rived by the country at large by the purchase of Alaska can be obtained by perusing the subjoined statement of products of the Territory since it came into our possession. The statement embraces only the principal articles of export, and can be relied upon as being conservative and within actual limits of Alaska's products: VALUE OF PRODUCTS OF ALASKA FROM 1868 TO 1890. CHAPTER VIII. QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN This handbook would not approach completion if it refrained from a description of the wonderfully productive gold mines which have been worked in southeastern Alaska for the past twelve years, and which in 1895 contributed nearly $2,000,000 to the gold supply of the world. These quartz mines are the most perfectly developed in the world, and are increasing in productiveness every year. The gold yield of Alaska in 1894 was $1,288,334. In 1895 it increased to $2,328,419. For 1895 the yield of the quartz mines cn Douglas and Unga Islands alone equaled the entire product of the territory the years before, without counting the other mining fields which have been more fully developed. During the year 1895, 300 stamps were dropping on Douglas Island and during the summer 125 stamps were dropping on the mainland. Other outlying districts are also coming into prominence, mainly on Admiralty Island, upon which a new ten-stamp mill is now ready for run ning, being operated by the Alaska-Willoughby Gold Mining Company. On Unga Island some very extensive and productive quartz operations are being carried on. In southeastern Alaska, so far, all the placer mining has been done in gravel deposits, which were made auriferous by the wash from quartz veins. The distinction of the first discovery of gold in that extensive and important mining region of which the town of Juneau is the centre, is shared by two pioneer prospectors, Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau. In the summer of 1880 these men started in a canoe from the quaint old town of Sitka to prospect the mainland coast, and about August 15 discovered gold in a stream which they aptly named Gold Creek. Their stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, they did not ascend the stream to its source and soon returned to Sitka, taking with them 150 pounds of gold quartz and 13 grains of "dust." Having secured another outfit, they hurried back to Gold Creek, and soon found its source in a little round valley inclosed by steep, glacier-capped mountains. This spot they named Silver Bow basin, after a place of that name in Montana. On the mountain slopes, encircling the basin, gravel was found worth from 15 to 30 cents a pan, and quartz that seemed to have been splashed with gold. October 4 Juneau and Harris, with the aid of three natives, located their choice of the placer ground, and within a month located 18 quartz claims, organized Harris mining district, adopted local rules for the new district, and staked off a town site near the mouth of Gold Creek, which they named Harrisburg. They then returned to Sitka with 960 pounds of gold ore, worth $14,000. This golden cargo crazed the quiet town, and a number of adventurous fellows, procuring boats, canoes, or steam launches, rushed off to the new diggings with Juneau and Harris. The season was too far advanced for prospecting in the basin, so log cabins were built on the site staked off by the founders of the camp. During the winter of 1880-1881 the town of Harrisburg flourished; five general merchandise stores were established and saloons appeared so quickly as to seem spontaneous; miners and frontiersmen generally flocked in from Wrangell and British Columbia, add all waited impatiently for spring. At a miners' meeting in February, 1881, the town name changed to Rockwell, in honor of Lieutenant was |