Alaska and the Panama canal . d have deteriorated to a pointwhere the insurance companies will no longer insure them forthe rough waters of the Atlantic, and are sent around to thesmooth waters of the Pacific, where the companies will againtake the risk of insuring them. During the year in whichI sailed to, and returned from, Alaska, five of these old shipswere wrecked, with considerable loss of life. At no place in the world have I seen so manywrecked vessels as were beached onthe shores of Alaska. It is im-practicable to apply our marinelaws to the boats making Alaskanports on account of the
Alaska and the Panama canal . d have deteriorated to a pointwhere the insurance companies will no longer insure them forthe rough waters of the Atlantic, and are sent around to thesmooth waters of the Pacific, where the companies will againtake the risk of insuring them. During the year in whichI sailed to, and returned from, Alaska, five of these old shipswere wrecked, with considerable loss of life. At no place in the world have I seen so manywrecked vessels as were beached onthe shores of Alaska. It is im-practicable to apply our marinelaws to the boats making Alaskanports on account of the conditionsbeing so entirely different. It wouldsave many lives and hundreds ofthousands of dollars if our Govern-ment would chart the bottom of theinland sea that leads to Alaska, in-stead of wasting big sums of moneyin surveying routes for impossiblerailroads that will never be con-structed. Metlakatla, a thousand miles upthe coast from Seattle and the firstpoint one touches in Alaska, is oneof the most interesting places I. FATHER DUNCAN, THE GRAND OLD MAN, 87 88 ALASKA visited while in our Northern possession. It is a one-white-man-and-i,5oo-Indian island. The white man is Father Dun-can, and he is both the spiritual and temporal ruler of thetown and island. He came out as a missionary from Englandover sixty years ago and began work with the Indians inBritish Columbia. He did not like the laws or conditions inBritish Columbia, so he petitioned Uncle Sam to let him usethis island, to which he moved his Indian followers and wherehe has conducted his work and lived his life in his own w^ was formerly a tanner by trade, had good Scottish com-mercial ideas, and has demonstrated wdiat really can be donewith the Indian when in honest, competent hands. The chiefindustry of the island is fishing. All business is carried onin Father Duncans name for the benefit of the community,and the cost of maintaining the schools and church, local gov-ernment, fire department and local impro
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