The women of the Takou district are very expert and industrious. They occupy a large portion of their time in weaving baskets of split cedar, far exceeding any similar Indian work which we have chanced to see elsewhere, both in the coloring and the very ingenious combination of figures. Some of these baskets are so closely woven out of the dried inner bark of the willow-tree that they will hold water without leaking; the author also saw drinking-cups thus manufactured. Visitors rarely fail to bring away interesting specimens of native work in this particular line; the fine straw goods of Manila do not excel this in delicacy and beauty. In addition to this attractive basket-work from the hands of the women, the men of the tribe exhibit their natural skill by carving silver bracelets (made from dollar and half dollar coins), miniature totem-poles, horn and wooden spoons, baby rattles and canoes, in a very curious and original manner. Once a fortnight, during the summer season, on the arrival of an excursion party by steamer from the south, the natives are, as a rule, completely cleared out of their entire stock of these productions, and they do not fail to realize fair prices, enabling them to live very comfortably. Though Sitka is the capital of the Territory, Juneau is the principal settlement and headquarters of the mining interests, containing over seven hundred white residents. We have seen no statistics of the annual rainfall here, but can well believe it to be what a certain person told us it was, namely, over nine feet. It seemed to us that the permanent residents should be web-footed. The cause of this humidity is very evident. There arises from the warm Japanese Current on the coast a constant and profuse moisture. This the winds convey bodily against the frosty sides of the neighboring mountains, and then it is precipitated as rain; at certain seasons of the year it continues for weeks together. There is compensation even in the fact of this large annual rainfall, which at first thought seems to be such an objection to this district. The gold-bearing quartz which prevails here is treated, necessarily, by what is known as the wet process, requiring at all times an ample supply of water. One successful superintendent told the author that ore which is here so profitable would be in a dry region, like that of some portions of our Western States, worthless, or comparatively so, as it would have to be transported in bulk to a more favorable locality. It seems to require two rainy days to one pleasant one, which is about the average proportion in the year, to provide sufficient water to work these large deposits properly. The system of disintegrating, and of reclaiming the precious metal from the flint-like combination in which it is held is marvelous in detail, evincing the rapid progress which has been made in mechanical and chemical processes in our day.