es was laden on the ship 250 tons, and this
was the beginning of a trade during the year of not less than 1800 tons
at an average price of about $25.00 per ton. A Company was organized in
San Francisco for carrying on the trade and it was known as "the Ice
Company." The ice on the lake was not of sufficient thickness owing to
the fact that four degrees below zero is the coldest record ever made in
Sitka during a hundred years, consequently the Ice Company later
transferred their chief place of operation to Wood Island, near Kodiak.

Cows were kept for milk, and the hay for their provender was cut on the
Katleanski Plains on Squashanski Bay.

Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Honourable, the Hudson's
Bay Company, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He describes the
settlement, the natives, and the fur trade, and was entertained at the
Castle by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay he indulged in a Russian
steam bath. His humorous description of the details ends with a promise
never again to undergo such a castigation. The account of his stay at
the Hot Springs is enlivened by a story of how a rosy cheeked Russian
damsel, each time she passed his chair, made a profound obeisance, which
he attributed to his personal attraction until he discovered her doing
the same when the chair was empty, and then saw that a saintly ikon
occupied a place on the wall directly over it, which dispelled the
illusion. Thirteen ships were in the harbor, and he remarks that the
bustle was sufficient to have done credit to a third rate port in the
civilized world. Sir George sailed for Okhotsk on the Russian ship
"Alexander," then crossed Siberia overland on his return to England from
a journey round the earth.

There were eighty cannon mounted in the batteries which commanded the
bay or which looked down on the Kolosh village. These cannon were of
different make, some being cast in Sitka, others purchased of English or
Americans, which were purchased on the ships on which they were mounted,
as on the "Juno" and the "Brutus;" and other ordnance was brought from
Kronstadt, Russia, as in 1804 on the "Neva," and in 1820 on the
"Borodino."

Teahouses were situated on the little knoll in the center of the town
where the public Gardens were located; the museum, and the library
offered instruction to the workers who occupied this lonely post halfway
round the world from the Russian Fatherland.

There were fourteen chief managers who dir