The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-05

AIUska Weeds Immediate. Definite, Adequate Relief By Lester Director suvey)

portions of the uncovered vein showed nuggets and wires of free gold, and assays made of certain choice sam pies showed the gold contents run ming as high as $2,200 per ton of ore. l Yet, rich as was the vein the own CTS were helpless to profit from it. The mine was at the head of a small bay which, with the waters leading to 1t, was unsurveyed, but known to be foul ana dangerous; vessels passing along the coast could see large areas of reefs with jagged rocks showing above the surface. Therefore, the steamship companies refused to send ln their vessels, to bring in mining machinery, or to carry out ore, ex- cept at prohibitive cost. And there are many other instances of similar nature where lack of accurate sur veys has prevented development.
 COMPLETE SURVEY NEEDED l Because of the rapidly increasing commercial importance of Alaska, it is imperative that the present condi- | tions as regards survey work be rem edied by means of complete surveys carried on in a systematic manner and extended with all possible ra- pidity.
 In order to appreciate the imme diate need for this work, it must be clearly understood that Alaska's only connection with the rest of the world is by water routes. The millions of dollars that are being expended to build the government railroads to the interior of Alaska; the large amount of private capital that has been, and will be, spent to develop her mines, to build up her fishing indus try; the certain early opening of the vast coal fields; the utilizing of the great timber resources for paper and lumber; all this would be wasted and her vast resources would be worth less If vessels could not reach and en- ter her ports or visit the railroad ter minals, canneries, and nearest ports as outlets to the many mines, grazing areas, etc
 And it is fact, at the present time, there are few passages that can be navigated and few harbors that can be entered by vessel with the as surance that the nearby shore line and landmarks and the contour of the bottom over which she is travel ing are accurately shown on the charts, or that the hidden dangers that may lie in her path have all been discovered and charted.
 That, in the past, instead of blazing 1 the trail for water borne commerce, i the coast and geodetic survey, be- cause of lack of funds and essential equipment, has been forced to lag far behind is as deplorable as it has been unavoidable. The time has now come, however, when we must face the is- sue squarely and realize that the in terests of passengers, commerce, owners, navigators,2 and those who have invested their capital in Alaskas industries must be safe-guarded by adequate surveys prosecuted vigor- ously and on much larger scale than heretofore. Even then it will take time before the surveys can reach point where they can meet the pres ent needs of commerce; and it must not be overlooked that the time is not far off when our naval vessels will frequent Alaskas waters in numbers. | Scarcely enough work has been done up to the present time to give an accurate idea of the amount of survey work that will be required. The following, however, may be taken as a general statement of conditions along this line
 In southeastern Alaska the first and most obvious need is to complete the surveys and especially wire drag work. Only the principal channels of these waters have been fairly well sounded, so that detailed surveys and wire dragging are necessary to con- plete the survey. The importance of wire-drag work in this locality and in other parts of Alaska will be dis cussed under a separate heading. l In many regions only scattered sur veys have been made. Complete hy dragraphic and topographic surveys must be made of all passages, bays and harbors. In practically every case this work must be supplemented by wire-drag surveys, and many To- calities in which the ordinary hydro