The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1900-11-10
ALASKA'S WEALTH
NOT HALF TOLD.
A Wonderful Climate Prevails in
the South With Great Possibilities
For the Sportsman and Farmer.

Reindeer have made themselves thor
oughiy at home in Alaska-that mar
Veilous country whose richness in ami
NAL life and agricultural possibilities 10
not yet half suspected by the me jority
of Americans.
The pilgrim fathers Of the family
were imported from Lapland in the
early stages of the kloadike craze to
be worked and eaten by the starving
miners. They luckily escaped being
eaten. and were later reinforced by 100
reindeer doe imported by the Govern
ment from Siberia.
From the mixed herd Of eco head, or
a little more, they have multiplied to
5000. II under Uncle Sans protec-
ton they promise to play an important
part in the future of ALASKA and add
greatly to its wealth. The twenty-five
Laplanders who came over with the
first consignment are On their way
home with about $7ee each, saved out
Of their earnings as reindeer drivers
and mail carriers.
But Alaska needed no im%pertations to
d to its f~ascihations. Gold? OF
course-everybody knows about that.
but everybody doesn't know that gold
is one Of the least interesting things
about the country that Uncle Sam was
shrewd enough to buy from Russia.
Take Strawberries. Alaska a near
Big Stone a strawberry bed seven miles
long and two miles wide. Fourteen
qua miles Of Strawberries, And they
are beauties. Nothing finer is grown in
this country outside a dollhouse. Uncle
Sam car produce no nearer approach
TO the English strawberry, whose
haunting fragrance is equalled by no
other fruit.
Raspberries and blackberries, too,
reach 4 high pitch of cultivation in
Alaska. which is popularity supposed to
grow nothing more nourishing than
glaciers.
Oats spilled by mules as they feed
grow wild higher than a mans head,
and would yield, it is estimated. 200
bushels 10 the acre. Alaskan
are described as big as a mans hat.
All manner Of fruit and vegetables be-
-AS-' ~ hNAAI-NiolS III lLIINS
amazingly and under proper cultivation
there IS no reason why Alaska should
not become Uncle Sans kitchen gar
den.
All this, of course, is south of Beh-
ring Sea. in a region where, thanks to
a warm ocean current, the temperature
seldom reaches zero, ven in the long
winter nights.
AS for game, big and little, feathered,
finny and furred. it is of unmatched
richness, but bids fair to be extin-
guished by commercial greed and reck-
lessness. Deer exist no longer. and the
moose and the sea otter are lowering
on the verge OF humiliation.
Nevertheless, ar Alaskan traveller
has just returned home with a co,lec-
ton of the largest moose heads in the
world.
But the sports.n2n is less Of 4 men
ace to The fauna of Alaska than the
trader. The skin Of a single sea otter
will now sell in London for as much
as 81 .210.
This IS how he describes the hU1tin-
OF the sea otter ~ Indians, who ca1
sci d skin for from 500 to 500:
"a 80 CA-NSLH 11i1SCS. t-1A -irIl-hl5
4 hunter. are necessary. when the
hunters start 81: each IS o-r-5f wi-h
= rifle, and each man uses marked bull
lets, that may he identified ate they
AZ 1~-G.
when The nose Of an otter is sighted
the man finding It gives a signal and in
4 few moments the little feet Is s1v-
rounding she creature. When tha great
circle is complete as may be. the hose
nc the animal may be a thousand yards
-.1m The nearest ua2rksman.
- shot IS fired ut the black spot on
he water Il il disappears. The Il
nal 5 capable Of diving 3.G35 feet IN
de~ water. and it may not come Up for
many minutes, but if the circle is we'll
formed i is not likely 10 break the
line.
Thu instant thu nose arrears an
other shot or two IS sent af,e- 7. and
tie boats close in. Time and again it
co;1@= Up. only to be frightened down
Tcain.