HAULING A BOILER IN ALASKA It has a "A territory one-fifth the size of the United States contains less than a thousand miles of anything that can be called a wagon road. few inconsiderable stretches of railroad which terminate, with one exception, either in the wilderness or at a private industry. Only the richest of its mines can be worked, and one of its resources of greatest immediate value to the people, its coal lands, lies unworked" (see text, page 186). A PAIR OF SALMON, ONE WEIGHING 65 POUNDS AND THE OTHER 82 POUNDS, CAUGHT AT KETCHIKAN: THE PORPOISE SHOWS THE COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE SALMON risk of the loss of his investment prior to practice as soon as there has been a prodiscovery. PRESENT MINING LAWS DO NOT SUFFICIENTLY REWARD PETROLEUM PIONEERS An objection of equal force to the placer law as applied to petroleum arises from the fact that the mineral is fluid. It moves underground. A well on one tract is likely to draw from a neighboring tract. Thus it becomes necessary for each operator to drill wells along his boundary lines before his neighbors do so. Otherwise, they will draw off a part of his oil. He is therefore forced to drill whether it is otherwise to his advantage or not, in order to protect his oil deposits from exhaustion through adjacent wells. We should, I believe, stimulate the search for oil and protect the prospector. The government is withholding from entry certain considerable bodies of land in the belief that they contain oil, when this has not been demonstrated. It is our ducing well discovered, and sometimes earlier, to withdraw all lands in the neighborhood which, in the opinion of experts, are of similar geological formation. The lands on which the discovery has been made or upon which exploration has been begun may or may not be included in the withdrawal. If they are, the law offers to protect the rights so acquired. I feel, however, that we are not sufficiently rewarding the pioneer. A plan. could readily be evolved by which any one wishing to prospect for oil on the public lands could obtain a license from the government to prospect exclusively a large tract of land for a period of timeperhaps two years-and in the event that oil is found in commercial quantities the government should be paid a royalty fixed in advance. This method is similar to that by which the Indian lands in Oklahoma have been developed and which has proved of the highest value in bringing capital into this Photo from Leonard Davis TURNIPS WEIGHING 12 POUNDS GROWN IN A PRIVATE GARDEN AT RAMPART, ALASKA "And in agriculture the government itself has demonstrated that it will produce in abundance all that can be raised in the Scandinavian countries, the hardy cereals and vege tables, the meats and the berries off which nine million people live in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. It has been estimated that there are 50 million acres of this land that will make homes for a people as sturdy as those of New England. Whether this is so or not, it would appear that Alaska, can be made self-sustaining agriculturally" (see text, page 185). work and insuring large returns to the Indians. In the Oklahoma case one great corporation, however, was given so large a body of land that after the original discovery it found it profitable to farm out its rights to subsidiary companies. This might easily be prevented by regula tions under which the government would reserve to itself the adjoining lands. Indeed, I would not be adverse to granting such a license in unexplored country for, say, four sections of land, and in the event of discovery permitting patent to issue to the discoverer for a full DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING OUR COAL RESOURCES, THE AMOUNT THAT HAS BEEN USED AND THE AMOUNT STILL REMAINING UNUSED IN THE UNITED STATES A represents the total coal supply of the United States. B represents the amount used to the end of 1912. C represents the amount consumed in a single year. This diagram was prepared by Edward W. Parker, Chief of the Division of Mineral Resources of the U. S. Geological Survey. section, the balance of the licensed land to remain in the government to be leased in small parcels to other parties on a royalty basis under the more advantageous terms that could then be secured. THE NEED OF OIL FOR THE NAVY The United States will need oil for its navy as well as coal, and probably in increasing quantities as the modern oil-burning or gas-burning engines are recognized. It would be economical to substitute oil for coal for many reasons; to reduce labor cost, to avoid the building and maintenance of colliers, and the purchase and support of coaling stations. The Diesel engine can, with the fuel carried from the home port, take one of our greatest ships around the world without dependence upon a renewed supply of fuel. England's adventure in this direction will presumably force other nations into like enterprise, and yet England has no oil fields on which to draw, while we have already the largest producing fuel-oil fields in the world, and others are appearing. Already we know of oil in Alaska, and Photo from Bureau of Mines of the Department of the Interior A CANARY USED AS A PROTECTION IN MINE RESCUE WORK It has been found that canaries will show signs of distress at the presence of harmful gases in mines long before human beings are aware of any danger. It is now the practice to carry one of these birds with all rescue parties, as it will indicate the point beyond which it is not safe to proceed without wearing protective helmets. |