Physical Features.—-Alaska is bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean, on the W. by the Arctic Ocean and Bering Strait, on the S. and S.W. by the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and on the E. by Yukon Territory and British Columbia. It consists of a compact central mass and two straggling appendages running from its S.W. and S.E. corners, and sweeping in a vast arc over 16 degrees of latitude and 58 degrees of longitude. These three parts will be referred to hereafter respectively, as Continental Alaska, Aleutian Alaska and the ``Panhandle.'' The range of latitude from Point Barrow in the Arctic Ocean to Cape Muzon is almost 17 degrees—-as great as from New Orleans to Duluth; the range of longitude from Attu Island to the head of Portland Canal is 58 degrees—-considerably greater than from New York to San Francisco. The total area is about 586,400 sq. m. The general ocean-coast line is about 4750 m., and, including the islands, bays, inlets and rivers to the head of tide water, is about 26,000 m. in length (U.S. Coast Survey 1889). The entire southern coast is very irregular in outline; it is precipitous, with only very slight stretches of beach or plain. Its elevation gradually decreases as one travels W. toward the Aleutians. A great submarine platform extends throughout a large part of Bering Sea. The western and northern coasts are regular in outline with long straight beaches; and shallows are common in the seas that wash them. On the Arctic there is a broad coastal plain. Of the islands of Alaska the more important are: at the S.E. extremity and lying close inland, the Alexander Archipelago, whose principal islands from N.W. to S.E. are Chicagof, Baranof, Admiralty, Kupreanof, Kuiu. Prince of Wales (the largest of the archipelago and of all the islands about Alaska, measuring about 140 m. in length and 40m.inwidth), Etolin and Revillagigedo; S.W. of the mainland, two groups—.-(1) Kodiak, whose largest island, of the same name, is 40 m. by 100 m., and may be considered a continuation of the Kenai Peninsula, and whose W. continuation, S. of Alaska Peninsula, consists of the Semidi, Shumagin and Sannak clusters; (2) the Aleutian Islands (q.v.) sweeping 1200 m. W.S.W. from the end of Alaska Peninsula, W. of the mainland, in Bering Sea, the Pribilof Islands, about 500 m. S. of Cape Prince of Wales, the small Hall and St Matthew Islands, about 170 m. S.W. of the same cape, St Lawrence Island (100 m. and 10 to 30 m. wide), which is about half way between the last mentioned pair of islets and Cape Prince of Wales and Nunivak Island, near the mainland and due E. of St Matthew; and in the middle of Bering Strait the Diomede Islands, which belong in part to Russia.
Very little was known about Alaska previous to 1896, when the gold discoveries in the Klondike stimulated public interest regarding it. Since 1895, however, the explorations of the United States Geological Survey and the Department of War, and other departments of the government, have fully established the main features of its physiography. It has mountains, plateaus and lowlands on a grand scale. ``In a broad way, the larger features of topography correspond with those of the western states. There is a Pacific Mountain system, a Central Plateau region, a Rocky Mountain system, and a Great Plains region. These four divisions are well marked, and show the close geographic relation of this area to the southern part of the Continent.'' The orographic features of the Pacific Mountain system trend parallel to the coast-line of the Gulf of Alaska, changing with this at the great bend beyond the N., and of the Panhandle from S.E. and N.W. to N.E. and S.W. and running through the Alaska Peninsula. The Pacific Mountain system includes four ranges. The Coast Range of the Panhandle attains a width of 100 m., but has no well-defined crest line. The range is characterized by the uniformity of summit levels between 5O00 and 6000 ft. Continuing the Coast Range, with which it is closely associated—-the Chilkat river lies between them—-is the St Elias Range (a term now used to include not only the mountains between Cross Sound and Mt. St Elias, but the Chugach, Kenai, Skolai and Nutzotin mountains); among its peaks are: Mt. Crillon ( 15,900 ft.), Mt. Fairweather ( 15,290 ft.), Mt. Vancouver (15,666 ft.), Mt. Wrangell (17,500 ft., an active volcano) in the Nutzotin Mountains, Mt. St Elias (18,024 ft.) and, in Canadian territory, Mt. Logan (19,539 ft.). The Aleutian Range, of whose crest the Aleutian Islands are remnants, fills out the system near the coast. The Alaskan Range, connecting with the Nutzotin and Skolai branches of the St Elias Range, lies a little farther inland; it is splendidly marked by many snowy peaks, including Mt. Foraker (17,000 ft.) and Mt. Mckinley. The latter, which on the W. rises abruptly out of a marshy country, offers the obstacles of magnificent, inaccessible granite cliffs and large glaciers to the mountaineer; it is the loftiest peak in North America (ca. 20,300 ft.). In the Alaskan Range and the Aleutian Range there are more than a dozen live volcanoes, several of them remarkable; the latter range is composed largely of volcanic material. Evidences of very recent volcanic activity are abundant about Cook Inlet. The Rocky Mountain system extends from Canada (the Tukon territory) into N.E. Alaska, which it crosses near the Arctic Coast in a broad belt composed of several ranges about 6000 ft. in altitude. There is no well-defined crest line; the axis of the system is roughly parallel to the Pacific Mountain system, but runs more nearly E. and W. in Alaska. Between the Pacific Mountain and the Rocky Mountain systems lies the vast Central Plateau region, or Yukon plateau. Finally, between the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic Ocean is the Arctic Slope region, a sloping plain corresponding to the interior plains of the United States.
First Physiographic Region.—-The Panhandle is remarkably picturesque. The maze of islands, hundreds in number, of the Alexander Archipelago (area about 13,000 sq. m.) are remnants of a submerged mountain system; the islands rise 3000 to 5000 ft. above the sea, with luxuriantly wooded tops and bald, sheer sides scarred with marks of glacial action; the beachless coast is only a narrow ledge between the mountains and the sea, and unlike the coast of Norway, to which in outline it is not dissimilar, is bold, steep and craggy. Through the inner channels, sheltered from the Pacific by the island rampart, runs the ``inland passage,'' the tourist route northward from Seattle, Washington. The inter-insular straits are carried up into the shore as fjords heading in rivers and glaciers. Thus the Stikine river continues Sumner Strait and the Taku continues Cross Sound. The Stikine, Taku and Alsek rivers all cross the mountains in deep-cut canyons. Everywhere the evidences of glacial action abound. Most remarkable are the inlets known as Portland Canal and Lynn Canal (continuing Chatham Strait). The first is very deep, with precipitous shores and bordering mountains 5000 to 6000 ft. high; the second is a noble fjord 100 m. long and on an average 6 m. wide, with magnificent Alpine scenery. It is subject in winter to storms of extraordinary violence, but is never closed by ice. Both Portland Canal and Lynn Canal are of historical importance, as the question of the true location of the first and the commercial importance to Canada or to the United States of the possession of the second, were the crucial contentions in the disputes over the Alaska-Canadian boundary. At the head of Lynn Canal, the only place on the whole extent of the south-eastern Alaskan coast where a clear-cut waterparting is exhibited between the sea-board and interior drainage, the summits of the highest peaks in the Coast Range are 8000 to 9000 ft. above the sea. White Pass (2888 ft.) and Chilkoot Pass (3500 ft.), at the head of the Lynn Canal, are the gateway to the mining country of the Klondike and Upper Y(ukon. They are the highest points that one meets in travelling from Skagway along the course of the Yukon to`Bering Sea.
Prior to the opening (in August 1900) of the railway between Skagway and White Horse, Canada (110 m.), by way of the White Pass, all transportation to the interior was effected by men and pack-animals (and for a time by a system of telpherage) over these passe 1/3 and the Chilkat or Dalton trail; the building of the railway reduced carriage rates to less than a tenth of their former value, and the Chilkat and Chilkoot Passes were no longer used. The coast region above the Panhandle shows on a smaller and diminishing scale the same characteristic features, gradually running into those of the Aleutians. Out of the Alaska and Nutzotin mountains two great rivers flow southward: the Copper, practically unnavigable except for small boats, because of its turbulence and the discharge of glaciers into its waters; and the Susitna, also practically unnavigable. Both of these rivers have their sources in lofty mountain masses, and are swift and powerful streams carrying with them much silt; their passes over the water-parting N. of the Kenai Peninsula are through gorges from 4000 to 10,000 ft. in depth. The Copper, the Susitna and its tributary, the Yentna, as well as the Skwentna, a tributary of the Yentna from the west, all run through picturesque canyons, and their upper courses are characterized by glacial and torrential feeders. Their valleys are well timbered.
The glaciers of the Panhandle and throughout the rest of the Pacific region are most remarkable—-extraordinary alike for their number and their size. They lie mainly between 56 deg. and 61 deg. N. lat., in a belt 1000 m. long, of which the central part, some 350 or 500 m. long and 80 m. to 100 m. wide, has been described as one great confluent neve field. Thousands of Alpine glaciers from one to fifteen miles long fill the upper valleys and canyons of the mountains. More than a hundred almost reach the sea, from which they are separated by detrital lowland or terminal moraines. Other glaciers are of the Piedmont type. Greatest of these and of Alaskan glaciers is the Malaspina, a vast elevated plateau of wasting ice, 1500 sq. m. in area (nearly a tenth the area of all Switzerland), touching the sea at only one point, though fronting it for 50 m. behind a fringing foreland of glacial debris. It is fed by Alpine glaciers, among them one of the grandest in Alaska, the Seward, which descends from Mt. Logan. It is more than 50 m. long, and more than 3 m. broad at its narrowest point, and several times in its course flows over cascades, falling hundreds of feet. Of tide-water glaciers the most remarkable is probably the Muir. It has an area of 350 sq. m.; the main trunk, which is 30 to 40 m. broad, is fed by 26 tributaries, 20 of which are each greater than the Mer de Glace, and pushes its bergs into the sea from ice cliffs almost 2 m. wide, standing IOO to 200 ft. above the water, and extending probably 700 to 1000 ft. beneath its surface. It has been calculated that the average daily discharge of the Muir in summer is 30,000,000 cubic ft. Its course, which is only about 13 m., has a slope of 100 ft. per mile, and the main current moves 7 ft. daily. The Character of the Muir was greatly altered by an earthquake in 1899. There are some 30 tide-water glaciers—-a considerable number of them very noteworthy. The Valdez is 30 m. long and 5000 ft. in altitude. Most of the Alaskan glaciers are receding, but not all of them; and at times there is a general advance. The Muir receded 1.6 m. from 1879—1890, the Childs about 600 yards in 17 years; others over 4, 7 or 10 m. in 20 years.
The Aleutian Islands (q.v.), like the Alexander Archipelago, are remnants of a submerged mountain system. Their only remarkable features are the volcanoes on the easterly islands, already mentioned.
Continental Alaska.—-Continental Alaska in the interior is essentially a vast plateau. ``The traveller between the main drainage areas of the interior is struck by the uniform elevation of the interfluminal areas. Rounded hills, level meads and persistent flat-topped ridges, composed of rocks of varying structure, rise to about the same level and give the impression that they are the remnants of a former continuous surface. Occasional limited areas of rugged mountains rise above this level, and innumerable stream valleys have been incised below it; but from the northern base of the St Elias and Alaskan ranges to the southern foothills of the Rocky Mountain system, and throughout their length, the remnants of this ancient level are to be seen. In height it varies from about 5000 ft. close to the bases of the mountain systems to less than 3000 ft. in the vicinity of the main lines of drainage, and slopes gradually towards the north.'' The Seward Peninsula is particularly rugged. This great plateau drains westward through broad, gently flowing streams, the network of whose tributary waters penetrates every corner of the interior and offers easy means of communication. Both the main streams and the smaller tributaries often flow through deep canyons. The Yukon is one of the great drainage systems of the world. The Yukon itself has a length of more than 2000 m. and bisects the country from E. to W. Behind the bluffs that form in large part its immediate border its basin is a rolling country, at times sinking into great dead levels like the Yukon flats between Circle City and the Lower Ramparts, some 30,000 sq. m. in area. Of the two great affluents of the Yukon, the Tanana is for the most part unnavigable, while the Koyukuk is navigable for more than 450 m. by river steamers, and for more than 500 m. above its mouth shows no appreciable diminution in volume. A low water-parting divides the Yukon valley from the Kuskokwim, the second river of Alaska in size, navigable by steamers for 600 m. Torrential near its source, it is already a broad, sluggish stream at its confluence with the East Kuskokwim. The tides rise 50 ft. near its mouth and the tide-head is 100 m. above the mouth.
Rocky Mountains. —The Rocky Mountain system in Alaska is higher and more complex than in Canada. About 100 m. wide at the international boundary, where the peaks of the British Mountains on the N. and of the Davidson Mountains On the S. are 7000 to 8000 ft. high, the system runs W.S.W. as the Endicott Mountains, two contiguous ranges of about 5000 to 6000 ft., and as these ranges separate, the northern becomes the De Long, the southern the Baird Mountains, whose elevation rapidly decreases toward the coast-line. The system is sharply defined on the north and less so on the south.
Arctic Slope Region.—-The Arctic Slope region is divided into the Anuktuvuk Plateau about 80 m. wide, with a maximum altitude to the S. of 2500 ft., and between the plateau and the Arctic Ocean the Coastal Plain. Very little is known of either part of the region.
Climate.—From the foregoing description of the country it is evident that the range of climate must be considerable. That of the coast and that of the Yukon plateau are quite distinct. The Panhandle, along with the lisiere (foreland), westward to Cook Inlet might be called temperate Alaska, its climate being similar to that of the N.W. coast of the United States; while to the westward and northward the winters become longer and more severe. d/he cause of the mild climate of the Panhandle, formerly supposed to be the Japanese current, or Kuro Shiwo, is now held to be the general eastward drift of the waters of the North Pacific in the direction of the prevalent winds. To the warmth and moisture brought by this means the coastal region owes its high equable temperature, its heavy rainfall (80-110 in.) and its superb vegetation. The mean annual temperature is from 54 deg. to 60 deg. F. Winter sets in about the 1st of December and the snow is gone save in the mountains by the 1st of May. The thermometer rarely registers below zero F. or above 75 deg. F.; the difference between the midwinter and midsummer averages is seldom more than 25 deg. . The summer is relatively dry, the autumn and winter wet. The vapour-laden sea air blowing landward against the girdle of snow and glaciers on the mountain barriers a few miles inland drains its moisture in excessive rain and snow upon the lisiere, shrouding it in well-nigh unbroken fog and cloud-bank. Only some 60 to 100 days in the year are clear. In passing from the Sitkan district westward toward Kodiak and the Aleutians (q.v.) the climate becomes even more equable, the temperature a little lower and the rainfall somewhat less; i the fogs at first less dense, especially near Cook Inlet, where the climate is extremely local, but more and more persistent along the Aleutians. The clear days of a year at Unalaska can be counted on the fingers; five days in seven it actually rains or snows. Bering Sea is covered with almost eternal fog. Along the coast N. of Alaska Peninsula the rainfall diminishes to 10 in. or less within the Arctic circle; the summer temperature is quite endurable but the winters are exceedingly rigorous.2 East of the mountains in south-eastern Alaska the atmosphere is dry and bracing, the temperature ranging from -14 deg. to 92 deg. F. In the farther interior, in the valleys of the Yukon, the Tanana, the Copper and the Sushitna the summers are much the same in character, the winters much more severe. On the Yukon at the international boundary the mean of the warmest month is higher than that of the warmest month at Sitka, 500 m. southward. At some points in the Upper Yukon valley the range of extreme temperatures is as great as from —75 deg. to 90 deg. F.3 The mean heat of summer in the upper valley is about 60 deg. to 70 deg. F., and at some points in the middle and lower valley even higher.4 By the middle of September snow flurries have announced the imminence of winter, the sipaller streams congeal, the earth freezes, the miner perforce abandons his diggings, and navigation ceases even on the Yukon in October. All winter snows fall heavily. The air is dry and quiet, and the cold relatively uniform. In midwinter in the upper valley the sun rises only a few degrees above the horizon for from four to six hours a day, though very often quite obscured. In December, January, February and March the thermometer often registers lower than -50 deg. F., and the mean temperature is -20 deg. . In May the rivers open, the cleared land thaws out, and by June the miner is again at work. Summer is quickly in full ascendancy. In May and June the sun shines from eighteen to twenty hours and diffused twilight fills the rest of the day. The rainfall is light, from 10 to 25 in. according to the year or the locality. Dull weather is unknown. All nature responds in rich and rapid growth to the garish light and intense heat of the long, splendid days. But the Alaska summer is the uncertain season at times the nights are cold into July, at times snow falls and there are frosts in mid-August; sometimes rain is heavy, or again there is a veritable drought. In the great river valleyss. of the Yukon basin climatic conditions are much less uniform.
Fauna anid Flora.—-The fauna of Alaska is very rich and surprisingly varied. The lists of insects, birds and mammals are especially noteworthy.5 Of these three classes, and of other than purely zoological interest, are mosquitoes, which swarm in summer in the interior in vast numbers; sea fowl, which are remarkably abundant near the Aleutians; moose, and especialiv caribou, which in the past were very numerous in the interior and of extreme economic importance to the natives. The destruction of the wild caribou has threatened to expose the Indians to wholesale starvation, hence the effort which the United States government has made to stock the country with domestic reindeer from Siberia. This effort made under the direction of the Bureau of Education has been eminently successful, and in the future the reindeer seems certain to contribute very greatly to the food, clothing, means of shelter and miscellaneous industries of the natives; and not less to the solution of the problems of communication and transportation throughout the interior. It is, however, the fish and the fur-bearing animals of its rivers and surrounding seas that are economically most distinctive of and important to Alaska. The fishing grounds extend along the coast from the extreme south-east past the Aleutians into Bristol Bay. Herring are abundant, and cod especially so. There are probably more than 100,000 sq. m. of cod-banks from 22 to 00 fathoms deep in Bering oea and E. or the Alaska Peninsula. Salmon are to be found in almost incredible numbers. Of marine mammals, whales are hunted far to the N. in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, but are much less common than formerly, as are also the walrus, the sea otter and the fur seal. All these are disappearing before commercial greed. The walrus is now found mainly far N.; the sea otter, once fairly common throughout the Aleutian district, is now rarely found even on the remoter islands; the fur seal, whose habitat is the Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea, has been considerably reduced in numbers by pelagic hunting. There are half-a-dozen species of hair seals and sea-lions. The number of fur-bearing land animals is equally large. Sables, ermine, wolverines, minks, land otters, beavers and musk-rats have always been importantitemsin the fur trade. There are black, grizzly and polar bears, and also two exclusively Alaskan species, the Kodiak and the glacier bear. The grey wolf is common; it is the basal stock of the Alaskan sledge-dog. The red fox is widely distributed, and the white or Arctic fox is very common along the eastern coast of Bering Sea; a blue fox, once wild, is now domesticated on Kodiak and the Aleutians, and on the southern continental coast, and a black fox, very rare, occurs in south-eastern Alaska; the silver fox is very rare.
The Alaskan flora is less varied than the fauna. The forests of the coastal region eastward from Cook Inlet, and particularly in south-eastern Alaska, are of fair variety, and of great richness and value. The balsam fir and in the south the red cedar occur in scant quantities; more widely distributed, but growing only under marked local conditions, is the yellow or Alaska cedar, a very hard and durable wood of fine grain and pleasant odour. The Oregon alder is fairly common. Far the most abundant are coast and Alpine hemlocks and the tide-land or Sitka spruce. The last is not confined to this part of Alaska, but is the characteristic and universal tree. It is of primary economic importance to thenatives,who use it for the most variouspurposcs. On the islands of the Alexander Archipelago and on Prince William Sound it grows to gigantic size; even on the Koyukuk and the middle Yukon it attains in places a diameter of 2 ft. In 1002 a forest reservation comprising the largest part of the Alexander Archipelago was created by the United States government. The separation of the coast and interior floras is almost complete; only along the mountain passes and river valleys, and rarely there, is there an exchange of species. Timber, however, is fairly abundant along the entire course of the Yukon above Anvik (about 400 m. from the mouth), along the great tributaries of the Yukon, and, so far as explorations have re vealed, along every stream in central Alaska; and the woods of the interior consist almost entirely of spruce. On the Yukon flats it grows in a vast forest impenetrably dense.6 The timber line, which in the I,anhandle and along the southern coast of the continental mass runs from 1800 to 2400 ft., frequently rises in the interior plateau even to 4000 ft. Next in importance after spruce, in the interior, is birch, and then balsam poplar. Thickets of alders and willows in wet places and new-made land, aspens and large cottonwoods west of the characteristic spruce area (as on Seward Peninsula), are also common. Toward the Arctic circle, the timber becomes, of course, sparse, low, gnarled and distorted. The willows in the Arctic drainage basin shrink to shrubs scarcely knee-high. Bushes are common in western Alaska, but undergrowth is very scanty in the forests. Crasses grow luxuriantly in the river bottoms and wherever the tundra moss is destroyed to give them footing. Most distinctive is the ubiquitous carpeting of mosses, varying in colours from the pure white and cream of the reindeer moss to the deep green and brown of the peat moss, all conspicuously spangled in the briefsummer with bright flowers of the higher orders, heavy blossoms on stunted stalks. The thick peat moss or tundra of the undrained lowlands covers probably at least a quarter of Alaska; the reindeer moss grows both on the lowlands and the hills.7 Sedges available for forage grow in the tundra. In August berries are fairly abundant over the interior; one of them, the salmon or cloud berry, preserved in seal oil for the winter, is an important food of the natives. The grasses are killed by the frosts in September. The western timber limit is on Kodiak Island. The Aleutian Islands (q.v.) are almost destitute of trees, but are covered with a luxuriant growth of herbage. Climatic differences cannot account for the treeless condition of the country W. of this point, and the true explanation lies probably in the fact that in winter, when the seeds of the coastal forests ripen and are released, the prevalent winds W. of Kodiak are damp and blow from the S. and S.W., while the spread of the seeds requires dry winds blowing from the N. and N.W. Such favourable conditions occur only rarely.
The Soil of Alaska seems to be in Jtself rich, and quite capable of agricultural development; the great impediment to this is in . the briefness of the summer. Contrary, however, to the once universal belief, the experiments of the department of agriculture of the United States have definitely proved that hardy vegetables in great variety can readily be produced in the coastal region and at various stations in the Yukon valley; and presumably, therefore, all over the interior S. of the Arctic circle, save along Bering Sea; also that there is little doubt of the practicability of successfully cultivating buckwheat, barley and oats, and possibly also rye and wheat; that grasses for grazing grow generally and often in abundance; and in general that the possibilities of interior Alaska as a live-stock country are very cons18erable. It is calculated that a twentieth of south-eastern Alaska is available for agriculture, and that of the entire country 100,000 sq. m. are pasturable or tillable.
Indiistrl'.—-The fur and fish resources of Alaska have until recently held first place in her industries. Herrings furnish oil and guano, and the young fish are packed as ``sardines'' at Juneau. Cod can be taken with comparatively little danger or hardship. During the Russian occupation a small amount was shipped to California and the Sandwich Islands. The take since 1879 has been practically constant. The take of halibut is increasing steadily. The salmon industry dates from 1878. The total output (in 1901, 100,000,000 lb.; in 1006, about 72,000,000 lb.), which since 1900 has been more than half the total salmon product of the United States, is more than ten' times the product of all other fish.8 On the Karluk river, Kodiak Island, is the greatest salmon fishery in the world. More than 3,000,000 salmon have been canned here in one season. The second salmon stream is the Nushagak, flowing into Bristol Bay; this bay is the richest fishing field of Alaska, furnishing in 1901, 35% of the total production. The recklessly wasteful manner in which these fisheries are conducted, and the inadequate measures taken by the United States government for their protection, threaten the entire industry with destruction. From 1867 to 1902 the value of the total fishery product was estimated at $60,000,000. The fur-seal industry has been better protected but still unavailingly. (See SEAL FIsheries and BERINO SEA ARBITRATION.) The value of the fur seals taken from 1868 to 1902 was estimated at $35,000,000 and that of other furs at $17,000,000. The walrus, hunted for its ivory tusks, and the sea otter, rarest and most valuable of Alaskan fur animals, are near extermination; the blue fox is now bred for its pelt on the Aleutians and the southern continental coast; the skins of the black and silver fox are extremely rare, and in general the whole fur industry is discouragingly decadent. The whale fishery also has greatly fallen off; there is no profit on the oil and the whales are sought for the baleen alone; they are much less numerous too than they once were, and have to be sought farther and farther north.
Minerals.—The timber resources of Alaska are untouched and the serious exploitation of her minerals is very recent. As early as 1861 gold discoveries were made on the Stikine river; repeated discoveries, culminating in the Cassiar district ``boom,'' were made in British Columbia from 1857 to 1874; colourings along the Yukon were reported in 1866-1867 and systematic prospecting of the upper river began about 1873. Juneau was founded in 1880; the same year the opposition of the Indians was withdrawn that had prevented the crossing of the mountain passes to the interior, and after 1880 repeated and scattered discoveries were made on the Lewes, Pelly, Stewart and other streams of the Upper Yukon country in Canada. As early as 1883-1885 there was a considerable mining excitement due to these discoveries, and a much greater one in 1887 after the discovery of coarse gold on Forty Mile Creek in American territory; but these were as nothing to the picturesque and feverish rush that followed the location of the first Klondike claim in Canadian territory in August 1896. (SEE KLONDIKE.) The mines in American territory were temporarily deserted for the new diggings. Other gold districts are scattered over the whole interior of Alaska. Nome (q.v.) was the scene of a great gold mining stampede in 1900. The quartz mines near Juneau are among the greatest stamp mills of the world (SEE JUNEAU.) The product of gold and silver (of the latter some 1.3% of the total) from 1895 to 1901 was more than $32,000,000 from Alaska proper (not including that from the Canadian Tukon fields) as against a production of $5,000,000 in 1880-1896. The gold product of the Canadian Yukon territory from 1896-1903 was about $96,000,000, as estimated by the Canadian Geological Survey. In 1905 the product of gold from Alaska was valued at $15,630,000 (mines report); and from 1880 to 19djec the production of gold, according to the estimate of A. H. Brooks, was more than $100,000,000. The gravest problem of mining in the interior country, even graver than that presented by the climate, is transportation; in 1900 the Tanana fields, for example, were provisioned from Circle City, about 125 m. distant, at the rate of a cent per lb. mile (i.e. $2000 for moving a ton 100 m.). Even higher rates prevailed in the copper country in 1902. Various other minerals in addition to gold have been discovered, and several of them, notably copper and silver (the latter appearing with the gold deposits), may probably be profitably exploited. In 1905 the product of copper was valued at $759,634, that of silver at $80,165 (mines report). Coal, and in much larger quantities lignite, have been found in many parts of Alaska. Most important, because of their location, are deposits along the Alaska Peninsula and between Circle City and Dawson. The latter furnishes fuel to the river steamboats, and it is hoped may eventually supply the surrounding mining region. There are valuable deposits of gypsum on Chicagof Island, and marble quarries are being developed on Prince of Wales Island.
As against $7,200,000 paid for Alaska in 1867, the revenues returned to the United States in the years 1867—1903 totalled $9,555,909 (namely, rental for the Fox and Pribilof Islands, $999,200; special revenue tax on seal-skins, $7,597,351; Alaskan customs, $528,558; public lands, $28,928; other sources $401,872). It has been estimated that in the same period the United States drew from Alaska fish, furs and gold to the value of about $150,000,000; that up to 1903 the imports from the states aggregated $i00,000,000; and that $25,000,000 of United States capital was invested in Alaska.
Since 1896 communication with the outer world has been greatly increased. Alaskan mails leave the states daily, many post-offices are maintained, mail is regularly delivered beyond the Arctic circle, all the more important towns have telegraphic communication with the states,9 there is one railway in the interior through Canadian territory from Skagway, and other railways are planned. The total mileage in 1906 was 136 m. In that year the Alaskan Central Railroad (from Seward to Fairbanks, 463 m.) was chartered; 45 m. of this road were in operation in 1905. One long military road as an ``All American'' route from Valdez has long been built.
Population.—-The population in 1867 at the time of the cession from Russia is estimated at 30,000, of which two-thirds were Eskimo and other Indians. Population returned in 1880, 33,426; in 1890, 32,052; in 1900, 63,592, of whom approximately 48% were whites, 46% natives and 6% Japanese and Chinese; (1910 census) 64,356. The Asiatics are employed in the salmon canneries. The natives of Alaska fall under four ethnologic races: the Eskimo or Innuit—-of these the Aleuts are an offshoot; the Haidas or Kaigani, found principally on Prince of Wales Island and thereabouts; the Thlinkits, rather widely distributed in the ``Panhandle''; and the Tinnehs or Athapascans, the stock race of the great interior country. In 1800 the pure-blooded natives numbered 23,531, of whom 6000 were Haidas, Thlinkits or other natives of the coastal region, 1000 Aleuts, 3400 Athapascans and 13,100 Eskimo. The natives have adopted many customs of white civilization, and on the Aleutians, and in coastal Alaska, and in scattered regions in the interior acknowledge Christianity under the forms of the Orthodox Greek or other churches. The rapid exhaustion in late years of the caribou, seals and other animals, once the food or stockin-trade of the Aleuts and other races, threatens more and more the swift depletion of the natives. They have also felt the fatal influence of the liquor traffic. From 1893 to 1895 the United States expended $55,000 to support the natives of the Fur Seal Islands. This policy threatens to become a continued necessity throughout much of Alaska. There is a small government Indian reservation on Afognak Island, near Kodiak. The white population is extremely mobile, and few towns have an assured or definite future. The prosperity of the mining towns of the interior is dependent on the fickle fortune of the gold-fields, for which they are the distributing points. Sitka, Juneau (the capital) and Douglas, both centres of a rich mining district, Skagway, shipping point for freight for the Klondike country (see these titles), and St Michael, the ocean port for freighting up the Yukon, are the only towns apparently assured of a prosperous future. Wrangell (formerly Fort St Dionysius, Fort Stikine and Fort Wrangell), founded in 1833, is a dilapidated and torpid little village, of some interest in Alaskan history, and of temporary importance from 1874 to 1877 as the gateway to the Cassiar mines in British Columbia. Its inhabitants are chiefly Thlinkit Indians.
Government.—-Alaska, by an act of Congress approved the 7th of May 1906, received the power to elect a delegate to Congress. Before this act and the elections of August 1906 Alaska was a governmental district of the United States without a delegate in Congress. Its administration rests in the hands of the various executive departments, and is partly exercised by a governor and other resident officials appointed by the president. It is a military district, a customs district (since 1868), is organized into a land district, and constitutes three judicial divisions. In 1867-1877 the government was in the hands of the department of war, although the customs were from the beginning collected by the department of the treasury, with which the effective control rested from 1877 until the passage of the so-called Organic Act of 17th May 1884. This act extended over Alaska the laws of the state of Oregon so far as they should be applicable, created the judicial district and a land district, put in force the mining laws of the United States, and in general gave the administrative system the organization it retained up to the reforms of 1899-1900. The history of government and political agitation has centred since then in the demand for general land legislation and for an adequate civil and criminal law, in protests against the enforcement of a liquor prohibition law, and in agitation for an efficiently centralized administration. As the general land laws of the United States were not extended to Alaska in 1884, there was no means, generally speaking, of gaining title to any land other than a mining claim, and so far as any method did exist its cost was absolutely prohibitive. After partial and inadequate legislation in 1891 and 1898, the regular system of land surveys was made applicable to Alaska in 1899, and a generous homestead law was provided in 1903. An adequate code of civil and criminal law and provisions for civil government under improved conditions were provided by Congress in 1899 and 1900. The agitation over prohibition dates from 1868; the act of that year organizing a customs district forbade the importation and sale of firearms, ammunition and distilled spirits; the Organic Act of 1884 extended this prohibition to all intoxicating liquors. The coast of Alaska offers exceptional facilities for smuggling, and liquor bas always been very plentiful; juries have steadily refused to convict offenders, and treasury officials have regularly collected revenue from saloons existing in defiance of law. The prohibition law is still upon the statute-books. The chief weaknesses in the colonial administration of the territory, particularly prior to 1900—-but only to a slightly less extent since—-have been decentralization and a lax civil service. The concomitants of these have been irresponsibility and inefficiency. The governor has represented the president without possessing much power; the department of war has had illdefined duties; the department of justice has, in theory, had charge of the general law; the department of the interior has administered the land law; the agents of the bureau of education have superintended the stocking of Alaska with reindeer; the United States Fish Commission has investigated the condition of marine life without having powers to protect it. The treasury department has charted the coasts, sought to enforce the prohibition law, controlled and protected the fur seals and fisheries, and incidentally collected the customs. Since the creation of the department of commerce and labour (1903), it has taken over from other departments some of these scattered functions. All in all, the government has proved itself without power to protect the most valuable industries of the district, and for many years there has been talk of a regular territorial government. The paucity of permanent residents and the poverty of the local treasury seem to make such a solution an impossibleone.
History.—-The region now known as Alaska was first explored by the Russian officers Captain Vitus Bering and Chirikov in I 741 They visited parts of the coast between Dixon Entrance and Cape St Elias, and returned along the line of the Aleutians. Their expedition was followed by many private vessels manned by traders and trappers. Kodiak was discovered in 1763 and a settlement effected in 1784. Spanish expeditions in 1774 and 1775 visited the south-eastern coast and laid a foundation for subsequent territorial claims, one incident of which were the Nootka Sound seizures of 1789. Captain James Cook in 1778 made surveys from which the first approximately accurate chart of the coast was published; but it was reserved for Vancouver in 1793-1794 to make the first charts in the modern sense of the intricate south-eastern coast, which only in recent years have been superseded by new survel's. Owing to excesses committed by private traders and companies, who robbed, massacred and hideously abused the native Indians, the trade and regulation of the Russian possessions were in 1799 confided to a semi-official corporation called the Russian-American Company for a term of twenty years, afterwards twice renewed for similar periods. A monopoly of the American trade had previously been granted in 1788 to another private company, the Shohkof. Alexander Baranov (1747—1819); chief resident director of the American companies (1790-1819), one of the early administrators of the new company, became famous through the successes he achieved as governor. He founded Sitka (q.v.) in 1804 after the massacre by the natives of the inhabitants of an eadier settlement (1799) at an adjacent point. The headquarters of the company were at Kodiak until 1805, and thereafter at Sitka. In 1821 Russia attempted by ukase to exclude navigators from Bering Sea and the Pacific coast of her possessions, which led to immediate protest from the United States and Great Britain. This led to a treaty with the United States in 1824 and one with Great Britain in 1825, by which the excessive demands of Russia were relinquished and the boundaries of the Russian possessions were permanently fixed. The last charter of the Russian-American Company expired on the 31st of December 1861, and Prince Maksutov, an imperial governor, was appointed to administer the affairs of the territory. In 1864 authority was granted to an American company to make explorations for a proposed Russo-American company's telegraph line overland from the Amur river in Siberia to Bering Strait, and through Alaska to British Columbia. Work was begun on this scheme in 1865 and continued for nearly three years, when the success of the Atlantic cable rendered the construction of the lme unnecessary and it was given up, but not until important explorations had been made. In 1854 a Californian company began importing ice from Alaska. Very soon thereafter the first Official overtures by the United States for the purchase of Russian America were made during the presidency of James Buchanan. In 1867, by a treaty signed on the 30th of March, the purchase was consummated for the sum of $7,200,o00, and on the 18th of October 1867 the formal transfer of the territory was made at Sitka.
Since its acquisition by the United States the history of Alaska has been mainly that of the evolution of its administrative system described above, and the varying fortunes of its fisheries and sealing industries. Since the gold discoveries a wonderful advance has been made in the exploration of the country. A military reservation has been created with Fort Michael as a centre. The two events of greatest general interest have been the Fur Seal Arbitration of 1893 (see BERING SEA ARBITRATION), and the . Alaska-Canadian boundary dispute, settled by an international tribunal of British and American jurists in London in 1903. The boundary dispute involved the interpretation of the words, quoted above, in the treaties of 1825 and 1867 defining the boundary of the Russian (later American) possessions, and also the determining of the location of Portland Canal, and the question whether the coastal girdle should cross or pass around the heads of the fjords of the coast. The tribunal was an ad-)udication board and not an actual court of arbitration, since its function was not to decide the boundary but to settle the meaning of the Anglo-Russian treaty, which provided for an ideal (and not a physical) boundary. This boundary did not fit in with geographical facts; hence the adjudication was based upon the motive of the treaty and not upon the literal interpretation of such elastic terms as ``ocean,', ``shore'' and ``coast-line.'' The award of the tribunal made in October 1903 was arrived at by the favourable vote of the three commissioners of the United States and of Lord Alverstone, whose action was bitterly resented by the two Canadian commissioners; it sustained in the main the claims of the United States.
AUTHORITIES.—-W. H. Dall and M. Baker, ``List of Charts, Maps, and Publications relating to Alaska'', in United States Pacific Coast Pilot, 1879; Monthly Catalogue United States Public Documents, No. 37 (1898), and Bulletin 227, United States Geological Surve8' (1904), for official documents; H. H. Bancroft, Alaska 1710—f8&5) pp. 595-609; and various other bibliographies in titles mentioned below, especially in Brooke's The Geography and Geology of Alaska.
General.—United States Monthly Summary of Commerce Finance, July 1903, ``Commercial Alaska, 1867-1903. Area, Popula tion, Productions, Commerce . . .''; W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (Boston, 1870); C. Sumner, Speech on ``Cession of Russian-America to the United States,'' in Works, vol. xi. (Boston, 1875): C. H. Merriam, editor, Halrriman Alaska Expedition (New York, 1901-1904, 3 vols.).
Physiography and Climate.—-United States Department of War, Explorations in Alaska, 1864-1900 (Washington, 1901); United States Geological Survey, Annual Reports since 1897—-``The Geography and Geology of Alaska: A Summary of Existing Knowledge,'' by Alfred H. Brooks (Washington, 1905; Professional Paper, No. 45), with various maps (see National Geographic Mag., May 1904, lor a map embodying all knowledge then known); ``Altitudes in Alaska'' (Bulletin 100, by H. Gannett); ``Geographic Dictionary of Alaksa'' (Bulletin 299, Washington, 1906), by M. Baker; United States Post Office, ``Map of Alaska'' (1901); United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletins and maps; Bulletin American Geographieal Society, February 1902, F. S. Schrader, ``Work of the United States Geological Survey in Alaska''; Journal of Franklin Institute, October and November 1904, W. R. Abercrombie—-``The Copper River Country of Alaska''; I. C. Russell, Glaciers of North America. . . . Ivan Petroff, Report
Industries.—United States Census, 1880, Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska; United States Census, 1890 and 1900; on reindeer, Fifteenth Annuat Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska, by Sheldon Jackson (Washington, 1906); on agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Experiment Stations, Bulletin Nos. 48, 62, 82 . . . (1898-1900); Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Industries of Alaska, 1868-1805 (Washington, 1898) (United States Treasury, also 55 Congress, 1 Session, House Document 92, vols. vi.-x.), 4 vols.; D. S. Jordan et al., The Fur Seals and Fur Seal Islanids (or Peport of ln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the voln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the United States Treasury: for Report of British seal experts, Creat Britain, Foreign Office Correspondence, United States, No. 3 (1897), No. 1 (1898).
History and Government.—H. H. Bancroft, Alaska, 1730-1885(San Francisco, 1886); W. H. Dall, ``Alaska as it was andis, 1863-1893,'' in Bulletin of the Philadelphia Society ofWashington, xiii.; Governor of Alaska, Annual Report to theSecretary of the Interior; Fur Seal Arbitration, Proceedings(Washington, 1895, 46 vols.l: also Great Britain, ForeignOffice Correspondence, United States, Nos. 6, 7, 8 (1893), No.1 (1895); Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, Cases, Counter-cases,Arguments, Atlases of United States and Great Britain(Washington, 1903 seq.); and a rich periodical literature.
Population, Natives.—United States National Museum,Ann. Report (1896); W. Hough, ``Lamp of the Eskimo''(long, and of general interest): F. Knapp and R. L. Childe,The Thlinkets of South-Eastern Alaska (Chicago, 1896).
1 At Kodiak, the monthly means range from 28 deg. to 33 deg. with a total range from -10 deg. to 82 deg. F., as against -5 deg. to 87 deg. F. at Sitka; the average temperature is 40.6 deg. F., rainfall 59 in.
2 At St Michael the mean annual temperature is about 26 deg. , the monthly means run from about -2 deg. to 54 deg. , and the extreme recorded temperatures from about -55 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Port Clarence the annual mean is 22 deg. lmonthly means -7 deg. to 51 deg. F.; extreme range of temperature, -38 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Point Barrow the annual mean is 7.70 F'., monthly means -18.6 deg. to 38.1 deg. F., extreme range of temperature -55 deg. to 65 deg. F.
3 The mean annual temperature on the Yukon at the international line is about 21 deg. F., the monthly means run from -17 deg. to 60 deg. F., the range of extreme temperatures from -80 deg. to 90 deg. F.
4 At Fort Yukon five years' records showed mean seasonal temperatures of 14 deg. , 60 deg. , 17 deg. , and -23.8 deg. F. for spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively: at Holy Cross Mission 20 deg. , 59 deg. , 36 deg. and 0.95 deg. , at Nulato 29 deg. , 60 deg. , 36 deg. and -14 deg. . `
5 The Harriman expedition collected in two months 1000 species of insects, of which 344 species (and 6 genera) were new to science.
6 The trees here grow as large as 10 in. in diameter and 40 or 50 ft. high; the branches do nor spread, even where there is room, so ihat the tallest tree has a top only four or five feet broad; the roots, which cannot penetrate the shaded and frozen soil, spread over the ice or shallowly into the tundra carpeting, and often only by their matted neiwork prevent the fall of the trees.
7 280 species of mosses proper, of which 46 were new to science, and 16 varieties of peat moss (Sphognum) were listed by the Harriman expedition; and 74 species or varieties of ferns.
8 The value of the total aroduct of Alaska's fish canneries was in 1905 $7,735,782, or 29.3% of the total for the United States; in 1900 it was 17.4% of the country's total.
9 Seattle, Sitka and Valdez are connected by cable; telegraoh lines run from the Panhandle inland to the Yukon and down its valley to Fort St Michael.
ALASSIO, a town of Liguria, Italy, on the N.W. coast of the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Genoa, 57 m. S.W. of the town of the same name by rail. Pop. (1901) 5630. It is mainly noticeable as a health resort in winter and a bathing-place in summer, and has many hotels. The anchorage is safe, and the bay full of fish; the harbour has a certain amount of trade. The old town contains one or two interesting churches, and commands a fine view.
ALASTOR, in Greek mythology, the spirit of revenge, which prompts the members of a family to commit fresh crimes to obtain satisfaction. These crimes necessitate further acts of vengeance, and the curse is thus transmitted from generation to generation. The word is also used for a man's evil genius, which drives him to sin without any provocation; a man so driven is sometimes called Alastor. The epithet is applied to Zeus and the Erinyes as the deities of revenge and punishment.
ALA-TAU (``Variegated Mountains''), the name of six mountain ranges in Asiatic Russia. Three of these are in the government of Semiryechensk in Central Asia, all belonging to the Tianshan system:—-(1) the Terskei Ala-tau, south of and parallel to the lake of Issyk-kul; (2) the Kunghei Ala-tau, and (3) the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, both N. of and parallel to the same lake; and (4) the Dzungarian Ala-tau, lying N. of the Ili depression. The first three link together the Tian-shan and the Alexander Range. Their mean elevation is 6000—7000 ft.; their culminating point, Talgar, on a transverse ridge between (2) and (3), reaches 15,000 ft.; the limits of perpetual snow run at 11,000-11,700 ft. The Dzungarian Ala-tau reach a maximum altitude of 11,000 ft. and have a mean altitude of 6250 ft. From the middle of the Alexander Range another range (5) called Ala-tau, or Talastau, strikes west by south. The name Ala-tau also enters into the designation of (6), a range between the upper Yenisei and the upper Ob, in the government of Tomsk, namely, the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, forming an outlier of the Altai Mountains, and reaching 6000-7000 ft. in altitude.
ALAUNA, ALAUNUS, the Celtic names of two rivers, &c., in RomanBritain. Hence the modern Allan Water, river Alyn, &c.
ALAVA, DON MIGUEL RICARDO DE (1770-1841), Spanish general and statesman, was born at Vittoria in 1770. He served first in the navy, and had risen to be captain of a frigate when he exchanged intorthe army, receiving corresponding rank. He was present as a marine at the battle of Trafalgar on board the flagship of his uncle Admiral Alava. In politics he followed a very devious course. At the assembly of Bayonne in 1808 he was one of the most prominent of those who accepted the new constitution from Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain. After the national rising against French aggression, and the defeat of General Dupont at Bailen in 1808, Alava joined the national independent party, who were fighting in alliance with the English. The Spanish Cortes appointed him commissary at the English headquarters, and the duke of Wellington, who regarded him with great favour, made him one of his aides-decamp. Before the close of the campaign he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general. On the restoration of Ferdinand, Alava was cast into prison, but the influence of his uncle Ethenard, the inquisitor, and of Wellington secured his speedy release. He soon contrived to gain the favour of the king, who appointed him in 1815 ambassador to the Hague. It was therefore his remarkable forrune to be present at the battle of Waterloo with Wellington's staff. He is supposed to have been the only man who was present at both Waterloo and Trafalgar. Four years later he was recalled owing, it is said, to the marked kindness he had shown to his banished fellow-countrymen. On the breaking out of the revolution of 1820 he was chosen by the province of Alava to represent it in the Cortes, where he became conspicuous in the party of the Exallados, and in 1822 was made president. In the latter year he fought with the militia under Francisco Ballesteros and Pablo Murillo to maintain the authority of the Cortes against the rebels. When the French invested Cadiz, Alava was commissioned by the Cortes to treat with the duc d'Angouleme, and the negotiations resulted in the restoration of Ferdinand, who pledged himself to a liberal policy. No sooner had he regained power, however, than he ceased to hold himself bound by his promises, and Alava found it necessary to retire first to Gibraltar and then to England. On the death of Ferdinand he returned to Spain, and espousing the cause of Maria Christina against Don Carlos was appointed ambassador to London in 1834 and to Paris in 1835. After the insurrection of La Granja he refused to sign the constitution of 1812, declaring himself tired of taking new oaths, and was consequently obliged to retire to France, where he died at Bareges in 1843.
Frequent and honourable mention of Alava is made in Napier's History of the Peninsular War, and his name is often met borh in lives of the duke of Wellington and in his correspondence.
ALAVA, one of the Basque Provinces of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by Biscay and Guipuzcoa, E. by Navarre, S. by Logrono, and W. by Burgos. Pop. (1900) 96,385; area 1175 sq. m. The countship of Trevino (190 sq. m.) in the centre of Alava belongs to the province of Burgos. The surface of Alava is very mountainous, especially on the north, where a part of the Pyrenees forms its natural boundary. It is separated from Logrono by the river Ebro, and its other rivers are the Zadorra and the Ayuda. The climate is mild in summer, fitful in autumn and spring, and very cold in winter, as even the plains are high and shut in on three sides by mountains snow-clad during several months. The soil in the valleys is fertile, yielding wheat, barley, maize, flax, hemp and fruits. Oil and a poor kind of wine called chacoli are also produced. Many of the mountains are clothed with forests of oak, chestnuts, beeches and other trees, and contain iron, copper, lead and marble. Salt is also found in large quantities; but mining and quarrying are not practised on a large scale; only lead, lignite and asphalt being worked. There are mineral waters in many places. Other local industries of some importance include smelting, and manufactures of beds, furniture, railway carriages, matches, paper, sweets and woollen and cotton goods. Bread-stuffs. colonial products and machinery are largely imported. Few provinces in Spain are inhabited by so laborious, active and well-to-do a population. The primary schools are numerously attended, and there are very good normal schools for teachers of both sexes, and a model agricultural farm: The public roads and other works of the province are excellent, and, like those of the rest of the Basque provinces, entirely kept up by local initiative and taxes. Railways from Madrid to the French frontier, and from Saragossa to Bilbao, cross the province. The capital is Vitoria (pop. 1900, 30,701), which is the only town with more than 3500 inhabitants.
For a fuller account of the history, people and customs of Alava, see BASQUES and BASQUE PROVINCE, with the works there cited. A very elaborate bibliograohy is given in the Catalogo de las obras referentes a las provincias de Alava y Navarra, by A. A. Salazar (Madrid, 1887.) The following books by i. I. Landazuri y Romarate contain much material for a provincial history:—Historia ecclesiastica, &c. (Pamplona, 1797); Historia civil, &c. (Vitodes, 1798); Compendios historicos de la ciudad y villas de . . . Alava, &c. (Pamplona, 1798); Suplemento a' los cuatro libros de la historia de . . . Alava (Vitoria, 1799); and Los varones illustres Alavenses Vitoria, 1798). See also M. Risco in vol. 33 of Hispania Sagiada, by H. Florez, &c. (Madrid, 1754-1879).
ALB (Lat. alba, from albus, white), a liturgical vestment of the Catholic Church. It is a sack-like tunic of white linen, with narrow sleeves and a hole for the head to pass through, and when gathered up round the waist by the girdle (cingulum) just clears the ground. Albs were originally quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th century. These at first encircled the whole border; but soon it became customary to substitute for them square patches of embroidery or precious fabrics. These ``parures'' ``apparels'' or ``orphreys'' (Lat. parun'ae, grammala, aurifeisia, &c.), were usually four in number, one being sewn on the back and another on the front of the vestment just above the lower hem, and one on each cuff. When, as occasionally happened, a fifth was added, this was placed on the breast just below the neck opening. These ``apparelled albs'' (albae paratae) continued in general use in the Western Church till the 16th century, when a tendency to dispense with the parures began, Rome itself setting the example.
The growth of the lace industry in the 17th century hastened the process by leading to the substitution of broad bands of lace as decoration; occasionally, as in a magnificent specimen preserved at South Kensington, nearly half the vestment is thus composed of lace. At the present time, so far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, apparelled albs are only in regular use at Milan (Ambrosian Rite), and, partially, in certain churches in Spain. The decree of the Congregation of Rites (May 18, 1819) says nothing about apparels, but only lays down that the alb must be of white linen or hemp cloth. There is no definite rule as to the material or character of the ornamentation, and attempts have been made, especially in England, to revive the use of the apparelled alb.
In the Roman Church the alb is now reckoned as one of the vestments proper to the sacrifice of the Mass. It is worn by bishops, priests, deacons and subdeacons under the other eucharistic vestments, either at Mass or at functions connected with it. It is sometimes also worn by clerics in minor orders, whose proper vestment is, however, the surplice—itself a modification of the alb (see SURPLICE.) The alb is supposed to be symbolical of purity, and the priest, when putting it on, prays: ``Make me white and purify my heart, O Lord,'' &c. In the middle ages the parures, which originally had no mystic intention whatever, were taken to symbolize the wounds of Christ; whence probably is derived the custom surviving at the cathedral of Toledo, of the singers of the Passion on Good Friday being vested in apparelled albs.
In England at the Reformation the alb went out of use with the other ``Mass vestments,'' and remained out of use in the Church of England until the ritual revival of the 19th century. It is now worn in a considerable number of churches not only by the clergy but by acolytes and servers at the Communion. Where the ritual, as in most cases, is a revival of pre-Reformation uses and not modelled on that of modern Rome, these albs are frequently apparelled. For the question of its legality see VESTMENTS.
Both the alb and its name are derived ultimately from the tunica alba, the white tunic, which formed part of the ordinary dress of Roman citizens under the Empire. As such it was worn both in and out of church, the few notices remaining which suggest a special tunic for ministers at the Eucharist merely implying that it was not fitting to use for so sacred a function a garment soiled by everyday wear. The date of its definite adoption as a liturgical vestment is uncertain; at Rome—- where until the 13th century it was known as the linea or camisia (cf. the modern Italian camice for alb)—-it seems to have been thus used as early as the 5th century. But as late as the 9th and 10th centuries the alba is still an everyday as well as a liturgical garment, and we find bishops and synods forbidding priests to sing mass in the alba worn by them in ordinary life (see Braun, p. 62). Throughout the middle ages, moreover, the word alba was somewhat loosely used. In the medieval inventories are sometimes found albae, described as red, blue or black; which has led to the belief that albs were sometimes not only made of stuffs other than linen, but were coloured. It is clear, however, from the descriptions of these vestments that in some cases they were actually tunicles, the confusion of terms arising from the similarity of shape (see DALMATIC); in other cases the colour applied to the parures, not to the albs as a whole. Silk albs appear in the inventories, but only very exceptionally.
The equivalent of the alb in the ancient Churches of the East is the sticharion (sticharion) of the Orthodox Church (Armenian shapik, Syrian Kutina, Coptic stoicharion or tuniah.) It is worn girdled by bishops and priests in all rites, by subdeacons in the Greek and Coptic rites. By deacons and lectors it is worn ungirdled in all the rites. The colour of the vestment is usually white for bishops and priests (this is the rule in the Coptic Church); for the other orders there is no rule, and all colours, except black, may be used. Its material may be linen, wool, cotton or silk; but silk only is the rule for deacons. In the Armenian and Coptic rites the vestment is often elaborately embroidered; in the other rites the only ornament is a cross high in the middle of the back, save in the case of bishops of the Orthodox Church, whose sticharia are ornamented with two vertical red stripes (potamoi, ``rivers''). In the East as in the West the vestment is specially associated with the ritual of the Eucharist.
The whole subject is exhaustively treated by Father Joseph Braun in Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907). See also Bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.
ALBA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, on the river Tanaro, in the province of Cuneo. From the town of the same name it is 33 m. N.E. direct; it is 42 m. S.S.E. of Turin by rail. Pop. (1901) 13,900. It contains a fine cathedral, with a Gothic facade, reconstructed in 1486, and is an important commercial centre. It occupies the site of the ancient Alba Pompeia, probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul 89 B.C.) when he constructed the road from Aquae Statiellae (Acqui) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Probably this was the road taken by Decimus Brutus when he succeeded, after the raising of the siege of AIutina in 43 B.C., in occupying Pollentia just before Mark Antony's cavalry came in sight. Alba was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. It became an episcopal see dependent on Milan in the 4th century. A small museum of local antiquities was established in 1897.
See F. Eusebio in Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Rome, 1904), vol. v. p. 485.
ALBACETE, an inland province of south-eastern Spain, formed in 1833 out of the northern half of Murcia, and bounded on the N. by Cuenca, E. by Valencia and Alicante, S. by Murcia, and W. by Granada and Jaen. Pop. (1900) 237,877; area 5737 sq. m. The northern part of Albacete belongs to the high plains of New Castile, the southern is generally mountainous, traversed by low ranges or isolated groups of hills, which culminate in the Sierra de Alcaraz on the borders of Granada, where several summits reach 5000 ft. Besides many smaller streams, two large rivers water the province, the Segura in the south-west, and the Jficar in the north-east; both rising beyond the borders of Albacete, and ultimately flowing into the Mediterranean. The fertile glens of the Alcaraz district are richly wooded, and often, from their multitude of fruit trees, resemble the huertas or gardens of Alicante; but broad tracts of land are destitute of trees, and suitable only for pasture. These barren regions are thinly peopled; and for the whole of Albacete the density of population (41.3 per sq. m. in 1900) is lower than in any other Spanish province, except Soria.
The climate is generally mild and healthy, although, among the higher mountains, the snow lies for several months. Wheat and other cereals are cultivated, with fruits of many kinds, olives, and vines which yield a wine of fair quality; while saffron is largely produced, and some attention is given to thekeeping of bees and silkworms. Stock-farming, for which the wide plains afford excellent opportunities, employs many of the peasantry; the bulls of Albacete are in demand for bullfighting, and the horses for mounting the Spanish cavalry. There is also a good breed of mules. Sulphurous and other mineral springs, both hot and cold, exist in several districts, and deposits of silver, iron, copper, sulphur, coal and other minerals have been discovered; but the exploitation of these is retarded by lack of communications, and, apart from building materials, sulphur and salt, the actual output is insignificant. Manufactures are almost confined to the spinning of hemp, and the making of coarse cloth, porcelain, earthenware and cutlery. Brandy distilleries are numerous, and there is some trade in wood; but no local industry can rival agriculture and stock-breeding, which furnish the bulk of the exports. Albacete (pop. 1900, 21,512), the capital, and the other important towns of Almansa (11,180) and Hellin (12,558), are described under separate headings. Alcaraz, which gives its name to the mountain range already mentioned, is a picturesque old town with the ruins of a Moorish castle, and a fine Roman aqueduct; pop. (1900) 4501. Caudete (5913), Chinchilla, or Chinchilla de Monte-Aragon (6680), La Roda (7066), Tobarra (7787), Villarrobledo (10,125) and Yeste (6591) are important markets for the sale of agricultural produce. The railway from Madrid to Albacete passes south-westward to Chinchilla, where it bifurcates, one line going to Murcia, and the other to Alicante. A large part of the province is only accessible by road, and even the main highways maintained by the state are ill kept. Education is very backward even in the towns; many of the inhabitants carry arms; and crimes of violence are not infrequent.
ALBACETE, the capital of the above province, on the MadridAlicante railway, and at the confluence of the river Balazote with the canal of Maria Christina, which flows into the river Jficar, 16 m. N. Pop. (1900) 21,512. Albacete comprises the picturesque old upper town and the new or lower town, with iawCourts, schools, barracks, hospitals, a councihhall, a bull-ring and other modern buildings, mostly erected after the city became a provincial capital in 1833. It is surrounded by a fertile plain, and has considerable trade in saffron and agricultural produce. A great market, chiefly for the sale of cattle, is held annually in September, and extends over several days. The manufacture of matches is aided by the existence of sulphur workings in the vicinity; and Albacete formerly had an extensive trade in cutlery, from which it was named the Sheffield of Spain. Despite the importation of cutlery from England and Germany, Albacete is still famous for its daggers, which arc held in high repute by Spaniards. They are formidable weapons, of coarse manufacture, but with richly ornamented handles; and they frequently bear proverbial inscriptions suitable to their murderous appearance.
ALBA FUCENS (mod. Albe), an ancient Italian town occupying a lofty situation (3347 ft.) at the foot of the Monte Velino, 4 m. N. Of Avezzano. It was originally a town of the Aequi, though on the frontier of the Marsi, but was occupied by a
loied by a
Roman colony (304 B.C.I owing to its strategic importance. It lay on a hill just to the north of the Via Valeria, which was probably prolonged beyond Tibur at this very period. In the Second Punic war Alba at first remained faithful, but afterwards refused to send contingents and was punished. After this it became a regular place of detention for important state prisoners, such as Syphax of Numidia, Perseus of Macedonia, Bituitus, king of the Arverni. It was attacked by the allies in the Social War, but remained faithful to Rome; and its strong position rendered it a place of some importance in the civil wars. Its prosperity, in the imperial period, can only be inferred from the number of inscriptions found there. It is chiefly remarkable for its finely preserved fortifications. The external walls, which have a circuit of about 2 m., are constructed of polygonal masonry; the blocks are carefully jointed, and the faces smoothed. With our present knowledge of such constructions, their date cannot certainly be determined. They are not preserved to any very considerable height; but the arrangement of the gates is clearly traceable; as a rule they come at the end of a long, straight stretch of wall, and are placed so as to leave the right side of any attacking force exposed. On the north there is, for a length of about 150 yds. a triple line of defences of later date (possibly added by the Roman colonists), inasmuch as both the city wall proper and the double wall thrown out in front of it are partly constructed of concrete, and faced with finer polygonal masonry (in which horizontal joints seem to be purposely avoided). A mile to the north of the city a huge mound with a ditch on each side of it (but at a considerable distance from it) may be traced for a couple of miles. Within the walls there are hardly any buildings of a later date. Excavations have only been made casually, though remains of buildings and of roads can be traced, and also an extensive system of underground passages perhaps connected with the defences of the place. The hill at the western extremity was occupied by a temple of the Tuscan order, into which was built the church of S. Pietro; this contains ancient columns, and some remarkably fine specimens of Cosmatesque work. It is the only monastic church in the Abruzzi in which the nave is separated from the aisles by ancient columns. The collegiate church of S. Nicola in the village contains a remarkable staurotheca of the 11th (?) century, and a wooden triptych in imitation of the Byzantine style with enamels of the 13th century.
A very good description of the site, with plans, is given by C.Promis, L'Antichita di Alba Fucense (Rome, 1836). (T. As.)
ALBA LONGA, an ancient city of Latium, situated on the western edge of the Albanus Lacus, about 12 m. S.E. of Rome. It was, according to tradition, founded by Ascanius, and was the oldest of all Latin cities—-the mother indeed of Rome, by which, however, it was destroyed, it is said under Tullus Hostilius. By this act Rome succeeded to the hegemony of the Latin league. It has by many topographers been placed between the Albanus Mons and the Albanus Lacus, according to the indication given by. Dionysius (i. 66), at the monastery of Palazzolo; but the position is quite unsuitable for an ancient city, and does not at all answer to Livy's description, ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Alba longa appellata; and it is much more probable that its site is to be sought on the western side of the lake, where the modern Castel Gandolfo stands, immediately to the north of which the most important part of the archaic necropolis was situated. Confirmation of this may be found in Cicero's description (Pro Milone, 85) of the destruction of the shrines and sacred groves of Alba by the construction of Clodius's villa, in the local application of the adjective Albanus, and in the position of Castel Gandolfo itself, which exactly suits Livy's description. No traces of the ancient city, except of its necropolis, the tombs of which are overlaid with a stratum of peperino 3 ft. thick, are preserved. The view that the modern Albano occupies the site of Alba Longa was commonly held in the 15th and 16th centuries, but was disproved by P. Cluver (1624). But it is certain that no city took the place of Alba Longa until comparatively late times. The name Albanum, from about 150 B.C. till the time of Constantine, meant a villa in the Alban territory. The emperors formed a sinrle estate out of a considerable part of this district, including apparently the whole of the lake, and Domitian was especially fond of residing here. The imperial villa occupied the site of the present Villa Barberini at Castel Gandolfo, and considerable remains of it still exist. To the south was a camp for the imperial bodyguard, with baths, an amphitheatre, a large water reservoir, &c. The first legion known to have been quartered there is the II. Parlhica, founded by Septimius Severus; but it was probably constructed earlier. In some of the tombs of these legionaries coins of Maxentius have been found, while the Liber Pontifealis records that Constantine gave to the church of Albano ``omnia scheneca deserta vel domos intra urbem Albanensem,', which has generally been taken to refer to the abandoned camp. It was at this period, then, that the civitas Albanensis arose. The lapis Albanus is a green grey volcanic stone with black and white grains in it (hence the modern name. Deperino). much used for building material.
See T. Ashby in Journal ofphilology, xxvii., 1901, 37. (T. As.) ALBAN, SAINT, usually styled the protomartyr of Britain, is said to have been born at Verulamium (the modern St Albans in Hertfordshire) towards the close of the 3rd century, and to have served for seven years in Rome in the army of the emperor Diocletian. On his return to Britain he settled at his native place and was put to death as a Christian during the persecution of Diocletian (c. 286—303). According to tradition, when peace was restored, great honours were paid to his tomb. A church was built on the spot, c. 793, by King Offa of Mercia. A monastery was subsequently added, and around it the present town of St Albans gradually grew up. Pope Adrian IV., who was born in the neighbourhood, conferred on the abbot of St Alban's the right of precedence over his fellow abbots, a right hitherto attached to the abbey of Glastonbury. St Alban is commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 22nd of June; but it is impossible to determine with certainty whether he ever existed, as no mention of him occurs till the middle of the 6th century.
See U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques (1905), i. 95; D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (1862), I. i. 3-34, ii. 688.
ALBANI, or ALBANO, FRANCESCO (1578-1660), Italian painter, was born at Bologna. His father was a silk merchant, and intended to bring up his son to the same occupation; but Albani was already, at the age of twelve, filled with so strong an inclination for painting, that on the death of his father he devoted himself entirely to art. His first master was Denis Calvert, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvert entirely to the care of Guido, and contracted with him a close friendship. He followed Guido to the school of the Caracci; but after this, owing to mutual rivalry, their friendship began gradually to cool. They kept up for a long time a keen competition, and their mutual emulation called forth some of their best productions. Notwithstanding this rivalry, they still spoke of each other with the highest esteem. Albani after having greatly improved himself in the school of the Caracci, went to Rome, where he opened an academy and resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Annibal Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of San Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. His best frescoes are those on mythological subjects, of which there is a large number in the Verospi, now Torlonia Palace. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death. His wife and children were very beautiful and served him for models. The learning displayed in the composition of his pictures, and their minute elaboration and exquisite finish, gave them great celebrity and entitle them to a distinctive place among the products of the Bolognese school. A number of his works are at Bologna, and others at Florence, the Louvre, Dresden and St Petersburg. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a ``St Sebastian'' and an ``Assumption of the Virgin,'' both in the church of St Sebastian at Rome. He was among the first of the Italian painters to devote himself to the painting of cabinet pictures. A rare etching, the ``Death of Uido,'' is attributed to him.