Some Alaska Notes. Dull Times at Sitka and Fort Wrangel-Indians Turned Smugglers. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Fort Wrangel, August 14, 1880.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1880
• Subjects: John Muir; Bibliography; Kimes; William F. Kimes; Maymie B. Kimes; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; naturalist; annotation; Cassiar; Fort Simpson; Indian; Prince of Wales Island; Yukon; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/146; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1145&context=jmb

SOME ALASKA NOTES. Dull Times at Sitka and Fort Wrangel— Indiaus Turned Smugglers* [FROM OUK SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Fokt Wranoel, Alaska, August 14,1880. I am back in my old quarters here, that I left last December, aud kindly and familiar everything hereabout seems. The glassy water the lovely evergreen islands; the Indians with their canoes and their baskets and blankets and berries; the jet ravens, prying and flying about the streets and spruce trees, and the bland, hushed atmosphere brooding tenderly over alt We arrived here early oa the morning of the 8th of this month by the steamer California, and the noise of our cannon and whistle was barely sufficient to awaken the sleepy town. The morning shout of one good rooster was the first, the only evidence of life and health that we could get in all the place. Fort Wrangel is very dull at present from a business point of view. The Cassiar gold mines, on which its- chief dependence is laid, are being rapidly, exhausted and though the civil war that was in. progress when I lett here last winter is ended, as well as the later war, between the Hootche- noos and Stickines, much of the Indian trade1 in furs /has been driven away, thus greatly increasing the depression due to the failing of the mines. On the 19th we arrived at Sitka, and here too,', business matters seemed dull, though far less so than in Wrangel. The stoppage of tbe quaftz mill belonging to the Alaska Gold and Silver Mining Company, owing to unfavorable results obtained from a few months' trial, has of course greatly lessened the activity prevailing here last December. It is hoped that a, larger mill will be built, that will enable the Company to work the low-grade rock of the Stewart mine at a fair profit. Prospecting is still being vigorously pushed among the adjacent mountains. One miner, Mr. Halsey, is saidl to De rnaktaff good wages by cushing quartz in. a large iron mortar. This rock, it is claimed, yields about $400 gold per ton. The JamestowD, lying here, makes, of course, some Utile stir in the business of the place. Commander Beardslee is evidently a man with a conscience, and doing the best he can with the limited means he has for both whites and Indiaus, and the interests of the Territory ia general! With Major Morris, special agent of the Treasury Department, he intended setting out to-day on tbe steamer Favorite on a cruise through the inland waters to the north of here, to look after Government interests among the different tribes of Indians that inhabit this region. The Fort Simpson Indians, it seems, are actively engaged in smuggling British goods into this portion of the Territory, and carrying away large quantities of valuable furs; also- the Hoona Indians about Cross Sound Complain that those same smugglers are killing their sea, otters. Last spring a party of 37 miners went lb rough the Cbtlcat country over the Ohilcat divide to the headwaters of the Yukon. They 1 ave not yet been heard from. The party was ccompaiued by a number of marines from the Jamestown, and thus had a good send-off under the wing of the Government. This, I believe, is the first party of whites that the war- i ke Chilcats have allowed to pass through their country. On our return from Sitka the California called at Klamack, a fishing and trading station on, Prince of Wales Island, for freight in the shape of canned salmon, fish oil, furs, etc. This station fcs located on a beautiful bay closely embosomed in the green woods—the one general bay being made up of many smaller ones, each of which would make a charming picture- lovely reaches of glassy water,- a margin of , yellow-green sedges and bushes, then beveled, walls of spruces circling about them iu beautiful lines, and snow-capped mountains in the background. How beautiful it all seemed iu. the sunlight, and how beautiful iu the stillness of the night with the spangling stars reflected in the water. The California is about to leave, "and this short letter must thus abruptly be brought to a. close. I have hired a crew of Stickine indiaus, and will set out northward on the 16th in a. canoe to Btudy the glaciers and forests. John Muir. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1145/thumbnail.jpg