Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-05-18

4 80 Z
Il sounded the shores seven hundred
| miles by log northwest q SitkA, sd found
| the entire length q Goldfish hank with
plenty of halibnt alsoE The saaller cod
| fish are in the shaIlower waters, nearer
the shore, oftwentE OF thirty fathoms, but
the best fisheFies are farther out in seventy
or eighty hthcns. For eAample, one day
! when sounding southof Kodiak, wishing
| to Law q seOse Of Goldfish, I ordered the
sails set back and the Tines prepared.
80 / had a barrel OF Pugea Sound clans
saIted for me flor bait). Itook my lead
line. as large as my thumb, attached five
hooks above the lead. with . clam on
each, and fastened to the dAvit soon the
Ibites-one, two, three, often 1ve-were
felt. / threw the line over the pulley and
put four men to pull, and up would come
1.-Two, three, and sometimes FIVE cod, weigh
ling thirty to forty pounds apiece. We had
Tout about twenty lines and caught $50 fish
| In two hours. I met some fishermen and
asked why they did not fish farther out,
| instead of catching the smaller ones of
i've to fifteen pounds each near the shore ?
They replied that deepwater lshing was
too hard work
II have seen coal-veins over an area
forty by fifty miles, so thick that il seems
one vast bed 1t has excellent steam quail
ny; leaves clear white ash. 1t comes
out IN cube blocks, bright and clean. II
does not coke. The quantity seems to be
unlimited. This bed lies northwest of
sitka,, up Cooks inlet or bay, which, ex-
tends 10 nearly sixty-one degrees north
and broadens into sea in some parts. = II
is large body Of water. It's shores,
81 y,,,,,h 10 war; mountainous reypal val
feys and plains and forests with large and
various resources. 6
saThe kalosh are a race of Indians.
shrewd and warlike, who liveon the main
land mostly OF Alaska proper, You must
show your power and they will respect
you and do what you say, or what they
agree to do, exactly. When some OF them
came on deck | showed them over the
ship. They watched everything, and a
little loosely said, Our guns are better
than YOURS They had Hudson's Bay
smooth bore muskets. said, All, WELL
81 ordered gun set, put in a shell,
and aimed at clay bank on the face of
an island one and half miles of. l
knew the distance, having been sounding
it recently The shell hit within ten feet
Of the center, scattering the dust and dirt.
At first the smoke hid the object and they
laughed at the failure; but as it cleared
and they saw the dust fly. they threw up
their hands in wonder and made no more
Jokes about my guns. e.
al was sent to Alaska by the Govern
ment to reconnoiter. protect its interests,
and make surveys, and was there in 1867,
,GS, and 80 ] found -four or I'VE fur
companies, Messrs. Hutchinson, Kohl 81
Co. among them, killing seals on those
Islands as fast as they could hire the
Aleuts to do it. One, Eastern firm,
who were too religious to work on
the Sabbath, did. with others, sell
whisky TO the Aleuts in pay for furs and
these poor people had nothing for their
work. I knew, when the ships were gone,
they would be left without food. The
great slaughter Of the seals would soon
destroy all of them Following my gen
eral instructions to care for our cOuntry's
interests, / put stop to the Slaughter
broke every whisky barrel and poured it
on the ground. The Aleuts thought did
wrong. They were so eager TO get 1t, that
some of them laid down and sucked the
ground and puddles Of it, and got drunk.
But saved them, and l would not (al-
low?) the traders TO kill any seals except
such as the Aleuts selected, the two years.
old males, and to a limited number; i
required all of them to pay the Aleuts in
provisions, clothing and other needful ar
iicles. but not one drop of whisky.
s',rhe vast catch that year reduced the
price of skins to three dollars each. The
next year comparatively few seals came
to the islands, but after this fur company
got the sole right, they having bid the
highest for it, only 100000 per year Were
caught. The seals came back numerous
ly the third year,