River Systems and their Names. 133 



forms the outlet of lake Ahklen brings up the whole subject of 

 the nomenclature of the Yukon and its tributaries. The sub- 

 ject has received very thorough treatment by Dall, Dawson, and 

 Russell, so that the history of discovery in the Yukon basin 

 and the origin of the names applied to the Yukon tributaries 

 need not be discussed here. From a consideration of the physi- 

 ography of the basin, its main axis must be regarded as coincid- 

 ing with the Ahklen valley ; but I can hardly agree with Russell 

 that this is sufficient ground for disregarding well established 

 usage, as he has done in continuing the name Yukon up to the 

 lake.* Inasmuch as the rivers in question lie almost wholly 

 within Canadian territory, the final authority upon the nomen- 

 clature must be the Canadian board of geographic names, and 

 as Dr Dawson has given the subject the most thorough consid- 

 eration I have followed him,t with a few minor changes in the 

 most of which he has signified his concurrence. The name 

 Yukon is applied to the river from its mouth to Selkirk. The 

 name Pelly is confined to what has been called the " Upper 

 Pelly," /. e., from Selkirk to its head. The name Lewes is applied 

 to the river from Selkirk to lake Lindemann, called the " Yukon " 

 by Schwatka. Finally the river flowing from lake Ahklen is 

 called the Teslin, that being the native name as determined 

 by Schwatka and Dawson, with the generic portion dropped. 

 Thus Schwatka X gives " Tesel-hina " (more probably Tes-el-in- 

 hina) and Dawson, " Teslin-too ; " but " hina " and " too " are 

 generic terms for river, so it is properly Teslin river. The name 

 Newberry, applied to the river by Schwatka in 1883, has never 

 come into general use, and the name Hotalinqita, which is com- 

 monly used by the miners, was, as Dawson has shown, trans- 

 ferred through misapprehension from another tributary of the 

 Lewes. 



The floodplain of Teslin river is something over a mile in 

 width, between high bluffs of silt and gravel which will be 

 more fully described under the head of glacial phenomena. 



* Notes on the Surface Geology of Alaska: Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 1, 

 1889, p. 107. 



t Report on an Exploration in the Yukon district, N. W. Territory, and 

 adjacent northern portion of British Columbia, in 1887 : Ann. Rep. Geol. 

 Surv. of Canada for 1887-88, vol. 3, pt. i, 1889, pp. 14B-18B. 



t Report of a Military Reconnoissance in Alaska made in 1883, Wash- 

 ington, 1885, map (pt. i, sheet 4). 



19— Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. IV, 1S92. 



