Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/189

 floated over the harbour, Sitka has greatly improved in every way; in a few years perhaps, this improvement will extend to the health of the inhabitants. The settlers may find it profitable to drain the marshes which now surround the place, or, at all events to clear them of decayed vegetable matter.

Of the many Indian tribes that occupy territory adjacent to the Yukon river, the most important are the Ingelets and Co-Yukons. Speaking different dialects of the same language, they resemble each other in many of their customs and ways of life. The Ingelets are rather above the average height of Europeans, and are strong and robust. They are quick and intelligent, too: willing to be taught, and very apt pupils. Their remarkable honesty has been proved, in many severe trials, to be far beyond that of most civilised nations. Love of strong drink is the besetting sin of the race, and for the introduction of this fatal habit they may thank their communication with Europeans.

As the tribes approach nearer to the coast, they seem to retain less of their native wildness and barbarity. The Co-Yukons, who are much further inland than the Ingelets, are also much further from civilisation. Their countenances show wildness and ferocity, and their lives and habits speak the predominance of the savage. Both tribes possess a passionate fondness for music and whisky. They live in houses underground, with close subterranean entrances. In many of the contrivances of everyday life they display remarkable ingenuity. This quality is particularly shown in their mode of "walling" deer: resembling, in some manner, the Hindoo mode of catching wild elephants.

Few, except the party opponents of Mr. Seward, will now assert that Alaska is likely to prove a bad bargain to the United States. No one can doubt that the change has been a most beneficial one to the country itself. While it is a valuable territory to the United States, the probability is that it would never have been so to Russia. Frequent revolts of the Indians, incited no doubt by oppression on the part of the officials, had made the colony a very great trouble and a very small advantage to the Russian government. The persistent efforts made by some Russian merchants to carry on the trade in furs, shows that it was a trade of very considerable value. In spite of all hindrances, they persevered. The loss of life and property, from shipwreck and the predatory attacks of the Indians, did not daunt the Russian traders. They endeavoured to cope with all these disadvantages, and with the greater evils which resulted from the indolence and carelessness of their own servants. Many of these were convicts who had had the alternative of imprisonment or service, and had chosen the latter. Under no such disadvantages will the United States hold Alaska. The whalers who traded with of the ports, exposed to the jealousy of the Russians, will now be free to push their trade as briskly as they wish; or they will be superseded by others who will make it their principal business. Communication with the various American ports, and with the ports of British Columbia, will develop her resources far beyond the most sanguine dreams of Mr. Seward's supporters. The forests will soon become very valuable, and there is reason to suppose that the mineral wealth of the country is equal to that of British Columbia. Some gold has been discovered on the Yukon, but not in sufficient quantity to entice speculators. The wealth of the country in furs—the present staple article of export—is not equal to its wealth in fisheries. The extensive cod-banks off the Aleutian islands are of the most valuable description; while salmon, the coveted delicacy of this country, is there found in such quantities, and with so little labour, that it possesses scarcely any value. In these days of quick transport, when it is found profitable to import commodities from the most distant countries, if there they can be produced or procured with the least expenditure of labour and capital—when California sends us corn, and Calcutta hay—who can doubt that the rich fisheries of these rivers will become a valuable source of supply for the British market?

Those who regard the acquisition of Alaska by the United States, as merely a step towards the possession of the whole continent, can scarcely regret the transfer. Notwithstanding the present unsettled condition of the great republic, and the antipathy to Brother Jonathan's ways that has long existed in the minds of the Canadians, few will doubt that the independent states of America must sooner or later be united under one government. The tide of empire rolls westward. Considering the vast strides in wealth, population, and education, which during the last twenty years have been made on the other side of the Atlantic, the empire of America may one day be the ruling power among the nations of the earth, when perhaps the present empires of the old world shall have shared the fate of Athens and Rome.

Mr. Whymper's Travels in Alaska and on the Yukon, a very interesting book, is the source whence most of the preceding information has been derived.

milestones on the road,
 * The road on which we travel,

Sometimes through the bog and mire,
 * Sometimes on the gravel.

Sometimes o'er the velvet grass,
 * Or through the forest alleys,

Sometimes o'er the mountain tops,
 * Or through the pleasant valleys.

Sometimes through the garden walks,
 * Light of heart and cheery,

Sometimes o'er the jagged stones
 * With bleeding feet and weary.

Half my milestones lie behind,
 * More than half I reckon,

And I can see a Thing before
 * That seems to nod and beckon.