io2 The National Geographic Magazine 



$1.50 per pound, as mud is much more 

 difficult traveling than snow and ice. 

 In October, 1900, the mail schedule from 

 Valdes to the American Yukon was re- 

 duced to twenty days, and in April, 1901, 

 the trip was made by the mail carriers 

 in thirteen days. Beginning the first of 

 January, E903, the mail contractors put 

 on a weekly stage, four trips each way 

 monthly between Valdes and Dawson. 

 This winter, for the first time, it will be 

 possible for American mails and Ameri- 



start bonanza wheat farms, but because 

 the proximity of the great mining camps 

 will give them a very high return for 

 all they can raise. Fresh milk and 

 butter, eggs, and poultry, fresh beef 

 and mutton, hay and oats for animals, 

 fresh vegetables for men, command 

 fancy prices. John F. Rice, quarter- 

 master's clerk, in his official report to 

 Major Abercrombie, states that the city 

 of Eagle is second only to Dawson in 

 importance ; that the route from Eagle 



Courtesy of The Engineering Magazine 



Hauling the United States Mail with Reindeer, Nome, Alaska 



can passengers to go to the American 

 Yukon as quickly and as cheaply as over 

 the Canadian route. 



Five large ocean steamers, besides 

 many sailing vessels, run each month 

 between Puget Sound and Valdes, 

 which is also connected by telegraph 

 line with Eagle, Dawson, and the out- 

 side world. The increase of travel by 

 this route is due to the discovery that 

 the Copper River valley promises to be 

 a great agricultural region, capable of 

 affording homes to thousands of settlers, 

 who will go there not because they can 



to Valdes presents no such obstacles as 

 routes through the Rocky Mountains 

 or Cascades ; that there is an abundance 

 of grass from May until October ; that 

 the natural food resources of central 

 Alaska are caribou, moose, brown and 

 black bear, mountain goat, geese, duck, 

 grouse, salmon, pickerel, perch, bass, 

 whitefish, trout, pike, and grayling. 



It is, however, not the agricultural 

 resources that will immediately attract 

 the largest influx of population and 

 capital. About 140 miles from Valdes, 

 in the Chitina Valley, are very great 



