feet. The lumber made from these is exceedingly valuable, of the very finest texture, odor and endurance, and is highly prized by the cabinetmaker and the ship-builder.

Thus it will be seen that the forests of Alaska are altogether coniferous, as the small bodies of the birch and the alder and willow thickets on the lower Yukon and Kuskokvim Rivers can scarcely be considered to come under this head. Aside from the yellow cedar, which is rare, the timber wealth of Alaska consists of the Sitka spruce, which is not only abundant and large (trees of from three to four feet in diameter being quite common in south-eastern Alaska and Prince William Sound), but also generally accessible.

To give even an approximate estimate of the area of timbered lands in Alaska is at present impossible, in view of our incomplete knowledge of the extent of mountain ranges, which, though falling within the timber limits, must be deducted from the superficial area of forest covering.

A few small saw-mills, of exceedingly limited capacity, have been erected at various points in south-eastern Alaska, to supply the local demand of trading-posts and mining-camps, but finished building lumber is still largely imported even into this heavily-timbered region. In all western Alaska but one small saw-mill is known to exist, which is on Wood Island, St. Paul Harbor, Kadiak. This mill was first set up to supply saw-dust for packing ice, but since the collapse of that industry its operations have been spasmodic and not worth mentioning. Lumber from Puget Sound and British Columbian mills is shipped to nearly all ports in western Alaska for the use of whites and half-breeds, while the natives in their more remote settlements obtain planks and boards by the very laborious process of splitting logs with iron or ivory wedges. On the treeless isles of the Shumagin and Aleutian groups, as well as in the southern settlements of the Aliaska peninsula, even firewood is imported from more favored sections of the territory and commands high prices.

The fisheries cover a very large area, but their value and importance, in consequence of the limited market afforded for exportation on the Pacific coast, has not been fully developed. The supply certainly is more than equal to any demand.

The soil of Alaska is not sterile, being at many points of the requisite depth and fertility for the production of the very best crops of cereals and tubers. The difficulty with agricultural progress in Alaska is, therefore, not found in that respect. It is due to the peculiar climate.

Glancing at the map the observer will notice that hydrographers have defined the passage of a warm current, sufficient in volume and high enough in temperature to traverse the vast expanse of the North Pacific from the coast of Japan up and across a little to the southward of the Aleutian Islands, and then deflecting down to the mouth of the Columbia River, where it turns, one branch going north up along the coast of British Columbia by Sitka, and thence again to the westward until it turns and bends back upon itself. The other grand arm, continuing from the first point of bifurcation, in its quiet, steady flow to the Arctic, passes up to the northeastward through the strait of Behring. This warm current, stored with tropical heat, gives rise naturally, as it comes in contact with the colder air and water of the north, to excessive humidity, which takes form in the prevalent fog, sleet and rain of Alaska, as noted and recorded with so much surprise by travelers and temporary residents from other climes. Therefore, at Sitka, and, indeed, on the entire seaboard of South Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, instead of finding a degree of excessive cold carried over to the mainland across the Coast range, which the latitude would seem to indicate, we find a climate much more mild than rigorous; but the prevalence of fog clouds or banks, either hanging surcharged with moisture or dissolving into weeks of consecutive rain, so retard and arrest a proper ripening of fruits and vegetables in that climate that the reasonable certainty of success in a garden from year to year is destroyed.

When we look at Alaska we are impressed by one salient feature, and that is the remarkable distances which exist between the isolated settlements. It is not at first apparent, but it grows on the traveler until he is profoundly moved at the expenditure of physical labor, patience and skill required to traverse any considerable district of that country.