In

poison, etc., the trade has very much improved and the maximum year of products was 1914, $632,063. The furs taken in 1914 were as follows: Ermine, 6,873; red fox, 14,967; white fox, 6,530; lynx, 6,930; marten, 6,497; mink, 65,623; muskrat, 101,202; and land otter, 1,008. October 1915 the United States sold at auction 513 blue-fox skins at an average of $114.45, an advance of $72 over the last sale. Selected lots ran from $245 to $273 per pelt. The white fox pelts averaged $24.55. The value remained materially unchanged in 1916 and 1917. A novel industry was introduced about 1894, the breeding of foxes. Thirty or more uninhabited islands, principally situated from Prince William Sound westward to the Fox Islands, have been leased by the United States to the breeders. Few of these enterprises have resulted in returns adequate for the labor and capital therein involved.

Of

Fisheries. With the marked decrease in the fur products from $3,054,414 in 1888 to $2,121,611 in 1891 — the fishery industries rose during the same period from $1,447,478 to $2,856,742 annually, thus making it temporarily of primary importance in Alaskan trade. To include 1916 the product of Alaskan fisheries aggregates in round figures, $260,000,000. this amount $20,000,000 came from cod, whale, halibut, etc., in contradistinction to the far more productive of all branches the salmon industry. From 1868 to 1880 the average output of all fisheries was about $170,000. The following decade saw the product quintupled, the income from 1881-90 averaging $850,000 annually-almost half the value of the fursof which nine-tenths were derived from the salmon. The subsequent growth in the salmon industry has been constant and astonishing. The average annual values in periods of five years are as follows: 1891-95, $2,100,000; 18961900, $3,400,000; 1901-05, $6,700,000; 1906-10, $11,000,000; and 1911-15, $16,900,000. Except for one year (1913) the increase has been uninterrupted from 1905 to 1915. The year of maximum productivity for this period was 1914, $19,474,393, followed closely by 1915 with values of $19,053,905. The output is again steadily increasing, the values for 1916 for canned salmon alone being $23,269,429, with the probability that this sum will be very largely increased in 1917. Although temporarily surpassed by the gold output, the salmon is now the most valuable single product of Alaska, and affects industrially the maximum number of persons. The plants are elaborate, including at least 100 canneries, and five hatcheries. The entire fisheries give employment to about 22,000 persons, of whom some 4,000 are natives. The entire investments exceed $37,000,000, of which the salmon industry alone amounts to $35,000,000.

Mineral Resources. Gold.- In 1880 Alaska began gold mining, but the yearly product was not considered of importance until it passed the million-dollar mark for 1892. The development is clearly shown by the average annual output for decades: 1881-90, $462,000; 1891-1900, $2,821,000; 1901-10, $14,572,000, and for the five years ending with 1915, $16,418,485. The total products to include 1915 aggregate $260,858,943, divided by districts as follows: Pacific Coast belt, $76,259,295; Copper River and Cook Inlet region, $6,613,783; Yukon Basin,

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$106,423,169; Seward Peninsula and Northwestern Alaska, $71,562,700. The mining operations of 1916 added to these figures a value of $11,140,000 in placer gold and $5,912,736 from the lode mines, a total value for the year of $17,052,736.

Of the total yield of gold in Alaska, 72 per cent is obtained from placers, 27.6 per cent from lode-mines, and 0.4 per cent from copper ores. Juneau is the most important of the lode-mining centres, although some lode-mines are in operation at Fairbanks, and in the Kuskokwim and Nome districts. In the season of 1916, 42 dredges were operating in the streams of Alaska, 37 of these being in the waters of the Seward Peninsula. These great machines recovered 94 per cent of the entire value won from Alaska's gold placers, the output of the small workings reaching little above $600,000. The Territory of Alaska, as regards its mining interests, is classified as follows: (1) The Pacific Coast Belt includes all mines in southeastern Alaska Ketchikan, Wrangell, Juneau and Berner Bay regions. Far greatest in productivity are the quartz mines of Juneau, where the famous Treadwell lode mines on Douglas Island, the largest gold mines in the world, with their plant of concentrators, stamps, workshops, etc., have produced nine-tenths of the gold of the Pacific belt. The yield of its three largest mines in 1905 exceeded $2,000,000, and in 1908 was $3,000,000, and in 1916 attained an output of $4,500,000. Second in importance are the quartz mines on the mainland near Juneau. In 1916 there were 13 lode mines producing ore, and the output was $5,912,736, an almost uninterrupted yearly increase from 1897. The average of the past five years exceeds $5,500,000 annually. (2) The Copper River district has averaged an output of $300,000, which has increased for the past five years to $450,000, with its maximum of $605,390 in 1915. (3) The Yukon Basin has produced a larger amount of gold than any other Alaskan district. Of surpassing importance were the placer diggings of the Tanana watershed, where the Fairbanks yield of $350,000 in 1904 rose to $3,750,000 in 1905, and then gradually to $9,200,000 in 1908. The maximum for the Yukon Basin was $11,580,000 in 1909, since which time, despite the discovery of new plácers in the basins of the Innoko and upper Kuskokwim, the production has fallen very gradually to $7,367,776 in 1915, of which more than $300,000 came from lode-mines. (4) The Seward Peninsula is better known to the public as the Nome region. This district sprang into fame when the unimportant output of $75,000 in 1898 rose to $2,800,000 in 1899. The yearly output reached a maximum of $7,500,000 in 1906; after that it decreased steadily to $2,535,000 in 1913, but is again tending upward, the product of 1915 being $2,920,000. The gold production from 1901 to 1907 amounted to $37,000,000, the Nome district yielding about $28,000,000. Thirty-six deep mines were operated in 1915 in the Nome district, where the total gold product was about $1,500,000, while some $700,000 came from the Council district. (5) Among smaller isolated districts the most promising for future increases with their outputs in 1915 are: Tolovana, 50 miles northwest of Fairbanks, $60,000; Kuskokwim, $110,000; Chisana, $135,000; Inoko, $190,000; Koyukuk, $300,000;

Hot Springs, $550,000, and Iditarod, more than $2,000,000. These are placer mines, in which some steam dredges are at work.

Silver. The silver production of Alaska in 1916 amounted to 1,379,261 ounces, valued at $907,554. About nine-tenths of this was secured incidentally in the mining of copper, the amount being not far from 1,200,000 ounces. The remainder was gained in the mining of gold. An undeveloped source of silver in Alaska exists in the extensive deposits of argentiferous galena, which up to 1916 were still lying idle. Since 1880, including the output of 1916, Alaska has yielded a grand total of 6,302,459 ounces of silver, valued at $3,729,465.

SO

Copper. While gold has for 20 years shown the largest value among the mineral products of Alaska, it bids fair to be surpassed in importance by copper in the immediate future. For a few years prior to 1905 copper was profitably mined, to the value of about $200,000 annually, in the Ketchikan district on Prince of Wales Island. The number of working mines reached 10 in 1906 with an output of $920,000. Later rich veins were discovered on the adjacent Kasaan Peninsula, where more than 30 mines were opened. Very rich deposits of sulphides and of native copper were discovered, scattered over the country from the Saint Elias region to Cook Inlet. Rich and easily worked veins were found on the eastern shores, and adjacent islands, of Prince William Sound. The richest and most productive deposits are those in the watershed of the Chitina, on the southern flank of the Wrangell Mountains, where there are several mines and scores of prospective drifts. These deposits were extensive and valuable that the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, 197 miles long, was built to transport the ores of the Bonanza copper mines from the northeastern terminus at Kennicott. In connection with the Bonanza, Jumbo and Mother Lode mines there have been installed tramways, concentrators, etc., for handling the immense quantities of ore produced. The production of 1914 was great, but it was quadrupled in 1915, in which year the product was 40 per cent of the grand total mined in Alaska from the beginning. From 13 mines there were obtained 86,509,312 pounds, valued at $15,139,129, besides by-products of $600,000. In 1916, 18 copper mines were operated in Alaska, yielding a total of 119,600,000 pounds. Nine of these mines were in the Ketchikan district, six on Prince William Sound and three in the Chitina belt. greater part of the output, however, came from three large mines-two in the Copper River country, and one on Prince William Sound. The lack of transportation facilities is a serious obstacle to the development of many mining properties known to contain extensive and valuable deposits. Since 1903, the grand total of copper mined in Alaska, inclusive of the output of 1916, amounted to 339,513,375 pounds, valued at $68,839,581.

The

Other Metals. Of other metals, Alaska yields small supplies, with prospects of great increases when the transportation facilities are extended to reach the mining areas. The most important output in point of size is of lead. In 1916 the lead production amounted to 820 tons, making the total yield of lead up to the close of 1916, 2,080 tons. The larger proportion of

this output has been gained from gold ores, principally from the lode mines in the Juneau mainland belt, which carry considerable galena. Galena-bearing lodes are found also in the Ketchikan and Wrangell districts in southeastern Alaska; in the Fairbanks district; in the Fish River basin of Seward Peninsula; in the Broad Pass region; in the Mentasta Pass region; in the Koyukuk district; and in many other more remote localities, where distance from transportation lines renders them unavailable for the present.

Antimony has been mined in Alaska only since 1915. In that year 833 tons of stibnite, carrying about 57 per cent of antimony, was sent into the market. In 1916 the output was 1,458 tons. Most of this ore came from the six mines of the Fairbanks district. Two newly opened mines in the Nome country added a small production. The most important lode is located in the Ketchikan district, and development was begun in 1916. Other localities, accessible to transportation the year round, are lodes on Prince William Sound, on Kenai Peninsula and in the Nizina district.

Tin has been mined in the York district of the Seward Peninsula since 1902, and, later, in the Hot Springs district. The total amount recovered, including the 139 tons gained in 1916, has been 767 tons. Most of this has been obtained incidentally by dredges operating for gold in the stream beds. Two lode mines are in operation in the York district, with a small annual output. There are a number of known tin-bearing placers in York district, and stream tin is widely distributed throughout the Hot Springs district, but few miners make any attempt to save it. The York tin mining is carried on only through the summer season, and the Hot Springs placers can be worked only about three months.

Tungsten, in its ore scheelite, has been for a considerable period recognized in the gold placers of Fairbanks, Iditarod and Nome. In 1915 a scheelite-bearing lode was opened near Fairbanks, and in 1916 others were located and opened in that vicinity and also near Nome. Some of the dredges in the Nome and Iditarod districts separate the scheelite from their concentrates. Both wolframite and scheelite are found in some of the gold placers of the York district, and wolframite has also been found in some of the gold placers of the Yukon-Tanana region. In 1916 the total output of tungsten ore in Alaska was 47 tons.

Platinum began to attract the attention of the Alaskan placer miners in 1916, and 10 or 12 ounces were recovered, most of it in the newly developed Koyuk district, in the southeastern part of Seward Peninsula and in the Slate Creek placers in the upper Copper River Basin. Platinum has also been reported as in considerable quantity in the gold-bearing gravels of the Kahiltna River, and in the beach placers of Lituya Bay and of Red River, Kodiak Island.

Quicksilver occurs as cinnabar in lodes in the lower Kuskokwin region, and in nearby localities in the Yukon Basin. The extent of the deposits has not yet (1917) been defined.

Nickel and cobalt have been found in a copper-bearing lode near Pinta Cove, on the west side of Chichagof Island, in the Sitka district. There are deposits of molybdenite at several

points in southeastern Alaska, and in the Willow Creek district, but no attempt to develop them had been made up to the close of 1916. A bismuth-bearing vein occurs on Charley Creek in the Nome district, and this metal is also found in connection with gold at two points in the Tanana valley. No output was reported for 1916.

Coal.-Coal occurs in Alaska in many widely separated sections, and in many grades, ranging from a fair quality of anthracite to lignite. Much the larger part of the coal area is so remote from transportation lines as to be available only for local uses. The only area at present accessible is the Matanuska field, yielding high grade steam and coking coals, and low grade bituminous coal. This field is reached by the Matanuska Branch of the government railroad. The Bering River field, yielding high grade steam and smithing coal, and perhaps coking coal, with some anthracite, can be made accessible by the completion of the railroad now under construction, and its extension into the central and western parts of this field, where the best coal is found. The Cook Inlet field lies practically at tidewater, but yields only lignite.

Notwithstanding the extensive areas of its coal-fields, the amount, mined in Alaska has been insignificant, amounting to less than 50,000 tons. The withdrawal of coal-lands from public entry in 1907 ended all mining, but legislation in 1914 provided for utilization of the coal. Over 1,200 square miles of area have been determined by survey to be coal-fields, while there are good reasons for the belief that 11,400 other square miles are underlaid by coal-bearing rocks. About 58 per cent of the known fields are of lignite, while 7 per cent are high-grade coal- there being 26 square miles of anthracite, 7 of semi-anthracite and 50 of semi-bituminous. No considerable area of high-grade coal has been found outside of the fields in the basins of the Bering and the Matanuska Rivers. By far the greater amount is in the Bering River field—22 square miles of anthracite and 28 square miles of semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous. The coals vary from 84 per cent of fixed carbon in the anthracite to 74 per cent in the semi-bituminous. Workable Bering beds are known from 3 to 25 feet in thickness. In the Matanuska field of 46 square miles the seams vary from 5 to 30 feet in thickness. The estimates for these two fields indicate the presence of at least 3,554,000,000 tons of high-grade coal, which estimates will doubtless be largely increased when detailed surveys are made. Bituminous coal exists in large quantities in the Alaska Peninsula. Throughout the Yukon Basin coal is widely distributed, the principal fields being the Nulato (the best coal), the Washington (upper Yukon), and the very extensive Nenana lignite coals, where 66 square miles are covered by veins from 500 to 1,800 feet in thickness at many points. Three fields are known on the Arctic coast Cape Lisburne, Wainwright Inlet and the Colville Basin.

Under the Act of 16 July 1914, the Alaskan coal lands were opened for public use. The act empowers the President to reserve for governmental purposes coal-bearing lands not exceeding 5,120 acres in the Bering River Basin, 7,680 acres in the Matanuska field and one-half of the other coal-fields. Unreserved coal lands

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are to be divided into blocks of 40 acres, and no combined blocks exceeding 2,560 acres in the aggregate shall pass under any one control, the leases to run for 50 years only. Limitations are imposed on aliens, corporations, railroads and other common carriers. Royalties of not less than two cents per ton are to be levied, while annual rentals rising from 25 cents per acre for the first year to $1 in the sixth and succeeding years are provided for. The royalties and rentals are to form funds for the construction of railways and for other public utilities in Alaska.. Leases must contain provisions for an eight-hour day as well as other welfare restrictions in favor of the miners. For strictly local or for domestic use permits may be granted covering the mining for 10 years, without royalties, of areas not exceeding 10 acres. No less than 47,742 tons of coal were imported by Alaskans during the fiscal year 1917, which indicates the inadequacy of the coal law of 1914. See COAL LANDS.

Agriculture. The United States has fostered agricultural interests through four experimental stations: Sitka, nursery, etc.; Kodiak, dairy, etc.; Rampart, grain; and Fairbanks, farm demonstration. Despite much effort agriculture is only successful near large settlements and to a moderate degree. The growing season of six months on the southern islands drops to four in the interior valleys. The most important products are vegetables on favored grounds in the valleys of the Susitna, Koyukuk, Copper River, and especially the Tanana. The reduced importations of vegetables, despite large increase of population, indicates the increasing volumes of these products. The values of all vegetable shipments into Alaska aggregated $700,000 in 1906, but was only $522,000 in 1915; imported hay fell from '16,044 tons in 1913 to 8,780 in 1917.

Manufactures.- Apart from the canneries the manufacturing establishments of Alaska are few. The census of 1910 reported the following additional: 22 with 178 persons engaged in lumber products; 16 with 89 persons in printing and 68 with 290 persons in miscellaneous work.

Forests. The forestal resources have been conserved by congressional legislation. Originally about 40 per cent of the Territory was wooded, of which the coastal woodlands are now protected. The Chugach forest, over 800 square miles in area, includes most of the valuable timber in the neighborhood of Prince William Sound and on the adjacent island of Afognak. Some considerable areas in this forest have spruce and hemlock ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 feet per acre. The Tongass

forest, with an area of 100 square miles, brings under national control the timber of the Sitkan Archipelago and the adjoining mainland. The timber is heavier and more valuable than elsewhere. It consists of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, western red cedar and yellow cypress. The exportation of timber from the Territory is forbidden. Wood for domestic purposes is free to all living on or near the national forests, as is the timber needed by prospectors while developing their claims. Nearly 40,000,000 feet of timber were sold from the national forests in 1915, which returned a net income of $7,265. While the woodlands of the interior are inferior in quality, consisting mainly of