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 . hese Indians have twokinds of snow-shoes, a very broad pair used while pack-ing, as with my party, and a narrower and neater kindemployed while hunting. The two kinds are figuredbelow. This small lake, abruptly walled in, greatlyresembled an extinct crater, and such it may well havebeen. From this re-semblance it receivedits name of CraterLake, a view of whichfigures as the frontis-piece. Here there wasno timber, not evenb
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 . hese Indians have twokinds of snow-shoes, a very broad pair used while pack-ing, as with my party, and a narrower and neater kindemployed while hunting. The two kinds are figuredbelow. This small lake, abruptly walled in, greatlyresembled an extinct crater, and such it may well havebeen. From this re-semblance it receivedits name of CraterLake, a view of whichfigures as the frontis-piece. Here there wasno timber, not evenbrush, to be seen;while the gullies of thegranite hills, and thevalleys deeply coveredwith snow, gave thewhole scene a decid-edly Arctic appear-ance. I noticed thatmy Indian packers,in following a trail on snow, whether it was up hill, ona level, or even a slight descent, always stepped in eachothers tracks, and hence our large party made a trailthat at first glance looked as if only five or six had passedover ; but when going down a steep descent, especially onsoft snow, each one made his own trail, and they scat-tered out over many yards in width. I could not but be. CHILKAT HUNTING AND PACKING SNOW-SHOES. The usual thongs are used to fasten them to thefeet, but are not shown in the illustration. 88 ALONG ALASKAS GREAT RIVER. impressed with the idea that this was worth consideringshould it ever be necessary to estimate their the little crater-like lake at the very head of theYukon, the trail leads through a valley that converges toa gorge ; and while crossing the snow in this ravine wecould hear the running water gurgling under the snowbridge on which we were walking. Further down the lit-tle valley, as it opened at a point where these snow-arches were too wide to support their weight, they hadtumbled into the stream, showing in many places abut-ments of deep perpendicular snow-banks often twenty totwenty-five feet in height. Where the river banks wereof stone and
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Keywords: ., bookauthorschwatka, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1890
