The Alaska prospector., 1902-02-27

be applied to advantage for repair and maintenance, provided the ap- proprlati0n cs,uid be continued over and made available for such purposes. The region iS no longer unknown; the line of the telegraph will be guide to travellers, anal the stations can afford them shelter in cases af sickness and distress.
 l have, therefore. pending dris- ion of the Honorable secretary of War upon the subject, suspended further work on the road proper, and have directed Major Abererom- bic to turn over all the transi~rta- tion under his charge to Captain Burnell, of the Signal Corps. to enable the latter to push the work of the telegraph construction as rapidly as possible. Major Aber- crombie has been ordered t0 the Headquarters Department of the Columbia.
 The residents of the town of Valdez, and of the adjacent coun- try, are naturally desirous of seeing this work continued with the dis bursements of public funds incident thereto, and they have ptitioned to that end. and should the War Department decide that a further effort and expenditure in this di- rection, heyond what have indi- catcd, is warranted, then l would recommend that the work be un- dertaken by the Corps of Engineers under such appropriations and linn itations as may ie made by Con- gress.
 Very respectfully,
 (signed) Geo H. Randall.
 Brig. Gen. U. <. Army.
 Commanding Department | of Columbia. | The above report is sO erron- cous and misleading and shows such an ignorance of the real con dition of the all-Ameriean trail. and the conditions of the country djarent thereto and its bright fu- ture, that any person who had ever been in Valdez for six hours. would know at once that Gen. Randall has leen grossly mislead, misin- formsl and prejudiced. not only l in regard to the work on tIe trail. its value, and greater value if com pletcd, but also in re@ir.l to the citizens of Valdez, and tl,e town it. self. It is apparent to all that the false and misleading reports made to Gen. Randall, upon which he bases his report i0 the Adjutant General could only enaeRate from ! the mind of some individual who is antagonistic to the welfare and future development of Valdez. i We only wish we had the space to go into the details of this re- port, but can enly mention d few oi its inconsistencies. The statement '.the road from Valdez, two miles out, trail, not passable ioi wagons" is entirely untrue. And second, to enable our citizens to reach the upper Yukon, without crossing Canadian territory" He knows that this was the sole req son for starting the road, and thai . when it was first contemplated and : started, it was not known that there was an ounce of gold or cop
 er in the whole Copper river val ley. No gold or copper had beer discovered and the road was start ! ed solely to give the American
 people a road of their own into ths Yukon country,
 Further he says, and his limita
 information could not have beer obtained through reading the grea , daily papers, that he does mot be o lieve any considerable development will l.e done in the near future-' There neyer has been as murh ac .. tivity in tbe development of tll great sol,l and copper mines il ', this section sis at the present time .nI fhaPx. ,,x.var xrara sn.h nv,,an