that will make good steaming fuel, it will be a great help in the future in conducting our oriental commerce. Alaska is in the path, and she must be a great factor in this business, because she has resources to fill ships. PETROLEUM. Oil has been discovered in two sections of Alaska. On Comptrollers Bay a well has been driven several hundred feet, and there is now a flow of what those in the business call a fine grade of crude oil. A large area has been located. The oil and the coal of this part of the coast seem destined to add largely to the wealth of the whole country. The greatest drawback is the absence of a good harbor in the near vicinity. The other place where oil has been found is the region around Lake Illiamna on the Alaska peninsula. A well has been driven, and oil has been pumped. The quality is pronounced good, and the experienced men who are conducting the work seem to be satisfied with the prospects. COMMISSIONER OF MINES. The mining interests of Alaska are now so great and varied and scattered over so vast an area that they should be looked after by an officer who is clothed with competent authority. Attention was called to this subject in last year's report. If any one wishes to learn about the mining industry of British Columbia, he can turn to the annual report of the minister of mines and get a comprehensive summary of all that is going on in that province. We are in need of such service for this district. A man of acknowledged ability in mining and engineering should be appointed when Congress creates the office. The salary should be large enough to command such men. Such service can not be obtained for nothing. It will cost a good sum each year to run such an office. The commissioner of mines must have inspectors, a mineralogist, an assayer, and other helpers if he is to organize this work and conduct it properly. It is surely not asking too much that an industry that is adding millions each year to the wealth of the nation should be carefully and intelligently looked after. UNITED STATES REVENUE-CUTTER SERVICE. The Bear, in addition to her usual arctic cruise, went to Siberia and transported a number of reindeer. The Thetis searched for the Portland and Jaenie, which were carried north in the ice, and cruised around Cape Nome and other parts of Bering Sea. The Manning has done patrol duty around the Seal Islands. The Mc Culloch surveyed a harbor on one of the Aleutian chain west of Dutch Harbor.. The Perry made a cruise visiting the canneries from Cape Spencer west, and the Rush a similar duty in the southeast. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. This Bureau of the Treasury Department has worked ahead for many years in Alaska. Anyone who consults the latest charts made by this office will understand what a gigantic labor it is to survey the islands and coast line of this northwest portion of the continent. Each year brings some new place into prominence, and there is a demand for immediate help. If the oil and coal from Comptrollers Bay are to be sent to the world's markets, that part will need survey-. ing without delay. The Gedney this season has been at work in Cross Sound, the McArthur in Prince William Sound, and the Patterson in Bering Sea. The magnetic station at Sitka belongs to this Bureau. Its work is going on silently to the outside world, but the results are of exceeding interest and importance to those who are studying the earth's magnetism. Simultaneous with the outbreaks at Mount Pelee there were violent agitations in the records at this station, and the observers knew that some great event had occurred somewhere upon the globe. The season's records will furnish valuable data, no doubt, toward the solution of some difficult problems in this science. UNITED STATES MARINE-HOSPITAL SERVICE. This branch of the Treasury Department has a hospital at Dutch Harbor. It is well located and well conducted by a skilled surgeon and an experienced steward. For some detail of the work for the past year see Appendix K. The service in southeast Alaska is done by contract with Dr. Leonhardt, of Juneau. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. Year by year able men from this office are in the field obtaining accurate information which is printed and set forth in an attractive form. Those who study Alaska should not fail to read what these workers tell of their doings each year. Prof. C. D. Walcott, the Director of the work, has taken an interest in Alaska for a long time and he tries to spread more light over a field that has remained in darkness. Several men have been working out certain matters this year in the Copper River district and the country north of Nome. NAVY. There has been no representation of this Department in Alaska this year beyond the permanent marine post at Sitka. The training ship Mohican touched at Dutch Harbor for coal and supplies on her way from Yokohama to Honolulu. Two gunboats of the Wheeling type should be kept cruising in these waters, one with headquarters at Sitka and the other at Dutch Harbor. In the southeast quarter the natives are beginning to abandon old ways, but they are just in that state of mind to be easily aroused by an evil-minded agitator among them. They all possess good arms and would not fear, when aroused, to take their chances in fighting soldiers. They have a wholesome dread of a man-of-war. We have a great deal of shipping passing through Unimak Pass and much treasure coming down. While there is no probability of an organization of pirates, yet in this day, when the wicked join hand in hand so frequently, they might do so, and the only way to deal with them is by force which can be applied at once. should not take the risk of being without it. We The Bureaus of Equipment and of Yards and Docks have built upon Japonski Island a wharf and a coal house to the extent of 2,500 tons. This work embraces all up-to-date appliances. It is contemplated to add largely to this coal storage in the near future. The Navy has also on this island a shell house and a powder magazine. This island is a desirable and beautiful location for naval purposes, and it is recommended that all buildings and other improvements which this Department intends to make in the near future be put upon this island and that it be made a permanent station. ARMY. This Department has seven stations in the district: Fort Davis; post-office, Nome City; area of reservation, 282 acres. Fort Egbert; post-office, Eagle; area of reservation, 25,200 acres. Fort Gibbon; post-office, Tanana; area of reservation, 74,560 acres. Fort Liscum; post-office at post (Valdez); area of reservation, 650.89 acres. Fort St. Michael; post-office at post; area of reservation, 40,320 acres. Camp Skagway; post-office, Skagway. Haines. The Army has had much to do in the settlement of the Western frontier. It is probable that there will be but little fighting with the natives here. If the officers and men at these posts could turn to and survey the country they would be doing a needed and timely service. The whole multitude who are anxious to settle would feel under obligations to them. Is it too much to hope that the Interior Department and the Department of War might cooperate with each other and have the surveys thus carried out? Much has been done by the force at Fort Liscum in making the trans-Alaskan military road from Port Valdez to the crossing of the Tanana River, a distance of 265 miles. See Appendix L for an important statement on this subject by Maj. W. R. Abercrombie. The Signal Corps of the Army has been doing good work. It has built a line of telegraph from St. Michael via Unalaklit, Kaltag, Nulato, Nahocatilin, Birches, Fort Gibbon to Rampart which is in operation. From Fort Liscum, near Valdez, the line runs via Lowe River, Konsena River, Copper River, Mentasta Pass, Tok River to Tanana River, thence northeasterly to Fort Egbert (Eagle). This is in operation and from Eagle there is connection with Dawson and from this point to the outside through British territory. General Greely, the head of the corps, who has been most earnest in giving Alaska these means of communication, has made contracts with two companies, one to put Nome and St. Michael in communication by wireless stations and the other to build stations at Bates Rapids on Tanana and at a point higher up on the same river where the line from Fort Liscum to Eagle crosses it. These are to be in operation before the close of the year. With these completed, all the principal interior points will be in communication with each other and with the world outside. Skagway is in telegraphic communication with Dawson along the White Pass Railway, Juneau is connected by cable to Skagway; but this line has not given good service. Vessels now leaving Valdez or Skagway telegraph ahead to their agents in Seattle. This is a great gain. It remains now to connect Alaska by a cable laid in the bed of the ocean from Cape Flattery to make the system completely within our control. General Greely visited Valdez this summer and from that station communicated with his subordinates who are carrying on the work. Alaska is part of the Department of the Columbia, which is at present commanded by Brig.-Gen. George M. Randall. CUSTOMS RECEIPTS. Transactions of the custom-house, district of Alaska, for the year ended June 30, 1902. Number of vessels entered from foreign ports... Number of entries of merchandise free of duty Number of entries for export to adjacent British provinces Number of entries from warehouse for consumption Number of entries from warehouse for exportation to adjacent British provinces 309 250 415 386 1, 137 594 3 1,230 1 5 2,970 1,731 3 57 23 57 114 251 $2,335, 850 353, 318 $72, 461. 19 3,081. 12 1,490.00 4, 741. 11 32.90 2,320. 13 84, 126. 45 EXPENSES OF COLLECTION. Commissions allowed and paid to collector or surveyor....... Salaries of collectors, deputies, clerks, inspectors, weighers, storekeep We have a kindly feeling for this branch of our Government. When others left us it stayed with us, and now when the burden is great it bears it well even in the face of complaints occasionally. It is a great thing to get the mail regularly to a mining camp. It makes men more contented. It does not take a very close observer to detect this in Alaska. The communications which have been received from Gen. W. S. Shallenburger, Second Assistant, and Gen. J. L. Bristow, Fourth Assistant Postmasters General, will be found to contain much information. They are given in Appendixes M. and N. RECENT LAWS. Protection of game.-On June 7 the President approved an act for the protection of game in Alaska, and for other purposes. For text of this law, see Appendix O. The law has worked for good already, for many have been making inquiries about it. The natives in southeast Alaska will no longer kill deer simply for the hides which they can not sell. The professional hunter who has been killing for the markets will cease. The law will be difficult to execute in a country like this, but its mere creation will work a reformation. The section which provides that "Any marshal or deputy marshal may arrest without warrant any person, etc.," opens the door wide for the grafter and blackmailer. There should be at least one game warden for each judicial division. Their quarterly reports will suggest amendments to make the law more efficient and workable. On June 13 an act to redivide the district into three recording and judicial divisions became a law. See Appendix P. The line dividing the second and third divisions is very arbitrary and must remain so for some time. It may cause a good deal of trouble and expense in the Koyukuk district, making it doubtful whether one must go to Nome or Valdez to be in the right court. If the law contained a proviso that the judges or a majority of them with the approval of the Attorney-General might change the boundaries from time to time, as necessity demands, future contingencies would have been provided for, and Congress relieved of further action. If anyone will take a glance at the map of Alaska and notice the topography of the third judicial division he can understand that the court can not enforce the laws well unless it is provided with independent means of transportation. It will not do to let the court officers any longer depend on either the Navy or Revenue-Cutter Service for the means of getting about. The thing does not work well. The court must be entirely free and go and come as it can arrange best for each community. This it can not do when it considers itself only a guest of another branch of the service. The vessels should be seaworthy and large enough to accommodate the officers of the court, prisoners, and witnesses. The vessel can be in the custody of the marshal and furnished with small arms and a Gatling gun. All the crew should be sworn in as deputy United States marshals and undergo a certain discipline. Such a vessel thus equipped and always ready for service would have a strong moral effect in keeping down lawlessness. This will be a new thing for the Department of Justice to take on, but it should not hesitate if it does not wish the court to remain helpless in Valdez for the greater part of the year. |