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 and the serious exploitation of her minerals is very recent. As early as 1861 gold discoveries were made on the Stikine river; repeated discoveries, culminating in the Cassiar district “boom,” were made in British Columbia from 1857 to 1874; colourings along the Yukon were reported in 1866–1867 and systematic prospecting of the upper river began about 1873. Juneau was founded in 1880; the same year the opposition of the Indians was withdrawn that had prevented the crossing of the mountain passes to the interior, and after 1880 repeated and scattered discoveries were made on the Lewes, Pelly, Stewart and other streams of the Upper Yukon country in Canada. As early as 1883–1885 there was a considerable mining excitement due to these discoveries, and a much greater one in 1887 after the discovery of coarse gold on Forty Mile Creek in American territory; but these were as nothing to the picturesque and feverish rush that followed the location of the first Klondike claim in Canadian territory in August 1896. ( .) The mines in American territory were temporarily deserted for the new diggings. Other gold districts are scattered over the whole interior of Alaska. (q.v.) was the scene of a great gold mining stampede in 1900. The quartz mines near Juneau are among the greatest stamp mills of the world ( .) The product of gold and silver (of the latter some 1.3% of the total) from 1895 to 1901 was more than $32,000,000 from Alaska proper (not including that from the Canadian Yukon fields) as against a production of $5,000,000 in 1880–1896. The gold product of the Canadian Yukon territory from 1896–1903 was about $96,000,000, as estimated by the Canadian Geological Survey. In 1905 the product of gold from Alaska was valued at $15,630,000 (mines report); and from 1880 to 1906 the production of gold, according to the estimate of A. H. Brooks, was more than $100,000,000. The gravest problem of mining in the interior country, even graver than that presented by the climate, is transportation; in 1900 the Tanana fields, for example, were provisioned from Circle City, about 125 m. distant, at the rate of a cent per ℔ mile (i.e. $2000 for moving a ton 100 m.). Even higher rates prevailed in the copper country in 1902. Various other minerals in addition to gold have been discovered, and several of them, notably copper and silver (the latter appearing with the gold deposits), may probably be profitably exploited. In 1905 the product of copper was valued at $759,634, that of silver at $80,165 (mines report). Coal, and in much larger quantities lignite, have been found in many parts of Alaska. Most important, because of their location, are deposits along the Alaska Peninsula and between Circle City and Dawson. The latter furnishes fuel to the river steamboats, and it is hoped may eventually supply the surrounding mining region. There are valuable deposits of gypsum on Chicagof Island, and marble quarries are being developed on Prince of Wales Island.

As against $7,200,000 paid for Alaska in 1867, the revenues returned to the United States in the years 1867–1903 totalled $9,555,909 (namely, rental for the Fox and Pribilof Islands, $999,200; special revenue tax on seal-skins, $7,597,351; Alaskan customs, $528,558; public lands, $28,928; other sources $401,872). It has been estimated that in the same period the United States drew from Alaska fish, furs and gold to the value of about $150,000,000; that up to 1903 the imports from the states aggregated $100,000,000; and that $25,000,000 of United States capital was invested in Alaska.

Since 1896 communication with the outer world has been greatly increased. Alaskan mails leave the states daily, many post-offices are maintained, mail is regularly delivered beyond the Arctic circle, all the more important towns have telegraphic communication with the states, there is one railway in the interior through Canadian territory from Skagway, and other railways are planned. The total mileage in 1906 was 136 m. In that year the Alaskan Central Railroad (from Seward to Fairbanks, 463 m.) was chartered; 45 m. of this road were in

operation in 1905. One long military road as an “All American” route from Valdez has long been built.

Population.—The population in 1867 at the time of the cession from Russia is estimated at 30,000, of which two-thirds were Eskimo and other Indians. Population returned in 1880, 33,426; in 1890, 32,052; in 1900, 63,592, of whom approximately 48% were whites, 46% natives and 6% Japanese and Chinese; (1910 census) 64,356. The Asiatics are employed in the salmon canneries. The natives of Alaska fall under four ethnologic races: the Eskimo or Innuit—of these the Aleuts are an offshoot; the Haidas or Kaigani, found principally on Prince of Wales Island and thereabouts; the Thlinkits, rather widely distributed in the “Panhandle”; and the Tinnehs or Athapascans, the stock race of the great interior country. In 1890 the pure-blooded natives numbered 23,531, of whom 6000 were Haidas, Thlinkits or other natives of the coastal region, 1000 Aleuts, 3400 Athapascans and 13,100 Eskimo. The natives have adopted many customs of white civilization, and on the Aleutians, and in coastal Alaska, and in scattered regions in the interior acknowledge Christianity under the forms of the Orthodox Greek or other churches. The rapid exhaustion in late years of the caribou, seals and other animals, once the food or stock-in-trade of the Aleuts and other races, threatens more and more the swift depletion of the natives. They have also felt the fatal influence of the liquor traffic. From 1893 to 1895 the United States expended $55,000 to support the natives of the Fur Seal Islands. This policy threatens to become a continued necessity throughout much of Alaska. There is a small government Indian reservation on Afognak Island, near Kodiak. The white population is extremely mobile, and few towns have an assured or definite future. The prosperity of the mining towns of the interior is dependent on the fickle fortune of the gold-fields, for which they are the distributing points. Sitka, Juneau (the capital) and Douglas, both centres of a rich mining district, Skagway, shipping point for freight for the Klondike country (see these titles), and St Michael, the ocean port for freighting up the Yukon, are the only towns apparently assured of a prosperous future. Wrangell (formerly Fort St Dionysius, Fort Stikine and Fort Wrangell), founded in 1833, is a dilapidated and torpid little village, of some interest in Alaskan history, and of temporary importance from 1874 to 1877 as the gateway to the Cassiar mines in British Columbia. Its inhabitants are chiefly Thlinkit Indians.

Government.—Alaska, by an act of Congress approved the 7th of May 1906, received the power to elect a delegate to Congress. Before this act and the elections of August 1906 Alaska was a governmental district of the United States without a delegate in Congress. Its administration rests in the hands of the various executive departments, and is partly exercised by a governor and other resident officials appointed by the president. It is a military district, a customs district (since 1868), is organized into a land district, and constitutes three judicial divisions. In 1867–1877 the government was in the hands of the department of war, although the customs were from the beginning collected by the department of the treasury, with which the effective control rested from 1877 until the passage of the so-called Organic Act of 17th May 1884. This act extended over Alaska the laws of the state of Oregon so far as they should be applicable, created the judicial district and a land district, put in force the mining laws of the United States, and in general gave the administrative system the organization it retained up to the reforms of 1899–1900. The history of government and political agitation has centred since then in the demand for general land legislation and for an adequate civil and criminal law, in protests against the enforcement of a liquor prohibition law, and in agitation for an efficiently centralized administration. As the general land laws of the United States were not extended to Alaska in 1884, there was no means, generally speaking, of gaining title to any land other than a mining claim, and so far as any method did exist its cost was absolutely prohibitive. After partial and inadequate legislation in 1891 and 1898, the regular system of land surveys was made applicable to Alaska in 1899, and a generous homestead law was provided in 1903. An