more until the following spring, when, as before, they repeat their family gatherings and births in the rookeries of St. Paul and St. George. It is not known where they go nor whence they come: doubtless they seek refuge in some of the islands off the Asiatic coast.

The fur of these seals is very dark, fine, soft, and beautiful, like the finest black silk velvet, with a golden shade toward the skin. Long, coarse gray hairs stand out above this fine coat, and all skins are pickelled, sent to London, England, (the only part of the world where they are dressed,) where, by a process of operating on the flesh side, all the long hairs are extracted, and the skins dressed, leaving a soft, beautiful plush of great value and highly prized.

Considering the great importance of the whale, walrus, sea-otter, salmon, cod, and other fisheries of Alaska, and the needed development of the resources of the country, both the constitutionality and the equity of the national government giving absolute and exclusive control of the islands of St. George and St. Paul, their valuable fur-seals and inhabitants, into the hands of a few capitalists, to the exclusion of all other citizens of the republic, may well be seriously questioned. The fur seal-skins which a few years since could be bought of the natives of the Aleutian islands for a dollar apiece are now sold when dressed, throughout the United States, at twenty-five dollars each and upwards.

The fur-seal of Alaska is not found in any other part of America. The seal so numerous off the coast of Newfoundland and vicinity, taken on the ice by fleets of steamers and vessels annually, are the common hair seal, brown and spotted-the skin and oil of each being worth only about three dollars.

The population of Alaska is estimated at fifty thousand, less than two thousand of whom are white. On the cession of the country to the United States nearly all the Russian population left the country for St. Petersburg and Siberia; but a few, however, still remain in the country. The Indian tribes composing the population are numerous, but are generally of a docile and submissive nature. So long have they been under the dominion of the Russian American Fur Company and the Greek church priests, that submission has become a fixed part of their conduct. Few locate permanently, but in the interior live by the chase, and on the coast . are largely employed in killing walrus, sea-otter, furseals, and fish. On the coast and islands they all belong to the Greek church, and Russian and native priests attend to their spiritual wants and afford them some degree of education. The physical type and social qualities of the Japanese are strongly marked in many of the coast natives, from whom many of them, doubtless, have descended. The islands are generally barren rocks with but scant timber or vegetation, the natives living chiefly on rye and coarse bread furnished them by the fur-seal companies, seal-meat, and fish. The Alaska Commercial Company in possession of St. George and St. Paul have made some effort to maintain schools among the natives; but whether or not the condition of the natives (so called) under this monopoly is not a species of slavery of American citizens is a subject worthy the closest investigation and study of the national government.

So far, no towns of any importance have been built in Alaska. Sitka, known as New Archangel, a little village of a dozen frail tenements, was the ancient

head-quarters of the Russians in Russian America. It is built on one of the islands of the coast, about nine degrees north of Queen Charlotte island, in the group discovered by Tschirikoff, Behring's associate, in 1741. It is geographically situated in latitude 57° 2′ 45′′ north, longitude 135° 17′ 10′′ west, and, although so far north, the weather is never cold, the thermometer rarely marking lower than 20° above Fahrenheit. The town is built on a low belt of land close to the shore, with the residence of the former Russian governor, a clumsy wooden building, standing upon a rock about one hundred feet above the other houses. The country in the vicinity is a succession of high hills densely wooded, and snow-capped mountains. On Crooze island, opposite the town, is Mount Edgcumbe, an extinct volcano, rising eight thousand feet above the sea.

Sitka has made no progress in the last half century, and with the exception of a few soldiers, and the United States custom officers, a few traders and Indians, and the old Russian Greek church, there is little to indicate settlement. There are no roads, either on the islands or mainland. The country has not yet been organized under a territorial government, and with the exception of the fishing interest being developed, there are little signs of material improvement; and Sitka, with its dilapidated wharf, ancient Russian fort, old storehouses, houses painted yellow with iron roofs painted red, the old Russian hulks of ships on the shore propped up and roofed over, and the green dome of the old Greek church, with a few lounging soldiers and sleepy officers, an unemployed "collector," who has no customs to collect, an empty post-office, bands of half-nude Indians, troops of wolf-dogs, and ninety inches of rain per annum,

makes Sitka, as a place, very desirable to leave. A newspaper, The Alaska Herald, (supposed to be published in Alaska,) intended to represent the interests of Alaska and Siberia and the North Pacific coast generally, is issued at San Francisco. There are four postoffices in Alaska-one at Fort Tongass, one at Fort Wrangel, one at Kodiak, and one at Sitka. A steamer runs between San Francisco and Sitka, a distance of about one thousand six hundred miles, making a trip once a month; and vessels leave San Francisco occasionally for this port, which has, during the past twenty years, supplied California with ice, this being the only point south of that place on the coast where ice could be obtained. Since the building of railroads in California, however, the lakes in the Sierras supply the greater part of the ice used in California.

The extent and value of the fishing interests of the newly acquired territory are very great. Off the coast, besides the valuable fur-seals, vast banks of cod and halibut, extending over an area of thirty thousand square miles, exist in the eastern section of Behring sea and about the Aleutian islands and the Kodiak group; and of late years fleets of fishing vessels leave San Francisco in June of each year, and take cargoes of cod and halibut in these waters and in the waters on the Asiatic coast along the line of Siberia, all the way from Plover bay to the Ochotsk sea. In this latter region, and along the coast of Kamschatka at Petropaulovski, and even in the region of the Amoor river, fishermen and traders from California extend their operations, and among a class of active, industrious, and in many cases prosperous people resident in these quarters, find hearty welcome and reciprocity in trade. This