, 1886-07-08

urcs and serve t, drive away evil
spirits. Hydahs raise Il great many
potatoes and their country abounA-
in Wild berries and deer. They keep
these berries for winter use in hsh OIL.
CLIMATE.
Alaska has an arctic winter and a
tropical summer. At Fort Yukon the
thermometer often rises above 100
degrees in the summer and falls as
low as 20 degrees below zero in the
winter Along the immense south
ern coast the climate is moist ana
warm, being in some of the islands
like that OF northwestern Scotland.
At SItka, where a record Of the Their
mOmeter has been kept forty five
years, the mean temperature per year
has been 43 degrees the year around,
or Il degrees III the spring, 81 de
grees in the summer. A degrees In
the fall and 32 degrees in the winter.
The greatest degree OF heat record
ed In these fOrtyiive years, was 81
degrees above, and of cold t degrees
below zero. 1t Will thus be seen that
the climate of southeastern Alaska
has for fnrty-tive years past been the
average winter climate of Kentucky
and West Virginia. and the average
summer climate of Minnesota 1t Is
in Sitka district that the Treadweil
z Id mines are. and these are now
yielding from S50,OO0 o $4,000 III
gold bullion per month.
Alaska is a g,eat island region.
One Of its archipelagoes is 800 miles
from north to south and about eighty
miles wide 1t contains from 1000 tC
5000 separate islands, and the aggre-
gate area of these islands is more
than 14,O00 square miles. Six hund
led miles further west there is anoth
er group which contains over 5000
square miles, and the total area of the
islands of Alaska is larger than the
state of Maine.
MOUNTAINS.
Alaska has the highest mountain
peaks Of the United States. it has
volcanoes and glaciers, and many OF
these volcanoes are in active order
The glaciers of Alaska are finer than
those of the Alps. There is one that
extends fifty miles to the sea, anG
! there ends in q perpendicular ice wal
300 feet high and eight miles broad
Thirty five miles above Wrangel, OF
the Stiklng river, between two noun
tain 5000 feet high, there is a glacier
forty miles long and four or five mile:
! across at the base. 1t is from 500 t
1000 feet high and there are othel
glaciers throughout the territory from
which great blocks containing hun
dreds of tons of ice are constantly
breaking off and falling into the sea
The rivers of Alaska are among tn,
finest of America. The Yukon j:
seventy miles wide across its five
mouths, and at some points along it.
lower course one bank cannot be seeI
from the other. 1t is navigable fol
1000 miles, and is computed to b,
5000 miles long.
| EDUCATION.
A number of government schools
have been established i'll Alaska, anC
an appropriation of S25,000 was mad,
last year for this purpose Thes,
schools are located from 100 to 10Gt
miles apart, and the teachers of onl,
five schools are able to'get a month";!
mail. Many of the other schools re
ceive mail only three times year
and one or two are able to get anC
send letters only yearly. Only abou
1000 people among the Alaskan.
speak English, and it will be seer
what a difficult undertaking th,
education of such people is. Th,
Presbyterian missions had established
a number of schools in the territory
and the government undertaking j,
connected with them. At Sitka, Mr.
jackson says, the government off
cials hindered his educational worl
ana materially retarded it. He say
the q. S. judges and others did no
want the natives educated, and they
did all they could to hinder it. There
is an industrial school at Siuka, and
movement is under foot to educat,
the inhabitants so that they will b,
able to develop their territory, and a
the same time make good citizens O
them.