SPEECH
OF
HON. CHAR:LES SUMNER,
I I~~
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
ON
THE CESSION' OF RUSSIAN AMERICA
TO
THE UNITED STATES.
Thirteen governments founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretense
of miracle or mystery, and wchich are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of
the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.-John Adams's Preface to his
Defense of American Constitutions, dated at Grosvenor Square, London, January 1,1787.
WASHINGTON:
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE.
1867.
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SP?ECtH.
boundary of our country the dividingline which
separates Asia from America.
Look at the map and see the configuration of
this extensive region, whose estimated area is
more than five hundred and seventy thousand
squar   e  m il es.  I s peak by  the authority of our
own coast survey. Including the Sitkan archi  pelago at the south, it takes a margin of the
main land, fronting on the ocean thirty miles
broad and three hundred miles long,. to Mount
St. Elias, the highest peak of the continent,
when it turns with an elbow to the west, and
the n  along  Behring strait s  northerly, when it
rounds to the east along the Frozen ocean.
Here are upwards of four thousand statute miles
of coast, indented by capacious bays and com modious harbors without number, embracing
the peninsula of Alaska, one of the most re markable in the world, fifty miles in breadth
and three hundred miles in length; piled with
mountains, many volcanic and some still smok ing; penetrated by navigable rivers, one of which
is among the largest of the world; studded with
islands which stand like sentinels on the coast,
and flanked by that narrow Aleutian range
which, starting from Alaska, stretches far away
to Japan, as if America were extending a
friendly hand to Asia. This is the most general
aspect. There are details specially disclosing
maritime advantages and approaches to the
sea which properly belong to this preliminary
sketch. According to accurate estimates the
coast line, including bays and islands, is not
less than eleven thousand two hundred and
seventy miles. In the Aleutian range, besides
innumerable islets and rocks, there are not less
than fifty-five islands exceeding three miles in
length; there are seven exceeding forty miles,
with Ounimalk, which is the largest, exceeding
seventy-three miles. In our part of Behring
sea there are five considerable islands, the
largest of which is St. Lawrence, being more
than ninety-six miles long. Add to all these
the group south of the peninsula of Alaska,
Mr. PRESIDENT: YOU have just listened to
the reading of the treaty by which Russia cedes
to the United States all her possessions on the
North American continent in consideration of
$7,200,000, to be paid by the United States.
On the one side is the cession of a vast country
with its jurisdiction and its resources of all
kinds; on the other side is the purchase-money.
Such is this transaction on its face.
In endeavoring to estimate its character I
am glad to begin with what is clear and beyond
question.  I refer to the boundaries fixed by
the treaty.   Commencing at the parallel of
54~ 40' north latitude, so famous in our history,
the line ascends Portland channel to the mqunt ains, which it follows on their summits to the
point of intersection with the 141~ west longi tude, which line it ascends to the Frozen ocean,
or, if you please, to the north pole.  This is
the eastern boundary, separating this region
from the British possessions, and it is borrowed
from the treaty between Russia and Great
Britain  in  1825, establishing the relations
between these two Powers on this continent.
It will be seen that this boundary is old; the
rest is new.  Starting from the Frozen ocean
the western boundary descends Behring straits,
midway between the two islands of Krusenstern
and Ratmanov, to the parallel of 65~ 30', just
below where the continents of America and
Asia approach each other the nearest; and
from this point it proceeds in a course nearly
southwest through  Behring straits, midway
)between the island of St. Lawrence and Cape
Chonkotski, to the meridian of 172~ west longitude, and thence, in a southwesterly direction,
traversing Behring sea, midway between the
island of Attou on the east and Copper island
on the west, to the meridian of 193~ westlongitude, leaving the prolonged group of the Aleutian islands in the possessions now transferred
to the United States, and making the western
.  t, xe  ii v,X X An
I
BOUNDARIKS AND CONFIGURATION.
0 
4
including the Shumagins and the magnificent
island of Kodiak, and then the -Sitkan group,
being archipelago added to archipelago, and
the whole together constituting the geographical complement to the West Indies, so that the
northwest of the continent answers archipelago
for archipelago to the southeast.
DISCOVERY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA BY BERRING, UNDER
INSTRUCTIONS FROM PETER THE GREAT.
The title of Plussia to all these possessions
is ierived from prior discovery, which is the
admitted title by which all European Powers
have held in North and South America, unless
we except what England acquired by conquest
from France; but here the title of France was
derived from prior discovery.  Russia, shut
up in a distant interior and struggling with
barbarism, was scarcely known to the other
Powers at the time they were lifting their flags
in the western hemisphere.  At a later day the
same powerful genius which made her known
as an empire set in motion the enterprise by
which these possessions were opened to her
doiiiniion.  Peter the Great, himself a shipbuilder and a reformer, who had  worked in
the ship-yards of England and Hollanid, was
curious to know if Asia and America were
separated by the sea, or if they constituted
one undivided body with different names, like
Europe and Asia.  To obtain this information
he wrote with his own hand the following in structions. and ordered his chief admiral to
see them carried into execution:
"One ortwo boats with deck-sto be built at Kamts chatka, or at any other convenient ilace,with which
inquiry should be made in >elation to the northerly
coasts, to see whether they were not contiguous
with America, since their end was not known; and
this done, they should see whether they could not
somewhere find an harbor belongingtoEuropeans or
an European ship. They should likewise set apart
some men who should inquire after the name and
situation of the coasts discovered.  Of all this an
exact journal should be kept, with which theyshould
return to Petersburg."-AlIfller's Voyagcesfrom Asia to
Amnerica, by Jeffreys. p. 45.
The Czar died in the winter of 1725; but the
Empress Catharine, faithful to the desires of
her husband, did not allow this work to be
neglected.  Vitus Behring, a Dane by birth,
and a navigator of some experience, was made
commander.   The place of embarkation was
on the other side of the Asiatic continent.
Talking with him officers and ship-builders the
navigator left St. Petersburg by land 5th Feb ruary, 1725, and commenced the preliminary
journey across Siberia, northern Asia, and
the sea of Okhotsk to the coast of Kamtschatka,
which they reached after infinite hardships
and delays, sometimes with dogs for horses,
and sometimes supporting life by eating leather
bags, straps, and shoes.   More  than three
years were passed in this toilsome and perilous
journey to the place of embarkation.  At last
onl the 20th of J~uly, 1728, the party wvas able to
set sail in a small vessel, called the Gabriel,
and described as "like the packet-boats used
in the Baltick."  Steering in a northeasterly
direction, Behring passed a large island, which
he called St. Lawrence from the saint on
whose day it was seen. Th i s island, which is
included in the  present cession, may be con -
sidered as the first point in Russian discovery,
as it  i s  also  the  first   outpost of the North
American cont     inent.  Continuing nort hward
and hugging the Asiatic coast, Behiring turned
back only when  he thought he had reached the
northea st ern extremity of Asia, an d was sa tis.
fied that the two continents were separated
from each other. He did not penetrate further
north than 67~ 30'.
In his voyage Behring was struck by  the
absence of such great and high ~waves, as, in
other places,.are common to the open sea, and
he observed fir trees swimming in the water,
although they were unknown on the Asiatic
coast. Relations of inhabitants, in harmony
with these indications, pointed to " a country
at no great distance toward the east." His
work was still incomplete, and the navigator
before returning home put forth again for this
discovery, but without success. By another
dreary land journey he made his way back to
St. Petersburg in March, 1730, after an absence
of five years. Something was accomplished
for Russian discovery, and his own fame was
engraved on the maps of the world. The
straits through which he sailed now bear his
name, as also does the expanse of sea which
he traversed on his way to the straits.
The spirit of discovery continued at St.
Petersburg. A Cossack chief undertaking to
conquer the obstinate natives on the northeast ern coast, proposed also " to discover-the pre tended country on the Frozen sea." He was
killed by an arrow before his enterprise was
completed. l,ittleis known of the result; but
it is stated that the navigator whom he had
selected, byname Gwosdew, in 1730 succeeded
in reaching a " strange coast" between sixty five and sixty-six degrees of north latitude,
where he saw people, but could not speak with
them for want of an interpreter.  This must
have been the coast of North America, and
not far fi'om the-group of islands in Behring
straits, through Which the present boundary
passes, separating the United States from
Russia, and America from Asia.
The desire of the Russian Government to
get behind the cuirtain increased.   Behring
volunteered to undertake the discoveries that
remained to be made. He was created a com modore, and his old lieutenants were created
captains. The Senate, the Admiralty, and the
Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg all
united in the enterprise. Several academicians
were appointed to report on the natural history
of the coasts visited, among whom was Stel ler, the naturalist, said to be " immortal" from
this association. All of these, with a numer ous body of officers, journeyed across Siberia,
northern Asia, and the sea of Okhotsk~ to:
Kamtschatka, as Behrnng hadjoreebeoe
Though ordered in 1782, the expedition Gus
not able to' leave the western coast until 4thl
June, 1741, when'two well-appointed ships
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5
set sail in company "to discover the continent
of America."   One of these, called the St.
Paul, was under Commodore  Behring; the
other, called the St. Peter, was under Captain
Tschirikow.   For some time the two kept
together; but in a violent storm and fog they
were  separated, when  each  continued  the
expedition alone. 
Belhring first saw the continent of North
America on 18th July, 1741, in latitude 58~ 281.
Looking at it from a distance "the country
had terrible high mountains that were covered
with snow."  lTwo days later he anchored in a
sheltered bay near a point which he called
from the saint day on which he saw it, Cape
St. Elias.  He wAs in the shadow of Mount
St. Elias.  On landing he found deserted huts,
fire-places, hewn wood, household furniture,
an arrow, edge-tools of copper with "store of
red salmon."   Here also several birds unknown in Siberia were noticed by the faithful
Steller, among which was the blue jay, of
a peculiar species, now called by his name.
Steering northward, Behring found h4imself
constrained by the elbow in the coast to turn
westward, and then in a southerly direction.
Hugging the shore, his voyage was constantly
arrested' by islands without number, among
which lie zigzagged to find his way.  Several
times he landed. On one of these occasions
he saw natives, who wore "upper garments
of whale's guts, breeches of seal-skins, caps
of the skins of sea lions, adorned with various
feathers, especially those of hawks."  These
"Americans" as they are called were fishermen, without bows and arrows.  They regaled
the Russians with "whale's flesh," but declined
strong drink.  One of them, on receiving a
cup of brandy, "spit it out again as soon as
he tasted it and cried aloud, as if complaining
to his countrymen how ill he had been used."                                       I
This was on one of the Shumagin islands, near
the southern coast of the peninsula of Alaska.
Meanwhile, the other solitary ship, proceeding on its way, had sighted the same coast 15th
July, 1741, in the latitude of 56~.  Anchoring
at some distance from the steep and rocky
cliffs before him, Tschirikow sent his mate with
the long boat and ten of his best men, provided
with small-arms and a brass cannon, to inquire
into the nature of the country and to obtain
fi-esh water.  The long boat disappeared in a
small wooded bay, and was never seen again.
Thinking it might have been damaged in landing the captain sent his boatswain with the
small boat and carpenters well armed to furnish necessary assistance. The small boat disappeared also, and was never seen again.  At
the same time great smoke was observed continually ascending from the shore.  Shortly
afterwards two boats filled with natives sallied
forth and lay at some distance from the vessel,
when, crying,,Agai, Agai," they put back to
the shore.  Sorrowfully the Russian navigator
turned away, not knowing the fate of his comrades and unable to help them. This was not
far from Sitka.
Such was the first  discovery of  th ese north -
western coasts; and such          ar e the first recorded
glimpses of the aboriginal inhabitants. The
two navigators had different fortunes. Tschirikow, deprived of his boats, and therefore unable t o  la nd, hurried   h ome.  Adverse winds
and storms interfered. He supplied himself
with fresh water   only by d isti lling the ocean
or pressing rain from the sails. But at last
on the  9th Octo ber he    r each   ed Kamtschatka,
with  his ship's cobmpany of seventy diminis he d
to.forty-nine. During this time Behring was
driven, like, Ulysses, on the uncertain waves.
A single tempest raged for seventeen days, so
that Andrew Ilosselberg, the ancient pilot, who
had known the sea for fifty years, declared that
he had seen nothing like it in his life. Scurvy
came with its disheartening  horrors.  The
commodore himself was a sufferer. Rigging
broke.   Cables snapped. Anchors were lost.
At last the tempest-tossed vessel was cast upon
a desert island, then without a name, where the
commodore, sheltered in a ditch and half-covered with sand as a protection against cold,
died 8th December, 1741. His body after
his decease was "scraped out of the ground"
and buried on this island, which is called by
his name, and constitutes an outpost of the
Asiatic continent. Thus the Russian navigator, after the discovery of America, died in
Asia. Russia, by the recent demarcation,
does not fail to retain his last resting-place
among her possessions.
TITLE OF RUvSSIA.
For  some  time after these  expedit ions, by
which Russi a   achieved the palm of d iscove r y,
imperial enterprise slumbered in those seas.
The knowledge alread y a cqu ire      d was continued
and confirmed only by private individuals, who
were led there in quest of furs. In 1745 the
Aleutian islands were discovered by an adventurer in search of sea otters. In successive
voyages all these islands were visited for similar purposes. Among these was Ounalaska,
the principal of the group of Fox islands, constituting a continuation of the Aleutian islands,
whose inhabitants and productions were minutely described.   In 1768 private enterprise
was superseded by an expedition ordered by
the Empress Catharine, which, leaving Kamtschatka, explored this whole archipelago and the
peninsula of Alaska, which to the islanders stood
for the whole continent. Shortly afterwards
all these dliscoveries, beginning with those of
Behring and Tschirikow, were verified by the
great English navigator, Captain Cook. In
1778 he sailed along the northwestern coast,
Itnear where Tschirikow anchored in 1741;"
then again in sight of mountains " wholly covered with snow from the highest summit down
to the sea-coast," " with the summit of an elevated mountain above the horizon," which he
supposed to be the Mount St. Elias of Behring; then by the very anchorage of Behring;
then among the islands through which Behring
zigzagged, and along the toast by the island 
6
of St. Lawrence until arrested by ice.  If any
doubt existed with regard to Russian discoveries it was removed by the authentic report of
this navigator, who shed such a flood of light
upon the geography of this region.
Such from the beginning is the title of Russia, datifig at least from 1741.  The coast of
British Columbia, next below, was discovered
by Vancouver in 1790, and that of Oregon, still
furtherdown, by Gray, who, sailingfrom Boston
in 1789, entered the Columbia river in 1790;
So that the title of Russia is the earliest oIi the
northwestern coast.  I have not stopped to
quote volume and page, but I beg to be understood as following approved authorities, and I
refer especially to the Russian work of MUiller,
already cited, on the Voyages from Asia to
America; the volume of Coxe on Rutssian Discoveries with its supplement on the Comparative View of Russian Discoveries; the volume
of Sir John Barrow, on Arctic Voyages; Burney's Russian and Northeastern Voyages; and
the third voyage of Captain Cook, unhappily
interrupted by his tragical death from the natives
of the Sandwich islands, but not until after
his exploration of this coast.
There were at least four other Russian expeditions by which this title was confirmed, if it
needed any confirmation.  The first was ordered
by the Empress Catharine in 1785.  It was
under the command of Commodore Billings,
an Englishman in the service of Russia, and
was narrated from the original papers by Martin Sauer, secretary of the expedition.  In the
instructions from the Admiralty at St. Petersburg the Commodore was directed to take
possession of "such coasts and islands as he
shall first discover, whether inhabited or not,
that cannot be disputed, and are not yet subject to-any European Power, with consent of
the inhabitants, if any," and this was to be
accomplished by setting up "posts marked
with the arms of Russia, with letters indicating the time of sovereignty, a short account of
the people, their voluntary submissio     n      to the
Russian sovereignty, and that this was done
under the glorious reign of the great Catharine
the Second."   (Billings's Northern Russia,
Appendix.)  The next was  in 1803, in the
interest of' the Russian American Company.
There were two ships, one under the command
of Captain Lisiansky, and the other of Captain
Krusenstern, of         the  Russian navy.  It  was the
first voyage round the world by the Russian
Government, and lasted three years. During
its progress these ships visited separately the
northwest coast of America, and especially
Sitka and the island of Kodiak. Still another
enterprise organized by the celebrated minister
Count Romanzoff, and at his expense, left
Russia in 1815, under the command of Lieutenant Kotzebue, an officer of the Russian
navy, and son of the German dramatist, whose
assassination darkened the return of the son
from his long voyage. It is enough fo r the
present-to say of this expedition that it has
left its honorable traces on the coast even as
far as the  Frozen ocean.  Ther   re    remains  the
enterprise of LUtkse, at the time captain, and
afterward admiral in the Russian navy, which
was a voyage round the world, embracing especially the Russian possessions, commenced in
1826, and described in French with instructive
fuillness.' With him sailed the German  naturalist Kittlitz, who has done so much to illustrate the natural history of this region.
A FRENCH ASPIRATION ON THIS COAST.
So little was the Russian title recognized for
some time, that when the unfortunate expedition of La Perouse, with the frigates Boussole
and Astrolabe, stopped on this coast in 1787,
he did not hesitate to consider the friendly
harbor, in latitude 58~ 36,, where he was
moored  as open to permanent  occupation.
Describing this harbor, which he named Port
des Francais, as sheltered behind a breakwater
of  rocks,  wit h a c alm sea and with  a mo uth
sufficiently large, he says that nature seemed
to have created at this extremity of the world
a port like that of Toulon but vaster in plan
and accommodation; and then considering that
it had never been discovered before, that it was
situated thirty-three leagues northwest of Remedios, the limit of Spanish navigation, about
t w o  hundred and e ighty-four le ague s   from
Nootka and   a hundred   leagues       from Prince
William sound, the  marinerer   records his judement  that " if the   French Government    had
any project of  a factory on this  coas t  no n ati on
could have the  slightes t right to  o ppose it."
(La P6rouse, Voyage, Tom. 2, p. 147.) Thus
quietly was Russia dislodged.  The frigates
sailed further on their voyage a nd  never re.
turned to France.  Their fate was unknown,
until a fter   fruitless search and  the lapse of  a
generation their shipwrecked hulls were accidentally found  on a desert island of the southern Pacific. The unfinished journal of La
Pfrouse recording his   v isit to this coast   had
been  se nt  overl and, by way o f wKamts chatka
and Siberia, to France, where it was published
by a decree of the National Assembly, thus
making known his supposed discovery and his
aspiration.
EARLY SPANISH CLAIM.
Spain also has been a claimant. In 1775
Bodega, a Spanish navigator, seeking new
opportunities to plant the Spanish flag, reached
the parallel of 58~ on this coast, not far from
Sitka; but this supposed discovery was not
followed by any immediate assertion of dominioll. The universal aspiration of Spain had
embraced this whole region even at an early
day, and shortly after the return of Bodega
another enterprise was equipped to verify the
larger claim, being nothing less than the original title as discoverer of the straits between
America and Asia and of the conterminous
continent under the name of Anian. This
curious episode is not out of place in this brief
history. It has two branches: one concerning
early maps on which straits are represented
between America and Asia under the name of 
7
Anian; the other concerning a pretended
attempt by a Spanish navigator at an early day
to find these straits.
There can be no doubt that early maps exist
with northwestern straits marked Anian. There
are two in the Congressional Library in atlases
of the years 1717 and 1680; but these are of
a date comparatively modern.  Engel, in his
Mdemoires  Oeographiques,  mentions several
earlier, which he believes to be genuine. There
is one purporting to be by Zaltieri, and bearing
date 1506, an authentic pen-and-ink copy of
which is now before me from the collection of
our own Coast Survey.  On this very interesting map, which is without latitude or longi tude, the west     ern  coast of the continent is
del in       eated with           sta  eraits separating it from Asia
not unlike Behring straits in outline, and with
the name in Italian Stretto di Anian. Southward the coast has a certain conformity with
w       hat is     now known  to exist. Below the straits
is an indentation corresponding to Bristol bay;
then a          peninsula s omewhat  broader than             that
of Alaska; then comes the elbow of the coast;
then lower dow       n  three   is    lands,   not unlike
Sitka, Queen Charlot te, and Vancouver; and
e        n         f      rthen, further south, is the pe ninsula of Lower
C         alifornia.  Sometimes the story of Anian is
explained by  th       e          voyag e  of  the Portuguese
navigato                            sr Caspar de Cortereal in 1500-1505,
when,  on reaching Hudson bay in quest of a
passage  r ound America,'he imagined              th     a     t he
had  found it, and proceeeded to name his disc ov            e ry "Iin honor  of two brothers who accompanied  him."  Very                soon maps began to record  the str    a        its of Anian; but this does  not
exp      lai n          th e sub     stantial conformity  of the early
delineatio               n with the reality, which seems truly
remarkable.
Thle other branc      h         of  inquiry is   mo  r e easily
disposed of.  This turns on a Spanish document entitled "Relation of the Discovery oi
the Strait of Anian, made by me Captain
Lorenzo Ferren Maldonado," purporting to
be written at the time, although it did'not see
the light till 1781, when it was published in
Spain, and shortly afterward                became    the subect of a memoir before the French Academy.
If this early account of a northwest passage
from the Atlantic to the Pacific were authentic the whole question would be settled, but
recent geographers indignantly -discard it as
a barefaced imposture. Clearly Spain once
ruetaided it otherwise; for her Government in
1789 sent out an expedition "to discover the
strait by which Mfaldonado was supposed to
have passed in 1588 from the coast of Labrador to the Great Ocean."   The expedition
was not successful, and nothing more has been
heard of any claim from this pretended discovery.  The story of Maldonado has taken its
place in the same category withx that of Munchausen.
REASONS FOR THIS CESSION BY RUSSIA.
Turning from-'this question of title, which
time and testimony have already settled~ I meet
the inquiry, why does Russia part with posses sions thus associated with the reign of her
greatest emperor and filling an important chapter of geographical history?  On this head I
have no information which is not opento others.
But I do not forget that the first Napoleon in
parting with Louisiana was controlled by three
several considerations: first, he needed the
purchase-money for his treasury; secondly, he
was unwilling to leave this distant unguarded
territory a prey to Great Britain in the event
of hostilities which seemed at hand; and thirdly,
he was glad, according to his own remarkable
language, 1' to establish forever the power of
the United States and give to England a maritime rival destined to humble her pride." Such
is the record of history.  Perhaps a similar
record may be made hereafter with regard to
the present cession.  It is sometimes imagined
that Russia, with all her great empire, is financially poor, so that these few millions may
not be unimportant to her.  It is by foreign
loans that her railroads have been built and
her wars have been aided. All, too, must
see that in those "coming events," which now
more than ever " cast'their shadows before,"'
it will be for her advantage not to hold outlying possessions from which thus far she has
obtained no income commensurate with  the
possible expense for their protection. Perhaps,
like a wrestler, she now strips for the contest, which I trust sincerely may be averted.
Besides I cannot doubt that her enlightened
emperor, "ivho has given pledges to civilization
by an unsurpassed act of Emancipation, would
join the first Napoleon in a desire to enhance
the maritime power of the United States.
These general considerations are reenforced
when we call to mind the little influence which
Russia has thus far been able to exercise in this
region. Though possessing dominion over it for
more than a century this gigantic Power has
not been more genial or productive there than
the soil itself. Her government there is little
more than a name or a shadow.  It is not even
a'skeleton.  It is hardly visible.  Its only represenative is a fur company, to which has been
added latterly an ice company.  The immense
country is without form and without light;
without activity and without progress. Distant
from the imperial capital, and separated from
the huge bulk of Russian empire, it does not
share the vitality of a common country. Its life
is solitary and feeble. Its settlements are only
encampments or lodges.  Its fisheries are only
a petty perquisite, belonging to local or personal adventurers rather than to t he commerce
of nations.
In these statements I follow the record. So
little were these possessions regarded during
the last century that they were scarcely recognized as a component part of the empire. I
have now before me an authentic map, published by the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg in 1776f, and reproduced at London
in 1787, entitled " General Map of the Russian 
8
Empire," where you will look in vain for'Russian America, unless we except.that link of
the Aleutian chain nearest to Asia, which
appears to have been incorporated under the
Empress Anna at the same time with Siberia.
(See Coxe's Russian Discoveries.) Alexander
Humboldt, whose insight into geography was
unerring, in  his    great work on New Spain,
published in 1811, after stating   that                   he is able
from               official documents to give the position of
the Russ ian factories  on the American continent,  s    ays  that they                 are "nothing but sheds
and cabins employed as magazines of furs."
He   tremarks fur    ther              t t      that "the  larger part of
these small Russian colonies do not communicate with each other except by sea," and then,
putting us on our guard not to expect too much
from       a nam e,    he proce eds to say thats "  the    new
denomin ation of Russian America or Russian
possessions on the new continent must not
make us think that the coasts of Behring's
Basin, the peninsula of Alaska, or the country
of Tchuktchi have become Russian provinces
in the sense given to this word, when we speak
of the Spanish provinces of Sonora or New
Biscay." (Humbbldt, Essai Politique sur La
.Youvelle Espagne, Tom. I, pp. 344, 345.) Here
is a distinction between the foothold of Spain
in California and the foothold of Russia in
North America, which will at least illustrate
the slender power of the latter in this region.
In ceding possessions so little within the
sphere of her empire, embracing more than
one hundred nations or tribes, Russia gives up
no part of herself, and even if she did the considerable price paid, the alarm of war which
begins to fill our ears, and the sentiments of
friendship declared for the United States would
explain the transaction.
Russia was ready to cede; that if she were, he
would confer with his Cabinet and influential
members of Congress." All this was unofficial; but it was promptly communicated to the
Russian Government, who seem to have taken
it into careful consideration. Prince Gortschakow, in a dispatch which reached here early in
the summer of 1860, said that "the offer was
not what might have been expected; but that
it merited mature reflection; that the Minister
of Finance was about to inquire into the colidition of these possessions, after which Russia
would be in a condition to treat."  The prince
added for himself that "he was by no means
satisfied personally that it would  be for the
interest of Russia politically to alienate these
possessions; that the o)nly consideration which
could make the scales incline that way would
be the prospect of great financial advantages
but that the sum of $5,000,000 does not seem
in any way to represent the real value of these
possessions," and he concluded by asking the
minister  to tell  Mr. Appleton  and Senator
Gwin that the sum offered was not considered
"an equitable equivalent."  The subject was
submerged by the presideptial election which
was approaching, and then by the Rebellion.
It will be observed that this attempt was at
a time when politicians who  believed in the
perpetuity, of slavery still had power. Mr.
Buchanan was President, and he employed as
his intermediary a known sympathizer with
slavery, who sliortly afterward became a rebel.
Had Russia been willing, it is doubtful if this
controlling interest would have sanctioned any
acquisition too far north for slavery.
Meanwhile the Rebellion was brought to an
end, and peaceful enterprise was renewed,
which on the Pacific'coast was directed toward the Russian possessions.   Our people
there wishing new facilities to obtain fish, fur,
and ice, sought  the intervention of the national Government.  The Legislature of Washington Territory, in the winter of 1866, adopted
a memorial to the President of  the United
States, entitled "in reference to the cod and
other fisheries," as follows:
To his Excellency ANDREW JO"NSON,
President of the United States:
Your memorialists, the Legislative Assembly of
Washington Territory, beg leave to show that abundance of codfish, halibut, and salmon of excellent
quality have been found along the shores of the Russian possessions.  Your  memorialists respectfully
request your Excellency to obtain such rights and
privileges of the~Government of Russia as will enable our fishing vessels to visit the ports and harbors
of its possessions to the end that fuel, water, and provisions may blye easily obtained, that our sick and
disabled fishermen may obtain sanitary assistance,
together with the privilege of curing fish and repairing vessels in need of repairs.  Your memorialists
further request that the Treasury Deopartment be
instructed to forward to the collector of customs of
this Puget sound district such fishing licenses, abstract journals, and log-books as will enable our
hardy fishermen to obtain the bounties now provided
and paid to the fisherman in the Atlantic States.
Your memorialists finally posy your Excellency to
employ such ships as may be spared from the Pacific
naval fleet in exploring and surveying the fishing
THE NEGOTIATION, IN ITS ORIGIN AND COMPLETION.
I am not able to say when the idea of this
cession first took shape. I have heard that
it was as long ago as the administration of
Mr. Polk.  It is within my knowledge that
the Russian Government was sounded-on the
subject during the administration of Mr. Buchanan.  This was done through Mr. Gwin, at'
the time Senator of California, and Mr. Appleton, Assistant Secretary of State. For this purpose the former had more than one interview
with the Russian minister at Washington some
time in December, 1859, in which, while professing to speak for the President unofficially, he
represented "that Russia was too far off to
make the most of these possessions; and that,
as we are near, we can derive more from
them." In reply to an inquiry of the Russian
minister Mr. Gwin said that " the United
States could go as high as $5,000,000 for the
purchase," on which the former made no comment. Mr. Appleton, on another occasion, said
to the minister that " the President thought
that the acquisition would be very profitable to
the States on the Pacific; that he was ready to
follow it up, but wished to know in advance if 
9
banks known to navigators to exist along the Pacific
coast from the Cortes bank to Behring straits, and
as in duty bound your memorialists will ever pray.
Passed the House of Representatives January 10,
1866.                 EDWARD ELDRIDGE,
Speaker House of Representtatives.
Passed the Council January 13,1866.
HARVEY K. HINES,
President of the Council.
This memorial on its presentation to the
President in February, 1866, was referred to
the Secretary of State, by whom it was comnunicated  to Mr. de Stoeckl, the          Russ ian  mpinister, with remarks  on the  impo rtance of some
e arl y  and  comprehensive  arrangement    between
the two  Powers i      n      ord er   to prevent the growth
of difficulties, especially fom the fisheries in
that region.
Shortly afterwards another influence was felt.
Mr. Cole,  who ha  d bee n  re cent ly elected to the
Senate from Californi —, acting in behalf of certain persons in that State, sought to obtain from
the Russian Government a license or franchise
to gather furs in a portion of its American possessions. The charter of the Russian American
Co mpany w            as about       to expire.  This company
had already underlet to the Hudson Bay Company all its franchise on the main land between,
54~ 40' and Mount St. Elias; and now it was
roposed that an American company, holding
direct from the Russian Government, should be
substituted for the latter. The mighty Hudson
Bay Company, with its headquarters in London, was to give way to an American Company
with its headquarters in Califbrnia.  Among
the letters on this subject addressed to Mr.
Cole and now before me is one dated at San
Francisco, April 10, 1866, in which this scheme
is developed as follows:
"There is at the present time.a good chance to organize a far trading company to trade between the United
States and the Russian possessions in America, and
as.the charter formerly granted to the Hudson Bay
Company has expired this would be the opportune
moment to start in."   *   *' *   *   "I should
think that by a little management this charter could
be obtained from the Russian Government for ourselves, as I do not think they are very willing to renew the charter of the Hudson Bay Company, apnd I
think they would give the preference to an Americana
company, especially if the company should pay to
the Russian Government five per cent. on the gross
proceeds oftheirtranse,.ctions, and also aid in civilizing and ameliorating the condition of the Indians by
employing missionaries if required by the Russian
Government. For the' fa'fithful performance of the
above we ask a charter for the term of twenty-five
years, to be renewed for the same length of time, if
the Russian Government finds the company deserving. The charter to invest us with the right of trading in all the country between the British American
line and the Russian archipelago."      *   * *   *
"Remember, we wish for the same charter as was
formerly granted to the Hudson Bay Company, and
we offer in return more than they did."
Another correspondent of Mr. Cole, under
date of San Francisco, 17th September, 1866,
wrote as follows:
" I have talked with a man who has been on the'
coast and in the trade. for ten years past, and he says
it is much more valuable than I have supposed, and
I thilak it very important to obtain it if possible."
The Russian minister at Washington, whiom
Mr. Cole saw repeatedly upon this subject,
was not authorized to act, and the latter, after
conference with the Department of State, was
induced to address Mr. Clay, minister of the
United States at St. Petersburg, who laid the
application before the Russian Government.
This was an imortant step.  A letter from
Mr. Clay, dated at St. Petersburg as late as
1st February, 1867, makes the following revelation:
" The Russian Government has already ceded away
its rights in Russian America for a term of years, and
the Russo-American,Coml)any has also ceded the
same to the Hudson Bay Company. This lease expires in June next, and the president of the RussoAmerican Company tells me that they have been in
correspondence with the Hudson Bay Coml)any about
a renewal of thelease for another-term of twenty-five
or thirty years. Until he receives a definite answer
he cannot enter into negotiations with us or your
California company.  My opinion is that if he can
get off with the Hudsori Bay Company he will do so.
when we can make some arrangements with the
Russo-Animrican Company."
Some time had elapsed since the original
attempt of Mr. Gwin, also a Senator from
California, and it is probable that the Russian
Government had obtained information which
enabled it to see its way more clearly.  It will
be remembered that Prince Gortschakow had
promised an inquiry, and it is known that in
1861 Captain Lieutenant Golowin, of tlie Russian navy, made a detailed report on these
possessions.  Mr. Cole had the advantage of
his predecessor.  There is reason to believe,
also, that the administration of the fur company had not been entirely satisfactory, so that
there were well-founded hesitations with regard
to the renewal of its franchise.  Meanwhile, in
October, 1866, Mr. de Stoeckl, who had long
been the Russian minister at Washington, and
enjoyed in a high degree the confidence of our
Government, returned home on a leave of
absence, promising his best exertions to promote good relations between the two countries.
While he was at St. Petersburg the applications
from the United States were. under consideration; but the Russian Government was disinc l ined to any minor arrangement of the character proposed.  Obviously something like a
crisis was at hand with regard to these possessions.  The existing government was not
adequate. The franchises granted there were
about to terminate.  Something must be done.
As Mr. de Stoeckl was leaving in February to
return to his post the Archduke Constantine,
the brother and chief adviser of the emperor,
handed him a map with the lines in our Treaty
marked upon it, and told him he might treat
for this cession.  The minister arrived in Washington early in March.   A  negotiation was
opened at once with our Government.  Final
instructions were received by the Atlantic cable
from St. Petersburg on the 29th March, and at
four o'clock on the morning of the 30th March
this important Treaty was signed by Mr. Seward
on the part of the United States and by lr. de
Stoeckl on the Dart of Russia.
Few treaties have been conceived, initiated;
prosecuted,  and completed in so simple a
manner without protocols or dispatch". The
I... 
10
was originally agreed upon; but when it was
understood that there was a fur comnpany and
also an ice company enjoying monopolies under
the existing government, it was thought best that
these should be extinguished, in consideration of which our Government added $200,000
to the purchase money, and the Russian Government in formal terms declared "the cession of
territory and dominion to be free and unincumbered by any reservations, privileges, frianchises, grants, or possessions, by any associated companies, whether corporate or incor,
porate, or by any parties, except merely private
individual property-holders."  Thus the United States receive this cession free of all incumbrances, so far at least as Russia is in a
condition to make it.  The Treaty proceeds to
say, that "the cession hereby made  conveys
all the rights, franchises, and privileges now
belonging to Russia in the said territory or
dominion and appurtenances thereto."   In
other words, Russia conveys all that she has
to convey.
whole negotiation will be    se en in its result,
unless we accept two brief notes, which constitute -all that passed between the negotiators.
Th        ese           have an  in terest general and special, and
I conclude the history of this    trans actio n by
reading them:.
DMEPARaTMENT OF S TATE,
WASHINGTON, starch 23,1867.
ir: With            r eference to  the proposed convention
bettween our respective Gavernments for a cession
by Russia of her American territory to the United
States, I have th e ho nor to acquaint you that             I must
insist upon that clause in the sixth article of the
draft which declares the cession to be free and unincumbered by any reservation s, pivileges,franchises,
grants, or possessions by any associated companies,
whether corporate or incorporate, Russian or any
other, &c., and m ust regard it as an ultimatum.
With the President's approval, however, I will add
$200,000 to the consideration money on that account.
I avail myself of this occasion to offer to you a
renewed assurance of my most disting~uyed consideration.               WILLIAM H.  VWARD.
Mr. EDWARD DE STOECIKL, &C.. &C., &C.
[Translation.]
WASHINGTON, March 17 t 29,1807.
Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have the honor to
inform you that by a telegram dated 16 1 28th of this
month from St. Petersburg, Prince Gortchakow informs me that his Majesty the Emperor of all the
Russias gives his consent to the cession of the Russian
Possessions on the American continent to the United
States for the stipulated sum of $7,200,000 in gold,
and that his Majesty the Emperor invests me with
full powers to negotiate and sign the treaty.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurance
of my very high consideration.        STOECKL.
To Hon. WILLIAMf H-. SEWARD,
Secretary of State of the United States.
QUESTIONS ARISING UNDER THE TREATY.
There are questions not unworthy of atten tion,which arise under the treaty between Russia
and Great Britain, fixing the eastern limits of
th ese  possessions, and conceding certain privi leges to the latter Power. By this treaty, signed
at St. Petersburg 28th February,  1825, after
fixing the boundaries between the Russian and
British possessions, it is provided that "for the
space of ten years the vessels of the two Powers,
or those belonging to their respective subjects,
shall mutually be at liberty to frequent, withoutany hlinderance whatever, all the inland seas,
gulfs, havens, and creeks on the coast for the
purpose of fishing and of trading with the natives;" and also-tliat "for the space of ten
years the port of Sitka or Novo Archangelsk
shall be open to the commerce and vessels 6f
Britishsubjects." (Hlertslet' s CommercialTreaties, vol. 2, p 365.)  In the samiie Treaty it is
also provided that "the subjects of his Britannic.Majesty, from whatever quarter they may
arrive, whether from the  ocean or from the
interior of the continent, shall forever enjoy
the right of navigating freely and without any
hinderance whatever all the rivers and streams
which in their course toward the Pacific ocean
may cross the line of demarcation." (Ibid.)
Afterwards a Treaty of Commerce and Navigationbetween Russiaand GreatBritainwassigned
at St. Petersburg llth January, 1843, subject to
be terminated on notice from either party at the
expiration of ten years, in which it is provided
that " in regard to commerce and navigation in
the Russian possessions on the northwest coast
of America the convention of 28th February,
1825, continues in force."  (Ibid., vol. 6, p.
767.)  Then ensued the Crimean war between
Russia and Great Britain, effacing or suspending treaties. Afterwards another Treaty of
Commerce and Navigation was signed at St.
Petersburg 12th January, 1859, subject to be
terminated on notice from either party at tblr
THE TREATY.
The Treaty begins with the declaration that
"the United States of America and his Majesty
the Emper or of    all    the Russias, being desirous
of strengthening, if possible, the good under standing which exists between them," have
appoin ted  pleteipotentiaries, who  h         ave proceeded to,   sig  n      ar ticles, wherein it is stipulated
on behalf of Russia that "his Majesty the
Emperor of all thle Russias agrees to cede to
the United States by this convention, immediately upon the exchang-e of the ratifications
thereof, all the territory and dominion now
possessed by his said Majesty on the continent
of  Americ    a      and i n   the adjac ent islands, the
same being contained within the geographical
limits herein set forth;" and it is stipulated on
behalf of the United States that "in consideration of the cession aforesaid the United
States agree to pay at the Treasury in Washington, within ten months after the ratification
of this convention, to the diplomatic representative or other agent of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias duly authorized to
receive the same, $7,200,000 in gold." The
ratifications are to be exchanged within three
months from the date of the Treaty, or sooner,
if possible.
Beyond the consideration founded on the
desire of " strengthening the good understanding" between the two countries, there is the
pecuniary consideration already mentioned,
which underwent a change in the progress of
the negotiation. The isum of seven millions
I
lr
:-.1 
11
expiration of ten years, which repeats the last
provision.  (Ibid., vol. 10, p 1063.)
Thus we have three different stipulations on
the part of Russia; oie opening seas, gulfs,
and havens on the Russian coast to British subjects for fishing and trading with the natives;
the second making Sitka a free port to British
subjects; and the third making British rivers
which flow through the Russian possessions
forever free to British navigation.  Do the
United States succeed to these stipulations?
Among these I make a distinction in favor
of the last, which by its language is declared
to be "forever,'.' and may have -been in the
nature of an equivalent at the settlement of the
boundaries between  the two Powers.  But
whatever may be its terms or its origin it is
obvious that it is nothing but a declaration
of public law as it has always been expounded
by the United States and is now recognized
on the continent of Europe.  While pleading
with Great Britain in 1826 for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence Mr. Clay, who
was at the time Secretary of State, said that
" the American Government did not mean -to
contend for any principle the benefit of which,
in analogous circumstances, it would deny to
Great  Britain."   (Wheaton's Elements  of
International Law, part 2, cap. 4.)  During
the same year Mr. Gallatin, our minister in
London, when negotiating with Great Britain
for the adjustinent of our boundaries on the
Pacific, proposed that " if the line should cross
any of the branches of the Columbia at points
from which they are navigable by boats to the
main stream the navigation of both branches
and of the main stream should be perpetually
free and common to the people of both nations.' 
At an earlier day the United States made the
same claim with regard to the Mississippi,
and asserted as a general principle that "if
the right of the upper inhabitants to descend
the stream was in any case obstructed it was
an act by a stronger society against a weaker,
condemned  by the judgment of mankind."
(Ibid.)  By these admissions our country is
estopped, even if the public law of the European continent, first declared at Vienna with
regard to the Rhine, did not offer an example
which we cannot afford to reject.  I rejoice to
believe that on this occasion we shall apply
to Great Britain the generous rule which from
the beginning we have claimed for ourselves.
The two other stipulations are different in
character.  They are not declared to be " forever," and do not stand on any principle of
public law.  Even if subsisting now they cannot be onerous.  I doubt much if they are subsisting now. In succeeding to the Russian possessions it does not follow that the United
States succeed to ancient obligations assumed
by Russia, as if, according to a phrase of the
common law, they are "covenants running
with the land."  If these stipulations are in
the nature of servitudes they depend for their
duration on the sovereignty of Russia, and are
personal or national rather than territorial
So at least I am inclined to believe. But it is
hardly profitable to speculate on a point of so
little practica l value.  Eve n if " run ning with
the land" these servitudes can be terminated
at the expiration of ten years  from the last
treaty by a notice, which equitably the United
States may give, so asto take effect on the  12th
January, 1869. Meanwhile, during this brief
period, it will be easy by act of Congres5 ia
advance to limit importations at Sitka. so that
this " free port" shall not be made the channel
or doorway by which British goods may be
introduced into the United States free of duty.
Advantages to the Pacific Coast.
(1.) Foremost  in order, if  not in importance,
I put the  desires  of our fellow-citizens on the
Pacific coast, and the special advantages which
they will derive from this enlargement of
boundary. They were the first to ask for it,
and will be the first to profit by it. While
others knew the Russian possessions only on
the map they knew them practically in their
resources. While others were still indifferent
they were planning how to appropriate Russian
peltries and fisheries. This is attested by the
resolutions of the Legislature of Washington
Territory; also by the exertions at different
times of two Senators from California, who,
differing in political sentiments and in party
relations, took the initial steps which ended in
this Treaty.
These well-known desires were founded, of
course, on supposed advantages; and here experience and neighborhood were prompters.
Since 1854 the people of California have received their ice from the fresh-water lakes in
the island of Kodiak, not far westward from
Mount St. Elias. Later still their fishermen
have searched the waters about the Aleutians
and the Shumagins, commencing a promising
fishery. Others have proposed to substitute
themselves to the Hudson Bay Company in
their franchise on the coast. But all are looking to the Orient, as in the time of Columbus,
although like him they sail to the West. To,
them China and Japan, those ancient realms
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TREATY.
From this survey of the Treaty, as seen in its
origin and the questions under it, I might pass
at once to a survey of the possessions which
have conveyed; but there are other
matters of a more general character which
present themselves at this stage and challenge
thejudgment. Theseconcernnothinglesstban
th-uni-ty, power, and grandeur of the Reublic, with the extension of its dominion an its
institutions.. Such considerations, where not
entirely inapplicable, are apt to be controlling.
I do nt doubt that they will in a great measure
determine the fate of this treaty with the Amerlean'people. They are patent, and do not depend on research or statistics. To state them
isenough.
T
I' I 
12
of fabulous wealth, are the Indies.  To draw
this commerce to the Pacific coast is no new
idea. It haunted the early navigators. Meares,
the Englishman, whose voyage in the intervening seas was in 1789, closes his volumes
with an essay, entitled " The trade between the
northwest coast of America and China," in the
course of which he dwells on the "great and
very valuable source of commerce"' afforded
by China as "forming a chain of trade between
Huason bay, Canada, and the northwest coast, "
and then hlie exhibits on the American side the
costly furs of the sea otter, which are still so
much prized in China; "mines which are
known to lie between the latitudes 40~ and 60~
north;" and also an "inexhaustible supply"
of ginseng,  for which there is still such a
demand in China that even Minnesota, at the
headwaters of the Mississippi, supp em her contribution.  His catalogue might be extended
now.
As a practical illustration of this idea, it
may be mentioned that for a long time most
if not all the sea otter skins of this coast found
their way to China, excluding even Russia herself. China was the best customer, and therefore Englishmen and Americans followed the
Russian company in carrying these furs to her
market, so that Pennant, the English naturalist, impressed by the peculiar advantages of
this coast, exclaimed,  " What a profitable
trade with China might not a colony carry on
were it possible to penetrate to that part of
the country by means of rivers and lakes I"I
But under the present Treaty this coast is
ours.
The absence of harbors at present belonging to the United States on the Pacific limits,
the outlets of the country.  On that whole
extent, from Panama to Puget's sound, the
only harbor of any considerable value is San
Francisco.   Further north the harbors  are
abundant, and they are all nearer to the great
marts of Japan and China.  But San Francisco itself will be nearer by the way of the
Aleutians than by Honolulu.  The projection
of maps is not always calculated to present an
accurate idea of distances.  From measurement on a globe it appears that a voyage from'
San Francisco to Hong Kong by the common
way of the Sandwich islands is 7,140 miles,
but by way of the Aleutian islands it is only
6,060   miles, b  eing a saving of more than one
thousand miles, with the enormous additional
advantage of being obliged to carry much less
coal. Of course a voyage from Sitka, or from
Puget sound, the terminus of the Noxthern
Pacific railroad, would be shorter-still.
The advantages to the Pacific coast have two
aspects, one domestic and the other foreign.
Not only dom the Treaty extend the coasting
trade of California, Oregon, and Washington
T'err-itory northward, but it also extends the
base of commerce with China and Japan.
To unite the east of Asia with the West of
America is the aspiration of commerce now as
when the English navigator recorded his voyage. Of course whatever helps this result is
an advantage. The Pacific railroad is such an
advantage, for, though running westward,  it
will be, when  completed, a new highway to the
East. This Treaty is another  advantage. for
nothing c an be clearer th a n      that the western
coast must exercise an attraction which will
be felt in China and Japan just in proportion
as it is occupied by a commercial people communicating readily with the Atlantic and with
Europe. This cannot be done without consequences not less important politically than commercially.. Owing so much to the Union, the
people there will be bound to it anew, and the
national unity will receive another confirmation. Thus the whole country will be a gainer.
So are we knit together that the advantages to
the Pacific coast will contribute to the general
welfare.
Exte nsion of  Dominion.
a(2.) The  extension of dom inion is an other
considerat ion, calcula t ed to  capt ivathethe public mind.   Few are so cold or philosophical as
to r egard with in sensibility a widening of the
bound s of  country.   Wars have been regarded
as successful w hen t hey   ha v e given a new territory. The  discoverer who  had planted the
flag of hisd sovereign  on a distant coast h as
been received    as a  conqueror. The   ingratitude
which was showu nth o Columbus during his later
days  was compensated  by the  epit aph that  he
had given a new world to Castile and Leon.
His discoveries were continued by other navigators, and Spain  girdled the earth with  he
possessions. Portugal, France, Holland, England, each followed the example of Spain and
rejoiced in extended empire.
Our territorial   acquisitions are  among the
landmarks of our history. In  1803 Louisiana,
embracing the valley of the Mississippi, was
acquired from France for fifteen million dollars. In 1819 Florida was acquired from Spain
for three million dollars. In 1845 Texas was
annexed without any purchase, but subsequently her debt was assumed to the amount
of seven and a half million dollars. In 1848
California, New Mexico, and Utah were aequired from Mexico after war, and on payment
of fifteen million dollars. In 1854 Arizona
was acquired from Mexico for ten million dollars. And now it is proposed to acquire Russian America.
The passion for acquisition, which is so
strong in the individual, is not less strong in
the community. A nation seeks an outlying
territory, as an individual seeks an outlying
farm. The passion shows itself constantly.
France, passing into Africa, has annexed Algeria. Spain set her face in the same direction
but without the same success. There are two
great Powers with which annexation has become a habit.  One is Russia, which from the
time of Peter the Great has been moving her
flag forward in every direction, so that on every
:I..::..: 
13
side her limits have been extended. Even now
the report comes that she is lifting her southern landmarks in Asia, so as to carry her
boundary to India.  The other annexationist
is Great Britain, which from time to time adds
another province to her Indian dominion.  If
tht United States have from time to time added
to their dominion they have only yielded to the
universa.l passion, although I do not forget that
the late Thleodore Parker was accustomed to say
that among dll people the Anglo-Saxons were
remarkable for "a greed of land." It was
land, not gold, that aroused the Anglo-Saxon
phlegm. I doubt, however, if this passioIn be
stronger with us than with others, except, perhaps, that in a community where all participate in government the national sentiments
are more active.  It is common to the human
family.  There are few anywhere who could
hear of a considerable accession of territory,
obtained peacefully and honestly, without a
pride of country, even if at certain moments
the judgment hesitated.   With an increased
size on the map there is an increased consciousness of strength, and the citizen throbs
anew as he traces the extending line.
Extension'of Republican Institutions.
(3.) More than the extension of dominion is
the extension of republican institutions, which
is a traditional aspiration. It was in this spirit
that Independence was achieved. In the name
of Human Rights our fathers overthrew the
kingly power, whose representative was George
the Third. They set themselves openly against
this form of government.  They were against
it for themselves, and offered their example to
matlnkind.  They were Roman in character, and
turned to Roman  lessons.  With a cynical
austerity the early Cato said that kings were
" carnivorous animals," and at his instance the
Roman Senate decreed that no king should be
allowed within the gates of the city. A kindred sentiment, with less austerity of form.
has been received from our fathers; but our
city can be nothing less than the North American continent with its gates on all the surrounding seas.
John Adams, in the preface to his Defense
of the American Constitution, written in London, where he resided at the time as minister,
and dated January 1,1787, at Grosvenor Square,
the central seat of aristocrati'.fashion, after
exposing the fabulous origin of'the kingly
power in contrast with the simple origin of
our republican constitutions, thus for a moment lifts the curtain of the future:' "Thirteen
governments," he says plainly, "thus founded
on the natural authority of the people alone,
and without any pretense of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the
northern part of that whole quarter of the
globe, is a great point gained in favor of the
rights of mankind."   (John Adams's Works,
vol. 4 p. 293.)  Thus, according to this prophetic minister, even at that early dayS was the
destiny of the Republic  manifest. It was to
spread over the northern part of the American quarter of the globe;-. and it was to be a
support to th e  rights  of m ankind.
By the text of  our Cons titution    t he United
States are bound  t  o  guaranty a "mrepublican
form of government"  to every  State i n  this
Union; but this obligation, which is only applicable  at home, isoe  an un ques tion able  indication  of the national aspiration everywhere.
The Republic is something more than a local
policy; it is a general principle, not to be forgotten at any time, especially when the opportunity is presented of bringing an immense
region within its influence. Elsewhere it has
for the present failed: but on this account our
example is more important. Who can forget
the generous lament of Lord Byron, whose
passion for fieedom was not mitigated by his
rank asmen hereditary legislator of England,
when he exclaims in memorable verse:
"The name of commonwealth is past and gone
O'er the three fractions of the groaning globe I"
W'ho can forget the salutation which the poet
sends to the "one great clime," which, nursed
in freedom, enjoys what he calls "the proud
distinction" of not being confounded with
other lands,
"Whose sons must bow them at a monarch's.motion,
As if his senseless scepter were a wand I"
The present Treaty is a visible step in the
occupation of the whole North American continent. As such"it will be recognized by the
world and accepted by the American people.
But the Treaty involves something more. By
it we dismiss one more monarch from this
continent. One by one they have retired;
first France; then Spain; then France again;
and now Russia; all giving way to that absorbing Unity which is declared in the national
motto, Eoluribus unum.
Anticipation of Great Britain.
(4.) Another motive to this acquisitift may
be found in a desire to anticipate the imagined
schemes or necessities of Great Britain.  With
regard to all these I confess my doubts, and
yet, if we may credit report, it Would seem as
if there was already a British movement in
this direction. Sometimes it is said that Great
Britain desires to buy if Russia will sell
Sir George Simpson, governor-in-clhief of the
Hudson Bay Company, declared that without
the strip on the coast underlet to the former
by the Russian Company the interior would be
" comparatively useless to England."  Here,
then, isa provocation to buy. Sometimes report
assumes a graver character. A German scientificjournal, in all elaborate paper entitled " The
Russian Colonies on the Northwest Coast of
America, " after referring to the constant "~ pressmle" upon Russia, proceeds to say that there
are already crowds of adventurers from British
Columbia and California nowr at the gold mines
on the Stikine, which flows from British territory
'~:'-.   I
I,, ee
*                 t  I:
I
a 
14
through the Russian possessions, who openly
d e c l a r e their purpose of driving the R          ussians
out of this region.  I refer to the Archiv fur
Wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland, edited
at Berlin as late as 1863, by A. Erman, vol.
22, pp. 47-70,  and unquestionably                               the leading
authority on Russian questions. At the same
time it presents a curious passage bearing di  rectly on British policy from                       the British Colo  nist, a newspaper of Victoria, on Vancouver's
island.  As this was regarded of sufficientim-,
portance to                      be tra nslated into Germ          an for the
instruction of the readers of a scientific jour  nal, I shall be justified in laying it before you
restored from the German to English.  It is as
follows:
."The information which we daily publish from the
Stikine river very naturally excites public attention
to a great extent.  Whether the terriory through
which the river flowsbe considered in a political, com mercial, or industrial light there is a probability that
in a short time there will be a still more general in terest in the claim.  Not only will the intervention
of the royal jurisdiction be demanded in order to tive
to it a complete form of government, but if the land
proves to be as rich as there is now reason to believe
t to be it is not improbable that it will result in
negotiations between England and Russia for the
transfer of the sea-coast to the British Crown.  It
certainly is not acceptable that a stream like the
Stikine, which for one hundred and seventy to one
hundred and ninety miles is navigable for steam ers, which waters a territory so rich in gold that it
will allure thousands of men-certainly it is not
desirable that the business of such a highway should
reach the interior through a Russian door of thirty
milesofcoast. The Englishpopulation whichoccupies
the interior cannot be so easily managed by the Rus sians as the Stikine Indians of the coast manage the
Indians of the interior.  Our business must be in
British hands.  Our resources, our energies, our
undertakings cannot be fully developed in building
up a Russian emporium at the mouth of the Stikine.
We must have for our productions adepot overwhich
theBritishfiag waves.  By the treaty ofl 1825thenavi gation of the river is secured to us. The navigation
of the Mississippi was also open to the United States
before the Louisiana purchase, but the growing
strength of the North made the attainment of that
territory either by purchase or by might an evident
necessity. Welookuponthesea-coastofStikineland
in the same light. The strip of land which stretches
along from Portland canal to Mount St. Elias with a
breadth of thirty miles, and which according to the
treaty of 1825 forms a part of Russian America, mu       st
eventually become the jPrort of Great Britain, either
as the direct result of the development of gold, or
for reasons which are now yet in the beginning, but
whoseresults arecertain.  Foritis clearlyundesirable
that the strip three hundred miles long and thirty
miles wide which is only used by the Russians for
the collection of furs and walrus teeth shall forever
control the entrance to our very extensive northern
territory. It is a principle of England to acquire
territoryonly as a point of defense. Canada, Nova
Scotia, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and the great
part of our Indian possessions were all acquired as
defensive points. In Africa, India. and China the
same rule is to-day followed by the Government.
With a Poker like Russia it would perhaps be more
difficult to get ready, but if we need the sea-coast to
help us in our business in the precious metals with
the interior and for defense then we must have it.
The United States needed Florida and, Louisiana, and
they took them.  We need the shore of New Norfolk
and New Cornwall.
" It is just as much the destiny of our Anglo-Norman
race to possess the whole of Russian America, however wild and inhospitable it'may be, as it has been
the destiny of the Russian Northmen to prevail over
northern Europe and Asia.  As the wandering Jew
and his phantom in the tale of Eugene Sue, so will the
Anglo-Norman and the Russian yet look upon each
other from the opposite side of Behring atffits. Be  tween the two races the northern half of the Old and
New World must be divided. Americ, must be our&
" The present development of the precious metals in
our hyperborean Eldorado will most probably hasten
the annexation of the territory in question. It can
hardly be doubted that the gold regionof the Sti~sine
extends away to the western source of the Mackenzie.
In this case the increase of the business and of the
population will exceed our most sanguine expecta  tions. Who shall reap the profit of this? The mouths
of rivers have as well before as since the time of
railroads controlled the business of the interior. For
our national lride the thought, however, is unbear  able that the Russian eagle should possess a point
which owes its importance to the British lion. The
mouth of the Stikine mustbe ours, or at least an outer
harbor must be established on British soil from-which
our steamers can pass the Russian  girdle.  Fort
Simpson, Dundas Land, Portland canal, orsome other
convenient point, must be selected for this purpose.
The necessity of speedy action in order to secure the
control of the Stikine is apparent.  If we let slip   th e
opportunity, so shall we perm it a Russian State to
arrive at the door of a British colony."
Thus if we may credit this colonial ejacula tion, caught up and preserved by German
science, the Russian possessions were destined
to'round and complete the domain of Great
Britain on this continent. The Russian "eagle"
was to give way to the British Ilion."   The
Anglo-Norman was to be master as far as
Behring.straits, across which he might survey
his Russian neighbor. How this was to be
accomplished is not precisely explained. The
promises of gold on the Stikine failed, and
it is not improbable that this colonial plan
was as unsubstantial. Colonists become ex cited easily. This is not the first time in which
Russian America has been menaced in a
similar way. During the Crimean war there
seemed to be in Canada a spirit not unlike
that of the Vancouver journalist, unless we
are misled by the able pamphlet of Mr. A.
K. Roche, of Quebec, where, after describing
Russian America as I richer in resources and
capabilities than it has hitherto been allowed
to be either by the English who shamefully
gave it up, or by the Russians who cunningly
obtained it," the author urges an expedition
for its conquest and annexation. His propOsition fell on the happy termination of the war,
but it exists as a warning, with a notice also
of a former English title, "shamefully" abandoned.
This region is distant enough from Great
Britain; but there is an incident of past history which shdrs that distance from the metro
politan Government has not excluded the idea
of war. Great Britain could hardly be more
jealous of Russia on these coasts than was
Spain in a former day, if we may-credit the report of Humboldt.   I quote again his authoritative work, Essai Politique sur- la NouveNl
Espagne, (Tom. 1, page 345,) where it is recorded that as early as 1788, even while peace
was still unbroken, the Spaniards could not bear
the idea of Russians in this region, and when in
1790 the Emperor Paul declared war on Spain
the hart project was formed of an expedition
from the Mexican ports of Monterey and Sew
4
t.,  -:...:. 
15
amicably adjusted by verbal explanations with out any written controversy.
Positive acts occurred to strengthen these
relations.  As early as 1861 the two Governments came to an agreement to act together
for the establishment of a connection between
San Francisco and St. Petersburg by an interoceanic telegraph across Behring straits; and
this agreement was  subsequently sanctioned
by Conglress.  Meanwhile occurred the visit of
the Russian fleet in the winter of 1863, which
was intended by the Emperor and accepted by
the United States as a friendly demonstration.
This was followed by a communication of the
Secretary of State, dated 26th Dtcember, 1864,
in the name ofthe President, invitingtithe Arch duke Constantine to visit the United States,
in which it was suggested that such a visit
would be " beneficial to us and by no means
unprofitable to Russia," but forbearing "to
specify reaSins, " and assuring him that coming
as a national guest he would receive a cordial
and most demonstrative welcome.  Affairs in
,Russia prevented the acceptance of this invitation.  Afterwards, in the spring of 1866, Congress by solemn resolution declared the syv
pathies of the people of the United States with
the Emperor on his escape from the madness of
an assassin, and Mr. Fox, at the time Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was appointed to
take the resolution of Congress to the Emperor,
and, in discharge of this trust, to declare the
friendly sentiments of our country for Russia.
He was conveyed to Cronstadt in the monitor
Miantonomah, the most formidable ship of our
Navy; and thus this agent of war became a
messenger of peace. The monitor and the minister were received in Russia with unbounded
hospitality.
In relations such as I have described the
cession of territory seems a natural transaction
entirely in harmony with the past.  It remains.
to hope that it may be a new link in an amity
which, without effort, has overcome differences
of institutions and intervening space on the
globe.
SHALL THE TREATY BE RATIFIrD?
Such are some of the obvious considerations
of a general character bearing on the Treaty.
The interests of the Pacific States; the extension of the national domain; the extension
of republican institutions; the foreclosure of
adverse British possessions and the amity of
Russia; these are the points which we have
passed in review.  Most of these, if not all, are
calculated to impress the public mird; but I
can readily understand a difference cf opinion
with regard to the urgency of negotiation at this
hour.  Some  may think that the purchasemoney and the annual outlay which must follow might have been postponed for another
decade, while Russia continued in possession
as a trustee for our benefit.  And yet some of
the reasons for the Treaty do not ena to allow
d elay.                              h
At all events, now that the TZreaty has been
/
Blas against the Russian colonies, on   which th    e
philosophic traveler remarks, in words which
are recalled by the Vancouver manifesto, that
"if this project had been executed the world
, would have witnessed two nations in conflict,
which, occupying the opposite extremities of
Europe, found themaselves neighbors in another
hemisphere on the eastern and western bound aries of their vast empires."  Thus notwith standing an intervening circuit of half the globe
two great Powers were about to encounter each
other on these coasts. But I hesitate to believe
that the British of our day in any considerable
numbers have adopted the early Spanish dis quietude at the presence of Russia on this
continent.
The Amity of Russia.
(5.) There is still another consideration concernig this Treaty which must not be disregarded.  It attests and assures the amity of
Russia. Even if you doubt the value of these
possessions,  the Tr eaty i  s      a     sign of friendship.
It is a       new ex  pres     sion    of tha t entente cordiale
between the two Power s w hi      ch is a phenomenon of history.   Though unlike in institutions, they are not unlike in recent experience. Sharers of a common glory in a great
act of Emancipation, they also share together
the opposition or antipathy of other nations.
Perhaps this experience has not been without
its effect in bringing them together. At all
events, no coldness or unkindness has interfered at any time with their good relations.
The archives of the State Department show
an uninterrupted cordiality between the two
Governments dating far back in our history.
More than once Russia has offered her good
offices between the United States and Great
Britain; once also she was a recognized arbitrator. She offered her mediation to prevent
war in 1812, and again by her mediation in
1815 brought about peace. Afterwards it was
under her arbitration that questions with Great
Britain arising under the treaty of Ghent were
amicably settled in 1822. But it was during our
recent troubles that we felt more than ever her
friendly sentiments, although it is not improbable that the accident of position and of distance had its influence in preserving these
undisturbed. The Rebellion, which tempted
so many other Powers into its embrace, could
not draw Russia from her habitual good will.
Her solicitude for the Union was early declared. She made no unjustifiable concession
of ocean be~liger-ency, with all its immunities
and powers, to rebels in arms against the
Union. She furnished no hospitality to rebel
cruisers; nor was any rebel agent ever received, entertained, or encouraged at St.
Petersburg; while, on the other hand, there
-was an understanding that the United States
should be at liberty to carry prizes into Russian
orts.  So natural and easy were the relations
between the two Governments that such complaints as incidentally arose on either side were
.. I rT.
I 
16
signed by plenipotentiaries on each side duly
empowered, it.is difficult to see how we can
refuse to complete the purchase without putting
to hazard the friendly relations which happily
subsist between the United States and Russia.
The overtures originally proceeded from us.
After a delay of years, and other intervening
propositions, the bargain was at length concluded.  It is with nations as with individuals.
A bargain once made must be kept.  Even if
still open to consideration it must not be lightly
abandoned.  I am satisfied that the dishonor
of this Treaty, after what has passed, would be
a serious responsibility for our country.  As an
international question, it would be tried by the
public opinion of the world, and there are many,
who, not appreciating the requirement of our
Constitution by which a Treaty must have "        t      he
advice and consent of the Senate,"  would
regard its rejection as bad faith.'There would
be jeers at us and jeers at Russia also; at us
for levity in making overtures, and at Russia
for levity in yielding to them. Had the Senate been consulted ie advance, before the Treaty
was signed or either Power publicly committed,
as is often done on important occasions, it would
now be under less constraint.  On such a consultation there would have been an opportunity
f       o        r all possible objections, and a  large latitude
to a                        reasonable discretion. Let me add that,
w    h     i    l     e      forbearing objection now, I  hope that
this Treaty may not be drawn into a precedent
at                         least in the independent manner of i ts negotiation.  I would save to the Senate an important power that justly belongs to it.
easy if we  are only true t o   o urselves. Our motto
may be  that of Goethe, " Without hastes witho ut rest."  Let t he Republic be  assured in
tranquil  liberty with  all equal befor e the  law
and it-will conquer  by   its sublime  example.
More  happy tlian Austria, who acquired possessions by m ar r i age, we shall acquire  them by
the attraction  of republica n    institutions;
"Bella gerant aii; tuo felix Austria, nube;     Nam qume Mars  aliis. dat tibi regna Venug."
The  famous  epigram will be  just as applicable
to us, in as m   uch as our acquisitions will t e   under
the  sanction of wedlock to the Republic. There
may be wedlock of a   peo ple as well as of a
prince. Meanwhile our first care should be to
improve  and el evat e    th e Republic,  whose swray
wil l be so com prehensive. Plant itit with schools;
cover it with  churches; f i ll it with   libraries;
make it abund an t with  co mfo rt so tha t poverty
shall disappear; ke ep it constant  in th e assertion  of Human  Rights. And here  we may fitly
recall  thos e  wor ds of antiquity, which Cicero
quoted  from th e   Greek, a nd    w hich  Webster inm
our  day quote d  from  Cicero, "tYou have a
Spar ta; adorn it. "
SOURCES OF INFORMATION UPON RUSSIAN AMERICA.
I am now brought to consider the  character
of these possessions and their probable value.
Here I am obliged to confess a dearth of
authentic information easily accessible. There
are few among us who read Russian,   so that
works in this language are locked up from the
world.  One of these, in two  lar ge and showy
volbmesi is  no w before me, entitled " A  Historical Survey of the Formation of the RussianAmerican Company, and its prog?ess to the
present time, by P. Teshmenew, St. Petersburg."  The first volume appearedin 1860, and
the second in 1863. Here, among other things,
is a tempting engraving of Sitka, wrapped in
mists, with the sea before and the snow-capped
mountains darkened with forest behind. Judgin- from the table of contents, which has been
translated for me by a Russian, the book ought
to be instructive. There is also another Russian
work of an official character, which appeared
in 1861 at St. Petersburg in the Morskoi. Sbornich, or Naval Review, and is entitled " Materials for the History of the Russian Colonies
on the Coasts of the Pacific." The report of
Captain Lieutenant Golowin made to the Grand
Duke Constantine in 1861, with which we have
become acquainted through a scientific German journal, appeared originally in the same
review. These are recent productions. After
the early voyages of Behring, first ordered by
Peter th -Great and supervised by the  Impe:
rial Academy at St. Petersburg, the spirit of
geographical research seems to have subsided
at St. Petersburg. Other enterprises absorbed
the attention. And yet I would not do injustice to the voyages of Billings, recounted by
Sauer, or of Lisiansky~ Krusenstern, and
Lungsdoff, or of Kotzebvue, all under' the auspiees of Russia, the last of which may orn
A CAVEAT.
But there is one other point on which I file
m caveat. This Treaty must not be a preced,ynt for a system of indiscriminate and costly
annexation. Sincerely believing that republican institutions under the primacy of the tjnited States must embrace this whole continent,
I cannot adopt the sentiment of Jefferson, who
while confessing satisfaction in settlements on
the Pacific coast saw there in the future nothing but "free and independent Americans,"
bound to the United Sfa-tes only by "ties of
blood and interest" without political unity.
Nor am I willin to restrain myself to the nciple so tersely expressed by Andrew Jc Pkr,,. n
in-his letter to President Monroe, " Concentrate
our population, confine- our frontier to proper
limits, until our country, to those limits, is led
with a dense population." But I cannot dis  ise my anxiety that every stage in our preYestined future shall be by natural processes
without war, and I would add even without
purchase. There is no territorial aggrandizement which is worth the price of blood. Only
under pecoliar circumstances can it become the
subject of pecuniary contract. Our triumph
should be y growth and organic expansion in
obedience Ito "Prestablished harmony," recognizing alwiys-the will of those who are to
become our i-,Ilow-citizens. All this must be 
17
pare with any as a contribution to science.  I
may add Lutke also; but Kotzebue was a wor thy successor to Behring and Cook.
Beside these official contributions, most of
which are by no means fresh, there are mate rials derived from casual  navigators, who,
scudding these seas, rested in the harbors there
as the water-fowl on its flight; from whalemen,
who were there merely as Nimrods of the
ocean; or fromn adventurers in quest of the rich
furs which it furn ished. There are also the
gazetteers and geographies; but they are less
instructiv e           on th is h ea d     than usual,     being
founded on information now many years old.
P er          haps no region of equal extent on the
globe, unless               we  except the interior of Africa
or po         ssibly G reenland,      i s    a       s little known.
Here I do not speak for myself alone.  A
learned German, whom I have already quoted,
after saying that the explorations have been
limited to the coast, testifies that " the interior,
not only of the continent, but even or the island
of Sitka, is to-day unexplored, and is in every
respect terra incognita."'  The same has been
repeated of the islands also. Admiral LUtlke,
whose circumnavigation of the globe began in
1825, and whose work bears date in 1835, says
of the Aleutian archipelago, that "-althougrh
frequented for more than a century by Russi-an
vessels and those of other nations it is to-day
almost as little known as in the time of Cook."
Another writer of authority, the compiler of
the official work on the People of Russia, published as late as 1862, speaks of the interior as
' a mystery." And yet another says that our
ignorancle-with regard to this region would make
-it a proper scene for a chapter of Gulliver's
Travels.
Where so little was known there was scope
for invention. Imagination was made to supply the place of knowledge, and poetry pictured
the savage desolation in much-admired verse.
,Campbell, in the Pleasures of Hope,' while exploring' earth's loneliest bounds and ocean's
wildest shore," reaches this region, which he
portrays:
berries equally fine with those met with in Eng  land."  (Voyage, p. 118.) Kotzebue, who was
here' later, records that he found the weather
"pretty warm at Ounalaska."  (Voyage, vol.
1, p. 275.) South of the Aleutians ths  e  climate
is warmer still.  The  poet ignores natural his  tory also as regard s the distribution    of animals.
Curiously enough, it does not appear that there
a re  " wolves" on a ny   of th e A leutians.  Coxe,
in his w ork on Russian Discoveries, (p. 174,)
records that "I reindeer, bears, wolves, and  ice -
foxes are not  to be found on these isl ands."
But he was never there.  Meares, who was in
those  seas, says " the o nly  a nimals  on the se
islands are foxes, some of which are black."
'(Voyage, vol. 1, p. 16.) Cook, who was at
Ounalaska twice, and once made a prolonged
stay, expressly says, II Foxes and weasels were
the only quadr qtpeds we saw; they told us that
they had.ares also."  (Voyage, vol. 2, p. 518.)
But quadrupeds like these hardly sustain the
exciting picture.   The same experienced navi  gator furnishes a glimpse of the inhabitants as
they appeared to him, which would make us
ot emb]e if the "wolves"  of'the poet were
numerous.   He says that "'to all appearance
they are the most peaceable, inoffensive people
he ever met with;" and Cook had been at Ota heite.  "No  such thing as an offensive or
defensive weapon was seen amongst the natives
of Ounalaska." (Ibid., pp. 509, 515.)  Then
at least the inhabitants did  not share  the
ferocity of the "wolves" and of the climate.
Another navigator fascinates us by a descrip tion of the boats of Ounalaska, which struck
him "with amazement beyond expression;"
and he goes on to say, " If perfect symmetry,
smoothness, and proportion constitute beauty,
they are beautiful beyond anything that I ever
beheld.  I have seen some of them as trans parent as oiled paper."  (Billings's Voyages,
p. 15.)  But these are the very boats that buf fet "the wave's tumultuous roar,'" while "the
breezes" waft the "wolf's long bowl."  This
same navigator introduces another feature.
According to him the Russians sojourning there
"seem to have no desire to leave this place,
where they enjoy that indolence so pleasing to
their minds." (P. 161.)  The lotus eaters of
Homer were no better of.  The picture is completed by another touch from Liitke.  Admitting the want of trees on the island, the admiral
suggests that their place is supplied not only
by luxuriant grass, but by wood thrown upon
the coast, including trunks of camphor from
Chinese  and Japanese waters, and "a tree
which  gives forth the  odor of the rose.'(Voyage, Tom. 1, p. 132.) Such is a small
portion of the testimony, most of which was
in print before the poet wrote.
CNothing has been written about this region,
whether the coast or the islands, more authentic or interesting than the narrative of Captain
Cook on his third and last voyage.   He saw
with intelligence, and described with clearness
almost elegant.  The record of Captain Port
OLo I to the wintry winds the pilot yields,
His bark careering o'er unfathomed fields.
Noiv far he sweeps, whero scarce a summer smiles,
On Behring's rocks, or Greenlands naked isles;
Cold on his midnight watch the breezes blow,
From wastes that slumber in eternal snow,
And waft across the wave's tumultuous roar
The wolfs lontg howl fronm Ounalaska'8s shore."
this region, is  inconsistent with  the   truth.
The poet ignores the isothermal line, which
plays such a conspicuous part on the Pacific
coast. Here the evidence is positive. Portlock, the navigator, who was there toward the
close of the last century, -after describing
Cook's inlet, which is several degrees north
of Ounalaska, records his belief "that the
climate here is not so severe as has been generally supposed; for in the course of traffic
with the natives they frequently brought berries of several sorts, and in particular black
2
I 
* 18
lock's voyage from London to the northwest
coast in 1786, 1787, and 1788 seems to be
honest, and is instructive.  Captain Meares,
whose voyage was contemporaneous, saw and
exposed the importance of trade between the
northwest coast and China.  Vancouver, who
came a little later, has described some parts
of this coast.  La Pe6rouse, the unfortunate
French navigator, has afforded another picture
of the coast painted with  French  colors.
Before him was La Maurelle, a Frenchman
sailing in the service of Spain, who was on
the coast in 1779, a portion of whose journal
is reserved in the appendix to the volumes of
La Pe6rouse.  After him was Marchand, also
a Frenchman, who, during a voyage round the
world, stopped here in 1791.  The voyage of
the latter, published in three quartos, is accompanied by an Historical Introduction, which is
a mine of information on all the voyages to
this coast.  Then came the several successive
Russian voyages already mentioned.  Later
came the Voyage round the world by C(tain
Belcher, with a familiar sketch of life at Sitka,
where he stopped in 1837, and an engraving'
representing the arsenal and light-house there.
Then came the Journey round the world in
1841 and 1842 by Sir George Simpson, governor-in-chief of the Hudson Bay Company,
containing an account of a visit to Sitka and
the hospitality of its governor.  To these I
may add The NauticalM agazine for 1849, volumne 18, which contains a few excellent pages
about Sitka; the Journal of the London Geographical Society for 1841, volume 11, and for
1852, volume 12, where this region is treated
under the head of Arctic languages and animal
life; Burney's Russian and Northeastern Voyages; the magnificent work entitled Les Peuples
de la Russie, which appeared at St. Petersburg
in 1862, on the tenth centennial anniversary
of the foundation of the Russian empire, a copy
of which is in the Astor Library; the very
recent work of Murray on the Geographical
Distribution of Mammals; the work of Sir
John Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana;
Latham on Nationalities in the chapters which
treat of the population of Russian America;
the Encyclopedia Britannica; and the admirable Atlas of Physical Geography by Keith
Johlnston.  I mention also an elaborate article
by Holmberg, in the Transactions Of the Finland Society of Sciences at Helsingfors, said to
be replete with information on the Ethnography
of the Northwest Coast.
Perhaps the most precise and valuable information has been contributed by Germany.
T he Germans are th       e  best       of   geographers;
besides marny Russian contributions are in
German. Miuller, who recorded the discover:ies of Behring, was a German. Nothing more
important on this subject has ever appeared
than the German work of the Russian Admiral Von Wrangel, Statistische  and Ethnographisehe Nachrichten ilber die Russichen
Besitzungen fnder N?ordwestkicste von Amexrica,
first publ ished by  Baer i n his Russian Beitroge
in 1839. T here is-also   the Verhandlungen, der
Russisch-Kaiserlichen Mineralogischen Gessellschaft zu St. Petersburg, 1848 and 1849,
which co ntains aon elaborate article,  in itself a
volume, on the  orography and geology of  t he
northwest coast and the adjoiinng isla  nds,    a t
the end of which  is  a bibliographical lis t   of the
works and materials illustrating  the d iscovery
and history of the west half of Nort h  Ame rica
and the neighboring seas. I may also refer
generally to the Archivfiir Wissenschaftliche
..nde von Russland, edited by Erman, but
especially the volume for 1863, containing the
abstract of Golowin's- report on the Russian
sian Colonies in North America as it appeared
originally in the Morskoi Sbornich. Besides
these there are Wappaus Handbuch von Geographic und Statistik von Nord Amerika, published at Leipsic in 1855; Peterman in his
Mittheiltungen fiber wichtige neue Erforschungen a?tf dem gesammtgebiete der Geographic
for 1856, vol. 2, p. 486; for 1859, vol. 5, p. 41;
and for 1863, vol. 9, pp. 70, 236, 277, 278;
Kittlitz Denkwurdigkeiten einer Reise  nach
dem Russischen America durch Kamtschatka,
published at Gotha in 1858; also by the same
author The Vegetation of the Coasts and Islands
of the Pacific translated from the German and
published at London in 1861.
Much recent information has been derived
from the great companies possessing the monopoly of trade-here. Latterly there has been
an unexpected purveyor in the Russian American Telegraph Company, under the direction
of Colonel Charles L. Bulll-ey, and- here our
own countrymen cometo help us. To this expel
dition we are indebted for authentic evidence
with regard to the character of the country
and the great rivers which traverse it. The
Smithsonian Institution and the Chicago Academy of Sciences cooperated with the Telegraph
Com-pany in the investigation of the Natural
History of the region.   Major Kennicott, a
young naturalist, originally in the service of the
Institution, and Director of the Museum of the
Chicago Academy, was the enterprising chief
of the Youkon division of the expedition.
While in the midst of his valuable labors he died
suddenly in the monthtof May last at Nulato, on
the banks ofthegreat river, the Kwichpak~which
may be called the Mississippi of the North, far
away in the interior and on the confines of the
Arctic Circle, where the sun was visible all
night. Even after death he was still an, explorer. From this remote.outpost his remains,
after descending the unknown river in an Esquimaux boat of seal skins, steered by the faithful
companion of his labors, were transported by
way of Panama to hishome at Chicago, where
he now lies buried.  Such an incident cannot
be forgotten, and his name will always remind
us of courageous enterprise, before which distance and difficulty disappeared. H~e was not
a beginner when he entered into the service of
the Telegraph Company. Already he had vis
I 
4
19
ited the Youkon country by the way of the
Mackenzie river, and contributed to the Smith sonian Institution important information with
regard to its geography and natural history,
some of which will be found in their reports.
Nature in novel forms was open to him.  The
birds here maintained  their kingdom.  All
about him was the mysterious breeding-place
of the canvas-back duck, whose eggs, never
before seen by a naturalist, covered acres.
If we look to maps for information, here
again we find ourselves disappointed. Latterly
the coast is outlined and described with rea sonable completeness; so also are the islands.
This is the contribution of navigators and of
recent Russian charts.  But the interior is little
more than a blank, calling to mind "the path less downs," where, according to Prior, the
old geographers "place elephants instead of
towns."  I have already referred to what pur ports to be a "General Map of the Russian
Empire," published by the Academy of Sci ences at St. Petersburg in 1776, and repub lished  at London  in 1787, where Russian
America does not appear.  I might mention
also that Captain Cook complained in his day
of the Russian maps as "wonderfully errone ous."  On his return English maps recorded
his explorations and the names he assigned to
different parts of the coast.  These were re produced in St. Petersburg, and the Russian
copy was then reproduced in London, so that
geographical knowledge  was very little advanced. Some of the best maps of this region
are by G(rmans, who always excel in maps.
Here, for instance, is an excellent map of the
Aleutian islands and the neighboring coasts,
especially to illustrate their  orography and
geography, which will be found at the end of
the volume of Transactions of the Imperial
Mineralogical Society at St. Petersburg,  to
which I have already referred.
Late maps attest the tardiness of information.  Here, for instance, is an excellent map
of North America, purporting to be published
by the Geographical Institute of WVeimar as
late as 1859, on which we have the Youkon
pictured, very much like the Niger in Africa, as
a large river meandering in the interior without any outlet to the sea.  Here also is a Russian map of this very region, as late as 1861, in
which the course of the Youkon is left in
doubt.  On  other maps, as in the Atlas of
IKeith Johnston, it is pictured under another
name as entering into the Frozen ocean.  But
the secret is penetrated at last. Recent discovery by the enterprise of our citizens in
the service of the Telegraph Company fixes
that this river is an affluent of the Kwichpak,
as the Missouri is an affluent of the Mississippi,
and eniters into Behring sea, by many mouths,
between the parallels of 64~ and 65~.  After
the death of Major Kennicott a division of his
party, with nothing but a skin boat, ascended
the river to Fort Youkon, where it bifurcates,
ald descended it again to N~tlato, thus estab
lishing the enti re    c our se - fro m its sources in
.the Rocky mountains fbr;:a distance exceeding
a thousand miles., I hate before me now an
outline map just prepared by our Coast Sur vey, where this correction is made. But this
is only the harbinger of the maturer labors of
our accomplished bureau when the coasts of
this region are undid' the jurisdiction of the
United States.
In closing this abstract of authorities, being
the chief sourcea —f original information on,
this subject, I cannot forbear expressing my
satisfaction that, with the exception'of a single
work, all these may be found in the Congressional Library, now so happily enriched by the
rare collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
Sometimes individuals are like libraries; and
this seems to be illustrated in the case of Professor B'rd, of the Smithsonian Institution,
who is thoroughly informed on all questions
connected with the Natural History of Russian
America, and also of George Gibbsl   Esq., now
of Washington, who is the depositary of valua-.le knowledge, the result of his own personal
studies and observations, with regard to the
native races.
CHARACTER AND VALUE OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.
I pa ss now to a consideration  of        th e char acter an d value of thes    e  possessions, as see n
under  th ese  different     h      eads:  first, govern ment; secondly, population; thirdly, climate;
fourthly, vegetable products; fifthly, mineral
products; sixthly, furs; and seventhly, fish eries.  Of these I shall speak briefly in their
order. There are certain words of a general
character. which I introduce by way of preface.
I quote from Blodgett on the Climatology of
the  United States and of the temperate Latitudes of the North American continent:
" It is most surprising that so little is known of the
great islands and the long line of coast from Puget's
sound to Sitka, ample as its resources must be even
for recruiting the transient commerce of the Pacific,
independent of its immense intrinsic value. To the
region bordering the northern Pacific the finest maritime positions belong throughout its entire extent;
and no part of the west of Europe exceeds it in the
advantages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial aceessibility of the coast. The western slope
of the Rocky mountain system may be included as a
part of this maritime region. embracing an immense
area from the forty-fifth to the sixtieth parallel and
five degrees of longitude in width. The cultivable
service of this district cannot be much less than three
hundred thousand square miles.";
From.this sketch, which is in the nature of
a picture, I pass to the diiterent heads.
Government.
I. The Russian settlements were for a long
time without any regular Government. They
were little more than teinporarv- lod ments
for purposes of trade, where the will of the
stronger prevailed. The natives, who had
enslaved each other, became in turn the slaves
of these mercenary adventurers. Captaiii
Cook records "the great subjection" of the,
natives at Ouiialaslia, wli(.,n he was there in 
20
1778, and a Russian navigator, twenty years
later, describes the islands generally as " under
the sway of roving hunters more savage than
any tribes he had hitherto met with."  (Billings's Voyage, p. 274.) - At Ounalaska the Russians for a long time employed all the men in
the chase, "taking the fruits of their labor to
themselves."
The first trace of government-which I find
was in 1790, at the impoant island of Kodiakl, or the Great IsJan; as it was called,
where  a Russian  company was established
under the direction of a Greek by the name of
Delareff, who, according to the partial report
of a Russian navigator, "governed with the
stricte    st justice, as well natives                 s a Russians,
and  established a         school, w here the young
nativ       es       w     ere    taught the Russian lanage, reading, and writing. " (Billings, p. 171. Here were
about fifty Russians, including  officers of  the
company, and another  person                    described as
there "    on          the part of Government to collect
tribute." The establishment consisted ol've
houses  after    the Russian fashion; barracks
laid  out  on eithe    r             i    d side somewhat like  the
boxes a t            a     coffee-house, with different offices,
which  are represented as follows:                                               I" An office
of        appe al       to settle disputes,  levy fines,     and
punish offen      der s b y a regu lar trial; here Delareff presides; and I believe        th    a     t few courts
of justice pass  a      sentence with more    impartial -
ity; an offic          e  of receival and delivery, both for
the company   and for tribute; the commissa ry's
department; counting-house; all in this building, at one end of which is Delareffs habitation."   (Ibid., p. 173.)  If this picture is not
overdrawn, and it. surely is, affairs here did not
improve with time.
It seemsth                                          at that  there were various small companies of which that at Kodiak was  the most
considerable, all of which were finally fused
into one large Trading Company, known as
the Russian American Company, which was
organized in 1799, under a charter from the
Emperor Paul, with the power of administration throughout the whole region, including
the coasts and the islands. In this respect it
was not unlike the East India Company, which
has played such a part in English history; but
it may be more properly compared to the Hludson Bay Company, of which it was a Russian
counterpart. The charter was for a term of
years, but it has been from time to time extended, and, as I understand, is now on the
point of expiring.  The powers of the company are-sententiously described by the Almanach de Gotha for 1867, where, under the head
of Russia, it says that "to the present time
Russian America has been the property of a
company. "
I know no limitation upon the company, except that latterly it has been bound t9 appoint
its chief fuactionary, called "'Administrator
General," from the higher officers of the Imperial navy, when he becomes invested with
what are declared the prerogatives of a gov
ernor in Siberia. This requirement has doubtless secured the superior order of magistrates
which the country has latterly enjoyed. Among
these have been Baron Wrangel, an admiral,
who was there at the time of the treaty with
Great Britain in 1825; Captain Koupreanoff,
who had commanded the Azof, a shitof the
line, in the Black sea, and spoke English well;
Captain Etholine; Admiral  Fujurelm, who,
after being there five years, was made governor of the province of the Amoor; Admiral
Wodski and Prince Macksoutoff, an admiral
also, who is the present Administrator General.  The term of service is ordinarily five
years.
The seat of government is the town of New
Archangel, better known by its aboriginal name
of Sitka, with a harbor as smooth and safe as
a pond.  Its present population cannot be far
from one thousand souls, although even this is
changeable.  In the spring, when sailors leave
for the sea and trappers for the chase, it has
been reduced to as few as one hundred and
eighty.  It was  not without a question that
Sitka at last prevailed as the metropolis.
Liitke sets forth reasons elaborately urged in
favor of St. Paul on the island of Kodiak.
(oyage, Tom. 1, p. 153.)
The first settlement there was in 1800 by
Baranow, the superintendent of the company,
whose life was passed in this country, and whose
name has been given to the island.  But the
settlement  made slow progress.   Lisiansky,
who was there in 1804, records that " from his
entrance into Sitka sound there was not to be
seen on the shore the least vestige of habi"tion." (P. 145.)  The  natives had set themselves against a settlement there.  Meanwhile
the seat of government was at Kodiak, of which
we have an early and friendly glimpse.   I
quote what Lisiansky says, as exhibiting in a
favorable light the beginning of that government which has been transferred to the United
States:
" The island of Kodiak, with the rest of the Russian
settlements along the northwest coast of America, are
superintended by a kind of governor general or commander-in-chief, who has agents under him appointed, like himself, by the company at Petersburg.
The smaller settlements have each a Russian overseer. These overseers are chosen by the governor,
and are selected for the office in consequence of their
long services and orderly conduct. They have the
power of punishing, to a certain extent, those whom
they superintend; but are themselves amenable to
the     governor if they abuse their power by acts of
injustice. The seat of government is on the harbor
of St. Paul, which has a barrack, differet storeh ouses,  several respe ctable wooden  habitations,
and a church. the only one to be found on the
coast."-Ibid., p. 214.
From this time the company seems to have
established itself on the coast.   Lisiansky
speaks of " a single hunting party of nine hundred men, gathered from different places, as
Alaska, Kodiak, Kenay, Cook's inlet, and
commanded by thirty-six toyons, who are subordinate to the Russians in the service of the
American company, and receive from them
0
I 
21
their orders."  (/bM., 153.)  From another
source I learn that the inhabitants of Kodiak
and of the Aleutian islands were regarded as
"immediate subjects of the company;"  the
males from eighteen to fifty being bound to
serve it for the term of three years each.
They were employed in the chase.  The population of Alaska and of the two great bays,
Cook's inlet and Prince William sound, were
also subject to the company; but they were held
to a yearly tax in furs without any regular service, and they could trade only with the company.  Otherwise they were independent. This
seems to have been before the division of the
whole into districts, all under the company,
which, though primarily for the business of the
company, may be regarded as so many  distinct jurisdictions, each with local powers of
government.
Among these were two districts which I
mention only to put aside, as not included in
the present cession: (1.) The Kurile Islands,
beingthegroup nestling near the coastof Japan,
on        the Asiatic side                    of the dividing line between
the tw         o               continents. (2.) The Ross settlementi
in California, now a      bandoned.
There remain five other districts: (1.) The
District      of Atcha, with the bureau at  th is island,
embracing  the two western groups of the Aleutian- known as  the    Andreanowsky   islands and
the Rat             islag   and s; and            also the group about Behring's isl        and, wh ich  i     s not embr aced in      the
present cession.  (2.) T he  Districet of Ounalaska, with t he  bureau  a t this island, embracinig the Fox islands, the peninsula of Alaska
to'the meridian of                        the Shumagin islands,
inclu     ding these and also the Prybelov             island       s
to the north   of       the peninsula.  (3.) T he Dis trict
of Kodiak, embra cin g th e penins ula of Alaska east of the      meridi an  of the Shumag in     islands,
and          the  coas t  w estw ard to Mo unt  St. Elias,
with    the  adj acent                i slands, including Kodiak,
Cook's inlet, and Prince William sound; then
northward alo ng the  coast of    Bristol b ay,   and
the country watered by the Nushagak and Kuskolkwim rivers; all of which is governed from
Kodiak with redoubts or palisaded stations at
Nushagak, Cook's inlet, and Prince William
sound. (4.) The Northern District, embracing
the country of the Kwichpak and of Norton's
sound, under the direction of the commander
of the redoubt at St. Michaels; leaving the
country northward, with the islands St. Lawrence and St. Mathews, not embraced in this district, but visited direct fi'om Sitka. (5.) The District of Sitka, embraci nx the coast from Mount
St. Elias, where the Kodiak district ends, southward to the latitude of 54~ 40', with the adjacent
islands. But this district has been curtailed
by a lease of the Russian American Company in
1839, for the space of ten years, and subsequently renewed, in which this company, in
consideration of the annual payment of two
thousand otter skins of Columbia river, underlets to the Hudson Bay Company all its franchise for the strip of continent between Cape
Speenl tctert atnd  the  north and the latitude of 54~
40A',xoluding the  adjacent islands.
The  cen tr a l government of  all these districts
is  at Sitka, from which emanates all  ord ers and
instructions.  Here  also is the c hief factory,
from which supplies ae for warded  to  different
plac e s, an d where  the proceeds of the  trade
are collected.
The  operations ot the  go vernm ent may be
s een in its receipts  and expen ditures, incluhding
its salaries and al lowances.   In the absence
of a complete  sares of such statistics to  t he
prese nt ti me, I ma ss t ogeth er w hat I   have been
able to glean  in di f ferent fields, re lating to particulea years,: knowing  well its unsatisfactory
character. alut each ite m  has its instruction
for us.
The capital of the   compa ny,  in buildings,
wares, and vessels, in 1833, was said to be
3,658,57 rubles. In  1838 the company possessed twelve vessels, amounting together to
fifteen hundre   ad and fifty-six ton s, most of which
wexe built  at Sitka. According to  Wappfous,
who follows Wrangel, the  salaries of the o fficers
;and workmen of the company in 1832 amounted
to 442,877 rubles. At that time the persons
in its service numbered 1,025, of whom 556
were Russians, 152 Creoles, and 317 Aleutians.
In 1851 there were in the service of the company
1 staff officer, 3 officers of the Imperial navy,
1 officer of engineers, 4 civil officers, 30 religious officers, and 686 servants.  The expenses
of the company from 1826 to 1833, a period
of seven years, were 6,608,077 rubles. These
become interesting to us when it is considered
that, besides what was paid on account of furs,
and the support of the persons in the service
of the company, were other items incident to
government, such as ship-building, navigation,
fortifications, hospitals, schools, and churches.
From a later authority it appears that the re ceipts of the company, reported at St. Petersburg for the year 1855, was 832,749 rubles,against expenses, 683,892 rubles, incurred for
"administration in Russia and the colonies,"
insurance,  transportation, and duties.  The
relative proportion of these different expenses
does not appear.   I have another report for
1857, where the revenue was 832,749 rubles,
with expenditures of 683,892 rubles, leaving
the difference for dividends, which were fixed(
at 18 rubles a share.
These are explained by other statistics, which
I am able to give from the report of Golowin,
who furnishes the receipts and expenditures of
the company from 1850 to 1859, inclusive. The
silver ruble, which is the money employed in
the table, is taken at our Mint for seventy-five
cents.
Beceip~ts from 1850 to 1859, inclusive.                                    Silver roubles.'
Tea traffic...................................................4,145,869.79
Sale   of furs.........m   r r d O r...........................1,709,149
Commercial licenses..................................2,403,296.61
Other  traffics.............................................   170,235.76
Total..................................................... 8,528,551.13
I 
22
rose color.  These, too, may furnish instruc tion for the future.  Early in the century its
administration was the occasion of ope  n a nd
repeated complaint. It was pronounced harsh
and despotic.  Langsdorf i s indignant   that  a
free-trading compan    y  s hould exist   independent
of the  Government, not  confined within   any
definite  regulations, but who  can  exercise their
authority free and  uncontrolled, n  ay, even
unpunished, over so vast  an exten t   of  coun try."  In stating the cashe  he adds   that "the
Russian  s ubject  h ere en joys no  protection of
his property, lives in no securitv, and if op pressed has no one to whom he can apply for
justice. The agents of the factories and their
subordinates, influenced by humor or interest.
decide everything arbitrarily." (Voyages, vol.
2, p. 70.) And this arbitrary power seemed
to prevail wherever a factory was established:
'-the stewardship in each single establishment
is entirely despotic; though nominally depend ing upon the principal factory these stewards
do just what they please, without the possibil ity. of being called to account." (Ibid., vol. 2,
p. t9.)  If such was the condition of Russians.
what must have been that of the natives? Here
the witness answers: III have seen the Russian
furlanters dispose of the lives of the natives
solely according to their own arbitrary will,
and put the e defenseless creatures to death
in the.most hrible manner." (P. 70.) IKru senstern concurs in this testimony, and, if pos sible, darkens the colors.  According to hiin
every one must obey the iron rule of the
agent of the American c'o'nny; nor can
there be either personal property or individual
security where there are no laws. The chief
agent of the American company is the boundless despot over an extent of country which,
comprising the Aleutian islands, stretches from
570 to 60~ of latitude and from 130~ to 190~
of east longitude;" and he adds, in a note,
" there are no courts of justice in KCodiak-, nor
any of the company's possessions."  (Voyages,
vol. 2, p. 107.)  Kotzebue, who came  later,
while confessing his incompetency to speak on
the treatment of the natives by the company,
declares his "'wounded feelings and commiiiseration." (Voyage, vol. 3, p. 314.) It is too
probable that the melancholy story of our own
aborigines has been repeated here. As these
criticisms were by Russian officers they must
have had a certain effect. I cannot believe
that the recent government, administered by
the enlightened magistrates of whom we have
heard, has been obnoxious to such terrible
accusations; nor must it be forgotten that the
report of Lisiansky, the other Russian officer,
who was there at the same time. is much less
painful.
Baranow, who had been so long superintendent, retired in 1818. He is praised much
by Langsdorf, who saw him in 1806, and by
Liitke, who was at Sitka in 1828. Bothl attributc to him a genius for his place and a~ disinterested devotion to the interqsts of thec corn
Expenditure, from 1850 to 1859, i'nclusvite.
Silver robles.
Sustenance of the colony...........................2,288,)7.20
Colonies churches..................................... 71,723.18
Benevolent institutions........................... 143,366.23
Principal administrative oficers.............1,536,436.49
Tea duty...................................................1,764,559.85
Tranisportation and packingof tea........... 586,901.72
Purchase and transportation of merchan   dise....... 213,696.29
die.................::.................... 2 13,696.29
Insurance of tea and merchandise........... 217,026.55
Loss during war and bl shipwrck............ 132,820.20
Reconstructionl of the companf house in
St. Petersburg................ 76,9'76
C:-pital for the use of the poor................. 6,773.02
Revenue fund capital............................... 135,460f.40
Dividends................................................1,354,604
Total....................................................8.528,551.13
Analyzing this table we shall arrive at a
clearer insight into the affairs of theompany.
If its receipts have been consideable they
have been subject to serious deductions. From
the expenditures we may also learn something
of the obligations which we are about to
assume.
From another table I learn                        tdu that during tis
same period 122,006 rubles were received for
ice, mnostly sent to California; 26,399 rubles
for timber, and 6,250 rubles for coal.  I think
it not improbable that these items are included
in the list of "' receipts" under the term'"   o       ther
traffics. "
In Russia  the  churches belong                            to the Govern ment, and this rule prevails in these districts, where there are four Greek churches
and five Greek chapels.  There is also a Protestant church at Sitka.  I am glad to add that
at the latter place there is a public library,
whlich some years ago contained seventeen hundred volumes, together with journals, maps,
atlases, and mathematical instruments.   In
Atcha, Ounalaska, Kodiak, and Sitka schools
are said to have been maintained at the expense
of the company, though not on a very comprehensive scale; for Admiral Wrangel mentions
only ninety boys as enjoying these advantages
in 1839. In Ounalaska and Kodiak there were
at the same time orphan asylums for girls,
where there were in all about thirty. But the
admiral adds that "these useful institutions
will, without doubt, be improved to the utmost."  Besides these, which are confined to
particular localities, there is said to be a hospital near every factory in all the districts.
I have no means of knowing if these territorial subdivisions have undergone any recent
modifications. They will be found in the Russiche?t Besitzungen of Wrangel, published in
1839; in the Geographie of Vapp:Aus in 1856,
and in the Archiv vows Russland of 1863, containing the article on the report of Golowin.
I am thus particular with regard to them from
-a double motive.  Besides helping to an understanding of the existing government they may
afford suggestions of practical importance in
any future organization.
T o he company has not been without criticism.
Some of the pictures of it are by no means 
23
pony, whose confidence he enjoyed to the end.
Although administering affairs here for more
than a generation without rendering any accoults, he died poor.   He was succeeded by
Captain Haguemeister.  Since then, according
to Liitke, an infinity of reforms has taken
place by which order and system have been
introduced into the government. 
The Russian officer, Captain Golowin, who
visited these possessions in 1860, has recommended certain institutional reforms, which are
not without interest to us at this time.  His
recommendations concern the governor and the
people. According to him the governor should
be appointed by the Crown with the concurrence of the company, removable only when
his continuance is plainly injurious to the colony; he should be subject only to-the Crown,
and his powers should be limited, especially in
regard to the natives; he should provide protection forthe colonists by means of cruisers, and
should personally visit every district annually;
the colonists, creoles, and subject natives, such
as the Aleutians, should be governed by mnagistrates of their own selection; the name of " free
creole" should cease; all disputes should be
settled by the local magistrates unless the parties desire an appeal to the governor; schools
should be encouraged, and, if necessary, provided at the public expense.  Surely these suggestions, which are in the nature of a Reform
Bill, foreshadow a condition of self-government
in harmony with republican institutions.
It is evident that these Russian settlements,
distributed through an immense region and far
from any civilized neighborhood, have little in
common with those of European nations elsewhere, unless we except those of Denmark on
the west coast of Greenland.  Nearly all are on
the coast or the islands.  They are nothing but
'villages" or "factories," under the protection of palisades.  Sitka is an exception, due
unquestionably to its selection as the headquarters of the government, and also to the
eninent character of the governors who have
made it their home.  The Executive Mansion
and the social life there have been described by
recent visitors, who acknowledged the charms
of politeness on this distant northwestern coast.
Luitke describes life along its fogs, and especially the attractions of the governor's house.
This was in the time of Admiral Wrangel, whose
wife, possessing a high education, embellished
this wilderness by her presence, and exhibited
the example of a refined and happy household.
His account of Sitkan hospitality differs in some
respects from that of the English writers who
succeeded.  He records that fish was the staple
dish at the tables of functionaries as well as of
the poor, and that the chief functionary himself was rarely able to have meat for dinner.
During the winter a species of wild sheep, the
Musimon  or Argalis, also known  in Siberia
and hunted in the forests, furnished an occasional supply.  But a fish diet did not prevent
his house from being delightful.
Sir Edward Belcher, the English  circumnavigator, wh il             e on his voyage round the
world, stopped there. From him we have an
account of the Exe cutive Manrsion and fortifications, which will not be out of place in this
attempt to portray the existing government.
The house is of wood, described as  " solid, "
one hundred and forty feet in length by seventy
feet wide, of two stories, with lofts, capped
by a light-house in the center of the roof which
is covered with sheet iron. It is about sixty
feet  above the sea level, a nd c omple tely commands  all the  anchorages i n the  neighborhood.
Behind is a line of picketed logs twenty-five
feet in- height, flanked'at the angles by blockhouses, loop-holed and furnished with small
guns and swivels. The fortifications when complete " will comprise five sides, upoln which
forty pieces of cannon will be mounted, principally old ship guns, varying from twelve to
twenty-four pounders.1" The arsenalis praised
for the best of cordag-e in ample stores and for
the best of artificers in every department. The
interior of the Greek church was found to be
" splendid, quite beyond conception in such a
place as this." Theschool and hospital had "a
comparative cleanliness and much to admire,
although a man-of-war's man's ideas of cleanliness are occasionally actite." But it is the
social life which seems to have most surprised
the gallant captain. After telling us that "on
Sunday all the officers, civil and military, dine
at the governor' s," he introduces us to an evening party and dance, which the latter gave to
show his English guest ";the female society of
Sitka," and records that everything "passed
delightfully," especially that "'the ladies,
although self-taught, acq'uitted themselves with
all the ease and elegance communicated by
European inltruction. " Sir Edward adds that
s" the society is indebted principally to the governor's elegant and accomplished lady, who is
oftone of the first Russian families. for much
of this polish.1"  And hedescribes sympathetically her long journey through Siberia with her
husband, " on horseback or mules, enduring
great hardships in a most critical moment, in
order to share with him the privations of this
barbarous region." But according to him
barbarism is disappearing; and he concludes
by declaring that;tlhe whole establishment
appears to be rapidly on the advance, and at
no distant period we may hear of a trip to
Norfolk sound through America as little more
than a summer excursion." (Belcher's Voyage, vol. 1, p. 107.) Is not this time near at
hand?
Shortly afterwards, Sir George Simpson,
governor-in-chief of the Hudson Bay Company,
on his overland journey round the world,
stopped at Sitka. He had just crossed the
continent by way of the Red river settlements
to Vancouver. He, too, seems to havre been
pleased. Hie shows us in the harbor " five sailing vessels, ranging between two hundred and
three hundred and fifty tons, besides a large 
24
bark in the offing in tow of a steamer," and he
carries us to the Executive Mansion, already
described, which reappears as "a suite of apartments, communicating, according to the Russian fashion, with each other, all of the public
rooms being handsomely decorated and richly
filrnished; commanding a view of the whole
establishment, which was in fact a little village,
while about half way down the rock two batteries on terraces frowned respectively over land
and water." There was another Administrator
General since the visit of Sir Edward Belcher;
but again the wife plays her charming part.
After portraying her as a native of Helsinigfors, in Finland, the visitor adds, "So this
pretty and lady-like woman had come to this
secluded home from the farthest extremity of
the empire." Evidently in a mool beyond
contentment, he says, " We-sat down to a good
dinner in the French style, the party, ill addition to our host and hostess and ourselves, comprising twelve of the company's officers;" and
his final judgment seems to be given when he
says, " The good folks appear to live well. The
surrounding country abounds in the chevreuil,
[roebuck,] the finest meat that I ever ate, with
the single exception of moose, while in a little
stream within a mile of the fort salmon are so
plentiful that, when ascending the river, they
have been known literally to embarrass the
movements of a canoe." (Simpsons's Journey,
vol. 1, page 227.) Such is the testimony.
With these concluding pictures I turn from
the government.
i ts cha r a cter I am dispo sed t o cons ider as tue
best authority.
Exaggerations ar e  com mon with    regard to
the inheabitants of  newly-acquired possessions,
and th  di distant resion ha s been    no exception.
An enthusiastic estimate once placed its popu lation as  high as four    hundred thousand.  Long
ago Sdhoelekoff, an early  Russian  adventurer,
reported that he had subjected to    the Crown of
Russia fift y thous and " men" i n t he island of
Kodiak a lone.   But  Lisiansky, waeo followed
him there in 1805, says " the population  of t his
island, w hen compare d  with its size, is very
small. " (Voyage,p.193.) Afterthe"minutest
research" at that time he  found  that it amounted
only  to four thousand  souls.  It is muc h less
now; probably inot more  than.fifteen hundred.
Of course  it is ea sy to know t he  rualca ber of
those within  the immediate jurisdiction   of the
company. This is determined by a census from
time to time.  Even here the aborigines are the
most  numerous. Tn o e   t he com e the Creoles, and
last the Russian s.  But here  you must bear in
mind a distinction with regard to the former
pe r so ns.  In Spa nish America a ll  born the re
of European parenta ge are -' Creoles;" in Rus sian A    m     erica this term   is a pplicable  only to
those whose parents  are European and native,
in other w o rds "half-breeds."      According to
Wrangel, in 1839, the census of dependents
of the company inall its  dist r icts   was 246 Rus sians, 684 Creoles,  and 8,882 Aleutians and
Kodiaks, being in all 9,812. Of these 4,918 were
men  and 4,804 were  women.. Here  the n umber
of Russians i s small.  There is another  report
a little  later  preserved by  Wappbus, which iin
not materially different. In 1851, according
to  the report of   the com pany,  there    was an
increase  of Russians and Creoles, with  a  cor responding diminution of aborigines; being 505
Russians, 1,703 Creoles, and 7,055 aborigines,
in all 9,283. In 1857 there were 644 Russians,  1,90 3 Creoles, a nd  7,245 aborigines,    in
all 9,792,        of wh om 5,733     were  men   and 4,659
were   women. T      he in crease from 1851 to 1857
wFas only  500, or about one per cent. annually.
In  1860 ther e were " s ome hund  red"  Russians,
2,000 Creoles, and 8,000 aborigines, a mounting
in  all to 10n540, of whom 5,382 were    men and
5,158 wer e women.  I aom th us part icular with
these details that you may see how stationary
population  h as  b e e  n  even within   the sphere of
the company.
The  n u mber of Russians and Cre oles in the
whole co lon y at  th e present  t ime  cannot be
more than 2,500. The   number  o f aborigines
under t he  direct government of the    company
may be  8,000. There rema in  also t he mas s o f
aborigines outside the' jurisdiction of the company, and having only a temporary or casual
contact with it for purposes of trade. Ill this
respect they are nlot unlike the aborigines of
the United States while in their tribal condition, described so often as " Indians not taxed. "
For the number of these outside aborigines I
prefer to follow the authority of the recent work
Population.
II. I come now to the Population, which
may be considered in its numbers and in its
character.  In n    ei    ther   respect,             perhaps, can it
add much to the value of the country, except
s       o fa r        as native hunters and trappers are nededed
for   the supply of furs.  Profess or    Agassiz
touches this point in a letter which I have just
received from him, where he says: "To me
the fact that there is as yet hardly any population would have great weight, as this secures
the settlement to our race." But we ought to
know something at least of the people about
to become the subjects of our jurisdiction, if
not our fellow-citizens.
First. In trying to arrive at an idea of their
numbers, I begin with Lippincott's Gazetteer,
as it is the most accessible, according to which
the whole population in 1855, aboriginal, Russian, and Creole, was 61,000. The same estiniate appears also in the London Imperial
Ga-,tzetteer and in the Geographic of Wapplius.
Kseitlh Johnston, in his Atlas, calls the popuIlation in 1852, 66,000. McCulloch, in the last
edition of his Geographical Dictionary, puts
it as high as 72,375. On the other hand, the
Almanach de Got7ha for the present year, received only a few weeks ago, calls it in round
numbers 50,000.  This estimate seems to have
been adopted substantially from the great work
entitled Les Petples de la Russie, which from 
25
and fisherman.   Lofty mountains, volcanic
forms, large rivers, numerous islands, and an
extensive sea-coast constitute the great book
of nature  for all to read.  None are dull.
Generally they are quick, intelligent, and in genious, excelling in the chase and in naviga tion, managing a boat as the rider his horse,
until the man and the boat seem to be one.
Some are very skillful with tools and exhibit
remarkable taste.  The sea is bountiful and the
land has its supplies.  From these they are sat isfied.  Better still, there is something in their
nature which does not altogether reject the im provements of civilization.  Unlike our In dians, they are willing to learn.  By a strange
superstition, which still continues, these races
derive their descent from different animals.
Some are gentle and pacific; others are war like.  All, I fear, are slaveholders; some are
cruel task-masters, others in the interior are
reputed to be cannibals.  But the country back
from the sea-coast is still an undiscovered
secret.
(1.) Looking at them in their ethnographical
groups I begin with the Esquimaux, who popularly give their name to the whole.  They number about seventeen thousand, and stretch along
the indented coast from its eastern limit on the
Frozen ocean to the mouth of the Copper river
in 60~ north latitude, excluding the peninsula
of Alaska, occupied by the Aleutians, and the
peninsula of Kenay, occupied by the Kenaians.
More powerful races of Indian origin, following
the courses of the great rivers northward and
-westward, have gradually crowded the Esquimaux from the interior, until they constitute a
belt on the salt water, including the islands of
the coast, and especially Kodiak.  Their various  dialects are traced to a common root, while
the prevailing language betrays an affinity with
the Esquimaux of Greenland and the intervening country watered by the Mackenzie.  They
share the characteristics of that extensive farnmily, which, besides spreading across the continent, occupies an extent of sea-coast greater
than any other people of the globe, from which
their simple navigation has sallied forth so as to
give them the name of Phoenicians of the North.
Words exclusively belonging to the Esquimaux
are found in the dialects of other races completely strangers to them, as Phoenician sounds
are observed in the Celtic speech of Ireland.
The most known of the Russian Esquimaux
is the small tribe nowremaining on the island
of Kodiak, which from the beginning has been
a center of trade.  Although by various intermixture they already approach the Indians
of the coast, losing the Asiatic type, their
speech remains as a distinctive sign of their
race.  They are Esquimaux, and I describe
them in order to give an idea of this people.
The men are tall, with copper skins, small
black eyes, flat faces, and teeth of dazzling
whiteness.  Once the women pierced the nostrils, the lower lip, and the ears for ornaments;
but now only the nostrils are pierced.  The
al   r        eady quoted, Les Peuples                de la Russie, ac cording to w        hich  they  a    re estimated at between
forty and fifty thousand.
Secondly. In speaking of character I turn to
a different class of materials. The early Rus sians here were not Pilgrims. They were mostly
runawaysfeeingfromjustice.  Langsdorf says
that' the greater part of the inferior officers
of the different settlements were Siberian crim inals, malefactors, and adventurers of various
kinds."  (Voyages, vol. 2, p. 67.) Theirsingle
and exclusive business was the collection of
fiars. from which they.obtained the name of
Promniischleniks, or fur collectors. But the
name very early acquired a bad odor. Here
again we have the same Russian authority,
who, after saying that the inhabitants of the
distant islands are under the superintendence
of a PromUschlenik, adds,'I which is, in other
words, under that of a rascal, by whom they
are oppressed, tormented, and plundered in
every possible way." (Ibid., p. 70.) It must
not be forgotten that this authentic portrait is
not of our day.
The aborigines are all in common language
called Esquimaux; but they differ essentially
from the Esquimaux of Greenland, and they
also differ among themselves. Though popularly known by- this family name, they have as
many divisions and subdivisions} with as many
languages and idioms, as France once had.
There are large groups, each with its own nationality and language, amd there are smaller
groups, each with its tribal idiom. In short,
the great problem of language is repeated
here. Its forms seem to be infinite. Scientific
inquiry traces many to a single root, but practically they are different. Here is that confusion of tongues'which yields only to the presence of civilization, and it becomes more
remarkable, as the idiom is often confined to
so small a circle.
If we look at them ethnographically-we shall
find two principal groups or races, the first
scientifically known as Esquimaux, and the
second as Indians. By another nomenclature,
which has the sanction of authority and of
usage, they are divided into Esquimaux, Aleutians) Kenaians, and Koloschians, being four
distinct groups.  The Esquimaux and Aleutians are said to be Mongolian in origin.
According to a doubtfil theory they passed
from Asia to America by the succession of islands beginning on the coast of Japan and
extending to Alaska, which for this purpose
became a bridge between the two continents.
The Kenaians and Koloschians are Indians,
belonging to known American races; so that
these four groups are ethnographically resolved into two, and the two are resolved popularly into one.
There are general influences more or less
applicable to all these races. The climate
is peculiar, and the natural features of the
country are commanding. Cool summers and
mild winters are favorable to the huntsman 
26
aboriginal costume is still preserved, especially
out of doors.  Their food is mostly from the
sea, without the roots or berries which the
island supplies.  The flesh and oil of the whale
are a special luxury.  The oil is drunk pure or
toi season other food,. Accustomed to prolonged abstinence, they exhibit at times an
appetite amounting to prodigy.  In one night
six men were able to devour the whole of a
large bear. A strong drink made from the
strawberry.and myrtle, producing the effect of
opium, has yielded to brandy. Sugar and tea
are highly esteemed; but snuff is a delight.
Lisiansky, records that "they would go out of
their way twenty miles merely for a pinch of
snuff. They have tools of their own, which
they use with skill.  Their baidars, or canoes,
are distinguished for completenessof finish and
beauty of form.  Unlike those of the Koloschians, lower down on the coast, which are hollowed from the trunks of trees, they are of seal
skins stretched on frames, with a single aperture in the covering to receive the person of
the master.  The same skill appears in the
carving of  wood,  whalebone,  and walrus
ivory.  Their general mode of life is said to
be like that of other tribes on the coast.  To
all else they add a knowledge of the healing
art and a passion for gaming.
Opposite to Kodiak, on the main land to
the east, are the Tshugatchi, a kindred tribe,
speaking the same language, but a different
dialect.  To the north is a succession of kindred tribes, differing in speech, and each with
local peculiarities, but all are represented as
kind, courteous, hospitable, and merry.  It is
a good sign that merriment should prevail.
Their tribal names are derived from a neighboring river or some climatic circumstance.
Thus, for instance, those on the mighty Kwichpak have the name of Kwichpakmutes, or
"inhabitants of the great river."  Those on
Bristol bay are called by their cousins of Norton sound Akhkonghmutes, or "inhabitants of
the warm country;" and the same designation
is applied to the Kodiaks. Warmth, like other
things in this world, is comparative, and to an
Esquimaux at 642 north latitude another five
degrees further south is in a "warm country."
These northern tribes have been visited lately
by our Telegraphic Exploring Expedition, who
report especially their geographical knowledge
and good disposition.  As the remains of Major
Kennicott descended the Kwichpak they were
not without sympathy from the natives.  Curiosity also had its part.  At a village where the
boat rested for the night the chief announced
that it was the first time white men had ever
been seen there.
(2.) The Aleutians, sometimes called Western Esquimaux, number about three thousand.
By a plain exaggeration Knight, in his Cyclopedia of Geography, puts them at twenty thousand.  Their home is the archipelago of volcanic islands, whose name they bear, and also a
portion of the contiguous peninsula of Alaska.
The well-defined type has already disappeared;
but the national dress continues still. This is
a long shirt with tight sleeves, made from the
skins of birds' either the sea-parrot or the
diver. This dress, which is called the parka,
is indispensable as clothing, blanket, and even
as habitation during a voyage, being a complete shelter against wind and cold. They,
too, are fishermen and  huntsmen; but they
seem to excel as artificers.  Their instruments
and utensils have been noted for beauty,
and their baidars were pronounced by Saner
" infinitely superibr to those of any other island."  Still another navigator declares them
to be "'the best means yet discovered to go
from place to place, either upon the deepest
or shallowest water, in the quickest, easiest,
and  safest manner  possible."  (Langsdorf's
Voyage, vol. 1, p. 43.) These illustrate their
nature, which is finer than that of their neighbors.  They are at home on the water, and
excite admiration by the skill with which they
manapse their elegant craft, so  that  Admiral
Lutke recognized  them as Cossacks of t he s ea.
Ounalaska is the principal of these islands,
and from the timne they were first visited seems
to have excited a peculiar interest. Captain
Cook painted it kindly; so have succeeding
navigators. And here have lived the islanders
who  seem to have given to navigators a new
experience,  Alluding especially to them, the
reporter of Bill'ngs's voyage says:'The capacity of the natives of these islands infinitely
surpasses every idea that I had formed of
the abilities of savages."  (P. 273.) There is
another remark of this authority which shows
how they had yielded, even in their favorite
dress, to the demands of commerce. After
saying that formerly they had-worn garments
of sea otter, he pathetically adds, "but not
since the Russians have had any intercourse
with them." (P. 155.) Poor islanders! Exchanging choice furs,. once their daily wear,
for meaner skins.
(3.) The Kenaians, numbering as many as
twenty-five thousand, take their common name
from thle peninsula of Kenay, with Cook's inlet
on the north and Prince William sound on the
south. Numerous beyond any other family in
Russian  America, they  belong to  a widespread and teeming Indian race, which occupies all the northern interior of the continent,
stretching from Hudson bay in the east to
the Esquimaux in the west. This is the great
nation called sometimes Athabascan, or from
the native name of the Rocky mountains, on
whose flanks they live, Chepewyan, but more
properly designated as Tinneh, with branches
in southern Oregon and northern California,
and then again with other offshoots, known as
the Apaches and Navajoes, in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Chihuahua, mnore than thirty parallels of latitude from the parent stem. Of
this extended race, the northwestern branch,
known to travelers as Loueheux,~ and in their
own tongue as Kutchin, after occupying the 
27
inner portion of Russian America on the You kon and the Porcupine reached the sea-coast at
Cookli's inlet, where it appears under the name
of Kenaians.  The latter are said to bear about
the same relation in language and intellectual
development to the entire group as the islanders
of Kodiak bear to the Esquimaux.
The Kenaians call themselves in their own
dialect by yet another name, Thnainas, mean ing men; thus by a somewhat boastful designa tion asserting manhood.  Their features and
complexion associate them with the red men
of America, as does their speech.  The first
to visit them was Cook, and he was struck by
the largeness of their heads, which seemed to
him disproportioned to the rest of the body.
They were strong-chested also, with thick short
necks, spreading faces, eyes inclined to be
small, white teeth, black hair, and thin beard.
Their persons seemed to be clean and decent,
without grease or dirt. In dress they were
thought to resemble the people of Greenland.
Their boats had a similar affinity. But in these
particulars they were not unlike the other races
I have already described.  They were clothed
in the skins of animals with the fur outward,
or sometimes in the skins of birds, over which,
as a protection against rain, was worn a frock
made firom the intestines of the whale and resembling the gold-beater leaf, as was observed
by Behring in his early voyage   Their boats
were of seal skin stretched on frames, and
were of different sizes.  In one of these Cook
counted twenty women and one man, besides
children.  At that time, though thievish in propensity,- they were not unamiable.   Shortly
afterwards they were reported by Russian traders, who had much to dlo with them, as "good
people," who behaved " in a very friendly manner."  (Billing's Voyage, p. 197.)  I do not
know that they have lost this character since.
Here, too, is the accustomed multiplicity of
tribes, each with its idiom, and sometimes differing in religious superstition, especially on the
grave question of descent from the dog or the
crow.  There is also a prevailing usage for the
men of one tribe to choose their wives from
another tribe, when the tribal character of the
mother attaches to the offspring, which is another
illustration of the law of slaverypartus sequitur
ventrem. The late departure from this usage is
quoted by the old men as a sufficient reason for
the mortality which has afflicted the Kenaians,
although a better reason may be found in the
ravages of the small-pox, unhappily introduced
by the Russians.  In 1838 ten thousand persons on the coast are reported to have fallen
victims to this disease.
(4.) Last of the four races are the Koloschians, numbering about four thousand, who
occupy the coast and islands from the mouth
of the Copper river to the southern boundary
of Russian America, making about sixteen settlements.   They belong to an Indian group
extending as far south as the Straits of Fuca,
and estimated to contain twenty-five thousand
souls.  La P6rouse, after considerable experi ence of the aborigines on the Atlantic coast,
asserts that  those whom he  saw here are n ot
Esquimaux. (Voyage, Tom. 2, p. 205.) The
name seems to be of    Russian    origin, a nd   is
equivalent to  Indi an. fere a gai n is another
variety of languages and as many separate na tions. Near Mount St. Elias are the Jacoutats,
who are  the  least  known; then came  the Thlin kitts, who  occupy the is lands a nd c oast  near
Sitka, and are known; in Oregon under the name
.of Stikines; and then again we have the Kaigans,
who, beginning on Russian territory, overlap
Queen Charlotte's island, beneath the British
.flag. All these, with their subdivisions, are
Koloschians; but every tribe or nation has
four different divisions, derived from four dif ferent animals, the whale, the eagle, the crow,
and the wolf, which are so many heraldic de vices, marking distinct groups..-s
There are points already noticed in,, Adwo
northern groups which are repeated he.* O
among the Kenaians husband and Wifea are
of different animal devices. A crow cannot
marry a crow.  There is the same skill in the
construction of canoes; but the stretched seal
skin gives place here to the trunk of a tree
shaped and hollowed so that it will sometimes
hold forty persons.  There are good qualities
among the Aleutians which the Koloschians
do not possess, but they have, perhaps, a
stronger sense. They are of constant cour age. As daring navigators they are unsurpassed, sailing six or seven hundred miles in
their open canoes. Some are thrifty, and show
a sense of property. Some have developed an
aptitude for trade unknown tO their northern
neighbors or to the Indians of the United States,
and will work for wages, whether in tilling the
ground or other employment. Their superior
nature discards corporal punishment, even for
boys, as an ignominy not to be endured. They
believe in a Creator and in the immortality of
the soul. But here a mystic fable is woven
into their faith. The spirits of heroes dead
in battle are placed in'the sky and appear
in the Aurora Borealis. Lon,, ago a deluge
occurred, when the human family was saved
in a floating vessel, which, after the subsidence
of the waters, struck on a rock and broke in
halves. The Koloschians represent one half
of the vessel, and the rest of the world the
other half. Such is that pride of race which
civilization does not always efface.
For generations they have been warriors,
prompt to take offense and vindictive, as is
the nature of the Indian race-always ready
to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth. This character has not changea. As
was the case once in Italy, the dagger is an
inseparable companion. Private-quarrels are
common. The duel is an institution. So is
slavery still, having a triple origin in war, purchase, or birth.. The slave is only a dog, and
must obey his master in all things, even to
taking the life of another. He is without civil 
28
rights; he cannot marry or possess anything;
he can eat only the offal of another, and his
body, when released by death, is thrown into
the sea.  A  chief sometimes sacrifices his
slaves, and then another Chief seeks to outdo
him in this inhumani.ty All this is indignantly
described  by Sir Edard  Belcher and  Sir
George Simpson.  Butit a slave once a freedman has all the rights ofa Koloschian.  Here,
too, are the distinctions of wealth.  The rich
paint their faces daily; the pdor renew the
paint only when the colors begin to disappear. 
These are the same people who for more
than a century have -been a, terror on this
coast.  It was Kolosehians who received the
two boats' crews of the Russian discoverer in
1741, as they landed in one of its wooded
coves, and no survivor returner to tell their
fate.- They were the actors in another tragedy
at tl B,eginning of the century, when the Russian lt " at Sitka was stormed and its defenders
ut to Peath, some with excruciating torture.
jisiia'isiy, whose visit was shortly afterward,
found them "a shrewd, bold, though perfidious
people," whose chiefs used "very sublime
expressions," and swore oaths, like that of
Demrosthenes, by their ancestors living and
dead, "calling heaven, earth, sun, moon, and
stars to witness, particularly when they want
to deceive."  (Voyage, p. 16.)  Since then the
fort has been repeatedly threatened by these
warriors, who  multiply  by  reenforcements
from the interior, so that the governor in 1837
said, "Although seven hundred only are now
in the neighborhood seven thousand may arrive
in a few hours."  (Beleher's Voyage, vol. 1,
p. 94.)  A little later their constant character
was recognized by Sir George Simpson, when
he pronounced them "numerous, treacherous,
and fierce," in contrast with Aleutians, whom
he describes as "peaceful even to cowardice. "
And yet this fighting race is not entirely indocile, if we may credit recent report, that its
warriors are changing to traders.
Climate;
III. From population I pass to Climate, which
is more important, as it is a constant force.
Climate is the key to this whole region.  It is
the governing power which rules production
and life, for nature and man each must conform to its laws. Here at last the observations
of science give to our inquiry a solid support.
Montesquieu has a famous chapter on the
influence of climate over the customs and
institutions of a people.  Conclusions which
in his day were regarded as visionary or farfetched are now unquestioned truth.  Climate
is a universal master.  But nowhere, perhaps'
does it appear more eccentric than in the southern portion of Russian America.  Without a
knowledge of climatic laws the weather here
would seem like a freak of nature. But a brief
explanation shows how all its peculiarities are
the result of natural causes, which operate
with a force as unerring as gravitation.  Heat t
and cold, r ain and fog, to say nothi ng  of snow
and ice, which  play such a  part  i n this region,
are not abnormal, but according to law.
This law has been known only of late years.
Even so ingenious an inquirer as Captain Cook
notices the mildness of the   climate      without
attempting  t      o          accou nt for it.  He records th,at
in his opinion  " cat tl e mig ht exist in Ounalas ka
all the year round without being housed,"
(Voyages,  vol. 2, p.  520;) and this was in
latitude 53~ 52t, on the same parallel with Labrador, and several degrees north of Quebec;
but he stops with a simple statement of the
suggestive fact. This, however, was inconsistent with the received idea at the time. A
geographer, who wrote just before Cook sailed,
has a chapter to show that the climate of Quebec continues across the continent, and by a
natural consequence that America is colder
than Asia. I refer to the Mdmoires Geographiques of Engel, (page 196.) He would have
been astonished had he seen the revelations
of an isothermal map, showing that precisely
the reverse is true; that the climate of Quebec
does not continue across the continent; that
the Pacific coast of our continent is warmer
than the corresponding Atlantic coast, and that
America is warmer than Asia, so far at least
as can be determined by the two oppositecoasts.
Such is the unquestionable truth, of which there
are plentiml signs. The Flora on the Amnerican side, even in Behring straits, is more vigorous than that on the Asiatic side; the American mountains have less snow than their Asiatic
neighbors.  Among many illistrations of the
temperature I know none more direct -than
that furnished by the late Hon. William Stuirgisi
of Boston, who was familiar with the northwest
coast at the beginning of the century, in a lecture on the Oregon question in 1845. After
remarking that the climate there is " altogether
milder and the winter less severe than in corresponding latitudes on this side of the continent,\" he proceeds to testify that, "as a
proof of its mildness, he had passed seven winters between the latitudes of 51~ and 57~, frequently lying so near the shore as to have a
small cable fast to the trees, and only once was
his ship surrounded by ice sufficiently firm to
bear the weight of a man." But this intelligent navigator assigns no reason. To the common observer it seemed as if the temperature
grew milder traveling with the sun until it
dipped in the ocean.
Among the authorities open before me I
quote two, which show that this difference of
temperature between the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts was imagined, if not actually recognized,
during the last century. Portlock, the Englishman, who was on this coast in 1787, after saying that during stormy and unsettled weather
the air had been mild and temperate, remarks
-that he is'~inclined to think that the climate
here is not so severe as has been generally
supposed." (Voyage, p. 188.) La Perouse,
.the Frenchmanl, who was here the same year, 
29
and had been before in Hudson bay, on the
other side of the continent. says still more
explicitly that"'the climate of this coast appeared to him infinitely,milder than that of
Hudson bay in the same latitude, and that the
pines which he had measured here were much
larger."  (Voyage, vol. 2, p. 187.) Langsdorf,
when at Sitka in 1806, records that Mr. John
D. Wolf, a citizen of the United States, who
had passed the winter at the settlement, "is
much surprised at finding the cold less severe
than at Boston, Rhode Island, and other Provinces of the United States which lie more to the
South."  (Voyages, vol. 2, p. 101.)
All this is now explained by certain known
forces in nature.  Of these the most important
is a thermal current in the Pacific, corresponding to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic.  The
latter, having its origin in the' heated waters
of the Gulf of Mexico, flows as a river through
the ocean northward, encircling England, bathi ng Nor way,  and wa rming all within its influence. A similar stream in the Pacific, sometimes called the Japanes      e      current, having its
o    rigin und    er        the equator near       the Philippines
and       the Malaccas,  ami                     d no common heats,
after washing the         an       cient         empire of Japan
sweeps        n     orthward until, forming two branches;h
on          e               m    oves onward to Behring straits -and  the
other bend      s        eas tward along the Aleutian islands, and        then southward alo ng the coast of
Sitka, Oregon,  and California.  Geographers
]l ave described                 th is "heater," which       in the
l       ower latitude            s isa as high as 81~ of Fahrenheit,
and even far to              the          nor th it is as    high as 50~.
A  c      har  t  now before m e in  Findlay's P acific
Ocean Directory portrays its                          course as it
warms so  many islands and              such an  extent of
coast. An off icer of t    he United States Navy,a
Lieut enant Bent,  in a paper b ef   ore    the Geographi cal Soc iety                of New York, while exhibiti    ng th e influence    of    thi s current  in mitigating
the         clima te   of  the n or thwes t    coast, mentions
tha     t v  essels on  the Asiatic side, becomin g unwieldy with  a ccumulati ons of  ice on  the hull
an         d          rigging, run over    to    the higher latitude on
the Am     eri  can s id    e and "thaw  out."  But the
tepid waters w      hich  mel t t he ie  on a vessel
mus        t c hange the atmosphere wherever they
flow.
I hop    e  y ou will no t      rega rd      the illustration
as too familiar  if I              re    mind  you that in         the
economy of a household pipes of hot water are
sometimes employed in tempering the atmosphere by heat carried from below to rooms
above. In the economy of nature these thermal currents are only pipes of hot water, modifying the climate of continents by carrying
heat from the warm cisterns of the South into
the most distant places of the north. So also
there are sometimes pipes of hot air, having a
similar p.urpose; and these, too, are found in
this region. Every ocean wind, from every
quarter, as it traverses the stream of heat,
takes up the warmth and carries it to the
coast, 80 that the oceanic current is reienforced
by an aerial current of constant influence..~
But thesae  forces are aided essent ially by the
configuration of the northwest  coast, with  a
lofty and impenetrable barricade of mountains,
by which its islands  a nd harbors are protected
from the cold  of the north. Occupying t he
Aleutian is lands, traversing the peni nsula of
Alaska,  and  r unning  a lon g the  margin of the
'ocean to the latitude  o f 54~ 40', this muntain
ridge is a climatic division, or, according to a
German geographer, a IIclimatic shed," such
as perhaps eoists ntowhere else in the world.
Here are Alps, some of them volcanic, with
Mo unt  St. Elias  higher than Mont Blanc,
standing  on guard against the  Ar ctic Circle.
So it seems even  with out the  aid o f  science.
Here  is  a dike be tween t he  icy waters of  Behr ing  sea and the milder Sotheher n   ocean. Here
is  a partition between the treeless norther n
coast and  the  wo oded  coast of  the Kenaians
and Kolowchians.  Here is a   fen ce    which se p~arates the a ni mal kingdom of   this   regions-leav ing on-one side the walrus and ice-fo~:ifrom
the Frozen ocean and on the other side the
humming bird from the tropics. I simply
repeat the statements of geography. And now
you will not  fail t o  observe how by this c onfiguration the thermal currents  o f oce an and air
are left to exercise all their climatic power.
There is one other climatic incident here,
which is now easily explained. Early navigators record the prevailing moisture. All are
enveloped in fog.  Behring names  an island
Foggy. Another gives the same designation
to a cape at the southern extremity of Rus sian America. Cook records fog. La Pfrouse
speaks of continued rain and fog in the month
of August. And now visitors, whether for
science or business, make the same report.
The forests testify also. According to Physical
Geography it could not be otherwise. The
warm air from the ocean encountering the
snow-capped mountains would naturally produce this result.  Rain is nothing but atmosphere condensed and falling in drops to the
earth. Fog-is atmosphere still held in solution,
but so far condensed as to become visible.
This condensation occurs when the air is chilled
by contact with a colder atmosphere. Now,
these very conditions occur on the northwest
coast. The ocean air, as it comes in contact
with the elevated range, is chilled until its
moisture is set free.
Add to these influences, especially as regards Sitka, the presence of mountain masses
and of dense forests, all tending to make this
coast warmer in winter and colder in summer
than it would otherwise be.
Practical observation has verified these conclusions of science. Any isothermal map is
enough for our purpose; but there are others
which show the relative conditions generally
of different portions of the globe. I ask
attention to those of Keith Johnston, in his
admirable atlas. But I am glad to present a
climatic table of the Pacific coast in comparison with the Atlantic coast, which has been
recently compiled, at my request, from the 
30
archives of the Smithsonian Institution with  graph Company.   In studying this table we
permission of its learned secretary, by a col-  shall be able to comprehend the relative posilaborator of the Institution, who visited Rus-   tion of this region in the physical geography of
sian America under the auspices of the Tele-  the world: 
Mean Temperature in Degrees
Fahrenheit.
Precipitation in Rain or Snow.
Depth in Inches.
p1 r.D
p,  p  P  -            p,    P'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~    4)~1
74 7O
0
27.00    7.00
St. Michaels, Russian America............
Lat. 63~ 28' 45' North.
Fort Youkon, Russian America........         50
Lat. (near) 67~.
Ikogmut, Russian America...................
Lat. 61~ 47'.
Sitka, Russian America........................
Lat. 57~ 03'.
Puget sound, Washington Territory...... 4888
Lat. 47~ 07'.
Astoria, Oregon.....................................
Lat. 40~ 11'. -
San Francisco, California...................... 55.39
Lat. 370 48'.
NLain, Labrador.................................... 23.67
Lat. 570 10'.
MIfontreal, Canada East.......................... 41.20
Lat. 450 30'.
Portland. Maine................................... 40.12  63.75
Lat. 430 39'.
71.35  55.79   32.32  51.82    11.69  11.64    9.88  10.31  43.22
Fort Hamilton, New York..................... 4 7.84
Lat. 40~ 37'.
54.19   73.07  53.91  33.57  53.69   10.48  10.53  10.16  10.06  41.24
ture of 50~ has been noted in January.  The
ro adstead is  open th r oughout  the year, and
only a few land-locked bays are frozen.
The prevailing dampness at Sitka makes a
residence there far from agreeable, although
it does not appear to be injurious to health.
England is also damp, but Englishmen boast
that theirs is the best climate of the world.
At Sitka the annual fall of rain is eighty-nine
inches. The mean annual fall in all England is
forty inches, although in mountainous districts
of Cumberland and Westmoreland the fall
amounts to ninety and even one hundred and
forty inches. In Washington it is forty-one
inches. The forests at Sitka are so wet that
they will not burn, although frequent attempts
have been made to set them on fire. The
houses, which are of wood, suffer from  the
constant moisture.  In 1828, there were twenty
days whenit rained or snowed continuously; one
hundred and twenty when it rained or snowed
part of the day, and only sixty-six days of
clear weather. Some years only forty bright
days have been counted. Hinds, the naturalist, records onily thirty-seven " really clear and
It will be seen from this table that the winters of Sitka are relatively warm, not differing
much from those of Washington, and several
degrees warmer than those of New York; but
the summers are colder.  The mean temperature of winter is 32~ 30', while that of summer is 53~ 37'.  The Washington winter is
38~ 57'; the Washington summer is 73~ 07'.
These points exhibit the peculiarities of this
coast-warm winters and cool summers.
The winter of Sitka is milder than that of
many European capitals. Itis much milder than
that of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm,
Copenhagen, Berne, or Berlin.  It is milder
even than that of Manheim, Stuttgard, Vienna,
Sebastopol in the Crimea, or Turin.  It is not
much colder than that of Padua.  According
to observations at Sitka in 1831 it;froze for
only two days in December and seven days in
January.  In February the longest frost lasted
five days; in March it did not freeze during
the day at all, and rarelyin the night.  During
the next winter the thermometer did not fall
belowv 21~ Fahrenheit; in January, 1834, it
reached 11~.  On the other hand a tempera
i
1
i
i
b;
C,
m
e$4
27.48
28.75
14.22
52.25
59.67
17.37
36.05
23.80 16.92
0.95 24.5 s'
19.62 49.32
15.75
3.68
39.65 -
53.37
63.44
43.80 32.30 42.12
18.32
7.52
32.10 23-77 89.94
51.30
53.55
39.38 50-75
15.13
20.65
44.15
46.98
87.20
42.43 52.13'
51.16
61.36
16.43
4.85 21.77
58.98
48.57
58. 50.25
55-73
z26.40
6.65 0.09 2.69 13.49 22.92
33.65
44.93
0.40
16.40 42.77
.72 27-00
68.53
7.66 11.20 7.42
45.75 21.52 42.78
Washington, District of Columbia....... 
31
fine days."   A  scientific observer who was
there last year counted sixty. A visitor for
fourteen days found only two when nautical
observations could be made; but these were as
fine as he had ever known in any country.
The whole coast   from Sitka to the peninsula
of Alas ka seems to have  the  same continuous
climate, whether as reg      ards     temperature               or
moisture.  The  island  of Ko diak and  th    e re cess of  Cook's inlet are outside of  this  climatic
curve, so as       to b e  co mparatively dry.  Langs dorf reports  th      e wi nters " frequently  so mild
in the lower parts of Kodiak that the snow
does not lie upon the ground for any length
of  time, n    or is anything likesevere cold felt."
T     he Al eutia n  i slands, further   west,        are somewhat colder than Sitka, although the difference
is not great. The summer temperature is seldom above 66~; the winter temperature is more
seldom as low as 2~ below zero. The snow
falls ab ou t                    the beginning         of October, and is
seen sometimes as lat     e      as th e  en d  of April; b ut
it does not   remain long on the surface.  The
mean temperature of Ounala~ska is about 40~.
Chamisso             f oun               d the temperature of spring
water      at th e  b eg  inning of     the year      to be 38~
t50.    The        re are  some years  when i t rain s      on
this island              the whole winter.  The fogs prevail
from April                 till the middl e of Jtrly                                e  ben they
seem for   the tim    e        to be driv en further  north.
Tl he i    slan ds n or thward    toward Behring straits
a      re p ropor tion          ately colder, but yoIf will not
forget that the American eoast is milder than
the opposite coast of Asia.
From Mr.  B a nnister  I         have an authentic
statement with  regar      d      to       the  temperature
north  of     th  e A leutians,   as  observed by himself
in th    e       autumn of 1865 and the mon                  ths followiog. Eve       n      her e  th e winter does not  seem so
terrible as  is          sometimes                 imagined.  During
most of the time work could be done with
comfort in the open air. It was only when it
stormed that the men were kept within doors.
In transporting supplies from St. Michaels to
Nulato, a distance of two hundred and fifty
miles, they found no hardship, even when
obliged to bivouac in the open air.
On Norton sound and the Kwichpak river
winter may be said to commence at the end of
September, although the weather is not severe
till the end of October. The first snow falls
about the 20th or 25th September. All the
small ponds and lakes were frozen early in
October. The Kwichpakwas frozen solid about
the 20th or 25th of this month. On the 1st
November the harbor at St. Michaels was still
open, but on the morning ofthe 4th it was frozen
solid enough for sledges to cross on the ice. In
December there were two thaws, one of them
accomnpanied by rain for a day. The snow was
about two feet deep at the end of the month.
January was uniformly cold, and it was said
that at one place sixty-five miles northeast of
St. Michaels the thermometer descended to 58~
below zero. February was unusually mild all
over the country. In the middle of the month
there was an extensive thaw, with showers of
rain. About half of the snow disappeared, leaving much of the ground bare. March was pleas ant, without very cold weather.  Its mean, temperature was 20~,; its minimum was 3~ below
zero.
Spring commences on the Kwichpak the 1st
May, or a few days later, when the birds return
and vegetation begins to appear.  The ice did
not entirely disappear from the river till after
the 20th May.  The sea ice continued in the
bay of St. Michaels as late as 1st June.  The
summer temperature is much higher in the interior of the country than on the coast. Parties
traveling on the Kwichpak in June complained
sometimes from the heat.
The river Youkon, which, flowing into the
Kwichpak, helps to swell that stream, is navigable for at least four, if not five, months in
the year.  The thermometer at Fort Youkon
is sometimes at 65~ below zero of Fahrenheit,
and for three months of a recent winter it stood
at 50~ below zero without variation.   In suimm rer it rises above 80~ in the shade; but a hard
frost occurs at times in August.  The southwest
wind brings warmth;the northeast wind brings
cold. Some years there is no rain for months,
and then again showers alternate with sunshine.
The snow packs hard at anl average of two and
a half feet deep.  The ice is four or five feet
thick; in a severe winter it is six feet thiclk.
Life at Fort  Youkon under these rigors of
nature, although not inviting, is not intolerable.
Such is the climate of this extensive region,
so far as is known, along its coast, among its
islands, and on its great rivers,- from its southern limnits to its most northern ice, with contrasts and varieties such as Milton describes:
"For hot, cold, moist and dry, four champions fierce
Strive here for mastery."
Vegetable Products.
IV. Vegetable Products depend upon climate.
They are determined  by its laws.  Therefore
what has been already said upon the one prepares the way for the consideration of the other;
and here we have the reports of navigators and
th      e             s uggestions of science.
From the time this coast was first visited
navigators reported the aspects which nature
assumed. But their opportunities were casual,
and they were obliged to confine themselves to
what was most obvious.  As civilization did
not exist, the only vegetable products were indigenous to the soil. These wvere trees, berries,
and plants. At the first landing, on the discovery of the coast by Behring, Steller found
among the provisions in one of the Indian cabins
~a sweet herb dressed for food in the same
manner as in Kamtschatka." That "sweet
herb" is the first vegetable production of which
we have anly record on this coast. At the same
time, although ashore only six hlours. this naturallst regathered herbs and broughit such a
quantity to the ship that the describ~ingf of them
took him a considerable time."'This destrip
-A 
32
tion it is said was, adopted afterwards in the
Flora Siberica.
Trfees were noticed even before landing.
They'enter into descriptions, and are often introducedto increase the savage wildness of the
scene.  La Perouse doubts "if the deep vallies of the Alps and the Pyrenees present a
picture so frightful and at the same time so
picturesque, which would deserve to be visited
by the curious if it were not at one of the
extremities of the  earth." (Tom.  2, page
191.)   Lisiansky,  a   s     he appr oached  the coas t
of Sitka, records  that "nothing presented
itself to the view but impenetrable woods reaching from the water side to the very tops of the
highest mountains, so wild and gloomy that
they appeared more adapted for the residence
of wild beasts than of men."   (Page 145.)
L'utke portrays the " savage and picturesque
aspect" of the whole northwest coast.  (Tom.
1, page 101.)
As navigators landed they saw nature in
detail; and here they were impressed by the
size of the trees. Cook finds at Prince William sound "Canada and spruce pine, some
of them tolerably large." La P~rouse alludes
to trees more than once. He-describes pines
measuring six feet in diameter and one hundred and forty feet in height, and then again
introduces us to " those superb pines fit for the
masts of our largest vessels." Portlock notices
in Cook's inlet "wood of different kinds in
great abundance, such as pine, black birch,
witch hazel, and poplar; many of the pines large
enough for lower masts to a ship of four hundred tons burden;" and then again at Port
Etches he noticed "'trees of the pine kind,
some very large, a good quantity of alder, a
kind of hazel, but not larger than will do for
making handspikes. " Meares reports " woods
thick," also "'the black pine in great plenty,
capable of making excellent spars." Vancouver reports in latitude 60~ 1"' "a woodland
country." Sauer, who was there a little later,
in the expedition of Billings, saw trees six feet
in diameter and one hundred and fifty feet in
height, " excellent, wood for ship-building. "
In Prince William sound the ship "took in a
variety of fine spars," and he proceeds to say,
"The timber comprised a variety of pines of
immense thickness and height, some entirely
tough and fibrous, and of these we made our
best oars."   Lisiansky says that at Kodiak
II for want of fir he made a new bowsprit of
one of the pine trees, which answered admirably." Llitke testifies to the "magnificent
pine and fir" at Sitka, adding what seems an
inconsistent judgment with regard to its durability. Belcher notices Garden island, in latitude 60~ 21', as "covered with pine trees-"
and then again at Sitka speaks of a "very
fine-grained bright yellow cypress as the mzost
valuable wood, which, besides being used in
boats, was exported to the Sandwich islands
in return especiallyr for Chinese goods."
Turning westward from Cook' s inlet the
forests on the sea line are rarer until they
entirely disappear. The first settlement on
the island of Kodiak was on the southwestern
coast, but the want of timber there caused its
transfer to the northeastern coast, w he re there
arl Lsiane  "considerable forest s of fin e  tall  trees."
But  where  trees  are wanting  grass  se ems to
abound. This is the case  wi t h Kodia k, the
peninsula of Alaska, and  the Aleutian islan d s
gen erally.   Of these Ounalaska, libeled by the
immortal verse of  Campbell, has been t he mo st
described.             This well-known island is without
trees; but it  seems  singularly adapted  to  the
growth of grass, which is often so high as to
impede  the tr a veler and to over-top even  the
willows. The  mountains   themselve s are for a
considerable distan ce  clothed with ric h turf.
One of these  scenes  is represented in  a  pr int
which you will find  among the views of    the
vegetation oft f  the  Pacif i  in the London r epro
duction of the work of Kittlitz.  This peceuliarity was  first  noticed by Cook,  who says, with
a sailor senentntiousn e ss, that he  did not see
there  "a s ingle stick  o f wo od of a ny size,"'
but'' plenty of  gras s very  t hick and to a gre at
lengt h."  Lut ke records that after  leaving Brazil he   met nothing so agreeable as  the grass of
-this island.
5 North of Alaska, on Behring sea, the forests
do  not approach the coast,      excep t at the heads
of bays and sounds, alt hough they abound in
the in terior, an d e xte nd e ven to within a  short
distance oif the Frozen ocean.   Such is the
ersonal testimony of a  scientific observer who
has recently returned from this region.  In
Norton's sound Cook, who was the  f irs t to visit
it, reports'"a c  oas t  covered with wood,  an
agreeable  sight," and, on walking in the  coun.
try, "small spruce trees, none more than six
or eight  inches in diameter."   The  next day
he s ent men ashore "to    cut brooms, which
he needed, and  the  branches of s pruce  t re es
for  brewin g be er."  On the  Kwichpak   and its
affluent, the Youkon, trees are someti mes  as
h igh as  a hundred feet.  The supply of timber
at St. Michaels is from the drift wood of the
r iver.  Near Fort  Youkon, at t he ju nction of
the Porcupine  and the Youkion, ar e forests
of pine, poplar, willow, and birch. The pine
is the most plentiful; but the  small islands in
the great river are  covered with poplar and
wi llow.   Immense tr u n ks r olling  under   the
fort show  that there must  be large trees nearer
the headwaters.
But eve i n  in northe rn lati tude s the American
coast is not without vegetation. Grass here
takes  the  place   of trees. At Fort Youkon,
in latitude 67~, there is "a thin, wiry grass."
Navigato   r s notice      the  contrast b etween the
opposite coasts of the two continents.  Kotzebue, while in  Behring straits, where the two
approach each other, was stru ck by black,s
mossy rocks frowning with snow and icicles on
the Asiatic side, while on the American side
"'even the summits of the highest mountains
were free fromn snow, and the coast was covered
with a green carp.et.'" (Voyage, vol. 1, p.
249.) But the contrast with the Atlantic coast 
33
of the continent is hardly less.  The northern
limit of trees is full seven degrees higher in
Russian America than in Labrador.'  in point
of fact, on the Atlantic coast, in latitude 57~
58', which is that'of Sitka, there are no trees.
All this is most suggestive.
Next after trees early navigators speak often est of berries, which they found in profu sion.  Not a sailor lands who does not find
them.  Cook reports "berries" on Norton
sound, and "a great variety" at Ounalaska.
Portlock finds at Port Etches " fruit bushes in
great abundance, such as bilberry, raspberry,
strawberry, and currant, red and black."  At
Prince William sound "any quantity might be
gathered for a winter stock."   Meares saw
there "a few black currant bushes."  Billings
finds at Kodiak "several species of berries,
with currants and raspberries in abundance, the
latter white, but extremely large, being bigger
than a mulberry."  Langsdorf finds all these
at Ounalaska, with whortleberries and cranberries besides.  Belcher reports at Garden
island "strawberries, pigeon berries, whortleberries, and a small cranberry ip tolerable
profuision, without going in search of them."
All these I quote precisely, and in the order
of time.
Next to berries were plants for food; and
-these were in constant abundance.   Behring,
on landing at the Shumagin islands, observed
the natives "to eat roots which they dug out
of the ground, and scarceeshaked off the earth
before they eat them." -Cook reports at Ounalaska "a great variety of plants, such as are
found in europe and other parts of America,
particularly Newfoundland, one of which was
like parsley and eat very well, either in soups
or salads."  La P6rouse, who landed in latittkde 58~ 37, finds a French bill of fare, including celery, chicory, sorrel, and "almost
all that exists in the meadows and mountains
of France," besides several grains for forage.
Every day and each meal the ship's kettle was
filled'with these supplies, and all eat themn in
soups, ragouts, and salads, much to the benefit of their health.  Portlock reports at Port
Etches, besides water-cresses, "just above the
beach, between the bay and the lake, a piece
of wild,wheat, about two hundred yards long
and five yards broad, growing at least two feet
ligh, which with proper care might certainly be
made a useful article of food;" at Cook's inlet
he reports "ginseng and snakeroot."  Meares
reports at Prince William sound "snakeroot
and ginseng, some of which the natives have
always with them as a medicine." Billings finds
at Kodiak "ginseng, wild onions, and the edible roots of Kamtschatka;" and then again in
Prince William sound he finds "plenty of ginseng and some snakeroot."  Vancouver finds
at Cape Phipps "wild vegetables in great abundance."  Langsdorf adds to the list at Ounalaska " Siberian  parsnip, or sweet plant."
These, too, I quote precisely, and  in the
order of time.
Since the establishment of Europeans on this
coast an attempt has been  m ade  t o introduce'
the  nutritious grains and vegetables known to
the civilized world; but without very brilliant
success.  Against wheat  and rye    and  against
orchard fruits ther e are obstacles           of climate,
perhaps insuperable. All these require sum mer heat; but here the summer is compara tively cold.  The northern limit of wheat is
several degrees below the southern limit of
these possessions, so that this friendly grain
is out of the question.  Rye flourishes further.
north, as do oats also. The supposed northern
limit of these grains embraces Sitka and grazes
the Aleutian islands. But there are other
climatic-conditions which are wanting at least
for rye.  Oie- of these is dry weather, which is
required at the time of it; bloom. Possibly'
the clearing of the forest may produce some
modification of the weather.  For the present
barley, grows better, and there is reason to be lieve that it may be cultivated successfully very
far to the north.  It has ripened at Kodial;.
There are mnany garden vegetables which have
become domesticated. Lutke reports that ad
Sitka potatoes flourish; so that all have enough.
Langsdorf reports the same of Kodiak.  There
are also radishes, cabbages, cauliflowers, peas,
and  carrots-making a very respectable list.
The same, perhaps, may be found at Ounalaska.
On Norton sound I hear of radishes, beets,
and cabbages. Even as far north as Fort
Youkon, on the parallel of 67~, potatoes, peas,
turnips, and even barley have been grown; but
the turnips were unfit for the table, being rot ten at the heart.   A recent resident reports
that there are no fruit trees, and not even a
raspberry bush, and that he lost all hispotatoes
during one season by a frost in the latter days
of July; but do not forget-that these potatoes
were the wallflowers of the Arctic Circle.
Thus it appears that the vegetable productions of the country are represented practically by trees. The forests which overshadow
the coast from Sitka to Cook's inlet are all that
we can show under this head out of which a
revenue can be derived, unless we add ginseng,
which is so much prized by the Chinese, and
perhaps  also snakeroot.  Other  things may
contribute to the scanty support of a household; but timber will in all probabiity be an
article of commerce. It has been so already.
Ships from the Sandwich islands have come
for it, and there is reason to believe that this
trade may be extended indefinitely, so that
Russian America  may be on the Pacific like
Maine on the Atlantic, and the lumbermen of,
Sitka may vie with their hardy brethren- of the
East.
Here a question occurs. These forests as
described seem to afford all that can be desired.
The trees are abundant, and they are perfect ia
in size, not unlike
"The tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the most
Of some great admiral." - 
But a doubt arises. as to their commercial value.
Here we have the incoasistent testimony of
:.:..: 
34
Lutke.  According to him the pines and firs 
which he calls "magnificent"' constitute an
untried source of commercialwealth.  Not oQnly 
California, but other countries poor in trees, 
like Mexico, the Sandwich islands, and even
.Chili will need them.  And yet he does not
conceal an unfavorable judgment of the'timber,
which as seen in the houses of Sitka, suffering
from constant moisture, did not seem to be
durable.  (Voyage, Tom. 1, pp. 105, 151.) Sir
Edward Belcher differs from the Russian admiral, for he praises especially the timber of
" the higherlatitudes, either for spars orplank. "
(Voyage, vol. 1, p. 300.)  Perhaps its durability ilay depend upon the climate where it is
used, so that the timber of this region may bi
lasting enough when transported to another
climate.  In the rarity of trees op the islands
and mainland of the Pacific the natural supply
is itn Russian America.  One of the early navigators even imagined that China must look this
way, and he expected that "the woods would
yield a handsome revenue when the Russian
commerce with China should be established."
American commerce with China is established.
Perhaps timber may become one of its staples.
A profitable commerce in timber has already
begun at Pugiet sound.  By the official returns
of 1866 it appears that it was exported to a
long list of foreign countries and places, in
which I find Victoria, Honolulu, Callao, Tahiti;
Canton, Valparaiso, Adelaide, Hong  Kong,
Sydney,  Montevideo,  London,  Melbourne,
Shanghae, Peru, Coquimbo, Calcutta, Hilo,
Cape Town, Cork, Guaymas, and Siam; and
that in this commerce were employed no less
than eighteen ships, thirty barks, four brigs,
twenty-eight schooners, and ten steamers.  The
value of the lumber and spars exported abroad
was over half a million dollars while more
than four times that amount was shipped coastwise.  But the coasts of Russian America are
darker with trees than those further south.
The pings in which they abound do not flourish
as low down as Puget sound., Northward, they
are numerous and easily accessible.
In our day the Flora of the coast has been
explored with care.  Kittlitz, who saw it as a
naturalist, portrays it with the enthusiasm of
an early navigator; but he speaks with knowledge.  He, too, dwells on the " surprising
power and luxuriance"  of the pine forests,
describing them with critical skill.  The trees
which lie identifies are the Pinus Canadensis,
distinguished for its delicate foliage; the Pious
Mertensiana, a'new species, rival of the other
in height; and Pin'us Palustris, growing in
-lwampydeclivities, and n ot                        attaining height.
In the clearings or on the outskirts of thickets
are shrubs, being-chie'gy a species of Rubus~
with flowers of carmine and aromatic fruit.
About and over all fate mosses and lichens
invigorated by the constant mo-isture, while
colossal trees, undermined or uprooted, crowd
the ~urface, reminding the scietitle observer
of the accumulations of the coal measures.
Two different prints in the Londaon reproduc
tion of the work of Kittlitz present pictures
of these vegetable productions grouped for
beauty and instruction.   I refer to these and
a l so       t     te   s oin  o the Essay of H inds on the Regions of
Vegeta tion, the  latter to be found at the end of
the volumes  containing te lcher's Voyage.
In turning from the vegetable products-of
this region, it will not be o  of place if I refer
for one moment to its domestii'a-mmals, for
these are necessarily associated with such oducts. Some time ago it was stated that cat-ti
had not flourished at Sitka owing to the wand'
of proper pasturage'and the difficulty of making
hay in a climate of such moisture.  Hogs are
more easily sustained, but feeding on fish,,
instead of vegetable products, their flesh acquires a fishy taste, which does not recommend
it.  Nor has there been greater success With
poultry, for this becomes the prey of, the crow,
whose voracity here is absolutely fabulous. A
I'Koloschian tribe traces its origin to this bird,
which in this neighborhood might be a fit progenitor.  Not content with swooping upon
hens and chickens it descends upon hogs to
nibble at their tails, and so successfully a that
the hogs here are without tails," and then it
scours the streets so well that it is called the
scavenger of Sitka. But there'are other places
more favored. The -grass at Kodiak is well
suited to cattle, and it is supposed that sheep,
would thri*.there. The grass at Ounalaska is'
famous, and Cook thought the climate good for
cattle, of which we have at least one  illustration.  Langsdorf reports that " a cow grazed
there luxuriously for several years,- and then
was lost in the mountains."   Thai.~ilgng
an,imal is a good witness. Perhaps also ~t' s
typical of the peaceful inhabitants.
Mineral Products.
V. In considering the  Miner al bProadudcts
sha ll first ask att e n tion  to such in dications as
are  afforded b y  t he  ear ly navigators. They
were not geologists. Indeed, geology was at
that time  u nknown.  They    sa w on ly what was
exposed. And  yet during the long interval that
h  le rcerv   m   has elap sed  not very much has been  added to
the ir conclusions. The    existe nce of iron  is
hardly less uncertain  now than then. The
existence of copper is hardly more certain now
than then. Gold, which is so often a dangerous
igni fatuus, did not appear to deceive thesi
But coal, which is much~ mor:e desirable -than
gold, w/s reported by several, and once at lqast
with reasonable certainty.
The boat that landed from Behring, when
he discovered the coast, found among other
things " a whetstone on which it appeared that
copper knives had been s.barpened."' This
was the first sign of that mineral wealth,which
already excites such an interest. At another
point where Behring landed " one of th9'n'ericans bad a knife hanging -by his side,.9rhic
his people took notice on account OF its uasual make."I It has been suppoaed that this
knife was of iron.  Next cae'Cook, w. o,
when in Prince Will'am sound, saw''copwer 
35 -
and iron."  In his judgment the iron came
through the intervention of Indian tribes from Hudson bay or the settlements on the Cana dian lakes, and- his editor refers in a note to
the knife seen by Behring as coming from the
same quarter; but Cook thought that the cop per was obtained near at home, As the natives,
when engaged in barter, gave the idea " that
having so much of this metal of their own
they wanted no more."  Naturally enough,
For they were not far from the Copper river.
Maurelle, the French officer in the service of
Spain, landed in sight of Mount St. Elias in
1779, and h    e      reports Indians with mrrow-heads
of copper, "which made the Spaniards sus.
pect mines      of this metal there. "  La P6rous   en
v'he was  also   in                           this neigghbrhood, after men tioning that         the natura lists  of the'expedition
allowed no rock or stone to escape observa tion, reports ochre, schist, mica, very puke
quartz, granite, pyrites of copper, plumbago,
and coal, and then adds that some things an nounce that the mountains contain mines of
iron and copoer. He reports further that the
natives had'daggers of iron and sometimes
of red copper; that the latter metal was com mon enough with them, serving for ornaments
and for the points of their arrows; and he then
states the very question of Cook with regard to
"-the way in which they acquired these metals.
He insists that " the natives know how to forge
iron and work copper."  Spears and arrows
"pointed with bone or en," antd also "an
.iron dagger" for each man, appear in Van couver's account of the natives on the parallel
of 64~ 59', just within the southern-limits of
Russian America. Lisiansky also saw at Sitka
4 a thin plate of vir,in copper," found on Cop per river, three feet in length and at one end
twenty inchesin breadth, with figures painted on
its sides, which had come from the possession
of the natives. Meares reports " pure malleable lumps of copper in the possession of the
natives," sometimes weighing as much as a
pound, also necklaces, all obtained in barter
with -other natives further north. Portlock,
while in! Cook's inlet, in latitude 59~ 26', at a
place called Graham's harbor, makes another
discovery.  Walking round  the bay he saw
"twoveinsof Kennelcoal jtstabovethebeach;,
and with very little trouble several pieces were
got out of the bank nearly as large as a man'ls
hand."  If-the good captain did not -report
more than he saw this would be most important,
for from the time when the amusing biographer
-of. Lord Keeper North described that -clean
flaky coal which he calls "'candle," because
often used for its light, bat which is generally
called Kennel, no coal has been more -of a
household favorite. He -reports further that
'returning on boatd in the evening:he tried
-Bome of the. coal, and found -it to burn clear and
well."'Add to these different reports the genera testimony of Meares, who, when dwelling
on the resources of this country, boldly incfudes
';mi~es which are known to be between'the
3atitudle of-40~ Amd 60~ north, and which.may
hereafter prove. a   m ost valuabl se sou rc e of com merce between Amer ica a nd Ch   ina  ew
It is especially when we,  seek to   estimate the
mine r a l product s that we f eel the want of   care -
ful explorations. We  -know more of the roving
aborigines than of-these station ar y citizens of
the so il.'We  know more  of the trees.  A tree
is conspiuous.  A -mineral is hidden in the
earth, to be found by chance or science. Thus
far it seems as if ch ance, on ly had   ruled.  The
Russ ian  Gover nme nt  h anded ove r      th e countri
to a trading company, whose  exclusive interest
was furs. The  company only followed its busi ness when it lookedto wild beasts    with rich
skins r ather titan to  the    oil.  Its mines were
above  ground, and not below.  There  were also
essential difficulties in  the way of any explosr ations. The  interior was prac ticallyi    inaccess ible.  The thick forest, saturated w ith  rainr and
overgrown with  wet mosses,  presente d obstacles
which nothing but enlig htened ent er prise co ul
overcome.  Even  at  a sho rt distance fro m the
port  of Sitkaall effort ha d failed, and t he inner
recesses  of the island, only  thirt y miles broad,
w ere never  p   enetrated.
The  late  Pro fessor Hen ry D. Roge rs, in his
admira ble paper  o n the Physical Features of
Amer ica, be ing   a part o f his contribution to
Keith Johnston's Atlas, full of knowle dge asd
of fine generalization, says of this nortlwest belt
of country that it is II little known -in its topog raphy  to any but the  roving acdianvMst ad the
thinly-scattered fur-trappers.',   Butniere  are
certain general features which he proeDeds.to
designate. According to him it beloongs tq'what
is known as   the tertiary period of geology, in,
ftervening between  the  cretaceous pberAi and
that now in progress, but including also granite,
gneiss and an c ient  metamorphic rocks. It is
not known if the tru      e coal measures prevail in
any part, although  there is r eason  to believe that
the y may exist on the coast of  the    Arcti c o cean
between Cape Lisburne and Point B arrow.m
-   Beginning  at ohe s outh  we  have  Sitka and
its associate islantds, composed chiefly of vol canic rocks, with l im estone near. Little  is
known even  of the    coas t  between  Sitka and
Mount St. Ei lias, which, itself a volcano, is the
e beginning of   a volcanic region occupying the
,peninsula of  Alaska and the Aleutian islands,
and having no less than thirty volcanoes, some
extinct, but others still active. Mfost of the
-rocks here are volcanic, and the only fossilifer.ous beds are of the tertiary period. North of
Alaska,  nd near the mouth of the Kwichpak,
the coast'seems to be volcanic or metamorphic,
and probably tertiary, with a  vein of lignite
near the head of Norton's sound.  At the head
:of Kotzebue's sound the cliffs abound  in the
bones of elephaunts and -other extinct }mam mals, together with those of the musk ox aid
animals Dow living in ~he same latitude. From
K otzebue'.e sound northward the coast hasa
volca~nic charaeter. Then-at Cape Thompson
it is called sub-crboniferous, followed byj
rocks of the carboniferou-s age, being. limpstones, shales, ad  sandstones, which Phiel
*,,. 
0 
36
from Cape Lisburne far round to Point Barrow.  At Cape Beaufort, very near the seventieth parallel of latitude, and north of the
Arctic Circle, on a high ridge a quarter of a
mile from the beach is a seam of coal, which
appears to be of the true coal measures.
From this general outline, w'hilh leaves
much in uncertainty, I come now to what is
more important.
It is not entirely certain that Iron has been
found in this region, although frequently reported. The evidence points to the south, and
also to the north.  Near Sitka it was reported
by the Russian engineer Doroschin, although
-it does not appear that anything'has been done
to verify his report.  A visitor there as late as
last year saw excellent iron, reported to be
from a bed in the neighborhood, which was
said to be inexhaustible, and with abundant
wood for its reduction. Then again on Kotzebue's sound specimens have been collected.
At 66~ 35' Kotzebue found a false return in his
calculations, which he attributes to the disturbing influence of "iron." A resident an the
Youkon thinks that there is iron in that neighborhood.
Silver also has been reported at Sitka by
the same Russian engineer who reported iron
there; and, like the iron, in "sufficient quantity
to pay for the working."
Lead was reported by the Russian explorer,
Lieutenant Zagoyskin, on the lower part of
the Kwichpak;  but it is not known to what
extent it exists.
Cgpper is found on the banks of the Copper
river, called by the natives Mjednaja, meaning
copper, and of its affluent, the Tshitachitna,
in masses sometimes as large as forty pounds.
Of this there can be little doubt.  It is mentiohed by Golowin in the Archiv of Erman as
late as 1863.  It was undoubtedly from this
neighbbrhood that the copper was obtained
which arrested the attention of the early'navigators.  Traces of copper are also found inr
other places on the coast; also in the mountains
near the Youkon, where the Indians use it for.
arrow-heads.
Coal seems to exist all along the coast;
according to Golowin " everywhere in greater
or less abundance."  Traces of it are reporte    r
on the islands of the Sitkan archipelago,- and       r
this is extremely probable,  for it has been
worked successfully on Vancouver's island
below.  It is also found on the Kenaian peninsula, Alaska, the island of Unga, belonging to
the Shumag,in group, Ounalaska, and far to the
north at Beaufort.  At the latter place it is
" slaty, burning with a pure flame and rapid
consumption," and it is supposed that there
are extensive beds in the neighborhood better
in quality.  For an account of this coal I refer
to the scientific illustrations of Beechey's
Voyage.  The natives also report coal in the
interior on the Kwichpak.  The coal of Ounalaska and probably of Alaska is tertiary and
not adapted for steamers.  With regard to that
:of Unga scientific authorities are divided. That
of the Kenalan penin s ula is d  the best and the
most extensive. It is fo und on th e eastern
side  of Cook's inlet, half way between  Cape
Anchor  and the  Russpiar settlement of St. Nicholas, in veins thre e quarters of    a yar d or m ore
in thickness, and ranging in quality from mere
carboniferous wood to anthracite. According
to one authority these coal veins extend and
spread themselves far in the interior. It appears
that this coal has been  more  than once  sent to
Califa ornia for trial,  a nd tha t it wa s the re pros
nounced a good article. Since then it has been
mined  by the  company, not  only  for their own
uses,    but   also  for export to California.  In
makingthese statements I rely particularly upon
Golowin in the Archiv of Erman, and also upon
the elaborate work of Grewingk, in the Traifsactions of the Mineralogilcal Society of Petersburg for 1848 and 1849, (p. 112,) where will
be found a special map of the Kenaian peninsula.
Gold is less important thin coal, but its discovery produces more excitement. The report
of gold in any quarter stimulates the emigrant
or the adventurer who hopes to obtain riches
swiftly. Nor is this distant region withoutsuch
experience. Only a few years ago the British
colony of Victoria was aroused by a rumor of
gold in the mountains of the Stikine river, -not
far in the interior from Sitka. At once therewas a race that way, and the solitudes of this
river were penetrated by hunters in- quest of
theglittering ore. Discomfiture ensued. Gold
had been found, but not in any sufficient quantities reasonably accessible.  Nature for" the
present set up obstacles. But failure in-one
place will be no discouragement in another,
especially as there is reason to believe that
the mountains here contain a continuation of
those auriferous deposits which have become
so famous further south.  The Sierra Nevada
chain of California reaches here.
Traces of geld have been observed at other
points. One report places a deposit not far
from Sitka. The same writer, who reports iron
there, also reports that during the last year he
saw a piece of gold as large as a marble, which
was shown. by an Indian. But the Russian
engineer, Doroschin, furnishes testimony more
precise. He reports gold in at least three
different localities,; each of considerable extent.
The first is the mountain range on the north
of Cook's inlet and extending into Alaskb,
consisting principally of clay slate with permeating veins of Diorite, the latter being known
as a gold-bearing rock.  He observed this in
the summer of 1851. About the: same time
certain Indians from the Bay of Jakutat, not
far from Mount St. Elias, brought him specoi
mens of Diorite found in their neighborhood,
making, therefore, a second deposit.  /~ the
summer of 1855 the same engineer found gold
on the southern aide of Cook's iqtet, in the
mountains of the Kienay peninsula. Satisfying
himself, first, that the beank occupied by the
redoubt of St. Nicholas, at the mouth of the
Kaknu river, is gold-bearing, he was induced to 
37
near six, hundred.  These instances will show
in a general way the spirit of this trade even
to our own day.  On the coast, and especially
in the neighborhood of the factories, the dif ference in the value of furs is recognized, and
a proportionate price is obtained, which Sir
Edward Belcher found in 1837 tq be "for a
moderately good sea otter skin  from six to
seven blankets, increasing to thirteen for the
best, together with sundry knickknacks." But
in the interior it is otherwise. A recent resi dent in the region of the Youkon assures me
that he has seen skins worth several hundred
dollars bartered for-goods worth only fifty cents.
Besidewhalers and casual ships with which
the Esquimaux are in the habit of dealing, the
commerce in furson both sides of the continent
north of the United States has fbr a long time
been in the hands of two corporations, being the
Hudson Bay Company, with its directors in London, and the Russian American Company,
with its directors in St. Petersburg.  The former
is much the older of the two, and has been the
most flourishing.  Its original members were
none other than Prince Rupert, the Duke of
Albemarle, Earl Craven, Lord  Ashley, and
other eminent associates, who received a char ter from Charles II in 1670 to prosecute a
search after a new passage to the South sea
and to establish a trade in furs, minerals, and
other considerable commodities in all those
seas and in the British possessions north and
west of Canada,  vith powers of government,
the whole constituting a colossal monopoly,
which stretched from Labrador and Baffin bay
to an undefined west.  At present this great
corporation is known only as a fur company,
to which all its powers are tributary,  For
some time its profits have been so considerable that it has been deemed advisable to hide
them by nominal additions to the stock. With
the extinction of the St. Petersburg corporation under the present treaty the London cor poration will remain the only existing fur
company on the continent, but' necessarily
restrained in its operation to British territory.
It remains to be seen into whose hands the
commerce on the Pacific side will fall now that
this whole region will be open to the unchecked
.enterprise of our citizens.
This remarkable commerce began before the
organization of the company.  Its profits may
be inferred from a voyage in 1772, described
by Coxe, between Kamtschatka and the Aleutians. The tenth part of the skins being handed
to the custom-house, the remainder was distributed in fifty-five shares, containing each twenty
sea otters,- sixteen black and brown foxes,
ten red foxes, three sea otter tails, and these,
shares were sold on the spot at from eight hundred to one thousand rubles each,  so that
the whole lading brought about fifty thousand
rubles.  The cost of these may be inferred
from the articles given in exchange.   A Russian outfit, of which I find a contemporary recVord, was, among other things, "seven hundred
weight of tobacco; one hundred weight of glass
follow the development of Diorite in the upper
valley of the river, and as.he ascended found
a gold-bearing alluvion gradually increasing,
witlihscales of gold becoming coarser and coarser,   instead ofbeing scarcely visible a s  a t f irst.
It d        o es not appea r  tha t          the discoveries on
Cook's inlet were pursued; but it is reported
that the Hudson Bay Company, holding the
country about the Bay of Jakutat under a lease
from the Russian company, have found the
'Diorite in that neighborhood valuable. -This
incident has given rise to a recent controversy.
Russian journals attacked the engineer for
remissness in not exploring the Jakutat country. He has defended himself by setting out
what he actually did in the way of discovery,
and the essential difficulty at the time in doing
more; all which will be found in a number
just received of the work to which I have so
often referred, the Archiv von R-,ussland_ by
Erman for 1866, volume 25, page 229.
Thus much for the mineral resources of this
new-found country as they have been recognized at a few points on the extensive coast,
leaving the vast unknown interior. without a
word.
.     Firs.         
VI. I pass now to Furs, which at times have
vied with minerals in value, although the sueply is more limited and less permanent. Trafppers are " miners" of the, forest, seeking furs
as otfers seek gold.  The parallel continues
also in the greed and oppression unhappily
incident to the pursuit. A ltussian officer who
was one of the early visitors to this coast
remarks that to his mind the only prospect of
relief for the suffering natives "consists in the
total extirpation of the animals of the chase,"
which he thought from the. daily havoc must
take place in a very few years. This was at
the close of the last century. Thle trade still
continues, though essentially diminished, an
imlportant branch of commerce.
rarly in this commerce desirable furs were
obtained in barter for a trifle, and when something of value was exchanged it was much out
of proportion to the furs. This has been the
case generally in dealing with the natives, until,
their eyes have been slowly opened. In Kamtschatka,'at the beginning'of the last century,
half a dozen sables were obtained in exchange
for a knife, and a dozen for a hatchet; and the
Kamtschatkadales wondered that their Cossack conquerors were willing to pay so largely
for what seemed worth so little. - Similar incidents on the northwest coast are reported by
the early navigators. Cook mentions that in
exchange for "'beads" the Indians at Prince
William sound "gave whatever they had, even
their fine sea otter skins," which they prized
no more than other skins, until it appeared
how much they were prized by their visitors.
Where there was no competition prices rose
slowly, and many years after Cook the Russians at Kodiak, "in return for trinkets and
tobacco, " received twelve sea otter skins and
fbo skins of different kinds to the number vof
I
lb
0 
million dollars.  Clearly the latter years can
show no approximation to any such doubtful
result.
Descending from these lofty figures, which if
not exaggerations are at least generalities and
relate partly to the earlier periods, before the
time of the company, we shall have  a better
idea of the commerce if we look at authentic
reports for special periods of time.  Admiral
Von Wrangel, who was for so long governor,
must have been well informed.  According to
statements in his work, adopted also by Wap paius in his Geographie, the company from 1826
to 1833, a period of seven years, exported the
skins of the followinganimals: 9,853 sea otters,
with 8,751 sea otter tails, 40,000 river beavers,
6,242 river or land otters, 5,243 black foxes,
7,759 black bellied foxes, 1,633 red foxes,
24,000 polar foxes, 1,093 lynxes, 559 wolver ines, 2,976  sables, 4,335 swamp  otters, 69
wolves,  1,261 bears,  505 muskrats, 132,160
seals, 830 poods of whalebone, 1,490 poois of
walrus ivory, and 7,122 sacks of castoreum.
What was thbir value does not appear.  Sir
George Simpson, the governor-in-chief of the
Hudson  Bay Company, who was at Sitka in
1841, represents the returns of the company
for that year as follows: 10,000 fur seals, 1,000
sea otters, 2,500 land otters, and 20,000 wal rus teeth, without including foxes and mar tens.  There is still one other report for the
year 1852, as follows: 1,281 sea otters, 129
young sea otters, 2,948 common otters, 14,486
fur seals, 107 bears, 13,300 beavers, 2 wolves,
458 sables, 243 lynxes, 163 moleskins, 1,504
bags of castoreum, 684 black foxes, 1.,59dO
cross foxes, 5,174 red foxes, 2,359 blue Arc tic foxes, 355 white Arctic foxes, and also 31
foxes called white, perhaps Albinos.
Besides these reports for special years, I am
enabled to present from the Russian tables of
Captain Golowin another, covering the period
from 1842 to 1860, inclusive, being as follows:
25,602 sea.otters, 63,826 "otters," probably
river otters, 161,042 beavers,.73,944 foxes,
- 55,540 Arctic foxes, 2,288 bears, 6 445lynxeq
26,384 sables,   19,076       muskrats,  2,536 ursie
seals, 338,604 marsh otters, 712 "pairs of
hare," 451 martens, 104 wolves, 46,274 caso
reums, 7,309 beavers' tails. Here is an inex plicable absence of seal skins. On the other
and, sables, which belong to Asia and dot to
Ameri-ca, are mentioned.   The list is Russian,
and perhaps embraces  furs from the Asiatic
islands of the company.
From a competent source I learn that the
,value of skins at Sitlka during the last year
was substantially as follows: sea otter, $50;
marten, $4; beaver, $2 50; bear, $4 50; black
fox; $50; silver fox, $40; cross fox, $25; red
fox, $2. A recent Price Current in New York
gives the prices there ill currency, as follows:
-silver fox, $10 to $50; cross fox, $8 to $5;
red fox $1 to $<1 50; otter, $f3 to $;6; mink,
$3 to $6; beaver, $1 to $;4; muskrat, twenty~
to fifty cents; lynx, $2 to0$4; black bear, $6 to
.$12; dark marten, $54to $20. These NewYork'
beads; perhaps a dozen spare hatchets and a
few superfluous knives, of very bad quality;
an immense number of traps for foxes; a few
hams;        a            little rancid butter."  With such imorts  aga inst                     s        uch exports the profits must
hav      e be en c onsiderable.
From L0sngsdorf             we have        a general inventory of the furs at the beginning of the century
in       the p  rincipal magazine  of the Ru ssian company          on      the island           of Kodiak,.collected on   the
islands, the peninsu l a of Al aska, Cook'  s il   e        to
Prince William sound,        and  the     continent generally.  Here were II a great variety of the
rarest kinds of fox skins," black, blackish,
reddish,  silv    er gray,         and sto)e           fox,  the latter
probably a s pecies of the Arctic i brown and
r ed b        Years, "Fthe skins  of which He  of great
value," and also"t e valualuable black bear;"
the ziseltmarmo t  and the common marmot;
the glutton; the lynx, chiefly of whitish gray;
th    e re indeer; the                  beaver; the hairy hedgehog;
the wool of a wild American sheep, whitish,
fine, and v     ery long, but he could never obtain
s      ight        of the  anima l  that  produced  thi       s wool;
alsoe " se      a o tters, o nce th e p rincipal  sou rce   of
wealth to the company, now nearly extirpated,
a few hundreds only being annually collected. "
The  same fur       s were reported by Cook as found
on this coast in his day, including even the
wild        sheep.    h        e      ey all continue  to   be found,
excep      t           that I hear nothing of any wild sheep
save at a Sitkan dinner.
There has been much exaggeration with regard to the profits of the Rusiancorporationi.
An English writer of authority calls them " immense," and adds that formerly they were much
greater. I refer to the paper of Mr. Petermann,
read before the Geographical Society of Lon-'
don in 1852.  (Journal, vol. 22, p. 120.)  The
number of skins reported at-times- is prodigious,
although this fails to reveal precisely the profits.  For instance, Pribolow collected within
two years on the islands north of Alaska, which
bear his name, the skins of 2,000 sea otters,
6,000 dark ice foxes, 40,000 sea bears or ursine
seals, together with 1,000 poods of walrus ivory.
The pood is a Russian weight of tliirty-six
pounds. LUtke mentions that in 1803 no less
than 800,00.0 skins of the ursine seal were
accumulated in the factory at Ounalaska, of
which 700,000 were thrown into the sea, partly
because they were badly prepared and partly
in order to keep up the price, thus imitating the
Dutch, who for the same reason burnt their
spices. Another estimate masses the collection
for a series of years. From 1787 to 1817, for
only a part of which time the company existed,
th4 Ounalaska district yielded upwards of
2,500,000 seal skins; and from 1817 to 1838,
during all which time the company was in
power, the same district yielded 579,000 seal
skiin~s. Assuming what is improbable, that
these skins were sold at twenty-five rubles
eachl, some calculatinggenius has ciphered out
the sum-total of proceeds at more than eightyfive million rubles:* or, calling the ruble seventySve cents~ a sum-total of' more than sixty-three
38
I 
on
prices vary from those of Sitka.  The latter
will be the better guide to a comprehension of
the proceeds at Sitka, which of course must be
subject to deduction for the expenses of the
company.  Of the latter I say nothing now
as I have considered them in speaking of the
existing government.                                          
The skins, it appears, are" obtained in. three
different ways: first, through the hunters employed by the company; secondly,. in payment
of taxes imposed by the company; and thirdly,
by barter or purchase from independent natives.
But with all these sources it is certain that the
Russian company has enjoyed no success comparable to that of its British rival; and still
more, there is reason to believe that latterly its
profits have not been large.
Amid all the concealment or obscuritywhich
prevails with regard to the revenues of the company, it is easy to see that for some time there
must be   a  larg e      amoun t  of v aluable f ur   s on      this
coast. The bountiful solitudes        of th e forest and
of the  adjoi ning w  ate      r        s have not yet been exhausted; nor will they be until civilization has
supplied substitutes.  Such, indeed, is a part
of that humane law of compensation which contributes so much to the general harmony: -For
the present there will be trappers on the land,
who will turn aside only a little from its prizes
there to obtain from the sea its otter, seal, and
walrus. It-cannot be irrelevant, and may not
be without interest, if I call your attention
briefly to those fur-bearing animals, which are
about to be brought within the sphere of re-.
publican government. If we cannot find their
exact census we may at least learn something
of their character and value.
The comparative poverty of vegetation in the
more northern parts of the continent contrasts\
with the abundance of animal life, especially
if we embrace those tenants of the sea who
seek the land for rest. These northern parallels are hardly less productive than the tropics.,
The lioti, the elephant, and the hippopotamus
find their counterpart in the bear, the walrus,
and the seal, without including the sables and
the foxes. Here again nature by an unerring
law adapts the animal to the climate, and in
providing him with needful protection creates
also a needful supply for tht protection of man;.
and this is the secret of rich furs. Under the
sun of the tropics such provision is as little
needed by man as by beast, and therefore
nature, which does nothing inconsistent wi~
a wise economy, reserves it for other places.
Anmong the furs most abundant in this comtnerce are those of the Fox, in its different species and under its different names. Its numbers were notic?d very early, and gave the name
to the eastern group of the Aleutians, which
were called Lyssie Ostrowa, or Fox islands.
Somue of its furs are among the very precious.
The mnost plentiful is the Red, or as it is somletim~es galled American; but this fur is not
highly prized..Tlien coxes the Arctic, of little va!ue, and of diffierent colors, sometimes
blue, ail in full winter dress pure white, whose
circumpolar    home is indicated by his name.
The  Cross Fox is les s kn own, but much more
sought from  the finen ess         of its fur and its color.
Its nam e  is derived fromt d a rk cruciform stripes,
extending fromoe  a  t  the head to the back and at
right a ngles over th e  shou lder s.  It is now
recognized to be a  variety of  the red, from
which it differs more  in commercial value than
in  general character. The  Black Fox, which is
sometimes entirely of shining black with silver
white  at the tip of the e  tail,   is   calle d a lso   the
Silver Fox, when. the black hairs of the body
are tipped wsbith white.  They ar e  of the  same
name in science, somietimes called Argentat?s,
although there seem to  be tw   o different names,
if not'different values, in- commerce. This
variety is m ore rare than the  Cross Fox.   Not
more th a n  four or five are ta ken   during a sea son t   at any one post in  the fur cou ntries,  al though the hunters use every art for this pIr pose.   The  temptation is great, as we    are told
that  " its fur fetche s six times the   price  o f any
other fur  pr o   du ced in Nor    th Am erica." Sir
John  Richardson, who is the  authority for this
s tate ment, forgot the Sea   Otter, of which he
seems to have known l   ittle.  With out doubt
the  Black Fox is admired   fo      r its rarity  and
beauty.  La Hontan, the   French commander
in Canada  under   Louis  XIV, s peaks of i  ts
fur in his  time as worth  its weight i n gold.
Among the  animals whose fur s  are   less
r egarded are the  Wolverene, known i n science
and ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~ e the sealowitou incldn h'salsad atfcialncoosthtte aia   ol o
a s  gulo or glutton, and  called by  Buffon the
quadruped  vulture, with  a dark-brown fur,
which becom es black in wint er. and resembles
that of the  bear, bat is  not so long nor  of  so
much value.  There  is  also t he  Lynx, belon g ing to the f eline race, living nort h of the  great
lak  s a nd eastward of the Rocky m  ountains,
with  a fur mo deratel y prized in commerce.
There    is also the  Muskrat, which is abund ant
in Russian  America, as it is common on th i s
continent, whose  fur enter s largely into  the
cheaper  peltries'of the  United States in so
many different ways,  and with  suc h     various
artificial colors, that the animal would  not
know his own skin.                           E
SAmong inferior furs  I may include t hat  very
respectable animal, the  Blan h ck Bear, reported
by Cook "in great numbers     and of   a shin y
black color."  The   Grizzly Bear  is less frequent and is inferior    in quality o f fur to all the
var ie ties  of the bear.  Thie Brown Bear is sup posed to be a variety of the Black Bear. The
Polar Bear; which at times is as formidable
animal, leaving a foot-print in the snow nine
inches long, was once said not to make an ap pearance west of the  Mackenzie river, but he
has been latterly found on Behring straits, so
that he, too, is included among our new pop ulation.'The Black Bear, in hlmself a;wole
population, inhabits every wooded district from
'the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina
to the ice-of the Arctic, becoming more numerols inland than: on the coast..Langsdorf early
remarked that he did not appear on the Aleu.tians, but on the continent, near C00ki's inlest
I..
I 
40
and Prince William sound, which are well
wooded., He  has been found even on the
isthmus of Panama.  Next to the dog he is        the
most cosmopolitan and perhaps the most intel ligent of animals. and among those of the forest
he is the most known, even to the nursery.
His showy fur once enjoyed great vogue in ham mercloths and muffs, and it is still used in mili tary caps and pistol holsters; so that he is
sometimes called the Army Bear.  Latterly the
fur has fallen in value.   Once it brought in
London from twenty to forty guineas.  It will
now hardly bring more than that same number
of shillings.
The Beaver, amphibious and intelligent, has
a considerable place in commerce, andzalso a
notoriety of its own as the familiar synonym
for the common covering of a man's head,
and here the animal becomes historic.  By
royal proclamation in 1638 Charles I of Eng land prohibited the use of any material in the
manufacture of hats "except beaver stuff' or
beaver wool."  This proclamation was the
death warrant of beavers innumerable, sacri ficed to the demands of the trade.  Wherever
they existed over a wide extent of country, in
the' shelter of forests or in lodges built by their
extraordinary-instinct, they were pursued and
arrested in their busy work.  The importation
'of their skins into Europe during the last cen tury was enormous, and it continued until one
year it is said to have reached the unaccountable number of six hundred thousand.  I give
these figures as I find them.  Latterly other
minaterials have been obtained for hats, so that
this fur has become less valuable.  But the
animal is still hunted.  A medicine supplied
by him, and known as the Castoreum, has a
fixed place in the Afateria MAedica. 
The Marten is perhaps the most popular of
all the fur-bearillng animals that belong to our
new possessions  An inhabitant of the whole
wooded region of the continent, hlie finds a
favorite home in the cold forests of the Youkon, where he needs his beautiful fur, which
is not much inferior to that of his near relative,
the far-famed Russian sable.  In the trade of
the Hudson Bay Company the Marten occupies
the largest place, his skins for a single district
amounting to more than fifty thousand annually, and being sometimes sold as sable.  The
Ermine, which is of the same Weasel family,
is of little value except for its captivating name,
although its fur finds its way to the English market in enormous quantities. The Mink, also of
the same general family, was once little regarded, but now, by a freak of fashion in our,
country, this animal has ascended in value
above the Beaver, and almost to the level of
the Marten. His fur is plentiful on the Youkon
and along the coast. Specimens in the Museum
of the Smithsonian Institution attest its occur:
rence at Sitka.                                 s
The Seal, amphibious, polygamous? and intelligent as the beaver, has always supplied
the largest multitude of furs to the Russian
Company.  The early navigators describe its
appearance and numbers. Cook encountered
them constantly. Excellent swimmers, ready
divers, they seek rocks and recesses for repose,
where, though watchful and.never sleeping long
without moving, th e y beco me t he pre y of the
hunter. Early in the century there was  a waste  ful destruction of   them.  Young and old, male
and female,' were indiscriminately knocked
on the head for the sake of their skins. Sir
George Simpson, who saw this-improvidence'
with an experienced eye, says that it was hurt  ful in two ways: first, the race was almost ex.
terminated; and secondly, the market was
glutted sometimes with as many as two hundred
thousand a year, so that prices did not pay the
expense of carriage. The Russians were led to
adopt the plan of the Hudson Bay Company,
killing only a limited number of males who
have attained their full growth, which can be
done easily, from the known and systematic
habits of the animal.  Under this economy
seals have multiplied again, vastly increasing
the supply.
Besides the common seal there are various
species, differing in appearance, so as to justify
different names, and yet all with a family char.
acter, including the sea leopard, so named from
his spots; the elephant seal,,from his tusks and
proboscis; and the sea lion, with teeth, mane,
and a thick cylindrical body. These are of
little value, although their skins are occasion ally employed.   The skin of the elephant seM
is strong, so as to justify its use in the harness
of horses.  There is also the sea bear, or /raine
Seal, very numerous in these waters, whose
skin, especially if young, is prized for cloth ing. Steller speaks with grateful remembrance
of a garment which he made from one while
on the desert island after the shipwreck of
Behring.
Associated with the seal, and belonging to the
same family, is the IValrus, called by the British
the sea-horse, the morse or the sea-cow, and
by the French Bgte et la Grande Dent.   His
two tusks, rather than his skin, are the prize of
the hunter. Unlike the rest of the seal family,
he is monogamous and not polygamous. Cook
vividly describes an immense herd asleep on
the ice, with one of their number on guard, and
when aroused roaring and baying aloud, while
they huddled and tumbled together like swine.
At times their multitude is so great that before
being aroused several hundreds are slaughtered,,
ag game in a park.  Their hide is excellent for
carriage braces, and is useful about ship. But
it is exclusively for theirivory that these hecatombs are sacrificed. A single tooth weighs
somdtimies several pounds. Twenty thousand
teeth reported as an annual harvest of the
Russian Company must cost the lives of ten
thousand walruses. The ivory compares with
that of the elephant, and its for solhe purposes
superior. Long ago, in the days of Sax-on history, a Norwegian at the court of Alfred exhibited to the king "~teeth of price and excellency' from what he called a Ilorse? whale.
Unquestionably these Here teeth of walrus.
I
I 
41
out great quantities, which  always produced
large prices." All that could be obtainedwere
sent to China, which was the objective point
commercially for this whole coast.  The trade
became a fury.  Wherever the animal  with
exquisite purple-black fur appeared he -was
killed; not always without effort, for he had
learned something of his huntsman  and was
now coy and watchful, so that his pursuit was
often an effort, but his capture was always
a triumph.  The  natives, *lio  had been  aecustomed to his furs as clothing, surrendered
them.  Sometimes a few beads were their only
ay.  All the navigators speak of the unequal
barter.  "Any sort of beads" were enough,
according to Cook.  The story is best told by
Meares who says "such as were dressed in fur.s
instantly stripped themselves, and in return for
a moderate quantity of spike nails we received
sixty-fiveseaotter skins.'  Vancouver describes
the "humble fashion" of the natives in poor
skins as a substitute for the beautiful furs appropriated by their "Russian friends."   The picture is completed by the Russian  navigator
when he confesses that "after the Russians
had any intercourse with them" the natives
ceased to wear Sea Otter skins.  In the Lrowing rage. the Sea Otter nearly disappeared.
Langsdorf reports them as " nearly extirpated,
since the high prices for them induces the Rutsians for a mnomentary advantage to kill all
they meet with, both old and young.   Nor can
they see that by such a procedure they must
soon be deprived of the trade entirely."  This
was in 1804.  Since then the indiscriminate
massacre has been arrested.
Meanwhile our countrymen entered into this
commerce, so that Russians, Englishmen, and
Americans were all engaged in slaughtering
Sea Otters and selling their furs to the Chinese
until the market of Canton was glutted.  Lisiansky, on his arrival there, found "immense
quantities in American ships." By and by the
commerce was engrossed by the Russians and
English. And now  it passes into the  hand s  o f
the United States with all the other prerogatives belonging to this territory.
I menti       on                  the Sea Otter last; but in beauty
and value it is  the first. In these respects it
far surpasses the river or land otter, which
though beautiful and valuable must yield the
palm. It tas also more the  manner       s  of the
seal,   wit h       its   fondness forsea-washi ed rocks, and
with  a maternal affection almost human. The
S    ea Otter seems to belong exclusively   t o     th     e
north Pacific.   It   s       haunt s  once  ehtend ed  as far
as the bay of San Francisco; but long ag,o it
ceased to           appear in        that  sou    thern  region. Cook
saw it at No otkasound.  Vancouver reports lit
at Chatham strait "in immense numbers so
that it w as  easily in th  e        powe r   of  the natives to
procure as many a s  they chose  to be   at          th    e
troubleof taking."  But these naviga tors, eould
they r        evisit this coast, would not find it in these
places now. Its present zone is between the
parallels of 60~ and 65~ north latitude on the
American and Asiatic coasts, so that its range
is very limited.  Evidently it was Cook who
first revealed the Sea Otter to Englishmen.
In the table of contents of his third voyage are
t he w   ords,  Description of tt   heSea Otter; and in
the page     s       that follow  t       here isa minute account
of this animal, and  especially of its- incomparable far, which is pronounced I'certainly softer
and finer than that of any other we know of. "
Not content with description the fatmous navigator adds in remarkable words, " therefore,
the discovery of this part of North America,
where so valuable anl article of commerce may
be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference."  These words stimulated the commercial enterprise of that day. Other witnesses
followed.  Menres, describing his voyage to
this coast, placed this far high above all other
furs; "the finest in the world, and of exceeding beauty," and La Perouse made it known
in France as "'peltry the most precious and
commnon in those seas."  Shortly afterwards all
existing information with regard to it was elaborately set forth in the Historical Introduction
to the Voyages of Marchand, published at Paris
under the auspices of the Institute.
I The Sea Otter was known originally to the
Russians in Kamtschatka, where it was called
the sea beaver;' but the discoveries of Behring
constitute an epoch in the commerce.  His
shipwrecked crew, compelled to winter on the
desert island which now bears his name, found
this animal in flocks, ignorant of men and
innocent as sheep, so that they were slaughtered
without resistance to the number of more than
eight hundred. Their value became known.
Fabulous prices were paid by the Chinese, sometimes, according to Coxe, as high as one hundred and forty rubles. At such a price a single
Sea Otter was more than an ounce of gold,
and a flock was a gold mine.  The pursuit of
gold was renewed. It was the Sea Otter that
tempted the navigator, and subsequent discovery was uinder the incentive of' obtaining the
precious fur. Mllbr. calling him a beaver,
says in his history of Russian Discovery, "the
catching of beavers enticed many people to go
to these parts, and they never returned with
aisheries.
VII. I come nowto the Fisheries, the'lasthead
of this inquiry, and not inferior to any otherin
importance; perhaps the most important of
all. What even are Sea'Otter skins by the side
of that product of tie sea, incalculable in
amount, which contributes to the sustenance
of the human family?
Here, as elsewhere, in the endeavor to estimate the resources of this region, there is
vagueness and uncertainty.  Information  at
least is wanting; and yet we are not entirely
ignorant. Nothing is'clearer than that fish in
great abundance are taken everywhere on the
coast, around the islands, in the bays, and
throughout the adjacent seas. On this head
the evidencevis-constant and complete. Here
are oysters, clams, crabs, and a dainty little
fish of the herring tribe called the oolachan,
A 
42
contributing to the luxury of the table, and so
rich in its oily nature that the natives are said
to use it sometimes as a "candle.'-  Besides
these, which I name now only to put aside, are
those great staples of commerce and mainstays
of daily subsistence, the Salmon, the Herring,
the Halibut, the Cod, and behind all the Whale.
This short list is enough, for it offers a con stant feast, with the Whlale at hand for light.
Here is the best that the sea affords for the
oor or the rich;for daily use or for the fast
days of the church.  Here also is a sure sup port at least to the inhabitants of the coast.
But in order to determine the value of this
supply we must go further and ascertain if these
various tribes of fisli, reputed to-be in such
numbers, are found under such conditious and
in such places as to constitute a permanent
and profitable Fishery.  This is the practical
question, which is still undecided.  It will not
be enough to.show that the whole coast may
be subsisted by its fish.  It should be shown,
further that the fish of this coast can be made
to subsist other places, so as to become a valuable article of commerce.  And here uncertainty begins.  The proper conditions of an
extensive Fishery are not yet understood.  It
is known that certain Fisheriesexist in certain
waters and on certain soundings, but the spaces
of ocean are obscure, even to the penetrating
eye of science.  Fishing banks known for ages
are still in many respects a mystery, which is
increased where the Fishery is recent or only
coastwise.  There are other banks, which fail
from local incidents.  Thus very lately a Cod
Fishery was commenced on Rochdale bank,
sixty-five miles northwest of the Hebrides;
but the deep rolling of the Atlantic and the
intolerable weather compelled its abandonment.
Before proceeding to consider the capacity
of this region for an extensive Fishery it i I
important to know such evidence as exists with
regard to the supply, and here again we must
resort to the early navigators and visitors.
Their evidence, reenforced by modern reports,
is an essential element, even if it does notentirely determine the question.
,Down to the arrival of Europeans on this
coast the natives lived on fish.  This had
been their constant food, with small additions
from the wild vegetation of the country.  -In
summer it was fish freshly caught; in winter
it was fish dried or preserved.  At the first
landing on'the, discovery Steller found in the
deserted cellar which he visited "store of red
salmon," and the sailors broughtaway "smoked
fishes that appeared like carp and tasted very
well."  Thlis is the earliest notice of fish on
this coast, which are thus directly associated
with its discovery.  The next of interest which
appears is the account of a Russian navigator
in 1765, who reports on the Fox islands, and
especially Ounalaska, " Cod, perch, pilchards,
smelts."  Thus early Cod appears.
If we.repair to Cook's Voyages we shall find
the accustomed instruction, and here I shall
quote with all possible brevity.  At Nootka..
X 
sound he reports fish "more plentiful than
birds," of  whichsthe principal sorts in great
numbers were "the common He,'ring, but
scarcely exceeding seven inches in length, an d
a smaller sort, the same with the ari    o  anch ovy or sardine," and tiow and then "asma!lbrowni-sh Cod,
spotted with white. " Then again, he reports
at the same place *' Herrings and sardines and
small Cod," the former II not only eaten fresh,
but likewise'dried and smoked."   In Prince
William sound he reports that " the only fish,
got were some torsk and Halibut, chiefly brought
bi the natives to sell." Near Kodiak he reports that " having three hours calm his peo.
ple caught u'pward of a hundred Halibuts, some
of which weighed a hundred pounds, atnd4 none
1s than twenty pounds," and he adds, nata:
rally enough,'". very seasonableerereslhment."
In Bristol bay, on the northern side of Ala.ska,
he reports'tolerable success in fishing, catch7ing Cod, and now and then a few flat-fish."'
In Norton sound, still further north, he re-,
ports that in exchange for four knives madq
from an old iron hoop he obtained of the natilves I:npar four hundred pounds weight of fish
caught.on this or the preceding day; some trout,
an.d the rest in sioe and taste between the mul-.
let and a tIerring."  On his return southward!
stopping at Ounalaska, he reports  "plenty of
fish, at first mostly Salmon, both jfeesl[ and
dried; some of the salmon in high perfection;
also salmon, trout, and once a Ifalibut thl
weighed two hundred and,ffty-four pourS;"
and in describing the habits of fhe islander
he reports that " they dry large quantities of
fish in summer, which they lay up in small
huts for winter's use." Such is the testimony
of Captain Cook.
No experience on the coast is more instructive than that of Portlock, and from his report
I compile a succinct diary.  July 20, 1786, at
Graham's harbor, Cook's inlet:''Trhe Russian chief brought me as-a present a quantity of fine Salnwton, sufficient to serve both
ships for one day."   July 21: "In several
hauls caught about thirty Salman and- a few
flat-fish;" also further, " The Russian settled
ment had on one side a small lake of fresh
water, on which plenty of fine Salmon were
caught." July 22: "The boat returned deeply
loaded with fine Salmon." July 28, latitude.
60~ 09t: cc "Two small canoes came of; they had
nothing to barter but a few dried Salmon.",
July 30: "Plenty of excellent fresh  Salmo7
obtained for beads and buttons."  August 3:
"Plenty of fine Salmon." August 9, at Cook's
inlet: "The greatest abundance of fine Salmon. " August 13: "Hereabouts would  be
most desirable situation for carrying on a
Whale  Fishery, the whales being on the coast
and close in shore in vast numbers, and there
being convenient and excellent harbors quite
handy for the business."  After these: [nt ~
the English navigator lefCt the coast for toe
Sandwich islands.
Returning during the next year, Portlook
continued to record his observations, which I 
43
abstract in brief.  May 21, 1787, Port Etches,
latitude 600 21': "The harbor affords yery fine
crabs and muscles." June 4: "A few Indians
came alongside, bringing some Halibut and
Cod." Ju,,ie 20: "Plenty of flounders, crabs
also plent       y         and fine.  Several fishing alog side for flounders caught Cod and         therib-.
J]ulie, 22: " Sent the canoe oult soine distance
in the ])ay, and it soon returned With a fine
load              of Cod and Halibut.  This  induced me   to
senl  d   her out frequently with a       fishing  p arty,
an d        they caught considerably more  t han  wKas
sufficient  for daily consumption."  June 30:
"In hauling the seine caught a large quantity
of Lterri7z,gs and some Sal-mo; the Herrings,
though small, were very good, ard two hog, heads of them, were salted for sea.store.." Jully
7: " We daily caught large quantities of Sal
mows, but, the unsettled state of the weather not
permitting us to cure them on board, sent the
oatswain with a party on shore to build a-house
to smoke them in." July 11: "The seine was
frequently hauled, and not less than two thousand Salmon catghtat each haul. 1he weather,
however, preventing us from curing them as
well as could have been wished, we kept only
a sufficient quantity for present use and let the
rest escape.  The Salmon were now in such
numbers along the shores that any quantity
whatever might be caught with the greatest
ease." All this testimony of the English
navigator is singularly explicit, while it is in
complete harmony with that of the Russian
visitors and of Cook, who preceded.
The report of M eares is similar, although
less minute. Speaking of the natives generally
he says "they live piutirely upon fish, but of
all others they prefer the Whale." Then again,
going into more detail, he says "'vast quantities of fish are to be found, both on the coast,
and in the sounds or harbors. Among these are
the Halibut, Herring, sardine, silver-beam, salmon, trouit, Cod, alrlof which we have seen in
the possession of the natives, or have been
caught by ourselves."  The Herrings he describes as taken in such numbers t that a whole
village has not been able to cleanse them."
At N-ootka the Salmon was of a very delicate
flavor, and "the Cod taken by the natives of the
best quality."  French testimony is not wanting, although it is less precise. The early
navigator, who was on the coast in 1779, remarks that " the fish most abundant is the Salmon." La P(rouse, who was there in 1787,
mentions a large fish weighing sometimes more
than a hundred pounds, and several other fish,
but he preferred "the Salmon and Trout, which
the Indians sold in larger numbers than could
be consumed." A similar report was made by
Marchand, the other French navigator, who
finds the sea and rivers abounding in " excellent fish, " particularly Salmon and Trout.
Afterwards came the Russian navigator Billinlgs in 1792- and here eve have a similar
report, only different in form. Describing the
natives of O)unalaskea the book in which this
visit is recorded says " they dry Salmnon, Cod,
aZttalibut for a winter suppxly. " At Kodiak
it says' -Whales are in amazing numbers about
the straits of the islands and in the vicinity of
Kodiak." Then ag,ain the reporter, who was
the naturalist Sauer, says " I observed the same
species of Salmon here as at Okhotsk, and saw
'crabs."  Tlhen again,'the Halibuts in these
seas are extremely large, some weighing seven teen poods, or six hundred and tvelve pounds
avoirdupois.  The liver of this fish, as also of
Cod, the natives deem unhealthy and never eat,
but extract the oil from them."  Then again,
returning to Ounalaska, the reporter says "the
other fish are Halibut, Cad, two or three spa cies of Salmom, and sometimes one very com mon ia:.Kamtschatlka betwqen four and five
feet long. -                              v
From Lisiansky, another Russian navigator,
who was on,the.coast in 1804, I take two pas sages.  The first relates to the fish of Sitka.
" For some time,".' he says "' we had been able
to catch no fish but the Halibut.  Those of the
species which we caught were fine, some weigh-'
ing eighteen stone, and were of an excellent
flavor.  This fish abounds here from March to
November, when it retires from the coast till
the winter is at an end."  The other passage
relates to the subsistence of the inhabitants
during the winter. "They live," he says,'" on
dyqed Salmon, train oil, and the spawn of fish,
especially that of Herrings, of which they al'ways lay in a good stock."
nangsdorf; who was there at the same time,
is more full and explicit.  Of Ounalaska he
says, "The principle food consists of fish, sea
dogs, and the flesh of whales. Among the fish
the most common and most abundant are sev eral sorts of Salmon, Cod, Herrings, and Holy butt.  The holybutts, which are the sort held
in the highest esteem, are sometimes of an
enormous size, weighing even several hundred
pounds."   Then again of  Kodiak he says,
"the most common fish' those whichfresh and
dry constitute a principal article of food, are
toHrrings, Cod, Holybutt, and several sorts of
Salmon; the latter are taken in prodiqious nums   bers by means of nets or dams.". Of Sitka he
says, "'we have several sorts of Salmon, Hol?y buitt, whitings, Cod, and Herrings." A goodly
variety. -
LUtke, also a Russian, tells us that he found
fish the standing dish at Sitka from the hum blest servant to the governor, and he mentions
S almon, Herrings, Cod, and Turbot. Of S~Imon
there are no less than four kinds, which were
eaten fresh when possible, but after June they
were sent to the fortress salted. The iHerings
appeared in February and-March.  The  Cod
and Turbot were caught in the straits during
winter.  LUtklie also reports "fresh Cod"  at
Kodiak.
I close this abstract of foreign testimony
by two English authorities often quoted.  Sir
Edward Belcher, while on this coast in 1837,
records that "fish, Halibut, and Salmon of two
kinds were abundant and moderate, of which
the crews purchased and cured great quantities."  Sir George Simpson, who was at Sitka
.  in 1841, says "HHalibut, Cod, Herriags, oa 
44
known than the others.  It is common  in the
Fisheries of Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.
In our country its reputation is local.  Even
at the seaport of Norfolk, in Virginia, it does
not appear to have been known before 1843;
when its arrival was announced as that of a
distinguished stranger: " Our market yester day morning was enriched with a delicacy
from  the northern waters, the  Halibut-a
strange fish in these parts, known  only to epi cures and naturalists."   The larger fish are
sometimes coarse and far from delicate, but
they furnish  a substantial meal, while  thesmaller Halibut is much lilted.
The Cod is perhaps the most generally dif fused and abundant of all, for it swims-IrI all
the waters of this coast from the Frozen ocean
to the southern limit, and in some places it is
in immense numbers. It is a popular fish,
and whe n  cured or salted is   a n excellent    food
in all parts of the world. Palatable, digesti ble, and nutritious, the Cod, as compared with
other fish. is as beef  compared  with o ther
meats, s o  that its incalculable multitudes s ee m
t o  be  according to a wise   ec onomy    of nature.
A female Cod is estimated    to    co ntain 3,400,000
eggs. Talk of multiplication a hundredfold.
Hlere it is to infinity.  Imagine these million
eggs grown into fish, and then the process of
reproduction repeated, and you have numbers
which, like astronomical distances, are beyond
human conception. But here the ravenous
powers of other fish are more destructive than
any efforts of the fisherman.
Behind all these is the Wvhale, whose corporal
dimensions fitly represent the space which he
occupies in the Fisheriez of the world, hardly
diminished by p etroleum or gas. On this extended coast and in all these seas he is at home.
Here is his retreat and-play-ground. This is
especially the case with the Right Whale, or, according to whalers, the " right whale to catch,'
with his bountiful supply of oil and bone,
who is everywhere throughout this  region,
appearing at all points and swarming its waters,
At times they are very large. Kotzebue reports
them at  Ounalaska of fabulous proportions,
called by the natives Aliarmak,  and  so' long
"that people engaged at the opposite end of
the fish must halloo very loud to be able to
understand each other."   There  is another
whale known as the Bow-Head, which is so
much about Kodiak that it is sometimes called
the Kodial whale. The valuable Sperm Whale,
whose head and hunch are so productive -in
spermaceti, belongs to a milder sea, but he
sometimes strays ta the Aleutians. The Narwhal, with his two long tusks of ivory, out of
which was made the famous throne of the early
Danish kings, belongs to the Frozen (feean;
but he, too, strays into the straits below. As
no sea is now mare claubsurn, all these may be'
pursued by a ship under any flag, except directly
on the coast and within its territorial limit.
And yet it seems as if the possession of this
coast as a commercial base mnust necessarily
give to its people peculiar advantages in this
pursuit. What is now done under diffulties
ders, and many other sorts of fish are always to
be had f          or " the taking in unlimsited quantities.
Salmon h ave bee n k      now n  literally to em barrass
the movements of a           cano e. About  on e hundred
th ousand of this fish, equivalent   to fifteen hun dred barrels, are  ann ually salted for    the us e
of the establishment."   Nothing could  be
stronger as statement, an d whe n -w   e  c    onsi            der
the  char          acter of i ts author nothing could be
stronger as authority.
Cueti          o  a        l    ts amulative upon all this accumulation of
testimony is that of recent visitors.  Nobody
vi      si     ts this coast Without testifying. The fish
are so demonst    rativ e  in their abundance              that
all remark it.' Officers of the United States
Navy report the  same   fish subst antially which
Cook  reported as far n       ort h        as the Frozen-ocean.
Scientific    expl    orers, prom           pted by   the Smith sonian Institution, report Cod in Behring straits,
on           the limits of the Arctic Circle.  One of
these reports, that whil                       e anchored near Ounimak in 1865 the  ship,       with a couple of lines,
caught  "a  great many fine Cod, most                   of them
between two and                              three feet in length."  He
s     upp oses  that there is no  place                   on the coast
where   they are  n    ot  num erou s.  A         citizen of
Massachusetts, who has recently returned from
a  prolonged    residence   on this      co     ast, Writes
me from Boston, under date of March 8, 1867,
th         at "the Whale and Cod fis          heries of     the north
Pacific are destin      e    d to form a very important
element in the wealth                         of California and Washington Territory, and                    that    a         lready numbers  of
f    is hermen are engaged  there and more are intending to leave." From   a ll th     is t   estimony
t    here can b e  b ut one conclusion with regard at
least   to certain kind                         s offish. 
Salmon   exist in u  nequaled numbers,                   so that 
this         fish, so  aristocratic elsewhere, becomes
comm     on  enough.  N o t  merely             the prize of epicur es, i                                   dot tist  the food of all. Notmerely thepastime  of gentl e  natu    res,  like Isaac Walton or
Hu mphr ey Davy, who emwpoy-in its        pursuit an
elegant leisure, its capture is the daily reward
of the humble st. On  Vancouver's    isla   n        d it   is
the constant ration given out by the.Hudson
Bay Co mpany  to the men in their service.  At
Sitka ships ar      e         supplied  with it  gratu itously
by the natives. By the side of the incalculable
multitudes swarming out of the Arctic waters,.
haunting this extended coast, and peopling its
rivers, so that at a single haul Portlock took not
less than two thousand, how small an allowance
are the two hundred thousand which the Salmon Fisheries of England annually supply.
Herring seem to be not less multitudinous
than the Salmon. Their name, derived from
the German beery signifying an army, is amply
verified. As on the coast of Norway they move
in such hosts at times that a boat makees its way
with difficulty through the compact'mass. I do
not speak at a venture; for I have received this
incident from a scientific gentleman who witnessed it on the coast. This fish, less aristocratic than the Salmon, is a universal food;.but
here it would seem to be enough for all.
The H~alibut, which is so often mentioned
for its size and abundancei is less generally. 
45
will be done then with facilities, such at least
as neighborhood supplied to the natives even
with their smalt craft.
~Ip our country the Whale Fishery has b.een
a great and prosperous commerce, counted by
millions. It has yielded very considerable
gains, and sometimes large fortunes.  The town
of New Bedford, one of the most beautiful in
the world, has been enriched by this Fishery,
and yet you cannot fail to remark the impediments which the business has been compelled
to overcome.  The ship has been fitted on the
Atlantic coast for a voyage of two or three
years, and all the crew have entered into a
partnership with regard to the oil. Traversing
two oceans, separated by a stormy cape, it
reaches its distant destination at last in these
northern seas, and commences its tardy work,
interrupted by occasional rest and opportunity
to refit at the Sandwich islands.  This now
will be changed, as the ship sallies forth from
frien4ly harbors near the game which is its
mighty chase.
From the Whale Fishery I turn to another
branch of inquiry.  Undoubtedly there are
infinite numbers of fish on this coast; but in
order to determine whether they can constitute
a permanent and profitable Fishery there are at
least three different considerations which must
not be disregarded. (1.) The existence of banks
or soundings.  (2.) Proper climatic conditions
for catching and curing the fish. (3.) A market.
(1.) The necessity of banks or soundings is
according to reason.  Fish are not caught in
the deep ocean.  It is their nature to seek the
bottom,-where they are found in some way by
the fisherman, armed with trawl, seine, or
hook. As among the ancient Romans private
luxury provided tanks and ponds for the pr                      etervation of fish, so nature provides banks, which
are only immense fish-preserves.  Soundings
attest their existence in a margin along the
coast; but it becomes important to know if
they actually exist to much extent away from
the coast. On this point our information is
already considerable, if not decisive.
The sea and straits of Behring as far as the
Frozen ocean have been surveyed by a Naval
Expedition of the United States under Comnmnder JQhn Rogers.  From one of his charts
now before me it appears that, beginning at
the Frozen ocean and descending through Behring straits and Behring sea, embracing Kotzebue sound, Norton bay, and Bristol bay, to the,
peninsula of Alaska, a distance of more than
twelve degrees, there are constant uninterrupted soundings from twenty-to fifty fathoms,
thus presenting an immense extent proper in
this respect for fishery.  The famous Dogger
bank, between England and Holland, teeming
with Cod and constituting an inexhaustible
thing ground, has ninety fathoms of water.
South of Alaska another chart shows soundings along the coast, with a considerable extent
of bank in the neighborhood of the Shumagins
and Kodiak, being precisely where all the evidence shows the existence of Cod.  These
sbk,'north and south of Alaska, taken to
gether, according to the indications of'the
two charts, have an extent unsurpassed by any
other in the world.
There is another illustration full of instruction.  It is a map of the world, in the new
.work of Murray on Mammals, "showing ap proximately the one hundred fathom: line of
soundings," prepared from information fur nished by the Hydrographic Department of
the British Admiralty. Here are all the soundings of the world.  At a glance you discern
the remarkable line on the Pacific coast, be ginning at 40~ of latitude and widening constantly in a northwesterly direction; then with
a gentle concave to the coast. stretching from
Sitka to the Aleutians, which it envelopes with
a wide margin; and then e mbracing  an d covn
ering Behring straits to the Frozen ocean; the
whole  space, a s  indicat ed  on   the map, seeming like an immense   un bro ken sea meadow
adjoining the land, and constituting plainly
the largest extent of  soundings  in le ngth  and
breadth known in the    worl d, larger even th an
those of Newfou ndland added to those of
Great Britain.  This map, which  has been
prepared by a scientific authority, simply in
the  interest of  science, is an unimpeachable
and disinterested witness.
Actual experience is better authority still.
I learn that the people of California have already found  Cod ban ks in these seas, and  not
deterred by distance  have begun to gather    a
harvest.  In 1866 no less'than seventeen vessels left San Francisco for Cod Fishery on the
Asiatic coast. This was a long voyage, requiring eighty days in going and returning.
On the way better grounds were discovered
among the Aleutians, with a better fish; and
then again, other fishing grounds, better in
every way, were discovered south of Alaska,
in the neighborhood of the Shumagins, with
an excellent harbor at hand. Here one vessel began its work on the 14th May, and notwithstanding stormy weather finished it on
.the 24th July, having taken fifty-two thousand
fish. The largest catch in a single day was
twenty-three hundred.. The a,verage weight
of the fish dried was three pounds. Old fishermen compared the fish in taking and quality
with that of Newfoundland. Large profits are
anticipated. While fish from the Atlantic side
bring at San Francisco not less than twelve
cents a pound it is supposed that Shumagin
fish at only eight cents a pound will yield a
better return than the coasting trade.  It remains to be seen if these flattering reports are
confirmed by further experience. ~
From an opposite quarter is other confirmation. Here is a letter, which I have just
received from Charles Bryant, Esq., at present
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature,
but' for eighteen years acquainted with these
seas, where he was engaged in the Whale Fishery. After mentioning the timber at certain
places as a reason for the acquisition of these
possessions, he says:
"But the chiefeat value, and this alone is worth
more than the pittance asked for it,.. nasta ill il
.0 
Kodiak.  It had for a long time been customary
on this island to dry seal flesh in the air, which
could not be done on the main rand. Thus the
opportunity of curing the fish seems to exist
near the very banks where they are taken. But
the California fishermen carry their fish home
to be cured,. in which'they imitate the fisher men of Gloucester. As the yearly fishing prodpCet of this port is larger than that of any other
in North America, perhaps in the world, this
example cannot be without weight.
(3.) The market also is of prime necessity.
Fish are not caught and cured except for a
market.  Besides the extended coast, where an
immediate demand must always prevail in proportion to an ine  sing population, e re is,  there is an
existing market in Cali-tbrnia, which is attested
byl,ong voyages to Kamtschatka for fish and
by recent attempts  to find fishing grounds.
San Francisco at one time took from Oklhotsk
nine hundred tons of fish, being about one eighth
of the yearly fishingproduct of Gloucester.  Her
fishing vessels lastyear brought home from the
-Shumagin banl~ s fifteenh bund.ed tons of dried
fish and ten thousand gallons of cod liver oil.'
There is also a growing market in WashingtOn
fand Oregon; too, unless I am  misinformed.
But beyond the'doiestic market, spreading
from the coast into the interior, there wil'be
a foreign market of no limited amount. [ex:
ico, Central America, and the States of South
America, all Catholic in religion, will require
this subsistence, and being southern in climate
they must look northward for a supply.  Tih
two best customers of our Atlantic fisheries are
Hayti and Cuba, two Catholic countries under
a southern sun.  The fishermen of Massachu.
setts began at an early day to send their Cod to
Portugal, Spain, and Italy, all Catholic countries undera southern sun.  Our "salt" fish
became popular.  The Portugese minister at
London in 1784, in a conference with Mr.
Adams on a commercial treaty with the United
States, mentioned "salt fish" among the ob jectsemost needed in his country, and added,
"the consumption of this article in Portugal is
immense, and he would avow, that the American salt fish was preferred to any other on
account of its quality."  (John Adamns's Writings, vol. 8, p. 339.)  Such — facts are more thin
curious.
But more important than the Pacific States
of the American continent are the great empires
of Japan and China, with uncounted populations
depending much on fish.  In China-one tentk
subsist on fish. Notwithstanding the consider.
able supplies at homne,.it does not seem imnpossible for an energetic and commercial people
to find a market here of inconceivable muagnitude, which will dwarf thhat original -fur trade
with China that was once so tempting.
From this survey you can all judge this qUeg'
tion of the Fisheries, which I only state.w'thout assuming to determine. You can judge.if
well-stocked fishing banks have been found
under such conditions of climate and mart
as to supply a new axed important Fishery.
Already the Poople -of Califon1 hate al
extensive C(od and Halibut fish grounds. TO the eastward of Kodiak or Aleutian islands -are extensive
banks or shoals nearly.if not quite equal in extent
to those of Newfoundland, and as well stocked with
fish. Also west of the Aleutian islands, which extend
from Alaskasouthwest half way-to -Kamtschiktka and
inclosing that part of land laid down as Bristol bay,
and west of it, is an extensive area of sea varying
from forty fathoms in depth to twenty, where I have
found the supply of codfish and halibut unfailing.
These islands furnish good harbors for curing aVd
preparing fish, as well as shelter in storm."
In another letter Mr. Bryant says that the
shoals east of the entrance to Cook's inlet
widen as they extend southward to latitude
50~; and that there are also large shoals south
of Prince William sound, and again off Crods
sound and Sitka.  The  retired  ship-master
adds that he never examined these shoals to
ascertain their exact limits, but only incidentally, in the course of his regular business, that
'he might know when and where to obtain fish
if he wished them.  His report goes beyond
any charts of soundings which I have seen,
although the charts are coincident with it as
far as they go.  Cook particularly notices soundings in Bristol bay and in various places along
the coast.   Other navigators have done the
same.  Careful surveys have accomplished              so
much that at this time the bottom of Behring
sea and of Behring straits as far as the Frozen
ocean, constituting one immense bank, is completely known in its depth and character.
A     dd t o     a l l this  the official report          of Mr, Giddings, acting surveyor of  W  ashington Territory,
made to the Secretary of the Interi         or in 1866,
where      he        says:
"A long the coast, b     etween Cape Flattery          and Sitka,
in the Russian possessions, both Pod and tIalibut are
very plenty,  ind of a   much larger size than th   ose
taken at thecape or furt        her up        t        he straits aADd sound.
No one who nows these facts doubts that if vessels
similar to those used by the bank fishermen    from
Massac     h usetts and Maine were            fi     tted out  here and
wer e  to   fish on t  he variaou  bank * along   this coast it
would even now be a most lucrative business. The
Cod and Halibut   on th is coast, up  near Sitka, are
fully equal to         the largest  taken          in the eastern waters."
From all this evidence, including maps and
personal experience, it is easy to see that the
first condition of  a consider able Fish ery is not
wanting.* 
(2.) Proper climatic conditions mst'  exist
also. The proverbial hardihood of fishermen
has its limits.  Elsewhere weather and storm
have compelled the abandonment of banks
which promised to be profitable. On a portion of this coast there can be no such' rigors.
South of Alaska and the Aleutians, and also
in. Bristol bay, immediately to the north of
-Alaska, the fishing grounds will compare in
temperature with those of Newfoundland or
N,orway. It is more important to know if the
fish when taken can be properly cured. This
is one of the privileges 6f northern skies.
Within the tropics fish may he taken in abundance, but the constant sun does not allow
their preservation. Thre constant rains -of Sitka,
withy only a few bright days in the year, must
prevent the work of-curing on any considerable
scale. But the navigators make frequent'mention of dry or preserved fish Qn the coast;, anld
iS i understod that'figh wre ~nowr cured ax,
46 
'47
pated the answer, and their enterprise has'
arrested attention in Europe.  The Journal of
Peterman,'The Geographische Mittheilunzgen,
for the present year, which is the authentic
German record of geographical science, borrows from a San Francisco paper to announce
these successful voyages as the beginning of a
new commerce.  If this be so, as there is reason
to believe, these coasts and seas will have a new
value.  The future only can disclose the form
they may take.  They may be a Newfoundland,
a Norway, a Scotland, or perhaps a New England, with another Gloucester and another
New Bedford. 
should be  preserved unim paired.  While  this
proposition was  under discussion   Elbridge
Ger ry, who  had  grown   up among the fishermen of Massachusetts, rep elled thee at ta cks
upon  their pursuit  in words which  are not  out
or place here.  "It is not so mu ch f ishineg.w'
he  said, "ias  enterprise, industry,  einployment.  It is not so much fish; it is gold, t he
produe of that avocation.  It is the  etm ployment of those  who would otherwise be idle,
the food o f those  who would other wise b e
hungry, the   weal th of  those  who would other wise be poor." After debfite it was resolved
by Congres s that "the   common right of taking
fish        should in no case be given up."  For this
principle  the eldest  Adams  conte nded wit h
abilit y  and  constancy until it was fixed in
the   treaty,  where  it  stands   side by side  with
the  acknowledgme nt           of Independence
In the    dis cussion s  which  ended thus  tri-'
umphantly the  ar gument for the Fisheries wais
stated most co mpactly  by   Ralph   Izard, o f
So uth C      arolina, in a letter to  Joh,n Adamsi
dated  at Paris, 24th Semtee mber, 1778; and
what lihe said then may be  repe ated now:
" Since the advantages   of commerehave been  awrell
unders tood, the fisheries h ave  been.looked u po n by
the  naval Powers of  Europe as an obieet of the  gre at -
est importance. The French have been increasing
thei r     fishery ever since    the t reaty  of Utrecht, which
has enabled them to rival Great Britain at sea. The
fisheries  of Holland were not only the  firs t rise  of.the
Republic, but have been the constant support of all
her commerce  and navigation. This branch of  trads
is of  such concern to the  Dutch th at in the ir public
prayers they are said to request the Supreme  Being
that it would please Him to bless the  Government,
the lords, the  States,  and  also the fisheries. The fishery of Newfoundland appears to  me to be a mi ne
of infinitely greater value than Mexico and Peru.
It enriches  the  proprietors; is worked  at less expense, and isthe soure mlof naval strength  and p ro -
tection."-John Adams's Woaxk,s, vol. 7, p. 45.
I have gr   ouped t hese   allusions that    yo u m ay
see how the Fisheries of that  day, t hough  coinmparatively small,  enlisted the energie s  of our
fathers.  Tradition confirms this  record.  The
sculptured image of a Cod  hanging from the
eeing  in the hall of the  Massachusetts House
of Representatives, where it was  plated during the last  century, constantly  recalls this
industrial and commercia l staple with  the great
part which it performed. And  now it is my
uty to remind you that the se  Fisheries, guarded
so watchfully and vindicated  with  such eonquering zeal, had  a v alue  prospective  rather
than  present, or  a l t  least sma ll compared  with
w hat it is now.  Exact figures,  covering tthe
ten years between   1765 and  177d a e i show'uat
during this perile Mas  sachusetts  emploed
annually in the Fisheries 665 vessels amounting
to 25,620 tons, and only 4,405 men. In contrast
with this interest, which seems so.small, although at the time-considerable, are the present
Fisheries of our  country; and here agsan'e
have exact figures. The noumber of vessels i-e
the Codl Fishery Balne:ion 1861,.~us before -tor
blight of the war reached t'his business, Uas
2,753 amoutingto 137,665 Sons, and wi~t~ 19,27
men, being more than'four times as many vessels'
and men, and more than five times as much
tonnage, as for ten years preceding Mhe Revo
Influen~ce of Fisheries.
An eminent French writer, an enthusiast on
fishes, Lacep(de, has depicted the influence of
Fisheries, which he illustrates by the herring,
calling it " one of those natural products whose
use has decided-the destiny of nations." Without adopting these strong words it is easy to see
that such Fisheries as seem about to be opened
on the Pacific must exercise a wonderful influence over the population there, while they give
a       new spring    to commerce  and     enlarge the na -
tional resources. In these aspect8 it -is impossible to exaggerate. Fishermen  are not as
other men. They have a character of their
own, taking its complexion from their life.
In ancient Rome they had a peculiar holiday
with games, known as Piscatoirii Ludi. The
first among us in this pursuit were  the Pilgrims, who even before they left Leyden looked
to fishing for a support in their new home,
on which King James remarked: "So God
have my soul,'tis an honest trade;'twas the
apostles' own calling." As soon as they
reached.Plymouth thev began to fish, and no~
long afterwards-appropriated the profits of the
Fisheries at Cape Cod to found a free school.
From.this Puritan origin are derived those
Fisheries which for a while were our chief
commerce, and still continue an important
element of national wealth. The Cod Fisheries
of the United States are now valued at more
than two million dollars annually.  Even they
ore inferior to the French Fisheries, whose
annual product is more than three million dollars; and these again are small by the side of the
British Fisheries, whose annual product is not
far from twenty-five million dollars. Such an
interest must be felt far and near, commercially and financially, while it contributes to
the comfort of all. How soon it may prevail
on the Paeific who can say?  But this Treaty
is the beginning..
Of course it is difficult  to estimate what is
so uncertain, or at least is prospective only.
Our own Fisheries, now so considerable, were
small in the beginning; they were small even
when they inspired the eloquence of Burke in
that most splendid page -neve-r equaled even
by himself.  But the Continental Congress, in
its original instructions to its commissioners
for the negotiation of peace with Great BRritain, required as a fundamental condition,
next to Independence, that these Fisheries
i , 
lution wasemployed annually byMassachusetts,
representing at tht time the fishing interesteof
the country."      -                   - 
Small beginnings, therefore, are no discouragement' to me, and I turn with confdence. to
the future.  Already the local Fisheries on                tns
coast have developed among the: generations
of natives a singular gift in building and man:
aging their small craft so as to. excite the -frequent admiration of  voyagers.  The larger
fisheries there will'naturally exer-cise a corresponding influence on the population destined
to build and manage the larger craft.  The
beautiful baidar will give way to the fishingsmack, the clipper, and  the  steamer.  All
things will be changed in form and proportion; but the original aptitude for the sea will
remain.  A practical race of intrepid naviga —tors will swarm the coast, ready form  eat':rise of business or patr{ts.    Commerce
Will find new arms; the country new defenders;'the national flag new hands to bear it
aloft.
any-name borrowed from' classical history or
from individual invention will be little better
than a misnomer or-a' niekn'aAe unworthy of
-such an occasion.   Even if taken from  our
own history it will be of doubtful taste.  -The
name should come   from the country itself.'Itshould be  indigenous, aboriginal,  one of the
autochthons of  th       e  soil.   appily such  a
name exists, which  is   a proper in sound as in
origin.  It appears from the report  of Cotk,
the illustrious  navigator, to whom  I have  so
ofte n referred,  that    the euphonious name  now
applpied to he'pen insula which is  the   csa   s onti-,o
nental link of  the Aleutian  chain -Wms th e  sole
wo rd    used  originally by the native islanders
when speaking of the American  c o n tinen t i n
general, whi ch they  knew peret e   wieteda'
$etat *a, at only remain s   thamiat,       e f
tobjci ofpru:tca11 tlastly' grAt tlod' s that i'6
Another    change must be made with o ut  delay.
As the se ttlem ents  o f thisucoast came vEwtwairvdl
from. Russia  bringing with the  R Aussi an flag
Westtntime, the da y tisilier byweientyfur'
hours with them than  wits,  th Us, fe  th at their Suai'
day is our Sa turday,  and the other  day s of the
weekare  in correspondingdiscord. This must
be rectified according  t0 the national meridian,s
so that ther Ow   be shit He b e    e  Sunday for  ofl
arid the other days of-the,w'eek shad ein-e,
responding harmony. Imsletant Changes F iuet
follow, of which thes is typi,ady Aywll must
be rectified according to the national mendian
so that within the sphere of our common  cam
try there shall be everywhere the same genenous
rule and one prevailing harmony. Of course,
the unreformed Julian calendar, - e'eived from 
Russiaa, w ill give plce t o ours; Oald Style yield
. ing to New Style. 
.xn'-object of immediate  practical interest
will be the survey of the extended and indented
coast by our own officers, bringing it all within
the domain of science and asuring'to navigation much-needed amsistance while the Republic is honored by a continuation of national
charts, where execution vies with science, Iad
the art of engraving is-the beautiful Har-,
maid. Associated with this survey, and sc-arcely
i-a~erior in value; will: be the,examinat'ionf'f.
the country by scientific explorers,< so triat 
geological structure may become known with
its various products, vegetable and mineral,.
But-your best work and most important endow ment will be the, Republican Governments'
which, looking to a lpng future, you will organe ize, with- schools free to all and with equal
laws, before which every citizen will stand erect
in the consciousness of manhood.   Here Will
be a motive power, without which Coal itself'
will be insufficient.  Here will be a source of
wealth more inexhaustible than any Fisheries
Bestow such a government, and you will besto
what is better than all you can receive, whether
quintals of fish, sands of gold, choicest far:, or:
m~st beautiful ivory..X
SUMMNkRT.
Mr. President, I             now conclude  this examination. From a rev      iew of the  origin of th e T reaty,
and th      e  gener al considerations gwith regard to
it we have passed to an exami nation of these
possessi     ons under different - heads,  in  order                                     to
arrive at         a          knowledge    of their  character and
value;       and h ere we have    noticed  t he existing
G     ov  e       rnment, which was found to be nothing but
a fur company, whose only object is trade;
then the Population,                   where a very few Russians
and Creoles are a scanty fringe to the aboriginal races;           then      the Climate, a  ruling i    nfluence,
wit         h          its  thermal           c urrent of ocean anstia eceentric is o      therm  al line, by which the rigors of that
coast are tempered to a mildness unknown in
the same latitude on the Atlantic side; then,
the Vegetable Products, so far as known, chief
among which are forests of pineand fir waiting
for the ax; then the Mineral Products, among
which are coal and topper, if not iron, silver,
lead, and gold, besides the two great products
of New England, "granite and ice;" then the
Furs including precious skins of Bthe  DI  Fs.
and Sea Otter, which originally tempted the
settlement, and have remained to this-day the
exclusive object of pursuit; and lastly, the
Fisheries, which, in waters superabundant with
animal life beyond any of the globe, seem to
promise a new commerce to the country.  All
these I have presented plainly and impartially
exhibiting my authorities as I proceeded.  I
have done little more than held the scales. If
these have inclined on either side'it is because
reason or testimony on that side was the weightier.
W B,ET   RMAINS TO BE DONN.
As these extensive possessions, constituting a
comer-of the continent, pass from the imperial
Governmentotf Russiathey will naturally receive
X new name. They will be no longer Russian
America..How-shall they be called? Clearly
Akii
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