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National Geographic : 1901 May
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE covery, for many millions appear to be in sight awaiting the pan or rocker to separate the golden sand. The harvest of gold from Cape Nome during the summer of 1900 was $6,ooo,ooo and the total product of the Territory from placers in 1899 was $1,200,000. But after the enumeration of these latent resources of the Territory few are left to describe. Alaska is not a country for agriculture, nor for home-making. It has paid us its purchase price many times over, and in the future will pour much wealth into our laps, but it will never pay, as other accessions to our territory have paid, in making homes for our people. At present few people go to Alaska to live; they go there merely to stay until they have made their stake. Farming as a business is impossible under the climatic conditions prevalent on the coast. It is granted at once that it is possible to mature certain hardy crops in favorable seasons, but this is quite a different thing from raising crops in competition with California and the Willamette Valley, even when the cost of freight is added. It must be done at a profit or not at all. It is of no avail to raise potatoes when they can be brought from Portland and sold for less than the cost of production in Alaska. If there is any part of the Territory in which farming can be successfully car ried on, it is the interior, which has a much more favorable summer climate than the coast; but even there success would be doubtful. However, as the higher rate of freight to the interior will have the effect of a protective tariff on home products, it may be possible to raise grain and vegetables at a profit under conditions which would be pro hibitory on the coast. SCENERY There is one other asset of the Terri tory not yet enumerated-imponderable and difficult to appraise, yet one of the chief assets of Alaska, if not the great est. This is the scenery. There are glaciers, mountains, and fiords else where, but nowhere else on earth is there such abundance and magnificence of mountain, fiord, and glacier scenery. For thousands of miles the coast is a continuous panorama. For the one Yo semite of California Alaska has hun dreds. The mountains and glaciers of the Cascade Range are duplicated and a thousand-fold exceeded in Alaska. The Alaska coast is to become the show-place of the earth, and pilgrims, not only from the United States, but from far beyond the seas, will throng in endless proces sion to see it. Its grandeur is more val uable than the gold or the fish or the timber, for it will never be exhausted. This value, measured by direct returns in money received from tourists, will be enormous; measured by health and pleasure, it will be incalculable. There is one word of advice and cau tion to be given those intending to visit Alaska for pleasure, for sight-seeing. Ifyouareold,gobyallmeans;butif you are young, stay away until you grow older. The scenery of Alaska is so much grander than anything else of the kind in the world that, once beheld, all other scenery becomes flat and in sipid. It is not well to dull one's ca pacity for such enjoyment by seeing the finest first. f 196
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