The morning call., 1891-07-23
DISCOVERIES IN ALASKA.

The expedition of Messrs. Glave and
Walton into the interior of Alaska bids
fair 10 extend the range of geographical
knowledge. Mr. Glave served an appren-
ticeship as an explorer under Stanley and
Walton is an old mining prospector who has
spent some years in Alaska. Last spring
the pair started into the interior of the
Territory with a number of horses. intend
ing to prospect for silver; but whether they
succeeded or not in their immediate object
they seem to have found pretty good
country, much better than was supposed to
exist in that ice bound region.
Our present kpowle ledge of Alaska is very
limited. We have some United States Off
Gals at Sitka, which is village of some
1900 inhabitants, on an island near the
southeastern corner of the Territory. A
hundred and fifty miles northeast of Sitka
is a military post in an old Russian fort at
Wrangel. Another inhabited point in the
archipelago Is Juneau, where mines are
being worked, and there is population of
some 25O0 whites and Indians. Far out
toward the western extremity of the Aleu-
tan ch ain is village named Oonalaska,
where some fishermen and hunters rem
devious. North of this, in the heart of
Behring Sea, are the Prybiloff Islands. which
are the preserve Of the fur seal. Finally.
within ten years. the Yukon, the great
river of Alaska, has been nayigated from
its m Outh, in GO north, for distance of over
1000 miles into the British possessions and
nearly to IFS source in the Canadian Rocky
Mountains. On the banks of the Yukon
salmon canneries have been established
and some little trading in furs is done
though the lease of the Territory calls such
- t.
of the Territory.
An impression has prevailed until lately
that the interior of Alaska resembled the in
terror of Northern Siberia; that at depth
Of two or three feet below the surface the
ground was perpetually frozen, the warmth
OF the brief summer being unable to melt
it. In Siberia a vast stretch of land inter
venes between the forest region and the
shores of the Arctic. 1t was probably once
the bed OF a sea. which gradually receded,
leaving swamp behind. This moist land
froze solid and has never thawed. 1t is
known as the tundra and it comes so
near the surface that cultivation of the soil
above it is impossible. 1t has often been
stated that much OF Alaska is similarly
covered with tundra, and that may be the
ease for anything that we know.
But Sitka, in so north, enjoys a temper
ate climate in consequence of the warm
japanese current which bathes its shores.
And the Yukon, five or six degrees nearer
the pole, is open for many months of the
year. 1t freezes over, of course, as winter
appro aches, but in summer il is free from
ice. These new travellers now state that in
the heart of Alaska, quite at distance
from the Yukon, but still probably about
the same meridian, they found in June an
immense valley thickly clothed with lux
urons grass es, stretching for miles in every
direction. w hen Captain Glave wrote his
horses were revelng in wild timothy, blue
top and buDch-grass.
1t is hardly TO be expected that CONT
mental Alaska will ever export cereal food
But it will be gain if it is discovered that
1T can feed population which can exploit its
fisheries, its hunting grounds and its mines
The numbers of the fish which inhabit its
lakes and its rivers are abundant And
like all the rest Of the northern portion of
This continent, the country is intersected
with rivers flowing out of lakes which are
past counting. Snch region must abound
in animal life. Wherever rivers run wild
animals will be found.
1t would seem that the time has come for
comprehensive exploration of Alaska by
the General Government. A survey of the
boundary line between the Territory and the
British possessions is now being conducted