Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-10
WEIRD SIGHTS IN ALASKA.
Wonderful Coast Scenery, Deserts, Gla-
ciers, and Mosquitoes Big Enough to
Eat Moose.

There is no more wonderful scenery in the
world said Mr.. Marcus Baker of the geologi-
cal survey to a representative of The STAR.
ethan is to be found along the coast of Alaska
as you go up from Portland by steamer to
Sitka and beyond by the inside passage Only
for very small part of the way do you feel the
ocean swell at all a continuous archipelago of
islands forming breakwater for hundreds of
miles against the waves OF the Pacific. while
the vessel sails along in water as smooth as a
mill pond. Along the mainland mountains
thousands Of feet high tower precipitously up
from the sea, covered with dense timber, while
here and there great ford reaches up to-
ward the interior. The settlements SO essen
tial to picturesqueness are unhappily lacking,
save now and then an Aleut village may be.
Upon reaching Sitka you find yourself in
niue more equable climate than that of Bos-
ton. Its mean temperature being about the
same though it is many degrees north of the
latter point. Pursuing your way northward
along the coast you see now and then glacier
reaching down to the sea. When you reach the
Yukon, II it is the proper season, you find
countless
MYRIADs OF cANvAs-BACK DUCKS
disporting themselves. That stream, together
with other waters whereabouts, is the great
breeding ground you know, for canvas backs,
as well as for many other sorts of ducks and
geese and swans. All the canvas backs that
are shot on the Chesapeake come from the
Yukon and its neighborhood. This fact has
been established as a certainty by observation
OF their flights from various points, their aerial
course being by way of the great lakes"
''What is the interior of Alaska like?" asked
The STAR writer.
1t Is very mountainous and so bitterly cold
through nearly all the year that nobody lives
there save a few wretched Aleuts. The sum-
mer only lasts about two months, during which
the heat IN the daytime is apt to be very in
tense, often rising above hundred degrees in
the shade. Grasses and other plants grow and
rlpen with enormous rapidity during the short
warm season. because they have to if they are
to grow at all. In the winter it is night almost
all the time, while in summer the sun hardly
has time to set before it rises again. Alto
gether 1t Is very weird sort of country. The
coast, OF course, Is kept warm by the enormous
body OF water called the Pacific ocean.
THERE ARE NO SNAKES IN ALASKA,
perhaps because no snakes would live there.
The only frog ever discovered by explorers
there was found by my own party some years
ago. Probably, however, there is no part of
the world where mosquitoes are more dreadful
than in Alaska The soil is OF a soft spongy
character that holds water for days after 4
ram. and the insects are bred out of it in such
swarms that it is hardly possible for man or any
other animal to exist among them. They at
tack the moose with such ferocity as to drive
the beasts into the rivers, where tho natives
attack them with knives. Bears and reindeer
are plentiful. Perhaps the worst part Of Alaska
is that to the northwest, south of the Yukon
rlver-crossed but once by party of ex-
plorers, who nearly starved to death on the
way. The history of Alaska is story
OF successive leases to fur-gathering companies.
When Russia added it to her empire size let it
out In terms of twenty years each to such COM
panes, but by 1869 the abuses practiced by the
fur concerns had become SO serious that the
matter was made an important question in
Russian politics. They decided in st. Peters
burg that Alaska was more trouble than it was
worth. Thus it came about that Mr. Seward
bought it for a comparatively small price, not
outstanding very vociferous howl that was
raised against the project That was in 1869.
lease of the seal islands for twenty years was
at once giving to an American company. This
lease having just expired the same company Is
seeking its renewal and. as you know. the pro-
position Is being earnestly antagonzed in the
Senate"