{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "occC S ^L cz^c CJ-c^\\nccci- \u00e2\u0096\u00a0\u00c2\u00ab5\u00c2\u00ab: jC^\\n3(K ^im^Si cjd c:^c\\n{fLIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I\\n^^yer5..0..R.\\nI UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. f|\\nZj dS\\ndcdci.cc:cf: c :x\u00c2\u00ab:cS v^ .v\\nr c cr:c;cci c:.d :r:ccxKCcd:cr^^^^^ 0^ dc\\ncc c CT -C c: C^c: c^c:c 3b C^Sr ^ri ^cri", "height": "3445", "width": "2275", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "dCcx\\n^^Q C8;:^Q-^:-\\nB X. SrxiCjx^.cC\\n^:vO: C\\nCCvC\\nt kt\\n:c:^ c\\n_ -v*!^ Cc V c;\\ndecree sC^ C 1; Cj-\\n^.cx^c. C ia\u00c2\u00aeC^G dec\\ncvc trrtc ^ccC\\n=Tvc 6:^S^O\\nccc: cC:0\\nc:?^ c Cc\\n(C 1\\ntic c: e\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0CiCs^C\\nCO c\\nj^^ Ci^- -^oc cc, cc :cc^\\nc:.c ;o ;F5;,,^cg-^,^^ ^x: o\\n-sC-C lc^ Cl ^CM-^.^^c.^ d Cc\\n^S^^ c c:: c: cf cafe\\ntrcg l^ F c cJ ^iC^Cc c: Cf ;e^^cc\\ni(^CC: Cc Citj c^c CC^CfdCC\\n^^c:- p- ct: :f j cc eg\\n^Mc Ci Cc !c cj c ccj( icc\\n^rt![Ic -r: V Cc c^cxrCT C \u00e2\u0080\u00a2Ci }tc\\n-^.ttrj: i c C. CC .C CI^ CC\\nC C o- C c cc- CIc cc 4 _\\nt-CXjCC^x-. c-CCdC cc Cg ccC/\\nfoc^f c^c ccKccCICj^v S:;acc.5\\nf c^ c-r c- ^v^cc5^^\\netc ^cc\\nCiC^%\\nc3;cC. 5^ 5^^ f c cc CC;\\nCCC CcC", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "JR 111 JP O R T\\nICELANDIC COMMITTEE\\nFROM WISCONSIN\\nON\\nTHE CHARACTER AND RESOURCES\\nOF\\nALASKA.\\nWASHINGTON:\\nOOTEENMENT PRINTING OFFICE\\n1875.", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "r\\no\\n9^", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "REPORT OF THE ICELANDIC COMMITTEE FROM WISCONSIN ON\\nTHE CHARACTER AND RESOURCES OF ALASKA.\\nDecember 15, 1874.\\nTo his Excellency Ulysses S. Grant,\\nF resident of the United States\\nSir The committee of Icelanders, who were deputed by the Ice-\\nlanders of Wisconsin to examine Alaska, with a view to a settlement\\ntherein, beg to submit to your Excellency the following report\\nWe, first of all, would thank your Excellency with all our hearts for\\nthe kindness you have shown the Icelanders in granting their request,\\nthat they might be afforded facilities by your Government for making\\nthis examination. We offer you thanks in behalf of all the country-men\\nof ours who deputed us to go. Icelanders will not forget your Excellen-\\ncy s kindness.\\nAfter a voyage of twenty-four days we sighted Kadiak Island on\\nOctober 9, of which the tops of the mountains were covered with last\\nyear s snow, and appeared to us much like the mountains of Iceland,\\nespecially on the northern and eastern coasts of Iceland. Proceeding\\ntoward the mainland, up Cook s Inlet, we saw great forests on the west-\\nern shore of the inlet. On the mountains here we saw comparatively\\nmuch less snow and there is also very little lowland on that side of the\\ninlet. Farther up, and approaching Saint Nicholas, we saw a fine-look-\\ning country, covered with forests on both sides of the inlet, but with\\nmore lowlands on the eastern than on the western side.\\nOn October 15 we went on shore at Fort Nicholas, and were kindly\\nreceived by the agent in charge of the Government buildings, who also\\ngave us useful information, he being an old resident. Here salmon are\\nplenty in the rivers and lakes, and they are also very large. The agent\\ntold us that once he had in one hour caught sixty-three salmon, of which\\nthe biggest weighed ninety-five pounds, but the average weight was\\nfifty-two and one-quarter pounds. Others told us the same. One day\\nwe went to the Kakno Eiver, which flows south of Fort Nicholas, to a\\nspot where it had last summer overflowed its banks, and there had, con-\\nsequently, been x)ooIs formed in the low places, and afterward the pools\\nhad dried np, and heaps of dead salmon lay there so that it was half\\nup to our knees wading through them. Several of the ship s officers\\nalso saw this. Winter here begins in the middle of November and ends\\nin the middle of March, A Itussian, who had lived in Alaska some\\ntwenty years, told us that cabbages, potatoes, and other garden vegeta-\\nbles were the only things that had been sown here but he said that no\\none had ever tried to sow anything else. He told us that about forty\\nmiles south there was a settlement called Noodshick, (^lunina,) where\\nrye was raised. The first morning we were on shore the thermometer\\nstood, at half i)ast six o clock, eighteen degrees above zero, Fahrenheit.\\nWe explored first in an easterly direction we passed through rolling\\nand hilly country, covered with thick forests the soil was everywhere\\nmossy, with very little grass, but much heather and many bushes. The\\ntrees are high, from seventy to eighty feet, and two feet in diameter;\\nthey are mostly spruce. Farther from the coast we found swamps;\\nwe think these could be easily drained, and they would then become\\ngood frrass-land.", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "Afterward we weut in a northerly direction from Fort Nicholas. We\\nfound there a drier soil, more grass, and forests of larger trees. We\\nfound in several places grass breast-high. On that day we came across\\nmuch land of which the soil was composed of vegetable matter, being-\\nvery rich and fertile, and from one to one and one-half feet deep be-\\nneath this comes a layer of black mold from six inches to a foot deep,\\nand slightly mixed with fine sand. Next below this is a layer of red\\nloam, which seems to be impregnated with iron, and the water which\\nruns through it has a strong taste of iron. Under this layer is sand,\\nand under the sand a sort of sandstone, beneath which comes clay. We\\ncould observe these layers along the beach, and on the banks of the\\nstreams. In very many places, indeed, almost everywhere along the\\nbeach, are layers of coal and of surturhrand.\\nAs far as we can judge, the quality of the land seems best nearest the\\ncoast, and again, according to what we could learn from others, on the\\nother side of the marshes and nearest to the mountains, where the grass\\nis said to grow from five to six feet high. On the western side of the\\ninlet there is much less lowland, and we all think we have good reason\\nto believe that the land is drier and better on that side in many places;\\nbut as there was no one on board who knew the landing-places there,\\nwe were not able to go over.\\nIt is said there are no fish in the inlet itself, and we think the cause\\nis that so many rivers pour into the inlet, some of them glacial torrents,\\nwhich carry with them sand and loam and that, as the bottom of the\\ninlet is muddy, the water becomes turbid in stormy weather, and this\\ndrives the fish away. Salmon are very plenty in all the rivers and lakes\\nduring the season. Game was scarce in the immediate neighborhood\\nof Fort Nicholas, excepting wild geese, of which there was an abundance.\\nIt is said there is a great deal of game in the mountains east of the low-\\nlands bears, foxes, land-otters, ermine, marten, and sable, and the\\nlike.\\nOur general impression of Cook s Inlet is that, although w^e would\\nearnestly recommend our countrymen to settle there later, it will not be\\nbest adapted to a colonization (lirect from Iceland, because it would be\\nmore difficult to begin there than on Kadiak. The chief means of sub-\\nsistence for the settlers would for the first year necessarily be salmon\\nand, in order to make the most of the salmon-fishing, the settler should\\nbe there in April or May, and this would be next to impossible if one\\ncame direct from Iceland. For a second reason, although there is no\\ndoubt that stock-raising can succeed w^ell in this portion of Alaska\\nafter a time, still, the soil here needs previous prejmration in order to\\nsupport large herds. As the summer in that portion is said to be very\\nwarm, (112 Fahrenheit have been reached,) and as the raiu is compar-\\natively much less abundant north of the sixtieth parallel, it can hardly\\nbe doubted that agriculture will be profitable here. The winter is often\\nvery cold, (the temperature falls sometimes to 40\u00c2\u00b0 below zero, Fahrenheit.)\\nand the snow falls six or seven feet deep in the low country, and twelve\\nor fourteen feet on the mountains.\\nBut should Icelanders settle at Kadiak Island, for example, to begin\\nwith, we think it not only likely, but quite certain, that an oft shoot of\\nthe colony would find it advantageous to settle from there at Cook s\\nInlet.\\nThe country about Cook s Inlet is also not so well known, and needs\\nto be explored in order for us to become acquainted with its natural re-\\nsources, and this will be done as scon as Kadiak shall be settled by a\\ncivilized people.", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "After a three ays voyage from Cook s Inlet, we arrived, on the twenty-\\nfourth of October, at Kadiak Island. The custom-house officer received\\nus kindly, and oft ered us house-room, as also for the two of us who\\nwere to remain all winter at Saint Paul.\\nWe explored the peninsula which runs northeast from Saint Paul,\\nand also the country north of the peninsula, round Devil s Bay, where\\nwe found the grouiid mostly covered with excellent ajid heavy timber,\\nespecially spruce and pine, and, where there was an open space, there was\\nan abundance of grass, high, and of good quality, and the soil was rich.\\nThere are many lakes ami streams, all full of salmon and different kinds\\nof trout, i^ext we examined the mountains in the neighborhood of Saint\\nJ aul, and the country on the north of the mountains, about Chiniak\\nBay and the mountains are mostly like each other. There is hardly\\nany lowland, but the mountains are covered Avith birch-trees and with\\ngreen grass to their summits there are no land-slides, and rock is rare.\\nWe traveled a long way in a westerly direction on the mountains, and\\nJ( )n Olafsson went farther northwest until he came to Marmot Bay.\\nThe most inviting country was there, and excellent pasturage, but the\\nforests there Avere smaller than farther south. We visited the islands\\naround Saint Paul, and found them nearly all inhabitable. The timber\\non Woody Island is bigger than anj- we have seen in Wisconsin. Goats\\nrun on the islands without any care being taken of them. The whites\\nwho have cattle feed them in the winter, but the natives do not feed\\ntheir cattle at all, being too lazy to cut hay for them.\\nAVe crossed over Chiniak Bay, and landed on the northern side of Cape\\nGreville, where Paul Bjorusou went in a westward direction along the\\nbay, but the two others went across the peninsula, and afterward around\\nit, in an easterly direction. A large and beautiful grass country was\\nthere, and some forests. Here we found some wild rye, {eJymns.)\\nEast of the one hundred and fifty-third meridian, Kadiak Island is\\ncovered with forests but there is hardly any forest to the west of that\\nline. Pasturage is said to be excellent all over the island along the\\ncoast but the ui)land is said to be wet and unproductive still, there\\nis no doubt of there being pasturage for a long way in from the coast, in\\nthe many valleys leading up from the bays.\\nThe salmon-fishing at Kadiak is about as good as at Cook s Inlet, ex-\\ncept that the salmon are smaller. In a little while the sailors from the\\nPortsmouth caught over fifty in one of the rivers, although it was at a\\ntime out of season, and they got these by catching them with their\\nhands, or by striking them on the head with a stick, or by shooting\\nthem as they leaped out of the water. There is an abundance of cod-\\nfish and halibut all the year round and we caught any number of them\\nwithout a boat, fishing from the wliarf. We will mention here that the\\nIcelanders cure fish better than any other people in Europe. And I,\\nJon )lafsson, have in Norway hoard merchants who had traded in\\nSpain with Icelandic and Norwegian fish, say they could not sell the\\nNorwegian article in the market until the Icelandic fish had been sold\\nout. ]Many persons in Iceland also well understand the art of smoking\\nsalmon, and preserving it in tin cans.\\nThere is considerable game on Kadiak, both birds and other creatures.\\nFur-seal and sea-otter are caught not far from the island.\\nThere is no navigable river in Kadiak, by reason of rapids but many\\nof them have suflicient water-power to drive machinery.\\nAt Woody Island the ice company raises oats; but thej use them in\\nthe same manner as frequently is seen in California cutting oft the\\ntops and feeding them to the cattle like hay. Thus, not much care is", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "taken in raising them but still they get almost ripe. Potatoes grow\\nand do well, although the natives have not the slightest idea of how\\nthey should be cultivated which goes to show they would thrive ex-\\ncellently, if properly cared for. Cabbage and turnips, and the various\\ngarden vegetables have great success. And, to judge from the soil and\\nthe climate, there isprinia facie no reason why everything that succeeds\\nin Scotland should not succeed in Kadiak.\\nPasture-land is so excellent on Kadiak, and hay-harvest so abundant,\\nthat our countrymen would here, just as in Iceland, make sheep-breed-\\ning and cattle-raising their chief means of livelihood. The quality of\\nthe grass is such that the milk and the beef and mutton must be excel-\\nlent; and we also had an opportunity to try these at Kadiak. In time,\\nthe Icelanders would in Alaska bring to the American market these\\narticles in great abundance and of good quality.\\nWhen we compare what we have found about Alaska in books,\\nespecially in Lieutenant Ball s book, with what we have ourselves now\\nseen and informed ourselves about, we feel convinced that Ball s descrip-\\ntion of that land is correct in all essential matters. Kadiak Island is\\nexcellently fitted for stock-raising the fisheries are abundant all the\\nyear round and there is plenty of timber for fire- wood, for house-build-\\ning, and boat-building everywhere east of the one hundred and fifty-\\nthird meridian and it is only a little distance to the Kenai peninsula,\\nwhere timber suitable for building large ships grows. The island has\\nin nearly every respect advantages over Iceland, and the climate, espe-\\ncially, is milder in the winter-time without being warmer in summer,\\nand summer is a great deal longer than in Iceland.\\nWe, therefore, do not hesitate to recommend those of our countrymen\\nwho are minded to emigrate that they come hither if they can, and we\\ndo this after a minute and conscientious deliberation, in the firm belief\\nthat it will be for their advantage, as the land seems in every respect\\nwell adapted to them, and answers completely all our expectations.\\nAgriculture is wholly untried here, so that it is not entirely certain\\nhow^ far the country is adapted thereto but this circumstance has for\\nthe Icelanders, who at home are not accustomed to agriculture, not the\\nsame importance which it has for people of many other nations, who\\nwill yet for many years be able to find lands to their taste not yet set-\\ntled much farther east.\\nWe cannot, therefore, do otherwise than express the hope that the\\nAmerican Government will do all that lies in its power to encourage\\nthe immigration of our countrymen to Alaska, as the land seems to\\nhave been created just for them. In like manner we think that men of\\nour race are the best adapted, or perhaps the only men adapted, to\\nsettle and cultivate that country, and to utilize the natural resources\\nwith which it is furnished.\\nBoth for the reasons above stated, and also for other reasons, founded\\nnot merely on ])hysical advantages, but which we shall not detain your\\nexcellency in specifying, we are convinced that Alaska will suit our\\ncountrymen better than any other land on earth.\\nWe have the honor to be, vour Excellencv s obedient servants,\\nJON OLAFSSON,\\n(Who also is authorized to subscribe the names of the absent com-\\nmitteemen.)\\nOLAF (3LAFSS0N.\\nPAUL BJORNiSSON.\\nNew York, December 15, 1874.", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "REPOJKT\\nICELANDIC COMMITTEE\\nFROM WISCONSIN\\nTHE CHARA(JTER AND RESOURCES\\nALASKA.\\nWASHINGTON:\\nGOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE\\n1875.", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3580", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3596", "width": "2021", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "f", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3596", "width": "2021", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "c: c[(Z: c#:\u00c2\u00ab cs^\\nic^^- celiacs: ^c^\\nic2tr;^cr eg:\\n^K\\nCd\\nddC\\ndec\\nre\\n-1 c d :c:^^* ccc cT j\\ngif cr: CI Exc:^-^ Cere: c\\nc:d:s\u00c2\u00ab\u00c2\u00abtr# e^f 1^^\\nf^^ dd^\\nCSc\\nd c: d d r\\nS d dd\\nd c\\n^^Jdi;s^: d c\\n.C^ d c\\ndc dd ^^C d c\\ndc c r ^r rcc:\\ndc: dd ^lao: d c\\ndc dc c^K dd\\ndCCd c\\ncdd:\\ndcd:-\\ndd", "height": "3435", "width": "2063", "jp2-path": "reportoficelandi00icel_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "5-\\nK^ c\\nK i c:\\ncc\\nC C\\n?E: c::\\nO C\\nQC C\\nCc c\\nCTcc\\nCcc\\n_Cx:c 4 c\\nl^ 0:v\\nC C. c\\nOct- r c;c\\nC Cere r r^^\\n;C CX-C:cc. 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