Clarksville daily chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1884-11-06
WEALTH IN STORE
Fer Those VINO Develop Alaska's
Lumber and Mining Interests.
The valuable He'd and Yellow Cedar
density OF the Forest Growth
-Uneertainty OF Mining
Claims.
fAlaska Letter.1

ALASKA letter.
Although this vast territory Of Alaska
measures / 400 miles one way and 2, 200
the other, and its furthest island is as far
west of San Francisco as that city is west of
Bath, in Maine, few people have any clear
idea of the country and its people. Within
the 1,400 miles between its northern and
southern boundaries there is chance for
great range of climate, and while the
northern part of the mainland lies within
the Arctic circle and is wrapped in the
snow and ice of polar regions, southern
Alaska reioiees in climate that in winter is
not as severe as that of Maryland or Ken
lucky. The isothermal lines make strange
curves on the Pacific coast and influenced
by the warm Japan stream or
kuro- Sine, mild temperate eli
mate is given to the shores and
archipelago of southwestern Alaska As
in California, temperature and climate de-
pend more upon the distance from the
seacoast than upon distance from the
equator, and Sitka summers are quite as
windy and foggy, but hardly cooler than
those of San Francisco. Sitka itself lies
in the same latitude as Aberdeen, Scot
land, and in all the islands south of it there
is much the same climate, accompanied by
the corresponding ocean current as pre-
walls on the west coast of Ireland BY
the records of the Russian observatory
maintained here for fifty years, the Their
mometer fell to zero only three times dur
ing that period. The reports of the com
manders of United States ships during the
past four years confirm this climatic mar
vel and show many other strange things
in meteorology.
The lumber interests are undeveloped,
but great industry is in promise for the
future as all southeastern Alaska from
Cape Fox to the Kenai peninsula is clothed
with forests denser than anything in Ore
gon or Washington territory, The COM
paratively mild temperature the heavy
rainfall, and the nightless days of the
summer season force everything to a trop
ical luxuriance. No forest fires ever de-
vastate these pine clad shores and islands,
and the season sut1ces to clothe with liv.
ing green underground the scars of land,
slides or avalanches. This vast area of
forest includes little besides conifer@
Much of the pine is as poor as Oregon
pine, which is such bad ship timber that
vessels built of it can only be insured as
A No. l for three years The white
spruce, Sitka pine, which grows to a
height of $50 to 175 feet and is from three
to six feet in diameter, is the common tree
in all these forests, and Menzies and Mer-
ton spruce, red and yellow cedar, pinus
contorta, fir cottonwood, ash, alder, small
maple, and small birch are the other trees
most frequently met with.
The red and yellow cedar are the most
valuable woods, and the latter, more par
| 20 th1N oh ht,t1S
material on the Pacific coast. Its value
arises chiefly from the fact that it is i'm.
pervious to the teredo, or boring worm,
which eats up the pine piles under Puget
sound wharves every two or three years
1t has fine grain and certain fragrance,
and when made into chests it affords pro-
lection from moths to anything placed
within. This yellow cedar Is rarely found
south Of the Alaska boundary, and the
largest tracts OF II are ON Kupreanof, Kon,
and the Prince of Wales island. It was
once urged upon congress 10 declare the
Prince of Wales island q government
reservation for the purpose Of preserving
the valuable ship timber and piling for its
own use, but, like oil Alaska bills, it was
laughed at and voted down. AS the
government would neither sell nor
lease these timber lands, establish land
offices, make surveys, nor allow set
tiers to pre-empt their acres. there are few
saw mills in the territory, and their own
ers are guilty of taking government tim
beI, and are liable to prosecution If the
new officials press things to the finest
point. Want of lumber has been Sc
rious hindrance to settlers, miners, and
the owners of canneries.
The density of the forest growth, the
tangle of underbrush. and the thick car
pet of moss that covers every inch of the
ground, has made mineral prospecting
very slow and difficult. The men who
discovered ledge of quartz near Sitka
worked for ten days TO clear off small
patch of ground over the outcroppings,
and the more one sees Of these dense
tangled forests the more one marvels at
the extensive mining region that
has been opened mp near Juneau
and across on. Douglass island. AS
they have had neither land offices, survey
ors, nor recorders, the ownership of mining
claims has been rather uncertain. While
they could get no title 70 their claims nor
protection for themselves, mine owners
have been contonted to do only yearly as.
sessment work, wash or pound out enough
gold to pay expenses, and keep very still
while they held their mines by sufferance,
luck, or shotguns only. The fear of in.
viting more adventures to come and jump
their claims and increase mob rule. has
made the miners very redcent about the
value of their properties, and Boosting In
that line Is unknown In the mining camps
of tlfe archipelago. The first quartz
lodges were found near Sitka in 1871, but
bad management and bad luck have pre-.
vented their becoming profitable claims
A mill was erected on one of the lodges
and was successfully worked for awhile,
years. The great mining region Is at