Exploring the great YukonAn adventurous expedition down the great Yukon River, from its source in the British North-west Territory, to its mouth in the territory of Alaska . dian inmates, whothen ascend the river with loads so light that they maybe carried on the back. By the time winter approachesthey have w^orked so far away, accumulating the scantystores of salmon, moose, black bear, and caribou, onwhich they are to subsist, that they build a light raftfrom the driftwood strewn along banks of the river, andfloat toward home, where they live in squalor through-out the winter. These rafts are
Exploring the great YukonAn adventurous expedition down the great Yukon River, from its source in the British North-west Territory, to its mouth in the territory of Alaska . dian inmates, whothen ascend the river with loads so light that they maybe carried on the back. By the time winter approachesthey have w^orked so far away, accumulating the scantystores of salmon, moose, black bear, and caribou, onwhich they are to subsist, that they build a light raftfrom the driftwood strewn along banks of the river, andfloat toward home, where they live in squalor through-out the winter. These rafts are almost their sole meansof navigation from the Grand Canon to old Fort Selkirk,and the triangular brush houses almost their onlyabodes ; and all this in a country teeming with wood fitfor log-houses, and affording plenty of birch bark fromwhich can be made the finest of canoes. Kit^-ah-gon is ina beautiful large valley, as its Indian name would imply(I named it Yon Wilczek Valley, after Graf von Wilczekof Vienna), and I was surprised to see it drained by sosmall a stream as the one, but ten or tAventy feet wide,which empties itself at the valleys mouth. Its proximity. DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 203 to the Pelly, twenty miles further on, forbids its drain-ing a great area, yet its valley is much the more con-spicuous of the two. Photographs of this and adjacentscenes on the river were secured by Mr. Homan beforedeparting, and a rough prospect in the high banknear the river showed color enough to encourage thehope of some enthusiastic miner in regard to findingsomething more attractive. Looking back up the Yukon amost prominent landmark is found in a bold bluff thatwill always be a conspicuous point on the river, andwhich is shown on page 193. I named this bluff afterGeneral Charles G. Loring, of the Boston Museum of FineArts. From Yon Wilczek valley to old Fort Selkirk is but alittle over twenty miles ; and the river is so full of islandsin many places that for long stretches we
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Keywords: ., bookauthorschwatka, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1890
