The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-25


 side of the world and Attn. the last of our islands. is in the orient 1500 miles dis tant and not very far from Kamchatka. | We have & coaling station on the Island of Kisks, which is in the eastern hemi- sphere, and there the evening twilight has not disappeared when the sun Is rising ! in Maine. John Bull often boasts that | the sun never sets on British possessions.
 The same is true of Uncle Sam's domin- 1 ions, when we take in Attu Island and l the Philippine archipelago.
 l The Aleutian Islands are volcanic. They are the heads of volcanoes which have
 been almost drowned in the sea. The Island of Unimak has two active volca- I noes, but the heads of both were lost in the clouds when we sailed by. The
 highest of these mountains has an alti- 1 tude of more than 5000 feet. It is known 1 as Shshaldin. We could see it plainly
 as we sailed through Unimak pass. The foothills were green, but far up the sides
 the grass was lost in the snow of the
 mountains and the peak was hidden in clouds. During our passage the sun | seemed to set between the ship and the
 island. There was a great black cloud
 floating in the sky between us and Uni
 mak. Out of the bottom of the cloud | came four broad shafts of light making | a translucent veil, as it were, between 1 the ship and the island. and losing them i selves in the sea. These shafts were | of rainbow hues and through them we could plainly see the smoky outlines of 1 the island beyond. The rays of the sun seemed to mark the end of this side of
 the world and Unimak to belong to the l other side. Above the black cloud from which the veil of rainbow came the sky was a brilliant blue and higher still were | golden clouds painted by the hidden sun. | It was combination of sky and land and l sea that l have never witnessed in any other part of the world.
 1 Unimak is the largest of the Aleutian Islands. It guards the chief pass into l Boring sea and near it is Unalaska 1 Island, upon which is Dutch harbor, one | of the safe ports of the territory. The | harbor is on bay backed by hills that 1 slope gently up from the water and are lost in high mountains behind. Captain 1 Cook landed there just two years after we declared our independence of England. | The islands had been discovered by Vitus Boring in TAI, but Cook was the first one to tell the English much about them. He found the natives gentle and inof- fensve and said that they might serve as a pattern to the most civilized nation on earth. He described them as short, plump and well formed. The women wore garments of sealskin and some of the men had clothes made of brdskins, with the feathers next to their flesh. The men had holes in their lips in which they wore buttons of bone. Their houses were holes in the earth covered with a frame work of driftwood and help up by whale bone. Then entered their houses through a dark tunnel. going down a ladder. The principal room was from 10 to 20 feet in diameter. They used lamps for heating and their furniture consisted of bowls, spoons and buckets, the latter being made of straw closely woven.
 There were about 30 GOO of these Aleu- tians on the islands when the Russians first took possession. They were hunters and fishers, and were skilled in catching sea otter, which was then about the most valuable fur known to man. The Rus sians exploited the Aleuts to such an ex- tent that they were almost exterminated They have greatly decreased since we bought Alaska, and it is doubtful whether there are thousand of them living to- day. At Dutch harbor and on some of the other islands, the people are now living in buildings erected by the whites but on many of the islets they have homes half underground, living much as they did when Captain Cook came. They are very poor, and now that the govern ment has made bird and game reserva- ton of the Aleutians, their condition is worse than ever. According to the pres ent law, one has to have a permit from the government before he can hunt game In these islands Dr. Lester Jones, who as a representative of Secretary Redfield, travelled among them a few years ago, said that some of the islanders live 800 miles from postoffice, and that to get a permit they would have to travel 34OJ miles in their canoes to mail the letter asking for permission to hunt and in coming back for the answer. It would probably take several months to get such a permit and there could be no surety as to just when the reply would arrive.
 I am surprised at the mildness of the climate of the Aleutian Islands. Their summers are cooler than Sitka, but the weather is quite warm in the winter and warmer than that of either Tennessee or Kentucky. At Unalaska the average Jan uary temperature is 30 degrees above zero Its climate is warmer than that of Wash irgton, Baltimore or St. Louis. All of the islands are rainy and foggy. The aver age rainfall is about 10 inches a month, and Unalaska is said to have 250 rainy days in the year.
 It is questionable whether the islands will ever support any considerable pop ulation. So far they have no whites ex- cept few fox farmers who have taken single islands and are trying to raise blue foxes there
 There has been some talk of using the islands for dairying, but there is a diff ference of opinion as to whether it would pay. The climate Is such that grain will not mature, but grasses of all kinds grow in abundance, and on the lowlands the year. The soil is vegetable mold mixed with volcanic ash. The country is very rugged and there are no places where farms of any size could be made
 have before me letters from several school teachers who have been doing missionary and educational work in the Aleutians. These men have planted gar den patches which they call farms. One from Unalaska writes that he has sue cessfully raised oats for ensilage and that his turnip crop has equaled 450 bushels per acre. He planted the turnips in rows, thinning them out from time to time, cultivating them as long as it was possible to get the blow through. He had wheat, rye and alfalfa which lasted over winter and made good ensiage when cut the following year. Another farmer says that potatoes do very well, but that in- sects are destructive to cabbages, ruta- bagas and turnipS.
 There is no doubt but that cattle can be raised on the Island of Kodiak. That island is not one of the Aleutians. It lies far to the eastward, being only about