Various

“ I’ve never been to England myself, thank goodness, and what’s more, I don’t ever want to go, that’s certain. But I’ve known lots of fellows that have been, and have spent no end of a heap of money over their education too, at one place or another—I don’t even know the names of ’em—and when they’ve come back, so far as I could see, they’ve never known a bit more about rum or sugar than other fellows that had never set foot for a single minute outside the island—no, nor for that matter, not so much either. Of course, it’s all very well for a person in your son’s position, Mr Hawthorn ”

“ The Honourable James Hawthorn, owner of Agualta, was sitting out in a cane armchair, under the broad shadow of the great mango-tree on the grassy terrace in front of the piazza. A venerable gray-haired, gray-bearded man, with a calm, clear-cut, resolute face, the very counterpart of his son Edward’s, only grown some thirty years older, and sterner too, and more unbending. ”

“ We were reclining, after our day’s work, on our basket sofas, on the veranda, in the cool of the evening, puffing away solemnly and silently at our brier-root pipes, when it suddenly struck us that a group of native workmen, who were superintending the cooking of their evening meal in a corner of our very improvised sort of compound, must have received some exciting intelligence. ”

“ It is probable that the night signals in use in the Royal Navy are too complicated in character to permit of their being learned and worked efficiently without much more study and practice than can reasonably be expected from the master of a merchant vessel. Still, it ought to be within the power of science to suggest some plan for enabling a vessel to signal to ship or shore during the hours when the perils of the sea are rendered more terrible by darkness. ”

“ I’ll bet you a sovereign, Uncle Theodore, that Nora’ll refuse to so much as look at the heir of Pimento Valley, the minute she sees him.’
‘But why do you think so, Mr Tom,’ their host put in, ‘before the young lady has even landed on the island?’
‘Ah, I know well enough,’ Tom Dupuy answered, with a curious leer of unintelligent cunning. ‘I know the ways and the habits of the women. They go away over there to England; they get themselves crammed with French and German, and music and drawing, and all kinds of unnecessary accomplishments. ”

“ Coal exists on several of the islands, and at some places on the mainland, but has not been worked yet to any great extent. Both copper and gold are known to exist, and have been and are to some extent being mined. Other minerals are supposed to exist, and the Americans expect that this division of Alaska will in time become a great mining field. Already the mining industry has thrown the fur-trade into the second place, and yet the yield of fox, marten, otter, bear, and beaver skins is annually very considerable. The hunting is carried on by the natives, who are of the Thlinket Indian race ”

“ On the south side, sheltered by two sad-looking trees of a nondescript character, and fronted by an imposing-looking portico, is a decayed-looking house, the stucco of which bears a strong likeness to the outside of a Stilton cheese. The windows are none too clean, and the blinds and curtains are all deeply tinged with London fog and London smoke. ”

“ The ‘signal staff’ on board the ship which carries the flag of the commander-in-chief consists of about twenty persons, officers and men, whose duty it is to convey the admiral’s orders to the captains under his command by the varied systems of signalling prescribed for use in Her Majesty’s ships. The ‘staff’ is divided into ‘three watches;’ and by day and night, in harbour and at sea, a vigilant ‘lookout’ is kept, not only on board the flagship, but on every vessel in the fleet. ”

“ I would say to my hearers: “My capable, hard-working, shrewd, intelligent brethren, go out to Australia. You and your wives and your children, go out, work hard; and be assured that, with or without capital, you will, by hard working, frugality, and sobriety, greatly better your condition. Not only that, but you will also better those whom you leave behind. You will give more and more backbone, more and more muscle, more and more red blood, to the body politic of Australia.” ”

“ While the men devote themselves to the fishing, the women make mats, baskets, cigar-cases, and other articles of grass-cloth; and they turn out some very delicate and beautiful work. The waters are rich in fish of all kinds; but the most important industry is the seal-fishing that is now conducted under leases from the United States government, which retains the monopoly.
The south coast of the eastern half of the Alaska peninsula, with the adjacent islands and a portion of the mainland, forms another geographical division called the Kadiak section. ”

“ Eleanor looked inquiringly at her husband, for him to explain the little one’s meaning.
‘Nelly and I have been having a metaphysical discussion,’ he said with playful gravity. ‘We have been discussing the virtues of the future. She is wishing for that impossible some day that people always expect.’
‘I don’t think she will be disappointed,’ said Mrs Seaton, with a fond little smile at her child. ”

“ St John went away; and in a few minutes reappeared, accompanied by a native postman, who, it seemed, knowing that the railway Sahibs were partial to tiger, had kindly dropped in with the intelligence. We found out all we could from the man, and rewarded him with some money and tobacco.
The last victim was a poor native woman, who had crept into the corner of the veranda of a bungalow some miles away, and fallen asleep, from which, poor soul, she was roughly awakened, and then half-carried, half-dragged to a clump of thick jungle-grass and bushes about two and a half miles from where we were. ”

“ Living within convenient distance of timber, the people (inland) do not depend so much upon the natural warmth of mother-earth.’
All the islands in Alaskan waters are mountainous, some of the elevations rising from four thousand to eight thousand feet; but the entire division is devoid of trees. The soil is a mixture of loam, clay, and volcanic detritus; and grasses of all kinds grow in great abundance. Coal has been discovered in the island of Ounga; but this is the only mineral riches yet disclosed, although ‘prospecting’ has been carried on for years. The coal is of very poor quality. ”

“ Why, of course it’s suitable; and as to satisfactory, well, if I say she’s got to take him, she’ll have to be satisfied with him, willy-nilly.’
‘But she won’t!’ Tom Dupuy interrupted sullenly, flicking his boot with his short riding-whip in a vicious fashion. ‘She won’t, you may take my word for it, Uncle Theodore. I can’t imagine why it is; but these young women who’ve been educated in England, they’ll never be satisfied with a planter for a husband. They think a gentleman and a son of gentlemen for fifty generations isn’t a good enough match for such fine ladies as themselves ”

“ Sir John Brown, of the well-known firm of John Brown & Co., has said that he ‘feared England had almost, if not altogether reached the summit of her prosperity, and that she must not again look for any material prosperity such as the last thirty or forty years had displayed.’ English trade was being nibbled right and left by Germany, Austria, Prussia, and the United States. ”

“ The Kuskokvim division lies to the south of the Yukon division, is bounded on the east by a range of mountains, on the west by Behring’s Sea, and it comprises the valleys of three large rivers and an intervening system of lakes. There is a trading-station called Kalmakovsky, from which are brought down from the unknown interior, by the natives, skins of beaver, marten, and fox, which all appear to be very plentiful. This trade is carried on by a race which appears to be a mixture of the Eskimos and Indians; but below Kalmakovsky, down to the sea, and along the coast, the Eskimos alone appear. ”

“ Notwithstanding these regulations, there is good reason for believing that many officers in the merchant service are not so well acquainted with the working of the Code as they ought to be. Blunders are frequently committed, either in selecting the wrong signal or confusing the flags, which lead to serious inconvenience, not to say danger. A very superficial acquaintance with the Signal Book led the captain of an English steamer to neglect the ‘vocabulary’ part of the Code, and have recourse to the singular expedient of using the flags as a medium for spelling his communication. ”

“ The wolf’s long howl from Oonalashka’s shore.
As a matter of fact, the country here is neither ‘wastes,’ nor does it ‘slumber in eternal snow.’ The summer is warm; the vegetation, as we have said, is rich; and it may be doubted if the ‘wolf’s long howl’ has ever been heard by the oldest inhabitant. At anyrate, we can find no mention of wolves there now, although foxes are abundant enough. The Aleutian islands are well peopled; and the people are semi-civilised, the Russians having had relations with them and settlements and missions among them for more than a century. ”

“ According to the special Report of the United States Census Commissioners—to which we are mainly indebted for the facts given in this article—the total area of Alaska is five hundred and thirty-one thousand four hundred and nine square miles, or about one-sixth of the entire area of the United States. But one hundred and twenty-five thousand two hundred and forty-five square miles are wholly within the arctic circle, an area which has rarely been traversed by the white man, and upon the coast-borders of which are a few Eskimo villages. ”

“ The natives of these, it is sad to learn,{40} are becoming rapidly deteriorated by commerce with the crews of the whalers which resort in summer to the neighbourhood, and seek only to barter what natural produce, in the shape of furs, or oil, or ivory, they can collect for the means of intoxication. The immense area of the northern division of Alaska is left to the bear, the fox, the reindeer, and other polar animals, and to somewhere about three thousand degraded Eskimos.
The largest geographical division of Alaska is that which the United States officials have named the Yukon section. ”

“ The forests are dense, and some of the timber is of immense size, especially the spruce.
A narrow strip of coast running from Mount St Elias to the boundary-line of British Columbia, forms the last or south-eastern division of Alaska. It covers twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and eighty square miles, and it forms a wedge of some five hundred miles in length between Canada and the western sea. In character, this section of Alaska differs from all the rest, and is essentially similar to that of the British possessions. It is mountainous and densely wooded ”

“ It is matter for wonder and regret, notwithstanding the existence of a carefully elaborated system of signals and a world-wide network of shore stations, that the use of the Signal Code is not in any sense compulsory on the part of shipowners. ”

“ The extent of the trade has proved greater even than was expected at the time of the transfer. The shipments of sea-otter and fur-seal skins alone have more than doubled since 1867, and now average annually about three hundred thousand pounds in value. Of land-furs, as they are called, the list is a long one, and in the order of wideness of distribution may be thus given: land-otter, beaver, brown bear, black bear, red fox, silver fox, blue and white fox, mink, marten, polar bear, lynx, and musk-rat. Rabbits, marmots, and wolverines are also common, but the skins are retained by the natives. ”

“ There is beyond all question a large field for any illuminating agent, which can be readily erected in goods-sheds, ship-yards, or engineering works, and can be worked at moderate cost. Whether or not this adaptation of hydro-carbon oil will fulfil all the conditions necessary to render it a commercial success and lead to its wide development, time alone can tell. ”

“ But the real wealth at present of Alaska rests in the abundance of its fur-skinned animals. It was for the fur-trade that the Russians occupied the country after it had been discovered by Behring, and it was mainly for the fur-trade that the Americans acquired it from Russia. ”