ΤΟ SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., ETC., PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, AND FOREIGN This Volume is Dedicated, IN ADMIRATION OF HIS GREAT SCIENTIFIC ATTAINMENTS, AND AS A GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MUCH KINDNESS SHOWN TO THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. So little is known of the interior of Russian America, that I trust even this imperfect and meagre narrative may prove not altogether uninteresting. A large portion of these pages refers to a journey made in the Yukon region, which though containing one of the grandest streams on the North American continent, has hitherto remained almost unnoticed. Sir John Richardson, indeed, when on the Mackenzie, collected some information respecting it, but never visited any portion of it, whilst the travels of Zagoskin, of the Russian Imperial Navy, have never been popularly known. This country has recently acquired some notice from its transfer to the United States Government, and within a few years we shall doubtless hear more of it. The natives have been hitherto so isolated from civilization, that perhaps in no other part of America can the "red-skin be seen to greater perfection. In a few generations he will be extinct. "Alaska Territory "-the title by which the whole of Russian America is to be known in future-though as good a name as any other, is founded, apparently, on a misconception. It seems to have been derived from the title of that long peninsula (Aliaska) with which we are all familiar on the map, but the title does not properly belong to the whole territory. I have before me a Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland,' issued this year (1868) by the State Department at Washington. It was compiled, at the desire of the Hon. W. H. Seward, by B. M. Peirce, Esq. From that production I glean that the United States Government, so far from regretting the purchase of Alaska, are almost ready to bid for Iceland and Greenland! Mr. Seward's mania for icebergs and snow-fields seems insatiable. The opening chapters contain some earlier reminiscences of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, whilst in the concluding pages I have attempted to sketch California of our own time. I have also briefly recorded some visits paid by me to the eastern coasts of Siberia and Kamchatka. Some of the most pleasant days of my life were spent with the two Expeditions with which I have been connected; and of many of my old friends and companions I shall ever think with much kindness. To Colonel Bulkley, Engineer-in Chief of the Russo-American Telegraph Expedition; to Captain Scammon (U. S. Revenue Service); and to my good friends Messrs. Wright, Chappel, and Lewis, all American gentlemen with whom it was a pleasure to be connected, I am indebted for courtesies which it would be difficult for me to sufficiently acknowledge. To the President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society I am specially obliged for the use of the map, illustrating the course of the Yukon, &c., which is to appear in their 'Journal' in connection with the paper contributed by me. To Mr. Arrowsmith, for the trouble he has taken to work out the crude material laid before him; to Mr. H. W. Bates and Captain George; to Mr. Murray, and to my father and brother, for their constant and kind assistance, I cannot be too grateful. The illustrations are taken, with but two exceptions, from the original sketches made on the spot; they have gained considerably in the hands of my friends, Messrs. Skelton, Mahoney, and Zwecker. The portrait of an Aht native (Vancouver Island), page 53, has been copied from an excellent photograph by Mr. Gentile, now of San Francisco; and the picture of a Tchuktchi house, page 89, is from a photograph by Mr. Ryder, who was for the season of 1866, attached to the Telegraph Expedition. |