"I have seen enough to convince me," he said, "that no other Territory of the Union, at so early a period in its civil history, presented nearly so many or as great possibilities for the future. That Alaska was not supplied with local civil government a dozen years ago is to be deplored; that so-called scientists in the pay of the General Government have heretofore 'damned with faint praise,' if they did not openly condemn the country as utterly worthless, save for its valuable fur trade-basing their statements on what they were able to see, looking at its rugged coast from their favorite standpoint of the Prybilov Islands-is still more to be regretted, for the reason that the tardy and at last only partially performed act of justice on the one hand was but the result of either the ignorant or willful misstatements of those to whom Congress looked for information upon which to base any and all legislation affecting the rights, privileges and interests of Alaska and its people. "Nowhere in my home travels, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, from Washington to Sitka, have I seen a more luxuriant vegetation than in Southeastern Alaska. I find the hardier vegetables all growing to maturity and enormous size." There was a time when it was quite the fashion for public officials to suggest the relinquishment of the Alaskan possessions altogether on the ground that they would constantly be a source of expense and no revenue. Gen. McDowell, as late as 1879, expressed the opinion that the best thing the United States could do with Alaska would be to sell it, and there are executive documents making a similar suggestion. The day of belittling has long passed. Alaska has paid for itself many times over. Prior to the development of her mineral resources Alaska's visible wealth was in her fisheries and furs. For years the popular imagination conceived of little in connection with the Territory except fur seals, and the complicated questions arising with regard to the protection of seal life have been the occasion of long-pending diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, of a costly court of arbitration and of the employment of experts by the dozen to travel to the seal islands and express their views. More has been written on the subject of the seal fisheries than on all other topics connected with Alaska twenty times over, but to everybody's relief the seal, with its retinue of experts and diplomats, will hereafter occupy a secondary place in the economy of the Territory. The Pribylof Islands in Bering Sea are the breeding places for the seal herd. At the time of the transfer to the United States the herd numbered in the millions. Russia limited herself to the capture of between 50,000 and 70,000 annually. The United States took 100,000 from the beginning, and continued to make these annual drafts down to the year 1890. In 1891 the number of the herd was placed at 500,000. In 1895 this had been still further reduced to 237,500, according to the report of Mr. Murray, the United States special agent. Since then the number has been still further diminished. Indeed, it has been manifest for abou' twelve years that through pelagic or deep sea sealing by Canadian marauders the herd was rapidly approaching extinction. Since 1890 the United States, through negotiation diplomatically, has been endeavoring to put a stop to pelagic sealing in Bering Sea, and the legitimate catch has been limited. The arbitration commission which sat in Paris in 1893 made an award which had no apparen'. good result, and further efforts |