140 ALASKA AND ITS MINERAL RESOURCES 



of 1896 still richer discoveries were made a short distance east 

 of the boundary, along the Klondike river, and a great rush of 

 miners to these now famous diggings set in the following spring. 



Accurate data with regard to the geography of Alaska it is as 

 yet difficult to obtain. The immediate coast-line and the many 

 islands which border it have been mapped by the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the course of the great Yukon 

 river, comparable in size to the Mississippi, was determined by 

 the Western Union Telegraph Company's expedition in 1867 

 and by an expedition in 1869 under Lieut. C. YV. Raymond, of 

 the United States Engineers. What other information has been 

 obtained with regard to the interior is derived from route and 

 sketch maps made by individual explorers, who generally fol- 

 lowed the valleys of the larger streams. Vast tracts of mountain 

 land between these streams are yet practically unknown. 



Ketchum and Lebarge, of the Western Union Telegraph ex- 

 pedition, were apparently the first white men to traverse the 

 entire length of the Yukon river. They traveled on ice and 

 snow from St Michael to Fort Yukon in the winter of 1866-'67, 

 and in the following summer made their way to Fort Selkirk 

 and back, joining on their return W. H. Dall, who had charge 

 of the scientific work of the expedition, and who, with Frederick 

 Whymper, had ascended to that point by water. In later years 

 scientific explorations of the interior have been made by mem- 

 bers of the Canadian and of the United States Geological Sur- 

 veys. In 1887 Dawson and McConnell, of the Canadian Survey, 

 ascended the Stikine to the Liard, the former going northwest- 

 ward bj r the Frances and Pelly to Fort Selkirk, the latter descend- 

 ing the Liard to the Mackenzie and the following season crossing 

 from the Mackenzie to Fort Yukon by the Porcupine river and 

 ascending the Yukon to its southwestern sources. William Ogil- 

 vie, of the same corps, entered the Yukon district in 1887 and 

 has been there most of the time since, engaged in route and 

 boundary surveys. In 1889 I. C. Russell, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, in company with a boundary party of the 

 Coast Survey, ascended the Yukon river from its mouth to the 

 head of boat navigation, coming out over the Chilkoot pass. In 

 1890, under the auspices of the National Geographic Society, 

 Russell explored the Mt St Elias region from Yakutat ba}'. In 

 1891 C. W. Hayes, of the United States Geological Survey, ac- 

 companied Schwatka's expedition up the White, across Scoloi 

 pass, and down the Copper river. In the summer of 1895 G. F. 



