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 . lake, ahundred yards from the shore, across soft white mud,through which one might sink in the water to onesmiddle. When to this predicament the inevitable mos-quitoes and a few rain showers are added, I judge thatour plight was about as disagreeable as could well beimagined. Such features of the explorers life, however,are seldom dwelt upon. The northern shores of the lakeare unusually flat and boggy. Our primitive mode o
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 . lake, ahundred yards from the shore, across soft white mud,through which one might sink in the water to onesmiddle. When to this predicament the inevitable mos-quitoes and a few rain showers are added, I judge thatour plight was about as disagreeable as could well beimagined. Such features of the explorers life, however,are seldom dwelt upon. The northern shores of the lakeare unusually flat and boggy. Our primitive mode ofnavigation suffered also from the large banks of glaciermud as we approached the lakes outlet. Most of thismud was probably deposited by a large river, theMcClintock (in honor of Vice-Admiral Sir LeopoldMcClintock, R, N.), that here comes in from the north-east—a river so large that we were in some doubt as toits being the outlet, until its current settled the matterDy carrying us into the proper channel. A very con-spicuous hill, bearing north-east from Lake Marsh, wasnamed Michie Mountain after Professor Michie of WestPoint, CHAPTER VI. A CHAPTER ABOUT ^S?ll snubbing the raft. AKE Marsh gave nsfour days of variablesailing on its waters,when, on the 29th ofJune, we emergedfrom it and once morefelt the exhilarationof a rapid course on aswift river, an exhila-ration that was notallowed to die rapidly away, by reason of the greatamount of exercise we had to go through in managingthe raft in its many eccentric phases of navigation. Onthe lakes, whether in storm or still weather, one manstationed at the stern oar of the raft had been sufficient,as long as he kept awake, nor was any great harm doneif he fell asleep in a quiet breeze, but once on the riveran additional oarsman at the bow sweep was impera-tively needed, for at short turns or sudden bends, orwhen nearing half-sunken bowlders or tangled masses ofdriftwood, or bars of sand, mud or gravel, or whilesteering cl
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Keywords: ., bookauthorschwatka, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1890
