Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

243 страница из 418

Soon was experienced the warmth of a Russian welcome, and for a week afterwards a succession of gaieties followed, which were so very gay that they would have killed most men, unless they had been fortified with a long sea-trip just before. Every Russian seemed to wish the party to consider all that he had at their service; the samovar boiled up everywhere as they approached; the little lunch-table of anchovies, and pickles, rye-bread, butter, cheese, and so forth, with the everlasting vodka, was everywhere ready, and except duty called, no one was obliged to go off at night to the three vessels comprising the expedition to which the writer was attached, for the best bed in the house was always at his service. There was only one bar-room in the whole town, and there only a kind of lager-bier and vodka were to be obtained. When the country was, for a consideration of 7,250,000 dollars, transferred to the United States, there was a “rush” from Victoria and San Francisco. Keen Hebrew traders, knowing that furs up country bore a merely nominal price, and that Sitka was the great entrepôt for their collection—a million dollars’ worth being frequently gathered there at a time—thought they would be able to buy them for next to nothing still. Parcels of land in the town, which had not at the utmost a greater value than a few hundred dollars, now ran up to fabulous prices; 10,000 dollars was asked for a log house! Hotels, “saloons”—i.e., bar-rooms à l’Américaine—German lager-bier cellars, and barbers’ shops sprang up like mushrooms; a newspaper-office was opened, and everything reminded one of the sudden growth of mining-towns in the early days of California. Alas! everything else went up in proportion, excepting salmon, which must be a drug on that coast for many centuries to come;108 provisions greatly rose in price, and the competition for furs was so great that they became nearly as dear as in San Francisco. The consequence may be imagined; there was an exodus, and the following January the whole city could have been bought for a song. The Russian officials, of course, left it shortly after the transfer, and most of the others as speedily as they could. The “capital” has never recovered from the shock; for, although organised fur-companies are scattered over the country, in one instance the United States Government leasing the sole right—that of fur-sealing, on the Aleutian Islands—to a firm which has a Russian prince as a partner, Sitka is not the entrepôt it was; everything in furs is brought to San Francisco before being consigned to all quarters of the globe. The value of Alaska to the United States is at present very small, but so little is known about it that one can hardly form an estimate concerning its future. It possesses minerals, but these will always be worked with difficulty, on account of the climate. Its grand salmon-fisheries are, however, a tangible property; the cod in Bering Sea is as plentiful as it ever was on the Newfoundland banks; and there are innumerable forests of trees, easily accessible, reaching down to the coast—of pines, firs, and cedars, of size sufficient for the tallest masts and largest spars, so that Alaska has a direct interest for the ship-builder.