Later, the bench of higher land stretching back
from the beach and the sides of the down-flowing creeks were
found to be gold-bearing, the bench gravels being from forty
to eighty feet thick, with gold throughout. A heavy growth
of moss covers this coastal plain, under which lie the
frozen gravels, which are softened by the use of steam and
thus forced to give up their previous freight. That is all
we need say about the gold product of Alaska, further than
to sum up that the territory yields about $10,000,000 per
year, or with the Klondike about $25,000,000, these
equalling nearly one-third the total production of the
United States. Here is a fine showing for a region once
deemed worthless.
Gold is an alluring subject, but Alaska has other sources of
wealth which enormously exceed its golden sands in value.
We have already spoken of the rich products of its fisheries
and furs. The former include several species of salmon,
which the Yukon yields in vast numbers; the latter embrace,
in addition to the usual fur-bearing animals, the valuable
fur-seal of the Aleutian Islands, a species found nowhere
else. To these sources of wealth may be added the vast
forests of valuable timber, especially of spruce, hemlock,
red and yellow cedar, which are likely to become of great
value in the growing extermination of the home forests of
the United States.
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