136 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



they possessed beads, guns and pipes, these had been acquired from 

 other tribes acting as middlemen. It is probable that people so little 

 touched by our civilization no longer exist in North America. The 

 basin of the Tanana is now occupied by a large mining camp with all 

 that that implies, and the dignity and glory of the Mountain Men have 

 departed. 



Midsummer brought all dwellers in the valley to the rivers, that the 

 winter's supply of salmon might be secured, the real staff of life to 

 these people. The banks near the fishing camps were scarlet with long 

 lines of fish, split and cleaned, drying in the sun. On the lower river 

 the salmon were mostly taken in traps. Sis hundred miles up-stream 

 only the larger and stronger species made their way. One of my most 

 vivid recollections is of the sight, just after shooting the riffle at the 

 lower Ramparts, of a fishing party provided with very large dip nets on 

 long poles. The dusk was close upon us and the rank of birch canoes, 

 arranged in line transversely to the stream, was already in the shadow 

 of the canon. Chanting a weird low chant in perfect time, at a given 

 moment the broad nets were simultaneously plunged into the water 

 while the frail birches rocked under the strain. Two canoemen were 

 needed to lift one of the great king salmon out of his native element. 

 The order, precision and silence, except for the mystical chant; the 

 bronzed faces and sinewy arms half disclosed in the waning twilight, 

 the swift water and towering heights of the caiion, left an ineffaceable 

 impression. 



The Yukon was good to her children. From her waters came the 

 fish of many sorts, their staff of life. On her broad sloughs and amongst 

 her thickets, the wild geese rested and the ducks raised their downy 

 broods. The furs and skins which kept the native warm and dry, came 

 from her banks. The stately spruce and silvery birch along her shores 

 supplied houses, canoes, utensils, traps and fuel. Floored with ice or 

 flowing yellow in the sun, she was her people's highway. In death their 

 elevated tombs were placed where might be had the widest view of 

 Yukon water. 



The Men of the Yukon had, like other men, their careers, affections, 

 tragedies and triumphs. The valley whose rim enclosed their world, 

 since they knew none other, was as wide for them as our world is for 

 us. It is certain that for their world they had worked out problems 

 which we are still facing with puzzled trepidation in ours. No man 

 went hungry in a Yukon village. No youth might wed until he had 

 killed a deer, as token that he could support his family. The trail 

 might be lined with temporary caches, yet no man put out his hand 

 to steal. Men were valued by their achievements and their liberality. 

 Any man might rise to eminence and leadership by showing his fitness 

 in his community. That there were evil doers occasionally is probable, 



