The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1904-07-02
ALASKA AS IT REALLY Is.
FEW HAVE A TRUE IDEA OF ITS
ENORMOUS SIZE.

8ibilitieS OF Development Celebrated
-Grandest Scenery in the World
and Sufficient Resources to Support
Ten Million People.
The President of the Alaska Geo
graphical Society, writes as follows
in the National Magazine:
Alaska is great empire, Of the
enormous size Of which few people
have any Nst conception. 1t is more
than $50 times as large as the State
Of Rhode Island and nearly equals in
area all the States Of the Union east
Of the Mississippi River. 1t has the
grandest scenery in the world, and
resources sufficient comfortably to
support ten millions Of people.
Through the heart Of the vast ter
ritory howes the mighty Yukon River,
the largest in North America, larger
and longer than the Mississippi. On
this great river one may ride for more
than 1000 miles with as much comfort
as upon the Hudson.
The valley of the Yukon has been
pronounced richer than the valley Of
the MISSOURI, and it will undoubtedly
some day support an immense popula-
tion.
. People in Pennsylvania are very
much interested in coal, and know
what a source of wealth it is. l be-
lieve. that there is more coal in Alas
ka than in Pennsylvania.
Coal is but one OF Alaska's many
mineral resources. The enormous de-
posits of copper in the Copper River
region. are now attracting great at
tention 1t has even been predicted
by. Capt. Healy, who was a resident
Of Montana for twenty-four years and
Alaska seventeen years, that Alaska
will in the next thirty years produce
more mineral wealth than the whole
United States has produced in the
thirty years just ended.
The Russians made enormous for
tunes in furs, and millions more have
been made by Americans since the
purchase by the United States. Alaska
has the richest fisheries of the world.
Competent authorities declare its fish
cries greater than those of Newfound-
land and the North Sea combined.
There are vast forests Of timber in
Alaska which remain practically IN
Alaska is certain to become great
agricultural country. 1t will some day
produce more grain and Of a better
quality than any State in the Union.
It has been within my lifetime that
the cultivation of wheat was begun
in Manitoba, Dakota and Minnesota,
and. as a rule, the further north the
better the quality of the grain grown.
The fact that thousands upon thou
sands Of acres of the finest grasses
cover the river valleys from four to
six feet high is evidence Of the great
opportunities for stock raising. Cat
tie can be wintered in southern Alas
ka with far less difficulty and expense
than In Montana, and in many places
cattle will look out for themselves
and keep fat all winter. l believe
that Alaska is certain to become one
Of the greatest stock raising regions
of the world.
- The United States Government has
for several years past had experts
at work carefully investigating its
resources and possibilities, and after
these years of painstaking investlga-
ton makes public its estimate that
there are at least 100000 square miles
of territory in Alaska admirably
adapted to agriculture. Prof. c. {.
Georgeson of the United States De
partment OF Agriculture says: There
could never be a create: misconcep-
ton in regard to geographical fact
than the popular idea that Alaska is
u snow covered waste. AS matter
Of fact, one can travel from one end
of the Yukon to the other in summer
and never see snow. On the contrary,
one will see tangle of luxuriant veg
citation, large forests and such deli
cacies as wild raspberries, red cur
rants, ,huckleberries and cranberries
in profusion. In places the grass
grows as high as mans shoulders" ]"
The finest vegetables l have ever
eaten were grown on the Yukon and
served slN the river steamers. Prof.
Macoun OF the Canadian Government
Botanical Department explains this
fact by saying that the vegetables
are finer thaasgrown elsewhere in the
world because the twenty-four hours
OF sun in summer rushes the growth
go. that they have no time to harden
or grow tough, and are sweet and de-
licious and almost melt in the mouth"
(. The greatest mystery to most peo-
ple is the climate of Alaska. Cherish
ing vague idea of barren waste
of snow and ice, it comes as a rude
shock to learn that it is very much
like Pennsylvania, New York and New
ENGLAND in summer; and in winter,
while cold at the. north. peculiarly
mild in, the south. so mild that from
Sitka a thousand miles west the mean
winter temperature is very much like
that of the city of Washington. OF
course, in a region of such vast extent