and bowls consist of a single piece of ivory, through which holes have been drilled from end to end, by some means no white visitor among them has been able to discover. What those good people who regard smoking as a pernicious habit as practiced by the white people would say could they see an Eskimo indulging in his or her pipe would be interesting to hear. The Eskimo smoker first fills the bottom of the bowl with reindeer hair and on top of that places a bit of tobacco no larger than a buckshot, and then settles down for a single long-drawn draught, which completely fills the lungs with bad-smelling smoke from the combination of hair and tobacco. He or she holds this smoke in the lungs until the smoker must either let go or suffocate-and it is not suprising that, as the Eskimo uses tobacco, a single whiff should constitute a whole smoke.

Tattooing is one of the fine arts, so to speak, among these people; it is practiced among all the people from St. Michael's to Point Barrow, though confined almost exclusively to the females. It extends no further, however, than to the indelible stain of from one to three stripes, extending from the mouth to a point under the chin, and has no significance other than of mere fashion.

That they are very sociable in their habits may be inferred from what has already been said.

They never strike or inflict upon their children corporal punishment of any kind, and, unlike the natives of some other parts of Alaska, are exceedingly careful of and zealous in providing for the wants and comforts of their aged parents or other relatives. On the other hand, they neither bury nor cremate their dead; the bodies of deceased persons are merely carried out some distance from the village and laid on the tundra, in which it would be difficult to dig a grave, with no other ceremony than a procession of relatives and friends to and from the place where the body is left. If the dead person be a man, his sled and hunting gear are broken to pieces and laid on the body; if a woman, her sewing kit and perhaps some household utensils she has been accustomed to use are placed at her side, after having first been broken or rendered useless. No attention is afterwards paid to the bodies, which are usually devoured by the dogs.

CHAPTER XII.

Natural Resources-Future Great Gold Mining Field of the World-A Prediction not Long Ago Ridiculed Now Being Verified-Every Known Mineral in Alaska Rich Soil and Luxurious Vegetation— Climate not Inimical to Agriculture and Horticulture -Large Areas of Tillable Lands-Wide Ranges and Nutritious Grasses for Cattle and Sheep-Interminable Forests of Valuable Timber-Fish Enough to Feed the Continent-All the Material Elements of Wealth Essential to the Building Up of a Great and Powerful State.

But what of the natural resources of this vast public domain, aside from the wealth of precious metals found in the golden sands and gravel deposits of its innumerable streams and gulches, and the incomputable millions held in the "mother lodes" which almost everywhere traverse her shaggy-breasted mountains? What, if any, are its other resources, the utilization of which may be depended upon to add in greater or lesser degree to the prosperity and wealth of the nation? To such inquiries the truthful answer can be made, that, while Alaska is by no means a country overflowing with milk and honey, that though her climate is inimical to the successful cultivation of tropical products, no

government on earth is anywhere possessed of an outlying province nearly so rich in the extent, if not variety, of its natural resources. In what he shall say of other than the mineral resources of Alaska, the author is perfectly well aware that he will subject himself to the ridicule of unbelievers, the name of whom is legion; but he is perfectly content to await the developments of the future in the perfect confidence that they will prove the truth of all he asserts. He is not a stranger to such ridicule. He was made a recipient thereof when, in 1886, in an official report to the Honorable Secretary of the Interior, speaking of the mineral resources of the territory, of which he was then the chief executive, he used these words:

"How long Congress may continue to deem it wise and consistent to so legislate as to hinder and retard rather than encourage and promote natural resources that may be made to contribute untold millions to the public wealth I may not be permitted to venture a guess, but I do hazard the prediction that Alaska is the coming great gold and silver mining field of the world, and that the history of her progress and development during the next twenty years will most positively refute the theory of those public men who seemingly base their every official act, so

far as her interests are concerned, on the mistaken belief that she is at best but a frigid waste.'

That prediction, already partially fulfilled, is on the eve of a certain perfect realization, and the author can afford to look to the future for a complete and perfect vindication of the truth of that which he is about to write concerning the other than mineral resources of the territory.

Concerning the wealth of Alaska in precious metals enough, perhaps, has been said in the preceding pages. It is simply beyond computation. In the sands of its every stream and gulch is found at least the color of gold, while almost everywhere in its mountain ranges, on island and mainland, from the extreme south to the farthest north, are found the quartz ledges which constitute the original sources of supply to gravel deposits than which none others ever yet discovered have been more prolific of golden treasure at the same stage of development. And yet, it may be truthfully said that scarcely a scratch has been made in the mountains which encompass her multitudinous gold-bearing ledges, while not more than one in a hundred of her streams and gulches have as yet been fairly or even partially prospected. In regard to quartz mining it may be said with equal truth that there have been no failures not directly chargeable to mismanagement, insufficient capital, or lack of