lritDi.i.'KA] WBITEE'S TBBP OH Vl'KOS 39 



that these are regions of more than ordinary biological interest. And 

 there is soon an occurrence which demonstrates this further. Mr. 

 John Buckley, the deputy marshal, lakes me to an old Japanese 

 resident, now a rooming-house keeper, who has had a hobby of col- 

 lecting fossils, and who in the end is happy to donate to the National 

 Museum a tine skull of a fossil Alaskan horse, together with some 

 other specimens, refusing all payment. Such is the human Alaska, 

 or at least the most of it. 



Here, too, to a. full hall in the library, a lecture is given on " The 

 Peopling of Alaska and America," after which follows a return to 

 Nenana to catch a steamer to the Yukon. 



THE WRITERS TRIP ON THE YUKON 



TA NANA YIKdN 



June 17. Nenana : This is a small town on the Tanana, mostly 

 railroad buildings, with a hospital: there is one street of stores 

 (three short blocks), most of them now empty. About half a mile 

 off a small Indian settlement about an Episcopalian mission. 



Country flat on both sides of the rather large river, except for 

 some hills back of the right shore beyond the railroad bridge, for a 

 short distance. The river flats seem scarcely 3 or 4 feet above water. 

 overgrown with brush and a few scrubby trees, later spruce thickets. 

 Purple flowers (fireweed) strike the eye. 



No relics found at Nenana; no information concerning old sites or 

 abandoned villages along the stream. 



Physically, the Indians seen at Nenana were submedium brown, 

 good many still full -blood, pure Indian type, brachycephalic, faces 

 (nose, etc.), however, of but medium prominence. Moderate to good 

 stature. 



They are all fairly "civilized," wear white men's clothing, to 

 which on gala occasions are added bands or collars of beadwork, and 

 speak more or less English. The younger men are evidently good 

 workers. 



The distance from Nenana to Tanana is given as about 190 miles 

 by the river. 



The government boat Jacobs, on which we shall go down the 

 Tanana, is a moderate-sized, shallow -bottomed stern-wheeler, and, 

 like all such boats on these rivers, will push a heavily laden freight 

 barge before it. There are about a dozen passengers, the boat 

 labor, a trader or two. All kindly, open. A few women — most of 

 both sexes of the Scandinavian type. On barge some horses, a cow, 

 pigs, chickens. 



Leave after lunch — very good, generous, and pleasant meal in a 

 local restaurant that would do credit to a large city: only the people 



