EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN 1907 — GILMORE 5 



II. Itinerary 



In compliance with the above instructions the writer left Wash- 

 ington, D. C, May 22, for Seattle, Washington. At this place a 

 canoe and the necessary camp equipment were purchased and shipped 

 to Rampart, Alaska, where the first active field work was to be done. 

 Some time prior to leaving Washington the services of Mr. Benno 

 Alexander were engaged. His several seasons' experience with 

 various scientific expeditions in the different parts of Alaska made 

 him a very desirable companion and an efficient assistant. 



The party consisted of Mr. Alexander and the writer, the plan 

 being, as explained in the instructions, to employ such help from 

 time to time as might be necessary. 



On May 30 we took passage on the steamer Jefferson, arriving at 

 Skagway, Alaska, June 4. It was learned upon our arrival there 

 that all accommodations on the first boat down the Yukon had been 

 engaged and that it would be best to remain in Skagway until the 

 next boat, which was scheduled to sail from White Horse June 12. 

 On June 10 we left Skagway over the White Pass and Yukon Rail- 

 road for White Horse, Northwest Territory, Canada, the terminus 

 of the railway and head of steamboat navigation on the Yukon 

 River. Here passage was secured on the river boat White Horse, 

 which sailed June 12 and arrived in Dawson, Yukon Territory, 

 Canada, June 14. This being a transfer point between the upper and 

 lower river boats, we were again delayed because of inadequate 

 accommodations, and it was not until June 22 that we left Dawson 

 on the steamer Sarah for Rampart. 



The delay at Dawson was profitably spent, however, in examining 

 fossils in the possession of citizens of that place ; in making inquiries 

 concerning the occurrence of the fossils found in the Klondike 

 region, and in visiting some of the localities on Bonanza Creek from 

 which many of the specimens examined had been obtained. Scat- 

 tered remains of Pleistocene mammals are commonly found in the 

 diggings of this region, but the result of diligent inquiry regarding 

 the finding of complete or partial skeletons in the mining operations 

 conducted here were not encouraging. In only one instance were we 

 told of the finding of an accumulation of bones such as would lead 

 one to believe that an entire skeleton or any considerable part of the 

 skeleton of a single individual had ever been found. The single case 

 mentioned was that of the remains of a mammoth (Elephas primi- 

 genius) disinterred while sinking a shaft on Quartz Creek in March, 

 1904. The skull and tusks were recovered intact (see pi. vn), 



