Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/188

 To its former owners it must have been of small advantage. An outlying colony subject to the frequent attacks of discontented Indian tribes, and therefore expensive to hold, is not a very desirable possession. It is not, then, strange that the Russian government was very glad to sell it. The enterprising American has now taken the place of the slow Russian. The careless servants of the fur company have been succeeded by settlers keenly alive to their own interests, ready to work out the natural resources of the country to the utmost, and to develop the trade that languished in the hands of their predecessors. Even now, the country presents marks of considerable improvement. Sitka, the capital, bears witness to the energy of the new inhabitants, who have settled there in such considerable numbers that the price of land has more than doubled.

Alaska lies to the north-west of British Columbia; and that part of it that is south of the Yukon river very much resembles the latter colony in soil and climate. In looking at the map, we can scarcely realise the fact that the area of Alaska is about four hundred thousand square miles, or almost equal to twice that of France. Alaska was discovered by Bering, whose researches are comparatively little known in this country. He died of scurvy in the year 1741, after an unsuccessful attempt to discover the often-sought northern passage. The island on which he was buried has since borne his celebrated name. After Bering's death, expeditions were organised by the Russian government, which did considerable service in exploring the country. Not a little light has been thrown upon the geography of the interior by some of those who were appointed to trace the route of the ill-fated Franklin.

Sympathy with the fate of the brave man who fell a victim to his own untiring enterprise, and sympathy with those who prosecuted the search for him amid toils and dangers the severity of which we can scarcely imagine, has led many persons to read the various accounts of these expeditions, who would, in all probability, but for them, have been entirely unacquainted with the far north. These volumes have hitherto been the chief source of popular information on Alaska.

The course of the Yukon was first explored by the servants of the Russian-American Fur Company. This mighty river, which has been called the Northern Mississippi, is upwards of two thousand miles in length, while its breadth varies from one to four miles. On its banks are most of the stations whence the company's servants carried on the trade with the Indians. During the summer months it is easy to navigate compared with other rivers of the same latitude. Accidents occasioned by collision with icebergs seldom occur. Large masses of ice are formed in October, but the rapidity of the current prevents the river from being completely frozen until November. In the earlier part of the winter season, these masses are forced to the surface and are then embedded in the ice. Sledge travelling, the only mode of communication during the greater part of the year, is thus rendered tedious and dangerous. The sledges, which are drawn by dogs, are of the simplest construction. Many of them are merely long planks, turned up at one end and furnished with raw hide straps to secure the luggage. The most important stations on the river are Nulato and Fort Yukon. Both forts were, under the Russian government, garrisoned and surrounded by a picket. This was rendered necessary by the attacks of the Indians, who on more than one occasion surprised the fort, butchered all who came in their way, and carried off every valuable on which they could lay their hands. In the year 1850 the Co-Yukons, a tribe of Indians whose reputation as being the most bloodthirsty and treacherous of their race, have caused them to be feared by all the company's servants, attacked Fort Nulato, and massacred all, old and young, who were within. Among the victims was Lieutenant Burnard, whose name will long be remembered in connexion with the expedition sent out under the command of Captain Collinson, to search for Sir John Franklin.

Sitka, or New Archangel, as being the only "city," deserves some passing notice. It is built upon an island, and is rather low in situation, being upon a narrow strip of land that rises from the sea. There is a small but commodious harbour, which is guarded by a battery of guns commanding the entrance. The walls are now in a most dilapidated condition, while the firing of any of the cannon would be attended, most likely, with more disastrous effects to the gunners than to the enemy. Seen from the harbour, the green spire of the Greek church, rising in the midst of the red-painted roofs of the houses by which it is surrounded, gives Sitka a gay appearance. In the distance, ranges of lofty snow-capped mountains surround the city, their sides, as they rise from the low level of the plain below, thickly studded with trees. The capital of the country was also the centre from which the operations of the Russian-American Fur Company were carried on. The lines of low stores that occupy a considerable part of the place were often filled with the most valuable furs collected from all the stations on the Yukon. Hither the servants of the company returned from their periodical visits to the marts of the various Indian tribes, and here was the house of the governor, rising up from the tall cliff that overlooks the Alaskan capital. Unfortunately for its prosperity, Sitka enjoys the unenviable reputation of being about the most rainy place in the known world, excepting, of course, the celebrated city in the west of Ireland, where an inhabitant says it rains thirteen months out of the year. What is still worse, rain only ceases, to give place to disease. Dry weather, during the short summer, invariably brings with it rheumatism and pulmonary disorders. Since the stars and stripes of the United States first