The San Francisco call., 1908-12-27

where for room to live-has been a
term pregnant with romance. In
Alaska today 1t means as much of ad-
venture and as much OF wildness as 1t
did In the days when men talked mys-
teriously OF ST. Brandon's isle and the
birds that sang in sunlit valleys to
the blessed. But the westward Is now
a region of stern endurance, a place
where rock islands thrust themselves
from foghung sea; where Asia and
America reach toward each other
across a northern ocean: where slant
eyed Japanese and fiaxen haired Swedes
and gray eyed Irish and swarthy Kama
kas sometimes fight bloody battles with
each other for the rich spoil of seal
rookeries-and again steal silently
away from the white revenue cutters
that guard forbidden ground. Here the
sealing fleet goes, into this northern
ocean whittier the seals swim yearly
to rest and to breed. Yearly 1T returns
laden with Its skins; and the skins are
shipped all over the world wherever
women adorn themselves in costly
garb.
other furs than sealskfns. harder to
get because the animals live more
sparsely and farther to the north, come
yearly to San Francisco. The battle for
this commerce has never been told. 1t
has been a 40 years fight between local
firms and the Hudson Bay company. and
1t has resulted in the latter institution
withdrawing inland. Today one San
Francisco house practically controls
this trade. 1t outfits its own trappers.
supplying them with clothing. traps.
food and even houses. which have been
made here and carried into the Arctic
to be put together. It's trappers and
sea and the Arctic ocean from years
end to years end. And some OF the
traders, venturing westward, even bar
ter with the natives of northern ST.
IBERIA, who row out to sea to board
their vessels.
cisco firm has of late years maintained
a fleet of whaling vessels which go into
the Arctic after bone. Between the
whaling fleet and other carriers II
covers the coast from Juneau west TO
Dutch harbor. from Dutch harbor north
ward; and then. from the uttermost
point of the mainland eastward in the
frozen. Arctic past the mouth of the
Mackenzie. Fox, marten. Alaska griZ-
ely. mink, wolf, ferret and even the polar
bear monarch of the icefoes-all OF
them are being hunted and trapped by
men who preserve the skins for the
coming of vessels from the Golden gate
Where the Pacific nears Berins sea.
Cooks inlet creeps in among forest
clad mountains And from the inlet's
head, finding its way from the foot
hills. of Mount Mckinley. the loftiest
peak on this continent. comes the Shu-
shitna river. No stream Is less known.
not even the ice hemmed Mackenzie.
It's banks are clothed by dense woods,
that never end. And mountain ranges
which white men have never explored
rise behind 1t. Here Copper river In
dfans, rowing westward. have often
built their rude brush houses. three
sided with a great fire in front, and
lived through half winter; and hostile
tribes. meeting one another in spring
or summer. have battled fiercely for
the hunting. The watershed is vast,
wild region in area, the size of several
western states 1t has many fur. bear
ing animals. among them the famous
silver gray and the rarer black foxes.
Bear crash through its dense UNDER