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narrow bed below. The shooting of the cañon and rapids was an exciting adventure, and I will give Lieutenant Schwatka's experience in his own words. Everything being in readiness, our inspection made and our resolution formed, in the forenoon of the 2d of July, we prepared to shoot the raft through the rapids of the grand cañon, and at 11:25 the bow and stern lines were cast loose, and after a few minutes' hard work at shoving the craft out of the little eddy where she lay, the poor vessel resisting as if she knew all that was ahead of her and was loath to go, she finally swung clear of the point, and like a racer at the start, made almost a leap forward, and the die was cast. A moment's hesitation at the cañon's brink, and quick as a flash the whirling craft plunged into the foam, and before twenty yards were made had collided with the western wall of the columnar rock with a shock as loud as a blast, tearing off the inner side log and throwing the outer one far into the stream. The raft swung around this as upon a hinge, just as if it had been a straw in a gale of wind, and again resumed its rapid career. In the whirlpool basin of the cañon, the craft, for a brief second or two, seemed actually buried out of sight in the foam. Had there been a dozen giants on board they could have had no more influence in directing her course than as many spiders. It was a very simple matter to trust the rude vessel entirely to fate, to work out its own salvation. was most afraid of the four miles of shallow rapids below the cañon, but she only received a dozen or a score of smart bumps that started a log here and there, but tore none from the structure, and nothing remained ahead of her but the cascades. These reached, in a few minutes the craft was caught at the bow by the first high wave in the funnel-like chute and lifted into the air until it stood almost at an angle of thirty degrees, when it went through the cascades like a charge of fixed bayonets, and almost as swiftly as a flash of light, burying its nose in the foam beyond as it subsided. Those on board the raft now got hold of a line from their friends on shore, and after breaking it several times they finally brought the craft alongside the bank and commenced repairing the damage with light hearts, for our greatest obstacle was now at our backs."

I

At various intervals below the cañon a number of large rivers flow into the Yukon, greatly increasing its width. On the 12th of July they shot the Rink Rapids, the last rapids of importance on the river, and the next day reached the site of old Fort Selkirk, a trading post of the Hudson Bay Company which was burned in 1851 by a party of Indians because it interfered with their trade with other tribes. This was an important point on the Yukon, as above it the river had never before been explored.

From Fort Selkirk they went on down the river, passing a number of Indian villages and old Fort Yukon, which had been abandoned several years before, and on August 10, drifted by the spot known as "the rapids of the Yukon" which they had been dreading for some time, and which they feared might prove disastrous to their rough means of navigation. It was not until they had passed them that they observed the rapids at all, as they consisted of nothing but a bar of white boulders around which the water flowed as placidly as around any bar in the river. Some distance below these rapids they met a small steamer, one of the three that then comprised the entire steam fleet on the river. Not long afterward they were overtaken by another steamer, the "Yukon," which took them in tow as far as St. Michaels, where they arrived on the 30th of August. During this reconnoissance much valuable information was obtained regarding the inhabitants of the country, the whole number belonging to the various tribes observed by the expedition aggregating over eleven thousand.

Lieutenant Schwatka's exploration was one of exceeding interest and value, adding a very important chapter of information about that remote country. The territory he

passed over, however, had not been entirely untraversed by prospectors and miners, as a few of those adventurous spirits had previously penetrated that country in search of gold and other minerals. Schwatka describes the country as of little value except for its fisheries and minerals. The summers along the Yukon Valley are of very short duration, and the country is so infested with mosquitoes as to make life there almost intolerable during

that season, while the severity of its winters-the thermometer often registering sixty degrees below zero-makes it an equally undesirable country for occupation at that time of year.

Schwatka expresses the opinion that all other desirable parts of the United States will be occupied before that country is settled. Nevertheless,

he describes the natives as a hardy, brave people, and most expert boatbuilders. Their way of making these boats is very rude; burning and hewing out great trees, which are then fashioned into well-drawn lines, making excellent boats capable of carrying thirty or forty people and propelled by paddles or sails. With these rude crafts they do not hesitate to go out into the open sea of the Pacific, or to take journeys of three hundred miles along the coast outside the inland passage.

In their small canoes built of skins, in which one or two oarsmen are lashed, covered with water-tight, thin skin garments, they go out into the open sea to attack the sea otter, which is the most valuable fur-bearing animal in that country. The prows of these boats are built of such light material that it is impossible to keep them under water, and the water-proof garments of the oarsmen are fastened in such a way that not a drop can penetrate the interior of the boat, even though it should be entirely submerged

NATIVE KAYAKS.

or turned over by the surf. This being the case, when the canoe is capsized, as occasionally happens in passing through the surf, the light prow immediately rights itself and brings, with the aid of the skillful oarsman, both canoe and passengers right side up again, and without damage to either.

Schwatka found these native races among the hardiest and strongest on the continent. All his baggage had to be carried over the mountains on the backs of men hired for that purpose, and he reports that they could take a box of ammunition or supplies weighing a hundred pounds and go up the side of a mountain as rapidly as an ordinary man could go without any burden. One of their races that I witnessed, near Juno, in which five of their largest boats, with twelve to fifteen men in each, took part, was as good a display of muscular strength and activity as I have ever seen.

Desiring to gain more information regarding a country which up to that time had been wholly unknown, I organized a similar expedition, in charge of Lieutenant W. F. Abercrombie, in the summer of 1884, to explore the

Copper River region, and, if possible, the Aleutian range of mountains and the valley of the Tanana. A party of Russians, under Seribriekob from the Russian War Department had, in 1848 compelled the natives to drag their sledges up this river. At a preconcerted signal the rebellious Indians suddenly attacked and massacred the entire party. From that time no successful expedition had been made up the Copper River, and the natives had been very much opposed to civilized men entering their country. But Lieutenant Abercrombie found them inoffensive, and employed them to drag his boats up the river. The currents, however, were so strong, and he experienced so much difficulty in making the ascent, beside the drawback of a number of his party being sick, that he found it impossible to go as far as he intended. He did, however, accomplish a very good reconnoissance and exploration, and made some important discoveries as to the character of the country, obtaining much information of interest and value. Returning to the mouth of the river in December, he was relieved by Lieutenant Allen, whom I had ordered to that duty. Lieutenant Allen left Portland, Oregon, January 29, accompanied by Sergeant Robinson and Private Pickett, of the signal corps. The Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Chandler, at my request, had very kindly sent them on one of the United States gunboats from Sitka to the mouth of Copper River.

After a long but unavoidable delay at Sitka, the party was conveyed by the "Pinta" to Nuchek. Although the "Pinta" was only a fourth rate man-of-war with a very small armament, she made a great impression upon the natives. One of them, in describing her proportions, estimated her length as equal to the distance between two designated islands, which were really about half a mile apart. On the morning of the 20th of March the party left Nuchek for the mouth of the Copper River, but experienced great difficulty in reaching that point on account of grounding so often in the mud in their canoes, and being continually exposed to a driving storm of sleet and rain.

Lieutenant Allen here took up his exploration late in the winter, starting in January, 1885, thus having the advantage of passing up on the ice, the difficult portion of the Copper River, where Lieutenant Abercrombie had found such difficulty in dragging his boats against the rapid current. He employed the natives to drag his sledges in his further ascent of the river and his passage over the Alaskan mountains.

During the whole expedition they experienced great difficulty in obtaining natives for transportation purposes. At Alaganik, a point on the Copper River, they could find only six men available for that purpose.

These men would promise faithfully to go at one moment and at the next refuse to have anything to do with the expedition. At last, in order to make them believe that it was a great favor to them to be allowed to go at all, Lieutenant Allen decided to take only five, and made them draw lots to determine who should be unfortunate enough to remain behind. This had the desired effect, though he would have been glad to hire ten men instead of five.

The ascent of the river soon became extremely difficult, as the channel in a short time grew so shallow that they could not use their canoes, thus making a portage necessary. Taral, of which they had heard much on their way up the river, they found to consist of but two houses, one of which was unoccupied. Here all the natives but one either deserted or were sent back, and here the explorers left the Copper River to explore one of its important branches called the Chittyna. As they went on, their food supply became so low that on Lieutenant Allen's birthday they could celebrate in no better way than by making a banquet of some moose meat that had been left by the natives and their dogs as unfit to eat. Afterward matters grew so much worse that they would have been glad to obtain even that delicacy.

They completed their exploration of the Chittyna, and on May 4, once more reached Taral. They then continued their way up the Copper River by "cordelling." That is, two men remain in the boat, one to steer and the other in the bow with a long pole; the remainder of the party pull on the rope as they walk along the shore. From Liebigstag's, a settlement on the river, could be seen a magnificent series of grand peaks, the highest, Mount Wrangell, rising more than seventeen thousand feet above the sea level.

On the 5th of June they commenced to ascend the mountains on their way to the Tanana, whose head waters lie very near those of the Copper, although the two rivers are marked by such entirely different characteristics. After a wearisome journey, as they climed to the top of a high divide four thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, they suddenly found themselves in full view of their promised land. In front of them lay the Tanana Valley with its numerous lakes and low, unbroken ranges of mountains; a scene which no white man had ever looked upon before. As they went on, vegetation began to be rank, and they suffered from the heat instead of from the cold. The Tanana is a muddy river full of quicksands and boilings, but with no rocks, and the spruce trees grow down to its very edge. It was decided to descend the river in a boat made of skins, and in this