ress made in the other mining districts of the United States, owing to the difficulties which beset the path of the prospector, unless, indeed, convenient access to tidewater may wholly or in part be found to counterbalance the disadvantages of high and precipitous mountains, covered with a dense growth of timber, underbrush and fallen trees, with two or three feet of intertwining, closely woven vines and moss covering the ground itself, and which will obstruct and render more than usually difficult the work of exploration, though not necessarily an obstruction in the way of subsequent mining operations. The difficulties mentioned will, however, be partially obviated by the first discovery in any particular locality, which will serve as a starting point from which to prosecute explorations with a better knowledge of the formation, and, consequently, with much less labor and expense. In addition to the compensating advantage of contiguity to navigable waters there is unlimited water power for the operation of mining and milling machinery and an abundance of timber for all purposes."

CHAPTER IX.

THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. Although the eyes of the world are only just beginning to be opened to the surpassing interest of the immense area of country watered by the Yukon River, there are men living to whom the marvelous features of that great stretch of country are no new thing. The highest authority on all questions pertaining to the Yukon is Dr. W. H. Dall, of the Smithonian Institution, in Washington, who more than a generation ago went up into that country with the Western Union expedition sent out to survey for the proposed RussianAmerican telegraph line and who has made several journeys to the same region since. Dr. Dall embodied the observations of his early visits in a book published in 1870, entitled, "Alaska and its Resources," which is easily the most comprehensive work issued on the general subject of our Alaskan possessions. No subsequent explorers have succeeded in fully replacing it, although the latest census reports are very complete, considering the difficulties of exploration.

What the Amazon is to South America, the Mississippi to the central portion of the United States, the Yukon is to Alaska. It is a great inland highway, which will make it possible for the explorer to penetrate the mysterious fastness of that still unknown region. The Yukon has its source in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, and the Coast Range Mountains of southeastern Alaska, about 125 miles from the city of Juneau, which is the present metropolis of Alaska. But it is only known as the Yukon River at the point where the Pelly River, the branch that heads in British Columbia, meets with the Lewis River, which heads in southeastern Alaska. This point of confluence is at Fort Selkirk, in the Northwest Territory, about 125 miles southeast of the Klondike. The Yukon proper is 2044 miles in length From Fort Selkirk it flows northwest 400 miles just touching the Arctic circle; thence southward for a distance of 1600 miles, where it empties into Bering Sea. It drains more than 600,000 miles square of territory, and discharges one-third more water into Bering Sea than does the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. At its mouth it is sixty miles wide. About 1500 miles inland it widens out