course, which is only about 13 m., has a slope of 100 ft. per
mile, and the main current moves 7 ft. daily. The Character of
the Muir was greatly altered by an earthquake in 1899. There
are some 30 tide-water glaciers---a considerable number of
them very noteworthy. The Valdez is 30 m. long and 5000 ft. in
altitude. Most of the Alaskan glaciers are receding, but
not all of them; and at times there is a general advance.
The Muir receded 1.6 m. from 1879--1890, the Childs about
600 yards in 17 years; others over 4, 7 or 10 m. in 20 years.
The Aleutian Islands (q.v.), like the Alexander Archipelago, are
remnants of a submerged mountain system. Their only remarkable
features are the volcanoes on the easterly islands, already mentioned.
Continental Alaska.---Continental Alaska in the interior
is essentially a vast plateau. ``The traveller between the
main drainage areas of the interior is struck by the uniform
elevation of the interfluminal areas. Rounded hills, level
meads and persistent flat-topped ridges, composed of rocks of
varying structure, rise to about the same level and give the
impression that they are the remnants of a former continuous
surface. Occasional limited areas of rugged mountains rise
above this level, and innumerable stream valleys have been
incised below it; but from the northern base of the St Elias
and Alaskan ranges to the southern foothills of the Rocky
Mountain system, and throughout their length, the remnants of
this ancient level are to be seen. In height it varies from
about 5000 ft. close to the bases of the mountain systems
to less than 3000 ft. in the vicinity of the main lines of
drainage, and slopes gradually towards the north.'' The Seward
Peninsula is particularly rugged. This great plateau drains
westward through broad, gently flowing streams, the network
of whose tributary waters penetrates every corner of the
interior and offers easy means of communication. Both the main
streams and the smaller tributaries often flow through deep
canyons. The Yukon is one of the great drainage systems of the
world. The Yukon itself has a length of more than 2000 m.
and bisects the country from E. to W. Behind the bluffs that
form in large part its immediate border its basin is a rolling
country, at times sinking into great dead levels like the
Yukon flats between Circle City and the Lower Ramparts, some
30,000 sq. m. in area. Of the two great affluents of the
Yukon, the Tanana is for the most part unnavigable, while the
Koyukuk is navigable for more than 450 m. by river steamers,
and for more than 500 m. above its mouth shows no appreciable
diminution in volume. A low water-parting divides the Yukon
valley from the Kuskokwim, the second river of Alaska in
size, navigable by steamers for 600 m. Torrential near
its source, it is already a broad, sluggish stream at its
confluence with the East Kuskokwim. The tides rise 50 ft.
near its mouth and the tide-head is 100 m. above the mouth.
Rocky Mountains. --The Rocky Mountain system in Alaska
is higher and more complex than in Canada. About 100 m.
wide at the international boundary, where the peaks of the
British Mountains on the N. and of the Davidson Mountains
On the S. are 7000 to 8000 ft. high, the system runs W.S.W.
as the Endicott Mountains, two contiguous ranges of about
5000 to 6000 ft., and as these ranges separate, the northern
becomes the De Long, the southern the Baird Mountains, whose
elevation rapidly decreases toward the coast-line. The system
is sharply defined on the north and less so on the south.
Arctic Slope Region.---The Arctic Slope region is
divided into the Anuktuvuk Plateau about 80 m. wide,
with a maximum altitude to the S. of 2500 ft., and
between the plateau and the Arctic Ocean the Coastal
Plain. Very little is known of either part of the region.
Climate.--From the foregoing description of the country it
is evident that the range of climate must be considerable.
That of the coast and that of the Yukon plateau are quite
distinct. The Panhandle, along with the lisiere (foreland),
westward to Cook Inlet might be called temperate Alaska, its
climate being similar to that of the N.W. coast of the United
States; while to the westward and northward the winters become
longer and more severe. d/he cause of the mild climate of the
Panhandle, formerly supposed to be the Japanese current, or
Kuro Shiwo, is now held to be the general eastward drift of the
waters of the North Pacific in the direction of the prevalent
winds. To the warmth and moisture brought by this means the
coastal region owes its high equable temperature, its heavy
rainfall (80-110 in.) and its superb vegetation. The mean
annual temperature is from 54 deg. to 60 deg. F. Winter sets in
about the 1st of December and the snow is gone save in the
mountains by the 1st of May. The thermometer rarely registers
below zero F. or above 75 deg. F.; the difference between
the midwinter and midsummer averages is seldom more than
25 deg. . The summer is relatively dry, the autumn and winter
wet. The vapour-laden sea air blowing landward against the
girdle of snow and glaciers on the mountain barriers a few
miles inland drains its moisture in excessive rain and snow
upon the lisiere, shrouding it in well-nigh unbroken fog
and cloud-bank. Only some 60 to 100 days in the year are
clear. In passing from the Sitkan district westward toward
Kodiak and the Aleutians (q.v.) the climate becomes even
more equable, the temperature a little lower and the rainfall
somewhat less; i the fogs at first less dense, especially
near Cook Inlet, where the climate is extremely local, but
more and more persistent along the Aleutians. The clear
days of a year at Unalaska can be counted on the fingers;
five days in seven it actually rains or snows. Bering Sea
is covered with almost eternal fog. Along the coast N. of
Alaska Peninsula the rainfall diminishes to 10 in. or less
within the Arctic circle; the summer temperature is quite
endurable but the winters are exceedingly rigorous.2 East
of the mountains in south-eastern Alaska the atmosphere is
dry and bracing, the temperature ranging from -14 deg. to 92 deg.
F. In the farther interior, in the valleys of the Yukon, the
Tanana, the Copper and the Sushitna the summers are much the
same in character, the winters much more severe. On the Yukon
at the international boundary the mean of the warmest month
is higher than that of the warmest month at Sitka, 500 m.
southward. At some points in the Upper Yukon valley the range
of extreme temperatures is as great as from --75 deg. to 90 deg.
F.3 The mean heat of summer in the upper valley is about
60 deg. to 70 deg. F., and at some points in the middle and lower
valley even higher.4 By the middle of September snow flurries
have announced the imminence of winter, the sipaller streams
congeal, the earth freezes, the miner perforce abandons
his diggings, and navigation ceases even on the Yukon in
October. All winter snows fall heavily. The air is dry and
quiet, and the cold relatively uniform. In midwinter in the
upper valley the sun rises only a few degrees above the horizon
for from four to six hours a day, though very often quite
obscured. In December, January, February and March the
thermometer often registers lower than -50 deg. F., and the mean
temperature is -20 deg. . In May the rivers open, the cleared land
thaws out, and by June the miner is again at work. Summer is
quickly in full ascendancy. In May and June the sun shines
from eighteen to twenty hours and diffused twilight fills
the rest of the day. The rainfall is light, from 10 to 25
in. according to the year or the locality. Dull weather is
unknown. All nature responds in rich and rapid growth to
the garish light and intense heat of the long, splendid
days. But the Alaska summer is the uncertain season at times
the nights are cold into July, at times snow falls and there
are frosts in mid-August; sometimes rain is heavy, or again
there is a veritable drought. In the great river valleyss.
of the Yukon basin climatic conditions are much less uniform.
Fauna anid Flora.---The fauna of Alaska is very rich and
surprisingly varied. The lists of insects, birds and mammals
are especially noteworthy.5 Of these three classes, and of
other than purely zoological interest, are mosquitoes, which
swarm in summer in the interior in vast numbers; sea fowl,
which are remarkably abundant near the Aleutians; moose,
and especialiv caribou, which in the past were very numerous
in the interior and of extreme economic importance to the
natives. The destruction of the wild caribou has threatened
to expose the Indians to wholesale starvation, hence the
effort which the United States government has made to stock
the country with domestic reindeer from Siberia. This effort
made under the direction of the Bureau of Education has been
eminently successful, and in the future the reindeer seems
certain to contribute very greatly to the food, clothing,
means of shelter and miscellaneous industries of the natives;
and not less to the solution of the problems of communication
and transportation throughout the interior. It is, however,
the fish and the fur-bearing animals of its rivers and
surrounding seas that are economically most distinctive of
and important to Alaska. The fishing grounds extend along
the coast from the extreme south-east past the Aleutians
into Bristol Bay. Herring are abundant, and cod especially
so. There are probably more than 100,000 sq. m. of cod-banks
from 22 to 00 fathoms deep in Bering oea and E. or the Alaska
Peninsula. Salmon are to be found in almost incredible
numbers. Of marine mammals, whales are hunted far to the N.
in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, but are much less common
than formerly, as are also the walrus, the sea otter and
the fur seal. All these are disappearing before commercial
greed. The walrus is now found mainly far N.; the sea
otter, once fairly common throughout the Aleutian district,
is now rarely found even on the remoter islands; the fur
seal, whose habitat is the Pribilof Islands in Bering
Sea, has been considerably reduced in numbers by pelagic
hunting. There are half-a-dozen species of hair seals and
sea-lions. The number of fur-bearing land animals is equally
large. Sables, ermine, wolverines, minks, land otters,
beavers and musk-rats have always been importantitemsin the fur
trade. There are black, grizzly and polar bears, and also
two exclusively Alaskan species, the Kodiak and the glacier
bear. The grey wolf is common; it is the basal stock of
the Alaskan sledge-dog. The red fox is widely distributed,
and the white or Arctic fox is very common along the
eastern coast of Bering Sea; a blue fox, once wild, is
now domesticated on Kodiak and the Aleutians, and on the
southern continental coast, and a black fox, very rare,
occurs in south-eastern Alaska; the silver fox is very rare.
The Alaskan flora is less varied than the fauna. The
forests of the coastal region eastward from Cook Inlet, and
particularly in south-eastern Alaska, are of fair variety,
and of great richness and value. The balsam fir and in the
south the red cedar occur in scant quantities; more widely
distributed, but growing only under marked local conditions,
is the yellow or Alaska cedar, a very hard and durable wood
of fine grain and pleasant odour. The Oregon alder is fairly
common. Far the most abundant are coast and Alpine hemlocks
and the tide-land or Sitka spruce. The last is not confined
to this part of Alaska, but is the characteristic and universal
