The Nome nugget., 1927-04-16
SEE. FLETCHER.

SEN FLETCHER Do you have much tide there?
 COL. STEEsE. About h feet. but fre- quenty the winds make difference of or 5 feet. Bering Sea is very shallow and has uniform depth for 300 miles, that strong wind will pick up that water and almost blow the harbor away.
 SEN FLETCHER. What depth?
 COL STEEsE About hundred feet hundred fathoms I have forgotten which. One hundred fathoms I think. It is comparatively shallow depth.
 SEN. REED What is the present popua- tion of Alaska?
 COL. sTEEsE. Of course. have in formation since the 1920 which it about 5000. We know that many thousands of railway employees have been replaced by families, by permanent residents. think there has been increase in the population. and think the char acter of the population, sabilizing influences, has been improved. We will have no new census for years.
 SEN. JONES. That is the white people?
 COL sTEESE. No. sir That includes the natives It is about half half The Indians and Eskmos together amount to about the same as the white population,
 was up this Wseman camp. The De- troit Mining Company in there this year. We took the largest boat. the General Jacobs, that had ever been up that river. with barge loads of supplies, and six horses for that company. took advantage of the opportunity to hazard trip up that river that otherwise could not have made, and I say I came out by airplane
 SEN FLETCHER. Are there many air planes up there!
 COL sTEEsE. We have had commer- cial companies for several years. The last Terri toral Legislature appropriated money for aviation fields I have built in the last two years about 25 landing fields for arplanes. Up within the last few weeks Alaska the only subdivision of the United States where any encouragement to commercial aviation had yet been taken by the State General Government
 SEN. FLETCHER. Those two companies have about how many planes?
 COL sTEEsE. At this moment I think they have four. One of them smashed coming over to get me. sent a radioeram back to have them send another The aviator broke his nose and wrecked his plane. but otherwise was unhurt. But it took two days find out about it, because it happened in remote canyon
 SEN FLETCHER. They carry some pass engers but much freight?
 COL STEEsE He was coming over with about 500 pounds of fresh meat. These people up in this camp do not get their first supplies from the outside until about the 10th of July, and this was about the 1st of June. So, they were bringing beef couple of ladies were getting shoes and all sorts of supplies from Fairbanks by airplane They were giving them rate of 40 cents pound. Of course this particular ship ment of meat total loss, and that illustrates some of the dihiculties of living in these remote territories. They entirely out of fresh meat and canned meat. think the 1st of June I ate little of the last ham they had fin camp until they were to get .the meat from the airplane
 SEN. FLETCHER. thought they had plenty of meat-reindeers.
 COL. STEESE. Not in that particular sec tion. This Is purely mining district up here in the high mountains, where it is long distance TOSS country even to get caribou. Of course lt- tie later the hunters come in with fresh meat but there would be times when they were out of t.
 SEN. FLETCHER There are great possi-