118 C.W. Hayes — Expedition through the Yukon District. 



Introduction. 



An expedition in the interest of a syndicate of newspapers was 

 organized in the spring of 1891 by Mr Frederick Schwatka for 

 exploring portions of the Yukon basin in the British Nortliwest 

 Territory and Alaska, particularly the region lying north of the 

 St Elias mountains. A request was made to the director of the 

 United States Geological surve}^ for a geologist to accornpanj'- 

 the expedition, and it was the good fortune of the writer to be 

 detailed for that duty. 



Under the conditions of travel only a hasty reconnaissance of 

 the region traversed was possible, but so little has been known 

 of it geologically or otherwise that such observations as were 

 made possess a value out of proportion to their comjjleteness. 

 It is the object of this paper to give in systematic form the main 

 facts of scientific interest observed during the journey. A full 

 account of the journey itself, which is not without interest, can- 

 not be given here, but will appear elsewhere through its appro- 

 priate channels. Enough of the narrative will be included, how- 

 ever, to indicate the route and means of travel and something 

 of the conditions under which the scientific observations were 

 made. 



Mr Schwatka's original plan was to go over Chilkoot pass and 

 down the Lewes, following the regular miners' route to the inte- 

 rior; but on reaching Juneau, at the request of the citizens, 

 backed up by their substantial assistance, it was decided to go 

 in by way of Taku river, with a view to determining whether a 

 trail for pack-animals could be constructed over that route. 



Considerable information of an indefinite sort was available 

 concerning the country to be traversed before reaching Lewes 

 river. The pioneers of the Western Union TelegrajDh company 

 crossed the upper portion of the Taku basin in passing from the 

 Stikine to the Lewes, but the map which resulted from their 

 explorations is only a very crude approximation to the topo- 

 graphic facts, and must have been drawn largely from memorj^. 



Dr Dawson obtained from a prospector named Boswell some 

 information concerning Teslin river and lake Ahklen which he 

 embodied in the map accompanying his report on the Yukon 

 district. The location and form of the lake pi'oved to be re- 

 markabl}^ accurate, thougli the regularit}' of the topographic 



