2 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



which not only furnished the name to this domain, 

 but with its tributary streams constitutes practicably 

 the only artery of commerce, development, and civi- 

 lization within the territorial boundaries. Rising 

 within fifteen miles of the Pacific Ocean at Dyea 

 Inlet on the southern boundary of the country, the 

 Yukon rips and tears its irresistible way north by 

 west about one thousand miles, where it crosses the 

 Arctic Circle and turning westward flows more than 

 twelve hundred miles through the middle of Alaska 

 until it loses itself in the icy waters of the Pacific. 

 Peculiar among rivers is the extent of its naviga- 

 bility, for steamboat navigation begins at Lake 

 Bennet, not quite forty miles north of Dyea Pass, 

 where rise the streams that feed the waters of the 

 lake. From the head of navigation, and I refer to 

 steamboat navigation, to the outlet of the river in 

 Bering Sea the distance is approximately twenty-five 

 hundred miles, over which large-size steamers op- 

 erate all summer, excepting three and one-half miles 

 at the canyon and rapids, where the steamboats could 

 run down-stream, but by reason of the current it 

 would be impossible to get them up-stream. And 

 this navigability over so much of its course seems 

 to be characteristic not only of the main artery of 

 the Yukon, but holds as to its tributary streams, as 

 the Tahkini, the Teslin, the Pelly, Stewart, Tanana, 

 Koyukuk, Porcupine, and the White rivers are navi- 

 gable for very considerable distances by the large 



