The New Eldorado: A Summer Journey to AlaskaBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
The New Eldorado: A Summer Journey to Alaska
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Alaska -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
They are kept on only one or
two of the larger islands of the group. Domestic animals might do well
here with a little care, but the attention of the natives is given
almost exclusively to the products of the sea, whose very bounty
demoralizes them. At Unalaska, of this same group, the natural grass
grows to six feet in height, and with such body that one must part it by
exerting considerable force in order to get through. The natives braid
it into useful and ornamental articles, hats, baskets, mats, and the
like. This prolific growth is represented to be remarkably nutritious,
and cattle are very fond of it. W. H. Dall predicted that this Aleutian
district will yet furnish California with its best butter and cheese;
while Dr. Kellogg, botanist of the United States Exploring Expedition,
wrote: “Unalaska abounds in grasses, with a climate better adapted for
haying than the coast of Oregon. The cattle are remarkably fat, and the
milk abundant.” This is the refitting station for all vessels passing
between the Pacific Ocean and Behring Strait, and here also is the
principal trading post of the Alaska Commercial Company.
Mr. George Wardman, United States Treasury Agent, that stated on his
late visit to this island he saw in one warehouse sea-otter skins ready
for shipment which were worth quarter of a million dollars in the London
market. This will represent, perhaps, two thirds of all this class of
pelts furnished to the world annually, as comparatively few go from any
other quarter. Other land furs are brought here for shipment to San
Francisco, two fur companies having headquarters at Unalaska. The place
has some sixty native houses, and perhaps five hundred inhabitants.
Unalaska is known to be rich in both gold and silver mines, one of which
is owned by a San Francisco company, and which it is proposed to fully
develop and work during the coming year, careful tests having proven its
prospective value.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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