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 . gradually, as is usual in temperateclimes, this thick moss was so interwoven and com-pacted that it would not break or separate in fallingwith tlie river banks, but remained attached to the crest,forming great blankets of moss that overhung the shoresa foot thick, as T have endeavored to represent on thispage, a. h. representing the moss. Someof these banks were from fifteen toeighteen feet in height, and this over-hanging
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 . gradually, as is usual in temperateclimes, this thick moss was so interwoven and com-pacted that it would not break or separate in fallingwith tlie river banks, but remained attached to the crest,forming great blankets of moss that overhung the shoresa foot thick, as T have endeavored to represent on thispage, a. h. representing the moss. Someof these banks were from fifteen toeighteen feet in height, and this over-hanging moss would eventhen reach to the water, keeping the shores neatly ^^ssontikonkiver. sodded to the waters edge on the inclined banks, andhanging perpendicularly from those that projected jagged rents and patches were torn out of thehem of this carpet by the limbs and roots of driftinglogs, thus destroying its picturesque uniformity. Isuppose the reason why it was more noticeable in openspaces was that the trees and underbrush, and especiallytheir roots, would, from the effect of undermining, carrythe moss into the water with their heavy weight as 268 ALONG ALASKAS GREAT RIVER. At half-past five oclock we sighted a steamer downthe river which we thought might be the Alaska Com-mercial Companys Yukon coming up around a lowisland of sand, but it proved to be a beached boat calledthe St. Michaels, lying high and dry, about ten or twelvefeet above the present water level, on a long, low islandof sand and gravel. Some years before, a rival corporation to the AlaskaCompany, called, I believe. The Northern Trading Com-pany, tried to establish itself on the Yukon River, (andelsewhere in Alaska, but the Yukon district only con-cerns us here), and trading houses were built in manyplaces along the stream, most of them within a shortdistance, perhajDs a mile or two, of those established bythe Alaska Commercial Company. Fierce competitionensued, and I was told that the
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Keywords: ., bookauthorschwatka, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1890
