The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-11-23
NOT A FROZEN NORTH.
Mercury Hardly Knows Zero
in Alaska.
SO SAYS Ex-Gov. swNEFoRr
He EstImates the Enlightened Popu-
Iatlan Of the Territory at 1900
The Collectorship Middle.

Hon. A. p. Swineford, ex-governor of
Alaska, was an arrival from that territory
yesterday and Is stopping sc the Bellevue
house. His estimate of Uncle Sans
furiherest acrth possessions. as expressed
to q Posr-IxTELLTGEycKR reporter who
called on him ct the Bellevue last evening.
is not modified from that heretofore made
public.
He had Just been reading q paper which
spoke of the country as being uninhsbit-
able for white men for any length of time
Such an expression, he said, seemed
strange TO men who, before going TO
Alaska. lived where every winter the mer-
curry sank to 20 or SO below zero He had
seen four winters in Alaska and in that
time the mercury had never got
down to zero. The nearest to zero
weather he had ever seen there
was in January Sc. when at the mouth of
the Stekine river the Thermometer regis
tered above. In the past four years Is
above was the lowest at sitka and 10 above
the lowest at juneau Down to the time of
his leaving Alaska, which was on Tuesday
of last week, there had been no weather
this fall as cool as here today. He had
met many Swedes who work back on the
4
has better climate, and for ali tnatBature
can do there is in every way better
country 10 live in than the country they
came from. Miners up he Yukon. 100 TO
500 miles, had told them they had gone
through thousands of acres OF prairie where
the growing grass was higher than their
heads. If this was not sufficient evidence
of country where grains could be culti-
n l. 4 4 -. 49, Il
In mining the possibilities of Alaska
could as yet only be guessed it. He was
himself only indirectly interested in min
ing. He had shared in some mining oper-
atoms some thirty-fve miles from Juneau.
De was interested with some wealthy gen.
tlemen OF Saginaw. Mich, in the develop
ment Of q mine three or four miles from
juneau which they would work next
spring This is for silver. The great gold
mine of Alaska was known of generally.
There were others that were successful A
gentleman, Mr.. G. w. Coulter, had come
down with him this trip and is here In the
city, VINO has little ten-stamp mil. run
by one man. He brought with him as the
result of the last thirty days run. over
$4,000.
The story that had been told Of his
having said living mastodons could yet be
found in Alaska was an exaggeration. A
wild hunter had told such a story. but of
course there was no reliability in it Por-
tons Of that country abounded in bones.
tn ks. and parts of skeletons of these
animals. Streams that empty into the
Yukon have these remains like old drift
wood In streams in the states. Men gath
cred and marketed them for ivory. Very
large tusks are found-some nine feet long.
He had a 3-foot section of one that was
perhaps four inches in diameter. He has
no doubt that whole skeletons colld be
found If thorough search were made by
capable parties
Walruses are hunted wantonly in Alaska
slaughtered for nothing but their ivory.
These animals are very necessary in the
economy Of the native population, but they
viii soon be extinct If the government does
not take some action for their preservation.
The natives make sleds, pipes, scfapers
paper knives, butter knives, and many con-
ceiyable implements from the ivory and
bones. In such handiwork they IRE in
genius and skiilful. He had seen q watch
chain of ordinary size carved ont OF a solid
piece. OF the hides boats, tow-lines, ETC..
are made. The boat frames are made of
drift-wood. tied together with walrus-hide
thongs, not nail or bolt used-boats that
viii carry fifty people. Smaller boats are
made Of the hides of the sea lion or wairus
In small, close boats that viii carry one
man, they win so thirty of forty miles ont
on the sea. The flesh or blubber of the
walrus is used for food.
Governor Swinetord had seen 1t stated
that Governor Knapp gave the population
OF Alaska at $500 whites. He thought the
governor must have referred only to the
new immigrant whites. In his view there
are many others who should be thus elassi-
fed. Children who have descended down