118 THE FUTURE OF THE YUKON GOLDFIELDS 



vent things from getting worse. Does any reasonable person- 

 familiar with the region believe that seventy trips are possible? 



Quite a number of flat-bottomed stern-wheelers for the Yukon 

 are believed to be in process of construction atUnalaska, the in- 

 tention being to tow them to St Michael on the opening of nav- 

 igation. Suppose that the fleet succeeds in reaching that port 

 by the 27th of June, the average date when the ice goes out of 

 Norton sound. Allow a week for getting them loaded in work- 

 ing order and ready to start for the river with a few days' fuel 

 on board. If they take much fuel they cannot take goods. Once 

 well within the delta, feeling their way cautiously over the sand 

 bars of the river, unknown to most of their navigators, they must 

 depend for fuel on wood cut from the banks. The wood of the 

 country is spruce, with a little poplar and willow. These will 

 not burn when green. When the river ice breaks up, about June 

 1, an enormous quantity of driftwood is carried down by the 

 water, which runs bank full, owing to the obstruction caused by 

 the broken ice. When the ice is fairly out the river falls a little, 

 and all along the bars, low banks, and level beaches this wood 

 is stranded, to remain until the freshet of next spring. It is 

 mainly upon this driftwood that the steamers depend for fuel. 

 The two old companies have landings scattered along the river 

 and Indians employed during the winter cutting up the wood 

 and sledding it to places where the steamer can reach the bank. 



The population of the Yukon is small in proportion to the 

 area. The reliable Indians are few and already engaged. When 

 the first rush of the melting snows is over the river falls rapidly 

 into its normal channel and for the most part remains there 

 during July and August. Later the mountain springs begin to 

 give out, or freeze at night, and the river continues to fall. Wide 

 flats appear on either side, so that the spring drift, stranded on 

 the shores, is separated from the channel by a wide space of 

 sand and mud, over which wood must be carried after being 

 found and cut into suitable lengths for use. The dry spruce 

 burns rapidly, and 12 cords a day seems a not unreasonable 

 estimate of the amount required to run a good-sized boat well 

 loaded. How much of each clay will be used up in procuring 

 wood by the steamers not belonging to the two old companies 

 any one may estimate for himself. 



Taking this delay into consideration, it is evident the inde- 

 pendent steamers are very unlikely to be able to make more 

 than one trip up the river as far as Dawson during the season. 



