46 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



enough to land freight and passengers, and then sped rapidly on 

 her way. 



Above the point where the Tanana enters the Yukon the scenery 

 becomes bolder; the mountains approach the river, the banks grow 

 precipitous, and the steamer glides up a series of canyons where the 

 river has broken through the Rampart Mountains. The mountain 

 sides covered with birch, willow, and cottonwood glowed with the 

 rich tints of autumn, and their rugged summits were powdered 

 with freshl}^ fallen snow. The air was crisp and exhilarating, and 

 all nature was bathed in brilliant sunshine. 



During the afternoon of September 2 the Sarah tied up at Ram- 

 part, the distributing point for the Rampart mining district, a 

 typical Yukon River town. These little settlements along the river 

 are few, and sometimes many hundreds of miles apart; they consist, 

 for the most part, of the same elements. The largest and most 

 conspicuous buildings, usually at the head of the wharf, are the 

 store and warehouses of the trading company; a straggling row of 

 log cabins following the edge of the bluff are the homes of the miners, 

 who, during the open season, live out on the gold-bearing creeks, 

 man}^ miles distant from the village. The agent of the tradmg 

 company, a United States commissioner, a postmaster, and perhaps 

 a physician form the nucleus of the permanent population. Some- 

 times there is a group of mission buildings, church, school, and dor- 

 mitories, where are found faithful, self-denying workers and clean, 

 bright-looking native children, a contrast to the filthy, unkempt 

 urchins from the huts of the neighboring native village, with its 

 howling dogs and accumulated filth. 



Urgent requests had been received by the Bureau of Education 

 for the opening of a school at Rampart. Miss Parke, the recently 

 appointed teacher, left the steamer at this point and, with the assist- 

 ance of the members of the school committee whose services were 

 requested, we at once made arrangements for the renting of a build- 

 ing for the use of a school until a permanent building could be erected. 

 At 6 p. m. the Sarah was again under way. 



During the morning of September 4 we sighted the stockaded 

 log buildings constituting Fort Yukon, a prominent place in the 

 early history of the Hudson's Bay Company. This westernmost 

 of the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1847, 

 and was the remotest point to which its indefatigable pioneers had 

 penetrated. The present site was chosen in 1864. The older fort 

 was situated a mile higher up the river, but was abandoned on account 

 of the encroachments of the stream, whose strong current had 

 dangerously undermined the banks. Fort Yukon was supposed 

 to be west of the international boundary line between Russian 

 America and British Columbia, but its exact latitude and longitude 



