Douglas Island news., 1907-09-04
Steamship City of Puebla left Nome

Steamship City of Puebla left Nome August 21 for Seattle with 800 passeu- gers and S800,00O in treasure. The Pu. ebla was an easy winner in the race North and broke all Northern speed records, reaching St. Michaelin six and half days. The distance to her desti- nation from Seattle is 2,380 knots, or 2,78O miles, approximately, and the yes sel maintained an average speed of l5.3 knots an hour on the run.
 The Seattle P.-I says that E. H. Har- riman, the railway magnate, has pur- chased two Kodiak bears, which arrived in Seattle by the steamer Bertha on her last trip from the North. The bears have no connection with Mir. Harri- mans recent operations in the stock market. "Mike" and Bridget" are the young savages, who have been in the world little over two months, and they don't give care about stocks and bonds. Mike and Bridget are grizzlies and of pure Kodiak lineage, which stamps them as so fierce that the Unit ed States government offers large reward for the death of every relative of theirs. Officers of the Bertha state this reward is S750 bear. The two cubs lost their mother at the time of their capture. She is described as an immense brute She was slain by trap pers, and the chase led over the edge of a steep cliff, where the bear fell some hundreds of feet almost unharmed. Mike and Bridget believe the hand of every man is against them, and their paws, already armed with long, sharp claws, are against every man. Even the photographer failed to bring smile to their faces. Capt. J. c. Downing, of the Bertha, secured the bears from the trapper who killed the mother. They will be shipped to New York as soon as word is received of where to address them. MT. Hartman has sought a couple of cubs for private park for some time.
 The bureau, of statistics has just pub- lished the complete record of the Alas ka trade in the fiscal year 1907, with the result that the grand total appears to be S59, ,455,382. Ever since 1899 there has been a steady consistent gain in Alaska trade each year, keeping pace with the steady development of the sterling resources of the territory. This increase has amounted to from lO to 15 per cent. each year. In the fiscal period just closed, however, there was an enormous gain, confirming the opin- ion that the territory has at last "struck it's pace" The gain in all shipments, both northward and southward, was s12. .227. .961, or more than S1,000,000 per month as compared with the record of the year before. The percentage in- crease was 26, and it is interesting to note that the increase in shipments of precious metals, large as it was, was iust about the same as the gain in mer chandise shipments. There was good deal of talk about the backward Alaska trade early this summer, but the latest official reports show that the month of June made good record. The chip ments of domestic merchandise to the territory in June amounted to S2,499. 21O, which was nearly 9 per cent. high CT than the shipments in the same month of last year. Seattle continues to enjoy almost an absolute monopoly of the Alaska commerce. Of the ST. S11.O93 of domestic merchandise shipped into the territory during the last fiscal year, the shipments from Puget sound aggregated S16, ,225, ,547.