6 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



previous to our arrival, a mine was opened, coal chutes and 

 boarding-houses for men were erected at the mouth of the 

 creek, and a narrow-gauge railroad was loosely constructed 

 up to the mine. During the summer a small steamer kept 

 hauling barges of coal to Dawson to accumulate it there 

 for the winter supply of fuel. 



At this point the Yukon River bends in a sharp 

 curve and is surrounded on all sides by fairly high 

 mountains, which may be the cause of the constant rain 

 at that exact spot, even when the sky is clear a few miles 

 above and below. Not more than a mile below, a spur 

 of the main interior range rising about three hundred 

 feet above timber-line, extends nearly down to the river, 

 and sheep are said sometimes to wander there in win- 

 ter. I heard that there was a well-defined sheep trail 

 on the top. Game is very scarce everywhere along the 

 Yukon, but occasionally a black bear is seen, and in that 

 particular vicinity I learned that one had shortly before 

 appeared on the opposite side of the river; also that 

 two had been killed a few miles up the railroad. Moose 

 at times are seen along the river, and just below Coal 

 Creek is a canon, extending down between ridges from 

 the mountain spur, where a few days previous the Ind- 

 ians from Forty Mile had killed a cow moose. By in- 

 vitation I slept in the tent of Mr. Jones, the policeman; 

 but before retiring we had tried to get some information 

 about the interior country from various men employed on 

 the railroad and at the mines, only learning, however, of 

 one point where we should leave the railroad to reach the 

 main branch of Coal Creek. 



