120 C.W. Hayes — Expedition throvgli, the Yukon Disttid. 



Between Yukon river and the St Elias mountains lies a 

 large area, embracing the whole of White river and its tribu- 

 taries, as well as the headwaters of the Copper and Tananah, 

 which has been geographically a blank. So far as can be 

 learned it had never been penetrated by a Avhite man, and the 

 lakes, rivers and mountains which appear on many maps are 

 products of the geographer's imagination. Across this un- 

 known region a track survey was made similar to the one 

 already described. Excepting about fifty miles traversed by 

 water, the whole distance of 330 miles from Selkirk on the 

 Yukon to the junction of Chittenah and Nizzenah rivers was 

 carefully paced ; and the two ends of the line being located by 

 astronomic observations, the former by Ogilvie and the latter by 

 Allen, the location of intermediate points cannot be far-out of 

 the way. 



The portion of our route between the mouth of the Teslin and 

 Selkirk, at the junction of the Lewes and Pelh^, had already 

 been twice surveyed, first by C. A. Homan, the topographer of 

 Schwatka's party in 1883, and more accurately by Ogilvie in 

 1887. Chittenah and Copi3er rivers had been surveyed by Allen 

 in 1885, so that no continuous survey of these rivers was under- 

 taken though numerous observations were made to supplement 

 those embodied in Allen's map. 



\ Narrative of the Expedition. 



Our party consisted at the start of three white men — Mr. 

 Schwatka, the prospector Mark Russell, and the writer — with 

 seven Indians engaged as boatmen and packers for the first stage 

 of the journey. After a few days spent in completing the outfit 

 and waiting for the river to become free of ice, we left Juneau 

 May 25, 1891. 



The large two-ton dugout canoe in which we embarked was 

 well adapted for navigating the deep waters of the inlet, but we 

 found it poorly suited to the swift and shallow river. When the 

 wind blew up stream rapid progress was made in spite of the 

 current by spreading two large sails wing and wing, but when 

 the wind failed our progress, by poling or tracking wherever the 

 banks permitted, was painfully slow. Seven days were spent 

 in reaching the head of canoe navigation, eight miles above the 

 South fork and about eighty from Juneau. During this part 

 of the journey little opportunity was aftbrded for studying the 



