author draws on his own extended experiences and knowledge in cases of conflicting or insufficient data. Twice he has exercised supreme military command over Alaska, and under his control and supervision was built the Alaskan military telegraph system-over 4,000 miles of land lines, submarine cables, and wireless. In six visits to Alaska he has thrice traversed the whole Yukon Valley, visited Fairbanks and Prince William Sound twice, and Nome three times. Familiar with Alaska for the past nine years, he has seen its evolution from a few mining centres without civil law to its present status of an organized Territory, with railways, cables, schools, and all the concomitants of a great and prosperous country. WASHINGTON, D. C., May, 1909. A. W. GREELY. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION SUCH great and radical changes have occurred in Alaska since the appearance of this Handbook of Alaska, that at least brief consideration must be given them in a new edition. In this transitory period of the development of the Territory it appears inadvisable to revise this work until Congress has definitely acted with reference to the vitally important subjects of transportation and of coal deposits. The prefatory chapter which has been added in this edition treats of all important changes from 1909 to 1914, including the change in the form of government, development of mining industries, growth of fishing interests, regulation of the fur-seal trade, extension of roads, renewal of volcanic activities, investigation of glacial condition, mountaineering triumphs, etc. In connection with the appropriation of $40,000,000 for government railways, contemplated by the bill which passed the Senate on January 24, 1914, there has been added a map showing Railway Routes considered by the Alaska Railway Commission and submitted to Congress by the President in February, 1913. The vast importance of Alaska to the economic development of the United States is shown by its contributions, apart from local consumption, to the country at large. These contributions in the shape of furs, fish, and metals somewhat exceeds the enormous sum of $500,000,000. WASHINGTON, D. C., February, 1914. ix A. W. GREELY. |