Fort Tongas is very near the southeast point of Alaska, and about ten miles north of Fort Simpson; the former American, the latter English territory. When the ground was cleared to establish the American fort, “yellow cedar-trees,” says W. H. Dall, “eight feet in diameter were cut down. The flanks of all the islands of this archipelago bear a magnificent growth of the finest timber, from the water’s edge to fifteen hundred feet above the sea.” It must be a cedar of magnificent proportions out of which the natives can hew and construct a canoe seventy feet long capable of carrying one hundred men. This the Haidas do, producing models both swift and seaworthy, the prows extending in a peak not unlike the ancient galleys of Greece, decorated with totemic designs. These magnificent forests, having never felt the stroke of the axe, present a growth naturally very dense and peculiar, the branches of the tall trees being often draped with long black and white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resembles. This characteristic recalled the same effect observed upon the thickly wooded shores of the St. John River in Florida, and the Lake Pontchartrain district of Louisiana. The fallen trees and stumps are cushioned by a growth of green, velvety moss, nearly ten inches in thickness, and are also decked with creeping vines in the most picturesque manner; among which is seen here and there deep red clusters of the bunch-berry. The timber is pronounced by good judges to be as valuable as that of Oregon and Washington, compared with which our forests in Maine are hardly more than tall undergrowth. A very large percentage of the Alaska timber grows at the most convenient points for shipment, making it especially available. The white spruce, called the Sitka pine, rises to a height of from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and eighty feet, and measures from three to six feet in diameter. When this growth is cut into dimension lumber it very much resembles our southern pitch-pine. There is also found in these forests the usual variety of cedar, fir, ash, maple, and birch trees, mingled with the others of loftier growth. The yellow cedar of this region grows nowhere else of such size and quality. It is much prized, and best adapted for shipbuilding, having been found to be unequaled for durability, and also because it is impervious to the troublesome teredo, or boring worm, which destroys the ordinary piles under the wharves at Puget Sound, as well as at Sitka, so rapidly as to render it necessary to renew them every three or four years. Southern latitudes, in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Mexico, suffer equally from the depredations of this active marine pest. The Alaska cedar is also a choice cabinet wood, possessing a very agreeable odor, considerable quantities of it being shipped for select use in San Francisco and elsewhere. The coast of the Alexander Archipelago comprises nearly eight thousand miles of shore line, forming long straight avenues of calm deep water many miles in length, sprinkled with islands densely wooded from the water’s edge, while the number of good harbors is almost countless, in which vessels may lay alongside the land and receive their cargoes of timber or lumber in the most convenient manner.
When the woods of Maine and Michigan cease to yield satisfactorily, as they must do by and by, we have here a ready source of supply which no ordinary demand can exhaust in many years. One enthusiastic writer upon this subject predicts that this part of the North Pacific coast will eventually become the ship-yard of the American continent. One is hardly prepared to indorse so sweeping a prediction, but that there is a nearly inexhaustible supply of the necessary timber for such a purpose even an inexperienced visitor cannot fail to realize. It is gratifying to know that these forests are free from all danger by fire, which often proves so destructive in the State of Washington and elsewhere. This immunity from a much dreaded exigency is owing to the frequent rains, which keep the undergrowth in Alaska so moist that the flames cannot spread.
Speaking of Fort Tongas, we should not forget to mention that a native couple, educated by the missionaries, are here teaching a school of young natives numbering fifty pupils, for which our government pays them five hundred dollars per annum. The success attained by these instructors in teaching the ordinary branches of an English education is surprising. Tongas, it will be remembered, is the most southerly point of our Alaska possessions.
The country teems with animal life. The sea which laves its shores and the outlying islands is so full of excellent fish as to have been a wonder in this respect since the days of the earliest navigators. The same may be said of its rivers, inlets, and lakes, the former being famous for the abundance, size, and excellence of the salmon which they produce, and which are annually packed for exportation in such large quantities to various parts of the world. We were told by the overseer of the canning factory at Pyramid Harbor that the entire product of the establishment was already—the season but just commencing—engaged by a Liverpool house. To secure the delivery the foreign merchant had cheerfully advanced five hundred pounds sterling.
“The Alaska banks would be an ocean paradise to the Newfoundland fishermen,” says Professor Davidson. “The eastern part of Behring Sea ‘is a mighty reserve of cod,’ and the area within the limits of fifty fathoms of water is no less than eighteen thousand miles.” “What I have seen,” said W. H. Seward at Sitka, in 1869, “has almost made me a convert to the theory of some naturalists, that the waters of the globe are filled with stores for the sustenance of animal life surpassing the available productions of the land.” The coast also abounds in oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs. The oysters are small, but of excellent flavor, and might be greatly improved by cultivation. Clams and mussels are much esteemed by the aborigines, the first-named being large and of prime quality. They dry the clams, as they do salmon and cod, using no salt in the process, but stringing them by the score on long blades of strong grass, and in this shape laying them away for winter use. There is certainly some special preservative quality in the atmosphere here which enables the natives to keep clams unfrozen in good condition for several months. The matter of “ripeness,” however, makes no difference to these Indians, who seem actually to prefer their fish a little putrid, and oil is purposely kept until it becomes so before they will use it.
The hills and valleys of the islands and the mainland support more fur-bearing animals than can be found on any other part of this continent, and we certainly believe of any other part of the world. The great variety includes bears of several species, wolves, beavers, deer, foxes, caribou, martens, mountain goats, moose, musk-oxen, and others. Herds of walruses are found on the far north coast, as well as in Behring Sea, which yield food to the natives, and the best of ivory for sale to the traders. It is a curious fact that no reptile, toad, lizard, or similar animal is to be found in Alaskan territory. The waters of the North Pacific, from the most westerly of the Aleutian Islands up to Behring Strait, swarm with cod, haddock, sturgeon, large flounders, and halibut, while our hardy whale men successfully pursue their mammoth game both north and south of the strait. When the country was first discovered, there was another important animal found here in considerable numbers, known as the sea-cow, which furnished Vancouver and his crew with wholesome and palatable meat, and which had formed a source of food supply for the aborigines probably for centuries. But this large, amphibious animal, thirty feet long and seal-like in shape, has now entirely disappeared. This was owing to merciless slaughter by the Russians, who found the sea-cow an easy prey to capture, because of its inactivity and clumsiness in the water, besides which, the creature is said to have been utterly fearless of man, making no effort to escape when attacked. They are represented to have been fierce when attacked by the wolves, and to have been fully able to defend themselves.
Two islands lying to the north of the Aleutian group form a favorite resort of the fur-seal, which so abounds in this region that nearly a century of active war waged upon them by the hunters, for the sake of their valuable skins, has produced no perceptible diminution in their numbers. This is partly owing, however, to the fact that of late years the killing has been restricted as to the aggregate annual number, and also as to the sex and age of the seals. The pelts sent from Alaska have not fallen short of a hundred thousand annually for the last twenty years, and it is believed by those who should be able to judge correctly that this number has been very much exceeded. There is hardly an uninterested person in the Territory who will not express this opinion.
The two islands referred to in Behring Sea, namely, St. Paul and St. George, together with two smaller and unimportant ones named respectively Otter Island, which is situated six miles south of St. Paul, and Walrus Island, about the same distance to the eastward, are known as the Prybiloff group. St. Paul is thirteen miles long by four broad; St. George is ten miles long and between four and five broad. Neither of them have any harbor in which vessels can safely lie, but they anchor half a mile or more off shore, and freight is taken or delivered by means of lighters. So violent is the surf at times on these islands in mid-ocean that if the wind is unfavorable no attempt at landing is made. Otter Island is peculiar in being nothing more nor less than an extinct volcano, with a still gaping, threatening crater, and an elevation of three hundred feet above the surrounding sea. Its only occupants consist of water-fowl and blue foxes, both as plentiful as peas in a pod. The animals were introduced long ago for breeding purposes, and have greatly increased. These are the “seal islands” so often spoken of, and which furnish four fifths of all the sealskins used in the markets of the world. This sounds like an extravagant estimate, but it is believed to be quite correct.
The islands are of volcanic origin, having been thrown up from the bottom of the sea in comparatively modern times. When one speaks of geological facts, one or two thousand years are considered very brief periods. At the time of their discovery, St. George and St. Paul were uninhabited, but native Aleuts, the nearest of whom lived about two hundred miles south of these islands, were brought hither and domesticated, to work for the Russian Fur Company. Since the transfer to our government these people have worked uninterruptedly for the Alaska Commercial Company, which has, in addition to the headquarters of the seal-fishery, some forty trading stations in the Territory.
We speak of the “seal-fisheries,” but there is in reality no fishing about the business. The seals are all taken on land. The employees of the company get between the seals and the water and drive such as are selected inland like a flock of sheep. They move slowly, pulling themselves along by their fore flippers, as a dog might do with his hind legs broken, but they get over the ground at the rate of one or two miles in the hour, and are driven the latter distance to the warehouse before the killing takes place.