Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-21
soHwATKA's RESIGNATION.
Leave orAbsence Refused Him on =
1cchnicAlity.
New York Times, Feb. 16.

New York Times, Feb. Is.
Lieut.. Frederick Schwatka, about
whose resiguation from the Unitii States
army q good deal has been written, sat
in the reception room at his residence in
Eat Twenty. eighth street Saturday
evening and talked without reserve about
bis ress ms FIR leaving the service. 81
resigned from the staff of Gen. Miles,
commander CT the department of the
Columbia he taid, On the spiiug of
1884, and not long after asked for a leave
of absence In order that | might make ex.
plorations in Alaska under citizens of
Oregon. That was the way l put it In
my application for leave, and that was
what l wanted to do. In the spring Of
1883 | commanded an expedition which
Gen. Miles sent up into Alaska. We
crossed over to the head waters of the
Yukon, built q rsf', and went down the
river. The RIVER from where we
struck it down at Selkiik, o distance of
about 800 miles, was mspped and the bal
ance OF the stream, about 800 miles more,
which had been explored before, a sur
veyed. About 600 miles OF new country
was thus opened up, and / think 1 may
Gay II oApSaiNAoh wac jig
"The people In Portland knew about
my work In 1883, and last epring they
wanted me to make another trip to the
territory to get som idea of what the
country contained. The primary object
Of the trip would have been exploration,
but l intended to keep my eyes open and
sea what the resources of he count ~ were.
Citizens of Portland who wanted this In.
formation were willing to ri k $40, 900 on
the trip. Well, the leave of absence was
refused. l suppose the real reason was
that the war department was about t,
send an expedition to Alaska under com
mand of Lieut.. Abercrombie, aud did not
want to bring It's results into competition
with those CT q civilians expedition,
such IS nine would have been. Tho de-
partmsnt raised a technical oSiec ion to
granting my request for n leave Of alb
sence by ssying that the application
should be forwarded by me from
tho headquarters of my regiment,
which wa, at Camp Thomas In South
ern Arizona. Lieut.. Abercrombie went
up the Copper River, which i, 400 CT 800
miles long, only a short distance. The
expedition according to repor!s / have
heard was a failure.
81 didn't like The way | was treated by
the department and l rendered my resig-
alton from the service. 1t was net &C
copied until January 81 last. l thought
there was an etftr on the part of the
government to keep ne IL of Alaska.
You see there Is a regular dog.in-the.
manager policy pursued. The depart
msnt obi ects to civilians intruding, the
navy department objects to the war de-
psrment, and the coast survey, which is
under the secretary of the interior, OBJ
jects to either, beth, or all. If one at.
tempts to go where all have equal rights
an alliance is at once formed by tina other
two and all three unite against the civi
lians. There is no military movement in
Alaska, nor Ia, there been one since
President Hayes order withdrawing
troops. When l went up there In 1888
the navy and coast aurvey people threw a
great many obstacles In my way
"What are the plans of the Portland
gentlemen who wanted you to make a
second trip?'
"They had no d efni!e plans, but de-
| sired to find cut what there was there.
Alaska is a great country. and while it
will nsver bs an attractive place to live
in, [ believe it has a future Thi, will
be, first in the direction of fisheries, and
aftsr that in the poss billt'es CT mineral
wealth. The northern coast has bsen
mapped out. 1t is not ice-bound the
gear round, and crafts have been forced
as far east as McKerzis river. The aver
age year will let sail 'ng craft as far along
| tha D,rthwoat oInra nc Dn;ok Qos,.,
and l supp?ss steamships can get up to
the pint almo.t any time. There are
about 80, 900 Indians IN Alaska, and per-
haps 1900 whites. The government
owns the land, but a squat:er can take it
up as he would any other government
territory.
1.-THE Alaska Commercial company, of
which Senator Miller, Of Califorria, used
to be president, and in which he made
most of his fortune, i, engaged in sssling
Oh the Prlbylotf islands. This is a little
group of four islands, st. Paul, ST..
George, Otter and Walrus. Seals rarsjy
land on Walrus island, however. Toe
Islands lie some 200 mile, north of the
Alentian chain, and belong to the United
States. The company has a lease of
them, which does not expire till 1890,
and go jealously era the islands guarded
that only ships 10 distress are permitted
to land there. Whas the Hudson Bay
company was to British America, the
Commerci,l company is to thai vicinity
For some months | have been az work
getting subscriptioes to the st ock of a
company to put cate on the Aleutian
Islands and make a business
of rai'ing them there. There
is capital grazing on these Islands,
and with 500, 600 a good s'art could bs
made. / have about S35, 900 promised
already. The otun'ry is bound to be
opsned up, though the Commercial COM
papy has always sought to keep ii as much
of a sealed book as possible, 1t Is ever
said that influences brought to bear by
that company caused the withdrawal OF
troops from Alaska. At one time Alaska
was a military department with a m'jor-
general in command. When the troops
were withdrawn, there were garrisons at
four forts, Wrsngel, Tongas, Sitka and
Kodiak, and also a detachment OF sol
oilers on the seal islands.
Lieut.. Schwatka has been in New York
the most of the winter engaged upon lit,
erary work. de has two books nearly
finished One is upon hunting IN the
north, Of which spot he has seen n gotd
deal and the other upon Alaska. To.