2,000 MILES DOWN THE YUKON 31 



As for hunting, Karstens had made the Mt. McKinley 

 region his own. He had spent much time there, himting, 

 trapping and studying animal life, with Charles Sheldon, 

 of New York. For a congenial companion Karstens was 

 willing, if he had leisure, to undertake a trip to the head 

 of the Toklat River, about sixty miles east of Mt. McKin- 

 ley, in the fall or winter, though he did not make a business 

 of acting as guide. The game was moose, sheep, caribou 

 and possibly bear. 



"When ready to evacuate Fairbanks we found the steam- 

 boat had been brought up the Chena River to the city. 

 We turned skilKully in the narrow stream and reached 

 the Yukon in haK the time it had taken to come up, not 

 without numerous bumps on the shallow flats at the mouth 

 of the Tanana, and transferred to the steamer "Sarah," 

 a larger ship of the same t;y'pe as the ''Dawson," but of 

 a different line, the Northern Navigation Company. 



Ruby had been heralded as a bonanza mining camp. 

 It had produced a million in its brief career, but when we 

 reached the town it gave every sign of an early demise. 

 There was no bank in the place and we could not learn 

 that one was expected; an indication that the knowing 

 did not look for long-continued prosperity. 



The rest of the lower Yukon was a repetition of what 

 we had aheady seen for many days, save at Holy Cross 

 Mission, where a roomful of native youngsters recited 

 verses and songs of welcome, at the beck of a fluttering 

 sistet of the Roman Church. 



Four days after leaving Fairbanks we anchored in the 

 mouth of the Yukon, awaiting the flood tide to let us over 

 the bar. Some of the young men on board put on bathing 

 suits, one of them a woman's gear, and plunged overboard 

 for a swim. Two Eskimos had come out in kayaks to 



