The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-26 00:00:00

ALASKA.

From, the late action of the Californian Senate,
moving Congress to use all justifiable means of
securing to the United States, the British dominions
on the Pacific, we may judge that the people desire
to establish a great Pacific Nationality, embracing
the coast line of the Continent, from the southern
extremity of California to the North West Passage.
The territory is, in truth, calculated to form a
mighty empire, containing every variety of climate
and production. Enough is known of California to
class it in the highest rank among the regions of the
globe. Almost everything grows there, and it is a
marvel of mineral wealth. The development of its
manufactures has kept pace with that of its mines
and of its agriculture—the three great branches of
industry having now reached a stage of progress of
which, when told, men of old nationalities consider
to be almost incredible. The annexation of Alaska
has given a strong impetus to the Californian wish
to unite the Pacific Line of the Northern Continent
under one Government, with its trade centreing in
San Francisco. The purchase of Alaska has been
too recently completed, and the territory has
hitherto been too little known, to enable the Cali-
fornians as yet to form any clear notion of its value.
Immediately on the treaty being announced, a
scientific expedition was dispatched, but this was
not early enough in the summer, nor on a scale
sufficiently comprehensive to collect the information
desired. Still much has been accomplished, and a
general knowledge of at least the appearance of the
country obtained. The coast line is intricate, the
ranges high, bold, and irregular ; in many instances
rising to grandeur. When the vicinity of Sitka
island was reached, the expedition was surrounded
by rugged snow-capped mountains. Through
the clear atmosphere the huge ranges could
be seen at vast distances ; some of them
throwing up volcanic cones, such as Edgecomb,
which marks the entrance to Sitka Bay, and Mounts
Fairweather and St. Elias, the latter sometimes
visible to those 150 miles away. A second series of
volcanic hills commences at the head of the penin-
sula of Alaska, extending southward, and forming
the peninsula, then curving to the west and rising
in the long chain of Aleutian islands, which stretch
like stepping-stones to the Kamtskatka coast,
trending north-east and south-west instead of north-
west and south-east as on the coast of the main-
land. Unimak Island is said to present the most
remarkable view of volcanic cones and peaks to be
found in the known world. Shihaldin and Pogron-
maja rise in graceful and unbroken symmetry
from the sea to a height of 10,000 feet, with
a low volcano irregular in outline between,
called Destruction Peak. It is thus named as
it is a volcano in an early stage of develop-
ment, which in 1863 caused the loss of many
lives by an eruption. On the island of Ounalaska
Mr. Blake landed with some officers of the expedi-
tion, and made the ascent of Makuskin, an active
volcano on the northern end. Its height he gives
approximately at 5,600 feet; the snow line, 3,168
feet ; at 2,500 feet vegetation ceased, except the
" red snow," which commenced a thousand feet be-
low the summit. The hills were covered with a

thick growth of grass, but the island, wholly com-
posed of volanic rocks, was destitute of trees. Mr.
BLAKE says, "The published and glaringly inaccu-
rate charts of the north-west coast, north of Van-
couver Island, fail to give an adequate idea of the
vast archipelago of islands and network of channels
with which the whole coast of British Columbia
and that of the lower and eastern part of Alaska,
below 59 degs., are fringed. The Straits of
Fuca are the southern point of this complex
system of labyrinthine channels, which afford
peculiar facilities for inlaid navigation." Amid
the rugged mass is the island of Sitka covered
with its beautiful spruce, remarkable for the grace
and the mathematical regularity with which its
branches grow from the central stem. The rough-
ness of the island in common with those in its vici-
nity and the coast line makes it peculiarly difficult
to investigate the geology. A heavy growth of
timber covers the steep hill-sides intertwined and
obstructed by masses of fallen and decaying trees
overspread with thick moss and always saturated
with water. Though the distance across the island '

of Sitka was not more than 2.0 miles, Mr. BLAKE
asserted he had yet to hear of the white man or
Indian who had crossed it. The rock is a hard

grit, sometimes coarse, often passing into digillitte
trending parallel to that of the coast, and extend-
ing south to the " Deep sea," a remarkable fresh
water lake 12 miles S.W. of Sitka, where syenetic

granite occurs. Limestone highly crystalline is
found North, and within a few miles of the town.

The Mining and Scientific Press says, " Along
Chatham Straits, east of Sitka, the rocks are meta-

ntorphic, stratified mica schist, standing almost
vertically, and showing a parallelism in their trend
to the line of the coast and of upheaval. Glaciers

are common along the inland waters north and
to the back of Sitka Island. Three of these sweep

grandly from the mountain gorges and rush to the
water's edge, generally terminating in a low cres-
cent-shaped flat, formed by the wash from their
terminal moraines. In Icy Straits, north of Sitka

Island, the ice from them jails into the sea, and so
great is the accumulation as to render navigation

dangerous. In latitude 50 deg., along Chatham
Straits, every marked depression has its glacier of
greater or less extent. These glaciers are t) be

seen at points as far south as the mouth of the
Stickeen river, and the lowest known limit on the
coast is about latitude 54 deg. in British Columbia,
east of Port Simpson." Good coal and paying
quantities of gold, Mr. BLAKE says, are yet to be
discovered. Copper abounds on the dangerous
Copper River, and magnetic iron ore and galena are
reported. Fossils of the carboniferous age occur at
Cape Beaufort on the Arctic coast, of the jurassic
period on the east coast of the peninsula, tertiary
fossils on Kodiak Island, and several other points.
The resources and capacity of the country those
who know it best assert to be considerable. The

fur trade and the fisheries alone would supply remu-
nerative labour to many persons. There are, it is

believed, 700 Americans now in the territory, and

7,000 Russians and half-breeds permanently located
there.—Anglo-American 7 lines.

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