Modes of Travel and Transportcdion. 121 



geology of the region traversed, since the boatmen generally kept 

 to the middle of the valley and we usually made camp at night 

 on one of the small islands which separate the river into many 

 channels. 



While Taku river is far from being an ideal highway to the 

 interior, still a flat-bottomed steamer of light draft and good 

 power would probal^ly -have no serious difficulty in reaching the 

 mouth of the South fork, less than a hundred miles from a 

 point on lake Ahklen which could be reached by steamer from 

 ■ the mouth of the Yukon. The country intervening between these 

 points is practicable for pack-animals with the expenditure of 

 comparatively little labor in constructing a trail. It is probabl}^ 

 only a question of time when some better way of reaching the 

 upper Yukon basin than Chilkoot pass will be demanded, and 

 the Taku route is, so far as yet known, the least objectionable. 



At the head of canoe navigation our outfit was made up into 

 twelve packs of about one hundred pounds each for the portage 

 of eighty-five miles to the head of lake Ahklen. As there were 

 but six packers, each was obliged to make two trips ; so that our 

 progress was extremely slow. The first twenty miles of the 

 portage are in the narrow canyon-like valley of an eastern branch 

 of the river, and the next fifty in broad valleys of the upper Taku 

 basin, from 3,500 to 5,000 feet above sea level. The last fifteen 

 miles are in the densely wooded Ahklen valley among innumer- 

 able small lakes and ponds. We reached lake Ahklen June 16. 

 and from this point the Indians were sent back to the coast. It 

 was with a feeling of great relief that we watched them disappear 

 on their homeward journey and knew that we were no longer 

 dependent on their caprice. 



Setting up the two portable canvas canoes which had been 

 packed in from the coast, we continued our journey toward the 

 northwest, down lake Ahklen and Teslin river, which forms its 

 outlet. The Lewes was reached June 24 and Selkirk, at the 

 junction of the Lewes and Pelly, four days later. The original 

 plan had been to continue down the Yukon to the mouth of 

 White river and up that stream so far as possible by boat, but 

 the Indians whom we found at Selkirk told us the easier route 

 to the head of White river was overland, keeping southeast of 

 the main river valley ; and this route we decided to follow. 



A store has recently been established on the site of old fort 

 Selkirk, the Hudson Ba}^ companj^'s post, which was burned by 



