GEOGRAPHY. 471 



and disagreeing in nearly every particular. Of the three or four passes 

 kuowu to exist over the mountain ranges which separate the headwaters 

 of the Yukon from the Pacific coast, the best one is the Chilcoot trail, 

 and was the one used by Lieutenant Schwatka's party, which consisted 

 of two officers and five other white men and a number of Indians, vary- 

 ing from two to more than sixty. In order to monopolize the traffic with 

 the Indians of the interior, the Chilcoot Indians, for whom this trail was 

 named, formerly used every endeavor to prevent other tribes from using 

 it, but lately Indians of several tribes have used it. 



Leaving Chilcat Inlet on the Alaskan coast, in latitude 59°, on June 

 7, 1SS3, Lieutenant Schwatka's party proceeded by way of Day ay Inlet 

 and the Dayay Eiver flowing into it to the head of canoe navigation, 

 10 miles above the mouth of the Dayay Eiver. From this point a 

 journey of 26 miles was made over Perrier Pass through the glacier-clad 

 mountain ranges. The pass was traversed at an altitude of 4,100 feet, 

 and on June 12 Lake Lindemann was reached just below the extreme 

 headwaters of the Yukon Eiver. 



On Lake Lindemann, in about latitude 59° 50', the voyagers embarked 

 on a raft, but had to make a portage round the rapids and cascades at 

 the northern end of the lake, where they again embarked, passing 

 through a chain of lakes, among which were two, named by Lieutenant 

 Schwatka Lakes Bennett and Marsh, for J. G. Bennett, esq., and Pro- 

 fessor Miirsh, of Yale College. Glaciers were constantly seen along the 

 mountain sides. On the 1st of July, just north of Lake Marsh, the 

 great rapids were reached. They were found to be nearly 5 miles long, 

 the first part being through a canon lined with basaltic rocks which 

 contract the river to about one-tenth of its width. After leaving the 

 cahon there are about 4 miles of rapids 300 to 400 yards wide, broken 

 by rocky bars and dams of timber, and ending in a cascade. 



On the 5th of July the last of the chain of lakes was reached. Lieu- 

 tenant Schwatka thinks that these lakes are all gradually being tilled 

 up with sediment deposited by the passing water, and found traces of 

 many such lakes which have been filled up in the same way. At short 

 distances to the northward of tiie chain of lakes the Yukon receives 

 three important affluents from the east, called by Lieutenant Schwatka 

 the Newberry, D'Abbadie, and Daly Eivers, and one from the west 

 named the Nbrdenskiold. On the 12th of July, Miles Caiion and rapids 

 were reached. This Lieutenant Schwatka considers the head of navi- 

 gation for powerful and light-draught river steamboats, 1,866 miles from 

 the Aphoon mouth of the Yukon. From here to old Fort Selkirk, of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, the journey was apparently uneventful. 

 Lieutenant Schwatka settles definitely the heretofore doubtful point 

 whether the Pelly or the Lewis Eiver of the old traders should be con- 

 sidered the Yukon proper as being the larger confluent. He found the 

 Lewis by far the larger in at least the proportions of five to three. 



