Alaska is calling for men,--men to cultivate her farms, to develop her mines, to build her railroads, to man her fisheries and her lumber camps. She will soon be asking for business men to manage her stores, for lawyers, doctors and dentists, for teachers, ministers and priests, for actors and motion picture operators. In another year Uncle Sam's great railroad will be running Pullman cars across this sparsely-settled country. This means progress. Alaska will begin to live. She will prove a good although at certain seasons of the year a frigid mother to thousands yet unborn. The homely old proverb in regard to the early bird is peculiarly applicable to Alaska. The worm is only waiting to be caught. To know Alaska is to love her. As one old North-Pacific sea captain once put it,--"A man can get along without the woman he loves if he has to. But he can't get along without Alaska after he has fallen in love with her!" It is Robert Service, however, who in _The Spell of the Yukon_ has breathed the real spirit of the land: "Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it's a good land to shun; May be. But there's some as would trade it For no land on earth--and I'm one!" W. B. S. St. Michael, Alaska. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. NORTHWARD HO! 19 II. THE LAND OF TOMORROW 30 III. ST. MICHAEL 38 IV. NORTHERN LIGHTS 46 V. GREAT OPPORTUNITIES 52 VI. POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 63 VII. THE PARALLEL STEEL BARS 72 VIII. FLOWERS AND BIRDS OF THE NORTHLAND 83 IX. MT. MCKINLEY NATIONAL PARK 91 X. THE ALL-ALASKA SWEEPSTAKES 100 XI. BURIED WEALTH 115 XII. THE HAUNT OF THE SALMON 126 XIII. THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD 137 XIV. THE CITIES OF THE FAR NORTH 151 XV. THE NATIVE RACES 161 XVI. SOCIAL LIFE IN ALASKA 197 XVII. THE PRIZE OF THE PACIFIC 210 XVIII. ALASKA AND THE WAR 216 XIX. ALASKAN WRITERS 222 CONCLUSION 236 ILLUSTRATIONS THE BEAUTIFUL ALASKAN SUMMER _Frontispiece_ PAGE THE AUTHOR DRESSED FOR THE TRAILS AT KOTLICK, MOUTH OF THE YUKON 40 AN ISLAND ON WHICH IS LOCATED ONE OF THE FINEST FOX FARMS IN ALASKA 40