Tabulated statement of reindeer in Alaska, July 1, 1901—Continued. On the night of the 15th of August a vessel called the Islander met with sudden destruction; the place where it went down has not been accurately located. At least 42 lives were lost. Some contend that it ran into a submerged iceberg, but many of the passengers testify that the pilot and captain were drinking. Whatever the cause, it was a terrible disaster, and it brings grief to many hearts. Since that event, other steamship lines have given their officers fair warning about drinking intoxicating liquors while on board ship. Public opinion will heartily approve such action. In the year 1889, Mr. William Seward Webb, of New York, chartered the Islander for an excursion to Alaska. They visited Muir Glacier. Mr. Webb says: As our vessel was built entirely of steel, we were of course obliged to exercise unusual care in sailing. If we had run on a rock or into an iceberg, it would prob. ably have made a hole in her at once. This was one of the first iron vessels that 8205-01- -4 had ever been through these waters. Captain Carroll remarked, however, that he felt very much safer with a wooden vessel, because in case she sprung a leak he would be able to patch it up. SMALLPOX. A disease made its appearance among the natives near Ketchikan which looked like smallpox. Some physicians denied that it was that disease. They were not very sick; suffered hardly any from fever, and for the most part went about their ordinary avocations. A young native came to Sitka in December upon the steamship Cottage City to get married to a girl in Sitka. Before he left the vessel he was broken out with this disease. He and the people in the house where he stopped were quarantined upon an island. The sickness appeared to be checked. During the winter many of the Sitkas attended a feast at Hoona, which is about 120 miles distant. Near the close of their ceremonies it broke out, and as a consequence about 15 of the Hoonas died. They were entirely cut off from any help or medical attendance and had not been vaccinated. Many of the Sitkas were sick when they returned, or had it soon afterward. These were sent across the bay to an island. Four or five died from the disease because the patients were weak from other complaints before taking it. There were many cases in Killisnoo, but few deaths. There were cases also at Juneau and Douglas. The complaint seemed to be confined to the natives, and there is not a well-authenticated case to prove that a white person took the disease from a native. The Creole janitor of the Græco-Russian church took it immediately after the Easter holidays, but no one else. The U. S. S. Albatross turned up at Sitka with two mild cases aboard in the forecastle. They could not account in any reasonable manner how the contagion was contracted. They had been at Dundas Bay, where some of the Hoona people work, but the superintendent of the cannery denied that anyone had been sick at that place. The U. S. coast survey vessels Gedney and Patterson have been at work all season among the Hoonas. The crew from the Gedney have had liberty on Sunday in the town of Hoona and none of them has taken the disease. Asst. Surg. Carroll Fox was sent from Portland in May to represent United States Marine-Hospital Service. He found that he was very much handicapped in having no means of transportation to the various native settlements. He returned to Port Townsend. The disease seems now to have entirely disappeared. A few are fearful that it will again break out when the natives return to their homes for the winter. CONSUMPTION. This fell disease causes more deaths among the natives than most all other diseases combined. It is truly sad to see how many are dying from it, month by month. In view of the fact that these people have never been a charge to the Government and have always been industrious and self-supporting, and are advancing and aspiring toward citizenship, it would be a gracious thing for the Government to step in and assist them to combat this deadly malady. This matter might be intrusted to the United States Marine-Hospital Service, and it is recommended that Congress be asked to appropriate a sufficient sum for a small hospital to be under the care and control of this branch of the service. INSANE. On the 16th day of last January a contract was entered into with the board of trustees of the Oregon State Insane Asylum for the care and custody of persons legally adjudged insane in the district of Alaska for the period of one year. Up to date, 9 persons have been adjudged insane and have been committed to the above institution. One of these died August 22; another was discharged as cured on July 25. UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS AND DEPUTY MARSHALS. These officers are paid by fees. The law is bad and works evils. Much complaint has arisen all over the district on this subject. It would be best to allow the Attorney-General to place these officers upon salaries, and let him grade them according to the cost of living in the different sections of the district. We shall then have better service without constant grafting. United States commissioners, district of Alaska, second division. The census last year was taken with as much care and accuracy as is possible in such a vast district as this, with the very poor means of transportation in some places, and the absence of traveling facilities over large areas. The work performed is more reliable than either of the other censuses. Governor Merriam, the director, has furnished the following summary of this work: For purposes of census enumeration the Territory of Alaska in 1900 was divided arbitrarily into two districts, namely, the northern district, which embraces the valley of the Yukon River and all territory north of it, and the southern district, which embraces all the remainder of the Territory, including the Alaskan peninsula and the chain of Aleutian Islands. At the census of 1880 the Territory was subdivided into six districts, two of which correspond with the northern district, as at present defined, and four with the southern district. Likewise at the census of 1890 seven districts were formed for enumeration purposes, the boundaries of two of which conform substantially with the present northern district, and the boundaries of the remainder with the present southern district. In the absence of any survey or established lines in Alaska, the natural barrier interposed by the mountain range between the valley of the Yukon and that of the Kuskokwim rivers has been assumed as a sufficiently well-defined boundary for census purposes, and this range has, in fact, constituted the dividing line between districts in each of the preceding censuses. Owing to the exceptional difficulties to be encountered in making an enumeration of these remote and sparsely settled regions, the work of the Twelfth Census was assigned to two special agents, Mr. Samuel C. Dunham for the northern district, and Mr. William A. Keily for the southern district, both well equipped for the service by previous residence in the Territory and personal knowledge of the places and people within their respective districts. The following table shows the population of Alaska by districts at each census from 1880 to 1900, inclusive, together with the number and per cent of increase (or decrease) during each census period. The population of the southern district of Alaska in 1880 was returned as 23,462, and that of the northern district as 9,964. At the census of 1890 the population of the southern district had increased by 6.2 per cent, and that of the northern district had decreased by 28.4 per cent, making a net decrease for the Territory of 4.1 per cent. Ten years later, in 1900, the population of the southern district had been augmented by 8,105, or 32.5 per cent, and that of the northern district by 23,435, or 328.5 per cent, making a total increase for the Territory of 31,540, or 98.4 per cent. The total land surface of Alaska is, approximately, 590,884 square miles, the average number of persons to each 100 square miles at the last three censuses being as follows: 1880, 6; 1890, 5; 1900, 11. The following table shows the population of Alaska by districts and the population of certain cities, villages, and settlements therein for the years 1890 and 1900, so far as it has been separately returned. There are no civil divisions in Alaska corresponding to the counties and townships of other Territories, and the following table accounts for that part of the population only which was found in the more important settlements; the remainder is widely distributed over the Territory as a whole. Population of Alaska by minor civil divisions: 1890 and 1900. Of the above-named 78 places in Alaska, 27 are in the northern district and 51 in the southern district; 37 have less than 200 inhabitants, 31 have more than 200 but less than 500; 6 have more than 500 but less than 1,000; and 4 have more than 1,000, namely, Nome, with 12,486; Skagway, with 3,117; Juneau, with 1,864; and Sitka, with 1,396 inhabitants. Persons of school age, 5 to 20 years, inclusive, by general nativity and color, in Males of school age, 5 to 20 years, inclusive, by general nativity and color, in Alaska, 1900. 1 Persons of negro descent, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. 2 Includes all persons of negro descent. |