48 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



thus draining the lake, the enormous quantity of silt deposited by 

 these streams remained as the flats of to-day. Many river steamers 

 haA^e come to grief on these shoals; high and dry on a sand bar, 

 the victims of merciless mosquitoes, impatient passengers frequently 

 spend many* days of monotonous delay; here and there are the tim- 

 bers of some wrecked steamer left to bleach eternally under the 

 scorching sun of midsummer and the fierce blasts of winter. 



In remote ages this region must have been the habitat of large 

 numbers of mammoths; their huge bones, tusks, and teeth are found 

 in great abundance in the flats and the adjacent country. 



On the plateau forming the eastern boundary of the Yukon Flats 

 lies Circle City, once the metropolis of the Yukon Valley. Before 

 the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of British Columbia, 

 gold had been found in paying quantities on Birch Creek and other 

 streams wholly within the territory of the United States, and Circle 

 City was the result of the stampede that followed these discoveries. 

 On this plateau, overlooking the river, almost under the Arctic 

 Circle, was built the largest town of log buildings in the world. 

 Thousands of miners, many of them having brought their families 

 with them, wintered here. In order to beguile the tedium of the 

 long winter, the exiled people introduced into this northern wilder- 

 ness many of the refinements of civilization; conspicuous among 

 these was a Avonderfully well-selected library of several thousand 

 volumes. The stampede to the Klondike depopulated the town; 

 the public school that the Bureau of Education had established 

 had to be closed on account of lack of pupils; the fine library found 

 shelter in one of the buildings of the Episcopal Mission; the windows 

 of the cabins were boarded up, the doors securely fastened, and Circle 

 City became a silent, almost deserted city. Since that time Circle 

 City has been filled up several times only to be emptied out again 

 when new gold strikes were made. Its hundreds of empty log 

 cabins form a picture of desolation. Several of the cabins which 

 have been deserted by the white men are now occupied b}^ natives 

 who have moved into them from their camps on the neighboring 

 streams. Conspicuous on the edge of the bluff overlooking the 

 Yukon are the buildings of the mission which the Episcopal Church 

 maintains at this place. The Bureau of Education will probably 

 assume the salary of the teacher and the supplying of text-books 

 for this school. 



Circle City is now the starting point for the winter trail from the 

 upper Yukon across the countr}^ to the Fairbanks district. 



At the mouth of Miller Creek is the town of Eagle, the last of the 

 settlements on the American side of the international boundary line 

 between Alaska and British Columbia. It is the point of supply for 

 the diggings on Miller Creek, Seventy-^Iile Creek, and other streams. 



