ALASKA

THE GREAT COUNTRY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

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Photo by E. W. Merrill, Sitka
Courtesy of G. Kostrometinoff
Alexander Baranoff

ALASKA

THE GREAT COUNTRY

BY

ELLA HIGGINSON

AUTHOR OF "MARIELLA, OF OUT-WEST," "WHEN THE BIRDS GO NORTH AGAIN," "FROM THE LAND OF THE SNOW-PEARLS," ETC.

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1910

All rights reserved


Copyright, 1908,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1908. Reprinted
February, 1909; March, 1910.


Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

To
MR. AND MRS. HENRY ELLIOTT HOLMES

FOREWORD

When the Russians first came to the island of Unalaska, they were told that a vast country lay to the eastward and that its name was Al-ay-ek-sa. Their own island the Aleuts called Nagun-Alayeksa, meaning "the land lying near Alayeksa."

The Russians in time came to call the country itself Alashka; the peninsula, Aliaska; and the island, Unalashka. Alaska is an English corruption of the original name.

A great Russian moved under inspiration when he sent Vitus Behring out to discover and explore the continent lying to the eastward; two great Americans—Seward and Sumner—were inspired when, nearly a century and a half later, they saved for us, in the face of the bitterest opposition, scorn, and ridicule, the country that Behring discovered and which is now coming to be recognized as the most glorious possession of any people; but, first of all, were the gentle, dark-eyed Aleuts inspired when they bestowed upon this same country—with the simplicity and dignified repression for which their character is noted—the beautiful and poetic name which means "the great country."

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Alexander Baranoff Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Alaska (colored map) 1

Copper Smelter in Southeastern Alaska 2

Kasa-an 9

Howkan 16

Distant View of Davidson Glacier 21

Davidson Glacier 36

A Phantom Ship 41

Road through Cut-off Canyon 48

Scene on the White Pass 53

Steel Cantilever Bridge, near Summit of White Pass 68

Old Russian Building, Sitka 73

Greek-Russian Church at Sitka 80

Eskimo in Walrus-skin Kamelayka 101

Eskimo in Bidarka 116

Railroad Construction, Eyak Lake 121

Eyak Lake, near Cordova 128

Indian Houses, Cordova 133

Valdez 148

An Alaskan Road House 153

Kow-Ear-Nuk and his Drying Salmon