Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/287

 ALA-TAU — ALBACETE Agriculture is hardly practised, though a few vegetables are raised. The raising of sheep and reindeer is believed to be practicable on the less mountainous islands. The chief settlements are on Unalashka Island, where Dutch Harbour is the principal port for Bering Sea commerce; Atka, on the island of the same name; and the small settlement of Attu, at the western extreme of the chain. The Yukon district, which may be taken as the vast region north-westward from the Alaskan mountains, has a colder and drier climate than those above mentioned, passing northward into Arctic conditions. The immediate shores are treeless, but the interior is fairly well wooded with spruce, poplar, and birch along the water-courses. The inhabitants of the coasts are Eskimo, of the interior Tinneh, or Athabaskan Indians. The search for gold has brought into the valley of the Yukon and its tributaries a large population of prospectors. The residents depend for substance chiefly upon salmon and white fish, with which the rivers swarm; wild fowl, which are very abundant; and the continental mammals, chief of which is the wild caribou. Mining for placer gold is the only industry, the fur trade being now unimportant, and there are few salmon canneries. The chief port for the Yukon is St Michael, on Norton Sound, though a large mining camp, called Anvil City, has been established at Cape Nome, on the north shore of the sound. Though forming what is called a judicial and customs district, Alaska is still an unorganized territory, with a governor and some other officials appointed by the president. Since 1884 the people have vigorously worked for the extension of law and the organization of some kind of official system throughout the territory. Until recently these efforts have been but partially successful, but in 1900 a code for the administration of the territory under improved conditions became law. The total population in 1890 was 32,052, of whom 23,531 were natives, 1823 of mixed blood, and 4298 white. Of the natives 6000 were of Haida, Tsimpsyan, and Tlinkit stock; 3400 of the Tinneh tribes, 1000 Aleuts, and 13,100 Eskimo. The annual diminution of the native population (1880-90) was about 2 j>er cent., and of late the rate is believed to be much more rapid. It is estimated that the white population was in 1900 about 32,000. The products of the territory have fluctuated with the decline of certain industries and the rise of others. In 1890 they were as follows Fur seal l yearly average f value $1,744,200 Other fur/ for ten years ,, 628,400 Salmon (cases tinned, 642,175) ,, 2,568,700 ,, (salted, 18,059 barrels) ,, 162,851 Cod (salted, 760 tons). . ,, 38,000 Whale oil (12,503 barrels) . ,, 116,250 Whalebone (231,981 lb). . „ 463,962 Walrus ivory (5799 lb). . ,, 3,000 Gold ,, 4,604,500 Silver ,, 27,340 The value of gold produced by the territory in 1899 is calculated by the director of the United States Mint to be $4,610,000, and of silver $258,585. The fur seal skins taken in 1887 on the Pribiloff Islands numbered 106,000; those taken by the pelagic sealers, 20,628. In 1897 the Pribiloffs could furnish only 19,200, while the pelagic catch was 24,321. The continental fur trade is waning, and, owing to competition, less profitable than formerly. The whale fishery, now carried on only for the baleen, as there is no profit on the oil, is reduced to eight vessels. The salmon and cod fisheries are reasonably prosperous. Mining has taken a great stride in advance, especially for the precious metals, and the prospect of valuable copper mines in the Prince William Sound region is believed to be good.

243

See Whymper. Travels in Alaska and on the Yukon, 1868.— Dall. -Alaska and its Resources, 1870.—Bancroft. History of Alaska, 1886.—Shepard. Cruise of the “Rush," 18891—U.S. Senate ex. doc. 146. Report on the Boundary line between Alaska and British Columbia, 1889.—Wellcome. The Story of Metlakahtla, 1887.—Scidmore. Alaska and the Sitkan Archipelago, 1885.—U.S. Coast Survey. Meteorology and Bibliography of Alaska, 1879; Coast Pilot of Alaska, 1883. — U.S. Geological Survey (Dall)—Coal and Lignite of Alaska, 1896 ; (Becker)— Goldfields of Southern Alaska, 1898 ; Map of Alaska, ivith descriptive text, 1898.—Dall. Remains of Prehistoric Man in Alaska, 1878 ; Tribes of the Extreme North-West, 1877 ; Alaska as it was and is, 1895.—U.S. State Department (D. S. Jordan)—Fur Seals and Fur Seal Islands of the North Pacific, 1898-99. (w. H. D.) Ala-tau (Variegated Mountains) is the name of three different mountain ranges in the Russian dominions in Asia: (1) the Kuznetsk Ala-tau is on the frontiers of Tomsk and Yeniseisk (y.v.) ; (2) the Dzungarian Ala-tau is in the province of Semiryechensk {q.v.) •, and (3) the Trans-Hi Ala-tau is in Turkestan (q.v.). Alatyr, a district town of Russia, in the government and 107 miles N.W. of Simbirsk, on the Sura, a tributary of the Volga, in steamer communication with Yasilsursk on the Volga, and by rail with Kazan (153 miles). It does considerable trade in corn and has some historically important monasteries. Population (1897), 11,090. The important river port of Promzino Gorodische (4350) is in its district. A lava, a province in the north of Spain—one of the Spanish Basque Provinces, q.v.—with an area of 1200 square miles. The countship of Trevino (190 square miles), in the centre of the province, belongs to the province of Burgos. Population (1897), 94,642. There are two administrative districts and eighty-five parishes. Few provinces in Spain are inhabited by so laborious, active, and wellto-do a population. The primary schools are numerously attended, and there are very good normal schools for teachers of both sexes, and a model agricultural farm. The public roads and other works of the province are excellent, and, like those of the rest of the Basque provinces, entirely kept up by local initiative and taxes. Railways from Madrid to the French frontier, and from Castejon to Bilbao, both cross this province. The climate is mild in summer, fitful in autumn and spring, and very cold in winter, as even the plains are a high plateau surrounded on three sides by mountains always snowclad during several months. Asphaltic stone is quarried, and there are mineral waters at many places, The local industries are of some importance since 1880—foundries, manufactures of beds, furniture, railway carriages, matches, paper, sweets, woollen and cotton goods. Bread-stuffs, colonial products, machinery are largely imported. The live stock in the province includes 7552 horses, 2844 mules, 1447 donkeys, 22,716 cattle, 68,066 sheep, 14,614 goats, and 21,355 pigs. Wheat is grown on 49,955 acres; oats, barley, rye, and maize on 28,075; vines on 36,000; and olives on 1795. Only four mines are actually worked; lead, blende, and lignite are produced. Albacete, a province in the S.E. of Spain, with an area of 5971 square miles. Population (1897), 233,005. It is divided into eight districts and eighty-three parishes. The state and provincial roads are not in very good condition, and the municipal ones are worse. The climate is temperate in the mountainous parts of the Jurre Alcaraz district and in lower regions, but it is cold for months in the ranges that have peaks several thousand feet high; the rich and fertile valleys and some plains are most thickly peopled. The live stock in the province includes 1987 horses, 16,461 mules, 15,252 donkeys, 2410 cattle, 187,853 sheep, 50,687 goats, 22,113 pigs. Wheat