CHAP. VII.] SITKA. 73 diately abreast of the town of Sitka. The harbour, though small, is commodious, and the water is usually as smooth as a mill-pond. It is in lat. 57° 2′ 45′′ N., long. 135° 17′ 10′′ W. Sitka, or New Archangel, is as yet the only "city" in the country, and therefore deserves some little notice. Formerly it was exclusively the headquarters of the Russian American Fur Company; but has now become a town of some life, and will probably much increase in size. The island on which Sitka is built is one of a group or archipelago, discovered in 1741 by Tschirikoff, the companion of Bering, who, unlike that brave commander, lived to return from his adventurous voyage, the third and last of an important series. The island is named in honour of Baranoff, the real founder of the settlement of New Archangel, who for a long period managed the affairs of the Russian American Company in the days of its early history,-a troubled and eventful time. Baranoff had been a merchant in Siberia, and was a man of education and superior attainments, with a large amount of courage and perseverance. After the establishment of this post the Kalosh Indians, a neighbouring tribe, gave the Russians much trouble; and in 1804, while the commander was absent, they attacked and murdered the larger part of the garrison, one or two Aleuts alone escaping to the island of Kodiak. Baranoff returned shortly afterwards, and with the assistance of a part of Admiral Krusenstern's fleet, then on a voyage in the North Pacific, attacked and besieged the Kaloshes till they acknowledged themselves beaten; not, however, until they had murdered all the old and helpless of their number who could not go off with them. They have threatened and attacked the town subsequently, and the Russians feared them a good deal. At the date of our visit, a palisade or stockade divided the Russian and Indian habitations, and no native, unless working in some private house, was allowed in the town after dark. Sitka was not overlooked during our war with Russia, and after the second visit to Petropaulovski, recorded later in these pages, the English and French admirals, with a portion of the combined fleet, visited the coast. No vessel, however, of the squadron entered the port except Her Majesty's steamer 'Brisk,' and the object of their visit was merely to ascertain whether any naval force belonging to the Czar was to be found there. A compact had been entered into by the British and Russian Governments, that the property of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of the Russian American Company, should be respected. The right of blockade was, however, reserved, although not exercised in this case. The admirals, satisfied that no government vessels or supplies were there, left Sitka undisturbed. No special defences had been prepared.* The town is situated on a low strip of land, the Governor's house rising on a rocky height a hundred feet or so above the general level. Snow-capped and peaked mountains, and thickly-wooded hills surround it, and Mount Edgcumbe on Crooze Island immediately opposite the town, an extinct volcano of eight thousand feet in height, is the great landmark of this port-the most northern harbour on the Pacific shores of America. The colouring of the town is gay, and the surroundings picturesque. The houses yellow, with sheetiron roofs painted red; the bright green spire and dome of the Greek Church, and the old battered hulks, roofed in and *See 'Nautical Magazine,' October, 1855. CHAP. VII.] THE TOWN CLIMATE. 75 used as magazines, lying propped up on the rocks at the water's edge, with the antiquated buildings of the Russian Fur Company, gave Sitka an original, foreign, and fossilized kind of appearance. Landing at the wharf, and passing a battery of ancient and dilapidated guns, we first saw the stores and warehouses of the Company, where furs of the value of £200,000 were sometimes accumulated. Sitka in itself had but a moderate Indian trade, but was the head-quarters of the Company, whence the peltries of twenty-one different stations were annually brought. After passing the Governor's house, which is perched on a rock, and only reached by a steep flight of stairs, we found the bureau and workshops of the Company, and a number of the better class of houses of employés. On the left of the street a shrubbery, the “Club Gardens," with summer-houses, card and supper rooms, and swings for the children, and a little further the Greek Church with its dome and spire of oriental style overshadowing a plainer Lutheran structure within a few steps of it, attracted our attention. Then came the "Club-house" occupied by unmarried servants of the Company-the school-house, from which scholars of promise were sent to St. Petersburg-and the hospital, a very neat and clean building. Beyond these were a few dozen cottages and shanties, and then-the woods! with the one promenade of the place running through them. Sitka enjoys the unenviable position of being about the most rainy place in the world. Rain ceases only when there is a good prospect of snow. Warm sunny weather is invariably accompanied by the prevalence of fever and pulmonary complaints, and rheumatism is looked upon as |