GEOGRAPHY 265 



and Hall Islands, buttressed by cliffs, above which are 

 undulating slopes of tundra, grassy and gay with flowers; 

 and beyond them St. Lawrence, a mountain island fringed 

 by a boggy plain. 



The Alaska coast of Bering Sea is mainly low and 

 marshy, rising very gently inland, and consisting al- 

 most entirely of tundra. The Yukon, the great river of 

 Alaska and one of the great rivers of the earth, ends its 

 long journey seaward in an enormous delta, which covers 

 thousands of square miles. Through this great area of 

 low, level land its distributaries meander sluggishly to the 

 sea, bringing from the interior mud and gold and drift- 

 wood, to be spread along the coast by the currents. 



Such is the Alaska coast: where it faces the Pacific, 

 bold, rugged, and bordered throughout by a mountain 

 barrier; where it faces Bering Sea, low, tundra-clothed, 

 and affording easy access to the interior by means of its 

 great river. 



THE INTERIOR. 



Of the interior of Alaska we know much less than of 

 its borders. Not only did the early explorers confine 

 their attention almost entirely to its coasts, but the inhab- 

 itants, both natives and Europeans, owing to the difficul- 

 ties of land travel in the interior, have always lived upon 

 the coast or upon the larger streams, and have made their 

 journeys by the water routes. It is only in recent years 

 that definite geographic information concerning the interior 

 has been obtained, and at present, through the extensive 

 explorations carried on by the U. S. Geological Survey and 

 officers of the U. S. Army, such information is rapidly 

 increasing. 



The primary slope of the land is toward the west and 

 southwest, as is indicated by the courses of the great 

 rivers of the Territory, the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Koyukuk, 

 and others. The trend of the mountain uplifts, on the 



